Between the Workshops: From Atlanta to DFW

Today we stand between two epic meetings, at least for certain individuals and churches. The Southeast Church Planting Workshop at the North Atlanta church has just concluded and the DFW Church Planting Workshop at the South MacArthur congregation is about to begin.

Will we look back at August, 2005, as a transformational time? A historical moment? A time of reframing, rethinking, reflection, and renewal? This will be the case for certain church leaders and church planters.

At the Atlanta Church Planting Workshop, we were touched by . . .

• Don McLaughlin’s passion for people and for the city in which God has placed him.
• The power of the parable: From caterpillars to butterflies.
• Mike Neill’s description of the Red-Neck Mason Dixon Line running along I-20 through the middle of Atlanta!
• Bill Long’s powerful descriptions of maintenance churches. (Churches have unintentionally become like country clubs with “for members only” signs on the door. These signs are not visible, made of wood or iron, but of actions and attitudes. Churches have become like Post Offices without mail drops or mules that are birthed but cannot give birth. Churches planted intentionally tend to prosper; splits tend to struggle. We are hindered by local churches without a kingdom perspective and by creating infrastructures that have to be maintained.)
• Missional churches that focus on God’s purposes, understand that they have been sent on God’s mission, and represent Him in His world.

These thoughts stirred the minds and focused the discussions of 80 church leaders who attended from Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida.

Becky and I were privileged to meet with future church planters, developing teams, and church leaders who want to intentionally plant other churches.

As we look back at the Southeast workshop, we also look forward to the Dallas-Ft. Worth workshop beginning tomorrow evening, August 26. This year’s workshop will not only address the need for church planting but will also focus on the quality, personality, nature of missional church planting.

Anticipate hearing/seeing . . . .

• Randy Harris speaking on “Why plant churches?”
• Chris Chappotin’s story of an amazing church planting in SW Fort Worth.
• The parable of the scepter and the hoe.
• Contrasts between missional and maintenance churches; seeker-sensitive, service-focused churches compared to a community of God on a journey through life helping each other to be Christ’s disciples and inviting others to join them on this pilgrimage through life to heaven. What is the meaning of “a church on a spiritual pilgrimage”?
• Grady King and I describe missional churches and missional church planting.
• Doug Peters depict the nature of a church’s transformation to become a missional fellowship.
• Nuts and bolts of missional church planting.

It is not too late to come! You are invited! This second annual Dallas-Fort Worth Church Planting Workshop will be held at the South MacArthur Church of Christ in Irving, Texas. Register by calling Tommie Sledge at (972) 896-8989 or emailing her at tommie@southmac.org. The full program can be seen online at http://www.missionalive.org/events.asp?p=sub&EventSubID=3&cat=0. We anticipate your participation in this or similar workshops.

Church Planting out of Weakness

We praise God for the growing number of relatively strong churches who have the motivation, vision, and resources to plant other churches. This weekend, however, my wife Becky and I worked with a church who is planting out of weakness.

They are a middle-class Anglo church in an area of changing demographics. Flavel Yeakley, the church growth consultant at Harding, has made a study of their congregation and area and projected that they will gradually die if they maintain the status quo. Their options are to sell and move (the typical response) or church plant out of their location. They have decided on the second, more difficult option. They feel a commitment to their area yet most members drive in to the church building from other nearby communities.

I praise God and respect the elders who are making this decision. They are courageous and visionary men. It was a joy to speak to their congregation three times on Sunday and meet with their elders and provide theological frameworks to conceptualize their transition and practical processes to accomplish it through the equipping of catalytic church planters working with them to evangelize the area.

What are the obstacles that lie ahead? Would you suggest a few?

Would you also pray with us for these leaders in the midst of this transition?

Church Planting in Campus Contexts

I spent much of last week research church planting in campus contexts and then on Friday and Saturday made two presentations on the topic at the National Campus Ministers Seminar, held this year at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Tim Melikian, campus minister at the Universit of Oklahoma, did a fine job organizing the program.

We are beginning to realize in Mission Alive the need for church planting in campus contexts. Formative life decsions are made during the university years. Churches planted are naturally multicultural when evangelists reach out to impact all part of the campus. And the world is touched if the church works through international students converted to evangelize their nations.

The International Churches of Christ (ICOC) have most effectively planted churches in the Restoration Heritage. They considered the campus their "synogogue," the most receptive area out of which to evangelize the nations. Marvin Lucus, evangelist and campus minister of the ICOC in DFW, said in an interview, "Through campus ministry we start a church.” They begin a church by converting students and then their siblings, friends, and parents.

Marvin said that the growth of the ICOC stagnated when the focus changed from campus to family ministry. “If we had constantly evangelized on our campuses," Marvin commented, "we would today have all age groups in our churches.” Thus today there are more people between ages 35-45 than any other age.

