|
emerging church, emergent, simple church, house church, home church.Friday, February 24
DAWN international conference If you have been following my other blog you will have read some of the incredible stories of church planting movements I have encountered amongst the delegates here in Joburg. Some of these people I had only read or heard about second hand but here I have had a chance to talk face to face with them. During the conference we have had reports from all the continents and many individual countries in terms of what is happening in the church planting arena. It has been profoundly encouraging to hear in detail that what God is beginning to do in the UK and Europe is happening right around the world. posted by alexander @ 8:42 AM 1 comments 
1 Comments:Test Comment from Bevs computer
By Tuesday, February 21
Africa blog Seems like my pic got through but the text did not in the last post, so I'm trying again with text only! posted by alexander @ 7:29 PM 0 comments
0 Comments:Wednesday, February 15
the OC forum  Sheffield 9th March If you will be attending the Mission 21 event in Sheffield (March 8-10) and are interested in connecting with others who are involved in Organic / Simple / Home Church stuff then you are welcome to join us at The Organic Church Forum, Sheffield, March 9. We will have a couple of hours to hang out together; chat about stuff that's important to us; hear one another's stories; learn one another's lessons and go away hopefully a little wiser. Thursday 9 March Location: The Philadelphia Campus, St Thomas' Church, Sheffield. Time: 11:30-1:00 Place: The organisers will provide a room for us which will be announced that morning. posted by alexander @ 2:22 PM 0 comments
0 Comments:final mission 21 program The final program for Mission 21 is now complete. Download a copy here. I have to say it is looking better than I had originally feared! There will be plenty of stories and chance for interaction; some interesting times of worship and baguettes on arrival! Still, one can't get away from the fact that this will be a platform focused event - not to everyones liking I know. There seems to be a good balance of input from thinkers and doers & the occasional thinking doer. All in all I think it will be worth the effort to get there. I am particularly looking forward to catching up with and meeting others pioneering organic/simple/home type churches around the country. To which end I am organising a networking/forum for those of you wanting to connect with others. More on that in a while. posted by alexander @ 12:23 PM 0 comments
0 Comments:some more articles Have posted a few more articles over here. Includes Nate Krupp on Planting a church God's simple way, and Reasons for todays House Church Movement. posted by alexander @ 10:49 AM 0 comments
0 Comments:emerging what?  If you want a well rounded explanation and critical appraisal of the Emerging Church this should do the job (click on pic to download article). So what exactly is the emerging Scot McKnight is Karl A. Olsson professor in religious studies at North Park University in Chicago. posted by alexander @ 9:20 AM 0 comments
0 Comments:Monday, February 13
20 things to do while you’re not multiplying churches  Steve Addison has come up with another great post: (click on pic to go to his blog) 20 things to do while you’re not multiplying churches "We’ve had some good input lately on why we’re not seeing church planting movement in the developing world to the same degree we’re seeing in the global south. If that’s the case we need to find something to do while nothing’s happening. Here’s 20 suggestions of what to do while we’re not multiplying churches. 1. Call yourself an apostle. Have some business cards printed. Hand them around. 2. Throw lots of money at subsidizing unhealthy, declining churches. 3. Throw money at “experimental missional initiatives” and never evaluate their effectiveness. 4. Set goals for multiplying new churches but don’t make it clear who is responsible. 5. Make someone responsible but don’t give them any real authority, discretionary time or sufficient funding. Change the appointment every two years. After ten years, save money by retiring the position and making everyone responsible. 6. Appoint a committee to undertake a study and write a report for the leadership group. Wait three years, then do it again. 7. Hire a consultant to undertake a study and write a report. Wait three years then do it again. 8. Appoint the wrong people to plant churches. When they fall over say, “Church planting doesn’t work.” 9. When you see a healthy church plant say, “Yes it’s growing but it’s not really a Reformed/Baptist/Assemblies of God/Presbyterian/Methodist/New Vine/etc (choose one) church.” 10. Require pioneering leaders to be theologically trained before they can plant a church. 11. Throw your best leaders at your biggest problems, not at your greatest opportunities. 12. Watch pioneering leaders exit your movement and comment on their lack of commitment. 13. Reward pioneering leaders with promotion. Get them away from the front line. Harness their drive to keep the institutional wheels turning. 14. In the 1960’s change the word “missions” to “mission”. To usher in the new millennium change “mission” to “missional” . Around 2010 plan to change “missional” to “postmissional”. 15. Agree to plant new churches when: (a) You’re large enough (b) You’re healthy enough (c) You have the leaders to give away (d) You have the money to spare (e) God has clearly shown you it’s time (f) When the cow jumps over the moon (g) Any or all of the above. 