J.R. Briggs
Attempting to behold the miracle long enough without falling asleep
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Archive for June, 2009
Common fears of planting missional churches
Blogger, thinker, pastor and professor David Fitch has a great post on the common fears people have of planting missional churches (Fitch is also a great writer. I highly recommend his book The Great Giveaway for all Christian leaders).
If you’ve thought about planting a church, do these fears ring true with you? Are there other fears you have that Fitch doesn’t address?
A place to sift through the gritty reality of life
It’s been almost a year since a ragtag group of people committed together to help birth this new endeavor/ecclesiological experiment called The Renew Community. One of the members of the core launch team is Jessica Salasin, a single twenty-something hairdresser who lives in Lansdale and loves Jesus with such courageous and refreshing honesty. This week, Jess sent an email to the other members of our launch team. It was so honest and raw – and reveals what many people today think and feel about this faith journey with Jesus. It so clearly articulates the journey our launch team has been on that I thought it was worth sharing. Jess has granted me permission to publish her words:
“It struck me as I was meeting with my house church this week how I still harbor such intense inner rebellion towards this whole Christianity thing. How am I supposed to influence anyone in crossing over to ‘the other side’ if I can’t even get passed my own ridiculous mess??? I still believe that God is good though, and was struck with such gratitude when considering the fact that I have a place to sift through the gritty reality of life, without shame or fear of judgment. There’s such freedom and comfort in being able to admit that you don’t know all the answers. Or that you haven’t even gotten close to asking all the questions, but that there are others waiting and ready to help carve that path out along side of you. That’s now going beyond my own house church and even the launch team… and rippling into streams I haven’t even given much thought to yet. One year ago, when maybe you were still considering what direction you would take with this, could you even imagine the impact some of those ripples might have???
One more thought, and then I’ll be done. No one is you. No one in the entire world has thought your thoughts or experienced exactly what you’ve experienced, or can say what it feels like to experience what you’ve experienced. You could hide it all away, or you could take it and run with it.”Random links worth your time
Photographer creates a portfolio of 100 abandoned houses in the Detroit area. Creative and depressing.
The United Methodist Church is trying to be hip and cool again. (Have you seen their ads in Newsweek lately? Surprisingly, they are actually quite compelling).
Wanna watch free -and good – documentaries online? Check out this site. It’s the Hulu.com of documentaries.
Eugene Cho speaks on validation. What do you think?
Check out this visual parable by I Love Pinatas.
Just recently heard about the musician Josh Garrels. This guy has a uniquely smooth voice. Check it out on his site.
Marketing guru Seth Godin speaks at TED on the importance of Tribes. Worth a watch.
Ever lost your luggage? (Dumb question. We all have). Ever wonder what happens to all that unclaimed luggage? It’s sold at auction. Then this guy buys them…and wants to return them to you. Strange, but altruistic, hobby.
100 (really) creative business cards. Some serious creativity (and money) was spent on these cards.
Here’s a good collection of the best Commencement speeches and quotes.
If you like words and are a visual processor, this site rocks.
Have you downloaded the new live Coldplay album yet? Good: its free. Better: it’s legal. Best: it’s fantastic.
I cringed and smiled watching this YouTube video called Bad Christianese.
Article in USAToday highlighting the rise of adoptions.
Wow. Someone has a pretty unique outlet for their creativity. What’s next?
New addicting time-waster. This site is hilarious.
Is the church secretary the most powerful person in the church? Maybe…
Is this the bridge illustration 2.0? Check out this video and tell me what you think.
This granny has got some guts. And some faith. Great story.
A great book review on David Bosch’s work Transforming Mission.
The gift of homelessness
Last week I read an incredible story. Did you hear about this?
From the Associated Press –
- Hiam Shatir may look like your average pastor, but he’s not acting like one. In a nation filled with expensive mega-church buildings popping up, Hiam instead chose to sell his mega-church, Crestview Community Church, and attempt to live into what he says is the call to “be the church.” And although many doubt him, Hiam just knew it was the right move to make. “We just felt it was the right thing to do,” said Hiam, a businessman turned pastor, from his converted basement where he now administrates the church. “We couldn’t put our foot on the problem. People were sitting in the pews and not doing anything. They would come and sit and leave. And we began to ask if this is the Gospel.”
Crestview was known for its amazing stage productions, heartfelt contemporary worship, and relevant sermon topics often based on current events and pop culture. It quickly grew in numbers—adding two satellite “video campuses” and a recently launched online church campus—and was cited as one of the fastest growing churches in the nation. “Having someone validate what we were doing like that was really cool at first. We were really good at creating the ‘Wow’ factor that would have them wanting more,” Hiam says in reflection. “But I would go home exhausted and consistently wonder what difference we were making. I didn’t like that. And I just reached a point where I couldn’t do it anymore.”
