Blogging News . . .
GodBlogCon 1 is shaping up. Let Andy Jackson know if you are interested.
Marla Swoffer will be setting up GodBlogNews - a hub for the hubs of all this God-blogging. And her baby is due in a few days, so please pray for her. Hey Marla, it's ok if you don't live blog the delivery!
What church doesn't need a little revitalization . . .
One of my favorite quotes about my own denomination, the PCA, came from a leader who said that the PCA was born old,tired, and mad. We came into existence at the end of a long period of conflict with the denomination from which we came out of, hence the phrase. We've enjoyed pretty good success as far as growth goes for a young denomination but we have our share of stresses and strains. One of those strains is that we, like many denominations have our fair share of plateaued and declining churches.
So, a few years ago, Pastor Harry Reeder at Briarwood Presbyterian in Birmingham started a conference called Embers to a Flame, on church revitalization. Harry has since written a book by the same title.
Eric Erickson at Confessions of a Political Junkie has a category on his blog devoted to church revitalization, in which his posts seem to be indirectly influenced by Harry Reeder's ministry. However, the angle he is taking in these posts is that a church revitalization campaign can be run like a political campaign. Here is his thesis:
A church revitalization, like a political campaign, has limited time, talent, and treasure. Using the tools of a political campaign, a church revitalization program can design a campaign strategy based on sound tactics to revitalize and better spread the Word.
I'll leave it to you to read the rest of his posts as I will be doing myself. Our own church went through a period of severe decline and over the last years the decline has stopped and we have plateaued, although it is on a lower level. We are seeing some small growth now and want to see more, so I am very interested in this subject and will be interested in his insights.
A big thanks to . . .
Greg at Blogdigger. Yesterday I mentioned that I was having trouble with Blogdigger, which I am using to put together the aggregator for PCABlogs - he found the post, gave me a comment offering to help. I e-mailed him about my woes and he responded presto. Things are going much smoother. That's customer service for you. Please see Blogdigger for all your aggregating needs.
Hey---thanks so much for the wonderful accolades and kind remarks about our bookstore and our rich conversation at the JEI conference last summer. We appreciate the business and hope that our breadth of offerings doesn't scare away anybody. Your description of our vision is very nicely put and we are grateful. And, as I've said before, you are doing a great job here, yourself. What an amazing array of good stuff. Thanks again.
Posted by: Byron Borger | January 27, 2005 at 10:08 PM