LifeServe Conference

I've just wrapped up my first ever LifeServe Conference in Loveland, Colorado. The focus of this conference was helping train church leaders to equip people to serve. A couple of great nuggets I plan to take back to my team...

• Externally Focused - A huge emphasis was placed on the church being missional (people of God partnering with Him on His redemptive mission in the world). Good ideas were given to help guide the Church into this existence.
  
• Getting Closer to Jesus - We always talk about being a disciple of Jesus. To be a disciple is to follow and get closer to Jesus. Where might we follow Jesus to get closer to him? Where did he hang out? Yep, you got it, the "sinners." We need to rethink where we hang out if we want to be a disciple of Jesus.
  
• Where We Serve - One of the things we at our church have been thinking about is how we might better engage our members. To follow up with the "getting closer to Jesus" point, we're going to have to think of inside the church walls service and outside the church walls service as parallel ministries. We often promote inside the church walls service as "real ministry" and in doing so we limit people and discredit ministry outside the church wall.
  

My favorite quote of the conference came from Wayne Cordeiro. "You teach what you know. You reproduce what you are."

Challenging Church Series

If you haven't noticed, whoever "you" is, I've posted on a more frequent basis over the past few weeks since beginning the Versus series. I figure there must be something to it, so I'm going to keep with the series idea and go with something deeper. I call this upcoming series Challenging Church.

Over the past 3-4 years, my mind and heart have been bombarded with new and old ideas about who and what the church is. I'd like to try to unpack some of these ideas over the next few weeks. I'm not promising well thought out posts or sensible arguments. I just want to try to spit out some major themes that relate to us as the Body of Christ.

As I write these, I do encourage comments. Please remain kind and respectful with them all.

Church is like food...

I love being a vocational minister, most of the time. I love being able to get to the church building around 8:30 or 9, ok, maybe 9:30 sometimes, knowing that I have no idea what my day may consist of. Let me retract that statement. I know what I have planned for that day, but I know for sure that something else is going to pop up to ruin my plans (hence the past title of my blog...Got No Plans). I also love seeing how God works through and in me during encounters with teens, kids, and adults in our congregation. I greatly enjoy preparing for a lesson or a sermon as well as how to equip others who are around me. I really do love what I do.

But here's the deal. Ministry is time consuming and the very thing I love can be the very thing that kills me. I listened to a podcast this morning that was an interview facilitated by Gabe Lyons with Rob Bell on the Catalyst podcast from 2006. Gabe was asking Rob (I use their first names like I know them personally) about all the opportunities and invitations he has to speak other places outside of Mars Hill. What Bell said really impacted me, especially at this point in my life. He said (I'm not going to quote) that it's super easy to let ourselves as church leaders get into a lot of great opportunities that seem to be, well, great opportunities. The problem is that we let these opportunities consume us and dictate what we do instead of letting our mission dictate what opportuinities we choose to accept.

Bell's approach is to seek where God is really working in his heart during a particular life season and then focus on only those things that pertain to that particular mission. This is revolutionary for me because I currently have a lot of good things I would like to do, but I lack the energy to do all of them great. I need to find the focus that God has placed on my heart and surround myself with opportunities that move me in a direction to fulfilling that mission.

Church is like food...I love it. I need it! But too much of it can make me sick and actually end up killing me. God, help me to know what "food" to say no to so that I can feast on what will bring life to me and others more abundantly through Jesus.

Turning the Page

For our family this summer has provided a number of ends, beginnings, and transitions. One of the biggest was my mom and dad's move from Leoti to Mulvane. It's been a great 8 years for them out in Western Kansas serving God in the midst of a community who embraced my family as one of their own. Melissa, Owen, and I went out for their last Sunday for an emotional 2-hour praise and worship service filled with music, prayer, Scripture reading, and remiscing of what God has done in the lives of many over the past 8 years. Wow, talk about real praise and worship! I was reminded that worship is not about just singing songs, but really giving everything to God. I was privileged to be a part of an awesome worship experience. Praise God!

