How the gospel can go viral like the Ice Bucket Challenge

This is my talk from our recent baptism service at Ivy, where I looked at the Ice Bucket challenge and drew out its lessons for leaders and churches committed to helping people find their way back to God.

It followed 5 scheduled baptisms; some breathtaking stories of life change with Jesus as the star of every story – after the talk a number of people indicated that wanted to follow Him too, and then 3 more people were baptised too! (If it was good enough for the Ethiopian eunuch and Phillip…)

I blogged some of the thoughts from my notes of this already on what has been one of the most read blog items I’ve ever done here if you want to look at that too, but there is more on the talk than that item. Thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoy the talk.  Let me know your thoughts?

 

 

Catch some passion from Andy Hawthorne today.

If you’re a preacher, this is a masterclass in how passion persuades.

It’s hard not to grow a church that reaches people far from God and helps them find their way back when you have someone like my mate Andy Hawthorne in it. In fact – there is nobody like Andy!

I get to have breakfast with him most weeks and he’s one of the people who inspires me to GO FOR IT, by the way, he’s speaking at Ivy Kingsway this Sunday am.

I don’t want you to miss out on connecting to this passionate, uncompromising and gifted man whose charity The Message does so much great stuff he’s been honoured with an OBE.

Watch this video, you probably won’t need to turn the volume up. Below it is what I take from this PASSIONATE talk he gave to a national Youth Workers a couple of weeks ago– watch it here:

http://www.message.org.uk/2014/05/20/restoring-hope-andy-hawthorne-at-yws14/

So…

Keep Mission central. Not only mission – EVANGELISM! PREACH! Preach the cross! To bear MUCH fruit. Not just loving people, of course we do that but we have to tell people the way TO heaven and out of hell.

And that’s COSTLY! But if we are red letter Christians we have to say what he said about now and eternity.

Do we believe this any more? The only thing that counts, the only thing TO count, is disciples!

If we don’t proclaim the gospel – who will?!

The Holy Spirit will come and bring CONVICTION. Don’t we want righteous young disciples?!

Step out! If they don’t hear it, they won’t have hope restored.

John Wesley: social reformer AND he said ‘You have nothing to do but save souls!’

William Booth: ‘Not called to evangelism? Put your ear down to the Bible and hear him call you – to go….’

Let us build rescue shops within a yard of hell!

Churches On The Verge Of Movement – @alanhirsch at #exponential

I’m glad I didn’t post this immediately as I made the notes so it doesn’t come out with the flurry of other posts I made recently. This one needs some marinade time. My friends Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson wrote ‘On The Verge’ a little while back and it’s a game changer. At only £3.99 on Kindle now it’s a bargain as Alan’s theological and cultural awareness combine with Dave’s practical savvy to make a book that theorists can’t just theorise over – and practitioners can’t wait to practice. 

I have read the book several times privately then picked it apart as part of a Learning Community set up by Dave Ferguson of New Thing as I prepare to step further into birthing ‘New Thing UK’ – working to create a church planting movement and identify, train and release apostolic leaders across the UK and Ireland.

It was great to hear from Alan a refresh on some of the main ideas, and my notes on his brilliant seminar follow; 

 

THE MISSIONAL CONVERSATION are you part of it?

You can make decisions now that will alter history, as long as you don’t leave it too long. We are a missional people. SENT.

If you want to know what it’s like to be unchurched/ dechurched go to visit a mosque.

Don’t make them do the missional work. We are to go to them!

There was a time when the church was in a place that if people were looking for God they’d come to church. That day’s long gone. But we still play the game as if it was that way.

 

Who do we need to change the church?

The 16% who are Innovators and Early Adopters;

People who feel there is something to be gained from thinking entrepreneurially. If you’re going to argue the toss over everything, you won’t be part of this.

But if Holy Discontent is what drives you….

 

We have to see that it’s Adapt or Die time.

There are very few growing denominations. Do you know of any? (NOTE: Actually I do, the Evangelical Free Church in Sweden, soon to be led by my friend @Norburg)

 

The best way to pass on tradition is not to wear your father’s old hat but to reproduce – new children. How? Church planting.

You need to make decisions now about what kind of church you want your kids to be a part of.

Future Travellers Process;

1)   SEE IT.

