Focus on Discipleship
Most small group systems focus on the development of small groups. But the small group systems that stand the test of time are not founded upon small groups at all. They do small groups for the sake of discipleship. Their goal is not small group participation. Instead, it’s helping small groups of people confront the typical American life so that they can be formed or discipled into an contrasting pattern of life. These churches are aiming to generate an alternative way of life. Small groups for the sake of small groups will always blow in the wind of the culture. But small groups for the sake of discipleship have a deeper, transformational, and missional purpose.
Elizabeth O’Connor writes of the missional experience of The Church of the Savior in Washington D.C. She states, “This deepening of the spiritual life is not spontaneous. People do not just become great Christians. They grow as they make certain purposeful responses to life and to the grace of God. We call these ordered responses ‘disciplines.’”
In the monastic tradition, these ordered responses were shaped by what they call a “rule.” Hence, Saint Benedict created a rule of life for all those who chose to enter into a Benedictine community. While I am not advocating a certain monastic tradition for small groups, we should learn from Benedict’s specificity. We need to develop a “rule,” or what I call rhythms. These rhythms identify specific patterns for living as God’s people during this time, therefore causing us to stand in contrast to the surrounding culture. O’Connor again helps us see the importance of this:
"As members of a mission group we need to be disciplined and we need to be willing to require a discipline of those who would be on mission with us. No person or group or movement has vigor and power unless it is disciplined. Are we willing to be disciplined ourselves and to require it of others when it means that we will be the target of the hostilities and the pressures of many who do not see the necessity? The chances are that we will give in unless we know that this “giving in” means that our mission group will have not hard sharp cutting edge and will in time peter out."
Few would be so blunt today. This book was written in 1963. One might discount the writings due to it’s age. However, it is based on timeless wisdom. She continues with:
"This does not mean that we exclude a person from the Christian community. It simply means that we define his [or her] participation in the mission. We do not ask him to articulate what he does not know, or subject him to pressures for which he is not ready. The army does not take a man, put a gun in his hand, and march him to the front when he has never held a gun and does not know how to load it."
In their book Organic Discipleship, Dennis McCallum and Jessica Lowery write about how their church has been built upon the truths that O’Connor wrote about 50 years ago:
"Xenos is a local church that grew up spontaneously beginning in 1970, during the Jesus Movement. … Leaders are not recognized unless they are truly making disciples. With over 250 student and adult home churches, each led by a team of three to six leaders, the church has over 500 recognized leaders and around 900 “servant team” members. All servant team members must show they are working with disciples before being accepted to the team. Throughout the church, most people are either being discipled or are discipling others."
Another example is Antioch Church in Waco, Texas. Their small groups are not just places for people to get connected and study the Bible. They have set an expectation that people will be shaped to live radical, sacrificial lives and that is the genuine “normal Christian life.” The founding leader, Jimmy Seibert, writes, “Discipleship was the foundation for everything we had started in 1987 and continues to be a major part of everything we do today.”
If we want to develop small groups that experience community and mission, we must ask, “How are we going to create a culture of discipleship that will form people for mission? Prepare yourself for a shift in mindset regarding discipleship.
I grew up in a church based on the assumption that discipleship was something that was the responsibility of the individual. For this reason, when I started working with churches to help them form small groups, I did not connect the priority of discipleship with the experience of missional community. Ralph Neighbour Jr. invested much of his energy on developing group systems, but he spent even more of his time creating patterns that will help grow disciples though life-on-life interaction. For ten years, I worked for the ministry he created to promote this relational discipleship pattern, but I never really understood the importance of it during my time there. My focus was on small groups. We talked about discipleship in our training, but that seemed to take a back seat to groups. But in Ralph’s original thinking, it was clearly the other way around. Today, I see clearly that discipleship is not the responsibility of the individual, but of the leaders in the church. A movement of discipleship begins as leaders start mentoring and investing in a small number of people.
For example, Neil Cole writes about Life Transformation Groups, which he uses to form people within the organic churches that he oversees. A group of three meets together weekly for the sake of personal conversations about their life and their walk in Christ. It can grow to four but no bigger. And once it does grow to four, the members of the group look to include two others and create two groups of three.
