Hey Peeps,
I was in Texas last week at a fellowship of church planting pastors with churches similar to Engage in size and vision. I came across this video and LOVED IT!! In just two minutes this video explains what we are about and what we are constantly trying to work towards at Engage. Would love for all of you to watch it and post a comment or two. Oh, think of one person you can forward this link to. Share the message. Click on the header to view comments. Thanks Kevin for being the first!!
What is Story Core? Engage is a Church for people who want to explore faith. It’s for people who find themselves thinking about ultimate questions but maybe don’t quite know where to start.
If that’s you? Then check out Story Core. Story Core is an exciting 8 week long “adventure” in exploring the big questions of faith and how we can begin a “story” with God. We believe God invites us into a relationship with Him by telling us His story in the Bible. Story Core will explore this story in a non-threatening, non-judgmental way. No question is off limits! Trust me! We love big questions of faith. In fact, at Engage we aren’t afraid of doubt, we believe doubting is actually one of the ways we grow to better understanding the message of Jesus. So bring it!
So if you are blowing the dust off of your bible and returning to faith exploration or if you are starting new for the first time–Story Core is for you! I can’t think of a better way to begin to get connected at Engage than Story Core. Email Kelly if you have questions or would like more info.
Story Core will begin the first week of March, 2010 and go every week for the next 8 weeks. The material for the group is based on The Story We Find Ourselves In - By Brian McLaren. The cost for the materials is $20.
Let’s face it. It’s weird. When we read parts of the bible we see people coming to trust and faith in Jesus and getting baptized. Why would Jesus ask those who follow him to go through this weird symbol of water and surrender? I know, seems an awkward way to tell the world that you belong to Christ…but there is a lot of powerful symbolism packed into this mysterious act of faith.
Take a look at the pdf on baptism and find out why we encourage people to go public with their faith in this weird way…
Looking for something fun to do for New Years Eve? Join the Green Door and Engage for the largest dance party in Carlisle. Engage Church and Green Door Dance Club are teaming up to host a New Year’s Eve Party called Dance of the Decades. Look, we all want to do something fun for New Years. So check out the video, link over to the Green Door and check out the Dance of the Decades. We will have catered food, live music by the Don Johnson Band, plenty of laughs, and a silent auction to benefit Project Share. Dress up in your favorite decade apparel and get ready to get your groove on.
Click on the file and download a newsletter of what’s been happening at Engage over the last few weeks or month. If you’ve been out of the loop…trips to the beach, over-sleeping, working too much, whatever it is…you need to read this and reconnect with what’s happening at Engage. If you are reading this and have never been to Engage…then here is a little insider update on what’s been happening.
Wow, It’s been six months since we started meeting on Sundays following January 11, 2009. Since that time God has been writing the story of Engage. God has done some very exciting things as the story of Engage continues to be lived out. So let’s start with the numbers:
-163 people have visited Engage at least once since Feb. 22nd.
-98 Average attendance on a Sunday from May to July.
-43% of those attending Engage do not have any prior meaningful church experience.
-57% of those attending Engage would call themselves growing Christians.
-25 the number of backpacks we just provided for Project FunFest
(in partnership with Project Share and other local churches to provide school supplies for every student with a need).
-31 the average age of those attending Engage on a regular basis.
-1185, the number of dollars Engage needs each week to make ends meet (not counting the generous support of $1050 we receive each week from our family of churches called the Brethren in Christ Church www.bic-church.org).
-$2791, the accumulated amount of money we have received from May - July exceeding our weekly budged projection.
-$1000, the amount of money we have raised outside of the Engage Community to go towards the hiring our an Engage Kids coordinator. (we need a total of $5000)
-30, the average number of kids in the Engage Kids Environments on Sundays this Summer.
-4, the number of community groups we are starting this summer. Community Groups are groups that meet outside of Sunday Morning for the purpose of support, serving the community, spiritual friendship, and spiritual growth.
