What is a Missional Church anyway?

I've been posting a lot about Missional Church lately. Here's a little bit of clarification about this model I'm strongly resonating with.

What is a convert?

This semester I'm taking two classes. One of which is with one of my youth ministry heroes, Dr. Chap Clark, Author of Hurt: Inside the World of Today's Teenagers (Youth, Family, and Culture). 

In our first few weeks we have been reflecting on something called Incarnational Witness. The basic idea is that our methods of evangelism should reflect the life and model of ministry Jesus practiced. This model dictates that evangelism should be motivated by the same things that motivated Jesus, like being sent by the Father. We should model our evangelism after Christ's example, leaving our place of comfort to go to the broken, the hurting, and the forgotten.

• These lectures are invigorating my love for youth ministry!
• The course material is also solidifying my belief in relational youth ministry as opposed to creating a class or a program for every kind of problem teens will face. When I look back at my adolescence, it was people who journeyed with me that made the difference and not classes or even sermons! I remember the way my youth pastor and youth leaders listened to me, came to my games, and took my questions. I pray that I can be that for our youth and train others in the same model. 

When you think back to your teenage years or even a recent crisis, what made the difference for you?

Are we welcome?

This past Sunday we had a service where our youth sent in questions via text message and our team took turns answering them. I was struck by one of the questions, "My parents and I used to be Jehovah's Witness and now we've made up our own religion. Are we welcome at Shoreline?" Most of my thoughts were drawn from Shaping of Things to Come, The: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church

• First off, I posted about our predominant culture's posture towards 'do it yourself' religion and was not surprised to see it show up in our youth meeting. 
• I also spoke to her about our Church's philosophy. Shoreline wishes to engage Austin's culture and to say that they were not welcome to attend our services based on their beliefs of behavior wouldn't sit well with our leadership. We don't make attendance about belief and behavior, however we make no apology for teaching very specific things about how we believe and how our church family should behave. 
• Then, there was almost sadness in the question. "Are we welcome?" That part of the text, as it was read aloud broke my heart. In it I heard a longing for community, for belonging, and for connection. This is so prevalent in our culture, regardless of age. 

How about your experience with church communities? What is your experience with church community?  Are there things that people do or believe that would make them unwelcome?

"Radical Alternative"

I forgot where I found this, but it showed up in a file I clipped from my studies.

Stanley Hauerwas and William Willmon propose a "confessing church" model as a "radical alternative" to the "activist" (Constantinian) or "conversionist" (privatized) models that are current. What they envision is the church as "an alternative polis, a countercultural social structure called church." Such a church has its overriding political task "that again asserts that God, not nations, rule the world, that boundaries of God's kingdom transcend those of Caesar, and that the main political task of the church is the formation of people who see clearly the cost of discipleship and are willing to pay the price." They invite us to see ourselves with the exilic eyes as "resident" aliens, an adventurous colony in a society of unbelief."

• The privatized church model is centered too much on the individual for me. The church is not a provider of goods and services. It is something so much more than that. 

• Whether we like it or not, we are "resident" aliens in our surrounding culture.  

What if we (as the church) viewed our apartments, homes, or where ever we live as foreign embassies, representing another kingdom? 

How would this change our church programs? How would this change the way we work, go to school, and interact with our neighbors? 

I want to be missional.

I've been a way a while because of work and school, but I have been reading a lot and I'm ready to start posting again. This one is longer than usual, but it encapsulates what I've been chewing on and wrestling with in my life and calling. I hope you enjoy!


The missional church is incarnational, not attractional, in its ecclesiology. By incarnational we mean it does not create sanctified spaces into which unbelievers must come to encounter the gospel. Rather, the missional church disassembles itself and seeps into the cracks and crevices of a society in order to be Christ to those who don’t yet know him.

The missional church is messianic, not dualistic, in its spirituality. That is, it adopts the worldview of Jesus the Messiah, rather than that of the Greco-Roman empire. Instead of seeing the world as divided between the sacred (religious) and profane (nonreligious), like Christ it sees the world and God’s place in it as more holistic and integrated.

