Gratuitous Love

Think about this:

My relationship with God is useless. It cannot be boiled down to functions of healing or well-being. God's purpose is not even to forgive me and be done with me—God looks beyond that to true love, to completely useless relationship.

Kester Brewin, Signs of Emergence, p. 160

In the evangelical church we talk about "having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ." But I don't think most of us have the least idea what that means. I think it means more than having Jesus in our "fave five," as one of our MySpace friends, or as a trusted contact on LinkedIn.

A "relationship" that is purely transactional isn't much of a relationship.

In our fuss to succeed, to get a good grade on the series of tests we think he has proposed, we miss the main point of the affair: that we already are the beloved.

Robert Capon, The Romance of the Word, p. 276

We have more in common with the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son than we do with the younger brother. We are out slaving away in the fields trying to earn our Father's love, when what he wants is for us to come in and join the party.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Goin' Mobile

I finally replaced my old Compaq iPAQ with a Smartphone. Because my wife works for Motorola I was limited to their products. Fortunately, the new Q9m is a big improvement over the original Q.

The battery lasts longer, the keyboard is easier to use.

I added Verizon's data plan to our Family Talk plan for a surprisingly reasonable price.

I replaced my PDA and phone with one device that is not much bigger than my phone that also has Internet access.

This is the first message that I've tried to post from the Q. I suspect that the formatting will not look the same. We'll see how it goes.

Pastor Rod

Straight Talk on Evangelism

Michael Spencer has some interesting comments about evangelism from a missional perspective. Here are a few that resonate with me.

When a large church pastor starts lecturing small churches about their lack of evangelism, you should change the channel, because the guy is mainly being a jerk toward a lot of faithful ministers and Christians in more difficult situations.

How many faithful, talented, sacrificial church planters and pastors find they can't go on? And some places are just hard. Where did we get the idea that every community can have a great church if church planter Bob will just do the right things?

Small churches have a tough time seeing converts. So does any church these days. We aren't in a time when people are joining Christianity. We're in a time when tens of millions are walking away from it. We're in a time when thousands of Christians are going from this church to that. The faithful pastor may be seeing converts or not. You're going to have to look deeper.

God builds the church and God counts the fruit.

Then K.W. Leslie makes the following comment:

This all goes back to the fact that pastors and evangelists are seeking a worldly model of success rather than a Kingdom model: They're looking at numbers, size, and influence. They're not looking at Jesus.

If they asked Him what He wanted in their ministry, they'd be a success in His eyes, but they don't want that—they want numbers, size, and influence. Supposedly once you have that, you can further the Kingdom, even though Jesus told us to seek the Kingdom first, and then you get the other things.

Amen.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

A Taste of the Slow Life

Traffic in Italy may be hectic, but most other parts of Italian life are much more laid back. And one of the most relaxed aspects is eating.

Preparing and consuming food is an art.

It is no coincidence that Italy is the home of the Slow Food Movement.

We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods.
To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid himself of speed before it reduces him to a species in danger of extinction.
A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life.
May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency.
Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food.
Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food.
In the name of productivity, Fast Life has changed our way of being and threatens our environment and our landscapes. So Slow Food is now the only truly progressive answer.
That is what real culture is all about: developing taste rather than demeaning it.

Slow food is a way of life in Italy.

Most people (in Termini Imerese at least) eat lunch at home. About 1:00 in the afternoon, shops close, schools let out and business executives head home.

The traditional meal begins with pasta. After that is finished and the plates are cleared, the meat course is served. This is often accompanied by a simple salad made with lettuce, oil, lemon and salt. The final course is fresh fruit.

On special occasions, the process is even more elaborate and deliberate.

I enjoyed such an experience one Sunday at a family celebration. The table was set up outside on a patio. Antipasti were set out about 12:30. We stood around chatting and snacking on olives, nuts and cheese.

About a half hour later we took our places around the table and were served bow-tie pasta with freshly-grated parmesan cheese.

The empty plates were taken away. And the table was loaded with various meat and vegetable dishes: roast beef, sausage, eggplant, spinach, baked pastry made with cheese and spinach, involtini, potatoes and carrots.

We leisurely sampled all the dishes until we were fully satisfied.

The tabled was deliberately cleared.

Then fresh strawberries were served.

We sat and talked for about half an hour.

Then at about 3:30, a couple of cassatas were brought out along with other dolce.

