Over the past couple of months, you have read my blogs and posts
praising God for the new home church which Dory and I have found,
International Bible Baptist Church of Riverside, California
(IBBC-Riverside). The reason this church fellowship has won our hearts
is three-fold:
First, immediately upon walking into their church, we were embraced with the over-flowing love of God from all the people. That kind of Godly love is what led me to eternal life in Christ 29 years ago, when Dory and I walked into the Filipino-American Church of Irvine, California (FACI) led by Pastor Sam Lacanienta.
Second, is the total involvement of the Youth and Young Adults in this congregation. They are intimately involved in all aspects of our church - music, teaching, prayer, evangelism, etc..
Third, this Christian fellowship really puts its whole heart into Worship In Music, with virtually every Youth and Young Adult involved. Over the years, in various church fellowships, I have been told over and over, "We must make our music relevant to the young people, so they will want to come to church." Consequently, I have seen worship services that remind me more of the bars and nightclubs I left behind when I became a believer - than worship services glorifying our Lord.
Some years ago, Dory and I went to a Friday night Bible study at a large church in Orange County, because they were showing a film about End Times Prophecy. The film drew me there - but, the worship music that night almost drove me away before seeing the film. Sitting in the sanctuary that evening, hearing that loud secular-sounding music - I felt like I was back in the night clubs of my earlier years. Finally, I had to get up and walk out until the music was over. Then I watched the film. But, I have never been back to that church again.
At IBBC-Riverside, the worship music, the young people leading and participating in it, and the overall feeling of worship we feel in our music - often has Dory and me both getting very emotional.
"So, Bill, what kind of music does your church have in your worship services?" Glad you asked. So far, I have heard hymns, I have heard contemporary Christian music, I have heard Gospel songs, I have heard Christian chorale music, and I have participated in singing Scripture passages. In other words, I have heard a wide variety of Christian music in our worship services and in our Bible Study/Prayer Meetings.
The things I have not heard - are the seriously repetitive chorus songs where one five-word sentence is repeated over and over, twenty-five times. Nor have I heard loud banging instruments which overpower any voices trying to compete with them.
About twelve years ago, the church we were attending, with our host church, was having a Halloween Alternative Party. Musical teams from both churches took turns playing. In one number, two young girls from the host church were singing - but the instruments behind them were so loud that the only way you could tell they were singing is that we could see their lips moving. I turned to my pastor and told him, "That is what I have been talking about - loud music that drowns out any and all voices. The human voice is supposed to be the main instrument in worship music, accompanied by musical instruments. Not totally drowned out by the instruments." He nodded - but, I never saw any changes.
So, today when I read the article "Research Says: Young People Don't Want Hip Pastors" posted on Christianity Today - I felt like I was reading an article about my church, IBBC-Riverside. In this article, all the positive things I read which draws young people into a church fellowship family - I find in our congregation.
Reading this article, I knew that I have to share it with all my Friends. Below are excepts from the article and, at the bottom, I give a URL link you can visit to read the full article, which I strongly suggest:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Research Says: Young People Don't Want Hip Pastors
by Kara Powell, Jake Mulder, and Brad Griffin
Christianity Today, August 22, 2016
A study of 250 congregations suggests that youth and young adults want substance rather than style.
A few decades ago, Immanuel reflected these broader trends. Its membership shrank so drastically that the remnant considered closing the church. Now, young people sit front-and-center in Immanuel’s Sunday morning worship every week. Embedded both in a community where churches are struggling to retain young people and in a denomination that is not growing in the United States, Immanuel has more than doubled in size over the past decade. Young people - who make up one third of the congregation - are commonly referred to as the church’s “headlights.” We heard high school students assert, “Every day, every week, I feel like I’m supposed to be here.” . . . .
But this doesn’t have to be the case. Whether it was Trinity Church in Miami or Upper Room Community in Minneapolis, we noticed a common pattern in the statistics and in interviews with pastors, volunteers, parents, and congregation members. Churches that help young people grow seem to experience missional, spiritual, relational, and often numerical growth across the board. There’s a strong connection between churches that engage young people well and churches that are positioned to engage all generations well.
As Volga Christian Reformed Church in South Dakota prioritized teenagers and young adults, members saw how young people fuel their church’s growth through their bold and passionate invitations to friends as well as friends’ families. . . .
8 Things Your Church Doesn’t Need
A long list of qualities had less predictive value in the 250 exemplary congregations than we expected. Here are qualities that did not end up mattering as much as churches often assume among churches effectively engaging youth and young adults:
An exact age: We learned just as much, and saw just as much evidence of life change, in churches that were over a century old - as we did in churches that were barely five years old. When it comes to churches that “grow young,” there is no age discrimination. St. John the Evangelist, a Catholic parish in Indianapolis, is one example: the church is more than 140 years old but has undergone a dramatic revitalization over the past two decades. Today, more than two-thirds of its parishioners are youth or young adults.
