My Hope For The Church

I am really bothered by the slowly eroding influence of the church in the West.  Our message is still as fresh and as deeply relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.  And without a doubt we continue to have something important to offer society.  So it is with this conviction that I share my hopes for the church.

My hope is that we the church take the time to understand the society we seek to influence and serve, and out of this observation we shape our offerings to meet the contemporary reality.

My hope is that we the church are seen within the local community as an amazing resource for assisting people in navigating the challenges of life.

My hope is that we the church are an outspoken advocate for the poor, the marginalized and those with mental illness.

My hope is that we the church focus on growing people as well as congregations.  We certainly need more people in church but equally we need those people to be growing in their faith.

My hope is that evangelism becomes part of the church culture and not some uncomfortable add on.

My hope is that the Bible will become not just a peripheral resource but a central part of the church’s practice and identity.

My hope is that creativity is encouraged within the church and that creative people are given more say and influence.

My hope is that we the church can honestly discuss the reality of our situation and see any predicament as a glorious opportunity for change.

What is your hope for the church?

To download a copy of ‘My Hope for the Church’ click here:   My Hope For The Church (364)

Digital Evangelism - how?

I have come across an interesting ministry role and an interesting ministry opportunity.  The role is Digital Evangelist and the opportunity is to participate in an online ministry program.

I caught up with Paul Watson who is the Digital Evangelist and chatted to him about him and the online ministry program he is organizing.

1# Tell us a bit about yourself?

Well…for starters, I was born in Fort Worth, Texas. My parents were in ministry together and started churches in the United States among the deaf community. God called them both into missions and, at the age of seven, I moved with my family to Hong Kong. I don’t want to get into too much detail, but I lived in Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, and Singapore before returning to the USA for University.

I met my wife, Christi, the first week of University. We were good friends for some time. I proposed to her in my second year. We’ve been married ten years now and have two children. My daughter is 6 and my son just turned 4. We live in Texas and my wife is a science teacher at a local middle school.

I work with CityTeam Ministries and started their Reaching the Online Generation Initiative to create and implement the strategies necessary to catalyze Gospel Movements among online communities.

#2. What does a Digital Evangelist do?

I divide my time roughly into thirds. One third of my time I’m online ‘walking’ through different social media and following the breadcrumbs of human interaction that guide me toward communities. When I find a community, I search for the person of peace Jesus describes in Luke 10. Specifically, that is a lost person who is spiritually seeking for answers and will respond to the Gospel and open up their home or community for a Bible Study to learn more about the God of the Bible. Continue reading »

My Hope for the Church

One of the great things about holidays is that I get plenty of space to think.  And what has been on my mind today is the state of the church.  I am really bothered by the slowly eroding influence of the church in the West.  Our message is still as fresh and as deeply relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.  And without a doubt we continue to have something important to offer society.  So it is with this conviction that I share my hopes for the church.  Continue reading »

Reaching out to an online generation?

Right now we have a worrying situation:  the growth of the internet, in terms of numbers and influence, is not being met by an equivalent growth in response from the church.  There are numerous church related websites but no where near the sort of engagement required.  We in the church run the risk of falling even further out of touch and eventually becoming some sort of quaint club.

So what is required?  Continue reading »

The Digital Revolution and the Church

I have written a paper entitled, ‘The Digital Revolution and the Church‘, in which I outline the characteristics of the phenomenal internet driven digital revolution presently sweeping the globe.  I particularly focus on how it is affecting human behavior, which offers some insights into how we as a church might need to respond.The opening paragraph reads,

There is a revolution sweeping across the globe, driven by the massive growth of the internet and internet related technologies.  Known as the Digital Revolution it is on par with other great global shifts such as the Agrarian Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. And it is completely changing the landscape of how we communicate, how we influence, how we relate.  This isn’t simply about coming to grips with a new technology to assist us in our work, but requires of us a fundamental shift in our processes, our structures and approaches.  If we don’t respond then as Eric Hoffer states, we will find ourselves, ‘beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.’ 

