Chicago Emerging Baptists

2008-05-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

Redeemer Church Planter Manual

A book review by Steven Darst, BA

This manual was written for the purpose of training church planters for Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. Redeemer Presbyterian Church vision is to start a movement of church planting that will transform New York City. The manual is split into 5 sections: Owning the Church Planting Vision, Learning and Planning, Launching the Church, Renewal Dynamics, and Changing the Fabric of the City.

The first section, Owning the Church Planting Vision, speaks of why church planting is a must. The main point from this section is to share the vision of Redeemer with the recruited church planters. Using scriptures (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 16:9,12; Titus 1:5; Romans 15:19,23) the author makes the point that the New Testament calls believers to start churches. Statistics are then used to show how starting new churches are far more effective than churches over 10 years of age. From my personal experience, this point is essential in recruiting church planters. One must show the desperate need for churches and how effective they are so that this vision can be realized by the Church in general. The next focus in this section is on what kind of churches to plant. The vision for a new church includes teaching the people the scriptures, creating a strong fellowship, leading the fellowship into worship, and teaching the people how to be a witness. One aspect of their vision that can be debated is their view of having an elder led body. I understand that the Redeemer church is a Presbyterian church and they wish to create more Presbyterian churches. However, this just seems to be their weakest point. One good point that is stated is, ‘though creation started in a beautiful garden, it will end in a city.’ Redeemer then makes the point that Paul started churches in major cities. These cities were the culture centers of the known world. The author makes the point that if they (Redeemer) can reach the cities for Christ, they will then be able to reach the world. The book then goes into detail about the characteristics Redeemer desires to see in a church planter. Redeemer uses a worksheet to take spiritual inventory. They ask questions like, “on a scale from one to ten, how often do you have daily prayer and Bible study?,” and other questions of this sort. Redeemer also has a worksheet to find out what type of neighborhood the potential church planter might be interested in.

The second section, Learning and Planning, is split into three chapters: Neighborhood research, Developing a Philosophy of Ministry, and Writing an Action Plan. The first chapter of this section explains the necessity for demographic and ethnographic research. The demographic research is needed to understand how many and what people groups are moving into the neighborhood. Most church planters use the U.S. Census Bureau to acquire this information. The ethnographic research is a seldom used resource, according to Redeemer. Ethnographic research is used to understand the viewpoints and goals of the people groups in your neighborhood. The second chapter of this section, Developing a Philosophy of Ministry, teaches church planters how to go about reaching their community for Christ. Once the neighborhood has been studied through demographic research and ethnographic research, the next task is to ask, “What is the specific calling of our church?” When the church has discovered their specific calling, they are to then as a church come up with an Action Plan. Coming up with an action plan is not a contract that must be strictly followed. This plan, however, is more of a goal the church wishes to accomplish. After one step of the action plan has been accomplished the next step is to then re-plan. This process continues over and over; planning and re-planning until the goal is met.

The third section, Launching the Church, is used to help a church planter discover and put into action his plan for evangelism, discipleship making, and training leaders. The section is then split up into these three parts. The author argues that best way to evangelize is to use “networking.” This is a philosophy of evangelism based on friendships. These friendships will be cultivated and nurtured in the small groups. However, first the small groups must get started. To create a small group the church planter must first gather together a core group of people seeking to learn about Christ. This core group will be the start of the church. Also a church planter could start a Launch Team. The Launch Team is a group believers who are evangelistically trained by the church planter to start other small groups. The Redeemer Manuel also urges the church planter to have the worship and preaching be focused on evangelism. The author believes that if a preacher preaches as if lost people where there then they soon will be.

The second chapter focuses on discipleship. The author says that the best way to create disciples is to teach them two ministries: caring ministry and leadership development. The disciple should be taught through activities and not necessarily in a classroom setting. The next chapter of this section speaks of training and sending out servant leaders. The church planter must look for members who have a strong commitment to their own spiritual growth and who have a very similar vision for ministry. Redeemer takes these servant leaders through three seven week courses. These courses teach the servant leader the doctrines of the church, how to walk with God, and lastly how to do ministry and service.

The fourth section teaches about spiritual renewal. The author explains that revival occurs when Christians are able to balance two issues: the issue of law and love as well as the issue of theology and spirituality. One must acknowledge that one is hopelessly lost as a sinner deserving death, while at the same time realizing that God is love and that he freely gives salvation. Also one must have head knowledge about God (theology), while at the same time having relational experience with the Triune God (spirituality).

Two chapters are then dedicated to explaining how these two issues should be lived out in the lives of believers individually as well as corporately. The first chapter speaks about the spiritual renewal that occurs individually. This tells the reader that once one has come to accept the love/law issue the next step is repentance. The individual understands that they have done evil. They sorrowfully take responsibility for their actions. They humbly admit that they were at fault and God could justly condemn them. The person hates the evil they have committed and now turns away from sin so as to never return. Once repentance has occurred, one now learns to live by faith. The individual come to understand who they are in Christ. Believers receive joy, power and boldness because they understand that Christ has redeemed them though they were undeserving. The next chapter speaks of corporate renewal. For revival to occur in a congregation, the people must understand correct theology and also spirituality. This is opposed to over intellectualism and emotionalism. The congregation must have these two without leaning more to one side. There must be a healthy medium. The congregation must understand this medium and be able to proclaim it as well.

The final section of the manual speaks about how the Church changes the city from the inside. In every city there is the City of Man and the City of God. The City of Man is what is of the world; while the City of God is what God is doing in the city to renew His creation. The City is to grow when the gospel is proclaimed. The city grows spiritually, socially, and culturally. The goal here is not necessarily to create more churches, but to transform the city. This is the new humanity, or the new creation taking place. This is the City of God.

With the proclamation of the gospel the city changes spiritually. The Redeemer Manual relates this aspect to the story of Ezra. Ezra transformed the mindset of the people of God, so that they would seek Yahweh and continue to change. The task of the church planter is to bring this movement of spiritual change to the city. The church planter has several ways of going about this. Paul taught in the synagogue, spoke in the lecture house of Tyrannus, spoke in the market place, and spoke on Mars Hill.

The city changes socially by proclaiming the gospel. Nehemiah collected the people of God and gave them the task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. He did not see the people as helpless victims needing him, but as a people with the potentiality of changing their situation. Nehemiah was there to empower all the people, not just those who were the most spiritually mature. The church planter then is to bring change to the entire city, not just those who come to the church. Nehemiah also asked for one out of every ten men living around Jerusalem to come and help build the walls. Redeemer recommends believers moving into locations that are in need of Christ. The people are then to collectively change the city.

The gospel also brings about a cultural change. This point is made clear by using the book of Esther. Esther was used by God to change an unjust law. She was places in the palace of a polygamous pagan to do God’s will. Ray Bakke is quoted as he explains how Christians are to change the injustice in our cities by changing the laws. He says that we need support in courtrooms and legislatures to change the unjust laws. Bakke also argues that church planters need to teach people how to be transformation bringing, Kingdom proclaiming, believers in their work settings. He argues that this is how the gospel changes culture.

The Redeemer Manuel is a well thought out piece. It is a thorough explanation of Redeemer Presbyterian’s vision for church plants. The New Work team could use this manual as an example for its own New Work Manual.

2008-04-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

The following video is one we created to help cast the NextGen Network's vision at a recent AMC Meeting. If you would like a copy of the video for your own, please contact Jon Pennington.

-Tony

2007-12-01T16:43:00.000-08:00

ABC Interview with Al Mohler Re: Emerging Church

For whatever it's worth: here. It's entitled "Right with God, Not Right-Wing".

I believe Mohler's reaction is right (not just because he's the venerable, formidable Mohler), but because the pastor featured in the video lamentably reveals how much more serious he is about culture rather than a full-orbed understanding of the character of God and his revealled Word. In the words of Brokaw, "not as doctrinnaire."

Tho'ts gents?

2007-11-24T19:10:00.001-08:00

Check out what Tony made for the New Work Team,
Praise God for a great team member!

2007-11-24T15:49:00.001-08:00

Ok guys, Tony reformulated some things, what do you think?

2007-11-23T12:10:00.000-08:00

Jars of Clay New Christmas Album

Cool little video of one of their songs.

2007-11-19T09:52:00.000-08:00

Greetings guys, I am having Tony work on some layouts to promote our network... these could be used in brochures, blog templates, etc. What do you guys think?

2007-11-17T08:35:00.001-08:00

What to Do with Sunday Sermons on Monday, Part 3

(or: Sunday to Monday 'til He Returns- Disciplines for Not "Wasting" Lord's Day Preaching)

If you are just joining this blog, I have been talking about how to get Sunday's sermon into weekly practice. This part 3 is the salient part of the series that I intended to write about in one shot. As I outlined the post, it seemed necessary to cover some preliminary points that connect corporate worship (Sunday) with "all of life" worship (24/7). See Part 1 & Part 2 for those connections.

We have seen thus far that to take our corporate worship experience into all of life, [part] 1) We must get from Saturday to Sunday, and [part] 2)we must get the most we can out of the Sunday sermon itself. Finally, (borrowing the words of the Divinely inspired sage), we must "get understanding."
Proverbs 4:7 states, "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding (NIV)". The interplay between Old Testament wisdom and understanding are very close, and it is not my purpose to expound the differences here. For our purposes, this verse really hits the "bull's eye" of connecting truth and practice, and it captures for us what ought to be happening when we hear the truth. If wisdom is the skill to apply truth, then getting wisdom and understanding is the end of listening to God's word preached.

A few suggestions...
First, make it a point to review the sermon notes for your Word time on Monday. Especially if you struggle for consistency in the Word or you do not have a reading "plan" per se, this is a great way to start off your work or academic week. I try to build this into my weekly reading plan. It really doesn't take a long time to go through the notes AND the text (!). Think hard about what this teaches you about God, about sin and/or about yourself. There is something about the text that you can take away whether as a reminder or a charge to change your thinking, speaking or conduct.

Second, in conjunction with the first point, note your thoughts in a journal or diary. This is a good form of meditation. Sometimes, we read mindlessly, but when we write, we have to think about words and logic. I think it is healthy to keep a journal going as a chronicle of God's dealings in your life. For some, this might mean you should blog about it. I generally don't post my devotional meditations for public display (nothing against those who do). For those who are "tight" with the technology, excercise care that when you blog your devotional thoughts; maybe wait until after prayer or later on in the day to blog. We all know how easy it is for technology to crowd out our attention to the basic Christian disciplines.

Third, pray through the text/your notes for yourself, your family, the elders of your church and friends. Here is another way to reinforce the truth of the text in your mind and heart. In a sense, it is healthy to pray the words of God back to God. A few weeks ago I was praying w/ a brother in the church. I noticed in quick retrospect that I had basically prayed the theme and outline of last Sunday's sermon (and this was a couple days after the Sunday sermon!). In so far as that the theme and outline were biblical, then my prayer was pleasing to Christ.

Fourth, as alluded to in a previous post, apply the text corporately. How does the text apply to our "life together"? What I do not mean here is finding out to obey in the same way because obedience looks different from person to person. Simply drawn out, call or email a friend(s) about the sermon. Talk about what it means for them this week. You could start an online group or blog about the sermon. Think rigorously of how the text applies to you first. We all need each other in the body of Christ. After I have done such scrutiny, I still need the input of others to cover my "blindspots." Even more ideally would be to weekly follow the sermon in the small group (if your church has them). This corporate aspect of biblical application is alone worthy of a book , imho.

Fifth, sing about the gospel truth you have heard preached! Find a song to reinforce the text. In churches that deliberately structure the sung part of worship around the preaching, reviewing the songs sung in the worship service can assist in reinforcing the Word in your heart. This may mean (as it has for me recently) learning a lot of new songs, choruses and hymns. I had the privilege of visiting two of the churches that famous John Newton pastored. It was said of Newton that in one of his parishes, he would write a hymn every week to complement the sermon he had just preached as a means of assisting those in his congregation to remember the sermon. If no song exists that you know of, compose one! I highly recommend Sovereign Grace Ministries and the ministry of Indelible Grace for fresh renditions of old hymns and/or new compositions. The songs pumped out by these ministries have aided in my sanctification greatly.

Last, memorize the text. This could be hard to do but not impossible. I recommend a memorization system taught by Rev/Dr. Andrew Davis of First Baptist Church, Durham, NC.

Keep in mind that by virtue of our finite nature, we are forgetful. Furthermore, we are sinners whose wills still don't mind "forgetting" the Word. Putting into practice some of these suggestions does not necessarily guarantee practice perfected. The truth is that we all need to hear the same texts pounded into our heads and hearts throughout our Christian journey. You know how that eureka experience goes: "I have read this passage a hundred times in my life and I never saw it that way before. The lights finally came on!" The truth is that sometimes not all sermons you hear will take root the first time. Most likely, you will hear other sermons on the same text by other justified sinners that will elucidate more clearly what your duty to God is. The point of all of this is that until Christ returns for us, we are embroiled in a battle to remember his Word and do it. We will forget the words of God. We will often forget sermons and lose sermon notes, but we must persevere in the faith. We must embrace more seriously our responsibility to not be a "forgetful hearer." Truthfully, we must fight to not waste what God in his mercy and grace has given us--a more sure word of prophecy.

