A message from Pastor Dave Housholder:
Does this describe your church?:
-A deep and abiding love for the Lord.
-An aging, faithful congregation made up almostentirely of Anglo white folks.
-A neighborhood that is more ethnically diversethan it used to be.
-A church choir with no one of childbearing age.
-When you drive by the local schools, there are veryfew blond heads on the
playground anymore.
-Clutter in the closets, the library, some rooms simply full of “stuff” in storage. Not
much of it very valuable.
-Your youth groups and kids’ Sunday schools, if you still have them, are just
remnants compared to the memories you have of crowds with young voices in the
church.
-Trouble retaining the young adults who grow up in the church. They used to come
back when they started having kids; not so much anymore. Your own grown kids
most likely don’t attend a church like yours, if they attend anywhere at all.
-A church building that used to be cutting edge but now looks “dated.”
Take heart!
Your church is not the exception in Southern California, it is the rule; the norm.
Is the Lord worried about your church? Of course not! God loves you and has a
plan for you; if you will just follow it.
And that plan does not mean fading away slowly until you sell the building to some
martial arts club or ethnic congregation. God has you where you are because you
are DESTINED to reach the neighborhood you are in. Now.
If God is not worried, it is time for us no stop worrying and getting to work.
We need to do these things:
1) Start believing we have a future as a congregation. Stop believing that
change is inevitable.
2) Learn how to be more next-generation friendly.
3) Learn how to reach the huge and growing international population in
California.
If you do these three things, your church will grow and thrive. By far the most
effective tool for established congregations to reach the lost has been the Alpha
Course (www.AlphaUSA.org).
Problem is, most of us have used the course without generational and ethnic
sensitivity and it has only been a fraction of what it could be.
The huge blessing of Alpha is that it is:
1) Heavily relational. People make friends.
2) Heavily experiential. People meet God.
Studies have shown that these are the two most important things for young adults
and internationals when they think of spiritual things and consider joining spiritual
communities. “Will I make friends?” and “Will I meet God?”
No ministry answers these two questions better than Alpha.
And Alpha with a next-generation and international upgrade is the best tool there is
for ensuring that your established congregation can reach EMERGING CALIFORNIA.
Join us as we form an ARMY of 600,000 followers of Jesus in established churches
that will transform all of Southern California; the very source of global popular and
media culture. Why should the Scientologists get all the cool celebrities?