Tag: mission

Get to work! A perspective on prophesy

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IMG_0852“It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” ~Jesus

Given the news of late and also preparing for an up and coming sermon series, some people raised questions on how events relate to prophecy. This tendency is one of the great dangers of dispensationalism and Christian belief in general. (While dispensationalists are often the straw man for prophecy issues, they’re really a human nature thing.)

Why prophecy?
God gave prophecy to exhort us to live holy, worshipful and servant-minded lives. His interests were not so much in knowing the future but in resting in Him who is in control. In times of dire consequence, God offered pieces of His plan to comfort. Meaning? God is demonstrating that He is in control. However, our focus shouldn’t be on the events but on God and walking in His ways.

Is it now? Are we there yet?
Before Jesus ascended back to heaven the disciples asked if now was the time for the kingdom. Jesus said to not worry about it, but instead gave them a mission. This may seem odd given all the teachings of Jesus exhorting people to read and understand the times. This seemingly paradoxical response is followed by more prophecy down the road. Like the Old Testament, prophecy pointed to a God who is in control and a call to holy, servant-minded living.

But…
Chill out. Love and serve your neighbors. Preach the Gospel boldly. Prophecy isn’t so we can sit in the grand waiting room we call a worship center and listen to Christian music while waiting for Jesus to return. Prophecy is a call for us to make disciples until Jesus does return. With all the news coming about of late remember Acts 1:7 and get to work on Acts 1:8!

The bottom line:
Many times throughout history current events lined up with aspects of Scripture. Rather than fear or trying to figure out the answer, we must respond to prophecy by boldly proclaiming the Gospel. The details of God’s plan is none of our business. God shared enough to give us hope, show he’s in control and point us to a mission. Now, go finishing the mission God called you to. Get to work!

Finding a new church family

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IMG_1394I’m asked often by friends and family advice on finding a new church family. This post is much longer than normal, and general advice on the issue, not specific to any one person. I say finding a church family because I despise the term church shopping.  You’re a brother or sister in Christ, not a consumer. Church is family (Ephesians 1). I’m assuming you’re praying over every step. Pray. Pray. Pray! Ok, here we go:

Step 1: Leave justly!
If you’re relocating or if the church is sending you to another ministry, you’ve left justly. Sin is where things get messy. Matters of conscience even more so. It is ESSENTIAL to deal with matters. Leaving quietly to not create a mess robs you & the church of grace. If you are avoiding conflict or are being explosive, repent and work towards reconciliation! If you’re leaving on a good note, you should still connect with the church so people understand why and grow. Be a grace multiplier not a grace robber.

I am not saying it is wrong to ever leave a church family. I am implying that in North America we trend towards consumerism or conflict avoidance too often. Don’t be a tool of satan or live the sinful attitude of church consumerism. To be clear: Make sure you leave justly. Let’s try to avoid awkward when we’re in heaven moments.

Step 2: Take a good look in the mirror!
You are a saint because Jesus paid for your sins. Until you see Jesus face to face you’ll struggle with sin. Second, you are a unique part of the body of Christ. Your struggles and your gifting (often two sides of the same coin) are part of church growth. Before seeking a new family, take time to look in the mirror. How are you doing spiritually? What lessons have you learned from you earlier church ministry? Is there a new passion or calling God is giving you? Are you pursuing God or yourself?

Searching for a new church family will put you in a critical spirit. You will notice lots of things you do not like or worse you’ll overlook things because your consumerism tendencies kick in. (A big sign of that is compromising your theology for preferences.) Look in the mirror and make sure you’re very well aware of the log that is in your own eye. Church is family, meaning your job is to love and support the family. Church is not about you, but do not neglect how God wired you. God may be calling you to a particular church because it lacks what you have to offer, worts and all.

Step 3: Theology then method then people
Sound biblical teaching & theology is essential. If they’re not teaching the Bible, RUN! There is a difference between teaching from the Bible and teaching the Bible. If the church doesn’t hold to sound theology it will not be good in the long run. We act based on what we believe. Key question: How big of a deal is Jesus & the Bible to the church?

