Epic

Behind Fences; A Round-About Way of Examining A Serious Question

I have a routine. Every evening after I get home from work I change clothes and sit in the recliner to watch television for a half hour or so until dinner is ready. I always watch reruns of Home Improvement on TBS. What a great show! Wilson is the eccentric neighbor who lives next door to Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor and in almost every episode they have a conversation over the fence.

One of the oddities of the storyline is that we never get to fully see Wilson's face. We see him from the nose up, with the rest of him hidden behind the fence. This oddity plays out in other ways throughout the show as well, but it began with the backyard chats. Another piece of this is that the only time you see others with Wilson, in his backyard, on the other side of the fence, they are almost just like him in their eccentricities. This got me to thinking about something.

I am passionate about church planting and am excited to see different associations and networks being formed to facilitate planting through scouting of planters, assessments, funding, and coaching. I've had the privilege of interacting with a couple of these organizations and the people who comprise and lead these organizations are awesome men of God. But I have also seen something that really bothers me.

Some of these associations and networks live behind a fence and only certain people are allowed behind that fence. Everyone else will have to remain on the other side, experiencing only a small portion of the whole body. I'm being cryptic, so let me cut to the chase.

There's a great organization out there called Acts 29. A friend of mine from many years ago is one of the leaders of this organization. The organization began with the folks of Mars Hill in Seattle which is pastored by Mark Driscoll; another pastor and author for whom I have tremendous respect. Acts 29 is doing very, very good work with church planting. I attended a boot camp and a couple of networking gatherings while I was in the midwest. They know how to plant churches and do it very well.

But, if you are not a calvinist and do not hold fully to reformed theology, they will not partner with you in a significant way. If you are more Wesleyan & Arminian in your theology (as I am) then you will find yourself on the other side of the Acts 29 fence. The conversation will be friendly, enjoyable, and helpful at times, but you can't shake hands through a fence.

I've found a couple other associations who have erected the same reformed/arminian fences and though I respect the different perspectives we all have of the T.U.L.I.P., I wonder why it is that we allow those perspectives to divide us into camps as we carry out the most important work on the planet; leading people from death to life.

John Wesley and George Whitefield were very close friends. In fact it was Whitefield who encouraged Wesley to follow his heart and go into the streets and coal fields to preach the gospel to the common man rather than confining himself to the hallowed cathedrals of the Anglican Church. Wesley was arminian in his theology. Whitefield was calvinist. They had their share of debates and even penned some heated correspondence to one another. But they worked together in allowing God through them to bring to England one of the greatest revivals in history. Wesley himself, though remaining arminian in his theology, said once that he "was a hair's breadth away from calvinism."

I wonder if we can do the same? The differing opinions aren't significant enough to give the enemy the opportunity to carry out a "divide and conquer" strategy against us.


"I (George Whitefield) am very well aware what different effects publishing this letter against the dear Mr. Wesley's Sermon will produce. Many of my friends who are strenuous advocates for universal redemption will immediately be offended. Many who are zealous on the other side will be much rejoiced. They who are lukewarm on both sides and are carried away with carnal reasoning will wish this matter had never been brought under debate.

The reasons I have given at the beginning of the letter, I think are sufficient to satisfy all of my conduct herein. I desire therefore that they who hold election would not triumph, or make a party on one hand (for I detest any such thing)—and that they who are prejudiced against that doctrine be not too much concerned or offended on the other.Known unto God are all his ways from the beginning of the world. The great day will discover why the Lord permits dear Mr. Wesley and me to be of a different way of thinking. At present, I shall make no enquiry into that matter, beyond the account which he has given of it himself in the following letter, which I lately received from his own dear hands:"

My dear Brother (G. Whitefield),

I thank you for yours, May the 24th. The case is quite plain. There are bigots both for predestination and against it. God is sending a message to those on either side. But neither will receive it, unless from one who is of their own opinion. Therefore, for a time you are suffered to be of one opinion, and I of another. But when his time is come, God will do what man cannot, namely, make us both of one mind. Then persecution will flame out, and it will be seen whether we count our lives dear unto ourselves, so that we may finish our course with joy.

I am, my dearest brother, Ever yours,

posted by Bill @ 7:34 AM 1 comments

A Mosaic of Expressions

I mentioned in an earlier post that Lynn and I recently spent a Saturday in Columbia S.C. with a group of church planters. This gathering was brought together and hosted by a new friend of mine named Jeff Shipman. He is an apostolic leader of a church in Columbia and has a great vision for helping church planters live out their calling.

As I thought about what I should write tonight I reflected upon something he said that has really stuck with me. His words stay with me because I tend to be a bit (okay a lot) myopic in my views about church and ministry, and what he said pushes against that tendency in me in a healthy way.

In this blog I've expressed frustrations with the American expressions of church around us. I've talked about ways to do worship gatherings differently. I've spoken favorably of the house church movement while cynically describing the more traditional forms all around us. But there is one truth that I've not done well at affirming. A mosaic is much more beautiful than a uniformly painted wall.

