Go … the ironic path of a reluctant church planter

When I think back about why I chose to learn at The Pines, it really wasn’t to learn how to plant churches. (Sorry).

I had felt for quite a while that Australian churches weren’t really impacting Australia, like we could or should.. like what happened in the Bible. I couldn’t see the blokes at high school coming along to youth group (though ironically some of the tougher guys did And I was frustrated with the lack of progress I was experiencing with the guys at work.

There was no way that the blokes there would come along to church or home-group!

In fact, I wasn’t even interested in getting them to church. Most of the blokes I dealt with had a low view of Christians and Pastors and churches. And church attendance wasn’t exactly in their diary.

That’s not to say I don’t think they didn’t entertain the idea of a biblical God existing. Nor have an appreciation of those who gave selflessly to help those in need. But they did have a problem with …

• Hypocritical Christians
• Preachers telling them what to do when they themselves had big expensive churches, flash cars, asking for money and getting caught in compromising scandals.. and that they were telling others what not to do … all when there are starving kids and people who need help.
• The paedophilia scandals
• Religions causing wars/terrorism
• Evolutionary and other belief systems and lifestyles, that were largely God-gospel resistant
• Christians’ lack of tolerance for alternate belief systems, and other lifestyles
• Bad experiences with a Christian
• Judgmentalism
• And why God would let innocent children suffer

[note : I am referring to perception, without addressing the validity of the perceptions]

You’ll have to forgive me, but back then I was kind-of a long way off considering church planting when it seemed to me that the average un/pre-churched Aussie had such a low opinion of Christians and the church.

To be honest, I would have killed just to see a slight change in people’s underlying negative perceptions of Christians, the Church and … ultimately our Creator. That being said, I can guarantee you that the average Aussie can pick the ‘real thing’ faster than you can say, “Can I tell you about Jesus..” and has a finely tuned ‘bulldust filter.’

Part of our problem is that they can see through us better than we can see ourselves.

But when the then Training Director brought some Pines students to help our local church at Kawana, I said to myself… ‘Here is a group of (young) people who could change the world.’

 And to me, they were dynamic and different to the young denominationally-trained pastors I had come across. I thought the young pastors I had met were awesome and committed Godly people and effective at what they were trained for.

But I saw these Pines students as people that could relate to and impact normal average Aussies (perhaps a bit like school chappys were doing). From where I sat, they were down to earth, full of life and love .. and had something different. And I figured that something good must have been going on, up the hill at The Pines.

And I wanted to get some of whatever they had, into me … 

If there was one aspect of The Pines’ training that I found most helpful, it was the cross cultural ministry training that I received. (Indigenous Theology, Ministry relevant to Australians, and Cross Cultural  Ministry).

The trainers explained how we could integrate and gain acceptance into different cultures and then transplant ‘the gospel’ … and allow the gospel to transform ‘their culture.’ (Hopefully not us transferring ‘gospel + our culture.’) But this required us to bridge the cultural barriers and challenges, which is hard work.

Then I began to realise the cultural divide between average Aussie culture … and our Australian Church culture. And every time we ask someone into our church culture, we are expecting them to bridge the cultural gaps.. and for them to become like us. We don’t realise how crazy we are

Hence, Jesus’ command to …‘Go!!’ ..and make disciples. Not… ‘tell them to ‘come,’ and be discipled.’… (though I’m not going to argue if they do).

I’ve learnt that there is a spiritual dynamic at work, and that when I jump on the train .. or go to a community, that I need to acknowledge that God is above every power and authority, and that it is ‘His’ work .. not mine. If I can get away from my distractions, and do this .. I have found it amazing how He brings things up and generates Godly instances, that I couldn’t concoct.

And I have had a revelation of God’s desire to extend his ‘grace and peace’ to us, and through us .. to the world.

I realise that we (.. or maybe just ‘me’…) are perhaps better at putting our laws and values and expectations on the world… and ultimately our judgements … rather than extending His Grace. If a person gets more acceptance and appreciation and love at the local bowls club or rave dance club or bikie gang … than the church they walk into, we have a big problem.

If they receive Grace there, and judgement and exclusion in our churches because they haven’t met our cultural norms, then we have a problem. And we’ve got heaps of norms for them to navigate, haven’t we?

I now view the sporting clubs and my workplace as a foreign tribe, that I need to integrate with … learn their cultures and ways … and then look for God-created opportunities that allow the things of God to be transplanted into that culture. I apply cross cultural and missionary principles to the Aussie communities I am a part of.

Have I seen any conversions? … No. Well, actually I have … but they are micro-conversions, of hearts and minds and perceptions and attitudes. One could say that they are small increments on the evangelism scale.

To me, we simply have to ‘Go’ … and just ‘hang-out with them.’ We might have to risk compromising our holiness (ha ha! Go and do their stuff with them, in their environment. For me, that meant going to a ‘buck’s party’. For me, that means riding a motorbike, risking death and painful injuries… crazy stuff.

