Entries from May 2007 ↓

How to help Kansans recover from recent tornadoes.

Our hearts go out to the people in Kansas who were devastated by last week’s violent tornados. More than 70 tornadoes were reported throughout the state. Greensburg, Kansas, a town of 1,600, was destroyed May 4, including the Greensburg United Methodist Church.

There are efforts underway to help with the recovery: United Methodists begin Kansas tornado response. See UMCOR’s page dedicated to the storm for more information.

Both links provide details on how we can help. If you attend a United Methodist congregation, you can place your check in the offering plate, marked, “UMCOR Advance #901670, Domestic Disaster Response” (they can also be mailed; see links for mailing address). Online donations can also be made to the Kansas Area Disaster Fund directly at the Kansas West Conference of the UMC website.

Check out the Kansas West Conference’s photo page for photos of the storm’s damage, including the one pictured here. Photo by Rev. Kendal Utt, Dodge City District Superintendent, included here with permission.

United Methodists in Central Pennsylvania will gather June 6-9 for Annual Conference 2007.

Our Conference publication, The Link, just published a preview of this year’s Annual Conference (which will have the theme, “Leap of Faith”): Not Your Grandparents’ Annual Conference. Annual Conference will take place at Messiah College in Grantham, PA. We’re looking forward to it!

Annual Conference is a good time to catch up with friends and colleagues we haven’t seen for a while. Also, we both will be writing for the daily publication during conference, The Daily Link, as we have done for the past several years. It’s especially fun when you’re writing late at night and you’re up against the deadline!

It looks to be a very meaningful few days. One of the things we’re especially interested in is the opening celebration where Jim Walker and Jeff Eddings (founding pastors of Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community, a United Methodist Church in downtown Pittsburgh) will be featured. There’s an article in The Link about Hot Metal Bridge. Incidentally, Hot Metal Bridge was also featured in the latest issue of Interpreter magazine.

Watch for our reflections after Annual Conference.

Reggie McNeal addresses six new realities the Church faces today!

I’ve read many leadership books in recent years as part of the Doctor of Ministry program at Asbury Theological Seminary, and Reggie McNeal’s The Present Future has been one of the most impacting books I’ve read during this process (see other recommended leadership books in the sidebar).

Here’s a brief overview …

1. The collapse of the church culture
Each chapter addresses a “wrong question” and a “tough question.” In this chapter, the wrong question is, “How do we do church better?” The tough question (i.e. the right question) is, “How do we deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?”

“Unfortunately,” McNeal writes, “the North American church has lost its influence at this critical juncture. It has lost its influence because it has lost its identity. It has lost its identity because it has lost its mission. [...] The need is not a methodological fix. The need is for a missional fix” (18). McNeal believes the church’s mission is “to join God in his redemptive efforts to save the world” (19).

2. The shift from church growth to kingdom growth
“How do we grow this church?” (IOW, “How do we get them to come to us?”) is the wrong question. The tough question is, “How do we transform our community?” (ie. “How do we hit the streets with the gospel?”)

McNeal describes “missional spirituality,” saying, it “requires that God’s people be captured by his heart for people, that our hearts be broken for what breaks his, that we rejoice in what brings him joy (27).” Such a spirituality ought to lead us “to take the gospel to the streets,” not “short forays into port off the cruise ship,” but “an intentional 24/7 church presence in the community, not tied to church real estate” (42).

3. A new reformation: releasing God’s people
The wrong question is, “How do we turn members into ministers?” and the tough question is, “How do we turn members into missionaries?”

McNeal suggests two things: 1) “create a culture informed by missiology,” and 2) “create venues where people can practice being missionaries” (61).

This bring me to my favorite part of the book where McNeal contrasts “member values” with “missionary values.”

McNeal writes, “Member values clash with missionary values. Member values are all about church real estate, church programming, who’s in and who’s out, member services, member issues (translated: am I getting what I want out of this church?). Missionary values are about the street, people’s needs, breaking down barriers, community issues (translated: am I partnering with God’s work in people?). One of these value sets will triumph over the other. They do not coexist peacefully” (65).

4. The return to spiritual formation
The question, “How do we develop church members?”, is the wrong one. The tough question is, “How do we develop followers of Jesus?”

Here, McNeal talks about spiritual formation. He says, “It includes personal spiritual disciplines, but it also includes the stewardship of our relationships, our work, and our life mission” (73).

5. The shift from planning to preparation
The wrong question is, “How do we plan for the future?” The tough question is, “How do we prepare for the future?”

McNeal writes, “Jesus taught us to pray, ‘thy kingdom come.’ That phrase is the fast-forward button in the Christians’ prayer life. The kingdom is a future that is already present. Our mission is to introduce the kingdom into this world, with its preferred future for humanity. The future is the best place to start” (119).

