A la carte: Are you doing team leadership wrong?, Interns, and 3 Issues Churches Must Answer

Are you doing team leadership wrong?

Phil Cooke offers some strong advice about meetings, teams and decisions on this blog entry:

Teams are for brainstorming and execution.

Leaders make decisions.

Simple as that. What’s happening today is that too many leaders are afraid to embrace decisions. Fear of not being liked. Fear of failure. Fear of making mistakes. Insecurity. There’s a number of reasons. As a result, they defer the decisions to the group. But all that happens in this scenario is that the decision devolves into endless discussions, debates, and arguments. I’ve been in leadership meetings that lasted for 12 hours because they couldn’t arrive at a decision. (No surprise there.)

Turn to your team for ideas, brainstorming, research, opinions, and more. Develop a killer team of brilliant people. But when it comes to making a real decision, nothing takes the place of genuine leadership. Once that decision is made, a great team is brilliant at execution.

In military terms, a great team can figure out how to take the hill. But someone has to decide which hill to take.

Don’t give up your role as being a strong decision maker.

Agree/disagree? I tend to agree, but I also love the joy of bringing a group of people to consensus on issues. Where there’s consensus (even if it takes longer than I desire), there’s ownership and investment.

Interns

Jodi Glickman in the Harvard Business Review asked, “Does anyone has time for interns?” The answer is that if you don’t, you should. We have an intern program in our church that is consistently stretching and helpful. One thing I’d affirm from the article is the importance for the intern of making things happen. Get busy. Take initiative. Get things done.

One of the best ways to get ahead at work is to make your boss’ life easier or better… Show your new employer how you’re going to solve a specific problem, fill in a missing need, or simply be someone who can hit the ground running on a specific and manageable task.

Matt Morrison also wrote on The Importance of Interning and identified the following three areas:

• It’s a chance to learn.
• It’s a chance to fail.
• It’s a chance to humble yourself.

He also offered the following wisdom:

Internships are a vital part of growing as a professional and as a person. In medicine or law, they require it. Many businesses and corporations prefer to see them on a new hire’s work history. Quite honestly, I wouldn’t even hire anyone who didn’t have an internship under his or her belt. [emphasis mine]

While not all interns are created equal, having a consistent intern program – especially in the church – provides you as a leader with the opportunity to discern the suitability of a person’s role in ministry. From mundane tasks to significant assignments, the intern is observed and assessed for greater roles of responsibility and leadership. Internships provide a way for churches to identify future leaders (and to cull out that who shouldn’t be leaders at the present time).

Our church has a one-year intern program. They work for the first three months on mostly mundane, “grunt-work” and errand-type tasks. This provides us with the opportunity to observe attitude and motive in service. The second three months, they are assigned a particular area of ministry. The remaining six months (after evaluation of the first six), they are paid – a very little – and continue in their assigned area of ministry as a growing part of our staff team. You can review our intern documents here.

Three Questions Ministers Must Answer

Steve Murrell wrote in February 2012 what looks like now a prophetic post. Since then, there has been a full-court press on his third question. Here are the three issues he said ministers (and churches) must be able to respond to:

1. The Exclusivity of Christ. Is faith in Jesus the only way to heaven?
2. The Authority of Scripture. Is the Bible trustworthy and authoritative for all mankind, in all times?
3. The Sanctity of Marriage. Who should define the institution of marriage?

I would add another issue that churches and leaders must be able to address with grace and from scripture:

• The Beauty of Gender and Sexuality. Are men and women fundamentally different in their roles, and as a result, are there boundaries for sexual expression?

Would you add anything to these issues as important topics for churches to be able to address with grace and truth for our culture?

A response to Jen Hatmaker

First of all, I don’t know Jen Hatmaker. Second of all, she’s waaaay more hip, ‘in,” connected and choon than I am. Third, I’ll probably make some mommy bloggers mad at me for this entry. Jen (not that we’re on first name basis, but it’s only three letters and easy to refer to her that way) is a fantastic writer and has authored several Christian books and Bible studies. Her blog is consistently well-traveled and popular (unlike other blogs whose URLs rhyme with ferny lie rot bomb). She recently wrote a blog entry that has exploded in the Christian blogosphere. That’s probably why you haven’t read it. It’s titled, And Then the Conference Uninvited Me to Speak.

She describes a recent experience in being uninvited to speak by a large church. Having not been invited to speak in large churches in the first place, I figure that I’ve had similar experiences so I could readily identify with her indignation. Her blog entry is a beautifully-written description of the importance of Christians having a loving heart towards all people. She expresses deep concern for how some in the American church have turned off genuine seekers by their arrogance and judgmental attitude.

I loved her description of her traditional, Bible-belt upbringing:

I grew up immersed in typical Christian subculture: heavy emphasis on morality, fairly dogmatic, linear and authoritative. Because my experience was so homogenous and my skill set included Flying Right, I found wild success in the paradigm. My interpretations were rarely challenged by diversity, suffering, or disparity. Since the bulls-eye was behaving (we called it “holiness”), I earned an A.

