The Power of a Whisper

Do you ever wonder if God still speaks to people today? Do you ever wonder if God might speak to you? Do you wonder if you would recognize God’s whisper if He did speak to you? I enjoy reading books that relate to the topic of spiritual formation. At any given time, I’m reading three or four books, one of which is usually related to spiritual formation. So when I saw The Power of a Whisper, I picked it up and read it.

The biggest take away from The Power of a Whisper is Hybels’ affirmation that God still speaks to his people today. When God speaks, He speaks in simple, yet profound ways. God’s whisper does not come in designated places like churches or during designated times like our daily devotionals. He speaks in all areas of life and at all times of life. While God’s voice doesn’t always change our circumstances, His voice will change us and our approach to our circumstances.

I found The Power of a Whisper to be practical, inspiring, and compelling. If you feel as though your time with God has become stale, or if it’s simply been a while since you have heard God’s whisper, I’d recommend this highly encouraging book.

Where Ideas Come From

I thought this was a cool presentation!

The Kingdom Life: A Practical Theology of Discipleship and Spiritual Formation

Books written out of the experience and conversation of community are always a treat. When many voices speak to a given topic it provides a rich sense of balance and heightens credibility. The Kingdom Life: A Practical Theology of Discipleship and Spiritual Formation is such a book. Birthed out of a series of meetings of a group that became known as TACT (Theological and Cultural Thinkers), The Kingdom Life presents to readers and church leaders a way to think about spiritual formation that goes beyond how to practice the spiritual disciplines.

The fruit of TACT’s labor was to establish the elements of spiritual formation into two sections, process elements and theological elements. They are summarized below:

Element One: The gospel of the Kingdom is the realm of God’s active goodness in forming us in Christ as we follow Him. The way we understand the Kingdom of God is to participate as apprentices of Jesus.

Element Two: Spiritual formation is rooted in relationship with God and one another. It calls us to not only relate to God, but to one another in communities of grace, trust, love, humility, and justice.

Element Three: Spiritual formation into Christlikeness involves an intentional public, personal, and communal commitment to living as Jesus’ disciples who are being transformed into His image in all aspects of our lives as we learn to obey His commands.

Element Four: Spiritual formation is a lifelong pursuit of being conformed to the image of Christ from the inside out and not a matter of external activity alone.

Element Five: Spiritual formation is a continual process of transforming the whole person, including the healing of woundedness and rebellion, by the power of God, not to be confused with mere technique or program.

Element Six: Spiritual formation occurs when God, in his grace, invades the destructiveness of suffering that results from the fall and uses the pain of suffering for his redemptive purposes in His people. Suffering is an agent of God through which He forms us in Christ. (This chapter alone is worth the price of the book!)

Element Seven: Spiritual formation in Christ is a process of growing in Kingdom living and participating in God’s mission. Those who pursue spiritual formation will by necessity become people of mission.

Element Eight: The theology of spiritual transformation emerges from the Trinitarian nature of God—relational, loving, gracious, mutually submissive, and unified in will.

Element Nine: Spiritual formation takes place by the direct work of the Holy Spirit, regenerating and conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ as the Spirit indwells, fills, guides, gifts, and empowers people for life in the community of faith and in the world.

Element Ten: Spiritual formation is based upon the Bible as God’s reliable and authoritative revelation. The Bible guides and informs the use of spiritual disciplines and models of spirituality as they have emerged worldwide throughout time.

Each of the preceding elements becomes the topic sentence of a chapter written by a member of the TACT group. They are well researched, Biblically undergirded, clearly written, and amply illustrated. The book concludes with a helpful Epilogue devoted to describing ways that churches can foster spiritual formation among their congregations without becoming programmatic or legalistic. I would recommend this book to Christians who desire to pursue spiritual formation in a balanced way that goes beyond a contemplative life of devotion in isolation. The strength of the book is its explanation of how spiritual formation works in community and in mission. You can live a life committed to spiritual formation without a moving into a monestary!

A Heart for the Community

Serving in urban St. Louis during the late 1980's and early 1990's presented a pretty steep learning curve. I grew up in rural northeast Missouri and attended college in a county seat town that boasted a population of around 10,000. Don't get me wrong, I loved the city of St. Louis. Still do. Two of my children were born there. And I learned a lot about people and ministry during that first decade of full time service. If the streets were tough, you just had to be tougher. If money was tight, you had to be more creative. If the work load grew heavy, you had to work longer. All in all it was a good ministry, but I honestly shudder to think of what could have been.

Since those days I realize how little I knew about urban ministry and the impact I could have had if I had only known the kind of information available in the latest book I've read titled A Heart for the Community by John Fuder and Noel Castellanos. This book was birthed out of the urban ministry of various leaders and organizations in urban Chicago. Some 35 contributors wrote extremely helpful sections resulting in this reference guide for those who lead ministry in urban locations and suburban areas that are beginning to undergo transition.

