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1. Instructions for Mixer Activity
2. Numbers to cut out and distribute to participants (made for a group of 24)

These are the questions I proposed we use for our event tonight. Each person in each group will have about a minute to respond to each one:

Rotation 1: Tell a short story about something funny you remember from growing up.

Rotation 2: What are your top life priorities right now, and why are they so important to you?

Rotation 3: What activities do you love in which you feel most “centered” in doing? Tell about these activities.

Rotation 4: What time of your life have you felt most close to God, and why do you think you felt that way then?

Rotation 5: What are some of the most important life lessons you learned from your parents or grandparents, and how do you want to share those with others in your life today?

Rotation 6: What groups or activities at our church have helped you feel most connected to God and to the church body, and how could those experiences be extended to more people in the upcoming year?

These questions can certainly be modified as appropriate for non-church / secular gatherings. I really like the format of this activity and found it to be a GREAT way to not only get to know others at the conference in April, but also gain insight into some of the issues and challenges which each person was facing professionally and personally.

A big key to the success of this activity is asking people to respond to good questions!

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Setting up dichotomies: God’s view vs the world and devil’s view
- reminds me of Angels and Demons and the Catholic separation of the church and science

Postmodernism is the same old battle

What is truth?

Ravi Zacharias, RC Sproul, Os Guiness

Defines from Noah Webster in 1828

Isaiah 44

What is insanity: losing touch with reality and believing that the lie is real

Our actions reflect what we believe to be really real

Lies are powerful

Truth is fundamentally about who God is, he provides the reference point fir what is true and false

Colossians 2:12

Overarching message: the cosmic battle around us
- our faith is in the truth claims if God
- faith, hope, truth

Faith like a child
- image of child jumping off a diving board to his mom in the water

Our hope and faith us not a feeling, it overcomes our feelings

Our beliefs and perceptions determine our actions

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Philosophy and ethics form the outside pillars of our understanding
- striving to understand “what our culture has been taken captive by”

2 Timothy 2: 24-26
- the Lord’s servant must gently instruct his opponents

24And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will

We were all outsiders before we came into the body of Christ

Col 2:8
- addressed to us as believers
- tone of this verse is a warning to believers
- message is we CAN be taken captive by lies

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

We have to receive this as a warning from God
- we should know what that deceptive philosophy looks like, otherwise we will be taken captive by it
- now showing an opening clip to a video series shown all over the United States and in other countries
- if you went to public school in the US, you may have seen this opening scene from “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan

- what were his opening words, “The cosmos is all that ever was, is, and ever will be”
- what he is fundamentally saying this is a material world, there is no God

[I HAVE READ THIS IDEA THAT CARL SAGAN, AN EXPERT ON SCIENCE BUT NOT THEOLOGY, MAKES LOTS OF FAITH CLAIMS IN HIS SERIES 'COSMOS']

If Sagan had came right out and said “There is no God” then that video wouldn’t have been shown in public schools
- Sagan says “our contemplations of the Cosmos stir us.”

What we see here is assumptive language: the most dangerous form of knowledge
- assumptions are caught and bought without an open, conscious dialogue
- if you buy a statement, you buy the underlying assumptions as well
- so Carl Sagan is precisely teaching here that “there is no God”

I DON’T ENTIRELY BUY THIS. I ACCEPT CARL SAGAN IS NOT SHARING A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW HERE, OF COURSE, BUT I QUESTION (AS I DID LAST WEEK AS WELL) THE IDEA THAT ANYONE PRESENTING A SCIENTIFIC VIEWPOINT IS NECESSARILY ANTI-CHRISTIAN AND ANTI-GOD.

Carl Sagan: “we are made of star stuff, some part of our being knows this, we can return to the cosmos”

I AGREE THAT SAGAN’S WORDS IN THIS CLIP ARE GNOSTIC

We are going to call this “the cosmic cube”
- philosophical position that all we have and know is inside the

What we see is a philosophy that is attempting to define everything, everything is inside the box

THIS IS NOT TRUE OF THE SCIENTIFIC WORLDVIEW. THE SCIENTIFIC WORLDVIEW ACCEPTS THERE ARE MANY THINGS OUTSIDE OUR CURRENT UNDERSTANDING, AND WE CANNOT GO BEYOND WHAT WE CAN OBSERVE IN A REPEATED ENVIRONMENT IN TERMS OF TRUTH CLAIMS

A contrary view, a Biblical view, is that God is outside the box and acts inside the box

in Deism, people said God created the box but really doesn’t act within the box, doesn’t send his Word, and certainly wouldn’t come to die for us
- if he doesn’t act, speak, care, or come to use when we need us / help us: then he is irrelevant and gone
- then we end up with “the Cosmos” of Carl Sagan

What is this thing called philosophy?”
- we are going to find that the Biblical worldview and the worldview we are exposing here are polar opposites

Basis of the Biblical worldview
- God Is
- God reveals himself to us: in his creation and in his special revelation / in his Word

The “other” worldview begins with the assumption:
- God is NOT

CLEARLY SCIENCE DOES NOT MAKE FAITH CLAIMS, THAT IS A GIVEN
- I DO NOT THINK IT IS ACCURATE TO SAY THAT ALL SCIENTISTS AND ALL OF SCIENCE STARTS WITH THE BELIEF THAT GOD DOES NOT EXIST. LOOK AT DARK MATTER AS AN EXAMPLE. THERE ARE CERTAINLY THINGS WHICH SCIENCE ACKNOWLEDGES LIMITS TO ITS KNOWLEDGE.

Story of a man who was caught up in an addiction to pornography
- told him you do not believe in the omnipresence of God (if he did, he wouldn’t look at and do the things that he was)

A pantheist wouldn’t disagree with Carl Sagan’s statements
- a pantheist adds God throughout the box, not outside the box

Maybe we’ll turn God into “may the force be with you”
- paganism adds “spirit” inside the box
- many religions which profess belief in God do this as well

Without “the spirit” we might call it naturalism
- with the spirit we might call it “spiritual naturalism”
- this worldview says: the cosmos is all there was, all there is, and all there ever will be

What is philosophy?
- a scientific quest to discover “ultimate reality”

Again I love Webster’s old 1828 dictionary definition, of philosophy:

The objects of philosophy are to ascertain facts or truth, and the causes of things or their phenomena; to enlarge our views of God and his works, and to render our knowledge of both practically useful and subservient to human happiness.
True religion and true philosophy must ultimately arrive at the same principle

that same definition NOT in current Webster’s

Something has changed in philosophy
- webster’s new dictionary says: philosophy is a search for underlying reality
- that leaves God out of the picture, which is the problem, because now you just have “the box” and are searching for the truth in the box

Philosophical questions:
- why do I exist?
- what is existence?
- what is thinking?
- what is reason?
- what is logic?
- what is knowing?
- if I know something, how can I know it is real?
- what is the meaning and purpose of life?
- where did we come from?

If you want an impossible task, try to find the answers in “the box”
- this has been the great quest of philosohpers from the beginning: to find the big answers to the big questions

The Universals
- how are we going to make sense of the particulars if we don’t know the answers to the universal questions

Story of friends who told him “the universal truths of Cricket”

This quest for the answers to “the universals” is captured in this incredible painting by Raphael in the Vatican, “The School of Athens”
- this captures the philosophical dilemma between Aristotle (looking for the particulars) and Plato (looking for the ideals)
- problem was they were both looking for the answers in the box”

IS THAT REALLY TRUE FOR PLATO? I AM NOT SURE

There was a huge gap between the particulars and teh universals
- why am I here?
- what is the meaning to my existance?

