Missional church

Missional is a bit of a buzzword in some parts of the church these days, but what ever words you use, we've got to get back to the way the church grew in the beginning.

Tim Keller is one of the best guys in thinking this through and here he is talking about what a missional church is. Have a look at these two videos:

missional vs seeker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvFbzpAwHdw

missional vs evangelistic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIRtz0AjgLY

What to do when we face opposition

The Global Leadership Summit is a great leadership tool where a number of top leaders, both church and industry gather to help the church's leaders become better at serving Jesus and leading the people under their care.

At this years summit there was some controversy when Howard Schultz CEO of Starbucks withdrew from the conference because of an on-line petition. The gist of the petition was calling for a boycott of Starbucks because WillowCreek the church who hosts the leadership summit is 'anti-gay'.

Of course like any bible believing church, they are pro-everyone, anti-sin and all for Jesus transforming grace. Like WillowCreek we must stand for truth but minister with grace to those who have been blinded by the lies of the evil one. Have a look at the video below to see how Bill Hybels the senior pastor of WillowCreek told the conference. It was a gracious, gentle and yet powerful speech - well done Bill!

The challenges of ministry in a busy world

It seems these days that things get faster and faster, we get busier and busier and it seems like some invisible force is compressing the hours into smaller and smaller units of time...an hour a year ago seems much longer than an hour now.

This affects the church's ministry and our leadership.

PVFC has tried successfully not to become a program based ministry where we need many large teams to run dozens of ministries or programs. These kinds of models put huge pressure on already pressured lives as many volunteers are needed to sustain them. Add to that, the pay-off of these ministries is not huge - lots of noise for little results for Jesus kingdom.

We've focused our ministry in our HomeGroups and then on Sundays just two ministries: worship and KidsChurch. These ministries have teams who make them happen and more and more the pressures of our times make it tough to lead these teams.

I'm not entirely sure how to deal with these challenges myself but here are some thoughts that I've been reflecting on:

As a leader, prioritize your own time

Nurture your three most important relationships first: Jesus, spouse, children. In the busyness of life your relationship with Jesus often takes the first hit and family takes the second hit. Part of your leadership is to live as an example to those around you and the best way to do that is to show them in your life what a good balance looks like. Prioritise your time in accordance with biblical principals and show those who volunteer with you how Jesus wants us to live.

Call people to commitment

Many of the busiest people I know are the most committed to Jesus and give more of their time and energy than many other less busy people. The more we expect the more we get from people and I believe that there is nothing that we can do with our time that is more valuable than serving Jesus and for us to do it well. Call people to commit to the team and to do so with wholehearted dedication.

Be upfront with your expectations:

Be clear with people WHAT you are asking them to do. HOW you want them to do it. And be honest about HOW MUCH TIME it will take. Be clear about the demands that a volunteer position will take and then call people to commit to it. By doing this you give them a clear game plan. Often we ask people to commit to something and only once they are in, do they realize how much it is actually going to take from them, and often its more than they can give. Don't expect more than they can actually give, like a rubber band they will stretch for a time, but we all have limits and people can snap.

Don't accept slackness

We work with volunteers and that makes the church a very different animal than other organizations. One of the areas that we all struggle with is how to deal with people that don't pull their weight when they are not getting salaries and are doing what they do for the love of Jesus.

Just because people are busy and they are volunteers is no excuse for half-hearted work. People that are not pulling their weight put pressure on other team members who are putting in the time and the effort required to do things well for Jesus. Slackers produce work that is not glorifying to God or a good witness to Jesus and so people that are lazy or negligent need to be graciously and patiently admonished to step up for Jesus. Those who are not prepared to make the effort need to be cut from the team sooner rather than later. Slackness is a cancer that can catch.

Make sure meetings are a value-add

There is nothing more frustrating than a meeting that drags on with little energy and little or no clear goal or outcome. Team meetings are important and we must have them to ensure we are all on the same page, to be trained and skilled to serve well and to remind us why we do what we do. But we need to ensure they are well focused, clearly planned and that they don't waste peoples time. Nothing can kill a new initiative or undermine a successful one than poorly thought out meetings when people already have little time to invest. KISS - keep it short and sweet (or in an other version, keep it simple stupid :) )

Praise people for the time they put in

I struggle to remember this one. Teams love doing what they do but when there is little feedback it saps energy and can often make people think their time and energy is unappreciated. It is then that other things can jump the priority listing. So give your teams praise for the time they put in, honour them for their commitment and encourage their faithfulness. Take time as a team to celebrate, to fellowship and to acknowledge what God has done in you and through you.