2007-11-14T14:39:00.001-08:00

2007-11-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

FRESH START CHRISTMAS PARTY

It is that time of the year again! Time for a party to celebrate the new thing God began to do 2000 years ago. Who better to celebrate this wonderful truth than those involved in speaking this Kingdom "fresh start" to the great city of Chicago? This is an invitation to anyone who is on or leading a church starting team for the CMBA, or anyone who is involved in any way in ministering to those in the Next Generation (birth - 35) to join us for a very special an meaningful celebration of the birth of Jesus. This will be a time of gathering together in prayer, fellowship, games, and breaking bread. Please RSVP by December 1st (you can RSVP by adding a comment to this post or emailing jon@chicagolandcc.org). Hope to see you all there!

2007-11-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

What To Do With Sunday Sermons on Mondays

Part Two

Last weekend, I made the point that in order to get the sermon in your heart from Sunday to Monday most effectively (being a doer of the Word) requires anticipation and preparation on Saturday evening &/or Sunday morning before you leave home. I even started to recommend how our minds should be bent during the actual worship service. I'd like to draw that out a bit more in this post.

Second, Get the most you can out of the Sunday message.

As a preface, for many of us, one Sunday worship service is the only corporate worship (preaching being the climax of that worship) we "get" all week. My use of the word get betrays even in me that fallen tendency to juxtapose or match up Sunday worship with my "ideals." So it is important how we listen to the oracles of God being expounded.

Have you ever thought about how you listen to people? How do you listen to other public speakers or in the classroom? When God's infallible, inerrant, perfectly sufficient Word is unpacked for you every week, how responsible do you "feel" for what you hear? Are these expositions the words of God for you today, tomorrow and every other day? Is Sunday worship just an inspiration time or a recharge (it should be all those things)? What is your attitude toward the preacher and his office?

With these questions in mind, I challenge all of us on how we go about retaining the words of life? Keep in mind that God's covenant people, Israel and those in the first few centuries A.D did not tote their scrolls to the temple or congregation, but they were just as responsible to look into the 'perfect law of liberty' and take stock of their lives. I'm not sure if they took notes or not and brought them home to meditate on and study. They did have public reading (1 Tim 4:13). So, for us, in the post-printing press, info-tech age what can we do to retain and apply (hide?) God's Word?

First, take notes of the sermon. Some people like to take notes in a notebook; some use the paper or space in the bulletin provided by the church; others like to write in their Bibles. There is no hard and fast rule as to where you should note so long as you can find it on Monday. My guiding principle is to try to catch the key statement or theme of the preacher's message. I also try to follow and note his outline. I love words; so, if he uses a word I don't know or use often, I just jot it down. Trying to write as much verbatim as possible can be exasperating and actually reverse the point of the spoken word. Some people take copious notes while others just sit and do nothing at all. I opine that we should all have a pen on hand at least to underline something in the biblical text or jot a phrase in the margin of our Bible. While taking notes, remind yourself why you're doing this: "I want to be a doer of this Word."

Second, if you have the opportunity and money, buy the sermon on CD or download it onto your media player. There is nothing like reinforcing the word of God preached on Sunday throughout the week. These technological media are advantageous to us because we often do not catch everything the first time it is said.

Finally, purposefully plan to discuss the exposition over Sunday lunch. This is one way to really continue the "effect" that the Sabbath day is to have for believers. This can be as easy as: "What did you think of the sermon?" Or (more specifically): "How do you plan on applying today's sermon to your life tomorrow and the rest of the week?" This is where our discussion should go. It can be easy with some people to get lost in the details of theological controversy--which is ok-- but it ought not to end there. Praxis is the point of theology. If you lunch with an unchurched person, the message is a wonderful springboard into presenting their need for the gospel. I would like to hear further tho'ts from those of you who have regularly engaged the unitiated after a worship service.

I will finish this topic in two more posts: suggested disciplines for not "wasting" Lord's Day preaching after Sunday and reminders for those of us who preach.

2007-10-31T13:48:00.000-07:00

John Piper on Fundamentalism

Pastor John Piper recently gave a little "plug" for fundamentalist Christianity as having some bona fide distinctives. See his recent post here.

I couldn't help but give a little response to this gracious post:

"BJU & DBTS grad here living and ministering w/ gospel-centered "non"-fundamentalists in downtown Chicago...

Dr. Piper: You have no idea how far words like these go, my brother. Though I am somewhat a product of the (midwest US part) FBF, I by God's providence, my theological journey, etc., have become disassociated with them. I espouse principles of separatism (or preferred word) of antithesis consonant with Scripture, I thank God for my heritage and [I] love my fundamentalist brothers and sisters. Your kind, irenic spirit and words let the unity of gospel blaze to the glory of King Jesus. I love you, my brother and teacher! Furthermore, they not only lend credence to the fundamentalist "movement" but also bolster the church of Jesus Christ at large and the intense love that should exist among Jesus' disciples (John 13:34-35). Keep preaching and loving Jesus, Will"

2007-10-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

Another great deal!!

We're on a roll here! Desiring God Ministries is offering John Piper's new book The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright for $5!! Over the last several months, I've seen lots of blurbs (positive) on this book. If you're into theological issues in the church, this book is a must have. However, in a recent 9Marks interview British scholars, Simon Gathercole and Peter Williams, when pressed by Mark Dever admitted that if you are a pastor unaware (or dispassionate) of the New Perspective on Paul controversy, there really is no need to start studying it (unless, of course, it starts becoming an issue in your church). White Horse Inn had a broadcast about a few weeks ago on Current Controversies over Justification. Do you guys have any thoughts on the NPP?

2007-10-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

What To Do With Sunday Sermons on Mondays

Part One

James 1:25 says, "But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out--he will be blessed in what he does" (NET Bible). Have you ever forgotten a text that you read in your private devotional time? Has it ever happened that you forgot about that superb sermon your pastor preached last Sunday? Worse yet, have you not forgotten or forgiven a minister for a bad sermon? Gospel ministers can sometimes be the objects of intense criticism (and sometimes, rightly so!). The comforting thing about even the worst sermons is that the Word is alive; the text still stands true and is efficacious. The point is that we often forget what we are supposed to remember and focus cerebral energy on what should be forgiven. What are we to do about this seeming malady of Christian forgetfulness? Where does the gospel meet us in our need to remember the Word? Over the next couple of weekends, I'd like to attempt to answer some of these concerns by suggesting ways to take Sunday's sermons home with us.

First things first: Get from Saturday to Sunday.
Often getting the sermon in your head for Monday demands focus Saturday night and/or Sunday morning (assuming your service is on Sunday am). What I mean by focus is an attitude of anticipation and preparation. The attitude as the Puritans put it is that the Lord's Day is "the soul's market day." By referencing this quote does not mean I endorse all the strong exhortations and impositions that they placed on their parishioners. Sunday is the day Jesus has set aside for us to concentrate on him in a community (Mark 2:27-28). Oddly enough, for me, I look forward to the weekends not so much as a change from my work but what I get to do on that first day of the week. Throughout my short marriage and time of rearing children, as head of my home, I have tried to create an atmosphere (imperfectly and inconsistently at times) of anticipation for Sunday.

The cousin of anticipation is preparation. The question I'm trying to answer as I prepare for Sunday is: "What do I need to do for this most important day of the week?" Or: "What frame of my mind do I need to be in to worship my Lord, and what does it take to unite my heart with my brothers and sisters to fear God's name? Immediately, I would like to dispel any notion that exists regarding a legallist (misspelling and pun intended). What I mean by legallist is that in order to be best prepared to worship the Lord on his day, I must comply with a laundry list of preparational activities. I am not the Holy Spirit, and that's a great thing! I would hate to bind anyone's conscience. God mercifully grants edifying worship "experiences" at times even to those who may not be deliberately using means like I'm about to suggest. However, I would say that important events or duties--just like any other area of life-- require approriate and careful preparation.

Careful preparation on Saturday eve may include but not be limited to cutting of the TV after a certain hour or staying up late reading a novel; studying into the wee hours of the morning; leaving a social function; refraining from a food or drink that you know will keep you awake; turning off your electronic devices. Positively, you can go to bed early, prepare your clothes (or the kids', if that is the state of life you are in) or the Sunday lunch on Saturday night, play some Christian hymns or songs, read Scripture or some other book that will warm your heart. Pray with your family or roommates, or call someone in your church to pray with them. If your pastor is preaching through a series, review last week's text to refresh.

Husbands, it is your responsibility to ensure that your wife (and children) are not flustered as you prepare for worship. Sundays can be very hectic on families (esp. the mothers of small children). On the way to church, take of few moments of silent prayer to intercede for the service and other men preaching around the country or globe and their churches. Get in your seat a few minutes before the worship service commences to pray, read or pray through a brief text of Scriptures; socialize before these moments and after the service. During the song portion, engage both your heart and mind by trying to think of the Scriptures that support the various phrases that make up the songs you're singing. I have found this to be quite a refreshing challenge as it both focuses me and shows my lack of Biblical knowledge.

Next weekend, I hope to cover a little bit about listening to the sermon and keeping the sermon alive in your mind on Monday.

2007-10-27T10:55:00.000-07:00

Children's Bible Story Books

Real quick: Westminster Bookstore is having a good sale on The Jesus Storybook Bible (by Sally Lloyd-Jones). I have been told that this is a very Christocentric, gospel-focused kid's book. Dan Cruver of Eucatastrophe brought it to my attention. You could also to an interview he did with the author from that page. If it is anything like The Big Picture Story Bible (David Helm, our pastor), it promises to be a good buy. My son, Haddon, has really enjoyed the Big Picture one (we're almost through our third time!), and we look forward to this new buy.

2007-10-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

Books & Clutter

[Yes, this post title is a play on CT's Books & Culture.]

A homiletics professor of mine in grad school once told us: "There is a difference between a book collector and a library builder." I guess the difference is: library building is a means to an end; whereas, book collecting is an end to itself (though I'm sure those of the latter would dispute this statement).

As my library grows and as I make my family move all over the place, I have found it necessary to electronically keep track of my books or else these precious gems become just clutter for my wife. Recently, I discovered Library Thing, thanks to Christian blogger, Tim Challies, who uses and endorses it. Another resource for personal library organization is Collectorz. The most attractive difference between these seemingly good databases is price: LibraryThing is free (up to 200 books) and Book Collectorz is not. I decided for LibraryThing since after the 200 limit is reached, it only costs $10 a year (or $25 for a lifetime) and it is online. I believe Collectorz has some live or remote access options. I just don't want another program on my computer (does that disqualify me from being a bibliophile?). Also, LibraryThing has a special feature to network with others who share similar interests or titles (a take-it-or-leave-it imho). They also have features that allow you to tag your books certains ways, search and categorize according to the Dewey decimal system or in the Library of Congress. The crown jewel of programs like these is an ISBN scanner. Depending on what you prefer, you can go w/ the $15 USB plug-in option that LibraryThing offers or you can do the wireless $140 option that Collectorz offers. I like the idea of standing in front of my bookshelf and whipping out the books only long enough for a quick scan and then uploading them via a cable, but wanting to save the pennies, I can live with bringing stacks of books down closer to my "short-leashed" scanner. Either way, the effect is the same.

Then again, there are some "progressives" =+) like Andy Naselli, who virtually streamline a conversation and process like this by making a good case for growing an e-library and utilizing certain Bible software programs here. My good friend and local Chicago pastor, Oscar Leiva, would certainly agree with Andy. In fact, every time Oscar and I get on the subject, he always reminds me of the superiority of his program (Logos) over mine (Bible Works). Maybe someone can do Mac vs. PC parody for these Bible software programs; no doubt, it's out there, but I don't want to waste my time on YouTube. If anyone has other organizational tips or has found a good program, let us know.

2007-10-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

One Year

If I'm not mistaken, today marks the first year since this blog was started. This is only the thirty-fifth post (i think) in 52 weeks. 3 contributors (now 4). I' m not sure what other site metrics there are. Hopefully, we can double the amt of posts. I think that to be a reasonable goal considering our number. What do you guys think? Some ideas: post vignettes from your Lord's Day sermons; put together a blog schedule; invite other bloggers to post; book reviews...

2007-10-23T07:38:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter & Hermeneutics

Though I am not an aficionado of the Harry Potter series, I--like many who appreciate fiction and movies--were "roped in" by author J.K. Rowling's announcement that Dumbledore is gay. For those who espouse heterosexual (Biblical) convictions, this revelation comes as more of a disturbance. For me, it's just another reason not to get tied up in this series (the other being that, Harry Potter actor, Daniel Radcliffe, is now doing nude gigs on-stage). Call me a stick in the mud, I know.=+)

Anyway, John Mark Reynolds at the Scriptorium Daily blog puts his foot down on this authorial liberty that Rowling assumes. His basic point is that unless she writes a prequel, she is deposed as a queen of interpretation of this text; the text stands; Dumbledore is not gay. This post reminds me of principles that guide us in interpreting the Bible, and that hermeneutics is not only about me (or the author). Then again, i may be asked if I elevate the text above both author and reader. Not necessarily. That's a slightly different conversation (or perhaps we can take it up in the comments).

