Archive | church RSS feed for this section

Missional Spirituality (Review)

8 Feb

Missional is a buzzword in the North American Church.  It’s a buzzword with a lot of ambiguity.  What does it mean to be missional?  What is a missional church?  What is a missional follower of Jesus?  These are all questions that church leaders are asking.  And there are many resources that are trying to provide some clarity to these questions.

Missional Spirituality (Paperback, Kindle) by Roger Helland and Leonard Hjalmarson is one of these many books.  Unlike many of the other texts that I’ve been reading on the subject.  Missional Spirituality builds its foundation on Jesus response to the question, “What is the greatest commandment?”  Jesus’ reply to this question is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  The second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.”

From this response Helland and Hjalmarson begin to investigate what it means to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  They focus on practices that help believers grow in their love for the Lord in all four of these arenas.  This is important as it helps people build faith and knowledge about God and move them into living the mission of God.  The authors then go into examining what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.

Missional Spirituality is by no means a ground breaking revolutionary text on what the church should be doing to be more “missional”.  However, it is a helpful text for church leaders and non-church leaders to begin to figure out what it means to live in God’s mission of grace and saving the world.

Vulnerability

2 Feb

I think what is really troubling me in this whole issue is that there is a lack of vulnerability on the part of church leaders.

When dealing with a church there is a lot of trust in the congregation that the leaders will help them to become more like Jesus.  Church members confide in leaders their struggles and where they need help, believing that these leaders will help them to grow.

Confession creates a position of vulnerability with the hope of restoration.  When we (church leaders) put a bunch of barriers in someone’s path to restoration, or give them arbitrary activities that we think should make them closer to Jesus, we take advantage of their vulnerability.

That’s abuse.

Church leaders, have you ever made a mistake?  Have you ever had to confess your mistakes to someone?  I know the pastor in question has been publicly chastised and claims to have undergone discipline himself.  My question here is shouldn’t that discipline create more humility and more vulnerability?

There is a fear in church leadership that if we show our own weaknesses then people won’t want to follow us.  That is we let people know we aren’t perfect they will see through our B.S. and go to someone who has their crap together.

I know from experience at Creekside that when our pastor (Don) has expressed his own weaknesses people have actually responded favorably.  Don is one of us.  He’s not better than us, he’s just one follower of Jesus trying to help other people follow Jesus.

In a conversation with another person who calls Creekside home they said that why they love Creekside is that we are willing to talk to people based on life experience.  We have a community of broken people and Jesus is putting us back together.  We have drug addicts sitting next to stay at home moms.  All of us recognize that we need Jesus.  And recognizing that we all need Jesus helps us to be vulnerable and honest with each other.

Brothers, we are all broken

1 Feb

My heart is hurting for people who have been deeply hurt by a church in my area.  As a leader in a church I know that it is not hard to offend someone.  As someone who goes to a church I know that it is not hard to be offended.

But the stories that I am hearing lately are too much.  Church discipline is intended to ultimately be redemptive, to help people get closer to Jesus.  It’s not intended to show your power or authority over your followers.

Pastors can you please take a moment to pray for the people in your area who are hurting because of church leadership.  It’s not fair to those people that their image of Jesus is tarnished because of human agents.

The truth is that we are all incredibly broken people.  The grace of Jesus is the only thing that helps us get our lives back together.  Can we talk more about that?  Can we humbly recognize our need for Jesus?

Leaders, let’s get out of the way of people who are trying to find Jesus.  We are not meant to be gatekeepers of faith.  We are guides.  The only reason that we can guide anyone in their faith journey is because some one guided us.  That person was a broken human too.

Let’s be honest.

Let’s be humble.

Let’s celebrate Jesus’ transforming love and grace.

Let’s help people walk away from sin and towards the grace that we find in the Cross of Christ.

I think that’s what people are looking for when they come to church for the first time.

Love.

Hope.

Healing.

Forgiveness.

Compassion.

Community.

We should be the best at creating environments like this because we have received all of this from Jesus in the first place.

