January 28, 2010

Ur Video: NT Wright on Hell

We're starting a new weekly series on Out of Ur about the doctrine of Hell. Each week there will be a post (video or written) from a church leader on their view of Hell and the role of the doctrine today. Given the diversity of views, and the different ways evangelical churches talk (or don't talk) about Hell, we hope this series informs your own thinking and communication.

Posted by UrL Scaramanga at January 28, 2010 | Comments (55) | TrackBack

January 27, 2010

What's Changing, What's Not

by Marian Liautaud

Dave Travis, managing director of Leadership Network, offers his state of the church in America, based on recent research and his own observations looking through the "keyhole" of large churches.

Things That Are Changing

1. Multi-site churches. According to the book Multi-Site Roadtrip, an estimated 2,000 churches in America use the multi-site model. Travis: "If you're a large church, you're thinking multi-site."

2. Social media. According to the Pew Research Center, 85 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds use social networking at least once a week. Senior pastors under 40 who are leading large churches all use social media. Travis: "This is a radical shift in how we understand leadership. Fifteen years ago, pastors were wondering how they could be less accessible. Today, younger pastors want more access."

3. Internet campuses. Turnkey solutions are being developed that make it cheap and accessible for all churches to incorporate an internet campus. Travis: "For some this will be a fad, but for others this is going to be a big part of their reaching strategy going forward."

4. Online giving. It's here, and it's growing. If churches want to encourage donations from people in the pews, they're going to have to provide more natural ways for them to give. Travis: "Younger leaders recognize that no one carries cash or checkbooks anymore."

5. Declining mobility rate. Americans have stopped uprooting (that is, relocating at least 10 miles from their current home) at the pace they used to. According to a Nielsen study, the percent of the U.S. population that moves is at an all-time low. This could spell trouble for churches whose growth is tied to the turnover rate.

Things We'll See Changing Soon

1. Women as teaching pastors. Travis: "Currently, only 8 percent of churches have women teachers. They'll soon be part of multi-teacher teams."

2. Missionaries coming to the U.S. from developing countries to plant churches here. Travis: "This will not be just for their kinship group but under the wider mandate of the Great Commission."

3. Funerals. Travis: "We are seeing more cremations. And funerals are becoming more of a community experience, not pastor- or funeral parlor-led." More evening funerals have implications for church facilities. Wise funeral homes will not build chapels and instead partner with churches.

Things That Should Be Changing by Now But Aren't

1. Greener churches. Travis: "Going green adds credibility in the community. I would have thought more churches would have embraced this opportunity by now."

2. Ministries to the "encore" generation (55+). Travis: "With the huge baby boomer population in this demographic, I'm surprised we're not seeing growth for this sector." Of course, many are boomer churches.

3. Remote church offices. "More churches should be looking at moving their administrative offices out of the church building and into less expensive office space. This could help churches gain much-needed ministry space instead of having to build or relocate."

Posted by UrL Scaramanga at January 27, 2010 | Comments (18) | TrackBack

January 26, 2010

Catalyst One Day- Chicago

March 25, 2010 at Willow Creek Community Church

Early Registration Ends Thursday, January 28
Go to www.catalystoneday.com and use the Rate Code: BLOG for a special $99 discounted rate.

Catalyst One Day features Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel in 4 sessions on the topic of momentum. Leaders in attendance can also participate in a Q&A with Stanley and Groeschel and benefit from interaction around current leadership issues in a unique back and forth dialogue/exchange. The smaller environment allows for a completely different experience than the larger Catalyst events. Register Today. Seats are limited and this event will sell out.

Posted by UrL Scaramanga at January 26, 2010 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 25, 2010

Ur Cartoon: Rebuke Someone

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January 22, 2010

5 Things to Love About the Emerging Church

by Bob Hyatt

With everyone writing obituaries for the Emerging Church movement, I feel the need to take a timeout to remember some positives about the movement. Although the Emerging Church has been mixed, and in many ways lost momentum and splintered, it was a significant part of my journey. Here are five things I loved about the Emerging Church.

