I’m observing something about the Kingdom of God in the earth

It all began when I read Acts again towards the end of last year – actually I’ve read it at least once a year for a long time, but it was last year I began to notice something which, to me anyway, was significant.

Most of you who are leaders will have read widely enough to have heard of the idea that the earth is full of jurisdictions or spheres of influence. Specifically, a jurisdiction or sphere is a place where authority is vested and exercised. For example, Government is a jurisdiction and so, therefore, are nations. The Church too is a jurisdiction or sphere and there are many examples of the way in which authority is vested and exercised within it mentioned in the Scriptures.

The judiciary is a sphere too (an Ezekiel-like sphere within a sphere) and once again, there are a variety of ways in which authority is vested and exercised therein e.g. solicitors don’t do criminal cases.

What fascinates me is the way the Kingdom advances through the missionary-church by releasing its people to move across from its jurisdiction to another and as they go, to carry the message of the King and His Kingdom and its application to human life in that new sphere.

Actually it is essential this happens in order that the Kingdom should advance throughout human life. This requires an incarnational approach, in that we as the ambassadors of Christ, cross personally into other jurisdictions to announce the King’s agenda. These same ambassadors sometimes stay within that jurisdiction a long time to exercise the King’s authority while others return again to their own sphere or jurisdiction.

Acts is full of this kind of thing. It seems to me this is the way the Kingdom advances into every part of the world. Let me show you what I mean, but please look out for the following pattern.

First there is the work of the Spirit on people within the initial jurisdiction; next, the crossing over itself which may be caused by any number of factors but always according to the purposes of God; then the planting of the Word in the new jurisdiction; followed by the observation that those in the affected jurisdiction are transformed and their sphere also; finally these newly transformed people proceed to repeat the process itself into another jurisdiction.

Look at Acts 2. The disciples are the first jurisdiction of the Kingdom – gathered together and in prayer (Ac.1:13-14). This particular jurisdiction includes people who carry a unique promise – yet unfulfilled – but who still carry within them the promise and command of God (1:4-5,8). As yet they represent the only jurisdiction where this promise applies – the company of disciples.

This first jurisdiction is, at that moment in time, the key Kingdom jurisdiction in the earth – at least in terms of the transformation of human society as a whole. They are not living it yet, but it is their destiny. This does not mean that this jurisdiction was the only Kingdom jurisdiction – a fact which will hopefully become clear soon.

Once the Holy Spirit is poured out (2:1-4) the switch is thrown resulting in those populating this first jurisdiction beginning to cross into other jurisdictions with a very new and challenging message which will carry enormous impact – into Jerusalem.

The next jurisdiction is mentioned in Acts 2:5. They are God-fearing Jews in Jerusalem to faithfully observe the Pentecost – many had been in Jerusalem since before the Passover.

This group of people is a jurisdiction normally untouched by the members of the first Kingdom jurisdiction in the earth for these men were from the fringes of Jewish society. The men and women from the first jurisdiction are neither priests nor trained in the ministry of the Temple nor are they permitted to minister. In the usual course of events, these God-fearing Jews would not be ministered to by such a company of men and women.

Yet, the Spirit anointed that company of disciples to cross into this new jurisdiction (God-fearing Jews) and minister a new message – the message of the Kingdom.

The signs of the Spirit create the moment and Peter advances into the new jurisdiction with a new and amazing message(2:14-36).

The effect was amazing (2:37) and Peter announces the promise of the Spirit to them exactly as it had been promised to himself (2:38-39).  I know the words are different, but it is the same Spirit. The promise in this first jurisdiction has now been announced to a second jurisdiction and many of those in that second jurisdiction took up that same offer of the Kingdom (2:41) and formed a significant Messianic community (2:42-47a)

The key here is that the two jurisdictions were parallel. That is, they shared some significant common ground which, when accented by the work of the Spirit, led to the transformation brought by the Kingdom, to leap across normal human divides into a new jurisdiction. It was a kairos moment.

