I stumbled upon this website and corresponding podcast while googling “evangelism” and “podcast.” The Geeks discuss technology and its place in the church. If you and/or your worshipping community are re-evaluating how technology can be used to help carry-out the mission of the Church, then I highly recommend this podcast for some “food for thought.”
Emergent Village is one of the many websites involved in the Emerging Church Conversation.
(from their website)
“Emergent Village is a growing, generative friendship among missional Christians seeking to love our world in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”
Fuller Youth Institute is located at Fuller Theological Seminary. This website has great resources for youth and family ministries.
(From their website)
“Every day in the United States and around the world, dedicated youth and family workers minister to hurting kids and their families. Currently, most of their work tends to be shaped by either past habits or anecdotal evidence. For the sake of the kingdom of God as well as wise stewardship of the gospel, these youth and family workers need innovative models and practices that reflect current research on the ever-changing landscape of youth, families, and culture.
At FYI we take these needs seriously, translating research into practical resources that youth workers in local churches and parachurch ministries can use in their ministry contexts. Led by Dr. Kara Powell, Executive Director, FYI publishes books, articles, downloadable audio resources, and curriculum for youth workers. In addition, we have created a unique Certificate in Urban Youth Ministry program—the first of its kind in the nation—that trains urban youth workers while allowing them to remain in their place of ministry.”
A Unique Opportunity for Service, Discernment, and Learning the Art of Ministry
“The Broad Street Ministry Seminarian Immersion Program offers an uncommon opportunity for vocational discernment and formation for ministies, a challenge to step outside of yourself and into a faith community in Philadelphia, and a taste of the possibilities for the future of God’s people.”
For more information about this program and for information on the application process, go to:
If you are interested in the intersection of Faith and Cultue, I highly recommend you check out The Ooze.
From the website:
“The desire of TheOOZE is to create environments where church leaders (traditional teachers/theologians as well as emerging storytellers/artists) can converse about and collaborate on resources and experiences for the broader faith community. This is done by providing places for people to gather and communicate both online and offline about how to be the story of Christ to our emerging culture.”
(from their website)
“Hartford Seminary’s Hartford Institute for Religion Research has a thirty-two year record of rigorous, policy-relevant research, anticipation of emerging issues and commitment to the creative dissemination of learning. This record has earned the Institute an international reputation as an important bridge between the scholarly community and the practice of faith.”
Presbymergent is the online community for those who live in both the Presbyterian (PCUSA) and Emergent/emerging church worlds and want to try and find a balance between the two.
We are pastors, lay people, seminarians, theologians, youth directors and people who generally care about both the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Emergent and the emergent conversation.
Feel free to join and post articles, questions and thoughts to the community. Grab the RSS feed and stay updated with information about presbymergent news. Post, discuss, share and support those who are working in and thinking about ministry in the margins.
Natural Church Development is a way of understanding church health and growth that views the church as a living organism. The focus is not on numerical growth, but on improving the health of the church, with the understanding–impressively documented by research–that when a church is sufficiently healthy, numerical growth will follow. These concepts are explained in the book Natural Church Development by Christian A. Schwarz.
The Natural Church Development survey measures the health of a local church in eight areas that have been found to be essential to healthy church growth. Developed by the Institute of Natural Church Development in Germany, this survey grows out of what was probably the most extensive study of church growth ever conducted, involving over 1000 churches in 32 countries on every continent except Antarctica. This study revealed a clear positive correlation between these eight Quality Characteristics and church growth.
One of the challenges to us is to shift from a business model of doing ministry to having a more discernment oriented approach to planning and designing ministries. Follow this link to an article offered by the Alban Institute on “Planning as Holy Conversation”.
May we learn to discern.
Are we hindered by our past?
L. Gregory Jones writes in a recent article for the Christian Century, “We are so focused on the survival and maintenance of organizations we lead that we forget about our mission—and pass on that forgetfulness to later generations.”
To read the entire article (and find out what this has to do with monkeys), click here.
Jim Collins, author of the book, Good to Great, did an interivew with the Leadership Journal. It’s a very interesting read.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2006/002/7.48.html
The Good to Great Pastor
An interview with Jim Collins.
Jim Collins’s book Good to Great has been a favorite among church leaders since it appeared in 2001. Six years of research resulted in a well-crafted and captivating account of what enables some companies to go from good to great and what prevents others from doing so. The popularity of the book, coupled with his ability to craft clear explanations for complex issues, has helped Collins become the dean of corporate advisers. (more…)
James Choung has recently written a book called True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In. In it he expands on the struggle to share faith in ways that make sense to others. The videos are an interesting look at a simple way to explain and share certain parts of our Christian Faith. James’ presentation presents a different take on some old models (Four Spiritual Laws, the whole chasm drawing, etc.) It’s worth 3-6 minutes to watch and respond.
