StretchyChurch

Today I found out that Clark Cowden is going to be the new Executive Presbyter for San Diego Presbytery. Clark is currently the Evangelist Presbyter for San Joaquin Presbytery and will be starting in San Diego in the fall. Here’s why this is kinda cool…

Last fall, I had an e-mail conversation with Clark about the possibility of planting a church in Fresno, CA. That didn’t end up happening due to lack of funds in the San Joaquin Presbytery.

With that in mind, let me share with you what I know about Clark Cowden:

1) He seems like a nice guy in his e-mails.
2) He wrote one of the blurbs on the back of The Missional Leader, which I’ve been referring to a lot lately.
3) He’s younger than I imagined.
4) He seems pretty focused on helping the church become missional.

Anyway, not knowing a whole lot about Clark, I did a Google search and found this article that he wrote in May for the PGF Outbox (PGF = Presbyterian Global Fellowship).

In a nutshell, he compares the church with an airport terminal. An airport terminal is not designed to be anyone’s final destination. Likewise, the church should never be a person’s final destination–people should always be moving through the church and out into ministry. Unfortunately, the church is always counting how many people show up inside our walls. It would be silly if an airport terminal prided itself on how many people came and stayed at the terminal!

Anyway, a neat metaphor for the missional church. Read his article here.

(By the way, Russell Smith, a friend of mine here in Cincinnati, also writes for the PGF Outbox. He’s got some good stuff on there, too, if you’re interested…)