The book is divided into four sections, each complete with multiple chapters by multiple voices. Section one details some of the critical issues facing urban areas including a helpful chapter that explains neighborhood gentrification and how to identify it. Section two describes and evaluates several church planting models that have found success in urban areas (e.g. the "Hip Hop Church," "House Church," and "Replants," et al). Section three provides an unexpected series of conversations regarding challenges surrounding the transitioning of suburban neighborhoods where poverty is meeting luxury, chiefly due to the gentrification of the inner city. The final section details several parachurch organizations that are committed to serving the needs of the urban culture and how churches and parachurch organizations can work together to accomplish kingdom causes.

If you've served, are serving, or are called to serve the city, pick this resource up and keep it near you. It will inform you and inspire you as you serve among the "least of these."

The Strategically Small Church

It’s about time! That was my first reaction to picking up The Strategically Small Church. Written by small church pastor and Leadership Journal editor Brandon O’Brien, this book was a breath of fresh air in an era that is replete with “how to” books written by big guys about their big places. O’Brien vicariously pushes back against the conventional wisdom of the church growth movement and shares a very encouraging word to those who faithfully plod along.

O’Brien introduces his monograph with some helpful explanation behind the book’s title. A strategically small church isn’t necessarily an intentionally small church, but rather a church that is comfortable in its smallness because it has recognized some of the unique advantages that smallness offers to both congregation and community. Utilizing the strengths of its size, the small church can leverage what it brings to the table and make a significant impact. O’Brien quotes Chuck Warnock, who has said that “small churches are in desperate need of brand revival.” This was an important insight, because the number one problem of the small church is not its size but its perception. Being small is not the problem, according to the author. The problem lies in the insecurity and defensiveness that rises out of the failure to meet the expectations of their selves and others.

According to research in the book, 94% of churches in America are less than 500 in attendance, 177,000 of which are less than 100 in weekly attendance. Just over 5% of churches statistically average between 500 and 2,000, with one half of one percent exceeding 2,000 in weekly attendance. O’Brien suggests that there is a real problem if the 94% of small churches try to mimic the one half of one percent who are over 2,000 each week instead of working within their strengths and giftedness to meet the needs of their communities. The author suggests that small churches should recalibrate the metrics of success. He believes that bigger churches appear more successful because the possess statistics in areas that we already know how to measure. It is easy to put a statistic on church growth, but how does one measure kingdom growth?

The core of the book describes four strengths that small churches need to assess as such and build upon. The first strength that the small church inherently possesses is authenticity. Due to their size, small churches more naturally offer possibilities for personalized and intimate relationships. Small churches are somewhat more transparent, making hypocrisy more difficult to mask. O’Brien encourages the small church to simply stay authentic and to resist the temptation to be something they are not. By avoiding trendiness and business models the small church can maintain a high level of authenticity.

The second strength the writer points out is that small churches are lean. Instead of trying to “become all things to all people,” the small church should seek to do the things that no one else is doing and find a particular niche that the entire church can rally around. Programs should be developed solely on community need and giftedness within the body to exercise those programs. If a small church has members that have a particular interest that the church is incapable of developing, the author recommends that those particular members adopt a kingdom mindset and go serve that particular need through the auspices of a neighboring church.

Strength number three is for the small church to equip its members to serve as the missional presence of Christ through their jobs and neighborhoods. He cites statistics that reveal that people have significantly less discretionary time and income than their grandparents who devoted endless hours and dollars to their churches. Because of this socio-economic trend, O’Brien believes churches can be more effective by training their memberships to serve as they are and where they are rather than developing programs that depend on the church building to serve as the epicenter of ministry. Small churches need to shift their value system from attracting to sending and recognize the importance of making Kingdom contributions.

Finally, small churches should recognize the intergenerational advantages it possesses and use the older generations to mentor the young. This chapter offers the suggestion that small churches not feel pressured to age grade every ministry, but to let the natural blending of both young and old foster a family environment.

In conclusion, O’Brien confesses that the problem of the small church is that the very thing it’s attempting to achieve is the very thing that is undermining the very opportunity it’s been afforded. By exercising the natural strengths due to its size, the small church can, as it always has, continue to make an impact people’s lives and communities.

The Strategically Small Church is an excellent read for anyone in a church under 300. If you are a member of such a church, you’ll benefit deeply by this thoughtful and well written book. I would recommend that you purchase a copy, and after you’ve read it, share it with a friend or your pastor who is a part of a small church. It may be the most encouraging gift you give this year.

