A New Kind of Big: How Churches of Any Size Can Partner to Transform Communities by Chip Sweney (Baker Books, 2011)
In my final year of seminary (Fall 2005), I wrote a paper on collaboration amongst churches and particularly why so little actually happened. In my research, people told me I needed to talk to a man that was making it happen in Atlanta, Chip Sweney of Unite! Since writing that paper, I’ve had the opportunity to become a part of Unite! and it has changed my ministry and my church forever.
A New Kind of Big tells the story of how churches, large and small, have come together to achieve what they can’t on their own- community transformation. The book is an easy, quick read with real-world examples and stories. Whether a pastor or lay leader in a small or large church, this book will lead you forward in the Kingdom task that our Lord has given us.
Sweney contends that the local church has responsibility for the welfare of its community and leads churches step-by-step through the process of becoming a catalyst for community transformation. Sweney paints the vision for churches coming together as the Body to accomplish a task too large for any one church- taking a city from floundering to flourishing.
I gained four key revelations or reminders reading the book:
1. The emphasis on partnerships. So often a church wants to start and run a ministry by itself. Sweney advocates for the power of working alongside the experts already in the trenches, organizations that know the needs more intimately and have already strategized effective ways to help. It’s important to point out that churches shouldn’t just dump money and ask for an update every so often. Instead, churches should find a lay champion and engage its people in the ministry.
2. Real ministry is done through relationships: relationships with those in our community, relationships with other churches’ leaders, relationships with partners, relationships with the people we serve.
3. The Kingdom call to become an externally-focused church of influence in our city.
4. The concept of “Channels of Cultural Influence” (Chapter 10) – These eight channels- education, health care, business, art and entertainment, media, nonprofits, government, and law/justice- are the playing field for our Kingdom work. By leveraging the members of our churches who are already living and working in these channels, we can increasingly reflect the characteristics of the kingdom of God throughout society and that is when true community transformation takes off.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
BLESS core values
At Austell First UMC, this is the grounding for who we are as a church, our vision for making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world:
Blessing our community is more than just loving our community. Through our actions, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, we express God’s grace, the love of Christ.
Blessing involves God. Many citizens love and serve their community. Christians are the only ones that can bless their community.
BLESS core values
• God goes before us (prevenient grace)
• Generously BLESS others
• Servant hood (Jesus washing disciples feet)
Go to be a servant, not serve (we don’t take an agenda with us)
“When we serve others, we look strangely like God.” (Pastor Erwin McManus)
• Deliver radical love that amazes the world it touches (Randy Pope, Perimeter Church, Georgia)
• We want people to wonder why we are doing this.
Are church members living in such a way that they demonstrate something people far from God cannot live without? (Bill Easum) We want people to ask, “How can I get some of that. How can I be like that? How can I serve/love/bless like that?
• Being an asset to our community (they would be worse off without us)
□ Can you imagine the community being genuinely thankful for your church?
□ Can you imagine city leaders valuing your church’s friendship and participation in the community- even asking for it?
□ Can you imagine a large number of your church members actively engaged in, and passionate about,
community service, using their gifts and abilities in ways and at levels, they never thought possible?
□ Can you imagine the spiritual harvest that would naturally follow if all this were true?
(Pastor Robert Lewis, Fellowship Bible Church, Little Rock AR)
• A catalyst for community transformation (can’t do it all, but we can get it started)
• Bring healing to a hurting world
• Impact our city with the love of Christ
• Taking light into darkness
• The Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27) - the hands, feet, and heart of Christ in the world
• Reach the world for Christ by serving one person at a time
• Sharing God’s love in practical ways
• No strings attached. Blessing folks even if they will never set foot in our church.
• Blessings are gifts; they can’t be earned. Thus, we BLESS even those we may think don’t deserve it. Unreasonable grace.
1 Peter 3:9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing. You can give them back what they gave you. Or you can give them back what God gave you. (Steven Furtick)
• Move people one step closer to Christ. (SCALE)
• Leave the results to God. Trust God to take our efforts and do great work through them.
• God gets the credit
Matthew 5:16 Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
• BLESS is not what we do. It is who we are. Blessing is a lifestyle for Christians.
Blessing our community is more than just loving our community. Through our actions, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, we express God’s grace, the love of Christ.
Blessing involves God. Many citizens love and serve their community. Christians are the only ones that can bless their community.
BLESS core values
• God goes before us (prevenient grace)
• Generously BLESS others
• Servant hood (Jesus washing disciples feet)
Go to be a servant, not serve (we don’t take an agenda with us)
“When we serve others, we look strangely like God.” (Pastor Erwin McManus)
• Deliver radical love that amazes the world it touches (Randy Pope, Perimeter Church, Georgia)
• We want people to wonder why we are doing this.
Are church members living in such a way that they demonstrate something people far from God cannot live without? (Bill Easum) We want people to ask, “How can I get some of that. How can I be like that? How can I serve/love/bless like that?
• Being an asset to our community (they would be worse off without us)
□ Can you imagine the community being genuinely thankful for your church?
□ Can you imagine city leaders valuing your church’s friendship and participation in the community- even asking for it?
□ Can you imagine a large number of your church members actively engaged in, and passionate about,
community service, using their gifts and abilities in ways and at levels, they never thought possible?
□ Can you imagine the spiritual harvest that would naturally follow if all this were true?
(Pastor Robert Lewis, Fellowship Bible Church, Little Rock AR)
• A catalyst for community transformation (can’t do it all, but we can get it started)
• Bring healing to a hurting world
• Impact our city with the love of Christ
• Taking light into darkness
• The Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27) - the hands, feet, and heart of Christ in the world
• Reach the world for Christ by serving one person at a time
• Sharing God’s love in practical ways
• No strings attached. Blessing folks even if they will never set foot in our church.
• Blessings are gifts; they can’t be earned. Thus, we BLESS even those we may think don’t deserve it. Unreasonable grace.
1 Peter 3:9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing. You can give them back what they gave you. Or you can give them back what God gave you. (Steven Furtick)
• Move people one step closer to Christ. (SCALE)
• Leave the results to God. Trust God to take our efforts and do great work through them.
• God gets the credit
Matthew 5:16 Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
• BLESS is not what we do. It is who we are. Blessing is a lifestyle for Christians.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Book Notes: Waking to God’s Dream
Waking to God’s Dream: Spiritual Leadership and Church Renewal (1999) by Dick Wills (now a UMC Bishop)
It is not what you are now that is important, but what God wants you to be and what you can be with faith.
A vision without a task is just a dream. A task without a vision is pure drudgery. When you combine a vision and a task it can become the hope of the world.
A vision is seeing not what is now, but what can be and will be in the future.
God put eyes in the front so that when we look backward, we get a stiff neck.
God selects one person to announce the vision on behalf of all the other people. God plants the vision secretly in the hearts of people. They cannot see the vision until the person God has chosen reveals it. Once the vision is announced, it must be confirmed by the people for whom the vision is given. God plants the vision secretly in the hearts of God’s people, even though they might not be aware of it. However, when it is announced, it wins acceptance from those committed to God because God has made it their vision, secretly, sometime before.
God is always ready to give a new vision when the old vision comes to maturity. Otherwise, the vision simply dies and perishes. Mainline denominations are declining because leaders have not been willing to listen to the God who is seeking to reproduce the vision for a new day.
I wanted to be a part of what God was blessing!
John Wesley was asked what could reasonably be expected of a Methodist preacher: “To reform the Nation and the Church and to spread scriptural holiness over the land.”
We had substituted meetings for ministry.
My weariness came from having left behind a daily walk with God, substituting in its place taking control and wanting to be successful in the eyes of others.
Went to South Africa- I began to wonder how these people, living under such difficult and violent conditions could have such joy?
Joy comes from walking with God and is not dependent on external circumstances.
An openness to begin the journey of choosing to be part of what God wanted to bless rather than my trying to get God to bless what I was doing.
So I began to pray each day for God to help me and my church be part of what God wanted to bless.
God blesses obedience. I understand obedience as choosing to seek and discern the will of God as a follower of Jesus. Obedience is to choose daily to give my life to God.
Belonging to my church for many people was like belonging to a club rather than to the church of Jesus Christ. Seldom did I sense people yearning for the things of God. Being a member of the church was simply synonymous with being a good citizen, a good American. What I would call “cultural Christians.” Christianity was to be learned, not experienced. Cultural Christians subscribe to a kind of hen house logic: “If you sit in a hen house, it will make you a chicken.” If you attend worship, you will be a Christian. Having a personal experience with Jesus Christ was replaced with simply attending worship.
I began to see my preaching as an invitation to become a follower of Jesus. I started preaching as though I were speaking to a group of people who knew nothing about Christianity. I was calling our people to make a choice to be fully devoted followers of Jesus and to claim the new life that I knew God wanted for each of them.
Jesus set out to change the world by choosing a small group of people to disciple.
Not my ideas, but a willingness to be part of what God is blessing.
In order to know if this vision was really a word from God or just a clever attempt by my imagination to speak on God’s behalf, I became convinced that I had to share the vision with the congregation for a year. 3-week sermon series to outline vision, then preached on it monthly. At first people were indifferent to this new vision. As the year moved along, I heard from laity in stronger and stronger ways that confirmed this new vision.
Lifted the vision repeatedly as pastor, asked each area to justify what it was doing by the vision.
As I read the NT, I could find only one place where the voting majority ruled (Acts 27). I believe the church was never meant to be a democracy. We in the church are to function under a theocracy. The only thing that matters is the will of God. We quit voting. We decided that if an activity focuses on our vision statement and is supported by Scripture, then those proposing the new ministry could begin.
In meetings, Wills asked committee to pray silently on an issue for ten minutes. What is God’s will in this issue? After ten minutes, he asked if anyone had a word from God that would be a negative, a concern, or a “not now” that the group should hear.
The greater the relationship, the fewer the rules.
Raise up and consecrate lay pastors to care for and lead the ministries of the church.
Administrative groups need to be seen as ministry and not business. Lay Pastors are the spiritual leaders for their action group in the church.
Lay Pastors are not chosen by the church or by the pastor of the church, but they are called by God.
The first requirement is that each Lay Pastor must commit to a daily time of prayer and Scripture reading.
Lay Pastors are the basic caregivers of the congregation.
As pastor, I submit myself to the authority of the Lay Pastor when I am on their turf (ministry area, small group).
Chad Walsh: “I suspect that Satan has called off his attempt to convert people to agnosticism. After all, if a man travels far enough away from Christianity, he is liable to see it in perspective and decide it is true. It is much safer from Satan’s point of view, to vaccinate a man with a mild case of Christianity so as to protect him from the real disease.”
People choose to be comfortable over choosing to be faithful.
Daily walk with God.
Individual change precedes organizational change.
Focus on leadership, not management.
Strive first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33)
For spiritual leaders, the cross is not something laid upon us by God. It is something we must pick up. As a spiritual leader, as soon as we decide to fulfill the specific purpose God has for us, we pick up our cross. It is not necessary that we should know what God’s purpose is. It is necessary only that we decide to fulfill it. To pick up my cross, I must learn to lay down my right to myself. Gradually, it dawns upon a spiritual leader that good work does not produce fruit. Dying to self and doing God’s will produces fruit.
