Archive - May, 2010

Small Church, Mega Church, No Church

May 27, 2010 in Books I'm Reading, Ecclesiology with 6 Comments

Brad Powell’s book, Change Your Church for Good, is actually a revised edition of a 2007 book by the same name. Essentially, it is just another book about how a pastor took a struggling church, made a few tweaks, and it is now a thriving mega church. The emphasis is on developing leaders and casting vision for the future. It’s a decent book if you’ve never read a book about such things.

However, as with all such books, the strong implication is that if you make similar changes, your church can become “mega” too.

To be frank, I’m tired of these kinds of books. I am sure Brad Powell is an excellent pastor, a great man, and a fine leader. He’s a fairly decent writer, handsome, and has done quite well in becoming the pastor of a mega church. I wish him continued success.

But the truth is that for every pastor who changes a struggling church into a mega church, there are a 1000 pastors who do the same things, lead the same way, and try the same changes, but still see their church decline. It’s not just about working harder, or having bigger faith, or pressing on until you see the blessing, or choosing leaders carefully, or sharing your life, or being passion ate when nobody else seems to care (all things Powell talks about in his book). Lots of pastors do these things, and their churches still die.

So what’s the answer?

Maybe, just maybe….our goal should not be to become a mega church. (Gasp!) Maybe, just maybe, the sign of success is not necessarily a bigger budget, bigger buildings, and more people. (Double gasp!) Maybe, just maybe, size has nothing to do with church effectiveness, and even if you get more bodies, bucks, and bricks, you still may not have a ”church.”

I’m beginning to think that the key to being a church is not getting more people into the church building, but getting more people out. When is someone going to write a book called, Close Your Church for Good?….that’s a book I’d like to read. Maybe I’ll write it.

Will this Rock in Rio?

May 6, 2010 in Books I'm Reading, Discipleship, Evangelism, Life, Mission with 0 Comments

I recently wrote  that Jim Petersen’s book, Church Without Walls, made it into my list of top ten books. This book shares some of the principles and ideas which guided his ministry among unchurched Brazilian students. I liked the book because the principles he shares encapsulate my thinking from the past five years about the kind of life I want to live among the people at my job and in my neighborhood.

But principles are one thing; stories are quite another. Don Duntch of Quest Ministries recently told me that stories reveal where God is at work, especially stories of people gaining freedom in their lives and in their thinking.

So it was with great excitement that I recently learned about a book by Ken Lottis, who was Jim’s ministry partner in Brazil. The book is entitled Will This Rock in Rio? and is basically the story of what Ken and Jim did in Brazil.

Now that I’ve read both, I can say that the two books go together. While Jim’s book is informative, Ken’s is inspirational. While Jim’s book affirmed my thinking, Ken’s encouraged me to actually start reading John with someone. While Jim’s book answers the “Why” and “How,” Ken’s books says “Go” and “Do.”

I believe that if you read one book, you must read the other also. If you are a person who wants to love and live among the people who will never “come to church” both books are “must reads.”

Plan B, C, D, E…

May 3, 2010 in Books I'm Reading, Life with 1 Comment

Plan B by Pete Wilson is a great book for reviving hope in a person whose life has gone terribly wrong. Through biblical truths and stories, it shows that although life may not turn out the way we planned or imagined, we can trust God to resurrect something good from our shattered dreams.

Part of me wishes I had read this book about two years ago when I was going through a very difficult and trying time in my life. So if you or someone you know is going through the loss of a job, or the death of a loved one, or facing a divorce, this book contains some good ideas for recognizing that God is a God of detours, that He is sovereign over shattered dreams, and He can heal any wounded heart.

However, there seemed to be a glaring omission from the book, which I have come realize in my own path through pain and uncertainty, and it is this: Things don t always work out. Every story in the book pointed to the idea that even though life may take a turn for the worst, in the end, it will all work out. Joseph goes to prison, but becomes the second in command over Egypt. Joshua faces hard times in the wilderness, but leads the people across the Jordan into the Promised Land. A man commits adultery and loses his job as a pastor, and almost loses his wife, but then gets to go on a speaking tour around the country helping others in the same situation.

The message of the book seems to be: Have things gone wrong? Don t worry. It will get better soon.

Sadly, this isn’t always true. Does God redeem and rescue? Yes! A thousand times, yes! But does He always? No. At least, not in this life.

