Mission Memo

Looking for Something?

2008-08-30T00:52:00.002+08:00

There's a bunch of links to campus ministries, churches and blogs here, and by clicking on "older posts" below, you can find something posted here in the past.

Roundup

2008-07-15T11:19:00.002+08:00

News from Singapore and Nairobi today over at ICOC Hot News; Disciples Today has more on singles conferences coming up in Scottsdale, Arizona and Dallas, Texas.

Why We Give

2008-07-15T11:01:00.003+08:00

Okay, I can't recommend all the videos on this site, but this one is worth a link...

Here's a more serious look at the same topic:

“We believe that as a church becomes more outwardly focused, God will bless that church at home,” Polk said.

Iglesias y Ministerios

2008-07-12T18:39:00.002+08:00

Great to see Ministerio Latino back on-line!

First Fruit

2008-07-10T10:56:00.001+08:00

Manila's Campus Storm has its first baby (scroll down).

Southern Cone Discipleship Conference

2008-07-02T12:32:00.002+08:00

Forty disciples from nine cities and five different countries come together in Santiago. We spent an incredible 5 days together studying God's word, praying, fellowshipping and eating all with the focus of fixing our eyes on Jesus.
More from John Hoyt, here.

The Mission Approaches

2008-07-02T12:26:00.002+08:00

The Greater Baltimore Church of Christ gets ready for a big contribution on July 13:

Here in Baltimore we are approaching our mission contribution with the goal of raising $100,000, $60,000 to support the mission work in the Bangalore area of India, and $40,000 toward our goal of planting a church in Maryland in 2009. Any extra will be used to send member missionaries to visit our work in India.

Campus Roundup

2008-07-02T11:58:00.003+08:00

A new website: Here Am I, Send Me
Hours away from kicking off the ICMC
Storrs planting is drawing near: "The dream is being realized with a July 9th- 31st Campus Outreach at Storrs followed by the first service of the new planting in September."

Opportunities

2008-07-02T11:57:00.001+08:00

Opportunities for ministry, internships and other interesting programs:

Campus Ministry Intern, University of Connecticut. (Link)

Campus Minister, London University, London Church of Christ (Link)

Campus Minister, Tallahassee, Florida; Capital City Church of Christ (Link)

Fulltime Ministry Leader, Tulsa International Church of Christ (Link)

Lead Evangelist, Wichita, Kansas (Link)

Ministry Leader, Chattanooga Church of Christ (Link)

Region Leader and Woman's Ministry Leader, South Central Region of the Boston Church of Christ (Link)

Teen Ministry Couple, Atlanta Church of Christ in Gwinnett (Link)

Youth Ministry Couple, Part-time, Greater Nashville Church (Link)

Add something to this list by e-mail to kelcy@missionsmemo.org. You can always find it via the "Opportunities" link on the right hand side of this blog.

85% and Counting

2008-07-02T11:22:00.001+08:00

Chicago's getting close: over half a million collected for Eurasian Missions so far.

The Case for Another "Case for" Book

2008-07-02T11:20:00.001+08:00

Prolific author Lee Strobel is at it again.

Pak Churches of Christ

2008-06-19T17:30:00.004+08:00

From a tiny team of four—a Pakistani from Australia, another from the U.K., and a Chinese and an Indian from the United States—the gospel reaps a harvest in one of the most difficult of fields:

Although the team faced many obstacles and challenges in the first few months, God eventually rewarded their faith and perseverance. Many of the first converts were raised up to become a part of the local leadership group that would eventually take over the leadership of church....From that group of four disciples there are now 4 churches in two nations with over 235 disciples.

Wow. Read the whole thing.

Laces Tied, Ready to Run

2008-06-19T11:16:00.005+08:00

I was talking with a ministry leader at the Asian Leadership Conference last week in Jakarta and the topic turned to campus ministries.

"I heard from a brother in the U.S. that the campus ministries are really struggling. They're not doing very well, right?" he asked.

I was more than a little incredulous, and thought maybe we had a language problem. "You mean back a couple of year ago, right? When did you hear this?" I asked.

"No, just recently. He said the campus ministries aren't doing well in the U.S."

Hmmm.

To put a new twist on an old phrase, it seems that in the church bad news can get halfway around the world before good news gets its shoes on.

You can pick up a good pair of running shoes for campus ministry news here, here, and here.

They're practically running a shoe store over at ICOC Hot News these days.

Around the Web

2008-06-19T10:51:00.002+08:00

Well worth reading, if you haven't seen them already:

Dinesh George is spot on with this call to "face the facts of our churches" and start planting, sending and giving again.
Jaime De Anda reports from the 2008 Central American Missions Conference in El Salvador, where babies abounded.
The new church planting slated for Bellingham, Washington comes together! Many of the Asian leaders I met in Jakarta last week were delighted to hear of this planting and that others of our U.S. churches are planting again.
Need some news that will encourage older disciples? Convicting for younger ones, too.

Still Learning

2008-06-15T17:40:00.006+08:00

The Asian Leadership Conference concluded today, with participants joining the first of two Sunday services of the Jakarta Church of Christ. Some random thoughts at the wrap-up:

1. We need to regard all of our churches as sources of ministry learning. Some of these churches have been our good news machines—tell us your encouraging stories!—but we’ve overlooked what they have to teach us about how to do ministry.

Take, for example, the innovative things the Manila church is doing to support non-fulltime staff leading sectors of hundreds range from the fairly obvious (move staff meetings to Saturday) to the experimental (including them in the church’s health plan to relieve some of the pressure to find and keep the more demanding jobs).

Asians get an unfair rap as imitators only—I’m telling you, at least in our churches, these guys are innovating. It’s a shame they are so seldom asked to share how they are pioneering in ministry. Lots to learn from them.

Steve Chin cites George Barna's research in the class Vision to Reality.

2. In a few years we’re going to have a wealth of leaders worldwide who know how to turnaround failing churches. Such stories abound here. Some churches have yet to turn a numerical corner, but the rebuilding is being done solidly. Tokyo, for example, last month added to its fulltime staff a new singles ministry—the church’s first addition to ministry staff in five years. When a church loses two-thirds of its members and most of its leadership, how does it get to this better point?

Dozens of leaders are now walking this path, and the experience they're gaining is invaluable. By God’s grace, we’re learning a better way to revive churches, one that will be far more long-lasting than the old, now-discredited purge and push method.

God Gathers

2008-06-14T18:38:00.009+08:00

One of the most encouraging sights of this conference for me has been seeing the re-unified leadership of the Seoul Church of Christ. There was nothing inherently bad about the decision some of our super-metropolitan area churches made to reorganize as several regional churches in places like Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Once freed from the one-church-one-city constraint imposed on urban sprawls of a size unimaginable in New Testament times, this kind of reorganization in some places was inevitable.

What was different about Seoul was that there was a real "scattering" in the works. Three separate churches were forming, and the parting wasn't looking very mutual. It looked for anything like a full out church split was hardening into place.

The peacemaking work of the Korean church leadership, assisted by Bruce Williams and John Louis, has been well-documented elsewhere, and the hard work of full reconciliation continues even now. But, seeing these guys all together here as one church leadership is a powerful reminder that even after a firestorm, with patience and Godly leadership, even what is broken can be repaired.

