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Dreamers Dream Dreams

June 11, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Christ-Centered ChurchWe were asked a couple of months ago, in preparation for the elders/ministers retreat at Glen Rose, to write down our dreams for the Legacy Church of Christ. There were no time frames attached to the request. They could be dreams we have for the congregation in the coming months or visions of what we’d hope to see 20 years from now.

Toward the end of our time together, we shared those dreams with each other. We listened as everyone poured out their hearts and wishes and passions and hopes for the Legacy body. We prayed together that our God would use us for his purposes, to minister to his people in his Kingdom, as he wishes.

I was inspired by the commonality in our individual visions.

Of course, the details differed and the emphasis changed from person to person as we went around the room. One elder would speak of increased membership and a bigger staff. Another would bring up an idea to enhance outreach to the hispanic community or the Lifeline Chaplaincy program or our marriages and kids. Someone wants us to establish a local “Made In The Streets” program here in our area like the one Charles Coulston runs in Kenya. One spoke passionately about handing the “nuts and bolts of running the plant” over to the deacons to allow the elders to focus solely on the Scriptural teaching and praying roles for which they signed up. A couple of elders even tied their dreams to Legacy Small Groups Church and increased participation there.

And while different men and different personalities shared many different things, the overarching themes all connected. Each and all of the Legacy elders and ministers are determined that we become a “city on a hill,” a true force for God in our North Tarrant County communities. All of us want to be more mission-minded and mission-active, reaching out to heal both body and soul here locally and around the world. We’re all committed to faithful marriages and families in our congregation, spiritual growth in our individual and congregational relationships with Christ Jesus, and in more selfless service to one another.

I was never more proud to belong to Legacy than I was that day in Glen Rose.

Naturally, we acknowledged that it was one thing to sit around a big conference table and talk about these ideas and ideals and quite another to actually implement them in practical ways in our Body life. But we vowed to try. And we promised to hold each other accountable to the things we had discussed.

I came back and posted my own dreams and visions for Legacy on the wall above my desk in my study. I want to be continually reminded of my goals and the things I want to equip and inspire our brothers and sisters to be and do.

So, as I look at them and read them on my wall every single day, I think maybe you could be encouraged or inspired by seeing them, too. At the very least, it’ll help you keep me accountable to the things I feel our God is calling me to do and the ways he’s calling me to lead. I’ll my specific goals for the rest of 2008 and my goals for 2009 with you tomorrow.

Here they are, my big-picture dreams for the Legacy Church of Christ:

~to adopt the Ezekiel 34 vision as a motivation for everything we do in the name of God; to search for the lost, to bind up the injured, and to strengthen the weak.

~to be the leader within the Churches of Christ in the Kingdom of God; to provide leadership, ministry, and spiritual formation direction for other churches; that we would do things in a way that would inspire other Christians and other churches; that others outside our immediate fellowship would follow us as we follow Christ.

~100% Small Groups participation; that we would all serve and grow and minister and evangelize, with each other in each other’s homes, therefore becoming more like Christ.

~become a body that reflects the message of the Gospel by uniting and bringing together those from all color, economic, social, career, and ethnic backgrounds; that our Spanish-speakers and our deaf members would be integrated, not separated.

~flex our autonomy; be truly non-denominational; be guided by Christ Jesus and his Word, not outside forces.

~be a center for Christian unity events such as worship assemblies and lectureships and seminars for our brotherhood and beyond.

There they are. Keep me honest.

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SharonHappy Birthday today to my little sister, Sharon. Smash your sandwich, miss an important turn in downtown Dallas, and have an asthma attack to help her celebrate. I love you, Shassher!

Peace,

Allan

Jumping Off The Line

May 28, 2008 / / 2 Comments

Issues.

Why are we defined by the issues?

Why do we label churches and each other according to the issues?

Why do our language and our attitudes and our thought processes center on the issues?

Why have issues become the heart of Christian leadership?

