A Forum To Learn About and Discuss Restoration Church’s Vision and Transition

Thank you for joining us in seeking God for His vision for Restoration Church.  This blog is a place where you will find a discussion of topics and answers to questions that are relevant to Restoration Church’s vision for the future and our transition into what God wants for us as a body of connected believers.

We invite you to explore the new vision, seek to understand what God is doing in our world and engage with us in the process of hearing from Him and following His leading.

As soon as new information becomes available on the transition we will post it here.  So to keep up-to-date please follow the blog by clicking on the FOLLOW button under the FOLLOW BLOG VIA EMAIL on the right hand side of this page.

Please come on in and post your comments.

In Christ,

J.T. Taylor
Restoration Church – Transition Team Leader

Why is it Necessary to Sell our Property?

As our church has shrunk in size both numerically and financially over the past decade, it has become increasingly evident that the current footprint of our property, which includes approximately 18 acres and four separate buildings, is much larger than we need.  As an example, for years the buildings on the west end have been vacant and unused.  We looked carefully at “building them out” and making them compliant with local building codes, but the cost-benefit ratio showed that any monies we could receive for renting the space did not justify the investment needed and would be a net loss for the church.

Additionally, our facilities expenses, including debt service of approximately $11,000.00 a month, property & casualty insurance, maintenance, utilities and property taxes have remained relatively fixed during the economic downturn, while giving has steadily dropped, such that our total facilities expense has become an enormous burden to the church and we have had to cut or eliminate nearly every ministry area and to service the property.

Also, due to the age of our building structures and parking lot areas, there is around $1 million of deferred maintenance expense that will be necessary in the immediate future in order to keep our property compliant with current building codes. All of this in the aggregate makes it imprudent financially to try to keep our current property.

We have been so blessed to find a cash buyer (Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District) with whom we have an excellent relationship due to our extensive community service involvement. Therefore, both the community and our church benefit greatly from the sale, now scheduled to close no later than March 21.

The net proceeds of the sale, after all debt is retired, will be carefully invested in interest-bearing accounts so that our money will make money and used for our future ministry as a group of believers bringing life and blessing to our communities.

Ken Harp

Important Updates (February)

Here’s the latest summary of what’s happened and IS happening in our transition.

• Hugh Halter shared on January 29th. If you didn’t get a chance to hear him in person, please go to our church’s website and hear his archived message.
• Our first informational meeting with potential missional community leaders was held on Sunday, February 5th. They will be praying about their involvement in leading the way for our body. For those out of this group who want to pursue being a part of phase one in creating our missional communities, they will be a part of a pilot group that will meet weekly, starting on February 26th. Pastor Ron will be leading this group.
• This Sunday (as of this writing), February 12th, there will be the first of several ‘garage’ sales where equipment and furniture will be offered to our body after church. You will need to pay at the time of purchase and take the item or items as well. So come prepared!
• According to reports from the HEB ISD, closing date for our land and property will be Wednesday, March 21st. Everything is moving ahead wonderfully.
• We announced that First Baptist Church of Bedford (Central & Bedford Rd), will be where we will hold our weekend services (5pm Saturdays). Our first day in this facility will be Saturday, May 5th.
•  Reggie McNeal, author of The Present Future and Missional Communities, will be speaking at Restoration Church on Sunday, Feb. 19th. You will NOT want to miss this.
• On Sunday, February 26th, Pastor Ron will be announcing the new name of Restoration Church. He will do this in his message as he talks about why God changed people’s names in the Scripture.
• The future offices of our church have been discovered and secured. More info will come in regards to this in the near future.

Well, that’s it for now. Hope this helps to keep everyone up to date on things. As we have more info, we’ll get it to you!

Don’t Hear What We’re Not Saying

“Don’t Hear What We’re NOT Saying”

Communication is a very tricky thing. When we share something with someone else, we’re not just sharing information, we’re sharing body language, word usage, tone of voice, and a host of other things that enter into the communication process. Sometimes we share information in such a way that what we don’t say speaks as loud as what we do say.  It’s not intentional. It’s just the way we communicate.

