"No Man's Land"

 

The longer I’m a student of the church and what it takes for a local church to reach the lost inside her community, the more I realize how little I know.  There is, however, one reality of which I am sure: We insiders vastly underestimate the changes we must be willing to embrace (note I said “changes” with regard to the church and not the Gospel) in order to engage the outsiders around us.  Most churches have grown far more irrelevant to their communities than they realize, and the idea that we can tweak a few things, totally avoid  any changes in existing programming, even totally avoid the possibility of offending any insiders, and effectively reach outsiders is the quicksand great ideas die in. 

Consider this selection from James Emery White’s book:  “The Rise of the Nones.”  (Pages.97-98)

“I grew up with Wheaties, the cereal known as ‘Breakfast of Champions.’ You knew an athlete had arrived on the cultural scene if his or her picture landed on the front of one of its boxes. But Wheaties has fallen onto hard times of late. There are many reasons for this, but industry insiders say that the heart of the matter is simple: Wheaties is in no man’s land.

That’s my terminology, but there’s what the pundits are saying: Wheaties isn’t healthy enough for the Fiber One crowd, and it isn’t unhealthy enough for the Frosted Flakes crowd. That’s no man’s land. By not positioning itself firmly in any camp- not quite healthy food, not quite the junk food- it reaches no one.

It’s not just cereal that can fall into this category.  The heart of no man’s land for a church is not being targeted enough to reach the unchurched but being too targeted to the unchurched for the churched. Such churches are too tilted to those exploring the Christian faith to have their weekend services attract large numbers of traditionally minded, church –is-for-me believers, yet too caught in the cultural trappings of traditional church to attract explorers- or at least have their members feel comfortable inviting their unchurched friends.

Why is it so common for churches to find themselves in no man’s land? It’s because many churches get the surface issues of connecting with those outside the church but little more. They get the music, the dress, the style. Yet they don’t go far enough in leading the church to have a missional heart to reach out to those outside the church and invite them in; and they don’t have culturally informed and culturally sensitive messages and environments that address the questions and concerns of our day.  In other words, they have style, but not substance, décor but not decorum.  They’re trying to stand on Mars Hill with an Acts 17 vibe, but they’re doing it with a Jerusalem/Acts 2 DNA. So they end up reaching neither group.

They know about Mars Hill, talk about Mars Hill, even yearn for Mars Hill; but they don’t really know, in an intuitive sense, how to stand on Mars Hill.  They are cultural critics, even cultural students, but not cultural apologists.  A real Mars Hill person could spend ten minutes in their church service and see a mindset oriented toward those already convinced of Jerusalem playing out all over the place.

You pick where your church should stand- Mars Hill or Jerusalem.  Of course I would argue for Mars Hill. But whatever you do, there’s one place you don’t want to find yourself: no man’s land.”

Do your homework, leaders. Make decisions. Communicate “why?” Decide where you want your church to stand.  Pray, lead, and then cowboy up. It’s time for change.

Peace.

Hey, discouraged leader, listen up!

 

This one’s for the discouraged leader!

If you’ve never led major transition in a church you’re missing something.  Granted, a lot of what you’re missing are the kind of things that keep people from leading change; scars, sleepless nights, headaches, the joy of reading nasty emails, and occasional chest pain.  But there’s much more to it than that.  Consider this moment with Joshua.

13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" 14 "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?" 15 The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.  (Joshua 5:13-15)

In the next few verses the commander will give Joshua the intended message, but for now, live right here in verses 13-15.  I believe this comes in the midst of yet another long, dark, night of the soul for a leader of God’s people.  Perhaps Joshua was on a walk, late at night, pondering, worrying, thinking, trying to unpack what in the world he was going to do about the armed forces and armored walls of Jericho.  If you’ve had a night when you couldn’t sleep because of the dread of the next day, if you’ve ever just wanted to stay in bed, more comfortable with the monsters under the bed than the ones at the office, if you’ve ever stood in the shower for an hour because you didn’t want to face what lay on the other side of the curtain, I think you can identify with Joshua.

