Are we using the right scorecard? No says Reggie McNeal in Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church.

Our ecclesiology, or how we view the purpose and place for the gathered church, has been skewed since the Protestant Reformation says Brad Brisco. A renewed thought process, called Missional Ecclesiology,  is trying to refocus our churches upon what it means to be both the church and about the church's mission rather than about marketing or infrastructures.

The scorecard is under debate. What are the numbers that interest you?

I listened to Gil Rendle speak last night at the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. He talked about the man who lay for 38 years, paralyzed, by a pool of water that occasionally would be stirred for healing those who got in quick. When the waters were stirred, healing came.Gil said, "You would have thought in that 38 years that he at least had devised a strategy!" It's when the waters are troubled, moving, stirring - that God is beckoning.

"We've been trying to CALM the waters when God is trying to cause trouble!"
- Gil Rendle, Annual Conference, June 16, 2009

 Leadership is to take action when the waters are troubling. Leadership is to courageously move when anxiety is high, and there seems to be no definitive answer. Leadership is not to make things feel calm, when God is moving and stirring up trouble.

Finally, leadership is to be willing to lead without knowing the way. Others will cave to a quick fix or immediate bandaid that simply makes us feel better about our church and ministry. Leadership means to say, "We don't know the answer yet. Let's ask some new questions of ourselves and dig deeper."

When the worship attendance numbers are down, it's easy to find new programs or "this solution" to increase numbers. It's more troubling to ask other questions: "Who's missing?" Are children here? Are people coming but slipping out the back door? Who is it that we are chasing away? Is our vision of what God wants to do with us slipping away unnoticed? Where is anxiety felt in our congregation and why? What do we tell others about our church? What do we tell ourselves about our church behind closed doors?

To change the system of any congregation from death to fruitfulness, a Leader has to have courage to live in troubled waters, and lead others through the places God is asking for a new sight in seeing the stirred up places.

Richard Reising recently put up an older blog from pastors.com. A man complains that his church is not growing and says that he doesn't know why. But as he's challenged about what he thinks a friend he might bring to church would actually say or think about his church, the man grows quiet.

And then he says, "I know why my church isn't growing."

Wonder what our congregation members would say their friends would say? Perhaps we should find out.

These days, if you're yearning for community, you go online, right? I did last night and talked via Facebook with a good friend. We connected. Does that connection translate into real connection for a group of Jesus believers? Is the church going to be extinct any day now?

Some would argue that this is not "really" connection since there was no face time involved.But then, if people do see it as connection, will they stop coming to church?

The Networked Congregation: Embracing the Spirit of Experimentation is a conversation around Web 2.0 and the Congregation. Hear some opening remarks,