Most churches see themselves as a place to connect the unchurched & dechurched or they are gathering believers. It’s easy to become “strategy” driven, which if we’re not careful, we will build a core of people based on modern-day business practices and not biblical principles. This can easily become anti-gospel, because we don’t call people to fullly live out their faith, pick up the cross and follow Jesus. Instead, we try to convince them we have a “cool” gathering, great facilities, clean kids rooms, and practical teachings, etc. 

What the world ends up seeing is a bunch of Christians who don’t fully live out their faith. Now, of course we need to be practical and deeply care for some of the above mentioned issues. But, we also need to have a higher level of  requirement of those who attend our church. We need to see our people move from seeker to full-fledged-Christ-follower. We need to see them ask different questions, not “what can I get from the church,” rather, “what can I give to the local church.”  These church-goers need to somehow embrace the reality that they are now missionaries and the church is a place to gather and send, not just listen and learn. Christians can’t continue to look for the church to meet all their spiritual needs, they must learn the art of self-feeding and Spirit-led living; while they are on mission for God and doing life with other believers. The gathering has its place, but its “secondary” not “primary.” Primary is loving God and serving our world through our God-given skills, passions, gifts and desires! A missionary can’t just hang-out with other missionaries, eventually we leave our place of comfort and go to a place where God has called us to be “light” and to do “good” works so we can “glorify” God and allow the local community to see Jesus’ love through our service and sacrifice. Imagine how life would be if the Apostles had stayed together and never went out to fulfill their calling?

 We need to build authentic community that is based on Biblical expressions that can deeply shape our local church experiences. As we all “become” the church in our natural domains, and “trust” the Spirit to lead and guide each believer. Maybe we can see a momentum shift on how we look at the Church and we will have greater expectations for the average church-goer. And our Gathering’s can become a place where missionaries come together once a week to worship and pray before they go back into the mission field. 

PS: I’m not anti strategy. I think strategy had an important place in the process.

So I have a question. I’m writing a series on the gospel. 6-7 posts…Hopefully I will be done sometime in the summer. Anyhow, here is my questions:

The gospel is a story of movement and action because it create a culture of redemption and restoration in the midst of brokenness.”  Maybe it’s just me…But somehow the “CHURCH” in American (and Europe I suppose) have lost the sense of mission and adventure. 

We call people to surrender to Jesus. But what is that suppose to look like? We live in a cubicle world filled with so many mundane activities like working, kids and caring for the home. On one hand this is good. But for most people I think we want to break free from a mundane life. The tension of course is we have to do the mundane, right? 

So how does the church not become a mundane experience? How do we call people to live a greater life filled with purpose, passion and adventure? Are we asking to little from those who follow Jesus? 

Thoughts? 

• Glad to see so many Austin planters. Love that. God is doing something in Austin. We need more.
• The vision I’ve had for the church has been affirmed. It can be done. We can be a church that really does make an impact in the glocal community and not just focus on how many people attended our Sunday service.
• I don’t want to overstate this…But I felt like this vision is very “Acts 2.” Something worth living and dying for.
• I think we need to re-define leadership. It’s not how many “come” to your church but it’s really how many “go” from your church into the world to make a Kingdom impact. As Northwood says “Kingdom In, Kingdom Out.”
• The Kingdom creates chaos. We have to trust God in the midst of Chaos. It’s uncomfortable, hectic etc.
• I need to focus on the spiritual and practical and not so much on the church organization. Pastors can’t sit in an office all the time. We need to be in the community, networking, serving, mentoring, learning and loving our city and world.
• I can’t say this enough: Just because you have a growing church, people coming on Sunday, people attending small groups etc. Does not mean you have a missional church that is making a difference. We MUST redefine success. A growing church can be a good thing-as long as the church is sending people back into the community to love and serve.
• The Church is the mission.

I know for many this type of thinking is a huge paradigm shift. We lose our comfort zones. I think pastors in the West have to understand that God is moving in huge ways in the Global South and we need to learn from this movement. It’s OK not to be the “top dogs” on the block. Maybe soon pastors from the Global South will come to America to do some “pastors training.”

Good times.

Together we serve under the leadership of Jesus…We are apart of the same body and we have the same end-goal.

So to all my pastor friends in Austin…May God bless your ministry.

