The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_carr/all/1
What kind of brain is the Web giving us? That question will no doubt be the subject of a great deal of research in the years ahead. Already, though, there is much we know or can surmise—and the news is quite disturbing. Dozens of studies by psychologists, neurobiologists, and educators point to the same conclusion: When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning. Even as the Internet grants us easy access to vast amounts of information, it is turning us into shallower thinkers, literally changing the structure of our brain.
(via Instapaper)
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No, this isn’t some fancy Photoshop trick, these are real human footprints ingrained in a hardwood floor.
70 year-old Buddhist monk Hua Chi has been praying in the same spot at his temple in Tongren, China for over 20 years. His footprints, which are up to 1.2 inches deep in some areas, are the result of performing his prayers up to 3000 times a day. Now that he is 70, he says that he has greatly reduced his quantity of prayers to 1,000 times each day.
]]>A week or so ago, my friend Deanna, posting from her @YourPastorsWife twitter account, wrote some excellent tidbits on a theme that got my attention: ”Things We Learned Church Planting”. I responded to a couple of her tweets, and then she challenged me to write some.
Deanna and her husband John planted a church in our town the same time we planted Mt. Si Vineyard, and we appreciate their friendship and their perspective. I learned a lot in our church planting efforts, so although it’s been a while since I revisited that topic here, the theme’s still very interesting to me. Oh, also my friend Todd Hiestand bugged me a couple of times to blog these items, and I was afraid he’d steal my ideas as his own ;-) (kidding; Todd’s got better ideas about church planting in suburbia than I do)
So, here is how I responded that day – no editing, and these are in order, and perhaps I’ll comment a bit on each one.
- (Things we learned church planting): Find a way to answer “How’s the church?” without referencing attendance numbers.
So, this was our big challenge, initially and all along the way. If your attendance isn’t impressive to those asking the question – and ours never was, and I struggled with my feelings about that – you have to measure success differently and flip the script a bit – as I say again a couple tweets down.
- Know your city and where its inhabitants gather. Where are its hubs?
This is basic missional church, right? In our city, people gather at one or two of the bars, and at the soccer fields for youth sports, but past that – we’re an exurb without many gathering spots. No coffeehouse, no shopping mall (well, an outlet mall, but that’s used way more by destination shoppers than locals), no youth activity scene. Homes is where people hang out, but not a ton of gathering.
- Find ways to measure your success through stories, not through numbers.
See above. More for yourself than for those asking the question – but how do you know it’s going well? For me, I wanted to be able to focus on the stories – who’s changing, how am I changing, who are we serving, what’s happening that wouldn’t be if we weren’t doing this church thing. That to me is way more critical than “two new families showed up last Sunday!”
- Engage your crew with service work and grow community from there, not the other way around
Ah, things I wish I would have learned. This comes from the Church of the Savior folks in DC, led by Gordon Conwell. This theme is captured really well in my current church, where we do service projects together, and community grows from that. I now believe Gordon when he says that if you start out a small group to build community, it’s nearly impossible to shift that group into mission and service; it’s too inwardly focused.
- Things we learned while church planting: Build on the skills and dreams of those with you, not those you wish you had but don’t
Church planters always think they need a great musician and great kids leaders and great environment and great preaching, but what if you don’t have those? (Of course, we had all those things :-)). But can your community pursue God together if nobody can lead the singing time when you gather? What happens if nobody is REALLY psyched to teach the kids every week? What ARE people psyched about, and what is the community together psyched about? Perhaps that’s more God’s Kingdom than trying to get the structure of Sunday gatherings just like you’ve seen it done everywhere else.
- You are not in the same context as the models and leaders you learned from; that’s GOOD
I learn from seeing the ideas of others, and church planting is nothing short of overwhelmed by information about models. ALso, church planting conferences, and church conferences in general, tend to be led by people who are in churches most unlike yours – big, growing, “successful”. What makes them the best voice to speak to you in your place and time? Some wisdom can be gained by their experiences certainly, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that those models are going to work for you. They won’t. God’s ways change, and your area and your people and your soul is different than theirs.
- You’re serving God’s kingdom, not building yours. If all your folks find another church, good!
Keep telling yourself this. If all you are is a short-term processing center while people catch some whiff of God’s kingdom, but then move on to some other part of the global church, you’e done your job. Nobody will believe you when you say this, though :-)
- The people you wish would find another church, don’t :-)
Yes, well… sometimes the great joy of shaping a community is that the people who are most unlike what you wished you had, are the people most engaged. Now, there are folks who are toxic and controlling and community killers, and that must be dealt with, but there are others who are simply just too different from what you hoped for, and that’s entertaining.
- Xns can have weird hangups (Easter Bunny, non-organic kids snacks, Yoda, Catholics, candles)
One time we had a loooong discussion about why we let the kids play on the lawn outside our gathering spot, when we didn’t know if the lawn was fertilized with organic fertilizer or not. I mean, hours-long. See the item above.
- You may find much stronger support via web-friends than via your tribe. That’s OK.
