Joshua Benton

When I served with an RCA church in South Dakota, the classis was so large that they had smaller "clusters." That is, churches in specific regions that would meet on a regular basis. our cluster of just pastors met roughly once a month and then we had a leadership training event once to twice a year in our cluster. Good thoughts. Keep them coming and doing.

To be honest, I found Bill Hybles' book Courageous Leadership to be very helpful and insightful. It gave me a lot to go by for my own perosnal growth in leadership. I know it's a bit more "pop culturery" (as in not Henri Nouwen) but it has some good stuff that can be taken away for leaders.

I recently metnioned the Cannons of Dort in a sermon about witnessing (Art 1 pt 3) and our Reformed tradition. Two years ago, I went through a 5 weeks series looking at the Cannons of Dort using the acronym FAITH (Fallen Humanity, Adopted by God, Intentional atonement, Transformed by the Holy Spirit, Held by God). That went over very well.

As for one who wasn't able to attend, it helped me feel I was there. Thank you.

I like a lot about the network in many ways. I have printed off blogs for my elders and deacons for council meetings so that they might be up to date on a few items. On the other hand,  I am a bit unerved sometimes about the harshness some people respond to posts in the forums.

I will be honest, there is something missing and I just don't know what...if that makes sense at all.

In the end, keep it up though, keep evolving and be fluid in how the Network opperates. It takes time for a child to learn how walk, it will take time for the Network to become what it is supposed to become.

Mark...

More of what I'm thinking has to do with being spiritually fed. This is done as much by the worship as it is with the ministry of Word and Sacrament. The question that is being brought up I think more so is "Are people being spiritual fed with healthy food their spiritual stomaches can handle?" In other words, somneone used to steak and potatoes with just salt and pepper to taste may have a hard time with spicy Thai food at first. Now, if you switch it up on them and say "All you can eat is Thai food or nothing at all." Then they are no longer being fed. The same is true with those who are not used to things such as steak and potatoes and eat a less meat filled diet. To expect them to eat only steak and potatoes is alos not good.

Until you can properly move somoene from one menu to the other, there needs to be at first a balance to make sure both are being properly fed.

I deeply enjoy and am fed by Praise and Worship music (sometimes the harder the guitar and louder the drums the better). But where I'm at right now, I know that it wouldn't feed everyone but only a few. Not only that, but there was a bad situatoin some years back because it was forced upon them. So, it takes time to transition to get to the point where both sides are being fed.

Cultural relevancy needs to be acted out with pastoral hand.