THOUGHTS ON THE EMERGING CHURCH

From the Worldwide Faith News archive:

CHARLOTTE, NC - Most of the evidently successful "mega-churches" and church-growth movements have actually been failures because they have watered down the "radical gospel message of transformation of individual and community lives," a leading religious innovator told a crowd of nearly 1,000 Presbyterian leaders on Jan. 23.

The Rev. Mike Slaughter, the lead pastor of Ginghamsburg (United Methodist) Church in Tipp City, OH, near Dayton, said during the opening plenary session of the annual Churchwide Transformation Conference that "the mega-church has failed as a reproducible model, because the Biblical measure of strength is not size, but faithfulness"...

He said his studies of "the emerging church" have revealed that all successful 21st-century churches are:

Intentionally missional;
Multicultural;
Multi-sensory; and
Multi-media.

Post-moderns don't want to be put on a committee," he said. "They want to be equipped to make a difference in the lives of others."

Some good thoughts here.