Capture imaginations. This is the first thing. Epicetus ‘It is hard to teach a man what he think he already knows.’ People THINK they know what church is. But the early church didn’t have steeples and choirs. They met on riverbanks and caves. The paradigm is vital.

The brain seeks for patterns to make meaning. And we as a group agree a paradigm, how it looks to us. Cf the Old woman/ young girl picture. When you can see one you can’t see the other.

Constantine is still the emperor of our church thinking. You don’t have permission to think differently in Christendom.

The alternative to it = movement. Movements are dynamic, changing, growing. It’s there in the Celts, in China, in early Methodism. Primal. Impacting.

It takes courage to see differently!

2)   SHIFT .

Code the system for change. How do you change paradigms? A sense of anomaly develops. Thomas Kuhn (maths – ‘The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions’). When the best practitioners of a paradigm say, ‘Yes… but – the way you’re looking at it doesn’t answer all the questions…’ then you bust the paradigm.

The others get together – and eject the old paradigm. Then they defend the new one! And so on.

The fish doesn’t know its wet.

You have to see – things – change.

New Thing (the church planting movement I’ve been challenged to spearhead in the UK and Ireland) are planting a new church every 10 days in USA. After 7 years they are at 50,000 churches – and they double every year. That’s a movement.

Look at / assess/ audit the ETHOS. The CULTURE. The Guiding story.

The church is wired to grow and change the cosmos. What’s stopping it? Ask – what’s blocking growth? E.g. – ‘What are you doing with the women?; In any movement that ever changed the world, women were fully engaged. Then you remove what’s blocking growth.

Check and change the LANGUAGE. Who’s your hero? If it’s Barth – you become a theological church. If it’s the nurse who crosses the street and sets up a homeless shelter…

Look at your branding. A good brand is a promise kept. Do you keep the promises you make? If not you ruin the brand.

Check Practices. That’s what brings the culture. The soul of the place. You can feel it. Some churches you feel ‘Oh no, I can’t do things here.’ And there are others where it’s free.

KEY leaders need to define the reality. The leader is the key to open the door. This is conceptual and irritating. Not everyone will do it – or needs to.

In Myers-Briggs terms, most people are S not N. So they ACT their way into new ways of thinking.

So you need to create some PRACTICES that help people do the new culture (eg. BLESS).

McDonalds don’t let the 18 year old make it all up. They coded it. That’s a bit too far, but we need to form habits.

3)   INNOVATE!

4)   MOVEMENTUM – The flywheel effect as Collins describes it. It’s hard, then it gets going by itself.

The greatest resource, is the people. Dave Ferguson. ‘Lead with a Yes.’ Trust people. They want to change the world!

Every believer is a potential church planter. In a seed is the potential follower. Every believer has the potential. The 12 were not the A team. But it wasn’t a professional show, it was a movement.

This stuff is pulled out in detail in the book On The Verge. Get a copy. These guys are Jedis.

 

 

 

 

#RunAlpha – Nicky Gumbel at #Exponential

Invite A Generation: Run Alpha

166 different nations

110 languages

24 million people have done the course

20 to 50% express that they’ve fully come to faith.

 

A – for anyone

L – learning and laughter

P – Pasta/ food

H – Helping each other

A – Ask anything

 

This was a great session, where we were shown how to run an Alpha course by the man himself, Nicky Gumbel.

 

Went through some icebreakers;

 

1)  What’s your name, and a positive adjective?

2)  You’re stuck on a desert island – what two items would you take with you?

 

Then they get a little more pointed…

3)  How did you end up coming here to Alpha tonight?

4)  If it turned out there was a God after all and you could ask God any question, what would you ask him?

 

Write down the questions! You hope to answer them as the weeks progress.

 

NB. The leader is not the main conversationist here. The guests are there to pass it around each other.

 

This is revolutionary, we’re not trying to win the argument. We’re part of the discussion.

 

The best way to do it – LIVE TALKS (done well)

Then – DVDS

Then Live Talks (done badly)!

Who’s it aimed at? Pitched at 24 year old Urban male. 

Training goes out live for anyone who wants to see it.

If you want to do Alpha you have to do it 9 times to get it right. First few times you’re just running it for people in the church. Then it’s friends bringing friends that makes the snowball get rolling.

