The Ecclesia Network

a missional church network

Archives for January 2019

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Unless a Congregation Dies

Kingdom Mission doesn’t happen by accident. Here’s what we can do today to participate in God’s Kingdom Mission.

I am a bi-vocational church planter. In my day job I own a marketing agency that helps business leaders grow their organizations.

When I sit down with my clients I start by asking them where they want their business to be in two years and then where they want it to be in five years.

When they tell me where they want to be in two years, it is about survival and growth – 50% revenue increases, a dollar net income figure, adding locations and services, etc. When they tell me about their five year goals, however, they start talking about their passions – the things that come from their heart and drives their desire to grow and work.

I ask these same questions when I sit down with church planters.

When church planters tell me that they want to have a growing congregation that is self-sustaining in two years, it is about survival. They want to make enough money as an organization to pay their bills and allow the pastor to work for the church full time.

When I ask what they want in five years, either they say things like ‘bigger’, ‘more impact’, ‘more staff’, ‘more missions focus’, and the like, or they simply have no idea what they want.

Without clarity about the telos – the eventual end goal – the intermediate goals and the daily work are not clear.

Six months before we launched Redemption Hill, I was sitting at the Exponential Conference in Orange County and God was starting to shift my vision. I knew I was called to plant a church, and I thought it was about building a great organization. A healthy place for kingdom impact in a neighborhood. To grow and raise resources to spend on impact in the city…things like that.

That wasn’t a bad vision, but if it doesn’t grow, it would become toxic. If our ministry is about growing our influence, our impact, or our organization, it is ultimately about us. The gravitational pull is towards our internal community. Even outreach and mission become an expression of our virtue – a percentage of our wealth rather than a sacrificial investment.

Jesus’ words in John 12:24-26 could be said to us like this:

“Truly I say to you, unless a CONGREGATION dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit. Congregations who love their [community, building, programs] lose it, and congregations who hate their [community, building, programs] in this world will keep them for eternal life.”

(Robert’s translation)

As my vision started to shift, I asked a different question: How can I reach a whole city? How can I reach a whole region? How can I reach a whole country?

I don’t think it is my responsibility to make all those things happen on my own, but as a strategic question, it changed the vision for our church plant. We started to think about long term impact beyond the doors of our congregation. These words started to stick in my head that I heard at Exponential: “My fruit will grow on other people’s trees.” I realized I was supposed to make leaders who could multiply the kingdom mission beyond the doors of my leadership. Beyond the impact of our congregation.

Unless a congregation dies to itself, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit.

What if Jesus was talking to not just us as individuals, but as a movement? What if living to preserve the institutions that we built will keep us from making an eternal impact? Jesus understood how to build a movement, and it wasn’t through great organizational leadership. It wasn’t through institutional longevity. It wasn’t through crowds, wealth, resource hoarding, and buildings. Jesus spent 70% of His time doing one thing: training and discipling twelve young people to own the vision and mission of the kingdom.

And it worked.

Maybe we shouldn’t just take the teachings of Jesus, but our ministry should look like the methods of Jesus. (see The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman)

So as we started to ask how can we reach a whole city, God impressed on me that most of my time should be developing disciples who can lead as apostles, just like Jesus did.

So here’s how I’m trying to pursue that calling:

  1. My main job is not the crowd. They get 30% of my time, so Sunday prep only gets 30% of my church time. That means 5-7 hours per week including sermon prep.
  2. Every day my main metric for success and effectiveness centers around the question: how much time did I spend with the people I am training/discipling?
  3. I identify 8-12 leaders per year whose development I will prioritize; I will seek opportunities to help them grow in their christlikeness, character and competency.

How am I doing at it? Not great every week; but this metric helps me know when I am winning or not winning – when the kingdom is advancing or retreating.

If my fruit grows on other trees, and the Jesus movement is dependent on pouring into other people, I better be tending those other gardens as much as I tend my own.

