The Growing Edge

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The answers to these questions can be found by examining the end purpose of your discipleship training.  The "Can I Get a Witness?" New Church Development Team Training Conference will focus on discipleship that is intent on:

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The Light Shines in the Darkness

"The Light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not overcome it."  John 1:5

I woke up early the other day to go for a run.  It's becoming a habit of mine to do this, although I generally loath getting up early (I have always been a night owl).  But as I begin running longer routes, I find myself in the odd position of having to be creative with my time.  That's tough for me especially since I've never been that creative.  So this morning I wake up at 5 am, stumble through our seminary apartment, manage to get dressed and realize that it's completely dark outside.  The sun hasn't even thought of breaking over the horizon for at least another hour and a half or so.  As I think about the route I've chosen for the day, my second realization is that there are not very many lights on the route. In fact it's through the park which always seems a little darker than the rest of the world because there is virtually no extra help beating back the consuming darkness.  With no time to scour the house for a flashlight, I find a small key chain with one of those LED lights attached, you know, the ones you get in your stocking at Christmas and then resides in that drawer in the kitchen with all the other odd items with no real place in the home.  Not a big light but it worked.  I hoped and prayed that this little light would at least keep me moderately safe from oncoming cars and other runners/bikers who might not be able to see me or keep me from tripping or having a branch slap me in the face  So there it was, me and this little key chain light versus the darkness and all the unknown that it holds.

As I ran, this little bit of scripture above came to mind and made me very aware of how the church relates to the world outside its walls.  During the course of the run I was aware of certain things

There was a stark line of darkness as left the seminary grounds.  You could see where the light ended and the darkness began.  While the line of darkness isn't quite as clear in our world as it can be during an early morning run, we need to know that the world is different and train our people to recognize the difference between darkness and light.  If we are stumbling around in the darkness thinking we're actually in the light, that's can be very dangerous for all who may be following.

My eyes adjusted to the darkness.  I didn't use the light constantly.  In fact, my eyes adjusted to the limited amount of light that was available and I got used to it, sort of.  I think for those, both inside and outside the church, our "eyes" have a tendency to adjust to the environment around us.  What happens when we become so much like the culture around us we don't realize our "eyes" have adjusted to the point where we don't realize we're not shining out light any longer?

I saw things in shadows and didn't know quite what they were.  Related to the above point, branches looked more menacing, street signs looked like people and only God knows what was in the woods.  The darkness can play tricks with your eyes.  It makes you think things are something other than they really are.  Maybe for those who have yet to know the love God has offered us in Jesus, there lives are fraught with seeing things only in the shadows of their own darkness.  How does the church or followers of Jesus, begin to allow the light of Jesus penetrate the shadows for them to see that what they thought was real is in fact a distortion of reality and there is a much better way to live.

Oncoming car headlights were very bright and overwhelmingly blinding.  But be careful. As I ran, an occasional car would pass.  The headlights were often blinding and dangerous.  When we consider being light to people in the darkness, we must remember that it's dangerous to shine a bright light in the eyes of someone who has been in darkness for a long period of time.  We are called be evangelists but how we share Jesus can be more dangerous than not sharing Jesus at all.  After all, many Presbyterians have excused themselves from doing Evangelism for that very reason.  They seek to do no harm.  Neither is tenable.  There's a middle ground between doing nothing and being obnoxious and potentially detrimental.  For those who have chosen to follow Jesus, telling others about his love, grace and the freedom that accompanies a life with him, doesn't seem to be an option we can decline to do. 

There were some lights along the way  To my surprise there were some lights along the way and I was guided by them and my light became a part of the collective work to combat the darkness.  This is my vision of how the church should work.  Collectively we must work to take our light beyond our walls to a commnuity that wanders alone, for the most part, in a very dark world.  What a joy it was to see a light up ahead beaming its joy into the dark world in which I was running.  It gave me hope, new sight and helped me feel as if I could keep going.  In fact, my light was even brighter upon entering the darkness once again.

Thanks be to God for sending the true Light into the darkness of our world!

Top Six Tactical Mistakes a Church Makes- Rebuttal....sort of

I recently came across this post by Bill Easum (Bill Easum's Post) on the top 6 tactical mistakes a chruch can make.  I thought I would share my responses in hope you might join the conversation.  Please go and read his post first so that you can get his opinions unfiltered.

Now granted, I cannot match the years of experience and expertise Bill has and won't attempt to compete with his observations by making ones of my one.  They are what they are.  But I feel the need to ask, "Is this true?" or "Does this make sense in my experience, limited thought it may be?"

So off we go...

Mistake 1: Amen!  I'm glad to hear this expressed beyond our Evangelism and Church Growth Office in Louisville.  We have this discussion daily.   In my opinion, if the church can bring evangelism and social justice back together, then the church can start being the church again.  However, I think the emergent conversation is broader and more complicated then the issues of evangelism and social justice.  Ecclesiology has a big part of that conversation as well.

Mistake 2: I completely agree and would add that it not only has the potential to fail to get the worship service off to a energetic beginning but can and does alienate visitors.  The same goes for prolonged sharing of joys and concerns.  I have long encouraged open sharing of joys and concerns, but care must be taken not to allow it to be so prolonged and in depth that those who are new may disconnect.