Making Ideas Happen

One of the things that I appreciate most about my career peers is the level of creativity they possess. Think about what the average pastor has to produce over the course of a year. There are sermons to be researched, written and then orally communicated to attendees that possess on average a seven minute attention span. There are services for special occasions ranging from holidays to weddings and funerals. There is program administration, which requires a pastor to take a concept and lead volunteers to action. And in addition to all of this is the routine writing of letters, articles, and in my instance, a blog where I make about four posts per week. All of that to say that over a lifetime, a pastor creates volumes and volumes of material, beginning often with nothing more than a Bible, a pen, and a legal pad. Many ideas get implemented. But I suspect many are left to wither and die on the corner of a napkin that is tucked in a desk drawer.

Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky is one of the best reads I’ve picked up in 2010. While it is clearly written for a business audience, I think it is very applicable to the pastors and clergy of our communities of faith. The title was compelling because I’m one who typically spends most of his time with the right half of the brain. Getting the plethora of ideas turned into reality has always been a sticking point for me. Thankfully, I’ve been blessed in my ministry career to be partnered with people who are excellent at gaming out those annoying nuts and bolts. Belsky’s book is helpful because through it I have discovered that I need to assume the responsibility for turning those wonderful ideas into action plans.

I think it’s important to note that Making Ideas Happen is not a book about how to become creative or how to increase creativity. By and large, the author assumes that the reader’s primary challenge is not the absence of creativity. The book is about how to take your ideas and turn them into something tangible. Any idea, regardless of good it may be, is nothing more than an idea unless it is executed. In fact, according to Belsky, an average idea with a plan of implementation is always better than a great idea with no plan of implementation.

The book is written in three broad sections. The first section deals with how to organize and execute ideas. Beginning with a bias toward action, the author walks the reader through basic steps of how to organize and structure an idea so that the idea can transition from concept into something that is concrete. The best basic advice he provides is that once the idea is conceived it must immediately be viewed as a project. Treating the idea as a project aids the creative mind in the actual implementation of the idea as well as fending off any distractions that might rear their heads.

Section two deals with “othering.” Ideas need members of the community to speak to them in order to help shape and refine them. I found this section intriguing because Belsky advocates vulnerability and transparency over and against vanity and narcissism. Anyone who has had an idea faces the temptation to become protective and possessive. Vanity can prevent the honest evaluation from others that is often necessary to put the concept in motion. As I read this I thought of artists, musicians and entertainers who have split up or sued over “creative control.” Belsky goes 180 degrees against that line of thought and encourages creative people to expose their ideas to feedback and evaluation. He makes it simple, asking the reader to consider whether creative control is the goal versus implementation. Great question!

In the concluding section, Belsky discusses the implications of creativity upon leadership styles. This section is helpful because Belsky addresses issues such as how creative people express leadership and how creative people prefer to be led. This section may have been worth the price of the book.

For too long people have polarized themselves around labels such as abstract and analytical. The author demonstrates that through discipline the creative person can have the best of both worlds. Making Ideas Happen was helpful on many levels, and I whole heartedly commend it to you for your reading pleasure. I believe you will find it beneficial.

Integrity by Dr. Henry Cloud

Henry Cloud may be best known for his series of works co-authored by John Townsend on the subject of Boundaries. But his most helpful contribution to my life has been his book titled Integrity. It was recommended to me about a year ago by a friend, and when I saw it at a local bookstore I picked it up and read it. I am not sorry!

Without going into tremendous detail, Cloud defines integrity as "the courage to meet the demands of reality." That alone should pique your interest. From that starting point Cloud presents the case for integrity as the unifying ordering of one's character which allows the leader to meet the demands of reality. The book is organized around six aspects of character, which I list as follows.

1. The ability to connect authentically which leads to trust.
2. The ability to be oriented toward the truth which leads to finding and operating in reality.
3. The ability to work in a way that gets results and finishes well which leads to reaching goals, profits, or the mission.
4. The ability to embrace, engage, and deal with the negative which leads to ending problems, resolving them, or transforming them.
5. The ability to be oriented toward growth which leads to increase.
6. The ability to be transcendent which leads to enlargement of the bigger picture and oneself.

I think this book would be helpful to any leader, manager, or person who desires to do some genuine "heart work." You will find the benefits to be enriching.

Introducting the Missional Church by Alan Roxburgh and Scott Boren

Recent releases on the Missional Church fall into two categories. First, there is the theological reflection category replete with information on what the Scripture says about embracing our sentness into the world around us. The other category of books on the Missional Church are the ones that focus on the tactical and the practical.

Introducing the Missional Church by Roxburgh and Boren does a nice job of accomplishing both tasks. Because of its newness, defining the Missional Church is a work in progress. But the authors do an exceptional job of explaining what the missional church is and what she is to be about in the Kingdom landscape.

Beyond the definition, the authors provide some helpful materials for established churches that are considering transitioning from their attractional model to a more missional minded model of ministry.

The book is a simple read and is well written. If you're just tuning in to the missional church, I encourage you to pick up a copy. It is well worth the simple investment.

