Book Review - Confessions of a Reformission Rev.

Purpose - This book chronicles the beginning years of Mars Hill Church. Driscoll wrote this extremely transparent book to help others with their ministry. It's not hard to find a book that is extremely honest about mistakes made in church planting. Rarely, though, is the book written by the church planter.

Content - You always know a book is going to be interesting when it has a "Chapter Zero!" That chapter doesn't disappoint. It discusses ten theological and philosophical point, apparently discussed in greater depths in The Radical Reformission. He discusses the differences between the traditional, the contemporary, and the missional church, the 'gospel' proclaimed by each group, the missional and attractive approaches to church, and a few other topics. "Chapter Zero" is foundational for the remainder of the story. The rest of the book is stuffed like a Christmas stocking with fascinating stories, painful mistakes, public repentance, and gospel triumphs. 

Analysis - The book is full of fantastics insights, such as "It was at that time I realized our church would never have a sign out front that said "Everyone welcome," because I did not want everyone. Instead, I wanted people who would reach out to the lost young people in our area" (63). Driscoll seems like he was largely unprepared for starting a church, especially one with the impact that his was going to have. It seems that each stage of the church brought challenges that he didn't have an answer to. His response was to dig down deep and study out the issues. He worked through ecclesiology, reformed theology, male leadership in the church, and spiritual gifts by this forced process. Driscoll's language is at times a bit vulgar, especially in recounting a counseling situation.

Application

Who will benefit from the book? Those curious about the process involved in starting Mars Hill, or just a church in general. It's very honest regarding the things a church planter has to work through and the challenges that are faced. Those seeking information about cultural changes and different responses to them will find this a helpful introduction. This book is certainly not perfect though (namely because it was written by a human and humans tend not to be perfect). For anyone who has a huge beef with Driscoll already, I was advise against reading this book. You are likely to be jumping on every point of disagreement while missing the good insights the book does offer.

How will they benefit? This book will prepare you for some of the challenges face in church planting. It also will help guide you through the often painful process of reaching people and growing the church for the grace of God.

Where does this book fit into the process of ministry design? God is an infinitely creative God, so it is doubtful that anyone's church planting story will or should look like Driscoll's. The book would be very useful to those starting a church to ensure that they've thought through some key issues. This book would also be useful to pastors who wake up to find that their church is stalled, in decline, or is having a hard time breaking through to the next level. I wouldn't follow this book like a blue print, but it certainly provides some helpful points. If you are desperate or time deprived, then perhaps read a book specifically on the subject. If you want a fascinating book to pull you through the points, then this book would provide that.

Aha Thoughts? "Our church was not the people we had but primarily the people we did not yhet have, and I needed to go get those people. I'm still not sure if most pastors are aware that their churches are comprised of peple they don't know yet."
"With things going so well, I feared we'd get too comfortable, and so I decided it was time to blow it all up, create some strategic chaos, and start over yet again" (please read the book for crucial context).

Ditching Comfort for a Greater Commission

A few months ago, I was helping a friend put a roof on a house. Another guy that my friend had hired asked me what my future plans were. When I told him that my wife and I were heading to Maine to start a church, he was floored. He asked, “Why would you go start a church when there are existing churches that need pastors?” This guy was a well-meaning individual who had spent years in decent churches and was almost a graduate of a Bible college. But church planting was completely unimaginable to him. Then it got me thinking. Could this way of thinking be more widespread? Sure hope not, but just in case, let me attempt to answer the question – “Why plant churches?”

1. Most existing churches aren’t cutting it – Gallup polls from 2002-2005 provide the rather depressing statistic that 40-44% of Americans attend a place of worship on a weekly basis (please note that I do not confuse attending church with repentance and salvation in Jesus. I think it is reasonably safe to assume though that not too many regenerate people sit out of church for years on end). However, David Olson, author of The American Church in Crisis, states that only 17.5% of Americans actually attend a church of any type. Church attendance in 2006 totaled 51,668,200, while the population grew by 51,773,556 people between the years 1990 and 2006! Grab the Prozac! Clearly the American church is not even keeping even with the population growth, much less gaining on it. A noted church planter, Albert Einstein, famously said insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Maybe it’s time for some new gospel-centered churches.

