thechurchblog

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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What do you do when your heart is heavy? Where can you go when you need the answer to a tough question? How can you know that you are making the right choice, when human wisdom just doesn’t cut it? Here are just a few thoughts on the real power of the Holy Spirit today.
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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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Let me start by giving my apologies to C.S. Lewis and his fabulous essay in “Mere Christianity” (synopsis here) — not to mention Josh MacDowell. These days, spiritually-minded people seem to want to lump Jesus into one of these three categories. Of the three, the Guru crowd is certainly growing by leaps and bounds. . .
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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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I haven’t written in awhile – chalk it up to having too many other things to do, I guess. Things are still stirring in my head, however. There is a mission field among the Post-Christian, and I believe thechurchblog is still a great way to share ideas and strategies for communicating the glory of God and the truth of Jesus Christ to them.
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“rawbbie” writes:

I have recently moved to Las Cruces, that’s not included in my profile. I’m actually from Farmington. I left a great church when I moved down here, one that I chose with much prayer and agony. Now I’m chosing a new church with much prayer and not yet any agony but it will soon come. I guess I should start at how I got to choosing my last church and then you’ll see how hard my new decision will be.

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Justin writes:

“Here is something from one of my ethnomusicology clases. It’s is a model (by a man named Ian Collinge) is from a discussion board from one of my classes. We were discussing ‘heart music’ and whether it was a good idea for people in Africa to learn Chinese or Brazilian worship songs, as some are doing. Ian bleieves that it is important for a local body of believers to develop a collection of worship music based on four elements of a group’s identity.”

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I’ve been talking an awful lot, now. If you’ve been following the blog, post your thoughts! Just email them to stories@thechurchblog.org.

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Continuing on with observations and ruminations from the Acts-29 Boot Camp, I’ve been camping on the concept of what makes church attractive to the masses. We’ve done it all at my church, tried everything to keep people interested in coming and relating to the church in their everyday lives. Some ideas have worked, some haven’t. The common thread is that we are constantly looking for the “next idea” – the next big thing that will keep people interested in the things of God. What if the “next big thing” is just preaching a big Jesus?

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