Immediately following that, however she quotes research that seems to indicate that “80 percent of those reared in the church will be ‘disengaged’ by the time they are 29.”

She says:

80 percent. Gone.

From there, she passionately and eloquently urges Christians to a more gracious lifestyle. Count me in for that.

However, the deeper I read into her article, the more uncomfortable I grew with her conclusions. She said:

Jesus is a hero, a brother, a Savior in every since of the word. He is everything good and gracious. His love for us is embarrassing, boundless, without standards at all.

Here’s the problem. I want to agree with all she is saying, but I believe there are at least two mistakes in her blog entry:

1. The research she quotes is both misleading at best and completely erroneous at worst.

Youthministry.com debunked the statistic (and others have been attempting to do so consistently), but these stats are constantly being used as a doomsday cry for the church of “We’re losing young people!” I reviewed Christian sociologist Bradley Wright’s book Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites and Other Lies We’ve Been Told here, and I think it should be added to Jen’s reading list. She would be deeply encouraged by it. He points out how prone statistics are to poor interpretation and application and cites the surveys she mentioned, among many others.

Jen used them to stir our hearts. Our hearts should be stirred by the heart of God for the lostness of people without having to use questionable conclusions by well-intentioned research organizations.

2. Her eloquence about Jesus and His love for all peoples goes a bit too far in claiming that His love is “without standards.”

It is boundless, but it has standards. The standard is this: His love must be received and returned. Jesus’ boundless love isn’t so powerful that every person will go to heaven. We must act in response to His love and His Word. Jen seems to be saying that Christians should unquestioningly love and embrace whatever lifestyle or behaviors people choose.

I totally agree with her that:

Christianity is too thrilling to reduce to middle/upper-middle class First World Problems, encapsulated in issues and gauged by a nebulous moral compass that lost its bearing decades ago.

However, in her zeal to demonstrate the radically amazing, transformative grace of Christ, I wonder… If this were the only blog of hers that someone reads, the only piece of one of her many written works, would she be satisfied that she’s communicated that Jesus is the God of grace and truth in this post? Or is this more reactive to a specific situation that she would never want to become her magnum opus?

At over 400 comments and counting, she’s certainly created a ruckus.

I’m willing to wrap us all in grace, because one day we’ll both discover we got some parts right and other parts wrong. Jesus’ mercy is going to be enough for us all.

I don’t know which “one day” she is referring to, but there is a day foretold in scripture which indicates that while Jesus’ mercy IS enough for all, not all will be recipients of it. Jesus said:

“The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.” (John 12.48)

I love her heart, but I’m concerned that she’s gone too far in trying to appeal to those who dislike or even hate the church. It is, after all, the bride of Christ, the people of God. We cannot hide with eloquence what might hinder our acceptance with others.

Wrapping Up

Christian leaders and influencers need to be very careful about motivating through statistics. Does the American church have issues? Absolutely! Do we sometimes demonstrate a love deficit? Check. But the solution is not to leave the dance floor upset by someone’s lack of grace and rhythm. I think we need to dance with greater grace… and offer lessons to the side-step-steppers along the way.

A pause in preaching provides perspective

Tomorrow will be the first time I’ve preached at Northstar in four weeks. I’ve not been gone – just thrilled that we have so many qualified teachers/preachers in our congregation that we can raise up a “teaching team.”

Being able to be there and be fed is important for a pastor who really believes that we are to be the church. I am not indispensable. No pastor is. We are vessels. Servants. Stewards. The pastor who will not give up or share his “pulpit” with others demonstrates one of the following:

• Ego
• Leadership development problems
• A church with a wrong conception of the pastor’s role

A church who feels like they “hired” the pastor to preach to them has its own issues. It enslaves a pastor to the pulpit, and so he preaches week-in and week-out, in fear of other’s opinions of him should he not be in the pulpit. The attitude is “what do we pay him for. after all?”

Nancy Jernigan recently tweeted:

Pastors making a decision to not take a break & allow someone else to fill in for them is heartbreaking to watch!

I go back to the title of this post: a pause in preaching provides perspective.

The last three weeks, I was able to observe our church being the church – welcoming guests, smiling, sharing, encouraging. I was also able to see some things that need to be improved but that I would never notice on a typical, hectic Sunday. Finally, I was able to worship and be ministered to by other capable and gifted servants of God.

Pastors, take a break. You need it more than you realize. It’s not just a break. It’s an opportunity. For you. For other leaders.

You may be surprised how much your people thank you for it.

Review: Building a Discipling Culture

There’s been a lot of buzz about Mike Breen and Steve Cockram’s book Building a Discipling Culture as well as the ministry they lead, 3DM. The Baptist General Association of Virginia (one tribe to which our church belongs) helps promote the discipleship process through the training of leaders. There are several BGAV-affiliated churches who have embraced 3DM’s methodology of helping make people within their church a fully devoted disciple of Christ.

