I am surprised by the way different people hear the gospel message. For example, I met with a guy and his understanding of disciple making and evangelism was connected with church growth. He framed all his outreach as how it grew the congregation and so he had no interest in working on community ministry. I didn't pursue this discussion to far, but read the gospel in such a different way.
Later that day I found myself in the far northwest neighborhood and I spent a lot of time talking with Richard. I talked to him and a couple other guys about food pantries as well as soup kitchen. They were really excited about the possibility of something like that moving into the area. There are no real social services in the far northwest so people have to travel a long way to get food. This possibility would be good news to the neighborhood. We talked about God and church and other religious stuff and it was interesting to hear their theological take on things.
The two churches I work for generously provided me with the opportunity to attend the AND Conference at Granger Community Church. GCC is the local mega-church and, while their worship style doesn't speak to me, the conference featured some huge names. I have idolized Alan Hirsch for years and he was the main speaker at the gathering. I ran into Alan in the bathroom and had him sign my book. I got to hear him speak twice and he gave me a copy of his new book. I also got to hear Mike Breen, High Halter and Brandon Hatmaker.
The message is that the church has to change. The church must go out to that part of the society that it does not touch and impact people missionally. Just what I am doing! I wonder if I am moving too quickly when I hear these guys talking about spending years doing evaluation and interviews before acting. It was fulfilling to hear other talk about what I have felt since seminary. The challenge is figuring out how to do it.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
church versus ministry
I didn't publish a post last week as I usually do because we had two missionaries from Nicaragua staying at our house. I was doing translation work all week and was simply too tired to post.
The last couple weeks were spent meeting up with people including other pastors. These experiences have been weird to say the least. I met with one committee and was describing my ministry to them when one individual asked me what I wanted from them. Apparently, this church, which is wealthy, is used to being asked to fund mission and ministry. I was taken aback and told them I didn't want their money-what I was asking for was their prayers and I wanted them to prepare themselves for when I asked them to participate in my ministry. I'm thinking I didn't make a good impression because we had such different ideas of doing ministry. Financial support is essential to a community ministry, but those supporters need to buy into the vision and I guess I didn't cast a good vision.
Another pastor I met with is a very faithful guy. He is pushing the church he serves to do more Bible study and to become serious about inviting others to church. He told me about some of the outreach things they had done and how many people they had served. The down-side to the mission work was that not one of those people were grateful for the assistance nor did they attend worship at that church. For this pastor, mission meant growing the church and he felt that was his calling as well as the Biblical mandate. He went on to say that it was his thought that doing ministry to the community without directing them to a church was sort of a waste of time.
These were some pretty crazy conversations. My understanding of mission and ministry is so very different. Helping people with their relationship with God is one thing, but church membership is another entirely. When Jesus asked Peter if he loved him he said "Feed my sheep", not go to church. Jesus didn't even say to go buy sheep food, but to feed the flock. Mission and ministry are about making relationships. To love people, care for them and feed them we have to know them. This is the model of the Christ; Jesus became fully human to know us.
I did have some fun last week at a conference with Pat Meagly, Delray Brooks and Kevin Bacon. I was at a session meeting and got funded to go to a conference with Alan Hirsch presenting.
Best of all I'm beginning to get some vision of where this ministry should go. I feel resource poor, but I fe
el like God's gonna make it work. It is really hard getting my ego out of the picture so that God can work. I started getting scared, too. I'm asking for a Damascus Road experience but I don't want to be struck blind. Before you laugh, I'm praying hard for God to give me a vision and that's how God worked in the past.
Please pray for me, follow my blog, give comments and offer direction!
The last couple weeks were spent meeting up with people including other pastors. These experiences have been weird to say the least. I met with one committee and was describing my ministry to them when one individual asked me what I wanted from them. Apparently, this church, which is wealthy, is used to being asked to fund mission and ministry. I was taken aback and told them I didn't want their money-what I was asking for was their prayers and I wanted them to prepare themselves for when I asked them to participate in my ministry. I'm thinking I didn't make a good impression because we had such different ideas of doing ministry. Financial support is essential to a community ministry, but those supporters need to buy into the vision and I guess I didn't cast a good vision.
