After several years of teaching in and around the Chicago area, Maria and I were World Missionaries on Guam, then Home Missionary Church Planters in Paw Paw, MI. We currently serve the Lord in Eastern Van Buren County.
Thank you Michael for the fantastic way you laid everything out. I really appreciate it.
In addition to what you have said, another consequence of these clear misuses and abuses of power is that those who forced these decisions upon the greater Denomination have emboldened other abuses.
Those who desire to treat fellow Christians (that may disagree on certain issues) with open hostility, can now hide behind their piety without any concern for accountability or recourse.
Somehow they believe that God will bless the CRCNA if they just get rid of all ‘the rot.’ (When you have CRCNA Pastors that are members of a ‘secret’ Facebook Group for which one of their goals is to eliminate women’s ordination, you know they are NOT done.)
During Synod 2024, my heart broke during the discussion on the 1F Majority Report ‘declaring’ the clarified understanding of ‘unchastity,’ is a salvation issue.
Thankfully, this report was rejected.
And yet based on the vote and the things that were said, it’s clear that some believe you can do and say whatever you want with impunity when you feel someone is going to hell.
Since I had a family member that was a delegate at Synod 2024, I watched almost every moment. And while I do have a memory of someone using the language of ‘rot’ to describe those who disagree on the HSR, you might not be able to find it. What I know for a fact is that during breaks, when the delegates were talking amongst themselves, there were MANY conversations where people used words like ‘rot’ to describe their fellow Christians. At one point, I logged in early and started watching the live stream. I happened to have the closed captioning on and even though delegates were not ‘on camera,’ the microphones were picking up their conversations…and is was NOT good. It made me so uncomfortable, I commented something along the lines, “Someone should tell the delegates the stream has begun, and the microphones are picking up their conversations.” And then to be a bit snarky I added, “They should be more careful; because anything they say can and will be used against them in the Court of Compliance.” In response, they abruptly ended the comments section.
What’s also true is that after I ‘overheard’ what people REALLY think, I drove up to G.R. to see and experience these things for myself. As I walked around the meeting, most people didn’t know who I was, so they could speak freely as I sat there and did a little recon. And they DID speak freely. This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone when on the CRC Clergy Facebook group, in response to someone saying, “My heart breaks” when it comes to how countless people who dedicated their lives to the CRCNA are being kicked out, another person said “MY heart rejoices!” Or in a recent response to lamenting how several CTS Professors and Staff are being forced out, a person comments, “The students will be Blessed for it!”
Is using the language of ‘rot’ really so surprising?
Back in 2019, I was a Delegate to Synod which approved several recommendations to try and help prevent Abuse of Power in the CRCNA including: Recommendation 10 – Creating a culture to prevent abuse of power. “That synod affirm the following as core values for the culture within the CRC: – mutual respect for every person as created by God and equally responsible to respond to God’s call to use their gifts for God’s mission in the world, including the ongoing work of building God’s church. – an understanding of servant leadership that emphasizes mutual submission as a corrective to the hierarchical tendencies within our culture. – mutual accountability through checks and balances built into governing structures. That synod affirm the importance of care in the use of language within church assemblies, with attention to the impact of language that harms the ability of others to fully exercise their gifts and calling.” (Acts of Synod 2019, Pgs. 608-610)
Before the vote was taken, there was a short break where I found those who had written and just presented these excellent recommendations. I shared how it struck me how inconsistent it would be to adopt these recommendations, and yet still allow Synodical and Classical Meetings to includes a protest that directly ‘impacts and harms’ half the world’s population ‘from fully exercising their gifts and callings.’ They admitted I was correct in my assessment and mentioned how this discrepancy was indeed removed from final version so it could have wider acceptance.
So, if you go back and watch the video today, you will see how after we voted to approve those Abuse of Power recommendations, there was a time of repentance where people were encouraged to come forward and lament those times power had been abused. The video ends with a lunch break. Those who were there know, (that what has since been removed from the official video) is that I quickly put my name in the queue to speak. Given permission, I proceeded to explain how sick to my stomach I was given how while we may have just agreed to those recommendations, we still allowed activities that clearly meet the criteria for abuses of power we just pledged to try and prevent.
