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One Group’s Attempt to Live Like Jesus

September 28, 2021 /

Friends,

Last week I started reading Shane Claiborne’s book, The Irresistible Revolution, Updated and Expanded: Living as an Ordinary Radical. I started the book after hearing another pastor speak of reading the book and how it has been transformative for him. The book is an early memoir of a community that has sought to live the words of Jesus. 

“If you find yourself climbing the ladder of success, be careful or else on your way up you might pass Jesus on his way down" (p. 40)

I am currently four chapters, twenty-five percent, of my way through the book (I know it is a little crazy to suggest a book so early on, but I am doing it anyway).  As one who has never been at home in the consumer-driven American church, struggling to find a place to fit in, whose questions were not welcome, and feeling pushed to the margins I found Shane’s book both hopeful and challenging. I highly recommend the book to anyone searching for hope in these complex times.

"We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor" (p. 99)

I know that Shane is a bit of an enigma in the church world. A man who lived and worked with Mother Theresa but also spent time working at Willow Creek. Two church worlds that could hardly be farther from each other. His views are often controversial but they are spoken with such love and compassion it is hard to turn away and dismiss him. John Wesley once said, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.” I think, perhaps, this is a community seeking to live this out in our present day. There is hope in the margins.

"My friends and I had a hunch that there is more to life than what we had been told to pursue. We knew that the world cannot afford the American dream and that the good news is that there is another dream. We looked to the early church and to the Scriptures and to the poor to find it" (p. 104).

Blessings,
Stephen

 

Uncharted Territory

July 13, 2020 /

Whatever there is to say about the territory we are in, I think it is safe to say we have never been here before. In the book Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger, I came across this question that stopped me and caused me to ponder a change of perspective about my surrounding environment:

Could it be that God is taking our churches and organizations into uncharted territory in order for the church to become even more of a witness for the future of the world? (pg. 202)

If so, what does this mean about the way we respond to our current realities? Do we step into them, or do we try and find our way back to familiar territory as soon as possible? What if this is not only true of the church and our organizations but our lives as well?

Blessings,
Stephen

Sources:
Bolsinger, Tod. Canoeing the Mountains: Christian leadership in uncharted territory, IVP Books, 2018.

Photo by Natalya Letunova on Unsplash

Missional Creed

May 21, 2020 /

For centuries the church has been guided by statements of creed. The most common being the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed. The simple statements give voice to our core beliefs and direct our actions as a church. They are not perfect statements. Many have noted that these statements tend to lack references to the life of Christ and to his missional call to his people. Jesus said he is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). He is saying not only is he the way to the Father, he is also saying he is the supreme example of how we are to live as Christians. So we should not too quickly miss the significance of his life and call in our basic statement of belief.

Recently, I came across The Missional Creed by David Gustafson. This statement seeks to give voice to the orthodox faith of the church. I offer this creed here to cause us to ponder. What do these words of creed say about the role, mission, and future of the church in the days ahead? What does it say about the way each of us interacts in our communities?

The Missional Creed

by David M. Gustafson

We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, who sent his Son into the world, and who now sends us into the world, as witnesses to his reign in heaven and on earth.

We believe in Jesus Christ, who was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and became man, the Light of Light who entered our darkened world, to proclaim good news to the poor, to heal the sick, and to set the oppressed free. For us and for our salvation, he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. On the third day, he rose as victor from the dead. He ascended into heaven where he is head of his body, the church, and will come again in glory and judgment, and reign in his triumphal kingdom.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the giver of life, who leads us, the people of God, on the mission of God, to join in the work of the kingdom of God. In this, we are called as Christ’s holy and apostolic church, to bear witness to God’s love, mercy, and justice, to proclaim good news in word and deed, to make disciples of all peoples, for the redemption of all creation, to the glory of God’s holy name. Amen.

SOURCE: https://davidmgustafson.blogspot.com/2014/01/missional-creed.html

Time to Get A New Phone

May 18, 2020 /
 
Recently, I listened to a sermon given by Steve DeNeff, Pastor at College Wesleyan. In his message, he told the story of his family’s plight to move his father from his beloved flip phone to a new iPhone. As I listened to the saga of the phones I began to think about the situation we are in right now. My application of the story is different than his, and I am sure I am taking some creative license with how things actually were described, but here goes.
 
