Top 10 Issues Facing Today's Church

By Josh Gregoire, Marketing Coordinator

Last week Aspen Group was honored to host a Spring Pastors Lunch in Naperville, where Darren Whitehead, teaching Pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, offered his thoughts on a study conducted by Lifeway Research, “Top 10 Issues Facing Today's Church.” Darren offered a perspective that was both challenging and encouraging at the same time. He also shared his passion to see the church reignited.

Click to see additional picturesIt was our pleasure to provide those joining us for the lunch with a copy of Darren and Jon Tyson’s recent book, “Rumors of God: Experience the Kind of Faith You've Only Heard About.” Similar to Darren’s talk, this book both provokes and uplifts. Very good read.

We really enjoy hosting these events as it gives church leaders a chance to take a break, have a great lunch, be inspired, and connect with other leaders that are possibly traveling down a similar path in their ministry.  We would love to have you join us in the future. We have another Pastors lunch scheduled for September 13^th and we are in the process of finalizing another couple of lunches as well.  

Check out the events page on our website for upcoming events and sign-up to receive an email when new events are scheduled.

Spatial Stewardship: Part One

Written By Derek DeGroot, Aspen Group Architect

Rising costs and tighter lending have made the church’s available dollars for a building project smaller than ever. However, the church’s ministry net has been cast wider than ever. That equation poses a potential major problem: The church generally needs more space than it can afford.

To combat this problem, some fresh thinking will be required. Spatial Stewardship is nearly as important today than Financial Stewardship or Time Management. But to be successful stewards of the resources given or pledged to your building, you need to be better equipped to determine what square footage is essential, and what isn’t.

Spatial Stewardship isn’t about maximizing the square footage you build. It’s about maximizing ministry opportunity, it’s about Preserving Flexibility in finished spaces. It’s about having the dollars at the end of the project to fully outfit the space that aligns with ministry and culture.

If we can come up with new strategies to help design our church buildings, we can once again design buildings that enhance ministry, not hinder it.

The Vineyard Church is in the News

This month, Senior Pastor Happy Leman, of The Vineyard Church in Urbana Illinois, was featured on a front page News Gazette article titled "Vineyard Church expanding in a multidude of directions."
Click here to read the complete article.

For more information and pictures of the progress being made on The Vineyard Church's new Children and Administrative Space, visit www.thevineyard.aspengroup.com.

Designing for Community: The Missional Home Base

Written By Derek DeGroot, Aspen Group Architect

Each year we get better at designing Third Place spaces, crucial spots that are rejuvenating and welcoming.  But there must be more to this architecture- something that embodies being both fishers of men and making disciples of all nations.  

Redesigned lobbies are trending today in churches nationwide, being transformed from people movers to hotbeds of activity.  We have succeeded in including our third place space more routinely than ever, but now we must focus in on the mission of our church to obtain the sense of community we strive for.  Our identity, our stories, equipping places, and the opportunity to interact with the church must all be accounted for within the relational spaces.

We create this “Missional Home Base” to offer an experience that rejuvenates people through relationships, adequately portrays the Mission of the Church, and allows the opportunity to get involved.  By doing all three in the same space, we can eliminate the time lapse between being impacted and impacting others.

Only the Mission of the church will distinguish our facilities from retail centers like Starbucks and Panera, and turn the consumption mindset into the giving mindset God intended for our lives.  This is the path to a true sense of community.

Future Travelers….When Normal Isn’t Good Enough

There are times in life when we no longer can accept the ineffectiveness of what has become “normal” and our passion drives significant change. The “Future Travelers” effort was launched with this holy discontent of normal; a normal that has fostered a consumerist mindset as well as a church culture with which up to 60% of our community is unable to connect.

Alan Hirsch and a band of mega church pastors could no longer accept the decline of the church in Western society. As a result, a joint effort called Future Travelers was launched to develop missional movements. These movements create disciples as well as connect with the 60% who are not being reached by current models of ministry.  

Aspen Group’s CEO Ed Bahler, was invited by Alan Hirsch to help facilitate Future Travelers.  Ed, who is often described as a visionary and learner, has spent the past decade focusing on how aligning vision, ministry, leadership and facility space can powerfully enhance ministry.  He welcomed the opportunity to be a part of the Future Travelers initiative and has since helped launch two new groups. There are now over 30 pastors who are being trained to become the next phase of leaders who will develop more incarnational and missional expressions for their churches.

Here’s a list of a few characteristics that describe a Future Traveler:

• Fully surrendered and trusting God for leading their church
• Feeling a holy discontent with the status quo
• Committed to discipling and transformed lives  
• Passionate about reproducing ministry beyond their church walls
• Experienced in pioneering initiatives to transform their community

For more information on Future Travelers visit http://www.missional.com/