Todd Hiestand
Missional Living in Suburban America
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Archive of "Missional" Category
Understanding Africa 6-11
Still reading through the book African Friends and Money Matters by David Maranz.This book goes through 90 general observations about African Life, especially in relation to money. Below are observations: 6, 7, 7W, 8, 9. (Here is 1-5)
6. The fact that most people are overextended financially produces profound effects on society.
“Maranz writes,
“The level of individual worry is very high. There are widespread anxieties over the basic food supply, employment, health in general and AIDS in particular, government instabilities, education for children or self, increase in thievery in many urban areas and others…”
Some implications are: Friendships strained as they borrow from friends and can’t pay back. They aren’t in credit card debt but instead to their friends, they have the constant temptation to dip their hands into funds that aren’t theirs but are under their control because of this pressure, and others…
Basically, when times get hard Africans only have personal, relational means available to get out from under the financial pressure. In America, we have impersonal means to do so (working an extra job, credit, etc).
7. Being involved financially and materially with friends and relatives is a very important element of social action.
He explains how this causes difficulty when Westerners come into the culture and they have discussions about money since they are not part of this inner circle. I think this is a big deal and I am still working out the implications of it in my head.
7w. Westerners distrust friendships that regularly include financial or material exchanges. (The “W” is the western perspective to #7).
This is an obvious difference from the first #7. Westerners tend to view friendship and money as things not to be combined.
8. Africans assist their friends who are in financial need as a form of investment for those future times when they themselves might have needs. This arrangement constitutes a virtual banking or savings system.
The most interesting thing as a result of this is that generally speaking Africans don’t budget. Budgeting requires putting away money for later, money that could be lent to friends in need. If they budget they are breaking the system. Interesting.
9. The financial implications of friendship and solidarity go beyond immediate friends to include secondary relationships.
“There is no way to evaluate the validity of such requests or size up the petitioner. The African way is to trust the friend who is making the request. To question the validity of the need is to question the integrity of the African friend. Westerners are accustomed to making value judgements for themselves…”
I continued to be enlightened and intrigued by this book. I am sure it will all make much more sense once I am in Africa and getting myself into the culture. Even though I ahve been to Africa before, I am still such an outsider (And likely will always be!).
Posted in Africa, General, Leadership, Missional |
No Comments »Developing Missional Values, Programs, Budgets, Goals
I am continually trying to work out how to better think through and organize our community in a natural and semi-organic way so that we can best live out or mission and our values.
I spend a lot of time thinking about this “organizing for mission” concept and as part of my thinking I brainstormed a generalized flow of thought for how we develop programs, ideas and even budgets. In fact, what you will see below came mostly from a conversation around budgets in our leadership team. We were working through some questions such as:
- What is a good use of the churches finances?
- What is a poor use of the churches finances, where do we prioritize our finances at the church?
- How do we make sure that we’re giving and putting our money into things that are helpful and help us live out our mission?
You know, fun questions like that.
So, here is a little, “flow of thought” that I came up with. Note, this is probably not good for all times in all places, but I think its a helpful start…
Our Strengths lead us to discover our Values and Mission.
I think this is a key piece that we miss. While we all have a general mission to make disciples and share the love of Jesus, I am a believer that the diversity of the body of Christ is global as well as local. My church is gifted for things that your church isn’t. Your church is gifted in ways that my church isn’t. So, as we are looking at our specific mission, we have to ask first and foremost, what are our strengths? What are the ways that God has distinctively gifted our specific community for mission in this specific location at this specific time…
Our Strengths help us look at specific, present needs in our community and in our neighborhoods.
I think this is a piece we all too often miss. We often run forward with ideas and ministries without ever asking whether our community or neighborhood even needs what we are trying to offer. A classic example is the church that wants to start a coffee shop. Now, that’s a great idea. But, the question that is often not asked is, “Does our town need a coffee shop or do we just think it would be cool to have one?” This is perhaps the longest part of this little flow here. It takes a LOT of listening and a lot of patience and then it takes some more listening and some more patience. This is usually the unglamorous process of sitting in township meetings, PTA meetings, etc.
The needs plus our values and mission help us discover our specific priorities that God is calling us to focus on.
Once we are aware of the specific ways that God has gifted us and we are aware of the needs of the community and our neighborhoods, we are better able to look at specific priorities and goals. I think far too often we don’t get specific enough with priorities. At least, in churches like mine, we don’t get specific enough. In the churches I grew up in, maybe we were a little too specific and programmed. I guess I am not talking about 10 year goals and priorities but more short term, specific, tangible goals that relate to our mission, our values, our strengths and the needs of the community. An example, for us at The Well, we want to be involved locally, and we’re doing our best to get involved in the local neighborhood around Feasterville. Priority: Go to at least one town meeting a month.
Our specific priorities help us discover important programs.
When we have specific prorities, we can then creat programs, plans or relational environments to help meet these goals. We don’t create programs up front and then see what happens. We create programs to help us meet goals. These programs are goal based so once they help us meet our goals, they might just end. I think this is the best way to look at programs. Its not a programs for the sake of programs approach. Rather, its a programs for the sake of mission approach.
Our specific programs guide us to the support structures and systems we need in place.
When we have programs or relational environments that are driven by our mission we can look at what kinds of structures and systems we need to have in place for these to thrive.
All of this together helps us decide our budget.
It’s only at this point that we decide our budget. We don’t make a budget adn then fill in some ministries and goals that fit into what we think we can do. We make a budget based off our mission and we invite God to provide the resources that will help us live the mission he has called us to.
