Midwest Church Planting

Church Planter Evaluation

2006-03-26T21:47:00.000-06:00

Here is a simple (20 question) church planter readiness test from Redeemer Presbyterian church. It asks pretty good questions.

HRC 2006

2006-02-09T09:14:00.000-06:00

On January 27 & 28, we had our 3rd annual Healthy Reproducing Churches conference in Champaign, IL. About 70 people came from 7 church plants and 1 traditional church with an emerging type pastor. Lance Ford from Glocalnet came and spoke and did a good job introducing the people to the concepts of glocalnet -- church multiplication, community development, and nation building.

I uploaded some pictures to Flikr.com. You can access them by going to http://www.flickr.com/photos/midwestplanting/.

Churches Planting Churches

2006-02-09T09:09:00.000-06:00

Bob Roberts talks about how networks are good, but the real power is in churches planting churches.

Friday I spent time with Brian Bloye at West Ridge Church. He has started his church planting school and using what we teach at NorthWood. He now has 14 or 15 guys in the program and projecting potentially 8 new churches next year! Way to go Brian!!!! He just entered his new worship center and now has around 4000 in attendance. But, he’s not obsessed with his new building and size--like many are--but with how he keeps his people praying, holy, reaching the lost, helping the poor in his area, planting churches, and engaging the world. As I walked with him on the campus and in the community, he was so quick to stop and visit with people along the way--and it was genuine--not fake. It’s obvious why God is blessing him.

I’ve longed for years for an emerging guy like him who has a rockin’ church to be just as obsessed with "the" rockin’ church and he is and it shows--not just his own bread box. These are 8 churches HIS CHURCH is planting--not his organization or network, but his church! This is as it should be. Networks are great but church planting movements come from church planting churches--not networks, organizations, or denomination (Though, I do belong to some)! And, he’s not doing just local work in the US or Global, but both--Glocal. If people only understood one feeds the other and you can’t fully do one without the other. There is no such thing as "when we get big enough or healthy enough." The only question is when we want to be the church bad enough. I look forward to the day when a church’s total attendance equals it’s attendance plus the attendance of all the churches it’s started and the number of churches in that count. That’s how church planting will change society because it’s viral and dispersed and decentralized.

Emerging CGGC

2005-10-18T13:33:00.000-05:00

There is some good conversation taking place over at Emerging CGGC. Check it out... then join in the conversation...and help make it even better!

Upcoming Events

2005-09-13T14:17:00.000-05:00

Looking Ahead:
Healthy Reproducing Churches Conference - January 27,28 2006 in Champaign, IL

Around the Corner:
Fall Percolater - October 4th & 5th - Mattoon, IL

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life

2005-08-31T15:04:00.000-05:00

Gil asked about Rob Bell:

I'm curious about this quote, from the review in the Kansas Post:
Bell also shakes up traditional evangelical beliefs. While calling Christ’s way “the best possible way to live,” Bell writes that Jesus did not claim one religion is better than another when he said he was “the way, the truth and the life.” Rather, he writes, “his way is the way to the depth of reality.”

I'm wondering what he means there?

I can't speak for Bell, but one thing I was looking for when exploring Bell was who he is connected with, while not foolproof, it can give a hint of where he is coming from. The one connection I found was Brian McLaren. McLaren said in his book A Generous Orthodoxy (fairly sure it was that book) that Jesus had no intent on setting up a religion. He came to be followed. Christianity developed as a religious movement, but McLaren suggest that a muslim wouldn't have to become a Christian to follow Jesus.

This certainly stretches past my comfort levels. But it has made me think. Being a Christian is being a follower of Christ. Being a part of the Christian religion is something else altogether. And I would agree that my initial and greatest goal for people would be that they begin to follow Christ. This is best done in the church.

To quote Brian McLaren, p 260, A Generous Orthodoxy, in chapter called Why I am Incarnational:

I must add, though , that I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts. This will be hard, you say, and I agree. But frankly, it's not at all easy to be a follower of Jesus in many "Christian" religious contexts, either.