1. On a personal level: My initial intro to the Emerging Church movement came in a seminar with (yes, believe it or not) Doug Pagitt and Mark Driscoll…together. At a low point in my life and faith, feeling burned and burned out, they talked about a postmodern (hey! remember that word??) approach to faith that was more about Jesus than institution; more about life in the way of Jesus that made a difference in the world, and less about getting people over the goal-line of decision and their rears into heaven. All of that resonated with me deeply.

I was working through all sorts of things that threatened to shipwreck me. But during that time books like Brian McLaren's The Church on the Other Side and More Ready Than You Realize, Len Sweet's Postmodern Pilgrims, an Origins conference with Erwin McManus (and many of his books), all of these kept my vision and heart for faith and the church from falling apart. And even though I now find myself pushing back against both Driscoll and Pagitt from my tiny speck of ground in the middle, I'm eternally grateful that at just the right time God allowed our paths to cross.

2. On a theological level: Whether they were ever really connected with the Emerging Church or not, people like Todd Hunter, Dallas Willard, Rob Bell, and Ruth Haley Barton were all introduced to me through the EC. And they have all had a profound impact on my thinking about God and faith. Todd Hunter gave me an expanded view of the Gospel and the Kingdom that continues to shape me today—and he did it at various Emerging Church type gatherings. Rob Bell, while cool and all, proved to be a game-changer for me. He introduced me to William Webb and the redemptive hermeneutic. His simple explanation of Webb's take on the redemptive arc in Scripture set in motion an internal movement that led me to a completely different view of women in leadership and has shaped Evergreen for the better.

3. On a pastoral/church level: The Emerging Church conversation broadened my ecclesiastical horizons and helped me to see God at work in all kinds of expressions of Church. But even more so, it gave me the freedom to think outside the boundary lines I had previously limited myself to regarding what Church could and should be. It introduced me to a more organic approach, shaped my thinking about flattened leadership structures and, in a sense, gave me "permission" to try something as crazy as church in a pub.

4. On a missional level: It's largely been through the Emerging Church that I've been turned on to voices in the missional stream of thinking. Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch are voices that continue to shape my way of thinking and my orientation in the world and they continue to challenge, stretch, and even confound and frustrate me- all good things that are sorely needed.

5. On a social level: I credit the Emerging Church movement with a renewed emphasis in my own heart, in my city, and in the American church in general towards justice and the poor. If you think the Emerging Church has been all talk and has done no practical good in the world, you haven't had your eyes open for the last ten years. The amount of influence the Emerging Church has wielded in getting the sleeping giant of the American church off its rear to help the poor both locally and globally has been WAY out of proportion to its size and influence in other areas.

Ten years ago the biggest churches in America were hosting conferences on how to grow your church even bigger. Today they host conferences about pushing people and resource into the fight against AIDS in Africa, clean water around the world, and more. Ten years ago much of evangelicalism in the West had its head in the sand regarding global poverty, but today the landscape looks very different. And while a concern for justice and the poor didn't originate with the Emerging Church, I think a renewed consciousness about these issues can largely be credited to "prophetic" voices in the Emerging Church, and to feeling the pressure of all these small emerging communities (some of which have grown into big, city-impacting churches like Imago Dei) that were getting it done in ways that more-established and better-resourced churches weren't.

All in all, I'm grateful for the impact of the Emerging Church on my life. While I feel like we've grown apart in some ways (Sorry, EC, I just need to see other movements. Really, it's not you, it's me. Okay, it is kind of you), and while I feel like there's some significant tares amongst all the emerging wheat in the movement, for today I'm choosing to see and be thankful for the good.

Posted by UrL Scaramanga at January 22, 2010 | Comments (9) | TrackBack

January 21, 2010

Driscoll and MacDonald in Haiti

Shortly after the earthquake, Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church in Seattle) and James MacDonald (Harvest Bible Chapel near Chicago) were on a flight to Haiti. Driscoll has been updating his Twitter and Facebook accounts with both hopeful and horrific messages.

