Chapters 7 and 8:

Transitioning and Leaving a Legacy

Of any congregation I know, Bethlehem Lutheran Church in South Minneapolis has been the premiere Purpose Driven Lutheran Church in terms of transitioning and implementation.  Bethlehem is a large, very traditional congregation with a Gothic style sanctuary and traditional worship that is done with excellence.  They don't use projection screens, the pastors don't wear Hawaiian shirts during worship, and Bach and Mozart are more well known than Switchfoot and Nichole Nordeman.  Tania Haber (who wrote the Forward) and I served Bethlehem in the mid 1980's, and it served as a launching pad for both of our ministries.

On page 61 I mention Peter Steinke.  If you aren't familiar with Peter's Healthy Congregations material, it's available here and it's very helpful for congregational health when changing paradigms for ministry.  Peter came to St. Matthew in 1997 when we were in a transitional crisis (when I first started) and he helped put us on the road to church health.  Your synod office probably has Bridge Building resources available for this kind of transformational/transitional material.

On pages 63-66 I tell a little more about Bethlehem, but it would be helpful for you to spend some time at their website just to see what they've done.  Greg Meyer, Executive Pastor at Bethlehem also teaches two of the modules during the Purpose Driven Lutherans KAIROS course at Luther.  Chris Nelson, Senior Pastor at Bethlehem has taught many Purpose Driven classes around the country, and has been invited several times to India to teach at a Lutheran seminary there.  Any of the pastors there would be glad to be in conversation with you, mostly through email.  Rob Norris-Webber, the lead pastor at Spirit Garage, is an incredible resource for post-modern outreach, worship and ministry.  See Spirit Garage here and experience their ministry.  Rob was my parting staffing gift to Bethlehem when I left there in 1987, and has done incredible ministry there in the past 15 years.

I'd like to make this site into a great resource for transitioning to being purpose driven in a Lutheran setting.  I talk to pastors around the country every week about transitioning, and would appreciate any stories that you'd be willing to share.  Email me with your stories and comments about what's worked best, and I'll post them here.  The main purpose of this website is to be regularly responsive to questions that you have related to the book that you can ask at this site.  As time goes on I'll be posting more information from more and more congregations who have worked with this model, so keep checking back on a regular basis.

Again, email me and I'll keep your name on a list to keep you in touch with significant updates to this site (no more than twice a month), especially if there's a need for a PHPBB discussion forum related to issues raised in the book.  See this site as YOUR site for getting resources for developing your congregation into a healthy, vibrant community of fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.