Another Sabbatical Update

The Sabbatical continues, but feel like I am starting to learn some of the lessons I need to learn. 

I am getting into a better rhythm of spending time in the Word, and have enjoyed unpacking Acts, Romans and Corinthians.  One of the high points of my week is Thursday night when a good friend comes over and we discuss what we’ve been learning from the word, and pray through those areas of our lives that God is trying to refine.  It has been so good to have someone holding me accountable, and praying for me on this journey through uncharted territory.

One of my biggest concerns heading into this Sabbatical was wondering where I would find people with whom I could process my thoughts.  I come to better conclusions when I can talk things out and get other perspectives.  (This desire to get other peoples’ perspectives is one of the reasons that I started blogging)  Thankfully, God had a plan for that, and had my Sabbatical start up the same time he had some of our best friends, and their 4 kids, move in with us.  The community that we are sharing has been such a blessing, in that it simultaneously has allowed me to withdraw from most things, without withdrawing completely.  I have a brother I can bounce ideas off, extra kids to love on, and people I can serve; even it is just by playing with an adorable baby for a few minutes while her momma does chores.  Having built in playmates for my kids has also given me time to exercise, stack my wood, and find quite minutes to read.

We’ve found a church where we can ‘hide’.  By that I mean we’ve found a place where we can worship, and listen to practical teaching without feeling the need to be social.  We know this is not ideal, but it is a step in the right direction for us.  Checking out churches after a messy separation feels like I imagine dating would feel after your spouse has died… Maybe it is a healthy part of moving on with life, but mostly it’s just awkward, especially at the beginning...  That said, it has been good to see my kids learning from people who are investing time during the week into finding ways to make God’s word come alive to little minds.  There is nothing quite like hearing your 3 year old tell you that he won’t be afraid because, as he says “I know God is always with me, so it would be silly to be afraid!”, especially when that was the bottom line from last Sunday’s lesson for preschoolers...

But Isaac isn’t the only one who has been learning.  I’ve been challenged by a few of the messages as well.  One talked about how much more effective the truth is when it comes from a joyful person.  This really hit home, because one criticism I received at the end of my time at Calvary Baptist was that I always seemed ready for a fight.  I realize now that this put people on the defensive and made them less likely to listen to what I had to say, no matter how right I may have been.  If the same truth had been delivered with a smile instead of a scowl, it might have been more effective.  I had lost heart and become wearing in doing good.  Because of that fatigue, I was short tempered and irritable.   

I learned Galatians 6:9 in the NIV which says “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  I took the verse a reminder not to quit when I became weary” But really the verse says “DO NOT BECOME WEARY”.  The NASB says more clearly: “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary”.  Hear we see that weariness itself can have a negative, even catastrophic impact on the outcome of our service to God.  There is a connection between the attitude (heart) that we bring to doing good and the effectiveness of it. 

It isn’t as though we shouldn’t be passionate.  Paul, who said “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary” also said, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.  For I wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel.” He was clearly passionate.  But something kept that passion from becoming crippling frustration and bitterness. 

I am not sure what that something was.  Perhaps it was in realizing that we are responsible for our own obedience, and not responsible for convincing others to obey?  Jesus shared the truth but finally said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.  Look, your house is left to you desolate.”  He knew that the responsibility to respond was ultimately on the hearer.  He told his disciples “If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you.  If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.”  He didn’t say “find a different way to make them listen” he said something much more like “brush it off and go find someone who will listen”. 

Maybe the secret is in knowing when to withdraw and move on.  Jesus practiced this, He trained His disciples to do it, and Paul certainly did.  They all faced a certain amount of adversity, but also knew when to call it a day, and when to pack it up and move on.  Then again, Jesus faced the stress of his ministry by frequently withdrawing to lonely places to pray. Maybe it isn’t about quitting, maybe it is about finding ways to unplug and blow off steam before you boil over.  Maybe regular withdrawal needs to be part of my discipline?  Or maybe “Suffering brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint.”  Such hope, that the One who called you to do something is able to do it, even when you are not, may prevent you from losing heart when circumstances cause great sorrow and unceasing anguish…  

Sabbatical Thoughts

About a month ago I started a Sabbatical from most everything except my family and my day job.  I started by going out into the woods to get a lone with God, and God was kind enough to meet me out there.

It started with a phone call to my favorite remote camping spot.  When I told the lady on the other end of the line what campsite I was hoping to get she laughed, because it is always booked, but to her surprise, it was open.  On the drive I caught the tail end of a sermon about Uzziah, a king of Judah, and the story intrigued me. (click on his name to read about him) Since I didn't get to hear the entire sermon, I started my time in the Word with his tale.  

In short Uzziah was a king who started well, doing what was right in God's eyes and accomplishing many good things, but he overstepped, and tried to do things that we not for him to do, but only for the priests.  Because of this God gave him leprosy, and he had spend the rest of his life cut off from the people and from the house of the Lord.

In my New America Standard Bible, the section heading for this particular tale reads "Pride is Uzziah's Undoing".  Uzziah had done many good things, and as he became strong he also became proud. This passage acts as a very clear mirror into my own heart... The Word doesn't tell us why Uzziah went into the Temple to burn incense, instead of letting the priests do it, so I speculate that maybe he knew what should be done (burning the incense), but never didn't consider that God had a specific plan for how it should be done. 

My mind tends to glaze over when I read the myriad rules for temple worship that we find in the Bible.  And even though we don't follow that particular prescription for worship today, one fact becomes abundantly clear as we read those rules is that God cares deeply about how we do things and why we do them.  He doesn't just plan the ends, He plans the means.  

Reinforcing this thought was a passage in Acts 13.  Here we read that some men were fasting and praying when they received instructions from God.  But it is what they did next that grabbed my attention.  Rather than jumping right up and acting on those instructions, they continued to fast and pray. When their time of prayer and fasting were ended, they carried out the instructions.  I tend to listen only long enough to get the big picture, then I rush off to do things my own way, in my own strength.  These guys in Acts, heard God while they were fasting and praying, and they kept listening before acting.  

And so my Sabbatical continues, as I strive to learn to listen.

Sabbatical

I am taking a Sabbatical.  Sabbatical (from Latin sabbaticus, from Greek sabbatikos, from Hebrew shabbat, i.e., Sabbath, literally a "ceasing") is a rest from work, or a break, often lasting from two months to a year. The concept of sabbatical has a source in shmita, described several places in the Bible (Leviticus 25, for example, where there is a commandment to desist from working the fields in the seventh year)

I need an extended period of rest and time with God, So I have decided to take a Sabbatical.  A "ceasing" from just about everything.  I'm thinking of it as a type of fast, where I replace the hectic pace of life with lots of time for the Word, and reflection on what my priorities should be.  