Once I had finished and they finally dismissed for lunch, I had a long line of people confront me asking, “Are you saying I am committing an abuse of power?” My response was simply, “I’m saying that you can’t affirm those recommendations, and still justify ‘language that harms the ability of others to fully exercise their gifts and calling.”’ Obviously, those conversations did not go well and because my comments made the Denomination look really bad, that portion of the proceedings has since been deleted. (I double checked a few weeks ago and still couldn't find it.)
So, IF someone did use the language of ‘rot’ during discussions at Synod 2024 or the previous two Synods, as we move from a ‘low trust’ environment, to a ‘no trust’ environment, it wouldn’t surprise me if it has since been edited out…just like my comments were in the past.
These are great! Thanks Amy for posting these important and helpful steps. Some of our greatest Ministry successes and Kingdom opportunities have come directly from #2 Take a City Leader to Lunch. One quick question for people to wrestle with BEFORE you do this: what happens when a Community Leader asks you and your church for help with a urgent need in the community, and you can't get 'buy-in' from either the Church Council or Church Members? Just something to consider as you 'head in the right direction' this New Year...Thanks again.
I agree wholeheartedly that our children and their Faith Formation NEEDS to be an important focus of every Church.
From the context of a Church Plant perspective, I spoke with various people from Faith Alive often over the past 8 years. I shared with them the problem we face is complete Biblical illiteracy of many people of our congregation. With 2/3 of our people coming into our faith community being brand new to church or returning after many years, most of the parents we meet have very little Biblical knowledge to speak of. While the content of Faith Alive materials like Dwell are fantastic, they have been tried in our setting and are 'over the head' of most if not all of our kids. More and more families from the area are not just coming to us with a deficiency of Bible knowledge, they are coming to us with ZERO Biblical understanding...because they didn't even own a Bible!
We serve in a Post-Christian setting where some kids think the story of Adam and Eve is on the same level of authenticity as the story of 'Beauty and the Beast.' When God brings them into our midst, guess which story they know better?
Very helpful article! The description of Secular3 is spot on and something we deal with every day.
Since it is useless (and therefore exhausting) to try and draw people 'back to church' when they are so far removed from any type of faith community, the only way for a church to effectively minister today is to go out and meet people where they are at. Once we've learned what the needs really are, we can better create a ministry context that can help connect them to God. Like Jesus in the Incarnation, we need to 'become' more like the people we are called to minister to. As we see the Apostle Paul describe in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”
Thanks for the great article! Speaking as a fellow former Illinois resident (and knowing that I sometimes struggle with an unhealthy mid-western 'work till you drop' work ethic), I have felt the very same way in these days. So, I really needed to hear this. Thanks for your continued leadership at CTS!
GREAT article Resonate Global Mission. Very helpful! At first, I was taken aback by #7. "We don’t know if we’ll ever be financially stable." I've heard stories of the 'Chapel Strategy' from yesteryear that always bugged me. To send out a group of people to start a new Ministry who may or may not ever be self-sufficient just seems unwise. I would hope that every new Church begins with a good strategy to somehow be self-supporting at some point. Yet I know the reality of the doing Ministry in 2019 North America, is that most Churches (both New & Old) still don't know if we will ever be financially stable. I guess that is why Jesus called us to pray for our DAILY Bread. Finally, if I could add an 11th item, it would be: Just because new Churches might 'look' and 'feel' VERY different to those who have only known an Established Church context, that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with that Church Plant. In fact, if it doesn't 'feel' like Church to you, it just might be the perfect worship atmosphere for a person in that community who does not YET know the Lord Jesus.
Thanks for your passion, and I'm so glad people are having these discussions.
This conversation is SOOO important!
The question we continue to wrestle with is how absolutely painful the changes necessary for a Church to bring revitalization really are for the 'grandparent' and 'parent' generations...to use your analogy. If those folks are used to having everything in the ministry be about them, their needs, and their preferences, then at some point I think they loose their ability to look at ministry through a missional lens. The end result is that they no longer "know, love, and serve the community where God has placed them.”
I've seen it over and over again. A Classis may want to Plant Churches and Revitalize their ministries, but nobody wants to be the person who comes in and says "Its not about YOU! It's about what Jesus wants for His Church." Let's say a Church in your Classis wants to be a "Mother Church" of a Church Plant, yet if effective outreach and evangelism isn't part of their DNA, then you are just transferring un-healthy DNA to an otherwise healthy Church Body.
This is the reason why perhaps the best option is to model the 'death and resurrection' of Jesus in a Church Re-Start where we all 'die to self' and 'live for Christ.'
