Cool Quotes - Felicity Dale

Here is another cool quote:


No longer is starting churches reserved for those who have gone through years of seminary training. No longer is it only the task of those with the title of pastor. No longer is it only the privilege of those with a special anointing. The Holy Spirit is not limited by our lack of natural ability or experience. All God is looking for is a willing, servant heart and someone who will listen to Him and follow as He leads.

                                                                                                -Felicity Dale

Cool Quotes - Nate Krupp & Roland Allen (Defining Church - 4)

As part of my study of Felicity Dale's book, Getting Started (A Practical Guide to House Church Planting), the "Cool Quotes" that I am sharing this week all have to do with how we identify or define the church.

Here are the quotes for today:



God has given us a plan for His church. It is found in the New Testament. It is a plan that is very simple, very natural, and very reproducible.
God’s plan is so simple, that we often don’t see it. I wonder if the devil has not blinded us from seeing it. It is a plan that will work under any circumstance: it will work inany culture; it will work in any geographical area; it will work in any political climate; it will work both in urban and rural areas; it will work under any economic condition; it will work anywhere!

                       ~ Nate Krupp, God’s Simple Plan for His Church


Thus, St. Paul seems to have left his newly-founded churches with a simple system of Gospel teaching, two sacraments, a tradition of the main facts of the death and resurrection, and the Old Testament. There was apparently no form of service, except, of course, the form of the sacraments. Nor was there any form of prayer, unless indeed he taught the Lord’s Prayer. To us, this seems remarkably little. We can hardly believe that a church could be founded on so slight a basis. And yet, it is possible that it was precisely the simplicity and brevity of the teaching which constituted its strength . . . By teaching the simplest elements in the simplest form to the many, and by giving them the means by which they could for themselves gain further knowledge, by leaving them to meditate upon these few fundamental truths, and to teach one another what they could discover, St. Paul ensured that his converts should really master the most important things.

                       ~ Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours?

Cool Quotes - Jonathan Stuart Campbell (Defining Church - 3)

As part of my study of Felicity Dale's book, Getting Started (A Practical Guide to House Church Planting), the "Cool Quotes" that I am sharing this week all have to do with how we identify or define the church.

Here is the quote for today:

However, a church was not a congregation of 5000, 2000 or even 200. Rather, the New Testament church was a fellowship of smaller churches. This didn’t mean that if there were twenty or thirty churches in a city that the church was fractured. The Apostle Paul often referred to the church in a city or region as one church—such as the church in Corinth. It was one church even though it met in many different places. Although Paul knew of various local churches in a city, he wrote one letter with the assumption that it would suffice for all the churches in the area. This dual pattern of church, or inter-church dependence, would continue for three more centuries until Constantine centralized Christianity through the institutionalization of the church.

These two expressions of church—local and city—facilitated the extensive growth and reproduction of the early church throughout the Roman world (cf. Acts 2:42ff; 5:42; 20:20). In the most basic sense, the church is an assembly of believers who are united together around the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

         ~ Jonathan Campbell, The Translatability of ChristianCommunity

Cool Quotes - Robert Fitts (Defining Church - 2)

As part of my study of Felicity Dale's book, Getting Started (A Practical Guide to House Church Planting), the "Cool Quotes" that I am sharing this week all have to do with how we identify or define the church.

Here is the quote for today (actually, two separate quotes):

The Greek word for church, ekklesia, is composed of two words: “ek” meaning “out of,” and “kalleo,” meaning “I call.” The full and simple meaning of “church” according to the original word is, “I call out from.” When Jesus said, “I will build my church,” He was saying, “I will call My people out of the world, and they will assemble in My name, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against them.” This implies that His called-out people will rally as an army to take the world for Him, and the enemy will not be able to stop the advance. This invincible army will be motivated by the love of God within their hearts and a message of God’s love and forgiveness on their lips.

Actually, ekklesia carries two concepts: being called out and being assembled

together. We cannot experience church until we come together.

