Not one model

I had a very invigorating weekend off.

A dear friend turned 50 and we celebrated for the whole weekend. Reaping the fruit of some 35 years of friendship was lavish. Isn't that a great word? 'Lavish'. It should be a God-word! Of course the sacred text reads: "How great the love the Father has lavished on us..." 1 John 3:1.

Sitting with so many extraordinary folks from so many life's stories was inspiring, intriguing, empowering. However, I was aware that the picture of the church, in many of their minds, has once again been our greatest foe. Leaving to come home last night, I was very engaged by the challenge of showing a God-story that is true perfume to a world where beauty and fragrance is desired but rarely received.

The gospel redemption story is worthy. Dressing it with the church has not always been appealing.

Can one model of the ecclesia fulfill this glorious mandate? The answer is obviously 'No"! History tends to tell us that every move has their 'revelation', which then becomes the one true and 'biblically accurate' way of doing church. This gets taught with much passionate and prophetic fervor. However before long, the slow stench of yesterday's manna begins to creep into the community. Those who smell it are viewed as disloyal and traitors. Well the rest is history simply repeating itself.

Can we pause with personal reflection? Can we engage in this convo with healed hearts, passionate Jesus-love burning in our hearts and a passionate love affair with the church evidenced in our souls? With that settled, then through the church and sacrificial love for the nations that this cross-driven Christ has shown us, can we enter this realm of thoughts ready for a new perspective and a new adventure?. This is a holy moment - to reflect on church-future is very holy indeed. It cannot be touched or tainted by dirty hands of selfish lusts or breathed over by the foul breath of criticism and destruction.

Can we then explore the wonder and width of architecting churches that can enter these very different and colorfully exquisite cultural worlds?

1. Pagan, premodern world;

2. Modern, boomer world;

3. Post modern, exchristian world;

4. Post modern, post Christian world...

The ecclesia that reflects reaching the 'lostness' of these communities should be remarkably different in form but not in DNA. We will look at this next time, but I would love you to join us in this conversation....

Friends

These have been a remarkable few days.

It was March 1977 that began it all. I had recently began my own faith journey. The December before, I had asked a simple question - "Jesus, if you are real, come into my life". I knew if there was no Jesus, it would simply be a question resolved in its naked silence. If he was real, my long haired life would soon change. How, I was not sure but my selfish, self-preoccupied story would end.

So within 4 months, I was asked to speak at this church camp in South Africa. The first night, I told them my story. That was all I had. I had no theology, exegesis, wise or persuasive words. I simply had a story, and I told it.

Many teenagers stepped forward as an old fashioned 'altar call' drew them to an introduction of their own Jesus story. In the little crowd were 2 girls whose eyes glistened with the tenderness of a perfect love encounter. Jesus found them and they found each other. An almost 35 year friendship began.

That is what this weekend was all about. Remarkably our friendship with Bruce and Helena has now spanned all these years. I did their wedding in a very intimate setting some 28 years ago. Both couples ended up in Southern California. And our friendship simply kept ticking on.

This weekend was as much about celebrating a birthday as it has been about applauding friendships. From establishing a new friendship when M and I had lunch with Britt on Friday, through the Friday night fun of margaritas and tacos, and a most outstanding sit down dinner last night with many honoring stories, as even Lorna skyped in from Australia. A truly remarkable testimony of a woman who gets friendship.

See Jesus connects us with friends that we are to do life with. There are times we 'live in each other's pockets' and there are times when we are separated by time, space and journeys. But these are gifts that we are to treasure and continue to invest in. To end our days, naked and relationally empty-handed is to dishonor the great friendship maker. Over dinner I sat with a journalist from a large newspaper and the director of a film school. Amazing how one friendship would now connect us with two more and then more and then more. They won't all be as close nor carry such history, but they will all be valuable.

As I blog, I enjoy my coffee, my scriptures and my reflections. In a while we will join the crew for taco breakfast before heading home to LA. This time the worship on my lips, has a lighter note. "He is good and his love endures"... the hymn writer wrote. Because Jesus met me that day in 1996, he not only put me on a redemption journey, but gave me friends and for that I am eternally grateful.

C2C

C2C was amazing. I loved every part of the few days we had together.

Intentionally designed in such a way that the planter could connect to the modus operandi, the format seemed to work. Rather than go big, we went small, personal and interactory. Instead of the large band approach that the planter simply cannot have, we had amazing worship from 4 churches, where a voice and 1 instrument was more than we could have imagined as God met with us.