The conversation continued for quite a while longer.

Here's an example of the relaxed atmosphere: As we were talking, the wind blew a plastic cup onto the ground. No one moved. In fact, everyone continued on as if it hadn't happened. I had to resist the urge to reach down and pick up the cup. Finally, several minutes later, I picked it up and put it back on the table, without a pause in the conversation or even a glance from anyone.

Of course, this was a special occasion. Every meal is not this deliberate. But the regular pranzo (lunch) is usually followed by riposo (a nap).

May we all learn to slow down and enjoy all the blessings of God's creation.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Outta My Way!

Imagine a city of 30,000 people without a single traffic light.

Termini Imerese, Italy, is such a place. (I'm here teaching English as a second language.)

You might think that this is because everyone walks everywhere and uses public transportation. But this hilly Sicilian town has as many cars per capita as any American town. And when you add in all the scooters, there is just about one vehicle for every person over the age of 14.

So how do they manage with thousands of vehicles and no trafic lights?

Life on the streets of Termini is a constant game of "chicken."

They do have stop signs. And they look exactly like the ones in the USA. But I think "STOP" translates into Italian something like "Slow down slightly and just keep going."

Every intersection becomes a contest of wills.

The strategy seems to be to startle the driver of an approaching car so that he taps the brake which gives you just enough room to nose out into the street. And then you take your time crossing or turning into the oncoming traffic.

The goal does not seem to be to keep the vehicles flowing smoothly, nor does it seem to be to arrive at your destination as quickly as possible. The goal seems to be to impose your will on the others.

For example, say you want to make a left turn and two cars are coming toward you with a large gap behind the second car. Efficiency would dictate that you wait for the second car to pass and then turn. But the Italian driver invariably cuts off the second car and waits for it to come to a complete stop. Only then does the driver make a deliberate left turn.

Liberal use is made of the horn, but not in the way it is used in New York City.

Only occasionally is the horn used to say, "What were you thinking?" Usually it means, "Attenzione! I'm coming through."

This game is not only for cars. Scooters and pedestrians can play as well.

Scooters weave in and out of traffic and obey the rules of the road even less than cars. Pedestrians step out into traffic and leisurely stroll to the other side of the street.

The fun continues on the sidewalk. People walk straight at each other expecting the other person to give way. A favorite maneuver is "two against one." Two people walk side-by-side on the narrow walk, preferably arm-in-arm. The single person is then forced to step aside into the street.

The point of all this seems to be to establish who is more important.

In America we play this game in less obvious ways.

Pastor Rod

Breasts Are Growing

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Americans spent $12.4 billion on plastic surgery in 2007, up 9% from 2006.

The number of procedures increased as well. Nearly 12 million were performed in 2007. That's up 7% from 2006 and up 59% from 2000.

The most popular surgical procedure was breast augmentation with 348,000 performed in 2007, up 6% from 2006. This is a 97% increase from 2000.

"The report tells me Americans are devoted to looking and feeling their best," said Richard A. D'Amico, MD, ASPS president.

It tells me something considerably different.

And the popularity of breast implants is growing among teens. According to ABoardCertifiedPlasticSurgeonResource.com:

The number of women under the age of 18 who underwent teen breast implants surgery more than tripled between 1992 and 2002. In 2002 alone 3,095 girls underwent a teen breast implants procedure, compared to 3,841 girls in 2003 who received teen breast implants. This is 24 percent increase in the number of girls who seek teen breast implants.

There are several perspectives from which to respond to this trend. One of them is cultural.

We live in a society that is obsessed with sex and with appearance.

But this is not unique to North America.

According to a report by Reuters, girls in Venezuela are receiving breast implants for their 15th birthdays.

In Europe, ABC News reports that girls can now play an online game where they try to turn their avatar into "the most famous, beautiful, sought-after bimbo across the globe." They send their "bimbo" to tanning salons and give them "boob jobs." The UK version has more than 200,000 players after only two months. The French version, started last year, already has 1.2 million users.

Evans said that before now, he'd never considered the possible negative impact that game could have on young teens, and told ABCNews.com that he and his business partner are "looking into" the critics' claims.

Players use "Bimbo Money" to buy diet pills, a gym membership or an apartment. They can acquire the currency by playing games such as Sudoku or by sending a $3 text message.

And this pressure is not only experienced by women. Men are bombarded with spam telling them that their worth is determined by the size of their genitals.