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5 Questions to Ask After You Write Your Sermon (But Before You Preach It)

Preaching is not the end-all, be-all of pastoring or church planting, but it’s certainly a huge part. It’s a part of the formation for mission of our communities, the personal formation of followers of Jesus, and often, a big part of someone’s journey toward Jesus.
We don’t recommend that you spend your whole work week preparing for a sermon, but… In light of its importance in the life and rhythms of your community, here are 5 questions to ask as you think about what you’ve written, and what God has laid on your heart to communicate to your community this week.

Where in this message do I clearly point to Jesus?

If the aim of the whole Bible is to point to the work and person of Jesus, then shouldn’t we do the same every time we preach? Whether we’re in the Old Testament or Wisdom literature, or the Pastoral Epistles, there’s a always a bridge to Jesus, and we should look for it. As I preach Old Testament characters, I’m often asking “Where does this character’s victories or failures point to Jesus?” “What did they get wrong that Jesus got right?” or “How, rather than being a role model for me, is this character showing me something I could NEVER do, but that Jesus DID on my behalf?” A great example is that of David- too many of us preach his victory over Goliath as some kind or moralistic hero tail- “Believe God and He will help you defeat the giants in YOUR life!” That’s not the point of the story! We’re not the hero David- we’re the cowering Israelites who need an unlikely Savior to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves. (If you are looking for more on how to preach this way,  we recommend Tim Keller’s excellent Preaching.)
Always pointing to Jesus is the point of preaching- without it, at best we’re just giving people tips on how to be slightly better people, and at worst churning out Pharisees who think the point of the Christian life is to do more, or do better. Point them to Jesus instead, and encourage them to rest in HIS finished work, and then, out of gratitude, live their lives more and more like Him.

Where in this message do I speak to non-Christians?

A surprising number of sermons omit this. Even if your sermon is on some point of Christian living, if you truly are a missional community, you should expect some element of the neighborhood to be present in your gatherings, and you should preach as though they are. Even if you and your community aren’t doing the best at inviting others in to the life of your community (including worship gatherings), preaching with a view to saying something of value and invitation to non-Christians, in a careful and sensitive way, is a great way of teaching your church community how to talk about various topics to their friends and neighbors. It also shows them that your community is a safe space to invite their friends into. It doesn’t have to be an INVITATION (in the classic, come-down-to-the-altar sense)- just a simple “If you are here today, and you are not yet a follower of Jesus, or are still exploring and questioning, here’s what I want you to think about…” or “Here’s where this text touches your life if you’re not sure about Jesus.”

Where in this message do I speak to Christians?

It’s possible to get so focused on those among us who might not yet be followers of Jesus, that we forget to regularly encourage those who are following Him, or who are struggling. That’s why after I speak to the non-Christians, I always want to say something like “If you are here and you are a follower of Jesus…”. Often, I’m saying the same thing to non-Christians and to Christians, just with slightly different emphases for those on either side of the decision to be a Christ-follower. But making it explicit is always helpful, especially as sometimes people tend to tune out when they hear you addressing a group (like non-Christians) that they are not a part of. There’s a piece of the Good News in that text and in your sermon for everyone- tell them what it is and invite them to grab hold of it! If we really believe that the Gospel is not just the start of our Christian lives, but the way we live it, grow and are ultimately formed into the character of Jesus, then even mature believers and long-time Christians need to hear the Good News preached in a way that helps that to grab hold even firmly to what Jesus has done for them, and what it means now, right now today, in their lives.

Where in this message do I speak to the heart?

Sermon prep for you probably looks a lot like reading books and commentaries to help you understand and explain the text. The problem is that too often, this leads us to not just an intellectual understanding of whatever subject or passage we are preaching, but an intellectual presentation of that subject or text. And there’s probably a lot of people who are listening to you that love that- they love gaining a new insight about a text that has troubled them, or finally having something explained to them in a new way.
But that’s not the point of preaching. Gaining insight about a text, or understanding of the biblical context around a passage is good, but it doesn’t move the human heart any closer to the Kingdom of God.
In asking this question of my sermons, I’m really trying to get at “Where does the Good News of the Gospel intersect with what people are going through in their lives right now?” I want to help people connect emotionally with the issue I will speak to in the coming minutes. I want to know where what I’m preaching speaks to the deep needs of the people that are listening- where it touches our shared human experience. I can explain a text all day long, but until I access their hearts, and show them where the Gospel touches their loneliness or their grief, their joy or their pain, their desire for more or their fear of the future, I haven’t really done what I need to do.
We want to partner with the Holy Spirit in seeing hearts moved toward God, and lives transformed more and more into the image of Christ. We’ll never really get there if we’re not constantly reminding ourselves to speak not just to the heads and intellect of our listeners, but to their hearts as well.
And finally, the last question I ask of my sermon is…

