Review: Exponential
I rarely rate a book “5-star,†and I may actually need to downgrade my enthusiasm about this book to four stars, but it’s been so immensely helpful, encouraging, and practical for our church’s staff team at this point that I gave it the highest mark.
This is not a book about “church growth.†Rest assured. I too grow weary about books that tell you how to grow your church in 90 days with nothing but poems and parking.
Exponential is a field manual. It’s the tome of Dave and Jon Ferguson who are brothers and pastors of Community Christian Church in Chicago. The book tells their story, but it does so from the perspective of spiritual expectation.
We don’t grow the church; God grows His church as His leaders are faithful to equip His people. So Exponential demonstrates how CCC has organized their ministry in expectation of God’s desire to reach people.
Things you’ll find in the book:
- An imperative to develop systems in your church
- A strategy for developing leaders who develop leaders
- A bedrock solid conviction that when godly, submitted leaders pursue the glory of God, He will grow first the leaders and then the church.
Right now, we are doling out Exponential books like candy to our key leaders and volunteers. Everyone needs to grow in expectations, but particularly church leaders. The Fergusons reveal how God has led them to develop leaders and organize for growth. Our leaders have already found much to be encouraged by as we lean forward in faith to offer His salvation to all peoples.
The God we serve has promised to be a God of impossibilities. Let’s serve Him with loving obedience and expect to participate in His great work. If we serve Him, the results are “exponential.â€
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Review: AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church
I thoroughly enjoyed reading AND. I was recently challenged to consider the tyranny of the word “or.†Essentially, we use “or†in places to indicate a choice between two things that may not need to be placed at either end of a spectrum, especially in organizational life. (i.e., Do you prefer contemporary worship OR expository preaching?) We need to be much more watchful about how we use “or†in leadership, because we may set people up to have to lean in a particular direction when in reality we should encourage better balance.
This book does just that in reference to the sending and gathering of the church. The mission of the church is go into the world and make disciples. There is a “going†(they call it scattering) mode to the identity of the church.
On the other hand, it’s also imperative that the church gathers. It’s plain in the New Testament that new believers and the disciples of Christ came together corporately for worship, instruction and encouragement.
BOTH are needed.
In today’s western Christian culture, there have tended to be folks on the scattered extreme lobbing criticisms at the institutional, corporate and gathered church. Some of their points are valid.
On the other hand, the gathered church has valid concerns about the organic, decentralized, house church movement.
As pastors of a church called Adullam, authors Matt Smay and Hugh Halter encourage us to not choose “or†but to choose “and.†We need both. They have strong words for those in both camps and urge extremists to be faithful to scripture, consistent in mission and authentic in community.
One of the best chapters in the book is their rewrite of the modality and sodality principles first expounded by renown missiologist Ralph Winter.
Should you read this book OR not?
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A La Carte: Health Update, December Nights kickoff, Saving Change and The First Snow
Health update
For those of you following our ongoing journey with cancer and doctors and faith, here’s the latest:
Carolyn will be having surgery on December 13 in Roanoke. It will be a double mastectomy with reconstruction. We have felt exceptionally blessed and supported by prayer, conversation and encouragement. Thank you all so much!
One of our main prayer concerns has been that Carolyn find a doctor and a surgeon here in Virginia that she likes. We were so glad to be led to the ones we have been! We also had requested your prayers about the type of reconstruction Carolyn would have. Yes, it’s essentially a boob job, but everyone calls it “reconstruction.” That takes some of the fun out of the discussions, however. If you know us, then you can imagine some of the conversations in the house… I promise they’ve all been uplifting…
Carolyn’s mom is flying in for a couple of weeks, and we’ve been amazed at how folks from Blacksburg to Monticello, AR have already begun mobilizing to make sure we’re taken care of. We’ve often wondered how folks who are not an active part in a church community receive care, support and help in similar situations.
As it is, we are heading into next week with full hearts and dependence on a good God who has put great people in our life to mediate His presence and comfort.
