the glorious exchange

Hey guys: I’m going to be visiting some family over the next few days, so I may be checking out of the blogosphere for a while, but I shall return with some good content, I promise. I hope that you’re all having a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year (if I’m not back by then). In the meantime, I’ll be chilling out on my way to SC with my new Biblical Commentary from Macarthur, along with some gift cards waiting to be spent, all the while wearing some great new duds.

In a brief follow up post to the last post on being a localized missional church, I’d like to talk about the pond, that is, your area of ministry. Have you really sat down and defined your pond? You and your staff need to discuss where it is you are to be reaching. Someone famous (can’t remember who) said that if you aim for nothing, you’ll hit it everytime. Ministry is no different. Jesus taught that we are to be a city on a hill. You have to know where your hill sits in order to be city on it. What could you define? In defining our pond, we’re using zip codes. We have a target area made up of four zip codes, within a 3-mile radius of one another. I’ve mapped out and noted the population, demographics, perceived needs, and churches within the ‘pond’.  I’m going to post some research tools that make defining your pond relatively easy, once you decide on who you’re going to reach. If you’re an existing ministry, I would suggest (maybe implore) that you not define who you’re trying to reach by who you are reaching. This may seem counter-intuitive, but just going along with who you’re reaching is not Scriptural. Just take a look at the Jew-Gentile division between Paul and Peter at first. They had separate ponds, but were making waves in one another’s. This was the foundational conflict of the whole Jerusalem council in Acts 15. Avoid a conflict by determining who you are to reach, and what exact pond you are to make waves in.

Another concrete example of this is a college ministry here where I am. They’ve reached off-campus and churched students for two years now, but it’s no good because the pond around them (the college itself) is still stagnant; algae is growing. The pond needs to be defined (the campus), and then ripples can start to be made. It’s possible to be a city on the wrong hill.

Discussion being continued in the comments.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now. A couple of things lately have spurred me on to write it at this time: the first being Anthony Bradley’s post on a similar topic (link here) and the second being a quote by Rick McKinley on the December ‘06 Catalyst podcast. Before I quote that to you, I’d first recommend you read Dr. Bradley’s post first, before reading this post. It’s excellent, and is a good intro to the topic that I’m going to briefly address in this post.

The quote by Pastor Rick of Imago Dei Community (link) is short, but it sums up where we’re going here. Here’s the context: the interviewer of Rick McKinley on the Catalyst podcast (Gabe Lyons) asks him if he’s sick of being referred to as Don Miller’s pastor. Rick’s immediate response is “No, I like being Don’s pastor. I’m a pastor, man, that’s what I do. I work in a zip code with certain people and that’s my story.” This is one of the most incredible job descriptions of a pastor I’ve ever heard. It’s short, to the point, but it gets the job done. So what’s this all about? It’s about what the church is to be. How it is supposed to express itself.

So what is the church? Well, according to Scriptures, it’s supposed to be a missional ministry confined by geography. What do the Scriptures mean by this? Well, quite simply, churches of early Christianity were really only confined to certain cities. They banded together in order to accomplish larger goals, but on a day-to-day basis, they refused to deviate from their target area. They lived, worked, played, and raised their families within an area, according to the will of Jesus. The church at Ephesus was meant solely to reach the people of Ephesus. The church at Corinth was meant solely to reach the people of Corinth. And how? Not through mailers. Not through slick marketing or “sermon branding”. Not through propaganda. But through the message of Jesus Christ.

Am I against sermon branding? No. Am I against church marketing? No. But what I am against is Malachyan worship; Malachi spoke against the priesthood because they began to value their ceremonies and processes more than they valued the message and reason they performed the ceremonies at all. I think the American church is getting this way quick. We place people like Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki on pedestals (don’t get me wrong, they’re very wise in their fields), but we begin to ignore people who really brought (and really bring) the Gospel. Where are all the Bunyan, Edwards, and Spurgeon reprints? There are a few, but they don’t come close to the number of copies of Jim Collins’ and Marcus Buckingham’s books in the some pastors’ libraries.