Three brothers from South Korean share a morning devotional time at the Asian Leadership Conference

Live-blogging the Asian Leadership Conference

2008-06-13T12:27:00.011+08:00

I’m in Jakarta today for the Asian Leadership Conference. Being here brings back a lot of memories. When just 18 I visited Jakarta—alone!—with missionary dreams.

It would take ten more years before actually making it to Asia to live, and only then as a language student, not a missionary. Even now, I am here as a part of a growing contingent of non-staff who now participate in conferences like this. Not what I might have imagined two decades ago, but just being here is enough.

After arriving last night our small Hong Kong group went for a late night Indonesian dinner. To my left sat the brother who, two years after becoming a Christian here in Jakarta, led a church planting to Indonesia’s most remote provincial capital, Jayapura.

(Map credit www.papuaweb.org)

The team of 12 traveled there by boat, a seven-days journey, and established a church on one of the world’s last anthropological frontiers. Now 80-odd disciples strong, this is just the kind of church planting we’ll need thousands more of to fulfill our "men for God from every tribe, language, people and nation" commission.

They are unsung heroes, and wonderful evidence of the grace of God.

Campus Additions

2008-06-10T20:38:00.002+08:00

New on the campus ministry directory: University of Texas Brownsville and University of Texas Pan American.

Campus ministers, send additions to kelcy@missionmemo.org.

Easy on the Greek

2008-06-10T20:25:00.003+08:00

Enough is enough:

Maria Sanford, a volunteer deaf interpreter at her church, used to play the piano, knit and paint with watercolors in her spare time. Now she spends most afternoons icing her hands.
The reason: the new pastor at her 3,000-member church uses "an unnecessary amount of long words and foreign words" each Sunday, says her furious husband.
"Does he really have to say ‘metamorphosis’ twenty-one times and ‘Thessalonica’ eighteen times in the same sermon?" he says. "Multiply that by four services and you understand why I’m upset."

Good advice: avoid "transformational" and "eschatology" for starters. (I was actually VP of the Dactology Club at FHU, and to my present embarrassment even included this on some early resumes.)

Back Blogging

2008-06-09T19:44:00.002+08:00

So, a quick roundup as I try to jump back in the saddle:

Campus: Baptisms all over the place, with less than a month to go until the 2008 ICMC.

Missions: Jaime is back blogging; Chicago's at 78% of $600,000 for Eurasian missions; Rich Garner has a good idea for turning game discs and DVDs into cash for Indian missions.

And, a new entry on the Opportunities post, for a teen ministry couple.

Unity Proposal Q&A

2008-05-31T18:22:00.004+08:00

I haven't posted much on the Unity Proposal because it's not a subject I've invested a lot of time in, and I've had equivocal feelings about it.

But this article by Mike Taliferro is well worth a read.

Thoughtful and plain spoken, the editorial doesn't sidestep honest questions.

Then again, it's hard for me to be objective. Having seen Mike's ministry up close, I'm a fan. (Can evangelists have fans?)

Church Pirates

2008-05-31T15:12:00.003+08:00

Monday Morning Insight posts video of Ed Young decrying "church pirates."

Sometimes I wonder if God might allow new churches to start from all kinds of less than ideal motivations, if for nothing else than to continue forming new churches with a desire to grow.

Maybe if we did more good planting, there'd be less occasion for the bad kind.

And here's an internet rarity: the comments on this article are actually interesting.

SpecCon Special

2008-05-31T15:09:00.002+08:00

Eating Ramen to save money for special contribution is sacrificial enough, I guess, but if you really want to be radical...

Santiago Turns 18

2008-05-26T13:51:00.000+08:00

Feliz Cumpleaños!

God and Science

2008-05-26T13:42:00.002+08:00

Videos of the recent God and Science lecture at Harvard, now available at the Boston Church of Christ campus ministry website.

Some of Our Favorite Things

2008-05-24T17:31:00.003+08:00

Campus revival in Columbia, South Carolina:

While the Spirit has been working powerfully here for over three decades, we arrived to a ministry in a time of great transition. There had not been a full time campus minister here for quite some time. Some students were graduating and many were moving on to the singles or marrieds ministries....
Truly, God is doing a new thing. We are now 35 strong and eagerly looking to the future. In these past three years there has been almost 100% turnover to other ministries and yet God has still blessed us with well over 100% growth in the campus ministry!

And a $173,000 special missions contribution...also from Columbia. This year's contribution was expanded to include specific amounts for the new church planting in Clemson this fall, a new initiative to strengthen churches and raise up leadership in the eastern Caribbean, as well as continuing our support for our adopted churches in Southern Africa.

Sichuan Earthquake: An Action Plan

2008-05-22T10:51:00.003+08:00

Chinese disciples propose a four-part plan to help victims of the Sichuan earthquake. Key point for MM readers:

If the Spirit moves you to give to the earthquake relief effort, please ask your Church leaders to contact us, and we will ensure this money is put into the relief effort.

Final 2007 Survey Report

2008-05-22T10:43:00.003+08:00

For those readers who collect such things, here's the Final 2007 Survey Report in PDF.

Prophetic 2008 report available, for a limited time, here.

Funding Strategy

2008-05-21T16:14:00.002+08:00

Austin chooses the direct method:

Rather than contributing to a “Mission Society” or “World Sector” as we have done in the past, together with the Central Jersey Church, we’ll begin directly supporting the churches in Cyprus, Turkey and Israel.

APEST

2008-05-21T16:03:00.004+08:00

Alan Hirsch says we still need all of the "fantastic five" roles:

...when Christianity dominated the culture, the church acquired a fundamentally non-missional posture. Mission beyond the walls of the institution was downplayed because every citizen was deemed at least a nominal Christian already. What was needed were pastoral and teaching ministries to care for and instruct the congregation, and to draw underdeveloped Christians back into the church on Sunday.
So, these two functions were eventually instituted as the leadership offices in the church, and the other three roles listed in Ephesians 4 (apostles, prophets, and evangelists) faded away as largely unnecessary. The system of church leadership we inherited from Christendom heavily favors maintenance and pastoral care, thus neglecting the church's larger mission and ministry.

While happy to leave behind our 1990's over-emphasis on E at the expense of S and T, I still think the greater danger we face is reverting to the S/T-dominated mean. But we don't have to choose, as Hirch points out so well.

Suspect "Stats" and the Facts

2008-05-21T15:57:00.003+08:00

Yeah, I'd heard the "80 percent of new churches fail in the first year" number thrown around, too, so was pleased to find this report by Ed Stetzer and Phillip Connor while looking for something else this morning.

We found that the survivability rate of the church plants in our study was 68 percent after four years—and this was similar in all denominations.

Lots more in the full report.

Food as Outreach

2008-05-20T17:52:00.003+08:00

A great example, from Seattle: Darin quickly became know as the “mayor of the neighbourhood” - being the first person to meet and greet every new move-in. A few months after we moved into our home, Darin suggested that we have neighbourhood potlucks every other month. Amazingly, our neighbours wanted to have potlucks every month – one of them even suggested every week!
After a year of monthly potlucks - a different neighbour hosted each time - Darin and I were even more eager to see how God was going to use our potlucks. A few months ago, during one of our dinners, one of our neighbours asked Darin if he would start a neighbourhood bible study.

Heh.

