By Sam Hodges

A young pastor in The United Methodist Church’s North Texas Annual (regional) Conference has filed a lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct by the Rev. Tyrone Gordon, who recently resigned as pastor of St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church in Dallas.

The suit was brought by the Rev. Cameron Jerrod Greer, 26, now serving as local pastor at Cockrell Hill United Methodist Church in Dallas. It says Gordon first made sexual advances on him in May 2003, when Greer was an 18-year-old audiovisual technician at St. Luke.

Greer’s suit, which alleges other incidents, says Gordon used his position to coerce Greer and other young men at the church into unwanted sexual encounters.

The suit names St. Luke and the North Texas Conference as defendants, as well as Gordon. It says the church and the conference failed in their fiduciary and supervisory duties by failing to protect Greer from Gordon.

Bishop Earl Bledsoe of the North Texas Conference, on a long-planned church trip to Liberia, could not be reached for comment. Gordon also could not be reached, and St. Luke officials did not immediately return calls.

Allegations of reports in 2006

The suit, filed in the 101st District Court in Dallas, alleges that St. Luke leaders had sexual-harassment reports about Gordon as early as 2006.

“Folks had knowledge,” said Marilynn Mayse, Greer’s attorney and a longtime St. Luke member, in an interview. “I just don’t know why he was never put on administrative leave, why he was allowed to continue.”

Though Greer is the only plaintiff, Mayse said she is in touch with two other young men from St. Luke who have similar complaints about Gordon. She said she has talked as well to alleged victims in Wichita, Kan., where Gordon was a pastor before going to St. Luke in 2002.

“This is a terrible thing I’ve had to do,” she said of the suit, “but he’s a predator. I believe these guys who’ve talked to me.”

Bledsoe announced in a Jan. 20 statement that Gordon had resigned from St. Luke and surrendered his United Methodist Church credentials, effective Feb. 15.

Gordon had been under investigation by the denomination for allegations received from people in and outside of St. Luke, Bledsoe said then, though he did not offer specifics.

St. Luke is one of the largest predominantly African-American churches in The United Methodist Church, with about 5,000 members. Gordon succeeded the Rev. Zan Holmes, now pastor emeritus at St. Luke and well known across the denomination for his preaching and civil rights work.

Holmes interim St. Luke pastor

Holmes is to be interim pastor at St. Luke until an appointment can be made this summer, Bledsoe said in the earlier statement.

Gordon went to St. Luke from Saint Mark United Methodist Church in Wichita, which grew rapidly in his 14 years there. He has been board secretary of Black Methodists for Church Renewal, and Abingdon Press lists him as the author of its “African-American History Month Daily Devotions 2012.”

His Abingdon profile notes that he and his wife have two daughters.

Greer’s lawsuit offers graphic description of alleged sexual harassment by Gordon. The May 2003 incident occurred in Gordon’s church office, between worship services, the suit says.

The suit mentions four incidents against Greer, the last in January 2010.

Greer complained to a North Texas Conference official in November 2010, and on Sept. 12, 2011, made a formal written complaint against Gordon, according to the suit.

The United Methodist Church has no central repository for reporting or tracking complaints of clergy sexual misconduct.

The Book of Discipline, the denomination’s law book, lists sexual misconduct as a chargeable offense and outlines a church complaint process.

Under the denomination’s definition, sexual misconduct can include “child abuse, adult sexual abuse, harassment, rape or sexual assault, sexualized verbal comments or visuals, unwelcome touching and advances, use of sexualized materials including pornography, stalking, sexual abuse of youth or those without capacity to consent, or misuse of the pastoral or ministerial position using sexualized conduct to take advantage of the vulnerability of another.”

Mayse said Greer decided to file suit after sheets of paper defaming him were placed on cars at Cockrell Hill United Methodist Church.

The suit asks for unspecified damages and says Greer has suffered “mental pain and suffering and adverse physical consequences.”

Greer is studying for a master of divinity degree at Perkins School of Theology, at Southern Methodist University, and currently is part of Perkins’ intern program, a school official confirmed.

Sam Hodges is the managing editor of The United Methodist Reporter.

News media contact: Maggie Hillery, Nashville, TN., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

By Michael Foust

NEW ORLEANS (BP) — Louisiana pastor Fred Luter has told his congregation that he’s willing to have his name placed in nomination for president of the Southern Baptist Convention, a step that could lead to a historic election.

Luter, currently the first vice president of the SBC, made the announcement Sunday, as first reported by the SBC Today website. Baptist Press confirmed that Luter is willing to be nominated in a Thursday (Feb. 2) call to the church he leads, Franklin Avenue Baptist in New Orleans.

“He and his wife [Elizabeth] have been praying for months,” Johnell Thomas, pastor of membership at Franklin Avenue, told BP. Thomas said Luter “did announce that he would allow his name” to be placed in nomination in addressing the congregation.

Luter, senior pastor of Franklin Avenue, is the only announced candidate so far. If elected, he would become the convention’s first African American president — and it would happen as the U.S. commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. He already is the SBC’s first African American first vice president.