One place I have struggled with this is with a friend of mine who leans Catholic (he was raised Catholic and longs to return to Catholic). As we talk, he talks of the Catholic Church as THE authority for the church on earth. As a Protestant (or post-protestant as McLaren says, "I'm no longer protesting") I think, "I'm not under the authority of the Catholic Church." Denominations are so splintered and mainly because of their cultural contexts. McLaren is saying that our faith is lived out in a cultural context, which we call our church. What exactly does that have to look like? Most would answer, "No less than what our church looks like."

This may not have made as much sense as I hoped, but what gives me comfort not being part of the Authoritative Catholic church is that I am a follower of Christ, doing so in my own cultural context. It is hard to argue for the Biblical authority of the Churches of God General Conference any other way. (Or at least that I have considered.)

Rob Bell

2005-08-29T16:31:00.000-05:00

I wanted to do a little background on some different names that are popping up in the emerging church circles. This is just internet search and some personal reading so these aren't meant to be full backgrounds. I just want to see where they are coming from and who they might be connected to.

Note he graduated from Wheaton and then Fuller.

From freep.com (whatever that is)

In Bell's envisioning of Christianity, he's also trying to bypass some of the feuds that have left many denominations deadlocked.

Women's ordination? No problem at Mars Hill. A third of the 15 associate pastors who work with Bell are women.

Homosexuality? Bell tells gay people the same thing he tells everyone who walks through the door. It's a powerfully affirming line that he repeated in his sermon on Sunday: "God loves you exactly as you are. Period."

The Rev. Brian McLaren, a pastor from Maryland who has become a national adviser to churches like Mars Hill, said: "Rob's one of the most courageous pastors in the country. What he's trying to do is move past the battle lines that have caused such polarization."

...

At the restaurant on Sunday night, Bell wiped a final bit of curry from his chin and said: "The bad thing about a lot of theology today is that it works like a box. The church draws a square box around itself and divides the world between people who are 'in' and 'out.' I don't think that's what Jesus intended. He saw the church as a journey we take together. That's what interests me: the exploration, the relationships, the excitement of trying to discover this together. All I'm doing is asking people to come along."

From Christianity Today

Ed Dobson says of Bell, "Rob is driven by a passion to teach the Bible, shaped by understanding the Bible in its context, then applying the Bible to where people live. At the core, he's about the Bible." It was with Dobson, at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, that Bell served as associate pastor for three years before Calvary supported the launch of Bell's postmodern congregation. Today Bell is also heading Nooma (think pneuma), a ministry producing short dramatic videos of Bell's talks, shot MTV-style amid city streets, airports, and forests (www.nooma.com).

...

A preacher recently said to me that you cannot use history, because the more you learn about history, the more it will affect how you interpret the Scriptures. Yep. I hope so.

N.T. Wright says it this way, "Most people want to wake up in the morning with a general at the foot of their bed saying 'Go do this.' The problem is there's somebody at the foot of their bed saying, 'Once upon a time. . .'"

The "timeless truths" of Scripture emerge from real people in real places and a God who has all authority working in real time. So the more I know about the places and times, the more I understand God's authority.

Interview with Belief.net

He has a book coming out called Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. Here is a review.

He has a series of videos that can be used in worship called Nooma.

Bottomline: I'm pretty interested in what Rob Bell is doing. I've listened to his sermons online and they sound pretty good to me, but I'd really like to see what church looks like to them. I'm planning at some point soon going to Michigan and seeing firsthand.

Maxwell's New Book

2005-08-26T09:45:00.000-05:00

I've seen this book advertised in Wired and Fast Company with the caption "Get Rich Quick." Is this where John Maxwell is headed?

Generous Orthodoxy Conference

2005-07-05T13:29:00.000-05:00

A conference that at least peaks my interest.

Renovation of the Heart

2005-06-21T13:48:00.000-05:00

Everything I've been reading and hearing lately seems to always refer to Dallas Willard. I had not read anything by Willard. Over vacation, I spotted a Dallas Willard book, Renovation of the Heart, at my sister-in-laws house. I asked if I could borrow it, and she said I could have it. Whoo Hoo!!

As I started the first chapter, I read this paragraph that I thought ought to be stamped onto the core value of everything Christian.