It seems that in the Church—and it’s been this way for a long, long time—we judge you and your spirituality and your doctrinal soundness on how you feel about this buzz word or how you think about that catch phrase regarding the issues. Or sometimes whether you use those pet words or phrases at all. If I’m having a casual conversation with you and you use the word “brethren” or “missional,” I’m going to label you as being somewhere on an imaginary line between liberal and conservative, between progressive and traditional. And I’m going to assume you’re heading in one direction or the other. If you declare an affection for the King James Version or express a fondness for a “praise team,” I’m going to know everything about your theology and your relationship with God and his Church based on this line between conservative and liberal, between one extreme and the other. I judge your congregation based on whether you do Small Groups or whether you assemble together at the building on Sunday nights. Or whether you meet on Sunday nights at all. When we think along this line between Point A and Point B, there becomes a big difference between a brother or sister who enjoys singing There’s A Stirring and one who prefers A Mighty Fortress. It’s become so ingrained and so absurd in the way we do church business that we draw a hard distinction between a female children’s minister and a female children’s coordinator.

These buzz words and catch phrases are now conversation-enders. If you use one in a discussion you and I are having, our conversation ends. We may still be talking to each other, but I’ve already heard enough to label you. I know exactly where you are and where you’re going based on your use of that word. I know your agenda. So you may still be moving your mouth, but I’m not listening. I already know.

This kind of thinking along the A-B Line and our reactions to the prevailing A-B Line culture in our churches have led to much mistrust and suspicion. This kind of thinking stifles true communication and growth. And it leads to churches being guided by outside forces and church leaders making decisions based on fears.

What would happen if we jumped off the A-B Line?

What if we totally changed the spectrum? What if we adopted a different vision? What if we did things in an alternative way?

What if every conversation in the church and every decision made by church leaders was based purely on the topic at hand on its own merits? What if, instead of being guided by what such-and-such congregation is doing down the road or what so-and-so across town might think, we did things that were best for Legacy and best for the lost of Tarrant County?

What if we found ourselves in a church culture in which a brother could wear a suit and a tie and still read The Message? What if a sister raised her hands while singing Standing On The Promises? What if a group of church leaders decided a praise team isn’t right but it is good for women to pass trays during communion? Can a person clap during worship and still use the small letter “c” in the word “church”?

See how those above scenarios go totally against the A-B Line thinking?

Thinking on that line causes us to believe that the issues or the practices all go along some kind of predetermined order. If a church uses a praise team, it’s only a matter of time before women are preaching from the pulpit. If a church still uses songbooks, it’s obvious they’re going to eventually tear down the kitchen and pull their support from the orphans home.

The alternative is to do what’s best for Legacy according to our understanding of the Scriptures, not according to what somebody might say or think. Or write. It’s to judge each issue and each practice solely on its own merit. It’s to never assume that anybody’s sliding toward or away from anything other than toward God and his will and away from Satan and his. It’s pro-active instead of reactive. It’s being guided by Christ Jesus and his Word, not by outside forces. It’s not a compromised position, it’s a responsible position. It’s not content with trying to stay in the middle (a futile exercise if there ever was one), it’s doing everything possible to be out front.

It requires strong and dedicated leadership, no doubt. And it’s only accomplished with mutual love and trust.

What would happen if we jumped off that line?

Peace,

Allan

Pastor or Cheerleader?

May 14, 2008 / / 0 Comments

A couple of lines in a quick little interview with Eugene Peterson in World Magazine this month, brought to me last week by David Watson (thank you, brother), really have me thinking. Peterson’s not serving as the pastor of that big Presbyterian church in Baltimore anymore. He’s retired, sort of, living with his wife in a cabin on a mountain lake in Montana.

These two paragraphs right in the middle of the article intrigue me, especially as they relate to the current church culture in most metropolitan areas of the Bible belt, specifically in Dallas-Fort Worth, particularly here at Legacy.

“At his suburban church in Maryland, Peterson pastored people who ‘were rootless,’ lacking ‘generational continuity where they lived.’ So he spent a lot of time ‘thinking about, praying about how to make this a place where people feel relationally connected.’ Instead of offering non-stop activities, Peterson’s church had a ‘quiet order of worship’ that sought to draw people into the gospel story. When newcomers asked what activities his church offered, he’d speak of worship on Sunday, and ‘if you’d let me be your pastor I’d help you learn not to want so much activity.’