Acts 2:47b needs separate comment. The community which had been drawn from the second jurisdiction and that from the first jurisdiction is now joined by faith. But they are very diverse with some real cultural differences. They form a new jurisdiction (ie the Church of Jesus Christ) which shares an amazing outcome – that of being a community whose aim is to engage other jurisdictions in a worldview challenge on a continuing basis.

And momentum is key.

For me, it’s proof the Kingdom is present. The Kingdom advances both because of intentional and non-intentional human action. Mark 4:26-29 outlines a parable about the Kingdom which I think is resounding here.

But what happens next is in some ways more amazing.

Acts 8:1-3 records a phenomena – a scattering of believers out of Jerusalem which was caused by a persecution of the followers of The Way by the Jewish authorities and their chief protagonist Saul of Tarsus.

Initially, these believers were scattered to Judea and Samaria (8:2). In addition, Acts 8:4-40 tells the story of the remarkable revival led by Philip which itself is an example of jurisdiction transfer in the name of the King and His Kingdom.

I mentioned earlier the initial group of believers carried in them a command and a promise to be witnesses to Christ to the ends of the earth – Luke’s version of this is in Acts 1:8 and Matthew’s is recorded at Matthew 28:19. But this did not happen spontaneously, rather, it was the result of an action.

The first expression of the jurisdiction we now know as the Church (the company of believers hidden between the ascension and Pentecost) did not advance into any new jurisdiction automatically – the action that created this was the pouring out of the Spirit.

Following this, the newly created jurisdiction advanced into the next “parallel” jurisdiction which turned out to be devout Jewish believers in Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover and Pentecost. The effect was amazing. But again, the church as it was now (a group of believers who had known Christ personally, certain priests and members of the Sanhedrin as well as devout Jews from around the known world) did not automatically fulfill the plan and intent of God. Another action was required – this time, a persecution.

This however created a problem and it remains one for us today. The members of that first jurisdiction rightly saw themselves as “guardians” of the deposit left by Christ so they needed to confirm the veracity of what had occurred. The Church was now in a new city (another jurisdiction).

How was this being handled? What proved it was the real thing?

In this case as described in Acts 8:14-17 it was the presence and work of the Holy Spirit that was proving a jurisdictional transfer of the Kingdom had occurred. The Gospel had leapt across into a new jurisdiction through the work of ordinary believers.

Philip’s story also contains the contact with the Ethiopian (8:26-40) which together with the story of Peter and Cornelius (10:1-48) reveal the first major jurisdictional transfer of the Gospel and the Kingdom – that which is from Jew to Gentile.

This would eventually find its fullest expression in the work of the Spirit among the believers at the Antioch Church.

But all this is just an introduction. Let me finish this by trying to explain what it might mean to us now. What is the application for us in the 21^st century?

Right now we have several crucial jurisdictional transfers before us. The major one is one that is similar to that involving Peter and Cornelius and it will also take Spirit-led timing and content built on what the Holy Spirit is doing on the other side of the transfer to be successful.

I refer to the transfer from the Church of Jesus Christ into the Muslim world. Leaders like Stuart Robinson represent those who have crossed the jurisdictional barrier between western culture and that of Islam. His book “Mosques and Miracles” illustrates what is involved, what challenges exist and what opportunities abound. There will need to be more people crossing this jurisdiction in order for the Kingdom to move more purposefully into Islam with the good news of Jesus.

Another of these crucial jurisdictions before us is the new age movement. Thousands of Australians are engaged in this movement; buying the books and crystals, seeking the diviners and palm readers and adopting an extremely strong “spiritual” approach to life.

Outside this jurisdiction, inside the Body of Christ, there are people like Lyn Thomas who lives in Brisbane and goes to fairs and new age expos and offers prophetic ministry and dream interpretation. In 2005-2006 she and her team led almost 150 people to Christ. The real challenge for her is finding Churches to which she can send these new converts. So the second transfer is from the Church into the New Age Movement.

A third crucial jurisdiction that needs to be crossed is that across many unreached people groups scattered throughout the earth.

