I am part of the Missional Outreach Network which coordinated by the highly creative James Nored.  This week we received a new post from mission church plant John Richardson about an extraordinary experience in true outreach giving. - STEVE

Giving Away the Collection Plate

• Posted by John Richardson on April 9, 2012 at 5:52pm

I don’t know that I could be called a naturally generous person.  Maybe kind, but not always generous.  However, over the years, there have been many people who have been extremely generous toward me.  One family heard that my wife and I had moved to a new city to plant a church and sent a $2500 check in the mail.  They hardly knew us.  They had no idea that we desperately needed help paying some major bills that at that time.

I think God has placed generous people in my path to wake me up to His generosity.  Over time, I’ve realized that God is the first, and most generous, giver.  Luke 6:35 even goes so far as to say that when we are generous toward even the “ungrateful and evil,” we will be known as children of the Most High.  In other words, radical generosity is the way of God.  He’s even generous toward His enemies (thankfully)!

A couple of years ago, our small church plant was desperately praying that God would show us how to best live sent among our neighbors.  We asked, “What can we do so that people will see You when they interact with us?”  Much to our surprise, we sensed that the answer from God was, “Become generous as I am generous.”  And as we prayed further, we realized that He wasn’t kidding.  He was prompting us to give away all of our tithes and offerings for an entire year.

From April, 2010 through April 2011, all of the tithes and offerings that were given to Traceway went to help the abused, neglected, sick, poor and unstable of our city.  These gifts from God went to keep a few families out of foreclosure after job losses.  Other gifts went to provide housing for abused mothers who escaped literally with their children and the clothes on their backs.  Some gifts went to pay medical bills and build handicap access ramps.  Others went toward providing a vehicle for a family and aiding in disaster relief after a devastating local tornado.

Regardless of where the funds went, each gift was an investment in our neighbors.  Each donation provided an open door for missional discipling and a built-in community that would love them.
To be completely honest, not all of the giving turned out the way we hoped.  Some of the recipients wanted a handout and nothing more.  One lady even got mad at us after the 1997 Toyota Camry that we donated to her was not everything she expected.  So, we learned first-hand that missional giving can be a mess.

But we also learned that God values our willingness to walk into the mess with Him.  After all, that’s what He does… day after day after day.  He joins each of us in our mess.  He loves us and generously gives us gifts that nudge us closer to Him.

So, maybe we – as the Body of Christ (His physical representatives today) – should learn to be better imitators of His generosity.  I can promise you that it won’t be easy; but, the Church (and our neighbors) desperately need this.

To read more of the stories of Traceway’s ReGifting Project and to dig in to the lessons they learned, check out Giving Away the Collection Plate from Tate Publishing.  To connect further with John, join him at https://twitter.com/#!/RichardsonJohnD.

CREATING THIRD SPACES

Mark Batterson has an excellent article that speaks to a principle we are using in our Bridgebuilder Seminars.  I'd be interested in your feedback. - Steve

   

6

Cities

Postmodern Wells: Creating A Third Place

by Mark Batterson

The cross must be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am claiming that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where He died and that is what he died about and that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen should be about.

- George McLeod

A few years ago I had a Starbucks moment. I was studying for a sermon at a Starbucks on Capitol Hill, and I usually tune out the mood music, but one line of lyrics slipped through my reticular activating system. I’d never heard the song before and I didn’t know who the artist was. And maybe I just had too much caffeine in my system, but the juxtaposition of words struck me:

There’s a church on the periphery, Lady of our Epiphany.

And I had a thought as I sipped my vanilla latte: as long as the church stays on the periphery, our culture will never experience an epiphany.

Over the last few decades, the church has been pushed further and further onto the periphery of culture. Or in many instances, the church has retreated to the comfortable confines of its Christian subculture. So we are inside our churches looking out, but we really find ourselves on the outside looking in. God is calling the church out of the church and back into the middle of the marketplace.

I realize that I pastor one church in one small corner of the kingdom. And I don’t want to project my passions onto others. But if we are going to influence the spiritual tide in America, the church needs to stop retreating and start redeeming. The church needs to stop criticizing and start creating. The church needs to stop seeking shelter and start competing for the truth.

