Church turnaround brings ‘living water’ to community
By Linda Green*
Aug. 5, 2008 | ORLANDO, Fla. (UMNS)
|
The Rev. Ed Jones talks about his experiences in nurturing a new church during the 2008 United Methodist School
of Congregational Development.
A UMNS Web-only photo by Chris
Heckert, Board of Global Ministries.
|
Living Water United Methodist Church began in 2006 with 225 people,
but membership gradually declined to an attendance of about 70.
"I felt like a failure," said the Rev. Ed Jones in a July 31
presentation to the 2008 United Methodist School of Congregational
Development.
The church in Pearland, Texas, had been launched with much fanfare in
the Texas Annual (regional) Conference. Jones struggled to understand
why people were not attending worship while other area churches were
experiencing growth.
"We took six months to sort things out, and now we are in a new day,"
Jones said. "I realized I was listening to words on church growth charts
but not listening daily to the word of God. We were too caught up in
building the church and not enough in connecting the disconnected."
Planting new churches and revitalizing existing ones is one of four
newly declared areas of focus of The United Methodist Church. As the
denomination seeks to return to its evangelistic heritage of starting a
new congregation every day, its Board of Discipleship has established a
new strategy team on congregational development. Called Path One, the
team seeks to help the church start 650 new congregations by 2012.
Jones' presentation in Orlando before 300 people also was viewed via
satellite by about 150 people attending the school simultaneously in
Grand Rapids, Mich. The school is for church pastors, administrators,
laypeople and other church leaders wanting to learn how to create and
develop disciple-making congregations. Five of the ministry study tracks
this year deal with starting new congregations.
Spending time with God
A former firefighter, Jones said that despite what "experts" might
say, a church leader cannot start a new church or grow a church without
daily listening to the voice of God. "Our daily reading of God's word is
the nutrient needed to grow anything," he said. "I got so caught up in
trying to build a church that I stopped allowing time with God to build
me with his word."
Jones told participants that regardless of the number of bells and
whistles they include in their worship services or Web sites, church
leaders "must lead from the overflow of our devotional life."
“Our daily reading of God's word is the nutrient needed to grow anything.”
–The Rev. Ed Jones After examining the
decline in worship attendance at Living Water, Jones identified three
areas that were circumventing the congregation's work: children's
ministry, clarity of church mission and values, and a clear path of
discipleship.
During the six-month self-assessment, he and his leadership team used
John 7:38 as the basis for asking challenging and thought-provoking
questions about the character and identity of Living Water.
"We brought clarity to our vision for transforming our community with
the love of Jesus Christ," he said. The church focused its energy on
reaching disconnected families.
"We took our values off of charts and we placed them in our people's
hearts. We let go of all of the trendy values that were important to
other people" and "focused on the opportunities to serve living water to
a thirsty world in our context." The refocus increased the weekly
worship attendance from 70 to 175 people.
Church leaders developed a strategy called GAUGE, highlighting five values:
- Grow spiritually;
- Authentic relationships;
- Use gifts for ministry;
- Give cheerfully; and
- Extend a hand
Be salt for the world
Noting that different types of salt bring out different flavors in
cooking, Jones told the school audiences that they are the salt of the
earth and urged them not to lose their saltiness.
Salt penetrates, preserves, protects, transforms and cleans. "Salt is
a change agent," and Jesus proclaimed his disciples to be the salt of
the earth to "bring the flavor that I placed in you for that particular
community … so that God's purposes can be accomplished," he said.
The church needs many flavors and varieties in order to be the body
of Christ in every community. "Be who God called you to be for that
particular community," he said.
Jones advised those who want to start new churches to engage the disconnected and to "preach Jesus."
Living Water church uses cultural patterns, including popular movies,
to get people's attention, engage them and move them from the shoreline
to deeper waters—as Jesus did in Luke 5:1 when he took a boat from the
shore into deep water to speak to a crowd.
Jones said the church must understand and use the cultural patterns that
exist around them as opportunities to engage the disengaged.
"If you trust God, God can trust you," said the pastor.
*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
School of Congregational Development
Board of Global Ministries
Board of Discipleship
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