If you want established churches to get excited about growing and starting new churches, don’t appeal to their fear that their brand of church is losing influence (even if it is).

The question is not, ”What will we do to keep ourselves from going extinct?”

The question is, “What will we do to show people what God is like?”

The first question is driven by fear.  The second by love.

Leaders motivated by fear are not the people you want working alongside you anyway. They may reach out to the community with you, but they will do it in a way that puts their own interests above the interests of the ones you’re reaching, and that is not Christlike.  That spirit is contagious.

Instead, appeal to people’s desire to show real love to the world.  It has been said that in all of our hearts is a God-shaped hole only God can fill.  We were made to be in relationship with our Creator.  We also were made to love like He does… wildly… sacrificially.  Find the folks who want to show the world what God is like by showing crazy love to their families and the hurting people in their community.  Then see what happens.  You can start by modeling crazy love yourself.  You may get fewer folks to join you in the beginning, but this spirit is contagious, too.  God’s kingdom grows from small beginnings and selfless acts of love.

Categories: the why
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Have you been asked to support church planting because of what it will do for your church or denomination (or your non-denomination as the case may be)?  I used to give these well-intended presentations, but now I’m skeptical.  They go something like this: “Our brand of church is in a state of decline compared to other denominations and the U.S. population growth rate. If we don’t do something, our brand is liable to become obsolete!  We’ll lose our identity.  Let’s not lose our slice of the Churched Population Pie. We need to reach more people to keep our brand of church from going extinct.  The way to do this is by starting more of our kind of churches!  We’ll get to know our neighbors and meet their felt needs.  They’ll see how caring we are and our brand of church will become more attractive.  When they come to our newly planted churches, we’ll win them to Jesus.  Imagine it.  Lost people will be saved, and our brand of church will stay relevant in the 21st century.  That’s why we need to plant churches!”

I get it, but then I don’t get it.  Really, why do we need to keep our slice of the pie?  Why focus our energies on preserving our brand of church?  Jesus Christ said the church he builds will not be stopped (Matthew 16:18).  He didn’t make this promise for your brand of church.  The Church will live on, but maybe church brands, denominations and non-denominations have life cycles.   

But even if your and my brands of church are here to stay, is preserving them really the goal of joining God in mission?  Our “bigger slice of the pie” presentations have emphasized a self-serving reason for Christians to engage their communities, and I think this will come back to haunt us.   Your community desperately needs you to show them the Selfless Savior, not the Self-Preserving Church.  So you want to introduce lost and broken people to the person and hope of Christ.  In the process, God may ask you to give up traditions dear to your heart to show His kind of love to your community.  Jesus’ teachings were full of such ironies.  Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and the humble will be exalted.  The last shall be first and the first shall be last.  Holding onto life leads to death, and dying to oneself leads to life.  For those of us who have grown attached to our ways of doing church, maybe the way to hold onto our church identity is to let go of it.  To borrow another analogy from Jesus Christ, you may be required to let the kernel of wheat fall to the ground and die so that new life can sprout where you are (John 12).  Are you willing to let go of finding your identity inyour church brand and find it in Christ alone?  What wouldn’t you give up so that others could know Him, too?

Go ahead, form new communities of faith, but do it out of sacrificial love.  And spur others on to do the same.  Live this way because you have wild love for God and people, not because church planting could preserve our brand of church and make us successful.  You are preaching Christ and him crucified, not your way of doing church.  The road to becoming a risk-taking, outward-focused church is not paved with self-preservation.

Categories: the why
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People in LA need to hear about the God who delivers!  Several friends have described situations where Christians pleaded with them to be or get “saved,”  and to their disappointment they discovered salvation means no deliverance.  You gotta stop dressing in all black, stop wearing your lip piercings, stop listening to your favorite music, stop this, stop that… Is that really what salvation means?   

“Salvation” is about being delivered from something and to something!  From hell to heaven, you say?  Yes, but God delivers people FROM and TO stuff in the here and now, not just in the ever after.  Check it out!

In the early part of the biblical story, God sent his servant Moses to deliver the people of Israel from slavery and oppression in Egypt, which is a really BIG deal.  But the story doesn’t stop there.  God delivered them to something as well.  He delivered them to enjoy the promised land “of milk and honey” where they were meant to experience a good and lasting relationship (“covenant”) with him.  This deliverance wasn’t just about them.  It was about the rest of the world, too.  God delivered his people to be a “nation of priests” who would intentionally “be a blessing to all nations” intervening on the world’s behalf – thereby showing the world what God is like that all humankind would want to obey God, too.  That was the intent.  The Creator delivering all his created ones, not just Israel, from something and to something.  The first Exodus, the first deliverance.

