We are God’s Mission Strategy
June 16th, 2010Keller – A Missional Church
June 14th, 2010Think, Conference Trailer
June 9th, 2010Small Churches
June 1st, 2010
Brandon O’Brien, editor at large for Leadership and author of the forthcoming book The Strategically Small Church writes:
In a conversation last week about the virtues of small churches, a pastor friend of mine, Chuck Warnock, quoted a passage from John Zogby’s 2008 book The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream (Random House). Zogby prophesies that “The church of the future will be a bungalow on Main Street, not a megastructure in a sea of parking spaces. It’s intimacy of experience that people long for, not production values.”
Zogby is a political pollster who checks the nation’s pulse during elections and that sort of thing. He has also worked in consumer polling—researching what kinds of products people like to buy. His book, The Way We’ll Be, is an account of the changing values of Americans as those are evidenced in voting and purchasing patterns. So when Zogby says that the “church of the future will be a bungalow on Main Street,” what he means is that religious consumers of the future will prefer small congregations. He isn’t making any claims about the inherent value of small churches, about intentional philosophies of ministry, or about the role of the church in God’s vision of redemption. He is simply talking about consumer patterns and preferences.
I don’t fault him for that; this is what he does. What concerns me is that it is easy to imagine how the consumer appeal of small congregations could quickly become a motive for keeping a congregation small. Right now, most of the conversation about organic and simple and house and, increasingly, traditional small churches is dominated by voices that advance theological and ecclesiological reasons for thinking mini instead of mega when it comes to ministry. But American Christians love polls; and when word gets out that the average church shopper prefers a small, intimate worship experience, it is very likely that we will lose sight of our theological and philosophical principles and start appealing to pragmatics. Instead of celebrating small churches because they are better positioned to reach people at the margins, better equipped to empower the laity for the work of ministry, and more inclined to cooperate, rather than compete, in ministry, we’ll be touting small size as a strategy to get people in pews.
This is already happening on a smaller scale. A couple towns southwest of where I grew up, there is an ever-growing megachurch led by a celebrity (well, at least a local celebrity) pastor. Ten or twelve years ago, they planted a satellite church near an upper scale neighborhood in my hometown. This is a gated community full of multi-million dollar houses. And just outside the gates there’s an upper scale shopping center, complete with boutique cheese shops, delis, and couture stores—you know, snooty places. This large church planted its sister site in this shopping center, and the little congregation (who hears preaching via satellite) fits in nicely with the other boutique stores. Now, I’m not judging motives but from an outsider’s perspective, this small satellite campus feels like an effort to attract a high-end clientele that would not be inclined to attend the larger church, made up of mostly middle class folk, but who are attracted to the boutique style of this small site.
My point is this: if we start favoring small churches because of their consumer appeal, we’ll be doing just what many of us accuse megachurches of doing—giving the people what they want. In this case, shifting from mega to mini ministry would require some changes in strategy, but no real re-thinking of our philosophy or theology of ministry.
In the interest of full disclosure, I agree with Zogby: I think that the future will belong to small churches. But I want to be darn sure that we begin to favor small church ministry for the right reasons and not simply because we think we’ve found a way to win a new share of the religious market. Some of the current shifts in consumer mentality spell good news for small churches, to be sure. People who value intimacy and authenticity, for example, will be drawn to smaller, local congregations. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But I hope we perceive these trends not as a strategic boon, but as an opportunity to reclaim a biblical vision for our ministry.
iPhone, iBand
May 26th, 2010Sojourn Church, Louisville
May 24th, 2010This video tells the story of a church that’s making a big difference in the world. Check ‘um out!
Music at Sojourn
May 19th, 2010It would be difficult to find a more musical bunch than the people at Sojourn Community Church, Louisville (check out their sound on iTunes under “Sojourn”). Mike Cosper (worship pastor) shares a bit of their musical pilgrimage and then envisions their future. I’m hoping this will stretch us and help us to think of music from a missional standpoint.
“Ten years ago, when Sojourn began, I was a 19-year-old kid charged with coordinating the musicians who would lead worship. We had only about 60 people at our early gatherings, and about 20 of them were musicians. From the very beginning, I had a desire to see a wide and diverse group of players and singers take part in worship at Sojourn.
