Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Risking Collaboration
The Great Commission will not be fulfilled by any one person--any one group--it will be all of us or none of us. You are being affected by globalization in your faith at this very conference. We’ve all read Phillip Jenkins and know that there is no center of Christianity--if anything it’s East. The fastest growing church today is in China. We are talking about multiplication and movements--but the whole language that we are using talking about cpm’s didn’t originate from how the church was operating in the West but from how the church is exploding in the East. For the first time, we are desperate for a result that the East is experiencing. Sadly, most of you here today think this is the idea of some Western guy or that one of the US networks like Glocalnet, Acts 29, or Organic Church came up with. We do not have any legitimate cpm’s in the US. The closest we come to it is Neil Cole.
At the same time we are seeing more mega-churches planted than ever before. We are also seeing a decline of people in church. Has anyone thought what that means? To get to a cpm, we desperately need a different kind of disciple. Without it, it will never happen. But that isn’t what I’ve been asked to speak on here and I will deal with this some in my breakout. It’s not the preachers we’re producing but the disciples that will lead to a movement.
I will both excite you and frustrate you in the next few minutes. I am a sailor– explorer--driven by a love of life and the thrill of adventure. I come from having been in distant places with fascinating people and having seen many wonders of the world. Sadly though, I am not an engineer and am not as articulate as I need to be. I can tell you it’s there--I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I can point you--I can challenge you to go--I can give you a "pirates map" – but that’s it. If you need a precise map with a gps, you’re in trouble. Part of the trouble is that it’s not mapped, yet.
The writing isn’t on the wall--it’s on the earth for those who will see it.
Margaret Meade said that impact and change truly happen slowly and it comes from the masses and just a few who refuse to give up. If we are going after cpm’s-–not just church plants-–then collaboration isn’t a good thing to do--it is the critical piece of extension that without it--it will not happen. So, we must risk collaboration which is hard because we have our own models, methods, systems--even theologies--and this causes us to have to work with others. I promise you Jesus is returning, the world will hear, there will be a revival before His coming and churches will explode--and that will not happen without collaboration. It’s not a nice Christian thing to do--it’s a critical component.
1. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE GET THE CONTEXT OF THE KINGDOM.
Why are we planting churches? It cannot be just to get people "saved" or that stops way too short. We’ve done that for about a hundred years and where has it gotten us? It cannot be about just planting a church that grows big. Today, we have more mega-churches being planted and, yet, less people in church and the ones who are in church often their behaviors are nowhere near that of a follower of Christ. Often, they are good consumers. The context is the Kingdom, and the result of the Kingdom is the transformation. It’s the Kingdom within us that changes us and makes a radically different kind of disciple. It’s the Kingdom that flows out from us in faith communities and then transforms society. It’s not the church at Jerusalem--it’s the church at Antioch. It’s not faith as an infrastructure--it’s faith laying across all the infrastructures of society. Where are the churches that are changing society? That happened in the Great Awakenings. Church was a result of kingdom transformation in Acts 11. Church was a result of assimilation in the great awakenings. Now, church has become the entity to bring awakening and evangelism. No--we need something much higher than just planting churches. We need to see a transformed person, family, church, community, nation, and world. Anything less is too shallow a vision and too achievable without the Spirit of God.
Kingdom engages the whole of Society which means most of our response as church planters and as churches is only tribal. Why does that matter? Because family--tribe--city--nation--globe.
We are not fighting culture--we’re creating it.
2. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE GET THE FUNCTION OF THE BODY.
Societies are not changed by great preaching alone--but by great living. We’ve been commanded to preach the Gospel. However, in Matthew 25:31-46, after Jesus, talking about how we’ve been given "talents" and to use them before He returns, goes straight into the Judgment where Christ separates the sheep from the goats to inherit the Kingdom. Judgment for those who got to go to heaven was how they fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, visited those in prison, clothed the naked, housed the stranger. I don’t believe the judgment was based upon who did those works, but those who had a work of grace performed within them constantly did those works--that’s how they knew who the "elect" were and who they weren’t. Any preaching that only makes people smarter, only makes them pray a sinners prayer, but doesn’t see transformation in their lives, the lives of the listenners, and the community isn’t preaching. This is a different kind of preaching. It doesn’t say, come and listen to me fascinate or entertain you as much as it says you are the body of Christ. My job is to equip to see society transformed. We transform society not by great preaching, but by preaching truth and challenging people to use the vocation in the various domains of society--be it art, education, health, governance, economics, communication, family--whatever domain.
3. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE REALIZE IT WILL TAKE ALL MODELS.
Postmodernism has defined Western Culture--but not global culture. Modernity is a wonderful thing to people trying to pull themselves up in the 3rd or Emerging World.
High Impact Churches--what is that? Jonathan Edwards was a High Impact Church--no more than 280 at its peak--out in a rural area. What would you say of cell or house or simple or organic churches? Counting has and will always be a problem--Peter Wagner and the Fog.
My son is finishing at NYU. He attends Tim Keller’s church for teaching, but hates the worship. Goes to a new plant for worship--hates the preaching. But, his real church is his Wednesday group that meets in his apartment in the Villlage.
4. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE REALIZE THAT IT’S CHURCHES THAT MULTIPLY CHURCHES NOT NETWORKS.
Planter--the Mother Church--the Network--the Movement. Right now all the focus on the planter. But focusing on planters will not give us a church planting movement--it will give us some church planters. Focusing on fertile multiplying mamas is our only hope.
We discovered our best churches in glocalnet was not guys that were joining the network because they liked the ideas, but guys whose networks were their plants. I’ve learned it’s not about everyone joining my network, but helping other guys develop their own networks. Why is that--because they are relational and organic--this is where a movement can happen or else we’re left with networks that are more like denominations than networks that become movements.
Some of us are among the first networks, but we are not the best networks. We are pioneers and have much to learn. The best networks will probably emerge from some of you who are currently in your 20’s.
5. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE GET OVER OURSELVES.
The issue of pride and arrogance in the ministry is huge. We brand ourselves and continue to come up with labels to say who’s in and who’s out. When the world is won for Christ, we won’t have time for that kind of stuff. I’m often asked what is the biggest difference you see between pastors in the East and here in the West. Easy--humility--you’d never know who they were or what they did unless you asked them. Here -–it's not like that. Christine Rosen, senior editor of The New Atlantis and author wrote about ego’casting. We must get over our call to preach and mobilize the church--not just entertain of fill full of knowledge that just sits. Beyond pride and preaching, we are too much in to our own preservation. When we live ready to die, we will do anything and will do anything in the most unlikely people in the most unlikely places. Gal 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." NIV
6. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE GET FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Most of us do not need the Holy Spirit. We need to be moral. We need good staff. We need good systems. We need the big mo--but we don’t need the Holy Spirit. If we become a cpm the HS will not be optional equipment for us.
7. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE CONNECT WITH THE EAST.
We are not far from seeing global church planting movements--they will not, however, start here in the West. Chances are, they will come from the East and all of us here today will join someone else's Network. The next Billy Graham or John Piper will probably be a Phuc Dang from Vietnam or a Shadrack Ruto from Kenya.
When the US emerged into metropolises of suburbs, we could plant churches similar in every city because we had the same franchises that people had wherever they came from. The more dissimilar the communities were, the more removed they were from the prevailing suburban culture the more indigenous the model had to be. The same is true today. But, there are global suburbs that are developing and they are more syncretistic than anything the US has ever seen. The pluralism we think we’ve seen in the West is nothing compared to the reality of the world. We help Indonesians here, Kenyans-- many who are coming here to be missionaries. You’re the fourth largest mission field in the world. However, it’s not just about you. You’re planting a church not for Dallas, or New York, or Denver, or Miami, or Portland, or Salt Lake City, or LA--you’re planting a church based in one of those cities for the world--in the context of a bigger Kingdom of God that extends beyond this universe.
At the same time we are seeing more mega-churches planted than ever before. We are also seeing a decline of people in church. Has anyone thought what that means? To get to a cpm, we desperately need a different kind of disciple. Without it, it will never happen. But that isn’t what I’ve been asked to speak on here and I will deal with this some in my breakout. It’s not the preachers we’re producing but the disciples that will lead to a movement.
I will both excite you and frustrate you in the next few minutes. I am a sailor– explorer--driven by a love of life and the thrill of adventure. I come from having been in distant places with fascinating people and having seen many wonders of the world. Sadly though, I am not an engineer and am not as articulate as I need to be. I can tell you it’s there--I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I can point you--I can challenge you to go--I can give you a "pirates map" – but that’s it. If you need a precise map with a gps, you’re in trouble. Part of the trouble is that it’s not mapped, yet.
The writing isn’t on the wall--it’s on the earth for those who will see it.
Margaret Meade said that impact and change truly happen slowly and it comes from the masses and just a few who refuse to give up. If we are going after cpm’s-–not just church plants-–then collaboration isn’t a good thing to do--it is the critical piece of extension that without it--it will not happen. So, we must risk collaboration which is hard because we have our own models, methods, systems--even theologies--and this causes us to have to work with others. I promise you Jesus is returning, the world will hear, there will be a revival before His coming and churches will explode--and that will not happen without collaboration. It’s not a nice Christian thing to do--it’s a critical component.
1. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE GET THE CONTEXT OF THE KINGDOM.
Why are we planting churches? It cannot be just to get people "saved" or that stops way too short. We’ve done that for about a hundred years and where has it gotten us? It cannot be about just planting a church that grows big. Today, we have more mega-churches being planted and, yet, less people in church and the ones who are in church often their behaviors are nowhere near that of a follower of Christ. Often, they are good consumers. The context is the Kingdom, and the result of the Kingdom is the transformation. It’s the Kingdom within us that changes us and makes a radically different kind of disciple. It’s the Kingdom that flows out from us in faith communities and then transforms society. It’s not the church at Jerusalem--it’s the church at Antioch. It’s not faith as an infrastructure--it’s faith laying across all the infrastructures of society. Where are the churches that are changing society? That happened in the Great Awakenings. Church was a result of kingdom transformation in Acts 11. Church was a result of assimilation in the great awakenings. Now, church has become the entity to bring awakening and evangelism. No--we need something much higher than just planting churches. We need to see a transformed person, family, church, community, nation, and world. Anything less is too shallow a vision and too achievable without the Spirit of God.