When two or three true, born-again believers come together in His name, Jesus is in the midst. Jesus in the midst is church! It is a different experience than Jesus within. We cannot experience Jesus in the midst when we are alone. We can only experience Jesus in the midst when we are in company with others—at least one or two others.

But is it a church in the fullest sense of the word? Yes, it is a church in the fullest sense of the word. It is the basic church. You can have more than two or three and it is still a church, but it does not become “more church” because there are more than two or three. It only becomes a bigger church.

                                                   ~ Robert Fitts, Saturation Church Planting

Cool Quotes - Wayne Jacobsen (Defining Church - 1)

As part of my study of Felicity Dale's book, Getting Started (A Practical Guide to House Church Planting), the "Cool Quotes" that I am sharing this week all have to do with how we identify or define the church.

Here is the quote for today:

Where do you go to church? I have never liked this question, even when I was able to answer it with a specific organization. I know what it means culturally, but it is based on a false premise—that church is something you can go to as in a specific event, location or organized group. I think Jesus looks at the church quite differently. He didn’t talk about it as a place to go to, but a way of living in relationship to Him and others in His family. Asking me where I go to church is like asking me where I go to Jacobsen. How do I answer that? I am a Jacobsen and where I go Jacobsen is. “Church” is that kind of word. It doesn’t identify a location or an institution. It describes a people and how they relate to each other.

                      ~Wayne Jacobsen, So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore?

Cool Quotes - Roger Thoman

Here is a great excerpt from Simple/House Church Revolution by Roger Thoman, a must-read for anyone considering simple expressions of church life:

In conferences and conversations all over the world about simple/house church, it seems that people usually want to learn first about “how to gather.” This is natural since we have thought about “church” as being mostly about events and gatherings. The problem is that though we can replace larger events and gatherings with smaller ones, our motivation may still be to hang out with our Christian friends and, again, seek to reach others by inviting them to join us.

By focusing first on the gathering, we miss the point that Jesus’ focus was first on the going way of life. If gatherings develop that support a dynamic, outward, supernatural lifestyle, then the gatherings will be powerful and relevant. However, if gatherings become a replacement for the true adventure of Jesus-following (which can easily happen), then we will again regress into a comfortable Christianity with little life in it.

Baby Step: Pray for Freedom

While I will not be attending IJM's Global Prayer Gathering, the fact that it is right around the corner is good timing for a reminder about one of the most important steps any of us can take to promote freedom and justice.



Since we can't all attend great prayer conferences, it helps to have practical ways for us to talk to God about things like this that matter to us. One way you can consistently remember to pray for those in bondage today is to sign up for IJM's prayer updates or download their prayer devotional.

Whether you use a resource or devotional or nothing, the main thing is to simply call out needs to God and listen for his heartbeat. I am "preaching" to myself here because having a superior prayer life is something I could never boast about. Taking time to converse with God is, embarrassingly, a constant work in progress for me. Fortunately, I always find God to be a gentle and forgiving Listener.

2 Corinthians says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." There may be many things in our lives that we wonder if they are a part of God's will. This subject is not one of them. We can be confident that setting people free is as close to the heart of Jesus as anything else we could ever pray about.

Priorities

By now, I have shared a lot about how we "do church" simply.

You can see our Mission in a Minute and our Plan on a Page.

You can start to read beliefs about Children and our Measures of Success.

Our theology, evangelism, and discipleship is entirely based on one question: Who is Jesus to you?

In addition, we do have some practices that we want to keep at the forefront of the way we "do church." These are priorities for us, and we do not declare that they should be priorities for any other churches or ministries. Here are a few:

• NO WALLS: Our ministries are not primarily based around buildings. The money, energy, property and personnel required to keep a church building running is not the wisest use of resources for our particular church network.