2. Most existing churches are aging – Aging churches are like aging bodies. Eventually they break down. God’s universal church remains invincible and unthreatened, but the local manifestations of God’s church all have a life cycle. 57% of the churches over 40 years old are in decline (Olson, 84). The older a church is, the better the chances are that the church is not fulfilling the Great Commission purposes for which that church actually exists.

3. Church plants reach more people – Yes, new churches are actually better at reaching lost people with the Gospel. Ed Stetzer’s research suggests that a new church reaches 10 people for every 100 members in its first year. Churches that are 15 years old only reach 3 people per year. Seems like existing churches get comfortable, or perhaps a spiritual version of amnesia.

4. Church plants are more focused on Great Commission work – Church planters of gospel churches are inherently focused on reaching people. Why? Because they don’t have anyone except their wife and a couple of snotty-nosed kids (unless they are smart enough to recruit a team, but that’s another tangent). The church planters look at the risk, and take the plunge. All their energies are focused on the power and spread of the gospel. Compare this to an existing church. They fight to maintain their culture instead of striving to promote the gospel. They start sniping at their allies and ignore their enemies. The big focus of the calendar year is making sure that the Christmas party comes off well and that the electric bills get paid. Sure, there are fine examples of churches that keep a Great Commission focus, but it seems too many churches become consumed with their particular breed of Christianity. When a church loses its Great Commission focus, it quickly degenerates into a social/humanitarian club. Church plants don’t have that luxury.

5. Church plants are apostolic, or at least Pauline – Hopefully it’s apparently clear by now the necessity of planting church in order to make disciples of Jesus. Here’s a bonus though. Church planting is Pauline! In Romans 15:20 Paul states “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.” The world needs to be reached. Your neighbor needs to be reached. Paul’s solution…. preach the gospel, start churches.

I’m not here to bash established churches. I love them. I’ve benefitted from them. The question is, “why do you love them?” Is it comfortable? Is it “safe?” Does it have all the established programs to cater to your desires? If your church isn’t focused on Great Commission purposes, or if you can’t focus on Great Commission purposes while there, then it’s time you consider starting a church.

Book Review - Viral Churches

I gave a sneak preview of this book earlier this year but neglected to post the full review. This book was totally worth the time spent to read it.

Purpose - The subtitle of this book is "Helping Church Planters become Movement Makers." That pretty much says it all. Stetzer and Bird largely assume that if you are a Christian that you are interested (or preferably involved) in church planting. The purpose of Viral Churches is to "inspire and help you develop a church multiplication movment--an exponential birth of new churches that engage lost people and that replicate themselves through even more new churches" (5).

Content - The book leads you on a mental journey from your status quo (church planting, finers crossed) to the author's preferred reality (church multiplication). Each chapter is dedicated to one specific concept, and the authors have kindly included an example of a church or movement that they believe exemplifies this principle. This book discusses the need for church multiplication, the necessity of evangelism, and the dire lack of leaders in the church. The church needs to actively develop leaders if it is going to have the capacity to reach this generation. Viral Churches also discusses the process of training, launching, and streamlining networks of churches.

Analysis - I loved the fact that they weren't trying to shove one method or one group down your throat. There is definitely room for such books, but it wonderful to read a book that was much more concerned with the destination than the precise path traveled. Chapter 6 demonstrates that proper recruitment, assessment, and deployment all contribute to the viability of a church plant, but shows a variety of way by which each of these points can be accomplished.

Application
Who will benefit from the book? Any pastor or church planter who is concerned about the growing population of the globe and the current inability of the church to keep pace will benefit from this book. Those who already have this burden will benefit greatly from the mechanics and examples that Viral Churches provide.