But the real issue here is spiritual.

We are desperately searching for meaning and significance.

We tell ourselves that we would be happy if only…

• We earned more money
  
• We looked better
  
• We had the latest fashions
  
• We could "hook up" with some hot person
  
• We lived in a bigger house
  
• We were more popular
  
• We reduced our golf handicap
  
• We could improve our Technorati ranking
  
• We could win the lottery
  
• We could look younger
  
• We could lose weight
  

But, of course, none of these can supply what's lacking.

This is not a new thing. The prophet Isaiah addressed this a few thousand years ago:

Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live (Is 55:1-3).

Most Christians read passages like this and think it is talking about getting signed up for heaven.

The sad truth is that most of us Christians do not experience significantly more joy, peace or contentment in our lives than those who do not claim to trust in God. This is because we are chasing after the same things as everyone else.

We really don't believe that God can be trusted to provide for our happiness.

We know that we have to depend upon God's grace. And we know that we have to trust him for the big stuff. But we aren't "foolish" enough to eliminate our other options.

Of course, we would never deny God or turn our backs on him. He's an "ever present help in time of trouble." He makes an excellent safety net.

But we still spend our "money on what is not bread." And we invest our "labor on what does not satisfy." We just try not to let it get out of control.

All things in moderation—and that includes our trust in God.

We've dismissed Jesus' words as impractical:

Do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Mt 6:31-33).

We live by the principle that God helps those who help themselves—and toss him a prayer every once in a while.

• What would happen if we took Jesus seriously?
  
• What would happen if we really trusted God and not just talked about it and sang about it?
  
• What would happen if we ever finally understood what grace is?
  

Let's set our sights a little higher. What if we started operating our churches as if we could really trust God?

Nah. That'll never work.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

No Time for Losers

I doubt that Queen's "We Are the Champions" has been included in any church hymnals, but this philosophy has found its way into much of Christianity.

I consider it a challenge before the whole human race—
And I ain't gonna lose—

We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting, till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the world

Brant Hansen has put his finger on this sore spot within the church with his insightful sarcasm.

There's no getting around it: God is a winner. Therefore, to be a Godly man, you have to win...at everything.

Winners win on the field, and in the pulpit. They can't stop winning. Everytime they turn around, they win.

God wins, and I didn't get into ministry to lose. Did you get into ministry to lose? Did you go to seminary and announce in chapel, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm here to lose at ministry, because I'm a big loser"?

Jesus wasn't some namby-pamby guy like in those movies...as if Jesus [w]as some guy who walked around, hung out with a bunch of losers, and just stood there while people beat him up.

Scholars, including Dr. Josh McDowell and Dr. Joe Weider, believe Jesus could probably bench 300 more than 20 times, and squat 700 plus. Some "pansy", huh? Yeah, right! Jesus was pumped. Scholars agree, he was like Mr. T, except white.

But the truth is that Jesus had plenty of time for losers.

This is one of the things that got him into trouble with the establishment. Jesus would hang out with the losers. And from most every perspective, Jesus was a loser himself.

By definition, anyone crucified on a Roman cross is a loser.

Of course, that is not the end of the matter. On Sunday morning the tomb was empty. Jesus overcame death, Satan and sin. But this victory was not accomplished by some comic-book-hero scenario. It was won through defeat. Jesus won by losing.

The church he established was not for winners. It was composed of losers and made to rescue the losers of the world.

Jesus has plenty of time for losers, like you and me.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Keller Has Doubts

Here are some videos of Tim Keller (HT: Justin Buzzard) talking about the subject of his new book, The Reason for God.

The first one is from Keller's talk at Google, yes Google.

The next two are from his presentation at Stanford:

[For some reason I cannot get Google videos to embed properly on Blogger (a Google product), so I'm posting the links instead.]

Presentation

Q & A

The fourth one is a Veritas event at UC Berkley.

What does the title mean? You'll have to watch the videos or read the book to find out.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

It’s Not My Job

When we hear the statement, "It's not my job," we assume that someone is shirking responsibility. Someone like the road stripper who left this evidence (HT: TonyRogers.com).

But I've found that "It's not my job," can be a helpful response for a pastor.

I'm not talking about taking out the trash, shoveling the walk or sweeping the floor. Jesus showed by his example that no one should consider himself "above" menial tasks.

