by Mike Perkinson
Imagine a newly married couple moving into their home with dreams and aspirations of a joy-filled future. As they cross the threshold with life exploding in their hearts they stop in the entry to look at each other and dream about a home full of little ones running around, interrupting the quiet, disrupting the order and filling the home with vibrant life. The young wife wipes away a tear and her husband embraces her as they enter their new home with great expectation of life to come.
With great anticipation the young couple begins to plan for their new life. They make their way to the bedrooms and begin to think through how each will become a nursery. Each bedroom will house a little life and so the young couple begins to make plans for how each room will look, deciding that one will be for a boy and the other for a girl. After all, they’ve always wanted one boy and one girl. The décor is selected for each room, the clothes are purchased, the colleges selected and their careers are mapped out.
The young couple sits down at the end of a rather exhausting day of planning, systematizing and organizing. They look at each other with great expectancy and now wait for the life to come. Each day passes with no signs of a baby and as the months go by the couple adds to the nurseries, studies up on parenting, and prays daily for the life to come about. After months of waiting and now growing rather discouraged, they invest more in the décor of the nursery, in learning about babies and childhood development and even fast and pray in hope of life to come. All to no avail, the couple gives up on the pursuit and settles for their life without little ones. All of the efforts to make life happen were noble, right and highly organized. However, they forgot one very important part of the process. Life cannot be organized into existence.
In our ecclesiological nursery we find pastors and leaders dressing up the room, organizing the systems, learning theology and anthropology and every other -ology that exists – all in hopes of making life happen. Like the young couple, pastors often forget one very important thing. Life cannot be organized into existence. If we are not pregnant with life than no matter how much we decorate the nursery, organize the systems, study theology and fallen human nature, and market the dream, the baby will not come.
In America, we have some of the nicest and best-organized churches (nurseries) in the world. And yet, some are oddly missing the one thing that makes the nursery vibrant – the baby. The question of the hour is: Are we pregnant with the life of our God, bursting forth from our innermost being? Is there a baby on the way? If so, then by all means plan your nursery. After all, once life happens we then organize and facilitate systems that allow that life to grow and mature. Is life happening in you? Your family? Your leadership? Your spiritual community? Do we find the love of our Father compelling us to move out into the highways and by-ways and passionately and lovingly provide life to a broken and fallen world?
Life happens where the Incarnate One is present in the life of His people that love Him with all their hearts, love their neighbors as they love themselves and make disciples as they live life – being the ubiquitous church – the Church that is the Church anywhere, everywhere and all the time.
And so dear co-laborer, are you pregnant with life? After all, we can only give away the comfort we have received (2 Corinthians 1:3-4.) Maybe that is why so many of us have been reduced to giving formulas, systems and nursery décor because we have lost our relationship with our God as His sons and daughters.
Forgive me for being so simple but I’d like to encourage you to go back and commune with your Father and let His life and love nurture you and form the life of His Son in you. Let Him make you pregnant with His life that will express itself in our broken world, filling it with hope, salvation, restoration and love.
Those pregnant with life find themselves loving God whole-heartedly – making life in the Kingdom their aim, pleasing the One who makes life possible. Those pregnant with life love others as they love themselves, facilitating a life of relationship that gives birth to community that is based in reconciliation, restoration and hope. Those pregnant with life find themselves living the abundant life (John 10:10) that makes disciples, giving from the overflow of their relationship with God (Psalm 23:5.) May God create His life in us so that the world may come to know the life and power that is in our Christ and may our nurseries, systems and organizations help to develop and mature into fully devoted disciples of Christ. May God fill our nurseries with His life!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Generations
by Tom Johnston
It is said that, in any nation, the Christian faith is always just one generation away from annihilation. If the parents of one generation fail to transmit the faith to those who follow behind them, then the witness for Christ in that land will evaporate, and dissipate like a mist. Are we in the West now on the brink of this reality coming to pass? Are we truly at (or past) the “point of no return,” where the Church will not thrive, but continue its massive decline until little, or nothing, remains of a once vibrant witness it held forth?
The statics are shocking to say the least. It appears that we have not even reached the numerical equivalent of our own children in this generation. Only three percent of the Millennial generation have a positive view of the Church – and it seems that number is the same for those young people inside the Church! The Vatican released figures a few months ago that those in America who claim Roman Catholic heritage born since 1980 have less than a 10% participation rate, with only about 4% of all Americans in this age group calling themselves “Christian.” Our own personal surveys and interviews with pastors and Christian leaders indicates that few, if any, pastors and leaders have a regular structured discipleship time with their spouse or as a family during any given week. However, while the statics are grim, all is not lost.
