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church planting and systems

This is a hard entry to write, but it's what I'm struggling through right now.  Any insights or thoughts anyone has to add would be appreciated.  Over the past few months I've had the chance to interact and assist a some young and/or struggling churches around the KC metro area.  It's always a little painful to hear the hearts of leaders who dream of the day their churches will finally rock its mission, yet can't seem to figure out how to help that happen. 

The other night Lori and I were kicking this around.  Just from our limited perspectives she could list off issue after issue and problem after problem that stood in the way of these churches becoming what they wanted to be.  As I thought about it, the problems really were systemic at their cores.  

Maybe you've heard the quote attributed to Frederick Taylor that says it this way - "Your system is perfectly designed to produce the results you are getting."  The bible says the same thing in a slightly more agricultural (and culturally-appropriate to his audience) way - "Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap."  

the most important question

Over the last ten years I've had the chance to talk with numerous churches and leaders about reaching my generation.  I used to tell them that postmoderns weren't interested in what you could prove was true; they wanted to know what works for you.  It think John Burke has gotten closer to the real heart of the question being asked.  He puts it this way -

Postmoderns don't care about what's 'true'; they question they are asking is 'Do I want to be like you?'

Does that question rattle you?  It definitely messes with me a little, mostly because I think it's right on the money.  And so I have to ask if there's anything about me that would stand in the way of sharing the Gospel with my life . . .

saturation point

"Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh." - Ecclesiastes 12:12b

Lately, I've been reading a lot of books.  Books about ministry.  Books about the Bible.  Books about church planting.  Books about leadership.  Books about theology.  Books about culture.  

By and large these have been great books.  Many of them have been recommended by friends, and most of them have been really helpful.  Some of them have been encouraging.  A few of them have been outright inspiring.  But I'm starting to get a little bit warn out. 

One of the great points about this time in my life is learning about who God's created me to be.  And learning about what he's created me to do.  I love the action, the orthopraxy of The Commission.  Reading a great book makes me want to move. 

What's hard for me is reading 10 books and being patient.  Anyone else ever felt that? 

things to come . . .

"Movements are like this.  They are grassroots, often underground, and they start with crazy people who are willing to believe in the impossible.  Movements never start in the corporate offices with executives drawing up a master plan.  Looking for the best and the brightest and recruiting them to the work is not how world-changing movements start.

If we truly want to see the world changed, we must begin as a band of madmen, welcoming other crazy people who want to be part of something bigger than themselves."

Neil Cole, Organic Leadership

kingdom come at starbucks

So I was at Starbucks this afternoon.  The woman making my coffee behind the counter was someone I'd recently struck up a friendship with.  She asked me what I was up to, and I told her I was taking a couple of hours to read and pray about church planting.  As she handed me my coffee she pointed out another patron in the shop who was an Episcopal priest launching a new church plant himself. 

Of course, this was just too interesting of an opportunity to pass up.  I pulled up a nearby chair and began to engage the priest in an interesting and animated conversation about church planting and Overland Park.  Maybe ten minutes later another person sitting nearby had joined out conversation.  A couple of minutes after that two high school juniors joined our conversation to tell us about the Saturday bible study they had started last weekend.  Before the conversation was over, even one of the baristas had taken their break, grabbed a coffee and pulled up a seat to tell us about his church experience.  It was the Kingdom come, right there at Starbucks on a Thursday afternoon. 

So here's the encouragement for today - next time you're hanging out at your favorite coffee shop (like "It's a Grind" on 151st), make sure to keep your eyes and ears open.  I know it's awesome to power up the laptop, fire up iTunes, pop on some great headphones, left-hand clutch a double-mocha chai and get lost in a good book.  That's some goodness, but it's not worth missing a Kingdom moment.  So heads up!

video and digital storytelling

It's exciting and encouraging to see ministry leaders and church planters begin to grasp how crucial video will be moving into the future.  Missional churches are churches that speak the language of the culture they are in, and in the US culture that 'language' is video.  Now that we're beginning to accept this new reality, I think we need to challenge ourselves to become far more fluent in 'media.' 

Imagine for a moment if you felt called to share the gospel in El Salvador.  Would you take a one-week crash course in Spanish and then hop on the next plane out?  Would you buy a coffee table book about the country from your local Barnes and Noble and assume that would teach you everything you needed to know about the culture?  Of course not.  Yet so many Christian leaders today assume that a video camera and firewire is all you need to create compelling video. 

Speaking 'video' fluently really isn't any easier to master than any other language, and Christian leaders need to stop assuming it is.  If you participate in Christian worship experiences with any kind of frequency you've probably experienced a time when no video would have been better than the embarrassing video that was used.  The intentions were good, but the results were cringe-tastic. 

So how can take our media to the next level?  

a different kind of leadership

"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.  It is not this way among you"

- Jesus (Matthew 20:25-26a)

I'm not sure if I'm lucky or blessed (or both) but the books I've been reading over the last several months have been uniformally great.  I know I've written this before, but it feels incredible when you read about something that you've been thinking and dreaming of for years.  "Organic Leadership" by Neil Cole is one of those dancing-around-the-coffeeshop-great books that a friend recommended to me last month. 

One of the most deeply held dreams I've had for years is to see the the local expression of the body of Christ led the way it was in the book of Acts, rather than by a hierarchy.  Trying to share this with most of my friends and colleges always seems to end the same way: "Well Alex, that sounds really great, but it will never work in the 'real world.'"  After enough of those conversations you can start to become discouraged.

Enter an author like Cole (and Allen and Hirsche and Stetzer) . . .

homosexuality and church planting

One of the most difficult questions church planters hoping to reach a new  generation will have to wrestle with is the question of homosexuality.  For many postmoderns this issue is a pass-fail in the search for a spiritual community.  Spiritual entrepreneurs today need to understand that this issue has come to be about SO much more than a particular form of sexual expression.

Instead of trying to explain what I'm talking about, take a listen to a friend of mine named Emily Nixon.  Emily is someone who's walked about from Christianity because she can't reconcile her own deepest values with the church as she sees it today.  Take a listen to a conversation we had over at Homer's Coffee Shop . . .

Sound familiar?

church and the web

As I was doing to research on church planting and technology I stumbled upon an article from Christianity Today which reports that 80-85% of people are making their initial connections to a church based on the church's website.  This study is almost 18 months old at this point, so this number may even be higher by now. 

Unfortunately, this statistic 'feels' very true.  I say unfortunately because most church websites today stink.  Many of them feature irrelevant graphic design, confusing navigation, outdated technologies, a shocking lack of basic information and first-time viewer awareness.  As someone who's been designing ministry websites for almost ten years I've found the ratio to be something like seven bad sites to every decent site.  The ratio is something like 15 to 1 for great sites.

a church for a different kind of people

I had the chance to interview a good friend, Wendy Chrostek, for a bigger project I'm working on right now.  Something she said in the interview really hit the 'sweet spot' of my heart for the future of the church.  Take a listen -