Church

Missionary Work in Suburbia

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Hamo (Andrew Hamilton) over at Backyard Missionary has some good thoughts (not earth shattering, but good) in his three part series, "Some Thoughts on Missionary Work in Suburbia."  He discusses six building blocks.

Post 1...
    1. Proximity - being near people
    2. Regularity - spending significant time together
Post 2...
    3. Depth - going beyond the fluff in relationships
    4. Conflict - being prepared to disagree and realise that’s ok and necessary
Post 3...
    5. The Message - we need to speak about who we are, and why
    6. The Supernatural - ultimately it still comes down to a work of God
Post 4...
    Going a little deeper with the above six points

McKinley @ Catalyst

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One of the many conferences I wanted to attend this year was Catalyst.  Rick McKinley, pastor of Imago Dei in Portland, is one of the speakers I wanted to see.  Out of Ur has some thoughts on the "lab" McKinley led at Catalyst...

"As pastors, we are tempted to build the church," [McKinley] said. "So wesend out postcards to targeted Zip codes and we promote church programs." But that misses the point, he argued. "Our job isn’t to build the church. We’re supposed to BE the church, and build the kingdom." He emphasized that the kingdom is to be experienced NOW, on earth, as Christians exemplify godly living, but he also pointed out, as the recent school shootings demonstrate, that the kingdom is also "not yet." God’s kingdom won’t be realized in its fullness as long as such sin characterizes our world.

[...]

"The best expression of the church is NOT what happens on Sunday morning. It’s what happens in the world during the week. And that’s not something you can market."

His most provocative statements focused on the Christian’s calling to love their neighbors, even if those neighbors don’t respond to Christ or clean up their act. He told of his church’s messy efforts to love those with addictions, mental illnesses, and other conditions that aren’t easily cleaned up.

"We’re not called to change people’s behavior; we’re called to love them whether they change or not. It’s up to God to change them."

Loving Our Neighbors

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Renewal_way_of_lifeLove for our neighbors...like love for ourselves, involves something vastly more significant than the meeting of individual needs.  It involves God's reaching out in us and through us to build a kingdom, a sphere of rulership, in which his will is done in the fallen world as it is in the sinless heavens; in which cruelty and disorder and the distortion caused by sin are supplanted by love, order and righteousness.  Loving obedience to God produces much more than individual goodness, respectability and the alleviation of suffering.  It builds the kingdom of heaven.

Richard F. Lovelace in Renewal as a Way of Life, p. 40.

Desiring God: Keller and Driscoll

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Challies has posts with content from the Desiring God conference messages (mostly relaying content in his own words) of Tim Keller...

There has to be a lifelong process of realizing the wonder of thegospel. Religion gives you control which is why it's so popular. Religion is "I obey, therefore I'm accepted." The gospel is "I'm accepted, therefore I obey."

...and Mark Driscoll...

John Calvin was not just a contender but a contextualizer, so we must redeem what it means to be a true Calvinist. When persecution happened in Europe, people flocked to Geneva. Calvin trained them and then sent them out to share the gospel. If you are a true Calvinist you are not just a contender, but also a contextualizer.

Driscoll Updates Ministry in Seattle

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Driscoll_1Mark Driscoll has a nice, long post on what's happening in his life & at Mars Hill.  It's an interesting post with a look at a few people who are throwing stones at him, the growth issues they face at Mars Hill as well as the number of people they have in various recovery groups, and stuff he is writing. 

Whatever you think of Driscoll, it's good to keep up.

600 Pages

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I recently read three books, each running about 200 pages.

Hsu_2 The first was The Suburban Christian by Albert Hsu.  I thought it was a very helpful book on suburban Christian spirituality that fills a gap in understanding life in suburbia.  There are points Hsu makes that I don't completely agree with, but all-in-all this is a good book worth checking out.

Simple The second was Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger.  I really wasn't sure what to expect since I hadn't read Rainer in near a decade.  I really enjoyed the book.  It was similar to something Andy Stanley might say (and at times has said), and I say that as a compliment.  If you are a pastor or church leader, this book will have plenty of good advice for you.

Speaking_1 The third and final read I both started and finished last night.  It was Speaking of Jesus by J. Mack Stiles.  This book has been on my shelf for a few years at least.  I really was looking to read a book that gave some practical, conversational helps.  I wasn't disappointed.  There were a few places where I wish Stiles would have taken a more missional approach, but as a whole I liked the book and would encourage my people to read it.  If you are looking for some practical advice on talking with people about Jesus there are many good things out there, and this book is a good one too.

Sermon Cloud

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My buddy Drew Goodmanson has some good news about Sermon Cloud.  This is a cool idea you need to check out.  Here's some info...

