Clarity

It's been over 2 years since I posted to this blog, but a recent comment regarding the blog suggests that I should clarify a couple elements.

1. The blog refers to missional, emerging and emergent to refer to churches engaged in service and relevance in the community rather than the Emergent Church, led by Brian McLaren and others).

There is a quote regarding this in a post: Emerging churches are communities that practice the way of Jesus within postmodern cultures. This definition encompasses nine practices. Emerging churches (1) identify with the life of Jesus, (2) transform the secular realm, and (3) live highly communal lives. Because of these three activities, they (4) welcome the stranger, (5) serve with generosity, (6) participate as producers, (7) create as created beings, (8) lead as a body, and (9) take part in spiritual activities. (http://dmatmbc.blogspot.com/2007/09/defining-missional-and-emerging.html).

McLaren and the Emergent Village include some doctrinal and practical elements that I do not embrace, so if you're wondering, read what I write and take that to be my understanding. This blog primarily is focused on challenging myself and other Christians to be more active in the world to be an influence of reconciliation (2 Cor 5).

2. Emerging means "coming forth" and at the time of the writing of the blog, this term was not attached to a particular system of Christology as it now is. I am not going to labor to change the language used in the blog to distinguish this. In this blog, "emerging" is used interchangeably with missional and emergent primarily because our conversations were engaging the terms in similarly.

The articles in the blog are meant to point us to consider how the church can be relevant in a post-christian society like we encounter especially among those under 30. I shouldn't have to make this defense, but after a re-read of all the articles, I believe that the issues discussed are important for the church to discuss and grapple with.

I am always happy to discuss these with anyone if my reading of the Scripture is in error. Thanks!

-Derek

Theology of Discipleship: Part 4

Discipleship is Spiritual, Relational and Missional

The thread started here.

Previously, I’ve proposed that discipleship begins with the central commandments of Christ: Love the Lord your God and Love your neighbor as yourself. This provides the central guidelines for how God wants us to relate to him: in love. God is seeking lovers who will be in relationship with Him in a relational way (read, pray, worship, praise, meditate to KNOW Him) not in a task way (read, pray, worship, praise, meditate to EARN His favor). God has given us 5 billion neighbors who we can practice loving as ourselves (we better start memorizing names).

This brings us to community. We need community of various styles, formal and informal, large and small, multi-generational/heterogeneous and homogeneous, with the same gender and with both. Within the context of these communities – which may be as organized as a church service or a small group and as natural as just some friends or a close friend – we can care for each other and help each other along the journey to love God and love others.

So, now that we know the basic guidelines and we’re together trying to live it out, here’s some thoughts about some elements for our discipleship.

Spiritual

Since our discipleship is primarily about knowing Jesus and loving Him, our discipleship is spiritual. We discover God in many ways (Gary Thomas, Sacred Pathways) but there are some central ways that God has given to all of us to know Him and to relate to Him: The Holy Scriptures, prayer, silence, meditation, fasting and I’m sure that I’m missing some others). Thus, our spiritual discipleship is about these. These don’t fit that well in our task-oriented world, but God wants lovers primarily – like Mary who sat as Jesus’ feet rather than Martha who worked for Jesus. My discipleship and the help I give to others must have the spiritual as an element.

Relational

“Everything we claim about Jesus is unproven until tested in the midst of relationships.” My friend Loren quoted another Bible teacher one night in a Bible study on Ephesians 5 and I quickly wrote it in the margin of my Bible. We are relational people who live in the midst of many others all around us. Even though I live in a rural area with only about 50,000 people in our county, I am surrounded by people – work, neighbors, connections at my kids’ schools, while shopping, etc.

Relationships are a great struggle for many people today. Marriages dissolve or people live in hurtful homes. Parents and children, siblings and friends “break up” and don’t talk or get together for years – or ever. Things get even worse with the many ways that some abuse others and often these others live in it – not knowing how to escape.

Discipleship is also about learning to love others as Christ loves us. It’s learning about acting out the teachings and example of Jesus with our neighbors. It’s about being the Good Samaritan. It’s about turning the other cheek. It’s about loving those who don’t love us. It’s about forgiveness. It’s about peacemaking. It’s about a style of relating that is clearly Christlike. Since this is not natural to us, we must become disciples of Christ in how we relate with everyone around us.

Missional

God has given us a Great Commission to make disciples – that others would start the journey of loving God, loving others within the context of community. Therefore, it must be a part of the discipling process that we be missional – sharing the mission of Christ to the world. As Christ came to reconcile all to Himself, so we are ambassadors of this reconciliation (2 Cor 5).

