Bob's Blog

Last weekend, I attended an Organic Church Seminar at my church in Long Beach. There were two tracks offered during the weekend. Neil Cole, who is the co-founder of the Organic Church Movement, taught the advanced track and Phil Helfer oversaw the track for the beginners. That's the track I went to. I did attend an advanced track in Los Angeles a few years ago but only for one day, so I thought I hear what an Organic Church is from the beginning.

I really enjoyed what was shared that day and thought the presenters of the seminars did a great job in explaining the movement. There was a lot of opportunities for questions, and there were definitely a lot of questions. The one question that continued to come up was, "what is the Church?" That seems to be the hot topic for today. Elmer Towns and Ed Stetzer, both experts on church growth, wrote a book on the different models of churches that are being used today. At the end of the book, Stetzer asks the question, "do you know why there are so many models of the church?" which he proceeds to answer his own question," because we don't have any idea what the Church is?"

I think that was the biggest lesson I came away with from the seminar. It seemed to me that most of the questions that attenders were asking had something to do with the purpose of the Church. As a younger generation continues to come of age, I wonder how much longer we'll have to answer this question. I'm seeing the "fruits" of this question here in California and it doesn't encourage me. Hopefully, we'll come to a conclusion before we start to ask,"whatever happened to Church?"

I just finished previewing Kary Oberbrunner's new book, The Fine Line. The book focuses in on the age old question on how can Christians be in the world but not of it? He draws his points from real life and at times personal examples that we can all relate to, and asks questions that are "refitted" for the 21st century believer.

What I appreciate about Kary's insights is how he redefines the question of how today's Christians interact with their world. He sites biblical truths that believers are to posses and shows us how we are to live them out in a postmodern world. We all have read some where that the Church needs to be relevant in today's culture but no one really tells you what that means. This is key to Kary's book. He actually defines what being relevant means (you'll have to read the book to get his definition) without denying who we are as the Church. These are not new thoughts that he is bringing to the Church but an "old Truth" in a voice for a new millennial. I can see someone using this book in a college-age Sunday morning gathering, a high school discipleship group, or a discussion starter for elders.

The book should be hitting the stores about now and I would recommend that you pick up a copy. The chapters read very fast and easy with discussion questions for each chapter. Also, there is an appendix section that gives you a short comparisons between modern and postmodernism. A nice compliment to the questions at the end of the chapters.

Los Altos Grace Brethren Church, in Long Beach, California, will be hosting an Organic Church Training seminar on November 7-9th. Organic churches is a movement within Chrisitanity that strike a cord with a younger group of believers for their emphasis on relational communities. Even some "traditional" (or campus based churches) are implementing the core teachings of organic church ministries. There are many church leaders who believe that the future of the Church will involve different "styles" of how we do "church," including the defining what the Church should look like. The Organic Church movement is seen as one of those many different ways that the Church will evolve as this younger generation continues to age and define who they are as Christians. If you would like more information, you can go to www.cmaresources.org/greenhouse.

A college pastor drove up to the house where their college group meets. Stepping out of his car, he noticed that a few of his college-age students were walking to their cars, so he yelled out,"Hey, where are you guys going?" The reply was,"Uh...we got to go." Go? They just got here. He watched them take off and wondered what had happened. As he entered the house, he noticed that the group looks a little thin. In fact, he's been noticing this for a while. The group seemed to be different. Some of those that once were college-age when he first started the group were still around but the younger students are dwindling. Some have altogether left the group. As he mingled with those who were there, he observed that most in the group are in their late twenties or early thirties. He hadn't noticed this before but the mid-week gathering had transitioned into a post-college group. As he began the evening, he felt the "distance" in the room. They struggled through singing and barely made it through the Bible study. Very few participated and when they did, usually the older ones controlled the discussion. The evening ended with some prayer and immediately the younger students left. He stayed and chatted with the remaining few, and then grabbed his stuff and headed out the door thinking to himself,"What happened?"

Have you seen this in your group? When does a college ministry start to look like a singles group? It can happen very easily, especially if your church doesn't have a direction for young adult ministries. Since child development experts would put the ages of 13-24 in adolescent stages of growth, most college pastors would agree that college-age ministries deal with those who are transitioning from adolescence into a young adult developmental stage. A ministry that covers ages 13-31 can almost be impossible to navigate and frustrating for those involved. So, what should be done? Here are some tips.

• Start by evaluating your ministry. Take a step back and see what the needs of your group are before you make any decisions.
• Evaluate with your leadership. What do those you minister with think about your group? Talk about your ministry with your pastoral staff. Get away on a retreat and see if the Lord is leading the group in a new direction.
• Make a decision. You'll need to take action. Doing nothing will kill your group.
• Have a plan. A plan is a good thing. You may not have all the details worked out but understanding what your ministry is about (college-age or singles) will help give focus to your group.

Here are a few pictures from DRINK. We were at a great facility and enjoyed paint ball, zip line, swimming and other activities. Chuck and Dave did most of the speaking with Brayline leading worship. We made some great friends and look forward to next year.

It was the first year for DRINK and it couldn't have gone any better than it did. An awe inspiring location with over 100 participating at a conference that is geared towards helping the local church minister to college-age. The conference was located in Crestline, California, at Thousand Pines Christian Camp. There were pastors and volunteer staff as well as student leaders from as many as twenty-four different states. The conference is an outreach of CollegeLeader, led by Chuck Bomar, and is committed to coming along side local churches in helping them to reach this generation of young people.

Dave Kinnaman, president of Barna Group, was one of our featured speakers, as well as Abbie Smith, Dave Flaig, and Steve Garcia who runs the camp. The worship band, Brayline led throughout the weekend. Along with the beautiful setting, there was plenty to do as the conference goers were able to take part in paint ball, rock climbing, swimming, zip line, and other activities that the camp offered. All of this for a very low cost. We wanted those that came to be able to have the chance to sit and connect with those who also have a love for college-age ministries. There was plenty of teaching and great discussions during meal times but the best place to hang out was at the malt shop. I can still taste the Cookies and Cream malts.

The focus for the weekend was to encourage those who worked with college-age. We wanted to give them tools, like curriculum, reading materials, and a biblical philosophy for college ministry. Finally, to gather in one place in an environment where networking could be established and new friendships could develop. It was a great weekend in seeing God encouraging us in His work with this generation. We're looking at doing at least two smaller regional conferences as well as returning to California in October for our main conference. If you want more information, please check us out at http://www.collegeleader.org/. You can find great curriculum for college-age, some of it for free.