My point in posting this is that rules of language and interpretation are easily hijacked by the lusty, depraved human heart whether Christian or non-Christian, the Bible or Harry Potter. I identify with Ms. Rowling not as an author but as a human being fallen in God's image who is in need of redemption. I am tempted at times to interpret words or situations as I want to see them not necessarily as they are reflected in the Book. It is just amusing to see the world "clap" and/or "gasp" as Rowling makes this announcement, but it's not so amusing when image bearers take the same liberties with the Creator's Word.

2007-09-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

Radio Interview:

I was just interviewed on Moody Radio last week concerning an emersion night our church sponsors. This LINK will take you to my blog and you follow the directions to hear the interview!

2007-09-23T19:44:00.000-07:00

Christian Theater in Wicker Park

Not that all good theater has to be Christian, but it seems like a play with strong messages regarding Divine sovereignty is coming to Wicker Park this weekend. Juliet is showing at the Lafayette Forum Theater on Friday and Saturday. Here's a peek from YouTube.

2007-09-17T17:32:00.001-07:00

Submitted by the Next Gen Research Summer Interns

Literature Review

In examining the topic of graduate law students in the Loop of Chicago, it is important to look at scholarship that details law students in general as well as the religiosity of college students broadly and more specifically. In addition, it is important for Christian missiologists who desire to know the issues involving these students’ barriers to a relationship with God to also learn from scholars who have already researched how college students’ religiosity affects their personal outlook and identity. In our survey of this scholarly literature we identified six common themes: the impact of lawyers in the world today, the reasons students choose a graduate program in law school, the unique personality traits of law students, the emotional well-being of law students, the religiosity and spirituality of college students, and the researched effects of introspection on identity, morals, and values.

The Impact of Lawyers on the World Today

Many authors believe that areas concerning lawyers’ influence through their job seem to be an important source of power to initialize an impact for good. For example, author Brennan suggests, “Take these three years to learn how to do law well; even more, learn that the point of doing law well is to do good; still more, learn that doing good through law is about using power to achieve love’s ends” (2002, p.19). Brennan also believed that instead of talking about where law can rule good and evil or for life or for death, the place law has in love or vice versa should be talked about (2002, p.20). On a more practical note, author Lindholm seems to focus on the belief that lawyers will “influence the nature and quality of society for many years to come” (2006, p.510). Brennan concludes that law that does good is looked at as very beneficial even to a diverse population (2002, p.21).

The Reasons Students Choose a Graduate Program in Law School

We have found studies that show that many students have a variable amount of reasons for choosing such law schools and some have no idea whatsoever. Schleef mentions that, “Students’ accounts of their decisions to attend elite professional schools, although typically couched as preferences, actually reflect deep-class related constraints” (2000, p.155). Schleef also believes they chose their degree for reasons such as “professional status, intellectual interest, and an upper-middle class lifestyle” (2000, p.155). This study also found that some students choose law school as a way to discover if they really want to have a career in law (Schleef, 2000, p.158). Some students studied by Lindholm do have an idea and clear understanding for why they went to law school and mention there reason to be “an interest in issues of justice, as well as a desire for intellectual growth” (2006, p.514). Lindholm has also found that most students that had a desire for money and position lost sight of the intellectual gain from the law school experience. For example, “those who choose legal careers primarily for purposes of material gain and prestige tend also to be least motivated by intellectual aspects of the work” (Lindholm, 2006, p.515). This study also found motivations for one’s job seemed to differ with gender. Lindholm writes, “Women legal career aspirants are generally less materialistic or prestige oriented, favoring instead a commitment to public service” (2006, p.515).

The Unique Personality Traits of Law Students

When researchers have studied and compared law and pre-law students to other graduate tracks, certain traits and characteristics have been highlighted to be unique to law students. Some of these characteristics are also unique within the category of law students in that there are notable differences between gender and minorities. Lindholm noted a study that found that female law students had a stronger ethic of care than male students (2006, p.515). Male law students were found to lean towards rights and focus on “objectivity, principles, personal beliefs, and freedom of expression” (Lindholm, 2006, p.515). Overall, scholarly literature supports the claim that students enter law school with “altruistic aspirations” (Lindholm, 2006, p.516). Another study reported that pre-law students were generally resistive to subordinate roles and desired leadership roles (Lindholm, 2006, p.516). Law students were also found to be “more extrinsically motivated” (Lindholm, 2006, p.516).

The emotional well-being of law students

We found in a study that there are four major emotional complications among law students that cause abnormal predicaments. The four complications are alienation, dissatisfaction, anxiety, and depression.

Alienation

Author Carrington states, “The essential attitude of the alienated student is disinterest or disengagement” (1977, p.890). He also mentions that the student that feels alienated does not value his association with fellow law students and doubts that they even enjoy their company (Carrington, 1977, p.891). The study indicated that sex, age, ancestry, political science, family type, and family income had no correlation as a cause of alienation (Carrington, 2007, p.891). Carrington writes, “Focusing on the immediate consequences of alienation, we can say with greater confidence that the presence of much alienation in law students does detract from the quality of life at the law school” (1977, p.892). In an updated article, Carrington implies that students who were highly alienated did not feel accepted or active in a caring association (1978, p.1036). Studies presented two aspects of alienated students as impatience with academic presentations of law and a negative outlook on fellow peers at law school. Carrington describes the first aspect as, “highly alienated students in our surveys expressed impatience with academic presentations of the law that did not clearly relate to their own vocational needs” (1978, p.1040). Carrington says, “Alienated students see their peers as markedly more negative and cynical than is actually the case. The alienated believed that their peers would lie to secure financial aid or would alter their transcripts to get a better job” (1978, p.1040).

Dissatisfaction

Studies insinuated that students that feel dissatisfied often feel the pressure to be successful law students as a hindrance and eventually rebel and resist the responsibility. Carrington implies, “At base, dissatisfied students seem to be resisting the pressure that they feel is placed on them to measure up to some abstract standard of performance in law school” (?). We also found a significant tendency for dissatisfaction to fade over time, and by doing so the third-year students appear to be distinctly less dissatisfied than first-year students (Carrington, 1977, p.894). Also a huge encounter in this reading was that Carrington mentioned, “ It appears that dissatisfied students are more likely to consume larger amounts of mind-altering substances” (1977, p.895).

Anxiety

We found that studies signified anxiety among female law students to be higher than among male law students (1978, p.60). To summarize how anxiety is correlated with law students Carrington says, “While law students appear to have somewhat elevated anxiety prior to law school, levels are even higher among samples of law students in school. Across studies and measurement instruments, law students almost always reported higher levels of anxiety than comparison groups, including medical students” (1978, p.63).

Depression

Carrington’s study shows that there is no difference in depression among female and male law students, but instead third-year law students reported more depression than first-year law students (1978, p.65). Carrington concludes depression data among law students as a replication to the anxiety data that was gathered. He stated that the results suggest that self-reports of depression by the law students tend to be higher than the comparison groups and even medical students (1978, p.67).

The Religiosity and Spirituality of College Students

Multiple works were found that described the degree of religiosity and spirituality of graduate and undergraduate students. One study was carried out by Hunsberger in the late 1970’s to determine if the frequently reported liberalization trend in college was true (1978, p.159). The only finding that the study could statistically support was that seniors attended church less frequently than freshmen (Hunsberger, 1978, p.163). A more recent paper headed up by Lindholm addressed the notion that religiosity’s declination during the undergraduate years has been well documented empirically (2006, p.513). However, spiritual growth has been found by some to increase for traditionally aged college students (Lindholm, 2006, p.513). In a study specifically done on graduate students, it was believed that church attendance during graduate years would follow a u-curve (Greeley, p.36). In a paper written and led by Cook, the perceived differences in the definitions of religiosity and spirituality were studied. The researchers believed that it is also important to understand what college students mean when speaking of these two terms (Cook, 2000, p.136).

The Researched Effects of Introspection on Identity, Morals, and Values

Many authors have supported the study of religious beliefs and how they affect a student. Others have concentrated more on how looking introspectively and contemplating existence would affect a student. One study by Greeley examined the effects of students’ religiosity on their academics (1965, p.35). The study did not find evidence to support a conflict between the students’ beliefs in science and religion (Greeley, 1965, p 36). They also did not find evidence of emotional strain on students that proclaimed religious beliefs (Greeley, 1965, p.38). Lindholm noted a study in the paper that supported the idea that “the intensity with which individuals pursue answers to existential questions could be directly linked to overall mental and emotional health” (2006, p.512). They defined this existential pursuit as a spiritual quest in searching for acceptance or rejection of religion (Lindholm, 2006, p.512). It is also stated that how serious these students view spiritual quest affects positive identity development as well (Lindholm, 2006, p.513). In addition, research has shown that:

Developing people’s abilities to access, nurture, and give expression to the spiritual dimension of their lives impacts how they engage with the world and fosters within them a more meaningful sense of connectedness that promotes altruism, social justice, and individual passion. (Lindholm, 2006, p.513).

References

Brennan, P. M. (2002). To Beginning Law Students. First Things : a Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life. (128), 19-20.

Carrington, Paul D., & Conley, James J. (1977). The Alienation of Law Students. Michigan Law Review. 75(5/6), 881-889.

Carrington, Paul D., & Conley, James J. (1978). Negative Attitudes of Law Students: A Replication of the Alienation and Dissatisfaction Factors. Michigan Law Review. 76(6), 1036-1043.

Cook, Stephen W., Borman, Patricia D., Moore, Martha A., & Kunkel, Mark A. (2000). College Students’ Perceptions of Spiritual People and Religious People. Journal of Psychology & Theology. 28(2), 125-137.

Greeley, Andrew M. (1965). Religious Behavior of Graduate Students. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 5, 34-40.

Hunsberger, Bruce. (1978). Religiosity of College Students: Stability and Change Over Years at University. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 17(2), 159-164.

Lindholm, J.A., Goldberg, R., & Calderone, S. (2006). The Spiritual Questing of Professional Career Aspirants. Seattle Journal for Social Justice, 4(2), 509-560.

Schleef, D. (2000). "That's a Good Question!" Exploring Motivations for Law and Business School Choice. Sociology of Education. 73(3), 155-74.

2007-09-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Next Gen Research Summer Interns

Literature Review - Art Students in the Loop

Introduction

In reviewing research on the “arts culture” among graduate students in the Loop, we focused on three main topics: students in the Loop area, the “art culture,” and the influence of postmodern philosophy. We thought it important to include research on the influence of postmodern thought because of the degree to which it has penetrated liberal, academic thought. Within each of our topics, we identified specific themes that occurred in the literature.

Students in the Loop

The Role of Colleges in the Loop

The Loop is consistently viewed as one of the most influential locations of higher learning in the Midwest. Research by Fuechtmann, McLaughlin, and Kelly (2005) say that Chicago’s Loop is the “largest college town in Illinois” (p.2). More than 50,000 students attend institutions throughout the Loop that occupy nearly 7.5 million total square feet of building space (Fuechtmann et al., 2005, p.2). Fuechtmann, quoted by Bagnato (2005), says “These institutions … educate the next generation of business, community, and civic leaders” (p. 12). Loop colleges are home to a diverse student community, drawing students from all over the world to pursue a wide array of disciplines. Tony Jones, the President of the Art Institute of Chicago, says that 75% of Loop students are from outside Illinois and the neighboring states (Sharoff, 2002, p.10).

In addition to large, multidisciplinary universities, specialized institutions of business, law, and arts situated in the Loop enable students to pursue their career dreams (Fuechtmann et al., 2005, p.8).

Students’ Involvement in Loop Culture

Gauging the level of students’ involvement in the Loop outside class proved to be difficult. Only 20% of Loop students live in the Loop (Fuechtmann et al., 2005, p.3). However, Loop colleges have built several new student housing complexes and significantly increased the amount of student housing available in recent years (Sharoff, 2002, p.10). In addition, many students work in the Loop. Of the 60% of Loop students who are employed, 40% work in the loop (Fuechtmann et al., 2005, p.3).

Many cultural events and programs sponsored by colleges liven the Loop culture outside of business hours. These events are attended by nearly 500,000 people annually (Fuechtmann et al., 2005, p.2).

The Art Culture

More than 6,000 Loop students attend art-oriented schools (Fuechtmann et. al., 2005). Many of these students are part of an ‘art culture’ that shares similar personalities and vision.

Devotion to Art

According to Maksymowicz and Tobia (1982), people who are striving to be artists are generally more modest, individualistic, and spiritual. Tom Willett, an artist advocate, defends artists’ call to a single-minded pursuit of pure expression (Maksymowicz & Tobia, 1982). This freedom is not without sacrifice. Willett says “Self denial is a central dynamic of both life and art” (Maksymowicz & Tobia, 1982). Maksymowicz and Tobia (1982) further claim that an artist’s devotion to the arts parallels a Christian’s devotion to Christ. Possibly because they doubt their adequacy for such a lofty calling, artists are generally more pessimistic and experience self-doubting (not unlike what many Christians experience when contemplating the call to Christ likeness) (Whitesel, 1978). However, artists’ natural tendency to be motivated by the praise of others may counteract their devotion to their art. Eiduson (1958) says that “motivation components seem to be at work in artists when they look to artistic achievement to provide personal recognition” (p.25).