December Nights kick off
We’re pretty excited about celebrating Christmas at our church. Last year, we tried something new. We moved our worship services to the evenings and didn’t have morning services. When your church is meeting in a high school and has to set up every week (and for two services), you depend a ton on the love and support of a lot of volunteers.
December Nights enables us to give a month back to our volunteers, scale back, and sit at the feet of our Savior during evenings of intimate worship and teaching. Tonight, we are having the Micah Watson Band lead us for a Christmas and praise concert.
Saving change
All year I’ve been putting change aside, not really knowing what I’d eventually use it for. However, about a month ago, I realized that we would give it as a family to our Holiday Missions Offering. Today Adelyn and I went to Food Lion and used one of change counting machines there to add it all up.
We were bummed to discover that it would extract a 9.8% fee if we got a cash voucher. We didn’t want a single cent being taken from the total. Then we realized that we could get a gift certificate coupon to Amazon.com (where we do a ton of Christmas shopping). That solved it. We dumped the change into the trough, and let the machine count. The result? $124.36! We’re writing a check for that amount to missions tonight, and we’re grateful for all that God will be using the money for!
The HMO will be distributed in the following ways:
- 25% of it to our existing missions agencies, missionaries and ministries that we support
- 50% of it to our small groups to go Christmas shopping in Samaritan’s Purse catalog (it’s pretty awesome! Check it out here: https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Giving/gift_catalog/ and click on the Interactive Catalog on top right). The idea is that if we take in $3000… we would split up $1500 between our small groups equally to “shop with” from the catalog.
- 25% to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering (goes 100% directly to overseas missionaries through the International Mission Board). (http://www.imb.org/main/give/pagelm.asp?StoryID=8078&LanguageID=1709)
We are hoping for a truly generous outpouring from God’s people this month. We have so much to be thankful for! (and if you’d like to give towards it, you can do so online here.)
You might say we’ve been saving change because that’s what Jesus offers… a saving change.
The first snow
One of our friends noted on her Facebook page that it’s snowed every day in December so far. Until yesterday, it was just occasional flurries. However, after a day-long snow Saturday, we woke up this a.m. to a little more than 3 inches on the ground.
Last year, Blacksburg and the NRV gave Anchorage, Alaska a run for its money in total snowfall in an unusual winter that seemed determined to dethrone the global warming myth. With snow on the ground and week of frigid weather forecast, we’re all speculating what kind of winter we’re in store for this year.
As we watched a Christmas movie on TV last night, it was surreal to see the scrolling cancellation notices of many of the churches in our area today. We were thankful that we’d moved our service to evenings. However, we did have some of our staff volunteer to sit at the high school this morning to welcome anyone who still showed up with donuts and Starbucks. If you happened to go by, Emily and Lauren were huddled in the back of a SUV…
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How to leave your church
I hope I’ve made a case for asking significant questions and considering eternal issues as you consider “leaving your church.” If you are just stopping in, scroll down to the bottom and read the first entries in this series so you’ll be in the thought-flow for this entry.
Simply put, there are times that you may need to leave you church. However, in our remote control culture where we change channels on a whim and we have our food made-to-order, we must refuse to allow our consumerism to influence our commitment to Christ.
I provide the following thoughts about leaving your church as a template for prayerful consideration over time, not as a checklist for “how to.” In addition, these thoughts should be applied to most churches. This is not a place for the isolated instances of abusive churches, horrible situations, or moral failings in leadership (though they do exist!). It’s meant to address the typical instance of a growing sense of unease or discontent in your heart as a regular, faithful member of a church. It does not apply to the once-a-monthers, infrequent attenders or the uninvolved church consumer/pew sitter.
- Do not allow your emotions to direct your decision to leave your church.
- Do not allow your personal preferences to outweigh biblical guidance in leaving your church.
- Make sure you’ve had at least one honest, unemotional meeting with the pastor before you leave.
- Your goal is to leave in love, not in frustration, anger or disenchantment.
- Review your commitment to be obedient to Christ and to protect the unity of His body and the beauty of His bride.
