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September 29, 2007

Ancient-Future Session Three: Re-Imagining Community

From Dave Treat

The foundations of biblical community were built for the future, allowing us to soar on the wings of innovation.

In this session, Bill Donahue talks with three church leaders about emerging trends in community life that portend both chaotic change and unprecedented opportunity.

Missional Communities: Denise VanEck of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan
Virtual Community: Bobby Gruenewald of LifeChurch.tv in Edmond, Oklahoma
Urban Community: Steve Wu of Willow Creek Community Church, regional campus, Chicago, Illinois

Ageless Influence
The results of building authentic community aren’t always immediately apparent. Mike Breaux, teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, reminds us of the ageless influence we have through relational ministry and that life change is the legacy we leave.

Session Three Preview
Dave Treat shares his anticipation of Session Three at the Ancient-Future Community Conference.

Watch Video: Ancient-Future Session Three Preview

Learn more about this session and speakers Denise VanEck, Bobby Gruenewald, Steve Wu, and Mike Breaux by visiting Session In Depth. Here you'll find links to additional resources, video clips, programming notes, and reflections from this session.

We want to hear what you think. To comment on this session, please click on the "Comments" link below.

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Comments

September 26, 2008 10:01 AM #

Barbara, visit the session in depth page for this session at www.willowcreek.com/.../GLAF_sat_breaux.asp and scroll down to Related Links & Resources. Under Bobby Gruenewald's name you'll find several links with more information on LifeChurch.tv and some of their online innovations. If you just want to visit LifeChurch.tv's Web site, go to http://LifeChurch.tv
Hope that helps!

Erica Dekker

September 26, 2008 10:01 AM #

Honestly I felt the LifeChurch.tv portion with Bobby Gruenewald was not up to LifeChurch.tv's standards (and Willow's for that matter). I think until the bandwidth grows, you should consider only doing that kind of thing via direct link video (like news stations) or recorded interview. Watching the sketchy video was distracting and painful. Worse, after having told my team about how advanced LifeChurch.tv is technologically, I looked rather silly with a low quality presentation. I had really hoped to learn something from Bobby G., but only got a mile high overview of what they are doing as a church. While that might be interesting for some (read their blog people!) it wasn't really informative/educational in a way to help me advance the cause of Groups in my church.

Big Chris

Big Chris

September 26, 2008 10:01 AM #

I attended the last session and would like to see what lifechurch and the internet
small groups is really about. How do I access it?
I'm an older woman and do not have facebook or My Space. It really interested me and I'd like to learn more about it before I mention it to the teens in my church.

Barbara Finn

September 26, 2008 10:02 AM #

When I first heard about "online community," I thought perhaps this was the biggest oxymoron of all time. If we're trying to connect people into groups, why are we encouraging sitting alone in front of a computer screen? But then I got to thinking that perhaps this could be used, if we got creative about what we're doing with it. What about an online community for seekers?

Bill Sines

September 26, 2008 10:45 AM #

I join in to community with my youth online through facebook and "My Space."

I just added the lifechurch facebook application and just invited all my friends to "go to church" with me

Saaaweeeet!

Bob Felton

September 26, 2008 10:45 AM #

Doug, I have the site--I accessed it thru the link on the GroupLife page.

wendy seidman

September 26, 2008 10:46 AM #

The Chicago site is working for me.

Erica

September 26, 2008 10:46 AM #

Wendy... I reloaded flash..still not working...are you seeing the site?

Doug

September 26, 2008 10:47 AM #

We are in the process of trying to do more missionally, but I'm wondering if it's going to require a major shift in model and structure. I think we have great opportunities with web-based, but we've got to think through it some more.

Heather Zempel

September 26, 2008 10:47 AM #

I think for us it would be a combo of missional with some of that being or bringing a cross cultural element...

Doug

September 26, 2008 10:48 AM #

Website probably requires Flash, do you have it installed on your computer?

wendy seidman

September 26, 2008 10:48 AM #

Hey...why is the Chicago campus website not working?

Doug

September 26, 2008 10:49 AM #

Who else out there is doing online community? We experimented with it for a bit, but it never seemed to take off. How is it structured? Do you have leaders? Is training provided for them online? What are the unique advantages and challenges?

Heather Zempel