I found their traditional ministry style to be (1) incarnational (They do not isolate themselves in a student center off campus but place their ministries on the campus.), (2) leadership focused (The evangelist or campus minister trains campus leaders who facilitate their ministries), (3) visionary (They tend to see the big picture on campus and are able to connect with developing student leaders.), and (4) transformational (They expect radical transformation of life.). Their traditional top-down, manipulative discipling patterns resulting in a type of salvation by works is now being tempered by many ICOC leaders. They have much to teach us about church planting in campus contexts.

There are two broad approaches to church planting in campus contexts. First, a seeker sensitive approach tries to attract crowds through big events and publicity. Second, a spiritual formation approach grows from the grassroots up through prayer and study groups. An example of the second approach in Brandon Worsham's ministry called FOCUS (www.anyfocus.org) at the University of Texas in Dallas. They focus on one-on-one Bible studies and small, gender-specific groups in the dorms, called "cores." These cores group together as "communities" within the dorms. A Sunday evening devotional brings all the cores and communities together for a time of worship. Like with the ICOC, all major events occur on campus (with the exception of the Sunday worship period for the ICOC). Brandon Worsham says that the students on campus do not want to "bloat" by attracting students through seeker-sensitive practices but want to express authentic Christianity with disciple-making and spiritual formation at its core. I feel a personal affinity with this type of apprach.

Because of geographical and cultural distance, FOCUS will eventually be come a satellite church of the Northeast church. The church building is 17 minutes from the church building. Also the university context is a specialized cultural context which require specialized cultural forms of worship and community.

These are a few lessons that I have learned through interviews in preparation for my presentations.

Family Reunion; Global Missions Conference

The last three weeks have been exceptionally busy. The following are two highlights:

The Van Rheenen Family Reunion

Becky and I spent four days at the Van Rheenen family reunion on beautiful Anderson Island in the Puget Sound just south of Seattle, Washington. My brother Dwayne has a house on the island. My mother, all five of us children (I am No. 3 squeezed in between older and younger brothers and sisters), some nieces and nephews, and their children all gathered on the fellowship, stories, walks, and meals. Mom, now 85 and living at Harding Place in Searcy, AR, flew from Little Rock to Dallas to spend a day with us both before and after the reunion. It was a time of refreshment, catching up, reminiscing about family, and connecting. We greatly missed our Dad who passed away in 1994 and was a great example to all of us both as a father and a struggling Christian leader.

A special time was visiting with Dwayne’s son Nathan and his wife Emma and their family. Nathan and Emma have 11-month old triplets (named Quincy, McArthur, and Xavier!!) to go with big brother Nathan, Jr., aged 3.

Global Missions Conference

Immediately upon our return from Seattle Becky and I were privileged to attend the Global Missions Conference, organized by our close friends at MRN (Missions Resource Network). The purpose of the conference was to bring churches of Christ together to focus on more effectively reaching our world for Jesus Christ. Altogether 800-1000 attended the conference.

The most enjoyable part of the conference was networking. We met families and individuals wanting to know more about church planting. Many were feeling God’s call, others were searching, questioning, desiring to learn more. Church leaders were asking questions about their personal and congregational involvements. We felt God moving in many lives.

My role in the conference was interesting. On one day of the conference I taught three classes on diverse topics, one on the need for domestic church planting, a second on the use of American money in global missions, and a third on international missions partnerships (with Dr. Phil Slate). The most enjoyable forum was a plenary panel facilitated by Jay Jarboe in which Stan Granberg and I spoke of how ministering internationally had prepared us for domestic church planting.

God blessed us greatly during the family reunion and the Global Missions Conference.

Life On The Vine

My devotional life and understanding of church has been enriched by Philip Kenneson’s Life On The Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit in Christian Community. Kenneson is convicted that the church in the United States is seriously ill and aims to accurately and honestly provide both a diagnosis and remedy. He believes that “it is quite possible for the church to be both growing and yet not bearing the fruit of the Spirit. What is happening in many cases is that the church is simply cultivating at the center of its life the seeds that the dominant culture has sown in its midst . . . . The church that is being cultivated in the United States looks suspiciously like the dominant culture rather than being an alternative to it” (1999, 11-12). The question is not simply “Is it bearing fruit?” but “Is the fruit that the church is bearing the fruit of the Spirit?” (1999, 15). For example, the rates of divorce and premarital chastity do not significantly vary between Christians and non-Christians (1999, 16). Christians are frequently “pledging allegiances to Christ with their lips while engaging in practices that cultivate a quite different set of loyalties, dispositions and convictions” (1999, 29). They are like ancient Judah who partially followed God but also served the gods of the nations around them. Jeremiah wrote that they “turned their backs” to God but “not their faces.” Only when they were in deep trouble would they say to God, “Come and save us!” (Jer. 2:27).

Christians held captive by the assumptions of the dominant culture must seek liberation. But this is not easy. First, Christians do not realize the extent to which their behaviors, values, and assumptions are formed by the dominant culture. Second, intentional nurturing of the soil and plants is imperative if distinctive Christian fruit is to spring forth from the soil of American culture. As an old farm boy, I learned to expend much time and effort weeding and fertilizing tomatoes, green beans, and corn but whenever I left the garden unattended, weeds flourished and smothered the crops that I had intentionally planted and nurtured. The good fruit must be tended and nurtured; weeds spring up almost without effort because the environment in which we live is conducive to their growth (adapted from 1999, 30).