Step 1.) Take a struggling Church congregation that truly desires to learn to love their community and share Christ, but has NO idea how to do that. Step 2.) Celebrate what God has done in that Church, and communicate 'well done good and faithfully servants.' Step 3.) After an extended time of morning the 'death' of that old congregation, allow new Life to begin in it's place by turning the building and assesses over to a Classis supported Church Planting group. Step 4.) Communicate to everyone (including those from the Church which just died) that moving forward, the Church is going to be about doing whatever it takes to communicate the Gospel to the surrounding community. Step 5.) Spend several months getting to know and love the community you are called to serve. Step 6.) As you come to care for those people who do not YET know the Lord, you come to look at ministry through their eyes, and the Spirit gives you ministry ideas to welcome them into the Fellowship of this new and 'resurrected' Church.
The ONLY problem I've experienced with this approach, is that most of the resources (money) are found in the larger established Churches that think they have ministry all figured out. For when their Community doesn't 'resonate' with their missional efforts, they blame the Community for not appreciating what they have to offer. Then they continue to pour resources into things that just don't work.
There are MANY conflicts in our church right now over this very issue. On the mission field and in past churches, we have come to know several people who have been seriously abused by the occult on Halloween. It's an important holiday on the satanic calendar. Each year, Halloween seems to get bigger and bigger as it's hold on our people grows stronger and stronger. I continue to be criticized because I've asked people in influence to abstain from participating in things like haunted houses and then putting the pictures on Facebook for the world to see. The occult is growing in strength in our town, and yet people continue to think it's cute to dress up like witches. When people ask our position, we give them a helpful book to read called, "Mommy, Why Don't We CelebrateHalloween?" by Linda Winwood. At the end of the day, I still land on what the Apostle John said, “This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with himwhile we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:5–7). Christians are called to walk in the Light and bring Life to the world, and not embrace death and darkness.
I think these type of distinctions are very helpful. I just shared this with our Elders as we just dealt with the unpleasant but necessary realities of Church Discipline.
Over 9 years ago, we set out to plant a new/restarted Church uniquely designed to make room for people who had been outside or returning to the Christian faith. At the time, we believed that in an established church setting, it’s often an unwritten policy that a person must not only fully believe and understand the truths of the Christian faith, but must visibly be on the road to becoming Christ-like in their daily life. Only then could that person fully belong in a Church community.
Knowing that paradigm for ministry creates a toxic environment for anyone ‘new’ to enter into a Church community, we turned that process on its head and created a place where anyone can ‘belong’ to our Church, without first believing. We trusted that in the Lord’s timing, people would become more and more like our Savior. The Lord blessed our efforts and we can all think of several individuals who ‘only at RedArrow’ could they feel a deep sense of belonging in a faith community.
However, the unintended consequence of this effort is that we have an extremely diverse congregation that bring a wide variety of belief systems and Biblical understandings. This is all well and good until the time comes to put people in positions of influence. It is in those settings that Biblical ignorance and spiritual immaturity really begins to surface.
It's now clear to the Elders that there was a small group of people in our Church that wrongly believed Christian fellowship should look more like a 'social club' or a 'service league' and less like a transformative force for good in a broken world. When we pointed out the 'high bar' of expectations were those given by God Himself, several walked away from the Church preferring to be conformed to the patterns of this world. If nothing else, we have learned to be more intentional about highlighting the reason God calls His people to righteous and holy living; out of gratitude for what Christ has done for us.
Just last week, we held our Community Wide VBS at the local public elementary school. It was Group's "Maker Fun Factory" and to pull it off, RedArrow again partnered with other churches in town including Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, & Roman Catholic. Out of over 200 kids who attended throughout the week, when parents registered their kids, more than 50% said they have no Church family. As the week ended, Crew Leaders and other volunteers confirmed that many of their students were hearing the Gospel of Jesus and other Bible stories for the very first time. While I agree that investing in those new relationships is absolutely essential, we should NEVER underestimate how the Lord can use outreach events like these to plant the seeds of Faith.
Posted in: Guidance on the Meaning of “Affirming the Confessions”
Thank you Michael for the fantastic way you laid everything out. I really appreciate it.
In addition to what you have said, another consequence of these clear misuses and abuses of power is that those who forced these decisions upon the greater Denomination have emboldened other abuses.
Those who desire to treat fellow Christians (that may disagree on certain issues) with open hostility, can now hide behind their piety without any concern for accountability or recourse.