- Resolve to not tear down, stir up, or bring people with you as you leave.
- Deal with authority issues in your heart. Are you willing to submit your life to leaders and follow their authority? If not at this church, then what church?
- Seek counsel from godly friends or family outside your church.
- Commit to pray diligently for God’s blessing and favor upon your church and its leaders for 60 days before leaving or stepping out of an active role. You may discover a unique refreshing of your heart as you begin to pray.
- Be as tough on yourself as you are on your evaluation of your church.
This is not an exhaustive list, obviously, and I’d love to hear from other leaders what you might add or substract from these. As a pastor, I know there’s a back door to our church and that people can silently slip out of it – sometimes unnoticed. If there’s a steady stream, there’s a problem. However, a trickle is normal and necessary for many reasons. We’ll cover those in anther entry.
To be continued…
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You’re invited!
We’d love to have you be a part of our worship service at Northstar Church this Sunday if you’re in the area. Here’s a Google map to the Blacksburg Middle School. We have services at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m.
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Snowed-in church announcements
Snowed In Announcements
Because we cancelled church today due to snow, Cody made this great video to show.
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Big weekend
It was one of those weekends as a leader that you anticipate/dread with equal measures of enthusiasm and uncertainty. Our church had an opportunity to host the Glory in the Highest concert tour here in Blacksburg. After deliberation and an email survey, we jumped at it.
There were more than 900 folks at the concert Friday night, and we surpassed the break-even point. While it was never a financial-only perspective for me, I knew that there might be those in our church who would look at it that way, and I was grateful that those results might assuage any concern they had.
One person told me at the concert, “Congratulations on the success of this event.” The comment was made in reference, I perceived, to the amount of people in attendance. And the comment broke my heart in a way. Success at such an event is never measured in terms of numbers and attendance. Biblically, we can only view success as to whether God was glorified and honored in the context and whether we are faithful and obedient.
Jesus Christ was clearly painted as glorious, majestic and worthy of worship and honor from the stage by the artists, and because of that, I was deeply grateful to have been a part of the event. My prayer is that folks who attended, helped and prayed for the event were encouraged to discover that life’s ultimate joy rests in an authentic love relationship with the Father.
Snowy Saturday
We awoke Saturday a.m. to a thickening layer of snow on the ground. It snowed steadily most of the day, finally clearing up around 4-ish. It was simply beautiful, and my kids leapt out of bed, dressed with no sense of grogginess, and were outside in a few moments. If only they treated school days like that…
It was surreal and beautiful. Most of the snows we experienced in Arkansas came after December. One of our church members related that this snow “really didn’t count” as a significant snow. It was more of a dusting. (It was 3-4 inches!!). Man, are we unprepared! My toes have been icicles since last week when the temps started staying stubbornly in the 20s at night. I wore two pairs of socks to our worship service last night.
I had planned to avoid the snow play. However, after helplessly watching two different fathers on our street laboriously build Frostys, I was eventually guilted into creating our own version of a frozen snow human. Sam and I pelted one another with snowballs for a while before my one hand was frozen solid (I had on a nice mitten but couldn’t find its match so on the other hand, I was wearing a cotton glove I use for subzero scooter rides).
Carolyn was out shopping for most of the day, and when I learned she was returning, I told her to look for our snow creation. When she pulled up, she said, “It’s dead.” It had fallen over. Bummer.
Finally… December Nights
Now you see why this was a “Big Weekend.” Our church moved its worship services to the evenings during the month of December. We have creatively called this “December Nights.” It’s…
a wonderful, warm and inviting December of worship and celebration of Christ’s birth! There will be NO MORNING WORSHIP SERVICES during December; instead, we’ll be meeting each Sunday at 5:00 p.m. at the BCM at VT for “December Nights.†This is a superb opportunity to invite friends, neighbors and coworkers for 1 hour of contagious joy involving worship and teaching! Come celebrate Christ with us in December!