There are many things that pastors wrongly take responsibility for. Sometimes this happens because they have a messiah complex. Sometimes this happens because they want to please people. Sometimes this happens because they are strangers to grace.

Here's a list of things that I've finally realized are not my responsibility.

• It's not my job to make my church grow. All I can do is to be faithful in the charge that God has given me. When I start trying to make my church grow, I forget that only God can produce lasting growth. Just using the phrase "my church" can be dangerous.


• It's not my job to rescue people. I can care for people. I can give them assistance. I can listen to their stories. But I do not have the power to fix what is wrong with them. (I don't have the power to fix what is wrong with me.) When I try to rescue others, we are both likely to drown.
  
• It's not my job to convert people. Jesus commissioned his disciples to make disciples. We generally reduce that to getting people signed up for heaven. With this mindset, we start setting goals, quotas and sales projections. Before we know it, we are giving people the hard sell, for their own good of course. But I cannot save anyone. I cannot even convince them that they need to be saved. All I can do is proclaim the good news and show them what a life lived by grace looks like.
  
• It's not my job to collect power and wealth. We have so westernized Jesus Christ that we've completely forgotten that he was poor and apparently powerless. It's hard to make the connection between this meek itinerate teacher and the modern business ventures that use his name.
  
• It's not my job to plan out the future. We're all familiar with the business mantra: To fail to plan is to plan to fail. We've been taught to create the future with our goals and plans. We certainly need to be prepared for the future. But we cannot make it conform to our plans any more than we can program a child to turn out exactly the way we think is ideal. We can't even predict the future with any degree of certainty. Why do we think we can shape it to our specifications?
  
• It's not my job to secure my own significance. I am not significant because of what I've done or what I'm doing. I'm not significant because of who I know. I'm not significant because of who knows me. I am not significant because of how many people hear me preach or read my blog. I'm not significant because of what I've done for God. I'm significant because God loves me just the way I am. Who I am in Jesus Christ is enough. I have nothing to prove. It's because of the gift of God's grace that I am free to serve him, free to indulge the skills, time and opportunity he has given me.
  
• It's not my job to motivate people. I've wasted too much of my life trying to convince people to serve God in the way I've decided they should serve. All the while, God was working in and through people all around me. I'm done trying to change people's values. I'm done trying to get them to march to my agenda. Instead, I seek to help those who are already serving God and who want to serve him more effectively. I invite those who want to serve God but don't know how to start. I encourage those through whom God is already accomplishing his will.
  
• It's not my job to bring God's kingdom to fulfillment. Unfortunately, I've too often acted as if it was.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

This Is What I’m Talking About

I posted two diagrams of models that people use to think about how things get done in the Kingdom of God (Fool-Proof Scientific Church Management & An Alternative Model).

Brant Hansen makes a similar point in his own patented manner.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

The Busy Pastor

The adjective busy set as a modifier to pastor should sound to our ears like adulterous to characterize a wife or embezzling to describe a banker. It is an outrageous scandal, a blasphemous affront…. [It is] a blasphemous anxiety to do God's work for him.
I am busy because I am vain. I want to appear important. Significant. What better way than to be busy? The incredible hours, the crowded schedule, and the heavy demands on my time are proof to myself — and to all who will notice — that I am important.
How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am in perpetual motion? How can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to juggle my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place?

Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor

It takes courage to avoid the performance trap. It also takes faith, faith that God will accomplish his purpose.

If we pastors are proclaiming grace, shouldn't we also be demonstrating it by the way we live?

So what should a pastor do with all this extra time?

One important role of a pastor is to listen:

Pastoral listening requires unhurried leisure, even if it's only for five minutes. Leisure is a quality of spirit, not a quantity of time. Only in that ambiance of leisure do persons know they are listened to with absolute seriousness, treated with dignity and importance. Speaking to people does not have the same personal intensity as listening to them. The question I put to myself is not "How many people have you spoken to about Christ this week?" but "How many people have you listened to in Christ this week?" The number of persons listened to must necessarily be less than the number spoken to. Listening to a story always takes more time than delivering a message, so I must discard my compulsion to count, to compile the statistics that will justify my existence. I can't listen if I'm busy. When my schedule is crowded, I'm not free to listen: I have to keep my next appointment; I have to get to the next meeting.

Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor

If you are a pastor, stop acting as if you are indispensible. If you are a parishioner, free your pastor from your own and others' unrealistic expectations. Let's all learn how to live a grace-filled life.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Unhealthy Numbers

From the physician's point of view, the patient was reduced to a bunch of numbers. Moreover, the numbers were not organized by symptoms or diagnoses: they were organized by what tests were run and which laboratory within the hospital had processed the results. The patient's history — the record of past events and healthcare — was in a different location than current test results. Current results were in a different place than past results. Different hospitals might have different laboratories, so their results would be organized differently. But the attending and resident physicians and nurses were experts at piecing together a mental model of the state of the patient from all these numbers. Or so they said: evidence is difficult to come by.

Don Norman describes his experience observing hospitals in "A Fetish for Numbers: Hospital Care."

Of course, the reason for all these numbers is to improve patient care. Yet the result seems to be quite different:

There were so many medical devices, so many readouts and displays, that I could not even see the patient until someone walked over and pointed. Now this was an infant ward, so this particular patient was tiny, but even so this is a good illustration of modern medicine: From the point of view of the physicians, the patient is a set of test results and numerical readouts. The patient as a person tends to be forgotten (emphasis added).

In another hospital, Norman observed the following incident:

The attending physician would stand outside of the patient's door and listen to the review of the test results by all the residents. They would then discuss the results and make further recommendations. Then, as we all left to go to the next doorway and the next patient, the attending physician would knock on the open door, stick his head in and say, "How are you doing today, Mr. Forbes?" That was the extent of patient interaction.

With all this focus on numbers, the patient gets lost.

Scientists measure what they can measure and pronounce the rest to be unimportant. But the most important parts of life are qualitative. One of the physicians on my study team told us that it can take as long as 20 minutes to fill out all the required forms while she is in front of the patient, yet she is only allowed 15 minutes to attend to each patient.

It takes more time to fill out forms than she is allowed for each patient. There is no time left for real patient interaction.

Obviously, health care requires the collection and organization of numbers. But even so, more numbers do not equate to better care. If this is true in the hospital, how much more must it be true in the church?

Doug Jacoby addresses the number fetish in the church:

Have you ever noticed policemen on the highways out in force during the last couple of days of the month? Like state troopers and salesmen at month end, many, many of our ministers are more "urgent," "care more" about the lost, and strive harder to "make their goals" as the calendar month draws to an end. I believe that many of our leaders sense this, and not a few of the membership at large question motives when we become unusually intense in the final five or ten days of the month. Something about this is very wrong. It's not a Christlike behavior. We are not a corps of salesmen! We are ambassadors of Christ who believe in total disclosure of the truth, who espouse integrity, and who have Jesus as our model and our master.

But some will say, "Keeping statistics on church growth is a biblical principle. Just look at the records recorded in Acts." Take a look at the statements about numbers and "growth" in Luke's account of the early Church:

• In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) (Acts 1:15).
  
• Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day (Acts 2:41).
  
• And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:47).
  
• But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand (Acts 4:4).
  
• More and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number (Acts 5:14).
  
• In those days when the number of disciples was increasing… (Acts 6:1).
  
• So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith (Acts 6:7).
  
• Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord (Acts 9:31).
  
• The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord (Acts 11:21).
  
• [Barnabas] was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord (Acts 11:24).
  
• At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed (Acts 14:1).
  
• They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples (Acts 14:21).
  
• So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers (Acts 16:5).
  
• Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women (Acts 17:4).
  
• Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men (Acts 17:12).
  
• A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others (Acts 17:34).
  

At first, this list seems to provide overwhelming support for the "biblical principle" of statistical analysis.

But a closer look shows something very different.

• Only three verses mention a specific number (1:15, 2:41, 4:4).
  
• Two of those are obviously round numbers (2:41, 4:4).
  
• The other number seems also to be an estimate (1:15).
  
• These are all statements of fact. There is no indication that the Apostles used any sort of accounting system to measure their effectiveness.
  
• This was the very beginning of the Church. It is dangerous to assume that everything that occurred then should be made normative for all churches, everywhere, in all times.
  
• It is anachronistic to think that the Apostles had anything more than a general idea of how many people were in the church at any one time. (In other words, the early versions of Microsoft Excel did not run efficiently on clay tablets and parchment scrolls.)
  
• There is no indication that the Apostles spent time developing a strategic plan, much less that they used statistical analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of such plans.
  