Voting will take place at the SBC annual meeting in New Orleans in June. A nominator has not been announced.

In August, Luter had said he was “80 percent” leaning toward the idea of allowing his name to be placed in nomination.

“It is an awesome responsibility [to serve as SBC president],” he told the Baptist & Reflector newspaper then. “I don’t want to take it lightly or for granted.”

In that same interview, Luter said his goal, if elected, would be to “bring us together as a convention” so that “we can truly be the body of Christ. … We need to major on the things that have made this convention great through the years — evangelism and discipleship.”

Michael Foust is associate editor of Baptist Press. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).

Sponsored by American Family Insurance and Verizon Wireless, the celebration is hosted by Rev Run (Joseph Simmons) and gospel’s sweetheart CeCe Winans. Morgan will be performing alongside American Idol winner Fantasia, Donnie McClurkin, Hezekiah Walker, powerhouse vocalist, Natalie Grant and Verizon’s How Sweet the Sound 2011 Overall Winning Choir, Salvation and Deliverance Church Choir.

Morgan will perform “I Choose To Worship,” which garnered a nomination at the 2011 Dove Awards and the 2012 Stellar Awards, and also spent more than 50 weeks on the Billboard Gospel charts.  In addition to his successful recording and touring career, Morgan is the associate pastor at Celebration of Life Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and is also the founder and director of the Wess Morgan Foundation, whose focus is youth-oriented drug and alcohol prevention and recovery.   Currently, Morgan is working on a new full-length recording under the direction of award-winning producer, Warryn Campbell. The still untitled project is slated for a mid-2012 release.

The Super Bowl Gospel Celebration has become legendary for its hand clappin’, soul-stirrin’ and foot stompin’ performances from artists including Patti LaBelle, BeBe Winans, Mary Mary, Israel Houghton & New Breed, Yolanda Adams, Jaci Velasquez, Fred Hammond and many more. NFL Players that have made appearances include Cris Carter, John Elway, Donovan McNabb, Kurt Warner, Tim Brown and Darrell Green, Coaches Lovie Smith, Raheem Morris and many more.

Since its inception in 1999, the Super Bowl Gospel Celebration has partnered with a charity in each Super Bowl host city. This year, Gary Brackett’s IMPACT Foundation has been selected as the event’s charitable partner. For each ticket purchased for the Super Bowl Gospel Celebration, $3.00 will go to the Foundation.

For more information on Super Bowl Gospel Celebration, please visit www.superbowlgospel.com and for the latest news and information on Wess Morgan, please log on to http://www.wessmorgan.com.

Tickets for the 2012 Super Bowl Gospel Celebration are on sale at www.ticketmaster.com, www.superbowlgospel.com. Prices are $99, $79, $59, and $39 (additional service fees and taxes apply).

ABOUT WESS MORGAN: Wess Morgan who is becoming increasingly popular for his ability to sing soulful melodies over lyrics that yield life-building messages along with his unique ability to share God’s word alongside his personal testimony. Both the music and spoken word coming from Wess Morgan connects with the hearts of people in search of “the rest of their lives.” In 2010, his nationally released recording, Under an Open Heaven, delivered the hit song, “I Choose to Worship,” which spent nearly 50 weeks on the Billboard charts as well earned this Tennessee-native his first Stellar Award nomination for “Song of the Year.”

ABOUT THE SUPER BOWL GOSPEL CELEBRATION: The Super Bowl Gospel Celebration was launched in Miami in 1999 during Super Bowl XXXIII weekend. Few recognized that many athletes and fans desired an event to celebrate the big game, not only to show their love for football, but also an outlet to express their faith through uplifting sounds and the rich culture of gospel music. In 2002, the event became the first and remains the only gospel event sanctioned by the NFL. Since its inception, the show has drawn crowds in the thousands and has demonstrated growth year-over-year, selling out venues in major Super Bowl host cities including Dallas, Tampa, Detroit, Jacksonville, Houston and Phoenix.

During the Thanksgiving weekend I read an article in Vanity Fair magazine, the source of much good journalism, titled on the cover, “Inside the Murdoch-family Fortress.” It had all the earmarks of a good thriller: the father patriarch, conniving daughter and spouse, a son aspiring for the father’s media empire, a wife with undue influence, and much money at stake.

It might just as well been titled, “Inside the Schuller-family Fortress,” that just a week prior saw Robert H. Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral sold off by the bankruptcy court to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Orange to cover some $50 million in debts the 56-year-old ministry owed to vendors and others.

The congregation may sustain itself in a diminished way, elsewhere, but the television ministry won’t likely survive. The four daughters and their spouses share the blame for a great congregation’s demise. But interestingly, if there are any bright spots in the sordid mess, it is with the grandchildren, the adult son and daughter of Robert Anthony and Donna Schuller.

Three years ago I interviewed Bobby Schuller and was immediately struck by his character and intelligence; if anyone in the family had a chance of making a success of succeeding his grandfather, it was Bobby, but it wasn’t to be his timing. He formed his own congregation near Garden Grove that continues today.

