Barneyisfat

I'm taking a class about church growth and development. We learned this week that the average church produces fewer than 3 new disciples of Christ every year. Working on data fro new United Methodist church starts in Western PA new church starts grow by an average of 30 people a year. I'm sure a lot of that growth is transfer growth (people moving from one church to another) , but ... if someone where to stand up and start talking about a way to make our churches 10 times as effective - wouldn't you listen.

I'm meeting with a pastor tomorrow for lunch who is starting a new church. The church will be "Water's Edge United Methodist." I plan on working with the new church plant. That's where my heart is.

I'm beginning to realize that I have often failed to invite non-Christians to church simply because I don't want to introduce someone into a community that isn't committed to Christ. I think there's a lot of excitement centered around the idea of something new. It's like Christmas ... you don't know what the church will end up looking like, but you are pretty sure it will be worth the wait. I keep thinking about being part of shaping a church. Would a church without a hundred year of internal struggle and selfish people creating conflict produce more fruit simply becuase of those factors? Shouldn't every church be a beacon of God's love.

(OK ... so it took me more than a day of ponderance to complete this post. I'm now going to pretend that I finished this yesterday and start on my post for today.)