I am not arguing that any use of numbers is wrong. But I am arguing that a focus on numbers can quickly lead to serious problems. A few of these might be

• Assuming that what we do is the determining factor that produces the "results"
  
• Reducing all aspects of ministry to factors that can be measured
  
• Focusing on activities that seem to affect the numbers that are being measured
  
• Neglecting activities that don't seem to directly improve the "stats"
  
• Reducing ministry exclusively to "doing"
  
• Denigrating any ministry that does not show "growth"
  

The parables that Jesus tells in Luke 15 are often cited as evidence that "numbers represent people." However, they could just as easily be understood as a total disregard of "numbers" in favor of individuals who "don't count." Too often, numbers don't represent people as much as they reduce living, breathing, people to cold, hard data.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

An Alternative Model

In a previous post, I presented my depiction of the typical mental model used by most Evangelical church leaders.

Today I offer an alternative model. This model is not perfect or even refined. It is simply a beginning point for discussion. Please let me know if you have any comments, critiques or suggestions for improvement.


Pastor Rod
"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Missional Incarnation

One of the buzz words of the missional movement is Incarnational. As is typical of popular terminology, it often has a fuzzy meaning.

Alan Hirsch helps give some substance to this adjective. Using the model of The Incarnation of the Word made flesh, he describes four characteristics of incarnational ministry:

• Presence: In Jesus the Creator of the universe is fully present to us. Jesus is not an ambassador from God. He is God.
  
• Proximity: Jesus lived in close proximity to those on the margins of society. He scandalized the religious establishment with his hospitability.
  
• Powerlessness: Jesus "emptied himself of all but love." He took the form of a servant. The cross is the ultimate symbol of victory through weakness.
  
• Proclamation: Jesus proclaimed the arrival of the kingdom. He called people to submit to his reign.
  

The church typically has the most difficulty with powerlessness. We all seem to think that we are exceptions to the corrupting influence of power. We act as if the future of the church must be secured by force. Our instincts tell us that we must collect clout and might.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Pretentious Planning

Strategic planning is seen as an essential tool for any enterprise. New business ventures need a business plan before they can attract investors and obtain loans. This same thinking thrives in the church.

Yet this tool is not so benign.

Alan Roxburgh writes:

The work of the Spirit is always greater than our imagined worlds and that God must always be in the process of breaking the boundaries we set up to define and circumscribe the limits of the church and its activities. In this sense God's purposes are often other than those which we establish and embed in our institutions. This is not to criticize or judge these institutions but to suggest there is always a dynamic, eschatological tension in all our organizing and planning. It even suggests that, at least from time to time, the Big Idea we have and around which we align all our resources and strategies as schools can miss what God is about in the world.

But in a time of discontinuous change it is no longer the Big Ideas or experts or the few who are able to make the kinds discernment and decisions about planning and actions that get at the questions of what God is up to in the world. When boundaries begin to shift or frameworks come into question this liminal-type of situation requires the capacity for a whole community to be brought into the conversation about innovation and planning. Without this engagement across the system in a mutually critical dialogue the default to strategic planning methods will generally result in brilliant plans that, in the end, leave the system essentially where it was before the planning began.

I would suggest that when strategic planning is the primary mode of making actions within social systems formed by the narrative of the Gospels that reveal this God then it is inevitable that the other, whether faculty, or the students we form or the local churches we seek to resource, becomes objectified, a means, end or function of something that is other than what God is about in the world.

Part of the problem with strategic planning is the assumption that we can create the future we want by managing our current resources. And those resources, remarkably, include human beings, reducing them to little more than objects that we manipulate to achieve our long-term goals. Even God becomes a "raw material."

This doesn't mean that we just fly by the seat of our pants, though real life often feels this way. We need to prepare for the future. We need to be intentional about what we do and what we choose not to do. But most of all, our job is to discern what God is up to and to be willing to participate in that as opportunities present themselves.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Missional Geography

Alan Roxburgh gives us a Missional Geography lesson:

As I listen to how suburban church leaders speak, I am more and more aware that in their programs for growth and multi-site digitally-fed main speakers they have little sense that geography matters.

The local, the neighborhood, is the place of God's presence and where the Spirit is at work among people.

I am convinced that for Christians to understand how the Biblical narrative enters and participates in the transformation of culture they must grasp that geography is everything! Once we live into the Incarnation we are committed to place, to particularity; space and time are not containers but the reality within which God's transformative grace is worked out.

