| 10. Participatory Worship: | We are encouraged to balance the dramatic structure of Reformed worship with the relational variety of emerging worship styles--music, preaching, and sacramental ritual--that emphasize congregational participation. Liquid worshipers move and act. They don't sit and receive. |
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9. Experiential Education: |
Members of Generation X and the Millennial Children learn through interactive and multisensory experience. The video game generation does not respond to lecture or focused rationality. Dialogue, video clips, case studies, participatory Scripture exploration, learning by doing--these are ways that the living Word can flow and flood into people's lives. |
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8. Creative Technology: |
Web sites, youth chat rooms, cyberspace newsletters and meeting notices, Internet devotionals and prayer chain lists--the use of computers is the communication of choice for more and more Christians. But beware! Technology must never replace touch. Rolling video clips must never replace relationships. Chat rooms must never replace community. |
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7. Flexible Decision Making: |
In a too-busy world, traditional committee structures don't always work. Short-term, focused task forces especially created for visioning and creating mission--or for accomplishing concrete mission outreach--fit more easily into contemporary lifestyles. And a consensus model of decision making (with Robert's Rules of Order as a back-up) builds collaborative community and deals creatively with the inevitable conflicts and tensions within the Christian life. |
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6. Multiple Models of Leadership: |
Ministry experts predict that few future church leaders will be traditional, full-time pastors. The growing number of small congregations and immigrant fellowships will call for flexible and creative models of leadership--including lay pastors, bi-vocational ministers, parish nurses, specialized youth ministers, volunteer mission workers--an unimaginable plethora of part-time models of ministry. |
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5. Renewed Vocational Vision: |
In his best seller The Purpose Driven Church, evangelical pastor Rick Warren has struck a chord across the theological spectrum. Energizing all Christians to claim the vocation of our baptisms--to be Christ's full-time presence in the world in the boardrooms, living rooms, classrooms, and equipment rooms of this world--is at the heart of our Reformed tradition. And it is a vision of purpose and meaning that can hook the restless seekers of these contemporary times. |
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4. Invitational Evangelism: |
Rather than pressuring people through judgment and fear, the contemporary church invites people into hospitable community. Welcoming people as they are, accepting the gifts and ideas and questions they bring with them, and then growing together in discipleship and commitment--this is the fluid kind of spirituality that a liquid church can offer to a thirsty generation. |
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3. Immigrant and Interfaith Outreach: |
The continued growth of Protestantism in our multicultural nation is heavily dependent on reaching out enthusiastically to immigrant populations, and then equipping emerging fellowships with flexible models of worship, structure, and leadership. At the same time, in order for peace and reconciliation to become realities in our pluralistic and turbulent world, respectful interfaith dialogue and cooperation must become the new definition of ecumenism. We can hold dear our own convictions while learning from others. |
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2. Relevant Ethical Inquiry: |
As scientific discoveries explode and patterns of living diversify, the church needs to explore the ethical values and dimensions of contemporary culture. Whether we are talking about genetic research, a longer life span, the materialistic and technological excesses of a self-absorbed world, the political and military consequences of globalization, or the frightening realities of terrorism, the church is called to offer faithful and just reflection on how the abundant life that Jesus offers can become reality for all. |
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1. Meaningful Mission: |
As co-creators with God in the continuing work of creation, the church lives in order to be Christ's partners in building the peaceable kingdom of God on earth. A liquid church is ultimately one that runs gracefully and generously through the wilderness of this world, offering nourishment and new life wherever it goes. |