6. The rise of apostolic leadership
The last new reality McNeal deals with is leadership development. The wrong question is, “How do we develop leaders for church work?” And the tough question is, “How do we develop leaders for the Christian movement?”

McNeal laments, “We are training leaders to address the leadership challenges of a world that is quickly passing away” (122). He adds, “Most have never understood that the call to be missionaries means a shift from the member, business-as-usual approach to church life. The shift from ‘doing’ church at the clubhouse to ‘being’ church in the world is a paradigm shift that has apparently eluded many church leaders” (131).

Several skills are needed by leaders who wish to lead missionaries, according to McNeal, including but not limited to, “vision cultivation and casting, communication, team building, change and transition leadership, mentoring and coaching, corporate culture management and resolution, networking, project management, systems thinking, and interpersonal relationships” (131).

Again, this is one of the most impacting books I’ve read in recent years. The Present Future continues to shape my understanding of leadership!

Sponsoring a child is a great way to make a difference in someone’s life!

For years we talked about sponsoring a child through one of the organizations that offers child sponsorship. We finally made the commitment to make a difference in the life of a child a few months ago by sponsoring a child through World Vision.

World Vision offers two types of sponsorship: Child Sponsorship and HopeChild Sponsorship. Child Sponsorship provides clean water, nutritious food, health care, educational opportunities, and spiritual nurture. HopeChild Sponsorship, offered in communities affected by HIV/AIDS, adds support for AIDS prevention, care for sick/dying parents, and HIV/AIDS counseling.

We chose the HopeChild sponsorship program and now have a couple photos of Jeanne, an 11 year old girl from Rwanda, on our refrigerator, which reminds us to pray for her. May God bless Jeanne, her family, and her community, through World Vision and through our prayers and financial support. And may God equip Jeanne to be a transforming presence in her community! (Speaking of Rwanda, we highly recommend the movie, Hotel Rwanda.)

You can search for a child to sponsor here (select Child Sponsorship or HopeChild under “Type of Sponsorship” in the left column, if you have a preference; currently, monthly donations are $30 and $35 per month, respectively).

Let us know if you have any questions (click on “Comments” below this post).

Sometimes the “insiders” don’t get it, but the “outsiders” do!

When you read Scripture pay attention to how often the “insiders” (i.e. God’s people) don’t get it and how often the “outsiders” do. It reminds me of what Jesus said: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do” (Matthew 9.12).

Here are a few examples …

John 3 and 4 parallel each other. In John 3, Nicodemus (a religious leader, a man), visits Jesus in the middle of the night and has a spiritual conversation with Jesus. But Nicodemus doesn’t get it (at least not immediately). However, in John 4, an unnamed woman (a Samaritan, an outsider), has a conversation with Jesus in the middle of the day. Unlike Nicodemus, though, she gets it! (BTW, the fact that Jesus, a Jewish man, approached a Samaritan woman was scandalous enough!)

Look at the Book of the 12 (i.e. the “Minor Prophets”). As I understand it, 11 books involve God’s prophets (people who get it, in this case) going to God’s people (insiders), but they don’t get it. One book, though, involves God’s prophet (Jonah, who doesn’t get it), going to a foreign nation (outsiders) and they get it!

The Gospels (the four tellings about Jesus in the New Testament) are full of subversive words and actions. Jesus was often criticized by insiders (i.e. religious leaders) for hanging out with outsiders (tax collectors and various other questionable people). Compare that with how Jesus sometimes treated religious leaders, including his actions in clearing the Temple (the last straw that led to Jesus’ arrest and subsequent death).

Many of the stories Jesus told were subversive in nature, too. The story of the Good Samaritan is based on a story where the Samaritan (an outsider) was the hero of the story. A priest and a Temple worker (insiders) were the bad guys.

Jesus once healed a group of lepers after he sent them to the Temple (they were healed on the way). Interestingly (and subversively), the writer notes that only one of the ten men returned to thank Jesus for healing. The only one who returned was the Samaritan (not only an outsider, but a despised outsider at that!).

Another subversive story recorded in Scripture begins this way: “Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else.” The story was about an insider and an outsider both offering prayers to God. Jesus notes, rather subversively, that it was the outsider (the “despised tax collector”) who was accepted by God. Jesus concluded, “those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” You can read the fascinating story in Luke 18.9-14.

So what does all of this mean?
While I think we must be confident about what we believe, we must also be humble. As a follower of Jesus I believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. I believe in absolute truth. But I can never say that I have it all figured out. I like what I’ve heard Leonard Sweet say: “Twenty percent of my theology is wrong. I just don’t know which twenty percent!”
I also think Christ-followers have to be intentional when reading Scripture. We often read Scripture as if we’re the people who get it. But sometimes (probably more than we’d care to admit) we may be the people who don’t get it. This should lead us to read Scripture with open ears and hearts!

