I’ve been blessed to be able to spend some time listening to and learning from David Fitch through a few Ecclesia Network events. He’s a professor at Northern Seminary and a pastor at Life on the Vine, both of which are in the Chicago area. This makes him not only a theorist, but also a practitioner; a somewhat rare breed here in our American context. Basically, the man knows what he’s talking about because he is living it. If you need more, check out his blog at Reclaiming the Mission. Enjoy.
I saw this video, which is for some health company and I can’t edit it to not show that part, at work the other day. It was being shown to demonstrate the new technology being added to our classrooms and the help that would come with it. Teachers need not fear the new technology for the tech specialists were always around ready to guide, lead, and aid them into the future.
Of course, as I watched it all I could think about was how might this be interpreted in relation to God and the Church. These types of things happen regularly with me, especially since I finished seminary a few years back.
It seems to me that many, many people are riding along the escalator their church has determined is the correct one. It is the proper path heading to the proper destination. Now, without going into the horrendous theology that makes the purpose of Christianity a destination, i.e. heaven, we’ll push ahead to another reality present in a large portion of churches.
Just as in the video, many people in the church are merely riding the escalator as passive spectators. Rather than being active participators many church-goers are simply that: church-goers. They religiously show up every Sunday morning for their hour and a half of churchly duty. They interact with each other and wonder who made the coffee this week because it is unusually weak. They sit as if at an entertainment venue (ever notice how even our architectural design perpetuates a passive stance?) where everything is done up front and on a stage. Emotional music, pseudo-therapeutic/self-help sermons, and tv screens all push us, whether we’re aware of it or not, into a passive posture. We come, we consume, we go home. We’ve been conditioned by our culture to be passive and, unfortunately, many of our churches are doing the same.
So instead of being able to simply walk up the escalator-turned-stairs, we become stuck and wonder where the help is. We idly stand by awaiting the professional with the answers. Unfortunately, again, when the paid professional shows up, he too cannot help. From a church perspective, why is this? Why do we get stuck in our Christian lives and await the paid professional (pastor) to get us out of our stagnancy, just to find out that he/she can’t get us anywhere?
I think the problem lies in the lack of discipleship within the Church. As passive spectators we expect the professional, gifted, ultra-spiritual ones to put on “church” for us. We expect them to “do” church for us. We show up, easily enough, for the worship service and head home. Discipleship is tacked on as a by-product or as a secondary result of the worship service rather than the other way around. As has been said elsewhere: You make disciples, you’ll always get a church. You make a church, you won’t always get disciples.
A reality that is becoming more and more prevalent, however, is the lack of discipleship within the ranks of those attempting to lead a church. I have spoken with many pastors, and I include myself in this group, who get to a point where they have graduated from seminary, have gathered people, have taught them, but then hit the wall. There is somewhere or something they have envisioned, but can’t seem to take others there. The problem? Most pastors, especially younger ones, haven’t been made into disciples who make disciples. We have become passive spectators. Just like the mechanic who came to fix the escalator, we get leaders who can lead, but who can’t make others simply walk off of the escalator because they can’t walk off it themselves. People end up hurt, confused, and, in many cases, walk away from their faith because it, like the escalator, seemed broken.
As I said, I consider myself in this group of undiscipled leaders. Discipleship was always a secondary thing compared to Sunday-morning-only “church”. Sure, there were moments here and there, but never any intentional discipleship. Therefore, I have made intentional steps to remedy this. I don’t want to be another Christian who “does church” instead of being the church. I don’t want to be able to put on the worship service and tack on discipleship somewhere. I want to make disciples and then go from there. Simply put, I want to be a disciple who makes other disciples. But I’ll get back to these steps at a later date.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? Does this resonate with you? What am I missing? Thoughts?
Local church closure is not a death blow to God’s networked kingdom. Perfect balance is a death blow to living systems. Fish can’t live in a stagnant pond. Periodic oscillations help living systems to thrive. Sometimes a forest fire is just what the forest needs…But ecosystems reflect something we know about God through Scripture: death does not win.
Today I had an interesting conversation with a woman at work. We were discussing the local town we both live in. It is a smaller town, just north of Syracuse. We were discussing the fact that we both grew up outside of the town, which is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone. Those who grew up here know everyone and those who didn’t grow up here are easily pointed out. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, it is what it is.
Within this town, and its resulting culture, has sprung up a recent church plant. Now before I go any further, if you don’t know, I am completely for church planting. I love the church, blemishes and all. In fact, I’m attempting to follow the Spirit’s leading in establishing a faith community. We need more Christian communities of faith, especially here in central New York where the only options seem to be the Roman Catholic Church or low-church evangelicalism. We need more middle of the theological road, missionally minded, kingdom oriented, liturgical leaning communities that exist for the sake of others. But that’s another story.
The interesting thing about today’s conversation was the apparent angst regarding the location of the town’s recent church plant. Just outside of our village is a small strip mall comprised of mainly mom and pop eateries, a dollar store, a gym, and empty spaces. Found in the corner of the strip mall, in the largest spot available, is this church plant. My co-worker asked me in a very annoyed tone if I had seen this church and her hopes regarding its eventual departure: “I hope they’re renting it”, to be exact.
I was caught somewhat off-guard by her comment, but it got me thinking. In a town like ours is it beneficial to the overall economy to take up a potential business space to be used as a church? Are there taxes that are being lost for the benefit of the town? A related question is, if you have free coffee available for the public at your church during the weekdays, is it taking away from the only local coffeeshop in town? In a town like ours that is struggling to make ends meet and more jobs are needed, perhaps especially in entrepreneurial ventures, is a church taking away a potential business a detriment to its mission?
