OK, I'm sure you are all just dying to find out what my answer to Craig's question is. I must admit that I had to come up with two sets of answers - one for church planting and one for church revitalization.
So here goes:
For a Church Plant:
1) weekend worship experience
2) children's ministry
3) student ministry
4) small groups
5) missions
For a Church Revitalization effort:
1) weekend worship experience
2) small groups
3) children's ministry
4) student ministry
5) missions (with emphasis on local community involvement)
I know, I know. The lists are almost identical - in fact, the "church plant" list matches exactly with what Craig said. There is good reason for that - I think Craig is on to something. Let me explain...
To start a new church or to revitalize an existing one, there must be intentionality in everything. There must be focus. And there must be alignment.
The whole church (or group of people looking to start a church) must be gathered around a single unifying vision in order for the group to continue to move forward. It seems to me that churches who fail to rally around a central focal point/vision/mission fail to have the ability to move in the same direction over a long period of time.
I am in the midst of what I would call a church revitalization effort (i.e. I would use the second list) and I know that my work is cut out for me in every area that I listed.
For now, I will leave the church plant list behind. Next week I will share my thoughts about what University may need to do in response to the second list.
Showing posts with label Church Planting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Church Planting. Show all posts
16 August 2008
15 August 2008
Still Thinking About It
I'm still thinking about Craig's question. Unfortunately, not many answers yet.
If you were going to start a church from the ground up, what would your top five essentials be? What would be the five things that you would want to have your church focus on? What five ministries would be "make or break" for you?
Craig answers with: weekend worship experience, children's ministry, student ministry, small groups, and missions.
I'll share my answers tomorrow.
What do you think?
If you were going to start a church from the ground up, what would your top five essentials be? What would be the five things that you would want to have your church focus on? What five ministries would be "make or break" for you?
Craig answers with: weekend worship experience, children's ministry, student ministry, small groups, and missions.
I'll share my answers tomorrow.
What do you think?
20 October 2007
Reflections of the SGC
I must admit that I was not really looking forward to coming to the Smart Growth Conference down here in The Woodlands this weekend, but the team at TWUMC impressed me with their professionalism, hospitality, and servanthood.
The opening session for Mike Slaughter was challenging, thought-provoking, and set up the rest of the weekend for success. He talked about "unlearning church" (which I think he wrote a book about) and how the church needs to reclaim a "Jesus hermeneutic" in order to remain relevant for the 21st century. He argued that we must return to Jesus' understanding that God wants to be in relationship with us, not hold a contract or legal obligation over our heads. We need to focus on God's covenant (unfailing love - hesed) with us, not the commandments (rules/laws) that so often plague our Christian thinking. Slaughter challenged us to recommit to three life practices: simplicity, strategic discipleship, and sacrificial mission.
The second plenary session brought Len Sweet to the stage and he blew just about everybody out of the water with his talk. He practically called all the Chairs of BOMs throughout Methodism "idiots" for weeding out the people with imaginations from the ministry. [Side note: the chair of the NTC BOM was sitting about 3 feet away from me during Sweet's talk...she cringed alot during this section. Just thought you should know.] Len talked about the characteristics of an E.P.I.C. church and the difference between an A.P.C. operating system and an M.R.I. operating system. All great information and all great challenges to the mainline church in America because if we don't "de-frag and reboot" then we will crash and burn and no one will attempt to pick up the pieces.
The plenary session this morning featured TWUMC Senior Pastor Ed Robb talking about what he doesn't know about growing a church. Each of his "ignorances" highlighted the unique position the Christian Church is in regarding the "business of God". He told us that he didn't know how to grow a church without:
Each one of those "ignorances" hit home with my own fears, pride, and immaturities about what it takes to grow and sustain a new ministry/church for the long haul. He closed by challenging us to serve, pray, and love the people where you are now like you are going to serve them for the rest of your ministry career - sink deep roots and take ownership of all that you have been called by God to do where he has you right now.
Overall, the conference exceeded my expectations and I am glad that I came. I look forward to connecting more with Andy Nixon over at The Loft as Alan and I push forward on the new worship service, because The Loft is reaching the people we are trying to reach - with tremendous success.
