Review - Intentional Church

I dislike buying a book that has no reviews on Amazon, especially when it lacks the 'Search Inside' feature. Invariable when I get one of these, I end up wishing I didn't. Recently I took a chance on a book called "The Intentional Church: Moving From Church Success to Community Transformation" by Randy Pope. It was the first in a long time where I'm glad I did (even though the main content wasn't really what I thought it would be!)

The Intentional Church is a practical and well-written guide for church leaders desired to be more effective in developing mature disciples of Christ and impacting their community. The focus is on intentionality - thinking carefully about the elements of effective discipleship and ministry, and creating a reproducible process to help your people grow as followers of Christ. The Intentional Church was originally published as The Prevailing Church. It's been revised and updated, now including a number of examples and insights learned from Randy's experience as senior pastor of Perimeter Church in Duluth, GA. He does a great job of sharing real-world experiences and practical tips without ever making it sound like we should become copies of Perimeter. His goal is to provide a framework for thinking about church leadership without providing a specific model to emulate. Since reviews on this fine book are scarce, I'm going into a little extra detail here than normal...

Table of Contents Introduction: What Will it Take to Be Truly Successful?
1. What Jesus Wants from His Church
2. What Makes a Church Grow? Six Widely Recognized Causes... and a Neglected Seventh Factor
3. Inside the Effective Ministry Plan. i) A God-Honoring Purpose
3. Inside the Effective Ministry Plan. ii) A Faith-Oriented Commitment
5. Inside the Effective Ministry Plan. iii) A God-Given Vision
6. Inside the Effective Ministry Plan. iv) Well-Prioritized Values
7. Inside the Effective Ministry Plan. v) Well-Defined Mission
8. Inside the Mission: Accomplishing Vision
9. Inside the Mission: Making the Mature and Equipped Followers: The TEAMS-based Church
10. Inside the Effective Ministry Plan. vi) Biblically-based Job Descriptions- The Roles of Deacons and Elders
11. Biblically-based Job Descriptions- The Role of the Pastor
12. Biblically-based Job Descriptions- The Role of the Laity
13. Inside the Effective Ministry Plan. vii) Strategically Designed Infrastructure
14. Inside the Effective Ministry Plan. viii) Culturally Relevant Strategy
15. Inside Culturally Relevant Strategies- Four Questions that must not be Overlooked
16. Inside the Effective Ministry Plan. ix) Well-Developed Goals and Plans
17. Inside the Effective Ministry Plan. x) Ongoing Measurement
18. Making the Tough Choices
19. Evangelism: Reaching the Lost in This Generation
20. Life-on-Life Discipleship: God's Model for Life Transformation
Conclusion: For His Gospel, for His Glory

There were a number of great insights throughout the book - I found myself highlighting quite a bit. The presentation is very logical, without being rigid, and not neglecting the pivotal role the Holy Spirit and power of God play in building His church. I saw four themes that came across very strongly in the book: a well thought out framework for strategic planning; a life-on-life approach to disciple-making centered on Truth, Equipping, Accountability, Mission and Supplication (prayer); leadership development; and the importance of the church being both gathered and scattered, reaching in and reaching out. Pope does a great job in providing the 'why' behind the tips he shares for effective ministry. For example, while discussing infrastructure he goes beyond the suggestion of providing large-size, medium-size and small-group structures to talk about the function behind each of these: to allow for celebration, community, education, and pursuit of the great commission. The only thing I felt was missing (given the title of the book) was more discussion on how to become more of an Externally Focused church transforming the community.

There are other excellent books providing frameworks for thinking about church, from a wide variety of perspectives, including The Purpose-Driven Church, Church Unique, and AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church. The Intentional Church is an excellent resource that should appeal to many church leaders - especially those with a desire for more intentional strategic planning, a more relational and focused discipleship process, and/or a desire to be both the church gathered and the church scattered.

Review - Ignite

"Ignite - How to Spark Immediate Growth in Your Church" by Nelson Searcy with Jennifer Henson takes an approach of having a series of 'big days' in your church to spark growth, and double the size of your church. The method is very practical, has been used in Searcy's own church, and lays out its rationale very clearly. The book is fairly well written, and will be of use to many churches who are healthy but stuck at a size barrier and wishing to break through.