Somehow they believe that God will bless the CRCNA if they just get rid of all ‘the rot.’ (When you have CRCNA Pastors that are members of a ‘secret’ Facebook Group for which one of their goals is to eliminate women’s ordination, you know they are NOT done.)
During Synod 2024, my heart broke during the discussion on the 1F Majority Report ‘declaring’ the clarified understanding of ‘unchastity,’ is a salvation issue.
Thankfully, this report was rejected.
And yet based on the vote and the things that were said, it’s clear that some believe you can do and say whatever you want with impunity when you feel someone is going to hell.
Posted in: Guidance on the Meaning of “Affirming the Confessions”
If I may, I’d like to respond to your question.
Since I had a family member that was a delegate at Synod 2024, I watched almost every moment. And while I do have a memory of someone using the language of ‘rot’ to describe those who disagree on the HSR, you might not be able to find it. What I know for a fact is that during breaks, when the delegates were talking amongst themselves, there were MANY conversations where people used words like ‘rot’ to describe their fellow Christians. At one point, I logged in early and started watching the live stream. I happened to have the closed captioning on and even though delegates were not ‘on camera,’ the microphones were picking up their conversations…and is was NOT good. It made me so uncomfortable, I commented something along the lines, “Someone should tell the delegates the stream has begun, and the microphones are picking up their conversations.” And then to be a bit snarky I added, “They should be more careful; because anything they say can and will be used against them in the Court of Compliance.” In response, they abruptly ended the comments section.
What’s also true is that after I ‘overheard’ what people REALLY think, I drove up to G.R. to see and experience these things for myself. As I walked around the meeting, most people didn’t know who I was, so they could speak freely as I sat there and did a little recon. And they DID speak freely. This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone when on the CRC Clergy Facebook group, in response to someone saying, “My heart breaks” when it comes to how countless people who dedicated their lives to the CRCNA are being kicked out, another person said “MY heart rejoices!” Or in a recent response to lamenting how several CTS Professors and Staff are being forced out, a person comments, “The students will be Blessed for it!”
Is using the language of ‘rot’ really so surprising?
Back in 2019, I was a Delegate to Synod which approved several recommendations to try and help prevent Abuse of Power in the CRCNA including: Recommendation 10 – Creating a culture to prevent abuse of power. “That synod affirm the following as core values for the culture within the CRC: – mutual respect for every person as created by God and equally responsible to respond to God’s call to use their gifts for God’s mission in the world, including the ongoing work of building God’s church. – an understanding of servant leadership that emphasizes mutual submission as a corrective to the hierarchical tendencies within our culture. – mutual accountability through checks and balances built into governing structures. That synod affirm the importance of care in the use of language within church assemblies, with attention to the impact of language that harms the ability of others to fully exercise their gifts and calling.” (Acts of Synod 2019, Pgs. 608-610)
Before the vote was taken, there was a short break where I found those who had written and just presented these excellent recommendations. I shared how it struck me how inconsistent it would be to adopt these recommendations, and yet still allow Synodical and Classical Meetings to includes a protest that directly ‘impacts and harms’ half the world’s population ‘from fully exercising their gifts and callings.’ They admitted I was correct in my assessment and mentioned how this discrepancy was indeed removed from final version so it could have wider acceptance.
So, if you go back and watch the video today, you will see how after we voted to approve those Abuse of Power recommendations, there was a time of repentance where people were encouraged to come forward and lament those times power had been abused. The video ends with a lunch break. Those who were there know, (that what has since been removed from the official video) is that I quickly put my name in the queue to speak. Given permission, I proceeded to explain how sick to my stomach I was given how while we may have just agreed to those recommendations, we still allowed activities that clearly meet the criteria for abuses of power we just pledged to try and prevent.
Once I had finished and they finally dismissed for lunch, I had a long line of people confront me asking, “Are you saying I am committing an abuse of power?” My response was simply, “I’m saying that you can’t affirm those recommendations, and still justify ‘language that harms the ability of others to fully exercise their gifts and calling.”’ Obviously, those conversations did not go well and because my comments made the Denomination look really bad, that portion of the proceedings has since been deleted. (I double checked a few weeks ago and still couldn't find it.)
So, IF someone did use the language of ‘rot’ during discussions at Synod 2024 or the previous two Synods, as we move from a ‘low trust’ environment, to a ‘no trust’ environment, it wouldn’t surprise me if it has since been edited out…just like my comments were in the past.