Beyond that, we filter things people tell us based upon our past, our biases, personal opinions, education, and perspectives. What all this means is we have a tendency, if we’re not careful, to hear things that were never communicated. How many times has someone repeated what you said to someone else but ADDED TO your content and even misrepresented your original conversation. In our passion to communicate, it would be easy to NOT say certain things in order to qualify, to balance, or give disclaimers to what we ARE saying.

 

In an effort to make sure no one is hearing what we’re NOT saying as we communicate change and the future direction of our church, I want to identify several things I’ve heard directly or indirectly that are things that we’ve never said.

     1. We will not care for the needs of the flock.

Because we have been talking so much about living the missional and incarnational life in the context of the world, some have heard that we will not be giving any attention to the needs of the body. Fear not! That could not be further from the truth. The fact of people being cared for is not in question, but how they will be cared for. Presently, pastoral care is relegated almost solely to professional, paid staff. Even though there will always be some of that dynamic, the focus will be on the gifted people of God caring for each other. It will be more natural and organic as opposed to organizational and professional. By living in community regularly, those who choose to live life in that context will have an immediate ‘relational net’ that catches them in times of crisis and difficulty. Does that mean paid staff will never get involved? Absolutely not. But what it does mean is that the most effective way of caring for each other is in the context of family. When we walk together relationally, you can’t help but be there for one another through every season of life. Paid staff will give much of their time equipping, encouraging, and coaching our community leaders in pastoral skills. When issues get beyond our leaders, vocational staff will always be there to help.

 2. Traditional, attractional churches are bad, insincere, and unfruitful.

Once again, we are dealing with partial communication (not giving qualifiers or disclaimers), or filtered listening (reacting out of loyalty to traditional church life). Both are guilty to some degree. The traditional model of church, whether that be a smaller congregation or mega church of thousands, has played a positive, significant role in the lives of countless people for decades.  Most of those reading this article are products of this traditional model. What our church is moving toward is not to question the integrity, sincerity, or excellence of any other traditional model of church. It is NOT questioning whether people are reached, healed, and blessed. But as we’ve said recently, we have had to ask ourselves questions that we would have never asked had we been one of those traditional growing churches.

When Jesus commanded us to make disciples and stated that He was on a mission to build His church and extend His kingdom, did He have in His mind’s eye, thousands of buildings where people outside the faith would have to journey in order to hear the gospel and discover the reality of the true God? Did He have in mind thousands of people sitting in rows, listening to bible lectures week after week, year after year from one gifted teacher? Has all of our money, effort, programs, events, and buildings fulfilled the mandate to make disciples and are we actually changing culture so that it is expressing the values of the kingdom of God? Unfortunately, the facts say “No”. Just listen to these truths.

• A study in the late 90’s showed that church attendance in America has dropped to 26% of the population. (Present Future, p. 3)
• The number of Americans who now claim no religious preference has doubled from 1990 to 2001. (Present Future, p. 3)
• In spite of the American church spending $100 Billion every year on its buildings, programs, and outreach initiatives, we’re not holding on to our own or seeing major life transformation. According to a major study done recently, the divorce rate among church members is HIGHER than the unchurched. This same study showed that about 10 million self-proclaimed, born-again Christians have not been to church in the last six months. (Breaking the Missional Code, p.9)
• Over 60% of active, church going teenagers do not continue in church beyond their high school years. Some studies push that number much higher. Overall, the next generation is disconnecting from church as we’ve known it for the last fifty years. (Barna Research Group, September, 2006)

I think we all get the picture. To ‘not care’ what happens to the people Jesus gave His life to save is the ultimate consumer response. Jesus told us emphatically that His agenda was “to seek and to save the lost”. That agenda, of course, was to be embraced by every follower. Therefore, to keep putting all of our eggs in the traditional church basket would be unwise based upon how our nation is responding to the church as we’ve typically presented ourselves. Therefore, to have traditional churches doing church in the typical way is not bad, is not evil, and is not to be discarded. But to ONLY duplicate these types of churches based upon the things shared, would be a major mistake. Our church is simply choosing to be one of the hundreds pursuing a model that we believe will not only recapture the hearts of the next generation, but will create a new path for the unchurched to find Jesus.