2008-05-20T17:39:00.001+08:00

Connection Metro Church of Denver decides to abandon ministry and focus on coffee, which was proving a bigger visitor draw anyway:

"People liked the coffee a lot better than the ministry, according to congregational surveys, so we’re practicing what we preached and focusing on our strengths," says former teaching pastor and now chief marketing officer, Peter Brown.
Many in the congregation seem downright relieved. "The sermons were okay, but the vanilla frappes were dynamite," says one woman who regularly attended the church for two years so she could enjoy the special brews.

Another Newly Appointed Evangelist

2008-05-20T17:32:00.004+08:00

This coming Sunday, Marty and Daonna Wilkinson will be appointed as Evangelist and Women's Ministry Leader in San Antonio, Texas.

I'm glad to see them recognized this way, and even happier to see the renewed emphasis by some of our most capable church builders on raising up a new generation of young evangelists.

Because to really start planting a lot of churches again, we're going to need a lot of new evangelists.

Near Possession Point

2008-05-19T19:25:00.001+08:00

Sichuan Earthquake Update

2008-05-19T14:10:00.004+08:00

As Steve Chin has posted elsewhere, we're at least comforted to know that none of the disciples in our sister churches in the earthquake area, or their families, were hurt.

The Hong Kong Church of Christ collected relief funds yesterday but is looking down the road to the time when the emergency relief is exhausted and the spotlight turns somewhere else. In fact, the amount of immediate assistance in such tragedies is usually sufficient--it's just a matter of getting it there in time.

The really difficult relief work will come months later, when the world's attention has turned elsewhere, but schools still need to be rebuilt, for example. I'll post more on these long-term efforts as I hear about them.

It makes sense that, as Christians, we should commit our resources to such efforts. Governments and the most reluctant of donors will be moved to action while the cameras are rolling, but who will have the perseverance--indeed, the love--to follow through for years afterwards? We can make a more significant contribution this way.

We Interrupt This Program...

2008-05-19T13:49:00.003+08:00

Good advice on "what to do when emergencies and outbursts bring your worship service to a halt" from Mike Woodruff.

And it's just a matter of time before something like this happens at your church. Maybe it won't be someone demanding to speak—it might be someone having a heart attack, or the electricity suddenly going out.

Once I was in a church service when a Sunday morning earthquake hit. And, I've seen the mike taken over more than once. It makes sense to be ready with a plan, especially with what not to do.

Speaking of Men

2008-05-19T13:43:00.003+08:00

David Murrow has a new book out and a website devoted to the same theme. His newsletter says the book is already having an effect:

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a gang of crazed women broke into a church sanctuary and tore down the flowered banners and lace curtains after reading the book.

Not really, of course. Directionally, though, not a bad idea.

Isn't This Like, So True?

2008-05-19T13:25:00.002+08:00

Taylor Mali:

(H/T to Mark Swanson.)

The Sichuan Earthquake

2008-05-15T09:22:00.003+08:00

Many readers, who know this blog is written from Hong Kong, are asking for news from China about the Sichuan earthquake.

Frankly, I'm getting my news from the same sources as everyone else and don't have much to add. Disciples Today posted a brief message from "Jessica" whose family in the shaken area is fine. ICOC Hot News today posts a message from our nearest church, in Chengdu.

Last night, here in Hong Kong at midweek, we prayed for the families of the victims and the rescue workers. We'll take up a collection Sunday, with the donations being made directly to the Hong Kong Red Cross China Relief Fund.

The Church Planting Imperative: "Churches Are His Plan A"

2008-05-14T16:49:00.006+08:00

Why plant?

Too few Christ-honoring, Bible-believing, revival-ready, open-hearted, welcoming churches. Is there one city in all this world with too many such churches? I have no assurance that God thinks so.
A truth too often overlooked in our times, especially by those who invent parachurch ministries, is that churches are God's only biblically authorized strategy for world redemption. Churches are his Plan A, and he has revealed no Plan B.

Good stuff. Thanks to a Mission Memo reader for the link. Keep 'em coming. And, let's keep planting new churches.

Campus Roundup

2008-05-12T19:30:00.002+08:00

More campus news:

David and Jody Peach move to Houston to "serve as interns helping to build and fortify the current campus ministry as well as initiating outreach on all the major campuses in the metro area."
UW triplets!
IMS gives the "official announcement and okay in funding to plant a ministry in Storrs, Connecticut, at the University of Connecticut in September of 2008....the first planting of a New England ministry in twelve years."

Missions Roundup

2008-05-12T19:08:00.002+08:00

Here and there:

Eurasian Missions releases its 2007-2008 Missions Report. Contributions from churches to the Eurasian Missions fund have increased almost 30% in three years.
In two days, the Columbia Church of Christ will have a day of prayer and fasting for missions. It's special missions contribution will go towards support of churches in Zimbabwe, Angola and Mozambique, as well as some of the smaller churches in the Eastern Caribbean, plus a new church planting in Clemson, South Carolina.
The Athens, Georgia church collects $115,000 for missions, three times the previous year's contribution for missions.
Denver plans a June 8 special contribution to support churches in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

China Rising

2008-05-12T18:17:00.002+08:00

The Beijing Olympics will bring fresh attention to the economic rise of China; Christianity Today is looking at another rise, the gradual transformation of China's underground church culture: The success of these new churches, which have never been underground, is having a ripple effect on traditional house churches. "The churches are tired of hiding," says John Davis, elder at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship, the city's main church for English-speaking expatriates. "They have been hidden for so long. They are ready to rise up and be seen, to be salt and light in society."
In Wenzhou, a southeastern city known as the Jerusalem of the Orient, urban church buildings are rising up like bamboo shoots.

Myanmar Relief

2008-05-10T11:23:00.005+08:00

From Cesar Lopez in Cambodia, on aid for Myanmar:
We have a brother there encouraging the church and coordinating post relief plan with HOPEww....

If you can make an appeal for donations that would help. Because all donations are hand carried into the country we have two points of funding coordination: the Oahu church which annually gives to Myanmar and the Bangkok church. Any amount would go a long way.

Most importantly please ask churches to pray. I'll keep you updated.

Thank you for helping the Burmese disciples.
See Mike's interview with Randy Jordan of HOPE for more on how you can help.

Disciples Today has specifics on the way relief is being delivered from Bangkok, and the bank information for Oahu for wire transfers.

2007 Church Survey Report: Part 5

2008-05-08T17:46:00.002+08:00

Beyond Stats

Collecting data from churches is always an interesting project. Besides the normal challenges, there is a spiritual dimension as well. We recognize the dangers of publishing this kind of information—dangers related more than anything to unintended consequences.

These dangers include:

Equating growth with good. What churches do to grow is not always good. Growth that is the result of gimmicks, pressure, or worldly ambition is superficially indistinguishable from healthy growth. Use discernment.

Failing to appreciate planting churches. One of the most selfless things a church can do is start another church. In so doing, the planting church may actually suffer a membership loss.

Failing to appreciate leaders who let go. Several churches in our survey reported membership losses because one or more satellite groups (or regions, or sectors, depending on the church's terminology) reached a point of maturity that allowed it to become a separate congregation.

Using numbers to validate suspect methodology or false doctrine.

Using numbers competitively. Having lived in several countries and a dozen different cities, we know that some fields simply yield a slower harvest than others. Comparing two churches without taking context into consideration is folly.

Thinking faster is always better. Fast growth by God's blessing is always a cause for joy, but all fast growth is unsustainable. Sometimes it's unhealthy. Steady, healthy growth gets less attention, but if it's sustainable, will produce a greater harvest over time.

