Tim Keller on How Churches Will Be Effective in City-Centers

This is from the current issue of Vineyard's Cutting Edge church planting publication.

1. Hold the historic Christian gospel-- orthodox and Biblical in doctrine and practice, but are neither legalistic nor liberal, neither doctrinalist nor pietist, neither individualistic nor collectivistic.

2. Have a positive regard for the city; recognize that it is the most strategic possible place for ministry.

3. Neither over or under adapt to the culture of those in their surrounding neighborhood and culture.

4. Are intensely, creatively evangelistic and effective in reaching not just people who are already traditional or conservative but who are very secular.

5. Relentlessly emphasize and seek to build strong, "thick" counter-cultural Christian community in cities, especially through cell groups.

6. Are holistic, ministering in both word and deed to their community and the poor in extremely creative and generous ways.

7. Have a bias toward being multi-ethnic-- seek to be at least as multi-ethnic as their neighborhood.

8. Are arts and culture friendly; both supportive of Christian witness in "secular work" and willing to train people for cultural leadership, not just church leadership.

9. See church planting as a ministry as natural and important as discipleship, music, education, and pastoral care.

Top 10 Ways a Core Group Can Kill a Church

1. Talk about how much you love your church because it's so small and personable.
2. If your church doesn't have a particular ministry, start attending it at another church, rather than starting one where you are.
3. Don't forgive anyone for hurting you or offending you.
4. Instead of telling the pastor about your frustrations, hold out in silence as long as you can, getting angrier and angrier until you can finally leave in one, unforseen blaze of flaming glory.
5. Go to church for what you get out of it.
6. Don't invite anyone.
7. Forget faith ~ that's the pastor's job. Sit back and wait to see what happens, rather than becoming personally invested.
8. Use "prayer" as a conversational piece rather than a spiritual discipline (as in: "I'll be praying for you," or "Let me pray about that.")
9. Do frequent "polling" in hallway conversations to see if other people have the same concerns about the church as you.
10. Meditate on how wonderful the church would be if it weren't for the pastor.

The New Discipleship: Converted to a Cause before Christ

I like the term "missional community" because I think it contains two very important elements for people. People want to belong, and as this guy says, they want to belong before they believe. The other key, though, is that people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. This is where mission comes in. The mission of God is the biggest thing that we could ever involve ourselves in. This writer believes that the mission, or, another way of stating it, the "getting involved", is more important to a lot of people than community (belonging).

"I would submit that it is mission that provides the motion from which community is created... In this scenario, community isn't the key for reaching the lost, but CAUSE is the key."

Church Marketing with Stock Photography

I just used iStockphoto.com for a mortgage ad, and really like it.

Lesa Snider King, the chief evangelist of iStockphoto.com, recently an excellent tip with MinistryCOM on how to create an engaging postcard with stock photography:

You have precious few moments to grab someone’s attention, and the simplest way to do it is by using strong, effective imagery.

The next time you create an event postcard, spend less time on the text or copy, and more time on choosing an image that communicates what the event is all about. Pick something eye-catching, something powerful, and colorful. After all, if you can’t grab the person’s attention with your image, it’s unlikely they’ll read your copy!

Of course, this principle applies to any church marketing you do. Effective communication requires that you can first get the individual’s attention.

Related Reading:
- 10 Big Web Photography Mistakes
- 15 Questions for the Perfect Postcard
- Direct Mail Technique :: Using a #12 Envelope
- How to Get What Your Postage Pays For

Howard Snyder on Missional Church

Howard Snyder in Decoding the Church writes of missional church in chapter 3. The missional church is genetically missional, an alternative community, a covenant community, and Trinitarian.

Genetically Missional

The church is genetically missional because it is the community of Jesus Christ, God’s great missionary. It is the body of Christ, the community called into existence by the mission of God. this is the starting point for all ecclesiology… Mission is the church’s DNA, even if mission often gets suppressed in practice.

An Alternative Community

A missional church is an alternative community called to build its own culture, economy, and lifestyle in the world and among all peoples. A faithful fchurch is a visible alternative to both neopagan society and to ecclesial models of Christendom that clash with the church’s basic DNA… The church is an alternative community when its mission is the kingdom of God. Its mission makes it countercultural. ANd it is an alternative reality when it exists as a covenant community.

A Covenant Community

A mssional church is covenantal. The church is the covenanted community of God’s reign. The covenant calls the church to ministry and mission, to “equip [God’s people] for the work of ministry (Eph 4:12) and to structure its life and mission accordingly.

