Ed Stetzer

Religion in America

2010-03-09T15:52:18Z

WKRN News 2 reports on "Losing our Religion."

Reporter Jamey Tucker provides analysis of the state of the church in America, examining and discussing research and future trends in North American faith. He interviews several leaders, pastors, and experts in this eleven-minute "Extra" segment.

I'm impressed to see a news affiliate (ABC in this case) pay such attention to issues of faith and culture. It has been a long time since I have seen anyone do a TV news story that lasts more than 10 minutes-- let alone something on faith.

You can watch the video here:

WKRN News 2 Nashville Reports on Religion in America from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

Much of what I mention is in my recent article on "stats abuse" in Christianity Today.

Feel free to share your comments (or perhaps even corrections) below.

Trevin Wax: Holy Subversion

2010-03-08T15:27:53Z

Trevin Wax, has written a helpful book that's generating a lot of good discussion. I'm happy to have Trevin on the blog today, answering a few questions about his book, Holy Subversion. It's a great book that challenges us all to live a distinctly Christian life, one that is truly subversive. After you read the interview, stick around to talk with Trevin. He'll be hanging around the blog today to interact with us all.

What does it mean to live "subversively" for Christ?]]> To subvert means to put something back in its proper place. As Christians, we are called to live according to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

To live subversively for Jesus means that our lives should undermine the other loyalties vying for primacy. Many times, these other loyalties are not bad in and of themselves. Money, sex, recreation, power, etc... these are all good gifts from God. But we humans have the tendency to take God's good gifts and invest them with ultimate significance. When we begin living for money, sex, recreation, success, etc... these gifts become idols that enslave us and rob God of his glory.

To live subversively for Christ means that we as Christians will identify the prevailing idolatries of our culture and then deliberately subvert those idolatries by the way we live.

Early on in the book, you point people to the "Ephesians Road" as a way of showing how the biblical understanding of salvation puts human beings back in their proper place. Why Ephesians?

The "Romans Road" is a popular evangelistic tool in which certain verses from Romans show how a person can find forgiveness of sins. The Ephesians Road is a twist on the old Romans road. Instead of picking out a few verses here and there from Romans, I take the first two chapters of Ephesians in their entirety and show how salvation begins in the heart of God, focuses on Christ, comes to us through grace alone, and then leads to the Great Commission within the context of the Church.

The purpose of the "Ephesians Road" is to show the God-centered nature of our salvation. In each of these steps, you see the Self subverted - not done away with, but put back in its proper place, where the Self can then reflect honor and glory to Jesus. Over and over again, the emphasis in Ephesians is on what God has done.

His plan is to unite all things in Christ.

The gospel message is about Jesus.

We can do nothing to earn our salvation; God has done it all.

We are saved in order to be faucets, not sinks - in order to be vessels through which God's blessing flows to the nation.

You spend a chapter contrasting a worldly understanding of Success with a biblical understanding of success. How should church leaders redefine "success" according to the Scriptures?

It's sad to see so many people come to church who are still formed by the patterns of this world. And yet, we shouldn't be surprised to see people living according to the world's definition of success in their respective vocations if we as pastors and leaders have adopted the world's definition of success for ourselves as well.

For many pastors, success is equated with numbers. If you're successful, you're growing. Numbers tell the story. Well, numbers may indeed be an indicator of success. But they can be misleading as well. You may have unhealthy churches growing by attracting other church members, not reaching the lost. And you can have unhealthy churches that use a declining number as "proof" of their faithfulness, when actually, they might just be unwilling to make any adjustments.

So numbers tell a story, but they don't determine success. Biblically speaking, faithfulness is success. God calls us to be faithful, to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit, and to trust him for the results. When we do this, we're successful. Regardless of the outcome, we've been obedient.

You call people to personal evangelism that takes seriously the costs of following Jesus. Why should the costs of discipleship be part of our evangelistic call?

Too many times, church attendance and the responsibilities of the Christian life are like the fine print at the bottom of our gospel sales pitch. We stress the benefits of Christianity and may mislead people into thinking that God will solve all their problems. Or we speak of Christianity within the framework of religious tradition and give the impression that Christianity doesn't lead to transformation in all areas of life.

Unfortunately, when hard times come along, many people find that Christianity hasn't delivered what was promised. Or people limp along at church, but continue to live without a true understanding of what it means to be a disciple.

Holy Subversion is about discipleship that backs up evangelism. When churches live subversively for Christ, showing up the idolatries of the world as the phonies they are and demonstrating that Jesus is King, we provide space for people to witness the life of the kingdom in action. We add credibility to our evangelistic activities, and our understanding of evangelism itself is strengthened as well.

How does living subversively strengthen the local church and serve its mission?

Not too long ago, I was reading some church history, and I was impressed by the way that some of the early Christian apologists made their case for the truth of Christianity. When facing persecution, some said (in effect), "If you don't believe what we're saying, look at our lives. See that we're good citizens. Look at our morality. Divorce and adultery are not named among us." I'm inspired by that kind of devotion, and yet I'm saddened that I can't say something like that. I can't point behind me to the Christian community and say, "Look at how different we are!" And too often, I can't even point to my own life and demonstrate the difference.

I want to challenge myself and others to take the call to discipleship seriously. We need to be accountable to one another as we seek to be a community of self-giving love and forgiveness. Once local churches are filled with people who are seeking to subvert the Caesars of this world, perhaps the church's mission will also be strengthened, as we become a foretaste of the future, spreading the fragrance of new creation into the world. Then, our evangelism can be strengthened as it is backed up by a community of faith seeking to live in the way of Jesus.