I remember a time when PVFC was only about 60 or so people, had one worship team of two or three people, where we had no more than a handful of HomeGroups and a KidsChurch staff compliment of two. How simple life seemed!

4 years later we have over 120 families who call PVFC home, three worship teams with one at KidsChurch, around twenty volunteers who make our KidsChurch happen, more than 15 HomeGroups and two services that are dynamic, life giving, Jesus honouring and full of the Holy Spirit and founded in the scriptures that point us to Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith.

Well done volunteers! Full of the Spirit, with a love for Christ and a desire to honour your heavenly Father, you are the ones who have done this! Well done to each and every one of you who puts in the time, effort and energy to serve Jesus, proclaim his gospel and equip the church for ministry. So that in all things Jesus may get the glory!

Grace driven effort

Grace-Driven Effort

North Korea and persecution

I mentioned on Sunday about the story of a young girl whose father has been martyred by the North Korean government. She spoke at the recent Lausanne conference in Cape Town.

click here to watch the amazing video.

Soli Deo Gloria

So we've been blogging our way through the reformation and today we tie up the fifth of the 'sola' statements of the reformation.

Soli Deo Gloria

For God's glory alone. So often we want to take centre stage and make it all about us, or we allow other things to take centre stage and Jesus becomes a smaller and smaller focus for us. John the baptiser reminds us that "He must increase and I must decrease" and Paul reminds us "I count everything as rubbish for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus as my lord" Jesus is the one deserves all glory, honour, praise and worship.

The reformers where reacting against excesses in the church where men where in positions of great authority and power and where themselves collecting glory that was due to God. We still see this today with many ministries named after their founders - it's not about them, it's about God! It's always and only about God and his glory.

Our lives are to be lived to make God look as good as He is. That's the goal. You work? you do it for God's glory as we are reminded to in Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. You eat food? do it for God's glory: 1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

We bring God glory when we fight against injustice, when we stand up for the truth, when we love the broken and care for the hurting. We bring God glory when we act with grace, show compassion, fight for love and live with integrity. We bring God glory when we witness about his grace, speak his gospel, and live by his power. We bring God glory, when we lead our families, love our children, honour our spouses. We bring God glory when we spend money with wisdom, show generosity and care for the environment.

Our entire life is to be built around that singular focus: bringing glory to God.

Is yours?

Doing God's work where you are

Tullian writes a great article reminding us that the call of God is to do the will of God wherever you are. We damage the idea of the priesthood of all believers when we forget that God will use us in every place we go, if we remain yielded to his will.

Read You’re Free To Stay Put

Forgiveness

After preaching on Sunday about forgiveness, one of our members forwarded me this piece written by the great saint, Corrie ten Boom:

Corrie Ten Boom on Forgiving

“It was in a church in Munich that I saw him—a balding, heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken, moving along the rows of wooden chairs to the door at the rear. It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives.

“It was the truth they needed most to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture. Maybe because the sea is never far from a Hollander’s mind, I liked to think that that’s where forgiven sins were thrown. ‘When we confess our sins,’ I said, ‘God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever. …’

“The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe. There were never questions after a talk in Germany in 1947. People stood up in silence, in silence collected their wraps, in silence left the room.

“And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights; the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor; the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were!

[Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent.]

“Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: ‘A fine message, Fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!’

“And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course—how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?

“But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. I was face-to-face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.

“ ‘You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk,’ he was saying, ‘I was a guard there.’ No, he did not remember me.

“ ‘But since that time,’ he went on, ‘I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein,’ again the hand came out—’will you forgive me?’

“And I stood there—I whose sins had again and again to be forgiven—and could not forgive. Betsie had died in that place—could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

“It could not have been many seconds that he stood there—hand held out—but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.

“For I had to do it—I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. ‘If you do not forgive men their trespasses,’ Jesus says, ‘neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.’

“I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality. Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.

“And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion—I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. ‘… Help!’ I prayed silently. ‘I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.’

“And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

“ ‘I forgive you, brother!’ I cried. ‘With all my heart!’

“For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then”

(from “I’m Still Learning to Forgive” by Corrie ten Boom)

Testimony

It was great over the last two Sunday's hearing people give testimony at Sunday worship of how God has held them and helped them face some of the trauma of life. God is faithful, not always pulling us out of those horrible circumstances, but he always gives us the faith, strength and tools to face up to them in grace.

It's good hearing people tell about it.

Psalm 78:4 We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.

