Isaiah

I am auditing a graduate class at OC on the book of Isaiah with Harold Shank. Our first class was last Tuesday but I can't wait til' tomorrow. The book of Isaiah is packed full of indications of the nature of God. This is why this book is so incredible. It is much of, God speaking through his prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel. The first 5 chapters are a little scary (you should read them). Listen to what Isaiah records in 5:25. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them and the mountains quaked: and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. And this is after the Israelites have been worshiping how God commanded them to worship! A bit scary when I think about my own tendencies to worship just because...that's what I've always done. These are extremely serious implications for God's people and what it means to really worship from the heart. I wonder what God would say about our meetings now?

Missional Renaissance-Shift 3

Here is the third and final shift-A shift from church-based leadership to kingdom-based leadership. This is what I am product of. My mind set recently has been to teach leaders how to lead small groups, get people involved in small groups, and make sure other ministries have enough people to function. All of those things are not bad but when I have neglected teaching them how to be real, spiritual, leaders, I have missed the point. Reggie uses the analogy of a movie director and producer. "Hollywood directors are project managers. They work with all phases and components of filmmaking to produce a movie. They are on the set during every scene. They are in the film lab during editing. They are everywhere. Producers play a different role. They find great stores, recruit talent, raise capital, negotiate with studios, and hire directors to bring ideas to life." You can clearly see the difference. This quote sums it up great. "Directors coach people into church roles to star in the movies the church leaders are making. Producers release missionaries into the movement by helping them create and star in their own movies." We have made church programs the point. Not all church programs are bad. But, when getting the most amount of people involved just to boost our involvement numbers is the point, we have missed the boat. The church needs to become more intentional in training spiritual leaders, not church people organizers. The way the current system functions, we are hoping that people become good spiritual leaders on their own. The church must be intentional about growing spiritual leaders for the kingdom. This requires being held accountable in a number of different ways, being honest about your own personal relationship with Christ and being open with other believers. I'm definitely not saying I have all the answers but I am excited to see where God takes the church in this next season. God bless us as we strive to be his bride.

Missional Renaissance-Shift 2

Shift number 2 is similar to the first one but a bit more specific-Program development to People Development. In my opinion, this may be the most important of the three. For a long time now the church has thought in this paradigm-"Get the largest amount of people we can to be involved with the most programs possible." Here is where this thought process breaks down...it doesn't work. A slew of research in the last few years is proving this is the case. Just because you are more involved than another member, does not mean...one, you are going to grow spiritually, and two, that you will develop relationships that facilitate said growth. Again, I'm not saying great things aren't happening or being accomplished in our programs and that people aren't growing spiritually. But I could almost bet the people that ARE growing spiritually or have deeper relationships are not doing it because of our programs. I also know, the people that ARE involved are BUSIER than the non-involved member. Most of the time church programs are focused on people inside the building organizing as a group and doing something. But you must remember this is outside of the set 3 hours a week we meet anyways. "Bible classes" are included in programs because, in most cases, a good bible class is based on how much information we can impart. The goal and intention is not spiritual growth. We might think it is, but don't most classes boil down to someone flexing their spiritual muscles for the rest of us? The church is in the business of developing spiritual nerds, not disciples.
Now, I don't want criticize without giving a solution. Here's how the scorecard changes.

-Less time "Bible classing" and more time mentoring.
-Less time using "spiritual" gifts we aren't sure we have, to spending time really finding out what those gifts are.
-Less time studying the word, and more time doing it...in the community, not in our building.
-Less time separating the family (youth group, adult bible classes, etc) and more time spent intentionally teaching the family to be a family.

Yes, this all seems so nebulous and intangible, but that in a nutshell is much of Christianity-intangible. Faith, love, trust, humility...you get the point. It is shocking to think we have kept score using everything tangible we can-attendance, involvement, money in the collection plate, all good things, but when they become the point, we have missed the point. Let's change people's hearts intentionally and stop hoping that a well put together Sunday morning will do it for them.