USA Today has just published the first news report about the pastors in Haiti and the terrible victimization of young girls that is now occurring. Driscoll gave this report:

We were downtown loading up our film crew. There were no police, no medics, to be seen by a huge park with hundreds of people camping out with no where else to go. There was a little cart with a red umbrella and a man selling cell phones and cigarettes -- and a few young girls.

"You want to buy loving?" the guy asked me. I said, "What in the world are you talking about?"

But there was another guy there, who claimed to be a translator for a relief agency, who was negotiating a price for a girl. I asked him what he was trying to do. He said, "Oh, she's a friend of mine. We're just trying to connect."

That's ridiculous. A young girl. A man 20 or 30 years older. I told him this was unacceptable. MacDonald confronted him, too. But there were no police and you could argue all you wanted but the girl took his money and they walked away."

Driscoll has also reported on random violence including the fatal shooting of a boy just outside an evangelical seminary.

Stay up to date on what's happening on the ground in Port au Prince on Mark Driscoll's Twitter feed, or you can watch video updates on the Churches Helping Churches YouTube channel.

Posted by UrL Scaramanga at January 21, 2010 | Comments (21) | TrackBack

January 20, 2010

Ur Video: Leonard Sweet on Reading Scripture

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January 19, 2010

The Golden Canon Leadership Book Awards

Two things in short supply for nearly every church leader—time and money. Unfortunately both are necessary if we hope to buy and read the numerous books intended to help us in our work. That is why Leadership created the Golden Canon, the ten books of 2009 most valuable for church leaders. The winners were selected by a diverse group of more than 100 pastors and leaders, including our contributing editors, who selected the best books in two categories: The Leader's Outer Life, and The Leader's Inner Life. We hope this list contributes to your development as a leader, and assists you in determining where to invest your finite hours and dollars.

Read more at LeadershipJournal.net.

Posted by UrL Scaramanga at January 19, 2010 | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 15, 2010

The Battle Lines Over Justice

by Skye Jethani

As I write this, Christian relief agencies, denominations, churches, and parachurch ministries around the world are mobilizing to aid the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. But the call to alleviate suffering and rescue the oppressed is not only being answered in the wake of catastrophes. Over the last decade there has been a significant awakening to social justice issues among evangelicals. From Rick Warren’s PEACE plan to the efforts of Christian bands like Jars of Clay and Hillsong United, issues of justice and compassion have moved from a sideshow among evangelicals to the center stage.

Research conducted by LifeWay last year found that “Younger evangelical pastors are less likely to self-identify as conservative than older generations and more apt to view social justice as a gospel imperative.” Commenting on the findings, Ed Stetzer said, "I think ultimately that we are at a season right now where the issues of social justice are growing and a desire to integrate compassion and commission are clearly evident among younger evangelicals and evangelicals as a whole.”

Some are celebrating this movement as long overdue; the healing of an unfortunate rift in the church that occurred nearly a century ago by pitting social concern and justice against the preaching of repentance and salvation. The impact of the Modernist-Fundamentalist controversy shaped the direction of the American church for most of the 20th century by creating an “either/or” scenario. Either a church cared about social justice or it focused on saving souls.

The fact that orthodox, conservative, Bible-believing evangelicals are now showing great interest in matters of justice and compassion may indicate the aftershocks of that rift 100 years ago may finally be over. Or are they?

Earlier this week J. Mack Stiles, a 30-year veteran staff worker with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, wrote an impassioned article explaining his belief that IV is slipping into the errors of liberal theology. Central to his argument is the recent elevation of justice within IV’s ministry—an elevation that parallels what’s been happening among younger evangelicals in general.

Stiles’ objection is not that IV, or many other evangelicals by extension, should not engage in social justice, but that they are elevating justice too high. “As important as social action is,” he writes, “we still must not confuse the gospel with an implication of gospel living. If we do, the gospel message is lost in a sea of confusion.”

Stiles articulates the critical question: Is the pursuit of justice a gospel imperative or a gospel implication? Those, like Stiles, who view justice as an implication are concerned that elevating it will take attention, resources, and urgency away from what they see as the gospel’s core—the salvation of souls. In addition, the new excitement around justice could be a slippery slope toward the social gospel that neglects salvation altogether.

