Propaganda on the Future of the Church

http://youtu.be/KhXSDFvJegg

What Do We Need to Do to Effectively Engage Millennials with the Gospel of Jesus?

"In last year's Annual Church Profile, 60 percent of the more than 46,000 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) reported no youth baptisms (ages 12 to 17) in 2012, and 80 percent reported only one or zero baptisms among young adults (ages 18 to 29). One in four Southern Baptist churches reported zero baptisms overall in 2012, while the "only consistently growing" baptism group was children under five years old"  Christianity Today, May 2014.

If you are a Millennial, how would you advise the Church in joining you in being salt and light to your generation?  What do you wish the church would change  about itself to help you reach your peers?  What do you like about what your community of faith is proclaiming and demonstrating of the Good News of JESUS to your friends?  How would you advise an older group of people, far removed from your generation, to re-think or re-imagine how to be the church?

A Sampling of the State of the U.S. Church

"The National Congregations Study‘s latest look at the country’s churches, synagogues and mosques — the third wave of studies that began in 1998 —  finds more congregations:

Open their doors to gays and lesbians in active membership and in leadership.

Show racial and ethnic diversity in the pews.

Encourage hand-waving, amen-shouting, and dancing-in-the-aisles during worship.

Disconnect from denominational ties doctrines and rules that might slow or block change."

Read the full article here:
Changing Church

Theology of Place

Encouraging read in the Wall Street Journal on the walkable church and theology of place.

How Will They Hear....in the Pearl District and in the North Pearl?

Housing is booming in a North Portland neighborhood called the Pearl, specifically the North Pearl. The North Pearl lies just beyond Lovejoy Street.

Currently, there are 6 multi family projects totaling more than 1300 units being developed. This will bring an additional 2,000 people to the central city. We as Northwest Baptist and the North American Mission Board have no churches in this high density neighborhood. What an incredible opportunity for those not faint of heart!

The Barry Apartment Report estimates 10,000 to 14,000 new apartment units in the Portland metro area this year and next--half of them in Multnomah County. How will we go and make new disciples among these urban hipsters?

Who will go and join God in His work in the North Pearl? What team of disciples willing to push into the darkness and make disciples will go? What partners will stand in the gap to pray, support, and serve this band of brothers and sisters in order to see God's church expand to these neighborhoods?

Want to read more? Find the Portland Tribune article here:

http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/213588-71976-housing-projects-popping-up-in-pearl

Posted with Blogsy

Who is My Neighbor?

Jesus said, "LOVE your neighbor as you love yourself."

He doesn't give us a list of prohibitive actions which void this command (i.e. If we "catch" our neighbor in non-Christlike behavior, this command is void).  He says love them.  Serve them.  He says, "let your light shine before them in such a way they see your good work and glorify ME in heaven."

Jesus loved societies unlovable.  Jesus affiliated with sexual deviants, lepers, thieves, the marginalized, the outcast, etc., etc. (and, such were some of you the Bible reminds us).

Jesus would even go out of his way (travel through Samaria a place and people hated by his brothers) to love his neighbor.  Actually, he left heaven to come and live among ALL of us.  He became our neighbor.  He loved us.  He made a way for us to be reconciled and restored to the Father.

If we rationalize who we can love and who we can't love, we become just like the Pharisees in the N.T. And, when I read about them, it saddens me.

So church, who is your neighbor?  It is probably the person who lives next door or across the street. How do we need to act more neighborly in these days?

Doing this is not about YOU

We need to stop making church or church planting about us (you).What you will do. What you will accomplish. Find a better WHY.Jesus has/is a better WHY. #kingdomofGod

On Earth as it is in Heaven

"Today, 90 percent of churches are 90 percent racially homogenous. How do we reconcile?

Read more at http://www.relevantmagazine.com/current/church%E2%80%99s-race-problem#lLRDR1l13TfE8wof.99 "

Praying for more new churches in Portland which will embrace the opportunity to be multi-cultural/multi-racial on EARTH as it is in HEAVEN.

“You are welcome here. All of you is welcome.”

I recently stumbled upon a post via twitter: 7 Things I Wish the Church Knew About Me.