But numbers aren’t everything…though they are important. Numbers represent people, and movement, and energy, and relationships, and real lives finding greater life in the context of faith in Jesus. So here’s what some people are saying these days:
From a second time guest at Engage:
“I have never felt so comfortable and welcomed at church before. The non-judgmental attitude (I have never had in the past) is refreshing. Keep up the great job.”
From a person who has been at Engage for 5 or more months:
“I have never been a part of a group of people who made me feel so loved and accepted for who I am, no strings attached.”
Engage is a safe place for people to explore faith, ask questions, and begin to experience what the message of Jesus looks like lived out in everyday life.
I think back over the past six months and can name person after person who is experiencing transformation in the way they see themselves, others, God, and the world we live in. I think of the new connections that are being made this summer in our community groups. I think of the ways people at Engage have supported those within our community who have had financial needs or needed a last minute babysitter or needed a car to borrow. One of my friends at Engage told me that one of the big reasons why they are drawn to invest their lives through Engage is because of the unique ways they have experienced people at Engage supporting each other.
Engaging our Community:
As you read earlier in this email, Engage provided over 20 backpacks and 2 large boxes full of school supplies for students whose parents struggle to resource them with what they need to return to school later this month. Engage is committed to Engaging our Community. Part of resourcing needs in our community is to experience those needs firsthand. It’s easy to buy a backpack and put it in a box on a Sunday morning. Maybe you need to start there, that’s ok. But the next step beyond that is actually seeing the needs firsthand, learning the stories and struggles of what leads to those needs, and being reminded of the importance of real people right here in our backyard. So please pray for Engage and pray the community Engage finds itself a part of. Prayer reminds us that we are often the answer to the prayers we pray on behalf of others. JOIN us this Saturday from 10:30 - 1:30 p.m. and volunteer as we join with others at Project Share Fun Fest and help us distribute school supplies. 5 North Orange Street in Carlisle. When you arrive to volunteer please ask for Diane Baltaef. She will find you a place to serve.
I am excited to see God’s story play out that in your life, my life, and the life of Engage.
Engage is seeking a part time coordinator to give leadership to and oversee our Engage Kids ministry of 30-45 kids. We are looking to start this position in July. Contact us through the “contact us” form and we will get back with you asap.
Sept. 1st, 2009 “Engage is excited to announce that we have filled this position.” Thanks for your interest.
This video is an attempt to answer the question of “why a new church” in Carlisle??
Here are some random thoughts. Top 7 reasons why we are starting Engage! Enjoy. I would love any feedback or thoughts.jon@engagecommunitychurch.com
top 7 reasons to start a new church.
10. Look, there is no such thing as a one size-fits-all anything these days. Everywhere you go you find smaller niche’s. This is because as the world grows more diverse (even in Central, PA) we form smaller communities or tribes of people who share common interests, hobbies, tastes, and the like. We need all kinds of churches to reflect the many different kinds of people in our world. Starting something new is an attempt to help people cultivate meaningful faith in Jesus for those who currently aren’t connecting with God through church as they’ve known it. This is a tradition that has been a part of the Christian story for the past 2,000 years. This is how the message of Jesus finds its way into the places and people who have yet to experience the gospel of Christ…even in our own backyard.
9. New churches can innovate and re-imagine how to be the church in our world. New churches can change and adapt faster than more established churches. Tim Keller says, “New Churches are the Research and Development wing of the larger Church.”
8. According to Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, most people can only handle a closer friendship network of 10-15 people. Most people have a capacity to stay somewhat connected with up to 150 people. This means that new churches offer an easier way to stay connected with the other people in the community of faith. We believe church is not simply an institution. It’s more! It’s allowing people to know you well enough to share your struggles, support you, and walk with you on the journey of faith. We say all the time, ” You can’t really know Jesus without the church.” And the church is people in meaningful friendship with each other.