On the other side are those who believe we evangelicals have been defining the gospel too narrowly for too long. Richard Stearns, president of World Vision and the author of The Hole in Our Gospel, says:

“Proclaiming the whole gospel, then, means much more than evangelism in the hopes that people will hear and respond to the good news of salvation by faith in Christ. It also encompasses tangible compassion for the sick and the poor as well as biblical justice, efforts to right the wrongs that are so prevalent in our world…The whole gospel is truly good news for the poor, and it is the foundation for a social revolution that has the power to change the world.”

There are many voices on both sides of this debate, and the rhetoric seems to be increasing in volume. One side is vowing to guard the gospel against neo-liberalism; the other side is hoping to restore the gospel to its fullest expression by reconciling proclamation and demonstration.

Is the stage being set for another church rift in the 21st century paralleling what happen 100 years ago? Like InterVarsity, are you feeling the tremors in your church of a conflict over the scope of the gospel and the proper role of social justice? And where are you turning for informed theological reflection on this subject? How we address this controversy, and not simply which side we land on, may impact the evangelical world for decades.

Posted by UrL Scaramanga at January 15, 2010 | Comments (33) | TrackBack

January 13, 2010

Long Live Organic Church!

by Mark Galli

The organic church has been a frequent topic of discussion on this blog. And Leadership journal has featured articles and interviews from Alan Hirsch, Neil Cole, and Frank Viola. Like us, Mark Galli has an appreciation for the efforts and perspective of this movement. But what happens when the organic church starts to wilt? Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today, wrote the following article to encourage and caution the movement. The full text can be read on CT's website. Along with responses from Neil Cole and Frank Viola.

I love the work that Neil Cole is doing—and Alan Hirsch (The Forgotten Ways), Bob Roberts (Transformation: How Glocal Churches Transform Lives and the World), Frank Viola (Finding Organic Church), and many, many others.

In one form or another, they are champions of "organic church." The term is fluid, but it contains at least three ingredients: Frustration with the-church-as-we-know-it, a focus on people (vs. programs) and mission (vs. institutional maintenance), and a vision to transform the world.

As Neil Cole put it in his book Organic Church, "It is not enough to fill our churches; we must transform our world." He puts it similarly in his latest effort, Church 3.0. The book is ostensibly about how to shift from program-driven and clergy-led institutions to churches that are "relational, simple, intimate, and viral." Still, says Cole, "Changing the church is not the idea of this book … . The only reason to shift from Church 2.0 to Church 3.0 is to change the world."

I love the passion. And the prophetic word to institutionalism (believe me, I know the evils of institutionalism: I'm an Anglican!). And the vision to make Christ's love and grace known to the four corners of the planet.

What I worry about is the coming crash of organic church.

And after that, I worry about the energetic men and women at the forefront of the movement. Will they become embittered and abandon the church, and maybe their God?
On not kidding ourselves

That the organic church movement will crash, I have no doubt. Every renewal movement in church history has either derailed immediately or produced temporary renewal at the expense of long-term unintended consequences.

Continue reading Mark Galli's article on Christianity Today's site.

Read Neil Cole and Frank Viola's responses to Mark Galli's article.

Posted by UrL Scaramanga at January 13, 2010 | Comments (7) | TrackBack

January 11, 2010

The Hansen Report: Valuing Visitation

In the hierarchy of church problems, most pastors wouldn’t mind figuring out how to handle a congregation that has grown so rapidly that they can no longer get to know everyone personally. The multisite church boom has met this very challenge by leveraging the best teachers with new technology to reach mass audiences at low costs. Motivated by spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, pastors understand the number of new professions of faith as a sign of God’s blessing. There appears to be little downside to adding new church sites. There is little of the personal risk and exorbitant cost of church planting. In fact, there are few arguments against multiple sites that can’t also be made against multiple services in one church building. And most medium and large-sized churches crossed that line without much consternation some time ago. So if people don’t mind watching a pastor on television, what’s holding us back?

