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Stacy M. Weidmann, a Wiccan High-Priestess of Phoenix Moon in Austin. In an interview, she commented that Austin has a culture of open-mindedness and this is why the city claims a high number of Pagans and Wiccans, not to mention Satanists live and practice thier religion in Austin.
- Read the Probe Center’s article on the nature and presence of occult activity in Austin.
- Pray for the gospel to advance as you trick or treat tonight with neighbors tonight.
- Take advantage of this opportunity to love and serve and hang with non-Christians, praying for the light of the gospel to invade the darkness of their hearts.
I read a great global introduction to ecclesiology in seminary by Fuller prof Veli-Matti Karkkainen called An Introduction to Ecclesiology: Ecumenical, Historical & Global Perspectives. It really opened my eyes to a generous, global ecclesiology, freeing me from narrow Americanized conceptions of church. It’s a great intro in general but the global perspective is hard to beat.
JR Woodward is reviewing this book through a series of posts, so now you can read it through him! I have also picked up a couple other of Karkkainen’s global perspective books on systematic theology, which have been really good, one on Pneumatology and one on Christology. Enjoy!
The introduction and first chapter of Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch’s new book, ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, are now available for download. Some endorsements:
“Frost and Hirsch have done it again. Reading ReJesus provoked, frustrated, and ultimately convicted me of 
my need to live more deeply in the way of Jesus. If you are looking for another book on simply bolstering church as-we-know-it, this is not for you. If you and your church want to be challenged to walk in the Way of Jesus, this book delivers.” —Ed Stetzer, blogger (www.edstetzer.com), author, Planting Missional Churches
“Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost continue to push the church into the future with their latest project, ReJesus. Herein they focus on what every Christian church must focus on—Jesus Christ—and they develop a Christ-centered strategy for missional ecclesiology. This is a timely and relevant book and deserves a wide readership.”
—Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village, doctoral fellow in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, author, The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier
“ReJesus calls to mind Jaroslav Pelikan’s Jesus Through the Centuries and the stubborn fact we can never get outside our own culture(s) to a pure Jesus. That way is not open to those who confess the Incarnate One. In every age Christians are compelled to wrestle with the meaning of Jesus again. Colin Greene’s Christology in Cultural Perspective reminds us of how we must continually wrestle with how to be faithful to Jesus in
our day. Neibuhr’s Christ and Culture shows how we continually shape Jesus out of our cultural imaginations. Yet, in all its eradicable shortcomings, the church is still the location where we’re shaped by the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. We always wrestle with how to re-Jesus because we have no choice. May we do it with humility and a deep love for these clay vessels of history we call the church, for there is no other place in which Jesus is made present. This book is a contribution to that wrestling; like all such wrestling it is itself enmeshed in culture. I trust it encourages others to wrestle that we might all be more faithful followers of Jesus.”
—Al Roxburgh, Vice President, Allelon Canada, co-author, The Missional Leader
HT: FE
Read about the new version of the Bible called The Book here.
The following stats on church in American are culled from The American Church Research Project, which is endorsed by the Lausanne Movement and led by David T. Olson.
- According to George Barna, 47% of American adults attended church on a typical weekend in 2005. This is not accurate. Only 17% of the US population attended an orthodox Christian church in 2007. Nine percent of that is evangelical church attendance. The rest is Roman Catholic and Mainline attendance. Of course, church attendance does not account for all believers, but these figures are staggering nonetheless.
- While the US population has increased, church attendance has remained the same, resulting in a net loss of church attendees. Numbers from actual counts of people in orthodox Christian churches show that 20.4% of the population attended church on any given weekend in 1990. That percentage dropped to 18.7% in 2000, and to 17.0% in 2007.
- Evangelical church growth slowed down significantly in the last year – from an average growth throughout this decade of 0.8%, to a gain of only 0.3% in the last year.
- More Catholics and Mainliner are switching to Evangelical churches than vice versa, meaning that Evangelical growth through the conversion of the unchurched is limited.
- The church plant rate declined until 1937, then grew until it had doubled by 1957. Then it entered a period of steep decline from 1957-1970, reaching the lowest point in history. Since then it has increased marginally. Many, many more churches need to be planted in the U.S, just to keep up with population growth. These statistics also show that the strongest ratio of church attendance is in the South. Two thousand five hundred additional new churches are needed per year to keep up with population growth.
