Sunday I hope to see God working in the lives of people as they open their hearts and minds to the possibility that God wants to use us - yes, us. The whole "Blessed are..." leads into "You are salt... You are light..." where Jesus is explaining to those who have followed Him that we are NOT who society says were are, and we are NOT what our frailties and failures would mark us as. The Kingdom of Heaven has come and is coming, and the new reality is that we are who Jesus says we are.
This clip is from the movie "Kingdom of Heaven". The skeptic in the scene is ironically, a priest.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Who, me?
So I'm deep into a discussion on one forum today, sorting through emails and zipping through my Google Reader blog list. Bunny's watching a pretty amazing movie in the living room or whatever that is. I'm trying to wrap my brain around the next part of the sermon on the mount.
Really.
I don't know how your brain works, but I have to slow mine down by doing a bunch of things at once or I will "ping" all over the place. It's just really difficult for me to concentrate on only one thing. God knows that, and it seems to be okay with Him.
But every now and then, it is as if light breaks through, bushes leap into flame, whispers become roars and He is just here. Wherever here is.
I was torn a minute ago by everything that is going on. Choices presented themselves and all had good explanations of why I should do them.
But God is here. Now.
I've been praying about a lot of things lately. Praying about New Hope. Praying about family. Praying about friends. Praying about people going through hardships, and those still trapped in sin. And yeah, praying about me. As much as I scream to God "put me in coach, I'm ready to play" a voice comes from within and reminds me of who I have been, of past failures, and all that. So quickly it comes.
But God is here. Now.
Lifting words off the pages and holding my attention as He gently but firmly doesn't just explain what was there then, but what's there now - for me. For me. For me.
Oh
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
"Defined by His scars - not mine"
While looking over my notes for tonight's Bible study, I happened to have the notebook fall open to a page near the rear. I'm pretty much a digital guy now, but early on I printed everything out as well. Made sense in the time of the small hard drive and floppy disk I suppose. But today, when the president of Tyndale House says that "print is dead", well, it feels quaint.
I've picked up a large task once more - the Book of Romans.
It has been several years since I have taught through it. There's so much there for us that for me as a teacher/preacher, I have flashbacks of the first time I took Adam and Sean into the then new "Toys R Us". They both looked stunned that such a place could... be. It was took much at once for them to take in. But they did adjust quite well and rather quickly at that.
Still, it is Romans.
The notebook has all my notes from forever. One of the pages I happened upon had at the top a note "DF 10/24/94 AM". That would mean "Dames Ferry Baptist Church" which was the church I served first as a pastor.
Ouch.
To say it was hard on me - and especially on my family would be a big understatement. There were some great strides forward for Christ made in that rural family owned and operated church, and a great, great reversal. Yeah, and that last part left a mark.
So when that page fell open, the memory suddenly was there again. Ah, but God had already prepared me, for earlier today I read this from Troy Neujahr, my Lutheran friend as he was explaining to another friend how we who are pastors have to relate to those places God places us to serve:
I'm afraid that you're so afraid of getting in another bad church that you want to destroy this chance before it becomes anything like reality. I'm afraid that you're like a certain woman in my church who feels a need to hurt people before and push them away before a serious relationship starts to develop, just so that she won't have to risk getting hurt herself.
I know you've got it rougher than I probably ever have. I understand that. But I've hit a rocky road or two even in my short time out of the gate, and there's one thing God impressed deeply, deeply into me in my first painful ministry experience:
My ministry should be defined by His scars . . . not mine.
Did you catch that last line?
See friends, we're human - true enough. But we have the Spirit of the Most High God residing within. We have to, have to, have to return again and again to our core - Jesus. We simply cannot function as followers of Jesus in any God-honoring way unless we do.
Sunday's message from the beautitudes pointed us to the fact that when people abuse us, despise us, and throw all sorts of falsehoods our way, instead of looking at the effect on us and seeking pity - we need to look at Jesus.
Yep. Thanks Troy. Thank You God.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
It's Me, It's Me - It's Ernest T
So things are getting a bit testy in our Strategic Evangelism class at Rockbridge. Some of the folks in it are clearly about engaging the culture where they are, others are stuck in places where it ain't happening. Of those there are some who are definitely working for change, and others that are appeasers.
I never want to assume that I'm right about an issue so important, so I reached out over the internet and found a theology test that promised to help me. The questions were interesting to say the least, but when all was said and done I knew I'd get some keen insight as to how I approach the mission before us.
And here I am.
I never want to assume that I'm right about an issue so important, so I reached out over the internet and found a theology test that promised to help me. The questions were interesting to say the least, but when all was said and done I knew I'd get some keen insight as to how I approach the mission before us.
And here I am.
Monday, January 28, 2008
"You don't fix faith - it fixes you"
Those of us with an analytical mindset are sometimes lured by this siren song, aren't we? The idea of walking across to our fellows in the "hard sciences" and coming up with "the answers" to everything that at first blush just doesn't make sense about what the Bible says.
