Birkdale Baptist Church

Life, Heart and Hope in Jesus

Ed Note: 

Is it possible for Jesus to get TOO manly? 

Yeah... it is. 

(Oh, lighten up, people. All in fun, all in fun)

The Kindle is Amazon’s new e-book technology. It’s kind of like i-tunes and i-pod for books.  You can now buy my book The Trouble with Paris in a Kindle edition that you can download onto your Kindle. Get it here

Here's a video interview from my time here in Sydney. Read the article from the Sydney Anglican Network.

While I was in Chicago this past weekend I had the opportunity to worship with Community Christian Church where Dave Ferguson serves as Lead Pastor. CCC is a multi-site church with nine locations in and around Chicago. Dave invited me to lunch so we attended the Naperville "Yellow Box" site and went out after services.

I am not usually a church "attendee" as I preach most Sundays at my church. But, I was already in Chicago celebrating my anniversary and doing a TV shoot for the Assemblies of God and TLN. And, Dave and Jon are friends...

So, Donna and I rented a car and headed out to Naperville from downtown. About a long HOUR later, we arrived.

Community Christian and the Fergusons are having a growing imact. Their church is continuing to reach new people, launch new campuses, and start new congregations (though their New Thing Network). I thought I would share with you some thoughts as to why (I think) they are growing like they are-- this is not a "review" in the sense that I am listing what I like and don't like. Instead, I am just pointing out what I observed that I think contributes to their growth.

Here are four observations I made while in attendance.

1. People are excited to be there.

As we drive up the big "yellow box" (the nickname for this site) can't be missed.

When you walk in someone greets you at the door. You immediately see the coffee shop and see people mingling. (Pat Masek told me they were going to give me a free drink, but I did not stop by as we were too late!) But, clearly, there is a sense of welcome when you walk in.

Here is a pic from the lobby right before the service:

From when you walk in the door, there is a sense of excitement in all that is happening - and it is contagious.

2. Everyone is on the same page.

One of the things I noticed was that everyone "gets" their vision and purpose.

For example, this site has two venues in one building. One is a theater, the other is a gym. Dave was "live" in the gym, so we went there (even though Jon is my favorite of the two... a joke that Dave and Jon will get).

However, I went over to the theater venue to learn more about their approach. While I was walking in I met Amy, a very alert and attentive greater. She tells me everything - including the fact that though they have two venues they have the same mission, "to help people find their way to God."

When I ask the differences between the two services, Amy explains that one service is louder than the other and the other sings more hymns. You can see this in the contemporary band and feel of the service.

She tells me that the Icon theater service is more traditional, and has no drums or guitar.

Yet, she goes on to share that both venues are helping people "find their way back to God." Actually, I heard that phrase 13 times before I left - this is a shared vision in the church. And Dave later explains that "we believe Jesus makes it possible to find our way back to God."

3. CCC is very focused on reaching the unchurched.

After telling a story about Scott, an unchurched friend, Dave shares, "we are going to teach straight from the Bible... but we will explain it... I am going to start a church for my friend Scott..."

When I went to lunch with Dave, Sue, and Jon, Dave said they are not a "seeker church." However, they are certainly focused on reaching seekers regardless of what term you use.

They do that through clear and frequent reminders of the basics-- the need to follow Christ, clear repetition of their purpose, and an invitation to follow Christ.

I noted three additional things that stand out:

a) Clear communication to guests.Their signs are clear about where the main things are.

Children's registration is clear, well staffed, and secure:

b) The use of secular music and illustrations.

The church works hard to connect and they consider using secular examples and music as a part of that plan. In today's service they talk about leadership and show a video that features the Wright brothers as an example. They sing the Learning to Fly from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Most people know these examples well. They also showed a moving video testimony that you can see here.

c) The message is basic without being simplistic.

