Archive for the 'ministry' Category

the 7

Brad September 11th, 2008

The 7 is very ‘friendly’ today. Heavy on thoughts for leaders. Enjoy…

1. Ryan Wiksell waxes eloquent on the ‘edifice’ complex in ministry. Is bigger better?

2. Propaganda vs. art. My good friend, Randy Elrod, parses out the debacle known as the MTV Music Video Awards.

3. Leading people does not a leader make. Brant Hansen, in his typical irenic way, shows us the heart of a true leader always comes back to service.

4. Speaking of leadership, another good friend, Sally Morgenthaler, has written an intriguing article for Catalyst on “Leadership in a Flattened World.” If you follow Sally’s stuff, you know this is one of her growing passions: returning ministry to the people.

5. My good buddy, Clint Carter, shares with us the underpinnings of “No - Go - No Ego” from Steve Andrews’ presentation at this year’s Exponential Conference. Great stuff…

6. Beautiful post from my new friend, Mark Riddle, on the “wonderous, dangerous, messy, uncontrollable, subversive, holy, and painful way of Jesus.”

7. And finally, from my new friend, Ed Stetzer: The Temptation of Disconnection. Reminding us all to make sure theory is lived out in practice…

stetzer talking points

Brad September 7th, 2008

As many of you know, Thursday and Friday of this week, I had the privilege to hang with Ed Stetzer at a conference for Mississippi Baptists @ Camp Garaywa in Clinton, MS, just outside of Jackson.

This was, in part, an ‘intensive’ to launch my directed studies in missiology with Ed through Liberty Theological Seminary. I had a great time, learned a bunch, and got a big head start on my first paper re: modern missions history.

Instead of a play-by-play of each of the five sessions Ed keynoted, I thought I’d combine the larger talking points into one post - particularly those on the missional church. Enjoy…

*God is a sender by nature
*Missional means to live sent: a sent church and a sent Christian
*God uses the church to make known the manifold wisdom of Himself
*Missional does not necessarily mean contemporary
*Lack of ’sentness’ deforms/disfigures the nature of the Gospel
*Sentness causes us not to transcend, but to recognize and engage culture
*Gospel becomes reduced to “only come” when it’s not missional
*We’ve created an artificial three-tier approach to ministry: 1) lay person, 2) professional minster, and 3) missionary
*We have lost mission to: 1) ‘clergification’, 2) cultural wars, and 3) buildings
*We’ve created the very system we loathe - an unhealthy clergy co-dependence
*We have to give ministry + mission back to the people God empowered for the ministry + mission
*Forms have driven church rather than missions
*Most churches tend to reflect old culture - those successful in last paradigm has the most difficulty in current paradigm
*A church that is incarnational is interested more in the harvest than in the barn
*Are we going to be protectors of common subcultures or missionaries?
*Irony of our subcultures: we should look similar and live differently than the world - we have looked different and lived the same
*Evangelism is sharing the Gospel - missions is understanding people before we speak with them
*What is the mission? Great commandment/commission - to serve [Luke 4:18-19] and to save [Luke 19:10]
*Missiology: what focus + strategies should we use to most effectively expand the kingdom where we are sent
*The missional church is a biblically faithful, culturally relevant, and countercultural community for the Kingdom of God

the year of the nudge

Brad August 25th, 2008

This last Saturday, I had the privilege to serve and worship alongside 40 MBU students - who make up our traveling ministry groups - at Cornerstone Farms in St. Jacob, IL for our first annual all-MBU ministry group retreat.

It’s pretty amazing to think about the ministry that is done by these groups. Last school year, our groups ministered in over 100 churches/youth groups/events in the Midwest and beyond. Next year, SpiritWing - the group I direct - will celebrate its 25th anniversary. These students are the cream of the crop on campus at MBU.

As for the retreat, we served Cornerstone Saturday morning by doing a variety of service projects. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. We played games in the afternoon. And we closed out the day by a short devotion from myself, hearing the amazing testimonies of Dave and Cortland Hendrick - the owners of Cornerstone - and worshiping through a ‘concert of prayer’ for our campus and future ministry.

