For thirty years I have been a student of unleashing the church. I have worked with and listen to Frank Tillapaugh, explain the multiple and complex factors that have created America’s fortress churches. I hope my blogs over the last few weeks have helped you to appreciate the severity of the “passion problem” before I try to respond to it. But, I suspect that you, like Frank and me, are more interested in solutions than you are in the problems.
There is no magic formula. Fortunately we live at a time when a growing number of church leaders are genuinely trying to get their people out of the fortress and into ministry. And that’s good because to break down the walls of the fortress we must become much more intentional about being “calling friendly” for the nobodies.
So I am more concerned about what it means to be a church that is calling friendly for everyone. I Googled “Calling Friendly Church” and got 689,000 responses and not one of them was “Calling Friendly Church” hits, not one. That does not surprise me, but it does make me sad. Calling friendly means that a church’s power brokers have been intentional about creating an infrastructure where everyone’s calling is valued. Once there is an infrastructure in place then individuals need to know how to find their ministry callings.
Thoughts about unleashing the greatest force on Earth
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About Me
- Rich
- I am a slave to no man or institution. I have worked with Frank Tillapaugh for thirty years and most of the ideas are work we would like to share.
The next generation
God thank you for two amazing young leaders
Looking Forward
Each year I get to spend time with young leaders and the gap is growing between them and my generation, why?
1 comment:
Calling friendly means that a church’s power brokers have been intentional about creating an infrastructure where everyone’s calling is valued.
Why should everyone's "calling" be valued, if by your definition it is determined (an "intentional structure") by the church's "power brokers"?
More importantly - why would or do folks in the church ever feel like they are the "nobodies"? Perhaps it is the “power brokers” fault? Honestly, I don't think "infrastructure" means a thing in terms of believers "finding" their ministry calling; as if God's word is silent on this topic. Secondly, most “nobodies” like myself would prefer some of the more educated folks (power brokers) in the church, to stop talking about complexities, severities, and how we need more “power brokers” to explain it to us… we like all people need to hear the gospel (everyday, especially on the Lord’s day) and how Christ (not men) are building His church through the simplistic message and power of the gospel. That requires no “unleashing” – just Godly men / women preaching, teaching, and rightly proclaiming a message that has never been theirs, but a message delivered to them by God in flesh and commanded to proclaim in all seasons.
My two cents… Blessings!
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