We experimented with December Nights last year at Journey Church, and our congregation there loved the break in schedule and the ambience. This past Sunday evening was our first DN here. We met at 5:00, enjoyed some hot chocolate and cookies, and then we sent out a large group into the neighborhoods around Virginia Tech to sing Christmas carols.
They returned, frozen, but cheerful, and then we enjoyed a time of worship and teaching centered around the Advent theme of Hope. As folks exited back into the frigid night air, and we cleaned up the BCM, I was thankful for all that happened in a few days.
It was a big weekend.
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NRVHub to give $500 to local church
A new local news site – The NRVHub – is sponsoring a great competition. The local church that registers 100 users for their site by October 31 will receive $500! I’d like to humbly ask you to consider registering to help Northstar Church (or another local church if you’re a member there). You don’t have to be a member of Northstar to register. They made this clear in the following instructions:
Just go to the Hub (http://www.nrvhub.com) and go to the upper right hand column, where it says sign in or create log in; from here the user will be sent to a new page to create their profile. This is where they can type in the church affiliation. So far not one Church has reached 100 names. Gotta get there to get the $500!
Remember the user does not have to be a member of your church. It can be anybody that you ask to help you earn the $500………..
So spread the word. The $500 will be a great boost, and we’ll present to you some ways that it can be used specifically for kingdom purposes if Northstar should win it. Remember to put “Northstar Church” in the affiliation spot.
Thanks!
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A turn on the trail
After six of the most liberating, challenging, joyful, heart-wrenching, Christ-honoring, spiritual-warfare-filled years of our lives as the founding pastor of Journey Church in Monticello, I resigned today. It was a gut-wrenching decision.
I communicated to the amazing members of Journey two weeks ago that I had been contacted by Northstar Church in Blacksburg, Virginia. After a very long process with them that began last November when my name was submitted to their pastor search team, they had called to say that they were focusing on me as their next pastor.
They flew my family in this past weekend to meet members and leaders of the church as well as preach in their worship services on Sunday. Afterwards, they graciously and officially invited me to serve as their next pastor. Northstar is also six years old, and their founding pastor resigned at the end of last summer.
We asked for a few days to continue in prayer. (Who wouldn’t say “yes” after a weekend of being treated like royalty?) Today, we called to relate our acceptance of their invitation. We are overwhelmed with conflicting emotions but are completely confident in our Lord’s direction to this new season of life and ministry.
The emails, texts, tweets and phone calls today have been extremely encouraging. We are truly blessed with amazing friends and church members – both at Journey and now at Northstar. I ask that you would please be in prayer for both churches during these days of transition and new direction.
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Where Collegiate Ministry Begins, Part 4
You Get What You Expect
Maybe the main reason we don’t see many churches producing dynamic young disciples for the Lord Jesus is because we just don’t expect much from our young people. I have found that people will generally rise or fall to our level of expectation from them. Let’s paint with big strokes for them for God’s glory!
Unfortunately, another reason we don’t see many dynamic young disciples in our churches – and I can speak only of my own denomination here – is because there is a famine of older dynamic disciples in our churches. Across the board, we just don’t expect much from church these days. Stand in the back of most traditional churches today and listen to the amazing depth of the 21st century American church:
Nice sermon, preacher.
Boy, the choir was great today!
Went a little long today, didn’t we, pastor? (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)
Good crowd today, huh?
Man, the capuccino shop in the church foyer was a great move!
We might as well be attending Rotary. Where is the attitude of expectancy for our God to show Himself? Where is the reverence? Where is the holy thought of being used by God to build His kingdom in our communities? Put simply, it’s gone.
We have not because we expect not. No one expects anything, and no one’s talking about it. The deafening silence of God-experiences is the last hurdle to jump in order for effective collegiate ministry to begin in the church.
What in the world would persuade a teen in church today to passionately embrace a love relationship with the living God when he is surrounded by so many that lack it? Have teens today been conditioned to accept a pragmatic “what Jesus can do for you” Christianity than the forgiveness of Christ Jesus through repentance? Our kids through many of our children’s ministry programs are steadily weened off of God.