Without even knowing the beliefs and actions of this church, which, by the way, I know the pastor and they’re doing a wealth of good, my co-worker has already written them off because of their location. I’m merely wondering out loud if we as church planters should have a theology of location that informs our decisions. Should we do more cultural exegesis in our plans, perhaps including the possible economic disturbances our locations will bring about?
I posted awhile back concerning the Epic Fail Pastors Conference. Now J.R. Briggs has put up a video about it. Check it out. (If my wife wasn’t due within 2 weeks of the conference, I’d be there.)
Part of our pastoral team at St. Andrew’s Anglican is the Rev. Sam Coilpillai. Every time I see him and ask him how he is doing he always responds with the same answer: “Doing well by the grace of God.”
Tomorrow I will make my way to the D.C. area in order to attend the Ecclesia National Gathering. And in similar fashion to Sam, I will be attending by the grace of God. I was invited to attend, but didn’t have the money for it. I talked with some generous brothers who have helped me out before, but there weren’t any available resources. So I had decided I wasn’t going to be able to attend.
Then last Tuesday my friend, and director of Ecclesia, informed me of a church in the Network that was going to fully pay for me to go. I had to change some things up in the schedule, but overall, and even though I’m a little sick, it will work out. And all by the grace of God.
Would you please pray for me and everyone else in attendance that we would be attentive to what Jesus has for us? Pray for the speakers, listeners, programmers, and everyone else involved that it would be a few days of growing together for the sake of others. Ecclesia is very relational and intentional about getting people connected. It makes me wonder why God has graciously provided for me. Please pray that it will be a profitable time for all.
Last May I had the privilege of attending the Ecclesia Network‘s church planting training. While there I met J.R. Briggs, one of the pastors within the network. He pastors Renew Community in Lansdale, PA, which is just outside of Philly.
J.R. recently posted the fruition of an idea that had been brewing inside of him. The conference landscape in the U.S. is littered with gathering after gathering of “famous” pastors who have “successfully” planted churches or turned their living room Bible studies into their current multiple of thousands congregation. It’s what Ed Stetzer has called “ministry pornography”: hyped up situations that rarely, if ever, actually occur, but make you think that they do.
To help balance out the situation, J.R. has conjured up the resources for the Epic Fail Pastors’ Conference happening this April. The website has all the relevant info. If you’re like me and would like to be part of something that is refreshing and seemingly more realistic, think about attending this conference. If you want some more of the background, check out J.R.’s blog post here. I have a hunch this will be well worth attending.
3. If you haven’t checked out the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, I seriously urge you to do so. It is taking place in Cape Town, South Africa and is a gathering of Christians from around the world to discuss and explore how to continue to reach the world for Jesus. The things I have seen, heard, and listened to from this time make me incredibly envious of my sister and her husband who were invited to present at the Congress. What an opportunity! Here is the link to some of the videos from the Congress.
4. PBS had a series entitled “God in America”, which they debuted a few weeks ago. If you missed it, here it is again.
5. Have you seen the reality show cast that makes up the race for New York State Governor? Ah yes, the debate that aired this past week was a highlight of much political substance, historical precedents, and sheer idiocy. Here is the link to Syracuse.com’s review of it. Within the article there are links to other state newspapers and agency’s reviews as well.
6. If you happen to run across this and live in the L.A. area, check out the LA 2010 Unconference. My friend JR Woodward is helping put it together. Check out his blog to see the list of speakers.
7. There is a movement afoot. The Spirit is at work. If you live in the Chicago region, check out the Missional Learning Commons on October 29-30. The topics for the time will focus on missional discipleship, missional family, and missional leadership. Check out Ben Sternke’s blog or Dave Fitch’s blog for more info on the event.
I came across these videos at Cultivate Network and you need to watch them. They’re about the new ventures in being the Church in Canada. There’s some really good stuff here.
Recently my wife and I have been attending St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in the valley of Syracuse. They are part of the Anglican Missions in the Americas and are currently the only representing church from AMiA in the Syracuse region. Father Bob Hackendorf, the pastor of the church, has asked me to teach their adult Sunday School, which has been a great and humbling experience. This has also resulted in us being there more often, which is been unbelievably great and is the reason for this post.
St. Andrew’s is a small congregation that rents a small space in a small stripmall. By all accounts, most Western church people would write them off as an impotent, tiny congregation and thus must be doing something wrong or irrelevant because of their small stature. This could not be further from the truth. I honestly don’t think I have been in a more vibrant, alive community in, dare I say, the majority of my life. And I think their secret is their unity in their diversity.
The community is comprised of a mishmash of ages, socio-economic statuses, and ethnic backgrounds among other diversifying categories. People from all walks of life are united together in the worship of Jesus. It is their love for God that drives them to see past their cultural differences and to see each other as family. Hugs, kisses, and warm greetings flow to and from each other as signs of what God has done for them. The barriers the world holds up in regards to their differences melt away in the warmth of Jesus’ love.
It is inspiring and moving to see the wealthy family hug the ones who have very little. The teenage girl with different color hair is welcomed with open arms by the grandmotherly women there. The Indian priest encourages the teenage boy suffering from physical disabilities. Children and adults alike partake of the Eucharist demonstrating the reality that all are welcome in the Church; younger ones don’t have to wait to be actively participating.
It has been said that the church is a signpost directing people towards the future: the people of God themselves are the future of humanity to be seen in the present. This is most evident in the interaction and sharing of life by those who if they were outside of Christ’s family would probably pass by each other. Thankfully, the walls have been broken and peace grabs these people by the hand and says, “Love each other as you have been loved.”