Trevin is hanging out with us here on the blog today, so jump into the comments with your questions and thoughts.

Monday is for Missiology

2010-03-07T23:26:24Z

In our previous installments of the "Mondays are for Missiology" series, we investigated the unique connections between the kingdom of God, eschatology, the church and mission (and all the interrelationships therein). As we've walked through this discussion I made the comment, "I see much missional historical naïveté." What exactly do I mean by that? Well, some of what I am hearing from some (not all) missional thinkers are the same words that other individuals said decades earlier-- and it subsequently led to theological ruin in the missio dei movement (something to which almost all, not just evangelicals, would agree).

So how do we not make those same mistakes again? I believe it helps by going back and looking at the roots of the missional movement and having a robust theological discussion that heightens our awareness of the issues at hand.

To that end, today I want to shift gears and begin to look at these missional issues through a more soteriological (the study of the doctrine of salvation) lens, covering the nature of salvation.

]]> To set the stage, I want to look at the connection between missiology and soteriology and briefly talk about how salvation was viewed in missions history during the modern paradigm, beginning with the Enlightenment. In subsequent posts, we will flesh out the nature of salvation in the post-Enlightenment era, discuss its relation to the church and evangelism, and conclude by looking at the impact of the theological trajectory of salvation on the modern missional conversation.

The Medium of Salvation

Missiology is fairly inextricable from soteriology; one's view of salvation-- however it is defined-- will determine the missionary work. In Transforming Mission, David Bosch states that the Christian missionary movement has been driven throughout its history by the aspiration to mediate salvation to all. And just as there have been paradigm shifts in the understanding of the relationship between church and mission, there have been shifts in the understanding of the nature of the salvation the church mediates in its mission.

Some consider the transmission of salvation as a physical process. This is true, for instance, of a sacramentalist system that believes salvation or grace can be transferred by means of a physical object. While the significance of the sacrament depends to some degree on the innermost attitude or condition of the communicant, grace is received largely through the external, physical act.

Others think that salvation is transferred by moral action. Here salvation is not so much something to be acquired by some individual or organization and conveyed to others, as it is something created by shifting the state of affairs.

Evangelical theologies have generally represented a third idea: salvation is a work of grace, accomplished by Christ, and received by faith alone. In the meritorious sense, the recipient is passive.

Salvation in the Modernist Paradigm

With the dawn of the Enlightenment, the understanding of salvation as the application of the work of Christ to the lives of sinful humans came under new and intense scrutiny. Religion as an expression of total reliance upon God and as eternal salvation in the hereafter became considered a relic of humanity's epoch of "childhood." An alternative soteriology surfaced in which salvation could mean emancipation from religious superstition, consideration of others' well being, and the moral enhancement of humanity.

The response of church and mission to the challenge of modernism was generally twofold among Protestants. The first response was simply to disregard the challenges of the Enlightenment and carry on as if nothing had changed. The second response took the challenges of modernism more seriously, to the point of a fairly uncritical accommodation. Instead of maintaining Jesus as God-incarnate who fulfills all righteousness and satisfies divine wrath on behalf of sinners, in modernist Protestantism he became the ideal human being to imitate, the moral exemplar. The person and work of Jesus was no longer at the center of mission, but rather the example and cause of Jesus took stage. The teaching supplanted the Teacher; the kingdom of God obscured the King.

In this paradigm condemnation and salvation were no longer the principle issues dividing and uniting God and man. Instead the division was seen chiefly among humans themselves. God's vertical coming into this world manifested itself in horizontal relationships; the "saving" relationship of the human with God is made tangible in a person's "conversion" to his or her brother. In this view, sin is ultimately alienation between humans.

So what is your understanding of salvation and how it is mediated? Do you agree that missiology is closely connected soteriology-- that one's take on the "reach" of salvation determines the range of one's missionary enterprise? Do you have any concerns that within the missional conversation some emphasize the example of Jesus over the salvific work of Jesus? Or that the vertical dimension of the God incarnate, Jesus Christ, saving men and women unto Himself is under-emphasized by some and rather a horizontal "conversion" towards one another is the primary focus?

Please respond in the comments. Let's get this discussion going!

Two Rivers and Gospel Healing

2010-03-06T23:33:20Z

Tonight, I'm reviewing the message I'll share at Two Rivers, where I serve as Interim Pastor. I love the people there, and am happy to be able to serve the body and work along side them. The Tennesean (our Nashville paper) recently did a story on Two Rivers focusing on its healing and movement forward. If you aren't from around here you probably don't know the details, but it has had some rough days.

]]> Just a couple years ago Two Rivers was walking through some difficult times that made the local (and even national) news. I think everyone would agree that it hurt the witness of Christ and the reputation of His church.

I was happy to see the local paper pointing out that the church is a different place than it was two years ago. The Tennessean reports,

The key to the turnaround is getting back to the basics of Christianity, says interim pastor Ed Stetzer. That means focusing on sharing their faith and treating one another with respect and love.

It also means sending church members out to do community service projects.

Since last fall, he's been preaching the same message.

"We want to be known for what Jesus was known for," said Stetzer. "We are building a new reputation for sharing and showing the good news of Jesus Christ."

That's a theme for us now-- building a new reputation of sharing and showing the good news of Jesus Christ.

