Neue Issue 07

THE MAGAZINE FOR LEADERS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH From the makers of RELEVANT | June/July 2011

CHURCH

THE OTHER JOB

THE REWARDS AND CHALLENGES OF BIVOCATIONAL MINISTRY p. 40

GLOBAL

REACHING IBIZA p. 54

CREATIVE

FACING MONDAY MORNING

HOW TO FIND FRESH VISION WEEK AFTER WEEK p. 46

NEUEMAGAZINE.COM | ISSUE 07 | $4.95

ARE YOU IN A

MINISTRY BUBBLE? 5 THINGS YOUR CHURCH WISHES YOU KNEW p. 32

s n a Tr T n a pl our chur c y in e if l e some of th is none. e r e h t e r e Wh

h

You can transplant the life of your church right into the unreached world.

We provide the training and logistical support you need to make it happen.

Even small church communities can send, support and sustain teams.

It takes a bit of daring to break the mould, but that's where partnership makes sense. We call it “Joint Venture,” where leaders from church and agency come together, embrace a glorious vision, and go for it. Your best people may want to give their lives - are you ready to send them?

Watch the video at:

www.avantministries.org/jointventure Avant ministries • 10000 n oak trafficway • Kansas city • mo 64155 • 800.468.1892 or 816.734.8500 • fax 816.734.4601 • info@avmi.org

20% 100%

of your church does

of the work.

CHANGE THAT. Well-known researcher Scott Thumma and co-writer Warren Bird draw upon new research across a broad range of churches of all sizes and show how to create more active members. The Other 80 Percent offers solid information of what church leaders need to know about the factors and practices that create church members who are more actively and passionately involved in their congregations.

CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS

8 Neues

18 Neue Info 22 Neue Church The Village Church The Veritas Forum

24 Neue Thought

FEATURES

32 Bursting the Ministry Bubble | by Jason Boyett, Anne Jackson, Enuma Okoro, John Pattison and Matthew Paul Turner

38 Prepared for Disaster | by Naomi Zacharias 40 The Different Sides of the Bivocational Pastor | by Jeff Cook 46 Facing the Blank Page ... Again | by Wayne Cordeiro

We Need a New Hymnal by Aaron Niequist A Global Vision for Women by Carolyn Custis James

50 7 Ways Pastors Fail at Social Media | by Paul Steinbrueck

Craig Groeschel

58 The Formation of Eugene Peterson | by Josh Lujan Loveless

28 Neue Conversation

54 Parties and Prayer in Ibiza | by Rachel Wegner

30 Case Study

First Baptist Church of Orlando

44 Gamechanger Dharius Daniels

62 Neue Recommends 64 Last Word

p. 32

I’m Living With Questions by Josh Lujan Loveless

p. 40

p. 46

p. 38 p. 44

ACT. THINK. DISCUSS. In the following pages, we invite you to interact with the content we’ve assembled by acting, thinking and discussing. The prompts we offer at the bottom of each page are meant for both you and your team as you wrestle with the ideas shaping the future of the Church.

IDEAS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH From the makers of RELEVANT | June/July 2011 | Issue 07

EDITOR & PUBLISHER

Cameron Strang > cameron@relevantmediagroup.com

Editorial Director | Roxanne Wieman > roxanne@relevantmediagroup.com Senior Editor | Josh Lujan Loveless > joshl@relevantmediagroup.com Managing Editor, Specialty Publications | Ashley Emert > ashley@relevantmediagroup.com Managing Editor, RELEVANT | Ryan Hamm > ryan@relevantmediagroup.com Associate Editor | Alyce Gilligan > alyce@relevantmediagroup.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Jason Boyett, Haley Bodine, Tyler Charles, Jeff Cook, Wayne Cordeiro, Anne Jackson, Carolyn Custis James, Aaron Niequist, Enuma Okoro, John Pattison, Paul Steinbrueck, Rachel Wegner, Naomi Zacharias Senior Designer | Chaz Russo > chaz@relevantmediagroup.com Senior Marketing Designer | Jesse Penico > jesse@relevantmediagroup.com CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Kenek Photography, Tennyson Williams Chief Marketing & Finance Officer | Josh Babyar > josh@relevantmediagroup.com Account Director | Michael Romero > michael@relevantmediagroup.com Account Director | Philip Self > philip@relevantmediagroup.com Promotions and Campaigns Manager | Sarahbeth Wesley > sarahbeth@relevantmediagroup.com Circulation Coordinator | Rachel Gittens > rachel@relevantmediagroup.com Marketing Assistant | Richard Butcher > richard@relevantmediagroup.com Fulfillment Coordinator | Tyler Legacy > tyler@relevantmediagroup.com Chief Innovation Officer | Chris Miyata > chris@relevantmediagroup.com Audio/Video Producer | Chad Michael Snavely > chad@relevantmediagroup.com Systems Administrator | Josh Strohm > joshs@relevantmediagroup.com Web Developer | David Barratt > david@relevantmediagroup.com Web Production Assistant | Lin Jackson > lin@relevantmediagroup.com Communications Manager & Executive Assistant | Theresa Dobritch > theresa@relevantmediagroup.com Project Manager | Austin Sailsbury > austin@relevantmediagroup.com Finance Manager | Maya Strang > mstrang@relevantmediagroup.com

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NEUES ENDANGERED

RELIGION Research shows that religion could become extinct in at least nine nations

Is religion about to be extinct? If you live in Australia, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, New Zealand or Switzerland, it’s a very likely possibility.

A research team took census data from the past century and used the information they collected to reveal conclusions about social motives. The goal was to draw connections between the people who claim a religion and the perceptions that may lead them to do so. Typically, individuals identify with a group if it has a favorable status or social utility.

In nine nations, results suggested religion may be facing extinction.

“In a large number of modern secular democracies, there’s been a trend that folks are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion,” says Dr. Richard Weiner, a University of Arizona professor who contributed to the study.

“Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.”

Some believe the number of nonreligious may be greater than is currently indicated—that many of those who mark themselves as believers on a census may do so by default rather than out of devotion. In the United Kingdom, a survey found that more than half of those who identify themselves as Christians don’t actually believe in salvation through Jesus Christ.* Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, blames misleading census 8

Going, Going, Gone?

When the British Humanist Association decided to ask people specific questions about their faith, the results were less than conclusive: forms for the discrepancy. “Instead of asking, ‘Do you have a religion and if so, what is it?’ the question asks ‘What is your religion?’—a closed question that funnels people into giving a religious response, even if they don’t go to a church or a mosque, even if they don’t believe in God.” The BHA consequently ran a campaign for March’s U.K. census, sending buses across the nation bearing the message, “If you’re not religious, for God’s sake say so.”

So while religion may be dying out in some regions, the politics of religious identification are seeing a new birth. When religious belief is a blank to fill in on a census, it seems safe to reason that one’s profession of faith could be just as influenced by a slogan or social reform as a genuine conversion. Maybe the powers that be should consider making the religious belief portion of any survey into an essay section ...

*DISCUSS: How do you see this reflected among your community and friends?

IN SCOTLAND:

Are not religious Do not belong to a religion

IN ENGLAND AND WALES:

Have a religion Identify themselves as religious

Of those who called themselves Christian said they did not believe Jesus Christ was a real person, nor the resurrected Son of God. Said they were still unsure.

i f o n ly h e l p i n g t h e p o o r w e r e t h at e a s y. . . B u t i t ’ s n o t.

visit WhenHelpingHurts.org to learn more about a new paradigm of ministry to the poor

ava i l a b l e at y o u r fav o r i t e l o c a l o r o n l i n e bookstore or call 1-800-678-6928

NEUES

Faith Could Be an Instinct

ISLAM WAS PRIMARY FOCUS OF 2010’S RELIGION COVERAGE Four of the top five religion news stories in 2010 involved Islam Last year’s news headlines showed a marked increase in religious coverage, more than double the coverage in 2009, according to a new Pew Forum report. And of the religious topics and sub-topics filling the ticker, Islam received the most attention.

Plans for the Park51 mosque and Islamic center

near ground zero in New York City dominated the front page and heated comment boards for months, making it the lead religion story of the year.

Uncertainty over President Obama’s religion also continued to generate discussion, and then there was a certain pastor in Florida who thought burning the

Koran would be a proper commemoration of the anniversary of 9/11.

With experts projecting a 35 percent increase in the Muslim population by 2030, such stories may become more frequent. Here’s hoping they’re met with more open conversation than controversy.*

Jesse Bering is a psychologist known for his musings on sexuality for Scientific American. But now he’s lifted his thoughts out of the gutter—heavenward, in fact— for his new book, The Belief Instinct. Bering’s research suggests that human behavior is often influenced by a predisposition to believe in the afterlife and our awareness of “a watcher,” a moral being observing from above. This mindset makes it seem almost unnatural to not assume a third-person perspective of our decisions. However, while Bering rightly sees the benefits of belief, he ironically doesn’t buy into it himself, calling it an “illusion”—a helpful regulator rather than a divine reality.

“There’s a basic configuration of psychological traits that gives rise to the impression that there’s a morally interested observer watching us.”

—Jesse Bering

Extreme Baptism, Anyone?

Behind the shocking practice of icy river baptisms “It was like getting your body pricked by a thousand needles at once.”

It’s not the most common description of a baptism experience, but for one 22-year-old member of the Russian Orthodox Church, it was the most fitting.

The church has often been criticized for their habit of ceremoniously dipping believers in frozen rivers. And though many willingly take this holy plunge, videos of 10

children being repeatedly submerged into icy waters this past year provoked an understandable alarm.

“Christening, while being beneficial for the soul, does not have to be harmful for the body,” says Father Yakov Krotov, an Orthodox priest in Moscow. He also pointed out that this practice is not a Russian Orthodox tradition, but a recent ritual for the daring. Nothing proves radical faith like frostbite ...

THINK: What do you know about the Muslim community in your area? How is your church reaching out to them?

*

Change Your Paradigm for What the Church Can Be

“Finally, a book that not only connects you to the possibilities of

“A book on missional intentionality that doesn’t lose sight of the

apostolic movement but also gives you practitioner-based principles

atoning work of Christ is what we needed in this conversation about

and stories that will help you to live and lead in God’s gospel wave

what it means to be “for the city.” You should read this book!”

for the future.”

—Hugh Halter

—Matt Chandler

“This book won’t just make you think. It’ll make you rethink the way

“Practical advice on being transformative no matter where God has

you lead, the way you dream, and they way you do church.”

called you to bring glory to his name.”

—Mark Batterson

Learn more at www.exponentialseries.com

—Larry Osborne

NEUES

JESUS SELLS

Most Americans support Christians brands and businesses Is faith a good business strategy? There’s been some debate over whether overtly Christian branding of a company or product is an admirable sales approach or an isolating deterrent. Many still shy away from using “Christian” as a label in any industry. But recent Barna research indicates the majority of consumers are either appreciative or indifferent of faith-based management and marketing, with a small number who would oppose their business. That calls for some Chick-fil-A!

HOW LIKELY AM I TO BUY A PARTICULAR BRAND THAT MANAGES ACCORDING TO CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES?

b Evangelical Leaders

Don’t Believe in Tithing Sunday morning services may include a gentle reminder to tithe, but a recent Evangelical Leaders Survey found only 42 percent of evangelical ministers think giving 10 percent of one’s income is a sacred command. The other 58 percent feel the Bible doesn’t require it.* But don’t think that means congregations are off the hook. Most evangelical leaders consider the 10 percent tithe an Old Testament legality but feel modern-day Christian giving asks for a new level of generosity.

“Personally I believe that the New Testament teaches ‘proportionate giving’ that may be more or less than 10 percent, depending on income,” says Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Reports of how much is given range from 4 percent to more than 10 percent.

As one skeptical survey-taker said, “If folks actually tithed, churches would not know what to do with the money.”

MORE LIKELY

43%

INDIFFERENT

51%

NOT LIKELY

3%

HOW LIKELY AM I TO BUY A PARTICULAR BRAND THAT EMBRACES CHRISTIAN FAITH? MORE LIKELY

37%

INDIFFERENT

58%

NOT LIKELY

3%

YOUR DAD’S A PRIEST? | Catholic ordinations of married men are on the rise Harm Klueting recently became Father Harm Klueting in the Catholic Church in Germany. However, he has already been a father of two for some time.

Though priestly celibacy is a tradition of the Catholic faith, there is one exception. A Vatican law enacted in the 1950s permits the ordination of already married clergy who have converted to Catholicism from other Christian traditions, usually Anglicanism, and excuses them from the vow of celibacy .

12

“This happens seldom, but it’s not unusual,” diocese spokesman Christoph Heckeley said. Indeed, it seems to be becoming a more frequent scenario. Last year, a married father of four was also ordained in southern Germany, and in March, Wisconsin’s Father Russell Arnett left the Episcopal Church and joined the 100 or so married Catholic priests ordained in the U.S. The ordinations coincide with a push from Catholic politicians to end priestly celibacy in response to sex abuse scandals and priest shortages.

*THINK: Where do you fall? How about your church? Consider teaching on giving and generosity in the coming months—to offer clarity on this issue for your church.

NEUES

LIKE BEING MARRIED TO A STRANGER Psychologists have found that couples and close friends communicate just as well with each other as they would with a complete stranger. The reason? They confuse intimacy with information—offering ambiguous phrases because one assumes those closest to them should know things already. With strangers, people are more ready to offer context, or to understand the other party may not have all the necessary information yet. Sixty college students and 24 married couples were studied in conversational experiments, revealing this phenomenon researchers call “closeness-communication bias.”

“Closeness can lead people to overestimate how well they communicate,” says Boaz Keysar, a psychology professor and communications expert at the University of Chicago.

App Removed for Confronting Homosexuality Exodus International is a ministry “committed to encouraging, educating and equipping the Body of Christ to address the issue of homosexuality with grace and truth.” Which seems positive, unless you’re Apple. When Exodus developed an iPhone app with resources for “those looking for biblical answers to homosexuality,” Apple approved the app with four out of five stars. But gay rights campaigners soon petitioned for it to be removed from the app store, calling its purpose offensive and unacceptable. Exodus clarified they were not attempting to “cure” anyone but were hoping for equal representation on the topic.

FROM THE NEUE PO DCAS T Tyler Merrick

The Neue Podcast is a weekly conversation with ministers and thinkers shaping the future of the Church.

“At Project 7, our goal is to have a quality product, competitively priced, that allows people a way to help fund things they care about.

Our theme this past year has been to get people to think about: ‘Don’t just buy more stuff. Change how you buy.’ ”*

“Our problem in communicating with friends and spouses is that we have an illusion of insight. Getting close to someone appears to create the illusion of understanding more than actual understanding.”

—Nicholas Epley, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

David Kinnaman

David Batstone “Just when you think you’ve figured everything out, just when you think you’ve got the right set of answers, you find out it’s more complex than you thought. Being really entrepreneurial is important in your social justice tool kit. The programs and systems we need to solve the world’s problems don’t exist right now, otherwise we wouldn’t have [the problems].”

Rob Bell “Serious, faithful devout followers of Jesus have wrestled with these questions and have entered into the speculation and have all sorts of ways they thought about this and talked about this. I’m not interested in dying on any one of those hills; I’m interested in dying on the hill that says, ‘There’s lots of hills, and there’s lots of space here.’ ”

“While the generation is in some ways like the prodigal son, you see that the older brother is like the Church. So we as a Church aren’t supposed to condone the younger brother, [but] neither are we supposed to be self-righteous, indignant, sort of trying to determine how God will forgive the younger son. ... To me, God is just as concerned with our selfrighteousness as He is with the unrighteousness of the generation.“

Subscribe at iTunes.

Search keyword “Neue.”

14

*ACT: Encourage your congregation to be good stewards in terms of the products they buy, especially when it comes to items like coffee, chocolate and other products that can be fair trade certified.

Kari Jobe “Declaring to [God] who He is … is something I don’t think we do very often. …

It’s important to turn to something that is going to give you hope and life. Not things that are just going to make you feel better, but something that’s going to help you with giving you answers for problems you’re facing.”

DO YOU OWN TECHNOLOGY OR DOES TECHNOLOGY OWN

YOU?

CHRISTIANS NEED gOOD, SOLID, AND INSIgHTfUL gUIDANCE AS TO HOW TO ENgAgE THE DIgITAL WORLD WITHOUT SURRENDERINg TO THE DIgITAL MIND. TIM CHALLIES IS UNIqUELY qUALIfIED TO WRITE THIS BOOk AND I gREET ITS ARRIVAL WITH ENTHUSIASM.

—Dr. r. ALbErT MOHLEr, Jr. THIS IS AN IMpORTANT BOOk NOT ONLY fOR CHURCH LEADERS BUT fOR ALL Of US WHO SEEk TO UNDERSTAND HOW WE ARE USED BY OUR TECHNOLOgY AS WELL AS USE IT.

—MiCHAEL HOrTON

THE NEXT STORY

BY TIM CHALLIES A pastor, speaker, and author, Tim Challies is a pioneer in the Christian blogosphere. Over 20,000 people visit Challies.com each day, making it one of the most widely read Christian blogs in the world.

Use your smart phone to view the video or visit zph.com/qr66

Visit www.challies.com/nextstory for more information

NEUES The Four Views of God AUTHORITATIVE GOD

BENEVOLENT GOD

28% of Americans hold this view

22% of Americans hold this view

56%

Believe homosexuality is a choice

45%

Believe homosexuality is an inborn trait

47

Believe poverty should be remedied by government-funded, faith-based inititatives

25

Believe poverty should be remedied by government-funded, faith-based inititatives

40%

Believe God allows disasters

63%

Believe God has no role in disasters

54%

Believe the success of the U.S. is God’s plan

44%

Believe the success of the U.S. is God’s plan

%

%

CRITICAL GOD

DISTANT GOD

21% of Americans hold this view

Book reveals connections between our view of God and our view of the world

It’s one thing to believe in God, but the real question is: Who do you think He is? Is He good and gracious, or distant and displeased?

According to sociologists Paul Froese and Christopher Bader of Baylor University, how you view God is a huge factor in how you live. Their book, America’s Four Gods, breaks down Americans’ most common perceptions of The Big Guy, and how these influence other social, spiritual and political beliefs.*

24% of Americans hold this view

Believe homosexuality is an inborn trait

48%

Believe homosexuality is an inborn trait

65%

Believe poverty should be remedied by government-funded, faith-based inititatives

%

32

Believe poverty should be remedied by government-funded, faith-based inititatives

13%

Believe God has no role in disasters

70%

Believe God has no role in disasters

88%

Believe the success of the U.S. is God’s plan

16%

Believe the success of the U.S. is God’s plan

9%

* The remaining 5% of Americans are atheists or agnostics

16

WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?

