planting a movement

When Did Bashing Religion and the Church Become So Cool?

2012-01-16T16:34:00.000-08:00

That may be a stupid question. People have been bashing religion and the Church since the inception of both. So here is the question I really want to ask, when did Christians bashing religion and the church become so cool?

I realize the answer to that question may be the same as the first. Christians have been eating their own for quite a while now, but its been bothering me more than usual lately. This past week there was a video that went viral on social media outlets. Perhaps you've seen it. Its a spoken word poem making the claim that Jesus hates religion. If you haven't seen it I urge you to check it out here and please formulate your own response before reading the rest of my post.

There is a lot about this video that I like. I'm also a big fan of spoken word and am jealous of anyone who is good at it. The point being made is not anything new. Being a Christian isn't about keeping to a set of oppressive rules, its about a loving relationship with Jesus. I wholeheartedly agree! What bothers me about this poem, and a lot else that I see and hear, is that it pits Jesus against religion and against the institutional church. It seems there are many Christians out there who share these sentiments and I think this is dangerous

Here's why. Here's what bothers me about all of this:

1. I don't think that Jesus hates religion. I don't think that religion has started a single war in history. I don't think that the church is one big hypocritical institution. I don't think that Jesus hates the institutional church. What I do think is that religion is subscribed to by people, and the church is comprised of people and people are sinful and sinful people do terrible things (like start wars, oppress the poor, and judge and condemn others), sometimes in the name of religion and the church. Jesus does not hate religion, nor did he come to abolish it. The most religious people of his day were Jews and the strictest of Jews (Scribes and Pharisees) held on to the Jewish Torah (Law) with white knuckles and yet here is what Jesus said about such religion:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Matthew 5.17.

In his short letter James writes this about "religion:" Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1.27.

Jesus didn't come to abolish religion. He came to abolish sin and the power that it has over us. That is what happened on the cross and through his resurrection, and because of what he did for us we can actually experience and practice "pure and faultless" religion, the kind that feeds to poor and cares for widows. When those who claim to be "religious" or "Christian" fail to demonstrate the love of Christ, that doesn't mean there's something wrong with religion or the church...it means there's something wrong with them and unfortunately they give religion and church a bad name. The truth however, is that great good has occurred throughout the centuries in the name of religion and the church. Even today the majority of homeless shelters, havens for battered women, adoption agencies, global feeding organizations, disaster relief and abolition of slavery efforts have the fingerprints of the "church" all over it. Religion is supported by people. The church is made up of people. People are messed up sinners and therefore religion and church can smack of the same. But Jesus loves the church and gave himself up for her and he calls his followers not to abandon religion, but to practice true religion. This brings me to the second thing that bothers me...

2. I think we're operating with a truncated gospel. I have often heard, and said myself, something along the lines of, "we're all just a bunch of messed up sinners loved by God." This is entirely true and I am thankful that in recent decades it seems like the church has been more accepting and has offered more grace, inviting people to come as they are, broken and sinful. I've heard more an more the message that the church is a hospital for the sick, and not a country club for the saints. I am thankful for this posture but I also think it can become dangerous. We are messed up sinners and Jesus does invite us to come as we are. He does love us just the way we are BUT he also wants to renew and restore us. We may be a mess but Jesus cleans things up. We may be broken but Jesus does fix things. He does offer us grace for our sin, but also to be agents of healing and restoration in our broken world. The church is a hospital for the sick, but hospitals also exist to help people get well.

I think that many of us are walking around with a truncated gospel. For many the gospel is understood as: "I am a sinner saved by grace through the cross of Jesus Christ." But that's only half the gospel. We were created in the image of God but have been separated from him through our sin. Jesus saved us from our sin by dying on the cross as an atonement for our sin, and through his resurrection we are being renewed and restored and re-conformed to his image and are invited to join him in rescuing and redeeming the world. To put it more simply the gospel is: Creation, Fall, Rescue, Restoration. But for many it has been reduced to simply Fall and Rescue. We need to tell the rest of the story. We are messed up, but we weren't created that way and we're not supposed to stay that way. One of my favorite theologians NT Wright puts it best when he says, "we are saved and now we have a job to do." What bothers me is that we have a great story to tell and we're leaving out the best parts. Followers of Jesus need to proclaim the whole gospel for the whole person for the whole world!

And here may be what bothers me most...

3. I think it has become cool for Christians to bash religion and the church. Admittedly, a lot of Christians have been burned by the church and many through their criticism are expressing deep hurt and a desire to hold God's people accountable. How the church responds to such people will impact her reputation, for better or worse. However, I've heard many Christians bash religion and the church who have never been burned by the Church, and if I can be blunt I think they do it because it is fashionable. For example, as many are aware NFL QB Tim Tebow has been a lightening rod for discussion lately. I recently read a blog post of a pastor calling for Tebow to "tone it down" when it comes to his expression of his faith. A pastor asking Tim Tebow to "tone it down" makes no sense, unless its an attempt to appeal to the popular crowd. Tebow may make me uncomfortable at times but I just can't see Jesus telling anyone lifting up his name to tone it down, no matter how uncool. I get it. I went through a phase where I bashed the church because of her faults, hypocrisy and irrelevance, and a few people may have even thought I was cool. But I wasn't. I was perhaps even doing more harm to the advancement of God's Kingdom than good.

So if you are a follower of Jesus and perhaps more specifically a young pastor who hates religion and/or the church I want to sincerely, lovingly and graciously ask you to consider shifting your posture. If its for the purpose of being cool, it's not so just stop. Think about how this looks to those outside of the Christian faith. Think of the many people who see Christianity as absurd because their own can't even seem to agree or play nice. If you've been hurt or burned by the church or in the name of religion that is a different story. I hear you and I am sorry for your experience. Its not what Jesus had in mind when he started this thing. I've been there. I am a pastor and the church has disappointed me more than I care to admit. I've seen many church leaders make decisions that served their own self-interests more than the cause of Christ. I've seen Christians use bad religion to get the upper hand on one another and I've heard people in the church say some things that nearly made me throw up in my mouth. But...

I love the church, because Jesus loves the church.

I am striving to give my life up for the church, because Jesus did.

I don't hate religion, I want to hate the sin that is within me.

I love true religion that cares for the poor and gives grace, dignity and hope to the disenfranchised.

I believe that God loves us messed up sinners, but I also believe he wants to make us whole.

I think the church is deeply flawed, but I also believe that, at her best, she's the hope of the world.

I think our world is profoundly broken and the church hasn't always helped, but that God wants to make all things new and he wants to use the church to do it.

St. Augustine said it best, "The church is a whore but she is my mother."

Let's not hate religion or the church. Let's redeem them both by how we live out all of God's story!

_________________

There are many others who were bothered a bit by the Jesus Hates Religion video. One pastor/author posted his response to the video and soon after received an e-mail from Spoken Word guy. Here is an excerpt from it:

I just wanted to say I really appreciate your article man. It hit me hard. I’ll even be honest and say I agree 100%. God has been working with me in the last 6 months on loving Jesus AND loving his church. For the first few years of walking with Jesus (started in ’08) I had a warped/poor paradigm of the church and it didn’t build up, unify, or glorify His wife (the Bride). If I can be brutally honest I didn’t think this video would get much over a couple thousand views maybe, and because of that, my points/theology wasn’t as air-tight as I would’ve liked. If I redid the video tomorrow, I’d keep the overall message, but would articulate, elaborate, and expand on the parts where my words and delivery were chosen poorly… My prayer is my generation would represent Christ faithfully and not swing to the other spectrum….thankful for your words and more importantly thankful for your tone and fatherly like grace on me as my elder. Humbled. Blessed. Thankful for painful growth. Blessings.
Grace and Peace,
Jeff

Now that is pretty COOL.

2011: A Year of Unanswered Prayers

2012-01-02T07:59:00.000-08:00

In many ways 2011 was a great year for me. It was probably the most fulfilling year in ministry I've had yet as we experienced a lot of growth and life-change at Resolution (the three-year old church I serve as pastor). Our family took a vacation to Panama City, FL and spent time in the ocean. A few months later Bekki and I saw Niagara Falls. I was able to go with a team to help with disaster relief in Joplin, MO. Wil turned two and Noah turned four and began pre-school this Fall. We began the adoption process only to to discover that Bekki was pregnant herself and we look forward to welcoming the newest member of our family in February 2012. There are a lot of great things to celebrate this year.

And yet, 2011 was probably one of the more difficult years in recent history for me. While I know that we're really just moving to a different day on a calendar I am ready to ring in a new year and wave good-bye to 2011.

This was also a year of loss for us. In August I lost my Dad unexpectedly after he took a bad fall causing irrecoverable brain damage. I sat by his bedside in the hospital for a few days praying that God would miraculously heal him. God didn't and I preached my father's funeral, one of the hardest things I have done in my life. We also lost a house in 2011. When Bekki and I moved to Aurora in summer 2009 to be a part of Resolution we knew it was what God wanted us to do and believed that God would take care of all the logistics along the way, mainly the house we owned in Zion. For the first year we had incredible renters who basically paid our mortgage and taxes. This past year we weren't able to secure new renters and decided to do a short-sale on our home. This was a long process and twice we had a buyer, and twice the the deal fell through at the last minute. We prayed and believed that God would move this house for us and we wouldn't foreclose. God didn't and we foreclosed.

Despite what the title suggests, I don't believe that these prayers went unanswered. I simply believe that God didn't answer them in the way I wanted. Yet, often when God doesn't answer our prayers the way we would if we were God we feel as if they've gone unanswered. We feel like God is abandoning us, doesn't care or is getting back at us for some reason.

The truth is, while 2011 was a year that brought with it some difficult and gut-wrenching circumstances and while I am ready to leave it behind, I still have a deep sense of gratitude, hope and joy as the year closes. And here's why...

I may of lost my Dad and I may have lost a house (and more importantly a good credit score), but I still have Jesus, and in the depths of my heart I firmly believe that Jesus is enough. I trust that he answered my prayers according to his good and perfect will, even if I initially disagree. The truth is we will experience pain, loss, disappointment, suffering and hardship and for many even one of these experiences is enough to crush them. Yet, as I continue to follow Christ I've discovered that while these sorts of things sting and bruise me, they don't crush me, because ultimately they're not my ultimate source of meaning, identity and hope. Jesus is, and he once said, "in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world."

In this world we will have trouble. We will lose loved ones. People will get cancer. We will lose jobs and homes. We will get hurt. We will suffer. And if our health, jobs, relationships and wealth are our ultimate source of hope and joy we will then also be crushed. But Jesus has overcome this and if we follow Christ then we will be ok because Jesus is enough. Not Jesus plus...Jesus plus my house, Jesus plus my job, Jesus plus my family, Jesus plus my health. Just Jesus is enough, everything else is simply an added blessing. Some may think that this is just religious self-help stuff. The ol' "Jesus is just a crutch" or Marx's famous, "religion is the opiate of the people," used to dull our sense of pain. This is not to minimize our struggles. Losing my dad sucked. It still hurts and I suspect it will for a while. Losing our house was embarrassing but beneath the hurt, disappointment and embarrassment lies a deep peace, one that transcends all understanding.

In spite of adversity Jesus was enough in 2011. So here is my promise for this new year: In 2012, we will have trouble, but take heart, Jesus has overcome it! May Jesus be enough in 2012!

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43.18-19

A Tale of Two Advents

2011-12-22T11:53:00.000-08:00

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. Luke 2.1

Here is a tale of two Advents, or of two Kingdoms:

- Augustus was the adopted son of Julius Caesar. He was originally named Octavian but was lated called Augustus meaning "revered" or "exalted one."
- He was the first, and considered by many, the greatest emperor of the Roman empire.
- He established the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) which lasted approximately 200 years.
- Augustus did not consider himself to be divine, but did believe his father Julius Caesar to be divine, thus making him "son of God."
- He was often referred to as "Savior of the World." A popular saying in his day was, "there is no name in heaven or on earth by which we are saved then by Caesar."
- He was also called “King” and “Lord” and was worshipped himself as a god
- At one point Augustus set up in the midst of a Roman forum a statue of himself that stood eleven times the size of a normal man
- In those days when announcements needed to be made, people would be appointed as “heralds” to go from town to town announcing whatever pertinent news the Empire had (crowning of a new Emperor, a new decree, victory in battle). These heralds were called “evangelists” and whatever announcement they made was called “good news” or “gospel.”
- If the Emperor were coming to town they would refer to it as "Advent"

Augustus’ kingdom is one marked by greed, excess, power and wealth, and yet Luke mentions Augustus, the powerful king with a powerful kingdom, to set up the story of another kingdom that was now at hand...

- A baby named Jesus is born into a poor, unknown and insignificant family and will be referred to as Messiah/anointed one, Son of God, Lord, and Savior of the world.
- Jesus is later referred to as the Prince of Peace who brought with him a deeper peace on earth, a "shalom" or wholeness that will never end.
- Jesus used shepherds, fishermen, prostitutes and tax collectors to go and be heralds of his good news.
- Instead of raising a 66 foot statue of himself to be raised up and worshipped. Jesus was raised up himself on a cross drawing all people to himself.
- For over 2,000 years the church around the world has celebrated the "Advent" of Jesus

Augustus’ kingdom was self-serving, all about power, force, money and status. Jesus’ kingdom is about serving others, all about love, sacrifice, grace and peace.

“The birth of this little boy is the beginning of a confrontation between the kingdom of God-in all its apparent weakness, insignificance and vulnerability- and the kingdoms of the world. Augustus never heard of Jesus of Nazareth. But within a century or so his successors in Rome had not only heard of him; they were taking steps to obliterate his followers. Within just over three centuries the Emperor himself became a Christian. When you see a manger on a card or in a church, don’t stop at the crib. See what it’s pointing to. It is pointing to the explosive truth that the baby lying there is already being spoken of as the true king of the world.” - NT Wright

The story of Jesus’ birth is the story of two competing kingdoms: one of darkness and one of light, and that the kingdom of light will overcome darkness.

The question for us is: Which kingdom offers hope to a broken world? How do we respond to these kingdoms? How do we respond to Jesus?

Penn State, Tim Tebow and Why Character isn't Everything

2011-11-28T10:24:00.000-08:00

Legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi once famously quipped, "Winning isn't everything; its the only thing."

For the most part, at least when it comes to sports, I have agreed with Lombardi. And yet recent national events have displayed a dark side in taking this axiom to its conclusion. The issue with winning being the only thing, is that sometimes that means it means win at all costs, even if the cost is our ethics, morality and character.

The recent sex abuse allegations surrounding Jerry Sandusky and the Penn State football program have demonstrated the horrific impact of sin, evil, and power. Included in this list also are the gross results of an unhealthy lust for power, status, and winning. Apparently the alleged acts of Sandusky span over many years, and people within the organization have known for many of those years as well. There were people who knew about an incident in 1998 and about one in 2003, and yet it all comes to the surface in 2011. Sandusky has remained connected to the football program in his retirement, even having been on campus as recently as a few weeks before he was arrested.

Penn State has been one of the more storied programs in the nation. Their head coach of over four decades, Joe Paterno has always boasted of doing it the right way, winning with character and integrity, and yet it now appears that he was indeed correct about the winning, but perhaps not so much about the character and integrity. I know at this point my position has become polarizing. There are some who will defend Paterno's action (or inaction) and say that he did nothing wrong and did exactly what he was supposed to do. In some respects one who takes such a position would be correct...Paterno did what we was supposed to do, according to his job, by going through the chain of command and allowing them to do with these reports what they please. However going through the proverbial "chain of command," to me, equates doing the bare minimum. The victims deserved more from the storied coach and program. If my boys were victims I would expect more than just the "chain of command."

What bothers me (among many things) in all of this is we live in a culture that values winning over character. We have for quite sometime and these events simply magnify this reality even more. Some will respond, well yes that is true in the world of sports but sports is not reality. In some ways however I think that sports is a commentary on our overall culture.

I don't live in Happy Valley, but I do live in church world. In church world character, morality and ethics are a given, and yet there still seems to be this lust for winning. I am a pastor and every month I am required to submit information to our conference office:
- average attendance
- number of conversions and baptisms
- number of new members
- number of people attending midweek programs.

In other words, is our church "winning?"

Now don't get me wrong, number of people attending, baptisms, conversions, midweek attendance, offering totals all matter. Healthy things grow and a healthy church should be experiencing these things and I'm thankful in someways that we're held accountable for it. And yet I wonder if winning is what's celebrated most in church world as well. When it comes to what is happening in churches what I often hear about most is: attendance, building campaigns, number of campuses, number of services, how good the worship music is, how good the preaching is, or how many Twitter followers a pastor has.

A lot of talk about winning.

My Superintendent, Mark Adams recently mentioned something at a meeting that struck a chord with me. He mentioned that if one were to look at the qualifications for leadership in the church outlined in the Bible one would discover that they are primarily concerned with character and not skill. So I checked this out. There are several places where leadership qualifications are outlined but let's just look at 1 Timothy 3.1-7 and the qualifications for Elders: above reproach, faithful to one's spouse, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money, must manage one's family well, must not be a recent convert, and have a good reputation with outsiders.

In that list there is one skill: able to teach. I shared this recently with my staff and one suggested that "manages one's family well" is a skill as well. So that means 1 (maybe 2) out of the 14 qualifications has to do with skill. I think the point that Paul is making is that when it comes to leadership in his church, Jesus is looking for people with high character and is less concerned with their skill.

What if every month I was asked these questions:
- How many nights were you at home with your family this month?
- How many dates did you and your spouse go out on?
- Were you hospitable? What strangers did you welcome into your home?
- How did you spend your money?
- Do your kids like you?
- Do people outside of your church like you?

This is a character scorecard.

Back to the sports world, another story dominating the press is that of Tim Tebow, the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos who is outspoken about his Christian faith. In the midst of the Sandusky story is a story of a guy who appears to have high character, struggles at his position and yet wins football games and uses his platform for some good. You would think a story such as Tim Tebow would be a breath of fresh air, and yet the "experts" continue to blast him. In a recent interview with a former Broncos QB when asked about Tebow he said, "I think he's a winner and I respect that about him...I think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves Jesus Christ, then I think I'll like him a little better. I don't hate him because of that, I just would rather not have to hear that every time he takes a good snap or makes a good handoff."

Tebow's response: "If you're married and you have a wife and you really love your wife, is it good enough to only say to your wife 'I love her' the day you get married? Or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and every opportunity? That's how I feel about my relationship with Jesus Christ."

I have been pretty indifferent about Tebow and admittedly always approach the character of professional athletes with a bit of skepticism, but I'm rooting for him. I want him to do well. I want to see him win. More than that, I'm rooting for character. I hope the church can turn the tide and place more value on character than winning...and the good news is I think we'll experiencing some "winning" in the process.

So how about I refine Lombardi's quote: "Character isn't everything; its the only thing."

Not Crazy About Halloween

2011-10-31T17:02:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this post on Halloween by listing the things I like about this time of year. I love (not just like) the Fall. I love the crisper temperatures (yet not too cold), and the changing of the colors. I love NFL football and the baseball postseason. I love bonfires, chili cook-offs, and hot apple cider. I like pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and hay rides. Fall is my favorite season of the year. I was born in October, got married in October, and grew up playing soccer every Fall.

I, however, am not crazy about Halloween. For most of my life I've been pretty indifferent about this holiday...I could take it or leave it. Yet, I am now finding myself more and more in the "dislike" category. I'm not against it all. I like the idea of kids getting dressed up in fun costumes, walking around their neighborhood and receiving candy from friendly neighbors (especially as a dad of two young boys whose weakness is candy). In many ways Halloween brings neighbors and communities together, which is increasingly rare and good in our culture today.

Yet, this year especially I have been aware of the subversive impact that this holiday has on us, and its not all positive. Lately we've been having problems with out four-year old Noah at bedtime. Each and every night he would say that he is scared to go to bed, would speak of monsters in his room, and wake up in the wee hours of the morning screaming. Some may be reading this and think: that's pretty normal stuff...kids afraid of the dark, believing in monsters and screaming in the dark. Giving it further thought this all began around the same time everyone was getting into the Halloween spirit. The cartoons had halloween themes, the stores had scary jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, bats, and witches displayed. While we've been desensitized to these harmless decorations and activities the truth is for many they accomplish the scary response that ghosts, bats, and witches are meant to. Perhaps our harmless Halloween stuff really isn't so harmless after all.

My wife brought up a great point in all of this. She said, "maybe it is normal that 4 year olds are scared of the dark, monsters, noises, ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, etc...but they shouldn't have to be scared." Noah should not have to be afraid at night.

Halloween at is most basic level is a celebration of fear. It has evolved from rituals for remembering the saints of the past to a cartoonish celebration of fear, evil and death. Maybe you think I'm a bit extreme here but "haunted" houses, "horror" movies, "scary" costumes all in some way accomplish this. In a culture that is already permeated by fear why do we feel the need to contribute? People are afraid of everything today from germs to terrorists, why do we need to create and celebrate more fear?