An outward gospel.

We need to ‘wrestle’ with them … on their turf, and gain their respect somehow. We need to find out what tends to open doors in that culture, and what closes the door in that culture. To become one of them, that we might win them… whilst somehow remembering that we are an ambassador for Christ.. representing Him, and His kingdom. 

 Jesus lowered himself and hung-out in a sinful grotty world that really grated against Him… and literally killed Him. And in doing so, He won that world for His father. I suspect that we need to do that, in the cultural microcosms that we interact with.

Where are the leaders?

About six years ago the German football team was at a crossroads. They were playing what many people thought was a boring brand of the beautiful game. They were a defensive team and while they could sometimes win on the counter when it came to winning a game with their own strategy they really struggled. Losing Euro 2004 was the final disaster and the German Federation did some thinking. They changed leadership and philosophy but MOST IMPORTANTLY they changed their approach to developing players.

Jurgen Klinsman was brought in as a manager with new ideas. Klinsman had recently been a player so he was more of a practitioner instead of a theoretician. Also, he had played a couple of seasons in the English premier League which is undoubtedly the most watched football competition in the world and is known for its attacking flair. Ironic when you consider the way they played in this years World Cup in South Africa.

At this years World Cup the Germans have been inspirational. A young team. Fearless and the only team who has consistly found a way to score goals – lots of goals against different opponents. They planned six years ago for what is happening now. They deliberately found a way to develop the players they needed to lead the world again in the game of football.

We all bemoan the fact that it is proving hard to identify and prepare the catalytic leaders we need to sustain planting movements in our country. But what have we actually been doing? We have been training pastor-teachers. This is important too. But if we want a planting movement we have to find and develop fearless young leaders who will pay any price to do evangelism and disciple-making. My guess is they won’t go to our present training institutions because they simply don’t want to be pastor-teachers.

To find these catalytic leaders we must change they way we talk about mission; then we must change the way we relate to the young catalytic but difficult to manage young men and women in and around our churches; then we must change the way we train them and above all we must change the way we support them in an ongoing manner.

Anyone want to have a discussion?

What kind of churches multiply?

Recently on the “Church Planting Village” website, Tom Cheyney posted an article outlining the traits of churches that multiply. He called these churches “sending” churches and gave a simple outline that might be a useful leadership discussion. Check the site www.churchplantingvillage.net

The point of this post however is also to draw your attention to the fact that while it is true that “sending churches have as their DNA the call to plant new churches locally as well as globally” (Cheyney), our present situation in Australia illustrates how few “sending” churches we actually have outside of the AOG, CCC and Sydney Anglicans. How will we address this problem? In speaking to denominational and Bible College leaders, the consensus seems to be that no-one knows where the planters are. The Colleges say that very few come to them for training and the denominational leaders say they struggle to identify leaders who can plant.

The exceptions – the AOG, CCC and Sydney Anglicans have a track record for not only locating, but also training and releasing planters into the Australian mission field.

So what do they do?

To summarise what I think for now, let me make two observations. They put a high value on mission and on the part we ALL play in it. And, they call for high levels of commitment and get it!

If you are reading this and you are a pioneer in spirit who desperately wants to find the space to do something in response to the call of Jesus but who finds themselves frustrated, confined by the expectations of churches and leaders pursuing a different agenda to pioneering new churches, please contact us here at the Pines. Our role is to train, resource and support. We have been looking for you!

Colin Stoodley

The Pines Training Centre

The Phases that lead to Multiplication

(the first of three conversation starters outlining the key features in the process of beginning new faith communities that lead to multiplication).

 The phases of church planting have been discussed before and I am not introducing anything new to you in these articles. But for the past few years I’ve been reading and researching church planting in Australia and I have spent time with the leaders of these new works.

As a result of this learning I’ve begun to see some key features that are worth highlighting. In particular I want to draw attention to the features that give a church plant the momentum it needs to multiply.

In phase one the key is converts.

From my observation I wonder whether this is really the case in practical terms. I have observed a lot of planters and many place a high value on the vision/mission statement, the culture of the new work and the meeting of that group on Sundays. Of course, I am not arguing that these things are not important. These things are good and they contribute a great deal to the health of the new work.

But it is my conviction that the key feature of the first phase is converts.

This means that evangelism and disciple-making are absolutely the prime task. Every energy should be put into these things and if ANYTHING distracts, that activity must be stopped and all energy re-directed back to evangelism and disciple-making.

The obvious proof text is Mark 16 and Matthew 28. But it isn’t my point to simply quote a text. We all accept these are critical factors given to us by the Lord Himself. But a lot of planting does not have evangelism and disciple-making as their first priority.

How do I know this? Well, I confess I don’t have any data to quote – yet!