I'm can't quit my day job, because my responsibility to my family necessitates working, but I won't be leading a small group, or a youth group for the foreseeable future.  I don't know when it will end, or what life will look like when it is over. But as of today I have resigned from my church and the responsibilities there. 

I've asked 2 brothers in Christ meet with me regularly during this undefined period of time, because I believe that we all need accountability and that Christians need other Christians in order to function.  My wife has done the same with a couple of women.

I'm not going to be blogging during the sabbatical.  I plan to keep Facebook use to a minimum.  My goal is to learn how to listen.  I am not trying to hide from people, so please don't hesitate to reach out via Facebook, Email or phone.  If I am going to to re-learn how to listen, I need to be still and know that He is God.

NOTE:  If you have any questions about what is happening with the youth group at CBC or the Sunday morning small group you should contact one of the deacons at CBC. 

More Eloquent

If you were intrigued by the Big Red Tractor story, then carve out 45 minutes to check out this video of a message Francis Chan gave at the Verge Conference.

I love the point he makes, that if we just opened the Bible without centuries of tradition, we would not do church the way we do it.

I admire the humility with which he says that he and his church haven't figured out how to fix that, but they are working on it.

I am challenged by the idea, that if what we read in Acts was "they met together once a week, sang songs and someone taught, and the next week they did it again" instead of all of the radical commitment, and sacrifice we read about, then no one would have believed their message.

I am intrigued by the surfing analogy he uses, because I have spent so much time kicking trying to create a wave, rather than keeping instep with the Spirit.

I am sick in my stomach when he makes the comparison between how his daughter would treat his command to clean her room, and how we treat Jesus' commands, because I've spent more time memorizing and studying than going and doing, by a ratio of about 10 to 1.

What did you take away?

The Big Red Tractor

One of the blogs that helps me Re-Think is the Verge Network, and they recently posted some challenging content from Francis Chan.  I wanted to pass it along to you.

First is a short video called "The Parable of the Big Red Tractor" Take 5 minutes to watch the video and hear a short explanation from the author.

I have been one of those villagers pushing for all he is worth on the tractor...

Re-Thinking 'Church'

What is the church?

We first see the word church in our Bibles after Peter said “you are the Christ the Son of the living God” and Jesus replies “on this rock I will build my church”.  

I wonder what the disciples thought when they heard that?  Was “church” a new word to them?  Did they have a concept of big buildings where people would gather for a few hours a week to sing and hear a sermon?

The word Jesus used that we translate “church” meant “a gathering of people”, and would have been familiar to the disciples.  Geek Note: the modern word “church”, comes from a German word that means “a place of gathering”.  I think the word reveals something about the shift in theology that took place sometime between the first century gathering of people who believed that Jesus was Lord, and the hay day of the Roman Catholic Church where religion and political power were synonymous.  (Andy Stanley talks about this idea in his book "Deep and Wide" and I would highly recommend the book)

Somewhere along the line our collective church culture's thinking changed from, “My church is the group of people who help me live out the mission of Christ”, to “My church is the place I go to meet with people who agree with me about God”. 

I know ‘traditional church’ works.  I wouldn’t be who I am today without it.  That said, since I was 15 years old, I have been involved in full or part time church ministry, both vocationally and as a volunteer.  During almost 2 decades of trying to operate within the institution of the church, I have often felt like I imagine David felt when he tried on Saul’s armor before his big battle with Goliath.  David was offered armor fit for a king, yet he decided “I’m better off without this.”  It wasn’t an insult to the armor, it was excellent armor. (and it is not at all my intention to insult traditional church or anyone who finds it to be the most effective way to make disciples) But God had a specific way he wanted the battle to go, a way that would bring the most Glory to God, so David eschewed the conventional wisdom of battle and stepped out with the tools of shepherd to do something that seemed impossible to those with the most formal training, the most experience, and best equipment.

While I have chafed in the armor of traditional church, I have continued to wear the armor because I didn’t know any other way to carry out the command to make disciples or the command to 'forsake not the assembling of yourselves together'.  I didn’t want to simply run away from a certain way of doing things, I wanted to run toward something.  After years of searching, I think I finally know what to run toward.

So if you are fighting to make disciples, but just feel like the traditional armor doesn't quite fit the way God is calling you to live, if you have ever wondered if their could be another way to make disciples, and to grow as a disciple,  if you have ever wondered how to make living out your faith look just a little more like what we see in Acts, then take a minute to imagine with me...

It begins when you and one or two others commit to reading the same scripture each week.  Once a week you meet to discuss it, to confess sin to each other, to pray for each other and to pray for the people in your lives that do not yet know Jesus.  Jesus said that “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there with them”. Throughout the week other Christians are meeting in the same way.  

The early church made meeting regularly in their homes a high priority, so every week or two, those little groups get together for a meal with other little groups and for some quality time in the Word.  But here’s the catch, you choose your community group not on a basis of geography or your schedule, your age, marital status or demographic, but on common mission.  For example, if you feel that God’s desire is for you to help your co-workers come to know Jesus, you meet with others who also see work as their mission field.  Together you discuss how to best reach your coworkers.  Together you re-arrange your lives so that you can minister to your co-workers.  You become a community of missionaries to that pocket of people in your community.  Maybe you have a favorite hobby, and you meet with those who share that hobby and discuss how to use your common interest to reach people who have the same interest, but don’t know Jesus.  Maybe you have a love for kids, or the elderly, or the hungry or the homeless.  So you live your life with people who want to make disciples of the same people that you feel called to be a missionary to.

Just because you don’t share a common pocket of people in your community that you want to reach doesn’t mean you can’t fellowship.  So these missional communities gather with other missional communities for fellowship, communion, mutual encouragement, baptisms, testimonies about what God is doing, and to worship the God that inspires us to reorient our lives, our schedules and our finances around the sick, instead of the healthy, the sinners instead of the righteous.  Now you are united to the body of Christ by common mission. Instead of a church having a mission statement, the mission of God has a church.