The letter is from Meghan and it reads as follows:

Dear Church,It’s coming up on one year since I left you.I grew up with you. I memorized all the Bible verses and had all the “right answers” ingrained in me before I had time to ask the questions myself. I learned to speak your language very well.
I remember the guilt I would feel if I missed a few days of devotions; those few minutes before bed I would set aside to read a Bible passage out of context and force a prayer.
Today, evangelical culture is steeped with buzz words and behaviors that trigger memories for me, bringing back feelings of shame and inadequacy.
This is why I walking through your doors on Sunday fills me with anxiety and fear.
But every few months I get the courage to try you again and when I do, this is what I wish you knew about me:
1. I love Jesus.I may have stepped away from regular church attendance for a season but I haven’t stepped away from Him. Can you see me as part of the Body, rather than seeing me as lost?
2. I still worship.It happens on the ski trails, by the riverbanks, in the mountains, and through acts of service to my friends and community. When I hear you asking me to “come worship” with you on Sunday, it tells me you assume that because I don’t attend regularly, I don’t worship.
3. I don’t need your pity.I know how I must look, walking in with my big sunglasses, skulking into the back row, keeping my head down and leaving my phone in my hand. Do you know that on the other end of that phone is a community of people that have become my safety net? I need to know they are there – just a tweet or a message away.
When I enter your sanctuary sometimes I just want to worship. I gaze up at the cross, the tapestries, and the stained glass images. Do I seem sad or hard-hearted? This is me worshipping. Don’t assume just because you don’t see me every Sunday that I don’t know your God.
4. I need you to respect my boundaries.It all seems to come with the territory of attending a church on Sunday morning. The forced fellowship, the signing up for groups or activities, or inviting me to weekday events. I wish you could just allow me to tiptoe into your midst. To observe, contemplate, and make an informed decision before I call you “home”.
Just let me be here. Just let me worship. And please, don’t make me “turn to the person beside me and share _____.”
5. I don’t want to be your project.I lived in the evangelical world long enough to know about the group prayer meetings, the missionary’s newsletter that names individuals they have been “working with” and reveals their stories for all to hear. I know too much about this world to not be skeptical when someone suddenly makes me their best friend.
I can’t help but wonder… who are you telling about me? are my words safe with you? do you even like me?
6. I have questions, and that’s okay.I live with questions, and I’ve settled in comfortably (or uncomfortably?) amongst them.
They will always be part of my journey, and they don’t change my faithfulness to Jesus. I won’t ignore them, and I won’t try to satisfy them with surface answers. I will continue to seek the truth without fear.
I’ve come to realize we don’t need to shelter God from our questions. He is big enough to handle them, and He can even help us keep our heads high as we ask them.
I need you to be okay with my questions too. Even more, I need you to be okay with not giving me an answer.
7. I crave authentic community.Despite what my Sunday morning posturing might tell you, my heart longs for community.
I crave the kind of community that is born out of a collection of broken but redeemed people, being honest and real with one another, basking in grace and floundering around through life together.
This isn’t built after one Sunday. Can you allow me to enter into this naturally and when I am ready for it?
I can’t speak for all of us who have left, but for me the most poignant words of encouragement you could give me on a Sunday morning as I enter your doors is, “You are welcome here. All of you is welcome.”
I know you want to make me feel welcome and I believe much of what you do is of love. Can you remember that when I come to you I come with questions, baggage, memories, burns, and scars – many of which have been caused by your people?
All of this is wrapped up in my humanity and I can’t leave it behind – not even on Sunday morning.

- See more at: http://redemptionpictures.com/2014/02/12/what-i-wish-church-knew/#sthash.sQ4CkBEc.dpuf

Those words: YOU...ARE....WELCOME......HERE......

The streets and neighborhoods of the NW, especially Portland, are inhabited by a lot of "Meghans."

If you are coming to make disciples here which will become a new church, be ready to encounter "Meghan."  Consider how you will welcome them.

WANTED: Amateurs willing to be More than a Carpenter

Let me confess, I don't like the word BI-VOCATIONAL. The Latin word, vocatio, means to summons, or to call. In ministry, it is equated to "a divine call to the religious life." This immediately creates a division between the professional clergy and the amateur disciple.

