The Importance of Church Planting

I know that many of you have read books by Dr. Tim Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City http://www.redeemer.com/ . He has a big passion for urban ministries and for church planting. He says: 

“The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city and the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city. Nothing else – not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church renewal practices – will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This is an eyebrow raising statement. But to those who have done any study at all, it is not even controversial.”

As you pray for Minneapolis (or for your city), remember to ask God to raise up church planters.  And hey, maybe God is calling you to be one of them!

Planning Update

Join Us for Prayer-Conversation-Planning

• Weekly on Saturday mornings from 9:00 to 10:00 (we WILL meet this coming Saturday, April 3 - agenda items outlined below)
• Aldrich Church, 3501 Aldrich Ave S, Minneapolis
• http://www.aldrichchurch.org/
• Enter using the door facing Aldrich Avenue on the south end of the building and follow the signs I’ll post
• 8:30 gather for coffee and informal conversation
• 9:00-10:00 assemble for Morning Prayer, Q&A, planning

One of the distinctives of this worshiping community will be the use of classical Anglican liturgy, so we started our meeting on March 27 with Morning Prayer. We’ll continue to do so – it is a well-spent 15 minutes that helps frame and shape the subsequent discussion. And the beautiful surroundings of Aldrich Church’s sanctuary really makes it feel like “doing church!”

After Morning Prayer we talked through an outline of tasks we need to complete in April and May (assuming that we want to start some kind of worship services by Memorial Day), making a few adjustments and additions to my draft list – you can find the list at the bottom of this blog posting. We then talked about a name for this church – some of the folks in the core group had provided “campaign speeches” for a few of the names, so we discussed that input (send an email to me at MplsAnglican@aol.com if you would like a copy of those name pitches). "Trinity" continues to lead in the voting. We spent some time discussing pros and cons of various worship times for the summer. I provided some feedback from meetings I’ve had with various clergypersons and other folks over the past couple weeks. We looked at a list of books we might want to read together (see http://anglican1000.org/?/main/page/C7 ). And we discussed other questions that are on participants’ minds.

Next Saturday we’ll meet at the same time and place, and I’d like us to:

• do Morning Prayer
• finalize the church name
• continue to discuss possible worship times (and possibly select one) – this will drive ensuing discussions about where we worship
• continue to refine our description of who we are, our purpose/mission, a tagline, etc.
• begin to build definition of "critical mass" - what absolutely needs to be in place before starting public weekly worship services (BTW, it dawned on me today how spectacular it would be if we could start Sunday worship on Pentecost, May 23!) 
• assign “due dates” to April tasks, and identify who will drive each one

Last week I had great conversations with a couple clergypersons in other denominations, and have a couple more scheduled for this week. The encouragement, insights, recommendations, cautions and promises-to-pray that I received from these folks are so valuable and heart-warming, and all of them are very excited to hear about the developments in our little corner of God’s kingdom.

Finally, here is our current list of tasks to be accomplished in the next two months (or, in any case, before we start regular weekly worship). Where would you like to be involved?

April

• Finalize the schedule for these planning meetings

• Select target date for startup of weekly Sunday worship. Decide whether to start as a core group worshiping community before advertising to the public. (Define critical mass of worshipers and leaders of core ministries to be in place before starting public worship.)

• Select time of day for weekly Sunday (or other day) worship

• Select a church name

• Confirm desired geography (SW Minneapolis or other?)

• Draft decision-making processes, identify leadership

• Articulate distinctives, vision, mission, purpose, etc.

• Draft 1-year income/expense budget

• Select a book to read together?

• Liaise with ACNA, DioHS (or a new geographical diocese)

May

• Find venue for weekly worship

• Develop immediate and future plans for

   o Altar and Communion materials and supplies

   o Liturgy

   o Preaching

   o Eucharist

   o Hymnody, chants, choral/instrumental music

   o Visual and other arts

   o Visitor and new member information and integration

   o Children’s Worship

   o Adult Education, Discipleship

   o Youth Education and other programs

   o Children’s Education

   o Nursery

   o Pastoral Care
   o Prayer Ministry

   o Fellowship

   o Communications, bulletins, newsletters, emails, tweets, etc.

   o Outreach, missions

   o Facility acquisition and setup/teardown, liaise with owner

 • Incorporate

 • Develop logo and style sheet

 • Design website

 • Select administrative/financial tools

 • Write job descriptions; develop staffing plan

Join Us for Prayer-Conversation-Discernment-Planning on Saturday Morning!

Starting this Saturday, March 27!
Weekly on Saturday mornings from 9:00-10:00
Aldrich Church, 3501 Aldrich Ave S, Minneapolis
http://www.aldrichchurch.org/

We have a venue, and it’s a glorious one! Matt Johnson, the pastor at Aldrich Church, has graciously agreed to let us meet in their sanctuary on Saturday mornings. Enter using the door facing Aldrich Avenue on the south end of the building and follow the signs I’ll post.