Mistake 3: Looking back on the church plant I started, I wish I had hired a worship leader first.  Instead we hired a Director of Christian Education.  Not a horrible call but certainly our worship experience, which was one of the first glimpses a new person got of our new faith community, could have been greatly enhanced by a hired worship leader.  I don't agree that it should be the first hire in every new church or growing church looking to expand staff.  So much of church planting and church growth is contextual.  i think it's an over-generalization to declare "one size fits all."  Each church should look at it's ministry and determine for itself which first hire it.  Where one church may need a music leader, another may need a social worker, volunteer coordinator, etc.  Hire who you need to hire to be the church (and reach the ones) God has called you to be (and reach).

Mistake 4: Hmmm.  I have wrestled with this often.  I would need to know if Bill means a personal, face to face visit, phone call, or email.  (All this is assuming they leave their contact information...those first time visitors are well aware of our tactics and may choose to remain anonymous!)  First, email doesn't seem too personal.  Although it would work for me (as a first time visitor), others may find it too impersonal.  I think much of that depends on the age of the person and their church experience.  So I'm guessing it's one of the first two.  Of those, I would humbly suggest that a well timed phone call would be best to "feel out" whether or not they might receptive to a visit.  Here's where it pays to know your community.  For an unchurched person, having the pastor show up to visit might be unwelcome whereas someone having grown up in the church might fully expect the pastor to show and if that does not happen, they feel unwelcome.  So, are you dealing with mostly unchurched people?  Maybe most families are dual income and spend their days working and their evenings shuttling kids to and fro while trying to get dinner ready.  Is it a retirement community where there is potentially more time for face to face interaction?  Finally what expectations do you create when the Pastor is the first to show up?  How will that impact how you do pastoral care and future interactions?  These are not light questions especially for a growing, vital church.

Mistake 5: I would be interested in know how he came to this conclusion.  While this may be true, I would want a staff that can do what needs to be done regardless of their 'specialty."  Maybe this a "jack of all trades, master of none" conversation.  I remember a football coach encouraging me to quit band and focus on athletics because "while I could be good at both, i could only be great at one."  I disagreed.  I would suggest that volunteers need to be focused and specific.  I fear that such specialized staff might slip into creating "kingdoms" unto themselves over and against the vision and direction of the church.  The more investment staff have in the interconnectedness of the whole ministry and their role in making that happen, the more fully the vision will be pursued.  My $.02.

Mistake 6: That's certainly possible but if that were the case, let's set the retirement age at 40.  The problem may be more about the relational skills of our pastors than their age.  For the majority of my response here, I would echo what I said about knowing your community and who you are trying to reach.  That's probably more important than a general age of the person visiting new people.

So, What's your take?

Run the Race!

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.
                                                                                            Acts 20:24

Recently, my wife, son, daughter and I have begun running in 5K (3.1 mile) races on the weekend.  Most of the competitors in these races are either recreational runners trying to recapture some glory in their lives (that would describe me) or those just out for a time of communing with others in a semi-organized and timed way (ergo, the rest of the family).  Now, you have to know that running is something I've done for the majority of my life, the last decade or so notwithstanding.  Recently, I've been able to revive my passion for running and hope to ignite a similar passion in my kids, if for no other reason than to give them something they can do over the course of their life to stay healthy.  So, back to the 5K's.  I harbor no illusions of winning the event or even my age group (although I've placed fourth in my age group the last few times) but I do take these little events seriously.  I've bought good running shoes and clothes to wear, I train, I warm up, I time myself and keep track of how fast I run each mile, etc.etc.  My kids just show up.  They want to run well and they have goals but they just don't take it as seriously as I do.

Yet, I noticed something interesting about my daughter the last couple of weeks.  I had finished the race and was running the course backwards to help my family finish.  When I found Abby, she was walking with a new friend.  Apparently, she met this person early and they encouraged each other throughout the race.  "Very cool", I thought.  I was proud of her.  Then, to my surprise, at the next race, the same thing happened.  So, While I was busy "running my race", she was busy running hers.  My race produced some sense of self satisfaction that I had hit my personal goals.  Her race produced a new friend.  In this scenario, who won?

Churches sometime get caught up in having the right worship, the best kids programs or mission work.  They're sure that if the sanctuary is repainted or new carpet laid, it will be a game changer.   They think if they can just find the right consultant or change process, they can "win the race".  There's nothing to really say they won't, either.

But I wonder what it would look like if our churches focused not so much on the race (growth, stability and sustainability) and instead focused on relationships.  Imagine a faith community that intentionally looks for new people to know.  Instead of focusing on the finish line they are focused on the people around them and how to get to know them and develop real relationship with them.  Can you imagine?  Can you imagine a church where the people are more important than the programs? Or where conflicts take a back seat to real sharing of life, true life?

In this scenario, even if a church achieves some sense of self satisfaction that it has made progress toward some self selected 5 year startegic plan, have they been about the task of "testifying to the Gospel of God's grace?"  If we could only "run our race" and be acutely aware of those also running and decide that, strategic plans be damned, we are going to get to know and love those around us, imagine what the church would be....

 

No Time Like the Present

There's always an excuse.  We all have them.  I've been trying to get this blog started for over 6 months.  I'm a procrastinator by nature but it's time to just get going.  At a conference I attended a few months back, one of the attendees suggested that we need to start doing things "badly."  He recalled that when he started walking, he did it badly.  when he first learned to throw a baseball, he did it badly.  Many of us want to start doing things and do them well the first time.  Maybe that's why I've been so hesitant with this blog.  I want the first post to be amazing. I guess this is proof that it just needs to be done and if it's bad...I'll learn.

I also think this applies to the majority of our congregations.  They have become too petrified to try new things either due to past failures or from a fear that they will do it poorly.  What if all our churches decided to engage their community in a new way even if the did it "badly" at first?  It would be amazing.  Even at our worst, God might actually do something miraculous.