This is not a hyperbolic statement.

This morning, in a brilliant epiphany, I realized that I can make the coffee soda that I always get when I go to fancy coffee shops using my SodaStream and Aeropress. Since this new coffee experience has changed my life, I want to share it with you so that you too can find the hope and life changing nectar of this glorious reality.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• A SodaStream (or just get some seltzer water or mineral water).
• An Aeropress coffee maker. I used this because it is the closest thing to an espresso shot I can get without buying a fancy espresso machine.
• Some decent coffee. I subscribed to Drink Trade during the pandemic and it has made me very, very happy.
• Simple syrup (If you like sweeter in your iced coffee like I do).

Process:

1. Make some soda water with your fancy SodaStream (or if you are a loser, like I was before my SodaStream, just get some soda water from the store).
2. Brew an upside-down Aeropress (thats the only way I do it anymore) 18g coffee and add water up to the second line. Stir it up and then press it after a minute.
3. Fill a glass (I used a highball glass) with ice and add some simple syrup if you like sweetener in your ice coffee.
4. Pour the delicious soda water into the glass half about way up.
5. Pour the glorious coffee you’ve brewed over the soda water and ice.
6. If necessary, top off your glass with soda water and stir it up.
7. Drink and have your life changed forever.

If you have your own way of making coffee soda at home I’d love to hear what you do differently!

The post Making coffee soda with your SodaStream and your Aeropress appeared first on Todd Hiestand.

When it comes to marketing plans and marketing management, one thing that is important to emphasize is engaging the whole person. This means we need to focus on more than simply getting people to donate to your cause. Marketing efforts focusing only on converting donors to dollars can quickly become white noise to your donor base.

This is especially true in the world we live in today. Your donors are bombarded with more information than ever before in the entire world’s history.

Your followers love your organization, not just because it provides them a means to be generous with their finances but because they care about human issues.

Your social media and online marketing strategies should invite them to engage in your organization with their whole selves.

With my work at Liminal Creative, we look at four main spheres of donor engagement.

Emotional

While hard to measure, this needs to be a vital part of your marketing strategy. This is not about emotional manipulation, or re-exploitation of the people you serve. It needs to be inviting honest and realistic, emotional engagement with your work. Simply put, when people view your marketing materials, it should move them emotionally. Their hard should be warmed, challenged or pulled as they engage with the story you are trying to share.

Spiritual

Spiritual engagement is also hard to measure, yet it is vital to fully engage your donors in your mission. This is especially vital for religious organizations. As a religious organization, you want to be engaging your community on a spiritual level. This might mean inviting them to join you in prayer, sharing spiritual encouragement or even one of your recent teachings. No matter how you do it, if you neglect this level of engagement, you may be missing an important part of your calling as an organization and your ability to turn followers into donors.

Physical

When you are marketing to your audience, you need be invite them to engage with their time and physical selves. For some organizations this is easier than others. Shelters, food pantries and organizations like these can invite people to come and volunteer their time. International organizations can invite volunteers to come visit the work in the field with a team or group of leaders. When these options are not available, it is often effective to invite potential partners to utilize their current peer networks to support your work through peer-to-peer fundraising, hosting house parties or doing creative fundraising events.

Financial

This is the one we are tempted to skip to first. Of course, we all know that we need to be inviting our donor base give financially. But, I am convinced the better we do at engaging the whole person (physical, spiritual, emotional) the more effective our appeals for financial asks will be.

As you look at your marketing plans, communications strategies, and focus for the year, be sure and include posts, updates, and campaigns that address the whole person.

The post Increasing Engagement In Your Marketing Campaigns appeared first on Todd Hiestand.

After the second marathon, which was quite the emotional accomplishment after what happened in Chicago , I ran another 10k, another 1/2 marathon and then another trail race before finding myself with a sore right achilles tendon. It hurt me for quite a while and I ended up  finding myself incredibly out of shape.

After being in what was easily the best shape of my life, this was depressing. I went from being able to run 6, 8, 10 miles without much of a second thought to being winded running to get my phone away from my 6 year old before he dropped it in the toilet.

In the last four years since being that lean mean running machine, I’ve false started a new running program approximately 28 times. This year, 2016, was the first time I was in danger of not running one single time in an entire calendar year since 2011. Edit: Turns out I ran 2.15 miles on January 4th. You can imagine by the tone of this narrative how that New Years resolution turned out.

My weight has always hovered between 175 – 185. When I hit 190 I blamed it on old age and when I finally hit 200 I blamed it on being incredibly out of shape and I decided that I better do something about it.

But here’s the thing. I’ve decided this same thing before. Approximately 28 times.

They, whomever “they” are, define insanity as trying to same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So the question is, assuming I am not insane, “What is going to be different this time around?” That is, what will be the change that makes me realistically think I’ll actually stick with running and getting into shape?

This is the question we all ask as we look to make a change in life, or at least, it is the question we should be asking.

On November 30th, while feeling bloated from finishing up a leftover piece of pumpkin pie from Thanksgiving, I made a rash decision: I was going to exercise every day during the month of December. I did not really think this through, and I am pretty sure I decided this while I was writing the Facebook post in which I announced it.

That Facebook post led to what is going to be different this time. That Facebook post is why, as of December 19, I have exercised for 20 straight days (I got excited and started on the last day of November).

A number of years back Alan Deutschman wrote a book called *Change or Die*.  In this book, he argued that real change comes when two main things are present: Community and Hope.

I was reflecting on this as I was running on day 6, trying to understand why this time around my plan to consistently run seemed to be working. I realized, I had those two things in place. But as I reflected more, it dawned on me that community and hope were not the only things necessary for me to see real change, there was one more vital ingredient: Vulnerability.

I have came to the conclusion that there are *at least* three things that must be present if we are going to experience lasting change. This applies to most aspects of our lives that we want to see a difference in. Maybe its health, spirituality, faith, education, work, etc. If we are going to change, we need at least three main things:

Vulnerability

Brene Brown talks at length about the power of vulnerability. She says,

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.”

Here is the thing, if we are going to expect change, we must be honest about the reality that things are not they way they are supposed to be. We will not change if we do not admit something is broken. We will not move forward if we cannot admit we are standing still, or worse, going backwards.

Almost every time I have seen a person (including myself) struggle with the same thing over and over and over again, there has been some sense that they have not been able to admit to themselves that there is a problem in the first place.

When I made that fateful post on Facebook about my struggle with being in shape, I was shocked at the responses I received. That post had more “likes” and comments than when I post about my adorable kids (and my kids are exceptionally cute). The reason it did? I think it is because it struck a nerve. My accidental vulnerability gave others permission to be honest about their struggles too.

In that post they realized, they are not alone.

