Risk, Indifference and Mission Minded Church

Well I feel like maybe recently Ive been writing indifferent blog material as it hasnt really resulted in any comment activity (please dont take that as any type of reverse psycology only comment when you want to). So I think I may think of how to say things a little more provocativly soon. Anyway before that I start my provocative blog writing, I going away to day to go to Church for tommorow (Its 50 Miles away!....go figure that) So Im gonna blog about the last few days and some cool Mission Minded Church quote I found over at Jordan Coopers Blog (check below for his link) TO READ THE REST OF THIS POST CLICK HERE Last night was CU @ uni (christian Union) and the announcing of the new executive and a bunch of myt friends are on it so that was great. Also this week starting yesterday at 7pm and finishing next week at the same time is the Uni's 24/7 Prayer week, so if your anywhere near Aberdeen feel free to come and check it out at 55 University Road. So CU finished last night and we went over to Ben's after he'd started off the prayer weekl for 2 hours in the room we went and watched Zoolander, what a classic!....although I couldn't resist pre-empting the funniest lines. After that Ben had to go a do 2 hours from 5-7am so he decided to stay up all night and go for it, so we decided to play a game of Risk which is a great game, but I am but a beginner so I was out first, what can I say bad International relations tactics. But hence we were up til 6ish!....I walked up to the prayer room with him and prayed with him for maybe 1/2 an hour which was awesome I was too tired to think but we just prayed for each other and had an inspiring experience of God as we commited to "Going for it with everything we have for His Glory" Anyway other than that I was reading a couple of RSS feeds this morning and found this great quote from Reggie McNeal's book, The Present Future which I havent read but this is a great quote (courtesy of the typing of Jordan Cooper, check his blog here) Adopting a missionary approach will require changing the scorecard. Church scorecards currently reflect member values: how many show up, pay up, and participate in club member activities. There are the numbers used to compare one church with another--the numbers that denominations ask for in their reports. These numbers establish the pecking order among clergy. The bigger the better and the more respected by club members of other churches. A missionary church culture will need to begin keeping score on things different from what we measure now. These may include how many ministry initiatives we are establishing in the streets, how many conversations we are having with pre-Christians, how many volunteers we are releasing into local and global mission projects aimed at community transformation, how many congregations are starting to reach different populations, how many congregations use our facilities, how many languages (ethnic and generational) we worship in, how many community groups use our facilities, how many languages (ethnic and generational) we worship in, how many community groups use our facilities, how many church activities target people who aren't here yet, how many hours per week members spend in ministry where they work, go to school, and get mail. Until we start making heroes of people who decide to be and act like missionaries, we will fail to turn club members into missionaries. Until we bless people who "go out" from us to reach people who may not come to us, we will continue to have a kingdom vision that is shrink wrapped to church programs and church real estate. Until we start adopting school and hosting community food banks and teaching parenting seminars for people who come to us for food, we will keep fostering club member mentality. Please pray for Aberdeen Uni as it has it Prayer 24/7 Week, and then its Mission week to the campus after that. Click on this pic below to get the full version of a stitch I took of Aberdeen from a hill yesterday, the regular windows XP previewer if you zoom in to actually see the thing it dosent actually scroll in real time I dont know why, but what I did is put it in Photoshop then zoom to 100% and its scrolls left to right fine, so try it out in your photo editing software to see if you can have your very own 360 of Aberdeen, Scotland from where you are.... your excited, I bet...