We are seeking to reclaim the suburbs for the kingdom, not curse them as so many do.

Forget the stars and the gurus; stop hungering after the trendies of the moment; enter the local and the ordinary, listen to what is happening on the ground in your own place and context because this is where God's future is bubbling up. Pay attention to those who actually work on the ground rather then the gurus who try to think great thoughts in heads that are so disconnected from the ordinary places and times where most of us live.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

99 Success Secrets of Jesus

Did you know that "Virtually All Classic Success Literature In One Way Or Another, Copy The Success Secrets Of Jesus!"?*

Now you can learn those secrets for yourself. For only $14.99 plus shipping and handling, you can buy The 99 Success Secrets of Jesus.

"Learning about Jesus from the gospels is a good place to start, but if you really want to unlock the secrets to Jesus' amazing success, you have to look deeper, at the elusive obvious."

But if you buy this book, it will all be made clear for you. You will learn success secrets like these:

• Secret #1 He Knew Who He Was
  
• Secret #3 He Was A Leader
  
• Secret #9 He Was Decisive
  
• Secret #10 He Embraced Paradox
  
• Secret #13 He Freed His Mind
  
• Secret #21 He Was An Expert
  
• Secret #24 He Was Controversial
  
• Secret #31 He Was A Giver
  
• Secret #32 He Was Committed
  
• Secret #49 He Faced His Fear
  
• Secret #55 He Got Attention
  
• Secret #76 He Suffered
  
• Secret #90 He Was Misunderstood
  
• Secret #94 He Created A Brand
  
• Secret #98 He Rose Again
  

I'm not sure how helpful number 98 is. If your regenerative power is not up to snuff, you might not want to count on this one. But with 99 secrets, you should have everything you need for professional and personal success.

So if you are a failure, you have no excuse!

Pastor Rod

*If you are troubled by the bad grammar, maybe you should look a little deeper for some more serious problems, such as bad logic and terrible theology.

Confessions of a Preacher

Lord, I come to you a miserable sinner, a sinner with a pulpit.

I repent for every time I preached something other than the good news of the gospel.

Lord, have mercy.

I repent for every time I made parishioners feel that they needed to try harder to be accepted by you.

Lord, have mercy.

I repent for every time I turned biblical narratives into morality lessons.

Lord, have mercy.

I repent for every time I reduced the gospel to a transaction.

Lord, have mercy.

I repent for every time I believed that everything depended upon my eloquence.

Lord, have mercy.

I repent for every time I focused on the people who didn't come instead of those who did.

Lord, have mercy.

I repent for every time I said, "This is what the Bible says you should do."

Lord, have mercy.

I repent for every time I pretended to have it all together.

Lord, have mercy.

I repent for every time I turned a sermon into a seminary lecture.

Lord, have mercy.

I repent for every time I proclaimed a Christianity of tips and techniques.

Lord, have mercy.

I repent for every time I spent more time preparing the message than I did preparing the messenger.

Lord, have mercy.

I repent for every time I depended upon my cleverness instead of the scandal of the cross.

Lord, have mercy.

O Lord, have mercy upon me, a wretched offender. Spare those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore those who are penitent, according to your promises declared to humankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, most merciful Father, for his sake that I may hereafter proclaim the true gospel with courage and confidence to the glory of your holy Name. Amen.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Foolproof Scientific Church Management

Here is a schematic of the mental model most church leaders have for operating a church.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Missional Order vs. Church Planting

In the introduction to this Allelon netcast, Pernell Goodyear says, "The way that we've done church planting for the past number of decades has been about moving rock stars into neighborhoods and marketing this big attractional thing that people come to, growing our division of the church as an organization."

David Fitch, pastor of Life on the Vine, talks about church planting in post-Christendom:

We are no longer living in a Christian society.

We used to plant churches as organizations. You pay somebody to go set up shop.

Now the issue is survival. I do not believe that you can plant a church in three years in post-Christendom.

We're going from extending an organization to survival.

A missional order says we will gather together people and we will commit to being a body and we will embed ourselves in this location. We will incarnate Christ in this location. We will build relationships with those—we will look for those who are hurting. We will look for the poor. We will look for the struggling. We will look for ways of connecting. And we can take forever, if we have to.

He has more to say. Check out the video.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"