Here is a visual representation of this (click on it to enlarge it)…
Posted in General, Leadership, Missional, Money & The Church, The Church, The Well |
4 Comments »Missional in Suburbia Seminar in the Philly Suburbs - Time to Register
A few months ago I made an early announcement of a seminar we are hosting at The Well on the topic of the missional church in suburbia. We are honored to be able to bring in Al Hsu. Al is the author of the book, The Suburban Christian. I read this book last year and found it really, really helpful. Al not only gets the missional church stuff but also really gets the under the surface issues around the development of suburbia and the calleges that the church faces in this context.
So, get off your over busy, suburban, individualized, consumer-driven butts and sign up for this seminar!
The seminar is August 9, 2008 from 9am - 4pm.
On Friday night the 8th we’ll be having an open house at The Well for those who want to hang out and get to know some people. This time will be free and will also be an event for the Philly Emergent Cohort.
You can see the schedule for Saturday and more details here.
The cost is a mere $25 for the day and that includes lunch.
Just for the record, there will be lots of coffee for the event from One Village Coffee, a local roaster in our area. And yes, its 100% fair trade and organic. I like to call it super tasty and super good for the farmer.
The event will be in partnership with the Ecclesia Network and C4ML of Biblical Seminary.
Oh, REGISTER HERE.
There is room for about 80 spots so sign up quickly…
Posted in General, Leadership, Missional, Suburbia, The Well |
5 Comments »Giving is Only as Strong as Your Mission…
Our house church has been thriving now for over 2 years and I can honestly say I’ve not once had to preach a sermon on tithing or giving, and yet our small gathering gave thousands of dollars to the help the poor in our community last year. In fact, we’re on track to double last year’s amount, and I’ve never had to beg or plead for our members to dig deep or give more. Why is this? What’s the big difference?
The simple fact is that our people can tangibly connect every dollar and penny they give with how it directly assists people in need. We keep nothing for ourselves and give all of the money we receive away to the poor. When our members connect their dollars with actual people receiving assistance they are glad to give all that they can to help others.
This is an interesting thought here. I have talked with pastor after pastor and when the conversation turns to issues of financing our mission, its usually a conversation around how “things are tight” and “we’re struggling.” Now, what I am not about to say is that we never struggle financially at The Well, but I am about to say that we have a similarly generous community as this person is describing above. I am continually amazed at the generosity of our church. It’s really inspiring.
Now this person is writing from a house church perspective and perhaps the most interesting thing that he says is that, “The simple fact is that our people can tangibly connect every dollar and penny they give with how it directly assists people in need.”
Shouldn’t this be true of every church!? I mean seriously? Shouldn’t it?
Ken Callahan, author, a mentor of mine and one of the key consultants for the Salvation Army (who, by the way, receive the most charitable giving of any other non-profit organization by a large margin) recently told me that charitable giving is actually up in America. Charitable giving in the church? Down. There is a problem here isn’t there? If part of growing a generous community is connecting every dollar we spend to people actually in need, the church should be the best at this. I really believe that. I mean, if i didn’t, I wouldn’t be a pastor.
I think the problem here is one of two options:
- Our leaders are not clearly teaching our communities how the gifts that they give are changing lives and changing the world.
- The gifts that our communities are giving are not actually changing the world and our mission is not actually that compelling.
I’ll be wiling to argue that it’s probably a combination of both. I think that most of our churches are really doing some amazing things and far too often when we talk about financial giving in our churches we do a terrible job of connecting how the organization spends its money with the impact these gifts are having. I also am more than willing to admit that our churches are downright wasting money on things that don’t really matter.
Both of these issues are a big problem.
At The Well, when I stand up to introduce offering every week I do my best to connect the gifts that we are about share with each other to how they are being used for the sake of the Kingdom. Its a good check for me as a leader. If I can’t point to how the gifts are being used, I better not be asking our people to participate in giving. I really believe that.
Questions I have to ask myself:
- Is the part-time salaries we are paying our staff resulting in kingdom work?
- Is the building we are paying for each month being used for kingdom work?
- Is the way we are spending our money really being used for kingdom work?
I, for one, believe that Kingdom work is being done at The Well and with good conciouse I can invite people to share in this mission together with their finances. The moment I stop believing that we are doing good will be the moment I can’t stand in front of my community with integrity and invite them to give.
So, we go back to what Ken Callahan said about charitable giving being up in the States and down in the Church. Why? Perhaps its because a) these organziations are doing better at teaching their constituints how their gifts are making a difference and b) these organizations are actually making a difference…
Is your community making a difference?
Is it clear how your community is making a difference?
I believe that our churhes are making a difference. I also believe that each and everyone (including The Well!) can do better at making a difference. I also really believe that as leaders, we need to do a better job of teaching our communties how their gifts are really making a difference for the sake of the Kingdom.
All that to say, Giving is only as strong as your mission.
Posted in General, Leadership, Missional, Money & The Church, The Church, The Well |
No Comments »Four Missional Movements for the Suburban Church
At The Well, we’ve been studying the book of Acts. Its been a very, very formative and challenging book for us to work through. For me, there have been four ways that my life, and I think our life, has been challenged so far.
