Verlon Fosner

“But not all places are the same. If a church is located in suburbia, where families are the predominant social circle, then church-growth ideas work quite well when done right. However, if a church is located in an urban neighborhood in which singles are the predominant social circle, or in an impoverished neighborhood in which the lower third are the predominant social circle, then church-growth ideas will likely fail. This is why so many churches have moved out of our cities; they haven’t known how to do anything but the proclamation template, so they shrank into irrelevance, and then faced the choice to close down or move out. The”
― Verlon Fosner, Dinner Church: Building Bridges by Breaking Bread

“We have obsessed over Sunday-morning proclamation gatherings and organizational systems for so long, we have forgotten how to do honest missiological work in our own neighborhoods. Leaders would be well served by digging beneath the discussions of relevance based on speaking content, worship styles, sanctuary décor, branding, and prayer stations. These things all function on the proclamation template, which was designed during the Reformation; it is a teaching-based structure that assumes everyone has a churched understanding and is present for a greater understanding of Scripture. While that template is very meaningful for countless Christians, it was not designed to move people who hold a secular worldview toward faith.”
― Verlon Fosner, Dinner Church: Building Bridges by Breaking Bread