If
leaders are going to be serious about connecting with people they need
to uncover at least 5 new contacts a day, equaling about 35 a week,
which will lead to 3 "sit-downs" for a meaningful conversation.
2. Pray for opportunities
I remember praying one morning, “Lord, it has been a while time since I led someone to you. Open the doors and show me who I need to speak to today.”
3. Get out and into your community
I encourage church planters to think about tithing their time to community service and interaction.
4. Establish routines and cultivate relationships
I encourage leaders to establish routines and patterns so that you build relational presence with business owners and servers.
Gary concludes...
I learned a simple
lesson over twenty-five years ago from an old missionary who said these
words to me, “Gary you can’t serve God where you are not!” That
statement helped me move away from dreaming about future ministry to
engaging myself in the daily personal ministry right in front of me
every day.
Next week Gary will be writing about creating spiritual thirst in our conversations.
I remember asking Ed Stetzer about interacting with unbelievers and getting something similar to what Gary Rohrmayer wrote in his post Engaging in More Spiritual Conversations...
Evangelism has moved in the last 20 years from being a monologue (one-sided conversation) to a dialog (two-way conversation.) Thereare people all around us who are receptive to spiritual discussions and
open genuine spiritual guidance. George Barna sites, “That 62% of
American adults consider themselves to be not merely ‘religious,’ but
‘deeply spiritual.’” This means that there is
more than a 50-50 chance of getting into some type of spiritual
conversation with people who travel in and out of your life. Learning
to engage people in a meaningful, spiritual dialog is critical for a
spiritual leader.
[...]
It is important for a leader to think strategically about their conversations throughout the week. If you don't plan it or make room for it, the likelihood is that it is not going to get done. I agree with Brian McLaren’s statement, “We
should count conversations rather than conversions, not because I don't
believe in conversions, but because I don't think we'll get many
conversions if we keep emphasizing them.” The
number of conversations you have is directly related to the number of
conversions you will see happen over a year. In coaching church leaders
we use the 3 by 5 rule. If leaders are going to be serious about
connecting with people they need to uncover at least 5 new contacts a
day, equaling about 35 a week, which will lead to 3 "sit-downs" for a
meaningful conversation.
The Gospel Coalition website (which has gone from a little helpful toward really helpful in a short period of time) has a number of short video interviews (linkable) with key players: Don Carson, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and yes, Tim Keller. As you could have guessed, I'm linking the Keller (and Carson/Keller) ones here for you. To see them more quickly, just go to the interviews page and scroll to them. And don't forget to visit my Tim Keller Resources page.
Tim Keller - What do you see yourself doing in The Gospel Coalition? | m4v
Tim Keller - What is the state of the pulpit in America today?| m4v
Tim Keller - How does preaching affect how christians see culture?| m4v
Tim Keller - What do you tell pastors about their family life? | m4v
Tim Keller - What ways can people learn from your teachings | m4v
Don Carson & Tim Keller - What started The Gospel Coalition? | m4v
Don Carson & Tim Keller - What makes The Gospel Coalition different? | m4v
Don Carson & Tim Keller - Assessing The Gospel Coalition | m4v
Don Carson & Tim Keller - How were the leaders of The Gospel Coalition gathered?| m4v
Don Carson & Tim Keller - What is the future of The Gospel Coalition? | m4v
Don Carson & Tim Keller - What threats and challenges face The Gospel Coalition? | m4v
Don Carson & Tim Keller - What causes fragmentation in evangelicalism today? | m4v
God intends us to penetrate the world. Christian salt has no business to remain snugly in elegant little ecclesiastical salt cellars; our place is to be rubbed into the secular community, as salt is rubbed into meat, to stop it going bad. And when society does go bad, we Christians tend to throw up our hands in pious horror and reproach the non-Christian world; but should we not rather reproach ourselves? One can hardly blame unsalted meat for going bad. It cannot do anything else. The real question to ask is: Where is the salt?
Allelon - "a movement of missional leaders" -- They have a website which has a number of resources, but I'm really loving Alan Roxburgh's netcast (especially the audio podcast) the most. There are things said that I don't like or agree with, but in general this is a great podcast for seeing the emerging missional church for what it is and what it claims to be in different locations. The interview with Steve Taylor is really great.
Theology Unplugged (TUP) is a podcast by some Dallas Seminary profs. They say, "The uniqueness of
TUP is that we speak on theological issues of the day with clarity,
honesty, and openness. TUP allows the listener to make informed
judgments on the most important theological issues today." Their seven part series on the emerging church is a great example of that. I'm through the first three episodes and I'm pretty shocked at how well they do in trying to understand the emerging church. Well worth hearing. (HT: Internet Monk Radio)
One of my recurring frustrations with recent debates in the Reformed
world is a widespread failure of theological imagination. Too many seem
to operate on the assumption that we have everything already figured
out; we have all possible categories and positions ready to hand. All
we need do is deploy these categories on whatever happens our way.
It'll fit, Procrustes says.
Thus, it is seriously proposed that someone is either on the road to
Rome or the Road to Geneva - with no possibility of a third (or fourth,
or fifth) destination, with no possibility that there might be
something in between (though in between is where much of the Christian
world lives). And if I suggest that we Reformed might still have
something to learn from the Bible about justification, then I must be
Rabbinic or Roman Catholic - there simply is no other alternative.