The daughter, Angie Schuller Wyatt, is an author, motivation speaker, and businesswoman. She brought an incisive intelligence and open mind when she wrote for Christian Post in November about the bankruptcy decision: “I liken my grief of the Crystal Cathedral’s death to grieving a loved one with a terminal illness.”

Her transparency on the issue is refreshing: “There was nothing I could do to stop my misguided family members. Others in the family seemed to be holding on to ‘a miracle’ that would come just in time. I knew better. Something that defined my life, something I hoped would define my children’s lives, was about to die …

“Eventually the madness worsened to the point that death itself signaled relief. If you’ve ever held the hand of a dying loved one, you know that death becomes the final blessing. Yet, during that final moment, you pause in respect. It’s a holy moment to reflect on what was and to grieve what shall never be again. Yesterday [Nov. 17], Crystal Cathedral Ministries died.”

Angie wrote: “Its problems were not terminal. They could have been solved. My father attempted to fix these problems during his short tenure as senior pastor. He saw the Crystal Cathedral was headed toward bankruptcy. He attempted to restructure the board, cut his siblings’ salaries and establish fiscal responsibility. For these actions, he was fired by the board [July 9, 2008] which consisted of, you guessed it, his siblings.”

A daughter’s love for her father aside, there is a ring of truth to her testimony. Sometimes truth skips a generation.

There was a book written some years back about the administration of President Lyndon Johnson, called “The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson.” When challenged on the meaning of the word tragedy, the author said he meant it not as “Oh, how terrible,” but rather as “Oh, what it could have been.” The Crystal Cathedral had a long run and did much good, but oh, how much more it could have been.

Got a question or comment? Email Ron@ChurchExecutive.com

The CE Interview: John Ortberg
By Ronald E. Keener
Pastor for eight years at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in the San Francisco Bay Area, John Ortberg observes, “There’s a very strong performance culture out here, but that includes a terrific amount of pressure to maintain an image. The biggest misconception that people have of the Silicon Valley is that people have their lives together and don’t really need God.”

Make sure your staff has a chance at a dignified retirement
By Roy Hayhurst
Begin a new retirement plan with the end in mind.

Church recovery programs are a safe place for personal growth
By Ronald E. Keener
Some churches may look more like a clinic, but more is often said about salvation than therapy.

Ask any pastor’s wife what her life is like in the church
By Mary Henry
Church is not always safe for the wife of the pastor.

Leadership systems are in motion in large churches
By Susan Beaumont
Leadership systems tend to reach the outer limits of their effectiveness based on attendance or budget.

Departments

Ron Keener

Human Resources
By Ronald E. Keener

Legal Advice
By David Middlebrook and Wendi L. Hodges

SPECIAL SECTION: WORSHIP ARTS

Beyond Hollywood: Developing strategic partnerships for Christ
By Phil Hotsenpiller
Yorba Linda Friends Church sees the entertainment business as a mission field ripe for harvest.

Oregon congregation secures the finest piano available to enhance music ministry
By Ronald E. Keener
Salem, OR church is first to secure Yamaha CFX Concert Grand Piano.

Use video to paint your sanctuary walls
By Camron Ware
Coppell, TX Baptist church uses environmental projection to tell visual stories during services.

By Ronald E. Keener

John Ortberg: Senior Pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, Menlo Park, CA

Pastor for eight years at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in the San Francisco Bay Area, John Ortberg observes, “There’s a very strong performance culture out here, but that includes a terrific amount of pressure to maintain an image, and so there are vast amounts of anxiety, addictions, difficulties, emptiness, exhaustion, just about an inch under the surface.”

“The biggest misconception that people have of the Silicon Valley is that people have their lives together and don’t really need God,” Ortberg, 54, says.

It’s been said that the Bay Area is 90 percent unchurched, de-churched, or anti-church. How does a church engage a culture like that?

One of the ways that our church is seeking to reach the Bay Area has been by opening up different venues and sites so that we can try to penetrate more areas. We’re also working very hard on a project called Catalyst, which is looking at how do we unleash rather than bottleneck folks in ministry.

We have a terrific team of people who are doing research and looking at the whole area of mission shaped communities, and strategies to tap into the innate motivations, passions, and gifts of people.

Who was the pastor of your youth and what is your conversion experience?

When I was growing up in Rockford, IL the pastor of our church was Harold Christensen. His wife Evelyn Christensen recently passed away at about the age of 90. She wrote a book called, What Happens When Women Pray. I grew up in a Christian family and accepted

Christ when I was a seven-year-old boy, and it’s still a very vivid memory for me.

If you had not chosen ministry, what might your profession have been?

If I had not gone into pastoral ministry, I probably would have gone into something in the field of psychology. I received my M.Div. from Fuller Seminary and a PhD in Clinical Psychology, but it turns out I’m a really bad therapist. However, I’m very interested in teaching and writing, and I probably would have gone in that direction.

