Walt Mueller says "If the church does not listen, the church cannot understand"
We need to start listening to the generations below us to hear what they have to say. We need to create Jr. deacons boards from the following ages and stages:
- married with teenagers
- married with young children
- young adults
- teenagers
- jr high
These Jr. deacons boards will meet once a month and talk about the church from their point of reference. Then once or twice a year they will come before the main deacons board and tell their thoughts, ideas and vision.
First off this is not my idea. I heard this idea from Gary Hamel (http://www.garyhamel.com/) at the Leadership Summit this past August. Gary talked about why we do not open source the sermons in the church. I like this idea. On a Sunday night the pastor would post the skeleton of his sermon for the next week. For the next few days people in the congregation could add in thoughts, stories, Bible references and thoughts. The pastor would then close off this discussion and create his sermon from this.
Talk about out of the box. Guess that is why the Wall Street Journal ranked Gary one of the world's most influential business thinkers. Thoughts?