This leads us to the next thing that we need if we expect to change.

Community

Without community, whether it is with one person or with fifty people, vulnerability doesn’t get us very far. Do not get me wrong, it is a great start. But it cannot *end* with vulnerability. As Brene Brown says, its the path way, but it is not the destination. There have been countless times that I have resolved with myself that I was going to get back in shape (again, we can tell from the tone of this reflection that it did not work very well).

You simply cannot have vulnerability without community. Confession to yourself does not work. That is because it is not actually confession.

I need community because I need accountability. Accountability is one of those annoying things that we all know we need, but we do not really want unless we actually want to change.

When I made that initial post about exercising a little bit every day in December, the response was so great that we formed a little exercise group on Facebook to encourage one another. Each day we post what we did and how we exercised and how it went.

As I have been running these past 20 days, I am aware that I have made a commitment to a group of people that have resolved to run with me everyday. Their simple presence, and participation with me, gets me off my butt and out the door when I am feeling unmotivated.

They also help me celebrate when I need encouragement and someone to cheer me on. It may seem silly and even a bit childish, but I love it when I post a run on Facebook and my friends like it and say “great job”. Some folks may say we should be able to get out and run without needing the approval of others. Maybe I am someone who needs the approval of others more than most people (this is very likely) but there is something really encouraging about having friends cheer for you, encourage you and spur you on further down the road.

I also need community because I need someone to be there to pick me up when I fall on my face and push me forward again. Failure can derail progress. Not because of the single act of failure itself, but because of the overall effects that failure can have on your psyche. This is especially when we are trying to tackle something that has historically been an issue for us. A single moment of failure is unfortunately often an excellent reminder, not that we have simply failed, but that we *are* failures. When this happens, we need our friends, our community to pick us up, dust us off and remind us that we are not defined by these failures.

Hope

We also need hope for a better tomorrow. That is what we are talking about here. Hope that, one day reality will be different. John Steinbeck, on of my favorite authors wrote, “without hope I would sit motionless, rusting like unused armor.” When we have no hope, we also have no action. Because, what is the point of making effort to change if we are convinced that this effort will not bring about change?

Hope that there is a better future for us, is essential to lasting change.

For those who are seeking to change their body, the hope that we look forward to is that our exercise and good eating will yield better health. For those of us seeking change in our society, the hope this that our actions will yield a more fair and just society.

We simply will not change if we cannot see a promise of a better future.  In Don Miller‘s excellent book, A Million Miles and a Thousand Years he writes about this in a different way. He talks about living a great story.

In fact, my first marathon was inspired by this idea. When things got hard in my marathon training (and trust me, marathon training is a grind), I found I was able to carry on as I imagined gloriously crossing the finish line in Chicago. This is why when I didn’t finish that Marathon, it was so hard. The story that I had been living was ruined. This very thing is also what made finishing the Philadelphia Marathon 5 weeks later that much sweeter. The failure made the story that much better!

So, as you look to 2017 for ways you want your life to be different. Make sure that you are vulnerable with a community that can help you imagine a better future.

I cannot guarantee that this will bring the lasting change you are looking for, but I can guarantee that these things will be essential parts of the process.

What other things are vital for you in seeing lasting change?

The post Three Essential Elements of Successful New Year’s Resolutions appeared first on Todd Hiestand.

A friend messaged me this afternoon…

I call this PPSD. Post Pastoral Stress Disorder.

Here’s a challenge:

The post A few thoughts on PPSD – (Post Pastoral Stress Disorder) appeared first on Todd Hiestand.

I have a good sense of what makes writing so hard for me. I am scared my writing sucks. Over the years, I have been told I am a good writer, and I think that’s exactly what scares me to death about putting words together to make sentences and paragraphs.

I still remember the first time I was given positive feedback for my writing. I was in the 6th grade, and I had the hardest teacher in the school. Everyone was scared of Mrs. Hoag. Not only was she tough, but she was supposedly mean. I definitely experienced the first, but the second was probably more myth than anything. The difference between “mean” and “tough” is hard to decipher when you are twelve.

We had an assignment to write a short story. I do not have a perfect memory of my story, but I’m pretty sure it involved a lady being stuck on the top floor of a burning building and the fireman talking her into jumping into his arms by promising to give her a kiss after he caught her. I called this story A Kiss for a Jump. It’s pretty progressive for a sixth grader, if I do say so myself.

When Mrs. Hoag returned our papers she wrote the following at the top of my paper: “Good pun.” I am pretty sure I had no clue what a pun was at that time but I knew what “good” meant. The hardest teacher in the school thought I was good at puns, and as far as I could interpret, she thought I was a good writer as well. I fell in love with the idea of writing right there on the spot.

Fast forward a number of years and I’m in college.

Again, I’m taking a class by the professor that is considered one of the hardest in the school. A few friends and I went to collect our papers in our mailboxes and they found theirs first. From the way their eyes rolled into the back of their heads I could tell that they had clearly received grades that were less than pleasing. Through some strange turn of events I got my paper out of my mailbox and there was a big fat “A” on the top of the front page. Under that “A” was written, “well argued and excellently written.”

That struck a nerve like I didn’t expect. I felt like I was in 6th grade again. In that moment part of me started to believe that I really might be good at something. Of course, when my friends, probably out of jealousy, started wondering how in the world I got an A and they got whatever made their eyes roll, I quickly allowed their surprise to ruin this new sense of accomplishment. They were probably right because obviously their opinion mattered more than the hardest professor in the college who clearly has no clue what should be defined as good writing.

A few years after that I remember when I told one of my college friends that I was starting Seminary. He accidentally laughed and said, “really? Why are you going to seminary?” In spite of the many ways that has been proven wrong over the years, this confirmed my suspicion that I was not anything too special.

Of course, I’m talking about seminary because this time brought forth another person telling me to keep on writing. A mentor/friend of mine read my term paper on the movie Pleasantville and how it related to Postmodernism. I think it was called, “Are we living in Pleasantville? Christianity Engages Postmodernity.”  If that sounds super nerdy, it’s because it is. After my friend read my paper he wrote at the end of it, ” You are an incredible writer, keep it up.”

Of course, half of me believed what he wrote and the other half of me reasoned that a guy working on a PhD in Second Temple Judaism (and is now a professor at a major university) must be another terrible judge of writing skills.

Fast forward a few more years and I’m just done preaching at a church in Ndola, Zambia. George Palo, my Zambian pastor friend who I respect just about more than anyone it the entire world prays for me and two other pastors that are with me. During this prayer he half prays/half prophesies prays over each of us.

He says great things about them, but I am just narcissistic enough to not really be listening and instead worrying/wondering what he’s going to say about me next. I don’t remember all he said about me but he did say this, “the books that you write will be transformative to many.” Fear not, there is an easy out here. I mean, I grew up as a fairly conservative evangelical and we don’t believe in that prophecy crap, right?