Mike Breen defines 3DM as “the global home for an organic movement of biblical discipleship and missional church that is centered in the United States.” Prior to locating in the US, Breen served as a pastor in England for many years in which he had the opportunity to apply the principles and methods that 3DM now promotes today.

In the summer of 2011, our church did a series called Building a Discipleship Culture before I was aware of the book’s title, and we used material from Real Life Discipleship by Jim Putman, pastor of Real Life Ministries. You can view our cheesy videos from that summer of training and study here. They are bound to entertain and inform you.

With all that said, our church is a church committed to making disciples. We take Colossians 1.28 as one of the deepest aspirations of our community:

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

So, I devour books about discipleship. There’s nothing better than helping someone begin to follow Christ, experience His love and become a mature believer who is able to lead others to faith and equip them in spiritual maturity. Any process or tool that can assist that journey that is biblically-centered and relevant to people’s life schedules should be examined greedily.

The book is essentially the primer for the 3DM movement, and it gives an overview of how ministries and churches who want to embrace its methodologies can organize, train and develop disciples.

Let me start with the good:

• The process outlined in the book is intentional.
• It’s structured.
• There is great expectation from the working out of the process.
• There has obviously been fruitfulness from the process where it’s been implemented.

The actual writing style of the book is pretty dry. It seems disconnected in many points, and after a good read, my copy had some underlining from points that were made that were especially good, but those points seemed extraneous to the overall description of the process.

Let me outline what I didn’t connect with:

• The process described is extremely involved.
• While intentional, I don’t know that the training and process is realistic in every church or ministry.
• I’m not confident that the process of making disciples needs to rendered in such a convoluted way that requires so much explanation of the process itself rather than the qualities desired in a disciple of Jesus.
• There were a few statements in the book that without knowing Breen, I would need more elaboration on before I’d label the statement as wrong or false. Such as:

You can invite God into any part of your day. Truth is, he’s there already, and it is rude to ignore his presence. He’s never too busy to talk with you, he enjoys the same things you enjoy, he wants to be part of your life – he really does.

My problem with comments like that it may reveal a deeper view of God that I would fundamentally disagree with. Again, without knowing the leaders behind 3DM, I can’t say, but combined with a few other statements scattered throughout the book, this produced a sense of holy caution, or a red flag, so to speak, in my mind.

• There’s literally a lot of shapes used to communicate points. I am not primarily a visual learner, but I would imagine those that are probably learn better from deeper illustrations that squares, triangles, and circles that are labelled. One illustration is shown at right.

Conclusion

There is a lot to commend in the 3DM approach to discipleship and leadership development. If your church is currently doing nothing intentional related to making disciples, it would be a massive jump to embrace 3DM methodology with a lot of planning, training and buy-in among your key leaders. Yet, if you embrace the process, you will see fruit.

I found myself constantly asking why we make discipleship so difficult in the modern church. The process of leading people to maturity must show them models, but I believe those models should be incarnational rather than geometric. In other words, we need more people�who are intentional about teaching others to live in joyful, loving obedience to Jesus.

Like the authors, I agree that as a movement grows, there must be structure and processes added to it, and I’m thankful for the thinking and creativity that has resulted in the 3DM approach. I appreciated the heart of this statement because I know many pastors who aren’t involved in the discipleship process at all:

We need leaders who will step out of “managing church” and make discipling others their primary objective. The time has come to humbly acknowledge before God that we have failed to train men and women to lead in the style of Jesus. Whether through ignorance or fear, we have taken the safe option, training pastors to be theologically sound and effective managers of institutions rather than equipping them with the tools they need to disciple others.

Yet to be gracious, I don’t think the answer is to jettison the baby with the bath water. The answer is not to create vacuous disciple makers by abandoning theological soundness and effective leadership of organizations. It’s not an either-or situation. It’s a both-and. We need to increase the equipping for discipleship while continuing to do the other.

Since I know the process is bearing fruit in hundreds of places, I cannot argue against it. However, don’t feel guilty for questioning whether the 3DM model is right for your ministry. There are other dynamic models of organizational discipleship. The most important model is the one that you choose and use. Leading people to maturity in Christ is not an option.

Others

• For another perspective on the 3DM approach from someone who is using and embracing it, check out this post. It’s excellent.

Northstar Church 2012 Homecoming video

Props to Cody Davenport for creating this fantastic highlight video of Northstar Church’s ministry over the past nine years. We were unable to show it outside on Homecoming Sunday due to technical problems, but we showed it the following Sunday. I’m proud to be able to serve such an amazing group of people who are seeking to be the church.