God unfolds revelation moment by moment.
It is not what you are now that is important, but what God wants you to be and what you can be with faith.
A vision without a task is just a dream. A task without a vision is pure drudgery. When you combine a vision and a task it can become the hope of the world.
A vision is seeing not what is now, but what can be and will be in the future.
God put eyes in the front so that when we look backward, we get a stiff neck.
God selects one person to announce the vision on behalf of all the other people. God plants the vision secretly in the hearts of people. They cannot see the vision until the person God has chosen reveals it. Once the vision is announced, it must be confirmed by the people for whom the vision is given. God plants the vision secretly in the hearts of God’s people, even though they might not be aware of it. However, when it is announced, it wins acceptance from those committed to God because God has made it their vision, secretly, sometime before.
God is always ready to give a new vision when the old vision comes to maturity. Otherwise, the vision simply dies and perishes. Mainline denominations are declining because leaders have not been willing to listen to the God who is seeking to reproduce the vision for a new day.
I wanted to be a part of what God was blessing!
John Wesley was asked what could reasonably be expected of a Methodist preacher: “To reform the Nation and the Church and to spread scriptural holiness over the land.”
We had substituted meetings for ministry.
My weariness came from having left behind a daily walk with God, substituting in its place taking control and wanting to be successful in the eyes of others.
Went to South Africa- I began to wonder how these people, living under such difficult and violent conditions could have such joy?
Joy comes from walking with God and is not dependent on external circumstances.
An openness to begin the journey of choosing to be part of what God wanted to bless rather than my trying to get God to bless what I was doing.
So I began to pray each day for God to help me and my church be part of what God wanted to bless.
God blesses obedience. I understand obedience as choosing to seek and discern the will of God as a follower of Jesus. Obedience is to choose daily to give my life to God.
Belonging to my church for many people was like belonging to a club rather than to the church of Jesus Christ. Seldom did I sense people yearning for the things of God. Being a member of the church was simply synonymous with being a good citizen, a good American. What I would call “cultural Christians.” Christianity was to be learned, not experienced. Cultural Christians subscribe to a kind of hen house logic: “If you sit in a hen house, it will make you a chicken.” If you attend worship, you will be a Christian. Having a personal experience with Jesus Christ was replaced with simply attending worship.
I began to see my preaching as an invitation to become a follower of Jesus. I started preaching as though I were speaking to a group of people who knew nothing about Christianity. I was calling our people to make a choice to be fully devoted followers of Jesus and to claim the new life that I knew God wanted for each of them.
Jesus set out to change the world by choosing a small group of people to disciple.
Not my ideas, but a willingness to be part of what God is blessing.
In order to know if this vision was really a word from God or just a clever attempt by my imagination to speak on God’s behalf, I became convinced that I had to share the vision with the congregation for a year. 3-week sermon series to outline vision, then preached on it monthly. At first people were indifferent to this new vision. As the year moved along, I heard from laity in stronger and stronger ways that confirmed this new vision.
Lifted the vision repeatedly as pastor, asked each area to justify what it was doing by the vision.
As I read the NT, I could find only one place where the voting majority ruled (Acts 27). I believe the church was never meant to be a democracy. We in the church are to function under a theocracy. The only thing that matters is the will of God. We quit voting. We decided that if an activity focuses on our vision statement and is supported by Scripture, then those proposing the new ministry could begin.
In meetings, Wills asked committee to pray silently on an issue for ten minutes. What is God’s will in this issue? After ten minutes, he asked if anyone had a word from God that would be a negative, a concern, or a “not now” that the group should hear.
The greater the relationship, the fewer the rules.
Raise up and consecrate lay pastors to care for and lead the ministries of the church.
Administrative groups need to be seen as ministry and not business. Lay Pastors are the spiritual leaders for their action group in the church.
Lay Pastors are not chosen by the church or by the pastor of the church, but they are called by God.
The first requirement is that each Lay Pastor must commit to a daily time of prayer and Scripture reading.
Lay Pastors are the basic caregivers of the congregation.
As pastor, I submit myself to the authority of the Lay Pastor when I am on their turf (ministry area, small group).
Chad Walsh: “I suspect that Satan has called off his attempt to convert people to agnosticism. After all, if a man travels far enough away from Christianity, he is liable to see it in perspective and decide it is true. It is much safer from Satan’s point of view, to vaccinate a man with a mild case of Christianity so as to protect him from the real disease.”
People choose to be comfortable over choosing to be faithful.
Daily walk with God.
Individual change precedes organizational change.
Focus on leadership, not management.
Strive first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33)
For spiritual leaders, the cross is not something laid upon us by God. It is something we must pick up. As a spiritual leader, as soon as we decide to fulfill the specific purpose God has for us, we pick up our cross. It is not necessary that we should know what God’s purpose is. It is necessary only that we decide to fulfill it. To pick up my cross, I must learn to lay down my right to myself. Gradually, it dawns upon a spiritual leader that good work does not produce fruit. Dying to self and doing God’s will produces fruit.
God unfolds revelation moment by moment.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Prayers for Church, Community and Pastor
At Austell First UMC, we are building a praying church. We began by getting some people to agree to pray for the church and pastor on a certain day of each week. We now have each day covered by at least two people. We provided them with this prayer sheet and also gave it out to the entire congregation to pray as available. Credit goes to Terry Teykl for a great deal of this (www.renewalministries.com).
Consistent Prayers for AFUMC
Lord Jesus, we desperately seek and pray for a movement of God to happen in our church and in our community. Move powerfully in our midst. (Acts 2:2-4)
Lord, we yearn for spiritual revival in the lives of our people and in the life of our church. Make us new creations individually and also as a church. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Pour out your Spirit upon us. (Acts 2:17).
Lord, bless our church leaders with faith, vision, dreams, boldness, courage, and persistence. (Acts 4:31)
Lord, fill me and every person of AFUMC with the Holy Spirit so that we might act with boldness to fulfill your mission. (Acts 4:31)
Lord of the harvest, rise up laborers for the harvest within our church and send Austell First UMC new laborers to join your mission here. (Matthew 9:38)
Lord, provide mightily the needed resources to do your work in this community. (Malachi 3:10)
O Lord, give me and AFUMC a burden for those far from God. (Romans 10:1)
Thank you for your prevenient grace. We praise you Father God for the work you are doing to draw people towards you. May AFUMC be faithful to do our part in this work. (John 6:44)
Almighty God, open the hearts of the people of our Austell community (Acts 16:41) and open doors that we might share the mystery of Christ with them (Colossians 4:3).
Holy Spirit, add to our numbers those who become believers and turn towards the Lord. (Acts 11:21, 2:47, 5:14, 9:42)
Lord, pull our church together around our vision of BLESS. May it become who we are and not just what we do. May it glorify you. May it accomplish your purposes. Continue to lead and direct us in discerning how best to live out this vision. (Matthew 18:19)
Heal within our church any hurt feelings, past wounds, confusion, bitterness, or discouragement. Send a spirit of forgiveness. (Ephesians 4:31)
Forgive our church for how we have fallen short in your desires and dreams for us. (Romans 3:23)
By your power, Lord, bring about church renewal and revival at AFUMC.
By your power, bring about community transformation. In your name, allow AFUMC to be a catalyst for that community transformation.
Help us to not grow weary in doing what you desire Lord, for you assure us that we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)
Consistent Prayers for Pastor Brett
· Fill Pastor Brett with your Holy Spirit. Anoint him. Bless him.
· Speak to him powerfully this week as he prepares the sermon.
· Lord, bless him with faith, vision, dreams, boldness, courage, energy, and persistence.
· Lord, lead and guide Pastor Brett as he listens to you for direction for our church.
· Protect him from forces of darkness (spiritual and earthly) that wish to stop your mission here.
· Keep Pastor Brett focused on things above (Colossians 3:1-3)
· Clothe him with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. (Colossians 3:12)
· Bless Pastor Brett with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22)
Consistent Prayers for AFUMC
Lord Jesus, we desperately seek and pray for a movement of God to happen in our church and in our community. Move powerfully in our midst. (Acts 2:2-4)
Lord, we yearn for spiritual revival in the lives of our people and in the life of our church. Make us new creations individually and also as a church. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Pour out your Spirit upon us. (Acts 2:17).
Lord, bless our church leaders with faith, vision, dreams, boldness, courage, and persistence. (Acts 4:31)
Lord, fill me and every person of AFUMC with the Holy Spirit so that we might act with boldness to fulfill your mission. (Acts 4:31)
Lord of the harvest, rise up laborers for the harvest within our church and send Austell First UMC new laborers to join your mission here. (Matthew 9:38)
Lord, provide mightily the needed resources to do your work in this community. (Malachi 3:10)
O Lord, give me and AFUMC a burden for those far from God. (Romans 10:1)
Thank you for your prevenient grace. We praise you Father God for the work you are doing to draw people towards you. May AFUMC be faithful to do our part in this work. (John 6:44)
Almighty God, open the hearts of the people of our Austell community (Acts 16:41) and open doors that we might share the mystery of Christ with them (Colossians 4:3).
Holy Spirit, add to our numbers those who become believers and turn towards the Lord. (Acts 11:21, 2:47, 5:14, 9:42)
Lord, pull our church together around our vision of BLESS. May it become who we are and not just what we do. May it glorify you. May it accomplish your purposes. Continue to lead and direct us in discerning how best to live out this vision. (Matthew 18:19)
Heal within our church any hurt feelings, past wounds, confusion, bitterness, or discouragement. Send a spirit of forgiveness. (Ephesians 4:31)
Forgive our church for how we have fallen short in your desires and dreams for us. (Romans 3:23)
By your power, Lord, bring about church renewal and revival at AFUMC.
By your power, bring about community transformation. In your name, allow AFUMC to be a catalyst for that community transformation.
Help us to not grow weary in doing what you desire Lord, for you assure us that we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)
Consistent Prayers for Pastor Brett
· Fill Pastor Brett with your Holy Spirit. Anoint him. Bless him.
· Speak to him powerfully this week as he prepares the sermon.
· Lord, bless him with faith, vision, dreams, boldness, courage, energy, and persistence.
· Lord, lead and guide Pastor Brett as he listens to you for direction for our church.
· Protect him from forces of darkness (spiritual and earthly) that wish to stop your mission here.
· Keep Pastor Brett focused on things above (Colossians 3:1-3)
· Clothe him with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. (Colossians 3:12)
· Bless Pastor Brett with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22)
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Book Notes: Radical
Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream
By David Platt
Note: I highly recommend this book. These notes/quotes are great, but will be fully comprehended by reading the book.
We’ve replaced what’s radical about our faith with what is comfortable. We’re settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.
Yes, you are abandoning everything you have, but you are also gaining more than you could have in any other way.
We may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead we may be worshiping ourselves.
Bonhoeffer- “When Christ calls a man, he binds him come and die.”
The cost of nondiscipleship is profoundly greater for us than the cost of discipleship. For when we abandon the trinkets of this world and respond to the radical invitation of Jesus, we discover the infinite treasure of knowing and experiencing him.