My writing has been affirmed time and time again. Way beyond these four little stories. Like the time a friend in ministry told me “You really need to write more, there is something different about the way you write that needs to be tapped into”, the time my co-pastor affirmed me in something I had written for the church, the time I had a paper I wrote for seminary published and subsequently go mini-viral on the missional blogosphere, and the list probably goes on.

Add all this up and it makes sense as to why I’m scared to death to write.

When it comes down to it, I don’t think that I don’t believe them. I do. I really believe them. I am really proud of my writing. It means a lot to me to call myself a good writer – not just an aspiring one.

I think over the years I’ve put so much personal value into being a good writer that I have become a slave to this positive affirmation. And frankly, if I never write, I will never find out its all a lie. It’s the perfect strategy!

Freedom is out there, and I’m still striving to find it.  I believe this freedom lies in detaching my value from my skills and trusting that it really does not matter if I am a good writer or not. My value as a human being does not depend on you or anyone else liking what I have written. It comes from the image of God inside of me.

If I believed that, maybe I’d take the risk and write more. Maybe me writing this is evidence that I am believing that just a little bit more.

So this post is me considering wading back into the waters of putting my thoughts in print. We shall see where it goes. All I know is that this is a conversation that I had on twitter recently that I just can’t get out of my head:

https://twitter.com/culturalsavage/status/577928404554514432

I honestly do not know if the world needs my words. But if I can get over my need to find some of my value in them, the world might get them anyways.

The post My Journey into Never Writing appeared first on Todd Hiestand.

For 13 years we have been serving at The Well, our church here in Philly and its with a lot of bittersweet excitement that we are officially moving our family to Portland, OR.  We’ll be living in a town called Clackamas, which in the Southeast side of the city – I guess you could say we are “taking our talents to Southeast Portland”.  (See what I did there?)

We have loved, loved, loved our community at The Well. With both of us originally being from out of town this community has become family for us. I look back on the last 13 years in leadership at The Well and I am so proud to call myself part of what God did, has been doing and will do in this community. God has truly been gracious to us. I have worked alongside some amazing leaders, served with some amazing friends and honestly, I have few regrets. I say few regrets because even those (many) moments of failure, hardship and pain have served to make me who I am today. We are leaving behind a group of amazing leaders to lead the community into the future. I’m excited about how The Well will grow and evolve as my leadership there comes to a formal end. I look forward to staying engaged in what’s going on in the community and hope I’ll be able to occasionally lend a fresh set of eyes and ears, even if its from a distance.

As we begin this next season of our lives in Portland, I will continue my daily work as a web developer for Pure Charity. I love this company, our mission and the people I get to work alongside of everyday.  Since the company’s home office is in Arkansas (no we didn’t think about moving there!) I get to take my work with me with very little transition needed.

I will also begin serving with Christian Associates International as part of their Regional Advancement Team in the Pacific Northwest. I’ll be working with other regional leaders to help train, coach and equip pastors, church planters and communities as they seek to live out their callings in their communities through church planting and discipleship. I’m really looking forward to both contributing my experience to the mission of CA as well as learning from a group of seasoned leaders in a whole now context.

Until then, we’re spending the next 30 or so days figuring out how to get a family of 6 across the country (we will be leaving Philadelphia in late July).

Thanks for all your prayers, friendship and support as we continue to follow God’s call in our lives.

The post We’re Moving to Portland, OR appeared first on Todd Hiestand.

I think the following is a fair statement:

One of the most individual things done in churches these days is preaching.

To be kind, this seems unfortunate. While I do not generally think that sermons should be a free-for-all, I also do not think that sermons should be the result of one person sitting quietly in a study (or Starbucks) reading scripture, studying it and then telling the whole community what to he or she thinks.

One of the questions we began asking about a year ago at The Well was “how can preaching be less an individualistic activity in our community?”  I will be honest, I coudn’t be more proud of where are a year later.

Every Tuesday, about seven of us sit around a table in Starbucks and do three basic things:

1. We give feedback to the person who preached the past Sunday. Sometimes this is is positive feedback and sometimes this is negative feedback. But it’s always constructive. The first few months this was hard, but the more trust we’ve built with one another the more helpful this feedback has been. Each week we are able to say “this worked well” or “this made sense” or we say “this totally bombed” or “this point felt like it came out of no where.”  We are able to critque content as well as structure. I can honestly say each and every one of us has become a much more effective communicator because of this!
2. We read and discuss a book or article that somehow relates to preaching. This might be a theological article. It might be a book on preaching. It might be something we agree with or something that we don’t.  This has been so helpful as we’ve learned to sharpen each other and be sharpened by an outside voice and has stimulated some amazing discussions — many better than any I had in Seminary.
3. We do exegesis together of next week’s text.  This is usually the most exciting part of our time together. In our group, we have some fantastic minds around the table (tons of experience and quite a few higher ed degrees). It used to be that my only other voices came from commentaries, now the voices speaking into the text are people from my community (who, by the way, might just be writing commentaries someday!).

We meet for about two hours and it’s become some of the most fulfilling two hours of my week.

Now, let me give some credit where credit is due. We blatantly stole the idea from our friends Geoff Holsclaw and David Fitch at Life in the Vine in the Chicago burbs. At the same time, we’ve totally adapted what they did to our own context. Scott Jones is the Teaching Pastor at The Well now and he’s led this group in some pretty awesome ways.

I share all this for a few reasons:

1. I kinda want to brag on my community. Sue me, but I’m proud of the people I get to serve with!
2. I hope its encouraging and sparks similar things in other communities. I talk to pastor after pastor who feels so alone in his or her sermon prep. This needs not be the case. While you might not be able to have the size of group we have  (7 is about the limit I think) there are surely one or two more people you could find to join you in something like this each week.

The sermon does not need to be the most individualistic thing in your church…

The post Preaching in Community appeared first on Todd Hiestand.

I can’t hit them all but the books that follow were some of the more influential and formative books for me as I continued to mature in my understanding of the church, her mission and my role in it.  I’m going to start from the beginning and move toward today… I’m not sure they are in perfect order but they generally follow the timeline of how they influenced me.

The Church on the Other Side

by: Brian McLaren

For many of of us who were part of the early emergent conversation, this book was mind bending.  Actually, it may not have been so much as mind-bending as it was totally affirming.  “Someone put into words the things I’ve been thinking” and “I’m not the only crazy one” are a few of the quotes that come to mind as I remember reading this book. Funny story, when we were still young in our journey of replanting The Well (then Jericho Valley Church) I distinctly remember reading this book with my co-pastor Brad and then emailing Brian McLaren with some questions about next steps for us.  He wrote back within the hour with some excellent advice. Of course, we were too smart to listen to it and probably brought ourselves some hard earned lessons that we could have avoided.

