The Moravian director of church planting says that a good church planter lives by the motto, Ready, Fire, Aim. I like this motto, as it does not spend as much time aiming, but shoots, then aims before they fire again. They try, and if it works, they keep their aim where it is, if not, they are free to take a look at how close they came to what they were shooting at.
That being said, the past few weeks I have noticed in my own conversations with others, that I have been talking more and more about the Christ who is a revolutionary. I seek to be a disciple of the Jesus who calls us to leave everything we know and follow wherever he goes. The other side of the coin in the church is that it seems to be a pastor, one must be comfortable with evolutionary change.
I wish I knew how to juggle both Revolution and Evolution in a way which would best service others who seek to be Christ followers. They keep telling me that prayer is the most important aspect of church planting...perhaps it is time I started taking that to heart and made it more of a focus in my ministry.
Showing posts with label church planting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church planting. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Church Planting Seminar in Chicago
Today was the first day of the church planting seminar put on by the ELCA. It wasn't particularly interesting as the church planting class I took in Ashland, Ohio.
Today we made sure we had a sure theological grounding to be a church planter. It turned out that most of the ELCA planters would one up each other on who had the dirtiest quote from Luther. Now, I am not one to shun cursing, but to think that people who don't preach the gospel ought to be run out of town and have dung thrown at them... thats a bit extreme. Back to the theological background. We did this exercise which had us think of positive theological statements for church planting. So many of the phrases that were offered up to the group were in "churchese" which is language only people who have grown up in the church would understand. I realize that I'm probably a decent offender when it comes to this, but in this setting, it became very evident that most of the people here were going to be planting churches for people who already have some church background.
Then, one gentleman offered this gem up to the group. When we were talking about what we as church planters are not, he said, "we are not people who's theology can be placed on a bumper sticker. Had you said this to me a few months ago, I would have agreed in full, but recently, I saw a bumper sticker put out by my collegue Suzanne's church http://www.thebarnlv.org/loading.html which simply states "Love Wins." which I just love. Now, I still have a strong distaste for hokey theology or cheesy statements which are a big part of Christian culture, but to say something like "Love Wins." is bad theology is just crazy. It seems to me that often we make theology so complex in order to never have to live it because we need to spend more time understanding it all. Something as simple as "Love Wins." makes a great bumper sticker as well as gives us little to learn and lots to do.
Other than that, the small group of Moravians have had some wonderful conversations with each other and the new director of church planting, Fred Lehr. Sometimes in our conversations over meals, it is quite clear to see how different our thinking is between the modern and post modern church, but I am happy that he is willing to engage in the conversation, as I have met other people in church leadership who simply dismiss the post modern movement.
Tomorrow will hopefully be more practical. We did get a paper to fill out which would help us create a 6 month plan, but as it will be at least 18 months before I get out into the church plant, I did not place a high priority on it just yet.
Today we made sure we had a sure theological grounding to be a church planter. It turned out that most of the ELCA planters would one up each other on who had the dirtiest quote from Luther. Now, I am not one to shun cursing, but to think that people who don't preach the gospel ought to be run out of town and have dung thrown at them... thats a bit extreme. Back to the theological background. We did this exercise which had us think of positive theological statements for church planting. So many of the phrases that were offered up to the group were in "churchese" which is language only people who have grown up in the church would understand. I realize that I'm probably a decent offender when it comes to this, but in this setting, it became very evident that most of the people here were going to be planting churches for people who already have some church background.
Then, one gentleman offered this gem up to the group. When we were talking about what we as church planters are not, he said, "we are not people who's theology can be placed on a bumper sticker. Had you said this to me a few months ago, I would have agreed in full, but recently, I saw a bumper sticker put out by my collegue Suzanne's church http://www.thebarnlv.org/loading.html which simply states "Love Wins." which I just love. Now, I still have a strong distaste for hokey theology or cheesy statements which are a big part of Christian culture, but to say something like "Love Wins." is bad theology is just crazy. It seems to me that often we make theology so complex in order to never have to live it because we need to spend more time understanding it all. Something as simple as "Love Wins." makes a great bumper sticker as well as gives us little to learn and lots to do.
Other than that, the small group of Moravians have had some wonderful conversations with each other and the new director of church planting, Fred Lehr. Sometimes in our conversations over meals, it is quite clear to see how different our thinking is between the modern and post modern church, but I am happy that he is willing to engage in the conversation, as I have met other people in church leadership who simply dismiss the post modern movement.
Tomorrow will hopefully be more practical. We did get a paper to fill out which would help us create a 6 month plan, but as it will be at least 18 months before I get out into the church plant, I did not place a high priority on it just yet.
Monday, February 11, 2008
An Interesting Question
Its a warm 2 degrees here in Chicago today. Suzanne and I arrived around noon for a 3 day seminar for church planters. We got in, dropped off our luggage and went out for a walk to a local grocery store for lunch and for me to get tooth paste, as security found me trying to sneak more than 3.4oz of Crest onto the plane. I tried to argue that even though it was a 6oz. container, it was more than half gone. I might have pushed harder, but I quickly remembered that airport security could have me strip searched, and I quickly bid goodbye to my toothpaste.
Upon our return to the hotel, I found my roommate in the room. He is from India, but currently working in the middle of NJ. We talked about quite a bit in a short time. Family, faith, church planting. He was telling me of the struggles of the church in India when an interesting question came up.
He said that the Christians in India used to start schools, hospitals, or other ways of interacting with the community in order to do outreach/evangelism. Now-a-days, those institutions are being taken over by secular or by other faiths. So if the way which we as Christians used to show the love of Christ to others is not as accessable as it was in the past, what ways can we continue to show that love?
I think that'd be a neat question to have the people who read this blog answer.
Upon our return to the hotel, I found my roommate in the room. He is from India, but currently working in the middle of NJ. We talked about quite a bit in a short time. Family, faith, church planting. He was telling me of the struggles of the church in India when an interesting question came up.
He said that the Christians in India used to start schools, hospitals, or other ways of interacting with the community in order to do outreach/evangelism. Now-a-days, those institutions are being taken over by secular or by other faiths. So if the way which we as Christians used to show the love of Christ to others is not as accessable as it was in the past, what ways can we continue to show that love?
I think that'd be a neat question to have the people who read this blog answer.
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