Scene from Patch Adams movie

• "PATCH ADAMS" APPROACH: The main character (played by Robin Williams) in the movie Patch Adams (based on a true story) is driven by his belief that every person is both a doctor and a patient. Likewise, we believe every person is a teacher and a learner. The expectation is that each follower of Christ can both give and receive ministry. We try to keep a participatory model that involves everyone (all ages) as much as possible so there are no passive spectators. There may be times when one person will teach a lesson or facilitate a series, but these are exceptions, not the rule.

• SOCIAL JUSTICE: In other places, I have reflected on growth barriers vs. impact barriers as a metric of effectiveness. I see a gauge of our community's spiritual health in how well we attempt to break through obstacles so that we can minister to more people in our communities and cities more effectively. Each person is encouraged to foster a cause or need that they are passionate about. One way we try to harness these interests is in meeting needs both Here (locally) and There (globally/internationally).

As I said, these are some of our priorities.

My Simple Church Guide

For those of you that can't handle a church group not having a manual to address all the "big rocks" like doctrine and evangelism and leadership, here you go. This is what ours would look like.

Our Theology & Beliefs

• Jesus is All.
• Be willing to unlearn some things so that you can learn new insights.

Evangelism & Outreach

• Ask and answer one question: Who is Jesus to you?

Discipleship & Ministry

• Let the answer to the question in the previous section dictate how you live.

Church & Fellowship

• Keep it simple!

Leadership & Service

• The Holy Spirit is the Leader. Everyone else follows as they share in His gifts. 

Organization & Policies

• This section is not applicable due to no buildings, budgets, or big shots. 

There you go!

Kids in the Kingdom

Since the point of this blog is to explore ways to impact the next generation by radically reforming the institutions of public education and the organized church, the main question that I hope to keep always before me is, What is best for kids?

To answer this question, we need to consider children as whole people that have spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, and social dimensions. You can check out my "Faith Like a Child" series on this blog to see what the Bible says about the spiritual capacity of children.

Here are those posts:
Faith Like a Child (part 1)
Faith Like a Child (part 2)
Faith Like a Child (part 3)
Faith Like a Child (part 4)
Faith Like a Child (part 5)
Faith Like a Child (part 6)
Faith Like a Child (part 7)

It is important to us that disciples of all ages can fully participate in the mission. Therefore, it is critical that children understand the essentials of our practices without "watering down" their meaning and power.

A child does not receive a "junior-sized" Holy Spirit, but the Bible teaches that children have tremendous spiritual insight and often receive profound Kingdom truths more easily than adults. Simultaneously, a child's human development requires that the gospel is presented in its simplest form in terms of the language and imagery we use. Therefore, we process our core practices in "kid-friendly" terms because we want to pass on essential truths to the next generation form the earliest moments possible.

Here are the child-friendly, essential truths of our mission (what we call our "Cores for Kids"):

• Jesus teaches us that praying helps us get close to God!
• Jesus teaches us that we can worship God by doing good everywhere we go!
• Jesus teaches us that baptism is a way we can show we want to follow Him with our whole heart!
• Jesus teaches us to obey Him and be like Him by loving God and others!

Teaching (Core Practice #4)

Intro Note: I have already written about our Plan on a Page, which lays out the four core practices that we consider the marks of discipleship according to the New Testament. In that document, we try to capture the "irreducible minimum standards" of our mission. 

Basically, I contend that there are many things you could not do and still be a Christian, or follower of Jesus. For example, you could not "go to church" or participate in a youth group or listen to Christian radio stations or become a missionary in a foreign land or tithe or...okay, you get it...and yet still be an authentic, sincere, passionate follower of Jesus. These examples may all be good things, but they are not the marks of true discipleship that Jesus gives us in the Bible. They are not the "make-or-break", non-negotiables of the Christian faith used to identify people as real believers.

Then, what are the non-negotiables?


The fourth and final one is TEACHING.

 If we are going to call ourselves disciples, then we must respond to the Great Commission, which calls us to teach new disciples everything that Jesus has commanded us. Discipleship is holding to these teachings. There is a long list of things we could teach each other that would be helpful in our faith, but Jesus has a special way of boiling it all down to the absolute most important teachings. He also makes it clear in Scripture how the world will be able to tell if we are truly His disciples.