Maybe some people really do mind. A recent report on multisite churches by Cathy Lynn Grossman in USA Today revealed some concern about the growing disconnect between pastors and their large congregations.

“I do miss having a pastor at the door shaking hands in the ‘check-out line,’” Lauren Green told Grossman. Green, a religion correspondent for Fox News, began attending Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City to hear Tim Keller preach. Keller doesn’t record his sermons to broadcast in other locations, but he scurries between several different sites in a grueling Sunday ritual that leaves him little time to interact with members and visitors. By contrast, Green and her family shared a close relationship with their long-time pastor when she was growing up in Minneapolis. But she acknowledges that this model appears to be a quaint and outdated today.

“Today, it’s all about a personal relationship with God, not the culture of a church,” Green explained to Grossman. “And a megachurch or a multisite church can still offer this. If you are there to hear a message and it’s a powerful one, it shouldn't matter how it's delivered.”

When Christians find a pastor who preaches a powerful message, they are willing to compromise elsewhere. They aren’t so concerned if he never visits them, never talks to them, or never even learns their name. Those tasks become the responsibility of a campus pastor and a small group of fellow members. But I still worry for the primary preaching pastors in this situation. They know their churches have grown due to God’s anointing on their sermons. So they naturally expect that sharing the pulpit will hurt church attendance and giving. The numbers drop when they go on vacation. Such a heavy preaching burden precludes them from spending much time with members. And even if they had more time to visit and counsel, where would they start?

In this climate, I fear that a church is tempted to make two mistakes. It may overvalue the sermon while undervaluing the personal touch that informs those sermons . Gifted preachers understand human nature and the Bible, so they can craft messages that match the general concerns of a community. But unless they devote substantial time to caring personally for members, these pastors risk losing touch with the church’s specific needs. By contrast, the famed Puritan pastor Richard Baxter from the 1600s excelled in visiting his community. As a result, he saw dramatic change in Kidderminster, England.

“We must labor to be acquainted, not only with the persons, but with the state of all our people, with their inclinations and conversations; what are the sins of which they are most in danger, and what duties they are most apt to neglect, and what temptations they are most liable to; for if we know not their temperament or disease, we are not likely to prove successful physicians,” Baxter wrote in The Reformed Pastor.

Baxter didn’t have a lot of sympathy for pastors who have little time to get to know everyone. He recommended that overburdened pastors cut their salaries in half and hire someone else to help. We might remind Baxter that congregational care and outreach are not the sole responsibility of paid ministers. Nevertheless, Baxter wasn’t completely out of touch. He recognized in his day the same low expectation for interaction with pastors that we see in our own. He noted that many Christians just want the pastor to preach, administer the sacraments, and visit them when they’re sick. Many people don’t want to know their pastors because they don’t want their pastors to know them.

But Baxter knew that personal visitation is a powerful ministry. “I have found by experience, that some ignorant persons, who have been so long unprofitable hearers, have got more knowledge and remorse of conscience in half an hour’s close discourse, than they did from ten years’ public preaching,” Baxter wrote. “I know that preaching the gospel publicly is the most excellent means…But it is usually far more effectual to preach it privately to a particular sinner, as to himself.”

Clearly Baxter was concerned with effective ministry. But his measure was discernible growth in godliness and grace among the Christians he visited. What’s our standard for effectiveness?

Posted by UrL Scaramanga at January 11, 2010 | Comments (23) | TrackBack

January 8, 2010

Andy Stanley: System Failure

What causes people to change? What creates behaviors? It may not be what you think. According to Andy Stanley, many church leaders assume that the right programs, great teaching, or really inspiring events will foster transformation. But they don't.

Check out Andy's video commentary in the latest issue of Catalyst Leadership on the importance of systems in ministry. Visit www.CatalystLeadershipDigital.com and click on "VIDEO: SYSTEM FAILURE." You can also sign up for a free subscription to the digizine.

