Here is this weeks Thursday Podcast.
It is about the coorelation of the changing model of news journalism and how that gives clues to what is happening in the world of church and collective Christianity.
Changing Business Model For Christianity – Thursday Podcast
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This is a really interesting podcast. Thanks for sharing it. I think that the church really does have to think about how the technological world without losing tradition. It is a difficult situation and we need innovative church leaders to think about it.
we discussed this idea with Brian McLaren at the EMC tour stop in DC a couple weeks ago.
Both mainline emergents as well as some of us independent guys voiced a similar concern…and that is the financial sustainability of what we are trying to do.
there were also several church planters who were concerned that there is no real network of financial support for those who want to start experimental churches.
in my own situation, we have moved from a very traditional independent baptist church to what i would call missional/emerging and it has been very difficult. taking the change jar to the grocery store has made me ask on more than one occasion – “can i feed my family on my ideology?”
i am certain that the answer is not to stop emerging…in fact, if we really believe in the message of the gospel then that is impossible. by finding new models and strategies to make what we are doing sustainable in a post-modern world is going to be vital.
of course, necessity is the mother of invention, so i suppose we are going to see more and more creative ways of doing church in the years to come.
I think the issue is that there is no promise that you get a job out of creating communities of faith.
The end of this whole thing will be the church funding network.
The future might be finding ways to build communities without having to make a job out of it.
that’s what we are stuggling with.. how do we create a community without attaching it to our resume?
Good stuff.
What I think we will see is a bifurcation (if not more divisions) on general models of how we do church.
I think more traditional models of funding and leading churches will be here for years to come. Those churches that do this model well will survive and may even thrive. But this model for many churches may decline.
At the same time, like the internet phenomenon, there will be new ways of expressing faith and doing church that will compete for the “church” market.
Although I would not endorse their model on many levels, there is a religious body that has been able to run churches without resident pastors, develop a culture than encourages each member of their millions to be involved in global mission in their young adult years,and rarely has financial problems. The mormons
I must also say that I serve on a regional governing board of a mainline denomination. Each time we meet we have more discusssions about selling properties from closed churches. Your comments really ring home in that way. We are investing a lot of time and money in a model of church that is not working
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