the glorious exchange

James Cameron, of Titanic fame, will be releasing a documentary on the supposed tomb of Jesus later this year. He’s already started to be in the limelight due to the obviously controversial topic. In fact, it’s the controversial topic of all time. Did Jesus really rise from the dead? This is really the question, because everyone knows the consequences if He did. The Jews, Christians, and Muslims all hinge faith on the death and/or resurrection of the Messiah. The film is supposedly (and will be) met with opposition from Christians (for obvious reasons - the documentary claims that Jesus never rose from the dead). But as for me? I say bring it on. Talking about it is better than not, because the Truth will be revealed to whomever He chooses. I praise God for a continual focus on the King because He deserves it. He is the most influential person of all time, and will get glory from this documentary in the long run. People will start to look at Scripture more, the Church will grow stronger in the face of opposition, and people will investigate and eventually be drawn by Christ to Christ. What a great opportunity we have! Let us not disappoint.

Phil Ogilvie (link) has set up a question network for leaders, who’s responses he collects, tracks, and then posts on his blog. I’ve been lucky enough to have been selected for the network, and the first question of the network is the following:

QUESTION: As a minister, what are the top three boundaries that you have set up to ensure ministry impact and longevity and what are applicable ways you carry out those boundaries?

RESPONSE: When I see this question, I immediately think of the cultural mandate in Genesis 1: “Be fruitful and multiply.” The being fruitful is the impact a ministry has, and the multiplication ensures the longevity. So the question now is this: what three boundaries to we set up to ensure fruitfulness and multiplication? I believe that a ministry inherently has boundaries, and that the only thing that it should do is keep within them.

I think the first and foremost boundary one should keep is that the ministry should do nothing outside of Christ. That is, the ministry should not extend past the Word of God written, and the Word of God given through prayer. Without Scripture and prayer, a ministry will fall far and fast. It doesn’t matter what kind of budget a ministry has, or what kind of marketing a ministry does, if they aren’t connected to Christ, there is no way to be fruitful and multiply.

The second boundary a ministry should keep is to remain connected to their vision. We can all quote the Proverbs verse that says without a vision, the people perish. But how many of us actually believe it? Another key is to have visions, as stated in Jeremiah, that are from God. Our visions have to be given by Jesus Christ. If not, they will fail. We must then be set within those boundaries.

The third boundary a ministry should keep is the boundary of motion. A ministry should never become satisfied with what it has accomplished, but should always look for areas in which both the Gospel and the Kingdom should grow. This is so important. Becoming stagnant is one of the major enemies to the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ. We become cliquish, and form Christian country clubs, and then the ministry is no longer being fruitful, nor is it multiplying. So there you have it: our three boundaries are Christ, vision, and motion. If we keep within them, fruitfulness and multiplication are much easier to obtain and maintain as culture values.

I’m an official blogger for the National New Church Conference in Orlando, Florida! This isn’t the big news I talked about earlier, but it’s still awesome news. I’m also wondering how many other people are going this year, and if we want to have a church planting bloggers’ lunch/dinner somewhere. I’m thinking Chipotle nearest to the church. It’s only an 8 min ride, and would give us plenty of time over a huge frickin’ burrito. Comment if you’re interested!

I’ve always wondered why we’ve adopted the terms we have. Most of them come from contemporary thinkers, or the Latin terms of theologians long gone. I’ve always wondered…why are the terms missionary and missional instead of commissionary and commissional? Aside from spell check, anyway. We are on mission, yes, but we cannot do it without the original Creator of the mission. We are cooperating with Him in order to see His mission fulfilled, not our own. There’re all sorts of missionaries out there: missionary, transformissionary, reformissionary, conformissionary, cuneiformissionary. We have been commissioned by King Jesus, but not to go out without Him and His spirit.

On the flip side of this, don’t think for a minute that I’m trying to add to the confusion. I’m just thinking aloud.

Big news coming up from this blog regarding church planting. Stay tuned; can’t reveal anything just yet, but be paying attention for the next few weeks. I’m probably checking out for a while: big stuff in the making. It may make me out to be a fool, stupid, ignorant, young, or prodigal, genius, dangerous, and obeying the will of God! Fasten your seatbelts, here we go….