Entering the greatest arena of spiritual warfare and philosophical disputation in our society today – the university – is like marching our churched students off a cliff. We have not expected much from ourselves, from our churches, or from them… except maybe that they meet a nice girl or guy and make a good living…
To be continued…
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Where Collegiate Ministry Begins, Part 2
- Segregation of Youth Groups
Our churches have ensured their own demise by segregating their youth into “youth groups”, entertaining these same youth for 6 years (instead of challenging them in daily discipleship), and then, as if to put the nail in the coffin, giving them sweet little graduation presents (like “Wisdom for the Graduate”) as they bid them well on the eve of their collegiate experience.
Such is a guaranteed recipe for mush. There is little or no thought about how to produce a disciple that will stay the course in many mainstream churches. One dismal statistic began alarming leaders a few years back: 89% of churched youth leave the church when they go to college. Those who leave may return, if at all, after they’re married and have their first children.
While some dispute this alarming statistic, a more significant, subjective tool can also be used. If your church is located in a community where there is a college, how many college students attend your church? Are the high school students that graduated from your church last year actively involved in a church right now? Ask them. You may be surprised at their answers.
The “black hole” of the church is soundless; it’s a great void that sucks life from every denomination. Where are the grown-up children? Where is the generation aged 18-25 in the church? Or even 30-somethings? Are they all flocking to the new megachurch in the suburbs, or are they staying at home, making Sunday the new Saturday?
One reason we may not be seeing these ages in the church is because they don’t feel like church “belongs†to them. Our churched youth have no sense of ownership of their church. As soon as they began thinking for themselves, they were ushered off into a segregated church-world. Most have no voice, no vote, and no influence whatsoever on their church. Add to that problem the issue of the occasional youth minister that perpetuates that “us vs. them†mindset in his youth group, and well, why should we wonder where youth are going? They don’t get a fair shake in the only place in the world they should expect one.
Another reason that youth may not be in the church is that the church just isn’t into youth. Too many churches think they’re doing “collegiate ministry” by providing Sunday School classes for them. Yet these students, who are old enough to defend our country, drive, and even drink alchohol are not deemed mature enough to serve on most church leadership teams or committees.We treat young people as lower class citizens in the church. They’re great for numbers, but we don’t want them having voices of influence.
Articles on the Christian collegiate dropout problem:
The remarkable trend of the last 40 years of a separate, high-octane “youth ministry” may have produced a lot of noise and created the church van industry, but have youth ministries effectively prepared and discipled students? Are they reaching the college campus able to not only defend their faith but thrive in it?
To be continued…
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Where Collegiate Ministry Begins, Part 1
I served as a collegiate minister on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Monticello for 8 years. They were precious years of enduring ministry. Both of our kids were born during that time, and I’m convinced that there is no better environment in which to raise your children than around college students who are passionate about Christ.
This series looks at the state of collegiate ministry and asks the question, “Where should collegiate ministry begin?”
Each fall in our collegiate ministry, we geared up our student leaders up for “Welcome Week.” The first few days of school are incredibly influential on a student’s collegiate destiny. Imagine: a freshman arrives on campus and is in the first few hours invited to several parties, most sponsored by fraternities. That first night on campus, a lifestyle is established that may persist through four or more years of college and then influence a career and family.
And so our collegiate ministry sponsored as many high impact events as possible in the first several days of school. We not only wanted to offer an alternative, but we actually wanted to save students from themselves. A student’s destiny is measured heavily by how he spends his first 10 days on campus. Heavy stuff, huh? Welcome Week was immensely important to us, but that is not where collegiate ministry begins. It’s not even close. Collegiate ministry must begin before a student reaches college, and it must begin in our churches.
As we talk about where collegiate ministry must begin, please understand that it isn’t as simple as revising our generational ministry strategy. It’s not the Net Gen that we aren’t reaching. It’s not even Gen X or the Mil Gen. Simply put, the church is missing people. The church spends so much time trying to reclaim what it’s lost that it spends minimal time trying to proclaim to those it’s never found. It makes it all the more difficult when those the church hasn’t reached yet don’t want to be reached. They are actively avoiding the American church (specifically, people age 15-30) like one would swerve to miss roadkill.
