Andy Rowell

Church Leadership Conversations

  • Senior Christian Educational Ministries Capstone Trip to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia

    I have not blogged in a while because I have been on a trip with 17 Christian Educational Ministries students from Taylor University.  We were in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia for 14 days in early January visiting churches, urban ministries, mission organizations and camps.  This was a January "Interterm" course.  I don’t have time right now to tell you about all of the great ministries and people we met but I thought I would at least post our actual schedule to give you an idea of what we did. 

    I led this trip last year as well.  You can see who we met last year at the Senior Capstone Trip category link to the right.  I want to thank JR Kerr and Amy Swaagman for planning the bulk of the Pittsburgh portion of the trip. Below is the syllabus for the course.

    Download capstone_syllabus_2007_blog.doc

    Taylor University Senior Christian Educational Ministries Capstone 2007

    Pittsburgh Part 1

    Friday, January 5 – Calling/Identity/Worldview

    8:00-11:30

    Travel from Taylor University in Upland, IN to Columbus, OH

    11:30-1:00

    Lunch at student Koon’s house plus two devotionals

    1:00-4:00

    Travel from Columbus to Union Project in Pittsburgh, PA

    5:30-6:00

    Orientation by Hillary Brown to Union Project. See Stained Glass Making Operation.

    6:00-8:30

    Union Project event: Hip Hop Bingo.

    8:30-9:30

    Dinner at Wendy’s

    9:30-10:00

    Travel to Pittsburgh Project where we sleep in Pittsburgh

    10:00-10:30

    Meet with JR Kerr, teaching pastor at North Way Christian Community and Taylor University grad, at Pittsburgh Project

    Saturday, January 6 – Calling/Identity/Worldview

    10-12

    North Way Oakland launch meeting – Mike Arnold’s House. Breakfast there.

    12-1:30

    Meet with Mike Arnold, pastor of North Way Oakland and Taylor University grad.

    1:30-2:30

    Lunch at fast food (Arby’s)

    3-5

    Free time: Grocery shopping, Barnes and Noble, Panera near North Way, Mitch run, Watch football

    5:30

    Service at North Way at 6:00 pm

    8-9

    Debrief – Dinner from NWCC – JR Kerr

    Sunday, January 7 – Theology of Church

    9:00-9:30

    Breakfast and pack dinner

    9:30-10:00

    Devos

    10:00

    Leave for Hot Metal Bridge

    9-1

    Hot Metal Bridge Community (11:00 am service with lunch afterward at HMB)

    1-5

    Free Time – “The Waterfront” Damon’s, Panera, Coldstone, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, Movie Theater

    5:00-5:30

    Eat packed lunches; PULSE – meet at Union Project

    5-7

    Open Door Church (website Firefox browser only. Service 6-7:30)

    8-10

    BJ Woodworth afterward

    Monday, January 8 – Emerging Leaders

    7:30-7:55

    Breakfast and pack lunch

    8:00-10:00

    Saleem Ghubril – Pittsburgh Project

    10:00-11:30

    CCO including Wendy McConnell (Taylor grad)– at Pittsburgh Project – bagels

    12-1

    Drive to Sewickley and eat packed lunch

    1:00-2:00

    Becca Chapman/Fellows at Henning House

    2-5

    Free time in Sewickley – Coffee shop, cut hair, watch TV, nap, run, games

    5-6

    Talk with JR Kerr at his house

    6-7

    Dinner at Sandwich shop or Pizza in Sewickley

    6-10

    Ohio State vs. Florida Championship Game at Henning House at St. Stephen’s w/ Fellows including Michelle Jongsma and Amy Swaagman (Taylor grads)

    10-11

    Drive to Pittsburgh Project

    Tuesday, January 9 – Theology of Church

    7:15-7:45

    Breakfast, pack dinner

    7:45

    Leave for North Way Christian Community

    8:30-9:30

    Morning staff meetings at North Way

    9:30-11:30

    John Huber – student ministries at North Way

    11:30-1:30

    Lunch with student ministries staff at North Way (Lunch provided by North Way)

    1:30-3:00

    Lisa Slayton and Christina Shaffer from Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation

    3-5

    Emerging Leaders Panel @ North Way Christian Community

    5-7

    Dinner and Free time Options: Mall, Amy Swaagman’s house to watch movie, Homeless ministry, play games in gym at North Way

    10-11

    Singing and devos

    Wednesday, January 10 – Theology of Church

    7:45-8:15

    Breakfast and pack lunch

    8:15-9:00

    Travel to Union Project

    9-12 

    Union Project – pass out flyers for Martin Luther King Jr. Night on Monday

    12-1 

    Travel and eat packed lunch

    12:30-3

    Scott Stevens (Family) and Leah Edwards (Kidz) at North Way Christian Community

    3-4:30   

    David Watts (Worship) at NWCC

    5:00-8:00   

    Dinner at food court at mall

    8:00-9:00   

    Travel to Pittsburgh Project

    9:00-10:00

    Debrief, Singing and Devos

    Philadelphia

    Thursday, January 11– Social and Theological Justice

    10:30-10:50

    Breakfast and pack lunch

    10:45-10:50

    Pack everything

    11:00

    Drive to Philadelphia

    1:00

    Stop

    4:00 

    Arrive at CrossWorld where we sleep in Philadelphia

    5:00-5:45

    Fast food at SaladWorks, Qdoba, TacoBell, Subway

    5:45-7

    Drive to Camden

    7-9 

    Bruce Main Urban Promise – Camden

    9-10

    Return to CrossWorld

    Friday, January 12

    9:00-9:30

    Breakfast

    10-6

    Free time:   Go to Art Museum and run Rocky steps. Philly Cheesesteak. Free tour of Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.

