You are here:
Home /
Newsletter / Church can change the culture of cities
Church can change the culture of cities
August 2009
Church can change the culture of cities
by Mal Fletcher
Mal Fletcher sees great opportunity for the church in our fast changing world. He believes that by forward thinking and strategic planning the church can become a leader in influencing the way our society develops. Here is an extract from his article.
“If its leaders think and act in the right way, the church has the opportunity to become a landmark for communities in constant change. We have the opportunity – indeed, the responsibility – to develop strategies that will move entire communities forward in a positive and godly direction. By building strategic, future-engaging cultures of hope in our churches, we can shape the direction of communities and entire cities.”
To read full article click here |
Missional shift towards the Kingdom
When asked, in a recent survey, if “the kingdom of God is a present reality, a future reality, or both,” 37 percent of pastors said they currently believe the kingdom is a future reality in heaven, 20 percent said the kingdom is a present reality on earth, and 33 percent said both. But 58 percent said that ten years ago they believed it was a future reality, and only 9 percent said they believed ten years ago that it was a present reality.
The movement is clearly toward understanding the kingdom as a present, earthly reality, even if it remains a minority view.” This rediscovery of the Kingdom is leading to a re-think of the missional focus of the church. The survey reveals five changes are gaining momentum:
- Affirming the whole gospel
- Not looking to a megachurch model
- Focusing on making disciples
- Encouraging a missional mindset as a means of spiritual formation
- Establishing partnerships to advance the gospel
To read the full article click here |
Stop the Traffic
by Steve Chalke
Steve Chalke is a leading evangelical social reformer based in the UK. Steve founded the Oasis Trust which has developed into a family of charities now working on five continents and 11 countries around the world, to deliver housing, education, training, youthwork and healthcare. Recently Chalke was appointed as a Special Advisor on Community Action against Human Trafficking to the United Nations.
In this message, presented at the Mars Hill church in Michigan USA, Chalke challenges Christians to realise one person can make a difference. This is an impassioned call for Christians to make a difference in their world – well worth a listen.
Cl;ick here to listen |
Spreading the message of the Kingdom
I have been very grateful over the last few months for several friends who have made me aware of articles, MP3s, websites and so on that feature good articles on the Kingdom message. Can I please encourage all of our readers to continue to send thru these links so that we can feature them in our newsletter and on our website.
To promote this conversation on the Kingdom can I ask you to help us in a few ways
Fill in the forward to a friend link on this newsletters to send a copy of the newsletter to your friends. This is better than forwarding this newwsletter because the HTML format tends to get distorted when it is forwarded.
Encourage you friends to sign up for this newsletter either from the subscribe link on the newsletter itself of from the contact page on the website.
Make people aware of the website as there are many great articles and MP3s that can be downloaded. |
Business opportunity
As some of you may remember this year I have been taking steps to link my Kingdom vision with my internet business “Using the Net”. This has meant that I am offering the opportunity for people who have a heart for the Kingdom and a desire to develop their own business to work with me.
The opportunity involves becoming an Account Manager with Using the Net and looking after clients in your region and network. Already we have Account Managers in Brisbane, Adelaide, Sunshine Coast and Melbourne.
Meet the team
Using the Net offers full internet services to people in business. These include:
- Enewsletter service
- Website development
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Marketing
- Executive coaching
- Creative design
The vision for this development can be found on our Kingdom website. There are 3 aspects to this offer:
- The opportunity to start your own business
- The opportunity to make an impact for the Kingdom through this business in the community
- The opportunity to support our wider vision for the Kingdom
Please have a look on our websiteand if you are interested in finding out more please get in touch. Also you might know someone who could potentially be interested in this idea – please direct them also to the website. |
Uptown Church is one of the most honest chruches I have ever gone to. People are who there are, they don’t try and hide their sin. They share what they are struggling with and in return people can pray and help keep you accountable.Uptown is a family more so than a community.Reading your post made me miss it! I might just have to pop in for a visit sometime!