The father had an old flip phone. You remember those things, don’t you? They were amazing when they came out. You could fold your phone in half. They were compact and convenient. Texting on them was a near impossibility for anyone over the age of fifteen. But they did well what they were made to do: make and receive calls. Over time, though, the father’s old flip phone didn’t quite work like it used to. It had become broken, been dropped one too many times, and it was difficult for him to hear people talking to him. So the family got together and made a decision. It was time for dad to get an upgrade. Like a parent offering candy to convince a child to change its diaper, they offered to him a new iPhone with all the features to be had with this new glorious technology. But dad, was not having any of it. His old flip phone was familiar and did, at least as far as he was concerned, what he needed to do. It made and received calls, even if he couldn’t hear everyone correctly. Of course, the iPhone could do all that and more. Still it was a hard sell to convince him to make the change. It seemed the only hope for the conversion would come if the flip phone finally quit working entirely.
 
What does this have to do with our current situation in the church? What if this time out of our buildings, unable to “do church” like we are used to, has actually given to us a new phone? What if, rather than looking to go back to our old flip phone, we have instead been given the chance to (even forced to), step into a new reality, a reality that is better than what we had before? As we dream of going back to the way things were, have we not forgotten the old phone was not particularly working that well? Engagement was down. Attendance was down. Connection was down.
 
Around the world, new models of church ministry and life have been exploding. Some call them fresh expressions. But really they have a million different names and formats. For many of us, we have seen these new expressions of church and saw them as a fringe. Much like how we looked sideways at those original iPhone users while we happily put our flip phones in our pocket. Almost overnight, however, we have woken up to a world where, out of our concern and love for our neighbor, we no longer can use our facilities. We cannot do what we used to do in the ways that were familiar to us. Out of seemingly nowhere new ways of being in community have suddenly become the mainstream. The possibilities that are before us are great. We have the possibility to engage more. To live in community more. To worship in different times and places. This time of social distancing has given to us a great gift.
 
I know it may not feel like a gift, but bear with me while I tell one more cell phone story. I remember when I got my first cell phone. I was working in a job doing technical and computer training at the time. I was excited to have make use of my first phone. My excitement quickly went away. I found it frustrating, maddening, confusing, and nearly impossible to make work. I came extremely close to giving up on ever having a cellphone. Besides, I still was not sure these things were ever going to go mainstream. They were not just not as reliable as our landlines. What I wanted to do was throw it out the window to be smashed in the street by the first passing car. What I did was persist through the frustration and learned to make and receive calls. Now, I even have an iPhone and love the many things it can do.
 
Right now, the new reality doesn’t feel like anything better than what we had before. It is frustrating. It seems broken and nearly unusable. I get it. We had to cancel our service at 10:00 am yesterday because the technology was down. And many of us are still not sure if these new expressions are ever going to become mainstream anyway.
 
As we struggle together in this new reality, with new tools and methods that seem so confusing and unfamiliar, remember we can look at what has been taken from us or we can look to what has been given to us and the possibilities. Where are we looking?
 
Blessings,
Stephen

Can we re-imagine church?

April 7, 2020 /

This afternoon I stood alone in our church sanctuary. I looked around me at the musical instruments that have gone silent, the screens that are dark, and the empty chairs. I saw our communion table and anointing oil sitting, waiting, for our return to celebrate and feast together. I wondered what it will be like to come back. Then as I sat in our dark space set aside for worship I began to wonder.

What if we re-imagined church in light of COVID-19?

This virus which is currently raging around the globe is shaking and changing our paradigms for ministry. It is not the first pandemic to ravage our globe, however, it is the first to strike the U.S. with such intensity in our lifetimes. This is causing many of us to question and ponder our sense of what is normal.

What if this is our new reality for the church? Some have postulated the questions and theories that this could be the beginning of seasonal pandemics. What if long periods each year or every few years of being “closed” or unable to meet in our buildings becomes our new reality?

