Connect Training Course

Some time ago, a paragraph in newspaper caught my eye:

“Generation Y so connected, but oh so lonely: Survey. Theatre Director Bryce Ives came home from a wedding recently, and was amazed by how lonely he felt. "Oh my, those people were so happy and I was so furious and angsty, there by myself at 2am eating toast and having a beer," he says. At 27, Mr Ives is part of the most connected generation we've ever seen. ...” - Source

A national survey released recently by Relationships Australia suggests the under 30s may well be the loneliest generation of all - Source. According to the Relationships Indicators Survey 2011, 30 per cent of Australians aged 25 to 34 told the survey they were frequently lonely, significantly more than any other age group. The next most lonely were the young adults aged 18-24. Just under 20 per cent of them were frequently lonely. Interesting, in the light of the amount of time people spend ‘with' each other on-line in the internet age.

THRIVING CHURCHES | PART 6 | THE RIGHT CHURCH SHAPE

Q 5 | DOES OUR SHAPE AND STRUCTURE REFLECT OUR VISION AND VALUES?

It is vital to have an organisational structure (and constitution and policies) that best supports the mission-field, vision and people. Sometimes it can be assumed that there is only one traditional ‘shape’ for a church or an agency, namely a Board; a Minister; and the Congregation with an AGM. Some churches think that the labels: deacons; elders and pastors define the only ways to organise, but often they can cause confusion because of the conflicting ways different Christians understand them.

THRIVING CHURCHES | PART 3 | BIBLICAL FRAMEWORK

2 | WHAT'S OUR BIBLICAL FRAMEWORK FOR MISSION?

As well as a team of Christians with ‘missionary-DNA’ we need to ensure that the theology 'underneath' the new mission-project is coherent and understood by the key leaders. Our belief-system shape our values and therefore our practises and choices. That means the team-leader (or minister) needs to be a person who is well-grounded in the Scriptures and can teach with some depth and help others to engage and interpret the scriptures. It is vital that the team-leader is released to keep learning, stretching, reading, teaching, mentoring and speaking forth prophetically.

Public Space Faith

There's an interesting BriefCACE article by article by Sam Tuttle, a city planner about public space. (Thanks Al for pointing me to it).

As we think about moving into neighbourhoods as the people of God,we often think deeply about what shape a congregation's personal evangelistic or discipleship processes might look like, but less about redemption of the social spaces we find ourselves in. What does it mean for a church-plant team, or a missionary team to redeem culture? What is our relationship to the 'city' or the 'village' or the 'land'.

Here's a part of Sam's article:

"...Why should a Christian, or anyone, be concerned about where the next neighbourhood, skyscraper or grocery store is built? To understand this, we must first see why cities matter. In their most basic form, cities reflect God’s design for community. 

Despite all of its negative connotations, the city is God’s idea. When God called Adam and Eve to ‘be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it’ he is calling them to use all of their resources, including those provided in nature, and those resources given to intelligent, creative and relational people created in God’s image. This is often called the Cultural Mandate. Cities are the culmination of our relational and creative aspirations. They are the gathering together or our collective desire to be fruitful and subdue the earth. 

Because of this tremendous potential, there is tremendous power to do evil. Like all of creation, our cities are corrupted and groan to be redeemed. But the city has a place in God’s redemptive plan. The picture of the fulfilment of God’s Kingdom on earth is not of a return to the Garden of Eden, but of the New Jerusalem. God’s final design for his people is as citizens in the City of God...."

Here's the WHOLE ARTICLE for you to read.

What do you think?