God met Joshua, and God will meet you.  It’s a bit sobering when you consider the angels’ answer to the question, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”  His answer is, “Neither.”  We must remember God’s not on our side. It’s our job to be on God’s side.  Make sure you are.  Make sure your priorities for battle are God’s priorities. Make sure the fight you’re fighting is about advancing the Kingdom, not your career path. Make sure it’s about reaching lost people, and equipping the saints for service.  Otherwise, you may find yourself on the opposite side of the angel and that’s not a good place to be.  You will make mistakes, you will regret some decisions, it’s the nature of true leadership, but if your heart is right you can rest assured, God’s got this.  He’ll guide you.

If you have honestly sought God’s guidance, if you are where you are because God called you there, if you’re fighting, in the words of the Apostle Paul, “the good fight,” then be encouraged and blessed.  (This is my favorite part.) The place where you are standing is “holy ground.”

Smile, wearied leader, you’ve led your people to the brink of a great victory.  Hold your head up and listen closely, this ground is holy and the message you are about to receive is powerful!  Don’t let the darkness of the night or the dread of the day steal the joy of the Lord!  It’s already won.  You’re role is to listen and lead.  God is faithful and the ground is holy.  It’s an honor to be where you are.  Most won’t go where you’ve gone or do what you’ve done.  Hang in there. You’ve got a front row seat for a breakthrough!

Enjoy.

"Just whittling?"

 

“Transitioning” is a powerful book by Dan Southerland regarding change in the local church.  Below is a story he tells laying the groundwork for needed, strategic, change.  (page 13)

“Travis and Garrett are each given a block of wood and a knife.  Both boys immediately begin whittling.  Both are working hard. Both are serious about their work.  Both are enjoying the task. 

When they are finished, the two boys have quite different results.  Travis has carved a boat.  Garrett has whittled his wood away into a pile of shavings. 

What was different about the two boys?  Travis had vision- which meant he could see the end result.  He also understood transition- how to get from where he was to where he wanted to go.  He had purpose, a target, and a strategy.  Garrett- while working equally hard- was just whittling.”

Southerland goes on to explain why churches need change and transition.  He points to the hard data showing losses suffered by the church over the last 30 years in North America and then points to the cause; “Most churches are just whittling.”

May God help us to be thoughtful, prayerful, and real as we seek to turn the tide and fulfill our God given destiny.  May God help every believer and every church to reach their full redemptive potential.

“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted property to them.” (Matthew 25:14+)

"Everybody's feet are bound to the floor...except mine."

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership and the state of the church in the U.S.A.  What is the role of a leader? What does it say about my leadership when I’m more reactive than proactive? What is a leader ultimately supposed to do? Preserve the peace? Protect the institution? Prevent the demise?

There’s a video link posted at the bottom of this post that says it all.  It’s the story of Kenneth L. Sailors.

Ken was born to a farm family in Hillsdale, Wyoming in 1921.  Growing up, he loved a lot of things, but nothing more than basketball.  Ken and his brother, Bud, would spend hours behind the barn shooting baskets and playing the game.  There was a problem, however.  Ken was 5-foot-10-inches tall. Bud was 6-foot-4-inches tall.  Every time, or most every time, Ken tried to shoot the ball, Bud would slap it away and say, “You need to find yourself a different sport.  Basketball is a big mans’ game.”  For Ken, that phrase got old.

So one day, out of frustration, Ken stood at the top of what would have been “the key” in a gymnasium, and jumped from the dirt basketball floor, shooting the ball one handed toward the hoop.  Ken violated 2 rules that day.  (1.) He jumped when shooting. Every coaching manual at the time implored basketball players to shoot flat-footed.  (2.) He shot the ball one-handed, which violated the other law up to that point in basketball, shoot the set shot 2-handed.  But the ball went in.  Bud looked at Ken, first like he’d cheated or something, and then upon further reflection said, “You know, Ken, you may have something there.”  And he did.

Ken amazed his high school coaches and then took his jump shot to the NCAA where he led the University of Wyoming to a national basketball championship.  He was voted an All-American 3 times, 1942, 1943, and 1946.  He was a unanimous selection for College Basketball player of the year in 1943 and 1946.  It was in 1943 that the picture at the top of this post ended up in Life Magazine.  One of the most memorable quotes from the video is about the picture.