If collegiate ministry is going to become more effective, then we must honestly address some problems in the place it must begin – the church. They include the segregation of youth groups, the lack of an adulthood transition, low expectation, and the disappearance of “testimonies.” Remember, we are only dealing with those who have been impacted by church growing up (a teeny minority these days). This series will not deal with the staggering challenges of reaching the never-churched people in our society.
To be continued…
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Change in America = Change in the Church
One thing that no one can deny any longer. It isn’t 1950 any longer. America is not like 95% of our churches. At the massive Obama celebration party in Chicago last night, it was a multi-ethnic, multi-socioeconomic, and multi-cultural blend of Americans.
For most of our churches, they find themselves on November 5 wondering how they grew to such irrelevance. They find themselves out-of-touch with the larger population, most wishing for a return to yesteryear. In pockets of America, there remains an ambivalence about true integration in worship.
The church of Jesus Christ can not be HIS church and not reach out to all ethnic groups, socioeconomic levels, and cultures. It has been content, for the most part, in preserving the comfort of its existing members. It has done this primarily by only reaching out to those that would help undergird its existing values and allow its current leaders to remain in control.
Just as the leadership of our nation was jerked radically away from one group on November 4, the church needs a radical jerk away from its love affair with complacency and selfishness.Â
The heart of the Father is for all peoples, everywhere, to know and love His Son Jesus Christ. Our churches need to seek humility, forgiveness and begin the journey of joy by actively reaching out to all with the gospel of Christ. It’s not Jesus that people in our country have rejected. It’s the church’s narrow proprietorship of Him.
Other’s Voices: Mark DeYmaz
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Bentonville-bound
For those of you who know me, I’m sure there will be a grin stretching across your smarmy face right about now. I’m heading to the annual Arkansas Baptist State Convention – voluntarily. For eight years as a campus minister, I was required to go. For the past five years, I had no desire to go.
However, since Journey aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention in January – a very prayerful and strategic decision for us – I’ve been earnestly enjoying the extended network and blessing of working intentionally with like-minded churches and leaders.Â
Every October, the state denomination gathers around the city of churches that give the most to the convention (ooops… a little sarcasm entered there) and holds its annual meeting. Many times it can be a snoozer. At other times there are fireworks shot off by those who love to shoot off at the mouth. All the time, however, there is genuine fellowship, laughter and renewal in the corridors, restaurant booths and coffee shops surrounding the convention. It’s as if we have to host a protracted series of self-important meetings to manipulate pastors and leaders into gathering – and then the good stuff happens outside of the meeting as friendships are made and renewed, broken hearts are mended, encouragement is passed and tears are shed.
This pastoring thing is hard – if you do it right. The toll of carrying responsibility for the spiritual growth of people is mentioned by Paul. In addition to all the physical torment that the apostle Paul suffered, he mentioned the incredible spiritual burden of seeking to lead a group of people into intimacy with Christ Jesus.
I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11.23-28)
Perhaps it’s one of the most unnoticed responsibilities of spiritual leaders in the church today. As God’s called representative, we are responsible and empowered by God to bring His church to maturity in Christ. The joy comes when people are led there willingly – when they are hungry for holiness, for God’s Word and for witness in the world. The toil and pain comes when they embrace the things of the world rather than God and correction, rebuke or confrontation enters the picture. Yet the minister must not shy away from such things. The New Testament is replete with instruction about leading people to maturity and even dismissing them from church fellowship if need be.
And so at meetings such as this, you run into a lot of hurt, sorrow, and confusion. It’s amazing to hear about pastors who have been beat up and cast aside, who have been attacked and vilified, and whose personal and family lives are at the end of their proverbial rope. They come from all over – ostensibly to a meeting because they “should” – but in reality, they come for hope, help, and in desperate longing for just one ear that will listen, a mouth that will pray for them, and a heart that identifies with where they are.
