Rediscovering the Kingdom of God» community transformation; role of the church http://rediscoveringthekingdom.info Mon, 30 Apr 2012 05:22:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Creating a Culture of Influence http://rediscoveringthekingdom.info/newsletter/creating-a-culture-of-influence-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=creating-a-culture-of-influence-2 http://rediscoveringthekingdom.info/newsletter/creating-a-culture-of-influence-2/#comments Thu, 01 Apr 2010 06:27:47 +0000 Derek Brown http://rediscoveringthekingdom.info/newsletter/creating-a-culture-of-influence-2/ April 2010

Creating a culture of influence

by Mal Fletcher

Mal Fletcher is the founder of Next Wave International a faith-based communications group based in London which is training organizations to engage the future and move society forward in a positive direction. Prior to this role Mal worked in Australia and was the pioneer of the very successful Youth Alive ministry. In this article Mal encourages the church to take up its responsibility to shape the culture in which in functions rather than the other way round. Here is an excerpt.

“For churches and leaders to influence our highly secularised society, they must establish a culture of influence within the church which is stronger than that of the surrounding environment. We need to build into the people we lead a sense that influence is their right and responsibility; that God has called them to shape events in their world and equipped them to change the city more than it changes them. That begins with answering three fundamental questions: What kind of city or nation do I want to be living in 10 years from now? What kind of city or nation would God want me to be living in? And what am I prepared to do now to set that in motion? “

To read the full article click here

Stop the Traffic

MP3 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.

To listen to the message click here

10 Paradigm shifts for leaders

The way we think about church has to change – that is the view of Eric Swanson. In this article he lists ten key paradigm shifts that church leaders need to make for their churches to be relevant in today’s world. Swanson offers many examples of churches that have embraced these changes and are experiencing very positive results.

Here is an extract – “There is a growing awareness that we cannot continue to do the same old things and expect a different result. If we want to be the salt and light, we as the church were created to be, we have to do something different…we have to be something different! Community transformation is not found in programs, strategies, campaigns or tactics. For most of us it will take nothing less than a shift of seismic proportions in what the church is to be in the 3rd millennium….. To maximize our impact on our communities–urban, suburban or rural, we need changes in at least ten of our paradigms of how we currently view church.

Read the full article
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