Sensory Processing

Whitesel (1978) stated that artists tend to process ideas in sensory ways as opposed to verbal and logical thinking. Research done by Eiduson (1958) also supports the concept of artists as sensory processors. Indeed, Eiduson (1958) claims that it is primarily in their ways of thinking and perceiving that artists show the most striking differences from nonartists. She asserts that artists place an emphasis on the elaboration of fantasy and “seek out the subtle and delicate in impressions” (Eiduson, 1958, p.25). Eiduson (1958) also states that artists have the “ability to loosen controls in thinking without resulting disorganization of the personality,” and have “tendencies toward regrouping of customary perceptions into new combinations” (p.25).

Independence and Unconventionality

According to Eiduson (1958), “artists have fought as much as possible against stereotypy and the highly patterned” (p.24). Whitesel (1978) found that artists have “tendencies toward original thinking and overturning conventional ways of doing things” (p.58). She states that artists “seek to avoid conventionality in thought and action” and describes them as strong-willed, competitive, and inhibition free (p.60). Whitesel (1978) also characterizes them as “having low tolerance for extended social contact” and “independent with no need to seek or sustain numerous personal friendships or to exploit their relationships with others to gain desired ends” (p.62).

Theories on Reaching the Artist

Several scholars felt that in order to reach the art culture, we must accept them as they are and not try to place traditional constraints on them. Tom Willett, a contemporary artist advocate, says “Our focus should be to create an open and inclusive fellowship, with no pressure to conform to some idealized evangelical personality” (Atterbury, 1994, p.32). Despite the cultural barriers, Maksymowicz & Tobia (1982) say “we remain hopeful that one can be both an artist and a Christian” (p.18).

The Influence of Postmodern Philosophy

Lack of Absolute Standards

Leffel (2007) claims that “The rhetorical power of postmodern terms like "tolerance," "openness," and "inclusion" effectively disguise a more destructive objective -- the end of all absolutes” (Understanding the postmodern shift section, para. 5). Pless (2000) describes Postmodernism as the belief that “meaning, morality, and truth have no objective existence” (p.1). It then logically follows that each culture constructs its own reality (p.1). Thus, pluralism of truth and morality is seen as the future of society (p.1). Absolute truth is not only rejected, but seen as a means to acquire power. The postmodern philosopher Michel Foucault says “We cannot exercise power except through the production of truth” (Leffel, 2007, Postmodern constructivism section, para. 5). The natural conclusion is that “in postmodern culture, the person to be feared is the one who believes that we can actually discover ultimate truth” (Leffel, 2007, Postmodern constructivism section, para. 5).

The Supreme Virtue of Tolerance

Pless (2000) said that this rejection of absolutes leads to a belief that ‘tolerance’ is the supreme virtue; tolerance being defined not as respect of others viewpoints but as the necessity of accepting all views as equal (p.1). Leffel (2007) pointed out that “radical subjectivity leads to the dangerously arrogant inference that no one can ever be wrong about what they believe” (Personal beliefs define truth, para. 4). Furthermore, those who attempt to define an absolute standard are excluded from this acceptance. According to Pless (2000), “Those who question the postmodern dogma that ‘there are no absolutes’ are excluded from the canons of tolerance” (p.1).

Postmoderns and Spirituality

According to available literature, postmodernists’ rejection of absolutes does not necessarily correspond to a rejection of spirituality. Pless (2000) says that postmodernists value spirituality as a way of asserting their own role in a pluralistic culture (p.1). However, this does not necessarily mean that they are more open to religious beliefs. In 2000, researchers at Texas Tech and Auburn found that college students see religion as “more external or superficial than spirituality” (Cook, Moore, & Kunkel, p.135). Furthermore, postmoderns are likely to see the absolute claims of Christ as incompatible with a pluralistic mindset. Leffel (2007) says “On the one hand, we see more openness to spirituality than in several decades as naturalistic, materialistic dogma has fallen into disfavor in many quarters. On the other hand, the kind of spirituality people are open to is decidedly anti-Christian” (What’s going on, para. 1).

References

Atterbury, A. (1994). The Artist as Activist: conversations with An Artist Advocate

and a social Activist. Transformation, 11, 30-32.

Bagnato, K. (2005). My Kind of College Town, Chicago Is. Community College Week,

17 (14), 3-12.

Cook, S., Borman, P., Moore, M., & Kunkel, M. (2000). College Students’

Perceptions of Spiritual People and Religious People. Journal of Psychology & Theology, 28 (2), 125-137.

Eiduson, B. (1958). Artist and Non-artist: A Comparative Study. Journal of

Personality, 26, 13-28.

Greater State Street Council and the Central Michigan Avenue Association.

(2005). Higher Education in the Loop and South Loop: An Impact Study. Chicago, IL: Fuechtmann, T., McLaughlin G., & Kelly J.

Leffel, J. (2007). Understanding Today’s Postmodern University. Retrieved June 21,

2007, from http://www.xenos.org/essays/pomouniv.htm.

Maksymowicz, V. & Tobia, B. (1982). The Dilemma of Being Christian and Artist.

The Other Side, 135, 16-18.

Pless, J. (2000). LCMS Campus Ministry Staff Conference: Apologetics on the

Postmodern Campus. Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Sharoff, R. (2002, December 4). An Urban Attraction for Students. New York

Times, p.C10

Whitesel, L. (1978). Personalities of Women Art Students. Studies in Art

Education, 20 (1), 56-63.

2007-09-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

Our brothers at Reformed Blacks of America have posted an excellent article by Dr. Anthony Bradley on the dearth and need for sound theological education amongst black Christians here. Bradley is a very clear communicator and has been helpful to me in thinking about race and culture issues. He also contributes to the World Magazine blog and appears with the boys at the Resurgence.

2007-09-12T21:36:00.000-07:00

Ramadan starts tomorrow for Muslims worldwide. I came across a resource that can help us and our churches pray more intelligently for Christ's kingdom to pervade those regions where his light seems suppressed. See http://www.30-days.net/

HT: Justin Taylor

2007-08-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

We're a city-center church that's never going to build its own shopping mall in the middle of downtown. We're committed to planting churches. We have space limitations, man-power limitations, and unique theological/methodological convictions that come with being a church in the city trying to participate in a new movement of the gospel in our day and age. So how do we approach Children's Ministry?? Right now we have one 8 year old, a 2 year old, and two less than 1. This is a document that the elders at Immanuel have come up with in order to help guide us as we think about what to do. Any insights you can give would be much appreciated.

Core Convictions Regarding Children’s Ministry at Immanuel

The Children’s Ministry at Immanuel is about transforming kids into a holy people who find eternal satisfaction in Christ.

The following are the core values of our Children’s Ministry that guide us in fulfilling this vision:

(1) Children are important! Scriptures like Psalm 127:3-5 and Luke 17:2 remind us that children are important in God’s eyes. For the most part, our center-city culture says the opposite – children are a burden to be avoided altogether, postponed indefinitely, or shipped off to daycare. We desire to cultivate a church culture that values kids.

(2) Children have a place in the city. For most center-city dwellers, if they do settle down and have kids, they eventually move out to the suburbs. We believe it’s not only possible, but necessary for Christians to remain in the city to raise their kids. In cultivating a church culture that values kids, we seek to establish a counter-culture that affects the neighborhood for the good over the long haul. It will be hard, but we want to provide a support network that helps families stay in the city and transform it.

(3) Children should be included in the community. Children are born guilty of and bent on sin (cf. Psalm 51:5) and in need of salvation. Thus they are not full members of the church community and are not admitted to the Lord’s Table until they have demonstrated evidence of conversion and been baptized. However, they should be welcomed and integrated into the community life (just like an adult non-believer) in the hopes that they will come to experience the living God themselves. We feel that it is mutually beneficial for kids and adults not to be segregated.

This conviction applies to all of community life, including Sunday gatherings for worship. In the Bible (and throughout the vast majority of church history), when the people of God were assembled in the Lord’s presence, the children were included (cf. Deuteronomy 31:12-13, Joshua 8:35). We believe that children should be in the worship service with their parents as early as possible (we strongly recommend around age 6). This exposes them to the rhythms of community life so that they can hopefully one day take their place as full-fledged member of it. Research shows that a staggering percentage of kids raised in the church disappear from church life after leaving their high school youth group or college campus ministry. We seek to teach kids God’s plan for the local church and assimilate them into its life and mission at an early age. We provide a nursery for very young children as a service to parents, but even there kids are being prepared to join mom and dad in the service.

(4) Parents take the lead. The community plays a crucial role in the development and discipleship of its children, but the main responsibility lies with the parents, especially the fathers (cf. Deuteronomy 6:7, Colossians 3:18-22). Parents do this by modeling godly living and joyful worship, by disciplining their kids, by maintaining family devotions and prayers, by cultivating caring relationships with their kids, and by teaching their children the great truths and traditions of the Christian faith. As a church we seek to do all we can to equip parents for this task.

(5) Keep it simple. At Immanuel we want to keep programs to a minimum. A popular trend among churches is to establish specialized ministries to address the particular needs of groups based on age, sex, marital status, and even career fields. While it is true that there are unique needs for specific groups that must be cared for differently, Immanuel believes that the best ministry happens organically. As an intentionally small church whose goal is to constantly plant other churches, simplicity is an essential value. We want to avoid elaborate programs that require intensive man-power and/or cause too many people to miss the Sunday worship services.

(6) Be Missional. Absolutely everything we do as a church has to contribute to our mission to advance God’s kingdom in the UIC Area. We seek to reach our own kids with the gospel, reach other neighborhood kids with the gospel, and train children to reach their world with the gospel. Children’s Ministry at Immanuel is not about entertaining our kids or insulating them from the world or making them into nice, clean-cut ‘Christian’ kids, but it exists to help us reach our neighborhood for Christ and make the kids that we encounter into radical, sold-out, life-long followers of him.

2007-07-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

Are you guys following or have you heard anything about the Missouri Baptist Convention and their hardline against Acts 29??

Check out this article identifying the Acts 29 movement entirely with the Emerging Church and slamming it:
http://www.mbcpathway.com/otherstories/article77651c138029.htm

Here's a rebuttal by a prof at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary:
http://uploads.acts29network.org/media/Articles/theemergingchurchandsouthernbaptists.pdf

Here's a blog post on Acts 29's website in response:
http://www.acts29network.org/acts-29-blog/seven-misrepresentations-of-acts-29/

Personally, I find these impulses in SBC life to be sad. I don't speak in tongues, but I think someone who does should still be able to be an IMB missionary. I don't really like beer, but if someone enjoys it in moderation that shouldn't preclude them from being a NAMB missionary. In fact, it might make them a better one!

2007-06-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

From my sermon last Sunday on Daniel 8, where it says that because of the little horn "truth was thrown to the ground" (v. 12).

Throwing truth to the ground is the very definition of the postmodern Zeitgeist. We live in an era when the very concept of truth is brought into question. Truth is relative, something that's merely created by a community. And when one community claims to have absolute truth they inevitably use that as an excuse to oppress and exploit another community, so the thinking goes. Totalizing truth is always totalitarian. It is, as postmodern philosopher Michel Foucault calls it, a 'regime of truth'. In other words, truth will hurt and control people. No one has a right to affirm that their truth is true for someone else. Therefore, truth itself is thrown to the ground.

And I'm afraid this thinking has crept into the church. A growing number find sermons to be passé and modernistic; offensive even. Theology, they claim, is entirely an art and not a science. Many buy into this notion that doctrine is dangerous; that any dogmatic assertions about God, Man, Sin, Christ, Salvation, etc… are arrogant and inhibiting. "We have our communally constructed truths, but they're fluid and adaptable and we would never try to impose them on someone else." It's true – truth has been used to beat people over the head and to make one feel self-righteous. It's true – many have been overly ambitious in their claims to exhaust the depths of God and to put him into nice, neat little categories of thought. But those truths do not negate the existence of truth. God is big, ineffable, infinite, incomprehensible, independent, non-contingent, timeless, possessing aseity… a being sui generis. These are all systematic theology terms that say that God cannot be contained in systematic theology textbooks. There is mystery. "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of [his] law" (Dt. 29:29). There is much we don't know/can't know, but God has revealed certain things to us that correspond to reality as it is in him. They are true and they can and must be put into propositional statements that guide and control our thinking about God and his world. We've got to beware of extreme forms of postmodernism that can seep into the church and turn our faith to mush.

2007-06-12T20:46:00.001-07:00

My Daughter is going to love Lightning Bugs.

I was lounging in the backyard tonight reading Leonard Sweet's book, The Gospel According to Starbucks and as the daylight began to fade away (my reading light too) I decided to take a pause from my reading, close the book, sit back and reflect a bit on Sweet's work.

As I sat, pondering, a lightning bug flew near, illuminated bottom and all…then it hit me…not the bug…the light bulb…over my head I mean…errr….

Noël is going to love Lightning Bugs.