How Much is Enough? (Part 3)

In Richard Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline, the author offers 10 Principles for Fleshing out Simplicity for today. They are listed as follows:

1. Buy things for their usefulness, not their status.
2. Reject anything that produces control (obsessions, addictions) over your life.
3. Develop the habit of giving things away.
4. Be skeptical of the promise of gadgets.
5. Learn to enjoy things without having to own them.
6. Develop a deeper appreciation for your creation.
7. Refuse debt, no matter how tempting the payment plan or interest rate may be.
8. Obey Jesus instruction about plain, honest speech.
9. Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others.
10. Shun anything that distracts you from Jesus’ admonition in Matthew 6:33.

Remember, internal realities are not real unless they have an external expression, and to exercise external expressions without an internal center produces legalism.

Simple Life

One of the resources I used for the weekend series I recently concluded was Simple Life by Thom and Art Rainer. Simple Life is a companion piece to the book Simple Church, utilizing the same concepts except focusing them on one’s personal life.

Based on a research sample of 1,077 people, team Rainer conducted surveys and personal interviews to identify the struggles and concerns of our fellow Americans. The resulting research became the outline of the book addressing our lack of margin in four key areas of life: enough time to get everything done, finding balance in relationships, having enough money, and connecting with God.

The authors applied the same steps to help create simplicity in life that they applied to help create simplicity in the local church. These steps are described as ways to help create margin and space in our fast and cluttered lives. Step one is to establish clarity, which is to say that you have a plan and that the plan clearly states where you want to go. Step two is movement, which is the intentional step by step process that one takes to move forward down the desired path. Step three is alignment, which is the (sometimes) painful elimination of things both bad and good that will help one focus on the best. Finally, step four is focus, which is the diligence to say no to the good so that you can say yes to the best.

Simple Life is very practical. Though it is written by Christians for a Christian audience, it is not overtly theological. For those looking for some basic steps to bring order into the chaos that is their lives, the book will be valuable. For those looking for more of a theological foundation as to how to live life as God intended, they may want to look at Richard Foster’s Freedom of Simplicity.

After You Believe

“Virtue is what happens when wise and courageous choices have become ‘second nature’.” So begins N.T. Wright’s monograph titled After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters. After You Believe is the third part of Bishop Wright’s trilogy, which includes Simply Christian and Surprised By Hope.

Spiritual formation is a trendy topic these days among evangelicals, and Wright’s work could easily fit into that category. But his approach is not taken from the normal course of action which centers on the classical spiritual disciplines. Rather, Wright approaches spiritual formation from the perspective of character development, primarily concerning what it takes to develop virtue in life.

Wright’s writing style is enjoyable. He’s the master of using metaphor to explain difficult concepts and principles. This volume is no different in that regard. He spends a good portion of the introductory pages explaining Aristotle’s pathway to virtue as the backdrop against which Jesus came into the world and proclaimed his message of the kingdom. This historical background gives the reader more clarity in interpreting Jesus’ message about what constitutes the good life and what it actually takes to become a good person.

Wright not only explains virtue and character development from the teachings of Christ, he expands the conversation to include helpful interactions with the Pauline materials concerning virtue, namely “faith, hope, and love,” and the “fruit of the Spirit.”

He concludes with what he calls the “Virtuous Cycle,” and demonstrates how Scripture, story, example, community and praxis all work together to help us develop and apply Christian character in the 21st century.

I am a tremendous fan of the works of N.T. Wright, and highly recommend this work. Wright has a deep comprehension of the New Testament and a perspective on American Christianity that is refreshing. His writing is thoughtful and articulate and provides clear ways to appropriately apply his suggestions.

Living the Sabbath

One of the benefits of my education has been the wonderful people I have met along the way who have been superb resources to me in ministry. One such person is my friend of nearly 30 years, Dr. Ken Gore, chair of the Department of Religion at Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. When I outlined my present sermon series, one of the things I wanted to do was preach a sermon on creating margin in our schedules, and the basis of that thought was the Old Testament teaching on Sabbath. So when I needed a good resource on the subject, I called Ken and shared my thoughts.

Ken recommended a very fine monograph titled Living the Sabbath by Norman Wirzba. Wirzba serves as the chair of the Department of Philosophy at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky. Thanks to my friends at Amazon, I held it in my hand in four days, and must confess it was money well spent.

I had supposed that Sabbath would be an excellent foundation for teaching about God's perspective on time, but I quickly discovered that Wirzba had much more in mind than how Sabbath influenced Hebrew thought about calendars and schedules. Wirzba takes the Sabbath principle to a fuller, more rounded expression about simplicity, inclusive of perspectives on time, family life, education, the environment, possessions, and of course, worship.

