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600 Baptized, Tagged & Tweeted
IndyChristian Ed. Note... I couldn't help but wonder if it's more than coincidence that this innovative church is also able to baptize 600 people at a time...
I ran across this South Carolina church as
their pastor tagged
Northview Christian Life here in Carmel (among
the other 100 innovative churches he's tagged).
[Subsequent note... Here's an article re the baptism... ht:BarryBowen][If you're not familiar with the value of social tagging, visit Tags4God.com]What kind of thoughts might any of this bring to your mind that could accelerate the Great Commission here in our city?
Labels: baptism, church, evangelism, innovative
The Face of the Church
The other day I was talking with a local pastor. He was lamenting about the limitations of his church building and the exterior presence it has to the community. A facility he inherited, and believed it was serving as a barrier to what he would like the church to be. With great passion though he talked about how many great people at the core of the church; serving, giving, and experiencing community.As I was reflecting on our talk a couple days later, it dawned on me their issue isn’t the facility. I mean, clearly it is what it is, but I came to the conclusion that isn’t the real issue at all. The issue isn’t the facility, but that the physical structure has become for their church the primary face in their community.
And that has had me wrestling with this over the past few days: Why would we ever allow a physical structure to be the primary face of our church in our community?
Whether the facility is old and outdated for the types of people in the local community or just experienced a multi-million dollar make over, isn’t the issue the same? And I am not an anti-facility type leader. Missional leaders develop facilities as tools, lighthouses, and training grounds to mobilize disciple making around the world. And in doing so, it is a beautiful thing.
And many of us as leaders for Jesus believe that the church is the people. We can quote a great deal of verses on proper ecclesiology and have read a great deal of books from researchers like Dr. Thom Rainer, Christian Schwarz, etc. All very essential, but we often end up acting as if the primary face of Jesus in the community is a physical structure and not the stories of lives changed by the Gospel of God’s grace.
And I believe that one of our challenges as called leaders to influence and impact Indy in such a time as this is to reject any system that forces our hand to establish a facility as the primary face in the community of the Body of Christ. And in so doing limit God’s presence and Kingdom to a building while missing the point of his Body to be the living expressions for the beauty of the local church.
The true face of the local church that will preach a better sermon than most of us preach and fills the gap of any facility in the hearts of those lost in darkness are the people whom encountered Jesus and living it out. We must become the primary “face” to our neighbors of God’s local church.Aaron StoryBLOG- Practically SpeakingLabels: church, Indianapolis, structure, theology
Practically Speaking
Of all of the Indy Scoreboard measurables, the one that resonates with me the most currently is Operation Timothy and the committment within to build leaders. Though I resonate with the heart to reclaim surrendered grounds, from my view I believe the organized church continues to face a leadership crisis. On that note, I would like to simply reflect "outloud" questions that I've been wrestling with for a good while. How many churches do we know that pride themselves, or at least have mission statements that proclaim a committment to make disciples, but lack leaders for the most elementary functions within the church much less expanding the influence and impact in the city? In watching the Mel Gibson movie, "We We're Soldiers" again this evening spoke to this reality we face. At one point Mel Gibson looks to his right hand man in the middle of the battle and asks, "At what point did General Custer realize he had taken his men to a slaughter?"The hard and pressing reality in our commission to reach Indy is that to often our churches are generating leaders unequipped for the world that we live in. Leaders given a "calling" but get lost in culture. A good many of us have realized preperation for leadership doesn't soley rest in a training period, and that many Bible college grads land in their mission field, domestic or foreign, unable to influence people even their own age. And not for lack of love for God and their neighbor. The majority of christian pastors and leaders do not lack a vision for what they believe God could do in their community. The question that we are forced to wrestle with is how will we create a culture of leadership development in the local church that matches the huge visions that God has given many us? What will the organized church do to position itself to make disciples equipped to influence culture and community?The dreamer will dream. The planner will plan. But, will we stay committed to finding the answers to tough questions in order to raise up a generation of leaders to lead? And as Billy Graham said best, "Every generation is important. Every generation is strategic."I certainly don't proclaim to know the answers to most of the questions, but maintain a committment to the journey of searching them out. However, if we are truly called to live as if Jesus could return tommorow, we should do more than ask the questions. Aaron StoryBLOG- Practically SpeakingLabels: church, discipleship, Jesus, journey, leaders, movies
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