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Meditations on the Ecclesia National Gathering ’19

We recently asked some folks to reflect and finish the sentence “I left the Ecclesia National Gathering this year feeling ___________.”

Here’s what they said!

I left the Ecclesia National Gathering this year feeling a lot of respect for some leaders who have endured through some hard seasons!

– Bob

Grateful to be in a community that has walked through and adjusted to a lot of challenging circumstances. It encourages me as a future church-planter that our leadership team will have so much collective wisdom and experience to lean on.

– Curtis

Encouraged by what God is doing through the church.

– Jon

Heard, seen and loved by God.

– Jim

I left encouraged for the future, thanks to the gracious support of my brothers and sisters in Ecclesia.

– Wendy

Feeling grateful the two awards our network gives out each year are for (1) Perseverance and (2) Servanthood (and not Fastest Growing Church or Most “Successful” Church).

I was reminded once again why I love our network so much.

-J.R.

Feeling overwhelmingly confirmed in our vocation, gratitude for the support and experiences of those in the network, and happy to have even more new friends!

– Robbie

Even more thankful to be in the network!

-Mandy

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Can Your Church Be the Church That Doesn’t Hurt People?

Like many, I came to church planting through the route of dissatisfaction and hurt. The angry young man. I grew tired of asking the same questions, banging my head against the same walls- tired of feeling hurt by the system and tired of seeing people I loved leave because they had been hurt.

So, when we planted a church in Portland, OR in 2004- I and the others I planted alongside of secretly, inwardly, held the idea- even if we outwardly disavowed it- that we were going to be the church that got things right.

It’s not so much we thought we were better or somehow the pinnacle of ecclesiastical evolution- it was simply that we thought we could learn from the mistakes of the churches we had come from and just do it differently.

It seemed so easy.

We were going to be organic, non-programmatic, we would listen, learn, love… and though we took careful pains to warn people as they came into our community that community hurts, we believed: we would be the church that would never hurt people.

Though we took careful pains to warn people as they came into our community that community hurts, we believed: we would be the church that would never hurt people. Click To Tweet

Of course, we were completely wrong.

I first started getting an inkling of this when I noticed that though we saw many people coming into church and coming to Christ or coming BACK to Church or back to Christ through our community, we saw just as many for whom we were the last stop on the way out. They had grown up in the evangelical church, many were even pastor’s kids, and they would come to our community as this last ditch effort. We met in a pub, were not happy clappy, were not trying to be slick or production-oriented- for a lot of them, we were something still Christian that they thought maybe they could stomach. We even had some explicitly tell us “This is my last try- if this doesn’t work, I’m out.” I mean, no pressure, right?

And time and time again, though we saw many stick and find what they were looking for, we saw just as many turn around and walk out the door again, some with real anger towards us, or towards me. And in trying to pin down why this would happen, we’ve never come to any real conclusions, other than that some people are just going to be hurt, no matter what you do- their issues with God and with church are going to bubble up. Which church in inconsequential- it could be any. And quite often, it’s going to be yours.

But it hasn’t always been simply that some people were setting themselves up to be hurt- sometimes it was us- our choices, our actions. In dealing with people, with couples or individuals or even staff members, we made choices with the best of intentions that ended up alienating people, confirming their worst fears about church… hurting them.

It wasn’t what we intended, we meant well, but we stepped wrong and someone else ended up getting blown out the doors.

There have even been times when we knew- we knew- going into a situation-  there’s potential here for great hurt, and we as elders would circle up and discuss- how can we do this with the minimum amount of pain? How can we do this right? Only to have it blow up in our faces, to have our decisions and choices hurt people we loved very much.

My darkest moment in church planting was coming to the realization that no matter what I did, I was going to contribute to the hurt, the brokenness and pain that people had around church. I just was. We just were.

My darkest moment in church planting was coming to the realization that no matter what I did, I was going to contribute to the hurt, the brokenness and pain that people had around church. Click To Tweet

We always wanted to be a part of people’s faith stories. It’s just that we wanted to be a part of the good bits- the place where people came to Jesus- not the place where they rejected Him. The place where people found community and had their faith in followers of Jesus restored- not the place that got to drive the final nail in the coffin.

And after instance after instance of seeing people leave- angry, hurt- of trying SO HARD to bring the least amount of pain to people through some really hard situations and instead finding ourselves somehow, inexplicably bringing the maximum amount, I came to the hard but good realization, that we don’t get to pick which part of people’s stories we get to play. Yes- we get to pick whether or not we will act in love, with kindness, like Jesus to the best of our ability- I get that. But I’m telling you- there are times when I have felt and when you will feel as though we were in a tragic opera- that God was using us in someone else’s life and what He happened to need at the moment was not a soft place for them to land but a hammer and a chisel. God was going to use us to get some people where HE needed them- to a place of discomfort or even crisis. There have been times when I cried out to God- really? Really? We’re trying so hard with this person and still- it seems like all we can do is screw it up further- that everything we do just seems to make it worse. REALLY?

