Neil Cole on Sustaining a Movement

Neil Cole writes compellingly about sustaining a movement here. I love Neil Cole's "theology of death" and am convinced that we would see much more kingdom growth if we would embrace it. Check out a snippet below:

What delays the decay of institutionalism for a movement like ours? Ironically, our sustainability is directly tied to our willingness to not be sustained. As long as we cling to Jesus and His life with white knuckles and release everything else we will continue in vitality. When we let go of that life and cling to our reputation, methodology or organization we will begin to decay. Institutionalization is directly related to a protectionist approach to ministry.

And here's more:

In every city of America there is at least one church with a building worth hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars. This church meets every Sunday morning with only eight to ten silver and blue haired women and one or two balding gentlemen for a “service”. They sing a hymn or two, one of the stately gentlemen shares a few opinions of things in the world today, they say a prayer, amen and then go home.

Empty parking spaces, silent pulpits and dusty pews cry out for days of glory gone by. The church has been dead for years, perhaps decades, but has been kept alive unnaturally by an artificial life support system. The soul is gone, brain waves have ceased, but mechanization keeps the lungs breathing, the heart beating, and the door opening every Sunday morning at precisely 10 AM.

Why? We are so desperately afraid to admit failure that we will keep the church alive as long as we can. It is as if the continuity of Christianity depends upon this one church staying alive. If the church dies God has failed, and we cannot allow that.

Donations for Haiti

If you are looking for organizations to donate to, consider checking out Mission Haiti and Churches Helping Churches.

Church Planting Interview

Dustin Neely of the blog Church Planting for the Rest of Us has posted a couple of interviews with Rick Long about church planting, church planting training and leadership development. Check them out here.

(For those of you who know Mike Berhow, Mike attends and participates in Dustin Neely's church in Louisville.)

Steve Addison's take on theological education

While Steve Addison values education, he views formal theological training as something that "undermines the rapid expansion of the church".

Yeah, we need theological education, and we probably need institutions, but obviously something in America has to change as our institutions are too costly, too liberal, and too ineffective at training men to be prepared for pastoral ministry. The institutions cannot churn out effective, healthy pastors quickly enough for the type of growth that I am convinced we need to see happen in America and beyond. And so, we have to move beyond institutions.

Below is an excerpt from a recent post from Steve Addison's blog in which he responded to a specific question. Read the whole thing here.

I just don’t think we should exclude 99% of the world’s population from leadership in the church because they will never complete formal theological education.

What they need is life-long, on-the-job training, which engages head, heart and hands—knowledge, character and skills.

I also think theological education is a socialization process that creates a professional clergy and undermines the rapid expansion of the church. Movements “democratize” the faith.

With few exceptions theological education is a secularizing force, even for the biblically orthodox.

I like what Roland Allan said, “Most heresies result from the speculations of learned men.”

Having said that, we must have teachers in the body of Christ and in every missionary movement that are theologically trained. We need Pauls and Lukes who were both active in evangelism and church planting and at the same time sharp theologically. But most churches in the NT were not planted by our equivalent of “ordained” clergy.

I think it’s reasonable to assume that after Peter left Cornelius (Acts 10), that it was the new believer, Cornelius, who became the “pastor” of the new church that met in his home. At that stage Peter didn’t even have a copy of the New Testament to leave behind.

I’m trying to have it both ways. But in the West, the pendulum needs to swing away from formal theological training as THE road to leadership. The mandate is clear: we are to make disciples of Jesus and teach them to obey what he commanded. Movements take both knowledge and obedience seriously.

Steve Addison on the SVM

Over and over again, history testifies to the reality that great movements often have young people at their forefront. Steve Addison explains shows this through the rise of the Student Volunteer Movement (read about it here). I'm young, but becoming old. I hope that as I age I will make room for younger leaders.

Rethinking Christmas

John Barcanic says Americans plan to spend $638 per person on Christmas gifts this year. It be pretty sweet if a good chunk of that money went to the poor, needy, broken, lonely, etc. in a celebration of Jesus. Check out more about the Advent Conspiracy and get some sweet ideas at www.rethinkingchristmas.com.

7,400 ethno-linguistic people groups still unreached

Church Planting Center says...According to Global Research of the International Mission Board there are over 11,500 ethno-linguistic people groups in the world. Of this number, over 7,400 of these people groups are unreached with the Gospel.

Dustin Neely's Interview with Bob Thune

Check out the video interview here.

Bob Thune explains:

1) how he helps determine if a man is called to be a church planter.
2) if a current church planter who isn't seeing numerical success is in the right place.

Jamin Hubner is the new youth pastor at Memorial Baptist in Parkston, SD

I'm excited about Jamin Hubner coming on staff as a youth pastor at Memorial Baptist in Parkston, SD, where Luke Baker serves as the lead pastor. You can read Jamin's take on it and youth ministry here.

Peter Roennfeldt on church planting

Steve Addison posted some great reflections from Peter Roennfeldt. Read the whole thing here, or check out Peter's thoughts below:

What you plant is what you reap. In the 1970s we planted churches – rather than churches that multiply. The result is that most the churches planted then have gotten bigger, but the priority has not been on multiplication!

Plant churches that multiply. If I were to have my time over again – I would cultivate the principles of multiplication into the DNA of every church plant! It is exciting to see the growth – but, it could be even greater!

You can never envisage the impact of a church plant. Thirty years ago it was not possible to envisage the growth of these churches – over 10,000 believers today!

Invest in future leaders. In those years many church plants were focused upon reaching and involving university students and future country leaders – and this has resulted in new churches all over the country.

Be proactive. Those fourteen new churches in Port Moresby would not have been planted without the efforts of dedicated teams of members and planted – but there should be hundreds!

Denominations do not plant churches – local churches, members and pastors do. Denominations that do not affirm people, empowering and releasing them, will never reach their potential. Micromanagement and control are not environments of growth, reproduction and multiplication.