How will they benefit? This book will radically transform your vision of what God could and desires to accomplish in this world. It will give some practical suggestions for making this possible. It also identifies some pitfalls that will thwart even the best of intentions.

Where does this book fit into the process of ministry design? Any pastor who is looking for what God has called their church to do in this lifetime should consider reading this book. Church planters are more likely to adopt the principles in this book as they are already vested in starting a new work of God rather than maintaining existing works. These concepts might be rather daunting to those in previously established works as it is so far from the realm of their thinking, but if you find yourself in this category, it's probably all the more reason that you should read this book.

Aha Thoughts

• The concept of deliberately building church multiplication into your DNA from the very first day was revolutionary.
• One impediment to church multiplication has been the development of a professional clergy that limits ministry to the ordained.

Church Planting for Dummies

I had been putting all this work into church planting. Studying the Scriptures. Praying. Reading books. Going to conferences. Yep... pretty much eating and breathing anything church-planting related. Last night I realized all my work was unnecessary when I watched this short 3 minute video! Here are all the basics of church planting in a tiny package.

Dangerous Dependencies

No, I'm not necessarily talking about crack, cocaine, lsd, or marajuana. I'm not even talking about the more mild versions of addictions to alcohol, tobacco, and gambling. Nope, I'm not even talking about the acceptable Christian addictions to caffeine, food, and "acceptable" medicines.

 

These addictions are awful for your physical body, but our spiritual dependencies can be far more harmful. Many of these tendencies are exemplified in our personal lives, but I think our ministries magnify these to an even greater extent.

 

1. Ourselves - This is the first dependency that may come to your mind - yourself. I'm sure this is a human nature temptation, but I think the American culture has elevated this vice to levels of virture. We value the self-made man. The Batman who single-handedly takes on the forces of darkness. The Michael Phelps who establishes previously unimaginable records in the Olympic pool. The welfare mother who starts a million dollar business. These are stories that we as Americans thrive off of, and they encourage us onto individual acts of greatness. Unfortunately, this characteristic of America is not likewise a characteristic of God. Proverbs 3:34 states that God "mocks proud mockers, but gives grace to the humble." The ability to please God is not found inside of us. Neither is the ability to minister for God.

 

2. Experts - Did you know that you could get a college degree in International Historic Preservation  (Savannah College of Art and Design), Australian and New Zealand Studies (Georgetown University), or Concrete Industry Management (MTSU)? This is the age of specialization! If you love to obsess about the obscure, hello 21st century. There is an expert for your every need. These experts are even kind enough to supply an endless stream of blogs, articles, books, and conferences. I'm certainly not saying that all experts are part of the secret Satanic plot to bring in the reign of the antichrist. Experts, in fact, can aid us toward finding and accomplishing the will of God, but be careful. Through narrative, 2Chr 16:7 and 12 give us a solemn warning through the life of King Asa. He relied on the king of Eram to deliver him militarily and his doctors to deliver him from his foot disease. These were the experts of his day! He failed... God judged him for relying on experts rather than on the Almight God.

 

3. Education - For the record, I think everyone who gets the MDiv is serious about preparing for the work of God while everyone who goes on to get a doctorate is depending on their eduction for godliness and growth! End of story. :) Just kidding! As tidy as that might be, education can present a real dependency challenge to all of us. Whether you have a high school degree, a PhD in New Testament Interpretation, or 274 years of Sunday School experience, we tend to discern and navigate our path through life based on our own knowledge and application of it. However, depending on our learning is the antithesis of trusting the Lord to direct our paths (Pr 3:5-6).

 

4. Strategy - Yep, we not only like our own experts and our own knowledge, we typically like do to things our own way. Our self dependence results in using our own schemes. The psalmist contrasts those who depend in chariots and horses to those who trust in the Lord (Ps 20:7). Would anyone use a horse to build their church? Probably not. The chariot has potential as an eco-friendly extension of the bus ministry, but few would use it. To depend, however,on horses and chariots to win military victories (3,000 years ago) is as ludicrous as it is to depend on them to build a church. We are terribly flawed whenever we rely on human devised strategies, plans, or 12 step processes to accomplish the work of God.