This is a thumbnail view, and I could spend hours sharing the scriptures, authors, blogs, and sermons that have inspired me, and maybe I will in future posts or in conversations around my kitchen table (if you are interested).  For now it is sufficient to say that this is what I am running toward.  And the coolest part is that it doesn’t require running away from anything.  Making this vision work doesn’t require gathering at a certain time, nor does it matter if members of this missional community are in different places for a few hours on a Sunday morning.  Each one is still free, even encouraged to go wherever they find practical teaching or great worship music, because he church isn’t a place you go to hear sermons and sing songs, the church is the people that help you carry out the command to make disciples. 

My hope is to start with one or two people that I can meet with regularly, while helping others connect to people who are looking for this kind of accountability.  As a network of these “two or three” gatherings start to meet my hope is that we will get together to share a meal, share some time in the word, and discuss who we can reach and how.  My hope is that our missional ideas will inspire others to either join us in making disciples and that as we focus on the mission Jesus gave us, those who have never known Jesus will join the family of believers.  I am not looking for anyone to leave a church or join a church.  Instead I am hoping to come along side believers from many churches to help people live out the call to make disciples to be missionaries where they live, work and play.  I am hoping that together we can “live such good lives among the pagans that they may see our good deeds and glorify our father who is in heaven” 

If you have any questions, or if you are interested in being a part of something like this please contact me. 

To My Church Family

To my Church Family,

Most of us have only ever entered into two covenant relationships, marriage and church membership.  The emotions we will experience as we process our pastor’s resignation is akin to the trauma of divorce, and we will be hurting deeply for some time to come because of it.  But the same bond that makes this separation hurt so much, is also, by the grace of God, what can help us to overcome.  These pivotal circumstances have the potential to strengthen our faith, or to crush it, and I pray that we will come through this with a greater determination to live the lives Christ died for us to live.

As we travel this road, we will experience a wide range of emotion.  Some will feel relieved, some confused, others hurt, some will no doubt be angry, some of us will want to try to fix it, some of us will just withdraw, preferring not to deal with it, and some of us will try to pretend like it doesn't much matter...  As the stages of grief unfold, we may find ourselves frustrated with others whose responses to this difficulty are dramatically different than our own.  We must be careful to let every conversation we have be “full of grace, and seasoned with salt”.  In other words, we must make every effort to love each other through this, and to make sure that we focus on building each other up, not tearing each other down.

As we navigate these waters, let us remember the fundamental things that make faith grow:

• Practical Teaching:  We are losing a great teacher, and we will all need to find ways to fill the void.  Practical teaching don’t have to come from a stage on a Sunday Morning, grab a good book by Francis Chan, Andy Stanley, David Platt or some other Christian author who gives you practical advice on how to live the truth of the scripture and read, read, read.
• Private Disciplines: Faith grows when we commit ourselves to reading the word, to prayer, and to giving sacrificially.  This may be a good time to try fasting, even just skipping a meal to pray a few times a week, could have an amazing impact on your life and the life of our church.
• Personal Ministry:  The loss of a pastor means that there are big shoes to fill!  Many of us turn to him for advice, for counseling, and rely on his comfort when we are sick.  As a body we will have to fill the void by each of us digging deep and doing what we can to love and support each other. Remember that the normal means of communication may be down for a while, so when you have a need, find someone you trust and ask for help.
• Providential Relationships: The scripture is clear that the body grows as each part does its work, and it tells us that we need each other.  Now more than ever, invite people into your home, change your schedule to make time for fellowship, and let us encourage one another daily.  Use social media to check up on people, to ask how they are doing, and share the things from good books or scripture that are encouraging you.
• Pivotal Circumstances are the 5th thing on Andy Stanley’s list of what makes faith grow.  And this one is a double edged sword.  Pivotal circumstances and cripple our faith or make it stronger.  The key is how we deal with them. Deal with them by focusing on the things that make faith grow rather than on the the things that hurt or the things that divide.

Find just one or two people to meet with each week.  Commit to reading the same scripture, to praying for each other, to confessing sin to each other and to praying for people you love, who have not yet confessed Jesus as Lord. Keep the group extremely small, so that you don’t have to juggle schedules or worry about what someone will think.

The church is not a place we gather on Sundays. Biblically, we don’t find the concept that Christians “go to church”, instead we find as we read the Word that, “we are the church”.  We are not a body because we sing the same songs and hear the same sermons. We are a body only when we share the same mission, and the same strategy for carrying out that mission.  We don’t meet together to get a good encouraging feeling that will help us through the week, we meet together to spur each other on toward love and good deeds.  The good feelings will be different for a while, maybe even absent, but we can still spur each other on to run the race as if to win the prize.  

As a Side Note...

I recently posted about how vision is a great source of hope.

Without vision hope is little more than a wish.

But there is more to the story.

Yesterday my wife and I had the privilege of spending a few hours with one of my mentors and his wife, and we both left feeling just a little more hopeful.  Usually this mentor has words of wisdom, and is able to offer perspective.  I went wondering what vision he would have to offer, what new information he would provide that would give me clarity on some of life's more difficult challenges.  But that was not what happened.

I went in prepared to listen.  But instead they listened as my wife and I poured out some of the challenges we've been trying to tackle as a team.  Instead of advice, our words with met with sympathy and understanding.  Instead of finding new perspective, we discovered that they are navigating very similar waters.  Instead of feeling isolated in our struggles, we now know that we are not alone.

It reminds me of the first time I climbed Mt. Katahdin, Maine's highest peak.  I was in 8th grade, and hadn't done much hiking.  I was one of the very last people in our large group of teenagers to reach the top, and by the time I got there, everyone else was rested and ready to head back down.  I ended up making my way down with another straggler, an annoying 7th grade boy named Jeff.  As we made our way down, we came to a place where several trails met, and we were unsure which one would take us back to where our youth leaders and the church van were waiting.  We spotted what looked like a group of teens some distance ahead and decided to catch up to them.  As we got closer we realized that they weren't from our group.  We had made our decision to take this trail on bad information, and we didn't know if it would lead us to our destination or not. It is worth noting that every school student is Maine is required to read a book called "Lost on a Mountain in Maine", about a boy who gets lost while hiking Mt. Katahdin...  So our imaginations had plenty of fodder for dreaming up worst case scenarios.  I think I would have panicked if Jeff hadn't been there.  Not that this kid who had a habit of spraying shaving cream on me while I slept, was a mountain of emotional stability, but I didn't want to look panicked and scared in front of him, so I acted tough.  Together we faced the unknown and the very real possibility that, with the sun quickly setting, we would get to the end of the trail, discover we were on the wrong side of the mountain, and need to head back up the mountain in a different direction.  Just having someone to face the difficult journey with made it easier.

