I write as one who is admittedly a Rooftop Noobie.

So here is my two cents worth, which because of my Noob status maybe worth a quarter pence. Some of these thoughts relate specifically to the Where Statement, some to the posts on the forum topic.

- it is unequivocally necessary to have a mission (purpose) statement and vision (where) statement - I can understand why people question the necessity of such statements.  How many people in our culture, when asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?", have extreme difficulty in answering that question.  I state that as one who struggled with that question for a long while, way past college.  We all tend to be meanderers. We all could use more than a little focus. Mission and Vision statements bring things into focus. Let me rephrase that, GOOD mission and vision statements bring things into focus. So what does Rooftop want to be when it grows up?  I think your mission and vision statements answer that question.

 - Praise God your mission statement passes the 3 AM Test.  What is the 3 AM test you ask?  If someone woke you from a dead sleep at 3 AM, slapped you in the face and asked "What is the mission of Rooftop Community Church?" Could you answer it? Better yet, can you answer it in one short sentence?  The mission statement of Rooftop provides people with such an answer. I have seen many confuddling mission statements produced by churches, organizations and businesses.  This past summer, when I read Rooftop's mission statement, I had two immediate responses: 1) Amen! 2) They get it!  I know, having listened to Matt's series on the Big Six (thank you Sermon Archives), that there was a struggle whether the mission statement was specific enough or good enough. Personally, its great, don't touch it.  As to the specificity, your vision statement serves that purposes.  Your vision statement should flesh out the details of the mission/purpose statement.

- Of the four parts of the the vision/where statement, the Big Six is, to me, the most important. If you were to continually strive to solely meet the Big  Six Values you would exceed the imaginations of most people and churches. The Big Six will make you or break you.

- I think Rooftop does an excellent job of communicating both the mission/purpose statement and it's core Big Six values.  I knew within two Sundays what this church was about.  Based on a few things I have heard, you may not feel you communicate it all that well.  I think you do. 

- The other three elements of the Where statement: healthy sized, network, regional are all secondary goals subservient to the Big Six.  For without the big six, those three elements are mere statistical quantifications.  Anyone can have a healthy sized, network of regional widgets but so what? Someone earlier mentioned the franchise concept.  Without the big six, what you have is merely a franchise concept and nothing more.  However, these three secondary elements serve to push the Big Six out into the wider arena of the world.

- Regional - You know, to be honest, any church in a metropolitan area is pretty much a regional church.  Even in inner city churches, where you might expect a more localized population from the neighborhood, they still draw a fair percentage of people from the "region".  This is just the nature of the church in general today. Only Roman Catholic churches which maintain parishes have been able to hold on to any form of localization.   Protestant metropolitan churches are regional.  So I am not sure this element truly adds any real value to the vision.

- Network - The network concept is a funny beast.  Earlier someone asked what the difference was between a network and a denomination. Here's a twist: in some denominations there are network churches.  Weird, huh.  One example: Perimeter Church in Atlanta, GA started out building a network of churches. Perimeter belongs to a denomination, the PCA.  The PCA, being a Presbyterian denomination has a presbyterian form of church govt (of course!).  This form of government is meant to provide "connection" among churches within a region, thus is sometimes called a "connectional" form of government. Leaders from the churches in a region meet quarterly to share, fellowship, encourage, plan, etc (or at least that is what they should be doing.) Perimeter is interesting in that they were attempting a network of churches that, honestly, already belonged to a network of churches.  It's sorta weird.  This network of churches is now called "Neighborhood Congregations". It is essentially a mega church with smaller "house" churches.  Everyone worships at one central place on Sundays, but meets bi-weekly at their house church. What's my point? I guess nothing other than the network concept is a funny beast.

 - Broadcasting a message to other sites from the main site breaks the Value of Community.  Part of building Community includes having a pastor/speaker to interactively engage with in-person.

-Healthy-sized - A good way to say it. Having a number as a goal should be avoided. Plus the whole mega church thing is questionable in my mind. There is a difference between mega and large churches.  Large churches do provide a tremendous amount of resource to the Body of Christ.  I do think the larger you get a church, the greater is your responsibility to serve the wider Body of Christ.

 - A final thought as my wife says I am up too late again.  I was intrigued as to why there were not more current Rooftoppers replying to this forum topic (as has been already mentioned).  My thoughts: 1) Most people are not web forum or web blog participators. I would not be overly concerned by lack of input in this venue.  2) Of more concern is any lack of input at all whether in conversation, meetings, etc.  3) You should print the thread and hand it out as more participation does grow.

- Ok another final thought: healthy churches grow.  They grow in number and maturity. And thats the trick.  Doing both. Keeping in mind there is no real timeline to growth other than stating that we all know the differences between thriving and declining churches no matter their size.  To cover all aspects of growth you have to be healthy; to be healthy you have to be committed to the principles of a healthy church; and for Rooftop that means fullfilling the Big Six. That is why the Big Six is the most important item mentioned in the Where statement.

 
Noobly Yours (and please forgive that late night bad grammar),

Paul