The actor in the scene tells us no - "you don't fix faith - it fixes you."
Oh, I do like that line.
Right now it is Monday, the day I try to rest and recuperate and yet all day long I've been trying to "work the problem" of how to reach more people with the good news. That search has lead me to read about youth initiatives and adult outreach ideas, media initiatives...
... as if.
Oh, Jesus. Hear my cry. Let Your glory fill Your people. Let Your love overflow out of lives surrendered to You. Keep us from anything we'd do outside of your clear will. Help us wait on the Holy Spirit's call before we "fix" anything.
Fix us.
Begin with me.
A Hat Tip to "One for the road... by Paul Mayers", where I found the clip
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sunday Afternoon
- Out to eat with some Newhopeians
- nap punctuated by glimpses of "In the Land of Women", a surprisingly good movie I never, ever would have seen had my wife's civilizing influence not been brought to bear
- getting ready for small group tonight
- thinking about this morning
Worship as we continued "The Red Letters - Living A Faith That Bleeds"
Matthew 5:1-12
Music - O Worship the King (Tomlin version) - it ROCKED! It is so God focused!
God of Wonders
Hosanna (Baloche)
My Jesus I Love Thee
Offering
Jesus Paid It All
We had a bunch of people out sick but every single replacement did an awesome job. And it all happened without my making it happen. New Hope being what we are I got a worship guide from Corrine Quinnell (5 years old) doing duty as a greeter. I sang in the worship team next to Blake (10 yrs). I played guitar badly across from my son, and my wife played keyboard. John Anderson did the kid's moment, his wife Amy played flute on some of the songs. Mack Kirkland and Jim Quinnell (Corinne's granddaddy) ushered.
Young, and older. Together. In worship.
Some days it starts looking like the Kingdom of God might be breaking through.
- nap punctuated by glimpses of "In the Land of Women", a surprisingly good movie I never, ever would have seen had my wife's civilizing influence not been brought to bear
- getting ready for small group tonight
- thinking about this morning
Worship as we continued "The Red Letters - Living A Faith That Bleeds"
Matthew 5:1-12
Music - O Worship the King (Tomlin version) - it ROCKED! It is so God focused!
God of Wonders
Hosanna (Baloche)
My Jesus I Love Thee
Offering
Jesus Paid It All
We had a bunch of people out sick but every single replacement did an awesome job. And it all happened without my making it happen. New Hope being what we are I got a worship guide from Corrine Quinnell (5 years old) doing duty as a greeter. I sang in the worship team next to Blake (10 yrs). I played guitar badly across from my son, and my wife played keyboard. John Anderson did the kid's moment, his wife Amy played flute on some of the songs. Mack Kirkland and Jim Quinnell (Corinne's granddaddy) ushered.
Young, and older. Together. In worship.
Some days it starts looking like the Kingdom of God might be breaking through.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Living Life Upside Down
I keep reading the beatitudes and marveling at how radical they were/are. If we had someone at New Hope that could pull it off, I'd get them to sing this old Truth song tomorrow right after I read the text out loud.
We lose perspective. We just lose the ability to see ourselves and our lives as God sees them. Yeah, prone to wander. All we like sheep - yeah, that too.
“LIVING LIFE UPSIDE DOWN” lyrics by Russ Lee
John has a new way of looking at life
He’s tired of his job, his kids and his wife
He says the secret to his success
Was in leaving and finding himself
Now he’s someone to somebody else.
And you say we’ve risen to a new age of truth
You’re calling it a spiritual Godly pursuit
But I say, I say,
(chorus)
What if we’ve fallen to the bottom of a well
Thinking we’ve risen to the top of a mountain
What if we’re knocking at the gates of hell
Thinking we’re heaven bound
What if we spend our lives thinking of ourselves
When we should have been thinking of each other
What if we reach up and touch the ground
To find we’re living life upside down.
We’ve got a program for saving the earth
While unborn children are denied their right to birth
One baby’s blessed, another cursed
Have we made this world better or worse
Now that the life of a tree comes first
And you say we’ve risen to a new age of light
You’re telling me what used to be wrong is now right
But I say, I say,
(repeat chorus)
What if we’re living, what if we’re living,
What if we’re living life upside down.
"Then Jesus sat down and began to teach them."
Lord speak tomorrow. Help us see what you see so we can live as you lived.
Love or something like it
Today has been one dreary mess here. Great weather to sit inside and work on tomorrow's sermon. All week long I have been reading and rereading the passage in Matthew commonly known as the "beatitudes".You remember - the "Blessed are you..." part.
The biggest challenge tomorrow will be trying to get the hearers to grasp just how revolutionary Jesus' words were.