John Wesley understood the importance of these discipling relationships more than anyone. He called them bands, which were sub-groupings of his small groups. In the bands, they would deal with questions about how they lived their lives, challenging one another to move away from a life shaped by the larger culture and embrace love.
The work of Greg Ogden has proven to be very helpful for my friend Jim Egli. In his work as a small groups pastor, the leadership of the church has helped group members connect in groups of four. They meet for six to nine months together, working through Ogden’s book Discipleship Essentials. Afterwards, they encourage each person to connect with three others and repeat the process. Jim told me that this has brought life transformation to his groups more than anything else the church has tried through the years.
(This material is adapted from Chapter 7 of MissioRelate.)
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Friday, May 17, 2013
Falling Upward by Richard Rohr
I read tons of books. Literally. Through the years, I've found that I naturally I put books into one of five categories.
To this list I'm adding Falling Upward by Richard Rohr. This small volume names so much that is true about life, how we follow Jesus, and how we mature. I found myself marking up so many pages that little was left untouched. I've returned to statements, paragraphs and sections over the last 8 months to understand better how God shapes us, to see how the Spirit leads us. Here are a few quotes:
“The supposed achievements of the first half of life have to fall apart and show themselves to be wanting in some way, or we will not move further” (xix).
“We grow spiritually much more by doing it wrong than by doing it right” (xxii).
"Those who are not true leaders or elders will just affirm people at their own immature level, and of course immature people will love them and elect them for being equally immature” (9).
“The first-half-of-life container, nevertheless, is constructed through impulse controls; traditions; group symbols; family loyalties; basic respect for authority; civil and church laws; and a sense of goodness, value, and special importance of your country, ethnicity and religion (27).
“So failure and humiliation force you to look where you never would otherwise. What an enigma!” (66).
“In the second half of life, it is good just to be a part of the general dance. We do not have to stand out, make defining moves, or be better than anyone else on the dance floor. Life is more participatory than assertive, and there is no need for strong or further self-definition” (120).
“Failure and suffering are the great equalizers and levelers among humans. Success is just the opposite. Communities and commitment can form around suffering much more than around how wonderful and superior we are” (158).
A quick glance at these quotes reveals that this is a book about the journey we take in life. In the first half, we develop a sense of boundaries and rules while we develop a container for how life works best for us. It is marked by a degree of success and affirmation, at least in healthy situations. Rohr argues that most people try and hold on to the first half of life experience. We do this in part because we want to continue to live out what we know especially if the first half of life has been one of success and security. We also do this because the transition to the second half involves what he calls “necessary suffering”, thus the title Falling Upward. The way we enter into the second half is through some kind of experience of failure.
The shift to the second half of life is not about age. In fact, Rohr points out the our culture celebrates first-half-of-life success and therefore many who are elders in age never into the wisdom that should come from their age because they never make the transition from the first to the second. Age is not the point. This journey is about embracing the transition that comes with the reality of life and discovering the mystery, wisdom and the ability to be oneself that arises on the journey.
While he does not make this correlation, the first half could be akin to following Jesus before the Passion and Cross. This is where the disciples learned about the benefits of Jesus. The cross is that time of transition. The resurrection introduces the second half. The problem is that like the disciples, we don't want to follow Jesus all the way to the cross. So most people tend to remain stuck in the first half of life.
While there are aspects of Rohr’s theology with which many will disagree—I don’t agree with it all—I wish more people would take the time to see the wisdom in Rohr’s words and the gift of life that can blossom from his insights. In so many ways, this book goes against the grain of the American way of life. In fact, it goes against the grain of the success-driven philosophy that has shaped the American church life. He is describing how we follow Jesus to the cross so that we can see how God is transforming us through the ups and downs of life.
Don’t worry, he is not bashing success as some have a tendency to do. He is calling us beyond our fixation on success and into a life that is worth living.
Thank you Richard Rohr for this gift.
- Books to ignore. These are just not worth the time.
- Books to argue with. These help you see that with which you disagree and therefore help clarify convictions.
- Books to enjoy. I tend to put novels here, but I also find good non-fiction works fall into this group.
- Books that inform convictions. I have about 20 books to which I return consistently to help guide my thinking.
- Books to ingest, absorb and allow to shape me.