I can just imagine her face now…"Wow Daddy!"

And why shouldn't she be amazed, they're amazing little buggers.

Growing up I remember my mom telling us, as we awed over the fiery creatures, when she was a youth her and her siblings used to capture them, toss them to the ground and smear them with their feet to write out their names…(my uncles' ideas I'm sure but c'mon, where's the anti-cruelty society when you need them?)

I remember one night, as a young adult, driving to Tulsa to go on vacation with a friend, right at dusk, when the conflagrating Coleopterans emerge from their (where do they emerge from anyways?) I was driving down the interstate when…WHAM one unfortunate Fire Buttom met his (or her) end by smashing into my windshield, leaving a wondrous orange smear across the glass of my 1994 pickup. I "wow-ed" over this for the next 10 to 15 miles!

But no, this blog entry isn't about the old adage: Sometimes you're the windshield…sometimes you're the bug. This entry is about being amazed.

While Sweet's book may just be the Emerging Churches (or at least Sweets) attempt at the Purpose Driven Life I have to admit that so far I like this book.

The thesis of Sweet's new book (actually came out in January of this year) is that Starbucks has taken "an old, unexcited standby – hot, dark liquid in a cup – and made it an EPIC beverage that millions of people feel they can't live without" (pg 22). Sweet gleans from the business that has us opening our wallets for $4 a cup coffees, which we even stand in line for, to draw out his EPIC life (Experiential, Participatory, Image Rich, Connective) principles and encourage us to live our lives not according to duty and guilt but to live with a "Grande Passion."

So far I've gotten just as far, in the book, for Sweet to introduce EPIC, I'll be reading (and hopefully finish) the book over the rest of the week and let you know what else I stumble upon.

But for now I just wanted to tell you all that my daughter is going to love Lightning Bugs…amazing.

The first few chapters of this book have my wondering: what are the things in our lives that used to amaze us so much, they amaze our kids, but we're so busy or so involved in "something else" that we're missing? (And now I have My Favorite Things running through my head…) What are the little things (Lightning Bugs) or the big things (standing on the western shore of Maui knowing the next thing out there, way out there, is Japan) that WOW us but we're too preoccupied to be amazed?

"Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded." – Habakkuk 1.5

My daughter is going to love Lightning Bugs…

2007-05-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

Christian vs. Christ-Follower

What do you guys think about these videos...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RtfNdg1fQk

2007-04-03T14:53:00.000-07:00

FYI...

An Important Conference on the Holy Spirit

Sam Storms - Enjoying God Ministries
Mar 31, 2007

I want to alert all of you to an important conference that will be held April 27-29, 2007, at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas.

The purpose of this conference is to explore the person and place of the Holy Spirit in Southern Baptist life. But don’t think for a moment this is a conference for only Southern Baptists. It is designed for all Christians to explore the work of the Spirit today.

The conference is being hosted by Dwight McKissic, Senior Pastor at Cornerstone. Dwight’s name has been much in the news of late, due primarily to a powerful message he delivered at the chapel service of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. Dwight shared his own experience of life in the Spirit, one that was not well-received by the administration at the seminary. The resulting furor led Dwight to believe that the role of the Holy Spirit in Southern Baptist churches needed to be openly and honestly addressed; hence, this conference.

This is not a conference that will only advocate one view of the Spirit’s work. Both continuationists (those who believe all spiritual gifts continue and operate in the church today) and cessationists (those who believe certain spiritual gifts, such as tongues and prophecy, ceased at the close of the apostolic age) will be present. In fact, a lively panel discussion (debate?) will be part of the conference program.

I will be speaking together with a number of other pastors and theologians (including Wade Burleson, Bart Barber, and Ben Cole). I’m also excited because my friend Daniel Brymer will be leading worship!

You can get information and a brochure for the conference by going to www.cbcarlington.org. In addition to the charismatic / cessationist debate, a wide variety of topics will be addressed. These include how the Holy Spirit relates to the family, church growth, the Great Commission, worship, preaching, and prayer, just to mention a few. I also encourage you to attend the Pastors’ Roundtable that will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, April 27, preceding the conference.

I hope you will share this news with others and that you will be able to attend.

Sam

2007-03-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

Light breaking through in the darkness...

2007-03-21T12:21:00.000-07:00

Randy White, in his work Encounter God in the City, gives a refreshing and insightful examination of the role of urban ministry in both personal and community transformation. His style is conversational, straight-forward, and engaging, reflecting much of the context in which he is writing. What it lacks in academic finesse and rigor it regains in personality. He tells a number of personal stories, and each is easy to relate to despite his unique context. He does seem to overuse his limited access highway metaphors, though that can be forgiven in an author from California.

White argues that “experience that is uniquely generated by participation in transformational ministry in the city” can and should be central to both lifestyle discipleship and community development (26). He builds a unique case concerning “reflective learning” (33) and the value of both ministry involvement and introspection in the personal lives of followers of Jesus. This discipleship value of the city has long been under-represented in Christian literature, even in those writing from an urban perspective. It is certainly both novel and encouraging for him to make such a strong point concerning the value of the urban landscape in discipleship.

Unfortunately, his case seems to be a slightly exaggerated. Clearly God can and does use the city on the journey of discipleship for those he calls to minister in that context. The effectiveness of that impact is increased by the uniqueness of the environment. It should be noted, however, that any intentional change of venue can have beneficial impact on a person’s discipleship if one is open and listening to God. For example, one of the values of retreat centers is that they remove people from their routine to help them gain fresh discipleship experiences. An urban disciple may even benefit from a change of pace in the suburbs or countryside. Also, his biblical support for his arguments is at times very concerning. He falls into the occasional exegetical paralysis of those in urban ministry who read urban reality into every situation in the Scriptures (38).

His writing conveys his personal struggle, but it does so almost too effectively. He seems overly self-effacing, and hyper-critical of his own positions. At one point he even called himself “a wuss” (44). While honesty is very becoming in writing, there does come a point that a person needs therapy for catharsis instead of a pen.

White’s careful definition and use of the multifaceted concept of “shalom” is both valuable and problematic (53, 126). It is very good to see someone with such a deep concern for holistic ministry towards those who are marginalized in cities. His lack of vision, however, for aggrandized or mainstream in the well being of the city is concerning. Also, by focusing as he does on social structures, he almost entirely ignores both personal compassion and the part that the poor at times play in their own situation. Someone could speculate that the book has more of a political and economic bias than the author would like to admit (67, 124). He should more fully develop what link he proposes between his social ministry and evangelization (119). Jesus’ goal for people must go beyond merely providing healthy physical systems for them to experience. The biggest problem anyone will ever face is inside of them.

Anyone who has ministered much in a city realizes the reality of systemic evil. In fact, many urban ministry books have been written on the importance of unified prayer and spiritual warfare in an urban setting. While it is possible for the theme of spiritual warfare to be overdone in an urban context, it is a curious fact that White entirely dismisses it as a potential source of the city’s problems (66). Both his analysis and suggested solutions border on humanistic secular materialism. On the other hand, his use of a three pronged analysis of a city put forth by Ben Beltran is a brilliant and pragmatic structure in which to examine the systems of a city and includes the spiritual aspect more intentionally (70). Much more discussion on urban spiritual involvement would be extremely beneficial.

Randy goes on to argue that it is important to be open to a variety of different cultures, yet keep one’s religious distinctiveness. Unfortunately, he approaches pluralism too closely when he states: “If we ignore the force of religious pluralism in the city… we will be disappointed” (107). While it is clear that the gospel needs to be communicated in different ways to different cultures, and it is true that we can work together on some common projects with those of other faiths, to push things as close as he does to religious pluralism is both concerning and dangerous.

Finally, White does give a very helpful chart concerning personal attitudes and the effect they have on ones experience of the city (139). This illustration could be utilized to provide helpful teaching for mission teams on the way to serve in urban contexts. Many of his practical ideas on urban transformation are extremely valuable suggestions for churches and ministries working in that context. He also gives some examples of dangerous practices people should avoid in urban ministry. The second half of the book is extremely pragmatic, and includes a number of evaluative questions from a variety of philosophical angles. This book can be an important resource for those planning missions into an urban area.

Overall, the work did accomplish a fresh perspective on urban ministry. Unfortunately, it did so by ignoring many aspects of urban ministry that are vital and that other works treat in length. Dealing more with the spiritual aspect of the ministry in an exegetically sound way would have helped him build the bridge more clearly between his thesis of life transformation in the city and his thesis of transformational ministry in the city. Indeed, he dealt well with both sides of the equation, but did little to demonstrate how they are intrinsically related.

2007-03-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! I need your help and thoughts. Below is a rough sketch of what we've been talking about at Immanuel as far as church planting. I want your insights and ideas to make sure this isn't really naive and stupid. I also want to keep you guys (the Next Gen Taskforce) in the loop about where we're at and what we're thinking at Immanuel to make sure it coheres well with what we're trying to do city-wide. Send me those comments...

Vision 2010

Immanuel was a church plant in 1994. In 2005 we in a sense re-planted in the UIC Area with a clearer vision for missional engagement in a specific neighborhood. On our first Sunday in the UIC Area the leadership announced what has come to be known as Vision 2010 – our commitment to be spinning off new churches at least every five years, the first one getting off the ground by the year 2010.

We don’t want the movement to stop. We want to continue it. And we are clear about not wanting to grow and become merely an attractional church full of Sunday-morning spectators – that’s not church. We want to be a subversive little Jesus community in Chicago multiplying other subversive little Jesus communities all throughout the city. This is what we’re praying for and planning for.

In 2007 we set aside $10,000 for Vision 2010. We have committed $15,000 to be set aside in 2008 and $20,000 for 2009. The idea is that when 2010 rolls around there will already be a cash reserve of $45,000 in the new church’s bank account. We can also continue to subsidize the new church plant for a couple years until we need to start over for Vision 2015.

The normal way of thinking about church planting is that you get “a guy.” This guy needs to have pretty much every gift mentioned in the New Testament. We feel like that is unrealistic and would set us up for failure, especially in the city environment. We believe strongly in a plural elder model of leadership where team members complement each other. Why not start a new church with an elder team right from the get-go?

Currently we have 3 elders. In 2007 we are focusing on praying for and identifying potential future elder candidates and personally investing in them. By the end of 2008 we’d like to bring at least 3 new elders on to the current leadership team. Within that newly expanded team as we talk and think and pray at least 3 people will decide to leave Immanuel and be elders at the new church plant. This team will need to have at least one person with each of the following gifts: apostleship, prophecy, evangelism, shepherding, teaching (cf. Eph. 4:11). In 2009 these 3 elders will begin meeting together to pray and seek direction for what the new church plant will look like: vision, values, philosophy of ministry, neighborhood, who (if any) among the elders will be supported by the church, etc… Towards the end of that year they will begin to pitch the vision of this new church plant to Immanuel and ask people to leave Immanuel and come join this new church. We will need at least 25 people to leave and go with them.

White Horse Tramples Emerging Church

2007-02-27T13:43:00.001-08:00

The White Horse Inn, a nationally syndicated radio talk show, recently discussed some of the issues of Postmodernism and The Emerging Church. I enjoy listening to many of the White Horse Inn episodes because they have some great discussions on theology and apologetics from a reformed bent.

The two recent episodes on Postmodernism and The Emerging Church caught my attention because I'm a church planter, planting churches in this "Emerging/Emergent Church Era."

While the term "Emerging Church" may be just as hard to define as "Postmodern" there was a very helpful article published in the 2006 Criswell Review entitled, A Pastoral Perspective: On The Emerging Church (www.criswelljournal.com). In this article, written by Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer breaks down the Emerging Church into three manageable categories.

The first group, Relevants, he defines as "theologically conservative evangelicals who are not interested in reshaping theology as much as updating such things as worship styles, preaching styles, and church leadership structures. Their goal is to be more relevant; thus, appealing to postmodern-minded people."

The second group that Stetzer identifies is Reconstructionists who he says are "theologically evangelical and dissatisfied with the current forms of church (i.e. seeker, purpose, contemporary). They bolster their critique by noting that our nation is becoming less Christian and that those who profess faith are not living lives markedly different than non-Christians; thereby, proving that current church forms have failed to create life transformation. Subsequently, they propose more informal, incarnation, and organic church forms such as house churches."

Lastly Stetzer defines Revisionists as "theologically liberal and question key evangelical doctrines, critiquing their appropriateness for the emerging postmodern world."

I mention these breakdowns that Stetzer has outlined so not to over generalize the Emerging/Emergent Church movement. Like so much of life (religion, politics, etc…) we all live on a spectrum, and not many of us would ever share identical beliefs with another. I mention this because the review of The Emerging Church by The White Horse Inn is mostly critical – and I mostly agree with their criticisms.

There were a couple of "shockers" for me in this episode (to keep this short I'll limit it to two – which I feel are the core of the problem with the Emerging Church movement.

The first one comes around at the 18^th minute of the Emerging Church episode when a young woman is interviewed from a recent Emerging Church conference. She explains that what is attractive for her about the Emerging Church movement is "the ability to question what [she] couldn't in [her] fundamentalist church." She mentions two hot-button issues, woman's role in ministry, and homosexuality. But what she said next is what made my toes curl.

