The City & The Gospel Coalition
Thanks to Adrian Warnock’s blog, today I got the chance to taste the awesome resource known as “The City” – the Mars Hill Church online community building tool.
Turns out the good people at Mars Hill have made available a fully functional version of the The City at The Gospel Coalition.
Adrian Warnock describes the Gospel Coalition as;
“..a growing fellowship of Christian churches, organizations and individuals who are committed to a certain kind of ministry—that which is biblically-faithful and gospel-centered.”
Sounds good to me. These guys have a tonne of material centred on exulting a biblical view on the Gospel free from some of the modern assaults on its interpretation and application. If you haven’t checked it out yet, click here for more.
The City was developed by Mars Hill and actually purchased by Zondervan and will be made available for churches in the near future. Here’s your chance to try it out and also get plugged into one of the best ministries around. Click on one of the options below to join. No matter where you join, you will have access to all the tools.
For more Gospel Coalition resources, check out any of the following links:
“..a growing fellowship of Christian churches, organizations and individuals who are committed to a certain kind of ministry—that which is biblically-faithful and gospel-centered”
What does this mean. Can you explain (not using christian ease) what that statement really means ? I find so few people that seem to know anything about the bible in church, so how do we know that is is biblically-faithful ? And I want to know about what the bible says. Church today just seems to be a place where sales guys sell you something, but no one provides a 2 way conversation. It could pollute their brand. What I is see is a church full of gossips. The elders pry you for personal info unrelated to anything while you are open in ministry and then gossip about it (with their wives, with their elders – for the sake of getting clarification). I see churches that are friendly, but no one is your friend. I see churches that are welcoming, but no one feels welcome. They have programs, but who can get to know someone in a group of 20. No one talks about the bible, or jesus or God in these groups. Its all about what the kids are doing, or how to make more money (by people that usually don’t have a clue). I hear “I think God is”, but no one says ” the bible says God is”. This is just another “program” that is designed so people look busy so they don’t have to engage others, or read and discuss their bible. It probably came out of a focus group – after a camp to discuss their strategic directives. Clever yes, real, no.
You must have been exposed to some really crap churches. In fact, the founders of the Gospel Coalition founded this movement because of that reason. They were concerned how modern church has so decayed because its focus on Jesus and the Gospel message He brings has been deemed unimportant.
Churches which focus on Jesus and His Gospel are in fact life changing and resemble nothing of what you mentioned above.
Keep your head up – stay clear of religion and simply meet Jesus.
it’s interesting to see this. When you read Driscoll’s book on why they started the church he points out that they saw a gap in 18-35 year olds. Some of his discourse about the growth of mega churches is interesting. but i would challenge some of his reasoning on why the mega church is growing. An interesting insight into the growth of social media (sms, twitter, chat etc) is why Gen Y and some Gen X like it. It allows them to be members of many communities, but still remain disconnected. In particular, unlike a phone call these technologies allow their communication to remain very impersonal (ie. breaking up with your other half via a “your dumped” sms). Summary – they have lots of small conversations, but of little substance (“yoy!!! whats up”). In the same way, maybe the mega church is also attractive. They don’t have to connect. Just like sms, twitter, chat etc, they can connect but don’t have to be personal about it. Don’t have to have any substance with the interaction. He may be correct, that mega churches have a future. But I put it to you that its because it is following the way of the world (especially that age group that the mega churches are aimed at) – lots of people, short interactions of little depth. But maybe that could be why they need a church ? It would be interesting to see why they think this technology is going to make a difference. Or is it the combination of technology and the people behind the technology.