Emergent Brethren

At Community of Joy, I am working hard to change our perspective on church… we just bought our first property in May and moved into it in July.  We call it a Ministry Center NOT a church!

Yesterday in both of our worship gatherings, we dedicated our new ministry center. It is an exciting step in the journey. Here are some of the key components of our dedication….

Leader: To some people this building looks like a church. It is NOT! It is a ministry center. WE are the church. This ministry center is a place where people can find God’s love, hospitality, hope, healing and peace, as they meet Jesus here or elsewhere through the various ministries of which we are apart.

All: We dedicate this ministry center to continuing the work of Jesus in our community and world.

Leader: May this building be a tool for the work of ministry to which God has called us. And may it never be more important or matter more than the people who come through it’s doors or live around it’s border both near and far. May this place truly be a place where relationships matter!

All: We dedicate this ministry center to continuing the work of Jesus in our community and world. Thanks be to God!

I find music so helpful in communicating the gospel… a few contemporary groups are doing a great job with awesome lyrics that make you think… I highly recommend anything Casting Crowns does… especially their new CD, the Altar and the Door.  And Todd Agnew’s Better Questions Cd is awesome…  I really am challenged by his song “Will there be peace?” and on his Reflections of Something CD… the song My Jesus is inspiring. 

 What music inspires or challenges you?

Hi all,

I have been reading Mark Batterson’s blog evotional for a good while now and want to highly recommend that you check it out!

He is doing some great stuff and has lots to offer us!

On Sunday, we made a shift that, in my experience is one of the hardest shifts for “brethren” to make… and that is to go from one worship gathering to two!  What an amazing group of leaders I work with… they were afraid and left to their own, would not have made the shift, but they allowed me to do what I thought best and WOW!  We went from a 10:30 mix with a heavy lean toward contemporary to a 9 a.m. traditional and a 10:30 contemporary gathering.  The first week we jumped in attendance by a little more than 50%!  I think that is HUGE!

Can’t wait to see what next week brings! 

 Yes, this shift means we have to adapt and sacrifice some valued things for gaining other things of value… we will have to do carry-in meals differently and we will have to work at community building, and we will have to depend on leaders to lead all the more… but all those things are doable especially when growth happens.  The value of growing the kingdom usurps all other values in my mind!

 Just wanted to share an exciting moment in the history of Community of Joy Church of the Brethren!

 For more info check out my blog.

At Community of Joy, we really want to be a place where relationships matter…. so when we renovated a church into a ministry center in a great diverse neighborhood, we set out to meet the neighbors.   Yesterday, Sept. 23, we held a Pork Roast after our worship gathering for the neighbors.  We went door to door in a two block radius of our building two weeks ago and handed out or left invitations to the festivities… the invite also included worship.   We also put out a large lighted sign inviting the neighborhood.   Everything was free… we also challenged our folks to invite 3 people to come.  I am happy to say that we doubled our normal worship attendance yesterday and had neighbors coming from all directions…. don’t know how many came… I would venture to say aroudn 150 – 200 in all….check out my blog for more info and pics…. www.martinhutchison.blogspot.com.   There was no agenda other than saying we are happy to be here and we want to be a positive force in the hood.  What are others of you doing to engage your communities?