Category Archives: The Church

2008-04-03 The Brief

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A Barista Named Chad

At Starbucks I work with Chad Mondragon who is the administrative pastor at Providence Community Church, in Lexington, KY.  Chad is theologically solid and I enjoy talking theology with him.  Chad has a ton of blogs/websites I have listed them below (in alphabetical order of course!) with a brief description of each.  Seriously check these out.

Chad and Melody: This is Mondragon family site.

Providence Community Church: This is the church’s website, hence the name, and there is a lot of good stuff here.  If you live near Lexington watch this site for updates as they just did a conference on a Biblical Theology of Creation, with two guest lecturers from the Central Baptist Theological Seminary of Virginia Beach.

Providence Community Church Blog: This is the church’s blog check here for sermon notes and other goodies.

South-Side Community Group: This is the blog for Providence Community’s south-side small group study.  They are currently studying through Ephesians and there are some maps and other resources dealing with that on this blog

Biblical Counseling

This semester I have had the privilege of taking a biblical counseling class at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary taught by Stuart Scott and it has profoundly impacted my understanding of both pastoral and lay ministry within the church.  Because of this I hope you will take the time to look at the Christian Counseling & Education Foundation and the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors.  Both of these websites are loaded with free resources to help you do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-14).

Books

Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists, by Collin Hansen, profiles the rise of Calvinism, or Reformed Theology, among young Christians.  I am young, I am restless, and I am reformed so this looks to be a fantastic read.  Tim Challies has reviewed the book and it is available here.  Prior to its development into a full-length book the brief article “Young, Restless, Reformed: Calvinism is making a comeback―and shaking up the church” was published in Christianity Today.

Culture

Why Americans Never Vote for What They Really Want: This article by Der Spiegel addresses the tension that exists because American voters want to have their cake and eat it too.  From the article, “The findings are clear: the desires of American citizens contradict their fundamental convictions.”  Yesterday I had a conversation with Nick Cooper about celebrities who tout their concern for third-world countries when their weekly earnings could rival many of these countries GNP.  Yes, American’s want the world to become a better place up to the point that it actually costs them something.

Ethnonationalism: With racial tensions in America, ethnic cleansing and genocide in Africa, and sectarian violence in the Middle East it is clear that these tensions profoundly affect us at the interpersonal, national, and global level.  I am sure that many of us are aware of the interpersonal and national issues arising from this but what about the international effects of ethnic prejudice?  Jerry Z. Muller examines ethnocentrism and ethnonationalism at the global level in his recent article US and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism.

Evangelism and Biblical Theology of Work

Over at Provocations & Pantings there is a lengthy series of posts addressing a biblical theology of work.  Because of our inherited sin nature we tend towards laziness and a work ethic that does not glorify God.  The unbiblical dichotomy between ministry and secular vocation―like when an individual says, “At work I am an architect but I am really a minister of the gospel”―has devastated numerous individuals understanding of employment.  From my observations I think this error characterizes evangelicalism at large and in all likelihood has affected your understanding of work as well.  This is why I recommend that you take the time to read the following posts:

·         The Cross Isn’t Sexy: A Dying Man’s Confession 

·         Missional Work 

·         Putting in Time or Preaching the Truth: What’s More Valuable?

·         Don’t Waste Your Work! 

·         Witnessing at Work: Sacred vs. Secular?

·         Gospeling at Work, Part 1

·         Gospeling at Work, Part 2

·         Churches, Affirm the Importance of Work and Mission

·         Note: As more posts are written in this series I will simply add them to this list so come back and check for updates.

Church Revitalization or Church Planting — Again

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Research shows that 90% of SBC churches are plateaued or declining and only 2-3% (Aubrey Malphurs) or 3-5% (Ed Stetzer) will ever recover.  What does this tell us about how our resources and energy should be focused?  Where do you think our resources and energy is currently focused?

On a lighter note, was this extraterrestrial, supernatural, or just Elvis?  You make the call.