I like to frame the word differently because of my biblical understanding of the Trinity and the call given to those of us who are disciples of the way of Jesus. The Father is a sending God who sends the Son who sends the Spirit who sends us. We are summoned to live into this divine call as the priesthood of believers. ALL of Jesus disciples are summoned into the vocation of being SENT ONES. This is our vocation.

However, each of us will have a different OCCUPATION(s).  Occupation is defined as the work in which a person is employed (pays the bills). So, consider Jesus. His early occupation was a carpenter. But His vocation was to be the SENT ONE. His occupation changed as he entered public ministry but his vocation did not. Paul's occupations were being a tent-maker and an apostle as he lived out his vocation to be a sent one to the Gentiles.

I'm not opposed to people pursuing a ministry occupation. But the church today needs more and more disciples who would consider occupations which would fund them (pay the bills) and allow them to live freely into the vocation given to them by God - to be sent ones!

In Portland, where we have few SBC churches capable of paying an occupational salary to the clergy, we need more and more Disciple-makers willing to find occupations which could pay them to live as a Disciple-maker (follower of Jesus in the church and in the neighborhood). We need more than carpenters. We need carpenters, bloggers, designers, bike builders, baristas, lawyers, entrepreneurs, etc. who will also occupationally be pastors, teachers, shepherds, and evangelist.

Let's call this new breed of SENT ONES - amateurs. This word is defined as one engaging in an activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefits or professional reasons. We need more disciples of Jesus living as AMATEURS.  And, in using this word we are assuming, amateurs are just as capable, just as equipped, just as trained, just as qualified as a "professional," occupational, clergy; they just choose to engage their vocational calling with several different occupations.

This will require us to reframe our expectations. It will mean less "super pastors" to more shared ministry and shared leadership structures in the gathered/scattered church. It will create more ownership. It will require more teamwork and more teams fulfilling the five-fold ministry found in the letter to the Ephesians. This can't be done in isolation. It will require a more wholistic framework of understanding ALL of life should be lived as sent ones.

For those of you currently serving as AMETEURS, THANK YOU!  Keep up the good work and stay encouraged.

WANTED: AMATEURS willing to be more than a carpenter!

Posted with Blogsy

So what you’re saying is we need hipper worship bands?”

Why are millennials leaving the church?

By Rachel Held Evans, Special to CNN

(CNN) – At 32, I barely qualify as a millennial.

I wrote my first essay with a pen and paper, but by the time I graduated from college, I owned a cell phone and used Google as a verb.

I still remember the home phone numbers of my old high school friends, but don’t ask me to recite my husband’s without checking my contacts first.

I own mix tapes that include selections from Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but I’ve never planned a trip without Travelocity.

Despite having one foot in Generation X, I tend to identify most strongly with the attitudes and the ethos of the millennial generation, and because of this, I’m often asked to speak to my fellow evangelical leaders about why millennials are leaving the church.

Armed with the latest surveys, along with personal testimonies from friends and readers, I explain how young adults perceive evangelical Christianity to be too political, too exclusive, old-fashioned, unconcerned with social justice and hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

I point to research that shows young evangelicals often feel they have to choose between their intellectual integrity and their faith, between science and Christianity, between compassion and holiness.

I talk about how the evangelical obsession with sex can make Christian living seem like little more than sticking to a list of rules, and how millennials long for faith communities in which they are safe asking tough questions and wrestling with doubt.

Invariably, after I’ve finished my presentation and opened the floor to questions, a pastor raises his hand and says, “So what you’re saying is we need hipper worship bands. …”

And I proceed to bang my head against the podium.

Time and again, the assumption among Christian leaders, and evangelical leaders in particular, is that the key to drawing twenty-somethings back to church is simply to make a few style updates – edgier music, more casual services, a coffee shop in the fellowship hall, a pastor who wears skinny jeans, an updated Web site that includes online giving.

But here’s the thing: Having been advertised to our whole lives, we millennials have highly sensitive BS meters, and we’re not easily impressed with consumerism or performances.

