Ponder this...

Something Beautiful

Our next Church-wide campaign!

What time is it?

A few months ago I cancelled my bloglines subscriptions to many emerging/postmodern/missional/dochurchdifferent blogs. Yes, there is a time to criticize, reflect upon and review how things are being done, but it's just not helpful to sit deeply in that posture for long - you end up stiff, cranky and critical. Better to get up and get busy doing things the the best way that you know how. I needed to be doing. Just like in many areas of my life, I realized I was educated way beyond my obedience. For now, I've read enough about new paradigms, structures and church plants. I know the arguments for mega-church, house-church, wholistic-organic-church and frankly I'm not really convinced that one is any better than another. Sticking the word missional on something doesn't make it missional. Finding your particular church structure in history doesn't make you right. The groups of Followers that I want to learn from don't write blogs or books about "how it should be done." They are too caught up in doing it and it's too messy to fit into a new "paradigm." I am realizing that there comes a time when a drop of inspiration is much more valuable than a waterfall of education. 
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The above thoughts bubbled up last week when I checked out a few of the blogs I had previously followed and discovered that the latest thing causing a stir is this book. Which makes me think that if you really want to make some money you need to write a book that makes outlandish statements about Christianity or the church simply because anything that criticizes the way things are done or believed is guaranteed to sell and cause a stir (or if you'd rather, just wait until the next secular author writes a best-seller and then write a "Christian  Response" to it, that way you can use their title, graphics, fonts and marketing plan!).

Bill Easum

I'm enjoying a two day seminar with Bill Easum.  Here are some of the ideas that we covered yesterday:

Easum uses the metaphor of National Parks vs. Jungles to describe the difference between the world that was and the world that is emerging.

National Parks
- Neatly laid out
- Predictable and slow to change
- Warn you about dangerous animals
- Change very slowly
- You are entitled to the experience
- Can be traveled alone
- No problem seeing the horizon
- You don't need a compass or GPS
- No bottom lines
- People are basically happy
- Christianity is King and Queen

Jungles
- Nothing is neatly laid out
- Nothing is predictable and changes are fast
- Predators are everywhere
- You are on your own for shelter
- Changes from day to day
- You're not entitled to be there
- No one goes into the jungle alone
- When you look up you can't see the sky much less the horizon
- You better have a compass or a GPS
- Values are no long ultimate or universal
- No bottom line
- Most people are basically broken
- Christianity is nobody
- Requires intuition and creativity

Safety is the major difference.
The problem is that there is just enough National Park left in the world for the church to hid in the past.

Money Talks

Money, Money, Money.  Yes, I hope to play a little Pink Floyd in my upcoming teaching series!  Here are some random thoughts that are shaping things so far.

Jesus talked lots about money.
Money is not neutral - it wants to be your God.
The Early Church had visibility and accountability regarding their individual giving.
There is a motivational hierarchy for giving.
It's all from God.  I don't deserve it - it is gift.  I don't give it - I just bring it.
I need to give for my sake.
Joy is linked to giving.
The best investment in life is in God's word and people - they alone will last.
Giving can be worship.
Stewardship reveals discipleship. 
Giving draws me closer to God.
My giving can make an eternal difference.
"Give" is at the heart of God.

My money does not say:
       What I am worth.
       How successful I am.
       That I am being rewarded (or punished).
       How close I am to contentment.

My money is saying
    What I think is #1.
    Who I trust.
    Who I think I am (owner or steward?).
    What I think will last.
    Where my heart is.

Big church comeback

One of the common themes among blogs that I read is a subtle condescension towards mega-churches.  They are easy to be critical of.  Here is a blog comment response by the Lead Pastor of a large church.  According to this site it is legitimately from Andy Stanley from North Point.

I'm writing to apologize for the size of North Point Community Church. When six of us gathered to think through the idea of beginning a church we had no idea that it would become so large. For this growth I am truly sorry. I realize that the size is intimidating.

I have read the comments on this site and have decided to make some changes. To begin with I am going to spend time with each and every parishioner so that they can get to know me personally. Like many of you, I wouldn't want to attend a church where I could not connect personally with the pastor. I've shared this with my wife and three kids. They are in complete agreement. So beginning next Sunday I will be at the back door to shake hands.

Secondly, I am going to suggest to our elders that we sell our three campuses, consolidate, and move the church into a much smaller building. Smaller space will mean smaller crowds. And apparently large crowds are unbiblical. I agree, the church should be no larger than 40 to 50 people. Most of whom are believers.

Regarding my shallow, simplistic preaching...for this I am truly sorry. I am doing the best I can. I know deeper is better. I'm just not deep. I'm not really sure what to do about that.

These changes will take some time. Please be patient. If you have any helpful suggestions as to how I can transition North Point Community Church into a church made up of a handful of believers who enjoy deep preaching please let me know.

On a positive note, the 8,000 adults who meet in groups of 8 to 12 in homes throughout our community can continue to meet in spite of the fact that they will no longer be able to worship together.

