Andy Rowell

Church Leadership Conversations

  • Director of Youth Ministries position at Blacknall Presbyterian Church in Durham, NC

    Related update April 13, 2008
    It was announced today at Blacknall, that my wife, Amy Rowell, Amy_headshot_dec_2007dwill be the new Director of Children's Ministry (20 hours per week) starting May 5th.  Amy has a BA in Christian Education and Psychology from Taylor University and an M.Div. from Regent College.  She worked as a director of children's ministry at Granville Chapel in Vancouver, British Columbia from 1999-2002 and served as a professor of Christian Educational Ministries at Taylor University from 2005-2007.  Amy and I hope that Blacknall finds a great Director of Youth Ministries.  See below.
     

    Original Post April 6, 2008

    There is a full-time youth ministries position open at Blacknall Presbyterian Church, the evangelically-minded PCUSA congregation, where Amy and I are members.  They are only taking applications until April 30, 2008 so forward this to people who are interested right away.  I have placed the official job position announcement at the bottom of this blog post.

    June 1, 2008 UPDATE: The deadline has been extended.  See new job description below. 

    Why Blacknall would be a great place to serve.
    I have listed four reasons below about why Blacknall is a great church.  Maybe I can help persuade some great people to apply.   Below my reasons I have posted the official announcement and details. 

    1. It is a theologically strong congregation. Blacknall is a very evangelical PCUSA congregation.  The PCUSA denomination is more liberal on the whole than the Presbyterian Church of America but at Blacknall, Scripture is taken very seriously.  Music and sermons are theologically rich.  Long-time Senior Pastor Allan Poole is a Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary graduate who regularly takes summer courses at my alma mater Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  Allan teaches a course called "The Pastor's Vocation" at Duke Divinity School with Dean Greg Jones and Dr. Susan Jones.  A couple of Duke Divinity School faculty, a number of theology and biblical studies doctoral students at Duke, and a few parachurch staff attend Blacknall.  The congregation also has
      high degree of involvement in ministries of social justice and
      missions.
    2. It is a growing congregation.  They have had great growth in the number of youth involved and so they have made the decision to increase their staff in youth ministry.  According to the 2006 PCUSA online statistics, Blacknall's worship attendance was 535 then.  It is probably about the same or larger now. 
    3. It is has a great location right by Duke.  Blacknall is situated one block from Duke
      University, next door to the cheapest (and some say the best) burritos in
      town at Cosmic Cantina, across the street from the trendy Whole Foods,
      and just off 9th Street (a great little strip of coffee shops and
      restaurants).
    4. It has a family atmosphere.  Though with an attendance over 500 Blacknall is getting large, it still has a family feel.  One example of this is that congregation members are given the opportunity to stand up and share prayer requests with the rest of the congregation before the Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession in the worship service.  The congregation has a mix of older and younger people.  Worship services have a mix of traditional liturgical elements such as the Lord's prayer and Nicene/Apostle's Creed but are otherwise quite informal.  The pastor wears a tie and blazer but unlike many other PCUSA congregations, not a robe.   The congregation dresses informally.  The church permits both infant baptisms and baby dedications – many PCUSA churches just have infant baptisms.  This demonstrates the number of people who attend Blacknall from free church backgrounds. 

    The official posting from the April 6, 2008 Blacknall bulletin:
    Director of Youth Ministries Job Announcement – Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church is seeking qualified candidates for a full-time Director of Youth Ministries position to provide successful leadership and vision for middle and high school students.  This individual will have primary programming and ministry responsibilities for all aspects of the high school ministry, work with an existing part-time middle school staff position, develop a comprehensive vision and sequence for Christian growth, and provide direction and leadership for this important relational ministry.  For more information, please contact Artie Kamiya, Search Committee Chair (919-818-6486). Closing Date: April 30.

    The official posting from the June 15, 2008 Blacknall bulletin:
    Director of Youth Ministries Job Announcement
    – Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church is seeking qualified
    candidates for a full-time Director of Youth Ministries position to
    provide (1) a programmatic ministry to our high school students, (2) work with the existing part-time middle school staff position, and (3) provide overall direction to the middle and high school youth programs.  This individual will be responsible for supporting a committed cadre of approximately 20 adult volunteer youth leaders, developing a comprehensive vision and sequence for Christian growth for approximately 75 middle/high school youth, making curriculum decisions for Sunday morning and Sunday evening youth groups, and providing direct service for this important relational ministry.  For more complete information (job description and qualifications), please contact Artie Kamiya, Search Committee Chair
    (919-818-6486); artie@greatactivities.net Applications will be accepted through July 15, 2008.

    Update: Bulletin announcement May 3, 2009 Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church

    New Director of Youth Ministries Announced – The Blacknall Session and Search Committee are pleased to announce that Brad Turnage will join the staff as Director of Youth Ministries effective June 15. Brad is currently Director of Youth Ministries at Grace Fellowship in Asheboro, NC, and comes to us with an extensive Young Life background. Brad was an intern with Young Life (Durham/Chapel Hill) for two years and was Young Life Area Director for Asheboro (Randolph County) for three years. Brad grew up in Bunn,
    NC, and is a 2001 graduate of Elon University. He is married to Jamie, a first grade classroom teacher for Randolph County Schools. We rejoice in God's gift to us: this couple who love Christ and teenagers.

