The follwing I cannot take credit for...
It was written by a friend on a different blog site, but it is so insightful, I wanted as many people to read it as possible. So without further adieu... here is
A Not So Clandestined Meeting
So today I had a very interesting and tragic meeting with a group of local church leaders. Nine churches were represented in a group of 15 people. The purpose of this meeting of the minds was to address the issue of churches dying on the heels of a local church closing its doors. It seemed well intentioned and I was very interested to see what sorts of things were going to be discussed and what kind of outcome a meeting like this would have.
Not a whole lot was actually discussed. We spent most of the time introducing ourselves and talking about what we were doing. Forgive me but when you tell me we are going to a brainstorming meeting to see what we can do as a community to stop our local churches from closing their doors I’m not keen to spend an hour hearing about how you came to settle at your current church or how many kids you have. When it came time to actually throw about ideas instead we bantered about possible meanings and feelings about the word “transformation.”
Now here is the part where I spoke up. Oh you know, if you read this blog then you know how I am and I am not one to gently lay it on the table. I talked about a radical transformation of a church in Canada called Connexus Community Church. The church went from three very traditional presbyterian churches each with their own property and congregations and converged into one body. They sold all their property and started meeting in a school gym. Now they are meeting in a movie theater, holding multiple services, and experiencing amazing growth and very radical transformation. The room was silent and then immediately someone responded saying that what they got out of what I was saying is that we need to focus on small things and let God turn it into something big. I was dumbfounded! Here I am talking about three churches merging into one church, selling all their property, and instead of building another building they decided to meet permanently in movie theaters. Does that sound like they were doing something small to you? I was speechless and even laughed a bit at the absurdity of that statement. It gets better.
At one point one of the pastors spoke up and said that their church leadership was committed to growth and their entire plan of action was to commit to pray fervently for church growth. Now I am in no way saying that they were wrong in fact it should be the very first step. But for them it was the first and last. They mentioned that two people had joined the church recently since their resolve to pray for church growth and at some point another church leader raved about how much growth that was. They were juiced up and excited over two people! I stifled a snicker and basically sat on my thumbs the rest of the meeting. I was yet again speechless. But then again I had a lot to say.
One plus to the evening was there was discussion of attending Catalyst Conference in Atlanta Georgia. Whether or not anyone will go is anyone’s guess and if I was betting money I wouldn’t put my money on very many. They seemed somewhat apathetic about the conference and I yet again decided speak up and plug the conference and its merits before I was interrupted to close the meeting in prayer. Not before it was mentioned that this was just “one” conference and of course it “didn’t have all the answers,” and “if this one doesn’t work we’ll just go to another one.” What confidence and arrogance these people have. Here we are talking about a conference staffed by some of the biggest names in church growth in the world today and we’re giving it a side-glance like you would walking by a pastry in a window.
We ended the meeting in prayer and I and another member of my church made our way out the door. It was a lot less stodgy than I had expected but my expectations weren’t entirely off. When we should be pleading with God and sweating blood and tears trying to eek out a plan of action for our churches we’re sipping our tea and talking about when we’ll meet next month. I don’t ever expect this group to do anything substantial. For something to really take place its going to take much more than small thinking and wishful prayer. We need radical action, transformation of our systems and ways of thinking and doing things, and above all the humility and wisdom to seek out those who do know what they are doing and to get help. We’ll see many more churches close and very possibly several of these churches represented in this meeting. And even then there may be little we can do to save them. It takes real leaders and a people who are willing to change. I don’t see that in this group. It also takes a strong undercurrent of young leaders and I (27 yrs old) was probably the youngest of that group by at least 20 years if not more.
I’ll end this with a small list (you knew I couldn’t resist) of ideas that came up throughout this meeting. I’ll let you be the judge and feel free to comment and let me know what you think.
1.A church plant for the poor. (The comment was that there were many services to the poor such as soup kitchens and such but no place for them to worship. Funny though, why not just invite them to our churches? I’m sure glad to have them at mine.)
2.Community church developments inside nursing homes. (My thought was that most of the churches represented basically WERE nursing homes. Just put up some beds and a few nurses and they’d be set. Or just uproot one of them to a local nursing home on Sunday. Trust me the congregation would love it and would get a meal and a nap to boot.)
3.A new church plant. (Nothing more than that was said really. My thoughts are...do we really need another church?)
4.Pray for growth. (I mentioned this one. The lack of effort on our part seems to stand out to me the most)
5.Going to Catalyst (or other conferences. I would vote to go to Drive but most likely they’ll end up going to some goofy conference put on by the already failing presbyterian church simply because its only a few miles away)
I am so glad for the leadership and vision of my church. Though they have their moments they are light years ahead of these guys in their thinking and in their vision for what they want their church to be. Thank you guys so much for not being like these people.