Posted by UrL Scaramanga at January 8, 2010 | Comments (6) | TrackBack

January 6, 2010

Ur Video: Stanley Hauerwas on Leadership

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January 4, 2010

Interview with a Street Preacher

by David Swanson

In response to my recent Out of Ur lament about street preachers, many Urbanites vigorously defended those who take to the streets to preach. I’m used to dissenting opinions here at Ur, but I was surprised by how many spoke favorably about something I’d assumed most Christians found embarrassing

One of the comments that stood out to me came from Anthony Brabazon, an architect and street preacher from Dublin, Ireland. Anthony has attended many different churches since his conversion in 1981, but he considers the Dublin streets his church and the passing pedestrians his congregation. (Here's a video of Anthony preaching on the streets of Dublin.) Having read so many fervently positive opinions about street preachers, I was curious to learn what I had missed. Anthony was gracious enough to answer a bunch of my questions.

What led you to preach on the streets of Dublin?

A few things: Primarily the command of Jesus in the great commission and his promise to be with us. Also, a love for the lost that are not attracted to church and greatly deceived by what the media says about Jesus. In Ireland virtually nobody can explain why the Lamb of God was slain at Calvary. I am also aware that time is very short and the work is very great. Because he went up that hill for me, I can be bold for him. I often think that the first 2 letters of God are GO while the first 3 letters of Satan are SAT!

Here in the USA, there has been an effort to reinvent church so the "unattracted" people will, in fact, be attracted to church. Do you think this is a valid effort, or is street preaching more effective?

In a church, Jesus-focus can shift to church-focus and the message of Ephesians 4—where the work is done by "the saints"—can be filtered out as leadership is elevated higher than servanthood and all works are checked out for approval, leading the saints to clam up and becoming spectators.

Jesus went to seek and save the lost, and I don't see him passing out flyers for the upper room meeting but healing, preaching, and ministering where people were. Many pray for seats to be filled by incoming sinners, while I often pray for them to be emptied by the outgoing saints.

Many of the street preachers I have encountered portray a very one-sided Jesus: angry and bent on sending people to hell. What do you think a person’s perception of Jesus is after encountering your street preaching?

When I speak of hell, I normally speak about it being a place I deserve. This gets people's attention because they expect me to be self-righteous and tell them they deserve hell. I also say how Jesus went there for us and speak of holy God's love for us in doing this.

I imagine you have experienced many different reactions to your preaching. Do you have a favorite story?

One night I was in a busy pedestrian zone in Dublin called Temple Bar. As I held high the name Jesus, a French atheist started asking questions. I felt the Lord told me not answer him while he began to give his opinion about the Bible being untrustworthy. I asked the Lord silently whether there was anything about this man I needed to know and then, without hesitation, I asked whether he had a sore chest. He immediately stopped talking and his eyes widened. I told him that God knows everything about him, loves him, and sent Jesus to take his sin on the cross. He slowly moved off, and when he got to the end of the street he turned around and stared back at me. I knew the Lord had given me a "word of knowledge" and that this impacted him much more than my reasoning with him would have. To God be all the glory.

Another time, after my wife preached, a young heroin addict asked how he could get this new life. We prayed with him, he repented, and over the following days we had ongoing contact. Two years later I was on the street witnessing and he came up to me with his fiancé. They both were fervent for the Lord and testified to the great work God was doing in their life. Needless to say I was blessed and encouraged beyond measure. Hallelujah!

Do you think more pastors should get out of their churches and spend more time preaching on the street corner?

If the Lord leads them to do, I would be delighted. To stand up for Jesus publicly is life changing and it would bring great new vision into any church.

If a family never goes out but only meets with its own members it goes a bit weird (although it always sees itself as normal). The church can become a bit like this when we do not regularly engage atheists and pre-believers with the message of the cross.

We have been given food for distribution in a famine land and, as the Lord leads, every distribution method should be considered. There is a war on for the souls of men and women and, while not all are called to be front line troops, all are called to help in the effort. A fisherman needs the boat builders, the fish processing plant and many other persons to be effective—but the goal is to catch fish! Pastors need not regularly preach on the street but they might be open to God calling them to do it on occasion. They certainly should lead by example and on occasion do some form of street work.

Posted by UrL Scaramanga at January 4, 2010 | Comments (14) | TrackBack