And if that’s all there was to this thing, I think I probably would have packed it in a long time ago…

The good news is, though there were a lot of dark moments, a lot of times when I wondered if we were going to “make it”, if what we were doing was even worth the effort it took to “make it,” there were a lot of bright moments as well- mostly centered around the times when we stopped trying to build the Church, and just rested in the joy of being the church.

As I think back to those moments of gathering down at the river or creek to baptize people, of dancing for hours after marrying two people who met and fell in love in our community, of sitting with people and untangling some of the knots that they had encountered in life or faith, even of walking with some couples through some really deep water and seeing marriages actually make it, I’m glad that God allowed me to even take part in this thing. Because though we often unintentionally hurt people, though we mess up, though God uses us in hard ways at times, He also is kind enough to let us share in the up times as well. The putting back together of what is broken and the healing of what was hurt.

And I’ve been able to see that best and brightest in seeing how the Gospel actually works in community. How rather than sitting as a lifeless proposition on a page, the Gospel is actually the tool the Holy Spirit uses most as He brings us not just to a saving place of faith in Jesus, but to maturity and Christ-likeness.

I have loved sitting with people who are describing to me their struggles with workaholism, or anger, or money, and realizing- Oh- the real issue here isn’t money, or work or whatever- the real issue is what you are asking it to do for you. To somehow save you, give you hope, give you worth. Let me tell you about Jesus.

I’ve loved sitting with couples in crisis- well, I haven’t loved that part, but I’ve loved being able to tell them- I know, I know the hurt seems overwhelming and forgiveness seems like an impossibility right now, but I want you to think hard, to remember, to meditate on what Jesus has done for you- how and how much He’s forgiven you, and see if that doesn’t open up new possibilities for you here.

And most of all, I have loved realizing that even for me, at my darkest moments as a pastor and in church planting, the Gospel has something to say. Those moments laying awake in bed at 2:30am on Sunday night after preaching- when attendance was low, and giving non-existent and I’m feeling like: “After that sermon it will be a miracle if anyone comes back next week.” And realizing- that in getting so tied up in the metrics, in resting so much of the weight of my soul and my identity on results, on what happened, on how I was perceived and received, I was asking those things to do for me what only Jesus could- to tell me I was worth something, make me whole, save me.

The Good News is that my church and their attendance, their applause, their approval are not my savior. Jesus is.

The Good News is that my church and their attendance, their applause, their approval are not my savior. Jesus is. Click To Tweet

And so my brightest moment of all in church planting was realizing that the Gospel- this good news about Jesus and His kingdom isn’t just a truth we learn at the beginning of our spiritual journey… the Good News is the transformative engine of change in the world, not just for Non-Christians, but for Christians and even for pastors. Our communities and we ourselves will never outgrow needing to hear it, and so we’ll never get past needing to preach it to them, to others… to ourselves.

In church planting, and in pastoring in this broken world hurt is inevitable- both to yourself and to those you are serving and reaching. Thank God we have in the Gospel the answer to the brokenness and hurt we inevitably experience and even in our best intentions bring to other people. Thank God for Jesus.

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A Communion Reflection for Lent

These next few weeks as we worship God during Lent, we want to focus on three key aspects of our worship as a community: worship through praise in song and prayer, worship through communion, and worship through giving. At Evergreen, we desire each person to grow in worship of our great God.

One of the central pieces of historic Christian worship has been communion or what is commonly called the Lord’s Supper. You can read endless works on how that has been understood and developed through history. But there are some key elements to what communion is that helps us to understand the importance and the rationale behind why we celebrate it every Sunday at Evergreen. I wanted to simply remind you of a few: 

As we gather at the table….

  • We reaffirm our new identity in Christ. 

We are reaffirming what we initially declared in baptism-namely, our new identity in Christ. Through this act, we are publicly confessing our loyalty to Christ. Each week we have a chance to reaffirm our personal faith and publicly identify ourselves with the Body of Christ as we celebrate the miraculous gift of salvation.  

  • We proclaim the good news of Christ’s death. 

In one of the most well-known passages about communion in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul is seeking to address some problems that have arisen in the church around the practice and writes: 

For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.” For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again. 1 Cor. 11:23-26

By this representation of Christ’s broken body and shed blood we as a community are proclaiming to one another (and I think Paul would go on to say the ‘principalities and powers’) the good news of Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and evil in his death and resurrection. 

  • We commune with Jesus. 

Over the centuries there have been many questions raised as to exactly how Christ is present in the Lord’s Supper. It’s one of the major disagreements that separate Catholics and Protestants and even denominations within Protestantism. Many protestants believe that the Holy Spirit mediates the presence of Jesus “which transforms our observance of the Lord’s Supper from a solemn memorial into a joyous celebration of the risen and returning Lord who is present among us” (Grenz). While there will always be mystery surrounding what happens at communion, we believe that the Lord’s Supper is a time where we commune with Jesus. 

