RE: Growth Potential

I think these are great points, and urgent points. Part of our church exists in the mindset of the 1950s where having a building across form the captiol would be the hight of the kingdom and height of releveance. But, in the postmodern world, what does that matter in the end. As you said we have to look at what it means to throw oursleves into this, what woudl the mission look like, and what are teh budgetary realitites. These things are all help in tension. And I know I beat dead horse that I always do, but it's not an either/or thing, it's a both/and. We can plan new churches while at the same time do ministry in existing and turn around churches. Study after study has shown that NCDs actually increase worship attendance in existing churches. In Tupelo, both The Orchard and FUMC (and many other churches) are strong.

The magic bullet of NCDs is relevance. That is not owned only by the NCD, but any church can have it and be relevant. For the existing churches, that means change. For an NCD its easier, it is just born. But, in both cases, if they are relevant, the kingdom will blossom.