Cities are big, densely populated and diverse.

If we are serious about reaching cities with the saving message of Christ, we need more than a one-church-per-suburb parish system. We need to be willing to tolerate multiple ministries in close proximity. In fact we should proactively multiple ministries in close proximity.

There are simply far too many people and far too many different KINDS of people in any one urban area, to be be realistically 'covered' by a single church.

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://ift.tt/1p1sjtn (NB: to comment go to http://ift.tt/1joromF)

Some more helpful stuff that came out of the Coaches Conference:

Testing 'engagement' in your ministry

There are three questions to ask to see what level of 'engagement' there is from the people involved in your ministry:

1. What do people SAY about your ministry? Do they talk about the ministry informally? To outsiders? Do they say good things or bad things or incidential things?


2. How long do people STAY with your ministry? Do people find it hard to stick? Do they leave after brief involvement? Or they they lock in and become part of the community?


3. How hard to people STRIVE for your ministry? Do you create opportunities for people to participate? Do people readily accept these opportunities? Or do you have a volunteer crisis?

What kind of culture do we promote here?

What are the things we value? Prize? Celebrate? Expect? Approve of? What is the air our community breathes?

What are the things we look down on? Ignore? Critique? Censure? Care less about?

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://ift.tt/1emwFb6 (NB: to comment go to http://ift.tt/1joromF)