THE STICKY CHURCH

Larry Osborne on Sticky Church @ Yahoo! Video

DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD?

This post appeared on the EXTERNALLY FOCUSED CHURCH NETWORK. It is written by Eric Swanson. You can follow this blog by clicking it in RESOURCE LINKS section of our home page or by going to: http://externallyfocusednetwork.com/blog

Recently, as I’ve been speaking at externally focused events, I have asked those in attendance, “How many of you want to change the world?” Invariably, every hand goes up. And here’s where the nickle drops; everyone wants to change the world but very few people are giving the opportunity to do so. The job of leaders…spiritual, visionary leaders, is to give everyone in their Bailiwick the opportunity to regularly engage in changing the world.

Liz and I have a son who lives in another country. When he shares his faith he tells college students, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life and part of that plan is to help change the world.” Then he tells them about the compassionate good news of Jesus and his kingdom. “What do you suppose our campus would be like if every student was a follower of Jesus?

“Our campus would be an awesome place.”
“And what if everyone in our city was a follower of Jesus?”
“Well, there would be no street children…no hungry people, no homelessness…there would be jobs and people would love each other, even those who are hard to love…and our city would be awesome…and everyone in our country would want to move to our city”

What if…
…we gave people the regular opportunity to do nothing less than change the world?

MORE FOLLOWERS AND SOME BIBLICAL JOY

The nice thing about having people who register as FOLLOWING this blog is it gives me a better idea as to who is regularly a part of this dialogue. It also allows me some tools to receive evaluative feedback about the usefulness or lack thereof of what we are posting. Don't be afraid to identify yourself in this way.

If you're trying to figure out the reason for ELMO in this post, stop trying do hard. I am just having a little fun at 1:45 in the morning. Brian McClaren in his book The Church on the Other Side says that humor (or a sense of one) is essential to speaking to the postmodern heart and mind.

This past Monday I initiated an experiment within my own congregation to provide an on-line small group Bible study for people who have no small group time in their lives. Rather than be "hidden"on our website, it is in a free-standing blog so that the public might either feel to join in, or by at least bookmarking it, "listen in" to hearts within my congregation. It's called Biblical Joy and I invite you to eavesdrop yourself by going to:

http://biblicaljoy.wordpress.com

A LESSON FROM CHICK-FIL-A

Note from Steve: Dan Masshardt from the ERC Commission on Evangelism posted this comment recently on his blog CHOOSE TODAY. This might make the beginning of a good discussion at your next leadership team meeting.

When it comes to customer service, Chick-fil-A is top notch.

Pastor Craig Groeschel relates this story:

Chick-fil-A

Our family stopped for a short lunch at Chick-fil-A in Daytona Beach, Florida. An employee named Sally greeted us at the fast food restaurant; and, noticing our large family, came out from behind the counter to gather tables and seat us together.

That simple gesture doesn’t sound like much, but it immediately caught my attention. I’ve noticed that it is not uncommon to receive exceptional service at Chick Fil-As.

After she delivered our meal to our table, we struck up a conversation with Sally. This exceptional employee had been with Chick-fil-A for over 20 years. When I asked her why she would stay in the same job for so long, she said she enjoyed serving people like our family.

I noticed that the franchise owner was actually in the restaurant having a meeting with three others. (I recognized him from his picture at the front counter that actually had his cell phone listed.) I approached him to brag on Sally, and he said he hears that all the time.

One of the people he was talking to was a sweet lady from Chick-fil-A Corporate that recognized me from a leadership conference. Before long, we exchanged information, and I left with coupons for free food on my next visit to Chick-fil-A.

While I enjoyed the food at Chick-fil-A, I enjoyed seeing a great leadership culture that extended all the way to the people taking your orders even more.

You can access more of Dan's thoughts at

http://choosetoday.wordpress.com

WHY ISN'T THE LOCAL CHURCH INVITED TO MANY PARTIES

Kem Meyer is on the staff of the highly innovative and outward focused Granger Community Church in Indiana. On his blog he has started a dialogue that you might want to bookmark and begin following.

http://kemmeyer.typepad.com/less_clutter_noise/2010/04/sowhy-isnt-the-local-church-invited-to-very-many-parties.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+KemMeyerOnLessClutterNoise+%28Kem+Meyer+on+Less+Clutter+and+Noise%29

CHURCHES COMMITTED TO REFLECTING GOD'S GREATNESS

A church committed to the leadership of the Holy Spirit moves from a foundational principle - WE SERVE A GREAT GOD WHO CALLS HIS CHURCH TO A GREAT VISION. The work of the church is carry out ministry in way that assures we are reflecting God's greatness through our practices. This means we aspire to be more than merely a good church but to be a Great Church that serves a Great God.

The mortal enemy of the church that seeks to reflect God's greatness is what we might call "business as usual" - doing what comes naturally instead of doing what is inspired and empowered by God. Our nature has been shaped by a fallen world and too often the church seeks to baptize its fallen nature by aspiring to simply do good. When God sanctifies His church, He gives it a new nature - and that requires the Church to develop patterns of ministry that grow to reflect the new nature God has given the church. This means engaging in intentional practices that allow us to conform not to the world, but the character of Christ.

Theologically we speak of this as sanctification - instantaneous and progressive. We are now the Body of Christ. We have to learn to behave like the Body of Christ.

God is a 24/7 God and His ministry is a 24/7 "business."

Inward focused churches tend to operate in this way:
The pastors and staff engage in the business of ministry all the time.
The leaders engage in the business of ministry most of the time.
The people engage in the business of ministry some of the time.
This is business as usual in an inward focused church.

A church never reflects the greatness of a Great God by doing business as usual.

A church committed to reflecting the greatness of a Great God believes it is the business of the whole church to be involved in ministry all the time. A church with this focus understands that the church in its various venues - home, work, family, community, church program is at work 24/7 -- and what each member does to be about the Father's business enables the Body of Christ to be a work 24/7.

Next post: 7 Foundational Practices to Reflect God's Greatness

MORE ON CROSS-CULTURAL PARTNERSHIPS

Since 2002 we have had a sister church relationship with a Navajo congregation at Tsaile AZ. During this time we have sent three teams to conduct Vacation Bible School for them. Generally this has meant 85 to 125 children, teens, and adults. You can read about this in an earlier post.

This effort with Tsaile has created some interest and momentum in partnerships closer to home. As people have returned from the Navajo Reservation overflowing with stories of ministry and changed lives (including theirs), people who cannot make the commitment in time and money have sought ways to get out of the familiar territory of in-house programs. We were one of the original members of the Lancaster County Council of Churches. LCCC has made a high priority ministry to the poor and the homeless. Our people have embraced a Feeding Team ministry housed at an inner city Lutheran Church. The entire church is involved in providing food stuffs for the meal. A smaller team of 6-7 persons prepare the meal in our church kitchen on Wednesday night, and then an additional team of 12-15 persons go to the site and serve those persons in their care. But as they have fed the folks there, people in our team have started "paying attention" to the lives of their clients. More and more they have sought ways to begin dialoguing with the people, and providing ways to meet spiritual needs, as well. As my congregation is predominately white and middle class and their guests are generally poor-white, Hispanic, and African-American; this serve as a regular cross cultural ministry. We now have more than 25 persons from various parts of the church who have made this their ministry.

Meanwhile, our people are planning an additional VBS to Tsaile next summer. Scenes like those in this post will be repeated with new faces and new lives changed,

Next post: Why we believe cross cultural partnerships are essential to the outward-focused church.