What is it like living in such an affluent area?

The Bay Area is a very stimulating place. There are lots of things going on educationally with Stanford University next door, in terms of business with Silicon Valley, and a tremendous amount of ethnic diversity. And also there’s a fair amount of spiritual resistance to institutional Christianity, particularly as you get close to the city of San Francisco.

What do you think is your calling to address this population?

My preaching has probably moved in the direction of being somewhat more oriented towards an intellectual approach to the faith, simply because education tends to be such a kind of prominent aspect of life out here.

Did you ever meet Steve Jobs or interact with his staff?

I never did meet with Steve Jobs. Ron Johnson, who reported to Steve and is a guy who launched and led the Apple Store movement, and is now the CEO of JC Penney, attends our church and is a good friend and remarkable leader and great Christian.

Your wife Nancy is nearly as well known as you are. Have you ever thought of yourself as a “celebrity” pastor?

Nancy Ortberg is a force of nature in her own right. I think that in general our culture tends to be celebrity oriented in ways that are pretty negative and unfortunately the church always wrestles with mirroring its culture too much. Political issues are very important but when the church narrows its appeal or identifies too heavily with one political party or ideology it can make people close the door to Jesus who otherwise would leave it open.

I was always confused about the circumstances of your coming to Menlo Park. Were you the senior pastor or was there a transition of sorts?

Circumstances of my coming to Menlo Park were a bit complex because of Presbyterian polity. I initially came as a teaching pastor, and there were three or four transitional steps to becoming senior pastor, which is my current role.

I’ve been fascinated with what is called nominal Christianity — people who love the label but don’t wish to live the life. What do you make of nominal Christians?

Nominal Christianity is a great problem in our day and certainly in our area. If you think about the early century of the church, there was no such thing as a nominal Christian because the cost of becoming a Christian was so high.

And then, after the conversion of Constantine when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the cost for becoming a pagan actually became higher than the cost of being a Christian, so then you get a lot of nominal Christianity. That still is a problem in our culture and one of the great challenges is how we clarify the cost of following Jesus without giving into legalism or spiritual elitism.

Menlo Park is now multi-site; what have you learned from going with this approach?

We actually had long conversations this last week about how concretely we move forward as one movement with different expressions, trying to do the dance of independence, autonomy, togetherness, unity, and relational connectedness, which is a very complex one and is a constant learning process. Probably my most recent learning is a re-appreciation for the importance of relational connectedness, particularly for leaders.

What is the importance of training leadership?

Leadership is hugely important. We were talking about Nancy a moment ago, and developing and training and raising up leaders is one of her great passions. Helping people who have leadership gifts in recognizing their giftedness, and embrace them and use them in the service of Christ, is one of the great needs of our day. I think generally churches are becoming more aware of the need for leadership identification, recruitment and training.

How do you get your inspiration for your books?

I would say that writing for me flows very much out of doing church ministry. People ask me, from time to time, do you ever think about not working as a pastor at a church and just speaking and writing. For me, the discipline of regular sermon preparation, the creation of fresh material, being part of a community, helps me to stay learning and refreshing myself, and I think that informs my thinking and my communicating.

So there’s a close connection between preaching and writing. Preaching also gives me a feedback loop. If I just write something, I might think it’s good, and it’s really only the caffeine. When you have to stand up in front of a group of people and say stuff you find out from their faces and bodies if it’s actually connecting, or if it’s not being helpful at all.

That actually helps a lot when it comes to sitting and writing material. I’m actually just in the process of finishing a book about the impact Jesus has had on history. Its been a wonderful project and a different one, kind of a stretch for me.

Who are your favorite authors when you read for pleasure?

I love to read C.S. Lewis and I love the writings of Frederick Buechner. Dallas Willard has influenced me more than any other single human author or thinker. Richard Foster, Henry Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Ken Bailey and N.T. Wright would also be on that list.

How do you manage your time, and discipline your life?

Saying “no” is one of the most important disciplines in my life. I have regular meetings with Linda Barker, who works with me administratively, and with my wife, to go over schedule commitments and most of that involves saying “no.” I fight my own optimism when I’m in a good mood and I fight guilt when I say too many “no’s.”

What does the near future look like for the Ortbergs?

For Nancy and me, the next five to 10 years we hope will involve being right here in Menlo Park and serving at our church, growing in love for God, and each other, and our community, and being able to serve the broader church together. We have also, over this last year, gotten into surfing so we’re hoping to do more of that and not get eaten by a shark.  www.MPPC.org

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Spiritual formation through Monvee

Monvee is an attempt to leverage technology to do spiritual formation. It’s a way for people to assess what their own spiritual wiring is, their spiritual temperament, pathway, signature sin, learning styles, and so on, so they can know better how to grow spiritually.

It really grew out of Heartland Community Church, a group of folks that I know in my old hometown of Rockford, IL. It can be helpful for churches in a single site or multi-site because it’s really geared towards helping people get a roadmap of their individual spiritual lives.

