Our Community Conversation (Week 6)

Together we read an 2013 article from the Christian Century magazine that details the radical decline in church attendance and religious fervor among Christians in America. (See the article below)

http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2013-11/negative-numbers

Then we asked the question:

What are some of the non-numerical signs of church vitality?

Here's what people said during our discussion:

• Rehashing old church growth solutions from the 60's and 70's to get more people in the pews is futile. These strategies might work for a short period of time but it never gets the children because they recognize manipulation when they see it. 
• Churches with ethnic diversity are growing faster than everyone else. 
• Church members in America are not just declining in numbers but also in how often they pray. 
• Will Willimon says that numbers matter but we're often counting the wrong things. 
• We can measure vitality by whether you feel the love and care of God not whether you attend the church. 
• Screens, videos, computers are a sign of the times. The traditional church doesn't appeal anymore. 
• What was going on in the world from 2005-2010? The Great Recession! People had to focus on putting food on their tables and not feeding their spiritual needs. 
• The idea of organization and control is a problem for young folks. Other kinds of groups are looking for spiritual guidance in other ways. 
• Involvement in mission and helping others is a sign of vitality. Also, what's happening in the community around us. 
• A sense of joy in the congregation.
• Caring church members - especially when they experience trouble. 
• Are the lights on most of the time? Are things happening?
• The number of people involved in a particular ministry.
• The weight of ministry is carried and shared by all and not done by only 20% of the congregation.
• Meaningful worship services are signs of vitality.
• Variety and different styles of music. Being open to receiving other styles. 
• Educating our children and including them in worship and missions. 
• Being involved in social issues. 
• I wonder what it would be like if none of the businesses were open on Sunday morning?
• We need more small groups for spiritual renewal to happen in our church. 

Here's a list of 15 non-numerical signs of church vitality:

1. A high percentage of the congregation is involved in the life of the community and the mission of the church.

2. The congregation is working to reflect the demographics of the surrounding community. 

3. Worship is highly attended and members are active participants in the service. 

4. Leaders don't have to beg people to serve/there are no volunteer crises. 

5. People are more focused on the positive movement of the Spirit rather than the things they don't like.

6. Different demographics within the community fellowship with one another on a regular basis.

7. People take care of each other (physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc.)

8. More ministry is happening than committee work.

9. The church is hospitable to strangers, newcomers, and people who are different than them.  

10. The congregation has a teachable spirit.

11. New leadership is embraced and faithful leadership is appreciated.

12. The focus is on faith formation and not programming.

13. It is a safe place for truth telling.

14. People pray. 

15. People are serious about following Jesus both individually and as a community. 

Our Community Conversation (Week 5)

In our conversation about diversity over the last few weeks one of the things that has become clear is that we have many different ideas and definitions of what diversity means for our church. In order to better define what we mean by diversity lets discuss:

1. What form of diversity do you think is the most important for our church to focus on at this time? 
- socio-economic/class
- racial/ethnic/cultural
- sexuality and gender
- generational (age)
- viewpoints/opinions
- religious backgrounds

Here's how the conversation went:

• From the very beginning of our church it has always been filled with affluent members and non-affluent members don't seem to stay around for very long. It seems like that is something that we should work on.
• Like America, we accept people and welcome them from all backgrounds but we don't expect them to change our basic beliefs like believer's baptism, faith, rebirth, etc. We don't want people who come to impose their beliefs on us. We don't have to change just because other people change.
• Do we accept people who have a different personal theology than we do? The question here is, "how diverse should we be?" We came out of the SBC because of inerrancy. How do we deal with people who have different theologies. We know them by their fruits. If the fruits are good then a person is a good Christian regardless of their personal theology.
• When we left the SBC it was for a number of reasons, but especially the interpretation of the Bible. Some believe in inerrancy and some do not. We have both in our church and we accept both views. 
• If people come in with a personal agenda to do something to change the church or take over then that is the only thing that would keep anybody out. If someone tried to make us into something other than a Christian church who was open to all people then that is the only thing that would not make them welcome.
• We should focus on what holds us together and not what tears us apart. 
• The greatest challenge we face is the integration of the older and younger members of the church. The idea of a senior adult SS class serving food to the youth on Sunday nights is a good idea. We need to concentrate on fostering the interplay of different age groups.
• We need to continue working on becoming an intergenerational community together. We need to share our life experiences and wisdom. It would be good if everybody could have the support network, and fellowship, and community that our church provides. 
• There are very few African Americans, very few Hispanics, and very few other minorities in our church. We simply do not have racial and cultural diversity right now. This is the kind of diversity that we need to focus on. 