We have such a tendency to take all the "heat" out of Scripture that would have scalded anyone who originally heard it.
One writer said that what Jesus said would have the same impact as the "new math" did in his days in school. He could remember sitting in class having just learned how to do "long division" and the teacher telling him that though he may have gotten the right answer, he was doing it all wrong. Maybe that guy has a real math phobia. Personally I think that's too weak.
Another said that Just using the word translated "blessed" would have had people scratching their heads. They believed gods were blessed, the rich were blessed, and the dead were blessed. But the poor, hungry, meek, merciful and the like? The world doesn't work that way. Didn't then, doesn't now.
True.
Unless Jesus shows up. Then the world as we know it yields to the One who created it.
So many people today are trusting in everything except the grace of God.
Love Him. Love Jesus. Trust Him. Trust Jesus. Don't focus on what's happening anywhere else except between you and Jesus. There's no safer place in the world than the center of the will of God.
Be blessed!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Missiology Played Out
So we're having a discussion in my evangelism class at Rockbridge about how best to relate to our culture today. How do we bring the message of Jesus to the 21st century person who is spiritually aware, but who has not embraced the church culture.
One person is saying that people are looking for answers today and we need to be trained to be able to give them a cogent response. My contention is that we have millions of people within the churches who have more information than ever before about theology, and they aren't living a Jesus centered life - so why would we seek to lead people to Jesus through a display of knowledge about Him?
It's the difference between a Josh McDowell approach and a Mother Teresa one. The first has everything nailed down. There's an answer for every question anyone could raise about Christianity. The latter lives out a cross centered life out loud, warts and all admitting all the while that there's nothing special about us - only that we know Jesus as Lord and follow Him.
For me, as right brained a person as you'll ever meet, the appeal of the argument or apologetic approach is strong. I was a salesman for years, well trained to persuade. Then I reached seminary where they taught me to appeal to people's felt needs as I prepared sermons. I was a hammer in a forest of nails.
But somewhere along the way, the average person stopped being so concerned about answers and more interested in finding meaning through relationships. They became much less likely to press you on the details of Christianity and much more observant of how the Christ-life was lived.
Today, I think people want to hear the melody rather than grab every note. They want to be moved by it, and have it touch their soul. When it happens, it doesn't take away their personality, but it does change their reason for living and give them a purpose for everyday.
It may be hard for us to change. But it can be done, if we love Jesus enough. The only way this world will ever be reached for Christ is if enough of us love His "music" so much we spread it as an act of love.
In that spirit, to illustrate what I mean, I present a study in musical missiology.
One person is saying that people are looking for answers today and we need to be trained to be able to give them a cogent response. My contention is that we have millions of people within the churches who have more information than ever before about theology, and they aren't living a Jesus centered life - so why would we seek to lead people to Jesus through a display of knowledge about Him?
It's the difference between a Josh McDowell approach and a Mother Teresa one. The first has everything nailed down. There's an answer for every question anyone could raise about Christianity. The latter lives out a cross centered life out loud, warts and all admitting all the while that there's nothing special about us - only that we know Jesus as Lord and follow Him.
For me, as right brained a person as you'll ever meet, the appeal of the argument or apologetic approach is strong. I was a salesman for years, well trained to persuade. Then I reached seminary where they taught me to appeal to people's felt needs as I prepared sermons. I was a hammer in a forest of nails.
But somewhere along the way, the average person stopped being so concerned about answers and more interested in finding meaning through relationships. They became much less likely to press you on the details of Christianity and much more observant of how the Christ-life was lived.
Today, I think people want to hear the melody rather than grab every note. They want to be moved by it, and have it touch their soul. When it happens, it doesn't take away their personality, but it does change their reason for living and give them a purpose for everyday.
It may be hard for us to change. But it can be done, if we love Jesus enough. The only way this world will ever be reached for Christ is if enough of us love His "music" so much we spread it as an act of love.
In that spirit, to illustrate what I mean, I present a study in musical missiology.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Who are God's people, really?
5:1-12 When Jesus saw the large crowd, he went up the hill and sat down. His students gathered around him, and he began teaching them. This is what he said:Clarence Jordan, Cotton Patch Gospels
"The spiritually humble are God's people, for they are citizens of his new order.
"They who are deeply concerned are God's people, for they will see their ideas become reality.
"They who are gentle are his people, for they will be his partners across the land.
"They who have an unsatisfied appetite for the right are God's people, for they will be given plenty to chew on.
"The generous are God's people, for they will be treated generously.
"Those whose motives are pure are God's people, for they will have spiritual insight.
"Men of peace and good will are God's people, for they will be known throughout the land as his children.
"Those who have endured much for what's right are God's people; they are citizens of his new order.
"You all are God's people when others call you names, and harass you and tell all kinds of false tales on you just because you follow me. Be cheerful and good-humored, because your spiritual advantage is great. For that's the way they treated men of conscience in the past.