We are raising a call, not for a new generation of spiritual children, but of spiritual parents – men and women of faith who will take responsibility for developing in the faith those who follow behind, starting with their own families. That’s right, you don’t get to export it if it doesn’t work at home (1 Timothy 3:4, based on Deuteronomy 6:4-7.) The New Testament metaphor for leadership is quite often parenting: Jesus, Peter, James, John all refer affectionately to their spiritual “children,” not in any form of condescension, but in the sense of giving life to another. Being a life-giving spiritual parent is the call of every Christian, and is much more biblically aligned than the positional, titular corporate role functions most often embrace by leaders in the Western Church.
So, who are you giving life to, spiritually? Who are you fathering or mothering in the faith? Who are you strengthening and encouraging, building and nurturing? Who do you have relationship with that you desire to pour spiritual life into, like Paul did with the Galatians:
my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! (Galatians 4:19)
We will never have another generation of Christians in this country unless we take responsibility to disciple and mentor those who follow behind. We cannot subrogate our personal responsibility before God, passing it off to the institution of the Church, relying on someone else or some program to disciple our own children. Nor can we entrust the development of next generation leaders to the classroom alone. Timothy and Titus had Paul, not a DVD or a syllabus. Apollos had Pricilla and Aquila to “more correctly” instruct him in the Way (Acts 18:26.) It is through the “curriculum of life” that someone learns how to follow Christ in discipleship, how to treat their spouse, how to raise their children. It happens “on the way,” each and every day, as people walk together with Jesus.
So, what will it be? Will the Church in the West decline and fail? Will she become like Europe has? Indeed we will, unless each of us takes on the challenge of discipleship – first of ourselves, then of our families and then those whom the Lord leads us to through relationship. Be a life-giver. The time is now. The choice is yours.
It is said that, in any nation, the Christian faith is always just one generation away from annihilation. If the parents of one generation fail to transmit the faith to those who follow behind them, then the witness for Christ in that land will evaporate, and dissipate like a mist. Are we in the West now on the brink of this reality coming to pass? Are we truly at (or past) the “point of no return,” where the Church will not thrive, but continue its massive decline until little, or nothing, remains of a once vibrant witness it held forth?
The statics are shocking to say the least. It appears that we have not even reached the numerical equivalent of our own children in this generation. Only three percent of the Millennial generation have a positive view of the Church – and it seems that number is the same for those young people inside the Church! The Vatican released figures a few months ago that those in America who claim Roman Catholic heritage born since 1980 have less than a 10% participation rate, with only about 4% of all Americans in this age group calling themselves “Christian.” Our own personal surveys and interviews with pastors and Christian leaders indicates that few, if any, pastors and leaders have a regular structured discipleship time with their spouse or as a family during any given week. However, while the statics are grim, all is not lost.
We are raising a call, not for a new generation of spiritual children, but of spiritual parents – men and women of faith who will take responsibility for developing in the faith those who follow behind, starting with their own families. That’s right, you don’t get to export it if it doesn’t work at home (1 Timothy 3:4, based on Deuteronomy 6:4-7.) The New Testament metaphor for leadership is quite often parenting: Jesus, Peter, James, John all refer affectionately to their spiritual “children,” not in any form of condescension, but in the sense of giving life to another. Being a life-giving spiritual parent is the call of every Christian, and is much more biblically aligned than the positional, titular corporate role functions most often embrace by leaders in the Western Church.
So, who are you giving life to, spiritually? Who are you fathering or mothering in the faith? Who are you strengthening and encouraging, building and nurturing? Who do you have relationship with that you desire to pour spiritual life into, like Paul did with the Galatians:
my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! (Galatians 4:19)
We will never have another generation of Christians in this country unless we take responsibility to disciple and mentor those who follow behind. We cannot subrogate our personal responsibility before God, passing it off to the institution of the Church, relying on someone else or some program to disciple our own children. Nor can we entrust the development of next generation leaders to the classroom alone. Timothy and Titus had Paul, not a DVD or a syllabus. Apollos had Pricilla and Aquila to “more correctly” instruct him in the Way (Acts 18:26.) It is through the “curriculum of life” that someone learns how to follow Christ in discipleship, how to treat their spouse, how to raise their children. It happens “on the way,” each and every day, as people walk together with Jesus.
