Emergent Brethren

Every once in a while I hear or read a question that really makes me stop and reflect on something worth considering. That happened recently when I was watching a You-tube video. In it the person asked the question, “Do we have a church that has a mission or a mission that has a church?” 

On first glance or hearing, that question may not seem to make much sense… BUT ponder it a while… read it aloud a couple of times… and I hope you will agree with me that it is a question worth asking and not only that, but it is a question worth answering! 

My desire for the congregation I lead– Community of Joy Church of the Brethren– is to be a mission that has a church! This is particularly a challenge right now for us because we just bought and moved into our very first building… it is what you might call a church building, but we are choosing to call it a ministry center because we (the people) are the church, not the building! 

All of this and the many other things we have yet to plan or think about, will help us be on mission for Jesus! Being a mission with a church will keep us from doing only things that we like or want or meet our needs. Being a mission with a church means that we realize that our mission is not about us… but about Jesus… helping others experience Jesus’ love, hospitality, hope, healing, and peace (the key components of our mission statement)! 

What will the church of the future look like?  There is only one answer to that question! It depends on US! I pray that we will ALWAYS be a mission with a church! Thoughts???

What a great concept. See Mark Batterson’s recent blog on this very topic…”Decoding Culture”, in it he talks about the concept of doing ministry from imagination vs. doing ministry from memory. I love the concept and highly recommend the blog. The older I get, the more I see how easy it is to slip into doing ministry from memory and not from imagination. But the real fruit is when we keep doing ministry from imagination. It’s a constant battle!

When we get tripped into playing defense, all our time is consumed by responding to and defending not by moving forward. So, what’s the future look like and how do we get there? A lot of energy and time is consumed playing defense. Defense is about holding ground, not necessarily advancing ground!

When I look at the life of Jesus, I think he played offense almost exclusively! It’s almost Easter… look at his movement toward the cross… he definitely did not let the critics keep him from the larger reality of his destiny! Nor did he loose much time or energy focusing on the present challenge, but was focused on what he knew was ahead.

Just this week I had a situation where it would have been easy to slip into defensive mode, but I stayed on offense and God honored that in a big way… can’t disclose details yet… but one day it will be a great story of God’s awesome power and provision to share with others!

I’ve been thinking lots about life lately and what I have acheived and what I want to acheive in the time I have left. It seems that so much of my life has been lived in response to what has happened to me (defense). And I am finding that I’d like to think seriously about what it might look like to live life on offense! What would it look like to lead on offense? What would it mean for my life if I spent more time anticipating or imagining rather than reacting to what’s happening. Or more time imagining/ anticipating a preferred future rather than getting sucked into the daily grind and bouncing around like a beach ball on the ocean. What if I knew where God was calling me and I charted a course in that direction? What if I took risks and dared to achieve things that I can’t do on my own, but need God to show up to help out or to make possible. How would my life be different? Would I find more satisfaction and fulfilment?

Living on offense shouldn’t be hard… after all we have the promise of God to “Be with us always, even to the end of the age.”

I’ll probably post more on this soon.

Been reading ”

It’s a very helpful book about discipleship and the connection of that to all that we do. I highly recommend it to you. The Big Idea is that we work in teams to plan the preaching, teaching, and events of the congregation around a BIG IDEA each week. The teams work 9 weeks out… so that there is lots of time to be creative and tweak the service. Coupled with the worship gathering, the BIG IDEA Team can develop the small group resources and children’s and youth minsitry resources to coincide with the week’s big idea. That way the entire church could be focussed in the same direction. This creates stimulated conversation between parents and children, other small group members, and participants in the life of the congregation. What a neat concept!

We already use a Worship Design Team approach to creatively designing and leading worship at Community of Joy. It’s a great help and lots of fun too! We have been able to add a freshness to our worship experience by utilizing the gifts, ideas, and input of several folks on a team. No longer is it just me that plans and designs the worship gathering. I highly recommend that to you also. I would be happy to share further if you have questions.