Posted in: Missional Steps for Churches
These are great! Thanks Amy for posting these important and helpful steps. Some of our greatest Ministry successes and Kingdom opportunities have come directly from #2 Take a City Leader to Lunch. One quick question for people to wrestle with BEFORE you do this: what happens when a Community Leader asks you and your church for help with a urgent need in the community, and you can't get 'buy-in' from either the Church Council or Church Members? Just something to consider as you 'head in the right direction' this New Year...Thanks again.
Posted in: Every Pastor in the CRC Should Hear This
Thanks for the article!
I agree wholeheartedly that our children and their Faith Formation NEEDS to be an important focus of every Church.
From the context of a Church Plant perspective, I spoke with various people from Faith Alive often over the past 8 years. I shared with them the problem we face is complete Biblical illiteracy of many people of our congregation. With 2/3 of our people coming into our faith community being brand new to church or returning after many years, most of the parents we meet have very little Biblical knowledge to speak of. While the content of Faith Alive materials like Dwell are fantastic, they have been tried in our setting and are 'over the head' of most if not all of our kids. More and more families from the area are not just coming to us with a deficiency of Bible knowledge, they are coming to us with ZERO Biblical understanding...because they didn't even own a Bible!
We serve in a Post-Christian setting where some kids think the story of Adam and Eve is on the same level of authenticity as the story of 'Beauty and the Beast.' When God brings them into our midst, guess which story they know better?
Posted in: Every Pastor in the CRC Should Hear This
Sure thing Karen.
Give me a call sometime at RedArrow Ministries, 269-657-5679.
Thanks!
Posted in: Is Your Church Running at the Speed of Apple? (Part 3)
Very helpful article! The description of Secular3 is spot on and something we deal with every day.
Since it is useless (and therefore exhausting) to try and draw people 'back to church' when they are so far removed from any type of faith community, the only way for a church to effectively minister today is to go out and meet people where they are at. Once we've learned what the needs really are, we can better create a ministry context that can help connect them to God. Like Jesus in the Incarnation, we need to 'become' more like the people we are called to minister to. As we see the Apostle Paul describe in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”
Posted in: Running in Mud: Life Lessons From the Farm
Thanks for the great article! Speaking as a fellow former Illinois resident (and knowing that I sometimes struggle with an unhealthy mid-western 'work till you drop' work ethic), I have felt the very same way in these days. So, I really needed to hear this. Thanks for your continued leadership at CTS!
Posted in: 10 Things Church Planters Want You to Know About Church Planting
GREAT article Resonate Global Mission. Very helpful! At first, I was taken aback by #7. "We don’t know if we’ll ever be financially stable." I've heard stories of the 'Chapel Strategy' from yesteryear that always bugged me. To send out a group of people to start a new Ministry who may or may not ever be self-sufficient just seems unwise. I would hope that every new Church begins with a good strategy to somehow be self-supporting at some point. Yet I know the reality of the doing Ministry in 2019 North America, is that most Churches (both New & Old) still don't know if we will ever be financially stable. I guess that is why Jesus called us to pray for our DAILY Bread. Finally, if I could add an 11th item, it would be: Just because new Churches might 'look' and 'feel' VERY different to those who have only known an Established Church context, that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with that Church Plant. In fact, if it doesn't 'feel' like Church to you, it just might be the perfect worship atmosphere for a person in that community who does not YET know the Lord Jesus.
Posted in: Classis Renewal - Church Planting and Revitalization Need to Go Together
Great article!
Thanks for your passion, and I'm so glad people are having these discussions.
This conversation is SOOO important!
The question we continue to wrestle with is how absolutely painful the changes necessary for a Church to bring revitalization really are for the 'grandparent' and 'parent' generations...to use your analogy. If those folks are used to having everything in the ministry be about them, their needs, and their preferences, then at some point I think they loose their ability to look at ministry through a missional lens. The end result is that they no longer "know, love, and serve the community where God has placed them.”
I've seen it over and over again. A Classis may want to Plant Churches and Revitalize their ministries, but nobody wants to be the person who comes in and says "Its not about YOU! It's about what Jesus wants for His Church." Let's say a Church in your Classis wants to be a "Mother Church" of a Church Plant, yet if effective outreach and evangelism isn't part of their DNA, then you are just transferring un-healthy DNA to an otherwise healthy Church Body.