The missional church adopts an apostolic, rather than a hierarchical, mode of leadership. By apostolic we mean a mode of leadership that recognizes the fivefold model detailed by Paul in Ephesians 4. It abandons the triangular hierarchies of the traditional church and embraces a biblical, flat-leadership community that unleashes the gifts of evangelism, apostleship, and prophecy, as well as the currently popular pastoral and teaching gifts.

Frost, Michael; Hirsch, Alan (2001-01-01). Shaping of Things to Come, The (Kindle Locations 346-356). Baker Book Group. Kindle Edition.

How to be a man part II

Here's the presentation from tonight's talk to our guys. I'm highlighting some concepts as road markers for them to look at as they pass on to manhood. The presentation will make more sense along with my talk, so it may seem a bit abstract.

How To Be a Man Part II on Prezi

homosexuality: stumbling towards a youth ministry response

You Were Born What Way? | Youth Specialties

I just came across this article on the YS site. It's about the first time a youth pastor had a young person tell of their struggle with sexual identity.

He walked into my office, a junior high student in my student ministry – a young man that I had led in the salvation prayer several years ago when he was still in our children’s ministry program.
This was my first year as a student pastor – a novice. A newbie. I thought I knew all there was to know and thought I was prepared for any situations that came my way.
I was not.
He sat in my office and quietly began to tell me that he was unsure of his sexual identity.

 This is not a new issue, of course. I am grateful for his perspective. Dealing with the topic of homosexuality is tricky for sure. In my experience there are no nuggets of truth to instantly take the struggle, feelings, or whatever away. I don't know of any homosexuals that have been argued out of their persuasion. 

If I could do anything differently… if I could somehow go back in time to that first encounter in my office, I think that I would want the first and last words out of my mouth to somehow communicate that I loved him. And then I’d take him out for a coffee or soda and try and let him know that I’d be with him for the long haul.

Honestly, I've been cautious to address homosexuality directly in our services, because I've noticed that highlighting a particular sin can sometimes make young people think that they SHOULD be struggling with that area. However, I do feel the responsibility to address the issue, but will another sermon really help? In my experience, the approach of the author is highly effective, it just takes effort, prayer, lots of time, and wisdom.

Does this topic come up in your church or youth group? How have you approached the subject? How have you seen God's redemption at work in this area?

Stanley Hauerwas on Leadership

We just finished a book by this guy. It was a collection of his essays and it really challenged the was I look at my family, Shoreline Church, and topics like sex and abortion. If you are a youth leader or a leader in the church. This is a guy you should know about. He's brilliant. He's a bit over my head, but it's a good stretch. Check out this video and get a few nuggets of wisdom out of it.

I also think he may be the voice of Jesus in the Vintage 21 videos. (posted below) :-)

Planning Season for Youth Ministry

The first half of the year is over and it's well past time to put our fall ministry plan into effect. This video explains how how I feel about the process. If Jesus was running your church's youth ministry (it's a crazy claim, I know), what would his dreams be? (HT to Chad for the vid)

Book Review: Jesus and Community

About the author: Gerhard Lohfink grew up in Germany in the midst of rising national tensions as nations built up to World War II forcing him to move many times. He excelled in the field of academics gaining permission to pursue higher degrees while serving as pastor and chaplain in various posts. His perspective as a German, a priest, and college professor uniquely qualify him to make bold claims with his thesis and to support it with evidence from scripture, early church history, and first hand experience.

About the Thesis: His thesis claims that Christian Community’s form must come from the practices of Jesus that we have in the form of the gospels, which was uniquely focused on Israel, gathering it together so that the world my experience the kingdom of God, bringing God’s reign into the earthly realm, standing out in the midst the dominant culture, and acting as Christ’s agent of change.

About the Structure: He supports his thesis using a 4-section structure. First sections define Jesus’ model of Community as implied by his actions on earth and Old Testament precedent. The final sections outline how Apostles and early followers continued the important aspects of community instituted by Christ. These practices include but are not limited to: praying for the sick, living as a contrast society, bearing the identity of “God’s people,” passively resisting the kingdom of this world, and cultivating a community of equals that serve each other.

