GREENHOUSE

Gotta Go to Grow

2009-02-18T08:32:00.000-08:00

"Words are not enough to tell you just how much God has changed me and my wife in the few days I was in Saltillo", declared one of the team members in my office after he returned from a mission trip to Saltillo, Mexico. I am reminded every time I lead a mission trip or hear the stories of those who go without me, just how much an impact going makes on our members.
It is a basic principle that God has used through the ages to not only accomplish His kingdom growth, but to also accomplish His growth in his children. I'm reminded that God is a sending God and only when we trust Him and go outside of our own world, our comfort, our security, only then will we grow spiritually.
How said it is to see how little emphasis pastors place on getting their members to go anywhere except to church. Missions is often just another ministry or program of the church. There is an emphasis a couple of times a year to raise money for missionaries but other than sending a youth team or youth choir to do concerts in another city, often times there is no real effort to encourage members to go. Christians have a concept that going on missions is for the spiritually called "missionaries" but not for them. A DOM told me that he saw little value in members going on missions. When challenged he admitted he had not gone on a mission trip in very a long time.
Unless there is a vision for going from the pastor and staff, then the members will not go. Pastor Jeff Harris placed such a high value of going he placed a staff member to oversee the missions area of Grace Point. For us at Grace Point going is one of the five characteristics of a fully devoted follower of Christ. It is the DNA of every believer, so we expect every member to go local at least once a year and global once in five years. Because of that vision and value on going, we have close to 200 members going global every year and 500+ going local.
Missions changes lives in so many ways but one of the greatest values is that it helps build leaders and injects a passion for the lost. As I look around at many of our Point Persons in leadership positions of our church, I can see how many of these leaders have gone on mission trips. Many took on greater responsibilities and leadership roles in the church after experiencing God on the mission field.
Don't short change your members by not giving them a kingdom vision for what they can do outside the walls of the church, their home, city and country. Push them to go. Most will not go until you do so and will not grow until they go.

2008-12-02T15:32:00.000-08:00

The Leadership magazine devotes this months issue to the missional church. There are some great articles about the movement of the U.S. churches to a missional approach to ministry. One of the responses is from a pastor of a church which would be considered an attractional model. He argues that the attractional church is still the best model to reach people and that missional churches are usually small with little impact and little growth.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/fall/14.112.html

Alan Hirsch in the same Leadership magazine gives a good definition of missional saying it "represents a significant shift in the way we think about the church, where we engage the world by going out rather than just reaching out and bringing people to church. A missional theology is not content with mission being a church-based work. Rather, it applies to the whole life of every believer." Can't an attractional church teach its members to be missional? Or does one loose it's attraction when it begins to teach and send its members to minister in the world?
Is there a balance where a church can attract and send? Can a church be both missional and attractional? Can missional and attractional co-exist?

I'd love your thoughts.

Spirituality in Spain

2008-10-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

My wife and I spent a couple of weeks in Spain this month and found the spiritual atmosphere to be really depressing. The older Spaniards staunchly hold to the Roman Catholic religion of works and superstition. The middle aged have run from the rules and legalism and the younger don't have religion on their radar at all. They say it is a picture of America in ten years. It maybe a picture of some parts of the U.S. right now.

A question that I pondered while in Spain;
Who do you think is better off today in a practical sense, those who place their faith in the religion of works and penitence or those who have freed themselves from religion totally and run to humanism and agnosticism?

Which one is easier to reach with the Gospel?

I'd love to hear what you think.

Leaderman vs Servant Leader

2008-09-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

I ran across this post on leadership recently by Brant Hansen. I am motivated more by relationships than by tasks so this resonates with me. I'd like to get your thoughts and opinions on the post.

We need leadership -- properly understood, the Jesus-type of "leadership" -- like crazy. What we don't need is the type of leadership I satirize.
We don't need any more of "LeaderMan". What we need are servant leaders, men and women who are gifted for leadership, whom people naturally follow, who point those people toward Jesus alone, our Teacher.
Granted, as always, I may not know what I'm talking about. But below are some off-the-top-of-the-head attempts at distinguishing one from the other.