Peterson sympathizes with pastors who complain about the demands people make: ‘In this American culture they feel very competitive. Pastors feel that people want action.’ He challenges them: ‘Do you want to be their pastor or their cheerleader? It’s a desecration of the pastoral vocation to commodify it, to turn the church into a consumer place.'”

You already know, I cringe when I hear my own brothers and sisters judge our church family or judge other churches based on what new exciting program is offered, what new exciting technology is being used, and / or what new exciting worship element is being experienced. It’s even worse, much worse, when ministers and elders use that criteria to inform their pastoring and decision-making. In some cases, the spirituality of a body of believers is judged based on these programs, technologies, and worship practices.

More, more, more. Turn it up. Louder. Faster. Brighter. Bigger. Flashier. Fancier. What am I going to get out of this? Are my kids going to love it? Why should I come to your church? Why should I stay at your church? More. More. More.

We’ve just started again our quarterly “Legacy 101” class on Sunday mornings, a three-week course designed to introduce new members and visitors to our church family. This past Sunday I spent the entire 30-minutes talking about ministries at Legacy—not programs and classes to minister to them, but opportunities for them to serve and minister to others.

We held another training session last night for new Small Groups Co-Leaders and it gave us another chance to tell our leader-couples, “It’s not about you.” For our leaders, Small Groups is never about what they’re going to get out of it, what benefits they’re going to receive. It’s always about the ways they can serve and minister to the other half of our congregation who are not involved, not connected, not feeling like family here. We multiply to include more people. We multiply to serve and minister to more people.

And, for the most part, we all understand that. The new members of our church in that Legacy 101 session Sunday spoke much more about using their gifts and abilities to serve others than about what we can do for them. The new leaders of the multiplied groups talked much more last night about reaching out to their brothers and sisters in this church and to the lost of the community than they did about personal comfort levels and their own needs.

Peterson doesn’t cry out against activity. He cries out against activity for activity’s sake. Busyness. Entertainment. Diversion. He laments the kinds of things I hear increasingly more, not just from our church members but, from ministers and elders: we have to add this so more people will come, we have to add that so people won’t leave, we have to start doing this or begin offering that to keep everybody happy.

We have tons of activities at this place, something here almost every day and night. And I’d like to see us doing even more, but only when those activities are designed to equip and empower our people to serve and minister to others; when the focus is outward, not inward; when the emphasis is on you, not me.

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Jim Edgmon sent this to me. Enjoy.

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Peace,

Allan

Attractional v. Missional

March 18, 2008 / / 2 Comments

I know. I know. I try my very best to stay far away from Church Buzzwords. You know, words that we use that automatically end the conversation. Words that, once used out loud, label the user so that everybody else in the discussion stops listening to the actual conversation because they’ve already drawn their conclusions.

But try to hear me out.

In a column on mission-minded churches by Kent Marcum in the latest Christian Chronicle, he writes,

“Many congregations suffering from problems could probably attribute their internal struggles to an internal focus.”

It’s easy, perhaps, for some to see that in our churches. But I’ve also recently begun to witness this phenomenon in our Small Groups here at Legacy. (Now, please recongize that the following couple of statements are broad, general observations.)

It seems to me the groups that were built around friendships and strong existing relationships are struggling. These are the groups that started out so strong and so big and with so much promise. But these are the groups now that are fighting and arguing and getting feelings hurt and not growing and not inviting visitors and not really achieving what the groups are meant to achieve. People in these groups report that they almost dread Sunday nights. They’re walking on eggshells. Attendance is sporadic and the tension is real.

On the other hand, it seems that our groups that began with a few families who didn’t really know each other are doing so much better. These are the groups that started with doubt and uncertainty and lots of questions. I wasn’t sure about a couple of them. But now these are the very groups that are growing and inviting visitors and reaching out to the community and serving other people. Every week they report new people coming in, new projects they’re taking on, and new ways they’re getting to know each other. They love their Sunday night meetings together and they can’t wait to multiply and share what they have and what they’re doing with others. They seem to be achieving what the Small Groups are built to achieve.

Again, I don’t mean to paint our entire Legacy Small Groups Church with a broad stroke. But there is something important in the mindset of the groups in the same way there’s something significant about the mindset of an entire congregation. When the focus is on “us,” we struggle. When the focus is on “others,” we excel.