Today is Reformation Day

From the Desiring God website:

Today is Reformation Day. Martin Luther posted his explosive 95 theses October 31, 1517. In the wake of Luther�s life, an army of Reformers soon emerged. Foremost among them was John Calvin. Together they recovered for the church the supreme authority and clarity of the Scriptures. Grace-erasing tradition had buried the glory of the gospel. But now light was breaking out. So the Reformers took up a Latin phrase to describe the wonder: �Post Tenebras Lux���After Darkness… Light.�

In honor of Calvin�s ministry and, even more, in celebration of the God who restored the gospel to his church, we are making this video available today. My prayer is that it would stir in your heart a fresh passion for the majesty of the word of God.

Check out the great video:

On a not-so-reforming note, when I mentioned that today was when Luther posted his explosive theses on the door in Wittenburg, our worship minister cracked up. He then said, “It sounded like you said ‘explosive feces.’” Niiiice.

Entertaining preaching

I’m grateful for Bret Johnson, pastor of Valley Bible Church in Radford, sharing this quote with me. It’s taken from a book by John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ and was quoted in a book by Mark Dever called Preach: Theology Meets Practice.

The older I get, the less impressed I am with flashy successes and enthusiasms that are not truth-based. Everybody knows that with the right personality, the right music, the right location, and the right schedule you can grow a church without anybody really knowing what doctrinal commitments sustain it, if any. Church-planting specialists generally downplay biblical doctrine in the core values of what makes a church �successful�. The long-term effect of this ethos is a weakening of the church that is concealed as long as the crowds are large, the band is loud, the tragedies are few, and persecution is still at the level of preferences.

But more and more this doctrinally-diluted brew of music, drama, life-tips, and marketing seems out of touch with real life in this world – not to mention the next. It tastes like watered-down gruel, not a nourishing meal. It simply isn�t serious enough. It�s too playful and chatty and causal. Its joy just doesn�t feel deep enough or heartbroken or well-rooted. The injustice and persecution and suffering and hellish realities in the world today are so many and so large and so close that I can�t help but think that, deep inside, people are longing for something weighty and massive and rooted and stable and eternal. So it seems to me that the trifling with silly little sketches and breezy welcome-to-the-den styles on Sunday morning are just out of touch with what matters in life.

Of course, it works. Sort of. Because, in the name of felt needs, it resonates with people�s impulse to run from what is most serious and weighty and what makes them most human and what might open the depths of God to their souls. The design is noble. Silliness is a stepping-stone to substance. But it�s an odd path. And evidence is not ample that many are willing to move beyond fun and simplicity. So the price of minimizing truth-based joy and maximizing atmosphere-based comfort is high. More and more, it seems to me, the end might be in view. I doubt that a religious ethos with such a feel of entertainment can really survive as Christian for too many more decades. Crises reveal the cracks.

How does this quote resonate or react with you?

It reminded me of this disturbing prophecy by the apostle Paul:

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4 ESV)

Don’t make waves

I’m a pastor. I’m grateful to serve the Lord by serving His people. Deeply.

Somewhere along the way, and at different seasons, it’s easy for folks like me to get confused about whose church we lead. There’s a subtle temptation, often encouraged in denominational circles or ministry networks, to “grow your church.” Like it’s even up to us.

Sure, I shouldn’t dress up as the Statue of Liberty and wave at passing cars to convince pagans to like God.�Another thing I shouldn’t do is predict the end of the world and be wrong a lot. I probably shouldn’t invite Borat to speak at our church. Or even wear skinny jeans. I want people to come back.

I know that there’s things I shouldn’t do and things I should that can lead to people thinking positively or negatively about the church I help lead. But I really don’t think that I’m in charge of getting people to take the next step for God. That’s up to Him. I am to be obedient and faithful to His teachings and encourage the people in our church to do the same. When we follow Him in love, He does big things through us.

When the emphasis is on us instead of Him, we get tempted to attract and bring folks into our churches. Flashy things. Most of them just make the church of Jesus sound trite. If you advertise programs or styles to attract people, you’ll constantly need to “keep up with the Joneses” to keep the folks who’ve come for those things.�It’s a constant battle to offer people things other than the simple message of the Gospel. It’s a good rule of thumb that what you use to attract people will only have to improve in order to keep them. If you used a big event, you’ll have to do a bigger one next year to top it.

As a pastor, I want to get better about simply being simple. I don’t want to “make waves.” I want to ride them. To quit trying to make a splash and just get wet. I want to avoid the danger of trying to do big things for God rather than just following Him and responding to the big things He’s already doing.

An interview with VT QB Logan Thomas

Our church’s college ministry hosts regular gatherings called Refresh for the express purpose of giving collegians an opportunity to draw aside from hectic schedules and simply enjoy life. On November 7, the evening was especially memorable as Virginia Tech quarterback Logan Thomas came to be interviewed about life, faith and football.