In fact, I would argue that church-as-performance is just one more thing driving us away from the church, and evangelicalism in particular.

Many of us, myself included, are finding ourselves increasingly drawn to high church traditions – Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, the Episcopal Church, etc. –precisely because the ancient forms of liturgy seem so unpretentious, so unconcerned with being “cool,” and we find that refreshingly authentic.

What millennials really want from the church is not a change in style but a change in substance.

We want an end to the culture wars. We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against.

We want to ask questions that don’t have predetermined answers.

We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation.

We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in our faith communities.

We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers.

You can’t hand us a latte and then go about business as usual and expect us to stick around. We’re not leaving the church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because we don’t find Jesus there.

Like every generation before ours and every generation after, deep down, we long for Jesus.

Now these trends are obviously true not only for millennials but also for many folks from other generations. Whenever I write about this topic, I hear from forty-somethings and grandmothers, Generation Xers and retirees, who send me messages in all caps that read “ME TOO!” So I don’t want to portray the divide as wider than it is.

But I would encourage church leaders eager to win millennials back to sit down and really talk with them about what they’re looking for and what they would like to contribute to a faith community.

Their answers might surprise you.

Rachel Held Evans is the author of "Evolving in Monkey Town" and "A Year of Biblical Womanhood." She blogs at rachelheldevans.com. The views expressed in this column belong to Rachel Held Evans.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/27/why-millennials-are-leaving-the-church/

Posted with Blogsy

Listening to Others

“Most people never listen.” Hemingway

Found this excellent post from LEADERSHIP FREAK, "The Power of Second Questions". The following are snippets I gleaned from his post. At the end of this post, you'll find a link to the original article. Here are a few brief observations he makes:

1. Questions are gifts. Asking, followed by listening, says others matter; telling says you matter.
2. Eager to talk is reluctant to ask.
3. Don't let the lack of CURIOSITY keep you from discovery.
4. Pretend you don't have the answer so you can find another answer through questions.
5. Learn how to ask powerful questions.
6. If you want to change results, change questions.
7. First questions can be powerful, BUT second questions help you explore what really matters.
8. Exceptional leaders ask second questions.
9. If you are being ASKED the question, always clarify the question (invites the questioner to clarify himself/herself)
10. Answer questions with questions, before giving answers (Jesus was really good at this).
11. Some questions are better than others.

The best practice you can make as a church planter, disciple, and missionary is to discover curiosity through asking questions. Ask questions to discover a place, a context, a people and the rhythms. Ask questions to people and learn their story. But don't just ask the first question, learn to ask the SECOND question.

Read more here: http://leadershipfreak.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/the-power-of-second-questions/

 

Posted with Blogsy

Build a Better Brick Wall

How do you build a better brick wall? Simply, one-brick-at-a-time!

It is easy in ministry to focus on the outcome, the brick wall in this case, instead of, the individual brick(s). You want walls. You don't necessarily want to place bricks and position bricks to form a wall. For example, "I will plant a church." This is the brick wall. Nothing wrong with this. But, be careful in what you are building. You can build a brick wall, but if you don't give attention to the individual bricks to form the wall you may wind up with a wall you never intended. Be careful what type of wall you are building.

The outcome focuses you, but the bricks point to the steps it took you to get there. You need to be more careful in focusing your efforts on placing the bricks (making disciples who make disciples). In working towards building the wall, i.e. planting the church, focus on the simple steps-the individual bricks-you will need to carefully build a better wall.

So, what will it take today to place the brick? What will you need to do today to build a better new church? What are the bricks you will need to place to see new believers come into the Kingdom? Perhaps, the first brick is seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Perhaps, another brick is praying to the Lord of the Harvest for harvest hands in His fields ripe unto harvest. Maybe another brick is walking across the street to introduce yourself to the neighbors? Brick-by-brick a new wall is formed - a better brick wall.

Measure your success in the individual bricks. Set realistic goals in placing the bricks. Keep your focus on the brick and the wall will come together.

So, plant a church- build a brick wall. But please, take time to put the right brick, in the right place, with the right effort and with the the right attitude to get the brick wall God really intended for us to build.