Those early services would feature a constantly rotating cast of players – one or two singers might lead the first two or three songs, and then swap out places with a different pair. Drummers, bass players, and guitarists would change during the service, and no two songs would sound or feel alike. Music would range from indie rock to acoustic, to fairly standard pop.
It was strange and diverse, but God allowed those early years to create a sense of belonging for the musicians who were participating. Within a short period of time, the diverse, rag-tag band of players became a community, and the vision for Sojourn music became more and more clarified.
The years have taken us a long way. We’ve learned much about keeping Christ at the center of our gatherings. We’ve learned much about what kinds of songs speak to our community. We’ve learned much about the value of diversity. And we’ve rediscovered and reclaimed the hymnal as part of our heritage and voice. Still, we have much to learn, much room to grow, and much more hope for what the Lord will do at Sojourn Music.
To borrow language from the Vision Campaign, we want to see more and better. Let me explain:
In the next ten years, we want to see more and better:
- Gatherings. We want our gatherings to be places where people who live out the gospel gather to build up and encourage one another. This should result in more faith-filled singing as the words to the songs become more deeply and personally powerful. We believe that a congregation, singing in faith, will experience the richness of Christ’s word dwelling amongst them (Colossians 3:16). We want our gatherings to be places where the body of Christ is transformed by the word of Christ, and where the Spirit of God dwells richly and powerfully in the praises of his people.
- Diversity. One of the joys at Sojourn is the unpredictability of the gathering. One week might be delta blues, the next might be indie rock, and the next might be bluegrass. That diversity is something I’ve fought hard for over the years, and I’m eager to see it widen as we move more broadly across the city – especially as we enter Shelby Park. Being on mission as a musician means asking and answering, “What does it look like when a neighborhood that doesn’t know Jesus starts singing His praise? What are the voices, sounds, and rhythms?” I don’t know exactly what it looks or sounds like as we move forward, but I believe the diversity we’ve experienced is just a foretaste of an even greater diversity in our future. But that requires leaders, and not just leaders but…
- Worship Pastors. I’ve become convinced that the deep need of the church isn’t simply worship leaders, who are skilled at singing and leading a gathering, but worship pastors who understand the heart and pulse of God’s people, leading them in a life of worship and a rhythm of gathering that equips them for all of life. Worship pastors know that songs shape our ideas about God, and will skillfully craft services like sermons, that over the course of the year keep those ideas balanced, fresh, and powerful. As we plant churches and launch campuses, we need an army of pastors who shepherd us in singing with the church of all ages, and the church of every tribe, tongue, and nation.
- Records. We live in an iPod generation. Twenty-five or thirty years ago, the majority of our congregation would have had rudimentary skill at reading a piece of music and the hymnal would have been more than sufficient to equip us to sing. Not so today. Musical literacy diminishes while technology grows and flourishes. iPods, iPhones, iPads, DROIDS, and mp3 players are in almost every pocket, car, or purse. Despite the decline in musical literacy, music is more omnipresent in our lives than ever. While I may never convince someone of the merits of learning to play piano, read music, or play the guitar, I don’t have convince them of the value of music or their MP3 player. Sojourn will continue to press forward in writing and recording music because we believe it’s the best way to equip the church to sing together.
There’s more floating in my mind about where we want to go. I want to deepen our partnerships with other gospel-centered churches and artists, and help to impact churches across the globe by calling them to reach for depth in their songs and gatherings. I want to partner with Sojourn artists and help them do their craft in the world to the glory of God. I want to equip the next generation to sing and to lead us in singing. I want to know what Sojourn hip hop and Sojourn jazz and Sojourn gospel looks like. It’s the kind of stuff that gets me up in the morning.
But at the heart of it all, I want to see you – my friends, my fellow leaders, and the covenant community – experience the joy of the Gospel as we gather, as we hear God’s word, and as we respond with repentance, lament, joy, and hope.”
Social Media
May 17th, 2010Should churches pay any attention to social media? You decide. This might help (video and text are provided by Erik Qualman).
