Re: Non Traditional Church Pastord By Ex UPCer
 

Today we had baptismal services and between the three services we baptized 13 people in Jesus Name! I am excited about the new folks who are choosing to be buried with Christ in baptism.

Re: Non Traditional Church Pastord By Ex UPCer
 

:happydance

Re: Non Traditional Church Pastord By Ex UPCer
 

Tonight was a good example of what I love so much about my church even though it is not anything like the church culture I grew up in.

As I have mentioned previously every quarter we have a Worship night on a Friday night that lasts 3 or 4 hours. It is a chance for people from all three of our services to get together and also invite friends from other churches or unchurched friends.

We always have our bapismal tank ready (a giant rubber or fiberglass tub that I think is what they feed cattle in) and offer people a chance to be baptized towards the end of the service.

At times we have invited other church bands in to do sets but tonight each of our three bands / singers had a set or two so there was three hours of worship.

The worship was great. The theme was "God in this City" and there was a map on the wall of our town lit by a black light and markers that would glow in the dark for people to mark a dot on the map where they lived.

The best part of all for me though was near the end when they did the baptismal part of the service and I saw over 100 eager faces of young people 15-25 years old for the most part looking expectedly towards the baptismal tank. A lot of them with their camera phones ready to take pictures. For me to see all of those young men and women so excited about people taking the step of baptism to identify with Christ literally brought tears to my eyes.

At first it looked like there was just one person to be baptized but as soon as they were baptized someone else jumped up and went forward asking to be. The pastor took probably five minutes or more with each person talking with them then praying with them before actually baptizing them and this group of young people did not get restless or bored while that was going on. A total of either four or five were baptized in Jesus name tonight.

The service ended a little after 10 pm after a great time of being encouraged and touched by the Holy Spirit. Can't wait for church Sunday!

EDIT:: There were actually six people baptized last night. Not four or five as I cited.

Re: Non Traditional Church Pastord By Ex UPCer
 

CC1,
It's a breath of fresh air, kind of like a new church order.
Last night I attended a PAW Council where the female evangelist reminded the shirts and ties that young people don't need (or want) to go to church to be bored, and we need to change the way we do things if we expect to fulfill Mt 28:19.
We try to be informal out here, but if I wore flip flops out here I'd get trenchfoot. lol

Re: Non Traditional Church Pastord By Ex UPCer
 

"...at first it looked like there was just one person to be baptized but as soon as they were baptized someone else jumped up and went forward asking to be. The pastor took probably five minutes or more with each person talking with them then praying with them before actually baptizing them and this group of young people did not get restless or bored while that was going on. A total of either four or five were baptized in Jesus name tonight.

The service ended a little after 10 pm after a great time of being encouraged and touched by the Holy Spirit. Can't wait for church Sunday!"


This is wonderful!

Re: Non Traditional Church Pastord By Ex UPCer
 

Some of the High School and College age young people in our church make video's we air a the beginning of each service and then sometimes just before children are dismissed for Children's Church.

I am pasting the link to a couple of them I have enjoyed recently and I hope they bless you or are thought provoking to you.

The first is called "Guardians of the Light" and the second one is called "Do You Walk In White". The first one is an original monologue by Josh, a church member is a praise and worship leader at church and a HS teacher by day. Josh, is the guy in the video that speaks at the end. He also does the voiceover.

The second one is a famous monologue written by Oswald Chambers. In both videos the actors and video production are all church people. The actor in the second video is a guy named Ty who is one of the two guys heading up the creative video ministry that produces these each week. The other half of that team is behind the camera and he is a HS student named Sam.

http://vimeo.com/50290016


http://vimeo.com/49788603#

Re: Non Traditional Church Pastord By Ex UPCer
 

Twice a year our church has a "vision service" where the pastor shares his heart about the status of our church and the vision moving forward.

Today was our beginning of the year vision service and an exciting one. One year ago we were averaging 175 people between our three Sunday Services. In one year that has grown to 425 people. We have gained 150 people this year and have outgrown our facility.

Our church is 100% debt free and the pastor has a real conviction about remaining that way. That is one of the reasons we are not looking to buy property and get a loan to build a church as we grow but have been looking for a new location to rent.

Right now we occupy two buildings next to each other downtown with a total of around 6-9,000 sq feet if memory serves me correctly. we have found a new building where we will be leasing 20,000+ sq feet with a sanctuary that is about 10,000 sq feet. The rest will be nursery, Sunday School, Youth Ministry, etc.

The new building is a 100 year old factory near downtown that is being refurbished to be one of those cool old buildings for retail etc. In fact ironically our church will be next door to a micro brewery. We are also near a homeless shelter that we work with and low income housing that will be a great field for harvest. Also near a public school.

While the sanctuary is mostly built out we will be doing a lot of work to finish out the areas for the other ministries. Everything but the electrical and plumbing we will probably do ourselves.

We started looking at this building at the end of summer and since then the church has saved $50,000 to get us in the new building with no debt!

From the carnal standpoint one of the most exciting things about the new building is that we will be going from a total of two toilets to 17!!!!!! LOL.

Mid year we are also bringing our first full time minister on staff in addition to our pastor. A young man in our church who has a Master's degree and is a High School English teacher as well as our Worship Leader has worked, along with his new bride, to get out of debt and now owe no money except for their home so he can take a pay CUT from teaching High School to work for the church. I appreciate his dedication and desire to minister.

Re: Non Traditional Church Pastord By Ex UPCer
 

Hey CC1,

The link isn't working.

How am I to be mean spirited and judgmental, if I can't open the link?






Hee heeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Re: Non Traditional Church Pastord By Ex UPCer
 

:jolly

Re: Non Traditional Church Pastord By Ex UPCer
 

Opie, I am guessing because the article is old now. (much like you!)

EDIT - Yup, I just checked on the Daily News Journal website and now you have to pay $$$ to seeit since it is archived. Makes me wish I had copied and pasted a copy to pdf.