The price of our nondiscipleship is high for those without Christ. It is high also for the poor of this world.
Christians shrink back from self-denying faith and settle into self-indulging faith.
The gospel does not prompt you to mere reflections; the gospel requires a response.
We desperately need to explore how much of our understanding of the gospel is American and how much is biblical.
The goal of the American dream is to make much of us, the goal of the gospel is to make much of God.
Would you say that your life is marked right now by desperation for the Spirit of God? Would you say that the church you are a part of is characterized by this sense of desperation?
The message of biblical Christianity is not “God loves me, period,” as if we were the object of our own faith. The message of biblical Christianity is “God loves me so that I might make him- his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness- know among all nations.” Now God is the object of our faith, and Christianity centers around him. We are not the end of the gospel; God is.
Where in the Bible is missions ever identified as an optional program in the church? Jesus commanded us to go to all nations. We have taken this command, though, and reduced it to a calling- something that only a few people receive. We have assigned the obligations of Christianity to a few while keeping the privileges of Christianity for us all.
What if anything less than passionate involvement in global mission is actually selling God short by frustrating the very purpose for which he created us?
God is committed to providing abundant resources in support of those who are living according to his purpose.
Christians: we live decent lives in decent homes with decent jobs and decent families as decent citizens.
Disciplining Christians involves propelling Christians into the world to risk losing their lives for the sake of others.
While caring for the poor is not the basis of our salvation, it is the evidence of salvation. The faith in Christ that saves us from our sins involves an internal transformation that has external implications. If there is no sign of caring for the poor in our lives, then there is reason to at least question whether Christ is in our hearts.
No teachers (including Jesus) in the NT ever promise material wealth as a reward for obedience.
Jesus doesn’t give options for people to consider; he gives commands for people to obey.
Jesus never intended to be one voice among many; he intends to be the voice.
Set a cap on our lifestyles so that we can give more.
We are tempted to settle for throwing our scraps to the poor.
The logic that says, “I can’t do everything, so I won’t do anything,” is straight from hell.
I don’t want to miss eternal treasure because I settle for earthly trinkets.
Good coverage of “Will people who haven’t heard about Jesus go to hell?” Goal is not to try and find an answer to it; our goal is to alleviate the question altogether.
The will of God is for you and me to give our lives urgently and recklessly to making the gospel known among all peoples, particularly those who have never even heard of Jesus.
By David Platt
Note: I highly recommend this book. These notes/quotes are great, but will be fully comprehended by reading the book.
We’ve replaced what’s radical about our faith with what is comfortable. We’re settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.
Yes, you are abandoning everything you have, but you are also gaining more than you could have in any other way.
We may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead we may be worshiping ourselves.
Bonhoeffer- “When Christ calls a man, he binds him come and die.”
The cost of nondiscipleship is profoundly greater for us than the cost of discipleship. For when we abandon the trinkets of this world and respond to the radical invitation of Jesus, we discover the infinite treasure of knowing and experiencing him.
The price of our nondiscipleship is high for those without Christ. It is high also for the poor of this world.
Christians shrink back from self-denying faith and settle into self-indulging faith.
The gospel does not prompt you to mere reflections; the gospel requires a response.
We desperately need to explore how much of our understanding of the gospel is American and how much is biblical.
The goal of the American dream is to make much of us, the goal of the gospel is to make much of God.
Would you say that your life is marked right now by desperation for the Spirit of God? Would you say that the church you are a part of is characterized by this sense of desperation?
The message of biblical Christianity is not “God loves me, period,” as if we were the object of our own faith. The message of biblical Christianity is “God loves me so that I might make him- his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness- know among all nations.” Now God is the object of our faith, and Christianity centers around him. We are not the end of the gospel; God is.
Where in the Bible is missions ever identified as an optional program in the church? Jesus commanded us to go to all nations. We have taken this command, though, and reduced it to a calling- something that only a few people receive. We have assigned the obligations of Christianity to a few while keeping the privileges of Christianity for us all.
What if anything less than passionate involvement in global mission is actually selling God short by frustrating the very purpose for which he created us?
God is committed to providing abundant resources in support of those who are living according to his purpose.
Christians: we live decent lives in decent homes with decent jobs and decent families as decent citizens.
Disciplining Christians involves propelling Christians into the world to risk losing their lives for the sake of others.
While caring for the poor is not the basis of our salvation, it is the evidence of salvation. The faith in Christ that saves us from our sins involves an internal transformation that has external implications. If there is no sign of caring for the poor in our lives, then there is reason to at least question whether Christ is in our hearts.
No teachers (including Jesus) in the NT ever promise material wealth as a reward for obedience.
Jesus doesn’t give options for people to consider; he gives commands for people to obey.
Jesus never intended to be one voice among many; he intends to be the voice.
Set a cap on our lifestyles so that we can give more.
We are tempted to settle for throwing our scraps to the poor.
The logic that says, “I can’t do everything, so I won’t do anything,” is straight from hell.
I don’t want to miss eternal treasure because I settle for earthly trinkets.
Good coverage of “Will people who haven’t heard about Jesus go to hell?” Goal is not to try and find an answer to it; our goal is to alleviate the question altogether.
The will of God is for you and me to give our lives urgently and recklessly to making the gospel known among all peoples, particularly those who have never even heard of Jesus.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Book Notes: Switch
This the best book I have ever read on change (and I have read a lot). You need to buy the book to get the most out of it. tons of examples.
Switch: How To Change Things When Change is Hard
By Chip Heath and Dan Heath
For anything to change, someone has to start acting differently. Ultimately, all change efforts boil down to the same mission: Can you get people to start behaving in a new way?
Analogy borrowed from Jonathan Haidt’s book The Happiness Hypothesis
Imagine a person riding an elephant. Rider is our Rational side. Elephant is our emotional side. Rider has reins, but when elephant disagrees, the elephant wins.
You must do three things:
• Direct the Rider
• Motivate the Elephant
• Shape the Path
Direct the Rider: Follow the Bright Spots
Search for bright spots in the current culture!!! (successful efforts worth emulating) What’s working and how can we do more of it? (instead people usually ask, “What’s broken and how can we fix it? NO!) Clone the bright spots.
Knowledge does not change behavior. People need to act their way into a new way of thinking. Help them to see that they can do it.
Too much analysis can doom the effort. In tough times, the Rider sees problems everywhere.
Direct the Rider, show them where to go, how to act, what destination to pursue.
Relatively small changes had a big impact on a big problem. Big problems are rarely solved with commensurately big solutions.
Rider’s have a problem focus, when they need a solution focus.
Direct the Rider: Script the critical moves
Decision paralysis – more options, even good ones, can freeze us and make us retreat to the default plan. The more choices the Rider is offered, the more exhausted the Rider gets.
Change brings new choices that create uncertainity. Ambiguity is exhausting to the Rider- you may not know what options are available. Anxiety rises.
Big-picture, hands-off leadership isn’t likely to work in a change situation, because the hardest part of change- the paralyzing part- is precisely in the details.
Suggest a good place to start. Script the critical moves. Crystal-clear guidance.
You can’t script every move. It’s the critical moves that count. FOCUS on the critical.
Focus on what you can control- inputs. For instance, set some behavioral goals (ie: team will meet once a week and do…. Each salesperson will make 125 client calls each day.)
Direct the Rider: Point to the Destination
Destination postcard- a vivid picture from the near-term future that shows what could be possible. (inspirational, feeling) They show the Rider where you’re headed and they show the Elephant why the journey is worthwhile.
Need a gut-smacking goal!
When you’re at the beginning, don’t obsess about the middle of the journey (it will be different anyway). Just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get moving.
Motivate the Elephant: Find the Feeling
Find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought.
Sequence of change is not ANALYZE-THINK-CHANGE, but rather SEE-FEEL-CHANGE.
Do they need to understand (rider) or be enthused (elephant)? Failure to change usually isn’t an understanding problem; it’s a feeling problem.
Motivate the Elephant: Shrink the Change
Make people feel as though they’re already closer to the finish line than they might have thought (people hate being at the starting line). Remind people of what has already been accomplished.
Shrink the change, lower the bar.
Starting an unpleasant task is always worse than continuing. Get people to try something small and if they like they will continue. (tell kids: 5-minute room clean-up, they will most likely work longer)
Think of small wins (victory motivates us to keep going). Hope builds! Make the advances visible. Celebrate incremental victories. “How can we move from a 2 to a 3?” (not: “how can we move from 2 up to 10”) Next step in the right direction. Seek small improvement one day at a time.
Big changes come from a succession of small changes.
Motivate the Elephant: Grow Your People
Because identities are central to the way people make decisions, any change effort that violates someone’s identity is likely doomed to failure.
Show them that they should aspire to a different self image. People are receptive to developing new identities. He may become, in his own eyes, the kind of person who does this sort of thing.
Identities grow from small beginnings. Start with a baby step. It will increase the likelihood that they will go for bigger step later.
Any new quest, even one that is ultimately successful, is going to involve failure. Elephants hate to fail. Create the expectation of failure- not the failure of the mission itself, but failure en route.
People with a growth mindset- those who stretch themselves, take risks, accept feedback, and take the long-term view- can’t help but progress in their lives and careers.
Praise/compliment effort rather than skill- “You really worked hard on that” instead of “You’re so good at”
To create and sustain change, you’ve got to act more like a coach and less like a scorekeeper. You’ve got to embrace a growth mindset and instill it in your team.
We will struggle, we will fail, we will be knocked down- but throughout, we’ll get better, and we’ll succeed in the end.
Reframe failure as a natural part of the change process. Failure as learning.
The Elephant has to believe it’s capable of conquering the change (need confidence and you can do that by shrinking the change and/or growing your people)
Shape the Path: Tweak the Environment
If you want people to change, you can provide clear direction (rider) or boost their motivation and determination (elephant). Alternatively, you can simply make the journey easier.
Often what looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.
Make the right behaviors a little bit easier and the wrong behaviors a little bit harder.
Shape the Path: Build Habits
Habits shifted when environment shifted.
Action triggers can have a profound power to motivate people to do the things they know they need to do. Preload the decision so that there is no cycle of conscious deliberation. (examples- call important client when you pour first cup of coffee each day. Go to gym after dropping off daughter at school.) Action triggers simply have to be specific enough and visible enough to interrupt people’s normal stream of consciousness. Action triggers create an instant habit. Habits are behavioral autopilot.
A good change leader never thinks, “Why are these people acting so badly? They must be bad people.” A change leader thinks, “How can I set up a situation that brings out the good in these people?”
Checklists simply make big screwups less likely.
Shape the Path: Rally the Herd
We try to fit in. Behavior is contagious.
Publicize the group norm.
Free-space: Small-scale meetings where reformers can gather and ready themselves for collective action without being observed by members of the dominant group. If you want to change the culture of your organization, you’ve got to get the reformers together. They need free space. They need time to coordinate outside the gaze of the resisters.
You’ve got to let your organization have an identity conflict. For a time, at least, you’ve got to permit an “us versus them” struggle to take place. It’s necessary.
Have members of your team rehearsed how they’ll react when they meet resistance from your organization’s “old guard”?
Every culture is shaped powerfully by its language.
