outside the gate

Pat asks a great question.

The simple answer is a great toll. Those who have planted will tell you that starting a new church is one of the most difficult tasks a person can undertake. It requires a great deal of thought, discipline, prayer, and effort. As you might expect, the work is hard and at times the results are few. There is typically a season in life of the new church where you are literally, daily walking on the edge of success or failure. This roller coaster ride certainly has an effect on the planter, his family and the core team committed to starting the church.

Now, having said all that, let’s look at this from another angle. I once heard a man say that anything worth doing in life was going to require hard work and sacrifice. What a true statement.

People who start a new business, invent a new product or do something to make our world a better place will seldom, if ever, tell you it was easy or that it did not require sacrifice. They will also tell you that it was well worth enduring the struggle to see it to fruition.

So it is with church planting. The sacrifice is great, but the reward is greater. Frankly, if we are thinking about planting churches from God’s perspective, the difficulty of the work, the struggle and the sacrifice should bring us to the place where we were meant to be all along… Going to our Creator, our God, and asking Him in faith for the strength we need to accomplish what he has called us to do…to start churches that change the cultural fabric of the communities they are placed in.

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Well, let me first begin this new series on my blog by thanking all of you for your patience. We have received some great questions about many things. In the weeks that follow I’ll be posting a reply every few days to the questions that you have asked. Our first question is listed below.

Looking forward to resuming our conversation.

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This week I’d like to change the course of the conversation we have been having. I’d like to ask you to do a bit of the posting!

Many of you have asked some great questions about the new church, life, faith, and a number of other issues. For the next couple of weeks I’d like you to “Ask Anything”…about anything. If you would, in the “Leave a Reply” box, leave me your questions and I’ll do my best to answer them as I receive them. I am confident your questions will be helpful in trying to generate new conversations about life and faith issues.

So, with that in mind…take some time to think through some questions and post them. I look forward to reading and responding to them.

So, what do you think?

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Obviously this week’s title is kind of a trick question, most of us have already answered this multiple choice question in our minds; however it serves as a good springboard to start talking about our next item…church community.

Interestingly enough…many of you through your comments, and in conversation, cited community as one of the greatest characteristics that make a church…well, a church. I do not dispute that at all. In fact, I enthusiastically agree with you all. I believe genuine Christian community is something Jesus expected us to work at, and frankly to achieve. Think about it, who would want to be a part of anything that is not real, not caring, not making a difference in this world. Most people I know want something bigger than themselves to become a part of, and an authentic community making a difference in a community certainly has an incredible value. Even more so when you think of how many of us come from broken and hurting relationships.

So how could something so good, something Jesus himself told us to work at…how can community become a foe to the church? It happens subtly, when the very thing God wants us to use to invite people into the church becomes the very thing that is keeping people out of it. Community that is separated from the heart of Christ becomes something other than what Jesus meant it to be. It no longer welcomes those who are far from God, rather it can become a tool that isolates people from our community.

You know the feeling, all of us can probably recall a time when we wanted to be a part of something that others were resistant to let us join: a club, a clique, a tight knit group of friends. No one wants to be the person who is on the outside looking in. And this is exactly why Jesus left us the kind of community you all talked about; a community that is like a tight knit family, but has open arms and welcomes all people.

Why is this type of community important in a church?

Because the greatest example of community…Jesus…to this day still has His arms opened to all peoples. Logically, as a church we should too.

So what do you think?

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Last week I posed the question, “Do we need churches?”. In an overwhelming way almost all of you agreed that we did need churches. So you know, I emphatically agree. I find it interesting, but wasn’t surprised to read the very diverse reasons you mentioned to back your yes up. This week I’d like to take our last conversation a step further and ask you this, “If we say we need churches…what should they look like”.

I imagine this question will have as many diverse opinions as the last did. For certain, I am looking forward to hearing your response. This week I plan to read more than I write, however I want to start the conversation with a comment Jack made in our last post. Here it goes…clearly everything Jesus did was fueled by His love for His God, and for us. If we say that our churches are to be the physical and spiritual representation of Jesus Christ it makes sense that everything we do as a church should be motivated by the same heart attitude Jesus exemplified during His life…Love!

So, let’s keep the generalities to ourselves this week and really think in a deep and reflective way. We know love is the umbrella value a church should have, but what should Christ’s love look like in our individual lives, in our families, amongst our friends, to those who are oppressed and hurting, to those with different moral values than you have, to those whom society has outcast or idolized.

