Emergent Brethren

Gallup has created a wonderful personality tool called, Clifton StrengthsFinder. It has been proven to help people achieve greater success at work and in relationships. Can it also do the same for personal evangelism? I’m doing research through Bethel Seminary (St. Paul, MN.), to discover if StrengthsFinder can also empower Christians who feel inadequate for personal evangelism.

As part of my Doctor of Ministry research, I surveyed Christians who have taken Clifton StrengthsFinder and who come from a variety of Christian backgrounds. I want to thank everyone who took the survey! Your participation in this survey provided information to support others to be more faithful to God’s call to share our faith.

Soon, I will start a series of posts on how Clifton StrengthsFinder can empower Christians in personal evangelism.

Thank you for assisting in this research!

Jeff Glass

The other week I was asked to be a guest blogger for my friend Lisa Colon Delay, who I went to Kutztown University with. I thought I would repost what I wrote for her blog on my blog. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Identity

For the last two and half years I’ve been planting Veritas, a missional community in Lancaster, PA. There are various challenges in this.

There’s the challenge of developing a Core Group for Veritas. There’s the struggle of seeking to do church in a whole new way in an area that has a fairly traditional view of what church is. There’s the challenge of balancing 4 part time jobs between my wife and me, a free lance job, two kids and keeping up with everything that comes with running a household. But the biggest challenge that I have been faced with revolves around the issue of identity.

All too often, whether in planting a new faith community, or just in life, we define ourselves by what we do. And we define our self worth from what we do, and whether we are “successful” or not. Maybe men do this more.

If I’m honest with myself, my self worth all too often is tied into how I perceive things are going. If we have a good Sunday, as far as numbers (even though we seek to define success by other metrics) I feel good about myself. If we have a bad Sunday, as far as numbers go, I feel horrible about myself and want to throw in the towel and give up. The biggest challenge I believe, at least for me, in this planting journey has been to remember this phrase, “It’s not what I do, it is about whose I am.”

Scripture says this about me, “he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:5), and “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”(Romans 8:15). Too often I say to myself (or Satan says) the very opposite of these words. I forget that I am a child of the King and that I am loved, not for anything that I can do, have done, or will do. I am loved period.

One thing that stuck from my years at seminary that has helped me confront this problem of identity is this simple statement, “There is nothing you can do to make God love you any less. There is nothing you can do to make God love you any more.” My identity is not in being a church planter, a father, a husband, or anything else that I try to define my worth in. My struggle is to remember that, and place my identity in the fact that I am a child of the Heavenly Father.

The Church of the Brethren and Urban Express North American are co-sponsoring a webcast with Stuart Murray and Juliet Kilpin in collaboration with Pacific Conference Brethren in Christ, Pacific Southwest District Church of the Brethren and Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference USA. It will be held March 10, 2012, from 10 am to 4 pm PST.

Stuart Murray Williams and Juliet Kilpin will be presenting on what does it mean to follow Jesus in a changing culture, in which the Christian story is no longer familiar and the church is on the margins? Post-Christendom is well advanced in most western societies and this is the emerging reality in the US too. How do we respond to the challenges and seize the opportunities? What role does church planting play as we search for relevant ways of being church in this emerging culture? And what can the Anabaptist tradition offer –- a tradition with centuries of experience on the margins in which many are finding inspiration and fresh perspectives?

Stuart Murray has spoken at previous Church of the Brethren events and has written The Naked Anabaptist and Post-Christendom.

The cost is $35 for the webcast and this includes CEU credit.

For more information or registration go to this link.

A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from Mike Morrell, who runs the Speak Easy blog program that I am a part of. This e-mail was letting me know that Speak Easy had a book that I could review. The book? Sacrilege: Finding Life in the Unorthodox Ways of Jesus by Hugh Halter. As soon as I read the e-mail I went right to the form and filled it out hoping that I wasn’t too late. I hit submit, held my breath, and waited for the confirmation that I indeed got a copy to review for Speak Easy. Seconds later I received that confirmation that i was hoping for, a chance to read the newest book by Hugh.

You see Hugh and his normal writing and ministry partner Matt Smay have influenced me in profound ways in their books The Tangible Kingdom and AND:The Gathered and Scattered Church. And Veritas has used their Tangible Kingdom Primer in developing missional communities (and plan to do so again in the coming year). So I was excited to see what Hugh had to say about following Jesus. And of course the title Sacrilege, which normally is seen as a bad thing in Christian circles, grabbed my attention right away.

