Tim Keller on the Missional Church

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, has much to say on the missional church. In a short article that he wrote he sums it up very well…

[W]hat makes a small group missional? A ‘missional’ small group is not necessarily one which is doing some kind of specific ‘evangelism’ program (though that is to be recommended). Rather, 1) if its members love and talk positively about the city/neighborhood, 2) if they speak in language that is not filled with pious tribal or technical terms and phrases, nor disdainful and embattled language, 3) if in their bible study they apply the gospel to the core concerns and stories of the people of the culture, 4)if they are obviously interested in and engaged with the literature and art and thought of the surrounding culture and can discuss it both appreciatively and yet critically, 5) if they exhibit deep concern for the poor and generosity with their money and purity and respect with regard to [the] opposite sex, and show humility toward people of other races and cultures, 6) they do not bash other Christians and churches-then seekers and non-believing people from the city A) will be invited and B) will come and will stay as they explore spiritual issues. If these marks are not there it will only be able to include believers or traditional, “Christianized” people.

Certainly a challenge to me as I process how I preach sermons and how I interact with those around me. You’ll notice not once does he say compromise or water-down the Gospel. But stand firm in the Gospel while loving those who are still doubters. I’m challenged, I hope you are too.

Some more thoughts on being missional

I’ve become a part of an online community at goideation.org. It’s mostly tech and worship leaders but opens up a lot of great discussions, you should check it out. I just posted this question below on their forum, any thoughts would be very cool…

Heading into a strategic/creative planning meeting tomorrow so I’m pondering this an awful lot. Now I know every city and community is different, but I’m just curious what are people finding to be the so-called “keys” to their community and/or city? What ways have you discovered to be missional to where God has put your church? We’re in a vibrant, urban center so the typical children’s ministry and catchy mailer/sermon series isn’t enough. We’re working on drilling down to where this young, mostly single, affluent crowd God has surrounded us with is going to discover Jesus in a way that fits the context of their seeming affluence and non-perceived need for Jesus. Good times! Not looking for ideas that will necessarily fit our context, I’d just like to see what God is revealing to folks in other places and how you discovered it. Thanks!

Matt Chandler brings a smackdown…in a nice way

I don’t often just post a link to other blogs/articles etc. but this one is too good to pass on. Matt Chandler pastors a large church in Dallas that has seen phenomenal growth while being focused on content as opposed to flash. I was convicted reading this article in ways I didn’t realize were inside me. What’s your true motivation? Why do you pursue what you pursue? Are the motives what they should be? Matt Chandler challenges us in this post.

Missed opportunities

I just finished reading a piece in the most recent issue of Relevant Magazine by Adam Smith. I’ve become a huge fan of Adam’s listening to him on the Relevant Podcast, truly one of the funniest things out there. If you don’t subscribe go to itunes now and subscribe. Next to the Ephesus Church podcast, it’s one of the best audio excursions out there! Adam recently moved to New Zealand to explore some new opportunities in life, but he has continued to Skype into the podcast and write for Relevant. This month he recounts a recent occurrence in his life after moving to New Zealand. He was at a bus stop when a young (very) couple sat down next to him. She was crying and the guy was trying to get Adam to talk. Adam relates how he had no desire to talk with them or get involved in the situation. The guy continues to prod and eventually Adam talks with him and learns of the difficult situation they’re in. What Adam honestly admits is that he didn’t want to, and didn’t do much for them and struggled with that reality afterward. He says he can quickly give to a worthy cause, or buy clothing that supports the right causes in the world but when God put opportunity right in front of him he shied away. This struck me to the core. How true of so many of us who claim to be Christians. We’ll give money, drink fair trade coffee and avoid Nikes but when it’s right in front of us, we can’t be bothered, don’t want to be bothered. I struggle with this constantly. I’m working on it. God has called me and Ephesus to Charlotte. There is very wealthy communities in this city and there are extremely downtrodden communities, what am I going to do to be hands-on with both? It can’t just be a check or an exhorting word from the pulpit. It has to be life…. Very soon at Ephesus we’ll be introducing you to the Hyaets Community in West Charlotte. One of our attenders, Anna, is living out Jesus right in the neighborhood. Actions are speaking. I’m praying I’ll get out of my self-induced bunker and live and work with the people God has called us to in Charlotte. I’m praying that the vision God has given for Ephesus will happen. He’s called us to reach those who are more fortunate and then leverage the available resources to impact, in a HANDS-ON way, those not as fortunate. It’s the model of the New Testament church. It’s also the model the founder of our Foursquare movement, Aimee Semple McPherson, lived out at Angelus Temple in Los Angeles during the Depression. Through Angelus Temple, the affluent of Los Angeles, including movie stars like Charlie Chaplin, used what they had to feed and clothe so many affected by the poor economic times. In fact the food banks and commisarys of Angelus Temple fed and clothed more than the City of Los Angeles or any other government agency of the time. Today, the Dream Center and Angelus Temple continue this very hands-on Christian lifestyle. It’s encouraging and challenging to be reminded this kind of Christian lifestyle is a part of our denominational heritage.