Missional Renaissance Series

Here is where my heart has been for the last few weeks. This book has changed my perspective on how we think about church. Indeed it has done what the subtitle reads-"Changing the Scorecard for the Church". Not that this book is the "end-all" on "how to do church", but the ideas and principles in this book are bigger than any church marketing or evangelism strategy. I firmly believe this is the direction the modern church must move for it survive. Yes...survive. So this week I would like to share with you a few of the principles in Missional Renaissance and offer some hope for the what church should and could look like in future generations.

There are 3 major "Missional Shifts" he talks about. The first one being a shift from internal to external ministry focus. Now, this sounds simple. And most of us would say, "Duh, that is the point of the church". I would wholeheartedly agree with that. But (and it's a big but), when you look at how the modern functions, more specifically, the way ministry is run inside of our churches, I think our actions show a bit differently.
Just to list a few
-3 hour long meetings a week to learn about the bible. We do this while hoping visitors come in and join our little clubs. Then, and only then, will we gladly welcome them with open arms.
-Most of our ministries and ministry leaders are trained to be focused internally. We have trained our leaders to be organizers OF the people in the church FOR the people in the church. (Baby shower ministry, Fellowship ministry, Men's and Women's ministry). All these are good things, but are they for internal or external purposes.
-Many of our Sunday morning worship times become "Which church has a better one, and who can present the gospel in the most creative way." Many times what happens, or doesn't happen, is dictated by the paying members in the pews (more often than not a few well paying club members at that).

I'm not saying that good isn't happening in our churches. I'm not saying that people aren't growing spiritually. But I am saying that present system that is "The church" is not working. With the time that we spend studying what to do, heaven forbid we carve some of that time out to go and do it! Let's stop worrying about how many people ARE in our pews and focus on how many people AREN'T in our pews. I have a lot more to say on this subject, but i think this post is long enough. More to come.

Reveal

Not sure if you guys heard about this or not, but there was a big study that Willow Creek did a few months ago called Reveal. Basically a few of the main conclusions were this.
-Church growth does not equal spiritual growth
-Member involvement does not equal spiritual growth
-The financial stability or healthiness of a church does not equal spiritual growth
(There was much more to the study but these were the main points)

Not terribly shocking to a lot of us, but terribly realistic. This is what our idea of church has become. How good our programs are, how many people we have in attendance, and how much money is accumulated every Sunday. If this is what we are concerned about (and our actions say that it is), then we simplified God's kingdom to a list of earthly standards. The current system that is church now, 3 hours a week at a building, only imparting knowledge about the bible in those 3 hours, and expecting to grow spiritually and become passionate about the message of the cross in 3 hours, will not sustain. Creating an open and honest community of believers is only part of what must happen. This community of believers must become the church to the people around them where those people are now. The church will not grow if we continue to be focused internally and not externally. Sure we all know we are supposed to be missionally minded, but what are the church's actions saying? "We meet 3 hours a week in a beautiful building, to learn about what we are supposed to be doing outside of these walls, and you need to come be a part of that." The first century church never once had a meeting on how to "market" the church, or be attractive to the community around them.
In your opinion, what direction does the church need be headed in? For the church to thrive as it once did, and as Christ's unadulterated bride, what does that look like?

Pulpit

I get a little nervous anytime I have the opportunity to speak in front of the church. I use to get nervous because I was afraid I was going to mess up or forget something I had written down. Now, I get nervous for what God is going to reveal to me in the text. The past few times I have spoken, I have gone in with some sort of preconception of what that specific scripture meant, and by the time I have finished praying and studying, God has torn down my preconceptions and said, "No, no, here's what I'm really telling you to do." So, broken and humbled, I pick back up the pieces and begin to look at scripture through the new lens He gave me-so refreshing. I'll finish with a question. What are the top 5 things you guys want to hear about from the pulpit? I would give you mine, but I don't want to be leading your answers.

New Year's Resolutions

I'm terrible at this. So, this year...I'm not going to fake myself out-I have none. Not saying they aren't great or that I have no ambition to be a better person, just don't like the letdown. Any for you? What's your take on resolutions?