But tell me, when you look at the state of the church in Australia can you say we are all focussed on these tasks? Indeed, if you go to the places where these things are the focus what is occurring? Well, they have a significant conversion rate and it is providing them with significant momentum and influence in the community around them.

When I use the term “conversion-rate” I am actually talking about the percentage of growth in a church over a year that is by conversion. For example, let’s say a new faith community has 20 people in its core group and at the end of their first year they have grown to 40. That’s a growth of 100%. On the surface that is significant growth and makes for a great story but it doesn’t (in the long term) give the new work the momentum it needs.

What percentage of this was from converts?

Say of the new people there were 2 converts – then the conversion rate would be 10%. Again, this looks good especially when you consider that I don’t think many churches in Australia are doing this well. But the problem as I see it is that the conversion needs to be as close to 100% of those who come into the faith community in any period to give momentum to the new work.

Momentum in the first phase of establishing a new faith community requires an energetic commitment to evangelism and disciple-making.

This HAS to be the number one commitment and every other legitimate activity in establishing the new work must be submitted to this activity.

This is especially true if your aim is to multiply and not just add.

I’m not saying these other works aren’t important and neither am I saying that you should not do them at all. All I am saying is that what gives momentum (the momentum that is evidence of the supernatural in the new work) is converts and converts are the result of a total commitment to evangelism and disciple-making.

Take a look at the faith community you are a part of right now. Can you say that evangelism and disciple-making is the number one priority of the work? Can you say the true focus of the team involved is to pray for the lost and thoughtful ministry to them with the goal of making them followers of the Lord Jesus?

Many plants fail to multiply. Most, in fact, don’t. The features of those that do multiply are simple and Biblical.

In the case of the first phase of the task to establish a new faith community, the key feature that gives momentum to multiplication is converts. The more the better!

In part 2 I will deal with the key feature that produces momentum for a phase two faith community.

God is not fair

Today has been an emotional day and it’s only 9.15 in the morning. I’ve just finished reading an article written by my wife regarding the terrible start in life our son Zeke had. I’ve also been keeping up with the saga of someone who’s been ripped off in an online transaction (read about it here, but be warned, there is some bad language). I recognise millions of people have so much more to contend with than I do and lately just about any story of powerlessness or injustice makes me think of  ‘fairness’ or more importantly the lack of fairness in the world today.

I can’t even watch a simple kids’ movie like ‘Air Bud’ because of the tension raised (oops did I say that out loud?).

Perhaps the triggers for you are different. Perhaps the trigger which gets you started on the ‘fairness’ issue is when you have dealings with the Tax Office. Perhaps it’s when you get a phone call from the credit company on the weekend ‘with a please explain’. For some people the whole topic of ‘fairness’ comes to light when past experiences with the local church are recalled.

In the past I’ve brushed over the topic of fairness and done my best to avoid thinking about it (and avoiding movies/news/documentaries which have any sort of tension based on unfair circumstances – hmmm that explains why I’ve seen every episode ever made of Mythbusters and Top Gear).

Why do I do that? And why is it becoming more of an issue now? For one thing, at my stage in life and having begun a church planting journey alongside my family and friends, the issue of fairness presents itself on a regular basis. My friends who have chosen to plant a church with me have given up everything for the cause and for God. But the results so far are not what we expected.

In fact, it doesn’t seem fair. And now, to be exposingly honest, it seems some churches which don’t have any focus on evangelism seem to be blessed with resources well beyond us.

I wish I could ignore the blatant discrepancies - just keep going and continue to assume all is well… all is fair.

Matthew 20;

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.   2 “When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.   3 “And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place;   4 and to those he said, `You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went.   5 “Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing.   6 “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, `Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’   7 “They said to him, `Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, `You go into the vineyard too.’   8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, `Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’   9 “When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.   10 “When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius.   11 “When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,   12 saying, `These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’   13 “But he answered and said to one of them, `Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?   14 `Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.   15 `Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’   16 “So the last shall be first, and the first last.”

I just find this passage incredibly applicable to my planting situation at the moment. I mean who would be happy with working for the entire day… doing a good job… but with one hour to go in the long day a new co-worker is brought out into the field to work beside you and that worker doesn’t even raise a sweat. The time comes for payment and you all get exactly the same amount?! It would be an understatement to say I’d be a bit ticked off!

So because of the situation I find myself in, and because of passages such as this one in Matthew, I feel forced to say it, and I wish I didn’t have to say this, but God is not fair!

Several years ago I was called into Caboolture hospital, because a priest could not be found to administer the last rites to a dying man. This elderly man and his family were moved into the “death room” as it was commonly called in the hospital. I agreed to go see the man and his family, but explained to the hospital staff who called me that last rites ‘are not really my thing!’

When I arrived in this small room, the family were all sitting quietly, actually quite a number of family members were there and it was a very uncomfortable moment. I felt I was there more for the family than for the man lying on the bed. So I started to engage them in conversation about the man. I was trying to get them to talk and remember the good life this man may have had with them.