Whether in our Small Groups or in our congregations, it’s the difference between being attractional versus being missional.

A church with an attractional viewpoint says if we build it, they will come. If we do church better, they will come. If we sing newer songs (or older songs) they will come. If we take an appealing position on the hot church topic of the day they will come (or, they won’t leave). If we start more exciting programs, they will come. Bigger screens, cushier chairs, and a coffee bar! They will come!

A church with a missional mindset is different. It infiltrates its community. A missional viewpoint says it’s not what we do but, rather, what we do for you in the manner of God. Our Father through Christ shows grace, our God through Christ forgives, our God through Christ heals and loves and comforts. Jesus teaches and restores and shows compassion and brings justice. God, through his Son and by the power of the Holy Spirit, is today, right now, reconciling all of creation back to himself. And a missional church models that Good News. We go out from our places and, like our Savior, we show mercy and grace and compassion  and forgiveness to a lost and dying world.

This is what I’ve learned from Luke 15 over the past week and what I’m trying to communicate to my brothers and sisters at Legacy.

Forget the nine coins in the jar on the counter. As long as there’s even one single lost coin buried in the dirt in the corner of a dark house, I’m not going to stop until it’s found. Forget the 99 sheep safe in the nurturing and loving environment of the flock. As long as there’s even one solitary sheep wandering out there alone in the wilderness, I will not quit until it’s found. Every single sheep. Every single coin. Every single person. Everyone is significant. Everybody matters.

Luke 15 says clearly to forget the church building and the contribution and the worship traditions and the programs and the committees. Forget the ones already in. Don’t worry about them. Worry about the ones who aren’t in. Worry about the outsiders. Worry about the lost. And do something about it.

In Luke 15 the religious people are muttering. “Those kind of people don’t give. Those lost people don’t speak English. Their kids are not well-behaved. Have you seen what they wear? They’ll just mess things up. They’re on welfare. He just got out of prison. She has AIDS. He cusses. She smokes. We have to protect our kids. We have to be careful. Maybe those kind of people should just go somewhere else.”

Stop looking in. Start looking out. Forget the nine meeting in your house on Sunday night. Forget the 99 meeting in your church buildings on Sunday mornings. Go seek and save the lost.

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I must share this with you. Alvin Jennings sent me this video. Watch it once and you’ll watch it half a dozen times. If this little two-year-old girl can sing this beautiful classic hymn, why can’t we? What a precious angel.

And after you watch it, ask yourself this question: the way I’m smiling right now, does God smile like this when I sing to him?

Peace,

Allan

Mashed Potatoes

February 28, 2008 / / 1 Comment

MashedPotatoesTerry Rush is one of my spiritual heroes. And he probably doesn’t even know it. His passion for the Christ and his compassion for God’s people hit me like a freight train every time I hear him speak, every time we share a quick little two minute conversation or email, both times I’ve sat with him and other preachers in his study at the Memorial Road church in Tulsa, and every single time I read his blog. I want to share with you today something Terry wrote on his blog, Morning Rush,  yesterday regarding the Church of God as a sacrificial Body of believers, a truly selfless family bent on doing this thing together.

Enjoy:

“I may be off an author or two but I think it was Juan Carlos Ortiz who wrote a book in the 70s discussing unity. He pointed out boiled potatoes in one bowl does not equal unity just because they are all together. Mashed potatoes is unity. He went on to explain: boiled ones are still individuals simply at the same location. The mashed are blended in with all others to serve one purpose as a unit.

Boiled? These members are in but not committed. They are in the church for their welfare, but not in it for the sake of the body. There is a thin line which calls for personal examination. Are we in the church for experiencing what makes me happy or to extend the body of Christ to the current and the next generations? Are we in it because our kids like it and need it or because God has burdened our hearts to live for Him? Are we in it to give us something good to do or to show mercy and love to a rude society? Are we boiled or mashed?

If boiled we find it easier to pick up our blankets and toys and find a new picnic. If mashed we find we can’t breathe without the body of Christ…He is our total life. What makes a boiled potato a mashed one? Beaters. Jesus asked us to face the beaters every day…..take up your beaters and follow me….he said, sorta. Each congregation is so much healthier mashed. There is found complete harmony. Only boiled? Oh, we may sit in the same bowl but we aren’t in it for the others. While we may sit together, we are still in this for self.