I have enjoyed Searcy's other books like Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups, Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church, and Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch, which are also very pragmatic books seeking to help leaders do a good job with their systems for small groups, first impressions, and church planting. Searcy is definitely a 'systems thinker.' What I like about the other books is that they give very practical tips about implementing things that are very healthy and appropriate for most churches. (See my earlier reviews for Fusion and Activate)

Yet I don't feel the same enthusiasm for Ignite. While he does not intentionally minimize the role of the Holy Spirit, and notes that God wants to reach people far more than we do, the book still comes across as a paint-by-numbers approach to manufacturing growth by human means. He says that both attractional and incarnational approaches to outreach work well and that he advocates doing both, this is a 100% come-to-us approach to evangelism. The material really isn't that new if you're already familiar with the purpose driven church model and the teaching of Rick Warren (which also thinks highly of big days). One issue I have with this book's approach is that it really has a goal of growth, as opposed to a goal of health. In every discussion of big days and church growth I've heard from Saddleback it's been very clear that the goal is church health, and the natural result (if your structure doesn't interfere) is growth - but you never make growth itself your target. When the table of contents talks about equipping the people for evangelism and giving them the tools they need to succeed, I was really hoping for more than 'invite postcards'.

The book describes how big days and the buzz and momentum that come from it can attract more visitors. What is not discussed at all are the reasons why the people would choose to stay. For your limited budget and energy, do you want to invest in mailings and big events and attendance numbers, or do you want to invest in people and disciple-making that show the difference it makes to be a fully devoted follower of Christ. (If you're doing the latter well and want to know how to do the former, this book is for you.) Again, the book and methods aren't bad in themselves - if read and followed with a great attitude seeking to honor God, reach the lost, and be a part of God building a healthy church, then your church may find benefit from this. But more likely the church that is "stuck" and not growing may have a deeper and more spiritual reason that is not best addressed by Ignite.

Review - The Church of Irresistible Influence

"The truth is finally revealed. Anything done in the name of Christ, in the name of love, is ministry. Anything."  That's a powerful quote that caught my attention from a book called "The Church of Irresistible Influence: Bridge Building Stories to Help Reach Your Community," by Dr. Robert Lewis. The Church of Irresistible Influence is a story-filled book describing the early church's spiritual energy and depth which amazingly transformed the surrounding culture - and encouraging the church to do its best to do nothing less. Lewis shares the story of Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, and encourages the use of a bridge metaphor to become a church of " irresistible influence" (or i2). The book has five parts:  i) Spanning the great divide - what will it take to reconnect church and culture;  ii) Designing the Structure - How-to of incarnational bridge building;  iii) Experiencing the Results - true stories of i2 in action;  iv) Expanding the i2 effort - through partnering and leadership development;  v) Anticipating the Future - the Church in the 21st C.

What would it look like if it were more important that our lives were more attractive, rather than our church buildings? Lewis discusses at length the FBC mission statement: "We exist to manifest the reality of Christ to the world by equipping Christians to live lifestyles of spiritual integrity...  i) Passionately committed to Jesus Christ (a heart for God); ii) Biblically measured (everything by the Book); iii) Morally Pure (in a morally compromised age); iv) Family-centered; v) Evangelically bold (willing and confident in sharing one's faith); vi) Socially Responsible (the community around us is our business).  ... and to equip Christians for influential works of service in our community and in the world."

They talk quite practically about "Structure" which is about unleashing people with purpose - this structure must allow for hands-on i2 exposures, personal i2 ministry, strategic i2 investments. FBC's small group structure is designed to counteract getting stuck in our own safe huddles. The SG structure "intentionally processes people toward finding a personal ministry of influence." : They diagram it as: 1) Discovery,  2) Seasons of Life,   3) Common Cause. Discovery is for newcomer orientation, small group training and church membership, lasting 8-10 weeks. The Seasons of Life phase is a 3-year long small group spiritual growth experience emphasizing relationships according to a member's particular life stage. Common Cause is a small group spiritual growth experience emphasizing service to Christ according to a member's gifting and design; the time commitment is year-to-year. A partial list of the Common Causes groups includes CR, Bethany Christian Services, Crisis Pregnancy Center Support, Crown Financial Ministry, Divorce Care and Prevention, Habitat for Humanity, Upward. There are groups centered around the needs in the church, needs in the community, needs around the world.