Deep Bible knowledge is not the agenda, but "one big idea" is. Today, the message (big idea) is "We are all meant to lead in helping people find their way back to God." Dave called people to find the place and/or issue (poverty, evangelism, family, addictions, etc.) that God has called you to so that you might live out that vision.

4. They focus on excellence.

In everything they do, they do their best. This doesn't mean that everything in the building and service is expensive, but that they work hard at doing their best for God, his people and their visitors.

Surprises and Random Observations

Now, on to a few things that I found surprising or just needed a random place to mention. Some of you would expect much of what I observed in a church like Community Christian, but here are a few other thoughts:

The building is, well, not fancy. The place where we met had plastic chairs, an exposed frame ceiling, and hanging basketball hoops. They are not putting their money in their facility.

They are teaching through the book of Nehemiah. The series is called "The Leader Within."

They passed out note sheets, but it was too dark for me to see, so I don't take many notes.

This is not a church of young adults. It has many, but it is really a multi-generational church. I saw many people older and younger than me.

They serve communion at the end of every service. This is unusual for a contemporary church, particularly one as focused on reaching the unchurched as CCC. However they are a part of the Restoration Movement, where weekly communion is an essential practice. Right before communion, Dave briefly explained what it meant and who should partake.

In the theatre, the bread and cups were passed down the rows. In the theatre, it had a little more of an ancient future feel as you can see:

We headed out afterward for lunch and called it a day. From left to right is Donna, Sue, Dave, and Jon.

A fascinating day with many takeaways including the importance of excellence, communication, and execution.

I have always appreciated the Fergusons because they love their church, and are growing it through multisite. Yet, they are also heavily invovled in church planting. They do "both/and" rather than "either/or."

And, Dave, thanks for buying lunch!

I put this out there, not because I think I'm a great preacher you all should hear, but because I imagine that at some point, many of you will come up against 1 Cor 11 the way we did recently and might be just as intimidated at the thought of preaching it as I was... and maybe this will help in some way. 

We're in the later parts of building a new theResurgence.com. Will you help us out by letting us know how you use this site?

How do you read the Resurgence?
( surveys)

The Compelled by Love blog tour took a stop at the Dallas Morning News. Philip Nation wrote a few thoughts on our book, Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living (New Hope, 2008), in the Dallas Morning News religion blog.

He wrote ten things... I excerpted a few here:

1. Understand the Gospel. The mission of God is consumed with the person & work of Christ. As you understand Christ, you can accurately participate in God's work of redemption. So read the Gospels - a lot...

4. Watch for a chance to serve. People give away all of their energy on family, work, and menial chores. Look for ways that you can care for your neighbors - even if it is just cooking a simple dinner for them...

6. Love like Jesus. He lived a robust life of caring for the lost. In elevating sacrificial love far beyond any previous thinking, he gave an example for us...

10. Do it for one reason - the glory of God. The only reason for be missional is to make Christ more widely known. God is worthy of being honored by all of creation and it should be the main reason why we participate in his mission.

You can read all ten here.

The blog tour so far:

PhoenixPreacher.com,
Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox,
Alan Hirsch's blog,
Andrew Jones's Tall Skinny Kiwi,
Darryl Dash,
Micah Fries,
Marty Duren's Iemissional, and
David Fitch at Reclaiming the Mission.

Work on your weakness
Once you discover whether you are more naturally a contemplative or an activist you must then work on your area of weakness. In my years as a pastor I have found that most of us lean heavily toward the contemplative or the active disciplines at the expense of the other. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for people to read about Jesus in their Bible and only see His contemplative or activist scenes at the expense of seeing the healthy tension that Jesus lived in. As a result, when a contemplative thinks of Jesus they are prone to imagine Him sitting alone in the wilderness and silently reading Scripture and praying. Conversely, when an activist thinks of Jesus they are prone to imagine Him performing miracles, preaching, and casting out demons, never sitting down or taking a day off. The truth is that Jesus practiced every contemplative discipline and every active discipline (with the exception of lovemaking). To follow in His example means we must follow in His entire example.