Ultimately, everything comes down to obeying Jesus' command to love. This is the greatest command for us to obey. Obedience is expressed through the fruit of the Spirit and leads to freedom.

What is critical to teach children is that being a disciple means obeying and acting like Jesus, especially by loving God and loving others. 


The guiding question for a disciple or church could be, Are people being set free and becoming more like Jesus?

Baptizing (Core Practice #3)

Intro Note: I have already written about our Plan on a Page, which lays out the four core practices that we consider the marks of discipleship according to the New Testament. In that document, we try to capture the "irreducible minimum standards" of our mission. 

Basically, I contend that there are many things you could not do and still be a Christian, or follower of Jesus. For example, you could not "go to church" or participate in a youth group or listen to Christian radio stations or become a missionary in a foreign land or tithe or...okay, you get it...and yet still be an authentic, sincere, passionate follower of Jesus. These examples may all be good things, but they are not the marks of true discipleship that Jesus gives us in the Bible. They are not the "make-or-break", non-negotiables of the Christian faith used to identify people as real believers.

Then, what are the non-negotiables?

The third one is BAPTIZING.

Let me start this one with what we teach children. We are baptized as a way of showing we understand that Jesus died and rose back to life to wash away our sins and give us power to live a new way of following Him. I respect that this is a topic about which parents can have strong feelings.

Baptism is one of the topics that has challenged me as I read through the New Testament objectively. It is possible to defend just about any position concerning baptism, depending on which verse people quote and what context they use it in. I am not going to dive into that debate here. Simply, we define this practice as uniting with Jesus in a new life.

Regardless of what you believe about baptism, there is no way to dismiss the significance of this act in the New Testament. The early church's immediate and automatic response to the gospel was baptism. 

Anyone who encountered Jesus could be baptized and baptize others.

I want to be clear that I am not saying that going into water is what "saves" a person, but I also can't dismiss the obvious importance of baptism as evidenced by the repeated emphasis on it throughout the New Testament. I just have to re-state it again: The early church's immediate and automatic response to the gospel was baptism. It was the Bible's equivalent to what the "sinner's prayer" or "altar call" has become in our part of the world over the past two centuries.

The guiding question for a disciple or church could be, Are we bringing people to salvation in Christ?

My wife baptizing me

(You can read my baptism story here.)

Going (Core Practice #2)

Intro Note: I have already written about our Plan on a Page, which lays out the four core practices that we consider the marks of discipleship according to the New Testament. In that document, we try to capture the "irreducible minimum standards" of our mission. 

Basically, I contend that there are many things you could not do and still be a Christian, or follower of Jesus. For example, you could not "go to church" or participate in a youth group or listen to Christian radio stations or become a missionary in a foreign land or tithe or...okay, you get it...and yet still be an authentic, sincere, passionate follower of Jesus. These examples may all be good things, but they are not the marks of true discipleship that Jesus gives us in the Bible. They are not the "make-or-break", non-negotiables of the Christian faith used to identify people as real believers.

Then, what are the non-negotiables?

The second one is GOING.

The idea here is to do good everywhere God sends us, individually and corporately. Although it's a little cliche, I like to say that our mandate is to choose what is right, and change what isn't.

The Great Commission tells all disciples to go and make disciples. Our identity in Christ is as a "sent" people. We are described in the Bible as ambassadors, reconcilers, and apostles.

The key is to see this practice as service in our everyday, real life contexts. We find ourselves in the mission field in our normal, daily lives in the marketplace, work, and home. This is one of the reasons the term "organic church" is used, because God plants us in all kinds of soil and we can organically respond to our natural surroundings. 

What is important to stress to children is that Jesus taught us to worship God by doing good everywhere we go. It is how we praise Him.


The guiding question for a disciple or church could be, Are we doing good works that help people and glorify God?

