Missions Archives - Passion for Planting

Getting Our Priorities Straight

Sean Cronin — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 09:00:00 +0000

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Getting Our Priorities Straight

By Ed Stetzer

If in your travels you have ever passed by another country’s embassy, you may see people standing guard, usually in uniform and with their national flag. Those soldiers and the ambassador they guard inside are living, breathing representations of their own country living sent lives in a foreign land. Their task is to represent their home country and its interests while in that land.

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul refers to himself as an ambassador. It is an appropriate description of all Christians. The local church is, in function, an embassy of Heaven, and its people are to be ambassadors living sent lives—living, breathing representations of the King and His kingdom. As a member of a local church, you are involved in the missional task of making the invisible kingdom break through into the visible—to proclaim that the King reigns and is reconciling the world to Himself (5:19). The function of these embassies (churches) and the ambassadors within their walls (Christians) is to propagate the good news of the King and the kingdom we represent. In our case this does not simply mean that we go and do good for the city (though it includes that). It does not simply mean that we serve the poor (though it includes that, too). Paul considers a proclamation element central to our ambassadorships:

“We are ambassadors for Christ; certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, ‘Be reconciled to God’” (5:20, CSB).

Justice and evangelism—gospel demonstration and proclamation— are not two sides of the same coin, which implies that for one to function, the other must be hidden. Instead they are inextricably held together—the “two big rocks” of Jesus’ mission: serving the hurting and saving the lost. Like a forged steel alloy created from combining carbon and iron, serving and saving forge a complete—and like the forged alloy, a stronger—witness to the world. Hiding gospel proclamation in order to foreground gospel demonstration weakens both.

While justice and evangelism go hand in hand, they must work together. Paul is careful to ask the rhetorical question “How will people hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14). Jesus is at work in the world, but He is not at work in the world salvifically without His Church and without gospel proclamation. This is why missio Dei births missio ecclesiae, and the Church joins Jesus on His mission to make disciples among the nations. The Church is given “the keys of the kingdom” to participate in mission with God (Matthew 16:19). The justice brought about and advocated for by the Church testifies to the goodness of the King but people must know in which King’s name such good work is being done. As the Christmas hymn tells us, it is “in His name [that] all oppression shall cease.”

I mentioned previously how, metaphorically speaking, the mission of God has two big rocks. As goes the well-known illustration, if you place a bunch of small rocks in a bucket first, the two big rocks won’t fit. But if you put the big rocks in first, the small rocks fit around it. So it is with mission—the two big rocks in the mission of Jesus are serving the hurting and saving the lost: demonstration and proclamation. Countless smaller rocks surround them. This helps us remember we need to prioritize gospel proclamation (which includes global missions) and gospel demonstration (also part of global mission) in the life of the Church if we would really join Jesus on His mission. The Church may do other things that are considered part of the mission, but those two things are central to the mission. They are central to the mission of the Church because they are central to the mission of Jesus. If we do not find a way to prioritize evangelism—in particular, global evangelism—we lose that emphasis.

Remembering History

It would be reckless for us not to recognize and learn from the mistakes of those who lost missions in the name of mission just a century before us. Recent history sounds a warning.

The beginning of the last century was marked by the kingdom of God movement that eventually neglected gospel proclamation to become what we now call the “social gospel.” It happened again following the International Missionary Conference at Willingen (1952). Mission thinkers and practitioners strayed from cross-cultural evangelism and the emphasis on church planting and favored a mission of doing good in the name of doing good rather than in the name of Jesus. H. H. Rosin notes that soon after the term missio Dei appeared for the first time in modern theological writing, following this conference, it began to shift in meaning from God’s missionary work through the Church to God’s larger work in the world. Many of those who embraced this view of mission concluded that since God is at work in the world. He no longer needs His Church for mission. While history doesn’t repeat itself, it can certainly rhyme, and we must be careful not to make similar mistakes.

Recently, I contributed a chapter to a book called Conversations on When Everything is Missions: Rediscovering the Mission of the Church. You will find part two above. You can read part one here.

The full book is available for purchase here. In addition to the chapter from myself, you will find contributions from other leaders, such as Dr. David Platt and J.D. Payne.

Source: Getting Our Priorities Straight

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Getting Our Language Right

Sean Cronin — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 09:00:00 +0000

Home > Blog > Getting Our Language Right

Getting Our Language Right

By Ed Stetzer

Missional has been the word of the new millennium. People, churches and mission agencies want to be missional, but where does missions fit in? If we are all missional, and everything we do is missional, how do we think about missions around the world?

Defining “Missional”

The terminology we use matters because terms shape the conversation we have around ideas. Terms are linguistic symbols that we develop in order to make sense of those things most significant to us. Therefore, understanding how we use terms like missional to describe our gospel impetus is of utmost importance for the Christian, and especially for the evangelical.

