This is a trick question, right?

Discipleship

Yeah, I suppose I could spend paragraphs justifying that simple answer, but I'm pretty sure the audience here is familiar with which Scriptural concepts I infer with this singe word answer.

What does it mean to "avoid major conflict?" What are some suggestions for encouraging racial diversity in a community that is about 90% caucasian? Discipleship is definitely a factor in this, but that is by no means the only factor in bringing in new people to hear the Gospel.

Interesting that growth is always assumed to be about the number of people and not personal spiritual growth.

I'm interested in the website bit there.

What is it *about* the website that's important.

We've had a website for years now but it's not properly maintained.

I hate the idea of, "we should strive for racial diversity". I think you should be a reflection of your community. period.

Why is it that we feel that we need to be a 50/50 blend of black/white or whatever to be doing what's right? If the makeup of the church, looks like the makeup of the community, then I think you are doing fine.

We should be careful with how we interpret or operationalize "avoiding major conflict." Too often, I think this idea is practiced as, "don't teach doctrine of any kind unless its warm and fuzzy and paints God as a big Santa Clause or teddy bear." The historic truths of Christianity can be quite severe at times, and they certainly can be offensive and divisive."

Again - I would think if we have discipleship squared away, these other issues would fall into place.

Let's take avoiding major conflict for instance. With a more family-like structure of a discipleship approach - people should be able voice and vent emotions and feelings to the benefit of the whole.

Then again, seeing as how discipleship has been co-opted by cultish and cult-like thinking ... perhaps it's not so simple?

Let's not forget that the number of people through the door means more people getting to here the gospel of hope...let's not condescend by throwing in an either/or with growth in spiritual terms or in people terms.

I read Acts and see numbers everywhere...church done right attracts people.

The cry about spiritual growth is often from pastors who can't grow their church numerically. Trust me, I've been there. This thread is specifically about numerical growth. Jesus said he'd build his church. Let's have a bit of balance about us and go for both kinds of growth. We're ripping ourselves off and our churches if we don't.

I love the avoid conflict bullet.

:-) this is certainly not one that normally get's thrown into the mix...but yes, folks...conflict over how the potluck assignments are divided doesn't tend to grow a church.

Gloria, if you check out the article they make the claim that it's not simply having a web site, it's actively launching one or maintaining one--which will often show that you're thinking about how to reach people and introduce them to your church. And if you think about those things, you're more likely to do them right.

Lots of churches have web sites, but having one just to have one doesn't cut it. You need the proper motivation.

Gloria, I'd like to add to what Kevin says above. Having a website is totally expected by people these days. Not having one would be like being "unlisted". Today, and even more so in the future, the sequence of seeking out information about almost anything is: click, call then come.

Furthermore, Web 2.0 (since you're a blogger) applications will empower sites with blogs, photo archives, podcasts, etc. This will mean they are much more than the traditional front pages of the past presenting addresses and service times. Websites are able to provide complete interactivity and that will certainly increase their value because isn't the goal of churches to interact, both with believers and seekers.

The website of my own church is in a sorry state of static dormancy but behind the scenes we're working with the great folks at Monk Development adding a new content management system (Ekklesia 360) because even in it's neglected state....every week someone comes to one of our church services off the web.

I think what it is "about" the site that's important will ultimately be it's interactivity.

Good call.

I know our website stinks, I'm just wondering what about it needs to be changed first. I'll try to read the article later, I've been so busy lately. >.

As to the numbers through the door comments, I think that you are gravitating toward an extreme when you say that. My church's Youth Ministry has had probably thousands of youth pass through the doors but only a tiny handful of them has stayed and been really discipled.

A greater portion of them has gone on to live even more for the world than when they came to us. What good is it, and what kind of success can we call it if we have more than a 50% turn-around? That doesn't seem like success to me, that seems like shoddy workmanship taking solace in a small victory.

If I were to try at work to pass off something like that, I'd be at the very least reprimanded, if not fired. Getting a whole lot of people to have a "free sample" of your product doesn't spell success.

If you are looking for some good advice about building church web sites, visit

www.godbit.com

My thoughts on this stuff...

Multiple services
We are having this discussion right now in our church. Mosaic, a five year old intentionally multi-ethnic church, will transition this August to 2 services on Sunday mornings. We are doing it due to steady growth and limited space for our nursery and children's ministry classrooms (among other reasons). I'm told that statistics show that churches grow numerically after adding services. I agree with some of the comments above that numeric growth and church health are not synonymous. Numbers say something, but not everything.

Launching or maintaining a web site in the past year
We've had a website up for most of our existence. The current site was launched April 2006 and is updated regularly. Being the webmaster, I receive comments regularly from people who say they attended the church after checking us out on the web.

Racial diversity
The church was planted in 2002 with an ethnically/economically diverse mindset. In just over 5 years, Mosaic has grown to over 700 members. We believe that is largely due to Christ's prayer in John 17 about believers being on so that the world will know God's love and believe. Click HERE to read why we believe that there is a Biblical mandate for the church to be diverse.

Involving Children in worship
We have the occasional children's choir spotlight or a little children's church message.

Avoiding Major Conflict
I think a better goal is to handle conflicts, major and minor, well. Conflict is unavoidable, especially in a diverse setting, so we have to deal with conflict with great humility seeking to listen, understand and validate the other person's feelings, opinions, convictions, etc. Christ did not avoid conflict so neither should the church, but we must walk through those difficult situations with grace and humility displaying the fruits of the Spirit.

Peace,
Rob
www.mosaicchurch.net