BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A SUCCESSFUL GOSPEL MOVEMENT
PRAYER
CORPORATE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES’ CENTRALITY
Churches, corporate leaders, and government officials all need to be welcomed to participate in a shared spiritual experience for their community. This has been the bedrock of gospel movements for the past 30 years, with classic examples being the Greater New York Pastors’ Prayer Summit, The Lord’s Watch (daily prayer), and several other city-wide prayer and Scripture reading efforts.
Every movement, like Luther’s “95 Theses” for the Reformation, requires a shared vocabulary or “semantic currency.” Even prayer necessitates a commitment to unity. We must be wary of allowing our devotion to our own theology or techniques to separate us.
RESEARCH
RESULTS OF INTERESTING RESEARCH
Whether it’s as basic as online population, employment, academic performance and immigration research, or as sophisticated as hiring professionals to gather detailed and granular research on a community, city or region, good research compels action.
We have discovered that the average leader in the average church has little idea of what is actually happening in their city. Armed with compelling research, the informed church can rally around common challenges, and establish powerful agreement on what needs to be done as well as what they can accomplish together.
RESEARCH
RESULTS OF INTERESTING RESEARCH
Churches, corporate leaders, and government officials all need to be welcomed to participate in a shared spiritual experience for their community. This has been the bedrock of gospel movements for the past 30 years, with classic examples being the Greater New York Pastors’ Prayer Summit, The Lord’s Watch (daily prayer), and several other city-wide prayer and Scripture reading efforts.
Every movement, like Luther’s “95 Theses” for the Reformation, requires a shared vocabulary or “semantic currency.” Even prayer necessitates a commitment to unity. We must be wary of allowing our devotion to our own theology or techniques to separate us.
LEADERSHIP
CULTIVATING MILLENNIAL LEADERSHIP AND TRAINING EXISTING LEADERSHIP
It is critical to give gospel movement practitioners with training. While municipal leaders are passionate and skilled mobilizers, they may lack the organisational ability to progress beyond the ‘awareness and spiritual discipline’ phase and become more effective at visualising and expertly deploying leaders around shared passions.
OUTCOMES
SUCCESSFULNESS TODAY IMPLIES SUCCESSFULNESS TOMORROW
Nothing is more compelling than being able to agree on big, bold goals, such as increasing Christianity in a region to 15% of the general population in ten years or rebuilding $200 million in housing in a specific neighbourhood, as the Harlem Congregation for Community Improvement in New York City did. It will offer the spiritual rails for the movement to run for the next generation if an informed leadership team can agree to work for a God-inspired, practical outcome over a five, ten, or twenty-year period.
OUTCOMES
SUCCESSFULNESS TODAY IMPLIES SUCCESSFULNESS TOMORROW
Nothing is more compelling than being able to agree on big, bold goals, such as increasing Christianity in a region to 15% of the general population in ten years or rebuilding $200 million in housing in a specific neighbourhood, as the Harlem Congregation for Community Improvement in New York City did. It will offer the spiritual rails for the movement to run for the next generation if an informed leadership team can agree to work for a God-inspired, practical outcome over a five, ten, or twenty-year period.