Open Call for God-Called Preachers

My two oldest kids stayed overnight with my mother back in southeastern Oklahoma, so I drove down and picked them up in Henryetta today.  On the way back to Oklahoma City, I decided to take a different route.  We ventured through downtown and made a stop by an older United Methodist Church off the beaten path, several streets north and west of downtown.  As I pulled alongside the church my four year old said, “Wow, it’s dirty.”  I said, “why do you think it’s dirty,” and my seven year old daughter said, “because they don’t take good care of it.”  I then told them that any church that stops reaching out and bringing people to Christ ends up in even worse condition.  At the same time, across the street, I saw two young men.  They were dressed in white shirts, black ties, and backpacks and were walking from door to door in the older neighborhood around the church.  I pointed them out and said, “They don’t believe the same thing we do, but they are out telling people what they believe.”  I then told them how our church would look just like this one if we stopped inviting people to our church to come to know Jesus.

After getting home, I looked up this church online and found the typical non-webpages listing the congregation’s name.  However, I also found a defunct website on the Oklahoma City Cooperative Urban parish.  Here is an excerpt from that website (I’ve changed the name, because I’m not writing this to embarrass anyone and I think it’s common for many of our congregations regardless of the name),

In 1969 on a typical Sunday morning 365 people gathered for worship in the beautiful Gothic sanctuary at ____________ United Methodist in Oklahoma City. “On Easter, every pew was packed, even in the balcony, and we brought extra chairs in,” recalls a retired United Methodist pastor who was then pastor at ________.

“Our educational building was less than ten years old, and we needed every room in it,” __________ says. Average Sunday school attendance was 368. The church had 206 children from birth through the sixth grade and 184 youth.

Compare this with its current situation at the time,

On a typical Sunday last year, 85 gathered at __________ for worship. Seventy came to Sunday school. The church had 15 children from birth through the sixth grade and three youth.

The neighborhoods weren’t empty, people just moved and stopped commuting back to attend on Sundays.   For whatever reason, the church stopped reaching out to their local neighborhood (or any other neighborhood for that matter). So what was our ingenious solution to this dramatic shift?  We formed a cooperative urban parish whose purpose statement read,

The Oklahoma City Cooperative Urban Parish is composed of churches and organizations who have a common heritage in the Christian faith; are located in a common geographical area; share common commitment to effective ministry with persons in their congregations and the surrounding community. The members of the Parish covenant to identify resources, establish goals, and develop ministry strategies designed to achieve those goals. In no way does the Parish compromise the integrity of member institutions, but through cooperation strengthens the ministry of each

While I’m sure this doesn’t completely encompass their vision for these congregations, I can’t help but notice Jesus Christ is not mentioned anywhere here other than in their “common heritage in the Christian faith.”  In fact, the article said the goals of the urban parish could be summed up with our denomination’s campaign, “Open hearts, open minds, open doors.”  I also can’t help but notice how uninspired this makes me.

It just so happens we’re approximately ten years removed from what the date of this article.  Yes, this means we can judge the effects of this particular approach to revitalizing a series of churches.  According to the most recent conference journal, this congregation averaged just over 60 people in worship during 2008.  That’s right, down 25 in worship from the time of the intervention.

While I was parked in front of this old building, I took a picture with my phone and sent it to a friend of mine who is beginning to more fully grasp and develop his understanding of God’s call on his life.  All I did was take a picture of the exterior, and send him a note with the word, “Calling” in the subject line.  His reply?  “This made me tear up, let’s do it!”

We have young women and men in our conference who have a deep-seated Spirit-filled longing to lead congregations like this to revitalized ministry for Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God the Father.  We have young men and women who are tired of campaigns, sick of non-descript goals and efforts, and dying to be used by God to share the Gospel.   My 95 year old Grannie once called these “God-called preachers,” and I’m praying their tribe will increase and be invited to lead.  Let’s stop wasting time adding pages to the Book of Resolutions that no one will ever read, and begin to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Who knows what ten years of that might accomplish?

Mission Trumps Tradition

In case you don’t  know, I really like Dan Kimball.  Why?  Because I think he does his very best to connect with the people in his community who don’t know Jesus Christ.  I think he carries a sense of urgency about sharing the gospel that we need to reclaim across the Church.  I also think he properly understands sharing the faith with our community as an essential piece of our overall mission as followers of Christ.  Take time to watch his presentation from the Nines (FYI: I have  an HP laptop and a Mac, so I’m like Switzerland in that debate), and see what I’m talking about.

