Archive for the 'Decline/Growth' Category

Decline/Growth, Leadership, Understanding Context, Worship

A blog to recommend!

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!

Change!?!, Decline/Growth, Leadership

Two Gatherings a success…

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.

Change!?!, Decline/Growth, Young Adults

I am not Brethren

I am not Presbyterian, I am not Calvary Chapel, I am not Vineyard, I am not Pentecostal, I am not Catholic, and I am not Brethren. I am myself, a sinner saved by grace, a convert to the way of Jesus, a child of the Living God.

Having come to the church by conversion, not birth, I have like many, meandered through denominational identities. One of the results of that experience is that the only name that I’m willing to keep is Christian. And to be honest (or better said accurate), the last ten years has heaped so much social baggage onto the title Christian, that even it, usually makes me wince. I most prefer just to say that I am a follower of Jesus. If you don’t know this then you should; Christian youth culture burgeons with similar sentiment.

Postmodern theologians regularly postulate, that the world is becoming post-Christian… they are probably right about that. But also true and equally important is the fact that the church is becoming post-denominational. Those of us who’ve come to Christ because of a change of heart or mind, rarely feel connected to the history and evolution of the denominational hierarchy that hosts or owns our property. Postmodern converts identify with God, and one another, based on a set of shared beliefs, not the name of a schism or its founder. This is an uncomfortable truth for folks that have life-long lived with the name of a denomination etched into their family and its history. But to reach the emerging generations, we must allow them to keep their identities, and not expect them to adopt ours.

And in a way, what I said at the beginning of this discourse is wholly and hugely inaccurate.

I am Presbyterian, and Calvary, and Vineyard, Pentecostal and Catholic. And yes, I am Brethren as well. Not the Brethren of the past, but the Brethren of tomorrow; and so are the emerging generations of which I am a part. We are a mosaic of traditions, tapestries of faith and practice, and although we understand the importance of the past, we are far more interested in the needs of the future. And we will only take with us, that which we think rings true.

The world is very different than it was forty years ago, and the global amalgamation of Christian ideas has left us needing a church whose theology is refined beyond denominational differences. We long to embrace our cousins from every corner of the family of Christ, and differentiate ourselves by our praxis, not our assumptions.

And praxis is meat of the matter for the emerging generations. It’s what we do, not what we think that defines us. In this way the Emerging Church and Brethren culture have much in common. Lay led, service oriented, egalitarian, ecologically sensitive, intentionally peaceful and dedicated to simple living; all these things are true of both Brethren and Emerging. Indeed, the Emerging Church and the Brethren persona is a match so natural, that their corollaries seem a machination of Divinity.

The question is what do we do with this opportunity? Can we find the courage to embrace the emerging generations and allow them to inherit our mission and revitalize the church? Or will we insist that they adopt our identities, and force them out on their own, to form their faith families without us.

http://www.urbanmosaic.org/

Decline/Growth, Marketing

Organic Growth vs. Marketing/Advertising

As I sit in a friend’s Third Space I am thinking about growth of Veritas. We are very small and have been for a while. We have talked about Organic growth vs. Marketing/Advertising. Obviously, we want to be about organic growth. Growing from relationships,etc… but we still are looking at doing traditional marketing/advertising. I am wondering what types of things have you done to help your ministry/church grow? What have you done as far as organic growth? What have you done in marketing/advertising? What has been the best thing you have done?

Any and all help/comments would be great.

Ryan

Decline/Growth

Intentional Remnant

I was at one of my favorite third places today… Barnes and Nobel, and was reading the epilogue to Marcus Borg’s new book Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary and was struck by something he said. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a piece of paper to write the quote on… so as best I remember I will summarize what he said. He was talking about how the decline of the mainline Christian church in USAmerica gives him cause to celebrate because the remnant that is left will be intentional not conventional in their approach to ministry and mission. Which then led him to high praise for the emergent church and where we are leading those who follow Jesus.

And I thought wow… what a perspective. To be intentional and not conventional is a great concept/reality. But never thought about the remnant factor and what that will do or cause the church to do to make course corrections. Thoughts?

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