Have you migrated?
I realized a couple weeks ago that I still have this blog. Funny, but sad at the some time.
Perhaps we've all moved on from this discussion. "We get already! The world's change! We should be doing ministry different, gosh!"
I get it. The intellectual impact I'm sure is long past. Or is it? Maybe the shock of it. But has that knowledge [That we can no longer do ministry the same way that's we've done it] converted into motion?
Honestly for me it hasn't much. In my personal life it has. In areas of ministry that I had the say it shifted. Not the whole course of my ministry, and certainly not the course of the churches I've served. My many measures that would make me a failure. I'm ok with that.
I really had hope that old and new wineskins could coexist in the same space. But think about it, you can't graft a new piece or a new section on a wineskin and expect to hold wine in there. If we're talking agriculture you can. But at this moment in the church we're still talking buildings and machinery, not fields and plants.
So if you're reading this and you don't know what to do. Right now, schedule a half day of prayer, not at your church or home. Ask God to show you needs in your community, and ask him what should should do about it. Have some conversations with your people. You're good at that right? [Hope so.] Ask them the same questions. As time goes on actually do some of those things.
Do we need to move and live in different ways? Do we need to teach the people in our churches to live and move in different ways and go to different places? Do we need to take our ministries to different streets, businesses, schools and homes that we haven't? YES please, like yesterday! Please feel the urgency. But as Coach Wooden said "Go quick but don't hurry." This kind of change takes time. It's ok to let things simmer. Today, move in a new direction if you haven't already.
There's a few book I think might be helpful. Try: Missional Map-Making by Roxburgh, They Like Jesus But Not the Church by Kimball, and Youth Ministry 3.0 by Ostriecher. Or, you can buy me a cup of coffee and we can chat.
Perhaps we've all moved on from this discussion. "We get already! The world's change! We should be doing ministry different, gosh!"
I get it. The intellectual impact I'm sure is long past. Or is it? Maybe the shock of it. But has that knowledge [That we can no longer do ministry the same way that's we've done it] converted into motion?
Honestly for me it hasn't much. In my personal life it has. In areas of ministry that I had the say it shifted. Not the whole course of my ministry, and certainly not the course of the churches I've served. My many measures that would make me a failure. I'm ok with that.
I really had hope that old and new wineskins could coexist in the same space. But think about it, you can't graft a new piece or a new section on a wineskin and expect to hold wine in there. If we're talking agriculture you can. But at this moment in the church we're still talking buildings and machinery, not fields and plants.
So if you're reading this and you don't know what to do. Right now, schedule a half day of prayer, not at your church or home. Ask God to show you needs in your community, and ask him what should should do about it. Have some conversations with your people. You're good at that right? [Hope so.] Ask them the same questions. As time goes on actually do some of those things.
Do we need to move and live in different ways? Do we need to teach the people in our churches to live and move in different ways and go to different places? Do we need to take our ministries to different streets, businesses, schools and homes that we haven't? YES please, like yesterday! Please feel the urgency. But as Coach Wooden said "Go quick but don't hurry." This kind of change takes time. It's ok to let things simmer. Today, move in a new direction if you haven't already.
There's a few book I think might be helpful. Try: Missional Map-Making by Roxburgh, They Like Jesus But Not the Church by Kimball, and Youth Ministry 3.0 by Ostriecher. Or, you can buy me a cup of coffee and we can chat.
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