Immature Christians
One of the worst things I have witnessed is immature Christians who judge another Christian as immature because they do not have the same natural strength in a particular spiritual discipline. This takes many forms, such as the spiritually disciplined evangelist who looks down on people who don’t share their faith every moment of every day with everyone they encounter. Another example is the spiritually disciplined student who looks down on people who do not read enormous books written by dead guys for hours at a time and geek out learning the difference between things like transubstantiation and consubstantiation.
If the distinction between contemplatives and activists is not understood in marriage, the result can be very painful; conflict ensues when spouses try to impose how they do their spiritual disciplines upon one another. Perhaps the worst case I am personally aware of was a well-intentioned young husband who had his wife sit on their couch while he gave her theology lectures complete with a white board and then expected to quiz her. He was shocked to realize that she did not find this romantic. She would have preferred that he put the white board away and got a job to feed their family; they could not eat all his theology books and they were getting hungry.

You must begin with humility
In short, when it comes to the spiritual disciplines we must each begin with humility. Every Christian is spiritually disciplined in some areas of their life and spiritually undisciplined in others. Therefore, each Christian we meet is a potential teacher of sorts, able to help us grow as disciples more like Jesus. We must be willing to inquire of their strengths and learn from them.
As a final word of preface, two items are important to note before we study spiritual disciplines here together in the coming months. One, the spiritual disciplines are not something we have to do to make God love us. Rather, because God already does love us, the spiritual disciplines are something that we get to do as we love Him back and enjoy growing in our loving relationship with Him. Two, the spiritual disciplines are not intended to enslave us. Rather, they are intended to lead us into growing freedom in the same way that a trained athlete or musician is free to enjoy the task more than a novice.

What do you think? 

I’ve just started reading Ed Stetzer’s ‘Planting Missional Churches.’ Initial impressions are very positive, and I’ll review it when I’m finished.

Stetzer quotes some research which shows that younger churches are significantly more effective in evangelism than churches that have been around for a while:

• Churches under three years of age win (on average) ten people to Christ every year, for every hundred church members
• Churches three to fifteen years of age win an average of five people per year…
• Churches over fifteen years of age win an average of three people per year for every hundred church members

Put this together with some earlier research by Christian Schwarz. He found that smaller churches grow faster than larger churches, and that the ideal size for a church to grow is around fifty people.

So if you want your church to grow, aim for small and young. In other words, church-planting is a no-brainer.

In a lot of the training and consulting that I do with organisations about Gen Y, I often share how young people today have been shaped by growing up during the economic boom of the late 90’s early 00’s. One of the questions that I get asked the most is “will Gen Y’s confidence and lifestyle change if the economy slows down?

The following article shows that the credit crisis and the rise in the cost of fuel has not dented the spending habits of Gen Y. In fact in some areas such as eating out and buying gadgets Gen Y has increased their spending. Read the full article here. Generation Y splashes out on luxurious lifestyles

Oh, Pandora... we hardly knew ye!

John Sweetman

So far I've emphasised the importance of vision in leadership, but the big question is, how do you get a vision?

There's no easy answer to this. Sometimes your vision is more or less given to you because you are part of an organisation with a clear vision. You don't really have much choice. It's easy. (Though you will need to personalise it for your leadership role.)

• Sometimes it just comes from God out of the blue. A number of times I've been walking and praying and suddenly it has just hit me.

• Sometimes it comes through a long process of consultation and prayer. You talk to stakeholders, pray with others, discuss possibilities, and gradually discern the vision.
• Sometimes it's provided by a mentor. Someone wise who knows you and your leadership role well suggests a vision for you.
• Sometimes it emerges from a team as you dream together.

I'm sorry - there is no formula. But if you are leading then you need to be leading somewhere. If you don't know where you are going, how can people follow you? You need vision.