Now showing a photo of Leonardo Da Vinci
- believed he could find those universals
- people believed we could find the universals through mathematics, then turned to science, then turned to art
- ended up as most of the philosphers do despondent, depressed, failing in their quest

IS THAT STATEMENT CORRECT, THAT MOST OF THE GREAT PHILOSOPHERS END UP DEPRESSED

The world’s approach is to try and discover the universals from the particulars
- God’s approach is the opposte: we don’t have to hunt for the answers to those big questions, therefore we can live in this world and make sense of all the particulars around us

OR AT LEAST MOST OF THE PARTICULARS. I DON’T THINK WE CAN UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN THE WORLD

different options:
- materialism
- mechaism
- solopism:
- rationalism:
- more….

When I attend Kansas State University, I attended my first philosophy class
- I was sitting on the front row, and the philosophy professor began his lecture sharing a philosophy without God
- he said “you don’t even know if the chair you are sitting on is real…” and I asked myself, “I am paying for this?”
-this path takes us to depression

THIS IS RIDICULOUS. HE IS REJECTING THE WHOLE OF PHILOSPHY BASED ON THAT ONE OPENING STATEMENT FROM HIS FRESHMAN PHILOSOPHY INSTRUCTOR.

Can you live in a world that is postmodern?
- that says there is no absolute truth: that says we can both have a truth and they can both be true

Story of an architect who designed the building with randomness and chaos in mind

You cannot live in a non-reality, insane world
- but that is where philosophy has taken us

IT IS A RIDICULOUS AND INACCURATE ASSERTION TO SAY THAT ALL OF PHILOSOPHY IS POSTMODERN AND MONOLITHIC IN REJECTING THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, THE GOOD, IDEALS, AND OTHER CONCEPTS OUTSIDE THE MATERIAL WORLD
- HAS THIS GUY ACTUALLY READ PLATO?

Brings us to the pillar of ethics
- who makes the rules?
- what is right, what is wrong

If this is your philosophy, then might makes right (postmodern society)
- then this leaves you with 51% of the vote is right

SO IS HE REJECTING DEMOCRACY HERE?
- WHO IS MAKING A CLAIM THAT DEMOCRACY IS THE PATH TO TRUTH

Now showing a montage of video of different people sharing what they thing truth is and how you know what truth is

we don’t know how to answer this question without God
- do we fall back on some utilitarian, pragmatic position? what is best for society? what about the minority?
- when might begins to make right, you will find a lot of people oppressed and crushed

so what do we turn to?

SO I GUESS HIS ESSENTIAL POSITION IS THERE ARE NO ETHICS WITHOUT GOD.

From Plato’s Euthyphro:” Is an act right because God’s wills it….”

I WISH HE WAS LEAVING THE SLIDES UP LONGER

Now quoting William of Ockham cited in Feinberg and Feinberg
- means God could change
- that is wrong because we know God is unchanging

If God never changes, then how would this guy explain “the new covenant”
- I AGREE THAT GOD IS, HAS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE. I ALSO BELIEVE GOD IS IN RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS PEOPLE AND THAT RELATIONSHIP CHANGES. THE OLD AND NEW COVENANTS AR EXAMPLES.

God can’t lie.
- lying is wrong because it is counter to the very nature of God

SO THIS GUY IS SETTING UP A COMPLETELY BLACK AND WHITE VIEW OF ETHICS AND GOD, WHERE THERE NO ARE GREY AREAS. I WONDER (BUT DOUBT) HE WILL BRING UP SOME GOOD CASE STUDIES AND SITUATIONS WHICH

Dr William Provine
- lecture at Harvard
- summarizing views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us
- no gods or purposive forces, no life after death, no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning for life, no free will for humans
- Christian humanism has a lot going for it, it is warm and kindly (not for gays, of course)
- problem is you have to suspend your rational mind
- question is can atheistic humanism give us anything? Yes, it can give us intellectual satisfaction because we don’t have to cling to the fairy tales of our youth
- free will is a horribly destructive idea for our society
- so we can rely on “proximate meaning”

SO WHY DOES HE VIEW ‘FREE WILL’ AS DESTRUCTIVE?
- THIS IS QUITE A VIDEO. I WONDER IF IT IS AVAILABLE ONLINE ON YOUTUBE

you can’t live in that kind of world
- THAT IS NOT REALLY TRUE, TO THE EXTENT THAT DR PROVINE AND MANY OTHERS DO “LIVE IN THAT WORLD.” I AGREE THE POSTMODERN WORLD BELIEFS CAN VIOLATE THE LAW OF NON-CONTRADICTION AND NOT BE CONSISTENT

Quotation from R.C. Sproul (video clip)
morality looks at “is”
ethics looks at “ought”
- this distinction has been blurred in our society
- this leads to a statistical view of morality, “the good” is determined by “what is” rather than “what ought to be”
- this leads to a crisis in ethics

do you understand why we are so caught up in surveys and statistics today
- I’D SAY A LOT HAS TO DO WITH WHAT POSTMAN SAYS IN “TECHNOPOLOY”

Barna’s recent survey: How many Americans have a biblical worldview?
- only 4%
- based on 10 fundamental questions
- born again Christians: just 9%

Charles Colson quoted from “Now How Shall We Live?
- Christianity’s big problem: not seen as a viable worldview

merging formal worldviews and personal worldviews

formal worldviews
- marxism, Christianity, islam, etc…
- have truth claims
- these bombard us, are all around us

what I am interested in is your personal worldview
- “the set of individual truth claims that you have embraced so deeply that you believe the reflect what is really real…”
- very seldom do we have a personal worldviews that mirror exactly a formal worldview

What are the consequences when you buy the lives? You conform to the world
Romans 12:2

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Again from Sproul
- you can’t divorce the transformation of the mind and the heart
- postmoderns are looking for experiences and not intellectual study

the world “transformed” is overused in our culture
- “metamorpho” is the Greek word
- butterflies are the pretty part of metamorphasis

Only 3 times this word is used in the scriptre
- Romans 12:2
- also in the transfiguration of Christ, something that is fundamentally transformational
- also in 2 Corinthians 3:18

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit

We are involved in this study not just to know facts and have answers, but because of our children
- showed picture of a person who had undergone a lot of facial body piercings, and then juxtaposed that with a photo of his grandchildren

OUR CHURCH IS NOT PROVIDING ANY OPPORTUNITY FOR FOLKS TO DISCUSS AND TALK ABOUT THESE VIDEOS. THESE VIDEOS ARE 55 MIN LONG, AND NO TIME IS PROVIDED FOR DISCUSSION. I THINK WE SHOULD HAVE BOTH FACE TO FACE OPPORTUNITIES TO DISCUSS, QUESTION, AND DEBATE THE POINTS AND ISSUES WHICH ARE RAISED HERE, AND ALSO AN ONLINE OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS THEM. I THINK I AM GOING TO COMMENT ON DR. TACKETT’S BLOG AND MAKE THIS SUGGESTION. OUR CONGREGATION IS LIKELY “NOT READY” FOR THIS TYPE OF ONLINE FORUM FOR DISCUSSION LIKE THIS, BUT WE SHOULD BE. IF THE PUBLISHERS OF THIS SERIES DO NOT HAVE THAT TYPE OF FORUM SETUP AND ARE NOT WILLING OT SET ONE UP, PERHAPS I’LL SET ONE UP VIA NING.

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Part 1

Part 2

This was my first time to webcast with a Nady wireless mic.

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Galatians 2:20-21

My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

The last line struck me.  Having lived the majority of my 45 years as a Christian, I still struggle with that. The world around me reminds me every day that it does not operate under grace. It operates under a belief that if you work hard, good things happen and you get exactly what you deserve.  This is likely why we fall into the trap of legalism.  Our Pastor asked, “Why are we so quick to succumb to legalism and yet so easily give up on grace?’  I ask myself that alot.

I also bookmarked Galatians 3:5

Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you?

