School of Congregational Development 2008

Sheila and I raced up to Cornerstone UMC in Grand Rapids last night so I could teach at the School of Congregational Development this morning. I snapped this picture at the start of the day.

My mandate? They asked that I speak for one hour on Innovation.

The plenary sessions were all simulcast to (or from) Orlando. I gave a shout out to Josh Casto when I learned that he was running sound for the Orlando site. Josh was with us at GCC for years. More recently he's at Full Sail honing his audio-guru skills.

I was in good company. Other plenary speakers included: Minerva Carcano, Ed Jones, Carol Howard Merritt, Brad Kalajainen, Jim Walker and Jorge Acevedo. Rudy Rasmus was there too; he's got a remarkable story.

Among other things, I offered these questions to the pastors.
(I discovered these questions in George Hunter III's, Radical Outreach. For any leader reaching out to serve new people, these are worth considering.)

                                                                                                                

Five Questions
(pivotally important for a congregation considering radical outreach)

1.  Do we want to know them? 
Most of our Christians do not fraternize with really unchurched people.

2.  Are we willing to go where they are?
Most churches avoid their city’s gathering places, where people engage in conversation and look for Life, lest believers be offended, or even tempted.

3.  Are we willing to spend time with them?   
Outreach ministry involves scheduled time, and sweat equity.

4.  Do we want secular and outside-the-establishment people in our churches?   
At least 80% of our churches fail ever to reach out to two groups of people:
(1)  people who are not “refined” enough to feel comfortable in church; people who have never acquired a “church etiquette” need not apply;
(2) people whose lifestyles are too different from ours, or whose lives are too “

5.  Are we willing for our church to become their church too?
A missionary context requires, in at least some services and ministries, that we adapt to the style, the language, the aesthetics and (yes) the music of the people we are called to reach.

                                                                                                                

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 -  "Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!"

       

Comments

[Ken]

Great questions. Thanks for the resource.

[Bob]

We're so proud of our boy Josh!

[Michelle Wegner]

No Way! Carol Howard Merit was a very good friend of mine from Moody! We were roomates on my trip to Uganda!
Too cool!
Michelle Wegner