“You can’t really ask people directly about their moral and philosophical worldview.

But if you know their image of God, it could give you insight into why they get upset when you break the rules, or you stand up for a certain politician.”

—Paul Froese

*DISCUSS: Have everyone on your team identify their viewpoint of God—now and the one they held growing up. How have those views influenced their faith and worldview?

INFO

[HOW TO…] ... Avoid Blockbuster Burnout

Hoping to see something different? Check out a few of these refreshing options: 1. THE DETAILS

Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks and Laura Linney star in this dark comedy that deals with worms, raccoons and a married couple undergoing an existential nightmare because of them.

2. HIGHER GROUND

Based on Carolyn Briggs’ memoir, This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost, this film is a wellrounded depiction of faith—complete with questions, doubts and uncertainty.

... HOST A CHURCH COMMUNITY MARKET

3. THE HELP

Set in 1960s Mississippi, a young woman writer interviews the black women who serve wealthy Southern families. She learns not just their stories, but also how they fit into the emerging civil rights movement.

4. MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

Written and directed by Woody Allen— and set in the city of love—Midnight in Paris has all the ingredients for those in the mood for a fresh romantic comedy.

During the summer months, a farmer’s market can be a great way to bring a community together—to start conversations, share goods and make a little money.

First, establish a location (maybe the church parking lot) and, if necessary, seek approval to use that space.

Determine how often you plan to host the event: weekly, monthly or just once or twice each summer.

Find people in the church who are willing to participate and encourage them to invite their friends and family. Eventually, a farmer’s market can require little to no marketing. But before the first event, it’s essential to spread the word—preferably at least a month in advance so people can keep their schedule free and start thinking about what they plan to bring.

Include the information in the Sunday morning announcements, list it in the bulletin and post fliers around town (invite those outside the church to participate as well). You may also want to send e-invites and/or create a Facebook event from the church Facebook page.

As for what to bring, just about anything goes: sweet corn, watermelon, jams, homemade pies and almost anything else that’s edible. But don’t restrict it to food items—flowers, candles and artwork are great additions. Skilled (and licensed) practitioners could even offer services like neck massages or manicures.

As with any event, if it’s fun and the food is good, people will come. And they’ll keep coming back.

... PLAN A VBS | Do something different this summer

18

Not Just for Kids

“Bring Your Parents to VBS” Day

Pitch a Tent

Good Samaritans

Abandon the typical VBS routine.

Instead of organizing a children’s program that starts in the morning, set aside a week for the entire church to gather every evening for teaching, worship and, if possible, a variation on the interesting crafts and activities that make VBS programs fun for kids.

If you stick with a standard schedule, set aside a day for parents to come and participate with their children.

If any children feel left out because their parents aren’t there, designate a volunteer to accompany them. (Give working parents plenty of notice so they can request the day off.)

This year, turn Vacation Bible School into a family camp-out. Plan family events in the evening (games, campfire songs, s’mores) and for those interested, designate an area for families to pitch their own tent and spend the night on site for one night or all week.

Design a program around community service (i.e., cleaning a park or helping at a soup kitchen).

This might not be ideal for all ages, but it can be a great option for older kids who may get restless if asked to do the same projects and sing the same songs as the younger kids.

... Take a Vacation I don’t have time … Members wouldn’t understand … What if something comes up when I’m gone?

Many pastors struggle to step away, even for a short period of time. If a full-blown sabbatical is out of the question, here are some other ways to revitalize yourself and your ministry—without taking time off from your day job.

Get outside

... Keep Your Members Informed of Church Events If someone wants to check the schedule for upcoming church events, is there an easy way for them to do so—other than calling a pastor at home?

If your church doesn’t have a Facebook page, starting one should be near the top of your to-do list. You’re there every day, your members are there every day. Your church should be, too. In addition to providing an opportunity for leaders to interact with church members, a Facebook page also gives those in your community a chance to check out your church in a medium where they feel most comfortable (in front of their computer). A Facebook page can let these potential seekers know about events that are open to everyone. Posting an event on Facebook will not only allow you to invite specific individuals, it can also serve as a forum for posting updates and gauging interest through RSVPs.

Having an event calendar on your church website is also helpful—but if you have it there, you need to keep it updated. Not only is this useful for members, but again, you never know who might be checking to see what your church is doing, and if a potential visitor sees a blank calendar or outdated events, they will either assume your church isn’t doing anything or get frustrated by a lack of organization.

Sending updates via text message is another option. Using a text messaging service (like prayertxt.com) lets members sign up for all church updates or ministry-specific updates (youth group information, for example). Rather than signing up to receive regular updates, some text alert services allow users to request the most recent update. In other words, they can choose when they want an update—instead of waiting for their phone to chirp.

... SET UP A BILINGUAL SERVICE If your church is considering adding a bilingual service, the first thing you need to decide is how committed you are to this ministry. For example, are you willing to spend money on hymnals, Bibles and other printed materials in this second language?

Deciding how to structure the service is also important. Some churches have a smaller gathering where the sermon is shown on a screen and someone translates for those in that group. Other churches offer a service that is independent from the

regular worship services.

Rather than just adding a service in a second language, some churches integrate both languages into the same service—alternating between praise songs in English and Spanish, for example.

If the service draws a crowd, be prepared to take the next step—be it launching small groups, establishing a worship team capable of praising in the second language or offering free English classes to those interested.

If you can’t spend a week on an inspirational retreat, pick a typical work week and set aside different times each day to experience nature: take an early morning walk, pack a lunch and eat at the park, hike in the evenings, watch the sun set from a secluded spot.

Set aside a day or two to read—just for fun

Put down the commentaries and theology books, and read something fun—like that novel you’ve been eyeing for the last six months.

Schedule a few hours to kick your feet up, take a deep breath and get lost in a good book—that doesn’t pertain to ministry.

Register for a new conference

Yes, this sounds like work. And it is … which is why it’s great for pastors who feel like they can’t step away.

Even though it isn’t a complete break, a conference (secular or ministry-related) can provide a new perspective on one’s ministry—and do a lot to rejuvenate the soul.

Family week

Devote a week to your spouse—or your spouse and kids. Clear your schedule every evening, and plan events that are fun, simple and relaxing. Rent a movie. Have a game night. Throw a Frisbee. Tell everyone on staff you are spending evenings with your family and your phone will be turned off as soon as you leave (and then actually do it).

neuemagazine.com 19

INFO

[HOW TO…] ... Get Familiar with Christian Doctrine on Heaven and Hell Rob Bell’s recent book, Love Wins, sparked a controversy over what is and isn’t orthodox when it comes to Christian beliefs about heaven, hell and the afterlife. But his book and his questions touch on the reality that many leaders and lay people are unsure of what to think when it comes to heaven and hell. For those seeking answers to questions about the afterlife, here are a handful of books that navigate this tumultuous topic:

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

In this thought-provoking classic, Lewis offers a glimpse of a metaphorical heaven and hell— revealing that heaven is available to all, but few are willing to embrace it.

Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright

N.T. Wright simultaneously presents a biblically sound depiction of heaven while also emphasizing the reality that heaven should be shaping the way believers live right now.

Heaven by Randy Alcorn

Taking a look at “myths” about heaven (it’s an eternal church service) and answering questions from, “Is it really a new earth like this one?” to, “Will my pets be in heaven?” Alcorn’s book is an exhaustive look at the biblical descriptions of heaven.

Four Views on Hell edited by William Crockett

This balanced book offers descriptions of four differing perspectives on hell— the literal, metaphorical, conditional and purgatorial—ultimately allowing readers to sift through the information and draw their own conclusions.

Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived Well, you should at least read it.

20

... PREACH ABOUT PATRIOTISM (WITHOUT CAUSING A REVOLUTION) What message should I offer this Fourth of July?

In the last decade, this question has become more complicated. This September marks the 10-year anniversary of 9/11—which prompted an understandable spike in patriotism.

A patriotic sermon could anger those adamant about the separation of church and state—or those who are fed up with the current (or previous) administration in Washington. But ignoring the Fourth of July could also anger those who have loved ones in wars overseas— or those who have lost loved ones in those wars. So where is the middle ground, and is that where the Church should be?

Although your congregation will remain divided about politics, patriotism shouldn’t be off limits. Offer a perspective on what healthy patriotism looks like. What is the difference between being loyal to a country and making it an idol? Help people appreciate what we have as American citizens, and give thanks to those who offer their lives and service to make it a reality. Remind people that with such wealth comes responsibility, and ask them to consider what it means to be the Church to the world and how that reconciles with their patriotism.

Close with a rousing rendition of “I’m in the Lord’s Army.” Or not.

“IF YOU WANT YOUR KIDS TO ABANDON CHURCH WHEN THEY ARE OLDER, FORCE THEM TO ATTEND A CHURCH YOU SECRETLY WISH YOU COULD ABANDON NOW!” —Andy Stanley (@AndyStanley)

CHURCH

A LOOK AT UNIQUE TYPES OF COMMUNITY

THE VERITAS FORUM CAMBRIDGE, MA

BY ALYCE GILLIGAN

THE VILLAGE CHURCH MATTHEWS, NC

BY HALEY BODINE

In the Bible, God used small armies to conquer large enemies, and a shepherd boy to slay a giant. Even today, small bodies of believers are making huge impacts. The Village Church in Matthews, N.C., is one such group. Led

by Pastor Scott Waters, the 30-person congregation is working diligently and faithfully to exemplify true, sacrificial love for the broken, hungry and lonely people within their reach.

Waters is a small-business owner who works as the lead pastor of The Village Church. His convictions to be a “tentmaking” pastor developed while he was a part of another church, where he met a man named Tom Wheeler. Wheeler wished to reach homeless men in the area, provide them with shelter and 22

What does it mean to be good? Does science make faith obsolete? Why is humanity important?

These are just a few of the big questions that have burdened the greatest of minds for ages—and now they fuel The Veritas Forum.

Veritas events encourage a meaningful quest for truth, facilitating educated, interdisciplinary and passionate discussion at the university level.

“Truth for me has always been “Truth for me has always been living. living. It’s not just an abstract idea.” It’s not just an abstract idea,” says Dan Cho, executive director of Veritas.

—Dan Cho, executive director of Veritas Veritas was originally conceived in 1992 when chaplain Kelly Monroe Kullberg and Christian students at Harvard came to recognize help them physically, emotionally underway, though, Waters was that even the loftiest of higher education studies and spiritually. He knew in order instructed to not place an offer on were failing to ask the questions that matter. to effectively make a difference, the house. A 10-bedroom house They began to wonder how to approach he had to become like the that had previously been listed truth (veritas, in Latin) as both a spiritual and people he loved, so he lived in a for $225,000 was now on the academic pursuit. homeless shelter. He proceeded market for $54,000. The Village Today, Veritas forums are birthed out of to purchase a home in a troubled Church was able to raise $57,000 partnerships with campuses and ministries. neighborhood called Hoskins for the project in six weeks. The Supported by advice and resources from Park where he invited homeless church’s efforts enabled them to Veritas, a local team hosts lectures and men to live with him. Wheeler purchase the 10-bedroom home discussion panels on a subject of interest to then met Johnny Allen, a former for Hoskins Park Ministries in full their academic community. Ninety percent of the homeless man who was on and without the use of a loan. speakers are university faculty, including bioa similar mission. Together, In the book of Acts, believers ethicists, philosophers, economists, physicists, they began to work to provide sold their excess so no one was musicologists or theologians. holistic ministry to the needs in need. Similarly, The Village Undoubtedly, scholars from varied of the homeless in the Hoskins Church worked and sacrificed to backgrounds are sure to arrive at contrasting Park area. give to another ministry so the conclusions to life’s most profound questions.

The Village Church supported Gospel may be spread, and the But the Forum is careful to draw the line between Hoskins Park Ministries for lives of homeless men would discussion and debate. several years through monthly be forever changed. Though by “Veritas is committed to inspiring genuine and contributions. When Waters definition a small church, the respectful discussion among people of different asked the Hoskins Park 30-person congregation worked perspectives,” Cho explains.

Ministries board what more to give selflessly and abundantly.

With successful forums hosted across the U.S. they needed, Wheeler informed Waters states The Village Church and Europe, Veritas is now preparing to respond Waters there was a two bedroom is “a church [I hope] sets an to invitations from Asia. Events draw as many house on the market for $54,000 example for other churches. [We] as 2,000 students at a time, and on Veritas.org, that the ministry could use to don’t have so much overhead visitors can watch hundreds of forum recordings. house more men. After spending [we] can’t have the freedom to do For many, it’s a unique experience that will hold time in prayer, Waters knew what something so dramatic in such a influence beyond the halls of academia. should be done. He went to work short period of time.” This church “The most important questions of life usually leading The Village Church to shows God is still willing and don’t have a simple, singular answer,” Cho says. meet Hoskins Park Ministries’ able to work in big ways through “But we do believe that Jesus Christ is relevant to need. Soon after the project was small means. every area of life.”

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THOUGHT

WE NEED A NEW HYMNAL AARON NIEQUIST After a service at Mars Hill one morning, a friend came up to me and said: “Aaron, I like you, but I always come late and skip the worship. The songs you guys are doing don’t really help me connect with God.” Since I was the worship leader, maybe this should have offended me, but it didn’t. Instead, I just shrugged my shoulders and lamented: “I know. Many of them don’t really work for me either.”

Clearly, our worship of the Almighty God shouldn’t depend on whether or not we like the music.

And as a worship leader, my goal is to serve the community, not just stick to my preferences, but the disconnect worries me. Most of my Christfollowing friends don’t connect or listen to much of today’s worship music. And neither do most of my worship leader friends. We love God and are giving our lives to joining His movement on earth, and we want to be worshipful people, but for some reason, the current approach is no longer helpful.

Maybe we need a new hymnal.

We need new melodies and new language and new understandings of the eternal God. We don’t need to keep recycling the same ideas and phrases over and over; we need artists, dreamers, prophets and poets to step up and lead us into unexplored places.

To be clear, I don’t think a new hymnal should replace the old hymnals. We need the language and history from every tradition flowing into our worship experiences. We need “A Mighty Fortress

and less important while prayer, liturgical elements, story, service and art become more central. Worship is this huge, beautiful, epic, mysterious, global, active, intimate human-divine interaction, but when someone says, “OK, it’s time to worship,” we all assume, “It’s time to sing.” This isn’t bad, of course. Singing is a fantastic way to worship God. But it’s too narrow. We’re missing out on so much.

I believe the worship leaders of the future will prophetically widen the shrinking constraints of what “worship” is, and in doing so, powerfully expand the spaces in our hearts and communities to interact with the Almighty God. Second, we may need more “we” and “Kingdom of God” language in our worship, and way less “me and Jesus” language. Sometimes I wonder if the helpful (at the time) movement toward more personal, intimate worship songs has had the unintended consequence of pouring gas on our already blazing culture of individualism. Part of the genius of corporate worship is it reminds us we’re

CHRISTIAN MUSIC OFTEN FEELS LIKE IDEAS SET TO A CATCHY TUNE, AND THERE’S NOTHING LESS TRANSCENDENT THAN A COMMERCIAL. Is Our God,” “Wade in the Water,” “As the Deer,” “Mighty to Save” … but let’s not stop here. And let’s not just rewrite the old songs and call them new.

We get to stand on the shoulders of giants and have the opportunity to include and transcend, to humbly embrace the tradition that has brought us this far and let it launch us into the next movement.

We need a new hymnal.

But what will this look like? I don’t know, of course, but I have a couple ideas.

First, I wonder if singing will become less 24

a part of a long line of believers, and the story is not ultimately about just me. Let’s create more songs, prayers and liturgy that connects us to God and each other.

Third, many of us are drawn to mystery and transcendence in worship, not just declaring and celebrating what we’re 100 percent sure of. Christian music often feels like correct ideas set to a catchy tune, and there’s nothing less transcendent than a commercial. But learning from “sonic mystics” like Sigur Rós, can we find

ways to bypass our analytical, rational selves and invite people into deeper, richer and more dangerous places? This is a profound mystery, but I think it has something to do with tapping into that ancient, universal ache—and then honoring it with appropriate sounds and space.

I don’t want our worship gatherings to be explainable (or forgettable) propaganda. We don’t need more songs that try to market Jesus to fickle consumers. Instead, let’s dig into the deepest streams, into that shared longing for something bigger and more beautiful than ourselves, only to discover the Loving Creator was there all along.

Fourth, and possibly most important, I wonder if the songs of the future will either be born from our action or meant to propel us into action, making any worship experience not connected to actual life totally obsolete. My friend Ian said recently, “Aaron, I’m looking for worship music that is more about furthering the purposes of Christ than trying to make out with Him.” Obviously, it’s not a matter of either/or. Action without love is just as hollow as love without action. But to let worship separate our mouths from our hands and feet is to settle for something small and trite. Author John Robinson writes these intense words: “The test of worship is how far it makes us more sensitive to ‘the Beyond in our midst,’ to the Christ in the hungry, naked, homeless and the prisoner. Only if we are more likely to recognize Him there after attending an act of worship is that worship Christian rather than a piece of religiosity in Christian dress.”

We need songs and prayers that tenderize our hearts to the things and people that God’s heart is most tender toward. We need a new hymnal.* None of these are new ideas, of course, but I can’t stop thinking about them. What do you think? Are you with me, or would you push back?

What kind of music, prayers and practices will be most helpful for you in the future?

Let’s write a new hymnal.

Aaron Niequist

is a worship leader, songwriter, husband of Shauna and dad of Henry. After leading worship at Mars Hill Bible Church for five years, he is now a worship leader at Willow Creek Community Church. www.aaronniequist.com.

ACT: Where have you seen churches making some of these efforts in their worship? Have your worship team visit or interview other churches whose worship inspires them. Give your team permission to “write a new hymnal” in your church. *

THOUGHT

A GLOBAL VISION FOR WOMEN CAROLYN CUSTIS JAMES Sometimes when you’re searching for answers, you get more than you bargained for. My search for answers began in the years after college when I landed in a stretch of singleness I didn’t see coming.

It was the first of many chapters in my story where the plot read differently from what I expected and where I was pulled unwillingly into questions about my purpose as a woman. Never did I imagine where my deeply personal questions would eventually lead.