The Celtic Way of Evangelism

by: George Hunter

This is one of those books that was extremely formative for us early on. It’s as short book but in my mind, it’s a classic. This book looks at the missionary journey / story of St. Patrick and brings out some important themes for ministry in mostly secular settings.

Beyond Foundationalism

by: John Franke

This book, along with taking his class at the same time, totally wrecked me.  But, in a totally good way. I graduated from Bible College with a pretty strong set of assumptions about God and faith. I kept them all in a tidy little box with a cute little bow on it. John’s book took my box and totally smashed with a sledge hammer.  I remember driving in the car with my wife on the way to pick up a used sofa in 2002 and telling her I didn’t know how to believe in God anymore.  Thankfully I finished the book and the class and John helped lay the ground work for a faith that was more real than I had ever experienced.

The Divine Conspiracy

by: Dallas Willard

Instant classic. Hands down one of the most important, shaping books I have ever read. I remember reading the beginning of the book and being so excited that he took the arguments I’d heard about in college as so important (Lordship salvation) and totally reframed it and blew it out of the water by coming at it in a completely different direction.  For many of us, this book was a game changer – and I’d argue it still is.

The Continuing Conversion of the Church / The Missional Church

by: Darrel Guder

These two books by Guder were awesome. I actually read The Continuing Conversion of the Church first and it completely blew my mind. I started reading it on a trip to Sedona, AZ and I remember my wife being upset at me for reading too much. I think most of the pictures of me from this trip had me with this book and a highlighter in my hands. It TOTALLY reoriented my ecclesiology.  Guder’s other book, Missional Church, then reconfirmed it all for me and I was totally hooked on Missional Theology / Missional Ecclesiology.

Transforming Mission

by:  David Bosch

If I wasn’t hooked on Missional Theology after Guder’s books, this one sealed the deal. A friend and I have joked that no one should be able to call themselves “Missional” unless they’ve read this book.  Basically, Bosch takes a look at the theology of mission through the lens of the Bible and Western church history.  If you haven’t read this book. You need to buy it now and start reading it. Warning: It’s massive. I read it in chunks and it took me like 3 years to finish. But, it was totally worth it.

The Shaping of Things to Come

by: Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost

Again, one of those books that was a game changer. This book was fresh back when it came out and I’d argue its still just as fresh today.  While some people might argue that its a little too “low ecclesiology” I’d respond by saying, “maybe, but it’s awesome.”  Hirsch and Frost lit a fire under so many church planters / pastors with this book. I really believe we are still experiencing the effects of this book in the revitalized church planting scene we are seeing today.

Under the Unpredictable Plant

by: Eugene Peterson

This was my first introduction to Eugene Peterson. It could not have come at a better time. I’ve read this book quite a few times and it continues to challenge me and call me in ways that make me uncomfortable – and I mean that in a good way.  He sets a standard for pastoral leadership in this book (and frankly, all his books) that is so high and so healthy.

The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience

by: Ron Sider

While I knew that caring for the poor was important from all the other stuff I’d been reading and talking about with other pastors, this was really the first book I digested on the subject. I think I highlighted about 3/4 of it. It was a short book, I read it on the airplane from Seattle to Philly and have never been the same.

The Search to Belong

by: Joseph Myers

This book changed my whole understanding of community. I can’t begin to tell how important it’s been for us as a church. We constantly hear how The Well “does community well” or “has such a unique approach to community” and I’d credit this book for almost all of that.  I was able to take a class with Joe after reading it and he and I became good friends and he’s been a bit of a mentor me to over the years. This book is one of those books that I think pastors kind of struggle with but parishioners are like, “yeah, duh.”

Giving and Stewardship in an Effective Church

By: Ken Callahan

I was introduced to Ken Callahen through Joe Myers. Ken, Joe’s mentor, is in his mid-70’s and is a Methodist church consultant who is absolutely brilliant and way ahead of his time. He was using the word missional in 1990 in his book Effective Church Leadership (also excellent) and this book on stewardship has single-handedly changed the way we talk about money at The Well.  I have honestly had someone say to me “When you talk about money on Sunday mornings I want to open my wallet and give you everything I have.” This philosophy laid out in this book is the reason that person said that.

Embracing Grace

by: Scot McKnight

This was my first introduction (in print at least) to a “whole” gospel that didn’t just include the salvation of souls.  While I would now credit N.T. Wright for further developing this understanding, I’m actually going to say that Scot McKnight’s book opened the door for me to appreciate N.T. Wright’s work.  We used this book in a small group study and it was absolutely excellent. Scot’s other books could just have easily been on this list (especially A Community Called Atonement) but this one was the most important one that I read because of the timing of it.

The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

by: Leslie Newbigin

Um. This book was amazing. I don’t even know what to say about it. I’d argue that most of  the good, missional, emergent theology/thinking finds its roots in Newbigin.  You have to read this book. The chapter of Church Leadership is worth the price of the book itself.

The Suburban Christian

by: Al Hsu

When I was wrestling with living in Suburbia this book saved my suburban life.  It was instrumental in the writing of my Missional in Suburbia article and thus my naming my blog “Missional in Suburbia” for about 5 years.  Al came and spoke at The Well a few years back and helped us continue the journey of what it means to be a Christian in individualistic, consumeristic suburban America.

Countdown to Sunday

by: Chris Eardman

I think this book is out of print. But, as a bi-vocational pastor this book has been so helpful.  Eardman lays out how he prepares each week when we can’t spend tons of time in his study. He refers to it as “Preaching on the Run.” I’ve adapted his weekly rhythm for me a bit but it totally changed how I approached preaching. I wrote up a longer blog post about this book and my rhythm here.

Church Dogmatics, Volume 4.3.2

by: Karl Barth

I said earlier that all good missional theology finds its roots in Newbigin right?  Well, I’m willing to bet that Newbigin finds his roots in Barth’s dogmatics.  This is some heavy stuff but here is where we find Barth’s ecclesiology and it’s absolutely brilliant.  Aside for the Bible, I’d say its the mother of all missional theology.

Resident Aliens

by: Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon

I read this book two summers ago while at the shore in New Jersey. As I’ve continued to shape my ecclesiology this is the book that has come the closest to describing where I’ve landed.

The Next Evangelicalism

by: Soong-Chan Rah

Over the years I have been challenged by some close friends (who are not white) about the challenges faced by non-white, middle class congregations and leaders.  I continue to find myself in conversations that make me want to use my place of privilege to come partner with leaders and congregations of marginalized people groups. I am still on a journey to understand what this actually looks like but Rah’s book was vital in confirming that and helping me on my journey.  Some might think that Rah is just angry in this book. Maybe he is.  But its a vitally important book nevertheless. I wrote about this a little bit here.