“The supposed achievements of the first half of life have to fall apart and show themselves to be wanting in some way, or we will not move further” (xix).
“We grow spiritually much more by doing it wrong than by doing it right” (xxii).
"Those who are not true leaders or elders will just affirm people at their own immature level, and of course immature people will love them and elect them for being equally immature” (9).
“The first-half-of-life container, nevertheless, is constructed through impulse controls; traditions; group symbols; family loyalties; basic respect for authority; civil and church laws; and a sense of goodness, value, and special importance of your country, ethnicity and religion (27).
“So failure and humiliation force you to look where you never would otherwise. What an enigma!” (66).
“In the second half of life, it is good just to be a part of the general dance. We do not have to stand out, make defining moves, or be better than anyone else on the dance floor. Life is more participatory than assertive, and there is no need for strong or further self-definition” (120).
“Failure and suffering are the great equalizers and levelers among humans. Success is just the opposite. Communities and commitment can form around suffering much more than around how wonderful and superior we are” (158).
A quick glance at these quotes reveals that this is a book about the journey we take in life. In the first half, we develop a sense of boundaries and rules while we develop a container for how life works best for us. It is marked by a degree of success and affirmation, at least in healthy situations. Rohr argues that most people try and hold on to the first half of life experience. We do this in part because we want to continue to live out what we know especially if the first half of life has been one of success and security. We also do this because the transition to the second half involves what he calls “necessary suffering”, thus the title Falling Upward. The way we enter into the second half is through some kind of experience of failure.
The shift to the second half of life is not about age. In fact, Rohr points out the our culture celebrates first-half-of-life success and therefore many who are elders in age never into the wisdom that should come from their age because they never make the transition from the first to the second. Age is not the point. This journey is about embracing the transition that comes with the reality of life and discovering the mystery, wisdom and the ability to be oneself that arises on the journey.
While he does not make this correlation, the first half could be akin to following Jesus before the Passion and Cross. This is where the disciples learned about the benefits of Jesus. The cross is that time of transition. The resurrection introduces the second half. The problem is that like the disciples, we don't want to follow Jesus all the way to the cross. So most people tend to remain stuck in the first half of life.
While there are aspects of Rohr’s theology with which many will disagree—I don’t agree with it all—I wish more people would take the time to see the wisdom in Rohr’s words and the gift of life that can blossom from his insights. In so many ways, this book goes against the grain of the American way of life. In fact, it goes against the grain of the success-driven philosophy that has shaped the American church life. He is describing how we follow Jesus to the cross so that we can see how God is transforming us through the ups and downs of life.
Don’t worry, he is not bashing success as some have a tendency to do. He is calling us beyond our fixation on success and into a life that is worth living.
Thank you Richard Rohr for this gift.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Group Leadership and Sheep
On our family farm in North Texas, we raised everything from cows to chickens, rabbits to turkeys. We stayed away from pigs and horses, but just about every other farm animal called our farm home at some point. The one species that seemed to impact our lives the most were the sheep. While we owned more cattle, the small flock of sheep were are part of our lives more than any other.
Unlike cattle, sheep require up-close-and-personal care. For instance, sheep lack the ability to regulate how much they eat. If food is out, they will eat it. And if they eat too much, they will die. In addition, they have very sensitive stomachs. Therefore a shepherd is required to feed them the right amounts of the right food.
Sheep have no ability to protect themselves. They are frail and slow, and they cannot kick, claw or bite. They are easily spooked. They will scatter easily in panic and then once cornered they will sit petrified while staring at their predator. Therefore a shepherd is required to protect them. This is why they must be penned at night and watched over by day. In our case the field in which they ran during the day was protected by good fences to keep out dogs and other predators, but we still penned them every evening.
Sheep give birth to little lambs, which are truly the cutest things in the world. However, the lambing season falls in the winter. When it was time for ewes to give birth, we had to watch them closely. I cannot count the late nights when my dad would put on his coat "one more time" and head out to the barn to check if any new lambs were about to enter the world. We knew that they often needed help getting up so that they could take their first milk. This was especially true on the cold days and nights.