I think that spiritual formation and church growth or evangelism are really connected with each other. Jesus is the most spiritually mature person who ever lived and he’s also the most evangelistically effective person who ever lived.

I think sometimes we confuse spiritual formation with “churchliness” and sometimes we confuse church growth or evangelism with sheer numbers. Either of those problems will get us off track, but if we’re growing closer to God it will make our lives more winsome to those around us. Of course some people will always be turned off by the actual Gospel itself, but I want to make sure it’s the Gospel that’s turning them off and not me.  — JO www.monvee.com

Church is not always safe for the wife of the pastor.

The October 2011 issue of Church Executive carried an article on “Pastors’ wives under pressure in husbands’ ministries.” One response to the article came from Mary Henry, a pastor’s wife from Lamoine, ME, who describes herself as a mother, spiritual director, mentor and writer. From the latter perspective, Henry is researching a book about pastors’ wives and welcomes comments to krmds@roadrunner.com.

Here she shares her own experiences as a pastor’s wife, which weren’t always friendly — or Christian.
Church life. I’m sure many people think of it as being a nurturing environment, safe, transparent and honest. There may be some churches out there that are this way. However, it seems to me many churches present themselves this way, and act quite another way behind closed doors. Ask any pastor’s wife.

First, there is the pressure applied by other pastors’ wives who feel they are co-pastoring the church with their husband, for free of course. Shortly after I got engaged to my husband, a pastor, we attended an association-of-churches meeting. I was taken by surprise when one after the other the pastors’ wives asked me if I was nervous about becoming a pastor’s wife. They all offered me advice.

One woman said she kept a file for each type of note she needed to write; thank you notes, sympathy, holiday, birthday, births, baptisms; you name it, she had a file for it. Another told me it would be good if I taught Sunday school. And, the one I remember the most vividly, told me all I had to do to be a good pastor’s wife was to memorize the Bible, back to front, front to back.

Left feeling inadequate
By the time we left the gathering, I felt totally inadequate, even though I had a great business background, had a great job, was active in my community, and had a jail ministry I absolutely loved. I wanted to scream and run the other way.

My husband was a 47-year-old bachelor in a small town church. When we started dating, one of the women in church who thought she would be his wife, treated me like dirt. For the 12 years I was a member of this church, this woman never talked to me, ignored me when I tried to talk to her, and went out of her way to alienate me. Did I mention she was married?

Another woman at church told me I was the worse minister’s wife she had ever known. She told me I should be on every committee, involved with all aspects of Christian Ed, and should be providing child care every Sunday. She tried to get my husband fired, and when that didn’t work, she and her husband left the church.

Another member of our church yelled and screamed at every annual business meeting. Every year it was the same thing, “Why should you get a 3 percent raise when I only got a 2 percent raise? And you only work one day a week.” My husband has a Ph.D. in systematic theology, this man had a high school diploma. Congregants sat in silence and let him rage. I was appalled to have 20 to 25 people talk over whether or not my husband should get a raise.

Church takes toll on family
Life in a church can take a tremendous toll on the pastor and his family. The young woman who told me I just needed to memorize the Bible to be a good pastor’s wife, admitted to her church, several years later, she had an eating disorder. She had hoped the church would support and pray for her.

Instead church members wouldn’t let their children go to her house to play with her children, nor would church members invite the wife, her husband (the pastor) or their children, to their homes anymore. This pastor’s wife had nowhere to turn, no one to talk to, not even God, who she felt had betrayed her in her own church.

I visited her in a psychiatric hospital where I found her devastated by the church’s treatment of her. The church asked the husband to resign. While he was waiting to decide how to handle this, his wife committed suicide, leaving her five children and her husband behind.

Churches are families, and every family has its secrets, its dysfunction. When these secrets are kept in the dark, they grow powerful, they breed discontent, jealousy, anger and resentment — and they destroy. The secrets and dysfunction hold us hostage in an environment we thought was safe.

Pastors’ wives struggle with alienation, loneliness, betrayal, judgment, fear and the demands of church and pastor. To whom do we turn to tell our secrets without getting our spouses fired? Who in our community is a safe person? Who can save us from the self-destructing thoughts that come when we are being abused in a church?

Women heal in community with each other. Confessing what we are feeling and thinking takes the power out of it, and brings into the light the darkness that builds as we try to be what others want us to be, or, as we try to desperately hold onto to our authentic lives within a church.

I am encouraged by Trudy Johnson’s Colorado retreats (www.anesisretreats.com), the websites that allow pastors’ wives to share their stories with other pastors’ wives all over the country, and Vision New England’s new Pastors’ Spouses’ mentoring ministry (www.VisionNewEngland.org).

It is good to know secrets are being exposed to the light.

Yorba Linda Friends Church sees the entertainment business as a mission field ripe for harvest.

By now I’m relatively familiar with Hollywood. Entertainment’s hub and hometown is just up the I-5 freeway from Friends Church in Orange County, CA where I serve as teaching pastor. In October of 2010 my wife Tammy and I began to minister to a group of Christian entertainment professionals.