A big budget: It’s a bit of a tautology (repetition), but churches that grow young intentionally invest in young people, and most often that includes a financial investment. But not always. Less-resourced congregations creatively support young people in other ways. In one congregation that is unable to pay staff members besides the senior pastor, we heard this kind of statement over and over: “It’s like family here. I can be myself with these people - they accept me for who I am.” Relational warmth is often more powerful than big-budget programming.
Contemporary worship: It’s not that worship style is unimportant; it’s just that there is no one “right” worship style for attracting teenagers and emerging adults. Our research indicates that while many young people are drawn to casual, contemporary worship, others are drawn to high-church liturgy. While the churches we visited were likely to prefer modern worship in some or all of their worship services, they didn’t depend on that alone as a magnet. A United Methodist church in our study offered three unique styles of worship on the same Sunday morning, with teenagers and young adults attending each of the services about equally. Several of the young people told our team that the worship style isn’t as much of a reason they love the church as the relationships and community formed among the people attending the service.
A big, modern building: Some of the congregations that are most effective with young people have state-of-the-art facilities. But not most. The majority of the effective churches gather in decent, but not spectacular, spaces. Some don’t own their facilities and are creatively meeting in local schools, like District Church in Washington, DC, and Flood Church in San Diego. A majority-Asian American church on the East Coast worships in a school now, but plans to build soon. Their dream doesn’t involve a fancy worship center, though. They hope to build a community center in which the church will rent space while the building houses various neighborhood nonprofits throughout the week. Other congregations gathered in living rooms. For teenagers and young adults, feeling at home in a congregation transcends size or architectural style.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/september/meet-churches-engaging-and-keeping-young-people.html?start=1
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I pray that you have found this blog helpful. If so, and if you are in the Southern California area, especially in the Riverside/Corona area, we invite you to visit us at the International Bible Baptist Church of Riverside (IBBC-Riverside).
Our address is: 10094 Cypress Ave, Riverside, CA 92503. We are located on Cypress Avenue, between Van Buren and Tyler. The sign in front says Sierra Vista Church and they graciously allow us to use their facilities for our services.
Our Sunday School starts at 1:30 PM. Our worship service starts at 3:00 PM.
I really hope you can join us for Sunday School and worship - for I know you will enjoy the warm and loving people in our Filipino-American fellowship. We are a church which is Pinoy at heart - but which welcomes all people - for all believers are God's children. And, all people need to hear His Word. At IBBC-Riverside, you will hear the Word of God taught from His Bible.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
First, immediately upon walking into their church, we were embraced with the over-flowing love of God from all the people. That kind of Godly love is what led me to eternal life in Christ 29 years ago, when Dory and I walked into the Filipino-American Church of Irvine, California (FACI) led by Pastor Sam Lacanienta.
Second, is the total involvement of the Youth and Young Adults in this congregation. They are intimately involved in all aspects of our church - music, teaching, prayer, evangelism, etc..
Third, this Christian fellowship really puts its whole heart into Worship In Music, with virtually every Youth and Young Adult involved. Over the years, in various church fellowships, I have been told over and over, "We must make our music relevant to the young people, so they will want to come to church." Consequently, I have seen worship services that remind me more of the bars and nightclubs I left behind when I became a believer - than worship services glorifying our Lord.
Some years ago, Dory and I went to a Friday night Bible study at a large church in Orange County, because they were showing a film about End Times Prophecy. The film drew me there - but, the worship music that night almost drove me away before seeing the film. Sitting in the sanctuary that evening, hearing that loud secular-sounding music - I felt like I was back in the night clubs of my earlier years. Finally, I had to get up and walk out until the music was over. Then I watched the film. But, I have never been back to that church again.
At IBBC-Riverside, the worship music, the young people leading and participating in it, and the overall feeling of worship we feel in our music - often has Dory and me both getting very emotional.
"So, Bill, what kind of music does your church have in your worship services?" Glad you asked. So far, I have heard hymns, I have heard contemporary Christian music, I have heard Gospel songs, I have heard Christian chorale music, and I have participated in singing Scripture passages. In other words, I have heard a wide variety of Christian music in our worship services and in our Bible Study/Prayer Meetings.
The things I have not heard - are the seriously repetitive chorus songs where one five-word sentence is repeated over and over, twenty-five times. Nor have I heard loud banging instruments which overpower any voices trying to compete with them.
About twelve years ago, the church we were attending, with our host church, was having a Halloween Alternative Party. Musical teams from both churches took turns playing. In one number, two young girls from the host church were singing - but the instruments behind them were so loud that the only way you could tell they were singing is that we could see their lips moving. I turned to my pastor and told him, "That is what I have been talking about - loud music that drowns out any and all voices. The human voice is supposed to be the main instrument in worship music, accompanied by musical instruments. Not totally drowned out by the instruments." He nodded - but, I never saw any changes.