Here are four movements that I’ve seen:
From Individual to Communal
As individuals we are important, very, very important. But we need to continually celebrate the individual but we must do it within the context of community. Our world is so individualized that we’ve lost a sense that there is something greater than ourselves. In our culture, this is a challenge because we are so good at isolating ourselves and disconnecting ourselves from the rest of the world. Our priorities can easily become very selfish and insulated.From Consumptive to Cooperative
When you live in a world that holds individualism as a god you naturally going to find that consuming is a higher priority than cooperative. If the most important thing is me, than I am going to do my best to take care of me. But, if the most important thing is me, in the context of community than we can start thinking about cooperation together for a common goal.Event to Family
We need to rethink our definition of “church.” When we come to “church” as an individual who is primarily a consumer we begin to view church as an “event” where we can consume spirituality or religion to meet our own personal needs. The alternative here is to move from church as event to church as family. When we approach “church” as individuals in a community where we are cooperating together for a common goal its almost impossible to think of church as an event. Instead a better metaphor for church, as we have talked about at The Well a lot recently, is “family.” A family cooperating together to care together for the individual needs, all for a common goal.From Sucking in to Sending out
The idea of a common goal then leads us to the final movement. The challenge of the family metaphor in the church setting is to not become all cliquish and even worse cultish. But, when you take a group of individuals, who are here to consume and think of the “church” as a event, you end up with a “church” that is sucking in rather than sending out. We’re all drawn into a Sunday event and leave behind our primary mission field. But, when we view the “church” as a community that is dependent on each other and cooperates together, it is not naturally seen as something that sucks in but instead sends out.Refread Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This is the mission that drives the early church (and should drive our churches as well!).
This cannot be done if the church is an random collection of individuals who are coming to an event to consume christianity. But, this mission can be accomplished if “church is defined as a family that cooperates together for a greater purpose.
Posted in Culture, General, Missional, Suburbia, The Church, The Well |
1 Comment »Westerners in Africa, The Challenge
Since I am heading to Zambia in June this year I’ve been trying to do some reading and education about the challenge of westerners living and working in Africa. This challenge was made clear to my by my dad who spend about 10 years serving in sub-Saharan Africa as a representative of larger worldwide missions agency. We didn’t live there or anything but he did travel there a lot when I was a kid. He basically spent those 10 years trying to work out relationship between the Church in the West and the Church in Africa.
When I told him that I would be going to Zambia with this very purpose in mind, I was surprised by his lack of enthusiasm. It wasn’t because he wasn’t excited for me. But, his hesitancy was for a different reason. He saw first hand just how hard it was for these two worlds to relate to each other. He told me, “I’m still convinced that the two Churches need each other. But, its just really, really complicated.” This was a good wake up call for me as I head on what I hope will be a very, very fruitful trip. So, like I said, I’m trying to spend some time learning and reading as best I can before I go.
At the suggestion of a friend, I got a book called, “African Friends and Money Matters.” The man who suggested this book to me is a leader in the Amahoro project which is doing some great work. He told basically told me (via e-mail) that I had to read this book. So, being the obedient person that I am I went out and bought it. I am jsut starting it but the book takes task of looking at the differences in the two cultures and how that creates challenges to working together. He writes,
“Basically the two systems mix about as well as oil and vinegar: the mix makes a god salad dressing only with great and constant effort. But this does not mean that African people and Westerners do not mix. I believe they do mix quite easily, and that they frequently develop friendships with each other. But rather serious misunderstandings commonly occur because the economic habits, behaviors and traditions each brings to the relationship are so different at so many points. These are major handicaps for both Westerners and there African friends to overcome. The major purpose of this book is to help each party understand the other in these complex cross cultural interactions. A better understanding of the principles that each participant follows should enable each to build a better relationship with the other.”
I’m looking forward to learning through this book….
Posted in General, Missional, Zambia 2008 |
No Comments »The Consuming Christian and the Consuming Church
I was thinking Sunday morning as I was getting ready for church. I do that sometimes… think, that is. Anyways, we’ve had a number of new people visiting our community recently. There is a general theme going on with their story. Many of these folk have come from either not being in church for a long period of time or suffering (their words) through being part of a church that is not very life-giving.
At The Well, we typically do a great job of scaring off chronic church hoppers because we’re a little, uh… different. If our ugly warehouse doesn’t care them off, something else is bound to. But, when people who are Christians come into our community, we want to be sure to let them know that we’re passionate about the unity of the body of Christ. So, we strongly urge them to be sure that they are not leaving their old church on bad terms and if they are, they really should get things right before they move on, whether its with us or with another church. If it seems like someone is running from conflict or something else, this is a problem.
Another thing that I try and say up front is that we’re not desperate for new members. We don’t “need” them as part of our community for our ego, growth, size or even our budget. We are passionate about seeing people become part of our community who are passionate about the gospel and serving God where He has them.
This gets me to the point of this post. Someone in at The Well said recently that “you can’t consume community.” I think that’s true. New people learn quick (at least I hope they do) that if you are going to be part of The Well, we’re not going to live out your faith for you. Our goal is not to make your spiritual walk easy with a bunch of prefabbed programs. If you want to get involved in what God is doing here, or you see an area that we can grow as a community, you are likely an important part of the solution! You can’t come to The Well with a consumer mindset or you won’t be happy for too long. Of course, this doesn’t mean we won’t do our best to walk alongside you. But we’re not going walk for you…
Of course there is another side to this. I think some churches are consuming churches. Growing up, I was in church on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and twice on Sunday. Now I don’t actually want to be too negative on my church that I grew up in. I loved that church experience. I learned of God’s love there and it it was full of amazing of people. But, the fact is, the church ruled my life. I was always at church events. We were a heavily programmed church and as a result, I was very rarely “out” in the world relating to anyone who wasn’t a Christian (its a good thing I was in public school so I could at least relate to the world a little bit). In a sense, the church consumed me. (Which, ironically taught me to be a consuming christian. Consuming all the programs and all the services that they offered me. It could be argued that even consuming opportunities to serve.