Keep the Switch Going
Reward each tiny step toward the destination.
Reinforce positive behaviors.
Look for little rays of sunshine and celebrate.
Change isn’t an event; it’s a process.
To lead a process requires persistence.
Once the change started, it seemed to feed on itself. Snowballing
The more people are exposed to something, the more they like it.
Big changes can happen with very small steps.
As people begin to act differently, they’ll start to think of themselves differently, and as their identity evolves, it will reinforce the new way of doing things.
The people who change have clear direction (rider), ample motivation (elephant), and a supportive environment.
In our lives, we embrace lots of big changes- not only babies, but marriages and new homes and new technologies and new job duties.
Personal “supervised” behavior (making intentional choices, doing new things) is an exhaustible resource (we get tired, change is draining). Automatic behavior (non-change, routine) doesn’t sap our energy nearly as much. The bigger the change you’re suggesting, the more it will sap people. Change is hard because people wear themselves out. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion.
Once you break through to feeling, things change. Make audience feel the need for change.
Switch: How To Change Things When Change is Hard
By Chip Heath and Dan Heath
For anything to change, someone has to start acting differently. Ultimately, all change efforts boil down to the same mission: Can you get people to start behaving in a new way?
Analogy borrowed from Jonathan Haidt’s book The Happiness Hypothesis
Imagine a person riding an elephant. Rider is our Rational side. Elephant is our emotional side. Rider has reins, but when elephant disagrees, the elephant wins.
You must do three things:
• Direct the Rider
• Motivate the Elephant
• Shape the Path
Direct the Rider: Follow the Bright Spots
Search for bright spots in the current culture!!! (successful efforts worth emulating) What’s working and how can we do more of it? (instead people usually ask, “What’s broken and how can we fix it? NO!) Clone the bright spots.
Knowledge does not change behavior. People need to act their way into a new way of thinking. Help them to see that they can do it.
Too much analysis can doom the effort. In tough times, the Rider sees problems everywhere.
Direct the Rider, show them where to go, how to act, what destination to pursue.
Relatively small changes had a big impact on a big problem. Big problems are rarely solved with commensurately big solutions.
Rider’s have a problem focus, when they need a solution focus.
Direct the Rider: Script the critical moves
Decision paralysis – more options, even good ones, can freeze us and make us retreat to the default plan. The more choices the Rider is offered, the more exhausted the Rider gets.
Change brings new choices that create uncertainity. Ambiguity is exhausting to the Rider- you may not know what options are available. Anxiety rises.
Big-picture, hands-off leadership isn’t likely to work in a change situation, because the hardest part of change- the paralyzing part- is precisely in the details.
Suggest a good place to start. Script the critical moves. Crystal-clear guidance.
You can’t script every move. It’s the critical moves that count. FOCUS on the critical.
Focus on what you can control- inputs. For instance, set some behavioral goals (ie: team will meet once a week and do…. Each salesperson will make 125 client calls each day.)
Direct the Rider: Point to the Destination
Destination postcard- a vivid picture from the near-term future that shows what could be possible. (inspirational, feeling) They show the Rider where you’re headed and they show the Elephant why the journey is worthwhile.
Need a gut-smacking goal!
When you’re at the beginning, don’t obsess about the middle of the journey (it will be different anyway). Just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get moving.
Motivate the Elephant: Find the Feeling
Find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought.
Sequence of change is not ANALYZE-THINK-CHANGE, but rather SEE-FEEL-CHANGE.
Do they need to understand (rider) or be enthused (elephant)? Failure to change usually isn’t an understanding problem; it’s a feeling problem.
Motivate the Elephant: Shrink the Change
Make people feel as though they’re already closer to the finish line than they might have thought (people hate being at the starting line). Remind people of what has already been accomplished.
Shrink the change, lower the bar.
Starting an unpleasant task is always worse than continuing. Get people to try something small and if they like they will continue. (tell kids: 5-minute room clean-up, they will most likely work longer)
Think of small wins (victory motivates us to keep going). Hope builds! Make the advances visible. Celebrate incremental victories. “How can we move from a 2 to a 3?” (not: “how can we move from 2 up to 10”) Next step in the right direction. Seek small improvement one day at a time.
Big changes come from a succession of small changes.
Motivate the Elephant: Grow Your People
Because identities are central to the way people make decisions, any change effort that violates someone’s identity is likely doomed to failure.
Show them that they should aspire to a different self image. People are receptive to developing new identities. He may become, in his own eyes, the kind of person who does this sort of thing.
Identities grow from small beginnings. Start with a baby step. It will increase the likelihood that they will go for bigger step later.
Any new quest, even one that is ultimately successful, is going to involve failure. Elephants hate to fail. Create the expectation of failure- not the failure of the mission itself, but failure en route.
People with a growth mindset- those who stretch themselves, take risks, accept feedback, and take the long-term view- can’t help but progress in their lives and careers.
Praise/compliment effort rather than skill- “You really worked hard on that” instead of “You’re so good at”
To create and sustain change, you’ve got to act more like a coach and less like a scorekeeper. You’ve got to embrace a growth mindset and instill it in your team.
We will struggle, we will fail, we will be knocked down- but throughout, we’ll get better, and we’ll succeed in the end.
Reframe failure as a natural part of the change process. Failure as learning.
The Elephant has to believe it’s capable of conquering the change (need confidence and you can do that by shrinking the change and/or growing your people)
Shape the Path: Tweak the Environment
If you want people to change, you can provide clear direction (rider) or boost their motivation and determination (elephant). Alternatively, you can simply make the journey easier.
Often what looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.
Make the right behaviors a little bit easier and the wrong behaviors a little bit harder.
Shape the Path: Build Habits
Habits shifted when environment shifted.
Action triggers can have a profound power to motivate people to do the things they know they need to do. Preload the decision so that there is no cycle of conscious deliberation. (examples- call important client when you pour first cup of coffee each day. Go to gym after dropping off daughter at school.) Action triggers simply have to be specific enough and visible enough to interrupt people’s normal stream of consciousness. Action triggers create an instant habit. Habits are behavioral autopilot.
A good change leader never thinks, “Why are these people acting so badly? They must be bad people.” A change leader thinks, “How can I set up a situation that brings out the good in these people?”
Checklists simply make big screwups less likely.
Shape the Path: Rally the Herd
We try to fit in. Behavior is contagious.
Publicize the group norm.
Free-space: Small-scale meetings where reformers can gather and ready themselves for collective action without being observed by members of the dominant group. If you want to change the culture of your organization, you’ve got to get the reformers together. They need free space. They need time to coordinate outside the gaze of the resisters.
You’ve got to let your organization have an identity conflict. For a time, at least, you’ve got to permit an “us versus them” struggle to take place. It’s necessary.
Have members of your team rehearsed how they’ll react when they meet resistance from your organization’s “old guard”?
Every culture is shaped powerfully by its language.
Keep the Switch Going
Reward each tiny step toward the destination.
Reinforce positive behaviors.
Look for little rays of sunshine and celebrate.
Change isn’t an event; it’s a process.
To lead a process requires persistence.
Once the change started, it seemed to feed on itself. Snowballing
The more people are exposed to something, the more they like it.
Big changes can happen with very small steps.
As people begin to act differently, they’ll start to think of themselves differently, and as their identity evolves, it will reinforce the new way of doing things.
The people who change have clear direction (rider), ample motivation (elephant), and a supportive environment.
In our lives, we embrace lots of big changes- not only babies, but marriages and new homes and new technologies and new job duties.
Personal “supervised” behavior (making intentional choices, doing new things) is an exhaustible resource (we get tired, change is draining). Automatic behavior (non-change, routine) doesn’t sap our energy nearly as much. The bigger the change you’re suggesting, the more it will sap people. Change is hard because people wear themselves out. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion.
Once you break through to feeling, things change. Make audience feel the need for change.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Book review: Missional Renaissance (Part 3 of 3)
Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church by Reggie McNeal
Missional shift 3: From church-based to Kingdom-based leadership
• Bringing church into every domain of the culture
• Church as a catalyst to mobilize all the community
• Missional congregational pastors now pastor the community, not just the church
• Instead of being spiritual leaders in the kingdom of God, partnering with his mission in the world, we have created leaders to run the church.
• Kingdom leaders look for any way they can to gain entrance to people’s lives to “infect” them with God’s love for them, search for opportunities in the routines of people’s lives
• Congregations that are missional learn to celebrate this leadership choice by preparing people for their kingdom assignment and not tying them up with unnecessary club activities.
• Release people for ministry, empowering leaders to pursue their callings and passions
• God doesn’t need us to conduct his mission. We can’t pull off resurrection or life transformation. He has cut us in on the deal! Missional leaders discover what God is doing and then tell others about it.
• Many people in our culture will never be reached with the good news if we rely purely on the current church model for delivery.
Missional shift 3: From church-based to Kingdom-based leadership
• Bringing church into every domain of the culture
• Church as a catalyst to mobilize all the community
• Missional congregational pastors now pastor the community, not just the church
• Instead of being spiritual leaders in the kingdom of God, partnering with his mission in the world, we have created leaders to run the church.
• Kingdom leaders look for any way they can to gain entrance to people’s lives to “infect” them with God’s love for them, search for opportunities in the routines of people’s lives
• Congregations that are missional learn to celebrate this leadership choice by preparing people for their kingdom assignment and not tying them up with unnecessary club activities.
• Release people for ministry, empowering leaders to pursue their callings and passions
• God doesn’t need us to conduct his mission. We can’t pull off resurrection or life transformation. He has cut us in on the deal! Missional leaders discover what God is doing and then tell others about it.
• Many people in our culture will never be reached with the good news if we rely purely on the current church model for delivery.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Book review: Missional Renaissance (Part 2 of 3)
Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church by Reggie McNeal
Missional shift 2: From program development to people development
• Are people better off for being a part of this church, or are they just tireder and poorer?
• We must change our ideas of what it means to develop a disciple, shifting the emphasis from studying Jesus and all things spiritual in an environment protected from the world to following Jesus into the world to join him in his redemptive mission.
• Shifting church members’ commitments to people and causes beyond the church
• If we aren’t careful, we can even turn the first missional shift, the move from an internal to an external focus of ministry into a new program of community involvement.
• Loving God and loving our neighbors cannot be fulfilled at church. Being salt and light cannot be experienced in a faith huddle. Engaging the kingdom of darkness requires storming it, not habitually retreating into a refuge.
• People are no longer going to let the church or church leaders provide the template for their spiritual journeys. People will accept help in shaping their spiritual path. In fact, they welcome it, especially from people they respect and trust, who seem to have their best interest at heart. (willing to be coached)
• Interviews designed to explore their spiritual quests, questions about what they would like to see God do in their lives.
• People development culture: Are people growing in every aspect of their life? Are they becoming more like Jesus? Are they blessing the world as the people of God?
• People need help debriefing their lives, stimulate those discussions
• Growing through service- Jesus deployed his disciples long before they were “ready.” He knew that the fastest way to develop them was to engage them in real ministry encounters.
• People often grow more in intergenerational environments. That’s why God created families. (do family mission trips)
• One of the goals of spiritual formation is to help people see God at work in their lives.
