Provocations

Philippines Update: Day 4

How do you respond when your plans (that you knew were God-honoring) are changed by forces beyond your control?

I had the privilege to meet with the 11 campus Pastor's from Community Bible Church on day four of my visit to Manila. A great group of men serving in some difficult but fruitful situations. If I counted correctly, there were about 25 people who came to faith this past Sunday from their ministries.

These men have planted churches throughout Manila all linked together by a common vision, strategy and the sharing of resources. Again, if I heard correctly, all of them have been planted in the last 4 years. I had the opportunity to listen to the stories of what God was doing and then I shared some leadership principles with them. Let me tell you one of their stories.

One of the youngest Pastor's in the room was faced with trying to figure out what to do when his God-honoring plans were changed by forces outside of his control. He was the one unmarried Pastor among the group (and, yes, they picked on him). He was serving under the leadership of the Pastor from the first campus that CBC launched and had begun gathering a core to launch a new church.

A destructive typhoon came through the area and caused massive flooding. One of the strategies the government used to deal with the situation was to relocated a significant segment of the population to a different area of the city. This relocated group included several of this Pastor's core team members for the new church plant. His first reaction was great discouragement. He had put much time, prayer and work into this team and now it was fragmented and small. Because of the distance and lack of transportation the relocated group was not able to continue.

After prayer and counsel, he made a decision. He would start two churches. One in the original location and one with the people who had been relocated. This might seem like a logical thing for us. Until we take some of the impact into consideration. For instance, this young man has a scooter for transportation and it takes about 2 hours travel between the two locations. He has little financial resources even for his own needs. 

It reminds me of the time in the book of Acts when the early church was scattered out of Jerusalem due to persecution. The result was the spread of the gospel of Jesus throughout the Roman Empire.

The good news is that now there is a growing core of two churches because of one young man's faithfulness and willingness to follow God through situations beyond his control. I ask that you to pray for him. Pray for the two young churches that God would protect them from destructive influences and give them boldness in proclaiming with clarity the gospel to a needy world.

Philippines Update: Day 3

I write this morning with the sound of a thunderstorm rolling through the city. That will likely make my wife jealous since, surprisingly, one of the things she misses about growing up in Memphis are the thunderstorms (minus the tornadoes).

Yesterday (day three of my journey), I had the opportunity to worship with Community Baptist Church and preach at two services. One of the very encouraging aspects of meeting the people here have been the radical life change stories as a result of the commitment to Jesus Christ. Over and over again I hear of the brokenness that was healed and the bondage that was shattered by finding peace in Christ. This peace seems seldom to leads to passivity but translates into a mobilized person willing to take great personal risk to tell others the good news. The number of young people who have come to know the Lord from destructive lifestyles and moved on to leadership roles living full out for Jesus is amazing. Many of these are not only impacting Manila but moving out to other countries as missionaries. I look forward to telling more of their stories in the future.

After Church I gathered with the Lyons family for lunch. It is a great testimony to the vision and heart for missions that Greg and LuAnn have obviously passed on to their children who are serving with them in ministry. We spent some time talking about leadership development and brainstorming some ideas of future ministry partnerships with SCC. Collette also joined us. A widowed school teacher who has fairly recently followed God's call from Kansas to come to the Philippines to teach. By the way she is probably about 60. God does not just call the young people to a radical life-changing experience in missions.

I did not sleep well last night. In fact, for those that are aware of the time difference it is 5:30 am here and I have been up praying, dreaming and typing for about 2 hours. My lack of sleep, however, has little to do with the time change and travel schedule. Rather, I am always energized being around other leaders with a big vision and the willingness to take risk for the kingdom. To share together in this great work of of the kingdom, to challenge one another and to support one another. This is life abundant for me. Continue to pray as I move into a week of ministry to local pastors. I know I will learn from them. Pray that God, in turn, may use me to encourage and strengthen their hearts and minds.

Below is a picture of the garland they gave me to wear while preaching yesterday. Don't do that everyday!

Preachers Who Value Their People

I remember a number of years ago teaching a men's group at our Church. Later that week I met with the Senior Pastor to review my message. He asked a simple question: "Why should these men have listened to you?"

I have been through many public speaking courses for both my undergraduate and graduate work as well as a number of seminars. And some questions like this one must be answered by any speaker. Another might be, "Why should they come back next time?" For a Pastor who speaks to basically the same audience every week, it does him well to ask that question in his preparation. There is a danger in taking your audience for granted.

