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Emerging Church Update 1 ─Marc’s Messages
Emerging Church
Update 2 ─Marc’s Messages
Emerging Church
Update 3 ─Marc’s Messages
Emerging Church
Update 4 ─Marc’s Messages
Four updates on the
“emerging chuch” phenomena from Marc Van Der Woude. Many people, Marc included, feel there is a
new form of Christianity coming that is a lot different from the traditional
forms that have reigned supreme for the past several centuries. This “emerging church” is made up of young,
well-educated and technically literate people who are not content to be apart
of a single move of God.
We know more than our pastors ─Tim Bednar
Note:
paper is in PDF (Adobe Acobat) format.
This paper explores how Christians are using blogging for spiritual formation
and how they are redefining the scope of Martin Luther's "the priesthood
of the believer". Throughout the paper, I will defend my claim that
"we know more than our pastors" and by the end of the paper, I will
show why bloggers are the vanguard of what I am calling the
"participatory church". {If
the link to the document doesn’t work, try going to Tim’s blog: E-Church and click on Download.}
No Labels, Please! ─Marc’s Messages
…Sometimes people try to label
me and categorize me in one of their 'church flavour boxes'. When this
happens, I tend to give them a hard time. The question "To what church
do you belong?" is an easy one. I use to reply: "To the only church
there is - the church of Jesus Christ, as expressed 'locally' in my city and
social network"…
Evangelism
Catches Up With the Times ─FOX News
Today’s hip, young things — make that
hip, young, Christian things — are surfing the Net in search of God … and
finding Him.
Religious
Activity Increasing in the West ─Barna
…One
interesting facet related to the behaviors growing in popularity, according to
Barna, was their non-church nature. “Notice that the growth activities
– Bible reading, prayer, small groups – are those that do not take place
at a church. The church-oriented endeavors – attending services,
volunteering in church programs, Sunday school participation – showed no
movement. This may be an early warning sign that we are entering a new era of
spiritual experience – one that is more tribal or individualized than
congregational in nature.”
The
“out-of-church” Christians ─Andrew Strom
Why are tens of thousands of
devoted Christians leaving the churches? Is it a 'movement'? What is causing
this world-wide phenomenon?
A Churchles Faith
─Reality
What
makes people stop attending church and what happens to their faith after they
have left?
God wants the
emerging generation! ─Marc’s Messages
…The fastest growing church is that of the churchless Christians. Many
people (and especially ‘cultural creatives’ like the new media folks) leave
church because they want to grow spiritually and the church is limiting that…
Typically God─9300 new churches planted in three
years ─JoelNews
…Less than three years ago, thirty tired farmers
sat down to listen to a supposedly crazy missionary. The result is one of the
most astonishing developments in mission in recent church history: the
gathering started a movement in an East Asian nation through which over 9,300
new churches have been planted…
Ten Myths About
Church Leavers ─Reality
…Despite the almost mantra-like status of the
statement "people are leaving the church" there still appears to be
little understanding about who is leaving, when they leave, why they leave, and
what happens to them and their faith after they leave…
A
Postmodern Approach to Church ─Reality
Many of the
tenets of postmodernism offer a unique opportunity for the Gospel. Len
Hjalmarson explored some of these in his previous article "Kingdom
Opportunities in a Postmodern Culture"; here he suggests how a
postmodern approach might affect church life.
The local church and it’s future ─JoelNews/Barna
Frankly, the
local church in the U.S. has come on hard times. Not financially, it reaps
more than ever, but in terms of its image and influence.
Number of Unchurched Adults has nearly doubled since
1991 ─Barna
Since 1991,
the adult population in the United States has grown by 15%. During that same
period the number of adults who do not attend church has nearly doubled,
rising from 39 million to 75 million – a 92% increase!
Faith has limited
effect on most people’s behavior
─Barna
…Based on a national survey that related
people’s faith and 19 lifestyle activities that might be expected to be
affected by faith views, the report concludes that two groups – Christian
evangelicals and those without a faith preference (i.e., atheists and
agnostics) are those that stand out from the crowd…
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