Leadership Network s 2010 Multisite Survey Now in Progress

Leadership Network s 2010 Multisite Survey Now in Progress Is Your Church Multisite? On April 21, Leadership Network launched an international survey of people serving "one church in multiple locations." If your church is multisite please participate in the survey now. Survey topics include the role of multisites in church planting, how they do... Why did you write The Externally Focused Quest? When we wrote The Externally Focused Church back in 2004 we were just beginning to see a few scattered churches around the nation who were thinking differently about what church should be and could be. Over the past six years, what was once rare (serving the community) has become quite commonplace for thousands of churches and we wanted to write the next chapter of what God is doing to place churches back into their communities where they can be salt, light and leaven --- agents of transformation. We not only wanted to tell new stories of the amazing things churches are doing but also we wanted to help launch more churches into their communities by giving them the framework within which they can think and plan. Where did your ideas come from? Many of our ideas come from interaction with leaders who are the practitioners of missional, externally focused ministry. As a pastor of a local congregation Rick is both the initiator and recipient of fresh ways to carry out externally focused ministry with their 50 plus community partnerships. Eric s work with Leadership Network puts him in contact with hundreds of churches around North America enabling him to see patterns emerge. Both of us are pretty good at extracting concept from chaos! Living in Tension Webinar Join us for a FREE WomenLeading Webinar featuring Nancy Ortberg on Thursday, May 27... What is new about what you have to say in this book? For those who have read The Externally Focused Church and/or The Externally Focused Life, this book will be fresh with concepts, stories, illustrations, and diagrams. The Externally Focused Quest will help the practitioners take the next step in their missional ministry. At the same time, for those who are new to ministry outside the walls, The Externally Focused Quest will be a great launching tool for churches of any and all sizes. The question of our first book was, "If your church were to leave the community, would anybody notice would anybody care?" This book answers a different question. The full title of our book is The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community. The book is not how to become the best church in the community but how can we become the best church for the community. That one little preposition Holding church services on the internet How one churches uses Twitter Leadership Network s 2010 Large-Church Salary Survey in Progress What Will Your Church Look Like in 2040?

determines how we allocate our resources of people, finances, facility, time, prayer and technology. Who is the book for and why should they read it? It s a book that anyone who is interested in living missionally should get a hold of. We work with Reggie McNeal s understanding of "missional"--it is the people of God, partnering with God in his redemptive mission... What Is Necessary for Church Planting to Go Viral? Teams that Stick More Q&A with Larry Osborne Outreach to First-Generation U.S. Immigrants Immigrants to the United States with greatest receptivity to the gospel are from, in order, Ecuador, Guatemala, Liberia, Honduras, El Salvador, Myanmar, Brazil, Costa Rica, Kenya and Mexico, according to a study of people from 151 different countries. The massive project, conducted mid 2009 by the North American... Leadership Network drew over 9,000 participants to an online conference that featured Christian Leaders sharing their "Aha! Moments." The 40 speaker videos, each approximately 6 minutes, are now online at http://aha.leadnet.org. One Fourth of American Christians Are Charismatic/Pentecostal A quarter of American Christians identify themselves as charismatic or Pentecostal, according to new survey results from Barna Research. Those fitting Pentecostal/charismatic criteria stated that they considered themselves to "have been filled with the Holy Spirit," and that God has given them at least one of the... You can peruse 100+ past issues of Leadership Network Advance and get valuable information on a variety of ministry topics in our Archives. Select VIEW FULL ARCHIVES LIST to see what's there. Here are a few topics of interest we covered recently:

Why did you write The Externally Focused Quest? Where did your ideas come from? When we wrote The Externally Focused Church back in 2004 we were just beginning to see a few scattered churches around the nation who were thinking differently about what church should be and could be. Over the past six years, what was once rare (serving the community) has become quite commonplace for thousands of churches and we wanted to write the next chapter of what God is doing to place churches back into their communities where they can be salt, light and leaven --- agents of transformation. We not only wanted to tell new stories of the amazing things churches are doing but also we wanted to help launch more churches into their communities by giving them the framework within which they can think and plan. Many of our ideas come from interaction with leaders who are the practitioners of missional, externally focused ministry. As a pastor of a local congregation Rick is both the initiator and recipient of fresh ways to carry out externally focused ministry with their 50 plus community partnerships. Eric s work with Leadership Network puts him in contact with hundreds of churches around North America enabling him to see patterns emerge. Both of us are pretty good at extracting concept from chaos! What is new about what you have to say in this book? For those who have read The Externally Focused Church and/or The Externally Focused Life, this book will be fresh with concepts, stories, illustrations, and diagrams. The Externally Focused Quest will help the practitioners take the next step in their missional ministry. At the same time, for those who are new to ministry outside the walls, The Externally Focused Quest will be a great launching tool for churches of any and all sizes. The question of our first book was, "If your church were to leave the community, would anybody notice would anybody care?" This book answers a different question. The full title of our book is The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community. The book is not how to become the best church in the community but how can we become the best church for the community. That one little preposition determines how we allocate our resources of people, finances, facility, time, prayer and technology. Who is the book for and why should they read it? It s a book that anyone who is interested in living missionally should get a hold of. We work with Reggie McNeal s understanding of "missional" it is the people of God, partnering with God in his redemptive mission, in the world. This book gives legs to the concept of missional living. What are the big surprises in the book? We like to say, "As difficult as it is to learn to surf, it is far easier to catch a wave than to cause a wave." We are surprised at the size of this swell we are riding. This is a total God thing of putting churches back into the community where the church is at its best sharing good news and living out good deeds. We are just very grateful for the opportunity to help spread the news of what God is doing and what He wants to do. What do you hope the reader takes away from the book? We want readers to see that, while it may not be reflected in the average church, the externally focused church is nothing less than a normal church. We look forward to a day in the not-so-distant future where "externally focused church" is redundant because every church, by nature and design, is externally focused, embodying the life, love and ministry of Jesus in the