I love the Jesus' church-- even ones that have been through a rough patch. That's why we joined this one and are volunteering our time there. And, yes, I know I have plenty to do, but I'm glad to give of my time because I think the church is worth it.

I think too many give up on the church too soon. God's not done and we believe He has some great plans for Two Rivers.

Every church goes through struggle and conflict. That's what happens in a family regardless of its size or tribe. But what overcomes the obstacles, heals our wounds and unites us together on mission is the gospel. I hope it is at the center of your worship gathering!

The Exchange

2010-03-04T03:52:01Z

On Thursday, we do another session of "The Exchange."

Here is how I explained the whole idea:

]]> My main agenda is simple: to help pastors and church leaders in a setting that includes questions and dialogue. If I had my way, I would personally coach and encourage every pastor or leader. But, since they actaully want me to lead a research team here at LifeWay, I am somewhat limited in my capacity. With this new show, I can talk through some common themes and interact with Christian leaders as we "provoke one another to love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24).

The episodes will be archived and cataloged by themes and topics. Last time, I focused primarily on two things:
1. my article on research in Christianity Today
2. thoughts on clergification and its dangers

Here is the video of the first session:

The Exchange with Ed Stetzer, 2/2/2010 from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

I hope it is an encouragement to you.

You can watch The Exchange live at 2p.m. central on MArch 4th right here.

March Outreach Mag Column: Church Birth Control

2010-03-03T05:25:28Z

Here is my most recent column in this month's Outreach Magazine. If you were a subscriber, you would have already read it and many others. So, click here to subscribe.

]]>
In the last eight days, I have had church planting on the brain and been talking about it in several places.

1. Been the keynote speaker (and token non-Anglican) at the Anglican1000 launch meeting in Texas,
2. Taught church planting at a Classis of the Reformed Church of America in Grand Rapids

3. Spoke at the NEXT church planting conference at a Methodist Church in Warner Robins, GA.

4. Tomorrow, I'll preaching on church planting to about 10,000 students at Liberty University on, you guessed it, church planting.

So, I am thinking about church planting these days...

Here are some thoughts from the print magazine on what the real issue is:

Church Birth Control

Seems to be that churches must be on some powerful birth control. They are not reproducing. And I don't get why.

It's natural. It's normal. It's essential. And we all know how to do it. But somewhere along the way, church reproduction and multiplication became unusual or strange in North America. And I am not happy about it.

The Church is the most powerful institution in the world. Where no electricity and running water exist, you will still find a church that is planting churches. When governments grow corrupt and economies crash, the Church still stands and plants more churches. Nothing in the world and nothing in the last two millennia of history can compare to the Church. It advances best by exponential and explosive multiplying. But not here.

The Church matters. It is God's agent of change for the hopeless. It is how He delivers transformation to a hurting world. Through the Church, God unfurls the banner of mercy and announces the kingdom of grace. He has assembled the Church to tell and model the most important issue in life--how to spend all of eternity with God Himself.

God has chosen the Church to make known His multifaceted wisdom to all in authority (Eph. 3:10). Whether a power in the heavenly realm or an authority on the earth, the Church is where God rolls out His message. It is used by God to speak to the weak and the strong, the poor and the rich, the hopeful and the hopeless.

We believe in the Church not only because of what we have seen, but because of what Christ can do next. He constantly amazes us at how lives are changed through the Church.

That is why church multiplication is so vital, and why I love church planting so much. Depending on how you count, I have personally planted five. Each time I learn about a church being planted, I get ready to witness lives changed. I prepare myself to hear about cities touched by God's grace. I feel assured that entire nations will be transformed by the Gospel. Church planting is almost the most effective evangelistic strategy in the world.

What's the most effective? Church multiplication movements. When churches plant lots of other churches, our witness advances exponentially. The Gospel goes viral. We need that kind of movement today. One that cannot be controlled, confined or contained.

[Church researcher and author] Warren Bird and I have a new book coming out in May called Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers (Jossey-Bass). By our definition, a church multiplication movement happens when churches:

-Multiply at a 50 percent rate (100 churches one year become 150 the next year)

-Reach 50 percent of their new people through conversion (they are reaching the lost)

-Multiply to the third generation of churches (parent, child, grandchild)

Yet I feel like a tired husband in yet another round of false labor. Everyone is talking reproduction, but not enough churches are having babies.

I hope and pray to see a church multiplication movement in North America during my lifetime. I love local churches and know that God is moving in them. But we need more churches that want to see more churches planted.

Conferences, books and articles can point the way, but only God can change the heart. We have a lot of right information, but we haven't made enough application. It will take a passion for reaching people far from God and a willingness to sacrifice for multiplication. It will even require a new kind of surrender. But I challenge you to take up the work of supporting, cheering and even boldly leading what becomes a viral church.

And, since it has been on my mind, I've been thinking about planting a new church-- which is probably a dumb idea right now!

Prologue to Missional Discussions

2010-03-01T21:32:56Z

Here is something that has been posted at several places on the web today:

David Fitch once said that most missional thought leaders "emphasize incarnational forms of church over attractional; the church as Missio Dei over mission as program; organic forms of missionary living in neighborhoods over ministry set in a building." Yet many others seem to add the term to the current program they are attempting to promote or make cool sounding. As Ed Stetzer noted, "The word missional is used to bludgeon legalism and antinomianism alike. To some it is a sign of freedom from all established forms of the church and to others it is a degeneration into syncretism with the world."