Sheep are loud. They are intellectually challenged (scientific fact). They are prone to wonder off. They stink. Oh my do they stink. Just imagine four inches of wool at the end of a long rainy winter. Sheep are the only farm animal that requires annual sheering. In some ways this is good because it is a source of income, but in other ways it illustrates the kind of special care a shepherd provides that is not required of other animals. This one biological characteristic demonstrates how sheep cannot live on their own. If for some reason sheep got smarter and they developed an ability to protect themselves, they still could not survive in the wild. If the wool is not shorn, it will grow so long that they will get top heavy. Then when it gets wet, they will fall over and their legs will flail about. They will die helplessly waiting for a shepherd to come and turn them over.
One more thing, sheep cannot be driven. It is not easy to force them to go anywhere. If you drive them, they will scatter. In his book, They Smell Like Sheep, Lynn Anderson tells the story of a tour he was leading in Israel where he was teaching people on the ancient practices of shepherding. While talking, he looked out the window of the tour bus and saw a man driving sheep. He was irate and told the bus driver to stop. He walked over the the man and told him how shepherds were not supposed to drive the sheep. The man responded, "I'm not a shepherd. I'm a butcher."
What can this teach us about leading small groups, missional communities and other forms of group life?
Unlike cattle, sheep require up-close-and-personal care. For instance, sheep lack the ability to regulate how much they eat. If food is out, they will eat it. And if they eat too much, they will die. In addition, they have very sensitive stomachs. Therefore a shepherd is required to feed them the right amounts of the right food.
Sheep have no ability to protect themselves. They are frail and slow, and they cannot kick, claw or bite. They are easily spooked. They will scatter easily in panic and then once cornered they will sit petrified while staring at their predator. Therefore a shepherd is required to protect them. This is why they must be penned at night and watched over by day. In our case the field in which they ran during the day was protected by good fences to keep out dogs and other predators, but we still penned them every evening.
Sheep give birth to little lambs, which are truly the cutest things in the world. However, the lambing season falls in the winter. When it was time for ewes to give birth, we had to watch them closely. I cannot count the late nights when my dad would put on his coat "one more time" and head out to the barn to check if any new lambs were about to enter the world. We knew that they often needed help getting up so that they could take their first milk. This was especially true on the cold days and nights.
Sheep are loud. They are intellectually challenged (scientific fact). They are prone to wonder off. They stink. Oh my do they stink. Just imagine four inches of wool at the end of a long rainy winter. Sheep are the only farm animal that requires annual sheering. In some ways this is good because it is a source of income, but in other ways it illustrates the kind of special care a shepherd provides that is not required of other animals. This one biological characteristic demonstrates how sheep cannot live on their own. If for some reason sheep got smarter and they developed an ability to protect themselves, they still could not survive in the wild. If the wool is not shorn, it will grow so long that they will get top heavy. Then when it gets wet, they will fall over and their legs will flail about. They will die helplessly waiting for a shepherd to come and turn them over.
One more thing, sheep cannot be driven. It is not easy to force them to go anywhere. If you drive them, they will scatter. In his book, They Smell Like Sheep, Lynn Anderson tells the story of a tour he was leading in Israel where he was teaching people on the ancient practices of shepherding. While talking, he looked out the window of the tour bus and saw a man driving sheep. He was irate and told the bus driver to stop. He walked over the the man and told him how shepherds were not supposed to drive the sheep. The man responded, "I'm not a shepherd. I'm a butcher."
What can this teach us about leading small groups, missional communities and other forms of group life?
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Admiring Jesus, Beatitudes Pt 21
I've lived most of my life in the Bible Belt. And while Christian leaders like to talk about how various authorities (i.e. media, education and entertainment) deride Christianity, it seems to me that Jesus and church are still alive and well in America. Yes, the stats are gloomy about the growth patterns in the church, but I drive around and I see churches all over the place, and lots of them are full. I go to Target and see all kinds of Christian books being pushed. The best-selling hard-back book of all time is The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren. There seems to be an ongoing degree of respect for things connected to Jesus.
After all what's not to like about Jesus. Here is the man who healed the sick, raised the dead, fed thousands and ultimately gave his life for the world. We celebrate him at Christmas and fill churches up on Easter.
