Fishing nets

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Fishing nets or safety nets
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Does it really matter ?
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Changing culture
What is taking place is not merely the continued
decline of organised Christianity but the death
of the culture which formerly conferred Christian
identity upon the British people as a
whole. Callum Browne Death of Christian Britain
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2007 Tear Fund survey of 7000 adults in contact
or not with church
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Later intelligence its worse than we thought
NON CHURCHED
DE CHURCHED
Tear Fund 2006 statistics from 7 thousand home
interviews
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5 down from 20
Open To attend church as they know it
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Closed to attend church as they know it
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this majority (66) presents a major challenge
to churches. Most of them are unreceptive and
closed to attending church churchgoing is
simply not on their agenda.
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this research helps us to understand that the
further people are from church, (in terms of
churchgoing) the less likely they are to attend
in the future. Mission opportunities are very
different when to step over the church threshold
is an unknown experience..
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How have we defined a searcher?

• Someone who has had cause to reconsider their
  core values, or think about the big issues like
  the meaning of life, in the last year

2000 interviews with a nationally representative
sample of UK adults, conducted 24-27th April 09
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Are People Searching and why?

• 73 of people are searching
• All ages, male and female, all but the lowest of
  social grades
• 70 of people are searching because of either the
  credit crunch, concern about personal finances or
  job insecurity

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Are people considering prayer, the church or the
Bible?

• YES a third of those who say they are Christian
  at all
• And, the research shows that it is the most
  helpful thing to do (after turning to family and
  friends)
• NO if they do not belong to any religion
• These do not even feature on the spiritual
  search map
• It is not that they are being considered but
  people havent got round to it yet, or that they
  have been tried and reject

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For those without a religion, where do they look?
(after family and friends)

• Reflective time alone
• Under 35s, Social grade C1, female
• Voluntary or community work
• Under 45s (part. 35-44), Social grade ABC1
• Artistic or musical hobby
• Under 45, Social Grade ABC1 (very C1)

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7 principles for remodelling church
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1
Public worship probably isnt the best starting
point
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Prayer and Support
Loving Service
Evangelism and Disciple- Making
Forming Community
Evolving Worship
Listening and Following Gods call
Connection
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Modification of the existing is not enough
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Half the picture
Jerusalem
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The eccentric effects
Judea
The centre and the Acts story shift Samaria is
not a return ticket story moves from a focus on
Peter to Paul the Church goes west church is
done differently among Gentiles
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Mission shapes the church
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The reality is that mainstream culture no longer
brings people to the church door. We can no
longer assume that we can automatically
reproduce ourselves, because the pool of people
who regard church as relevant or important is
decreasing with every generation Mission
shaped church report p11

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it is not the church of God which has a
mission but the God of mission who has a
church. Tim Dearborn
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we understood mission one way and organised
life to accomplish it. We have awakened to find
out the mission moved on us. To keep focusing
on mission, we have to turn the furniture around
and face a different direction. We may even have
to move into another room. Loren Mead. The
Once and Future Church
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This might change US
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Are there structures and patterns which let
that basic event of encounter happen again and
again? Because if not , the church has become
something very different from where it
started its become a community which says once
there was an encounter with Jesus and we like
to remember that. We have to ask much more
radically , how do we structure a community in
which it goes on being possible ,even likely
,that people will meet Jesus and in meeting
Jesus will want more people to meet Jesus.
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Dying to live
I tell you the truth, unless a grain of
wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains
only a single seed. But if it dies, it
produces many seeds. John 13 23-6
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TOGETHER TO GODS FUTURE

• do not try to call them back to where they
  were, and do not try to call them to where you
  are, beautiful as that place may seem to you. You
  must have the courage to go with them to a place
  that neither you nor they have been before.
• Vincent Donovan

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Welcome the three eccentrics
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The 3 eccentrics

• Who are the Philips?
• A Dangerous Deacon?
• Allow space for the unknowns
• Discover Cornelius
• who evangelizes who
• Pray for Pauls
• Eccentrics will do it differently

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The challenge of discipleship
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• Simple in its nature
• Relational in its emphasis
• Transformational in its outcomes

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A Way Forward
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Alan Roxburghs Five Steps

• Awareness
• Understanding
• Evaluation
• Experimentation
• Commitment

The Missional Leader
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http//davemale.typepad.com/churchunplugged/