What would be different about the way we do and think about church?

I will go on the record to say that I think the predictions are a little draconian. I believe, however, the questions that come out of them are essential to our future.

What would the church do differently if we met face-to-face nine months out of the year and virtually for three?

What is it that keeps us from doing these things now?

Finally, even as we think about these things, I want to leave you with a message of hope. This comes from the pen of a friend whose wisdom I value greatly:

Corona Virus: Finding a Realistic Hope Amid Hopelessness

“…all of us can find a realistic hope amid hopelessness.”

Stephen

Are you having fun?

February 8, 2018 /

Are you having fun in church?

Funny Goat with GlassesThe more important something is, the more serious and life-altering the reality, the more essential it is that we are able to laugh at it. Do you know who is more likely to survive a cancer diagnosis? The one who can laugh at the absurdity and indignity of the disease and the treatment regimens.

Ultimately, is there anything more serious, more important, more significant than eternity? No. At the end of the day, the decision is pretty simple: smoking or non-smoking.  Follow Jesus and submit to him or not.

So next Sunday, go ahead and have some fun, because eternity and Jesus are deadly serious:

  • bring a water balloon to church and threaten to throw it at the band, to see if you can throw them off.
  • wear silly glasses during the sermon to try and confuse the pastor.
  • send a text message, to everyone in the church, asking what that bible reference was the pastor just said, to see who didn’t put their phone on vibrate.
  • color your hair and put on face paint to show your support for your favorite team.
  • slip some candy and a triple-shot espresso that kid who just won’t sit still.
  • fill the offering plate with Monopoly money.
  • during the greeting time, jump up and steal a microphone, and start leading everyone in Father Abraham.
  • stand in the parking lot and give a balloon to every kid as they come in.
  • did you know you can sing Amazing Grace to the tune of any song? For offeratory, do it to the tune of Gilligan’s Island . . . as an instrumental.
  • laugh, smile, relax and have fun together with your church family.

Yes, I know, there are times for quiet reflection and moments for deep contemplation. Order and structure are good things. God also made us with the capacity for pleasure. Let’s put it to use!

Blessings,
Stephen

How do you measure the success of a church?

May 10, 2016 /

fortress church

Dear Friends,

Recently I was listening to a podcasted sermon from College Wesleyan Church out of Marion, Indiana. In the sermon was a quote from the civil rights leader and founder of the Christian Community Development Association, Dr. John Perkins. In the quote, Dr. Perkins challenges how we define a successful church. With a little help from Google, I was able to find the original context of the quote and I share the context here to challenge each of us:

“How do you measure the success of a church?” This penetrating question was posed by Dr. John Perkins . . . Little did I know that this seemingly innocuous question would lead me on a journey that would forever change my life.

I was a pastor’s kid, and it seemed in the moment that a response should be coming to me more quickly than it was. Yet I could not find a cogent answer that seemed complete enough.

Dr. Perkins continued to poke at us. He began to list potential answers to his question. “Is success determined by your Sunday service attendance?” This was always the first item on a pastor’s resume, yet we were pretty sure this was not the answer. “How about the size of the church budget? Maybe success should be measured by how many staff the church employs? Maybe success is determined by how many periodicals write stories on your church. How do you measure the success of a church?

When he was satisfied with the uneasiness in the room, he finally offered his own perspective on what the answer should be. “The success of a local church should be directly tied to the degree that it holistically transforms its immediate neighborhood. Any other success factor is secondary?”

Bill Hybels is known for the saying, “The local church is the hope of the world.” All too often, however, our definitions of success have very little to do with hope for the world but are instead measurements of the size of our own kingdoms. We measure success in the local church by how big of a building we have, how nice the building looks, how great the preaching is, how many people are sitting in the chairs (no successful church could have pews), and how much money is in the offering plate. But what if success is really none of these? What if success is measured not in the size of our kingdom but in the impact of the Kingdom of God in our neighborhoods? What would that change in the ways we do ministry?