  • My sermon “The Spirit-led Missional Church” (Acts 11) Audio

    I preached Sunday, March 30th at Clayton Presbyterian Church in Clayton, North Carolina.  My text was Acts 11:1-18 as part of a series in the book of Acts.   I would argue that this is one of the most important texts on the church in mission in the New Testament. 

    The iTunes link is Clayton Presbyterian Church Podcasts (will only work if you have iTunes – a free program – installed on your computer). 

    The direct link is Clayton Presbyterian Church Sermons – you can download the sermon there or listen to it streaming. 

    I have also made a copy of the recording and put it here.

    The transcript is

    here as a Microsoft Word document

    and here as a pdf

    Summary:
    In the sermon, I suggest we appreciate the passion for un-churched people that seeker-driven churches embody.  I also suggest, however, that there is real value in churches that are very diverse and ignore the seeker-driven philosophy of reaching a specific target audience.  I suggest that Acts 11:1-18 (which essentially retells Acts 10) in which Cornelius, the Gentile centurion comes to faith in Jesus, exemplifies what mission in the church should be like.  Not only are unbelievers reached but diverse ones.  I suggest that the Acts 10-11 narrative can serve as a paradigm as we think about the mission of our churches. 

    Here are some of the points I draw out from the narrative:  Change is hard.  We all like to stay in our comfort zones.  Prayer is where it starts but our prayers are often weak.  We are prodded by the Spirit to obey what is clear.  We are to do this work with others.  The message of Jesus is simple.  The Spirit goes before us.  What can we do to get out of the way so that people can see Jesus?

    Additional notes on some of the examples in the sermon:

    1. There is the old pastor’s legend about the pastor who wanted to move the piano to the other side of the sanctuary and the way he got away with it was by moving it an inch every week.   Source: I can't remember where I heard this one. 

    2. Pastors often overestimate what they can change in one year but underestimate what they can change in five years.  Source: I first heard this from Sandy Millar at Holy Trinity Brompton Church but I don't think it was original to him. 

    3. Erik Erikson  “all change is perceived as loss.” Source: internet.   

    4. If you find the perfect church, don’t join it or it will no longer be perfect.  Source: I can't remember. 

    5. Like Noah’s ark, it stinks being inside but it is still better than being outside.  Source: I can't remember.   

    6. Mark Twain: "It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand." Source: internet. 

    7. G.K Chesterton: “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.” Source: internet.

  • The missional ecclesiology of Rowan Williams

    I have posted below for download the paper I finished recently on the missional ecclesiology of Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Communion.  The question I was asking was, "What would Rowan Williams be thinking
    about if he was a church planter or emerging church pastor?" 

    Download Rowan_Williams’s_Theology_of_the_Church_as_Missionary.pdf

    I look forward to reading your comments.  I am not an expert on Williams but I have read eight books by him.  If you know of any place I might consider publishing this, I would be open to advice.   

    Three benefits of my paper:

    This paper has three main benefits.  First, Christians might use the four “practices” as a guide for evaluating their own churches.  Does our church embrace fully the four practices in Williams’s work that can help ensure our faithfulness to the gospel? 

    The terms “practices” and “standards of excellence” are borrowed from MacIntyre and are not used by Williams but I think they are an enlightening way of organizing his arguments related to the mission of the church.

    Second, Christians might use the “standards of excellence” for the practice of communicating the Good News to evaluate their own church’s outlook toward mission.  Does our practice of communicating of the Good News adhere to the standards of excellence which should characterize that practice according to Williams?

    Third, this paper brings together in an organized way the diverse thought of Rowan Williams for the edification of the church.  Williams tends to be misunderstood as the recent furor over his comments about Sharia exemplify.  His writings have different audiences and content so that one could get a skewed understanding of Williams’s thought if they are unaware of the scope of his work.  For example, if someone only read Lost Icons, they might be unaware of his explicitly Christian writing such as Tokens of Trust.  This paper allows both liberals and conservatives, critics and fans, to better appreciate and understand Williams.  By organizing it in these categories and explaining it, I hope to set Williams’s work “on a lower shelf,” that is, making it somewhat more accessible than it might otherwise be.  I have also quoted liberally from Williams in order to point readers toward the places in Williams’s writing where he makes these arguments so that further research can be done.

    When one understands Williams’s work in its breadth, it is difficult not to appreciate the beauty and sensitivity and brilliance of his writing.  His writing truly can help churches who are attempting to do innovative mission work to do so with faithfulness to the Christian tradition as well as great effectiveness and flexibility.  The difficulty in reading Williams is that his essays tend to be so occasional, that is, trying to address a specific situation.  Therefore, it is possible to misinterpret them if they are taken to be representative of Williams’s approach to related issues.  I think this essay helps to relieve some of those possible misconceptions by framing the issue in terms of practices and standards of excellence and bringing together eight of Williams’s works.

    A few websites with Anglicans thinking about new forms of
    church:
    Anglimergent
    Fresh Expressions

    Jonny Baker

    Emergent UK:

    Emergent UK

    Jason Clark

     

    Archbishop Rowan Williams: How is emergent church viewed in the Anglican Communion?

    Archbishop Rowan Williams: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the emergent church?

    Archbishop Rowan Williams – What is church?