So, do we abandon the term and move on? Not yet, because the concept behind missional is really big and words help us when we can agree on their definitions-- or at least we can agree what we mean when we use a word.
]]> Over the next few weeks, we want to discuss how "missional" happens in our lives and in the life of the church. It will be discussed here as well as at other places including the blogs listed below. As the conversation moves forward, we hope you will move from blog to blog and offer insights from the scriptures and how you see missional happening in your local community.

By doing this, we can all be a part of a specific missional conversation. As many of you know, there are several working toward a "Missional Manifesto" that will be rolled out as a part of the missionSHIFT conference on July 12-15. The intent with the manifesto is to say, "This is what we mean when we talk about being missional." It is not the manifesto's intent (or within its ability) to say this is what everyone should think or say about the term, but reflects a hope that it will help us all be clearer and more mission-shaped in our own thinking and practice.

Conversation on the grassroots level is important, so be sure to join in here and at the other blogs and let's see where God take us. Here is the team that will be leading the conversation:

Rick Meigs: The Blind Beggar
Bill Kinnon: kinnon.tv
Brent Toderash (Brother Maynard): Subversive Influence
David Fitch: Reclaiming the Mission
Tiffany Smith
Jared Wilson: The Gospel-Driven Church
Jonathan Dodson: Creation Project

So for the sake of conversation today, leave a comment about with your own 1-sentence definition of "missional." And, in the weeks to come, we will be addressing certain points or issues in the missional conversation that need consideration and perhaps clarity.

Monday is for Missiology

2010-03-01T13:55:37Z

Over the last few weeks we have looked at the relationship of the church, the kingdom of God, and mission. I want to bring these ideas to a close this week and move onto a new theme beginning next week. Please join the conversation in the comments. I enjoy the discussion!

The Church on Mission for the Kingdom

We may now see how when everything becomes mission, nothing is mission. The church does not point to a reality in itself, but rather to the kingdom of God and the reign of Jesus Christ. The church stands for something more elemental and invasive than itself. Because the kingdom is more all-encompassing and far-reaching than the church, the church must be recognized as a servant to Christ's kingdom.

]]> The church finds its significance precisely in this distinction. If the church is a "sacrament, sign, or instrument," it thereby holds a consequential place in the kingdom. As servants, missionary congregations are communities of intercession, bridging the abyss from the kingdom to the world.

The excessive pessimism regarding the church in the mid-1960s from thinkers like J.C. Hoekendijk has also emerged in some other reform movements in North America. I have often said, "Many are taking swings at the church like a low hanging pinata on Cinco-de-Mayo."

The impact of this negative view of the church, combined with much evangelical angst (I wrote about it here) on the missional conversation is difficult to quantify, but it is noticeable. Unfortunately, they are on the same track that Hoekendijk and others were, which resulted in the near total eclipse of the church and the kingdom. Van Engen states, "Replacing the biblical order of God's mission (God-Church-world) with a new order (God-world-church) worked out in the end to rob the church of its own involvement in mission."1

This new order led to empty activism that had little purpose and negligible impact. Only as we recognize the connection of the church to the kingdom can we begin to understand the missional relationship of the church to the world-- within the scale of the kingdom of God.

On the contrary, however, the emergence of salvific-historic eschatology, as mentioned earlier in Cullman and Freytag, actually emboldens the missional endeavor. The breadth of the reign of God is coming, but the vision of the coming kingdom renders itself into a radical concern for the penultimate rather than a fixation for the ultimate. Bosch notes that on this side of the cross, "living in the force-field of the assurance of salvation already received and the final victory already secured, the believer gets involved in the urgency of the task at hand." 2 Cullman says it this way: the "already" outweighs the "not yet" in mission. Instead of passively waiting for God's future world plan, we ask about the church's participation in the world.

In practice, this means that missionary congregations live out their spiritual life not only as the church, but also as God's people in the world, proclaiming the good news of Christ's work on the cross, and acting as a force to change society to more closely resemble the kingdom of God. The church is called to preach the Gospel of the kingdom, a gospel that has social and political justice consequences for the greater society. (Here is my earlier post on on the gospel and its implications).

These gospel implications cannot be constrained either to individualistic spiritual categories or to strictly socio-economic categories. The gospel of the kingdom deals with all of life and transforms all of life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

So, let me be bold here. Some people who talk about the Kingdom and God's work in the world need to read up on their history. This is not the first time we had this conversation, and it has not ended well. I see much "missional historical naïveté" at work and, honestly, it concerns me. Some of the words I hear from some missional thinkers are the same words that J.C. Hoekendijk said decades earlier-- and it led to theological ruin (see my earlier comments about J.C. Hoekendijk here and here).

However, I cannot avoid the plain teaching of scripture about the gospel, the Kingdom, and the church. I think we need to take the risk to talk about the Kingdom of God and to live out the implications of the gospel.

Am I being naïve? Or, can we speak of the Kingdom and, more importantly, live Kingdom-focused lives without losing the clear proclamation of the gospel? Can we avoid the mistakes of our fathers and mothers?

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1 God's Missionary People: Rethinking the Purpose of the Local Church, pg. 114

2 Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, pg. 509

Sunday is for Seminars

2010-03-01T04:41:42Z

Tomorrow is a crazy travel day. I actually speak at three events in two states. Yep, crazy.

Here is the plan:

Monday morning, Main Stage at the Orlando Hard Rock Cafe

I am speaking at the Student Leadership University to 2500 student pastors.