The truth is (and Jeff is so good at making this clear) that if we are going to see the Kingdom of God infiltrate our city, we need a mosaic of ecclesial expressions because different expressions will reach different people. The worship gathering I envision at Epic Church will probably not reach baby boomers. But guess what...Jesus died and rose again for baby boomers too. So as passionately as I am thinking about ways to reach 20-somethings at Epic with a worship "service" that would seem bizarre to boomers, we need people who are thinking about ways to reach 50-somethings with expressions of church that will most resonate with that generation of people.

As intrigued as I am with the house church movement as a means of reaching a generation of young people who search for spirituality in authentic, relational community and through social activism, there are still people who will drive to the First ______ist Church on the corner to find answers for the spiritual stirring that is beginning to happen in them. We need that church to be there and to be missional.

I love Jeff's approach. They draw circles on the map, identify the population and the churches within that circle, and then find ways for all different kinds of churches under different denominational signing to work together in assuming evangelistic responsibility for the people living in those circles. Jeff knows that he needs the other churches, regardless of how their expressions of church life may differ from his.

I (we) would do well to learn from him.

posted by Bill @ 9:06 PM 0 comments

Epic Vision; Why House Churches?

I have struggled to find the right combination of words to describe this component of what will become Epic Church. On the one hand, I could use the phrase "cell groups" but what we envision is much more than what you typically find happening in cell groups. On the other hand, I use the phrase "house churches" but feel a little uncomfortable with that because there are elements of the house church movement that I percieve as being unhealthy.

I guess what I envision is an amalgam of the two with the lines of definition being a bit blurry.

Many churches today have a small group (cell group) ministry in place. About 20 years ago these churches, after hearing of the huge success of Yoido Full Gospel Fellowship in Korea, added home-based cell group meetings to their format. For the most part, this has been a good move forward. What you typically find in the small group ministry of a church is that they do a really good job with fellowship and relational connection. But most small groups do not have an outreach component. Fifteen people will gather in a home to eat and fellowship and study together but all too often the neighborhood around them and the people living in that neighborhood without Christ never enter into the conversation.

Then there is the house church movement. House churches make up the largest expression of church in countries like China and India, and other places around the world where Christianity is fiercely persecuted. House churches have never played a significant role in the ecclesiology of America, until now. People are disconnecting from church today at alarming rates. The Greco-Roman-Jewish "Cathegogue" expression of church is quickly diminishing from the western scene as the Church begins to emerge and flourish in homes and coffee houses and other public places.

A house church is simply a cell group with a bigger agenda; that agenda being to seek the lost, lead them to faith, disciple them, equip them, and send them out as missionaries to the rest of the city. Rather than simply focusing on fellowship, the house church embodies the fullness of what it means to be the bride of Christ carrying out the Great Commission. In the healthiest of systems, house churches are interconnected in a network that shares a common vision, common praxis, and functions under the leader of house elders who are led by a person or persons who is truly apostolically gifted and all of the house churches in the network gather together regularly for large group worship gatherings.

Why do I want to give myself to creating a house church movement here in Augusta? Look across the panorama of Christian history and you will find that the Church has flourished most and had the greatest impact on culture when two things were in play: The church was scattered. And the lines of demarcation between laity and clergy were erased so that everyone in the church was equipped to engage in the mission.

I believe that house church networks present us with an awesome opportunity to reclaim these two things. Instead of designating a central place (church with a little c) in the hopes that people will come to it, we take the Church into the neighborhoods where people live. We scatter, going where the people are. In a Cathegogue you have one pastor and a few volunteers. In a house church network you have a brotherhood of pastors working together all throughout the city investing themselves in the process of equipping everyone in the house church to be missionaries to the city.

My growing interest in the house church movement isn't so much a reation against anything. I simply see it as becoming a more and more effective way in the coming decades to impact the greater culture around us with the Way of Jesus as the Cathegogue system is already in rapid decline.

posted by Bill @ 7:30 AM 0 comments

The Power Of A Dollar Bill

I've been following closely the efforts of a friend who is raising funds for a diciple-making movement in St. Louis and Kansas City. He is finding men and women from various places who are willing to quit their jobs, sell their homes, move to these cities through incredible steps of faith and give their lives to helping people find new life in Christ. Finding the money to help put food on these family's tables is proving to be difficult work. With all of the resources that we have here in the wealthiest nation to ever occupy the face of this planet, you'd think we could do better.

I did some math in the shower the other morning. The steamed-up shower curtain makes a good dry-erase board...or would it be a wet-erase board?

Anywho...

George Barna believes that 4% of the American population are truly Biblical followers of Christ. That comes out to about 12 million people.

Out of those 12 million people, if only 8% of them (100,000) would give $1 (yes...one dollar) per month, we could finance 12 church plants each year with $100,000 each.

