God’s Specialty

Posted on March 15, 2012 by ErikHall

by Erik Hall planter of Barnegat Anew inBarnegat, New Jersey

At our new church we meet a lot of folks who are, for all practical considerations, ‘unchurched’. They know very little about God, Jesus, and the church and even less about liturgy, sacraments, Christian community, and the Bible. Usually these folks, if they claim to know anything at all, claim, “I’ve lived such a bad life that the church will fall down if I come inside.” I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this exact phrase! Continue reading →

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Baptized into The Community of Faith

Posted on March 9, 2012 by path1@gbod.org

by Rev. Matt Johnson, Pastor of The Community UMC

Arica is 24 years old and did not grow up in church. She works as the manager at a local bar where my team hangs out, and for a year we extended as much love and acceptance as we could to Arica. We tipped well, included her in conversations, listened to her, and did everything we could to invite Arica to belong, believe, and become part of our community. When Easter rolled around Arica and her boyfriend attended our Easter Gathering and something about that spoke to her heart. After our gathering she looked at me and said “I don’t know what this means, but I want to be a part of what you’re doing.” After that, she and Zach became regular attendees. They showed up at every service and met with the team whenever they could. Continue reading →

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No One Eats Alone

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Philip Brooks

by Philip Brooks Path 1 NCS Assistant

I’ve shared communion in a number of places. Beside various church sanctuaries, I’ve been offered the elements on campuses, retreat lodges, in someone’s home, in the middle of the woods, on a boat dock, and on a boat on the water. It’s been under a number of different situations too: a weekly service, a Bible study, the end of week at camp, on a group retreat, at a wedding, at a funeral, right before a youth lock-in, etc. It’s pretty amazing where we can find the Lord’s Table set for us in our journeys. There are so many occasions to practice communion, but no matter where we find it what we know and trust is that somehow we are all still eating the same meal, all coming to the same table, and all invited by the same Jesus. None of us eats alone. Continue reading →

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Butts in Seats

Posted on February 29, 2012 by path1@gbod.org

by Christian Coon Lead Pastor of Urban Village Church

(Adopted from Coon’s own blog at Crammed with Heaven).

I felt really good about the sermon I preached last Sunday and had a couple of very heartfelt compliments from people about it. After worship, there was the potential for a long, lazy Sunday afternoon at home and I haven’t had one of those in ages. Yet I spent some of the afternoon in a funk. Why? Because of a text from my colleague Trey Hall, who told me that there weren’t a ton of people at our worship at our Downtown location. Continue reading →

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Active and Consistent Participation

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Doug Ruffle

by Doug Ruffle, Congregational Development Team Coordinator, Greater New Jersey Annual Conference (and Path 1 Team Northeastern Jurisdiction Representative)

An oft repeated mantra in my world is that new church development serves as the “Research and Development” component for the Church. I’ve seen it happen over and over again. New Church Planters and their people hit upon an innovation (because it is their nature to do so) and it is something that would also work for existing churches. Continue reading →

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Fitting Worship

Posted on February 22, 2012 by BarbaraSadler

By Barbara Sadler, Path 1 Associate

A few years ago when our church was working with church consultant, Ken Callahan, I remember him explaining the concepts of comfortably full, comfortably empty, uncomfortably full and uncomfortably empty. It all has to do with the number of bodies in a given space that allows people enough connection and enough anonymity to feel comfortable as they experience worship. That came to mind when I was thinking about those plants I’m familiar with and how and when they worship. Continue reading →

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Living a Life of Worship

Posted on February 15, 2012 by path1@gbod.org

by Lia McIntosh Pastor of Renaissance United Methodist Church

As I write this blog I’ve just finished watching the YouTube video “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus.” This one video has drawn over 18 million viewers in the past 4 weeks. It caused me to reflect on what I believe about religion, grace, and worship and how my belief impacts the church that I lead. In that reflection I’ve come to realize that for me religion is a set of spiritual disciplines including prayer, praise, and scripture reading that are central to my relationship with Jesus Christ and the church’s spiritual formation. Continue reading →

Posted in Candace Lewis, Lia McIntosh, Main, New Church, Path 1, Worshiping | Leave a comment