A good friends of mine, Todd Adams, called me a while back to see if I could co-host a workshop with him at our conference's upcoming young adult retreat, Divine Rhythm.  We decided to focus on the topic of the missional church.  We quickly began to realize that many of our UMC's might not exactly be missional.  Now, just like 'postmodernism' has been defined in a million and one different ways, so has the 'missional church'.  So we are starting with a operating definition of the missional church as outwards focused (that's the nutshell version).  So we started asking, how can we motivate the young adults in our conference to start reviving their churches?  The first step in this experiment is a website that we hope will be a hub for young adults seeking to turn the UMC on its head with a revolutionary outward focused love that seeks the least the last and the lost.  So check it out:  www.missionalumc.com  And visit back there often as we will be blogging, posting resources and videos, and attempting to light a fire under the young adults of our conference.

Posted In: church outreach

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If you and I fall into the same blogging category then you will know how I feel when I say I have a chronic case of blogging constipation.  I have great blog ideas sometimes but I never have enough time to type them out or I am never around a computer when I have them.  And when I finally get enough time around a computer I feel very uninspired except occasionally I will have somthing burning on my heart, or I will write a 'debbie-downer'  or an 'i am sucha a horrible blogger' post like this one is turning out to be.  However, this post still has room for redemption.  The real reason I am writing is to have some self-disclosure.  There has been alot of meaningful things happen in my life recently that I wish I could summarize and publish on here, but there was one in particular that I hope to publish something on soon, namely, Catalyst Conference.  But one of the things that happens when you go to a conference like that with tons of great speakers and leaders is that you get some great wisdom for leading churches.  However, what I seem to do with all that good info is twist it around and make myself puffed up with it.  I believe it is something about being human that makes people want to set themselves above others.  It is something I have to constantly have to keep myself in check about.  I can so easily see it in other Christians when they poopoo churches for doing new and innovative things, but which new and innovative churches can fall into doing as well if their cynicism about traditional churches isn't transformed to brokeness.  

I preached a message recently on anger and in preparing for it I realized something new.  I have, like many others, realized that some anger can be leveraged for good.  Jesus became angry multiple times in the Bible in the presence of injustice.  And while there is that anger that more naturally directs us toward sinning, I believe that this 'righteous' anger directs us toward sin, yet in subtle, more acceptable ways.   While Jesus became angry, he never held onto his anger.  His anger changed from merely loathing the situation to grieving over it.  His heart changed from that initial neutral state of anger to a spiritual grieving over the brokeness of his people (Mark 3).  If we simply get angry at the ineffectiveness or irrelevance of traditional churches we will soon end up as cynical, grumpy, progressive Christians.   We must constantly be praying for a broken heart over the people who don't know Christ as well as His church that so often collectively takes his name in vain.

Posted In: church life

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Alot has happened since my last blog.  The biggest thing and the one thing that has been on my heart and mind 24/7 for the last 3 months is The Remedy.  About half a year ago we started asking this question - what would it look like if we combined our college and young adult ministries and went after a generation that the church is ignoring with no holds barred?  What would it look like if we did something that would not succeed without the God's movement?  Through much prayer, fasting, and research - we went out on a limb and The Remedy was born.  

The vision for The Remedy is to make a creative environment where unchurched people love to come and love God.  We hope that everyone at The Remedy will love God, love each other, and rock this world with the love of Christ.  Making a creative environment that would attract unchurched young adults is not a trade that is common in the church in America today.  We did not have a lot of precedence, so we went to those churches that are doing it best:  Granger Community Church, Newspring, Northpoint, etc.  We understand that our culture is driven by music and other forms of media, so we knew that to effectively communicate with our culture we have to connect on some level through music.  In foreign fields missionaries go to the culture and do two things before preaching the Gospel:  1) They learn the language, 2) They learn the culture.  Then they began to see how the Gospel can be best communicate.  Unfortunately instead of approaching our own culture as missionaries, the church dominated culture at one point in the history of America and planted its feet in the 1950's while the world around grew and changed and modernized.   Our situation now is one where many church people love our Christian sub-culture, rather than loving the God of all cultures - Jesus.  We have become inward foucsed and we don't mind if the rest of the world goes to hell as long as we have worship that is pleasing to us and preaching that helps us grow.    How far from the heart of the one who ate with sinners we have come!

So - The Remedy is an attempt to reconnect the gospel with culture by going to culture and leveraging it for the sake of the Kingdom.   