Bob's vision is to plant 30 new churches between the two cities. If we could somehow harness this power of one dollar bill, he could fully fund this vision in 2 1/2 years.

I believe in the work that Bob is doing in Missouri. If you can give up at least one bottle of Coke per month to help this work, please do. Here are the instructions for you to help:

Contributions can be sent to: Church Planting K.C. & S.L. Midwest District, Missionary Church P.O. Box 94 Bentley, Kansas 67016 make gifts payable to: Midwest District Missionary Church Please put KC & SL church planting in the memo.

Follow THIS LINK to read about the most recent family to step out of the boat and walk on water to reach Kansas City.

technorati tag: church plant funding

posted by Bill @ 2:31 PM 1 comments

The Art of Friendship

I wonder if I am the only one who feels this way. Is there anyone else out there who feels most often like you have to literally force yourself on others in order for them to take notice of you and make an effort to get to know you?

Relationships are crucial to mental, emotional, and spiritual health. It's easy to understand why God's design for the church is for it to be a community. Yet it seems like that very thing that is so crucial to wholeness is so hard to find, even among Christians...the very setting where it should flourish.

I can't tell you the number of times that Lynn and I have sat in a room full of people and watched everyone around us talking, laughing, sharing conversation and not one person would make the slightest effort to befriend us.

I can't begin to number the e-mails and phone calls to "friends" that go unanswered. The very people who in one moment express their love, concern for, and belief in you yet won't take 10 minutes to anwer an e-mail or return a phone call.

It's amazing to me that in a world filled with 2 billion Christians, one can feel so alone...like you don't fit in anywhere. Perhaps that is what draws people into internet relationships, like the 17 year old Christian girl I just heard about who met a Muslim guy in Israel through MySpace, lied to her parents, flew to Israel, and plans to eventually marry the guy...even if it means abandoning her Christian faith.

After a while it really causes you to examine yourself, feeling like perhaps there is something about you that repels others.

I guess this is kind of a rant emerging out of some personal struggle I'm dealing with. But I seriously doubt that I am the only Christian who feels this way. I believe that you could walk into any church, or Bible study, or small group and among the crowd you will find a number of people who feel as if they don't matter...they don't count...they don't measure up...they aren't worth the time required to get to know them. For those people, life quickly becomes a performance. The simplicity of who they are is not enough to attract friendship, so a persona is adopted and various performances are made with the hopes that they will find one persona or one performance that will succeed in getting someone to take notice and expend the energy required to get to know them.

We Christians do a swell job of teaching our denominational doctrines and inciting our people to raise their fists in the air against things in the culture we disagree with. I suggest that we begin investing equal, if not more time teaching one another the art of friendship. This simple art will do more to change our world than all of our protests, boycotts, and acts of civil disobedience could ever accomplish.

technorati tag: friendship

posted by Bill @ 7:10 AM 2 comments

Church Planting

I stole this picture from Matt Payne whose blog you'll find on my sidebar. He is so right.

Ron Sylvia, author of "Starting High Definition Churches" said that "church planting is the extreme sport of ministry."

Matt found this picture to illustrate what church planting feels like.

posted by Bill @ 7:06 AM 0 comments

The Purpose of Preaching

Lynn and I spent the day today in Columbia, SC with a group of church planters from around the region who all came together for a time of teaching, networking, and encouragement. During one of the sessions I jotted down this note to self:

"The purpose of preaching is to open the heart and mind to another way of thinking and feeling so that the will might be changed."

technorati tag: preaching

posted by Bill @ 9:21 PM 0 comments

This Is A Strange Looking Worship Service

Pick a Sunday, any Sunday and walk into nearly any church in your town and watch closely what happens. You will most likely experience the following:

You will find yourself in a theatre or auditorium like setting. You will sit in rows of chairs or pews all looking forward toward a stage. On that stage you will find individuals who have been selected to carry out the elements of a program for your benefit, which you will sit quietly and observe (except for the time when you are directed to stand up and sing a few songs in unison).

You will notice two distinct groups of people. The audience. And the professionals. Among the audience are individuals who have once again made the weekly trek to the "church" to "be fed" by observing the program that has been developed by the professionals. Among the professionals will most likely be one or more musicians who will direct you in what and how to sing, which verses of the hymn to skip (Let's sing verses 1, 2, 4), which posture to take as you sing, and the duration of your singing. Your posture and duration of singing will also be determined by the socially acceptable norms of the denomination to which the church belongs. What is acceptable in one church may be taboo in the church around the corner. Also among the professionals you will most likely find a seminary trained "minister" who will spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour delivering a speech built around Bible verses which he has spent the previous week preparing (or in many cases the previous hour or so downloading from the internet). You will not be permitted to speak or make sudden, unexpected moves or gestures while he is speaking.

This program will likely be designed to consume about one hour of your time, after which you will walk through the exit, shake the minister's hand and tell him how much you enjoyed his sermon, and head to the nearest restaurant.