These are questions I need to spend some time pondering.

Historically, we have had multiple movements in our church to support and emphasize small groups
- care rings small groups
- covenant groups
- journey groups
- discipleship groups
- men’s discipleship groups

Many of these groups have needed more administrative support than the church staff could support
- now we don’t have any directors of small group ministries
- we are going down from 4 to 3 ordained pastors
- so these small group ministries need to be simpler, not as administratively intense

So before imposing staff thinking on the congregation, we decided we should have some conversations with congregation members, especially those who have been small group leaders in the past

Questions to answer at our tables:

1. Reflecting on your entire experience with small group ministry at FPCE, remember when you were the most engaged, involved, and motivated. Who was involved? What part did you play?

2. What aspect(s) of small group ministry contributed most to your spiritual growth and health? What have been the most important components of small groups for you?

3. What are you three greatest hopes for small group ministry at FPCE?

Responses from different table groups on these questions:

- Journey, Renewal, Covenant, prayer, long term, Bible studies, Bible/Brunch/Bridge, accountability, new member, tables for 8, others…

- Bible study
– Biblical basis

- accountability is very important

- regular, frequent meetings important

- prayer together

- intergenerational / multigenerational / cross-generational

- fellowship time

- worship experience

- variety in groups: could be service

- how do you recruit leaders?

- keep it simple, low administration

- widen participation by making it easy

- groups for couples

- having a visible place and way to connect in the church

- have different kinds of groups: covenant groups that are more serious and long term

- layers of involvement: need to be starting new groups all the time (how deep the group goes)

- late night groups, esp for college / younger people

- using Wednesday night time for small group

- room for fun and fellowship, eating together, bonding by breaking bread

- gathering in homes can make it more comfortable for people

- making resources easy for the leaders

- its got to be fun

- wisdom sharing

- like to see everyone in a small group
- broad participation

- whole healing

- leadership question: how do you develop and keep leaders?
– leader support group
– leadership support: leaders need some kind of support

- create excitement about our faith

- not intimidating

- consistency

- opportunities to stretch beyond your comfort zone

- prayer support, learning to pray for others and be prayed for

- covenant part is critical: being faithful to attend, confidentiality, etc which are part of the covenant

- centered on study / common purpose

- strong leadership development

- most important: growing in our relationship with God and with each other

- sustainability

- unity of the Holy Spirit
– spiritual relationships which continue to grow

- shared leadership for the groups

Common themes:
- addressing leadership issues
- accountability and covenants: needs to be a commitment
- growing in relationships and in spiritual development
- prayer focus: having deep enough relationships that you’ll be willing to ask for prayer / share you live
- simplicity
- organization: how we’ve organized in the past, how we might organize now

One big issue: we are seeing the same people involved in our small groups
- we’ve been very lax with recruitment, for journey groups we haven’t recruited for 2 years (in some cases that is because leaders were asked to do something that is fairly complex, and they are intimidated by it)

common with 80% of the people say: we base our study on the sermon of the week
- so someone (could be the preaching pastor) writes the small group curriculum for the week, with essential questions focused on the passage

MY THOUGHT: WHY COULDN’T WE EXTEND DISCUSSIONS LIKE THIS INTO AN ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY, LIKE A NING OR A FACEBOOK PAGE? OF COURSE THE FACE-TO-FACE CONNECTIONS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT
- I THINK WE ARE CHANGED OVER TIME BY REPEATED CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHERS WE’RE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH

Now thoughts from John Gruel on discussions and a model which staff have been discussing:

You need to have opportunities for people who do not “know the Bible” to engage

Components (common elements)
1- check in (relationship)
2- study (some intentional reason to get together)
3- prayer
4- mission (a component that directs you out beyond yourself)

make it accessible so people can chime in on the level where they are / want to participate

I NEED TO TALK TO MATEEN ABOUT SETTING UP A LEARNING COMMUNITY TO SUPPORT HIS CLASS, TO PROVIDE MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FELLOWSHIP AND RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

Give us all more opportunities to think more deeply about themes
- this model is Biblical
- the better we do staying Biblical in our small groups, the better we do overall
- if it is a Bible study, you may be more likely to read the verses rather than reading an entire book chapter!

leadership elements: can focus on group dynamics
- encouraging people who are reluctant to participate
- dealing with people to attempt to dominate the discussion

Consistently good questions are really important

Life Church requires everyone who joins the church to join a small group

MAYBE I NEED TO OFFER ASSISTANCE TO HELP OUR PASTORS BECOME BLOGGERS? THEY COULD SHARE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR MESSAGES, GET IN TOUCH WITH CHURCH MEMBERS AND OTHERS IN DIALOG ABOUT THESE SORTS OF ISSUES… OUR CHURCH WEBSITE HAS BLOGS AND SUPPORTS BLOGGING, BUT I THINK SELF-CONTAINED BLOGS LIKE THAT WHICH ARE PART OF A CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ARE LESS EFFECTIVE / VALUABLE THAN “STANDALONE” BLOGS. NOT ONLY CAN THEIR LIFE (LIFE OF THE BLOG) CONTINUE EVEN WHEN THE PASTOR MOVES ON TO ANOTHER CALL, BUT THEY ALSO CAN BE “OUT” IN THE WIDER BLOGOSPHERE.

Most churches make copies of the questions available (in hard copy form)
- form a lunch group after church, provide those opportunities

Interesting: there was a proposal to change our church’s name to “Summit Church” but the Session voted that down
- I DID NOT KNOW THAT VOTE HAD TAKEN PLACE!

BASICALLY I THINK WHAT JOHN IS PROPOSING HERE IS TO PROVIDE A STANDARD CURRICULUM FOR GROUPS
- THIS IS INTERESTING: WE WERE ASKED TO COME TO THIS MEETING AND BRING OUR IDEAS ON SMALL GROUPS, BUT AFTER SOME INITIAL DISCUSSIONS WE WERE/ARE BASICALLY BEING TOLD WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN. THIS MAKES THE INVITATION TO HAVE THESE CONVERSATIONS AND SHARE OUR IDEAS SEEM RATHER SUPERFICIAL, MEANINGLESS, AND LIKE WINDOW-DRESSING: SOMETHING DONE TO CREATE A PERCEPTION OF PARTICIPATION AND INPUT, BUT IN REALITY JUST PRESENT SOMETHING WHICH HAS BEEN DECIDED ALREADY / PRE-DETERMINED. I DON’T PERSONALLY LIKE THIS APPROACH.
Proposal is to have covenanting periods: fall, spring, and summer

I THINK WE SHOULD EMBRACE DIVERSITY IN OUR SMALL GROUPS. IT’S A NICE IDEA TO PROVIDE A STANDARDIZED CURRICULUM MODEL FOR GROUPS TO USE AND ADOPT, BUT I DON’T THINK WE SHOULD ENVISION THAT AN IDEAL CHURCH HAS EVERY SMALL GROUP FOLLOWING THE SAME CURRICULUM. THIS IS A COMMON FALLACY THAT WE SEE WITH STANDARDIZED EDUCATIONAL MODELS. I SAY, GIVE PEOPLE THIS OPTION FOR THEIR CURRICULUM AND FORMAT, AND PROVIDE THIS AS A SUPPORTED MODEL. DO NOT, HOWEVER, EXPECT OR TRY AND PROMOTE STANDARDIZATION FOR ALL GROUPS TO THIS SAME MODEL.

John does not like closed groups.

Responsibilities of small group leaders:
- coordinator
- contact person
- convener
- providing dynamics to the group
- making sure questions are available
- listening to the sermon and reading the text
- not responsible for in-depth study, having to know all the answers, etc.