We've been looking at the "red letters" for the last few weeks at New Hope, and I think Clarence Jordan would approve. He was famous for writing about "Jesus' Doings' and Sayings'"
I was wondering a little while ago about the effect on a person who knew nothing about Christianity, Jesus, or the church if you were to give them this as a guideline as to what a person who wanted to relate rightly to God would find themselves doing.
Would they turn out as the typical person who joins the church does?
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
My brother Reggie McNeal's incendiary book "Present Future" is on its fourth reading here this week. The copy I have here at home is dog-eared and full of notes and tabs I put there to be able to find certain quotes. It looks a little weird, frankly. Fits its owner I guess.
In our men's group last Sunday, we were going through the week's readings in My Utmost For His Highest and somehow got into a short discussion of the book of Acts and specifically the early church's growth. One of the men, John Anderson was making the point that the early church had nothing we have today - no buildings, no programs, not even a Bible to tote around.
What they had, was Jesus. And that's what they shared.
Reggie writes (pg 82) "Evangelism that will introduce Jesus to this culture will flow from people who are deeply in love with Jesus."
We've tried to sell everything we could think of to get people to come to church - great music, great children's and youth programs, excellent Biblical teaching, even relaxed styles of dress and coffee and donuts.
When the only thing that will satisfy man's deepest need isn't church at all.
It is Jesus.
What if...
In our men's group last Sunday, we were going through the week's readings in My Utmost For His Highest and somehow got into a short discussion of the book of Acts and specifically the early church's growth. One of the men, John Anderson was making the point that the early church had nothing we have today - no buildings, no programs, not even a Bible to tote around.
What they had, was Jesus. And that's what they shared.
Reggie writes (pg 82) "Evangelism that will introduce Jesus to this culture will flow from people who are deeply in love with Jesus."
We've tried to sell everything we could think of to get people to come to church - great music, great children's and youth programs, excellent Biblical teaching, even relaxed styles of dress and coffee and donuts.
When the only thing that will satisfy man's deepest need isn't church at all.
It is Jesus.
What if...
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Newhopian of the week
The man in the center of the picture is named Joe Stoy. He's a deacon, an RA leader, children's church worker, and general all around good guy. Each week, Joe touches the lives of children as he does a children's sermon. No one, including Joe, ever really knows how things will turn out. Many times his props work great. Other times, not so great.
But the kids love Joe, whether the props work or not. And every week, he tells them about God.
When Joe gets to heaven, I'll bet someone else who loves kids will tell him, "well done, good and faithful servant. Well done."
What a blessing to serve alongside servants like Joe Stoy.
On This Date In 1984
Apple introduced the Macintosh personal computer - and everything changed.
Well... Not really.
But it did have an impact on the future of personal computing - and still does. I'm a veteran of the computer wars, and have operated Basic, Geos, C/PM, MS-DOS, Win 3.1 and every one following (except Vista), SCO Unix, Ubuntu and Kubuntu Linux, OS2 and OS2Warp, and now OS X.
To my right sits an IBM Thinkpad with XP, and I type this on a Mac. So I've been around and in this revolution since the beginning.
The tasks I do on whatever computer sits in front of me are still pretty much the same as they were at the beginning, though as software has progressed, certain tasks I used to have to do on other platforms are now integrated within the PC. It's all good. I love technology - when it helps.
I've been reading lately about the different ways Christianity has approached culture. As I've studied modern approaches, I had this feeling that I was missing something by not looking back at the way Christianity was able to spread in the earlier centuries despite (or perhaps because of) no support, or even hostility towards it from the people and governments it related to.
In that search I stumbled across a book called "The Celtic Way of Evangelism" by George Hunter.
Wow.
So much of what Hunter shows of Patrick's model for evangelism is exactly the model we could use today.
Funny how at times we need to go back, to move forward. Hunter quotes an ancient Chinese Poem in the book's conclusion.
On this day in 2007 - that makes a lot of sense.
The final paragraph in the book is this one:
With all my heart I pray that millions of us will wake up in time to reach millions of those who live not far from God.
Well... Not really.
But it did have an impact on the future of personal computing - and still does. I'm a veteran of the computer wars, and have operated Basic, Geos, C/PM, MS-DOS, Win 3.1 and every one following (except Vista), SCO Unix, Ubuntu and Kubuntu Linux, OS2 and OS2Warp, and now OS X.
To my right sits an IBM Thinkpad with XP, and I type this on a Mac. So I've been around and in this revolution since the beginning.
The tasks I do on whatever computer sits in front of me are still pretty much the same as they were at the beginning, though as software has progressed, certain tasks I used to have to do on other platforms are now integrated within the PC. It's all good. I love technology - when it helps.