Here are a few ideas if you are seeking vision:

1. Pray lots. Vision has to come from God and is most likely to be discerned when you are praying. You want to know where God is leading. That way you won't waste time chasing something unimportant. Fasting can also be beneficial. Look for God's wisdom and direction in Scripture.

2. Be brutally honest. Be aware of both the potential and failings of your organisation/team. Admit your own strengths and weaknesses. Be honest about the challenges. God-given vision emerges from reality not pretence. You don't have to be afraid of the present. Any vision has to start with what God has given you now.
3. Talk to people. The vision doesn't have to come from you. Where do your team members think God is calling? What do your mentors say? Toss around ideas.
4. Dream. What are your passions? What could God do? What do you dream of?

If you have any practical questions about discerning your vision, don't hesitate to put them on the blog and I (and others) will have a go at answering them. It's easy to theorise about vision, but it's tougher when it comes to actually nailing a vision down.

J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine, is often a voice of reasoned critique when his movement needs some correction. (You have seen me cite him before, click here.). This is true of him once again, and this recent article is a must read. But before I share a bit from Grady's article, let me give you a little background just in case you haven't heard of the Lakeland revival and the surrounding controversy.

On April 3, 2008 Canadian evangelist Todd Bentley was invited to speak to the Ignited Church of Lakeland, FL. Though he was only scheduled to be there for 5 days, he remained for 3 months during what he considered to be the biggest pentecostal revival since the Azusa Street revival. To put it mildly, the "Lakeland revival" has been controversial. Claims of people being raised from the dead? Violent healing? Now it appears Bentley is stepping down after filing for separation from his wife and admitting to an inappropriate relationship with another woman. Grady asks some hard questions in his article.

To put it bluntly, we're just plain gullible...

A prominent Pentecostal evangelist called me this week after Bentley's news hit the fan. He said to me: "I'm now convinced that a large segment of the charismatic church will follow the anti-Christ when he shows up because they have no discernment."

Why did a group of respected ministers lay hands on Bentley on June 23 and publicly ordain him? Did they know of his personal problems?

...No one in ministry today should be out on their own, living in isolation without checks, balances and wise counsel. It was commendable that [C. Peter] Wagner reached out to Bentley and that Bentley acknowledged his need for spiritual fathers by agreeing to submit to the process. The question remains, however, whether it was wise to commend Bentley during a televised commissioning service that at times seemed more like a king's coronation.

In hindsight, we can all see that it would have been better to take Bentley into a back room and talk about his personal issues.

...I trust that Wagner, Ahn, Johnson and Arnott didn't know of Bentley's problems before they ordained him. ... But I believe that they, along with Bentley and the owners of God TV, owe the body of Christ a forthright, public apology for thrusting Bentley's ministry into the spotlight prematurely. (Perhaps such an apology should be aired on God TV.)

Grady cites C. Peter Wagner. If you have been reading the blog, you will remember two recent posts on apostles, here and here that mention Wagner. In both cases, I shared a bit about Wagner so the timing of my post and the timing of this incident prompted this blog entry.

Well, Wagner recently brought what they call "apostolic covering" to Bentley. During a publicized gathering on June 23rd Wagner explained what this covering ceremony was all about (youtube). He said, "This is a ceremony celebrating the formal apostolic alignment of Todd Bentley." He explains that alignment is a kind of adjustment, or putting things in order. Bentley was asked if he recognized the apostolic authority of the apostles who were present, and when he did Wagner says that this will be a formal "commissioning" equivalent to offering the the right hand of fellowship as the apostles did to Paul in Jerusalem.

Wagner continued by proclaiming,

• Your power will increase.
• Your authority will increase.
• Your favor will increase.
• Your influence will increase.
• Your revelation will increase.