Stewardship [or] All About (all) the Benjamins

12 Dec

I am currently working on a series of sermons about Stewardship.  As a pastor, when I use the word stewardship the common assumption is that I’m going to talk about money.  If I say, I’m doing a series on stewardship, people hear, “Here come four week talking about money, give more, give more, give more.”

Can I be completely honest and vulnerable about something here on my blog.  (I’m going to anyway so deal with it.)  I hate this common understanding of stewardship.  I hate it because it is just too narrow.

Am I going to talk about money?  Yes.  1 week.  Am I going to talk about tithing and giving offerings?  Yes.

I have said before and I will say again, I will never apologize for talking about money at Creekside because no one is getting rich at Creekside.  If all of a sudden all the pastors pull up in Bentleys then we will start apologizing for talking about money so much.  (Just between you and me, we are so far from that becoming a possibility.)

Another part of my problem with the common understanding of stewardship is that all that matters is Tithes and Offerings.  These stewardship campaigns often feel like, the goal is simply to increase tithes and offerings.  To give a shot in the arm for the year to make sure that we keep making budget.  Ministry has expenses, there is no way around that, and at Creekside we try to run a pretty tight ship to make sure that we are getting the most of the resources that people have given in tithes and offerings.  So it’s important to talk about the importance of giving, and we do that every week.

But stewardship, and specifically talking about financial stewardship is more than just tithes and offerings.  God cares about every penny that you spend.  And he cares because he gave it to you, and he wants you to use it towards his purposes in the world and his purposes for your life.

Pay your bills, enjoy your life, there is nothing wrong with doing these things.  But stewardship is so much bigger than just making sure people tithe.  Tithes and offerings are a key indicator in spiritual growth and if people are truly trusting God, but so is whether or not you are spending wrecklessly on credit, or if you are neglecting your financial responsibilites.

All of that is also stewardship.

I think we would all benefit, church attenders and church leaders, to take into account that God has called us all to be disciples, not just on Sunday but every day where ever we go.  And not just with 10% of our gross income, but with every dollar.  God cares about all of our life, and how we are using all that he has given to us to advance his mission of grace to the world.  And he cares about the Benjamins, all of them, as well as the little copper Lincolns.

Planning

22 Sep

Our team is meeting next Tuesday after staff meeting to put together our calendar for 2012.

It’s still September, it seems crazy to be planning that far in advance but, hey we may be crazy.

This is what I know about Church life: it’s crazy busy.  To complicate things more, every other part of life is busy as well.

If we don’t take time to plan our calendar to ensure that the various ministries of the church won’t be competing and struggling for time, then we will only add frustration to our leaders, the people who serve at these various events, and the people who would love to go to events but are unable to do so because they can’t decide, or they just participated in 4 events and now they are totally burned out.

I have learned that the church needs to be willing to protect our members’ time.  Church people are willing to sacrifice their evenings, and their free time to come and help the church.  Which is awesome.  And they do this because they agree with the mission and the vision of the church.  I love this.  But if I don’t think about their calendar then I will burn them out.

Last night Kathy and I had an important conversation about our calendar over the next few weeks.  We are busy people.  If Kathy and I are busy right now, I can only imagine the other families who are much busier.  By planning 2012 in September 2011 we are trying to ensure that we are not over committing our leaders and volunteers, because more important than attendance at our events is that we are are helping people discover, trust and love Jesus Christ.  We need to make sure that our calendar doesn’t get in the way of that.

Sunday’s Message Had Legos

16 Aug

This past Sunday I had the privilege of speaking at Creekside Church.  We are working through a series called “Can You Trust the Bible.”  On Sunday I talked about how to read the Bible as a narrative.  Too often I think people approach the Bible with the wrong motives or assumptions about the text.  My understanding of how to approach the Bible is that it is the story of God rescuing his people.  As a Christian I understand that Jesus (his sacrificial death on the cross and resurrection) is the ultimate way that God rescues his people.  I’ve been influenced by N.T. Wright and the book The Drama of Scripture.

I encouraged Creekside to read the Bible as a narrative and to understand that we have a part to play because God’s story is not finished.  You can listen to the sermon here or get the video here.

I also used lego images from BrickTestament.com to help illustrate my message.  I have been asked to post my presentation so here that is as well. Narrative of Scripture presentation.