The revelution of Jesus is in the first place and continuously a revolution of the human heart or spirit. It did not and does not proceed by means of the formation of social instituions and laws, the outer forms of our existence, intending that these would then impose a good order of life upon people who come under their power. Rather, his is a revolution of character, which proceeds by changing people from the inside through ongoing personal relationship to God in Christ and to one another. It is one that changes their ideas, beliefs, feelings, and habits of choice, as well as their bodily tendencies and social relations. It penetrates to the deepest layers of their soul. External, social arrangements may be useful to this end, but they are not the end, nor are they a fundamental part of the means.

On the other hand, from those divinely renovated depths of the person, social structures will naturally be transformed so that "justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24). Such streams cannot flow through corrupted souls. Conversely, a renovated "within" will not cooperate with public streams of unrighteousness. It will block them -- or die trying. It is the only thing that can do so.

...

The impotence of systems is a main reason why Jesus did not send his students out to start governments or even churches as we know them today, which always strongly convey some elements of a human system. They were, instead, to establish beachheads of his person, word, and power in the midst of a failing and futile humanity. They were to bring the presence of the kingdom and its King into every corner of human life simply by fully living in the kingdom with him.

Craig Blomberg's Review of Generous Orthodoxy

2005-06-03T09:32:00.000-05:00

Full review here.

Here is the conclusion:

"But overall, I am far more enthusiastic about this volume than worried over it. What worries me are the growing numbers of people who are worried about it. What does this portend if not an ungenerous orthodoxy that draws ever-narrowing boundaries around what counts as authentic Christianity, thereby alienating even more onlookers from the very faith they already see as too judgmental and divisive? I recommend McLaren's work highly to anyone who cares about evangelizing postmoderns and about developing the kind of community in the church of Jesus Christ that our Lord himself seems to have desired."

What the Bleep Do We Know?

2005-05-24T16:40:00.000-05:00

I want to see this independent film. I want to listen to where their hearts are, as opposed to immediately beginning to defend my faith.

Lately when I've talked to people "on the journey," as they explore their faith and even the path that they have walked with me, one guy in particular has questioned some of my firm ground. I think sincerely he has been talking about his own journey, which often should probably lead to their own path and their own journey (not away from Christ, don't get me wrong, just a different path, life, location, calling, ...) Anyway, I have had to take care to not be offended that he might be insinuating that my path is not THE path.

Understanding the Neighbor Next Door

2005-05-24T16:06:00.000-05:00

Lance and I are going to teach a breakout session at our regional denom conference meeting in June titled something like "Understanding the Neighbor Next Door." Here are some notes:

Start with why? John 1:14 -- The word became flesh and dwelled among us. Matthew 25 -- Go and make disciples of all nations. Paul -- I became all things to all people.

Understand your local culture by listening to people. Here are some ideas of what to look for.

1. Don't assume you know how they think or feel. Don't assume they feel empty. Don't assume they feel guilty. Don't assume they aren't interested in God. Don't assume that they are less moral than you. You have to know them to know them.

2. If they swear around you that might be a sign they trust you.

3. Find out what they watch on TV. You don't have to ask. It always comes up. They won't be watching what you watch. I was with a group the other night and everyone but us had been rivoted to Revelations.

4. Don't come in with an agenda. If anything, simply introduce them to Jesus Christ the Person, not Jesus the idea, or Jesus the belief.

5. People will test you. My neighbor had a habit of throwing out questions which he knew the answer to, just to see if I thought he was dumb. I didn't bite, but it is easy to want to answer stuff.

What else? Comments?

Glocalnet Conference

2005-05-11T09:19:00.000-05:00

Just returned from the Glocalnet conference at Northwoods Church in Keller, TX. Once again, I was blown away. Their approach is simple but powerful. They have three focuses.

1. Nation building -- Pick a hard place in the world and work there -- They say over and over if you aren't working globally, you won't be successful locally. For me, going global would free up some of the fears I have locally. I'm assuming that when faced with global issues, local issues won't seem as challenging to change. Attitudes about resources will be change.

2. Community Development -- Partner with your community to meeting real and serious needs.

3. Church Multiplication -- daughter churches.

Their internal focus remains firmly on Jesus and the imminent need for a relationship with Him. I always come away from this conference brimming with desire to go and change the world.

Sweet List of Summer Conferences

2005-05-05T16:25:00.000-05:00

We are going to the first one on the list.

