Power & Hope in the Face of Pessimism

I attended my favorite continuing education event last week, Exponential 2009, a church planting conference in Orlando, FL. I'm able to stay with my parents in St. Cloud and commute to the gathering, about 35 minutes away. In the coming days I intend to write about some of what I learned. (I returned to a busy week, Interim Ministers training here at Ross Point Camp and Region Board meeting later this week. So, for now it's a little too hectic to report out what I learned.)

Exponential has become the largest gathering of church planters and church planting organizations in the U.S with over 3,000 in attendance. Not only is it jam packed with learning opportunities, it's a great event for personal spiritual renewal. I find that church planters understand, more than most of us, the need to rely on the Holy Spirit for empowerment in their work. They also make evangelism and discipleship their priorities, which I believe to be Christ's priority for His body, the church. Through Spirit-empowered preaching and worship along with encouraging fellowship I came away energized to engage in more work for the Kingdom.

We all need to be re-energized in the ministries we do. This is especially true during difficult days. Along with the economic downturn can come a spirit of despair and discouragement. Enough to take the wind out of our sails. We need power to hang tough, to endure, in order that we may attain the goals to which Christ has called us. And, to pursue it with a Spirit of joy and hope in the face of pessimism. For me this comes through prayer and mediation on God's Word. But it also comes by being around charged-up believers, and being renewed through worship and powerful preaching. I know I say it over and over again, but it is one of the fundamental reasons I desire that every pastor find connection through a leadership learning community. We need each other. We need to pray for each other. And, we need to encourage each other, stirring up the Spirit of God in each others hearts.

It is during challenging days that we need reminding that there is available to us a deep well of spiritual vitality and power through the infilling of the Holy Spirit. There is a text that speaks to me about this, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know...his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead." (Ephesians 1:18-20a).

Also, this morning I read these words from an old devotional book that I read occasionally:

"Our Christianity is often only registering its surroundings, instead of remedying them. The early disciples did not go around registering the current pessimisms; they changed them. They didn't go around saying, 'Look at the problems,' but 'Look at the Saviour.' Their emphasis was not on sin abounding, but on grace much more abounding. And they spoke with transforming force. For the 'Acts of the Apostles' were the Acts of the Holy Spirit working throught the apostles. And what they began we can continue. 'To be continued,' is written at the end of the 'Acts of the Apostles.'" (E. Stanley Jones, Abundant Living)

These are great words, are they not?!? I pray for God's empowerment in your life as you lead in the face of difficulties and challenges. I pray that we will all be filled with the Spirit of Christ and his joy, peace, grace and hope. And, through such empowerment transform the world around us.

Prayer Request for Mike DeLuca -- Mission Trip to New Guinea

Mike Deluca, pastor of FBC Darrington, WA, has forwarded the following prayer request to me:

In a couple of weeks four of us will travel half way around the world on a 3 1/2 week mission to Papua, New Guinea. We will be traveling to the highlands to minister to several of the churches there and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We leave May 4 and return May 28.

The four of us are Steve (the missionary), John (seminary student), Caleb (pastor), and myself. The first three have been there before, I am the green horn on the trip.

Steve's father helped evangelize this area in the 50's and Steve continued the ministry afterward.

Please pray for us as we travel to this remote place. Pray for health, for energy, for our families we leave behind, for the churches and its leadership while we are gone.

Pray that the presence of our Lord will be felt through the ministry that we will be sharing.

Matthew 28:19-20 "Go into all the world . . ." We will attempt to be a small part of our Lord's great plan to save the world.

Good Friday Service Idea for 2010

Where does an executive minister find a Good Friday service in Post Falls and/or Coeur D Alene? Almost no where. I didn't even try to find one this year because last year I called several churches only to discover that NONE of them had a Good Friday service. (I was looking for one mid-day...which, I'm sure was part of the problem.) I gave up!

As I was reviewing what some of our churches did for Holy Week this year I came across this really cool idea from Second Baptist in Boise, ID. Chad Marvin, is their pastor of worship and arts, and he announced that they would host a "Come and Go" service from 6:00 to 8:00 PM on Good Friday. He described it in this way: "This means that the service runs from 6 to 8 and you're free to come and stay for as long or as little as you want. The worship center will be sectioned off into several smaller areas where you can reflect on the sacrifice that God's Son gave; the price He paid for us at Calvary. There are slide shows to watch, readings to reflect on, and activities to participate in as you walk through the Passover, the garden, the upper room and the crucifixion. It's experiential and incredibly moving...."

I know Holy Week is now 12 months away, and you may forget this idea, but I would encourage you to host an event like this on Good Friday to reach out to your community. (Maybe post yourself a reminder in February 2010.) If your church is located near businesses, such as a downtown location, you might consider offering this drop-in approach to the Good Friday Service from Noon to 2:00 PM, and again in the evening. Don't forget to send out lots of invitations, and post it in the local newspaper. If you provide this kind of a Good Friday Service, let me know, I may show up!