Here’s the problem. When two things consume each other…one of them has to die. Right? When two animals fight, one consumes the other. They are either both desperately wounded or one of them wins.
I wonder if this is what happens to many of the people who end up leaving larger, consumer driven churches. The people who are really good at consuming get by and make it. But the ones who are willing to serve and really want to give end up getting consumed…
Thoughts?
(Note, I am not willing to say that large chuches are evil, they just have this big challenge to deal with. Small churches have their own challenges to deal with).
Posted in General, Leadership, Missional, Suburbia, The Church, The Well |
6 Comments »On Being a Part-Time Pastor…
I am a part-time pastor. Well, I am paid part time to be a pastor.
Many people have asked me over e-mail or in person, how this part time in two worlds thing works. In case you are new here and have no clue what I am talking about, I am part-time as lead pastor at The Well and I also run my own freelance web design business. Giving proper attention to the two isn’t easy and its something that I am learning to do better and better.
As far as being part-time at my church, I love it. As you can imagine, its not easy. But, its so rewarding. It not only frees my up to be more of a “normal person” with a normal job and normal pressures like deadlines, but it also gives us the ability to have more diversity in our leadership and staff at the church.
I work alongside a part-time co-pastor who we like to call Gary Alloway. As we were in the midst of a transition at church a few years back, we decided that I would stay part time so that we would be able to hire another part-time pastor. I’ll be honest here, I don’t think The Well would be anything like it is today if either he or I were one full-time pastor. We bring such different (and complementary) leadership gifts to the community. The biggest difference is that I think big picture, longer term vision and big mission stuff. He’s an “on the ground” type of guy and really helps us get stuff done. If not for him, we’d spend all our time talking about doing big things and never getting them done. He’s always listening to me dream about the future and that is usually followed up with, “Okay, how are we going to do that?” I can’t tell you how invaluable this has been to my leadership and his.
My first four years at The Well were spent working together with one of my good friends. I was an awesome time of growth and change for our us and our church community. He’s since moved on and I’ve realized that the biggest deficiencies in our leadership together was that we had very similar giftings as leaders. We are both gifted to think with big vision and big dreams, but we weren’t as good with the details and the things that it took to see that vision happen. While I very, very much miss working with Brad, working with Gary has been so rewarding because we are so different and continue to challenge each other in such different ways.
The other thing that this part-time model does is that it sends a very clear message that our leadership is not responsible to “do all the work” of the ministry. We do not see ourselves as the ones who “run the show” as much as we see ourselves as ones who help guide and support others in their calling. Since we’re part-time, its really hard to fall into the trap of being leaders to do all the work while the rest of the community sits back and enjoys the ride. We just don’t have the time to do that.
I remember when we began moving to this model I was able to say to the church:
“Listen, the pastors are only part time, we can’t do everything. If we are going to move forward as a community its going to have to be a group effort. I believe God has called each one of us in a particular and unique way. As you feel God calling you to serve our each other and our neighbor, we are here to help support this calling. We’re in this together…”
About a week after I said that (or something like that) I was talking with a woman after church and our dialogue went something like this:
Her: “We should start a woman’s bible study.”
Me: “Yeah, that sounds great, let me know what you need in order to do that.”
Her: “Wait, what? You want me to do it?”
Me: “Yeah, you are more qualified than me.”
Her: “Uh, well, can I do that? Just start one?”
Me: “Yeah, you don’t really need my permission to lead a bible study with other women. I think that fits well into what we are trying to do here.”
Her: “Okay. Uh, sure. Uh, how about I talk to some other women and let you know what we decide.”
Me: “Great! Let me know how I can support you.”This woman, more than qualified to lead other women, led this bible study for about a year. It was neat to see her see a need and be part of the solution…
For me a big difference has been a movement from being someone who runs everything and does everything to being part of a team effort and a community effort. I’ll be honest, when one person is doing all the work life is a lot easier. Communication is easier. Understanding roles in leadership is easier. Leadership meetings are easier. Why? Because it all falls back on one person. The one who gets paid. The professional. But, in this scenario, its understood and clear that Gary and I are not the ones solely responsible for everything in the church. We are responsible for a lot. More than most but that is because the community has chosen to set aside financial means for us to concentrate extra effort on our mission. Most of our leadership falls into leading our community further and better in our mission and calling, encouraging, training and empowering others to serve the Kingdom of God in the ways that God is calling them.
Okay, I’d better stop. I need to go make some websites…
Posted in General, Leadership, Missional, The Well |
3 Comments »Open Handed Ministry
(I posted this post over at my other blog that I don’t think will actually take off again because I am realizing I can’t put energy into two blogs, so I am reposting it here).
If you are a pastor, here’s a question: How do you refer the people in your church? Most pastors I know use interesting language when talking about the congregation they pastor in. They usually are called “my people?” Now, I understand that this might be semantics but I tend to think that semantics are pretty dang important.
Calling the congregation “my people” obviously speaks of possession. But, are they really your people or are they really God’s people? Sure, you say, of course they are God’s people. Right. What God-respecting pastor would ever think that the people in the congregation that he pastors are actually his and not God’s? But, far too often there is a disconnect between what we say and what happens in practice.
