transitioning to missional 2

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Great Commission, church, church planting, evangelism, examining, incarnational, leadership, mission, missional, missional church, pastoring
• Date: Feb 10,2010

I’ve been reflecting some more on Brent Thomas’ thoughts on how to transition to “missional” if you are an established church.

In his post, Brent talks about how many pastors see the gap between the reality of what is and what they want to see happen missionally in their churches. It reminded me of a passage from The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay.

For pastors who feel discouraged, this should be of help:

We used to spend most of our time with…bold church planters because we thought it would be a waste of time to try to teach the old dog new tricks when you can release the young hounds into new, unrestricted land. Yet, over the the past six years, much of our work had been with existing churches and more traditional pastors who don’t want to settle for irrelevance. They are men and women who deeply love people – the “lost” – but also have responsibilities to love the found ones.

…I used to judge these leaders as weak, or unwilling, or even worse, unloving toward the harvest field. But now I’ve come to believe that they are just as important as the brave, arrogant, pioneer pastors. They are the shepherds; the ones who can help the pioneers take risks. They are the ones with the resources, people, and facilities who can help out the fledgling mushroom eaters.

Would it be okay to consider there are degrees of missionality?…Is it possible that God doesn’t need nor ask everyone to start something new? It is possible that God needs millions of leaders to care for a host of Christians who won’t be able to make the turn into new forms of church?…The transition within the U.S. church doesn’t require that we all travel on the same ship, but we must all sail on the same sea.

…The call…is not to get everyone back on the front lines of mission, but to get everyone involved in mission. Whereas some would say we need to move past our existing church forms, we disagree. We just need to see them as they are, accept their weakness, and their strengths, and find ways to help them contribute.

Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community, pg. 34, 36

So established church pastor, find comfort in the fact that, as Halter + Smay state, there are different degrees of missionality.

The one tip I would add to Brent’s list of things to think about when transitioning to missional is related to established churches. As Halter and Smay said, established “shepherds” can be an important part of this missional movement. They have “resources, people, and facilities” that can be used to support those on the front lines. My additional tip would be:

Depending on your degree of missionality, use your resources to support missional pioneers prayerfully, financially, and practically and also, by planting churches out of our church community.

Re: planting churches, sometimes the best missional step for an established church is to plant a church out its fellowship. Church planting has been described as the most effective form of evangelism. Why?

Drew Goodmanson talks about it this way:

New churches have greater freedom to be flexible, change on the dime and try new things. This means they can experiment with new methods, sounds, styles and often this can reach untapped people groups. The same principles are seen when start-up companies are more innovative and surpass the larger bureaucracy-laden companies in tapping new markets.

My mentor calls himself a “hospice chaplain” for his church. In his best estimation, the church he pastors is dying but he has been called there to help them die well. Part of his passion is to mobilize his congregation missionally. I respect his call and bravery. It would be foolish to diminish his place in the Kingdom. We all have a ordained place in the King’s work – may we be faithful to discern and quick to obey Him where He leads…

dan kimball here for abandoned: worship as life seminar 2008

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: art, community, emerging church, emerging culture, evangelism, examining, missiology, my favorite songs, planning, post-Christendom, q & a, quotes of note, radio, social justice, sports, theology, worship
• Date: May 6,2008

It is with great excitement that I announce that Dan Kimball, pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, CA, conference speaker, and author of The Emerging Church, Emerging Worship, and , They Like Jesus, But Not the Church and co-author of Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Church, has agreed to be our keynote speaker for the Abandoned: Worship As Life Seminar on Saturday, September 27, 2008!

Dan will speak in four sessions on various issues such as the emerging church, emerging worship, the future of worship in the church, etc.

I must say that Kimball’s book, The Emerging Church, absolutely changed my life. It set me on a course of deconstruction and reconstruction in my ecclesiology and Emerging Worship did the same for my worship philosophy. It is an unbelievable honor to have him come.