It was written by a friend on a different blog site, but it is so insightful, I wanted as many people to read it as possible. So without further adieu... here is
A Not So Clandestined Meeting
So today I had a very interesting and tragic meeting with a group of local church leaders. Nine churches were represented in a group of 15 people. The purpose of this meeting of the minds was to address the issue of churches dying on the heels of a local church closing its doors. It seemed well intentioned and I was very interested to see what sorts of things were going to be discussed and what kind of outcome a meeting like this would have.
Not a whole lot was actually discussed. We spent most of the time introducing ourselves and talking about what we were doing. Forgive me but when you tell me we are going to a brainstorming meeting to see what we can do as a community to stop our local churches from closing their doors I’m not keen to spend an hour hearing about how you came to settle at your current church or how many kids you have. When it came time to actually throw about ideas instead we bantered about possible meanings and feelings about the word “transformation.”
Now here is the part where I spoke up. Oh you know, if you read this blog then you know how I am and I am not one to gently lay it on the table. I talked about a radical transformation of a church in Canada called Connexus Community Church. The church went from three very traditional presbyterian churches each with their own property and congregations and converged into one body. They sold all their property and started meeting in a school gym. Now they are meeting in a movie theater, holding multiple services, and experiencing amazing growth and very radical transformation. The room was silent and then immediately someone responded saying that what they got out of what I was saying is that we need to focus on small things and let God turn it into something big. I was dumbfounded! Here I am talking about three churches merging into one church, selling all their property, and instead of building another building they decided to meet permanently in movie theaters. Does that sound like they were doing something small to you? I was speechless and even laughed a bit at the absurdity of that statement. It gets better.
At one point one of the pastors spoke up and said that their church leadership was committed to growth and their entire plan of action was to commit to pray fervently for church growth. Now I am in no way saying that they were wrong in fact it should be the very first step. But for them it was the first and last. They mentioned that two people had joined the church recently since their resolve to pray for church growth and at some point another church leader raved about how much growth that was. They were juiced up and excited over two people! I stifled a snicker and basically sat on my thumbs the rest of the meeting. I was yet again speechless. But then again I had a lot to say.
One plus to the evening was there was discussion of attending Catalyst Conference in Atlanta Georgia. Whether or not anyone will go is anyone’s guess and if I was betting money I wouldn’t put my money on very many. They seemed somewhat apathetic about the conference and I yet again decided speak up and plug the conference and its merits before I was interrupted to close the meeting in prayer. Not before it was mentioned that this was just “one” conference and of course it “didn’t have all the answers,” and “if this one doesn’t work we’ll just go to another one.” What confidence and arrogance these people have. Here we are talking about a conference staffed by some of the biggest names in church growth in the world today and we’re giving it a side-glance like you would walking by a pastry in a window.
We ended the meeting in prayer and I and another member of my church made our way out the door. It was a lot less stodgy than I had expected but my expectations weren’t entirely off. When we should be pleading with God and sweating blood and tears trying to eek out a plan of action for our churches we’re sipping our tea and talking about when we’ll meet next month. I don’t ever expect this group to do anything substantial. For something to really take place its going to take much more than small thinking and wishful prayer. We need radical action, transformation of our systems and ways of thinking and doing things, and above all the humility and wisdom to seek out those who do know what they are doing and to get help. We’ll see many more churches close and very possibly several of these churches represented in this meeting. And even then there may be little we can do to save them. It takes real leaders and a people who are willing to change. I don’t see that in this group. It also takes a strong undercurrent of young leaders and I (27 yrs old) was probably the youngest of that group by at least 20 years if not more.
I’ll end this with a small list (you knew I couldn’t resist) of ideas that came up throughout this meeting. I’ll let you be the judge and feel free to comment and let me know what you think.
1.A church plant for the poor. (The comment was that there were many services to the poor such as soup kitchens and such but no place for them to worship. Funny though, why not just invite them to our churches? I’m sure glad to have them at mine.)
2.Community church developments inside nursing homes. (My thought was that most of the churches represented basically WERE nursing homes. Just put up some beds and a few nurses and they’d be set. Or just uproot one of them to a local nursing home on Sunday. Trust me the congregation would love it and would get a meal and a nap to boot.)
3.A new church plant. (Nothing more than that was said really. My thoughts are...do we really need another church?)
4.Pray for growth. (I mentioned this one. The lack of effort on our part seems to stand out to me the most)
5.Going to Catalyst (or other conferences. I would vote to go to Drive but most likely they’ll end up going to some goofy conference put on by the already failing presbyterian church simply because its only a few miles away)
I am so glad for the leadership and vision of my church. Though they have their moments they are light years ahead of these guys in their thinking and in their vision for what they want their church to be. Thank you guys so much for not being like these people.
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