She explains her excitement of being able to question these issues saying "all these things that didn't feel true (fundamental teachings) to what I was experiencing around me."

Basically what she is saying is: "those doctrines didn't feeeeeeel right to me."

Now some of my students from our Single Adult group in Texas know exactly what's going on. They learned not to let your experiences dictate what you believe when we studied the book of Romans for 70 some odd weeks.

I believe that the church is in serious trouble if we let our experiences dictate what we believe – but I'll respond to this in a blog article following up this one.

The second "shocker" comes around the 28^th minute. Here the producer of The White Horse Inn asks Brian McLaren (during this same conference on the Emerging Church) "What is orthodoxy and who gets to define it?"

McLaren's answer saddens me…

First of all McLaren never defines what orthodoxy is, he only answers the second part of the question, "Who gets to define it?"

McLaren answers that, throughout history the most powerful people/group got to define orthodoxy. He then goes on to explain how "we" can shape orthodoxy by being the most virtuous – or Christ-like.

He goes on to say:

"Before we can do theology we have to be a community – before we can be a community we need virtue, because it takes virtue to forgive, accept, deal with power and all the rest."

"Ethics comes first then doctrine comes second."

What?

The members of The White Horse Inn felt the same way that I did. Didn't the apostles first have an announcement to make? Didn't they first announce the Gospel, which is of course the very best doctrinal statement? Didn't that doctrinal statement led next to community – the early church? So wouldn't Peter have said:

"Doctrine comes first, ethics comes second."

So what's the problem?

The problem seems to be, from the point that I've observed the Emerging Church movement, that Fundamentalism (the Church of Billy Graham) didn't work, or at least it won't work in our post modern culture because there has been an abandonment of absolute truth, Christian doctrine is a presentation of absolute truth, therefore postmoderns are skeptical and suspicious of Christian doctrine and reject them.

The Emerging Churches answer is: "Don't just believe it because it says so – question it –get your answer by feeeeeling it."

Now I suppose that one could argue that the apostles experienced Christ's life, death, and resurrection and therefore they can know it through their experience. My question is – Haven't we experienced it just the same way? And if not shouldn't we?

I guess what I'm saying is that we don't look at scripture as myth do we? Do we view the Bible as a story or history?

If we view the Bible as myth how can you be a Christian (truly)?

If we view the Bible as history – if we experience the bible as history, how can we expect our experiences (our life today) to supersede doctrine?

The Prescription:

We need to learn to wrestle. I'll be the first to admit that there are some very difficult doctrines that Christians believe. The gospel itself is a H U G E stumbling block! How many of us have Romans 9-11 in our bibles; how many of us have cut them out (physically or figuratively) because that's tough stuff?

Instead of just passing it over – wrestle with it.

Can you say, like Paul that "I am eager, and obligated to preach the gospel, and not ashamed to do it?" Is it up to us to apologize for God?

Can you be like Jacob when he wrestled God, dealing with the tough doctrines by saying, "God I'm not going to let go of you until you bless me by helping me deal with these doctrines!"

I'm afraid that if we don't learn to wrestle and work out the tough doctrines of our faith and instead simply believe only what we can experience and what feeeeeeels good that we will continue to lose our influence.

My next two blog articles will be on the consequences of the Emerging Church movement if we continue to give up on doctrine ("ethics first – doctrine second") on the Church and on Christians.

I recommend listening to The White Horse Inn's episode on the Emerging Church in the mean time.

Grace and peace,

Jamie

2007-01-24T14:03:00.000-08:00

A Tale of Two Mars Hills...

I just got back from a two-day conference for local church leaders at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan (just outside of Grand Rapids). This church started in 1999 and has been touted as the fastest growing church in American history. Within a couple years it grew to 10,000 people and took over an old shopping mall. Today, tens of thousands of people download Rob Bell's sermons every week. He is a phenomenal communicator who preaches hour-long sermons that connect with young, postmodern-types and those dissatisfied with traditional church.

I went mostly out of curiosity. Obviously, I'm interested in questions of postmodernism and ministry and how others are dealing with them. I've read Rob Bell's book, Velvet Elvis (Zondervan, 2005), and enjoyed several of his short videos called Noomas. He's definitely someone to be familiar with if you're intrigued by emerging questions surrounding mission in the post-Christian West. Here's a young guy that's successfully reaching young people and gaining a national following for his creative and innovative thinking.

But there's another Mars Hill. This one's in Seattle, Washington. It started in 1996 and was recently ranked as the 23rd most influential church in America by The Church Report magazine. Today they have roughly 6,000 people in attendance each Sunday. Mark Driscoll's sermons are regularly ranked #1 on iTunes in the religion category. He too is a phenomenal communicator who preaches hour-long sermons that connect with young, postmodern-types and those dissatisfied with traditional church.

Mark Driscoll used to be a part of the Terranova Project with people like Brian McLaren. He's written a couple books, his first was titled The Radical Reformission (Zondervan, 2004) dealing with issues of reaching today's culture. He has also founded a church-planting network called Acts29 and an online resource called The Resurgence (www.theresurgence.com). So here's another young guy who's successfully reaching young people and gaining a national following for his creative and innovative thinking.

I think it's helpful to set these two churches side-by-side as representatives of two vastly different approaches to being the church in the 21st century. On the surface they may look the same - large, influential, edgy, innovative, led by gifted speakers... even having the same name. But I think it's SO important that we discern the serious differences.

As I was at the recent conference with Rob Bell there was much that I appreciated, learned from, and resonated with. Clearly our generation has noticed many blind-spots in the thinking of our modernistic, evangelical predecessors. We feel uncomfortable with some of the pietistic and revivalistic methodologies that encouraged many to identify Christianity with "praying the prayer" or "walking the aisle." We are ashamed at the "easy believism" that this produced. We recognize the Gnostic influences that caused salvation to be understood merely as an escape from this world to a heavenly realm of disembodied souls. And we lament the disengagement with the world that this produced. I felt my soul say a hearty Amen! as Bell spoke about the big picture of the Bible and the need to understand it as a grand story of redemption instead of a random collection of proof-texts; as he un-packed Creation and New Creation; as he declared that history is moving somewhere and one day heaven will come crashing into earth; as he explained how the church is the only institution on earth that exists for the benefit of its non-members. This call to something massive and global and all-encompassing and worth dying for is appealing to our generation and I dare say biblical.

Rob Bell is not the first or only person to be saying such things, though. Much of what he voiced can be heard in people like Tim Keller or other Reformed theologians like Ridderbos. However, as the conference unfolded it became clear that there was something distinct and woefully deficient in Bell's theology. Choosing to emphasize the goodness of creation, he rarely talked about sin. But at one point he defined sin as simply "the destruction of shalom," ...not a rebellion against a holy God. For Bell, the center of the Bible and theology is love, ...not God's glory. Therefore, his conception of love is not a love that's so deep it can overcome righteous wrath toward sin and sinners through the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ on the cross, but rather a love that more resembles the amorphous emotion of classic liberalism. In fact, the topic of his upcoming speaking tour this fall is going to be - "The Gods Aren't Angry." And so it came as no surprise when he shared "a few thoughts on God, Jesus, salvation, judgment, heaven, hell, who's in, who's out, and the end of the world as we know it" that he articulated an inclusivist position and all but reduced the Christian message to - "We believe the way of Jesus is the best way to live and it would be great if more people would live in this way."

What became crystal clear to me this week is that there are two approaches within evangelicalism to these questions of postmodernity, etc... One is a very Man-centered approach that downplays the effects of sin and neuters the power of the Cross. This approach is found in Rob Bell and Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan and while it recognizes many of the flaws in modern evangelicalism and is wildly appealing to disillusioned young people it will inevitably lead down the same road that theological liberalism did at the end of the 19th century.

The other approach is a radically God-centered approach that stands in the stream of the Puritans and the Reformers, Anselm and Augustine. This approach can be seen most readily in Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church in Seattle and while it makes many necessary adaptations and corrections in keeping with the cultural shift that's afoot it will prove to be the one that preserves the faith once for all entrusted to the saints in our time. And I believe it will prove to be the most effective in actually reaching people with the life-changing message of Jesus and the kingdom of God in the long run.

These are two very different Mars Hills and I pray that we will be theologically alert and attuned to the dangers of the Man-centered strand as we seek to proclaim the gospel - in all its robust, biblical, God-centered glory - to the pagan, postmodern, post-Christian city of Chicago.

2007-01-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

The Missional Pastor

I was trained for ministry under the 'scholar-pastor' model. Jonathan Edwards was my hero. Pastoring to me meant having a study with lots of books, locking myself in there for hours on end, and coming out to deliver erudite sermons. This is still a deep part of me. I feel guilty if I don't diagram the sermon text in the original language, read all the commentaries, and spend 20-30 hours per week in writing the manuscript. I struggle with disdaining pastors who are not heady or doctrinally educated. Following people like David Wells (cf. No Place for Truth or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology), I have long thought that what the church desperately needs is more pastors who are thinkers.

Then early on in my pastoral experience I came across the 'contemplative pastor' model, as advocated by Eugene Peterson. His book, The Contemplative Pastor, was extremely convicting - especially the Moby Dick allusion (pp. 24-25). That classic story is about the epic pursuit of a whale. In it the whaling boat has oarsmen rowing frantically, a captain intensely directing affairs, and a poised harpooner who sits still and waits. Herman Melville (the author of Moby Dick) writes this: "To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil." Peterson sees the harpooner as the perfect analogy for a pastor. Pastors today, he maintains, are too busy. We're scurrying about, frenzied and frazzled with 'ministry'. Yet when we leave our posts of prayer to join the oarsmen we lose our position of effectiveness. So according to this model (which I still have a great fondness for) what the church needs is more pastors who can stay outside the fray and from a position of quietness, meditation, and observation speak God's truth to a harried world.

But now through my study and reading and as I pray and contemplate I've become convinced of the need for the church to be a missional community that engages the world. And this framework has produced a new model - that of 'missional pastor'. The missional pastor leads the charge out into the world. The missional pastor leaves the cloister of his study and develops relationships with the lost. He calls the church towards outward engagement by giving an example to follow. It's a more active model of pastoring.

This 'missional pastor' model is very appealing and convicting, but I struggle with following it. If only there were more hours in the day!! I fear losing my biblical and theological groundings if I abandon my study. I fear burn out and spiritual disconnnectedness if I abandon my post and "leap frenzied to the oars." And years of operating under the 'scholar' and 'contemplative' pastor models have left me rather introverted and uneasy around people. What model (or hybrid) should best guide us Chicago Emerging Baptist pastors? Thoughts? Insights? Advice?

2006-12-19T09:13:00.000-08:00

Emerging vs. Emergent

In his book, Confessions of a Reformission Rev. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), Mark Driscoll delineates between the 'emerging church' and the 'emergent church'. He says, "The emergent church is part of the Emerging Church Movement but does not embrace the dominant ideology of the movement. Rather, the emergent church is the latest version of liberalism. The only difference is that the old liberalism accomodated modernity and the new liberalism accommodates postmodernity" (21).

Driscoll was involved in the emerging church 'conversation' from nearly the beginning, but as time passed he had to distance himself from those who began using the term 'emergent', due to their doctrinal sloppiness. He would include in this camp people like Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones, and even someone like Rob Bell. It's not that they don't have helpful things to say, but that they go too far. Driscoll lists key points which such emergent-types typically balk at: (1) penal substitutionary atonement, (2) the sinfulness of homosexual acts, (3) the eternal torments of hell, (4) God's exhaustive knowledge of the future (i.e. denying Open Theism), (5) gender roles, (6) the inerrancy of Scripture. [To this I would add things like the exclusivity of Christ and even the Trinity(!)] Are these necessary truths or merely 'modern' conceptual constructs?

Are we using the phrase - Chicago Emerging Baptists - intentionally as a way of distancing ourselves from those who have taken contextualization all the way to syncretism? Would we identify with emerging leaders like Driscoll (see www.marshillchurch.org or www.theresurgence.com) or with McLaren (see www.emergentvillage.com)? Comments??

Personally, I believe that Driscoll sums up well what should be our approach - "holding in one closed hand the unchanging truth of evangelical Christian theology (Jude 3) and holding in one open hand the many cultural ways of showing and speaking Christian truth as a missionary to America (1Cor. 9:19-23)" (22).

2006-12-12T10:53:00.000-08:00

What do scrapbooking, the Chicago Chamber Choir, knitting, stamping, Lord of the Rings Battle Strategy Games, archery, blogging, and Toastmasters all have in common? Absolutely nothing, except they are all things that my wife and I respectively enjoy doing. These hobbies of ours are actually becoming opportunities for us to build relationships with those in our community. Some of these relationships are evangelistic friendships in the making, others are deepening discipleship friendships, and some are still in the acquaintance stage.