Another pastor I met with is a very faithful guy. He is pushing the church he serves to do more Bible study and to become serious about inviting others to church. He told me about some of the outreach things they had done and how many people they had served. The down-side to the mission work was that not one of those people were grateful for the assistance nor did they attend worship at that church. For this pastor, mission meant growing the church and he felt that was his calling as well as the Biblical mandate. He went on to say that it was his thought that doing ministry to the community without directing them to a church was sort of a waste of time.
These were some pretty crazy conversations. My understanding of mission and ministry is so very different. Helping people with their relationship with God is one thing, but church membership is another entirely. When Jesus asked Peter if he loved him he said "Feed my sheep", not go to church. Jesus didn't even say to go buy sheep food, but to feed the flock. Mission and ministry are about making relationships. To love people, care for them and feed them we have to know them. This is the model of the Christ; Jesus became fully human to know us.
I did have some fun last week at a conference with Pat Meagly, Delray Brooks and Kevin Bacon. I was at a session meeting and got funded to go to a conference with Alan Hirsch presenting.
Best of all I'm beginning to get some vision of where this ministry should go. I feel resource poor, but I fe
el like God's gonna make it work. It is really hard getting my ego out of the picture so that God can work. I started getting scared, too. I'm asking for a Damascus Road experience but I don't want to be struck blind. Before you laugh, I'm praying hard for God to give me a vision and that's how God worked in the past.
Please pray for me, follow my blog, give comments and offer direction!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Vision quest
I had a good week running around the neighborhood, but, once again, I felt drawn to the Keller Park area. I spent time helping Mack repair his garage, since he's physically not able to do that. I talked to a young guy who had his clothes taken by a guy who was allowed to move into the home but turned out to be a gang-banger and thug. I had no money and no way of helping this guy; it occurred to me how resource poor this area is.
I had time to sit with Gene a little on Friday and he suggested that I do some work on a vision for the ministry. He mentioned and I re-read Habakkuk today. "Though it tarry's, wait for it." resonates with me. I have been praying for this vision and waiting for it, but I still feel very unsure about the whole thing. I've generated a list of projects and talked to a lot of people to get their impression so I need to let this steep. My friend suggested I give it 40 days which would take me to the 9th of this month. I don't like to give God a deadline, but maybe it's me that needs this deadline.
I spent the day doing a lot of reading on casting visions and so on, but there's not a lot to read about this. I feel like my situation is so unique that what is written doesn't apply. On the other hand, I know that's just not so and I continue to look for Biblical examples that are similar to my situation. I started reading Jeremiah because I have a sense of being unsupported in this ministry. Don't get me wrong, I know there are people I can touch for emotional support, but there aren't too many to walk with me. I sort of sense that God sent me out to develop a community or identify others to walk with me in that task. I just feels like a big job.
As I think about the coming week I think about how I can work on this vision. I know I'm going to have to spend time in prayer and meditation, but that's hard because it's not really "doing" anything. It's hard for me to shake that impulse to do rather than simply spend time with God. I don't have a prayer closet or a place in which I feel especially close to God. I need to develop such a place or mind-set here in MI. I know that prayer and meditation are vital disciplines to my ministry.
I had time to sit with Gene a little on Friday and he suggested that I do some work on a vision for the ministry. He mentioned and I re-read Habakkuk today. "Though it tarry's, wait for it." resonates with me. I have been praying for this vision and waiting for it, but I still feel very unsure about the whole thing. I've generated a list of projects and talked to a lot of people to get their impression so I need to let this steep. My friend suggested I give it 40 days which would take me to the 9th of this month. I don't like to give God a deadline, but maybe it's me that needs this deadline.
I spent the day doing a lot of reading on casting visions and so on, but there's not a lot to read about this. I feel like my situation is so unique that what is written doesn't apply. On the other hand, I know that's just not so and I continue to look for Biblical examples that are similar to my situation. I started reading Jeremiah because I have a sense of being unsupported in this ministry. Don't get me wrong, I know there are people I can touch for emotional support, but there aren't too many to walk with me. I sort of sense that God sent me out to develop a community or identify others to walk with me in that task. I just feels like a big job.
As I think about the coming week I think about how I can work on this vision. I know I'm going to have to spend time in prayer and meditation, but that's hard because it's not really "doing" anything. It's hard for me to shake that impulse to do rather than simply spend time with God. I don't have a prayer closet or a place in which I feel especially close to God. I need to develop such a place or mind-set here in MI. I know that prayer and meditation are vital disciplines to my ministry.
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