In what many would consider a stunning move for a 8,000-member mega-church, Hiam and the board of elders chose to sell their recently developed $12 million dollar campus to a local technology company, which is now planning to convert the sanctuary into a manufacturing facility. “Selling the building was easier than we thought,” one elder stated.
So what made this ultra-successful pastor of one of the city’s largest suburban communities take such a radical step? Hiam shared that it was faith. “One day I walked into the main sanctuary, and it was empty. It was this huge building that we were paying a mortgage on and it was dark. I just had this sense of wonder if this is really what Jesus would do. Would he have created this building? And then when the economy took a downturn, paying the mortgage became our primary concern. But everyone was hurting. We had to let people go from their jobs. All of a sudden paying the bills became our primary motivation.”
Hiam shared that his messages became motivated by how much those people could give to the church rather than the Gospel. And then a moment of clarity hit me. “I was standing there on a Sunday and, right in the middle of my sermon, I just stopped. I looked around and just realized that, if we let go of this burden, everything would change. It was at that time I started to really question our intentions. At the same time, some really good people asked if we were living ‘missionally.’ Were we really releasing people to minister to their neighbor? I didn’t have a good answer to that question.”
Hiam began to doubt his own faith and purpose. “It was a dark time. More than once I told my wife I wanted to quit and go back to business,” Hiam said. “I felt like I was losing my soul. But the board of elders stuck with me, and they began to ask how we could begin to use money to solve real needs when we saw them. We suddenly realized we had the power to release people to be ‘missional.’”
Hiam wrestled with the decision over a six-month period. He knew that letting go of the building meant doing things in a completely different way. “The show would be gone, and, in some ways, that was hard for my ego to let go. It essentially meant trusting God to work in the people and not being everything to everybody. It was like we had new glasses on. We quickly realized that, before, a small majority of people were doing almost everything. They were burned out and completely exhausted. Now everyone has responsibility and purpose. So many people came to me, thanking me,” Hiam said.
When the building was sold, many felt lost in the transition. “We immediately lost about 30% of the people who attended our church,” Hiam shared. That number roughly translates to almost a thousand people. “Everyone called me and told me they just wanted a place to go on Sunday. They didn’t want to go out into the world. People’s primary concern was the loss of our children’s program.”
In talking with several families that had left, one woman expressed what has become a common refrain of ex-Crestview members, “Who will teach our children about Jesus? We just felt we needed a good children’s program and didn’t want to lose that.”
Life for Hiam and the church is now more complex but, he says, more rewarding. To accommodate the lack of facilities, Hiam took the radical step and converted his basement into an administration center. “We slimmed down everything and focused on following Jesus into mission. We asked what it would mean to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. We now meet once a month for a large gathering and meal, and put all of our focus on meeting in homes. It meant really getting serious about discipleship and putting our trust into the hands of our gifted leaders.”
Once a regular speaker at evangelical conferences on topics such as leadership and church growth, Hiam says the invitations to speak have all but dried up. The shift has allowed Hiam to focus almost exclusively on meeting with leaders. He now meets almost daily with those who run discipleship groups in their homes. One leader, Bill Jarvis, liked the transition, “For the first time, I feel like I am understanding what Jesus meant when he said, ‘Go and make disciples.’ And I like it.”
The lack of mortgage has allowed the church community to give almost 80% of their tithe away. “We’re now seeing people take initiative where they wouldn’t before. We’ve empowered them to be Jesus right where they’re at. And they like it. One part of the community is using their money to help single mothers get through college. Another group has renovated an old warehouse and turned it into a community art complex. A third group builds fresh water wells for third world countries almost every month.”
Hiam is now more aware of his impact on the community and can’t imagine going back. “Someone just yesterday came up to me and said, ‘I don’t have to drive to the church to feel like a Christian anymore. I just have to go out my front door.’ That right there told me we made the right decision.”
I loved reading this story and was about to look up Hiam Shatir and send him an email telling him I admired his courage. Then I read the last two sentences to the story.
This is a work of satire. We hope it causes some reflection and sparks some good discussion about how we steward the church in the midst of this economic crisis. (Written by Jonathan Brink)
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I must tell you that after reading that disclaimer I was disappointed; I felt duped. But I am so grateful for this moving, challenging modern-day parable of kingdom courage. Stories like this make us say, “What if?” I enjoyed this story immensely.
Please hear me: this is not a let’s-bash-churches-that-have-big-buildings post. There is a very appropriate place for buildings, indeed. At appropriate times, there is a need for church facilities, but discussion and decisions about buildings must be taken very, very seriously and with great scrutiny. The danger and sad irony is that churches who own their own building can find that the building actually owns them. This is especially true in a sour economy as many churches aren’t looking to courageously expand the kingdom, but instead are looking to avoid ticking off too many people so they can pay the mortgage on the building. The sad reality is that many churches – even many large, well-known churches – are in maintenance mode, largely because of the cost, upkeep, maintenance and staffing of their buildings.