You want to see new churches birthed. Make sure we are making new disciples who will become the church.

What are the individual bricks Jesus is leading you to place to start a new church? Write them down and focus on those individual bricks. Measure your success here.

 

Posted with Blogsy

A Parable for the Church:: Second Fiddle

Recently, I found this parable of the church from the blog:  http://bowdenblog.wordpress.com/  You can go to the webiste to read the post here:  2nd-fiddle (I've posted it below for quick reference).

Take a moment to read the post/parable from Andy Bowden on the church.  What are your thoughts or comments?

Once upon a time there was a Grand Musician who loved music. He decided to assemble a group of unlikely characters together, give them each an instrument, and let them together learn to make music. So they met regularly, helping one another keep their instruments in tune, and learning to play as they together made music. Every week they met, each bringing his own particular instrument: trumpets, bugles, drums, pianos, clarinets, oboes, french horns, flutes, guitars, violins, and many others.

After making such wonderful music together, they would leave, still humming the tunes, and letting the music spill over into each day of the week.

Eventually, the fiddle became the most valued instrument of the assembly. The band continued assembling, but forgot that they were there to make music. They became confused and thought they gathered to hear the violinist perform. Oh, what beautiful solos the fiddler gave, playing classics, writing new pieces, arranging medlies. The other musicians, in fact, forgot that they themselves were musicians. Their various instruments went unused, gathered dust, and became idle.

They developed a fine appreciation for the fiddle. After hearing his performance weekly, they would discuss his strengths and weaknesses. They knew of the emotion and passion possessed by a good fiddler. Fiddlers appeared in many places. The really good ones were listened to worldwide, and filmed and traveled and wrote books. Whole theories and styles and methods were developed for the fiddle. Fiddlers became so good and professional, that now the rest of the musicians were forgotten. The thought of not hearing weekly fiddle solos was unthinkable. How could corporate participation compare to the beauty and grace heard by the one? Surely, if all the musicians were involved, the weaker, less trained instrumentalists would detract from what they were so accustomed to in the fiddler.
And so, the fiddling continued. Deep down in the heart of each observer, however, was a longing to make music. They could not quite describe this desire, implanted in them by the Grand Musician, to contribute a piece to the melody.

The forgotten musicians reacted in different ways. Some actually liked being able to watch the fiddler. Watching took the pressure off themselves. They could sit back and enjoy the simplicity; no expectations, no responsibility, no challenge to their own skill.

Other musicians could not shake the longing in their souls to make music. And this led to a very surprising turn of events. They knew that the only music people tolerated was the sound of the fiddle. Wanting to contribute to the music because of the Grand Musician, they did what it was only possible for them to do. They picked up the fiddle, a foreign, awkward instrument, thereby receiving their passport to participation, their license to make music. And so a great number of the oboe players, the guitarists, the pianists, the trumpeters, the banjoers, became fiddlers. Their own instruments remained at home, forgotten in the dusty corners of their closets. And they managed to learn the fiddle alright. In fact, many could really learn to play quite nice.

So fiddlers appeared everywhere. In the South (where people appreciated a good fiddle more than other parts of the country) there was an overabundance of fiddlers. Fiddlers played on every street corner. Fiddlers played for great crowds and small crowds. Fiddlers played most days of the week. When the fiddlers weren't fiddling, they wrote about fiddling, tuned their fiddles, and drew pictures of them. Most music halls employed several fiddlers. There was the main fiddler, and then the second fiddler, and the third fiddler, and the fiddler who played for teenagers, and the fiddler for children.

(This conclusion will be a very loose paraphrase/analagy of 1 Cor 12-14).
But the solution to their musical inklings was not to be found in becoming a guild of fiddlers. The solution was found in the Grand Musician's original instructions for the band.

And here is what He said:
Now, about the band, I don't want you to be ignorant;
To each one an instrument is given for the common good,
To one the banjo,
To one the organ,
To one the piano,
To one the guitar,
To one the flute,
and to one the fiddle.

All of these originate from the one Grand Musician, who gives to each the instrument according to His own plan.