Chapter 10 talks about the how there is no greater investment than in finding and training the leaders of tomorrow. "So, what kind of church leader should we be seeking to influence? Those who possess the following characteristics: keen intellect, high energy, a track record of leadership accomplishments, spiritual passion and a godly lifestyle, an ability to think conceptually, results-oriented, an ability to work in a team environment, a bent toward idealism. Of these, idealism is perhaps the critical trait."

Chapter 11 was quite interesting, talking about developing a community strategy. Phase One: Community Research.  Phase Two: Focus Group Feedback (panels of 22 community and social service leaders, to interact with the results of the findings from phase one).  Phase Three: Survey of Churches. In their area, race and education remain the dominant issues. Eight others were identified: affordable housing, domestic violence, health-care access, youth in poverty, substance abuse, elderly issues, transportation, economics/employment. The ended up with the following recommendations after the survey:  i) churches participating in the survey should focus as much as possible with their internal ministries on areas of need; ii) churches should focus on existing programs in the community that are doing a good job at meeting needs rather than start something new; iii) churches should look for creative ways to work together; iv) churches should look to partner with other organizations in the community that are effectively meeting priority needs and which are consistent with the mission of the church;  v) churches should be actively pursuing racial reconciliation.

Overall, The Church of Irresistible Influence is a good read. At times it provides great stories and useful principles, while at other times it feels a little too much like a canned model of things that might work great for them but not for us (I don't think this is their intention!)  If you want to have a greater influence in the community, personally or for your church, it's worth checking out.

Review - AND blog tour

Today kicks off a blog tour for a new book by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay - "AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church." I was pleased to get a free review copy, as this book discusses an issue that is important to us at Calvary Baptist Church - what are the benefits of an attractional approach (draw people into the church to hear the gospel, find fellowship and build them up as disciples) versus a missional/incarnational approach (sending our people out into the lives of others directly to witness and grow as disciples). Pastor Chuck has maintained that it's Both-And; they're both useful. Yet if you listen to sermons or read 90-99% of books and blogs, they're diametrically opposed and you can't possibly do both well. Finally, a book that tries to bridge the gap and speak from a Both-And perspective??!

The introduction and first chapter talk about what the world needs from a church, and what God is doing through His church, how He and the church are 'beautifully sent' on mission. Chapter Two was for me the most powerful chapter in the book "Starting the AND... wherever you are". They jumped right in with discussion that target readers would need to know - how can you take a church that is strongly attractional, perhaps even inward focused, and help its people better understand what it means to live missionally and to see new avenues for ministry outside the walls of the church. It had some great discussion about how you can reach the same essential core of incarnational communities coming either from a gathered perspective or from a scattered perspective. Those coming from a gathered church might well consider a pilot group of about 10% of the church (a tithe of members) to receive training and support on developing incarnational communities.

One of the tough challenges in the book is really understanding what Halter means by the term 'Incarnational Community'. Is it a small group living missionally, a community ministry team, a home cell group, or something else? Is it something we've seen in a larger church, or something altogether different? I was somewhat disappointed to see this was not covered well in the book - rather the authors referenced their previous book, Tangible Kingdom, and a resource called the TK Primer for those who want to develop such communities. It makes sense from their perspective to do this and not waste time repeating material already available. Yet it is so central to their AND thesis that skimping here didn't help their cause. (It didn't help either that the Amazon reviews on Tangible Kingdom were downright scary, almost to the point of calling it heretical?!) After reading the book I saw an online article by Halter entitled What is incarnational community? which helps answer this key question.

Chapters 3 and 4 talk about something working against the church (consumerism) and something that done well is essential for the church (spiritual formation, but something broader than traditional spiritual disciplines).