However a little way into the conversation the man woke up. He was far more alert and active than I had been led to believe. I explained to the man who I was and that I would like to talk to him and pray with him. I also made it clear that I do not give last rites… as if I have any power to forgive a man’s sin! But I told Him he could meet the person who could, Jesus.

He made the point and was very clear on it, that he did not want to be a hypocrite: how could he follow God now after living a life without him. It seemed so unfair to him. 

Being a young and inexperienced Pastor I tried my best explain to him God’s way are not our ways. I tried to explain to him that our mind is not God’s mind and we can not fathom the depth of God’s perspective on this question, “Is it fair for someone to live their whole life one way and then in one final fleeting moment turn around and plead for mercy, and get it?” I looked for a water tight theological explanation to explain the ‘unfairness’ of it all.

Knowing what I now know I would have said something completely different. Rather than try and be all theologically nice and in control, I would be far more direct. I would answer him by simply saying, “No you are absoulately right! It isn’t fair! But, luckily for you and me, God is not fair”.

 He doesn’t treat us fairly. What does the Bible say about us, “We have all sinned and gone astray”.

If He was fair we would all be hell-bound.

Personally I think this notion of God being fair is silly and needs to be removed from our mindset. What happens when we tell our kids that God is fair and will treat you accordingly? Several things; first, our kids could think God will always come through for us in the way we expect… that we won’t face persecution. We won’t have to stake our lives on faith. If you take this view, God is seen more as a large scale and fairness is proportional to the amount of good one does in life. So when push comes to shove for our kids, when things go bad and it seems as everything is against them as it surely will be at sometime in their lives… they will say, “Well He didn’t come through for me, and so I’m off… to look for something which is fair.”

At best our kids might grow up and become fine ‘respectable’ Christians. We can see evidence of this type of thing within christendom today and sadly even in our own lives. For example, lets imagine God comes to town and all sorts of people are saved - people who are of questionable repute. 

How about mass murder Jeffrey Dahmer who kept body parts of his victims in his fridge? Who was saved just before his own death? We can’t figure it out. We can’t put the pieces together, the scales don’t balance. It is easy for us to harbor bitterness towards those who haven’t done as much as us.

Do you get what I am saying?

We end up having a Christianity which is more about “me” than about “Him”. Because what becomes paramount to us is the notion that God must treat us fairly.

This passage in Matthew is starting to be more like the prodigal son passage. The older brother missed the company of the father ‘because of his good works’. He could not see through the injustice to sit at the party with His father and brother. The older brother was trying to work his way in and the unfair grace shown to the younger brother grated.

The more I think about this the more I see these early workers are very much like the older brother from the prodigal son story. The younger brother worked so he would be indebted to his dad. The older brother who we generally look up to as doing the right thing in the story, works so that his Dad is indebted to him. When the younger brother comes back and the feast is made up for him, the older brother says, “Oh but dad, I have worked so hard for you”.

In essence the early workers are actually saying, “Oh but dad, I have worked so hard for you”.

Perhaps this is more of the point of this passage. Perhaps the passage is showing it is not so much the work we do that earns the reward. Perhaps it is more to do with the Farmer/Father than with us. God does indeed treat us unfairly. He rewards when there is no obligation to reward. He blesses when there is no reason to bless. Even our best deeds are like filthy rags before Him.

So how do we handle fairness? How do we continue losing everything and counting it all gain?

I could imagine some of those earliest workers thinking, well tomorrow I will just start work late in the evening.

Or in a today’s perspective, I could imagine some reading this passage and saying, “Well if God is like that farmer, then I will just wait till the last moment”. Kind of of makes sense doesn’t it?

However, there is one fatal flaw with this idea. Take notice that it is the farmer who goes looking for the workers. The workers don’t find the farmer!

No one knows when the farmer will come calling. No one knows the day or hour. Life has the tendency to change in a blink of a eye.  I’m certain I could go from testimony after testimony of people whose lives have been turned around, completely changed in the blink of an eye because of some events in their life or in a loved ones’ life.

I remember a great evangelist who once said that he would rather lead a child to the Lord any day over some adult! Because that child had a whole life time ahead of them to serve Christ.

So the application is this, if God is calling you, regardless of your age and where you are in life. GO! Because, you don’t find him, he finds you, and who knows when he will be coming your way again, if ever!

That goes for us as a whole community of faith as well. It worries me to think that even now we could be missing out on some terrific outpouring of His Spirit in evangelism, because when He has come looking for workers we have said, “Nah, not today. I’m not ready”, or the “Results won’t be worth it”.

Don’t waste your life, don’t waste a minute of it!

This passage in Matthew contains wonderful truths. And the advice is simple. Go with God when He calls you. Don’t focus on what others are getting paid. Don’t be jealous that some other ministry is succeeding and yours’ seems to be failing.

