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

Theology of Discipleship: Part 1

This was a great weekend for thinking through what it means to help people mature in Christ -- discipleship. I'm reading Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer. He had some great things to say about missional discipleship which began a bunch of gears turning in my mind. I then had the opportunity to discuss at length (much length!) with Zach & Holly Britton and Zach's parents, Doug and Skeeter. We stayed up until the wee hours talking about these things. I'm going to split the thoughts up into a few posts.

Part 1: Many Paths

We all have taken a different journey on our way. There are 3 common points on our journeys in Christ: (1) Birth, (2) Salvation, (3) Going Home. Along the way, before and after salvation, we all have different stories and issues that we have dealt with.

When I went through a discipleship program as a teen, and when I engaged people in discipleship when I was a youth pastor, the goal was to plug in a great deal of content and memorization. The Navigators material that we used was based upon developing spiritual disciplines through Bible reading, study, memorization and other systematic approaches. The program I was in had four books -- each 12 weeks in length.

The question that I raise now is not about the value of the Navigator's program -- I still remember some of the verses that I memorized and there was great value in the study. This kind of discipleship is good, but it's not for everyone. However, all of us must be discipled. We must become true disciples of Christ.

The point of this post is that discipleship training is a process with many facets and approaches. People who are in recovery or need to be in recovery need their discipleship to address this issue. Another may need their discipleship to help them to become a better spouse or parent. Others may need to be taught in such a way as to re-educate from having been a part of a religion that is very different from Christianity.

One size doesn't fit all when it comes to blue jeans and discipleship.

Next post: What all new believers need. (Is that a contradiction with this post?)

-Derek

Visit with Jeremy Erb, church planter from The Table

Jeremy Erb came to speak to our class on Monday. In 2003, he planted The Table, an Acts 29 network church plant. The church is located in north Portland. Here's a couple thoughts from his presentation.

1. Too many church planters want to start the "anti-church."
He has talked with many planters who know what they don't want their church to be (examples: mega-church, dead church, etc.) but not enough that know what they want their church to be. It is essential to develop a biblical ecclesiology and build the church around that.

2. Church Planting is a discipleship strategy not just an evangelistic strategy.
This was the most thought-provoking element of his presentation for me. According to Barna, the most effective evangelism/discipleship size for a church is 250 people. Apparently this is because there is critical mass of people but not too big such that people can be lost. Thus, The Table has strategically chosen to plant churches every 200 people. They are currently launching their first local plant (about 20 miles away) and want to start another in 2008.
The underlying principles were the most interesting. A church must create these 3 things:
- NEW opportunities for people to hear the gospel -- both from the pulpit and from people in the church. They must hear it in language and see it in deeds.
- NEW opportunities to connect -- time and place for people to make friends and to live life together. Small groups, missional communities.
- NEW opportunities to serve -- create new ministries where people can give themselves to a ground-breaking effort so that people will live in faith.

-Derek