TILL HE COMES Blog

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 »

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 »

Yesterday I mentioned that for the final round of the blogging tournament at PlantingSpace.com, I wrote two articles and then submitted the one that I thought was best. That’s not actually true.

I only wrote one, which is the one you find below. I showed it to my wife for her input. She liked it, made some suggestions, and then said that it didn’t sound quite right. It seemed too…aggressive. Too bloody. So she and I talked about a few other ideas. She came up with an idea I thought was so good, I invited her to write it. So she did. That is the post I submitted yesterday. So, if I “win,” it is actually my wife, Wendy, who wrote the “winning” post. But hey, since we’re married, the two have become one, right?

Anyway, here is what I was going to submit until she came up with something better. If you still want to go vote for me (Wendy, actually), you can do so here.

When Jesus says He will build His church (Matt 16:18), He also implies where He will build it. He says that as He builds His church, the “gates of Hell will not overcome it.” Since gates are defensive, apparently Jesus and His church are camped right outside.

Jesus has Hell under siege!

And church planters are the ones who are advancing the kingdom. They look around their communities, find the most hellish places, and armed with weapons of grace, kindness, compassion, mercy, faith, hope, and love, hurl themselves headlong at the gates. With full abandon, in blinding bloodlust and with cries of holy rage, they swing fiercely with their swords, cry out desperately for aid, risking all, …just so that one more might be saved. And one more. And one more.

Now is not the time for fatigue. Now is not the time for rest. Now is not the time to pursue happiness. We must swing, and swing again, until our biceps burn and our breath comes in ragged gasps. And if our sword breaks and we are left with nothing but our bloody fists, we must continue swinging.

Those gates must come down. Those people must be freed.

There’s the trumpet call! “Forward! Forward!” is the cry.

And when the battle is done, and the gates of Hell have fallen, Jesus, the Victorious King, will rise above the cheering throng, and with tears in His eyes, raise His sword in salute, and shout for all to hear, “Well done, My Mighty Men of Valor! Together, we have built My church.”

4 Comments »

I made it to the final round of the blogging tournament over at PlantingSpace.com. Thank you voting for me in the previous rounds. I also want to thank Mark Doebler who has also made it to the final round. His posts have been excellent. He pastors The Grove in Peoria, IL, so if you are near his church, go check him out.

In this final round, we were supposed to encourage church planters to keep planting churches. Just like last week, I came up with two possible submissions, and then submitted the one that I thought was best. I will give you the other one tomorrow. I chose this one for a very special reason, which I will also share with you tomorrow. (I hope it doesn’t disqualify me!) If you want to vote for Mark or me, you can do so here.

Faces. We see them everywhere and every day. Some faces are recognizable and incite feelings of love, passion, tenderness, and happiness. Other faces give rise to feelings of anger, wrath, jealousy, or fear. It’s these faces that must push us forward, these faces that must motivate us to reach out with the love of Jesus.

You know the faces you need to reach. We all have them in our lives. They are the faces of God’s children, many of whom are far away from Him. Others don’t even know His name except in a curse. A handful of these faces knew God once, but no longer believe He cares about them any more. Still others feel that God couldn’t possibly love them after what they’ve done.

They are the faces of divorce, lust, abortion, drugs, abuse, violence, death, heartache, heartbreak, loneliness, fatigue, rejection, and pride.

They are the faces of your grocery clerk, your mailman, your boss, your neighbor, the homeless person you’ve walked by for years on your way to work, the pregnant teen whom you believe is just reaping what she’s sown, the bitter widow, the ex-con.

The list goes on and on, and it includes you and me.

Yet somehow, we think we don’t belong on this list. We know the truth. We are different.

But if that is so, it’s only because someone in your life answered God’s call to reach out to you, and help you out of the muck you were dwelling in.

God is calling again for people to go out and be His hands in the world; hands of love, grace, kindness, friendship, and truth.

Are you going to see the faces in your life for what they are, or for who they can be? It’s your move.

7 Comments »

One of the books I read this week was Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. Though I was excited to read it, and agree in principle with the “Simple Church” concept, that every church needs to drastically simplify what it is doing so that it can do a better job of making disciples, I was a tiny bit disappointed with some of the approach used by the authors.

The book is based on a survey of hundreds of growing churches across the country which experienced at least 5% growth each year for at least three years. They surveyed these churches on what they were doing and how they were doing it. Here are my complaints:

First, it does not appear that they asked the growing churches they surveyed where their “growth” was coming from. Much of it could have been transfer growth. I don’t mind “transfer growth” if Christians are leaving sick churches to attend healthy ones, but that is not the reason most Christians transfer. Most just want to go where the best show is.