Actually on that note have a look at:

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,   2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God

Do you see that? Run that race which is set before you! It’s personal, like in a running race, we all have our own lane, we need to keep focussed on the end and stay within our lane. The Bible picture is not so much a race between contestants, but an individual race. We each run the race which God has set out for us, not for anyone else.

What a liberating view this is. Most of my Christian life I have wanted to be a Billy Graham. I wanted to preach to thousands and see thousands respond. I had a chance a few years ago to go to the US and I even went to the Billy Graham museum. I tell you by the end of it I was ready to give my heart to Christ. If someone was at the door at the end and ask me if I knew Jesus and would I like to meet him, I would’ve said lead me in prayer now!

I came back to my home church and I preached like I have never preached before. And not one person responded! This repeated for several more weeks. I was so disappointed. I was shattered. Every inch of my body, every amount of energy I had was put into writing and speaking those sermons. I truly believed that in doing so I could have even just a potion of Billy’s results.

I felt like a big old displacement cruiser. You know the difference between a displacement and planing boat?

I had all this horsepower for evangelism and preaching, but it didn’t matter because the hull just couldn’t displace anymore water.

I was trying to run in Billy’s lane, not the lane set out for me.

I am now far more comfortable and aware of the lane and race He has put me in. It is to enhance, equip, excite and even evaluate God’s people for evangelism and new ministries.

Hebrews 10:36 says For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

If I stick to that purpose, if I don’t focus on what others are getting paid or what others are doing ministry-wise, then guess what? I will receive a prize. A fair wage for a fair day’s work. Much like the early workers in the Matthew text.

To be honest I’m now more interested in developing those who will get in and do the had work. My heart breaks for those in my group who have given it everything and continue to give it everything, who are longing to see a greater move of His Spirit. I want to be with those people, more than those who just come in see some results and say ‘look at me’, or worse  come in and only stick around for a short period of time because the results didn’t come fast enough. If you are struggling with the fairness of it all… if you are jealous of other people’s ministries say this with me – ‘I will look at God not at the blessings He provides in the results. I will do whatever He gives me to do and leave the rest to Him!’

2 Timothy 4:1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:   2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.   3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,   4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.   5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.   6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.   7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;   8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.  

I charge you be ready to go when He calls, in season or out of season. In other words even whether you feel like it or not. Be patient, endure. Keep your eye on the prize – and by the way the prize isn’t a ‘successful international ministry’ and the race laid out for you. And one day you will receive a prize from none other than Jesus Christ Himself.

Man can you imagine that. You are standing in heaven. Jesus comes to you face to face, and He says, “Well done you good and faithful servant”.

Amazing stuff. But totally unfair!

Because we learn from the Bible that it is Jesus who sort us out in the first place – just like the farmer did with the workers, and that any good works we do are actually as a result of Jesus. Our good deeds are what? Like filthy rags. The reality is that crown is all His work! And we get it. Totally unfair.

I want to run the race set before me so I can get the biggest, coolest looking hat with the most jewels in it. Not because I want to show off, not because I want to get paid more than the people around me. But so I can take it off in heaven and lay it back at His feet and cry out ’Jesus, it wasn’t me! It was all you! You are worthy – not me! It is all about you! You have been more than fair! You have been wonderful – mighty – majestic – too marvelous for words. And I can do nothing but stand in awe of you!’

Make a difference? Or make the world different?

Is Our Vision Too Small?
I read an article on the internet recently in which the writer made a critical assessment of world mission efforts during the last 100 years.  He said we had invested our energies in either Gospel outreach or social action and the results in many countries have been Churches dependent on the West for financial help. 

I must admit my first reaction was to be defensive. 

But when the writer went on to explain that people remained dependent because we had not worked intentionally to transform their thinking, I began to understand his point of view.

Is it possible God wants to transform whole communities?
1. God is a transforming God. He transformed darkness and void into light and meaningful forms. Jesus transformed fishermen into Apostles. He healed lepers; gave sight to the blind, and life to the dead! The Holy Spirit transforms believers into His likeness whenever we encounter the Lord. (2 Cor. 4:18)

 2. God called a community of slaves out of Egypt and made them into an example of how He intends every nation to live.  He gave Israel Godly leaders, His Law, His Presence, His guidance and His leadership.  God directed the development of the Nation and led them to a permanent homeland.  God transformed the slave people so they would be a missionary nation on the earth!

 3. The birth of the Church in any community results in significant transformation.  When the Church in Jerusalem was born at Pentecost radical community transformation began. The new believers began sharing their possessions and selling their possessions to give to the poor. (Acts 2:45)  Luke reports, “There were no needy people among them.” (Acts 4:34) Sick people were healed and the dead were sometimes raised. (Acts 5:12)

 4. Wherever the Lord has worked in revival there has been significant social transformation. In Wales, the swearing stopped in the mines and the Hotels were closed. In other places in the United Kingdom community transformation came through newly enlightened social consciences – children released from the workforce and taught in schools; slavery ended; workplace reforms; medical advances and laws adopted that delivered rights and justice to people in many nations. In Fiji, poisoned rivers flowed with new life. Wherever God has worked powerfully there has been wonderful community transformation.

