Exponential 09

Spent last week is sunny Orlando, Florida at the National New Church Conference. First time I've ever attended a conference specifically for church planters.

LOVED It!
While I'm not a church planter myself, I felt SO at home there. I loved the energy. The room was filled with excited Christians, on fire for God, passionate about the church and ready to join God in His mission. Talk about refreshing!

While at some church conferences I have felt self conscious about my gender, sensing resistance from some to interact with me or include me in their conversations. At this conference, I had no such feelings. I didn't even mind that I had to go by myself. I felt like everyone was on the same team, with the same desire, excited about anyone who would want to join them. No discrimination. No fear. All inclusive.

But MOST of all, as a futurist and innovator who loves to dream, brainstorm and create I finally found a people group that have similar desires. Church planters are dreamers filled with hope. They are BOLD, not yet afraid to do something never tried before. They seek to hear and follow God's desires. Their calling to plant a new church requires them to be innovative, flexible, and receptive to new ideas. Being around church planters is like eating dessert all day long. No bitterness, grumbling, or resistance to slow you down.

As someone who has a ministry call and is struggling to learn how to start a new ministry from scratch, the conference was just as helpful to me as it was to the church planters. In a way, I see myself as a "ministry planter" and therefore I needed to hear and benefited from the same things they were hearing.

Finally, by going to a new church start conference you gain great insight into the future of the Kingdom of God. You get a glimpse of what is to come. You get to hear what future church leaders are thinking, dreaming and being told by current "experts" in the field. It's a great place to identify and clarify changes occurring within the Kingdom.

Like any GREAT conference, it's given me a lot to process and reflect on but I have found it's already transformed my thinking and helped to clarify things. In the days ahead I hope to post several entries about topics addressed and how I've been changed. Until then I just wanted to say I highly recommend people attend this conference. And you don't have to necessarily be a church planter to greatly benefit from what it offers!

A Vision Miscarriage

I am in the process of reading Reggie McNeal's new book Missional Renaissance. Reggie McNeal is probably one of my most favorite authors. He has an uncanny ability to articulate things about the Kingdom of God many of us are thinking but just can't quite put into words. But more than that, he has the ability to see where things are going before most are able to and will write a book that is always quite timely and relevant to current circumstances.

In the introduction of the book, McNeal states, "In the early stages of movements, proponents have to distinguish the new from the status quo. What it is not is as important as what it is. However, as the movement matures, what it is becomes more fully defined and capable of supporting its own existence without having to live off siphoned energy or allergic reactions to the prior thing-it-is-not. Actually, movements that cannot get to this stage don't survive; they last only as long as the reactionary core can generate enthusiasm among the initial adherents and the disgruntled they recruit. In early stages of movements, the new thing and thing-it-is-not often alternately seek mutual ground and work to make the other go away."

There are HUGE leadership lessons in these words. Pastors attempting to cast a vision that will require major paradigm shifts and will change the culture of the church have to not only understand this "movement process," they have to be experts in navigating it. When I read McNeal's words I just kept thinking, "I wish I had completely understood this seven years ago."

Seven Years Ago
Seven years ago, I had been selected to be a part of a new group our church was forming called the vision council. Our task was to study, reflect, pray and discuss in hopes of discovering, defining and articulating God's vision for our church. It was a daunting task that none of us took lightly. We spent hundreds of hours between the six of us, humbly seeking direction. Even after we felt we had clear direction it took quite some time to be able to articulate it to each other, much less the congregation. We were struggling to find the vocabulary and common ground to describe what was in our heads. What we heard God tell us wasn't anything we could find others doing and would require major paradigm shifts. We were on the bleeding edge of a movement, a movement many now describe as "missional." But seven years ago this term hadn't even reached mainstream and very few churches were even talking about making the paradigm shifts we were considering. While there were aspects of the vision being vocalized by some, nothing was organized or coherent. The movement was still in the birthing stages.

