Using the Internet to fulfill your vision

Nov 2, 2008

By Michael Bell

Fifteen years ago I was approached by young man name with a vision. His name was Mark Orr, and his vision was to use technology to connect Mission Agencies with young people who were looking for Mission experiences. Mark was President of an organization called Student Mission Advance, and he was convinced that traditional methods were not effective enough to help young people find the best fit with a mission agency.

Student Mission Advance in Canada served as a communication pipeline between Mission Agencies and young people. They would go into Universities and meet with Christian clubs, speak at chapels in Bible Schools, and meet with with young people at Churches, all with the goal of presenting missions and the opportunities available from Canada’s mission agencies. In short, their vision was that of being “Mission mobilizers”.

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Posted by Eclectic Christian

Miracle on 34th Street Ecumenism

Oct 27, 2008

By Michael Spencer

Moderators note:  This post was previously published by Michael Spencer at Internet Monk.  I believe it captures a good part of the spirit of what we are trying to accomplish at Eclectic Christian and so asked Michael Spencer’s permission to republish it here. – Michael Bell

I love Christmas movies. We have many great family memories of watching Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas or singing “Sisters” and “Snow” with the cast of White Christmas. I have some personal favorites like almost any version of A Christmas Carol, the original Tim Allen Santa Clause and the strangely dark and mysterious Prancer.

I’m not a fan of the popular Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street. I’ve watched it 3 or 4 times, and maybe I just wasn’t quite in that particular frame of mind where a Christmas movie really appeals to me, but it’s never been a favorite of mine.

But there is something about “Miracle” that does appeal to me. We can call it “Miracle on 34th Street Ecumenism.”

In the story, the supposedly insane Kris Kringle (Santa to the unintitated) is inspired with a plan. The two large downtown New York department stores can change the way they compete with one another. Instead of making the other store the enemy, they could each take a more gracious view of one another. (At least at Christmas.)

How did that work? Each store did what stores do: they tried to offer the best products at the best prices to the most customers. But when the other store had a better product at a better price, you cheerfully sent the customer to the other store, with best wishes and the simple recognition that your store couldn’t do everything.

This change in behavior and attitude sparks a revolution in the retail jungle. Long time competitors treating one another with respect? With grace? With generosity? Actually recommending that someone go to the other store? And spend money?

Isn’t that unthinkable?

No…it actually sounds like Jesus and his upside down Kingdom. (It actually sounds like St. Nicholas, too. But that’s another story.)

What if Kris Kringle’s crazy idea became the model for ecumenism?

What if we all recognized that we get some things right, but we also get a lot of things wrong? And what if we recognized that some other traditions get the things right that we get wrong?
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Comments Off | church growth, church life, Eclectic Christian, encouragement | Permalink
Posted by eclecticguest

Counting Canada’s Christians – Part 1 – Statistically

Aug 28, 2008

Recently I was asked by someone to comment on his statement that “Roman Catholics are not Christians.” I find that this is a blanket statement with which I do NOT agree. I wish to show evidence for my disagreement both statistically and anecdotally. In this first part I will focus on a statistical analysis.

1. Statistically

There are obviously many ways to enumerate the numbers of Christians. The first would be that of self identification, that is people who self-identify with denominations that self-identify as Christian. Statistics Canada conducts a census every five years. A question on religion is only asked every ten years. The last time this question was asked was in 2001. Here are the numbers from Statistics Canada.

Total population 29,639,035
Catholic 12,936,905 43.65%
Protestant 8,654,850 29.20%
Christian Orthodox 479,620 1.62%
Christian not included elsewhere 780,450 2.63%
Muslim 579,640 1.96%
Jewish 329,995 1.11%
Buddhist 300,345 1.01%
Hindu 297,200 1.00%
Sikh 278,410 0.94%
Eastern religions 37,550 0.13%
Other religions 63,975 0.22%
No religious affiliation 4,900,090 16.53%

According to the table above, the total number of people in Canada who would identify themselves as Christian is 77.1%, a little more that three quarters of the population.

However, we cannot stop there.  In the words of Keith Green, “Going to church doesn’t make you into a Christian any more than going to McDonalds makes you into a hamburger.”  And who is to say that those who self-identify even go to church?

It was for this reason that the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, along with the Ipsos-Reid polling firm, co-sponsored surveys in 1996, 2003 and 2007 to determine the percentage of Evangelical Christians in Canada.  After consulting with a number of Evangelical leaders, they came up with the following criteria that they felt would determine if someone was an Evangelical Christian.

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6 Comments | catholic, church growth, Evangelical, faith, statistics | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

Can I wear Jeans? Discovering church dress code

Jul 8, 2008

JeansA number of years ago I was on holiday in the Tampa Bay area. On Sunday morning we decided to go to the closest Evangelical church to the beach. I said to myself, “It is so hot out, I would really like to wear shorts this morning.” I did have nice pleated shorts with me at the time. The problem was, I did not know if shorts would be acceptable attire in this church. “Surely”, I thought, “being so close to the beach they would want to reach out to the beach crowd and help to make them feel at home in the church.” In the end, however, discretion won out, and I wore dress pants to the church. As it turns out, not only was dress pants the right choice for this congregation, but I was practically the only one there NOT wearing a jacket and tie.

Now here is a site that would have come in handy back then. In the category of “I wish I had thought about it first”, is a new blog dedicated to reviews of churches. This one, is a little bit different from most in that it seeks to ask questions that aren’t usually answered on church websites. (Assuming churches have one.) It’s name, Can I Wear Jeans is taken from one of the review questions.

