the encounter

Recent info from pollster George Barna (barna.org) indicates what we’ve been suspecting – people are looking for more out of their faith experience than a sunday morning service. The story reads…

Thumbnail on The House Church
While 20-somethings pull out of traditional churches, more people are leaving organized churches altogether, according to revolutionary pollster George Barna. Your new competitor is not the church down the street, but the house next door. Here is how Barna sizes up the House Church experience:

* Average size of gathering: 20 people (including 7 children in gatherings with kids)
* Gatherings including kids: 64%
* Of those, kids meeting with adults for whole session: 41%
* House churches meeting weekly: 80%
* Average length of service: 2 hours
* Include formal teaching: 76%
* Eat as well as meet: 85%
* Satisfaction with spiritual depth of the experience: 59%
* Satisfaction with personal connectedness: 66%
* Attenders who have met with their house church one year or less: 75%

What does it tell us? Relational community speaks louder than a programmed experience? Spiritual longing and relational longing are intensely united at a deeper core? The medium of meeting in a home, relational setting perhaps speaks a louder message of grace than any other message the church is communicating?

You decide.

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We had nine baptisms this morning at encounter. Amazing!
There are pictures posted on the encounter Flickr group.
Be sure and check the photos out and keep each of these folks in your prayers.

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Next week, I will do what I’ve begun to do every summer and fall – speak on the Philosophy of Christian Edcuation at conferences for the Associational of Christian Schools International. The big word in Christian education is “integration”. Its the concept of bringing Scripture and Christ into every dimension of a school’s curriculum. When successfully done, it helps students see God in all aspects of life; understand the greatness of God’s power and wisdom; and gain a greater appreciation and love for Christ.
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There’s another word that closely relates to the concept of Biblical integration. It is “incarnation”. It describes what Christ did in wrapping Himself in humanity, coming to earth’s culture, and living out the love and truth of the Father. John 1:14 describes it when it says,

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

When Jesus integrated and incarnated Himself, the result was that people were in awe and saw both grace and truth. That is also the call of every believer -to so fully incarnate the truth and grace of Christ into our culture that people experience it, are in awe of it, and develop an appetite for it.

That’s the beauty of each person’s unique neighborhood, job, talent, friends, co-workers, city, state, and country. They are defining cultures. Every follower of Christ can incarnate and integrate. Every expression may look completely different, but each embodies the grace and truth of Christ.

Incarnate yourself!

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Three Reasons Why You Need Community to Flourish

Everyone needs community. Everyone needs to be connected. I think it is safe to say that people simply will not–cannot–grow outside of community. Are you in community? Are you creating community for those within your sphere of influence?
Community is, most simply, a place to belong. God created us to live in community, to belong. Since the creation, mankind has learned that people thrive in healthy communities and languish alone. The family, the church, the town, the club, and even Starbucks serve the purpose of community.
Therefore, what do we know about community that we can utilize?

• Community helps to shape the individual into that which is valued in the society, whether that society is the family, the church, the town, or the nation. Beyond the basic economic and structural aspects of community, there is a far deeper purpose for people to interact with one another. In community, our strengths and weaknesses are reflected in the eyes of others and, as a result, healthy people change and become better. When community works well, these changes are influenced primarily by love and mutual respect. When community breaks down, changes are more influenced by coercion and law.
  In the industrialized world, we have lost the natural groupings of family, kinship groups, and villages, so we need to work at deliberately re-creating a community in which to be known, loved, and supported. S.D. Gaede in Belonging says that today, “Relationships…are consciously chosen and cultivated, or else they do not exist.”
  Are you consciously cultivating community?
• In community, we have a place to grow, to mature, and to heal. In the best of societies, the family, church, and government work together to esteem people and fulfill these functions. In the worst of societies, these same structures demean people and cause great harm. We see this today where a combination of abuse, neglect, and shifting social values have resulted in many who are wounded beyond measure and can barely function in the community. Increasingly, people no longer know how to conduct themselves in a group, whether that group is a family, a classroom, a church, or a town. Our churches and ministries reap the fruit of this deterioration.
  James Friesen says in Living From the Heart Jesus Gave You: The Essentials of Christian Living, “People need to know who they are. They also need to be reminded who they are, frequently, by those who know them and really love them. And they need repair, so that they can live from the hearts Jesus gave them. That is what it takes to achieve wholeness in a fractured world. It takes belonging to a community.”
  Are you consciously cultivating community?
• The good news is that God is bringing wounded people into the church for the purpose of healing. Yes, He is doing it on purpose! He is calling the church to form loving communities in which these people can heal. How does this happen?
  Wounded people begin to heal as they are known, accepted, and loved. One church calls this “relational deliverance”–healing through relationships. That will not happen much on the average Sunday morning where most communication is one-way and where it is easy to get lost in the crowd. Rather, it will happen in small groups, in social settings, in places where more mature people embrace the less mature and encourage them to grow. I have seen this happen repeatedly through the ministry of the church.
  Are you consciously cultivating community?

Taken from Small Group Dynamics ezine article: “Three Reasons Why You Need Community to Flourish”, June, 2007, and from the Small Group HELP! Guides, by Pat Sikora.
How has community benefited you? How are you cultivating community? As the world moves faster and faster and we become more and more attached to things like Myspace, YouTube and iPhones how do we build community with those around us? Is technology a detriment or a help to the process?

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One of the greatest things I am reminded about “Encounter” is our mission to be relevant to all. We are “Church for a New Generation” – but contrary to what some may think – this “new generation” has nothing to do with age, style, fashion, or musical preference. It has everything to do with a new breed of people – all ages and backgrounds – extending grace, embracing relationships, granting acceptance, and mirroring Christ. We strive to be a church where others are more important than self. A church that genuinely cares for people and offers genuine relationships with a genuiune God.

Jack Hayford says this:

“Who do you want to come to chruch and, and who does God want there? How this question is answered will determine everything about how you worship God when people gather with you. If worship is only the privilleged right of an apporved membership, schooled in the acceptable form of the the given group, the outsider may be allowed to attend, but he will essentially remain “outside.” The fact that “everyone is welcome” doesn’t stick if the atmosphere of welcome is disallowed-even if unintentionally. However, when worship is led in such a way as to be accessible to all in an atmosphere of hope and joy, then church services become an open doorway, not a guarded fortress.”

I belive we are creating a worship experience that is inviting and accepting. A place where we are free to bring our hopes, joys, sufferings, and sacrifices in an effort to make His name known. Thank you Encounter for embracing Real Worship!!!

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