We were overjoyed to see the church van in the parking lot.  And I never found Jeff quite so annoying after that. He never sprayed me with shaving cream again, (though there was one incident involving crickets in my sleeping bag...) 10 years later he stood beside as a groomsman in my wedding, and a year later I returned the favor.

It wasn't vision that got us down the mountain, or through the difficult situation, it was camaraderie.  Camaraderie made the panic worthy situation seem a little less overwhelming.  Even if the night got dark and we couldn't see the trail or the things moving in the woods, we wouldn't be alone, and that was a source of comfort, a source of hope.  That same kind of hope is what Shandy and I found in a mentor's living room yesterday.

Hope vs. Vision

In my quest to move and re-think, I like to read.  I read blogs, I read books, I subscribe to e-mail lists, and follow those who think differently on Facebook or YouTube.  One recent addition to my list is the Verge Network.  The basic premise of the folks at Verge is that God's idea for the church was not that it be a place that we go, but that church is a community of people with the same mission.  While most churches would agree with those words, the ways we live and the ways we operate tell the truth about what we really believe the church is all about.

Anyway, signing up for their e-mail news letter has given me access to a huge list of free e-books, one of which is called ,Righteous Brood', by Hugh Halter.  The e-mail discussing this free resource was particularly intriguing to me, and the book is only about 62 adobe reader pages long, so I set aside my Andy Stanley reading, and dove in.

At just about the half way point, Mr. Halter (who I occasionally disagree with) said something that really caught my attention.  He was talking about the difference between Hope and Vision.  Hopes, he argues, are "just emotional wishes that we hold out for.  Vision on the other hand is designed to actually change the future... Vision is the ability to see what God wants and move people toward His desired goal in any situation"

I've been having a hard time with certain things in life, and I've been asked about certain situations, whether or not I have hope.  Honestly I tend toward pessimism. Hope is something I have to work at.  When 1st Corinthians 13 tells me that "love always hopes" I cringe a little and know I have lots of room to grow.  But this quote resonates with me, because what I lack in hope, I make up for in Vision.  I may be a pessimist when it comes to where things are, or where they will be if nothing changes, but I am always ready with ideas for how to make them different.

Personally I think it is hard to share hope, without sharing vision.  When you tell a sick person 'I hope you feel better,' it is no where near as comforting as when their doctor says, 'here is the plan for how we are going to take you from sick to healthy.' One offers an "emotional wish" the other is "designed to actually change the future".  Which one actually offers hope?

I think James talked about this in his epistle, when he said "if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?"  Like empty words to an empty stomach is hope without vision.

So when we think of our kids, do we think, I hope they avoid tragedy, find a godly spouse, get a good job, settle into a safe neighborhood, find a good church etc.?  Do we step it up a notch and 'hope' they will take risks for God and make a difference in the world?  Or do we stop and think about how to make those things happen? Do we dare to ask God what his vision for our family is? Do we make the tough and uncomfortable choices that will result in those things becoming reality?

When we think of our churches, do we hope for unity, do we hope that people will act like a body, do we hope for more people to come to know Jesus, for lives to be changed, and the next generation to walk through the door? Or are we willing to come up with a vision that says, this is who we want to reach, this is how we plan to reach them, this is how we will disciple them, here are the steps that build faith, and here are some next steps each of us should be taking.

When we think of or marriages do we hope he will pick up his socks and she will make sure clean ones are mated? Do we hope for intimacy, for romance, for like-mindedness, and trust.  Or do we come up with a plan do build those things brick by brick, in sickness and in health, in riches and in poverty, for better or worse.

When I have vision I have hope.

Where there is no vision, people perish.

A New Blog I am Following

In my never ending quest to move and rethink, I like to read about leaders who are pushing past the status quo, and seeing what God is doing in ministries where tradition is seen as an enemy of transformation.

One of those ministries is Connexus Church just outside of Tornoto Canada.  I recently started following Jeff Brodie's blog, in which he shares from his experiences helping to design a church that is reaching people in a country where church attendance is around 10%.  His recent series of posts has been on the importance of not just how we do church, but how we decide how we do church.  Having grown up and served in congregational models all of my life I find his ideas to be so far outside my box that part of me thinks they must be fiction.

Take  look at this post, and tell me what you think

Thoughts on Spiritual Growth

I was recently asked, what steps I think lead to spiritual maturity.  I sent that response as an e-mail to the friend who asked, and figured it might make a good blog post.  After all I use this blog for things that I want to get feedback on and for things that I want to continually "rethink".  So please help me "re-think" any of this that needs to be refined.

As I see it, all spiritual growth results from one of the following: (please note that this list is not original it comes from Andy Stanley's book "Deep and Wide")  Practical Teaching, Private Disciplines, Personal Ministry, Providential Relationships, Pivotal Circumstances.

Practical Teaching:  Not just teaching, but teaching with "next steps".  A sermon that leaves you, not just more enlightened, but one that gives you practical ideas for how to be different because of what you've just heard. This kind of teaching can come from a stage, be heard over the radio (or Internet), or be found in the pages of a book.  It can be heard live with hundreds of people, or projected onto a video screen in a small group, or consumed privately.

 Private Disciplines: Reading the scripture, prayer, fasting, and giving.  All of these have the potential to grow our faith.

Personal Ministry:  Our bodies cannot be healthy simply by eating the right food, we have to pair diet with exercise for optimal health.  So it is with our spirit.  We have to be engaged in the unique ministry, the "good works" that Ephesians 2 says God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.

Providential Relationships: This is where the body comes in.  We all need people in our lives that we can learn from, who can mentor us, who we can mentor.  There will be people in our lives that inspire us, and people who are negative examples.  We need people to spur us on toward love and good deeds, and to sharpen us, as iron sharpens iron.

Pivotal Circumstances: This is not one that the church can create, as much as it can shape our response.  I love the way Roger (our pastor) takes current events and give us a Christian/Biblical filter for them.  We will all have pivotal circumstances in our lives, death, divorce, injury, illness, financial troubles, and the like.  How we respond to these circumstances can impact our faith. Do we see tragic circumstances and decide that a loving God could not let such a thing happen, or do we see the evidence of God working all things for good?

These ideas are extremely well articulated in Andy Stanley's book "Deep and Wide", and while I've taken the "P's" (words in bold) from his book, these are ideas that I have been working to refine and articulate for years, which is why they resonate with me so deeply. 

