I am pumped right now. Things are going well. We have had 4 presentations since the assessment. We had one today that was really encouraging. We went to a new church plant on Long Island, it is the church that my mother, sister and brother and many people from my old church now attend. We gave a five minute presentation and the missions committee meets tomorrow. We know alot of the people on the missions committee, the pastor said that I was the "best preacher in the house" and there were a few good preachers there. I think it will be good.
Last night at my ordination service my home church gave us a check for $500 and told us that they would be supporting us monthly. They did not give us a monthly amount but specified that it would be a percentage of the budget, so lets hope the giving there goes wild. So now 7 churches have committed to us, two more have invited us to come speak with intent to support, and we are pumped. We don't know how much each of those churches (actually any) will give, but it is really encouraging.
When we were at the new church today we had alot of thoughts. It was great because people that were new told us stories of life change. After telling the story about the drunken and drugged youth in Christchurch, a 24 year old told us that hewas the same way a year ago, but because of this church plant he now wants to be a youth minister and he is on the worship team at the church. However, we felt like the church was basically the same as every other church. Most the people, it seemed, were from churched backgrounds. Amy and I really want to reach out to unchurched people. We want to rethink church and see how the needs, percieved needs and desires of the unchurched lost can intersect with the mission of God. I am not really interrested in having a regular church and hoping non-believers come.
Along these lines, last week our preacher said he does not believe in having a "target group" because he thinks all people should be our "target group," however because of this our church does not target anyone. I have some views on this but want to hear all of your ideas.
Tell me what you guys think.
posted by Joe and Amy at 8:36 PM
1 Comments:
Joseph! We're so glad to hear how well things are going with you. Whitney and I had an AWESOME time at the NMC. We had several good conversations with E. Richard and especially Bill Weber that made us feel like they all have a lot of confidence in us as a team. Jeff filled Bill in on how things went at the assessment. I'll elaborate on that later, but I just want all of you to know for now that I think good things are happening for us and SPCF.
We can also go into more discussion on this later, but I feel that it is super-important for any church to have a clear call and vision for a target group/generation/genre to which they will attempt to be intentional and relevant. Besides, if you reach out well to your target group, you may begin to see people outside of your target group attend. When that happens, your church will probably be healthy enough to begin to do some intentional ministry to the secondary group. But it has to start somewhere...and I think God provides the answer as to where to start. As they say, if you aim at everything, you'll hit nothing.
Gotta go for now. Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!
2:43 PM
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