Missional What?

Every other Sunday I visit a new church plant and have appointments with
planting pastors most every week. Being "missional" is on every ones mind.
Everyone defines missional differently. Here is my
take:

The typical church seeks to
develop its ministries to reach and disciple people. Sounds good. And often
has impact. However this model is very centralized in its focus. Questions are
asked like: "What can the church do to reach people?" "How can we get our people
to use this event or ministry to reach people?"


The pastor sees his role is to get the people
involved in the latest programs. The people see their role is to help the pastor
fulfill his ministry.

But the missional church
seeks to equip the people to develop their own ministries. This model is
decentralized in its focus. Questions are asked like: "Who has God placed on
your heart to reach out to with a caring relationship and share your God story?"
"What people, need or cause has God put on your heart with a passion that you
can develop into a ministry?" "What spiritual gifts, talents and experience has
God given you that he can use to reach and impact
lives?"

The pastor sees his role is to envision
for the people how God wants them to be salt and light and have an impact for
Christ in others lives. His role is to equip the people to have a ministry.


Centralized: The people help the pastor have a
ministry.
Decentralized: The pastor helps the people have a
ministry.

An efficient centralized church says
"alignment" is getting everyone involved in a few things we do that fit our
mission. This can work and bring addition growth especially if the leader is a
great communicator.

A missional decentralized
church says "alignment" is to be passionate about our mission, then go do
whatever God puts on your heart. We will coach you. We will celebrate you. We
will help you build a team. We will help you apprentice leaders.  Have
at it! 

This is how we have
multiplication growth.

Go multiply!

Preaching with Clarity to Change Lives

I visit new churches every other weekend so I hear new pastors speak a lot. Here are some of the positives I hear/see.

1. They are passionate to communicate to their people.

2. They are close to the people so the relational connection comes out in their messages.

And here are some of the areas for improvement I hear/see:

1. Many have not determined the key point to the passage so they ramble through many points with no clear target or application. Some think this is good and call it “preaching the passage.” (Verse one says… Verse two says….) A clear speaker doesn’t preach everything in a passage but just what leads to the main theme so he can “bring it home.”

2. Often speakers do not have a “hook” that draws people into the passage. In real estate they say you need to identify the pain people have and present the pleasure you can provide for them. i.e. the pain of not moving to the house they want in a timely fashion and the pleasure they would experience if you helped them sell quickly so they could move. In an evangelistic message, i.e. moving from the pain of loneliness and guilt to the pleasure of forgiveness and relationship with Christ.

3. I hear preachers struggling to find stories in life (or old stories of bearded Christians) to illustrate their points, when they could easily look to the Old Testament, Gospels and sometimes to Epistles to find real biblical stories that illustrate the point.

4. There are not a lot of pilots speaking. Many do not know when and how to “land the plane”.  “If one good point is great, then three good points are better.” Not necessarily. The goal is application, not knowledge to forget.

5. One good memorable application in 20 minutes is better than five muddled points with little application in 50 minutes. I missed the last 20 minutes anyway even though my wife kept poking me.

6. Are people emotionally connecting with your message and application? If so then they will be more likely to remember and apply it. First of all, are you emotionally impacted by the passage so that it flows from your heart and passion?

7. Props are good memory joggers. I’ve seen Ed Young bring a car onto the stage, Bill Hybels bring a swinging door, Gary Smalley use a 4 foot size ear, Dave Ramsey smash a piggy bank, John McGowan used a Starbucks latte, etc.

8. Has this stuff we preach ever changed anyone’s life? Rick Warren often brings people up in the middle of his message to interview to illustrate what God can do.

9. Having people look/read the scripture during the message will help them see the value of looking at it Tuesday morning.

10. Having an outline/points to follow jogs memories and reinforces learning when they take notes. And helps keep me awake. 

11. Is the goal to give the people lots of good teaching or to teach them in such a way that causes them to want to feed “self-feeders” during the week?

12. One pastor  tells the story of a man who came up to him in the 80’s after a message and said, “We really do want to obey God.” Lon wasn’t sure where he was heading. The man went on, “We don’t need you to help us feel guilty very week. We know where we are wrong. We need you to teach us from the Bible how we can walk with God on Wednesday after lunch when a co-worker is giving us a hard time.” Now the pastor asks himself with each message, “What have I given the people to help them walk with Jesus on Wednesday after lunch?”

 

 

13 questions to help pastors move a message from the head to the heart

13 questions to help pastors move a message from the head to the heart

Rick Duncan

Yes, it's all about God, not us. "Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name give glory" (Psalm 115:1). 

So, a preacher who makes much of himself in a message is a narcissistic mess. "Him [Christ - the hope of glory] we proclaim" (Colossians 1:28). 

So, it's all about God. Not the preacher.

But the 19th century preacher, Philips Brooks, said, "Preaching is truth through personality." I believe he's right. I believe that's supported by scripture. Paul once wrote, "So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us" (I Thessalonians 2:8).