The first use of the term missional is over 100 years old, but how we use it today is relatively new. Today, it is used to describe engagement in mission activity, a movement of like-minded churches or one’s role as a missionary to his or her neighborhood. I once even heard a pastor refer to “missional lighting” in his church sanctuary.

Sometimes people also use missional in ways evangelicals may find problematic. Some use the term to promote social justice and societal transformation to such an extent that justice overshadows or even replaces a call to personal evangelism. Others too narrowly apply the term to refer to the call to be a missionary to one’s local community or neighborhood. While this sounds admirable at first, when not seen as part of the whole, it removes focus from cross-cultural mission work. Still others use missional as a term to describe a different way of doing ministry that shifts the emphasis away from the program and event-based ministry popular in attractional and church-growth churches.

Missional has become an ecclesial Rorschach inkblot test. People see in it what they want, and sometimes miss what they need.

The purpose of this chapter is to help us make sure we don’t lose the missions in the mission of God and that missional does not distract us from God’s mission to the nations.

What “Mission” and its Adjective “Missional” Get Right

Despite how the term has been used differently throughout the past century and across the theological and ecclesiological spectrums, there is some common ground that can serve as a foundation of understanding. A consensus has developed over the last century and now evangelicals as well as mainline Protestants, Roman Catholics, and to some extent Orthodox Christians believe that mission is a to be more broadly understood as rooted in the identity of God and a part of the call of His people. Or, as evangelicals might put it specifically, 1) God has a mission, 2) God’s mission is rooted in the identity of God Himself, and 3) God sends His people on mission.

This basis of understanding comes from the Bible, but is widely seen as being introduced (evangelicals would say re-introduced) by Karl Barth. And while evangelicals would typically disagree with Barth on many other subjects, here we can agree that God has a mission and He is on mission because mission is inextricably woven into the fabric of who God is. And just as God the Father sent the Son and sent the Holy Spirit as part of His mission, so too He sends the church into the world to proclaim His gospel and raise up disciples in all nations. We see the fruit of God’s mission story in John’s vision in Revelation 7 where the gospel has reached every nation, tribe, people and language. It is for this purpose that God sends His people into the uttermost parts of the world to evangelize the lost.

So while we can agree that God has a mission and that He is on mission, and that His mission is rooted in His own identity, and that He sends His Church on mission, I think we need more information. We need to talk about what we mean when we say mission. We need to talk about what we mean when we say missional. We need to talk about what we mean when we talk about missio Dei. And we need to talk about what we mean when we say missions, because mission and missions are not the same thing. To echo Stephen Neill’s popular phrase, “If everything is mission, nothing is mission.” So then, what is mission? What is missional? So that we might understand what these terms mean today, it is important to first look at how mission language has evolved over time.

Getting Our Mission Language Right

While it is undoubtedly true to say that mission is rooted in the identity and character of God and the church is invited to participate in the mission of God (missio Dei), the outworking of this idea has also been destructive to mainline Protestant conciliar mission work (think World Council of Churches). We cannot unpack the full story here, however I (and many others, more eloquently) have walked through the conciliar theology of mission and its ultimate dismantling of cross-cultural mission work.

The movement that started in Edinburgh at the World Missionary Council in 1910 looked remarkably different by the 1960s, as I have written at length elsewhere. And the idea of mission was the driving force for much of these changes.

Thus, it is important to understand that an idea can be both true as well as dangerous. And where things get dangerous is when the term mission is so broadly applied. Stephen Neill’s words come back to haunt us. Neill was especially concerned about the loss of cross-cultural, traditional missions work and I share that concern today. It is among churches that consider themselves “missional” that I often find a lack of missions activity. I believe this to be for five reasons:

In rediscovering missio Dei, many have over emphasized the personal obligation to one’s personal setting at the expense of the obligation to advance God’s kingdom among the nations. Individualism can easily impede the global impulse.
In responding to missio Dei, many have wanted to be more mission-shaped (missional) and have therefore made everything mission (e.g. missional lighting).
In relating to missio Dei, many increasingly (and rightly) give concern to the hurting but less to the global lost. Christmas shoeboxes, global orphan projects, and ending human trafficking are all important, but they can inadvertently dim our vision for the salvation of all peoples.
In refocusing on missio Dei, many focus on gospel demonstration at the expense of gospel proclamation. One cannot read the Great Commission passages of Jesus or the conviction of Paul without concluding the New Testament compels the Church to tell the world the good news found only in Christ.
In reiterating missio Dei, many lose sight of the Church’s mandate to be a global presence with its global mission.

I don’t intend to come down hard on Spurgeon or anyone who has reiterated his famous quote. I’m sure somewhere I’m recorded in the excitement of the moment saying it, too. But if we are going to use clarity in our terms so we can properly nuance what mission means, Spurgeon’s quote won’t do. It’s simply too simplistic.

