Mission BMs in WELS

Task Force analysis of The Fifth Church: St Andrew congregation is already using all five levels to some degree. Worship services and Bible studies help to reinforce levels one and two. Intergenerational activities, such as summer Bible studies, children’s devotions, camping activities and holiday festivities, bring members of various ages together. Recently the Youth Ministry adopted the Fifth Church organization strategyand may be able to advise us on how well this structure works.

Author Reggie McNeal asks challenging questions in The Present Future to stimulate congregations to adopt new methods to fully obey the command to go tell others aboutJesus. He says that congregations often focus on the wrong issues, such as: How dowe do church better? How do we grow this church? How do we get members involvedwith church work? While these questions are traditional, they lead us down the samepath that we’ve already traveled. McNeal says to build a future that brings more peopleto faith in Jesus, we need to think in new ways. He suggests we focus less on “how toget people to come to our church” and shift our thinking to “how do we facilitate more members of our community to become part of the Kingdom of God?”

St. Andrew Online WELS

Task Force Members:John Favorite, Jim Garner, Randy Hackbarth, Randy Hunter, Susan Skochelak ,Karen Teske-Osborne, Jim Wendorf, November 2005