Just wanted to let everyone know that I just uploaded pictures from two recent events in Glenwood. First is the Women of the Church 2009 Birthday celebration and second is the Glenfest block party held in the Glenwood neighborhood this past weekend. Christian Endeavor performed a short set at the main Glenfest stage. Just click on the links below.
Women of the Church Birthday Party
Just a reminder that the GPC Annual Easter Egg Hunt is Saturday, April 11th at 2:00 pm. We will be giving out free baskets while supplies last so get there early! This is always a fun event and a great way for us to get to know the young people in the community.
I haven’t posted many articles of note here lately, so here goes:
With College Growth, Lines Are Crossed: This article mainly deals with some negatives of High Point University’s growth, but if you look near the end of the article you will see the feeling that the Glenwood community would welcome UNC-G’s presence on Lee Street.
A Conversation With UNC-G Chancellor Linda Brady: Again, we see an article that contains a discussion of how Glenwood’s future might be tied up with the future of UNC-G.
New Bookstore In City Of Writers: An article about a new independent bookstore opening on Grove Street.
Ok – this will be my last post on Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson’s book Comeback Churches. In this post, we look at three faith factors necessary for a comeback church:
While I think GPC could emphasize prayer more, if you read my first post on this, you know that #1 holds the key to it all, in my opinion. Changing our focus, or shifting our vision to become a church who’s number one priority is winning the lost (right here in our own community) is the most important catalyst to being a comeback church. I was talking earlier this week to a good friend as we were sharing some links to articles about worship leaders and worship preferences. He said (very truthfully) that the Christian life doesn’t have to be so complicated – it is mostly about loving other people. I couldn’t agree more – Love the Lord and love others as much as yourself. If you do those two things, you are going to see the urgency of reaching out to a lost world. Because what better way is there of loving others than showing them where they can find salvation? May God bring us to that point.
One final interesting tidbit from the book about worship styles: comeback churches valued worship. Almost all comeback churches identified their mood of worship as celebrative and orderly (96% and 95%, respectively) with a significant emphasis on being informal and contemporary (81% and 69%). Churches often rediscovered their passion for God and His mission by examining their worship. When we create a God-centered and culturally appropriate worship service, it helps us begin the process of seeking God for other changes that need to take place. The vast majority of American churches are not contemporary; the majority in this study would seem to be, and that should make us take notice.
Yesterday, we talked about three things that comeback churches should be. Today, again from Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson’s book, Comeback Churches, we look at how churches get stuck. Do any of the following describe GPC?
Institutionalized Church: Many churches have regressed into a state of merely functioning as an institution. An institutionalized church focuses on and is more committed to the forms and programs of ministry.
Voluntary Association Church: VAC has unwittingly modeled its organization after a democratic government rather than New Testament principles. It is a church of the people, by the people, but most importantly for the people. Due to an overwhelming need to keep everyone happy, the VAC ends up bound, at the mercy of a rotating vocal minority, and ineffective.
“Us 4 and no more” church: They have determined that if they get any larger, they will lose their sweet fellowship. They want a family feel, which means a group small enough to relate like a family
“Square peg in a round hole” church: In this congregation, people are enlisted for leadership and service, not by their gifts or passion, but by other criteria. You might hear, “We’ve got to fill this position. Who can you think of that we’ve not already talked to?”
“My way or the highway” church: This is the stereotypical church wherein the senior adults are given the new van to use on their apple orchard trips while the student ministry is asked to drive the old van because “those teenagers are so messy.”
Chaplaincy Church: The church hired its minister and expects the “chaplain” to be busy about meeting needs and making the church grow. It’s not uncommon to hear “Preacher, you need to visit Mrs. Gray. She hasn’t been feeling well.” The members identify the needs and the prospects and expect their pastor to respond. Despite the fact that the church’s ministry impact is limited to the staff’s time and abilities, the church body remains committed to an employer/employee model. They want a hired “chaplain,” not a leader.
I can see Glenwood Presbyterian in several of these categories, but less so in the first three categories and more so in the last three. We are deeply ingrained in the “square peg,” “my way or the highway,” and “chaplaincy” pitfalls.