“Son, you’re a pastor in Austin. Like, you speak on Sunday, or do you just attend the church?”

Anyhow thanks for the prayers and advice. They were helpful.

I think this past year I’ve really understood the complexities of being a pastor.  You have to know so much about a lot of vital aspects in life. Think about it…A pastor has to be good at speaking, counseling, organizational leadership, team building, vision casting, staff management, budgeting, leadership development, cultural engagement, theology, missional activity etc.  The list could go on-and-on.

Usually we have to be good at all that plus lack major resources and education. What seminaries teach you all of the above? NONE!

I would like to dig deeper into this, who knows what we may uncover. And how do we really use our congregation to do the things that they are good at? But through the lens of theology and mission and without burning them out?

BTW-Thank God I’m not really leading the church…Jesus is the lead pastor. Now if he could only run staffing meeting

Anyhow, I guess I’m a pastor-but I don’t want to be boxed into that specific title. It seems so confined or stale. I consider myself more of a missionary (loaded word for sure) or spiritual activist that comes in the name of Jesus. One who goes into the city to learn it’s culture and create spiritual pathways that help bring the city back to God.

I think a great example of this is the Fermi Project. I just received an email from them and this is how hey communicate who they are:

“Greetings to everyone that has joined the Fermi Project – a collective of innovators, social entrepreneurs, church and society leaders recapturing the Church’s historic role in advancing the common good in culture.”

What is we staffed our churches more like that? Instead of being so program driven or title specific. I think this is more in-line with a movement mentality as opposed to building one single organization.

Thoughts?

Brand Autopsy has a great post that I think is relevant to this conversation. And I think Rob Bell or somebody asked the same question at some conference last year.

If you’re church or business was gone today-would anybody care? Brand Autopsy uses some of the following businesses as example:

1. Subaru: Nope, I could care less about them.
2. Sears: Nope, it’s been years since I stepped into a Sears.
3. Well Fargo: I would not, but if WAMU was gone I would be depressed.
4. Chilli’s: I still enjoy Chilli’s. But I’ve only been there maybe once in the last year. So I would be sad, but not really.

Now what companies would cause depression if they disappeared.

1. Starbucks: I’m not a fan really, I prefer local joints. But I would still be sad, because I would miss the convenience.
2. In & Out or Chick-Fil-A: Yes for sure. I love these joints.
3. Harley: I want one-BAD. So yes I would be sad.
4. Amazon: Oh God-please…That would be horrible.
5. Target: Yes, love Target.

6. All the local pubs, coffeeshops and restaurants. (Mozart’s, Genuine Joe’s, Shady Grove, Freebirds, Waterloo Records etc.)

I think there is something to be said about culture. And I think my job as a leader is to determine how my church can become a community that would be deeply missed by Christians and non-Christians. When I was studying these churches, they seem to have that dubious “it” factor. They got vision, momentum and excitement. It really does not matter if you are a simple church or mega-church. There is still an “it” factor or maybe a tipping point. Something that generated momentum which then became a movement.

I’ve identified seven things that they all seem to have. This is just a quasi personal opinion, no formal research. So, hopefully after Christmas I will be able to post the seven things that every church had or seemed to have. In the meantime I leave you with this quote by Seth Godin via Purple Cow.

“The lesson is simple—boring always leads to failure. Boring is always the most risky strategy. Smart businesspeople realize this, and they work to minimize (but not eliminate) the risk from the process.”

A few thoughts:

• Being portable kinda sucks. Space is always an issue.
• It’s complex to solve all the moving parts that go into ministry. So many issues and personalities that have to mesh.
• Money: You have to always figure out the money issue. When do you take a step of faith? Are we being wise. Assessing risk is vital.
• Gifting: Are we doing what we are gifted to do?
• Focus is really big for us. How do we have a laser sharp focus?
• What culture are we creating? Is our culture safe? Is our culture chaotic? Or is our culture one of mission and Spirit led living and planning.
• Are we having fun? If not then something is just not right.

I guess I could go on..It’s really a never ending list. As I process our vision, strategy, systems etc. I think everything comes back to life-change. We have to see life change. People finding God, marriages being restored, broken relationships being mended…It’s really about transformation. If Austin and the people who live here, those we minister too are not being transformed them something is just not right, mission is not happening.

Therefore, every decision we make is based on the conviction of “will this decision help bring transformation?”