ALSO:

Try to make the services as much like Alpha as you can; informality. Not necessarily evangelistic services.

 

HOW DO I GET STARTED?

Go to Alpha.org/run and it’s all on there, in 6 steps you can customise the course for your church.

 

Where Are The Apostolic Leaders? #bgbg2

I was in online conversation today with friends as part of my mentoring group for the church planting network we are now part of, New Thing.

Dave and John Ferguson started off the huddle by talking about how we should be actively looking for and recruiting apostolic leaders, before helping us think about creating systems to train such leaders to plant reproducing churches.

I love that stuff, live and breathe it. Friends in the USA and some other nations seem to have this just thinking come naturally. It’s something of what we’ve been trying to do here at Ivy and I know others are doing similar things. It’s what I believe the church in the UK desperately needs. It’s why I have dared to believe I can try to be part of the solution in some small way during the time God gives me, so I’m starting to dream about helping form a network of reproducing churches across the nation – NewthingUK.

The question I pondered out loud this afternoon was whether we actually have much of a stock of such potential leaders for  starting and growing reproducing churches here in the UK?

What do you think?

I’d love to hear from some more, and I do relate to some, but I look around and don’t see too much of that love for the church combined with fire for winning the nation to Jesus, to be honest.

I do see people who start out with that fire having it doused over time. They’re ‘deradicalised’ to be able to fit into our existing paradigms of church leadership (incremental collaboration toward small dreams of little impact and the non rocking of boats), or giving up on church completely because it’s so caught up in questions nobody else is bothered about, becoming that emerging church that never quite emerges, or taking that entrepreneurial zeal and gifting to work away from sterile ecclesiastical settings for risk taking parachurch organisations daft enough to believe in them, or even using it to make new apps for more money, rather than making disciples for Jesus.

I’ve seen it in India, Africa, and Haiti but here in the UK I don’t see that many young leaders standing up and being counted saying, ‘I will do whatever it takes and make whatever sacrifices I have to, to grow into the leader God can make me, to make a huge difference in my generation, by growing great churches that change the world, one life at a time.’ 

And even when some do, I don’t often see those young leaders being raised up, apprenticed, mentored and given responsibility so they believe that’s a possibility not a pipe dream.

I hear a lot about why all of that is really important if the church is to have a future here, I just don’t see structures, priorities or budgets changing so it can happen. I see a lot of playing it safe – the most dangerous thing to do.

My concern was heightened by the recent report following the 18 month study into the CofE I have recently blogged about.

I am always part of the wider church, while leading a small ‘non-denom’ network of churches and my heart for the CofE comes as a still ordained and licensed but often befuddled prayerful onlooker to the vagaries of the established church.

The report raises concerns for me because of course it speaks to that wider church in the UK too; though the way it was reported seemed to indicate it does not disturb the authors or the Church Commissioners, as they publicly highlighted the good news (of which there was little – 18% of churches grew), while the troubling (54% ‘remained stable’ i.e. plateaued, and 27% declined) is very politely brushed over. Try doing that with a business report and see what happens.

I was just getting over the report when Peter Brierley’s Future First newsletter  for this month tore the scab off yesterday, summarising the report on its front page with the cheery title Anglican Church Growth.

The section on Leadership reports:

‘Growth comes from a) having specific skills and qualities (those who motivate, energise, innovate) – no doubt confirmed by the Depart of the Obvious

and b) an intention to grow…only 13% of clergy said they had an intention to grow numerically.”

Hang on. I can’t have read that right?

“Only 13% of clergy said they had an intention to grow numerically.” 

Yes but didn’t Jesus say ‘Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations’?

“Only 13% of clergy said they had an intention to grow numerically.”

But aren’t at least some of them getting paid for their ‘work’?

“Only 13% of clergy said they had an intention to grow numerically.”

If you’re going to be a robber, at least put a mask on.

And while 82% didn’t, 18% of churches grew.

Ah! Now I see why that is slightly encouraging.

Why?

Because it means that 5% of those churches grew DESPITE their leader not wanting them to (because more people of course just means more hassle. If we add people I can’t get on with my stamp collection and deliberating over where we can get the cheapest custard creams for the deanery synod meeting)!