Next comes method. If method comes first, repent of ‘methodolatry.’ For example, if you’ll only look at churches with certain music or a certain program like AWANA, chances are good you’re committing to methodolatry. Don’t overlook something because it lacks a method or has a method you’re uncomfortable with. Don’t write off methods either. Use discernment, ask questions. Methodology matters. Sometimes a method that is important to you, but lacking to a church may be a result of no one to lead or support it.

People are essential. Are the people messy or are they white washed tombs? A church can be totally modern, cool, with great music, etc and be a dark, legalistic, dead church. Energy, coolness & size are often inaccurate church health indicators. (For an extreme example of why, just think of the under ground church.) You’re not the savior, but you are family. Can you say I’m here to love, support and serve these people? Solid theology and method is about supporting people in the mission of the Gospel. Healthy churches are quirky and messy regardless of size. Key question: Is the church a happy dysfunctional family?

Step 4: Examine the church
Here are three things to look out for after Step 3: Character over charisma, service over sensationalism, and people over programs. Our culture is driven by consumerism, which means you and I struggle with this too. You’ll need to attend the church for over a month to get some sense of this.

Character: Is the church more interested in who people are or what they do? This is the issue of being over doing. Look for a church that is concerned with who looks at you in the mirror each morning. Key thing to look for: Churches will make mistakes, do they own up to it?

Service: Is the church quick to love and support its church family first and then the community? It’s hard to serve the community if you’re not caring for one another. Both are essential to the mission of the Gospel. A church that isn’t outward focuses isn’t healthy. A church that focuses outwardly but neglects inward care is unstable.

People: Does the church focus on building people up or one what they can get out of people? Does the leadership seek your help in reaching the pastor’s vision, or do they help people pursue God’s calling? Is the church a business or is it family?

Step 5: Making the choice
This will be awkward because it is different. There is no perfect church because church is messy. It may not have what you want because God needs you there to make it happen. It may not be the size church you like or are comfortable with. There will be things you like and things you don’t. At this step the question is: Can you call these people family? If not, why not?

If you’ve been deeply hurt by your earlier church, a key question to work through: Can I heal here? You cannot avoid the healing process. Healing isn’t always about feeling good again, it can be a painful process. Be upfront with church leadership about the need to heal. They’ll give you sound counsel, and may even recommend a church that may be more helpful.

Timeframe:
Finding a church family takes time. It’ll likely take 6 months to a year. Don’t rush the process. When you’re on Step 4 with a church, don’t work on creating a list of churches and then move to Step 5. If Step 4 checks out and Step 5 checks out, welcome home. For military families or others that move often, you’ll naturally pick up this process on a faster pace.

Children:
Don’t look for a church that has something for your children. Reverse the question. Look for a church where your children can be a part. Church isn’t about you and it’s not about your kids either. Activity doesn’t mean discipleship. A small church can be just as vibrant as a large one for discipling your children. Don’t fear large churches. Kids can be dynamically discipled in large churches too. We often hide our consumerism in the name of our children.

Discuss it as a family. Train your children to be mission minded. ‘Did you like’ is a bad question. What children need they often dislike. don’t ignore their input about dislikes, be cautious on how you respond to it. Children can be spiritual champions, we as adults often hold them back. Ask them if there are ways they can support and serve the church. Teach your children through this process that church isn’t about them. When you find your new family, remind your children that you’re there to love and support the people of the church.

What process do you use? What would you add to this?

People don’t have enough cheerleaders…

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DSC_0527People don’t have enough cheerleaders, but they have plenty of critics. I’ve found the difference is really a choice a person makes. We can choose act as a cheerleader or we can choose act as a critic. In our hyper-critical church world, the choice is often to be a critic.

Biblical love is HARD!
Practicing 1 Corinthians 13 love, or Philippians 4:8-9 is HARD! How hard is it to trust and believe all things? Just by saying that the ‘Yeah, but’ crowd starts bubbling up about discernment or sin. Truth does not trump love nor love truth. How can I assume the best knowing that many are [insert the worst possible stereotype you can think of here]? Because that is what the Bible instructs me to do. After all, love is the more excellent way. Excellence is hard, messy and an intentional choice.

