Draw from the Well

3..2..1.. Contact

Thinking about the following statement:

"...70% of new Christians came to church as a result of a personal invitation. And that does not even broach the retention issue, which most churches struggle with. Only 20% of those that visit church visit again. ...stats that say seven impressions (a card, a personal visit, a personal connection on Sunday AM, etc. in combination) must be made within the first two weeks after a visitor comes for the first time, else they won't stay long term."

What do you think?  What makes people return to church?  What does it take?

Pumpkin Patch Bash Recap

THANK YOU to everyone who served for the PPB! 

There were so many helpful volunteers - everyone was amazing!

 

Numbers show that we had over 655 families from our community join us.

Counting parents and children that works out to over 3500 people.

 

Great Job Living Water!

 

Here are some pictures from that night: http://livingwater.com/content.cfm?id=2178

Has America Become More Spiritual?

Parade magazine (that thing that comes in the paper) recently had a poll about spirituality in America.  I thought the results were interesting:

On the positive side

• 67% of Americans believe in God
• 77% pray

Perhaps not so positive

• 50% of respondents never attend worship services
• 49% would not call themselves religious

40% of the poll respondents said that religion "is a source of truth", religion was not defined and 27% of respondents said they didn't practice religion of any kind.

Polls are always interesting and should be viewed with healthy skepticism, however, polls like this continue to confirm some truths about American spirituality.

America has been and likely will always have religion and spirituality as a fundamental part of our fabric (no amount of liberal, historic revisionism can remove it from our history.)  However, we would be amiss to claim that fundamental Christianity has exclusive rights in the spiritual department.  Intertwined in America's ethos is an independent, smorgasbord view on spirituality...we like to pick and choose what religion means to us (check out what Thomas Jefferson did with his Bible!)

Polls like this confirm that current trends continue to support the idea that while most Americans believe in God, prayer, religion, and spirituality...those concepts are very personally defined and often fluid.

This should challenge us to redefine how we seek to encourage spiritual growth and discipleship. 

You can read more here, see the poll here, and take the poll here.

We Are Foursquare!

I was looking around on the Foursquare page and found this cool video:

The Foursquare Church - Annual Spiritual Report from The Foursquare Church on Vimeo.

The Cussing Pastor

Ed Young sounds off of his view of "scatology", i.e. the use of potty mouth when speaking (this is a real word...I thought he made it up!) 

He challenges leaders to rethink their chase of "cool" in these terms.  I especially appreciate his challenge not to be lazy. 

Brace yourself, he starts off with some words of his own for effect.  [I admit that I was a bit distracted by the fact that he was driving and talking, often with his hands.]

Is there ever a place for shock value in church?  How do we reconcile Jesus' use of contemporary strong words?  "You brood of vipers" wasn't a pet nickname!  Perhaps calling people stinking tombs is better?

What are your thoughts?

Barriers to Spiritual Maturity

This is the second set of musings on spiritual maturitybased on the recent Barna report on the same topic. (You can read the full article here.)

In addition to our inability to define spiritual maturity, there are other things that get in the way of our growth. 

Here's what people said:

• Distractions (24%)

• Lack of motivation (20%)

• Lack of involvement (13%)

People also identified "sinful behaviors and habits" as tripping them up (14%).

What's really interesting is that the poll asked pastors what they thought kept people from growing and here's how they answered:

• Lack of motivation (32%)

• Distractions (24%)

• Lack of involvement (19%)

Pastors thought that sinful behaviors and habits was less of a barrier (8%).

I hesitate to draw too many conclusions from this data, but this seems interesting.  Church leaders think that people don't want to grow because they are lazy.  People feel busy and that their lives are full. Church leaders propose more programs and activities as a way for people to grow, encouraging involvement.  People feel the need for freedom from practical problems.  Church leaders don't see that as much of a problem.  Hmmm.

Our Starting Point class has been a great reminder for me.  I can write down the basic "to-do" and "you shoulds", but if it that doesn't translate practically into someone's life, it becomes noise that is ignored.  Peoples lives are messy. 

Question:  What is your biggest barrier to spiritual maturity?

How Do You Define Spiritual Maturity?

"America has a spiritual depth problem partly because the faith community does not have a robust definition of its spiritual goals."  David Kinnaman, latest Barna report.

Hot off the presses is Barna's new poll on spirituality.  This is a hot topic for me because we as a church staff have been discussingspiritual maturity and talking about how to nurture it.  It's a tricky topic. 

What do we mean when we use the term?  Do we mean Biblical Literacy?  Certainly understanding the Bible assists our spiritual maturity but does it define it?  Can one be less Biblically literacy but still very mature?  [You can test yourself here.  Incidentally, the highest my students scored on the 100 question test was 82!]  Does Biblical literacy equate to theological understanding?  What about the historic perspective?  Three Church History classes sure opened my eyes to areas where I lacked understanding.

And what about beyond knowledge?  What portion of spiritual maturity is defined by simply "doing the stuff"?  If so, which stuff is the "mature" stuff?  Is the ability to lead someone to salvation more important than being an prayer intercessor?  If you understand that you should share and serve, is that enough to equal being spiritually mature? 

I'm certain that the debate can go on and on.  Here are some of the things Barna discovered:

1. Most Christians equate spiritual maturity with following the rules.

2. Most Christians are not sure what their church expects in terms of spiritual maturity.

3. Most Christians offer one-dimensional views of personal spiritual maturity.

You can read the full article here.

I think that I will keep musing on this topic this week.  I'd love to hear from you if you have an opinion, especially on the following question:

How does Living Water define a “healthy, spiritually mature" follower of Jesus?

Theater Church

I'm sitting in Regal theater waiting for Star Trek to begin. On my way in I saw the advertisement for our video venue that meets here on Sundays. I love that we have a church service in such a public space. Every week the service grows and I keep hearing about interactions with people who would never ever go to church. Love it.

National Day of Prayer

This Thursday.  Join us at the Capitol from 11:45 - 1:30.

Sunday's Comin'