Book: The Strategically Small Church 2:28 PM

Brandon J. O'Brien is editor at large for Leadership Journal and has written a book, released this month, titled "The Strategically Small Church." It seems to be a wonderful analysis of the benefits and opportunities facing a small congregation. The issue is that many small congregations look to mega churches for inspiration and ideas in ministry. O'Brien responds, "The trouble is, operating like a big church can undermine the inherent strengths of being small."

He goes on to say:

For example, as I explain in the book, research suggests that one of the factors that contributes to whether or not young people stay active in church after high school is intergenerational relationships. The students who have more and deeper relationships with adults other than their parents are much more likely to remain in the church in college and beyond. Now, smaller congregations offer tons of opportunity for developing these intergenerational relationships. But the hallmark of large churches is age-segmented ministry, programs designed to separate children from youth, youth from adults, young adults from seniors. When small churches imitate this model, they undercut their advantage for fostering intergenerational relationships.

We have not read the book, yet, but there are a few pastors who will be reading it, so we will follow up with some reviews and opinions about the content of the book when they finish reading it. This topic seems to fit many of our congregations and where they are in terms of size and ministry focus. But, again, we are not promoting the book since no one that we know has read it, yet. We are only inviting a discussion and thoughts on this topic and this book seems to have touched on a relevant issue within our congregations. Please share your thoughts and opinions with us if you have read this book.

Here are some links related to Brandon O'Brien and this book

• Free download of the First Chapter of the book (PDF)
• Interview with Ed Stetzer
• Interview with Wrecked.org
• Audio interview with Chris Fabry of Moody Radio

In the meantime, if you are interested in diving into this you can order it through Amazon by clicking the following link:
Strategically Small Church, The: Intimate, Nimble, Authentic, and Effective by Brandon J. O'Brien.
(By using this link, Faith & Fellowship will receive a portion of the profits through our Amazon Associates account. Thank you.)

"The Perils of 'Wanna Be Cool' Christianity" 2:47 PM

Preparing for the upcoming issue of Faith & Fellowship Magazine, we are posting a wonderful article about how churches reach out to the younger generations. It's so easy to get stuck in in the idea that we need new programs are need to change the style of worship, but is that really what teens and young adults want in their spiritual life? What kind of culture are we as the Church trying to reach? Can we even answer that question confidently?

An article on the Wall Street Journal website confronts the popular idea that church needs to be "cool" and "relevant" in the eyes of our culture in order to "win back" the younger generation.* What the younger generation (and everyone for that matter) really needs is Jesus, the gospel, the truth.

"And the further irony," he adds, "is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them."

If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that "cool Christianity" is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don't want cool as much as we want real.

Click here to > read the entire article

* There is a statistic in the beginning of the article that may be misleading. Please read the following article to get the an explanation of the numbers. Click here for > the article.

Children's Cup: 21 Days of Prayer 9:24 AM

Children's Cup has started a 21 Days of Prayer...and we're one day late. They will post short prayers and prayer topics each day for you to follow along. I invite you to join this prayer effort, but as you do, I ask you to remember to pray for our missionaries in Chad, Africa as they reach out to families and children who face similar hardships and need to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Praying for the children of Africa who are living in some of the hardest conditions anywhere.

Changing the world
one child at a time.

Join us for 21 days of prayer August 15 through September 4, 2010. We’ll post daily prayer guide information for you to track along with. You can also post your own prayers on our facebook page at www.facebook.com/ChildrensCup.

Let us know your are praying with us by attending our 21 Days of Prayer Facebook Event.

30 Days of Prayer For The Muslim World 9:59 AM

The next 30 days is Ramadan (the holy month of fasting in Islam). You can join Christians all over the world in praying for Muslims. 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World provides booklets and online material to guide you through the next 30 days. The following text is from the first page in the booklet. We have also provided links to resources and the prayer calendar below.

Welcome to the 19th annual 30 Days Muslim Prayer Focus.

It coincides yearly with Ramadan (the holy month of fasting in Islam). This prayer movement (currently coordinated out of France and previously from Australia) calls upon Christians to make a concerted but considerate effort during this time to learn about, pray for and reach out to Muslim neighbors - across the street and around the world.

