Evaluating your church

Date: 23 Oct 2006
Time: 12:01:32 -0500
Remote Name: 24-116-10-79.cpe.cableone.net
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Over the weekend of October 19 - 22 I returned to the congregation I had previouly served. They had been conducting a self study and this weekend with filled with the wisdom of the consulting firm on the results. Elmhurst Presbyterian like First Presbyterian Church has had a history of touching the lives of thousands over the years, but also has suffered from cultural changes that the church has had difficultly keeping pace with. The hope from this consultation was to get a professional evaluation from an organization intimate with church growth. The consultants looked at the complete church including: organizational structure, church plant, existing programs, and worship. After sitting in two days of meetings with church members of different interests, and demographics what I found was that much of what was said was painful to hear. If we desire to be a church of any impact and substance we will need to look at things from different perspectives and contexts. That being said, what were lying at the heart of a church’s vitality were three things. 1. Life shaping worship. 2. Adult spiritual growth disciple. 3. A central mission that outreaches into the community. Ok here is the question or thought. We continually work to achieve these three things, so why are we not a thriving church? Prehaps there is an underling factor missing? Prehaps we cloud ourselves with preferences and lack a core message? Pastor Andy