H.L. Mencken was right about this: “There is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.” Clarity on the terminology we use is vital. Therefore, I’m of the belief that this mission about which we speak is important enough to be nuanced. We should be precise about the language we use because history has shown us that getting it wrong can have dangerous consequences.

So then what are the proper definitions of mission, missions, missional, etc.? Broadly defined we can say that mission is what God is doing in the world, and we join Him in it. Missional is simply the adjectival form of mission33 and describes the mission-shaped life. Missions is a subset of mission. A more substantive way to frame it is like this:

Missio Dei: Missio Dei is God-focused.34 God is on mission to glorify himself. Missio Dei is what God is doing in the world in light of His good character and love for His creation. This is the all-encompassing redemptive disposition of God toward His fallen creation. Missio Dei gives birth to the missio ecclesiae, the mission of the church. God is at work in the world through common grace. Through general revelation and the work of the Spirit, he is preparing hearts for him in missio Dei.

Mission: Mission is everyone-focused. This comprehensive term refers to “the entirety of the task for which the Church is sent into the world.” Some find it helpful to describe this mission in two complementary movements: centripetal and centrifugal. The Church exhibits a quality that attracts the lost for all the right reasons. At the same time, the Church is sent into the world with a missionary purpose. Together these describe mission as something we participate in—joining in what God is doing. If you’re a follower of Jesus, you’re called to mission by nature of declaring Him as Lord of your life. Luke 4:18-20 describes how Jesus came to serve the hurting, the marginalized and the poor. Luke 19:10 describes how Jesus came to save the lost. Mission is this dual work of gospel proclamation and demonstration.

Missional: Missional is believer-focused. It describes believers and churches who live out the mission through the totality of embracing, embodying and enacting God’s mission in the world. Christians are being missional when, as instruments of His kingdom, they join Jesus’s work of serving the hurting and saving the lost.

Note that while in the missio Dei God is at work through common grace, He is not at work in the world salvifically without His people. It is through His missionary agent, the Church— through that Church’s proclamation—that He is at work salvifically in the world. The Church is God’s Plan A for advancing His mission in the world. There is no Plan B. That’s part of why we need missions, with the “s” included.

Missions: Missions is calling-focused. It is the application of mission in a specific, usually cross-cultural response to the calling of God. So while I may engage in mission in my neighborhood, the missionary engaged in missions is responding to the call of God in a cross-cultural context. I prefer to use missions to refer to particular people who pursue a particular calling in a particular context. While there is a “sent-ness” in the calling of all Christians to live on mission (to be missional), missionaries are those who engage in evangelism and discipleship through cross-cultural ministry. Increasingly the interconnectedness and pluralism of our globalized world makes engagement in missions possible without leaving our own cities. These local missions opportunities will undoubtedly continue to grow. So today, serving in missions could include moving to an unreached people group in another land or moving into a predominantly Muslim community in urban America. In both cases the believer seeks to learn language, culture, and the best means to show and share Christ.

With our working definitions in order, the inevitable question is “now what?” What do we do with our language so that we might understand how to live on mission with Jesus to reach the lost? Central to our calling as followers of the King is our call to display the glory of God through the redemption of those who are far from Him.

Recently, I contributed a chapter to a book called Conversations on When Everything is Missions: Rediscovering the Mission of the Church. This is Part One. The full book is available for purchase here. In addition to the chapter from myself, you will find contributions from other leaders, such as Dr. David Platt and J.D. Payne.

Source: Getting Our Language Right

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Lead with What Your Church CAN DO with Chris Bell

Sean Cronin — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 10:00:00 +0000

By unSeminary: Welcome back to the unSeminary podcast. Today we’re talking with Chris Bell, from 3Circle Church in the Mobile, Alabama area.

When the pandemic started, all we heard about was new restrictions and what we couldn’t do. Chris was immediately challenged to focus on what the church CAN do each day. Listen in as Chris shares ways that churches can apply this as we minister locally, regionally and globally to complete our God-given mission.