Networking and humility

Yesterday, I had the joy of being a part of a meeting with pastors from around the region who are interested in planting new churches. It’s hard to quash enthusiasm when the compelling vision is sharing the soul-quenching news of forgiveness with those who do not relish a relationship with God through Christ.

Also yesterday, I had the great pleasure of connecting with two pastors in Radford, VA and one in Christiansburg. Of the Radford pastors, Bret Johnson leads a newish church – Valley Bible Church, and Chris McCrary’s *brand new* church officially launches this Sunday – Love Church. I connected with Chris at Starbucks before meeting with with the Southern Baptist regional pastors. (Chris would want me to clarify that he’s not a part of the SBC.) I met Bret that evening after he shared about “The Church” at Virginia Tech’s Cru worship gathering. Tim Hight is the pastor at GraceLife Baptist Church in Christiansburg. Our daughters are the same age and have played Upward Basketball together.

Although neither Bret nor Chris are part of my church’s tribe of Southern Baptists, that’s pretty irrelevant to me when I encounter men who are joyfully and genuinely serving and introducing others to Jesus. One of the hopes that our church has is to network with other churches with similar ministry DNA and who clearly see benefits behind cooperative effort.

One significant requirement for leaders who wish to see a movement of God in their geographic area is one of the hardest to attain. It’s humility. Any attempt to “own” or force a work of God ultimately falls short. We’re not in charge.

Scott McKnight says:

Humility, I am suggesting, is a comprehension of who we are before God and before self and before others and before the world. When we know who we are before God, self, others, and the world, we are humble — and part of that comprehension is our cracked-ness. But, focusing on our cracks does not inevitably produce humility. Humility is a positive; sinfulness is a negative. We need to move beyond the negative to the positive if we are to have humility.

Humility is noted by joy, and graciousness, and love, and honor and the like.

It’s discomforting to me to constantly discover within undercurrents of self-satisfaction. They are dangerous to the soul that should be rooted in Christ. These undertows are more powerful than we realize, because in a moment, we can be sucked out to the sea of self-consummation.

That’s why networking and genuine friendships in ministry are essential. I truly believe it’s urgently important for pastors to cultivate open, honest relationships with leaders outside their church. We need one another. As we share, celebrate and whine together with other leaders, we are reminded that the Church is His and not ours.

What is possible when the people of God humble themselves and seek His face is beyond estimation.

Will the missional church fail?

Mike Breen, one of the leaders of 3DM, has a compelling article titled Why the Missional Movement Will Fail. In it, Breen explains that the reason is that emphasizes doing over being, mission over discipleship.

I don’t know if it’s a fair evaluation. To level the charge that churches with the label of missional do not embrace discipleship is arbitrary. I know of traditional, contemporary, liturgical, emergent and more churches that do not prize the making of disciples. And of course, there are churches in all those categories that do.

However, I totally agree with Breen’s ultimate assessment that a church that misses the mark on making disciples can’t claim to be on mission with Jesus.

The missional movement will fail because, by-and-large, we are having a discussion about mission devoid of discipleship. Unless we start having more discussion about discipleship and how we make missionaries out of disciples, this movement will stall and fade. Any discussion about mission must begin with discipleship.

What are your thoughts?

Wrong worship

Jeremy Hart called my attention to this video. It’s a humorous look at self-centered worship – at least at first. By the end of the video, I was grimacing, because I fear that too often my own worship is remarkably similar. Thoughts?

You’re too young

Our church here in Blacksburg, Virginia has seen growth in the last two years. It’s exciting, humbling and at times discouraging.

How can great growth be discouraging, you may ask? Well, when the faucet is turned on all the way, and the water is flowing, you sometimes don’t notice that there are small leaks. We’ve had that in our church amid the growth. Though many are being poured in, and the enthusiasm of new faces, transformation and joy captures our attention, we are also aware of a slow trickle of folks exiting our church.

I had a conversation with someone recently who is leaving our church, and he was gracious and kind enough to visit with me and affirmed our leadership and our church. He and his family are long-time members of our church (about 5-6 years in an eight year-old church). They joined our church from another church in the area a few years after it started. The growth of the last two years has caused some concern for him.

Since I’ve been pastor, we’ve heard different reasons for people who have chosen to exit our church for others:

• The sermons are too long.
• The music is too loud.
• It doesn’t seem like the kind of church you can raise your family in.
• Not enough children’s ministry.
• You’re not organized enough.

Those are most of the reasons we’ve heard.

One of the most baffling, however, is one that we hear a lot: You’re becoming a “college church.”

You see, we’ve been seeing exponential growth among our college student and graduate student population. I would think that’s to be expected in a town where Virginia Tech dominates the landscape and local politics. It’s a campus of almost 30,000, and I would hope that a church in its shadow is reaching its staff and students. While our growth has been steady in many demographics (we’re not successfully reaching new people who are 60+), the college and graduate student population of our church has grown at a faster rate than others.

So our church is growing “younger,” percentage-wise.