I so enjoyed the diversity of the catalytic teaching - Terry Virgo - apostle, father, Brit and been church planting for over 30 years. Jeff Vanderstelt - emerging apostle, inspiring missional community model, seeking to engage the post-modern, post-christian America. Alan Hirsch - seer, prophetic mobilizer of the church to a new story... I loved it all.

We coffee'd together, ate together, dialogued together. Listening, learning and leading all at the same time. Rock Harbor hosted wonderfully.

The big question now is - 'Where to from here?'

Do we host another one next year? Or

Do we maintain the integrity of intimacy by having one in Canada, one on the East Coast and the West Coast one?

Or was only a one off gathering and it has done its job?

Lets see what the Spirit says to the church....

Fathers and the Gospel

Just reflecting...

We have just had a most wonderful week. Having old and new friends around our dining room table was simply extraordinary. The laughter, the listening, the newness and the familiar, shaded our home with a deep sense of gratitude.

Terry and Wendy Virgo were simply amazing. Brushing the 70's, Terry continues to pioneer and demonstrate, in all humility, the entrepreneurial apostle that he is. His ministry was so expansive and enlarging. Always drawing us into the big picture, this apostle father so honored us as he took us to the texts and left us very tender, so desiring for us to live in the big spaces that the Father has created for us.

New Frontiers, Terry and Wendy's life investment is entering a new chapter. Rather than charge down the age old trap of handing over to one man [reproducing apostolic succession], Terry has identified around 20 apostles who will spearhead their own apostolic spheres continuing to celebrate their past, holding on to a common DNA, and anticipating their shared future, while each sphere surges in their gospel pioneering opportunities.

I am envious. That is the way we should have gone. Rather than fragment, we should have celebrated a theology of multiplication. Authentic bible fathers understand that the gospel grows. Wherever Jesus is declared, Gen 1:28 is activated: "Increase, multiply, fill the earth...". This Gospel will be preached to all nations then the end will come. We should have changed history not succumb to it. Fathers are there to empower their sons to "Leave and cleave." For the sake of the gospel, fathers are to raise up their sons and daughters, empowered with the beauty of Jesus, the punch of the width of his gospel story, to embark on a journey that will fill the earth.

Sitting with a Prof from one of the local universities recently, he, a student of movements asked me if I thought that movements are able to prevent implosion or institutionalization. His perspective was that movements are one generational. They will die or slowly fade into history.

I was less pessimistic. My reply to him was that I believe we can change the course of history but it will cost much. We have to return to keeping the great Jesus story as the full and center piece of the brotherhood. Our intent simply cannot be to brand, imperialize or seek to defend our history. They are transitional killers. We have to keep the gospel as the big story, with none other even closely second.

Secondly, as fathers have to continuously remind ourselves, that we are supposed to raise up spiritual sons and daughters to 'leave and cleave' and celebrate that! Apostolic christianity was never designed to ever grow into one papal uber -structure. Rather, fathers are always raising up their sons to leave home, get mature, start having families of their own and multiply gospel communities and movements continually.

Thirdly, as the sons spread their wings and learn to fly, the biblical picture is not to be dismissive, nor alienate the fathers. Looking exclusively for a peer group is as dangerous as is the notion of fathers trying to keep the sons under one roof. One is not better than the other.

We know there is no "the model". But there is one Gospel. The greatest gift we can give our children is not one pattern but one message. Then let them fly and watch Jesus and the Holy Spirit get to work. Match this with the E4 partnerships [not over us], and this glorious last days church can still be quite remarkable. I am hopeful that we will get fathers who see this gospel, this Jesus, as the greatest gift we can hand on.

As always... just thinking

Reaching the 60%

I loved C2C opening with Alan Hirsch. Not only is he a dear friend, but a master at probing the thinking man's mind with key kingdom components.

Yesterday he stretched our western validation of our ministry model with some pretty pertinent questions. Taking us through the Ralph Winter missiological process of M0 to M4 [steps that missionaries have to process to minister into new missionary platforms - where M0 is where we are on the same cultural page as the community we are trying to reach and M1, M2, M3, M4 are further and further from our cultural world], Alan engaged us in how our missional mindset has to change.