Mission isn’t just oversees and cross-cultural (but it certainly is those things). Mission isn’t just for the super Christian. It’s for Christ’s followers. Integrating mission into our sense of discipleship locally and globally (Acts 1:8) is following Christ’s command for making disciples.

NEXT Time: Organic Model for Discipleship

-Derek

The Emotionally Healthy Church

Christy did a paper on The Emotionally Healthy Church by Peter Scazzero and here are some excerpts that are kind of like cliff notes. This book discusses emotional health and its place in the process of discipleship and ministry leadership.

- Derek

Chapter one: The Leader sets the direction for the church.

Peter Scazzero wrote that his personal life was hurting and yet he pushed through, denying the hurt, bitterness and anger that resulted from broken relationships. He had been betrayed by people he loved and, because so much of his time and energy went into the church he worked at, his marriage was crumbling. Because of false belief he had about how Christians should react to conflict, he neglected confronting troublesome people in his ministry. As a result, his ministry was hurting.

When he allowed God to change him, he began living his life honestly, ministering out of who he was and not by what he could do. He began to see positive changes in his church as well. The leader’s lifestyle serves as a model that is passed down to his family and all those who minister with him. The Leader’s actions speak louder than his words.

Chapter two: Discipleship needs to deal with emotional health.

Leaders sometimes are not able to apply what they teach to their own lives. They can get so involved in their ministry that their personal life, as well as their family suffers. Every Christian, no matter what their level of “spiritual maturity” is, needs to find a setting where they can be emotionally vulnerable. They need to be honest with what is really going on inside of them because if the leadership is emotionally healthy, then the church can be emotionally healthy as well.

Chapter three: Spiritual and emotional health go hand in hand.

People want to separate emotional health from ministry. We have decided that emotions are bad and so we do not seek to understand where they are coming from. This is how there can be pastors who are extremely effective in there ministry while there marriage and family life is falling apart. They are not dealing with their heart issues that make their relationships suffer. Ministry is no more spiritual than the rest of our lives. Christians need to deal with the emotional pain and desires that are in their hearts in order to be emotionally healthy.

Chapter four: Inventory of spiritual and emotional maturity

For the principles of: Looking beneath the surface, Breaking the power of the past, Accepting the gifts of limits, Embracing grieving and loss and Making incarnation your Model for loving well, I scored as an emotional adult. I scored as an emotional adolescent on the principle of living in brokenness and vulnerability. This did not surprise me. I know that I have a difficult time with accepting criticism in a health way and being vulnerable with people. I have a strong desire for people’s approval.

I was made keenly aware of my desire for approval this last week as I was preparing to preach a sermon for Homiletics class. No matter how much I reminded myself that any criticism I received would only to serve to help me be a more effective preacher, I felt anxious that I would not “wow” the class. Although in my head, I knew that any criticism I might receive would not change my value as a person, my heart felt that I really needed their approval to feel valuable. This is an area that God has already brought to my attention and I believe I might be finally allowing him to do some spiritual and emotional surgery on me.

Chapter five: Spiritual and emotional maturity requires looking into who we really are.

Scazzero refers to a book called “Glittering Images” by Susan Howatch, about a man who will not allow others to see more than the “Glittering Image” that he has made for himself. In each of us, there is a person we allow others to see, the “glittering image,” that has been polished so that others will see its greatness, and then there is our true selves, which we guard from discovery. Some are more skilled in the art of shining the image than others. In order for emotional growth to occur, we have to allow Jesus to get through that “glittering image” so that real change can occur. This can be an excruciating process.

Chapter six: Our families of origin have had a huge impact on our lives.

Every family, from the healthiest to the most depraved, has failed in some way. Relationships between each family member effects the way we think and feel. For us to strive towards emotional health, we must journey back to the family God gave us and pay attention to negative patterns of thought or action that originated with our family of origin. One agent of healing is reparenting through the church family where God is our father and we are brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, reparenting doesn’t always naturally happen in the church because we are often unaware or unwilling to delve into our family pasts.

Chapter seven: Leaders need to lead out of brokenness and vulnerability.

Our normal reaction to our brokenness is to flee, fight or hide. We flee from our pain by immersing ourselves in some other activity or even ministry to keep from having to face it. We fight because we are angry at the way God has chosen to answer our prayers or has allowed us to face difficulties. We hide by covering up our frailties and focus only on our successes.

