Greater Boston Church Planting Collaborative

Barna on the Future of the American Church

2006-12-22T23:20:00.000-05:00

The Future of American Faith

When asked what he saw on the horizon regarding Americans’ faith, [Christian researcher George] Barna described findings from some research currently in process related to the future of faith. He listed three general patterns he expects to gain prominence in the coming years.

Diversity. There will be new forms of spiritual leadership, different expressions of faith, and greater variety in when and where people meet together to be communities of faith. Ecumenism will expand, as the emerging generations pay less attention to doctrine and more attention to relationships and experiences. Barna predicted that there will be a broader network of micro-faith communities built around lifestyle affinities, such as gay communities of faith, marketplace professionals who gather for faith experiences, and so forth.

Bifurcation. Barna expects to see a widening gap between the intensely committed and those who are casually involved in faith matters. The difference will become strikingly evident between those who make faith the core of their life and those who simply attach a religious component on to an already mature lifestyle.

Media. Spiritual content and experiences will be increasingly related to the use of media. New technologies that will gain market share over the coming decade will significantly reshape how people experience and express their faith, and the ways in which they form communities of faith.

Source: The Barna Group, 2006

2006-09-26T08:22:00.000-04:00

Some 23 of us committed to church planting in Boston and Massachusetts assembled last Saturday (Sept. 23) to consider a plan for evangelizing, leading to and resulting in discipling, leading to and resulting in church planting and church growth. We are grateful to Dick Norwood of 3E Partners for his stimulating and practical seminar. Time for discussion and interaction by participants was limited. I wonder if some might want to interact a bit via this blog? The subject is so important, and there is so much we can learn from each other. Perhaps some feel evangelism is not the best word to use, and you have other terminology you prefer. And what have you discovered, in Boston, in Massachusetts, or elsewhere, about sharing Jesus with people?

Greater Boston Church Planting Collaborative

2006-08-26T10:11:00.000-04:00

Greater Boston Church Planting Collaborative

Question: If the "inner church planter" were awakened this year in hundreds of ordinary earnest Christians in Greater Boston, how would that enthusiasm, that extraordinary resource, be effectively put to work in Greater Boston and beyond?

Church Planting Movements on College Campuses?

2006-08-07T23:25:00.000-04:00

...God is doing it in Calilfornia.

Read about it here.

Be blessed this week.

reaching the lost

2006-07-24T11:14:00.000-04:00

Does anyone know of churches/church plants in Boston whose members are primarily previously un-churched people? In other words, are there churches in Boston that are reaching out to and attracting primarily lost people?

If so...

1. Which church/es?
2. How is this happening?

Maybe this will generate some discussion/sharing.

God Bless.

Interesting Article, link

2006-07-17T10:04:00.000-04:00

I found the following article at CMA Resources' Web site. It is authored by Neil Cole, who has seen the planting of over 400 faith communities in SoCal in the last five years. They are using a simple, relational method he calls "organic church" (in fact, he has written a book by the same title). I'd love to hear what you think about this article, especially as it has to do with seeing people come into the Way of Christ in Boston.

Why Organic Church has an Edge on Outreach
By Neil Cole (May 26, 2006)

I was recently asked by a Christian Magazine why Organic Church has an advantage to more conventional church expressions in reaching lost people. Here is my answer.

When we teach about organic church (OC), it is not the kind of church (organic, seeker sensitive, purpose-driven...whatever) that is attractive to lost people, it is Christ, and Christ alone. When we make it about church--what kind of church, what is done at church, how is it done, who is the preacher/singer--we miss the point. Unless we realize that it is Christ in us that makes church anything better than the Kiwanis club we miss the plot. Lost people are not spending their hours trying to figure out how to get to church, or what kind of church they would like. The typical lost person sees only two things that church is good for: marrying and burying, and most are trying to avoid both.

But lost people are curious about Christ (As the Passion of the Christ demonstrated). It is not accidental that the two books that have sold the most recently are both about Jesus Christ--The Purpose-Driven Life and The DaVinci Code. Jesus is on people's minds and in their curiosity. They want to be a part of something that is significant. And, they want to be a part of a close knit family that cares for one another. I believe that our expression of church provides a better opportunity for people to experience those things. Being another spectator on Sunday morning is not enough for most people who have not yet found Christ.

Coming into a living room with a close knit spiritual family where everyone is involved, each praying and singing and sharing their inner lives, is quite amazing for someone who has not learned to trust yet. Then sensing the power of Christ working in and through those people can break any heart. The love we have one for another is a powerful ingredient in evangelism, but sitting in an auditorium listening to a preacher talk about it is not as powerful as being able to actually witness it and experience it first hand. A neighbor nudge for two minutes on Sunday morning is not enough to display God’s power in us.