So if you’re in a church where the one who is called its leader seems to be doing his or her best to help it slowly die, maybe there is still hope.

Hmm…

Mark 2:22 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”

 

Principles For Healthy Church Growth (From Acts 1 & 2) – Dave Smith #bgbg2

This is about principles not techniques for healthy church growth

From Acts 1 & 2

 

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach

 

The key to healthy church ministry is that it is the CONTINUING ministry of Jesus. Acts is not just the acts of the apostles but the empowering continuing work of Jesus. We can’t create growth.

We can position ourselves close enough to Jesus to follow His Spirit and do what he tells us.

It’s about following Jesus. That’s  job 1! And it takes the pressure off.

 

But if it was all about Jesus, every church would be growing.

Before Jesus does something through us he wants to do some things in us.

Jesus had prepared the disciples for what lay ahead.

 

After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

 

God wants to do some foundational stuff, he lets us be broken down before he builds up through us. So much is seasonal in how he prepares us, it’s cyclical. Be alert to the season you’re in – if there’s not fruit work showing, maybe there’s root work growing.

 

We need a harvest vision.

“you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Get that ahead of now vision. God gives leaders a grace to see ahead of time. And he is able to do more than we can expect or imagine – that’s confidence not presumption. And you make your plan based on THAT. You see the big vision ahead and work back from that.

 

At this year (25 celebration) Stuart Bell said ‘hear that founding word again.’ So they say they want to play their part to see the UK come back to God.

If you’re stuck, maybe it’s a vision issue. Get back with God

 

LOVE where you are. Love your Jerusalem. Unless you love the place, you’ll never love and reach the people.

 

Ask the Holy Spirit to do an experiment with you to break the barriers.

 

Constant Prayer

 

When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.

 

The suddenly of God’s Pentecost starts because of the preparation in prayer. Yonghi Cho was asked how he got that amazing growth: ‘I pray, and I obey.’

 

Prayer is core to who they are. It grows out of him.

 

Prayer is not a monologue but a dialogue and he has a lot more interesting things to tell me than I have to tell him.

 

However you look at church history, revivals worldwide etc. – you see that when people seriously get hold of God in prayer, fasting, things happen.

 

In Sept 99 they started a pattern of fasting across the church

3 days one month. 1 day the next month.

They have ‘Deep Night’ prayer meetings regularly – create an atmosphere of presence, break through. We have to get hold of prayer and that’s how we advance and are protected. Don’t just have crisis prayer. 

 

The disciples were used to walking to the upper room to prayer. Never assume that people have got the basics.

Cf Willow’s Reveal.

Are the people getting built into regular daily Bible reading and prayer.

 

Right Leadership – and transitions

 

There was this strange thing that then took place about how they cast lots. Not the way we’d do it – but there’s something about leadership needing to be right before the Spirit gets poured out.

They had a forced leadership transition. But they said ‘we want someone who has our DNA, who’s been on the journey.

 

Some parts of the church in the world is it’s hire and fire.

Some parts of the church it’s family.

Both ways of doing it can be problematic.

 

We have to have a flexibility in our culture where some can be elevated and others not and it be okay and nobody throws their toys out.

 

Don’t get someone in because of their gift – have they got your DNA? Watch how much influence you give them.

 

Empowering Presence

Acts 1;8

 

His church was having an amazing time charismatically and spiritually, lying on the floor having a good time while lost people were staying well away.

 

The way they administered the moves of the Spirit were not furthering the work of the Spirit.

 

Look at Luke’s description of the work of the Spirit – it’s a prophetic empowerment for ministry, not lying down.

 

We have to think wisely about what we do and when.

We can learn to be attractive by being a little more attractional.

Roll on the floor before.

 

Maybe we don’t have to do everything in one service?

 

Have a deeper night regularly.

 

If they had not made those changes, they would never have got where they are – and they see MORE of the Holy Spirit moving and changing lives now and tangibly there – more than they ever did back then.

This is not diluting the gospel, but wise in the way we administer our Sunday service.

You don’t hear ‘My friend came in and was freaked out’

You do hear ‘My friend came in and just started weeping because they knew God is here.’