We recommend not only the measuring of church growth indicators (membership, attendance, baptisms) but also church health indicators.

One church provided, in addition to its membership report, the following surveys it used to measure members’ perceptions of their spiritual life and the effectiveness of the church’s small groups.

We share these surveys, and the results, as an example of a balanced approach to measuring growth and health.

Spiritual Reflection Survey and Report
Small Group Effectiveness and Dynamics Survey and Report

2007 Church Survey Report: Part 4

2008-05-05T08:05:00.005+08:00

"Men for God from Every Tribe and Language and People and Nation"

The growth of any single church or group of churches has never, of course, been the goal. Obedience to the Great Commission means caring about the progress of disciple-making beyond our immediate environs. The following chart and lists illustrate the enormity of the task ahead (see note 1).

Canada/U.S.
Membership: 37,154
Population: 332,000,000

Asia/Pacific
Membership: 18,489
Population: 3,618,000,000

Latin America/Caribbean
Membership: 13,748
Population: 566,000,000

Africa
Membership: 10,750
Population: 694,000,000

Eurasia
Membership: 6,797
Population: 277,000,000

Europe
Membership: 2,724
Population: 529,000,000

Middle East
Membership: 468
Population: 499,000,000

WORLD
Membership: 90,130
Population: 6,515,000,000

There is at least one International Church of Christ in 147 countries (note 2).

However, of these 147 countries:

In only 24 countries (note 3) do we have churches with a combined membership 500 or more.
In 35 countries, combined membership is 100-499.
In 88 countries combined membership of all churches is fewer than 100 members.

There are approximately 48 countries in which we have yet to plant a viable church. These countries and their populations are listed below by region:

Middle East
Iran; 69,000,000
Algeria; 33,000,000
Yemen; 22,000,000
Syria; 19,000,000
Libya; 5,900,000
Mauritania; 3,200,000
Oman; 3,100,000
Western Sahara; 270,000

Europe
Poland; 38,500,000
Portugal; 10,600,000
Serbia; 9,400,000
Slovakia; 5,400,000
Macedonia; 2,100,000
Slovenia; 2,000,000
Montenegro; 600,000
Malta; 400,000
Andorra; 100,000
Greenland; 100,000
Liechtenstein; 34,000
Monaco; 33,000
San Marino; 29,000

Asia/Pacific
North Korea; 23,000,000
Bhutan; 2,300,000
East Timor; 1,100,000
Solomon Islands; 600,000
Brunei; 400,000
Maldives; 400,000
Vanuatu; 200,000
Samoa; 200,000
Tonga; 100,000
Kiribati; 100,000
Marshall Islands; 100,000
American Samoa; 100,000
Palau; 21,000
Nauru; 13,000
Tuvalu; 12,000

Africa
Somalia; 8,900,000
Eritrea; 4,800,000
Comoros; 700,000
Equatorial Guinea; 500,000
Djibouti; 500,000
Cape Verde; 400,000
Sao Tome and Principe; 200,000
Seychelles; 100,000

Latin America/Caribbean
Saint Lucia; 200,000
Antigua and Barbuda; 100,000
Dominica; 100,000
Saint Kitts and Nevis; 39,000

Notes for Part 4

1. We do not, of course, intend this section to reflect a view that we are the only disciples of Jesus in these regions, or that if a nation or city does not have an International Church of Christ it is therefore "unevangelized." We recognize as brothers all disciples of Jesus within or without the ICOC, and have areas of agreement with all who call themselves Christian, without compromising our convictions on "life and doctrine." But this need not in the least bit weaken our ambition to plant more disciple-making churches everywhere.
2. There are some difficulties determining exactly which political entities should be considered countries, but for the sake of this analysis, we have excluded dependent territories.
3. The 24 nations with over 500 members are Brazil, Canada, China, Congo (DRC), Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States.

Next, Part 5: Beyond Stats

2007 Church Survey Report: Part 3

2008-05-01T02:40:00.003+08:00

Growing to Non-Growing Church Ratio

In 2005 we saw the first signs of reversal in another disturbing trend. From 1998-2005, the percentage of churches reporting no growth or losses grew. In other words, it wasn’t just that total church membership was growing far more slowly leading up to 2002. Increasingly, individual churches themselves were simply not growing, or were losing members, well before 2002.

In 2005, for the first year since 1998, an increasing percentage of churches reported growing. There was another slight increase in churches reporting growth in 2006. But in 2007 we see a definite increase in both the overall number and percentage of churches reporting year-on-year growth.

This ratio of growing to non-growing churches is perhaps more helpful to understanding what is really happening in the church in terms of growth than is the overall growth rate itself. The growing to non-growing church ratio is something of a leading indicator of future overall growth or decline, since a few large, fast-growing churches can mask underlying declines in a greater number of small, newly planted, or struggling older congregations—but only for a time.

Taken together with the above analysis of our changing rates of growth, there is little doubt that the trend leading up to the events of 2003 had been in place for many years. Just as the steady increase in the ratio of declining churches was the handwriting on the wall of an imminent overall decline, the current clear increase in this ratio indicates a broadening base of healthy churches.
Despite an overall estimated increase in 2007 membership, the survey shows that a majority of churches still are either not growing or are losing members.

Besides the obvious solution of strengthening stagnant or declining churches, the best long-term strategy for maintaining a positive growing to non-growing church ratio is aggressive new church planting: young, small churches consistently grow more than older, larger churches. (See Natural Church Development: "Thus, we can conclude that the evangelistic effectiveness of minichurches is statistically 1,600 percent greater than that of megachurches!")

Next, Part 4: The Task Ahead

2007 Church Survey Report: Part 2

2008-04-29T10:08:00.004+08:00

Rate of Membership Growth/Decline

Measured in two-year increments, it is clear that our unprecedented losses beginning in 2003 were actually the continuation of a ten-year trend. Looking at changes in the rate of growth and decline, instead of merely at the membership totals themselves, shows a picture quite at odds with the notion that our troubles erupted suddenly in 2002. In fact, they were well on the way by then.

We will be able to update the above chart when the 2008 membership survey is complete and we have another two-year period to add. In the meantime, a year-to-year comparison of rate of growth and decline shows a similar picture: 2003-2005 may well turn out to have been a turning point, when whatever dynamics contributed to the ten-year declining growth rate trend began a painful process of correction.

Next, Part 3: Growing to Non-Growing Church Ratio.

2007 Church Survey Report: Part 1

2008-04-28T12:28:00.004+08:00

For the first time since 2002, our annual survey of membership among International Churches of Christ shows an increase in estimated membership.

Total membership increased by an estimated 1.7% in 2007, to 90,130.

We now have over 560 churches in 147 countries.

The losses that started in 2003 were the culmination of a ten-year trend of declining growth rates since at least 1994. Growth in 2007 continues an improving trend apparent since 2005.

The ratio of growing-to-non-growing churches improved substantially in 2007. Over 200 churches reported growth, not including newly planted churches.

Recovery has been uneven. Many churches continue to struggle to stop losses, much less initiate a turnaround.

Overall, the numbers tell a remarkable, if uneven, tale of survival, repentance and recovery.

After five consecutive years of declining membership, we estimate membership (see Note 1 below) increased by approximately 1.7% in 2007, to 90,130 members.

Survey participation in 2007 was by far the best to date. The estimated portion of total membership covers just 17 of 562 churches (see Note 2) in our fellowship, and amounts to fewer than 1,000 members, or only 1.1% of the total membership estimate. Of the total membership figure we are reporting for 2007, 98.9% of that amount is compiled from actual survey responses.