How will we know if The Remedy is a success?  i don't believe numbers will be the judge - because there is always the chance that we get alot of people - alot of church people.  Our success will be measured by how faithful we are to the vision God has given us - to connect the Gospel with a culture that is unchurched and dechurched.  If we have no fruit - then we are not connecting it, we are not bringing people who are far from God and making a space where they can meet God in their context.  And if that is the case then we will change the things that hold us back from bridging the gap.  

We have started with a vision, then some conversations, then the support of our church, then the support of our larger church network, then trust in God's dream, then preparation, then action.  Now we are meeting in the Capitol Theater on Sunday nights from 8-9 and rocking it out.  We are coming up on our third Sunday of The Remedy.  We have had a great start, I am continually amazed by how God is moving.  He is on the move!  Pray, then pray pray pray.  

Posted In: culture church

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I wish I could give you a play by play of our Annual Conference this year, but I missed most of it.  One of the best things about conference is seeing people you haven't seen in a year or more and hear what God is doing in their lives.  The parts I was actually able to attend were great though.  Bishop Looney spoke at the Commissioning service.  One of the more memorable moments of his sermon was when he told about his early days in ministry.  He thought he was working at least 70 hours a week, but when he actually recorded his activities for a week he found out that he was only working 50.  The moral was that an unorganized life can make us think we are working harder than we actually are.  A few people I haven't seen in a while were being commissioned and so that was exciting.  I know they will all be faithful in their ministries.  

The theme for the week was taken from a book entitled 'Three Simple Rules'.  Which are:  Do no harm, Do good, and Stay in love with God.  At the final service Bishop Swanson spoke on 'Staying in love with God.'  He made the point over and over that we cannot just flip a switch and be in love with God instantaneously, but that staying in love with God requires us to be diligent in the practices that put us in God's presence:  prayer, fasting, study, etc.  And when we do those things doing no harm and doing good come more naturally.  

At the end of the service there was a special presentation of the Hope of Africa Children's choir.  These kids were between the ages of 5 and 12 and live in Southern Sudan.  Some of their stories were heartbreaking.  Most did not have a living father and their mothers were very poor.  They sang some awesome songs and you could see the joy radiating off of their faces.  

Also, Boo and Phyllis Hankins were presented as those chosen to go to the Sudan for 2 years to over see the construction of another school and be a mentor to the pastors there.  This was probably my favorite moment in conference.  Boo was my pastor at Elizabethton while I was a youth pastor there.  It was great to see these two people give up so  much to go help the people of Sudan rebuild their church, community, and lives.   

Posted In: church leadership

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What a crazy three weeks!  My apologies for the blank post 'Hello From Zimbabwe'.  I found an internet cafe in the airport in Harare, but it was so slow the only information that posted was the title.  I am sitting in the Best Western in Maggie Valley NC feeding Pax.  It feels like he has grown up so much while I was in Zimbabwe - he is smiling all the time and kicking his little lion that hangs from his play dome.  It is good to just hold him.  

We have been to our Annual Conference this week.  It has been good to see folks I haven't seen in a while, hear Bishop Swanson preach, and catch up on some reading during the really boring sessions.  

I will be posting some pictures and stories from Zimbabwe and Conference soon.   Stay tuned. 

Posted In: church missions

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We are getting ready to do some exciting things this Fall through Fairview.  Most likely we will be renting out the old Capitol Theater in downtown Maryville and having a rockin' college and young adult service on Sunday nights.  We are planning on pulling out all the stops and doing the best possible thing we can do for this service. I am pumped and have been losing sleep over it.  We have a long way to go in a short amount of time so please be praying for us.  We are applying for some grants to help us get it off the ground and we still need to come up with a name.  If you have any suggestions leave them in a comment.  Remember - catchy yet refined... I am thinking, "New City".  

Posted In: church life

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A friend of mine recently introduced me to a very vibrant church called NewSpring.  NewSpring is one of those churches that you go to and you feel like you are at a concert, but you don't remain there as you get really hard and relevant truth presented in a way that our culture understands.  Now I have to admit that I have never been to NewSpring, but I have watched their church leadership conference, UnLeashed, online.  Perry Noble is the Sr Pastor at NewSpring and spoke at the two main sessions which can be viewed here.  Before going any further it is important to note that NewSpring is one of the fastest growing churches in the US.  It started with about 20 in 1999 and has grown to over 8,000 today.  Should we look at what churches like NewSpring are doing?  Have you ever seen those little wood and golf tee games that they have at Cracker Barrell?  I am thinking specifically of the triangle one where the goal is to leave only one golf tee on the board.  On the back of the game they have a grading system.  If you leave one you are a genius (just for the record I have actually done this), if you leave two you are pretty smart, if you leave 3 you are dumb and if you leave 4 or more you are an ignoramoose.  Well, I think we would be an ignoramoose (sp?) if we didn't look at what NewSpring is doing.  