Monday afternoon, Harvest Church in Warner Robins, GA

I'll be taking questions about church planting at the end of the (free) NEXT Church Planting Seminar. (Interesting note: this is my first time ever speaking at anything meeting in a United Methodist church.)

Monday night, Central Baptist Church in Warner Robins

I've be preaching at the Georgia Baptist Evangelism Conference followed by a late night Q&A.

I'm tired already... but I love pastors and church leaders and look forward to encouraging lots of them tomorrow! Please pray for strength and that I can make much of Jesus and God's mission.

How to Avoid (and Apologize for) Falling for a Phishing Scam and Sending Out Spam

2010-02-26T16:15:14Z

In the last few days, I have received hundreds of spam Twitter direct messages from my Twitter friends. Many of them were quite, shall we say, graphic. Others are just the normal foolishness.

Here is the direct message I have sent out many, many times the last few days:

You have been phished. Pls change (and better protect) your password so you won't send out these direct messages. Thx.

Let me say a few things so you might avoid this.

]]>

First, if Twitter suddenly asks for your password, check the address bar. If it does not say Twitter.com, it is a trick. That is why they call it Phishing. The request is the bait, the phony website is the hook, and you are the sucker fish.

A more technical explanation of Phishing can be found at Wikipedia . It explains:

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging,[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.

So, no, you were not hacked. You are not such a big deal that a team of people in another country are using a complex algorithm to break your password. Nope, you were fooled. So, announcing that you were "hacked" is not accurate-- just say, "Sorry folks, I fell for a Phishing scam."

USAToday explains:

"If you click on the link you are taken to a fake Twitter login page, where hackers are just waiting for you to hand over your credentials. In fact, they can automatically post the phishing message from your account as soon as you hand over your details.

There are good ways to apologize when you do this. MSNBC even wrote a story to help you do so.

But it's simple enough. Just say you made a mistake. One person wrote back to me:

Sorry about that... thanks for the heads up!

Pretty simple.

Of course, some get mad at you for telling them they were Phished. I received several emails saying, "I did not send out anything!"

Well, your account did. If you left your car running, in gear, and then walked into your house, then your car crashes into your neighbor's house, it is better to apologize then to say, "I didn't drive my car into your house." Just sayin'.

So, that is my rant for today... let's be careful out there people! I can't take another day of 200 Direct Messages without getting really grumpy.

If you need more information, here is a video of how these things happen:

A live Twitter phishing attack from Sophos Labs on Vimeo.

missionSHIFT: Introducing Bob Roberts

2010-02-25T19:40:12Z

Bob Roberts has earned degrees from Baylor Univeristy, Southwestern Seminary, and Fuller Seminary. He planted Northwood Church in 1985 that has since planted 140 churches in the United States. He has written for various periodicals and journals both faith based and secular international relations journals. He works with the United Nations and various State Departments of various governments around the world doing humanitarian engagement projects. He frequently travels to seriously challenged nations to help with development, engagement, and reconciliation. Their focus is to engage the society with the Gospel through the use of ordinary disciples vocations. Bob has written 4 books, Transformation, Glocalization, The Multiplying Church, and recently Realtime Connections: Linking your job with God's Global work. Bob speaks around the world on globalization, faith, church planting, engagement, and a variety of global affairs issues. He is married to his wife of 30 years Nikki, they have 2 children, Ben and Jill, a daughter-in-law Ashley, and an exchange student they consider their own - Ti.

Bob will be leading a lab at the missionSHIFT conference this summer at Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina on July 12-15. Bob's lab is titled, "The Glocal Church: Missional beyond Program." Here's a brief description.

]]> Many people are talking missional today - and often it centers around a local churches program in the community or around the world. What does it look like when everyday ordinary disciples begin to use their vocations to engage society as Jesus followers in a viral sort of way? How do you release individuals and yet maintain a corporate focus? How will missions & missional in the 21st century be radically different from the 18-20th centuries? What is the global template? How do we speak of Jesus when all religions are all places?

I asked Bob to answer a few questions as we're leading up to missionSHIFT. You'll want to check it out.

Ed: You are a very busy man. Training church planters, leading a local church, flying around the world -- what part of life and ministry is the most personally fulfilling for you right now?

Bob: Going into hell holes and trying to bring hope and reconciliation. I feel most close to Christ when I'm in a place where people have lost hope and I'm able to serve them and speak of Jesus in a way many have never heard. It requires courage, wisdom, timing, focus, and an incredible sense of alertness of everything happening around you.

Ed: What do you see in the church that is giving you hope that we are doing better at engaging in God's mission?

Bob: The people in the pew are rising up. There are no closed countries -- it's a lie. There are places closed to our historic methodology, but not to our disciples who have skills and want to serve -- not to Jesus followers who can naturally talk about their faith. I'm watching before my very eyes, the emergence of disciples engaging the world in radical and impactful ways like never before in the history of humanity. They're not waiting for staff members, programs, or organizations to tie to, they're just doing it on their own.

Ed: You recently published "Real-Time Connections." Tell us about the book.

Bob: The book is a re-interpretation of the Great Commission. It takes it all the way back to Abraham and then moves it forward to Matthew 28:18-20. It hits the hot issues that fulfilling the Great Commission will bump up against -- other religions, religious freedom, how societies are put together, the Christian Muslim divide, etc. It also tells lots of stories about people who are using their jobs at NorthWood so that people can see how everyday disciples are doing it. At the end of each chapter are action points, when completed, a person can develop their own focus and strategy for engagement. This book is meant primarily for disciples that are ready to engage glocally.