  3. Our church will not have worship or meet on weekends.

One thing our church WILL do is meet every week. We will gather and the hope is we will have an incredible worship experience with our incredible God. We are told that God loves passionate praise. But even our music can become a consumer commodity. So, in spite of our love for great worship, we always want our worship expression to reflect hearts of obedience and service. We are looking for a worship leader who will be a part of our body and vision. Please pray with us as we continue our search.

4. Our church will not focus on children or youth.

We are excited about creating a dynamic children’s ministry that will serve our kids when we gather each week. We will have a vocational staff member (part or full time) who will give energy and focus to this. Beyond that, our student ministry will still be led by our present student pastor. Even though there may be some adjustments to how they meet and what their focus will be, they will gather, they will grow, they will relate, they will worship, and they will serve.

5. Get on board or get off the train.

We are on an incredible journey that we want ALL of Restoration to be a part of. Even though there will be a new vision, a new focus, a new location, and a new name, the only way this will be successful is if we walk by faith TOGETHER! If anyone has heard, “Get with the program or get out of the way,” please erase those thoughts from your minds. We realize that there is much to discover and much that is not fully defined.  We DO know God has spoken for us to go this direction. But we admit that a lot of what it will look like will take form once we’re on the path. Much like Abraham. He had to leave and travel in the direction God had instructed for his call and future to take shape. That will be the case for us as well. To expect everyone to make a definitive choice NOW as to whether they will go the distance with our new church expression would be wrong. Let’s all, “GET ON BOARD”, and see where this train takes us. If, along the way, someone needs to get off, they can do so only when being led of God’s Spirit to do so. But they should do so with peace and in a spirit of love. It’s going to be a wild and life-giving ride. And honestly, I think we’ll be having more people getting on than off.

To sum up, my prayer is that we can keep the lines of communication clear. If we can minimize people hearing what we’re NOT saying, it will keep us all on the same page. Hopefully, this article has been helpful to put more of where we’re headed in focus.

Ron Hogue, Sr. Pastor

 

January 7 – Communication Ideas

UPDATES

January 7th – Today the Transition Team met in the morning and we each shared about our families, how we came to Restoration, what God has done with us here and how we are thinking and feeling about the transition.  One of the things that will be core to the new church is building community.  A big part of building relationships with others is listening.  We listened to each other’s stories and where each of use are at in the process.  We want to hear your stories and listen to where you are in the process as well.  So, please let us know what is going on with you.

After we shared our stories, we brainstormed everything we could think of to answer this question: How can we communicate so that everyone knows what is going on? 

We came up with a bunch of different ways to help keep everyone in the loop.  Here is what the Transition Team is going to be doing to make sure that you, and everyone else in Restoration knows what is going on.

*Send out a weekly email blast with link to blog/updates (for those who don’t have internet send update by regular mail ( must sign up)
- We figured the best way to keep everyone informed on the changes that are going on is to have a central place for the most current updates.  This blog/website is our answer to that question.   So, the weekly email blasts will highlight in bullet point form the headlines with a link to this blog for more detailed information.

*Children ministry countdown poster
- Stephanie S., Casey H. and Pat B. are going to make sure the children stay in the loop.  They will be coordinating with Cheryl N. (Children’s Pastor) to create a countdown poster (or something similar) in the children’s ministry area to help let our kids know when we are moving to a new facility.

*Bulletin insert/info desk handout
- In the bulletin each week will be information on where to find more information as well as highlights of key events.  Ron Hogue is developing a 3-5 page paper that will lay out the overview on the changes: how we got here, where we are going, timing, what the new church is going to look like, etc.  This will be available at the information booth for anyone who wants.  We feel it will be helpful for visitors as well as those who don’t have computers.