Having stated the obvious concerns at hand in our modern culture in the preface, the author deals systematically with the meaning of Sabbath from both a biblical basis as well as from Rabbinical tradition. Not only does Wirzba handle the Old Testament texts, he moves across the aisle to the New Testament and provides some helpful understanding of how to apply the principles of the Sabbath to our Christian worldview.

I have much I could say about this book, but will limit my thoughts to two excellent contributions offered by the author. First, I was impressed by Wirzba's insistence that we understand and apply the Sabbath in principle to our present setting. Sabbath is an important aspect to achieve and maintain a sense of pacing and rhytmn to every day life. Application of the Sabbath, in the writer's words are, "a matter of life and death."

A second contribution of value is his explanation of rest. Sabbath rest (shabbat menuah) is not the rest of recovery from some strenuous or exhausting physical exertion. Rather, menuah is the delight and celebration that is achieved after the completion of a purposeful activity (cf. Genesis 2:1-3). That thought alone was worth the price of purchase.

I would highly recommend Living the Sabbath. It's scholarly, yet readable. It's theological, yet practical. Most of all, it's simply helpful.

Already Gone

Already Gone: Why You Kids will Quit Church and What You Can Do About It by Ken Ham and Britt Reemer

A recent study was conducted regarding the decline of churches in Great Britain. As of 2003, a mere 2.5% of the population attended an evangelical church. Many of the houses of worship in metropolitan areas have been converted into restaurants, theaters, and pubs. What happened? Is this abandonment we are witnessing in Great Britain a foreshadowing of things to come here in the United States?

Here in America, Barna Research Group has done similar research regarding those who are in their 20’s. Their study revealed that a whopping 61% of those in their 20’s who were involved in church during their teen years are now disengaged from any congregation.

Why?

Answers in Genesis commissioned a study conducted by America’s Research Group to answer that very question. The research sample was 1,000 people between the ages of 20-29 who do not attend church. Of that group, the study discovered that 95% had been regular church attendees during their elementary and middle school years; 55% had been active during their high school years; and 11% had remained involved through college.

Of that same sample, 39.8% admitted to developing doubts about faith in middle school; 43.7% admitted to developing doubts in high school; and 10.6% admitted the same during their collegiate experience. What does that mean? According to Ham, these adults didn’t begin to doubt in college, they simply departed by college. Though they were in church on a regular basis, their hearts and minds were already in the process of checking out.

Admittedly, this is fascinating research, which begs the question, “How did it all unravel?” Ham devotes the lion’s share of the book to the following three observations. These observations are his explanation of what went wrong.

1. Sunday School is the leading source of the failure rate. In fact, according to Ham, Sunday School programs in America are doing more harm than good, actually contributing to the dropout rate. According to the research interviews, those who responded stated that Sunday School had no measureable impact on their beliefs. Sunday School was, in their experience, a place where moral values were taught and inspiring stories were shared, but to the exclusion of Bible teaching that helped equip them to answer the question, “Why?”

2. The second contributor to the failure rate was parents, who delegated spiritual teaching to the volunteers of the church. The respondents to the survey shared that faith was seldom discussed at home, and that the high majority of spiritual influence came from those who instructed them at church.

3. The final source cited was that the Bible was made irrelevant to their lives. In their church experiences, the Bible lessons were disconnected from the real world, lacking any form of integration of faith in life and leading to hypocrisy.

Pretty strong words, to say the least. But Ham doesn’t finish with his evaluation. He concludes the book by sharing two solutions for churches to implement to help reverse the trend in America.

Solution 1: Introducing teaching curricula for children and youth that is heavy in apologetics. Apologetics is basically a defense of a belief. What Ham is suggesting is that churches must move beyond the “what” of the Scripture towards the “why” of the Scripture. It is no longer enough for students to know the point of fact information of the biblical accounts. Teachers must be equipped to help students understand what the real world implications are of the Bible. In the past, we have usually waited until people reached their adult years to delve into these processes, but Ham suggests we must begin early. To his point is the stunning claim from Barna Research Group that by the age of 13, a student’s world view is completely formed and developed (for more information, read Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, by George Barna).

Solution 2: Live the Gospel. Children and teenagers need living models to provide examples as to how one animates the gospel of Jesus. Teaching Bible lessons without the practical application of how the gospel works in real time creates a sense of irrelevance, not unlike the claim of a high school math student who shrugs and says, “I don’t know why I have to learn this…I’ll never use this information again in my life.” Parents and teachers alike must provide practical applications and model those values in a discernable way.

Already Gone is a fairly quick read. I think it serves its intended purpose of providing a wake-up call to parents and church leaders who wonder why those in their 20’s no longer participate in the life of the church. I agree with Ham’s broad brush strokes, but struggle with some of the particulars he presents. For example, Ham hinges all of the doubts the departed possess on the failure of the church to regularly teach a literal seven day creation. All things hinge on this one thing. So if you can push past the soap box and the subtle marketing for Answers in Genesis, you will find this a useful resource.

