The Future of the Church...
I am a huge fan of Mosaic, in LA. and have had many enjoyable experiences with Erwin McManus, Alex McManus and Eric Bryant, learning from them and dreaming with them, and their hearts and visions and ministries have shaped mine and Katie's heart and ministry very much. Their call for churches to move beyond production to unleashing creativity and moving Christ-followers towards explosive missional growth, ignites my passion. I love listening to what these three leaders are thinking and doing, and recently I read on Alex McManus' blog about the two trajectories of the church in the future.
In his article he exposes the goals of each philosophy of church, the Mega-church and the house church, and writes how the movement of Jesus benefits from both models. It is an extremely interesting reach with huge ramifications for church leaders. As a leader in a "Mega-church" (Point of Grace has over 2000 in weekend attendance) it is important to look at the areas that we are weak and honestly assess them, and try to fix those areas. I think this article is extremely helpful for pastors and leaders in any church, of any size, and the insights from Alex, and his ultimate drive to reach people for Christ, is inspiring and convicting.
As I read this article, I made me smile to think how much life is given to people through home churches, or as we refer to them "small groups", where non-seminary lay leaders are pouring out their lives, hopes, dreams, fears and stories, and God is using them to change the lives of those in their home church. In our student ministry, our "Life groups" are the far and away winner, in terms of life change, enjoyment and transformation, where God moves in a life-on-life context. This is not to say that we should not put must effort into programming and creating environments where people can come and experience God and community, but it is just to emphasize that the power of a life is unmistakable. Billy Calderwood, a great pastor that I have worked with in the past when I lived in Santa Barbara, CA leads a very cool church called Aqueous, which has very cool, experiential and meaningful gatherings, but they have a policy in their church that less than 25% of their time and resources go into their weekend gatherings. I wonder what could happen if the church as a whole got so efficient with our time and resources that we could maintain or even improve the excellence and quality of our worship experiences, and still have 75% of our time left to pour into people and work to connect those that are un-connected from the Body of Christ. Imagine the possibilities... The church could change the world again, like it did in the first century! Anyways, kind of a cool thought...
In his article he exposes the goals of each philosophy of church, the Mega-church and the house church, and writes how the movement of Jesus benefits from both models. It is an extremely interesting reach with huge ramifications for church leaders. As a leader in a "Mega-church" (Point of Grace has over 2000 in weekend attendance) it is important to look at the areas that we are weak and honestly assess them, and try to fix those areas. I think this article is extremely helpful for pastors and leaders in any church, of any size, and the insights from Alex, and his ultimate drive to reach people for Christ, is inspiring and convicting.
As I read this article, I made me smile to think how much life is given to people through home churches, or as we refer to them "small groups", where non-seminary lay leaders are pouring out their lives, hopes, dreams, fears and stories, and God is using them to change the lives of those in their home church. In our student ministry, our "Life groups" are the far and away winner, in terms of life change, enjoyment and transformation, where God moves in a life-on-life context. This is not to say that we should not put must effort into programming and creating environments where people can come and experience God and community, but it is just to emphasize that the power of a life is unmistakable. Billy Calderwood, a great pastor that I have worked with in the past when I lived in Santa Barbara, CA leads a very cool church called Aqueous, which has very cool, experiential and meaningful gatherings, but they have a policy in their church that less than 25% of their time and resources go into their weekend gatherings. I wonder what could happen if the church as a whole got so efficient with our time and resources that we could maintain or even improve the excellence and quality of our worship experiences, and still have 75% of our time left to pour into people and work to connect those that are un-connected from the Body of Christ. Imagine the possibilities... The church could change the world again, like it did in the first century! Anyways, kind of a cool thought...
posted by Kurt and Katie at
5:47 PM
1 Comments:
"Imagine the possibilities... The church could change the world again, like it did in the first century!"
That is why I live
By
Missional Jerry, at 10:12 PM
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