This was the underlying reason for the man I visited with, though he also said that his family wanted something more “traditional” and more “stable.” Both are fair desires.

In our community, there is lots of transition. It does get exhausting, and at times, disheartening to pour yourself into someone’s life only to have that person or family move in 2-3 years. Then you start over and do it again. And again. I can understand the desire for a more consistent and stable church experience.

On the other hand, I personally have also been around churches that only grow as a result of a fight at another church. They aren’t reaching the younger generations. They aren’t developing new leaders. They are essentially shuffling sheep and satisfied with status quo. You won’t find yourself on a leadership board or committee there unless you’ve been there for years.

I know of churches that are dying for young people. Literally. Their congregation is graying, and as much as they want young adults, they’re not prepared to make the adjustments and sacrifices that a vibrant ministry to and with people in their 20s and 30s requires.

It’s a strange, surreal situation that we’re in. People are leaving us because we’re too young.

I wish we had more older adults with the vision of teaching the younger adults what it looks like to walk in humble, obedient joy with Jesus. I think it’s a beautiful gift that one generation can give to another. I also think it’s biblical and intentional.

We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done. (Psalm 78.4)

O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come. (Psalm 71-17-18)

I think the point is that wisdom generally comes with age and is meant to be passed on. Wherever there’s young people, there is immense opportunity to leave a legacy of faith, obedience and righteousness. You may have to sacrifice stability and comfort in order to invest in young people.

On the other hand, we have consistent leadership discussions in our church about how to encourage and minister to older adults as well. We ask how a church that is reaching young adults can also appeal and reach out to the older adults in its community. We have no concrete answers at present, but we are praying consistently that God would bring older adults with a vision of discipling others – both old and young – into our fellowship.

What are your thoughts?

Churchplanting123.com

For those of you unaware, I’ve started a new website in cooperation with the venerable Darrell Cook. It’s called churchplanting123.com, and it’s already had 5-6 hits! We’re sure that it will bog down the internet as it goes viral.

CP123 will be a collection of extremely helpful (tongue-in-cheek) videos designed to encourage church planters and leaders. It’s an irreverend and irreverent look at the world of modern church planting and religion. We’ve shot two episodes on our Spain trip so far. Stop by the site and let us know what you think… Or not.

Read the book, people.

The March/April issue of Outreach Magazine listed six insights from interviews with Christians in America during 2010 (conducted by the Barna Group):

1. The Christian church is becoming less theologically literate.
2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented.
3. Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life.
4. Among Christians, interest in participating in community action is escalating.
5. The postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian church.
6. The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible.

I’d hardly describe these as earth-shattering insights. Some of them I would downright contest. I think Bradley Wright (see review here) has done an excellent job at exposing shoddy research practices and misinterpretation of statistics and surveys. The Barna Group was one of those he singled out in his book.

However, #1 above is a definite issue that I’ve had repeated personal experience with. And because Christians are theologically illiterate, we see things like this taking place.

Read the book, people.

Which of the above list ring true to you, and which would you disagree with?

Don’t get hell wrong

Francis Chan released a video today that powerfully promotes a book he’s currently working on about hell. It is obviously a response to Rob Bell’s controversial book about hell called Love Wins. I can’t help but think of the words of Ecclesiastes 12.11-12:

The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

However, Chan’s video is a powerful one. I’d encouraged you to watch it. He shares Isaiah 55.8-9 in the video:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

He urges us to quit thinking we think like God thinks. Every time we say, “But God wouldn’t…” or “I can’t believe in a God who would…” we demonstrate our proclivity to aspire to godhood. We essentially set our own logic above the Creator’s, and we attempt to make Him subject to natural and physical “laws” which exist only because He instituted them. Our pride refuses to bow to His preeminence.

This issue of hell, Chan soberly reminds us, is not something we – or those who don’t yet know Christ as Savior and Lord – can afford to get wrong. He urges us to pray for him as he is writing, studying and searching the scriptures for this book project. I will be. His book Crazy Love remains on my short list of impacting books of the past 10 years and has been a great encouragement. Let’s pray that this next work will be a significant contribution and may be used by the Lord as a scripturally-centered “last word” for this generation on the issue.

Invite someone to your church for Easter

We’re so excited about the opportunity and joy of proclaiming Christ’s resurrection at Easter! Are you?!

Did you know that studies have shown that almost 80% of people would come to church if they received a personal invitation?

However, according to this article, less than 1/3 of Christians are regularly inviting people.

Consider this statement from an article titled:

Invite a Friend to Church for Easter – Probably Not

It’s not that we don’t want unchurched people to come to church. We do. If asked, most of us will say we are for it. But, we don’t want to be the ones to do it. We don’t actually want to ask someone to come to church with us. We’re afraid to invite someone to church. Which likely means we’re also afraid to share our faith and tell them about Jesus.