Groups like this could have synergy via a social networking site pretty easily

training would be offered at least twice per year

question of recruiting leaders is very important

THIS REMINDS ME OF A SERIES I TAUGHT AT OUR CHURCH IN LUBBOCK TITLED, “Lessons of Christian Stewardship from the Life of the Steward of Gondor”

Why is Stewardship season typically in the fall for churches?
- it’s budgeting time
- focus of stewardship season is usually money

steward = someone hired in a large household to manage domestic affairs
- some stewards are also on a ship

Stewardship: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care

Psalm 24:1

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;

Everything belongs to God
- also Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Point 2: We are radically dependent on God
- we don’t have anything that hasn’t been given to us by God

Genesis 2:15

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it

word “subdue” implies dominion and care for

Our position in creation by God is one of trust and relationship

dominion” we’re given over the earth is as STEWARDS
- to take care of the earth, we have responsibilities

human dominion and stewardship is affected by the fall recorded in Genesis 3
- consequences for women in childbirth

part of the blessing and charge was: be fruitful and multiply
- after the fall, we can and still do that, but it’s more of a burden
- language of the painful toil for childbirth is the same as the pain for Adam in bringing crops from the ground

Now we also have the first example of domination: the male over the female
- that is not necessarily part of the original plan, that is a consequence of the Fall

Genesis 3:16-19

As a result of the fall, our relationship with creation and our Creator is distorted

Foundational assumption: when things are going well for us, we tend to forget that everything we have is a gift from God
- Deut 8:10-19

Deut 8:17-20 (The Message)

If you start thinking to yourselves, “I did all this. And all by myself. I’m rich. It’s all mine!”—well, think again. Remember that God, your God, gave you the strength to produce all this wealth so as to confirm the covenant that he promised to your ancestors—as it is today.

If you forget, forget God, your God, and start taking up with other gods, serving and worshiping them, I’m on record right now as giving you firm warning: that will be the end of you; I mean it—destruction. You’ll go to your doom—the same as the nations God is destroying before you; doom because you wouldn’t obey the Voice of God, your God

That gives us an accurate glimpse of what we tend to do, when things are bad and good
- when things are good, we don’t tend to call out to anyone
- this is part of who we are and tend to be: we forget our dependence on God to our peril

2 Cor 5:17-18
- a new creation that is being redeemed is the result of us abiding in Christ

Christ reconciling the world to himself, as we are reconciled we join Jesus’ work of stewardship

Personal stewardship is holistic: it involves all our bodies
- Heart: desires, will, allegiance - in this time of thinking the heart was more than the organ that pumps your blood
- Soul: nature, self
- Mind: Thoughts, speech
- Strength: action, resources

You are a steward of everything you are and everything you have

On a corporate level, we are called to stewardship as well
- creation care
- economic justice

Stewardship of our own resources: time, energy, and assets

I THINK WE CAN ALSO THINK OF OUR “ATTENTION” IN TERMS OF STEWARDSHIP

Time
- Time is money: it is a resource, we have to budget it, it is a commodity
- like money it is not our own, it is given to us by God

- Differences: we can’t store up time like money for future use
– we have to manage it for current use
– once you lose it, it’s gone

- being a steward of your time means using it as God would have you use it
- a proportionate share of your time should be dedicated to the kingdom of God

If you waste, lose or squander your time, you can’t get it back
- we need to be good stewards of our use of time

Look at Jesus’ live as an example and model of stewardship of time: Time with his Father, time with his disciples
- this does not mean “making every moment count” and living a burnout life of constant labor
- that is not good stewardship of time either
- should include some time for ministry, work, family, relationship, prayer, Sabbath
- work of time that honors God and reflects God’s will for our lives

Stewardship of time should provoke us to think about

Story from San Cosme: After finding out that John has a laundry machine, the women asked, “When do the women talk to each other”

watching TV = developing a relationship with a phosphorescent tube
- leads to screen relationship

NATIONAL TURN YOUR TV OFF WEEK IS APRIL 20-26, 2009

Story of Dave Lewis, area pastor, cutting the cable to his family’s TV

A proportionate share of your time should be set aside for God and the kingdom of God
- that proportion dependent on what has been made available to you

Stewardship of energy
- enthusiasm: personal investment
– think about college sports fans
– Presbyterians will not raise their hands in worship, but look how passionate and active we’ll get when it comes to college sports!
– where are we investing our enthusiasm and displaying our passion?
- effort: personal involvement
– personal participation

Lots easier for me to write a check than get involved with something

finding ways to invest your energy in what God is doing in the world
- remember God is doing LOTS more in the world than just what is happening in your local church and congregation
- God is very active outside your local congregation

Assets
- material assets: property, possessions

monetary stewardship: using your money as God would have you use it
- includes caring for yourself and your family (that is a Biblical responsibility)
- interesting to see how we define “caring for our families” here in North America
- includes sharing generously with others (gleaning laws are an example)
- includes learning to the Lord a portion

When we started this discussion, we were focusing on money in terms of Stewardship. Why is that?
- institutional maintenance
- to a degree, churches are like businesses

THIS IS TRUE FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES/UNIVERSITIES TOO
- it is about 80-90% of our budget now
- we have difficulty scaling that downs

you can’t keep an institutional church going without money

Is this a good reason for narrowing our focus on Stewardship to money? No.

Story of a friend who was told how much to donate to the building of a new pipe organ at his church

How should we give?
- joyfully (willingly, thankfully, cheerfully) - 2 Cor 9:7
– if you are going to give begrudgingly, don’t bother
- generously

Exodus 35

Construction of the tent in Exodus 36
- free will offerings continued to be brought

Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work

This personifies generous giving

Can you imagine if we had to tell people to stop bringing so much money to church, we can’t use it all?!

Tithe is not a NT concept
- it is not in the NT
- had to do with temple worship, supporting the priesthood
- generous giving, joyful giving IS a NT concept

Church of the Savior in Washington DC
- established ideal of giving proportionally to different things, rather than setting up a tithe as an absolute floor of minimum giving

Giving sacrificially
- quotation from Kathryn Ann Lindskoog:

C.S. Lewis didn’t talk about percentage giving. He said the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. Our charities should pinch and hamper us. If we live at the same level of affluence as other people who have our level of income, we are probably giving away too little. Obstacles to charity include greed for a luxurious living, greed for money itself, fear of financial insecurity, and showy pride.

Story of John’s son Ben asking about their family financial priorities at age 11, comparing their families to others

Give compassionately
- requires the ability to see the need
- is a response to the perceived need

Story of CCC needing a new refridgerator

Galations 6:9-10

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Homework for next week:

1- Evaluate your giving patterns for some of these principles: joy, generosity, proportionality, sacrifice, and compassion. Identify areas that need improvement and address them

2- Look at the people who are regularly in and out of your life, or consider some of the ministries and missions of the church. Can you ID any needs which you could compassionately address through stewardship of your time, energy and resources?

Next week: We’ll talk about Sabbath!

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After today, listening groups will be formed which will meet once per month for the next four months. These will be discussion groups to focus on the issues we’re outlining today.

What is missional church? 2 summers ago we developed a vision statement for our church, and out of that came our focus on missional church. Our mission statement:

“The First Presbyterian Church of Edmond (PCUSA) is a vibrant Christ-centered church whose people are called by God to seek and do His will. We reach up to God in joyful reverence and awe in worship. We reach out to neighbors near and far with a witness of His salvation and message of hope. We reach in to teach and encourage each other, to know and apply God’s Word and to utilize our spiritual gifts in His service.”

We are committed, through our vision, to “assume a missional identity”

- We will cultivate an environment in which missional imagination emerges. We begin the process of becoming a missional church that discerns, celebrates, and participates in God’s redemptive mission in the world.

