Re-Thinking Church

Re-Thinking Church Growth Strategies!
The evangelistic arm of the American Church has been cut off by a culture that has been disenfranchised by the very people who represent the Church, Christians. Traditional methods of evangelism like passing out tracks and door to door visiting must be retired and the Church must rethink their external witness. At a Washington D.C. pastor’s conference, Craig Groeschel, the lead pastor of LifeChurch.tv said, “If churches are going to reach the people no one is reaching, then they have to do the things no one is doing.” Jesus said it like this, “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins . . . new wine must be poured into new wineskins” (Luke 5:37, 38). Traditional churches keep pouring new wine into a culture made up of old wine skins. By doing this, the power of the Gospel message has been watered down and the punch line has been played out. A four-part Gospel has been reduced to two. Instead of sharing with the world: (1) Creation (2) Fall (3) Redemption and (4) Restoration. The majority of American churches have defrauded both the people inside and outside the walls of the church by only focusing on the Fall and Redemption. If the goal of following Christ is not restoration, then most Christ followers will not see how they contribute to the restoration of Creation.

Internalize Before Externalization
The kind of changes that will solve the Church’s problems will be of a different order to the kind that created them in the first place. Internal changes must be made for external productivity. Three major paradigm shifts must be internalized by church structures; if the Church is going to reach those people no one is reaching and who have burst from too much wine.

Missional vs. Traditional
Traditional Churches have basically one strategy for evangelism: invite people to the church building. This strategy has institutionalized the salvation experience and de-powered Christ-followers. The responsibility of salvation is not only the mission of the pastoral staff, but each individual Christ-Follower. Missional Churches primary concern is to be committed to God’s missionary calling in the culture it is sent. The new strategy to adopt is to equip and release each Christ-follower to creatively and innovatively use their gifts, talents and abilities to advance the Kingdom of God in their personal sphere of influence, not just in Church services and functions.
Case Study:
Mark Driscoll who pastors, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington has successfully implemented the Missional-Incarnational strategy. He has taken a hand full of people in the least churched city of America to over 5,000 in attendance by emphasizing a missional approach opposed to the traditional.

Incarnational vs. Attractional
The traditional strategy the Church has duplicated for the last 17 centuries is the Attractional Church. Alan Hirsch describes it by saying, “The church bids people to come and hear the Gospel in the holy confines of the church and community.” Attractional churches operate as if they have a monopoly on God. A core assumption, Alan Hirsch states, is “that the Attractional Church is based upon—the assumption that God cannot really be accessed outside the sanctioned church meetings.” On the other hand, the Incarnational Church adopts a Go-To-Them, rather than a Come-To-Us approach. The Incarnational Church is a sending church. The goal is not only to get people into the church, but to get the people of the church into the world. The Incarnational Church does not focus on church growth as much as personal growth. If Christ-followers grow personally, then the not-yet-Christians at their work places, in the grocery stores and cafes will encounter a real life embodiment of the person of Jesus. Just as God infiltrated the world in the form of a human, so should Christ-followers infiltrate the part of the world God has designed and called them to be incarnational.

Case Study:
The mission of the Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon is “to take the Whole Gospel to the Whole Person to the Whole World, equipping people to become mature in Christ.” This church has adopted the incarnational approach to ministry by equipping “followers of Christ to operate as his hands in the world by virtue of bringing the healing touch of Christ in the name of Christ.”

Culturally Relevant vs. Biblically Relevant
Most recently, churches have built a reputation for being seeker-sensitive in their weekend services. Their services have been watered down, the worship is over amplified and as Billy Hybel’s confessed, most attendees are just attendees, not fully devoted followers of Christ. Instead of attracting seekers to Church services with culturally relevant sermon series,’ churches should use their services to equip Christ-followers to be attractive to seekers. The Biblically relevant service trains, equips, and restores Christ-followers to be incarnational in the part of Kingdom, God has called them to. This service welcomes all, but is primarily geared to equip the saints for works of service. The lifestyle of each Christ-follower becomes a living animated church service that incarnates wherever they go.