 “If you look, everybody’s bound to the floor… their feet, I mean, except mine.” 

What the church needs are frustrated, 5-foot-10-inch leaders who are sick and tired of having the ball slapped away.  Leaders who are determined to pray, plan, lead, and execute so that the ball gets in the basket.  It’s time for prayerful innovation and God given-creativity to replace whining and criticism so that we can put the ball in the basket.  Okay, you don’t like Joel Olsteen, Bill Hybels, Mark Driscoll, Rick Warren, or whomever, we get that.  So what are YOU going to do to make a difference in this generation? Having the ball slapped away for the 100th time doesn’t make you noble, it’ makes you easy to defend against, and a poor steward of the basketball.

Here’s to those of you out there experimenting in order to find ways to put the ball in the basket for the church.  Here’s to those of you out there sick and tired of being sick and tired.  Here’s to the leader who has an idea in prayer that they execute in practice.  Here’s to the leader who recognizes Nehemiah, David, Daniel, and Esther got it done, and so can we.  Here’s to the leader who recognizes the fact that God was, is, and always will be a God of order and yes, strategy.  (Read Jesus’ sending out of the 12 and the 72 and tell me there’s no strategy.) Here’s to the leader not afraid of shooting an occasional air-ball once in a while in order to get closer to delivering a 3-pointer.  Here’s to the one who realizes that the Word of God was meant to get us from fallen to forever with Jesus and to be part of the greatest rescue mission of all time.  The 66 books of the Bible were never meant to be the walls we circle to defend ourselves, but the wagon train we drive into the open country to pioneer.

Keep dreaming, keep asking questions, and keep experimenting, leaders!  It’s NOT the Gospel that has grown irrelevant, but it might be our two-handed set shot in delivering it.  Leaders, we need you! Don’t give up!  Keep going!

Enjoy the video and go get'em!

Video:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=c9Tvf1vDL0U

Who will represent the lost at your next leadership meeting?

 

There are 3 books that drive my personal leadership thinking these days.  The Bible always has and always will call me forward.  The other two are new to me in the last couple of years but have become wells of inspiration and information. They are, “Failure of Nerve,” by Edwin Friedman, and “Leading Change without Losing It” by Carey Nieuwhof.  Consider this section from the subtitle “So…How Do You Stay Focused?” on page 57 in Nieuwhof’s book. I've included a comment or two at the end.

“So…How Do You Stay Focused?

It’s easy to focus on people you want to keep.  It takes much more resolve to focus on those you want to reach. 

Here’s why. You have to focus on people you haven’t even met. It’s easier and more natural to focus on people whose stories you know, who are paying your bills, and who are going to vote in the next congregational meeting.  It’s much more difficult and requires significantly more intentionality to focus on people who are not yet part of your church.  Unchurched people never fill up your inboxes with messages telling you they would come if you changed this one thing. They don’t show up to meetings with petitions begging you to be more relevant. They’ve never taken you out for lunch to explain how ‘everyone’ they know would come to your church if you did family ministry better. They don’t call saying they’d love to have you share the Gospel while feeding them, clothing them, or visiting them. They don’t send emails saying, ‘Please come help the kids who live in our subsidized housing unit.

Most of the people in the community you are trying to reach are unaware of or indifferent to the fact that you exist.”

So, who will represent the lost at your next leadership meeting? Who will speak for them? Who will advocate for the changes necessary in your local church to move the barriers that keep them from hearing Christ? Who will worry about what they think? Who will agonize over the obituaries which contain no church affiliation in your community? It feels like these days there are almost as many weddings and funerals at VFW Halls as there used to be at church.  Who will grieve over the teen who never hears the greatest story ever told? Who will pound the table on behalf of the unborn who die because the born again didn’t love enough to focus on outsiders instead of insiders? Who will write letters and sign petitions calling for change on their behalf?

The more I read my Bible the more I realize someone already did.

It’s up to us now.

Don’t give up.

Peace.

