Discipleship Dare

Fellow A/G pastor (Potomac District) and VFCC grad Jess Bousa has written "The Discipleship Dare" - a great way to activate yourself and your people in following Jesus. It is unusual in that it actually works, and can be used for new believers as well as more mature believers.

Jess provides video intros, and sermon outlines for your church as well as the ability to read the book online for free. www.thediscipleshipdare.com

There are currently some bloggers posting everyday for 40 days as they go through the Dare. Follow Jess on Facebook or visit the website to find out more.

I began posting on this today. www.goodground.blogspot.com

Have a great new year of ministry!

The Lure of the Automat

The Horn and Hardart Automat Restaurant in NY City, circa 1960's

My dad was a child of the depression and spent his early years in Brooklyn before my grandfather moved the family out to what was then "the country", but is now just another congested NY City suburb, the Village of Valley Stream. My dad maintained a fascination for the city, linked with a healthy fear that he passed on to his five children.

One thing that had special lure for him was the famous Horn and Hardart Automat in Manhattan (the first one was actually in Philadelphia). I remember him taking us there when we were small. There was an amazing array of freshly prepared foods behind crystal clear glass doors that were available "automatically" when you dropped your nickels in the slot. This was real Americana and the height of consumerism.

In Organic Church author Neil Cole describes the "all by itself" principle of church growth/discipleship that Jesus spoke of in Mark 4:26-29.

"...The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."

That was the lure of the automat. It seemed as though the food just presented itself without any human involvement at all. That had great appeal in an era when we had yet to really see the dark side of science and technology. (Remember the Jetsons cooking food in those magic machines)

But the fact was that "automats weren’t truly automatic. They were heavily staffed. As a customer removed a compartment’s contents, a behind-the-machine human quickly slipped another sandwich, salad, piece of pie or coffee cake into the vacated chamber." (Wikipeda reference)

Christian Schwarz (Natural Church Development) also speaks of this same principle which says that if the circumstances and environment (church health) are right then church growth and discipleship will begin to happen all by themselves. This runs counter to our strategic style of planting churches which emphasize demographics, facilities, flow charts and powerful launches.

The thing we must wrestle with is what Jesus says. He is the one, in parabolic form, who says that the kingdom grows "all by itself". Our role, according to the parable is to scatter seed in order to grow the kingdom. This task of sowing is emphasized in the Parable of the Soils and the Parable of the Mustard Seed as well.

Sometimes I think we try to reap a harvest when there has been little in the way of real sowing of seed. We spend an enormous amount of resources on impersonal advertising, growing programs, events and churches, but what would qualify as "sowing the seed" of the Gospel gets neglected.

This is meant as a word of encouragement. I have always taken more responsibility for the growth of my church than I think the Lord would ask of me. Perhaps we should spend more time removing stones, turning over ground, keeping our furrows straight, placing seeds in the ground, and keeping them watered. After all, the growth is up to the Lord Himself!

1 Corinthians 3:6-7

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters,

but God who gives the increase.

Reflections of a Consumer

This morning I had breakfast with my Executive Pastor to discuss the Sunday services and plan for the upcoming week. When entering the diner, we were greeted somewhat gruffly by a waitress that didn't seem too interested in serving us. The diner was cold and I was too intimidated by the waitress to even ask her to turn up the heat. After giving us the menus, she disappeared for some time. When the meal finally arrived it was okay, but nothing special. I left there thinking, "I don't think I'm going back there any time soon."

Welcome to the life of a consumer. A consumer is someone who buys goods and services to meet their personal needs. Contemporary culture in America is consumer driven. Naturally, this mentality is going to infiltrate the church world. That poses the question, "Should we treat our guests as consumers, catering to their spiritual needs?" I think the obvious answer is "Yes."

Consumers are people. Jesus wants us to reach the lost - consumers and all. What did Jesus do with the consumer mentality evident in first century Palestine? In Mark's account of the feeding of the 5,000 we see Jesus with the help of the disciples meeting the physical needs of the people. In John 6:26 Jesus addresses their consumer mentality and says, "You've come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs - and for free." (The Message)

When it comes to people, you've got to start where they are even if that means accepting them with their consumer mentality. The key to effective life transforming ministry is not stopping there but helping transition that consumer into a contributor. I've spent way too much time in my albeit brief ministry experience trying to redeem culture. I'm through with those feeble efforts. Instead, I've vowed to spend the rest of my life to creating culture, not merely redeeming it.

Therein lies the hard question: how do we create a culture of servanthood discipleship in a consumer driven world?

Can church be both missional and attractional?

Alan Hirsch in The Forgotten Ways says, "The major challenge to the viability of Christianity is not Buddhism...nor is it Islam...nor the New Age... All of these are challenges, no doubt, but I have come to believe that the major threat to the viability of our faith is that of consumerism."  

Yes, Paul, we are pastoring people who are consumers first and Christians second (or third, fourth...)  Willow Creek says that their mission is to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Christ.  I wonder if we should say that our mission is to turn American consumers into authentic sacrificial Christ followers?  Is that possible when we seem to be "selling" Jesus as "the way to have all your needs met" and our church as the place where you can find it?  Is it possible to attract consumers to church without appealing to their consumer instincts?  And if we are appealing to their consumer instincts, how can we expect them to turn into missional, cross-bearing, loving-the-least-of-these kinds of people?  

Can a church be both attractional and missional?  I hope so and I'm looking for examples.  

Are We Just Pastoring Consumers?

Jeff, I join with Gerry in thanking you for posting the Hawkins video.

An even scarier thought than that we are not meeting deeply felt needs is that American Christians seem themselves as little more than weekend church consumers.

Here is a book review of "Shopping for God" in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal that may reinforce our worst fears--that we are pastoring consumers rather than transformed transformers.

Here is further discussion on getreligion.org.

the Reveal video

Jeff, I found that Reveal video interesting. And frightening. And then funny.

Interesting in looking at the different people that we serve in our churches. Frightening in that the one group of people least likely to be enjoying our churches, is the group that identifies themselves as closest to Jesus. It took me awhile to digest that.

And then funny. Funny because I can remember various people who really did see themselves as far too close to Jesus as to be weighed down with something as messy, hard, and uncomfortable as church can be sometimes. I'm ashamed to admit that I have had that sorry attitude myself at times.

I'm just glad Jesus wasn't like that.

Willow Creek's Soul-Searching

The team at Willow Creek has launched a new website called REVEAL. The are in the process of doing research about what is truly effective in making 'fully devoted followers'.


Greg Hawkins, their Executive Pastor, talks very openly in this online video about what has been effective and what has apparently not been.


He describes five different groups that the church attempts to provide ministry for: Exploring, Growing, Close, Christ-Centered, and Stalled.


I found this very thought provoking. The video is 13 minutes long, but it is worth the watch.