Five Myths About Changing Behavior

2005-05-05T08:38:00.000-05:00

From May 2005 Fastcompany magazine, page 55

1. Myth - Crisis is a powerful impetus for change
Reality - 90% of patients who've had coronary bypasses don't sustain changes in the unhealthy lifestyles that worsen their severe heart disease and greatly threaten their lives.

2. Myth - Change is motivated by fear
Reality - It's too easy for people to go into denial of the bad things that might happen to them. Compelling, positive visions of the future are a much stronger inspiration for change.

3. Myth - The Facts Will Set Us Free
Reality - Our thinking is guided by narratives, not facts. When a fact doesn't fit our conceptual "frames" -- the metaphor we use to make sense of the world -- we reject it. Also, change is inspired best by emotional appeals rather than factual statements.

4. Myth -- Small gradual changes are always easier to make and sustain
Reality - Radical, sweeping changes are often easier because they quickly yield benefits

5. Myth -- We can't change because our brains become hardwired early in life
Reality - Our brains have extraordinary "plasticity," meaning that we can continue learning complex new things throughout our lives -- assuming we remain truly active and engaged.

Here is the online article. Comments?

Missions

2005-03-21T09:25:00.000-06:00

Fran and I have talked about how we want to do missions. We want two things. One, direct involvement from the people of our church (not just money, but hands on. We live in glocal world. We can afford to go ourselves.) And two, a direct relationship with a foreign community.

Doug Pagitt describes exactly what I'm looking for.

Shelley and Michon are going to Guatemala with a group from church today. They will be in the village of San Juan, la Laguna on Lake Atitlan.Picture 030
The group of 16 people will build 5 houses and a public latrine.
We have been a friendship with the people of San Juan since 2000 and have built nearly 30 homes in the village. We construct simple one room houses but they are step up from what they currently have. Most importantly they allow the families to own something of value, often for the first time in their family history. Picture 005
We also have a partnership with the Christian School in the village.

I am so excited that Michon is able to go. She was last in Guatemala when she was 4 but doesn't remember it. Michon being 15 is one of 3 high school aged people on the trip. I think it is so great that adults and teenagers are integrated at church and on these trips.

The will return home on Tuesday, the 29th, so it is just the boys around the house. And yes, meals are being accepted.
The group will be gone over Easter which is a bummer, but Easter in Guatemala is a real treat.
The group will stay in homes the first day or so and in a simple "hotel" the remainder of the time in the village.

Young Message

2005-03-21T08:36:00.000-06:00

Statistics show that most people come to know Christ at around the age of 15. This has caused numerous churches to focus their evangelistic efforts on young people. The other statistic is that something like 85% of youth leave the church during their college years. What it makes me wonder about is our message.

When Jesus wrote in the sand and suggested the sinless ones cast the first stones, the oldest ones left first. It seems to me, an appropriately presented Gospel would have its greatest affect on 40 year olds.

Are we presenting the gospel effectively?

The Problem of Accountability

2005-03-05T12:06:00.000-06:00

This is an excerpt out of an interview with Dr Henry Cloud in the Spring 2004 edition of Cutting Edge, a Vineyard church planting magazine. Cloud runs an intensive where he brings in church leaders and makes them focus on developing themselves personally so they are better leaders. When they leave, they need to develop a group around them to help them integrate their journey process.

That requires a lot of maturity from a church. How do you suggest a pastor go about finding those people?

One thing is that they need to have a template of what they are tying to build before they go about it. It is important for them to put some thought into what specific things they want to have happen. If we look at it propositionally, "What areas of God's truth do I need to structure into an ongoing experience in my life?"

The main one you hear about -- and it is kind of sad in the way it is taught and used -- is "accountability." But it's something of a problem, because all ac-count-ability does is count things. I say to people in the business world, "Have you ever had an accountant that solved all your problems?" Of course not. An accountant counts the numbers and tells you that you are "doing well" or "you have a problem." What an accountability group does is count how many times you have been good or bad this week. It's like driving your car when the red light comes on; that's an accountability structure for your oil pressure. Now what do you dod? Accountability doesn't answer those questions! What most people do when their red light is flashing is tell their accountability group, "I'll do better." But the red flashing light is not going to actually fix the oil pressure problem. What you have to do is take the car to a garage, and the mechanic does certain things to the car to make the car itself different.

