Tim Keller: 5 big issues facing the western church

In a brief but incisive article, Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church New York identifies 5 big issues that we in the western Christian church should consider. Here are the headings, and some of the key questions:

1. The opportunity for extensive culture-making
The challenges faced by Christians going into the arts, business, government, the media, and film....and what will their response be?

2. The rise of Islam
How can Christians be at the very same time a) good neighbors, seeking their good whether they convert or not, and still b) attractively and effectively invite Muslims to consider the gospel?

3. The new non-Western Global Christianity
What should the relationship of the older Western churches be to the new non-Western church, as the demographic center of Christian gravity shifts from the West to Asia, Latin America, and Africa?

4. The growing cultural remoteness of the gospel
How do we make the gospel culturally accessible without compromising it? How can we communicate it and live it in a way that is comprehensible to people who lack the basic 'mental furniture' to even understand the essential truths of the Bible?

5. The end of prosperity?
How will the Western church adjust to the economic meltdown, and perhaps to relatively flat for many years to come?

Read the full article here.

CAP are again award-winners in The Sunday Times' 2010 'Best Small Companies To Work For'

CAP (national debt counselling charity Christians Against Poverty) took first place in these awards in 2008 and 2009. This year they took second place, but received one of the Special Awards, for Best Leaders.

The Sunday Times has some great coverage for Chief Exec Matt Barlow and his team, including:

''Visionary Leadership at CAP enables the 131 staff to help transform the lives of thousands of people struggling with debt...... The management style combines humility and integrity with open communication."

Well done again, CAP!

What if Starbucks Marketed Like a Church? A Parable!

My thanks to Anthony Delaney of Ivy Church Manchester for flagging this hilarious video. Alas it's far too near what actually happens in many churches......

Multi-Site Churches Spreading in Post-Christian Europe

'The Christian Post' quotes from a report by the Leadership Network which describes the spread of 'multi-site' churches in a number of European countries. One such is Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) in London:

'On any one Sunday, Holy Trinity
Brompton (HTB) (www.htb.org.uk) in
London, UK, will have about 4,500 people
through its doors, attending one of eight
services held in two locations less than a
mile from each other, and drawn from a
pool of about 10,000 attendees.'

Multi-site churches differ to church plants, in that they normally present themselves as one church in several locations, overseen by a single leadership, albeit with dedicated leaders for each site or campus. These began in the US, and have spread to Australia and more recently the UK and other European countries.

New book by Tim Keller later this year

Tim Keller's new book, Generous Justice, will be released this October.

From the publisher...

It is commonly thought in our secular culture that the Bible is one of the great hindrances to doing justice. In Generous Justice, Tim Keller illuminates a life of justice empowered by an experience of grace: a generous, gracious justice.

Generous Justice is a book for believers who find the Bible a trustworthy guide, as well as for those who suspect that Christianity is a regressive influence in the world. Keller calls upon life-long Christians to deepen their faith by understanding that justice for the poor and marginalized is central to the Scripture’s message and challenges sceptics to recognize that the Bible is actually the basis for the modern understanding of justice.

Giving to UK charities fell in 2009 - were churches similarly affected?

A recent poll by Investec Private Bank indicated a drop in donations to UK Charities of more than £500m on previous year, 10% down on 2008.

At Funding for the Future in Westminster earlier this week, a conference attended by 1,200 charity etc leaders and managers, I heard Dr John Low of the Charities Aid Foundation talk of a £1.3 billion decrease in 2009, 11% on 2008.

Although the figures differ, both are flagging a similar percentage reduction. However our experience in LifeChurch Manchester was that in financial 08/09 our income grew by 6%, and in 09/10 we're hopeful of hitting our budget of another 6% increase. So we're very glad to be bucking the national trend. 

Is this the experience also of other churches?

LifeChurch Manchester does 'missional'

'Missional' is the latest buzz-word in many of the recent books about newer church models and styles. Isn't that what all churches through all time were supposed to be, one might ask! See here for an extended discussion of how 'missional' is being most commonly understood. Our local missional pastor Nick Matthews explains that it's an emphasis less on our church's seating capacity and rather more on our sending capacity.

There's undoubtedly an increasing emphasis on being missional in many UK churches. For example at LifeChurch Manchester we've started having a 'missional Sunday' 6 times pa. This morning for example we featured City Centre Ministries, which is run by LifeChurch members Steve & Irene Brown, and serves the homeless in Manchester.

At LifeChurch we are excited to either operate as one of our ministries, or closely support an increasing number of ministries or charities which are led by or involve one or more of our members. Thus we've previously run missional Sundays focussed on the following:
Christians Against Poverty
Hope for Justice
Compassion UK
PEPAIDS
Fit Lives

and in future we may also focus on:
Blush
Rhema Theatre Company
Eden Eccles
The Gideons   
Rob & Marion White
Crossroads Counselling Service
Our workers in Uganda and India and the indigenous works they're serving
Our 6 mission teams that were launched in October 09