Someone commented a few days ago about how Holy Week always puts Christianity in the spotlight in media. For whatever reason, I have since noticed it far more predominately this year. Here are a few of my favorite highlights:
Strike One. In Naugatauck, Conn., a store owner put a sign out that says "Easter: Honk for Jesus." The neighboring tattoo parlor artist and owner put out a sign next to it that says "Honk twice for..." and has a picture of a devil below it. In defending his decision, he stated that he wasn't a satanist himself, but he didn't want his customers thinking that his business put out the Christian sign. "More people have been killed in the name of God than over anything else, and so I don't think people should fight about religion," he said. "Satan is part of the same religion as Christ, so it's a contrast, not a competing religion." Well, how very postmodern of him.
Strike Two. Here in Missouri, a heavy-weight bout of a different kind is being waged between the theologically and culturally conservative Missouri Baptist Convention (and also the Southern Baptist Convention) and the theologically conservative but culturally liberal emerging church (specifically, The Journey Church in St. Louis). "Missouri's Most Powerful Baptist," Roger Moran, is using his politically established platform as a lay leader in the MBC to blast the practices of emerging churches, such as The Journey, who use alternative methods to reaching the unchurched in today's young adult culture. Apparently, holding official theological discussions at Schlaffly Bottleworks (and enjoying a brewskie or two) is specifically outlawed and condemned in his version of the Bible. He must have missed the part where Jesus turned water into wine... or where He stayed in the houses of tax collectors... or the time when he counseled a prostitute at a well and told her that He loves her in spite of her sin... but I guess that's not important when you have "conservative values," right?
Strike Three. In New York (come on, you knew it was coming!), an artist famed for truly brilliant ideas like spraying 5 tons of pepper jack cheese on a Wyoming home, or "festooning" a 4 poster bed with 312 pounds of processed ham, has been forced to take down his sculpture of a nude, anatomically correct 200 lb. Jesus that was planned to open in a hotel art exhibit. The appropriately named "My Sweet Lord" sculpture caused such an outrage, that the artist was sent death threats and the hotel who planned on hosting the exhibit received hundreds of phone calls. Artist Cosimo Cavallaro, says that it was not his intent to create outrage, but if people would just "listen with open minds..."
I'm sure that many more interesting stories highlighting Christianity will come about as the week goes on. I didn't pick these stories from a group, but are just the first few that came to my attention. I find it interesting that, at the core, each highlights a different manifestation of conflicting beliefs. Why is this the focus of our interest? Why are we looking for conflict? I don't know.
The Post-Dispatch's story on the MBC and the "emerging church," however, I found to be particularly interesting. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, "emerging church," it is a very loose network of interdenominational churches who's association is primarily their shared vision for the future of the Christian faith. Their vision is a return to "the basics" of scripture in loving our neighbors without agenda, and showing how the Gospel is relevant to contemporary culture instead of forcing culture to conform to their own idea of what culture should be. Awesome examples of this are Mars Hill Church in Seattle and The Journey here in St. Louis. I don't want to go into a huge amount of detail in this post because 1.) I want to write more about it later, and 2.) I need to do some more digging to be able to give a better definition. My intent with bringing it up here is in my desire to see this conflict played out and resolved in the church so it can be incorporated into our theology. For too long we Christians have built our fences and walls, creating a system of rules to which we can fulfill and pridefully declare "I'm a good person." Once we realize that being a disciple of Christ is anything but comfortable, pristine, and painless, we will finally be living out the Gospel of grace to our fellow man. Love hurts. But it rocks too.
If you are familiar with the emerging church and would like to learn more, check out Mark Driscoll's "Radical Reformition" or "Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Church" (one which I still need to read myself). I know that the last half of this post was as clear as mud, so stay tuned for more entertaining attempts to figure this out and put it to words.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Church Planting, Growth, and Renewal
As I continue through my first semester here at Covenant, I find I am increasingly being interested in Church Planting for several reasons:
1.) It truly is the most effective mode of evangelism and fulfilling the great commission. The infrastructure of a church, and the unified vision and mission inherent in it, is the best foundation and platform for loving a city (or region, people, etc.).
2.) Without a purposeful and intentional focus for a church to plant other churches, it is easy to fall into laziness and sloth when it comes to outreach. The Gospel never outlines a point in a church's life where it does not continually seek to reach out and grow the body of Christ.
3.) New churches are forced to confront and adapt to the culture of their environment. This is something that many older more traditional churches refuse to do because it is difficult. This obviously hurts the city.