We've done our best to fight a culture of fear in our house. We have tried to teach and model for our boys that, as the Bible teaches, we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of love and a sound mind. We have reminded Noah every night that monsters are not real and that he does not need to be afraid. When we ask him why he doesn't need to be afraid he responds, "because Jesus is real."

So here's a suggestion: lets keep dressing up the kids and having some good fun with our neighbors. let's keep picking pumpkins, going on hayrides, having bonfires, and drinking our cider. Let's keep watching our football and enjoying the majestic colors of the leaves. But let's stop scaring each other, especially the kids. Let's celebrate love, beauty, and goodwill. Let's remember that perfect love casts out fear and that ghosts, witches, germs and terrorists have no power over us. Let's remember and celebrate that, as Noah said, "Jesus is real," and that in his great love he has rescued us from all that causes the fear within us!

Poke the Box, Moneyball and Jesus

2011-10-05T15:01:00.000-07:00

I recently read a book titled "Poke the Box" by Seth Godin, who is s quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. This installment from Godin was all about "starting," which seems like a rather simple subject for a book and yet it is precisely because so many people have difficulty with making the transition from an idea to actually doing something with the idea that such a book is needed. In "Poke the Box" Godin challenges us to take initiative, to actually start something, to "ship" it to the market. He uses the example of a buzzer box that his uncle (a PhD from MIT) once made for his cousin...

"It was a heavy metal contraption, with a thick black cord that plugged into the wall. it looked like something from a nuclear power plant, not a kid's toy, but that didn't dissuade him from tossing it into the crib. The box had two switches, some lights and a few other controls on it. Flip one switch and a light goes on. Flip both switches and a buzzer sounds. All terrifying, of course, unless you are a kid. A kid sees the buzzer box and starts poking it. If I do this, that happens...Life is a buzzer box. Poke it. " (hence the title)

I also recently saw a film and have subsequently been reading the book off which it is based called "Moneyball." Moneyball is the story of Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, and how he used unconventional approaches to building a winning team with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. While many GM's and scouts were building teams the old-fashioned way by using the eye-test and seeing if players had the right "tools," Billy applied sabermetrics and built a team by paying close attention to often ignored statistics. In many ways it seems like a boring plot for a book and certainly a movie (though it never did to me because I am a sports junkie), but the larger story is that Beane and others like him changed the game of baseball by doing something that few others were doing. Beane refused to simply adhere to the status quo. Its a classic example of "poking the box."

This is summed up well in one of Beane's five simple rules for running his team..."No matter how successful you are change is always good. There can never be a status quo."

These two books got me thinking about something...Jesus was a box poker. He arrived on the scene destined to do something never done in human history. He came not just with ideas, but to start a movement. He chose the guys no one expected to join him, he challenged the religious people of the day, and continued to carry out his mission even in the midst of the worst adversity. Remember the Sermon on the Mount when several times Jesus said, "You've heard it said...but I say to you." Jesus poked the box, he challenged the status quo and it resulted in the Church, carriers of God's good news that he is making all things new. And one day Jesus will usher in a new heaven and a new earth, and put an end to status quo once and for all.

The question I'm left pondering is...why then do so many of Jesus followers simply play it safe? Why do we seem content with the status quo? Why do we simply use conventional wisdom when it comes to spreading the good news? Why do we allow authors and baseball executives beat us at the game Jesus invented? What box do you need to poke? What status quo needs to be challenged? What are the ideas sitting in your head just waiting to be shipped? Maybe its planting a church, launching a new not-for profit, a career change, starting a business. Poke the box. Start something. Change the game.

What's the worst that will happen? You will fail?

In a way of response to this fear I leave you with one more quote from Godin...

"Failure is an event, and though with rare exceptions, is not fatal. The process of starting, regularly, and of seeking out opportunities to do it more often, is never a failure."

The Ugly Four Letter Word

2011-09-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

I recently finished a teaching series on the Sermon on the Mount and there is one verse about which I continue to think.

It is the stark warning that Jesus gives in Matthew 7.21, "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven."

According to Jesus entrance into the kingdom of heaven is contingent upon doing the will of the Father. This begs a deeper question, a question that I have heard countless people ask, "What is the Father's will?" Or more personally, "What is God's will for my life?"

For many the issue of God's will seems to be mysterious, something which they seek to discover and or which they pray God would reveal. On one level I think that God does have a specific or unique will for each individual, but on another level I think that God has a general will for all of his children, and that it actually isn't all that mysterious, doesn't need to be discovered, and has already been revealed. In fact there are several places in the Scriptures where God's will is spelled out for us. There is one in particular where God's will could not be any clearer.

"It is God's will that you should be sanctified..." 1 Thessalonians 4.3

There it is...God's will revealed to us...that we would be sanctified. To be sanctified means to be "holy" or set apart. The Father's will is that we would be holy, set apart for him to display his love and goodness to the world. Continue to read after verse three and Paul actually gives some specific and practical ways in which we are to be set apart.

Yet, while God's will is that we should be holy it almost seems as if "holy" has become an ugly four letter word in the church today. In the past few decades the church has become more grace-oriented. The prevailing message is "come as you are," "God can use you in spite of your brokenness, in spite of your mess," "we're all sinners and none of us are perfect," I am thankful for this message and for the abandoning of a more legalistic message that tends to put up more barriers than it does welcome people in.

And yet I fear the pendulum perhaps has swung too far. I fear that our message is coming at th expense of God's call to be holy. While God does invite us "come as you are" and while we are all broken and messy sinners the message of Jesus' gospel is clear that God can fix us and make us whole, has saved us from sin and reconciled us to himself. In short, he has called us to be holy, but more than that through the cross and resurrection he has made us holy.

Why is it then we're only told that we're dirty sinners saved by a loving God and not that we are holy because God has made us holy? Why is it that often times the use of the word holy is negative? Have you ever been called or called someone "holier than thou?" It wasn't a compliment!

God's will is that we should be holy. In fact we read in the Bible, "be holy as I am holy," which suggests that its possible. God couldn't call us to be something for which its impossible for us to be. The good news of Jesus is that though we are sinners and cannot be holy on our own God, through Jesus, defeated the sin that plagues us, and by the Holy Spirit we can be made whole and live holy set apart lives for God.

Let's redeem the word holy. Its a great word. It reminds us that there is something distinct, unique, and compelling about following Christ, something at which the world looks and says, "there's something different about those people but in a good way."

You are a sinner. You are a mess. You are broken. Jesus has defeated sin. Jesus cleaned up your mess. Jesus is making you whole. Be holy. It is God's will for your life.

Church FOR the Community

2011-08-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

There are many churches IN a community. Within two miles of the building our church leases are four other churches. If one is looking for a church IN our community she could find one easily. Could the same be said however, of a church FOR the community?

My hope for my church is that we won't just be a church IN our community, but that we will be a church FOR our community. It may seem like mere semantics but there is a significant difference between the two.

Churches IN their communities occupy buildings and run programs and services for their people. They have a sign displaying service times inviting people to come to them and largely evaluate success and health by butts and bucks. Sadly there are many churches that fall into this category. Inside their walls they believe that they have a good thing going, but outside of their walls no one even knows that they exist.

Churches FOR their communities may have buildings but their buildings are community centers. They're seen as a resource with which they can bless their community. Their programs and ministries aren't aimed at their people, rather they strive to mobilize their people to impact the community with the good news of Jesus. They're less concerned with the service, then they are serving and instead of just inviting people to come to church, they are passionate about being the church that goes to the people. Health and success are evaluated by community impact and transformation. While they may still have a good thing going on in their space people outside of their walls know about them because they partner with people and groups in the community to make a difference together.

Last week one of our Villages (Villages are what we call our small groups) served at a local homeless shelter. Another Village served with a local organization that mentors and empowers at-risk youth and children. Instead of our regular Sunday Worship Experience we partnered with the local food pantry and distributed backpacks to the children of the pantry's patrons. We put on a back to school event where we threw these families a party with live music, snow cones, games, face painting, balloon animals, and bouncehouses. At this event we offered free haircuts, family pictures, and pedicures. Some may think that we didn't have real church on Sunday, but it just may have been the most real expression of church we've had in a while.

I recently heard a Free Methodist pastor named Brenda Young share about how her church is impacting their community. She shared a simple yet compelling vision for her local church, that she wants her church to be the number one resource in their community. That is a beautiful description of a church that is FOR their community!

The church that I pastor is not the number one resource in our community. Sadly, there are many in our community that don't have a clue who we are. But I hope this changes, because I firmly believe that God did not invent the church for the sake of a great experience one morning a week, but that God invented and created the church for community and world impact. God is restoring and renewing all things and he has invited the church to join him on this mission. Another way of putting this is that God's mission has a church. We are an expression of God's mission, the Missio Dei, to our community!

A couple months ago I attended a conference where author and pastor Michael Frost shared a challenging illustration of how we often interact with our communities. He recounted an incident leading up the wedding of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana. A reported asked Charles is he was in love with Lady Di to which Charles responded, "I guess so, whatever love is." The prince's response was less than flattering, hardly a wonderful expression of romance. Frost argued that sadly this is how many churches approach their communities. We're apathetic, indifferent, and dispassionate. Frost challenged us to love our communities, to woo them, to romance them. To stand with them whether they suffer or prosper.

So is your church romancing and wooing your community? If your church left town, would anyone protest? Would anyone notice? What local agencies and ministries have you partnered with? Do you know the leaders and gatekeepers in your community? What is your community's heartcry? What is her deepest need?

Don't just be a church IN your community. Strive to be a church FOR your community.

I am Selfish!

2011-06-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from one of my favorite places on earth (not Disneyland): Sky Lodge Christian Camp in Montello, Wisconsin. I was up there for Young Teen Camp, a middle school camp that I have directed now for six years. This is always a great week as I get a front-row seat to God working in the lives of 150 middle school students. Aside from the smell in the gym after their activities this is an absolutely incredible week, and is always one of the best week's of my year.

Yet, as I approached Young Teen Camp this year I knew it would be my last year serving as director. As I have transitioned from youth ministry to leading a church plant the responsibility of planning and leading this camp with everything else on my plate was becoming too much. I learned several years ago that sometimes one just has to say no to good things. This is my last year. I just have too much going on and I don't have the time to lead this. It is someone else's turn.

Another story unfolding this year is that of Sky Lodge. The camp is experiencing several staffing transitions and is having to fill many leadership positions themselves. As I was discussing this with a good friend last week he shared how he did not want to leave Sky Lodge hanging during a time of so much transition. Then it struck me: as I had been considering my future regarding this role I had been thinking mostly of myself. In fact, go ahead and read the previous paragraph. There are a lot of "I's" "me's" and "my's" in there.

So I changed my mind. This will not be the last year that I lead this camp.

I share this story because it is bigger than me and this middle school camp. It's a story about the pervading selfishness that so often rears its ugly head in our lives. I am selfish. When it comes to making decisions I usually think first about how it will impact me. My assumption is that if many of us were honest with ourselves the same would be true. Why are we so obsessed with self-preservation and self-promotion? I am convinced in our world ravaged by selfishness and greed that the way of Jesus is needed more than ever. Jesus wasn't concerned with self-preservation; he was concerned with preserving God's goodness. He wasn't concerned with self-promotion; he was concerned with promoting the Kingdom of God.

I want to be like that. When faced with a decision I want my default setting to be, "how will this impact others" instead of "how will this impact me." I'm not there yet. I am a work in progress. This little moment of conviction in my life this past week serves as a reminder that Jesus invites us into a counter-cultural way of living that is self-less rather than self-ish, and that a selfless life is far more compelling and rewarding than simply tending to our own puny little kingdoms. What are the decisions before you today? What is your default setting? Who will benefit most from your decision? We have enough people choosing the selfish life; Let's choose the selfless one!

Reflections on Joplin: Hope and Despair

2011-06-27T12:14:00.001-07:00

As many are aware the Month of May ended with devastating tornadoes across the Midwest. No area was hit harder than Joplin, Missouri. The nearly mile-wide tornado ruthlessly wiped out over half of the town of nearly 50,000 residents, leaving thousands homeless, many hurt, and over 150 people dead.

Every now and then when something of this magnitude takes place I feel moved to do something beyond writing a check and praying. I feel moved to go. I felt this way after Katrina and went south twice to do whatever I could to help. I felt this way after the earthquake in Haiti, but unfortunately have yet to go. After the tornado hit Joplin, I felt I had to go, and with the town being only a ten-hour drive this seemed very doable. There is a group of four other guys that I meet with weekly and these guys felt they were supposed to go as well. To make a long story short: phone calls were placed, arrangements were made, an offering was collected and a group of seven guys packed in a Suburban and headed for Joplin to lend some hands to a massive rebuilding effort.

There were two striking observations I had while I was there. The first was This is a place of utter despair. As we drove through the down and witnessed the devastation it seemed so insurmountable. Houses were completely destroyed, piles of debris everywhere, hospitals, high schools, businesses, and churches completely wiped out. We helped remove trees at a house where a family was still living, even though there roof and windows had been destroyed. They told the story of how all eight of them huddled in their bathroom throughout the storm, only to come out afterwards and find there entire neighborhood was gone. They lost so much: possessions, neighbors, and friends and yet they were still resolved to literally pick up the pieces and rebuild their home and their life. On the remains of many homes were spray painted messages such as "If you loot, we shoot," or "looters will be shot." It was a picture of despair.

Yet, there was another striking observation I had, This is a place of great hope! We had barely been in Joplin for an hour before we saw relief workers all over the place. Just down the street from the church where we were staying was Southwest Missouri State University where Americorps was organizing volunteers to clean up debris. As we drove around we saw crews out all over the place helping clean up debris and removing trees. What I noticed most about the majority of those helping was that they were from a church. Churches all over Joplin had become places of refuge as they were housing volunteers, feeding people, and facilitating make-shift rescue missions. One church whom we served with had collected so much food, clothing, and various other items that they actually had to build a separate building on their property in order to have adequate space for their new ministry. Fortunately a group of Mennonites were there to serve and they quickly put up a building for this (because Mennonites are machines when it comes to construction)! We met people from churches all over the country and our first acquaintance was actually with a guy from Chicago who quit his job in the banking industry to come make a difference in Joplin.

This reminded me of a great truth. Jesus is the hope of the world, and historically the church has been referred to as the body of Christ. For all the church's faults when she gets it and truly is what she was designed to be she is an agent of great hope! When Jesus first spoke of the church he said not even the gates of Hell could prevail against it! The church is Jesus' plan for rescuing and redeeming the world and it was designed to be an unstoppable force. That is why if the church is being the church hope can exist in the midst of despair, light can beam brightly in darkness, and the dead can come to life.

Joplin is a place of despair right now, but it is also a place of great hope. The church is being the church and God's people have taken the lead in the restoration efforts. I am reminded again that inside our Suburban were seven ordinary dudes who are invited by Jesus to partner with him as agents of hope in something extraordinary!

My Prediction: The World Will End on...

2011-05-23T11:41:00.001-07:00

Sorry to disappoint but I will not predict the date of Christ's second coming. A seminary professor of mine once told us as a class, "if you think you have an idea when Christ will return just don't give a date." It was good advice that I would suggest we all adhere to.

Nonetheless there has been no shortage of conversation and activity in recent days and weeks on Judgment Day. This is due in large part to Harold Camping's prediction that the world as we know it would come to an end on May 21, 2011 at 5PM Central Time. I will admit, at 5PM the other night I did pause for a moment, just in case the ground began to tremble, but alas no tremble, no earthquake, no rapture. I figured at the very least if it happened without me noticing and I was "left behind" that surely Bekki and the boys wouldn't still be around. At 5:01 when I realized Bekki and the boys were still with me I knew that there had been no rapture.

And yet, while many of us made light and perhaps even poked fun at all the hoopla surrounding this prediction there were many who took it quite seriously. I read of one family, up to their ears in debt, decide to go and visit the Grand Canyon before the Day. Yet, two days later they're now in even greater debt due to the added expenses of this trip. There were others, like a man in New York, who advertised $140,000 of his life savings to advertise in his city. And then there was Camping himself, who sincerely believed that May 21st was the Day!

What this event (or lack thereof) displays is that there is a serious fascination in our culture and among Evangelicals with the end times. Camping is not the first to predict when the world will end, in fact it wasn't even his first prediction! Check out the shelves at any Christian bookstore and you're sure to find some end times stuff. It was the Left Behind series afterall that raked in enough money to buy a small country not too long ago. Why the obsession with the end of the world? Why are we so fascinated with trying to figure this stuff out? Wasn't it Jesus himself that said not even the Son would know the day or the hour?

What the past few days has demonstrated to me, once again, is that followers of Christ are too often obsessed with the wrong things. We are too obsessed with the WHEN of Jesus' return. Can I let everyone in on a little secret? Nobody knows when Jesus will return! Nobody...not Harold Camping, not the Pope, according to the Gospels not even Jesus, and believe it or not Billy Graham probably doesn't know either! This means that any time someone makes a prediction he or she is immediately a false prophet, a wolf in sheep's clothing. It doesn't matter how sincere or convinced one is, it is unbiblical and false teaching and is extremely dangerous if followed. Sincere and convincing people can be sincerely and convincingly wrong. This is why it is so important that we read and know the Bible. In this case, knowing one little verse exposes the false teaching that cost over $1 million and increased damage to the reputation of the church. You can exegete Jesus' words all you want. You can study the Greek and it all comes out the same...No one knows, not even Jesus.

Here is my suggestion: Let's stop obsessing over the WHEN and start obsessing over something that really matters. This past week I was studying Matthew 25 where Jesus speaks of feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, caring for the sick, inviting the stranger in, and visiting those in prison. He says that when we do this for the least of these, we do it for him. When we don't do it for the least of these, it is actually him that we are ignoring and rejecting. Do you know what the context for these words is? Judgement Day. The section in which we read these words begins with "When the Son of Man comes in his glory...he will sit on his glorious throne...and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." (Matthew 25.31-32) He goes on to say that he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. The sheep are those who will live eternally with him and the goats are those who will experience eternal punishment. And who are the sheep? They are those who loved the least of these.

What if we were less obsessed with the WHEN of Jesus' second coming and were more obsessed with WHAT kind of people Jesus wants to come back for? What if we were obsessed with feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and welcoming the stranger? When Jesus returns these are the kind of people he wants to bring with him, this is the kind of church he is looking for. What if we were obsessed with being the kind of people who embodied the love of Christ in our relationships, in our communities, and in our world...who sought to proclaim Christ's good news in beautiful, creative, and compelling ways?

This recent erroneous prediction has sparked a lot of response. The most healthy response would be to obsess over the WHAT and not the WHEN. Jesus will return for his church, this much the Bible tells us. My hope is that I will be the kind of person that Jesus would want to come back for and live with eternally, and the good news is by his grace I can be!

Eight Questions to Ask Before You Preach

2011-05-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I find essential to preaching effectively every week is preparation. I am not talking about the study, prayer, and writing that goes into the form of the message, rather how I go about preparing my heart for communicating God's words. In many ways I think this is just as important as the heavy lifting required in putting a message together. I've begun to develop a practice of preparation before preaching each week and as a part of this I have eight questions that I ask myself. Some of these are questions I was naturally asking, others were inspired by a recent workshop I attended with Francis Chan.

1. Am I worried about what the people think or what God thinks? Let's be honest, most preachers are affirmation-seekers. We want people to like us and think were good speakers. The problem is that the affirmation we seek should ultimately come from God. The point of any message should be to lift up his name. If we're more worried about whether or not people will like our illustrations or funny stories than we are magnifying God then our hearts are not right. I don't just assume that my concern is for what God thinks, so I ask this question.

2. Do I genuinely care about these people? I also don't assume this. Some weeks it is difficult to like the people you're speaking to. Perhaps they've criticized you, blew off small group, didn't respond to a challenge you gave and you're a little frustrated with them. Ask God to fill you with love for the people to which you're speaking, and to remind you that they desperately need an experience with God. If you don't care about the people to whom you're speaking it will show, eventually. You're not that good.

3. Am I accurately dealing with this passage? Am I letting the text win or am I imposing my own agenda upon the text? Did I come up with a message and then look for some scripture to support it or did I allow the Holy Spirit to draw me to a passage of scripture and speak a message through it to me. God takes his word pretty seriously. He knew what he wanted to communicate when he inspired its writers. He doesn't need our help, nor did he ask for it. Let's be faithful in our dealing with the passage.

4. Am I depending on the power of the Holy Spirit? When I begin my study for a message I ask God to fill me with the Holy Spirit. When I begin to write the message I ask God to fill me with the Holy Spirit. On Saturday night I ask God to fill me with the Holy Spirit. On Sunday morning before going up to speak, guess what I ask of God? And everytime the Holy Spirit fills me. When we begin to think that the quality of our preaching is solely contingent on our giftedness we're in trouble. The Holy Spirit wants to empower us. He wants the sermon to be good more than we want to.

5. Am I living this one out? I'll be honest...this question hurts because sometimes the answer will be "no." When that is the case I repent and ask God to help me live out what I am about to teach. If the answer is "no" confessing this in your message and inviting the congregation to go on this journey with you is a good thing. When we teach something we're not doing ourselves we're essentially actors. The Bible calls people who do this "hypocrites" and the church has enough of these already. Let's be transparent in how we do with the particular teaching.