    6:30

    Dinner together. Buca di beppos.

    Saturday, January 13– Social and Theological Justice

    9:00-9:30

    Breakfast

    10-12

    Ron Sider from Evangelicals for Social Action at Palmer Theological Seminary

    12-12:30

    Eat packed lunch

    12:30-3

    Craig Keener from Palmer Theological Seminary

    3-5 

    Extra time with Keener

    5-8

    Dinner out and free time. Watch football.

    8-10

    Debrief and devos

    Sunday, January 14 – Emerging Leaders

    8:15-8:45

    Breakfast

    9:30-12

    Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church

    12-4:45

    Free time – football game

    4:45-10

    JR Briggs (teaching pastor, resonate pastor and Taylor grad) Calvary Church Resonate service at 6:00 pm. Dinner afterward with JR provided by Calvary.

    10:00-11:00

    Return to CrossWorld

    Monday, January 15 (MLK Day)

    9:00-9:30

    Breakfast

    9:30-10:30

    CrossWorld presentation

    11:00-3:00

    Martin Luther King Jr. Day event at St. Joseph’s University

    8:00-10:00

    Debrief, Lecture by Andy on Surviving After Graduating, two devos

    Tuesday, January 16 – Christian Leadership

    8:00-8:30

    Breakfast

    8:45-10:00

    Travel to Kennett Square, PA

    10-12   

    Greg Lafferty and Gretchen Buher (Taylor grad) from Willowdale Chapel

    1-3   

    Travel

    3-7   

    Hearts&Minds Bookstore and Byron Borger

    7-10   

    Travel and get groceries

    10-11

    Stay at Pittsburgh Project

    Pittsburgh Part 2

    Wednesday, January 17 – Christian Leadership

    8:15-8:45

    Breakfast and pack lunches

    10-12 

    North Way Oakland: surveying people on street

    12-1 

    Eat packed lunch and travel to World Vision

    1-4:30 

    World Vision (Gift-In-Kind) – learn and serve

    5-7 

    Get lost and terrible traffic

    7-9 

    Eat dinner at the Waterfront

    9-11 

    Debrief and sing and devo

    Thursday, January 18 – Christian Leadership

    7:15-7:45

    Breakfast and make lunch

    8-10   

    Travel to Summer’s Best 2 Weeks camp

    10-12

    SB2W

    12-3

    Travel back/Lunch

    3-4

    Treat at Panera or Icecream – 2 devos

    4-6

    Optional meetings with Scott Stevens or JR Kerr at North Way Christian Community

    6-8

    Thursday Night service

    8-9

    Pizza @ NW/Final Debrief

    Friday, January 19

    8:00

    Drive from Pittsburgh Project to Taylor in about six hours

    11:30

    Stop for Taco Bell or Subway and get gas

    2:30

    Arrive back in Upland, IN at Taylor University

  • Bonhoeffer and the Emerging Church: Ph.D. Application Paper

    Update January 31, 2007.
    I have posted below the revised paper.
    Update December 31, 2006
    I have posted below the revised paper.You are still welcome to give me feedback for later deadlines though the immediate deadline is passed.
    Original post December 23, 2006
    It is crunch time now and I'm getting my application materials ready for Princeton, Luther, Fuller and Emory in about a week.  EmergingchurchDuke is a month later.  See my quick update about the Ph.D. here.
    I would love it if any of you wanted to read my paper and give it some feedback.   
    The paper is about Bonhoeffer and the Emerging Church movement.  I think it is worthwhile stuff but I would appreciate your advice about things to change.  Not academic enough?  Work on the writing? Focus more? 
    I have attached it below. 

    Download bonhoeffer_and_emerging_church.doc

    Download bonhoeffer_and_emerging_church.pdf

    Thanks so much.  Thanks for your prayers.  I hope you are well.  Merry Christmas.
    andy

  • Starbucks, Branding and Megachurches

    Starbucks If you want to read a little argument about why or why not churches should be more like Starbucks, read Skye Jethani’s post "Burned by Branding: What churches can learn from the anti-Starbucks movement" at Out of Ur.  After the post, there are a huge number of argumentative comments regarding whether megachurches are good or not.  This is not the most civilized or clear discussion ever but if you have never thought much about this topic, it is not a bad introduction to the variety of opinions.  I decided it wasn’t worth my time to study, sort through, clarify, refute and support the various opinions but I can give you my three-sentence conclusion.   

    In short, as churches I think we can learn a lot from Starbucks (warmth, quality, friendliness, casual, atmosphere) but I think churches need to be relentlessly adaptive to their local settings.  Similarly, I really like learning from megachurch people because they tend to be outreach-driven, smart, passionate, serious-about-quality and hard-working.  But I cringe a bit when I sometimes hear pure pragmaticism ("Only souls in heaven matter. The ends justify the means") or the conviction that their way is the only way ("99% of other churches don’t understand evangelism").   

    Resources:

    I have written best about megachurches here about Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church and here about Andy Stanley’s leadership ideas.  All my articles that touch on the megachurch topic are here. By the way, the Purpose-Driven organization no longer exists and has been folded back into Saddleback Church.  See here. (H/T Church Marketing Sucks).       

    The people at Church Marketing Sucks (one of my top 10 favorite blogs) are very helpful in thinking through this whole issue of good branding and marketing for the church.  They actually understand marketing and are trying to use it to help churches get better at reaching non-Christians.