A Trinitarian Community

A missional church is Trinitarian. The Trinity teaches us about ecclesiology and mission. Because the church is Trinitarian — based on what God the Father has done and will do through Christ by the power of the Spirit — the church is at the same time incarnational and eschatological.

Read the rest of this post here.

Some Reasons Why the Lone "Senior Pastor" Might Not Make Sense Anymore

At Life on the Vine, we recently added a fourth pastor. Some people told me such multiple leadership would never work. There would be no single face to attach to the vision of the church. Therefore the church would never grow.

Balderdash (is that a word?). The church continues to grow. Signs of healing, new mission, new souls finding God abound.

I now preach approximately half the time. On a typical Sunday morning, the preaching is approximately 25 minutes. But you should know that at our church the gathering does not gather to just hear the preacher. The worship gathering does not culminate and focus on the preacher delivering a masterpiece. Our time together is meant to be a gathering fully engaged with meeting and responding to God, all He has done, what He is saying. And then we are sent out from here collectively into mission. And so honestly, many times I think I've blown the sermon really badly, yet the time together did not miss a beat. The proclamation of the gospel reality over us all is important, but it is not the isolated core of the service. We come to worship to hear from and respond to God corporately.

Review of The Forgotten Ways

A couple of months ago now I started reading Alan Hirsch's latest book, The Forgotten Ways. Along with Michael Frost, he wrote The Shaping of Things to Come, one of the most important books in the area of the church and missiology that many of us have ever read. Not only can they write good books together but they can write solo as well. Michael Frost's book Exiles came out last year and Alan Hirsch's book, The Forgotten Ways showed up in my mailbox in early 2007. For the last two months every free moment has been spent with the book or thinking about the consequences of what has been written. It's a book that I will read more than once but here are some early thoughts that will do the book justice.

The book is divided into two sections. Section One is “The Making of a Missionary.” Hirsch tells his own story. It is a path that many of us would recognize that starts with him in the "come to us" attractional model of doing church that has defined evangelicalism since it became part of the establishment to moving towards a missional incarnation. Section Two is titled “A Journey to the Heart of Apostolic Genius.” There we explore what Hirsch calls Missional DNA. Methodists will recognize the work of Howard Snyder who has used the DNA analogy in the past. For us Canadians who read a lot of Alan Roxburgh, you will recognize the concepts of liminality and "communitas vs. community".

A Starbucks Conversation - John Burke

Ideally, pastors would be cultural anthropologists or experts on the unchurched. Instead, non-Christians often complain that pastors can’t relate to them or their culture. As a pastor,
do you interact with non-Christians on a daily basis? Do you know what the average unchurched person thinks about Jesus, heaven and hell, and Christians in general? What would make him or her willing to explore Christianity? Maybe even at your church?

If you haven’t asked these questions lately, much less gotten answers, you may unknowingly have lost touch with the culture and the very people you’re trying to reach. Get reacquainted with your “target audience,” as you listen in on this casual conversation with Jennifer, 29, Lalit, 33, Sree, 35, Geno, 28, James, 40, and Lars, 34, who share with Gateway Community Church’s Pastor John Burke the insights you need to know to reach them.

Church Plants: Why Some Survive

According to research from the Center for Missional Research:

• 99% of church plants survive the 1st year
• 92% survive the 2nd year
• 81% survive the 3rd year
• 68% survive the 4th year

Four reasons why are:

1. Expectations
   >> 87% with realistic expectations survived
   >> 61% with unmet expectations survived
2. Leadership Development
   >> 79% with leadership training for church members survived
   >> 59% with no leadership training for church members survived
3. Peer Groups
   >> 83% with planters who were part of a church planting peer group survived
   >> 67% with planters who were not part of a church planting peer group survived
4. Stewardship Plans
   >> 81% with a stewardship development plan survived
   >> 67% with no stewardship development plan survived

Demographics

Here are two sites that provide free demographic research.

Yahoo's Neighborhood Profiles

Claritas

Three Questions for Church Evaluation

Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK) shares three questions on his blog that are valuable in evaluating the quality and effectiveness of your church.

1. If you weren’t on staff at your church, would you worship there?
2. If you didn’t know ANYTHING about Jesus, what would you know about him after a normal weekend at your church?
3. If you had a loved one who didn’t know Christ, and they had one week left to live, would you take them to your church or another?

Seven Rules for Church Project Management

Next week we're having our first launch team meeting. We have a lot to do in the next few months to get ready for the Fall. These are some resources from Church Relevance that I've found helpful.