The first thing that Halter does in the book’s first chapter is to define what he means by the word sacrilege. He says, “To commit sacrilege is to de-sacredize what is deemed to be sacred….In the Christian sense, to commit sacrilege means to disregard, disrespect, or be irreverent toward those things that have traditionally been considered holy, venerated, or dedicated as sacred. It’s tipping holy cows” At first reading how can sacrilege be a good thing, according to Halter. Just about the time when you are wondering if Halter is trying to just be controversial or provocative, we says this, which sums up what the book is all about, “In actuality, as I’ll show, de-sacredizing what should be de-sacredized is not only good, it begins to move us toward the undercurrent of the real person and Good News of Jesus. Sacrilege is about removing religion from our faith. It’s about securing the integrity of what is most important. It’s about chipping away at people’s false assumptions about who Jesus is and what following him is all about.”

As an Anabaptist I was totally on board where Halter went to show his readers the sacrilegious nature of Jesus, right to the Sermon on the Mount, and more specifically the beatitudes. Halter takes the remainder of the book unpacking the beatitudes and how they flip everything upside down and how following Jesus and living out the beatitudes will fulfill what Jesus wants of his disciples (or apprentices as Halter wants to call those who live for Jesus). Halter says that Jesus, “wanted people to become like him; sacrilegious, incarnational people who lived a contagiously countercultural, kingdom-centered life. (I believe Jesus wanted that when he walked the face of this earth and he also wants that now as well.)

I appreciated the book and what Halter was seeking to do, unpacking Jesus from the religious confines that He has been wrapped up in for 2,000 years and to truly see Jesus as “the ultimate sacrilegious leader.” I resonated with his use of the beatitudes to show the sacrilegious nature of Jesus and how if we follow Jesus, by living out the beatitudes, we’ll be committing sacrilege as well and becoming sacrilegious apprentices.

Here are some quotes from the book that I found helpful or that resonated with me:

“Jesus and the early faith communities lived an intentionally countercultural life without any sense of consumer-oriented fluff- and people still chose to take the leap!” (This is my desire for not only Veritas but for my life as well)

“Biblical apprenticeship is about three things: 1. Becoming just like Jesus. 2. Doing what Jesus did, and 3. doing the above with the types of people Jesus liked spending time with.”

“Jesus messed with people’s paradigms.”

“Jesus utterly jacked up everything people thought about religion and God. And he’s still at it.”

“Jesus loved the Scriptures as they witnessed to him, but his biggest fights were with those who knew the most Scripture.”

“Jesus really doesn’t care how much we know if our knowledge amounts to no change in our lifestyle.”

“Jesus, however, is trying to take people from a small box of religion to the place where they can open up their lives to a huge new world called the kingdom.”

“Although Westernized Christianity pulls us away from risk, confrontation, and getting gritty with real issues, Christ is going to lead us into places that will capture our emotions and reorient our entire perspective about life and why we live it.”

“Being a Christian is about being like Jesus, and sometimes that means taking risks to reach out.”

“Jesus came to expand your life, not keep it the same. His life is fuller than the American Dream, but it’s not as safe.”

“The wall of assumptions will only come down as entire communities band together in unity to live like Christ before the world. This may mean turning from idols of materialism, individualism, consumerism, and religion.”

I’m sure I could go on with various thoughts and quotes that stuck out to me and resonated with me and our journey in planting Veritas as a missional community. But I thought I’d end this blog with a final thought from Hugh that is a deep hope and longing of mine for our community. Hugh says, “Jesus never called people to follow him by themselves. He knew that life in the Kingdom was and still is only available for those committed to community with other apprentices.”

I’m thankful for Mike Morrell and Speak Easy for the opportunity to read and review Sacrilege. Hopefully reading this book can help and remind me to flip some tables and follow the subversive, countercultural, and sacrilegious leader Jesus of Nazareth.

So the last time that I wrote anything for Emergent Brethren I mentioned our Monthly Rhythm for our gatherings. I shared about our desire to live out (as individuals and as a community) the OUT, UP, IN 3 Dimensional life of a disciple of Jesus. As I began to do some more thinking about this triangle, our monthly rhythm and our core values, I also became aware that this triangle could guide how we structured the leadership of Veritas as we move forward. Below you’ll find a document that I have written to lay out what the Veritas Leadership Structure will look like taking into consideration our Core Values and our Monthly Rhythm. I would love to hear your thoughts, comments, ideas, etc……

Leadership Structure of Veritas

“Role Descriptions” of Elder Team (including the Church Planter/Pastor)

Commission Elder:
Vision: To see that we at Veritas serve and bless people in real and practical ways.
1. Partner with Pastor Ryan on planning OUT events, activities, and gatherings. (Getting Artists for 1st Friday, Musicians for 3rd Friday, connecting with Non-Profits to serve with, etc…)
2. Plan (with Pastor Ryan) the monthly OUT Sunday (currently 1x a month)
3. Train, meet, resource, and network with the Missional Communities OUT Leaders.
4. Develop ways, ideas, and dreams of getting OUT into the world and blessing it and means of getting the word out about Veritas.
5. Meet monthly with Pastor/Church Planter and Elder team.