Act don’t react
Cheerleading is an intentional act, criticism is a reaction. Cheerleaders promote what they are FOR. Critics promote what they are AGAINST. Cheerleaders see what’s wrong, but push for what’s best. Critics see what is wrong, and push what is wrong. Cheerleaders praise in public and criticize in private. Critics criticize in public and (maybe) praise in private, hedged with said criticism. Cheerleading is hard because there are things seen that are frustrating. Criticism is easy because it is easier to destroy instead of build up. Cheerleaders trust God. Critics play God. What are you FOR?

Yeah, but the truth must be stated, right?
Promoting what you are for is stating truth. The statement “telling the truth is the most loving thing you can do” often puts truth above love. Think of it this way: out of the heart the mouth speaks. If I speak truth critically instead of lovingly, there is a theological error in my heart. We act based on what we believe. The ‘Yeah, but’ Crowd often speaks truth out of theological error.

God is God and we’re not
Paul didn’t mind his critics judging him or his motives. Why? Because God does. In fact, Paul didn’t even bother to judge himself for the same reason. Paul didn’t mind preachers making a name for themselves. Why? Because the Gospel was still being proclaimed. Paul didn’t go nuclear on false teaching in the Ephesian church. WHAT!? Paul sent Timothy to to instruct false teachers and bring them inline with the Bible. Cheerleading is a patient, long-suffering work that “GOD may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth…”

The bottom line:
I choose to be a cheerleader rather than a critic. Praise in public, criticize in in private. Cheerleading is about building up. It is not being naive about faults. Cheerleading is recognizing the value of one’s strengths that we can learn from. The Holy Spirit is really good at his job. He will accomplish his task of making people Christlike. Keep what you are for as the main thing. Promoting such naturally and patiently deals with the things you are critical of.

Act don’t react: Odd Rapid Chemical Reactions

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DSC_0336Act don’t react is a core proverb I follow. In studying history, particularly church history, I found people tend to react more than act. This often causes an unbalance or defining yourself as what you’re not vs what you are. Acting means to operate and explain who you are. Given my feeds lighting up with the “Strange Fire” conference, here are my thoughts to illustrate the proverb:

People don’t respond well do a direct assault.
Carefronting is done best from the side door because it focuses on relationships. Rather than set up a conference as a reaction to something, set it up to promote who you are. As such you teach truth and through that you can also rightly critique in error movements. Direct assaults, particularly in today’s culture, can inhibit your point.

Love really does matter!
Can the what about truth, what about sin garbage! If those were your first two thoughts, serious time needs to be spent in 1 Corinthians 13. Love does not equal being wishy-washy. What love focuses on is making a difference, not a point. The cross wasn’t pleasant, easy, or wishy-washy, but it was love. People who often here love and then think “what about truth, what about sin” often want to make a point and not a difference.

Rhetoric matters.
Paul instructs Timothy to guard his doctrine AND his speech. Speaking truth wrongly is sin just as teaching false doctrine is sin. Jesus made a joke about this scenario, something about removing a log from our own eye. We ACT based on what we BELIEVE. Bad rhetoric stems from a bad belief system. Further, bad rhetoric inhibits your goal. Stating “well, I’m standing for the truth” is no excuse. Rhetoric should first promote who you are.

It’s messy!
Ministry is messy! Acting vs reacting is grueling, hard, and takes time. It is not clean cut, often doesn’t get you accolades, but it is what the Spirit teaches us. I’ll let Paul speak to this:
“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”

God has a plan, and we’re not God.
The story of Joseph makes this point well in Genesis 37-50. God’s plan will not be thwarted, even by our own mistakes! We’re not God, and while we’re called to guard our doctrine and speak truth, we should ACT on that vs react to other movements. Gently guiding and teaching people about is avoids the egg-shell walk. It also demonstrates class. Finally, it demonstrates humility by letting God be God. After all, God is the one who brings people to repentance.
The bottom line:
Act, don’t react!

