thechurchblog

I’m writing this from Milagro’s coffee shop in Cruces — my first try at posting to the Blog from my Palm handheld. Coffee has become an important element of our new church. It gets us going in the morning, it gives us something to do in the evenings when we meet as a leadership team, and it gives me a good reason to get together with people who I’d like to get to know better.
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The new church is starting to gather some momentum — to “get its feet under it,” so to speak. We’re in the process of recruiting and evaluating leadership, both in people and in policy. We are striving to start with the strongest leaders possible. The leaders will define the church’s mission, will defend the church’s mission, and will reproduce to carry the church’s mission to the field. Those who desire to be leaders “desire a noble task” (1 Timothy 3:1). However, there is a test in the end. . .
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We’re having an informational meeting tonight (August 13 at the Best Western Mission Inn) to share the vision for the new church with a large group of people. Of that group of people, I am praying that some will be called to be part of our “core team.” Others will be called to be supportive in service, but waiting for leadership as the Lord continues to refine their lives toward his purposes in the Church. Others will be hosts for the meetings, and still others called to be nothing more than attenders of the new church. I hope that many can come, but I also hope that readers of this blog can also stick around and find out the information they’re seeking!

It seems that more and more churches are embracing the multi-site church model for church growth these days. For those who are new to this, multi-site churches are those who share a common vision, budget, leadership, and board (The Multi-Site Church Revolution, Surratt, Ligon, and Bird, 2006). These can be “video venues” where a pastor preaches one or more “live” sermons on a weekend which is video recorded for other congregations at either the same location or satellite locations around town (or around the state, country, etc.). Multi-site churches can also be daughter congregations with their own teaching pastor who ultimately report up the chain to the senior pastor in the “main church.”
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I mentioned in a previous article that Mesilla Park Community Church (www.getrealchurch.org) is branching out by planting new churches in Las Cruces — and hopefully elsewhere soon. The problem we’re having is that MPCC is working on just the right way to label what we’re doing. How do you go about describing something new in your organization when none of the labels that are “out there” seem to fully or accurately convey what you’re really trying to do?
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Mesilla Park Community Church (MPCC) announced last Sunday (6/11/06) that the church is going to branch out in two areas — church planting and multi-site churches. This is part of MPCC’s vision to double the lives we reach every five years. This will hopefully meet an urgent need in our community — to transform the church from a place where people have to come to church, to a place where the church goes out to people.
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I’ve had a long reading list sitting on the shelf next to by bed for about two months now. I don’t get too many opportunities to get lost in a good book these days — usually just a few minutes before I fall asleep at night. However, I am slowly making it through my list. The first book I grabbed is Don Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality” (Thomas Nelson). It is the first “Christian” book that I have actually read cover-to-cover in about six years.
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The population of Las Cruces, New Mexico is growing at an average rate of around 16% per year. The population of the established churches in Las Cruces is growing at a rate significantly less than that. Most churches in Las Cruces could grow by 20% without severely affecting their operation — they have ample parking, seating, classrooms, etc. But that only accounts for one or two years’ growth in our community, assuming those churches find a way to bring them in at the same rate as the city. What happens then?
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Mark Driscoll, the pastor of Mars Hill and the founder of the Acts29 Network, spent the morning talking about theology. Specifically, he breaks it down to four categories: (1) Christology, or “who is Jesus?”; (2) Ecclesiology, or “how does the Bible strucure our church leaders most effectively?”; (3) Missiology, or “what is Jesus’ mission for our church where we live?”; and (4) Ministry, or “how does Jesus want me to help serve His mission in our culture through our church?”

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This was the title of the first talk of the evening given by Dr. Ed Stetzer. As I mentioned in the last post, Dr. Stetzer is a relatively young guy, but he has a vast experience in the world of church planting, having been involved in it since 1988 (I was still in high-school then).

Missiology is simply the study of missions. The word “missional” is used a lot these days, especially in the context of the Emerging Church. It means, quite simply, to act in and be identified in missions. Just like the word “adversarial” means to act as an advisary. As for church planting, it is a missional endeavor in that church planting is a true venue for people to ask the hard questions about missions.

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