A Wedding, the Body of Christ, and Natural Church Growth
Greetings one and all. Whew! It's been a while, hasn't it. This past weekend my family and I were in Monahans, TX for my sister's wedding. Monahans is in west Texas close to El Paso. My sister Katie looked stunningly beautiful the whole weekend. We had the wedding in the Sand Dunes State Park there. It was a great site for the wedding. The sand was beautiful! Has anyone ever tried to walk on sand before? It was quit a work out. But oh my it was great being out there. We all drank a lot of water, because it was so hot out there. I took one of the water bottles and put some of the sand in it and put it in my bedroom to remember it. The wedding ceremony was beautiful as well. My brother-in-law Jake Chism did the ceremony and did a great job. Everything went according to plan. Jacob and Katie, congrats! I love and miss y'all! Be blessed!
While we were in Monahans we contacted one of the churches of Christ in the area about using a few tables and chairs. Not long after that we saw two vans come through and park. Then they all got out and started pulling out a bunch of tables and chairs for us to use. It was incredibly touching to see that and talk to them. We were all so thankful to that church for their fellowship with us! A bunch of people from our church came all the way out there to celebrate with us and that was very touching as well. We love the beautiful Body of Christ!
The last thing, I was thinking to myself over the weekend about what I could (or should) be doing in ministry. One thing that is of particular interest to me personally is spiritual development or natural church growth. Truitt Adair (the Director of Sunset International Bible Institute) has said that churches that are naturally healthy will naturally grow. My good friend Ryan Steyn has talked about this as well. Thank you Ryan for our conversations about that. To me, spiritual development and natural church growth are one and the same. Churches that are spiritually healthy will naturally grow. If you talk to any parent about their children, I am sure they will tell you that they want there children to grow. Back in May of this year my sister Angie and brother in law Jake gave birth to their first child Madelyn Grace Chism. She was so tiny when she was born. I think at the present moment she is between 17 and 20 pounds. She is beautiful and healthy.For that we are all very thankful! In fact Jake and Angie keep a blog about her as well. Check it out at mynameismadelyn.blogspot.com.
Sorry for that little detour. I think one thing that will help our churches to grow is to look the Saddleback Community Church that Rick Warren started in the Los Angles area. They offer four classes about the church in four different areas. Class 101 is about salvation, baptism, and communion along with the purposes structure, and applications of your church. Class 201 offers necessary tools for spiritual growth by focusing on four basic habits. Every Christian needs time in the Bible, prayer, tithing, and fellowship. Class 301 talks about developing your SHAPE: spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences. And Class 401 helps core members learn to share their faith, discover their life mission, and how to serve. All of this is listed in Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren and on his websites purposedriven.com and pastors.com. Does anyone else out there know of any good resources about natural church growth (ie. books, websites, music, radio stations, etc.)?
Here in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area we have KLTY (klty.com) and KCBI (kcbi.com). These are Christian radio stations and they are both very good stations and websites.
Please be in prayer for Jacob and Katie as they start their marriage and as they both finish school at LCU. I think they both want to teach Middle School in an inner city context.Please pray for my friends I usually talk about on here who are preparing to be missionaries all over the world. And please pray for me that I'll get to attend Sunset next year. At some point (after school most likely) I hope to pursue a full-time ministry position especially in the Northeast or Northwest US. In the mean time I hope to develop in natural church growth and other areas.
Any thoughts please? God bless!
Zack
While we were in Monahans we contacted one of the churches of Christ in the area about using a few tables and chairs. Not long after that we saw two vans come through and park. Then they all got out and started pulling out a bunch of tables and chairs for us to use. It was incredibly touching to see that and talk to them. We were all so thankful to that church for their fellowship with us! A bunch of people from our church came all the way out there to celebrate with us and that was very touching as well. We love the beautiful Body of Christ!
The last thing, I was thinking to myself over the weekend about what I could (or should) be doing in ministry. One thing that is of particular interest to me personally is spiritual development or natural church growth. Truitt Adair (the Director of Sunset International Bible Institute) has said that churches that are naturally healthy will naturally grow. My good friend Ryan Steyn has talked about this as well. Thank you Ryan for our conversations about that. To me, spiritual development and natural church growth are one and the same. Churches that are spiritually healthy will naturally grow. If you talk to any parent about their children, I am sure they will tell you that they want there children to grow. Back in May of this year my sister Angie and brother in law Jake gave birth to their first child Madelyn Grace Chism. She was so tiny when she was born. I think at the present moment she is between 17 and 20 pounds. She is beautiful and healthy.For that we are all very thankful! In fact Jake and Angie keep a blog about her as well. Check it out at mynameismadelyn.blogspot.com.
Sorry for that little detour. I think one thing that will help our churches to grow is to look the Saddleback Community Church that Rick Warren started in the Los Angles area. They offer four classes about the church in four different areas. Class 101 is about salvation, baptism, and communion along with the purposes structure, and applications of your church. Class 201 offers necessary tools for spiritual growth by focusing on four basic habits. Every Christian needs time in the Bible, prayer, tithing, and fellowship. Class 301 talks about developing your SHAPE: spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences. And Class 401 helps core members learn to share their faith, discover their life mission, and how to serve. All of this is listed in Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren and on his websites purposedriven.com and pastors.com. Does anyone else out there know of any good resources about natural church growth (ie. books, websites, music, radio stations, etc.)?
Here in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area we have KLTY (klty.com) and KCBI (kcbi.com). These are Christian radio stations and they are both very good stations and websites.
Please be in prayer for Jacob and Katie as they start their marriage and as they both finish school at LCU. I think they both want to teach Middle School in an inner city context.Please pray for my friends I usually talk about on here who are preparing to be missionaries all over the world. And please pray for me that I'll get to attend Sunset next year. At some point (after school most likely) I hope to pursue a full-time ministry position especially in the Northeast or Northwest US. In the mean time I hope to develop in natural church growth and other areas.
Any thoughts please? God bless!
Zack
posted by Zack | 9:28 AM
6 Comments:
Zack,
Thanks for your thoughts! It was a great wedding and your help was very much appreciated. We couldn't have done it without the help of our old friends from BRCC and our new friends from the church in Monahans. May Jacob and Katie be greatly blessed by our Lord!
dad
Hey Zack, good on ya man. If you're looking for resources about natural church growth, I'd definitely look at Natural Church Development by Christian Schwarz. I gotta warn you that it's no easy read, but if you can stick it through, it'll be worth its weight in gold to you. The more I've learned, the more I've discovered that church growth is a paradigm -a way of thinking. If you can train yourself to apply theological principles in a way that is highly relevant to a postmodern world, you're in good shape.
Thank you, Zack for giving us this kind of gem. Article is much matured and quite humoristic. It would be great if you add some about different kinds of church chairs. Isn’t it?
Hey Zach!
I have emailed you our home address a few times and it kept coming back to me...
So... here is my office address...
661 justin road
rockwall, tx 75087
You might want to talk to some officants and get their views on church development. Try http://www.gatheringguide.com/ec/wedding_officiants.html to find an easy list of local ones.
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