*Stock books in the media center; clean out/reassess books already there/Guest speaker autograph books
- A major part of the vision for what the church is going to look like is being informed by the authors of the books you can find on the Recommended Resources page.  For those who don’t want to order the books from Amazon.com, Ken Harp is going to order books that you can pick up at the media center.  Also, on the days when the Authors come to Restoration, we will have their books available (signed copies!)

*Round table discussions Sunday mornings/public meeting to ask questions
- To help people engage in the discussion and provide a forum to ask questions we will be taking an upcoming Sunday morning to have roundtable discussion groups.

*Life group discussions/meet individually with small group with others
- Jim Grady will be coordinating with all of the Life Groups to make sure that they each understand what is happening with the church transition.  If you are part of a Life Group know that Jim will be contacting your leader to ensure that you all are in the loop.  He will also be available to meet with any group or individual to answer your questions.

*Short info/vision video on Sundays
- Matthew Buchholz will be posting short (2-3 minutes) videos on this blog on a weekly basis to keep everyone informed.  These will also be shown on Sunday morning during church.

There are really two different kinds of communication that we thought of. First is information.  The second is emotion.  With our efforts here we are intending to provide as much as possible for both areas.  Please take advantage of all the opportunities to keep informed and to process the change with us and get your questions answered.

J.T. Taylor

 

What About Our Youth?

Questions… we’ve got a lot of them.  In fact, we probably have more questions than we have answers.  I hold to the fact that it is good for us to have so many questions.  Why?  It keeps us in a place of dependency on the person who has the answers; God.  We can trust Him to reveal the answers in His timing… perfect timing.  By now, you probably know our local congregation of Jesus’ church is going through a pretty significant transition.  We’re asking more questions than we have in a long time and I think that’s a good thing.  It means we want to know what God’s up to.  We want to get in on the action.  As the one called to head up our youth ministry, my focus naturally falls to this question…

“What about our youth?”

I still don’t know all the answers to this question, but I do know that we are still going to have a youth ministry.  It will look different.  It will have a new focus on our core values of being Missional and Relational.  It will not cater to a consumer mentality, but will challenge students to live outside themselves and find their identity in serving the call of God on their lives.  With that in mind, here is a starting point for our student ministry and how it could unfold under the new vision.

We will continue to have times to gather and share the Word of God and have community.  It will most likely be in a home setting or perhaps at a local restaurant or something else like that.  These fellowship times will be two weeks out of the month.

On one “off week,” we will gather to take on a project to serve our community in lieu of a meeting.  This is a great opportunity to invite un-churched friends to join us as we serve side-by-side.  Serving together begins to build the relational ties as we fulfill the call of Mission together.  Serving our city is a primary mandate of the church and a way for us to build in-roads to the people who need us the most.

On the other “off week,” we will gather for a fellowship event that is geared toward our un-churched peers.  This could take many forms, from a big grill-out event at a local park, to a night of bowling, or other social events designed to encourage the formation of relationship.  These will be prime times where we encourage everyone to invite their friends who are not involved in church to come “hang out” with us and just enjoy one another’s company.

Please hear the heart behind all of this.  We want to engage our culture for that is the only way it can be changed.  Students can smell a program from a mile away and, I can tell you from experience, they want nothing to do with it.  However, they are passionate about finding ways to make their lives count for something and they desire relationship above many other pursuits; relationship with God and others.  We have more ways to connect socially than ever in history, yet there is a staggering lack of true relationship and discipleship occurring.  This has to change.

What are your thoughts?  Questions?

Matthew Buchholz

The Challenge of Change

One of the observations I have noticed about our relationship with Christ is that He refuses to allow us to stay in one place spiritually. He’s constantly wanting us to grow, move forward, and develop. That’s why we are told that we are being changed from glory to glory. God is on a mission to conform us into the image of His Son. That, of course, demands perpetual change. Our propensity is to want things predictable, understandable, and comfortable. Sorry! God has never operated that way and most likely never will.

