Thin~Spaces

Go Read This Article!

Back in January an article of mine was re:published over at the Next Wave. Bob Hyatt had also submitted an article that dovetailed with mine. They were a good synthesis. Recently I discovered another article by Bob over at open source Theology. He is singing my song here.

In the early days of our church planting adventure I spent some time seeking out other church planters, hoping for some wisdom and encouragement. Man, did I get a wake up call.

There seem to be two distinct schools of thought in the church planting community. The first is “This is hard. Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t look like you’ve got what it takes… I’m not so sure you should do this! Have you prayed about it?”

Gee… thanks.

The second school of thought starts off sounding much like the first, but then takes a dramatic turn: “This is hard. What do you need? How can I help you? Man, what an adventure! Let me pray for you.”

Do you hear the difference?

As someone who is currently in the process of working with my denomination while trying to cultivate a community, i found Bob's article very refreshing. i think Bob  has been reading my e-mail or shares a common journey. I can't agree more when he says,

It’s not rocket science.

Through my experience in church planting I have learned that there’s a hard way to do this and an easy way. The hard way involves plans and proposals, hundreds of thousands in seed money, denominational strings and a host of headaches. “Start with a bang!” they will tell you. “Mailers to every home in three zip codes!” they will advise you. A full band! Complete children’s ministry! Advertising!!!!

Don’t listen.

Start small. Raise some support, trust God for the rest and get a job at Starbucks if need be. Let your community be what it will be. Refuse to do for the people who come the ministry that they should do for themselves. Concentrate on laying a foundation of community and common core values and let your church grow organically without superimposing a grand “vision” on it.

From the Article: Why YOU Should Plant a Church. If your path is leading you to consider why you shouldn't plant a church, do yourself a favor and read this excellent article. I feel encouraged by his words.

 

A Simple Worship Experiment

On Saturday morning five of us decided to do something tangible rather than just talk about being nice to people. We went to two local coffee shops, purchased their inventory of newspapers and gave them all away. It was part of our worship to God that day.

People were genuinely surprised by the simple gift we gave them. A few asked us why we were doing it or if we were from a church and we simply said things like, "we just wanted to do something nice for someone today." Or "Yes, we follow Christ and decided to show it rather than just tell it. Enjoy your paper." It was actually quite fun to see people smile as they took a paper.

After an hour of giving away papers, we went for pizza and talked about what we could do next. We are starting small but would want to do things that would improve the life of someone else. I think it would be cool if we were to help out in a habitat for humanity project or something like that.

Getting outside of our normal routine and thinking of others was the best part of this little experiment. It was easy to do, well received and enjoyable. Showing kindness with no other reason than embodying Christ is an interesting proposition. Besides, I just get a kick out of doing things that are out of the ordinary. People don't expect strangers to do something kind for no reason.

For those of you who never made it to the Bert it evil website, this is what happens when Bert becomes the leader of the CTW crew.

A Cultural Creative for Christ...

This is reported on Korn's official website. "Korn has parted ways with guitarist Brian Head Welch, who has chosen the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior and will be dedicating his musical pursuits to that end."  The band writes that they have respect for Brian and "wish him the happiness he is searching for."

Thanks to Joe Thorn for the heads up.

An interesting development if you ask me. I hope that we (read: the church) don't put too much pressure on him by "parading him about" as some trophy of "God's work." I've seen too many people get used like this and many tend disappear over time. In a high profile case like this, the risk is even greater.

We don't need Christian Superstars in my opinion. I echo Joe's opinion as I'd rather see regular Christians making a significant impact in our culture wars as they create music, art, literature and film while displaying the glory of God in their works. Rather than copy the prevailing culture, we need to encourage our artists to be innovators who create what others want to follow.

A Diversion

Yesterday I took a break from job-hunting to go to the Sportsman's Expo with my friend Steve and his friend Ed. We saw Camping gear, hunting dogs, rifles, bows, campers, boats, fishing gear, buckskins, and so much more! The outdoor lifestyle has such a great appeal to me. I really hope to get work soon so I can afford to go deer hunting this year. I don't trophy hunt I like venison!

Besides, carpooling for four hours with Ed allowed for some great conversation. A driving trip or "getting some windshield time together" is a great way to get to know someone. For me, the relational dynamics of three men at a sportsman's expo was worth the time. If it works out, we may go hunting together this year.

Until then, I'm simply hunting for a job. Looking for a "good job" is harder than actually working if you ask me.