Thank you for your valuable insights. And please accept my apology.

Andy Stanley
Pastor, North Point Community

Praying the Lord's Prayer

Here's a simple guide I did up a while back to pray through the Lord's prayer:

PRAY: Our Father. Jesus invites you to approach God as His child. Rest in the gift of being a child of God. No voice is sweeter to God than yours! Plant yourself on His lap and tell Him what’s up with you today. He wants to hear from you. In heaven. Your Father is as close as the air that you are breathing. He is closer than your own pulse. Become aware of the presence of God in which you dwell and which dwells within you. He is near. He is listening. He is present.

Exercise:  Place your hands (palm down) on your knees. Symbolically release through your hands anything that might hinder you from drawing near to God as Your Father. Let go of anger, distractions, and anxiety. After a few moments  flip your hands over (palm up) and in this posture of receiving ask God to fill your hands with His presence, His fullness and His love. Receive from Him.

PRAY: Hallowed be Your name. A name in the Bible is always a reflection of the character and identity of a person. To hallow God’s name is to set all that He is up as #1 in your lifestyle, heart, words. Return Him to the throne of your thinking, relating, speaking and spending. Pray that God’s character be set up as holy in all that you are. Spend some time honoring His qualities.

Exercise: Which quality of God do you especially honor God for today? Love? Acceptance? Peace? Creation? Grace? Hope? Forgiveness? Pick one and let it guide your words of gratitude and worship.

 

PRAY: Your Kingdom come.  Think about what I would mean if God’s kingdom should be the reality in our world. Think of the love, the compassion, and the order that would be present. Think of the freedom from war and famine. Pray for the leaders of our country and those in authority that they would conform their plans to His plans. Pray that His Kingdom come in your heart, home, workplace, city and world.  Your kingdom come means no locked places in your heart – no places where the Holy Spirit is not welcome.

Exercise: Lord, let your Holy Spirit show me right now any part of my heart where I have locked you out. (wait until you receive an answer from Him and then pray) OK God, here’s the key open that door – come into that part of my heart.Father, right now I bring before a person I know whose heart is blocked and locked to You. I pray for ________ and ask that You will enter their heart, that the kingdom will come and they will allow Him to become their Lord.

PRAY: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is an affirmation that God is God and you aren’t. It is a time when you submit to Him all that you all that you want to be. It is a time when you can tell God that He knows best and that you relinquish all your plans, all your goods, and all your hopes to His will. You are praying that up there (heaven) come down here (one earth).

PRAY: Give us this day our daily bread.  The Father knows our needs, but we feel better telling him about our needs. Bring before the throne of God all the things that concern you. Make your requests and petitions. Don’t worry about praying about small things. Let this prayer lead you to humility, generosity and gratitude.

PRAY: And forgive us our debts.  Ask God to reveal to you those places in your life where you have disobedient, where you have gone your way instead of his way, when you have acted in ways that you knew were wrong and sinful. Lift before him your sinful thought life and your angry words. Be specific. Consider the debt that you owe God and then ask for forgiveness and thank Him for His grace. As we forgive our debtors. Jesus made a very big issue out of the need to forgive others. Forgiveness is not just an action, it is a process. This is the place to begin the process. Ask God - even if you don’t really want Him to—to bless those who have harmed you, lied about you and tried to destroy you - then ask him to conform your heart to that request.

PRAY: And do not lead us into temptation.  Tell God about weakness, your foolishness, and your unwillingness to be obedient. Share exactly where you are tempted these days. Ask the Father to help you be aware and honest about your weaknesses. But deliver us from the evil one.  Ask God to give you the courage and the strength to stand against evil. Ask Him to put a protective hedge around you and to be your protector from evil people and their evil intentions. Pray for the protection of children, marriages, church and world leaders. You are praying to the One that can deliver! Ask for fast delivery!

PRAY: For Yours is the kingdom. Pray for reign! God the King and the Coming King. The power.  If God’s is the power than dead things can come alive and lost things can be found. Be specific about where you would like His power to be realized in your life. And the glory.   All credit for answered prayer goes to the Father.  All that you have asked for in prayer - even our personal needs – we ask for them so that we can show off God and make Him look good.  Use this prayer as way of saying, God use me – even if it hurts – for Your glory! Forever.  God’s plan will never change. God’s power will never run out. His character won’t waver. When you pray you are linked up to the eternal ways and plans of God. We pray to the God who is God forever! Amen.

Try this: Pray one petition of the Lord’s Prayer each day. Let one single phrase reside and ride in you throughout the day.

Monday – Our Father in heaven

Tuesday – Hallowed be your name

Wednesday – Your kingdom come

Thursday – Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Friday – Give us today our daily bread

Saturday – Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.

Sunday – For Yours is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.

CofC

You Could Very Well Be a Member of the Church oF Christ if...

By Fred Peatross

If you think "tithing" is wrong, but that you should "give at least 10%"

If you believe Jesus turned water into grape juice!