On a more personal note I continue to transition into the equipping director at the church I serve and find it as challenging and fulfilling as I presumed it would be. Balancing youth ministry and equipping ministry is going to take me further than I can go. Only God will be able to take us to where He wants us as long as we'll get out of the way and let Him.

What are your latest beginnings and ends? Where is God transitioning you?

P90x

For the past month a friend of mine from church, we'll call him Dan cuz that's his name, and I have been working out 3 times a week at 5:30am using the P90x DVD system. I just want to say that throughout my high school and college football and baseball career, I'm not sure I've had as tough a workout as P90x provides. Mondays is chest and back (all push-ups and pull-ups), Wednesdays is arms and shoulders, and Fridays is legs and back. And don't forget the 15 minute Ab Ripper X workout at the end of each session. At the end of each workout I am toast and the next few days the muscles that I just worked stay continually contracted.

If Dan and I were real men, we'd do the program as it's designed - 6 times a week - however, we do have lives to live and sleep to be had.

Here's the thing though. If I was trying to do this on my own, I'd probably have skipped a few of these workouts and stayed in bed longer. In fact, I may have already given up this far into it. Knowing that Dan is awake and waiting in his recliner just inside his front door when I pull up at 5:30 is just the motivation and accountability that I need to do these workouts.

Neither one of us is looking to be the best looking guy at the pool this summer, we just want to stay in good shape. (although we secretly are hoping to impress our wives) There's no race to win or championship to attain, which sometimes makes it hard for me to find motivation. But knowing that Dan has committed to this, makes me want to do it too. We both readily admit how much we need eachother in order to stick with this workout program.
Could there be a lesson in here about the church and the necessity of having others helping us along the journey? Hmmmm......

Tax Refunding

I had no idea how much of an effect having a child made in tax deductions. Our refund this year is bigger than it ever has been which brings with it more choices of what to do with it. One of those options includes a tithe of the full amount. Do people usually tithe (give 10%) out of their refunds? What about tithing out of monetary gifts for birthdays and Christmas?

I'm curious to know your thoughts. Do you all tithe off your refund?

God = Comma?

I'm not the first one to make this comment, but it's the first time I've experienced it in a painful way.

I received a call today from a worker at Teen Mania who is responsible for organizing a youth event called Acquire the Fire. I took our high schoolers to an ATF event last year and vowed never to do it again for reasons I'll refrain from posting about here.

So anyways, I talked to this girl a little bit about why we would not be attending this year's event, which went fine only to lead her to ask me a question...can I pray for you? I was like, "sure."

And then it began...

God we just thank you............Father.......Lord..........God............Father.........
Lord.........God...................Father..............God............Father..............Lord.......
God.........God.........Father.................God..............Lord....................Lord...........
.......Amen

I have no idea what she said during the "............" because all I could focus on was how many times she was using God, Lord, and Father as commas. Since when did we decide to use God's name as a way to begin and end a sentence or connect two sentences together. Is this proper English? Could there be a more distracting way of praying?

Reader, as I close out this post, Audience, I just want to take time, Reader, to encourage you to not use God as a comma, Friend, and think more about what you are saying, Blog Follower, when you pray, Earthling, and not just babble, Homosapien, as some have the tendency to do, Evolved Primate, and by the way, Person, thank you for the food. Amen. So be it.

Down With the Sickness

The Just household has been a breeding ground for bacteria over the past month. Multiple ear infections, a cold, and a sinus infection have each pitched in to make the start to 2009 a not so pleasant one. With sickness comes medicine and numerous visits to the doctor. We've done antibiotics, benedryl, tylenol, claritin, and ibuprofren. A significant amount of time and money has been spent trying to get the Just's back to health.

Our physical health has a great deal of influence on how our days play out and we are very cognizant of when our bodies just aren't right. We spend a lot of time, money, and energy keeping ourselves healthy and getting our bodies back to health when we're sick or hurt.

My friend Tyler made a good point the other day as we were discussing our past lives as athletes. We used to spend at least 2 hours a day practicing during season to become the best basketball, football, or baseball players we could be. Nobody blinked an eye at such an idea and practice. Yet, when it comes to training our bodies on a spiritual level, we fail to take the time to get ourselves into the best shape possible.

