TILL HE COMES Blog

As many of you know, I am interested in church planting. I am currently attending a relatively new church plant in Arlington, TX, and hope to be involved in more church planting efforts in the future. Some of my favorite conferences and favorite books are related to church planting.

Many of you who read my blog are also interested in church planting, and so I want to introduce you to a friend of mine, Nathan Laughlin (and his wife Amy), who is heading to Vancouver, BC next year to plant a network of churches called “Open Circle.” What they are doing is so simple anybody can do it, so innovative it is exciting to think about the possibilities, and so missional it could change the face of church planting.  

Go check out out his site at opencirclevillage.org, listen to his podcast, read the blog. Who knows? Maybe you can start an Open Circle in your own neighborhood!

6 Comments »

I had lunch today with several great people: Dr. Carl Raschke, author of The Next Reformation and the soon to be released GloboChrist, Tony Brown, author of the eventually to be released Poseranity, Stephen Hammond, pastor of Mosaic Arlington and co-director of Square1 Church Planting, Carey Gable, pastor of The Vine Community in Paris, TX, Nathan Laughlin, facilitator of the Open Circle Network, and Joe Bryan, NAMB missionary in Bonham, TX.

We came together to talk about Rhizomic Networks. Apparently, this is what Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, authors of The Tangible Kingdom, are doing in Denver with Adullam. A rhizome, from what I gathered, is a type of plant that spontaneously spreads through sending out shoots which then multiplies and sends out more shoots. Potatoes, vines, and St. Augustine grass are rhizomes. From what I gathered, rhizomes spread amazingly fast, are able to adapt to nearly any sort of climate or soil, and it is very difficult for the farmer to get the rhizome to go where he wants it to go. The best thing a farmer can do is figure out where the plant is naturally going, and then nurture it in that direction.

This can be applied to living as followers of Jesus. A rhizomic believer seeks to develop relationships, with no strings attached to that relationship. While the believer may desire to see others believe in Jesus and follow Him, if the friendship doesn’t go that way, we have to be okay with that, and maintain the friendship. Otherwise, it’s not a true friendship. But if we’re patient and observant in such friendships, we may begin to detect where God is at work in our friend’s life. But we can’t try to get ahead of God, or ahead of our friend, but should instead let God and that person initiate when, where, and how spiritual investigation takes place. In this way, discipleship is not something we have a program for, or something we can force on anyone, but is rather a product of God being at work in and through our genuine friendships with other people. 

So the catch phrase of a rhizomic approach to friendship and church planting is this: ”Where it goes is where it grows.”

What are your thoughts on all of this?

4 Comments »

There are three kinds of people in the world, those who make waves, those who ride waves, and those who sit on the beach.

Wave Makers
Wave makers are those who innovate, create, and change the direction of culture and society. They are often well known, and people who know about them feel very strongly one way or another about them. Such people are catalytic, sparking great excitement or great contempt. Steve Jobs is a wave maker in the technology realm. Brian MacLaren is a wave maker in Christianity. He may be the father of the Emerging Church movement, and people who are aware of him think that he is either a genius or a heretic. I’ll withhold judgment for now.

There are really more wave makers than you might think. The problem with being a wave maker is that it is hard work, and often involves swimming against the tidal wave of tradition. As a result, most wave makers are never heard of, because most of them drown. Though wave makers are necessary and needed, being a wave maker is risky and tiring.

Wave Riders
The second type of person is a wave rider. This is the person who waits in the water for some brave soul to create the wave, and then they jump on for the ride. They are students of culture and can feel the subtle changes in the current of society. They look for patterns and new developments, and upon sensing them, paddle madly to catch the next big wave. The most dedicated wave riders will ride one wave for a while, and then paddle back out to wait for the next one.