Servant Leader: Has something to say

LeaderMan: Wants a platform on which to say something

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LeaderMan: You almost feel you know his family, because he's your Leader

Servant Leader: You allow him to influence you, because you know his family

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LeaderMan: Wants you to know he's a Leader

Servant Leader: You're not sure he knows he's a leader

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LeaderMan: Loves the idea of the Gospel, and the idea of The Church

Servant Leader: Loves God and the actual individual people God brings across his path

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LeaderMan: A great speaker, but self-described as, "Not really a people person."

Servant Leader: Makes himself a people person

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LeaderMan: Helps you find where God is leading you in his organization

Servant Leader: Helps you find where God is leading you

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LeaderMan: Gets together with you to talk about his vision

Servant Leader: Just gets together with you

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LeaderMan: Resents "sheep stealing"

Servant Leader: Doesn't get the "stealing" part, since he doesn't own anyone to begin with

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LeaderMan: Wants the right people on the bus

Servant Leader: Wants to find the right bus for you, and sit next to you on it

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Servant Leader: Shows you his whole heart

LeaderMan: Shows you a flow chart

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LeaderMan: A visionary who knows what the future looks like

Servant Leader: Knows what your kitchen looks like

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LeaderMan: If it's worth doing, it worth doing with excellence

Servant Leader: Not exactly sure how to even calculate "worth doing"

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LeaderMan: Talks about confronting one another in love

Servant Leader: Actually confronts you in love

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LeaderMan: Impressed by success and successful people

Servant Leader: Impressed by faithfulness

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LeaderMan: Invests time in you, if you are "key people"

Servant Leader: Wastes time with you

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LeaderMan: Reveals sins of his past

Servant Leader: Reveals sins of his present

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LeaderMan: Gives you things to do

Servant Leader: Gives you freedom

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LeaderMan: Leads because of official position

Servant Leader: Leads in spite of position

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LeaderMan: Deep down, threatened by other Leaders

Servant Leader: Has nothing to lose

You may read the blog and comments on Letters from Kamp Drusty blog at
http://branthansen.typepad.com/letters_from_kamp_krusty/2008/09/servant-leaderhas-somethingto-say---leadermanwantsa-place-to-say-something--leaderman-you-almost-feel-you-know-his-famil.html

Axiom from Dr. Mario Ramos

2008-08-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

There is an axiom that I read first read in The Unstoppable Force by Erwin McManus. I’m paraphrasing: “Leaders Create Culture.” Remember Jesus at the Lord’s Supper, when he washed the disciples’ feet. His service and words at that moment changed the culture of that room (they had been arguing who was the greatest). His whole life and life message was a culture-creating event. He lived out his mission, For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. We are always about creating culture; we just need to be more thoughtful and intentional about it.
Blessings,Mario

Axioms that work

2008-08-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

We shared Monday night in Greenhouse some of our favorite sayings or axioms that help guide us as we plant and grow churches. Here are some that I jotted down:

Be the solution, not the problem
Don't whine. All pastors and especially planters have it tough. If you are not a problem solver and a man of prayer, you will have difficulty planting a church. Just ask Ryan Frazier at Mission Church. Prayer, persistence, patience and creative problem solving helped him secure the high school for their church.

Love many, trust few, and paddle your own canoe
Beware of relying on a few people making your dreams come true. Take ownership

Less is more
Delegate and leadership is the key to growing. The more control you exert over your church members the less opportunity you will have to grow. Give ministry away

Failure is not an option, it is a necessity
If you are not failing from time to time you are not stretching yourself and taking enough risks.

Our work is not finished until Jesus comes
We don't retire in ministry. Reaching a certain goal, doesn't mean we can sit back and call it finished. We must press on and always win people to Christ.

People miss their flight to London
Just because someone says they will be in church or at your meeting doesn't translate into them actually showing up.

Think not as the pastor of your church but the pastor of your community
Best way to plant a church is to serve the community and become known as a church who wants to help their neighbors. Don't be a pastor only to those who walk through the doors of the church, but minister to those outside the walls.
Joe Boyd in Derby, Kansas gave us some great examples of this as they have served at local city concerts, festivals and city events cleaning up, directing traffic and serving food. People in Derby already know Aviator Church and Joe has not started their weekly services yet.

If you have a favorite axiom that wasn't mentioned, please share it with us and how it helps you.

Our next Greenhouse will be Monday, October 6. Hope to see you there.