6. Will this message draw more attention to me or God? What do you want people to say after you preach..."How great is that preacher!" or "How great is our God!" In the depths of our hearts I believe most preachers want God to receive the attention. We just don't always practice it well. Lately I've been praying, "God help me to not try and be cute, but to just preach your word." If we're more concerned with the plaid shirt we're wearing and the product in our hair than we are the relationship those in the seats have with God we're doing everyone a disservice.

7. Do these people need to hear what I have to say? If the answer is "no" then I know I am not really listening to or paying attention to my people. How would listening to what you have to say lead to real change in a person's life? If what you have to say doesn't have potential to transform a person's life then it doesn't need to be said. The bottom line is that whenever we preach we should have something to say that people are begging to hear, whether they realize it or not.

8. Is the gospel in this? I am becoming more and more convinced that this may be the most important question that I ask? Every time I get up to speak there is a really good chance that someone is sitting there that has never heard the good news of Jesus rescuing and redeeming humanity through his death and resurrection. We must communicate this in some way, shape, or form whenever we preach. The gospel is transformative, it impacts every corner of our lives. Whatever topic you're preaching on the gospel addresses it somehow. Figure it out and communicate it. If you need a good example of this read or listen to something by Tim Keller. He communicates the gospel effectively in every message or book. Google his name...now.

Good preaching is the result of good preparation. Too often we prepare our head but not our hearts. What are the questions you ask before you preach?

A "Friendly" Church or a Church Where People are Friends?

2011-04-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Our church is so friendly.

I've heard this phrase spoken by many different church leaders throughout the years. People will promote the hospitality and friendliness of their congregation and usually offer the same qualifiers: comfortable environment, smiles on faces, coffee and donuts, warm greetings, and if you're really lucky...a free gift.

Is this what it means to be a friendly or hospitable church?

Hospitality literally means "welcoming the stranger," and this is much deeper than coffee and donuts. Often times what normally plays out in churches is there are a few trained individuals who smile, say hello, pass out bulletins, and point the strangers to the coffee. The majority of folks carry on their regular routine of migrating to their clique and only connecting with them. Is the stranger really welcomed? Does the church really practice hospitality?

As we read the New Testament we discover that hospitality is a bedrock practice of the early church.

"Now the overseer (elder) is to be...hospitable" (1 Timothy 3.2)

"Rather he (the elder) is to be hospitable..." (Titus 1.8)

"Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality." (Romans 12.13)

"Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." (Hebrews 13.2)

"Offer hospitality to one another, without grumbling." (1 Peter 4.9)

Elders, or leaders, in the church are to be hospitable, sharing with those in need is practicing hospitality, by showing hospitality to strangers we may in fact be entertaining angels, and not only are we to offer hospitality to one another...but we can't even grumble/complain about it!

One gets the sense from reading the New Testament that Biblical hospitality is about far more than donuts and coffee (though that's an important starting point). Biblical hospitality is about moving people from strangers to friends. This is where many churches miss it. There are countless churches where people are "friendly," but far less where people consistently become friends. The reason is that developing friendships takes time, it takes work, it takes emotional investment. Being friendly takes 15 minutes before and after a service.

Is your church/community hospitable? Is it friendly? Here are two questions to help you in your assessment: how many other members' homes have you been in? How many people in the church have been in your home (or how many have you invited out for coffee)? In his book Right Here Right Now Lance Ford challenges readers to ask these questions and then offers this commentary:

"Forget about extensive churchwide surveys. Whether you are a staff member or church member, the answers to those two questions are all the empirical data you need to know regarding the practice of hospitality in your church community. The contemporary church as a whole has neglected biblical hospitality." p.206

Hospitality is less about coffee and donuts at church on Sunday and more about coffee and dessert in your home on a weeknight. We live in a lonely culture and people are starving for real and genuine friendships. I hope our churches can recapture the art of practicing biblical hospitality, that we can truly welcome the strangers, and be one of the few environments where authentic friendships still exist. So at church this Sunday offer someone new a cup of coffee, but go beyond that and offer them an invitation to lunch as well.

You never know, you may be inviting an angel out to lunch!

A Response to "Love Wins"

2011-03-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

Last month I quoted Rob Bell in a sermon. Afterwards someone told me that I was brave to quote Rob Bell.

That was last month. That was before HarperOne released a promotional video for Bell's forthcoming book Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. That was before Justin Taylor wrote a response (before actually reading the book). That was before the release of Bell's new book set off a firestorm in blogosphere and Twitterverse. That was before a live-streaming interview in New York with a Newsweek writer. That was before George Stephanopolos and Martin Bashir sat down for a few minutes with Bell on their respective television shows. That was before I actually read Love Wins myself.

I have now read Love Wins and now that I have read it, I offer a few thoughts on Rob Bell, Love Wins, heresy, universalism, Hell and the fate of every person who ever lived..

One of the main concerns with Love Wins is that in it Rob Bell places himself in the camp of universalism (the belief that all of humanity will eventually be saved). Both before and after the release of this book many in evangelical circles have labeled Bell a universalist. In his recent interviews he has been asked if he is a universalist to which he has responded, "No." Bell further clarifies that if by universalist one means that he believes a great "cosmic hand" will swoop all people into Heaven then he would not fall into that camp. As for what Bell offers in his book:

"God gives us what we want, and if that's hell, we can have it. We have that kind of freedom, that kind of choice. We are that free."

"There are all kinds of ways to resist and reject all that is good and true and beautiful and human now, in this life, and so we can only assume we can do the same in the next."

"There is hell now, and there is hell later, and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously."

Rob Bell clearly believes in Hell, both on earth and in the next life. He may not go into great deal about what Hell in the afterlife looks life (burning sulfur? guy wearing red tights holding a pitchfork?) but the truth is anyone who seeks to give a detailed account of Hell is operating from speculation. Bell asserts there is a Hell in the afterlife and doesn't give a lot of detail and that is ok. But what does Rob Bell believe about Hell? Will all people eventually be saved?

In progressing towards what I think is his view, Bell references a letter from Martin Luther to Hans Von Rechenberg in which he wrote about the possibility that people could turn to God after death asking "Who would doubt God's ability to do that?" Apparently if one were to read on in Luther's letter one would find a rather traditionally held view of salvation and using a line from a reformer's letter is hardly satisfactory as the springboard for a position on eternity but nonetheless he continues:

"At the heart of this perspective is the belief that given enough time, everybody will turn to God and find themselves in the joy and peace of God's presence. The love of God will melt every hard heart, and even the most "depraved sinners" will eventually give up their resistance and turn to God."

"At the center of the Christian tradition since the first church have been a number who insist that history is not tragic, hell is not forever, and love, in the end, wins an all will be reconciled to God."

To sum up it seems in Love Wins, Rob Bell is suggesting that God is love, out of God's love human beings have the freedom to choose whether to accept or reject God's love. The rejection of God's love leads to Hell on earth, and it is assumed in the next life as well. Those who rejected God's love will experience an "age of suffering" or Hell, but eventually God will melt all hearts and all people will be reconciled to God. He is clear to be sure, that Jesus is the only way to God and it is only in and through the cross and resurrection that "Love wins." Jesus is the only way to God, but there are many ways to Jesus.

Beyond the indictment of being a universalist, some have gone further to label Rob Bell a heretic. Historically a heretic is someone who holds an opinion at odds with the widely held orthodox belief. Interestingly the origin for heretic is the Greek hairetikos meaning "able to choose." Over the centuries men and women of God have made choices about what they believe in God that have diverged from the general consensus. Heretic certainly brings with it many negative connotations and once someone is brandished with this title he or she is then relegated to a different room in the house of Christian theology. Yet a survey of church history shows that a great debt of gratitude is owed those who "chose" differently than the majority. Arius made some claims about Jesus that caused the church to convene a council at Nicea and wrestle with and dialogue about the divinity and humanity of Christ. Martin Luther, considered a heretic by the Catholic church, only birthed the Protestant reformation with his choices, and John Wesley, who considered himself an Anglican until the day he died, was not received as warmly by his Anglican communion as his "choices" led to Methodism.

Heresy stretches us, it causes us to think critically, it challenges the all too easily accepted pat answers. It demands followers of God to dialogue and respond. Is Rob Bell a heretic? Is the person who promotes a theology of Hell being an eternal dungeon of fire superintended by a guy wearing a red cape, with horns carrying a pitchfork a heretic? Especially seeing as the Bible makes no mention of capes, horns, and pitchforks. Furthermore, who decides whether or not someone is a heretic? Who is the arbiter in the heresy court? Is it Justin Taylor, the Gospel Coalition, Mark Driscoll, Martin Pashir, Greg Boyd or myself? Who decides where the boundaries lie in the orthodoxy camp?

Rob Bell wants an orthodoxy that is wide and vast and inclusive of many different streams. Personally, I think its wider than most of us think but perhaps not as wide as Rob Bell would like. My point however is that we must be very careful when we begin to label someone as a heretic. When we do this we assume the role of judge and as I read the gospels that is not a role that is reserved for you or I. This may be a copout but I will allow to Jesus to decide whether or not Rob Bell or anyone is a heretic. I can disagree with the guy and debate him on his perspectives, but to charge him with heresy is no small matter, and the truth is that we have all walked into the realm of heresy more than we would like to admit.

I have been a fan of Rob Bell's for while. I have seen every Nooma, read all of his books, listened to countless sermons on his podcast, been to his church twice, heard him speak live several times, and even met him once. I think that he has done a lot of good in the Christian community and has been a fresh voice in the church at a time where things were pretty stale. My default mode when this controversy started was to get defensive. However in a debate such as this one, it is not simply about affirming a person because I like him.

After reading Love Wins I still like Rob Bell. He causes me to think, wrestle, study, and imagine at a deeper level. I read this book in two sittings and by the end of the first one I had on the floor in front of me Love Wins, a Bible, and Greek New Testament. My issue with Rob Bell and the book is it raises so many questions with little in the way of a clear response, leaving the reader in the land of ambiguity as to what Bell himself believes. This makes for great writing and art but Rob Bell is first and foremost a pastor, and while any good pastor would pose provocative questions that lead to critical thought and dialogue rather than providing simple pat answers, I also think that it is his pastoral responsibility to help people in their journey to arrive at some answers. A pastor in the Biblical sense of the word is a shepherd and a good shepherd doesn't just leave his/her sheep wandering aimlessly, he/she faithfully guides them home. I wish Rob Bell was a bit more clear about what he truly believes about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived. He says its a book of responses, but I find he doesn't deliver on his promise. 224 pages of unanswered questions does a disservice to those who are honestly seeking some clarity and direction on these issues. Rob Bell is brilliant. He knows what he is doing, and that makes it all the more disconcerting that he leaves thousands of people in a haze about what he really thinks.

Some have said, well that's just his style. He asks questions, he remains vague, he allows for tension. As a pastor I realize that I have a platform and with this platform comes a responsibility to ask questions, allow tension, but also to teach sound doctrine and to offer careful and well thought out responses when asked for them. Bell's platform is vastly larger than mine. Thousands of people are following him not as a writer, or an artist, but as a pastor. In short, when someone asks Rob Bell a question I just want him to answer it clearly, not dodge it, deflect it, or cleverly tell a compelling story that makes us forget about it.

I agree with Rob Bell that too often Christians are so preoccupied with the afterlife that we fail to concern ourselves with how we are to live today, that we can participate in heaven/hell on earth now, not just later, by the choices we make, that ultimately God is a God of love and God desperately wants all people to experience his love and joy, both now and forever. Bell is very clear on these issues and I would hope few would disagree with him. Ultimately, his message is one of God's vast love for all humanity and his longing to reconcile all things to himself. I only wish that more of us Jesus followers were as passionate about this message.

Love wins, but in doing so Love also responds, shepherds, guides and leads. I simply would like Rob Bell will do the same.

Confessions of a Suburban Pastor

2011-03-03T14:27:00.001-08:00

In 1999 there was a film that received a lot of acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The title of this film was American Beauty, and it told the story of a suburban family who outwardly seemed to have it all together: well-paying jobs, a spot in the right social circles, a large home with a well-kept lawn in a picturesque subdivision. However the story the film really tells is that in spite of outward appearances this family is one of lonely, disconnected, and miserable people who are suffocating in their suburban existence.

I've seen this film several times and every time I am both entertained and disturbed. While it was funny on screen it seemed anything but in real life. To me, the suburbs seemed like a great setting for a television show or movie, but hardly what I wanted as the backdrop of my life in reality.

I grew up in a city of approximately 600,000 people (closer to 1 million if the entire metropolitan area is taken into account). When I say that I grew up in a city I actually mean the city, not like how people from Lake Forest say they grew up in Chicago. My mother was a single-mom and ours was a middle-class family living in a very middle class blue-collar neighborhood. The houses were modest in size, looked different from one another, and there weren't many cul-de-sacs to speak of. I loved growing up in the city. I loved the diversity, energy, and noise that came with it. I loved going to a school where not everyone looked like me and where I could be exposed to different cultures. When God called me to ministry at age 15 I was always certain I would do ministry in an urban environment. I went to college in southern Illinois in a very rural area but escaped to St. Louis every chance I got and always planned to return to the city to do ministry following graduation.

While I didn't necessarily end up doing ministry in a city following graduation, I did end up in a diverse, blue-collar, and very urban-like community. I loved leading a youth ministry where not every kid looked the same. After five years at this church and in this community we believed God was calling us to plant a church, which obviously would be in a city. There was one stop we would need to make along the way. We would intern with a church plant in one of the more desired suburban communities in the midwest. I was excited about the opportunity and had no problem going to "American Beauty Land" for one year, because I knew we would then move on to pursue our heart's desire. So we found a house to rent in a subdivision where every house looked the same and kept as much stuff in boxes as we could. The suburbs were simply a brief stop on our journey.

A funny thing happened on the way to leaving the burbs. We began to develop relationships with neighbors and families in this church plant and we discovered, not sterile and passionless American Beauty-like people, but real people who are full of goodwill, generosity, and are genuinely delightful to be around. We also soon discovered that though there is a lot more abundance in the suburbs with idols all around, there are still people who love Jesus and are doing their darndest to follow them. We discovered that the suburbs are a very real mission field. It may not be an area ravaged by economic poverty but one where a spiritual poverty abounds. For many money, possessions, and status have not filled the emptiness in their soul or the loneliness in their heart, and they need to hear the good news of Jesus as much as anyone.

Many of you know our story. We now pastor this church and we absolutely love it! We're so blessed to be in this community seeking to follow Christ with these people. I realized recently that whenever I shared with someone that I pastor a church in the suburbs I would offer somewhat of a qualifier, "I pastor a church in the suburbs but...it wasn't really my plan" or "God has a sense of humor," or "I still feel out of place."

I am a suburban pastor. No more qualifiers. I have come to grips with it, and more than that I am thankful that I am. God is teaching me so much about how his kingdom is for all people in all places. I may not yet drive an SUV and I still don't get the obsession with mowing the lawn every other day but I love our community and the people that form it and I believe that God is using us and the people of our church to be a prophetic voice in a land, that in spite of its affluence, traveling baseball, and long commutes to work, desperately cries out for God.

My name is Erick and I am a suburban pastor.

Reflections on an Evening with Alan Hirsch

2011-02-14T19:07:00.000-08:00

Last week I had the privilege of hearing twice from Alan Hirsch. Hirsch leads a church planting network called Forge, and over the years has become one of the leading voices on church planting. I've read some of his stuff, have heard him speak now a few times, and am deeply challenged by his thoughts.

At the first event I attended Hirsch gave a presentation titled, "The Faith of Leap," which is the title of a forthcoming book of his. The talk centered around the idea of "communitas." This is a concept that he introduces in his book The Forgotten Ways. Communitas essentially is the community that forms in the midst of an ordeal, challenge, or task. An example he gave is of manhood rites of passage in other cultures where boys are left in the bush by the village elders to find their way to the tree where the elders will meet them and teach them about being a man. It is in this quest, this adventure marked by risk and danger where community among the young men is formed.

Hirsch suggests that by and large risk and adventure are missing in most of our churches claiming, "Our longing for adventure has been taken out of the venture." As we look through the stories of the Scriptures and the early church, we find experiences chalked full of risk, chaos, and adventure and somewhere throughout the course of church history, church became safe.

I'm challenged by this and I tend to agree with Hirsch's assessment. Where is the risk in most of our churches? Where is the danger? Where is the uncertainty? Perhaps the reason that churches are full of passive, bored, and non-committal people is that we have failed to give them the adventure their souls long for, that we have failed to hand them the sword of cause.

A few weeks ago I shared a vision of planting 5 churches in 5 communities in 5 years with our church. The following week a guy who is new to our church told me that he finds most churches seem to be about "self-preservation," but that it seems as if we truly have a desire to be outward-focused. He then shared that a vision of planting churches is exciting. I don't know if we'll accomplish this or not, but it certainly is a risky, dangerous, and uncertain pursuit. At the same time it could be an adventure that people long for and my hope is that we'll take hills together and along the way form communitas...whatever that is.

What is the adventure you are on? What is the risk that you or your church is taking? How can we recapture the dangerous wonder of what it means to be a follower of Jesus?

5 Antbiotics that Stop the Gospel

2011-02-01T08:31:00.000-08:00

Several years ago I noticed what looked like a small bug bite on my leg. A few days later it had become a big red spot. A few days after that I had red spots all over my body. Against my will I finally went to see a doctor about this. It turns out that I had Lymes Disease and these were textbook (they literally brought in a textbook and showed me) symptoms. Once the doc assured me that I would live he prescribed an antibiotic and ensured that if I took this antibiotic for 3 weeks I would be fine. I did and I've been fine ever since.

As many know Lymes disease is transmitted through a tick, a tiny creature the size of a tip of a needle. Once this infested tick burrows its way into your skin the disease spreads: spots, fever, potential arthritis, paralysis, and some have even died from the disease. It's fascinating to think that something so seemingly tiny can have such a big impact. I think that the Gospel or good news of Jesus is like this. It seems rather small, but when we allow it to burrow its way into our hearts it impacts our entire being and spreads throughout our community and world. Allowing the good news in us transforms individuals, churches, communities, and the world. Yet, just as I took an antibiotic that stopped the Lymes disease from spreading, I believe there are antibiotics that are inhibiting the growth in our churches, and perhaps more severe, inhibiting the growth of the gospel.

1. Division/Disunity. One antibiotic that will stop a church dead in her tracks is DIVISION. When a church is not united it essentially is accomplishing nothing. It doesn't matter how good the preaching is, the music is, or the children's ministry is, division always dwarfs growth. What makes this such a formidable antibiotic is that just about anything can cause division: the color of the carpet, style of music, where to place announcements in a service, or how to spend money. If overlooked or brushed aside these little things will lead to division in the church, which leads to the second antibiotic.

2. Lack of mission. Nothing keeps a church united more than a common mission. What is the mission of your church and do the people in your church know it? Just about every church has a mission statement and most of the time they're pretty clever and well-worded. Mission, however, isn't defined by a statement on your literature, rather its defined by the practices of your church. The mission has to be communicated clearly and constantly. When people hear it over and over they'll begin to get what the church is about. Then when it comes to decisions on carpet, money, and music, all of these decisions are evaluated against the overall mission. When there is a lack of mission no one knows what the church is trying to accomplish and the result is several competing missions, thus accomplishing nothing. When you aim for nothing you hit everything.

3. Inward Focus. If I just pay attention to the inside of my house then the outside of my house will eventually be hard on the eyes. The same is true with our churches. When a church exists solely for its own members it becomes like a country club where people simply gather to have their own private comfortable club, while the world around them suffers. The church is an organization that exists for the benefit of the non-members. We're called to GO and MAKE, not to STAY and FAKE. Nothing spreads faster than when others are talking about it. When our churches exist simply for ourselves then no one else knows about us, talks about us, or cares about us, and worse yet no one knows about, talks about, or cares about Jesus.

4. Gossip. When I first joined a church staff I naively thought that it would always be the most uplifting place to work. Everyone would always be encouraging and we would always graciously work through issues together because that's how Christians behave right? While working for a church was and is for the most part very pleasant, the truth is that the same kind of gossip that takes place in your secular office is alive and well in most churches. Gossip will wreak havoc on a church because gossip is bad news and it is at direct odds with the good news that we're called to tell. If gossip exists in your life and/or church...stop it dead in its tracks or it will stop the growth of the church and the gospel dead in it's.

5. Complacency. It is true that a church of 3,000 could be dealing with an antibiotic. All of the aforementioned issues can exist in churches of any size, but perhaps none like complacency. The danger with growth is we can fall into the trap of believing that all is well because all is big. Don't just assume that just because the church has experienced growth means we can just sit back and get comfortable because now everything will take care of itself. Even if I pastored a church of 3,000 there are still 16,000 people far from God in my own community alone. When we grow complacent and take our hands off the throttle the church loses.