 

Have a swimming pool. A big shallow end and a deep end too. Don’t throw them all in at the deep end and expect them to swim! They call theirs ‘Touching Heaven.’

 

Mission

Most of what church does is aiming at the 20%. How do we reach the 80%

 

Finally

Nobody gets saved just because the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost .  You can have lots of Holy Spirit meetings.

 

PREACHING MATTERS.

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.

 

Do the work of an evangelist.

Lean into specials like Christmas. Where a whole lot of people invite a whole lot of people…

 

Get people to come, and then keep them coming…

 

Carefully crafted sermon series are key to reaching and keeping people.  Keep people on the journey, and build them into this kind of community…

 

Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT MORE COULD HE HAVE DONE FOR US?

(This is from last Sunday night’s talk at the Ivy AGM – Awesome Gratitude Meeting)

One of my favourite author/ speakers died last year – his name was Brennan Manning. If you have ever read ‘Ragamuffin Gospel’ you’ll never forget it.

I have read lots of what he’s written and listened to many of his talks, but it was only this week I heard the amazing story about how he got the name “Brennan.” Because his real name was Richard Xavier Francis Manning – a good Irish catholic name, to be sure.

While growing up, his best friend was Ray. The two of them did everything together: went to school together, bought a car together as teenagers, double-dated, and so forth. They even enlisted in the Army together, went to boot camp together and fought on the frontlines together in the Korean War.

One night while sitting in a foxhole, Brennan was reminiscing about the old days in Brooklyn while Ray listened and ate a chocolate bar. Suddenly a live grenade came into the trench. Ray looked at Brennan, smiled, dropped his chocolate bar and threw himself on the live grenade. It exploded, killing Ray, but Brennan’s life was saved.

When Brennan became a priest he was instructed to take on the name of a saint. He thought of his friend, Ray Brennan. So he took on the name “Brennan.”

Years later he went to visit Ray’s mother in Brooklyn. They sat up late one night having tea when Brennan asked her, “Do you think Ray loved me?” Mrs. Brennan got up off the couch, shook her finger in front of Brennan’s face and shouted, “What more could he have done for you?”

Brennan said that at that moment he experienced an epiphany. He imagined himself standing before the cross of Jesus wondering, Does God really love me? And Jesus’ mother Mary pointing to her son, saying, “What more could he have done for you?”

We sometimes might wonder, Does God really love me? Am I important to God? Does God care about me?

We might look at our church and think about making big plans and whether it’s really possible for us to make a massive impact on the city. Will God give us what we need?

The answer is in Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

What MORE could he have done for us?

And how do we honour what Jesus has already done for us?

Two ways:

1) By being really, deeply, increasingly GRATEFUL and…

2) By asking for MORE. Because that shows we know what a kind God he is, so we can ask again.

Saul of Tarsus never got over God saving him. He never got tired of telling the story of his conversion. Over and over, just look through the book of Acts, he’s unstoppable, every chance he gets. Later he writes –

1 Tim 1:12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence.

Paul says he was once so far away. Anti-God and he didn’t even know it. Religious but self-righteously so wrong – about everything. Some of us know the feeling.

Likewise, I never want to get over the most important thing that ever happened in my life, when Jesus Christ saved it, revealed his love and his glory to me, and I wasn’t even his friend – I was his enemy.

I threw the grenade he fell on! He died in my place. He was battered and whipped and suffered for my sin. He shed his bled for me. What more could he have done for me?

But then there was more. Always more.

I’ve been a moaner and a worrier and a complainer at times. I’ve not been anything like as appreciative as I should have been of people who have helped me so much through the years, or the God who put them there so many times. But he has forgiven me of so much, protected me, rebuked me, kept me from falling countless times. Wow.

What more could he have done?

Always more. He’s given me a wonderful wife, an incredible family, every one of whom is walking with him too. Of course there have been hard times too along the way but I’m also grateful tonight for the tough times too because He has always only ever been good in all of that. He’s given me the best friends anyone could want, good health, blessings and blessings and blessings.

The list is endless. Because there was always more. He has been pleased to use me. Called me to serve him full time, for which I am eternally grateful. What more could he have done?

But then there was more! 5 and a half years ago he called us back to this city with this personal promise from Genesis 31:3 right at the centre of the call here to Manchester: The LORD said…”Return to the land of your father and grandfather and to your relatives there, and I will be with you.”