Kenyan Culture

2008-06-23T14:37:00.000-07:00

How do you help change something in a culture that has persisted for hundreds of years? I’m reminded of the saying, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Perhaps changing anything in a third world country will take time.
We spent several days with a group of 45 Kenyan pastors and wives during our trip to Africa this past month and I believe we took a few bites out of the elephant of the Kenyan culture.
You see even though most Kenyans call themselves Christians they still hold to some cultural practices that run counter to the values of a follower of Christ.
The Kenyan Christian’s faith is very conservative and leans to be very legalistic. There is a very hierarchical system of leadership with the pastor doing most of the ministering. The most obvious difference is the way the men treat the women in their culture. It is considered demeaning for a man to walk side by side with his wife. The men sit on one side of the church with the women on the other side. In one church in which I preached, the children sat in the middle with rows separating the men from the children and the children from the women. There is little love or respect in marriages where a Christian pastor could easily have more than one wife. It is culturally acceptable to beat your wife. Women are relegated to child bearing and doing most of the work.
During our time with the pastors we emphasized the need for the church to change and for men and women to be involved in ministry, using their spiritual gifts. In the small discussion groups we were able to share and talk about what the Bible says about love and respect between husband and wife. We used Ephesians 5 as we shared about the men’s responsibility to love the wife as Christ loved the church and what needed to change in their culture for the men to love their wives. The men were actually very open and honest about how their culture teaches the males to look down upon women. For instance the pastors explained that a man in their culture would never say he is sorry or ask for forgiveness from his wife because it would lower him to her level. We pointed to scripture and the words of Jesus to point out that Jesus requires us to lower ourselves by asking for forgiveness and forgiving others when we are wrong. We were able to share that when culture conflicts with the moral standards of Jesus and the Bible, a choice must be made. A true believer yields to scripture and does not conform to the world’s view. By the end of the conference we sensed a real desire from many of the men to change their ways. The younger men seemed to be more willing to make the change but there were some older pastors who accepted the need to change. I guess the first step is recognizing the need to change. Pray that the word of God would penetrate their hearts and change would begin in that section of Kenya and spread.

The Shack theology

2008-06-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

It is interesting to read the comments for and against the book. Chuck Colson wrote that he thought the author took "a low view of Scripture. For example, Mack is tied to a tree by his drunken, abusive father, who 'beats Mack with a belt and Bible verses.' "

I never for once thought that as I read the book. It is amazing how people can read the same thing and get something totally different. Theologians I guess read with a fine tooth comb trying to find faulty doctrine. The book certainly was not written for theologians. From comments of those seeking God, they seemed to have received great encouragement and a whole new perspective on what a relationship with God could be.

Just wonder about your thoughts on the book's theology. There is a ton of it in the book.

For example one of the thought provoking concepts the book brings up that I had not considered was the hierarchy in the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Mack assumes the Father is the leader or head but is told that there is no need for a hierarchical relationship when the relationship is in perfect unity and harmony as it is between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We only need a chain of command in the world because of its fallen state.

From Papa..."Once you have a hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it, and then you need law and the enforcement of the rules, and you end up with some kind of chain of command or system of order that destroys relationship rather than promotes it. You rarely see or experience relationship apart from power. Hierarchy imposes laws and rules and you end up missing the wonder of relationship that we intended for you."

"We (the trinity) have no concept of final authority among us, only unity. We are in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command or 'great chain of being' as your ancestors termed it. We don't need power over the other because we are always looking out for the best. Hierachy would make no sense among us. Actually, this is your problem, not ours."

Think about this as it applies to the husband and wife relationship.

2008-06-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

I recommended a book to you recently that I ran across at Lifeway called The Shack. It has had a profound impact on me spiritually and how I see and relate to God the father, Son and Holy Spirit. I've mentioned it to a few others and recently one of those was Tiffany Crawford a Christian counselor who attends Grace Point. Her response was so profound, a day later, that I have decided I better tell and encourage more to read it.
Tiffany uses our offices after hours to council and does a wonderful job. She had asked to use my office this week and I playfully agreed only if she read the book The Shack. She so promised and I wondered whether she would even remember the title. But she did and she actually finished it in one day. I received her email the following day thanking me for suggesting the book. Her email said the book changed her life forever.
In her blog Tiffany wrote what I have had difficulty in expressing…This book is intriguing...and filled with God's love and patience-- His wonder and honor. It will teach you the truth of who God is---the truth of the Word he's shared with us for so many years. You will be free from religion and rules--from responsibility and expectation--you will learn to rest in Him, love Him and find joy in Him.It is amazing how God can use people and the words they write to encourage, inspire, and bring healing and His love.
All this from a small book and it can be passed on by just a few words of encouragement to buy and read a simple book entitled The Shack. I feel ashamed that I have not told more people about the book, that I have chosen only a few when everyone I know should have been told. But it is the same with God’s love. Why do I choose to share with a so few? Why not tell everyone! As Tiffany proclaimed in her blog, and I whole heartedly agree… Buy the book--read it, pass it on...make everyone you know read it...and then read it again... I will read it at least 1000 more times.... Next time, I will read it slowly--but I couldn't put it down this time...I just wanted to know more about God...