I’m looking forward to how God will work in leaders’ lives over the next few days – and in mine. Please be praying for this group of outstanding shepherds as they gather. Pray for their encouragement, vision, and strength to continue serving the Lord of Hosts and His Church.
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St. Mary’s Basilica
It’s not often that I’m really proud of a shot, but this one was stunning. I got lucky, pure and simple. I had my Sony Cybershot on night mode, and propped it against a stone pillar to capture this image of St. Mary’s Basilica in Rynek Square in Krakow last night with the full moon behind the church.Â
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Interview with Rick White
Ed Stetzer interviewed Rick White yesterday about how churches can engage in ministry in Poland. Part of our mission on this discovery trip is to seek to connect new churches with international mission opportunities.
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Creative church commercial
My buddy Craig Jenkins at Beech Street First Baptist Church in Texarkana recently made a commercial for their upcoming “Friend Day” that’s a spoof of the Mac-PC commercials. He was the pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Warren for several years.
I just had to share it with you because I’m still cleaning up the mess in my chair after watching it.
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Review: Breaking the Missional Code
I read Stetzer’s Planting Missional Churches while I was at Glorieta this summer – mainly because I had borrowed it from Jackie Flake last year and wanted to return it to him at the conference. The book was a HUGE encouragement to me.
A friend at Lifeway had gotten me an autographed copy of this book, Breaking the Missional Code, and I was just as impressed with it as I was with Churches.
Perhaps one of the most helpful concepts in the book is found early in the first chapter where Stetzer underlines the necessity for the North America church to realize that it must view its own culture as a “foreign†culture. We are no longer living in a “Christian†society – if anything, it’s post-Christian. Because of this reality and the great need to contextualize ministry strategy, he urges a “glocal†view. It’s a combination of thinking that sees local and global at the same time.
I was relieved to read Stetzer again (he did so in Churches point out – almost incessantly – that all the postmodern hype that has infiltrated church leadership conferences from coast to coast is simply that – hype. Yes, postmodernism is real and here. However,
It is important to note that the shirt to postmodernism has not happened everywhere – it has not yet impacted many in the church culture because the church culture acts as a protective shield, unmolested by a secular culture’s music, literature and values.
Stetzer also notes that there are large “pockets†of people in our country that still live in regions where baseball, apple pie, and fried chicken for Sunday lunch are still a reality. Postmodernism has not impacted these people’s lives to the same extent as other areas of the country.
I see this evident in my own community. The strange thing is, that even with a four-year college, Monticello exhibits a surprising resistance to many of postmodernism’s tendencies.
The rest of Breaking the Code urges leaders and church members to become missionaries to their own towns, neighborhoods and local culture. We must think all over again about how to reach those we live among. We can no longer assume that “they†are like “us.†With international students, local ethnic populations, business associations and more, even the most sleepy Southern town may be more glocal than we realize.
Any church that continues to do church as usual will quickly discover that it’s only ministering to its own and not making a relevant impact on its community. Stetzer has dozens of practical suggestions and processes for “breaking the missional code.â€
Beginning with the heart of Father God for all people and progressing to a renewed affirmation that all Christians are “sent†into the world for the purpose of bringing others to the Father, Stetzer and co-author David Putnam hold back no punches in their passionate endeavor to urge churches to get back in the game of missions, beginning at home.
At one point, they lament,
“If only God’s people would spend as much time and money learning how to be witnesses as they do reading a fiction series on the end times, then maybe we would not be living on the only continent in the world where the church is not growing.â€
As they enumerate the ways to break the code, the authors remind us “the church is one of the few organizations in the world that does not exist for the benefit of its membersâ€. Indeed, they take time to unpack the damage some of the recent church movements of the past have caused for Christendom in North America in particular. We have also been guilty of “exporting†a flawed methodology overseas as we’ve done missions.
There are a few chapters that bothered me in their sheer pragmatism. I kept getting a conflicting whiff of “it’s-not-about-methods†to “try-doing-this.†However, some of their practical suggestions are extremely helpful and at times challenging.
