thechurchblog

People are tired. They’re tired of working for unappreciative bosses (supervisors, teachers, pastors, etc.), tired of wasting time on repetitive tasks, tired of having to work a job to make a meager living. People are tired of the way things are — and they wish things could change.

I’ve had the chance to talk to a large number of people as part of the process of planting this new church. Many seem interested in the new church — but often because of the simple fact that they’re tired of their old church. (Lots of them have in fact been through several churches in their past.) They’re tired of “not getting fed,” tired of “too many glitzy programs,” or even tired of “spending so much money on staff and buildings.”

You know what I’m tired of? I’m tired of lost people going to hell.
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As part of the process of starting a new church, the topic of how we intend to raise up leadership always comes up in discussion when we talk with folks about how things have been going. Now, there are the usual “pat answers;” such as, “Our leadership is comprised of elders who are qualified according to what the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1.” While these principles are undoubtedly true, we feel that a few more qualifications need to be true as well.
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I’ve found that this kind of work is full of “ups” and “downs” — and most of the time it is somewhere in the middle. A good friend of mine who is currently living overseas sent this story which clearly illustrates this (albeit from a slightly different cultural perspective). Enjoy! And be encouraged. . .and if you’d like to check out her blog, it can be found here.

There is a trickster character in my country’s folklore named Jhooha. It’s almost like if the guy in the “So a guy walked into a bar…” jokes had a name. There are tons of these jokes / stories. We have read and heard several of them, and the people here think they are hilarious. Sometimes, the humor doesn’t quite translate, but this one was pretty funny.
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My mother sent me an encouraging email forward today. It is a copy of the October 18 message from D. Max Whitfield, Biship of the Northwest Texas and New Mexico Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church. As some of you know, I grew up in the Methodist church and still have a soft place in my heart for those Methodists. Anyway, Biship Whitfield’s message is all about how in the year 1910, the Northwest Texas Conference had 8,900 people accept Jesus Christ for the first time, resulting in a 25% increase in overall church attendence. The second point of the article is that only 189 out of 415 churches actually met in their own buildings at the time — the rest met in people’s houses! Read it for yourself – I’ve included the complete text of the article below.
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It’s been a little over three months since my wife and I stepped down from our ministries at Mesilla Park Community Church to help plant the new church in Las Cruces. I’ve included the text from a newsletter article I submitted for Mesilla Park’s new monthly newsletter to get everybody up to speed on what’s been going on in that time!
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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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