Chapter 5 is where things started to go downhill fast for me, and I never saw a hoped-for recovery. Its goal was to discuss the tremendous harmony of gathered and scattered, but the authors get caught up in two scholarly terms coined by Ralph Winter - sodalic and modalic, how there is a need both for outreaching missionary activities and groups, and nurturing and support for those on the inside. Before this the books' style had been easy to read, stressing story and clarity. It's not that material was too hard to understand, but the stark contrast in style and approach were jarring.

Chapter 6 was one I looked forward to since getting excited in chapter two. It was called "Morph: Transitioning from Gathered to Gathered AND Scattered." It implicitly spoke as if you were the senior pastor of the church, and described the need to assess your gifting, calling, along with the capacity of your congregation. This was followed by a caution to be careful about the rate of change. And then... the chapter was over. Maybe this was a bad expectation on my part, I was sorely hoping this chapter was the one referenced on page 86: "In a later chapter we will unpack a process that every church can use that will move people from consumers to contributors, from fans to faithful followers, and from adherents to apprentices." I had been so pumped when I read that quote, yet after finishing chapter six it felt like they didn't come close to delivering on that promise.

Chapter 7 found me scratching my head completely. Had I misunderstood the whole aim of the book?? It was a discussion aimed at house churches and other missional communities committed to being scattered and incarnational, and discussed the question of if it was in any way useful to even gather at all in some kind of larger church service (!?) I started to reread the back cover and press info to find out if they were truly trying to propose a harmonious blend of mega-church style incarnational approaches and house-church style incarnational approaches, or were they trying to address the latter community and persuade them that it's ok to actually meet as a larger body without becoming a dead institution. The positive quotes on the back cover are from pioneers in the area of house churches and organic community; nothing said by mega-church pastors?

Chapter 8 tried to pull things together and encourage the reader to think about leaving a legacy, living as if you're really dying. It was inspirational but did not address the concerns developed in reading the previous three chapters.

I would have love to have seen more about the practical issues surrounding the tension between gathered and scattered - where does doctrinal instruction occur? is it really best for younger children and adults struggling with life issues and sin to sit together in the same group discussing the Bible? are teens hanging out with their folks at that time too? how are overseas missions to be supported? why wouldn't it be best to have a large audience being taught by a superbly gifted teacher? how does one learn how to face life-stage issues?

My conclusion after reading the book? No pun intended, but I can truly say that BOTH: I was highly disappointed with the book AND you should definitely read it if you have any kind of interest whatsoever in bridging the gap or resolving the tension between attractional/gathering and incarnational/scattering approaches to ministry, discipleship and evangelism. How can I say that? (Besides the fact that I may not be the target reader for the book?) Because I'm completely convinced, like I think Halter and Smay are, that both gathering as a large community and loving one another inside the family of God (modality), and living out our faith missionally in the lives of those around us far outside the walls of the church (sodality), are extremely important - and these together reflect the Great Commandment and the Great Commission - we cannot neglect either. The other reason it's important to read this book is because there isn't much out there that tries to bridge the gap. In addition, there is some really excellent material despite the flaws in the book. The book would still be worth getting if you only read the first two chapters. Finally, my disappointment may well be due to wrong expectations or high hopes going in to the book.

AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church is available at Amazon and other retailers.

Mentoring in 3D

Bill Hybels wrote a book called "Just Walk Across the Room: Simple Steps Pointing People to Faith," which talks about how to share your faith in a very natural way, and encourages people to take some extremely basic steps - including treating people like friends instead of projects! As I reviewed some notes on this book, it struck me just how similar the basic principles taught are to what I'm suggesting in mentoring relationships. The theme of the book is "Living in 3D" - Develop Friendships, Discover Stories, Discern Next Steps.

Developing Friendships

Easy, right? Well, not for everyone, and almost impossible if you don't actually make the time to simply hang out with other people. Caring genuinely about other people and desiring to build into the lives of others is foundational to both evangelism, discipling, and mentoring others.
Proximity Principle - what's a natural thing you like to do that could be done with others, or what's a natural place you like to hang out at where you can find others with similar interests? Figure out what that is, get up, and just walk across the room and start getting to know other people!
Congruity Principle - be true to who you are, realize God wired you a certain way for a reason. Be yourself, and let others be themselves.