For more info go to www.theamericanchurch.org or download this presentation.
I sat down with Nate Navarro (a minister at ACL) this morning to discuss how we can improve the health of our City Groups (what we call missional communities). We focused on the three main areas of City Groups–Gospel, Community, and Misson. Most of the time was spent discussing Community. Here are a few things we came up with:
- Share your community building stories with others, leaders and other Christians.
- Cast vision for steady state community every week. Rehearse the four practices of City Groups every time: SHARE life and truth, PRAY for one another and the city, ENGAGE peoples and cultures, LOVE one another. Deconstruct notions of the CG being a Bible Study or Community group.
- Encourage families to serve as a kind of community anchor. Singles and young adults gravitate to families because they are more flexible in schedule and lack that family influence. Key families in City Groups can cultivate more community by having an open door, open dinner policy.
- Leader availability makes all the difference in promoting steady state community. If the leader is inaccessible during the week and weekend, it will inhibit steady state community. If he/she are available and having people over all the time, it makes a big difference.
- Create space for social connectivity apart from the weekly CG meeting and mission. Meeting for two or three hours a week is not Christian community. We have to be creative and committed to loving, serving, and enjoying one another throughout the week. Throw parties and invite neighbors.
Take away quote from Nate: “Our people are two beer people. Solid.”
Some things to keep in mind as you begin planting, especially if you are bivocational:
- Continually ask the Spirit to help you adorn the gospel of Christ in the workplace and the church. What happens at work doesn’t stay at work. The whole gospel should affect the whole of your life. Work should be mission. Labor to close the gap between the sacred and the secular. Make notes of pastoral insights on how to bring the whole gospel into the workplace.
- Continually ask the Spirit to give you great discernment in where to focus your precious time. There will be a ton of things you can do in the early stages of church planting. You shouldn’t do all of it. Make lists and prioritize. Separate the immediate from the distant. A detailed five-year plan for the church shouldn’t be at the top. It will all change in the first year anyway!
- Do not compromise your own communion with God for the “growth” of the church. Don’t rely on the fumes of gospel ministry to minister the gospel. Rather, continually delight yourself in the God of the gospel in order to proclaim and incarnate the gospel of God.
- Do not compromise your family life (devotions, hang time, dates) in order plant the church. If managing your own household is a qualification to be a pastor (1 Tim 3), your marriage to be a public display of the gospel (Eph 5), and your children eternal souls, then don’t diminish the gospel by neglecting your family for email, blogs, books, meetings, and so on.
- Don’t try to plant a church of 250 or whatever number suits your fancy. Too many guys think they need a #2 by the time they get 25 people because they are trying to be a church of 200. Because they are visionaries, they want to bring the future into the present. Not everything in the future needs to be in the present. As an early stage planter, you have the privilege of focusing on things on a small scale. Focus on the essentials of Gospel, Community, and Mission. Be simple, faithful.
- Allow bivocational tension to press you into deeper prayer, not overworking. In the sovereignty of God you are where you are. More than anything he wants the challenges of planting to press you deeper into communion with him and intercession for the church and the city. Don’t replace prayer with overworking.
- Fundraise like a madman if you haven’t. You can relieve the financial stress by fundraising. Target non-profits and private donors. Be able to articulate your vision in 60 seconds. Have several ways of explaining your vision for several different audiences (buisnessman, potential core team member, unbeliever). Darrin Patrick raised 200,000 before planting The Journey. Fundraise in community. Get your core team to do artwork on a brochure, stuff envelopes, mail to their contacts. Multiply your potential donors by spreading the love.
Missing in America with Tom Clegg. It’s more than a seminar. It’s a process for the seeding of a missional movement. Book the start of your process today!
FREE NCD Resource! Click on the link to download a free Loving Relationships packet for Natural Church Development. It is just a taste of the many resources we have to assist you and your church for your journey down the NCD path. For help determining the next step of your NCD journey, be sure to read Jeannette Slater’s article Filling the Gaps with NCD.
Missional Coaching. Interested in a different kind of coaching, one that will help you achieve the missional goals you have for your church and community? We have a team of coaches ready to walk alongside you in your journey.
A reflection on the infamous stuffwhitepeoplelike.com here.
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