Vision Day Restrospective
Thanx to all the particpants in today’s conference. Here’s the powerpoint for a-day-of-vision.ppt. An interesting supplementary question differentiated attractional/ missional meetings. Here’s an explanatory post from Matt Stone over at Journeys in Between :
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about missional ecclesiology over the last few months and one of the things which has emerged for me is a deep questioning about how much energy churches should expend in inviting non-Christians to services, to the point I wonder whether alternate worship services should be restricted to initiates.
How is NOT inviting people missional you ask?
Bear with me for a moment.
At the heart of this is a re-examination of where the church service fits within church life, which I have tried to illustrate here.
In attractional churches, the church services are the primary context for evangelism and the primary gateway through which people are connected into cell groups and other aspects of the community life. The services dominate and mediate the life of the community. There is consequently great pressure on services to be as accessible to non-Christians as possible if they are to grow. Is it any wonder they have become entertainment driven … audience driven? And cell groups have little incentive to engage with the world beyond, their only “misisonal” job is to invite their friends to hear the professional evangelist at the service. Is this really the way things are supposed to work?
In missional churches a different dynamic comes into play. Because the church is engaged as a community in the wider community of the culture, other times become the primary context for social action and welcoming non-Christians into experiences of Christian community. Less expectations need be loaded onto a single hour each Sunday. Resources may be freed up. There is space for the rites of the church to resume their original status, as the inner mysteries of the church.
Think about these dynamics. One significant consequence is that communication patterns are forced to change. Sunday service bulletins are not a good way of informing a missional church community about what is going on in the life of it, when only the hard core attend it. I am sure you can think of more consequences. Everything needs to be rethought in a missional church….
Now what stimulates this thinking? The question of whether a missional cell group can be grafted onto an attractional service. Some say blended approaches can work. Others aren’t so confident. I still don’t know that for sure. But I am sure seeing clear problems.
Internet Therapy 2
FILL YOUR MIND!
Another installment of favourite web places in honour of Eugene Peterson’s wise words: “Most of what makes us human is God.” The whole earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof. Here’s some of that fulness:
Welcome to the family
Hi! We’re Ken and Val Baker, the pastors of Northolt Grange Baptist Church. Here’s the link to the Multimap direction thingie. So now you can visit, ok?
Although we meet to worship in a building, we believe that we, the people are the real church. We believe that the church is the only institution that exists for those who are not yet a part of it, and we welcome all who visit us in an attempt to explore their own faith. As Christians we have the assurance of eternal life through believing and trusting in Jesus Christ the Son of God. He came into the world, and died on a cross to enable every man, woman and child to know forgiveness of sins and peace with God.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
The style of our Sunday worship service is designed to be fairly lively but also with quiet prayerful times to encourage open participation and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Through this and other meetings we are prayerfully seeking to serve the spiritual needs of people across the generations. As a local Baptist church we are connected to the ‘London Baptist Association’ and the ‘Baptist Union of Great Britain.’ We are also in fellowship with a number of other churches of different denominations in the locality under the title of ‘SING (Soul in Northolt and Greenford).’ We meet together to worship and pray for the needs of our communities and are seeking to promote the Christian gospel through our corporate life and witness.
We freely acknowledge that we really do need each other. Tell me this: who is the most important person in the pyramid?
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