Discover Stories

Best way to share your faith is to blast someone with what you think they need to hear before getting to know them, right?! Bzzzzt! Wrong answer! Here's a better idea - start to build trust and relational integrity with other folks, by actually listening - finding out their stories. What has made them who they are? What are they passionate about? What are they scared about? Everyone has a story. Take the time and make the effort to hear them.
Commonality Principle - Focus on the things you have in common as you build relationships. (I know, basic stuff, but why do we need to make it hard?)  If you're a Colts fan, cherish that, and enjoy hanging out with other Colts fans.
Sensitivity Principle - If people are struggling with things or need to make some change in their live, chances are really good that they don't need you to dump on them about it. This ties in to caring for others and listening. There is a time to have tough conversations, but often that time will be clear when the other person invites you into their world and their struggles.

Discern Next Steps

Once you have taken the time to build an authentic friendship, and have built relational credibility by learning and listening to their story, it's now a great time to discern the next steps that the Holy Spirit is inviting you to take in order to encourage the other person to (better) understand God's love for them, and to take a step towards or in a relationship with Christ. What are some possible next steps? * Giving resources (books, links, CD's)  * Giving the gift of your TIME  * Focus on common recreational interests (to strengthen the relationship)  * maybe the next step is to tell Your story (succinctly and genuinely)  * Invite them to church or some bridge event  * express your heart - just let them know about your care for them and your desire for God's best in their lives.  Whatever the next step, take it and then you turn it over to God to do the rest.

Hybels passion and principles described in Just Walk Across the Room are for building bridges to non-believers, forming friendships whether they lead to spiritual conversations or not just because God loves them. But as you look at what is described above, these are really some basic yet powerful things to keep in mind simply for building spiritual friendships with other believers and in being open to informal mentoring relationships.

Live in 3D.  Got a story to tell? Share it with me!

Review - Zealous Love

Zealous Love: A Practical Guide to Social Justice, written by Mike and Danae Yankoski, takes a close look at eight very important global issues. Through many first-hand accounts it seeks to provide both information and inspiration about these challenges. It's clear the authors really want to make a personal difference in the world. I was pleased to receive a free review copy via the Amazon Vine program.

Zealous Love covers eight extremely important problems that we face today: human trafficking, unclean water, refugees, hunger, lack of education, creation degradation, HIV and AIDS, and economic inequality. The book is full of beautiful pictures, is well produced (overproduced?), and the heart of the authors and contributors shines through very clearly. I don't know as much as I would like about social justice issues, and given the subtitle of the book, "A Practical Guide to Social Justice" I was hoping to be find some very practical ideas on how to get involved.

I wanted to like the book more than I did, but was disappointed in several respects. The title, inside and back cover highlight how practical the book is, but I'm just not seeing it. The foreword praises how this book shows ways that ordinary people can make a difference, but many stories are about exceptional people leaving all behind to life in a developing nation. Inspiring? Yes! Something practical I can get out and do tomorrow? Less so. The introduction assures us they're not going to lay on the guilt, but proceeds to pile it on about how tremendously fortunate we in the West are compared to the rest of the world (very true, but that much I already knew). The format of the book is to present a large number of stories/pitches from many different agencies and groups that are addressing these issues - the problem is that it starts to sound like an infomercial not long into the book.

There's much good in the book, and the message it tries to share is very important; I can see why many reviewers like the book and hope others will listen well. Each section contains a useful 'briefing' with some information on why the issue is important. If you're looking for something with many stories and compelling pictures in bite-sized nuggets, you may enjoy the book. Others looking for something truly practical, or something that does more to educate about the problem and possible solutions, may find another book more suitable.

Zealous Love is published by Zondervan.

Calvary Youth Justice Run/Walk 5K for the International Justice Mission

The wonderful students in our Calvary XL Youth program are sponsoring (and participating in) a Justice Run/Walk 5K. All proceeds will go directly to the International Justice Mission (IJM). The IJM does some great things to rescue people across the world trapped in slavery. They're a faith-based (Christian) human-rights organization that helps people regardless of belief, ethnicity or gender. They were founded on the call to justice articulated in the Isaiah 1:17. Calvary's Youth... are sponsoring a 5K-run to raise funds to support IJM and promote freedom for the oppressed.