I guess we can come to a few conclusions using these observations.

1. We believe that our physical bodies have a greater effect on our everyday lives than our spiritual lives do. Were this not true of us, we would spend more time training our spiritual bodies
2. We find greater value in our physical bodies than in our spirit. We see very tangible results when we feed our physique. We can look in the mirror and know that our work has paid off. Our spiritual results are not as tangible although they are recognizable.
   
3. We have separated the spiritual from the physical. This Greek approach has infiltrated our Western society causing us to no longer see how the two are one. In Hebrew culture, the physical and spiritual didn't exist. They were one and the same. We've managed to divide them and place greater emphasis on the physical.
   

So what? I don't know. Just thought it was interesting. ;-)

The Present Future II: Reflection

McNeal cuts to the heart and offends us church folk in this chapter. I mean who really likes to be called a Pharisee. Those guys were all messed up and had no room for Jesus. Building a comparison between religious church goers and Pharisees is something we'd rather not hear, but probably all need to.


Remember when you were a kid and you went to church camps? It was so easy to be a Christian there because you were in a tidy little Christian bubble that kept those heathens out while you sang Kumbaya, played stupid youth group games, and did those dumb group chants..."We love Jesus, yes we do. We love Jesus, how 'bout you?" Don't get me wrong, I love church camps and am sending six middle schoolers to one through Youthfront this summer, but it reminds me so much of what it's like to be in church now.


We have our own ways of communicating with eachother using Christianese and regularly discuss just how bad off society is as we comfortably sit in our pews, singing worship songs, nodding our heads in agreement with what the pastor says. We've created a place for God to live and if you don't come to this place, you're going to have a hard time meeting God as if God only shows up in church buildings.


Ok, I know I'm being pretty condescending towards our churches, but there's got to be a better way to think Kingdom growth rather than church growth. St. Francis said, "preach the gospel wherever you go and if necessary, use words." I love this quote and I think it sums up what McNeal is getting at. I'd take it to the next level though. Words are important as we articulate what it is we believe and just how it is that God has changed our lives. Without this life changing power, Christianity has no relevance in the lives of anybody inside or outside the church.


I want to give a couple quick examples of how we're trying to do this at First UMC.

1. Adopt a street - an idea just popped up the other day in my head. Early this year, we had a HUGE ice storm knocking over thousands of thousands of tree branches. Many of them are still sitting on the curbs waiting for city trucks to come pick them up. Couldn't all the churches in Salina adopt a street block or blocks and take a day to work together to help clean this mess up? It's going to take the city a long time, so why not help?


2. Child Sex Slaves - an increasing problem in today's world is the use of children as sex slaves. Last year we did a benefit concert for the people in Darfur, Africa and raised over a thousand dollars to help provide health kits to those involved in the genocide. What if we raised money to be able to buy a child out of sex slavery?

What can your church do to show it cares for the people in your community? Surely we can do more than just tweak our worship services in a way we think best brings others to us. Let's go get 'em!

The Present Future II: Summary

Chapter 2: The Shift from Church Growth to Kingdom Growth

Wrong Question: How do we grow this church? (How do we get them to come to us?)
Tough Question: How do we transform our community? (How do we hit the streets with the gospel?)

Key statements: "Seminars offered in the church world increasingly offered church growth 'insights,' 'principles,' and 'prescriptions.' The focus was on methodology - how to catch peoples' attention, sign 'em up, keep 'em busy, and get em to contribute money, talent, and energy to church efforts."
"Jesus' evangelism strategy directly challenged the Pharisees' approach. Instead of 'Come and get it!' it was 'Go get 'em!" Intead of withdrawing from people for fear of contamination, he ate with them. This was horrifying to the Pharisees."
"The call to take the gospel to the streets is more than the call to think up some new evangelism or outreach program. The church's efforts at these generally fall way short because the approaches are devised by a bunch of church members trying to come up with ideas that will entice unchurched people to want to come to church."
"This is what it's going to take to gain a hearing for the gospel in the streets of the twenty-first century - the smell of cleaning solution, dirty faces, obvious acts of servanthood."