What can you do right now? // This question was one that 3Circle Church daily asked and it became their north star, particularly in the early days of the pandemic. Locally this looked like reaching out to churches in the area who didn’t have the equipment or knowledge to stream sermons online and helping them record or get set-up on Facebook. Globally it meant providing resources to ministry partners when they couldn’t travel or do mission trips, and offering training materials online instead of in-person. Ask your staff: what can you do right now? Asking themselves that question gave 3Circle Church the guidance they needed in reaching out to the community around them and focusing on providing the help that they could.Take a local approach. // 3Circle believes all ministry is local and there isn’t a cookie cutter solution to what a community needs. The team at 3Circle is big and through the pandemic they were thankfully able to keep everyone on staff, but it required some positions to be moved around. Where people can’t serve in their normal job function, put them where there is the greatest need. 3Circle had each person on staff contribute towards calling each of the 5000-6000 people in their database to ask how they were doing and pray for them. By interacting with the people in your church family on such a personal level, you will quickly get a pulse on what the needs are locally in different areas and for different families. Options for connecting. // Even though in-person services are relaunching, 3Circle has learned a lot about online services and is going to continue to pursue excellence in this area. When people attend church online, we don’t have control over the variables such as reliable internet or distractions in the home. These factors mean that the online service needs to be more than just a broadcast of the in-person service. To address this, 3Circle started shooting these messages on location with different video cuts to create a more engaging experience that would hold a family’s attention. Though it was more video work, the result helped them to expand their reach and impact more people consistently. Recognize the online ministry opportunities even when you are returning to meeting in-person. Hire staff to support growth and development in the area of an online campus. Empower your campuses. // 3Circle Church takes a local approach with ministry when it comes to multisite too. Because each of their campuses is in a very different area, they each have a different feel and different needs, especially during the pandemic. To have local contextualization at your campuses, it’s important to have a great campus pastor and then support and empower them with the right team. The campus pastor role is one that’s a leader, a shepherd and a communicator. When a campus pastor has strengths in one of these areas, surround them with campus staff that will balance their gifts. For example, if the campus pastor is a grower, then make sure there is a strong shepherd at the campus as well to help them care for people in their community.

You can learn more about 3Circle Church at www.3circlechurch.com. You can reach Chris at his website www.chrisbelllive.com.

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Source: Lead with What Your Church CAN DO with Chris Bell

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Jesus-Centered Missions

Sean Cronin — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 10:00:53 +0000

By Jay Fast: I’ll never forget the moment when I was struck with the fact that Jesus intentionally used short-term, cross-cultural mission trips as part of his disciple-making process. It was the spring of 2013, I was sitting on a bench made from rough-cut logs on a beautiful day at the property of the Latin America Multiplication Center in Heredia, Costa Rica. I was living there as a missionary, overseeing FUSION, Sonlife’s short-term missions process for teenagers.

Consider What Jesus Actually Did

As I sat on that bench, evaluating the investment of time, energy, and resources that churches (and student ministries in particular) pour out every year toward short-term mission trips, I was struck with a frightening thought: What if I’ve moved my family overseas to invest our lives in something that Jesus never did? At that point in my life, I had participated in and led numerous mission trips, but I had never stopped to consider if this whole “short-term, cross-cultural mission trip” thing was something that Jesus had done. And if Jesus didn’t do it, I didn’t want to either.

Of course, I knew the impact that short-term mission trips have. Like many of you, I first participated in a short-term mission trip as a teenager. It had a profound impact on me, and God used that experience to change the course of my life. After college, I served as a youth pastor for 13 years. During that time, I took students on dozens of short-term mission trips. I had the opportunity to see God work in, and through, the lives of students over and over again. Most (if not all) of us would agree that short-term mission trips are generally good experiences, but maybe you’ve found yourself asking similar questions as those on my mind that day:

Are short-term mission trips worth all the hassle?
Is the work being done actually accomplishing anything?
Are the mission trips we plan actually just glorified exotic vacations for our students?
Is the money being spent really the best investment of Kingdom resources?
Do our mission trips teach and equip our students to engage with the mission of Jesus and live as disciples in their own culture and context, or just when they go overseas?
Would it be more beneficial if we simply wrote a large check to a missionary instead of taking up a week of their time and adding significantly to their workload, hoping that we make some sort of impact?
Does anything about the way we do short-term, cross-cultural mission trips need to change?
Did Jesus model taking his disciples on short-term, cross-cultural mission trips?

We Have a Model for Short-Term, Cross-Cultural Missions

In studying the life and ministry of Jesus, I’ve discovered that the answer to that last question is a resounding YES! Additionally, a careful study of Jesus’ use of mission trips actually informs all of these other questions as well. In our blog post entitled “Equipping Cross-Culturally,” we saw that Jesus took his disciples on short-term, cross-cultural mission trips on at least 6 different occasions. Not only did Jesus take his disciples on multiple short-term, cross-cultural mission trips, but as we study them, we find a model for how we can and should do likewise.

This study of Jesus’ model for short-term, cross-cultural mission trips and how he used them as a disciple-making tool has led to the development of Sonlife’s FUSION process. FUSION is a short-term mission experience that strategically partners churches in North America with churches in Latin America for the purpose of multiplying healthy, disciple-making student ministries. It’s a four-step process that’s specifically modeled after Jesus’ ministry strategy and how he did short-term mission trips.