God chooses to do great things through our weaknesses. Often, we assume God will use only our talents and areas of expertise to further his kingdom when, in reality, He will use the broken places in ways we would never have imagined. Leaders must be honest about who they really are so that those who follow will learn by example.

Chapter eight: Christians must heed the limits that God has put in our lives.

Whether the limits are small children, age, health or intellect, God gave us limits and expects us to live within them. God gave each of our own lives to live. We need to understand who we are and in what season of life we are in order for us to freely live the life he gave us. Jesus us a great example of living the life God gave him. He had many opportunities to proclaim who he was before it was God’s timing but chose not to. Jesus was tempted to worship Satan in order rule the world but resisted because he knew that God had set limits to how his plan was to be carried out. Likewise we need to understand God’s limits on our lives.

Chapter nine: Grief and loss help us to become more like Christ.

Our cultural tendency is to attempt to ignore or minimize grief. We are uncomfortable with it and so we pretend it isn’t there or do our best to get through it quickly. The result is people who are superficial and unwilling to grow from the tragedies in their lives. If we allow him, God will actually use grief to grow us up into who he created us to be. We need to take the time to fully experience grief and sorrow so God can do the work in us that needs to be done.

In June, I sat at a memorial service for my friend, Bonnie, who had died of cancer and left behind a husband and three small children. I remember stifling sobs, trying to not attract attention to myself. As I reflected later on, I thought about how people in the Easter world treated emotion in the death of a loved one in contrast to how our culture treats it. In the Eastern world, emotion is expressed loudly with much mourning and loud cries but here, we quietly mourn. It is a very private thing, as if we are mourning alone. I wondered, at my friend’s memorial service how many other people were trying hard to not show emotion and how many would go home and cry unashamed. I wonder if it would be better for our psyches if we felt allowed to verbally show our grief.

Bonnie died in June of 2007 and I expect to always be moved emotionally when I think or talk about her. God worked so much in my grief, there were times when I felt his presence so strongly with me, not taking away my grief, but carrying me through it. My plan is to continue walking through the grief process and allow God to use it. Perhaps he will allow me to help others in their journey as well.

Chapter 10: Christians need to learn to understand other’s points of view without being lost in them.

Listening is an art. In order for us to begin to understand another’s point of view, we need to listen without judgment. It takes practice to be able to listen to others, consider their concerns seriously, make changes if necessary and not make changes if it is not necessary. People will not listen to what we have to say if we do not listen and try to understand where they are coming from.

Reveal Conference from Willow Creek

Background (from www.revealnow.com):
In 2004, Willow Creek was trying to figure out where people were in their spiritual growth and development. A congregational survey was planned, but unlike previous surveys, this one would benefit from new scientific insights that help organizations measure the unseen—including emotions.

Typical surveys can help you understand the basic demographics of your congregation:

• Life Stage: age, marital status, kids, etc.
• Spiritual background
• Length of time . . . at your church, following Jesus, etc.
• Involvement: serving, small groups, services, etc.

After more than a decade of discovering the basics about the people in their church, the leaders of Willow Creek found there was a way to go deeper. Through the experience and expertise of Eric Arnson, a survey was developed that measured the hearts of people in the congregation for the first time.

Comment:

This is not an attempt to reproduce the book or the entire conference, but is simply some excerpts from the conference. Page numbers refer to slides from the conference.

My Notes:

1. The Reveal analysis currently profiles 6 basic groups of people (p. 1, 7, 18):

1. Exploring Christianity: "I believe, but I'm checking it out."
   
2. Growing in Christ: "I believe and I'm working it out."
3. Close to Christ: "I rely on Jesus daily."
4. Christ-Centered: "Jesus is the most important part of my life."
5. Early Stalleds: "I believe in Christ but I haven't grown lately."
6. Dissatisfieds: "I'm committed to Jesus, but my church is letting me down."
   

The first four groups represent typical growth patterns, and the Early Stalleds are a segment of group 2 and Dissatisfieds are a segment of groups 3 & 4.

2. Early Stalleds are 15% of the church:

• They practice spiritual disciplines less (such as Bible reading) than the Explorers (and all other groups profiled) (slide 8).
• They previously enjoyed spiritual growth but feel stagnant now (slide 9).
• They have a significantly higher rate of addictions and emotional issues indicating that there may be significant hindrances to their growth (slide 11).

3. Dissatisfieds are 5%-15% of the church (average is 9%):

• The are dissatisfied with all major programs of the church (services, small groups, etc) (slide 13). This is not due to "entertainment" issues, but is about their growth.
  