Catch 22 ... Grrrr…..

I went down to an employment agency today because a friend told me that they helped her get a job and were great to work with. I decided to wear a collared shirt, tie, slacks and dress shoes instead of a t-shirt and jeans, even though I knew that I’d just be filling out paperwork and taking some tests. It never hurts to make a good impression. Especially when working with an agency.

Turns out I had nothing to worry about. I made a good impression but never made it to the testing. While talking with a representative about their open positions I was told that I’m "over-qualified" for EVERYTHING that they have. Do I have to look shabby, deny my education, understate my experience and forget to comb my hair to get a job? I’m 39 and over-qualified.... grrrrrrrrrr.

Sorry for the rant, I allowed my frustration to overcome me. We now return to our regular scheduled programming.

PSA - Gmail Invites

I know that Gmail invites are not the highly sought after things they once were. I think they are getting ready to move out of beta as i have 50 invites to give away. If you want one, just send me an e-mail with your name on it and I'll send and invite your way.

Another Critique on Emergent.

I found this critique on emerging church over at Commentary8. You may want to give the article a read as it is very interresting.
 

If we look closely at generational history we might find that there is actually nothing new at all with this desire to seek a closer walk with Christ, a closer relationship with the Lord and with the brethren, but every 30 to 50 years or so, a new generation of believers wants to step beyond the modernistic view to a post modernistic view, the old to the new, a new paradigm or model, if you will, but in reality, nothing here is new at all. Most of our dissatisfaction with our walk in the Lord is just that, a problem with our relationship to and with our Lord and Savior rather than our relationship with the Institutional Church, wherever that may be.

....This leads me to the point that I really wanted to make. In the young people that I have spoken with from various backgrounds and various fellowships, there is a keen lack of discernment for the dangers that we all face as believers, from the many false teaching which are being introduced with greater frequency to this movement and to the IC, to the New Age concepts of Contemplative Spirituality and Contemplative Prayer that I find being infused, to literal occult experiences being accepted and practiced without testing the spirits.

While the entire article is rather well written, it appears that the author is looking more at the externals of the emerging church movement(?). Does he engage emerging theology? His concern seems to be with what he sees as “New Age concepts blending with today's contemporary church.”  This is seen in the contemplative approach to spirituality in the emerging Church according to the author. It is the old question of syncretism (being so culturally relevant that you lose your message) once again.

Come and Play

The air was cold and crisp yet the warmth of the morning sunshine made being outside pleasurable nonetheless. Laughter floated on the wind as a father and daughter played with a football on the soft grass. Running, laughing, pretend tackling, they were playing with all they are. I stood there transfixed by the joy of their play. There was an intimacy expressed in their play. The expression of their love was so evident to me that I had to smile.

At that moment God spoke to my mind saying, "Come play with me son."

I'm a contemplative person and I seldom think of play as an expression of our relationship with Christ. But there it was before me, the joy of intimacy expressed in play. To include God in our play! What a revelation to my soul.

A loving father saying, "Come play with me."

What a beautiful expression of love and relationship. Christianity has to be larger than singing, praying, reading and sermons. Where is the room for play? This is the question brought to my mind today. How do we come before God with a playful attitude in our hearts? That spontaneous joy that comes from spending time together with someone we love.

"Come play with me"

Churches Worth Staying In.

I thought I'd pass on one of the nuggets from last week's few days of study from Stuart Murray. He was doing stuff on church planting but making the very obvious point that you can't talk about church planting without addressing why people are leaving the church in their droves as we would merely be replicating churches that lose Christians.

I've written on this trend myself. Often times we start out with great intentions, strong vision, a call from God, and then we put new makeup on an old institution. Our style changes but we ultimately replicate churches that are ineffective in the long haul. My concern is that the emerging churches will fall into the trap of only addressing stylistic issues and not deal with the deeper issues of life and doctrine.

Over the past few months i've been posting on the emergent church from this viewpoint. Rather than cultivate an "emergent church" after the typical pattern of church planting, we are allowing God to move us through the process of re:thinking why we even gather as the church. I'm not about repeating the current problems with the Church that looses christians. I'd rather allow God to help us cultivate a community  worth staying in.

The full text of Richard Sudworth's article gives some great ideas about what might keep people in the church. i tend to think that a Home Church is the best place to foster the type of suggestions mentioned in Richard's post. The institutional variety of church almost appears to be antithetical to his suggestions.  Yet God can work here too.