Sometimes a message can be good, solid, and accurate. It can explain the text well. It can impart strong information. 

But the personality of the man can be missing. Preachers dare not forget that even the introverts must be relational, connecting, personable,and warm-hearted up front. 

So, before you preach tomorrow, sit down for an hour an answer some questions.

Why does this passage/truth/topic matter to YOU? 

What is YOUR vision for the people regarding this? 

Where do YOU struggle with this? 

Why do YOU struggle with this? 

How has God helped YOU grow in this area? 

Who taught YOU most about this? 

What are one or two things YOU have been prompted to do to grow in this area? 

How have YOU gained victories in this? 

What is a story about this that has changed YOU, inspired YOU, convicted YOU, challenged YOU, encouraged YOU? 

Where are YOU wanting to take us because we live this way? 

How do YOU see our lives being different if we live new in this way? 

Again, why does this matter to YOU? 

Give your people more of God... through YOU!!!

Answer some of these questions and weave them into your current message. (You'll likely have to delete some current content to do it.)

Again, Philips Brooks said, "Preaching is truth through personality." Your people likely need more of YOUR persona, YOUR personhood, YOUR personality. 

Impart the information well. But don't forget to give the people more inspiration. More motivation. More vision. More reasons to change. More understanding of what's at stake. More of how God's story has impacted YOU.

I am not trying to give you more work to do on a Saturday. (Well, maybe I am!) But I think deleting a little content and giving us more of YOUR passion will move your message from good to great.

Question: How do you think preachers could connect more relationally with their congregations in a message?

SENT Network is planting churches in cities

Recently I met with Mark McGeever, the lead for SENT Network out of Annapolis, MD. They have planted four churches since they started 3 years ago. Downtown Hope in Annapolis illustrates there vision for new churches. Downtown Hope, led by Pastor Joey Tomassoni, has a culture of focusing on encouraging believers to develop relationships and take initiative to reach out to people in their neighborhood and their circle of influence.

They have seen many far from Christ begin to search and many make decisions to trust Christ with their lives. They have developed small discipleship groups to develop these new believers in their faith and impart to them the same vision for being "missional" in their sphere of influence.

Mark and I met with Tally Wilgis of Captivate Church in the Towson area of Baltimore and Scott Ancarrow who just moved to the Federal Hill area of Baltimore to plant a church. Most new churches start in the suburbs. But the most difficult areas to reach are the older established communities of the city. With Accelerate we want to bring together pastors to pray and brainstorm how to best reach their communities.

Pray for Mark who is training new planting pastors.
Pray for Tally who is seeking to reach people far from Christ.
Pray for Scott as he and his wife gather a core to start a church.
Pray for Joey who is discipling new believers.
Pray for me and Accelerate as I seek to be an encouragement and catalyst to planting pastors.

Every month I highlight a new church plant and their ministry to reach people with the message of jesus Christ. One pastor friend is Sam Sadek of the Arabic Baptist Church in Manassas. Read this quote from his latest letter.

"A Muslim Moroccan lady came to know Christ after many months of questions and searching at a home Bible study over the last two years. She has been interested in Christianity for a long time, but had many struggles with Christian teaching, especially the doctrine of the Trinity. Since she was saved, she has been attending our worship service faithfully every Sunday, driving more than 50 miles one way despite the hardship and danger that her Muslim family could pose if they knew she was a follower of Christ. She has been growing in the Lord through the teaching of the word every Wednesday morning with a group of believers, some of whom are also former Muslims."

Pray for Sam and his church as they seek to reach Arabs for Christ. They also ask for prayer for the Christians in Egypt who suffer great persecution under the Muslim Brotherhood.

Five Evaluation Questions for Your Church Plant (or soul)

by Marty Schoenleber Jr
17Jul, 2012

Five Evaluation Questions for Your Church and You

1. Does your church (and you) love pagans?
2. Does your church know any pagans?
3. Do the people in your church know how to meet pagans?
4. Do the people of your church know how to talk to pagans?
5. Do the people of your church know how to care for pagan?

Some will object to my use of the word “pagan” as a synonym for unbeliever in Christ, but why? It is a word that communicates more than any other that there is a kingdom of darkness and a kingdom of light. All those who are not a part of the kingdom of light are citizens of the kingdom of darkness. They may not know it, they may not look it, they may wear nice clothes and live in fine houses but they are just as far (and as close) to Christ as South Pacific Islander with a boar’s tusk through his nose.
Allow yourself to be impressed with this fact and impress this fact upon your core group for your church plant or your church. People all around us need the gospel. And they need us to love them enough to tell them about Jesus. Let this fact bend your knee to God for the boldness to proclaim the gospel unashamedly.
“The United States is now the third largest mission field in the world. Only India and China have more non-believers.” —Mission America Monthly

Learning to Care for Pagans

15Jul

Monday Discussion

Five foundational principles to transform your relationships with non-Christians.