Second, it seems they only surveyed larger churches (of 300 or more) and churches with buildings. This is odd since about 90% of the 485,000 US churches are under 80 people. Also, the most “simple” churches in the country are house churches (of 30 or less). It would be interesting to see if his stats fit with house churches.

Finally, it seems that there is a real break down in the ability of the churches that were surveyed to get their people into community service (mission). Though the people may be progressing through the simplified discipleship track, few make it to the goal of mission involvement. I wonder if this isn’t because Mission should be placed first, as suggested by other books on the market (e.g. The Forgotten Ways).

Of course, despite these “complaints” of mine, I do think it is a really good book since most churches desperately need simplification.

No Comments »

I almost submitted the following for the Blogging Tournament at PlantingSpace.com (You can see what I actually submitted by going there and voting.) I learned all of the following the hard way. At one point or another, I allowed people to be leaders based on one or more of the following characteristics, and lived to regret it.

“How to Pick a Leader You’ll Live to Regret”

1. Pick a leader based on how much money they give to the church.
2. Pick someone who has lots of influence in the city or in the church. (Note: Though leadership is influence, Godly leadership requires Godly influence.)
3. Pick a leader simply based on who wants to be one. (Note: Yes, it’s okay to desire leadership (1 Tim 3:1), but it seems that most who desire it are power hungry.)
4. Pick leaders based on who is initially very supportive of you. (Note: If they show up in church one day, and are supportive and encouraging…and want to be a leader, watch out!)
5. Pick a leader based on how talented they are at something you desperately need in church (like music, or children’s ministry).
6. Pick a leader because they talk a lot about their leadership skills. (Note: Leaders listen more than they talk, and are not proud or boastful.)

Now, after weeding out leaders with these seven “disqualifiers” if there is anybody left in our “potential leadership pool” Congratulations! You’ve found your leader!

And always remember…it’s okay to be “leaderless.” After all, if we have no leaders, it forces us to look to Jesus as our leader. And He does okay.

P.S.  If you are looking for leaders, the best place to look is in the silent servants of the church. Who shows up and just serves, not looking for recognition or glory? These may make you best leaders. We have ”Servant Leadership” backwards. We think that ”servant leadership” means that leaders should serve. Actually, when we look at what Jesus teaches about “servant leadership” He is saying that servants should lead and that leaders should be taken from the servants. So you want to find leaders? Look to the servants.

5 Comments »

I made it to round 3 at the PlantingSpace Blogging Tournament! Thank you to everyone who voted for me. Below is my submission for Round 3, in which we were to address some aspect of leadership selection and training. I chose to focus on how to find leaders. If you want to vote for me or someone else, click here. Thanks!

If you want to find the leaders in your church, you need to look for marshmallows. No, not people who are puffed up and white. We have enough of those already. Instead, look for six other good marshmallow leadership qualities.

First, marshmallows are tasty. They can make bad things taste good (Marshmallow Yams) and good things better (Fluffer Nutter). Similarly, leaders are enjoyable to be around. They will be people of grace, kindness, tenderness, and compassion.

Second, they bind together and are sticky. Rice Crispy Treats would be just a bowl of cereal without the marshmallows. And have you ever tried to get melted marshmallow out of your hair? Leaders bring people together and bind them around a common purpose or goal.

Third, they always rise to the top. Ever try to sink a marshmallow? It can’t be done. People naturally follow leaders and leaders naturally lead. In your church, who do people look to for solutions? Who do they go to for answers and advice? Who do they turn to for comfort and safety?

Fourth, marshmallows are multifunctional. Marshmallows are not only good for eating, they can also be used to generate laughs (Chubby Bunny anyone?) and for endless holiday crafts. Similarly, leaders are flexible enough to work in a variety of situations and flow effortlessly from one role to another.

Fifth, they’re often singed because they’re frequently near fire. A good church leader storms the gates of hell. They make friends at the fringes and take risks where they might get burned or come home smelling like smoke.

Sixth, when they get in the fire, they actually get bigger. Leaders learn best in the forge. If they can stand the heat, they will increase their leadership skills, expand their sphere of influence, and become great leaders.

3 Comments »

We’ve all heard of Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church which I hear averages over 30,000 people on a weekend. I think this is the largest church in the United States. His sermons are on television and his book, Your Best Life Now has sold 3 million copies.