It hit me last Christmas as I was driving through a light show with our family. It included a display that celebrated Jesus' birth and another that told of his resurrection. I realized that thousands upon thousands of people were passing these displays and how most people in our culture don't really have that big of a problem with Jesus. Jesus is admirable. It's acceptable to admire Jesus like we admire Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, or Mother Teresa. But following Jesus different.
When we admire Jesus or someone like MLK, we observe their lives and see how great they were as people. We see the impact that they had upon the world, and we celebrate who they were and what they accomplished. In the case of MLK, we name streets after him and set aside a day to remember what he initiated in the U.S. We admire MLK, but don't ask us to take up the mantle that he carried. Don't expect us to follow in his footsteps and embrace things like justice, peace and non-violence. Don't expect us to fight for what is right, even at the expense of our own lives.
Admire, but not follow.
Of course, Jesus is God and therefore different than MLK, but that does not mean that we follow Jesus just because we acknowledge him as God. It's acceptable to admire Jesus and even declare his deity. Sometimes, our insistence on his divinity causes us to admire him in a greater and more annoying ways than what is culturally polite. Then we think that we are being persecuted because people don't like the fact that we are annoying. We pack our schedules full of church activities. We talk about Jesus, read about Jesus, and pay homage to Jesus. Then we try and force our beliefs about his deity on others. Then we complain because people don't agree with us. OH! THE PERSECUTION!
But that does not mean that we are followers of the ways of Jesus. Knowing a lot about Jesus and even having a personal relationship with Jesus does not mean that I am following him.
This is where the beatitudes guide us. Since I have been writing this series on the beatitudes it has become clear to me just how much I've been an admirer of Jesus and how I've assumed that my job as a Jesus admirer is to get other people to admire him. Then if enough people admire Jesus and come to church with me then we are good Christians. Sadly, this is the imagination that has shaped conversations about evangelism and being missional.
The beatitudes challenge all of this. Instead of admiration of Jesus—notice how many people admired Jesus in the stories of the Gospels—we need to think in terms of following Jesus. Which means "taking up our cross daily" (Luke 9:23)—notice how few followed him in the Gospels. This means embracing the ways of Jesus, not just ideas about Jesus.
Eugene Peterson puts it this way:
"To follow Jesus implies that we we enter into a way of life that is given character and shape and direction by the one who calls us. To follow Jesus means picking up rhythms and ways of doing things that are often unsaid but always derivative from Jesus, formed by the influence of Jesus. To follow Jesus means that we can't separate what Jesus is saying from what Jesus is doing and the way that he is doing it. To follow Jesus is as much, or maybe even more about feet as it is about ears and eyes." (The Jesus Way, 22).
So in concrete terms, how can we determine whether we are stuck in the admirer camp? I think one good way of testing this is to read through the beatitudes and ask how these are being shaped in our lives. For instance, take "Blessed are the merciful." Is mercy growing in your life? Are you becoming less judgmental and critical of others? Are you finding that you are able to embrace those who don't deserve an embrace?
Admirers can say that they love Jesus. They can devote themselves to tons of church activities. They can stand in passionate worship, say "Amen" and even be a leader in the church. They can do all of this and not grow in mercy. In fact, I've found that mercy is not expected of those who are supposedly advancing on their journey with God. I've found that there is an expectation that the more one grows in their faith the more rigid and critical they will get.
But the way of Jesus is mercy. Many will admire Jesus because he had the ability to rise above the fray and show mercy to others who did not deserve it. But followers go beyond admiring this. They seek after Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to shape them to be merciful.
After all what's not to like about Jesus. Here is the man who healed the sick, raised the dead, fed thousands and ultimately gave his life for the world. We celebrate him at Christmas and fill churches up on Easter.
It hit me last Christmas as I was driving through a light show with our family. It included a display that celebrated Jesus' birth and another that told of his resurrection. I realized that thousands upon thousands of people were passing these displays and how most people in our culture don't really have that big of a problem with Jesus. Jesus is admirable. It's acceptable to admire Jesus like we admire Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, or Mother Teresa. But following Jesus different.
When we admire Jesus or someone like MLK, we observe their lives and see how great they were as people. We see the impact that they had upon the world, and we celebrate who they were and what they accomplished. In the case of MLK, we name streets after him and set aside a day to remember what he initiated in the U.S. We admire MLK, but don't ask us to take up the mantle that he carried. Don't expect us to follow in his footsteps and embrace things like justice, peace and non-violence. Don't expect us to fight for what is right, even at the expense of our own lives.