Remember, Jesus Himself told us the Great Commandments were to love God with all we are, and to love our fellow man as ourselves. It is impossible to separate our love for God from our love for people. In many ways, our love for people validates how much love we have for God.

If we say we need churches, I ask you this…what does a church that is immersed in the love of Christ say and do.

So, What do you think?

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This last post, in a real good way, created a level of dialogue I hope to see in future posts. Basically, the blog did what I hoped to see it do…that is to allow all people from all vantage points to talk about faith issues that are important to us.

The word church, as evidenced by the number of responses and people who read the post seems to draw out of people a broad range of opinions and emotions.

As we continue to converse about issues that are near or far from our hearts. Let’s remember two key values necessary for our discussion to continue in a healthy manner.

1. All people, from all walks of life are allowed, asked, and encouraged to weigh in honestly and candidly about what we discuss. Without this we don’t have a real conversation.

2. Let us always talk to each other in a way that is respectful, peaceful, and reflects a spirit of generosity…even if you disagree with me or our participants.

Without these values we merely participate in a printed argument…which we can agree is not needed!

This weekend I’ll be posting on what a church is supposed to look like. I hope you’ll check back with us.

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This week I had a great conversation with a good friend of mine from Seminary. He lives in an urban area in the South and has been committed to following Jesus for some time now. He, like many of us, has had both ups and downs with the local church. Although we agree on many things…today we agreed to disagree on a very fundamental Christian concept…the church.

Basically, I said we needed them and he thought that we didn’t. His argument was pretty compelling. He cited all of the problems churches have contributed to in local communities. He commented on how a huge branch of “Christianity and her churches” has been essentially hijacked for over ten years by the political system…what we have come to know as the “religious right”.  He cited the abuse and misuse of resources. He mentioned how churches often ask and consume without ever contributing to the very communities they claim to love. I wish I could say that I had pithy responses or defenses for many of his accusations, however many of them are true.

So, this leads me to the question I’d like to pose to you today, “Do we need churches?”.  I would say emphatically yes. Men like my friend highlight truths that might hurt to hear, but need to be heard. I support my answer with the very words of Jesus. Jesus himself placed a great value on the church, on her responsibility to be a world changing entity bringing peace and love to all who come in contact with her. In essence, the church is to be the physical embodiment of the ways and teaching of Jesus. Of this I am confident, if the church is to be the physical representation of Jesus, then we need churches…because everyone could benefit from living a life like Jesus did.

So the answer (at least in my opinion) is not to jettison the church, rather to call those who belong to her back to a proper representation of the person of Jesus. My hope is that in five years my conversation with an old friend will have changed, however that is largely dependent on what you and I do with his concerns.

So what do you think…Do we need churches?

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Everyone is a consumer. This is what one of my Graduate Degree professors used to tell me…frequently. On some level, most of us in the West do tend to have a consumer driven mindset.

This should be somewhat logical as we have many things to consume. For instance, the idea of “window shopping” only works in a place where there is a window and something behind that window that people want to buy. There are several parts of the world where there is no window, nor an item to consume behind the window.

I’d like to be clear in saying that I am not writing this to condemn consumerism, however I would like to chat about how “everyone is a consumer” has an affect on those of us who claim to follow the way of Jesus.

The conversation usually goes something like this, “I left that church because I didn’t like the music, there wasn’t enough for my kids to do, the guy doing the speaking wasn’t as funny as I would like him to be”. Obviously, the list goes on! These days, I find that I am having this conversation more often than I would like.

At its inception some 2000 years ago, the church was something pretty incredible. Through the church people from different ethnicity, backgrounds, and socio-economic classes found something incredible…Jesus. Men and women were called to a new and somewhat radical lifestyle.

A life where others were valued as much, and sometimes even more than themselves. A life where wrongs were to be set right. A life where justice was to be brought to areas of injustice. Where generosity, not selfishness was to be the norm. A life where truth and grace were inseparable. All of the aforementioned ideas were found in the life of Jesus and He invited us to live the same life He did. To walk in the same way he did. To let His priorities become our priorities. So how are we doing with this often daunting responsibility?

So here is my point. There is no doubt that consumerism has had an effect on much of the world we live in today – some good, some bad. My question is… how has it affected your faith? Is your Jesus, your Christianity, your church, something you view as another object where you are taking more than you are giving? Has the pre-existent, eternal idea of the church which Jesus gave his life for been reduced to a place where we are more concerned about our preferences than the mission that Jesus left us – to bring his love to our world through our words and deeds.

Please…don’t just read this post, rather comment on it and lets start a conversation about it.