In America today, this is a pretty accurate description of what we call "church." Now, my tone here is clearly cynical. For that, I offer no apologies. Yet at the same time I must keep my attitude in check by reminding myself that God has and continues to use this way of church and the Godly men who lead this way of church, to bring people into His Kingdom. Some of my closest friends are pastors of churches similar to what I described and God is doing beautiful things in those settings. Yet I struggle, because I then must remind myself of another fact. And that is that in America, the Church of Jesus Christ is not advancing...the church is in retreat. Islam is advancing. Buddhism is advancing. Christianity is closing more churches every year than we are starting.

I know that there are more factors at work in the decline of Christianity in America than simply the way in which we conduct ourselves when we gather. But I also feel that in many cases we are packaging "church" in a way that quenches the Holy Spirit, strips the priesthood of believers of their priestlyness (I made that word up...but it works), and lulls congregations into a deep, apathetic, self-centered slumber.

I believe that the ways in which we package "church" creates several dichotomies . We divide people into two groups: The professional clergy and the consumer congregation. But we also create an artificial division between our church lives and our regular lives. In our regular lives we have meals together, we learn through conversation and dialogue, we sit together in living rooms and drink coffee, we play sports together, we pursue hobbies together, we walk our dogs and meet our neighbors. But then when we think about church we have to - for one hour each week - shift into a totally un-natural mode in an attempt to experience that which I believe Christ meant for us to experience in the most natural of settings and postures; which we feel we must now abandon to engage our spirituality. How strange indeed.

Every man who is called by God to plant and/or lead a church must carefully listen and follow the guiding of the Holy Spirit regarding the way in which they will "do church." We must be very careful to guard against arrogantly believing that the way we do it is the only right way. I take those words to heart as I now share with you the way in which I believe God is calling me to lead a community of believers here in Augusta.

As God adds to our numbers those who will comprise the body of Epic Church we will gather together regularly, just as congregations all over the country do each week. However, the person visiting the Epic gathering that I envision may initially think to themselves, "This is a strange looking worship service."

The best way for me to share with you what I believe God is inviting us to create here is to do so through a story. What follows is a fictional account of a fictional person who is visiting for the first time an Epic worship gathering...which doesn't yet exist. Allow me to introduce you to Brandon.

Hi, I'm Brandon. It was a Thursday evening. A friend of mine from work invited me to come to church with him; something that I hadn't done since attending Sunday School as a child. We got off work around 5:30 and drove downtown. We parked out on the street, went into one of the downtown buildings that vacated long ago when all of the businesses moved out to the new mall.

We went upstairs and walked into a large 3 room loft. As I walked through the door I was confronted head-on with two things: the sound of dozens of people laughing and talking, and the aroma of a home-cooked meal. I was surprised when my friend said to me, "We start every gathering by having a meal together. Some of the women who are gifted in and passionate about hospitality get here about an hour early to prepare the meal for everyone. A lot of the people also brought food pot-luck style to share with everyone.

"There were probably 75 to 100 people there, and we all ate dinner together. The conversations around the table were wonderful. About 45 minutes later six or seven people washed their dishes and went through a doorway into another room. Soon after they left I heard music being played in the other room. It was a live band and they were top-notch.

About time the music started everyone began moving into the other room which they called "The Sanctuary." It was quite large and didn't look at all like a church sanctuary. Instead it looked like a huge family room. There were couches, loveseats, big comfy chairs, end-tables, coffee tables, lamps. And on the walls were paintings, crosses, ancient iconography, lighted candle sconces. The lighting was down low, the room was mostly candle-lit with a few of the lamps on. The band was off to the side of the room playing music that set a deeply spiritual tone to the room. Poignant images were up on a screen near the front of the room.

As the congregation gathered in the sanctuary, a worship time began like I never expected. Some people stood with their hands raised, singing along with the band. Some huddled together in groups of 2 or 3 and prayed for one another and for other needs that they were aware of. A couple of people actually set up a canvas and easel and did an oil painting that depicted what they were experiencing in their relationship with God. One girl sat quietly off to the side writing in a journal. Some people went to special prayer stations built into little alcoves in the wall. One was a "repentance station" and I saw a young guy there write some stuff on a piece of paper and then light it on fire. I then noticed that he was crying as he dipped his hands in a basin of water and then raised them in the air to God.

Everyone kind of did their own thing with God, while the band set the tone of the moment with music and scripture readings. After about 45 minutes the pastor said a few words, inviting everyone to come together for "The Forum." I didn't know what this was going to be. I assumed it was time for him to preach but I'd never heard the term "Forum" used for this. He then explained that this was the time for conversation and the sharing of experiences we've had in our relationship with Christ or with others. It was kind of like open-mic night. People came and read poetry or journal entries. The painter explained the meaning behind his painting and a lot of people cried as he told how the images on the canvas represented how God had helped him make peace with his earthly father...who had abandoned him years earlier.