If you've heard of Jule Miller, but not John Wesley

If you check out Acts 2:38 before buying a new version of the bible, you're
definitely a member of the church of Christ!

If you refuse to accept that you are in a denomination.

If you believe that Acts 20:7 sets a clear pattern for every Sunday, only
Sunday communion.

If you believe that instrumental music in worship will send you to Hell but
that God approves of it in Heaven.

Christian Community

The church landscape of Yellowknife is unique.  We've got all the regular flavors to choose from.  Baptist, Adventist, Pentecostal, Lutheran, United, Anglican, Catholic.  Pretty much all the streams are present.  What makes this city unique is the amount of cooperation and fellowship between these groups.  I suppose it's because we are so isolated.  The Baptist Pastor has no other Baptist Pastors he can drive to and visit with so he calls up the Alliance Pastor to meet at Tim Hortons.  Up here it doesn't matter if you are part of a denomination, you are long ways from it!  As a result some of my closest friends are clergy from other churches in town.  Our ministerial association is a close-knit group.  I've worked on many projects and gatherings side by side and hand in hand with the Catholic Priest, Salvation Army Captain, Vineyard Pastor and others of all kinds of stripes and backgrounds.  Inter-denomination times of prayer, worship and retreat are regular.  Last week I spoke at the annual Christmas supper and the spirit of unity was tangible.  There is a definite sense that we are all team-mates.  On Sunday night we gathered at an overflowing St. Patricks Catholic church for our annual community Carol-fest.  Almost every denomination was represented well and participated in the evening.  Donations went to the local food bank.  We had Catholic response hymns, the Salvation Army band, a special number from the Seventh Day Adventist Church, the benediction was given by the Lutheran Reverend, Scripture was read by various clergy and the entire evening was hosted by Father Joe.   It was amazing.  I could go on and on and tell you of combined Good Friday services, Easter Sunrise services, reading the entire Bible out loud to our city, Lenten Lunches, book study retreats and a long list of care-full, tearful, joyful prayers on behalf of our city.  I'm not sure all that Jesus intended when he thought about his follower's being one, but this is a close as I've ever seen it.

I find this freedom and unity more than slightly ironic considering my background.  As a child I often heard Church of Christ preachers and elders say that we were a non-denominational congregation.  No money ties, no creeds, no over-arching structure.  I always thought they said it a little loudly, as if they were trying to convince themselves.  I had to smile sadly last week when a Church of Christ "Brotherhood" paper emailed me to let me know that they had written an article about us and removed us from their church listings.   Someone from the States had come to our services and felt it was their duty to report us.  The Editor's said we didn't fit with their idea of New Testament Christianity and they didn't want to recommend us to their readers. 

Fortunately, in Yellowknife, we really can be non-denominational and inter-denominational.  Our congregation here really believes and acts as if they are "just Christians."  CBC radio interviewed me a couple of weeks ago about the impact and growth of our congregation and I could honestly say that the two most amazing things that God has done in our midst is allow us to make a difference in community of non-believers and to do it along side believers from all denominations.  We don't fit any labels very well - and that's just the way we like it. 

What did you learn in Bible College

The longer I am in ministry the more I realize how poorly my training prepared me for this job.

Mike has some thoughts that are in line with my experience:

"But I was never taught other things: like how to be missional, how to help form a missional church, how to pray, how to disciple people in the way of Christ, etc.

Again, good people were teaching me what they knew. It wasn't them--it was more a whole system that didn't understand what we're facing. We majored in information transfer. We hardly even minored in formation and transformation.

There was never any training and mentoring in how to connect with lost people, how to move Christians from consumer-demands to kingdom-service, how to start justice-based ministries, or how to plan worship that forms people and prepares to send them out in Jesus' name.

It's easier to train professionals. People who know how to caretake the organization. They know how to bring about slow change. How to do studies. How to organize. Basically, how to do all the things really good businesses do.

So churches have learned to rely on people who know very little about Christian mission and formation but know a LOT about professional matters."

Read the whole thing here.

Resonate is online

Resonate is now online! It looks like it could be an exciting thing. Come on - join up!

Resonate.ca has a couple of features that you might want to check out.

1. It is the host of a national conversation. People from all over Canada, east and west, north and south, rural and urban are all talking together about what it means to follow God in radically different world than what the church has found itself in before. That also means new ideas of what it means to be a follower, what the church is, and even how we see God. We communicate online in a bunch of different ways. We aren't sure how it will all work out but we are open to trying a lot of new idea.
2. There are some regional connecting points. Not only do we talk online but we get together offline as well. If you are interested in being a contact person, fire off an e-mail to coop AT resonate.ca and we can talk more about it.
3. We have some fun resources, including a collabrative photo and media sharing space at Flickr. Sign up for a free account and share some of your coolest stuff and build the space with us.
4. We also have a nifty online store as well. All the profits go to support our friend Dann Pantoja and Waves Community Development's efforts to bring peace among the Muslim people in Mindanao, Phillipines.