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.

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.

I got up at 5:30 to read some of the Psalms, did my at-home physical therapy exercises (my old back injury and sciatica are acting up again), prayed with my sons, kissed my wife, and at 6:40am rode the bus to work so I can support my amazing wife and those precious little boys.

It felt so good to be on the bus to work.  After months of job-hunting, I appreciate more fully that I have a job while so many don’t.  And that the kind of job I have allows me to make a difference in the lives of families who are jobless and at risk of homelessness.

7:30am Start work.  While at work, I met another case worker who is starting home-based churches, referred to me by my supervisor.  Very cool!

5:30pm go home.  After work, I enjoyed some quiet (as quiet as the city gets) time with God on the bus ride home.  I intentionally skipped the second bus so I could add 15 minutes to my walk home (this was painful but I knew the exercise would do my sore back and leg some good).

6:30pm arrive home. Nothing tops the experience of coming home, walking through the door and being greeted emphatically by my three hyper boys with their tight, tight hugs and pretend stabs to my gut with their pirate swords.  They told me all about their first day at their new school.  The long version was so cute but too long to share here.  The short version: They were blessed with a fun and smooth first day (thank you, Lord!).  My beautiful wife also greeted me with a kiss and homemade tamales (made by our neighbor who is selling tamales to make a few extra bucks).  As planned, our family ate dinner with two of Meredith’s former co-workers who brought donuts for dessert, which thoroughly pleased our boys.  Meredith’s friends love to play with our boys, and our boys love to play with them.  So it was one of those social gatherings that you can feel good about as a dad because you know you didn’t leave your kids out of all the fun.

8pm open God’s Word.  These two young women, who are very, very turned off by religion but opening up to the person of Jesus Christ,  stayed for a Discovery Bible Discussion (aka Discovery Bible Study) after we put the boys to bed.  Just before we began, though, my son Isaiah prayed all on his own for Meri’s friends and the time we would be spending reading the Bible together, which was awesome.  If I’m not mistaken, this was our fourth time to explore God’s Word together with these two friends.  It is exciting to watch them discovering what God is like and opening up to Him.  It was also fun to hear one of these young women pray aloud to God, to hear her voicing her faith in God to the rest of us, and to observe her taking on the responsibility of facilitating the Discovery Bible Discussion.  It also was wonderful to hear the both of them identifying people in their lives with whom they will share what they’re learning about God.

10:30pm Time to unwind.  It was a late night so I’ll have to make up for it later with some rest.  But I couldn’t just go right to bed after our guests left.  I needed some additional time to unwind because, unlike my wife who usually gets reenergized by being around people, I typically need some alone time to recharge.  So I’m thankful my wife graciously allowed me some down time to check my favorite blog feeds, read Obama’s speech on health care, and spend some “just me and God time” in prayer.

Now, it’s time for bed.  Thank you, Lord, for a good full day. I’m sure tomorrow will be quite different and still very full and good.

“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.]

Three new Bible studies just started, and possibly a fourth will begin this week. I am hopeful the individuals requesting these Bible studies will soon gather their family members and/or friends to read and spiritually journey with them.

Two of Meredith’s co-workers in their mid-twenties, who have teased Meredith for being a “Christian,” requested a Bible study with Meredith. So last night they came over for dinner and we read and discussed a biblical story that sparked a lot of discussion about what God is like vs what their impressions of “churches” have been like.  They told us stories of how they felt judged by their appearances (lip piercings, tattoos, all black clothing, etc) when they went to churches in the past.  They said they are looking for people who are really living out their faith and experiencing a transformed life, not just going to church all the time.  They have been burned by religious people, but they are very open to exploring a relationship with God.  One of the girls wants to bring her boyfriend to the study next time.  They also talked about bringing another co-worker with them. 

Today I discovered my email distribution list was wiped out. Until we get that fixed, I’d like to post a modified version of the update I tried to email to folks today. Enjoy!

—–

A prayer update from your missionaries in East Hollywood (E-Ho), Los Angeles, CA:

Dear Prayer Team,

Wow, the weeks flew by! My apologies for no updates… I’ve been very busy with job hunting. As you know, this July we go from full-time salary to half-time salary as a missionary family (and then to zero salary by January 2010). Please keep us in your prayers as I look for a “regular” job and my family makes this transition from being funded missionaries to self-supporting missionaries in LA. Also please pray for our relationships with supporting churches, as we continue partnering with them in other (non-financial) ways!

How we’re doing:

Meredith and I praise God we celebrated 13 years of marriage last month! We left the kids with Ed and Katie and stayed at a nice bed and breakfast on the coast. Praise God that Ed and Katie are about to celebrate 9 years in July!  Now it’s our turn to watch Ed and Katie’s kids while they go celebrate!  Pray for Meredith and me – this summer we will decide if we’re going to keep our kids in public school or home school them next school year. Pray for our community of faith to trust God as we all go through lots of life transitions and face uncertainty with our finances/jobs.  Especially pray for our children, neighbors and co-workers as they watch us go through times of uncertainty – these become great discipling moments.

How the ministry is doing:

• Bad news: We returned from Asia to find nearly every family with whom we had studied God’s Word is no longer interested in journeying spiritually with us. This is due in large part to a group that has stepped up its presence in the neighborhood. There is heartache involved in gospel planting; it hurts to see people come and go.
• Good news: Yet there also is joy in watching others find hope and deliverance in Christ. Despite this setback we can see God is using us to show people what he is like and to attract people to his Son. For example, a grandma and her grown daughter continue to study God’s Word with Meredith. A school mom who adamantly said she doesn’t like religion can’t get enough time hanging out with the women in our group.  She has begun to pray and study God’s Word with them.  We continue to find people really want to spend more time with us.  They know something is different about us.  They just don’t know (yet) that it’s Jesus who is making the difference.  You’ll recall Wendy’s gangster friend Talia (not her real name) was arrested. While Talia was in jail, Wendy helped take care of her little son. Talia is out of jail now and her heart unfortunately is hardened to God right now. Yet other neighbors noticed. Wendy’s home has become a safe haven for their kids, too. During the school year Wendy had a homework club in her apartment. Now that school is out of session, we will find different ways to engage these homework club kids and their families.
  
• Interns: We are excited about a newly married couple who will be joining our community of faith as interns for the next nine months.  More about this wonderful couple in future updates.
  
• Pray for our Summer Outreach: We will be adding different kinds of outreach activities to our repertoire in addition to what we have been doing, to meet people in different ways and see what other responses people will make to the message of Christ we are living out and telling.

Thank you for lifting up the people of E-Ho in prayer!

My mind is blown by the exponential growth of church planting movements around the globe.  David Watson reminds onlookers that it took 2 to 4 years in India, for example, to get to the point where existing social units surrendered to Christ and began multiplying disciples, leaders, groups and churches.  I think it will take longer in the U.S. given other obstacles we face here.  (David Watson has written a brief article on the myth of rapid reproduction on his blog.  To read it, click here.)

The church planting movements around the world give the appearance of rapid growth because of the exponential growth, not the reproduction.  Laying a foundation for such a movement means years of investment in the training of leaders.  Reproduction therefore is slow.  With the exception of divine accelerations, it is always slow.

If you are interested in reaching your community for Christ, go start watching some of those videos!  And if you start trying out this stuff in your own community, write to me through the Contacts Page.  I’ll be interested to know what you tried out, how it’s going, and what you’re learning.  We can learn from each other.

(*) “CPM” = church planting movement (I like to call it gospel planting movement).