Paul didn’t boycott the Aeropagus.¹ He didn’t stand outside in a picket line arguing against idolatry. Paul marched into the marketplace of ideas and went toe-to-toe with the most brilliant minds in ancient Athens competing for the truth. Staying on the periphery is one thing the Apostle Paul could never be accused of.

CHURCH STEEPLES

There was a time, just a few centuries ago, when nautical maps of Europe had legends that included the location of churches on land. Church steeples doubled as navigational tools for ship captains. Churches were typically built on choice real estate in the center of town or atop the highest hill. And in some places, there were ordinances against building anything taller than the church steeple so it would occupy the place closest to heaven.² Nothing was more visible on the pre-modern skyline than church steeples. And in a sense, church steeples symbolized the place of the church in culture. There was a day, in the not too distant past, when church was the center of culture. Church was the place to go. Church was the thing to do. Nothing was more visible than the church steeple. Nothing was more audible than the church bells. And it might be a slight exaggeration, but all the pre-modern church had to do was raise a steeple and ring a bell.

Is it safe to say that things have changed?

The church no longer enjoys a cultural monopoly! We are the minority in post-Christian America. And the significance of that is this: we can’t afford to do church the way it’s always been done. Our incarnational tactics must change.

Don’t get me wrong: the message is sacred. But methods are not. And the moment we anoint our methods as sacred, we stop creating the future and start repeating the past. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory. And if we think that raising the steeple or ringing the bells will get the job done; the church in America will end up right where the Israelites found themselves in Judges 2:10:

After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel.

According to George Barna, 61% of twenty-somethings who grew up going to church stop going to church at some point during their twenties. They become dechurched. They still feel connected to God in some form or fashion, but there is a disconnect with organized religion and the institutional church. And for one reason or another, they are checking out of the church at an alarming rate.

I love the church. I believe in the church. And I’ve poured ten years of blood, sweat, and tears into the church I have the privilege of pastoring — National Community Church in Washington, DC. But the church needs to change! And change always starts with some honest self-reflection.

Some people hear statistics like the one just cited — 61% of twentysomethings that grew up in church leave the church — and they wonder what’s wrong with this generation. I think that’s the wrong reaction. I can’t help but wonder what’s wrong with the church.

In the words of Pogo: we have seen the enemy and he is us. 

Continue reading at this article

 

SEVEN DAY A WEEK CHURCH

A great little teaching video posted on the Missional Outreach Network

GOD'S EMPOWERMENT FOR VISION

Too often we seek to engage in vision under our own power. Instead we need to remember something Doug Fields says in his book FRESH START: "God takes care of the POWER part, we take care of the cooperation part."

If we attempt to carry out our vision under our own power, dependent upon what we are capable of accomplish instead of cooperating with God's power - at best we will only do what we desire to do instead of what God has called us to do. Any vision that can be achieved without God's active involvement and empowerment is really not God's vision. And God's vision cannot be accomplished apart from trusting Him to equip us and resource the mission strategy that carries out that vision.

What does that involve? We will continue describing this in our next post.

BAPTISMS AT A BEACH PARTY

The student ministry at our church (Church of God of Landisville) is called BURN. The name comes from the mission to help kids burn with passion to serve Jesus Christ and the impact their generation to follow Him. The front door of BURN is not a typical youth group on Sunday night. It is a midweek worship gathering that includes music (our own student band) and insightful teaching, testimonies from the kids, and fellowship. Generally the kids start gathering around 6:00 with things kicking off around 6:30. Worship begins and the rest follows. Generally they wrap up around 7:45-8:00 (it is a school night) but many times kids stay afterward for prayer and some godly counsel. Seven months ago our youth group had 12 kids on its best night (usually a party). Now more than 100 kids are part of BURN, not just from the church, but from the community youth center we operate (the Agape Center) and their friends from the local high school across the street.

Several weeks ago after an extended period of teaching called "Real Vs Fake" when the kids were confronted with the call to be serious committed disciples, 16 students gave their hearts to Christ at a worship gathering. Soon after several more were added. Jeremy Moyer, our Youth Director, asked about baptizing these new believers, with which I enthusiastically agreed.

But here's the twist. We have 12 kids desiring baptism, but at that baptism they were going to share testimonies about their journey to faith. Many of their friends would not come to the church for a regular service in our sanctuary with its magnificent marble baptistery. Many of them had not even made it to the gym where our student worship is held.