Their chapter on “Best Practices of Leaders and Churches that Break the Code†is one of the best in the book. They quote the staff at Northpoint Community Church in Alpharetto, GA…
It’s easy for the needs or interests of insiders to ultimately drive the priorities of any organization. It’s just the natural tendency of any group to become insider-focused.
It’s a powerful reminder that any group that becomes more concerned about buildings, programs and those inside the walls than those in the community that God sent them to reach will ultimately morph into more of a religious club than a church of Jesus Christ who stepped into time-space that men may know Him.
In short, if you’re looking for a great book about the church that will make you think but also lead you to application, look no further. This one belongs on your bookshelf.
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Glorieta 08: Monday teaching reflections, 1
On Monday, Michael Kelley and David Platt both preached and taught powerfully from God’s Word. Both were complementary of each other. The point is an old one, but they presented it with biblical authority and conviction: go to and get involved in the church! Christians who disparage the church are also maligning the very bride of Christ.
Michael’s message centered on Romans 12.1. He demonstrated convincingly after a summary of each chapter of the Romans that the “therefore” in Romans 12.1 is a reflection of all that Paul has written so far.
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
Now here’s where it got interesting. He pointed out that in some translations (the NIV included), the word “sacrifice” is plural. However, in the Greek it is singular. That’s a powerful distinction. Essentially, what Paul is geting at is that all believers (plural) should present our bodies (plural) as one, singular sacrifice to God. That infers the corporate nature of the church.
Especially as you continue reading the next several verses in Romans, you see Paul describing how God gave gifts to believers to function as His body, the church. Kelley preached that God did not give us an individual assignment but a “group project,” and that group project is the church. You can see this taught in 1 Corinthians 12 as well. Christians are not to withdraw from the church for their own selfish, dissatisfied reasons. Nor should we in the church malign it or other Christ-following fellowships.
In the church, God calls and gifts leaders to encourage, direct, rebuke, and exhort the people of God. In the church, you have ugliness AND beauty. No church is perfect, and the fact that anything gets done at all for the kingdom of Christ is simply a testimony to the fact of God’s grace and power over man’s sinfulness. But it is in the church that the very presence and fulness of God rests. It is upon the church that God pours out His Spirit. And it is the church that God calls into the world to preach the Gospel.
Kelley said, “You must be you so she can be her,” in referring to using our gifts for the church and the extension of the kingdom of God.
I felt it was a powerful message for those of us so familiar with the church that we sometimes criticize it. It was also a powerful rebuke for those who would sit on the sidelines embracing uninvolvement and even those who would create un-churches (groups disconnected from the whole body of Christ) out of discontent with the way church is being done.
Kelley said that perhaps the reason so may people disdain the church today – including disconnected Christians – may be because we have radically underestimated the role and scope of the church in redemptive history. Essentially, we must re-mind ourselves that the church is God’s only strategy for redeeming a lost world!
Listen to the message below:
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Audio: How Important is Church Membership?
This is the audio of John Piper’s sermon from July 13, 2008. Piper examines the importance and biblical foundation of church membership. His points are powerful refutes of the “I don’t need to belong to a local church” attitude that has ebbed and flowed throughout history.Â
He details “5 strands of evidence” which include:
- The church is to discipline its members. (How can you discipline someone if they do not consider themselves under the authority of spiritual leaders or an understood gathering of believers that has “membership?”)
- Excommunication exists. (Why does the New Testament prescribe and describe this practice if church membership is meaningless?)
- Christians are required and commanded to submit to their spiritual leaders.
- Shepherds are required and commanded to care for their flock.
- The metaphor of the body.
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Notes from the Trail
The Personal Blog of Jeff Noble
Info: From the misty hills of Virginia, "Notes from the Trail" seeks to encourage you on your journey. Written by a graphic designer-pastor, this blog is a blend of humor, insight, and faith discovery.
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RT @jackieflake: @vthoneybee, Melissa u lived as Christ, your death is gain. God thank u for sharing our sister w/us. Living well yields ... [journeyguy]
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