So, what will it be? Will the Church in the West decline and fail? Will she become like Europe has? Indeed we will, unless each of us takes on the challenge of discipleship – first of ourselves, then of our families and then those whom the Lord leads us to through relationship. Be a life-giver. The time is now. The choice is yours.
What's Wrong With Legitimacy?
by Mark Overmyer
Recently, I was thinking through some challenges with a church planter. In our conversation I was reminded how every baby church strives for legitimacy. Ninety nine out of a hundred people who ask the planter, “How’s it going?” are looking for indicators that would verify the viability of the new enterprise. The church planter realizes that his baby church is like a house of cards. And so not wanting to admit the truth, often the planter is left mumbling something about attendance at their most recent event and the inquirer is hopefully satisfied. Have you noticed how even the websites of baby churches can be deceiving? It’s always better on paper than it is in reality. Is this church going to make it? When visitors and attendees insinuate this question by asking about available programs and/or facilities, church planters encounter that familiar old knot in the stomach and the gulp that familiar gulp. Sure we trust that Jesus will build His church and this spiritual promise quenches the burning question for a moment. But often we are moved to do something about it as well. But what to do? We reason that, “If we could just have a quality children’s program we could attract families. If our audio & visuals were higher quality, visitors would return. If we had more people we could achieve ‘critical mass.'" And so we pursue, often with brilliant innovation and generous financial investment, all the factors that we’ve come to know will contribute to legitimacy. Not a bad approach, but I must say it’s a few degrees off-center of the Great Commission.
The bull’s-eye Jesus drew was different. It’s no wonder, because legitimacy was never a concern of Jesus. Viability was never in doubt for the Master. For him the target was fruitfulness (see John 15.) And to hit this mark, we can afford no distractions and no preoccupations with personal or corporate validation.
Think about how different “fruitfulness” is from “legitimacy” when it comes to the focus of a church planting team or a church leadership team. Legitimacy in a new church is marked by attendance, growth, and programming excellence. And, trust me on this; these can be achieved without any spiritual fruit. Fruitfulness is evidenced by the effects of the ministry of the Word and the Holy Spirit when the “branch abides in the vine.” Fruitfulness is the result of sowing eternal Gospel truth through conversation, music, study, preaching, serving, etc. The seed germinates, takes root, sprouts and grows. The effect (i.e. fruit) is repentance, healing, reconciliation, recovery, new priorities, sacrificial service, loving community.... essentially obedience. Brainstorm your own lists: What demonstrates legitimacy in a church? What demonstrates fruitfulness?
The Spirit led me to brainstorm these lists with my church planter friend. After we filled a page of two columns, I asked him, “Which of these did you sign up for when you were called to ministry?” and “For which of these would your leaders to give their lives?” Since that table conversation, I’ve thought of another question: If you could have only one or the other from a member of your church which would you want: attendance at church services or obedience to Jesus Christ? Clearly we want both. And some thoughtful readers are already asking why can’t we have both attendance AND obedience, legitimacy AND fruitfulness?
If legitimacy in a church plant is primarily affirmed by strong attendance and if fruitfulness is primarily affirmed in a church by obedience, then which is most important to you the church planter or church leader? Don’t say “BOTH!” Which one, really? The question is meant to challenge us to consider where we spend the most time, effort, money, research, planning, conference-attending, and intercession. If we are honest, we would have to admit that we are conditioned to lead toward legitimacy more so than fruitfulness. In order to have both (which I strongly desire and advocate) there is a chronology that works best. If you focus on fruitfulness it will tend to lead to legitimacy. Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35, NIV) But if you start with legitimacy, you may or may not end up fruitful.
Think about this. I’ve found this to be profound for me. So much of Jesus’ ministry example seemed to even undermine legitimacy. His ministry was a threat to the establishment. He didn’t seem to mind. In fact, in validating his messiahship the text says he is “like one from whom men hide their faces.” Think of the bag-lady of the inner city, the homeless man on the park bench. This was the class of human being that Jesus identified himself as – almost as a badge of his messiahship - “despised and rejected by men.” I love how every time he gathered a crowd he seemed to quickly retreat from the same. Then there was his ascension a mere 40 days following his resurrection. (Talk about killing the marketing momentum!) Legitimacy was securely in hand, and he seemed to let it sift away. Because he knew that the Holy Spirit would come and empower his Church to bear fruit.