Unlike the previous two I have mentioned, this transfer requires the commitment of a whole life. It requires language and culture skills that take time to develop and the offer of a life given over completely to God in the tradition of Hudson Taylor who went into China. We might call this transfer from the Church into unreached people groups around the world.

Speaking nationally, there is a jurisdiction that is in urgent need of transfer – the indigenous Australian peoples. I have a vision for how The Pines Training Centre will move across this transfer. By preparing and supporting a specific team of Indigenous leaders I have a vision for the development of leaders fit for winning Indigenous people to faith in a culturally relevant way.

There are some wonderful examples of this jurisdictional transfer occurring. There’s an Apostolic Church based in Roeburn in north-west Western Australia.  From this church there are Aboriginal believers venturing out across the deserts to Alice Springs. The Church was planted by an Anglo-Saxon who gave his life to this cause as his son did after him. The kingdom is transferred now as all the ministry is done by Aboriginal converts and leaders.

Jeff Christopherson (Kingdom Matrix) speaks of assumptions made about the Kingdom. One is that you can often get a hold of “Church” and miss “Kingdom”; but when you get a hold of “Kingdom” what follows is a clear sense of “Church.”

Another of these assumptions is that there are only two Kingdoms – “at any given moment I am either building the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Darkness.” 

And – it is possible to participate in Church expansion and unintentionally be an agent for shrinking the Kingdom of God. 

But when I heard him speak in mid-2006 this was the one that impacted me most – it is possible to unknowingly value the Kingdom of God before acknowledging the value of its Source – the King.

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.

Ecclesiology: a dangerous lens

I don’t always verbalise it – but I watch what’s going on around me so I can learn from it. I think the right way to say it is that I “wonder” about things a lot. Anyway, I’d like to share one of these “wonderings” with you as it relates to the Kingdom of God.

I believe there was a subtle theological shift in our country that has had a tremendous impact upon us and I think this happened almost without being noticed.

I remember it now because I was preparing for ministry at the time. I was at Bible College.

Here’s my theory.

The shift away from a sound theology of the Kingdom of God occurred in Australia, I think, somewhere between 1976 and 1981. It wasn’t sudden, but that was the point when I believe it became discernible.

There were two major factors. The first was the popularity of the mega-church model and the belief that the local church was the hope of the world. There is some truth to this latter idea of course, but there is a theological shift here that I think is unhealthy.

The other major factor I discerned was the false confidence born out of the Church Growth Movement. I don’t blame the movement leaders for this and I hasten to add that there were a lot of good things to come out of this movement. But in the hands of many practitioners, it birthed a false confidence in the church itself and a subtle shift away from the Kingdom.

It had an effect on the content of the Gospel we preached as well as the ideas that inspired us as believers.

What happened was that our ecclesiology became the lens through which we understood and interpreted the Kingdom.

We didn’t reject the idea of the Kingdom – this was a subtle shift and not a dangerous doctrinal plunge into oblivion!

But the effects, slow and small at first, have now become a problem of mammoth proportions.

What were these effects? Well first there was a lowering of conversion rates across the board in our local churches. Have a look at conversion rates now – it’s not a healthy picture. Then, there was a slowing in the rate of young catalytic leaders (both men and women) signing up for fulltime mission or ministry and finally, the issue closest to my heart, a slowing or even stopping in some places, to church planting and even evangelism generally.

Now I acknowledge there were additional issues arising out of post modernity, but I still think my theory holds.

Now we find the tide turning again.

Now, everywhere I go, I am aware of concern for the Kingdom of God and with this theological shift I am praying for a return in conversion rates; in the re-mobilisation of our catalytic leaders and in church planting. 

I hope it will happen like this, but I’m concerned that it won’t because so much cultural and western philosophy has to be stripped away from our notions of the Kingdom to get ourselves anywhere near the point of renewal.

But it’s worth a fight. Let’s think through our theology of the Kingdom again. It’s time!

Exponential Decay – Scientometrics – Atrophy and the Church

I came across an article the other day from the ‘Boston Globe’ talking about the increasing difficulty of making new discoveries.

