Grassroots Healthy Church Podcast - Episode 3
I thought this was the best podcast by far. Is anyone listening to them? If so, give us some feedback.
Issue for Discussion: The Shift From Church Growth to Kingdom Growth
Download: Podcast Episode 3 - The Shift From Church Growth to Kingdom Growth
If you right click on the sermon, then click "Save Target As", you can save the MP3 to your computer.
Quotes from Reggie McNeil's The Present Future:
"There were several things wrong with the church growth movement. A lot of 'growth' was merely the migration of Christians moving from one church to another. The most notable trend was the closing down of the mom-and-pop operations and moving to the mall and, even later, to the supercenter. … With rare exception the 'growth' here was the cannibalization of the smaller membership churches by these emerging superchurches." – p 22
“More energy expended on the church's survival or success is misplaced.”
“Churches that understand the realities of the present future are shifting the target of ministry efforts from church activity to community transformation.”
“The North American church culture is not spiritual enough to reach our culture.”
“The Pharisees' evangelism strategy sounds eerily familiar.”
“Religious people have always been a problem for God.”
“The consumer church sees resources plowed into community transformation as ‘diverted’ from the church.”
“We will see more and more people, in the church and out, who have the call, the ability, and the finances to resource their own ministry passions in the community.”
Guests:
Fran Leeman, pastor of the Lifespring Community Church in Plainfield, IL, a growing suburb of Chicago.
Lance Finley, Director of Youth and Family Ministries for the Churches of God General Conference, a denomination based in Findlay, OH
Bill Sloat, pastor of Faith Community Church, in Denver, PA, a small town in Lancaster country, PA, who also has a doctorate in church history, specifically revivalist history of the 1700’s and 1800's.
And I'm Brian Miller, pastor of The Crossover Church in Mattoon, IL, a town of about 20,000 in East Central Illinois.
Labels: Grass Roots Podcast
posted by Brian at 5:02 PM
3 Comments:
I want to know who belched on episode 2?
Nice!!! It was Bill.
Your critique about the definition “participation with God in the redemption of all things” is an accurate one. The work of Christ is certainly central to the church in participating with God (I would probably use Triune God now…I’m kind of uppity about the way the evangelical church often ignores the Father and the Spirit). I think your question “what is the Gospel?” is relevant here. This is one of the 4 questions I engaged in my course project that I spoke to a couple of you about. While the Scriptures use the word “gospel” a lot, how Jesus uses it is not the four spiritual laws as I was raised to understand. While the Gospel is about Christ (I Cor. 15), as I read the gospels (especially Matthew) it appears that the “good news” is that the Kingdom, via its King (Jesus), has come. Matthew speaks often of the “gospel of the Kingdom” and in Luke where Jesus sends out the seventy (or seventy-two), he instructs them to “Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.’” So as I researched and spoke with Dr. Nissley, I (reluctantly) stopped adding things to my detailed list of what the Gospel is and began to think of it as something like the news that Jesus has come and established his Kingdom for the purpose of redeeming the world and will come again to bring it to completion. Obviously that could be more precise and I’m currently wrestling with the big picture of this idea – trying to focus less on the details (which is hard for me) and look at it as a whole. So…thanks for your insights and I would be happy to hear more of them!
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