Real Church by Larry Crabb

I first became acquainted with author Larry Crabb through his best selling book Inside Out. Crabb is a Colorado based Christian psychologist and speaker who had written several books that have made him an oft quoted source. I typically do not gravitate toward the psychology or self-help sections of the book shelf, but when I saw that Crabb had published a new release, Real Church, I thought I’d pick it up and read it, especially given that one of the book’s testimonials was by Dallas Willard.

The full title of the book is Real Church: Does it Exist? Can I Find it? The cover bears the full title in the motif of a movie marquis. That should have been a clue about what was to come between the covers.

The 155 pages inside contain the confessions of the author who states that he is tired of and disinterested in church. He’s been there, done that, and feels that the church has let him down. Crabb writes, “Unplanned and unanticipated, this book jumped out of my personal disappointment, frustration, and concern with church as I’ve experienced it.” He then unpacks all of the wrong reasons that lead people to attend church. They are as follows:
1. Going to church will make my life better. (Seeker Sensitive)
2. Going to church will show you how Jesus wants you to change the world. (Missional, Emergent, Acts 29, et al)
3. Going to church is all about saving lost souls and helping the already saved to be visibly moral. (Bible Exposition)

Apparently, these are the types of churches that Crabb has attended and/or his general categorization of the types of church’s that predominantly exist in America. None of these styles of churches as defined by his evaluation are suitable to meeting the needs of his life or the yearnings of his struggling heart. So after hammering the Bride of Christ and her faults for 84 pages, Crabb settles down to list the characteristics of the kind of church he believes he wants. The marks he suggests are listed below:
1. A church that hungers for the truth that sets addicts (as in, addicted to self) free.
2. A church that respects the necessary ingredients in the remedy for addiction.
3. A church that finds contentment in wanting what Jesus wants.
4. A church that is mission energized.

The author takes some real, personal risks in Real Church. His stated goal is to be confessional about his struggles in his personal walk with God. Those struggles are real, and to his point if we’re all honest we all experience those same kinds of problems. I believe that his struggles, along with our own should be affirmed.

But as a pastor, I do take issue with his insistence that somehow his struggles are the fault of the church and the pastors of churches. Every pastor in America has heard a church member utter the phrase “I don’t feel like I’m being fed” more than once. And most of those pastors that hear those stinging words are not entertainers or rock stars. Nor is that their goal. In many ways Crabb portrays yet another brand of consumer Christianity, albeit with more sophisticated felt needs.

I specifically struggled with Crabb’s profile of the American church. He does a grave injustice to the missional church movement, making it inclusive of the emergent church, the Acts 29 network, and a host of who knows what. He admits that he doesn’t understand the missional church movement, but evidently he has judged it nonetheless to be inadequate and insufficient for what he believes he (read we) need.

In general, Crabb’s book is written in a painful style. His flowing stream of consciousness weaves in and out of circular reasoning that makes his point(s) hard to follow. On one hand he would have the reader believe he’s interested in sharing his “confession.” But on the other hand, the dominate one at that, the reader is left with a scathing rebuke of everything wrong with the American church.

He argues that he cannot be awakened by “formulas.” Which is ironic, given the fact that his self-discovered solution to his need is “revival.” So with a concluding invitation to join him in prayer for “revival,” he offers a bonus section of his new book, 66 Love Letters, which is now available for purchase. This resource promises to help our churches “fight biblical illiteracy and develop a compelling spiritual theology.”

Management Rewired

Recently I picked up and read Management Rewired by Charles Jacobs. While I confess I don’t know much about business or what’s trendy in business management, I did find this book interesting and helpful, primarily due to the fact it is different than some of the other books I’ve read on the topic. Using some of the latest research on brain science and neurology, Jacobs offers some insights as to why leaders and organizations do what they do and how they can do them better. I thought I’d share a few of the notes I took from the book that I found to be insightful.

· Leadership is primarily concerned with ideas. Good leaders get the big ideas right. When they do, a lot of other things will fall into place. Jacobs elaborates by saying that the power of an organization is in its ability to generate ideas.
· Jacobs argues that leaders cannot change organizations, but they can change people who change the culture of the organization.
· This transformation is accomplished through the power of storytelling.
· Much of our thinking is organized in stories. Stories and metaphors help us to organize our experience of the world. The more we tell the story, the more the story shapes us.
· If you want to know what’s going on in your organization, you have to figure out what story the people are telling themselves.
· You change your environment by changing your story. It is important to craft the story with a predictable outcome that promotes the change you want to see.
· Rather than emphasizing organization, leaders should work on shaping the culture that shapes thinking. Culture is a convenient way of thinking about patterns in behavior in a organization that isn’t hardwired by policies, procedures, or structure.
· The right hemisphere of the brain sees “wholes” and is responsible for our emotions. The left hemisphere of the brain is the center of logic. It delays immediate gratification. The power of story is that story unites the two hemispheres.
· One of the reasons organizations make poor decisions is their unwillingness to delay immediate gratification.
· Leadership isn’t about forcing people to do one’s bidding. It’s about telling a story so that people can do what they need and want to do.