I saw myself so clearly in Adam’s story of the bus stop (he’s a former pastor). I’m praying God will increase my boldness. I’m looking forward to plugging in with Anna and Hyaets and what they’re doing in West Charlotte. Pick up a copy of the most recent issue of Relevant and be challenged in what you are REALLY doing to be Jesus to this world and our community.

The radical church model at Ephesus

As I’ve gotten to meet a lot of new folks at Ephesus over the last few months one common theme keeps popping up. People are saying they have to hunt and hunt for a church that is solidly biblical in their teachings and actions. Unfortunately, this hasn’t caught me as much of a surprise, but shouldn’t it be surprising? Christian churches that aren’t obviously putting Scripture right out front? This often includes putting Jesus (or not, as the case may be) right out front. People are truly hungry for Jesus and Scripture and tired of wasting their time with feel good theology that makes everyone feel warm and fuzzy, but leaves way too much open to debate and makes no, true, eternal change in people’s lives. As a pastor, and a church, we’re committed to God’s Word and Jesus. It’s amazing how “attractional” this has been in our early months as a church. I’m very excited about how people are landing at Ephesus, because they see a church that is biblical and loves Jesus. At the same time, it’s exciting to see people discover who Jesus truly wants to be in their lives and then seeing their lives change, while we follow our “radical” model of preaching Jesus and the bible every Sunday. I love our church!

Prayer List

Today we’re finishing our 17 WEEK series in Ephesians. Wow, it’s been fun, at least for me….Paul finishes this letter with a discussion on prayer as one of our weapons in the spiritual battle we are a part of as Christians. We’ve spent the last several weeks looking at the realities of the spiritual world. Paul then concludes for a request for prayer that I believe is a call to all of us who follow Jesus to constantly be praying for what is before us as we move forward in the mission He calls us to. With that in mind, we’ll be hitting prayer hard and heavy tonight. I’ll mention a few areas that we need to be constantly be praying about. I wanted to put together a simple list that could be used to guide prayer as it relates to areas of Ephesus Church and the city of Charlotte. Below is the list. I hope it will be of value

1. Ephesus Church

• People will discover Jesus
• Relationships will be created, strengthened and restored
• Disciples will be created 
• Vision to Love Jesus, Love People, Love the City will continue to be lived out
• Me! (Ben)
• Ministry directors-currently: Children (Christina Edwards), Media/Tech (David Harkness), Connections (Karen Furr), Home Groups (David Koran), Worship (Seth Snider)
• The vision to impact the people and culture of Charlotte will continue to be pursued

2. Foursquare (our denomination)

• Jack Hayford-international president
• Glenn Burris-national director/General Supervisor
• Farrell Lemings-division leader (our direct point of contact)

3. Charlotte

• The people of this great city
• Ephesus’ place as a part of the culture of this city
• Relationships to be established in and around the city

Mission

I’m working on our final sermon in Ephesians this week and found some info from Barna that just really brings the reality of the Church’s mission to light in the US. We’re not cutting it. The reason we’re not cutting it, is we’re creating our own systems and culture and expecting the unchurched to come to us. But they have no buy-in or reason to come to us. We go to conferences and read magazines that show us all the latest and greatest (“bigger, better, faster” I like to call it) in the “church world” but nationally, church attendance continues to decline. I think we’re blinded to this reality by the emergence of ever more “mega” mega-churches. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing at all against big churches. It’s just that they really are the minority of what is happening spiritually. And while some of these large churches are doing tremendous things to advance Jesus in the US, others seemingly go a little bit the way of the cruise ship (I’m trying to be diplomatic, I’m really not at all wanting to be the bitter church planter because that is not at all motivating this post, long live the megachurches everywhere!). My worry is that kind of thinking and programming just moves Christians around from church to church and has too little impact on truly reaching those who don’t comprehend the reality of who Jesus is. Here’s a portion of Barna’s analysis of the particular study I read today:

“Unchurched people are not just lazy or uniformed,” the researcher continued. “They are wholly disinterested in church life – often passionately so. Stirring worship music won’t attract them because worship isn’t even on their radar screen. More comfortable pews cannot compete with the easy chair or the bed that already serve the unchurched person well. Church events cannot effectively compete with what the world has to offer. The only thing the Church can provide that no one else has is a life-changing, practical encounter – and on-going relationship – with the living God and with people transformed by similar encounters. Until such a connection is made, focusing on features, programs and benefits other than such a life-shaping encounter is more likely to lose ground than to gain it.”