Case Study:
Dr. Rob Rhoden is the lead pastor of Commonwealth Chapel in Richmond, Virginia. In his venture to revitalize a church, he shifted from a centralized service to a de-centralized. His primary purpose for weekend services is to train and equip his church to be evangelistic and incarnational. Since his church has embraced this approach to ministry, they have become a pillar in their community.

These three shifts will not just revitalize the evangelistic arm of the Church, but will empower Christ-followers to be part of the restoration of Creation. When the missional church partners with God’s mission to restore the whole of Creation, the emphasis on evangelism becomes secondary to the restoration of God’s image in each Christ-follower. The churches that becomes Incarnational, rather than Attractional, empowers Christ-followers to be responsible for the communities they live in, the places they work in and families they raise, not just the churches they attend. The shift from culturally relevant to biblically relevant services will equip Christ-followers with the tools and training to be a fully reflected image of God in the corner of the Kingdom of God, they have been called to. When the ultimate goal of following Christ is not how many times you lead somebody in the salvation prayer, but how close you can look like Jesus, then each Christ-follower will purposefully live out their faith in every arena of life, not just in their churches.

BREAKING NEWS

Garden City Church Plant Update

We have been a homeless church and now we have a home. It is a school building, we were recently approved to lease. WOW! It is fun to watch a vision come to life. You might think having a church portable church is weird, but it is actually patterned after a Biblical model found in the Old Testament. God's presence dwelled in the Tabernacle, which is just like a portable church. It was a portable temple. For you info, a temple is just a place where God dwells. The Old Testament word is borrowed from the Summerians who defined a temple as a big house. When God moved to a new location, the Israelites tore down and then would set up again where God wished. Basically, the same principle applies in the portable church world. We believe God has called us to this school and we will set up and tear down every week. We do think there are great benefits of having a church building, but for this season, we are called to be portable.

Garden City Church Plant Update

Today, the lead pastor and I, got together at our office, STARBUCKS! You might call it a café but church planters call it their office!! We reviewed information for connecting Christ-followers to God's mission: "To lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ." That is both God's mission and our mission at Garden City Church. The material we are most likely going to use is called, "Discovering Your S.H.A.P.E" SHAPE is an acronym that stands for Spiritual gifts, Heart (passions), Abilities, Personality and Experience. Our goal as pastors and leaders of Garden City Church is NOT to do all the ministry, but to equip every Christ follower to partner in God's mission as incarnate ministers in the very place God has placed them. Wherever that may be, the office, the café, the class room, or the grocery store, we believe that training people to be fully human as God intended from the beginning of creation is the goal of life. I ask myself, when people look at me do they see Jesus? Have you ever asked yourself that question?

Sexual Cosmos

I have a passion for writing that is as strong as my passion for teaching and pastoring. Out of all the things I want to do, becoming an author is the one thing I am the most unsure how it is going to workout. I think today might be the beginning of a journey to publishing our first book. The subject is SEX. The book looks at SEX through the lens of the Bible, not TV, movies and music. Think for a second, where did you learn about sex? Would you trust that source to your kids or friends? If you are normal then probably not. God created sex with order in mind, not chaos. I will keep you updated as todays lead progresses!

Church Plant Update

We nailed down one of the most important systems a church of small groups must implement: (1) the Small Group Model (the 4 W's: Welcome, Worship, Word, and Works) (2) the Training Manual and (3) the Training Process (6 training sessions 2 hours long).

Now for the real exciting stuff! Instead of having a monthly leadership meeting, we thought of having it every two or so months. We beleive "less is more." We want to run this meeting like a mini-seminar style with two sessions: a general main session and multiple specific break out sessions.

What will we do! We will cast and recast vision for the church and small group ministry, teach a new skill to the whole group and then address specific needs in break out sessions. Instead of overlooking, specific needs of church leadership, we have created a system to touch on them as well as the more general needs. We are still thinking of creative ways to have fun as leaders and off course there will be food and COFFEE. Hopefully, Starbucks!

Valentine's Day Traditions

If you are married and want to stay married or ever want to be married, you must not forget today. It is a couple's HOLY-DAY! I know this because my wife would KILL me, if I commited such a sin. The 11th Commandment: Thou Shall Not Forget Valentines Day. Today, we continue our 4 year and counting tradition at the CHEESECAKE FACTORY! Then we are renting Tyler Perry's: Why did I get married? Great Combo!!