If you remember, last year Sally Morgenthaler and Shaun Groves were with us. It was a time of great challenge and encouragement.

My vision for Abandoned remains focused on the emerging worship conversation and educating, encouraging, and spurring on MBU Worship Arts students, as well as the local church worship community. The mission for the event is:

1) Simply put, Romans 12:1. We are ‘abandoned to worship as life’ because we have been commanded to offer our bodies of living sacrifices. Living – as in all of the time. That means our spiritual act of worship, or our spiritual lifestyle, never ceases. It’s not a something we clock in to do when we go to church and then clock out. Because of the cross the ‘temple’ of worship is now our own hearts. We don’t go to church, we are the church. And that means worship can and should happen everywhere, including the church.

2) ‘Worship as life’ eludes to the idea that as we offer our bodies as living sacrifices, it impacts the people around us. This is the missional aspect of worship. In other words, as we personally worship God, we have a conversation, a connection, an intimate exchange of love between Father and child. After we’ve experienced this love in a time of worship, how could we not share the love we have been so freely given with others? Why wouldn’t we want those around us to experience what we have? If not, our worship has terminated on ourselves. We have to remember our salvation doesn’t end at the point we receive God’s free gift of grace. We have been saved to continue to redeem the world. So our worship should propel us outside the four walls of the church.

Soon, I will have an announcement regarding the artist[s] that will be here to close the day out on that Saturday evening. Be looking for more information regarding the seminar in the months ahead!

please, not another hymns project. well…

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: CCM, art, church, community, emerging church, examining, history, hymns, independent music, music, songwriting, worship
• Date: Mar 27,2008

Stuck in a moment

I used to write music a lot. Even post-Nashville, I was writing on a fairly frequent basis. But slowly by surely, the vigor for songwriting has been absorbed by many things, including this blog.

But there have been moments over the past few years where that ‘loving feeling’ has returned and I’ve been inspired to put together a concept album of some kind. I’m in the middle of one of those moments right now.

This ain’t your grandma’s hymns

I am so grateful for the resurgence of hymns. They ain’t your grandma’s hymns for sure, but a necessary reintroduction into the repertoire of churches all over the world. And I’ve seen a continuum over the last decade of where the reawakening has taken us.

First, for example, you have Passion and Caedmon’s Call musically updating hymns that we all know and love and at times, adding a new chorus that brings into the current praise and worship realm. They aren’t musically that radical.

Second, you have folks like Mars Hill Church who are updating hymns we all know and love but they are so radically progressive musically, they don’t sound like the same hymns. But they are…

Third, you have Sojourn, Indelible Grace, Red Mountain Music doing some of this as well, but also going back into the ‘vault’ and reclaiming lesser known hymns and updating the music.

Fourth, you have folks like Stuart Townend and Keith Getty who are differentiating themselves from the praise and worship industry by writing what many consider modern day hymns. New lyrics, new tunes, all hearkening back to that vintage art form.

Overindulging ourselves with vanilla

As with any rebirth of any kind, there is always the possibility of overexposure. Some great things start out innocently and then become monsters that are almost unmanageable. CCM is a good example of this…

I’ve seen a proliferation of the repackaged hymns idea – the hymn’s original lyrics and melody with updated music – for some time now. To be honest, I’m growing weary. How many arrangements of Amazing Grace can we come up with? Don’t hear what I’m not saying. I’m not saying we are over satiated with the worth of hymns. I think we’ve overindulged ourselves a bit with the endless vanilla repackaging of those hymns.

Theology married to context

If you listen long enough to people talk about the church reclaiming the arts, you hear the value of indigenous art sprouting up from within the community of artists in a church. But the reality is that we are light years away from this being a common thread that is woven through the church. I’m afraid with the recontexted hymn, we are actually not being as creative as God has called us to be.