With a structure for personal growth, there is accountability and correction and confrontation -- but there is also support, modeling, building up of weak areas, and healing. There are a lot of different growth elements that a leader needs to have on their menu other than just somebody keeping score. One of the problems I see in leadership is that everybody is really glad their leader has an accountability group, but when the numbers come up wrong, where's the garage you are sending him or her to? That's the big issue. There are people around the pastor who could do this, but it's not part of the church culture to value this.

The full article is here.

How IBM Builds Businesses

2005-02-21T16:54:00.000-06:00

Think Big... Really big -- Look for opportunities that can become profitable billion-dollar businesses in fie to seven years. You'll probably find them by talking to customers rather than to brilliant researchers in the labs, who are looking further ahead.

Bring in the A-Team -- Growth is too important to trust to novices. Tap your most talented and experienced leaders -- senior people who are secure enough in their accomplishments that they can afford to fail. That might mean taking star managers away from your core businesses.

Start Small -- Resist the impulse to staff up quickly. Learn from pilot programs' "first of a kind" engagements with customers, and get clarity about the business before you ramp up.

Find New Ways to Measure -- In the early years, don't try to guage success by revenue and profits, as you would in an established business. Instead, look at feedback from market trials and partnerships.

Of course, we aren't a business, but this article from Fast Company made me think. We have not brought in our A-Team (proven senior people). We have not placed our plants where they can grow quickly and large (at least I haven't). Something to think about.

Courage

2005-02-21T16:52:00.000-06:00

You have to have a gang of believers, folks who can take on the resistance and share in some of the courageous acts with you. Otherwise, it's too lonely and you can't make it. -- Noel Tichy

From Fast Company Magazine on Courage.

Generous Orthodoxy I

2005-02-15T19:35:00.000-06:00

I started reading a Generous Orthodoxy. In chapter 1, McLaren describes the Seven Jesuses I Have Known. It was an interesting way to describe seven theological constructs that people use for their Christianity. I know that I have to be able to shift between Catholic, charismatic, and evangelical views every day as I talk to people. They all see Jesus differently. He ends the chapter without much resolution.

Chapter 2 is Jesus and God B. I thought it was another common difference I see every day between people who see God as non-involved or personally involved. Even then, there is a lot of poor theology that confuses.

I'm eager to read more because I feel like McLaren is clearing the playing field a bit so that we can lay down more easily what we do believe. Thanks Fran for the suggestion because I wouldn't have gotten to this book for a while.

Blog Interviews

2005-02-09T09:11:00.000-06:00

Blogs are a unique communication. They aren't necessarily a good decision to have a book discussion, but they are a good place to log some good points about a book. They are a good place to pose questions. They are a good place to post short interviews. I thought we might give that a try. All we need are some good questions. I'll start with me.

Seven Questions

When did you plant The Crossover? What were the circumstances? We started The Crossover at the beginning of 2000. Our five year anniversary is this month. We felt like God was calling us to plant a church that would reach out to the unchurched, who might feel like they needed a more relevant option for church. We've been somewhat successful at it, but nothing like I dream.

What is the best thing going for you at your church? Our leadership is pretty secure in our vision. Whenever I start to waffle, they straighten me out with some vision talk. It should probably the other way around, but I assume they wouldn't be so clear on it if I hadn't told it to them clearly.

There are several leaders who are stepping up in their own calling. One family has taken in a couple of troubled teenage boys. Another family is reaching out to all kinds of troubled kids. A group of young adults are pretty serious about getting a youth ministry started. A lady just took over the worship planning. Three men are working so much remodeling our new facility. Another man has started publishing much of his writings in the newsletter that he publishes for us.

I'm hoping to take some of our leaders to Glocalnet conference in May to get a better grasp on Community Development and Nation Building.

What would you like to see in your church that you just can't get going? Community. There are so many backward people, tending toward paranoia. They are easily offended and not very trusting. They have low self-esteem and community can cause them to think things that just aren't true. Small groups are some of the answer, but our hope is that in our new facility, The Bridge (which is a converted storefront), we will be able to have some community opportunities to have fun and build trust.