I discovered (no pun intended) that until recently no one has really tried to measure the increasing difficulty of discovery. The name given to this new type of research is called ‘scientometrics’.

Once upon a time, it seems like discovering brand new things/theories/places was really simple. Article after article was published by brainy people across a broad range of fields containing discoveries that were breath taking and, in many cases, awe inspiring (how to travel faster than the speed of sound, the invention of the cochlear implant, VOIP technology). The reality was it only took creativity, some time and the ability to ask the right questions to come up with a new discovery. For example, the author of the Boston Globe article reminds us that Galileo rolled objects down hills. Robert Hooke played with a spring to learn about elasticity. Isaac Newton poked around his eye with a darning needle to understand colour perception (and yes, you did read that right).

Now days it would seem this is a thing of the past. No simple rubber band game on a Monday afternoon. We need a massive team numbering in the thousands and an atom smasher which costs more than GDP of many smaller countries on this earth.

You can see why governments and large companies are keen to learn as much as possible about ‘scientometrics’ even if it is just to see the best (and by best I mean most economical) way of making scientific discoveries.

Surprisingly, even in the early days of discoveries the very beginnings of ‘scientometrics’ can be seen. People recorded the number of yearly articles published about insights. Some study regarding monetary grants has shown the average age of scientists who receive grants from the National Institutes of Health has increased and the younger scientists have been given less. The young guns are missing out!

Mmmm… perhaps we should employ some ‘scientometrics’ to Christendom. Do we really give the ‘kiddies’ a chance? When was the last time churches really risked a LOT (including money) on someone who perhaps was not yet proven? I’m not suggesting we forget the character of a person. But I am suggesting that we show some trust in who the person could become.

My denomination has introduced a new scheme for Professional Personal Development. Something which I support… Something I am even willing to pay for… But here is the thing. The process grates. For example, the default position is that those who have been in ministry for more years than you can count MUST get with the program. Seriously, if you have been in ministry for so long and you aren’t involved in some sort of professional personal development, then I would suggest you stopped being a good leader many years ago.

However, those experienced leaders who have been around for some time and who not only value professional personal development but have themselves been dedicated to helping others develop must now take time out of their schedule and get with the program. What a waste of time! And worse still, it’s a bit of a slap in the face. It tells them “we don’t care what you have been doing, we don’t value it. You must do what we say.”

They’re the good guys. I think what may happen with the “not-so-good” guys might be even more scary. The rumblings have it that men who have been in ministry for a certain number of years will be matched up with young leaders to mentor them. Hmmmm. It’s ok if the older leaders are good mentors, good leaders and whole-hearted followers of Christ, but what if they’re not?

If, regardless of leadership ability or character, the older leaders mentor the young leaders because,  ‘We have been in ministry for such a long period of time, we have the answers, we can, no we should, mentor all the newbies’, we should shoot this horse now.

Perhaps for the future of the denomination we should match some of those kind of older leaders up with some of the young guns – not so the young fellas can learn from them, but rather, that they could follow the young leaders around for some time, walk with them and see what they can teach their elders!

I know that sounds egotistical, but the truth is that I am not a young guy anymore nor am I an experienced older leader…I’m a bit in-between J

Now moving on… hobby horse has been shot… In ‘scientometrics’  a term has been identified as the ‘exponential decay’. The exponential decay is a curve that illustrates the ease or lack thereof of each discovery every year.

 Interestingly, the curve shows the ease of discovery doesn’t stop by the same amount every year, but rather it declines by the same fraction each year. For example the discovered asteroids get 2.5 percent smaller each year. What this shows is that while the ease of discovery drops off quickly as early researchers pick the more obvious discoveries, it can continue to ‘decay’ for a long period of time. It gradually gets harder without anything actually becoming impossible.

In other words, while discovery can become extremely difficult, it does not mean that it stops. But the key thing is it does reveal what kind of resources we may need to continue to discover things.