From James’ website…”Here’s my attempt to explain the Christian faith… in three minutes. Crazy, right? InterVarsity asked me to do it, and here’s the result. I wanted to present a more holistic faith — something closer to the gospel that Jesus taught. This was unscripted, and of course, many details will be painfully left out in such a short amount of time. So it’s not anything close to a perfect presentation. But it forced me to make it concise, so I appreciate the assignment — though I would never share it this quickly in person. The training document is more complete.
This material is adapted from my upcoming books: True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In and its companion booklet, Based on a True Story“
Order the book here
Part One:
Part Two
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Check out this series of podcasts/netcasts from Allelon!
Who is Allelon?
“Allelon is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization located in Eagle Idaho. We are a multi-generational network of missional church leaders, schools and parachurch organizations which envisions, inspires, engages, resources, trains and educates leaders for the church and its mission in our culture. Said simply, together we are a movement of missional leaders.” (from their website).
The Congregational Resources Guide
The Congregational Resource Guide is an effort of the Alban Institute in consultation with the Indianapolis Center for Congregations and other specialists, the Congregational Resource Guide (CRG) exists to help congregational leaders connect with resources that will enable them to face challenges and foster vitality in their communities of faith.
The Alban Institute
2121 Cooperative Way, Suite 100
Herndon, VA 20171
(703) 964-2700
(800) 486-1318
(703) 964-0370 (fax)
www.alban.org
The Indianapolis Center for Congregations
303 North Alabama Street, Suite 100
Indianapolis, IN 46204
317-237-7799
317-237-7795 (fax)
www.centerforcongregations.org
To contact the Congregational Resource Guide, or for help finding additional resources, write to crg@alban.org.
The Indianapolis Center for Congregations offers a variety of services to congregations in the Indianapolis area. For more information, visit www.centerforcongregations.org or write to info@centerforcongregations.org.
The CRG is hosted by the Alban Institute; offered as a gift by Lilly Endowment Inc.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...
Star Thrower Distribution offers the best training and development video and multimedia tools available. Star Thrower creates programs that develop people’s ability to think rather than react. Our programs help institute real change; individual change that can make a fundamental difference in the way an organization behaves.
When you view one of our films, you will find a thought provoking tool with clear training points and superior production quality. Additionally, most Star Thrower products come with a complete set of support materials to make training even easier.
Special pricing is available for the faith community. We offer complimentary previews of all our programs to allow you to view a program in its entirety. Please use this web link to view program suggestions, and to contact Eilene, 800-561-0291 or eilene@starthrower.com for pricing details. www.starthrower.com/faithbased.htm
Rocky Mountains
Lincoln Trails
Covenant
Sun
Trinity
Baltimore
Chicago
John Calvin
Northern Kansas
Southeastern Illinois
Ohio Valley
Central Washington
Heartland
Scioto Valley
Sierra Mission Partnership
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
An article from the Alban Institute Blog.
By Marty J. Cauley
I have the amazing privilege of working with spiritually sensitive and passionate young adults from across the southeast. I am also charged with understanding why the church is losing ground with young adults. After hundreds of conversations with young adults, I have identified some common strands running through their decisions to leave the church, or at least our version of the church.
(from their website)
Church Innovations is a non-profit organization devoted to renewing the Church’s focus on God’s mission in the world. Rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and wholly committed to following God’s leading for every congregation, we provide research and consulting tools, products and processes that increase your church’s capacities to experience God’s renewal and transformation.
Our work crosses denominational and geographical lines and is grounded in two decades of research. Over the years we have worked with more than 1,000 congregations, 75 national and mid-governing bodies, and two dozen denominations in seven countries and across all 50 United States.
Click on the link to visit the website: www.churchinnovations.org
(from Donna Hoppestad)
New Vision is a program of the Presbytery of East Tennessee.
New Vision has both a regional (Presbytery) and a local (church) aspect. The regional effort includes mass-media advertising (television, radio, billboards, etc.). We have all the information you need if a group want to investigate this possibility. It’s really very easy to set up, but it does take a financial commitment of at least a year for it to be truly effective. Prices will vary, depending on the size of your area, but I can get prices for any area - I already have people up here who will get that information for me at no charge.
The regional portion of New Vision tends to unify the churches in the Presbytery, and encourages them to try ideas on the local level to continue the awareness the regional advertising has started in their areas. As you can imagine, it also creates a whole lot of goodwill between Presbytery and the local church!
Reveal is a new tool from Willow Creek. It is a way of evaluating your current ministry. It is available on line. Click on Reveal to get there. Let us know if it is helpful. I think you’ll like it.