Although there are four short-term mission trips throughout the process, FUSION is anything but a typical mission trip experience. The primary purpose of FUSION is not to construct a building, lead a vacation Bible school program, or do street evangelism. Instead, we ask our FUSION teams to incarnate, invest and multiply. This is a reflection of Jesus’ strategy of entering our world, pouring his life out into a few, and reproducing his character and priorities in them. Students on FUSION teams have the opportunity to enter the world of Latino teenagers, invest their lives in building relationships with those students, and help them build a healthy, disciple-making student ministry by reproducing the character and priorities of Jesus in them.

Jesus Used the Trips to Develop the Disciples’ Hearts

Looking at the short-term mission trips that Jesus did with his disciples, it’s clear that his focus wasn’t solely on the people where they were going. He used these trips as a tool to develop his disciples’ hearts and to teach them necessary skills in disciple-making. In the same way, FUSION is designed to be a tool that can be used by youth pastors to develop a disciple-making ministry. As students engage with the mission cross-culturally, they develop both the heart and skills necessary for making disciples back home in their own culture and context.

Throughout the process, there are a number of key ingredients that make the experience fruitful. FUSION is student-led, which means that once a team arrives in-country, the students are responsible to take the lead in building relationships, group training experiences, English classes in the local public schools, living as disciples in their host homes, and various outreach opportunities. The emphasis during the entire process is developing relationships between students in the partner ministries so that disciple-making DNA can be shared. The adults who are part of the team (youth pastor, volunteer leaders, etc) serve in the role of shepherds during the process, praying for, caring for, and encouraging the students by reminding them of the training they’ve received to prepare them for their cross-cultural disciple-making experience.

The FUSION Process

Each step in the FUSION process involves a short-term mission trip, and each step has a different focus.

STEP 1 focuses on the foundational priorities from Jesus’ life and ministry. Students lead the training, looking at how Jesus built a disciple-making ministry and what it looks like for us to do the same.
STEP 2 shifts the focus to targeted ministry training and outreach. Students equip their peers in the partner ministry to share their testimony and the Gospel with a spiritually lost friend, and then both groups go on an outreach retreat together where those lost friends hear the Good News.
STEP 3 is all about transmitting the DNA of cross-cultural missions and equipping a team of ministers. In this step, things are reversed and students are challenged in a new way as the student ministry from Latin America does a mission trip, traveling to their partner church in North America.
STEP 4 focuses on multiplication. The student ministry from North America returns and travels with their partner ministry to a third location where the students “pass the baton” and the four-step process begins again. In this way, both student ministries are learning to make and multiply disciples like Jesus.

Regardless of where your student ministry finds itself in the process of becoming a disciple-making ministry, we’d love to talk with you about how cross-cultural, short-term mission trips can play a significant role. If we’re serious about following Jesus’ example, we have to recognize that we can’t build disciple-making ministries without taking our students out of their comfort zones and across cultural barriers. That doesn’t necessarily have to be a trip to the other side of the world, which is why we’re currently developing the FUSION process domestically as well. We’d love to talk with you about what it might look like for you to engage in the process, and how we can serve you as you continue investing in students.

By Jay Fast

Originally posted here:

The post Jesus-Centered Missions appeared first on Discipleship.org.

Source: Jesus-Centered Missions

The post Jesus-Centered Missions appeared first on Passion for Planting.

From Plateaued for 30 Years to One of the Fastest Growing Churches in the Country with Bob Riedy

Sean Cronin — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 09:00:04 +0000

By unSeminary: Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast. Today we’re talking with Bob Riedy from the Church of the Open Door (COD) in York, Pennsylvania. COD was started in the early 50s after breaking off of a mainline denomination. They experienced rapid growth for about 30 years, but then plateaued for the next 30 years. Today COD has made a comeback and is one of the fastest growing churches in the country.

Bob is with us to talk about how a stuck church can honor its roots while becoming revitalized and reach its community again. It all begins with knowing your church’s DNA.