I am not alone. Every day, women are bombarded with new questions and seismic cultural shifts as the 21st century hurtles forward at a wild speed that has everyone hanging onto their hats and scrambling to keep up with the changes.

As Christians we owe it to ourselves and to our daughters to find out if the ancient message for women in the Bible is still relevant in the 21st century or if, as many suggest, we have outgrown its message. Does God’s vision for His daughters equip us to move boldly into the future or summon us to retreat into the past? Does it break down when things go wrong for us, or is it robust enough to remain intact no matter what happens? Is His vision big enough to include every woman’s story from the beginning to the final chapter?

the female population—a narrow, prosperous, protected, well-educated female demographic in the comfortable midsection of human society.* Our prosperity shapes both the questions we ask and the answers we embrace. And we—both the women who are asking and Christian leaders who are defining the answers—are clueless that this is happening. We can ask questions like, “Do I plan to use my college degree?” and, “Should I be a stay-at-home mom?” But for the rest of the world, these questions are unimaginable luxuries.

For them, education is a lifeline that promises a better life for a woman and her children and will doubtless benefit her community. And everyone works when grinding poverty exists and there are hungry mouths to feed. Our cloistered discussions

THE CONVERSATION ABOUT GOD’S VISION ISN’T AMERICAN OR WESTERN OR MIDDLE CLASS. IT IS GLOBAL. These questions propelled my work and stretched the parameters of my search, for although I am passionate about finding answers for myself, I can’t put my weight down on answers that collapse under other women’s stories. But this conversation is dangerously incomplete and certain to produce flawed conclusions if we exclude our sisters in other cultures around the world. The conversation about God’s vision isn’t American or Western or middle class. It is global.

We need a global conversation about the Bible’s message for women because a global conversation safeguards us from proclaiming a prosperity gospel for women that works for some (at least for a time) and is utterly crushing to vast numbers of women. In our culture, the Church has tended to concentrate on a tiny segment of 26

about God’s purposes for women and the resulting infighting that ensues leave women elsewhere scratching their heads. Blinded by the insulation of prosperity, we are at risk of transmitting a message that, when sanctioned as “biblical,” is cruelly beyond the reach of those with less.

We need a global conversation because, frankly, the Bible invites that challenge. Every generation faces new issues, crises and changes. We bear responsibility to test afresh the timelessness of God’s Word and its relevance to “today” with current scenarios, possibilities and issues beyond the experience of previous generations. We must fearlessly rise to the challenge.

We need a global conversation because the Bible itself is global. God’s Word is for the world. If anything, the Bible gives priority to the weak, the

oppressed and the poor, and is tougher on those who hold the reins of wealth and power but refuse to wield their advantages for the good of others.

Somewhere in the process I crossed a rubicon of sorts. No longer could I tell myself my white, middle-class, suburban American world is all that matters. No longer could I close my eyes to unfamiliar (and sometimes disturbing) realities confronting women and girls worldwide and convince myself that life as I know it here is, or even ought to be considered, the norm. No longer could I continue my quest to unearth the Bible’s message for women in the isolation of the West.

I had reached a point of no return that exposed the need for new and deeper questions than I’d been asking. I needed to find out if God’s message for women is universal—encompassing the full spectrum of every woman’s life, regardless of her demographics or circumstances.

Even though the journey has been agonizing, the winding path of questions eventually led me to a wide-open space where God is spreading before His daughters a vast global vision that frees us to follow wherever He leads. The thrill of each new discovery has been tempered by a weight of grief that hasn’t lifted. I grieve over the opportunities and blessings I have wasted because I didn’t realize God expected so much of me. I grieve the loss to the Church when Christian women believe it’s possible to subsist on an anorexic spiritual diet.

I grieve that far too many women and girls are living with small visions of themselves and of their purpose. I grieve the loss to our brothers who are shouldering burdens we were created to share and doing Kingdom work without us when God means for us to build His Kingdom together.

After years of asking questions and digging into Scripture in search of answers, I’m convinced we have a message for women that is ready to take on the challenges of the new millennium—a message that far outstrips other voices and unlocks the untapped potential of half the Church.

Carolyn Custis James

is president of The Whitby Forum, which promotes thoughtful biblical discussion to help men and women serve together. She is the author of several books, including Half the Church (Zondervan, 2011), from which this is adapted. Used with permission.

THINK: Such assumptions are even dangerous within our own cultures. Are you making assumptions about the lifestyle and choices available to those in your church? In what ways might you be excluding a section of your congregation? *

if... ...you’re done with worship as a spectator sport. ...you think worship is more than music. Way more. ...you’re convinced true worship—worship that engages people’s souls—changes everything.

There’s good news.

Worship is about to enter a whole new world of possibility.

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CONVERSATION

CRAIG GROESCHEL

BY JOSH LUJAN LOVELESS

Craig Groeschel is weird— but it’s a good kind of weird.

Here, the pastor and author of the book WEIRD: Because Normal Isn’t Working explains why the Church needs to live outside the norm and get out of its comfort zone.

When I think of weird Christians, a lot of things come to mind. How weird is too weird in American Christianity?

One of the things I try to point out is there is such a thing as weird in a bad way, there’s weird in a good way and then what I’m hoping to live is weird in a God way. I think it’s going to be subjective as to what someone is going to think is too weird. The driving message of it I’m really trying to get at as I look at my life [is going against] the pull of culture to live like the world instead of trying to live like the truth of Scripture. In the teaching of Jesus, there’s a broad road, and many people are on it. There’s a narrow road, and few people are on the one that leads to life. Many are on the one that leads to destruction. For me, what I’m trying to do is look at how does my life measure up against the teaching of Jesus versus being pulled into culture? Are there weird Christians that are hurtful to the cause of Christ? Unquestionably. Are there those that are living counterculturally in a way that can actually help further the message of Christ? That’s the kind of weird I’m hoping people will be.* 28

How do you help followers of Jesus know the difference between good weird and bad weird when it comes to how non-Christians view them?

There’s a bad weird in that narrow-minded, critical, judgmental, “we’re right, you’re wrong” [mentality].

It’s always crazy to me how Christians will treat a non-Christian and judge them for not acting like a Christian. Well, why should they? They’re not. But when we look at how Jesus teaches us to treat people—the greatest is the one who serves; if you want to be first, be last; if someone hits you, turn the other cheek; if someone asks for something, give them something extra—if you’re weird like that, there’s going to be something where the world may look on it and go: “Why are you so generous?

That doesn’t make sense. Why are you reaching out to me? I don’t understand it.” That’s a good weird.

That’s intriguing. Why do you love each other that way? Why are you meeting the needs of people when no one else is? Living that way with the teachings of Jesus, I think it’s actually going to draw people. They may not understand it, they may call it

weird, but it’s an intriguing weird, versus an “I don’t want anything to do with this” weird.

Why do you think so many have opted to blend in with culture to the extent that we’ve lost our weirdness?

For one thing, we shouldn’t be afraid of culture at all. I think sometimes some Christians will say, “Let’s barricade ourselves in and not even be a part of the world.” I look at my life and I’m bombarded all day long with messages that say if I have more, I’ll be happier. If I’m not on guard against that, I just get sucked right up into it. It overwhelms me. I think the messages we receive over and over again—all the sexual images we see all day long—if I’m not on guard, it can lead me into some places that are not going to be pleasing to God and they’re going to be hurtful to me. I don’t think we run from culture, hide from it, be afraid of it, but we need to be very aware there are messages out there that are very contradictory to the truth in Scripture. The Bible needs to be the source that drives us, not what everyone else says and does.

*ACT: Write a note to the “weirdest” person you know, and let them know how their life has challenged and inspired you.

Is there anything in church history today that makes this a different conversation than it was years ago?

Things are changing so much so fast all over the place. [It’s] one of the things I like to dialogue [about] with other people in ministry. We’re talking about how does the Church need to change to meet people today? What really is effective in grabbing the attention and communicating the teachings of Jesus? There’s a lot of good discussion to be had. In the past, it was pretty normal to say, “Hey, come to a church building and we’ll tell you about Jesus.” People today don’t really care about coming to a church building as much. I really think a different approach is we have to take the Church or the message of the Church to the world through serving. Instead of saying, “Come to us,” it’s more of a go to them. There are some people that don’t agree with that, but I think that’s going to be necessary.

There are a lot of issues related to being radical that some Christians interpret as behavior changes. Does that concern you?

There’s a lot of teaching that says behavior modification leads to God rather than God leads to behavior modification. Yes, I think that’s something we have to watch out for. It’s kind of basic Christianity—religion says do this, and if I do this, then I please God. If I behave in the right way, I’ll know Him more intimately. But I think it all starts with knowing Him, and as we do know Him, then we’re changed from the inside. That’s one of the things even with the book, WEIRD: Because Normal Isn’t Working, trying to help people see our goal isn’t to be weird, our goal isn’t to be different— our goal is to be so consumed with God and His mission that the byproduct is He’s probably going to make us passionate about some different things.

If our life looks like everyone else’s, it’s probably because our “god” is the same as everyone else, and that might be pleasure, or glorifying ourselves or whatever. But if our God is truly the God of Scripture, then He’s going to change our hearts, our direction, our intentions, our motivations, our passions and our desires, and that will result in a different lifestyle. Not to attain His favor, but out of a result of knowing Him.

a Christianity that keeps you safe in the suburbs and live a comfortable life until you die and go to heaven. Where I live, in many ways, that’s normal Christianity. Teaching and modeling—not just saying it but by the way you live—[shows] that we want to be involved, we want to live differently.

It’s going to manifest itself in different ways. For some people, they’re really downsizing, living on less and giving a lot more. I think that’s a great weird for some people. Others actually commit to a life of radical service, where they’re engaged [in a way] that doesn’t take up as much time and it frees them to go and serve. One family started an innercity church for homeless people. It’s weird, but in a good way—to challenge people out of comfortable, cultural Christianity. I think the American church is often in danger of being lulled into a place of ineffectiveness by just feeling like we’re in a building so we’re doing fine. Bold preaching of the Word and then modeling a life of sacrifice, humility [and] service is helpful. And we’re seeing forward progress. We’re seeing a lot of people that really are making a change to reach a lot of people.

You’ve referenced this tension in your own life with living a weird Christian life. Did you find yourself comparing this to your personal life on a deeper level as you wrote the book?

One of the things that was challenging about writing the book [is] I don’t ever feel like I’m quite weird enough. I feel like I’m always sucked back into more normal than what God would want. I wrestled the whole way through in the book with trying to help people into an entry-level weird. I talked to a guy yesterday who adopted 14 kids, and I’m going: “That’s Ph.D weird. That makes my little six kids look like it’s just getting started.” There’s a lot of tension of, how hard do you push, where do you start with people? I chose to keep it what I call more of an entry-level weird, because there are so many people out there that just [need to be introduced to] the idea that as Christians, it’s good to be different. It’s OK to be different. Being called a fool for Christ is OK. If no one ever is saying, “Man, you’re kind of different, why do you do that?” then chances are you’re not really knowing Christ, because He will call you to a different life.

As a pastor, how do you respond when you find people in your community who have settled for safe Christianity?

There does seem to be a pull for many church leaders to talk and respond the same. What do you think a weird church leader should look like?

There’s a pull toward safe Christianity. It’s just easy.

Number one, I try to fight against that in my own life. It’s a real temptation, where you want to risk nothing, sacrifice nothing, lose nothing. You want

For one thing, they just shouldn’t look like other weird Christian leaders, they should be different.

One of the things that’s frustrating to me is how in American Christianity, churches drift toward

their own little pockets. In my vein of churches, there’s a lot that start looking the same. There are other veins where they drift toward the center of whatever their theological preference is. What I try to work on with leaders is [saying]: “You’re called, you’re gifted by God to do something different. If there’s four churches on the same street with the same philosophy, they’re going to be reaching the same people. I love to see the diversity, where you’re passionate about different things that are a reflection of your values and your gifts.”

When I was starting out, I didn’t know who I was as a Christian leader, so I just found a couple guys I liked and tried to be like them. And I failed miserably. If you’re going to be weird, be weird in the way God called you to be weird. I really do think churches need to be different, whatever that is. For us, we’re probably going to specialize in being weird in leveraging technology. We’re going to be weird in trying to be massively generous. For some other great guys, they are going to be better weird at teaching verse by verse through the Bible.

They’re going to be better weird in being missional and being involved in [the] inner city. Whatever it is, don’t copy the guy down the street. Be the custom kind of weird God has for you.

How did you know that was your church’s “weird”?

Oftentimes I think your greatest strength is going to come out of your greatest weakness, and for me, one of my weaknesses has always been a fear of not having enough. That’s kind of how I was raised. I was always kind of a hoarder, and I actually had to go to counseling to try to get over that fear. What I found was the only way to overcome it is to be generous and to give and to give and to give. We recognized somewhere maybe eight or nine years ago that, that was going to be a call God put on us. So now we ask, what can we give away, what can we make that other churches can use? It’s a driving force, it’s something we get really passionate about and it’s something we’re pretty good at because we can give in a way that’s actually affordable. We manage resources in a way that we have extra. Some churches can’t do that.

So that’s one of our [specialties] in weird. And then I just got a bunch of tech geeks [on staff] that are brilliant. It’s no secret that I’m not one, but I’m the guy that says yes to their crazy ideas. We’re crazy enough to try it, [and] we’ve always managed our money in such [a way] that we do have margin, so we can throw money at weird ideas. I have other friends that they could never do those things, [and] they shouldn’t. They specialize in doing things that we can’t do. I love to encourage them to be weird in those ways, and we’ll be weird in ours.

neuemagazine.com 29

CASE STUDY

HOW DID A CHURCH RAISE $5M FOR THE HOMELESS

IN ONE DAY?

BY ALYCE GILLIGAN

On March 6, 60 Minutes aired a report on “new homelessness”—a sudden wave of people without homes due to the economic downturn—in Orlando, Fla. Pastor David Uth of First Baptist Church of Orlando saw the report, as did author and speaker Bruce Wilkinson (The Prayer of Jabez). While speaking at First Baptist, Wilkinson challenged the congregation to meet the needs of the homeless in their community. And so, in one weekend, the church raised $5.6 million. We spoke with Uth about how it came about, how it will be used and what other churches can learn. Here are his tips:

ASK GOD TO SHOW YOU A NEED

This year, we have been really intentionally asking God to show us what passion for God looks like, and to give us more passion so that we’re willing to do whatever [God] asks us to do. We fasted in January for a week, a week-long fast with a solemn assembly at the end of that fast on a Sunday night, and we asked God, “Lord, show us, what is it that passion looks like?” And I think one of the ways God revealed that passion is doing what God would do and meeting needs that are around you that God shows you.

So cultivate [your mission] field carefully. And by cultivate, I mean you immerse it in prayer, you immerse it in the presence of God and worship and the call to honor God’s Word and obey God’s Word.

If you cultivate it correctly, then when that moment comes or you hold up a need, I think [people] respond out of that context. If you don’t have a context and somebody holds up a need, there will be response, but it will not be to the measure that we saw or that you could see. Context is important.

30

CULTIVATE COMMUNITY AWARENESS AMONG YOUR CHURCH 60 Minutes aired this program about Orlando and a new homelessness, and we took that personally. That exposed a need right here in our own community. We’re not going to ask somebody from the outside to come in and help to fix this, to meet this need. We believe God will raise up churches to meet this need.

We had [Bruce Wilkinson] come the week after the episode aired. So he called and said, “Look, I really feel impressed to ask your people to go beyond where they’ve been in terms of giving and their involvement in homelessness.” And so he spoke to that and said, “I believe God wants First Baptist to take the lead and to do something.”* Our people responded in a magnanimous way immediately Saturday night and Sunday morning, pledging over $5 million. In the first month, we’ve received almost 1.8 million of it [that] has already come in in cash.

I think the timing of this was divine. The fact that it was a nationally exposed need, our people took [it] almost as a personal thing, saying, “You know what, we’re going to do something.” It was—as Scripture would use the word—kairos. Kairos is a Greek word for “time,” but it doesn’t mean chronological time; it means significant, meaningful moments.

And sometimes it’s simply [that] God speaks to our people. For example, when we felt God wanted us to feed these families during our spring break, the idea came from two teachers in our congregation. They said: “David, whenever kids are in school, they have two meals a day. But the school’s not going to be in session, it’s spring break. Who is going to feed those children?” And they said, “What if we were to? What if our church did?” So that’s how we got involved.

*ACT: You can watch the weekend message Bruce Wilkinson gave by going to firstorlando.com/home/ multimedia.aspx.

COURTESY FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF ORLANDO

GO LOCAL

For a while now, we have always prayed that one day we could spend as much locally as we do globally. We give over a million dollars globally every year. And so we have been very involved in work outside of central Florida. We’ve just always said, “God, it’d be awesome if we could do the same amount in Central Florida.”

FORM RELATIONSHIPS WITH MISSION-MINDED ORGANIZATIONS

The immediate need [we saw] was the feeding of families, and we were able to buy the food in partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank, which is one of our partners in ministry. We have also networked ourselves with some of the ministries that address [homelessness]. Whether it’s the Coalition for the Homeless, whether it’s Frontline Ministries, whether it’s Christian Service Center downtown, we stay in contact with them and they partner with us.

Sometimes it will be through those ministries that the need comes to us and we know about it and therefore we can address it.

MAKE IT PERSONAL

You have to demonstrate the need through a personal story. In other words, need is need, but it becomes personal when you see a family. When you meet a single mom, that’s when it becomes personal. So somehow you’ve got to make sure that people get a face on this need and get a personal connection to this need. That’s why we had our people deliver boxes.

We could have relied on another ministry or organization. But that does not personalize it. Once we personalize it and they go, we have heard these stories of delivering boxes of food and their lives being touched and literally changed by the people they met.

COMMIT FOR THE LONG HAUL [Our commitment] will be ongoing. It won’t be the same project ongoing. For example, we fed because it was spring break. There will be other projects that come up that give us [a] personal touch. But our commitment is that we’re not just going to give money. We’re not just going to throw money at homelessness, we’re going to invest our lives in homelessness.

BE GOOD STEWARDS OF WHAT YOU HAVE

SUSTAIN THE GENEROSITY

As a pastor, we can sustain this spirit of generosity by celebrating the stories, showing the people what happens when you are generous. Sometimes we have a moment like this and people are generous, and then they never hear about it anymore, or they never know if it did anything. Did it

work? Did somebody’s life get changed?