The International Justice Mission was founded in 1997 by Gary Haugen (currently CEO). His background is in law and civil rights, and he has served on the board of directors of the National Association of Evangelicals. The organization grew out of a group of Christian lawyers and was described by Haugen as existing within the Christian community and attempting to rekindle the social engagement of evangelical Christians. IJM’s work is founded on the Christian call to justice articulated in the Bible (Isaiah 1:17): Seek justice, protect the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. IJM’s staff members are Christians from a variety of traditions who are motivated by this call to seek justice for the oppressed.

The run will be at the Celery Bog Park on Lindberg Road in West Lafayette. Registration 8:00am, 5K Run: 9:00 am, or Walk starting at 9:15 a.m.  Interested folks in the area of West Lafayette, Indiana can register for the race via our online form.

Review - Take Your Best Shot

What can a nine-year old boy do to fight AIDS and help orphans in Africa? What can he do by shooting hoops? FAR more than you might think. Take Your Best Shot is the story of Austin Gutwein, founder of Hoops of Hope. The book tells a wonderful story, from the perspective of this very young but very passionate and wise young man. Touched by a 4-minute video about AIDS orphans, he could not shake a desire to do something to help. In Sunday School he was taught "God wants to use you for something special" - but the difference between him and other folks... he actually believed it!

The back cover describes it well: "Take Your Best Shot captures' Austin's amazing adventure and challenges readers that no matter where you are, no matter what your skills are, no matter what your age, you can make a difference." What impressed me about that book that it wasn't just trying to tell a story but Austin really wants to encourage us that we can make a difference, one person at a time. It's also inspiring that he did this doing something he loves, shooting hoops.

The book is super easy to read, and has questions for individual or small group use, as well as suggestions for activities to consider. I would recommend it for readers of all ages. Check out Take Your Best Shot, from Thomas Nelson Publishers, at Amazon or other retailers.

Review - What Difference do it Make?

After reading "Same Kind of Different as Me," a powerful story of faith and friendship by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, I was excited to get a review copy of the sequel "What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing." Sometimes an original can be so good that it makes it hard for the sequel to match up to expectations. "What Difference Do It Make" falls prey to this danger.

This book doesn't so much continue the original story as much as it fills in some more details, answers some questions, and shares a number of real-life stories of people impacted powerfully by Same Kind of Different as Me. That's a key cause of a significant problem with this book - it comes across as a promo book, trying to leverage the popularity of the first book. (I do not think that this was the intent of the authors! Nevertheless the book at times does read this way.)  The second aspect of the book that was awkward was that the attention paid to the relationship between Ron Hall and his father. It was a dysfunctional relationship that failed to inspire, a few tender moments notwithstanding.

The book has its strong points. It's a book about racial reconciliation, unlikely friendship, community outreach and caring for the homeless, faith and compassion. The book contains some powerful nuggets of wisdom from Denver, reflecting on his personal experience with homelessness. If you loved Same Kind of Different, you would probably enjoy this book to some degree. If you've not read that one, go read it!

"What Difference Do It Make?" by Ron Hall, Denver Moore and Lynn Vincent is available at Amazon and other book retailers.

Reflection on Easter

Happy Easter!

Or is it?  The phrase 'Happy Easter' and the tone of season, paint a pleasant innocuous picture of the world, made that much gladder by bright pastels and candy. Likewise Good Friday - ultimately a very good day for us, was the most torturous day in the history of mankind. In a class I'm taking at Rockbridge we're discussing the gospel message, and one point stuck with me as so obvious it's easy to miss. The resurrection is absolutely central to the gospel - without the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, our faith is junk, utterly worthless, and in fact we're false witnesses and fools who should be pitied above all others. Those are not my words, those were spoken by the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 15.

Ken Schurb, co-author of The Anonymous God, identified several Gospel-aspects of Christ's resurrection:

1. The resurrection confirms that Christ made a full and acceptable sacrifice to God as our Substitute.

2. The resurrection assures us that the devil, sin, and death can have no power over us, since they have no power over Christ, who bore them for us but triumphed.