One of the most challenging and thought-provoking statements made by Perry during the 2007 conference was that most churches are structured for failure.  Most churches are structured for failure.  Is yours?  The model of leadership NewSpring holds to is such that the pastor has the vision and decisions are made according to the vision.  There are no committees that determine the direction of the church, no voting that concludes what the primary mission is.  Most churches have committees that hire and fire staff, and make decisions regarding the life of the church.  In fact this is the bread and butter of United Methodist polity.  Andy Stanley commented that he has two UMC pastor friends and he was amazed that they did not have the final word on who was hired and fired.  This is one aspect of leadership that will either set a church up for success or failure.  The staff at a church needs to operate as a team, and the pastor is the leader of that team and should have the authority to pick her or his team.  If someone is not committed to the same vision as the pastor then the pastor needs to have the ability to let that person go and find someone who can be a part of the team.  Now theoretically this can be accomplished by a committee, but the question we have to ask is: is this the best way?  For the UMC it may be.  I don't believe you can change one aspect of our polity without affecting the rest.  The fact that we have a short-term itinerancy lends credit to the SPR system.  If a pastor is only at a church for 4 or 5 years then it would reek havoc for every pastor to fire the old staff and hire new.  Or for that matter to change the vision of what the church should be doing.  So we have to ask: are we structured for failure?  

God has really been dealing with me about vision.  To effectively lead a church we need vision and those who are not willing to embrace that vision are welcome to find somewhere they can faithfully serve and worship.  Not that there should be resentment or bitterness but the matter is simply that a pastor is given leadership of a congregation and cannot effectively lead without the ability to follow God's vision.  Can that vision be discerned in community?  Of course.  Should it be determined by the community?  No.  As pastors we cannot sacrifice the vision God has given us to satisfy everyone.  Is there danger in this model?  Sure.  Is there danger in the way we have always done it?  Sure.  The first type of danger is that a pastor may not be seeking God and lead a church in a direction away from the kingdom.  The danger in the second is that pastors are not free to pursue the vision God has given them and we have safe pastors and risk-free churches.  The kingdom never comes easily and for many pastors to pursue a vision will require sacrifice and trials.  Erwin McManus, pastor of Mosaic, tells of time when his church membership dwindled to nearly a quarter of the size it was at when he had arrived.  It was a very trying time during which he developed a nervous tick in his eye.  However, God used his pursuit of the vision to prune the church and prepare it for what it now is, a multi-ethnic urban congregation of thousands that meet in six different locations in LA.  Are we ready to lose people so that we can pursue the Kingdom?  God never calls us to a fair fight.  To gain the Kingdom risk is a pre-requisite.  Are we a church that risks, or are we structured to be risk-free? 

 

Posted In: leadership church

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I don't usually blog about specifically United Methodist things, so this is a first.  I recently read a fascinating and sobering book - UnChristian.  The foundation of the book was the extensive research conducted by David Kinnaman from the Barna Group about young adults perceptions of Christianity in our culture.  One of the most staggering statistics is that only 18% of people ages 16-35 who have had some contact with church or christians report having a good impression of the church.  18%.  And we are supposed to be known for our love!  

I don't want to make it sound like looks are everything, but when 82% of the people you are trying to reach think most people associated with your faith are hypocrites then you have a huge hurdle to jump in order to show them that faith in Christ looks alot different than what they have seen.   

So what does this mean for the United Methodist Church?  **Disclaimer:  In what follows I may sound like I know more about how the church works than I actually do**  In America the UMC has declined for the last half century.  Young adults are fleeing the pews (as they are in many mainline denominations) and we are grasping at straws (or contemporary services) to try to woo them back.  There are some United Methodist churches that are reaching this generation, but most are not.   Most churches that seem to be reaching this generation very well are outside of mainline denominations, or at least they appear to be -such as:  National Community Church, Elevate, Origins, Mosaic, etc.   In these churches we can see what they are doing right, but as a UM body we never want to look.  As we go to annual conference and convocation year after year the speaking and teaching seems to always stay within our circle of methodism.  News Flash: The United Methodist Church is declining - maybe we should get some help and inspiration from outside of our circle!     