• He takes a Noah and asks him to build an ark in a time when no one knew what an ark was. Read the story. Rather challenging for this righteous man.
• He takes an Abram and asks him to pick up his family (and livestock) and journey for miles to a place he’s never seen. “So where are we going, Lord?” God’s response? “That’s not important, Abram. What’s important is that you simply GO. I’ll fill in the details when it’s time.” 
• He takes a man named Peter who is an uneducated and uncouth fisherman and asks him to be the leader of this new spiritual nation called the church.

You get the picture. There is hardly a character in Scripture that isn’t asked to step outside the boundaries of the predictable, knowable, and comfortable to step into a God assignment. Why would God do this? Well, there are many reasons we could list, but probably top on God’s list is His desire to keep us living in faith. We don’t always do the faith thing well because it requires that we listen to what God is currently speaking. After all, faith comes by hearing the present word of God. Sometimes we prefer for others to hear for us instead of us doing the hard work of getting alone with Him, removing all the distractions, and discerning His voice personally. We want specifics, details, what it will cost us, and what it will look like. God simply wants us to step out of the boat without having to have detailed scientific explanations of why we we won’t sink. Remember this: FAITH BEGINS WHEN SIGHT ENDS! Pioneers love this kind of life. Settlers don’t. Our job is to not allow change and the fear of it or confusion in the midst of it to sabotage our willingness to say “Yes” to the will of God.

Change, though essential for life to continue, is a challenge for most of us, especially when we can’t see around the corner. Our church is stepping into a new phase of life. So often we get caught up in the details instead of focusing on whether God has spoken. Have you ever noticed that Abraham never demanded any details before he would be willing to take one step out of his homeland? When Jesus told those He had chosen to “Come, follow Me,” He never gave them the road map of what that would entail, what it would cost them or where it would take them. Their job was simple: follow! Sometimes it took them to places of discomfort. Sometimes it took them to places of the miraculous. They would have never seen bread multiplied, blind eyes opened, or chief tax collectors changed had they not followed.

Our church is on a journey orchestrated by God. Some people have the choice to stay where they are. We do not. Our ‘change’…the timing and dynamics, were, in some ways, forced upon us. To stay was not an option. So, our challenge is not to allow the journey to blow up God’s best for all of us. Here are some thoughts that hopefully will allow us to navigate through these months of transition:

1. Focus on what God is saying, not on what you are feeling. 

We all have opinions of what we like and don’t like. We can end up feeling insecure, frustrated, confused, and even mad. As followers, we can get into a lot of trouble if our rudder is what we’re feeling in any given moment. OUR JOB IS TO OBEY THE LAST THING GOD HAS SPOKEN!

2. Give grace for the unknown.

Where will we meet? When will we meet? Will we still have this ministry or that ministry? What will the children and student ministry look like? How will staff dynamics change? The list of questions is endless. To give answers prematurely would be unfair and exhibit a lack of integrity. So, when you hear the response, “We’re not sure”, or “We don’t know”, give grace for that. We are not sitting on our hands. We are pursuing the specifics fast and furiously. But, we simply don’t have all the answers as of yet.

3. Communicate, don’t speculate.  

When a person doesn’t know the specifics of something, they, by default, fill in the gaps. More times than not, their conclusions are wrong. To put it in principle form:

Speculation without communication results in imagination.

It’s amazing how crazy people can get with their imaginations. I’ve heard people say…

…We’re shutting down the church.

…We’ll never meet together again.

…There won’t be any ministry to children or youth.

…We don’t want to meet on Sundays.

Obviously, all of these things are not true. When in doubt, ASK! We should never fill in blanks we know nothing about. It only adds to the confusion. Our transition team will give you plenty of information in more than one form so you will know everything we know. So, don’t assume. Don’t presume. Don’t say, “I’ve heard”, or “I think.”. Wrong perceptions can destroy a person’s willingness to make a journey that God wanted them to make. Believe me, our desire to communicate, communicate, communicate!

4. Pray, bless, and love.

Pray that we, as Christ’s church, will not miss His best in this transition and new beginning. Bless each other no matter what. Never let love be lost in the journey.