Grace&Peace
The opening session for Mike Slaughter was challenging, thought-provoking, and set up the rest of the weekend for success. He talked about "unlearning church" (which I think he wrote a book about) and how the church needs to reclaim a "Jesus hermeneutic" in order to remain relevant for the 21st century. He argued that we must return to Jesus' understanding that God wants to be in relationship with us, not hold a contract or legal obligation over our heads. We need to focus on God's covenant (unfailing love - hesed) with us, not the commandments (rules/laws) that so often plague our Christian thinking. Slaughter challenged us to recommit to three life practices: simplicity, strategic discipleship, and sacrificial mission.
The second plenary session brought Len Sweet to the stage and he blew just about everybody out of the water with his talk. He practically called all the Chairs of BOMs throughout Methodism "idiots" for weeding out the people with imaginations from the ministry. [Side note: the chair of the NTC BOM was sitting about 3 feet away from me during Sweet's talk...she cringed alot during this section. Just thought you should know.] Len talked about the characteristics of an E.P.I.C. church and the difference between an A.P.C. operating system and an M.R.I. operating system. All great information and all great challenges to the mainline church in America because if we don't "de-frag and reboot" then we will crash and burn and no one will attempt to pick up the pieces.
The plenary session this morning featured TWUMC Senior Pastor Ed Robb talking about what he doesn't know about growing a church. Each of his "ignorances" highlighted the unique position the Christian Church is in regarding the "business of God". He told us that he didn't know how to grow a church without:
1) God's help
2) passion
3) hard work
4) casting a vision
5) building a team
6) incurring pain
7) developing effective outreach programs
8) taking risks
9) perseverance
Each one of those "ignorances" hit home with my own fears, pride, and immaturities about what it takes to grow and sustain a new ministry/church for the long haul. He closed by challenging us to serve, pray, and love the people where you are now like you are going to serve them for the rest of your ministry career - sink deep roots and take ownership of all that you have been called by God to do where he has you right now.
Overall, the conference exceeded my expectations and I am glad that I came. I look forward to connecting more with Andy Nixon over at The Loft as Alan and I push forward on the new worship service, because The Loft is reaching the people we are trying to reach - with tremendous success.
Grace&Peace
04 October 2007
Short Reflections on a Long Day
Catalyst has been a great experience so far and I can't wait to see what Day 2 has in store for us. Today we were challenged to understand the implications of being the most powerful person in the room, to help those we lead to find fulfillment in their work, [skipped Session 3, but heard them at the Evening Lab Session last night], to say whatever it is God has laid on our hearts (in love), and expend ourselves on those whom the world has long ignored.
What a day!
Grace&Peace
What a day!
Grace&Peace
11 September 2007
Las Vegas Learnings (Part 1)
I want to post a series of thoughts on what I learned about how Vegas casinos attract and keep players coming back and how that can be translated to the church. So here goes...
Learning #1: Make it easy for people to get in the door and find what they are looking for.
Gamblers in Vegas are looking for one thing when they go to a casino...a place to spend their money in order to have a shot at making more money. Most gamblers look for a certain type of game - be it video poker, nickel slots, or the tables - and they don't want to have to look hard to find their game.
Casinos know this, so they make it very easy for gamblers to get inside and spend their money as quickly as possible. One example, Deb and I were walking down the Strip toward The Bellagio in order to take a look inside and see what all the hype was about. As we approached the block that the Bellagio sits on, we saw that we needed to go up an escalator in order to get to the same level that the main entrance doors were on. Once we ascended that escalator we noticed how far away from the door we really were from the casino doors. This was not a problem because the entire walkway from the street to the door of the casino was a "people mover" ala George Jetson. It took virtually no effort on our part to get from the street to the door of the casino - none! We both commented that this fact made getting into the doors to spend our money so easy.
Churches need to make it easier for people to get in our doors. Not so that they can give their hard-earned money to us, but so that they can get connected to Jesus. Not so that they can be impressed with our technology in worship, but so that they can see that the church is a place that welcomes them and actually wants them to spend some time there. We need to make the hurdles of attending church the lowest ones possible (if we even have hurdles at all). The time, place, or feel of our churches should be the smallest impediment to people walking thru our doors.
What kind of "people movers" does the church need to employ? How can we make the process of finding a place to get plugged in should be the easiest thing that guests can do at our churches. Guests should be able to walk into our clearly marked front doors (hopefully opened by waiting, attentive greeters) and find exactly what they are looking for. (Side note: There are no "people movers" taking people away from the doors of the casino...you have to want to walk out...and do it under your own power. More on this later.)
Are we doing all that we can to break down obstacles for people to find God in our churches? Are we losing their business before they even hear the music or sermon? Are they having to clear hurdles just to experience all the things we love about our worshiping community?
