Archive for the ‘Church’ Category

Posted on April 14, 2011 - by Stephen Murray

Resources for Healthy Congregations

Having moved out of the church planting scene (for the time being at least) and into ministry in a more traditional and established local church one pressing issue that has given me much cause for thought and reflection is the issue of congregation health. My guess is that there are several ways to measure the health and spiritual vitality of a congregation – and there is a plethora of books and guides out there aiming to give us insight in this area. In the midst of all those resources and litmus tests I want to offer one primary indicator upon which I think the health of a congregation stands or falls: The ability of members to integrate the centrality of the gospel into every single sphere and occasion of their lives.

Gospel-centered ministry is something of a trendy watchword in contemporary ministry circles and I think we’re starting to get really good at throwing the term around and dubbing our ministries as ‘gospel-centered’ – but are our congregations actually being enabled and equipped to apply the gospel personally in a multitude of different ways to address the multiple facets of their lives. Do your congregation members know how to apply the gospel to negative thoughts, feelings and attitudes? Do they understand the difference it makes to how they work, what sort of citizen they are in their neighborhood, how they interact with their family, how they view and respond to the poor, the destitute? Do they see the difference it would make to the way they speak to friends, to colleagues, to the way they prioritize their time during any given week, to the way they prioritize their values and goals for the future? Do they know how to call on the resources of the gospel in the midst of pain, suffering, loss and frustration? Do they know how the gospel should shape their celebrations, their joy in this life, their expectations? Have your people developed a “gospel-instinct” in their approach to dealing with life?

There has been a very big and welcome push from some notable preachers and teachers to see the gospel as more than simply the entrance or the “door” to the Christian faith but rather to also see it as our central means for lasting transformation and growth in the Christian life. And whilst I praise this rediscovery of the comprehensive nature of the gospel I do wonder if we’re any good at getting it to move from our conferences, books and seminars and into the hearts and daily lives of our congregation.

Here are three resources that I’ve found particularly helpful in moving from theory to the hearts of the congregation. All three are really small group curriculum and work best in that environment for obvious reasons and so I suggest pastors, preachers and teachers work hard to dove-tail the formal teaching in larger groups with the curriculum of these resources:

1. The Gospel Centered Life (published by World Harvest Mission) is a fantastic 9 week course (developed in part by Bob Thune) that works really hard at practically applying the gospel to every aspect  of life. It’s a great course to really get people talking about their own hearts and whether or not the gospel is really making a difference to them. The exercises in the course are particularly helpful in getting people to really engage their hearts with the gospel.

2. The Gospel Centered Life (published by the Good Book Co.) has the same name as the course above but this one is in booklet form and it comes from Steve Timmis and Tim Chester who are both very insightful and experienced practitioners when it comes to seeing the gospel shape every aspect of the human life. The authors actually have a whole series on the go of gospel-centered booklets that deal with various aspects of life and interaction.

3. The Gospel in Life (published by Zondervan) is a course that comes from the ministry of Tim Keller. This course probably deals less with personal application of the gospel than the above two but it does outline the scope of the gospel more comprehensively than the other two. This course is great for giving your church a vision of what the gospel should be achieving amongst them.

Applied gospel-centrality is, I think, where the health of our congregation stands or falls. These resources have helped me see real fruit in congregations I’ve worked with in the past. I humbly suggest them as help to anyone who might be wondering whether or not their congregation is in a healthy state.

Posted on August 24, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

Rethink Mission

Jonathan McIntosh is a really cool guy that I met in St Louis last year when I visited the Journey Church. He’s an amazing thinker about cultural engagement and the developer of some really creative cultural engagement ministries at the Journey, some of which I got to see last year and which I’ll hopefully be getting to see more of in October when I’m there again.

Now he has a new web project called ‘Rethink Mission‘ which is all about inspiring gospel-centered, missional churches. It’s a site dedicated to helping churches think clearly about the gospel and about mission in their context. One of the great features on the site that helps with that aim is the Missional Q & A with other key missional leaders. All in all it looks like a great site and resource – so head over there and give it a look.