» 2005 » June

Following up on Thinking about money… again, I recalled some research by Wayne Allen on the relationship between financial subsidies and the growth of an indigenous church in Indonesia.

Wayne discovered that the impact of foreign subsidies for national church workers resulted in the decline or plateau of the national church. Wayne Allen provided three reasons [...]

Good question from Brett the other day regarding my views on the “emerging church”. Was I concerned the emerging church was not “conservative” in the best sense of the word?

I don’t see the emerging church as any different from previous attempts to adapt the church to a changing world. It’s a mixed bag. The challenge [...]

Thinking about money. . . again. Met with a denominational leader for coffee the other day. He’s wrestling with the challenge of planting churches. In his system they fund plants centrally. So over just a few years we’re talking tens of thousands of dollars. If the plant doesn’t prosper they support it financially. Over a [...]

I’ve never been the same since I read this quote from Roland Allen:

The spontaneous expansion of the Church reduced to its element is a very simple thing. It asks for no elaborate organisation, no large finances, no great numbers of paid missionaries. In its beginning it may be the work of one man, [...]

Following up on The Failure of Success, I’d like to add five more reasons why movements turn success into failure:

6. Prosperity
John Wesley was an astute observer and practitioner of movement dynamics. He witnessed first hand the impact of prosperity on a religious movement.
“Wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same [...]