Had a mind-challenging weekend, after a practical-handson intensive week of dealing with the ups & downs of being a leader...this week: having to say and do hard things for the ultimate benefit of all involved.
Saturday I started the first set of gatherings for 'Pastor Factory'... a thing we at the NYC Vineyard are doing with other younger leaders from various vineyard churches around our area. We're working through Alexander Ventor's book Doing Church... which is pretty much Wimber's notes & thoughts on building the church from the bottom up in book form. Such depth in the stuff. It's the kind of stuff that makes total sense, but I've never been able to put actual words on.
The main thing that I've been thinking about (and actually applying in the situation I had during the week) was the Social Set Theory that vineyard buys into. The idea of us being Centered Set, as opposed to Fuzzy or Bounded set.
The premise of the Centered Set approach is that there is a well defined set of values that we're all shooting for. Anyone also moving towards those values is 'in'.
It defines why & how we do church the way we do. & it seems to be also Jesus' method. What has struck me as so interesting (yet not surprizing) is that most 'proper christians' I know find this approach to be sort of half-assed. The truth is, though, that it's the opposite. We're like full-on, and have a completely different dynamic in that we're about people. As Keck commented in the post below ..."you guys are a sending ground and a place where people can come... hangout and be sent". There is something profoundly right about that in our community. Perhaps its a sovereign thing that God has set us up to be, or maybe its a universal Kingdom characteristic.
I also had a wicked time thinking 'church' through a bit with some of the leaders of the Submerge-Midtown congregation. These guys are faced with the challenge of rethinking/repackaging church for their people in NYC. I'm psyched to be here to help them do that. Its going to be cool to see what happens in the next 2 years.
Its time for sleep...and starting another work week. I'm so not into my work. It seems so menial compared everything else that happens around me. & tomorrow AM I have to write goals for the next 6months, year, & 5 years. How about...do the same amount of work...and get paid way more?
Saturday I started the first set of gatherings for 'Pastor Factory'... a thing we at the NYC Vineyard are doing with other younger leaders from various vineyard churches around our area. We're working through Alexander Ventor's book Doing Church... which is pretty much Wimber's notes & thoughts on building the church from the bottom up in book form. Such depth in the stuff. It's the kind of stuff that makes total sense, but I've never been able to put actual words on.
The main thing that I've been thinking about (and actually applying in the situation I had during the week) was the Social Set Theory that vineyard buys into. The idea of us being Centered Set, as opposed to Fuzzy or Bounded set.
The premise of the Centered Set approach is that there is a well defined set of values that we're all shooting for. Anyone also moving towards those values is 'in'.
It defines why & how we do church the way we do. & it seems to be also Jesus' method. What has struck me as so interesting (yet not surprizing) is that most 'proper christians' I know find this approach to be sort of half-assed. The truth is, though, that it's the opposite. We're like full-on, and have a completely different dynamic in that we're about people. As Keck commented in the post below ..."you guys are a sending ground and a place where people can come... hangout and be sent". There is something profoundly right about that in our community. Perhaps its a sovereign thing that God has set us up to be, or maybe its a universal Kingdom characteristic.
I also had a wicked time thinking 'church' through a bit with some of the leaders of the Submerge-Midtown congregation. These guys are faced with the challenge of rethinking/repackaging church for their people in NYC. I'm psyched to be here to help them do that. Its going to be cool to see what happens in the next 2 years.
Its time for sleep...and starting another work week. I'm so not into my work. It seems so menial compared everything else that happens around me. & tomorrow AM I have to write goals for the next 6months, year, & 5 years. How about...do the same amount of work...and get paid way more?
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kenny: i sent an email to your vineyard address, not sure how often you get those. send me your phone number to lukestevens (at) gmail.com
thanks
Posted by
luke |
6:01 PM