We had friends within our tribe and outside our tribe. I found great support though in the early days of the emerging church discussion, and when blogging was at its peak, and through likeminded folks who used similar language to me and who I’d neve rmet before, Trust God – nah, beg God – for supportive friendships.
- Teach people how to make and be friends, and how to throw parties. CF John 2.
Maybe it was just our folks, but I think this is a cultural thing at least in the Seattle area and the US Northwest. People – myself included – just have a really hard time being and making friends, and very few are great at throwing parties. Basic social and relationship skills can always be improved, and isn’t the Gospel completely relational and party-aimed anyway? Perhaps if everybody in our circle learned just how to be friends, and to throw parties with their friends, the world would change.
- Other churches (and planters) are not your competition; loneliness, consumerism, individualism are
Ah, yes. Competitiveness is a funny thing, especially among pastors (who of course measure each other by Sunday attendance), even though we all know we’re supposed to be on the same team. But we’re wary of each other anyway, and we’re only happy when one of our folks heads to another church if it’s one of those folks we really wanted to leave. But the real enemies, at least in my culture, are those things above. Horrible enemies, they are.
So, for those of you reading – what have you learned about planting a church?
]]>I plan to celebrate Patrick, a Briton who was kidnapped as a young boy by Irish slavers and learned to pray constantly through horrific circumstances.
I plan to celebrate the Patrick who heard the voice of God in nature around him, and in nighttime dreams.
I plan to celebrate the Patrick who left the world he knew, guided only by faith, and crossed mountains and bogs to find passage on an unknown ship to home.
I plan to celebrate the Patrick who was shipwrecked on the short trip home, who again heard God’s lead and who led his shipmates to a feast.
I plan to celebrate the Patrick who, on returning home, entered into the service of God through training, education and submission to his church.
I plan to celebrate the Patrick who again heard the voice of God in dreams, asking him to risk.
I plan to celebrate the Patrick who left the comfort and safety of success and home, and who went back to walk with those who had enslaved him.
I plan to celebrate the Patrick who taught the Irish people Christianity on their terms, in their language, in their style.
I plan to celebrate the Patrick who carefully respected local cultures and authority.
I plan to celebrate the Patrick who roamed the hills on which he was enslaved, now followed by local tribespeople who were fascinated by his stories of the Trinitarian God.
I plan to celebrate the Patrick who established communities which nurtured Christian faith, where previously there was no community.
I plan to celebrate the Patrick who trained both men and women as leaders, and whose mentorship produced St. Brigid, one of the great leaders in history.
I plan to celebrate the Patrick who died and left behind him a legacy that influenced the history of our planet, who could have just as easily stayed home in a comfortable, safe place when God was calling him back to those who had enslaved him.
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Today – March 11 – I’m turning 41, and I want your money. I want you to join me in helping others who weren’t born into the lives that I and many of you, my friends and family, were born into.
I am a rabid fan of the work of One Day’s Wages, a local non-profit startup that raises funds to help battle extreme global poverty. The challenge is for each of us to consider simply donating one day’s worth of our own wages to help the poorest of the poor in our world. I am doing that for my birthday this year, and I’d like you to join me. Instead of a birthday gift, I want your money – but not for me; to pool together and to help those who don’t have access to clean water, who are ravaged by poverty or are threatened by the ongoing modern-day slave trade.
Most of you know that I’ve been unemployed for the past 6 months. Money is tight, for all of us. But for many of our global neighbors, what we think of as ‘tight’ is what helps the to survive and to build systems that help others escape extreme poverty.
Please explore the One Day’s Wages website, videos and community. Look especially at the partnerships that ODW is supporting with small, grassroots organizations. I know that you’ll find an organization of integrity and who values relationships with those we are partnering with, rather than misguided attempts to help.
And please join me in giving. I’m giving the wages for my birthday (my 4th day on the job :-)) to One Day’s Wages. My goal is that together, we can raise $4100: $100 for every year I’ve been here on this planet. If you donate your own day’s wages, that’s fantastic. If you can donate $41, that’s wonderful. What kind of impact can your gift make?
Here’s what ODW says:
Yes, a person’s one day’s wages can make a difference. An average working person’s daily wage is approximately 0.4% of their annual salary. Consider the impact we can make for another person, a family, a village, or an organization that is on the ground working to uplift people out of poverty:
- Malaria Net: $10
- Clean Water for one person for 20 years: $20
- Child’s Tuition for Education: $45
- Teacher’s Salary in jungles in Burma: $60/year
- Training & Sewing Machine for one woman: $125
- Machine Drilled Well for a Village: $1400
Together, let’s make a dent in extreme poverty, and to help those who face it every day. Please go to the One Day’s Wages website and donate what you can, and know that I deeply appreciate you and your gift.
]]>Assuming we have discerned the place God is calling us to, the following 5 issues should be discerned as each group forms. Each one of these issues takes discernment as well as much prayer and seeking God for guidance. I take it for granted that each church planter is seeking God and listening to the gifts in community locally with people who already know them (Although JR has reminded me that I should not assume – instead we need to be intentional about that – Amen JR).