• They attend church and other activities nearly as much as those who indicate satisfaction and growth (slide 14).
• They serve, give and share Christ (slide 15).
• These are spiritual, committed people who love Jesus but they just don't feel "satisfied" with their current church experience.
• Of this category of people, over 60% are actively considering leaving the church (slide 17).
  
  
• More on this profile below (see header "Keys to Satisfaction").

4. The programs of the church become less satisfying as spiritual growth occurs:

• Services, Small Groups mean the most to those profiled as "Close to Christ" and actually become less important as they continue to mature (slide 21).
• Service becomes a key to engagement amongst the most mature (slide 24).
  
• Daily spiritual growth practices increasingly become catalysts to growth. As people mature, programs become less important, but deep time with God and with other spiritually-minded people become the fuel (slides 26-29).
  
  
• The impact of the small group and other similar forms of community carry less impact and the value of close spiritual friends or mentors increases (slide 27).
  
  

5. Some summaries about spiritual growth in these profiles (slide 31):

1. Spiritual growth is about increasing relational closeness to Christ and can't be measured exclusively by behaviors you see.
2. A church's most active volunteers, donors and evangelists come from the most spiritually advanced segments.
3. Churches appear to be most effective in the early stages of spiritual growth. Their role then shifts from being a primary influence to a secondary one.
4. Personal spiritual practices are the building blocks for a Christ-centered life.
5. Pain and difficulty in life can be times of exceptional spiritual growth.

6. Keys to Satistfaction (slide 34):

Reveal indicated 5 (and a half) key elements for spiritual growth:

1. Challenges me to grow and take next steps (56%).
2. Helps me to understand the Bible in greater depth (55%).
3. Helps me develop a personal relationship with Christ (51%).
4. Helps me apply the Bible to my life (50%).
5. Provides compelling worship services (49%).
6. Provides strong programs for children to learn about God (35%).

#6 was high among people with children, but since only 58% of respondents had kids, that lowers the numbers.

Nothing else was above 27% (and the next two are serve in the church and serve people in need).

KEY: In these top 5, the range of success varied among the participating churches (slide 40)
It was suggested that if a church focuses on these items (in the context of ministry to adults), then we will increase the "satisfaction level" of people at every level of spiritual growth, because this is literally what most people are really looking for in their church to provide.

Commentary

1. Dissatisfieds and Early Stallers are the "swing states" at our churches. The difference between good and great may be how effectively the church is able to convert the dissatisfieds back to a period of joyful growth (Christ-Centeredness) and the Early Stallers back to growing in Christ. Therefore, specific ministry strategies should be targeted at these groups:
1. Dissatisfieds: Do the 5 major things better (see #6).
2. Early Stallers: Bring them back to the cross ("He who is forgiven much, loves much") and help them seek healing for issues and addictions that they are suffering with.
2. I was surprised at how little difference church and small group attendance make in spiritual growth and satisfaction. There's some difference, but the answer doesn't seem to be "get more involved" or "join a small group."
3. Deep spiritual relationships and spiritual mentors are real needs that, if met, can help the most spiritual and the dissatisfieds to grow. This isn't a program, but is more organic. Thinking back, all of my deeply impacting relationships fit this type of category, but less than 40% of Christians enjoy this type of relationship.
   
4. People want the challenge to know and obey Jesus. We're not to call them to a program or simply to serve the church's interests. We're to call them to follow Jesus in it's many forms!
5. Hawkins recommends that every ministry should be evaluated in how it helps these groups move to the next level and how effective they are at the 5 most important keys.
   

-Derek

Spiritual Maturity Affects How We Serve

Spiritual Maturity Affects How We Serve but not in the way we might think. Read below from a Blog from Willow Creek.
-Derek

Chance to Serve

from REVEAL Blog by Greg Hawkins

I would like to resume the conversation I started last Tuesday about needs. Specifically about what people said they wanted from their church. [Got a bit sidetracked. Power out for 45 hours. Basement flooded.]

I last talked about the top needs. Today I want to discuss the two needs that increase the most across the spiritual continuum. And they are very related to each other. The two things that rise in importance the most are “Provide opportunities to serve in church ministries” and “Provide opportunities to serve people in need” (see below).

Survey Question

“Below is a list of benefits a church could provide. Please select the five most important to you at this time.”

	Exploring Christianity	Growing in Christ	Close to Christ	Christ Centered
Provide opportunities to serve in church ministries.	16%	26%	32%	35%
Provide opportunities to serve people in need.	22%	24%	28%	32%

So what does this mean? Well, as someone draws closer to Christ, the things of Christ matter more to them. They are willing to “die to self” in order to increasingly follow one of Christ’s central commands – to serve one another. They are willing to give of themselves for the good of others. That’s part of what I think it means. What do you think?