There are times when antibiotics aren't a good thing. What are the antibiotics in your life and in your church? What is inhibiting the growth of the gospel? Tell the doctor "no;" Put the medicine back in the cabinet and allow an epidemic of good news to spread!

Why MLK Day Matters

2011-01-17T20:56:00.001-08:00

As a youth pastor I would always distribute a copy of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech on our youth gathering the week of MLK day. Some years I would even take time during our gathering to show the video of this historic speech followed by a group discussion on it. What prompted this was that every year as this holiday approached our students would usually display their excitement simply because of the extended weekend it awarded them. In fact on one occasion I asked one of our African-American students what MLK was famous for and his response was, "getting me a day off of school."

The sad truth is that for many this day has become nothing more than an extra day off. My attempt at an annual emphasis on MLK's historic speech on the steps of the Lincoln memorial was to help a diverse group of young people realize that in the midst of a lot of wrong in our nation, MLK was a man who represented what was right and his legacy matters. Here are a few reflections I have on this MLK day:

1. The relentless pursuit of justice is better than the apathetic acceptance of injustice. MLK was a champion for justice. For him it wasn't that one race was superior to another or more deserving of a quality life than another. MLK believed that everyone is created in the image of God and to oppress or prop oneself up above another is to harm that image. Unfortunately we live in a world where injustice is a sad ongoing reality (human trafficking, ethnic genocide, extreme poverty, HIV AIDS) and if we're not careful we can just accept that the world is broken and sit idly by while the injustice continues. MLK was not content sitting on the sidelines of justice. In his Dream speech he remarked, "We refuse to believe the bank of justice is bankrupt." I'm inspired to believe the same today. Where is the injustice in our communities and in our world and how might God be positioning us to stand up against it? It may seem futile, it may seem dangerous, it may seem like an endless pursuit...but it is necessary, it is heroic, and it is worth it.

2. Peace is a better strategy than violence. Often times injustice expresses itself through hatred and violence. Those who oppose such violence typically resort to taking on violence with violence, thus launching a viscous cycle in which no one wins in the end. The great heroes throughout world history responded to violence, hatred, and oppression with peace, love, and grace. Think about the life and teaching of Jesus: "If one strikes you on your cheek, give him the other as well." "Blessed are the peacemakers." "Have I come to lead a rebellion, put your sword away." MLK embodied Jesus' teachings and led a movement (not unlike Ghandi or Nelson Mandella) that fought violence with peace, and in the end are winning the battle. MLK challenges me to love first, to treat others with grace and dignity in all things, to work towards being a peacemaker in my relationships.

3. A big dream for the future is better than a complacent today. MLK shared his dream in the midst of a nation soiled with racial injustice. He shared a dream where "little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and little white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers." His dream must have seemed unrealistic to many, perhaps more like a delusion but, even though we have a long way to go, MLK's crazy dream has come true. I'll never forget when I was in fifth grade when my mother drove my brother and I to the other side of Milwaukee to pick up our friend Stanley Smith. We headed back to our house where not a couple little white boys and a black boy sat and watched the Super Bowl, but where three friends enjoyed life together, the way things ought to be. What is your "crazy dream" for how things ought to be? Keep dreaming big, even in the darkest of places. God promises that he is making all things new, and he uses ordinary people like MLK, you, and I to accomplish it.

Let's keep dreaming Dr. King's dream because it's more than the dream of one heroic man; it's God's dream for humanity.

"Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays?"

2010-12-23T13:19:00.001-08:00

As I pastor I hear a lot about "keeping the Christ in Christmas." I also read and hear a lot about the so-called "War on Christmas," that has intensified in recent years. In all honesty I personally think that there are far more important things to fight over than what the cashier at Walmart says to me as I check out in December or the words being sung at the local public school Christmas program. Yet I've been thinking about this a little more than usual, and as I am out in the public square I have wrestled over the appropriate greeting for the strangers whom I encounter.

In short, should I say, "Happy Holdiays" or "Merry Christmas?"

First off, for me this is not a matter of political correctness. I have never made decisions based upon whether or not something is PC. I am trying my darndest to follow Jesus and as I look at his life and ministry political correctness doesn't appear to be one of his core values. It was the politicians and religious leaders afterall who joined together to crucify him.

The question I have is what is one trying to accomplish when greeting someone during the holidays? I would contend that in general whether one is wishing another "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas," their main objective is simply to wish some goodwill upon another person. In which case, the greetings seem to be synonymous. Let's say this is the purpose of a holiday greeting then wouldn't "Happy Holidays" be more effective as it can also encompass "Happy New Year" in it as well? "Happy Holidays" is a lot more concise than "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year." I only have so many words I can get out in a day.

For those who subscribe to "Jesus is the reason for the season" meaning of Christmas, "Merry Christmas" is far more than just an off-the-cuff holiday greeting of goodwill and best regards.

Christmas is about God becoming flesh and dwelling among us.

Christmas is about a messiah coming to save his people.

Christmas is about a king being born not in the splendor and glory of a palace, but in the humility and simplicity of a manger.

Christmas is about the poor and oppressed receiving hope, dignity, and rescue.

Christmas is about a God who saw his children in their brokenness and chose to do something drastic about it.

So here is a thought...if Christmas truly is about Jesus, and you want to fight to keep him the meaning of Christmas, then why not just share Jesus with others? Why not look for opportunities to share your faith with others? Why not invite someone to your Christmas Eve service? Why not look for opportunities to serve the poor in your community or reach out to the single mothers? If Christmas is really about Jesus what would it would it really look like to wish the stranger a "Merry Christmas?"

Christmas is bigger than a greeting. It is an event. It is an action. If we're just greeting someone this season then "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" makes little difference. However, if we're truly wishing (wishing probably isn't the best word...maybe blessing) someone a "Merry Christmas" then it makes all the difference in the world. It did 2000 years ago, and it continues all the same today.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Incarnate People

2010-12-13T12:41:00.001-08:00

What if this Christmas we didn't just give presents, but instead we gave PRESENCE?

Christmas is about God being present with his people. Its a celebration of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us in the person of Jesus Christ. For centuries followers of Christ have referred to this as the "Incarnation." Incarnation is about embodiment, in the flesh, or physical presence. Yet, not only do Christ-followers believe in the Incarnation, but we recognize that we're called to be Incarnational ourselves. Just as Jesus entered into our story and brought the presence of God into it, we're called to enter into the stories of others and bring the presence of God there as well.

So what hat does it mean to be incarnational?

1. Go where stuff is happening. You cannot be incarnational from a far. Filmmaker Woody Allen once said, "95% of life is just showing up." Incarnation at its core is about showing up. As followers of Christ we're not called to live separately from the rest of the culture, rather we are instead called to live "set-apart" lives within the culture as a way of engaging it. Where is the stuff happening around you? Who are the people in your sphere of influence and how are you showing up in their lives?

2. Listen to the heart-cry of the people around you. In several instances recorded in the Gospels we read that Jesus had "compassion" for a town or a group of people. The Greek that is translated as compassion literally means, "to be moved in one's bowels." That's kind of a gross image but the point is that when Jesus entered into the stories of others he was moved deeply in his gut. His heart went out to the people. This means that Incarnate people enter into others' brokenness even though its a risky emotional investment and even though things could get messy. This is what God did for us. He heard the heart-cry of his people and he entered into our brokenness. What is the heart-cry of the people around you or the community in which you live, and are you filled with compassion?

3. Do something about the brokenness. The truth is that just showing up isn't enough. Jesus didn't just show up to hang out with us, eat comfort food and rub our backs so we felt a little better. He did something about the sin and brokenness that was destroying us. Incarnation isn't just about presence; it's about transformation and redemption. When we live incarnationally not only do we hear the heart-cry of others and enter into it, but we do something about it as well. What are you doing about the brokenness around you?

4. People talk about those who live incarnationally. Do you realize that people have been talking about Jesus for 2000 years? He came into this world, God-in-the-flesh, lived among us and saved us, and his story is still being told today. Go ahead and do a Google search for Jesus and see how many hits it returns. When we go where stuff is happening, hear the heart-cry of others and do something about it, people begin to talk about us. The news begins to spread. What are others saying about you? What are the comments about you on Facebook? What are others saying about your church? When we begin to live incarnationally others around us take notice.

Christmas isn't about how many gifts are under the Christmas tree. It is about sounding the message that God has come to help his people. How could you live incarnationally among someone this Christmas? Let's give Christmas Presence!

Generation Hope

2010-11-29T11:47:00.001-08:00

Below is an article I recently had published in our local newspaper. It was based off of a message I recently preached on Jeremiah 1.4-10 titled "Today I Appoint You." It was a fun exercise in communicating God's message, stripped of the religious language that may not have been accepted in a local newspaper. If you're interested in hearing the message give a listen here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id292230187.

Many have referred to today’s young people as “Generation Me.” Their reasoning generally follows: they lack respect for authority, they’re selfish, cynical, apathetic, and out of control. Yet I believe that the next generation also possesses unparalleled potential, creativity and giftedness and if they can discover their purpose in life then there is great hope for the future of our community and world. I want to cast a compelling vision for our next generation, one that will require parents, teachers, coaches, and other community leaders to embrace if we’re to see it come to fruition. This vision lies in the essence of three truths that our young people need to understand.

1. Your life has a great purpose. No matter what your peers, teachers, and perhaps even parents communicate you were not an accident. Long before you were a twinkle in their eye you were destined for great things. You are at a period in your life where simply existing and getting by isn’t enough. Psychologists maintain that during adolescence we wrestle with three questions: Who am I? Do I belong? Do I matter? Adolescence can be tough, but it is also a great opportunity to creatively explore your purpose in life.

2. Your youth is not an excuse. It is an opportunity. Too often youth is used as an excuse, as a way of getting out of doing something significant. Unfortunately our culture encourages this. Turn on the latest reality television show and you will find passionate and energetic twenty-somethings partying, sleeping around and getting into fights. Many will watch this and say, “Well they’re just young and having fun.” What if instead of just doing whatever feels good, you did something that mattered? Perhaps instead of going on a wild spring break trip you went and served the inner city or went with a group of friends to do relief work in an area ravaged by a hurricane or earthquake. I know of several young people who have traded the parties in Cancun for opportunities in Rwanda and Kenya, and both society and their own lives are better as a result.

3. You have a message that the world needs to hear. Too often society is the one giving you a message, “Wait your turn. Listen to us for a while, and when you’ve finally wised up to our way of thinking then we’ll listen to you.” Do not be content just sitting at the kids’ table. Join the important conversations in which society is engaged. You offer passion and creativity that is unlike anything the world has ever seen. Pursue opportunities to have your voice heard, because we need to hear it and the future will be impacted significantly as a result.

Next generation, you can change your school, your community, and the world. My hope is that the rest of us will empower and encourage you to do so!

Uncertainty is a Good Thing

2010-11-09T20:27:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about something a lot lately. Why do people in ministry struggle with uncertainty so much? I served at a church as youth pastor for five years, and for the most part I had it pretty good. Decent salary (for a youth pastor), benefits, a good-size ministry, and a pretty good sense of security that all of this would continue. There were moments of uncertainty (pastor changes, pay cuts, changing vision), but for the most part I felt pretty certain about things.

Since embarking upon our church planting adventure nothing has been certain! Personal finances, church finances, ministry location, our housing situation, etc. I have come to a point where I pretty much expect uncertainty in ministry, and in all honesty I think I'm ok with that. When I look at the Scriptures and read about the people who did great things for God there was a whole lot of uncertainty for these folks.

- How certain was Noah that the whole ark thing was legit and would really pan out?

- How much certainty did Abraham have when God called him out of Ur, or to sacrifice his son on an altar?

- How certain was Moses that the Hebrews could cross the Red Sea without Pharoah's army catching up with them?

- How certain was David that he could defeat a giant?

- Was Naomi certain that Ruth could change their fate and bring redemption to their family?

- How certain was Mary that her baby was God?

- How certain were the disciples that Jesus was the Messiah?

- How certain was Paul that he could take the Gospel to the ends of the earth?

It seems that the story of Scripture, more often than not, was that God's people really didn't have much certainty, security, and comfort. Somewhere we came to this point where people of God and ministers of the gospel expected these things. If God's call upon his people is at all similar today (which I think it it is) then pastoral transitions, salaries (or lack thereof), church size changes, church planting obstacles should all be expected even though they bring great uncertainty. In fact if you are certain about all of the aspects of your life and/or ministry right now then you may not truly be following God's call.

What's amazing to me isn't that Noah built the ark, that the Red Sea was parted, or that the Virgin Birth happened. If God truly is the creator and sustainer of the universe then these things are entirely possible. What is amazing to me is that the men and women of the Bible who did great things for God were willing to step out into the corridors of uncertainty, and give God the opportunity the do something incredible.

Uncertainty should not surprise us if we're trying to seek God. Uncertainty is expected. Uncertainty is a good thing. I am certain of it!

An Invitation Culture

2010-10-18T14:30:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a webinar with Don Everts (author of Jesus with Dirty Feet, and I Once Was Lost). The thrust of his presentation was on the process of evangelism in the local church. There was specifically one thing he shared with us that I've been thinking about ever since. Evangelism is successful in the local church when we "create a culture of inviting."

As the pastor of a church plant who recently moved into a new facility in a new community I think about inviting a lot. There are essentially two things that are crucial when it comes to inviting. One: You have to have something to invite a person two (whether its church, a small group, a service project, outreach event, etc). Two: You have to have a way (actually probably several ways) of going about inviting.

At Resolution we use direct mail, facebook, signs, newspaper ads, invite cards, and our website as ways of inviting people. We've seen some success with these different medium, and will continue to use them to some degree. However, as even the marketing gurus will tell you, personal invitation and word of mouth is still the most effective form of invitation.

This past weekend Bekki and I took a few hours and went door to door in our neighborhood introducing ourselves to our neighbors and inviting them to our church. I'll be honest, this was a little intimidating at first. I've read all of the books and studies that reflect the hostility that the unchurched apparently have for Christians. In many ways, I (and many other Christians) are prepared for people to less excited about a pastor showing up to their door than a Kirby vacuum salesman.

What we discovered though was different. Our neighbors received us graciously and actually seemed pretty interested in what we were doing. We knocked on six doors, four had someone home, none of which went to church. Yet there was no hostility, no opposition, no coldness towards us. We simply shared that we were with the new church and would love for them to come check us out but more than that we wanted to be good neighbors and a blessing to this community.

I honestly think that there are too many leaders in the church that use all of the "they like Jesus but not the church" stuff as a crutch! We just assume that those outside of the church will not be open to us and the message of Jesus that we carry. When I read the Gospels I find Jesus inviting people to "come and see" several times. And what happened? They came and saw! People are lonely, broken, and are looking for something meaningful and the last time I checked what we have to share and invite others to is good news! This was true 2000 years ago and its true today.

Assumption: Those outside of the church are hostile to the Church and the Gospel.

Observation: Those outside of the church are looking for connection and meaning just like the rest of us, and when approached by Jesus-followers with genuine love and respect they will respond warmly.

We were pleasantly surprised on Sunday when we had people from 4 different houses across the street show up for church! If Jesus could effectively transform the world, he can effectively transform our neighborhoods and communities! Let's create something meaningful and then invite someone to come and see!

10.12.10!

2010-10-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

For a few months now I have been writing, talking, and thinking about 10.10.10. Our church (Resolution Church) recently moved to a building in Oswego and we had been planning and preparing for our Grand Opening in this new facility and community on 10.10.10 at 10AM. After a great deal of prayer, planning, hard work, and fundraising ($15,475 to be exact) 10.10.10 has come and gone.

So now I want to share some thoughts on 10.12.10.

Today is 10.12.10 and the dust of the Holy Spirit's movement is still settling. Sunday was a great day for Resolution! A mother and her teenage daughter walked across the street for church. A 92 year old man shared that in spite of the loud music he enjoyed my message and loved our church. Several young families from nearby neighborhoods made their way to church for the first time in a while. Many new kids laughed, played, and sang with caring adults and new friends, and many of our "regulars" were joined by their friends and neighbors whom they had invited to church. 120 people packed out our little building (we had 70 last week) and there was an energy and buzz beyond our normal experience. I preached on John 10.10 on 10.10.10 at 10AM (This was not intentional I promise) and proclaimed the good news. It was a great day and my heart was full. Many of our friends and supporters have been praying for this day and God honored the prayers of the saints. In the few days since I've received e-mails, texts, FB messages, and phone calls inquiring about the day. Here are three reflections on 10.10.10:

1. This was a church-wide effort. One of the feelings I had at the end of the day was a tremendous sense of pride for the church which God has called me to lead. Our people pulled out all of the stops to ensure a fantastic grand opening experience. They greeted, directed parking, handed out bulletins, served coffee, lead the children's ministry, and were available to pray with people afterward. They were enthusiastic, passionate, and excited about their church. This was a great success, not because of the pastor, but because individuals in the church selflessly took their place and carried out their roles with excellence. I was proud of our church, but more than that I think our church was proud of their church. They had a healthy sense of accomplishment about them, a sense of ownership. It is such a blessing to pastor a church full of people who LOVE their church! It makes it fun!

2. There were a lot of new faces! I'm not going to lie: I had some family come for the occasion as did my wife, and this certainly helped pad the numbers a bit. However, there were a lot of new people who were not family of anyone belonging to Resolution. Many of our people brought friends or neighbors who weren't connected to any church. There were also many from nearby neighborhoods, some of whom shared that they had driven 20 miles for church previously and were so thrilled to have a contemporary church in their neighborhood. Our mission is to reach people far from God in our community, not people from other churches looking for the next serving on the church buffet table. We made an initial impact with our community, and I am hoping and praying that these families (many of them young families) will find their place at Resolution, and ultimately in God's kingdom.

3. God's presence was here! At the end of our service while the band was leading the closing worship song I stood in back by the woman at our welcome table. I simply mentioned to her what a great morning it had been and she responded, "God's presence is definitely here today!" She was absolutely right! The truth is God's presence is always with us, but it was palpable on Sunday. Early on in the process of moving to this facility in this community someone shared with me, "Dream big and then get to work. If God chooses to bless it He will, but we may as well give him something to work with." I'm a big dreamer, and I believe that God wants to do big things in our church and community, and that he's calling us to join him on the other side of our wildest imagination! God's presence was there indeed, but my prayer is that Sunday would hardly be a culmination but rather it would be only be the origination of a God-sized movement in our church.

10.10.10 was a great day, but on 10.12.10 I am on the edge of my seat waiting to discover what's next!

Inspired by...

2010-10-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

I just finished a 4 week teaching series titled "A Different Kind of Leader." For each series I usually have a few books that influence my thoughts. Here are a few good ones on leadership that helped give shape to this series. Check them out!

- In the Name of Jesus, Henri Nouwen

- Good to Great, Jim Collins

- The Starfish and the Spider, Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom

- Organic Church, Neil Cole

- Tribes, Seth Godin

Who is Coming With Me?

2010-09-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

The Lord replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you my rest." Then Moses said to him, "if your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here." Exodus 33.14-15

I read these words in my devotions last week and they really spoke to my spirit. These were in the context of God calling Moses to lead his people into the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey. For Moses this was a daunting task and he no doubt was experiencing a healthy dose of anxiety. He needed some assurance. He needed to know he wasn't on his own, and that God not only called him to this mission but that God would go with his people as well.

I've had similar sentiments lately. For the past few months Resolution has been gearing up for a move. We've been meeting in a movie theater for roughly a year and a half and beginning this Sunday we will meet in a church building which we are leasing in the neighboring community of Oswego. We have put a lot of time, effort, prayer, and resources into this move and are anticipating that God is going to do some great things!

And yet, there still remains a lot of uncertainty. While we ANTICIPATE great things, we don't KNOW what will happen. It's a risk, a calculated and well processed one, but a risk nonetheless. So while we have our people on board, funds raised, and a plan to reach this community I find myself coming back to a holy desperation for a holy God. Above all else we need the assurance of God and his Presence as we embark upon this new horizon.

My prayer is that of Moses, "if your presence doesn't go with us then don't send us. I don't want to make this move if you're not coming with us." And yet when I read these words last week I had a sense of peace that God in fact was promising me and our church that he's coming with us, that his Presence has gone before us and his paving the way in the hearts and lives of people in this community.

It's a risky move, but sometimes playing it safe is the riskiest move of all. God's Presence goes with us and therefore we must move as the people of God with courage and boldness!

Diary of a Wimpy Pastor

2010-09-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

Our family went on a much needed brief vacation a couple of weeks ago. In the middle of a relaxing day during said vacation I had a rather convicting experience.

We were headed down Hwy 12 in the Wisconsin Dells area looking for a state park. We were following the GPS to this park and realized that the GPS was leading us nowhere. As we drove past what was supposed to be our destination we passed a young man on the side of the road, hand extended hoping to hitch a ride. I turned the car around to head back down the road to the entrance of the state park that the GPS failed to locate (Thanks Garmin), and passed this guy again. As I pulled into the state park and got out of the car with Bekki and the boys to have a picnic I couldn't get the image of this guy out of my head.

He looked miserable, dejected, and helpless and I knew I was supposed to help him. I shared with Bekki that I thought Jesus was prompting me to help him, and she agreed.