After 3 or 4 people shared some things the pastor came back and spoke for about 30 minutes. He read a passage of Scripture, taught the meaning of it, and then explained it's relevance to our life. Throughout this teaching time there was dialogue and conversation, not simply a one-way speech.

The forum ended, some music started back up. Most of the people began slowly making their way out to head home. Several just stayed around talking, drinking coffee. My friend told me that the place usually emptied out around 11:00 or 12:00 at night. And this was church.

He told me that they met like this every week. The teaching from the Bible is always centered around one of what they called the "Core 3." The "Core 3" are the three things this church focuses on: Intimacy, Healing, and Purpose. Some weeks the worship and forum time are built around the theme of intimacy with God through Jesus Christ and intimacy with one another. At other times the theme is all about healing...mostly emotional and spiritual healing. My friend said that things can sometimes get pretty raw as people talk and pray through abuse issues, addictions, etc. On some weeks the theme is centered around purpose. The forum on this night is designed to help people discover who they are in Christ, how they are gifted and called, and to equip and train them to live out their life purpose.

After my first visit, I feel like this is a place where I can be me - I can be real - and I can experience God in the unique ways that He's built me to experience Him. I'll be back next week, with my cousin Danny.


technorati tag: Augusta Church

posted by Bill @ 9:09 PM 2 comments

Prayer Momentum

In an earlier post I spoke about my desire to see God do through Lynn & me and our ministry here that which cannot be explained by human ability, creativity, or ingenuity. Quite simply, we want to be part of a supernatural move of God throughout the Augusta area, one that we cannot create.

If there is one thing that is abundantly clear about the nature of God from scripture, it is that He longs for us to engage with Him, call upon Him, plead with Him, to orient our hearts and minds around the longings and desires of His heart and mind and be carried along by His Spirit. He desires for us to be a people of prayer; not seeing prayer as the means through which we get God to do what we want, but the means through which we align ourselves around what He wants, for therein lies abundant life, fruitfulness...success.

Prayer is the preface as we begin to write with God the story of Epic Church. And with this post I am inviting you into this story. One thing I did not do well with our church plant in Illinois was to, in the very beginning, bring together a prayer team. I do not intend to repeat that mistake. We will never be able to pen the correct words of chapter one without the preface of prayer.

Therefore I am inviting you to be a member of our prayer team. I will be publishing a monthly progress report and prayer invitation. In the progress report I will share and celebrate with you how God is answering the prayers you have been praying. In the prayer invitation I will share with you the current issues over which we need to be seeking God's guidance and provision. I will publish this in three formats:

• A blog post such as this
• An e-mail sent to members of the prayer team who request it
• A hard copy printed and mailed to members of the prayer team who request it

My request of those who choose to be part of this team is that you will take time at least weekly to get alone with God and pray for us through the things I share with you in the monthly report. I am hoping for 50 people to form this prayer team. Will you join us?

If you will join with us, here is how I would like for you to respond to this invitation:

• Post a comment to this blog post
• If you would like to receive the monthly prayer report via e-mail, after you've posted your comment to this blog post then send an e-mail to epicprayerteam@comcast.net and request it.
• If you would like to receive the monthly prayer report in printed form, post your comment here, and in your e-mail give me your name and address and we'll add you to the mailing list.

Thanks everyone! I look forward to hearing from many of you who are called to and gifted in intercessory prayer as we all begin writing this Epic together.

technorati tag: Augusta
technorati tag: Prayer
technorati tag: Church Plant

posted by Bill @ 7:15 AM 4 comments

Why "Epic?"

The sand felt oddly cool as it slipped between his fingers and fell quietly to the ground; the same sand that only hours before quickly seared the bottoms of unprotected feet. The sounds of the other travelers encamped a hundred yards away had fallen still as the night once again wrapped the world in stillness. With the last grains of sands dropping from his hands, the boy turned his gaze upward toward the canopy of a hundred-billion stars stretched above him. His eyes and his mind began to see formations in the stars that reminded him of the stories so often told by his father as the family would gather around the fire - just as they were doing on this night on the backside of the sand dune.

The boy stood, pulled his cloak snugly around his shoulders, and began to make his way back toward the one campfire among many around which he would find his father, mother, brothers and sisters warming themselves before retiring to the tent for another night. Pushing the youngest sibling out of the way, he sat near his father and with his face softly illuminated by the light of the fire and an enthusiasm that betrayed no hint of sleepiness asked, "Papa, would you tell me the story again about the stars and the the sand?"

Though the father had already taken staff in hand and was preparing to lead the family to the tent for the night, he smiled and settled himself back into a comfortable position and after clearing his voice and wrapping his arm around the young boy's shoulders, began with the words, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters..."