Since founding their group, {l.a.}god, they have been able to disciple an ever-growing collection of people united in filling a void where they saw a “lack of much needed mentorship and protection from the hazards of the entertainment industry.” Out of {l.a.}god’s mass of talent was born a Christian music label, {l.a.}godMusic, whose namesake band released their debut album Shake the Earth in November 2011.

Within 24 hours the album jumped into the top-25 on iTunes’ Christian genre chart. When successful, professional session and touring musicians take up the challenge to live out their faith in the midst of

Hollywood, a small mission is born. When those same musicians write worship songs and now desire to play in churches or other Christian venues, it becomes a transformational ministry. You’re probably asking yourself, “How on earth does this affect me and my church?”

Mission field
A missional church is one that identifies a need, sees an opportunity and launches a strategy to affect culture for Christ. Probably the most influential industry in the world today is the entertainment industry — it is a mission field ripe for harvest.

But it’s also a stronghold and will not be influenced by the faint of heart or those who don’t understand the culture. That poses a challenge, as I don’t work in the entertainment industry: I am a pastor and that is my calling. Rather, Tammy and I partner with people who know Hollywood’s nuances and share a desire to advance Christ’s kingdom.

{l.a.}god and its offshoot music label are examples of what can happen when churches begin to seek out and implement strategic partnerships. This can be with the wealth of creative talent that is present, but often untapped, amongst their attendees or via other partnerships outside of their own membership. The early church was noted for its willingness to take risks and partner with believers in other cities and regions: all with the ultimate goal of advancing his kingdom. We would be wise to follow their example.

Strategic partnerships involve identifying and mobilizing individuals with unique gifts that can manifest themselves for Christ through myriad media and collaborative projects. Every church has a “hidden” opportunity waiting to be discovered. Those opportunities may require that we form alliances outside of our denominations and comfort zones, but the Holy Spirit is always birthing wonderful new ideas and dreams of what is possible with God. It behooves us all to seek the leadership of the Spirit to discern the right cultural fit for our unique congregations.

Congregation did film
Take some of the projects at Friends Church. Recently it completed post-production on a film, Not Today. Making a movie. Being a church. They don’t really seem to go together and yet a few churches have started breaking out and making films.

What resulted was a movie that utilized people within the church (Brent Martz, producer; Jon Van Dyke, writer/director) placed in a strategic partnership with people from without (Mark Clayman, executive producer). It took the church being able to say, “Let’s partner up with people from outside ourselves to make this project happen.” Friends actively sought out and partnered with like-minded individuals who weren’t members and the result was a film that not only entertains, but also reflects Christ’s love and how it can be shown in the context of India’s Dalits.

The film looks at the social realities of the caste system in India and their implications for the people who live under them: not in an airy, theoretical way but in a gritty, in-your-face manner. Now there is a product that raises both social and spiritual awareness. And it wasn’t just people who were “in the know” who got involved around the church — many non-industry churchgoers acted as extras, runners, assistants and donated various props and locales to make the film happen.

Suddenly there’s a product that raises both social and spiritual awareness and incorporates members from the church both with specific talents and who just want to be a part of the project. In the end, all of this culminates in a cinematic ministry for Christ that allows the entire church body to be involved and is driven by strategic partnerships.

Another way Friends Church implemented strategic partnerships was music. Singer/songwriter Caitlin Crosby released a single recently entitled “FLAWZ.” The music video for the song features various people being interviewed about their flaws while Caitlin sings about God’s love in spite of our humanity.

Using music strategically
When Caitlin came to speak at the church about the song as part of a message series, she played it live.

Afterwards, she asked the entire congregation to write their flaws on sheets of paper provided and hold them up for a picture. They did. What resulted was a beautiful moment of vulnerability and togetherness.

The congregation wasn’t necessarily involved in the artistry, but they were a part of its movement.

Friends Church partnered with Caitlin and made that moment — a moment where everyone stepped out and came together as the body of Christ, flaws and all. No small feat at a place like Friends with more than 4,000 weekly attendees.

Friends Church may be a bit of an anomaly – it’s admittedly huge – but at the same time there’s no telling how much of a wealth of talent is in the pews every Sunday until you look.

It would be impossible for me, {l.a.}god, or Friends Church to do any of what’s been done by themselves.

It’s the strategic partnerships we’ve sought out and fostered, with a lot of prayer and faith to boot, which have made any of it possible. Until a church is willing to step out, look around and give partnering outside itself a shot, there can only be conjecture as to how far its ministry can reach.

Phil Hotsenpiller is lead pastor at Yorba Linda Friends Church, Yorba Linda, CA. www.ylfc.org. Contributing to this article was freelance writer Andrew Young.

Some churches may look more like a clinic, but more is often said about salvation than therapy.

Look at your church’s weekend bulletin and you will likely see six, eight, maybe 10 “recovery programs” available, in what may seem more like a clinic than a church, where more is being said about therapy than salvation. But not so, says Liz Swanson and Teresa McBean, authors of a review of such programs in the book Bridges to Grace (Zondervan, 2011).