"Squirt, Squirt, Squirt"

NWIL District Supt., Rev. Scott Sherwood recently told this Kierkegaard story at C1.  It's a call for local churches to stop playing and commit Herself to reaching people!  Frankly, most churches make squirt gun commitments to reaching lost people instead of going all in. As a consequence, programs and methods remain the same, criticism of any church that is growing is common, and the local church dies a slow, irrelevant, death. This story is humbling and troubling to me as a Christian, much less, a leader. 

"Once upon a time there was a fire in a small town. The fire brigade rushed to the scene, but the fireman were unable to get through to the burning building. The problem was the crowd of people who had gathered not to watch but to help put out the fire. They all knew the fire chief well – their children had climbed over his fire engines during excursions to the fire station, and the friendliness of the fire chief was legendary. So when a fire broke out the people rushed out to help their beloved fire chief.

Unfortunately the townsfolk were seeking to extinguish this raging inferno with water pistols!  They’d all stand there, from time to time squirting their pistol into the fire while making casual conversation.

The fire chief couldn’t contain himself. He started screaming at the townsfolk. 'What do you think you’re doing? What on earth do you think you’re going to achieve with those water-pistols?!'

The people realised the urgency of the situation. How they wanted to help the fire chief. So they started squirting more. 'Come on' they encouraged each other, 'We can all do better, can’t we?' Squirt, squirt, squirt, squirt.

Exasperated the fire chief yells again. 'Get out of here. Your achieving nothing except hindering us from doing what needs to be done. We need fireman who are ready to give everything they’ve got to put out this fire, people willing even to lay their lives on the line. This is not the place for token contributions.'

To be honest, Scott appropriately cleaned up Kierkegaard's language a bit when he told the story.  Kierkegaard didn't play games.  The world is on fire. Christ is the answer.

Please God, kill our sacred cows and help us to race toward the fire in order to give our lives in service to your cause.

The fact that the Christian church in the USA has been in steady decline for decades is not a reflection on the Gospel or outsiders, it's a reflection on us.  It's time for an overhaul.

Peace.

"Simple does not mean shallow."

 

When we talk about the church reaching out to un-churched people there is always this concern from insiders about somehow forfeiting their Sunday experience.  The concern is that if church makes the un-churched guest a priority, then regular attenders can’t be fed properly.  What might be true if we were talking about teaching Algebra is not true of the Word of God.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We’re teaching the active, sharp, living Word of God.  Rick Warren said it best, “Simple does not mean shallow.”

Think of the simplest verse of Scripture you know, John 3:16 for instance.  Is John 3:16 shallow? God help us if we ever believe it is.  My prayer is that I spend enough time swimming around in John 3:16 that arrogance, meanness, self-centeredness, and hypocrisy drown.

Andy Stanley’s right, a preacher who preaches to raise up a congregation of Bible scholars doesn’t raise up a congregation of Bible scholars, “he raises up a congregation of people who think they are Bible scholars.”  And that, my friend, is a dangerous thing.

About the Dead Horse (A Pastor's Rant)

 

Methods, programs, events, and other stuff we do in the name of evangelism are like war horses.  They carry us into battle and, if all goes well, bring us through the battle and back down Main Street in celebration of the faithfulness of God and transformed lives.  A soldier loves and cares for his horse, but the battle is never about the horse. There is an old Dakota Indian tribal saying…

“If the horse is dead, the best strategy is to dismount.”

Allow me to amplify the idea just a bit.

If the horse is dead, meaning… not carrying the mission forward, not advancing the cause, no longer galloping into battle, no longer bringing its rider (the church) back from battle with the spoils of war, no longer carrying its’ own weight, no longer, with beating heart and thundering hooves, charging against hell, no longer living and breathing life into the mission, then with all due respect… it doesn’t matter what it looks like… how much we love it, or how long we’ve had it, get off it and over it.  It’s dead.  If it’s not doing any of the above, but not quite dead, kill it and put it out of its misery or at least put it out to pasture.  Write books and songs about it if you want to. Build a museum, stuff it and set it up next to Trigger if you want to, but whatever you do, please don’t keep riding it, feeding it, propping it up, and pretend your waging war for the Kingdom.