In the final pages of this monograph, Jacobs' lists five characteristics that mark Transformational Leadership. They are summarized as follows.

1. In order to shift the paradigm, leaders have to change the way people think within the organization.
2. Any successful paradigm shift must be a participative process. For example, Plato influenced thinking by asking questions.
3. Leaders can influence paradigm transformation by conveying an aspirational but credible view of the future.
4. This view of the future is communicated through story. Leaders have to tell a better story than the story the people are currently telling themselves.
5. Finally, transformational leaders use the story to create focus and urgency on what’s critical for success.

Jacobs' book is an excellent read. While I only touched on some of the great stuff I found, there's plenty more that's helpful, even for pastors like me who continuously communicate the greatest story ever told.

A Prayer for Ash Wednesday

As millions of Christians around the world observe Ash Wednesday today, I thought I'd post this prayer for Ash Wednesday by Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann. It is part of a collection of prayers for the people of God titled Prayers for a Privileged People.

Marked by Ashes
By Walter Brueggemann

Ruler of the Night, Guarantor of the Day…
This day—a gift from you.
This day—like none other you have ever given,
or we have ever received.
This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.
This Wednesday burdens us with the tasks of the day,
for we are already halfway home
halfway back to committees and memos,
halfway back to calls and appointments,
halfway on to next Sunday,
halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant,
half turned toward you, half rather not.

This Wednesday is a long way from Ash Wednesday,
but all our Wednesdays are marked by ashes—
we begin this day with that taste of ash in our mouth:
of failed hope and broken promises,
of forgotten children and frightened women,
of more war casualties, more violence, more cynicism;
We ourselves are ashes to ashes,
dust to dust;
We can taste our mortality as we roll the ash around
on our tongues.

We are able to ponder our ashness with
some confidence, only because our every Wednesday of ashes
anticipates your Easter victory over that dry, flaky taste of death.

On this Wednesday, we submit our ashen way to you—
your Easter parade of newness.
Before the sun sets, take our Wednesday and Easter us,
Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom;
Easter us that we may be fearless for your truth.
Come here and Easter our Wednesday with
mercy and justice and peace and generosity.

We pray as we wait for the Risen One who comes soon.

Knowing Christ Today by Dallas Willard

Since the days of Jesus, Christians have wrestled with the problem of how to answer questions of faith on the basis on knowledge. Many Christians over the past two millennia have been content to think in two distinct hemispheres: faith and knowledge. With passive resignation believers have left matters of faith to faith and matters of knowledge to science, as though they are completely incompatible and unrelated.

Dallas Willard has written to challenge that assumption.

Right from the start let me confess that Willard is my favorite author. A professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Philosophy, Willard has written powerfully on the subjects of Spiritual Disciplines and the Kingdom of God. My well worn copy of The Divine Conspiracy is my all time favorite, being one of the very few books that I’ve read more than once.

Willard is concerned that people of faith become people of knowledge, and has written Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge to help believers understand how faith and knowledge relate in a compatible way. The book is not written for those who are looking for quick reads. It’s written with the stated purpose of challenging the Christian reader to become a thinking reader…to use the mind to bolster faith. His premise is that faith is derived from knowledge and in the pages of the book he explains how the two are intertwined. In the introduction, for example, he writes, “Belief cannot reliably govern life and action except in its proper connection with knowledge and with the truth and evidence knowledge involves.” So, instead of reckoning faith and knowledge as opposing forces, Willard demonstrates that knowledge and faith are friends, and that “knowledge is essential to faith and our relationship with God in the spiritual life.”

I think this is possibly the most important book written in the 21st century. Rather than argue that point, let me simply encourage you to read it. Twice.

Book Review: The Missional Renaissance

For some time I’ve appreciated the work of author and speaker Reggie McNeal. He offers clean perspectives on some of the more important themes of congregational health in America. For some time, McNeal has worked for Leadership Network as a consultant. Lead Net has developed a reliable brand, and so its no surprise that I was pleased with McNeal’s book Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church.

It appears that the church growth movement has now given way to the Missional Church. Ever since Darrell Guder’s seminal work, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, hit the shelves in 1998, the Missional Church movement has taken the lion’s share of pastor’s attention. McNeal goes so far to call the Missional Church movement the most significant transition in the history of the church since the Reformation.