So, today when I read the article "Research Says: Young People Don't Want Hip Pastors" posted on Christianity Today - I felt like I was reading an article about my church, IBBC-Riverside. In this article, all the positive things I read which draws young people into a church fellowship family - I find in our congregation.
Reading this article, I knew that I have to share it with all my Friends. Below are excepts from the article and, at the bottom, I give a URL link you can visit to read the full article, which I strongly suggest:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Research Says: Young People Don't Want Hip Pastors
by Kara Powell, Jake Mulder, and Brad Griffin
Christianity Today, August 22, 2016
A study of 250 congregations suggests that youth and young adults want substance rather than style.
A few decades ago, Immanuel reflected these broader trends. Its membership shrank so drastically that the remnant considered closing the church. Now, young people sit front-and-center in Immanuel’s Sunday morning worship every week. Embedded both in a community where churches are struggling to retain young people and in a denomination that is not growing in the United States, Immanuel has more than doubled in size over the past decade. Young people - who make up one third of the congregation - are commonly referred to as the church’s “headlights.” We heard high school students assert, “Every day, every week, I feel like I’m supposed to be here.” . . . .
But this doesn’t have to be the case. Whether it was Trinity Church in Miami or Upper Room Community in Minneapolis, we noticed a common pattern in the statistics and in interviews with pastors, volunteers, parents, and congregation members. Churches that help young people grow seem to experience missional, spiritual, relational, and often numerical growth across the board. There’s a strong connection between churches that engage young people well and churches that are positioned to engage all generations well.
As Volga Christian Reformed Church in South Dakota prioritized teenagers and young adults, members saw how young people fuel their church’s growth through their bold and passionate invitations to friends as well as friends’ families. . . .
8 Things Your Church Doesn’t Need
A long list of qualities had less predictive value in the 250 exemplary congregations than we expected. Here are qualities that did not end up mattering as much as churches often assume among churches effectively engaging youth and young adults:
- A trendy location or region of the country.
- A specific denomination.
- A “culturally relevant” pastoral teaching style, including pastors’ attire.
An exact age: We learned just as much, and saw just as much evidence of life change, in churches that were over a century old - as we did in churches that were barely five years old. When it comes to churches that “grow young,” there is no age discrimination. St. John the Evangelist, a Catholic parish in Indianapolis, is one example: the church is more than 140 years old but has undergone a dramatic revitalization over the past two decades. Today, more than two-thirds of its parishioners are youth or young adults.
A big budget: It’s a bit of a tautology (repetition), but churches that grow young intentionally invest in young people, and most often that includes a financial investment. But not always. Less-resourced congregations creatively support young people in other ways. In one congregation that is unable to pay staff members besides the senior pastor, we heard this kind of statement over and over: “It’s like family here. I can be myself with these people - they accept me for who I am.” Relational warmth is often more powerful than big-budget programming.
Contemporary worship: It’s not that worship style is unimportant; it’s just that there is no one “right” worship style for attracting teenagers and emerging adults. Our research indicates that while many young people are drawn to casual, contemporary worship, others are drawn to high-church liturgy. While the churches we visited were likely to prefer modern worship in some or all of their worship services, they didn’t depend on that alone as a magnet. A United Methodist church in our study offered three unique styles of worship on the same Sunday morning, with teenagers and young adults attending each of the services about equally. Several of the young people told our team that the worship style isn’t as much of a reason they love the church as the relationships and community formed among the people attending the service.
A big, modern building: Some of the congregations that are most effective with young people have state-of-the-art facilities. But not most. The majority of the effective churches gather in decent, but not spectacular, spaces. Some don’t own their facilities and are creatively meeting in local schools, like District Church in Washington, DC, and Flood Church in San Diego. A majority-Asian American church on the East Coast worships in a school now, but plans to build soon. Their dream doesn’t involve a fancy worship center, though. They hope to build a community center in which the church will rent space while the building houses various neighborhood nonprofits throughout the week. Other congregations gathered in living rooms. For teenagers and young adults, feeling at home in a congregation transcends size or architectural style.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/september/meet-churches-engaging-and-keeping-young-people.html?start=1
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I pray that you have found this blog helpful. If so, and if you are in the Southern California area, especially in the Riverside/Corona area, we invite you to visit us at the International Bible Baptist Church of Riverside (IBBC-Riverside).
Our address is: 10094 Cypress Ave, Riverside, CA 92503. We are located on Cypress Avenue, between Van Buren and Tyler. The sign in front says Sierra Vista Church and they graciously allow us to use their facilities for our services.
Our Sunday School starts at 1:30 PM. Our worship service starts at 3:00 PM.
I really hope you can join us for Sunday School and worship - for I know you will enjoy the warm and loving people in our Filipino-American fellowship. We are a church which is Pinoy at heart - but which welcomes all people - for all believers are God's children. And, all people need to hear His Word. At IBBC-Riverside, you will hear the Word of God taught from His Bible.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
No comments:
Post a Comment