2. What are some examples of diversity in the Bible? In what ways can these stories help inform our discussion of diversity as a church?

Here's how the conversation went:

• In the early church it was the integration of Gentiles into the Jewish community that was the greatest challenge. The Jewish community had to learn how to accept the Gentiles cultural practices like what they ate and how they lived. Peter's vision of the sheet with clean and unclean animals on it is an example of this. The Jewish community had to learn how to accept people who did not keep the kosher food laws. In Acts 17 Paul address the people of Athens who worshiped the unknown god and invited them to come and worship the God of Israel. Jews accepting Gentiles was the biggest challenge of diversity that the church faced. 
• The entire New Testament is about the inclusion of the Gentiles into the Jewish community. At first the Jews were requiring the Gentiles to be circumcised, to adopt the kosher food regulations, and to obey all their laws to become a part of the community. But Paul and eventually Peter stood against that kind of exclusion and the NT is about how they worked out a new community were all were included together without requirements. Welcoming the Gentiles without requiring circumcision was one of the most inclusive acts of cultural, ethnic, and racial diversity in human history and it was also the foundation of the church.
• There is a diversity of theology among the different writers of the NT. They have different perspectives. The gospel of John and Revelation are different than Peter and Paul.
• The story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8 (as well as Isaiah) is a story about the inclusion of someone who was very different sexually and who was previously excluded because of their sexuality. This story is instructive for us in terms of our approach to sexual and gender diversity in the church.
• Spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 is a form of diversity in the church - all gifts are equal.
• Jesus is the greatest example of inclusiveness and diversity that the world has ever known. He called uneducated fisherman and women to be his disciples. He broke down the barriers of gender, culture, and class. He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes. 
• The story of the friends who brought their paralytic brother to Jesus in Mark 2 and had to take him up on the roof of the house and dig through the ceiling to get to Jesus is an example of our call to diversity and love toward those with disabilities. 
• There is diversity of understanding in the story of Nicodemus. He wondered how he could be born again. He didn't understand and needed Jesus to break it down for him to bite size. Jesus was patient with those who didn't understand. As Paul said, he offered milk for those who weren't yet tolerant of meat - for those who were still learning. 

3. What is the definition of diversity?

Here's how the conversation went:

• Diversity means being different.
• The derivation of the word is being different in talents, abilities, and gifts.
• But there is also positive diversity. Biblical diversity is taking our differences and making them work together for God's purpose in the world. 
• What we are really after is how do you take diverse groups of people and meld them into one unified whole. 
• It starts with being able to listen to each other. If you go to a Muslim country and listen to them talk about their lives you realize that what we hear about Muslims on television is not the reality. They are just like us. If you listen you can develop a conversation where every one is being heard. 
• The problem is that we have divide parts/concepts of the same belief. We all have different understandings of the beliefs that we share. One of the things we should sing as a church when it first begins is, "Whosoever Will May Come". 

4. We've talked a lot about diversity of beliefs as a church. One of the things that Baptists have always held to is the principle of liberty of conscience - every person is free to believe what they want to believe and shouldn't be compelled otherwise. Baptists have traditionally believed that in the church there should be "freedom in non-essentials." Of course, the problem is defining what the essentials are. What do you think are the essentials of faith that we have to share as a community?