McNeal’s book does not spend much time defining or explaining the Missional Church. The value of this book is that it answers a very important question. If Missional Church is about the transition of attractional models (i.e. “come to my church,”) to sending models (i.e., "you have been sent out of the church"), what metrics are available to help the church know if it is being faithful? Attractional models have utilized some basic measurements to quantify and verify success. These measurements include membership, average attendance, budgets, and square footage/acreage of the ministry campus. Missional church, though, is wired to send its people into the community. It’s not wired to gather people from the community. How do you keep score on that?!

I found McNeal’s approach toward measuring success refreshing albeit not without some threats to my comfort zone. Part of his challenge is to abandon the former metrics, partly because the former metrics do nothing more than foster the attractional model. McNeal caused me to wonder what would happen if we no longer took attendance. I thought along with him as I read about what it would mean to allocate a minimum of 51% of our weekly receipts to needs that are off property. What if we had to do everything without maintaining a facility? He even dared to suggest that future models of vocational ministry would become “bi-vocational!”

McNeal’s book is important, if for no other reason, because he takes the time to depart from the theory and philosophy about what could be and focuses the reader’s attention on what must be if the church is going to truly be missional. I think there are a lot of people, perhaps myself included, who are interested in the Missional Church but haven’t really put down on paper what that kind of ministry would look like or be. There are radical shifts in ministry style that going Missional will call upon the Church to make. And until we’re willing to make some key departures, we’ll be doing nothing more than putting new labels on the same old stuff. And the Missional Church movement will become nothing more than another fad that will fade into the past.

If you haven’t read it, read it! McNeal does what others haven’t. He rearranges the price tags on the church’s value system.

Amazed by Grace

When we were preparing our last series of weekend services under the title Broken, Brent and I quickly concluded that the best way to conclude the series would be to have Carole Plemmons come and share her testimony. In nearly 26 years of vocational ministry, I have not me anyone who has endured more adversity in life! Her story is a beautiful explanation of how God injects his grace and mercy into our lives and refines us into his likeness.

For years Carole has kept an indepth spiritual journal that chronicles her journey through a myriad of challenges. She has taken some of those entries and compiled a devotional book titled Amazed by Grace. I commend it to you and encourage you to use it as food for spiritual formation.

Twelve Degrees of Humility

One of the books I have been reading devotionally through the summer of 2009 is Longing for God by Gayle D. Beebe and Richard J. Foster. The book reviews the seven paths of Christian devotion as exemplified by people from the past who have pioneered the work of spiritual formation.

One of the helpful contributions was the following section titled “Twelve Degrees of Humility” by Benedict of Nursia. Best known for The Rule of St. Benedict, Benedict (480-547) developed a monastic order which sought to cultivate new communities of faith in the face of the fall of the Roman Empire. I enjoyed this section on cultivating humility. Even though his thoughts are 15 centuries old, they ring loud and clear to our contemporary Western culture.

1. Cultivate humility by always keeping the fear of God before us and express this attitude in a spirit of obedience. Obedience is crucial if we are to learn to follow God. It forces us to subjugate our ego to divine love and service.
2. Follow the Lord’s will and not our own. The greatest challenge to our life with God is our predisposition to be egocentric, to insist that life be seen and lived only from our perspective. The objective is to break out of our egocentricism and see the world and our life as God sees it.
3. Develop the ability to receive input from others. Specifically, we are to learn obedience by submitting to a superior. One of the leading indicators of humility is to accept the authority of others.
4. Accept the superior’s instruction in learning perseverance. Persevering in life’s circumstances develops constancy of character. It is rare for life to go exactly our way.
5. Full disclosure of one’s life to a spirit-led, trusted friend. To fully disclose ourselves teaches us how to take responsibility for our attitudes and actions in ways that hold us accountable. It is impossible to face this reality if we share only bits and pieces of our story.
6. Learn contentment in all things and consider everyone greater than ourselves. To be content in every circumstance means to accept willingly whatever life presents. Discretion helps us determine when to correct unbearable circumstances and when to be content with things as they are.
7. Put ourselves lower than everyone else. This teaching supports the belief that if we abase ourselves, others will lift us up.
8. Follow the clear lines of seniority. No one advances beyond their rightful place.
9. Speak only when spoken to. This discipline in meant to help us realize that our value lies in the community and not in ourselves. The hope is for our words to be thoughtful and true, resting on reflection and delivered in proper sequence and order.
10. Avoid laughter. This is not a suppression of joy. Laughter expressing a spirit of contentment comes from a deep contentment with God. Laughter that springs from ridicule destroys community.
11. Speak gently, using reasonable words and humane tones. Speech is the single most significant vehicle for communicating our noblest ideals or our most destructive motivations.
12. Always demonstrate a posture of humility, whether before others or before God. As we ascend each degree of humility, our spirit is refined until humility comes as an instinctive and immediate response.

According to Benedict, there are two outcomes of the work of humility. First, humility helps us understand and imitate the spirit of Christ, and second, humility works to express the highest ideals of the community. When done properly, the cultivation of humility will usher us into the presence of God.