As I have thought about the forms and expressions through which I believe God is preparing to use Lynn and me to reach the people of this city with the words and the way of Jesus Christ, the word "Epic" has captured my thoughts. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the following definitions for the word "epic:"

1. a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero

For the past year or so God has been moving me to see and understand that humanity and all of creation exists within the context of an eternal epic that has been unfolding from the infinite past and will continue to unfold into the infinite future. The epic is a story about one kingdom; the Kingdom of God that was and is and is to come. The epic is a story about one hero; Jesus Christ who personified the way of the Kingdom and sacrificed himself so that all of creation could be one with the Kingdom. And the story is about me, and you, and the other 6.5 billion people alive on this planet today as well as the 15 billion who have already lived and died since the beginning of time until now. It is a story about my children, my grandchildren, and my great-grandchildren for as many generations that remain before the last chapter of this age is written.

God has been moving me to see that from the Garden of Eden to today, He is obsessed with inviting all who will hear His voice to look up from the busyness of our own little constricted stories and not only find ourselves within the pages of this greater epic, but to even take pen in hand and begin writing the epic together with the One who is both the Beginning and the End, the Alpha, and the Omega.

God has been moving me to see that the work of evangelism is to awaken the hearts and minds of people to the reality that a greater story is unfolding, and there is a place in that story for them. The work of discipleship is to more intimately acquaint people with the Hero of the story and to explore the dimensions of the role we were created to play. And the work of ministry is to help one another to take the pen, and with hearts and minds that flow in rythmn with the Author who is Himself the Beginning and the End, write the pages of tomorrow.

As we begin the process of creating with God a disciple-making movement here, I don't want to give myself to pioneering another local franchise of the religious system. I don't want to build an organization that will spend it's days and nights wrestling through the drama of budgets and buildings and programs denominational politics and committees and reports. I want to be a voice echoing through this city inviting people to look up from their small stories of great pain and lonliness to find themselves in the pages of this Epic story of love and forgiveness and redemption and wholeness and purpose and abundant life that will never end.

"...and as the aroma of the sacrificed ram rose to heaven, the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time and said, 'This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not witheld even your beloved son, I swear by my own self that I will bless you richly. I will multiply your descendants into countless millions, like the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore. They will conquer their enemies, and through your descendents all the nations of the earth will be blessed."

"Papa, that's us right? That's you and me, and mother, and all of us right?"

With a smile and silent nod both he and the boy lifted their eyes and looked across the desert in front of them. For as far as they could see, the land was dotted with a galaxy of tens-of-thousands of campfires around which the families of Abraham were gathered, telling the stories of Adam, Seth, Enoch, Lamech, Methuselah, Noah, the Tower of Babel, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and their glorious deliverance from Egypt just weeks ago.

posted by Bill @ 9:13 PM 0 comments

An Unusual Experience

It´s 1:45 pm in the little Bolivian township of Ixiamas. I´ve just finished another plate of rice and chicken-like substance. I took a few moments to come to the internet cafe and e-mail my wife and in that e-mail I expressed to her that unlike the previous 4 years of coming on this trip, this time my mind is occupied with the things of home - keeping me from really connecting with what´s going on here.

As I think about this, it is a good thing. In previous years this trip was somewhat of an escape for me. A time to draw away from the realities of life and hide out in the jungle for a week with people who don´t expect anything from me, except a smile. Lynn has always been in my thoughts while away, but this year I find myself thinking more about her than ever before; our breakfasts together, our evenings together, etc. I find myself thinking about our neighbors and really wanting to invest more time in getting to know them. I find myself thinking about the ministry opportunities God is opening up for us and the new vision he has given us for the city of Augusta.

For the first time - in 5 trips - my heart is more strongly connected with the things of home than the things of this place. It´s only Wednesday...yet I am ready to be home.

All of this is not to say that God isn´t doing great things here...He is! Awesome things are happening each day. Come on over to Rio de Vida to hear about some of them.

Looking forward to rejoining you, the readers of this blog, in a few days as well.

posted by Bill @ 12:43 PM 1 comments

A Brief Intermission

Well I was hoping to at least begin my next series of posts breaking down the details of our vision for Epic Church of Augusta, but alas...we must wait.

I will soon be leaving for a short-term mission trip to Bolivia in South America. This is an annual trip for me as each summer I join the mission team from our home church in Columbus, GA to visit the small rainforest township of Ixiamas, Bolivia. For the past six years we have been involved in the building of an internado which is a boarding house for children who live too far into the rainforest to come in to school everyday. The vision for this internado is to provide a safe, Christ-centered home for these children to live Monday - Friday while they go to school.

My first trip was in 2002 and on that trip the building was simply a one-story brick shell with dirt floors. Our main construction project that summer was the laying of cement flooring. This is much more difficult in Ixiamas because you first must assemble a "puzzle" of river rock, then mix the cement by hand with a shovel, and pour it with wheelbarrows. That was some of the hardest work I think I had ever been a part of.

Well, four years later it is a 3-story building with 44 children living there along with a couple of house parents, and a cook. Many of the children have come to know Christ as their savior and many are finding hope and healing after very difficult lives of poverty and (surprisingly prevelant) sexual abuse at home.