3. The resurrection constituted God's absolving His Son from our, sins which were imputed to Him, and thus God's absolution on us.

4. The resurrection means that Jesus lives to impute the righteousness of His obedience to us.

5. The resurrection underscores the reality of the forgiveness which Christ won for us in the atonement.

6. The resurrection enables us to have a continuing fellowship with the Christ who made our Peace.

7. The resurrection is God's gift of life resurfacing now that Jesus has paid for the guilt of sin in the atonement.

8. The resurrection assures us that the God-Man, our Mediator, lives as He must. 

As I reflect on the hope of the resurrection, I'm listening to the following song - "Mighty to Save". What a great modern day hymn! Check out the lyrics, or enjoy the video below.

He can move the mountains, My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save
Forever, Author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave...

Some Applications of Essential Church

Last month I reviewed an excellent book, "Essential Church: Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts" by Thom and Sam Rainer. Today thanks to Ed Stetzer, I got to ask the Rainers a few questions on applying some of the principles in Essential Church. Ed is doing a series interviewing authors of books helpful to church leaders.

My first question was with respect to starting new ministries at a church. "How does this tie in with the need to simplify, focus, and keep alignment? If a person has a heart and SHAPE for a ministry that doesn't exist within your church, does the need to keep things essential suggest limiting the number of ministries, or just that they need to be tightly aligned with your overall discipleship structure/process?"

[Thom Rainer:] "When Frank Tillapaugh wrote Unleashing the Church in 1985, many churches began starting new ministries when almost anyone in the church had an idea for ministry, As a result, some churches had more ministries and activities than they could support. If someone in the church suggests a ministry direction that is currently not a part of the overall direction and mission of the church, I would suggest looking at one of three alternatives for them. First, the ministry idea might can best be utilized in some area outside the local church, such as a parachurch ministry. Second, it is possible that the ministry does align with the current mission of the church, but this idea would be a new expression of the mission. Third, if enough people in the church begin to express this specific missional desire, the church leadership may seriously need to consider if the direction of the church does need adjustment."

My second question was: "Do you have any suggestions for how to transition from an attractional mindset to one that is more incarnational? That is... for a church with a historically inward-focus but that is now understanding much better the need to be more involved in the community, what can we do in practical terms to become more of an influence for Christ outside the church?"

[Sam Rainer:] "The transition from a "come and see" mentality to a "go and tell" attitude is one of the biggest steps in becoming a healthy church. And the only way to understand the needs of the community is to ask. For example, our church recently called the Supervisor of Elections and asked how we could best serve his office since they are swamped with November 4th approaching quickly. They were thrilled that we even cared to ask! What he said would serve them best is for our church to provide meals for them the day after the election. So we're going to deliver 22 meals to their main office on November 5th. The point is that we never would have guessed their needs. We simply asked the question. One of the easiest ways to begin reaching outward into the community is to ask the leaders and organizations of the community what the needs are."

Excellent answers! Thank you Thom, Sam, Ed. I would never have guessed what those officials would have requested. The point is... you shouldn't guess!

Purpose Driven Network Summit 2008

Today through Thursday, Rick Warren of Saddleback Church will be gathering 35 pastors to share some powerful messages on best practices for ministry today. It's the Purpose Driven Network Summit 2008 - a rare invitation only conference for about 1500 ministry leaders and pastors. Bloggers and blog-readers were in for a treat as Rick invited DJ Chuang, Carlos Whittaker, Josh Griffin, and Tony Morgan to webcast/blog the event. The webcast and intereviews were hosted at UStream. I'm glad that I saw Tony's blog about this and that Rick's opening message was lunch time for us on the East Coast!

Saddleback was able to share Rick's opening message and first session as streaming video over the internet. It was quite an excellent message from the heart, as Rick poured out his desire to help pastors run a strong race and avoid discouragement. I took a lot of notes to share but found some really excellent notes/thoughts from Perry Noble (one of the attenders/speakers) as well as Dave Ferguson at his blog Velocity. Both Perry and Dave followed up with equally good notes on the next session.