Two cautions apply when considering what appears to be an increase in membership in 2007:

The estimated portion of 2006 membership was greater than the estimated portion of 2007 membership, covering 70 of approximately 546 churches. The estimated portion of the 2006 total membership was 4,043 members, or 4.5% of the total of 88,597. As a matter of course, we estimate conservatively for churches which do not report membership, so it is entirely possible some or all of the apparent increase from 2006 to 2007 is the result of under-estimating the membership of non-reporting churches in 2006.
The survey reports are based on membership as reported by the churches themselves—their leaders, administrators, and in some cases, church members. While we have little reason to doubt the accuracy of these reports (see Note 3), there is enough margin of error to keep us from stating the 2007 finding of growth with complete certainly.

Having stated the above cautions, we feel free to make this observation: the 2007 result is really quite remarkable. The change from -3.6% in 2006 to +1.7% in 2007 is in many ways the equivalent of going from no growth to 5.3% growth. The financial and leadership dynamics that exist in churches which have lost members over several consecutive years make turnaround growth extremely rare (see Note 4), but that appears to be what we are now seeing among many of the churches.

About the Survey

The 2007 survey is the fourth in a series since the initial survey conducted by ICOC Info in 2004.

At that time the churches lacked any a formal mechanism for collecting membership statistics, and many were still wary of repeating our past unhealthy emphasis on, and use of, statistics. ICOC Info, a website I edited at that time with no official church status, put out the call for churches still interested in voluntarily providing annual membership statistics. That year, over 416 churches responded, and this annual survey was born.

In 2005 Roger Lamb, who had recently launched Disciples Today as a successor to KNN, and I met at the Seattle International Leadership Conference, where we agreed to cooperatively build an official directory of churches on Disciples Today, and to conduct the annual membership survey together. I collect and analyze the data, while Roger, through Disciples Today, provides the largest network of relationships with leaders and members in our churches worldwide, raising awareness of, and building support for, the survey.

After announcing the 2007 survey, we heard from 545 of the 562 churches. We thank God for this sign of maturity and health. By faith, we are entering a new era where churches feel safe sharing vital information without fear of competition and comparison.

Notes for Part 1

1. How churches define membership varies somewhat from church to church. Among International Churches of Christ, only baptized adults and teens are considered members. Children are not considered members. Many churches have more specific criteria for defining membership, including regular participation in church activities or small groups.
2. It is more difficult than one might imagine to make an accurate count of churches. It is rather difficult at times to confirm, for example, that a church is no longer in existence, by virtue of the fact that if it has disbanded, there is no one left with whom we can communicate about its status. The churches for which we are the least certain are 1) those which may have disbanded but for which we are unable to confirm this directly, and 2) those churches which may be in the process of evaluating the extent of their fellowship with us and are, therefore, reluctant to answer the survey one way or the other. The number of churches in these two categories is, in any given year, quite small (usually fewer than 10) and, with one exception, the churches themselves are also usually quite small.
3. We all know of egregious examples of false reporting of membership statistics. We find it quite unbelievable, however, that such reporting could go undiscovered for long. Now that we publish the survey results openly, anyone submitting exaggerated numbers runs a serious risk of being caught lying, and even honest mistakes will eventually be spotted. Lately we have been more concerned about a tendency among the churches to be over-conservative in their estimates when an exact membership number is not known (which then unintentionally overstates subsequent growth).
4. See Thomas Rainer’s Breakout Churches for a sense of just how uncommon it is for churches of any denomination to reverse a period of plateau or decline.

Tomorrow, see Part 2: Rate of Membership Growth/Decline.

Hard-Edged Accountability

2008-04-25T17:46:00.002+08:00

Chris Blumhofer in the latest BuildingChurchLeaders.com newsletter:

A former pastor of mine was known to pull together our church's pastoral staff from time to time and ask them each about the temptations they faced. He didn't pull any punches with his all-male staff: "How's your marriage?" he would ask. "Are you being faithful to your spouse?" "Have you looked at pornography?"
After every man answered, my pastor prayed that God would be merciful and take the life of (that is, "kill") any person who lied, lest shame be brought upon the ministry of the gospel.
That's one way of doing accountability. It takes sin seriously. It takes leadership seriously. It presumes grace for any person who confesses.

It's a great newsletter, by the way. You can sign up here.

"Male and Female He Created Them"

2008-04-24T11:07:00.007+08:00

Regular readers know I cite, on occasion, the ideas of David Murrow and that my reading list (lower right hand side of this page) links to his Why Men Hate Going to Church. And none of us, for that matter, can attend a class for men and not expect at least one reference to Wild at Heart, years after it's publication.

So I'm glad to see Christianity Today take this topic on with Brandon O'Brian's A Jesus for Real Men: What the New Masculinity Movement Gets Right and Wrong, even if I don't think it's an entirely accurate assessment of what men like Eldredge and Murrow are saying. For sure, O'Brian puts some needed brakes on what could become a runaway train:

Instead of "brash, offensive" (Stine), "self-reliant, competitive" (Murrow), "punch-you-in-the-nose dudes" (Driscoll), Paul says that those who are filled with the Holy Spirit will be loving, patient, peaceful, kind, and gentle.

But I don't think Murrow's main point is that Christian men need to conform more to society's ideas about masculinity, though in some cases that sure wouldn't hurt. The point is that the church could do more to attract the non-Christian man, and that it unintentionally does much to repel him.

For example, here's an idea from the Church for Men newsletter, a "get-up-and-go" service structure:

Worshippers can stay for as little as 45 minutes, or as long as 90 minutes. Allowing worshippers the freedom to dash out has helped Highfields attract a bumper crop men and young adults.

My first reaction was that this is simply pandering. A closer look, though, shows the thought behind this structure:

Men like to ask provocative questions. They learn from argumentation and give-and-take. Highfields lets its members participate in the service and play “devil’s advocate.” Guys love seeing Peter on the hot seat every week – answering pointed questions and taking tough stands on the issues.
The intermission gives high-testosterone males an opportunity to get up and stretch.
Highfields has eliminated one of the most awkward elements of modern worship: the turn-and-greet time. Instead of a few seconds of forced friendliness, worshipers can enjoy a leisurely fellowship time and find out what’s really going on in the lives of others.
The day I visited Highfields I couldn’t help but notice a trio of burly rugby players in their early 20s sitting in the front row. Young single men are rarely seen in UK churches; young single men with muscles are practically an endangered species!

And if you think this is important in the West, just wait until the sharp sex ratio imbalances in places like India and China, after two decades of sex-selective abortion, become apparent in adulthood.

A church that's 60% or more female is really going to feel out of step where ratios fall to these levels.

Truth in Government Notices

2008-04-19T10:58:00.005+08:00

Rarely do official notices contain such unvarnished truth:

I spotted this at a Shenzhen border crossing; it's not nearly as bad as some of the mistakes I've made going from English to Chinese.

Still Moving Forward

2008-04-18T09:38:00.005+08:00

I remember incredible stories of faith and sacrifice as churches in Boston, New York and other places sent out mission teams to exotic-sounding cities all over the world. What many may not realize is that such stories continue, but that now they originate in places like Delhi...