Examine the DNA. // About 85-90% of churches in America find themselves either plateaued or losing ground against the growth of their communities. Prior to Bob’s arrival at Church of the Open Door, there was a difficult pastoral transition that did a lot of damage to the church. It wasn’t until Bob and his family came in 2006 when the church was ready to try to reach the community and grow again. The first thing Bob did was to figure out what the DNA of the church was. Every church has a unique DNA and you can’t violate that as you try to bring change. Understanding your church’s DNA is key to helping you know how to structure growth. Every church is unique. // Church of the Open Door began to ask, what is the unique mission that this church has in the community and in the world? This began a process of the the church praying, seeking God, and Bob reading a lot of books about why churches become unhealthy. A key book that helped Bob with figuring out the church’s DNA was Transforming Church: Bringing Out the Good to Get to Great by Kevin Ford. Bob learned there are a lot of factors that go into a church’s DNA. It’s shaped by the history of the church, the tradition of the church, the heroes of the church’s past, and also by God’s word. If you can, interview and listen to some of the original church members about how the church was formed. As you consider these different factors, identify what makes up your church’s DNA.What factors make up your church’s DNA? // Church of the Open Door identified seven or eight different pieces that define their unique DNA. A few of these are a steadfast commitment to the word of God, a passion for the gospel and missions, as well as being prayer-dependent. COD also has a shared leadership between the pastor, ministry leaders, and elders. Lay leaders have a real stake in what is happening within the church. This is especially important because the difficult pastoral transition prior to Bob’s coming on board drove a wedge between some of the leaders of the church and healing was needed there.Revitalizing local outreach. // Church of the Open Door’s passion for global missions led to a revitalization of local outreach initiatives. In the more recent past, COD didn’t have a heart for impacting their city and that needed to change. Bob first addressed this from the pulpit and then brought the focus and budget for local outreach to a place where it was equal with their global missions. When working through change at your church, first identify what should never change and preserve that. But also figure out what needs to change and then shepherd your people through it.Structure growth around your DNA. // Once COD defined their unique DNA, they began to make changes to move toward health. In addition to revitalizing local outreach initiatives, they transitioned to more contemporary worship, built a Family Life Center to serve the community, expanded their prayer meetings and sought to equip people in their personal prayer lives and taught the church how to pray. The church leaders also actively pursued healing and learned to work together according to what the Bible teaches. Bob notes when the church saw the leaders working together, loving each other, and enjoying each other, that really permeated the rest of the church in a positive way. All of these steps led to the renewed growth and health in the church.Use your DNA to cast vision for the future. // What are your values and mission and vision? Each year Bob evaluates what happened in the life of COD over the past year. Try to work through all the events of the last year and put them into major categories. Evaluate finances, outreaches, and small groups within the context of your DNA. Assess what should be done in the future. What are the plans and goals for your mission and vision moving forward?

You can learn more about the Church of the Open Door at their website www.codyork.org and find their Vision and Direction from Fall 2019 here.

Thank You for Tuning In!

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Source: From Plateaued for 30 Years to One of the Fastest Growing Churches in the Country with Bob Riedy

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The Most Urgent Things Your Church Should Be Doing Right Now

Sean Cronin — Fri, 08 May 2020 09:00:06 +0000

Home > Blog > The Most Urgent Things Your Church Should Be Doing Right Now

The Most Urgent Things Your Church Should Be Doing Right Now

By Ed Stetzer

“The church has left the building.” We see this on church signs, hashtags, and t-shirt designs. It’s a great saying and an actual reality. I actually included some thoughts on it in my latest article on Religion News Service. But what are the most urgent things we can be doing as the church is scattered?

Here are ten things that you should have in place already—if you don’t, you are late and it is time to get going.

1. Leverage the Internet for your church.

Most churches already have services online, zoom or other technologies for small groups, and are using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others for communication. Some make DVDs for shut-ins or department of corrections inmates with no wifi.

We have done a great job of connecting to our communities. This week, make a special effort to engage and invite everyone you know to click on the service, join your small group, or follow your church on social media. You may have an unchurched friend three states away and don’t know a church near them; for now, you can invite them to yours.

2. Do the same for the gospel.

Whatever your Internet tools—email, blogging, social media, etc.—this is the week to make much of Jesus. This is our time to show a hurting world the love of God that transcends a pandemic.

Here are a couple of specific things you can do: 1) Post your testimony of how you came to know Christ and how he is working in the middle of this crisis. 2) Do a post or email sharing the gospel. If you aren’t confident in doing that, you can say something like, “Jesus Christ changed my life; he gives me hope in a pandemic; and he loves you. Go here to learn more:” And click to a link like https://peacewithgod.net/ or https://thestoryfilm.com/.

3. Continue to stay in touch with your seniors or begin contacting them if you haven’t already.

Find out what needs they may have such as someone to pick up groceries or medicines for them.

4. Develop or use your current phone tree, group texting, or group email to reach out your church family.

Don’t just give updates to what’s happening; instead, give them encouragement and ideas of how they can be involved in the mission in times of social distancing. Don’t just inform, also inspire.

5. Encourage the church to touch base with neighbors.

Ask how they are doing and how you might serve them or pray for them. Many of us live such busy lives that we don’t know our neighbors. In a shelter at home setting like most of us face, a neighborhood walk is a relief, practiced with social distancing care.

You don’t have to be like this guy, but you can talk to your neighbors on the street from a safe distance. Getting to know neighbors allows us to invite them to join our online services or small groups, and helps us develop relationship for when this is over. Suggest doing a neighborhood block party in the future when it is safe to do so.

6. Find ways to help in your area with food distribution.

There are still schools preparing meals, exhausted healthcare workers with little time to think about the next meal, and others overlooked just now.