Just as McNeal describes, we found ourselves explaining what it was not. It was the only common ground we had to work from and making contrasts helped to define the new ideas. The problem was, as we described what it was not, we upset those who liked the "nots" and had no desire to change them. In addition, a movement as powerful as the missional movement draws a very clear dividing line, one that completely changes your understanding of "church" and how we express and live out our spiritual self. As the dividing line became more defined it also grew deeper in the sand, until it was more like a canyon than a line.

Those that found themselves on the "what-it-is-not" side responded in different ways. Some became extremely vocal and combative. They manifested their anger in different ways, from attacking the pastor and lobbying for his removal to passive-aggressive approaches of rumors and gossip. Others became painfully wounded. They took it personally and felt we were devaluing them. Many of the wounded left the church, unable to reconcile differences and too pained by the experience to be functioning congregation members any longer. Still others, were non-responsive all together. They appeared to be supportive but in the face of extreme conflict stayed silent and only observed. And so, things very quickly degraded to a very few that were outwardly supportive of the new changes.

With no momentum or tipping point pushing us towards being missional, the movement never matured. Just as McNeal described, the movement did not survive and in the end either did the vision council. Three years into the process, three of the original members had left the church and by five years another three, including the senior pastor. Right now, there is just one member of the vision council that is still a part of the congregation. And if you're wondering, it's not me.

Haunted with my Thoughts
I am often left wondering, could we have avoided the vision miscarriage? If we had just known a little more about the "movement process" or done things differently, would that have made the difference and insured a successful birth? What makes the difference for those who are able to birth a new vision? What do they have that we didn't? Could the vision have been saved? Finally, if I had a second opportunity and found myself at a church that was just beginning the visioning process, what would I advise them to do differently?

Vision miscarriages are painful for everyone involved. As a vision council member, closely attached to the vision, in many ways I personally feel like a mother who miscarried a baby. I've gone through many, if not all of the same stages. There is a pain that goes along with a vision miscarriage that you carry with you everywhere you go. You're always thinking about what could have been and mourning what was lost. At some point in every day, I find my thoughts wandering to that beautiful vision; longing to see it become a reality, dreaming of a time when I could be a part of it, desiring to try again, fearful of another vision miscarriage but with longings that seem to outweigh those fears.

In retrospect and reflection, I don't think it would have mattered what we did. The vision would have miscarried. The church wasn't ready to make the hard paradigm shifts needed. They had strong desires to stay who they were and resisted any attempts, however small, to make changes toward being missional. Their desire to stay attached to their building and be church centric (making sure the majority of the ministry took place on their property and benefited them, having a staff that serviced only their needs, the need to have big, nice buildings, filling their time with lots of committee meetings and church based programs, etc.) was just too much to overcome. Every attempt to do things off campus, with no benefit to the church itself, struggled to survive and often failed.

The reality is, there was no fertile ground. They were all about come and see vs. go and live, programs vs. people and church-based vs. kingdom-based leadership. And even though they were dissatisfied and unhappy, the change they embraced and dreamed of was to become another mega-church, with everything that comes along with that. Going missional was as far away from their aspirations as you could get.

And so, longing to be a part of the "missional" birth occurring in the Kingdom of God, I continue to search for fertile ground...

With tax monies declining and county services being cut, where are the churches?

I had the opportunity last weekend to attend our local county budget hearing. Over several days the board conducted a handful of open hearings for community members to give their input on what NOT to cut. Over a period of several hours I heard plea after plea from people with real needs and concerns. From the single parent who was depending on the county subsidized childcare to ensure her child wasn't left home alone while she worked to the senior citizens who depend on the services, programs and meals offered at the frequented senior center to increase their mental and physical well being, EVERYONE HAD A NEED! Even the school district is looking at reduced staffing, canceled programs and services and higher classroom sizes, decreasing the quality of education offered. I do not envy the board. They have a difficult task ahead of them as they sort all this out and reconcile the monstrous deficit ahead of them.