Beyond all that though, the Acts 29 Network (www.acts29.org) recently posted an awesome explanation and vision for the renewed planting focus of the global church. You can read it in it's entirety here or feel free to read it below. I copy-pasted it with no alterations, and all copyrights belong solely to Acts 29. Please read it. It's incredible.
Beyond the article, if you are even a little interested in church planting or the movement catching speed in the church, go and check out their website. There are so many amazing resources and information on there that you won't even know where to begin...
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Seattle Boot Camp Wrap Up
By Scott Thomas, Acts 29 Director
"Acts 29 provides boot camps for the purpose of setting the theological compass for missional church planting. Last week we had the biggest boot camp of our existence.
Over 350 people converged upon Seattle for the Acts 29 Church Planter's Boot Camp. 32 men and their wives were assessed as potential planters with Acts 29 Network. Over 42 Acts 29 member pastors came in to assess. 20 pastors began their 6 month training to be a church planting coach.
We had seven main sessions and six workshops. Each of these sessions emphasized conservative theology and radical ecclesiology. The gospel was articulated over and over and church planting was presented as the plan of God to most effectively evangelize the world.
What became clear to me was that man creates networks, but God creates movements. Church planting movements are defined as "A rapid multiplication of indigenous churches planting churches that sweep through a people group or population segment." [David Garrison, Church Planting Movements, (Midlothian, VA: WIGTake Resources 2004) p. 21].
In other words, churches reproducing faster than one would think possible with a vision to reach an entire nation or people group by those who are common to the area and engaged in church planting churches within interrelated population segments.
Some characteristics of church planting movements:
1. Only God can orchestrate a movement
God can use men to transform an area, but only He sovereignly decides where and when He pours out an abundance of His power and grace through a people group that is passionately seeking Him.
2. A movement is too large to control
A movement is not meant to be controlled. It is a measure of God's grace that cannot be prepared in advance. As we sense His movement, we respond in humility and allow Him to work through weak vessels.
3. We don't always recognize a movement of God because of man's involvement
Men mobilize others toward a cause and inspires others to plant churches. God uses man's efforts to have an effect on His will. A movement is not dependant on the skills of man. A movement is recognized as outcome that can no longer be attributed to man.
4. Movements include unusual gospel-driven partnerships
Movements of God do not only think outside of the box, they do not have a box. Partnerships with other gospel-driven church planting networks will be forged without effort.
5. God gets ALL of the glory
Although man may plant churches, pray, preach the gospel, develop leaders and posture churches toward health, God is to get all of the glory. Garrison said, "Church Planting Movements multiply the glory of God...No other avenues so quickly and effectively multiplies the glory of God in the hearts of so many people." (pp. 28-29)"
All copyrights and privileges belong to Acts29.org.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.) It truly is the most effective mode of evangelism and fulfilling the great commission. The infrastructure of a church, and the unified vision and mission inherent in it, is the best foundation and platform for loving a city (or region, people, etc.).
2.) Without a purposeful and intentional focus for a church to plant other churches, it is easy to fall into laziness and sloth when it comes to outreach. The Gospel never outlines a point in a church's life where it does not continually seek to reach out and grow the body of Christ.
3.) New churches are forced to confront and adapt to the culture of their environment. This is something that many older more traditional churches refuse to do because it is difficult. This obviously hurts the city.
Beyond all that though, the Acts 29 Network (www.acts29.org) recently posted an awesome explanation and vision for the renewed planting focus of the global church. You can read it in it's entirety here or feel free to read it below. I copy-pasted it with no alterations, and all copyrights belong solely to Acts 29. Please read it. It's incredible.
Beyond the article, if you are even a little interested in church planting or the movement catching speed in the church, go and check out their website. There are so many amazing resources and information on there that you won't even know where to begin...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seattle Boot Camp Wrap Up
By Scott Thomas, Acts 29 Director
"Acts 29 provides boot camps for the purpose of setting the theological compass for missional church planting. Last week we had the biggest boot camp of our existence.
Over 350 people converged upon Seattle for the Acts 29 Church Planter's Boot Camp. 32 men and their wives were assessed as potential planters with Acts 29 Network. Over 42 Acts 29 member pastors came in to assess. 20 pastors began their 6 month training to be a church planting coach.
We had seven main sessions and six workshops. Each of these sessions emphasized conservative theology and radical ecclesiology. The gospel was articulated over and over and church planting was presented as the plan of God to most effectively evangelize the world.
What became clear to me was that man creates networks, but God creates movements. Church planting movements are defined as "A rapid multiplication of indigenous churches planting churches that sweep through a people group or population segment." [David Garrison, Church Planting Movements, (Midlothian, VA: WIGTake Resources 2004) p. 21].