7. Develop a prayer ministry for your community.

This is a great time to help your church see you are not just called to care for one another, but to your area. Some churches are setting up a 12-hour-a-day or a 24-hour prayer time for a week or more. Others have a place on their website for prayer requests. It could be as simple as encouraging your congregation to ask in every conversation this week how they can pray for whoever they talk to on the phone, online, or in person.

8. Create a culture of encouragement.

Ask your people to make it a point to encourage someone they normally wouldn’t each day this week. Write a note, send an email, make a call, send a text, or post on someone’s social media feed a word of gratitude for them or encouragement. A central figure in the Acts was Barnabas, known for encouragement.

9. Bring Scripture to the forefront.

Post Scriptures wherever you can. Many people are writing encouraging verses with sidewalk chalk in neighborhoods across the country. Put them online, add a meaningful verse to your email signature, have your children make a poster for the yard. We have so many negative messages right now, encouraging words from the Word matter.

10. Challenge your church to be bold in the gospel.

Our Surgeon General said that this week will be our Pearl Harbor, our 9/11. There may not be a better time in our lifetime to speak up for Jesus, to take a risk and tell everyone we can about the loving Savior who is bigger than this crisis.

11. Remind people of God’s love and goodness.

On my desk, in a glass case, I have a first edition copy of Jonathan Edward’s The Autobiography of David Brainerd—a meaningful gift from a close friend who knows of my love for missions to North America (the focus of my Ph.D. and most of my life’s work).

When Brainerd first preached the gospel to Native Americans through an interpreter in the 18th century, he wrote in his journal how he started by introducing them to “Christ’s merits, and his willingness to save all that came to him.” Several began to cry out in anguish, which puzzled Brainerd. He had not yet spoken to them about sin and its consequences.

Commenting on this, John Piper writes, “What Brainerd discovered is that the root of true contrition for sin is the awakening of joy in God. Savoring God precedes sorrow for falling short of His glory. It was a strange discovery: awakened pleasure is the essence of evangelical penitence.”[1] This is a time to tell others—and to remind ourselves—of the love of Jesus Christ for sinners.

These things, and others, should be already on your mind and in your plans. If it is not, get them going now. Our world is ready and waiting for the good news of Jesus.

Source: The Most Urgent Things Your Church Should Be Doing Right Now

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How Do You Create a Culture of Sending

Sean Cronin — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 10:00:24 +0000

Home > Blog > How Do You Create a Culture of Sending

How Do You Create a Culture of Sending

By New Churches Team

Every church starts as a church plant. And often they start with a lot of missional energy that gets lost over time. Sometimes many years go by and the church has never planted. In that case, a culture must be created.

Take Some Time

It takes time to catch the vision. Try to get things to multiply in general in your church – multiply disciples, multiply groups, multiply ministries. Then begin to talk about the value of partnering with church planting. Celebrate that. What you celebrate you will become. As you begin to see multiplication, talk about how you can be involved at a greater level. Is it time to be the primary sponsor church? Can you send out 5 to 10 families? It might take a couple of years to build up to this point, but it is doable.

Create systems that will help create this culture. If you want to change the culture of your church to sending when previously it has been largely self-interested, consider the conviction of your church. Is there a conviction for sending? Is it believed by the leaders of your church that sending is important and it is the church’s responsibility to multiply? If that is the conviction, what can you do to celebrate when multiplication happens at any level? What are the constructs you have in place throughout the organization?

Church planting is not unusual. Churches everywhere are doing this. Find ways to get involved as your first step to making a difference. Reach out to other churches in your area that are planting and see how you and your people can get involved with what they are doing.

Adapted from the New Churches Q&A Podcast Episode 449: Create a Culture of Sending. Click here to listen to more to church planting, multisite, and multiplication tips.

Source: How Do You Create a Culture of Sending

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The Foolish Quest for a “Silver Bullet” in Global Missions

Patrick Bradley — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 09:00:46 +0000

by Steve Jennings: We have an insatiable desire for fast results and quick fixes. Over the years I’ve lived overseas, it’s become clear that this yearning has touched our missions methods as well.

As I’ve read books on missions and sat through seminars, I can’t help but sense that we’re obsessed with finding a “silver bullet” for our Great Commission mandate. Like alchemists looking for the formula for gold, we’ve gone mad trying to unlock what everyone since the days of the apostles hasn’t discovered yet: the perfect formula for explosive, exponential kingdom growth.

In most cases, this search comes from hearts full of compassion and a desire to glorify God. But as these methods come and go—each claiming to be more biblical, more useful, and more replicable than the last—it seems we need to be reminded that we haven’t been given a commission to seek a “silver bullet.”

