thechurchblog

If you’re been following the story of Crossroads Church, you’re familiar with our vision to be the church for the portion of our population that has forsaken all things “church.” These are people who would be out of place in a “normal” church — even one as dynamic and open as some truly are. We connect with these people through our relationships at work, school — any place where we have an opportunity to have influence with another person just by “being there.” Ultimately, we seek to build relationships with people that will(hopefully) show them the way to Christ — but that don’t depend upon their accepting or rejecting Christ. Sound confusing? In a nutshell, if our new friends reject Christ, that’s okay — just as long as they don’t reject US in the process. If we’re not rejected, we’ll have another chance to show Christ to them in the future. To prevent the tragedy of losing such a relationship, we need to understand what genuine love and acceptance looks like. A key point in this is realizing that before God wants people to be good, He wants them to be SAVED. After all, good fruit cannot be produced by the old nature. In other words, don’t condemn the actions unless you’re committed to healing the heart. But perhaps most importantly, we’re seeking ways to understand how pure, undefiled love can be promoted in all our relationships — not just those within the Church.
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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!

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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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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Justus writes:
“I’d like to suggest “Great Commission Companies: The Emerging Role of Business in Missions” (InterVarsity Press, 2003) as a book that gives the church several new options in expanding her influence. ”

“This book highlights several different companies and describes their types, including a furniture/handicrafts manufacturing company based in Central Asia, a Real Estate company started by a church to augment their missions financing, and the Pure Vida coffee company.”
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From a recent article in ChristianityToday.com:
“Short-term mission trips to foreign countries are the biggest trend to hit the evangelical Christian outreach scene since vacation Bible school. Between 1 million and 4 million North American Christians reportedly participated in STMs in 2003, and the number keeps rising.”
“Praises and critiques of the trend tend to be proportionately extreme, touting STMs either as miraculous recruiters of long-term missionaries or insidious sowers of third-world dependency.”
“But a new study, to which I contributed the literature review, suggests both sides are off the mark.”

This article uses dollars as the primary measure of missions effectiveness, although there is some mention of the quality of relationships (or lack thereof) resulting from the missions trips. What are your experiences in the world of missions?
Read more – outside link.