We are commercializing the message. Look at all the kits produced by churches around the country. They are so general that the local culture is completely ignored. Having lived in so many places, I know first-hand that local culture differs dramatically from place to place (even from town to town within a county, parish, or other region). All-inclusive kits ignore this, and in effect, ignore the people. So what do we do instead?

The first step is this: examine the Scriptures. How did Jesus and His disciples exhibit the message in particular cultures? Take note of when they are in Samaria, how He acts and what He says. Compare and contrast this with when He is teaching in Judea. Then turn to Peter and Paul. Paul’s Areopagus address in Acts 17 is the single greatest example of culture exegesis I can think of.

The second step is this: think about your local culture. What sets your area apart from other areas around the country, the state, and the county in which you are? What distinctives do they have? What needs do they perceive themselves to have? Where in the culture needs redemption? Where is there an analogy to Christ and His message? Answer these questions. It’s imperative.

The third step is this: teach missionally. Right now, “missional” is a buzz word. But to me, it’s more than that; it’s the theology of the Scriptures. Acts 1:8, quoted so often when talking about missions, is a prime example of thinking missional. Live in such a way to redeem the places in your local culture that need redeeming. Teach your people to live in a way that affects the people around them. Teach your people about the water in which they live. And then tell them to swim upstream. It’s the only way Acts 17:6 will ever come true in your area: it will be turned upside down.

Don’t worry about influencing a city across your state, or impressing churches across the nation, or having your church make the news in another city. Make constant ripples in your pond, and eventually the algae will move elsewhere.

I’m going to really dive into Acts 17 in a later post. Stay tuned.

In their own similar end-of-the-year post, Outreach magazine (spurred on by Tony Morgan) has released it’s list of 25 churches that are the most innovative in their ministry. I’m not going to list them, you can find it elsewhere. (Here’s a link).

But I’ve got a beef.

It seems that the same churches appear on every major end-of-the-year list, from the fastest growing to the most influential. I’d like to say something: just because you are the fastest growing or have much influence doesn’t mean you are the most innovative. It simply means that you’re the most innovative that people have heard about. Innovation in ministry is rarely seen, unless you are first growing fast (numerical status) or if you are already an influential church (celebrity status). Innovation doesn’t precede these statuses in our society, it seems to follow.

The whole thing seems backwards to me. The truly most innovative churches are more than likely churches we have yet to hear about, and very likely will never hear about. They simply spurn creativity and encourage jealousy among ministries, as well as contributing to the demise of localized, missional ministry. More on that in a separate post.

If you haven’t visited Digg yet, I encourage you to do so now. Right now. It’s a great resource for those off the wall news posts (and the news that matters) from around the world. The news is user-generated so you don’t get useless things like the rising cost of basketweaving in North Dakota. (If you live in ND, I’m sorry. I’m sure it’s a great state. If you are a basketweaver….God bless you.) Here’s my favorite posts from Digg this past year (in no certain order).

Digg

• SkypeOut now FREE for US & Canada (218 days ago) - This post really rocked my world. Skype now provides long-distance calling for two nations…for free. It was awesome. Now I’m waiting for a cheap, Wi-Fi, Skype handset. They’re out now, but upwards of $150.
• James Kim’s Path. Google Earth Images showing James Kim’s Path (12 days ago) - This post really shows the determination that this man had to save his family. The story is remarkable, I’m sure a TV movie is due out any time now, and the perseverance he had to save his family is an incredible metaphor for the perseverance we should have to save the world.
• Autistic Spends 16 Years Designing an Amazing World (266 days ago) - This is simply incredible. I’ve designed lands and stuff before for games, school, fun, etc, but this takes it to a new level. Imagine what God did before He made earth. I’d like to see all His drawings.
• 4-year-old in Power Ranger costume saves family from gun-toting robbers (19 days ago) - I posted this when I saw it, but it’s still incredible. And it still makes me laugh. My original post is here (link).

Well, that’s it for Digg ‘06. Next? Who knows?