How do we resist the subtle but real pressure to lead toward legitimacy and focus on fruitfulness instead? It takes vigilance, creativity and a commitment to always keep before your people the wonderful sense of adventure and risk that is inherent in following Jesus and being a partner in his enterprise.
I don’t know who he was, but I like what he said:
"If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." - Antione de Saint-Exupery
On the agenda of the leaders’ meeting at one of our churches is the need to mow the now jungle-like weed patch at the front of the property. No one would argue with the need. The impression left on passersby is that the people who worship here don’t care about the message their sloppiness sends. If a church’s legitimacy is important, then the leadership task includes recruiting, coordinating, and gentle coaxing of overworked deacons whose capacity for volunteering always seems to outstrip their follow-through. Pastors call this part of their job description “administration.” Few of them like it – but it must be done. The leader who wants to maintain a good impression in the community will recruit wisely, coordinate carefully and coax convincingly and may even offer to pick up an extra gallon of gas for the mower in order to prod lovingly. But how far will those efforts get the deacons down the path of fruitfulness? Look at the quote above again: don't herd people… don't assign them tasks… but rather teach them to long… What if the pastor instead taught them to long for Kingdom fruitfulness?
Follow me now: Since the most exciting part of ministry is life-change, how might the pastor teach even a deacon to make every effort to be on the front row with an unobstructed view of miraculous supernatural life change? You could paint pictures, share stories, or cast a vision for what kingdom ministry looks like. You could ask him/her, “Has anyone ever taken the time to value you through conversation? to include you by asking your opinion?, or to trust you by asking for your help? Who might you bless with the same? Can they run a string trimmer or drive a lawn tractor? Who might you share the mowing task with as a means for ministry? Could you imagine sharing a prayer before starting up the mower and the string trimmer? Could you imagine taking a lemonade break halfway through and asking some simple conversation launching questions?"
A vigilant, creative pastor might even offer to make the lemonade! But please, please leave out only two glasses. Let the deacon do the ministry and you pray while they talk.
When you focus on leadership toward fruitfulness, the strategizing and the planning takes a whole new tack. And when someone longs for the endless immensity of the sea, you can’t keep them away from the wood or the work, because to get out to sea, they must build a boat.
Recently, I was thinking through some challenges with a church planter. In our conversation I was reminded how every baby church strives for legitimacy. Ninety nine out of a hundred people who ask the planter, “How’s it going?” are looking for indicators that would verify the viability of the new enterprise. The church planter realizes that his baby church is like a house of cards. And so not wanting to admit the truth, often the planter is left mumbling something about attendance at their most recent event and the inquirer is hopefully satisfied. Have you noticed how even the websites of baby churches can be deceiving? It’s always better on paper than it is in reality. Is this church going to make it? When visitors and attendees insinuate this question by asking about available programs and/or facilities, church planters encounter that familiar old knot in the stomach and the gulp that familiar gulp. Sure we trust that Jesus will build His church and this spiritual promise quenches the burning question for a moment. But often we are moved to do something about it as well. But what to do? We reason that, “If we could just have a quality children’s program we could attract families. If our audio & visuals were higher quality, visitors would return. If we had more people we could achieve ‘critical mass.'" And so we pursue, often with brilliant innovation and generous financial investment, all the factors that we’ve come to know will contribute to legitimacy. Not a bad approach, but I must say it’s a few degrees off-center of the Great Commission.
The bull’s-eye Jesus drew was different. It’s no wonder, because legitimacy was never a concern of Jesus. Viability was never in doubt for the Master. For him the target was fruitfulness (see John 15.) And to hit this mark, we can afford no distractions and no preoccupations with personal or corporate validation.
Think about how different “fruitfulness” is from “legitimacy” when it comes to the focus of a church planting team or a church leadership team. Legitimacy in a new church is marked by attendance, growth, and programming excellence. And, trust me on this; these can be achieved without any spiritual fruit. Fruitfulness is evidenced by the effects of the ministry of the Word and the Holy Spirit when the “branch abides in the vine.” Fruitfulness is the result of sowing eternal Gospel truth through conversation, music, study, preaching, serving, etc. The seed germinates, takes root, sprouts and grows. The effect (i.e. fruit) is repentance, healing, reconciliation, recovery, new priorities, sacrificial service, loving community.... essentially obedience. Brainstorm your own lists: What demonstrates legitimacy in a church? What demonstrates fruitfulness?