Working for a firm InfoTech in Delhi, Anil was granted the most efficient worker award for two consecutive terms in his process. With technical qualification, not only he was a good ambassador for Christ in the work place, but he is an upcoming ministry leader in the central sector of New Delhi. With a neat career record and a good reputation in the Church, God chose Anil to join the mission’s in Orrisa. He stood up to the call and convinced his non-Christians parents about his desire to be a missionary. Not only that, the month he was to submit the resignation his company offered him a nearly 40% salary hike. Considering it a loss for the sake of Christ, today he is in Bhubneshwar, Orrisa.

...and Bangkok:

Boonsong & Tor, true heroes in the faith and leaders in the Bangkok Christian Church, set a superb example for us. They planted the Laos Christian Church eight years ago and now travel ten hours by train overnight from Bangkok to Laos to encourage the disciples. They then return the following night enduring another ten-hour train trip. My heart aches as I think about their efforts to travel 20 hours by train to encourage the saints in a remote nation. Sometimes I struggle to drive 20 minutes to encourage my sister. They are my heroes in the faith.

...and Santiago:

...the Santiago Church sent off Patricio and Daisy, who will be leading our sister church in Concepción, Chile. For the last few months, Pato and Daisy have been traveling to Concepción to help and encourage the brothers and sisters there. Daisy used her vacation time and traveled by herself, moved by the need for more people to help study the bible with friends who had been visiting the church. God put in the hearts of this incredible couple to move to the southern part of Chile, leaving behind work and other personal goals to serve the Lord in this way. Patricio stepped down from his work as an IT Engineer and Daisy, who recently received her degree in Nursing, turned down a great job, to be able to go where our Lord was sending them.

Twenty years ago I was inspired by men like Scott, Preston and Jim, and I still am. But today, the guys pushing the frontiers of our mission forward are named Anil and Boonson and Patricio.

Cool, huh?

Campus Summer Intern Programs

2008-04-18T09:24:00.004+08:00

Here's the link to the LA campus summer intern program: "The Time Has Come."

Send me announcements for other campus summer intern programs and I'll post them here.

Campus Roundup

2008-04-17T15:25:00.003+08:00

Recent news from the "undeniable revival":

Brooklyn grows from "2 to 20" in two years under non-fulltime leadership.
The Philadelphia campus ministry sees "one-for-one Bible studies, former disciples...getting restored and students...deciding to follow Jesus no matter what the cost." Read the whole story.
Jeff Henderson reports on a recent Texas campus conference complete with baptisms.
Phoenix has a "Good Friday."

And two of my favorite topics converge as we add the planned January, 2009 Clemson, South Carolina church planting by campus ministers Jarrod and Stacey Robinson to the campus ministry directory. That's something to look forward to.

Time's Up

2008-04-16T10:35:00.006+08:00

Reminds me of an old Tulsa Soulwinning Workshop speaker who teased the "clock-eyed brethren." (Credit: CT)

Positive Trend

2008-04-16T08:36:00.000+08:00

One of the most interesting, and challenging, parts of the annual survey is handling information about underground churches. It's impossible not to admire the faith of disciples who risk losing jobs and sometimes their freedom to organize churches where Christianity is persecuted.

There has been an unmistakable trend in the past five years, though, towards a more relaxed treatment of information about churches whose locations have previously gone undisclosed, at least in our online directories. Always, the decision about how public we make such information is made by local church leaders.

I'm glad that we are now able to post contact information for our sister churches in Vietnam on the DisciplesToday church directory. That's a good sign.

Keep praying for all the countries on Open Doors World Watch List.

Not a Penny More

2008-04-15T10:01:00.002+08:00

U.S. taxpayers may need a little cheering up today: TurboTithe could be just what you need.

If your tithing status is 1-5, we suggest TurboTithe EZ Platerattler Edition. This edition comes with free advice on techniques for subtly making noise while dropping money in the plate.

The Way of the Heart

2008-04-14T13:43:00.003+08:00

Steve Kinnard has a new website up on spiritual personal development. Steve's a fellow FHU alum and preceded me to New York City, where several of us ended up going.

I'll never forget something Steve Johnson said to me almost 20 years ago about Steve Kinnard: "I think we could drop him into just about any city in the world and soon you'd have a church there baptizing over 100 people a year."

Church Builders Conference: Built To Last

2008-04-10T19:56:00.007+08:00

The 4th annual Church Builders Conference brings together 150 leaders, with a focus on "growing God's church in a dynamic way." Jimmy Allen recaps of some of the keynote addresses, including Doug Arthur's The Anatomy of Recovery:

He challenged us all not to go to the place of denial. His crystal clear call was to make a decision to get well, to be driven by faith not fear, to call everyone back to commitment and finally to get back to the heart of God.

Dave Pocta's presentation on the difference between "teen ministry" and "youth and family ministry" is well worth downloading here, and not just youth ministers--this is a different paradigm for church leaders to think through. Good stuff, strategic.

Christianisme

2008-04-08T17:25:00.004+08:00

Congrats to l’Eglise du Christ du Léman, our sister church in Geneva, Switzerland, on its new French-language website. There's a dearth of Christian websites in French, the official language of 30-odd of the world's countries and one of most widely spoken in the world.

525

2008-03-26T15:59:00.003+08:00

That's the most churches we've ever had respond to the year-end survey we conduct together with Disciples Today. In fact, it's the most participation of this kind we've ever had in our movement of churches.

Just a few dozen more to go--33 by my count.

AFRICA: 100% reporting

ASIA/PACIFIC (2): Lautoka, Fiji; Laguna, Philippines

CANADA (1): Edmonton

U.S. (12): Albuquerque, Atlanta Cornerstone, Charleston SC, DC Regional, Frederick MD, Kansas City, Lansing MI, Lawrence KS, Little Rock, Manhattan KS, San Francisco, Syracuse Regional

CARIBBEAN: 100% reporting

EURASIA (4): Khabarobsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok

EUROPE (4): Vienna, Brussels, Lyon, Thames Valley

LATIN AMERICA (6): Buenos Aires, Recife and Salvador (Brazil), Bogota, Medellin, Underground (1)

MIDDLE EAST (4): Jerusalem, Underground (3)

Help if you can.

Campus Roundup

2008-03-26T12:42:00.003+08:00

From Virginia to Florida, New England, and Texas....

Sam Cameron on the Campus Swap, "a growing tradition in our family of Churches...where students use their spring break to travel to another campus that is still in session to help reach the lost and encourage the faithful."

By the end of the week our recently re-started campus ministry of 9 disciples at FAU had a list of over 60 seekers who had studied the Bible that week or were eager to begin studying!

*****

The theme of the 2008 New England Campus Retreat: 'Pray for Revival.'

*****

Finally, this report from Jeremy Lindley & Brigette Hammond who led their Austin campus ministry to Lubbock for Spring Break.

Hundreds of students were reached out to as we shared our faith and hosted Bible talks. By the end of the day we had started two Bible studies with guys on campus. The following day God moved powerfully as we meet fifteen different people who studied the Bible. In all, 17 people studied the Bible over the two days! The highlight was when Tim McClellon was baptized after only two days of studying the Bible!

One of the most unselfish things a strong church can do is help a smaller church. Some of the folks in Lubbock and Amarillo have persevered for years without fulltime staff, so it's great to see another Texas church encourage them this way.

Heh.

2008-03-25T20:26:00.000+08:00

We interrupt this sermon to inform you that...

