Tangibly Impacting Our City - Main Street Press Release

Business incubator takes shape at The 567 Center for Renewal

Macon, GA -- Wednesday, November 16 at 3:00 p.m. will mark a milestone in the life of The 567 Center for Renewal located at 533 Cherry Street. The organization works for the revitalization of Downtown Macon through access to music and the arts, educational and small business assistance, and city beautification. On Wednesday the small business assistance piece of the puzzle falls into place with the Grand Openings of three businesses - Beckenfield Fragrances, Inc., MO’S Cleaning Services, Inc. and Visibly Creative.

Beckenfield Fragrances, Inc. features a specialty line called Valor – Candles For Men which offers an exceptional line of masculine scented candles and other manly inspired products. The Valor brand celebrates manhood by offering fragrances inspired by places or events that are typically considered to be manly in nature. “Every great experience has a story. My goal was to capture the essence of those stories by triggering the sense of smell, which is tied to memory and emotion. Scent can often enable us to re-live the positive feelings associated with great experiences," says Johnny Rohrbeck, founder.

Myra Omofoma, a resident of the Macon Housing Authority (MHA) for three years, is now the proud owner/operator of a micro-business, a domestic cleaning service, Mo's Cleaning Services, Inc. Her company strives to be “green” and Omofoma implements, manages, and audits cleaning processes and procedures to avoid using potentially hazardous cleaning chemicals and contaminants that may adversely affect air quality, human health, and the environment. She has hired several employees from the Georgia Department of Labor, Goodwill Industries/Helm Institute, and other residents from the Macon Housing Authority.

Visibly Creative specializes in custom website development campaigns including branding, design, coding, and marketing. Owner, Eric Mayfield also offers social media packages, onsite consultation, search engine marketing and optimization, mobile app development and training for all internet technology. New customers receive a 30 minute free consultation.

“These innovative ways of thinking and doing business will only continue to strengthen the business mix we have in Downtown Macon. The incubator space provides services that often make it daunting for an entrepreneur when considering a start-up and The 567 is changing the landscape for these folks. It allows them to follow their dreams and in turn makes Macon a better to place to do business,” say Mechel McKinley, Main Street Macon Manager.

For more information about The 567 Center for Renewal visit their website at www.the567.org.

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Obstacles that Limit Church Planting

New City Church is a church planting church. We believe that one of the best ways to reach new people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is through church planting. We do and will aggressively seek ways to plant new churches... but there are obstacles! Below is an article addressing some of those obstacles, or Limiting Factors. Money and Training seem to be two of the most common factors... and two of the factors that have been on my mind.
* This post is not meant to be an endorsement of MentorNet, but is meant to stir further thought on overcoming church planting obstacles.
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MentorNet #43
Factors Limiting Sustaining Church Planting Movements
Copyright © 2006 by Galen Currah and George Patterson
May be freely copied, translated, posted, and distributed.

1. Limiting factor: Many church planters are young men without jobs who must be supported by a limited source of funds that often come from outside of the region they serve.

Remedy: Enlist as church planters more persons who already have an income and who would qualify as a shepherding elder as defined by the New Testament.

2. Limiting factor: If church planters are trained only in occasional workshops or academies held during the day, then those who work during the day cannot attend them. Thus, only single young people are trained, bypassing ‘elder types’ who support themselves and have the maturity required in many communities to reach serious-minded heads of families.
Remedy: Supplement class-room type training with mentoring that is available to all, such as is described under “Mentor New Leaders” from www.MentorAndMultiply.com.

3. Limiting factor: Church planters who are volunteers and self-supported often have jobs or businesses that do not let them travel far.
Remedy: Let paid or professional church planters start only the first two or three churches in a region, as they are able to travel afar. Thereafter, let these churches send some of their own members to plant the rest of the churches nearby in their region. The most effective church planting teams normally are composed of members of a nearby 'mother' church of the same culture. Such members usually have friends and relatives living where they plant daughter churches. This type of churchFactors Limiting Sustaining Church Planting Movements 2 reproduction is described under “Start, Develop and Renew God's Flocks” at www.MentorAndMultiply.com.

4. Limiting factor: New churches often have new leaders with only a minimal amount of training and Bible knowledge.
Remedy: Enable all shepherds to fulfill their biblical duty of mentoring the new leaders of their daughter churches in the same way that Jesus and the apostle Paul did, as also described under “Mentor New Leaders” at www.MentorAndMultiply.com.