 

5. Tradition - This one may kind of strike you as odd. How does tradition fit as a dangerous dependency? Well, let me ask you this. If you were going to start an outreach program, what would you do? Exactly what you've always done? What another church you admire does? If you were going to plant a church, what would it look like? What would you do? Would you duplicate the church you just left, regardless of the geographic or cultural changers? I think the difference between depending on tradition compared to depending on experts, education, or strategy is that depending on tradition is not usually deliberate. It's usually the default mode. It takes work to seek out experts, get an education, or study and develop strategy. Tradition is an easy master. It's cheap, and readily accessible, even though it's not the most sophisticated of dependencies (kind of like sniffing glue). For a very interesting passage regarding dependence on tradition, see 1 Samuel 4:1-11.

 

Pretty negative so far? Personally, I don't think so. Identifying the problem is always the first step to solving the problem. And the solution is oh so simple. How can we accomplish the work of God's kingdom? How can we start local churches through evangelizing the lost? How can we train Christ-followers to the point of spiritual maturity and reproduction? We Can't! Jesus can and will! Jesus said that He will build His church (Mt 16:18).

 

So does that mean we sit around and do nothing? Hardly. Our job is to trust the Lord, be faithful what He has called each one of us to do, and leave the results to the Lord.

 

Our General's Warning: Beware of dangerous dependencies! They possess a lifetime of danger!

Questions

• Did I miss any dangerous dependencies?
• Were any misdiagnosed?
• Which one do you think is the most dangerous?

Interview with Jud Wilhite

Last month I was privileged to be able to attend the NewSpring Leadership Conference with Dan Threlfall. Dan's company Sharefaith was an official sponsor of the conference. Due to this arrangement, I was able to sit in (as official photographer) on an interview with Jud Wilhite, one of the speakers at the conference. Jud is senior pastor of Central Christian Church in Las Vegas. Jud prefers to call the city typically known as "Sin City," "Grace City!"

Sharefaith has been kind enough to post the entire interview on their blog. Here's a couple of highlights from it:

The “Grace City” concept is rooted in what I think God can do, and how he sees a city. The world sees this place [Las Vegas] as Sin City, but if you step back from it, you see that God’s grace is available. When it comes to connecting with our culture, this idea of telling the truth in love is the linchpin for us. We don’t try to be relevant. We don’t try to be cool. We’re not making a big effort to “connect.” What we’re trying to do is live the gospel in our culture—honestly and truthfully.

There are a couple things that are dear to my heart. These are the culture of radical grace and radical truth... Today, it seems like it’s hard to find a church that values the Bible as the Word of God–that values it as the truth, that doesn’t want to compromise or bend it, that doesn’t want to take it in a liberal direction. But it’s hard to find a church that does so in the context of a truly grace-filled culture—a culture that lets you come in jacked out of your mind, and still be loved. I’m encouraged to be seeing this in church plants and church starts. I’m seeing a love for grace and a culture of grace that loves people, but also a love and respect for God’s Word and a willingness to take a stand on his Word.

Make sure you check out the entire interview here!

Church Planting in New England

Tonight I was privileged to be given the opportunity to present our burden to plant churches in Maine and New England. It was an absolute joy to share with the people at GBF what the Lord is doing in our hearts and lives. It might be a little difficult to completely understand the presentation without the audio, but I thought I'd post it regardless. Get any profit or enjoyment out of it that you can!

Church Planting in New England on Prezi

Interview with Ed Stetzer

Here is an interview with Ed Stetzer. He just spent a large amount of time researching the American church planting scene and wrote the book Viral Churches as a result. He certainly has a better perspective on the national church planting scene than most others. I certainly appreciate his empahsis that planting churches is not the end goal. The end goal is the salvation of lost souls and church planting is the God ordained means to that end. Our confidence should be in the Lord, that He will keep his promise to build His church!

I think you'll really enjoy this inteview!