16. Run workshops on church planting. Hold conferences on church planting. Offer a course at your theological college on church planting. Do nothing to follow up the people who show an interest. Make sure only experts like me get to teach. Keep the practitioners away from the students. Keep the students in the classroom. 17. Grow your church, its facilities, staff and budget as BIG as you can. Let your vision stop at your car park. Let church history end with you. Let the Kingdom dream die. 18. Set ridiculous but catchy sounding goals like 500 in 5 years, or 2,000 by 2,000. Three years after the target date expires set new goals. Don’t forget to change the dates! 19. Modernize your theology then PostModernize your theology. Remove evangelism and church planting from the centre of God’s mission in the world. When decline hits make sure the paid professionals are the last to feel the pinch. 20. Lastly, set up a blog on church planting. Link to other bloggers on church planting. They link to you. Add smoke and mirrors." posted by alexander @ 12:50 PM 0 comments
0 Comments:Sunday, February 12
a fresh breeze blowing Full article here A Fresh Breeze is Blowing (adapted from New Wine Skins) By Nate Krupp, Preparing The Way, Publishers, Salem, OR, USA A fresh breeze is blowing. In this hour, God is calling and leading His Church back to the humility, simplicity, and mutuality of the Early Church as seen in the New Testament. He is saying, 'For 1,700 years you have done it your way. Now you are going to do it My way.' We are now in the midst of the early days of a sovereign, very radical, new move of God that will result in true, New Testament Christianity and the final fulfillment of the Great Commission. This new move of God is characterized by thefollowing: 1. From serving God to knowing God. Most of us have known about and served God for years. Now He is calling us to truly and deeply know Him and supremely love Him and Him alone. True fruit will be produced naturally as we intimately know and love Him. 2. From a Gospel of "easy-believism" to the Gospel of the Kingdom. In the 1960's people were encouraged to "accept Christ." This often resulted in shallow conversions, people who were not truly converted.Today, God is calling His servants to preach "the Gospel of the Kingdom" which requires us to call men to repent (turn from sin) and to make Jesus their Lord or King, the Sovereign ruler of their lives. 3. From the efforts of man to the works of God. The days of putting out a sign, starting some programs, and conducting services to do God's work are over! We must learn to "do God's work in God's way." We need to wait upon Him; learn to know His voice; get our direction from Him alone; and obey promptly and totally. We must pay the price for revival. We must give ourselves to united, intensive, extraordinary prayer and warfare. We need to believe God to confirm His Word with signs and wonders. We need to implore God to teachus to do His work His way - and be ready to make drastic changes as He does just that. Then the fruit will be produced by Him - and He will get all of the glory. posted by alexander @ 9:04 PM 0 comments
0 Comments:Friday, February 10
Churches facing 'apocalypse soon' From The Times January 17, 2006 Churches facing 'apocalypse soon' By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent THE Church of England is to demand an urgent government cash injection of £55 million a year to avert an “apocalypse” with the closure of hundreds of medieval churches. The Right Rev Richard Chartres, Bishop of London and the Church’s third most senior bishop, is calling on the Government to stop treating the Church as a “museum piece” and to recognise its contribution to modern Britain. “It’s not apocalypse now but it is limited apocalypse soon,” he said. “If no extra money is forthcoming we will see a spate of church closures and losses to whole communities of buildings that cannot be sustained.” The Church has an annual repair bill of £120 million, but there is a £373 million backlog of repairs. To meet new laws on disabled access will cost each church an average of £49,000. The Church needs £55 million a year from government and is the “most disestablished in Europe”. French cathedrals are maintained by the State and German churches benefit from a secular tax system. posted by alexander @ 11:46 AM 0 comments
0 Comments:Friday, February 3
a startling research paper! Christianity Today: UK Church Growing Faster than Starbucks "A startling research paper is to be released at a forthcoming conference which shows that new churches are spreading across the UK faster than Starbucks." I think they mean my research report! As they haven't read it yet - they don't know the half of it!! posted by alexander @ 12:04 PM 0 comments
0 Comments:Wednesday, February 1
what I mean when I say emerging missional church Like Andrew Jones I sometimes get asked what the heck I mean when I use the phrase 'emerging missional church'. Well here's Andrew's answer, and although he uses quite a lot of words I think it's pretty good: What I Mean When I Say "Emerging-Missional" Church.To read the full monty GO HERE. posted by alexander @ 12:33 PM 0 comments
0 Comments:For more posts check out the Archives or for a specific topic use site search tool. |
The aim of this site is to connect, report and resource these new groups.
If you'd like to know more check out the vision page.
previous posts | : :search this site | : :contribute | : :As an encouragement to others we want to collect stories of how new Simple/Organic Churches were started.
rss feeds: blog archives | : :credits | : :
|