I also decree that:

• A new supernatural strength will flow through this ministry.
• A new life force will penetrate this move of God.
• A government will be established to set things in their proper order.
• God will pour out a higher level of discernment to distinguish truth from error.
• New relationships will surface to open gates for the future.

In his article, Grady also points out that Bentley's theology should have been seriously investigated when Bentley connected with the "healing angel" of William Branham. (See the picture below for the "healing angel.") Yet, Bentley was never called on this bizarre connection.

While teaching at Southern, I served a church in the same town where Branham founded a church. Branham was once a well known (perhaps the best known) Pentecostal healing evangelist... at least until he went astray.

A little history may be helpful:

Branham rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and in fact claimed the doctrine was of the devil. Consequently he believed that anyone baptized into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit needed to be re-baptized. He predicted that 1977 would usher in the new millennium, and he believed denominationalism is the mark of the beast. Branham also believed the sin in the Garden of Eden that brought about the curse of God was not the eating of literal fruit, but the sexual union between Eve and the chimpanzee-serpent-beast. I kid you not.

Yet, the movement and the meetings with Todd Benley went on... until last week when reality caught up.

Now let me say, I work very hard to be charitable to Christians of different stripes-- much to the chagrin of those in my denomination who think we are the one true New Testament faith. And, this is not intended to be a post against one group (note, again, the title and you can visit my earlier posts on Pentecostal movements here and here.) Finally, I tend to think that movements should work out their theological discussions and I stay out of them-- rarely writing a post like this.

Yet, when I see things like this, it is just hard not to ask: does anyone still have a Bible and some common sense?

Let me add: I do not think this is a Pentecostal issue. That is why the title is, "Evangelical Gullibility."

In other words, all kinds of Christians are forwarding emails about the FCC's phony plan to ban religious braoadcasting, signing up to have emails sent to the loved ones after the rapture, and watching Christian television for its theological depth. For that matter, I have just as many odd people come up to me with "something they discovered in the Bible that no one has ever noticed" after I speak at a Baptist, Wesleyan, of non-denominational meeting as I do when I speak at a Pentecostal one. Furthermore, many Pentecostals and Charismatics HAVE expressed concern about this movement-- including some when I visit the Assemblies of God office a couple of weeks ago.

I just have to wonder with Grady if Christians really are just gullible.

True revival is generally a messy affair. On the one hand abuses often accompany genuine works of God, and on the other hand much of what is called revival is nothing more than fanaticism. Courage is required to ask tough questions and do so with with grace and kindness, patience is necessary to wait and see if what is called revival bears lasting fruit, and theological discernment is critical for the church when it comes to awakenings and revival.

“…younger employees often do not have a clear picture of what will make them happy, said Rice. “Often, they can’t find what they’re looking for because they don’t have the experience to know what they want. Lack of personal clarity can also influence engagement for Gen Y, in particular.”

From a new global study that finds that Gen Y is the least engaged generation at work. India however seems to buck the trend. Read more here

Which Are You?
The key is to discover whether you are more naturally a contemplative or an activist and then work on your area of weakness. In my years as a pastor I have found that most of us lean heavily toward the contemplative or the active disciplines at the expense of the other. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for people to read about Jesus in their Bible and only see His contemplative or activist scenes at the expense of seeing the healthy tension that Jesus lived in. As a result, when a contemplative thinks of Jesus they are prone to imagine Him sitting alone in the wilderness and silently reading Scripture and praying. Conversely, when an activist thinks of Jesus they are prone to imagine Him performing miracles, preaching, and casting out demons, never sitting down or taking a day off. The truth is that Jesus practiced every contemplative discipline and every active discipline (with the exception of lovemaking). To follow in His example means we must follow in His entire example.

Active Disciplines
Study
Fellowship
Speaking
Teaching
Activism
Work
Lovemaking
Evangelism
Service
Feasting

Contemplative Disciplines
Solitude
Silence
Meditation
Prayer
Sabbath
Chastity
Worship
Journaling
Fasting