In the next post, we’ll look at three faith factors which help a church regain a missional focus and according to this book are always necessary to lead a comeback church.
Glenwood Presbyterian Church was started back in 1914 (or 1908, if you count the Sunday School that started in a house on Gregory Street). Before you doze off thinking this is simply a history lesson, think about how much the Glenwood community has changed in that time. For about 50 years, GPC was made up mostly of people that lived in Glenwood. Now, we have a very small percentage of attenders and an even smaller percentage of members that call the Glenwood neighborhood home. There is currently not one elder that lives in the community or even within say, 5 miles. We have many older members that USED to live in the community and have stayed in the church even as the neighborhood became a foreign land. I would say that for the last 25 years, at least, most of the members at GPC would drive into the neighborhood to attend church, then drive out again, never looking around and hoping not to be noticed.
This paragraph tells you most of what you need to know about why GPC has struggled in growth over the years. Somewhere our focus turned inward on taking care of each other inside the church and stopped being about saving those in our community who don’t know Christ. What we need is a shift in vision.
In their book, Comeback Churches, Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson studied 300 churches of different traditions that had either declined or plateaued for several years and then made a comeback with growth for several years. They found three things churches that want to comeback should be:
Biblical is fairly self-explanatory; spiritual refered to the finding that comeback churches generally first had a spiritual experience that redirected and reenergized their lives, beginning with their leader; but missional is what really stands out in my mind.
Missional churches are incarnational, meaning they are not focused on the church facilities, but on offering biblical community to a lost world. Missional churches are indigenous, meaning they appropriately their culture. This is more difficult than it sounds. For instance, GPC has a culture that fits with what the Glenwood community culture was 50 years ago, a culture meaningful only to those in the church and not culturally relevant to the present day community. Finally, missional churches are intentional, meaning they intentionally make missional decisions over preferential decisions. They intentionally think like missionaries in their context.
What would happen if the members of GPC starting doing what missionaries do in the context of the Glenwood neighborhood? What would happen if we shifted our vision: if we truly desired to reach lost people with the gospel of Jesus Christ? What would happen if we ate, breathed, and lived in the present day community culture, while sowing seeds of of love, kindness, grace, redemption, and Good News? We wouldn’t have space for all the people that would be filling our building on Sundays and other days during the week.
What will happen if we don’t? Not much. We could probably struggle on for many more years.
More on this, and more from the book Comeback Churches in the next few days.
For those that are under the mistaken impression that GPC is only a “happenin” place on Sundays, we’ve been busy the last couple of weeks. Last week was our “Power Lab” vacation Bible school, which was a huge success. Most importantly, we had five kids who made decisions for Christ during the week! Thanks to all the helpers and teachers for their hard work.
Yesterday, we let G.U.P.Y. use our building for the day – check out this link to see all the fun they had.
Glenwood Presbyterian Church would like to invite members of GGNA to a special dinner:
*GGNA BENEFIT DINNER*
Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 6:30pm
Glenwood Presbyterian Church, 1205 Glenwood Ave. (corner of Glenwood & Oak) in the Fellowship Hall Building
The dinner starts at 6:30 and is casual. Then at 7:00 the band Christian Endeavor will play in the Sanctuary followed by a short presentation by GGNA leaders and a Bible Study by Rev. Dr. Charles Howell, who was raised in Glenwood and is now the interim pastor at Glenwood Presbyterian. The members of Glenwood Pres. are all looking forward to learning more about GGNA and recognizing GGNA’s service to the community.
The Glenwood Gladiators, Glenwood Presbyterian’s church softball team, has a practice game tonight at 8:30 p.m. Our game is at the Old Peck ball field in Glenwood (where Lexington dead-ends near Freeman Mill Road), so those of you in the neighborhood can stop by and see the action. Hopefully we won’t get rained out.
The Glenwood Community has been in the news a lot lately, and for a refreshing change it is not about new crimes that are being committed. The talk is about the Glenwood Revitalization Plan prepared by the city.
On another Glenwood note, I’ve added a link in the sidebar to the Greensboro Hive: “A community center established to foster relationship building, dialogue, and resource sharing among individuals, groups, and communities working to build grassroots democracy and community power in and around Greensboro, North Carolina.”