I will try to have my “2007 A Year in Books” posted sometime before 2009 but I am quite busy right now, so hopefully it will be up sometime in February.

Rick Warren on Missions

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In my last post, I gave you the following quote from an individual whose identity I did not reveal at that time.

These problems, and the answers, are not new.  But the way we intend to tackle them using the small groups of local churches in large numbers is revolutionary.

The bottom line is that we intend to reinvent mission strategy in the 21st century.  This will be a new Reformation.  The First Reformation returned us to the message of the original church.  It was a reformation of doctrine – what the church BELIEVES.  This Second Reformation will return us to the mission of the original church.  It will be a reformation of purpose- what the church DOES in the world.

In the first century, mission strategy was always congregationally based.  The first missionaries were sent, supported, and accountable to local churches.  The church at Antioch was the first to do this.  There were no mission societies, mission boards, or parachurch organizations.  Local churches accepted the responsibility for Jesus’ Great Commission and his Great Commandment, and the growth of the church worldwide was explosive.

Today, most local churches are sidelined and uninvolved when it comes to missions.  The message from most mission and parachurch organizations to the local church is essentially “Pray, pay, and get out of the way.”  But in the 21st century . . . [We] intend to help thousands of other local churches move back to the frontline in missions, in compassion, and in providing the social services that historically the church provided.  I believe the proper role for all the great parachurch and relief organizations is to serve local churches in a supportive role, offering their expertise and knowledge, but allowing the local churches around the world to be central focus and the distribution centers.

I deeply believe that any organization that marginalized or minimizes the local congregation’s responsibility to “Go”, or bypasses the local church’s moral authority to fulfill the Great Commission,  is out of sync with the strategy God intended, and modeled in the book of Acts.

Rick Warren said that as he described the P.E.A.C.E. Plan, the specific quote is available here.  After the above quote Warren goes on to say, “We intend to leverage the attention that the Purpose Driven Life has garnered to bring about a whole new way of thinking and acting in the church about our responsibility in the world.  This is a stewardship we must be faithful to fulfill- with humility, generosity, and integrity.”

I think he has spoken with profound insight.  These parachurch organizations and mission societies/boards are, as he puts it, “out of sync with the strategy God intended.”  They are robbing the church of her responsibility.  Local churches must fulfill their responsibility and bearing the burden of fulfilling the Great Commission.  As a Southern Baptist, I am familiar with the structures within the Southern Baptist Convention and the typical mindset of “We gave to the cooperative program and are therefore fulfilling our responsibility to ‘go make disciples’” just does not cut it.  That is an unacceptable and unbiblical attitude.

Such a strategy also necessitates that churches be involved in the task of raising up, sending out, and empowering their best leaders.  The typical corporate ladder mindset of most American pastors is horrifically unbiblical.  Rather than our most skilled pastors continually seeking bigger churches and higher salaries, which is often a detriment to those churches, these pastors should employ their skill where it is needed most, the hard places and pioneer areas.  Sadly, I do not expect this to be the case as most pastors in America are more concerned with building their empire than God’s kingdom.

What do you all think?  Has the church lost her mission?  Do we need a second reformation that recovers what the church does?  Before we can do that I think we need a second reformation that recovers what the church is, but that is for another post.

When Programmatic Become Problematic: Willow Creek Apologizes

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Earlier this month on Christianity Today’s blog Out of Ur there was an interview concerning Willow Creek Community Church’s recent admission of an apology for failure.  The article “Willow Creek Repents?  Why the most influential church in America now says ‘We made a mistake.’” is available here.  Before going any further, I have to give props to Justin Tapp for e-mailing me this article.

The article begins:

Few would disagree that Willow Creek Community Church has been one of the most influential churches in America over the last thirty years.  Willow, through its association, has promoted a vision of church that is big, programmatic, and comprehensive.  This vision has been heavily influenced by the methods of secular business.

Willow Creek recently published the findings of a lengthy qualitative study of the ministry at Willow Creek in a book entitled Reveal: Where Are You?.