Alan Hirsch's book, The Forgotten Ways, is causing me to ask a lot of good questions of my theology, my ecclesiology & missiology. It's good, challenging stuff and I recommend you pick it up. I've been meaning to read/review this book for some time and it has been too long in coming. Over the next few weeks or so I'm going to make the effort to post a few quotes, reflections, and/or questions about the book and the issues it raises. Please feel free to interact with the ideas.
I wish I had time to do the book more justice, but Scot McKnight (for one) spent a good deal of time on the book (Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). You might also want to check out Jordan Cooper's epic first half review here. I encourage you to go to these links for a good recap of the arguments of the book.
If the heart of discipleship is to become like Jesus, then it seems to me that a missional reading of this text requires that we see Jesus's strategy is to get a while lot of little versions of him infiltrating every nook and cranny of society by reproducing himself in and through his people in every place throughout the world. (p 113)
Here's a reason why I love the SBC: Ed Stetzer. Some good news from LifeWay...
Three Southern Baptist entities - LifeWay Christian Resources, the
North American Mission Board (NAMB) and the International Mission Board
(IMB) - have forged a collaborative research effort in which LifeWay
Research will conduct special research projects on behalf of NAMB and
IMB.
As part of the new initiative, Ed Stetzer, missiologist and senior
director of the Center for Missional Research at NAMB, will become
director of LifeWay Research, effective June 1. Stetzer also will serve
as LifeWay’s missiologist in residence.
Ed Stetzer is a friend and I'm happy to see him doing some new things for the SBC and larger Christian mission in the world.
Here are a few resources I've enjoyed so far on my week-long planning/strategy sabbatical. Some are new to me. Some are for review or rereading or re-listening. Some books I'm reading in full, some in part.
Baptist "Press" has two articles of note today (that's two more than normal).
First is the "No Beer at NCAA 'Kind of Fun'" article. This has to do with SBC life in what way? I agree that basketball games without drunk frat guys are better, but this is clearly on BP as anti-alcohol prop-A-ganda. Probably meant to bolster the second article, "Alcohol, Acts 29 and the SBC."
My favorite quote...
The emerging church movement is diverse and difficult to generalize.
However, the mix of influences includes: postmodernism (a focus on
sense-making through the various mediums of culture); Calvinism ala
John Piper; and for some, Christian liberty, as granted by their
scriptural interpretation, to drink alcohol and engage in other
cultural activities that many Southern Baptists eschew based on
opposing scriptural interpretation.
Which passages would THAT interpretation come from? Anyone?
It starts with Piper and Ware discussing differences in their soteriology. It's basically Piper challenging Ware's soteriology. Then you get a lot of Piper (with a little Dever seasoning) discussing all sorts of things: what he's writing and has written, what's wrong with missional, contextualization, ecclesiology, and much more. Don't miss the place where Piper challenges Dever's resistance to multiple services. Piper = "in yo face, speaking the truth in love, hard to argue with the Christ-like, erudite pastor" fun.
As usual I don't agree with everything or everyone in the audio. But overhearing this conversation was very enjoyable for me and shows why I love John Piper so much. Listening to him makes me want to be a more devoted and passionate disciple, husband and pastor.
I also want to reiterate how much I like the 9 Marks website. Lots of articles, reviews, and a great list of other free audio interviews. Again, I don't agree with everything at 9 Marks, but I consider Dever a mentor on several levels and I like much of what they have to say to churches and pastors.
I dunno, I thought it would be fun to put up 13 things worth looking into on this cold and rainy Thursday in Chicagoland. This is going to be pretty random, but I expect most of you will find a gem in there somewhere. In no particular order but numbered for your counting pleasure...
1. Dwight Schrute Video (via Marko): "selling paper, fighting evil." A hilarious, Schrutastic 2 minutes of pure Office-alicious enjoyment. Please use this opportunity to stay in touch with your inner Schrute, who "has the strength of a grown man AND a little baby."
If you speak and discourse as if your
whole neighborhood is present eventually more and more of your
neighborhood will find their way in or be invited. Why? Most
Christians, even when they are very edified in church, know intuitively
that their non-Christian friends would not appreciate the service. What
you want is for a Christian to come to your church and say, "Oh! I wish
my non-Christian friend could see (or hear) this!" If this is
forgotten, soon even a growing church will be filled with Christians
who commute in from various towns and communities far and wide rather
than filling up with Christians and seekers from your church's
immediate neighborhood.
Here are a few things to look for: 1) They are not just open to the
gospel but they receive the gospel freely. 2) They are in a position
of great influence over their family, friends and within the
community. 3) They have the ability to introduce church planters into
their sphere of influence effectively. 4) They are also great
"bringers and includers" of others into the life of the church.
5. Joe Thorn shamed me to switch my feed reading to Google Reader. Great recommendation. I've added a daily updated list on my left sidebar that shows what I liked from my feeds.
I'm currently reading Hirsch's book slowly (I'm not doing enough reading lately) and expect to have a handful of posts up on the book in the weeks ahead.