The Great Divorce

I am blogging an essay I just wrote for a "Church and Culture" class. We were asked the question, "Why sociologically do we need the Church?" What do you think?

"The Great Divorce"

Family First!

Is family more important than Church? Fact is, God created, Adam and Eve, the first family system before He created the Church. One of the primary purposes of the Church is to restore the family, not the family, restore the Church. Fact is Adam and Eve’s sin resulted, not in a church split, but in a family crisis. The relationship Adam had with Eve before they failed in their home, the Garden of Eden, was untouched by the consequences of sin and embedded in their relationship with God. Their sin did not destroy the Church, but divorced God from the family system. The conception of the Church was to combat this “Great Divorce.” The Church exists not to restore itself, but to restore the family system to the state it was pre-Fall, God-Centered.

Church Second!

The driving force of society is not the local church, but the family. Society is shaped and defined faster by what happens in individual homes than local churches. A shift must be made in how the Church approaches ministry, from “Healthy Churches Equal Healthy Families, to “Healthy Families Equal Healthy Churches.” Instead of looking to see revival in local churches, a greater impact would be made if revival was sought after in the local homes. The Church is an institution of family restoration. The fallen state of our society can only experience order to the degree families (as well as individuals) are restored to God’s original creative design set in motion in Genesis 1-2.

The Church exists to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Whole family, not only individual discipleship is core to the restoration of our society. The Church must shift to a family systems approach of discipleship where each person in the family is part of the process. Instead of placing each member of a family into separate classes, the Church must keep them together. Family continuity that was lost in Adam’s fall into sin must be restored through collective times of meaningful worship, practical Biblical teaching and training, community fellowship and service. The Church must lead the whole families, not just individuals to become fully devoted followers of Christ. When God remarries the family, society will function as God intends.

Case & Point!

First Assembly of God Church in Phoenix, Arizona led by Tommy Barnet started to restore marriages and families in a city that had a 79% divorce rate. The church was full of dysfunctional families, unsatisfied marriages and divorce victims. Beginning with a simple Sunday school class that focused on marriage with only 4 couples almost 20 years later they have virtually eliminated divorce in their church. The church has grown to over 26,000 people who call it home, the youth of the city have become so attracted to the healthy families in the church they had to build a 1,000 seat auditorium for them, the church has been instrumental in establishing covenant marriage law in 3 states and pioneered, N.A.M.E., a lay counseling center that is used in churches all over the world. The hope of the world is not as much the local church, as Bill Hybels’ believes, but the restoration of God-centered families!

Live Blog

I have a couple minutes before we begin day two of the Oasis Marriage Conference here in Cap-Cod, MA. Yesterday, the speaker spoke on "Making the Cut." He talked about two kinds of marriages. The first is the Contract, which is "An agreement between two or more parties; especially one that is written and enforceable by law." This kind of marriage is the result of a contract crazy culture. This kind of marriage is built on conditions. If you don't keep your end of the bargain, then the other party presses the eject button and both spouses either divorce or leave emotionally from their marriage, so either way you look at it 70% of marriages do that exact thing, but there is hope. The other kind of marriage, the Covenant Marriage, God designed is this: "An unchangeable, divinely initiated blood bond of life and death." In this kind of marriage, YOU OWE (Your Spouse) ME. . . NOTHING, where as in the contract marriage, YOU OWN (Your Spouse)! Do you see the difference? Covenant is unconditional. It does not matter if you or your spouse has a bad day for a week straight, you are in a covenant relationship before God. Instead of pressing the eject button when things are tough, in covenant marriages, you run to the person, and shower them with unconditional love and respect because that person has committed to follow you. Covenant marriages are Heaven on Earth!