To counteract the force of exponential decay and maintain discovery at the current pace, researchers will need effort that meets an exponential increase. So as we discover smaller and smaller particles, or slightly heavier chemical elements, you can’t just expend a bit more effort. Sometimes you have to expend much, much more.

How many of us have experienced the same sort of ‘exponential decay’ with churches?

I am reminded of a chapter from a book by Erwin McManus regarding a condition known as atrophy… a wasting away from lack of use. I have seen some real keen evangelists have tremendous success within churches, leading people who have been church goers for years to Christ. Most of these evangelists have been our more traditional ‘proclaimers’. God bless these people! They devote themselves to the cause. And as a result they pay a price… a price many of us are not willing to pay. Some of those proclaimers have lost to a degree the ability to reach an increasingly isolated-from-the-church and cynical Aussie.

In recent years a new breed of evangelist has emerged who has discovered a “new” way of influencing people and making culture different. This group of people has little regard for the atrophy suffered in the local church and devote themselves to ministry largely outside the established status quo. These people have very little desire to be part of anything that focuses on the needs and wants of the “saved” over the needs and wants of those still outside the Kingdom.

In my mind these people are the ones we need to be spending our time and money on. We should not only be spending time and money of them, but we need to expand our resources in order of magnitude to counter the exponential decay. Scientometrics in the church. Who would have thought?!

Are Australians Resistant or Receptive to the Gospel?

David Garrison has alerted the world to the amazing phenomenon of Church multiplication movements.  I get excited when I hear about Churches multiplying themselves through a society via the rapid spread of the Gospel through relational webs. Most of the success is due to Church people (not pastors) taking the initiative to share the “Good News” with friends and family.  According to Garrison, most of this growth is occurring in Latin America, Africa and Asia. There is no evidence to date of this phenomenon occurring in the West.

 As an Australian I am envious. Why can’t this happen in my land? Garrison and Ed Stetzer write that two significant barriers are our requirement to have professional pastors and expensive plant for every Church.  I admit that these two factors can be significant obstacles to Church planting but I suspect that we should look at a deeper level into our own cultural environment.

 Why? In the story Jesus told about the Sower the two common denominators were the seed and the Sower himself. The aspect that most impacted on the result of the sowing of each seed was the condition of the soil!

So why is the Australian “soil” not conducive to the rapid acceptance and spread of the Gospel of Jesus?

 Of course, my question contains at least two assumptions that I am testing.  The first assumption is that there is such a thing as one Australian cultural identity to which all Aussies adhere. The second is that Australians in general are more resistant to the Gospel than people in non-Western countries where thousands are coming to Christ regularly.

 In regard to the first assumption, I want to briefly say that whilst there may be a broad cultural Aussie umbrella under which we all generally fit, we are better described as a multi-ethnic people. Think about how many teams Aussies cheer for in the World cup!

 In regard to the second assumption, I thank God that in my ministry (over 40 years) I have had the great privilege of leading people to Christ from many different Aussie cultural backgrounds – farmers, uni students, business people, nuclear physicists; boat people from Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia; Latin Americans, Chinese,  Egyptians and Lebanese.  So I know that there are people in each of these Aussie ethnic groups who have been receptive to the Gospel.  But the reality is that many are not interested! Some of my evangelist friends now spend much time preaching overseas with great benefit. But they have few opportunities here. Is this an indicator of resistance or irrelevance?  My son and his wife lead a Church plant team.  They are winning some people from the community  through the slow process of building life long relationships with neighbours and friends who do not know the Gospel. Another young guy who is a Pines graduate leads teams of young people to do what we used to call “street fishing” every Friday night. They ask permission to share the Good news with people on the streets in a few minutes.  There is no relationship, but they are successfully winning young people to Christ and discipling them.  These are two different forms of evangelism but they are both working.  Do they indicate receptiveness?

 The bigger question is, are there discrete groups of Aussies who are coming to Christ in significant numbers?  Ten years ago, the most rapidly growing Australian Churches were those planted among the Chinese people.  Is this still true? If so, what can the rest of us learn from this experience?

