Helping Churches Make Vision Real

depraved indifference

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

I don’t normally post midweek…or post very many videos for that matter, and this may break all of the “blogging rules.” But after seeing this today, it wrecked me…and I was compelled to share it with you, so this is just a quick rant that I had to get off my chest. After recently reading books like Crazy Love, by Francis Chan and Radical, by David Platt. After leading hundreds of people on mission trips, all over the world. After seeing the faces of the least of these in places like Indonesia, Singapore, the Czech Republic, Kenya, South Africa, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, and Mexico…not to mention my neighborhood. After hearing the Words of Christ. I feel completely overwhelmed by the daunting task of leading a suburban mega-church to missionally live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In a culture that craves comfort, that lusts after self-indulgence, that seems to have been inoculated to the Gospel through commonplace familiarity. I’m haunted by the fact that the hands and feet of Jesus Christ are preoccupied with themselves. And I desperately long to see the day when the high potential sleeping giant, called the Church of America wakes up, rises up, and takes her place among those who have laid their lives down for the sake of the Gospel. For the least of these.

Posted in Spiritual Formation

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where god does his best work

Monday, January 17, 2011

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them he didn’t do it alone. He did it in the context of perfect relationship with Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Check it out for yourself and you’ll find language like this, “Let us make man in our image.” When God established the nation of Israel you’ll find God saying, “I will be their God, and dwell among them.” In the first chapter of the Gospel of John you find this phrase, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.”

Look through out the Scriptures and you’ll find that God has always done His best work in the context of relationship. And since we’ve been made in His image, like Him, we’re also at our best when we’re living in the context of relational intimacy. We were made for it. We chase after it. But why does it seem that so few people ever actually experience it? Genesis 3:8-10 may speak into this a bit. Adam and Eve have just sinned for the first time ever in the history of man kind, and this is what happens next:

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” Genesis 3:8-10

Think about it for a moment. Before this moment man had never been afraid of God before, man had never run from God before, and man had never hid from God before. But ever since this moment we’ve been running from God, and from one another. It creates this awful internal conflict inside of us, because the very thing we long for is the very thing we run from.

So, a simple idea, and a simple question…if God does His best work in the context of relationship, are you missing out on God’s best work in you?

Here’s a short video that may get you thinking a little more about it…

Posted in Spiritual Formation

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a biblical commitment demands cultural relevance

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Much has been said and written in recent years, offering up all kinds of criticism of modern day Churches for trading off adherence to the Gospel of Jesus Christ for contemporary methods of communicating it. Interestingly enough the overwhelming majority of this criticism comes by way of other Churches. Typically it comes from Churches that are not growing criticizing Churches that are growing. After all, if a Church is growing, they’ve got to be doing something wrong don’t they?

I have a tendency to go the other way on this one. In fact, I’d go so far as to say if a Church isn’t working hard to be culturally relevant, it isn’t working hard to remain true to the Scriptures! You can’t be radically committed to the Scriptures without being radically committed to communicating the Scriptures in a culturally relevant manner.

It’s an easy statement to make because God has always communicated his message to people in a culturally relevant manner. Language, the time, place, ethnicity, gender, community, governance, and more has always been taken into consideration as the message of God was communicated to a particular audience. The Apostle Paul, a master missionary, knew this about the heart of God and understood that the Gospel must be contextualized to each specific culture. Check out this 4 step model…

Posted in Leadership

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When is it right to leave a church?

Monday, January 3, 2011

I’ve seen people come and go from churches for all kinds of reason. Most of the time when people leave a church it has more to do with personal preference than it does with a clear biblical directive or “God’s will.” Yet it’s funny how people can sprinkle a little “Jesus dust” on their circumstances or preferences, pull single verse out of context, or poorly apply the Scriptures and turn things that are nonessential into “God’s will.” As if God really has a favorite style of music, teaching style, cares about the times of the services, the color of the carpet, or what the preacher is wearing (as long as it’s not a Speedo). If it’s not a personal preference that’s driving the exodus then it’s usually driven by relationship. Some close friends move away, leave the church, or perhaps their favorite Staff Member moves on and is no longer at the church.

While people leave churches for all kinds of reasons, I believe there are two great reasons to leave a church, but neither should be arrived at lightly.

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

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8 Core competencies of Family Ministries

Monday, December 20, 2010

What does a comprehensive and holistic approach to developing students from birth through late adolescence and the families that influence these students mean to the infrastructure and ministry of the Next Generation Team?

Posted in Family, Leadership, Spiritual Formation