Where in this message do I give people something to do right now- rather than later?

Too often, the take away from our sermons is something to do, decide or die to later. And the real question is, how many of our listeners remember that past lunch, much less into the coming weeks and months. That’s why I always strive to give my listeners something to do right now– this morning, before we end this sermon. I want them to commit, to make a plan to do something, to decide to forgive someone- whatever it is. I want to give time for reflection, space to do business with God and challenge them to do it- to not wait until later, because later it will be forgotten. What is God saying to us today, and how will we answer Him?
These questions may seem like something of a checklist- I certainly don’t mean to complicate your sermon prep process. They have been useful to me as I have strived to preach the Gospel to whoever was listening, week in and week out, and to see that Gospel message become sticky in the lives of the people I pastor. Hopefully, they won’t necessitate a complete re-write for you this week, but subtle tweaks of a sentence here or there, and maybe a conclusion that points more to Jesus than it did before.
Unless, of course, your sermon this week is “Slaying the Giants in Your Life.” If it is, go ahead and start over.

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New Ministry Spotlight: The Mill Chapel Open Sanctuary

Ecclesia’s Redemption Church in Bristol, PA has started an amazing new missional initiative. Here’s Pastor Gary Alloway’s latest update:

In 2017, Redemption Church in Bristol, PA got a grant to research the topic of young adults and religion and after a number of interviews, a theme emerged: Young adults were open to God, but scared of the church. It got us thinking: “What would it look like to create a space where people could meet God, but there were no requirements for membership, beliefs, or behaviors?” In September, we opened The Mill Chapel, an open sanctuary space for the town of Bristol. The Mill is a storefront just off main street that is decorated in both simple and sacred aesthetics. Our initial offerings are basic: open prayer from 6 to 8 am and an evening contemplative prayer class. And while we have big dreams for classes, events, and workshops, our biggest dream is simply to have the space open as much as possible for anyone to come in.

Why open a prayer chapel in Bristol? Sometimes practice comes before belief. I’ve always been intrigued by the culture of AA, which asks people to pray even if they don’t believe. A weird thing happens when people do this. Quite often, people come to know God. When Jesus invites his disciples, he doesn’t first explain to them the Kingdom of God. Instead, he simply says, “Come follow me.” And it is only after they taste and touch the Kingdom of God that the disciples come to believe. Our hope is that someone could come in for prayer or silence or meditation and even if they don’t yet believe, they could meet the Living God.

Why open a prayer chapel in Bristol? Redemption has been working as missionaries in Bristol for 9 years now, forming relationships all over town. We’ve often found that Sundays are not a good point of invitation for those who are spiritual-but-not-religious. We wanted to create a middle space, something that is overtly spiritual, gets beyond the pleasantries and small talk, and yet, a place without the baggage that come with attending church.

Why open a prayer chapel in Bristol? Because Bristol, like anywhere else, needs prayer. One of the privileges of my life has been to visit churches and monasteries all over the world that are committed to prayer. There is a lightness and a joy that permeates the air. On mornings when I drive our kids to school, I drive past The Mill, look inside, and see that the candles are lit. Someone is praying for Bristol. And no matter how heavy the day feels, something of that lightness and joy comes to visit me. Bristol is being prayed for. It makes my heart happy.

The Mill is a missional experiment and we hope that many come to know and enjoy God through that place. But honestly, if all that ever happened at The Mill was that a bunch of Redemptionites got praying for Bristol, I bet God would do pretty good things with that. And since that is already happening, I would say the experiment is a success.

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