RT @ dan threlfall

Book Review - Exponential

A few months ago, Zondervan sent me a free book to review. Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement came to my doorstep. I started the book with great excitement, but a kitchen remodel, a new roof, and two hard drive crashes set me back a little in completion time. However, I finished the book yesterday and here's the bottom line on it.

The book was written by Dave and Jon Ferguson, two brothers who started a church in Chicago. They founded the church with almost no resources - nothing but a vision from God. This one church has birthed several campus churches, started various other churches, and has now organized many of these into networks.

The book is written from Dave's perspective, with Jon throwing in random snide comments. If my brother Peter ever writes a book, I definitely want the "snide comment" job! The book is well written and easy to read as it's largely just their story.

The book could be summarized by two points. 1. Stop thinking small, get all your friends together, and plant a million churches. Then, keep going. They use their story to convince, motivate, and persuade you that this can be a reality. Should we need this encouragement? No, we probably shouldn't. The Great Commission commands the radical, widespread, yep, even exponential growth of God's kingdom throughout the world. This command is backed by the power and presence of God. If you're still unsure about Christ's ability to bring His plans to fruition, check out Revelation 19-20. However, years of disobedience and a lack of faith have given us spiritual cataracts, leaving us unable to see what God really desires to do. This book is encouraging, not because they give us some magic formula, but because their story affirms today what we should already know - that God will build His church!

2. Intentionally develop leaders! Here again, this should be kind of a no brainer. That's what discipleship is all about, but this book does a really good job of giving some practical ways to develop leaders. Community (their church) believes that every person in every position ought to have an apprentice. In this way, leadership is being intentionally developed on every level. The Fergusons correctly point out that if you wait to mentor leaders until you need the leaders, it is way too late and you are actually hindering the progress of winning souls. Unfortunately, most leadership training occurs more like this. "Hey, I've got the flu. Can you teach my class this morning?" It's sink or swim. What a great way to help people!

At Community they laid out a leadership flow chart. Everyone starts as an individual (obviously!). Then follows leader, coach, director, campus pastor/church planter, and finally network leader. I think it's interesting to how Community is structured, but it doesn't need to be precisely emulated. The big point is, the are intentionally developing leaders. Sounds kind of like 2 Timothy 2:2, doesn't it? :)

They do a great job of breaking down leadership development into five basic steps:

1. I do. You watch. We talk.
2. I do. You help. We talk.
3. You do. I help. We talk.
4. You do. I watch. We talk.
5. You do. Someone else watches.

This completes the leadership circle and creates mature believers who are training others. I've seen these steps listed very similarly somewhere else, and I have no idea who canonized it first, but I think this approach is simple and effective. The three questions that guide their conversations are (1) "What worked?" (2) "What didn't work?" and (3) "How can we improve?"

In summary, it was a great book if you want one path to do this. I loved the emphasis on leadership development and faith in what God can do. Some chapters kind of reitterated their previous motif of leadership develop (ex, reproducing artists, reproducing groups, etc). Each chapter added a little to it, but not exceptionally. Worth a read? Definitely.... but I still like Viral Churches better.

"Viral Churches"

I was recently given the book Viral Churches. The book remains unfinished as reading with my daughter definitely slows down my typical pace. However, the first 50 pages have been inspiring, challenging, and thought-provoking. The premise of the book (the best I understand it after 50 pages) is that the current model of planting a church is both small-minded and not in keeping with the Scriptural precent. Our goal should be towards the frequent and widespread multiplication of churches rather than being content with the addition of a single church.

I'll try to post a more complete review later, but so far it's been fantastic. I feel like I've been reading a more intelligent, better researched, and passionate version of myself. The book's emphasis on leadership development is right on!!

Here's an excerpt from the book:

It's very possible to plant a church but not enlarge God's kingdom or to limit Satan's domain. Churches based on worship preferences and musical styles, or built around celebrities with the Christian subculture, reinforce consumerism and promote church shopping among those who are already believers (34).

Do you think this is an accurate assessment of some segments of American Christianity?