I know you wanted my personal opinion, so the following ideas are strictly mine.  I think that as we look through scripture we can see the following pattern emerge for how God works in a life: He Planned for us, He created us, He pursued us, He makes us new, He equips us, He inspires us, He Works through us.  This pattern is similar to what we see in Romans 8:29-30.  As we try to do for others as Jesus did for us, I think we, as individuals or as a church, can follow the same pattern.

Plan: God foreknew us, before he did anything else.  We should take time to get to know who we want a ministry, or our entire church, to reach.  If a church wants to start a ministry that is going to help feed hungry people, shouldn't we get to know some hungry people and find out what they need?  Shouldn't we read everything we can about hunger and poverty, and shouldn't we study what is working to combat those needs?  Just an example... 

Create: God had his plan for salvation in place before he created us.  After his plan was in place, he set about putting into action.  This is of course a vital second step.  It is not enough to simply read, and study how to minister to a particular group, we must actually take action, and be doer's of what we have learned.

Pursue: Even God wasn't content to sit in heaven and let His creation speak for itself, He walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, He took on flesh and became human, he whispered to Elijah, he made a covenant with Abraham, he met Paul on the road to Damascus.  Likewise, if we want to minister to people, we need to walk in their shoes, and become available to life life beside them, rather than simply program for them/to them/at them.  When children's ministry worked well in our church, it was because the volunteers were passionate about the kids and were not content to simply meet with them once a week, they followed up with home visits, and invited them into their own homes, took them out for ice cream, remembered their birthdays, and made their lives, (not just small slivers of their schedules) available.

Made New:  Okay, only God can do this, but we need to remember that all of the relationships and programs in the world don't matter if the person never sees past us to Jesus.  Keeping this on the list of our necessary steps, keeps us focused on the goal of making as certain as possibe that the person were are ministering too experiences the life transformation that Paul spoke of in 2nd Corinthians 5:17.  This is the midpoint in the timeline, the cornerstone, of all of any ministry. we long for that moment when someone will be made knew in Christ.

Equip: This is where I observe most churches having the most difficulty.  What do we do after someone is made knew in Christ?  It is as if we had a clear plan for how to get them into the kingdom, but don't know what do with them once they are in.  Really that's kinda backwards.  Being in the kingdom we should know what kingdom life looks like, but we seem confused...  I think this is because we tend look at salvation as the end goal, when in reality it is only the beginning.  We have this "okay God I got them this far, now they have the Holy Spirit, so you can take it from here..." attitude.  I also think that strategically equipping a whole church full of people is difficult because this is where our ministries tend to begin to overlap.  Instead of just being involved in the one thing or with the one person that moved them toward Christ, the new believer is now expected to be a part of the general church body, and the transition from the kiddie pool to the deep end is often overlooked.  This is makes strategy and unity between departments so critical.  This is why I love Andy Stanley's 5 P's from earlier. They are the steps that transform us from newborn faith to mature faith, a faith that will survive the scorching sun and the choking weeds.  We are equipped through Practical Teaching, Private disciplines, Personal Ministry, Providential Relationships, and Pivotal Circumstances. 

Inspire: As we experience different avenues of personal ministry, we have opportunities to see what work in the kingdom makes us come alive, and to move closer and closer to discovering out what those unique good works are that God created just us to do.  I fully believe that God has a specific, unique purpose for each of us, and that we have the privilege of finding out what it is.  The more faithful we are with the "5P's" listed above, the more He entrusts to us. Like the word says, "you have been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things".  The goal is to have each Christian reach a place where as Paul said, "I am compelled to preach, woe to me if I do not preach the gospel" they can say "I am compelled to ____________, woe to me if I do not __________."

Use: Thus transformed, equipped and inspired, we can produce a crop yielding 30, 60 or 100 times what was sown.  This is the part where we are "God's fellow workers" and "Christ's Ambassadors". This is my definition of maturity.  Someone who knows what they are called to do, is passionate about doing it, and is always striving to do it better for the Glory of God.

Remember this was an e-mail to a friend, so I understand if the context is hazy for someone just joining the conversation.  Don't hesitate to ask lots of questions.

Words from Grandpa's Bible

I spent last night in my grandfather's small apartment.  We knew his time with us was short and didn't want him to be alone.  My parents had been there around the clock for days and were exhausted.  It was my privilege to stay with him.

After they filled me in on what to do to keep him comfortable, they left, and I settled into an old chair, with his Bible.  It had been my grandmothers, before she went home 20 years ago, but since then, it had been his.


This note makes me think that the Bible had been every bit as much his as it had been Nana's even before she went home,  "Help me Lord, to become the man I should be for Christ's sake" - dated 10/11/1975

And this one confirms he was using it long after she went home, "How much longer do I have to serve God?" dated 9/25/2005

The pages worn with use, many falling out, some with verses underlined, some with notes scrawled in the margins.  I could think of no better way to pass the time than to simply sit and read the things that had been worth remembering to him.

Before I could get to those worn pages I found myself transfixed with the inside cover.  Here were listed the following references and phrases.  (I have typed out the verses for you in italics, the cover contained only the references)

Psalm 56:11 “In God I trust; I shall not be afraid.  What can man do to me.”

Proverbs 29 - (turning to that scripture I found the first verse underlined.) “He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing”

I am the best Christian someone will ever see.

Write your name on my lips, Lord...

Scripture for leading one to Christ... Romans 10:9,10&13 “If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved… For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The words “Salvation verses” and the following list:

John 1:12, “But to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, He gave the right to become children of God.”

Acts 16:31, “And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household”

Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”

Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. Not a result of works, so that no one may boast”

Romans 5:8,9 “But God demonstrates his love for us in this, that while were still sinners Christ died for us.  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”

Beside this final scripture was written - by Christ’s death, he paid the penalty for the sins of the world.

See Exodus 12 - Passover

Psalm 119:92 “If your law had not been my delight I would have perished in my afflictions”

Col 3:11 “Here there is no Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.”

Deuteronomy 13:6-7 “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’… you shall not yield to him or listen to him…”  Beside this reference was written the words “Stand for our lord against family and friend”

Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those that love him, who are called according to his purpose.”

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Just before we got to Genesis, I found the following quote...

“You will never know how to live until you are ready to die.” 

This same quote was also found on the back cover...  It was the only repeat entry...