The Present Future I: Reflections

What McNeal said in the first chapter is a lot of what I've been thinking over the past few years. I resonate with his comments on the church surviving on old money, work, and energy from previous generations. In the church I currently work at, I wonder just how long we'll be able to continue on in our present ways, especially in the financial arena. I think we are making steps to address today's culture, but I'm concerned about how we spend money. I've always been torn in my thoughts when we decide to add on to the building, or
buy new computers, or remodel the youth room. These decisions seem to mirror what McNeal says we need to avoid in building bigger and better things to attract more people to become members. Are we simply doing what we're doing in an effort to cater more to the "needs" of those who are already members or are we trying to keep up with the culture to make Christianity more relevant for today's generation to ultimately accomplish the God's mission of redemption?

Can I just say that this statement -"A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith."- really bothers me for two reasons...
(1) This implies that no longer is the church the body of Christ accomplishing God's mission.
(2) I'm starting to feel this in my own experience. How sad for me to say that the church, of which I grew up in and so strongly believe in, is causing me to rethink my very own participation and involvement. I'm not saying that I'm leaving the church, rather, I'm questioning participation in the church in its current state.

Wouldn't it be great to be the generation who recognized the mess we're in and did something to get out of it? Better yet, wouldn't it be great to be the generation who surrendered our own agenda to God's ultimately turning the church into what it was intended to be? Some recommendations I have to make this possible...
(1) Stop referring to our Sunday morning gatherings at "going to church." On the same wave; stop asking somebody where they "go to church." We've turned church into a destination for an event. That doesn't seem to be what Jesus meant when he spoke of the church as his bride or his body.
(2) Allow for ourselves to question the things we've always done. There is good in tradition, but I also find that it clots our flow as well. What would happen if there was no longer a staff position at the church buildings? What would it look like if we never paid money to the institution to pay bills and instead put all our moneys towards relieving world hunger?
(3) No longer allowing anyone to join the church and decide if they can become a member or not. Is there a place in Scripture that talks about becoming a member of a local church? If so, please point me to it. If we continue to have members and non-members, we'll continue to remove ourselves from the world of which we are to be in but not of. It's much more difficult to accomplish God's redemptive work in the world if we castrate ourselves off from it. The club mentality surely is not the answer.

The Present Future I: Summary

A quick intro to this book. Reggie McNeal sets out to challenge the current assumptions of the church in N. America. He says the church world in N. America has "largely forsaken its missional covenant with God to be a part of kingdom expansion. It has, instead, substituted its own charter of church as a clubhouse where religious people hang out with other people who think, dress, behave, vote, and believe like them."

McNeal challenges the following assumptions:
-If you build the perfect church (the way we think about church), they will come.
-Growing your church will automatically make a difference in the community.
-Developing better church members will result in greater evangelism.
-The church needs more workers (for church work).
-Church involvement results in discipleship.
-Better planning will get you where you want to go (in terms of missional effectiveness)

The first chapter is entitled The Collapse of the Church Culture. A few key statements.

-"The current church culture in N. America is on life support. It is living off the work, money, and energy of previous generations from a previous world order."
-"A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith."

Wrong Question - How do we do church better? ("Church activity is a poor substitute for genuine spiritual vitality." "Many church members feel they have been sold a bill of goods...trouble is, we don't' have much evidence to support the assumption that all this church activity has produced more mature followers of Christ.")
Wrong Responses - Many churches have responded to the collapsing church culture by adopting a refuge mentality (withdraws from culture, tries to hang on to what we've got, waits for the storm to blow over so the church can get back to "normal" and resume its previous place in the culture) "You can build the perfect church-and they still won't come...people outside the church think church is for church people, not for them."
Tough Question - How do we deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity? ("In N.A. the invitation to become a Christian has become largely an invitation to convert to the church.") "We need to recapture the mission of the church." "The N.A. church is suffering from severe mission amnesia. It has forgotten why it exists. The church was created to be the people of God to join him in his redemptive mission in the world."