Marriage Enrichment

My wife and I are gearing up for a week-end get away. It is not exactly a vacation. It's more like an oil change!! One of our marriage goals each year is to attend at least one professional marriage enrichment event. Where we can learn some new tools on how to strengthen our marriage. The truth is, if you leave anything alone, like a marriage, it will never get better but increasingly worse. Everything moves in one of two directions back to chaos or forward to harmony. It is the story of God's creation and any relationship. We believe that "if you want your marriage to work then you have to work on your marriage" (Jimmy Evans). We commend this conference to anyone. It is hosted by Home Improvement Ministries. Check them out @ http://www.himweb.org/

"I Married a Teen Challenge Graduate."

I thought I would blog this essay my wife wrote that is getting published in a book this June /2008. It is to commenerate Teen Challenge's 40th year changing lives. 50 wives of Teen Challenge grads are writing their stories since they met the most wonderful people in the world, TEEN CHALLENGE grads!!!!!!!!!! Like myself!!!!!!!!! If you don't know much about OUR story, here are some of the highlights!

“Mom I met someone, he’s a Teen Challenge graduate.” These were the first words my mom heard as I called her from my first semester in Bible College at Valley Forge Christian College in Pennsylvania. We knew Teen Challenge well for my uncle had gone to it, and I had heard about it from my church, and yet, I never imagined I would begin dating someone from Teen Challenge. I grew up in a Christian home in Northern Virginia. I was able to go to a Christian school for most of my elementary and high school years. I was always involved in church and sports along with playing the violin. During my time in high school I felt called to help others. Although I did not know all the details I knew I wanted to be a counselor. I went to Valley Forge Christian College in Fall of 2003, to pursue a Psychology degree. My first week at school I met someone, Jess, who happened to be a Teen Challenge graduate. Although we came from such different backgrounds I was drawn to his passion for God, and his drive to become a pastor.

We began dating that first semester of college. I will never forget our fast “date”. We went to the mall. The first store we went into was a jewelry store. Without me knowing, Jess hit the counter and said, “We’re getting engaged, can you show us the biggest diamond ring in the store!” I could not believe my ears. I thought to myself, “What in the world is he doing?” So I went along with it. We tried a whole bunch of rings on that day. Of course, he was joking, but if I knew he was going to take so long to really ask me, I may have taken him up on his offer. I remember our first time going home to visit my family in Virginia. On our trip, Jess shared the many stories of his past, drug deals, shoplifting, and his upbringing. I told him “I can’t believe this happens on this side of the country!” Little did I know, there were more stories to come. I was amazed that this man that was so on fire for God had done so many sinful things. But for the first time, I saw first hand the amazing power of God to transform a life. Of course growing up in the church you see lives transformed, but this was someone up close, someone who I saw his personal life and knew he was honest. I remember those first few months of us dating and me meeting all of his friends which were either recovered drug addicts or current ones and thinking what have I gotten myself into?

Although over the years I have seen many of his friends who staid in their sinful lifestyle surrender their life to Christ due to Jess’ commitment to stay close to them.Finally, after two and a half years of dating, Jess proposed to me on my birthday. From the time we were engaged we made a commitment that marriage would be a priority in our lives, first God, but then family. We married June 24, 2006 and continued in Bible College to finish our senior year. We read as many books as we could on marriage and attended numerous marriage seminars. Through these experiences together we both felt called to minister to families and marriages. We found that people with healthy marriages equal healthy people and healthy churches.During our first year of marriage in order to give back to Teen Challenge, we developed a relationships seminar in order to teach men and women in Teen Challenge how to have healthy relationships. This is one of the hobbies we enjoy doing most together and we find great fulfillment when we know we are giving back to a place that we are indebted to. Upon graduation, we knew we needed to go to seminary in order to be well equipped for our callings. We continued our education at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in northern Massachusetts, where Jess is currently working on a New Testament and Biblical Languages Degree, and I am working on a Mental Health and Marriage and Family degree. Upon graduation, we plan to continue with the marriage seminars in Teen Challenge as well as in churches. I plan to get my Marriage and Family license in order to counsel couples, while Jess plans to plant a church with the Assemblies of God and teach at a Bible college.