Personal Reaction: Lohfink’s repetitious structure aided my understanding of his thesis. With out the repetition of a claim, a scripture, an explanation of the passage, and conclusions, he would certainly have lost me. Thankfully we did not have to read it in German. From my perspective these insights are valuable, but perhaps too familiar. This may be a byproduct of the generation I’m a part of and the generation of people I work with, but I found myself too easily agreeing with Lohfink’s highly authentic, communal, egalitarian, peaceful, and accountable version of Christian community. After reflection, I find myself asking, “Why don’t more people in my stream of Christianity know about this book?”

About Application: As for application to my ministry situation, I think this book will find it’s place in a stockpile I’ll return to in a search to provide Shoreline’s youth an alternative to consumerism. The image I found most vivid was in the introduction. It talked about a priest, a counselor, and physician roaming a city “on call” (Location, 84). This vivid picture illustrates a tension I currently feel in ministry to a large church. We want to help people, but Lohfink challenged my thinking about the way Mega Churches serve congregations. There certainly isn’t anything wrong with serving a parishioner, but what if the structure of a community actually encourages individualism? If Jesus was in charge of my youth group, (a bold thought, I know) what would he say about our programs and the impulses they feed? How would they compare to the picture of Christ’s community provided by Lohfink?

Initially, I think we have a long way to go as a contrast society. We have a gathering, but I wonder about how much of Lohfink’s community we experience. There are brilliant moments that punctuate our program, that come in Small Groups, Retreats, and Summer Camps where young people catch a glimpse of what God’s Kingdom might look like, but this rarely translates into the day to day life of our community. This issue cannot be solved with a sermon series or a small group study. Perhaps I need to look at my own life and ask if I’m buying what I’m “selling?” My gut level hunch is that young people will not do it until they see it, so perhaps what our group needs is a contrast society within our community.

Book Review: Spiritual Leadership: Moving People onto God's Agenda

     About the authors:The name Blackaby carries a great amount of influence in many church circles, particularly with those in the Baptist denomination. Both Henry and Richard have pastored churches and written books together, Experiencing God is one of their more well known projects. Their background is conservative, but their influence reaches beyond those on the Theological right, which is evidenced by the glowing endorsements they receive from ministry leaders. Training leaders is a huge part of what they do and the heart of this work is to point leaders, and especially pastors toward drawing primarily from God as a source of ministry strength.
     
     Thesis: The authors use their thesis to claim effective leadership is dynamically connected to a leaders correctly understanding God’s calling on his or her life (Location 141). For a leader to function at full capacity, an understanding of “God’s call” and “God’s agenda” is absolutely critical (Location 140).
     
     Structure: The Blackabys organized this book by topic. There is a linear flow to the way the topics progress beginning with the challenge of leadership in section 1, establishing the leader’s role in section 2, sections 3 through 9 deal with practical issues facing a leader such as casting vision, time management, and the kind of person a Spiritual Leader is. Sections 10 and 11 warn of leadership “pitfalls” and unveil potential rewards of leading God’s way. These sections support the thesis by unpacking leadership principals and then showing the positive and negative consequences of leadership decisions. Though there is a flow to the logic from definition to outcomes, these sections need not be read in order and can be used as a reference for anyone interested in specific topics.


     Application: Since I have a Christian worldview, the thesis is difficult for me to argue with. I know that if I’m not dependent on God to lead effectively. I find this thesis important because sometimes we can become so familiar with a truth that we forget it (Willard 1998). I came away from our seminars with a preconceived notion that somehow this resource would not be my cup of tea because of its linear more modern structure. I still would prefer that the authors celebrate the interconnectedness of these principals, but I found the information practical to my ministry experience and beneficial to my day-to-day life.
     The section on making decisions (Location 3216) immediately drew my attention because I am self-conscious about this leadership competency. My grandfather was a ‘big time’ church leader and showed strong leadership in our home as well. I learned to follow, but did not exercise decision-making capabilities. This regularly hampers my ministry life. The Blackabys gave me much comfort in this area by relieving the pressure to come up with the right answer on my own (Location 3244). I was hoping that the topic of people pleasing would come up more but I did find the thought of being first and foremost accountable to God very helpful (Location 3403). I have already gone forward with a change in youth ministry teaching format to a more “guide on the side” approach because I know it’s the right thing for our group to do, instead of worrying about what people will say.
     Practically, I plan to use this book in meetings with my paid staff, our volunteer youth workers, and Leadership college. Each chapter lists key ideas outlined in bullet form and they lend themselves to serve as a map for discussion, which will be great for my staff meetings and monthly volunteer meetings. This content would be beneficial to our leadership college students at Shoreline Church, but I will have it on our ‘suggested reading’ list because I feel its language is more readily beneficial to paid staff members of a church who oversee several people.