Over the years (all 7 of them) I’ve learned to hold the people at The Well with open hands. They are not in my possession. I have grow very aware that the Kingdom of God is much bigger than The Well. God has called many families, couples and singles to other parts of the country. It seems like we are constantly sending people out to serve God in different locations. I don’t consider this a loss for The Well but a gain for the Kingdom of God.
I think this thought also applies to people who are visiting our community and searching for a congregation that they can join in the mission there. I am not really into begging for these visitors to stay at The Well. Sometimes I hope they don’t! I think when we sit with those who are searching for a community (I’m not speaking of church shoppers here - speaking of people who are genuinely looking for a community to serve in) pastors start their sales pitch as to why these people should join their church.
But this can’t be what we do, we have to hold even these new people with an open hand. There is a very good chance that they don’t need to go to your church, even if you are hurting financially and you could use their tithe! It’s quite possible God is calling them somewhere else. So, as pastors I think we need to stop hoping they will be sold on our community but truly serve them well as they are in our midst.
I always tell “new people” that we aren’t desperate for new members but we are desperate to help them on their journey. If that means they become an active member of our community, great. But if that means we find them a church family that fits their gifting better than that’s what we need to do.
When it all comes down to it, what’s our goal? Grow our church? Or is it to serve the kingdom of God?
I hope its the second. Because when we do that, we’ll be serving God’s people well…
Posted in General, Leadership, Missional, The Church |
3 Comments »MereMission: Missions, Missional & The Global Church
I’ve got my first post of the new MereMission up. Here’s an excerpt:
One of in things to say in churches that claim to be “missional” is something like this: “we don’t have a missions program, our church is a missions program.” This is a great statement, I’ve said it quite often and I am a firm believer that we need to understand and see our entire church as “missional.” This means, that everything we do as a community is for the sake of witness, for the sake of the proclimation of the risen messiah….
Read the rest of my post at MereMission
Posted in General, Leadership, MereMission, Missional, The Church |
No Comments »Missional in Suburbia
There is a growing discussion around this topic. Go here for a good overview and here for a good collection of resources. I’m excited about the conversation because I think its so important. So much so that I went out and bought a new domain name. I’m not totally sure what I am going to do with it yet, but i do have some ideas.
Posted in General, Missional, Suburbia |
No Comments »The Church & Suburbia Seminar with Al Hsu
I know this is early, but with vacations in the summer, I’m trying to get the word our early.
So here it goes…On August 8-9, 2008, my church The Well, in partnership with the Ecclesia Network and C4ML at Biblical Seminary, will be hosting a one-day conference with Al Hsu, author of The Suburban Christian around the topic of Suburbia and the mission of the Church.
EVENT SUMMARY
“God always shows up in the most God-forsaken places.”
- Alan Roxburgh
In some ways, it doesn’t get any more God-forsaken than suburban America. This seminar will take a look at two important topics: Suburbia and the Church. For some people, there is a sentiment that its impossible to really be the church in the ‘burbs. But for others, we believe that this is the place that God has called us. If we are going to stay, we need to ask what it means to “be the church” in a culture that is defined by comfort, consumerism, isolation, wealth, strip malls and hidden poverty. This one day seminar will focus on the development and culture of suburbia and the opportunities and challenges that this context presents the Church. We are honored to have Al Hsu, author of The Suburban Christian, lead the discussion along with some other local pastors and thinkers.
This one day conference is open to all and will be helpful for pastors, lay leaders and members of congregations. Our goal is to have some substantial discussion around practical issues that relate to the everyday practice of the Church and the Christian life.
EVENT DETAILS:
Cost:
$25 (includes lunch)Dates
August 8-9, 2008SCHEDULE:
Friday Night:
7pm - 10pm: Optional Open House / Meet and Greet at The WellSaturday:
9:00 - 10:15 “Understanding the Suburban Context”
10:15 - 10:30 Break
10:30 - 11:45 “Ministering In, To and From Suburbia”
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 2:00 “Envisioning a New Suburbia”
2:00 - 4:00 panel/discussionOTHER INFORMATION:
Recommended Reading:
The Suburban Christian by Al HsuThe Gospel and The God Forsaken by Todd Hiestand
Helpful Links:
Steve McCoy has collected a list of links around this topic hereQuestions?
Contact MePosted in General, Missional, Suburbia, The Church, The Well |
3 Comments »Environmentalists in the Church
No, not those kind of environmentalists. Not the ones who talk about caring for the earth. I’m all for that. But, I’m referring to leaders who create environments that give room for people to change as Joe Myers talks about in his book The Search to Belong,
“Environmentalists” practice restraint when it comes to controlling the results. They are primarily concerned with creating a “healthy” climate for spontaneity to occur. They develop simple environmental parameters and then sit back and see what happens. “Programmers” on the other hand, take control.
If we are to allow people full opportunities to belong, we must switch from being group programmers to becoming group environmentalists. It starts with giving up control.
Too often we press our good intentions to excess. We don’t help people, we control people. We enjoy the power of knowing the best road to someone else’s well-being….
Yes, we can be of some help to others as they grow and lead their own lives forward. But we do not grow and lead people; only they can do that [by the working of the Holy Spirit]. We like to believe that we hold the answers people need in order to grow, because if we hold these truths, we hold the power and control.
It is time to give up the intoxicating need to control other people’s lives. It is time to start leading our own lives in healthy ways. People need us to help in healthy ways, not controlling ways. This is the “holy grail” for which people are searching in the promise of belonging. They want help in healthy ways, they want to connect in healthy ways, and they want to experience family in healthy ways….
