i sat in a beautiful mega church yesterday. i love "the Church" and while i sit there amongst the empty beauty tons of thoughts jump around my mind. and i have great hope coming from great sadness as i think of the all the ones that we who worked in the system failed to empower and equip..
i have much respect for this mega church and its leaders. and it has evangelized well and powerfully..
but it is clear that it is well over time for a change in the church world. a quick one, we got to catch up.

which becomes my first thought.
that we- a shema community or any living community- must always remain ready to move-agile enough to react quick to change in speeding faster and faster culture.leaders must make quick yet wise decisions and their groups must be ready to move.
i recall jesus telling the disciples to pack light, move on, and to remember that THEY are the message.

young 20 somethings must lead in innovention. ive been always perplexed at 40 year olds who scratch their heads as they are unable to keep the 16 to 30 yr old in church. 40 year olds need to realize that they are old enough to pass the baton and have the backs of the young innovative ones, we should help with godly discernment and wisdom coming from just living, we should maintain finances, support spiritually, teach.----the spiritual sharpening that comes from multigen leadership is sweet.
"and let the older teach the younger......"

if this is to happen, then there needs to be no more growth thru age stratification ie: everyone grows together, serving all ages welcome. its beautiful. it grows leaders strong and young.creates a leadership chain. it helps the young ones to feel safe and loved, and old ones have place to give the wisdom they labored for, the strength in multiplicity makes up for weaker or flawed spots, it helps teach sharing, and selflessness, it keeps us more highly esteemed yet knowing that we are not the center of the universe.it creates spaces for different learning abilities and styles to be. its good use of resources. its great natural accountability, its a real challenge and leaves no room for a free loader. it creates family for broken family...it is a safe place to fail within...

if there is grace. grace must reign. jesus grace must be evident, felt, coming from inside of us. those of us who lead should infuse jesus' grace everytime we touch.
jesus said that what comes out of our mouth reveals what is in our heart. when we fake it we make jesus look bad.

we must be honest. no more drawing people in as if the christian community exists to entertain and enable. and has perfect leaders whom feed people. we must look for consumerisms hold on the church and fight against consumer christianity.
jesus was up front brutally honest about how hard life will be when we follow him. most of us in the us have not even come close to this.

we must not push /market. i since i was a child wondered why if jesus was so great did we push him and sometimes soften him? i find him to be wonderful and find others drawn to it. any time ive marketed jesus, i made only a short term disciple. of course in the church we also push numbers of attendees, which only makes a christian look like they have an agenda of sorts because they do. all done with that.- Jesus is amazing, and when we "let our light shine and dont hide (or hoard) it under a bushel", we become a VIRAL jesus MOVEMENT.

we empower, not compete against all other communites of all sizes. when did we start this competition or this "im in the best community" thing.
seek first his kingdom, seek to find the best in others,........

we must switch up the budget. redefine need. look global. seek to meet the social global need that god would have us meet.and cut our costs to do it. cut overhead. make use of "garbage". multitask. use empty buildings.

and always remember:
its all about sharing jesus. time is short. gtg

you may also enjoy the book signs of emergence by kester brewin, he is from post christian england
i enjoy shane books

so, what can you do change that? or what inhibits change for sooooo many.?