Ivy was and is a church full of incredible people. I tell leaders all over the nation and all over the world about the changes we’ve been through and the unity and loyalty here is astonishing! Ivy people amaze me time and time again. And they attract more and more Ivy people who amaze me more and more. You can’t out-challenge Ivy people. They step up and step out in faith, time and time and time again.

I am so grateful for the leaders who’ve been there on the journey and everyone who has waded in with us as we’ve moved from here to there, then to there, then to there, and then back here at about the same time as going there and then there, and now we’re going to go here, there – and everywhere. Ivy people get excited by being on that journey with God. This is not a normal church.

Who wants normal?! Normal is over-rated, and underachieving.

In the last 5 and half years God has done so much for us. I am stunned as I consider how many hundreds of people he’s added to the family. Just looking back over the last year! WOW. What more could he have done for us?!

Phil 4:6 says Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

We have some major building plans before us as we look to transform our existing building into a missional hub. That involves bigger financial targets, as we prepare to grow a national church planting network as part of New Thing, a global network we belong in now. This year we plan to do more mission, plant more Ivy churches, train more and more leaders, make more disciples, and reach more places in the nation and the nations.

According to the God, how much of this should we worry about? (Fill in the blank ________ )

How much should we pray about, ask God about, make requests about? ALL OF IT.

But the phrase I want to underline here, is ‘WITH THANKSGIVING’.

Because I’m in danger of taking so much for granted.

I know as a ‘Go for it’ leader there are times when I have been very focused on the front end at times of getting people on board with the projects, but not thankful enough for those who didn’t just get onboard but without whom we’d never have a hope of getting there.

Elders, staff (Past and present), buildings team, children’s and youth workers, coffee makers, chair putter outers, welcomers, generous givers, sound team, worship team, missions team, Ivy team. Sundays and through the week. There’s so much going on – life bursting out everywhere and I can’t catalogue it and I literally CAN’T thank everyone, enough. But I’m sorry when I didn’t.

And I just owe God so much, I know I am a favoured man. God’s been so good to me. But at times I’ve just been good at asking and whatever supplicating means and making my requests known – but paid so little attention to the thanksgiving that was missing.

One thing I used to love when I was leading an Anglican church, there were some great prayers people had written to help you pray. Sometimes the words, written centuries before, would just resonate. There’s one for when you’re just generally thankful – but especially for Jesus. That has always been a favourite!

How much MORE could He do for us?

It’s Ivy’s year of more. I believe it, even though I don’t know much of what it entails, we make the path as we step into it.

But even if he never did anything more for any of us; we owe our ultimate gratitude for God’s ultimate gift, as these words from the C16th remind us. Why not pray it where you are?

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, 
we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks 
for all thy goodness and loving-kindness 
to us and to all men. 


We bless thee for our creation, preservation, 
and all the blessings of this life; 
but above all for thine inestimable love 
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; 
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.

And, we beseech thee, 
give us that due sense of all thy mercies, 
that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful; 
and that we show forth thy praise, 
not only with our lips, but in our lives, 
by giving up our selves to thy service, 
and by walking before thee 
in holiness and righteousness all our days; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord, 
to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit, 
be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

If You’re Going To Build A Rescue Boat, Check For Leaks #bgbg2

(Snippet from tomorrow’s talk. Will be on podcast next week)

Noah was told to build a rescue boat. And that’s what the church is meant to be by the way.

This week the CofE put out a report highlighting how good it was that some churches were growing.

The headlines on twitter simply declared,‘Good news! Many churches are growing!’ I was really excited, but then  I looked at the actual figures in the middle and in fact since 2010 –

18% of their churches are growing, great.

But 55% are plateauing

and 27% declined.

Later on we read that nearly half of churches have less than 5 under 16s.

That’s not good news. Reporting it as such is disingenuous. Surely these figures highlight a problem?

If it was a business you’d say ‘It’s change or die time.’

You have to face the bad news, before you can be good news.

I’m passionate about this because I’m still convinced that the local church is the hope of the world! We have to recognize the seriousness of our time and build churches and movements of churches that are life boats, not cruise liners for the ones already on board (with no kids allowed to disturb the games of shuffleboard on deck).