There are LOTS of different ideas about what missional church means

- lots of different perspectives

- it is a new paradigm, not just a “tweak”

- it is a philosophy

- a way of understanding church

- hopefully it will be a movement

Missional church is NOT:

- simply more mission

- an evangelism program

- a new way of doing foreign missions

- a method for church growth

- the “next” way to do church

- a post-modern way of doing church

- an anti-traditional pattern of church

an “emergent church” often tries to throw out everything traditional, and do something different

- that is NOT missional church

Came from the writings of Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, the experience of Western Europe

- same trends in North America

- The Gospel and Our Culture Network (GOCN, www.gocn.org)

– the idea of reintroducing the gospel into our culture in North America

- “Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America” by Guder et. al. (1st project of the GOCN)

DEFINITION of missional church

- there is no simple, straightforward definition

- it is NOT all confusion either, however

- there are themes we can develop to get a picture of what it is

Overarching Themes

- Western Society as a Mission Field

– seeing the world as God’s mission field, of which we are a part

- Mission as the Missio Dei (Mission of God)

- The Church as a Contrast Society

– in Christendom, the church WAS the center of the culture

– not true today

Our Community as a Mission Field

- Christianity is almost dead in Western Europe

- In Canada emerging generations no longer know the Christian narrative

- the US is not far behind

- “the facade of suburban mega-churches” can give us the false impression that all is well with the churches in North America

- We must fundamentally rethink the “come and see church” and become missionaries to our culture

- requires more than adjustment

- calls for a new kind of church

The Mission of God

- in Western churches for centuries, the church focus has been on HOW God serves and meets our needs

- in the early church the focus was more on WHAT GOD HAD DONE in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus

- we need a GOD-CENTERED understanding of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection

- we need to focus on what God is doing, and wants to do in the world

- we need to discern how we are called to be part of that mission

- we are not the ENDS of God’s mission, we are the instruments

Ecclesia, in Greek it means “called out”

- used in a political sense in Greek society

- the Church is an ecclesia: called to public life as sign, witness and foretaste of where God is inviting all creation in Jesus Christ

- the church is not just a synogogue (a gathering)

- Church is formed around beliefs and practices which demonstrate a way of life which cannot be derived from the culture in which it is found

The Kingdom of God is inviting all of creation to come in

- the way of life modeled by the church STANDS IN CONTRAST to the ways people are living in the culture

- it can’t be derived from the predominant culture

How do we get there?

- church must return to its sources

- not by copying or reverting to some past

- by discerning the shape of a faithful presetn and future

- this will be context specific

- not a strategy adapted to our setting

- by being the church of our setting

What you are going to become like is very specific for your context

- something that is working in California will not be able to just overlay on us and be successful

- so we need to disern

Dialog: conversation between two people

- Newbigin suggests a Three Way Conversation: between the Church, the Gospel, and the Culture

- the person leading John’s doctoral program has criticized the GOCN as not including the interaction with the CULTURE enough

- Roxburgh proposes a 3 way conversation between the Contrast Society, Missio Dei (God’s mission to the world) and the Missionary Context

The Bible is a missionary text from start to finish

- Isa 58:6-10

- this is missional language

- a vision of the people of Israel being the light on the hill

The Reality

- Matt 5:14-16

- Jesus envisioned his messiahship in close terms to the vision of Isaiah

- “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven.”

Also, Eph 2:8-10

- image of light emerges again

- “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the light consists in all goodness, righteousness

Part of the way we respond as a missional church is identifying needs that are unmet in a local or global community, we act to meet those needs

- foster care, literacy, homelessness, etc

- being a sign, a witness, and a foretaste

This survey is focused on asking how do we do things, and are we doing it in a way that promotes missional thought and understanding

we are not attempting to be a social agency by any means

- but we are attempting to be a witness to the kingdom of God

- they ways in which we discern needs and seek to meet them should differentiate us from secular world

Example is the OK governor’s marriage initiative (Oklahoma Marriage Initiative) and the work of churches on this issue

- we also can and need to be an example for the other CHURCHES in our community

- many of the other churches in our area are NOT doing these types of things

- we are doing some of these already, and that is good

- there is a strong need for CHURCH LEADERSHIP

- re-conceiving the idea of the life of our church around this idea

Is an idea of the CHURCH itself being a missional field part of this? YES.

- Daryl Guder’s follow-up book focuses on this, the continuing need to reconvert the members of our own churches

- “The Essence of the Church” was another followup book by someone else

So what is going on here at FPC Edmond?

The Genesis

- The Vision statement of our church, formulated through a process started 2 years ago

- have had some reorganization, rethinking the ways we as staff function in the church

- John came up with a position statement of “Missional Leader”

– that means the intent of John’s role is to provide leadership of areas that will move people to a more missional understanding of church

– problem with reading the literature is you really get on fire for doing this, but no one is really sure how to do this

Missional Leadership cohort at Fuller Theological Seminary is Alan Roxburgh

- he is going all over the place trying to move things along

- works primarily at an adjudicatory level (at a presbytery level often)

- is trying to initiate a process of conversation within the contexts in which people are working

Missionaal Leadership Cohort claims

- “our culture is experiencing rapid tumultuous change that is affecting the very structure and significance of church leaders.”

- “As leaders, we are at the center of this transition, facing the challenge of how to re-vision church leadershipo to meet the uncharted requirements of being a faithful church in a postmodern world.”

- “Church leadership needs Spirit-empowered, missional leadership that has a dynamic impact on the church as well as their local communities.”

- “Through the Missional Leadershp Cohort we are equipped to engage our culture with broadened perspectives and practices grounded in the Biblical narratives.”

Favorite phrase of Alan: “Rapid discontinuous change”

different leadership is needed that is very adaptable to changing contexts

- spiritual lead leadership is very important

The first year the focus is primarily on the person enrolled in this program

- focus on leadership and the CONTEXT we are in (lots of reading on the cultural context)

- goals: develop missional leaders, use a missional leadership assessment process, learn about change, transition, systems and leadership, also the theological basis for missional leadership

In this program, if you change churches, you have to start over

Year Two: focuses on ecclesiology (the church) and works with processes for forming missional leaders

- forming missional systems

- assessing church readiness for missional change

- research methods for studying missional congregations

- missional ecclesiology in the North American context

Year Three: focuses on missiology with attention to developing the frameworks and skills for cultivating missional change in our actual ministry context

- engaging missional contexts

- assessing primary themes and issues with organizational systems related to innovative transformation

- constructing local theologies (that does not mean reinventing the gospel, it means that we are Presbyterian, PCUSA, suburban, fairly homogenous, etc… what do those things mean for us in our missional focus, not changing our doctrinal theology but HOW DO WE LIVE our theology in our context?)

Year Four: Creating a missional church action plan

the Challenge

- Heifets (sp?) at Harvard Business schools identifies 3 types of challenges

- Type 1 Challenge: readily identified problem with a technical solution

- Type 2 challenge: complex situations that can be broken down into multiple type 1 challenges with technical solutions

- Type 3 challenge: there are no technical solutions available. Addressing the challenge requires changes in core values and understanding. This requires “adaptive work”

- the thing that characterizes “adaptive work” is you DON’T WANT TO DO IT (people deflect, resist– this requires a different type of leadership)

The journey we are on is a type 3 challenge

- it requires us to RETHINK WHO WE ARE

- coming out at the end can be very rewarding

The Missional Change Model (Figure 5.3 from one of Roxburgh’s books)

- awareness

- understanding

- evaluate

- experiment

- commitment

Awareness is about getting the language out there

Understanding involves synthesis of these ideas

Evaluation: we get a handle on the concepts, but start to look at where we are in the process

Commitment is where you buy in

we are NOW actually in all these places, because this is not a uniformly linear process

- iterative process

Stage 1: Creating awareness

- through intensive communication events, both one-on-one and in groups, leaders tak people through dialog and discussion about the need for missional transformation of the church.

