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 Walter (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 was just listening to a message given by Michael Frost, and in it he read the following poem by Adrian Plass. It is exactly what I am thinking and feeling. For me, following Jesus has become a life full of deep faith and great fear. The poem portrays both wonderfully.

When I Became a Christian
By Adrian Plass

When I became a Christian I said, Lord, now fill me in,
Tell me what I’ll suffer in this world of shame and sin.
He said, your body may be killed, and left to rot and stink,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen - I think.
I think Amen, Amen I think, I think I say Amen,
I’m not completely sure, can you just run through that again?
You say my body may be killed and left to rot and stink,
Well, yes, that sounds terrific, Lord, I say Amen - I think.

But, Lord, there must be other ways to follow you, I said,
I really would prefer to end up dying in my bed.
Well, yes, he said, you could put up with the sneers and scorn and spit,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen - a bit.
A bit Amen, Amen a bit, a bit I say Amen,
I’m not entirely sure, can we just run through that again?
You say I could put up with sneers and also scorn and spit,
Well, yes, I’ve made my mind up, and I say, Amen - a bit.

Well I sat back and thought a while, then tried a different ploy,
Now, Lord, I said, the Good book says that Christians live in joy.
That’s true he said, you need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow,
So do you want to follow me, I said, Amen - tomorrow.
Tomorrow, Lord, I’ll say it then, that’s when I’ll say Amen,
I need to get it clear, can I just run through that again?
You say that I will need the joy, to bear the pain and sorrow,
Well, yes, I think I’ve got it straight, I’ll say Amen - tomorrow.

He said, Look, I’m not asking you to spend an hour with me
A quick salvation sandwich and a cup of sanctity,
The cost is you, not half of you, but every single bit,
Now tell me, will you follow me? I said Amen - I quit.
I’m very sorry Lord I said, I’d like to follow you,
But I don’t think religion is a manly thing to do.
He said forget religion then, and think about my Son,
And tell me if you’re man enough to do what he has done.

Are you man enough to see the need, and man enough to go,
Man enough to care for those whom no one wants to know,
Man enough to say the thing that people hate to hear,
To battle through Gethsemane in loneliness and fear.
And listen! Are you man enough to stand it at the end,
The moment of betrayal by the kisses of a friend,
Are you man enough to hold your tongue, and man enough to cry?
When nails break your body-are you man enough to die?
Man enough to take the pain, and wear it like a crown,
Man enough to love the world and turn it upside down,
Are you man enough to follow me, I ask you once again?
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said Amen.
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen; Amen, Amen, Amen,
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said, Amen.

1 Comment »

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 »

I wish I could be at Exponential this week. Instead, I’m going to Exposed, which I am actually a bit more excited about. Why? For three reasons. First, Exposed is more “grassroots” which fits me better. Second, since it’s smaller, It will be more intimate and relational. There will only be about 30 of us, so I’m hoping to make some life-long church-planting friends. This would be nearly impossible at Exponential. Finally, Exposed is closer to me, and therefore, cheaper, which also allows my wife to come. Yay!

Of course, as the title of this post indicates, I’m also feeling a bit exposed right now. I’m changing, in a lot of ways, and it’s somewhat scary and embarrassing, while at the same time exciting and exhilarating. One thing is for sure, I’m closer to Jesus than I’ve ever been before.

Anyway, I was reading Scott Hodge’s blog today, and he is going to Exponential, and he attended a pre-conference session in which the following questions were asked:

    What is the Missio Dei?

    What is the Gospel?

    What is the message of Jesus?

    What makes a church a church?

    What is evangelism?

    How does it happen?

    What is the relationship between Christ and culture?

    Does activity guarantee maturity?

    What can numbers tell us?  What can’t they tell us?   

    What does it mean to lead?

    What does it mean to go?

    What does it mean to gather?

    What does it mean to be faithful?

    What is hope?

As I read this list, it hit me that nearly all my answers to these questions have changed over the past 12-18 months. It really startled me. I thought about doing a blog post on each question to explain what I used to believe 2+ years ago, and contrast it with what I believe now, and why I think I am experiencing the changes that I am, but probably nobody would be interested in this but me. So I won’t bore you.

Instead, you might want to ask yourself the questions above, why you answer them the way you do, and how those answers lead you to live your life. My changes and current views on these questions are causing me to be more concerned about following Jesus, making disciples, caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, loosing the captives, living on less, loving others, and making friends with people on the fringes than ever before.

Where do your answers to those questions lead you?

No Comments »

I had a good long talk with Lance again on Saturday, and he may be one of the most refreshing people I have ever met. I want to know more people like him. He is open, honest, and genuine. He says what he thinks, but in a way that is unoffensive.

And wow, does he know his stuff! I’m not sure exactly how he would classify himself religiously, but he knows the Bible better than most of us at Seminary, myself included. He told me that he learned under Col. R.B. Thieme in Houston (for those of you who are “Thiemers”). As I talked with Lance, he was using Greek, talking about the Bema, and quoting Scripture, all while performing amazing tricks with his devil sticks.

At one point, Wendy invited him and his family over for dinner. He declined, and the reason was one I have never heard before in my entire life, and probably will never hear again. He thought we would be offended, but Wendy and I both laughed out loud when he explained why he didn’t want to come to dinner. I’m not going to repeat what he said here on a public blog, but let me just say that it was genuine, honest, kind, and authentic.