Gadgets that are helping with youth ministry

Here are a list of programs, apps, and gadgets that I've been using for youth ministry lately. I hope they help you too.

Do you do presentations for your sermons? I like to, but Power Point gets so old.

• Check out Prezi, it's great. I love the nonlinear style of presentation as the "camera" pans across the canvas. It's free, and even more free if you have an .edu e-mail address.

• I also discovered Keynote furring my Fuller classes. It made a little bit more sense to me than power point. The animations are pretty sweet as well.
  
  

• Another good option is slide rocket. This, like Prezi is a web based presentation software. I really like the google app for it. 

• Finally, this note taking software coupled with the getting things done method is making sense of my life. For anyone who is spinning a lot of plates, I highly suggest Evernote. It syncs across computer and laptop formats and can be organized through a tagging system instead of folders, which I prefer. Another great thing about this powerful tool is the price: FREE!

Book Review: A Community of Character

A bit about the author: Stanley Hauerwas plainly says that he identifies strongly with the (Southern) Methodist tradition, but is open to ideas from other streams of Christianity (Page 6). He’s the son of a workingman from Indiana, who pursued higher education instead of staying close to home. He taught at Notre Dame and currently teaches at Duke Divinity School. He’s a prolific author and thinker, whose books are required reading in many theology programs.

Thesis: Hauerwas claims that the Church is to be a group of people who view life through the lens of Biblical Narrative and live in such a way that is true to those stories (Page 1).  That is the main way that Christians will “reassert” their relevance to culture (Page 1).

Structure: This book is a collection of essays grouped into three sections. Part 1 explores and explains what Hauerwas means by a narrative and it’s implications for community. Part 2 builds upon the definition of narrative and broadly traces it’s development and usage historically and ends with implications for spiritual formation. Section 3 takes advantage of the stage set by previous definitions and explorations and delves into critical areas in Christian Social Ethics. These issues are a definition of family, politics, how to talk about sex, and a response to the issue of abortion.

Personal Application: I am grateful for the way the thesis challenges the Church to be different from the world without withdrawing from it. Growing up in the height of the Religious Right’s popularity, left me questioning if the church’s main responsibility was in the arena of social policy, especially politics.  He supports his arguments and even includes many ideas contrary to his own position. This made his ideas more credible, even if it was hard to stick with the overarching thoughts in each essay. It was a stretch for me to read. I found myself agreeing with his positions, but perplexed as to how to apply it to my discussions with teenagers and parents.

The biggest challenge for me is how to apply these thoughts to my own family. I found myself without a quick answer to why I want children (Page 157). I’ve wanted to be a Father as long as I can remember, but I found myself without a vocabulary to explain why. After this read, and a little bit of thinking, I can say that I want my family to be ambassadors of another kingdom. I want us intimately involved in our neighborhood and church community. Now comes the hard part, doing this on purpose. Marie and I used to dream of taking our daughters to outreaches, doing things for our neighbors, and modeling a different way of life for them. However, much of this fervor gave way to the daily pressures of life. Hauerwas gives hope to this as well, as we can even see the mundane as “heroic”  (Page 174).

About Pop

Today is Pop's memorial service. I could not go, but my family let me make a little video to show.

New Metrics

Last week, Tim Ball the youth pastor at Promised Land West invited me to a talk George Barna gave to their staff. Barna, talked to them about his research into how churches can determine how they are 'transforming' lives. I re-payed Tim's kindness by showing up late and he re-payed my tardiness by killing me at fooseball afterward.

The information presented was provocative and held tremendous implications for the way churches in America do ministry and evaluate the success of their efforts. Here are some questions I came away pondering:

• How do we really tell if the people we serve are living 'transformed' lives?
• What are the stops along the journey of transformation that a Christ follower passes on his/her journey toward maturity?
• How can pastors better create atmospheres for peoples lives to experience transformation?