Take John the Baptist. He proclaims the coming of the Messiah, and with Him, the Kingdom of God. But he gets arrested, and instead of getting freed, ends up getting beheaded. This was not the rescue he hoped for.  All the prophets had similar stories. The writer of Hebrews says that many of them were tortured, imprisoned, stoned, and sawn in two. There is no happy ending to being sawn in two.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m glad I read Plan B. It helped me a lot with my own questions and issues. I just think it sometimes painted too rosy of a picture that does not fully fit with either Scripture or reality.

Of course, no one wants to read that sometimes you may lose your job, go into bankruptcy, have your children die,  get divorced, contract terminal cancer, and finish out your days in suffering and despair. And since a book like that will never get published, there’s always Plan B.

How a Drunk Jesus Picks up Women

May 2, 2010 in Life, Mission with 4 Comments

I am reading Will This Rock in Rio by Ken Lottis. It’s a fantastic book, and I will review it on this blog later this week. In it, he explains how he and Jim Peterson invited Brazilian men to read the historical document of the gospel of John and ask two questions as they read: “What does this book say about Jesus?” and “If what it says is true, what should our response be?”

As I read, I began looking for opportunities to do the same thing. On Friday, I met a man named Jamie  just hanging around outside my office. We talked for a few minutes, and then sensing an opening, said, “Hey, do you want to read a book about Jesus with me and talk about it?”

“I would love to!” he said. We read John 1 that day and talked about it for about an hour. Then we ran out of time.

Today he came back and asked to read and talk some more. For the next two hours we read and discussed John 2-4. Below are some of the comments he made as we read. You won’t hear these in any sermon…

John 2: Jesus turning water into wine
When Jamie read that Jesus turned six containers of water into wine, he said, “Hey, Jesus brought a six-pack to the party!” And when he read that each container held 20-30 gallons, he did the math, and when he realized that Jesus just made about 150 gallons of wine, said, “Man! I wish Jesus could come to one of my parties!”

I wanted to weep. Not because I was offended by Jamie’s comment. Far from it. Jamie saw immediately who Jesus is: Someone who was fun to hang out with.

John 4: The woman at the well in Samaria
When he read that Jesus sat down at a well with a woman and asked her to draw some water for him, he remembered what Jesus had done with the water in John 2, and said, “I know what’s coming! It’s going to be a well of wine!” It didn’t turn out that way, of course. But when Jesus said, “Go, call your husband and come here,” he laughed out loud and said, “I see what Jesus is doing! He’s trying to get it on with her!”

It was the best ”Bible study” I have ever been part of. His remarks were so fresh, honest, real…and insightful. And no, I never corrected Jamie’s thinking. To be honest, I didn’t have to. All I did was laugh along with him, then say, “Wow, I’ve never looked at it that way before. Let’s read on to see what happens.” And of course, Jesus doesn’t get drunk, and He doesn’t take the woman off to His hut. He just loves people, has fun with them, and invites them to believe in Him for eternal life. How simple and refreshing.

Bad Christian, Bad!
I must tell you, however, that part way through, a Christian that I work with saw what we were doing and asked if he could join. Inwardly, I groaned, but Jamie cheerfully said, “Yeah! The more the merrier.”

I felt bad as the discussion went on, because I had to keep telling this Christian to stop talking (he went on and on and on…and on). He kept wanting to go off and talk about the baptism of the spirit, and fasting and praying, and the importance of getting water baptized, and how infant baptism was not enough, and how we need to go to church, and pray in faith, really meaning it in our heart, and trusting God, and obeying God, and get on our knees before God, and ask God to do his will in our life, and read the Bible, etc., etc., etc.

At one point, he told some story about how even though the thief on the cross didn’t get baptized before he died, he really did get baptized because it rained on him. WHAT? Every time he started to talk, I wanted to pull my hair out, and I could tell that Jamie was getting more and more confused.

Oh, and he was present when Jamie thought that Jesus was hitting on the woman at the well. He didn’t laugh.

Sigh….

On a completely random way of ending this post, I saw a Hasidic Jew playing an electric guitar tonight while dancing and rapping. He was amazing on that guitar! Watching him rock like Jimi Hendrix while his curled side-burns bounced around as he danced is a sight I never thought I’d see. It’s a crazy world.

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