Articles for tag: Life.Church

February 22, 2020

Justin Horey

Can Online Churches Create Offline Connections?

Three Churches Share Stories from the “Wild West”of Worship on the World Wide Web By Justin Horey From smartphones to social media, Facebook to FaceTime, the Internet and the tools we use to access it are often advertised as ways to help people relate to one another. Dating apps and websites aim to bring people together in person, while social media platforms and videoconferencing were created to help people stay in touch when they can’t be together in the same room. Technology experts and ordinary people alike love to debate the effectiveness of relating with online tools, but these tools

February 19, 2020

Justin Horey

Can Online Churches Create Offline Connections?

Three Churches Share Stories from the “Wild West” of Worship on the World Wide Web By Justin Horey From smartphones to social media, Facebook to FaceTime, the Internet and the tools we use to access it are often advertised as ways to help people relate to one another. Dating apps and websites aim to bring people together in person, while social media platforms and videoconferencing were created to help people stay in touch when they can’t be together in the same room. Technology experts and ordinary people alike love to debate the effectiveness of relating with online tools, but these

December 5, 2017

Christian Standard

Dropping the Act

By Chuck Dennie I”ve served in large churches for the past 10 years. These churches do amazing things in people”s lives, their communities, and around the world. They create environments where people”s lives are made whole. The problem is, my life was broken. My mom left when I was 6 months old, and I could tell you about many other sources of my brokenness, but we all have a story we could tell. I came to believe early on that love is earned, and so I began to pursue the approval of others. When you combine these factors and this

October 12, 2017

Christian Standard

Innovation Is Born Out of Constraint

By Chuck Dennie Why does Twitter have a 140-character limit? An article titled “Best Practices” at Twitter.com states, “Creativity loves constraints and simplicity is at our core. Tweets are limited to 140 characters so they can be consumed easily anywhere, even via mobile text messages.” Twitter users most likely will tell you that being limited to 140 characters has forced them to be more focused, creative, and clear about what they”re trying to communicate. The multisite church is a beautiful example of innovating in response to constraint and limitations. We can now reach more people in more areas in our communities

September 10, 2017

Christian Standard

#hustle vs #grace

By Chuck Dennie Snap a pic of you getting it done and make sure to include #hustle . . . We live in a world where we compare our lives with the highlight reels we see displayed on our social media channels. The latest buzzword #hustle has been elevated to rock-star status. #hustle has even become a platform on which some leaders are standing . . . at least until that platform crumbles. I have been that leader. I am an ENTJ with a top strength of competition on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality inventory. ENTJ + competition = hustle. I

July 23, 2017

Christian Standard

Leading Through Your Core Values

By L. E. Mackenzie You did it! As the lead pastor of your church, you established an amazing mission statement to keep everyone focused and on track. It looks so good on paper that you framed it and hung it on the wall behind your desk. You show the statement to others, you preach on it, and your people know it by heart. But something is not right . . . You have strong, practical ideas to grow and mature your church, but you feel resistance at different levels. In e-mails and quiet conversations people ask, “Why are we doing

February 4, 2017

Christian Standard

NACC 2017: This Is for Everyone

By Gene Appel I want to invite you to join me in one of America”s greatest cities for my favorite conference on the planet, the North American Christian Convention, June 27″“29 in Kansas City, Missouri. I especially want to invite you if you”ve never been to this special gathering, or if you haven”t been able to make it for a few years. After a fantastic convention in Anaheim, California, in 2016, we have great momentum building for Kansas City, and I hope you”ll jump on board. Let me share why. First, we have an urgent theme: “This is for EVERYONE.” God”s

May 5, 2013

Jerry Harris

A Church for People Who Don”t Go to Church

By Kent E. Fillinger The Crossing is a multisite megachurch. Its original campus is in Quincy, Illinois, a town of 40,000 people. Even though there are 85 churches in Quincy, 80 percent of the people there don”t attend any church, so Jerry Harris, senior pastor of The Crossing, decided to focus on being the church for people who don”t go to church. The Crossing was a small church of 230 people in 1998 when it decided to spend $2.5 million to buy a community college to serve as the church”s new home. As part of the deal, The Crossing shared

August 30, 2009

Christian Standard

Seven Key Question for Jon Ferguson

  by Darrel Rowland Jon Ferguson, cofounder of Community Christian Church near Chicago (www.communitychristian.org) and director/cofounder of the NewThing Network (www.newthing.org) discusses the hows and whys of multisite.       Why multisite in the first place, especially vs. expansion at the original location, and vs. planting an entirely new church at the new location? At Community, we”re always asking, “Where is God at work?” or better yet, “Where may God be dreaming?” Our mission is helping people find their way back to God. Multisite and church planting have been our responses to where God is at work in our

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