The Spirit led me to brainstorm these lists with my church planter friend. After we filled a page of two columns, I asked him, “Which of these did you sign up for when you were called to ministry?” and “For which of these would your leaders to give their lives?” Since that table conversation, I’ve thought of another question: If you could have only one or the other from a member of your church which would you want: attendance at church services or obedience to Jesus Christ? Clearly we want both. And some thoughtful readers are already asking why can’t we have both attendance AND obedience, legitimacy AND fruitfulness?
If legitimacy in a church plant is primarily affirmed by strong attendance and if fruitfulness is primarily affirmed in a church by obedience, then which is most important to you the church planter or church leader? Don’t say “BOTH!” Which one, really? The question is meant to challenge us to consider where we spend the most time, effort, money, research, planning, conference-attending, and intercession. If we are honest, we would have to admit that we are conditioned to lead toward legitimacy more so than fruitfulness. In order to have both (which I strongly desire and advocate) there is a chronology that works best. If you focus on fruitfulness it will tend to lead to legitimacy. Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35, NIV) But if you start with legitimacy, you may or may not end up fruitful.
Think about this. I’ve found this to be profound for me. So much of Jesus’ ministry example seemed to even undermine legitimacy. His ministry was a threat to the establishment. He didn’t seem to mind. In fact, in validating his messiahship the text says he is “like one from whom men hide their faces.” Think of the bag-lady of the inner city, the homeless man on the park bench. This was the class of human being that Jesus identified himself as – almost as a badge of his messiahship - “despised and rejected by men.” I love how every time he gathered a crowd he seemed to quickly retreat from the same. Then there was his ascension a mere 40 days following his resurrection. (Talk about killing the marketing momentum!) Legitimacy was securely in hand, and he seemed to let it sift away. Because he knew that the Holy Spirit would come and empower his Church to bear fruit.
How do we resist the subtle but real pressure to lead toward legitimacy and focus on fruitfulness instead? It takes vigilance, creativity and a commitment to always keep before your people the wonderful sense of adventure and risk that is inherent in following Jesus and being a partner in his enterprise.
I don’t know who he was, but I like what he said:
"If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." - Antione de Saint-Exupery
On the agenda of the leaders’ meeting at one of our churches is the need to mow the now jungle-like weed patch at the front of the property. No one would argue with the need. The impression left on passersby is that the people who worship here don’t care about the message their sloppiness sends. If a church’s legitimacy is important, then the leadership task includes recruiting, coordinating, and gentle coaxing of overworked deacons whose capacity for volunteering always seems to outstrip their follow-through. Pastors call this part of their job description “administration.” Few of them like it – but it must be done. The leader who wants to maintain a good impression in the community will recruit wisely, coordinate carefully and coax convincingly and may even offer to pick up an extra gallon of gas for the mower in order to prod lovingly. But how far will those efforts get the deacons down the path of fruitfulness? Look at the quote above again: don't herd people… don't assign them tasks… but rather teach them to long… What if the pastor instead taught them to long for Kingdom fruitfulness?
Follow me now: Since the most exciting part of ministry is life-change, how might the pastor teach even a deacon to make every effort to be on the front row with an unobstructed view of miraculous supernatural life change? You could paint pictures, share stories, or cast a vision for what kingdom ministry looks like. You could ask him/her, “Has anyone ever taken the time to value you through conversation? to include you by asking your opinion?, or to trust you by asking for your help? Who might you bless with the same? Can they run a string trimmer or drive a lawn tractor? Who might you share the mowing task with as a means for ministry? Could you imagine sharing a prayer before starting up the mower and the string trimmer? Could you imagine taking a lemonade break halfway through and asking some simple conversation launching questions?"
A vigilant, creative pastor might even offer to make the lemonade! But please, please leave out only two glasses. Let the deacon do the ministry and you pray while they talk.
When you focus on leadership toward fruitfulness, the strategizing and the planning takes a whole new tack. And when someone longs for the endless immensity of the sea, you can’t keep them away from the wood or the work, because to get out to sea, they must build a boat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)