7. We believe the church exists primarily for the benefit of its non-members. It is easier for new churches to be focused outward on meeting the needs of people in our community. Church is what happens during the week, not simply some songs and teachings on Sunday. Those are important and helpful. Church is an incubator, a place people are nurtured by Scripture, Worship, and Friendships to be extensions of God’s beauty, generosity, and self-sacrifice to the rest of the world during the week. ( i know this is an run-on sentence, of which i am king)
6. New churches best reach a. new generations. New churches are one of the best ways to surface creative, strong leaders for the whole Church. New congregations tend to attract a higher percentage of venturesome people who value creativity, risk, innovation, and future orientation.
5. New churches tend to be an easier place for new residence of a community to find meaningful friendships. Not all, but many established churches tend to be friendly, but saturated in their friendship networks. This can lead to the feeling of it being hard to “break in” to the established friendship communities.
4. New churches best reach new groups of people who currently don’t have a vibrant faith in Jesus. Dozens of denominational studies have confirmed that the average new church gains most of its new members (60-80%) from the ranks of people who are not attending any worshipping body, while churches over 10-15 years of age gain 80-90% of new members by transfer from other (mostly dying) churches.
3. Jesus gave his followers the mandate to multiply communities of people who are seeking to follow the ways of Christ. Yes, we really believe that knowing our Creator through Jesus causes us to be people who deeply reflect the life of God from the most to the “least” significant aspects of our lives. We live under the conviction that we need to live in relationship with God to be the best of who God created us to be. We simply can’t and won’t experience the fullness of what our Creator intended for his creation if we live independently from God. This doesn’t make us judgmental of people who aren’t “like us”. It’s the opposite. This actually causes us to love better, respect more, and self-sacrifice deeper for those who are not a part of the Christian community.
We hope you can join us on January 11th for our Day of Beginnings Celebration. We will celebrate the official start of Engage with a meal to follow after our gathering.
I have a friend who writes for our local paper. She is featuring a story of what people are thankful for. So she shot me an email early this morning and asked me to rattle off something I am thankful for.
I would say I’m thankful for relationships. Here is why. A 2006 sociological study out of Duke University reported on an unspoken crisis of friendship in America today. Americans are suffering from friendship deprivation. Check out the following realities:
From 1985 to 2004, “the number of people saying there is no one with whom they discuss important matters nearly tripled.” Now, 24.6 percent report they have no confidants, family or non-family — that’s one in four Americans. Another 19.6 percent say they have just one confidant. That means 43 percent of Americans have either no confidants or just one, a slice that has doubled since 1985.
More than half, 53.4 percent, do not have any confidants who aren’t family. In 1985, 80 percent had at least one confidant who was not family; now only 57.2 percent do.
The average size of Americans’ social networks decreased by a third between 1985 and 2004, from 2.94 to 2.08; basically this means the loss of one confidant.
The bottom line, according to Dick Meyer, “The number of people who have someone to talk to about matters that are important to them has declined dramatically… we have gone from a quarter of the American population being isolated … to almost half of the populations falling into that category.”**
I am a part of a spiritual community (A.K.A. Church). I am thankful for the older and younger people at Engage Church who live open and intentional to foster meaningful relationships. As the study cites half of Americans don’t have anyone either in or outside of their family whom they feel like they can be completely real with. That’s crazy. No wonder we are so medicated as a culture. I’ve read other studies that link the mental stability, emotional health of a culture to the accessibility of quality relationships within a community. Malcom Gladwell just came out with a new book called Outliers. Read this book. The opening chapter of the book details the story of a little Italian community whose mental, emotional, and physical health were off the charts better than the health levels of the surrounding communities. Why? Because they enjoyed close relationships with a diverse range of people in their community.
I am thankful this holiday season that I have the privileged of living authentically. We live in an increasingly shallow culture where people look to the vainest aspects of life to measure meaning, worth, and acceptance. Where I live, the car I drive, the places I shop tend to determine how we feel about ourselves and those around us. This is not sustainable on our humanity. It is increasingly harder to be accepted for who you are without fear of judgment or rejection. What would it feel like to live in a world where one of our greatest fears was not fear of rejection? I know I am biased but I think we have stumbled onto authenticity and meaningful friendship at Engage Community Church–for that, I’m thankful. Our hope is that we can share this with everyone.