Plan on a Page

With our mission clearly set to Be a Movement Making Disciples That Make Disciples, it is time to shift to the plan to carry out this mission. In keeping with our theme of staying simple, a church's or ministry's plan does not have to be a complicated book full of rules and regulations if we intend to let Jesus build and run His own church. While we strive to communicate our mission in a minute or less, we also strive to capture all the essential aspects of our disciple-making plan on no more than one page.

Why a "Plan on a Page"?
I am coming from an institutional church (IC) background as part of a denomination. We had a pretty thick and comprehensive manual for our church policies, government, doctrines, sacraments, etc. There were rules and regulations from how to run a board meeting to acquiring property to membership requirements and dozens of other issues. There is nothing inherently wrong with all that. Organizations need many of those things in place to function, but one can get away from the fact that so many policies and guidelines have to be put in effect for the purpose of exclusion. It is often important for organizations to define what they are not willing to do or support, so the list gets longer and longer and longer. For them, it is necessary to identify who is in and who is out.

But I want to be sure that we are focused on simple, reproducible, non-negotiable norms for all disciples. Some people refer to them as the "irreducible minimum" standards of what characterize a group or movement. Our "Plan on a Page" is the how of our mission and consists of the core practices that will define us.

I cannot stress enough just how important this document is because of what it implies. There are only four components that we recognize as absolutely mandatory to fulfill the Great Commission that Jesus set out. By even creating this document and making the claim that this is all that is necessary to be part of the genuine church, it quickly becomes our doctrinal statement, too. All four items are relevant to ALL followers and are not reserved for selected individuals, such as pastors or priests. In fact, each of the following actions can be carried out by any disciple, anywhere and at any time.


Summary of what is on our Plan on a Page:

Our plan is to carry out four practices to make disciples that make disciples.

PRAYING - Because it is how Jesus taught us to learn to care about what God cares about

GOING - So that we can be doing good everywhere God sends us

BAPTIZING - Letting people know that Jesus washes away our sins and we want to follow Him wholeheartedly

TEACHING - Obeying and spreading Jesus' command to love

My understanding of what the church is and how it works has gone from a 399-page manual to something much simpler. In fact, it takes 397 less pages for us to convey the both the mission and plan that direct our simple church! I trust that puts my paradigm shift in perspective.

Great Church Programs...Oh, and Jesus too!

(This is a quick follow-up to yesterday's post about our "Mission in a Minute".)

One thing that is intentional about how I share our mission is how quickly I bring up the name Jesus. The mission is founded on the belief that if more people acted like Jesus and let Jesus love others through them, then the world would be a much greater place (tying in with the overall theme of my blog). Simply, if we want to raise healthy children, build better communities, change people's lives, etc., then start obsessing over Jesus.

Our mission forces me to define what a disciple is right away, which brings up another reference to Jesus. The whole point of everything we are about has to be Jesus. Otherwise, we become focused on man-made systems that have the power to save no one.

This is a paradigm shift for many churchgoers. What I have noticed about many folks in traditional churches (and I was this way myself) is that they are good at telling people about their church programs, but not as good at telling people about Jesus. The conversation usually includes phrases like these:

• You should come check out the children's ministry at our church.
• You should hear our pastor preach. He uses videos and props and doesn't make it boring.
• There is a rock band coming to our youth group service this weekend. Want to come?

Again, there is nothing wrong with any of these things...unless they replace Jesus. This doesn't happen intentionally, of course. No churchgoer is going to say that Jesus is not important to them. However, I have experienced the subtle, gradual way Jesus can be pushed aside in the name of "outreach" or "worship" or "ministry" or "stewardship". Heck, I have been the one doing the pushing before. 

To be fair, I should confess that this can be just as big a problem in simple church or house church settings. I still struggle with it. I wonder how I can still have the King of kings and Lord of all be an afterthought.

Here is a challenge for you. Set a timer for one minute and begin to list and describe all the wonderful things you know and love about your church. Then, reset the timer and list and describe all the wonderful things you know and love about Jesus. See if you run out of time or have time left over in each situation.