I've been reading lately about the different ways Christianity has approached culture. As I've studied modern approaches, I had this feeling that I was missing something by not looking back at the way Christianity was able to spread in the earlier centuries despite (or perhaps because of) no support, or even hostility towards it from the people and governments it related to.
In that search I stumbled across a book called "The Celtic Way of Evangelism" by George Hunter.
Wow.
So much of what Hunter shows of Patrick's model for evangelism is exactly the model we could use today.
Funny how at times we need to go back, to move forward. Hunter quotes an ancient Chinese Poem in the book's conclusion.
Go to the people.
Live among them.
Learn from them.
Love them.
Start with what they know.
Build on what they have.
On this day in 2007 - that makes a lot of sense.
The final paragraph in the book is this one:
The supreme key to reaching the West again is the key that Patrick discovered - involuntarily but providentially. The gulf between church people and unchurched people is vast, but if we pay the price to understand them, we will usually know what to say and what to do; if they know and feel we understand them, by the tens of millions they will risk opening their hearts to the God who understands them.
With all my heart I pray that millions of us will wake up in time to reach millions of those who live not far from God.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Worship @ New Hope 20 Jan 2008
We continued in the "Red Letters" series with a sermon entitled "What You Need To Know" from Matthew 4. More about that later. Main focus from the text was "repent for the Kingdom of God is near" and "Follow me."
Opening song:
Amazing Grace,(My Chains Are Gone) - great treatment of THE classic hymn
Forever
The Potters Hand
Ancient Words
Give Me Jesus (solo by Emily)
Just As I Am
I was trying to craft a set that reflected our need for God's grace and our call to follow Jesus as he said in His Word.
The message: I have been really working hard on examining my work as a preacher in recent weeks, and have read the Andy Stanley book "Communicating for A Change" twice. In it, Stanley strongly suggests that you go with one point and only put into the sermon other materials that directly support that point.
So I decreased the amount of text I put up, and went with visual images to support the message. Then I went a step further and sat on a stool to deliver it. My thoughts were that if I was stationary then I would not be able to rely on gestures and body language and would have to concentrate on the thoughts and concepts I had at hand.
Then I tried to hang that within the frame provided by Stanley.
Me - We - God - You - We
It seemed to help me focus, stay on point, and shorten the amount of words but deliver clearly what God had led me to say. I'll keep working on it.
Opening song:
Amazing Grace,(My Chains Are Gone) - great treatment of THE classic hymn
Forever
The Potters Hand
Ancient Words
Give Me Jesus (solo by Emily)
Just As I Am
I was trying to craft a set that reflected our need for God's grace and our call to follow Jesus as he said in His Word.
The message: I have been really working hard on examining my work as a preacher in recent weeks, and have read the Andy Stanley book "Communicating for A Change" twice. In it, Stanley strongly suggests that you go with one point and only put into the sermon other materials that directly support that point.
So I decreased the amount of text I put up, and went with visual images to support the message. Then I went a step further and sat on a stool to deliver it. My thoughts were that if I was stationary then I would not be able to rely on gestures and body language and would have to concentrate on the thoughts and concepts I had at hand.
Then I tried to hang that within the frame provided by Stanley.
Me - We - God - You - We
It seemed to help me focus, stay on point, and shorten the amount of words but deliver clearly what God had led me to say. I'll keep working on it.
Book Stack - 21 Jan 2008
UnChristian - Kinnaman & Lyons
A History of Christianity - Johnson
The Moody Handbook of Theology - Enns
They Like Jesus But Not the Church - Kimball
An Unstoppable Force - McManus
The Jesus Way - Peterson
Communicating For A Change - Stanley & Jones
A River Runs Through It - Maclean
Jacob and the Prodigal - Bailey
Clouds Without Water - Austin
Present Future - McNeal
Under the Banner of Heaven - Krakauer
My Utmost for His Highest - Chambers
A History of Christianity - Johnson
The Moody Handbook of Theology - Enns
They Like Jesus But Not the Church - Kimball
An Unstoppable Force - McManus
The Jesus Way - Peterson
Communicating For A Change - Stanley & Jones
A River Runs Through It - Maclean
Jacob and the Prodigal - Bailey
Clouds Without Water - Austin
Present Future - McNeal
Under the Banner of Heaven - Krakauer
My Utmost for His Highest - Chambers
It's Monday - All Day
I wanted to make the disclaimer right up front, since I'm here on my day off with a Rockbridge assignment due, a sinus infection picking up steam, having slept way too late and finding myself in a just plain cranky mood. I did think that our assignment was worth posting in hopes that it might spur discussion and someone out there to go deeper.
We were asked in the assignment to:
Write a critique of Part 1 in They Like Jesus But Not the Church matching your personal and church experience to what is presented by Dan Kimball in 2-3 paragraphs.