For more on God’s subversiveness and the subversiveness of God’s followers, check out The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus (one of my favorite writers/communicators), lead pastor of Mosaic.

Dr. Russell West (our faculty mentor) presses us for the puzzle behind our dissertation topics!

In our last post related to our dissertation work, we reported that we mailed our first drafts to our mentor, Dr. Russell West, at Asbury Theological Seminary.

We both had very productive conversations with Russell last Friday by phone as he travelled to Louisville, KY. We both received good direction, and interestingly, both of our ministry projects are going to take a major detour. We’re both very excited about these changes (we’ll say more about our projects in another post).

Russell is very good at challenging you and getting you to the heart of the matter. Russell asks, “What’s the puzzle?” For Russell, this is the most important question. IOW, Russell asks, “What is not right in the world?” It’s a question Russell pressed us with when we met him last summer and again last January when we had lunch with him. We still needed some more pressing last week. (Incidentally, this question can be helpful in other contexts, too; for example, I started my sermon prep last week by asking this question.)

From our conversation, Russell sensed that the word “impact” was a keyword for me. In fact, our conversation reminded me of what I wrote a couple of months ago after the Chris Tomlin concert. I had written that I felt the experience at the concert was influencing my thinking on my dissertation work but I wasn’t sure how, at the time.

I did expand a little in my journal that same evening …

During the brief intermission, I wrote this: “I don’t just want to do ‘pastor things’ – I want to change the world! I want to be a transformational agent!”

As I wrote that I recalled the passion (and perhaps some naïveté) I had when I first responded to God. It was a charge-hell-with-a-water-pistol kind of passion, a passion to change the world! As I’ve grown and matured, I’ve also become a little less naïve (I hope) but I don’t want to lose my passion to be a change agent for God in the world.

I also thought about how this passion to be a change agent might impact the work on my dissertation (that I’m now beginning). We really don’t need another model for doing or leading church. I think what we need is more of God. Sure, we need good systems, but God has to be at the center of any system we develop, I’m curious how this will develop!

Thankfully, Russell helped me begin to make some connections.

Well, we’ll write more later about our specific ministry projects, but for now we need to reframe/redraft what we’ve already written. The good news is that we are on schedule (if not ahead of schedule). We should be one or two drafts away from our official proposal hearing sometime this summer.

God turns setbacks into comebacks!

I started a sermon series on Easter Sunday called “A Resilient Life.” God turns setbacks into comebacks. T greatest example of that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

I began the series with a message called, “Bouncebackability,” a word I read in a book by Dr. Robert H. Schuller called, If It’s Going to Be, It’s Up to Me.

I remember hearing John Maxwell once say there are two kinds of people: Splatters and Bouncers. Splatters are people who hit rock bottom and splat; Bouncers are people who hit rock bottom and bounce back up. It reminds me of Abraham Lincoln who reportedly said, “Success is moving from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” Rick Warren says that adversity will either make you bitter or better.

What do you do when you get knocked down? When you get knocked down, bounce back up! Ask God, “What are you teaching me?” and “What do I need to pick up while I’m down?” God helps us turn setbacks into comebacks! So, when you get knocked down, bounce back up!

My second message focused on Adversity Quotient, or AQ. The idea came from a book by Paul Stoltz, by the same title: Adversity Quotient.

I’ve always said, since reading the book, that Christ-followers should have the high AQs. In talking about AQ, I looked at the story of Joseph in Genesis. Stoltz says there are three kinds of people: Quitters (people who quit), Campers (people who quit after a while), and Climbers (people who keep climbing). I shared that People with high AQs keep climbing!

A series on handling adversity was certainly timely with the Virginia Tech tragedy. On the Sunday after the tragedy, I concluded the 3-week series with a fun message of “Filling Your Tank.” I read the story of Paul and Silas in prison found in Acts 16.16-28.

The image I had for this message was a cup that is overflowing, an image that comes from Psalm 23.5, “My cup overflows.” Truth is, we all get depleted from time to time, especially in the midst of adversity. “Keep your tank full so that you will always be ready to give!”

Jesus modeled such a life for us. Luke notes, “Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer” (Luke 5.16). And going all the way back to the story of creation, God set everything in motion with a pattern — engage and disengage (work and rest).

Take a moment and list the things that drain you. Then list things that fill your tank, the things that give you energy, the things you get jazzed about. Then begin to build some of these things that fill your tank into your daily routine.

What would it look like if all of our “tanks” were overflowing, and we were always ready to give? May God help us to have high AQs so that we can handle adversity well, to continually bounce back when life knocks us down. May God help each of us begin each day with a full tank! And may God always us turn setbacks into comebacks!