I believe the next great wave of church music will be the fourth group I mentioned above. Those of the Townend/Getty ilk. Individuals who are writing brand new lyrics with overtly strong theological moorings married to the contextualized sounds of community a church is situated in. How beautiful would it be if the very thing that the contemporary worship movement abandoned for the sake of accessibility became the catalyst to birth an indigenous music crusade?

Unsticking the moment

So it’s time to start writing again. Specifically, new hymns with new lyrics and melodies that read like old hymns but sound like something that lives in the 21st century. That’s the plan. I don’t know much beyond that at this point other than I need to go dust off my old hymnology books and study me some Newton. I’ll keep you posted on the progress of the project…

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 'holy'days, Christian season, Gospel, New Testament, art, examining
• Date: Mar 23,2008

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 'holy'days, Christian season, Gospel, New Testament, art, examining
• Date: Mar 21,2008

rhythm

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: New Testament, examining, reverse-engineering, the art of...
• Date: Mar 14,2008

I promise to get the Re-Engineering in 2008 series off the ground soon, but until then, this has resonated with me since I heard it back in 2005. This is the reason we all need to ‘re-engineer’:

This is where we find ourselves:

I think so many of us find our lives out of rhythm. We got this great conversion story how Jesus hit us or how something awoke in us. Yet ever since then, we have really struggled to find out how life works with Him…

-Matt Chandler, lead pastor of The Village Church from his sermon, Rhythm Part 1

What rhythm should do:

Rhythm should reflect health for you. Not health for me, for your friend or for the next guy. Rhythm by definition is created by contact then rests, contact then rests. The pattern of contact and rest is what creates rhythm.

-Ron Martoia, from his blog Velocity Culture and his entry “Now to Rhythm”

Why rhythm is more than a ‘Jesus’ thing:

…this doesn’t seem to be a Jesus thing only. His disciples (which He’s called us to be – His disciples, living a life of discipleship) are called to do the same. He said, “Come follow me, live as I live.” His life is marked by Him consistently getting alone for silence, and seclusion, and meditation, and thought, but He also teaches the disciples to do the same after they’ve been giving of themselves, teaching and running about. Jesus says, “Let’s get out of here. Let’s get where it’s just you and me. Let’s get away from the phone, the email, turn off the computer, let’s stop worrying about problems that have tolet’s rest, let’s re-sync. Let’s re-sync.”

-Matt Chandler, from his sermon, Rhythm Part 2

become a student again

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: education, examining, leadership, research, the art of...
• Date: Jan 25,2008

I was a horrible college student. I had music on the brain. The irony is that I’m now working at that same college as an instructor and coordinator for a worship program there. Talk about having to prove myself…

Post-Nashville, God called me back into local church ministry and within a month’s time – although the interview process should have tipped me off – I realized I was in a bit over my head with certain folks who were resistant to some things I was doing. So I started to pray. I started to talk to the staff at my church. And I started reading. And I read and read and read.

I haven’t stopped.

Something clicked those 4 years after graduating from college that for me to honor God with my mind, I had to become a student again. And a real student at that. One that could take things like theology, worship, etc. and discern how that knowledge truly intersects with life and ministry.

If you’ve been following the blog of Ron Martoia – former pastor of progressive Westwinds Church in Jackson, MI and author of Static and Morph – you’ll know he is sharing axioms regarding his personal spiritual rhythms.

His most recent axiom caught my eye and is one I think we would all do well to consider, especially those in leadership roles. Check it:

Axiom # 3
Life long learning is a non negotiable for development and creativity.

I am going to be honest with you, this just happens far to infrequently. Not only does it not happen in the life of the average American (the number of Americans who actually buy non fiction to read is woefully small. The number who actually read more than the first chapter – miniscule) it happens as rarely in ministry.

I am not unrealistic in realizing the average person in ministry should have a balance between the various spheres of life. But never read a theology book? Never consider what is emerging in the world of cultural critique? Never consider a consistent practice of familiarizing themselves with cutting edge leadership and semiotics? This sort of laziness is just a recipe for church malaise; a vibe more common than anyone would like to admit. And it is a prescription for a boring, self absorbed person.

