The NEW Church

This book makes a lot of sense!

-- Lynette Wilson

I love this book. I love the Christ centered disciple-making emphasis—nurturing like Jesus did. I am inspired by the meaningful and personal messages in this book. Above all I love the way any church member can read this book and immediately be challenged to think in new and NEW ways.

—John Harris, head elder, Broken Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church

David Edgren is a storyteller with a purpose. Combine that with his strong vision of what church can be, and you have an engaging and gently challenging book that’s worth your consideration. Share it among members of your church and talk together about how you can grow your church toward the new kind of life God wants for us all.

—Nathan Brown, editor, Signs Publishing Company

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The NEW Church

David Edgren

Published by David Edgren at Smashwords

Copyright 2010 David Edgren

davedgren@gmail.com

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Dedication

This book is dedicated to the most practical and authentic Christian I know—my father, Paul Edgren.

Dad grew up as the son of a church pastor. He took a different path—many different paths, actually. He describes himself as a prospector. He has sleuthed for gold, felled timber, run corporations, developed land, fossicked for opal and built orphanages. In his various pursuits, Dad has enjoyed, learned, failed, succeeded and shared with those around him. He has been a great father, mentor, friend and minister to me.

For my entire life, Dad has modeled the attributes written about in this book. He is a NEW Christian.

He Nurtured me as a child so I would know the way I should go. And he continues to Disciple, Inspire, Visit and Empower me as an adult—He DIVEs into my Christian maturity.

His life has been a constant example to all those around him of practical Evangelism. I have heard him preach very few sermons from the pulpit, but I have watched him live a sermon every moment of every day of his life.

His life is one of constant Worship. He exudes POWER in his life of worship. He is a man of Prayer, Obedience, the Word, Expressing his faith and Reaching out to others.

Thanks Dad. I am truly blessed to have you as my Father.

Your Son,

Dave

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The NEW Church

1. Why a NEW Model

2. The NEW Church

3. Two Questions in One

4. The N in NEW Church—Nurture

5. DIVE into Nurture

6. Disciple Like Jesus

7. The Great Commission

8. Humility—The First Step

9. Taking Them with You

10. A Home Run for Kenny

11. Servant Leadership

12. Come to the Table

13. It All Started with a Meal

14. Standing in the Gap

15. The E in NEW Church—Evangelism

16. The Evangelism that Works Model

17. Personal Evangelism

18. Paul’s Strategy for Caring and Sharing

19. Small Group Evangelism

20. A Small Group and a Box

21. Give My Best to the General

22. Community Evangelism

23. Mark’s Heroines

24. The W in NEW Church—Worship

25. POWER in Worship

26. Pray Continually

27. In His Image

28. Double Click

29. Suit Up

30. My Life Verse

31. Finding Your Strength

32. In Jesus’ Name

33. Riding the Spirit

34. Putting the NEW Church to Work

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Why a NEW Model?

In my brief ministry experience I have pastored established churches. The youngest church I’ve pastored was planted in the early 1970s and the oldest was built in the late 1800s! I have noticed most people in established churches do what they do because they’ve always done it that way. There is often no rhyme or reason to their practices other than the fact that it rhymes or seems reasonable. It is my desire to see passion and purpose instilled into these sometimes listless limbs of the body of Christ.

As a young pastor, I began a quest. I read everything I could find about creating a healthy environment within an already existing church. I did the training to become a certified Natural Church Development coach. I ran the 40 Days of Purpose in my local church. I even helped my conference president create a church health research tool for the Adventist churches in Tasmania.

Of the many church health models I studied and taught, I noticed one recurring result. I could not remember them. There was too much information. In most cases the abundance of information was part and parcel to the package. It is important to have a complete picture of the church in order to apply it effectively.

I like simplicity. But I also need completeness. Especially when it comes to leading Christ’s church! It was my desire to create a model that encapsulated the key areas of church health in as few points as possible and presented them in a memorable way.

Let’s take a look at the two leading church health models in the world today and demonstrate how they create a need for The NEW Church.

Natural Church Development (NCD)

Thousands of churches in hundreds of countries on every populated continent have participated in the NCD program. I have started three churches on the NCD process. NCD is designed for top-level detailed analysis and long range planning. It quantifies eight key areas of church health and qualifies them with eight key adjectives. To do this effectively you must learn six biotics. What is a biotic, you ask? Let me go get my notes.

NCD is an extremely effective way to carefully analyze your church, plan for the future and become healthy. But, it is not something you and I can apply daily because it is very in-depth and its systems are impossible to remember without notes or one of the NCD books. The NCD program is intended for the leadership team in the boardroom. While its effects will be seen, its theories and concepts will never be completely understood by the majority of church members.

The Purpose Driven Church

Rick Warren and Saddleback Church have created an enjoyable and effective way of teaching their five purposes for the Christian life. The Purpose Driven Life program is designed to explain the Christian life in a holistic way. I enjoyed preaching the 40 Days of Purpose sermons and our church members cherished the accompanying book, The Purpose Driven Life.

The series began with a very good question: What on Earth am I here for? The five answers—Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry and Evangelism—were well stated and many people were blessed.

During the concluding sermon of the program, I began listing the five purposes—then stopped. I was stuck. I asked for help from the audience and together we recapped the five points. I got stuck after three! When my wife sends me to the shops, if there’s any more than three items, I make a list!

After reading the book and presenting the series to our church I was left wishing for a way to make it more memorable. I wanted each and every church member (and myself!) to be able to walk through life with a way of saying, How can I make this situation as God-centered as possible? It was from this desire that The NEW Church was born.

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The NEW Church

You are the church. You are the body of Christ. You are, in fact, a minister. For you to minister effectively, you need to know what being part of the body of Christ—the church—means. If you aren’t asking, Am I being effective for Christ? you won’t know the answer. And without a concise and memorable way to frame the question, you may not even think to ask it.

The NEW Church has been designed to empower you, the church member, toward holistic ministry in a memorable and easily transferable way. It will not solve the systemic problems of the church—that’s NCD’s job. It will not serve as a holistic sermon series—that’s the territory of the 40 Days of Purpose series.

What the NEW Church will do is hand you the keys to the church. You are The NEW Church minister. And you can do it!

This book:

The NEW Church is a simple concept. It would only take two or three pages to give you enough to understand and apply it. So, I have done two things to help the NEW church really stick in your mind. First, I have unpacked it as much as I can without becoming prescriptive. It is important for you to apply it to your personal and local situation. Second, I have included a number of illustrative chapters. A story often makes rough places plain!

So, this book has two purposes: to teach the NEW church theory and to model its principles in action through story.

The NEW Church Model

Nurture (in)

Evangelism (out)

Worship (up)

Micah 6:8

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

This prophetic passage is a quick snapshot of the complete follower of Christ. It shows a holistic approach to living a godly life. Micah precedes God’s commission with a powerful question—What does the Lord require of you? The prophet then answers the question succinctly and completely.

To act justly:

IN-reach: