Question 1
According to chapter 1, the authors feel that we are in a post Christian context. How do you think this applies to Lewes, De. Do you feel like the attraction model of church still applies in any way to our situation? What do you glean from chapter 1 that might apply to us?
Because of the unique retirement community that our church is located in , we attract churched people who move to our community . This is definitely a form of the attractional church , but so is creating a space and sound that attractions worshipers who like a different type of Christian music . More to come.
ReplyDeleteGerry, Glad that you were able to figure out the Safari browser fix. One of the telling statements from page one is this: "What is fast disappearing is the opportunity to reach notionally religious people through church activities". The reason the authors give is that the upcoming generations have no connection with Christianity or the church and thus no desire or even the notion to show up at a church event. Their point is that Christianity is now at the margins. We have been pushed off to the side. Now what makes lewes unique is that the folks who are now retiring to Lewes are baby boomers, people born between 1945 and 1963,(I barely made it in to this category). Our generation did grow up going to church. We are familiar with Christianity. So I think that attractional activities such as improved worship, invites and bring a friend will still be affective in our situation for the next ten years. This is not the case in large metropolitan cities where the median age is more like 35. As a church, we have a bit of time to train and to transition to personal evangelism outside of the church. And perhaps this should have been a focus all along. We need to keep attracting Christians who are moving to the area to retire and we need to attract nominal Christians who have been away from the faith. But at the same time, it seems that the authors of our book say that we have got to transform to an outside the building evangelism. What do some of you think???
ReplyDeleteGreg , I totally agree that we at Lewes have a small window to develop and learn to notfear being evangelists .
ReplyDeleteI would like to challenge the theory that Christians are marginalized , whenever a disaster or famine or calamity occurs anywhere in the world it’s the Christian community that steps forward and is usually the biggest contributor . Do we receive credit ? But God knows what everyone is doing so credit from others really doesn’t matter .
The reason I challenge the marginalization claim is that we are still professing God s sovereignty and it is still True . God is sovereign.
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ReplyDeleteIt does seem that in "everyday" life we are marginalized. Most people don't give God a second thought as they go through their day. But, as Gerry said, the minute a disaster happens, then people seem to come out of the woodwork. It will be interesting to see if we get many "seekers" once we are able to open our doors again.
ReplyDeleteEntering a test as "anonymous" but signing name after comment. Greg
ReplyDeletethis is a test
DeleteI agree with Gerry to a point. The retirees that come into our community prefer either an attractional or a contemporary worship service. However, the 17 to mid/late 30 year olds usually do not return and if they have not been to a church earlier in their life do not find either model necessary for their lifestyle. We noticed this in the UK as well as some areas of the US. Churches were even transformed into McDonalds or Bistros.
ReplyDelete