Ironic

I listened to part of a Christian talk show today - don't know which one - and the guest brought up an interesting point. If you've been watching the news lately, you've heard that 16 year old celebrity Ashley Simpson is now pregnant. It's plastered all over the media right now and is as big, if not bigger, than the presidential race, Iraq, and the genocide in Darfur at this present date.
Isn't it interesting how this pregnant, young, out of wedlock, mother-to-be is such a hot topic all during the time of the year that we as Christians celebrate the birth of a boy who was born to a young, out of wedlock girl about 2000 years ago? Ironic.

What Would Jesus Buy?

You all seen this? (click to go to website)

Discussion and Dialogue

Yesterday I had a great conversation with two of my close friends before work. Mike, who is currently a seminary student, had written a paper for a class focused on homosexuality and the church. So Mike, Kevin, and myself took some time to discuss his thoughts. I'm not going to get into the whole discussion, but afterwards I was talking with Kevin and he brought up something I had never thought about...the difference between discussion and dialogue. He gave his definition of the two words...

Discussion - I tell you what I believe so I can convince you I am right and vice versa.
Dialogue - You tell me what you believe so I can understand you better and vice versa.

See the difference? The agenda of discussion is to prove I'm right while the agenda for dialogue is to better understand where you're coming from. As I see it, Christians many times have no problem engaging in discussion, but dialogue takes a different attitude. It's hard for us to make this shift because for so long we've all been convinced that we are right. I'm not denying that there is truth, but what happens if we don't fully have that truth figured out? What if the truth that we think we have figured out appears to have holes? Shouldn't we listen to others' experiences and at least give them time to share where they are at rather than just dismiss them?

I'm reminded of a term I learned while reading Scot McKnight's 5 Streams of the Emerging Church. McKnight uses the term "chastened epistemology," which he defines on his blog - "the Subject (you and I when we are attempting to “know”) is always involved to one degree or another in knowing the Object (what you and I are trying to “know”). Humans are limited and fallible — every last one of us. Therefore, everything we know and everything we articulate is to one degree or another limited and influenced by who we are and what we think and what we want to be true." In other words, because God is fully unknowable and we are fallen individuals, no matter how convinced we are that we are right, there is still the possibility that we are wrong.

This is the attitude I believe we should have as we enter into dialogue with others.

Long Awaited Answers

My answers from a previous post.

I've been off and on thinking about this question of what a new church plant might look like. Here's some thoughts...

-Pastor's Role - Totally depends on the gifts and passions of the person considered the pastor. More than likely this person is the one who has the vision of that particular church. For instance, it could be that this person is not a great preacher, but is great at counseling. The pastor in this case would be the counselor. Other's within the body would fulfill roles based on thier gifts and passions - ie. teacher, preacher, finances, children, teens, organization, service.

In essence what happens is we no longer have a pastor as we currently define him or her as. Paradigm shift.

- Where to meet - I'm thinking you start out in somebody's home and maybe migrate to an empty building/school/warehouse as the need arises. Or maybe you never migrate, you just split and have another house church begin.

- Structure - This comes about organically, depending upon the gifts and passions within that particular body. Ideally I guess there would be different parts within the body that seek to be the Church as it pertains to a missional objective. Specifically, I see these parts as teaching, worship, service (within and without), gift & passion recognition, finances (within and without), young people, children, ???

- Gathering Times - I like the idea of having small house churches gather together for a larger corporate worship time. But let's just say there is only one house church. Again, it depends on the gifts and passions of that group. It could be that there are no musicians so any music is simply played via CD/Podcast/Etc... for the purpose of bringing the group into an attitude of worship. There would be a teaching and discussion time. Communion would be shared on a regular basis (you make the call on how often). Who knows, maybe you spend the time in meditative prayer. I see this varying from week to week.

The Way Church Is

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the way the church is organized vs. the way church maybe ought to be. Let me first say that these ideas are not originals. They stem from reading I've been doing including Missional Church, They Like Jesus But Not the Church, and Me to We. I also attended a conference recently at Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS. This conference strongly emphasized the importance of not being a pastor centric church, but allowing for others to discover their own gifts and passions to further the Kingdom through that particular church setting.