- getting the word out

- diffusing

Stage 2: Creating understanding

- dialog serves to bring thinking and feeling modes of understanding together into a coherent pattern of understanding

Stage 3: Evaluation

- congregation is evaluated in light of awareness and understanding

Stage 4: Creating experiments

- people are now starting to think experimentally

- people identify actions they believe will move them towards becoming a missional church

- critical word is ACTION, people experiment through action

Stage 5: Commitment

- people commit to getting others involved in the process of moving through awareness to understanding, to evaluation, to experimentation, and finally to commitment

Everett Rogers book in the 70’s: “The Diffusion of Innovation” (looks at farming and medical innovations)

- process begins with the 10-15% of congregation that are innovators

- timeline looks like: 1st 18 months, 10% through the MC model

- 2nd 18 months: these folks lead next 15% through

- By the end of 3 years, there is 25% commitment

- 3rd 18 months, 50-65% of remaining led through

- unfortunately 10-25% fight and resist, some will leave

For us, 10% of our regular worshippers is about 80, while 10% of our entire congregation would be 180

As we get people who are committed to the model

- Rogers says whenever 25% of a poplution buys in, then the process takes off

- I’M THINKING THIS IS ANALOGOUS TO THE “TIPPING POINT”

In traditional church, staff are professionals who provide goods and services to the members of the congregation

- in the missional church, people do not come to have their needs met, they come to be SENT

Foundational Assumptions

- God has instilled his missional imagination in the hearts of his people

- since God always works through the least, the last, and the unlikely, God is prepared to work through typical North American congregations

- Congregations are still at the heart of God’s purposes and can become centers of missional life

- missional leadership is the cultivation of the missional imagination of the people of God from among the people as new forms of social relationship and new forms of engagement with the context

- missional leaders cultivate communities of discourse around practices of Christian life from which emerge missional imagination and actions

God always works with the least, the last, and the unlikely!

- the point is YOU (as a human) cannot bring about the transformation of a congregation into a missional church, but GOD CAN!

Missional leadership is helping to cultivate this process

- communities of discourse

I LIKE THAT TERM “COMMUNITIES OF DISCOURSE”

I ALSO LIKE THE IDEA OF SERVING AS A CATALYST FOR CONVERSATIONS

- THIS WAS MENTIONED YESTERDAY AT MEN’S GROUP, IN THE CONTEXT OF SUFFERING OFTEN SERVING AS A CATALYST OF CONVERSATION WITH GOD

Foundational Assumptions (con’t)

- bottom up

- an effective methodology for initiating and sustaining missional innovation requires a process that begins from where people are currently located and connects them again into the memory of the narrative and tradition of the story. It is a bottom up process that begins where the people of God, themselves, are located”

Notes on our Congregational survey and results (Missional Church Readiness Survey)

The survey

- Alan showed a snapshot of his kids, and talked about how a snapshot provides a look at ourselves at the present

- provides an opportunity to engage in conversation around that

- not a magical program or imported strategic plan

- will help us have an informed awareness of the church’s readiness for the transitions required for missional transformation

Missional Church Readiness Survey

- intended to identify key missional challenges

- initiates an 8-12 month process

- not a program that fits all churches into the same mold

- allows us to discover our own forms of mission in our particular context

- requires listening to one another

Congregational Function Patterns

- four different patterns

- may display characteristics of each pattern across the various aspects of its life

- indicates self-understanding of the congregation

- patterns of recognizing and reacting to changes in context

Survey had 4 different questions followed by open responses

- each questions addressed the different patterns (no accident there were four questions of each)

- for this reason, it is rare to see “strongly agree

Response patterns:

1- Reactive

- the “circle the wagons” approach

- focused on maintaining the status quo

- church “turns in” and protects itself

- reacts to external changes and challenges

- ME: THIS IS THE “STATIST” PERSPECTIVE ARTICULATED BY VIRGINIA POSTREL IN HER BOOK “THE FUTURE AND ITS ENEMIES”

2- Developmental

- “Field of Dreams”

- assumes that what we do will attract other people, and that works, but what we typically do is attract people from other churches

- a desire to reach out to new realities of the context

- seek to do this by improving what they are already doing

- assume this will attract people to the church

3- Transitional

- realize that the emerging generations often don’t come to church anymore

- the church realizes we have to go OUT to attract others

- “Head ‘em up, move ‘em out”

- work on experiments

- in transition toward a new understanding of the church

4- Transformational

- “on the trail”

- after a long period of transitional learning and discovery the congregation becomes committed to a different set of values and a different self-understanding

- committed to a new way of life focused on engaging their changing contexts and the people in their communities in order to communicate the good news

The Future

- desire to develop a new future

- not by developing a strategic plan (this assumes that it is possible to know what the future will look like)

- the future is something we discover together on this journey

- the future emerges from among God’s people

John’s Dad put together the 5 year plan for Phillips Petroleum, but the company always ran on a one year plan

- he found the process to be an unfulfilling task

- the future cannot be predicted with certainty

- the future emerges from among God’s people in this view

THIS CLOSELY PARALLELS WHAT VIRGINIA POSTREL IDENTIFIES AS A “DYNAMICAL VIEW” IN HER BOOK “THE FUTURE AND ITS ENEMIES”

The four readiness factors of the survey

1- church processes

2- church focus

3- congregation

4- community context

Each have subfactors

church process factors

- leadership

- planning

- structure

- staff

church focus factors

- financial

- organizational

- communication

- programs

congregation factors

- practices

- ministry

- involvement

- energy

community context factors

- integration

- connection

- impact

- growth

We are generally blind to our own systems unless someone forces us to look at them

- if you have a train, the tracks determine where it goes

- if you want to change the direction of a train, you have to change the tracks it’s on

Our congregation in the global view is mostly in the transitional and tranformational view

- more thinking in those modes, not necessarily ACTING according to those views yet

I AM WONDERING WHY THE CHURCH DID THIS AS A VOLUNTARY SURVEY OPEN TO EVERYONE, INSTEAD OF A RANDOM SAMPLE WHICH WOULD LEND ITSELF TO BE MORE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CHURCH POPULATION AS A WHOLE

- CONCLUSIONS ARE BEING SHARED WITH THE ASSUMPTION THAT THESE SURVEY RESULTS ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP’S IDEAS AS A WHOLE, BUT ACTUALLY THESE ARE JUST REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC WHICH VOLUNTARILY RESPONDED TO THIS SURVEY

- I WOULD GUESS THERE ARE MANY MORE PEOPLE IN OUR CHURCH IN THE REACTIVE AND DEVELOPMENTAL VIEWS, BUT THOSE PEOPLE ARE LESS LIKELY TO RESPOND TO A SURVEY LIKE THIS WHICH IS ORIENTED MORE TOWARDS THINKING LIKE THE TRANSITIONAL AND TRANSFORMATIONAL VIEWS

- SO I SUSPECT THESE RESULTS ARE SHARPLY SKEWED (THIS IS MY ATTEMPT TO LOOK AT THIS AN ANALYZE IT WITH SOME PERSPECTIVE FROM QUANTITATIVE STATISTICS)

Church leadership

- thought is the church Session mirrors the ethos of the congregation

- measured the spectrum from inward directed and maintaining tradition to outward directed and engaging the context

Ministers and staff

- does the system have staff primarily taking care of the members or engaging them in ministry and mission?