Numerous times I have wondered what would Jess’ and my life be like without the faithful people who have passed on the Teen Challenge legacy? I probably would have never met Jess, and Jess may still be addicted to drugs today, if not dead. The legacy of Teen Challenge lives on in our family because of the great sacrifices that were made by countless people for individuals like my husband. I want to close with a story that has impacted my life and my hope and prayer is that it does the same for you. In the 1988 Olympic games that were hosted in Seoul, Korea. The American 4x100 relay team posed to break the world record and assume its position as the best in the world. As the final leg of the race approached, the unthinkable happened. THE AMERICANS DROPPED THE BATON. In an instant, the race was over. The crowd was left in stunned silence. The American team had arrogantly relied on their inherent speed and failed to sufficiently practice the handoff that was so crucial for the completion of the race. Every Teen Challenge graduate and wife of a Teen Challenge graduate must see themselves as the link to the next generation. It is our job to make sure we continue to practice and make the handoff to the coming generations who are in need of the ministry of Teen Challenge.

Is Culture Dead?

I thought I would blog this essay, I wrote about the spiritual climate of our culture today. From the looks of it, we are in bad shape. We need a tune up or we are going to blow our spiritual engine soon, if it is not completely blown already!

A question was printed on the cover of Time Magazine on April 8, 1966 that read, “Is God dead?” Time Magazine did a cover story on “The ‘God is Dead’ Movement.” Their spokesperson said, “God has died in our time, in our history, in our existence.” Certainly, God did not die, but over the last 40 years many have tried to remove any evidence of His existence. Evolution has replaced the Biblical position of creation, prayer has been removed from public schools and “Jesus” has become a politically incorrect word in the American vocabulary. Instead of playing offense, evangelicals have taken a defensive position. We are better known for what we are against, then what we are for. We built our own schools, opened up seminaries and started our own publishing houses and magazines. Each institution established put a nail in God’s cultural coffin. Instead of serving our culture, we institutionalized God and built a structure around serving ourselves. Although God is alive and well in many evangelical churches across America today, He is dead to the main stream culture.

The main stream culture has been abandoned by a Church that has turned selfishly inward. In order for the church to move the dial to a culturally renewing station, before we reach out, we must look for renewal within. There might not be any culturally renewal companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange floor, but God is in the renewal business and in God’s economy no institution or person is ever beyond hope of renewal. Jonathon Edwards, the greatest theologian in American history discovered that institutional renewal has three ingredients: repentance, study and obedience to the Bible, and believing prayer. If evangelicals dedicate themselves to these very things no matter how long it takes, the soil for a second resurrection of God will be fertile. If the evangelical church turns inward to find renewal, then they will be ready to reach out to a culture that God is dead too.

In a time, when the culture was centered on God, Jesus launched a ministry that was destined to chance the course of history so His confused disciples asked, “Who is the greatest among us?” His disciples were focused on external fame and neglected the cultural dynamics of this new up and coming Kingdom. Jesus’ plan to change the world did not include incorporating and insuring his original staff, the 12 disciples. He settled their anxieties that day by assuming the position of a slave. The CEO and founder of this new kingdom culture instituted a washing feet, company policy. His strategy was simple: ALWAYS LOOK TO SERVE, NOT TO BE SERVED. Jesus’ plan to integrate and transform the existing culture, began with a speech He gave on His knees. If on His knees Jesus could gain the support of His 12 unfaithful disciples who led an international movement that transformed history, it is a great place to start for evangelicals today. Instead of fighting for positions or blaming this person or that institution, each person in the evangelical church must get down on their knees and wash the feet of whomever, whenever and however. It does not matter, if the person whose feet you wash happen to be a democrat, Atheist or homosexual. Always look to serve, not to be served.

First Day!

I made it, through my first day. Hopefully, you weren't worried!!!!!!!! I had my first Intermediate Greek 2 class at Harvard Divinity School, today. She gave us lots and lots of work. I am excited about the reading assignments. She is an expert in Early Christianity texts which are all the writings that were taking place after Jesus died and Peter began the church. Exciting stuff, well at least I think so!!! It is a miracle though as I think of were I was a couple years, sitting in a jail cell in Union County jail. Just walking on the school's property gave me the chills, reflecting on where I was and how far God brought me, but what gave me the chills was where HE can bring me from here!!!! "And to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think by the power (God's spirit) that is at work in us," the apostle Paul said.