Praying with Men

2008-03-21T12:58:00.006+08:00

I'm teaching a class for single men this weekend and came across this video on how to pray with men without freaking them out.

Good stuff, although since we don't do a lot of the "laying on of hands" thing I'm not sure I'd be any less freaked out by the prayer force than the prayer mushroom.

But the point about being brief sure sounds right.

More Boston Baptisms

2008-03-21T12:33:00.002+08:00

No, I never get tired of that post title. More, please.

It is not the harvest that changed but rather the amount of workers that have changed! We praise God as we have seen 5 people converted in the first month and half of the spring semester.

UMass Boston, Tufts, Harvard. Pictures here.

Spiritual Resurrection

2008-03-21T12:30:00.002+08:00

Two stories about people who left and came back to the church to be used powerfully again: one from China and one from Mexico.

You needed something like this for the Easter sermon, no?

Ready to Move

2008-03-21T12:23:00.004+08:00

Preparing people spiritually for a move is another of those most unselfish of pastoral acts. Annie McCune's learned a thing or two along the way: Mark and I have moved 18 times since being married in 1990. We have been part of 8 congregations in 4 states and have learned many things about making a successful spiritual transition during a move.
I'm still learning this:
As we move into a new church, this temptation to compare our last church family with our new congregation can be strong, but it is never helpful....Some things I might like better, and some not as much, but it is up to me to focus on the good and help change those things that need attention. Complaining and comparing will only make me, and everyone around me, miserable.
And this:

One thing I have learned is that it takes 10 years to make 10 years of memories. I should not expect to be close a new church family instantly, but should focus on how to build friendships and create new memories that will forge wonderful relationships in the future.

Spot on. Good to share with someone about to move.

Fellowship Boundaries

2008-03-21T12:21:00.005+08:00

The Chicago Church of Christ addresses the thorny issue directly. Essential, even if there are no easy answers. Or rather, because there are no easy answers to the boundaries question.

Novgorod the Great

2008-03-21T11:51:00.002+08:00

A new slide show posted by Eurasian Missions documents the effort to plant a new church in Veliky Novorod, Russia.

Novgorod the Great is a very beautiful city. Please pray there is a large and beautiful church in it.

Gracias, MinisterioLatino

2008-03-14T10:10:00.006+08:00

Only seven churches to go and we'll have 100% completion from Latin America and the Caribbean:

Buenos Aires, Argentina
La Paz, Bolivia
Recife y Salvador, Brasil
Bogotá y Medellín, Colombia

Thanks to MinisterioLatino for the bleg in Spanish. My Spanish never got much further than the high school elective class that I wish I'd taken a lot more seriously.

Beyond Latin America, we only have a few more churches for which we seek participation in this year's church survey. Help if you can.

North to Alaska

2008-03-10T08:59:00.003+08:00

The Seattle Church of Christ keeps making efforts to build fellowship ties to "sister churches in the Northwest," like this recent visit to the Great Land Christian Church in Anchorage.

The biggest problem we face now, it seems, is not too many churches wanting to be left alone, wary of hierarchical control. There may be such churches, but it seems there are many, many more who want fellowship and even leadership and training from stronger churches.

We hear from these churches every year at survey time--they often need fulltime leadership, regular encouragement, or just plain friendship.

When our hierarchical organization dissolved (a good thing, on balance) one of the unintended side effects was that the churches on the fringes of that structure--the geographically remote, the youngest and smallest plantings in the hardest of fields--became something of an afterthought.

That's not to blame the former "pillar" churches, who've had their hands full with their own turnaround efforts. But five years later, there's really nothing artificial to compel our strongest churches to care for any other church in need. All that's left is a selfless impulse to put the every-nation-and-tribe task ahead of purely local concerns.

So hats off to Seattle. Offering a hand of partnership to smaller churches is one of the most selfless things a strong church can do.

Preparing to Preach

2008-03-10T08:53:00.002+08:00

You're not likely to find a better two-minute primer than this short Mark Driscoll video.

Works in Texas, Taiwan...

2008-03-10T08:47:00.003+08:00

And now from Lagos, more evidence that barbeque is a potent tool for evangelism....

Seriously, it's great to see a region of one church stretching for 100 baptisms this year.

Cut the Competition

2008-03-07T10:02:00.003+08:00

Shortage of leaders? Training more leaders is an obvious solution, but Larry Osborne says there's something else to consider:

Cut the competition. If a church has so much programming going on that people are stretched too thin—Adult Bible Fellowships, Sunday schools, midweek programs, large community outreaches, and so on—small groups inevitably will fall to the back of the priority list. You end up not having your key leaders with you because they’re already overwhelmed. So you get your non-leaders in it, and it’s amazing—when non-leaders are in things, people don’t go.

Read the whole thing; the audio clip at the end of the article is worth a listen, too.

There will always be plenty of demand for programs, but do we have enough leaders for both great programs and great Bible Talks?

Do Not Disturb

2008-03-05T19:30:00.002+08:00

Winning, and sometimes humorous, slogans for Embassy Suites' Do Not Disturb sign contest.

My favorite: "Shhh...I'm Hatching a Plan to Bust Some Little Soaps Out of Here."

More Boston Baptisms

2008-03-04T09:47:00.003+08:00

More good news from the campus ministry of the Boston Church of Christ:

The highlight of the trip was Sunday when Ed preached about, “The Revolutionary Jesus”, and 2 of our newly converted Christians, Jen Johnson – a Junior at Tufts and Mike McDuffee – a freshman at Wentworth Institute of Technology, shared about what led them to be converted just last week.
As the service ended we baptized Lui, a Harvard sophomore, who was met door knocking the dorms of Harvard. Lui’s baptism was the 4th Harvard baptism in the last 6 months and the 5th conversion in the downtown Boston Campus Ministry this year.

Heh.

2008-03-03T16:31:00.001+08:00

Every Deacon of Finance's nightmare.

Attenders, Avoiders

2008-03-03T16:10:00.004+08:00

George Barna has new data on the five types of people you'll meet (or not) at church this week. One of the five:

Homebodies - people who had not attended a conventional church during the past month, but had attended a meeting of a house church (3%).

Three percent sounds like a small number, but I'm actually surprised there are so many who claim to have attended a house church and no other form of church service in the past month. (The "Blenders" just sound like especially active conventional church members to me.)

That would mean more than 1 in 20 (3%/56%) U.S. church attenders in any given month are associated only with a house church.

Given that house churches are necessarily small compared to conventional churches, that would imply lots and lots of house churches out there. If the average house church has 10 attendees and the average conventional church has 100, in any given community there would have to be half as many house churches as conventional churches (5%/.1=1/2) for these numbers to work.

Either the numbers are wrong, or all these thousands of house churches are just spectacularly invisible.

Heh.

2008-03-03T08:42:00.003+08:00

Radical change is unsettling for some church members:

"You have to wonder about the leadership’s judgment, if they’re willing to make a poor decision like this," says one woman. "It signals weakness at the top."

Sunday in Hong Kong

2008-03-02T09:16:00.009+08:00

A beautiful morning...

Bent on Conquest

2008-03-01T20:27:00.003+08:00

The Detroit Church of Christ makes plans for Bible Talks on every campus in Michigan with 15,000 or more students within 10 years, and 10 church plantings by 2025.

The whole plan is here (PDF).

Heh.

2008-03-01T20:08:00.002+08:00

But seriously, it's a great campaign idea, and the website complements it well.