In other words, churches reproducing faster than one would think possible with a vision to reach an entire nation or people group by those who are common to the area and engaged in church planting churches within interrelated population segments.
Some characteristics of church planting movements:
1. Only God can orchestrate a movement
God can use men to transform an area, but only He sovereignly decides where and when He pours out an abundance of His power and grace through a people group that is passionately seeking Him.
2. A movement is too large to control
A movement is not meant to be controlled. It is a measure of God's grace that cannot be prepared in advance. As we sense His movement, we respond in humility and allow Him to work through weak vessels.
3. We don't always recognize a movement of God because of man's involvement
Men mobilize others toward a cause and inspires others to plant churches. God uses man's efforts to have an effect on His will. A movement is not dependant on the skills of man. A movement is recognized as outcome that can no longer be attributed to man.
4. Movements include unusual gospel-driven partnerships
Movements of God do not only think outside of the box, they do not have a box. Partnerships with other gospel-driven church planting networks will be forged without effort.
5. God gets ALL of the glory
Although man may plant churches, pray, preach the gospel, develop leaders and posture churches toward health, God is to get all of the glory. Garrison said, "Church Planting Movements multiply the glory of God...No other avenues so quickly and effectively multiplies the glory of God in the hearts of so many people." (pp. 28-29)"
All copyrights and privileges belong to Acts29.org.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, March 26, 2007
Serious Rest
God takes rest very seriously. When a Being powerful enough to create and shape the universe decides to rest on the 7th day, you know He is trying to say something. God has shaped history and created man... does the guy really even need rest? Is someone that ridiculously powerful and capable need to take a breather? Probably not. But if He thought high enough of it to make Himself an example to humanity, what does that say about its importance? Indeed, the most common criticism Jesus received during His ministry on earth (besides claiming He was God, but that went surprisingly unnoticed most of the time) was that he worked and/or performed miracles on the Sabbath.
Just last night at Damascus Road, Pastor Mike Werkheiser delved into Christ's healing of the paralytic in Bethesda (John 5). Jesus told a man whom we assume was mostly or completely paralyzed to take up his bed beside the pool and walk. What did the Monday morning quarterbacks and bloggers respond with? "How dare you heal this man on the Sabbath!?!?" But Jesus came to give rest on the Sabbath.
If you read John 5, it is easy to see how important rest is and how it has been passed down from creation to biblical times. Even now, the very best advertisements seek to infuse the viewer with a sense of rest and relaxation resulting from their product. But what is considerably more difficult to see is how our perception of rest is jacked up. Let me explain.
Jesus said in John 5: 17 that "My Father is working until now, and I am working." Jesus find no fault if His work gives rest on the Sabbath. That's pretty much God's intent in stressing our focus on Him during the Sabbath. Somehow this (along with a variety of other factors too many in number to list here) has given rise the the "Protestant work ethic" that, particularly Americans, take so much pride in. Even more so, us guys take great pride in our work. It is who we are. We generate our value (to our family as well as society) directly from our work. This is partly why divorce rates are rising, fathers are not there to give their children a positive example of masculinity, and more wives feel neglected and replaced by their husbands' career. Workaholism in the name of the American Dream is destroying the American Dream.
Ironic, isn't it?
In Leviticus chapter 25, God commands His people to not sow their fields every seventh year. The purpose, He says, it to give the land a rest. In response to His people's concern for how they will eat during that year, he reassures them by promising that their sixth year's crop will yield three years worth of food: 1 year to live on, 1 year to plant on the 8th year, and 1 year to live on while the crop is growing in the eighth year. They are to trust God and have faith that He will provide for them as they obey His command. I think that the root of why we don't rest is because we do not have faith that God will provide as we rest from our work. How does that color our understanding? Doesn't feel good does it?
The concept of a "Sabbatical" is also new to me. Although thoroughly biblical, taking a whole year off every 6 years is something that just goes against my grain. The pastor of my church, Tom Ricks, is faithfully attempting to take on for about 4 months thus year. Taking a full year off is very difficult, and I'm not privy as to why the figure of 4 months was decided on so I will refrain from judging for or against that decision. I know that I am very happy for him and excited to see how the fruits of his faithfulness will bless the church he leads upon his return. I know, however, that my view of this is not necessarily as widely shared by the body. Not everyone has a job where they can take 4 months or a year off and still be paid, and this can lead to an envious attitude. That said, I further admire Pastor Tom's and the Green Tree Staff's courage to live out the Word of God in the face of possible dissent and disapproval.
