Modus Operandi
I was reading about Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NY City today. I love their approach to ministry. They have a church planting school and in 2005 their alliance will launch 125 new churches across New York City and an in "crossroads cities" around the world. Right now we have one church-planter-in-residence and one church planter who is "in the field" planting a church, but I think the time will come when we've got dozens of church planters in residence who we're equipping and resourcing to plant emerging churches.
There are hospitals and teaching hospitals. I feel like we're called not just to be a church. We're called to be a teaching church. That doesn't mean we've got everything figured out. Far from it. But we've got to help others learn from our successes and failures!
Modus Operandi
Jeremiah 29:7 says, "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you." I think that approach to ministry--bless everything that moves--never fails. Worst case scenario, the blessing returns to you if the person you're blessing is unworthy. Luke 10:6 is our modus operandi. "Whenever you enter a home, give it your blessing. If it is worthy of the blessing, the blessing will stand; if not, the blessing will return to you."
I think we confuse "blessing" and "endorsing." I think we're so worried about not endorsing sinners that we fail to bless them. I think we ought to be in the blessing business. That is why we do the Easter Eggstravaganza and Live Nativity! We want to bless our community!
Purple Churches
One random thought. I was talking to a church planter last week and I recommended the book Purple Cow by Seth Godin. Godin says if you've seen one brown cow you've seen them all. But a purple cow, now that would catch your attention. I told this church planter, "The world doesn't need another brown church. There are something like 400,000 churches in America, but if you've seen one you've seen almost all of them. They are brown cows. We need more purple churches."
I'm not talking about being different for difference sake. I just think that maturity doesn't equal conformity. Maturity results in originality. We need lots of different kinds of churches because there are lots of different kinds of people!
There are hospitals and teaching hospitals. I feel like we're called not just to be a church. We're called to be a teaching church. That doesn't mean we've got everything figured out. Far from it. But we've got to help others learn from our successes and failures!
Modus Operandi
Jeremiah 29:7 says, "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you." I think that approach to ministry--bless everything that moves--never fails. Worst case scenario, the blessing returns to you if the person you're blessing is unworthy. Luke 10:6 is our modus operandi. "Whenever you enter a home, give it your blessing. If it is worthy of the blessing, the blessing will stand; if not, the blessing will return to you."
I think we confuse "blessing" and "endorsing." I think we're so worried about not endorsing sinners that we fail to bless them. I think we ought to be in the blessing business. That is why we do the Easter Eggstravaganza and Live Nativity! We want to bless our community!
Purple Churches
One random thought. I was talking to a church planter last week and I recommended the book Purple Cow by Seth Godin. Godin says if you've seen one brown cow you've seen them all. But a purple cow, now that would catch your attention. I told this church planter, "The world doesn't need another brown church. There are something like 400,000 churches in America, but if you've seen one you've seen almost all of them. They are brown cows. We need more purple churches."
I'm not talking about being different for difference sake. I just think that maturity doesn't equal conformity. Maturity results in originality. We need lots of different kinds of churches because there are lots of different kinds of people!
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