Another factor and hopeful solution for our church lies in the fact that all the churches I mentioned above were relatively recent church plants.  This is an avenue that the UMC has not exhausted.  There are many opportunities in cities dense with young adults to plant churches that reach them where they are at.  Instead of spending years and years of time and resources trying to spiritually remodel an older church, why don't we focus our attention on the white fields of urban young adults.  My generation wants to belong before they believe.  And let's be honest - most churches aren't going to change their appearance and social systems in order to radically welcome a generation that is radically different.  

In They Like Jesus But Not the Church, Dan Kimball makes two very good points.  First, our current culture is not Christian and we must approach it as missionaries.  When international missionaries first interact with a new culture they do not come and try to enforce their culture onto it (or at least they don't anymore).  Rather, they learn the taboos, the ways to connect, the do's and the dont's.  We have tried to enforce a 1950's church onto a generation that views it as completely foreign and negative.  We must step back and study this culture and learn how to connect. The second point he makes is that pastors and lay people must actually get to know someone who is outside the church in this generation before we can ever truly fulfill our calling to this generation.  I love the last chapter in his book.  After he has described the crisis we are in you would expect him to give us the answer, but instead he essentially says, "No - I am not going to give you the answer because you need to go out and bulld relationships with people outside of the church,"  - wow, radical.   

I found it very fascinating that our conference spent so much money to send us to see a growing church in Brazil when we have many growing churches here in our own cultural context - though they are not Methodist.  I found it even more interesting that those churches that were experiencing drastic growth in Brazil were implementing things that have been seen to work here in America (only with churches outside of the UMC), namely, church planting, no guaranteed appointments, and modern leadership techniques.   So I believe there is hope for the UMC, but  I also believe that culture-change has to come from the top down.  Until Bishops and DS's are held accountable and in turn hold pastor's accountable we will never see change.  In the book Simple Church, Rainer and Geiger comment that until we have a way to measure the success of our process we will never take the call to make disciples seriously.  So until the higher ups of the church decide to withdraw guaranteed appointments and seek to measure our progress and not just our decline and seek to blaze new paths with church planting it is up to local churches to become radically welcoming and for the pastor's to be culture shapers.  However, in an itinerant system this is only a temporary fix.  

Posted In: church culture

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One of the things our post-modern generation has to struggle with is the exhaustion of our language. Not only does it seem like everything has already been written, sung, or acted upon, but church names (and movements) have moved beyond mere description into a foggy mixture of profundity and absurdity. And what better way to make light of it all than to have a church name generator:

There was this one episode of David Letterman where he had this pair of dice that had random words pasted to each side. The point was to roll the dice and see what two words faced up - and the result was a new band name. My favorite was 'stomach monkeys'. This kinda reminds me of that.

Posted In: church funny-haha

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Probably the most dead-on needed to hear message of the whole conference.  Francis Chan has a way of being very transparent, funny, and serious all at the same time.  "I loved these people... then I got into ministry" was one of his most real statements as he spoke about his passionate love for his friends and his desire for them to know Christ before he became a minister.  

Many of the things we often take for granted in our ministry Francis Chan dusted off and helped reveal their meaningfulness.  Why do we pray during services?  Is there something really happening when we do it?  Chan reminds us that in prayer and preaching there really is something spiritual and supernatural happening, and that, "the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead" is in us!  God knew who we were going to be before he formed us and he has called us to be His and to do His will.  And He has given us that Spirit to accomplish these things.  

One of the most important things that I took away from Chan's message was that it is OK to push the church beyond 'lukewarmness' to a true discipleship.  Chan spoke of this in his own ministry when he told the story of his decision to let his church meet outside instead of spending gobs of money on a new building.  They may get rained upon, they may get a little chilly, but they will be using the money to bring people out of poverty and providing clean water in communities across the globe - a much better option than being spit out of God's mouth.   Are we calling our churches to the same commitment that Jesus is calling us to? 

 

Favorite Quotes:

"What part of the body are you?  Are you the appendix?  I mean you don't really do much and you could explode and kill us."  

"I want to bring these people before God and say, 'Lord you saw that the way these guys lived on earth, they were crazy about you'." 

Posted In: catalyst church

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