And what does it mean for the church. Are we giving people a chance to serve others? Are we helping them identify their gifts and passions so they can focus their energy? Are we challenging them to develop those gifts to the fullest? Are we encouraging and celebrating them?

Something to think about as you build a church that catalyzes people all along the spiritual journey. A journey whose final destination is a deep, abiding intimacy with Christ.

Greg

Boiling Point: Conference on Climate Change at Multnomah

On Saturday, Multnomah's New Wine, New Wineskins organization hosted a symposium on global climate change called "Boiling Point" (link).

I attended 2 of the 3 plenary sessions and 1 of 6 workshops offered during the day. Here's some thoughts:

Plenary #1: Paul Metzger, professor at Multnomah

• The world has made environmental stewardship a moral issue. Evangelicals should make it also a spiritual issue. Liberals often believe that evangelicals are disengaged from the real world concerns and only care about their fiefdoms and thus they don't buy our picture of Jesus. Young evangelicals are environmentally-aware. The political parties are adjusting to this. Churches should likewise adjust to give these believers a platform for serving our world through the church -- not in spite of it.
• There is much debate within conservative circles (popularized by Rush, Hannity and O'Reilley) about whether there is actually any climate change at all. Metzger made a great point -- it's about prudence. Prudence suggests that fossil fuel energies, even if they aren't causing climate change, are dirty and unhealthy and are a limited resource. Prudence suggests that we are wiser if we continue to implement cleaner energies. This is a very strong point.
• Where there is environmental polution (water, air, etc) and if there were to be (some may say there already is) climate change, this will affect the "least of these" first. The poorest of the poor are the ones who have the least resources to move themselves and their family away from harm and to have the basics of life. So, Christians are fulfilling the charge that Jesus gave to love the least of these when we provide a healthy environment.
• In 2001, poll of evangelicals by Gallup said that only 7% were concerned about the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Bono criticized evangelicals for turning a blind eye toward this issue. In 2006, Bono appeared at Willow Creek's Leadership Summit and praised evangelicals for now leading the way.
  

Plenary #2: Richard Cizik, VP of Govt. Affairs at National Assn of Evangelicals

• The church needs a "conversion" to understanding its responsibilities from Genesis 1 about stewardship of the earth. This is a full understanding of the gospel. The apocalyptic is not intended to paralyze us (as in suggesting that the earth will be fine as long as God wants it to be and then Jesus will return) but to spur us to action (Matt 24: be ready). Cizik suggests that it is our responsibility to lead the charge on social issues such as Christians did in the fight against slavery 150 years ago.
• Resources:
• "The Great Warming" www.thegreatwarming.com (DVD)
  
• Serve God Save the Planet by J. Matthew Sleeth, MD (book)
  

Workshop: Peter Illyn, Exec Dir of Restoring Eden

• Key issue: How does "Creation Care" fulfill the purpose of the church (Illyn's suggested purpose of church: love God - worship, love people of God - community, love everyone else - mission)?
• Suggestions for worshiping God through understanding nature:
• Visit places of beauty and contemplate/discuss His creation: Zoos, Parks, Gardens.
• Remember that man is made in the image of God from the dust of the earth.
• Suggestions for serving each other through stewardship:
• Tree planting / Rehab of affected micro ecosystems (stream clean-up).
• Recycling / Energy Audits for Public / Light bulb Conversion
• Clean-ups / Litter Removal
• Partnering with local/regional organizations that are doing enviro projects.
• Light bulb Conversion:
• Converting 5 heavily used bulbs to fluorescent replacements.
• If every household in US did this, 5 coal burning plants could be shut down.
  

My takeaways:

• Our theology of mission/evangelism (and discipleship) must address:
• Our stewardship of the earth (Genesis 1).
• Our response to the needs of the poor (Matt 25, Luke 9).
• Our response to social injustice (contemporary slave trade, child prostitution and other abuses, recent news about "rape war" in the Congo).
• Our practice of this theology of mission must be both local and global.
• Local:
• Loving God through His Creation (Education of what God has done).
• Serving Each Other through Stewardship (Taking action to protect the environment).
• Supporting Environmental Issues (advocacy to government and business).
• Global:
• Determine as an individual and as a church how you will act out your theology in the world to care for the poor and exercise good stewardship.
  