I have seen toughened street gangsters, weep in the presence of Christ among His people and just pour out confession because of the conviction of Christ. I have seen Palestinian Muslims surrender everything to Christ in the midst of a spiritual family. I have witnessed tough gang assassins surrender to Christ in prayer. Just last week, four fraternity students gave their life to Christ in a meeting at the frat house in front of their peers. Christ in us is powerful, it is the hope of glory. Simply being another anonymous person in a pew is not so powerful, no matter how expressive the music or moving the sermon is.

Of course, another edge that OC has in reaching out is that it is able to go where lost people live life. Rather than being merely another attractional church waiting for lost people to come to it, OC brings Christ to where people are. Church should happen wherever life happens, you shouldn't have to leave life to go to church. That means His church is truly "holy and apostolic" in the fullest meaning of the word...sent by God to the world on a mission.

For me, however, the greatest advantage of OC is that regular Christians are empowered to do the work of the kingdom and are not waiting for the professionals to do it for them. To unleash an army of ordinary Christians empowered with Christ on a sleeping world is my hope and dream. OC can do that. Now, all of us are priests and everything is sacred. To the pure all things are pure. A job at Hewlett-Packard is a holy calling into ministry. All of us are called to ministry. All are ordained. The workplace becomes a sacred calling for the ordinary believer to bring the kingdom of God into a dark place.

Christian leaders are no longer to do the work of the ministry, but to equip the Christians to do the work. Evangelists are not called merely to evangelize, but to equip the saints to do evangelism. Teachers are not only called to teach, but to equip ordinary Christians to learn how to fulfill the great commission and “teach them to observe all that (Christ has) commanded (us).” This is a revolution that will turn church as we know it upside down, and in the process all the passive Christians will be poured out into the world like salt out of a salt shaker. Wow, now that will change the world!

Also, a buddy of mine planting churches in New York City (http://metrosoul.org) has developed a series of teaching/discipleship booklets titled "Revolutionary." Beginning with a renewed Christology that emphasizes Christ's counter-cultural and revolutionary existence on earth, he is writing to Christians and non-Christians alike inviting them into the revolution. Though the series is not quite finished, the first five booklets can be downloaded for free HERE.

God bless.

resources

2006-05-23T00:38:00.000-04:00

Have any resources impacted your ministry in a significant way? This could be books, movies, Web sites, or even conferences. For instance, Neil Cole's Greenhouse Conferences have been seminal in our training and ministry.

God uses many media to teach his children. Let's begin to share our personal experiences with this.

My top three books are (in no particular order): Organic Church (Neil Cole); The Irresistible Revolution (Shane Claiborne); and The Shaping of Things to Come (Frost and Hirsch).

A start

2006-04-03T09:58:00.000-04:00

So I guess I'll start....

Please answer these questions about your church:

In three words, and only three, please describe your church.
Is the church necessary today? why?
What are the top three things your church does best?
What are the top three things your church needs help doing?

Simply as this exercise sounds, it could provoke some thoughts and lay the ground-work for more effective ministry.

Have fun and if you dare-post your answers! Thanks Ralph for the forum. Should be great!

first connecting questions

2006-03-27T10:24:00.000-05:00

Please take a moment to introduce yourself (if you haven't already) in the comments on the post below. Having an idea of who is reading/participating will help shape our future conversations.

Here's our first set of conversation questions: What work of God do you hope to see in Boston? What is the connection between "individual ministries" and the collective working of God and His people throughout Boston? How might connecting mission-minded Christians partner with and further the work of God in metro Boston? How do you envision the GBCPC blog contributing to this end?

Welcome.

2006-03-23T14:33:00.000-05:00

Staying connected as church planters is crucial to seeing the redemptive reign of God permeate the city of Boston. Ralph Kee (from the Emmanuel Gospel Center) asked me, Steve Holt, to set up this blog as a continual "meeting place" for those who are participating with God in His redemptive work in Boston. We hope this blog can serve as a bulletin board, place for dialogue, strategy room, prayer wall, and connector for Christian leaders in and around Boston. What if church planters in Boston were so unified, so cohesive, so prayerful that the collective purpose was to eventually see a vibrant family of Jesus Christ in close reach -- culturally and geographically -- of every person in Boston?

Please leave a comment below introducing yourself and your role in the story of God in Boston.

"The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. Pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest, and ask him to send out more workers for his fields." - Luke 10:2

Leadership in a new church

2005-11-24T18:12:00.000-05:00

At a recent open discussion about church planting, led by Curtis Cook, a participant was interested in having a future conversation about leadership development in the new church plants. Is that a conversation you might be interested in joining? What should be included in such a conversation? (For example, does leadership in a new church in 2005 look different than leadership did in a church, say, in 1990 or 1980?) Can anyone learn how to be a leader in your new church, or do you look for certain profiles? What are you discovering about leadership in an inter-cultural church?