There is a wealth of stuff in this whole chapter, it’s worth a read. From a pastoral standpoint, I have realized that having people’s spiritual formation all figured out for them showing them exactly where they need to go is often both not helpful and counterproductive.
My focus from a large community standpoint is to create environments that give people spaces to pursue community and spiritual formation in ways that relate to their personality, needs and place in life. I would argue that a large part of this then is not just stepping back and letting things happen and have some what of a free-for-all, smorgasbord thing…but then requires the leadership to get to know to individuals and see how we can help them connect, grow and belong as unique individuals. This will no doubt involve encouraging people to go places they have not been before both in relation to God and others. But, this will be from a very gentle and “listening first” kind of approach.
I also very much appreciate Joe’s comments about control. Taking this approach requires that I now trust that the Holy Spirit is truly working in people’s lives and I as a leader an there to join that work already in progress.
Posted in General, Leadership, Missional, The Church |
No Comments »Community: Stop Making Excuses
I was at the bank last July to send a large sum of money to Guatemala as the last part of our payment for the adoption. As I was waiting in line the man in front of me, in somewhat of a panic, was pleading with the bank tellers to help him with his situation. He had apparently deposited a check earlier in the day for a client that he wasn’t supposed to deposit, and he needed that check back. From the way he was talking, he needed it back badly. He wasn’t being rude. He was just very intensely trying to plead with the tellers and let them how know big of a deal this really was. The tellers, while trying to help, were responding to him with reasons as to why they couldn’t get the check back. All the reasons made sense. It was right after one of these reasons that the man said something that I will never forget.
He said, “It would help me if you didn’t keep telling me why you can’t get this done and begin sharing with me how you can get this done. Let’s be proactive please.”
Wow. What a great statement. Admittedly, I am a very good excuse maker. Perhaps one of the best that I know. This is crippling. Its admitting defeat with little effort at changing the outcome. Honestly, it’s fairly lazy. I am good at that too.
I was thinking about my frustration with the suburban life again this week and specifically how it relates to how busy we are and how little my family and I are able to be with our closest friends. It seems as if we go by week after week saying how we want to “do life together” and “be in community.” Bla. bla. bla.
The problem is that we continually find reasons why we can’t do this. Busy here. Busy there. Something came up here. Something came up there. We are all guilty. Not one of us is innocent.
So, taking this guy’s advice my wife and I decided to start thinking about how we can be with our community more often. We decided we would be a little proactive and see what happens. On Monday I sent an e-mail out to some people from our church who lived in the general vicinity to us and invited them all over for an open dinner on Friday nights for the month of February (We’re starting with Feb and seeing what happens - I’ve learned that trying little experiments are better than acting like this will be the one thing that will work for all time). The idea here is that our house is open to anyone starting at 5:30pm. If no one shows up, we’ll be okay we’re eating anyways. Of course, we ask people to let us know they are coming so we can prepare enough food and so that they can bring something to contribute if possible.
Now, Melanie and I live in a small apartment. We don’t have enough room for everyone. It’s not easy to have a house ready for people and to make dinner for a large group like that. But, those are reasons we can’t do this. Reasons we can? We love to. We have a roof over our heads. We have food. We love to host people in our homes. I can get working earlier on Friday mornings so that I can get home earlier in the afternoon to help Melanie get ready.
Last Friday night was awesome. We had seven people in our home. One family who we rarely get to see. We ate together in our small kitchen and then sat in our living room till midnight talking and telling stories. For some reason I found it profound and really awesome that at one time during the night, I was cutting our friend’s daughters’ smily face mashed potatoes for her. That’s how it should be. Will this last? We’ll see how the next month goes and then we’ll figure out where to go from there. But, I think Friday night was a breakthrough for us.
Doing something like this isn’t really that complicated. But you have to make a decision to stop making excuses and start figuring it out. Honestly, it’s not even that radical. It’s actually somewhat laughable that it took us this long to try something like this…
Posted in Culture, General, Missional, Suburbia, The Church |
7 Comments »Dear Theopilus?
Reading this post by JR Woodword got me thinking. We are studying through the book of Acts together as a community. We’re in chapter 4 this week so we’re still fairly early on in the narrative. If you’ve read or studied the book of Acts you know that it is addressed to “Theophilus.” Luke is writing to this person (whoever he is) and sharing with him the stories of the early church.
So, like I said, this got me thinking. If Luke were to write narrative about our local church or better yet the group of local churches in lower Bucks County. What would he say? As Willimon pointed out, “Theophilus will be told stories of people who overcome personal anxiety, who found security in conventional truth, who kept with their own kind and stayed safely home.”
God I pray that our church and the local churches around us would tell of radical stories of conversion and sacrifice for the sake of being your witnesses in the world. After all, we have the same Spirit that empowered their witness. Don’t we?
Posted in General, Missional, The Church, The Well |
No Comments »How is the Church like a Family?
This past weekend I preached from Acts 2:41-47. This is a passage that really has shaped our community significantly early on and it was exciting to look at it again a number of years later. One of the blessings of preaching from this text was that I didn’t feel like I needed to chastise or rebuke our community as I feel we’ve done a good job a cultivating a family at The Well. Of course, we have much room to grow but these people are truly my family.
I started out sharing a bit of how the metaphor of family relates to the church. Here is what I came up with:
You don’t “go to family.” Rather, you are part of a family.