A Failure of Nerve

by: Edwin Freidman

Hands down the most important leadership book I have ever read.  Tim Keel recommended this book to me and he said, “hang onto your hat.” I’m glad I did because it blew my mind (wait, no pun intended?). I’ve subsequently recommended this book to almost every leader I know and those who have taken me up on it have said the same thing.  It basically addresses the problem of “leadership in the age of the quick fix” and talks about the importances of being a leader who is “self-differentiated.”  I wrote up a simple overview of the book here.

Community / Stewardship

by Peter Block

Peter Block is awesome. These two book are quickly becoming my most recommended leadership books (behind Freidman). Community lays out a framework for having conversations that build community and togetherness and Stewardship talks about how we lead communities where people naturally buy in, without the need of coercion and manipulation.

What books would fit into your “most influential books” that you’ve read?  Which books shaped your journey? 

The post Significant Books that Have Shaped My Leadership and Ecclesiology appeared first on Todd Hiestand.

Here is my short, executive summary of the book:

The Reality:

• We live in chronically anxious society.
• This society is oriented towards safety rather than adventure.
• In this anxious society, resistance to leadership often has less to do with the “issue” that ensues than with the fact that the leader took initiative.

This anxiety can be dissipated by clear, decisive, well-defined leadership. 

The Problem:

• We often leverage power to the extremists.
• We often obsess about data over making a decision
• Technique over stamina
• Giving Empathy over calling for personal responsibility

The Results:

• The most dependent members of our churches set the agendas and drive the institution rather than the most energetic, visionary imaginative and motivated.
  After all, our job is to make everyone happy, right? (sarcasm)
• As leaders we tend to rely more on expertise of “experts” and better technique rather than our own ability to be decisive and leadership instincts.
  If we could just read one more missional leadership book and go to one more conference, we’d finally be successful!
• Obsession with data and technique that allows us to spend all our time researching and never making decisions.
  FYI, no one should spend 6 weeks and three leadership meetings researching and making a decision about a water cooler. 
• Leaders assume that we can convince our most toxic members through reasonableness, love, insight, role-modeling, striving for consensus.
  I’m so pastorally gifted that I can reason and love the most anxious and unhealthy people to perfect harmony. Right?

The Way Forward,

We Need Leaders Who:

• Focus on their own integrity in the midst of crazies.
  Are you sure you’ve walked with integrity? 
• Maintain a healthy, steady, non-anxious presence in the midst of the storms.
  We need more Tim Tebows!
• Give more voice to the the healthy, creative, energetic, motivated voices.
  This isn’t a call to ignore the fringe!
• Grow into becoming a well-differentiated leader
  No one does this easily, most leaders can improve their capacity.
• Who can remain separate while still remaining connected.
  We aren’t emotionless and unattached. 
• Able to manage own reactivity to the automatic reactivity of others and take stands at the risk of displeasing.
  How do you respond when you piss people off  even when you make the right decision?

The post Edwin Friedman – Failure of Nerve – in Five Minutes appeared first on Todd Hiestand.

Discipleship as the Bottom Line

“We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

Colossians 1:28

The church, in the context of its missional calling, must work with all its energy to present people fully mature in Jesus Christ. I think we can say that mission without discipleship is ineffective and discipleship without mission is pointless and honestly can’t really even be called discipleship.

It was Alan Hirsch who said,

“I have come to believe we are never going to be the movement Jesus wants unless we first et the issues of discipleship right. This is because the health and growth of transformative Jesus movements are directly related to their capacity to make disciples. No disciples, no movement – it’s that simple.”(Untamed, 17)

Neil Cole said,

“Ultimately, each church will be evaluated by only one thing. It’s disciples. Your church is only as good as its disciples. It does not matter how good your praise, preaching, programs or property are: If you’re disciples are passive, needy, consumerist, and not moving in the direction of radical obedience, your church is not good.”  (Source Unknown)

In Ephesians 4 we see that God calls pastors, teachers, prophets, evangelists and apostles to

“equip his people for works of service so that the body may be built up until we reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

Here, Paul is talking about the role of the church (especially those in leadership – but I would argue this is the responsibility of all disciples) in bringing God’s people to maturity in Christ. It is when we are mature in Christ that we can “no longer be as infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there.”

These passages, among many others in the NT, point out our main calling as the sent community is to make disciples – or in the words of Dallas Willard, “apprentices” – of Jesus Christ.

This of course begs a few questions:

• Are we as passionate about this as Paul?
• How do we do this?
• What does it entail?
• What does it mean to be mature in Christ?

In all of this, this whole entire conversation about discipleship must presuppose an understanding of the local church as a community of people sent into the world to be witnesses to Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. It must presuppose a individual and communal vocation of “witness.”

Without this understanding, our maturity simply loses its point. Sure you might argue that maturity for the sake of maturity is good for the sake of itself. But I would argue that you can’t really be mature in Christ if you do not see and understand your calling in the world.

For me, the most important question is, how do we do this?  How do we shape community rhythms where people are actually becoming and continually becoming followers of Jesus?

Okay, so if the primary calling of the church is to make disciples and I said that for me, the most important question is, how do we do this?  How do we shape community rhythms where people are actually becoming and continually becoming followers of Jesus? At our Ecclesia National Gathering in 2010 Dallas Willard was one of our main speakers. I’ll never forget when he said that a) Discipleship is the primary task of the church and b) He had never seen a church that had a good plan for discipleship. This was astounding and quite a challenge.

Towards A Discipleship Framework

As a bi-vocational pastor I spend a good portion of my time buried in my computer working on projects as a web designer. In the web design world we have what are called “frameworks.”  One of the most popular is the BluePrintCSS framework, developed to “give you a solid foundation to build your project on top of.”

I don’t want to get too technical here, but when you are designing for the web one of the most frustrating things is that different web browsers render the same code differently. What works in Safari or Google Chrome doesn’t always work in Firefox or Internet Explorer. It is a rather frustrating thing and it tends to make us all a little bit crazy. Frameworks were developed by web designers who were looking for a solid place to start no matter what context you are designing for or designing in. The beauty of the framework is that you can use this framework to build a foundation that will help your design/project be successful in almost any setting.

So, in response to this question of “how do we build a discipleship culture in our churches” I want to propose that we need a baseline discipleship framework.  I’ve been referring to this concept in different ways over the last year as we have experimented with it at The Well.  I’ve most recently been calling it the Spiritual Formation Puzzle. (I use the metaphor of a puzzle because a puzzle is not complete if you take out one piece. They cannot be disconnected. With these five parts, you generally can’t do one without the other. At the very least, you can’t do them correctly in isolation).

