Comments on: Rock Star Pastors?

By: Noteworthy of 2008 | Solar Crash

Noteworthy of 2008 | Solar Crash — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:11:47 +0000

[...] on comments, hits, and personal preference, here were some noteworthy posts of 2008. Rock star pastors What I want Crippling them Radical Church Mushrooms Loneliness Creative Revolution in China [...]

By: Mushrooms | Solar Crash

Mushrooms | Solar Crash — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:16:11 +0000

[...] To illustrate my last post. [...]

By: Lon

Lon — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:41:36 +0000

Sam – thanks for sharing the story of your friend – that is just awesome how natural the advancing of the gospel can be!

Jason – i share the same hope… as much as the role of the church planter has been exalted as critical these days … it really shouldn’t take extraordinary people… just ordinary people with an extraordinary God.

Aaron – it’s amazing how often I hear people stress that the church is the people… yet it seems to really take a while for that message to really filter out to people

Brandon – thanks for tying our own personal uniqueness to the uniqueness of the church. It doesn’t get any more unique than that! and indeed… an excellent wolfgang quote!

By: josh Allan

josh Allan — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:18:30 +0000

Cool quote, Brandon! I dig.

By: Brandon Donaldson

Brandon Donaldson — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:41:33 +0000

Oops, I quoted the wrong thing. Here is the quote from WolfGang. “Creation itself teaches us that nothing healthy grows endlessly, but at some point stops growing and starts multiplying.”

By: Brandon Donaldson

Brandon Donaldson — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:39:09 +0000

You are so right. You have identified the danger of trying to accomplish what someone else has accomplished the way they accomplished it. I really think this is a big issue in the church with leaders trying to be someone they are not.

I believe that as we have a clear sense of who we are in the context of the body of Christ, we will all do something that no else can do…or should do. The church you will plant, as you follow the heart and the vision God has given you, will be unique and have strengths that no other church has. In so doing it is a complement to the Church universal. I write that out of my own leadership insecurities…it is what I hope and sense to be true.

I do believe there are better ways of doing church…or better put, different and more effective ways. I love the distinction Wolfgang gives between organic growth and mechanical growth.

I think this is the new challenge for the big “C” church, and I believe there are new yet to be discovered forms of church that will facilitate this organic, divine growth. Forms that effectively and naturally build the body of Christ in each of our cultural and community contexts.

By: aaron

aaron — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:34:49 +0000

YES. YES. YES. Where is the real church? What is the real church?
People not buildings or organization!

By: jason allen

jason allen — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:59:58 +0000

I like your line: “My fear is that people might look at me, or other leaders and say, well I can’t do that.”

I’ve often said my hope is for people to see me and what I do and think, well if Jason can do it anyone can do it.

By: Sam.

Sam. — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:30:51 +0000

We regularly talk about lowering the bar on what it means to be and do church whilst raising the bar on what it means to be a follower of Christ.

I loved it when a friend of ours who discovered the reality of Christ last year asked if she’d be able to start ‘a Mosaic’ when she moved home (she was an overseas student who lived with us for a while). We wanted to explore what she understood that to be and basically it came down to me and Rachel having an open home where anyone and everyone was welcome, conversation happened, and people discovered more about God. She saw that its most basic level, that was the hub from which anything and everything else happens. And she saw that as something she could do. It didn’t require a professional degree or training to have an open home, practice hospitality, and see what God might do through that.