What we are committed to doing is keeping the story before them, celebrating the result of that generous gift—[saying], “Hey, you made this happen.” We’ve got to tell that story over and over, and the stories of lives that have been changed.

We’ve identified two kinds of homelessness. There’s a chronic homelessness, which is typically someone who may have a mental illness, a drug addiction, alcoholism—but they are chronically [homeless].

That is a different kind of homelessness than what 60 Minutes addressed. 60 Minutes addressed a new homelessness, which are families in transition, families who have lost a home, because of the economy they’ve lost a job, and they’re trying to regather, to recoup. So what we’re doing is, to meet chronic homelessness, we’re trying to partner with some of the ministries that are doing that very well, so some of the money will be in those partnerships. And then we are meeting every week to identify other ways to address the need of [new] homelessness. So when we identify those ways, then there will of course be an outlay of money to help us do it. It could be some transitional housing that we’re looking out for—how we can create a way for people to go into a place, a transitional home, for a season until they get on their feet. And then they move on and we bring somebody else in there. That’s one of the things we’ve entertained. So right now it’s all in the prayer and analysis and looking at options.

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BURSTING THE

MINISTRY BUBBLE 5 THINGS YOUR CHURCH WISHES YOU KNEW

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s a church leader, we know you do your best to be in tune with the needs of the people in your church community. You probably have programs to address the unique difficulties you’ve seen, you preach on topics that are relevant and insightful to people’s lives and you make every effort to really listen to the problems your congregation faces every day.

But sometimes the culture gap between leadership and church community is wide enough—by no one’s fault—that it can become difficult to understand their needs. That’s why we went to five authors who love the Church, but who have also seen Her problems. We asked them to write to you as church members about the things they face that they’ve seen neglected by church leaders in the past. Their responses are difficult, impassioned and frank—but above all, are centered around a deep love for the Church and Her leaders.

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1

“CHURCH IS NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN MY LIFE”

When I was a kid, my family was at church all the time. Sunday school and worship on Sunday mornings. On Sunday nights, a Southern Baptist boys’ group called Royal Ambassadors, plus another worship service. On Wednesdays, a community meal followed by children’s choir.

Summer brought a whole new schedule of camps, events and weekly activities.

My almost-daily church involvement didn’t bother me then. In fact, I loved it. But as a dad, today? No way my family is spending all those hours at church every week.

Don’t get me wrong—we love our church. My wife works with the children’s ministry. I play on the worship team and fill the pulpit when the pastor’s away. We’re involved. But church is not the most important thing in our lives.

In 2009, a study by the Barna Group noted that, while weekend worship attendance at mainline church congregations remained stable, congregants were becoming disengaged with church life overall. Volunteerism at church was down by 22 percent. Adult Sunday school involvement had declined. The report described

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this as “the underlying problem of softer commitments.”

My wife and I maintain the same faith as we did growing up, but we’ll admit that our commitment to church activities has become “soft.” I can explain this in one word: family.

We have two elementary-aged kids at home, and we’re committed to making the most of our time together. We don’t let our kids join every sports league that comes along. Instead, we focus on one or two activities a year (and we play a lot of basketball and baseball in the front yard).

We play Mario Kart or Settlers of Catan on the living room floor. We eat breakfast and dinner as a family. We read together before bed.

We try not to over-schedule our lives with stuff that pulls us in different directions—which means church activities, apart from worship services, aren’t always a priority.

Maybe the Barna Group sees this as a “problem of softer commitments,” but I’m not sure I do. The problem is how we define commitment.* Does it only apply to churchsanctioned activities?

For example, is it better for us to put our kids in childcare so we can attend a big church banquet with friends, or invite those same friends (and their kids) over for pizza on a Friday night? Either way we’re experiencing community with Christian friends. But the second option allows us to do it as a family.

What’s a better use of my time: coaching my second-grade son’s public school basketball

team, or serving on yet another church committee? If I have to choose, I’ll commit to the one that lets me interact more with Owen, his friends and their families.

Which has more impact: my wife’s hour in the church nursery once a month during worship services, or her time on the PTA board at our kids’ school? Option two helps her get to know our kids’ teachers and other parents.

Some leaders might see these options and say, “Well, nothing’s keeping you from doing all those things.”

Wrong. We’re limiting ourselves on purpose.

We pay attention when church leaders talk about the value of the Sabbath and the priority of rest.

We’re pursuing a balanced, family-rich life while trying to invest our lives in the people around us, who aren’t always people at church. So that means saying no to church activities.

It’s not because we dislike our church. It’s because we believe the Kingdom of God is bigger than our church.

Pastors and ministers, what we’d love is for you to encourage us in this rather than making us feel guilty for not serving. attending or being active enough. I’m not sure the world needs church members who’ll get more involved in church activities. I think it needs more Christians trying to lead balanced and generous lives both inside and outside the church.

Jason Boyett is the author of O Me of Little Faith (Zondervan) and other books. Find him online at jasonboyett.com and @jasonboyett.

“I’M NOT SURE I TRUST YOU” Can I trust you? That’s the question many of us ponder on Sunday mornings as we listen to you talk about grace, mercy and forgiveness. Oh, we like you, of course; we like your charisma, and we think your ability to eloquently move from story to theology to life application is impressive, at times even convincing. But can we trust you? That’s what we don’t know.

Distrust of clergy isn’t a new problem. Ten years ago, a survey by George Barna found that churchgoers’ respect and appreciation for pastors had hit an all-time low. People’s

trust in a pastor’s ability to understand and address their problems as well as lead them was in a 15-year downward spiral. Since then, other studies have confirmed that people are more likely to trust police officers and teachers than clergy. But these stats fail to answer the question of why we struggle to trust you.

It is tempting to assume that we struggle to trust our church leaders because of the sex and financial scandals involving pastors and priests. But I suspect most of us have more personal reasons.

*DISCUSS: What is the time commitment expected of a contributing member at your church? Does that need to change?

At least, that’s why I struggle to trust people like you. I grew up in a church that believed a pastor was “God’s chosen,” a title that meant he or she deserved our respect, honor and, yes, trust. To challenge the pastor wasn’t simply viewed as an act against “God’s man”—it was an act against God. The pastors at my church often lied, manipulated, covered up sins and refused to admit wrongdoing, and I watched my parents wrestle with how to confront the pastors and with the belief that God protected His “chosen.”

As an adult, I’ve befriended and trusted various pastors, and over and over again I’ve

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become discouraged, saddened and even dumbfounded by their actions. I started to assume the worst about all pastors So yes, when I met Pete, my current pastor, I had baggage—lots of it. During my first months of visiting his church, I carried a truckload of pastoral baggage I’d been collecting since I was a child.

My thoughts about Pete were somewhat bipolar: He seems nice, but I bet he treats his staff like crap. He seems genuine, but he’s probably got more secrets than a CIA agent. He seems to relate to what’s happening in my life, but he probably pulls in a six-figure salary and drives a BMW. He seems to be caring, non-pushy and hope-driven, but I bet he’s a right-wing conservative who rallies against

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health care, gay people and taking care of the environment.

You might be thinking, “It sounds like you’re the one with the problem.” And you’re right—my baggage is my problem. But if I come to your church and engage your community, will you make me (or someone like me) your problem?

Thankfully, Pete was. For the first time since my early 20s, I trust a pastor. He’s not perfect.

But he knows that. And I can trust that.

Chances are, every Sunday morning, some people are sitting there asking themselves, “Can I trust you?”* Their reasons for asking the question might be different than mine, but I guarantee those reasons are rooted in stories

Matthew Paul Turner is the author of 10 books, including Churched: One Kid’s Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess (WaterBrook Press).

“I LEARNED MORE ABOUT MARRIAGE FROM TV THAN FROM YOUR CHURCH”

It is difficult to admit that most of my relationship education happened as I grew up watching TV shows, going to the movies and listening to the latest pop songs and R&B hits on my Walkman. It is also difficult to admit that while I was “learning” about romantic relationships from pop culture, I was being raised in a church where I heard nothing about what it means to love one another as friends, lovers and marriage partners. Except, of course, that sex was for adults, and even then there seemed to be more negative energy around the topic than anything positive and healthy. As a single adult in the Church today, the sad reality is that I hear very little about what it means to hold marriage sacred and to prepare oneself for the marital covenant. What would it look like if your church considered preparing people for marriage as important as any other discipleship class?

I once almost came to fisticuffs with a pastor because the church leadership team made a Sunday school class about healthy

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that are painful, sensitive and difficult to articulate.

Remember this: Just because they don’t trust you doesn’t make them bad people—it just means they’re hurt people.

They’re people who have encountered a “you” who was arrogant or untrustworthy or an abuser. It might seem unfair that they distrust you, considering they don’t know you and you’ve done nothing wrong. But be humble toward them anyway. They’ve brought their stories and experiences and baggage into your church and sat down: be gracious, kind and help them unpack.

Christian marriage available only to married couples. They assumed single people in the congregation would have no interest in or use for that discussion. It seemed like everywhere I turned, some couple I knew was getting divorced, and I believed learning how to navigate the beautiful and challenging terrain of marriage should not be left until people find themselves engaged or married. I wonder how my own past relationships would have been different if I had been raised in a church that made such discussions and reflections normative for high school youth and the entire adult congregation.

A 2008 Barna study claims 34 percent of Protestants and 28 percent of Catholics go through a divorce. That is not much lower than the 38 percent divorce rate of non-Christians. If the Church believes marriage is a vocation, and if we honor marriage as the central metaphor by which we understand Christ’s love for the Church, then shouldn’t we teach about Christian marriage openly and collectively in Sunday school, behind the pulpit and in Bible studies that are a mix of singles, married and engaged folks?

This is not in any way to dismiss the genuine gifts of singleness to which some are called, nor

*THINK: How are you answering this questions for the people in your church right now?

to undervalue the real and necessary spiritual and emotional growth that can occur during one’s single years. But it is to say that it would be a blessing if the Church played a more prophetic and instructional role in teaching about marriage as vocation and sacrament, and encouraging singles to dwell on these notions before and during dating.

Having a church leadership team that makes an effort to dialogue and teach about marriage will send some necessary and clear messages to the people in the pews, even those who are not sure whether they are called to marriage.

Both marriage and singleness are gifts, and all of God’s gifts come with responsibilities.

As a single person I want to be a part of discussions on Christian marriage because these discussions affect how singles think about covenant, faithfulness and sexual intimacy. I need the Church to point to alternatives to the mostly superficial messages offered by Western culture and society.

What if we reflected communally on the role God and community play in how we choose partners in marriage? I want to think together with the Church on how our unions as Christians are about more than just two people and romantic happiness. How do prayer, discernment and community grow and deepen our intimate

relationships? Discussions on Christian marriage could lead to other faithful discussions on what it means to be a family reconstituted through the baptized, crucified and risen body of Christ.

God invites us to broaden our notion of family in challenging ways often offensive to our programmed sensibilities. As disciples, our first relational commitment is to God and to one another. The purposes God has for redeeming the world are not dependent on whether or not we marry or bear children.

My conversation with the pastor led to a dialogue about why singleness, marriage and family should be topics open to the entire congregation, and the ways in which the congregation can reflect on how our relationships affect one another as the Body of Christ. And by the end of the Sunday school series, participants in the marriage class said they missed the diverse voices and perspectives that they welcomed and respected in other areas of congregational life.

Enuma Okoro writes from Durham, NC. She is the author of Reluctant Pilgrim: A Moody, Somewhat Self-Indulgent Introvert’s Search for Spiritual Community (Fresh Air Books) and co-author of Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals (Zondervan, with Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove). Visit www.enumaokoro.com.

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“I LIVE WITH MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS”

Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday represent the hinge of human history. We celebrate Good Friday and Easter Sunday because they make everything else possible. But I think it’s a mistake to miss Holy Saturday altogether. Since sentences are my stock-in-trade, I sometimes think of Good Friday as an exclamation point (full-stop), Easter Sunday as a colon (momentum) and Holy Saturday as the important ellipsis between them. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are dramatic answers; Holy Saturday is about as-yet-unanswered questions. This is why I relate so much to Holy Saturday. It’s also the reason I’m writing to you: because I think you should know I’m living with more questions than answers.* I bring this up because I don’t want you to assume—and I doubt you do—that everyone in the congregation is in the same theological place. I was raised in a conservative evangelical church, converted to Catholicism in my late 20s, lapsed, helped start a couple house churches in

*ACT: Write out the three biggest theological questions with which you are currently wrestling.

Portland and somehow ended up (happily) at our Evangelical Quaker church in rural Oregon. I read books by acceptable theologians, read exactly four Christian magazines and listen to one or two Christian podcasts. But I read the unacceptable theologians, too. My faith has been challenged by art and inspired by science. I have found wisdom studying Judaism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

And I can be just as swayed by pop theology compressed into 140 very powerful characters.

So I’m bringing to the community a collection of beliefs as comprehensive and imperfect as any seminary education. I’m packing a lot of questions, too. One Sunday, I remember hearing about the book unChristian, which the pastor had just read on vacation. Early in the book, David Kinnaman, one of the authors, says many young believers bring to Christianity the same challenges, doubts and questions that outsiders do. I count myself among this number. How has evangelicalism become so entangled with conservative politics?

Why do Christians seem so anti-intellectual? Why do Christians seem so anti-homosexual?

Our community has gathered in a particular time and setting, and for the most part we share a Christian vernacular. It occurs to me, though, that sometimes the things we think we have in common can obscure rather than illuminate the truth. I’ve also noticed that two people can use the same language—describing Scripture as the “Word of God,” for example—and talk past each other, or talk at cross-purposes, or neglect to deeply consider where the phrase “Word of God” comes from and what are its implications.

I see this as an opportunity. We have the chance to unpack and repack our luggage like experienced travelers, shedding assumptions that aren’t worth their weight, reexamining old artifacts and seeing them fresh in light of the intervening miles. Questions like, “Why do I believe such-andsuch?” and, “Why do other people believe suchand-such?” and, “What does such-and-such even mean?” can produce tension. But tension—when handled intentionally, patiently and gently—is sometimes where the energy is. This can come from the pulpit, but it should probably also happen conversationally at the congregational level. None of us knows precisely what the next leg of the journey looks like, but I am bound by membership to you and our church, and I am committed to walking it with you.

John Pattison is the author of Besides the Bible: 100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture (Biblica). A member of the National Book Critics Circle, he lives with his wife and 3-yearold daughter near Silverton, OR.

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5

“MY LIFE IS HARDER THAN YOU THINK”

What about the people in “The Middle”?

As someone who has previously served on church staff vocationally for six years, and has continued to work with churches for four more, that question is always one that haunts me— partially because I’ve been the one who’s forgotten The Middle, and partially because I am one of the people in The Middle.

Let’s say you have three people groups in your church. First, you have the “Superstars.” The people who serve on every board, committee, tithe massive amounts of money, teach Sunday school, babysit for you, are on city council and, by some gift of blessing, are truly living a righteous and holy life. Everything really is going OK with them.

The other people group you have is the “Very Broken.” These are the ones who always need care, counsel, assistance. You know, the people who you’ve visited in jail because they got caught with the heroin bag … again.

And then you have The Middle. The Middle is filled with the people who, by every outward appearance, seem to live a completely normal life. They attend church regularly. You don’t get those desperate calls or the unexpected office visits from them. They probably tithe and serve and shake your hand on Sundays. You’d never know anything was off.

But something is going on. And they’re afraid to tell you about it. Their finances are completely wrecked. They’re about to lose their home. Their health is failing. Their marriage is falling apart.

Their kids are in trouble.

But the smile never leaves their faces. People in The Middle are great actors. I know I became an expert at smiling when all I want to do inside is run far, far away.

And never tell you about it. *** “I haven’t seen you around church in a while,” he says to me.

I knew this moment would happen. My church wasn’t big enough to be anonymous, and I realized the time would come when I’d casually run into one of the leaders and my secret would be confronted. Here we were at a local grocery

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store, standing in line together.

Even though I was aware this run-in would eventually occur, I hadn’t yet spent the time to formulate an answer.

It wasn’t for lack of time.

It was for lack of energy. Lack of motivation.

Lack of will.

And even lack of faith.

Depression has been a demon I’ve dealt with for most of my teen and adult life. And I’m not alone. The National Institute of Mental Health indicates more than a quarter of American adults are afflicted with some type of mental illness like depression or anxiety disorders.

I’ve been to psychologists, psychiatrists, Eastern medicine practitioners, Christian counselors, group therapy and even inpatient treatment. I’ve been misdiagnosed, overmedicated and, at times, left to my own vices.

I’ve tried to fix myself with healthy things like exercise and clean dieting—and not-so-healthy things like alcohol and drugs, and self-injury.

My friend’s statement has left me a little shell-shocked. What am I supposed to answer?

How much of my problems do I disclose? Do I just come out and say what the last three months have really been to me?

I look into my friend’s eyes and think: I wish I could tell you that. I wish I could tell you how alone I feel and how desperately I need you to just sit with me, to hold my hand, to share some tea with me and listen, even if it’s only about how sad I feel today. If only I could tell you how weak my faith becomes and how easy it is to believe the lies that say I’m not valuable to this world because I’m not as strong as everyone else. I wish I could tell you that I want to be like you—to be able to push through grief and heartache and fear that seemingly have no cause and to come out of it praising and worshiping the way you and your friends do.

But I can’t.

I’m too afraid.

I don’t know how you’ll respond.

And I don’t want to be any lonelier than I already feel.

As I finally determine how to respond to my friend, I take a deep breath and simply say: “Yeah.

I’ve been really busy with work and I haven’t been able to make it to church lately. Maybe next weekend?”

He looks back at me and says, “Great—I hope so!” and smiles.

I smile back, but only because I’ve kept my secret safe for one more day.

So many times I’m asked by church leaders,

“How can I make my church a safe place?” The only answer is, “You.” You have to be a safe place. You have to first live transparently with others (and by this, I don’t mean air your dirty laundry … use discernment, but be open and vulnerable—even if you are the pastor). By living transparently, others will follow suit. When we share our brokenness with others, we are showing the world there is a God who heals.

After all, if we were perfect, what would we need the cross for anyway? How can we show hope and miracles to a world that is seeking them when we pretend everything is just fine?

My friend Len shared with me that, in Eastern cultures, when porcelain breaks or cracks, they don’t restore it like we do in the West. They don’t try to remove any evidence of breakage or cracks. They do just the opposite: apply a lacquer that highlights the crack with gold. In other words, they feature the cracks with gold, which actually adds to the value and gives the piece a story and a unique character.