“Recovery programs are absolutely not therapeutically focused,” McBean says. “They are, indeed, often times more about salvation than some of the other areas of the church. A recovery group does not advise, it provides a place for safe storytelling, connecting, and introduction to God. People talk about how God has helped them, and it encourages others. Therapy doesn’t work with recovery — only God can heal these wounds.”

Tyndale Publishing has also brought out The Life Recovery Bible and Celebrate Recovery, a program begun by Saddleback Church and now is being used in numerous churches, remains popular. The book by Swanson and McBean describes the recovery programs of nine congregations; McBean responded to questions about the recovery movement as they have seen it:

What is a brief summary of the history of recovery in churches? What was going on in churches before there was Celebrate Recovery?

Dale Ryan presented a paper at the ISAAC convention in Madrid, Spain in May 2003. One of the historically most accessible ways to speak about Christian recovery within the church context has been for churches to open their doors and allow AA, NA, SAA, and other “anonymous” communities to use their space. This in many ways has proven fruitful. The church has always been vital in the recovery movement.

The program of AA has been one of the most successful ways our culture has found to address addiction. Although many quibble over the spirituality of the program (much like Goldilocks looking for just the right porridge, some think it is too God-focused, others think too little emphasis is placed on God), those who participate clearly understand the spirituality of the program if they stick with it.

So, if a church doesn’t know how to help a drunk get sober, housing AA meetings where these same drunks can go for a meeting is both an act of hospitality and a way to leverage community resources that are perhaps beyond the scope of what a particular church community feels equipped to handle.

When others began to notice the spiritual disciplines that are practiced in the 12-step program of AA and other like-minded groups, other solutions-focused groups popped up in the community and churches began to take a second look at the 12-step process. What many of us found is a deeply spiritual discipleship program.

Why do we need recovery programs? Isn’t trusting God with our issues enough?

I suppose an argument could be made that recovery programs are redundant — if all churches focused on bringing God’s message of hope and healing to their congregants in a way that they could grab hold of and experience as healing in their daily lives.

There are some consistent elements necessary for people to recovery that many churches are not set up organizationally to handle. This isn’t an indictment, but it is what it is. Recovery requires high intensive time commitment to one individual for whom there is no guarantee of success, the person needs to tell their story in a way that is honest and fully disclosing knowing that their confidentiality will absolutely not be breached, they need a message that is simple and consistent. They need as few barriers and triggers of shame as possible. Whether we like this or not, the church for many is a shame trigger, not a refuge to run during a storm.

I wish there would come a day when recovery programs were unnecessary, but as long as there are men, women and children out there who are not able to access Jesus’ healing, we have a responsibility to take their needs into account as we manage, organize and strategize the kind of churches we want to build.

Is it possible that the vast majority of Christians are in denial about their areas of concern?

Absolutely. Ask anyone. Do you know someone in recovery or in need of recovery in your family or community? Every hand raises. Why? This affliction is an epidemic. And, this epidemic affects the entire family, not just the identified “problem addict.” Living in community with an addict can actually change (for the worse) the health and well-being of the community. This is where codependency comes in. This lack of understanding with regards to enabling the addicted and others is one of the reasons why many churches can actually unwittingly do harm in the recovery process.

At NSC, we recognize that issue, and that is why we also have family programs, consult regularly with treatment professionals and get outside help for ourselves as pastors and volunteers.

Is it possible that faith-based recovery programs are simply God’s way of restoring his people to the original purpose he created for them?

Many believe this is true. But it is a complicated restorative process. And that point cannot be missed.

Where do churches go wrong when developing a recovery program?

Perhaps, sometimes, they underestimate the cost. RM is hard work. People don’t fall apart during office hours.

Churches go wrong if they think sobriety is the answer; it’s the first step. So rushing newly sober people in front of the congregation with a cool testimony is risky, and borders on spiritual abuse; providing opportunities for leadership hastily also causes major meltdowns.

Sometimes it is administrative stuff that gets in the way. Coffee gets spilled, smokers hang outside the church door; it is messy business, and some churches are not organizationally suited for all this humanity.

When the leaders are not properly supported, provided sufficient downtime or a support network, sometimes a leader crashes and burns, affecting the entire ministry. This is highly stressful, and so a RM leader often suffers from the stress and trauma related to listening to the stories of those that come. So this is a real problem if it isn’t addressed.

If Jesus came to seek that which was lost, why is there shame associated with a 12-step program?

Because we live in a Western Culture where we give testimonies that go like this: I was lost, now I’m found and since then I’ve been fine.

We sugar-coat the long road of sanctification. We pretend that once we’re saved we’re supposed to be shooting toward the heavenlies like a bottle rocket. It’s great testimony, makes a great bit on Sundays, but it is a lousy model of performance that leaves the average person feeling shame, which by the way, is inborn and intractable. So we can feed or starve shame, but we don’t cause it. So it is the human condition to be shame-filled, and when we teach others that becoming a Christian is all about getting fine, then it feels shameful to admit we need recovery.