I got back into the car and drove down the road to find this guy and offer help. I soon found him, pulled over, rolled down the window and asked where he was going. Turns out his car had broke down, his ride never showed up to pick him up from work, and he needed to be back home in the next town before his daughter returned from school. I invited him in the car (safety pin in my hand as it was the only defense weapon I had...i'm serious) and we headed for his house.

We made small talk on our seven-minute journey and all the while I was praying that I might have an opportunity to talk to him about Jesus. We pulled up to his house, he said thanks and I wished him well. I had a plan. I was going to tell him WHY I gave him a ride, because I was a follower of Jesus and I believed that Jesus was calling me to help him, and that Jesus wanted to rescue him from far more than just being stranded at work. Something like that anyways.

But I didn't say any of that. I drove away upset with and embarrassed by myself. I felt like a WIMP! Here I am a pastor with good news to tell, and I blew it. Some may read this and think, "You're being way too hard on yourself. You did share the love of Jesus with him by offering help to someone in need." Perhaps, but I think too often we let ourselves off the evangelistic hook by simply equating all good deeds with the good news of Jesus. I'm all for servant evangelism (I did afterall give the guy a ride), but there are times where I think we're supposed to open our mouths and talk about Jesus as well. In my spirit, I knew this was one of those moments and I missed it.

So I made a little promise to God (one I'm sure to break but I hope not) that whenever presented with an opportunity to open my mouth and share some good news that I would do it. I promised that I would marry my acts of service with words about Jesus, because evangelism at its best involves both proclamation through both word and deed. If you feel the same way then I invite you to pray a little prayer with me:

"Dear Jesus, help me to not be such a wimp. Amen."

Five Characteristics of an Unstoppable Church

2010-08-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

I just finished a teaching series on the book of Acts with our church, and it has me pretty fired up. Acts is the story of the early church, the first group of people who were radically committed to Jesus and his teachings. As we read through this book we discover a church that was simply UNSTOPPABLE!

They grew like crazy, shared their possessions with one another, healed people, raised up leaders, saw the movement's top enemy become one of its greatest leaders, and crossed cultural and ethnic boundaries with the Gospel. And the whole "from Jerusalem...to the ends of the earth thing"...they actually pulled that off!

Yet too often we talk about Acts as if it were the "good ol' days." Remember when God did that? Wouldn't it be awesome if God used the church in that way again? I may be nuts but I actually believe that the church wasn't just unstoppable 2,000 years ago, but that it can still be unstoppable today, and if we really believed this and tapped into the power of the Holy Spirit we would experience some incredible things. So are you part of an unstoppable church? Here are a few characteristics to guage where you're at.

1. An unstoppable church is full of transformed people who transform the world.

We like the idea of changing the world and even believe that God has called us to join him on this mission. We don't however like the idea of personal transformation as much. Yet, we will not experience being agents of transformation in our community and world unless we're transformed anew by God ourselves. Transformed people bring about transformation in the world. If you want to change the world then allow God to change you first.

2. An unstoppable church has a sense of mission.

To be on mission literally means to be "sent." As the church we are a "sent" people, not a "stay" people. Imagine that someone sent me to go and find the best chicken wings in the world, paid my expenses, gave me a map of every chicken wing place, put me up in posh hotels, and provided a private jet. But instead I simply gather some friends once a week and sing about our love for chicken wings and then listen to someone talk about chicken wings for 30 minutes? That would be ridiculous! Jesus has invited us on his mission to rescue and redeem the world from its brokenness and when we reduce this to just an hour-long service once a week then we're not on mission. Our weekly gatherings should only further encourage and empower us on this mission.

3. An unstoppable church communicates a clear message.

When we read of Paul's missionary encounters in Acts his message his laser-sharp. It's all about Jesus: his death and resurrection and the need for humanity to repent and live in the way of Jesus. Our churches become stoppable when we muddy the message by colluding it with some political or moral agenda, or we water it down so as not to offend anyone. Keep the message clear and about Jesus and make sure people know what the heck you're talking about.

4. An unstoppable church depends on the power of the Holy Spirit.

If we're honest with ourselves too many churches depend on the giftedness of a few people. We gather some talented musicians, a dynamic and engaging speaker, and throw some funds at a first-rate children's ministry and then we're successful. The problem is take away a few musicians, the gifted speaker, and the money and the whole thing collapses. The early church didn't have the best band (consider a 4-piece harp band), the most gifted speakers (unschooled and ordinary men), or the best facilities, but they had the HOLY SPIRIT and incredible things happened! If you're a part of a small church with only a few gifted people, no funds, a deteriorating facility but you have the Holy Spirit, then you have everything you need to be UNSTOPPABLE! (I would still address these other things though).

5. An unstoppable church is bold and courageous.

Let's just say that there really is a Holy Spirt and that he really does give us power? Shouldn't we be bold and courageous? Shouldn't we confront injustice head-on? Shouldn't we be reaching out more to those in need? Shouldn't we be speaking truth into the lives of our friends and family? Shouldn't our marriages be more in tact? Shouldn't we actually expect God to do big things in and through us? Too often at the first sign of discomfort we shrink back, get in the fetal position, and cry for our mommies. Christ-followers should be the most courageous people on the planet!

We're not called to be an "Acts" church; we're called to be a church where the Holy Spirit acts and when the Spirit acts we are unstoppable!

So what is stopping you?

Fish Wars and Engaging the Culture

2010-08-19T07:56:00.000-07:00

I became a Christian at age 15 and very quickly entered into the American Christian subculture. I traded in my Snoop Dog and Bone Thugs and Harmony albums for the latest popular Christian music. I put a Jesus fish on my car as well as some of the clever bumper stickers available at the local Christian bookstore: "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter," and the always popular "Warning: In Case of Rapture this Car will be Unmanned." Soon after entering into this new world I began to observe that there were some who didn't particular care for such expression of religious commitment. They had their own fish and stickers as well. Only their fish grew legs and said "Darwin" inside of them, and their bumper stickers said things like, "Born Once, Doing Just Fine," and "In Case of Rapture Can I Have your Car?" Some of them even had Darwin fish eating Jesus fish, while others on "our" side had bigger Jesus fish eating Darwin fish.

Finally I began to ask some questions. Why all the fish wars? Why all the bumper sticker battles?

When it comes to the culture that we live in I believe that the church typically responds one of three ways:

1. Run Away and Hide. We run from the culture and as a result we simply create our own. Our little culture is safe with its own language, music, t-shirts, and other cultural artifacts. Often times what happens is we end up living in this Christian bubble where the only people we ever interact with are...other Christians. We don't really realize it but we actually begin to look weird to others. Yet, remember what Jesus prayed for his disciples the night before he died, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one." (John 17.15) This is a good theological approach for responding to the culture.

2. Roll Over and Go to Sleep. This is the other extreme. Some Christians simply throw up their hands and say, "this is just the way things are and there isn't much we can do about it. Let's just not worry and let these cultural fads pass and we'll be ok." The problem is that this is a dangerous slippery slope as especially evidenced in youth culture. When we just ignore the culture and the message its sending our kids grow up with a very mixed idea of what it means to be a follower of Christ. The top influence in a young person's life isn't the church, nor is it their parents. Its the media and the messages that it carries. When we roll over and go to sleep the media becomes the prophet of our day, and their message can be a dangerous one.

3. Defend the Faith. Another response is to defend the faith and wage holy war on the evils of culture. In this response we get angrier, louder, and more hostile in efforts to rid the world of its evil. We see this in picket lines outside the abortion doctor's office, or the in the guy driving around in the herse with hurtful words painted on the side and being spewed through the bullhorn. This isn't very loving and it isn't very attractive and it only further confirms how weird and out of touch with reality we can appear.

I want to suggest another option.

4. Engage the Culture. The best option is to engage our culture with the redemptive good news of Jesus. This means we seek to understand our culture, and then lovingly speak truth into it. We become students, not critics. We listen to the stories of others before telling our own. And we always lead with love. A great example of this is Paul speaking at Mars Hill in Acts 17. He stands up among a sea of idols and instead of judging the Greek philosophers he affirms that they're very religious, he validates their spiritual quest, BUT he also uses this as an entry point to share the story of Jesus and his resurrection. Just listening and loving is not enough. We only fully engage the culture with the good news when we actually tell it, but this must always begin first with LISTENING and LOVE.

Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! 1 Corinthians 9.19-23

So let's burst our bubbles, step out into our culture and lovingly engage it with the redemptive message of Jesus.

God is good, and we're ok.

2010-08-09T20:43:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recently gave me a book to read titled Sowing, Reaping, Keeping: People Sensitive Evangelism. This book by Laurence Singlehurst ended up being an unknown treasure for me.

I've learned that "evangelism" can be a bit of a scary word in church circles, and for the most part I can totally understand this. On the one hand we try to make it too simple by teaching some rote acronym for people to spout off. The problem with this is that once the person is taken off their script they're doomed. On the other hand we make it as if a person need's a degree in systematic theology to be effective in evangelism.

What I loved about this book is that it uncomplicated evangelism while still retaining its importance and depth. Often times Christians feel as if evangelism is this one-time event where we must "seal the deal" with someone. Share a few truths, have the person pray a little prayer, and boom...we have a new Christian! Singlehurst reminds us that this is instead a process, and long before we present the message of Jesus to someone, it helps if we first become their friend. While elements such as sin, forgiveness, and grace are important, most people are wrestling with whether God exists at all and for the most part find Christians to be well...a bunch of nutjobs.

This little book recommends that before we share the content of the gospel with someone, evangelism begins as we develop a relationship with a person and demonstrate to them that God is good, and we (Christians) are ok. We're not weird, socially awkward people, who only watch rated G movies and who always talk about the "end times." (a waitress recently went on a diatribe about this with me and I was even weirded out, and we're on the same team!)

So if you are into Jesus and want to tell others about him here's my suggestion: go hang out with some people who don't go to church. Be kind, generous, fun, and authentic around them, commit to doing this for a while (like months, maybe even years), and sooner or later they might begin to see that God is good, and you're ok, and they might even be intrigued to ask more questions. And I highly recommend this book.

Love Your Community

2010-07-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I had an idea.

What if instead of having our regular Sunday morning worship service we instead served our community? As followers of Jesus we often talk about how church isn't just a place that we go to, rather it is a community of people passionately sharing, doing, and being the good news. Yet I think we seldom actually live this out in practice. So what if instead of setting up shop and expecting people to come to us, we instead took church to the people?

And Love Your Community was born.

Today our church gathered at a park not for a service, but to serve. We didn't stay together for long as we went out in several different teams to bless our community. One team picked up trash in the park, one team passed out water at the park, while another team passed out water at a local train station and in downtown Aurora. One team cleaned the windows of storefronts for free, while another team had our little ones hand out snacks and water to kids in the park. There was also a team of men who fired up the grills as we would conclude the day with a cookout, to which we would invite others from the park and community. We didn't advertise the church. We didn't even mention we were a church unless asked. We simply wanted to love our community.

Here are three reflections from the day:

1. Just because its free doesn't mean they want it. Many people received bottles of water, while many also weren't interested. I lead the window cleaning team and we offered free window cleaning to about seven businesses before someone accepted. In fact the first two businesses we cleaned actually tried to pay us, even after we had insisted our service was free. I find this interesting. We live in a culture where nothing is free. There is always a catch and there's always a cost. This inevitably spills over when it comes to blessing someone. The blessing itself can be seen as a gimmick, and even if it isn't its just assumed that the right thing to do is pay so we're all even. As i think more about this, I am reminded that grace is free. Jesus offers us grace, unmerited favor even though we're messed up sinners. We want to pay for it ourselves, make things even, and may even suspect the whole grace thing is a gimmick...but it isn't. I hope that today there were a handful of people, who if they experienced anything from us, that they experienced a small lesson on grace.

2. We enjoyed the favor of all the people. One of the beautiful characteristics of the early church described in Acts 2 was that they enjoyed the favor of the people. This was a reference to the people outside of the church, those who weren't yet Jesus-followers. By and large the church today doesn't enjoy the favor of the people. Christians are often seen as angry, hypocritical, and judgmental. As we began our cookout many people from the park and community began to join us, as they had been invited throughout the morning. Families, groups of friends, and even individual kids. It was moving to watch our church sit with these strangers, offer them something to eat, and talk with them. As our new friends left they sincerely thanked us and I am hopeful that at least the roughly 25 people who ate with us walked away with a more favorable image of the church, at least for today.

3. We had some church today! One of the things I tried to stress in promoting this event was that we're still having church. Its not just church when we show up to the theater to sing songs and hear a sermon, but its church just as much (if not more) when we go and serve together. Inevitably I'm sure some still saw this as a Sunday where we weren't having real church and they stayed home. To be honest as I was driving to a park at 9AM on a Sunday morning it felt weird, and there was a part of me that felt like I was a youth group kid skipping youth group to go to a rated R movie. As our window cleaning group was heading back I shared this with them saying, "it felt weird to not go to church today." Dominic, a ten year old on our team, responded "But we did go to church." He was absolutely right!

It was a great day and when I arrived at home my heart was full. I was so proud of our church and how they seemed to so effortlessly get into this and have such love and compassion for their community. I am blessed to pastor such an incredible group of people and believe that Jesus will continue to use us as we partner with him to be agents of redemption and hope in our community and world!

An Experience in Circuit Riding

2010-07-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

The 1800's have often been referred to as "The Age of Methodism." One of the key elements of this movement were the circuit riders. Circuit riders were preachers who would travel by horseback from town to town, and city to city, preaching revivals in various venues.

This practice continues today somewhat as many preachers travel all over the world to speak at various venues, however unfortunately without the force and impact of the 19th century circuit riders.

While I do not for a minute claim to be an experience itinerant minister, I feel as if I've had a taste of this in the past few weeks, as we've spent a considerable amount of time in the car away from home. Here's what we've been up to:

Durley High School Camp:

On June 18-20 I spoke at a High School camp in Greenville, IL. The theme for the weekend was "Run to Win," and I spent some time walking through the story of Jonah with the students, and how we all have this propensity to run from God. As a creative response to one of my messages I invited campers to bring their shoes to the altar as a symbolic commitment to "turn in our running shoes." It was awesome to see an altar full of shoes! All in all, it was a great camp with a great staff and I would love to go back.

Resolution Church:

I had to leave camp early to return for church on Sunday morning to be officially installed as the Lead Pastor of Resolution Church. Our superintendent came and performed a brief installation service and anointed and prayed over us to pastor this church. It was a meaningful experience, moreso than I had expected. I preached a Father's Day message titled, "The Dad Who Stands in the Driveway," looking at the father in the Prodigal Son parable. Since then I've begun a series titled "Unstoppable," which is an eight-week series walking through the book of Acts.

Young Teen Camp:

I recently returned from Young Teen Camp at Sky Lodge Camp in Wisconsin. I direct this camp and have been doing so for five years. It is my favorite week of the year as many close friends join me in planning and leading this camp, and we get to witness 150 junior highers respond to God. This year our theme was "BIG," as we focused on how big God is and yet how this big God desires to be actively and intimately involved in our lives. It was an amazing week as at least 11 kids made first-time commitments to following Chirst, and the altar was full almost every night often even without invitation. Most Christ-followers begin their spiritual journey in the context of youth group or camp. What happens during this week matters!

This next weekend I will be heading up to Waukegan, IL to perform a wedding for a girl who was in my youth group. Her and her soon-to-be husband are great people to who love Jesus, and I am proud of them and honored to serve them in this capacity.

I may not be a modern day circuit rider but I do recognize that God has given me opportunities to minister in several different contexts, and often times I still don't understand how I got to this place in life and ministry. In many ways, I still feel like I've stumbled into this gig, but I'm humbled to know that God is using me, and though it may outwardly small and significant to me at times I trust that the Holy Spirit is doing some stuff and that gives me a sense of fulfillment in life!

Today I Became a Senior Pastor

2010-06-20T21:36:00.001-07:00

I rolled back into town at 1:00AM this morning after speaking to High School students at Durley Camp in Greenville this weekend. I had already preached three times throughout the weekend and I was exhausted. My desired slumber was prolonged a bit longer as I was printing things and making copies until right before 2:00AM when my head finally hit the pillow, anticipating what would be a full morning.

I awoke at 6:30AM, got myself ready, gathered some things and headed for the movie theater. Upon arriving the trailer was already there, and and a group of committed men and me set up for our morning worship experience. After setting up I made a quick run to Starbucks and then headed for the pastor's study (aka "the party room.") As I sat in the party room going through my sermon I began to watch as droves of families entered the theater for...Toy Story 3, lining up at 9:00AM.

As I watched these families buy their popcorn and head into the four theaters showing this film, I began to pray that one day droves of families would enter the theater for church and not the latest 3D kids movie. I wanted to tell these parents, these dads on father's day, that Jesus has something better to offer their kids than does Buzz Lightyear.

After this I walked across the building to the theater our church meets in, greeting folks from our congregation along the way. We had a great service! The band was rocking, communion was served, our superintendent officially installed Bekki and I as Lead Pastor, anointed and prayed for us. I preached my heart out, challenging and encouraging our dads. We finished the service with a sweet little video from our kids that blessed the dads.

Following the service people congratulated, embraced, and affirmed me. Folks gathered and talked, we tore down, packed the trailer back up, and we were out of the theater parking lot by noon. In many ways, it was church like any other Sunday, but in many ways it was church unlike any other Sunday for me. It was my first Sunday as a Lead Pastor, and I was blessed beyond measure. I was reminded that 13 years ago God called me into ministry and I have given my life to it ever since. I came home and took a much needed nap, but with a peace that passes understanding having been used by God to bring good news all throughout the weekend.

Every now and then I stop and reflect and say to myself, "I can't believe I get to live this life." Today was one of those days.

The Lebron Syndrome

2010-05-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

I think a lot of leaders (and specifically pastors) suffer from what I am calling "the Lebron Syndrome."

You might be puzzled by the use of the word "suffer." "Lebron is the greatest basketball player on the planet. Whatever syndrome that is then I want it!" Not so fast.

Lebron is arguably the best basketball player in the world, but what is he doing right now? He is currently possibly looking at real estate in the Chicago area (I hope so anyways) and watching four other teams battle it out for the championship that continues to elude him. For as good as he is, fans everywhere and Lebron himself have learned a tough lesson, not even the best can be a champion by himself. While Lebron con dominate any single person around him on the basketball floor, he still doesn't have the right people around him to be a champion. In short, Lebron James isn't enough.

I think a lot of pastors/leaders are like this. They are gifted, creative, high-capacity leaders who most would look at and praise and begin to develop an inferiority complex, but the truth is that most of these leaders will not be champions. Why? Because most leaders have failed to surround themselves with the right people; people who compliment them and whose best are brought out by the leader. I believe that many churches and organizations experience stagnation and decline because their leaders have tried to hard to play the hero; they've put on a one-man show for the spectators to marvel at.

The problem is once the leader/pastor burns out, moves on, fails morally, meets a barrier he/she isn't gifted to get over then the whole thing collapses because everything was contingent upon him.

The Celtics beat the Cavs because they are a team. On any given night one of about four guys can be the hero. The best churches and organizations are the ones where the leader is developing other leaders and is collaborating with a team to meet their desired outcome. Sure Lebron is gifted, rich, sexy, successful, and powerful but in the end he is still missing the thing he desires most, to be a champion. My hope is that we will begin to see more pastors get over themselves and instead surround themselves with some people that can help them and their churches be champions. Build a team, pass the ball once in a while, bring some people with you, and watch some amazing things happen. Even Jesus began his ministry by getting some guys around him and then built into them. Don't fall into the Lebron syndrome!

Internship Opportunities

2010-05-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

Are you looking to do an internship at a really sweet church? We have some tremendous internship opportunities at Resolution Church, a young and exciting church in the Chicago suburbs!

We currently have four options:

1. Church Planter Intern: The role of the church planter intern is to serve as an apprentice to the Lead Pastor, and to immerse his/herself into the culture of a new church. The church planter intern will serve in a wide variety of ministries in order to experience the various aspects of planting and leading a new church.

2. Children's Ministry Intern: The role of the children's ministries intern is to gain experience in building and leading a vibrant and healthy children’s ministry, through the implementation of a strategic discipleship strategy and the building of nurturing relationships with children (infants-5^th grade).

3. Student Ministry Intern: The role of the student ministries intern is to gain experience in building and leading a vibrant and healthy student ministry, through the implementation of a strategic discipleship strategy and the building of relationships with adolescents.

4. Creative Arts Intern: The role of the Creative Arts intern is to gain experience in developing and leading a vibrant and quality creative arts ministry, which encompasses the music, drama, media, and various other artistic components of the worship experience.

Other Logistics:

- Length of Internship-Three Options: summer, semester, one-year

- stipend: cannot guarantee at this time. if needed, intern is encouraged to raise support with coaching

- Lodging: if needed the church will provide this

Those interested should e-mail Erick Ewaskowitz at erickewaskowitz@gmail.com.