In the same way, we don’t “go to church” we are “part of a church.” Family is not an event. Church is not an event. Of course, as a family we have events like dinner and vacation. But that does not define our reality as a family. In the same way, a church does have events like worship services and community dinners and bible studies. But, these events cannot and should not define our reality of what it means to be a church.In a family, belonging comes from who you are, not what you do.
In my family, my belonging came from the fact that I was son and brother. Not from what I did. My belonging as a Hiestand come from that fact that I just “am.” I think this is one major thing we need to have in our understanding of church. When people are new to our community they want to know how they can “get involved.” Usually they mean, “what can I do.” While we certainly have things and ministries in our community that need attention, I first want someone to understand that one of the best things they can do is simply get to know people and “be.” I want them first to understand their belonging based on the fact that they are simply part of the community and then take a look at how they can contribute to our mission. If we look at it the other way around we get this idea that we earn our belonging. I think that’s a bad approach to community.There are traditions and practices that have meaning to your life together.
Every family can share a few traditions that they have developed together. Sometimes these traditions are weird. My family loves Garrett’s Popcorn. We get it whenever we have the chance. My family heads to Christmas Mountain, WI for Thanksgiving each year (Cole was confused at this this year). My family always took vacations out West to Colorado and Montana. My family always read the Christmas story in Luke before we open presents which was torture for me as a kid. In church we have developed a set of traditions that are meaningful to our life together. At The Well we share worship together on Sunday mornings. In that worship gathering we share communion each week to celebrate the life and work of Jesus Christ. We have regular community dinners. These traditions are significant to our life together. WIthout them our family would be less.Healthy family members freely give of themselves to one another.
In a healthy family members are not consumers. They freely and willingly give of themselves to the others in the family. In an unhealthy family, members only take and don’t give. In a church, the same is true. Consumer mentality kills family and kills church. Sure, there are seasons in life when one receives more than one gives but they are seasons, not permanent ways of life.Healthy families are open and inviting to others.
Most of us have those families growing up that we felt like one of their additional children. I have a way of judging my belonging in a family. If I can walk into the house and open the refrigerator door without asking I know I belong. Churches better be open and inviting to others or they are exceptionally unhealthy and, worse, they have misunderstood the gospel.In healthy families, its hard, but we send our kids off to college and they are still part of the family.
At The Well we have had a number of people who have moved away. In our minds, they are still part of our family. We are proud of those who we have sent off to other parts of the world to represent our community. Churches need to do a better job of celebrating and praying for people in this situation.There is room for extended family.
Just because someone doesn’t live in our house does necessarily mean they aren’t family. I have uncles who visit once and a while. They are still my uncle. In churches, we need to do a better job of welcoming and acknowledging extended family. The body of Christ is a lot bigger than our small communities. We need to gain a larger perspective with those not directly or even loosely connected to our local bodies.When you “leave” a family its usually a violent break. This is a very important thing to keep in mind as it relates to churches. We’ve likely all known of families that either disown a child or the parents divorce. It’s painful and ugly. When we view church as family, leaving is same. Its painful and its ugly. Its better off that it doesn’t happen.
In a family, you are forced to deal with problems When two people in a family fight it eventually has to be dealt with since you live in the same house. In a healthy family, the two parties will finally sit down and duke it out and forgive when necessary and work things out. In an unhealthy family they end up, well, unhealthy. In churches, we need to get better at sitting down and working out our differences. This isn’t easy. But, its better than the alternative (see last paragraph for the alternative).
Posted in General, Leadership, Missional, The Church |
2 Comments »Books of 2007: A few I missed in the list
I recently blogged through a series on all the books I read in 2007. Over the last few days I have found a number that I didn’t put in the list. So, I’m adding them below.
First, if you missed the other sections here is what I posted on so far:
- Missional Theology
- General Theology
- Church Leadership
- Pastoral Leadership
- General Leadership (Business Books & Fiction)
Now, here are some that I missed:
General Theology:
Proper Confidence by Lesslie Newbigin
I wrote a longer blog post on this one because it was so good. As I was struggling through a time where I was wrestling with faith, doubt and reason, this was a big, big help. I can’t recommend it enough.The Lord and His Prayer by NT Wright
A fantastic little book by NT Wright on the Lord’s Prayer. Sometimes I think that Wright reads the Kingdom into things that it doesn’t need to be read into, and I htink he does this a few times in this book. But the book is a great reflection on the Lord’s prayer. If you haven’t done much study on it, I’d suggest this book in a heartbeat.Living the Resurrection by Eugene Peterson
Fantastic book. I always enjoy Eugene Peterson and this was no exception. I lent out this book and I am having a hard time remembering specifics but I read it in a day.The Sky is Falling by Alan Roxburgh
Alan Roxburgh tackles an issue that has become close to my heart. The issue is this: Young emergent minded leaders need the older leaders get that the world is changing and can’t help but address this “discontinuous changeâ€. He calls the older guys “liminals†and the younger guys emergents.The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne
Shane Claiborne is and uncool kind of cool. And so is his book. Here is a story of a guy who dared to take the Bible as literally as possible when it talks about caring for the poor. While I don’t think that everyone is called to live among the poor in the inner city (most of you know my passion for transforming the suburbs) I think that more of us are than have followed that call and I want to live as radically here in the burbs as he does there. Basically, if you feel really comfortable with your Christian life, read this book. It’ll wreck ya a bit, in a good way.Barth for Armchair Theologians by John Franke