May God apply that gold to us, so others may see the cracks in our story and the redemption of His nature, whether we are a Superstar, someone who is Very Broken or a person in The Middle.

Anne Jackson is a writer, speaker and social change activist who lives in Orange County, CA. She is the author of Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic (Zondervan) and Permission to Speak Freely: Essays and Art on Fear, Confession

INTRODUCING

THE NEW MAGAZINE FOR SUSTAINABLE CHANGE AND SACRIFICIAL LIVING FROM THE MAKERS OF RELEVANT

REJECTAPATHY.COM

PREPARED FOR DISASTER HOW THE CHURCH CAN RESPOND TO GLOBAL SUFFERING

BY NAOMI ZACHARIAS

“G

od clearly was not finished with His plans for you,” she said intently as her mouth softened into a smile that was meant to be affirming. With a slight nod of my head, I brought both hands up to meet each other in the traditional greeting. Namaste. It had been 10 months since the vicious attacks by foreign terrorists in Mumbai. I was speaking to a staff member in the lobby of the Taj Hotel, one of 10 targeted sites on that bloody day. But it wasn’t my first visit—I had been there only five days before the attack. After arriving home in the U.S., I had sat in stunned silence in front of my television screen watching the familiar building exploding with fire.

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The brutal violence against women in the Congo; the largest terrorist attack on American soil; a genocide that claimed 1 million lives in 30 days; another tsunami terrorizes Japan, with the threat of future effects of radiation; a seeming domino effect of uprisings in the Middle East as political tensions explode. And we watch the destruction unfold on screens before us, processing internal shock waves from unending news reports of various kinds of wars—political, environmental, moral and religious. We may be miles away, but this constant deluge threatens to overwhelm us with sorrow, disillusionment, responsibility and helplessness. As we seek to understand why, we struggle to discern

what or how to do something about it.

And those questions are so often incredibly difficult to answer. How should we respond as individuals and as the Church in a world of so many catastrophes? What can we do that is meaningful and assuages not only our consciences but offers genuine relief to the suffering? How do we answer this call so specific to our humanity, and yet prevent our human nature from getting in the way? And how do we reach out to the world in a manner that heals when their perception of the Church—fair or not—is not entirely favorable?

Unfortunately, no single formula can adequately address these varied horrors. Certainly,

we are always called to our knees. But to begin to honor each tragedy, each one must be addressed individually and specifically to determine the best response. Then, we realize that though each circumstance may not share the same solution, they do share a common thread—even a formula of sorts—for that human part of us that relentlessly longs for a tangible response to the unthinkable.

So we can start here. It is not a to-do list but a collection of warnings. And those warnings can help guide us as we move forward.

PRACTICE DISCERNMENT One of the first impulses after a disaster, for a church or an individual, is to give. But how does one even know where to give? Not everyone can get on a plane and go out to explore a site, but due diligence is needed to identify an effective means of giving. There are countless options out there, some of which are gems of sacrifice and impact. Sadly, disaster also attracts opportunism and corruption.

Choosing to give wisely is a careful process that requires research, networking and discernment.* I remember walking through the center of an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in India, surrounded by housing units that had been constructed by an international organization. Yet families sat outside on the ground with torn tarps overhead for shelter. They explained the homes were unbearably hot. Many of them were sick, too, and they weren’t sure why. I pushed open the small metal door to step inside one of them. It felt like a heat locker. It had a dirt floor, four walls and a ceiling with no ventilation. Temperatures soared to more than 100 degrees within. They were constructed out of asbestos, a material that is still legal and inexpensive in India but it is known to cause five different forms of cancer. Hundreds of homes were built. All of them sat empty.

Months later, I traveled to the coast of Indonesia, the original site of the same natural disaster. It would take almost one year to identify what seemed to be a viable method to provide meaningful long-term aid through trusted means.

For emergency aid, after several weeks of on-theground surveys, research, budgeting and making connections, we had the opportunity to stand together with others and pass out the boxes of emergency items. I recall the woman on her bicycle with her baby girl riding in the basket. Her smile was enormous as she secured months’ worth of provisions to the back. She knew what was inside because her community had the opportunity to say what it was they needed. Surveys documented priorities and compiled a list of staple food items.

A census recorded the number of people and an

organized method dispensed coupons through an orderly process of distribution—first to single mothers and children, then to widows, then larger families. There were no riots, missing boxes or great excess of boxes. Time and care had identified a method that provided something people needed. I will not forget the sound of her voice as she pedaled away, looked back over her shoulder and bellowed out a priceless, “Thank you!”

Stewardship is not simply an issue of how much money is spent, but how it is spent. There is no shortage of need, and realistically we have limited financial resources. We are called to give, but we do not have to know all of the answers ourselves. But as responsible individuals, we do have to be wise in either vetting the options before us or identifying someone who can help ensure a gift is utilized intentionally and effectively.

UNDERSTAND THE STORY I was once speaking with a team leader from a church that was sending a team to visit women in Kamathipura, the largest red-light district in Asia.

He mentioned their goal was to evangelize and they were preparing their team to confront the women working in the brothels, to tell them what they were doing was a sin in need of repentance.

I know the group’s intentions were good, but the reality is the vast majority of the women working in that particular district are trafficked. Their intended approach would reveal a lack of understanding of circumstances and the cultural dynamics, and would wound already victimized women. Understanding how the women came to be there would greatly affect how they could be helped.

COMMIT TO THE LONG HAUL Real tragedies ask us to change our definitions of success. We are culturally conditioned to report success by numbers, and high numbers mean success. But when dealing with loss and brokenness, the definition of success radically changes. Sometimes you witness restoration. Those moments keep you committed; they remind you of what is possible. But they are the guideposts, not the whole journey. Real change requires a willingness to walk the longer journey of participating in the lives of people who need the grace of time to heal, however long it takes.

According to the United Nations, $6.2 billion was pledged after the 2004 tsunami. But $575 million never actually came in. And the estimated total need is $7-10 billion dollars. We live in a world of constant news. When disaster strikes, dollars and people pour in. But soon, new news replaces that tragedy and people move on.

It takes years to rebuild. Crises need those who won’t forget after the news reports fade.

CULTIVATE A HEART OF COMPASSION I remember hearing the story of a Christian group that had traveled to an area to rebuild homes that had been devastated by a disaster. But they only built homes for the local Christians. This did little to help the perceptions of Christians in a predominantly Muslim region. Furthermore, their effort to help their Christian brothers and sisters actually served to endanger these believers as riots, burglary, vandalism, violence and resentment broke out. I became keenly aware of how our methods can undermine the ultimate message.

There is an opportunity before us to reach out to the hurting from various backgrounds and help them to glimpse a God that loves them. Hama was a 19-year-old girl from Malaysia in need of a kidney transplant. After several months, through many miracles and the assistance of several people, we had been able to arrange for the surgery. But this story does not have the kind of ending we hoped for. Hama collapsed two weeks before the surgery could take place and did not recover. It was a crushing loss, but I will forever treasure her memory. Her mother took my hand in hers and in broken English said: “We are a Hindu family. You are a Christian. Why were you even willing to try to help us?” The answer was found in my faith and the person of Christ who reached out to all.

GO BEYOND THE SCREEN Each one of us likely remembers exactly where we were when we watched the news of significant tragedy unfold on our television screens. We are confident of our call to participate. How we participate is always complicated. It takes work, time and sacrifice. But it is not hopeless.

Tragedies provide an opportunity to enter into a world that will both break us and heal us, where we step through that screen and into life. The words of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer challenge us to thoughtful action, and his words remind us why: “I’m still discovering, right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. I mean living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing, we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God.” NAOMI ZACHARIAS is the author of The Scent of Water (Zondervan, 2011) and travels internationally on behalf of Wellspring International. WellSpringInternational.org

*ACT: CharityNavigator.com is a website that rates nonprofit organizations on a scale of one to four stars, using criteria such as where their money goes, how much the CEO makes and several other factors. It’s a good place to start when deciding which nonprofits to help.

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THE DIFFERENT SIDES OF THE

BIVOCATIONAL PA S T O R

BY JEFF COOK 40

EXAMINING THE REWARDS AND CHALLENGES OF “TENTMAKING”

have found tentmaking a clear path for birthing or maintaining a church that lacks resources.

According to one recent survey, the average pastor of a small church (with between 50 and 74 members) makes $39,459. For a bivocational pastor of the same size church, the average salary is $10,181 (just for the church position).

Practically speaking, when a pastor holds a second job, it opens up doors to plant and mature a church community that would be impossible otherwise, and this isn’t the only benefit.

THE UPSIDE

ore than a third of all pastors in the United States have a second job.

They have a unique role. They have a unique calling, and with it comes unique struggles.

Prior to the 20th century (and still around the rest of the world) the majority of those leading in the local church made money from another profession. This of course has a biblical root. The Apostle Paul had a day job. He made tents, and his craftsmanship allowed him to teach, heal and plant churches. Paul affirmed his tentmaking as a great good. He consistently spoke of not “burdening” the churches he served, reflecting that he worked “night and day” to care for them. The ability to support himself was so significant to Paul, he said, “I would rather die than have deprive me of this boast” (1 Corinthians 9:13-15, NIV ).

As a bivocational pastor, I affirm a sense of this same delight and sacrificial joy. There is real success associated with working a second job so a church might exist. I know I would not have been able to start and develop Atlas (my church community) without a second job. Originally, I sought support, came up dry and had to find a different way to afford my overwhelming conviction that a new kind of church—for my wife, for myself, for my friends and those I wanted to show Jesus— needed to happen.

Working a second job is an effective way to plant and maintain a church that otherwise would have remained only in one’s dreams. In this spirit, many

Tentmakers have the opportunity to work alongside those they hope to evangelize and shepherd. For example, I teach philosophy at a university in Colorado. On average, I engage 450 different students each year. Since the church I pastor sits next to the university, my role as a professor gives me unique access and insights into the thinking and struggles of the twentysomethings to whom our church speaks.

The missional dynamic of tentmaking is something that should not be underemphasized, especially in our culture that so easily separates the sacred from the secular. Doing life consistently with those who do not follow Jesus can be an exceptional education and opportunity to move our culture toward Christ.* As another example, the most effective youth pastor I know serves part-time as an assistant in a local high school. Being in the classroom itself creates a trust and intimacy with real students.

Through his second job, he is consistently engaging and speaking into the lives of kids. In fact, I would argue he does better work as a youth pastor when he’s being paid by the state than when he’s being paid by the church.

This could be the best argument for tentmaking.

It may be taken a step further to suggest the most effective pastors in the emerging world will be those who surrender many of their weekly church duties to other part-time workers and volunteers, so they may get their hands dirty alongside the culture they hope to understand and to whom they wish to show Jesus.

FAMILY Of course there are pitfalls here. The tentmaking model may not be for everyone. Over the past five years of tentmaking, the places of struggle in my own life are clear, and I would like to expose some of the traps waiting to grab a tentmaking ankle.

But after outlining these potential roadblocks,

*THINK: Certainly, this is true whether or not you are bivocational. How are you engaging those outside of Christian circles?

I hope to propose some solutions, advice and reasons to jump into this kind of pastoring.

Paul was a tentmaker, but a primary difference between Paul and most pastors is that he was neither married nor had children. The rhythms of life for a tentmaker are amazingly different between one who is single, one who is married and one who is married with children. A basic question for many tentmakers is whether or not they can survive the demands of two (potentially full-time) jobs, a spouse (who might also work part or full time) and children.

In my experience, every aspect of churchplanting and bivocational ministry has been a total family effort. The sacrifices of tentmaking are clearly experienced by my wife and children perhaps more so than they are by me. As such, we might ask, who is the real tentmaker? Is it the pastor, or is it the pastor’s family as a whole?

When my wife and I started a church, we never had a conversation about the mutual sacrifice tentmaking would require. I never went to her and asked, “Would you be willing to adjust everything you care about for this career and our community?” For those seriously considering bivocational ministry, the question must shift from considering your own ambitions and the desire to build the Church to considering the desires and skill set of your families as a whole.

THE OTHER JOB A problem that may be unforeseen and a true difficulty for a bivocational pastor is that many people in tentmaking actually like their other job.

They love and enjoy the people they work with and feel committed to their successes. Sometimes, even, it’s possible to see better work for the Kingdom taking place in the secondary vocation than in pastoring.

As such, when the other job and the church both compete for time and priority, the tentmaking pastor will have to wrestle with choosing between them, perhaps disappointing people on one side or the other who will not understand the need to take time off to focus on their other role.

Lump wrestling with a second job in as one of those tensions that cannot be solved, only managed.

… AND LEADERSHIP A final place of struggle is the multiple hats inherent in pastoring. I know of a few pastors with solid, large churches who have stepped out of the “senior pastor” role altogether and have exclusively

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assumed a “teaching pastor” role, allowing someone else to do the full-time work of leading their church community. This seems quite healthy, especially since teaching and leading are two very different gifts—and very few pastors have both in abundance.

Unfortunately, most tentmakers (and many pastors generally) are the leaders of their church, but they are also seen as “the teacher,” “the worship director,” “the youth pastor,” etc. But these two roles require time, study and development.

Each role vies for focus and energy. Given limited time, the primary difficulty I have experienced as a tentmaker and the teaching pastor in my community has been my inability to both lead and teach at a high level. Of course this isn’t just a problem for tentmakers, but given their second job, the time and energy are simply that much less.

FINDING RHYTHM There are a ton of messages I would love to say to my 12-year-old self—starting fires really isn’t as much fun as you think, chewing tobacco should not be swallowed, learn how to play the guitar and put that money from your college fund into a company called “Apple.”

So, too, I wish I could speak to me five years ago—the “me” who started a church while working a second job. I would love to encourage him to do just a few things well, to speak to him about navigating the waters ahead. I say these not as holy writ, but as a few ideas I know would have saved me some burnout, some self-flagellation and some nights of not sleeping well.

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(1) Foundations cannot be sacrificed.

As a power-lifter must have a solid foundation from which to elevate a heavy weight, don’t jump into bivocational ministry without the proper foundation from which to do such heavy lifting.

Finances, time for yourself, exercise, family enjoyment—these are not optional.

As you do with your tithe, put such tasks on your calendar first. Tentmakers must be hyperintentional with where they spend their time during the week—and investing in your soul must come first. “What good will it do you to gain the whole world yet forfeit your soul?” What good indeed.

There is an occasional time for self-sacrifice of such practices, but they are seldom. You will fail both in your work and in living well if such practices hit the cutting block.

An underrated aspect of being a pastor is your position as a role model. As we all know, the medium is the message. If you live a dysfunctional life, it won’t matter what you say. The primary message coming forth about what it means to be a Christian will be something like “burnout,” “joyless,” “martyr” or worse. Own up to the fact that healthy rhythms are non-negotiable.

(2) Money is actually important.

Mammon is a worthless, soul-killing god if it takes control, but put in its proper place, money is an essential servant that must be directed and thought about with wisdom.

The money I received from our church has always been an issue. Some pastors in my estimation get paid far too much, others way too

little—and neither paycheck is healthy. At the outset, mark out what you see as a reasonable, sacrificial-yet-sustainable total salary for your family. Get confirmation from those who are helping lead your church and understand how budgets work, and then meet that mark with your two roles.

In my experience, everything my family made from bivocational ministry for the first four years went back into the church as our tithe or gifts to take care of stupid necessities like heaters or a microphone. This was not a healthy situation. It would have been far better to know going in that the church and my other job could not pay our basic bills. It didn’t have to be that way.

Getting the job right first, and then doing ministry, is a huge part of the platform from which to lift the heavy weight of ministry. Yes, of course, there are times for personal sacrifice. Yes, of course, we often have to jump into ministry roles and pray God provides. However, Jesus also teaches that the wise count the cost before building a tower, and they will count their men before going to war. The cost of discipleship does indeed require everything we have and are. We need to know this. We need to know upfront what ministry will mean on paper, in discussions with our family and community.

If the financial side of ministry is not clear at the beginning, it will always be a lingering pain stealing some of your best energy.

(3) Lead first. Teach second.

C.S. Lewis promoted what he called “the principle of first and second things.” He argued that when you make things of first-importance first, and things of secondary-importance second, you will enjoy both first and secondary things.

For example, when a man makes his wife his first priority and his fantasy football team second, he will experience the proper enjoyment of both his wife and his hobby. But if he makes his fantasy football team his first priority and his wife second, not only will he lose his wife, he will lose the proper enjoyment of his hobby (though glory and fame will certainly be his).

Just so for the tentmaker—teaching, music and youth work are second things.

This has been the most difficult lesson for me to learn. Some find their primary skill is teaching and that they get a huge joy from preaching the Scriptures and long to draw people into thinking health-promoting ideas about God. But this is a trap. As a bivocational pastor, you will hurt and hurt

badly if you spend your best energies on teaching and do not lead and expand yourself.

You must build the Church first, and that means directing, encouraging, empowering, motivating and releasing those who long to serve.

Teachers: Do not be sad if you have to go through half a chapter of the Bible each week spontaneously by simply leading discussions (such Sundays can actually be pretty sweet). Do not knock yourself if your only prep for a weekly gathering was your time with Christ. If you are spending solid time investing in people and releasing them to do the things they do best, you are doing that which matters most.

Hopefully there will be a time to transition Perhaps some weeks the leadership is all done and you have space for other roles, but at the tentmaking level, leadership is a first thing; everything else is secondary. Get those backward and you will be building a church alone.

(4) Get commitments.

When leading, you must have the buy-in and a stated commitment of time from others upfront.

If possible, do not start any other bit of work until you have such buy-in. Outline the places you need help and spend your best energies getting commitments from others. Do it first and discuss clear expectations.

The burden of building a church can’t be yours alone. You may be able to serve a little longer each week than everyone else (and thus receive a small paycheck for your work), but it is “our” church, not “your” church. Better yet—it is Jesus’ church. Getting others involved and giving their best energies to Christ in areas they are skilled and passionate about serving is the best possible work you can do.* And a commitment is not about what role someone will fill. A commitment is about time.

Do not be afraid to ask those you rely on to do a specific role for, say, the next six months. When it’s over, take them out to dinner. Thank them.

Celebrate their successes. Get their feedback. Talk through the future, and then ask them if they would be willing to serve for the next half year again.

If you cannot get such commitments, you will know you are alone in building the Church upfront, that it probably isn’t going to work out and that this may not be God’s best for you and your family.

