The materials from the Friday, May 29th presentation by George Bullard at Newberry College may be found on the BullardJournal blog.
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May 2009
Questions for the Spiritual Strategic Journey of Your Congregation
In his book, Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation, George Bullard offers several questions for congregations to consider as they launch a spiritual strategic journey:
- “What are the current signs of health and strength in your congregation on which you can build an excellent, effective future?
- Is your congregation currently traveling along a spiritual strategic journey? If so, what characterizes that journey? Does your congregation have Vision Plus Intentionality as part of its journey?
- What is the full Kingdom potential of your congregation? Is your current journey sufficiently spiritual and strategic to pull you forward to your full Kingdom potential?
- Who has made your personal journey possible? What are their contributions to your life and ministry? Who is your coach for your current journey?
- What factors make your congregation’s journey possible? What are the contributions of the past and present of your congregation that give you both heritage and hope in God’s future for your congregation? Who is your congregation’s coach for your current spiritual strategic journey?” [4]
See and purchase this book at TCP Resources Store.
Programs Make the church More Concerned with "Doing" than "Being"
In their book, Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community, Stephen Pate and Gene Wilkes say the following about the doing and being of church programs:
“Our worth is in who we are in Christ, not what we do for Him. The same holds true for churches. But like children who try to gain praise from their parents with ‘good works,’ churches and church leadership spend countless hours planning and coordinating the ongoing programs and events that fill church calendars. Bible studies, discipleship opportunities, music programs, seasonal ‘special’ programs, meetings, and services become central to our worth. However, no matter how much each of the ongoing programs and special events are good in essence, a metamorphosis often takes place that transform them from good, into bad, into ugly intrusions into a healthy, mission-focused life.” [26]
See and purchase this book at TCP Resources Store.
What is an Innovative Congregation?
In his book, Innovative Planning: Your church in 4-D, Bud Wrenn defines an innovative congregation in the following way:
“An innovative congregation, then, is a congregation that is willing to do new things, regardless of whether they may look contemporary, traditional, modern, postmodern, etc. The innovative congregation is one that will do new things because that is the right thing to do. It innovates with purpose and intentionality, not just doing something new for the sake of doing something new. Rather, it has in mind a larger picture, one that innovation will help the congregation more toward. The truly innovative congregation will know . . .
a. when something new is needed
b. how to figure out what is needed
c. what purpose the innovation will serve, and
d. what success with the innovation will look like.” [21]
See and purchase this book at TCP Resources Store.
Weird Spiritual People
In his book, Renew Your Congregation: Healing the Sick, Raising the Dead, Bill McConnell says the following about weird spiritual people:
“It took me a long time to figure out that weird spiritual people are just weird people who are spiritual. If they were not spiritual, they would still be weird. Weird is just weird. Weird and spiritual are two different things. Try this. Think of the most spiritual person you know. Would you describe that person as weird? Probably not. When I try to think of the most spiritual person I know, the first person who comes to mind is Jesus. And Jesus isn’t weird. Jesus is cool.” [34]
See and purchase this book at TCP Resources Store.