The Simple Life

I just finished reading, The Simple Life: Time, Relationships, Money, God by Thom S. and Art Rainer.  You may know Thom from books like Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples and Essential Church?: Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts.

Based on a survey of 1,077 individuals, Thom and Art saw that an overwhelming number of people from all walks of life said they need greater simplicity in their lives in order to be more fulfilled.  Specifically, they wanted more simplicity in the areas of time, relationships, money, and God.

So, in a nutshell, the authors applied the concepts from Simple Church to these four areas.  These concepts are:

  • Clarity: knowing where you’re going
  • Movement: intentional, incremental steps
  • Alignment: making sure your life lines up with your goals
  • Focus: eliminating things outside of your goals, even if they are good things.

For whatever reason, it wasn’t simple for me to read this book.  I think after I saw the basic concepts, I pretty much knew where everything was heading.  Basically, the idea of the book is applying the concepts of clarity, movement, alignment, and focus to one’s personal life.  So, no big surprises here.

As a pastor, I think focus is the hardest thing for me.  It’s easy, for the most part, to say no to bad things.  It’s difficult when you have to choose between two, or more, good things.  A little clarity and alignment goes a long way in making those decisions in our lives.

So, in the end, cool cover, good ideas, borrow a copy from a friend or read Simple Church and apply those ideas to your life.  However, if you’re a layperson who doesn’t want to read Simple Church, then Simple Life might be just what you’re looking for.

One Sermon

I taught from Acts 17 this morning, and I noticed something I haven’t noticed before.  Paul’s presentation of the Gospel in Athens follows a pretty neat theme of “one.”

  • One God & Creator (vv. 24-25)
  • One Man (v. 26)
  • One People (v. 26)
  • One Search (v. 27-28)
  • One Message, “Repent” (vv. 29-30)
  • One Judgment (v. 31)
  • One Savior (v. 31)

Some scoffed, some were curious, and others believed (vv. 32-34).

This observation raises a few questions for me.  Do we sometimes complicate the gospel unnecessarily to boost our own egos?  Do we see scoffing and hesitancy to believe as evidence that people aren’t responding when those are, in fact, responses?

15,000 Visitors

Whoever reads this post first will be the 15,000th visitor to this blog.  I’ve been using Twitter a lot more than blogging lately, because it really fits my schedule better right now.  However, I think it also probably forces me to do less in-depth thinking.  So, I’ve been thinking about doing a little more posting here at the blog.

Lately, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about leadership (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni and How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins were my most recent reads in that area), challenges within the UMC (see the book by Collins), and some of the core commitments of my life (for instance, as I’ve studied and taught through the book of Acts, I’ve been thinking more about the way Paul and the earliest followers of Christ called both insiders and outsiders to repent and respond to God in Christ).

Guatemala Mission

Tomorrow after lunch, I’m flying to Guatemala with a medical team from Church of the Servant.  No iPhone, no computer, no Twitter, or blogging until August 9th.  We do, however, have a journalist on our team who will be blogging his experience should he have a good enough internet connection in Chichicastenango where we will be staying most of the time.  Throughout the week we’ll be heading to rural sites to provide medical care from our home base in “Chichi.”

I’m looking forward to the trip and the opportunity we’ll have to share the love of Christ with these distant neighbors. I’m also looking forward to seeing all the ways God is at work in and among the Methodists of Guatemala.  Keep us in your prayers, and I’ll give a report when we return.

Core Values & Mission

While the United Methodist Church has agreed on its mission, “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” we have yet to have a common agreement on what this means!  Words like “disciple” and “transformation” are fairly nebulous and vague when you don’t have a common culture throughout your organization. Maybe this is just the nature of having a statement that is supposed to fit a global organization. Perhaps the best place to truly have mission and vision statements are on the local level.  

In my mind, the best vision statements provide focus.  They set the scope of your mission.  In a way, they function like fences around a daycare playground.  The fence keeps the kids in one general area, but within that area they have the freedom to play and do what kids do.  Core values then, are like the behaviors we expect from the kids: play nice, share, etc.  

So, a congregation and its leadership functions best when focused by a clear vision and guided by core values that can be embodied across the board.  One of the places that understands core values better than anyone is Zappos, the online shoe specialist.  Their core values are clearly and concisely articulated both in their culture and in their employees imagination.  They are focused – THE online shoe store – and they understand the behaviors they embody in carrying out that mission.