How important is pastor/elder buy-in to the success of recovery programs?

Very, very important. Because issues will arise and without that support, it will be easier to pull the plug than work through the issues. Bon Air, Salem Alliance, Woodcrest Chapel, in fact all the churches in our book have strong, strong senior pastor support.

Does the age of a congregation affect the success of a recovery program? Where does a church begin?

If a church is fairly rigid, highly organized in its structure with lots of rules and guidelines, if they don’t like ministry getting messy, they probably will have trouble making a safe recovery environment.

What have you seen in terms of pastors and church leaders themselves being in need of recovery and therapy?

It is so tough, because oftentimes we are so isolated. Addiction is an experience of every family and ministry families don’t get a free pass. Pastors under stress, feeling as if they have no one to confide in, often working too much and too codependently, are especially vulnerable. There are some amazingly horrific stats out there about the number of pastors who use porn as a stress reliever. Yes, this is a huge silent killer of ministry leaders.

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National Association for Christian Recovery

I became executive director of the National Association for Christian Recovery in January 2011. We are re-imagining what the NACR will undertake in the next decade. Led for years by Dr. Dale Ryan, this organization has already served as a steady and innovative presence in the world of Christian recovery—hosting conferences, providing materials, Bible studies, etc., for early adopters of the passion for faith and recovery as a shared journey.

In that time we believe that – finally – there are recovery ministries with enough history and traction as a ministry that we can collaborate and help struggling, new and even improve the practices of some of the well established ministries.

Our vision:  We are passionate about joining the work of Jesus in the world, partnering with, instigating, resourcing, disturbing, advocating and influencing the manifold ways that Christ seeks to transform and liberate those in addiction.  It is our way of tearing off a corner of the darkness in the world.

Our mission:  We provide resources, training and offer consultative services for recovery-sensitive leaders interested in creating safer and healthier recovery environments. We dream of a day when recovery environments are within driving distance of every community.  We desire to bring hope to the hurting by supporting the community that helps them.

Our key initiatives include consulting, outreach through communication via the Web and social media, conferences (both regional and national), course development that will include online learning, webinar and classroom instruction and the production of other materials.

— Teresa McBean, Minister, NorthStar Community, a recovery ministry of BonAir Baptist Church, Richmond, VA. www.nacronline.com

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A few stats that will blow your away

Addiction is our number one health issue; the third leading cause of death, 4 percent worldwide (more than AIDS).

For deaths in the 15 to 29 year age range, the leading cause of death is substance abuse. We spend $400 billion in costs associated with abuse per year in the U.S. – compare that to $107 billion for cancer and $96 billion for heart disease

Yes, the vast majority of Christians are in denial.   — TMcB

Coppell, TX Baptist church uses environmental projection to tell visual stories during services.

Between Dallas and Ft. Worth, TX sits First Baptist Church of Coppell, where a long-time standing building and congregation wanted to modernize the inside of their sanctuary to stay in tune with the local community.

After seeing a demo and realizing the cost-benefits, the church implemented an environmental projection system, originally developed by local company Visual Worshiper, in order to transform the look and feel of their entire sanctuary with a simple click of a button.

Environmental projection uses video projectors to project images and video onto the walls and architecture of an existing sanctuary, taking its roots from ancient cathedrals and churches where stained glass was used to tell stories. Now it is done digitally, right from a computer. This allows the church to tell visual stories during worship, the message and any other time they want to transform the worship space into something other than four white walls.

Three projectors cast a seamless image around the front of the room, controlled from one computer by a volunteer, with an additional two projectors filling in the extreme side walls for special events which creates a 180-degree visual canvas. This setup allows the church to project not only still imagery, but also seamless motion video to tell a story or enhance the worship.

The church did not have to modify its existing walls or textures. It utilized the existing architecture in the room and mapped the environmental projection to key areas on the walls and ceiling, and at the same time, kept the light out of unwanted areas, such as the eyes of the people on stage and the congregation.

The visual media content is key in a system like this. Most standard images and videos won’t look correct being stretched around a room, but First Baptist received a sample library of content so they were able to use the system right away, with the ability to add more.

The church uses the environmental projection system as a way to foster a mood for worship; projecting images of crosses, stained glass, creation scenes, and anything else that is an enhancement to the worship and message. Motion videos are used as well, but very sparingly as they can be very quick to distract. A favorite among the congregation is a subtle video of snowfall around the room during a Christmas service, or white names of God slowly fading in around the congregation can serve as a powerful reminder.

Using the system First Baptist of Coppell is able to completely transform their worship space for a fraction of the cost and effort than with lighting or with anything physical, such as stained glass.

Camron Ware is founder of Visual Worshipper, Coppell, TX, which produces powerful atmospheres in churches. www.visualworshipper.com

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Project:

• Gear involved:  Five Hitachi Pro-grade projectors, Apple computers, ProPresenter Presentation Software
• Project cost: $25,000
• Project designer: Visual Worshiper