“They Like Jesus But Not the Church” Critique
Dan Kimball was perhaps the first to achieve broad distribution beyond the blogs and narrowly focused magazines of the idea that something was amiss with the way that emerging generations perceived the church as it exists today. The work of Tony Jones, Brian McClaren and others had been out before Kimball’s book, but their observations could be dismissed easier because of their fringe liberal status. Kimball writes in a way that helps people coming in from a traditional heritage or present position SEE.
Kimball’s book is like a mirror held up in front of the church today, and instead of the church making comments like “yeah, we are looking pretty good”, Kimball has people from the emerging generations come up and explain what we really look like. We’ve lost the path, and what’s worse, instead of going back and regaining our way, we’re pressing forward and yelling back at those who aren’t coming with us. A must read for anyone serious about reaching those outside.
Then there's Reggie McNeal's work.
Reggie McNeal wrote, “Church activity is a poor substitute for genuine spirituality.” (p. 7, The Present Future). Interact with McNeal’s assertion based on your personal and church experience in 2-3 paragraphs.
Reggie McNeal Interaction: Part One
When I first read the book, coming from a Southern redneck background though tempered with years of both formal education and personal growth, I wanted to run out and shout “heck yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.” The niggling little feelings about what we were doing at church I had possessed since before I was called as a pastor had, 7 years later into my first full-time ministry, begun shouting at me “IT”S NOT WORKING!!! THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT BEING TRANSFORMED!!”
We were doing everything we knew to do as church leadership, and kept adding things thinking that if we just provided one more inlet for people to learn, everything would change. I’ll confess that when 40 Days of Purpose came along, I really say that as a hopeful beginning to the sea change I desperately wanted to have occur. But it didn’t. We are doing too much at church. We are doing too much as staff for people. We are not expecting people to progress and start making disciples of their own. We need to teach people to live a cross-centered life and set them free to do it, not yoke them to another program. So yeah, Reggie spoke to me.
In “New Reality Number Two,” McNeal says the wrong question is “How do we get them to come to us?” and the right question is “How do we hit the streets with the gospel?” What question is your church trying to answer if measured by the programming promoted today? Explain in 2-3 paragraphs.
Reggie McNeal Interaction: Part Two
When McNeal asks questions, look out. You will not like the answer. Most of the time because the one you come up with is so completely wrong you feel foolish. When I read it, I bought copies for all the leadership. We have worked to find additional ways to bring the gospel to where people are, instead of always trying to attract them to where we are. (That was our only strategy at that point in time.)
So we have a sno-cone team that goes down to the local park and gives away sno-cones once a month. They also are in demand at other local events such as the Relay for Life that the American Cancer Society holds. We’re taking worship down to the park this summer with a bluegrass band and our praise band. We created off-site affinity groups (they were doing great, but they are proving very difficult to sustain). We have a group of people volunteering at the local elementary school, and that opened the door to our participating with them in the upcoming Relay For Life in Niceville. We’re not there yet, but we’re working on it.
I've had some people ask me why I'm still so hard after learning more - even after years in the ministry. It's because I still need to learn. We have to get better at living out our faith and sharing it with people who do not know Jesus. Sure, I'd love to write for a living, would love to teach other seminarians someday online. But I'll never stop wanting to be involved in the greatest work anyone can ever do.
We were asked in the assignment to:
Write a critique of Part 1 in They Like Jesus But Not the Church matching your personal and church experience to what is presented by Dan Kimball in 2-3 paragraphs.
“They Like Jesus But Not the Church” Critique
Dan Kimball was perhaps the first to achieve broad distribution beyond the blogs and narrowly focused magazines of the idea that something was amiss with the way that emerging generations perceived the church as it exists today. The work of Tony Jones, Brian McClaren and others had been out before Kimball’s book, but their observations could be dismissed easier because of their fringe liberal status. Kimball writes in a way that helps people coming in from a traditional heritage or present position SEE.
Kimball’s book is like a mirror held up in front of the church today, and instead of the church making comments like “yeah, we are looking pretty good”, Kimball has people from the emerging generations come up and explain what we really look like. We’ve lost the path, and what’s worse, instead of going back and regaining our way, we’re pressing forward and yelling back at those who aren’t coming with us. A must read for anyone serious about reaching those outside.
Then there's Reggie McNeal's work.
Reggie McNeal wrote, “Church activity is a poor substitute for genuine spirituality.” (p. 7, The Present Future). Interact with McNeal’s assertion based on your personal and church experience in 2-3 paragraphs.
Reggie McNeal Interaction: Part One
When I first read the book, coming from a Southern redneck background though tempered with years of both formal education and personal growth, I wanted to run out and shout “heck yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.” The niggling little feelings about what we were doing at church I had possessed since before I was called as a pastor had, 7 years later into my first full-time ministry, begun shouting at me “IT”S NOT WORKING!!! THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT BEING TRANSFORMED!!”