But Joel does not have the largest church in the world. Most give this “honor” to David Cho and his Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul Korea with about 830,000 members.

Of course, when it comes to buildings, nobody can top the most expensive church, The Basilica of our Lady of Peace in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). It cost $300 million to build. It also is recognized as being the largest by floor area (30,000 sq. meters!). I hear that it has it’s own airport. Top that one Joel!

But has anybody heard about “Uncle L”? He has no formal seminary education and no advanced degrees. You won’t find his sermons online, on the radio. or on television. He hasn’t written any books. He doesn’t have a website, or even a blog. He didn’t raise funds to help plant his church, in fact, his church doesn’t even have a central building. There isn’t even a church budget. He doesn’t have dozens of staff members. He is is not a “Type A” personality, with great leadership abilitites. He would fail most “church planter assessments.” No big deal, right? That’s true of a lot of pastors around the world.

True, but Uncle L is the “lead pastor” of a church of 3 million people. Yes, 3,000,000. (See Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, p. 150).

Uncle L is a soft-spoken, unassuming, older man, who has been to prison several times, and is quietly leading the greatest movement of Christians the world has ever seen.

So why haven’t you heard about him? He’s a church planter in China, and is only one of scores upon scores of such “successful” planters in that country. If they could read our “church planting books” and attend our “church planting conferences” and see that most of our planters want to spend several million dollars to have a church of 10,000, they would probably be amazed at how low we’ve set our sights, and how little we accomplish with so many resources and such amazing structures.

Maybe our resources and structures are part of the problem.

No Comments »

I made it to round 2 in the Exponential Blogging Tournament over at ChurchPlanters.com. Thank you for voting for me!

Now, go vote for me again! Ha ha. But only if you think my post is best.  The issue we were supposed to address was ”What is your best marketing and/or outreach idea for under $500?” Here was the answer I submitted:

What is the best way for a church to spend $500? Give Presence. (No, not Presents… though that might be part of giving presence.)

People today are tired of commercials (TV and radio), door hangers, junk mail, email spam, surveys, and telemarketers. Most people only get annoyed by such things, and this is especially true when they come from the church. They think, “If that church has nothing better to do with its money then send me junk mail, I’m sure not going to attend there and give them my money!”

The best thing we can do with our “Marketing/Outreach” budget is to give presence. Just join the people in your town and city where they already are, and do what they are already doing. Typically, with such a strategy, a church planter doesn’t need to worry about how to gather a crowd or get the word out about a big event, because the city (or whoever is organizing the event) is already doing such things.

So go to your local Chamber of Commerce or city website and get a community calendar, as well as a list of civic organizations and community service events. Then be present at as many of these events and projects as possible. Be the most active, joyful, service-minded citizens your city has ever seen.

For the Fourth of July Festival, join whatever the city is doing.

Serve free hot chocolate at the New Year’s Parade.

Build homes with Habitat for Humanity.

Volunteer at the homeless shelter.

Give out free beads at Mardi Gras. (Ok, maybe not that one.)

To effectively reach our culture, we need to stop trying to do our own thing. Instead, go to where the crowds are already gathering. It’s easier, cheaper, and frequently, a lot more fun.

1 Comment »

I recently read John Burke’s book No Perfect People Allowed. This is another book that every Christian should read. In the book, he makes the statement that we no longer live in a postmodern era, we now live in a post-Christian era (p. 15). Apparently, Christianity has already lost the war against postmodernism. (I personally don’t think it was a war that ever should have been waged in the first place. Christians are to engage, embrace, and redeem culture, not fight against it.) In his book, John Burke explains how the church can operate and function in a culture that is “post-Christian.” I think he is exactly right on.

Ironically, as I was reading this book about how to live as Christians in a post-Christian era, I ran across an exchange between atheist Christopher Hitchens (who wrote the best-selling book God is Not Great) and Suchin Pak (correspondent for MTV news). She announced to him that our culture was becoming increasingly Christian. She said, “Our audience is more religious and conservative than we assume.” Hitchens replied, “I really hate to hear that the young are becoming more Christian. If that’s true, that’s the worst news of the night!”

So here we have two leaders, neither one being Christian, both coming to different conclusions about our culture. One says we are post-Christian, the other is alarmed that we are becoming increasingly Christian. I guess it’s like the debate over global warming. Some say the polar ice caps are melting while others, who note that this it the coldest year in a century, are predicting a new ice age.

So what do you think? What have you observed in your community and with your friends?

10 Comments »