Thanks.

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Recently there have been several questions about the new church. I wanted to use this next post to answer the most frequently asked questions. They are in no particular order. You are more than welcome to ask questions about these questions and to post any new questions you might have. Here they are:

1. Where is the church going to be?

A: Port Orange.

2. What is the name of the new church?

A: Restoration Church. We love what this name communicates. As a church we want to be a part of how God is restoring people to himself and each other.

3. What kind of people are you trying to reach?

A: We want to reach peoples from all walks of life. We hope to start a church that crosses social, economic, and ethnic boundaries. Most of all, we hope to be a church that helps people who are really far from God to find him.

4. Do you have a location for the church yet?

A: No. We won’t know where the church will be meeting for some time. Generally speaking, a church plant rents a place to meet for a good while.

5. What will the worship sound be like?

A: This is a hard one to answer on paper, however you can expect to hear a very modern sound. By modern I mean a style that places an emphasis on electric guitar, minimal vocal harmony, and clean drum beats. Hope that helps!

6. What will the teaching be like?

A: The preaching will be Christ-centered. We certainly want to avoid legalism at all costs. In general, there will also be an emphasis on candor and creativity. You can expect to hear a great deal about how God desires us to be his people in our community and world.

7. What is the vision of the church going to be?

A: Churches are known for many things these days. We want to be viewed not as “another church in the neighborhood”, rather as a place the community can’t live without. We plan to make a difference in the city by having our people actively involved in all areas of community life.

8. How will Restoration and Christ Community Church work with each other?

A: Simply put, CCC is what you would call “A mother church”. They are significantly invested in helping to get us up and running. When we are able to support ourselves financially and have two Elders we”ll become an autonomous church. This simply means we will be independent from the mother church, but still connected in order to work together. Using the family illustraion, we will no longer be a daughter church rather a sister church.

9. How can I get involved?

A: In order to plant a church a person has to have a certain set of abilities, or at least a willingness to develop that set of abilities. The most important of these abilities is that they are faithful, committed, flexible, and teachable. If your interested please contact me.

10. When do you plan to start the church?

A: Late 2010, however we hope to have a positive presence in the community much earlier than this.

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As we enter the month of June, and another potentially bad economic month, I hear more people asking the question, “When will the economy turn around?”.  Depending on who you listen too, some say we are on the up, others say stock up on the canned corn and soup because it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Obviously there is a bit of sarcasm in this, however 30 minutes of cable news or talk radio will largely confirm these opinions.

Four times this past week alone, I have had conversations with people asking me about the economy, about resources, about money. I am noticing (maybe your perception is different) that many Christ-followers are slowly being subdued by the onslaught of both real and speculative reports about “these difficult economic times”.  So, I felt like it was worth kicking this around for a time.

The Question I want to ask of you is this, “How should a Christian follow Jesus during difficult times”?

The Apostle Paul serves as a good example to answer this question.

Paul was undoubtedly faced with some of the worst life situations in the Bible. If you study his mission journeys you’ll find he was imprisoned, shipwrecked, struggled with having his personal needs supplied, and had people that wanted to take his life…frequently. And this is not an exhaustive list.

Paul was by no means perfect, however he was a faithful Christ-follower. In my opinion, second only to Jesus in the New Testament as far as Kingdom impact is concerned.

How was he able to do this?

The answer is found in the book of Colossians. Paul tells us that all people who choose to follow Jesus are given a new identity. In Christ, external circumstances, whether they are good or bad, no longer define us. Health can fade, 401k’s and IRAs are like shifting sand (as our current economy has taught us). So why would we even want to make these things the bedrock of our existence here on this Earth. 

During incredibly difficult times Paul rarely asks for his difficulties to be removed, nor is he overcome and subdued by them.  On the contrary we can see him asking for boldness and for strength to not only endure, but to remain faithful to Jesus and his mission through them. Because of this, we should not be surprised to see God using Paul in incredible ways. His desire to be Christ to his world is a heart attitude God chose to use and stands as an example for us today. 

As we think about the economy and the current state of affairs in our life lets take a moment to turn off whatever cable news network we prefer, tune out the talk radio personality you prefer to tell you what the next 6 months of life will look like in the economic sector, drop your investment portfolio, lay aside your foreclosure notice. These, as well as other forms of bad news are sand…not bedrock. 

Instead, take some time to examine the depths of your heart and ask yourself what is it that is driving who you are, and how you represent your Christ during these difficult times? Is it your circumstance or your Jesus?

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