Ken

Tonight I worshiped at Restoration Community Church near Denver University.  Restoration is a new church that is doing a fantastic job of reaching the neighborhood around DU.  As I looked around the crowd, it reminded me of those who attended our church plant (LifePoint!) in San Diego -- young people in their 20's and 30's. There is another church here in Denver, Pathways, that runs over 2,000 on weekends.  That includes two (2) Sunday night services. In San Diego, Flood Church holds two Sunday night services (they dropped two when they added two Sunday morning services). And I'm sure there are others who are using Sunday nights very effectively to reach people in their 20's and 30's. Tonight made me think: do we (the church) need to rethink Sunday nights if we are going to reach today's younger generation? Many of our churches dropped Sunday nights because attendance was poor…

Restoration Community Church in Denver is a new church that meets in an old church building.  I don't mean that in a derogatory way; it's just true. RCC has remodeled, painted, and made several improvements to the building.  It's a very nice sacred space. The former church had declined and instead of shutting down and selling off the property, they made it available to Restoration. Across Denver there are many old church buildings in need of a new mission.  I often drive north on Broadway from Highlands Ranch to the Goodwill on Broadway and Ellsworth, about 12-15 miles.  Along the way I'll pass several church buildings (not to mention those that are on the streets just off Broadway).  The street could just as easily be Colfax or Alameda or University or Downing or Evans or Hampden.  There are church buildings everywhere. What if we could get people interested in working…

Yesterday I attended an area-wide gathering of a new grassroots network called "Breakthrough Leaders Network."  Their purpose is simple: how do we best stimulate the creation of new churches in Denver?  Depending on the part of Denver you might live in, only 5-10% of the population attends a church of any kind. When I first had coffee with Joe Beckler, BLN founder, I was impressed with his passion for helping all churches reach more people.  While the focus is on starting new churches, BLN offers principles all churches can benefit from. One aspect of BLN that I appreciate most is the diversity of people at their monthly coaching forum and quarterly gatherings.  Yesterday we had pastors from the Southern Baptist Convention, Independent Christian Churches, Disciples of Christ, Converge, Evangelical Free, Assemblies of God, and several others. At the coaching forums, you will find suburban pastors alongside urban pastors, black pastors…