Regardless of where we end up and what it all looks like, if prayer, blessing, and love stay paramount, we win! Change does not have to be our nemesis. It can be God’s ordained process to help us fulfill the fulness of His destiny. So, hang in there saints! Ours is a journey that few have taken and that many refuse to take. Let’s plow this ground together so that those looking for ‘the real deal’ will find it in us!

Pastor Ron

What Are Your Questions About The Transition?

This website is intended to be a primary way for people to get information about the transition and all the questions that surround such a big move.  We would appreciate your questions, thoughts and input as we move through this time and will do our best to answer you as soon as information is known.  Please post your questions here.

Here are some questions we don’t have answers to yet…but we are working on. We will post as soon as we have some answers.

Q. What is going to happen with the children’s and the youth ministries?

Q. Will we meet on Sunday mornings or Saturday night for our worship services?

Q. Where are we moving to once we leave the current church building?

Q. What is going to happen at our final service (April 29th) in our current building?

Church Transition Timeline

Restoration church is going through some changes.  The building we currently meet in has been sold to the H-E-B ISD and we will be looking to move to a new facility for worship and to a new vision for how we are going to build God’s kingdom.  On December 18th a transition team was put together in order to help the church gather input from everyone involved, figure out how to best move through this time of change and communicate the ideas and decisions.

We would love to hear your input on any aspect of the church transition and we covet your prayers as we undertake this task.  Please contact anyone on the transition team with your input including myself (JT Taylor – jttaylor@teambuildingusa.com).

We will be updating this timeline as more information becomes available.  Here is what we know so far:

November

22nd – Contract to sale land and facility signed with Hurst-Euless-Bedford Indepent School District. This began a 90 day due diligence period for the School District.

December

18th – Transition team formed. Conducts its first meeting. Communication blog/website is created to begin the communication process with the body.  The Tangible Kingdom and The Barefoot Church books are assigned reading for the transition team members to help understand the direction Restoration is moving towards.

January

7th – Transition team meeting.  Topic: What are all the ways we can communicate (listen to feedback, share vision and communicate decisions) so that everyone in the body knows what is going on.

8th – Transition team introduced to body during Sunday morning worship service.

29th – Hugh Halter to speak at Sunday morning worship service.  Hugh is author of The Tangible Kingdom and a leader in the missional community church movement.

February

19th – Reggie McNeal to speak at Sunday morning worship service.  Reggie is author of Missional Communities and a leadership coach and speaker for pastors and churches worldwide.

22nd – (approximately) Escrow closes – Property officially sold.  This begins 120 days to vacate agreement between the H-E-B ISD and Restoration Church.

March

18th – Brandon Hatmaker to speak at Sunday morning worship service.  Brandon is author of The Barefoot Church and pastor of a church in Austin, Texas that is effectively impacting their community through serving the “least of these.”

April
29th – Final celebration service at current facility.  This will mark the finish line for Restoration church and be a time to celebrate, honor and give thanks to the many wonderful works of God that have taken place throughout the history of this church.

Note: This also marks a new beginning for the church…a replant if you will.  From this point forward the church will be known by a new name (as of yet not selected) and begin operating under a new vision.  This will be a gracious, honoring exit point for those who do not feel called to replant the church.

J.T. Taylor

 

Does Church Need To Change?

Well…it doesn’t.  If you are satisfied with the results.  What are the results of how we are doing church in our culture?  Here are the results:

* About 65% of the Builder Generation are in a church each week.

* About 35% of the Boomers are in church each week.

* About 15% of Gen X’ers are in church each week.

* About 4% of Gen Y’s/Millenials (the oldest of these turned 30 in 2010) are in church each week.

From Launching Missional Communities a Field Guide by Mike Breen. Page 12.

Many of us don’t feel the need for the church to change because it suits us just fine.  We enjoy the worship, we appreciate an inspiring message by the preacher and we are happy to have our children being told Bible stories in Sunday School.  I admit, I appreciate all these things just as much as the next family.  But recently, I’ve been wondering if there is more.  Actually, if you were to press me I would hesitantly admit that I’m a little bored with church.  I like the people, I like the worship, I like the preaching, I like teaching Sunday School…I really do like it all…I’m just wondering if that’s all there is.  Could I be missing something?  Does God want more from me?  More for me?