I believe the following serves us well as a discipleship framework. A starting point for us to build upon in our different contexts.

The five different puzzle pieces as I see them are:

• Liturgical Formation – The community gathered for worship is where we are re-oriented together to the story of God through the scriptures worship, prayer and communion.
• Personal Formation – This emphasizes our need to relate to God intimately through spiritual disciplines.
• Servant Formation – We are called to love and serve others and when you care for others, you cannot help but be changed.
• Relational Formation – We are not called to follow Jesus alone. We intentionally seek relationships that were encouraging one another on towards Christ-likeness.
• Educational Formation – We seek truth together and seek a knowledge that leads to faith. This “renewing of the mind” is a vital part of our formation.

My contention here is that if we are intentionally being formed in each of these puzzle pieces in some way, we will likely be moving towards the goal of maturity in Christ. (I say likely because it would be quite possible to go through the motions on all of this, but that’s another conversation altogether).

I believe that we can actually use this puzzle as a template to look at the rhythms of our lives and our churches and gauge how we are doing with our discipleship rhythms.

Before we look at each different pieces of the puzzle separately, we need to talk about the whole. It is important that this whole puzzle must be talked about in the context of community. We are not formed in isolation from one another. In fact, we will begin to see that we need the whole of the body of Christ (both locally and globally) to live out the puzzle well.

Also, it is important to note that this puzzle is more like a 30,000 foot view of discipleship than it is a five step process. This to say that this is not a one size fits all approach where we all do the same things all the time. Also, we might be tempted to think that we must be participating in all five of these perfectly all the time. Usually we use the language of “balance” when we talk like this. I tend to believe the balance is a myth and what we are really looking for is “harmony” within these five pieces. What I mean is, we might find ourselves more focused on one piece for a certain period of time and another for a different period of time. The reality is that God calls us to different places at different times along the journey. But, if we are to be formed in a holistic way, I believe we need each piece in our lives (and lives together) in some way or another.

In my experience, most churches tend do one or two of these pieces well. In turn, they draw in people who are passionate about those one or two. If someone is passionate about something else, they find a church that does their favorite piece well. Frankly, this seems like a broken system to me. We should be able to have local communities that are growing in each of these areas. But this will never happen if we have churches unwilling to grow in their areas of weakness. It will also not happen if leaders (both formal and informal) are unwilling to lead our communities where we are passionate and gifted and give up leadership in the areas that we are weak.

The bottom line is, we do not need to fight about which one of these five pieces is most important. What we need is people who are passionate about one of these five and are willing to help lead the community towards health in each of them. If your church is not doing well at one of them, it does not mean you should leave the church! Instead, it means you should help the church get better in that particular area. I think that often, we think that we need to diminish emphasis on one of these in order to be more complete in another. It’s almost like we think that you improve one and the others will regress. This is not how it works if everyone is living out their calling and gifting. If I am passionate about mission and you are passionate about liturgy then I need you to stay passionate about liturgy and call me towards that. What I don’t need is for you to shut up about liturgy so I my passion for justice can be talked about more. Yet sadly, this is the attitude that I see in churches far too often.

As we look at each piece of the community formation puzzle we will look at the following: What this piece looks like, how the biblical witness, especially Acts 2, points to it’s importance, how this piece has been traditionally practice looked at by evangelical churches specifically, what traditions this piece finds the greatest emphasis and ways that we (again, specifically the evangelical church) can grow forward with it.

Liturgical Formation

The first piece of my Spiritual Formation Puzzle is Liturgical Formation. This is often understood as formation that happens in our worship gatherings. Our corporate gatherings are an environment where we are shaped together around the narrative of Scripture and witness of the church history. Our liturgy reorients us to the right Story, the story of Jesus and redemption. This puzzle piece is traditionally emphasized by traditions such as the Catholics, Anglicans and many in the reformed tradition.

In Acts 2, we see in verse 46 that “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.” Even as they gathered in homes and had all things in common they did not forsake gathering for their liturgical time together.

In many evangelical circles, we tend to see the worship gathering is a product to be consumed by a group of individuals. We come to church to “get something out of it” or “to be fed” instead of coming to church to be formed in community around the right identity and calling. We need to instead see the gathered congregation as individuals in community. As stated above the gathering isn’t a place to get something but rather a place to be formed along with a community and reoriented to the right narrative of Jesus and redemption.

I fear that in many missional/emerging churches there seems to be a lack of importance/emphasis on the community gathered together for Liturgy. Many new congregations are forsaking the larger gathering all together and meeting only in small groups. While I see the reason for this (And these reasons are great!) I fear that they are living out an underdeveloped understanding of the importance of liturgy and worship. We need to talk about the church being gathered for the sake of being formed as one people.

Shane Claiborne and Jonanthan Wilson-Hartgrove write,

“Participating in the liturgy of the worldwide Christian community, whether on a Sunday morning or at another time, is more than attending a service or a prayer meeting. It is about entering a story. It is about orienting our lives around what God has been doing throughout history. And it is about being sent forth into the world to help write the next chapter of that story. Wandering the world in search of meaning and purpose, we may not even realize how desperately we need a story. But we know we’ve found something priceless when we find ourselves in God’s narrative.”

They also write that,

“liturgy invites us into a new “we.” The church reflects the most diverse community in the world — white, black, and all shades in-between, rich and poor, all walks of life. We are called to bring our lives and our cultures together to become a new community.”

If we are going to see liturgy as something that is vital to our formation as a community we need to begin viewing our worship together as more than a way for us each to get bits of information to help us with our lives or just a means to us to get together and sing some songs. The weekly gathering of the local church should be a time where we are imaginatively and communally seeking to be interrupted by the narrative of scripture, the prayers of the people, the celebration of the Lord’s table and the songs of people longing for redemption. It is this recovering the whole of the biblical narrative that Robert Weber says is most vital to Christian worship,

“The issue that all of us need to deal with is the reduction and fragmentation of God’s whole story. The full story is that of the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God creates, becomes involved with creation, and is made incarnate into time, space, and history in order to redeem and restore the world as the garden of God’s habitation and people as his community of love and fellowship. In summary, here is what biblical worship does: It remembers God’s work in the past, anticipates God’s rule over all creation, and actualizes both past and future in the present to transform persons, communities, and the world. (Ancient Future Worship)”

Personal Formation

The second piece of the Spiritual Formation Puzzle is Personal Formation. These are the personal rhythms and practices that we intentionally put ourselves under. In short: spiritual disciplines (Fasting, prayer, study, meditation, lectio divina, etc). Here, we follow the example of Jesus himself who often went off alone to be with the Father. This piece of the formation puzzle has traditionally been most emphasized and taught in the Quaker tradition and the different monastic traditions.