A failure on the part of the church to reach unchurched people potentially equates to lost sheep never found, lost sons never returning home, lost coins forever out of circulation, and a lost body of Christ wandering aimlessly, but feeling rather comfortable about it.  How can we spend millions of dollars of God’s money, see very few of his children redeemed, and somehow think it’s okay?  How can the leadership of a church not know, with certainty, with clarity, how many people have been won to Christ in the last year as a result of their stewardship of His resources?

A failure of nerve on our part in this regard means there will be people we won’t reach. It means children will grow up in the abuse they woke up in this morning because the church never answered the call.  It means young people will starve spiritually and senior citizens will slip into eternity without God. God wants to use us to answer the prayers of wives for their husbands, husbands for their wives, parents for their children, and children for their parents.  God wants to use us as ambassadors of grace to bring reconciliation to the city and literal, practical, empowering help to the poor.

Our mission is not growth, it is transformation.  However, radical positive life transformation is hard to keep a secret.  Growth will follow. Our call is not to wage war against culture, but to blow culture up with the truth of the John 3:16.  I get it, not all growth is measurable? My question is, is any of it measurable?  Our call is to drop the bunker busting, unconditional, risky, dangerous love of God into our communities in a way that cannot be ignored.  Our job is to love those who hate us so much that they give up hating us because it’s just too much work.  I'm not talking about softening the Gospel, changing the Bible, or selling out Christ for the sake of a crowd.  Please.  The assumption that all growing, exploding churches are doing that is uninformed.  I'm talking about organizing our church around the mission of Christ to "seek and save that which was lost." I am weary of church leaders who take Bill Hybels acknowledgment that Willow needed to do a much better job of discipleship as somehow a confession that everything they've been doing was wrong.  That also is uninformed...and whiny. Willow has seen thousands come to Christ and challenged the Body in ways no other movement has.  The fact that they readily acknowledged a major shortcoming and took steps to change it only exhibits their lack of ego and passion to get it right.

Our assignment is to prayerfully create, by the power of the Holy Spirit and by using the brains God gave us, an intentional environment of transforming grace.  It’s God’s job to convict and cleanse, it seems to me that it’s our job to arrange the meeting.  Heaven and hell hang in the balance and the local church must leverage its weight fully on mission or close down and give the resources to someone who will.

The Letter

   

At C1, we are committed to being used of God to see lives radically transformed by Jesus.  It’s why we do what we do at church.  It’s why we sacrifice and serve and slaughter sacred cows for breakfast.  It’s why we trust and hope and believe and give and work and pray.   It’s a cause for which I am willing to risk everything and fight anyone.  Here’s why.

His face lights up a room.  He is the life of the party.  He’s a brother that will stand by you when no one else does.  He learned that kind of loyalty the hard way.   In younger years, he was a “player.”  He hustled.  He hustled drugs. He hustled people.  But mostly he hustled himself. Finally, the bottom dropped out. Busted for drugs, he was sent away. When he left, most wrote him off.  Heck, he wrote himself off.

“I was a terrible father and a terrible person, it was best if I just disappeared,” he said.  “Not only did my wife ask for a divorce, but she also asked that I give up all rights to my 6 month old baby girl.  She thought my daughter would be better off without me in her life.  I agreed.  A judge agreed. And just like that, I was no longer a father.”  He signed the papers and walked away.  The decision killed him, but when you see no way out of the chaos, you want desperately to protect those who you drug into the chaos with you.  Besides that, he was already dead.

Prison does a lot of things to a man.  It swallows some and never gives them back.  To others, it serves as a wakeup call of hope.  My friend woke up.  He began to seek truth. He began to seek life.  He began to seek Jesus.  Prison spit him out and he came out a better man.

Afterward, he began to fight his way back into life.  He studied, he worked, he gathered with others at “the tables” where they worked and fought back into life together.  One day his quest for truth and Christ led him to our church.  He met Jesus there and a new life soared to a new altitude.

He had always been articulate and intelligent, now he became wise.  The church was a place where he thrived and matured and learned to love deeply.  God did an amazing work in his heart and before long he was a successful businessman and a valuable asset to his company.  If you ask him about it he smiles and says, “God is good.”

Everything was good, well…almost everything.

