Pastor of Mountaintop Family Center
Church planter assesment fo the A/G in the Penn/Del district (Tom Rees):
Past performance is the best indicator of future performance.
When planting a church, design the church based on the demographics of the area. Know who the influencers are and remember, people are people and be careful what you say. The focus of the church is outside the church. "Come in and get answers then go out and do good work."
We did some speed-stacking of cups. it was rally fun. He ues it as an outreach to get into schools and to get people into the churches.
Most churches keep their pastors so busy with the people inside the church that the pator can rarely if ever reach or even speak to unsaved people.
"If I have to offend someone, I will always offend the churched person over the unchurched person." Mature Christians should be mature enough to handle things.
He said about the way he does church that it is very untraditional in a traditional area. I'm not sure how that agrees with the idea of designing the church as per the demographics of the area. I guess being untraditional in a highly traditional area does not count.
He wants to have a cafe setting in the back that is very comfortable for guests because he believes that it is better for someone to sit in the back of a church for a month than for them to come once an hopefully get saved because the church is not welcoming to guests.
He calls his dog satan, and he says he'd like to see it dead. Dog hater! Jerkface!
www.mfcchurch.com
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Interview with Bill Ellis
Bill Ellis is the lead pastor of Riverside Community Church. His church meets in two locations near Pittsburgh.
A year after his church plant his church went from 30 to 31. He learned much in trial and error. In his christian life, he has always felt like an outside looking in. He therefore connects well with the outsiders. In his ministry, he has learned to be the man God made him to be not try to fit someone else's model. His church and his people are intentionally welcoming to people.
He believes that everyone needs to get "saved." Everyone both the Christians and non-belivers need to get more of Jesus. I firmly believe this. Even the professor of this class seems, at times, to be part of the evangelism-only mentality. Once someone has raised their hand and said the prayer they are not done, they are still a sinner in need of salvation, they are redeemed now. I agree with him greatly. The church is for both evangelism and discipleship.
He spoke on the difference between the kingdom and an empire. He spoke of the new revolutionary church that is rising up. Many are afraid of these changes calling it the fall of the church, but it is simply the next wave of the church. Being part of this new wave, I agree that we are not part of the downfall of the church, we are the new church.
Everything in his church is based on small-groups. Everything from the baseball team to the board are small groups. The church's expectation is both to have people there on Sunday and be involved in a small group.
The church must be more active in the world of politics in terms of things that Jesus cared about. He does not promote the republican Jesus. He says that the church has a responsibility to help the poor and the widows and the weak. The church must set the captives free and lift up the downtrodden. He said that Christians should care about Darfur, and AIDS, and things of that nature.
On the one year aniversary of the Katrina tragedy, there was a news report about how many displaced people have gone to Houston. The largest church in Houston is Joel Olstein's. Joel Olstein, on this day, preached on how we should lose 5 pounds and get to the ideal weight that God wants us to be. He was showing how the church of America is focused on themselves, especially the big popular churches. I despise Joel Olstein's Bible-less, self-help preaching.
A year after his church plant his church went from 30 to 31. He learned much in trial and error. In his christian life, he has always felt like an outside looking in. He therefore connects well with the outsiders. In his ministry, he has learned to be the man God made him to be not try to fit someone else's model. His church and his people are intentionally welcoming to people.
He believes that everyone needs to get "saved." Everyone both the Christians and non-belivers need to get more of Jesus. I firmly believe this. Even the professor of this class seems, at times, to be part of the evangelism-only mentality. Once someone has raised their hand and said the prayer they are not done, they are still a sinner in need of salvation, they are redeemed now. I agree with him greatly. The church is for both evangelism and discipleship.
He spoke on the difference between the kingdom and an empire. He spoke of the new revolutionary church that is rising up. Many are afraid of these changes calling it the fall of the church, but it is simply the next wave of the church. Being part of this new wave, I agree that we are not part of the downfall of the church, we are the new church.
Everything in his church is based on small-groups. Everything from the baseball team to the board are small groups. The church's expectation is both to have people there on Sunday and be involved in a small group.
The church must be more active in the world of politics in terms of things that Jesus cared about. He does not promote the republican Jesus. He says that the church has a responsibility to help the poor and the widows and the weak. The church must set the captives free and lift up the downtrodden. He said that Christians should care about Darfur, and AIDS, and things of that nature.
