Friday, January 19, 2007

Church, Made from Scratch

We've been crafting our formal church proposal this week.

It's more difficult and exhilarating than you would imagine.

Taking this broad vision for

a community of grace, bound by Christ,

living and loving the city together

and fitting it into 2 or 3 pages which people will see and then make a judgement of the worthiness of the endeavor.

It's easy to look at existing churches and find their strengths and weaknesses.

But if you were forming a church community, arranging the DNA from the very start, what would it look like?
What would your core values be?
What would the worship entail?
How would you encourage authentic community?
How would you properly contextualize your ideas so that they are powerful and relevant?

And most importantly, while doing this thinking and forming and writing, how would you keep perspective--
knowing that this is not about you and what you can do
but about God
and his abiding love for the people here
and his plan for his bride, the church.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

sounds like a huge endeavor!! the idea that you're starting from scratch is cool though. it leaves alot of room to dream. remember, God is big, so dream big.

Michelle said...

Wow! What a huge undertaking. I immediately thought of the business plans that Kevin and I have written. Our business plans are peanuts compared to that! The rewards should be that much bigger though too! You and Steve are perfect for this!

Laurie said...

I love your tag phrase and the one our church uses, "Helping people find and follow Jesus Christ." So often a church is either just evangelizing or just ministering to their own people. But shouldn't the church do both? Good luck & we'll be praying for you.

Lorraine said...

This really is so exciting. I'll be praying for you.

Although, if I might just make one small suggestion, please don't use an overhead projector to guide folks through 15 minutes of praise choruses. Just me.

Dana said...

Lorraine,

La, la, la,
sing sing sing
la, la, la,
sing sing sing
la, la, la,
sing sing sing...

Sorry, but I'll be with you in 15 minutes...