Quick Praise Report From The River Church (Boise, ID)

Pastor Dave Griewe, church planting pastor, of our newest church, The River Christian Church (Boise, ID), has sent out this brief report. Last Sunday was their official launch day. I am praising God for this excellent news. I would request that you join with me in continuing to pray for the new congregation and the leadership team as they endeavor to capitalize on this win for the Kingdom!

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your prayers!

We had 268 people at church today! 116 in the first service and 184 in the second service... We subtracted 32 people who were working at both services. It was an awesome day! God was praised and two people made commitments to Christ! Now we are praying that most of them come back next week!

The Life-Changing Power of Grace!

Thanks to the good folks at The Bridge (Snohomish, WA) I watched this powerful message on grace by Louie Giglio. You cannot watch the whole thing without shedding some tears, AND giving thanks to Jesus for what He has done for each of us at the Cross. This is a wonderful reminder of how great Jesus' love is for us. And, the message also reinforces the truth that it is Jesus' love and grace which transforms lives (not religion, not trying to be good, not going to church, not being nice, not being p.c., not belonging to a certain denomination, not doing social action work, not....you get the idea!). This strengthened my love for Jesus today!

The message is entitled "Fruitcake and Ice-Cream." Check it out. Make sure you watch it until the end, and tell others!

http://www.northpointministries.org/player/player_large.jsp?occurrenceID=3140

Prayer Update for The River

Pastor Dave Griewe has sent out this list of prayer requests as he and the team continue to prepare for the grand launch of The River this coming Sunday. After the list is an encouraging praise report.

• Please pray that we reach lots of people with the news of our new church.
• Pray that the people who come to hear the Good News will respond to Christ by giving their life to Him. We are praying for a minimum of 200 people to come to our Grand Opening and stick around to become a part of our church.
• Pray for a large crowd of young families to show up for the Easter Egg Hunt. Pray for them to have a great time and to desire to check out our church and Easter Sunday.
• Pray for two full services at 9:30 and 11:00 AM on Easter.
• Pray for a successful and safe children's petting zoo we are having for our Kidz Krew (our children's ministry) on Easter Sunday.
• Pray the enemy is restrained.
• Pray for the last minute details to come together for the launch.
• Pray for Pastor Dave as he prepares the message this week, "Why Does the Resurrection Matter to Me."
• Pray for our church finances as well as the support needed for staff.

Praise report

• Our youth ministry is doing a great job! We have over 20 students who have come and enjoy the fellowship and teaching time. This is huge! Two families have decided to come to The River as a result of our youth ministry.
• Our people have grasped the responsibility to get the word out and we had enough people sign up to distribute postcards for Easter.
• We have had a good response to helping us put on the Lexington Hills Easter Egg Hunt.
• We have had 6 good weeks of preview services with an average of about 85 people a week who have been coming and well over 100 who consider us their new church home!

P.T. Forsyth on the Cross of Christ

It is appropriate this week to read those biblical passages that speak of Christ's atoning sacrifice on the Cross. Meditating extensively on what Jesus did for us in His death and resurrection renews the core of our faith. It's also a good week to brush off some of the better theological texts and review what they have to say about the Cross.

I'm a big fan of P.T. Forsyth (1848-1921), a Scottish theologian writing at the turn of the 20th century. Although trained in liberal theology in Gottingen, he came to the conclusion that liberalism failed to adequately deal with the fallen state of human beings. This led to his own deep reflection and subsequent transformation. He renewed his belief in the atoning work of Christ and he developed a great interest in holiness and the atonement. His study resulted in several outstanding works on the Cross and the Atonement of our Savior. In particular are The Cruciality of the Cross and the classic, The Church and the Sacraments. If you can find a copy, these, along with his masterful Preaching and Modern Mind and The Person and Place of Jesus Christ, are well worth studious reading and reflection. Here are a few quotes for this Holy Week.

In writing about the early believers' worship of Jesus, Forsyth explains:

"What produced this [worship], so amazing, so blasphemous to the Jews? It was the cross, when it came home by the resurrection...It was then that Jesus became the matter and not merely the master of gospel preaching. It was then that He became Christ indeed, then when He became perfected! Perfected! He became the finished Savior only in the finished salvation. And, for those who worshiped Him first, all He was to them centered in the cross and radiated from there. It was the Christ who was made sin for them in the cross that became for them God reconciling the world to Himself. He was all to them in the cross, where He died for their sin, and took away the guilt of the world, according to their Scriptures...That was the starting point of the Gospel, that made it missionary, made the Church. It is the content of the Gospel. And it is always to there that the Church must come back, to take its bearings, and be given its course." ~ The Cruciality of the Cross, pg. 15

And, in writing about the church as a supernatural body of the risen Christ he posits:

"Where does the super-natural and Church-building element in Christ lie? It lies not in His character and teaching but in His office and work--in His atoning Cross and Resurrection...there He is the Son of God with power. His spirituality is evangelical. It is moral power so radical and revolutionary that it is regenerative and nothing less. He is the Christ of the Holy Father, not as the Ideal of the pure, but as the Savior of the lost. What makes Christ Christ is what He did as His life's crowning work; not how He was born or grew up, not even what He said and did from day to day--except as such words and deeds take their consummation, and have their last meaning, in His condensed word and summary work of the Cross." ~ The Church and the Sacraments, pg. 33

Change, or Die!!!

