We have been going through a busy couple of weeks recently. Church-planting has been focusing on two areas these days: 1) volunteering in the community, and 2) strategic planning.Volunteering was intense over the weekend; SpudFest was Thursday thru Sunday. I think I put in approximately 37 hours on those four days alone: setting up, checking IDs, grilling hamburgers & hot dogs, hauling tables, cleaning up, and a lot more. I loved getting to know the people on the Board better, meeting their families, and being out there with the crowds of people. At first I was uncomfortable not knowing what to do or how to help out, but by the end, things were better. As I told the people at Cross Winds UMC (where I w
as preaching on Sunday morning), we in the church must be the ones to bear the burden of being uncomfortable; we do this by going out to the unchurched, instead of expecting the unchurched to come to us and consequently feeling uncomfortable in our space. It was a weekend of practicing what I preach! Here are some pictures with others from the Spud Fest Board.Strategically, we have been working on just what is new in this “New Method for a New Day.” Two distinctive qualities for today’s busy families have surfaced:
The Good Life! – Courses, activities, and programs designed specifically for those not connected to a church community. These courses will offer practical instruction / support with a Christian edge. They will most likely be held off-site, and in public spaces whenever possible. Courses which may be offered include:
Good Sense (money and budgeting)
Good Sex (sexuality, dating, and relationships)
Good Grief (disaster, death & dying)
Good Night Moon (family dynamics & communications)
Good Job (career exploration)
Good for You (healthy lifestyles)
Good Heavens (basic spirituality)
Other Good Life! events:
Good Times (friends and family activities)
Good Neighbor (community support projects)
E-Life! – a personal, flexible, intentional program for the spiritual stuff of life. A guiding method will provide the framework upon which participants fill in the details their way; comes with 4 levels for upgrading one’s spiritual life, starting with discovering the spiritual side of real life issues, all the way up to “High Risk: High Reward” Christian living. It is especially designed for young adults and young families who want it all on their time.
In church lingo, the first is all about needs-based evangelism, while the second places a strong emphasis on methodical spiritual development for adults. Of course, we will strive to offer worship, children’s programs, youth ministries, and all the rest with excellence, but evangelism and adult faith formation will have a distinctively new and strong focus in this setting.
Stay tuned for more on these and other experiments with new methods for a new day. And feel free to add to the idea pool with your own ideas, reflections, and ruminations. What do you think church needs to do to be relevant for today’s 25-45 year olds?
3 comments:
Hey Jim!
Glad to hear that you are connecting so much with your new community!
I liked your list of "good" offerings for people.
Another idea - last Sunday evening we held an outdoor blessing of the animals service. We have over 130 people and 55 animals that came for the blessing. We were able to get free animal treat donations from a local animal store, the local paper advertised it, and it was a great way to connect with new people. We had quite a few singe people and couples with no children, whose pets are their family and their companions. It was a great way to recognize the importance of those relationships. Most dogs came having just been "bathed" to go to church, and with bows in their hair. We also had cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, chickens, rabbits, turtles, and fish! Kids who didn't have pets brought a stuffed animal for a blessing, and everyone received pet treats and a blessing certificate. It was a joy-filled night! Hope this idea might be helpful to you - we had quite a few new people who came, and they connected with others because when your dog goes up to another dog, you can't help but end up talking to people you don't know!
Melanie
Greetings!
Jim has been so busy, he just hasn't had time for an update! Thought I'd fill you in on a few things...
The house in Big Lake is ours; we're jumping through hoops at this point to try to get a closing date as close to July 10th as possible. Yes, that's just a week away! We sure appreciate Jim Baller's patience and work (even while on vacation this week!) in getting all these details ironed out. We'll all be relieved to finalize this whole process! In the meantime, we're packing, packing, packing and trying to get organized to turn this house over to the new owners. We know it will all work out one way or another!
Spudfest was lots of fun and great networking for us. Jim will probably give more details since he did the majority of the work; it was an exhausting weekend and a step out of the comfort zone for both of us! Good, though, to be out in the "mission field" and good for us to experience the discomfort that many of those people feel when they enter our church-related events. It was great to work with the people on the Spudfest board and get to know them on a deeper level as fellow workers on this event. Many thanks to Jake and Nan who helped out in the food tent on Saturday as well as Adam's girlfriend's sister and friend (who needed volunteer hours for Delano HS National Honor Society!)
Jim has been and will be guest preaching at various United Methodist churches in the area throughout the summer. He has done a spectacular job of listening for God's word and allowing the holy spirit to work in his words and messages to these congregations. It will be so helpful for them to "know" Jim as time goes on and we ask for support of one kind or another from these churches, and God has been very faithful during this work. It is so inspiring for me to watch God's work happen!
Scott is "home" this week (staying with friend, Sean) and it will be fun to see him! Adam saw the new house last weekend and pronounced the whole thing "surreal"! It does sort of feel like that - we've been thinking about, planning and talking through this process for so long, that it's hard to believe we're only a week away!
Dan is still ventilated and is having some (not uncommon) issues with his kidneys and liver. All the remedies seem to be helping and he is improving each day. It's just a slow process and I sense that mom and dad are getting anxious to have him wake up. It looks like at least another 2 weeks before that could happen, but it depends on how quickly they get the liver issue under control. They did a DNA test on his bone marrow to see if it matches his dad's; those results take a few weeks, too. Sounds like lots of waiting - I can't imagine...
I better get back to packing! Your support and prayers are so precious...
Happy Birthday America! Have a great 4th weekend!
Love,
Janet :->
A Good Life...sounds FABULOUS!
Would like to take in some of those sessions!!
Can always use some more of the GOOD in a life, right, Pastor?
Miss you tons! Am so impressed and inspired by ALL you've done, imagined/envisioned. Big Lake - get ready to be BLESSED!!!!!
Kathleen
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