Why not Wednesday? Expanding the mission in hard times…

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For success to happen God needs to show up. But the vessels that carry God’s presence is people. In challenging times we can focus on what we lack, or we can embrace constraints by being creative. In being creative you need to get back to basics. The key for expanding the mission is people.

The Y factor
Early on in my ministry I attended “The Leadership Summit” put on by Willow Creek. Bill Hybels discussed what he called “The Y Factor.” You can read about it here. In dealing with a resource crunch, a member on his team wrote X (paid staff) + Y (volunteers) = Z (bearing fruit). Their focus was to double Y.

Y>X= expanding the mission
Expanding on that idea, the Y factor should be exponential. Truthfully, our “volunteers” support the church, serve in it, and more importantly, they’re the missionaries in all parts of our community. The church reaches its missions best when Y (volunteer staff) is greater than X (paid staff). Paid staff is important and vital- think of them as the coaching and support teams. But, paid staff are not the players- that’s the members. The better our members are equipped and mobilized, the greater our ministry impact.

Church is family
Pastor Mark Driscoll describes church as family. Church is extended family. You can hear him describe this here. There are no consumers in church. (At least, there shouldn’t be.) There are two kinds of people: family and guests. One of the marks of being in the Spirit is hospitality. One of the marks of being dialed into God is love. We’re family, and we should be an inviting one.

Free people up to serve
I blogged about a conversation I had with Pastor Pasma, found here. In that conversation he walked me through significant ministries that developed at the church I grew up in- powered by the people. He invested much time in the conversation talking about how to free people up to serve. “Staff to meet essentials… work to free people to serve.” Pastor pointedly stated how the people serving in the church is the truest mark of health and growth.

The Bottom line:
The church is people. The church success rests on people. Church growth is about people. While in hard, difficult or crazy times, the solution is your people. God’s power is evident in three things: Prayer. Bible. People. Loving God gives us a foundation for expanding the mission. Loving people gives us the means to make it happen.

Manic Monday: Good people need the Gospel too

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God puts everyone on a level playing field. Even if life is good and everything is in order, there is still need of the Cross. The Sunday sermon is something we should ponder throughout the week. This Sunday’s sermon grabbed my attention. We often forget about the moral person.

As Jon talked about Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, men who had it all together, I remembered a time in college. I was talking with a gentlemen about mankind’s condition. The often used phrase “religion  is a crutch” and “man is morally good or neutral” were used. He claimed to be an atheist or perhaps an agnostic. Chance would have it that the movie we picked was Sphere…

Given my class in the Book of Romans, I wanted to hear his insights to Romans 1 and 2. In church we often focus on Romans 1, but we forget about chapter 2. In discussing human depravity we focus on how bad man can be and forget our man can be relatively good. Paul deals with the moral person. Moral people who do good by following “the law of God as it is written on their hearts.” Even given their moral code, they fail to measure up even to their own standard. After discussing our views on man, we watch his beloved movie.

The movie Sphere brings out the nature of man in Romans 2. Here a perfect object- the sphere- brings out the worse of the characters. Their conclusion was man wasn’t good enough to posses the sphere. Man was depraved according to the movie. When it ended there was that awkward silence right after. I did not pounce, and he said there was more to think about. We agreed, even good people have faults. We enjoyed the discussion and it brought more depth to watching the movie. A seed was planted.

Romans 1 talks about the highly sinful man, Romans 2 the moral man and Romans 3 the religious man. All three need the Gospel. Back to the sermon… Jesus related to the moral and the religious. He talked with Nicodemus, even if it was on the down low. Part of mission and being compassionate is meeting people where they’re at. While Jesus came for the sick and the needy (those who need the infamous “crutch”) He did not neglect the good people too. Jesus knew this simple truth: We don’t need a crutch or a good moral code, we need a savior.

(especially on Monday)

Manic Monday: A return to story

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Story is everything. It captures. It captivates. Throughout history, story carries knowledge and teaching above any other medium. Story and narrative carries what a bullet point, an outline or a technical guide cannot.

In a view documentaries about Pixar one key point stands out: Story is everything. Pixar’s successes clearly shows this.

