Pastor Dave’s Weblog

Good to see y’all again.  You are right!  There has not been very much activity on “The Blog” lately.  Thanks for your post Guy.  My name is Dave and I’m the pastor at Good Shepherd Church… though you could probably gather that from the links and other info in this blog.

I just returned from a conference on Evangelism in the Northwestern Ohio Synod.  It was an amazing conference. I am a Pastor in a Lutheran congregation… and Evangelism tends to be a very scary word for a many of the Lutheran persuasion.  I’ve had people tell me… NO WAY… I’m not an evangelist.  Yet press them further and they are talking about their faith all the time with friends, people at work, and so on.  There is this image that doing evangelism is standing on a corner passing out scary religious pamphlets and yelling through a bull horn.  I guess that is one way, but it is not the only way.

Thanks be to God!

How about sharing our story?  How has God moved in our lives?  What’s God been up to with you?  It can start there.  That is a pretty good place to begin.  For me, in these last few days it was being at that conference where I had the opportunity to meet some amazing people of deep faith who inspired me, challenged me and sent me packing to begin sharing in the faith with people all over again.  I needed that.  God’s Spirit was there, inspiring and doing what it does.  SWEET!

That’s my story this morning.  I am about an hour away from Sunday worship. I look forward to talking more soon.

pd

Let’s think about MySpace…

MySpace Statistics from June 2006

• 84 million users (61 million users in March)
• 2 million new registered users per week (Approximately the size of Houston)
• 2^nd most popular site for content consumption as defined by page views
• Reaches 51% of 13-17 year olds who are online (85% of ALL 13-17 year olds).
• 79% of site is 18 or older
• 25 million users are 30 or older
• Average page is visited 30 times per day.

Shawn Gold, Senior VP in charge of marketing for MySpace recently noted – “Why are we so successful? Our Core is identification and individuality. Don’t separate them—understand core needs and address their core needs: recognition, knowledge, self-expression, belonging, access, discovery, appreciation, and confidence.”

Doesn’t that sound like the goal of a church community?

MySpace is not perfect. As with about any other aspect of our society, church included, it has its faults and downfalls. However… isn’t it amazing? This web resource reaches the demographic which is MOST missing from our congregations and it seeks to address needs at the very core of our beings… the need for community and validation.

What if we as a faith community, rooted in Christ, focused on identification (as part of the body of Christ) and individuality (Each of us is a unique Child of God created in the image of God), what if we recognized one another, grew in knowledge and understanding of the Lord, were able to express our faith authentically, knowing that we belong, and have access to our community and our God, were free to discover and explore our faith, asking questions while feeling genuine appreciation as we utilize our God given gifts and were built up with a sense of confidence that we are valued?

As our Youth Director Mark Hannan pointed out, in many respects MySpace offers that which it cannot deliver. Is it possible for us to attempt to deliver this kind of focus on the Core needs of people (regardless of age) as we build up our community of faith?

How could we speak to the Core needs of people who are not here?

What would it look like?

I found this picture in my files… Imagine.  It is a memorial to John Lennon, but as a Christian community we are all called to imagine the possibilities of our life together, rooted in Christ and reaching out to the world. What do you imagine our life together could be like? What do you imagine a Christian community to do and to be? Let’s put it another way. With regard to ministry at GSC…

…What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

This fall marks a time of new beginnings here at GSC, a time of great possibility and unlimited potential. Grounded in the love of Christ we can reach out in many new and exciting ways. What are they? There is a wonderful history of ministry and outreach here at Good Shepherd. How would you like to build on that history? What new areas or places would you like to branch out?

One of the mottos I live by is:

“The past is not our potential because God has liberated our future.”

We will celebrate our history, try to sense where the Holy Spirit is leading us and respond with faith and action.

Let’s spend some time throughout this year imagining the possibilities and listening for the Spirit.

Peace- pd

I will use this blog to let people know of things that of find of interest with regards to faith and worship.  I hope you will check by often in order to see new entries.