How does your church approach the task of outreach? There's a new entry at the provocatively titled blog Church Marketing Sucks (in quality, not philosophically, they mean) that shares one pastor's methodology: "come and care."
The pastor, who came to the U.S. from Ghana 20 years ago and has worked at a Boston church for 15 years, says that his congregation has grown because of the people who were already coming. Instead of trying to draw in people from the outside, he says he invested his time in getting the people who were already there to care. As the entry sums it up: "The people who care will get people to come which gets more people to care…and the cycle continues."
"Come and care." It's a mindset that, I'm sure, has already been articulated in many different ways in ministry circles. Yet the simplicity of those three words is, as the blogger says, a "breath of fresh air."
If your church is currently wrestling over some outreach program or strategy, it might be helpful to step back from the particulars of the situation and reassess your foundational vision. Can you say it in three words? Is it similar to "come and care"?
Editor's Note: As we assembled our latest resource, Membership in the Congregation, we knew that formal church membership is an ongoing debate. We decided, then, to bring that debate to Off the Agenda. Below is one pastor's take on the issue. If you're interested in writing a response to Thabiti, please email us at BCL@ChristianityToday.com.
There's a new debate among today's Christians. Does the New Testament require, suggest, even hint at local church membership? Are Christians required to belong to a local church, or is it an option? And what does such belonging entail?
The New Testament knows nothing of a creature reborn through faith in Christ, baptized in identification with Christ, communing with Christ at His table, and not a member of a visible, local, identifiable congregation of other born-again baptized believers.
By "membership" I mean the way in which the individual is known to be intentionally committed to every other member of the congregation, and the congregation known to be committed to the individual. On nearly every page of the New Testament, local church membership is assumed.
For example, no one disputes that each Christian is a "member of the body of Christ." We all belong to the spiritual body of our Lord, united to Him inseparably as Head to torso. In that sense, "member" is a peculiarly Christian idea (Rom. 12:3–8; 1 Cor. 12; Eph. 4:11–16)—not an idea lifted from Rotary, golf, or ski clubs. But the Bible shows that this spiritual union gets worked out in local church membership with other flesh-and-blood believers.
Continue reading "Church Membership? Yes"...
It's Friday. How about a parody video? The target—consumeristic attitudes toward church—is an easy one. Yet it's also an easy trap to fall into.
I'll admit to sometimes being like the character in the video whose excitement for church is influenced by who is preaching. Now if my excitement was fueled by a desire to be changed by God's Word, and I thought a certain person had a gift for opening the Word to me more clearly, then great! But it's often just a desire to hear a great speaker speak—a temptation that Paul saw in the Corinthians, leading him to avoid "clever speech" in his preaching (1 Cor. 1:17).
What's an easy trap for you? And thinking as a leader, how do you guard your church from acting like a fast food restaurant?
(Side note: I love to see people debate the divinity of Christ in the comments section of a YouTube video. Always great dialogue there!)
One ongoing challenge for youth workers is bridging the gap between their world and the world of the teenagers they serve. I was pointed to a useful resource for addressing this problem as I was working on our newest training tool, an orientation guide for youth pastors. I interviewed James Grout, a youth pastor with a lot of great insights, and he told me about The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding.
The organization was started by author Walt Mueller, and its website includes regular updates on teen culture trends, written for the benefit of parents, teachers, and youth workers. Grout calls it "an essential tool for youth pastors."
So youth workers, tell us, how do you try to keep up with what's being thrown at your teens (besides stalking them on Facebook)? Is there someone else out there doing what Mueller is doing?
You've heard it a thousand times. Heck, you've probably even preached or taught it: "True Christian faith is a relationship, not a religion." Religion is shown to be stifling, soul-crushing, and destructive.
I used to nod piously at such sentiments, but lately I've begun to wonder whether or not the "R" word really deserves such disdain. Let's take a closer look at this embattled term.
Merriam-Webster offers a succinct definition: "The service and worship of God or the supernatural."
Dictionary.com is more expansive: "A set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs."
Continue reading "Explainer: Religion"...