This is the reason why perhaps the best option is to model the 'death and resurrection' of Jesus in a Church Re-Start where we all 'die to self' and 'live for Christ.'
Step 1.) Take a struggling Church congregation that truly desires to learn to love their community and share Christ, but has NO idea how to do that. Step 2.) Celebrate what God has done in that Church, and communicate 'well done good and faithfully servants.' Step 3.) After an extended time of morning the 'death' of that old congregation, allow new Life to begin in it's place by turning the building and assesses over to a Classis supported Church Planting group. Step 4.) Communicate to everyone (including those from the Church which just died) that moving forward, the Church is going to be about doing whatever it takes to communicate the Gospel to the surrounding community. Step 5.) Spend several months getting to know and love the community you are called to serve. Step 6.) As you come to care for those people who do not YET know the Lord, you come to look at ministry through their eyes, and the Spirit gives you ministry ideas to welcome them into the Fellowship of this new and 'resurrected' Church.
The ONLY problem I've experienced with this approach, is that most of the resources (money) are found in the larger established Churches that think they have ministry all figured out. For when their Community doesn't 'resonate' with their missional efforts, they blame the Community for not appreciating what they have to offer. Then they continue to pour resources into things that just don't work.
Any suggestions?
Posted in: What Does Your Church Do With Halloween?
There are MANY conflicts in our church right now over this very issue. On the mission field and in past churches, we have come to know several people who have been seriously abused by the occult on Halloween. It's an important holiday on the satanic calendar. Each year, Halloween seems to get bigger and bigger as it's hold on our people grows stronger and stronger. I continue to be criticized because I've asked people in influence to abstain from participating in things like haunted houses and then putting the pictures on Facebook for the world to see. The occult is growing in strength in our town, and yet people continue to think it's cute to dress up like witches. When people ask our position, we give them a helpful book to read called, "Mommy, Why Don't We Celebrate Halloween?" by Linda Winwood. At the end of the day, I still land on what the Apostle John said, “This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:5–7). Christians are called to walk in the Light and bring Life to the world, and not embrace death and darkness.
Posted in: Becoming a Low Bar/High Bar Congregation
Thanks for the article!
I think these type of distinctions are very helpful. I just shared this with our Elders as we just dealt with the unpleasant but necessary realities of Church Discipline.
Over 9 years ago, we set out to plant a new/restarted Church uniquely designed to make room for people who had been outside or returning to the Christian faith. At the time, we believed that in an established church setting, it’s often an unwritten policy that a person must not only fully believe and understand the truths of the Christian faith, but must visibly be on the road to becoming Christ-like in their daily life. Only then could that person fully belong in a Church community.
Knowing that paradigm for ministry creates a toxic environment for anyone ‘new’ to enter into a Church community, we turned that process on its head and created a place where anyone can ‘belong’ to our Church, without first believing. We trusted that in the Lord’s timing, people would become more and more like our Savior. The Lord blessed our efforts and we can all think of several individuals who ‘only at RedArrow’ could they feel a deep sense of belonging in a faith community.
However, the unintended consequence of this effort is that we have an extremely diverse congregation that bring a wide variety of belief systems and Biblical understandings. This is all well and good until the time comes to put people in positions of influence. It is in those settings that Biblical ignorance and spiritual immaturity really begins to surface.
It's now clear to the Elders that there was a small group of people in our Church that wrongly believed Christian fellowship should look more like a 'social club' or a 'service league' and less like a transformative force for good in a broken world. When we pointed out the 'high bar' of expectations were those given by God Himself, several walked away from the Church preferring to be conformed to the patterns of this world. If nothing else, we have learned to be more intentional about highlighting the reason God calls His people to righteous and holy living; out of gratitude for what Christ has done for us.
Posted in: An Outreach Strategy You Cannot Ignore
Just last week, we held our Community Wide VBS at the local public elementary school. It was Group's "Maker Fun Factory" and to pull it off, RedArrow again partnered with other churches in town including Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, & Roman Catholic. Out of over 200 kids who attended throughout the week, when parents registered their kids, more than 50% said they have no Church family. As the week ended, Crew Leaders and other volunteers confirmed that many of their students were hearing the Gospel of Jesus and other Bible stories for the very first time. While I agree that investing in those new relationships is absolutely essential, we should NEVER underestimate how the Lord can use outreach events like these to plant the seeds of Faith.