Stephen
The quote comes from the book:
Fuder, John, and Noel Castellanos. A heart for the community : new models for urban and suburban ministry. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2013

I visited your church this Sunday

August 4, 2015 /

Pews in a church sanctuary

I visited your church this Sunday

I came to your website first. It was very well done. The colors were good. The information was up to date. I could not find your service times. I could not find directions to your church. It was not under the “About Us” tab. I did eventually find it on your site and several clicks later, I finally had the information I needed. I didn’t feel much like going to your church after completing the hunt, but I still came to your church, but only because someone else had made the suggestion.

I came to your church this Sunday. There was no clear signage telling me which door I was to come in. Once I found the door, you did have someone standing outside to greet and hold the door open. A welcome surprise. As he held the door for us to enter, he smiled and said hello. Once in the doors I was greeted by a staircase with no clear indication what to do next. I saw a sign advertising your vacation bible school and encouraging people to register their kids. I noticed it because it was the same one my church had just completed. Your church had completed it too, the event had already passed. I wandered up the stairs and through a doorway, following the smell of coffee. Coffee is always good to have. Good job on that.

I came to your church Sunday, but I did not come alone. My children were with me. Considering the size of your church, I figured you probably had children’s programming during the service. I didn’t know for certain, because it was not on your website, or if it was, I never found it. I looked around for some sign telling me where to go with my kids. There was none. The room I was in, the one with the coffee, did have a desk with a large sign hanging over it that read “Information.” I went there to learn about your kid’s programming. The person at the desk was engaged in a conversation with a friend. I had to interrupt your conversation, I am sorry for intruding, but I needed some information and I was a visitor. I asked if there was any programming for children. Your information person did not know and she suggested I check with the children’s desk and pointed across the room. You did not take me over to the children’s desk. You left me to find my own way. This was made extra difficult because there were no signs indicating what was the children’s desk (in fairness to you, as we left your church, I did finally see in very small letters “Children’s Ministry” on a screen over the desk).

I came to the desk we had been pointed to and asked if there was children’s programming. The person at the desk said he did not know, but offered to check my kids in. I wondered if I was at the right desk. I asked what I was checking my kids in for. He did not know. I said I would keep my kids with me. I really wanted to leave.

I tried to enter the service, but my kids protested having to go in. They know how the church system works and they wanted to do the kids stuff. Now did not seem to be the best time to explain to them my fears and so I relented and took my kids back and decided to try your children’s programming, whatever it was.

I registered my kids and then asked what to do. I was told us to go through a locked set of doors and go upstairs. As I tried to comprehend these instructions, a woman, mercifully, intervened and offered to take us to the room. This was good because once we entered through the locked doors we came into an empty dimly lit hallway. To our left was another set of double doors. Opening them revealed the stairs we were to take. We would have never found them without our guide. At the top of the stairs and through another set of double doors we again found ourselves in an empty hallway. Other children, if they were around, were nowhere to be found. We heard some noise and found a room with a couple others watching a Veggie-Tales movie. Our guide asked if this was the place for the kids. Your leader said it was, but she did not get up to greet me or my kids. I asked if I was supposed to come back here to get my kids. She didn’t really answer but smiled and nodded. As we left our kids with your children’s worker I pleaded with my son to watch out for his younger sister. I will admit I tried to say this loud enough for your children’s worker to hear and maybe sense that I was not comfortable with this situation.

I found my way on my own back to the worship center. As we came into the space there was no person passing out bulletins at the doors I came in. These were the doors immediately off your common space: the room with the coffee. I walked across the room to another doorway to ask a person for a bulletin and then walked back across to find a seat.

You seating was comfortable with a good amount of spacing between rows. The room was well lit. The stage was clean and uncluttered. You made good use of stage lighting. The image on your screen welcomed me to the service. Upbeat music with life in it was playing in the background.

Early in the service you asked me to complete a tear off card and place my information in the offering bag that went by, but you did not give me a pen to use to complete the card. Which was okay, because at this point, I was not sure I wanted you to have my information.