Ed: Obviously, the word "missional" is spoken of, used by, and claimed by many groups. Instead of giving another definition for the word, can you tell the readers an example of where you and your wife are seeking to live missionally?

Bob: One is we have become friends with the rabbi of the second largest synagogue in Dallas, and the imam of the largest mosque in Dallas. We have had them and their wives over for Kosher/Halal food. It was a blast. We brought our 3 congregations together for a weekend travel to visit the worship service of all three. (I'm more into multi-faith than interfaith.) We then did Q & A after each traditions worship service with the rabbi, the imam, and myself. People are already finding ways to connect. Several ladies from each congregation are doing cooking classes together to learn to cook Kosher like the Jews, Halal like the Muslims, and Lard like the Baptist!

[Ed: You can read my interview with Bob about the multi-faith weekend here.]

Ed: In terms of missionSHIFT and the Missional Manifesto, what would be a great end-game in your mind for this event and process?

Bob: I'm concerned we're having "American" conversations about missional and that's a very very dangerous and blind thing to do. Zogby just did a poll in which they are describing how people see the world. There is now no national or international, no local or global-- everything is global. If we miss that, we will have a very short conversation and impact. The motivation to be missional is good. The context of narrowing it just to the US, or traditional "missions" is dying. A new conversation is emerging that's global, but I don't think we get that in the US. My hope is that we learn to speak and live globally in the global era and missional is global incarnation-- kinda' like Jesus!

Are you registered for the missionSHIFT conference? You don't want to miss it. Register here.

Teaching at Saddleback

2010-02-25T00:19:46Z

I had a great time at Saddleback last week, and not just because it's in California. Where it was sunny. And warm. And very sunny!

As is my custom, I like to blog a bit about the service. First thanks to Rick Warren for inviting me to preach in the weekend services. I think there were 22 services where I spoke (that's not a typo-- it's twenty-two), though I only preached 4 times. You can see the video of that service here. (By the way, if you would like to hear about how Thom Rainer and I used to "despise" each other, you will want to watch the message.)

]]> One of the things you notice about Saddleback is just how open it is. Everything is glass or open air. It fits their context. It screams Southern California.

Their baptistry is right outside the church-- and there were baptisms after every service.

Several of their venues are outisde. In other words, people sit outside, sing, and watch the message via live video. (Donna went to church on the terrace sipping a latte.)

From the moment you come in, people welcome you. Your hand "gets shook" a lot and you believe these people are genuinely happy to see you. It is a remarkably well planned and friendly place.

Of course, I tend to notice different things than most people. For example, what happened after I preached on Saturday night was fascinating.

First, someone transcribed my message-- instantly and accurately. This was then given to one of the pastors who then preached my message (live) Sunday night. I came by and listened to him do so, and he basically preached my outline and made it his own.

Also, based on that transcript alone, a group of volunteers produced a study guide based on my sermon for use in small groups. You can download the study guide here. Below is an excerpt from the guide.

3. FORGIVE FOR ITS OWN REWARD.

In Luke 6:35 we are told to love our enemies and to do good. Why?

- What is the reward you receive when you forgive?
- Why do you think there are people who are unwilling or unable to receive this reward?

What is the relationship between love and forgiveness, according to Luke 7:47.

- Why did Jesus forgive the woman's sins?

In Genesis 50:19, we find Joseph forgiving his brothers for abandoning him years before. What did he say about how God worked in their treachery? What did this enable Joseph to do?

Ministry - When we help others in the family of Christ we all grow together. We've all met members of our Christian family who are bitter because they have been unable to forgive. How can we care for those individuals? Discuss ideas for ministry you can do individually and as a group. Decide whether you would like to help someone individually or as a group, and share some strategy thoughts.

4. FORGIVE THOSE WHO DON'T DESERVE IT.

How many times are we supposed to forgive someone who has wronged us, according to Luke 17:3-5?

What point do you think Jesus was making in this scripture?
How is a person's faith increased?

Mission - In order to relate Jesus to others, we need to have his heart. How does unforgiveness block our capacity to love? Is there an area in your life that needs forgiveness? How would applying this forgiveness help you fulfill your mission in life? Pray for the Lord to reveal to you areas that need your attention.

Take a moment to review any assignments/challenges made during the personal application and commitment section of your previous meeting. Seeing God at work in the lives of those who commit to Him is essential for growth.

I have been watching Saddleback reach the lost and grow believers for years. It was an honor to preach the word to my brothers and sisters there.

missionSHIFT: Introducing Hugh Halter

2010-02-23T15:40:10Z

Hugh Halter will be speaking at the missionSHIFT conference this summer at the Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina on July 12-15. Hugh is the national director of Missio, a ministry team committed to training, developing, and apprenticing Incarnational leaders for the church. Within Missio, Hugh co-directs the MCAP, an online collaborative training environment for Incarnational leaders, pastors, and church planters. Hugh is also lead architect of Adullum, a local movement of incarnational communities in Denver, CO. As co-author of The Tangible Kingdom, and the accompanying Tangible Kingdom Primer, Hugh is an advocate for disoriented God seekers and loves to inspire and re-orient leaders around the mission of God. I was happy to write the foreword for his next book, AND...the Gathered & Scattered Church coming out through Zondervan/Leadership Network/Exponential in April. At the missionSHIFT conference Hugh will unpack the sotry of Adullam to help you think beyond the normal church plant methods, funding options, and kingdom results. The key focus will be on decentralizing incarnational communities and holding the congregation together through non-consumer gatherings.