5. Limiting factor: Missionaries and church planters often lack experience in a type of mentoring that is both biblical and 'menu-driven,' which meets urgent needs of new churches, and is geared to rapid church reproduction.
Remedies: 1) Ask a mentor to help you start mentoring. The mentors listed under “Select a Mentor Skilled in your Area” at www.MentorAndMultiply.com charge no fees (unless being mentored for academic credit). They will stay with you, helping you to think through your plans, until you see churches multiply.
2) Teach and apply biblical guidelines of Christian mentoring. See “Tasks of a Christian mentor and Mentoring 'Chains' in Scripture” under “Mentor New Leaders” at www.MentorAndMultiply.com.

6. Limiting factor: Mentoring the way Jesus and Paul did it proves too time-consuming to continue doing indefinitely.
Remedy: Like Jesus and Paul's apprentices, your trainees must be weaned from intensive mentoring as soon as their churches are practicing the vital ministries that are required by the New Testament. These trainees, in turn, must by now have the confidence and skills to mentor other, newer leaders of their daughter churches or cells. Trainees can then receive ongoing training in more conventional forms such as workshops, personal reading and classroom instruction. Just take care not to force institutional training on the newer leaders.

Conclusion
Sustaining a church planting movement requires ongoing training of church planters and shepherds. In many movements, especially where churches must multiply under severe restrictions, mentoring as done in the ways that Christ and Paul did it, does in fact sustain the movement.

See the entire article HERE.

Finding Bigfoot... in a Missional Community

Earlier this week I had a little chill time at home. Ivey and Robby were doing homework and Amy was helping. That left me and Elijah - and a little TV time. After a few minutes of channel surfing, trying to find something I could watch with Elijah, he chose his show with excitement... Finding Bigfoot.

OK, I thought... "maybe there is something interesting here." That lasted for about 5 minutes. Then my thoughts included: "This is the dumbest show I have ever seen," and "surely this isn't real." I moved on to silently wonder, "do people actually watch this?" and "do they think week after week after week - MAYBE this will be the week that they actually FIND Bigfoot?" Meanwhile, Elijah is loving it! The night searches scare him. The people talking about what they saw in the woods captivates him. He loves it... cuddled next to me he loves it. He's 8. I didn't love it... not the show... not for a whole hour! But I do love Elijah. And I enjoy seeing him happy. And sometimes he just needs to sit and talk, and laugh, and be scared with daddy. So for Elijah, and enjoyment of him - I watched the entire episode!

At New City Church we value life lived in community... a diverse community... we believe that this community should be racially diverse, culturally diverse, socio-economically diverse, and age/stage of life diverse. THIS should describe our Missional Communities (MCs). Sometimes living in that diversity is tough as one group or age may enjoy things that others don't. One group may want to do things, see things, talk about things that are as important to others. BUT learning from one another and living in this diversity is a) the biblical example for church, b) the best way/place for the "one anothers" of Scripture to be lived out, and c) according to the apostle Paul is the way that best exhibits to creation the manifold wisdom of God in the Gospel.

So - how with the difficulties associated with diversity do MCs work?

Like Finding Bigfoot with me and Elijah.

For the good and unity of the community and our own good and for the glory of God, we sometimes set ourselves and our desires aside and put others first. Paul said it this way in Philippians 2:

³Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus

The New South Needs Church Plants

As High As 450... that's the number of churches in Macon, more per capita than any city in the South and by some accounts more than any city in the US. With all of those churches it would seem that Macon must be the most churched city in the US, but it is far from it. This Sunday and estimated 75% of Macon's population will sleep in.

If Macon statistics are similar to National statistics:
* 80% of those 450 churches have plateaued or are declining,
* "growing" established churches receive 80-90% of their new people as transfers from an existing church,

* and the percentage of those claiming to be Christian will continue to decline (87% in 1990, 76% 2008).

Sadly, I once read that 95% of existing churches are unable to change their DNA. This means that they are unable to change methodologies and styles (not theology) in order to meet the challenges and changes of our world.

That's why New City Church plants churches... even in a city with more churches per capita than any city in the South, and thats why we will plant more... to engage a changing culture with the unchanging Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you want to plant with us, email me - keith@newcitydowntown.org and join us this Saturday at our first Church Planters Roundtable.