We were doing everything we knew to do as church leadership, and kept adding things thinking that if we just provided one more inlet for people to learn, everything would change. I’ll confess that when 40 Days of Purpose came along, I really say that as a hopeful beginning to the sea change I desperately wanted to have occur. But it didn’t. We are doing too much at church. We are doing too much as staff for people. We are not expecting people to progress and start making disciples of their own. We need to teach people to live a cross-centered life and set them free to do it, not yoke them to another program. So yeah, Reggie spoke to me.
In “New Reality Number Two,” McNeal says the wrong question is “How do we get them to come to us?” and the right question is “How do we hit the streets with the gospel?” What question is your church trying to answer if measured by the programming promoted today? Explain in 2-3 paragraphs.
Reggie McNeal Interaction: Part Two
When McNeal asks questions, look out. You will not like the answer. Most of the time because the one you come up with is so completely wrong you feel foolish. When I read it, I bought copies for all the leadership. We have worked to find additional ways to bring the gospel to where people are, instead of always trying to attract them to where we are. (That was our only strategy at that point in time.)
So we have a sno-cone team that goes down to the local park and gives away sno-cones once a month. They also are in demand at other local events such as the Relay for Life that the American Cancer Society holds. We’re taking worship down to the park this summer with a bluegrass band and our praise band. We created off-site affinity groups (they were doing great, but they are proving very difficult to sustain). We have a group of people volunteering at the local elementary school, and that opened the door to our participating with them in the upcoming Relay For Life in Niceville. We’re not there yet, but we’re working on it.
I've had some people ask me why I'm still so hard after learning more - even after years in the ministry. It's because I still need to learn. We have to get better at living out our faith and sharing it with people who do not know Jesus. Sure, I'd love to write for a living, would love to teach other seminarians someday online. But I'll never stop wanting to be involved in the greatest work anyone can ever do.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
I Don't Know What To Say
Do I laugh, or is it a wee bit too close to the real perception of people outside?
Friday, January 18, 2008
The Buzzard's Roost
Back in the day, I used to work at a place on the wrong side of the tracks in Macon, GA. How do you know you're on the wrong side of the tracks? Wait until one day when the train is in between you and lunch - then you'll get it.
Anyway, the area was light industrial, with added benefits like the city landfill and dog pound. On the way there, right before you'd pass under the railroad overpass, almost any day, you'd see a group of men waiting there, hoping to be hired as day laborers. Week in, week out, day in, day out they would be there. In the harsh summer, they'd be trying to find some shade, and in winter they'd be huddled around a fire in a 55 gallon trash drum. But they'd be there.
I never gave them much thought outside those extremes of temperature. Never wondered how they got there, or if they had families. Never really looked hard in their direction. Just remember someone telling me that you could stop by and says something like "I got 20 bucks I'll pay for some work today" and guys would climb in the back of your truck. I guess I suspected most were alcoholics or something. Back then it was hard for me to grasp what unemployment meant.
Then God allowed me to experience that, and also to get to know some folks like those as I worked in a ministry center that helped people in need with food, clothing, and some limited job placements.
So I'm reading Matthew's gospel today, getting ready for Sunday. We're focusing on the "red letter passages" of Jesus' words for now. But I always make sure we get the context - the setting might be in black type, but you need it too.
Jesus goes down to the lakeside - to what today would be the docks. It was an area back then much like the "Buzzard's Roost" was in Macon. Fishermen might need an extra hand or two some days, so men would congregate there hoping for a day's labor.
That is the absolute last place I would have gone to pick the men who would carry out the most important mission ever given to mankind.
I cannot separate that scene from the one in my memory. I think back at all the times I saw those men there, and there's just no way I would have looked to them for help in doing anything important.
No way.
None.
God, forgive me.
Pride's a funny thing. You can convince yourself that you are a good person, an ordinary guy. You can claim you'd never look down on anybody. Even cite your humble roots. I know I've written about being born in a mill village.
But just as soon as God's grace, His completely unmerited grace gives you what you need to "move up" in the eyes of society...
read this very carefully...
You also move away.
Away from your neighbor. Away from looking at people as Jesus did. Away from anything remotely resembling the good news. It's sin.
Man I hate it when the preacher becomes the preached to.
So I thought I'd share. :)
Grace!
David
--
Visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/
26-31 Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God." 1 Cor 1 - The Message
Back in the day, I used to work at a place on the wrong side of the tracks in Macon, GA. How do you know you're on the wrong side of the tracks? Wait until one day when the train is in between you and lunch - then you'll get it.
Anyway, the area was light industrial, with added benefits like the city landfill and dog pound. On the way there, right before you'd pass under the railroad overpass, almost any day, you'd see a group of men waiting there, hoping to be hired as day laborers. Week in, week out, day in, day out they would be there. In the harsh summer, they'd be trying to find some shade, and in winter they'd be huddled around a fire in a 55 gallon trash drum. But they'd be there.
