San Diego Church Conference [The Gospel Gone Public: Worldview¬?Mission¬?Preaching]

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 28, 2007 in Church, Church Planting, Ministry Design, Sermon | 0 comments

There is nothing more beautiful than to see a city transformed by the Gospel. As a fellow laborer for seeing Gospel going forth, you are invited to the next Acts 29 regional event in San Diego, The Gospel Gone Public: Worldview·Mission·Preaching on Saturday, March 31, 2007 (this Saturday). Covered at this one-day conference will be topics that affect every pastor passionate about transforming San Diego with the Gospel, including the Church’s biblical mission (how to build your church for mission), how to prepare and preach Gospel-centered messages, Gospel transformation, and much more.

Sessions:

The 12 Musts of a Missional Church 

Gospel, Story, Worldview, and the Church’s Mission

Preparing & Preaching a Gospel Centered Message

Q/A with Dr. Michael W. Goheen Geneva Professor of Worldview and Religious Studies at Trinity Western University , co-author of The Drama Of Scripture: Finding Our Place In The Biblical Story and author of “As the Father Has Sent Me, I Am Sending You”: J.E. Lesslie Newbigin’s Missionary Ecclesiology. 

Acts 29 Vision & Values 

Learn more: San Diego Regional Acts 29 Conference  

Church-Focused Bus Dev/Sales Position Ekklesia 360

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 28, 2007 in Church Technology, Ekklesia, Monk Dev | 0 comments

Monk Development is looking for 1 full or up to 3 part-time people to work with churches and ministries interested in Ekklesia 360 Church CMS. In this role you will work with these active leads, conduct online demonstrations, answer questions and complete the sales process to hand-off to our development team.  In addition, you will attend church conferences to represent Ekklesia.  

The role requires:

1. The flexibility to schedule online demonstrations of the web-based cms and conduct these during the day. 
2. The ability to travel during the week and attend multi-day church conferences.
3. A passion for churches and helping ministries see beyond a website, to doing real ministry online.

Bonuses:

1. Previous sales experience
2. Church planting, church or ministry experience
3. Knowledge and use of Content Management Systems or Blogging software (eg. WordPress)

If you are interested go to jobs @ Monk Development .

The Pastor as Identity-Worker

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 25, 2007 in Church, Sermon, Teaching | 5 comments

This Sunday, Steve Trout from the Kaleo Counseling Center preached a message entitled, Gospel-Centered Counseling.  One idea he unpacked stuck with me:

How you see yourself tends to determine what you do & what/who you end up loving.

The Bible would agree.  Think about how much time is spent on identity, new names or even (as Steve pointed out) in the 6-chapter book of Ephesians there are 20 different mentions of a Christians new identity.  

Saints, the beloved, adopted, co-inheritors, Jesus workmanship, fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, a dwelling place for God…

It seems much of the work of a pastor is helping Christians believe this new reality so thoroughly it shapes how they live.  Sadly, in a world where many Sunday's messages are dedicated to how to live in response to Biblical principles, the identity created is a religious people.  These people must put on the outward works-based righteousness because it is the identity being told to them each Sunday.

Identity work is critical. The powerful nature of the gospel is that instead of pressing against someones will, which may lead to outward change, you can help people see they are a new man now alive in Christ.  They are ambassadors, fellow heirs, saints, a dwelling place for God almighty, beloved and accepted in Jesus Christ.  If more Christians believed this, how different would we live out this inward reality in how we live and love others?

Of course, many of us have to first believe this too… 

10 Ways Outreach & Community Links

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 21, 2007 in Church, General Technology, Ministry Design | 0 comments

10 Ways to Keep Me from Discovering Your Church (ChurchRedone)

10 Ways to Avoid Building Community Within the Church (Askingy)

BONUS LINK: Integral Mission Topic: Technology for the Good of the Church (Sent to me by Justin Browne @ Redeemer)

Beyond Self-Centered Church Greetings

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 19, 2007 in Church, Ministry Design | 7 comments

Our church has been rethinking our hospitality ministry.  One of the things we asked our people was, what questions do you typically ask new guests to our church?  It was amazing, upon reflection many of the questions asked, were more centered on us (the church).  Eg. What did you think about our service?  How did you find out about our church?  These setup an air of, I want to ask you questions to find out more about us.  The second question in particular was common to ask where people heard about us from.  It can come across as a form of market research to see what are effective ways we target new people.  I could just see a drop down box to select: Website, Direct Mail, etc.  Now, I know this isn't the heart of our people when they ask.  Typically, it could be they want to know if a friend invited them or if they read about us on the internet as a point of conversation.  Are there better questions to ask?  Here is a new question that may do a better job:

What brought you to church today?

The point of the question is to listen to the guest, learn about them and possibly discern ministry opportunity.  If we are to minister to and love guests, it is good to know what brought them.  Did they return to church after many years?  Did they find out a family member passed away?  Are they looking for a new church because they came to a place of conviction about their last church?  Did they just move to the area?  Did they just become a Christian?  It seems like this is a more effective way to really listen to our guests and begin a conversation where we can love and pray for them based on where they are at.