“New Ways of Being Church”
Conversations on renewal and transformation in mainline congregations
2009 Festival of Theology & Reunion
March 15-18, 2009
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Featuring:
Click here for more information.
September 28, 2008
Download Worship Materials (all filed are in Microsoft Word):
Alternate Liturgy for Evangelism Sunday
One of the core issues for any new church, growing church or transforming church is having a plan for discipleship. For a church to be healthy, people need to be engaged in spiritual growth.
The Office of Theology, Education and Worship offer a few services and sites that would be very beneficial to your work.
POINT www.pcusa.org/point
Presbyterians Organized in Nurture and Teaching (POINT) is a network of educators who offer Christian education expertise and curriculum interpretation skills to churches in their area. These volunteers, appointed by each presbytery and equipped through the General Assembly Council, lead the way in assisting churches with their educational ministry.
Opening Doors to Discipleship www.openingdoorstodiscipleship.com
Opening Doors to Discipleship is a series of three courses in the Presbyterian/Reformed tradition to help teachers and leaders equip themselves to be faithful teachers and leaders. Once you register with this site, you will have access to all three courses.
The three courses are:
Course A: Teaching Skills
Course B: Bible Background
Course C: Presbyterian/Reformed Faith (to be released Fall, 2008)
Curriculum http://www.pcusa.org/curriculum/index.htm
There are a number of different curriculum, VBS materiels as well as language specific options for Spanish and Korean speaking congregations.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...
After adapting and utilizing the insights of the purpose-driven® concept for several years, the pastors of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Satellite Beach invited other PCUSA leaders to learn of their discoveries at a continuing education seminar held at Columbia Theological Seminary. When the response exceeded expectations, they began a partnership with Purpose-Driven® Ministries International, and created the annual Presbyterians Seeking Purpose-Driven® Ministry Conference in Satellite Beach, Florida. (more…)
An Article from Sojourners Magazine….
Young Christians — mainline and evangelical, Catholic and Protestant — are seeking new ways to connect their faith to action … and in doing so [drum roll] change the world.
by Amy Green
How should Christians interpret the Bible? It was just the sort of weighty question this group of beer drinkers likes to mull every week at a dimly lit Gainesville pub not far from the University of Florida campus, in their “theology on tap” meetings. “Prayerfully,” was one answer. “As Jesus intended,” was another. On the sound system The Police sang.
“I think the Bible is meant to be struggled with,” said 25-year-old Maria Carter, office manager for Gainesville’s Presbyterian and Disciples of Christ Student Center. She grew up Catholic but now considers herself a Christian who is searching. She wore a navy cap cocked to one side, a piercing in one brow, and a tattoo on her wrist.
Heading up the “theology on tap” meetings is 23-year-old Rusty Poulette, a philosophy major at Santa Fe Community College who someday hopes to open his own nonprofit, a Christian whose coming-of-age may resemble many his age. He grew up Catholic and attended a Presbyterian congregation in high school but pulled away from church in college when he developed a passion for social justice. (more…)
People attending General Assembly share their thoughts on Church Growth.
Allelon has a number of positive aspects to it. One area I want to draw your attention to is the “Reflect” button. Click it and take a look at the assessment tools. Their “360″ approach to identifying missional leaders and missional congregations may be a good place to start in identifying who to call in leadership and what congregations need. If anyone has used them, let us know what you think!
The site contains some good resources for discipleship and small group work and by a Presbyterian to boot!
“Connections is a proven ministry support for medium sized churches that lack the resources and staff to produce their own Bible study material. Feedback from the pastors and church leaders who have used Connections materials reveals that Connections:
* Cultivates a “biblically” literate congregation
* Enhances a sense of shared community around the scriptures
* Gives direction, substance and energy to outreach though small groups
* Sets up the sermon as the climatic event of the week’s preparation and study”
From their website..
Allelon is a 501(C)3 non-profit foundation located in Eagle Idaho. We are a multi-generational network of missional church leaders, schools and parachurch organizations which envisions, inspires, engages, resources, trains and educates leaders for the church and its mission in our culture. Said simply, together we are a movement of missional leaders. (more…)
The 218th General Assembly made a significant step toward helping the church turn around decades of decline by making a commitment to evangelism and discipleship. These are the two critical ingredients to the future health and growth of the PC(USA). A website has also been created that will be dedicated to this initiative http://deepandwide.ning.com/ Check it out, join and we can be a part of what God is and will be doing through the PC(USA)!
“The 218th General Assembly (2008) strives to help Christ’s Church Grow Deep and Wide under the guidance of the Holy Spirit by: (more…)