There is risk in riding waves, but not nearly as much as in making waves. As such, there are always a lot more wave riders than wave makers. Most wave riders survive, but the drawback is that most of them do not become well known. A few will get book deals and prominent leadership positions, but most will just keep riding waves. Another drawback is that many wave riders are criticized for “going with the flow” and just following every new wave that comes along.

Sand Sitters
Finally, there are those who sit on the beach and watch it all happen while soaking up the sun. They are the sand sitters. They either ”Ooh” and “Aaah” at the wave makers and wave riders, or criticize them and tell each other what they would have done differently if they were the ones out in the water, braving the sharks and rip tides. There is nothing really wrong with sitting on the beach, enjoying the rays of the sun. After all, the wave makers and wave riders need someone to cheer them on.

But sand sitters have the danger of getting burned. If they aren’t careful, never get out and splash around in the water, and fall asleep on the beach, they end up with nasty sunburns (Read 1 Cor 3:15).

So what kind of beach goer are you?

4 Comments »

I have noticed on other blogs that many bloggers do a “Friday is for Friends” feature where they mention other blogs and web resources that have recently been helpful. I won’t do this every Friday, but below are a few new features and resources that might be helpful for you.

1. Facebook
First, notice that I have a Facebook account! Please, if you are on Facebook, add me to your friends. Just click on my picture to the left.

2. Missional Networks
Second, notice that I have three missional network logos on the left as well. They are Allelon, Friend of Missional, and Missional Apologetics. Their logos are below. Another blog I have been enjoying is the Missional Church Network. All of these sites have great resources as well as more links to other missional leaders, websites, and blogs. Enjoy!

If you know of other “missional” networks and/or blogs that are helpful, please include them in the comment section below. Thanks!

No Comments »

Do you want to see churches planted, but don’t have loads of money? Do it missionally. Here’s a basic outline by which anyone can plant a church.

1. Get a job, any job. But not a pastoral job, unless the church which employs you allows you to plant churches in the way outlined below (I’ve seen it happen, but it is very, very rare). In this way, you do not depend on the “church” for your income. You have no idea how liberating and freeing this is.

2. Develop and/or find a simple and easily reproducible way of making disciples. It should be something that anybody can learn to teach anyone else after seeing it only once or twice, and which is advanced enough for even the most knowledgeable Christian. It should also involve active service in the community. I highly recommend “Life Transformation Groups” by Church Multiplication Associates as talked about in Neil Cole’s book Organic Church.

3. Find a marginalized, fringe group that is rejected, neglected, outcast, condemned, criticized, and judged by the majority of society, especially by “religious” people.

4. Insert yourself into this group with one goal only: to make life-long friends with some of the people in this group. Your goal is to become friends with these people, even if they never accept your beliefs about Jesus and the Bible. Do not try to turn every conversation around to God and the Bible. Don’t have an agenda!

5. Live like Jesus among this group: Love, accept, forgive, serve. Laugh a lot. Have fun.

6. If/when someone becomes interested in your way of living and believing, invite them to join you in the discipleship process of step 2.

7. If/when they believe in Jesus for eternal life, invite them to remain in their community, practicing these seven steps among their friends and family.

This approach is not flashy, will take time, and will not help you gather huge crowds or construct big buildings. But disciples will be made, and that, after all, is what Jesus called us to do (Matt 28:19-20).

6 Comments »

Katdish (Kathy Richards) asked a great question on a previous post of mine, and I realized my reply needed to be it’s own post. Here is what she asked:

We’re in the beginning stages of planting a church. I’ve been reading quite a few blogs about church planting. I like what I’ve been reading for the most part. My biggest challenge/question to date has been how do we convince the “regular” church people that they need to leave the building in order to follow Christ? I just think they’re missing out on what it means to really impact the world. The “build it and they will come” philosophy just isn’t working anymore — if it ever really did.

My basic answer is “If you can figure that out, you can write a book!” It is the number one question on the minds of most missional thinkers and leaders today. It is the “uncharted waters” of missional churches. Most “missional” churches are new church plants, and they launch with mostly new or non-believers. Very few people have been successful in taking an established church, and leading it to become missional.

