Skip to content

Fresh Expressions

Articles by

Chris Backert

How New Approaches to Leadership Could Revolutionize the Church Chris Backert | 4 Sep 2017 Distributed Responsibility and Organization Leadership in the post-modern, network style organization is dispersed throughout the organization. While modern organizations tended to operate with one singular leader or source of authority,...
How to Guide the Church Out From Industrialism Chris Backert | 9 Aug 2017 Organizations have also been waking up to the transitions affecting the wider culture. While some astute business leaders and academicians have been predicting fundamental changes in the structure of organizations...
How Cultural and Environmental Factors Impact Denominations Chris Backert | 12 Jul 2017 Before we create new models and solutions, we need to understand the situation better, taking a closer look at the external factors that are facing the church in our current...
Why Missional Networks Are Replacing Failing Denominations Chris Backert | 19 Jun 2017 The calling to participate in the mission of God led many families of shared belief to organize missionary societies for the sake of the propagation of the good news of...
How to Overcome Changes in the Social Environment Chris Backert | 22 May 2017 It’s no surprise that today’s world is different than that of yesteryear. The communications revolution is probably having almost as far-reaching an impact on today’s denominations as the new views...
Christ is Not a Stationary God in Central Pennsylvania Chris Backert | 2 Feb 2017 In the center of the Commonwealth, something is happening. Several months ago, Jeff Neikirk, a Church Council Leader supporting a fresh expression of church out of Zion Lutheran Church in...
The Ultimate Outcome of New Church Networks Chris Backert | 30 Jan 2017 If the binding cause around which new, covenanted church communities will gather is the missio Dei, and the intent of their gathering together is to be a community participating in...
The Equipping Gifts and New Church Networks Chris Backert | 7 Nov 2016 Many thinkers and practitioners are examining the role of the five-fold equipping model found in Ephesians 4 as an antidote to hierarchical leadership models of previous generations. In doing so,...
Why Being Missional Is Critical to New Church Networks Chris Backert | 26 Sep 2016  Churches involved in new church networks need something to bind them together. That is, they need a cohesive principle that will unite churches towards a common vision and move them...
Four Critical Attributes of a Fresh Expression of Church Chris Backert | 16 May 2016 The following excerpt is part of a longer article you can read on the Juicy Ecumenicism blog. Lightning Speed Changes It’s no surprise to most that we are facing challenging times within the...
Emerging Church and Missional Church: Same Difference? Chris Backert | 18 Apr 2016 There is a great deal of confusion among those who are outside these realms of conversation over the emerging and missional church. Some believe these movements are synonymous with one another, while...
Structured for Decline? Understanding the Strengths and Weaknesses of Denominational Systems Chris Backert | 2 Dec 2015 In order to examine factors relating to the decline of traditional denominations, a greater understanding of how denominations are structured is necessary. In many ways, the structure of trans-local covenanted...

Newer 123 4 Older

Church Revitalization [Free Webinar]

Watch this on-demand webinar featuring church revitalization practitioner David Graham.