community. What can we look for next? We think cities may be one of the next big things that God wants his church to be thinking about. Since May 2007, more of the world s people live in cities than in rural areas, and that probably won t change. Churches need to figure out how to work with not just other churches, but with all domains of society to bring about spiritual and societal transformation. ------------------------------ Eric Swanson has a passion for engaging churches worldwide in the needs and dreams of their communities toward the end of spiritual and societal transformation. He served with Campus Crusade for Christ for 25 years before joining the staff of Leadership Network where he currently works as a missional leadership specialist, serving as Leadership Community Director for Externally Focused Churches, Missional Renaissance and Global Connection Churches working with scores of missional churches worldwide. He holds a D.Min. degree in "Transformational Leadership in the Global City" from Bakke Graduate University and is co-author of The Externally Focused Church, The Externally Focused Life, The Externally Focused Quest, and To Transform a City (August 2010), and numerous articles on churches that are transforming their communities. Eric has been married to Liz for over 30 years, has three married children, three grandchildren and resides outside of Boulder Colorado. www.ericjswanson.com, http://twitter.com/ericswanson. Rick Rusaw has been the Senior Minister at LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado since 1991. He is also the co-founder, with Eric Swanson, of the Externally Focused Network. Previously, Rick was Vice President of Cincinnati Christian University, and Associate Minister at First Christian Church in Fort Myers, Florida. He is a graduate of Cincinnati Christian University and Cincinnati Bible Seminary. Rick serves on a number of boards including Christian Network Incorporated, Milligan College, Hope International University, and various Christian and business boards. He is also an on-air host for Worship and co-author of The Externally Focused Church, Living a Life on Loan, 60 Simple Secrets, and the Windows on Worship Devotional Series. Rick has served on committees for the North American Christian Convention, and is chairman of Outlook America. Rick lives in Longmont with his wife, Diane, and three children. http://twitter.com/rickrusaw. The Externally Focused Quest: an Interview with Authors Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson Post a Comment View Comments Rate this Article: Average Rating: 0

Outreach to First-Generation U.S. Immigrants Immigrants to the United States with greatest receptivity to the gospel are from, in order, Ecuador, Guatemala, Liberia, Honduras, El Salvador, Myanmar, Brazil, Costa Rica, Kenya and Mexico, according to a study of people from 151 different countries. The massive project, conducted mid 2009 by the North American Mission Board(NAMB)/LifeWay Research and released April 2010, also examined how many Christian workers were serving the various immigrant populations. Those with the most were immigrant groups from Mexico, South Korea, Guatemala, China, Cuba, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras andvenezuela which each had more than 100 missionaries and/or church planters serving them, with Mexico leading all groups at 1,715. "Things are changing in the U.S. and Canada," said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research. "By 2050, there will be no majority race or ethnicity in the United States. Already, in Toronto, the majority of residents were born outside of Canada. This is a wake-up call to the Church in North America. The nations of the world are living right here, yet many are not hearing the gospel in an intentional, organized way. We can do better." One Fourth of American Christians Are Charismatic/Pentecostal A quarter of American Christians identify themselves as charismatic or Pentecostal, according to new survey results from Barna Research. Those fitting Pentecostal/charismatic criteria stated that they considered themselves to "have been filled with the Holy Spirit," and that God has given them at least one of the charismatic gifts, such as tongues, prophecy or healing. Overall, that group represents 21% of all American adults and 25% of those who describe themselves as Christian. Baby Busters (ages 26 to 44) were the generation of self-identified Christians most likely to claim a charismatic or Pentecostal connection (29%), slightly higher than the 26% among the Mosaics (ages 18 to 25) and the 25% among the eldest of Americans (25% among those 64 and older). Surprisingly, the generation that introduced America to "Jesus freaks" and other marks of spiritual intensity - i.e., Baby Boomers (now 45 to 63) - is the generation currently least likely to identify as charismatic or Pentecostal (20%).