So we opted instead for Baptism at a Beach Party. On a Saturday night before Easter, BURN through an outreach event - a Beach Party at the pool at Hempfield Recreation Center. There, as the party wrapped up, we held a baptismal service. 75 teens (and some parents and adults) heard these 12 kids share their stories and then witness the powerful experience of the Spirit's presence as we baptized them in the pool (sometimes with other kids in the water a few feet away).

Changed lives are a powerful force for the church. Baptisms in neutral territory multiply the impact.

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM DANCING GUY

Leadership Lessons learned from Dancing Guy. Read transcript at http://sivers.org/ff Original video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA8z7f7a2Pk

This is a little off the wall, but my good friend Rich Thornton from Friendship Community Church (CGGC) in Dover PA recommends it as a great discussion starter for people who need to start thinking outside the box.

A LITTLE MORE FUEL FOR COMMUNICATION TOOLS

We continue to be challenged with the implications of the technological revolution in the area of communication and social media. Still I am sure there are people who say, "What's the big deal?"
So here's something to add to the dialogue.

THE EXECUTIVE TEAM

Good planning and timely decision-making are essential to a church seeking to be faithful to God's leading. Sometimes mission drift occurs because it gets bogged down in the inertia of church governance. Who is responsible for what? How do you get action on an idea that has implications for multiple ministry teams? How do you be certain that your mission is working out of your vision from God and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit?

Last weekend I was privileged to be a part of Houston 2010, a conference sponsored by Global Media Outreach. GMO is a division of Campus Crusade and specializes in internet evangelism (more on this in a later post). The conference was put together in 40 days to respond to an immediate and critical need in their ministry. They succeeded incredibly, in part because they had an executive team that used its best skills and clear lines of responsibility to respond to a leading of the Holy Spirit to conduct this event. Watching them at work, God gave me a sense of how an executive team might truly help a church produce God-class ministry.

The Executive Team would be composed of four persons:

THE CEO (or to use a popular term, Chief Cultural Architect) This is the Lead Pastor whose job is to be the vision-caster of the church and the chief teacher of its core values and identity as the Body of Christ.

THE COO or your council chairperson. This is the one who sees that a church board and its ministry teams are working in a coordinated manner. He or she also sees that the proper decision-making occurs in a timely manner that keeps the church "legal" constitutionally or structurally and with the denominational body and the state.

THE CPO or chief planning officer. This person heads a Strategic Advisory Team that works with Commissions and your church board to help evaluate ongoing ministry and develop a unified ministry that plan that keeps your church faithful and fruitful to its mission statement. Both this office and this team would have to be created in most churches.

THE CPI or Chief Prayer Igniter. In most churches this would be the chairperson of your elders. In my church the elders have the responsibility for spiritual oversight of the Body and to keep the church in tune with God as a spiritual organism in all of its efforts. Since prayer is the most critical element of any spiritual enterprise, this person sees that the church is at prayer for its decisions and its operations.

Together these persons work to see that ministry ideas and needs are assigned to the proper are to become the incubators out of which action is derived.

Next post: SPIRITUAL INCUBATORS

WINTER STORMS AND CHURCHES

Does your church have a winter weather plan? Better yet, does it have a severe weather policy? Some churches' policy is "if it's snowy or icy," we cancel. It's convenient for the staff and comforting to those who would really rather not venture out at such times. The pleasant cocoon of a warm fire, a well-stocked refrigerator, and cable TV are preferable to the effort to be present to worship or to participate in a Bible study. (And thank goodness if I was assigned to lead the Junior Highs.)

But outward focused churches never let it be that simple. Why? Because they have an upward focus. Some churches are so focused on numbers that they forget that some of the best work of the Spirit is done in intimacy of a smaller setting. I once was forced to cancel worship but did not get the call out early enough. I received a call from a missionary on furlough who was living across the street, asking if he could go ahead and have a service. There was no organist, no choir, no Sunday School, no preacher - but there were fifty people who still came to worship. Which is what they did - and they prayed for those in spiritual need who were isolated by the storm and for those road and emergency crews who were on duty.

Or here's another thought - cancellation policies usually derive from our inward focus. What opportunities for ministering beyond the church's programs and building could present themselves at such times?

Just a thought, but winter storms which cancel church as usual can still have a powerful potential for ministry.