For Christians we struggle with the concept of story. This is interesting since the primary genre in the Bible is narrative. Even the New Testament letters are a pieces of a greater story. I think the issue is being overtly Christian.

There seems to be an unwritten law that to be a Christian story-teller one needs to have a conversion or a distinct struggle and return to God. This comes from two things: 1) We have a distinct message we must carry out. 2) We are very passionate about that message from our own encounter with it.

Mission, or the carrying of our most important message, has both an overt and a covert aspect. Overtly it is the clear presentation and proclamation of what we believe. Covertly it is being in the world and not of it. We fear that being “covert” violates proclaiming our most essential message or being off mission. It is not. The idea seems more spy like- its most frequent usage- instead of the other aspect of covert- not openly displaying something.

We need more covert stories. Story for story’s sake, or art for the sake of art. Here is the concept of being in the world but not of it:

The best person to reach teenagers is a teenager.
The best person to reach a musician is a musician.
The best person to reach lawyers is a lawyer.
The best person to reach a writer?

Being covert- doing life with people- allows builds credibility to share what is most important. It’s allowing people to see our story, our faults and successes, and in God’s timing the core of our story.

The best part of story is if forces us to look at, examine and engage life. More than the highs and lows of life, story deals with dreams, the little things and all that makes life a gift from God. For inspiration for story beyond overt struggle with or conversion  to God one only needs to look at Proverbs. Proverbs deals with the “other” issues of life.

There is a place for overt communication of the Gospel. Even with that urgency there is a place to write about the other aspects of this gift of life God gave us.

What’s your story? We need more story tellers.

(especially on Monday)

Why Not Wednesday? A Collaboration Model for Ministry?

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Here is the Why Not? question: What would happen to church effectiveness if we moved to a collaboration model verses an institutional model for content and resourcing content?

To better understand institution vs collaboration I highly recommend watching these TED Talks on the subject. Each is about 20 minutes long:

There are 4 points why to consider a paradigm shift:

  1. God is the true owner of all things ministry.
  2. “Non-professionals” often have significant contributions..
  3. Small churches and church plants often lack great resources because of the cost.
  4. Money invested in reaching the poor and meeting needs should be more of a focus than obtaining rights to use content.

God is the true owner of all things ministry.
A friend of mine once raised the wish that things could be given to the church. That the owner of an idea or concept was the church, not a particular church, author or creator. Having things “Copyright The Church” has numerous benefits. Theologically, it is already the truth though in law it is not.

Solomon tells us that there is nothing new under the sun. We further see in Scripture that every perfect gift is given from God above. While a controversial figure, Rush Limbaugh’s often quipped statement is a truth we should all carry with us: “Talent on loan from God.” The trinity enables us to perform ministry effectively. This points to the next idea.

“Non-professionals” often have significant contributions.
We often equate good ideas with success. Success, ideas and ability are are three different things. One may not have ability or success, but their idea may carry incredible impact. This is demonstrated when we only consider an idea based on its success. This is further demonstrated when we discount an idea based on a person’s inability to implement it.

The body principle of the church operates states: Every part of the body needs to do its part. God gives varying abilities and hence contributions to the body of Christ. For the church to succeed we need to open up the ability for each part to contribute what God has given them. This may only be one idea their entire life, and someone else may be the one who makes the idea succeed. An institutional model inhibits this from happening.

Small churches and church plants often lack great resources because of the cost.
Too often I have heard the statement: I could really us [insert name of resource] but our church does not have the money. The thought is ‘if it were really that important a church would find a way.’ This mindset neglects a key reality: Once one need gets met, another will arise. The church is again faced with the same resource challenge. Or worse, in meeting needs there is an opportunity that arises with no monetary resources to get materials (content) needed, even though they have the other resources needed to pull it off. This struggle is insane.