The End of One Chapter and the Beginning of Another Part Two

2010-05-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

A little over one year ago Bekki and I announced that we would be leaving the church where we had served for five years, to begin a new adventure pursuing a call to plant churches. God had placed this new dream in our hearts and we stepped out into the unknown, renting out our house and raising financial support for a one-year church planting internship at Resolution Church in Naperville. So we moved to Aurora, I started washing windows, Bekki started working at Panera, and we got to work.

This has been an incredible year as we have established ourselves in a new community, made a lot of new friends, and have continued to see the transformative work of God in people's lives. And yet in many ways, it has been a year of uncertainty as well. Going into this internship the plan was that we would leave after one year to start a new church. Essentially we came to this place to leave this place. As we've drawn nearer to the end of this experience we considered several options moving forward and yet none seemed right. We began to dream and craft our own next step, but all the while wrestling with what indeed was next.

While I knew we would leave this community and ministry sooner than later, a funny thing happened on the way to leaving to pursue our dream. We fell in love with this community and this church and wondered if perhaps we weren't yet done here, due also to the lack of a clear next step and a sense of release from this ministry.

Many have asked us the last few months what we would be doing next? Up until recently we literally had no clue, only speculation. In the past few weeks God has brought clarity to the next chapter in our journey. It turns out that God is now sending us to where he planted us one year ago. In June, I will assume the role of Lead Pastor of Resolution Church, a year-and-a half old church where we've been serving as interns this past year.

There is much that could be shared as background to this development, and I'd love to share our journey in more detail with you over the phone or a cup of coffee. For this venue, I simply want to express how humbled and excited Bekki and I are, and how we continue to be amazed at the hand of God at work in our lives and ministry. This was never on our radar screen and we would've never expected that God would lead us to this place. I am experiencing a healthy dose of excitement and a holy anxiousness and am believing BIG things for both our future and the future of Resolution Church!

This has been an exhilarating adventure for us and we are so grateful for the prayer and support of so many of you who are tracking with us. As a new chapter unfolds we are encouraged to know that we have a "cloud of witnesses" surrounding us and cheering us on! As a friend of mine recently shared in an e-mail, now it's time to "dream big and get to work!"

The End of One Chapter and the Beginning of Another Part One

2010-05-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

These past few weeks have been pretty big! One significant chapter in my life closed while another one opened.

First, the one that closed. Last week I graduated with a Masters in Theological Studies from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. I did not attend my ceremony but I graduated all the same. I began my Masters in the Fall of 2006 and managed to cram a two-year program into four years. When I began in 2006 I was a somewhat still newlywed, full-time youth pastor, with no kids, living in a small apartment and driving a 1995 Ford Escort. (God bless you Naomi wherever you are!) I failed my first paper (seriously failed not like I got a "C"), and was ready to bow out before ever really getting started. Within my four years of seminary we've had two kids, bought a house, worked with four different senior pastors, left our jobs to pursue church planting, raised support, moved again, picked up some part-time jobs, and yes I had to find a different car to get my butt to school (thank you 1979 Impala and 1995 Honda Oddyssey with 218,00 miles).

All of this to say...it has been quite the journey with a few twists and turns along the way, and due in large part to the grace of both God and my wife I am finished, having never bombed an assignment since, with a 105 page thesis and no added debt to show for it!

So while I didn't walk in a cap in gown last week I did still practice the spiritual discipline of celebration. What I thought was going to be a nice dinner with Bekki ended up being a surprise gathering of friends, both old and new. We ate a ton and had a blast and I again can't believe that I get to live this life!

To conclude I share these words from the acknowledgement section of my thesis:

My deepest gratitude is to my wife and boys. Thank you Bekki for your outstanding love and support throughout this process. You were my biggest cheerleader and I love you dearly. It is now my turn to support you in whatever endeavors you wish to pursue. To my boys Noah and Wil, thank you for letting dad go to school and do his homework. I will return the favor in a few years. Thank you to my Creator and Sustainer who continues to enact transformation in my life, further calling me to bear the image of God in my community and world.

Get busy and reproduce

2010-05-06T13:57:00.001-07:00

I've been reading a lot of church planting stuff lately, and it has mostly had to do with church multiplication and reproduction. I want to share some simple, yet thought provoking stuff from one of these books.

"Viral Churches" by Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird claims that most church growth happens by addition, but challenges that a real movement will happen only by multiplication. Check out this concept that they offer:

"If a church of twenty people plants just one church of twenty each year, and each of those likewise follow the cycle of planting one church per year, then in twenty years the original church would have multiplied into more than ten million people."

I am inspired by this! A church of twenty planting a church of twenty each year that plant churches of twenty each year actually sounds somewhat attainable. Perhaps too often we think too big, and this bigness paralyzes us. Maybe small is the new big, maybe in order to fulfill a big dream we must start with a small one. What a great challenge for every church and leader: to plant a church of twenty this year and see what happens! My prayer is that churches all across the country will get pregnant this year and birth little babies that in twenty years will have grown into giants who wreak havoc for the kingdom of God. Time to do some conceiving!

Reflections on Exponential 2010

2010-04-29T07:16:00.001-07:00

Last week I spent a few days in Orlando, Florida for the Exponential Conference. Exponential is the largest national church planting conference, and over 3,000 people involved in church planting were in attendance. This was my first time attending this particular conference and I was pumped about all that it had to offer. After three days of different messages and workshops by some of the leading voices in church planting combined with networking and meal-time conversations, both my brain and heart were full! It was a great week and left me with a lot to process (which took a while because I was waiting for my brain to return).

At conferences such as these there always seem to be some buzzwords that are floating around, and unfortunately most of the time they're nothing more than that. Exponential had its buzzwords: missional, incarnational, community. Yet there were a few others that were heavily emphasized, and I believe were about more than just cashing in on the latest lingo. The heart-beat of Exponential was a focus on reproduction, multiplication, and movements. Now I am not referring to reproduction and multiplication in the sense of child-bearing, rather in the sense of church-bearing if you will. It seemed at every turn the discussion was on the reproduction and multiplication of churches.

While church planting has become more popular and has increased dramatically in recent decades, most efforts have been aimed at addition. "Let's plant churches." This is good but the general consensus is that it isn't good enough. We need multiplication. "Let's plant churches that plant churches that plant churches..."

Spending a few days with thousands of church planters further affirmed that church planters are visionaries. They are "big picture" people. I love this! I find it energizing! Exponential wasn't about planting more churches, it was a call to plant a movement! Movement is a squishy and rather ambiguous term. For the sake of a big vision I will borrow Ed Stetzer's definition of a movement:

"A church planting multiplication movement is a rapid reproduction of churches planting churches, measured by a reproduction rate of 50 percent through the third generation of churches, with new churches having 50 percent new converts."

I want a movement. I want to be a part of one. I'm not interested in planting a church. I am interesting in planting a church that plants churches that plants churches. And yet, reproducing churches need reproducing leaders. The Bible doesn't have much to say about planting churches. Jesus talks about planting seed. Jesus calls us to go and make disciples. The church is the byproduct of making disciples.

I walked away from Exponential not just challenged to plant churches, but to plant the good news of Jesus, to make disciples with a holy anticipation that churches will then be born.

He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground."

Mark 4.26.

Go plant something!

Reflecting on What it Means to be a "Tentmaker"

2010-04-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

I've always heard that Paul was a tentmaker and to be honest, up until recently that meant very little to me.

Yet, as I have read through the Book of Acts these past two weeks I have found myself reflecting on this some more.

In Acts 18 Paul arrives in Corinth and stays with a couple named Aquila and Priscilla. This couple are tentmakers like Paul, and we read that Paul stayed and worked with them. This would not have been uncommon for Paul, as most Jewish men were trained in a specific trade when they were young. Yet as this narrative continues to unfold we learn that Paul was in the synagogue on every Sabbath proclaiming the good news of Jesus.

Paul did not come to Corinth to make tents. He came to Corinth to announce the resurrection of Jesus and to invite others into this movement. He just so happened to be a tentmaker. Paul made tents so that he could be in the synagogue carrying out his true calling.

Almost two years ago our income was reduced a bit, and I picked up a part-time gig cleaning windows. What we didn't know at the time is that we would soon enter into a season of life dependence on this job would increase, as we transitioned to a church planting intern role. I think that I find myself reflecting on Paul's trade more because I can resonate with him now. There is a sense of solidarity. I did not move to Aurora to clean windows; I moved to Aurora to announce the resurrection of Jesus and I just happen to be a window-cleaner. I wash windows to help pay the bills, which enables us to be God's agents of transformation and hope in this community.

The economic climate in which we find ourselves may very well lead to a decrease in well-funded ready made church planting opportunities and will cause us to rethink how we can creatively and innovatively reach people with the good news. I am thankful for the bucket and squeegee that God has placed in my hands and the endless opportunities to advance God's kingdom here on this planet that are attached.

So what about you? Are you just a tentmaker, or are you an agent of resurrection who just happens to be a tentmaker?

Holy Week Reflections Part One

2010-03-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

We are currently in the middle of Holy Week, the week where we remember and enter into the final week of Jesus' life on earth: the triumphal royal procession, Jesus' going nuts in the temple, the last supper, and the crucifixion and death of Jesus, all leading up to the resurrection. Millions of Jesus-followers will engage in practices this week as a way of entering into these events.

One practice that I have each year is reading the passion and resurrection narratives found in the Gospels during Holy Week. Every year there seems to be a different part of the story upon which I find myself meditating.

As I was meeting with a friend last week I began to share with him how the story of Peter cutting off a servant's ear had particularly struck me (no pun intended). As I read this account I began to wonder how could this guy, (who John's Gospel tells us is named Malchus) who literally had his ear cut off the side of his head only to have Jesus miraculously heal it, still go through with the plan. How could he still serve as an accomplice to the arresting of Jesus? He had now experienced the compassion and power of Christ firsthand, and yet according to the story we assume it was still business as usual for Malchus.

As we discussed this story further we talked about how Malchus was a servant of the High Priest on the Temple's payroll. Arresting Jesus was his job. It was what he was expected, supposed, and paid to do. Suspending his convictions regarding Jesus was central to pleasing the powers-that-be. The consequences for Malchus not going through with the mandated plan were far greater to him than the benefit of his experience with Christ, restored ear and all.

I can't help but wonder if the same is true for many who have experienced Jesus today. The experience is real, powerful, and even miraculous and yet the cost of giving up our familiar and comfortable way of life isn't worth it. Its too big of a risk. We say "thanks for super-glueing my ear back Jesus, but I need to get back to my thing now."

I would've written the story different. Malchus would've refused to go through with the plan, stood by Jesus, and would've even been willing to die for Jesus. Though it didn't go down like that, kudos to Malchus for at least understanding the cost of following Jesus, for at least understanding the invitation to the cross and that it asks us to give all of ourselves.

Entering into the suffering and death of Jesus means understanding that we too our invited into suffering and to have solidarity with those who are suffering as well. As I reflect on my experience with Jesus this week I am reminded that it calls for a response to either give him everything or to continue on the safe and familiar path upon which I travel so effortlessly.

C.S. Lewis put it best, "If you are thinking of becoming a Christian then you are embarking upon something that will take the whole of you, brains and all."

Theater Churches

2010-03-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

A few Sundays ago I worshiped with the church I serve where we gather every Sunday, the Showplace 16 movie theater. Following the service I hopped on a plane to Atlanta and I arrived just in time to attend a worship service at Passion City Church, which meets in a trendy downtown theater. The next few days I was in meetings that were held at a church building that had been converted from an old movie theater. This weekend we're taking some time away and are deciding between two churches to check out, both of which meet in, you guessed it...movie theaters!

This is a growing phenomenon among churches in the past few years. One of the largest reasons is the economy has made it difficult for churches to purchase land and begin building projects. Yet these churches in forsaking a traditional building are reaching segments of people that would never darken the door of a church. While meeting in theaters has its challenges (the weekly conversion of a theater into a sanctuary, the comfortable seats that could make it that much easier for a snooze during the sermon, or the words "Inglorious Basterds" flashing across the marquee as one walks into worship), I absolutely love how it is helping people rethink what it means to be the church.

I've often posed the question of people, "if your church building burned down would the church still exist?" If one even has to think about that question for a moment there is an issue. For the first 300 years of its existence the church did not have its own public places of worship. I love the exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4 about the right place to worship. Jesus redirected the conversation by expressing that it wasn't about the right place or building, rather it was about worshiping in spirit and in truth.

What saddens me in so many churches today is the time, energy, meetings, and money that is tied up in our buildings and not our churches. Could it be possible that church buildings actually get in the way of us being the church? When Christendom began we built magnificent cathedrals shaped like a cross and in more recent decades we've lost our creativity and have settled for giant sterile auditoriums with the aim of not offending any seekers. God has been present and active in these structures to be sure, but somewhere along the way the church forgot that sacred space existed wherever Christ was present.

Really it isn't so much about the theater, rather its about a fresh opportunity to blur the lines between sacred and secular, to bear the image of God in the public square, to redeem space that fuels the billion-dollar hollywood industry, to depend on homes and coffee shops for church to be experienced throughout the week. Conventional wisdom suggests that churches will remain in theaters until they are ready to begin a building campaign. However in a recent CNN study 67 percent of theater churches considered the movie theater to be a permanent facility.

"The church is no more a building than people are a bunch of two-by-fours." - Don Everts

Calling

2010-02-25T07:52:00.000-08:00

I recently did a study on Calling that resulted in a seminar for a high school retreat last week. I am also hoping to develop it further into a teaching series to be used on Sundays and retreats.

We all wrestle with the question of God's calling, and are always trying to discern what God is calling us to do with our lives. Yet as I dive into Scripture and read other works on this subject I believe that a big part of this struggle might be that we're trying to discern the wrong thing.

Our calling isn't so much a matter of what we are supposed to do, rather it is much more about what we are supposed to be. At the end of the first creation story in Genesis God speaks, "Let us create human beings in our image." When Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is he affirms the Jewish Shema and quotes a command in Leviticus saying, "Love God and love others." Essentially I believe that our calling is to bear God's image to a broken world and to love God and others. This is what i would refer to as our general calling. We all share it and it is lifelong. Another way to refer to this is as our vocation, which is from the Latin word "vocare" meaning "voice." So we discover our general calling by listening to a voice, the voice of God speaking our calling as image-bearers upon us.

Yet we also have a specific calling. As I studied calling stories in Scripture this became clear. Noah was to build an ark, Moses was to lead God's people out of Egypt, Jeremiah was to be a prophet to the nations, and Jonah was to preach to Ninevah. Our specific calling is simply how we live out our general calling in a specific context. Our specific calling can change, and each individual has a different one. I refer to this as our station in life. This is a concept I borrow from a sermon I recently heard on vocation. Discovering our specific call takes discernment and the discernment process is different for everyone.

We live in a culture that defines our calling more by our station than by our vocation. In other words our identity is wrapped up in what we do, and not by who are. This is why when we lose our job or change careers it effects us so greatly. I find freedom and liberation in knowing that if I am living out my vocation and am bearing God's image to a broken world, then I can find joy and fulfillment in any station. So as I find myself in a season of waiting, trying to discern my next station I can rest in the fact that God spoke a calling into my life at the very beginning of the human project. Fredrick Buechner once said, "Vocation is where our deep gladness meets the world's deep need." Now that is something worth living into!

I have more thoughts on this. If you're interested invite me to your church!

Lent 2010

2010-02-16T20:52:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow Christians around the world will observe Ash Wednesday or the "Day of Ashes." This is the first day of Lent, the 40-day season leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It is a season of reflection, fasting, and repentance. It is a season of both dying and renewal, crucifixion and resurrection.

I did not grow up participating in Lent but have done so for the last decade. Early on my participation in Lent was nothing more than a weekly visit to St. Lawrence's Catholic Church for their community fish fry on Fridays, but soon my commitment to the Lenten journey became more substantial. Each year I join Jesus-followers everywhere in putting something to death for a season. My fasting experiences have included: caffeine, TV, sports radio, video games, reading, and last year I gave up the Internet. These have been my attempts in identifying in the sufferings of Christ, by giving up something that will sting a little. However a second Lenten practice that is often overlooked is the taking on of something new for Lent, whether it be a new habit, practice, or perspective. In the past I have taken on exercise, increased scripture reading, and eating healthier.

So for Lent 2010 I have decided to give up staying up late and am taking on reading through the New Testament. I am a night owl and this often results in tiresome mornings, meaning that I am not fully present to my family, my work, and to God. For this season I am imposing an 11PM bedtime for myself. My hope is that this might even result in getting up earlier. Several years back I visited a Benedictine monastery and woke up for prayer with the monks at 4:30am. There was something meaningful and beautiful about being awake to commune with God in the small hours of the morning. Admittedly I don't anticipate a 4:30am wake-up time these next 40 days, but I do hope to make more of my mornings.

Tomorrow I will join the community of faith in having my forehead marked with the ashes of last year palm fronds as I begin another Lenten journey. Tonight, however, I will carry on in my Mardi Gras celebration as I start a movie and stay up late for the last time until the tomb is empty! (Side note: I will probably look for a good Lenten fish fry in my community as well).

"Why We Should be Involved in Church Planting" from Ed Stetzer at Radacalis Conference

2010-02-11T14:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Twitter I've discovered a free online live stream of two different conferences in the past week. The Verge Conference http://verge2010.org and The Radicalis Conference www.radicalis.com. This is a sweet technological innovation and it's very generous of these organizations to offer their main sessions free of charge.

Today I was pleased to learn that Ed Stetzer would be the speaker for one of the main sessions at Radicalis. Stetzer is one of the leading researchers, authors, and speakers in the church planting world, so naturally I was interested in what he had to say. What I'm posting here isn't so much my reflections, rather they're simply notes from his challenge to get involved in church planting. Enjoy!

- 28% of churches in America have been involved in church planting, but only 3% have actually sponsored a church plant.

Here are five reasons for churches/individuals to be involved in church planting:

1. The church matters: the church isn't the center of God's plan, Jesus is. However the church is the carrier of Jesus' message, and is on mission with him.

2. The "lost" matter: Consider Jesus' parables regarding the lost in Luke 15. In new churches the ratio for members and baptism is 100:14. For every 100 members there are 14 baptisms! This dramatically decreases the older and more established a church is. Stetzer challenges us to not be hesitant because we're afraid we won't be Saddleback or Willow Creek. "If we wait until we can send out thousands, then we will miss dozens."

3. Multiplication matters. We need to plant churches that plant churches that plant churches that plant churches..."If the natural order of things is reproduction then the church must be on some powerful birth control."

4. Transformation matters. Changed churches change the world. In order for society to be changed we need to plant change-agent churches.

5. The nations matter. This is in reference not to nation states, but to ethnic people groups. We need to be missional: joining God on his mission. Every church should be serving locally, planting nationally, and adopting ministries and initiatives globally.

"Don't let your church be a cul-de-sac on the Great Commission highway. Get involved in planting churches."

Some thoughts on preaching

2010-02-02T09:46:00.001-08:00

I've been doing a fair amount of preaching lately and have a few speaking engagements coming up as well. As I've been studying for these messages I've been thinking a lot about the art of crafting a sermon (otherwise known as "preaching.") I like phrasing it that way because I truly do think the sermon is an art form. I remember in college sharing with a girl that I wished I was artistic and she challenged me to think of the act of preaching as being art. I think she was right, and that is cool because I've secretly always wanted to be kind of artsy and so I guess I kind of am.

When it comes to this art there are several different approaches (some gross over-generalizations):

Topical: Focus on a specific topic and use several different prooftexts to help support your claim regarding that topic. (Note: it is possible to be topical and use one central text as well)

Inspirational: Many moving and inspirational stories and little depth and exegesis of Scripture.

Expository: Pretty self-explanatory. A central text that is dissected and exposed. Low on inspirational stories, high on depth and exegesis of Scripture.

Narrative: The preacher is a storyteller. Not so much in the sense that she is telling inspirational stories, rather that she communicates Scripture as a great story, a scene in a larger meta-narrative.

My purpose in this post isn't to assert one approach over the others (although I tend to have my preferences). I think there are values and dangers in each approach. There are two approaches I observe today of which i want to point out some dangers.

On one end of the spectrum there is the topical preaching that runs rampant in many evangelical churches today. I like to call it "self-help baptized with a little Jesus." These sermons are often very polished, very organized, and demonstrate the using of Scripture to support one's claims. This kind of preaching really took off with the whole "seeker" movement as a way of making biblical truths more accessible to the common unchurched person. My concern with this style of preaching is that it results in good and moral Christians with little understanding of the Bible and its claim on the life of a Christian.

Yet on the other end of the spectrum there is something happening with younger postmodern preachers and that is a return to expository and narrative preaching. I like to call this "let me drop my seminary knowledge on you." These sermons are often very deep theologically, take into account the context, and sound more like the presenting of an exegesis paper. Some can effectively communicate this in such a way that anyone can understand, but many cannot. While I believe in the importance of exegesis and context my one little concern is, "does anyone know the preacher is saying?"

