Continuing Christ's Mission of Making Disciples

Should Your Congregation Consider Starting a New Church Service With a Different Style?

Charles Arn, in his book How to Start a New Service: Your Church CAN Reach New People begins with a chapter on which congregations should, or should not, begin a new church service. By new, he means new-style, with the goal of reaching out to new people to continue Christ’s mission to make disciples. Should your congregation consider starting a new-style service? The following questions help determine the answer:

1. Is your congregation’s highest priority being “like a family”?
2. Is your congregation’s highest priority preserving “correct” doctrine and “correct” interpretation of Scripture?
3. Has your congregation split from a more liberal church or denomination in the past 50-75 years?
4. Is your congregation’s highest priority survival (i.e. with avoiding death than pursuing life)?
5. Does your priest/pastor/leadership team plan to leave in the coming year?
6. Does your congregation seem too small to add another service?
7. Is your congregation’s attendance declining?
8. Is your congregation’s sanctuary less than filled on Sundays?
9. Does your congregation lack the personnel to add a new service?
10. Does your theology or liturgical beliefs not allow for a different style?
11. Is your church in a bad location?

Response: Did you answer yes to question number 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5? If so, starting a new service is probably not the best strategy for your congregation at this time. About 50% of congregations fall into this category.

Did you answer yes to question number 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 or 11? Guess what? These are excuses for not starting a new service, but they are not reasons. If the idea of a new service (despite the excuses) seems like it might have merit, consider purchasing Arn’s book which is widely available (http://www.amazon.com/How-Start-New-Service-Church/dp/0801090377/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9706170-8008855?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175021528&sr=8-1 . )

Additionally, watch this space (or e-mail swatson@episcopalchurch.org ) for the announcement of a new pilot program for small churches interested in making new disciples through a new-style service.

Start Up Start Over

Start Up Start Over, the congregational development seminar in its twentieth year (!!!) is launching a new blog.

While attending the event, community quickly forms among the participants. Participants then return from Start Up Start Over energized to equip their congregations to bring Christ to the post-Christendom world in new ways.

What has been lacking is a way to stay in touch, to share stories, struggles, accomplishments, ideas, etc.

If you have attended Start Up Start Over in the past, please visit www.startupstartover.blogspot.com and share your experience. If you have not yet attended, please feel free to visit and see what others say. It may be a seminar worth your (and your congregation's) consideration.

Growth in ASA vs. Transformation: Lent 3 Reflection

One of my fondest memories as a child is of spending time with my grandmother in San Diego. She was a loving, down-to-earth woman who loved and served God with her whole heart and soul. And it was through her, and the times we spent together, that I began to learn about what it is to be a person who follows Christ.

Her lessons were never overt. Instead, they were taught in subtle and earthy ways. Ways that I could somehow hear, and that took root to sprout later in life. For example, she had a many fruit trees in her back yard. She would save her kitchen scraps, and after meals, we would march out and spread the organic scraps around the base of the trees. She told me that the sandy soil in coastal San Diego made growing fruit trees difficult, but with proper care and extra nutrients it was possible. I remember one day harvesting several ripe figs from her garden, warmed from the sun, and then returning to her porch swing to enjoy our feast. As we enjoyed the figs, she read me the parable from Sunday's (Lent 3) gospel.

A MAN HAD A FIG TREE PLANTED IN HIS VINEYARD. AND HE CAME LOOKING FOR FRUIT ON IT AND FOUND NONE. SO HE SAID TO THE GARDENER, SEE HERE. FOR THREE YEARS I HAVE COME LOOKING FOR FRUIT ON THIS FIG TREE, AND STILL I FIND NONE. CUT IT DOWN!!! WHY SHOULD IT BE WASTING THE SOIL? HE REPLIED, SIR, LET IT ALONE FOR ONE MORE YEAR, UNTIL I DIG AROUND IT AND PUT MANURE ON IT. IF IT BEARS FRUIT NEXT YEAR, WELL AND GOOD; BUT IF NOT, YOU CAN CUT IT DOWN.”

Let me dig around it and nourish it…if it bears fruit next year well and good. If not, you can cut it down…

Today’s gospel raises the question, how can we, as communities who profess to follow Christ, dig around and nourish ourselves so that we bears fruit?

How do you know if your congregation is “baring fruit”? A great deal of my work involves traveling and speaking at provincial and diocesan conferences, both in the US and overseas. I always ask people why they made the choice to take a Saturday and attend. Almost universally the response is “because we want our congregation to grow!” It’s always a set up, because the one characteristic most linked with decline in attendance in a congregation is the desire to grow. Most often, wanting to grow means a congregation is looking a little empty on Sunday mornings, or maybe that the congregation is aging a little bit, or that finances are getting a little tight. Growth, or wanting to grow, is not how we tell if a congregation is baring fruit.

Instead, a congregation is baring fruit when people are being transformed by the love of Christ. This means that with in the congregation member’s lives are being transformed, and that the congregation is reaching out, and transforming their corner of the world and, possibly, beyond…Transformation is the fruit of the congregation in full bloom. A bi-product of transformation is that the congregation that transforms people and wider community usually does grow, but growth in numbers in the congregation, in and of itself, is not the end.

This Sunday I'm attending a new church...here's hoping that as my family and I walk in we find a place as welcoming as my grandmother's porch swing, and discover a community of people happily producing plump figs, warmed by the sun...

S.

Tween Talk

When speaking to gatherings of congregational leaders, one of the most common frustrations voiced is an inability to keep the "young people" engaged in the church.

One of the issues might be the gulf between how different generations profess belief in Christ.

As a mum of teens and tweens myself (four of them!) I am keenly interested in this subject, and frequently challenged by my kids about generational "church-speak."

As an example, I share something written by a teen to profess his belief in Christ to back up an assertion he made about a controversial issue:

"Yes,>> >>as a matter of fact I AM a...>> >>Wideyed Sanctified >> >>blood bought spirit taught>> >>Bible totin' scripture quotin' Satan bashin' sin trashin' Christ>>followin`>> >Pride swallowin hard prayin' truth conveyin' >> >>faith walkin' gospel talkin'>> >>BONAFIDE BIG TIME BELIEVER>> >>And proud of it!!!" (original source not cited in post)

Compare these words with the form of language used in worship to profess faith--words which speak to my soul at a deep and resonating level. I see a huge gulf between the two (although a Lenten discipline of "faith walkin' gospel talkin'" has a rather appealing ring to it--even for this boomer mom!)

So friends, what is the way forward? Is it to try and train up the young in "our" ways so that they understand when they hit the tween and teen years, or is it beginning to reach out, understand, and listen to these meaning-seeking kids and help them to develop and grow in Christ through worship in ways that touch their soul at that deep and resonating level. If it is the latter, are we ready to facilitate that process?