Communion Elder:
Vision: To create regular opportunities of relevant worship experiences, not as consumers but participating in and creating the worship that is taking place, with people connecting worship on Sunday with their worship on Monday through Saturday.
1. Partner with Pastor Ryan on planning the Corporate UP Gatherings (2x a month), the sermon series planning, and what each Missional Community is “studying” during their UP Gatherings.
2. Train, meet, resource, and network with the Missional Communities UP leaders.
3. Develop in Partnership with Pastor Ryan a discipleship process for Veritas.
4. Creating, Overseeing, and working on teams that help the Corporate UP Gatherings come together. (Musical team, Children’s Ministry Team, Multimedia Team)
5. Meet monthly with Pastor/Church Planter and Elder team.

Community Elder:
Vision: To help Veritas become a community full of love, grace, compassion, and mercy, following in Jesus’ footsteps.
1. Partner with Pastor Ryan on planning IN events, activities and gatherings that strength the relational community.
2. Train, meet, resource and network with the Missional Communities IN Leaders.
3. Create, Oversee and work on a Hospitality Team for our Corporate UP Gatherings.
4. Plan (with Pastor Ryan) the monthly IN Sunday (currently 1x a Month)
5. Meet monthly with the Pastor/Church Planter and Elder team.

Collaboration Elder:
Vision: To see that Veritas honors and glories God in the areas of stewardship and strategic development.
1. Partner with Pastor Ryan on funding initiatives.
2. Develop Community Room as a consistent revenue stream
3. Serve as Treasurer to collect and deposit offering (work with supportive church book keeper). Eventually the Collaboration Elder will oversee an “in-house” financial team responsible for keeping the books, and all financial matters. Helps develop the budget in partnership and in conversation with the elder team (including the Pastor/Church Planter.
5. Meet monthly with the Pastor/Church Planter and Elder team.

Church Planter/Pastor of Veritas:
Vision: To live out, embody and help the Veritas community to live out and embody the mission and vision of being a “Missional Community of Authentic Worshippers.”
Role Description for Church Planter/Pastor

•Spends time in Theological reflection (UP)
•Spends time in Spiritual disciplines and prayer (UP)
•Spends time in reflection, and discernment regarding the church and the culture (OUT)
•Encapsulate the community with the biblical narrative (UP)
•Teaches and guides the community through encounters with Scripture, rather than information alone (UP)
•Develops opportunities to engage the context of the neighborhood, and to personally be a neighbor (OUT)
•Develops and unleashes the core leadership to the fullness of their potential (IN)
•Facilitates learning/discerning environments (IN and UP)
•Develops the ability to prioritize missional essentials for the team and able to let other things go (IN, UP, and OUT)
•Models interdependent style of leadership (IN)

•Spends time becoming a Student of scripture (UP)
•Spends time becoming a Student of culture (OUT)
•Is Relationship oriented – ability to engage in genuine and authentic conversation (OUT and IN)
•Is a Risk taker for the Kingdom, where mistakes are allowed (OUT)
•Develops a Strategic discipleship plan that calls the congregation to be ministers to others (UP)
•Engages with a Spiritual director, ministry mentor, and support team for growth and accountability (UP)
•Has Healthy self-awareness; self-learning (IN, UP)
•Develops Courage (OUT)

Elders meet at least monthly. The monthly meeting will include prayer, sharing from each Elder about what is going on in their area of responsibility (UP efforts, IN efforts, OUT efforts, and Administrative details- financial report, etc…), vision plans, dreaming together, and strategic planning for the future. Elders are responsible for the day to day, month to month work of the church. The Church Planter/Pastor is part of the Elder Team, has a vote within the Elder Team and is ultimately accountable to the Elder Team. The Elder Team is also responsible for the yearly church budget.

Community Gathering- The Elders convene a Community Gathering twice a year with the entire community to share vision for the future, reports from each Elder about progress in their areas of responsibilities, and the Collaboration Elder presents the Budget for the Community to vote on. These twice a year Community Gatherings happen in April and October (right now during the IN Sunday Gathering.)