Admire, but not follow.
Of course, Jesus is God and therefore different than MLK, but that does not mean that we follow Jesus just because we acknowledge him as God. It's acceptable to admire Jesus and even declare his deity. Sometimes, our insistence on his divinity causes us to admire him in a greater and more annoying ways than what is culturally polite. Then we think that we are being persecuted because people don't like the fact that we are annoying. We pack our schedules full of church activities. We talk about Jesus, read about Jesus, and pay homage to Jesus. Then we try and force our beliefs about his deity on others. Then we complain because people don't agree with us. OH! THE PERSECUTION!
But that does not mean that we are followers of the ways of Jesus. Knowing a lot about Jesus and even having a personal relationship with Jesus does not mean that I am following him.
This is where the beatitudes guide us. Since I have been writing this series on the beatitudes it has become clear to me just how much I've been an admirer of Jesus and how I've assumed that my job as a Jesus admirer is to get other people to admire him. Then if enough people admire Jesus and come to church with me then we are good Christians. Sadly, this is the imagination that has shaped conversations about evangelism and being missional.
The beatitudes challenge all of this. Instead of admiration of Jesus—notice how many people admired Jesus in the stories of the Gospels—we need to think in terms of following Jesus. Which means "taking up our cross daily" (Luke 9:23)—notice how few followed him in the Gospels. This means embracing the ways of Jesus, not just ideas about Jesus.
Eugene Peterson puts it this way:
"To follow Jesus implies that we we enter into a way of life that is given character and shape and direction by the one who calls us. To follow Jesus means picking up rhythms and ways of doing things that are often unsaid but always derivative from Jesus, formed by the influence of Jesus. To follow Jesus means that we can't separate what Jesus is saying from what Jesus is doing and the way that he is doing it. To follow Jesus is as much, or maybe even more about feet as it is about ears and eyes." (The Jesus Way, 22).
So in concrete terms, how can we determine whether we are stuck in the admirer camp? I think one good way of testing this is to read through the beatitudes and ask how these are being shaped in our lives. For instance, take "Blessed are the merciful." Is mercy growing in your life? Are you becoming less judgmental and critical of others? Are you finding that you are able to embrace those who don't deserve an embrace?
Admirers can say that they love Jesus. They can devote themselves to tons of church activities. They can stand in passionate worship, say "Amen" and even be a leader in the church. They can do all of this and not grow in mercy. In fact, I've found that mercy is not expected of those who are supposedly advancing on their journey with God. I've found that there is an expectation that the more one grows in their faith the more rigid and critical they will get.
But the way of Jesus is mercy. Many will admire Jesus because he had the ability to rise above the fray and show mercy to others who did not deserve it. But followers go beyond admiring this. They seek after Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to shape them to be merciful.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Being a Difference Maker vs. Doing Stuff to Make a Difference
Last week, I got my preview copy of Difference Makers, which comes out in June. It was kinda fun to read it just to read it, without any thought of ways that I could make it better. I found myself encountering what I wrote as if for the first time. (What does that say about my memory?)
With this book, I aim to offer an alternative way of making a difference. Most of the time, when we think of difference making, we think of doing something, taking on a cause, standing up for justice, or taking radical action. While I don't have an issue with taking action or the specific actions taken, I've found that when we focus on the actions themselves we fall short of being difference makers. There is a huge difference between doing stuff that makes a difference and being a difference maker. The being will include the doing, but when we focus on the doing part the being may or may not follow.
In Difference Makers, there is an emphasis on both being and doing. This means that we cannot just talk about various things that we are going to do to change the world. We have to talk about being the kind of people who will naturally and organically change the world through ourt presence. Then we have to talk about how we become that kind of people.
We become this kind of people in a three-fold way:
With this book, I aim to offer an alternative way of making a difference. Most of the time, when we think of difference making, we think of doing something, taking on a cause, standing up for justice, or taking radical action. While I don't have an issue with taking action or the specific actions taken, I've found that when we focus on the actions themselves we fall short of being difference makers. There is a huge difference between doing stuff that makes a difference and being a difference maker. The being will include the doing, but when we focus on the doing part the being may or may not follow.