It is not our intention with this prayer focus to disparage Islam or Muslim sentiments in any way. We recognize that humans and the Muslim world are far too complex to easily condense or explain with a mere booklet. Yet, as Christians, we long for all the world's people to have an opportunity to understand the grace of God incarnated in Jesus Christ. To this end we inform ourselves, pray for, and support respectful opportunities to make that grace also known among Muslims.

Each year a new illustrated prayer guide is published in dozens of languages and locations around the world.

Thank you for participating.

Follow the 30 Days of Prayer Online
Click here to view the Prayer Calendar and Guides

Downloads related to the Prayer Focus

• Is God Really Interested? (PDF)
• Basic Islam - Part One (PDF)
• Basic Islam - Part Two (PDF)

Book by Chaplain David Thompson (Ret.) Honored 12:09 PM

The May/June issue of Faith & Fellowship Magazine included a cover story by Retired Chaplain David Thompson. Chaplain Thompson is the co-author of the book Beyond the Yellow Ribbon. We received an email today mentioning that the book was chosen as one of the Top 10 Books for Parish Ministry in 2009 by Academy of Parish Clergy!

• View list of "Top 10 Books for Parish Ministry"

Read some reviews of Beyond the Yellow Ribbon:

• UMPH Review
• Review by Faith Reads

Purchase the book at Amazon.com:

Beyond the Yellow Ribbon: Ministering to Returning Combat Veterans

Is It Live or Is It Memorex? 12:07 PM

More and more large multi-campus churches are relying on video feeds of their preaching pastors during the sermon portions of their worship services. Instead of actually being in the building with the person preaching you could be miles away watching a video feed of the sermon.

Here is a short blog post from CNN regarding this new phenomenon:

People listening to their pastor preach on Sunday morning may now ask a question that no one has ever asked before: Is this live or is this on tape delay?

More pastors are using high-def videos, and even holograms, to beam their Sunday morning sermons to remote "satellite" churches that belong to their congregation, as I detail in a story today.

They are pastors like Rev. Ed Young, senior pastor of Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas. Young broadcast videos of his sermons from his “mother” church to other congregations in Texas and even one in Florida.

Young says he doesn’t think parishioners who watch his video-projected sermons at other locations are being short-changed:

I don't think you lose a thing. I would argue you could see me better when you're at a venue made for screens.

Yet the Rev. Thomas Long, a nationally recognized authority on preaching and author of "Preaching from Memory to Hope," says something is lost when preachers beam in their Sunday morning sermons:

There's something about embodiment - that the person who delivers the sermon is actually there - that's important. It's important in the same way that someone physically visits someone in a hospital or buries a loved one - they don't fax it in.

We live in a culture that’s becoming more visual. Are pastors like Young just taking advantage of existing technology or is there something vital about a pastors being physically present when they preach?

What is your reaction? Do you resonate more with Rev. Young or Rev. Long? Why?

HT: Mark Driscoll

Posted by Tony Lombardo

NY Times Article about Pastors 8:47 AM

A pastor forwarded this article from NY Times to our Lutheran Brethren Seminary President, Dr. David Veum. We hope that this article will continue to open our eyes to the stress and expectations that our pastors are under at times, and help us find new ways to support them in their ministry. The latest issue of Faith & Fellowship Magazine focused on taking care of our pastors. In fact, Dr. David Veum wrote an article for it. The NY Times article focuses on the reality of burnout and health issues in today's pastors. One quote from the article reads, "They think that taking care of themselves is selfish, and that serving God means never saying no." Please pray for our pastors and their congregations. They may never reveal their stress level or depression, so as another article in our latest issue of Faith & Fellowship reads, "Pastors need to be reassured that we understand at least some of the stress they are under and that it's safe for them to ask for help" (Pastors Need Self-Care Too by Nate Larsen).

NY Times article "Taking a Break From the Lord’s Work":

The findings have surfaced with ominous regularity over the last few years, and with little notice: Members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension and depression at rates higher than most Americans. In the last decade, their use of antidepressants has risen, while their life expectancy has fallen. Many would change jobs if they could.

Public health experts who have led the studies caution that there is no simple explanation of why so many members of a profession once associated with rosy-cheeked longevity have become so unhealthy and unhappy.
Read the full article from NY TIMES >