I love the words of Nancy Duarte, "When an audience gathers, they have given you their time, which is a precious slice of their lives. It's your job to have them feel that the time they spent with you brought value to their lives."

This concept goes beyond, "I have something to say and you should listen." It goes to valuing the people with whom you speak. It goes to your heart for people. Not trying to win them with flattery of words (see 1 Corinthians 1-4) but giving them content that connects with their daily journey. That helps make sense of this world and their faith. To add value to their lives.

Perspective on Success for Today

Looking back through my journal from four years ago and found these words from Howard Kelley:

"Today I dedicate myself, my time, my capabilities, my ambition, everything to Him. Blessed Lord, sanctify me to thy uses; give me no worldly success which may not lead me nearer my Saviour."

I also found a statement of my own from a few months previous after having just moved to the Seattle area:

"Went to Starbucks today. It tastes the same as in Texas."

#Exponential Workshop: Dave Gibbons

During the session 3 workshop at Exponential I joined the conversation with Dave Gibbons titled Creating Church Movements and Networks. A lot of territory was covered since again this was an interactive session. Some of the discussion had little to do with the publicized topic but that was less Dave's issue than the direction of the questions.

Here are a few statements that were worth putting on a wall plaque in order to keep them fresh in our minds:

1. Think movement of the Holy Spirit rather than movement of the masses.

2. Think mustard seed. Plant the small seed and let the Holy Spirit cause the growth.

3. Pain is the furnace of transformation. Develop a theology of discomfort. 

4. You are arrogant if you believe you have everything in your church to adequately equip and mature your people for a lifetime.

5. Are we in tune to what the Spirit is doing? Do we respond to what God brings across our paths and join him in it or is it a distraction to what our "big" plans are?

That is enough for now, Dave. I think I will now go sit in the corner with my thumb in my mouth rocking back and forth. I am sure I will snap out of it before I need to preach on Sunday.

Exponential Main Session #3 - Blanchard and Chandler

Now that I have settled back into things here in the Pacific Northwest I am spending some time reviewing my notes from #exponential. I notice I do not have a lot of notes from the session with Ken Blanchard and Matt Chandler. It was not because of lack of interest but perhaps due to being captured by their thoughts.

Blanchard was fabulous. I have read his books but never heard him speak. He shared his testimony of coming to faith in Jesus around 50 years old after he discovered that everything he believed and taught about leadership Jesus did. 

He had so much good practical wisdom on leadership I found myself sitting back and soaking it in. He talked about the importance of a leaders setting vision and direction. He also emphasized the need for developing habits that sustain a servant leadership lifestyle including solitude, prayer, study of God's word and being connected in a small group.

My favorite statement was his definition of what he called "seagull leadership": people who fly around making a lot of noise and then dump on everyone and fly away." Classic!

I have never personally met Matt Chandler but when he I saw him at the conference it was as though I was seeing a good friend. I, like many others, have been praying for Matt as he has been going through a struggle with brain cancer.

His message was on 2 Corinthians 3:18. He did a great job of pointing us to the truth of the passage. We become more like Jesus as we behold Jesus. He then explained how we behold Jesus. He took a number of side tracks which would not have been appreciated by some of my seminary profs. However, it is hardly a distraction when the preacher has substance. Matt Chandler has substance.

Exponential Breakout Session: Ephesian 4 and Church Planting

Alan Hirsch led a breakout session titled Ephesians 4 and Church Planting: A Missional Ministry for a Missional Church. I came to this session having both read and appreciated some of Alan's writings and in view of some personal study that is leading me to challenge my traditional understanding of Ephesians 4:11-14. I appreciated Alan's challenge that we have perhaps put our understanding of what Apostle, Prophet and Evangelist mean in a box. We focus on the "pastor and teacher" and deny the existence of the other three. I agree with him at this point. 

I also appreciated his definitions of the five gifted people (or gifts in his view) in this text. His exploration of the role of an Apostle and how it can still be in existence today was particularly helpful. He rescued the Apostle from the hands of Dominion Theology and those who are afraid of them restoring it to something that has strong biblical and historical warrant.  

My disagreement came when he deconstructed the text and stated that these are not leadership roles in the church. I might agree with him depending on what he considers leadership. At minimum let's call them equipping roles. He then went a step further and stated that he believed all five of the gifts mentioned in these verses were present in every one of us. Certain gifts are more dominate than others which is where the difference comes.

I disagree with this interpretation on both a grammatical and theological ground. I will not take time to address all my thoughts at this time. However, it is clear from the text by the use of a definite article that Paul is referring not to some generalized gift but to a specifically gifted person. These gifted people are distinguished from the general grouping of the "saints". The broader Scriptures also make distinctions along these lines.