I write all this, not because I see people working their butts off all around me while I sit and revel in my piety. I write this because I am a top offender. Over spring break, I probably took one day to really rest and be still with God. The rest of the time I, sometimes frantically, tried to keep up and use the time to get ahead. By God's mercy I feel rested and recharged in spite of this, and I really feel like God spoke some refreshment into my life and my perspective on my time here at Covenant. I am always working for God's love... that or my own self-justification. But God doesn't care about any of it. It means nothing to him, especially in comparison to the health and fervency of my heart.
Brothers, this is a slippery slope. We men often take on this messiah complex and feel like we have to be everything to everyone. The cool thing is, we don't have to. That's God's job. And trying to do God's job (much less do it well) is just insane. Let go. Breathe. Pray. Trust. Spend time with God and recharge however He has designed you to do so. If that is playing your guitar, go lay down a few riffs. If that means praying, get on your knees and pray your heart out. If you find peace and solace in reading the Word of God, I highly recommend Romans. If that means walking 2 miles into a forest and sitting against a tree in pure, blissful silence, by all means... go sit.
Just last night at Damascus Road, Pastor Mike Werkheiser delved into Christ's healing of the paralytic in Bethesda (John 5). Jesus told a man whom we assume was mostly or completely paralyzed to take up his bed beside the pool and walk. What did the Monday morning quarterbacks and bloggers respond with? "How dare you heal this man on the Sabbath!?!?" But Jesus came to give rest on the Sabbath.
If you read John 5, it is easy to see how important rest is and how it has been passed down from creation to biblical times. Even now, the very best advertisements seek to infuse the viewer with a sense of rest and relaxation resulting from their product. But what is considerably more difficult to see is how our perception of rest is jacked up. Let me explain.
Jesus said in John 5: 17 that "My Father is working until now, and I am working." Jesus find no fault if His work gives rest on the Sabbath. That's pretty much God's intent in stressing our focus on Him during the Sabbath. Somehow this (along with a variety of other factors too many in number to list here) has given rise the the "Protestant work ethic" that, particularly Americans, take so much pride in. Even more so, us guys take great pride in our work. It is who we are. We generate our value (to our family as well as society) directly from our work. This is partly why divorce rates are rising, fathers are not there to give their children a positive example of masculinity, and more wives feel neglected and replaced by their husbands' career. Workaholism in the name of the American Dream is destroying the American Dream.
Ironic, isn't it?
In Leviticus chapter 25, God commands His people to not sow their fields every seventh year. The purpose, He says, it to give the land a rest. In response to His people's concern for how they will eat during that year, he reassures them by promising that their sixth year's crop will yield three years worth of food: 1 year to live on, 1 year to plant on the 8th year, and 1 year to live on while the crop is growing in the eighth year. They are to trust God and have faith that He will provide for them as they obey His command. I think that the root of why we don't rest is because we do not have faith that God will provide as we rest from our work. How does that color our understanding? Doesn't feel good does it?
The concept of a "Sabbatical" is also new to me. Although thoroughly biblical, taking a whole year off every 6 years is something that just goes against my grain. The pastor of my church, Tom Ricks, is faithfully attempting to take on for about 4 months thus year. Taking a full year off is very difficult, and I'm not privy as to why the figure of 4 months was decided on so I will refrain from judging for or against that decision. I know that I am very happy for him and excited to see how the fruits of his faithfulness will bless the church he leads upon his return. I know, however, that my view of this is not necessarily as widely shared by the body. Not everyone has a job where they can take 4 months or a year off and still be paid, and this can lead to an envious attitude. That said, I further admire Pastor Tom's and the Green Tree Staff's courage to live out the Word of God in the face of possible dissent and disapproval.
I write all this, not because I see people working their butts off all around me while I sit and revel in my piety. I write this because I am a top offender. Over spring break, I probably took one day to really rest and be still with God. The rest of the time I, sometimes frantically, tried to keep up and use the time to get ahead. By God's mercy I feel rested and recharged in spite of this, and I really feel like God spoke some refreshment into my life and my perspective on my time here at Covenant. I am always working for God's love... that or my own self-justification. But God doesn't care about any of it. It means nothing to him, especially in comparison to the health and fervency of my heart.
Brothers, this is a slippery slope. We men often take on this messiah complex and feel like we have to be everything to everyone. The cool thing is, we don't have to. That's God's job. And trying to do God's job (much less do it well) is just insane. Let go. Breathe. Pray. Trust. Spend time with God and recharge however He has designed you to do so. If that is playing your guitar, go lay down a few riffs. If that means praying, get on your knees and pray your heart out. If you find peace and solace in reading the Word of God, I highly recommend Romans. If that means walking 2 miles into a forest and sitting against a tree in pure, blissful silence, by all means... go sit.
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