The article summarizes Willow Creek’s philosophy of ministry saying, “The church creates programs/activities.  People participate in these activities.  The outcome is spiritual maturity.”  To their shock and disappointment, the study revealed that:

Increasing levels of participation in these sets of activities does NOT predict whether someone’s becoming more of a disciple of Christ.  It does NOT predict whether they love God more or they love people more.

I appreciate their humility in coming out and admitting their mistake and then publishing their failings in a book.  I think that the book will be an invaluable resource to all who have bought into the Willow Creek model and subsequently need to reevaluate their flawed philosophy of ministry.

What I do disagree with; however, is their proposed solution:

We made a mistake.  What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become “self feeders.”  We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

Fundamental to their proposed solution is individual autonomy.  While that may be an easy product to sell to narcissistic Americans, it is not a biblical understanding of the church.  The church is at its core a community and the Word of God is meant to be studied and applied within the context of that community.  Now what I do not mean is the medieval Catholic understanding of this where only a trained clergy can read the Scriptures, nor should we chain Bibles to pews (if you even have pews), nor am I advocating a church-endorsed translation of Scripture as prominent within Roman Catholicism.  What I am advocating is what you find in passages like Romans 12:1-8 where we see that spiritual gifts are given to be used in the context of community; or Ephesians 5:18-21 and Colossians 3:12-17 where we are called to teach and admonish one another; to the glory of God, or Ephesians 4:11-16 where we realize that pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc. are given to equip the saints for the work of the ministry so that the body of Christ can build itself up in love.  The point being that individuals do not grow toward spiritual maturity, the body of Christ does.  Just as in the human body, the body of Christ is comprised with numerous parts, each of which has its own functions.  When these individual parts do not grow as one the result is dysfunction and distortion.  If a grown man has the legs or the heart of a five year old, he will certainly not function as he should and yet such dysfunction and disproportion is far too often accommodated within the body of Christ.

Willow Creek’s failure serves as an alarm to remind us that no matter how popular or successful a particular church paradigm may be if it is not based on Scripture then it will ultimately fail.  Willow Creek is no exception they based the church on popular business philosophy, to the point that outside of Bill Hybels’ hangs a poster that reads, “What is our business?  Who is our customer?  What does the customer consider value?”  They may have enjoyed a season of success; however, it is clear that unbiblical ministry is not sustainable ministry.

This is also a reminder that church growth must be organic growth, “so that the Church may be a living organism within an environment.”[1]  Furthermore, “it must not be allowed to grow in a foreign form but in a form suitable to the world in which it lives.”[2]  Organic growth stresses both proportion and indigeneity.  The stress upon proportion means that the church must be in a state of equilibrium where growth occurs equally on all planes; failure to do so results in distortion as certain aspects are emphasized while others are neglected.[3]  Understanding this is crucial in both evaluating you ministry as well as developing your philosophy of ministry.  Far too many churches are buying into things like “the Willow Creek Model” and other various paradigms; however, we must remember that the local exists within a particular environment and what works in one environment may not be successful or healthy in another.

[1] A. R. Tippett, “Indigenous Principles in Mission Today,” in Verdict Theology in Missionary Theory (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1973), 128.

[2] Ibid., 128.

[3] A prime example is modern pop Christianity’s stress on numerical growth at the expense of genuine spiritual growth.

Should we Plant Churches or Revitalize Old Ones?

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This is the questions Al Mohler tackles in his most recent post, Church Planting Movements and the Great Commission.  In the end, he concludes that planting new churches must compliment and not castigate the revitalization of older churches.  Ultimately, “churches will grow only as Christians share the Gospel with people who desperately need to hear it — and that will hold true no matter how old or young the congregation may be.”

For those of you wondering my surgery went fantastic yesterday.  My leg, which I thought would hurt the worst, is feeling great although my back feels like someone just beat me.  The stitches will come out next Friday just in time to go help and older congregation under new leadership catch a vision for being a missionary in their community.