As we turn again to the second chapter of Acts we see that patterns of prayers were important to the people of God. In verse 42 we see that they “devoted themselves…to prayer.” Scot McKnight points out in his book, Praying with the Church, that the disciples were gathered for 9:00am fixed-hour prayer when the Holy Spirit descended on them at Pentecost.

Fixed-hour prayer is one of the many disciplines that the early disciples, and Jesus himself practiced. Elsewhere in the Bible we see the disciplines being practiced regularly. We see Daniel being sent to the lions den because he was keeping the hours of prayer. We see David and the psalmist internally reflecting on his own life in light of the truth of God.

In the churches that I grew up in, personal formation was very, very limited. We were basically taught that if you wanted to be fully devoted follower of Jesus you should read your bible each day (usually called a quiet time) and pray according the A-C-T-S (Adoration – Confession – Thanksgiving – Supplication) acronym.

In the churches I have been in since, we have done well at deconstructing “quiet times” as the sum total of personal formation. Quiet times aren’t evil but for many of us they didn’t live up to their billing as the thing that will make us more like Jesus. We were right to recognize that personal formation is much more than reading a chapter of the bible every night, journaling and praying through the ACTS acronym.

But, the problem comes in that after de-constructing quiet times, many of us have replaced them with nothing. Now we are left without any tools that help us engage the personal side of formation. While reading a chapter and writing in a journal fell short, they were better than what many of us currently have. As churches and leaders we must give people more holistic tools that will help guide their personal disciplines. There are many, many resources out there for this today so it is not acceptable that we haven’t taught this or practiced this better.

There are some excellent traditions around the areas of Personal Formation. Perhaps the best known book to get people started in a more holistic approach is Richard Foster’s book, The Celebration of Discipline. Here he introduces thirteen different approaches to personal formation, a far cry from quiet times! Foster writes that “The disciplines are God’s way of getting us into the ground; they put us where he can work within us to transform us. By themselves the Spiritual Disciplines can do nothing; they can only get us to the place where something can be done.”

There is a strong difference in the emphasis of the disciplines than there is in the emphasis that comes from a quiet time. For most of my life, I spent my quiet times gathering information about Jesus. The bible I used as a youth was underlined and highlighted all over. But, my mission in those underlines was like that of a miner. My goal was to find as many cool, interesting and helpful tidbits and facts as I could. The focus of the disciplines is quite different. The focus of the disciplines is for listening. For hearing God speak into our lives. When I was taught to have a quiet time, I was not taught to listen. This is perhaps the greatest weakness of what I was taught as a youth. Even as we look at the often helpful A-C-T-S acronym we see that there is no place where we are sitting quietly before God inviting him to speak into our lives.

This piece of the formation puzzle is obviously vital to our maturity in Christ. But, this is perhaps the one that is hardest to teach and to pass on. We can teach all that we want about the different disciplines from the pulpit or in the classroom. But, I am convinced that until we have personal mentors who are walking with us through these disciplines, we will never realize them fully.

Servant Formation 

The third piece of the formation puzzle is Servant Formation (I know, this naming doesn’t fit but the term “Missional” wouldn’t be fair to use here). This is formation through service and loving others. Not only are we called to love others, but we are formed through serving others less fortunate than us. Some of the most formative moments of my life have been when I’ve been in service to others. Here is where we are often stretched and challenged in our thinking. Here we have our eyes opened up a world much larger than the one we live in on a day-in day-out basis.

Again we turn to Acts 2 to see how the early church practiced this. In this chapter, we see that “Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles … And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Here I do not believe it is a stretch to understand the signs and wonders being done by the disciples as means of caring for those who were hurting. After all, the disciples were following after the pattern of Jesus. Almost everyone of Jesus’ signs and wonders were focused on caring for those less fortunate, the outcast, the marginalized. No where in Scripture do we see Jesus performing a miracle that did not result in someone being cared for or helped (correct me if I am wrong here!).

When we talk about servant formation we see that it is reasonable to view people being “saved” as a legitimate result of the compassion that we are to have on one another. The traditions that have emphasized this focus well have often been more mainline denominations like the PCUSA and the ELCA. These traditions have often been accused of preaching a social gospel. Yet, even if if this accusation is legitimate, they are living out their faith in a very real way that follows in the way of Jesus and the way of the disciples.

In the evangelical churches that I grew up in, the issue of social justice or this typical type of missional work was usually left to missionaries or the “liberals”. There was a strong bias away from ever caring for someone’s physical needs. In fact, too many times I heard “they don’t need food, they need Jesus” when we were talking about someone who was poor. Ironically, it was usually someone who was well-off by the world’s standards who was saying this!

Ron Sider in his book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, writes the following,

“We need to discover that in the BIble, sin is both personal and social. Again and again, the prophets make it perfectly clear that we sin both by lying, stealing and committing adults and also by participating in unjust legal and economic systems without doing what God wants to change them. Sin is both personal and social, so overcoming evil demands both personal and structural transformation.”

We see this same tension in the book if Amos in chapter 5 where we read,

“I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

We also see this in a similar passage in Isaiah 1 where we see God say again that he is sick of all Israel’s worship and sacrifices because their “hands are full of blood”. He then calls them to, “Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”

We see here that we cannot separate the service from our formation. In addition, we cannot worship in our liturgy without also caring for the needs of those around us!

Relational Formation

The fourth piece of the formation puzzle is Relational Formation. This is formation that happens when we place ourselves in intentional relationships focused on prayer, sharing and encouragement. This isn’t referring to merely having fun with close friends (which is definitely important) but this is referring to groups of 3-5 that meet regularly to share life.

We see in our chapter of Acts 2 that the people were in close community. “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need….They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” We see later in chapter 4 that they were sharing all of their possessions. And in the next chapter when Ananias and Sapphira withheld their offering from Apostles they knew about it right away. I would argue that the Apostles new about it right away because they were in such close community! There are a few traditions that do “community” really well. Perhaps the most well known denomination is the Vineyard churches who I have seen have a great focus on community in their churches.

In the evangelical tradition the focus on community has been meant for many people the practice of “accountability groups.” This meant every week or so you would sit with some “close friends” and feel guilty about all the things you did wrong that week. Then someone would ask you if you lied during the conversation. My personal experience with these groups was obviously not very helpful! I always found ways to come up with excuses to not attend these meetings because I felt like the groups were all about “keeping record of my wrongs.” In I Corinthians 13 we actually read that, “love keeps no record of wrongs”!

Accountability/Accounting is a term that we use to talk about maintaining records and few people likes to experience groups like this. Because of this many churches like mine have intuitively and wisely done away with accountability groups. But again, we’ve replaced them with nothing and we’ve thrown the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.