It could be that we could reconcile parts of this through a long discussion and I might concede that there are seedbeds of these gifts in all of us since we all have one Spirit. However, I read the text as emphasizing a unique role of these gifted people within the overall body of Christ. Otherwise, the remainder of the text just does not hold together. Paul's verbiage in this regard is decidedly different than in other text such as Romans and 1 Corinthians where he deals with the gifts.

Considering the remainder of his workshop worked out this theme in some practical applications to leadership teams, I found myself unsatisfied with the outcome.

Exponential Breakout Session: Culture Making and the Local Church

Attended the breakout session Cultural Making and the Local Church with Mark Batterson and Matt Chandler at Exponential. Love these two guys. There was an emphasis throughout this session of helping people engage their sphere's of influence. There was a lot of ground covered in this session since it was an open mic questions and answer format. A couple of takeaways.

Matt commented on how to engage culture without compromising the gospel: "Do what we can where we can for the glory of God and the good of man." He brought out the idea of his church encouraging missional engagement teams who shared a common vocation and gathered to brainstorm how to use those vocations for the glory of God and the good of man. An example included policeman and firefighters who gathered for such discussions. They formed a mission team to go to an under resourced area of the world and work with them on developing their ability to respond to emergency situations. I love this since it focuses on people using what they are already trained to do for an expanded ministry. It is also not depended on the staff of a church to accomplish but is put into the hands of everyone.

Mark made a great comment in dealing with setting the DNA of a church and seeing significant ministry accomplished through the church. He stated, "We overestimated what we can do in 2 years and underestimate what we can do in 10 years." It is important for us all to keep the long-term in view.

It was great to hear Mark say that he wanted to be called Captain Obvious. Much of what he shares he says should be plain an obvious from reading the Scriptures but we still need to be reminded of them and return to them. This protects us from doing what we do so well - complicating Christianity.

A final note of appreciation for these guys. To hear them respond to questions with Scripture is encouraging. That type of ease with the Bible only comes from spending many hours saturating one's mind with the truths of Scripture. Their ability to not just speak of concepts but quote texts provided a depth and power to their responses.

Exponential Day 1 - Main Sessions

The first day of Exponential has come and gone. Over the next two days I will post some of my thoughts on the main sessions, breakout sessions and other interactions. Perhaps this is therapeutic for me but hopefully I can share with you some of this experience.

Day one encouraged me but in unexpected ways. I have been reminded that principles that sustain a church plant resonate in the hallways and the pulpits of any vibrant church. Perhaps churches loose momentum because we often loose sight of these principles.

The two keynote speakers today, Mark Batterson and louie Giglio, brought it from God's word. Mark spoke from Numbers 22 (Balaam and his ass). Two statements caught my attention. First he stated, "God is more concerned about who you're becoming than where you're going." This is a great reminder especially for those considering life and ministry transitions.

Second, "Thank God that sometimes he gets in the way to show us the way." For those of us who are highly goal driven and convinced we know where we are going, this often leads to great frustration rather than praise.

Louie did what he always does for me - he encouraged my heart and reminded me how to live and minister for the renown of Christ's name. He brought so many nuggets of truth I can hardly cover them all here. His central challenge was to keep our minds focused on a few simple things. The Apostles had three things when they started: 1) the teachings of Jesus; 2) they witnessed the resurrection; 3) the power of the Spirit. 

We also have these three things and they must be central in our ministry. In speaking of the resurrection he emphasized not only the knowledge of Christ's resurrection but the experience of our own - being transferred from death to life.

As others have stated, if these two messages were all I got for the price of admission, it is enough. More to come.  

Exponential Conference

I am in Orlando Florida this week for Exponential 10. Exponential is a conference coordinated by the Exponential Network focused on church planting, church planting movements and church planting networks. It is the largest church planting conference on the planet. After being here, I realize that is not just hype. There are a ton of people. At one point the registration was 3,000. I have not heard the final numbers but I would expect it is more than that.

I am here with my wife Ali, Nathan Hansen and his wife Rona. Our goal is to gather as much information on church planting and church planting networks as possible to bring back to SCC for as we seek fo fulfill our regional vision of partnering with others to plant healthy reproducing churches throughout the Pacific Northwest.

What we get as a bonus is personal challenge and encouragement for our current ministries and hearts. Pray for us this week. Pray for our kids as we are away as well. I am sure if this conference is something important then there will be attacks from the enemy to distract us. Believe me we have already been dealing with some.