I took a break from reading around 10:30 and checked on Grandpa. His breathing was so shallow I had to put my hand on him to make sure he was still with me. I went back to reading and fell asleep with the Bible in my lap.  When I woke up around 1:30 in the morning, I checked on him again.  He had passed painlessly and silently from this life to the next...

In the Psalms one verse that was underlined was Psalm 116:15 "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints".  

Thoughts from the Orange Conference - Church Leaders

This is the 4th and final installment of my "thoughts from the Orange Conference".  Today I am focused on the lessons that I took away as someone who has been in church leadership, and someone who knows how vital having the support of church leadership is to the future of ministry.  Remember these are bullet points.  If you want details you'll have to post a comment.

• People won’t believe they are significant until they are given something significant to do.
• It is better to be excellent at two things than it is to have something for everyone.
• Each hour you spend developing a team of leaders (or parents) is an hour in which you have actually multiplied your influence.  Your one hour turns in to 5, as each individual takes what you taught and practices it.
• Refining or adding programs only makes us more yellow.  It actually moves the church away from being Orange.  Going Orange will require you to let Red (families) have influence in your ministry, and may require doing less, so that Red will have time and energy to do more.
• Have a volunteer tell a ‘messy’ ministry story on video and follow it up with “I am __________, and I volunteer with ___________, because______________”.
• When someone complains about a ministry, a leader’s first response should be “you obviously aren't volunteering there,” then be ready to share at least one “win” from each ministry.
• If you can’t identify a win for a ministry, it is time to cut it or at least prune it.
• Guard the gates.  Not everyone who wants to be a leader (teacher, committee member, small group leader, or any kind of volunteer) should be.  Filtering and evaluating leaders requires creating criteria for leadership.  Look at your best leaders/volunteers to identify those criteria.
• Guard the Gates.  Not every program or ministry idea will actually help you accomplish your mission.  Have criteria by which you evaluate each ministry (new or existing)
• Inspire trust by communicating, being available, and only doing what you can do with excellence.
• It is easier to run ministry around parents than it is to run ministry through relationships with them.  Partnering with parents will require deep commitment and constant attention, as it runs counter to our deeply established church culture
• Design a take away (application) for insiders and one for outsiders into everything you do.
• Determine to reach outsiders through insiders (ie through people, not through programs)
• Be purposeful about connecting outsiders to insiders
• Rely most on the feedback of outsiders, it is easy to fall into the trap of just listening to those who like what you are doing, but that will lead you into ruts or stagnation, you will need to constantly get input from new voices if you are going to keep your approach fresh.
• Don’t box the next generation of leaders into certain methods.

This concludes the thoughts from the Orange Conference.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Thoughts from the Orange Conference - Students

Part 3 of my thoughts from the Orange Conference.  These are some bullet points of ideas that I'd like to plug into my ministry to teens.  Keep in mind that these are just bullet points, and don't hesitate to ask questions if anything is unclear.

• The 4G gospel – we were created “Good” and of great worth to God.  “Guilt” from our sin separates us from that goodness and from God.  “Grace” inspired God to send Jesus to make a way for our relationship with God to be reconciled, and it is “Gratitude” for what God has done that motivates us to turn from evil do good.
• Set specific goals for each year (ie for the freshmen, for the sophomores, etc…) and communicate those goals to each student, mentor and parent.
• Connect them to service, not to a person or a program.  People and programs can be taken away, but if they learn to love God through serving others, they can build new relationships and programs.
• Match-make inter-generational partnerships 1 at a time.
• Provide them with specific actions they can take to be missionaries at school
• Invite them to invite others
• Don’t just assimilate them into the youth ministry; assimilate them out of it as well.
• When it comes to your program Only do what you can do with excellence
• When it comes to relationships remember that God is more interested in your availability than in your ability.
• Teach them how to study the bible; don’t just tell them to do it.  For starters try this: “Pray, Read, Think, Write, Pray.”  Pray – that you will understand what you are about to read, Read – keep it small enough to digest, Think of something you can do with what you've read, Write it down (no longer than a tweet or Facebook status), Pray – that God will help you practice what you've read.
• Give them goals then can attain.  (one example- Going from 0 bible study to 7 days a week would be great, but they may feel like failures if they don’t meet that, shoot for 4 days for starters, and work up from there)
• Remember that the lesson isn't over until it has been applied
• Teach their parents about grace – teen years are when they should be transitioning from doing what is right out of guilt (or fear of punishment) to doing it out of gratitude for the Grace God showed them when he sent Jesus.  Grace will need to be modeled in the home.
• Change the gauge of success – from results to steps.  (one example: rather than how many friends have gotten saved, to how many times you shared your testimony.)
• Students won’t believe they are significant until they are given something significant to do.

Thoughts from the Orange Conference - Parents

Part two of my thoughts from the Orange Conference.  These bullet points represent the ideas and inspiration from the conference that relate to how I interact with the parents of the teens I work with, but also how I try to help the parents in our church take a more active role in partnering with the church to fulfill the great commission.

• Ask parents why they personally need the church.
• Ask parents “what would make the church such an indispensable part of your life that you would beg your friends to give it a try?”
• Take a video of each parent saying “I am ___________, I am a parent and I partner with the church because _____________.”
• Think: Going orange isn't about refining or adding programs.  Adding programs is how you go more yellow.  Going Orange requires the church to elevate the red.
• Think: What if going orange doesn't mean obligating families to another program or night out, but showing red that we believe that they are essential to the strategy of the church.
• Think: in terms of empowering red, rather than instructing it.
• Build relationships of trust with parents by communicating, by excellence, by connecting them to a small group leader, by creating opportunities for parents and kids to make memories together, by pointing them to resources, by planning some of your teaching based on their input, and by being available to give guidance.
• Ask parents what faith skills they need help teaching their kids, plan your ministries around these felt needs, and parents will be much more likely to partner with you.
• Partner with parents to create a list of annual spiritual mile stones (steps) for their kids from cradle to college, plan your ministry around these, and review them frequently.
• Provide a visual that will help us all remember that the days we have with kids are numbered.
• Match-make partnerships and inter-generational relationships for kids, and for parents.
• Remember that vision fades with age.  Ask the next generation what they need in order to be ministers to their peers.

Now hopefully something you just read inspired or intrigued you.  If so, please post a comment so we can talk.

Thoughts from the Orange Conference - Personal

I just attended the Orange Conference in Atlanta.  

It was the Orange Conference that first inspired me to blog, and honestly I had recently given up on blogging, but I am inspired to try again.