I'd encourage you in whatever ministry you are involved in: get people to tell their stories of what Jesus is doing with them and through them. Whether it's home group, KidsChurch or a elders meeting. Create opportunities for people to speak about what God is doing through the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.

It encourages the downcast, energizes the lethargic and reminds us all that we serve a God who is mighty to save!

Sola Scriptura

We continue with our series on the 5 solas.

The other posts are linked:

Sola Christos

Sola Gracia

Sola Fidei

Sola Scriptura

In reaction to deep seated traditionalism in the Roman Church the reformers said 'Sola Scriptura' - by Scripture alone.

In some traditions like Romans Catholic and Orthodox, scripture has to be interpreted through sacred tradition and in reality tradition holds equal weight to scripture. Out of this one finds abuses such as the veneration of Mary, indulgences, purgatory, the papacy, penance and many other heresies that make it very difficult (if not impossible) for people to understand the grace of Christ.

Whilst tradition has its place, the resultant belief of the Roman Catholics and others is that the Bible has no inherent authority outside of it's interpretation by the Church. That means the authority lies with fallible people and not some external source of clear truth, like the Bible.

The Reformers held that the final rule of faith and life was the scriptures as contained in the Old and New Testaments. Their claim was that there was nothing outside of the Scriptures themselves, read by the insight of the Holy Spirit, that was necessary to interpret and understand them. The Bible is a self revealing book and we don't need anything like tradition to help us understand it. They did not throw out the role of the church, but instead of believing the church to be an infallible interpreter of scripture, rather they believed the church to only be an authoritative interpreter.

There is a big difference.

Strictly speaking this series should have started with this principal as it is the foundation that all the others are built upon. The Bible is all that is needed for the Christian to understand God's revelation, it is the word of God, perfect and unalterable and in it we see God's grace, the need of faith, the supremacy of Jesus and the focus on God's glory alone.

In a wonderful moment in history the reformer Martin Luther, so convinced of this truth, said under threat of death: "Unless I am overcome with testimonies from Scripture or with evident reasons -- for I believe neither the Pope nor the Councils, since they have often erred and contradicted one another -- I am overcome by the Scripture texts which I have adduced, and my conscience is bound by God's Word."

As God's people we need to live by the scriptures alone. It's great to read other books, to hear other information and to sit under good faithful teaching by gifted teachers. But it is the Word of God itself that is our teacher. We have a great privilege since the printing press and even more so now with technology as every one of us has access to God's word and also to a good number of tools that can assist us in unpacking the truths in the scriptures. (see eSword and Logos for two great tools)

So may you learn to love God's word as the truth of God revealed to his people. May you wrestle with it, devour it and, as James reminds us, be doers of the Word and not just hearers. May the Bible become part of you as you seek to know it's author.

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. It is God's word that will lead us to Jesus and He is all we need and the Bible is the only path to find him.

Sola Fidei

So it's all about Jesus.

We're saved by grace alone.

The way we access grace is through faith and the Reformers said it like this: "Sola fidei" by faith alone.

Grace and faith are inextricably linked as the Bible teaches us Ephesians 2:8–9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Faith is by definition faith in the grace of God shown through Jesus death, burial and resurrection from the dead! Put another way: God offers us grace (unmerited favour) that is able to save us and we access that grace by faith in Jesus as resurrected Lord.

What is faith? It is believing in what is unseen Hebrews reminds us. But what does believing mean? Intellectual agreement to doctrinal truth is not enough! The Devil also believes in Jesus, but he does not have faith in Jesus. The Biblical idea of faith is to trust upon Jesus, to lean on him in our times of need, to trust him not only for our eternal destiny but for our lives here and now.

When we have faith in Jesus he gives us all his righteousness and he takes from us all our sin. Paul writes it like this in 2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. There is no action required of us so that God would make us right. Faith is us believing that Jesus has made us right with the father. We are justified (made legally right) by faith. The reformers where reacting to abuses in the Catholic church where people where able to purchase indulgences, basically pardons for sin, or people were told to venerate long dead saints and receive pardon for sin. That is justification by works - you must do something to be made right with God.

Justification by faith is to have trust that everything needed to make us right with God has been done by Jesus. Faith is absolutely central to reformed thinking and for that matter biblical thinking!

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Without faith in Jesus we have no way to please God. In faith everything we do can become pleasing to God. Whether you work in faith, parent in faith, play in faith, relax in faith, discipline in faith, eat in faith, spend in faith, laugh in faith, cry in faith - anything done in faith becomes a pleasing and good thing in the eyes of God.

The Reformers had it right: faith alone!