Everything Must Change

Everythign Must Chnage

 

Why Churches Should Plant Churches

Why Should Churches Plant Churches?
By Phil Longmire

·        Young Churches have the potential to bring many new people to our faith

·        Our church to population ratio is declining. This is based on the US census

·        America is still one of the greatest mission fields in the world

·        Because We Are Losing a Generation

Read The Entire Article

This is a good article by Phil.  I have not written much about new church plants lately but I believe that church multiplication is more important than membership multiplicaiton. Changing the established mainline church DNA will be a challenge.  The change will include celebrating new churches, intentionally seeding new churches with discipled tithing members, supportting new ministries financially and training senior pastors to encourage and nurture new church pastors. 

 

Re-Thinking Church

By Susan Passi-Klaus*
Oct. 2, 2008 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)

What if church wasn’t just a place where people spend an hour on Sundays? What if there wasn’t just one door into the church but 10,000?

And what if we began thinking about “church” as a verb instead of a noun?

The United Methodist Church is going to pose those questions and others when it rolls out a new media campaign in 2009 aimed at getting people to “Rethink Church.” The awareness campaign’s launch will coincide with World Malaria Day, April 25.

“In the next few years, we will seek to encourage a global spiritual dialogue,” said the Rev. Larry Hollon, top staff executive of United Methodist Communications. “It will ask us to rethink church. We will ask, ‘What if church were a verb and not a noun?’”

Hollon and his staff presented the “Rethink Church” awareness campaign to the agency’s commission during a Sept. 25-27 meeting in Nashville. The Commission on Communication oversees United Methodist Communications, which is directing the campaign.

“What we’re going to try and get across is the idea that ‘church’ doesn’t just happen on Sundays, and ‘church’ isn’t just a building,” said Kerry Graham, president of Nashville-based Bohan Advertising/Marketing, which developed the “Rethink Church” campaign.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

This challenges self serving mission statements that some churches have adopted. The question is are we building communities of faith to transform the world or are we building social religious institutions? If we are building communities of faith we have to learn that it is a place of dwelling not visitation.

 

Organic Church Conversation

The Organic Conversations
The Organic Movement is a kissing cousin to the Incarnational movement and a distant cousin to the Emergent movement. Like the other two it doesn’t see as much of a need for the institutional church has had traditional Christianity. But unlike the Emergent movement it is more literal in its interpretation of Scripture and truth. Neil Cole has long been one of the leading voices for the organic church. In his view the house church is the primary form of church. I have no problem with this view because Cole doesn’t dismiss the institutional church. In fact, one of my partners, Bill Tenny-Brittian, has extensive roots in the house church movement. I see it as a kissing cousin to small groups that multiply.  However, a new voice on the scene is Frank Viola and his book (with Barna), Pagan Christianity. This book stands in direct opposition to the Emergent folks because it takes a more literal approach to the Scripture. His book documents the problems with the institutional church that functions more like a business than the living organism it was created to be. Pagan Christianity is not only a logical sequence to Barna’s recent book, Revolution, it also is an interesting and accurate account of the historic events that have shaped today’s counterfeit form of Christianity.  

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE CONVERSATION

 

THis is an excellent article by Bill Easum.  His observations and challenges are valid to the Organic Movement.    I am evaluating the emerging movement, organic movement and house church movement.  I would like to share some conversation about the three especially for those involved in urban ministry.

Is There Room At The Table is an article that articulates my frustrations and I want to develop a framework to discuss the hopes of an urban ministry paradigm that extends beyond the tokenism to the multicultural, gobal neighborhoods where we do ministry. 

 

Great Leadership Development Sites

Easum Bandy Tenny Brittain – Guiding Christian Leaders for Ancient Mission for a Contemporary World

Church Leadership Insights with Nelson Searcy

The Ooze – Conversation for the Journey – An Emerging Church Conversation

Ministry Best Practices

Church Marketing Sucks

Midnight Oil Productions | Telling the Story in a New Light

Telling the Story in a New Light. Midnight Oil provides resources and training for ministry in a digital culture.

 

What Can Students Teach Us?

This is a short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today – how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.

If students are experiencing this type of disconnect in educational settings it should be a message to those who are in ministry attempting to reach young adults.  Our approach will not be successful if we continue to use 20th century approaches.  The way that we communicate the essentials of our message must be relevant and in a media or presentation form that fits the lifestyle of 21st Century young adults.

Making Disciples requires  adaptability to the culture without compromising the message.

 

Free Facebook for Pastors E-Book

How to build relationships and connect with people using the most popular social network on the Internet. This 31 page e-book will help Pastors and other ministry leaders make the most of this great networking tool.

• How to make the most of your profile information
• Tips for Networking with People in Facebook
• All about groups, messages, poking, etc
• Brand Your Ministry
• Meet prospects for your church
• Learn more about the members in your church
• Fine tune your communication skills
• Testimonies from Pastors who use FaceBook
• and much more!

Get the e-book here free using this link: Facebook for Pastors
(PC users, right click and select “Save As” for best results)

This E-Book by Chris Forbes is a great resource for pastors to utilize this social networking site as a ministry tool