During my time with the students, I ‘declared’ this school year as “The Year of the Nudge” for all our MBU ministry groups. The idea of the “nudge” comes from a little devotion from J.I. Packer’s devotional book, Knowing and Doing the Will of God. The devotion is from January 16 and uses the text from 2 Corinthians 13:5.

Unpacking the text, Packer says:

Impressions belong to the authentic reality of Christian living. When we have a “vision” or “burden” for something, we are testifying to an impression, and when our concern is biblically proper we are right to treat our impression as a nudge from the Holy Spirit.

I challenged the students to be aware of the Spirit’s leading this year as they step into ministry. And to obey the ‘nudge.’ It means God is at work and He wants us to join Him…

Here were some other big ideas I shared with the students, jumping off of Packer’s thoughts:

* God doesn’t add members to a team accidentally
* God builds a team to match the assignment
* God builds a team, gives it an assignment, and equips the team to carry out the assignment
* You should pay close attention to the people God adds to your team
* When you find out where the Master is, then you will know that is where you need to be
* A tender and sensitive heart will be ready to respond to God at the slightest prompting
* God has not changed. He still speaks to His people
* If you have trouble hearing God speak, you are in trouble at the very heart of your Christian experience
* The moment God speaks to you is the very moment God wants me to respond to Him
* The moment God speaks to you is God’s timing
* God develops my character to match the assignment He has for me
* He has a right to interrupt your life. He is Lord. When you accepted Him as Lord, you gave Him the right to help Himself to your life any time He wants
* When God speaks, your response requires faith and obedience
* Obedience is the outward expression of your love of God
* If you have an obedience problem, you have a love problem
* When God gives a commandment, He is not restricting you, He is freeing you
* When God lets you know what He wants to do through you, it will be something only God can do
* When God’s people and the world see something only God can do, they come to know God

the 7

Brad August 3rd, 2008

I know I just did a worship-themed “The 7″ but there have just been too many great posts in the blogosphere in the past week, I had to do another one.

So without any further ado, a non-themed “The 7.”

1. Bob Roberts sums up for us the number one missional value here. As usual, Roberts simple profundity will surprise you…

2. What connection does the Beijing Olympics and church have? If we aren’t careful, maybe way too much.

3. Contextualization, if defined and implemented correctly, is a good thing. But if it isn’t, it can be syncretism disguised as ministry, as David Fitch shows us.

4. Thabiti Anyabwile alerts us to what he thinks is a more pressing issue than in-house debates over things like The New Perspective and postmodernism. Read about it here.

5. Via Aaron Snow: “Have our church buildings, and services become our idols? Have we accidentally allowed them to replace the pursuit of deep, Biblical community with others?” Aaron challenges us to look at where we pour our energies in ministry in his post, “”‘All Mixed Up, Don’t Know What To Do’ - Man’s Expectations Have Crippled the Growth of The Kingdom”

6. Should we pay pastors? In light of the missional conversation taking place re: tent-making, bi-vocational ministry, de-centralized leadership, etc., Bob Hyatt takes on this hop topic in many ministry circles.

7. And finally, Dan Kimball pushes back on Christian critics regarding what being a missionary looks like in our culture. In many ways, Kimball is reacting against the opposite of syncretism, which is sectarianism - when you love God but not your neighbor.

Also, check out this video from the forthcomingThey Like Jesus But Not The Church DVD curriculum from Zondervan, which shows Kimball in full ‘missionary’ mode:

extract’d

Brad August 2nd, 2008

“Is it wrong or less spiritual to meet the needs of Christians who perhaps aren’t growing at other churches, who can move to the next level with Christ under the shepherding of a different church? Sure, this is important. If this is the goal of your church, fine. But be careful about calling this ‘growth.’ Churches can make a difference in some way with some Christians, but it’s unlikely they’re making a dent in culture by reaching the unreached or helping the truly disenfranchised.

