i was just checking out something through catalyst space [their web-based leaders e-zine & pod cast]. they had a summary & a link to george barna's site.

barna was listing the top religious findings of .06 - one prettying interesting thing listed is how church go-ers view their relationship with God and then how pastors think the people in their church view their relationship with God. there is a HUGE disconnect between the two.

i guess the most troubling thing related to this issue is how we as leaders can be so uninformed about the people that we're trying to lead. this is probably a bit of a hard pill to swallow. but when/if we get past our defensive thoughts, how does this impact what we're doing as we lead church?

when we really get down to it are we answering questions that no one is asking? are we providing a program that not many are interested in being a part of? is it then any wonder that so much of the american church is struggling? probably not...

I am pulling the domain switch-a-roo. Until recently you had to stick with the domain name you origanally chose. In this blog's case it is way too long and tedious, not memorible. Some of you would argue that with ChOG Migration too. ["Cause he's a bad ---Shut yo mouf"] Anyway, January 17th I am swaping this domain for chogmigration.blogspot.com. Now with the new blogger you can simply retype the domain you want in your settings. You don't have to acctually, and laboriously move all the posts to a new blog. Or worse discard them and leave them behind at the old domain. So Jan. 17th I will swap. Make sure to resubscribe to the new address.

Merry Christmas. "God bless us all, every one!"

I've upgraded the blog to Blogger beta. So before you can post again I think you have to upgrade your account. It seems worth it to me. There's more easy layout change, and the dashboard is differant, etc. Time to keep up with the latest and greatest!

So in staff meeting today we set asside some time as pastoral staff to process things from GA. They asked Chris and I to come up with a book to read. So I'm curious, if you were in my shoes what book would you have your staff read?

Hey Guys,

We've got Ron coming on February 22nd to Lincoln Park Church of God. It's a one day event. This will be the third one I've attended. It's a whole day of picking Ron's brain and talking more indepth about Ethos, Leadership, Theology etc...plus you get to pick each other's brains also...max of 20-30 attend so it's very personal...

The cost is 99 bucks...well worth the time and info...register at velocityculture.com

rumor has it that he may give us a copy of his chapter on trapize artistry not yet published...no promises yet...

Thanks
Steve

Hey everyone,

I just found this interview from New Wineskins with Ron. Some of it's review from GA, but there's some new stuff in it as well. Enjoy.

Quite a post by Dan Kimball. Check it out here. This is a long post but really good. I've had similar conversations in the past. Not one has been to an emerging church either. hmmm.

With friends like that Dan...

So what is going on in your neck of the woods?

It's 12:49am. I came home after lunch today to catch a nap because I'm coming down with a cold and I wanted to jup ahead of it. I tried to go to bed, I've laid there for over an hour now. I just can't sleep. I'm not thinking of sugar plumb ferries, dispite the time of year.

I came to me curent church knowing it was very modern. I had a sense that I could help somehow. But I've sat fairly quitely in the last year, scoping things out and waiting for the timing to be right.

Since GA the halls have been buzzing around here. There is an urgancy, and a common language, and shared expeirance now. [Thanks for coming to talk to us Ron.]

Something great happend last sunday night. That's when the high school meets. 8 commited followers of Jesus that usually come sunday night didn't. They went to someone's house and had small group. So commited students left the church to experiance "assembley" and fellowship. This has happend, and now all us pastors here can put our finger on it; "This is the stuff Ron was talking about." I've been waiting for this to happen. I just didn't expect this to happen episode 4 of season 2. I thought I would have to wait til season 3 or 4 to reshape the way my ministry is. Now, it's upon us.

So tonight after Middle School D-Groups, a few of those guys and Chris and I were at Dunkin Donuts trying to put our finger on it. What does an effective HS ministry in St Joe MI look like?

I think we've got a start. I think we have some ideas. The pump is primed. The bearings are greased. The road is icy. [ Those guys are praying for a snow day tomarrow so we can shovel the sidewalks and driveways of the houses around the church.] {Wait, should the road be icy? Oh, nevermind, it's 1am.}

Just thought I would share.

I don't know about you guys, but I recieved my CDs from GA, they're on my iPod and I will be looking back over my notes and trying to sum up some of it. I've been held up on Session 3 because I had my notes from that session on a differant peice of paper...and well I don't have them anymore.

I've been contacted by dearchurch.com. It's a site that's a companion to the book Dear Church, by Sarah Cunningham. Anyway, it has to do with disillusionment, hurt, or frustration with the Church. She is doing a Media Tour, one of the arms of which is blogs and websites. Someone from the website emailed me to see if we wanted to be involved with a blogsphere interview. What happens is we generate some questions and Sarah will reply to them and I can post them here. I guess leave your questions here as comments or you can email me.

I think it's a good opportunity to continue and broaden our conversation.

BTW: has anyone read the book yet? [sheepishly asked, because I haven't yet.]

Questions could be like:
what do you see as them main issues the church has to face/overcome to minister to postmodern generations?