Ed: Tell us briefly how you came to the work with Adullam and what all fills your days?

]]> Hugh: Adullam happened by accident. We share the story in The Tangible Kingdom but essentially, we showed up in Denver as a small missionary team, began engaging culture and trying to model some DNA of the kingdom (inclusive community/communion with God/blessing) and we found that the kingdom started to become tangible to people. Eventually, the house was full of a lot of spiritually disoriented God seekers, some coming to faith and some just coming with us in community and we had to figure out how to hold a growing network of incarnational communities together. That's what we call Adullam, a "congregational network of incarnational communities."

I don't really have a typical day anymore. Since our story came out, I do spend a few days a week traveling and training leaders, but when home, I still try to give my time either to leaders or people trying to find our story both Christian and non-Christian. Adullam is about 300 people but we don't have any full time staff so we've learned to centralize a few things, but mostly we're all out with people during the week. I do oversee our villages (our communities) and do a lot of coaching, and I also spend a few hours preparing for our weekly gathering.

Ed: What do you see in the church that is giving you hope that we are doing better at engaging in God's mission?

Hugh: The biggest hope is in the conversations that are going on. It used to be a fight to ask people to consider moving away from purely attractional forms of church, but a much greater percentage want to move forward. What's most exciting is how the existing church is not only in the conversation, but is asking for help and now innovating some really cool movements of incarnational community. For instance, I was blessed to train 300 of Austin Stone's small group leaders through our TK primer and we're hearing some great stories of moving small groups into missional/incarnational communities.

Ed: You recently published "Tangible Kingdom." Tell us about the book.

Hugh: Like I said, it's just our story. We do try to unpack words like "missional" and "kingdom" by giving stories so that leaders and Christians can actually see themselves living our story. We don't bash attractional church, but we do try to encourage a "sub-structure" of church we call an incarnational community and we show that it has a much greater ability to dive deep into culture, deliver the gospel, and make disciples than the existing church structures. The new book "AND...the gathered and scattered church" will be out in April with Zondervan/Leadership Network/Exponential and will help both church plant and existing churches find a balance of scattering their people into incarnational communities while retaining functional gathered structures that don't pander to consumers.

Ed: Obviously, the word "missional" is spoken of, used by, and claimed by many groups. Instead of giving another definition for the word, can you tell the readers an example of where you and your wife are seeking to live missionally?

Hugh: Sure, missionality for us is just giving up our home, our time, our kids, and our own schedules so that sojourners have access to us all the time. My son has severe epilepsy so we've always had to center ministry out of our home. We're open for business three to four times a week, and the house always seems like grand central station. For instance tonight is the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics so Cheryl sent out an Evite to many friends and many sojourners. We're tired, but we allow God to "send" us as a family for God's mission.

Ed: In terms of missionSHIFT and the Missional Manifesto, what would be a great end-game in your mind for this event and process?

Hugh: I think if we can continue to unite both mega and micro into some similar DNA and processes then we'll be on good footing together.

Are you registered for the missionSHIFT conference? You don't want to miss it. Register here.

Monday is for Missiology

2010-02-22T14:38:29Z

It's Monday and time for another installment of "Monday is for Missiology." Long time readers of the blog are familiar with my Meanings of Missional series, but for those who have missed it here is where the conversation unfolded on the blog.

Meanings of Missional
The Meanings of Missional: Part 1
Where we ease into the word, missional. Where did the term come from, and do we really need it today?

The Meanings of Missional: Part 2
Where we begin to look at the relationship between the words mission, missions, and missional.

The Meanings of Missional: Part 3
Where we consider the sentness of the church as fundamental to the word "missional."

The Meanings of Missional: Part 4
Where we look at the role of the church and evangelism in the missio Dei.

The Meanings of Missional: Part 5
Where we consider the need to be God's missionary people, with a biblical definition of mission, focused on the missio dei.

Monday is for Missiology: The Eschatological Dimension of the Missional Church

Monday is for Missiology: The Church, the Kingdom, and the Mission

As I've said before, I believe it is very important to look at theological and historical roots of the missional conversation if we want to frame the current discussion with integrity. If we don't, we could easily make some of the same mistakes that caused the leftward trajectory in a theological direction during the missio Dei movement in the mid- and late-20th century. We want to be faithful to the Scriptures as well as good students of history.

Today we will look at a couple of caveats regarding the eschatological language (the coming Kingdom is "already and not yet") of mission.

Caveats

Citing German Lutheran theologian Ernst Käsemann, Bosch raises some points of caution regarding the language of the church as "sign or sacrament." Käsemann believed that this kind of vocabulary might muddy the distinction between Christ and the church. To call the church a "sign" may obscure that the only genuine sign of the church is the cross of Christ. Concerns like these inspired the World Council of Churches at the Faith and Order meeting in Louvain, Belgium in 1971 to clarify: "The church...is a sign. But it is also no more than a sign." Further, they said, words like sacrament are not attributes the church confers to itself: "God himself has chosen the [church] to be in Christ the sign or sacrament of the unity of his kingdom." Bosch summarizes these points by saying, "When the church, in its mission, risks referring to itself as sacrament, sign, or instrument of salvation, it is therefore not holding up itself as a model to be emulated. Its members are not proclaiming, 'Come to us!' but 'Let us follow him.'"

