HOW TO GO
What: Change the World Conference
Where: Ginghamsburg Church, 6759 S. County Road 25A, Tipp City
When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and 8:15 to 4 p.m. Friday9
Cost: $169 ($159 group rate), $89 students
More info: (937) 667-1069 or http://ginghamsburg.org
Check out these recent church attendance/faith affiliation statistics:
Less than 20 percent of Americans regularly attend church. (Source: www.churchleaders.com.)
The percentage of adults not affiliated with any particular faith, 16.1 percent, is more than double the percentage polled for children. (Source: the Pew Research Center 2008 Survey.)
One in four of those aged 18-29 say they are not affiliated with any religion now. (Source: the Pew Research Center 2008 Survey.)
A closer perusal of these statistical studies reveals more: 1) About 8 percent of children raised in a religious home will reject that religion as a grownup. 2) The largest group not affiliated with any type of faith is young adults at 25 percent. 3) Although 83.9 percent of adults check the “affiliated with a religion” box, not quite 20 percent of them actually act on that affiliation by regularly attending church. Pretty dismal figures, especially if you’re a church leader today.
Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City is holding its seventh Change the World conference this upcoming week to train church leaders on the best ways to get people involved in faith-based activities. Attendance in the past has included anywhere from 300 to 1,000 church leaders. Participants have traveled from across the nation, from Canada, and from as far away as Australia.
“Jesus followers are not waiting for heaven, but are actively rebuilding, restoring and renewing the lives of broken people and the shattered communities of despair,” said Ginghamsburg lead pastor Mike Slaughter. “Yes, we are waiting for the return of the King, but it is not a passive waiting.”
Those leaders who do not want to remain passive can learn new ideas to reach the disenfranchised and lost, and new tools to grow and empower the church. Lead Pastor Rachel Billups of the Shiloh United Methodist Church in Cincinnati believes the Change the World Conference helps those struggling to find relevance in the 21st century.
“It’s so important to be with other churches and other leaders unified by our mission to make disciples for the transformation of the world,” said Billups. “Especially when things at church seem discouraging, we need to have the courage to come, listen, learn and engage in conversation that will move us to action.”
Those conversations at the conference will focus on three key areas: equipping churches to do powerful mission outside of their walls to transform their communities; training up young pastors on how to plant or renew dying churches in challenging places; and creating worship experiences to inspire and equip believers to serve the poor, seek the lost and set the oppressed free.
Billups has attended the Change the World Conference for the past three years, and they inspired her to start a new urban campus in the Price Hill area of Cincinnati. Reaching out to a community in decline has relevance for her congregation and gives them renewed energy for the overall mission.
“All of these (conference topics) are vital for creating ‘green’ and growing faith places that are reaching the world around them,” said Slaughter.
Besides Slaughter, the other two trainers at the conference will be Michael Frost and Greg Boyd. Frost is the founding director of the Tinsley Institute, a mission study center in Sydney, Australia, and the author/editor of a dozen popular Christian books, including “The Shaping of Things to Come.” Boyd, a former atheist, is now senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minn. He has authored/co-authored 18 books, including “Letters From a Skeptic.”
The keynotes, breakouts and emphasis in the Change the World conference are all about taking the church into the world to accomplish good, not simply trying to coax the world into the church.
“The world will not believe the gospel until it sees the gospel in action. Ultimately, a church’s measure of greatness or effectiveness isn’t how many behinds are sitting in our pews but how many in our congregation are out actively serving the mission,” Slaughter said. “The best way to grow our churches is to be the living, breathing body of Christ that is visibly and authentically partnering with our communities to change the world together.”
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