On the one year aniversary of the Katrina tragedy, there was a news report about how many displaced people have gone to Houston. The largest church in Houston is Joel Olstein's. Joel Olstein, on this day, preached on how we should lose 5 pounds and get to the ideal weight that God wants us to be. He was showing how the church of America is focused on themselves, especially the big popular churches. I despise Joel Olstein's Bible-less, self-help preaching.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Interview with Courtney Bankroft
At the end of college, she stayed on as an assistant to the campus pastor.
"If you feed them they will come!" College students Love home cooked meals.
She was going to start a Chi Alpha at Villanova, but their sister school Georgetown
She believes that discipleship begins even before they are saved. She readily involves non-saved Chi Alpha attendees in hanging out fliers or other things of that matter. She does not place the unsaved in positions of spiritual leadership, but she belives that getting them involved helps them to stay, and eventually leads them to make a decision to accept Christ. I definitely agree. Getting someone involved helps them to come back and stay involved.
In her Chi Alpha meetings, she tries not to monopolize the conversations. She says that she tries to talk the least in her Bible meetings. When asked about who talks the most in her meetings, she answered that the Chrsitans talk the most. She said she was more willing to ask a Christian to be quiet or even to leave before she will ask an unsaved atendee to do so.
When taking people to church, she has a really good church to invite them to, but when asked her opinion on churches by students in her ministry, she is torn between the real problems in her church and her pet peeves. She said that her major pet peeve is worship from the early 90's or simply bad worship. An unsaved person coming into the church does not care that "Jesus likes my worship" they care if you are a good musician and if your songs are modern and cool. I definitely agree. Even as a person saved for many years, bad musical quality is distracting in worship.
When itinerating she travels to many different churches. In speaking in our class full of possible future pastors, she was asked about her experiences at different churches. She said that the number one bad experience that apparently happened multiple times was pastors trying to set her up with their sons. I think this is hilarious. AG pastors are silly people.
She said that one problem she has in raising money is that any time she is having a meeting with a pastor then there has to be another woman present. I'm not sure if that's a correctable problem because of all the things involved in a pastor and a woman having a meeting alone. A more real problem is that MANY male pastors do not want to give up their pulpit for a whole service to a woman. Yeah this is a big problem. Stupid male pastors..... wait a minute..... im male and planning to be a pastor.....
"If you feed them they will come!" College students Love home cooked meals.
She was going to start a Chi Alpha at Villanova, but their sister school Georgetown
She believes that discipleship begins even before they are saved. She readily involves non-saved Chi Alpha attendees in hanging out fliers or other things of that matter. She does not place the unsaved in positions of spiritual leadership, but she belives that getting them involved helps them to stay, and eventually leads them to make a decision to accept Christ. I definitely agree. Getting someone involved helps them to come back and stay involved.
In her Chi Alpha meetings, she tries not to monopolize the conversations. She says that she tries to talk the least in her Bible meetings. When asked about who talks the most in her meetings, she answered that the Chrsitans talk the most. She said she was more willing to ask a Christian to be quiet or even to leave before she will ask an unsaved atendee to do so.
When taking people to church, she has a really good church to invite them to, but when asked her opinion on churches by students in her ministry, she is torn between the real problems in her church and her pet peeves. She said that her major pet peeve is worship from the early 90's or simply bad worship. An unsaved person coming into the church does not care that "Jesus likes my worship" they care if you are a good musician and if your songs are modern and cool. I definitely agree. Even as a person saved for many years, bad musical quality is distracting in worship.
When itinerating she travels to many different churches. In speaking in our class full of possible future pastors, she was asked about her experiences at different churches. She said that the number one bad experience that apparently happened multiple times was pastors trying to set her up with their sons. I think this is hilarious. AG pastors are silly people.
She said that one problem she has in raising money is that any time she is having a meeting with a pastor then there has to be another woman present. I'm not sure if that's a correctable problem because of all the things involved in a pastor and a woman having a meeting alone. A more real problem is that MANY male pastors do not want to give up their pulpit for a whole service to a woman. Yeah this is a big problem. Stupid male pastors..... wait a minute..... im male and planning to be a pastor.....
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