Impact
Is anyone going to Impact in Findlay (July 23-26)? Bill mentioned 'emerging church discussions'... I haven't noticed this on any of the literature I have (though I haven't looked real hard). Are these formal discussions, or were you referring to something more informal?
I plan to be there for most of Impact. I'm certainly game for getting together with others who read/comment here (whether it's formally or informally). How about you?
posted by dan at 8:48 AM
7 Comments:
Bill and I are leading a breakout, which will meet for four one hour sessions. The reason it may not be advertised well is my slowness in telling Lance what we want to do.
Here is what I sent to Bill and to Lance.
Here's my temptation. There are six tough questions for the church in The Present Future. We might even call the breakout "Six Tough Questions for the Church." Clever, huh? This steps us away from categorizing our Christianity as a type of Christianity without saying "We're right, you're wrong." It creates a conversation.
We present a handout each session with the six questions and some quotes from the book. We have the group look over the handout and ask them which question they would like to focus on. We will try and not repeat any topic, but will if no one in the group besides us is repeating it.
Following are the questions and quotes from the book are bulleted. We don't have to go this way. Just a thought. I've been convinced for a while that we should have been mining this particular book like miners who are about to lose their house.
The six questions are:
1. How do we deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?
New Reality Number One: The Collapse of the Church Culture.
-In North America, the invitation to become a Christian has become largely an invitation to convert to the church.
-Many church leaders confuse the downward statistics on church participation with a loss of spiritual interest in Americans.
-We need to recapture the mission of the church.
-When Jesus came on the scene he entered a world very similar to our own in terms of its spiritual landscape.
-Jesus tapped into this widespread sentiment of disillusionment with religion but hunger for God with his teaching about the Kingdom of God and how people could become a part of it.
-The movement Jesus initiated had power because it had at its core a personal life-transforming experience.
-The appropriate response to the emerging world is a rebooting of the mission, a radical obedience to an ancient command, a loss of self rather than self-preoccupation, concern about service and sacrifice rather than concern about style.
2. How do we transform our Community? (meaning our city, our neighborhoods, etc, not our church)
New Reality Number Two: The Shift from Church Growth to Kingdom Growth
-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.
3. How do we turn Members into Missionaries?
New Reality Number Three: A New Reformation: Releasing God's People
-If you think this isn't hard, think again.
-This reluctance to connect with people outside the church is just further evidence that the church culture in North America is a cultural phenomenon in America that is more about a particular religious culture than about Jesus or his mission.
-God took a beating in the modern world.
-The church in North America is thoroughly modern. It has reduced its understanding of spirituality to numbers that can be reported.
-An honest search for God would lead the church back into the world.
-Adopting a missionary approach will require changing the scorecard.
4. How do we Develop Followers of Jesus?
New Reality Number Four: The Return to Spiritual Formation
-The YMCA staff would never say, "He's a faithful and committed member" and consider it a success if I showed up regularly but didn't exercise. Yet we do this all the time in the church culture.
-The devil knows more Bible than most church members in North America and can sign off on our doctrinal statements, but this knowledge has not transformed him.
-Evangelism that will introduce Jesus to this culture will flow from people who are deeply in love with Jesus.
-Jesus facilitated spiritual formation in his disciples by introducing them to life situations and then helping them debrief their experiences.
5. How do we Prepare for the Future?
New Reality Number Five: The Shift from Planning to Preparation
-Spiritual preparation has the goal of getting God's people in partnership with him in his redemptive mission in the world.
-Vision is discovered, not invented.
-Values are demonstrated by behavior.
-Practicing kingdom values may mean adjusting our church calendar to give people more time to participate in community or workplace ministries.
-Designing the ministry scorecard is going to become increasingly important as congregations move to embrace the future described in this book.
-The future belongs to those who prepare for it, not for those who plan for it.
6. How do we develop Leaders for the Christian Movement?
New Reality Number Six: The Rise of Apostolic Leadership
-The journey to apostolic ministry is a difficult path for many, for some much like a deconversion.
-The goal of a congregation's leadership development process is to create a core of leaders who are capable of strategizing, launching, and conducting a mission for expanding the kingdom of God. Contrast this to holding a leadership role in an organization that primarily makes demands of the leaders' time, money, talents, energy, and prayer for its own survival.
If I got my reservation in on time I will be going to IMPACT. (Is anybody headed West from PA?) If I read it correctly the note about the emerging church is on page 10..."We've brought together a panel of some of our best thinkers to help lead this discussion." I'm going anyway.
Brian, your note wasn't posted when I read the blog. Thanks for the info. It sounds great. I will pack my copy of The Present Future.
Thanks for the page number. I guess I need to do more than just look at the pictures. :)
Thanks also for the info Brian. I'll bring my copy of Present Future too. I agree, I've always thought this book was not talked about near enough.
Sounds good.
So. Any chance we can employ some technology to bring those who can't be there into the loop? Skype? Podcast? Recordings that can be posted?
Of course, that may not be feasible since it seems to be discussion-oriented. All the same, I'd love to hear what was tossed about even if it is sometime after the sessions.
tammie, as far as the distance-connect, a bunch of college buddies and i were meeting weekly to watch sermons and discuss just about everything, and we're continuing this over the summer by skype conference calling. it's not quite the same as being there live, but it works pretty well. if you plan on using skype or something similar for this, let me know, i'd definitely be in on the discussion.
Bill and I are going to begin our Skype experiment tomorrow morning. I doubt we will have it available during IMPACT, but we may find an opportunity to do some LIVE stuff as we develop it.
Post a Comment
<< Home