I’ve been going through a paradigm shift recently.  Basically that just means my mind has been expanding. I’m thinking thoughts I haven’t thought since I was a student leader for Campus Crusade for Christ at a secular university.  I’m encountering ideas on how to change the world as a follower of Jesus Christ similar to the fantastic wide-eyed potential-to-actually-make-a-difference like I had in seminary.

The idea of church is getting fun again.  Not the same-old, same-old kind of church.  But the “let’s get a group of us together and go find some wrong that needs to be set right” kind of fun.  I’m seeing how other churches are doing it and I’m intrigued.  Going to church is not enough for me.  Sitting in the comfortable chair and giving my money to keep the lights on in the church building just doesn’t cut it for my excitement level.  Listening to another well spoken message about stuff I already know just doesn’t grab me and motivate me to lay down my life for Christ.  Its all good.  No doubt about that.  But it is really all there is?

Check out what one church is doing.  There is a church in England, where church attendance is 4% nationwide, that is doing church differently…and they have been for the last 10 or so years.  They have focused on building something called “missional communities”.  These are a group of people about the size of an extended family (larger than a small group, but smaller then a typical sized church) that focus on a particular need and mobilize to serve.  There are two churches that began these MCs: St. Thomas Philadelphia in Sheffield (just outside of London) and St. Thomas Crookes.  Together, along with their expanding network, they have planted 725 churches in the last 3 years!  This is unheard of in secularized Western Europe.

As you can imagine, Christians who learn about what this community of believers is doing church are intrigued.  Every year the church offers something they call a pilgrimage, which is a week long trip that exposes outside visitors to what they are doing and how they are doing it.  Here is a quote from a Pastor (Doug Paul from Eikon Community Church) about his eye-opening journey.

“The highlight of the trip was probably the missional tour we took on the Thursday of that week.  About forty of us hopped on a charter bus and spent three hours driving around the city of Sheffield.  Every minute or two, they’d point to where a Missional Community was meeting and what they were doing:

“This MC is reaching into the Slovakian gypsy population.  Dozens of people have come to know Jesus.” A minute or two later…

“This MC started reaching out to Somalian refugees, and they have multiplied into three MCs.” A minute or two later…

“This is where a lot of the university students go clubbing, so this MC meets at 3 am on Saturday mornings.  Hundreds of people have come to know Jesus.”

“This MC focuses on this wealthier neighborhood to your left.”

“This MC has hooked up with one of the most dangerous gangs in Sheffield.  The leader went to prison for murder, and we worked with him and he became a Christian, and then his family became Christians, and slowly the people in the gang are becoming Christians.”

“This MC meets in the state park every Saturday morning and reaches out to people who love the park and the outdoors.”

“This MC reaches out to parents with babies.”

“This MC has seen a lot of Iranian Muslims come to know Jesus.”

“This MC reaches out to teenagers and their parents.”

On and on and on. We probably looked at dozens and dozens of MCs in that three-hour period.  It was nothing short of extraordinary.  The MCs spanned the entire city and were about the most diverse group of people you have ever seen…So many of these Missional Communities are doing things most have never seen in our lifetime or may only have read about in the Acts of the Apostles.”

From Launching Missional Communities a Field Guide by Mike Breen and Alex Absalom, pages 13-14.

I don’t know about you, but I could get excited about doing church differently if it means having the kind of impact these MCs are having.

What about you?  Do you think church needs to change?

J.T. Taylor

What Questions Should We Be Asking?

Whenever change is thrust upon us, it creates questions.  What is happening? Where will we go? Who is staying? Who is leaving? Will the church have this or that ministry?  Will the church meet the needs of me and my family? Can I do this?  These are legitimate and important questions.  But I would like to suggest, they aren’t really the best questions to ask.

Mike Breen, a leader in the missional church movement in Western Europe kicks off his book Building a Discipling Culture with a discussion on what questions should we be asking.  Here is an excerpt from the beginning of his book.  Let me know what you think.