Kenneson rightly suggests that Christianity, if it is to distinctively grow in the soil of American culture, must reflect the character and mission of God “uniquely embodied in the person of Jesus Christ” and much less perfectly “in the life of that community animated by his Spirit” (1999, 32).

The church is often like the vineyard bearing bad fruit that is soon to be discarded (Isa. 5:1-7). But our hope is in God, who prunes us so that we might become faithful and bear the fruits of God (John 15:1-5). After describing the divine character of the nine fruits of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23, Kenneson explains why Christians have difficulty implementing them. His chapter headings illustrate the difficulty of living Christianly in a non-Christian American context:
* Cultivating Love in the Midst of Market-Style Exchanges
* Cultivating Joy in the Midst of Manufactured Desire
* Cultivating Peace in the Midst of Fragmentation
* Cultivating Patience in the Midst of Productivity
* Cultivating Kindness in the Midst of Self-Sufficiency
* Cultivating Goodness in the Midst of Self-Help
* Cultivating Faithfulness in the Midst of Impermanence
* Cultivating Gentleness in the Midst of Aggression
* Cultivating Self-Control in the Midst of Addiction

While Kenneson’s Life On The Vine does not deal with church planting, many lessons can be learned about this ministry. We no longer live in a world where people ascribe to basic Christian values. Church planting which focuses on meeting people “where they are” is doomed to synthesize the values of the dominant culture with those of Christ. We must, therefore, seek a new and different way of church planting, one which primarily looks to God for its identity and purpose and then incarnationally contextualizes these missional perspectives in local cultural contexts. This missional church understands itself as a community of disciples on a pilgrimage through life helping each other to be Christ’s disciples and encouraging others to join them as they journey through life to heaven.

Imagine the life in such a counter-cultural church:

Spiritual formation: Every member is passionately, whole-heartedly pursuing full devotion to Christ. Their very lives exist in relationship with God.

Community: Christians are nurtured in Christian community to grow as disciples of Christ. They are not mere spectators.

Lay Equipping: Leaders are equipping “God’s people for works for ministry” (Eph. 4:12).

Evangelism: Christians make disciples through personal relationships, through intimate spiritual friendships.

Multicultural: Christ breaks down racial and ethnic barriers so that planted churches are “red and yellow, black and white.”

The Strong in Christ Serve the Weak: The Church compassionately cares for the children and the poor.

Kingdom: The church is a unique community, formed by the calling and sending of God.
Missions: Christians are passionate about God’s mission to the nations.

These types of emergent churches are even now being planted by those of a missional heritage. For example, Mission Alive (http://www.missionalive.org/) exists “to discover, equip, place, and nurture church-planting leaders who will plant missional churches in suburbs, city centers, and poverty areas with unbelievers as the primary target.” Mission Alive is...
"Missional people,
planting missional churches
because of the mission of God."

Works Cited

Guder, Darrell L. 1999. Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Kenneson, Philip D. 1999. Life On The Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit in Christian Community. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Little Baby Eva

Becky and I are very proud of our children. They are a blessing to us in many ways. One of course is the blessing of grandchildren. Below are pictures of Eva, born June 29 to Jonathan, our son, and his wife Nichole. Actually, Nichole did most of the "bearing" although Jonathan cheered and emphathized from the side-lines. Becky is currently in Louisville, KY, helping Nichole and Jonathan in any way she can. She especially takes care of Eva big brother Eli, who is one year older.

I am always amazed at how our children and their spouces become our teachers. Jonathan teaches me about truck driving, Nichole about politics, Ravi about computers, Rebecca about sensitivity and compassion, Deborah about math and life organization, Chuck about painting, and David about patience and life focus. I wonder what our grandchildren will teach us!! It is a great time to be alive.

Experiencing New Life

In a space of one year and four days we have seen the birth of three grandchildren! Our son Jonathan and his wife Nichole have just had a baby girl. Their son Eli (one year and three days old weighing 26 lbs) has a little sister called Eva weighing in at 6' 11" and 19 1/2 inches long. On Aug. 31, 2004, our daughter Rebecca and her husband Ravi had a little girl named Anjali. We are experiencing the awe of new life!

Oh, the mystery of life! After conception in heart and body, 40 weeks of body changes, and final labor, a little child—unable to adequately take care of herself—is birthed. And at birth, the immense task of feeding, nurturing, educating begins.

Last week we also experienced a birthing experience in Mission Alive. Three church planting families were invited at the exit interviews of our Discovery Lab to become church planters to plant churches with us in Austin, Denver, and Dallas. A fourth family was asked to work on some personal aspects of their lives as they transition into church planting. We were also privileged to work with our sister organization Kairos to assess one of their families who will work with a church in Oregon in a process to become church planters.

New church planters have been birthed. Like children they have a long way to go. But it will not be long until they have children themselves. Church planters become part of a heritage of equipping other church planters.

Paul said to Timothy, “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Tim. 2:2).