The Skill Most Church Planters Neglect

Missional Moments

This is what I have been driving at in my church planting classes, in my preaching, in my blogging (see all of the Intensely Local posts for instance), in all of the seminars and conferences I have done over the last decade. WE NEED TO LISTEN TO OUR COMMUNITIES. 

Michael Frost says it better than me in this video. Even though Michael comes off as a bit arrogant at times, he is dead on in this short excerpt from a Verge Conference. By the way, what Frost says here is equally true of those who are planting attractional OR organic model churches. Sometimes the latter make the same mistakes as the former while they look down their noses at past methodologies.

 

Looking for Mercy in the Nightwatches of Life

4:30 AM
Only fisherman and people far more spiritual than me are up at this hour.

For more:  Looking for Mercy in the Nightwatches of Life.

 

What is a Quality Disciple? or What is a Worshiper?

Thursday is for Discipleship

John 4:16-30   Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

Three things Jesus is looking for based on his interaction with the Samaritan woman:

1. A worshiper is devoted to truth.
2. A worshiper is devoted to reality over hypocrisy or form.
3. A worshiper is devoted to pleasing God.

19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” 27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Question:  Are you producing worshipers through your discipleship ministry?

 

What is the Symbol of Your Ministry? A Bible or a Cell Phone?

Remember these words brothers. A Bible, a pen, and a note pad make a man powerful for the duties and challenges of our task. Even if the pen and the note pad are replaced by a screen and a keyboard, there is no substitute for …

for more see: What is the Symbol of Your Ministry? A Bible or a Cell Phone?.

 

Same Sex Marriage Collection; Civil Rights; FaceBook the Marriage Destroyer; African American Pastors

Weekend Links

A busy week with fewer links as a result. Have a great memorial day weekend. Don’t let anything spoil it.Drive safely. Pray hard. Live in joy.

Engaging with Culture

Would Jesus Approve of Same Sex Marriage? (Jerry Newcombe)
African American Pastors Urge President Obama to Reconsider Same Sex Marriage
Black Pastors in an Adulterous Relationship with President Obama (Paul Stanley)

Is Gay the New Black? (Challenging the assumption often put forward that there is a correspondence between the civil rights movement and the gay affirmation movement.)
Does FaceBook Wreck Marriages? (A growing story line seems to suggest that Facebook is making marriages even more vulnerable as fantasy is given tracks to run on.)
The Church’s Ministry to Homosexuals (A note to be missed post if you are one who struggles with these issues personally, know someone who struggles with them or if you just find yourself questioning what is the right approach.)

Building Better Christians and Churches

Eight Ways to Create a Passionate Work Culture
The Demise of Guys (CNN article on how video games and pornography are destroying young men and ruining a generation.)

 

How Sorrow’s Tears Produce Joy

Thursday is for Discipleship

“I do not know when I am more perfectly happy than when I am weeping for sin at the foot of the cross.”

—C. H. Spurgeon

The quote is from a message number 3272 in the collected sermons of Spurgeon and is titled, “How to Become Full of Joy.” The message was delivered by Spurgeon on September 17, 1865 and was based on the the text of 1 John 1:4: “And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full.” (KJV)

Questions:

• What part does weeping over sin play in American Church life? 
• What part should it play? 
• If It played a larger part, what do you think would be the result?

 

Dying for Jesus isn’t Very Popular These Days: Neither is Living for Him

The early disciples knew, that salvation was free but there was still a cost involved with following Christ. But that doesn’t seem very popular in a culture of plenty and the vigorous pursuit of happiness.

For more see:  Dying for Jesus isn’t Very Popular These Days: Neither is Living for Him.

 

Killing Sin for Our Joy

Wednesday is for Prayer

A perennial issue for all believers is dealing with temptation. We want our lives to reflect the holiness that Christ both purchased for us and desires in us but we all stumble in many ways. Here’s a quick three minute video that offers help and direction for how to deal with sin so that the glory of Christ is displayed in our lives so that an unbelieving world sees the glory of the gospel and our Savior.

“Oh Lord my God, when I in awed wonder consider all that You have done for me in Christ, I long for Your holiness to be reflected in my life. My trouble is that I don’t pause long enough or often enough to gaze in wonder at the beauty of the cross and the rescuing-love of Christ. Make my passion for holiness grow. Make it burn into such a flame that all my temptations to sin are consumed in the conflagration or a holy passion for You.” 

Marty Schoenleber, Jr. is the founding pastor of one church, the interim pastor of another and the church planting trainer/mentor of over 200 other church planting pastors. He is adjunct professor of Church Planting at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and has taught Preaching at the International School of Theology, and Evangelism at Moody Graduate School of Theology. He is also the Director of the Saint John’s Pastoral Center, a pastoral care and retreat center located in a growing number of Bed and Breakfast houses across the mid-west. His latest book is Picking a President: Or Any Other Elected Official (CrossBooks, [late May 2012]). To enjoy a free subscription to his blog, log-on to www.chosenrebel.wordpress.com, where you can post your comments, view past blogs in our archive and read the latest reflections on church planting, Biblical Expositions and musings about church, culture and spiritual formation. Follow Pastor Marty on twitter @1Chosenrebel4JC.