• 8:30-9:00  gather for coffee and informal conversation
• 9:00-10:00 assemble for some worship, prayer, Q&A, discernment and planning

On Friday I will email some materials that we’ll use in this meeting to folks on my weekly email update list. If you’re not receiving that weekly email, let me know by sending a note to

MplsAnglican@aol.com

I will also bring copies of the materials to the meeting, but if you can’t join us on Saturday you’ll be able to be at least partially in the loop! And if you can join us, it might be handy to review them in advance.

We’ll play this by ear – in subsequent weeks we might need to meet longer than an hour (or even at a different time). Let’s see how it goes.

I’m excited!!! Are you?

Mark Your Calendar for Weekly Saturday Morning Prayer/Discernment/Planning Meetings

Starting this Saturday, March 27!
Weekly, on Saturday mornings from 9:00-10:00.
Venue TBD

If you would like to join some folks in praying about this initiative, in discerning whether you might be led to participate in its worship this summer, and in planning the work needed to get it off the ground, please join us on Saturday mornings at 9:00 to 10:00. I’m still working on the venue for these meetings, so stay tuned.

If you would like to participate but Saturday mornings won’t work for you, let me know by sending an email to MplsAnglican@aol.com . I can send you copies of the materials we’ll use at these sessions, which will allow you to pray and participate with us as you are able. And I could meet with you individually if you’d like. Also, please suggest an alternative meeting time for the group if something else would work well for you over the next couple months.

Participating in one or more of these meetings does not commit you in any way!

 But I see a lot of value in us hearing each others’ perspectives and priorities, in seeking God’s leading together and in seeing who might be able to help with what tasks.

I had originally thought of scheduling these meetings for Sunday afternoons, but I have conflicts at least half of the time. So I hope a Saturday morning will work well for many of you.

How long we continue these meetings will depend on what we learn from each other and on how many tasks we agree should be completed before we start regular weekly worship services, but my best guess is that we’ll meet through the end of May.

Vote for a Name!

Would you be willing to share your thoughts and feelings regarding a name for this new church? Responding doesn’t obligate you in any way! But I would really like to know what phrases and names resonate with people.

At the bottom of this blog entry you’ll find a list of 42 potential names, which came from my little brain and suggestions from a few other people. Please send me an email at MplsAnglican@aol.com to let me know which three are your favorites - rank them on a scale of 1=high, 3=low. If you’d like to rearrange the words, suggest variations, or offer entirely new names, go for it!

To provide some context, I have developed a list of eight “distinctives” for this new church – of course, at this point it is just a draft list, but I think it forms a pretty good framework. They’re in no particular order:

• Orthodox in belief
• Evangelistic in outreach
• Reverent in worship
• Scriptural in teaching
• Egalitarian in serving
• Transformational in intent
• Prayerful in planning
• Knowing God in purpose

So here is my suggested list of names. Vote for your top three, and feel free to rearrange the words and to offer variations and other names.

• Agape Anglican Church
• All Saints’ Anglican Church, Minneapolis
• Anglican Bible Church
• Anglican Church of Christ the Way, the Truth, the Life
• Anglican Church of Redemption
• Anglican Church of Restoration
• Anglican Church of the Atonement
• Anglican Church of the Redeeming Name
• Anglican Church of the Resurrection
• Ascension Anglican Church
• Bread of Life Anglican Church
• Calvary Anglican Church
• Christ Our Hope Anglican Church
• Christ the King Anglican Church
• Church of Hope, Anglican
• Church of Our Lord, Anglican
• Church of Peace, Anglican
• Church of Prayer, Anglican
• Church of St. Justin the Martyr
• Church of the Covenant, Anglican
• Church of the Great Shepherd, Anglican
• Church of the Holy Spirit, Anglican
• Church of the Redeemer, Anglican
• Church of the Savior, Anglican
• Cross of Christ Anglican Church
• Evangelical Anglican Church of Minneapolis
• Friends of Jesus, Anglican
• Gloria Dei Anglican Church
• Grace Anglican Church
• Immanuel Anglican Church
• Jesus Our Savior Anglican Church
• King of Glory Anglican Church
• Living Water Anglican Church
• Reconciliation Anglican Church
• Redeemer Anglican Church
• St. John’s Anglican Church
• St. Paul’s Anglican Church
• Transformation Anglican Church
• Trinity Church, Anglican
• Word of God Anglican Church
• Word of Life Anglican Church

Choral Evensong from King's College Cambridge - Catch it Before March 20!

A wonderful choral evensong was broadcast from King's College Cambridge last Wednesday evening. It is available online on BBC3's website only until this Saturday. I highly recommend it, especially for those of you whose souls are fed by traditional worship, poetry and music. The broadcast is about an hour long.

You will find the broadcast here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r8b3p 

I've transcribed the texts of some of the music.  Just send me an email at MplsAnglican@aol.com if you would like a copy.  (I couldn't find the exact translation of Psalm 55 that was used in the setting they sang, so I provided the ESV translation in my document.)

Catch this broadcast while you can!  You'll thank me!

Doing Theology

I just started listening to an online course called “Foundations” which is available online from “Theology Network,” a service of UCCF (the UK Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship) at   http://www.theologynetwork.org/christian-beliefs/creation-and-new-creation/studying-theologyrs/starting-out/foundations--a-new-course-from-theology-network.htm   I commend it for your consideration!