(5) Do most things quick and dirty.

You don’t have time to be a perfectionist. There is one, perhaps two things you can pour yourself into

well (and, just in case I forgot to say it, one of them needs to be leadership).

(6) Have big dreams for your church.

That doesn’t mean attendance, by the way. That means discipleship and impact.

Jesus didn’t die to put butts in your seats. If you target making your community sanctified, loving, revolutionary people who are advancing the Kingdom of Heaven, you will succeed. If you are asking, “What does the Kingdom of God look like here and now?” and you move toward that in the Spirit’s power, you will succeed. If you are asking tough questions about discipleship and putting your best energy there, you will succeed. If you are trying to create a well-attended event on Sundays, you are spinning your wheels. There are much better uses of your time.

FINANCES, TIME FOR YOURSELF, EXERCISE, FAMILY ENJOYMENT— THESE ARE NOT OPTIONAL. (7) Multiply.

Everything else is just addition. Einstein said the only miracle in nature is compound interest.

Apparently Jesus likes all kinds of miracles, for we see in Jesus’ methods a focus on multiplication.

One person who disciples 12 people for three years, and then releases them to disciple 12 more, will create more than 5 billion disciples in 27 years (for 12 to the ninth power is 5,159,780,352).

The world is not changed through adding more and more people to your church. It is changed by multiplying the people you have over and over. Any theory of discipleship that is not principally focused on multiplication will be bland, but those who understand multiplication can change everything.

This is a message for all Christians, but it is particularly important for tentmakers. Often, we can start “playing church” and forget the essential, necessary work of discipleship. A maxim I’ve been using recently just to get my mind straight about my role is “teaching by creating teachers” and “leading by creating leaders.” In terms of what I can do to “make disciples,” this seems to nail it for me.

This idea translates into the tasks and identity everyone holds: “Worship leading by creating

*DISCUSS: Be honest, what areas do each of you have a tendency to hold onto when you know you should be giving them up to volunteers and church members?

worship leaders”; “Producing Kingdom art by creating Kingdom artists”; “Caring for children by creating those who care for children”; “Being generous by creating generous people”; “Loving Jesus by creating those who fall in love Jesus.”

There are all kinds of places where the Kingdom needs to grow, but the principle of “X creating X” seems solid. It arises in every sphere. When someone has skills and experience, those skills and experiences can be multiplied through others. “Go and make disciples” means go and multiply all that you are.

This is leadership, and leadership must be the primary role of a tentmaker.

(8) Remember, you are part of an insurrection.

The only thing that has kept me going recently is the reminder that Jesus is a revolutionary causing the present order to crumble and replacing it with a new one filled with life. As such, the New Creation and the people who fill it are the only things worthy of my one and only life. That world is worth selling everything for. That world is worth ditching a hand or an eye to realize if necessary. That world is the renewal of all things that we taste and experience in glimpses even now.

Though we have been speaking about “bivocational” ministry, do not mistake the role of pastor as a “job.” You are a commissioned, holistically committed, divinely empowered insurgent. You have become the hands and mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is constructing a new Kingdom that will push aside all other posers—through you. As such, you are a precious gift to this world and to your family. You are the sphere in which the Spirit of Christ lives and infects everything else with His world-renewing life.

God is announcing to all that His Son has defeated sin and death, that the present world is passing away, that there will be a judgment and Christ Himself will make everything new. We are part of that movement, the movement of Christ reclaiming His world. It is a brilliant, holy calling to work a day job so a church might have the space and resources to take root and mature. Embrace it as a cross to carry if you must, push for healthy rhythms always, lead first and know in your soul that God’s Son is beside you, shaping you and cheering you on.

JEFF COOK is a pastor and philosophy professor in Greeley, CO. He is the author of Seven (Zondervan).

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INNOVATOR

DHARIUS DANIELS

ON WHY HIS CHURCH HAS BEEN ABLE TO REACH THE ELUSIVE “YOUNG” AND “UNCHURCHED”

BY TYLER CHARLES Dharius Daniels planted Kingdom Church nearly six years ago, and the Ewing, N.J., congregation now has 4,500 members— most of them younger (70 percent between the ages of 18 and 45) and many of them unchurched or de-churched.

In other words, Kingdom Church is connecting with the exact demographics many churches are struggling to reach.

The 31-year-old Daniels says he doesn’t want to over-spiritualize it, but he can’t deny God has been the one orchestrating things throughout his ministry. Because every step of the way, things have turned out differently than Daniels planned.

For example, he certainly hadn’t planned on being a pastor—he’d seen how his father (and every other preacher he knew growing up in rural Mississippi) had struggled financially. But in his senior year at Milsaps College, on his way to going to law school, Daniels felt God calling him to a future in ministry.

And Daniels had no plans to end up in New Jersey either—he was bent on heading to Oklahoma for seminary at Oral Roberts University.

But after he was rejected there (even though his grades were excellent) and didn’t receive enough of a scholarship for Vanderbilt, Daniels “settled” on Princeton Theological Seminary, where he had a full-ride scholarship.

“I ended up in New Jersey because every other door closed for me. The lesson I learned is that God sometimes directs us through rejection. ORU wasn’t really rejection; it was direction. It was God’s way of closing a door to direct me to where He wanted me to go,” Daniels says.

But even then Daniels wasn’t exactly planning on staying in New Jersey to do ministry. But in 2001, while he was still in seminary, the pastor 44

KENEK PHOTOGRAPHY

at the church where Daniels was working passed away unexpectedly.

The church asked Daniels to fill in while they searched for a new senior pastor, but the search went on longer than expected and during this time, it started growing.

“I wasn’t even paying attention because I had school and a new family, but the church grew by about 100 people in six months,” Daniels says.

The church leaders asked Daniels to be the senior pastor, and he agreed to serve the church as an interim pastor until he finished seminary.

Daniels’ experiences as interim pastor gave him a lot of ideas about what church shouldn’t be like.

“I was sensing there’s more to church than what was going on there. We had people who were 60 or older and we had kids who still lived in their parents’ house. But young adults weren’t there.”

The church was located in an impoverished area, and when the church started growing, he learned some of the new people couldn’t read.

“Some of these kids and adults could read enough to get by,” Daniels says. “But they didn’t have functional literacy. So we partnered with a community college and they came to the church to teach literacy. That was a very contentious point with some of the leaders because they saw

doing things,” Daniels continues. “They were blind to the fact that the community had changed, and what we were doing was no longer relevant to the community we served.”* When Daniels graduated from Princeton in 2004, he took a year off before launching Kingdom Church in 2005. But even the launching of Kingdom Church didn’t go according to plan for Daniels. He was hoping to start a church in Burlington, N.J.—a suburban community roughly 30 minutes south of Trenton. Unable to find any facilities in Burlington, Kingdom Church got its start in the heart of Trenton. A year later, they relocated to Ewing (which is halfway between Trenton and Princeton, about four miles from each city).

“Some people plant strategically. They lay a map out, they pray and God says, ‘There.’ For me, God didn’t work that way. He just closed every door.

And Ewing is where the door opened.”

As Daniels prepared to launch Kingdom Church with his wife, sister and a few friends, they put all their money into marketing a “different kind of church.” Daniels’ core group, along with 60 people from his previous church, worked hard to spread this message throughout Trenton.

“There’s an arena in Trenton, and during secular events, we blanketed the parking lot with invitations to church. We went on the radio. We bought advertising space on the back of a mall directory,” Daniels says.

The investment paid off. When they launched their first service, more than 1,000 people showed up. Four-hundred of those people started attending regularly, and Kingdom Church continued to grow.

As Kingdom Church explored unconventional means for reaching the unchurched—like distributing fliers outside of secular concerts— Daniels says some pastors in the area were vocal about their dissatisfaction with their methods.

“But we threw our hook in the pond where the fish were,” Daniels says. “We didn’t feel like we were being called exclusively to the unchurched, but it had to be a priority.”

Despite this stream of newcomers and the unchurched, Daniels doesn’t want to water down his teaching or avoid controversial topics out of a fear of offending someone. Even though Kingdom Church sets numerical goals for membership, Daniels says their commitment to discipleship is one of the things that makes their church different.

“Discipleship is important to us because we feel, as salt and light, we have to be the dominant influence wherever we are. As a church, we sort of have a foot in both worlds. In one sense, we’re

“THE COMMUNITY HAD CHANGED, AND WHAT WE WERE DOING WAS NO LONGER RELEVANT TO THE COMMUNITY WE SERVED.” no spiritual significance in us having a reading program at our church and using church space to do it—not realizing that this is the day we live in, and this is the demographic we’re serving.”

One of the biggest frustrations for Daniels involved the way the church allocated funds for their various ministries. Each ministry was told how much money they needed to raise in order to meet their own budget. So the various ministries all hosted their own fish fries, smorgasbords, barbecues and other events—all of which, Daniels says, shifted focus away from the actual ministry and onto the need to meet a budget.

“As a 22-year-old being confronted with missional theology and things of that nature, I was thinking, ‘OK, I don’t claim to know it all, but this probably isn’t what we should be concerning ourselves with when there are homeless people outside our church and people who are coming can’t read.’

“They were so cemented to the way they were

seeker-sensitive because we do consider the unchurched when we plan events. But we’re also very aggressive in attempting to connect people to biblical Christianity.”

To accomplish that, Kingdom Church established its discipleship arm, known as Kingdom Academy 101—a full 12-week program.

“We believe we can tell you about our church in four hours, but we can’t give you the basic disciplines you need in four hours,” Daniels says.

“Our commitment is not just to orient you to the church and get you to give, it’s discipleship. It’s shaping and molding and training you to be a follower of Christ, to let God lead your life. You can’t get that in four hours.”

LOVE-A-LUTION During a sabbatical last fall, Daniels found himself praying about how his church could do more to reflect the true nature of Christ, and he started thinking about “love.” Especially John 13:35, which says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (NIV). And Daniels started thinking about how amazing it would be if “loving” really was the first word that came to mind when people thought of Christians.

From that, a new initiative was launched.

“We called it a Love-a-lution,” he says. “It started with a 10-week teaching on agape love and what that looks like, the importance of love in God’s plan, the greatest commandment and so on.”

Daniels says the culture of Kingdom Church has changed over the last few months in terms of kindness and generosity among members.

For example, one young woman who had recently gone back to school experienced serious car problems and couldn’t afford to replace her vehicle. When another couple learned about her situation, they decided to give her one of their cars.

“They aren’t a rich, well-to-do family,” Daniels says. “They have two separate jobs in two different locations and they only had two cars. But they gave her one and now the two of them share one car.”

The Love-a-lution campaign prompted small groups to help parents pay for college tuition, increased the number of couples pursuing adoption and elicited an outpouring of support for single mothers.

“What makes it so exciting for me is that it’s organic,” Daniels says. “It’s not contrived. We didn’t tell people, ‘Pay off cars, do this, do that.’ We launched this campaign, raised awareness and said, ‘This is how important this is to God, this is what Christianity is supposed to be about.’ ” Daniels doesn’t know what’s next for his ministry, but if history is any indication, chances are it won’t go according to plan.

*DISCUSS: Has your community changed since your church’s inception? Are there ministries that are outdated and no longer useful to your demographic? Talk about new ministry ideas that might better fit the changed needs of your community.

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BY WAYNE CORDEIRO

46

HO W TO FIN D C R EATIVITY A ND I NSPIRATION IN T HE W EEKLY CY CL E OF M INISTRY

“…the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered, searched out and arranged many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly” (NASB).

Did you catch that?

“He pondered and he searched out and arranged many proverbs.”

Pondering, searching and arranging. It requires effort and hard work!

THE STARTING POINT

M

y life is bookended by weekends. That’s just how it is. Often, Monday arrives only to find me fresh out of creative thoughts. I stare at a screen with a blinking cursor that relentlessly taunts me until I begin the rhythmic process of forming words into thoughts.

I am a preacher, and though creativity comes in spurts, Sundays come with great regularity. Some call it writer’s block. I call it the sermon choke: attempting to come up again with yet another message that will inspire, encourage or challenge the loyal congregants who so faithfully fill the pews each weekend.

Whether you are ready for it week after week or not, writing a sermon is just part of the job for a teaching pastor. There are plenty of people who think this job should come naturally—that it shouldn’t be work or shouldn’t require true creativity, research or innovation. You know, it should just be “God-breathed.” This and other myths I had to deal with early on. Here are three, in particular, I had to get over as I honed my skills and became stronger at crafting a weekly sermon.

• If you are called to share God’s Word, it will come as an anointing in the night. Not so ... but the lack of it will keep you up at night! Creativity takes a significant amount of effort. It will take hard work, homework and heart work. All three will converge to make a message something that’s not only worth listening to, but will impact people’s lives.

• The things of God are effortless and they come naturally. If you watch professional golfers or ball players, they make it look so easy and natural.

But what we don’t see behind every swing is the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of hours of practice and investing in their craft.

• It’s more spiritual to just let the Holy Spirit speak through you. There can be a false sense of spirituality, which supposes if you put too much advance preparation into a message, it must not be “Spirit-led.” Yet God planned redemption before the foundation of the earth (Matthew 25:34). He also planned out Jeremiah’s life while he was yet in his mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5). If it is godly to plan a lifetime in advance, the least we can do is to try for a week in advance. We cannot start on a Saturday night and then let God finish it on Sunday morning.*

THE DAILYNESS OF CREATIVITY So I begin, but not on Saturday night. One of the greatest culprits of imagination and creativity is procrastination. Although I don’t speak until the weekend, the practice must begin daily. The reservoir needs to be consistently replenished, not only when a drink is needed. Message preparation is a daily regimen, not a Saturday night special.

The greatest asset of any speaker is the imagination of the listeners, and capturing that imagination is not a simple task. Solomon’s advice to speakers can be found in Ecclesiastes 12:

Mother Teresa once said, “To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.”

So I begin, but not with the message. I must begin with the messenger. If it is not innate within me, it will come across as contrived and unnatural.

So I begin not with feeding the congregants but by feeding myself. My time in the Word of God is not primarily to come up with a sermon. I read it to eat.

Then, as a result of allowing the Bible to nourish my soul, I find I am able to help others with the problems they face.

Within those 66 books are found the raw, unedited life lessons of dozens of men and women of faith who have gone before us, leaving crumbs of wisdom along the way for us to garner.

How often have I spent afternoons on the backsides of the hot Israeli desert with David discussing issues of leadership, spoken with Joshua about the difference between being impetuous and being courageous, sought advice from Moses on how to lead a disgruntled congregation?

Day by day, the insights and wisdom of these great champions of faith have leached into my soul, helping to shift my vantage point and align my purposes with God’s.

It’s this day-by-day practice I call the scales of a Christian.

SCALES I can’t get ready for Sunday on a Saturday night.

I must prepare for Sunday daily. Remember, it’s whatever you do daily that will shape your life.

*THINK: Are there other myths that have dogged you when it comes to your role as a teaching pastor? How do you combat them?

neuemagazine.com 47

Watch great athletes. They don’t get distracted with a myriad of activities.

In order to be great, they do only a few things over and over again.

It might be a core set of exercises or a regimen of certain drills again and again. The most illustrative of that discipline is found among the greatest of pianists. They don’t play random songs. Instead, they develop a daily habit of playing scales. Over and over again: major scales, minor scales, Aeolian, Locrian … scale after scale.

Jan Ignacy Paderewski was a world-renowned pianist who played more than 1,500 concerts in the early 1900s in order to raise money for the Polish war effort. When he was asked to help the Polish people gain independence, he replied: “My country before everything else. After that—art.” But he said he’d help only under one condition: that the Polish government allow him to continue his habit of practicing scales three hours a day!

These master musicians didn’t practice scales because they were preparing for a concert of scales.

They did so because scales built the endurance, the dexterity and the nimbleness they would need when the concerts arrived.

Wisdom is not built in a day, but it is built daily.

Whatever I do daily is what will shape my life. If I play tennis daily, it will shape my life. However, if I play it only once a month, it may be a hobby, but it will not shape my future. If I play guitar daily, my life will be shaped accordingly. If I play only once every two weeks, it would not.

So, because I wanted God’s Word to shape my life (and my sermons), each morning for the last 24 years I have practiced the habit of daily devotions. I have followed a reading program to take me through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice each year. Often, as I read, a certain Scripture will stand out above the others. It will capture my attention and cause me to stop and consider its meaning. I then open to a fresh page in my journal and follow a simple four-step process.

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Scripture. I write the verse or verses at the top

TRUTH AND CREATIVITY IN STAGES

of the page.

Once I know I am drawing from a daily filling and not a last minute attempt, I follow these steps:*

Observation. I then write a paragraph to describe the setting and take into consideration the context, describing the scene in which the verse was found.

Application. I give the Word an appropriate claim on my life with an action point. This takes it beyond knowledge and into obedience.

Prayer. I write a prayer to express my thanks and to confirm my commitment to do what the Holy Spirit just said. Watermarked on each page I have penned this reminder: How will I live differently because of what I just read?

Certainly this is but one of many such practical guides to Scripture meditation. But this one simple self-feeding program has helped me build wisdom daily and has influenced every sermon I write.

THOUGH CREATIVITY COMES IN SPURTS, SUNDAYS COME WITH GREAT REGULARITY. A CURRENT WORD Preparing for each weekend starts with a daily regimen of scales: an everyday reading of God’s Word. Then it moves to a current word: What is God saying this week to our church? I take time to hear what God wants to say to us for this time and for this season. It can’t simply be a “good talk.” It has to be a “thus saith the Lord.”

One of the most important considerations utmost in my mind is that I say what God wants me to say. It is His message, not mine. It has to be what He thinks, not what I think. In order to discern this, I often ask myself these challenging questions: • Will this message bring more attention to me, or will it bring more attention to Jesus Christ?

• Is this message good news or bad news?

• Is my motive to get people to like me more or to get people to fall in love with Jesus more?

• Can I get off the platform after speaking and whisper with confidence, “Jesus, I said what You asked me to say ... and that’s good enough for me!”

Because in the end, that’s what matters most— not whether or not you used the best illustration possible, or spoke with eloquence or delivered with just the right timing. In the end, you have to be able to know with confidence you spoke what He asked you to speak. Nothing less.

I hear it clearly. I need to be sure the word I have is clearly from the Lord. I don’t want to find a tasty story from the Internet and build a message around it. I must know and believe deeply that this is a word from God to our congregation.