Take up your beaters. Let us submit to the beatings we take realizing we are simply in the wonderful kingdom process of God growing His people into one selfless body.”

Just 27 more days until the Tulsa Workshop!

Peace,

Allan

Building Faith At Home

February 26, 2008 / / 13 Comments

Jason and Kipi have been on me for some time to read Mark Holmen’s latest work, Building Faith at Home. The premise of the book is that what we as followers of Jesus do in our homes is much more important to passing on the Christian faith than what we do in our churches. And I believe that with all my heart. Amen. The focus and the attention and the emphasis we place on what we do together during our weekly assemblies is not just overshadowing what parents should be doing with their kids at home, it’s in some ways undermining it. And until we begin again to live our lives of faith in front of our children and with our children, what we’re doing in our churches isn’t really helping. We’re raising generations of kids now—I’d say even people my age and younger, maybe beginning with the first generation to be raised with a Youth Minister—who are sold on church programs and faithful to church activities but who have no real depth of commitment to our God in Christ Jesus.

I believe all that. I see the impact of it everyday. It’s evident in the things we talk about and argue about and the choices we make within our own congregation here at Legacy.

And as I cracked open Building Faith at Home for the first time Saturday night, I was struck by the statistics Holmen uses to back up what we’ve suspected all along.

*Since 1991, the population in the U.S. has grown by 15% but the number of adults who don’t attend church has increased 92%, from 39-million to 75-million.

*In 1990, 86.2% of Americans claimed to be Christian. Today that number is less than 75%. It’s going down by nearly a full percentage point per year. It that trend continues, non-Christians will outnumber Christians in this country by the year 2042.

*Search Institute conducted a survey of more than 11,000 young people from 561 congregations across six different Christian denominations. Keep in mind, these are all church kids! According to their responses: only 12% of youth have a regular dialogue with their mothers on faith issues; only 5% have a regular faith dialogue with their fathers; only 9% of youth experience regular reading of the Bible and devotions at home; and only 12% of youth have ever experienced a faith-based service event with a parent.

*In Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, George Barna claims “fewer than ten percent of parents who regularly attend church with their kids read the Bible together, pray together (other than at meal times), or participate in an act of service as a family unit. Even fewer families—1 out of every 20—have any type of worship experience together with their kids other than while they are at church.”

It seems that religious life in the home is just about nonexistent. It’s nearly extinct.

And the Church is called to teach our families how to share their faith, how to live their faith, how to exhibit their faith with each other.

I’m only halfway through Holmen’s book. And it’s pretty good. He gives very practical ideas for helping parents and kids grow and mature their faith at home. And I think we can very easily implement a lot of those things here at Legacy. It’s not so much overhauling what we do, it’s just looking at what we do through a different lens. It’ll require only some minor, yet critical, tweaking and adjusting as we encourage families to worship together and study together in their homes.

I especially appreciate Holmen’s emphasis throughout this first part of his book on involving all the different generations in our churches with each other in faith-building exercises. So much, if not most, of what we do as a congregation is segregated by age-group. Bible classes, retreats, fellowships, even our Small Groups are mostly divided along generational lines. And that’s not healthy for anybody. A truly healthy church will be intergenerational almost everywhere. Having young marrieds without children and parents of teenagers and empty-nesters and 85-year-old widows in the same classes and groups and pews and small groups should be the norm, not the exception. So when Holmen mentions baby blessings and involving much more of the whole church family in those ceremonies, I think we can apply baptisms along the same lines, much like what we did with the Dennis grandkids on Sunday. When new members come to the church I’m trying to involve the whole church family in vowing publicly to love them and take care of them and work with them as we follow Jesus. Weddings and funerals, high school and college graduations, anniversaries and other rites of passage should be celebrated by the whole church family together.

But everything we do should be geared toward getting our members to actually live out their faith in their homes with their spouses and kids and cousins and grandchildren.

Read a Bible story to your kids tonight. Pray with your spouse tonight. Plan to do something together as a family that will serve someone else.

Peace,

Allan

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