Church, Local and Universal

2008-03-01T19:51:00.003+08:00

Mike Fontenot looks at the topics of structure and unity in the New Testament church, and suggests we appoint "some commended brothers who can have some regional responsibilities and financial support to help encourage and connect the churches."

Although there is at least one example of a localized evangelist, Philip, that seemed to be the exemption not the rule. In our day that practice seems reversed where exception has become the rule. Traveling evangelists were the practice and example in Acts and the Epistles. Do we need some who travel to connect the churches as in the 1st Century?

Nordic Missions Conference 2008

2008-03-01T19:24:00.003+08:00

Looks like fun.

The Nordic countries--Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden--have a combined population of 25 million. Only 1 in 15 are Evangelicals, so our six churches have quite a task ahead.

Five countries and just six churches mean there are a number of significant cities for future church planting:

Malmo, Sweden (1.3 million urban population)
Goteborg, Sweden (740,000)
Espoo, Finland (225,000)
Aarhus, Denmark (220,000)
Trondheim, Norway (140,000)

BYND, with an Emphasis on the "N"

2008-02-29T11:15:00.002+08:00

The Orange County Church of Christ (part of the LACOC) goes out "two by two to visit the 5,000 homes closest to their church building" and makes an impact:

Many neighbors came to the special service, despite the rain that morning. The total attendance was about 750 people - with nearly half of that being guests.

Progress in Peru

2008-02-29T11:09:00.002+08:00

Steve Brown reports growth and church planting in Peru, as well as the appointment of Cesar Herrera as Evangelist in Lima.

"My Own Heart Breaks Each Day"

2008-02-29T11:05:00.003+08:00

Kelli Reinhardt sees Afghanistan up close:

Children everywhere; thin, dirty, walking in the snow and mud wearing sandals or nothing at all to cover their feet. I can’t bear the haunted, ancient looks in their eyes, and yet, when I take their picture and show them their image on the screen, their eyes light up with delight and smiles spread across their faces. Something so simple brings giggles and laughter.

Read the whole report on the Allisons' blog.

Open Heart Conference Gathers Nordic Churches

2008-02-29T11:00:00.002+08:00

Ronny and Katrine Yttrehus report on the 2008 conference, held this year in Oslo. One milestone: Tim Huffman, one of our movement's first church planters, returns to speak accompanied by his grown daughter, born after he and Julie arrived in Sweden over 20 years ago.

Indy Seeks Youth Minister

2008-02-29T10:55:00.002+08:00

Steve Cannon puts out the call:

The Indianapolis teen ministry has grown in faith and numbers the last two years. Now these teenagers are braving new challenges as the Indy church looks to hire a new youth ministry couple.

A few years ago many of our churches were laying off ministry staff because of budget crises. It's good to see churches rehiring again.

It's going to take a sustained campus ministry revival, though, to provide these new leaders.

Campus Turning

2008-02-29T10:50:00.001+08:00

Vanessa Heins says "we have seen a number of students get baptized last year and are continuing to see more studying the Bible" at Arizona State University.

About a year and a half after moving from San Diego, Peter and I have been amazed to see how God has been igniting the campus ministry here at ASU.

Back Blogging, Soon

2008-02-27T20:41:00.002+08:00

I'm just back from one of those business trips you love to come home from: two countries, four major cities, and 11 airports in 11 days.

Thanks to all who sent in survey and campus directory updates. I'll do my best to get them posted this week, and start blogging again before long.

In the meantime, readers can lend a hand by sending links to the kinds of stories we like to post here.

"They All Go to Church and They Know Nothing about Christianity"

2008-02-16T18:17:00.003+08:00

Stephen Prothero on a paradox: "the United States is one of the most religious countries on earth, but Americans know nothing about religion, their own religions or the religions of other people."

For years he's taught an upper-level course in American Christianity at Boston University, but lately noticed "started noticing a shift:"

When I would say things like in Matthew, blah, blah, blah, the students would get that look like they sort of knew what I was talking about but they really didn't.
I realized they were thinking, "Matthew Perry? From "Friends?" So I gradually realized I have to explain this stuff: Matthew, which is one of the four Gospels, which are books in the New Testament, which is a scripture in Christianity, which is one of the world's religions.

So he decided to give a little religious literacy quiz:

I would give them a list of Bible characters and then Bible stories and I'd ask them to match them. I'd have Adam and Eve and Paul and Moses on one side and, on the other side, I'd have Exodus and the Road to Damascus and the Garden of Eden.
I'd ask them to draw a line between the two, and it's amazing the lines that they would draw in their heads. Paul would be getting the olive branch from the dove and Jesus would be parting the Red Sea. I mean, somebody must have been able to do that. It was probably Jesus, you know.

Filed under humor because it's one of those you'll-cry-if-you-don't-laugh things.

And we're not being smug about this either. We've given similar quizzes to a classes made up of highly committed, devout Christians and been surprised by the results. Try it sometime.

Launched

2008-02-16T18:06:00.002+08:00

Tomorrow is the "inaugural service of the Latin ministry of the San Diego Church of Christ."

The current issue of Outreach is all about Hispanics in America and how churches are starting Hispanic ministries.

Mehdi and the Middle East

2008-02-16T17:48:00.005+08:00

It's just too easy to forget places like Yemen, but stories like this one just remind us how much is still to be done to fulfill the Great Commission.

Yemeni population increases with 1,555,200 babies each year, according to a recently released bulletin by the National Council of Population at the Ministry of Health....Built on these statistics, the council estimated Yemen’s population to reach 37 million souls just ten years as of now.

Yemen is one of the largest countries in the world where we've yet to plant a church, and it won't be easy.

But we can't forget.

And on that topic, we stumbled across a North African missionary's account of a chance meeting with Si Mehdi's widow:

When I was introduced to this very normal looking European I was immediately humbled to learn she was the wife of one of the first North African believers and evangelists. Mehdi had accepted Christ in the 1920's and had been an active evangelist for more than 60 years in his home country.

It's quite a story.

Condolences

2008-02-16T09:45:00.002+08:00

Gayle Dubowski was a light in the campus ministry at NIU sponsored by the Chicago Church of Christ in DeKalb, about 65 miles west of downtown Chicago. She will be deeply missed. Gayle became a disciple in high school. Her parents and brother are also disciples in the Chicago Church of Christ.

There's more at Disciples Today. We're looking forward with hope to seeing Gayle again.

Quite a Family

2008-02-15T08:05:00.003+08:00

One more makes it to 50 years:

"We're the last. We made it," Sue, 69, said after the Basses' celebratory spotlight dance. Added Edwin, 73: "The others made it and we weren't about to get beat!"

They've got a pretty good idea about how it happened, too:

The Estes siblings, ages 69 to 84, attribute their marital success in large part to the moral example set by their late parents, who were married 58 years. C.M. Estes was a Christian minister, and he and his wife raised their eight children...with the belief that marriage is for life.

We liked this, too:

One wag says the most important thing for a marriage is having a bad memory.

Well, we seem to be making progress on that front lately.

Heh.

2008-02-11T20:49:00.000+08:00

In the New Year spirit, Steve Chin posts bloopers from his past year's video blogs. Proof that outtakes are funny in any language.

The Baltimore-Bangalore Connection

2008-02-11T20:41:00.001+08:00

Doug Lambert returns home with four practical ways the Baltimore church he leads can "continue to support the India work."