What would you do differently if you could start over? Honestly, I don't think much about it. This has been a journey. We've done our best and learned as we went. We've found that we can't predict God's twists and turns. So we are trying to prepare more than plan. (This is a chapter title out of The Present Future)

What books/authors have significantly influenced you? Everything by Leonard Sweet. Kreeft's work with Pascal has been important to me.

What are you reading right now? The Present Future by Reggie McNeal. He seems to be putting the right questions into a readable, discussable form.

What is your prayer for the church? To be followers of Christ. He is moving and has opportunity for every person and every community every day. It is frustrating to me today that he doesn't always want my involvement where I want to be involved. It is exciting to see people doing work that they came to out of their journey with Christ.

Who's next for the seven questions?

xxxchurch.com

2005-02-01T15:31:00.000-06:00

I often download MP3 sermons and take them with me when I drive any distance. I just listened to a sermon by the creators of xxxchurch.com at Mars Hill in Michigan.

Talk about a fascinating experiment of taking the gospel into the culture. It is definitely worth a listen just for the learning experience.

First Fran Post

2005-01-27T14:38:00.000-06:00

The chapter titles of The Present Future look intriguing, and follow themes I seem to be hearing a lot about these days (the Kingdom, spiritual formation, apostolic leadership, etc.). I am most of the way through McLaren's "A Generous Orthodoxy" right now, and highly reccomend it... provided you are ready to call into question your foundationalist philosophical assumptions, your enlightenment approach to truth, your condemnation of liberals, and your conviction that you have nothing to learn from all the other streams of the church. I like where McLaren is going. He says things that have been rolling around in me, but which I could not figure out how to express well. No, it's not just that. He is going places I feel drawn to go, but has more and better reasons to go there than those which had yet occurred to me. Being "orthodox" to most of us has meant people believing mostly as I do about a lot of things. Is that right? Ask this question: How much of what you think is "essential" goes way beyond that expressed in the ancient creeds of the church? (probably a lot). I've also been reading an anthology of George MacDonold's sermons, fiction and poems lately (George was a Scottish writer/preacher of the lat 1800's-- C.S. Lewis loved his writing). MacDonald says that you learn the truth not merely by knowing and believing it, but by actually following Jesus (truth is a living reality, not a mere proposition). McLaren hits on the same thing in Generous Orthodoxy, that there is an experience of truth in which the need to explain it is no longer primary, and that liturgical (and especially the eastern) traditions have not lost track of this as enlightenment evangelicals have.
(Liturgy and mystery anyone?).
Anyway-- read the book. My elders and the guys in my pastoral studies group will be.

Healthy Reproducing Churches Conference

2005-01-26T22:26:00.000-06:00

I just finished listening to the tapes of Eddie Hammond, Fran Leeman, and Lance Finley from our Healthy Reproducing Church Conference. Wow! Seriously, I was blown away. My heart was set aright. My desire was fanned for planting new churches. I plan on uploading the MP3's to our website soon.

Another Test

2005-01-26T08:16:00.000-06:00

This is to test the email to blog system. If this works I guess it does make it easier to blog. Now if they can just come up with a way to make my thoughts seem more intelligent !

This is a test.

2005-01-25T16:12:00.000-06:00

Brian,

This is a test.

Let's hope it works.

Lance

A Hundred Directions

2005-01-24T15:43:00.000-06:00

I want this to be a community discussion, not just a fact post, though we can post some FYI's here if it catches on.

Gil gave me The Present Future as a Christmas gift. It is one of the current buzz books and may generate some discussion. I also just finished Summoned to Lead by Leonard Sweet. That was a pretty interesting book as well.

Issues cultural are always good.

Here are The Present Future chapters:
New Reality Number One: The Collapse of the Church Culture
New Reality Number Two: The Shift from Church Growth to Kingdom Growth
New Reality Number Three: A New Reformation: Releasing God's People
New Reality Number Four: The Return to Spiritual Formation
New Reality Number Five: The Shift from Planning to Preparation
New Reality Number Six: The Rise of Apostolic Leadership

Sounds pretty good. Number Five stands out to me and I haven't even read it yet.

I'm Here

2005-01-23T16:35:00.000-06:00

Ok Brian,

I'm signed on.

Where do we go from here?