Fall header
October 10, 2007

 

 

 
In this Edition:
Vervent Video
To the Point
Innovative Church of the Year
Resources & Ideas
Cutting Edge Book: The Next Christendom
Calendar of Events
Vervent Video
What happens to a church when the pastor messes up?

Simon Liversedge
 
To the Point:

The creation is not a study,a roughed-in sketch; it is supremely, meticulously created, created abundantly, extravagantly, and in fine...  Even on the perfectly ordinary and clearly visible level, creation carries on with an intricacy unfathomable and apparently uncalled for. The lone ping into being of the first hydrogen atom ex nihilo was so unthinkably, violently radical, that surely it ought to have been enough, more than enough. But look what happens. You open the door and all heaven and hell break loose. The creator goes off on one wild, specific tangent after another, or millions simultaneously, with an exuberance that would seem to be unwarranted, and with an abandoned energy sprung from an unfathomable font. What is going on here? The point of the dragonfly's terrible lip, the giant water bug, birdsong, or the beautiful dazzle and flash of sunlighted minnows, is not that it all fits together like clockwork --for it doesn't, particularly, not even inside the goldfish bowl-- but that it all flows so freely wild, like the creek, that it all surges in such a free, fringed tangle.  Freedom is the world's water and weather, the world's nourishment freely given, its soil and sap: and the creator loves pizzazz.
-Annie Dillard

Got a favorite quote? Send it to BestPractices@ameritech.net. 
Innovative Church of the Year Award:David Jamieson
Pastor David Jamieson
Aldergrove, British Columbia
At last week's Innovation Conference in Columbus, Vervent gave out our first Innovative Church of the Year award. It was a hard decision: every church that entered was outstanding. But in the end, the award was received by Pastor David Jamieson, on behalf of the Aldergrove, BC church. I asked David to tell us about Aldergrove's ministry. LGS

Aldergrove is a small town near Vancouver. Like many churches, we'd had little evangelistic growth, and lacked confidence in traditional evangelistic methods. We asked ourselves this question: "If the Aldergrove Church closed tomorrow would anyone in the community even notice?" The answer was "no", which led our leadership team to focus on new ways to reach to the community. We decided not to just navigate the future of our church, but but to innovate its future. Since 2001 we've created a culture for evangelism that has turned the Aldergrove Church around, and affected the community in practical ways. Here are some of our initiatives:
  • Breakfast Program; we feed less fortunate children in a public elementary school.
  • ACTS - Aldergrove Computer Training School; computer training to help single moms and others enter the job market.
  • Police Appreciation Day and Fire Fighters Appreciation Day
  • Annual Easter Dramatic Musical and Christmas Dramatic Musical-over 1100 in atttendence at each.
  • Kingdom Assignment, an innovative sermon series on the Parables of the Kingdom. 30 members are given $100 for 90 days and asked to multiply the funds and use them to do an act of community kindness. The funds were multiplied to about $100,000 and were distributed to projects locally and abroad.
  • Extreme Home Repair Ministry; enlisting community businesses and church members to renovate homes for needy families.
  • Vancouver Street Ministry, feeding and clothing the homeless.
  • Regional Drop-off Center for Operation Christmas Child; we load 10,000 shoeboxes a year.
  • Spirit of Aldergrove Christmas Dinner, feeding about 150-200 needy people.
  • Single Moms' Oil Change, a ministry for moms who need a little extra help.
  • Acts Of Kindness Charity Golf Tournament has raised over $56,000 this year for Acts of Kindness Ministries.
Our vision strategy is based on the motto "Sharing the Christ Who Cares Together." We highlight the strategy for creating a culture of evangelism every Sabbath, which keeps us focused on our goal. We create an annual theme banner to motivate our members to involvement in ministry. Finally, we have innovated our public evangelism by using the All Power Seminar developed by Leo Schreven. All Power is a "Personal Success and Achievement Seminar" conducted over a weekend, after which attendees are invited to All Power Level II-a public evangelism seminar.

