Seminary trustees to confront president over audit, management issues

I was born in Oconomowoc, but haven't been back since I was 6 months old. Sometimes I wonder how the church is up there.

 

You will have to be more clear here.

Yes it is. the teaching in them is great for those who do not have a more mature understanding of scripture but we are not limited by that.

I wouldn't have the time to do that and its not necessary here.

It is an integral part of discipleship

It has placed a lot of work on me. The growth was not necessarily expected but a result of some very simple things that were being ignored for years. We have had some good people step up and some others needed more encouragement along the way. I measure effectiveness by spiritual growth and discipleship. Are we getting people involved in it. As long as there are advances in that then we are doing well. But we can do all the right things and see no fruit. I will not allow lour church to be so focused on counting noses.

Anything that involved strengthening families in the Lord.

That is part of discipleship training.

No, no specialized focus on any social groups.

Yep love doing it. We have held a community prayer meeting where a number of churches were involved. A creationism conference where we cooperated with another church.

 

I'm trying to figure out how we got so far astray from the OP.

 

What church...

I say that tongue in cheek -- sort of -- for the evangelical presence in Wisconsin is few and far between. There are local congregations scattered here and there and even a few of some size that can reach beyond their own four walls into other communities, but those are rare indeed.

Wisconsin is a wide-open mission field -- and I mean "mission." It is a "post-gospel" society where only a missional effort will work.

Some areas of the state are as little as 3% evangelized and the state is a bastion of liberal activities inclduding having the distinction of housing the largest pagan and wiccan populations in the nation.

I'm with Southern Baptists so I know our numbers best. Minnesota/Wisconsin is a two-state convention. Between the two states we have just under 200 congregations. 2/3 of the counties of both states have no SBC work. 1/3 of the counties have no evangelical work at all. As a comparison, the Louisville Kentucky metro area has about 180 SBC congregations right now. That is essentially one county in Kentucky and that a bit north of the Bible belt where the real concentration of congregations exists.

I know that there are also IFB, GARB, American, and a few other Baptist organizations, plus the E-Free and Bible Church movement, but rarely are those large congregations. Most that I see, if I see them at all, are smallish places running under 100 in membership by the number of cars in the lot at any given time -- some MUCH smaller -- more like 25!

I'm of a mind that more folks should heed the missional call of God to evangelize the Great Lakes region (as well as the Pacific Northwest and the Atlantic Northeast!) all of which are essentially unchurched and below the number of adherents in lands across the ocean to which we send missionaries often. The thing I most often hear when I ask "Who will go?" is "It is so cold and the people are so hard..." Yup, but it is okay. All those frozen Norweigians and Germans up there will get thawed out well by the fires of hell. :tear:

 

Thanks for that, glfredrick!

I rarely hear about missions in the north central US, and what you shared was moving. Also, I understand about the reasons people have reservations about packing up the family and moving up there. One of the concerns we had before moving to our current place of service was that the year round mean temperature was 33 degrees! Some winter nights see negative 20 to negative 35 degrees Fahrenheit. At least the city has coal powered radiator heat for six months of the year. But living where the Lord calls is easier than living where he hasn't. He sustains.

 

Then you've got trendy church in Louisville touting its foray into home missions. Where is it sending its two big church planting teams?

. . .Chattanooga, and . . . suburban Atlanta.

 

I lived in Wisconsin for most of my adult life, until I moved to Kentucky to attend Southern Seminary and spent the next 15 years in school and work before returning home.

I've found that it is MUCH easier to add clothing until one is sufficiently warm than it is to parade around the south totally naked (neked) and still be dripping hot. :laugh:

Once it is cold, the rest is all rather relative, save for the time of exposure. Cold is also a state of mind, i.e., the absence of heat.

But I understand when EVERYONE indicates that God is calling them to a ministry in South Palm Beach. :wavey: (Yeah, right...)

 

That article failed to mention the 20+ other church starts, some in Boston, some in New York, London, Paris, etc., and hopefully several in Wisconsin as soon as I can get them off the ground.

Get more accurate info from Sojourn itself before going off the deep end (oh, and as far as I know, the Chattanogah plant is now off).

www.sojournnetwork.com

http://churchplanting.sojournchurch.com/

I come from that "trendy church in Louisville" and have watched them start from about 12 kids just out of their teens into a 4-campus vigourous ministry that sees an average attendence above 2800 on any given Sunday. Average age of the congregation remains under 35. Giving exceeds $2.5 million a year now and constantly growing. No programs. No Sunday school. No Sunday School Board (LifeWay) quarterlies, etc. Just the pure gospel based on the Word of God, from a Doctrines of Grace perspective. Baptisms run above 100 per year. Membership committment is by covenant -- one is required to do the work of a minister and support a community group aimed at expansion, as well as demonstrate the fruits of salvation before being accepted as a member. I dare say the requirements are much more difficult and the bar much higher than any other congregation I've seen, save a few others with similar expectations of their people.

Trendy, perhaps. Serving God -- MOST definitely!

 

The C-J article is from last Friday.

And from the website of the Chattanooga clone:

 

Perhaps they are going forward anyway. I have a close friend who was supposed to be on that team and he indicated that the plant was off. Perhaps just he was off the team.

But, that still does not cover all the other plants in the works all over the country and abroad, does it, though I agree with planting efforts "south".

Virtually all it takes to start a new congregation in the heart of the Bible belt is to show up and hang out a sign.

Really a different deal once you go northward where your partner church may be 100 miles away and your funds are whatever you (YOU) can afford today. Yet, I fully expect to see 10+ congregations started under my ministry in the next 10 years. There is a way to do it, but it does take a missional sense instead of a "church extension" sense, that is, unless the church that tries to extend is willing to hive off hundreds of people to permenantly relocate, and that is rare.