Sermon Cloud is a website for a community to interact with sermons. What are the powerful sermons people are listening to? Who are the up-and-coming preachers of the day? Where are the messages about themes that you need to hear? How can you find a great preacher in your home town? Sermon Cloud was designed to help you with all of these questions.  Sermon Cloud users help let each other know which sermons they amen. An 'amen' is a recommendation of the sermon. Users can post comments about their interaction with these sermons (even the comments can be designated as helpful or unhelpful). Sign-up for free to begin interacting, commenting and recommending sermons
today!

For Churches and Preachers: Sermon Cloud offers churches FREE Advanced Sermon Syndication & mp3 services. Are you interested in podcasting, syndicating and using all the other 'Web 2.0' buzzwords for your church? Sermon Cloud Features include Resampling mp3's to be optimized for the internet, Syndicating content (Integrating directly into iTunes store, syndicating through RSS feeds.), Displaying recent sermons on your church website, Podcasting mp3, Sermon Streaming capability in our Jukebox player, Tagging System, Commenting on sermons, Community recommending sermons, Searching for sermons and more...

Suburban Christian: Place and Anonymity

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When we speak of "community," we usually mean it in the sense of affinity groups, like the arts community, the African American community, the gay/lesbian community, the Christian community.  Lost today is the sense of physical community, in which "community" refers to a particular geographic area or neighborhood that anchors us and defines us. (p 117)

The chief antidote to suburban anonymity and isolationism may well be the Christian practice of hospitality. (p 132)

Both from Albert Hsu's The Suburban Christian.

Suburban Christian: Creativity

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The opposite of consumption is production.  It takes far more time and energy to create something than to consume something.  It takes a novelist a year to write a book that someone can read in a few days.  A cast and crew of thousands spend years to create a film that will be viewed in two hours.  Often our only recreational activities are actions of consumption.  What an alternative it is, then, to rediscover the wonder and delight of creativity.

Albert Hsu in The Suburban Christian, page 87.

The Suburban Christian

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HsuI just got Albert Hsu's The Suburban Christian and immediately read about half of it last night.  I'm really enjoying it.  What I find fascinating is the way Hsu speaks of suburbia in much the same way some speak of the city.  Here are a couple of quotes.

Suburbia has become the context and center of millions of people's lives, and decisions and innovations made in suburbia influence the rest of society.  If Christians want to change the world, they may well do so by having a transformative Christian impact on suburbia and the people therein. (27-28)

While an individual suburb might not be a microcosm of the total city, it is an essential slice of the larger metropolis that cannot be partitioned off or seen in isolation, just as a traditional local urban neighborhood is an essential component of the whole city. (29)

Future of Church Planting

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Drew Goodmanson has given Five Trends for the Future of Church Planting.

1.  A move from denominationalism is going to radically alter church planting. Local smaller churches will partner together to plant churches.  Larger churches will follow in Redeemer's footsteps and be more concerned with planting gospel-centered churches, than churches of their own denomination. Already, our church in San Diego  has leaders as well as partners from multiple denominations.

2. Church planting networks will merge, collaborate and partner to more effectively plant churches.  For example, Todd Wilson, behind the 2006 National New Church Conference  started a Church Planting Network, whose aim is to, "help champion an explosive expansion of new reproducing churches through an alliance of collaborative church planting networks."  He has already seen this shift begin in a couple networks.  Even next years New Church Conference states the goal of, "helping church plant leaders to the next level of collaboration.  Together we can experience exponential growth of new churches in our generation."  At last years conference, Bob Roberts of Glocalnet gave an impassioned plea to the leaders of many of the church planting networks in this regard at a dinner for church planting networks and sponsors of the conference.

3. In America, churches will be planted at a faster rate in the next twenty years than we have witnessed before.  God, Technology (see #5 re: video venue), technique (mutli-site) and theological urgency will drive this.  More and more of the pastors will come from the laity.  In this same period, established churches clinging to methods will die at a faster rate than ever before.

4. Philosophy/worldview, world events and a renewed focus on kingdom/gospel/mercy ministries will contribute to a revival in America.  First, in America postmodernism (particularly the view of truth being relative) will be replaced as people are confronted with radical and extreme views.  Second, the increase in chaos in the world and a shift in our economy will drive people away from worldview complacency.  Lastly, expressions of mercy and a greater gospel cooperation (1 & 2) will create a greater witness of the church. Those who hold to the gospel and focus on gospel ecumenism will thrive; liberal churches will lose their identity trying to be relevant.

5.  More churches will be planted without the role of a preaching pastor. Many church plant organizations will promote the use of 'best of' or license videos from top preachers across America.  Already there have been churches who have licensed Willow Creek material for tens of thousands (I heard $50k) a year.  Others will simply pick series that they believe will draw the biggest crowd.  There already is one church plant that has grown to over 600 within a couple months using this method.  (Someone could probably make some good money by contacting all the 'big name' pastors and create a company that licenses their work to churches.)

Gospel & Our Culture Network

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The Gospel and Our Culture Network has a revamped site which looks good.  If you are unfamiliar with GOCN, here's some info from their site...

The Gospel and Our Culture Network has been spawned by:

  • the cultural currents of Western society and ethnic tradition that have shaped how we live in North America.