So here's my question(s). If you were to start a church, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, what would it look like? How would it be structured? Would there be a structure? Would there be a pastor? If there is a pastor, what would he or she do? Where would you meet? What would the gathering time look like?

I'll post a few of my thoughts soon.

Ahhhh, That's Nice

Just got done with my first paper for my newest class I started on Monday - Studies of the Old Testament. So far so good. I've been looking forward to this class. I struggle with figuring out where the Old Testament fits in to our lives today. The biggest question I have is this...does the old covenant (Law) apply to us today? If not, why do we still stress the 10 Commandments? If so, why aren't we following it? I have thoughts on the subject. Anyone else got any?

What My Generation Thinks About Church, God, and Christians

I recently sent out the following questions to some of my friends to get their thoughts on church, God, and Christians. Thanks to those who participated. I was hoping more would participate. I've had 9 respond so far. I'll share a few answers anonymously. They did agree to let me share what they said... (I'll comment on some of these in my next post but feel free to comment here)

1. Do you go to church? Regularly? How involved are you?
6 of the 9 go to church, 6 are "regulars" and 3 are involved

2. What (if anything) turns you off to church?
"Hypocrisy. I spent many years in a church where I was miserable because all I witnessed was a 'Do as I say, not as I do' attitude. This is one of the main reasons I have stopped attending church."
"Not many things turn me off about church in general. I do get turned off and a little annoyed when the service becomes more of a production and less of a worship service.
"Negativity, especially priests that use negative 'scare' tactics. People shouldn't do things out of fear, they should do it out of love, thankfulness, and a yearning for a future in heaven."

3. What (if anything) turns you off to Christianity?"
"How many different schools of thought we have, the diverse divisions that are so prevalent."
"I don't have any use for ministers that stand at the pulpit and wag their finger at me. People like that have as many skeletons as anyone else and I admire people in that position that can admit their mistakes rather than projecting them on to others."
"Some of the things Christians do and the way they act turns me off and I can see where it would turn non-believers off. There is such a tendency to be so judgmental of those who do not have a Christian faith and that is frustrating to me."
"I am disappointed and frustrated with the way some 'Christians' use the bible and their religion as a way to be intolerant and judgmental of certain groups of people (gays/lesbians, Jews, Muslims, etc….)."

4. What (if anything) turns you off to God?
"I'm not turned off by God at all, and if I ever feel like I am, then I try to look in the mirror and see who I'm really turned off by, most likely me. God is awesome"
"NOTHING! God is perfect, and anything that anyone finds as unpleasing of God is really faults in them."
"Nothing really turns me off. I think the relationship with god is where the purest communication happens. We humans muddy the waters. "

5. If you already attend a church, what draws you there?
"The draw for me is the feelings I get from being there. It really seems to give me a joy and a peace that I don't have when I get away from being at church regularly. Growing up in a home where I went everyone week, I also just have that in me that going to church is what you do on Sunday, but that is not the reason I go. Sunday morning is the time when people come to together to worship together in the church setting."
"Our church is a very 'thinking' congregation. Questioning and discussing the bible, society, beliefs and each other so we’re continually learning and growing. We are not only tolerant but we love and yearn for diversity. We are justice driven; constantly striving to do what we can to better the injustices that exist in the world (gay rights, world hunger, environmental issues, etc…). This church holds values that I want my son to grow up with which is what drew me to it the very first service we attended."
"Admittedly, a sense of obligation gets me to church each week (as it gets me to the gym regularly!); however, I enjoy the message, music, and sense of peace church provides."

6. If you do not attend church, what would draw you to one?
"Finding a church is like finding a good mechanic: it takes time and you have to get burned a couple of times before you get comfortable. I guess, in a way, god is like a good mechanic. Ironic."
"At this point in my life I am so jaded by organized churches, that I don't know if I would ever return to church on a regular basis. (And this feeling saddens me)"

A Soldier's Delemna

I've always wondered what I would do in this situation.

http://www.geezmagazine.org/issue04/soldier-finds-jesus-goes-back-to-the-front-lines-unarmed