Amy Schenkel
I am the Great Lakes Regional Mission Leader for Home Missions, and currently serving as the interim Operations Director as we prepare to become a new mission agency with World Missions! My husband, Henry, and I had the joy of planting and pastoring a church plant from birth to adulthood, and so I have a special passion for church planting. I also find joy in Adventure Races, triathlons, National Parks, and doing anything with our two children.
Posted in: Growing Churches
Harry,
I can see your point about the tenderness with which we have to address the role of the pastor in a growing or a declining church situation. This research was done not in the spirit of finding someone to blame, but rather to look for the various factors that resulted in growth. These were visionary leaders who were willing to make couragous decisions, even when that was hard to do. It is not the only factor in the church's growth, but it was one of the common factors I found. And, if that is true, what can we do as a denomination to strengthen the leadership capacity of our pastors? Just a generation ago our pastors were not also expected to be visionary leaders-they were expected to fill pastoral roles only. So how should our denominational resourcing and education help prepare pastors to fill these new expectations?
Of course, every situation is different. These are common themes that emerged from these interviews. Not every church owned every factor, and so we must learn from it what we can but not over-adopt it for every situation.
Posted in: Kids Leading Worship
We just began a new program (so we'll wait to determine its success!) called weWorship. (One child thought I said WiiWorship and was a bit dissappointed). During our family nights twice a month the 1st-6th graders gather to think about the many different ways we can worship God. Each month a different leader guides them in a different theme. For example, last month they thought about how God is worshipped through dance. They read a Bible story about David dancing, they drew pictures, and they came up with a dance to a worship song. They also talked about the difference between performing a dance and using it to help people worship. Then, the last Sunday of the month the children have an opportunity to lead us in worship using what they've learned. For us it is a way to integrate children into leading worship.
Posted in: A Wrap of a Rap on the Heidelberg Catechism
This is great- thanks so much for the link!
What a great way to bring the HC into a church planting environment- this will surely show up sometime in the next few months in one of our worship services!
Posted in: "Contemporvant" Worship Video--Funny? Offensive? Satirical? Mean?
Thanks for a good laugh this morning.
This is where it strikes me (coming from a church planting situation): sometimes we try too hard from our own efforts to make the worship gathering flashy and meaningful and emotional and...contemporvant. Like if we just try harder then we'll see the life transformation we're hoping for. But we forget that no matter what we do, no matter what style we worship in, it is the Holy Spirit who works to do the transforming. I am reminded of this everytime I think a worship service- or a sermon- flopped, and yet God uses that broken attempt to do amazing things.
Posted in: Pastors: Low-Prep Ways to Connect With Your People
Great, practical advice, Dave.
I also think these everyday spaces are places where we could meet our neighbors! :)