SLLCS Board of Directors

 Real church growth is about growing people, not managing programs.  Yes.  And the majority of our members were part of this huge new 'Information Age' that technology brought about.  Information at our fingertips.  The urge to just learn but never do.   How do we help our members tell the story of Jesus in their daily lives?  Some are really good at it, others need a little practice and encouragement.  How do we move from teaching to training?

 All things local.  We know this is a trend and a promotion now for many businesses.  I am very much on the page that St. Luke's has a "unique story, unique features, unique strengths and unique possibilities." (p 144, 145) The chapter looks even further down this road though in pointing out that local might just be our families.  Maybe in the efforts to grow the church we forgot that this very first level has to be intact.   There is a place for believers working together in groups to accomplish what an individual cannot.  St. Luke's has not become a 'cookie cutter' version of some other body and I don't see us going that way.  What's your opinion - Are we 'local' enough?

 It's been a little hard in this book when I don't think we are the church he is describing.  We (the Lutheran church as a group) doesn't jump to change with the trends.  We might be 20 years behind the trend but our changes are slow and deliberate.  Definitely a temptation to make decisions on the numbers and to always get that +1, one more, mentality. I think we get orthodoxy and I think we show orthopraxy and I believe we we're pretty okay in the orthostasis area.  (I didn't really know what all these words meant, just wanted to throw them out.)  😉 So how would you answer the questions on page 138 about St. Luke's?

 Since Romans 1:16 is my confirmation verse, Mancini's question has been mine many times:  Am I ashamed of the Gospel?  (p 118)  I do like the summary of the connected gospel for disciples on page 126.  The question of the chapter:  Are we relying on relevance or are we relying on the Gospel?

So we are now starting the discussion of the 7 laws of the Upper Room.  The subtitle here is: Real Church Growth Starts with a culture of Mission, not Worship. I like that we are reminded here that the mission is to 'go'.  We have our signs to remind everyone that they are now entering the mission field yet I know that coming to church is a comfort.  Which it should be!  This is where the Lord comes to meet us.  So there isn't anything wrong with coming to church and I liked the quote on page 110 about Acts 6 - "We are going to delegate our internal activities in order to devote ourselves entirely to external activities."   Is our worship helping you go out and live the Jesus Adventure?  If not, what needs to change?

 Three Pills Prescribed by Church Pharma "Christian publishing....caters to leaders' FOMO (fear of missing out)."  p 75 Growing attendance.  More locations.  New pastors.  ....  It is important to me that all of us - staff, Board, membership - keep looking at our church and evaluating how we might help share the Gospel in better ways.   The quote on page 87 --"They do not sufficiently grapple with the oppositional forces church are facing today that were not so strong even twenty years ago."   Are we grappling with the right things?

 I was never much of a student of history but I have loved the study of generations.  In that study, I see that we do tend to repeat history over the generations.  As this chapter walked through these 20 year timeframes, it is easy to see the influence of the culture on the church.  I have obviously been a part of the 20 year cycle where they church being more "for the outside, not the insider" (p 69).   As you look at the chart on page 71 and the assumptions on page 72, are there any that stand out to you?