This is the single practice that has kept me fresh over the years. (the next post I will talk to you about THE most important practice you could daily engage to revolutionize your life) You don’t have to read three books a week, listen to 12 podcasts and surf cultural trend websites daily. But you do need an intentional plan.

What areas will you become an expert in over the next 10 years (take the long view)? Why not commit right now to one full day in bookstore getting book reading ideas and creative insights? How much time will you commit to taking new material whatever the format it takes? Input may be the most important determinate in creative flow.

Life long learning is not only the way to remain at an exciting place but it is the source of creative injection for the primary vocation into which you are living at the moment. Your ability to enact, creatively shift, and think beyond the box to the sphere or pyramid is dependent on your commitment to input. Go for it!!

morgenthaler musings

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: church, community, culture, emerging church, examining, music, sacred space, worship
• Date: Sep 27,2007

Some great conversation going on over at Kamp Krusty – a.k.a the venerable and brilliantly sardonic Brant Hansen’s blog – about Sally Morgenthaler and her recent article in Rev! magazine and reprinted on Allelon’s website. Go check out the comments. Here were my two cents:

I might add that my impression of Sally’s evolution is not so much that the version of worship evangelism she described in the book doesnt’ work, but that many people gobbled it up as another way to grow your church. Many people thought the book was about how to make your worship ‘evangelize’ or bring or more people – church growth talk. Really, the book was about how deep, rich, theological, authentic worship by believers is what truly evangelizes. And that the church growth, seeker-sensitive thing reeked of inauthenticy and faux-worship, isolated from culture.

To me, her recent comments is more of a reframing of or rather, an extension of what she was saying in WE. As both the wider culture AND the Christian sub-culture has changed, so has she in finding a way to talk about worship that takes into account the day we live in, which is mission or cultural engagement outside of the corporate worship time may be our only hope to invite folks into our corporate worship time.

She is quick to say too that we must resist the tempation to use mission for this purpose alone. In fact, much like Dan Kimball, she say this missional engagement away from church should be the norm and the corporate worship time should be looked upon as just a ‘gathering’ not an event.

Her impetus seems to be that in the 80′s & 90′s, she saw people would still come to church to see the ‘show.’ They aren’t coming in like that anymore, according to Morgenthaler.

So she says church as we did it in the 80′s & 90′s isn’t going to work. Mission, primarily, is going to come before belonging which will come before becoming. And she is excited about this paradigm because then worship truly becomes ‘liturgy’ – the work of the people.

the manifest presence of God: pursuing the Holy of Holies in our hearts

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Gospel, books, church, examining, missiology, quotes of note, reflections, theology, vision, worship
• Date: Aug 2,2007

“So as I’m standing in front of the church, leading them in songs, Scripture reading, and prayer, my goal is not to ‘lead them into God’s presence,’ but to help them remember and celebrate what Christ has accomplished for them through his righteous life, atoning death, and glorious resurrection. As they place their faith and trust in the perfect high priest, they will most likely experience a fresh awareness of God’s nearness. Their position in Christ hasn’t changed. Their appreciation of it has.”

-Bob Kaulflin, from his 7.6.07 blog entry, “Q & A Fridays: Entering the Presence of God“

One of the big aims of corporate worship is the paradox of God’s transcending nearness, but how often do we as worshippers miss it? All of the time. I think this is one of the huge barriers most people have to experiencing true worship.

Bob Sorge talks about this in one of my favorite books by him on corporate worship, Following the River: A Vision for Corporate Worship. He said there is a difference between God’s omnipresence and his manifest presence in worship.

Where does this idea of manifest presence come from?

In the Old Testament, the Israelites went to the tabernacle or temple to be near God’s presence. Whenever the phrase “come into the presence of the Lord” is used, it points back to the Old Testament model because there was a specific place for the presence of God to dwell.