One book that begins to deal with this issue is Breaking the Missional Code by Ed Stetzer and David Putnam. They suggest some ways that established churches can become missional.

Though I own the book (see my post from yesterday!), I haven’t read the book yet, but here are my suggestions:
1. Study Christ. In the teaching times of the church, emphasize the radical teaching and mission of Jesus. 
2. Study Culture. Help your church understand the culture it is in. American (or Australian, German, whatever), plus the more local microculture within your city and neighborhood. Figure out what kind of people are there, what they value, how they think, and what they do for fun.
3. Creatively bring the two (Christ and Culture) together. As you study the teachings of Christ, and you see how He lived what He taught, come up with tangible ways you and your church can do similar things in your own cultural context. He fed 5000. How can you feed 50 homeless people in your community? He showed love to a woman caught in adultery. How can you show love to prostitutes, single mothers, and strippers? When you have an idea, go do it. Even if only a few show up to help, that is a start.
4. Celebrate and share the stories. In your services, share the stories of the people’s lives you touched. This will encourage more to get involved the next time.

If you really want to get radical, try something a little subversive. A while back there was a man moving into our neighborhood, and for various reason I knew he needed help moving into his house, and didn’t have anybody to help him. I also knew that if I called around, I might be able to get 2-3 guys to help, but that wouldn’t be enough. It was a Wednesday afternoon, and so I went over to the man and said, “At 7:00 tonight, about a dozen men from our church will show up to unload your moving van. It’ll take us about an hour.”

How could I promise this? Here’s the subversive part: On Wednesday nights, we have a men’s Bible study. Generally about a dozen men come. I knew that if I called and told each man that we were going to “go help someone unload a moving truck rather than study the Bible” few would come. So I didn’t tell them. When they showed up, I said, “Hey, instead of study the Bible, we’re going to go serve our neighbor instead. Let’s go!” And we helped the man unload his truck. It took about an hour. And everybody enjoyed it. Well, one or two grumbled, but it was still fun.

You could maybe do something similar on a Sunday morning, although you might want to tell people in advance. Say “Hey, we’ve been talking about how Jesus loves children. Next week, rather than meet here for Sunday service, let’s all meet down at the kiddie park. I’ve been noticing that the benches need painting and lots of trash needs to be picked up. We’re going to go clean up the park for the kids. It’s not going to take any extra time, because we’re going when you would have been in church anyway. Instead of being in church, we’re going to go be the church.”

3 Comments »

Today I was reading a discussion over at Bob Robert’s blog about how getting conversions should not be the primary goal of church planting. Instead, we should aim for what Jesus tells us to aim for, which is making disciples.

The issue, of course, is “How best do you make disciples?”

For now, the comments by Bob Roberts reminded me of something very similar I read in Exiles by Michael Frost. He writes that after they started their church in Australia, some older Christians started coming “to take quick look at how we were doing and if it was working.” He says that he “discovered that most of these older people were survivors of similar community-building experiments from the 1970s” and had become jaded and cynical. They told Frost that his new community “wouldn’t last” (p. 108).

He goes on to say that after studying the transitional nature of the early church in Acts, he realized that aiming for community is not a goal in itself, but is instead a by-product that is gained through aiming for a better goal - that of mission (p. 109).

And this brings us back to the question of discipleship and reasons for church planting. How does a person become transformed? How best can we make disciples? I’ll take a quick stab those questions tomorrow.

No Comments »

I was able to get my hands on a free copy of The Tangible Kingdom last week, which thrilled me because I was going to buy it anyway. It’s the newest book from The Leadership Network, and so far, I haven’t read a book from them that I don’t like. The Tangible Kingdom was no exception, and it is going on my “Missional Must-Read” Book list.