1. Cultivate the value of caring. Luke 10:25-37 —Many of us think that we care for others because we have no animosity toward others. But Jesus knows better. He knows that caring is only proved in the willingness to sacrifice for others. We are all familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan but the pivotal interpretive clue for why Jesus told the parable is in verses 25-29, especially verse 29. Take a look. Real care is sacrificial and costly.
2. Emphasize Obedience. Emphasize obedience in your own life and in the lives of those you equip. Basic, generous hospitality is not an issue of giftedness or talent, it is an issue of obedience. We are to consider others as more important than ourselves. Period. (Cf. Phil. 2:3)
3. Be Real. Authenticity is a rare quality these days. Just be yourself. There is no need to be mushy or maudlin but there is a need to be genuinely concerned and caring. Neighbors respond with good favor when they are shown basic kindness. Retrieving a wind-tossed recycle bin, tomatoes from a garden, prayer offered for comfort when a loved one has died, shoveling a sidewalk or driveway, are all simple gestures but they open doors to greater things.
4. Be Boldly and Humbly Confident. The two qualities are not mutually exclusive. We should be bold (and praying for boldness) all the time on the basis of the truth of the gospel. But we also should be saturated with humility. God saved us; we didn’t save ourselves. We have no claim to greatness. Humility is disarming. Care is disarming. Unashamed boldness coupled with humility is attractive.
5. Know that You Will be Ripped Off. After having numerous homeless men stay in our home I can tell you that not every situation has a happy ending. Getting ripped off or taken advantage of will happen. It’s part of the price of living for Jesus. But you will be surprised too by the generosity and thankfulness of some of those you seek to care for and reach for the sake of Christ.

People need, your neighbors need the gospel. They need you to love them enough to risk their rejection. They need you to love them enough to discomfort yourself so that they might have the comfort of Christ forever.
Companion Post: How to Fall in Love with Pagans

How Does Accelerate Measure Success?

I was asked the other day, "How do you measure success with Accelerate?"

To determine this we must look at our mission, who we serve, what they need and our vision

The Accelerate Mission is to:

    Attract, inspire and equip Kingdom-minded leaders and

    Connect them so they can

    Collaborate with their time, talent and treasure so we

    Accelerate the creation of healthy, reproducing faith communities resulting in

       transformed lives and transformed communities

We Serve: church planting pastors

Our Vision:
Healthy church planting pastors developing healthy reproducing churches resulting in

transformed lives and transformed communities

What Church  Planters Need:
Common Best Practices for Equipping Church Planters
1.  Assessment
2.  Church planting training
3.  Internship, residency, or church planting experience
4.  Sponsoring churches involved in helping the plant
5.  Administrative and strategic support
6.  Coaching/mentoring relationship
7.  Peer-to-peer relationships
8.  Ongoing training opportunities
9.  Exposure to available resources

Measuring success:
Our success will be through raising up the leaders and structures that make possible the equipping, encouragement and accountability new pastors and churches need. These are illustrated in the Common Best Practices for Equipping Church Planters. We provide some of these through coaching networks and some through creating collaborative efforts with other organizations.

We can measure:
1. Number of coaches raised up to lead coaching networks
2. Number of coaching networks
3. Planting pastors participating
4. Number of church planting churches and sponsoring churches
5. National network involvement in city
6. Survivability rate at 4 years of participants
7. Financial sustainability at 4 years of participating churches
8. Number of new churches that reproduce in 4 years

Anecdotal responses from pastors and leaders will illustrate life, church and community impact

Yes, God really does change lives!

For multi-site churches, one of the struggles I see campus pastors having is how to connect emotionally with the people at the service. Somehow giving announcements alone does not endure the people to a pastor.

For new church plants and for any church we share what the Bible says but often don't show how these truths have actually affected someones life. And life change is our goal, correct?

I want to suggest adding an element in the service I'll call a "Changed Life Interview" or "God stories". This is a time when the pastor interviews a person in the congregation who has seen God change their life. It could be how they came to Christ, how God intervened in a circumstance, how God answered prayer, how they had the opportunity to share their faith, how they did the godly thing at work and God protected, etc.

A 3-4 minute interview like this helps people:
1. See that God is at work today.
2. Trust God to do it in their life also.
3. Makes us all real, especially as people learn to share from their weakness, not their strength.
4. Connects the pastor with people and changed lives.

Large churches sometimes do this on video so they can edit it and keep it on focus. But a smaller church needs to show itself personal and intimate. This can be very effective. The pastor should coach the interviewee, if possible do a practice interview. When I've done this I get to know the person's story, tell them what questions I am going to ask and coach them on what to talk about.

An interview format keeps the pastor "in control of the time and stops rambling". This is a way to interview missionaries also and youth coming back from a retreat where God worked or people who did a service project in the community where a God impact happened, etc.

The result will be people excited about how God changes lives and will encourage steps of faith by others.