Missional shift 2: From program development to people development
• Are people better off for being a part of this church, or are they just tireder and poorer?
• We must change our ideas of what it means to develop a disciple, shifting the emphasis from studying Jesus and all things spiritual in an environment protected from the world to following Jesus into the world to join him in his redemptive mission.
• Shifting church members’ commitments to people and causes beyond the church
• If we aren’t careful, we can even turn the first missional shift, the move from an internal to an external focus of ministry into a new program of community involvement.
• Loving God and loving our neighbors cannot be fulfilled at church. Being salt and light cannot be experienced in a faith huddle. Engaging the kingdom of darkness requires storming it, not habitually retreating into a refuge.
• People are no longer going to let the church or church leaders provide the template for their spiritual journeys. People will accept help in shaping their spiritual path. In fact, they welcome it, especially from people they respect and trust, who seem to have their best interest at heart. (willing to be coached)
• Interviews designed to explore their spiritual quests, questions about what they would like to see God do in their lives.
• People development culture: Are people growing in every aspect of their life? Are they becoming more like Jesus? Are they blessing the world as the people of God?
• People need help debriefing their lives, stimulate those discussions
• Growing through service- Jesus deployed his disciples long before they were “ready.” He knew that the fastest way to develop them was to engage them in real ministry encounters.
• People often grow more in intergenerational environments. That’s why God created families. (do family mission trips)
• One of the goals of spiritual formation is to help people see God at work in their lives.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Book review: Missional Renaissance (Part 1 of 3)
Reminder: I am not a professional book reviewer. These are simply my notes from this book. If I had to have only one book to lead me in ministry (other than the Bible), this would be it. You really need to get the book and read it to get all the benefits. It is loaded with examples and deals thoroughly with the whole "scorecard" thing which I really won't recap here. While a lot of books are being written these days on the missional church (and I have read many of them), Reggie McNeal spells it out in real "rubber-meets-the-road" fashion for the existing traditional, mainline church. These are the principles that have brought new life to Austell First UMC as its BLESS AUSTELL vision begins to be a real catalyst for community transformation.
Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church by Reggie McNeal
To think and to live missionally means seeing all life as a way to be engaged with the mission of God in the world.
3 views of nature of the Church (George Hunsberger)
1. A place where certain things happen (i.e. worship, bible study, fellowship)
2. Vendor of religious goods and services
3. A body of people sent on a mission (the book champions this one)
The missional church believes it is God who is on mission and that we are to join him, partnering in his redemptive mission in the world.
• God is always at work in the world.
• Find out what God is doing and join him in it. (Henry Blackaby)
• Rather than being attractional, the missional church will be incarnational. (Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch)
• Carry on Jesus’ mission in the world
• Hoist our sails to catch the breeze that’s already blowing.
• Be the people of God in an unmistakable way in the world.
• Wherever missional followers of Jesus are, the church is there.
The Bible presents a call to action, not just a lesson to be studied.
The act of blessing people frequently leads them to inquire something along the lines of “Why are you doing this?” Response: “I am a follower of Jesus, and I am blessing you because that’s what he came to do.”
Missional shift 1: From an internal to an external ministry focus
• The missional church engages the community beyond its walls because it believes that is why the church exists.
• Missional churches look for ways to bless and to serve the communities where they are located. Much of their calendar space, financial resources, and organizational energy is spent on people who are not part of their organization. These measures may or may not improve the church’s bottom line in terms of traditional measures (attendance may actually go down if people are released to mission).
• Moving to external focus pushes the church from doing missions as some second-mile project into being on mission as a way of life.
• Shift from the church at the center to the kingdom of God at the center.
• As the church engages the world, it finds Jesus, whose home is in the streets or wherever he has to go to connect with the people he is pursuing, meaning everybody.
• A kingdom-oriented approach seeks to leverage the gospel into people’s lives right where they live, work, and play. The church is wherever followers of Jesus are. People don’t go to church; they are the church. They don’t bring people to church; they bring the church to people.
• The church is connector, linking people to the kingdom life that God has for them.
• The role of the church is simply this: to bless the world. In doing this, the people of God reveal God’s heart for the world.
• Genesis 12:1-2 God to Abraham: I will bless you so that you can be a blessing to everyone else.
• Instead of having an evangelism strategy, I urge congregations and people to develop a blessing strategy.
• Instead of asking someone, “Can I pray for you.” Ask: “How can I ask God to bless you?” Our God just loves to show up and show off!
• We have to believe that God has the ability to draw people to himself through these blessing encounters.
• Encourage folks to live out their faith in the spaces/places they already occupy.
• If we don’t find a way to be the church where they are, many people who will never come to church will never experience it.
• Worship- gather to share tales of God’s work in the world
• Incarnational believers are in competition with the kingdom of darkness that steals life from people.
• Adopt a school – the quickest way I know to become connected to the community beyond your church
• Live your life with the idea you are on a mission trip
• Intentional blessing agent of the kingdom of God
• Missional Jesus followers believe that the way they demonstrate love and service will intrigue people to pursue getting to know the God who inspires such service.
• Jesus followers adopt an intentional life of blessing people
• Any and every follower of Jesus, not just a select few, can demonstrate God’s love.
• Church is not a part of life for the missional follower of Jesus; it is the way of life.
• Blessing others is an act of worship.
• We can no longer think and act like club members; we must think and act like missionaries.
• Be about building a better community, not a better church. “No child will go hungry in this county” vision.
Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church by Reggie McNeal
To think and to live missionally means seeing all life as a way to be engaged with the mission of God in the world.
3 views of nature of the Church (George Hunsberger)
1. A place where certain things happen (i.e. worship, bible study, fellowship)
2. Vendor of religious goods and services
3. A body of people sent on a mission (the book champions this one)
The missional church believes it is God who is on mission and that we are to join him, partnering in his redemptive mission in the world.
• God is always at work in the world.
• Find out what God is doing and join him in it. (Henry Blackaby)
• Rather than being attractional, the missional church will be incarnational. (Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch)
• Carry on Jesus’ mission in the world
• Hoist our sails to catch the breeze that’s already blowing.
• Be the people of God in an unmistakable way in the world.
• Wherever missional followers of Jesus are, the church is there.
The Bible presents a call to action, not just a lesson to be studied.
The act of blessing people frequently leads them to inquire something along the lines of “Why are you doing this?” Response: “I am a follower of Jesus, and I am blessing you because that’s what he came to do.”
Missional shift 1: From an internal to an external ministry focus
• The missional church engages the community beyond its walls because it believes that is why the church exists.
• Missional churches look for ways to bless and to serve the communities where they are located. Much of their calendar space, financial resources, and organizational energy is spent on people who are not part of their organization. These measures may or may not improve the church’s bottom line in terms of traditional measures (attendance may actually go down if people are released to mission).
• Moving to external focus pushes the church from doing missions as some second-mile project into being on mission as a way of life.
• Shift from the church at the center to the kingdom of God at the center.
• As the church engages the world, it finds Jesus, whose home is in the streets or wherever he has to go to connect with the people he is pursuing, meaning everybody.
• A kingdom-oriented approach seeks to leverage the gospel into people’s lives right where they live, work, and play. The church is wherever followers of Jesus are. People don’t go to church; they are the church. They don’t bring people to church; they bring the church to people.
• The church is connector, linking people to the kingdom life that God has for them.
• The role of the church is simply this: to bless the world. In doing this, the people of God reveal God’s heart for the world.
• Genesis 12:1-2 God to Abraham: I will bless you so that you can be a blessing to everyone else.
• Instead of having an evangelism strategy, I urge congregations and people to develop a blessing strategy.
• Instead of asking someone, “Can I pray for you.” Ask: “How can I ask God to bless you?” Our God just loves to show up and show off!
• We have to believe that God has the ability to draw people to himself through these blessing encounters.
• Encourage folks to live out their faith in the spaces/places they already occupy.
• If we don’t find a way to be the church where they are, many people who will never come to church will never experience it.
• Worship- gather to share tales of God’s work in the world
• Incarnational believers are in competition with the kingdom of darkness that steals life from people.
• Adopt a school – the quickest way I know to become connected to the community beyond your church
• Live your life with the idea you are on a mission trip
• Intentional blessing agent of the kingdom of God
• Missional Jesus followers believe that the way they demonstrate love and service will intrigue people to pursue getting to know the God who inspires such service.
• Jesus followers adopt an intentional life of blessing people
• Any and every follower of Jesus, not just a select few, can demonstrate God’s love.
• Church is not a part of life for the missional follower of Jesus; it is the way of life.
• Blessing others is an act of worship.
• We can no longer think and act like club members; we must think and act like missionaries.
• Be about building a better community, not a better church. “No child will go hungry in this county” vision.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Book Review- Tangible Kingdom (Part Two)
Halter and Smay are veteran church planters that changed up their model and started a "faith community" in Denver, mostly by accident. It has multiplied. They tell their story and propose this model as a way to reach post-moderns (as opposed to the big attractional church.) I am excited about their new book coming out in April called "AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church" where they try to bridge the attractional/missional divide and propose that both models have something to offer.
Notice: I am not a professional book reviewer. When I read a book, I try to make a list of all the key quotes that spoke to me. Here they are (part two):
The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community, The Posture and Practices of Ancient Church Now by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay
Attractional model works when the church matches the culture. The greater the cultural distance from organized religion a person is, the greater the need for an incarnational presence of a gospel community. The incarnational approach tries to first create a people to which someone can belong so that they can feel or see aspects of the gospel lived out. They experience the good news, even before they know what it is.
The authors’ model is an inclusive Christian community of consistent “missional people” (individuals committed to forming their character and lifestyle after those of Christ and who are compelled to live out their faith in the context of community) along with “Sojourners” (temporary, spiritually curious but disoriented God seekers). Sojourners are welcome to be a part of the community and be as they are, no rules for them. We want them to be with us so that we can help them- on their own timetable- come to faith. As much as the missional people need some clear rails to run on (or “rules of life”), the Sojourners need only an environment in which they can be eyewitnesses to our life without feeling any pressure to be like us.
You first look for the Sojourner to confess interest, not belief. This is evidence that God is on the move in their hearts. As soon at the Sojourner expresses curiosity, I buy them a Bible and ask them to begin to read so we can talk more.
We use the word apprentice because it’s more accurate to the intent of what Jesus meant by his use of the word disciple.
Create belonging environments.
Become good news to people.
Be intentional and authentic in the places I find myself in.
Community more horizontal structure (collaborative team environment) than vertical (leader/pastor on top)
Leaders must call people beyond where they’ve been.
Hebrews 10:24 “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.”
God’s mission is not for the faint of heart. Looking for folks to roll up their sleeves and serve.
In existing churches, the authors recommend not leaving the church but rather starting a group and seeing if it can grow from there.
4 Practices/habits to attract Sojourners
(1) Leaving - Replace personal or Christian activities with time spent building relationships with people in the surrounding culture- dine with Sojourners, do things we love (hobbies) with Sojourners, look for chances to talk with neighbors, co-workers, etc.
(2) Listen
(3) Living Among- participating in the natural activities of the culture around you, with whimsical holiness (defined as being like Jesus with those Jesus would have been with). Whimsy is the posture we take that allows people to be themselves.