The bottom line is that I like Lance. He is someone I would love to hang out with, and someone we Christians could learn a lot from. However, most of the time, when we interact with people like Lance, we either get offensive or defensive, and simply try to win arguments. That wasn’t my goal. Though Lance and I disagree on many things right now, I didn’t want to argue, let alone win an argument. I simply wanted to win the opportunity for another conversation.

2 Comments »

I was reading the Gospel of Matthew today and came to the sobering realization that if I were alive at the time of Jesus Christ, I probably would not have been one of his disciples. All Christians today like to think that if we were alive when Jesus walked the earth, we would be the thirteenth disciple. I think most of us are delusional. I know I am.

In Matthew 8:19, a man comes to Jesus and says, “I’ll follow you!” It’s so easy to say. Isn’t it?

How does Jesus respond? He basically says, “If you follow me, you won’t have a home, an income, a bed to sleep in, or regular meals to eat. Still want to sign up?” (Matthew 8:20).

Take a real, good, hard, honest look at your life. Are you really willing to give up your house, your job, your bed, your income, and your meals to follow Jesus?

I know my own heart. I think I would have said, “Oh. Well…in that case…let me go home and ‘pray’ about it.” (Which is Christian lingo for “No.”)

And then I read this in Alan Hirsh’s book The Forgotten Ways:

I have come to the conclusion that for we who live in the Western world, the major challenge to the viability of Christianity is not Buddhism, with all its philosophical appeal to the Western mind, nor is it Islam, with all the challenge that it poses to Western culture. It is not the New Age that poses such a threat; in fact, because that is a genuine search going on in new religious movements, it can actually be an asset to we who are willing to share the faith amidst the search. All these are challenges to us, no doubt, but I have come to believe that the major threat to the viability of our faith is that of consumerism (p. 106).

Consumerism has actually become the driving idealogy of the church’s ministry (p. 110).

[Consumerism teaches us] that the thing that will complete us in a new kitchen or a house extension, whereas in fact these only add more stress to our mortgages and our families. … Offered “heaven now,” we give up the ultimate quest in pursuit of that which can be immediately consumed, be it a service, product, or pseudo-religious experience (p. 111).

What are your thoughts on all this? I want to follow Jesus, but I also want to provide a nice home, good food, warm clothing, and a soft bed for my wife and three girls. How can that be incompatible with following Jesus? I don’t see how it can be, but maybe I’m just drunk on consumerism and am in denial. Any suggestions?

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 »

On Vince Antonucci’s blog, he posted the following scenario (which comes from Bob’s Robert’s book, The Multiplying Church).

Let’s start a thousand churches over the next ten years, each one running a minimum of two thousand members, and in just ten years we will turn America upside down with the gospel! That would work, right? Wrong – that scenario just happened over the past ten years, and there are fewer people in church today than ever before. How can that be? How could we have spent billions to start two thousand megachurches and yet have fewer people in church and a society that largely feels the church is antagonistic?

The answer which I and other commenters suggested is that most of the people who start to go to those new churches are not new Christians, but people who were already Christians and who transferred to the new and exciting church. Most of the church plants grew by transfer growth, not church growth. One of those who commented pointed out the supporting statistic that every year about 4,000 churches close their doors… forever (Does anybody know if this worldwide, or just in the States?).

Then today, I was reading an article called “Change-Seekers” in World Magazine, which summarized the major study of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (available here). The study revealed that currently only 51% of Americans are “Protestant,” down from 60-65% in the 1970s. The only “religious group” actually increasing in numbers are those who identify themselves as “non-religious.” They comprise 16% of America, and have nearly doubled in number since the 1980s. Then the author of the article says this:

Despite the church growth movement and the proliferation of megachurches, evangelical Christianity is losing ground. Growing churches often have high turnover. [Are they going to other new churches with a better show?] The issue is not how to gain new members but how to keep the ones churches already have.

After reading this, I decided to check how Bob Roberts answered his own question. I have The Multiplying Church and so picked it up, and found the quote Vince Antonucci referred to. Then I skimmed several key sections of the book, and it seems Bob Roberts is saying that the problem our churches face is that we are not seeing true life transformation in those who attend our churches.

I found this insightful, especially since on Friday, I read a book by Neil Cole called Cultivating a Life for God in which he reveals a way of discipling people which has resulted in amazing life transformation in the people that have done it worldwide. But the beauty of what he proposes is that this life transformation does not depend on the systems and structures that have come to be known as “church.” Instead, his proposal is simple, free, and easily reproducible. I just started reading his newest book, Search & Rescue, which appears to be an updated remix of Cultivating a Life for God.

It is my opinion that the way we do “church” today is more often than not a hindrance to the spread of the gospel and the making of disciples. The death of churchianity is coming, and while it saddens me when churches close, I am also excited because I believe that a new movement of God is coming upon His people whereby we throw off the things that hinder what He is doing in our lives, communities, and countries, and embrace a new (actually old) way of being the church.

This new/old way will not need millions of dollars to sustain itself. It will live out the gospel among the people of this world by serving, living, and loving them, rather than just teaching facts. It will transform lives and communities. It will not require advanced degrees of education, high-powered leadership structures, costly buildings, expensive advertising, salesmanship routines, light shows and Hollywood gimmicks. We won’t need experts to interpret Scripture for us, or to organize our discipleship programs and outreach events. It won’t be limited to a single day, or a particular event.

We’re just going to be the church, the body of Christ. Churchianity is dying, and we shouldn’t fight it. It’s on life support and is begging us to pull the plug. But as it fades away, I am beginning to see glimmers of light as the grime from centuries of tradition is scrubbed away, and the glory of God begins to manifest itself among groups of Christians who just want to live life like Jesus in their communities.

6 Comments »