We will also be conducting vacation Bible school for the children of the internado, the children of the town, and the children of a distant village that we will be visiting called Tahua. We have an optometrist on our team who is bringing a focumeter (spelling?) and a couple hundred pairs of glasses. Many children will be given the gift of clear vision during this trip.

I've been appointed as the team blogmaster so I have set up a blog called Rio de Vida. This is spanish for River of Life. Surprisingly there is an internet cafe in the town where we will be spending most of our time so I will be making daily posts of our activity. Stop by and see what's happening south of the Equator when you have time.

After arriving home, kissing my wife, petting my dog, sleeping a whole lot, eating fried chicken, and drinking a gallon or so of sweetened iced tea I will resume this blog with the series of posts about Epic Church of Augusta.

Adios mi amigos!

posted by Bill @ 7:03 AM 0 comments

Technical Difficulties

Well,

For some reason most of my blog was missing for most of the day. Couldn't get much help from blogger tech support. Finally just republished the entire thing this evening and that seems to have fixed it. Sorry about that.

posted by Bill @ 7:49 PM 0 comments

Where From Here?

"Stand at the crossroads and look...ask where the good way is and walk in it."





technorati tag: Augusta, GA

posted by Bill @ 7:00 PM 0 comments

Serenity

posted by Bill @ 6:33 PM 0 comments

How Quickly They Grow Up!

posted by Bill @ 6:16 PM 0 comments

Foresight

When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, "It's going to rain," and it does. And when the south wind blows you say, "It's going to be hot," and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is that you don't know how to interpret this present time?



technorati tag: religous trends

posted by Bill @ 8:53 AM 1 comments

Comic Relief

I thought this was funny, but my mother-in-law didn't laugh. Last weekend she was preparing shortcakes to serve with strawberries and sighed heavily.

I asked what was wrong and she said, "These shortcakes didn't turn out right."

I replied, "Why...did they come out too tall?"

At least I cracked myself up.

By the way, that isn't a picture of me. My teeth aren't yellow.

posted by Bill @ 2:35 PM 0 comments

Boot Camp Chronicles; On Substance and Strategy

This post is going to be a little dis-jointed because I'm hurrying to crank it out before an appointment. Please bear with me.

I recently read on a message board these words (paraphrased) from a church planter:

"To make a church plant work you have to have state-of-the-art technology, a kickin' band, a massive marketing campaign, and a public launch of over 200 people."

When I made a subsequent post saying something like, "Ummm...AND intense prayer and fasting" I was chastised for my "condescending, holier-than-thou attitude."

If there is one thing that I most clearly learned from our church-planting experience it is this. The emergence of a new church is a supernatural occurence. What we are looking for when we untertake the task of planting a church is for something to happen that cannot be explained by human ingenuity. Almost anyone can gather a crowd and hold their attention with slick marketing, a good band, and flashy technology. Only God can raise up a passionately missional, reproducing ecclesia who are willing to give up their life for his Kingdom.

Do we need strategy? Of course. Any missionary worth his salt knows that to reach a people group they must, through the Spirit's guidance, develop a strategy that will communicate the truth of God in a way that can be heard and embraced. Church planters must understand who God is calling them to reach, exegete that culture, and develop a plan to speak the language of their tongue and their heart.

But there must also be an unexplainable supernatural force at work in our strategy and that supernatural force working on our behalf occurs as God responds to a heart that is devoted first to running passionately after his heart; as a deer pants for streams of water.

I am a strategy guy. Strategic thinking comes easy to me. And I definitely had a strategy for our church plant. Oh, I prayed all the time for God to do something through us that could never be explained by human ability. But honestly, I relied on my strategic thinking far more than I relied on God to do what only He can do.

What is the bottom line of planting a church? Simple. We want people to be drawn to us so that we can share the gospel with them, see them come into relationship with Christ, and disciple them. What is it that will draw them to us? Is it our marketing? Is it our band? Is it our speaking ability? Is it our strategic plan? Is it our building? I would say that some people will be drawn by these things and some good things might happen. But I would also say that a church plant built primarily on these things will be like driving a V-8 Hemi with only 2 cylinders hitting.

One morning during the spring of 2005, as God was in the process of deconstructing me, I was sitting in my office reading the scripture and praying. I don't know how I got to this book, but for some reason I turned to Zechariah and my eyes fell upon this verse that I'd never read before.

This is what the Lord Almighty says: "In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, 'Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.'" ~Zechariah 8:23

Words cannot explain what I felt in the moment that I read this passage. It was almost as if I had just found the hidden key to a treasure chest. After all of the reading of church planting and church growth strategy books I had done the past few years, in that moment God said, "Dude, in this one verse is everything you need."