 5. The idea of the Kingdom of God advancing in the world cannot be limited to the preaching of the Gospel and bringing relief to the poor. The Kingdom is the means of transformation! Whenever God works, transformation occurs.  We have seen evidence of personal transformation whenever a new believer is converted. Should we also expect to see evidence of a family transformed – then a workplace transformed – then a whole village or community transformed?  Why do we limit God to the transformation of only one? Could it be that the Western idea of the importance of the individual has blinded us to the possibility of the transformation of whole societies?

What would a transformed community look like?
Ray Bakke, a long-term advocate of the need to transform our cities, outlines seven characteristics of a healthy community from the heart of God (as expressed in Isaiah 65:17-25).

• Public celebration and happiness (18,19)
• Public health for children and the aged (20)
• Housing for all (21)
• Food for all (22)
• Meaningful work (22,23)
• Family support systems (23)
• Absence of violence (25)

I am sure we could add additional dimensions, but there is enough challenge in Bakke’s list to make us re-evaluate our ministry goals and begin to flow more readily with the Spirit to be God’s light and God’s salt in the world.

What is our vision and what could/should it be?

The question we must ask ourselves is what is the expected result of our efforts?

Some possible answers are:

1. that individuals will come to Christ
2. that individuals who come to Christ are discipled
3. that individuals come to Christ, are discipled, and become actively involved in spreading the Gospel (Church multiplication results)
4. that individuals come to Christ, are discipled and become actively involved in spreading the Gospel (Church multiplication results) and working to bring transformation to their communities.

If we agree that only answer 4 captures the dimensions of the Kingdom of God as expressed in the spread of the Church in Acts, then we must raise the level of our vision and change our methodology to suit the real goals.

There are implications for those of us at the “front end” of delivering the training for future leaders; there are further implications for those who go out in teams in terms of their expectations and operations; and there are huge implications for the communities and Nations we seek to influence.

What may need to change?
Eric Swanson, describes, “Ten Paradigm Shifts Toward Community Transformation” in his article on ICWM.net.  We should consider each of these carefully.

1. From building walls to building bridges  (Matt 5:13,14)
2. From measuring attendance to measuring impact (Matt 13:33)
3. From encouraging the saints to attend the service to equipping the saints for works of service  (Eph 4.11,12)
4. From “serve us” to service (inward to outward focus) (Mark 10:45)
5. From duplication of human services and ministries to partnering with existing services and ministries  (Ecclesiastes 4:9)
6. From fellowship to functional unity  (Philipp 2:2)
7. From condemning the city to blessing the city and praying for it (Jer.29:7)
8. From being a minister in a congregation to being a minister in a community (Luke 19:41)
9. From anecdote and speculation to valid information  (Like Nehemiah in Ch 1 get to know the truth about your community and act on it prayerfully)
10. From teacher to learner (James 1:19)

 Which of these paradigm shifts connect with you in terms of implementing your vision through training and strategy development?

Multiplying Churches without adequate prayer is about as effective as trying to sell melted ice-creams

Multiplying Churches without adequate prayer is about as effective as trying to sell melted ice-creams.

I love ice-cream. It’s my favourite food! Sometimes I help my wife with the grocery shopping and we often buy a tub of ice-cream to bring home. None of those generic brands – No!

When I help with the shopping it has to be creamy full flavour vanilla. The only problem is getting the ice-cream home in a summer heated car. If we don’t do it right, when we come home we have a moist tub of yuk! Ice-cream has to be cold or it’s not ice-cream.

Do you see what I mean? If ice-cream has to be kept cold to fulfil it’s purpose then I want to say the ministry of Church multiplication has to be kept hot to fulfil it’s purpose.

How do we keep Church multiplication hot? By empowering it with all kinds of prayer.

The ministry of seeing Churches multiply across a society is exciting and very rewarding. It also demands an incredible amount of time and focused activity.

We get the vision, recruit the team, develop the strategy and get going. We go, go, go! After a year or so we may pause to reflect on the fruitfulness of what we have done. Where can we see the hand of God? Where is the evidence of strong conversions, of spectacular miracles, of wonderful provisions?

About then we begin to tell everyone how tough ministry is in our “culture,” and how difficult it is to bring many people to Christ when they have no knowledge of Him at all! All too true! Inwardly, we may feel we have hit a brick wall.

Been there? Join the club!

I think one of the problems is that we are offering the ministry of Church multiplication in a luke-warm state to people. It needs to be hot!

The New Testament relates the true story of a Church faced with huge barriers. There was political and religious oppression. Satanic cults sought to block the way of the Gospel. Church leaders were imprisoned and stoned. And yet the Church multiplied all around the Mediterranean region.