Remember, the answer in the New Testament was never to go to church, but it was always go to Jesus!

(Note: Strangely, one of the tags you don't find for my blog posts is Jesus. That is because I hope that He is somehow influencing or embedded in every post.)

Will I Go to Church in 2014?

This time of year is when we contemplate resolutions for the next 365-day stint in our existence. I am no different. I reflect on goals in my life, constantly questioning whether I am doing something worthwhile or not. While I have figured (for now) that New Year's resolutions aren't all that effective for me, there is one area in which I want to resolve consistently to do a better job. It is actually how I answer one question that I am often asked: "Where do you go to church?"

It is such a simple question and the person asking is usually only looking for a word or phrase in response. It is merely meant to be a request for factual information, not an invitation to a philosophical discussion or a probe into my Christian theology. But see, that's the problem. It is all that for me. My wife is right. "Marc, you over-think things way too much!" (Like "over-think" - is it one word or two? I compromise with a hyphen, but it still bothers me.)

Enter the crazy world of my mind. If inside, you would find that when someone asks me if, or where, I go to church, my mental process  instantly generates a set of questions in response. What do you mean by "go to church"? Does anyone really go to church? Is the church a place? How do you define "church"?

Fortunately, I don't always say all these thoughts out loud. But what I have done before is not much better. At one point, I decided I would reply, "I don't go to church. I am the church." That only led me to stammer to clarify what I meant as the person looked at me like they had just stumbled upon a cult leader. Worse, as the words came out of my mouth, I felt like one.

Ultimately, there has to be a better way for me not only to answer a simple question in a simple way and still remain true to my convictions. I resolve to find it. I also resolve to do a better job of sharing why something seemingly so mundane is actually extremely important.

The truth is that the church is actually very dear to me. I have friends and family that I meet with regularly that I consider the church. The church is more about who we are than where we gather. I don't mean that in some kind of politically correct, New Age-y kind of way, but in a Biblical, historical, down-to-earth, real Jesus kind of way.

Simply, the church is empowered people on mission, or followers of Jesus in action. There is an identity piece and a practice piece. Both elements come together to define the church, and when done right, they always merge to honor the One who builds the church. It is beautiful because it exalts Jesus, not us.

So, if I don't "go to church," then what do I do? That is exactly what I need to get better at expressing to others, whether or not they ask me where I go to church.

In some ways, the people I share my faith with are not all that different from a typical church. We have a mission, plan, gatherings, habits, and metrics to evaluate how we are doing. In other ways, we are very different from typical churches because just about all those things I listed are understood on substantially and pragmatically distinct terms.

What Needs to Change About Education

(I was wrong. I actually do have one more post for this year.)

What the organized Church and public education have in common is that there are several shifts that need to take place in both institutions to most radically and substantially bring about a "much greater" environment for the young people within them. 

Throughout this blog, I have written about some of the shifts needed in organized Christianity in our part of the world. Things like...

• From Emphasis on big events one day a week to Emphasis on making disciples 24/7
• From Measuring seating capacity to draw crowds to Measuring sending capacity to serve others
• From Professional pastors (staff-driven leadership) to Reproducible practices (where every member functions)
• From Publicizing what we are Against to Promoting what we are FOR
• From Ministry (works) done for Jesus to Ministry (miracles) done BY Jesus
• From "GO TO church" (as in a place and time) to BE the church (as an identity)

But what about our schools? Are there fundamental shifts that could make dramatic change for the better in education? I believe there are. Here are a few, in my opinion.

• From Giving grades (that generally offer no information on how to improve) to Providing feedback (that feeds forward to further learning)
• From Time as the constant (prescribed scope and sequence for all students) to Learning as the constant (asynchronous, self-paced)
• From Focus on teaching to Focus on learning
• From Career orientation to Calling orientation (more to come on this in a future post, but you can get a glimpse of this shift here thanks to the work of Adam Saenz) 

This is clearly not meant to be an exhaustive list, but these are examples of the biggest "bang for your buck" transitions that we can make in public schools. The only disclaimer is that they are not easy.

