Vital Question from Eddie Hammett

[Dave Roberts]

When I read this, the bells went off in my head.

"I often find myself wondering 'what drives most church and denominational leaders and institutions to invest so much more in preserving what is rather than what can be?" Too often I see, hear and sense it has more to do with job and tradition preservation, because that is what most know and are comfortable with. When it might just be that the 'institutional drought' many face today could be God's way of pulling us into innovation, deeper faith and an invigorating experience AS church. What do you think? Hummmm.....??" (Eddie Hammett post to FaceBook).

[Mrs Haruo]

Reminds me of the time I was cordially invited to a Baptist Women's conference a few years back where they asked for ideas for service projects. I raised my hand and told of the woman veterans who had come into the Seattle Vet Center and needed help finding shelter and jobs, and the donated bags of soap, tooth brushes, combs etc, all had men's underwear in them. Couldn't we give these brave women a REAL welcome home with something that helped them feel like girls again? I was given a look like I either wasn't there at all or had 3 heads. They went on to discus the same old projects they had been doing for years. And they wonder why they can't get younger women to come to the meetings.
Now days I am realizing much to my shock that I am old enough to be the mother of most of the musicians and the praise team, and even the pastor! And some of the music they do I have a hard time wrapping my head around, but the message is there, and they bring new faces from their schools and colleges and seminary and where they work, and from where I sit in the choir loft I see visitors come in, look around, and often they return the next week and the next. Traditions are great, they help bind people together, but people suffocate when the windows are nailed shut and fresh breezes are never allowed in. Any farmer knows if you keep planting the same crops in the same field year after year, all the nutrients get sucked out of the soil.

[Neil Heath]

Well said, Mrs. H!

[Mrs Haruo]

Thanks Neal. Good to know my Yankee female brain is good for somethin'. Daddy always told me my brain was to use and not just to keep my ears apart.

[Dave Roberts]

I look repeatedly at churches I know, and see how much of their efforts and budget are targeted at maintaining the institution, the buildings, the tried and true programs, and how little is actually channeled to missions and evangelism. It tells me that we have lost being missional in our church life.

[Tim Bonney]

[Dave Roberts]

I like Phyllis Tickle's theory that something happens big in the church every 500 years. She says it's time for a rummage sale to get rid of our useless baggage.

[Tim Bonney]

[Mrs Haruo]

Just don't get rid of ALL the beautiful old church buildings in the rummage sale. I have a soft spot for stained glass and old bricks

[Dave Roberts]

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

[Dave Roberts]

[Sandy]

It's about a decade old, now, but I highly recommend Neil Cole's Organic Church. It's kind of what it sounds like. Having served on the staff of a ministry-oriented church with a lot of "organic" ministry, it's an approach that lets mature Christians with an understanding of spiritual gifts and ministry within a local church context use them in determining what their ministry will be within the church, and how that fits with the local church and its ministry. I saw that approach revitalize a declining, traditional, neighborhood SBC church that had lost a lot of members and energy to nearby mega churches, and had declined to about 180 mostly elderly members, and turn it into a congregation reflective of the community in which it ministered, and move both the spiritual vitality and attendance upward, through a variety of ministries it might never have had if its leadership hadn't been open to that approach. I got involved there largely because in its ministry evaluation process, the church determined that it would house and take over governance of an existing Christian school, merging it under the same discipleship umbrella as its Preschool and home school cooperative. Over about a decade, attendance on Sunday grew to over 300, with virtually all of the new members being under 40, and either Hispanic, Asian or African American, and an additional hundred or so in small groups whom we didn't see at the church on Sunday. The small groups all had a worship-Bible study format, and eventually incorporated what I would call two other "churches" under the ministry arm of the main congregation. In addition to the school, there were all kinds of ministry groups, including Jazzercise groups six days a week, a Harley biker's fellowship, AA and Al Anon, two college fellowships, senior adult fellowship and a couple of "domino clubs", half a dozen weekday Bible study groups and a "jam session" for musicians every other Saturday night. Most churches wouldn't have the structure, or the will, to divert so much control over activity to so many people. Accountability was through a "Discipleship council" which was made up of the discipleship minister and the leader of each group. And I think they key was no direct contact with the Deacons.