The Church & the Internet

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Jan 10, 2006 in Church, Church Technology, Ekklesia, General Technology | 1 comment

I’m continually amazed at how little the church is utilizing technology for the furtherance of the gospel. [On the flip side, this is going to be a BIG year for us as we launch numerous churches on the Ekklesia Systems platform. Further, we have a number of other surprises in store that we will be launching to help equip the church for the work of online ministry.]

According to a new study about Churches and the Internet conducted for LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1 in 4 churches neglect the ministry potential of the Internet.

• One out of every four Protestant churches in the United States has virtually no involvement with the World Wide Web despite the emergence of the Internet as a leading communication medium in the 21st century
• Only half of all churches provide staff with e-mail, and just under half maintain a website.
• 23 percent of Protestant churches use e-mail prayer chains, 18 percent have an e-mail church newsletter and 4 percent have an online member directory.
• Among content less likely to appear on a church website are Bible study material or helps, sermon transcripts, upcoming sermon titles or topics, sermons available in streaming audio, a bulletin board, forum or chat room, sermons in streaming video, testimonies and a way to donate online.

View a chart of this…

What type of Emergent Church are You?

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Jan 7, 2006 in Church, Culture | 5 comments

Ed Stetzer (part of Acts 29) wrote an article, FIRST-PERSON: Understanding the emerging church that classifies 3 types of people in the Emerging church movement:

Relevants- A group whose focus is to make their worship, music and outreach more contextual to emerging culture.

Reconstructionists- The reconstructionists think that the current form of church is frequently irrelevant and the structure is unhelpful. Yet, they typically hold to a more orthodox view of the Gospel and Scripture. Therefore, we see an increase in models of church that reject certain organizational models, embracing what are often called “incarnational” or “house” models. They are responding to the fact that after decades of trying fresh ideas in innovative churches, North America is less churched, and those that are churched are less committed.

Revisionists- Revisionists are questioning (and in some cases denying) issues like the nature of the substitutionary atonement, the reality of hell, the complementarian nature of gender, and the nature of the Gospel itself.

Related Reading: I wrote an article dealing with some of these things two years ago, Tension in the Emerging Church.

Planting a Church in San Diego

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Jan 6, 2006 in Church | 1 comment

Man, I’ve got to admit San Diego is crazy. Today is supposed to be 83 DEGREES! I’m heading to the beach with my family in a tshirt/shorts/flip-flops to go enjoy the weather for a few hours.

God is good!

National Magazine seeks Non-Christians to visit a church

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Jan 4, 2006 in Church, Culture | 0 comments

A National Magazine seeks to enlist 6-8 non-Christians across the United States to visit a church and respond/comment on a set of questions.

Any non-Christians interested in doing this? Post a comment with email….

Leadership Development and Organization Development

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Jan 4, 2006 in Church, Church Technology | 0 comments

Free library of articles and resources on a variety of areas of leadership, management and building organizations. (both non-profit and for-profit articles). Second, here is a link to Leader to Leader Institute (formerly the Drucker Foundation) which also has free articles and resources.