Comments on: Church growth Amish style

By: JAMES SASSE

JAMES SASSE — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:08:42 +0000

WEB SITE; GODWHOISGOD.COM IS A GOSPEL TRACT IN OVER 50 LANGUAGES FOR EVANGELISM TO MUSLIMS, HINDUS AND SIKHS FOR JESUS CHRIST. THANKYOU. JAMES AND HAMSA.

By: Church Growth Amish Style « Ramblin’ Pastor Man

Church Growth Amish Style « Ramblin’ Pastor Man — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:44:29 +0000

[...] October 18, 2008 by Dan Lowe Dr. Gene Veith recently posted some interesting facts about growth among the Amish (they have grown 84% since 1992.) The majority of this growth is the result of high birthrates (on average, each Amish family has 5 children with 85% of these children remaining Amish.) The thrust of his post is the weakness among evangelicals when it comes to evangelizing their own children. Sobering stuff here. You can read it for yourself at http://www.geneveith.com/church-growth-amish-style/_992/ [...]

By: Church Growth Methods: Amish Style « Reformed Antithesis

Church Growth Methods: Amish Style « Reformed Antithesis — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:59:23 +0000

[...] 2008 Posted by heldveld in Antithesis, Blog Spotting, Christian Parenting, Evangelism. trackback Gene Veith points out some interesting facts on Amish church growth. I’ve always had an interest in the Amish. It’s hard not to be inspired by people who [...]

By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:48:31 +0000

I’ve encountered ELS pastors at a conference, and I felt pretty good about them. FWIW.

By: The Scylding

The Scylding — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:47:35 +0000

Ok, I’m still around, but no politics…

Here in SK (as well as MB, AB & BC), the observation on the Amish growth also holds for the Hutterite Community.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutterite)

By: TK

TK — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:31:19 +0000

Anon,

I believe this issue might have been discussed recently in the ELS.

I think that our principal serves in the function you have described. I will check with him. I’m on our school board, but we deal more with numbers, staff and curriculum. Our K-8 school is quite large (192 students), so we are blessed with teachers and a principal; our pastors also minister to the school.

By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:57:01 +0000

Um, that should be “under the authority of the pastor”

By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:56:00 +0000

The DCE is something unique to the LCMS, as far as I know.

The way I understand it (correct me if I’m wrong) is that when the LCMS decided to have female school teachers, they couldn’t let male teachers do the ministerial things that they used to do. Yet there was still a need. With a lot of historical complications, the Director of Christian X (Education, Outreach, Family Ministry, etc) is a sort of diaconate, a servant to the office of the public ministry in the area of the ministry of the Word, but not of the Sacraments.

A DCE by serving the pastor in taking over the educational ministry of the parish – under the authority of the parish – allows the pastor to focus on such things as the liturgical ministry of the Word and the Sacraments, counseling, more time to prepare sermons, and so forth.

In practice, these commissioned (not ordained) ministers are used in lots of ways.

Due to history, ELS and WELS don’t have this role, though if they still have the commissioned male teacher, they might be performing some of those roles.

By: Erich Heidenreich, DDS

Erich Heidenreich, DDS — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:15:09 +0000

Here’s a link to a 45 minute mp3 of Pastor Tim Pauls teaching at our youth retreat 10/5/08 about this exact subject:

http://tinyurl.com/46hjg7

Every parent and future parent should hear it!

By: CRB

CRB — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:08:00 +0000

Speaking of youth, here is a sermon from yesterday (10/12) that cites a statistic of 70% of young people,
age 18-22 drop out of church. Excellent sermon on Eph. 6:10-17!
http://www.stpaulbluepoint.org/page1/page3/page3.html