I never gave them much thought outside those extremes of temperature. Never wondered how they got there, or if they had families. Never really looked hard in their direction. Just remember someone telling me that you could stop by and says something like "I got 20 bucks I'll pay for some work today" and guys would climb in the back of your truck. I guess I suspected most were alcoholics or something. Back then it was hard for me to grasp what unemployment meant.
Then God allowed me to experience that, and also to get to know some folks like those as I worked in a ministry center that helped people in need with food, clothing, and some limited job placements.
So I'm reading Matthew's gospel today, getting ready for Sunday. We're focusing on the "red letter passages" of Jesus' words for now. But I always make sure we get the context - the setting might be in black type, but you need it too.
Jesus goes down to the lakeside - to what today would be the docks. It was an area back then much like the "Buzzard's Roost" was in Macon. Fishermen might need an extra hand or two some days, so men would congregate there hoping for a day's labor.
That is the absolute last place I would have gone to pick the men who would carry out the most important mission ever given to mankind.
I cannot separate that scene from the one in my memory. I think back at all the times I saw those men there, and there's just no way I would have looked to them for help in doing anything important.
No way.
None.
God, forgive me.
Pride's a funny thing. You can convince yourself that you are a good person, an ordinary guy. You can claim you'd never look down on anybody. Even cite your humble roots. I know I've written about being born in a mill village.
But just as soon as God's grace, His completely unmerited grace gives you what you need to "move up" in the eyes of society...
read this very carefully...
You also move away.
Away from your neighbor. Away from looking at people as Jesus did. Away from anything remotely resembling the good news. It's sin.
Man I hate it when the preacher becomes the preached to.
So I thought I'd share. :)
Grace!
David
--
Visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Show Me the Money
I was reading a blog named Missio Dei today and came across this:
My answer?
On expanding the Kingdom of God.
This is not an either or. It should be a both/and. When you aren't planting enough churches to even cover raw population growth and stay at the same percentage of impact, the problem is "brand" wide. Every plateaued and declining church tells the population around it - "no one here cares. We are willing to sit on this corner and pretend we are making a difference." They "poison the water" and create impressions in the minds of everyone they touch which may never be erased.
We simply cannot afford NOT to vigorously attack this problem as a corporate body. The SBC "brand" is hurting badly. Outside of disaster areas where our relief efforts have born fruit, we are looked on as increasingly detached from the marketplace of ideas. We spent far too much money and time in Washington DC, and far too little meeting our neighbors.
It's funny I read this blog post today, because I had a conversation with a church health expert with another denomination recently. He described their "intervention" method of "turning around" churches. I was greatly impressed with the process he outlined which included a "turn-around pastor" assessment much like that which is routinely done with church planters.
The idea was patterned after a successful campaign among American Baptist churches in the Western US. Dr. Paul Borden has given a great gift to the Body of Christ in this effective and biblical method of turning churches headed to closing into thriving healthy congregations. His Growing Healthy Churches is exactly what we should be doing as a denomination. here's a quote from the website.
Take that number and imagine what it would be if applied to the SBC.
You hear that? That was Satan's knees knocking just thinking about it.
Research shows that 90% of SBC churches are plateaued or declining and only 2-3% (Aubrey Malphurs) or 3-5% (Ed Stetzer) will ever recover. What does this tell us about how our resources and energy should be focused? Where do you think our resources and energy is currently focused?
My answer?
On expanding the Kingdom of God.
This is not an either or. It should be a both/and. When you aren't planting enough churches to even cover raw population growth and stay at the same percentage of impact, the problem is "brand" wide. Every plateaued and declining church tells the population around it - "no one here cares. We are willing to sit on this corner and pretend we are making a difference." They "poison the water" and create impressions in the minds of everyone they touch which may never be erased.
We simply cannot afford NOT to vigorously attack this problem as a corporate body. The SBC "brand" is hurting badly. Outside of disaster areas where our relief efforts have born fruit, we are looked on as increasingly detached from the marketplace of ideas. We spent far too much money and time in Washington DC, and far too little meeting our neighbors.
It's funny I read this blog post today, because I had a conversation with a church health expert with another denomination recently. He described their "intervention" method of "turning around" churches. I was greatly impressed with the process he outlined which included a "turn-around pastor" assessment much like that which is routinely done with church planters.
The idea was patterned after a successful campaign among American Baptist churches in the Western US. Dr. Paul Borden has given a great gift to the Body of Christ in this effective and biblical method of turning churches headed to closing into thriving healthy congregations. His Growing Healthy Churches is exactly what we should be doing as a denomination. here's a quote from the website.
Since 1997 over 170 congregation have experienced radical transformation and as a result many are intentionally and successfully reproducing new disciples and leaders.
Take that number and imagine what it would be if applied to the SBC.
You hear that? That was Satan's knees knocking just thinking about it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)