That’s problematic considering that surveys regularly report that somewhere between 80% and 90% of all new Christians first came to church because they were personally invited by a friend or relative.
To put that in perspective, advertising such as direct mail regularly accounts for less than 2% of all new people. A pastor’s invitation is around 6%. Evangelism programs like the Alpha Project weigh in at about 6% as well.

All of which means that the personal invitation of a friend or family member is the single most effective way of getting someone to come to church, let alone introducing them to the Christian faith.

Sadly, only a third of all Christians feel up to doing that. The rest seem willing to leave it to the pastor or a direct mail advertising blitz. (Source)

It’s not too late. Pick up the phone. Go across the street. Send a personal email. At the very least, post something on Facebook.

He is Risen! Your friends and our world wait to see credible, joyful evidence in our lives!

I know many of you will be traveling, and it will be hard to invite a friend to church when you will not be present. But that simply means… there’s another Sunday coming! Invite them to Jesus. Invite them into His presence with others. That’s church.

Building vs. Planting, Part 7 or Killing turfism by loving the lawn

Church planting may actually be one of the primary tools that we can use to kill the sinful selfish desire for achievement, recognition, or status.

The quote above was how I ended the last entry in this series of whether to expand and continue to build existing churches or to plant new ones. We need both. However, the series has been intended to help encourage established churches and ministries to think broader than their own locales and “town takeovers for the Gospel.” It’s not wrong to grow and continually expand, but I’ve hoped to create and contribute to the responsibility we have to plant churches and new works with the same intentionality that we give to growing existing ministries.

With that said, so many are now on board with planting new churches – here and overseas – that at times we must resemble a pinball machine that has multiple metal balls in play at the same time. We’re bouncing into one another, with no predetermined strategy of communication or cooperation.

The consistent message of the past 15 years has been heard. Churches and ministries – and even disconnected individuals – are planting churches. The message has created momentum. But I fear that our momentum is often misguided and may actually in many cases become an errant missile – a WMD – that could harm unity and harmony in the overall body of Christ.

Within the past year, just in our vicinity, we’ve had multiple well-publicized new ministries come to the area. Some have been church plants; one is a missions ministry. I welcome all. I’m grateful to be a co-laborer for the Gospel of Christ with each.

As a pastor in the area, I’m constantly praying and preaching against our tendency as churches to be zealous and jealous for only our locales or individual ministries. It’s easy to preach and difficult to internalize. Established churches, as I’ve mentioned in other articles in this series, tend to resist “new kids on the block” for fear of them stealing sheep or detracting from their own growth. This is turfism at its finest.

I believe one of the issues that creates a turf-minded mentality in existing ministries is the often accurate perception of new ministries and churches of their lack of love for the lawn. Paul in 1 Corinthians describes the church universal as the “body of Christ.” We all have a part to play. Jesus in his last recorded prayer before the cross in John 17 prayed for his followers to be unified. Yet we seem intent to stake out small areas of the larger lawn and only fertilize and work them. The result is a brown and green patchwork quilt of kingdom influence.

It’s odd then, when a new church or ministry comes to an area without a word of extended hand of fellowship with existing ministries. The resulting impression is that they don’t care that there are other Christ-exalting, Gospel-saturated works in the area they’re moving to. In larger cities, many churches and organizations seem almost to do a paratrooper church plant as if they’re dropping in behind enemy lines in the dead of night. At times, existing ministries are treated as treasonous rather than allies.

On the flip side, existing ministry and church leaders don’t reach out to new leaders and fellowships very well either. They are skeptical, uncertain and honestly, busy. We don’t do networking or cooperation very well. That problem is compounded when the new works move in without a word of fellowship (or warning). Walls are built; doubts go deep; the lawn begins to have isolated green spots of growth with obvious brown separations between.

Considering that our church has a goal of planting new churches, we’ve watched and have taken to heart how we feel when new ministries come to town as we prepare for the future. Here are a few short thoughts if you are a new ministry, in a new area:

• Before arriving, communicate well ahead of time. Send emails or letters to churches and ministries in the area describing your vision, your testimony, background and calling for the new area. It’s important for context.
• During your first month in the area, as tempting as it may be to focus only on “the task at hand,” put yourself out there. Drop by existing churches and ministries. Arrange coffee connections. In traditional churches, we call it the “right hand of Christian fellowship.” But perhaps the biblical precedent is to “greet one another with a holy kiss.”
• Don’t allow your frenetic focus to detract from wider fellowship. You’ll be intensely busy surviving and working hard in the first several months. Remember, God has given you the wider body for encouragement, renewal, accountability and resources.
• You may be surprised to discover that existing churches/ministries will actually help you if you build a relationship with their leaders. Don’t be afraid to ask for insight, wisdom, perspective and even resources. You’re new, after all. Pick the brains of pastors and leaders for context in your new community.
• Keep reaching out. You may feel rebuffed at first by some or many. As a newish pastor in a new area myself (a year and a half), I too have felt the frustration of a lack of fellowship among other churches. (I was in my previous area for 14 years.) Don’t let that discourage you. Be an example of someone thirsty for unity, fellowship and cooperation. Your desire will eventually be rewarded by some rich friendships and opportunities for fellowship with others. But don’t fool yourself; some churches don’t cooperate with anyone.
• Don’t grow your own by putting others down. I wrote a few weeks ago about the danger of insulting the bride of Christ. It’s hard to build up when you’re busy tearing down. It’s tempting to try to distinguish your new work or ministry through comparison or generalizations, but be sensitive. Statements like, “The vast majority of the American church are not true Christians,” is bound to be received poorly by that American church on the next block, especially if they’re laboring, praying and interceding for the glory of God in their midst and for the world.
• Humility, humility, humility. There are other laborers. There are other churches. Yours is not and will not be the best expression of the New Testament church since the first century. Their churches weren’t perfect either.
• Love the larger lawn. We serve the Master Gardener. He has commissioned us all in different ways. As the apostle Paul (a church planter) stated so eloquently:

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Corinthians 3.6-9)

Leaving your church: Don’t insult a man’s wife

Don’t Insult a Man’s Wife

As you consider not going to “church,” you must force yourself to consider the spiritual realities of your disassociation with the body of believers that the New Testament calls the “bride” of Christ. (Revelation 21.2, 9; 22.17). Jesus refers to Himself as the bridegroom throughout the gospels in parables, but there’s a powerful testimony of John the Baptist in John 3.28-30 where Jesus is clearly called the bridegroom.

“You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ[a] but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”

Last year, in a span of a week, I performed two weddings. In each, it was remarkable the joy and respect that was given to both the groom and bride. All attention was focused on the happy couples. It is always more meaningful when the two are each deeply committed to Christ. In those cases, it’s not just a ceremony but a celebration.

But consider the worst case scenario in such a moment. At the height of the service, just before the couple is introduced to the guests as “Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So,” someone jumps out of their seat and screams, “But she’s soooo ugly! And she can be so mean! And she has hurt my feelings on a number of occasion!” they splutter and rage.

Imagine the shock and dismay that immediately would descend on the gathering. So many others there do not think what you think. You’re entitled to your opinion, but by being so critical and vocal, of the bride, you have unwittingly invited the scorn of the groom.

In fact, here comes the groom. To knock you out of the room.

In the New Testament, the church is repeatedly symbolized as the bride of Christ (Matthew 25.1, Mark 2.19, John 3.29, Revelation 19.7, 21.2, 9), and in Revelation 22.9, an angel provides the sublime introduction to the apostle John:

Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

As we’ve covered before in this article series on Leaving Your Church, there are good and bad reasons for leaving your church. The intent of this entry is to urge you to watch your mouth as you’re leaving. While it’s good to communicate clearly that you are leaving, it’s wrong to tear down the church as you leave.

You may think it’s your mission to spread light on all the wrongs of the church you’re leaving, but take into consideration that it’s more than just a collection of people. The church you are leaving is also the bride of Christ. Just as will be the church you’ll wind up at. (assuming both preach the gospel and truth of Jesus Christ).

You may have genuine disagreements with procedures, personalities or future purposes of the church you’re leaving. However, there are probably a lot of earnest believers who have chosen to remain at the church because they either don’t see what you see, or they sincerely but lovingly disagree with your conclusions.

At our church, we consistently inform new members that we don’t tolerate negative or critical talk about other churches or ministries in our region. It’s wrong to build up your own church by tearing another down. You may think you’re justified in your judgement of the bride. The groom may object to your observations.

Loving stops leaving

Don’t Go to Church; Be the Church.

Our church has embraced this slogan with a whole heart in the past year. We were grateful for the graphics at the Faith in Action website and adapted them for our use this past year. But it’s more than a slogan for us; it’s a mission.

The church – your church – was never meant to be a place. Your church is a people – and they include you. The church as described in the New Testament is a gathering of people who are growing in their love for God daily and who surrender their lives, vocations and goals to the will of God and His mission.

More importantly, discovering love in God cannot be self-contained and should not be marketed. It should be shared. The easiest way to share truth that requires life adjustment is through loving service.

That’s why we urge one another to be the church. Loving involvement with others provokes spiritual sensitivity. Love is amazing. It destroys barriers and uproots objections. Love in the face of a world that offers cheap substitutes transforms.

I have no statistics to throw out, but I’m convinced that people will rarely leave a loving church. If they do, there are much deeper issues at stake in them than in the church.

So, loving stops leaving… most of the time.

In short, we cannot love God and not love people. Loving people means getting involved, serving, helping, and yes, teaching them in the way that Jesus did.

Let’s recklessly love our neighbors AND our enemies and watch how God uses the power of His love through us to weaken resistance to Him and call folks to Himself.