1.) DISCERN THE 3 (4 or 5) LEADERS. We (our church body) must discern the team of leaders who will be responsible for leading the theological integrity of this new community. This will be a team of leaders (as opposed to single superstar entrepreneur) who are on the same page philosophically, who will be bi-vocational, who will compliment one another in their giftings (APEPT), who have proven themselves in character and theological integrity so as to lead a community. Such a multiple bi-vocational leadership pushes the church outward instead of inward. Once assembled they will model THE 3 (4-5), THE 12, THE 120 seeking to build a strong shepherd/elder leadership who then they each shepherd 3-5 people. Together we learn the ways of “revolutionary subordination” – where God inhabits every conflict for the growth and furtherance of this community into the center of what He is doing in the community.
2.) They must then LAND (as opposed to a “Launch”). They will have to get jobs, places to live close enough together, start a small rhythm of life, a worship gathering, a communal meal, teach the children. Luke 10:17 tells us to “go eat there” – have a regular meeting with Jesus to be sent by Him (verse 1) from and return to (verse 17) to be grounded in Incarnate Christ. We enter not from power, but from humility …the goal is to become imbedded in sustainable and engaging ways of life with our surroundings.
3.) EXEGETE THE COMMUNITY (as opposed to doing a market survey) Again following Luke 10, we look for places to bless which usually means looking for the poor. We look for persons of peace (you will need relationships). We seek out the poor where God is working among the “poor in spirit” disenfranchised from the structures of power. Here we can find God at work and the harvest. Here we can learn about the Kingdom. We enter a community not to market, not from power, but meekly to discern where the hurting are.
4. TEACH MISSIONAL RHYTHMS. (As opposed to attractional events) We learn to inhabit and live among the places God has put us. We learn how to listen, pay attention, and take notice of those in our path as places where God is already working. We set places where we regularly visit same time same place every week. We seek out a time every month/week to be present among the poor (of all kinds). ALL WITHIN THE DAILY RHYTHMS OF LIFE (Luke 10.3 says “on your way,” 10.7 “remain eating and drinking”). We work not to build an evangelistic organization to individuals, but a missional way of life where God is at work. Luke 10:2 – the harvest is plenty; all we need is laborers out there.
5. PREPARE FOR A SUSTAINABLE WAY OF LIFE OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME. (as opposed to projected growth and financial sustainability after three years). EXPECT GROWTH TO BE SLOW, BUT OF MIRACULOUS VARIETY. YOU MAY START WITH 10-20 PEOPLE, EXPECT NO SIGNIFICANT NUMBERS FOR THE FIRST FIVE YEARS. IT TAKES FIVE YEARS TO BUILD A MISSIOANL PRESENCE. BY THE FIFTH TO EIGHT YEAR, GROWTH WILL HAPPEN.
David Fitch hits a home run when describing the unique approach of planting missional (Christian) communities, different from planting a more attractional church style.
The beauty of N.T. Wright is that for some he sounds like a milquetoast liberal and for others this will sound alarmingly fundamentalist. He must be doing something right. (HT: JR Rozko)
If you are part of a church that is thinking of starting a third place, and you have ended up on this site as part of your research (this happens for us now and again, it seems), allow me to suggest that you consider not starting a third place if any of the following things apply to you:
- If there is already a third place in your neighbourhood.
- If you are thinking of designating a room(s) in your church building for the third place.
- If you are planning to create a third place as a way to evangelize, or grow your church.
- If you are planning for this to be a place that is seldom/rarely open (ie. one evening per week).
- If you think this will make you a bunch of money to fund your church.
- If you think this is the new model for missional church… the next thing to do in church… everyone’s doing it.
- If you have a hard (impossible?) time with living in tension.
- If you feel the need to see results (quickly?) in terms of the number of people who join your church, find Jesus, etc. through the third place.
- If you are not completely aware of the neighbourhood you are wanting to start the third place in. Do your homework. Live there for a few years.
- If you have not gone through a process of discerning what the Spirit of God is up to / creating /doing in your neighbourhood.
It may sound silly, but I can’t tell you the number of church leaders who have approached us to “learn the ropes” and more than one of the above applied to them.
If you would like to arrange a time to chat with us further about third places, mission, or neighbourhood engagement, drop us a line any time: info@frwy.ca, or consider coming to our Cultivate Learning Party on Saturday, March 20 in order to spend the day learning alongside us.
Great thoughts by Pernell Goodyear on how (not) to start a 3rd place in relationship with your church and neighborhood.
I’d also suggest learning the early story of Church of the Saviour in Washington DC, written by Elizabeth O’Connor, which began as a coffeehouse just after WWII and grew into a network of mission churches.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an extraordinary person. Not perfect but nevertheless, extraordinary. While we remember his legacy again on this day…let’s not make the mistake of forgetting the God behind this extraordinary man.
It’s way too easy to talk about MLK because so many people and groups of people want to own him as their own. But they often don’t want to take ALL of him. At the core of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. was a follower of Jesus Christ. His faith in Christ informed all that he sought to do as a civil rights leader.
My friend Eugene writes an excellent story of Martin Luther King today, calling us to remember not just the pithy quotes, but the character behind the man who inspires us to be greater than we are.