Rick Meigs :: Feeds

Cole Vs. Young

There is an interesting read titled “Coming and Going: Two Leaders. One Mission. Two Very Different Strategies.” It is an interview with Neil Cole and Ed Young Jr. which explores their very different approaches to ministry.

The following two excepts bring the contrasting methodology into sharp focus.

Ed Young: The worship event is the [emphasis is theirs] port of entry into the church. We have many, many, many, many other things that connect people to the church, like small groups and hospital visitation. Relationships are really important, but worship is the biggest entry point. So we are very intentional about our sermons and creating an experience.

Neil Cole: One of our early plans was to rent a coffeehouse to reach young people in Long Beach. We were getting ready to launch. But in the middle of one of our strategy meetings God spoke to us and said, Why not go to the coffeehouses where they are? Rather than trying to convert people from their coffeehouse to our coffeehouse where we could then convert them to Christ, we decided to bring Christ to them. So we started hanging out at their coffeehouses, and things started rolling. People started coming to faith in Christ.

Young uses a classic business model where product and presentation are designed to appeal to a consumer of religious goods and services. Cole understands that God is at work all around us, listens for His invitation on where to join Him, then acts in obedience.

Longtime readers of this blog won’t be surprised at which one resonate with me.

I wonder how much more of an impact Young’s “church” would have if they split into 200 one hundred member local neighborhood faith communities? Of course they can’t do this (I’m conjecturing here) because they don’t have 200 mature pastoral leaders (indictment of the model) and many of the people wouldn’t stand for it because they like/want to be consumers, not disciples (an indictment of the average American believer and the model).

Ministering Restoration: Recovering Spiritual Harmony

Last year around this time I helped Barb Orlowski, who was in the Doctor of Ministry program at A.C.T.S. Seminaries in Langley, B.C., Canada, locate Christians who have experienced emotional and spiritual distress under authoritarian and controlling church leaders and have recovered from this experience. See post here for background.

Dr. Orlowski has created a website, Church Exiters, where her dissertation “Ministering Restoration: Recovering Spiritual Harmony” can be found along with much of her research.

I’m looking forward to reading the dissertation, and well done “Dr.”

HT: Brad

Neil Cole Quote

Three things deter spontaneous multiplication: buildings, budgets, and big shots. —Neil Cole

A Random Blog Walk

I’ve not done a “Random Blog Walk” in months, but recently there has been some really good stuff being posted. Here are just a few.

“A Lesson in Synonyms” is one of those simple, yet powerful posts that Grace does so well.

Elizabeth Chapin has another well written post titled, “The Mission Driven Life and Vehicles to Get You There.” A recommended read.

Alan Hirsch announced that his new book “Rejesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church” (co-authored with Michael Frost) can now be ordered. You can also download the books introduction here and chapter one here. Both are in PDF format.

In “Koinonia and Generosity,” Adrian Warnock points to a blogging series by Terry Virgo called, “Remember the Poor.”

And Brother Maynard notes, in “The System vs. The Movement,” that power structures are beginning to crumble under the realization that they really aren’t necessary.

Finally, Bob Robinson provides a valuable admonition about our in-house debate around the issue of homosexuality here.

Do you twitter? I didn’t until October 29th, but this is one powerful tool. Twitter has a simple premise: You tweet and the message is pushed to your friends/coworkers/tribe/clients, you name it. Sure there is lots of lame dribble, but I simple choose not to “follow” those type of twitters. Check it out at twitter.com and you can follow me @BlindBeggar .

Giving Thanks

Kingdom Epicenter Shift?

Just thinking out loud in this post.

Looking at history, God seems to periodically shift the epicenter of his kingdom work, i.e., the place/people who profoundly shape the theology and praxis of the church for the rest of us. It appears to be an east to west progression.

I wonder if some most of the decline of the church in North America and the apparent indifference of its people to the “gospel” (however you want to define the gospel) is a reflection of God once again shifting the nexus of the kingdom to the west?

ESV Study Bible

I’ve been enjoying the new English Standard Version (ESV) Study Bible. The last study bible I had was back in the 70s when I regularly used the RSV Harper Study Bible. Crossway has reported that the demand for this ESV version is so high that the first 100,000 copies were sold out even before the release date in mid-October.

