Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Multi-generational

Was reading Presbyweb (or as its now known Church and World - PCUSA Edition) today, and saw a blurb about an article John Ortberg wrote for the Leadership Journal.

Clicked on the link to the article, and started reading. A very good article by the way, but what struck me was this thought:

I was looking at church websites not long ago and noticed a fascinating dynamic. Many new churches have been formed with "multi-cultural" as part of their DNA and a stated value. But I have not yet seen a new church plant with "multi-generational" in its vision statement. In all the cases I read (in an admittedly non-scientific sample), "multi-generational" in a church's self-description was a euphemism for "we are an aging church that wants to have more young people attending so that we don't die, but we don't want to change enough to actually attract any of them to come."


My emphasis above. FWIW ... Stodgy Presbyterian has multi-generational on its Welcome page. As the webmaster for SPC, I've been racking my brain to remember where I got that blurb. Turns out I found it on the monthly newsletter's main page.

And, as with many things, John Ortberg has that down pat !!

Update: When I mentioned this to SWMBO, she gave a corollary to the definition given above. She felt that John Ortberg would approve it whole-heartedly: "In addition to the definition given, you can add The young families we currently have are limited to the children of the members who grew up in the church.

... and so it goes

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