Yes, I'm pretty sure God actually called me "dude." But He was right! No surprise there. Check this out: In this one passage you see in simplest language both the strategy and the substance for any ministry to accomplish what God desires for it to accomplish. The strategy: You have to be going somewhere meaningful. The substance: God's presence with you is percievable by others. The result: People who are hungry for more than their present earth-bound reaility will come from the woodwork to take hold of you and go with you.

The people of Judah and Israel had been desimated. Israel was utterly destroyed and scattered by the Assyrians. Judah had been crushed and carried away into exile in Babylon. They were a broken, defeated, shamed people who had arrived in that state because they had forsaken the substance of God's presence among them. But God was saying to them that a day would come when they would turn their hearts back to the God of their fathers and in that day something supernatural would happen. Instead of being invaded by people seeking to destroy them, they would be invaded by hungry, hurting people who were desparate for the presence of God in their lives.

This is what church planting is. Every church planter is simply a broken, defeated, shamed person who has found forgiveness, restoration, victory, and glory in Jesus Christ and seeks to draw others into that reality.

Strategy without substance is hollow and devoid of supernatural power. Substance without strategy is unfocused and unfruitful.

As we plant our churches, may we be faithful in understanding the culture around us. But my prayer is that people searching for God will be drawn to me not through my strategy but through the tangible substance of the presence of God surrounding me, my marriage, my home, and my ministry.



technorati tag: church planting

posted by Bill @ 7:08 AM 1 comments

Boot Camp Chronicles; The Matter Of Motive

Why do men plant churches? No this question is not about to followed by a cleverly divised punchline designed to illicit grins and giggles. It's a serious question that springs from my thoughts at about 5:30 this morning while I was praying. It's a question that fits well with this series of posts as the thoughts with which I'll answer the question are born out of another lesson I learned while planting our church in Illinois.

Yesterday I was reading the blog of another church planter friend of mine from Canton, Georgia in which he laughingly mentioned an observation made by one visitor to their church plant. The visitor made the tongue-in-cheek comment that it looked like a bunch of middle-aged men who couldn't find jobs so they started a church instead. Though that was a light-hearted conversation I think the comment does bring up some serious questions that we must consider. Why do we plant churches?

I believe that some people plant churches more out of personal need than personal fruitfulness.

There are some Christians who are just plain difficult and can't get along with other Christians. They hop around from church to church and then finally after years of ticking people off they just gather together a group of others like themselves and form a "house church" (and I use that term loosely) where they can get together every week and complain about everybody else.

There are some men who pursue church-planting ministry because they need to be significant in the eyes of others. They get a rush from the idea of dozens, hundreds, even thousands of people coming every week just to hear them talk. It fulfills a narcissistic desire to be the center of attention.

There are some men who plant churches out of a messiah complex. They have a need to be needed so they percieve the world around them to be devoid of any spiritual substance and believe that they alone have the vision that will bring revival.

I know of one young man who has no employable skills and openly admits that he has to plant churches because he can't do anything else. In the few years I have known him he has walked away from 3 failed church plants and is now hoping someone will give him money to try a fourth time.

The question of the day is, "Am I planting churches as a means to fulfill my own needs?"

If we will allow the Spirit of God to pull back the curtain and fully expose our hearts we'll see clearly if this is the case. And if we can come to the place of admitting this truth we can then begin to face the reality that any church planting efforts pursued with this motive will be about as easy to pull off as it is to get an apple tree to produce oranges.

We will not be successful in planting churches - or any other ministry for that matter - until we come to the place that every spiritual, mental, relational, and emotional need we have is being fully satisfied through intimacy with Christ. The source for meeting all of our needs is found in a Person, not in an activity. If we attempt to fulfill those needs through minsitry we'll repeatedly find that the ministry never becomes what it could and we remain despairingly empty.

"I am the vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." ~John 15:1-4

There are men who are called to plant churches. We who have that calling understand what I'm saying when I say that it is something we can't resist. We can't stop it. We have to do it. To us it feels like a moral imperative. In our sleeping and our waking we think about it, we dream about it, we talk about it, we write about it, and we often feel like we would rather die and go on to be with Jesus if we can't do this thing. So yes, it is a need. How do I then reconcile these seemingly contradictory thoughts?

If we who are called to church planting are abiding in Christ and finding the complete fulfillment of our needs in him alone, then a church plant will emerge from our lives as naturally as apples emerge from an apple tree. To understand this, go find a healthy apple tree and try to prevent it from producing apples. You can't do it. Apples will emerge and there's nothing you can do to stop it short of poisoning or killing it.

If we are approaching minstry with the attitude that this is the only thing that will satisfy the needs in my life, then a healthy ecclesia will never emerge from you life. Oh, you may gather some people together for a period of time. You may be able to do some things that look like ministry. But seeing a vibrant, healthy, multiplying church emerge is as likely as walking into that apple orchard and seeing oranges hanging from the trees.

I end with the words of David. May this be the singular driving motive in my life.



technorati tag: church planting

posted by Bill @ 7:09 AM 2 comments