Of course, methods aren’t wrong. They’re inescapable, and we all have them. But when finding the perfect method or “the key” becomes the focus, we’re in danger of sacrificing present-day, imperfect faithfulness on the altar of future, “perfect” success. We sometimes fail and even refuse to evaluate the downsides of this so-called “miracle” method. When this happens, we’re inhibited from discerning real fruit from faux results.

CLASSIC MISSIOLOGICAL SILVER BULLETS

Books, articles, training courses, and seminars abound promoting the idea of rapidly multiplying churches and disciples as “the biblical pattern.” There’s much good in many of these programs. The problems, however, are threefold: less-than-careful exegesis, overly pragmatic evaluation criteria, and a failure to take into account the whole counsel of God’s Word.

For example, a discipleship program called Four Fields looks to parables that describe the kingdom of God and its growth without considering the purpose of those parables. There’s no mention that Jesus told these parables both to expose the religious leaders’ misunderstanding about the nature of God’s kingdom and to judge them for rejecting the Messiah.

Similarly, the “person of peace” approach appeals to Luke 10 as the model for kingdom expansion. Again, no one mentions the other commands in the text: to hurry, to take no clothes, and to eat only what is served. Why aren’t those as binding as the “find a person of peace” command? Other methods that were also used greatly by God in Acts—such as sermons to large crowds (Acts 2)—are also ignored.

Another program called T4T appeals to 2 Timothy 2:2, though without considering either the context it’s written in (the local church) or the qualifying requirement of training men who are known to be faithful, not simply eager or willing.

All these methods are promoted for their supposed biblical basis and their proven track record of yielding results. And in many cases, there is indeed fruit to be seen. But there are serious flaws in these systems that lead to other problems, some which won’t be realized until years later. The hurried development of “trainers” or “kingdom agents” and the furious searching for “men of peace” circumnavigates Paul’s long view for the training of “faithful men” a la 2 Timothy 2:2.

The focus on obedience in “discovery Bible studies” used in the CPM (Church Planting Movements) approach, combined with a lack of clarity on biblical conversion, easily leads to confusion that simply replaces one set of religious and moral norms for another. Leading people to become disciples without first helping them to understand why they weren’t a disciple in the first place leads to people claiming to embrace Jesus as “king” without clearly understanding their need for him as Savior. The result is people who’ve been “reached,” but not really.

Here’s the bottom line: no method is a “silver bullet.” As long as fallen and finite people are at the helm, no method will be perfect. I’m not intending to write off all methodologies as equally useless, nor do I hope to offer my own alternative method into the mix of the madness. I simply mean to point to some guiding principles for our methods, and hopefully get us to admit that simply more new methods are not what we need.

DRIVEN BY ONE QUESTION

There is a madness in missions driven by one ultimate question: “Does it work?” That question will usually be surrounded by lots of biblical language and qualifications. But at the end of the day, the argument made in defense of many methods is nothing more than pragmatism: “It works and you can’t argue with its results.” One man promoting CPM methods told me, “Numbers don’t lie.”

But he’s wrong; numbers lie all the time.

So how do we evaluate different methodologies? Well, this answer is simple enough: all methodologies must be tested as to whether or not they’re faithful to the biblical mandate.

Okay, but what is the biblical mandate?

THE MANDATE: “MAKE DISCIPLES”

Our mandate is most succinctly laid out in Matthew 28: “make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

Unfortunately, the seeming simplicity of this mandate—proclaiming the glory of God in the face of Christ, displayed at the cross—is too often overwhelmed by the complexity of our methods. I fear that in our quest for the “silver bullet,” we’ve ceased to be stunned by the glory of Christ which compels us to say, “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

This was the heart of Paul as he came to the end of his life. Motivated to a life of suffering by the grace he’d been shown by Christ, Paul reminded Timothy of the necessity of prioritizing preaching the Word and discipling faithful men. “Preach the Word, Timothy. And, since you won’t be around forever, get some faithful men and train them to do the same thing. Preach the Word to the end, even if people don’t want to listen.”

Paul had no need for charts or statistics. Why? Because he had a simple confidence in speaking the Word of reconciliation, resting in the knowledge that whether people receive it or not, whether we’re “effective” or not, Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.

CONCLUSION

Let’s end the madness. Let’s stop overcomplicating the mission.

Behold the glory of Christ and then proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The woman at the well needed mercy to release her to speak. The demoniac needed deliverance to proclaim his Savior. Peter needed grace to compel him to boldness. Paul needed love for the chief of sinners to control him. Faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the Word of God. When we know the gospel, we speak the gospel, which over time leads new believers to gather eagerly around the gospel and be transformed by the gospel.

Ultimately, this is how the kingdom grows.

Source: The Foolish Quest for a “Silver Bullet” in Global Missions

The post The Foolish Quest for a “Silver Bullet” in Global Missions appeared first on Passion for Planting.