Noah recognized the seriousness of the situation in his lifetime, and took the action required. We’re not building a cruise ship here at Ivy, we’re building rescue boats!

 

Why the Great Commission has stopped me ‘Evangelising’ and ‘Discipling’ people.

Matt 28:16 So the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain Jesus had designated. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus here is sending people out to tell people about Him. To be witnesses for him. WITNESSES. Unfortunately, this whole ‘witnessing/evangelism’ idea can become about formulas, or something that makes people feel guilty because they’re not good at. They don’t like the idea of handing out leaflets out in the street or going door to door. If that IS your thing great, but a lot of people rule themselves out because they think witnessing has been turned into processes of mithering people. Or trying to argue.

I saw a status on Facebook that read ‘”I will now become a Christian on the basis of your arguments and dogmatic presentation of key doctrines.’ Said nobody, ever.”

And I know people who’d say they follow Jesus 100% but… they don’t know enough Bible or enough answers to all the clever objections people come out with, and they don’t want people to think they’re arrogant so they think they’d better not get involved either. But that’s not how this started.  From that day on the mountain till now, it’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know.

By the way, that means it’s not being arrogant either, because Christians DO have knowledge that most people don’t have, but it’s a different kind of knowledge. It’s not ‘I know something you don’t know.’ It’s SOMEONE. Because of Easter Sunday, because of Jesus being ALIVE – it’s a person you’ve met. And you have the dignity to share that you know Him.

I tried to sum this up in a tweet this week and just about squeezed it into 140 characters. Because of the resurrection, evangelism isn’t convincing someone of something you know, it’s introducing someone you know wants to meet them. 

Now literally, Jesus says. ‘Therefore, GOING – make disciples…’ We have made it a command, so people feel guilty and might do it. You have to say it in a dramatic deep voice.‘Therefore GO!’

But it’s not a command. It’s the present participle to be technical, like ‘As you go…’ Like it’s the most natural thing in the world. ‘As you go, make disciples.’ That’ll be the natural spin off from people interacting with you. Because Jesus is with you always as you go. But we somehow made this natural thing a list of techniques to get stressed out about or Bible passages to memorise, to make CONVERTS. Jesus didn’t ever say make converts. He says ‘make DISCIPLES.’

What does that mean?  Disciples?

LEARNER.

That’s all it means. Whenever you see the word disciple in the Bible, you could translate it straight as ‘Learner.’ They had the L plates on.

Jesus sent them out into the world, with L plates on. What a responsibility he put in their hands! Jesus had written no books, built no organisation; there were no physical buildings they owned, no monuments left to commemorate Him. He entirely placed the future of His earthly work in the hands of His disciples. His LEARNERS. He had no other plan. He HAS no other plan!

While I’m shooting sacred cows –  I’m disturbed that the church has made DISCIPLING a new kind of industry in the last 5 years or so. Jesus came to make profound things simple and the church always does the opposite of that.

Everyone’s doing conferences or writing books with plans and formulas to ‘disciple’ people. As if it’s a verb – not a noun.

He disciples him, she disciples her – we all get in these little groups where this person knows more than this person; so I get to disciple you or to be discipled by him or her. And the extreme end of it is where someone gets to feel very important and wise for being ‘a discipler,’ while someone else – the disciplee, gets controlled.

I’ve read many of those books and been to the conferences. Of course there’s good stuff in it too, and it’s a reaction to laissez faire methods which meant people didn’t mature in faith. But something still makes me a bit uneasy. Because I don’t think lots of what they write about there, has little to do with what Jesus was talking about here.

I had a great chat the other day with someone who was asking about whether I should be their ‘covering’ – and we ended up agreeing that’s probably Jesus’ job. All authority has been given to HIM after all. He’s the head. We’re all the body.

The creeping danger is we end up becoming or gathering or making disciples of MEN rather than disciples of Jesus. Because like evangelism and a lot of other things we’ve made ‘discipling’ seem very complicated. It’s not really.

Christianity isn’t complicated! It’s not EASY, but it’s not complicated.