(4) Loving without strings- Shalom references one person’s desire to see the peace of God touch every aspect of another’s life. Blessing requires action. Blessing wasn’t just nice things you said to make people forget about their problems. It was actually doing something about their problems. Blessing without coercion (no strings attached) has a unique power to draw.
The Primary Spheres of Incarnational Community
Community – sharing friends, food, life.
Communion- sharing Scripture, Sabbath gathering, Soulace
Mission- benevolent action, spontaneous blessing, sacrificial giving, sending of leaders
Monthly community activity grid (gather 4 times): one evening for a party, one mission activity, twice for scripture/prayer
The goal of church is to grow missionaries.
Notice: I am not a professional book reviewer. When I read a book, I try to make a list of all the key quotes that spoke to me. Here they are (part two):
The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community, The Posture and Practices of Ancient Church Now by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay
Attractional model works when the church matches the culture. The greater the cultural distance from organized religion a person is, the greater the need for an incarnational presence of a gospel community. The incarnational approach tries to first create a people to which someone can belong so that they can feel or see aspects of the gospel lived out. They experience the good news, even before they know what it is.
The authors’ model is an inclusive Christian community of consistent “missional people” (individuals committed to forming their character and lifestyle after those of Christ and who are compelled to live out their faith in the context of community) along with “Sojourners” (temporary, spiritually curious but disoriented God seekers). Sojourners are welcome to be a part of the community and be as they are, no rules for them. We want them to be with us so that we can help them- on their own timetable- come to faith. As much as the missional people need some clear rails to run on (or “rules of life”), the Sojourners need only an environment in which they can be eyewitnesses to our life without feeling any pressure to be like us.
You first look for the Sojourner to confess interest, not belief. This is evidence that God is on the move in their hearts. As soon at the Sojourner expresses curiosity, I buy them a Bible and ask them to begin to read so we can talk more.
We use the word apprentice because it’s more accurate to the intent of what Jesus meant by his use of the word disciple.
Create belonging environments.
Become good news to people.
Be intentional and authentic in the places I find myself in.
Community more horizontal structure (collaborative team environment) than vertical (leader/pastor on top)
Leaders must call people beyond where they’ve been.
Hebrews 10:24 “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.”
God’s mission is not for the faint of heart. Looking for folks to roll up their sleeves and serve.
In existing churches, the authors recommend not leaving the church but rather starting a group and seeing if it can grow from there.
4 Practices/habits to attract Sojourners
(1) Leaving - Replace personal or Christian activities with time spent building relationships with people in the surrounding culture- dine with Sojourners, do things we love (hobbies) with Sojourners, look for chances to talk with neighbors, co-workers, etc.
(2) Listen
(3) Living Among- participating in the natural activities of the culture around you, with whimsical holiness (defined as being like Jesus with those Jesus would have been with). Whimsy is the posture we take that allows people to be themselves.
(4) Loving without strings- Shalom references one person’s desire to see the peace of God touch every aspect of another’s life. Blessing requires action. Blessing wasn’t just nice things you said to make people forget about their problems. It was actually doing something about their problems. Blessing without coercion (no strings attached) has a unique power to draw.
The Primary Spheres of Incarnational Community
Community – sharing friends, food, life.
Communion- sharing Scripture, Sabbath gathering, Soulace
Mission- benevolent action, spontaneous blessing, sacrificial giving, sending of leaders
Monthly community activity grid (gather 4 times): one evening for a party, one mission activity, twice for scripture/prayer
The goal of church is to grow missionaries.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Book Review- Tangible Kingdom (Part One)
This will be at least a two parter. Halter and Smay are veteran church planters that changed up their model and started a "faith community" in Denver, mostly by accident. It has multiplied. They tell their story and propose this model as a way to reach post-moderns (as opposed to the big attractional church.) I am excited about their new book coming out in April called "AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church" where they try to bridge the attractional/missional divide and propose that both models have something to offer.
Notice: I am not a professional book reviewer. When I read a book, I try to make a list of all the key quotes that spoke to me. Here they are.
The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community, The Posture and Practices of Ancient Church Now by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay
Missional and incarnational- two words that describe ancient faith communities in the Book of Acts who lived a countercultural, communal experience that always influenced the cultures they found themselves in.
We leaders need to model a new way of life, live Christ’s alternative ways in the world again. Make the Kingdom of God tangible.
Jesus asked us to accomplish the proliferation of global blessing and the making of apprentices of Jesus (people that look, act, and sound like he did!)
Christians must learn to live the gospel as a distinct people who no longer occupy the center of society, build relational bridges that win a hearing.
To move forward, we can’t keep everything we’ve always had. Ancient faith communities were lean. When you don’t have all the “stuff,” you’re left with a lot of time to spend with people.
Don’t throw out the church folks that won’t necessarily see the vision and “do,” they can help support the old and new structures that will allow others to go out.
We can’t try to fix church from the inside-out, we must go out and then let church reemerge as a reflection and the natural outgrowth of our missional way of life.
Missional has an inseparable twin. It’s called incarnational.
Non-Christians find it highly offensive when Christians try to tell them truths without any tangible relationship.
1 Thessalonians 2:8 So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves
Our posture with sojourners (temporary, spiritually curious but disoriented God seekers) must be correct. When posture is wrong, we are perceived as enemy. When correct, we are perceived as an advocate. Sojourners belong before they believe. Belonging may be a long process.
Correct posture- caring in a way that touches another soul, person to person, rather than trying to fix that person from a position of superiority. John 8 – Jesus “bent down” to physically get on the adulteress’ level. He lowers himself and becomes her advocate. He challenges her to sin no more, but not before he postured himself as her advocate.
Jesus doesn’t need for us to stick up for him; he needs us to represent him, to be like him, to look like him and to talk like him, to be with people that he would be with.
Pre-institutional church – small groups of faithful countercultural people did incredible things to influence their world from the margins. Their lives exposed and challenged the present value system with new Kingdom values.
People will always be interested in good news if it is observable.
Community open to all- I trust that as we continue to provide him a place in our community he too will prefer our views because of what he sees in us.
Jesus knew that the only people who would find his news to be bad news would be people who didn’t want to lose control of their lives. Everyone else would view his gospel as an attractive alternative to the life they were experiencing.
Blessing – the life of God flowing tangibly onto his people.
Notice: I am not a professional book reviewer. When I read a book, I try to make a list of all the key quotes that spoke to me. Here they are.
The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community, The Posture and Practices of Ancient Church Now by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay
Missional and incarnational- two words that describe ancient faith communities in the Book of Acts who lived a countercultural, communal experience that always influenced the cultures they found themselves in.
We leaders need to model a new way of life, live Christ’s alternative ways in the world again. Make the Kingdom of God tangible.
Jesus asked us to accomplish the proliferation of global blessing and the making of apprentices of Jesus (people that look, act, and sound like he did!)
Christians must learn to live the gospel as a distinct people who no longer occupy the center of society, build relational bridges that win a hearing.
To move forward, we can’t keep everything we’ve always had. Ancient faith communities were lean. When you don’t have all the “stuff,” you’re left with a lot of time to spend with people.
Don’t throw out the church folks that won’t necessarily see the vision and “do,” they can help support the old and new structures that will allow others to go out.
We can’t try to fix church from the inside-out, we must go out and then let church reemerge as a reflection and the natural outgrowth of our missional way of life.
Missional has an inseparable twin. It’s called incarnational.
Non-Christians find it highly offensive when Christians try to tell them truths without any tangible relationship.
1 Thessalonians 2:8 So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves
Our posture with sojourners (temporary, spiritually curious but disoriented God seekers) must be correct. When posture is wrong, we are perceived as enemy. When correct, we are perceived as an advocate. Sojourners belong before they believe. Belonging may be a long process.
Correct posture- caring in a way that touches another soul, person to person, rather than trying to fix that person from a position of superiority. John 8 – Jesus “bent down” to physically get on the adulteress’ level. He lowers himself and becomes her advocate. He challenges her to sin no more, but not before he postured himself as her advocate.
Jesus doesn’t need for us to stick up for him; he needs us to represent him, to be like him, to look like him and to talk like him, to be with people that he would be with.
Pre-institutional church – small groups of faithful countercultural people did incredible things to influence their world from the margins. Their lives exposed and challenged the present value system with new Kingdom values.
People will always be interested in good news if it is observable.
Community open to all- I trust that as we continue to provide him a place in our community he too will prefer our views because of what he sees in us.
Jesus knew that the only people who would find his news to be bad news would be people who didn’t want to lose control of their lives. Everyone else would view his gospel as an attractive alternative to the life they were experiencing.
Blessing – the life of God flowing tangibly onto his people.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Internal Church PR
Good PR (public relations, promotion, word-of-mouth) is vital not just outward to your community but also inward to your congregation.
Why?
• builds congregation morale (if you aren't highlighting all the great stuff happening, stuff that may not be seen by everybody, people will tend to focus on the one or two things they don't like. Overwhelm them with the positive ways that God is working through this church.)
• increases financial giving (people give to a winning cause)
• increases servant/volunteer participation (people serve where a difference is being made)
• exposes people to the mission
• enhances and grows the mission
• develops promoters
It is amazing how many church members miss our promotion and communications. You've got to hit every avenue repeatedly and then do some more. You may be sick of it, but that's because you are involved every moment of every day. Your people aren't. Most of them don't go to bed thinking about the church like you do.
Essentials:
1. Spotlight positive things happening in Printed Bulletin and Newsletter, Electronic Bulletin and Newsletter, Facebook, Website, Bulletin Board
•Roswell UMC– “Celebrations” section in each bulletin and newsletter
•Austell FUMC - “Counting our BLESSings: A Report on How We Blessed Our Community” section in each bulletin and newsletter
•Pictures. Pictures. More Pictures.
•Testimonies, thank you notes printed, newspaper stories
2. During worship
•Pre-service slides with pictures from church activities and mission (let’s people see what they missed and feel good about all that is happening at this church)
•Sharing our Praises during the Offering
•Read thank you notes aloud
•Pastor tells how money is changing lives/making an impact as lead-in to Offertory prayer
•Mission Moment: Austell FUMC – “BLESS Profile” (different mission of the church highlighted each week. Also used to educate congregation about the outside organizations/schools we are involved in)
•Testimonies (live or video)
•Use Holy Communion offering to collect for a different mission each time (great way to do required/suggested UMC offerings)
3. Church financial giving statements
Do them more often and include a celebration letter highlighting how people’s giving is making a huge difference!
WARNING: Think long and hard about how you will communicate negative information.
Action Steps
** Find a consistent way to spotlight positive happenings in your bulletin and newsletter. Call it something that people will look for (i.e. Celebrations)
** For those with video in worship, pre-service slides every week with pictures of church happenings. For those without video, get a TV and put the digital pictures on a running loop in the Narthex or post them on a poster board and easel.
** Weekly Mission Moment in worship. The discipline of doing this weekly will let people know that mission/outreach is who we are, not some fad.
BONUS: All three of these things will stretch the pastor and the church to do more mission/outreach, if for no other reason than you don’t want to repeat the same thing every single week!