Over the next four days I will post bullet points on my thoughts from the Orange Conference.  They are just bullet points, not complete thoughts.  So if you want deeper understanding of a point or two you'll have to comment and ask.

Today we start with the things that impacted me personally. These bullet points capture the changes that I hope to see in my approach to people and ministry:

• Community is Messy. That’s okay God uses messy.  When I try to avoid mess, I avoid the things that can cause me and others to grow.
• See people for who they can become in Christ, instead of for their biggest mistake.
• Invest in the Kingdom of God, not in building a kingdom. God’s kingdom is bigger than my church.
• Be more available. – Thousands experienced Jesus’ abilities (ie speaking, healing, and miracles) but only about 120 people were huddled together praying after his resurrection.  These were the people who had experienced his availability.  It was through these people that He changed the world.
• People will not believe they are significant until they are given something significant to do.
• Cast vision big enough to scare high capacity leaders. Big vision attracts high capacity leaders.
• How people respond to my message has more to do with my approach than my argument.
• Fight for people, rather than with them.
• Remember that people outside the church won’t believe something “because the bible says so” The authority of the early church came from their love. Their love was demonstrated by putting their belief into action, not just by talking about it, is what caused people to listen to their message, and gave authority to their words.
• Think about how appealing the smell of fresh baked bread is.  Anyone passing by a bakery longs for what is inside.  I should be like that as a Christian.

Now hopefully something you just read provoked a thought.  If so post a comment, and let's talk.

Sign Post 4

Carey says that the 4th sign that your church is ready to meet unchurched people is that, "4. You’re good with questions." 

HE clarifies by saying  "This one’s still hard for me. I like to think that every question has an answer. I think one of the reasons unchurched people flee churches is they feel shut down when every question they ask has a snappy or even quick answer. They will find answers, but you need to give them time. Embracing the questions of unchurched people is a form of embracing them."

Do you have all the answers?  Most of us don't, but most of us do have answers that satisfies us.  Interestingly enough, our answer may be VERY different from the answer that the Church down the street has.  If we care about theology at all, then we probably picked our church because that's where we found the most satisfying answers t our big questions. I don't know about you, but some of the questions that I have about faith are BIG.

When faced with big questions, it can be tempting to find a satisfying answer, and accept it, rather than to dig into it and think critically about it.

It is one thing to have searched the scriptures and be confident in a biblically based answer to a difficult question.  

It is another thing entirely to say "because God says so" without having a clue where in the Bible it says so, or how the answer is in keeping with the character of God.  

An uninformed Christian, especially who insists they know the answers, can do more harm than good when it comes to reaching the lost.

We are called to make disciples, which means being disciples.  We are told to teach people to obey everything Jesus commanded us. That means we need to know what he commanded... And I highly recommend where he said it, the context in which it was said, and how it is in keeping with the character of God as described in the entirety of scripture. 

Until we are willing to do this, we won't be able to go into all the world and make disciples.

Sign Post 3

Carey’s third sign that your church is ready to reach unchurched people is  Your attenders are prepared to be non-judgmental. 

"Unchurched people," he writes, "Do not come ‘pre-converted’. They will have lifestyle issues that might take years to change (and let’s be honest, don’t you?). Cleaning up your behavior is not a pre-condition for salvation, at least not in Christianity. What God has done for us in Jesus saves us; not what we have done for God. Is your congregation really ready to love unchurched people, not just judge them? One of Jesus’ genius approaches was to love people into life change. If your people can do that, you’re ready to reach unchurched people.”

This doesn't come naturally to me, maybe because of the bubble in which I grew up. (see Sign Post 2)  

Early in my ministry the church I was serving was positioned right next to "Job Corps" a place where people who struggled with conventional education could get job training. The place didn't have a great reputation, because some of the residents had been 'sentenced' to attend Job Corps as an alternative to serving jail time.  

A new Senior Pastor came on board and thought Job Corps would be the perfect place to go to grow our student ministry, much to my chagrin.   

"Culture shock" would be a mild way of describing what happened when you took a group of 12-16 year old church kids and combined them with a group of 16-24 year old people who had never seen the inside of a church.  As a 20 year old who had grown up in a bubble, I was WAY out of my league. Being overwhelmed only fed many of my stereo types of unchurched young adults.

Needless to say that a little more strategic planning might have made for better ministry.  Very few people, shared the pastor's vision for reaching the students at Job Corps.  Even though the bulk of the heavy lifting ministry fell to me, I was one of those who wasn't catching the vision...  But I did learn a great deal about judging a book by it's cover, and about letting people grow before asking them to change.  And in my next church, when the kids with the pink hair and lip piercings came through the door, I was determined to have a different attitude, and we had a very different outcome.

I’ve tried to steer clear of talking about my current church while discussing Carey’s sign posts.  But I have to brag on them just a little. 

One of the first things I noticed upon coming to church was a guy in his 40’s to 50’s with a bright pink curly Mohawk sitting among a see of suits and ties.  Observing him you could tell that he didn't feel a bit out of place, nor was he treated differently.  When a giant, purple haired, biker-looking guy showed up and sat in the front pew week after week, he was embraced and loved, even when he threw up during a service…  The folks at my church may generally look and act a certain way, but they don't judge other books by their covers.

I believe my church also does a good job letting at not expecting people to act like Christians until they actually become Christians, and even after they decide to follow Jesus they are allowed to ‘grow up’ before being expected to ‘clean up’. 

This doesn’t mean that sin is ignored.  It just means that you don’t start pruning before the seed has taken root, and had some time to grow.  

Sign Post 2

Carey's second sign that your church is ready to reach the unchurched is that "People in your church actually know unchurched people."

This one was a blind spot for me for a VERY long time.

Growing up I went to Christian School, and went to church.  My friends all came from one of those 2 places.  Now I work in an office full of Christians and I go to church, and most of my friends come from those places, other than that I am with my wife and kids

It is hard to be evangelistic when you live in a bubble, like I do.

I used to say that it was a matter of calling.  Some are called to plant seeds, and some are called to water them.  I shrugged of any discomfort with the lack of personal evangelism in my life by telling myself that I was called to water seeds.  Practically speaking, this meant that someone else brought them to church and I took it from there...

I compartmentalized the disciple making process.  Saw it less like a result of deep relationships and more like an assembly line.