We’ve had hours and hours of conversation regarding the do-we-rent-or-do-we-buy? question. As we’ve wrestled with the frustration of trying to secure a building (rent or buy!) with little success, we’ve prayed our brains out, made dozens and dozens of phone calls and site visits and wondered aloud why God wasn’t making this easy for us.
I complained a lot to God about this issue several months ago. And my wild and crazy prayers early on were “Lord, give us a building! Have some rich person call us and offer to give us a building free of charge!” But my prayers have shifted a bit. I’ve stopped complaining and have actually thanked God that we haven’t had our own place. God may indeed provide someone to give us a building in the future, and that may be the most strategic way of engaging our community, but currently my prayers sound much more like, “God, this is your church. Provide exactly with what we need, whatever that may be.”
Renew has met in several different locations in the past year: a storefront, a park, a bar, a youth facility, homes and now a banquet hall/catering facility. I love that that is a part of our story. We’ve spent Sunday mornings setting up – and cleaning up empty beer cups from the party at the bar from the night before. We’ve brought lawn chairs and blankets and sat outside. We’ve sat on squatty plastic chairs in tutoring rooms with bright yellow walls. We’ve sat on couches in peoples living rooms. As uncertain and scary (and, at times, very inconvenient) as its been, we’ve never gone without a place to gather. God has been faithful; He always provided for us. Always. (And we’re certain that we will never have a church split over the color of the carpet if we continue with this!)
But here’s the story behind the story. Yes, its sometimes more work. It would be easier for us if we just had our own space. But I’m grateful that I’ve never heard anyone on our team complain about the physical space we’ve been meeting in – not once. I can honestly say that our uncertainty of securing a facility and being a bit ‘homeless’ has been the greatest tutor for us to remain on mission. We simply cannot become cozy and settle in because there is no place for us to officially settle in. We can’t huddle and cuddle. We’ve been in conversations with leaders and launch team members wondering if maybe the healthiest thing for our church would be if we never had a building to call our own. Sure, a lot can happen and factors can change, but I am grateful that God hasn’t answer my prayers a few months ago. Maybe having a building in the future and using it with great intention for the community by partnering with local government officials, local schools, food pantries, or non-profit agencies would be the best thing we could do.
Here’s why I’m thankful, rather than complaining. We’re reminded every week…
- We’re fully aware of our dependence upon God to provide and sustain us regarding where we gather. And when He does provide, we’re able to see God’s blessing to our community more easily.
- Being ambassadors on mission ‘out there’ is much more significant than simply being together ‘in here.’ We’ve connected with other organizations and people that we never would have if we had our own place. It ‘forces’ us to be in the community, whether we like it or not. We have to be light on our feet. If you have your own space, it doesn’t mean you are being amissional. Some churches I know are generous with their facilities and are able to engage the community by practicing hospitality with their building(s). It’s just that it’s easier to grasp the missional concept when you don’t have your own space.
- The Church really is about people and not about a location. People say that a lot – we get to live it out every single week. And that is a beautiful (and sometimes frustrating!) lesson, but one that is worth growing and learning in together.
- We’re becoming more adaptable. One of the greatest things we can learn as a church plant is adaptability. Biology shows us that organisms (and organizations) that adapt best not only survive, but remain healthy. The book of Acts was all about a flexibility to follow the Spirit at a moment’s notice, wherever he may be going. I think this has helped us be flexible and have a higher threshold of change tolerance. Hopefully our threshold for change tolerance is high enough that we won’t ever respond with a knee-jerk reaction of “We can’t do that. We’ve never done that before!”
- We can use the financial resources entrusted to us for other kingdom activities. We’re able to generous right from the start by financially supporting other great causes, ministries and people involved in kingdom activity.
I’m not saying that churches owning buildings are a bad thing. What I am saying is that each church needs to ask the hard questions regarding their buildings. What’s helpful is to note the questions that surface – the ones verbalized and maybe more importantly, the ones everyone is thinking but no one is willing to say out loud. For example, a few weeks ago a pastor with sadness in his voice and embarrassment on his face, confided in me saying that while the board of his church would like to ask the question “How do we serve Jesus faithfully?” they are only able to ask, “How do we pay the bills this month?” But the thing that shocked me the most was that he told me he envied our ‘homeless’ situation at Renew!
Of all the questions, the main one worth wrestling with: “Do our facilities enhance the way God’s mission is expressed – or do they subtract from it?” Is it a catalyst or an impediment? And it may not mean selling the building (although it certainly may, like the fictitious story above implies). But it may instead mean a drastic re-thinking of how your building is used throughout the week -or even on Sunday.
Think back to the story above.
What are your reactions?
What was your initial response when you read it?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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