When I came across this quote, it hit me like a ton of bricks, especially as it relates to the church.

"When the rate of change inside an organization is slower than the rate of change outside an organization, the end [of that organization] is in sight." ~ Jack Welch, former CEO of GE

Most sociologists tell us that we are in the midst of a rapid cultural shift. I agree, I can no longer find cassette tapes for my aging 1992 Previa! I gave away 300 vinyl albums when I moved to N. Idaho (wish I had them back now). I couldn't get them to play in my svelte CD player. Seriously, we're at a key inflection point not unlike what has occurred at other pivotal points in world history.

One example is what happened when the printing press was invented in 1439. Gutenberg's printing technology spread rapidly throughout Europe and is considered a key factor for ushering in the European Renaissance. The Gutenberg Bible was first printed in 1455. Soon the masses had access to Scripture. And, eventually comic books in 1935. (Every positive move in technology has a concomitant negative move, I believe.) This tectonic shift has been labeled the Gutenberg Revolution. The impact on the church was massive. The Catholic Church, corrupt at every level, yet powerful, could not contain the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation. That movement radically reshaped the church. In addition to prophetic leaders such as Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and Melancthon, the Reformation was greatly advanced through the dissemination of printed materials.

Likewise, the computer, the Internet, cable optics, cell phones and a host of new advances in communication are playing a huge role in the changes that are swirling around us. Add in the effects of post-modernity, multiculturalism, international free trade, and the fall of communism, and there is no doubt that we are moving through a "worm hole", as some have called it. What awaits us on the other side of all of this remains to be seen. One thing is certain, the world we experienced in 1950 and 1960 is not returning anytime soon. Sorry, Elvis fans. We are in the midst of a giant change, and the pace is quickening.

In the face of all this change, many churches are hunkered down, perpetuating ministry patterns designed in the 1950s and 1960s. The question I would ask is, "How is that working for you?" Actually, there is a better question, "Are you still as effective at reaching the lost and making disciples as you were three or four decades ago?" Most likely not.

Throughout the ages and in various cultures when the church has experienced renewal and growth, one major factor has been the adoption of new methods. The church adapted in order to effectively reach its target group with the Good News. Here again examples abound. Consider the various innovations of John Wesley, D. L. Moody, William and Catherine Booth, Hudson Taylor, Billy Graham, and Bill Hybels. Each had a passion for reaching the lost. Each created new methods, relevent to the culture, to convey the Gospel in more effective ways. The result? Millions of people have been saved from a hellish eternity by coming to know the Savior of the world.

The ramifications for the church are huge. If an individual church intends to do its part in helping to depopulate hell, it must be willing to adapt, continuously. The search for fresh wine skins is never called off. Change in the church's methods and ministry forms must be continuous. In certain periods the pace of change must quicken as the changes in culture accelerate. This is such a time.

I know that resistance to change is endemic to our species, especially as we age. (I still prefer Tom Brokaw to Brian Williams on the evening news....sorry, Brian.) And this is exacerbated by the penchant to transform the church into the last refuge of constancy in the middle of the surrounding cultural storm. Longing for a safe haven we can turn the church into a religious museum. How? Insure that everything about the church stays the same, from the furniture to the carpet, to the music and the programs, and, vigorously resist anyone who tries to change it. The result will be slow death. I guarantee it. It may not come this year, or the next, depending on the size of the endowment fund, but it will come.

But, is this the way of Jesus? I think not. He ushered in radical change. In everything! He turned the Jewish religious establishment upside down. Worship would no longer be confined to a physical temple. The priesthood would no longer be for a privileged few, but for every man, woman, boy or girl who became a Christ follower. He broke down the dividing wall between the religious insiders and the secular outsiders (see Ephesians 2:11-19). He is a wild man for change, especially when it results in transformed people--old creations into new creations--that sort of thing.

Jesus taught with a warning in his voice, "Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins...No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved" (Matt 9: 17). In this new age of the Holy Spirit, whatever structures and methods the church employs to pursue its God given mission, one ingredient must be constant, pliability, or the new wine will burst through. The old wineskin will be ripped apart, destroyed.

I know this is a great challenge for real churches in real places. But, God is able to calm our fears, take us by the hand, and lead us into exciting new days of ministry, while helping us make the changes that are needed to make it happen. So, I encourage you, embrace change. Or, prepare to die. To vigorously resist change, I believe, is to abandon our God-given mission. Rather, we must embrace the mission, and discover creative ways to carry it forward. Let us emulate Paul who wrote that he was willing, "to become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." (1 Cor 9:22)

For more great reading about change I recommend the following:
Who Stole My Church? by Gordon MacDonald
The Present-Future by Reggie McNeall
Leadership Next and ChurchNext by Eddie Gibbs
Deep Change by Robert Quinn
The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch
Change or Die by Alan Deuschman