10 Ways to Become a Plastic Church by Chad Missildine - ChurchLeaders.com - Christian Leadership Blogs, Articles, Videos, How To's, and Free Resources

10 Ways to Become a Plastic Church by Chad Missildine - ChurchLeaders.com - Christian Leadership Blogs, Articles, Videos, How To's, and Free Resources

What is a Plastic Church? A Plastic Church is a church that looks like church from the outside: building, services, staff, etc. Who knows, there may even be a steeple! On the inside, however, the Plastic Church barely resembles a church at all. No real community of believers, no prayer, no real concern for people, no application of Scripture in real life, no transformation. These are all signs of a real, authentic church. Could you have a Plastic Church or be on your way?

Here are 10 Ways to Become a Plastic Church:

1. De-value authenticity. Don’t create an environment where people can come as they are, baggage and all. This is easy when you, the church leader, are not authentic and genuine. Act like you have it all together, and everyone else will act the same way!

2. Don’t push people to serve out of obedience to Jesus.Talk instead about what’s in it for them. Better yet, don’t encourage people to serve at all.

3. Be a fake Follower of Christ. There is no better way to have a fake church than to be a fake follower of Christ as a church leader. Talk the talk, but don’t get off your tail to walk the walk. Be a Plastic Church leader.

4. Don’t ever talk about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Stay instead on the perimeter- the safe stuff. You don’t want to get into confronting people with their need for relationship with God. Smells like Plastic.

5. Don’t be relevant at all. Instead, confuse people with your lofty scriptural explanations. Make it so complex that only the spiritually elite like you can follow. Make application of Scripture a low priority and your methods of teaching the highest priority. Make people depend on you as a leader instead of empowering them. For bonus points, show off all your Greek and make people feel guilty for not knowing as much as you.

6. Care more about your agenda than about honoring and loving people. Push, push, push your church-centric agenda. Don’t respect and honor the role your people have in the community, in their neighborhoods, in their workplace, and in their families. Make it all about the four church walls. This has Plastic Church written all over it!

7. Make spiritual growth a low priority. Spiritual growth is so tough to track, why even bother? Focus instead on the programs you’ve been running for the last decade. They are way more predictable than diving into a new arena like authentic spiritual growth. Plastic.

8. Don’t invite God into the picture. Instead, create everything out of your wisdom, your resources, your understanding. Christ as head of the church? Forget that, you’re the head, baby! Take it and run with it.

9. Don’t talk to other churches or community organizations. You are too busy, too important, and have too many of the answers. Everybody should only think about your church and your name, not what God may be doing down the street.

10. Do all the talking. You do all the talking, all the time. After all, it’s your show, right? Don’t think at all about using other message resources, telling stories through video, letting others cast vision. People need you; they want you. You. You. You. Plastic.

Do you see these in the church today?

12 bizarre real-life places that are stranger than science fiction

Science fiction is home to some fantastic societies, from Cloud City to Bartertown. But you doesn't have to leave reality for this—our own world has places so abnormal, they make alien societies seem ordinary.

Here are 12 remarkable locations in which people once lived (and some still do).

1. Izu Islands

Off the coast of Japan lies a series of volcanic islands. Due to the air being full of sulphur, they were evacuated as recently as 2000. However, citizens moved back, despite having to wear gas masks for most of their day. This is mainly due to a pension provided by scientists studying the debilitating effects of the environment. When the alien zombie virus hits Earth, these will probably be the only people left alive.

2. Neft Daslari

Neft Daslari is a functional city built 34 miles from the nearest shore. Located in Azerbaijan, the town began as an oil platform before growing into the sprawling megaplex it is today. It kind of resembles one of those apocalyptic Kevin Costner films, except it's not called "Oil World" and it doesn't go on forever.

3. Sedlec Ossuary

One of the creepiest places on Earth, Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman Catholic chapel in the Czech Republic. A popular burial site for nearly 1,000 years, the church eventually found itself with a bone storage problem. In 1870, a man was hired to arrange the bones, and he made the whole thing look like the love child of LEGOs and death metal.

4. Coober Pedy

Temperatures in this Australian mining town reach well into broiling, so the opal miners who live there have built most of their town underground. Attractions include subterranean chapels, a metal tree and a golf course open only at night. This town is our first warning system against an invasion of Mole People. (More great pics here.)

5. Centralia, Pennsylvania

In 1962, a huge underground coal deposit ignited beneath the town of Centralia, Pa. It has been burning steadily ever since. Still, the hearty town residents stuck around until 1981, when sinkholes forced a near-total evacuation (probably because drunk people kept trying to pee on the fire).

