What I Would Say to The Pastor Who Follows Me
Mike Glenn, Pastor, Brentwood Baptist Church in Nashville, TN Metro Area Suggests Age of Mega Church is Over
In This Edition
What I Would Say to the Pastor Who Follows Me — by Mike Glenn
American Christianity is Due for a Revival — by Tim Keller
What I Would Say to the Pastor Who Follows Me
Posted by Mike Glenn at mikeglennonline.com
I have known Mike Glenn for more than 40 years. I first met him when he was pastor of a historic Baptist church in Edgefield, SC. He then moved to First Baptist Church of Mauldin, SC (a Greenville, SC suburb), and finally 32 years ago to Brentwood Baptist Church — a mega church — in metropolitan Nashville, TN.
Mike is retiring the end of 2023. On January 30th he posted on his blog — mikeglennonline.com — advice he would give to his successor. Here are the five points he made:
The age of the mega church is over.
Because churches will be smaller, they will be run by covocational staff and volunteers.
Leaders will train leaders.
While the rising generations give generously, they give very differently than the builders and boomers before them.
Trauma is the new reality.
ForthTelling Innovation Insights from George Bullard:
I am not sure the age of the mega church is over. It depends. Context/location makes a difference. Single campus or multiple campuses make a difference. Continual innovation is a necessary factor. Non-denominational churches vs. denominational churches is a variable. Humility vs. hubris of leadership can significantly impact this.
Mike is on target about a neighborhood and compassionate ministry focus. I first saw this dramatically expressed around 20 years ago by Randy Frazee at Pantego Bible Church in Fort Worth, TX. They were constructing a $60 million central campus, then reversed strategy and moved to a neighborhood model. They never fully occupied their new buildings.
Yes, covocational (rather than bivocational) staffing patterns are the wave of the future. I began talking about a model of this in the 1990s. I called it 22-44 Ministry Mobilizers, and have recommended it and used it for the past almost 30 years. NOTE! I will be addressing convocational ministry this Thursday on The Bullard Journal blog. Subscribe HERE.
A wholistic disciplemaking approach will impact leadership development and generosity. Done well it can change what Mike is saying about training leaders and generosity. But it will be tough!
Trauma. Agreed. We live in a trauma-creating culture in North America. We are unable to handle our diversity and dis-stress.
American Christianity is Due for a Revival
By Timothy Keller, published HERE on The Atlantic website on February 5, 2023
(If you are not an online subscriber to The Atlantic you may need to start a free trial to read the full article.)
Tim Keller and his family moved to Manhattan, New York to plant a new congregation — Redeemer — and now 34 years later he reflects on the potential revival of American Christianity.
He poses the question — Can Christianity Grow Again? — then offers five insights:
If the Church learns how to speak compellingly to non-Christian people.
If it learns how to unite justice and righteousness.
If it embraces the global and multiethnic character of Christianity.
If it strikes a dynamic balance between innovation and conservation.
If it offers grace and covenant.
For revival he sees three things that are needed by a significant sector of the U.S. Church:
The escape from political captivity.
A union of “extraordinary prayer.”
The distinguishing of the gospel from moralism.
ForthTelling Innovation Insights from George Bullard:
The thickness of the churched culture of the vast majority of American congregations makes it difficult for them to speak with and understand the perspective of non-Christian people for more than the first 14 years of their life as a congregation.
Justice and righteousness are too often mutually exclusive pathways in congregations.
Diversity is very difficult for 80 percent of congregations to embrace with adult-to-adult attitudes and sustainable actions.
Conservation wins over innovation unless congregations take a sabbatical every seven years and discover next for their congregation.
Grace requires a continual commitment to becoming more Christ-like in community with other believers. The initial grace decision is easy compared to the ongoing covenant of spiritual relationships.
Too many Christians are stuck in the culture of political captivity, and seek to secure common ground rather than spiritual higher ground.
The vast majority of praying in congregations is about relationships with and needs of other Christians and extended family members. True prayer for individuals, tribes, and nations who are without the light of Christ is sufficiently out of the ordinary that it happens infrequently.