  • We commune with one another and affirm our unity.

Communion is not only a symbol of our present community with Christ, but also with one another within Christ’s fellowship. Our eating together from a single loaf symbolizes our common participation in communion with Christ. The Spirit reminds us that we belong to each other and are to be concerned for the welfare of one another. The death and resurrection of Jesus is central to everything we do. Despite our vast differences with our own backgrounds, experiences, and ideologies, it is this that unifies us and that we rally around weekly. (Grenz)

A Note to Parents:
If you’re a fellow-parent, our job is to help our children understand the importance and value of communion and help them to take it in a way that is respectful and reverent (as much as possible!). One of the things I always try to do is to ask my boys, “Do you remember why we do this?” They have started to have a correct, but relatively rote response to that question so I’ve started to ask a different followup each time to make sure they’re still thinking about what they’re doing. Questions like, “And why did Jesus die for us?” or “What does it mean that God loves us?” However you chose to do it, the important thing is that we’re intentional in how we’re teaching our kids about communion. 

As we come together to worship this Sunday and we get to the time of communion, I hope you’ll pause for a minute as well and consider one of these powerful aspects of the Lord’s Supper as we gather together to celebrate what Jesus has done for us! 

(Much of this article is inspired by Stan Grenz’ tremendous book “Theology for the Community of God.”)

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Authority or Influence?

As a pastor, I have authority in my community. But authority is not really what I want. What I really want is influence.

Authority is the ability to get people to do what I think they should do. Influence, however, is the ability to move people to want to do what they need to do.

Here’s what I know from Scripture: Pastors/elders/overseers have authority in the local community. Hebrews 13:17 encourages us all to “Obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God.” First Thessalonians 5:12-13 says, “Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work.” Of course, this isn’t carte blanche for church leaders to have control over every aspect of peoples’ lives, though I bet you have met some leaders who’d like to think so.

Jesus pointed us toward the correct use of authority, both in His strong-yet-compassionate example and in His admonition that we lead through serving and avoid using authority in an “authoritarian” way (Mark 10:42-43).

Paul demonstrated both his authority and his influence when on numerous occasions he reminded the Corinthians of his authority (1 Cor 9:3, 2 Cor 10:8) but was still careful to point out that he was trying to use a different lever when moving their hearts to give: “I am not commanding you to do this…” He urged them to think about the grace and generosity of Jesus to them and let that move them (2 Cor. 8:8-9). Though there were times when he clearly felt the need to lean on authority and give clear instructions about what needed to happen (1 Cor. 5, 2 Cor. 2:9), generally speaking, for Paul, authority wasn’t about getting people to do what he wanted them to do–it was about moving them to want to do what they needed to be doing. “For I want to use the authority the Lord has given me to strengthen you, not to tear you down” (2 Cor. 13:10). It was about using his position in people’s lives to apply the Gospel and speak the Good News of Jesus into individual and corporate situations and let that Good News move them towards maturity.

I’ve come to realize something about the difference between my pastoral authority and my pastoral influence. When I get to a place where I have to lean on authority, because my influence just won’t get the job done, I’ve probably already lost. I may be able to get what I’m after by saying “Because I’m the pastor!” or using phrases like “executive decision” and so win that particular battle. But I’m almost certainly losing the war for maturity, for the strengthening of others in my community, and in my own soul.

When I get to a place where I have to lean on authority, because my influence just won't get the job done, I've probably already lost. Click To Tweet

I agree with those who say that our authority is rooted in relationship. I think it’s also rooted in our influence and our ability to demonstrate the life we are calling others toward, to live transparent lives seeking Jesus and invite others to join us. Our influence grows as people see the consistency with which we live these lives, the good that comes out of it for ourselves and others and the depth of our love for Jesus and for them.

Our influence comes from being able to stand before our communities and echo with a clear conscience the words of Paul: “Follow me as I follow Christ.” First Peter 5:3 encourages elders, “Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example.”

Authority is quickly gained. All you need is a title. Influence takes time. It takes constancy and attention to the small things. It is slowly gained, but quickly lost–by a stray comment, an unthinking response, an inability to own our mistakes and repent of them. People don’t want perfection (well, some do), but what they do want is someone they can respect, someone who lives the life they are calling others to, even the hard parts of repentance and sacrifice and humility.

Authority is quickly gained. All you need is a title. Influence takes time. Click To Tweet

Critiquing and minimizing pastoral authority is very much in vogue right now. But the reason this is currently part of the zeitgeist in the Church in the West is not because pastoral authority isn’t biblical, but rather because it’s been wielded in such unbiblical ways.

Lord, let us recover a spirit of mutual submission in the Church, let leaders lead with a Christ-like spirit of servanthood, and let us all follow those elders in our community in such a way that we fulfill the biblical commandment and “Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow.”

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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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