Barna noted that the millions of young unchurched have no understanding of or interest in a church, even if it is “contemporary” in style. “Millions of young adults are more interested in truth, authenticity, experiences, relationships and spirituality than they are in laws, traditions, events, disciplines, institutions and religion. The confluence of preconceived notions, past experiences and evolving lifestyles and values means that existing churches simply cannot reach millions of today’s unchurched people. The rapidly swelling numbers of unchurched people may be forcing existing churches to reinvent their core spiritual practices while holding tightly to their core spiritual beliefs. It will take radically new settings and experiences to effectively introduce unchurched individuals to biblical principles and practices.”

This Sunday we finish 17 weeks in the book of Ephesians. Paul finishes this letter by challenging God-followers to pray all the time, in the Spirit, for each other and for our leadership so that the Gospel will go out with clarity and boldness. I believe today, that clarity and boldness means we must heed the findings of Barna and realize “missional” and “context” are not just the hip buzzwords of the Christian subculture, but are absolute necessities in impacting people all around us with the eternity of Jesus. That’s where our prayer will be focused this Sunday and going forward as a local church in Uptown Charlotte, I hope you’ll pray for Ephesus and pray the same for wherever you are.

Time to pray, really pray

This is a message I just sent to the Ephesus team. Feel free to join with us as we pray for Charlotte.

 

Ephesus Team,
I haven’t written all of you recently and I wanted to challenge you to concerted prayer as we go into the Fall. I have been challenged to redouble my prayer for Ephesus and especially the city of Charlotte as we prepare for the next step in what God has for Ephesus. As you are all aware, we’ll be making a transition back into Uptown in a month or so. I’m reminded again as I pray, that this is the place God has called Ephesus too. He’s called us to Love Jesus, Love People and Love THIS City. I just listened to Pastor Jason’s sermon from the week I was gone, and he reminded us all of this call God has put on Ephesus. We’re called to love people. People that don’t yet know Jesus. People that are maybe different from us, or maybe not so different, but still searching. We’re also called to love this city. God put out a vision of impacting the culture of Charlotte in radical way. This isn’t about just another church gathering a few folks together to worship and wear t-shirts instead of ties…it’s about making such an impact that people want to know what’s changed in this city. That people will be pushed, pulled, loved, challenged by Jesus and the Cross. The media, art, education, and very culture of Charlotte will shift because of the impact of what God is doing.

I’m concerned that in the midst of “making church happen” each week we’ve (me included!) have lost sight of the vision God has placed before Ephesus. It’s very big. It requires every one of us to step up our game. That begins with prayer and our own personal lives. We must be regularly repenting, regularly in prayer, regularly in God’s Word and regularly seeking opportunities He has placed before us to advance this vision. This isn’t life as usual, this is the big time. I’m challenging you to step out with me starting with repentance and prayer. I’m throwing down the gauntlet, who’s ready to go? 

Great series on design in ministry

Check out Cynthia Ware’s series on design as she interviews a designer right in the thick of things.

The Vision

The last couple of days I[ve been pondering the importance of keeping the vision out front. Most good workshops or books will reiterate that, but it really hits home when you’re in the trenches. Ephesus Church has launched, seemingly with no hiccups. It almost did seem too easy, then it hit! Our facility that we had been planning in and meeting in for several months went down to an electrical system failure the week after our official launch. Or momentum seemed to come to a grinding, screeching halt. We’ve found a temporary (what I like to call a temporary temporary) location and our original building is under repair and should be available again soon, but it surely brought challenges. Our easy run was over. I struggled with discouragement, even as our launch team rallied and persevered like the incredible folks they are. All the doubts and questions bubbled up into my mind. I was praying through all of this and the vision God originally gave for Ephesus bubbled up in my soul. I went back to the videos we had created to express that vision and was re-inspired! Many times, leadership instruction on vision is geared towards keeping the vision in front of the people (In case you’re wondering, this “leadership-concept” has it’s roots in a book written a few thousand years ago…). But the thing is, I needed to keep the vision out front. About 6 months ago I preached a sermon in our sponsoring church about the need for planting churches and specifically the vision to plant Ephesus in Uptown Charlotte. A couple of months back, Pastor Farrell Lemings, senior pastor at Grace, gave me some advice. He said to get some copies of that message and tuck them away somewhere, because at some point I’m going to need to hear it again myself. Times will come where I’ll get discouraged, and we’ll hit road blocks and I’ll need to be reminded myself about the vision God has planted. I have to be honest, my first thought was “I’m too pumped about this deal! Good advice, but I doubt I’ll need it.” Once again, my arrogance had gotten the best of me. I do need to constantly be reminded of the vision. To be encouraged by the vision. To be shown that it’s God vision, and not my, or anyone else’s, vision. If it’s God it’s gonna happen. My response now has to be that I continually keep the vision out in front of me, and out in front of the team, and ultimately everyone plugging into Ephesus. Loving Jesus, loving people, and loving the city…