Grace&Peace
Learning #1: Make it easy for people to get in the door and find what they are looking for.
Gamblers in Vegas are looking for one thing when they go to a casino...a place to spend their money in order to have a shot at making more money. Most gamblers look for a certain type of game - be it video poker, nickel slots, or the tables - and they don't want to have to look hard to find their game.
Casinos know this, so they make it very easy for gamblers to get inside and spend their money as quickly as possible. One example, Deb and I were walking down the Strip toward The Bellagio in order to take a look inside and see what all the hype was about. As we approached the block that the Bellagio sits on, we saw that we needed to go up an escalator in order to get to the same level that the main entrance doors were on. Once we ascended that escalator we noticed how far away from the door we really were from the casino doors. This was not a problem because the entire walkway from the street to the door of the casino was a "people mover" ala George Jetson. It took virtually no effort on our part to get from the street to the door of the casino - none! We both commented that this fact made getting into the doors to spend our money so easy.
Churches need to make it easier for people to get in our doors. Not so that they can give their hard-earned money to us, but so that they can get connected to Jesus. Not so that they can be impressed with our technology in worship, but so that they can see that the church is a place that welcomes them and actually wants them to spend some time there. We need to make the hurdles of attending church the lowest ones possible (if we even have hurdles at all). The time, place, or feel of our churches should be the smallest impediment to people walking thru our doors.
What kind of "people movers" does the church need to employ? How can we make the process of finding a place to get plugged in should be the easiest thing that guests can do at our churches. Guests should be able to walk into our clearly marked front doors (hopefully opened by waiting, attentive greeters) and find exactly what they are looking for. (Side note: There are no "people movers" taking people away from the doors of the casino...you have to want to walk out...and do it under your own power. More on this later.)
Are we doing all that we can to break down obstacles for people to find God in our churches? Are we losing their business before they even hear the music or sermon? Are they having to clear hurdles just to experience all the things we love about our worshiping community?
Grace&Peace
09 July 2007
One out of four isn't bad...right?
I only made it to one of the four worship services that I was trying to visit this weekend. The one we went to was the 9 a.m. service at the Village. It was good, but since Matt was off for the weekend, it was not the usual experience that has brought so many people to that church in the last three years. I'll fill out the report and let my co-workers know about my visit, so once I do that I'll post here about my feelings and thoughts. I did get a few good ideas and one thing I will say is that I am glad that there are churches in our area that are using secular songs for redemptive purposes.
Grace&Peace
I only made it to one of the four worship services that I was trying to visit this weekend. The one we went to was the 9 a.m. service at the Village. It was good, but since Matt was off for the weekend, it was not the usual experience that has brought so many people to that church in the last three years. I'll fill out the report and let my co-workers know about my visit, so once I do that I'll post here about my feelings and thoughts. I did get a few good ideas and one thing I will say is that I am glad that there are churches in our area that are using secular songs for redemptive purposes.
Grace&Peace
06 July 2007
Church Visits
I am thinking about making a few visits to other contemporary churches this weekend in order to get some broader experience in what goes on in other contemporary worship services. My weekend could look like this:
Saturday, 5:30pm - St. Andrew UMC (Saturday Night Alive)
Sunday, 9:00am - The Village Church
Sunday, 11:00am - St. Andrew UMC (The Gathering)
Sunday, 5:00pm - Bent Tree Bible Fellowship
I don't know if I will make all of these, but it would certainly be a full day of worship (and work) to accomplish it. I'll let you know what happens.
Grace&Peace
Saturday, 5:30pm - St. Andrew UMC (Saturday Night Alive)
Sunday, 9:00am - The Village Church
Sunday, 11:00am - St. Andrew UMC (The Gathering)
Sunday, 5:00pm - Bent Tree Bible Fellowship
I don't know if I will make all of these, but it would certainly be a full day of worship (and work) to accomplish it. I'll let you know what happens.
Grace&Peace
22 March 2007
I just love what Perry Noble has to say each time I read his blog. I think I need to make plans to attend the Unleash Conference in '08 after reading all the great things about the '07 one and a trip to his church wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Finishing well is an important job for all leaders...especially church leaders. Read Perry's thoughts here.
Grace&Peace
Finishing well is an important job for all leaders...especially church leaders. Read Perry's thoughts here.
Grace&Peace
27 February 2007
Don't be Impotent
Perry Noble is pastor of NewSpring Church in South Carolina and I have recently begun to follow his blog and his ideas, this post is one of the reasons that I am ready to hear more of what he has to say. Thanks for bringing it, Perry!