One of the problems with many most modern study bibles is that they are predisposed toward a specific theological or doctrinal viewpoint. The ESV is not free from such bias, but it appears to make a strong effort toward giving all orthodox viewpoints a fair shake. It has a bunch of article at the end which I’ve not had time to read, so I’ll withhold judgment on them.

J.I. Packer was on the team. Here what he has to say about this new work.

I’ll admit that I do enjoy and use regularly the ESV, which is a revision of the 1971 edition of the Revised Standard Version. I wonder what, if anything, ones preferences in translations says about a person?

Technorati Tags: ESV, Study Bible, J.I. Packer

Ed Stetzer vs AL: Episode 3

Technorati Tags: Ed Stetzer, Missional Church, Missional, Sent

Michael Frost Quote

The call to be missional is a full blooded call to the complete and utter recalibration of the church around mission. —Michael Frost

The Bridge

We have lived in our neighborhood for over 15 years. All that time it has been interesting to see how many people daily use an informal path that passes through the vacant lot (now restored wetlands) next to our home. With the new green street project done (see post here) and the wetlands attracting new wildlife, it has become more popular.

To take advantage of the popularity and to help ensure the path will remains a neighborhood assets, I’ve made some attempts to get it designated as an alternate route for Urban Trail #3 which passes just two blocks from us.

One of the items that needed done was the construction of a small foot bridge across Stephens Creek. Stephens Creek at this point is small and seasonal, but crossing it here was a challenge for many during our wet season (which some falsely claim lasts from January 1st through December 31st :-) ).

With the permission (or at least no objections) of the immediate neighbors, the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association, and the City, I constructed the bridge. Here is a picture of my handy work.

It took about two hours to complete and then another two hours (allowing for drying time between coats) to paint. No plans used. Just worked it out in my head and started pounding nails.

Lots of positive feedback from the neighbors.

N.T. Wright on Future of Western Church

N.T. Wright on the future of the Western Church and the post-post-modern Christian faith.

I find this quite fascinating and have given a lot of thought to what the church in North America might look like in the near and mid-term future. I personally am not looking to see a growth in numbers, but I do expect to see a deeper and stronger faith in those who name the name of Jesus. I expect to see a slow abandonment of the American machine/consumer/business model of doing church with a renewed emphasis on walking in “the way of Jesus.” I expect to see greater unity among the divergent tribes within the church and a shift from large/mega churches to smaller community based faith communities.

Tell me what you think the church in North America will look like in 10, 20 and 30 years out. Be brave and express yourself.

HT: Emergent Village

A Life Radically Transformed

Simple observation confirmed by numerous studies have found that how American Christians live and their basic beliefs about life are no different than those of the non-Christians.

The Barna Group has established this reality over the years with findings like:

• When defining success, most adults, Christian and non-Christian, focused on personal accomplishments, family solidarity and emotional fulfillment. Only 7% grasp the biblical message that success is not about personal accomplishment or material possessions.
• Almost everyone in the U.S. believes that truth exists. However, a large majority of adults, Christian and non-Christian, contends that there is no absolute moral truth. More than two out of three adults argue that truth is always relative to the individual and the circumstances.
• The divorce rate among Christians is no different than that of non-Christians.
• Breaking the speed limit was an action deemed morally acceptable by two-fifths of all adults. That proportion was rather stable across a wide range of subgroups, including “born again” Christians.

Somewhere in the past 2,000 years, Jesus message and teaching on the genuine Christian walk and calling has disappeared for the most part. Sure, we grew up with a strong teaching that we needed to evangelize, to share our faith, but when did you last hear a message calling us to model our lives after the Sermon on the Mount? It’s as if the average American Jesus follower lives by the credo…

While talking with members of our missional tribe, this subject came up as a passing observation, but it has been resonating with me ever since. It was noted that the missional paradigm is about a fundamental and essential change in our core being which leads us to realign ourselves with the biblical narrative. That shift or change might be verbally illustrated as…

We no longer live the “American dream” with the rare “gospel presentation,” but begin to understand, apply, and walk in the faith Jesus taught and demanded. Out of this deep significant journey into “the way of Jesus,” we will be “conformed to the likeness of his Son” and have a life worth sharing. One which resonates with purpose, hope and meaning. A life where “the way of Jesus” informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living for Him and others.