To make deliverance truly possible for all of us, God eventually sent his Son (“another prophet like Moses” only better).  Through what he accomplished on the Cross, his Son delivered all humankind once and for all from slavery to sin (and delivered all of creation from the consequences of sin), which is a really BIG deal.  But the story doesn’t stop there.  God delivered us all to experience a good and lasting relationship with him.  This deliverance isn’t just about Jesus’ followers.  It is about the rest of the world, too.  Jesus’ followers are meant to love as he does, seek justice, and make disciples of all nations, showing all people what God is like that they would want to follow him, too.  God wants all the world to be delivered from something and to something.  That is the intent.  The ultimate Exodus, the ultimate deliverance!

What’s more, Jesus taught that his deliverence (a.k.a. the “abundant life”), while it will be more fully realized when he returns, begins now!  If that is true, then I am asking myself, what does a delivered life look like? 

Question: What did God deliver you FROM and what did he deliver you TO?

[A brother in Christ at the Hilltop Church in El Segundo, CA showed me the delivered from/to concept.]

Categories: the why
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I’m getting sick of the term ‘church planter’.  Really, we need to find new (ancient?) vocabulary.  We mean well, of course, but it must be offensive for God to see his creations giving themselves titles that belong only to him, and taking credit for works only he has done.  It’s as misleading as our twisted use of the words “church” and “worship.”  

Gospel planters.  That’s what we are as Jesus’ disciples. 

Church planter.  That’s what the Holy Spirit is (among other roles). 

If we’re going to see church planting movements we need to faithfully assume the roles we’ve been given and let God be God.

We lay a foundation, yet it is Jesus Christ who builds his church. 

We plant and water the seed, yet it is God who makes it grow.

How audacious we are to call ourselves ‘church planters’ and claim we will do what Christ alone can do – that is, make people into a new creation. 

[Thank you to my friends for showing me our biblical role as Gospel planters.] 

Categories: the why
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Last week I shared the link to a well-delivered podcast by Wade Hodges on how “religion excluded you, but Jesus died to include you.”  While I recommend listening to it, here is my summary for those who have less time on their hands.  You might also enjoy the practical application questions.   (If you use Hodges’ material, please give credit to him.)

Show me more… »

Categories: the why
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“Can I really be included in the family?”

Religion excluded you.  Jesus Christ died to include you. 

There is good news for people in East Hollywood who’ve been stiff-armed by well-meaning religious people. 

While visiting a church in Dallas I was touched by a message about this by guest speaker Wade Hodges.  His sermon centered around the “baptism of inclusion” in the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunich.  I heard this message back in June, and I’m still thinking about it… 

If I have time I will write up a summary of Wade’s main points.  Until then, you can listen to his podcast by clicking here.

Categories: the why
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Is God’s hope really for the hopeless cases or just for those who haven’t totally gone off the deep end?  I’ve been thinking a lot about Christians and gangs lately because I keep meeting gangsters and families affected by gangs.  Although our mission here is not a “gang ministry” per say, it seems that every family in our community has been impacted in some way by this aspect of life in the city.  Two nights ago I was standing outside at 10pm with a mom who was nervously smoking a cigarette, anxiously waiting for her son (who joined a gang and just bought a gun) to come home.  How many moms know her pain and the years she is losing from worry and lack of sleep?  Years ago we temporarily housed a single mom and her two boys whose apartment was burned up by a local gang for saying the wrong thing.  I’ve met a killer was nearly killed in a driveby and now regrets his past and wants to change his life.  I feel for victims of gang brutality, for all the moms and dads, and for the kids in gangs.  I think most Christians are in agreement that it’s a struggle to break free from gang life.  The endless supply of gangsta movies have taught us that.  But when I hear Christians talk about it, it’s as if they’ve resigned to give movies, news reporters, jaded police gang units, and even gangsters themselves, the final say.  Yes, it’s a complex and many-faceted problem, long in the making.  But people don’t get the final say.  God does!  If God says anything is possible with Him, then anything is possible (Matthew 19:26).  Anyone can be saved from the hell they are living in (and have helped to create for themselves).  The promise is for gangsters, too!  Church, please don’t forget His promise is good for everyone! Please!

Categories: stories, the why
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