“We live in a country where the Christian faith is usually discussed, experienced and observed through the things we don’t agree about.  And as you probably know, these places where we diverge often lead us to, shall we say, “heated” arguments.

Protestant. Conservative. Mainline. Evangelical. Post-modern. Emergent. Neo-Reformed. Neo-orthodox. Fundamentalists. Ancient Future. Neo-monastic. Seeker Sensitive. Seeker Aware. Bible-believing. Charismatic. Dispensationalist. We could go on and on.

There are truly endless things that divide us: theologically, philosophically, practically. Some of those divisions are very real and quite important.

For all the things that divide us, we cannot deny that we are sensing and watching some pretty seismic shifts happening in the world in which we live.  And for all that separates us, we are sharing that common experience.

Recently, we commissioned a study to get to the heart of this.  Our goal wasn’t to figure out what divided us.  We wanted to figure out what we all are experiencing together as orthodox Christian leaders.  What are the questions that unite us?

More specifically, apart from denomination, biblical hermeneutic, theological framework or practical application, what are the things that are keeping all orthodox Christian leaders awake at night?

We are not trying to to find the Creedal statements that everyone agrees on.  We are digging for something visceral, something deeply emotional.  What were the questions that were so true, so deeply disturbing, so concerning, that they sliced through all the things that would normally divide us?

What were the questions that keep all of us up at night?

What we found probably isn’t that surprising, but the singular voice with which these questions were asked was nothing short of stunning.  These were the questions:

* What does the church of the future look like?

* How do we reach people who don’t know Jesus?

As we dug around, continued to ask questions, listened and pieced together what people were saying, another question surfaced.

It was a question that people danced through, tip-toed around, but never once articulated explicitly.  Yet so many of their responses indicated this was a question that they desperately needed an answer to.  It was the question that no one was actually asking or had the courage to ask out loud.  It is the question people don’t want to admit not having the answer to.

Yet it is the question that everything else hinges on.

The answer leads to the future of the church.  The answer teaches us how to reach people who don’t know Jesus.  The answer is everything.

And yet, either we haven’t realized we should be asking it or we can’t seem to push ourselves to ask the question.  It’s as if it’s embarrassing to even ask.  Isn’t this something we should have figured out by now?  You could argue we are the most educated people who have ever lived.  Why are we wrestling with this question, and why don’t we have good answers for it?

This is the question.

How do we make disciples?

THERE IS NO “PLAN B”

The problem is that most of us have been educated and trained to build, serve and lead the organization of the church.  Most of us have actually never been trained to make disciples.  Seminary degrees, church classes and training seminars teach us to grow our volunteer base, form system and organizational structures or preach sermons on Sunday mornings and assimilate newcomers from the Sunday service.  As we look around as Christendom is crumbling and the landscape of the church is forever changed, a stark revelation emerges: Most of us have been trained and educated for a world that no longer exists.

However, the call to make disciples still remains.  It never wavers and never changes.  Make disciples.

Here’s the things that can be difficult to wrap our minds around: If you make disciples you always get the church. But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples.

Most of us have become quite good at the church thing.  And yet, disciples are the only thing that Jesus cares about, and it’s the only number that Jesus is counting.  Not our attendance or budget or buildings.  He wants to know if we are “making disciples.” Many of us serve in or lead churches where we have hundreds or even thousands of people showing up on Sunday.  But we have to honestly answer this question: Do their lives look like the lives of the people we see in Scripture?  Are we just good at getting people together once a week and maybe into a small group, or are we actually good at producing the types of people we read about in the New Testament? Have we shifted our criteria for a good disciple as someone who shows up to our stuff, gives money and occasionally feeds poor people?

Effective discipleship builds the church, not the other way around.  We need to understand the church as the effect of discipleship and not the cause. If you set out to build the church, there is no guarantee you will make disciples.  It is far more likely that you will create consumers who depend on the spiritual services that religious professionals provide.”

What questions are you asking?