Speaking of Jesus (Book Review)

"Jesus is the point of the Bible. It all points to him. I don't have to be the Bible's defense attorney. All I have to do is speak of Jesus and He will draw people to himself."

This is a quote from Speaking of Jesus (David Cook, 2011), written by Carl Medearis. This book is excellent! The particular idea above is just an example of the terrific messages found in this book.

Perhaps the greatest part of the book is the chapter about speaking "Christianese." Medearis brilliantly examines our use of certain words. First, he mentions Christian, which only appears three times in the New Testament. The term, he argues, has become so loaded that it means all kinds of things to all kinds of people. In some parts of the world, it has political meaning. In some places, the label identifies a person as someone that "kills Muslims" while in other places it is equated only with Roman Catholicism. There are countless interpretations and assumptions connected to the word Christian, so many so that Medearis simply suggests replacing it with the phrase "follower of Jesus." This is solid advice as it cuts through the clutter to focus on the main thing.

Next, the author takes on the word church, a personal favoite of mine. The Greek word ekklesia often gets translated as "church" in English, but it actually comes from a German word kirke. This is important because church has come to be associated with a building (i.e. "go to church", "be at the church at 9:00", "the church is the house of worship"), which it virtually never meant in the Bible. Originally, the church (ekklesia) simply meant the "called out ones." Essentially, the church is an organism, not an organization. Rather than a place to go, it is more accurately an identity to be expressed. The mis-use of this word is the cause of great confusion today!

Another word is Bible, which interestingly enough, the Bible never calls itself! Then, Medearis addresses the problems with the word evangelism. Here is some of what he says:

 

"I think part of the reason [that so many Christians are weak in their faith] is

that we tend to promote the evangelism method of spreading Christianity

rather than the discipleship model of Jesus. We get people 'in' and then try

to go out and get others. After a while, everybody's 'in' and nobody has any

idea how to mature in their faith...Making disciples, as opposed to evangelism,

is a journey of relationship that encompasses support, trial and error, and difficulty."

Finally, there is missionary, another word never found in the Bible . This word is like the others in that it carries with it baggage filled with all sorts of preconceived ideas. The point with this whole discussion is that we need to be careful with our vocabulary. As a colleague of mine often says, "Words matter!" Our language is important because we are constantly expressing something, and it may not be what we intend.

It might be wise to ask people to define the terms they use and ask, "What do you mean by that word?" Then, maybe some genuine, fruitful discussion can occur.

Measuring Success - Not Just For Jesus, But BY Jesus

Metric #6: Ministry Done FOR Jesus vs. Ministry Done BY Jesus

The fact of the matter is that humans are pretty amazing creations of God. We have tremendous intellect, strength, passion, and talent. Frankly, people can get a lot done in their own power and wisdom. Unfortunately, this is often precisely what we do.

While we often consider it a good thing to do work for God, it still leaves us able to take the credit. Even better would be to "participate in the divine nature" as the Bible says, and be involved with things that are impossible for us to take credit for.

Instead of being known as a church where people are working (which is good), what if we could be known as the church where God is working (which is best!)?

What this looks like is something each community of faith has to flesh out (literally) on their own. This one may seem a little more abstract than the other metrics, but it is still worth reflecting on. I have to question myself often as to whether I truly have my mind set on "things above" or if I am just existing on a human plane and forgetting the supernatural.

What I Am Against

In addition to the two previous posts, I do want to concede that it is perfectly all right to follow Jesus and still be against some things. So, here is our list of what we want to prevent or eliminate. We don't want to be associated with any of these characteristics, although many religious organizations often are.

(In no particular order)
condemnation
lust
hate
despair
deception
judgement
rage
brokenness
greed
hostility
discouragement
sin
injustice
strife
exploitation
evil
death
envy
abuse
discord
hypocrisy
jealousy
bondage
shame
arrogance