Whenever opposition came, the Church prayed and God overcame the opposition. In some cities, the Church was so hot that people were afraid to join with them!

There was, and is a clear linkage between the effectiveness of the Gospel and the prayers of God’s people.

Have you tried everything and been left disappointed with the results?

Have you done the work of prayer? I know that the work of prayer goes hand in hand with the work of the Gospel. What we need is a whole workforce empowered by prayer and committed to sharing the Gospel. There are some prayer ministries that I have found to be essential to all progress in God’s work. Hopefully they can form a kind of check list for Church multipliers.

1. Spiritual mapping. Peter Wagner has written extensively on this. It’s important to know the area where you plan to minister well and to send teams of intercessors there to pray before the Gospel is announced.

2. Intercessory prayer. Build a team of intercessors who may be off-site initially. Feed them information and plans and listen to the guidance they receive. Build a local team as soon as practicable.

3. Team prayer. Your initiating team will be busy and strongly committed to spending quality time with people who are not-yet-Christians. The danger is we put a lower priority on prayer time together. Avoid this danger because the effectiveness of your ministry is directly related to the prayer and listening to God done in team.

4. New disciples’ prayer. Teach the new disciples to pray as early as possible. Stretch their faith and they will grow. Teach them the work of prayer and the work of the Gospel at the same time because both are needed.

5. Nights and Seasons of prayer. We are all too busy and prayer gets lost in busyness. Schedule nights of prayer ahead of special events and don’t forget to include times for “thank you’s” to God for His blessings. When you need to listen to God or when you need a break through, call your people to prayer and (if necessary) fasting. It is God’s work after all and He wants to bless the work of the Gospel wherever it is preached.

6. Prayer walks. If God leads you to try to reach a particular area or suburb, get some people to prayer walk the streets and pray for God to work in every home. Churches have seen incredible results from this ministry.

7. Prayer triplets. All of us need encouragement and accountability in our witness. Link your disciples up in triplets and equip them to pray for the effective witness of each person to family, friends and workmates. Success here depends on effective communication between each member of the triplet and the others.

8. Regular prayer for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Witnessing lacks effectiveness unless the Holy Spirit is at work. We need Him and in a mysterious way, He needs us. When the Spirit works people respond to the Gospel readily. When the Spirit leads us to responsive people it is not hard to win them to Christ.

9. Personal prayer. You cannot allow your personal prayers to be only of the “prayers on the run variety.” You need time to quietly seek God’s face and God’s blessing regularly. Be quiet with God and listen to Him. You will be surprised how often he speaks to you.

10. Add your own. I am sure you have some brilliant ideas and experiences.

How “hot” is your ministry of Church multiplication? I mean, is it plain for all to see that God is rampant in the midst of the young Churches you serve? Do your people’s lives radiate Christ‘s love regularly? Are you in need of some significant break throughs?

Turn to the Lord in prayer. Make it the foundation of all you do and the breakthroughs you are seeking may come sooner than you think!

Internet Evangelism – home of the wild west

Almost every week I get an email from some Christian organisation asking me to sign a petition regarding something ‘bad’ on the internet. Every second day I see another news headline talking about the dangers of facebook. A recent news headline in Australia has been about defacement of a young schoolboy’s tribute page with disgusting porn images. Last week I saw another story about a teenage girl being lured by two men to her death through her facebook page. All this talk about facebook and yet not much about myspace. (By the way, myspace isn’t exactly a field of daisies either. “Lowlights” include video images of terrorist beheading captives.) I tell you it is a wild world out there in cyber land!

Here in Australia we are having the ‘internet filter’ debate. Our government wants to force all ISPs to use a government-approved list of acceptable and unacceptable sites. Some Australians don’t trust their government to run such a thing, some Australians don’t see how it’s even possible. Some Australians think at the very least the government should make the list public. However, making the list public would actually promote some of the sites which frankly shouldn’t be seen by anyone. It becomes even more complicated by the fact that already hackers have shown how easy it is to circumvent the filter, and I should mention the filter does not work in filtering out peer to peer networks where most of the material the government is trying to filter out is shared. To make the filter debate even more silly, the same people who have shown how easy it is to circumvent the filtering system have also show how easy it is to make the list of unacceptable sites known to the greater public.

And now the Internet debate has intensified with the government’s new national broadband network – an issue so complicated it would take hundreds of articles to do it justice and I would still only scratch the surface. Should the government roll out another network? Despite the fact the Australian people have already paid for a network to be rolled out in the guise of ‘Telstra’.

Frankly all of these issues are only issues because we have people who are ignorant of the real issues. Decisions seem to be made with one thing in mind… the lowest common denominator… the largely ignorant population.

Sadly, this ignorance has become a breeding ground for the most well-meaning people. As a result some of the most well-meaning people have become pawns used for other political reasons. Some of these well meaning people have come up with petition after petition and have created proposals which are a terrible waste of resources. Further, these proposals will do damage to some businesses, further erode the responsibility of parents to care for their children, continue to increase the cost of providing internet services (which will be passed on to consumers) and create mistrust.