Where do we, and in we I mean the church, want our leadership teams to invest their energy? In trying to figure out how to gain content resources to meet people’s needs or in actually meeting people’s needs? Church plants, often the most effective form of evangelism, really could use the best the church (that’s all of us) has to offer. This leads into the fourth point…

Money invested in helping the poor and meeting needs should be more of a focus than obtaining rights to use content.
What if content became essentially free? How much greater impact would that have in meeting people’s needs? I realize these are very hard questions to answer, and that people’s livelihoods are affected by these questions. But, as a church, what is the overhead cost of how we develop our curriculum?

For a church of about 1,000 people, it costs about $4,350+ for a an excellent curriculum (access rights) and a club program (registration & books) for children’s ministry. Taking those funds elsewhere could look like:

At Children of the Nations (www.cotni.org) it costs $32 month to sponsor a child. A church of 1,000 could sponsor 135+ children at the cost of content. If 10 churches made that move, 1,350+ children could be fed a year.

Think of the total content budget for a church. How many native pastors could be supported? How many future pastors, missionaries, or church planters’ education could be supported? How many church plants supported? Native pastors are for more effective in reaching their country. Schooling debt is a major hurdle for gaining needed training for and then jumping into ministry. Church plants are often the most effective means of evangelism.

The bottom line:
Given today’s technology and the relatively low-cost of disseminating content, we are able to make a paradigm shift that was not available in times past. A new paradigm for content and resourcing our content has the potential to increase the impact of our churches, and better focus our resources on our mission.

Relevant!

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Relevant, defined by the Oxford American Dictionary, means closely connected or appropriate to the matter at hand. If there is ever a battle in any ministry, it is relevancy! The key issue is that to be relevant means to change to match or be appropriate to the matter at hand. You cannot remain relevant and have no change. To keep relevant is to keep changing. Experiences in my life often get me to ponder what exactly the battle for relevancy is.

The battle of relevancy is keeping our mission as the driving force of our ministry.
What too often happens in ministry is that program drives the ministry and not the mission. (For those who like things defined, a program is simply what we do. To have no program is a program in and of itself.) Both the refusal to change (stubbornness) or the fear of being irrelevant (restlessness) are examples of the program driving the ministry. Change for change’s sake is not relevancy any more than maintaining traditions is faithfulness. In both cases the driving force is not the mission.

Relevancy is faithfulness to the mission!
As situations, opportunities, or just plain life occur, so will the need for change. The question that should drive change is: Are we fulfilling our mission to the fullest of our ability?  If the mission is what drives the ministry there will be times when a good program must go for a better one. If the mission is what drives the ministry there will be times when everyone else is changing, but we must maintain what we are doing. In the battle of relevancy, we rejoice when the answer is to keep doing what we are doing, and we roll up our sleeves with eagerness when the answer is a call to change. Faithfulness to our mission is demonstrated when we constantly live out our mission in our ministry. Relevancy is lost when the goal is relevancy or when change never happens. In both cases the program drives the ministry: ‘We gotta keep current.’ ‘If it was good enough for Paul.’ Both are ill. But when God gives us a mission, life happens. We ask for the mountains to conquer. And if we see a more effective way of doing things, we celebrate what God did with the former, and we act in faith with the new changes ahead.

Halls of Fame…
The real tradition of a church is God’s Word, and the specific mission that God has called a particular church too. Programs will change if a church is relevant. But, what God’s Word teaches, and the mission God calls a church to should not. It is very easy to begin equating our programs with or as theology. Such is false. Programs serve the the function of living out what God’s Word says and what the church’s mission is. As the meaning of God’s Word is specific, the application is often broad. As we better understand God by studying His Word (theology), it should be readily apparent the need to change ourselves and our churches to match up with who Christ is (application). Churches must never become ‘museums.’ In our communities churches must become ‘halls of fame’ of God’s Grace. For in times past, today and in the future, the church must proclaim the immeasurable greatness of who God is. They must inspire anew those who are seeking to become like Christ while eagerly expecting His return. Halls of fame celebrate and respect the past, while at the same time inspire and build anticipation of what is to come. And, while the actual game changes very little (all analogies break down at some point) how new generations of players engage in the ‘game’ keep it fresh, alive and exciting. God’s Word never changes, nor our mission. But, with a never changing foundation begs the question: What’s next?