Well, this year I haven't been writing as much from here. This will change. I procrastinated on some work for a class later this month, and I'm under the gun. So, I was doing that AND working on Preaching Class stuff, AND working on my dissertation.
Yesterday, we traveled to Cincinnati where we attended two worship services. The first was at Crossroads Community Church, a seeker-driven independent church. Then we attended the Cincinnati Vineyard Church. This is a charismatic denomination and the specialty of this local church is servant evangelism. Their slogan is: "Small things done with great love will change the world." Their worship was more engaging and it just happened that their associate pastor was speaking about commitment, as in commitment in membership. They have around 1,400 members with around 6,000 in attendance. Lots of folks hanging around and involved, but not making the commitment of membership.
At this point in the process, I have been to enough megachurches to know what the deal is. They all have several things in common: 1. A desire to reach the lost that drives most decisions, from worship style to what types of services they carry out in the community; 2. A commitment to excellence; 3. Strong leadership from both the pastor and key lay leaders.
My big critique of Crossroads is that, while they did do a really cool version of "Be Thou My Vision," there just was not much in the service that said, this is a Christian worship experience. It was more like what you might find at a good youth rally. (Not that you can't worship at a youth rally, you can, but this was more like a motivational fun time with a little Kingdom language thrown in for good measure). They are obviously reaching people, but I can't help but walk away from these experiences asking, what kind of Christianity is going to exist in the U.S. fifty years from now as these churches are the ones that are actually reaching the community with the Gospel (or at least a watered down version of the Gospel).
Regardless of the critique, we can learn a lot from these churches. There are a few megachurches that I think really have a balanced, Biblical approach, Ginghamsburg UMC being the best example I have seen.
I'll be writing about my classes and experiences, so come back often and see what I've been up to in the Beeson Pastor Program at Asbury Seminary. I really appreciate this time for learning, reflection, and renewal. I think I am a better pastor because of it. Next time I'll share about Dr. Ellsworth Kalas' preaching class.
Flourishing Life 
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