As I sat there listening to everyone, I just kept asking myself WHERE ARE THE CHURCHES? We say we care about the community but what are we specifically doing to help meet their needs? We say we desire to live like Jesus and yet the county is the one striving to meet the needs of its community, creating programs and struggling to pay for services.

And that is when, as a fellow Christ-follower and member of the Kingdom of God, I became extremely embarrassed. Embarrassed that within our county we have over ONE HUNDRED churches. One hundred churches that for the most part are not focused on meeting the needs of the community. One hundred churches that didn't sit in attendance at these budget meetings, making lists of ways they could help. One hundred churches that have lost sight of their true Jesus mission, while all around them their community screams for help. But MOST of all, I sat there embarrassed that the county government is living more like Jesus than we are!

The economic crisis our country is struggling through is painful and disconcerting, but the ethos crisis our churches are living is deafening and destructive. We have lost focus of why we exist. We have become inwardly focused, isolated from the very people we were called to reach. We live a life that strives to build bigger buildings and create more programs for our members, while all around us basic needs for the community we live in such as childcare, education, safety and health are being threatened.

This economic crisis is an opportunity for churches to redeem themselves. If every church stepped up to the plate and committed to the county to help replace the deficit with people and resources can you imagine the Christ-centered revival it would ignite? I have heard people describe the church as the hope of the world. During this economic crisis why don't we step up to the plate and actually BECOME it!

We the church, in order to form a more perfect world, establish Christ, insure Kingdom focus, provide for community needs, promote Christ-centered lives, and secure the blessings of scripture to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this pledge to our Father, who art in heaven.

The Evangelism Catalyst

I just got done reading When There's No Burning Bush: Following Your Passions to Discover God's Call by Eddy Hall and Gary Morsch. This book is an excellent read and I highly recommend it! With the premise that "every member is a minister," the book helps churches make a major paradigm shift from being program driven to being call driven. While assisting followers with call discovery and the identification of six myths that hinder people from living out their calling, the authors challenge churches to closely examine their contribution to ministry degradation. This book is not only illuminating for the follower, it's convicting for the church. What is so exciting about this book is that the authors have included a 7-8 week small group leaders guide in the back to assist churches in taking the first steps of change, empowering people for ministry.

All of this got me thinking...
Most churches when assessing their weaknesses will say that they are weak in evangelism. When trying to improve this area, many will implement programs designed to teach people how to share the gospel and be prepared to answer questions that may come up in spiritual conversations. They may try to create special activities or worship series to attract non-believers and encourage followers to invite a friend to church. At the same time, most believers will admit they feel fearful of witnessing while feeling guilty that they don't do it enough.

And it dawned on me...
Maybe the approach is all wrong! Maybe the way to help churches and people be better at evangelizing is not to focus on evangelism but instead to focus on ministry and allow evangelism to be a natural outflow of that ministry. When you identify your ministry calling and are able to live out that calling, you're not only more successful at it because God has specially gifted you for the task, your joy level is exponential, motivating greater participation. If we are surrendering our lives for God's purposes, can't we be assured that any ministry He may call us to will somehow be a witness to Him and strengthen the Kingdom?

By directing people to focus on identifying their ministry call and living it out, we redirect their attention from something they naturally resist and are fearful of (evangelism) to something that God has prepared them to flourish in, while at the same time accomplishing God's ultimate purpose; to connect with those who don't know Him yet.

The key to this is making sure that all the church's ministry opportunities aren't inwardly focused. I would hypothesize that if we (the church) allowed "God callings" to determine our ministries and spiritual gifts and skills to determine the way our people were involved in ministry, that most likely the majority of these ministries would not be inwardly focused (taking place on church premise, mostly benefiting church members), but would instead be outwardly focused (touching the lives of people who may not know Him and/or have a need only God can meet).

Which makes me wonder...
Is the solution to church decline and minimal Kingdom growth the freeing of our people? Freedom to follow the Spirit wherever it leads. Encouragement to discover our "God calling". Release from responsibilities and commitments not in alignment with that calling. And the celebration of God's people being used by Him to touch the life of another.