It’s amazing how fast the world of social media moves! As many of the statistics from the original Social Media video have changed, I took a moment to refresh the video with a few new statistics and graphics. Thanks to all of you for your support in making the first Social Media Revolution and Social Media ROIvideos such a huge success and I hope that you enjoy this refresh!
Stats from Video (sources listed below by corresponding #)
- Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30-years-old
- 96% of them have joined a social network
- Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S.
- Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
- 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
- Years to Reach 50 millions Users: Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…
- Facebook added over 200 million users in less than a year
- iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
- We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it.”
- If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 3rd largest ahead of the United States and only behind China and India
- Yet, QQ and Renren dominate China
- 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction
- 80% of companies use social media for recruitment; % of these using LinkedIn 95%
- The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females
- Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres (combined) have more Twitter followers than the populations of Ireland, Norway, or Panama. Note I have adjusted the language here after someone pointed out the way it is phrased in the video was difficult to determine if it was combined.
- 50% of the mobile Internet traffic in the UK is for Facebook…people update anywhere, anytime…imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
- Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé – some universities have stopped distributing e-mail accounts
- Instead they are distributing: eReaders + iPads + Tablets
- What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…
- The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube
- While you watch this 100+ hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube
- Wikipedia has over 15 million articles…studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica…78% of these articles are non-English
- There are over 200,000,000 Blogs
- Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth now becomes world of mouth
- If you were paid a $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia you would earn $156.23 per hour
- 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
- 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands
- Do you like what they are saying about your brand? You better.
- People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services than how Google ranks them
- 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
- Only 14% trust advertisements
- Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI
- 90% of people that can TiVo ads do
- Kindle eBooks Outsold Paper Books on Christmas
- 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation
- 60 millions status updates happen on Facebook daily
- We no longer search for the news, the news finds us.
- We will non longer search for products and services, they will find us via social media
- Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate
- Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like Mad Men Listening first, selling second
- The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years
- Bonus: comScore indicates that Russia has the most engage social media audience with visitors spending 6.6 hours and viewing 1,307 pages per visitor per month – Vkontakte.ru is the #1 social network
Awful Worship Song
May 12th, 2010
Wanna write awful worship songs? Stephen Altrogge offers the help you’ve been looking for. Enjoy!
So you finally learned to play the guitar and now you’re wondering, “How do I write a truly awful worship song?”
You’ve come to the right place my friend. Here are some sure fire ways to write a truly horrible worship song.
Recycle A Love Song.
Write a song for your girlfriend. When she breaks up with you, convert it into a worship song. Be sure to change all uses of “girl” or “baby”.
Use Time Tested Rhymes.
Make sure that you rhyme “love” and “above” at least twice. The song becomes doubly awful if you can also incorporate the word “dove”. Example: “You sent your love from above, makes my heart feel like a pure white dove.” You get the point.
Be Vague About Your Theology
Make sure to avoid any theology at all costs. Don’t talk about atonement, wrath, or any other biblical concepts. You want your song to be all about feeling. Don’t let the mind get in the way. Repeat after me: “Worship is a warm feeling, sort of like heartburn, only better.”
Make the Song All About You
The main point of your song should be your experiences and how God makes you feel. Don’t bother with objective truth about God. I would suggest that you use the words “I” or “me” at least 12-15 times. For example, “I feel like singing, yes I feel like spinning, because You make me feel so good inside. Like it’s my birthday, but more awesome.”
Be Incredibly Poetic
If you can, muddy the waters with poetic phrases that don’t make much sense. Example: “Your love is like a warm summer’s breeze, washing over my heart like a crystal river.”
Use Well-Worn Musical Progressions
If you can, keep your music and melody boring. I would suggest that you use no more than four distinct notes in a song, so that by the time someone is done listening to it they want to scream. A worship scream, but a scream nonetheless. It also helps if you use the chords G, C, and D over and over.
Defend Your Song Like It’s Your Firstborn Child
Do not, I repeat, do not, let anyone make suggestions for improvement. Tell people that God laid the song on your heart. Tell people that you really want to preserve the artistic integrity of the song. Tell people that you already did the song at your campus ministry and that a revival broke out. Don’t take advice from anyone.
There you have it. Seven ways to write a terrible worship song. You can thank me later.
SH adds: the comments left on Stephen’s original post are worth reading. Find them here.