I think it simple. Someone once said: “If I have an hour to speak, I hardly need to prepare. But if I have only 20 minutes, I must spend 10 hours in study.” In other words, it takes far more time to simplify something than it does to complicate it.

The listeners need to understand what I am saying.

Matthew 13 holds the parable of the sower and the seed. In only one of the scenarios does the devil make an entrance. Read these poignant words in the 19th verse as Jesus interprets the seed sown by the road: “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path” (NIV).

The only time the devil is able to enter is when those who “hear the message of the kingdom … [do] not understand it.”

I do everything I can to ensure my hearers understand what is being said. I tell people I will tap dance if it will help my listeners to better comprehend what I am saying! So far no one has said that would be helpful ...

I pray it hot. I take whatever I have written and lay it before the Lord on my desk. Then I pray. I pray until I am fully convinced what I am about to say will make a huge difference in people’s lives.

If I don’t believe entirely in what I am about to say, then neither will my listeners.

I let it go. Knowing I have prepared the best I could and have prayed until I have true conviction, I don’t hold anything back. I jump in with both feet and leave nothing behind.

I will speak with genuine passion and conviction because a mind may reach a mind, but only a heart will reach a heart. And in the end, it’s all about changing hearts, not just tickling minds.

WAYNE CORDEIRO is the founding pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii, with over 14,500 in weekend attendance. He is the author of Leading on Empty (Bethany House).

*ACT: Walk through these steps for your own sermon this week—see what works for you and what doesn’t. What other preparation steps might aid you on a weekly basis?

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W

ant to know where the people we lead are during the week?

Online—Facebook and Twitter, specifically.

These two social media platforms are larger than anyone could have imagined only a few years ago. Consider these facts about Facebook: • Facebook currently boasts more than 600 million users.

• More than half of all American adults use the site regularly.

• The average Facebook user spends 20 hours a month on the site.

While Twitter’s numbers are lower, its influence is still massive: • Twitter has more than 200 million users.

• In an average week, 1 billion tweets are posted.

• Twitter has been cited as inciting protests and revolutions in Egypt, Iran and other places around the world.

It’s clear these platforms are some of the world’s biggest. So why are Christian leaders sometimes so bad at using these powerful tools?

DIGITAL LITERACY We don’t spend a lot of time debating the use of pens. We don’t get concerned when someone starts taking notes during a worship service or a staff meeting. Pencils and paper are scattered everywhere, and we don’t give a second thought to

writing things down any time of the day or night—in fact, it’s usually encouraged!

Now, what if someone came up to you and said: “Please don’t send me any notes or expect me to give you any written information. I’m just not into reading and writing.” Or: “Reading and writing? I don’t have time for that!” Or: “I don’t get the whole writing thing. Those little things—letters, yeah, I don’t understand what they mean.”

Ridiculous, right? Yet, that’s exactly the mindset many Christian leaders have regarding social media websites like Facebook and Twitter.

In an always online world, digital literacy matters as much as traditional literacy. Knowing how to use Facebook and Twitter may be as important as knowing how to use a pen.

People often talk about how much time people spend online versus offline, how relationships online compare to those offline, how to communicate with people online versus offline, but I think those are the wrong issues to focus on.

The Internet, communication and social media are ubiquitous. People are always on, always connected. We are well on our way toward a blended reality where there is no longer a line between the online and offline. We can meet with one person via Skype while another is sitting in the same room with us. We see pictures from a co-worker’s vacation on Facebook, and the next day they fill us in on the details at the water cooler.

7 WAYS LEADERS CRASH AND BURN ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER All forms of communication have rules—some explicit, others implicit. Break the rules and you risk alienating yourself from the very people you’re trying to connect with. Writers do this when they use poor grammar and punctuation. Speakers do this when they fail to make eye contact or ramble on endlessly.

Unfortunately, many pastors and Christian leaders don’t understand the unwritten rules of Facebook and Twitter. As a result, they crash and burn. Don’t be that guy (or girl).

The big thing to remember about Facebook and Twitter is it’s all about relationships. It’s not about amassing the most friends or followers. It’s not about getting your message out or promoting your ministry. It’s about loving and caring for people.

Here are seven things you want to avoid doing while on Facebook and Twitter. (Just to be clear, this is regarding your personal Facebook/Twitter profile, not a Facebook page or Twitter profile for your church or ministry.)

Embarrass yourself. Many leaders have gotten themselves into trouble by forgetting that what they post to Facebook and Twitter can be seen by everyone. Don’t post when you’re angry or frustrated. Don’t criticize. Don’t post something that might embarrass you, your family or anyone else.

Don’t criticize other churches or ministries in your community.

Only talk about your ministry. When people “friend” or follow you, it’s because they want to engage with you—a real person—not a spokesperson for your church or ministry.

Only talk about yourself. When you go to a social event, do you like hanging around with people who only talk about themselves and never stop to ask you about you? Don’t be one of those people online either.

Be unresponsive. Failing to check phone messages and call people back is rude and damages relationships. The same principle applies to Facebook and Twitter. If you only check your social media accounts once every two weeks, it’s going to hurt your relationships. If you don’t reply to private/direct messages, don’t comment when people post to your Facebook wall and don’t respond (even with something short) when people reply to your Twitter updates, people are going to interact with you less or may even assume you’re ignoring them and take offense.

Wear a mask. Christian leaders sometimes think they have to be perfect. The truth is, nobody is perfect, and everyone knows it. If you act like everything is good all the time, you’ll be perceived

THE BIG THING TO REMEMBER ABOUT FACEBOOK AND TWITTER IS IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS. as inauthentic. If you act as if you never make mistakes and know all the answers, you make it harder for others to talk about their mistakes and be honest when they’re experiencing doubts and uncertainty.

Act like the language/morality police.

Your Facebook friends and Twitter followers are not perfect. They are going to swear, post questionable

*THINK: Do you have a personal Twitter and/or Facebook account? What role does social networking play in your professional life? What about in your personal life?

neuemagazine.com 51

pictures of themselves and share things you don’t agree with. If something is really bad, consider contacting the person privately about it, but don’t call people out publicly for what is, unfortunately, common behavior in our culture.

Debate and divide. Online (and offline) debates rarely cause anyone to shift their position on an issue. Discussion is great, but if things get heated or personal, it’s time to lighten up. Political issues can be particularly divisive. It’s one thing to talk about the way our faith impacts our view of issues, but when discussion drifts toward specific leaders, candidates and parties, you run the risk of alienating half your congregation (not to mention the risk of losing your nonprofit status).

Sound like a virtual minefield? It can be, but remember, relationships have always been risky.

When using Facebook and Twitter, be prepared to make mistakes. Be humble, apologize when you hurt someone and learn from your own successes and failures as well as those of other people.

7 WAYS LEADERS CAN SOAR ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER Now that you’re aware of some of the pitfalls of Facebook and Twitter, let’s talk about how to use social media well.

Listen. James 1:19 says, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (NIV). Nothing could be more important on Facebook and Twitter. Listen more than you speak.

By listening, you’ll get to know people better and learn what’s going on in their lives. You’ll find out who is hurting, who is frustrated, who is thriving and who is gifted in ways you never realized.

WHEN USING FACEBOOK AND TWITTER, BE PREPARED TO MAKE MISTAKES. BE HUMBLE. APOLOGIZE. Pray. James 5:16 tells us, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” Whether your social media friends/followers post good news or bad, a success or a failure, you can always pray for them. When you do, ask God for guidance as to how to respond, if at all. He may prompt you with the words to type in a reply. He may prompt you to pick up the phone. Who knows what could happen?

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Engage. Of course, if all you do is listen and pray, you’re not going to have much impact on Facebook or Twitter. In fact, nobody’s going to even know you’re there. Show you care about your friends and followers by engaging with them.

Comment on or @reply to people’s updates. When other people comment on your updates, reply back to them. On Facebook, respond promptly to messages and new friend requests. On Twitter, reply to direct messages and follow back people who follow you.

Publicly encourage. One of the best ways you can engage with people and show you care is to encourage them. It doesn’t take a lot of time or effort either. Posting a comment on someone’s Facebook update with a simple, “Congrats!” or “That’s awesome!” or “I’m praying for you” shows the person (and their Facebook friends) that you really are listening and you care. Retweeting a follower’s tweet or posting a quick @reply to them accomplishes the same thing on Twitter.

Respond privately to sensitive issues.

Facebook and Twitter provide the means to respond privately as well as publicly to your friends and followers. If someone posts an update alluding to a personal or sensitive issue—their relationship status changes, they’ve lost their job, they sound depressed—in addition to publicly encouraging them, you may want to want to send them a private or direct message. Not only does it give you the opportunity to say something you might not want to say publicly, but by asking open-ended questions, you invite them to open up more privately about what’s going on and how they’re really doing.

Be personal. People are not connecting with you on Facebook and Twitter so they can hear about God and church all the time. They want to relate to you as a human being. Post/tweet about what’s happening in your life. Share photos and

video of your family. Talk about your other interests and hobbies. Share links to articles you think are interesting. People are also not connecting with you so they can see how perfect people live. Don’t just post the good stuff that’s going on in your life.

It’s OK to express sadness, anger and frustration.

In fact, it’s not just OK, it’s necessary. We are all frail and sinful. People need to understand that as a leader you are not better than they are. You are just blessed to be forgiven and have the Holy Spirit at work in your life.

Initiate. Some people are afraid to initiate a Facebook friend request or begin following pastors and other leaders. After you meet someone in the community or meet someone for the first time at church, send them a friend request next time you’re on Facebook and follow them on Twitter if they tweet. Remember, Jesus hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors, so you should be hanging out on Facebook and Twitter with people who are not Christians, too.

Using social media is not rocket science. Using it well is primarily a matter of taking the emotional intelligence and relational principles we (hopefully) already have and applying them in the context and with the tools Facebook and Twitter provide.

When we do that, Facebook and Twitter allow us to be involved in people’s lives throughout the week, regardless of where we or our friends and followers are, regardless of what’s going on in our lives or the lives of those around us. It multiplies our capacity to live with, love and lead the people God has placed into our lives.

PAUL STEINBRUECK is co-founder and CEO of OurChurch.com, which provides web design, hosting, search marketing and social media consulting services to Christian organizations. Paul lives in Safety Harbor, FL with his wife and three children.

*ACT: Make it a point this week to engage in conversation with several different followers or friends—not with mass-tweets or posts, but in a way that shows you are paying attention and care about them.

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PA R T I E S A N D P R AY E R S I N I B I Z A HOW 24-7 PRAYER IS SHAPING THE PARTY CAPITAL OF EUROPE

BY RACHEL WEGNER

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BRIAN HEASLEY

B

EATS PUMP FROM THE CLUBS IN IBIZA, Spain. Bars and pubs overflow with young and often unruly “holidaymakers” on vacation. Prostitutes mill about shadowed street corners and around the bay. Club and bar workers try feverishly to direct traffic to their venues. Excessive use of alcohol and drugs and bold promiscuity charge the atmosphere.

In the midst of it all, a small team from 24-7 Prayer unassumingly walks, talks, prays, extends simple acts of kindness and lends a helping hand to those who are intoxicated, injured, passed out or lost. The team has taken up residence on the island of Ibiza, Spain, which is notorious for being the party capital of Europe. Home to some of the biggest clubs in the world, the city attracts droves of young adults who vacation there each year.

As one would imagine, the team has had some interesting experiences. Once, near the end of a typical night on the streets, they were gathered for prayer at their center around 4 a.m. when there was a knock at the door. Brian Heasley, who leads the team with his wife, Tracy, answered it and found on the other side a man who worked at one of the pubs in the West End. “I’m really sorry to interrupt your meeting, but we’ve got a guy who needs some help,” the man said. The statement gave Brian pause as he considered its deeper meaning.

“I think it was a prophetic statement to the Church,” Brian says. “That was a really profound moment of God breaking in. I was glad God had interrupted our meeting and given us this great chance to worship Him.” The pub worker took them to a man who was drunk and had fallen over in the pub and cut his eye.

The team promptly cleaned the man up and helped him back to his hotel. Afterward, the team finished praying and went home for the night.

During the days, a less frenetic pace overtakes Ibiza. Holidaymakers and locals enjoy the natural

beauty of the island, which is set off the southern coast of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea. Beaches, shops and restaurants fill with people and vendors line the streets. Boats dot the harbors, shuttling people around and touring different parts of the island. At one of the highest points of the island, which only reaches to about 1,500 feet, Catholic nuns quietly go about their daily rhythms in a cathedral that is open to visitors and locals alike.

After becoming a permanent presence on Ibiza in 2005, the 24-7 Ibiza team established the simple vision of caring for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the people they meet. In 2007, they opened a center situated on the West End, which is a concentrated strip of bars and clubs in the small town of San Antonio. The center includes a fellowship space and a prayer room, with a wall filled with written prayer requests collected as the team is out on the streets and around the island.

As a part of the global 24-7 Prayer movement, prayer as a foundation for the work of 24-7 Ibiza came naturally from the start. The team keeps daily and weekly rhythms of prayer and worship.

Each night during the party season, which stretches from May to October, the team divides in half and alternates spending an hour on the streets and an hour in the prayer room. They liken this rhythm to breathing in and breathing out.

“We breathe God’s presence in as we spend time in prayer, and we breathe Him out on the streets,” Brian says. “But there is, much more simply, a

“PRAYER DRIVES US TO MISSION, AND MISSION DRIVES US TO PRAYER.” —TRACY HEASLEY transactional nature to this rhythm. We spend time in His presence and find our hearts becoming aligned to His heart. We learn to hear Him and become more sensitive to Him. We want to be as sensitive to Him on the streets as we are in the prayer room.”

Though Brian and Tracy are currently the only ones who live on the island year-round with their two sons, they welcome teammates who come for all or part of the six-month party season and a few who stay for even longer. Two-week teams also come steadily throughout the summer months.

“Some missions organizations don’t like two-week teams because they see it as Christian tourism,” Brian says. “We feel that a two-week team carries the work that we do here to another level.

They give us breakthroughs in prayer and help carry the burden of the work.”* By night, the team meets at the center to pray and go out on the streets from around 11 p.m. to as late as 5 or 6 a.m. By day, they spend their afternoons welcoming people who work on the island to use the Internet, play games, spend time in the prayer room and ultimately build relationships with the long-term team.

In light of the late nights and work on the streets that is often demanding and physically exhausting, the team finds their time praying, resting and simply being in God’s presence together vital.

“The minute we think we can do all that we do on a practical level without bringing God into the picture, we’ve lost our way,” Tracy says. “When you spend time with God, you open yourself to His heart and you can’t help but go out and communicate that with people. Prayer drives us to mission, and mission drives us to prayer. Likewise, hearing people’s stories moves us back to prayer.”

Although they recognize the darkness and spiritual heaviness of many of the things they encounter in their work on Ibiza, Brian says they are able to walk in God’s light and love largely because they spend so much time praying. In turn, he says that allows them to feel the weight of compassion for the people they meet. Conversely, he says it is often a challenge not to become immune to the grim and difficult things they see every day.

As the 24-7 Ibiza team has worked on the island over the last six years, they have collected a handful of stories that serve as defining moments for them. One such moment emerged on a night when Tracy and a teammate named Rachel were walking around the West End and saw a group of women together for a bachelorette party. The two approached the group and asked if they could pray for the bride-to-be. She agreed and Tracy and Rachel prayed for her.

After they finished praying and began to walk away, a few of the girls called them back to ask them questions about what they believed. As Rachel talked and prayed with one of the girls, she began to cry. One of her friends demanded to know what Rachel had done to make her cry.

“It’s not her that’s making me cry,” the girl said before Rachel could respond. “It’s God in her that’s touching me.”

Tracy says it was a moment that confirmed again how important it was for them to spend time with God and then to carry His presence out onto the streets.

“We walk out in the presence of God,” Tracy says.

“Jesus doesn’t stay back in the prayer room. He comes out on the streets and walks with us. It’s actually tangible in some ways to the people that

*DISCUSS: Does your church send members out on short-term mission trips? Have you ever discussed the potential negatives of such trips?

Consider and talk to your team about both sides of the coin with this sometimes controversial practice.

neuemagazine.com 55

the women who worked as prostitutes. But after consistently praying for, visit 24-7ibiza.com approaching and extending or 24-7shorts.com, acts of kindness toward the where you can women, they eventually view a short began to talk and open up documentary,“Prayer to a few of the teammates. as Mission,” about At the beginning of the their work. summer of 2010, much to the astonishment of the team, several of the women began attending the Sunday night gatherings held at the 24-7 Ibiza center.

“No young girl when she was growing up ever thought, ‘When I get older, I want to be a prostitute,’” Brian says. “When we see a prostitute, we look at her through God’s eyes. God didn’t screw up when He made her. God smiled when she was born.”

As the 24-7 Ibiza team continues to establish relationships with people on the island, their place in the local Spanish community has also deepened. During their time between the 2010 and 2011 party seasons, they took the opportunity to invest further into their Sunday night gatherings, adopting a bilingual format and inviting local Ibizans to join them.

The value of community is deeply embedded into the 24-7 Prayer movement as a whole. In lieu of that, the vision of 24-7 Ibiza includes building meaningful relationships with the people who live on the island. Ultimately, the vision of 24-7 Ibiza “Sex God” shirt lifted the man with the “Jesus” shirt is sustained just as much by their time of prayer onto his shoulders. and outreach as it is by further establishing their “At times you can be overwhelmed by the culture relationship with their community. To this end, they of what is happening in the streets, but it was this have found great inspiration from the passage in beautiful, prophetic picture of Jesus being lifted up Matthew 5:13-16 (The Message), which reads: above it all,” Brian says.

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to Though the 24-7 Ibiza team has had countless be salt seasoning that brings out the God flavors of opportunities to help, pray for and share the Gospel this earth. Here’s another way to put it. You’re here with people, they have also learned the value of to be light, bringing out the God colors in the world. consistency when they cannot see the answers to God is not a secret to be kept. Keep open house, be their prayers. Many of the people they meet are only generous with your lives. By opening up to others, in Ibiza for a two-week holiday or working on the you’ll prompt people to open up with God.” island for only part of the party season. They have A question that they first heard Michael Frost often prayed for someone that they meet only once, raise has also been a challenge to them. He asked, and have learned to trust God with the outcome.

“If you were to move out tomorrow, would your Also, with the repetitive cycle of the party season community miss you?” and the culture it brings to the island, the team “In a place where there is a constant flow of has diligently prayed for God to redeem Ibiza for people coming and going, it takes a while to His glory. establish those kinds of relationships,” Tracy says.