This book really hit me hard, partly because the story of Hugh Halter (one of the authors) mirrors so closely my own story. He was well situated in the established church, but didn’t feel quite at peace with himself, or with God, in such a position. So he left it all behind to see if he could find (or create) something that was still true to Scripture, but was also more effective in engaging and redeeming our culture. Doing so created lots of tension. Here is what he wrote, which is exactly what I am feeling:

You can’t go back, but forward doesn’t feel much better, because forward may not pay the bills or make it any easier to live the Christian life you’ve always wanted to live (p. 18).

He made it through this time of uncertainty (so there’s hope for me!) and ended up in Denver planting a community of faith called Adullam with some friends. As people wanted to learn more about what they were doing and why, they also developed a Web-based practicum for pastors and church planters to help them innovate new ways of effectively being the church.

What I found most refreshing about the book is that the authors are not trying to criticize, judge, or condemn the way the typical church functions today. Instead, they just explained what they are doing and why, and how it is effectively bringing people into the Kingdom of God. His bottom line premise is that the church is supposed to be living out the Kingdom of God in our communities and with our friends. As we do this, the aroma of the Gospel simply attracts people to us. They put it this way:

Church should be what ends up happening as a natural response to people wanting to follow us, be with us, and be like us as we are following the way of Christ (p. 30).

Do you find that other people are strangely attracted to you, your life, your family, and the way you “do church”? If not, it may help to read this book.

2 Comments »

Ok, I need to rant, but I’ll try to do so in love…

I listened to a message a while back by a famous pastor in Seattle who gave a message called “Building a City Within the City” in which he basically argued that God’s heart was for the city, because that is where culture and education and art and music all happen. Rural people, he implied, are trying to escape culture and remove themselves from what God is doing in the world. I remember getting quite upset at hearing this since some of the most godly people I know and have ministered with live in rural settings.

I thought about blogging about this, but then decided to let it go. I hate to be critical.

Then yesterday, I read at Chris Elrod’s blog that someone at Exponential stated that “Urban church planters care way more than rural church planters about cultural relevance…probably because they need to.” I love Chris and his blog, and he is only reporting what was said, but now I’m all fired up again! I get upset at the same sort of thinking that comes from urbanized politicians who view rural people as backward, Bible-thumping hicks. Some of the smartest, hardworking people I’ve ever met live out in the boondocks.

I pastored for five years in a rural setting and now three years in an urban setting. I can say with complete confidence that while the two cultures are very different, effective rural pastors care just as much about the culture as do effective urban pastors. And in fact, to be effective, I could argue that a rural pastor must care about the culture more than an urban pastor. Here’s why:

In a city, there are so many varieties of people, that any type of church culture will find connections with someone. In a city, even the most culturally ignorant pastor can still gather some people who like whatever “culture” is in that church.

In a rural setting however, the people are more culturally homogeneous, which means that the pastor must understand the culture to gather anybody. If a successful urban pastor tried to set up an urban-culture church in a rural setting, they would fail miserably. At the same time, if a pastor came from a rural church into the city, and brought the rural values with him, he will probably still be able to gather some people.

The bottom line is that to effectively pastor anywhere, whether in the city or in the country, the pastor  must be a student of that particular culture. Just because urban culture is more diverse (even that point could be debated!), this does not mean that urban pastors care more about cultural relevance than do rural pastors. And it definitely doesn’t mean that urban pastors care more about God’s mission and the kingdom of God than do rural pastors.

I can feel myself getting more worked up…I better quit here.

2 Comments »

I just got back from the Exposed Church Planting conference put on by Square1 Church Planting. It was incredible! I cannot say enough good about it. It was unlike any conference I have ever been to before. I met a group of the most incredible church planters ever, and really got to know several of them. I hope we can maintain contact with them.

There will probably be another Square1 conference next October, so begin to think about attending now.

I wish I could say more, but I’m soooo tired right now. Some of what I learned and am thinking will come out on future blog posts.

No Comments »