However, when Jesus was crucified, He made a way for us to have access to the very presence of God. We no longer have to go to a specific place – tabernacle, temple, or church building – to have access to it. The manifest presence of God is no longer kept behind a veil in the temple but has been released to all believers to dwell in our hearts.

Although we don’t have to go in a specific place to experience His manifest presence, we do have to focus our hearts on the Lord, draw near to Him and let our praises rise to Him from a sincere heart. As we draw near to God, He will draw near to us and we will become aware of His presence – in other words, His presence will be “manifested” to us. The Bible actually says that God will inhabit our praises or be enthroned on our praises [Psalm 22:3].

It is this manifest presence that ministers the Gospel to our hearts that truly changes us from the inside out. It is in the Holy of Holies of our own hearts that this happens.

So let’s be honest, this concept is difficult for most of us. We either think its too charismatic or spooky or maybe too low church or we’ve seen it abused.

I understand your concern. I grew up in a very traditional, conservative Southern Baptist church. Praise God for that. The theology that was formed in my childhood and teenage years, much of that still remains. But my past left out a major part of the Trinity – the Holy Spirit- when it came to my personal relationship with God. And yes, worship should be intelligible and under control. But I’m afraid we’ve swung too far to the other side of an extreme.

Not until the last few years of my Christian life have I come to really understand and pursue the manifest presence of God in my personal and corporate worship times.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible that echoes this idea comes from comes from 2 Corinthians 3:8:

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Unveiled faces. I think this is the key to God’s manifest presence in worship. We have to open ourselves up to his revelation in times of worship. We can’t go on auto-pilot.

I believe sincere, heart-felt connection and nearness of God is what we all long for, we just don’t know how to get there. And for us who are conservative, we tend to put our theology about the Holy Spirit in a nice little box as to fit us rather than letting the Bible inform us.

I’m not advocating anything crazy here. In fact, I’m advocating a return to a purer form of worship. One in which there is a transcendent God meeting with his people in a powerful and transformative way. Don’t we all want that?

The truth is, most of our worship is emaciated. It is a going-through-the-motions, performance-oriented, sit-and-soak model. If that is what we have relegated worship to in the church, we should just call it what it is: a song service.

So how do we do we pursue God’s manifest presence in worship? How do we learn with this even means?

Study people who do it well. Look at people like those at IHOP and Mike Bickle. Read these articles by Bickle. Don’t be alarmed. Bickle will challenge you, but he is balanced in his approach.

Make a choice of the heart when you enter a time of worship to care more about the lyrics and heart behind the song than the style of the song.

As you sing a song, do something I call sing-pray. As you sing, engage your heart be praying for the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself to you. Convict you. Encourage you. Teach you. Don’t just sing. If you need to, don’t sing. Just let the truth of the words wash over you.

If you don’t feel like you can worship, worship anyways. Be honest with God. The Psalms are 75% lament. Sometimes we need to lament in our hearts privately as we worship publicly. I’ve heard Rob Bell say that sometimes we just need to have good words on our lips. And through that persistence – as our faces are unveiled – God meets with us.

[By the way, this type of worship is truly worship evangelism. When an unbeliever sees the power of even one worshipper intimately connecting with God in a time of worship, it can be the greatest testimony of a transformed heart to that person.]

There is a song that has ministered to me with this idea over the last few years. I close with it:

Seeing You
Matt Redman

This is a time for seeing and singing
This is a time for breathing You in
And breathing out Your praise
Our hearts respond to Your revelation
All You are showing all we have seen
Commands a life of praise

No one can sing of things
They have not seen
God open our eyes
Towards a greater glimpse
The glory of You the glory of You
God open our eyes
Towards a greater glimpse

Worship starts with seeing You
Worship starts with seeing You
Our hearts respond to Your revelation
Worship starts with seeing You
Worship starts with seeing You
Our hearts respond to Your revelation

Worship starts with seeing You God. May we with unveiled faces see You for who You really are and then may we respond in obedience to your revelation!