August Guillaume

If you want to compare the health of churches and you only use Yearbook data, you will be greatly disappointed in the accuracy of the data to do such a comparison. It is pretty difficult to agree to new metrics which will be used and measured the very same for all the churches. 

A discussion of the health of churches will be beneficial. I hope that many will contribute.

What does the statement mean: "What does Christ think of such an arrangement?"

Certainly the fact that there are two different congregations in the same geographic area must be challenged!

We were supposed to be 'one' to convince the World about the Way!

How many have we become?

A Christian Reformed Church Building is just that - a building which needs resources for the upkeep. Since the local congregation is in charge of the building they can set rules - who to share the building with and how much to charge.

The "Kingdom of God" encompasses the whole universe and is not limited to a wood and stone structure that is used to worship GOD by a very small group of people.

It is so "unreformed" in my way of thinking to force a structure made by man to some arbitrary rules that are labeled "God's rules". Its the type of thinking that seems to justify paying a very small wage to people working for a church.

That a church MUST share their resources for no charge because they are Christian, while businesses owned by Christians are allowed to charge in order to earn a profit because the businesses are not part of God's Kingdom comes from some Kingdom model that is totally foreign to Reformed way of thinking.

I would like to encourage parents to send their children to a Christian School even if donations to church would be less on account of these high expenses. For those who have lots of the world's goods, I have problems with limiting their contribution to 10%.

I received an e-mail consisting of the following:

New comment by SaundersCharity:



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To reply, flag, or view the full post: http://network.crcna.org/content/global-mission/subtle-shift-posture-missional-church#comment-2512

When I click on the link I can not find Comment 2512, 

In fact I do not know how to find a comment #.

What is going on?

Hi Karl: I believe each 'project' is unique in that the people involved, the services offered and possible results may be different in each case. trying to make one theme through it all may be rather tough and end up being a bit superficial.

Why not incorporate one project (only) in a service concentrating on the particulars, have the liturgy match that particular theme as well as songs and sermon topic (of course staying close to the Bible, so it may digress from or broaden the theme).

Then a few weeks later do the same with another project. The one unifying theme is that we work to serve our Lord with our gifts, although the gifts and work may differ from time to time.

CRC news had an article on iGPS - the Inter-agency Global Partnership Strategy which I found interesting and possibly helpful.

However, after following links provided, It seems most of the resources and discussions given are for CRWRC type work where help and assistance to third world countries are provided.

I was hoping that there would be a special area reserved just for NA churches connect with other churches.

It may be helpful to describe how other churches in the world manages their responsibilities.  We have a connection to another church in Cuba. Beside language problems, their relationship with their government is quite different compared to us as well as how they interrelate to us. In NA we tend to be quite more individualistic rather than communal.

It could be helpful for other churches to know what to expect if there is some descriptions in terms of language, governance, communication preferences etc etc.

A new distribution system would provide options for each church e-mail - fax or snail mail.

An effective way to communicate is to have a meeting where people actually meet face to face. This naturally limits the conversation (only one person can talk at the same time and there is a 2-3 hr limit for the meeting).

There are hundreds of ways to communicate electronically, and each type has its pros and cons.

I now get newsletters, e-mail news and magazines by e-mail. They seem to get larger by the issue. (there is no artificial limit to its size anymore).  Now each organization takes interesting news from others with the result that one story sometimes takes space in 10 different e-news articles.

That is great for the editors - just check contents and english - no limit on length anymore.

oops: the reader - what is the reader supposed to do? And here is the rub.. the reader has only so much time in the day to read electronic material. The more one article takes the less there is time for another. If one web site takes all the time, there is less time for another.

So the reader has to pick and choose and ignore a percentage of what is provided, with this percentage growing every week as more resources and web sites gets created.

So before more information is prepared and sent, be sure that sufficient readers are interested and would like to get or find the new? information.

August Guillaume

Contacts as requested:

Confessio Augustana

Box 2051 Station Main

Stony Plain AB T7Z 1X6

Canada

or:

Augsburg Lutheran Church Tract project

Box 352

2359 Hwy 70 SE

Hickory NC

28602

USA

August Guillaume

Since our church is small, I have been managing membership records instead of one of the elders. I have also seen the change. When older members change membership in the appropriate way, I try to welcome them even though they may hve been quite active already. This happens so that the younger set gets the idea that membership is appreciated. When a baby is born and wish to be baptized, membership papers are requested. However, since this younger set can be very committed we have not put any artificial barriers between members and non members. Our directory which comes out every two years is a good way to find out who is or is not committed by inviting people to add their names to the directory or e-mail list we have.  I have consoled myself to this view by thinking about Jesus' church as one church and not be too concerned if we have a lot of 'ex members' on our list as long as we know from family members that they are active members of another church or have moved away to another town.  It is always a challenge for elders to know who to include in their list and who have in effect transferred membership without letting us know officially.  There is always sufficient to deal with the members and others who do attend let alone all those who are no longer attending.