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1 Comment | church growth, church life | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

A Tool for Measuring Church Growth

Jul 4, 2008

CMA growth legend Here is another useful tool for viewing denominational growth. The maps below are from The Association for Religion Data Archives and represent the percentage of the U.S. population in 1980, 1990, and 2000, who belonged to the Christian and Missionary Alliance. The tool lets you zoom in on particular areas and get reports on over 100 denominations and religious groups. You can see at a glance from the maps below that the Alliance had significant growth in the three state area of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. (continued below maps…)

CMA growth 1980

CMA growth 1990

CMA growth 2000

The tools can helpful in that a denomination can say, “OK, we are growing in Wyoming. Lets zoom in on Wyoming, and see where in particular that growth is coming from.” Then we can ask the question, “What have we done well over the past twenty to thirty years in that region that has led to that growth? Is it something that can be duplicated elsewhere?”

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1 Comment | church growth | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

Southern Baptists in Decline – Where will it end?

Jun 26, 2008

I have stumbled upon a very interesting ratio that can be used as a predictor for church growth or decline. That is, the ratio between attendance and membership. Obviously if a church is growing very rapidly, especially if that growth is from new converts the church will tend to have a much higher attendance to membership ratio. Conversely if a church is in decline, with not a lot of new blood coming in, the ration of attendance to membership would be significantly lower.

To see if this holds true I considered three sets of data: The attendance and membership of mainline churches in Canada, the attendance and membership of Evangelical churches in Canada, and the attendance and membership of major denominations in the United States.

My first two set of data come from Bruce Guenther by way of Canadian Christianity. Guenther is associate professor of church history and Mennonite studies at Associated Canadian Theological Seminaries and has compiled statistics on over 160 denominations.

In 1981 the Canadian Mainline churches had 2,240,991 members and attendance of 965,534, a ratio of attendance to members of 43%. In 20 years they dropped to 1,666,715 members and attendance of 723,673 in 2001 a ratio of also 43%. So for Mainline churches, an attendance to membership ratio of 43% corresponded to drop in attendance of 25% and a drop in membership of 26%. The average drop per year was roughly 1.25%.

The converse situation has happened with the Evangelical churches in Canada. In 1981 they had
974,295 members and attendance of 758,383, a ratio of attendance to members of 78%. In 2001 they had 1,341,897 members and attendance of 1,130,237. This was a ratio of 84%. The starting attendance to membership ratio of 78% has translated into a growth of 38% in members and a 49% growth in attendance. This translates into an average growth per year between 1.9% and 2.45% depending on the measurement.

I found data on a range of larger denominations here. The author drew the same conclusions that I had drawn about the relationship between growth and attendance.

I plotted the data as shown below and added a best fit line (shown in red).
Church Growth

So what does this show us? Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | church growth | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

The Eclectic Church

Jun 4, 2008

By Michael Bell and Peter Heath

Michael Spencer over at jesusshaped.wordpress.com laments about the division within the church. He writes:

Most of what we call churches behave as if they are the true church finally arrived, and the guy three doors down is someone getting it all or mostly wrong. Evangelicals reinvent the faith and the church every time they get bored. In the proliferation of churches in small communities in my part of the world, the differences are primarily stylistic, not substantial.

The comments to the post show that this is a frustration that is shared by many.

I had been meaning to write about this topic for some time, but from the other side of the coin, because as an Eclectic Christian I am interested in ways that believers and churches can work together.

In the heart of the Muslim world lies a very unique church. Here is a recent article about the church from the outside perspective of the Gulf News.

Evangelical Community Church of Abu Dhabi

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4 Comments | catholic, church growth, church life, communion, Eclectic Christian, mega-church, worship | Permalink
Posted by peterofarabia

Are mega-churches destroying smaller churches?

Mar 13, 2008

I have heard or read four times in the last month that small churches are being destroyed by mega-churches. The argument typically goes that mega-churches offer so much in the way of family programming, skilled musicians, and outstanding preaching, that it is hard for a smaller church to compete.

It seems that this argument is a little short sighted for several reasons:

1. People tend to look for a reason to stay in a church, not a reason to leave. If people are leaving your church, it is time to take a good long look inward, and say “how are we not meeting their needs.” Are they not being fed through the teaching of the word? Then how can that be changed. Are they experiencing issues with the music and worship? What can be done in that area? Are there few youth in the church? What can be done to reach out to the youth of the community?

2. If people are not excited about what is happening in your church, whatever that might be, then your church will not grow. They will find some excuse to go to the newer, bigger church down the road. What is an area of ministry in your church in which God seems to be working, and around which excitement can grow? How can you build on this area? What areas of ministry are serving as a drag on your church.

3. Strive for excellence! You don’t want to practice Tuesday night for Sunday worship, then that is fine, but then you are excluding yourself from the Worship team. You don’t want to take the Sunday School Teacher training? Well that is fine, then you don’t teach Sunday School. People will see and appreciated excellence and be turned off by half hearted attempts.

4. Have key members of your leadership visit other churches that are growing. What is working for them that is not working for you?

5. Most importantly, work together with your leadership and your congregation to develop a vision and direction. If your people can see a positive future they will want to be part of it.

For the past 12 years we have been part of churches that have had less than 80 people. The energy that it requires to run a church of 80 well is not that different than the energy it takes to run a church of 300. Reflecting back over the last 12 years I wonder if we might have been able to accomplish a lot more for the cause of Christ, if our energy has been used to help a medium size church grow, rather than used to try and sustain a smaller struggling church. The mega-churches that I am familiar with around here seem to be doing a lot to introduce non-churched people to Christ. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for many of the smaller churches with which I have been associated.

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Posted by Eclectic Christian

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