He had made peace with his past long ago.  He had worked the steps and had the conversations and fixed what could be fixed and trusted God to grace what he couldn’t repair.  But there was a big piece missing to his comeback and his heart that he couldn’t fill, because it involved someone he couldn’t reach.  He longed to make peace with his daughter.  Wherever she was, he just wanted tell her how much she meant to him and how much she meant to his best friend, Jesus.

On good days, it was always there to tint the clouds of joy.  On bad days it wrapped its tentacles around him and squeezed.  It was painful. Its’ dark shadow fell on every victory and sharp sting pierced every defeat.

“Every time I walked into a buddy’s house,” he said, “I always looked at the refrigerator door. I looked there because in every home where there are children, there are pictures or letters hanging there. Something a son or daughter had created to express love to their parents.” He pauses here and a strong man chokes back tears.

“I know it’s crazy, but for 20 years, letters on refrigerator doors haunted me,” he said.  “It was a reminder of what I’d walked away from.  It reminded me of what I had wasted and could never get back. It was painful, but I knew it was something I couldn’t fix.  No one could.  Well...almost no one.” He smiles.

It started with a young adult woman reaching out to find her dad.  It culminated in a letter.  In between, there were tears and prayers.  In between, there was a first Christmas together and lots and lots of conversation…about life, and love, and forgiveness, and the difference Jesus makes.

Then the letter came.

Dear Dad,

I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you have done for my family.  I’ve been a pain in the butt, but you’ve stuck with me through it all.  You may not have been there in my childhood, but you came into my life exactly when I needed you most.  You’ve taught me how to play offense and taught me how to face my fears.  I was such a broken person before you came into my life.  I would be in such a horrible place without you. 

I love you.

Thanks for everything. 

If you ask him about it, he’ll smile and say, “God is good.”  If you want to see it, he’ll show it to you.  It’s hanging on his refrigerator door.

Peace.

Ants don't need no stinking job description.

If the "no stinking job description" movie reference escapes you, ask a friend, accept my apologies, and please read on. In a time when jobs are few and applicants many, here’s something I learned recently that just might make the difference if applied.

It was modest lunch with an even more modest businessman.  Thirty years ago he inherited a small company from his father and parlayed it into an extremely profitable and equally charitable business that has served Chicago-land well for more than four decades.  I was honored to get time with him and asked many questions.  One issue on my mind was staffing.  I wanted to know how important he believed staffing was, and how he managed to get the right person, in the right place, at the right time in their life.

"It is everything,” he said.  “The team makes the difference, and that’s what separates leaders from managers.”

I’m not sure how we arrived there, but eventually the subject turned to well written job descriptions.  “Don’t believe in it,” he said, “not at this level.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, our people know what’s expected of them and it's written down, but that has nothing to do with the hiring process.”

Now he had my attention.  He continued.

“First, I want to get to know the individual. I want to know what they value, what they love, and why they want to work for us…even if it’s just the money, and there’s nothing wrong with that, I want to know.  Then, I spend a lot of time introducing the candidate to myself, to our company, to what we value and to why we exist.  This will take more than one meeting.   After that, if they can’t articulate to me the invaluable role they want to play in our story, I don’t write them a job description. I simply don’t hire them. I’m not looking for employees to fill a position. I’m looking for people to bring on a team.”

“You see,” he said, “I can coach them, I can train them, I can encourage them, I can correct them, but I cannot create them, and if they’re not alive enough to get caught up in what we, or for that matter they, are trying to accomplish, I cannot help, and I will only hurt them and us if I try."

“No,” he said with a sincerely hurting kind of smile, “it’s just not the right time for that person; maybe another day, another time, but not now.  I owe it to the rest of the team to bring on board individuals who get it. Anything else is dereliction of duty on my part.”

After our meeting I remembered reading Jim Collins writings on the same subject in his book; “Great by Choice.”

I also remembered a passage of Scripture that just might apply.

“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!  It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet if it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”  (Ecclesiastes 6:6-7)

Consider it food for thought for everyone out there hungry for a new beginning. Don't wait for opportunity to write you a job description. Look for opportunity, filter it through your gifts and graces.  If it fits, get passionate about the role you can play and articulate it.

Enjoy.