I started developing some hobbies at the suggestion of an old mentor of mine. I have found them to be enjoyable and a good outlet for stress. But more than that, as he implied, they are excellent opportunities for relational ministry and evangelism. We have found this particularly true with our people groups. Indeed, these hobbies are one of the ways that Alana and I have found to balance our desires to be missionally incarnational (bringing the gospel to where people are at) and at the same time reflect the kind of sincere authenticity that is both personally healthy and appealing to postmoderns. To be a missionary to any people group you have to engage people in their daily activities, ministering to people in their daily lives. The postmodern people group, however, is very adept at discovering people who are feigning interest in something. They find any kind of personal façade nauseating. As a result, to be missional with them you must examine their culture, find things you actually like, and connect with them in that way.

What are some activities people in your community enjoy doing? What are some of those activities that are both morally acceptable and personally enjoyable? What are some ways you could begin to develop relationships with your pre-Christian neighbors and co-workers? If relational evangelism truly is the most powerful evangelism in our changing culture, what are you doing to be intentional about building evangelistic or discipleship relationships? Hobbies can indeed be evangelistic opportunities.

2006-12-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

Missional Parenting

My wife and I just had our first child. She's almost 2 months old now. As a result, I've been doing a lot more thinking about the daunting task of parenting. Several months ago I saw a title for a book that caught my eye - The Danger of Raising Nice Kids: Preparing Our Children To Change Their World by Timothy Smith (IVP, 2006). I purchased the book and have read most of it. The front cover says it all - a white, fashionably dressed, family of four standing in front of their stylish suburban home. The kids have bright smiles and appear well behaved.

Is this the American Christian Dream??

I don't just want to raise a "nice" kid that gets good grades and doesn't smoke pot. I don't wan't my goal for my children to just be: go to a good school, get a good job, marry a good spouse, and have "nice" kids. I want (to the best of my ability and with God's help) to raise my new daughter to "change her world." I want her to be a better missionary than I am. I want her to know the security of a mom and dad that loves her and a church community where she's safe and ultimately a Lord who has been a dwelling place throughout all generations (Ps. 89:1), but I also want her to know how to move adeptly in a culture that doesn't know God, how to be friends with someone who has a totally different worldview than her, how to go to parties where there are non-Christians and not feel totally awkward. I don't want to sacrifice my children, but neither do I want to shelter them. I want them to be missionaries who can critique and contextualize and bring the gospel to their world. I want my daughter to be as innocent as a dove, yet wise as a serpent (Mt. 10:16). And I want to parent in such a way that models this kind of missional mindset.

Everything must be missional. Including parenting.

2006-11-29T07:21:00.000-08:00

Missional Discipleship

What comes to mind when you hear the word 'discipleship'? For me it has always meant a Navigators Bible Study or a class on spiritual disciplines. We had a department in our church called 'Discipleship & Christian Education' with an Institute that offered classes like 'Bible Overview' and 'Christian Theology'. The idea was that we'd take people aside and teach them about God so that they would know him more and grow closer to him. Evangelism was an advanced topic for those who had mastered the prerequisites. It came much later in the curriculum. But I've been rethinking this philosophy of ministry lately.

Could it be that you are closest to Jesus when you're holding on tight to his coat tails; when you're right behind him trying to keep up as he leads you into the world? This is what discipleship really means - following Jesus. And when Jesus says, "Come, follow me," he leads us out into the world to engage the lost, to touch the lepers, to love the prostitutes, to heal the sick, to liberate the demon possessed,... to herald the arrival of the Kingdom. He was "a friend of sinners and tax collectors." He was on a mission "to seek and save the lost." Discipleship with Jesus was never static. He didn't take the Twelve away for three years of classes with handouts and homework. They learned who Jesus was as they participated with Jesus in his mission. It was discipleship on the go; learning while doing. You understand the gospel more as you partner in its advancement.

Missional theology says that missions isn't just one ministry that the church does (usually overseas). Evangelism can't just be one aspect of the church. Mission must permeate every sphere of church life, including discipleship. I think we need to regain a sense of 'missional discipleship'. I'm not suggesting that we do away with classes altogether. I'm a big fan of classical theological education and seminaries and cultivating the life of the mind. Doctrine is crucial! But for churches to approach discipleship apart from the context of mission is to distort what it really means to follow Jesus and to short-change its members by keeping them from true intimacy and knowledge of the Lord. We should be calling those in our churches to get on mission and then they'll really find out what Christianity is all about, not to simply worship, pray, read their Bibles, fellowship with other believers, and attend seminars (important as those things may be in their own place). We should be sending them out two by two to proclaim the gospel and then gathering them together for a class to learn from what they learned (cf. Mk. 6:7-13; 30-32).

One Campus Crusade staff worker at the nearby university puts it this way, "Discipleship without evangelism isn't discipleship; it's simply counseling." Counseling is needed, but is that all the church is for?? I fear that many churches have relegated mission to an elective by focusing on a discipleship sans mission, and in doing so have become ingrown and cliquish and have missed the point.

2006-11-15T09:24:00.000-08:00

Communal Evangelism

Individualism is rampant in our society today (it's an essential part of the American creed), but it has also colored the way we viewed Christianity in 'modern' times and, as much as 'postmoderns' talk about community, most of us are still deeply entrenched in a maverick mindset too.

One of the ways I see this is in the way we think of evangelism. Of course, we could talk a lot about this topic. The very way we conceive of the gospel has become overly individualistic. I won't go there now. But I want to propose that we start training ourselves to see the task of evangelism (sharing the good news of Jesus with others) as a communal task instead of every man for himself trying to 'lead people to Jesus'... and made to feel guilty if he doesn't.

Here's the analogy that started me thinking about this. Let me know your thoughts. It comes from a fabulous book by Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch entitled The Shaping of Things To Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church (Hendrickson, 2003). The following is an extended quote:

"It was Jesus who, in calling the first members of his faith community, the disciples, invited them to become fishers of people (Mark 1:16-18). By calling fishermen and inviting them to fish for humans, he used language that made sense to his hearers. But he did more than that. He used an image or a metaphor that conveyed a great deal more than some simple idea that he was concerned with 'catching' people. He made reference to an activity that fishermen engaged in regularly, and by doing so created a sense of the missional community that was to come.
"When we refer to fishing in our Western context, we think about a single person with a single rod and a single hook on the end of a single line. The fisherman is attempting to catch one fish with each cast of the line. It is a one-on-one engagement, and good fishermen know how to read the weather, the tides, the presence of weed, and the use of lures to catch that one fish. So when we read about Jesus inviting the first disciples (and by inference us) to fish for people, we might assume it's a similar one-on-one affair. We have thought of evangelism like this in recent years. We have been sent out to fish for someone we can bring into our church. Getting someone to attend a service with us or come to an evangelistic breakfast or youth rally has formed the foundation of much of Western evangelism. But unfortunately, a good many people in the West believe they have tried church and were left unsatisfied or they aren't interested at all in church attendance.
"But if we think about fishing during Jesus' time, it wasn't done with rods and reels. It wasn't one-on-one. Jesus' disciples would have thought of fishing with a net. They would have cast their nets out into the water, and dredged or dragged the sea as they hauled the net back onto the boat. Whatever happened to be swimming in the way of the net as it was lugged back on board would have been caught. The key to successful fishing wasn't in the technical details of tides and weather patterns, but in the strength of the nets. For this reason, Jesus' fishing disciples spent most of their working day, not out on the lake's surface, but on shore, mending their nets. If their nets were strong and tight, anything caught in them couldn't escape.
"If we relate this image to the missional-incarnational church today, it has important implications. Instead of adopting a stance that requires a Christian to leave a sacred zone to go and fish for an individual to return with him to that zone, it releases the church to see its 'fishing' as a more relational exercise. If the disciples spent so much time on their nets to ensure a catch, what might those nets be for us today? We propose that the web of relationships, friendships, and acquaintances that Christians normally have makes up the net into which not-yet-Christians will swim. We believe that the missional-incarnational church will spend more time on building friendships than it will on developing religious programs" (44).

Of course there's a lot here to chew on, but take that fishing analogy of Jesus' and combine it with the biblical idea of the church as a body with different gifts (one of them being the gift of evangelism; cf. Eph. 4:11), and the biblical account of the community at the end of Acts 2 that was tight and yet "the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved" (2:47), and Jesus' model of sending the apostles out in pairs (cf. Mk. 6:7), and Francis Schaeffer's quote that "community is the final apologetic," and ponder the implications for how we think about, motivate, train, and practice evangelism...

2006-10-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

John Stott prophetically wrote the following in 1990...

‘The rise of urban civilization’, wrote Professor Harvey Cox in The Secular City, is one of the ‘hallmarks of our era’. ‘Urbanization’, he continued, ‘constitutes a massive change in the way men live together’, as they have moved from tribe to town to technopolis. The urban experience includes a cluster of things like communications and mobility, the disintegration of traditional religion, impersonality and anonymity, human planning, control and bureaucracy. And in the decayed inner cities of our time we would have to add economic neglect, racial disadvantage, unemployment, poor housing and education, crime, violence, family breakdown, and tensions between the police and the community.

In 1850 there were only four ‘world class cities’ of more than a million inhabitants; in 1980 there were 225, and by the year 2000 there may be 500. Or consider the so-called ‘megalopolis’ or ‘megacity’ of more than ten million people. In 1950 only London and New York qualified. But by AD 2000 it is calculated that there will be twenty-three cities of this size, with Mexico City taking the lead at nearly thirty million inhabitants, and Sao Paulo and Tokyo following at nearly twenty-five million. Most of these megacities will be in the Third World; only four will be in Europe and the United States. Already two-fifths of the world’s population are city-dwellers; by the end of the century the ratio will be more like one half.

This process of urbanization, as a significant new fact of this century, constitutes a great challenge to the Christian church. On the one hand, there is an urgent need for Christian planners and architects, local government politicians, urban specialists, developers and community social workers, who will work for justice, peace, freedom and beauty in the city. On the other, Christians need to move into the cities, and experience the pains and pressures of living there, in order to win city-dwellers for Christ. Commuter Christianity (living in salubrious suburbia and commuting to an urban church) is no substitute for incarnational involvement.

From John R. W. Stott, The Message of Acts (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1990), 292-293.

2006-10-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

CMBA Church Planters Forum:
Saturday, October 29th, 2005 10AM – 1PM
REACHING THE EMERGING GENERATION

1) Why is the North American church having such a difficult time reaching the people with emerging worldviews with the gospel of Jesus?
We assume people have a biblical worldview. We present it as an outline and apologetics vs the story form. We have gotten away from biblical terminology. We are too focused on apologetics. To us it is compromise to change our unbiblical approach. Training evangelists instead of missiologists. Fail to see it as mission field. Afraid to get their hands dirty. Afraid to live and work in our community. Afraid to be incarnational. People feel they have tried Christianity at some point and it didn’t work. What is the platform to present the gospel. They don’t even understand their worldview. The gospel has been oversimplified. Months maybe years. Not everybody is at the same point. We do everything one-size fits all, in a diverse world. Too much distance between the believer and unbeliever in privileges, but not enough distance between disciples and non-disciples in lifestyle. Don’t understand the many facets of the gospel. Rigid-ness in our approach. Hypocrisy…dishonesty. We have gotten to far into politics. Self deluded into a feeling of safety.

2) If we were to come up with a simple statement of the gospel for presentation to emerging generations what would that statement be?
Problem – solution
Love – the story of God is the story of love. Demonstrate to them love for each other and love to them. Not a simple statement.
(we all know what you guys believed, wasn’t until I experienced the community)
Words are not effective. All about our actions and emotion.
They have stolen compassion for the poor from us.
Jesus told stories that undermined their values.
And asked amazing questions.

3) What are the best means of communicating this gospel message to post-modern people?
Community. Story Telling. Start using all of our gifts. Musicals, Broadway. Movies. Doing ministry together. Pre-evangelism, climatism. Postmoderns are open to the story. Open the door in the ministry. Relational, but not traditional relational evangelism. As I personally die for my friends then there is supernatural power in the gospel. Experiencing true love. Self-sacrifice of the things the world goes after.

4) What can a standard traditional or purpose driven church do to become more inviting to those of an emerging generation?
Not much. Get out of your office. Become more missional as opposed to attractional. As the pastor does so the congregation will do. The church will be nothing more than you are as a pastor. First Baptist Arlington: Multihousing, empowering their staff to open warehouse to meet the needs of the people, separate service for apartment ministers doing church in housing units. Change their definition of success. Reach people for the Kingdom but probably not in their building. Resourcing house-church movements. Thinking many-many different models. Not just English language. Change or die, not just suburban. Easier to birth something different or new than to change. Too much into just one strategy. PDC&WC=FF
Lets become more biblical.

5) Will ancient traditions or spontaneity be more valued by emerging generations?
Yes. Some traditions are good or legitimate, but be careful not be ensnared against the Word. Crazy busy world: centered, focused, solid, true, in traditions. Confucions. Windows, stations of the cross, positive side. Back to the story foundation. Update the stations of the cross to look different.

6) How should discipleship look for those who find standard discipleship materials lame beyond explanation?
Laying down my life for another, that is the root of spiritual life. Not curriculum driven but love driven. Mutual accountability. Mentoring. Coaching. Spontaneous as life situations come along. Encouraging a lost person to follow Jesus. Where does discipleship start and evangelism end? Luke’s favorite word for believers in the book of Acts was “disciples.”