Seven Rules for Church Project Management

Women Prefer Direct Mail More than Email

Church Marketing with Stock Photography

Why People Do and Do Not Attend Church

Four Essential Elements for Church Logo Designs

Free Marketing Resources from Southeast Christian Church

Email vs. Direct Mail

Ten Factors for Higher Attendance in Church Plants

Free Online Courses on Marketing, Management & Leadership

Free Admin Resources from NorthPoint Community Church

Is Evangelism Necessary?

This is the question that Jason Clark poses in this post. He sets the question up by sharing a story about the time when we was on vacation in Hawaii with his wife and they ended up saving a couple from drowning.

Shane Claiborne on Hell - Pt. 2

Here's part 2.

Shane Claiborne on Hell - Pt. 1

Here's an article by Shane Claiborne.

I figure anytime you are about to talk about hell it’s good to start with a joke, so here we go….It was a busy day in heaven as folks waited in line at the pearly gates. Peter stood as gatekeeper checking each newcomer’s name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. But there was some confusion, as the numbers were not adding up. Heaven was a little overcrowded, and a bunch of folks were unaccounted for. So some of the angels were sent on a mission to investigate things. And it was not long before two of them returned, “We found the problem,” they said. “Jesus is out back, lifting people up over the gate.”

I remember as a child hearing all the hellfire and damnation sermons. We had a theater group perform a play called, “Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames” where actors presented scenes of folks being ripped away from loved ones only to be sent to the fiery pits of hell where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, and we all went forward to repent of all the evil things we had done over our first decade of life, in paralyzing fear of being “left behind”… the preacher literally scared the “hell” out of us.

But have you ever noticed that Jesus didn’t spend much time on hell.

Why is Cultural Relevance a Big Deal?

Great post by Ed Stetzer.

The scriptures are relevant to this and every culture. They do not need updating, correcting, or revisioning. On the contrary, what needs revisioning is our understanding and obedience to God's word as we live out His mission in context. When we live a humble orthodoxy and humble missiology, we will be salt and light in contemporary culture—a biblically-faithful, culturally-relevant, counter culture. Here is a brief article I wrote for my friends at Catalyst that might be an encouragement:

Ed Stetzer Interviews Mark Driscoll

Finding a Facility

Something we're going to have to do soon.

Elder Government - Mark Driscoll

Leadership Lessons from Nehemiah

These are two audio teachings from Mark Driscoll. Highly recommended!

Part 1
Part 2

A Quote by Seth Goden on Creativity

Goden just nailed me with this.

99% of the time, in my experience, the hard part about creativity isn’t coming up with something no one has ever thought of before. The hard part is actually executing the thing you’ve thought of.
- Seth Godin

10 Tips for Making Meetings Effective

Interview with Bob Roberts

This is a great interview of Bob Roberts by the people with Out of Ur. The interview is titled "We Aren't About Weekends." Northwood Church, where Roberts pastors, has made some intentional decisions on what they are and, more importantly, what they aren't, going to be about.

Fighter Verses

This is the entire list of Fighter Verses. The Fighter Verses System was developed by John Piper. It's a great tool for memorizing Scripture.

Beginning a Conversation about Christ

This is Resurgence post by Ed Stetzer on evangelism.

Biblical Eldership

This is a post by Alexander Strauch on eldership. (I don't know if this is an excerpt from his book or not),

Leadership thoughts from Mark Batterson

Excerpts

I feel like my primary job as lead pastor of National Community Church is to make sure we keep playing offense. We need to keep learning, keep growing, keep experimenting, and keep making mistakes.

At some point most leaders start doing ministry out of memory and stop doing ministry out of imagination. They start repeating the past and stop creating the future. And most churches stop taking the risks that got them to where they are. They start playing defense.

Interview with Phyllis Tickle

Out of Ur interviews Phyllis Tickle on the future of the emerging church.

What are we going to be about?

This post comes from a missional community in Florida. I've been deeply influenced by what they've written (primarily this post). There's some good language here.

Mark Driscoll on Preaching

10 Tips for Preaching and Teaching

Seven Guiding Principles on Church Structure

This post is from Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in D.C.

Rodney Stark Interview

Alan Hirsch interviews Rodney Stark

Michael Frost: Unless a Seed Falls

Here is the audio from a conference taught by Michael Frost (co-author of The Shaping of Things to Come).

Small Missional Community or Mega Church - which is harder?

I came across this David Fitch post on why starting a missional community from scratch is more difficult than starting a "potential" mega church when you have a large core to begin with.

Why I started this blog

I find that most of my posts on my other blogs end up being links to articles that have provoked my thinking. Some of those might be useful to others, some are pretty much just for me. Therefore...I decided to start this blog so that I can post links to my heart's delight.