Enjoy.

Baptisms

30 Jun

courtesy www.glbbc.orgWe are getting ready to do a baptism celebration this Sunday.  We are combining all of our gatherings into one 10 am gathering.  We are going to celebrate the work that God is doing in drawing people into his grace, that is made available through Jesus’s death and resurrection.  We will hear the gospel story told over and over and over again.  And we will truly celebrate the things that God has done together in community.  It’s going to be an awesome day at Creekside.

Whirlwind weekend

9 May

I’ve been crazy busy this weekend. But busy in a good way.

On Friday I met my niece, Violet.  She’s adorable.  We had dinner with my Brother and sister-in-law.

On Saturday I had an early breakfast with the head’s of NU’s MATC (Ron Herms) and MAML (Alan Ehler) programs, and the Provost (Jim Heugel), and my fellow College of Ministry grads.  It was a fun breakfast, and I got a very nice frame as a gift from the College of Ministry.

Then I went and graduated.  That was great.  My family was there, I could see Kathy and the kids.  It was pretty fun.  I was hooded.

Provost Jim Heugel, myself and Prof. Wally Kowalski (I gotta get some regalia like his)

It’s a pretty amazing age that we live in, as I was sitting waiting to get my hood and diploma (cover) I was able to get on facebook and see all the congrats from friends who were there and those who weren’t .  I do think it’s pretty cool how technology has enabled us to celebrate with and congratulate others immediately.

Then we went to lunch with my family and the in-laws which was really fun.

On Sunday, It was mother’s day!  My wife is awesome.  Best mom ever!

I was also preaching at All Saints on Queen Anne.  That was my fourth and final time preaching while Bill Berger has been on sabbatical.   My hope was to encourage All Saints to be sources of Joy for Bill and his family and to keep up with Bill as he runs after the vision that God has placed on his heart.

After church we had Lunch with Kathy’s family for Mother’s Day, and then last night we had Dinner with My Mom, Dad, Sister and Brother in Law.

It’s been busy around here.  Next week I’m teaching a break-out session at a Men’s Conference and preaching at Creekside.  And all this week I’m going to be focusing on writing my Thesis.  last week I wrote a 20 page rough draft for a chapter.  These week I’m hoping to do 10-15 pages of a rough draft on another chapter.  So I’ve got that going on this week.  Prayers are greatly appreciated.

Groups Coach

3 Mar

Yesterday I talked about the importance of starting and maintaining the projects that you know you can pour yourself into.

One of the projects that I have started and I want to make sure that I can keep focused on and maintain a strong level of commitment to is Groups Coach

Groups Coach is a training initiative for our Groups Ministry at Creekside Church.  The goal is to produce a weekly 10 minute podcast that our leaders can listen to for quick training sessions.  The beauty of the podcast is that it’s available when the leaders are available instead of trying to work everybody’s schedule into a meeting.  There will still be needs for meetings of course, but this way training will be in small doses instead of trying to drink from the fire hose.

Out of this there is also a blog project to post groups and community related articles and ideas.

And this is a resource that I want to give away for free.

So if there are any folks out there who need resources for training group leaders, then please check out Groups Coach, and please tell your friends, colleagues pets etc know about it as well.

The Groups Coach Blog  GroupsCoach.tumblr.com

Groups Coach Twitter: twitter.com/groupscoach

email ideas for groups coach to coachinggroups@gmail.com

Fear God, not the world

9 Feb

I received Church Dogmatics for Christmas, and when I have a few moments I like to read a bit.  Also, I can only digest a little bit at a time.  Today I read this and I was encouraged and challenged.

The Church should fear God and not fear the world.  But only if an as it fears God need it cease to fear the world.  If it does not fear God, then it is not helped at all but genuinely endangered if it fears the world, listens to its opposition, considers its attitude, and accepts all kinds of responsibilities towards it, no matter how necessary and justified may be the criticism it receives from this quarter.

The Church’s biggest responsibility is to Fear God with awe and reverence, and not to fear the world.  Fear of the world is what drives the church away from the Gospel.  But if the church rightly fears God, then the Gospel work will continue.

 

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 379 other followers