TheMinistryCafe

I have just finished up the day and the WFX conference here in Dallas, and I have pretty much reached the point of total exhaustion which comes from information overload. The first session I attended this morning was lead by the Executive Pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church, and it was a discussion on the formation and organization of a building committee. This is a subject that is very important to us as Architects, since we need to work so closely with this team. We have written articles and given much advice to churches in the past on this subject, and it was nice to hear many of those same principles echoed by an experienced leader in the church. In selecting a committee the emphasis should be on character rather than experience. It should not be too large. 7-9 is enough for a large project, 5 for a smaller one. And I was particularly interested in the emphasis to clearly define its objective and authority, and to clearly terminate it when the job is done. These committees can sometime take on a life of their own beyond their usefulness, and we as architects rarely see the damage done by this in the church, since we are done with process at that point. I thoroughly enjoyed the keynote address today by Rex Miller. I have read and enjoyed his book The Millennium Matrix. It is an excellent description of the shift in perspective that is closely tied with our forms of communication, and there is a growing fear that the church is not prepared for or willing to embrace this change. Rex Miller stated that 1994 was a watershed date for when the world became fully connected, and 2008 is the year when that generation of kids that have been fully raised in a connected culture becomes teenagers. Is the church prepared for 2008? He supplied us with a recommended reading list that I have included at the bottom of this blog. The ones that I do not own will be immediately on my Amazon wish list very soon.

I finished the day with a presentation by one of our own clients. Mark Lingerman of Grace Community Church in Washingtonville New York described their experiences in the three phases of building projects that they have undergone. Some of the nightmares of the second phase convinced them to seek professional help, and we got involved on the third phase which was a recently completed. You can see the project at http://www.churcharchitects.com/gaChristianschools/SC_01.php

It has been very good conference and I would highly recommend that you attend it next year, and subscribe to the Worship Facility and Church Production publications. It was very well organized, very informative, and very well attended.

Here is Rex Miller’s recommended reading list