I am sorry to say I cannot evaluate your sermon. I was too distracted by the experience of having to work to be a visitor and was wondering what my kids were doing that I didn’t hear a word that was said in the sermon.

When the service did come to a close the pastor prayed and the band started to play. I was not sure if the service was over or if this was another song we were going to sing. There was no clear indication that the service was over. Either way I got up to go rescue my kids.

Finding them, the worker did not attempt to match the tag we had been given to the two children I was taking with me. Fortunately, I am pretty fond of my kids and really didn’t feel like trading them in for new models.

We left your church, only having been greeted by the person standing outside the door as we came in.

Back in our vehicle I asked the kids if they enjoyed the children’s area. They said they had fun. They watched a movie, played with clay, and played indoor volleyball. There was no lesson. Thank you for providing an hour’s free daycare.

I visited your church this Sunday, but I will not be back, it was too much work to be a visitor. Thankfully, I also already have a home church.

==

Dear friends,

I am sharing with you the recent experience I had visiting a church while on vacation. I do not say, nor will I, which specific church we visited. My purpose is not to publicly shame a particular church. All churches have bad Sundays when it seems, that despite the best planning, everything falls apart. I will accept this may have been the case with this church. My purpose for sharing is for each of us to think about what it must be like to be a visitor in our own churches. Have you ever attempted to see your church through the eyes of a visitor? Could our experience happen at your church? What needs to be changed?

Pastor Stephen

Defining the Church

April 21, 2015 /

Loaded Menu Board

 

In my last post, I asked the question, “What if we are not meant to be known by the roles we play and the things we do but rather by whose we are?”

I continue to process this very challenging question and its implications. My struggling has brought to wonder about the church itself. What if the importance of finding our value is whose we are rather than who we are is not only true for persons but also true for churches? Admit it. We define our churches by the things we do. The more programs we run the better. Our success as a church is defined by having more programs than anyone else in town. If we offer an ever increasing diversity of choices of things for people to do we are a success. But if our menu board of programs is not glamorous and loaded we must be a failure.

What do you think? Does the church place more emphasis on what we do rather than whose we are? What difference does it make?

 

Pastor Stephen

 

—

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Let’s Ride the Circuits Again

October 23, 2014 /

Hello Friends,

Today I share a bonus Milk Can. These are some ideas that have been rumbling around in my head. I have shared them on many occasions, but this is my first time to bring them into this arena.

Francis Asbury StatueIn short, my challenge today to churches and pastors is to consider riding the circuits once again, but instead of dusty trails on the back of a horse, let’s ride the electronic circuits of our computers.

What do I mean? In my denomination, and others like it all across our country, we have many small churches in small towns. These churches are struggling under the economic realities of our time. Many are unable to pay the salary for a part-time pastor, not to even consider a full-time pastor. Additionally, in many of our larger cities we are seeing a growing phenomenon of the multi-campus churches. Let’s put the two together and reach our smaller towns!

How do we do this? It is really quite simple. If you are in a city and there is a church or two in neighboring towns that are unable to find or support a pastor, offer to be there pastor. Provide pastoral care and cast a vision for what could be. When it comes to the sermon on Sunday morning there are several options available including:

  • Live simulcast your church’s sermon into the other church.
  • Video record your church’s sermon and upload it to a server. The other church could then download/stream the sermon into the service on the same day.
  • Burn a DVD of the sermon and have a runner take it to the other church.
  • Video record your sermon on a Saturday night. Play this sermon at the sites while the sermon is preached live at one of the churches on Sunday.

I hope you noticed something. Many of these options would allow us to be circuit riders once again. Each Sunday we could deliver our “live in the flesh” sermon to a different one of our churches. The other churches would receive the same sermon but in an electronic format.

What about leadership? Designate a lay pastor at each site who is responsible for the worship service details each week. One of the great things about small churches is they usually already have a person who is the de facto lay pastor. If they didn’t, the church would have closed years ago. On a very regular basis meet together with each of the lay pastors as a group. Use this time for unified prayer, vision casting, dreaming, planning, and leadership development.

What if we were to ride the circuits again?

Pastor Stephen

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