• One heavy criticism of the movement of environmental concern among evangelicals suggest that these people are "earth worshippers" or are worshipping the creation rather than the creator (1 Cor 1). The primary response was that this is about stewardship not about worship. In addition, it was pointed out correctly that our churches do not struggle with earth worship but stuff worship -- materialism.
  

-Derek

Leadership Divided by Ron Carucci

On Monday, in class, we had a visit by Ron Carucci. Ron is the COO of Mars Hill Graduate School and is business consultant. He recently released his book, Leadership Divided: What Emerging Leaders Need and What You Might Be Missing.

Carucci is an expert on the interaction be incumbent leadership (primarily baby boomers who run companies and churches today) and emerging leadership (people in their 20's and 30's).

Central to Carucci's thesis are the differences of values that cause misunderstanding and conflict between these groups of leaders. Some of these differences include:

1. Incumbent leaders tend to safeguard their position and its privilege through a carefully crafted public image. Emerging leaders value openness and equality.
2. Incumbent leaders tend to view the emerging leader as disrespectful and "not a team player" whereas the emerging leader doesn't give respect unless its earned, and may not demonstrate respect through quiet submission, but through thoughtful debate followed by full buy-in.
3. Incumbent leaders don't usually invite emerging leaders to the table as a peer, but often only for fact-finding or opinions. Emerging leaders long for a seat at the table to bring their gifts to the mix.
4. Incumbent leaders often misunderstand the big dreams ("we can change the world") and seemingly excessive self-confidence as arrogance whereas the emerging leader just believes that the world can be changed by even a single person.

In reality, Carucci says, we all display a mix of these characteristics, and I can certainly see all of these in me -- often depending on the context (see below).

Here's some strategies for Incumbents:

• Know that respect doesn't come with the position. Earn respect each day through listening and responding.
• Risk inviting divergent opinions to the table.
• Demonstrate sincere gratitude and respect for the contributions. "That's great. How did you do that?"

Here's some strategies for Emergents:

• When invited to the table, come to the table. Don't refuse or "make them pay" or resent any limitations placed upon you. It's growth to be invited.
• Develop skills in sharing vision and ideas in an honoring way that educates and assists the incumbent leaders to process the ideas and how they could change their own view of the world.
• Honor the contributions and foundation that the incumbents have prepared. They aren't (usually) leaders for no reason.
  

Personally, I feel like I live in both of these worlds.

At work, the company is primarily led by younger people. Our senior leadership is between 37 and 44 (I was 28 and Zach was 31 when Front Porch began in 1998). I feel like an incumbent leader in this context because: I'm a founder in the company so I have seniority over everyone except Zach and we've had a pretty young organization over the years. A quick thought about the 20+ people who work in my part of the company indicates this as the distribution of ages: (20's: 9, 30's: 10, 40's: 3, 50's:3). So, I'm certainly in the top half (median age) of the group. I tend to display characteristics descriptive of incumbent leaders in Carucci's book.

At church, the leadership is more senior. As an elder at Sierra Bible, I'm about 10 years younger than the next younger leader. In this context, I clearly feel and act as an emerging leader would. This can be frustrating because I often feel that we're speaking different languages on the board.

So, being aware of these contexts and the different roles and relationships that I engage in as a result is very helpful to my ability to navigate through the waters.

-Derek

Theology of Discipleship: Part 3 -- Community

This thread started here

Two Models:

In my second text, Ed Stetzer's Planting Missional Churches, the author discusses sequential and non-sequential discipleship methods. A familiar example of sequential discipleship is the Saddleback L.I.F.E system. The strengths of the sequential system is that their is a clear plan for growth and a method by which classes and programs may be constructed around it. In addition it is clearly communicable (baseball diamond, etc).

Contrasted is the non-sequential philosophy wherein it is understood that people join at many places on the road. Stetzer references New Horizons Fellowship's approach to sequential discipleship. NHF places an equal focus on six areas of growth: worship, education, fellowship, missions, evangelism, ministry. All of these items are in the Purpose-Driven/Sequential model, so we're clearly not talking about a different understanding of what is included in spiritual growth. However, there is a difference in how this theology of discipleship will play out in a church. The non-sequential model, also known as the organic model, allows people to come into the process wherever they would best fit -- probably the new disciple needs to grow in all the areas.

Alternative Model:

As mentioned in the prior post (here), it is suggested that Community is the most important element of discipleship. When Jesus called his disciples, he called them to relationship -- to a community where Jesus and his disciples were together.

So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him (Luke 5:11).

If community is the first element of discipleship, then a primary role of church leaders and church members (or owners as Vintage 21 church describes its members - read more) is to build communities for themselves and others. Here's some thoughts about these communities.