I took class on Karl Barth in Seminary and was assigned this book. My professor wrote it. Kinda self-serving isn’t it?! Even if it was, it was an excellent primer on the life and theology of Karl Barth. People really knock Barth without ever reading him. There is good reason for this, Barth is incredibly hard to read. If you want to knock Barth, at least read this book first. It’s really fantastic. (I think I actually read this in 2006 but it was at the end of 06 so I am counting it for this year).How to Read Karl Barth by George Hunsinger
Yeah, so this book needs a companion guide to it called “How to Read the book How to Read Karl Barth.†Its that tough. But, it is worth it. This book shares the four main “motifs†of Barth’s writing: “actualism,†“particularism,†“objectivism,†personalism, realism, rationalism. Of course, that list of “isms†is no help to you since I haven’t defined them for you. If your interest is peaked, get the book and put on some extra bold coffee. (I think I actually read this in 2006 but it was at the end of 06 so I am counting it for this year).Design Books:
A note about these design books:
In the last three years I have noticed that there are parallel worlds in the design industry and in the church. In the church world we have a number of reform movements (emergent, missional, etc) where those involved in these movements have seen some flaws in how church is done and are looking to reform it. In the design world, there is a movement called the Web Standards Movement that is seeking to reform and fix all the horrendous practices the industry has picked up along the way. Its bizarre on just how similar these two worlds are. I think I’ll write a blog post about this later.Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
This is a book that talks about the history and serves as a guide to typography for designers, writers and editors. I am learning that web design is more typography than I first realized. We’re not talking about just picking fonts, its much more than that. If you are a designer and don’t have any formal education on typography, I’d recommend this book.Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm
A friend of mine gave me this book a while ago and I finally got around to reading it this year. It’s really helpful. Really, its about making websites that work in all different browsers and in all kinds of situations, using web standards. Its nice when someone who writes a book about something is also really stinking good at it. Dan is a top notch designer who I would love to be like someday. His site is awesome.HTML Mastery
Kinds self-explanitory. Its a book on advanced HTML. Very, very, very good. Highly recommended.CSS Mastery
Also fairly self-explanatory. A book on advanced CSS (cascading style sheets).Posted in Book Reviews, Books of 07, General, Missional |
2 Comments »Books of 2007: Missional Theology
I was looking at my bookshelf the other day and realized that this year was a fairly good reading year for me. So, I started trying to remember what I read and how I liked what I read. So, I’ve decided to share that here. I was going to post my thoughts all at once, but when i was done writing I had six pages of text! That’s way too much to read so I am going to post them one section at a time.
Book Reviews to come in the next few days:
- Missional Theology
- General Theology
- Church Leadership
- Pastoral Leadership
- General Leadership (Business / Fiction Books)
This first section is what I read in the area of Missional Theology.
The Open Secret by Lesslie Newbigin
Simply put this is a top ten book of all time. If you are looking for a good (yet deep) and well thought out introduction to Missional Theology this is a decent place to start. I posted a paper I wrote on this book here. Newbigin is the one who all the missional guys were reading first. He was a missionary in India for 40 years and when he came back from the mission field was struck by how Europe was now a mission field unto itself. This dude’s thinking is amazing. I’ve made a goal to read everything he has written in my lifetime. I’m pretty sure I’ll never do it, but its nice to think about.The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch
I loved Hirsch and Frost in The Shaping of Things to Come. This was no let down. The two most helpful and meaningful sections were on “Jesus Is Lord†and his explanation and discussion of apostolic leadership (as i feel like he explained me fairly well there).Exiles by Mike Frost
Again, this was a great addition and follow up to Shaping of Things to Come. I have thought a lot recently about how our church needs to see it self in more of a mentality as an exile. I read this early this year so its not quite as fresh but I’m sure I’ll be referencing this again before too long.The Great Giveaway by David Fitch
David is a smart dude. That’s all I’ve got to say. I ran into him when I was in Chicago visiting my family this summer and I was happy to say that I like him even, and this book, even more now. Its funny, I pictured him as a young, 35 year old, but in all reality he’s old! (Ok, so 40 something isn’t old but he was nothing like i pictured! Don’t worry, I told him that to his face!). Regardless of all that, this book is well worth the time and he really speaks a good prophetic voice that the american church needs to at least listen to and consider.The Like Jesus but Not the Church by Dan Kimball
I don’t know Dan at all but I have heard great things about him. If nothing else I really, really appreciate his continual call to not let us forget about the importance of evangelism! That said, this book didn’t do too much for me personally. But, it was very insightful and I have recommended (and gifted) it to a few pastor friends who are trying to catch up with how our culture views Christianity and the church.Okay, that’s it for now. More reviews to follow in the next few days.
Posted in Book Reviews, Books of 07, General, Missional, The Church, The Well |
No Comments »Individual Salvation and Restoration of all Things
Quote of the day from The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World in the chapter by Tim Keller,
“In General I don’t think we’ve done a good job at developing ways of communicating the gospel that include both salvation from wrath by propitiation and restoration of all things.”
Yeah, I can get behind that! I tried to emphesize this concept in my sermon at the funeral last week.
Posted in General, Great Quotes, Missional |
4 Comments »Mission Statements are just mission statements
Doing some work on looking ahead to 2008 as we seek to do our best to be a church that matters for the Kingdom.
In my reading I came across this Quote of the day,
“Developing a statement of purpose is not delivering effective mission; it is simply developing a statement of purpose…the scriptures speak of very concrete forms of help, like feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving shelter. That is to say, mission happens only when effective help has been delivered - until that consequential sharing of help has occurred, no mission has taken place.”
Ken Callahan, 12 Keys to an Effective Church
Posted in General, Missional, The Church |
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