Here's how the conversation went:

• From time to time we all question the whole "kit and caboodle" - God, Christ, the Trinity, whatever. We question our entire faith. All that should matter is love and acceptance. The thing that should hold us together is love and acceptance. If someone is being loving then it shouldn't matter if they have doubts or divergent theological beliefs. But if someone is being unloving and hurtful then no matter what they believe we have to challenge their actions. 

That's where we had to stop the conversation this week. The conversation will continue next Wednesday night at 6 pm. Hope to see you there!

Our Community Conversation (Week 4)

October 1st, 2014

One of the common themes in our conversations so far has been the topic of diversity as something that is unique about our church and something that we continue to strive for. Our question this week is "What do we need to do individually and what do we need to do collectively as a church to achieve diversity in our congregation?"

Here's what we discussed:

• First thing we need to do is identify which groups we want to attract.
• One group we don't talk about a lot that might be missing is non-Christians.
• We need to attract youth and young families. 
• We need to invite anyone that we come across in life.  
• We need be proactive instead of reactive as a church in our own neighborhoods. We could set up liaisons in each neighborhood to identify new people who move in. 
• Diversity is a side-effect of being welcoming as a church. 
• We need to continue getting involved in the Wrenn Dr. community. 
• Transportation is a major concern. How are we going to get people here?
• We should utilize Facebook for advertising Children's activities.
• We could create automobile magnets/t-shirts/or other advertising.
• At the recent Christian Community Development Association conference in Raleigh the level of diversity that we are looking for was present. Continued involvement with this group could help us to become more diverse lock hands regardless of race and go out into the community. 
• To have a diverse church we have to start inside by accepting diversity in many different forms. We have to admit it's not about us or how we want to worship. There's been complaining about songs in Latin or the Praise Band, but we need to allow people the freedom to worship in their own way. 
• What would we do if a transgender person came to our church? Would we know how to welcome them? We need to get out ahead of the issues we are going to face in the future. We need to combat fear with education. We need to impact the parts of our society that are not embraced (such as the transgender community).
• We have built in barriers that were established long ago. They are the way we were brought up to think and so we have to be constantly aware of these barriers when they flare up. We need to be stretched so that we can be more open to accepting diversity. 
• We could tap into the groups that meet at our church.
• We could gather teenagers together. 
• We need a project that we can all work on together like fixing up building A with a basketball court or pool table. 
• We can't expect people to come here. We have to go there. Also, some relatives came at Easter and were not greeted or welcomed by anyone, which is not good. 
• Some thought we might want to ask former youth who are now leaders in the church why they were always at the church building 30 plus years ago.
• Problem is that nobody knows how many teenagers we have as a church because the youth don't come on Wednesday night but are always there Sunday night. Kids are really busy.
• We are facing a no-nonsense generation that wants to be a part of something meaningful and genuine - not a new building or a gymnasium. They are attracted to something missional. 
• Every person in the church should be a greeter. We need to reach out and ask every one we see, "Can I help you?"
• If we build phase 2 we will have a fellowship hall that will solve a lot of our mobility problems for Senior adults. 
• We need to "bridge the salad bar" and find more opportunities for intergenerational ministry with people of all ages including mentors with youth and children's families. We need to cultivate a willingness to get to know each other across generations. 
• We need to have a way that younger couples can talk to an older person in church and build a relationship of support and friendship.
• Maybe we could have older adults serve food or prepare food on a Sunday night  for the youth?
• The question we haven't answered all night is "Diversity of what?" What kind of diversity do we want? Race, class, creed, color, sexuality, what kind of diversity do we need?
• Diversity of opinions is important. We need to learn from minority voices. We need to listen and practice tolerance. There are two-sides to every issue and we should be patient and loving with each other - especially on issues that do not impact our salvation.
• Seniors and youth we need to strive to get to know one another and then invite other people to come to church. 
• What are the barriers to diversity at this church?