1. Communities have many sizes:
   According to Joseph R. Meyer, author of The Search to Belong, there are four kinds of spaces that people live in:
1. Public Space: Anonymous places that individual participate in without connection to others. One in a crowd or a few in a crowd such as sporting events or other large events where it is unlikely that your group will find others they know.
   
2. Social Space: A place for casual, surface relationships, the building of a group of acquaintances and friends. A large group such as a church service or large fellowship group in a church can be this type if people have friends and acquaintances.
   
3. Personal Space: Private shared experiences but not fully transparent. Individuals together on a trip who will have shared memories that others could enjoy but would never be a part of.
4. Intimate Space: This is where we are naked and transparent. We have very few relationships of this type.
   
2. Communities have many faces
   As was previously blogged, people enter into Christ along many paths and roads. Thus each community will have a unique personality that is a composite of its members. According to one author on small groups, a small group forms this mesh within about 10 gatherings of the community.
   
3. Communities have many purposes:
   According to the face of the group, there may be different primary reasons for the community's existence. Some communities may exist more for mission, others for growth, others for dealing with a relationships or a common concern (such as a recovery group or a parents' group).

The Early Community Church

One of the truths of the New Testament is the communal nature of the church. Even from the very beginning of the church in the book of Acts, we see the community forming.

Acts 2:41-47:
Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Typically, I have focused on the activities of church (verse 42: teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayer) in this passage and have referenced the communal elements mentioned in the other verses. However, it should safe to say, exegetically, that the theme of community is the dominant concept in this passage. So, let's examine community in the concept of discipleship.

Notice how the activities are placed within community: communal sharing of possessions, giving, meeting everyday, meetings in homes, eating together, praising together.

I have typically preached that if we, the community, do the activities mentioned in verse 42, then the community will grow (adding to the number daily). However, it may be a better understanding to suggest that a truly organic community of people who are also practicing these things will see this kind of blessing from God.

So, in this Theology of Discipleship, community development is HUGE:

1. Everyone needs community. Community is formed in various ways. This is not a plug for small groups -- though these are great for community. This is a plug for the continual emphasis of community within the context of the church and the need for each believer to be connected to a community AND the need for these communities to build bridges to nonchristians so that they can evaluate for themselves whether God is real and lives in us.
2. Church leadership is like e-Harmony. We're here to get people together into communities so that they can experience redemptive grace from others. New connection points (new groups, growing groups, splitting groups) must be created for new people to join.
3. Communities must be about all the elements of discipleship. Typically, I have thought of small groups as growth areas (Bible, prayer, fellowship). However, I think that the groups must be about the Spiritual, Relational and Missional. This is the same as suggesting that all the small groups are about all the areas of Purpose-Driven (Grounded, Growing, Giving, Going).
   

Next time: The Spiritual, Relational and Missional. How they fit in community.

-Derek

Church Visits and Conference With The Penners

It's been a busy week, so here's the update.

1. Mars Hill Seattle (Oct 14th).
We were in Seattle for the weekend last week and visited Mars Hill. This was our second time visiting at Mars Hill and our first at the new West Seattle campus. The West Seattle campus was the long-time Presbyterian Church in that neighborhood and the facility was acquired largely through a gift from the original congregation. The worship was live and the sermon was piped in from the main campus (live?). The newly remodeled facilities were very nice and the children's programs were great for our kids and VERY well organized!

2. Westport (Oct 21st).
Today we visited Westport Church (Tanasborne area near Beaverton and Hillsboro) which is a church plant of less than 2 years. We were super-welcomed at WP. As soon as we walked in, we were welcomed and helped with getting our kids into their classes -- which they all enjoyed and learned in. After getting our kids into their room (BTW: the layout of the kids area immediately upon entering the building is GREAT). WP has been in this new facility for about a year and it is a very nice tech building that has been finished for use by the church. The worship and the service were modern and inclusive with great participation from the people (much more participatory than some of the other missional churches we've visited).

3. Marriage Conference with Cliff and Joyce Penner.
We attended Imago Dei's marriage conference that featured Cliff and Joyce Penner, who have authored a number of books including The Gift of Sex and How to get Your Sex Life off to a Great Start. While we thought that it was going to be a marriage conference with some sex stuff, it ended up being essentially a 12 hour conference on sex in marriage. The conference was great and I would recommend it for all couples who want God's perspective on sex and want to have better sex (who doesn't want that!). It might seem like this conference is good for people who "like sex too much" or who need some serious help in that area, but I think that it's good for newlyweds and oldlyweds (perhaps oddlyweds as well) alike because their program is GREAT on communication. They would teach for about 15-20 minutes at a time, then provide 5-10 minutes for individually completing a questionaire on the topic then 10-15 minutes for the couple to discuss alone (not group discussions here!). We benefitted from all these communication times as well as the topics presented by the Penners. They Rock!