Structure

- structure precedes organization

- structures control the behavior of the congregation

- not an external second thought, but an internal system

ANSWER TO MY QUESTION: WHY DID WE NOT SURVEY A RANDOM SAMPLE OF THE CONGREGATION, JOHN RESPONDED THAT THE SURVEY WAS TRYING TO FOCUS ON THE 10% OF INNOVATORS IN THE CONGREGATION

- THE PROBLEM I SEE WITH THIS IS THAT AS WE ARE LOOKING AT RESULTS, SOME PEOPLE SEEM TO BE TRYING TO USE THESE SAMPLE RESULTS AND GENERALIZE TO THE OVERALL POPULATION OF THE CONGREGATION

- MY POINT WAS THAT WE NEED TO REMEMBER THESE ARE SKEWED RESULTS AND SHOULD NOT BE INTERPRETED TO REPRESENT THE CONGREGATION AS A WHOLE, THESE RESULTS FROM THIS VOLUNTARY SAMPLE CAN ONLY BE GENERALIZED TO REPRESENT THOSE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH (AND SOME NON-MEMBERS AS WELL AS STAFF WHO ARE NON-MEMBERS) WHO RESPONDED TO THE SAMPLE

- ALSO CONFOUNDING THESE RESULTS IS THE FACT THAT ALL STAFF WERE REQUIRED TO RESPOND TO THIS SURVEY. I ACTUALLY THINK STAFF RESULTS SHOULD NOT BE INCLUDED IN THE OVERALL RESULTS, SINCE THEY WERE ALL REQUIRED TO RESPOND. IT IS GOOD THAT THOSE RESULTS ARE DISAGGREGATED FROM THE RESPONSES OF OTHERS, BUT IT IS A DIFFERENT RESPONSE METHODOLOGY TO REQUIRE ALL STAFF TO RESPOND AND THEN LEAVE IT OPEN FOR VOLUNTARY MEMBERS AND NON-MEMBERS

Strengths perspective of social work counseling

- looking at strengths to empower people toward that change, rather than emphasizing the weaknesses and negative sides

If you want to see where the priorities of the church really are, then follow the money

- how does the church build its budget

- % increase over prior year

- a limited pie divided among competing claims

- commitment to innovation and ministry

Alan asked John which sub-factors seem to be most important

- finances seem to jump out to John

- it really is important how we conceive of finances, that reflects how we conceive our mission

- we really are kind of “maintenance” in terms of budget and the survey’s results

I THINK THERE WOULD BE VALUE TO DO A SIMILAR SURVEY THAT WAS RANDOMLY SAMPLED FROM THE CONGREGATION AS A WHOLE

Communication

- the type of info regularly communicated to the congregation and the way it is communicated are clues to basic commitments

- what are the most significant messages, what is happening inside or as an invitation to a new future

A leader can come into an organization with lots of innovative ideas, but the personality of the predominant culture really shapes sustainable change

- the new ideas can either last as long as that leader is in place, or…

- the predominant culture can mitigate against those new ideas, and eventually the innovative change agent leader is given the boot

Church energy measured by

- what do people turn up for?

- give money for?

- value more than anything else?

Member involvement

- people join and participate in a congregation at a variety of levels

- reasons for involvement reflect the ethos and expectations of the church itself

- what are people actually doing in terms of involvement irrespective of what the church might act or expect

Example: a church that announces everyone should be involved in a small group is doing good of 60% of the congregation is in compliance with that expectation

We do have a pattern of the church being faithful to identified needs brought to the attention of the congregation by the pastors / leaders

With some of these questions that are supposed to be “transformational,” John feels the questions seem to still be more “developmental” in focus

MY QUESTION: HAS THIS SURVEY GONE THROUGH THE PROCESSES TO TEST RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY?

BIG PROBLEM WITH THESE BAR GRAPHS IS THAT THE NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS IS NOT REFLECTED IN THE BAR HEIGHTS, WHICH REFLECT THE PERCENTAGE AGREEING WITH EACH STATEMENT

- SO AS A RESULT, THE 4 NON-MEMBERS WHICH RESPONDED TO THE SURVEY ARE SHOWN AS A RELATIVELY EQUAL BAR TO ALL OTHER GROUPS

- AGAIN, I AM THINKING A RANDOM SAMPLE SHOULD BE USED

- IT SEEMS MISLEADING TO SUGGEST GENERALIZATIONS BASED ON, IN THE CASE OF NON-MEMBERS, THE RESPONSES OF JUST 4 PEOPLE

- THOSE RESULTS SHOULD POSSIBLY HAVE EITHER BEEN LEFT OUT OF RESULTS, OR THOSE PEOPLE’S RESPONSES SHOULD HAVE BEEN AGGREGATED INTO A GROUP WITH A LARGER NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS

- SOME QUESTIONS ON COMMUNITY INTEGRATION REMIND ME OF DISCUSSIONS WE WERE HAVING AT WPC IN LUBBOCK, ON SERVING “FROM THE HEART OF LUBBOCK,” BEING FOCUSED NOT JUST ON OUR OWN CONGREGATION AND SERVING OUR OWN NEEDS, BUT ALSO REACHING OUT INTO THE COMMUNITY

In terms of growth, our church is one of the only growing presbyterian churches in our presbytery

- we grow about the same as our overall community demographics

- important question: how many people are joining our church who were previously not members of another church (I WONDER IF WE KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION. THIS OBVIOUSLY GETS TO THE IDEA OF EXPANDING CHRISTENDOM IN THE 21ST CENTURY)

John’s impressions

- there has been some good groundwork

- most of the positive responses have to do with our intentions and our desires

- we still lack meaningful interaction

- most of our interaction is historical

- we have critical areas to attend to

Response to: What about the Hope Center, Habitat, etc

- lots of those things spun out of our church in the 1980s

- we got into a church growth mode in the 90s

- we maintained those things we had started, but we may not have been continuing to innovate

Where do we go from here?

- listening groups

- session retreat

- missional action teams (MATs)

Listening groups

- composed of 5-8 people who commit to meet 4 times over 4 months

- each group has a reporter

- each meeting will have 4 pages of reports, a 1 page question guide, and a report form

- each group should have a cross section of the congregation (no pre-existing groups) and NO pastors (staff) - elders are fine

I AM STRUCK BY THE PRESENTATION STYLE OF LOTS OF TEXT ON THE SCREEN, VIRTUALLY NO IMAGES (WHICH THIS ONE IS, EXCEPT FOR BAR CHARTS) AND A PRESENTATION STYLE WHICH EMPHASIZES MORE STORYTELLING AND IMAGES. I KNOW THE PURPOSE OF THIS IS TO SHARE DATA, BUT I WONDER OF THE EFFICACY OF THIS PRESENTATION MODE IN TERMS OF LONG TERM RETENTION AND MEMORY TRANSFER.

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This book is theologically in line with the “missional church” movement, which John has studied in his doctoral program with Fuller Theological Seminary and often teaches about in our Wednesday night classes for adults. In the message, John mentioned the world “Allelon,” which means:

All members of the people of God belong to one another, minister to one another, need one another and contribute to the rich unity and ministry of the whole.

A Google search for “Allelon” brought up the website Allelon.org. The mission of Allelon is:

…to educate and encourage the church to become a people among whom God can live, as sign, symbol, and foretaste of his redeeming love and grace in their neighborhoods and the whole of society- ordinary women and men endeavoring to participate in God’s mission to reclaim and restore the whole of creation and to bear witness to the world of a new way of being human.