So you are a band, made up of many instruments, and though the instruments are many, they form one band.

Now, the band is not made up of one instrument, but many. If everyone were a fiddler, where would the music be? The piano can't say to the oboe, "I don't need you." The guitar can't say to the harmonica, "You don't belong!" And if the clarinet should say, "Because I'm not a fiddle, I don't belong to the band," it would not for that reason cease to be a part.
But in fact, the Grand Musician has arranged the members of the band, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the music be? As it is, there are many instruments, but one band. Those instruments that seem to be weaker are indespensible. The Grand Musician has combined the instruments of the band and given greater honor to them that lacked it, so that there should be no division and so that each musician should have equal concern for each other (not only the fiddler). If one instrumentalist is out of pitch, every part suffers. If one musician dominates the band, every part suffers.

Now, you are the Musician's very own band, and each of you is a part of it! If you really want to excell as musicians, play in a way that is loving. Therefore, play in a way that is loving, play in a way that is encouraging, play in a way that is participatory, and by all means, include the fiddle (1 Cor. 14:40)!

Free e-book::Be the Church - Discipleship and Mission Made Simple

Because the weekends are about experiencing the FREE gift of God's grace through a SABBATH rest, here is a link to a FREE e-booK::

be-the-church-discipleship and mission-made-simple

Nextdoor.com - What if we saw our Neighborhood as our Parish?

If you serve a missionary God, by default, YOU are a missionary. He (God the Father) sends Jesus (God the Son) who in turn sends us and promises us a Helper (God the Spirit). We are to be his ambassadors. We are to be His missionary people. This is what followers of God do. If disciples love Him -Jesus- they (disciples) do what He says.

Where do missionaries in obedience begin to think and act like missionaries? In the places they are planted and rooted- in the NEIGHBORHOOD! Next-door-neighbors, across-the-street-neighbors, out-the-back-door neighbors are the context for missionaries to live for Jesus and invite neighbors into the Kingdom of God.

It is time for disciples who are God's missionary people to see the neighborhood where they live as their parish. This is the place we GO to and then STAY. We go to a church service to celebrate what God is doing in the neighborhood. We don't go to a church building to go on mission. We go to the person next door to be on mission.

Watch this video from nextdoor.com to consider how you might become the neighbor next door to create community, participate in community, be a blessing and tangibly express the Kingdom of God.

http://vimeo.com/59427424

Come back and tell your stories.

 

Posted with Blogsy

A Portland Plan NEEDS Portland PLANTS (New Churches in the Neighborhood)

Portland recently adopted a plan for the future.  It is called the Portland Plan.

Portland is a city with a future.  The future requires us to take action now.  Will you join us in seeing new churches started in one of the many 20-minute communities throughout Portland?  Portlanders are seeking EQUITY and OPPORTUNITY for their youth, for their neighborhoods,  and for their economy.  

Equity and opportunity will come, but it should not come in a vacuum of churchless neighborhoods.  We need followers of Christ to root themselves--plant themselves--in a community for the welfare of the community. 

Come PLANT with us!  Come PARTNER with us!

Explore the TABS above on this web page and learn how you, your church, your network can help shape the future.

Read This Book Pastor

Pastors, says Rohrer, "don't primarily exist to build and maintain the institution of the church. We exist to do a particular work through the church. In short, we don't simply have an institution to create, refine or maintain; we have a gospel to preach

Rrad more here.....
Eugene Peterson says, "Pastors, read this book": http://t.co/RiXFHOm8 church churchplanting

(Sent via Seesmic http://www.seesmic.com)

Most Americans want a Walkable Neighborhood, not a Big.....

MOST Americans Want a Walkable Neighborhood, Not a Big....http://ping.fm/ovMYM Join us in Portland @ www.portlandchurchplanting.org CHURCH. We need advocates, partners and planters. Our 20-minute communities are waiting.

Urban Living Proves Attractive to Young Professionals

Young people love living in an area where there's always something going on. This Millennial attitude is one reason why www.portlandchurchplanting.com is committed to sowing the Gospel in the urban core of Portland.

How could you help reach young professionals in Portland?

#sendNAMB church planter