7) What role could our current structures (established churches, denominations, associations, seminaries, publications, etc.) play in an emerging revolution?
Financially supporting those who they are sending out. Prayer. Experiment. Willingness to accept more failures than successes. Not to feel threatened. Adopting as opposed to giving birth. Seminaries stop looking so much like higher education. Three people sign off on seminary graduation. Networking, doing missions together, missional fellowship. Asking them to reform and retool themselves. Southwest vs Northwest. Offering facilities. Many churches have limited their feeling of what is “theirs” only to what is under their control. Much more inclusive.

2006-10-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

ADDITIONAL BLOGS AND LINKS

Check out our association's website

Check out Pastor Jon's personal blog

Check out our blog for collegiate ministries!

2006-10-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

Report: CMBA NextGen Scouting Trip to New York City
August 2nd, 2006 – August 4th, 2006. Keith Draper & Jon Pennington.

This report is presented as a basic summary of our findings during the interviews we conducted on this trip. As much as possible we are avoiding our commentary, subjective observations, and objective content questions. The purpose of this brief paper is simply to present without critique the views of those we interviewed, and thereby provide information for future dialogue. This information should not be assumed to be the perspective of either interviewer. Clearly all content in the interview needs to be critically evaluated to determine its value to our situation.

Kevin Pounds: The Point Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey
Dealing with the impact of losing SFC funds, wrestling with bi-vocational question.
His church is 1/3 college students, 1/3 “yuppies,” 1/3 young families. Looking at the possibility of a satellite congregation for the young families. Cell church strategy.
Excited about the Leadership Journey system of student missionaries.
Faced problems of adjustments of imported leaders to the northeast, too quickly moving towards a worship service, and overestimating the preparation of students.
Working on connecting both with the community and Rutgers campus.
Prefers serving the community as outreach over mass-marketing approaches.
Ministry outreach examples: water bottles, #2 Pencils, strategic acts of kindness.
Encouraged us to follow up with Aaron Coe in the Gallery Church in NY
Discussed cost/benefits of separate NextGen organization beyond Association.

Paul Gomez: Christ Communities House Churches in Manhattan, New York
Experimenting with developing a multiplying church planting network in center city.
Has structured house churches adequately to receive SBC blessing, but not funding.
Effectively reaching out to young professionals in the center city.
Mobility of population seen as a benefit in blessing the Kingdom.
Focuses on outreach that involves using the natural skills and interests of members to congregate a group for evangelization (i.e. golf outing)
Emphasizes the need to seek to understand the worldview of the people groups.
Appeals to people through their needs: social contact, intellectual conversation, and their drive to be involved in the community.
Discipleship arises through natural relationships focused on these integral human needs.

Andrew Mann: Graffiti Church #2 in Bronx, New York
Ministry in one of the five most dangerous neighborhoods in the city.
Has a history with Armitage, but prefers Graffiti model because it is more personal.
Was working that day with a mission team from down south teaching neighborhood kids how to play tennis.
Gave us a tour of the facilities they are remodeling as a kind of community center.
Discussed briefly the history of their church in spreading service into that community.
Focuses first on ministries, later on attempting to start worship service & programs.
Noted that people in the inner city will not get involved based on material things, but will get involved based on relationships they can trust. [surprisingly similar to 20 something alternatives]

Mark Reynolds: Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan, New York
Strongly suggested the leadership network in Dallas as a resource.
Redeemer contextualizes with abandon. Looking for planters w/ catalytic capabilities.
Outlined extensive interview & reference process for assessment. Materials available.
Bi-vocational is not an option since they need planters of a certain level of sophistication in the capabilities.
Focusing their outreach and multiplication on global center cities.
Alternatives and college students are not a people group they focus on because they are too “unstable” and tend to leave the city after a season.
They have more college students attending than “any church on the eastern seaboard” but they do nothing in particular to focus on ministering to them.
Don’t target twentysomethings directly, don’t be a marketer or attractional.
People ministering in the center cities tend to fail because: not contextualized, misinformed, poor methodology, simplistic, lack a robust theological vision, underestimate challenge.
They are looking for plants that are: strategic, financially well supported (millions), higher profile, saturation.
House churches won’t work because of: urban mobility, congregational attrition, demands of gainful employment, and cannot produce leaders.

JR Vassar: Manhattan Christian Church in Manhattan, New York
Met with him in a coffee house near his mid-town Manhattan office.
Compared and contrasted some of the strategies C3 and his church are using.
Discussed his perspective of the vitality of Presbyterian ecclesiology (Acts 29 Network)
Outlined the successes of their attempts (running around 100 after 1 year).
He shared about their first year budget of $1,000,000 and how they raised that kind of money from churches and individuals.
Discussed the ridiculous expenses he is facing in the city (i.e. $1500 per week rent)
He showed me a great idea of a subway map in a business card that they have mass distributed as a service to the community (100,000 of them) through mission teams. Of their 12 baptisms that first year 11 were related to that distribution.

Beyond these five there are a couple of other planters in the area we still need to try to touch base with over the phone or via email. We also can easily think of many other cities in North America and globally that could be of benefit for our team to examine. One conclusion we draw is that it might be helpful to annually gather those working on NextGen projects around the country for brainstorming sessions and encouragement. We would be excited to host that kind of gathering next year.

2006-10-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

Next Generation Taskforce Update (2/27/06)

Greetings everyone!

Even though our attendance was a bit low this last meeting we actually made a lot of progress towards a strategy. Here is a quick update:

1) We realize we need to raise awareness across the association of the need of reaching a next generation. We know this will be challenging, especially for churches that see themselves as struggling for survival. We are excited for the March 27^th meeting to be interpreting the theme of “Preparing Now.” We are planning on a worship set by Immanuel Baptist Church, preaching on a passage that emphasizes our commitment to sound biblical doctrine and grounds reaching the next generation in the text, and a vision casting session that uses multimedia, testimonies, and statistics to help people realize their great need.

2) We intentionally balance our passion for creativity in outreach with a deep commitment to biblical evangelicalism. Because of that, as a taskforce we are planning to read, critique, and discuss core philosophical writings that impact the emerging church and post-modern Christians. We will be starting by reading and critiquing: A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian D. McLaren

3) We hope to create networks around the city for those ministering to the different age clusters in the next generation. We are convinced that children’s workers in our various churches would benefit from knowing each other, the same for youth workers, the same for college ministers, and 20-something pastors. These networks can serve are resources for people who are looking for new ideas in reaching the particular age group. These networks will also have to form dialogue between themselves to ensure a smooth transition of discipleship as young people graduate from one group to another.

4) Clearly the task of reaching 500,000 college students in this entire region is beyond our current resources, let alone the 1.5 million people below the age of 30. We need to narrow that focus to pilot some programs, events, and communities that will serve as laboratories for us to implement findings across the city. Thus, we hope to mobilize all of our networks in working on a small set of projects that can help us overcome our current learning curve. For these projects we are setting the following parameters:

a) We will focus on college students: Youth workers can refer students as the graduate. We loose a vast majority of them as they go off to college.

b) We will focus on congregation planting: By starting congregations (as opposed to campus ministries) we can avoid loosing the students as the graduate from college, and we can help them become more involved in the communities around the campuses. This also would help with dealing with the commuter issue.

c) We will focus on the schools in Chicago’s loop: The loop has ties both to the city and suburbs. There are 50,000 college students in a variety of campuses in the loop. This gives us a highly limited geographic area to focus on, which is deeply unchurched, easy to access, recognizable by all, etc. This center city approach will easily allow us to spread the movement from that bull’s eye out into the rest of the city and suburbs.

5) In order to accomplish this outreach strategy we will focus on the following mega-steps:

a) We will identify 4 semester missionaries to research the different campuses in the loop. They can stay at ThePoint/C3 in Lakeview. They will research demographics, philosophy, student ministries, the student bodies, the community, etc. and turn those studies into 4 detailed reports by the end of the semester.

b) We will then form a planting team of 4 consultants. These are to be full-time roles. They will be funded by dividing up the 1 full-time role for college ministry we have approval for from the IBSA/NAMB into four quarters, putting them through assessment and seeking church planting funding for them, and looking for college ministry funding from the IBSA. Income beyond that they will be expected to raise on their own from their support network. They will be intimately connected to an existing church as a branch or daughter church, and will receive discipleship from that pastor. Their goal will be to form a cluster of congregations in the loop focused on reaching out to the particular schools the semester missionaries researched. We will seek support from all of the networks we form for these new roles.

c) They will present their discoveries in a way that can be used by all of networks involved in support them. They will help us to find ways to multiply their works out into the rest of the city and suburbs.

We still have a lot of details to resolve, but that is currently how far we have gotten. Thanks for your patience with us. This is a very daunting task. All of these plans are VERY tentative, please give and input or suggestions you have. Also, for those in the taskforce who were not there, this is the first you are seeing these suggestions, anything you see here is still in the dream phase… please help us to mold these dreams.

Following Jesus,

Pastor Jon Pennington

2006-10-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

NextGen Strategy for the Chicagoland Area

By Rev. Jon Pennington, Coordinating Pastor of C3, and Consultant for CMBA

With the collaboration of the CMBA Next Gen Taskforce

20 June 2006

The Statistical Problem

125+ college campuses around the Chicagoland area.
500,000+ college students studying on those campuses.
Only 1 full time Baptist collegiate worker in the entire region.
Other collegiate ministries equivalently weak.
Around 3 million people under the age of 25 in the region by 2009.
35.9% of the people in Chicagoland are under 25 years old.
Based on Adam Shield’s study, Chicago is the least churched city in America.
According to Barna, only 3 out of 10 twentysomethings attend church each week.
According to Barna, there is a 58% decline from the ages of 18 to 29
50,000+ college students (10%) attend school in Chicago’s loop.

Our Functional Assumptions

A NextGen Strategy should include everyone from birth to 35 years old.
A strategy for Chicago should eventually impact both Cook & DuPage Counties.
A NextGen Strategy should focus efforts first on college students.
Church planting is the best way to implement any missions strategy.
A center-city approach is ideal in reaching a large urban people group.
Investing in the ministries of people is preferred to investing in properties.

A Developing Solution

Form networks of Children’s workers, Youth workers, College workers, and emerging church planters to function both as encouragement and resourcing for strategy. These become “brain trusts” of people who are “experts” in these areas of ministry. Their dialogue could be helpful to each other, and also to churches interested in beginning NextGen ministry.
Create a series of blogs to serve as the collection pools for this resourcing information.
Use semester missionaries to begin detailed research of the campuses in Chicago’s loop area.
Create a multi-media flier/DVD that will generate excitement in Associational church to be involved in the networks and vision.
Draw significant funding from collegiate ministries and church planting to help subsidize the starting of four new congregations in Chicago’s loop focusing on loop campuses (Roosevelt, Columbia, DePaul, etc).
Create a CMBA NextGen Extension Coordinator ½ time position. Use funding both to support Coordinator’s consulting efforts and his involvement in a flagship NextGen church. Coordinator will serve as the link between campus ministries and the new work team. This coordinator role should be split between someone for planting and someone for development.
A church presence will add stability to the collegiate ministry, and allow them to also reach twentysomethings in close proximity. Many of those attending college in the loop end up living or working in the loop after graduation.
Many schools with campuses in the loop also have campuses around the city (i.e DePaul, Loyola, Northwestern), expand work over the years by staring additional congregations near related campuses.
Work next on campuses close to the loop: UIC, University of Chicago, etc.

Current Situation

A taskforce has been assembled to discuss strategies and begin forming the initial networks. They are currently meeting quarterly.
Primarily involved in this network are: Lewie Clark (Church Planter in Logan Square), Nathan Carter (Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Pilson), Ash Hodges (College Pastor for Chicagoland Community Church), Dave Arnold (Church Planter in Albany Park), Jon Pennington (Coordinating Pastor of Chicagoland Community Church, CMBA New Work Team), and various others. Jon Pennington is serving as team leader.
There is a growing excitement by those involved to move forward and begin the stated strategy.
Opportunities are presenting themselves frequently in different denominational meetings for Jon Pennington to teach about the emerging church.
We have some form of campus ministry actively functioning or beginning on the following campuses: Northwestern in Evanston (Evanston Baptist Church), Chicago State University (Full Time Position), DePaul/Moody (Chicagoland Community Church), Northeastern/NorthPark (Bridge City Church), UIC (Immanual Baptist Church)
There is a serious need to find ways to involve African American churches and Ethnic churches more in the NextGen conversation.
We need to also find more ways to include suburban churches and the younger age groups (children, youth) in on the dialogue.
Nick Kim has begun to work together with Jon Pennington to cover the church development side of the project.

Immediate Goals

Collect research data to develop a position paper defending the importance of reaching the next generation and being involved in the emerging conversation.
Read numerous books and discuss them as a team, that help us better understand the emerging church.
Recruit, train, and provide room & board for semester missionaries.
Discover and assess potential church planters for the loop congregation.
Establish the Next Gen Planting Coordinator Position and Next Gen Development Coordinator Position.
Begin promotional marketing plan to Association churches.
Ensure quarterly meetings of each of the NextGen networks.