Next Greenhouse Monday, June 2 at 7 PM

2008-05-29T16:11:00.001-07:00

Next Meeting

2008-04-29T16:17:00.001-07:00

Next meeting will be Monday, June 2
7 PM at Grace Point

Next Meeting

2008-03-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that our next meeting is Monday, March 31 at 7 PM at Grace Point. Same place.

Organic Church?

2008-03-06T12:51:00.000-08:00

The author of Pagan Christianity is taking the position that the New Testament church, (organic and small) was the model that God designed and the one that provides the greatest opportunity for everyone to be involved and to use their spiritual gifts. Would the church we see in Acts be as effective today in our culture in the U.S.? Would a totally organic church reach and disciple people to a greater degree than the church we see today in the U.S.?

Where does it come from...God or ....?

2008-03-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

Ikki, your visual aid of the ex-girlfriend is as disturbing as the book. I have found myself saying yes... but, over and over as I read the book Pagan Christianity. I encourage all of you to read and as you do so please comment about what disturbs you, what you agree with and what you don't.

I think most believers just assume many of our traditions and practices in the church are God ordained. It is the story of the wife who cuts the ends off the ham every time she cooks. When asked why, she doesn't know so she asks her mother, who doesn't know either. So her mother asks the grandmother on down the line until they found out that great great grandmother didn't have a pan big enough for a full-sized ham.
When you remove the God ordained lens and see things historically you see that some of our sacred cows are far from sacred. And many are not even practical anymore but we continue to practice them because they are "sacred" when in reality they have no foundation of Godliness at all.
We can laugh at some. Like the tradition of having the "pastor's chair" on the platform. Many traditional churches, including my former church, have chairs where all the staff sit on the platform during services but the pastor's is the biggest and fanciest. That was a tradition passed on by Constantine copied from the Roman basilica for the Roman magistrates and judge. The Catholic church adopted the "Bishop's chair" or "throne" surrounded by the rows of chairs reserved for the elders. The Protestants kept that tradition also and so we have the "elite" clergy sitting apart from the "ordinary" worshippers.
I was shocked last year when flying British Airways to find that they actually referred to their Business class seats as "upper class" seats. They still have that caste mentality in their culture. And we still have it in our churches also. I don't think we have fully embraced the concept of the priesthood of the believer.
When Pastor Jeff and I were in Africa speaking to a large group of pastors a few years ago, the African leader who helped organize the conference asked for all the Bishops to come sit up on the platform area. He then had the elders come sit on the front rows, then the laymen and finally the women could sit in the back. When Jeff got up to speak, he reversed the seating arrangement saying my Bible says the least of these will be first. I don't think I'll ever forget the expressions on the faces of the pastors and the leader.

Pagan Christianity

2008-02-28T15:19:00.000-08:00

I have started reading the book Pagan Christianity and it is an interesting read which causes one to think and reexamine one's practices. The question that the book presses for an answer is, does it really matter how we practice our faith. What if our perspectives, rules, traditions and practices hinder our development of our faith? If so, would you be willing to do away with those traditions which serve as barriers that keep us from encountering the living God? It is much easier to start with a clean slate when starting a church rather than changing. So I think it will help all of us as we look at the church and our traditions and practices.
As you read through, I welcome your comments. I have books available at the church. Come by and pick one up or email me and we can work out a time to meet to get you the book.

Question for you. How much weight do you give tradition in the church today? In your church?

Greenhouse bloggers

2008-02-20T13:24:00.000-08:00

Welcome church planters
The Greenhouse blog is for church planters to share their thoughts, questions, ideas, prayer requests and concerns with other church planters.