To be sure we all have different roles to play.  God uses us as a body, and we all have different functions in the body.  A young man from our youth group recently decided to follow Jesus. His journey began when he saw the difference in two young ladies who made that decision a year earlier.  Curious about the changes in their lives, he asked them lots of questions.  When they didn't know the answers, they asked me questions, and shared the answers with him.  Eventually he came to a small group where one of our volunteers talked with him, then he had a conversation with one of the students he met at the small group, and during that conversation, made a decision to follow Jesus.  This is a beautiful picture of the body of Christ.  All kinds of different parts doing their work, resulting in eternal fruit.

A vital part of that process was two young ladies knowing an unchurched person.  They were light, in the world where God had them.  They lived out the scripture that tells us to "live such good lives among the pagans that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father who is in heaven".

We are told that a vital part of evangelism is to live our lives among the pagans.

So what do we do when we realize we are living in a bubble?

Well for me the answer is a wife who really understands this need to know and live among unchurched people.  She is intentional about making sure that we have people in our lives who aren't part of the bubble.  She gets uncomfortable in the bubble that is so natural for me.  Living among the unchurched is one of the big reasons she started working outside the home again. It if wasn't for her, this would have remained a major blind spot in my life.

If you find yourself in a bubble, I don't presume to know what specific steps God wants you to take.  I do know that  if we don't make knowing unchurched people a priority, then aren't really making the great commission a priority.

Sign Post 1

Today we will examine the first of Carey’s signs that your church is ready to reach unchurched people.

Carey Writes:  [the first sign that your church is ready to reach the unchurched is] Your main services engage teenagers: I've talked with many church leaders who want to reach unchurched people who can’t understand why unchurched people don’t like their church. They would be stumped until I asked them one last question: do the teens in your church love your services and want to invite their friends? As soon as I asked that question, the leader’s expression would inevitably change. He or she would look down at the floor and say ‘no’. Here’s what I believe: if teens find your main services (yes, the ones you run on Sunday mornings) boring, irrelevant, and disengaging, so will unchurched people. As a rule, if you can design services that engage teenagers, you've designed a church service that engages unchurched people.

Is he really advocating that we should want our main church service to be so shallow, and superficial that a narcissistic teenager would actually enjoy coming to church?

Maybe, but I think his point is that we should re-think who it is that attends our largest gatherings.

Freshman lectures at college have the largest attendance, as the course work gets more technical, more detailed, more advanced, the class sizes get smaller and smaller.

In the church we tend to do the opposite.  We offer intro level stuff in small groups, and intermediate and advance stuff to our largest audience.

Fixing this does not mean that we water down the message. Scripture is clear that the spiritual menu consists of both milk and solid food. I may prefer a good steak, but I will not deny the nutritional value of milk.

I will deny the nutritional value of Kool-aid. 

But what if the mature crowd were to gather, not because they want a steak, because they have a deep desire to carry out the great commission:  Go into all the world and make disciples.

What if this group of Christians, fully capable of grilling solid food in their own back yards all week long, comes together each week intent on using their combined gifts to reach those who do not yet know Christ.

This group of people would remind you that salvation requires that we deny ourselves and follow Jesus. 

Jesus, whose life they are trying to imitate, gave up the comforts of heaven and took on the nature of a servant, for the sake of an unchurched world. 

Thus, to them, aiming to engage on the level of the teenager no longer seems stupid, shallow or superficial.  

Is Your Church Ready to Reach Unchurched People?

I recently read a blog post by Carey Nieuwhof entitled "9 Signs Your Church is Ready to Reach Unchurched People".  I found the article thought provoking, and I'd love to dialog about what Carey wrote.  My plan is to re-post one of his 'signs' each day for the next 9 days, so that we can talk about them one at a time.  I'll give my thoughts; I am hoping that you'll post your own.

So let's start with the introduction:

Carey writes:  Almost every church I know says they want to reach unchurched people.  But few are actually doing it.  Part of the problem stems from the fact that many churches don’t really understand unchurched people (here’s a post on 15 characteristics of today’s unchurched person).

And part of the problem is that our model of church is designed to reach and helped churched people, not unchurched people. Churches haven’t embraced change deeply enough.

So you can say you want to reach people all day long. You can teach about it every week. But if you haven’t designed your church around ministering to people who don’t go to church, you might as well be preaching that you want to lose weight while eating a triple cheeseburger.

Your model simply doesn’t match your mission.

So how do you know that your church is actually ready to reach unchurched people?

Carey challenges us to make sure that our model matches our mission. Before we can do that we have to know what our mission is. 

I think the popular word for this is "alignment". If the people or more importantly the leadership of a church is out of alignment (ie they don't agree on their mission) then they will never be able to agree on a model.

Carey writes that it is a "problem" that "our model of church is designed to reach and help churched people not unchurched people" 

But is that really a problem? 

Certainly our mission "as the church" should be to reach those who do not yet believe, but when we come together "for church" is it wrong to focus on helping the people who are actually attending?

I think it comes back to the question of alignment.  Are the members of the church united around one purpose for coming together "for church".

I've heard the following ideas on the mission of the church:

• "The church is a hospital for sick people."
• TRANSLATION: The church is where you bring people who need to hear the gospel, and need to be loved.
• "The church is where the sheep eat."
• TRANSLATION: Christians meet at church to get equipped to go out and reach the world around them.
• "The church should be all things to all people so that by all possible means we might save some." 
• TRANSLATION: We do a little bit of everything so we have something for everyone, because everyone belongs in the body of Christ.
• "The church is the body of Christ."
• TRANSLATION: Our mission is to be as united and as Biblical as possible.
• "The church is the hands and feet of Jesus."
• TRANSLATION: We specialize in meeting the physical needs of the world around us.

Carey's blog presupposes that we have at our core a desire to reach "unchurched".  And I would champion the argument that you cannot know the God of the Bible, and live a life that disregards those that do not know Him.

But what does it mean to reach them? 

Do we want to take "unchurched people" and make "churched people" or do we want to make "disciples"?

 

Do our churches have a definition of what a disciple looks like?

Are we disciples?  

Do we need God to do something in us before he can do something through us? Or if we unite around a mission of disciple-making, will we find ourselves progressing as disciples? 

What is the purpose of dozens, or hundreds or thousands of us meeting together? 

Should our gatherings be focused on what happens outside the walls of the church, or should what happens outside the walls of the church be focused on what happens in our gatherings?

Should these questions be posed in an "either/or" way or a "both/and" way?

These are the questions I’m hoping you’ll walk through with me.