To read the rest of the paper click here:   The Digital Revolution and the Church (1308)

The Tale of a Thousand Messages

I am doing a lot of reading at the moment around the present digital revolution, in particular how the internet is impacting our lives. And the most significant issue emerging for those in ministry is distraction amongst our audiences.  We have to compete with literally thousands of messages all demanding our attention.  And for our message to be heard we may have to change some of our delivery methods.  Continue reading »

20 Years ago and a glimpse of the future?

Next year marks 20 years since I graduated from high school.  Well I say ‘graduated’ but it was actually more like making sure I covered the bare minimum to get out of having to repeat my final year.  I remember having a ‘debate’ with my maths teacher as to exactly how quadratic equations was going to assist me in the real world.  Yes I was one of those students.  Which is why I find it a bit bizarre to read my leavers book entry above, which I have just discovered again today thanks to old school mate Rod Swift, which reports that I had ambitions to be a Scientist? Wha? Is this some sort of  pubescent rebellious humour?  Rod has also set up a Facebook group for those in our year and it has been a real spin to connect with old friends after so long! Continue reading »

Ministry in the not too distant future

Recently I discovered that visitors to my blog came from 103 countries, including such countries as Panama, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Faroe Islands, Iran, Russia and China. (Yes I had no idea either, the Faroe Islands are located northwest of Scotland and halfway between Iceland and Norway.)

Seeing this visitor diversity reminded me of the huge shift presently happening in society: moving from relating geographically to relating through networks or interests. This is being driven by the massive growth of the internet. In the not too distant future where you live will mean very little to whom you relate to and the context of your work.

Your workplace may well be wherever you want it to be, your ministry field perhaps on the other side of the world. The most obvious positive is that we potentially can reach huge numbers of people for a fraction of the cost (no travel expenses, venue set up costs etc..) And the negative is that we won’t have as much face to face contact. And for most of us this is the biggest struggle : the idea that we relate without meeting face to face. To quote Hugh Mackay, no longer do we need to be physically present to be in community.

The massive challenge facing us in the church and church organisations is that we are all deeply invested in the geographic model. Parishes are located in suburbs, with autonomous Christian organisations, one to each country. So as this shift away from geography builds momentum we are in for quite a shock.

It is essential that leaders start to wrestle with this otherwise we may well be left wondering where all the people went.. wait isn’t that happening already?

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(In my next post I will share practically how this new virtual ministry interaction might happen.)

Wanna find something out? Don’t bother with your friends, just Google

Recent research conducted by the Auckland University of Technology shows that 71% of New Zealand internet users consider the internet to be an important source of information.  Now what is amazing is that only 56% consider family and friends to be an important source which drops to 52% with newspapers or television.   This amazing trend toward seeing the internet as an important source of information is also reflected in other countries including the USA, and Australia.

The number of people using the internet is growing rapidly. According to Internet World Stats as at June 08 the number of internet users across the globe was 1.5 billion, which represents an increase of 305% since 2000.  Those of us within Christian Ministry need to take the internet seriously.  We need to develop an internet strategy, to work out how to leverage the internet to best promote our mission our cause.  If we don’t we run the risk of our offerings becoming irrelevant.

Now developing a internet strategy is way more than having a web site and a blog though this is clearly part of it, it is about: Continue reading »

Close the Gate to PC based applications and storage

Greetings from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania where I am visiting the American Bible Society offices and spending time with their amazing staff. Speaking of America.. today marks a significant event with the retirement of Bill Gates from active involvement with Microsoft. He handed over the operational duties some years ago, but has remained involved until today.  His time will now be spent focused on his philanthropic work.  Gates built his empire on software that is housed on our computer’s hard drive, which given the massive changes with the internet, may well soon become a thing of the past.

Take for example storage,  Continue reading »