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We want to help you answer a very important question: Should your congregation participate in the Faithful Innovation Online Community Training?
More than likely, our answer to you will be “yes”.
The truth is, there is no congregation that is just like yours, situated in your community. Your congregation is unique, just as your local community is unique. This is no accident; it is intentional, by God’s design. You and your congregation are uniquely equipped to not only meet the needs of the people sitting in your pews but also the people outside the walls of your church who may or may not even know your congregation exists yet.
Here is the reality that we are sure you are well aware of in your own context, if not on a national level: Recent research shows that in the U.S., “the percentage of practicing Christian Millennials [24-39-year-olds] who agree the Church is irrelevant today is the same as non-Christians who hold this view (25% each definitely agree).”
What might surprise you is that when it comes to the perception of the Church’s impact on the community, 40% of non-Christians believe local churches have a negative community impact.
People are not leaving God, though; they are leaving Christianity as they know it. One recent news article reported that those leaving churches and the Christian faith cited their reasons for leaving as:
- A detachment between core Christian teachings and their daily life
- Irrelevant rituals
- A disconnect between their head and heart
- The inability to ask their deep questions
- Encountering “a foreign culture.”
However, of the 56 million ‘nones’ (those who declare themselves unaffiliated with any organized religion) in the U.S., only 3% of them consider themselves atheists.
It is obvious there are core challenges facing the Church in the 21st century that require us to discover different ways to join God in forming Christian faith in community.
Meeting people as they are, where they are, in the 21st century demands that our congregations do something other than work harder at old ministry patterns that are breaking down. Rather, we need to seek to identify and embody faithful ways to lead the Church more deeply into God’s life and love for the world.
The Faithful Innovation Online Community is perfect for you if:
- You have no problem putting in the work to learn new ways of doing things.
- You care deeply about the Church and its role in the world.
- You are excited about being better able to meet the needs of those outside the walls of your church building.
- You want to be part of a network of churches doing faithful innovative work together.
We believe that you and your congregation are uniquely positioned to not only meet the needs of the people sitting in your pews, but also the people outside the walls of your church who may or may not even know your congregation exists yet.
Participating in the Faithful Innovation Online Community will equip you and your congregation to:
- Learn how to connect more deeply with God, each other, and your neighbors
- Learn new ways of being the church in the 21st century
- Ask different questions about who you are and what God wants you to do in this season of your congregation’s life
- Learn how to identify ways God is already present and active in your everyday lives so you can join God’s work
If you said “yes” to wanting your congregation to experience any of the above transformations, we can’t wait to meet you inside the Faithful Innovation Online Community!