 

The Insanity of Our Present Government

Tuesday is for Preaching

I was alerted to this article by Ed Stetzer in his Monday Morning Round Up. It was stunning to read that:

• the Obama Administration was admitting that a pregnant woman bears a baby not a collection of cells.
• the Obama Administration didn’t see the inconsistency of this admission and their continued support of abortion
• the Obama Administration doesn’t realize the questions and fear that this creates for citizens of the country. I’ll come back to this after the article. 

No Birth Certificate Required – National Right to Life

The Director of the White House Visitor’s Office, Ellie Shafer, today distributed an email newsletter (“Tuesday’s Tidbits”) to many recipients, including Members of Congress, which gives detailed instructions on how to register an unborn child (“a baby that has not yet been born,” as Shafer puts it) into the security system that is employed to arrange White House tours.

“We have received a number of calls regarding how to enter security information for a baby that has not yet been born,” Shafer wrote. “Crazy as it may sound, you MUST include the baby in the overall count of guests in the tour. It’s an easy process.”

The newsletter then proceeds to spell out how “the baby’s security information should be entered” into the White House system, including such details as: “GENDER: if the parents know put that gender down if not, you can enter either M or F as we’ll ask you to update it at the time of birth.” All of the information should be updated “once, the baby is born,” the newsletter instructs.

“It is ironic that President Obama’s staff recognizes the existence of unborn babies for purposes of providing security within the White House — yet, there is no indication that President Obama has any problem with the fact that throughout the District of Columbia, abortion is now legal for any reason up to the moment of birth,” said Douglas Johnson, National Right to Life legislative director. “Notably, the newsletter provides no guidance on what the staff should do if an unborn baby is first registered for security purposes, but then aborted. On May 17, the House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee plans to hold a hearing on the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 3803), which would generally prohibit abortion in the sixth month and later in the District. If the President wants to provide for the security of the unborn child immediately outside of the White House gates, as well as inside, he should endorse this bill.”

Further information on the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is available on the NRLC website at http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/index.html 

Thought:

• If the Obama Administration believes that a woman carries a baby (a human being) and not a collection of cells, …
• and believes that it is okay to kill said human beings for purposes of expediency ...

Question:

• How can any citizen feel safe with the power that the administration has to enforce its will?

Preachers:
Have the guts to preach on the issues the government (and even many Christians) wants you to shut up about.

Marty Schoenleber, Jr. is the founding pastor of one church, the interim pastor of another and the church planting trainer/mentor of over 200 other church planting pastors. He is adjunct professor of Church Planting at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and has taught Preaching at the International School of Theology, and Evangelism at Moody Graduate School of Theology. He is also the Director of the Saint John’s Pastoral Center, a pastoral care and retreat center located in a growing number of Bed and Breakfast houses across the mid-west. His latest book is Picking a President: Or Any Other Elected Official (CrossBooks, [late May 2012]). To enjoy a free subscription to his blog, log-on to www.chosenrebel.wordpress.com, where you can post your comments, view past blogs in our archive and read the latest reflections on church planting, Biblical Expositions and musings about church, culture and spiritual formation. Follow Pastor Marty on twitter @1Chosenrebel4JC.

 

Eight Ways to Develop Young Leaders

Monday is for Discussion

Terry Ivy, a friend with a fantastic ministry training church planters via the internet in India, wrote a great post titled What Kind of Leaders are We Creating?  Recently, I have had some opportunity to reflect on both his post and my response to it through some men that I’m mentoring. 

I’m convinced that pride is at the heart of this issue. But it’s not just the pride of the younger guys; its the pride of we older, more seasoned veterans of the Kingdom. I have seen guys dig in their heels and refuse to learn from a brother who they deemed less than them. Both younger guys and older guys are not immune. It’s epidemic in the body of Christ.

How do we prevent it? Maybe this is a start:

1. Be ruthless on our own pride. Kill it at every opportunity.
2. Cultivate listening ears in our own soul. We need to model what we want young leaders to become.
3. Be patient. Young leaders don’t need to be corrected on every stupid decision they make. Sometimes, the only way to learn is to fail first. Be there to pick them up when they fall.
4. Be gentle but firm when the window of humility opens up in their heart.
5. Ask more questions. Let them discover the path.
6. Give them new opportunities or encourage them to new, bold steps after failure. 
7. Let them know we haven’t given up on them and believe that God is going to use them mightily for his glory.
8. Keep pointing them to the cross and the glory of Christ. The cross, the cross, the cross slices through our pride and produces all good things.

If we want to produce better leaders we have to be better leaders and that means walking closer to The Leader, our Master, the one we call Lord and Savior, Redeemer and yes, Friend.

Question:  
Add to my list. How do we conquer the insidious serpent of pride so that the men we lead, young and old, have a model of how to conquer the same serpent for the glory of God and the joy of all?

Marty Schoenleber, Jr. is the founding pastor of one church, the interim pastor of another and the church planting trainer/mentor of over 200 other church planting pastors. He is adjunct professor of Church Planting at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and has taught Preaching at the International School of Theology, and Evangelism at Moody Graduate School of Theology. He is also the Director of the Saint John’s Pastoral Center, a pastoral care and retreat center located in a growing number of Bed and Breakfast houses across the mid-west. His latest book is Picking a President: Or Any Other Elected Official (CrossBooks, [late May 2012]). To enjoy a free subscription to his blog, log-on to www.chosenrebel.wordpress.com, where you can post your comments, view past blogs in our archive and read the latest reflections on church planting, Biblical Expositions and musings about church, culture and spiritual formation. Follow Pastor Marty on twitter @1Chosenrebel4JC.