re-church network

I am attempting to gather some information about how we can shape the re-church network for new stage of its ministry. I have had phone or email conversations with many of you over the past months or years. I am increasingly asked by Adventist pastors of all ages for advice or just conversation about the questions they’re having. Maybe you are one of those.

All of this has got me thinking again about the importance of a network like re-church. I’ve begun to think of re-church as a kind of “Order/Fraternity of Missional Leaders” (“Order” is less sexist, I think). This is not about subscribing to a particular theology or practice, but about a way of being in the world and being in ministry in God’s kingdom. It is about openness to the questions that God’s Spirit is stirring within us.

So, to that end, I’ve created an online survey. It should take you less than 10-15 minutes to complete. In fact, it’s very short. I would very much appreciate your input.

>>TAKE THE SURVEY<<

A few of us that are a part of the re-church network are going to be a Envision in Princeton, New Jersey (June 8-10). If you’re going to be there, please add a comment to this post to that effect and I’ll be in touch with you about a little meet-up.

Samir Selmanovic, founder and Program Coordinator of Faith House Manhattan, will be co-presenting a seminar with Miroslav Volf called “Religious Pluralism and Christian Faith“

Understand more deeply the meaning of Christian witness in a multi-religious world, especially where religion is a source of conflict and war (from the website).

Others who I know will be there include, Johnny A. Ramirez, Jr. (graduate student at University of Aberdeen in Scotland) Todd Stout (Church of the Advent Hope, Manhattan) and Zane Yi.

It’s not too late to register. I hope to see you there!

On Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning a group of about 30-40 pastors and church leaders met for the first re-church gathering since August 2004. It was a chance to re-focus our network on the challenge of mission in our day and introduce the network to many new participants. In the next few weeks we will post some reports from re-church and new ways to get involved. Also in the next few days you will be able to see pictures from both the Conference on Innovation and re-church under the “Photo Album” tab above.

For now, please click “add a comment” above and tell us what you learned or experienced at re-church. Perhaps you can share a “take away” and “a-ha” moment or something you are challenge to think differently about as you re-enter your minstry context. Thanks in advance for sharing.

We are working on a few of the other pages on this website and today we uploaded the history of re-church. Click on History above and check it out. It’s a very short description of where we’ve been. What we can’t capture there are the stories and relationships that were forged over the past five years. But you’ll get the idea. And perhaps in understanding the history you’ll get a better picture of what re-church is all about.

We also plan to have a resources page in the future where you can download some resources from the previous events.

Well, it’s about time…. Re-church finally has a website that’s easy to update and simple to navigate. Please check in from time to time and see how our site grows with blog posts, articles written by our team, conference updates and highlights, photos, links and more. If you have ideas for how this site can serve the ministry of re-church, please post your comments below.

If you’re totally new to re-church, click on the “History” tab above and see where we’ve been and what we’ve done.

Yours in conspiring for God’s kingdom,

Ryan Bell