…the death of so many churches is creating a feeder system for what some may call relevant or visionary or emergent churches. It is good that we are ‘rechurching’ America, but we also need to realize that when the feeder churches die off, everyone will feel the paucity of churchgoers. If we don’t focus on the ‘brand spanking new’ conversion of people, neighborhoods, and cities, in just a few short years, we’ll be going to refurbished church buildings…”

-from The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay

free your mind…

Brad July 11th, 2008

Steve McCoy has been running a great concept on his blog over the last month. He asks us the reader for their “Top 5 Books” on a particular topic, i.e. their top 5 books on parenting, marriage, suffering, etc. I’m a big book guy so I love seeing what has informed others on issues related to their Christian worldview.

Yesterday’s subject: the top 5 books that changed your mind about ministry/doctrine. I thought I’d share with you my five:

1. The Emerging Church - Dan Kimball

Back in 2003, this book set me on my deconstruction/reconstruction of what the church should be about in the 21st century…

2. SoulTsunami - Leonard Sweet

Providentially led to soon after The Emerging Church. Turned me into a futurist. Never been the same…

3. Tie: The Shaping of Things To Come - Alan Hirsch/Michael Frost & Total Church - Steve Timmis/Tim Chester

Set me on my current spiritual formation and ministry philosophy continuum regarding “missional”…

4. Cheating here, but the entire Ancient-Future series by Robert Webber: Ancient-Future Faith; Ancient Future Evangelism; Ancient-Future Time; and Ancient-Future Worship.

Webber has been deeply influential. Gave me ancient roots and modern wings to my much of ministry philosophy…

5. Desiring God - John Piper

Clarified/still clarifying my life’s calling…

And, one more that I would add…

6. Chosen By God - R.C. Sproul

Not so much changed my mind, but further cemented my thoughts regarding the doctrines of grace

the 7

Brad July 2nd, 2008

1. Great thoughts from Ed Stetzer on how multi-ethnic our churches really are. In short, there not but I’m encouraged to read of those who are trying to get the conversation rolling…

2. Brian of Semper Reformanda Records continues to pump out great posts. These [here and here] center on the danger of inauthentic ‘marketing’ to our congregants. And the jumping off point is Jack in the Box tacos. Yes, you heard me right…

3. A.J. Vanderhorst has been doing a great series on “Planting With Small Groups,” which refreshingly sounds very similar to the missional communities conversation happening in church planting circles today. His most recent entry, “Connect the Dots,” unpacks the subtlety of how to build an organic “church of small groups” rather than a “church with small groups.”

4. Dan Kimball’s ruminations on preaching. He’s pro-preaching, but with a few caveats…

5. Couldn’t agree more. From Jordan @ Northwood Church: Why I Hate Patriotic Songs (in Worship)

6. I thought Tony Morgan hit this out of the park. He talks about do’s and don’ts regarding ministry growth. i.e., #1: You don’t need a logo, you need life change. Love it…

7. And finally, Bob Robert’s encouragement to young pastors: Keep Movin’ Forward…

the 7

Brad June 15th, 2008

1. In the last “The 7,” I linked to Ed Stetzer’s “contrarian” entry on some questions and concerns regarding the multi-site mode of church multiplication. Here is the second part in that series. Particularly interesting is the interchange between Ed, Greg and Geoff Surratt. Check it…

2. Kitschy sermon series. Blah. With that in mind, I loved this. I couldn’t resonate more with Drew…

3. Very interesting post on the issue of tithing in the early stages of growing a church plant via A.J.

4. J-Vo continues to pump out great post after great post. This post regarding workaholism particularly caught my attention because I’ve been there, done that. And need to continue ask myself the questions he lists at the end of his entry…

5. Ed Young Jr.’s “Church Pirates” vid has received quite the buzz. On Todd Rhodes blog, there are 147 comments alone, mostly challenging Ed’s thoughts. Bob Hyatt [here and here] and Brant Hansen bring their irenic thoughts to the table. [I don't think Ed thought through this very well. Too many holes. And then he put on video and posted it on his blog. Unfortunately - but maybe appropriately - is getting posterized, er, sharpened.]

6. Scott McKnight’s insightful thoughts on plagarism…

7. And another classic from Brant: Ministry Without the People.