Technorati Tags: Missional, Missional Church, Jesus, Christian

Another Missional Voice

Elizabeth Chapin is a student at George Fox Evangelical Seminary working on a Master of Arts in Ministry Leadership degree. She recently dropped me an email in conjunction with a paper she is writing for her missional ecclesiology class titled, “What is Missional?”

She also blogs at Emerging Chaos and just posted an entry called “Would Missional by Any Other Name Sound So Sweet?” Recommended reading and I’ll be adding it to the Friend of Missional resource list. Drop over to her blog and leave a comment and some encouragement.

Nice to hear a new voice in this conversation Elizabeth.

Technorati Tags: Missional Church, Missional

From Isolation to Community

Our urban neighborhood was like many others. People living in isolation with little interaction. It was a residential area, not a community. But we started a neighborhood project a number of years ago that finally got finished and has had brought dramatic positive change.

We lived in an area which had unimproved gravel streets. Since I grew up on a farm, gravel streets was never an issue. But for many in our area they were a problem. Localized basement flooding and street erosion caused by inadequate stormwater drainage from these unimproved streets led many to improvise stormwater systems, as well as creating the need for annual street repair.

Neighbors started to come together looking for a solution. After years of wrangling with the City of Portland’s transportation department (all rules and no vision), we had several neighbors approach Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services where we found a responsive city agency with vision.

Since our neighborhood is situated at the headwaters of Stephens Creek, (one of the few streams in southwest Portland that still flows freely to the Willamette River, and contains wetlands) we insisted that the project be environmentally driven. BES responded eagerly with a proposed “Green Street” project.

A “Green Street” is one where the streets are designed to integrate a system of stormwater management within a street’s right of way, reduce the amount of water that is piped directly to streams and rivers, be a visible component of a system of “green infrastructure” that is incorporated into the aesthetics of the community, make the best use of the street tree canopy for stormwater interception as well as temperature mitigation and air quality improvement, and ensures the street has the least impact on its surroundings, particularly at locations where it crosses a stream or other sensitive area (from Wikipedia).

The project was finished this past year, although some wetland work continues.

Even though this was a neighborhood initiated project, the Bureau of Environmental Services spearheaded the planning and work. The project manages stormwater runoff from a 17-acre basin and includes:

• Ten blocks of street improvements with narrow, 20-foot-wide streets and a sidewalk.
• Fourteen swales and a wetland detention area to manage stormwater runoff.
• Acquisition and restoration of a 0.62-acre wetland to detain and filter water before it enters Stephens Creek.
• Driveway connections to existing homes.
• Improved street lighting.

How did our neighborhood benefit? It brought our neighbors together around a common cause which overnight brought down the walls of isolation. We are a community now where we know each other, visit, pick up mail when others are on vacation, children play together and we have even taken some to doctor appointments and other errands. It enhanced the livability of the area, created green space and wildlife habitat (ducks are back and we had a deer walk down the street last week), preserved the maximum number of mature trees, enhanced Stephens Creek, and solved street and flooding issues.

One other important aspect was our insistence that sidewalks be included. On the very day that the sideways were done, people were out walking and visiting, and it has not stopped. Sidewalks are a key to ensuring that walls of isolation remain down so that relationship building can continue. And as these relationship have matured, we have had many opportunities to verbally share our live and faith as Jesus followers.

Further, because of my activism in this project, I’ve been able to connect with many of our Southwest Portland neighborhood leaders and city officials. This has and is leading to greater community involvement of myself and our faith community in the life and affairs of the local area.

You too can be the catalyst that transforms your neighborhood into a community where you can build relationships as you walk in the way of Jesus. Looks for common ground and get involved. It’s part of the practical outworking of a missional life.

Technorati Tags: Portland, Oregon, Missional Church, Missional, Green Street

Dana Carvey Quote

To label me is to ignore me. —Dana Carvey

HT: Brad

Ed Stetzer vs AL: Episode 1

Technorati Tags: Ed Stetzer, Missional Church, Missional, Sent