The key to avoiding stagnation is the leadership team's discovering a God-given vision for the future of the church. It is not just developing new programs or copying what another church is doing, but seeking to minister a God-given vision in your own context. I believe that this can happen in any Adventist church, large or small, when the leadership team commits itself to seeking God's preferred future for their congregation.

To find out more about Aldergrove's remarkable ministry, write David at aldergrovesda@shaw.ca, or go to Aldergrove's website, or their Acts of Kindness website.

Are you or a colleague doing something especially interesting and innovative in ministry? Tell us about it at BestPractices@ameritech.net.
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Resources & Ideas

  • Readers needed! Dale Galusha of Pacific Press is offering me some ministry-oriented books to be reviewed for Best Practices. If you're willing to be a reader/reviewer, please write me with your mailing address, and what you like to read. I'm assuming Dale will let you keep the book. (Our book reviews are pretty short, and are always done in a similar structure. See below.)
  • Don't know if you knew this: the PlusLine website has a fairly complete master calendar of everything happening in the NAD church. The only flaw is that they're not very discriminating: you have to wade through local events that have nothing to do with you to find what you want. Still, it's probably the best source we've got.
  • The 2007 Innovation Conference was marvelous; no exaggeration to say it was one of the best conferences I've ever attended. Highlights:
    • If you get a chance to hear Philip Jenkins, do; he's an engaging presenter. After listening to him, you'll never again be complacent about the future of the church.
    • Jon Paulien is always good, but this time he quite astonished all of us with his analysis of the concept of the remnant.
    • Doug Pagitt is one of those "emerging church" pastors who is doing things that the rest of us probably couldn't get away with. His church sounds not only spiritually engaging, but great fun.
  • If you want to listen to the presentations, ordering information for CDs of the '07 conference should appear here shortly, or write information@ohioadventist.org.
  • The '08 Innovation Conference is already scheduled for October 5-7, 2008. One of the presenters will be Leonard Sweet, probably best known for his book The Gospel According to Starbucks. Leonard Sweet is one of the most interesting speakers and clever thinkers you'll ever hear.
  • Further proof (as if it were needed) that we all process time and information differently: Rod Scherencel's response to John Glass's recommending Day Planner's Month-at-a-Glance. "I have been using a calendar and journal of one sort or another for nearly forty years. When I graduated to the Franklin Day Planner System I thought I had arrived at the nirvana of calendar organization; but now with electronic media I've reached an even higher plane. Franklin-Covey's Plan Plus software overlays Microsoft Outlook. Together they give me complete control over my calendar along with reminder alarms, journaling, contact information - the works. The nice thing is that the whole package syncs with my Hewlett-Packard iPaq that fits comfortably in my pocket. Now I'm never without my important information."
Got a tool, resource, idea or seminar that you like a lot? Share it with us at BestPractices@ameritech.net.
Cutting Edge Book
The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity
by Philip Jenkins
 
Point: "...the emerging Christian world will be anchored in the southern continents." p.17
Key Concept: The New Christianity. Christianity in these places differs in significant ways from what we experience in the West: more narrative, Old Testament based, supernatural expectations, charismatic, morally conservative but politically progressive.
Pros: Jenkins makes a persuasive case for what the Christianity of the south will look like in the next century, anticipating ongoing differences with us on issues like gender and sexuality, immigrant and ethnic worship and theology, and Christian-Muslim conflict.
Cons: Like a lot of historians, the author explains his thesis in detail and at length.
Why you should read it: Africa and Latin America already have far more Christians than North America and Europe; Jenkins sees a world where the locus of Christian power and thought is there, too. There are huge implications for our denomination, and every aspect of Christian ministry. If we don't anticipate this trend, we in Europe and North America will be at a loss to know how to reach our increasingly immigrant churches.
-Review by Loren Seibold
Events
Do you have an SDA-sponsored event that you'd like to invite NAD pastors to? Tell us about it at BestPractices@ameritech.net.
NAD Church RESOURCE Center
Best Practices is an e-publication of Vervent
NAD CHURCH RESOURCE CENTER
Editor: Loren Seibold
Senior Pastor, Worthington Ohio Seventh-day Adventist Church