-Derek

Theology of Discipleship: Part 2

This thread started here

Last time, the focus was that we all have different journeys and thus the changes that are required in our lives are somewhat unique for each one of us as we follow Christ in discipleship. This time, I want to look at some of the common elements to our journeys.

• The Bible must become the primary path through which we discover who Jesus is and how we live our lives in Christ.
• Since the Bible is very words of God, we will discover Him more easily and more accurately through reading, studying and meditating on His word. New believers need a little help getting started because starting in Genesis may become difficult after too long (Leviticus if not sooner).
• As "Christians," we are followers of Jesus -- we are intended to imitate His words, actions and attitudes. There is nowhere better to meet our Savior than by discovering His life in the gospels. If we did nothing but read and study the gospels, we may not get a full picture of Scripture or of revelation but we would certainly know Jesus and His heart well!
• Prayer must become the path through which we express our faith in God and bring our praise, confessions and requests.
• Since discipleship is a relationship with the teacher, we follow Jesus. We need the two-way communication with God that prayer offers.
• Prayer consists in a minimal sense of:
• Worship: Declaring the greatness of God and thanking Him for all His blessings.
• Confession: Confessing sin and enjoying forgiveness.
• Requests: Expressing faith in God's ability to provide, fix problems and work miracles.
• The practice of prayer should be simple and extemporaneous. Too many times, prayer is taught like a morning workout routine. We pray at a certain time, in a certain way, using certain methods. Let's just teach people to talk with God in a natural way.
  
• Jesus gave His 2 guiding commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matt 22:36ff)
  
• If we seek to love God, we can evaluate if we are giving everything to Him. So much of Christian piety can be based on this verse. Martin Luther said that breaking any commandment pretty much involves breaking the first commandment (Thou shalt have no other gods before Me). ALL my heart. ALL my soul. ALL my mind.
  
• If we strive to love our neighbor with the depth that Christ is asking of us, we couldn't steal, gossip, hate or worse.

I guess I'm suggesting that this is the place to start for people who are starting or re-starting on the path of discipleship. These are the basic building blocks of discipleship -- following Christ. Certainly there is much more to discipleship and following Christ but perhaps this is enough to start without creating a burden.

Perhaps this is like in Acts 15 when the church had a debate about the requirements for the inclusion of gentiles into the previously Jewish church. Some believed that the gentiles must be circumcised in order to be included (probably just the men) while others believed that they should just follow Christ.

As Peter said, "Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are (Acts 15:10-11).”

Scope Creep

I work in the computer software industry and we have a term called "Scope Creep." Scope is the process of designating the amount of work in any given piece of software. So, we get a list of requirements and these get discussed and debated until a document of Scope is created. Scope Creep is when more "little" things "creep" into the scope.

Sometimes, software needs to be done quickly and a small scope is chosen to get just essentials. At other times, a larger scope is chosen, to produce a more fully completed piece of software. Both paths are correct, but they are based upon the conditions at the time.

Some discipleship methodologies try to teach too much too soon and build a new believer with lots in the head, but the heart is not developed well enough yet. Also, many new believers don't want a "college" class in the Bible (I've seen some people scared off by these kind of programs).

These basic principles, getting to know Jesus through the Bible and prayer, and focusing on the 2 greatest commandments give a manageable foundation for the new believer. As for all the other GREAT discipleship elements (memorization, meditation, further study, etc.), they are built upon the foundation at different places on the journey.

How does this fit into the church?

Typically, discipleship happens in classes or groups that start periodically. My suggestion is that a basic lesson on these essentials become a part of the community structure of the church. Almost any community can provide this foundation. Small groups, Sunday School, ministry teams, women's studies, men's studies. So, when someone decides to start a relationship with Jesus, he or she should be included in a community through which this basic information. If Bob and Suzie's neighbors Stan & Jill become believers, Bob & Suzie involve them in a community (perhaps a home small group), and that first night is just for sharing the foundation. This serves as both instruction to Stan & Jill, a reminder to everyone else in the group of the essentials of the faith and the opportunity for everyone in the group to come together around each other.

Next post: Community in the Theology of Discipleship.

-Derek