I didn’t bring my laptop to this class session, so I took rather copious notes by hand on the paper handout which John provided those in attendance. (Class learning sessions like this would be perfect for using a Netbook with a reasonably large-sized keyboard, but I don’t have one yet.) I found this presentation and discussion to be both interesting and personally relevant, as I think it provides excellent guidelines for how we should view the Protestant Reformation as “not over” and understand our need to act as members of the Church universal in our daily lives. In his teachings, Jesus did not distinguish between laity and clergy. The hierarchical church structures which have existed historically and continue to be maintained in varying forms today are not an inheritance of Jesus’ teaching, but rather of the Roman influence on the early church after Christianity was accepted by Constantine I and later mandated (upon pain of death) by other Roman Caesars.

photo credit: A Rickmann

Stevens’ thesis in his book and one to which John also ascribes is this: The Bible presents a theology of the people, for the people and by the people of God. Ordinary people should be able to understand “our” theology which is presented in the church. There are neither laypersons (laity) nor clergy in the New Testament, and it is potentially counterproductive to focus on the ministries and mission of the Church today as being carried out primarily by “the clergy” rather than by everyone who comprises the church throughout the world. This “us versus them” mentality is often counterproductive when members of the church as well as non-members look to formally ordained clergy to carry out acts of ministry rather than seeing us all as Jesus’ hands and feet empowered and equipped to do God’s work on earth.

This perspective does not discount or ignore the need for LEADERSHIP in the church, both historically and in today’s world, but does note that it was the Roman and worldly emphasis on hierarchy and position which brought the use and focus on “clergy” versus “layperson” roles in the church which we find commonly in virtually all Christian denominations today. The missional view is that we need to consider not only the life of the people gathered (ekklesia, or ‘the ones called out’) but also those dispersed in the world (diaspora) in the marketplace, government, professional offices, homes and schools.”

Unapplied theology is more speculative and theoretical. Missional theology seeks to be “beyond academic theology” and instead be practical and applicable, addressing REAL life issues everyday people can both understand and apply.

The New Testament vision of the people of God (laos) was and is ONE people comprised (miraculously) of Jews and Gentiles, men and women, rich and poor, slave and free, all being together as the chosen inheritance of God.

We must focus on right ways of LIVING and not just thinking
- we must strive for wisdom, and not merely knowledge

John has worked with others here in the Oklahoma medical community (he is a former orthopedic surgeon) to offer a “Spirituality in Medicine” course for both doctors and nurses
- so many “theological” issues and situations are faced regularly by medical professionals, yet many have not had any type of formal preparation to address and deal with these contexts

Our dependence on the clergy in the West traces back to the Dark Ages when monks preserved the church traditions
- in the Western church, traditional emphasis is VERY hierarchical
- the term “clergy” did not appear until the third century, and was simultaneous with the appearance of the word “laity”
- The Old Testament (OT) traditions were very hierarchical, established, and formal
- OT world: all the people were called to be God’s people, but only a few (prophets, priests, wise men, royalty) experienced a special call to leadership to God’s people
- in the NT world under the Lordship of Christ, formal leaders were universalized or abolished: the outpouring of the Spirit: the whole church becomes the new ministerium, a community of prophets, priests, royalty, serving God

The emergence of the Clergy arose largely because of three influences:
1- Imitation of the secular structures of the Greco-Roman world
– After Constantine, the Roman Empire permeated the Church rather than the Church permeating the Empire

2- Transference of the OT priesthood model to the leadership of the church (led to the role of priests and bishops, as well as the Pope in the Catholic church)

3- Popular piety elevated the Lord’s Supper to a mystery requiring priestly administration
– originally communion may have been more like a “potluck” experience
– eventually in some Catholic church traditions, the people were able to partake of the bread but only the priest was able to partake of the wine, it was reserved for him to do on behalf of the people who were not able/worthy to partake directly of it
– this model contrasts very sharply with the Jewish tradition of celebrating the Passover meal, which is delegated authority to the male head of each household

From the 4th to the 16th centuries the clergy-lay distinction deepened and become institutionalized
- clergy were (and still today are in many traditions) expected to vicariously “do ministry” on behalf of the church (for example, go visit people in the hospital)
- clerus meant “portion” (part of ministry)
- there wasn’t a Pope in Rome until Gregory in the 4th Century, when as the bishop of Rome he become the #1 church leader and it was asserted that his line went back to Peter who was “the first Pope”

I THINK IT IS SO RIDICULOUS THAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ATTEMPTED AND STILL ATTEMPTS TO PORTRAY THAT APOSTOLIC LINE OF PAPAL SUCCESSION BACK TO PETER, WHEN THAT IS NOT AT ALL WHAT THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST ESTABLISHED OR WANTED TO ESTABLISH!

The Protestant Reformation was essentially incomplete in changing this model of a clergy-led church

St Jerome translated the NT into Latin in the 3rd Century, in the Eastern church they still used the Greek version for many years

In the NT the qualifications for leadership are all characteristics and gifts

Community is the only biblical way of relating leaders to the rest of the people: One God, One People
- One God: 3 persons
- One people, not two (clergy and laity)
- no individual members and no hierarchy of ministries

HOW SAD THAT AS FALLEN HUMANS, WE HAD TO IMPOSE THIS HIERARCHICAL VIEW AND PARADIGM ON THE CHURCH. THIS REMINDS ME OF SOME FEMINIST CRITIQUES OF PATRIARCHY I’VE READ IN THE PAST. IT ALSO MAKES THE ENTIRE SITUATION WITH “SAINTHOOD” SEEM RIDICULOUS AND HOPELESSLY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE IN TERMS OF THE REAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. ESTABLISHING SAINTS MAKES IT SEEM LIKE OUR ULTIMATE PURPOSE AS CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE TO STAND OUT AS INDIVIDUALS IN THE CHURCH AS THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN RECOGNIZED AS “SAINTS” DID, WHEN THE EXACT OPPOSITE IS TRUE: OUR ROLE IS TO SERVE AS MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH, LEADERS YET, BUT NOT LEADERS WHO WIN GLORY AND INDIVIDUAL RECOGNITION / ACCOLADES FOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND DEEDS.

We should be “one anothering” each other regularly in the Church

Celibacy was not a requirement for priests until the 6th century

In the Reformation, the priest was replaced by the pastor
- the sermon became emphasized over the sacrament of communion (in weekly services, as the purpose and focus of attending worship)
- the clothes of priests were replaced, when Reformed leaders become “pastors,” by the academic black gowns

A call is placed on all of us as Christians
- to belong to God: the call of discipleship
- to be God’s people in life: the call to holiness (to be set apart)
- to do God’s work: the call to service

The above are all “Christian vocations”
- personal / individual as well as corporate

Primary task of Adam and Eve before the fall: dwelling with and communing with God

1st thing in the book of Genesis that was not “good” - Adam being alone

In our world, work has become the defining experience of a person’s identity

THIS IS WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO TRY AND AVOID ASKING SOMEONE, WHEN YOU FIRST MEET THEM, “SO WHAT DO YOU DO?” ASKING THAT QUESTION TENDS TO IMPLY THAT THEIR VALUE AND YOUR JUDGEMENT OF THEIR VALUE IS INHERENTLY TIED INTO THE WAY THEY PRESENTLY EARN A LIVING.

the nature of work today has become more amorphous

Human work is a blessing and a curse
- SO WERE THERE WEEDS BEFORE GENESIS 3?!

Jesus is depicted as a worker (tekton: someone who works with their hands to make things) - a carpenter or stone mason

While the NT has no place for clergy as a separate category of believer, there are many references to leaders within God’s people
- a basic question of church leadership is: Should leadership be considered a function or an office
- the traditional view is to make it an office: clergy
- John’s view is that leadership should be a function

Interestingly and troublingly, a minister in the Presbyterian church can’t be a member of the church
- instead, pastors are considered members of a presbytery

Homework:
1- Consider your home, neighborhood, and workplace as arenas for ministry exploring opportunities for discipleshiop, holiness and service in your everyday life
2- Think of the ways you distinguish between clergy and laity and examine them for validity

JOHN IS GOING TO CONTINUE THIS STUDY NEXT WEEK. I LOOK FORWARD TO IT! I THINK THE MISSIONAL FOCUS “IS” THE APPROPRIATE FOCUS WE SHOULD HAVE IN THE CHURCH TODAY, USING THE BIBLE AS OUR GUIDE.

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