The question before us then, is what is a better way forward? I still believe that small groups of 3-5 are a vital part of our formation. We need people who we can bear our souls to. People who can know our struggles and our strengths. People who can hold us up with we’re about to fall over and people who can rejoice with us when our lives are full of joy. But we need some models of how this works well. In a class I took at seminary with Joseph Myers he talked about the possibility of “edit-ability groups.” He argued that an “editor” is a much better metaphor for what we are looking for. Editors help make writing better. A good editor does not just point out errors. A good editor finds an error and helps find a way to make the writing more complete. While the name “edit-ability groups” doesn’t have a great ring to it, I think the concept has value. We don’t need people who are keeping records of our wrongs. We need people who are aware of our weaknesses and helping us become more whole. The big question then is, how do we model and provide helps with people engaging as editors rather than accountants?

We need to give people tools that allow them to slowly enter into these kinds of relationships. Whether it be a list of questions or a book to study through together, we must provide the tools. I have been amazed at how awkward and unnatural it feels to talk about spiritual things, even with some of my closest friends. In my experience having a book to lead and guide our discussion is beyond helpful. The book is merely a path to walk down and we feel the freedom to take a detour off the path whenever we want. It’s just nice to always have a path to come back to and a path to get us started.

Mike Breen in his book, Building a Discipleship Culture, points out that if we are going to from disciples the way that Jesus did we need to learn from the way he actually did it. He writes,

“Time and time again in the Gospels we see Jesus functioning as a classic horse-whisperer, inviting his followers into an intimate relationship with him while also initiating a direct challenge to behaviors he knew were either right or wrong or unhealthy. He drew his disciples closer, loved them, then gave them opportunity to accept the responsibilities of discipleship.”

As Breen points out, Jesus is perhaps our best example of what it means to live with and share life intimately with a small group of people. Yet, we have other examples of this kind of friendship in other parts of the Biblical witness. We see the close friendship of David and Jonathan. We see Pricilla and Aquila taking Paul under their wing to mentor him and teach him. We see Paul then doing the same with Timothy. All throughout scripture we see people coming together to be shaped by one another.

Unfortunately for many of us, being in these kinds of relationships is unnatural. Our culture is based on surface friendships that tend to revolve around the latest episode of our favorite television show, the latest sporting event or a common interest in a hobby. These are not unimportant parts of our friendships but they are not the essence of relational formation. If we are going to be in friendships where we are drawing each other closer to Jesus and following in his way we must be willing to enter into the mess with each other. Resources like Mike Breen’s LifeShapes are a helpful tutor when it comes to building these kinds of groupings in the local church.

If have found that like many things, we must be modeling this kind of thing as leaders for it to take hold in our communities. Modeling actually works! Recently I began meeting with a group of men in my congregation every other Monday night to pray for one another and share life together. One of the members of my group, all on his own, reached out to two other men in our church to begin doing the same thing with them on our off meeting nights.

Educational Formation

The final piece of the community formation puzzle is Educational Formation. This is formation that happens “by the renewing of the mind”. Knowledge is important. As Dallas Willard says, our faith must be based on something other than just dumb luck. We are formed by what we know and believe and the only way we know more is by intentionally learning and stretching our thinking.

We see evidences of this part of formation all around the Scriptures. Again, we see this in our Acts 2 template where it says that “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” in verse 42. We also have the oft-quoted passage in Romans 12 where Paul admonishes us to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds” so that “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Again in 2 Timothy 2:15 we read that in the example of Timothy he is encouraged to “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” There are traditions who are very passionate about learning as important to formation. For example, the presbyterian tradition, especially the PCA, places a large emphasis on learning.

I also grew up in an environment that placed a large emphasis on learning and knowledge. In fact, 2 Timothy 2:15 was one that I remember hearing about over and over again! The unwritten belief was: get your knowledge correct, your doctrines in order and you will be a mature disciple. In fact, a mature believer was generally one who had the right answers to the theology questions.

Over time many have recognized that this is not helpful when taken to this extreme. We have recognized that knowledge does not automatically lead to maturity. We know plenty of Christians who have all the “right answers” but their lives show little Christlikeness. So, we’ve wisely said “Following Jesus isn’t all about knowing the right information about the Bible.” But, in the process many of us have more or less said in practice, “Following Jesus isn’t about knowledge at all”. This approach obviously has swung the pendulum way too far.

We can’t hold knowledge up as the “only” thing in discipleship. But we do need knowledge as part of the formation puzzle. This is especially true since we are in a post-Christian culture where Biblical knowledge is at an all time low. We must find ways to teach people the truths of Scripture and give them the tools to study on their own.

This is why James K. Smith wrote his book Desiring the Kingdom. He says the point of his book is that “It is an invitation to re-vision CHristian education as a formative rather than just an informative project.” This is a key thought because it shows that education is an important part of our formation, not just a means of cramming more information into our heads.

As churches, we must do better at talking creating an educational environment that forms people for witness. Again, this comes back to realizing that we cannot remove our discipleship, especially our educational piece, from mission.

The Acts 2 Church?

As we have seen the witness of Scripture, especially Acts 2, formation of a community takes on five main forms. As communities, we have traditionally emphasized one or two of these pieces of the puzzle at the expense of the others. If we are going to be forming holistic disciples of Jesus Christ, than we need each other in the process. In the local church, we must build leadership structures that allow people of all different gifts and passions to teach others. The fact is, most pastors are gifted to teach in one or two areas. We needs pastors who willing to give up their positions of power and allow those in their communities who are gifted in other pieces to take the reigns and lead the community. In the same way, we need leaders of traditions and denominations and movements to realize that their way is not the only way and that they can learn from traditions wider than their own. If we do not work together we will not only be making incomplete disciples but we will be ignoring the witness of scripture as well as the witness of the Church over the centuries.

One of the things I have realized here is that it is actually possible to have an “Acts 2 church”.  But, we have to take Acts 2 in a descriptive way, not a prescriptive way. We are not called to copy Acts 2 exactly as we see it.  We can however learn from Acts 2.  When we do, I believe we see a five-fold approach to Spiritual Formation. With this Puzzle approach to community formation we can see how a church in Zambia as well as a church in Center City Philly to a church in Suburban Chicago could be helped by contextualizing what it means to be in relationships together (Relational Formation), learn together (Educational Formation), worship together (Liturgical Formation), service together (Missional Formation) and learn what it means to be formed inwardly together (Personal Formation).

Over the last year, we at The Well have been living, learning and leaning into this framework. I would love to hear your feedback, thoughts and ideas as we continue to wrestle through rhythms of community life that lead us to take active participation in our formation as individuals in the context of community.

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