Ideas?

Starting a Movement

For those of you who aspire to leadership, this is a good one to watch.

Five things I didn't learn in Bible School.

This week Marie and I officially assumed responsibility for both middle school and high school aged young people in our church. We're thrilled at the opportunity and honored that our leadership would trust us with this generation of Shoreliners.

I've tried to get my bearings over Christmas break, dream, and cast vision, but I've also  done some reflecting on my first 10 years in youth ministry and this short list just came to mind. I am grateful for my education, but here's what a theology degree wont prepare you for.

1. How to work with a church database.
2. Fix a copy machine.
3. Recruit junior high youth workers.
4. Budget
5. Deal with parents who are disappointed in the youth ministry's ability to fix their child.

3 Books Read in 2010

A few years ago (13 already?!?!?) Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline really challenged me about my desire to read the latest material out there. It pushed me towards reading classics and things I really need to know instead of merely "keeping up." 

I didn't read a ton in 2010 because Shoreline Leadership College, the Easter play, Summer Camp/Conference, Fall Retreat, the Christmas play, and new youth ministry responsibilities kept me pretty busy. I read more than three, but these books helped keep my soul resourced, fed, and floating.

• This year I went through Eugene Peterson's practical advice on the kind of person pastors should be. I read this every year. The Contemplative Pastor gave me the vocabulary to describe myself as unbusy, subversive, and apocalyptic. These words are not often used to describe pastors and I have not become the kind of pastor Peterson describes with these words, but they are what I aspire to. 

 

• I think I was supposed to read this book at Oral Roberts University. For whatever reason, I just got around to picking up this book. I wish I read it sooner. The advice found within is a must read for any Christian that wishes to serve in any capacity. Dads, Moms, Pastors, or whatever/whoever should read this book. 

• Peter Scazzero's bold and honest account of his personal journey towards emotional health. As a direct result of this book I was able to deal with interpersonal conflict, process negative emotions in a more positive way, and establish better personal boundaries. He also suggests a new paradigm for discipleship within the local church that will take me a while to chew on.

Video Updates

I apologize for the complications with the videos I've been posting lately. I'm learning to blog from my phone for better youth ministry updates. The issue should be resolved by next week!

Today I'll be putting the finishing touches on a presentation I'll be giving tonight at Shoreline Leadership College based on Gordon Fee's book, Reading the Bible For All It's Worth.  We're trying to equip people for significant ministry in our community. So many are hungry to get into the "meaty" stuff of the Bible. I could never go into all of this book in one session. Tonight's class will be an introduction to Hermeneutics and then an example of how to do it with the book of Ephesians.

Shoreline Leadership College Expands: Learn how you can be apart. Enrolling now for Fall 2010!!

Now more than ever we as a church and community need quality leaders to be entrusted with fresh vision, renewed purpose and Godly diligence to be leaned upon for significant ministry both here at Shoreline, and all over the community/world at large.  

On September 13^th classes will begin which are specifically designed for emerging, up and coming leaders of Shoreline, entitled Shoreline Leadership College’s Part Time Program.   Please forward this information to any emerging or prospective leader and your leadership team, who feels called to impact our world, and their world, for the loving and life changing gospel message of Jesus Christ!!!

SLC Provides

• Essential training necessary for impacting and engaging ministry of all calibers
• Curriculum designed to sharpen and enhance leaders right where they are already ministering/serving
• Guest speakers ministering on riveting and essential topics essential to fulfill their calling
• Networking and relationship building with other leaders from other Shoreline Leadership Teams
• Structure, Guidance, and Design to the leadership path of anyone wanting to grow deeper in their overall leadership development.

It’s 10 weeks long. It costs$199. We do have scholarships available. The requirements: attend 2 classes on Monday night (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM & 8:00-9:00 PM), lead or assist with a small group, serve at a service, and go to one outreach per month. Sign up at http://shoreline.net/leadershipcollege.

We’re so excited to play a part in our church community’s mission to raise up leaders that will impact the world for the overwhelming love of Jesus Christ.