Their recommendation is:

“Get together with a bunch of mates once a week for 10 weeks and discuss each week’s topic as outlined below. You can listen to the talks on your mp3 player during the week, and then discuss what you heard when you get together. We’ve given you some discussion questions (at the bottom of the resource page) to start you off.”

Want to join me in this endeavor? Shoot me an email at MplsAnglican@aol.com

The ten sessions (each about 1 - 2 hours long) in this series are:

1. Introduction
2. The Doctrine of God
3. The Bible
4. The Fall and Sin
5. Jesus Christ
6. The Cross
7. Justification
8. The Holy Spirit and Christian Living
9. The Church
10. Creation and New Creation

The teachers for this series are:

• Mike Reeves - UCCF's Theological Advisor, before which he was an associate minister at All Souls Church, Langham Place, in London (where, incidentally, yours truly had her first introduction to Anglican worship many decades ago!); his PhD is in Systematic Theology
• Don Carson - Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago
• John Piper - Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis
• Tim Rudge - UCCF's Field Director

A Big Goal (Leading to a Bunch of Smaller Ones!)

About a week ago a friend asked me when I hoped that this new church would start holding regular weekly Sunday services somewhere. I wasn’t prepared for that question, and I hadn’t really dared to think about it, so I answered with “gosh, I don’t know, it’s not really up to me, it depends on how God leads us and on what others who are interested in this ministry think, blah, blah, blah, …”

I’m so thankful for friends who ask questions that I can’t answer. It gets me thinkin’ and prayin’! Although my answer was true…it does really depend on how God leads…there’s nothing wrong with putting a stake in the ground (or a fork in the jell-o!) to have something to aim for and plan around.

So how about this for a goal:

First services on Memorial Day Weekend, May 30, 2010

I personally like this goal for many reasons, not the least of which is that since so many churches cut back their programs in the summer, we could be downright counter-cultural! And:

• Many families who might be interested in this church have kids that are very involved in their current church’s youth programs September though May, making it tough for them to be involved here as a family before June.
• Many adults’ programs take a hiatus in the summer as well, giving those adults some time to think about and try something different.
• It would give folks some substantial time to “try out” the new church. By the time fall rolled around, they could confidently say “not for me” or “hey let’s give this the ol’ college try.” Low risk, high potential reward!
• People who might be interested in leading any of a number of ministries and programs could make themselves known and step up to help shape their program of interest.
• Summer is usually more relaxed, providing the opportunity to relate with folks who come on a more casual basis, maybe over picnics or coffee and lemonaide or….
• The need to “be there” for folks pastorally is as strong in the summer as any other time of year, but sometimes other churches’ pastoral services are cut back in the summer as well.
• There’s plenty of time to make mistakes on a small scale and correct them before fall programs and services start up in earnest!

Obviously, lots of work and decisions and conversations need to occur in the next couple months. And we need to hunt down a place to meet. And we need to select a name. And we need to start regular prayer/planning meetings soon. But it gives us something to shoot for!

Please share your thoughts and concerns, either by posting a comment on this blog entry or by sending an email to MplsAnglican@aol.com

AnglicanTV - See for Yourself!

Kim Larsen, who is coordinating the establishment of Hope Anglican Fellowship in Hudson WI, clued me in to AnglicanTV when we talked on Monday. What a great resource! Isn’t technology grand? Check it out for yourself: http://www.anglicantv.org/

On AnglicanTV you can find lots of interesting interviews, bible teaching, workshop sessions from last week’s Anglican1000 Summit and other conferences, video from the Church of England Synod, etc. You can “meet” others in the ACNA movement and maybe get a better sense of who they are, what they’re thinking, how God is leading them, what their energy is, etc. – a better sense than you would get just reading their material or hearing about them.

One video that I would particularly recommend is called “A1000: Rev Beasley – Look Up and Step Out.” The leader of this hour-long workshop is Rev. William Beasley, who is the missionary rector to the ACNA regional midwest diocese-in-formation (where this new church for SW Minneapolis would connect). In it you can vicariously participate in the Anglican1000 Summit, catching some of the vision, and learning about others’ mission fields in this region. Rev. Beasley introduces leaders from new churches in Chicago, Kenosha/Madison/Milwaukee, and the Twin Cities area.  His presentation on Jesus’ admonition in Luke 10 to “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest field. Go!” is insightful, fun and very energetic! Some of my favorite little tidbits:

• “We do not have faith in our abilities, we don’t even have faith in our faith. We have faith in the Lord. He is the Lord of the harvest. It’s his harvest field. It’s his harvest.”
• “You know how you translate that word “go” from the Greek? GO!”
• “Don’t expect to know everything before you start. Expect to make mistakes. As we follow, we learn.”
• “These new churches did not start with a budget! People called by God stepped out in faith. The resources are in the harvest.”

I’ve watched only a couple of the videos so far. Please feel free to post a comment on this blog entry to let its readers know what episodes particularly strike you. Or, as always, feel free to send me an email at MplsAnglican@aol.com with your questions and comments.