On his blog Jesus Creed Scot McKnight has been asking pastors what advice they’d give a new pastor knowing what they know now.
In today’s post Scot asks my friend Rose Madrid-Swetman that question. Here’s part of Rose’s response
I would focus on “growing a church big rather than growing a big church.” When I first began as a pastor, I was taught to focus on buildings, budgets, and butts in seats. Those three words were, and in many cases still are, the measure for success. Today we (I don’t lead in a vacuum) focus on the other words: conversations, connections, and collaborations.
When one moves down the alphabet from buildings, budgets, and butts to conversations, connections, and collaborations, one counts success differently. Here are a couple of examples: We count how many people we have served rather than how many people attend our Sunday morning gathering (yes, we have one). We count how many people we are developing, encouraging, and partnering with to be practitioners, who are leading personal, local, and global expressions of God’s goodness and justice.
Growing a church big is a great adventure.
05-12-2008 |
3 Comments »Beth sent me this photo as a joke - this is not really how she treats her friend Traci!
Some of you might remember Beth’s post Another Jim and Casperesque adventure.
Beth and Traci are ready to begin visiting women’s ministry meetings. They’ll be writing about their experiences over on our ChurchRater blog. Clicking this link (the Beth and Traci go to Church category) will pull up everything they’ve written about their adventure on the ChurchRater blog.
Check out Beth’s post on ChurchRater yesterday announcing their plans.
Update: Traci just posted Wherein I prepare for Churchification
01-08-2008 |
5 Comments »My new friend Lainie just posted this skit.
Watching it, I started wondering: is this how church feels to some people? I suspect the answer is yes (if we could find people who feel safe being that honest).
11-16-2007 |
2 Comments »I ran across this awesomely thoughtful and honest write-up on Benjamin’s blog this morning: My recent experience at Union church seattle. I hope you’ll read the original; I’ve posted some excerpts with my own thoughts added.
This was why he went:
I really didn’t wanna go today, but I went on the off chance that I could promote off the map live, because I think that it would be really connective and broadening for a lot of the people at union to attend this conference. I think Union is trying to go in some of the same directions as Off the Map, and so forth.
It turned out to be a difficult experience which messed up his whole day. Read the rest of this entry »
10-16-2007 |
33 Comments »Some members of a church called Crosse Point asked the county if the street their church is on could be renamed Crosse Point Way.
A business owner on the same street objected because of the costs he’d incur reprinting all his business cards and informing all his distributors. His business has been there since 1998 whereas the church has been there since 2004. Evidently more than one business objected and so the planning commissioners turned the request down. Next it goes to the Board of Commissioners for a vote.
Overcash, the church’s administrator, said one of Cross Pointe’s jobs is to serve the community. When some of the 1,700 people who attend services asked that the church make application to the county to change the road’s name, church leaders went to fill out the forms, he said.
Don’t the other businesses on the same street, who would be inconvenienced, count as part of the community the church serves? Asking for your street name to be changed to match your organization, without evidently asking your neighbors on that street first: is that “what Jesus would do”?
HT to Josh Brown for this story.
10-11-2007 |
7 Comments »When I glanced at the school announcements last week I was surprised to see this: “Students, just a reminder: do not accept food or candy from strangers. Occasionally people may offer you food or candy and those people may not be who they say they are and the food may be unhealthy for you.”
I understood why when I read this in last week’s local newspaper:
Parent sour on church’s candy give-away
Vineyard’s latest “no strings attached’ effort questionedWhatever happened to telling kids “Don’t take candy from a stranger?”
That’s the question Julian parent Robin Steele asked concerning Vineyard Oak Park’s recent church give-away at her sons’ school May 17.
As part of its gift outreach program, the church chooses various locations in Oak Park throughout the year and congregation members hand out simple free gifts, along with a card containing information about Vineyard. Last summer, they gave out free water during the heat wave. Last December, they handed out scotch tape for wrapping presents in Downtown Oak Park.
Recently, though, they have been outside after school at Percy Julian Middle School, 416 S. Ridgeland Ave., passing out candy to students-or blessings-on Thursdays and at Oak Park and River Forest High School, 201 N. Scoville, on Tuesdays. They also pass out gifts to adults at other locations in Oak Park.
The giveaway includes a business card with the phrase “God Loves You” on one side and “I Love God Candy” on the other.
In a letter in this week’s newspaper the pastoral interns defend what they were doing: Vineyard giveaway is a sweet gesture. Read the rest of this entry »
06-07-2007 |
23 Comments »The discussion in the first half hour of Class #13 was a review of Class #12, The Church. I wondered how much of what the pastor said in this review others Christians would agree with, and how much others might disagree with. My writeup of Class #13, Prayer, should be done within a few days (delayed due to time constraints this week).
Some comments that came up in the review include:
02-01-2007 |
21 Comments »I’d missed two class sessions (ended up having to work late), but made it to this session last week. Here are some thoughts:
1. Sorry, but these classes are getting boring
It’s clear that I am not the intended audience for this class; at this point, it’s directed toward church members and potential church members. It’s become pretty boring, since I don’t share belief in the foundation that’s been laid down. (But I took notes and wrote up my thoughts below anyway. For what it’s worth!)
I confess that I brought a book, The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene, and read a chapter during class, while keeping half an ear on what the pastor was saying. (This is probably a sin.) It turns out, I found a parallel between the class topic and the book (see #8 below) - & it was only a little bit of a stretch!
2. A “first”!
I got to experience the disapproval of a church lady at the start of this class!! My first time ever! Read the rest of this entry »
01-25-2007 |
26 Comments »In comments #22-24 on Class #8: The Holy Spirit, Benjamin Ady shared some interesting thoughts about two recent, rather contrasting, church experiences.
As you read what Benjamin wrote, bear in mind that ‘HHJJ’ stands for Happy Happy Joy Joy. It is (I think) a reference to inappropriate pressure being put on Christians to appear happy all the time regardless of whether that is a true reflection of their current emotional state or not. (Which presumably is based on the belief that’s what Jesus wants)
I had a lovely time at ThursdayPM/Monkfish Abbey. I felt very … safe, and understood, and … familiar. Brilliant. Like the fact that such a time/place exists makes me lean toward believing in god and that she loves me.
On the other hand … I’ve made a committment to do something service oriented every week for these 7 weeks while my family is gone–kind of an attempt on my part to stay out of trouble. So today I went with my excellent friend Walter to help out at the monthly … thing where guys from the church get together and go out and do service for people in the community. Oh–it’s a thing that they do at Calvary Fellowship in Mountlake Terrace.
12-11-2006 |
11 Comments »(Note: this is from our blogs, not the local newspaper; I’m categorizing it with the newspaper dialog since relates to not going to church anymore)
Karen is a regular commenter on here, the eBay atheist blog and the discussion board. Karen used to be an evangelical Christian; now she’s an atheist.
Karen recently wrote about her last day at church (which was a little over a year ago) in a comment on the eBay atheist blog:
11-01-2006 |
24 Comments »