I don't think that preaching at its best is one of these approaches or the other, or even a balance of the two. Rather effective preaching is when the artist/preacher can take deep theological, scriptural, and exegetical truths and convey them in such a way that the hearers can understand. I think this is why Jesus spoke in parables. Instead of saying, "Let me explain to you the three methods of evangelism and church growth," he said, "it's like a farmer who goes out to sow some seed..." Jesus conveyed a deep truth in a way that his hearers could understand. The artist created something on a canvas that when the beholder saw it he said, "I get it," and his soul was stirred.

This is more rambling than anything and not well developed, but I think it highlights some of what's going on in the preaching art-form today. What is the preacher trying to accomplish with the sermon? What is your approach? What are the values/dangers attached to it?

Super Bowl Pick: Colts 34 Saints 31 (but I hope I'm wrong. Go Saints!)

How Important is the Where?

2010-01-16T06:54:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about where we will plant a church. I've had some thoughts for quite some time now regarding the context in which we hope to plant, and when yet I wrestle with the reality that the "where" may not ultimately be up me.

There are many factors that play into this: denominational funding and strategy and demographic assessments to name a few. However, the biggest factor that might play into why the where won't be up to us is God's calling.

I believe that God has wired us for effectiveness in certain communities with certain groups of people. For example, some of us might be a better fit in an urban community with gen Xers while others might be a better fit in a suburban community with baby boomers. However while a planter may have her niche, I am starting to think that the actual "where" is secondary.

A quick survey of the Scriptures would show that the great Biblical leaders didn't choose the "where." Abraham didn't choose where he would go, nor did Moses, nor did Jonah, and Jesus even told Peter that he would be lead where he did not want to go. While a lot of factors will play into the where, God's call is primary, and once we submit to God's calling we remove our input into the decision.

As I continue this church planting journey I am finding myself less concerned about "the where." Sure, I would love to go and plant a church in the city of my choice, and that may or may not be where God leads me. I'd be interested to hear stories from some planters and how the "where" was determined in your church planting situation.

New Year Reflections

2010-01-04T11:14:00.000-08:00

“I slipped from under the buffalo hide, got up on my knees and peered over the side of the wagon. There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road, I could not make it out in the faint starlight. There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made.”

These words are from Willa Cather's American classic My Antonia. They are the words of a young boy traveling west to begin a new life in Nebraska at the beginning of the 20th century. These words took on significance in my life a couple of months ago as a spiritual director shared them with me.

2009 was the year of "new" for our family. In the past year we had a new baby, started in a new ministry, moved to a new home, made new friends, and have been adjusting to a new community. While 2009 was an exciting and adventurous year, full of risks and unpredictability, it was in all honesty, scary, stressful, and one of the most challenging years of my life.

In Matthew 9.18 Jesus describes his movement in terms of new wine and new wineskins. He simply shares that no one pours new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the skin will burst, thus ruining both the wine and the skin. He doesn't flesh this image out for us, he simply invites us to wrestle with its meaning. I think that the new wine represents Jesus and God's new initiative in rescuing and redeeming humanity. The wineskin, I think, represents us and our ability or inability to receive the new; to receive whatever it is that Jesus is up to.

Here's what I've learned in 2009 and am reflecting on as we enter 2010. New wine requires new wineskins. If I want to receive the new that God is doing then I need to reorient my life to receive it. My old patterns, habits, paradigms, boxes, and categories will not suffice. I think that part of the struggle in receiving the new this past year was my struggle to fashion a new wineskin with my life, and as I've begun to release the old wineskin in the last few months, I've also discovered the new to be quite beautiful.

This spiritual director shared this excerpt with me as a way of helping me to see that God is building a city in me, and 2009 was about God beginning a work on a new part of this city. I am the boy looking out of the wagon, seeing not a city, but the stuff of which cities are made.

I invite you to do the same. Look out of your wagon. What do you see? What lies dormant in your life, just waiting to be created? What is the next part of your city that God has begun the work on? In what ways, will you need to reorient your life in such a way that God can continue building a new creation in you?

While God is unchanging and eternal, God is always doing something new. My hope and prayer is that you can embrace and receive this new in 2010.

Grace and Peace, Erick.

A Parable in Fathering

2009-12-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter or have talked with me in the last few days you know that we had a traumatic experience in the Ewaskowitz household this past weekend.

While Bekki and I were upstairs our two-year old son was downstairs playing nicely by himself (or so we thought). Noah has developed a healthy interest (or obsession) in drums. Everything is a drumstick and everything else is a drum. On this particular occasion our flat screen television was the drum. When we came downstairs we discovered that Noah had been hitting the television screen repeatedly with his drumsticks. Apparently these tv's weren't designed to double as drum-sets, and the screen now included a large black spot in the middle of it. The TV, a 37 inch LCD Samsung given to us as a gift almost a year ago, was ruined!

I was beside myself. I was so upset and the worst part is I didn't know where to direct my anger. I was angry at Noah for ruining the TV, I was angry with Bekki and myself for leaving him alone downstairs, and I was angry with myself for caring so much about a TV. So I did what I thought was the best thing at the time: I left the house. In fact, I left to go buy Noah his Christmas present.

As I was on my way to Wal-mart to buy a toy kitchen for my son who had just destroyed my TV I thought to myself, "Noah doesn't deserve this gift. He has been naughty. I should use the money for his gift to go towards my new television fund." And yet I had another stream of thought running through my head, "I love my son. I take delight in him and it fills me with joy to give him gifts that I know will bring him joy as a result."

This made me think of my relationship with God and about how God is fathering me. Even though I damage God's high definition world with my disobedience and rebellion against him, he continues to lavish me with love and grace. He continues to shower me with gifts and he takes delight in it. Sure there are consequences for my actions, but God never withdraws his love from his children.

I have this suspicion that one day I will look back at this experience with great fondness because I will have learned a valuable lesson about the love of my heavenly father and how in turn I have been called to love my sons, to show them grace, and to take joy and delight in giving them gifts even when they might not deserve it.

One day I will look back at this experience with great fondness. Today however, I have started saving for a new TV.

What Staff Position Comes First?

2009-12-03T15:21:00.000-08:00

Wow its really been a while since I've blogged. I've had plenty swirling around in the brain to write about, I just haven't had the time to do it. Hopefully I can find some time to catch up because there is a lot that I'd like to share here.

As part of my church planting internship, along with weekly staff meetings I also meet with my supervisor regularly to just talk church planting. He's kind of like Yoda and I'm Luke (sorry if that doesn't work. I'm only mildly a Star Wars fan). Anyways, this week we talked a little bit about staffing as it pertains to church planting. In most established churches the first staff pastor that is usually added is a youth pastor. Now that may or may not be most effective for an established church, but that's for another post.

In the church planting world, conventional wisdom says the first hire is either a children's or worship pastor. There are some who suggest that the first hire should be more of an executive (get things done) pastor. Many propose a children's or worship pastor to be the first hire because if a church is trying to attract unchurched people then the worship (meaning music in these cases) must be high quality and energizing, and the kids must have a lot of fun in a professionally executed children's program.

As our discussion continued I suggested that this approach to staffing is a contextual one. It assumes a few things. One, it assumes that a church plant is aiming to reach families with young kids. What about a new church in a university town filled with unmarried urban professionals? What about a new church that seeks to reach a senior adult community (a weird demographic I know, but I'm just sayin). Two, it assumes a church plant with a corporate worship gathering that involves music. What about a house church, where people meet in a living room and engage in contemplative prayer exercises?

Here's my point. I do tend to agree that to effectively reach people far from God we must prioritize our younger generations and must invite people into holistic and dynamic worship (which is about so much more than just music). In most cases these hires make sense as the first. However, the more important thing is that a church planter listens to her community, to learn the context in which she is planting a church and be faithful to her calling, and not simply just going with the conventional wisdom.

For the sake of dialogue, who do you think the first hire for church plant should be?

Why "Community" Bothers Me

2009-11-13T07:30:00.000-08:00

A new sit-com began on NBC this Fall called Community. If you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend it because it is hilarious! (Chevy Chase fan anyone?) The setting for the show is a local community college and it centers in on the lives of a handful of the college's eclectic students. This diverse group of students made up of different gender, age, race, and socioeconomic background all begin to build friendships with one another and form a rather awkward, yet comedic, yet beautiful community.

When I was in college we had the word "community" beaten into our brains. Everything was about community. People wouldn't just go to dinner, they would go to "build community." People didn't go to play ultimate frisbee on Scott Field, they went to "build community." Attending chapel wasn't just about worshipping God, it was about "building community." I am overstating this a bit, but not too much. "Community" has been a major buzzword among evangelical Christians for several years now, but to be honest, all of this emphasis on community bothers me.

The reason is that I am afraid that the word "church" has become dirty just as the word "Christian" has (although to be fair "Christian" was a term of derision right from the outset.) As a result the more culturally-relevant of leaders have replaced Christian with Christ-follower, and now it seems we're replacing church with community. There are countless examples of communities of faith that exist or are being planted as "communities" rather than churches.

What is the difference? Is it just a matter of semantics or are we throwing the baby out with the bath water? The church is most certainly a community, but it also has a significant identity and function. I can gather a group of people together for chicken wings and a football game and a community is planted, but Jesus called us out to be the ecclesia (called out ones), the church, the mystical body of Christ, to be heralds of the good news of the true king, and not even the gates of Hell can prevail against us.

I guess what I am saying is that I get why so many leaders favor community over church, but for now I'm sticking with church, with all of the term's baggage, blemishes, and bad press, because church reminds me of the magnitude of the community to which I have been called to belong and form. For those who favor community, is it semantics or are there some theological underpinnings for this preference? Would love to hear some thoughts.

What Happened to a Denominational Movement?

2009-10-26T21:09:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I was thumbing through a Free Methodist History book and read its little section on church planting. The book was written in the mid 1980's and the author was celebrating a church planting movement within the denomination. Between 1979-1983 there were 100 new Free Methodist churches planted in the US!

Read these words of excitement and energy from author Donald Demary:

"Here and there across the North American continent, fresh church planting projects arise and we now begin to see faster growth in the denomination. Some believe we can have a total of 2,000 Free Methodist churches by the year 2000. Actually, that would mean an increase of only one and a half churches a year for each conference."

2,000 FM churches by the year 2000. What a great vision! What a contagious attitude of anticipation for the spread of a movement!

Yet, in June of 2009 it was reported that there are 967 FM churches in the US, which is tragically well short of the anticipated 2000.

Which begs the question, "what happened?" What happened to the movement? What happened to the passion and commitment to starting new churches? What happened to the bold, apostolic leadership? What happened to the missional impulse that swept across the denomination? Perhaps a bigger question is, why are denominations lagging behind in the planting of new churches?

I cannot help but read Demary's words, consider the reality and be troubled. Yet, I am also challenged by them. My hope and prayer is that this blip-on-the-radar-screen denomination of which I am part will once again be committed to starting new works to reach the unchurched across the land, and that 2,000 or 4,000 or even 10,000 new churches might be a reality and not just a paragraph of wishful thinking in a history book.

I know at least one leader who is committed to such a movement.

Tribute to Marko

2009-10-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

Usually I try to post something that is church-planting related but I'm going to shift gears a little this week. As many of you know, before I began this church planting adventure I was in the youth ministry world. While I served as a youth pastor I was introduced to an organization called Youth Specialties, which served to resource and equip youth workers. One of the ways in which YS does this is through their annual National Youth Workers Convention. Imagine 6,000 youth pastors gathering together for 4 days. Insane, I know! YS was founded by Mike Yaconelli and shortly after his death several years ago the company was bought by Zondervan Publishing.

Since Yaconelli's passing YS has been led by Mark Oestricher (or "Marko" as he is more fondly referred). Yesterday I learned that Marko had just been laid off as the president of YS, which came as shock to myself and much of the youth ministry community.

I share all of this because YS, and specifically Marko, has greatly influenced me and my practice of ministry. What I have always appreciated about Marko is his honesty, transparency, his love for youth workers, and his love for Jesus. While I don't know Marko personally I feel as if I do. Each year as I would attend these conventions I would be encouraged, loved, and patted on the butt with an "attaboy" by Marko (not literally but more of a figurative butt-patting). In short, I have looked to Marko as one of the important voices in youth ministry, one who challenged the status-quo, loved on thousands of youth workers, and never forgot what youth ministry was all about, hanging out with young people and sharing the presence of Christ with then.

I don't know what led to this. My gut reaction is to be upset with Zondervan for making such a poor decision, but I just don't know the facts. What I do know is that Marko has faithfully served Jesus as a leader in the youth ministry community, has been a tremendous influence in my life and countless others as well. I look forward to seeing where he ends up and Zondervan's loss will certainly be someone else's gain.

Thanks a ton Marko for loving on us youth workers, encouraging us, and helping us find the strength to keep going when church boards, parents, sr. pastors, and our own expectations were dragging us down. I consider it a blessing to be in youth ministry during a time when you are a leading voice. Grace and Peace as you continue to run after God's calling upon you.

the elements of a movement

2009-10-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

I'm not interested in being part of a church.

I'm much more interested in being part of a movement. At its inception Christianity was a movement, started by its founder and simply reproduced by his followers who were empowered by the Holy Spirit. Somewhere along the way we began to set up shop somewhere, settle in, and devote all of our time and resources to our own little local church.

As I think about church planting, I don't want to plant a church. I want to plant churches that plant churches that plant churches. In short, I want to be part of a movement of churches that announce the Good News of Jesus to people all over the place. Which begs a fairly significant question: How does a movement get started anyways?

In some research for grad school I recently came across some stuff on Christian youth movements, and while this is in the context of youth ministry I think it applies to any movement throughout history. I am borrowing here from Mark Senter, a Christian Education professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He maintains that there are five elements to a movement:

1. a visionary

2. a simple system

3. media coverage (a way of spreading the vision to the masses)

4. a spokesperson (a person who travels to spread the vision)

5. a sense of God's special working

Again, Senter is writing in the context of youth movements but I tend to think these elements would be present in a church planting movement as well. Yet, I would also contend that the most critical (and often overlooked) element is the sense of God's special working (Senter's words) or the power of the Holy Spirit (mine). In other words, I don't think that we can manufacture movements. There is a supernatural transcendent element that supercedes all other elements that must be at work.

I think that too often we get busy on the vision, simple system, media coverage, and spokespeople elements and aren't patient enough to allow ourselves to wait for a sense of God's special working. I cannot help but think of Jesus' request that his disciples wait in the upper room for the Spirit before they do anything.

Going back to my question, "how does a movement get started?" What I do know is I'm not the one who starts the movement. I am the one called to wait for the Spirit/Wind/Breath to inspire something fresh, radical, and beautiful within me, and give myself to that, and only then will I find myself swept up in a movement.

Would love to hear some thoughts on this.

Vision

2009-10-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Whenever I'm around other church leaders one of the buzzwords that's thrown around is the word "vision." Churches craft vision statements, people write books about vision, and pastors cast vision for their church. As I embark upon the journey of planting churches I am even asked what my vision is for a church.

I have a scary admission to make...I'm not sure I have a vision.

What I mean is that as of yet I don't have a clever, nice, neat, and tidy vision statement to put on church letterhead and hang up on a wall somewhere. I'm simply trying to live into the vision that God has for the world and what specifically my small role will be. My fear is that if I'm not careful my vision could easily become about me and my personal preference for church.

When I look at the great visionary leaders throughout biblical/church history (Nehemiah, Paul, Martin Luther, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr) I can't help but notice that these were human beings that were in tune with God's vision for the world and as a result they discovered their specific role in bringing about what could be and should be.

I guess the real question is not what is my vision, but what is God's vision and am I in tune with it? And only when I am tune with God's grand vision of redeeming and rescuing the world from sin and death, will I begin to grasp how to contextualize it in the community of faith in which I am called to form and lead.

And then I will craft it into a clever sentence and hang it on a wall.

What are your thoughts on vision as it pertains to church planting?

Do you want to get well?

2009-10-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

In our church right now we are in the middle of a series on the family. It also seems as if every week I'm confronted by another family experiencing difficulty, another marriage on the rocks, or another individual struggling with some addiction. Some have argued that perhaps our churches have gone too far on the end of felt-needs preaching, and while some of this concern is probably legitimate, if there were ever a "felt-need" or topic that a church must address today it is the family. While divorce, infidelity, and addiction rates are just as high within the church as they are outside of it, I think that it is the church's responsibility to speak into families with a prophetic voice.

All of this has led me to a question that Jesus asks a paralyzed man in John 5. This man has been lying by a pool for thirty-eight years. He isn't simply just lounging around a hotel pool sipping margaritas. This pool was different. Disabled people came to this pool day after day because it was believed that if one was the first to enter this pool after its waters were stirred then he would be healed of whatever disease he had. So every day for thirty-eight years this man could only lie there and watch others step into this pool in hopes of healing, while he was physically unable to move and without hope.

And then Jesus comes by and asks one question, "Do you want to get well?"

The more time I spend in ministry the more I find that the answer to this question is quite complicated for us. Its not that we don't want to get well. Who doesn't want restoration in their marriage, freedom from addiction, reconciliation with a loved one? The issue isn't that we don't want to get well, the issue is that one: we don't want to admit that we're sick and two: getting well is often painful and requires hard work.

Jesus wants to make us well. He wants to make me well individually, forgiving me of my sin and empowering me to live a holy life, and he wants to make us well communally, in our marriages, relationships, and families. The sad thing is that lying at the pool becomes all too familiar for us and we forget that we were created for something better.

I guess this is bigger than just marriage and family, but I am convinced that Jesus wants our individual lives and our families to express the vibrant abundant life he promised, but we have to truly want to be well in order for this happen. So if you've been lying at the pool for a while and you truly want to get well, Jesus invites you to get up and step into a new way of being, a new way of living; one that might be unfamiliar and painful at first, but it will be far more beautiful and compelling in the long run.

Sorry to get preachy, but this stuff has been swirling in my brain this week.

Developing Young Leaders

2009-09-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend I met with a group of guys to talk about developing young leaders in our denomination. Most of the weekend was spent developing a strategy to recruit, identify, and develop young leaders who will be committed to serving in the Free Methodist Church. While this is a daunting task and will require funding, buy-in, and structure that we currently don't have, there is also little in ministry that I am this excited about!

Here is why I am excited. I began my journey following Jesus when I was a teenager and during my teenage years I attended a small church outside of Milwaukee. On the outside this church didn't have much to offer: no large youth group, no charismatic youth pastor, no youth band, and not even many cute girls to draw me there on a Wednesday night. What it did have though was two pastors, a couple guys in their fifties (I think) who for whatever reason took an active interest in me and my spiritual development. One Sunday one of these guys (the associate pastor) had just returned from a John Maxwell conference and he approached me and shared how he and the sr. pastor believed that I could be the next John Maxwell and he wanted to invest in me. Now if you know me at all you know I don't care much for John Maxwell but the point is these guys saw something in me, took the time to invest in me, met with me for breakfast every Saturday morning, and propelled me on my way to being a leader in the church.

Unfortunately what I've learned is that these experiences aren't the norm in our churches. They are the exception. But what if they weren't the exception? What if we could facilitate mentoring experiences like this in our churches across the nation? What if our seasoned pastors woke up and realized that this thing called church won't just continue to exist on its own? What if our churches became the soil in which young leaders we planted and cultivated? What if we infused a passion for Jesus and reaching the world with his good news into the hearts of our young people?

I think more young people would hang around in church after they graduate. I think more young people would respond to the call to ministry. I think more churches wouldn't be scrambling to find effective leadership. I think it might just save a denomination, and I think it might just save the church!

And this is why I am excited.

What Oprah and the Black Eyed Peas Taught me about Church

2009-09-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

Oprah Flashmob

I am not much of an Oprah fan and would describe my taste for the Black Eyed Peas as mild at best. However, you've got to check out this video I stumbled upon (click above link. sorry I don't have the video in the post. I need to figure out how to do that).

I was fascinated by this performance and even more intrigued by this idea of a flash mob. In case you didn't catch it in the video (or were lazy and didn't even watch it) a flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. This apparently was the largest flash mob to date. Oprah's people got the thing going by using Facebook and Twitter to engage people interested in being a part of this. They had 20 professional dancers choreograph a dance and then teach it to the 800 people who showed up to learn. It was then the 800's job to teach the routine to the rest of the mob which was approximately 20,000 people! 20,000 people all in in sync, joined in a beautiful dance together.

Maybe I'm trying to spiritualize things a bit, but what a beautiful picture of the church! A group of people who assemble suddenly and perform acts of hope, redemption, and resurrection in a broken world, and then we disperse to enact this in other pockets of our community and world. I love the multiplication aspect to this as well. One comes up with the idea, and then there are twenty who teach it to 800, who teach it to 20,000 and they inspire a city!

What a beautiful metaphor for the church. The church is a flash mob, one that Jesus started two thousand years ago. And with all due respect to Oprah and the Black Eyed Peas she (the church) is the largest flash mob to date.

We need more to join the mob!

How would Jesus plant a church?