In Difference Makers, there is an emphasis on both being and doing. This means that we cannot just talk about various things that we are going to do to change the world. We have to talk about being the kind of people who will naturally and organically change the world through ourt presence. Then we have to talk about how we become that kind of people.
We become this kind of people in a three-fold way:
- Encountering the God Who Makes a Difference
- Experiencing a Difference-Making Team
- Engaging our Neighbors and those in Our Networks
Sunday, May 12, 2013
What Small Group Pastors Do, Pt 3
Facilitate Presence
Small groups meet in all kinds of places. Today, hundreds of small small groups will meet in schools, offices and on playing fields. One of the key tasks of small group pastors is to hold up the vision of what makes small groups of God's people distinct from all the other kinds of small groups that meet. There are a lot of things that we can do as small groups that are unique to being the people of God. We can worship. We can grow as disciples. We can study the Bible, reach out and live in community. But none of these really defines what makes us distinct.
We are distinct because God's people are characterized by the fact that they know and follow the presence of God. Without God's presence, we might have a good small group. We might even fulfill all of the purposes that God has given to the church. But we will miss out on what makes us truly distinct.
I am convinced that we have become so accustomed to leading groups in North America that we don’t need the presence of Jesus. We know how to study the Bible, and we are skilled at talking about Jesus’ life and ministry. We have plenty of experience with good group discussions. Now with the advent of technology, we can pipe the best Bible teaching in the world via DVD or YouTube. We spend far more time talking about Jesus than we do encountering him. All of our energy is invested in getting our facts about the Jesus stories correct. How much energy do we invest in allowing Jesus to shape us to live out his story today?
When we experience the presence of Jesus in our groups, we shift from a mindset of studying about the stories of God, to actually embodying those stories and telling them ourselves. Our lives become an extension of God’s story as the presence in our community brings the community to life.
We need leaders who will relentlessly proclaim the need for God's presence in our groups like a CD player stuck on the same song. Yes we need training. Yes we need good small group structures and strategies. Yes we need ways to help groups minister to people outside the group. But it seems to me that if we miss this distinction we are doing good stuff, but it is peripheral stuff. The center of it all is Jesus and his presence.
(This material is adapted from chapter 6 of MissioRelate.)
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Learning to Be Missional
How do you communicate to the average person in the church what it means to be on mission with God without using the word "missional"? I've found that most of what has been written about being missional aims at the church leader. Most of the people worshipping in our churches want to make a difference in this world, but they don't want to learn all the theological language of being "missional."
So in my writing over the last couple of years, I've sought to talk about being missional in a way that relates to everyday people. The results will hit the shelves next month in the form of Difference Makers. My aim was to write about a theme in a way that relates to the average person, the kind of person who goes to work everyday — as an accountant, a teacher, a factory worker — and does not have the time or the energy to read thick books about what it means to be a "missional" Christian.
The approach taken here is multifaceted.
One reviewer commented, "I hesitate to call Scott Boren's Difference Makers a book because reading it is more like submitting to a tutor, a coach, a spiritual guide. Pastors, Christians, no more conferences, please. Instead, read this book."--David Fitch
So in my writing over the last couple of years, I've sought to talk about being missional in a way that relates to everyday people. The results will hit the shelves next month in the form of Difference Makers. My aim was to write about a theme in a way that relates to the average person, the kind of person who goes to work everyday — as an accountant, a teacher, a factory worker — and does not have the time or the energy to read thick books about what it means to be a "missional" Christian.
- The chapters are very short. There are 40 of them and they can be read daily for 40 days. Or if person wants to bite off bigger chunks the short chapters are grouped into seven sections.
- Each of the seven sections includes practical experiments that the reader can do in order to grow in their difference making journey.
- There are seven small group discussion guides included at the back, and I will soon have youtube.com videos that will accompany them.
- I'm also now writing seven sermon outlines that a pastor can adapt to teach while the church reads this book together.
One reviewer commented, "I hesitate to call Scott Boren's Difference Makers a book because reading it is more like submitting to a tutor, a coach, a spiritual guide. Pastors, Christians, no more conferences, please. Instead, read this book."--David Fitch
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