6. Gate Tower Building

It's funny how something as boring as zoning regulations could lead to one of the most exciting office buildings on the planet. A conflict between highway builders and skyscraper builders led to a unique compromise and an eye-popping piece of architecture. The highway is completely separated from the tower; otherwise the entire building would be constanty vibrating. Building employees are encouraged not to spit out the window.

7. Barcelona Supercomputing Center

Inside a spectacular Spanish church sits an enormous glass box. Inside that glass box is one of the world's fastest supercomputers. The public research center provides invaluable data to the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. We argued against this, insisting the computer would become sentient and attempt to start a brutal religious regime.

8. Thames Town

Nestled near Shanghai, China, is a quaint-yet-fully-functional re-creation of a classic English market town. This is just the start, as plans call for similar towns themed after Sweden, Italy, Holland, German, traditional Chinese, Spain, the United States and an ecologically-themed town. That's a lot of different places to stash No. 6 from The Prisoner.

9. Manshiyat Naser

On the edge of Cairo lies a community whose entire economic system centers around collecting and sorting garbage. The bustling area has shops, houses and even the largest church in the Middle East. We're also guessing it probably has some of the largest homemade forts in the Middle East, too.

10. Linfen

Originally nicknamed "the modern fruit and flower town," this Chinese city was home to the worst pollution of any metropolis on Earth. Before reform, belching coal plants continuously choked out the sun and citizens often had difficulty seeing their own hands. A crackdown on pollution and a switch to natural gas has resulted in dramatic improvements to air quality, which means citizens no longer have to wear black every day.

11. Karni Mata, Temple of the Rats

This Indian temple is home to the belief that reincarnation occurs as a rat. As such, thousands of rats roam freely among worshippers. Being barefoot is a must, probably because shoes are the rat's natural arch-nemesis.

12. Kowloon Walled City

Due to an invasion by squatters, lawmakers turned a blind eye to this section of China from 1947 until 1973. Notorious for being completely run by gangs, the lack of building codes created haphazard structures never seen before. The sun never touched many of the narrow streets until the city was demolished in 1994. This was as close to lawlessness as non-celebrities could ever get.

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Getting ready for Christmas

So today is my last day in the office before I get to spend some time off! Soul Survivor Extra is done and on tape. I think it's come together really well – hope that people enjoy it when it's broadcast. It's a good look behind what Soul Survivor is all about, why it exists and the difference that it makes. I really encourage people to send their youth groups – lives get changed.

Anyway… I'm about to go for my company Christmas meal and then I'm done. I should really turn my attention now to the message for our Christmas Eve Meeting. I'm excited about this one, we've never really done something on Christmas Eve at our church to my recollection – but it is a great time for potential outreach and to come together as a church family. There may even be mince pies!

Right, I need to finish off this Message from last year's Soul Survivor then I can go enjoy some Turkey!

When we first went to Bede

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Originally uploaded by newlifebillingham

Just looking at some photos of our first day over at bede. It's amazing how much has happened since then.
Numbers are on the rise, which is great - but on top of that I really think it's raised our game as a church. It's nearly a year now since we made the decision to move.
It makes me wonder... where next?

Playing the numbers game

This is an interesting article:


http://theresurgence.com/justification-by-attendance


It made me think a bit about the focus on number. How important an indicator are numbers of a success in ministry? Clearly active members is more important than numbers - but as it says here, "We count people because people count"


Playing the numbers game can be tough on a church as it can bring discouragement or pride. But the key is to remember that the focus is the people, not the numbers. You want to see people grow and develop in their relationship with God. BUT - you want do to that with as many people as possible.


We can't avoid keeping check on numbers. It's important to know how many people are attending and to see that number go up. Otherwise we are not reaching people. But we cannot forget, numbers don't necessarily mean disciples.


A good thing to remember, "Every number is a person. But every person is not a number"


What do you think? How important are numbers?

Dead Sea Mud

I was just looking through my pictures from Israel taken a few months ago. And I just saw this and it made me wonder. They tell usthat dead sea mud is really god for you with all it's minerals and so on and I'm sure it is.
My skin felt great after all the mud soaking and I was sure to buy Emilia lots of product that I've also used in secret.
But I can't escape the fact that I was essentially rolling around in mud. Is there any other circumstance in life where I could get away with rolling aorund in mud and NOT get disapproved of?
I couldn't really get away with this, even in my garden. And it seems a bit of a shame. Rolling around in the mud was actually a lot of fun, even if it hadn't have been good for my skin. As a child I wouldn't have thought twice about it.
There was something about the place and the experience that just reminded me of the 80s. I wasnt sure what it was, but I think it's the way it made me feel. Like a child again. I wish more mud was medicinal....

A Preacher With His Bible | TheResurgence

A Preacher With His Bible | TheResurgence

Interesting Article... good points