Kingdom engages the whole of Society which means most of our response as church planters and as churches is only tribal. Why does that matter? Because family--tribe--city--nation--globe.
We are not fighting culture--we’re creating it.
2. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE GET THE FUNCTION OF THE BODY.
Societies are not changed by great preaching alone--but by great living. We’ve been commanded to preach the Gospel. However, in Matthew 25:31-46, after Jesus, talking about how we’ve been given "talents" and to use them before He returns, goes straight into the Judgment where Christ separates the sheep from the goats to inherit the Kingdom. Judgment for those who got to go to heaven was how they fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, visited those in prison, clothed the naked, housed the stranger. I don’t believe the judgment was based upon who did those works, but those who had a work of grace performed within them constantly did those works--that’s how they knew who the "elect" were and who they weren’t. Any preaching that only makes people smarter, only makes them pray a sinners prayer, but doesn’t see transformation in their lives, the lives of the listenners, and the community isn’t preaching. This is a different kind of preaching. It doesn’t say, come and listen to me fascinate or entertain you as much as it says you are the body of Christ. My job is to equip to see society transformed. We transform society not by great preaching, but by preaching truth and challenging people to use the vocation in the various domains of society--be it art, education, health, governance, economics, communication, family--whatever domain.
3. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE REALIZE IT WILL TAKE ALL MODELS.
Postmodernism has defined Western Culture--but not global culture. Modernity is a wonderful thing to people trying to pull themselves up in the 3rd or Emerging World.
High Impact Churches--what is that? Jonathan Edwards was a High Impact Church--no more than 280 at its peak--out in a rural area. What would you say of cell or house or simple or organic churches? Counting has and will always be a problem--Peter Wagner and the Fog.
My son is finishing at NYU. He attends Tim Keller’s church for teaching, but hates the worship. Goes to a new plant for worship--hates the preaching. But, his real church is his Wednesday group that meets in his apartment in the Villlage.
4. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE REALIZE THAT IT’S CHURCHES THAT MULTIPLY CHURCHES NOT NETWORKS.
Planter--the Mother Church--the Network--the Movement. Right now all the focus on the planter. But focusing on planters will not give us a church planting movement--it will give us some church planters. Focusing on fertile multiplying mamas is our only hope.
We discovered our best churches in glocalnet was not guys that were joining the network because they liked the ideas, but guys whose networks were their plants. I’ve learned it’s not about everyone joining my network, but helping other guys develop their own networks. Why is that--because they are relational and organic--this is where a movement can happen or else we’re left with networks that are more like denominations than networks that become movements.
Some of us are among the first networks, but we are not the best networks. We are pioneers and have much to learn. The best networks will probably emerge from some of you who are currently in your 20’s.
5. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE GET OVER OURSELVES.
The issue of pride and arrogance in the ministry is huge. We brand ourselves and continue to come up with labels to say who’s in and who’s out. When the world is won for Christ, we won’t have time for that kind of stuff. I’m often asked what is the biggest difference you see between pastors in the East and here in the West. Easy--humility--you’d never know who they were or what they did unless you asked them. Here -–it's not like that. Christine Rosen, senior editor of The New Atlantis and author wrote about ego’casting. We must get over our call to preach and mobilize the church--not just entertain of fill full of knowledge that just sits. Beyond pride and preaching, we are too much in to our own preservation. When we live ready to die, we will do anything and will do anything in the most unlikely people in the most unlikely places. Gal 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." NIV
6. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE GET FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Most of us do not need the Holy Spirit. We need to be moral. We need good staff. We need good systems. We need the big mo--but we don’t need the Holy Spirit. If we become a cpm the HS will not be optional equipment for us.
7. WE WILL COLLABORATE WHEN WE CONNECT WITH THE EAST.
We are not far from seeing global church planting movements--they will not, however, start here in the West. Chances are, they will come from the East and all of us here today will join someone else's Network. The next Billy Graham or John Piper will probably be a Phuc Dang from Vietnam or a Shadrack Ruto from Kenya.
When the US emerged into metropolises of suburbs, we could plant churches similar in every city because we had the same franchises that people had wherever they came from. The more dissimilar the communities were, the more removed they were from the prevailing suburban culture the more indigenous the model had to be. The same is true today. But, there are global suburbs that are developing and they are more syncretistic than anything the US has ever seen. The pluralism we think we’ve seen in the West is nothing compared to the reality of the world. We help Indonesians here, Kenyans-- many who are coming here to be missionaries. You’re the fourth largest mission field in the world. However, it’s not just about you. You’re planting a church not for Dallas, or New York, or Denver, or Miami, or Portland, or Salt Lake City, or LA--you’re planting a church based in one of those cities for the world--in the context of a bigger Kingdom of God that extends beyond this universe.
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