My ‘jealousy’ statement was mostly about the racial diversity I saw there. I found it interesting that this church was doing straight up charismatic worship songs, while I would guess that I would have to change our music to attract other ethnic groups here. That may not be true. One of my friends was telling me about his outreach efforts, and I was asking how effective they had been. He paused, then said that God always brought him new people when he did outreach, even if they weren’t directly reached by the outreach effort. That principle will probably apply if we aim for racial diversity.

Cheese is always subjective. We work very hard at Athens Vineyard not to be too cheesy, or if we are, we intentionally make fun of the cheese. Like when we wanted to start a financial freedom program, and we showed their promotional video without reviewing it. It was SO cheesy (we thought) and we made fun of it. Different program, but we think ‘Financial Peace University’ is a cheesy name. Bottom line, I think a lot of what preachers say is cheesy, esp charismatics. “this is tight, but it’s right. If you can take it you can make it.”

I find myself wrestling with targeting diversity as a value / reality within the church plant vs. letting it happen (super)”naturally”. I’d be interested to hear more about what their diversity made you value it. I have a couple of charismatic churches here in delaware which, I admit, are fairly diverse and I share your “jealousy” that we would be able to attract more of them. We’re currently gathering towards the church plant and haven’t been released yet, but its always on my mind.

thanks for sharing the thoughts…what qualifies for “cheese”, by the way?

jb