 I think we should be seriously researching the Australian “soil” and methods of “harvesting and sowing” that are proving to be effective.  I would like to hear from you about effective evangelism and people that you have found to be open to the Gospel. Let’s learn from each other.  Can you help me?

Why I don’t follow Rick Warren

Thank you to the original author of this article Julia Kate Swodeck for giving us permission to use her post.

First off, I love and appreciate Rick Warren.  I have been to his church on several occasions, read The Purpose Driven Life, and even defended his choice of Hawaiian shirts & khakis, but when it comes to Twitter I just can’t bring myself to click the Follow button.  He is just one of the many christian influencers of our time that consistently unsocialize the social media.  “How’s that?” you say.  It’s quite simple actually…

according to Twitter, Twitter may be used for any number of purposes, but originally it was for the purpose of connection.

Twitter is a real-time information network,

powered by people all around the world

that lets you share and discover what’s happening now.

That’s why I enjoy twitter, for the sharing and the discovering.  I mean, how cool was it that the Kutcher’s took pics of themselves on their way to meet with Letterman and actually @ replied fans?  very cool.   That was just the beginning.  Since then, those that seemed so “special” and “distant” have become semi-normal & near.  Not so, for many in the Christian celebrity realm.  Heck, not so for even some Christian pseudo celebrities (local church leaders, staff members, bloggers, singers and musicians that are way too cool for Sunday school).  As usual, Christians are most skilled at the “one-sided” conversation.  We love to encourage our followers with scriptures, inspirational quotes, RTs of Rick Warren’s admonishments to pastors and lovely exaggerations of how AMAZING our churches are. [note: there are amazing churches, but it is impossible for there to be as many as we claim, for if there were, we would have a very different world.]  This behavior results in the following:

the #christianunsocialmedia where advice is plentiful, but humanity is sparse .

I don’t follow Rick Warren, but I get his tweets daily thanks to the Rick Warren Retweet Disciples. You know who you are… you’re those people that would love to tell your pastors how you really feel, but instead you let big daddy Rick say it, by way of retweet.  But does Rick ever RT your RT or @ reply your gratefulness of his wisdom?  He doesn’t.  I know he doesn’t because he set up his twitter to speak, not hear.  Rick’s tweets read like a page from a book and I’d rather just buy the book.  In case you weren’t aware, it’s for pastors to receive wisdom as he tweets it out.  Here is an actual tweet I pulled from his page:

Twitter can be a useful discipline for commuicators* communicators

if u use it to practice saying big ideas in brief ways. 2:11 PM Apr 17th via web

On the other hand, a week ago I purchased a book, Plan B, from Amazon.com and tweeted that I was looking forward to its arrival… the author, @pwilson (lead pastor @crosspoint_tv) direct messaged me & thanked me for buying his book.  He even wished me a great weekend.  When the book arrived I tweeted of its arrival and sure enough, @pwilson messaged me again “enjoy the book & the rain.”  I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it must be to manage tens of thousands of followers, but somehow @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher) seems to manage nearly 5,000,000 followers and still has the time to bring awareness to social causes, share wisdom, share twitpics, home videos, and even @ reply followers internationally.   Here’s the point… I am not so sure that it’s okay for us to be so busy that we can’t be normal and reachable, that we can’t discreetly reveal our humanity to those that have been kind enough to click the Follow button.  This is our chance as Christians to reveal our humanity to the masses.  After all, within the masses are skeptics, critics, wanderers, and seekers… the harvest is plenty tweeps.

So that’s that.  That’s why I don’t follow Rick Warren.  It’s nothing personal, I just don’t use twitter to be communicated at, but rather to communicate with.  Why do you use Twitter?  Are you tweeter and a listener?  Do you think @ replies and other interaction between followees & followers is beneficial?  What say you Tweeps?

go to www.titherofinnovation.com to see the comment discussion, including a kind and generous reply from Pete Wilson, author of Plan B, lead pastor at Cross Point Church in Nashville.

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?

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.