Our western worldview and cultural reality is no longer strongly overshadowed by the city center cathedral, so we are ministering more and more into very Christianity-unfriendly environments in which the practices and programs that got us this far are probably not going to get the job done. These great old 'wineskins' that were so genius in the 90's are now leaking at an alarming rate and we will run out of gas within the next 10 years.

The most challenging of questions was raised with this notion; based on research over many years, it may be generally true to say that we are working on a 60 / 40 window in the USA [as a general rule]. This research showed that only around 40% in the average American City connects with the attractional model [culture, style and message]that the boomers so popularized in the 80's and 90's. However, even in these best practices, this model [of most mega-churches] can at best reach 40% of the population. Then the question arises, how and who will reach the 60% [a number that by all research is growing every year]?

This is not a conversation about being cool, hipster, gimmicky. This is a highly gospel-centered investment. How are we going to become "missionaries" in our own cities and reach this unreached people group who eat at our restaurants, work in our buildings, live in our 'hoods but do not know Jesus? These are major questions that need to fashion our ecclesiology into the next generation. Jesus has brought all nations to our doorstep, so that the gospel that needs to go "to all nations then the end will come," can now be done by us in our every day.

It is time to reach the 60% in our world. What will that look like?

Reality is Beautiful

It is 5:27 am and winter is definitely creeping into the bones. Of course that is as a Southern Californian speaking. Yesterday it was 64 degrees down at the beach where I took 2 young Brits for a Wahoos meal before a walk down the Huntington Beach pier.

The older one gets, the less one should caught up in the applause of men [Van Morrison sings that that is 'the sound of one hand clapping'] and more preoccupied by a call to divine obedience. We are so vulnerable to, so easily impressed by the big, the many, the large.

Jesus seemed to go there reluctantly, the crowds that is. He was filled with compassion when he saw them. He healed them, fed them, taught them, loved them, but then invested in the 12 intentionally and consistently. He simply would not deviate from that path. In good old fashioned English he 'put all his eggs in one basket'. His success, legacy and the future of Christianity, lay in the evidence of his investment in but 12 men.

Everywhere I go, I am surrounded by the voices of impersonal imperialism. So few leaders are obsessed with the "Story of 12". In spite of the clear Jesus model, this evidence in Paul's life, of Billy Graham saying, if he had his life again he would have taken 12 men... It is the shotgun approach to life, to scatter ourselves over many horizons in many contexts, growing to be a voice in many stories, growing our churches, multi-sites, churches that relate, organizations that grow, movements that spread...

And, to be honest, I guess I have heard enough planters / pastors who have bought into a dream, say that they're tired of the unreality so easily found in the quest for many. Fathers are replaced by co-ordinators, apostles are replaced by generic teams, prophets are replaced by PC's, pioneers are replaced by loyal subjects - and it happens very quickly.

As 'for me and my house', we are embarking this new year - 2012 [ironically] with a simple vision of 12... 12... 12. We want to do this new chapter with focussed apostolic reality. Investing our lives intentionally into:

*'12' base churches that are catalysts for becoming movements through planting, replanting, multi-siting and drawing in orphan churches - empowering them on their journey...

*'12' plants / replants helping lay foundations, establishing them in their story...

*'12' key leaders whether their call is to E4 gifts, marketplace leadership or planters...

for a 2 year cycle of priority and partnership. Then reconsider if the job is done and start working with the next crew. I don't profess to have all the admin and logistics sorted out but I can't escape the call.

I will write about this some more later. I guess my passionate apo heart wants a whole lot more of Jesus in my story - even if it means that "reality is beautiful".

Ministry Schedule for November 2011

M and I are very excited about this coming month. However, next week we are stoked to have Terry and Wendy Virgo, as well as Jeff Vanderstelt stay with us for C2C - our church planting conversation, hosted by Rock Harbor.

Our ministry for November in headlines looks like this:

Wednesday 2nd - Exploration - our LA monthly conversation for planters and pastors.

Sunday 6th - I am ministering at Soul Survivor with Mike Pilavachi in Watford UK,

Monday 7th - Wednesday - Pastors from the USA, and UK are going away for 3 days to enjoy each other, hear each others stories, learn from each other, - Wed, Steve Timmis will join us,

Sunday 13th - I am delighted to be at Kingsgate Church, in Kingston UK with Keath and the crew,

Thursday 17th - M and I will be ministering at Exponential LA - their regional one day gathering,

Sunday 20th - M and I will be in New York to be with the Barson Band!

So amazed that the Father is so kind to place us in such a large story.