Why?
• builds congregation morale (if you aren't highlighting all the great stuff happening, stuff that may not be seen by everybody, people will tend to focus on the one or two things they don't like. Overwhelm them with the positive ways that God is working through this church.)
• increases financial giving (people give to a winning cause)
• increases servant/volunteer participation (people serve where a difference is being made)
• exposes people to the mission
• enhances and grows the mission
• develops promoters
It is amazing how many church members miss our promotion and communications. You've got to hit every avenue repeatedly and then do some more. You may be sick of it, but that's because you are involved every moment of every day. Your people aren't. Most of them don't go to bed thinking about the church like you do.
Essentials:
1. Spotlight positive things happening in Printed Bulletin and Newsletter, Electronic Bulletin and Newsletter, Facebook, Website, Bulletin Board
•Roswell UMC– “Celebrations” section in each bulletin and newsletter
•Austell FUMC - “Counting our BLESSings: A Report on How We Blessed Our Community” section in each bulletin and newsletter
•Pictures. Pictures. More Pictures.
•Testimonies, thank you notes printed, newspaper stories
2. During worship
•Pre-service slides with pictures from church activities and mission (let’s people see what they missed and feel good about all that is happening at this church)
•Sharing our Praises during the Offering
•Read thank you notes aloud
•Pastor tells how money is changing lives/making an impact as lead-in to Offertory prayer
•Mission Moment: Austell FUMC – “BLESS Profile” (different mission of the church highlighted each week. Also used to educate congregation about the outside organizations/schools we are involved in)
•Testimonies (live or video)
•Use Holy Communion offering to collect for a different mission each time (great way to do required/suggested UMC offerings)
3. Church financial giving statements
Do them more often and include a celebration letter highlighting how people’s giving is making a huge difference!
WARNING: Think long and hard about how you will communicate negative information.
Action Steps
** Find a consistent way to spotlight positive happenings in your bulletin and newsletter. Call it something that people will look for (i.e. Celebrations)
** For those with video in worship, pre-service slides every week with pictures of church happenings. For those without video, get a TV and put the digital pictures on a running loop in the Narthex or post them on a poster board and easel.
** Weekly Mission Moment in worship. The discipline of doing this weekly will let people know that mission/outreach is who we are, not some fad.
BONUS: All three of these things will stretch the pastor and the church to do more mission/outreach, if for no other reason than you don’t want to repeat the same thing every single week!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
3 Faith Factors in Comeback Churches
Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson wrote a book entitled, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too. They researched churches that had declined or plateaued but then turned it around. Below are some notes from just one chapter of this book.
Comebacks happen when churches are renewed spiritually.
3 Faith Factors of Comeback Churches
1. A renewed belief in Jesus Christ and the mission of the church
2. A Renewed attitude of servanthood
3. A more strategic prayer effort
1. A renewed belief in Jesus Christ and the mission of the church
People who experienced the reality of Jesus on a daily basis motivate their churches to grow. As people are renewed in their beliefs, their actions changed.
Find out what God is calling you to do and do it.
Think in missionary ways about your context.
Your mission determines everything else.
Church grows a heart for its community.
Church grows a heart for those far from God.
Many churches love their traditions more than their community or those far from God.
Fishing (evangelism) lesson – you can’t clean them before you catch them.
2. A Renewed attitude of servanthood
A comeback church realizes its reason for existing is about more than itself and its preferences. They care more about the community than their own preferences. Every church should be contemporary (not necessarily talking about the music). Repent of any traditional idolatries.
Philippians 2:3-8 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
3. A more strategic prayer effort
1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
Pray for things that matter. Pray for boldness and for a movement of God’s Spirit within the community and in the lives of those who are far from God is part of an effective outreach strategy. Pray for the church to be led to a deeper passion for the community.
Comebacks happen when churches are renewed spiritually.
3 Faith Factors of Comeback Churches
1. A renewed belief in Jesus Christ and the mission of the church
2. A Renewed attitude of servanthood
3. A more strategic prayer effort
1. A renewed belief in Jesus Christ and the mission of the church
People who experienced the reality of Jesus on a daily basis motivate their churches to grow. As people are renewed in their beliefs, their actions changed.
Find out what God is calling you to do and do it.
Think in missionary ways about your context.
Your mission determines everything else.
Church grows a heart for its community.
Church grows a heart for those far from God.
Many churches love their traditions more than their community or those far from God.
Fishing (evangelism) lesson – you can’t clean them before you catch them.
2. A Renewed attitude of servanthood
A comeback church realizes its reason for existing is about more than itself and its preferences. They care more about the community than their own preferences. Every church should be contemporary (not necessarily talking about the music). Repent of any traditional idolatries.
Philippians 2:3-8 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
3. A more strategic prayer effort
1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
Pray for things that matter. Pray for boldness and for a movement of God’s Spirit within the community and in the lives of those who are far from God is part of an effective outreach strategy. Pray for the church to be led to a deeper passion for the community.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Church as a WHO, a VERB, a MOVEMENT
Do you see the church as a WHO or a WHAT? Another way to ask it - do you see the church as a VERB or a NOUN? A movement or a place?
I think it is safe to say that the nature of the New Testament church can best be described as a who, a verb, a movement.
These days though, a lot of people simply see the church as a what, a noun, a place. Listen to how many speak of church: “We go to church. The church is down at the corner of Mulberry and Old Marietta. The Sanctuary is the place where God lives. It God’s house.” We box God into a few church buildings in town.
So how did we go from a New Testament WHO church to a modern day WHAT church?
Most would point to the 4th century, the 300s. Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and the new “state church” was modeled on the political structures of the empire. The church dramatically changed as Christianity went from an upstart persecuted movement to the accepted church of society. The church went from a movement to an institution. It went from being always on the move to become stationary. It went from meeting under a tree or in people’s homes to meeting in huge cathedrals. It went from being a who to being a what, from a verb to a noun.
Ok, so things have changed, but what does that mean? What’s the big deal? The big deal is that, how you envision the church greatly affects how you live out your Christian walk. If church is a what, a noun, the holy place where we go to find God, to visit God and then leave to go out into the world where God isn’t present. All that thinking makes a difference in how we see the world, how we see church, how we see God, how we see our faith journey.
Reading a good bit of the Old Testament, we often see church as a WHAT, a noun. The temple was the house of Yahweh, the house of God. People went on long pilgrimages during the high holy days to visit the Temple.
The New Testament details a church best described as a WHO. First that ‘who’ was Jesus Christ and Jesus was always on the move. He didn’t find the best land, gather up a work crew and build a temple for himself and his followers. In fact, Jesus said, “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).
Consider the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-9). Jesus takes his three closet followers with him up to the mountaintop and they experience this amazing supernatural happening. They go to this place and they not only experience Jesus in a glorious form, but Moses and Elijah, two great Saints of the Jewish faith, are there as well.
So what does Peter want to do? He wants to build a church! “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings. Come on Lord, let’s get a building committee together and build us a church. Imagine all the people we can get to come here to this holy place. Feels so good here, I never want to leave.”
How does Jesus respond? We don’t know his exact words, but verse nine tells us they came down off that mountain. They didn’t just hang out in that holy place. There was work to be done. They went from the holy mountaintop, back down into the valley. The church on the move! Church as a WHO, not a WHAT. Church as a movement, not as a place.
Even after Jesus, the church remained a WHO, clearly a verb, on the move. The Holy Spirit came to the followers in the Upper Room (Acts 2: 1-12). The Church of Jesus Christ was birthed. The Spirit and the people quickly moved beyond the building, out amongst these people from all over the world. You don’t hear anybody saying, “Oh my goodness, what an amazing thing we’ve just experienced. The Holy Spirit has come upon us. We must memorialize this place. This will be our new temple, the holiest place of all. Let’s go out and invite anybody who wants to know more to come in here.” No, they rush out into the streets to proclaim the good news, to share the blessing with others. Just like the Transfiguration, they left the holy place and went to the people.
Think about the historic names used to identify the church. They have always described the WHO nature of the church: People of God, Children of God, Family of God, Body of Christ, Bride of Christ, Communion of Saints, Fellowship of Believers, Fellowship in the Spirit. All WHO references.
Yet, for hundreds and hundreds of years, Christians have envisioned church as a what, a noun, the place where God is. That somehow God is only in the church. That we must go down to the church building to be with God. That the church building is sacred and holy and that the world is not. The trouble with this is that we end up worshipping buildings and stained glass windows and furniture more than we worship God.
Truth is many wish God would stay in the church. It’s a nice way to box God in. “God, you stay over there and don’t get in our way out here in the real world.”
Just like at Pentecost, the uncontrollable, unpredictable Spirit has burst out. The Spirit refuses to be contained.
I think experience shows that instead of God’s home being in the church, that God has in fact left many church buildings. All across America there are churches empty or nearly empty. In Europe, there are huge, beautiful cathedrals with no people. They are simply museums, sites for tourists to visit to see how folks used to live.
If God’s still in there, he’s awful lonely. Can you imagine God, sitting in these dead churches saying, “Oh, how I wish people would come to me. I want to save them. Why won’t they come see me so I can do my work?”
No, no, no. Jesus is on the move and his church should be as well. Jesus is where the action is and his church should be as well.
You want to find Jesus? Go look in the streets. Jesus is with the hungry, the thirsty (Matthew 25:35-40 “for I was hungry.....). Jesus is in the jails, the homeless shelters, the schools, the women’s shelters, the hospitals, the earthquake zone, the flood plains.
The BLESS vision is based on the New Testament model of church as a WHO, a VERB, a people on the move into the world to meet God there and participate in his ongoing redemptive mission.
Jesus gives us a great example of this when he calls Zacchaeus out of that tree (Luke 19:1-10). Jesus finds Zacchaeus outside the church. Jesus didn’t wait for Zacchaeus to show up at a church worship service or dinner or event. Jesus went after one of the community’s most hated figures. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. He was despised.
Jesus never invited Zacchaeus to church. He didn’t say, “I’d like to talk with you in my office Wednesday morning at ten, so come by the church then.” Jesus went to Zacchaeus house. He met Zacchaeus on Zacchaeus’ own turf, where Zacchaeus would be comfortable.
Finally, notice verse 10 says "For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” Seek out. Jesus went after the lost. He didn’t simply wait for them to come to a building. Jesus is still seeking out the lost and it is why Jesus is found where lost people are…in the world!
Some people (in fact these days, most people) will never come to church. Many people are allergic to church. We’ve got to figure out how we can be church where people already are (coffee houses, schools, YMCA, your workplace, your home, neighborhoods)? You can be the church wherever you are. It’s a lifestyle. See your life as a mission trip. Be the church, be Jesus, wherever you are.
OK, so if church is a “who,” then what is the purpose of the church building? Bill Easum (Leadership on the Other Side) declares, “The church is no longer the place where religious things happen, but the launch pad from which cross-cultural witnesses are sent out into the world.”
We bring people in, train them up and send them out to be Christ to the world. Then, you come back for a refresher, worship, some more training and we launch you out again.