Additionally, it is of the utmost importance to evade the common dueling extremes:

1) the extreme eschatologicalization of mission, and

2) the extreme historicization of mission.

First, an obsession with "end times" can paralyze mission. Walter Freytag strongly criticized missionaries and mission agencies that appeared to welcome the corrosion of society as a sure indication of the imminence of the Second Coming (parousia). M.A.C. Warren also notes that Freytag warned that the stress on the waiting for the "not yet" could "easily lead to 'quietism'...," making the church "guilty of the sin of temerity...[and] timidity." Bosch continues:

A fixation on the parousia...simply means that we are evading our responsibilities in the here and now. Submitting to Christ as Savior is inseparable from submitting to him as Lord in our personal lives but also political and economic systems in the corporate life of society.

On the other hand, a fixation on an entirely "this-worldly" understanding of the eschatological character of mission is equally dangerous. The threat lies in the abandonment of any idea of the uniqueness of the church and instead concentrates on what happens in the world outside the church. The incarnation becomes the representation of the world-historical salvation process that emerges gradually through cultural, moral, social, political, and even revolutionary illumination.

The attraction to an over-historicized eschatology seems to arise when individuals become impatient with the "slowness" of the kingdom coming and in turn, take control and redefine the kingdom, seeking to build it with newer techniques, while continuing to use the name of Christ to endorse their programs and social endeavors. "Mission" merely becomes shorthand for the fulfillment of societal responsibilities.

Bosch is quick to say that the problem with this paradigm is that in becoming the "arbiters of what action is appropriate," God's reign always passes sovereign judgment over the pinnacle of our ideals and often goes against the grain of history, overcoming our diminution of the gospel to mere ethics. He continues: "We will never realize our blueprint for a societal and political order that will match the will and rule of God...[T]he future holds the primacy. The ultimate triumph remains uniquely God's gift."

So, where do you think we are erring today? And how can we avoid the reactionary pendulum swing from one extreme to the other?

Saturday is for Seminars

2010-02-22T00:48:18Z

With so many great conferences happening each year, it's easy to miss out on some gatherings you might find helpful.

Let me share some conferences that are new (or I just received more information). In this post is a conference on parenting, free conferences on church planting and growth, a national conference on church planting, and the first conference I have ever created-- called missionSHIFT.

Right now, I am writing this from my hotel in Plano, prepping for the Anglican100, and posting this late Sunday. The blog has been giving us trouble so "Saturday is for Seminars" is posted late Sunday!

Anyway, here are some upcoming events where I will be sharing-- please be praying for these conferences and those who attend.

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D6 Conference
September 15-17th

Here is a video just released about the D6 Conference in Dallas. I'll be presenting some brand new parenting research exclusively at the conference.

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The NEXT Church Planting Workshop (free)
March 1, 2010 Warner Robbins, GA

From the website:

Come; bring your entire team to this one-day event hosted by Jim & Jennifer Cowart and the Harvest Church team. Harvest Church was launched using the Purpose Driven model and has grown to over 2500 in weekend attendance. Jim and Jennifer will provide you an overview of the steps and principles for launching large and leading a church that impacts this generation. If you are launching a new church or thinking about it, or if your church has stalled, Harvest is the place to be.

Click here to register.

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The NEXT Growing Churches Workshop (free)
March 12, 2010 Kissimmee, FL

Bring your entire team and join us at Florida Christian College near Orlando on March 12th for the FREE one-day Growing Churches Workshop. Robbie O'Brien, Pastor of The Beachside Church will share the key principles that have led to Beachside's growing effectiveness. The Beachside Church began 4 years ago in Ormond Beach, Florida and is launching its first church plant. You can register here.

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Exponential Conference
April 19-22 Orlando, FL

The Exponential Conference is looking better and better as more snow falls throughout the country. Last week nearly every state in the lower 48 had some snowfall! Seems highly likely that the speakers at Exponential will warm things up considerably--Exponential always draws a fascinating lineup! Giglio and Chan are the bookends. I'm joining Chandler, Batterson, Blanchard (not your typical church planter pick), Gibbons, Ferguson, McNeal (Reggie not Shaq), Claiborne, Patrick, Salter-McNeil-- and these are just the ones from the main sessions. Beyond there are more than 60 workshops, 15 pre-conference intensives, and many denominations and networks are using Exponential as their main national gathering-- banquets, breakfasts, luncheons, early training, late meetings.

I'm looking forward to it and I invite those of you who are church planting leaders to participate in the Best Practices Pre-Conference Intensive. Get everything you need at exponentialconference.com.

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missionSHIFT Conference
July 12-15 Ridgecrest, NC

The word "missional" is used to bludgeon legalism and antinomianism alike. To some it is a sign of freedom from all established forms of the church and to others it is a degeneration into syncretism with the world. However, I think words help us when we are clear about the meaning. Thus was born missionSHIFT. The actual conference is designed for church leaders and their families. Held at the Ridgecrest Conference Center in NC, there will be time for learning together under some outstanding teachers but also time for us to just spend time together as families enjoying one another and talking about what matters most-- God's mission at work in the world. Make sure you get registered soon!

In the next few months, we will be discussing (here at my blog and at other places on the web) the subjects associated with the word "missional" and how it is practiced by the church. Several practitioners will serve as the initial "framers" of a document we are entitling the "Missional Manifesto." Our one hope is that it will be a help to all churches desiring to understand how to live out the missio Dei in communities in our culture.

See you on the road.