“We live in a culture where everything is “We came with an awareness that it had to be immediate,” Brian says. “We have had to learn the building, not visiting, [and] blessing, not selling. lesson of the persistent prayer.”

We hope that over the years, 24-7 Prayer in Ibiza At times the team has been able to see the has made a difference to the people in this small answer to some of their more long-standing area in which we operate and that they would prayers. For the first four years they lived in Ibiza, miss the God flavors and colors that our Christian they were unable to engage in conversation with community brings.”

TO LEARN MORE

Brian Heasley, co-team leader of 24-7 Ibiza

we talk to. The most joyful thing for me has been the moments where you see the lights come on and you see someone make a connection with God.” Brian and his teammate Alain encountered another profound moment as they danced in one of the many clubs in Ibiza. Although the residential and short-term 24-7 Ibiza teams enjoy going to clubs simply to dance, listen to great music and meet people, they also go to set an example of having a good time without needing alcohol or drugs. They see it as an opportunity to be a light in a dark place and to be in the opposite spirit of the party culture of the island.

That night as Brian and Alain danced, they saw two men dancing in the middle of a group of people with shirts that said “Jesus” and “Sex God,” respectively.* At one point, the man wearing the 56

*THINK: This was obviously an old promo T-shirt from Rob Bell’s book of the same name. He probably caught it when Rob shot it out of a T-shirt cannon at the end of his talk last time he came through Ibiza.

THE FORMATION OF

EUGENE PETERSON

BY JOSH LUJAN LOVELESS

Eugene Peterson knows what it means to be a pastor.

He has spent most of his life serving the Church— whether that was from the pulpit at the church he founded in Bel Air, Md., as a professor at Regent College or as the author of more than 30 books, including his memoir, The Pastor, and The Message, a paraphrase translation of the Bible that is widely used today. Here, Peterson talks about church culture, how to be a pastor for life and why it’s possible for a church to get too big.

In your memoir, you talk about being a butcher in your dad’s shop as a kid. How did that end up forming you as a pastor?

Pastors were never very important to me. I liked them. They were nice, and they told great stories, but they never seemed to be very serious about God, and I was.* They just seemed peripheral to ordinary life, whereas in my dad’s butcher shop, things were very serious. My father took everybody seriously and treated them with dignity. I got the image very early on that he was a priest. Of course there was a lot of sacrifice going on. There were animals killed all the time and people came to the place. Well, I felt when they entered that butcher shop, they were coming into sacred space. Everyone was treated the same, there was no discrimination with anybody. So my father, and my mother in a different way, shaped my sense of being working for God, but not with a pastor’s title to it. The pastoral vocation was never a very big part of my identity.

You thought you would be more of a teacher or professor, and then discovered you were a pastor. What was the process 58

like to identify yourself as a pastor?

I finished my graduate work at Johns Hopkins, and I was invited back to my seminary to be on the faculty, and my assigned work was teaching Greek and Hebrew. But I was newly married, we had a child and they weren’t paying me much. So I took a job as an associate pastor at a church nearby in White Plains. I’d never been around a pastor close up that would seem to me a man of God. But this man, he took this seriously, and he was a man of enormous integrity. It just surprised me. I was often recruited to teach a course for someone who was on sabbatical. And one year, after I’d been doing this for a year or so, the course was the book of Revelation. And suddenly I read Revelation with new eyes. I realized John was a pastor, and here I was in New York City, or near to New York City, which is very much a Babylon sort of place. So I began to identify with him as a pastor, and suddenly the classroom became almost claustrophobic for me.

There is no ambiguity in a classroom, especially teaching languages. Everything is very crisp and clear, right or wrong. And meanwhile, in the congregation, everything was happening: death,

birth, suicides, divorce, salvation, kids running away from home and parents standing around like guilty bystanders. I realized I was in a setting I never really knew existed. Suddenly it all came together for me, and I knew I was a pastor. I realized I’d been a pastor all my life, I just never knew it.

You attended and taught in seminary.

What role do you think seminary plays in a postmodern era?

Well, it’s a very important role. Pastors need to know what’s going on in the world and what has been going on for 4,000 years. We need a way to read Scripture which is imaginative, interpretive.

I think it’s very important. The difference with seminary these days, I think, has to do with accreditation. Seminary, there’s not enough measure in it, there’s not enough time for prayer, for reflection, for discussion. But the theological accrediting agencies insist on certain things that have to be done and in a certain sequence, and I’m not sure the seminaries have much freedom to do anything about that. But seminary is critical for formation of a pastor.

*THINK: What early experiences informed what you thought a pastor was supposed to be?

TENNYSON WILLIAMS

You’ve said there’s been a surge in military language in the Church, and then business language in the Church. Why has that bothered you?

It seems significant that the American leadership of the Church is being trained to attract people on a consumer basis. We live in a consumer nation.

We’re the number-one consumers in the whole world, and somehow pastors have been seduced into thinking they are salesman for Jesus and they’ve got to provide an attractive product, and we’ve got to find ways to manipulate people into our churches. I think it’s just deadly. It’s very successful statistically, but the product is not very attractive.

People learn to shop for churches, there is no loyalty to the church. They’re consumers being attracted to one product or another. I think it’s sacrilege, to tell you the truth, it really is.

If a congregation is bringing consumer expectations into church, how does a pastor re-educate their congregation?

Number one, he or she has to be a pastor, not a promoter, and that takes a long time. I realized early on that nobody knows—in America, in this century—nobody knows what a pastor does.* They’ve learned what pastors are from celebrity stories, television promotional things.

I just decided I’ve got to teach people who I am and what I’m doing. So I had two retreats a year. I took my elders and my deacons on an overnight retreat, and during this retreat, I said: “I need to know what your work is and what your families are like if I’m to be your pastor. But you’ve got to know what my family is like, what my work is like, when you don’t see me in the pulpit.” They don’t see me between Sundays, and when I was able to tell them how important visiting people was for me, how study was important for me, they realized what my work was and I realized what theirs was—what the doctors did, what the engineers did, what the teachers did.

So we developed a kind of community in which the laity and the pastor were on a par—we both had our responsibilities in the Kingdom of God, and we needed to support each other. I tried very hard not to develop a hierarchy of a pastor-led church. But it meant letting them be themselves as I wanted them to let me be myself. To tell you the truth, it probably took five years before that started to work and infiltrate the congregation. But by that time, they knew me and the consumer model wasn’t what they were after anymore. We had a relationship.

Is there a point where a church becomes too large for a pastor to lead like that?

Yeah, this is a very unpopular thing to say, but I think the megachurch, they do many things really well. They do mission things really well, they do evangelism sometimes very well, but you can’t be a pastor. If you’re going to preach the Gospel to these people, you’ve got to know their lives. The Gospel is never disembodied. If you’re just preaching to people and you don’t know their names, they don’t know your name, this is not preaching, this is not pastor work. I decided it would be 500. I thought I could know 500 people by name and know their kids’ names. I knew everybody in my congregation by name, and spent time in their homes and near their families, near their parents.

If you stay there long enough, you could probably know 1,000 people.

You said church growth should be called “church cancer.” What does that mean?

Size has to be proportionate to what you are, what you’re doing. There’s an appropriate size for everything and every kind of congregation.

So if you’re in a village, that’s different. You know everybody in the village. You could have 100 people, 2,000 people, you know everybody and they know you. But in a city, that’s not quite the same, or a suburb. Suburbs are probably the hardest, nobody knows anybody nor wants to. So I think this matter of size is very important in terms of how we understand what we’re doing as a congregation.

What are a couple common character flaws that pastors need to be aware of?

Religion is a very scary thing, because a pastor is in a position of power. And if you use that power badly, you ruin people’s lives, and you ruin your own life.

So I think that’s why it’s important to have a couple people in your life who you’re honest with and open with and you can check that. It’s so insidious when you do something really well, people admire you, they affirm you. But sometimes they don’t. So you either readjust what you’re doing so they’ll like you, or you start using manipulative ways to get them to like you. I suppose pride is the most common name for that, but it often doesn’t look like pride or feel like pride when you’re doing that.

What are some signs a pastor has a Messiah complex, and how can they be more self-aware?

The obvious sign is you overwork. You become a workaholic because “everything depends upon you.”

*DISCUSS: How is the role of “pastor” defined in your church context? How does that need to change?

If you don’t take a Sabbath, something is wrong.

You’re doing too much, you’re being too much in charge. You’ve got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you’re not doing anything. So those two things, the absence of a Sabbath and being overactive. I think it’s basic—we have to understand what we’re doing, what this vocation is. It’s dealing with a congregation, with a church. It’s a community. If as pastors we’re not developing a lay ministry all the time, we’re robbing the congregation of its integrity. One of the things that irks me still is churches that have 20 pastors or 20 hired staff. What are they doing? What are all the elders and deacons and Sunday school teachers doing that they have to have all these people interfering in their lives?

Is it possible for a large church to change, or do you have to start from scratch?

Oh, I don’t know. I think it’s very difficult to take a congregation that is way too large and do anything about it. The most obvious thing to do is colonize and divide the church into much smaller units and send them into their neighborhoods, but I’ve never heard anybody do that. There’s too much ego involved.

ESSENTIAL PETERSON THE MESSAGE His paraphrase version of the Bible has made the Word come alive for many who used to find it difficult to read. To read it online, visit: http://bit.ly/30XwPy

What do you think of the state of the church now in 2011?

This might surprise you, but I am really optimistic.

I think there’s an enormous amount of energy. I think there are a lot of people who are fed up with the bigness and the celebrity. I am in touch with a lot of pastors who just love what they’re doing, and are doing it with grace and humility and energy.

The state of the Church is not marked these days by how many people are coming, or how famous a pastor is or how great a preacher he is. I am not at all pessimistic. It’s the Church of Christ, and the gates of hell are not going to prevail against it.

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RECOMMENDS

Here are a few of the things we’re enjoying these days for inspiration, motivation—and an occasional moment of amusement.

BROWSE

READ

USE

MyModernMet.com | Inspiration abounds on this blog curator. Whether you’re creating or just appreciating, My Modern Met is a sleek digital source for the latest and greatest in architecture, art, design, photography and technology.

Half the Church | The treatment of women varies from country to country, religion to religion. So how can today’s Church expect to reach them with a onedimensional approach? Carolyn Custis James charges ministers to refocus the message with thought to a global womankind.

Remind Me Later | If iCal makes you crazy, download this free app for your toolbar. Quickly type in general details of a task or event, and Remind Me Later automatically figures out what you mean and where to put it.

TheWeek.com | This site is the best place to catch news that’s under the radar of the mainstream media. The Week asks questions you won’t see scrolling through the ticker on regular headline news. You’ll at least find some snarky political cartoons to share.

Top 200 Church Blogs — http:// bit.ly/GRNI | Sifting through ministry blogs is often an “eat the hay, spit out the sticks” activity. So ChurchRelevance.com went ahead and compiled a list of the top 200 blogs that church leaders should be reading. It’s like an invite to the cool table.

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Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? | It’s a question that has nagged Americans and Christians for years, often divisively so. John Fea expertly tackles it here, delving into the history of religion and nationalism in the U.S.—and where they’ve been tangled up.

The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God | There’s much debate over what God’s Word has to say and why it says it. While it’s a discussion that isn’t likely to end any time soon, N.T. Wright offers some of his wisdom on the subject, encouraging readers of the Bible to be lovers of Scripture.

The Hipmunk — www.blog. thehipmunk.com | Ah, the joy of ad-free flight searching. Hipmunk compiles your options into a simple spreadsheet-type page, and even gives them an “agony” rating based on price, duration and number of stops.

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild — PhilosophersGuild.com | Philosophy doesn’t pay well—unless you can manage to turn your musings into themed merchandise. This selfaware catalog of finger puppets, mugs, timepieces and other knickknacks is sure to provide unique gift ideas.

WATCH

LISTEN

FOLLOW

Manchester Orchestra, “Simple Math” — http://bit.ly/gZ4rAn | For those who have grown tired of music videos, this one may bring new hope for the medium. The video for “Simple Math” is as darkly beautiful as the single itself, showcasing questions of life, death and innocence.

Sons & Daughters — Brokenness Aside | A little like The Swell Season, a little like The Civil Wars—and refreshingly nothing like the rest of your worship playlist. On their EP, Brokenness Aside, Sons & Daughters strike a balance between soothing melodies and motivating lyrics.

David Dark — @daviddark | David Dark wrote The Sacredness of Questioning Everything and Everyday Apocalypse. Now he’s the king of tangent tweets, pointing his followers to quirky quotes and insightful articles.

God Grew Tired of Us — GodGrewTiredOfUs.com | If you haven’t seen it yet, this Nicole Kidman-narrated 2006 documentary tells the story of three boys who repatriate to the U.S. after the Second Sudanese Civil War. It’s a startling snapshot of injustice, culture shock and renewal.

Power | This band feels that “music cannot be contained by one source; it’s by and for everyone.” And they’re backing that belief up—by releasing 52 free songs over 52 weeks. Go to PowerOfficial.com and download away.

Parenthood — http://bit.ly/aTsguj | If you can think of a parenting scenario, this show covers it. Much like our familial relationships, a single episode could make you cringe, cry or crack up, making it one of the most moving and well-written shows on television.

Foster the People | Rather than quickly churn out some filler songs, Foster the People introduced themselves with a crisp three-song EP earlier this year that echoed MGMT. (You know, before Congratulations). Turns out that was all they needed to generate some buzz for their debut album this summer.

Everyday Liturgy — @everydayliturgy | The Twitter companion to the Everyday Liturgy blog provides poems, prayers and op-eds on old and new spiritual disciplines.

It’s a helpful guide for those “between the banks of Christianity and life.” So, basically, all of us.

ROFTERS — @rofters | ROFTERS stands for “Readers of First Things,” which is a bit more accessible than it sounds. (First Things is a magazine seeking to “advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society.”) Follow their Twitter for fresh, scholarly insight on religion, politics and culture if you want a break for not-so-light reading.

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LAST WORD

LIVING WITH QUESTIONS JOSH LUJAN LOVELESS If you have ever followed a man named Jesus and found yourself in relationship with Him, you might have wrestled with a few questions. Even more challenging is what one might do who has been tasked with the responsibility of inviting others to follow them as they follow Christ. How do you live in the tension of being the one who has all of the answers when the truth is you stay up late every night with all of the questions?

Being a leader means the ceiling above your bed has been painted by your stare late at night with confusion about how to answer questions of Kingdom living and leadership. Maybe you have figured everything out because the Bible you bought has made life and leadership easy, or maybe the Word has come alive and brought more questions than answers. If you are in the second camp, I have a few questions that demand some type of reflection and response.

Have you ever wondered if Jesus would go to your church? If He showed up, would you recognize Him? I wonder what the ushers might do with a poorly dressed man who talks to people in the lobby as if He might have something on His mind worth preaching? Would He be given the opportunity to address the crowd and read from the holy Scriptures in a way that would make your leadership team uncomfortable and your congregation lean forward in their seats,

they were with Jesus? Would they find classes that meet the criteria of the experience they found by following their Rabbi to a cross of death that would cause them to question everything they learned? Is discipleship defined in any way in your context that demands people live with one another so they are forced into an accountable relationship that doesn’t allow people to live in hiding? Is there a Rabbi or Teacher among your church community that is raising up disciples who are becoming Apostles to unreached people groups that want nothing to do with the message of Jesus? Is your church producing disciples who have been so radically saved you can’t describe the fruit that is being harvested in their lives?

Would Paul find his theology sharpened in the classroom of your seminary? Would someone who is responsible for the death of others be given the chance of a deep and meaningful education, studying the story of God alongside

MAYBE THE WORD HAS COME ALIVE AND BROUGHT MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS. wondering what will happen next? Would He be given a seat in the back so the ushers could keep an eye on Him, or would He be ushered to the front row? If He were given an opportunity to speak into a microphone, what would He say to the people in your church about how they have applied thousands of years of Christian history to their everyday context? Is it similar or different than what you have already spoken when you have had a chance to speak to the people in your church? Would Jesus speak words that would fit into the sermon series your church is in the middle of? Would your programmed agenda make room for a Jesus interruption?

Have you ever wondered if Jesus’ disciples would truly be discipled in your church the way

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those who have not been responsible for the death of other Christians? Could the writings of a sinner who has wronged those you loved speak into your life a new way of thinking about a God you thought you’d already figured out?

Would David be as challenged as a songwriter in your community of artists as he was in the fields as a shepherd? Are there environments that allow musicians to explore intimacy with the Trinity in places of solitude before becoming popular with a crowd of people? How are those who don’t look the part of “leader” given a chance to be anointed within your church? What role does art and creativity play in the hierarchy of gifts that are celebrated and acknowledged the way David’s brother’s attributes were assumed

as more valuable? Are there younger leaders you are threatened by or older leaders whose legacy intimidates you?

If the ancient stories of the Old and New Testament haven’t triggered a debate recently among your leadership team about how you “do church,” then you aren’t studying the Scriptures with a holy fear. And to study the Scriptures without a holy fear means you have embraced a far deeper fear of religion and tradition than you have of the Trinity itself. Living and speaking the words and ways of Jesus to a world that could care less demands a level of wrestling that only a few are familiar with. The ones who have led their church this way can be recognized walking with a limp that is countercultural to the fastpaced sprint of pastoral normality in 2011.

I’m reminded of my conversation with Eugene Peterson in this issue. He described his decades of serving as a pastor as if he had walked through a battlefield with a deep sense of joy. Also in this issue we address the challenge and reward of bivocational ministry.

The goal for many in the 21st century has been to become a full-time pastor while many others are recognizing what rewards are found by those who are able to live with one calling amongst multiple jobs. In our cover story we are hoping you’re aware of the conversations happening around the dinner tables in your church community. The larger our churches get, the more removed we can be from the dialogue happening in the lives of our people. We want to remind you to fight against building a tower of leadership that keeps you set apart from the real needs faced by the people in your congregation.

If we aren’t willing to hold up the story of the people of God in the Bible to our own church, then we have become leaders who have chosen to tell a false story. We then become the guilty party that has allowed our broken church traditions to affect us far more than our concern of what our culture is doing to our followers. I believe our leadership will be defined by the way we wrestle with the difficult parts of Scripture more than how we apply what comes easy.

JOSH LUJAN LOVELESS is the senior editor of Neue. Josh has 14 years of pastoral experience and lives in Orlando, FL.

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