Some assorted nuggets that caught my attention...

- A while back Rick asked God what did He want him to do next. The answer: "Shut up!" "Listen!" John 3:30 He has not taught a conference in the past two years, but has been listening: a lot. Talking to a lot of pastors. Trying out some amazing ministry experiments. We'll hear soon about some big upcoming news on his P.E.A.C.E. initiative to battle some major social and spiritual evils in the world.

- Rick reminds us that Purpose Driven is a framework and an informal network, not a church, not an asoociation.It's a coat hanger with five hooks. Pick what you put on each, he's not into programs, but simply that you need balance to have health, and that your church and ministry focus on the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. There are many such networks, but they tend to be silos - don't communicate, dont' cooperate. That's something he would like to start addressing, via a 'PEACE coalition.' -- Promote reconciliation, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the Sick, Educate the Next Generation.

The main part of his talk discussed how renewal has occurred through history, following five steps:

1. Personal renewal
2. Relational renewal
3. Missional renewal
4. Cultural renewal
5. Structural renewal

There's also a sixth at a higher level, institutional renewal. Institutions never institute, rather they preserve the change of the previous generation. Growth is always on the new limbs, institutions are the trunk, which provides stability.

I liked what he shared for several 'telltale signs' of these aspects of renewal.
- With personal renewal, the singing gets better :)
- With relational renewal, people hang-out longer after church is over.
- With missional renewal, the church starts to get a clue, we're here for a purpose beyond ourselves. Also, when these three line up, you can't stop a church from growing.
- The next stage, structural renewal, is a reflection that you can't but new wine in old wineskins. He stressed there is no perfect structure, which is why structure is never really discussed in the bible.

See the other blogs for info on staying strong in minsitry, but a takeaway suggestion I really liked was:
"Divert daily. Withdraw weekly. Abandon annually."

Review - "Pop Goes the Church"

This spring has been an intense time of seeking, reading, and praying to better understand God's vision for our church. Calvary has been making the effort to clarify what we're doing and the vision path for the next few years. (I hope to present a lot more on that subject soon.) Pastor Chuck recently gave a great message on the importance of being culturally relevant and biblically sound. An excellent book on this subject looks specifically on whether or not to use references, music, clips from pop culture as a bridge to those in the community asking tough life questions. The author is Tim Stevens, Executive Pastor at Granger Community Church (In our home state of Indiana. Tim also has an excellent blog called Leading Smart) I ordered the book as soon as it came out from Amazon and would like to share my review:

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Pop Goes the Church: Should the Church Engage Pop Culture
Tim Stevens - Power Publishing, 2008

Tim Stevens presents a strong case for the importance (and opportunity) of leveraging popular culture for building a bridge between those who see church as irrelevant and anti-culture, and the eternal message of redemption in Christ.

He begins with the problem of the church, so evident to those on the outside but a complete blindspot to many well-intentioned Christians whose focus has turned completely inward. Though not a theologian, Tim gives some strong biblical examples and principles to support engaging our culture, meeting people where they're at and sharing the good news - not in a watered-down diluted message but with the whole truth of the gospel.

The book also describes many examples of how his church and others have intentionally used music, movies and TV shows known to their audience to make a connection, and demonstrate that the questions they're asking are ones addressed by Christ and His church. It falls short of providing explicit help in 'how to' - but the sense is that creative people in the church with an outward focus will come up with their own ideas if just given permission to do so.

One of the most interesting parts of the book was an allegory of how five churches respond to a big pop culture event in their city. Churches may choose to condemn the culture, separate from it, embrace it, ignore it, or they may choose to leverage pop culture while staying focused on the Word of God and providing inspirational services that are relevant to the community as well as the church. The author presents a compelling case to leverage. Sadly, many pastors and churches will condemn and ignore this book, some will embrace it as rationalization for their watered down message. This book is not for them (and its tone may not even allow some to get past the first chapter). But for those who have been wondering why attendance in their church has been dwindling for years, why there are no members under the age of thirty, or those trying to understand how they become more culturally relevant while staying true to the gospel, this book is a must-read.