2009-08-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been reading and talking a lot about church planting, and while I'm very intrigued, I am also suffering from some serious head-spinning! There are so many ideas, methodologies, and philosophies out there regarding church planting and to be honest, everyone thinks their way is most effective (even if they don't say it that way). So what is the most effective way to plant and lead a church? Quickly the responses begin, "Church Growth expert So and So says," and "This megachurch is doing this," or "This organic church movement believes this." Which leads me to the question that is sitting in the back of my spinning brain:

How would Jesus plant a church?

Its really a pretty silly question because we actually have the divinely inspired documentation for how Jesus planted not a church, but the church. I know that we all know this deep in our bones, but I wonder if we've lost sight of it in the midst of our conferences, methodologies, reading, and seminary educations.

So how did Jesus plant the church?

- he called twelve ordinary guys to drop everything and follow him, to "come and see" what he was up to

- he preached good news a lot

- he healed people and casted out demons

- he fasted and prayer (he prayed a lot, read the book of Luke)

- he hung out with sinners and tax collectors

- he died and rose again

- he called his followers to go and do all this stuff themselves

It seems that Jesus had a rather simple strategy that required courage, faith, a high level of commitment, and a healthy dose of the supernatural. I think that we've lost a lot this in our churches and our church planting efforts and we need to reclaim it. This doesn't mean that God isn't in a lot of the books, methodologies, and philosophies out there. I believe God is (most of them anyway), but we can't leave Jesus behind and we can't bring him in later. Jesus is the founder, the planter, and the Lord over the church, and he builds it, not us.

What are your thoughts on how Jesus went about planting the church?

Nuts and Bolts

2009-08-12T12:01:00.001-07:00

Thought I'd share a few internship nuts and bolts with everyone this week. Here's some of the latest:

- Took a group of six to an event in Davenport, IA called "Rock the River" last weekend. Heard some good music and some average messages from Franklin Graham. All in all the event was great for connecting with some youth and their parents.

- I'm in the third week of a preaching series titled, "Messy." This has been a lot of fun for me and the church has been responding well to it.

- We've been getting to know some of our neighbors little by little. We're hoping to have dinner with some this weekend. Please be praying that we'll get opportunities to share Jesus with our neighbors.

- We're doing well on the support front. We're sitting at about 80% of our needed support, and are thankful for the generosity of so many friends, colleagues, and family. We're confident that we can be at a 100% by the Fall. If you're interested in financially contributing to our internship you can contact us at erickewaskowitz@gmail.com.

More musings next week.

Grace and Peace,

Erick

Can Attractional Churches be "Missional?"

2009-07-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

I had a great discussion with my boss yesterday, a discussion that I've had with countless others regarding church and specifically church planting. There has been this ongoing discussion in evangelical circles as to whether the most effective approach to doing church (which by the way I hate the phrase "doing church") is an attractional or missional one.

While I am not an expert in either an attractional or missional approach, I've had some experience with each and have read widely on both approaches. In short the attractional model refers to creating an "attractive" church environment: building, band, lights, entertaining topical preaching whereby unchurched people will be drawn to the excellence of the church's menu and will soon give their lives to Christ. The basic idea is that people will "come to church" if its exciting and attractive. Now this is admittedly a gross overgeneralization of the attractional model, but I believe its still pretty accurate.

The missional model is a bit more ambiguous. "Missional" itself has become a buzzword for many, and to be honest I think a lot of church leaders use the word to be trendy, to take a stab at being a part of the next big "thing" in church history. In short, a missional approach is recognizing that the Church is "on mission" to share the good news of Jesus. Perhaps the best definition I've come across for missional is that of Alan Hirsch who defines missional church as: "a community of God's people that defines itself, and organizes itself around, its real purpose of being an agent of God's mission to the world." A missional approach is more concerned with "taking church to the people" instead of getting people to come to church.

Now this is a discussion that warrants more unpacking than I will offer here, but I want to pose a question. Can an attractional church be missional? In other words, is one approach more right than the other and is there room for both approaches even in the same church?

To put my cards on the table I recently moved to a new church that would definitely be lumped in the attractional box. The lights are nice, the band is good, the children's ministry is top notch, and the preaching is mostly topical. Yet, here's a little more of a description, next week roughly 40 of us will go and serve the poor together, a good percentage of this church are doing life together in small groups, and over the course of this church's short existence many people have begun the journey of following Jesus.

Is there room for both? I might question some of the attractional methodologies but at the end of the day if its about preaching Christ than I'm in. I think there is room for both. I don't think its an either/or discussion. I think its a both/and one. Every church should be missional, and every church should be proclaiming the compelling, beautiful, and attractive good news of Jesus!

What are your thoughts?

Some thoughts on altar calls

2009-07-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

Last week I was the speaker for a high school camp in Iowa. This was my second year speaking at this camp and both times I absolutely loved it! There's just something about being used by God to preach twice a day and have a front row seat to young people respond to the Gospel. With that said, there is something that I have often struggled with regarding worship services, camp meetings, revivals etc. Altar Calls.

I'm not saying that I struggle with the concept of inviting people to respond to the preached word of God. In fact, as a preacher/evangelist I find myself more and more believing that every time Jesus is preached there should be some time given for response and reflection. As I concluded my message each evening I simply invited the campers to respond in whatever way they needed, and several of them joined the tribe and began a journey with Jesus during the week!

Yet, as a preacher I know that I have the ability to manipulate the audience to make the response I want from them, and this is a dangerous temptation and one that too many preachers succumb to all too often. In fact just these past few days I've heard of a pastor continuing to guilt people to the altar at another camp setting, and also of a pastor during a local VBS give the classic, "If you stepped out on the street and got hit by a bus tonight do you know where you would spend eternity?"

I don't want to judge the George Whitfield's, Billy Sunday's, Charles Finney's, and Billy Graham's of our rich heritage, but I'm consistently drawn back to Acts 2.37 after Peter has preached on Pentecost and the people responded by asking, "what shall we do?"

What if we preached in such a compelling way that people were cut to the heart and simply asked, "what do we do now?"

Hoping to get our first newsletter sent out this week. Stay tuned!

What is Church?

2009-07-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

How about a little ecclesiology this week?

When I first sensed that God was calling us to plant a church I knew that before I would ever think about planting a church I must first seek to define what church is and also what it is not.

The church is not a building that we go to once a week to sing some songs and hear some guy talk.

So what then is the church? My quest lead me to a study on the book of Acts, the story of the early days of the Church. It didn't take long in my study before the idea of church began to crystalize for me. In Acts 1.8 Jesus tells his followers that they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem (the city they found themselves in), Judea (the surrounding area), Samaria (their hated stepbrothers) and to the ends of the earth (self-explanatory). I knew this. I had read it. I had heard it. Our mission as Jesus-followers is to be witnesses.

But witnesses of what?

Later on in the first chapter the disciples are looking for a replacement for Judas and they do what any church would do...they call a meeting. During this meeting they lay out the criteria for being one of the apostles. In Acts 1.22 we read that they were looking for someone to become with them a witness to Jesus' resurrection.

To be a witness is to give evidence or testimony for something. Essentially Jesus' followers are looking for someone to join them in giving evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection is all about hope, all about new life. Jesus' followers are called to give evidence with their lives to the hope that we have in Jesus.

So here's the kind of church that we hope to plant: a community of people committed to bearing witness to the resurrection of Jesus. How about that for a working definition for the church?

Cultivating a Life for God

2009-06-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

I finally read a book that has been sitting on my shelf for years and it really challenged me. The book is titled Cultivating a Love for God by Neil Cole. This book is a great example of not judging a book by its cover. The cover is a little feminine for my taste but the content is exceptional. The book is an explanation of what Cole refers to as "Life Transformation Groups" or LTG's.

Here's a summary of what an LTG is: a group of 2-3 people meet together weekly and go through several accountability questions, pray for unbelieving friends, and commit to reading 30 chapters of Scripture a week. if one member of the group doesn't complete all 30 chapters of the reading, they all go back and do it again until every member completes the reading. Once a fourth is added to the group they break off and reproduce another group.

It sounds very systematic and methodical but I love the depth of the commitment and the emphasis on multiplication. In fact, Cole has planted churches simply through launching LTG's. A question I had before reading the book was whether or not a new believer was asked to read 30 chapters of the Bible and participate in accountability right away. Cole argues that they absolutely should because by setting the bar high right from the start a hunger for the Bible and evangelism is being developed immediately. This leads to a greater depth in discipleship than what is being experienced in too many of our churches.

Check out this excerpt from Cultivating a Love for God:

"There is not a single command to plant a church or to multiply small groups. There is a lot of church planting and multiplying of groups going on in the New Testament, but not because the church was instructed to do so. The reason that groups and churches multiplied is because the first generation of Christians were obeying a very specific and simply command-to make disciples! When Christians are obedient to this single command, it results in multiplying groups and churches. To attempt to multiply groups and churches without multiplying disciples is not only disobedient, but it is downright impossible." p.93

I'd be interested in hearing from some people about their experience with discipleship methods and strategies. I'm really intrigued by the LTG's and their organic approach. What are your thoughts?

A New Community

2009-06-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

On Monday we moved from Zion, Il to Aurora, IL to begin a one-year church planting internship with Resolution Church. Our move could not have gone smoother: the moving truck was there in time, everything was packed, no rain, traffic was good, and plenty of help on both ends. As our move is now completed I find myself thinking back to a conversation with Bekki the evening before we made this internship "official."

Before putting in the call to the powers-that-be I asked Bekki what made her most nervous about this transition. She said, "I'm not really nervous about raising support and renting out our home. I nervous to leave our friends." I, on the other hand was nervous about the support-raising and our home. A beautiful example of how God gives us spouses who compliment us well.

Yet after completing the move on Monday I shared my wife's sentiments. I felt kind of...alone. We had so many friends come out and help us on Monday, several of which even made the trek with us to our new home. These were all relationships that we had developed over our last five years while serving in that community. In short, Zion/Waukegan/Wesley Church had become home. It was the community to which we belonged and contributed. Aurora doesn't feel like our home and I don't yet feel like a belong. Now I know we've been here just two days and in time we will feel at home and like we belong, but for now I really find myself a bit nostalgic.

I think this illustrates the power of community and why it is so important that we are intentional about developing community with our neighbors. When we arrived in Waukegan five years ago we didn't know a soul and over time it became our home, but it took some work. I am finding that the older I get the more work it takes to develop this kind of meaningful community. When I left home for college sure there was some anxiety, but I was mostly filled with excitement. When I left college to begin full-time ministry sure I'd miss the community there, but I was filled with anticipation of the new horizon upon which I would embark. This time it's more difficult. We were pretty established and pretty comfortable, and perhaps that is exactly why God called us to strike camp, to leave home and to "tent" in a new place.

I think this also illustrates the power of church: a community committed to bearing witness to the resurrection of Jesus. So here we are in a new place where we don't know a soul, searching for a new home, striving to belong to a new communtiy. We have our work cut out for us!

starting a house church

2009-06-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

One thing that I would like to do with this blog is regularly share about what I am reading and hopefully spark some conversation.

I recently finished a book titled, Starting a House Church by Larry Kreider and Floyd McClung. I've been interested in the house church movement for some time now and I actually stumbled across this book at a bookstore a few weeks ago. The authors are obviously huge proponents of house churches and claim that this expression of church is on the rise in the US, especially among those in their 20's and 30's.

Kreider and McClung cite a Barna study indicating that roughly 20 million US adults attend a house church on a typical week, which translates to 9% of American adults. So why would 20 million people choose house church over our more conventional community and mega-churches? According to the authors the house church approach is more intimate, participatory, cost-effective, and more easily reproducible.

I tend to agree that a more simple and organic approach to church planting makes a lot of sense. The key in my opinion though is reproduction. The goal should not be a single house church but rather a network of house churches. There are many house churches that never grow or reproduce and they tend to just become small inward-focused groups who are simply upset with the church they left. At their best, house churches are networked with other house churches.

The one question that I want to explore regarding the house church approach is how does a house church planter generate and sustain momentum? Maybe this is just coming out of my experience in more of the attractional model to doing church and momentum is generated and sustained as the house churches grow and reproduce but I'm just concerned that people become very comfortable with their group and this can easily lead to too much contentment and too little evangelistic zeal. I guess it comes down to leadership and constantly casting a vision for reaching more non-Christians and reproducing more house churches.

I think its important to be thinking about and studying this approach as many young people outside of the church are more attracted to the house church than to the mega "attractional" church. I'd love to hear some thoughts on house church, especially from anyone who has experience in one.

a busy week

2009-06-14T18:35:00.001-07:00

I'm a little late in posting but this has been a busy week for Bekki and I. It was our final week as staff pastors at Wesley Church where we have served for just under five years, and we also spent a few days attending Annual Conference at Sky Lodge Camp in Wisconsin. (For those of you unfamiliar with Annual Conference it is a two-day pastors meeting that we attend for our denomination each year).

At annual conference I presented a workshop titled "The Present Future: Engaging the Hearts of Young Leaders." The main thrust of my workshop is that we must be intentional about leadership development or the future of the church is in serious trouble. I spent some time taking a look at the youth ministry landscape today and then shared a vision for leadership development in the Free Methodist Church. The workshop was well received by those in attendance, but I was also a bit discouraged by a smaller turnout. It just seems that by and large, our denominations are not making young people a priority and I wonder if there's a connection between this and the decline of denominations being experienced today.

Today I preached my final sermon as youth pastor at Wesley Church. The title of my sermon was "Will Our Children Have Faith?" The titled was borrowed from a book with the same title written by John Westerhoff III. In my message I looked at Deuteronomy 6.4-9 where the Hebrew people are instructed to bind God's commands to their foreheads (also known as phylacteries) and also at Matthew 18.1-6 where Jesus warns his audience that if they cause little ones to stumble it would be better for them to have a millstone tied around their neck. So the question I put before the church was, are we wearing phylacteries (telling the story of faith to younger generations) or are we wearing millstones (causing our young people to stumble in their faith)? My challenge to the church in my exit was to make the young people a priority and to see youth ministry not just as the task of the youth pastor, but as the task of the church.

This week is all about packing and getting ready for the big move on June 22. We found a great house that we can afford thanks to the generosity of some friends!

Housing Update

2009-06-04T12:38:00.001-07:00

If you read my previous post and scroll down to see our prayer needs, you know that we have this crazy big goal of having 1,000 prayer partners join us in our church planting adventure. I don't think we're quite at 1,000 yet but God is definitely hearing the prayers of God's people.

Two of the biggest things that needed to happen to make this transition possible was to do something with the home we own in Zion, and to find an affordable place to live in the Plainfield/Naperville/Aurora area. Bekki and I thought and prayed about putting our home up for sale but after prayer, seeking counsel, and meeting with a realtor we decided to rent it out for the year, and maybe the market will be better for us to sell next year. Our realtor was less than hopeful that we could get our full monthly mortgage from a renter, but we figured we'd at least start there and see what happens.

After about three weeks of our house being up for rent our realtor (Betty) called and said, "Erick, you're never going to believe this but we're showing the house tonight to a pastor looking at a place for some missionaries to the Phillipines while they're back in the states for a year."

I was intrigued.

When Betty showed up later that evening and Bekki greeted her and this pastor it turns out it was a pastor of a church in our community, whom Bekki actually knew! She used to work at a little Christian bookstore that also housed the offices of a church plant, of which this was the pastor.

Here's the long and short of what proceeded to happen. The pastor loved the house and was very excited about the possibility of the missionaries taking it. The next day Betty called to tell us that the missionaries are taking it, at the very price we were asking (our monthly mortgage payment)! The missionaries have since been by to see the house, loved it, and were very kind and gracious. At the end of their visit this pastor prayed for the missionaries and Bekki and I. When Bekki shared this with me my eyes were flooded with tears.

I am not one to spiritualize everything (but I think I should be), but I assure you that this family could've gotten a lot more house for what they're paying. I assure you that God could've brought us any renters, but God brought us missionaries who are sponsored by a church plant! I assure you that nine times out of ten, this doesn't happen this quickly and we would lower our price.

After signing the lease today Betty's parting words to me were, "This is a God-thing. I get goosebumps everytime I think about it." My sentiments exactly.

I think God wants us to plant a church!

1,000 True Fans

2009-06-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

As I was putting together our fundraising stuff I began thinking that we should have a goal for how many prayer partners we'd like for our church plant. The number that immediately came to mind was 1,000. 1,000!

At first I thought to myself, "1,000 is a bit high, maybe we should shoot for 500?" 500 would be more easily attainable, it makes more logical sense, and I almost have that many friends on Facebook. But 500 wasn't the number that came to mind.

1,000 prayer partners it is. 1,000 would be a challenge. 1,000 isn't something we can attain all that easily. 1,000 doesn't make a lot of logical sense. God would truly have to stir some hearts. But imagine if it worked. Imagine if we had 1,000 people in prayer for a church planting movement. What kind of impact could that have on a community, city, marriage, family, workplace, neighborhood, or school? Imagining and Dreaming is exactly what we're doing and we hope that you will be one of the 1,000 who gets to be a part of joining Jesus in redeeming humanity!

Check out some more thoughts on the world of 1,000 true fans from Seth Godin's latest book, "Tribes:"

In an article posted on his Technium Web site, Kevin Kelly brilliantly described the world of "1,000 True Fans." A true fan, he argues, is a member of a tribe who cares deeply about you and your work. That person will cross the street to buy from you or bring a friend to hear you or invest a little extra to support you. An individual artist needs only a thousand fans in her tribe. Its enough.

A true fan brings three friends to a John Mayer concert or to the opening of a Chuck Close exhibit. A true fan pays extra to own the first edition, or buys the hardcover, instead of just browsing around on the Web site. Most important, a true fan connects with other true fans and amplifies the noise the artist makes.

Too many organizations care about numbers, not fans. They care about hits or turnstile clicks or media mentions. What they're missing is the depth of commitment and interconnection that true fans deliver. Instead of always being on the hunt for one more set of eyeballs, true leaders have figured out what that the real win is in turning a casual fan into a true one.

Fans, true fans, are hard to find and precious. Just a few can change everything. What they demand though is generosity and bravery.

Sounds kind of like the beginning of the Church doesn't it?

The Beginning of the Story

2009-05-26T13:09:00.001-07:00

Dr. C. Peter Wagner is the one most credited for making the claim, "the single most effective way to evangelize is to plant new churches." We want to see more people following Jesus; we want to plant a church.

How did we get to this point?

I have been in youth ministry for nine years. What drew me to this calling was the conviction that the way to affect change within our churches is by engaging the hearts of young people with the message of Jesus. This has been my commitment and passion for all of my adult life. Our young people are not the church of tomorrow, rather they are the church of today, and they are the ones who will lead us into tomorrow.

Yet in my youth ministry experience I have observed that there is another story being told. Our younger generations are becoming increasingly less-churched, de-churched, or just flat out uninterested in church, and for the most part our churches have been ineffective in reaching the emerging generations. In the Gospels, Jesus speaks of pouring new wine into new wineskins. Many of our churches are not functioning as new wineskins into which new wine can be poured.

For a while I had been reflecting on these two stories: a passion for youth ministry and yet a great concern for the many young people who don't know Jesus and the churches who aren't engaging their hearts. What emerged was an interest in starting a new church, with new paradigms and structures to engage the hearts of the unchurched in new and innovative ways.

During this time the church where I served as youth pastor was looking for a new senior pastor. For a season we had a interim senior pastor who had recently been hired by our conference to be the director of church planting and plant a church himself. Over time I had several conversations with him about church planting and this began to become more than just a mild interest for Bekki and I.

It evolved into a calling. And then I made a phone call that would change everything.

About a year ago I had this sense that God had something different for us. I had been praying and fasting and after months of seeking God in this I decided to pick up the phone. I contacted our church planting director and asked if Bekki and I could meet with him to talk more seriously about the possibility of church planting and what that process would look like.

Since then our excitement, passion, and commitment to starting a new church has only heightened. We have partnered with a church plant in its launch, we have participated in a rigorous church planting assessment, and soon we will formally begin the adventure of planting a new church. In July, we will begin a one-year church planting internship with Resolution Church in Naperville, IL. Resolution is a new church (launched in September 08), and is lead by Dr. Mark Davenport (our conference church planting director). During this internship I will serve on staff as executive pastor, will help develop a youth ministry, lead a small group, preach regularly, and immerse myself in a church plantimg culture. It is our hope to begin the process of planting our own church in the Fall of 2010!

As we continue to dream about the church we want to plant, we dream big. The truth is I don't want to plant a church. I want to be a part of planting a movement of churches. I believe that God is unleashing a movement of new churches that will engage the hearts of people with the Gospel in new and innovative ways. We hope that you will be a part of this movement. We hope that you might be a part of creating new wineskins that will accommodate the new wine that is flowing in our midst.

This is only the beginning of a new story...

If you would like to formally contribute to our church planting internship you can in the following ways:

1. Prayer. Our goal is to have 1,000 prayer partners by the time we plant our church in 2010.

2. Finances. This internship requires that we raise support. While our sponsoring agency

(The North Central Conference of The Free Methodist Church) is committing to offer some financial support, we will still need to raise a significant percentage on our own. If you're interested in supporting in either one or both of these areas please contact Erick at big_ewok@hotmail.com.