Emergent Brethren

Its late on Thursday night, but I was really inspired and had fun at the opening session of “Off the Map Live” in Seattle. The details of the conference can be found at www.off-the-map.org. I was attracted to the conference for a few reasons: 1) I’m always attracted to an event that has Brian McLaren speaking. 2) Russ Matteson has said great things about Diana Butler-Bass. She’s here too. 3) Jim Henderson (Off the Map founder) has a great sense of humor and a very disarming way of pointing-out some of the things that need changing in the church. 4) Its always fun to come to an Off the Map event. 5) It was cheap– $79 for 2 full days.

Here are a few random quotes from tonight’s opening session that made me want to stop and think while the speaker kept going. . .

From Diana Butler-Bass:
“Every 500 years, there has been a major shift in Western Culture. Starting with the birth of Christ, 500 years later the Roman Empire fell. Afterwards, we entered the dark ages, followed by the Reformation (beginnings of modernity) and now we live in a time when another major shift is going-on.”

“Modernity is a culture of hubris — our ways are the right ways. For Christians, postmodernity opens the door to a spiritual culture of humility instead of hubris.”

From Brian McLaren:
“The Church impacted the Roman Empire into Christianity, but the Roman Empire impacted the church into empire-ism.”

From Richard Twiss (a native American):
“Native Americans are marginalized by the dominant culture church as a perpetual mission field.”

“When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.”

From Todd Hunter:
“Fear is an evil master.”

I’m attaching a Word doc that has more thoughts by Brian and Diana. Brian said he dropped his prepared notes and spoke about 30 minutes off the top of his head. I found the comparison of traditional church to classical music to be very helpful.

More Thoughts by Brian McLaren and Diana Butler-Bass

Blessings,
Jeff Glass

I absolutley love reading Mark Batterson’s blog and highly recommend it to you!  Here is a link to another blog that has a novel idea that I thought would resonate with many Brethren….  http://www.junkycarclub.com/

Yesterday, my church had a prayer meeting for the fire situation in California. One news report this morning said that more people have been evacuated in Southern California than those evacuated for Katrina. I don’t know if that is true, but over 500,000 evacuees is the largest number ever in California history. The fires this week have been much worse than those of 4 years ago.

I was asked to create 4 prayer experiences for the prayer service today. It was a short-notice affair. I’m sending them on to you, in case you would like to add your prayers to those of others in the midst of this tragedy.

I created 4 stations: one each for those who have been displaced (victims.doc & fire prayer requests.doc), emergency personnel (firefighters.doc), our own feelings and emotions (our feelings.doc), and an offering table (our response.doc).

After I printed out the prayer requests, I burned the edges of the paper to make it look like the requests came right out of the fire.

I’ve also attached some pictures to give you an idea of my set-up. After I took the picture of the offering station, we added some small material items (bottle of water, tooth brush, tooth paste, kleenex, etc.) to symbolize one way we are giving.

If you use these ideas, or modify them, please let me know!

Blessings to you,
Jeff

Prayer Station Signs

Pictures of the Prayer Stations

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!

Greetings from South Central Indiana! Jeff asked me to share about a new service concept we’ve developed and are finally launching November 4, 2007, here at Grandview COB.

We’ve observed that with a blended service format, no one ever is very happy, yet congregations strongly resist two services for various reasons. We believe God has given us an inspired solution and are interested in connecting with others who may be on the same path.

Basically, the first third of the service is strictly traditional worship with responsive reading, hymns, etc. The second third is the sermon. The third third is the contemporary worship elements. Thus, those wanting a traditional service format attend the first 2/3 of the service. Those wanting a contemporary service format attend the second 2/3 of the service. Everyone is gathered together for the sermon, so they still feel like one body. We will have a transition with a count-down video and greeting one another before the sermon section. We will transition after the sermon with ministry time and some transitional songs/videos before moving into contemporary praise time. Anyone can stay for the whole service as well.

Children’s Sunday School and Children’s Church are moving into a format of 1/2 hour blocks so children can arrive or leave at transitional times. Adult Sunday School coordinates with the traditional 2/3. Weeknight small group meetings are offered for those attending the contemporary 2/3.

Offerings during both first and third worship times (finance loves us for this!). Church family events like baptism or baby dedication will take place during the middle sermon third.

We’re basically a traditional congregation that needs to grow. We’re very excited about the possibilities. We’re convinced God hasn’t given this idea to just us though, and would love to hear from others who may be doing something similar.

Blessings,

Lisa G. Yoder