And here is the worse bit: it will not stop people viewing things which are immoral, distasteful and illegal. In fact, it might make it harder for the enforcement agencies to police.

The state of the ‘internet’ here in Australia actually caused me to consider joining the ‘pirate party’. An ordained Baptist minister wanting to join the pirate party. What has happened to me?

So I went to the pirate party’s web site… (quickly just in case it is going to be put on the government’s banned list ;-P) and I looked to sign up. But I didn’t because I couldn’t find the information I needed (and because the site looked like a 12 year put it together, which is a likely scenario). Not exactly the professional alternative voice I was looking for!

Whenever I get an email from a Christian organisation asking me to sign up to the ‘we want the filter list’ or the ‘facebook is evil club’ a little part of me withers… I feel further and further away from “main stream” Christianity. I wish I could articulate what I know and in so doing some make people aware of the even greater issues behind the debate. Or to show some alternatives which might help rather than ‘tear the Internet down and just don’t use it’. I know these people who send me petition after petition to sign are well meaning, God fearing people. But… the message coming across to anyone who is a bit internet geeky is one of ‘retreat’ or at best ‘react’.

I propose an alternative… An alternative in wish we neither retreat nor react, but actually adapt, overcome and lead!

That was the background information. Moving on. Why would any Christian be interested in Internet evangelism? Why should someone who is part of the ‘internet is evil club’ want to taint themselves with internet evangelism? Or why would someone like me who feels at odds with what mainstream Christianity is saying about the internet want to be involved in internet evangelism?

Apart from the obvious fact that we don’t have a choice when it comes to evangelism… it’s a God given requirement, for me it is because my ministry, my life, my church’s life is all about seeing opportunities in which God’s people cross paths with culture and community. The internet provides just that sort of opportunity.

The internet can be a front door or a side door for so many people into a community of faith. In my church setting we have just as many people who not yet followers of Christ as we do believers. The internet provides a way for those not yet following Jesus to keep in touch with the church (and I mean the people, not the building of course), to interact in a deeper yet non-threatening way through blogging, twitter, facebook, forums, online games, the list is endless! As someone who has been heavily involved in internet evangelism for more years than I care to remember… I’m certain people are more free to go deeper on the internet. And yes before some of the nay-sayers say it, that is also one of the problems with the internet.

But for large number of “de-churched” people in Australia (people who have experienced the church at some time but for whatever reason have dropped out), the internet provides at great doorway for them to re-enter. Tools such as video podcasting allow people to experience your gatherings first and try them out. You might say, ‘Doesn’t that just make it easier for people to drop out of the church?’ Another fallacy I afraid… all those who have tried video podcasting in a professional way have not experienced that problem one bit!

These things I’ve just mentioned are good reasons why some of our more traditional churches should be involved in internet evangelism. But things get way more exciting when we look at how some of our newer church plant models can get into internet evangelism.

Let’s say for example a church plant was looking to start up in high rise buildings in the city. Those of you have tried to plant in high rises know it’s next to impossible to get your foot inside the door (unless you live there). One effective entry point is as follows:

Parents who live in these buildings are concerned with the types of online games and the types of people their kids play with online. What if you could offer the people inside these buildings a secure network of game servers, which are heavily moderated and enforce a  stricter ethical code? These game servers could also be local game servers, so the kids don’t even need to have to go online to play. This type of ministry does get you permission to enter the building and knock on doors to advertise. In fact this type of ministry can also be seen by the developers as an aid to fostering community within the buildings. The game servers could even run building verse building days. As someone who has been successful in online gaming ministries I can tell you that something as weird as online games can and will lead to conversions and can and will lead to church multiplication!

Regardless of what sort of internet evangelism you want to be part of… social networking, web sites, forums, church pages, online gaming…the problem has always been the same. It is the problem that the IEC is working hard to over come.

That problem is the 99% rule. 99% of Christian sites are useless for evangelism. They rarely escape their own comfort zone and don’t have a “product” to sell. In other words there is no reason for anyone to visit let alone to keep them coming back.

So here is what I think we need to be doing.

Tell stories of our positive internet evangelism results with your churches. If you have none, I’ll share mine and you can use those! We need to demonstrate it as a working medium that is effective!

We need to understand internet evangelism is not about preaching, it is not about slick professional tracts in a new medium. It is more about being a good journalist and employing a user-friendly interface. We need to encourage churches and individuals to make effective sites for nonchurch members, sites which are based on a common interest or common ground.

And here is the biggie for me… train potential web evangelists. Internet evangelism has massive implications for the spread of the Gospel into the whole world and there are practical ways and means to do that effectively.

The Pines Training Centre offers a Unit on Internet Evangelism. If you would like to know more please get in contact with me asap.