These notes form part of my talk for tomorrow morning at Ivy Manchester (Kingsway). I’ll be more constructive than this – promise. There’s probably just enough here to get some people annoyed enough to download the full talk which will be available on our website next week. http://www.ivymanchester.org/podcasts

TRUE MATURITY Colossians 2 – Ivy Grow Group Notes

We are doing a series in the evenings where I’m going through Colossians a chapter at a time and I AM LOVING IT! Why not plan to get along to Ivy Didsbury and dig into this fantastic letter further soon? If you really can’t – I bet you’d get a lot out of the podcasts which are free at www.ivymanchester.org

I’ve called the series INSIDE -OUT

Principally that’s because Paul was INSIDE, writing OUT to the church a Colosse. He was in prison. He wrote various letters while he was in prison, some to churches he founded – and this one to a church he didn’t found but it was a kind of church plant started by a man called Ephaphras who Paul led to follow Christ then sent home to start a church in his home city.

One day Ephapras visited him in prison and gave the low down on things in Colosse. The church had started out really well and grown fast. BUT there were problems. Big concerns about one or two voices in the church that were trying to drag people away from simple devotion to Jesus.

We don’t know how many of these teachers there were, it may have just been one powerful, super-spiritual, deeeeply persuasive voice that was saying to be a real Christian, you had to learn ‘the philosophy…’ – a system of inner secrets for the Deeper Life.

Read Col 2:1-5

This talks about ‘persuasive words’ that can deceive us.

Discuss: How do we go deep, without going under? What I mean is, how do you strike a healthy balance as a Christian between wanting to study and grow, without becoming super-spiritual? 

Three big words summed up ‘The Philosophy’ – three isms in the ‘religious self improvement plan.’

These three things are very much still dangers for churches to take on…

Legalism, Asceticism and Mysticism.

Discuss – how do you define these words and how might they become a danger for Christians? 

My definitions of the three- (NB the practices themselves might not necessarily be wrong, it’s the heart intention that matters)

Legalism – do the right things. (Restrict Yourself) – included Circumcision

Asceticism – don’t do some things (Deny Yourself) – included fasting

Mysticism – (Exalt Yourself) – the way the mysticism worked at Colosse was that some wanted a few to add on learning some deep, deep things – so as to become the TRUE disciples. The spiritual masters. This would create an ‘inner circle’ within the church.

DISCUSS: 

If the Leader has time, please read my previous blog post to this – CS Lewis’ address on ‘The Inner Ring.’

How do we guard against cliques forming in church? 

Read Col 2:6-11

Paul here lists some marks of true maturity – and it’s not about some supposed spiritual experience, but about walking IN HIM.

 

Go through now down to verse 13 and notice how many times Paul uses the term IN HIM or IN CHRIST (his favourite way to describe being a Christian) in this chapter.

Underline them if you like to remind you of its importance. It seems it’s possible to be ‘In Christ’ but not maturing!

DISCUSS: What kind of thing would Paul list as evidences of truly maturing? 

Leader’s hint: I included Encouragement, Loving Unity, Keeping in Order, Steadfastness, and being Grounded, Growing and Grateful.

As NT Wright says in his brilliant book ‘Paul for everyone; Prison Letters’

Christianity isn’t simply about a way of being religious. It isn’t about a particular system for being saved here or hereafter, it’s not about a particular way to be holy…Christianity is about Jesus Christ. 

DISCUSS: Why don’t people have the right idea about Christianity? 

Assess: 

Whatever your list of ‘Marks of Maturity’ ended up pulling out, get everyone to rate themselves 1 -10 right now on them. 

Would the people who know you well say you’re becoming more like Jesus in that area now than you were a year ago? 

Pray: 

You are COMPLETE in Him! Pray that each person in your GG walks out in their every day life what this means, that Jesus is ALL of God, and He is ALL in you and he FILLS you completely with His love now. God wants what happened to Jesus to happen to you.

If you died with him (became his follower)

You will live forever with him – starting now – and that will never end. Rejoice!

Christianity isn’t prideful philosophical, theoretical knowledge to teach another about;  ‘you have to know what I know.’

It’s humble grateful relational and invitational – ‘come and meet the One who knows all about me and loves me’ – like the Samaritan woman discovered in John 4.

Commit to Pray for three people who need to come to know the One you know, that before the end of 2012, maybe at one of our Christmas events – they get to know the One we know.