Reggie McNeal says the church is a lot like an airport. An airport can think it’s doing pretty good by getting a lot of planes and people into the hub. But the airport’s mission is not to gather planes and people. The airport’s mission is to have planes taking off as often as possible. The church’s mission is not to gather as many people as possible into the Sanctuary. Like an airport, the church’s mission is to launch its members into service to the world.
I think it is safe to say that the nature of the New Testament church can best be described as a who, a verb, a movement.
These days though, a lot of people simply see the church as a what, a noun, a place. Listen to how many speak of church: “We go to church. The church is down at the corner of Mulberry and Old Marietta. The Sanctuary is the place where God lives. It God’s house.” We box God into a few church buildings in town.
So how did we go from a New Testament WHO church to a modern day WHAT church?
Most would point to the 4th century, the 300s. Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and the new “state church” was modeled on the political structures of the empire. The church dramatically changed as Christianity went from an upstart persecuted movement to the accepted church of society. The church went from a movement to an institution. It went from being always on the move to become stationary. It went from meeting under a tree or in people’s homes to meeting in huge cathedrals. It went from being a who to being a what, from a verb to a noun.
Ok, so things have changed, but what does that mean? What’s the big deal? The big deal is that, how you envision the church greatly affects how you live out your Christian walk. If church is a what, a noun, the holy place where we go to find God, to visit God and then leave to go out into the world where God isn’t present. All that thinking makes a difference in how we see the world, how we see church, how we see God, how we see our faith journey.
Reading a good bit of the Old Testament, we often see church as a WHAT, a noun. The temple was the house of Yahweh, the house of God. People went on long pilgrimages during the high holy days to visit the Temple.
The New Testament details a church best described as a WHO. First that ‘who’ was Jesus Christ and Jesus was always on the move. He didn’t find the best land, gather up a work crew and build a temple for himself and his followers. In fact, Jesus said, “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).
Consider the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-9). Jesus takes his three closet followers with him up to the mountaintop and they experience this amazing supernatural happening. They go to this place and they not only experience Jesus in a glorious form, but Moses and Elijah, two great Saints of the Jewish faith, are there as well.
So what does Peter want to do? He wants to build a church! “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings. Come on Lord, let’s get a building committee together and build us a church. Imagine all the people we can get to come here to this holy place. Feels so good here, I never want to leave.”
How does Jesus respond? We don’t know his exact words, but verse nine tells us they came down off that mountain. They didn’t just hang out in that holy place. There was work to be done. They went from the holy mountaintop, back down into the valley. The church on the move! Church as a WHO, not a WHAT. Church as a movement, not as a place.
Even after Jesus, the church remained a WHO, clearly a verb, on the move. The Holy Spirit came to the followers in the Upper Room (Acts 2: 1-12). The Church of Jesus Christ was birthed. The Spirit and the people quickly moved beyond the building, out amongst these people from all over the world. You don’t hear anybody saying, “Oh my goodness, what an amazing thing we’ve just experienced. The Holy Spirit has come upon us. We must memorialize this place. This will be our new temple, the holiest place of all. Let’s go out and invite anybody who wants to know more to come in here.” No, they rush out into the streets to proclaim the good news, to share the blessing with others. Just like the Transfiguration, they left the holy place and went to the people.
Think about the historic names used to identify the church. They have always described the WHO nature of the church: People of God, Children of God, Family of God, Body of Christ, Bride of Christ, Communion of Saints, Fellowship of Believers, Fellowship in the Spirit. All WHO references.
Yet, for hundreds and hundreds of years, Christians have envisioned church as a what, a noun, the place where God is. That somehow God is only in the church. That we must go down to the church building to be with God. That the church building is sacred and holy and that the world is not. The trouble with this is that we end up worshipping buildings and stained glass windows and furniture more than we worship God.
Truth is many wish God would stay in the church. It’s a nice way to box God in. “God, you stay over there and don’t get in our way out here in the real world.”
Just like at Pentecost, the uncontrollable, unpredictable Spirit has burst out. The Spirit refuses to be contained.
I think experience shows that instead of God’s home being in the church, that God has in fact left many church buildings. All across America there are churches empty or nearly empty. In Europe, there are huge, beautiful cathedrals with no people. They are simply museums, sites for tourists to visit to see how folks used to live.
If God’s still in there, he’s awful lonely. Can you imagine God, sitting in these dead churches saying, “Oh, how I wish people would come to me. I want to save them. Why won’t they come see me so I can do my work?”
No, no, no. Jesus is on the move and his church should be as well. Jesus is where the action is and his church should be as well.
You want to find Jesus? Go look in the streets. Jesus is with the hungry, the thirsty (Matthew 25:35-40 “for I was hungry.....). Jesus is in the jails, the homeless shelters, the schools, the women’s shelters, the hospitals, the earthquake zone, the flood plains.
The BLESS vision is based on the New Testament model of church as a WHO, a VERB, a people on the move into the world to meet God there and participate in his ongoing redemptive mission.
Jesus gives us a great example of this when he calls Zacchaeus out of that tree (Luke 19:1-10). Jesus finds Zacchaeus outside the church. Jesus didn’t wait for Zacchaeus to show up at a church worship service or dinner or event. Jesus went after one of the community’s most hated figures. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. He was despised.
Jesus never invited Zacchaeus to church. He didn’t say, “I’d like to talk with you in my office Wednesday morning at ten, so come by the church then.” Jesus went to Zacchaeus house. He met Zacchaeus on Zacchaeus’ own turf, where Zacchaeus would be comfortable.
Finally, notice verse 10 says "For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” Seek out. Jesus went after the lost. He didn’t simply wait for them to come to a building. Jesus is still seeking out the lost and it is why Jesus is found where lost people are…in the world!
Some people (in fact these days, most people) will never come to church. Many people are allergic to church. We’ve got to figure out how we can be church where people already are (coffee houses, schools, YMCA, your workplace, your home, neighborhoods)? You can be the church wherever you are. It’s a lifestyle. See your life as a mission trip. Be the church, be Jesus, wherever you are.
OK, so if church is a “who,” then what is the purpose of the church building? Bill Easum (Leadership on the Other Side) declares, “The church is no longer the place where religious things happen, but the launch pad from which cross-cultural witnesses are sent out into the world.”
We bring people in, train them up and send them out to be Christ to the world. Then, you come back for a refresher, worship, some more training and we launch you out again.
Reggie McNeal says the church is a lot like an airport. An airport can think it’s doing pretty good by getting a lot of planes and people into the hub. But the airport’s mission is not to gather planes and people. The airport’s mission is to have planes taking off as often as possible. The church’s mission is not to gather as many people as possible into the Sanctuary. Like an airport, the church’s mission is to launch its members into service to the world.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Mike Slaughter's new book... Change the World
I've been awaiting Mike Slaughter's new book, Change the World: Recovering the Message and Mission of Jesus for a while now. I've followed Mike closely over the last few years and heard him speak in person a few times. He is a leading voice of Christians and probably the leading voice among United Methodists challenging us to refocus as the Church and as individual disciples to follow Jesus in his mission in the world. Mike is senior pastor at Ginghamsburg UMC in Tipp City, Ohio.
The fine folks at Abingdon Press were nice enough to get me an advance copy and even promised a freebie hard copy if I write this review, so here we go. (I'd write about it anyway, even if I bought it. Mike Slaughter and Reggie McNeal are on the top of my reading and travel-to-hear list).
Change the World is a challenging and must-read for church pastors and leaders.
Slaughter breaks his chapters down into competing priorities (he argues for the first one listed):
1. Missional vs. Attractional
* He reminds us that "curious crowds don't equal committed disciples." Drawing huge numbers won't matter if those people simply "bring Jesus into their soft-secular worldviews instead of being transformed into his."
* we have three biblical mandates-
(1) Great Requirement- Micah 6:8
(2) Great Commandment- John 15:12-13
(3) Great Commission- Matthew 28:18-20.
2. inclusive vs. exclusive
* church has got to open up, get outside ourselves
3. disciples vs. decisions
* "The church has asked people to make a decision for Christ instead of make the commitment to follow in the lifestyle and mission of discipleship." lifelong process. more than a free ticket to heaven.
4. micro vs. macro
* instead of big money facilities, huge paid staffs and complex programming, the church needs to move "towards relational communities meeting in multiple locations with a focus on growing by doing." spiritual formation through service, not just bible studies?
* This chapter includes some good stuff on their experience growing house churches.
5. multiplication vs. expansion
* instead of just expanding one location, multiply everywhere
* inspiring stories of Ginghamsburg's work of revitalizing dying congregations in the city
6. mission vs. mortar
* stop spending millions in buildings to house the holy huddle, buildings that will be a burden on generations to come. spend that money on mission to change the world.
* minimize brick, maximize mission
* Goals: mobility, flexibility
* Multi-purpose space
* most churches are wasted space 6 1/2 days a week
7. Courage vs. Compliance
* "Will we boldly take the difficult road and challenge people to go beyond their comfort zones into the places of Christ's calling? Or will we settle for what has always been, bowing to the wishes of the timid resisters?"
* "For too long I have witnessed cowardice in church leaders who allow the mean-spiritness and faithfulness of the few to negate the mandates and purposes of God."
Amen.
The fine folks at Abingdon Press were nice enough to get me an advance copy and even promised a freebie hard copy if I write this review, so here we go. (I'd write about it anyway, even if I bought it. Mike Slaughter and Reggie McNeal are on the top of my reading and travel-to-hear list).
Change the World is a challenging and must-read for church pastors and leaders.
Slaughter breaks his chapters down into competing priorities (he argues for the first one listed):
1. Missional vs. Attractional
* He reminds us that "curious crowds don't equal committed disciples." Drawing huge numbers won't matter if those people simply "bring Jesus into their soft-secular worldviews instead of being transformed into his."
* we have three biblical mandates-
(1) Great Requirement- Micah 6:8
(2) Great Commandment- John 15:12-13
(3) Great Commission- Matthew 28:18-20.
2. inclusive vs. exclusive
* church has got to open up, get outside ourselves
3. disciples vs. decisions
* "The church has asked people to make a decision for Christ instead of make the commitment to follow in the lifestyle and mission of discipleship." lifelong process. more than a free ticket to heaven.
4. micro vs. macro
* instead of big money facilities, huge paid staffs and complex programming, the church needs to move "towards relational communities meeting in multiple locations with a focus on growing by doing." spiritual formation through service, not just bible studies?
* This chapter includes some good stuff on their experience growing house churches.
5. multiplication vs. expansion
* instead of just expanding one location, multiply everywhere
* inspiring stories of Ginghamsburg's work of revitalizing dying congregations in the city
6. mission vs. mortar
* stop spending millions in buildings to house the holy huddle, buildings that will be a burden on generations to come. spend that money on mission to change the world.
* minimize brick, maximize mission
* Goals: mobility, flexibility
* Multi-purpose space
* most churches are wasted space 6 1/2 days a week
7. Courage vs. Compliance
* "Will we boldly take the difficult road and challenge people to go beyond their comfort zones into the places of Christ's calling? Or will we settle for what has always been, bowing to the wishes of the timid resisters?"
* "For too long I have witnessed cowardice in church leaders who allow the mean-spiritness and faithfulness of the few to negate the mandates and purposes of God."
Amen.
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