Marketing Small Churches??

A recent article talks about how "Small Churches are the Next Big Thing." Its actually a comment on a book recently written that predicts that people want "intimacy...not production values."

I appreciate these comments, and I also appreciate that the author of this article points out the danger of marketing a small church as 'better' just to get more people to come.

Community Night This Sunday

This Sunday we will be having a "Community Night." This is an evening in which we give each person who attends an opportunity to share a little bit about what is happening in life as of late. The point is to listen intentionally, to provide space to be challenged and encouraged by one another, and to grow closer together as a community.

This week we will have some special guests: Missionary friends from Papua New Guinea. They will share briefly about their work, and if anyone is interested, they can speak more with the missionaries after the gathering.

A few bits of instruction/information: Please respond to this blog post to say that you are coming. This will allow Julie and Chris to get an accurate head count so they can provide the right amount of food. You don't have to bring anything for the meal; you are simply welcome to come as you are.

Second, we have had several very long community nights in the past. So this week, we will be trying to keep everyone's time of sharing to an appropriate length (about 10 minutes or so).

We will start meeting at 5pm, and aim to be done at 7:30pm. We are meeting at Chris and Julie's house. You can call Julie's cell phone for more information. (937 572 2751)

Everyone is welcome- even if it is your first time. In fact, this is a great first meeting because it provides a chance for us all to get to know you. See you Sunday afternoon!

Update - Wednesday Gathering

We're getting together again this Wednesday to see what "church" turns out to look like. Everybody's welcome to come feel it out with us. Free food, real acceptance, nobody to tell you what to think.

(Anybody who wants to is welcome to come and take part in whatever sort of leadership or planning evolves from it, too. Contact Zach, Eve, Tracy or Angela for info.)

UPDATE FOR SUNDAY

We have gotten mixed responses to MOMO2, and I'm not sure many are planning on attending, so I am going to go ahead and cancel that part of it. We can all plan to meet at the Newby's house at 6:30-6:45 and have a LOST party (the second one for our group :) Bring snacks if you'd like.

Change of Plans- SUPERFUN this Sunday! MOMO2 and LOST!

We have decided to make a little change up in the schedule for Sunday. We had a superfun night scheduled for next week, however we are going to have that this week, and have community night at Chris and Julie's house next week. This week we will meet a MOMO2 at the corner of Olentangy River Rd. and Ackerman (near Buckeye village) for some superfun. I have never been there, but on the website it says they have bowling and have "private rooms" you can reserve for Karaoke. We will meet there Sunday at 5, and have lots of superfun.

Then we will go to Adam and Kara's house at 7 for LOST. If you are not into lost, then you can also just stay at Momo and keep having superfun. :). We will not be providing a meal, so plan to eat beforehand or you can grab something on the way to Kara and Adam's. We will probably have snacks- bring some to share if you'd like.

Here is the website for MOMO2:

http://www.momogroup.net/index2.htm

Please post if you are planning on partaking in the superfun. Also, if you need directions to Adam and Kara's let us know.

Wednesday Church 6:30pm

So this Wednesday will be our first experiment in having a regular mid-week "church". We will meet at Tracy and Angela's house for food, and then share some of the ways in which we experience the Kingdom of God or catch glimpses of it in song, scripture, prayer and interaction with each other. Check out Angela's description here for more info.

To be clear this is not an "instead of", but rather an "alongside of" or in addition to regular cohort meetings, and we'd like to continue active involvement with the cohort.
For some of us the cohort is our only place of "worship" or "church", and we've been craving a bit more worship, and spiritual involvement similar to the Celebration of the Faithful events. We'd also like to have a safe place to invite others who are interested in spirituality, but not as much intellectual discussions. Everyone is welcome to come, but don't feel obligated to if you are too busy, don't feel the need or are worshiping somewhere else.

An Open Invitation...

...to "See" and "Receive" (an evening of peace, rest, and participation)

Whenever I have the privilege to visit the ocean, see a waterfall, or gaze at the stars on a clear evening, I am struck by the fact that these natural wonders are always there. Constantly, whether I am aware of them or not, the ocean waves continue to crash, the waterfalls continue to flow, and the stars continue shine (even through the bright day when I can't see them). {The picture to the left is from last year's trip to Costa Rica.}

Maybe its a worn-out metaphor, but I think its a good reminder: God is always there too, we just have to take time to notice it. We have to stop, listen, breathe, look around, and notice God. We have to "see" spiritually.

And we have to "receive" spiritually too. We breathe in deeply. We try to listen for the voice of God. We receive a sense of peace, of contentment, maybe even a touch of joy.

I want to invite everyone to a time of "seeing" and "receiving." We will attempt to rest, to notice God's presence around us, and to receive what the Spirit has to offer us. There will be singing, listening to/reading sections of Scripture, some participation and then taking communion together. Followed by some good food and hanging out with friends.

I hope you can join us. Even if it will be your first time, or we haven't seen you in a while.

Please join us, Sunday night at 5pm. (details here)

Sunday's Meeting - Celebration of the Faithful

This Sunday we will be having a "Celebration of the Faithful." This will involve some form of worship (probably some singing), reading selections of Scripture, prayer, and participating in the Lord's Supper together. Jesse & Kellye will be leading this part of the gathering.

Regarding food: Everyone pitches in for a great dinner! We will have a small backyard fire, and have the grill going as well. We will provide turkey dogs, brats and buns. Any other meat you might prefer, feel free to bring. Please comment/post what side dish, dessert or drink you will be bringing to share with everyone. Thanks!!

As always, everyone is welcome. Especially first time visitors! Feel free to contact Jesse (schroeder.jesse@gmail.com) for more information.

5-7:30pm
Jesse & Kellye's House (google map link)
614-875-9736 (house phone number)

Totally not starting a church

I want to let y'all know that Tracy and I have been itching for something a little church-like. I wrote about it on my blog, Follow the Love. Here's a snippet...

This is a post about how we are definitely not starting a community church. We are definitely not. More below…

Tracy & I have been away from church for a long time. We have a beautiful little group of friends, a cohort, that meets every week and goes a long way toward keeping us sane. This group is as close to a real church community as Tracy and I have gotten, and we’re grateful. But something’s been nagging at us. We’re finding ourselves pulled toward creating a space — what Anthony Smith has called “kingdom space” — where followers of Christ can…

… encourage each other
… share food with each other
… celebrate the kingdom together, share joy, peace & gratitude
… listen to each other with love
… support each other & share sorrows as well

In other words, to dwell in the kingdom together.

If you've been itching for something similar, please take a look at the description (here) and give us some feedback.

<3 Angela

Pictures

Here are some pictures from the Newby Baby Party last month:


And here's our little cohort at the TransFORM conference in D.C. a few weeks ago:

Incarnational / Missional Community (followup from TransFORM)

Seven of us went to the TransForm conference in DC last weekend. We'll talk about what we learned there, and what we're excited about. And everyone will have an opportunity to talk about what Incarnational and Community mean to us.

If you'd like to get an idea of what the conference was like or some thoughts for the discussion I found a recording of the Saturday morning session which most of us missed (the speaker doesn't start until like 40mins in).


We will be meeting at Global Gallery on May 9th at 3:00pm in Clintonville.