  1. Deliver WOW through Service
  2. Embrace & Drive Change
  3. Create Fun & a Little Weirdness
  4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
  5. Pursue Growth & Learning
  6. Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication
  7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
  8. Do More With Less
  9. Be Passionate and Determined
  10. Be Humble

In my two interactions with Zappos, they deliver.  While I was serving in a rural area of Oklahoma, I needed some brown dress shoes.  Wearing size 14s, it becomes pretty hard to find exactly what you want and get them quickly.  A friend told me about Zappos, so I took a chance.  I needed them in a few days, and figured it would be cool if they could get them there in a couple of days, but if not I wasn’t going to have a real problem.  I ordered them on Monday, and they were sitting on my porch Tuesday afternoon.  Magic.  WOW.  I told everyone.  They knocked core value #1 out of the park, and I’ve told the story several times.  Mission accomplished on their part.

What are the core values in your church?  What are the values you communicate in evereything you do from greeting guests on Sunday morning to cleaning up after wedding receptions?  Do you know?  When people leave your church on Sunday, do guests say, “WOW, I felt like an honored guest,” or do they say, “Wow…they acted surprised I was even there”?  Do the people on your leadership team understand the values they’re called to embody in everything from answering the phone to sending out emails?  If not, it may be time to give it some thought.

Book Review: A Lovers Quarrel with the Evangelical Church

I just finished reading Warren Cole Smith’s A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church.  You can find the official website here.  You could probably more accurately call this book, Smith’s Quarrel with the Republican-Evangelical Alliance, Historical Amnesia, Megachurches, Christian Consumerism, Pragmatic Evangelism, and the Uncritical Embrace of Technology.  If you’re in the camp that equates the Evangelical Church with these six characteristics, then you’ll likely be on board with Smith’s critiques.  However, I don’t tend to lump these together uncritically.  

For instance, in the chapter on Megachurches, Willow Creek and Joel Osteen’s congregation are both included as examples of the triumph of sentimentality.  I, however, wouldn’t lump these two in any category outside of sheer size.  It is also hard to see the hard and fast link between technology and megachurch growth while I’m serving in a megachurch that doesn’t use video screens during Sunday morning services.  

All in all, Smith’s critiques aren’t critiques the average seminary student hasn’t heard by their second or third year. Smith’s audience is likely laypeople who already have an issue with any of the things listed above.

Strangely enough, Smith’s conclusions seem to come from a different planet than his critiques.  While reading the first six chapters, I thought it would be impossible for me to recommend this book to anyone.  Chapters seven and eight softened my stance.  Strangely enough, Smith’s prescription for fixing what he describes in the first six chapters is a movement of strategic church planting movements and strong biblical communities.  In fact, I find it hard to see the connections between what he describes and what he prescribes.  However, in the end, I would say I agree with the prescription even if I don’t totally agree with the diagnosis.  

Even with the sharp turn at the end, I would have a hard time recommending this book.  If you know me you can borrow mine, since I won’t be reading it again.

Megachurch Pastors

Leadership Network has just released the results of a study of 232 pastors in megachurches around the United States (h/t John Meunier).  Their criterion for being a megachurch is averaging more than 2,000 in worship.  Since I’m in a megachurch now (even though we miss their average by about 150), I’m really interested in the results of the studies being released.  Here are the basics.

  1. They think of themselves more as teachers and directional leaders than as pastors.
  2. Preaching tops the list of things they do best.
  3. They haven’t always worked in churches.
  4. Being an extrovert isn’t mandatory.
  5. Family stays at the top of their mind when it comes to prayers.
  6. They usually like the people they work with.
  7. They believe their top gift is leadership (77% of respondents reporting they have this gift).  The second highest response is teaching (67%).
  8. They are actively involved in sports.
  9. They find worship at their church helpful for personal spiritual growth.
  10. They’re not thinking about quitting.

Top five magazines read by Senior Pastors of Megachurches:

  1. Leadership Journal
  2. Rev!
  3. Outreach
  4. Christianity Today
  5. Fast Company

Top five books recommended by Megachurch pastors (wow, I’ve read all of these…associate pastors in megachurches must all read the same books as their senior ministers. ha!)

  1. Simple Church by Thom Rainer
  2. Axiom by Bill Hybels
  3. The Reason for God by Tim Keller
  4. It by Craig Groeschel
  5. Leading on Empty by Wayne Cordiero

If you’re interested in these findings, I recommend you download the full study.  It’s pretty good information for understanding today’s megachurch pastor.  There is also a study of executive ministers in megachurches that is well worth a read.

See any surprises here?