  • the rapid changes taking place as we move from a "modern" to "postmodern" form of society.

  • the growing un-ease of the church as it experiences a dislocation from its prior places of importance.

The aim is to explore what these things mean, under the light of the gospel, for the life and witness of the church.

[...]

The network offers companionship for Christian leaders and groups eager to work together with others who share similar concerns. It brings together people from a wide spectrum of churches -- from Mennonite to Roman Catholic, from Anglican to Southern Baptist -- and a range of local ministry settings.

  • It puts theological educators and ministry practitioners into fruitful contact with each other so that effective strategy and sound theory may be wedded together.

  • It provides mutual encouragement between denominational administrators and local congregational leaders to discover models of the church capable of sustaining a living and faithful witness to the gospel in our contemporary world.

  • It encourages the formation of local groups in which pastoral and lay leaders of congregations work together to develop practical responses to contemporary challenges.

  • It makes available resources and materials to facilitate vision and change in the missional life of the church.

Wild Wednesday

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I found (via FastCompany) a video on Web 2.0 that is super-helpful.  It's a 24 minute video from TechCrunch. I love the end where all these guys are asked what browser they use.  Care to guess?

In the video Arrington conducts conversations with 13 Web 2.0 CEOs about what Web 2.0 is, whether we're in a bubble, what business models work, what is the role of publishers, and how important and how large is the early adopter crowd, along with other issues related to user adoption trends and technology. For certain, Web 2.0 is about technologies such as Ajax, Mash-Ups, Flash, Tagging, and open source applications. But mostly Web 2.0's central focus is user participation.

Participants included Joe Kraus (Jotspot), Scott Milener (Browster), David Sifry (Technorati), Auren Hoffman (Rapleaf), Chris Alden (Rojo), Jonathan Abrams (Socializr), Aaron Cohen (Bolt), Jeremy Verba (Piczo), Steven Marder (Eurekster), Matt Sanchez (Video Egg), Godhwani (Simply Hired), Keith Teare (edgeio), and Michael Tanne (Wink).

Speaking of Web 2.0, last week Joe Carter (Evangelical Outpost) and I met with Justin Taylor (I hear J.I. Packer calls him Justin the Squire!) and a couple of other Crossway Publisher folks about blogging & reviewing books.  Very good conversation, and some great people.

I am trying out Browster because of the 2.0 video.  Wow, it's very interesting.  Anyone else trying it?  You need to check it out.

I'm pumped about GTDGmail.  If you haven't read Getting Things Done by David Allen, and/or if you aren't implimenting GTD in your life, please give it a look.  And then you can get GTDGmail and really geek out.

Watch the "Lecture Musical" from Prangstgrup.  Hilarious.

Michael Foster leads us to David Slagle's 100 Things I've Learned the Hard Way as a Senior Pastor.

Some Music You Should Check Out:

Husky Rescue (myspace)
Serena- Maneesh (myspace)
Black Angels (myspace)
TV on the Radio (myspace)

**If you are a Southern Baptist, please skip this next part.**  Imbibe?  Review and share your thoughts on your latest bottle of vino at Cork'd.  Gotta light?  CigarCyclopedia.

Speaking of "the good life," if you are a Southern Baptist you need to read this critical article from former SBC President Bobby Welch.  We need more wisdom like this!

I understand one pastor's blog site indicates he believes his drinking assists him in soul-winning!...

We have many outstanding young pastors and others on their way to leading this Convention to...do it as "sipping saints,"...as...soul winners! God help us to...elect a user or promoter of the use of alcoholic beverages to...leadership...!

Please don't sent hate mail.  It's a joke.  ;)  Bobbay is SOOOO funny.

Next Generation Leader

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Andy_nextLast night I finished reading Andy Stanley's The Next Generation Leader.  I've been reading it on and off for about 8 weeks.  I thought it was good, filled with helpful advice.  I really liked the stuff on coaching.

I've read a lot of books on leadership and most of them have been at least a little helpful in their own way.  This one was helpful in several ways.  If you have read the book, what did you think? 

Driscoll on Church Innovations

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For Mark Driscoll, being innovative as a church means getting young men into the church.  Quotes...

The problem in the church today is just a bunch of nice, soft, tender, chickafied church boys. 60% of Christians are chicks and the 40% that are dudes are still sort of...chicks. It's just sad.

We're looking around going, How come we're not innovative?  Cause all the innovative dudes are home watching football or they're out making money or climbing a mountain or shooting a gun or working on their truck.  They look at the church like that's a nice thing for women and children.  So the question is if you want to be innovative: How do you get young men?  All this nonsense on how to grow the church.  One issue: young men.  That's it.  That's the whole thing.  They're going to get married, make money, make babies, build companies, buy real estate.  They're going to make the culture of the future.  If you get the young men you win the war, you get everything.  You get the families, the women, the children, the money, the business, you get everything.  If you don't get the young men you get nothing.