Also check out Tony Morgan's synopsis of Perry's talk at a recent conference.
Grace&Peace
Also check out Tony Morgan's synopsis of Perry's talk at a recent conference.
Grace&Peace
30 January 2007
Life in Ministry vs.(?) Family Life
Life in the ministry is tough. It's tough for the minister and it is tough for the family connected to the minister. Adam Hamilton (Senior Pastor of UM Church of the Resurrection) wrote a great article on thriving in the "fish bowl" of ministry. I lift it up to you today in order to encourage any ministers out there who need to remember that family time and ministry do not have to be mutually exclusive events.
Grace&Peace
Grace&Peace
15 November 2006
Explanation of Hiatus
Sorry that I have been absent from the blogosphere for a week or so...life got busy preparing for going out of town this week and since I don't have a laptop of my own, I must rely on the kindness of other clergy for the temporary use of theirs. Thanks Joe!
So I am currently finishing up Day 3 at the Institute for Church Planting Retreat up here on beautiful Lake Texoma at the Prothro Center. It has been a grueling 3 days and we still have 1 1/2 more to go. I am glad that I am here among friends, but I sure do miss my girls at home. I have talked to them each night, but it's just not the same as seeing them and kissing their faces as they drift off to sleep.
On a personal note (not that the previous paragraph wasn't) I would appreciate some prayers as I discern what God has called me to do in this crazy world of church planting. My personality does not immediately lend itself to a successful church plant, but there are many models to choose from and one might work for me. However, I have been intrigued by the concept of being groomed to be a follow-up pastor at a church that is transitioning out of leadership from their founding/planting pastor. Thanks!
Ok, I will now go and check some blogs that I am behind on and then read another chapter in a great book, then head for the pillow.
Grace&Peace
So I am currently finishing up Day 3 at the Institute for Church Planting Retreat up here on beautiful Lake Texoma at the Prothro Center. It has been a grueling 3 days and we still have 1 1/2 more to go. I am glad that I am here among friends, but I sure do miss my girls at home. I have talked to them each night, but it's just not the same as seeing them and kissing their faces as they drift off to sleep.
On a personal note (not that the previous paragraph wasn't) I would appreciate some prayers as I discern what God has called me to do in this crazy world of church planting. My personality does not immediately lend itself to a successful church plant, but there are many models to choose from and one might work for me. However, I have been intrigued by the concept of being groomed to be a follow-up pastor at a church that is transitioning out of leadership from their founding/planting pastor. Thanks!
Ok, I will now go and check some blogs that I am behind on and then read another chapter in a great book, then head for the pillow.
Grace&Peace
29 August 2006
August was a B-L-U-R!
It's been awhile since my last real post, so I thought I would take a few moments and update everyone about what all is going on...
1) Returned from San Diego with a new energy about starting a church - eventho it will be TONS of work
2) Spent three days being inspired to grow as a leader - check out great summaries of each talk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
3) Performed the 2nd and 3rd weddings of my career
4) Beginning the fall season of Bible studies
5) Mourning the loss of a great servant leader
Now I am looking forward for my family (Caitlyn turns 1 in October), my ministry (Hospitality training event), and my leadership (covenanted to read 6 books on the subject by next August).
Grace&Peace
1) Returned from San Diego with a new energy about starting a church - eventho it will be TONS of work
2) Spent three days being inspired to grow as a leader - check out great summaries of each talk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
3) Performed the 2nd and 3rd weddings of my career
4) Beginning the fall season of Bible studies
5) Mourning the loss of a great servant leader
Now I am looking forward for my family (Caitlyn turns 1 in October), my ministry (Hospitality training event), and my leadership (covenanted to read 6 books on the subject by next August).
Grace&Peace
02 August 2006
Off to sunny San Diego
I will be leaving the heat of Dallas in August for the mildly pleasant weather in San Diego for 5 days. I am not sure whether I will be able to update while I am there, but I will do my best to find the hotel's business room and use their computer to let all of you know how things are going.
I'll be back late on Tuesday night with (hopefully) a better understanding of what all goes into a church plant. If not, I will most likely have some good stories to share about my time in California and my colleagues in ministry.
Grace&Peace
I'll be back late on Tuesday night with (hopefully) a better understanding of what all goes into a church plant. If not, I will most likely have some good stories to share about my time in California and my colleagues in ministry.
Grace&Peace
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