What if…we created more “Aha!” moments

The Leadership Network has been publishing some great books recently.  Now they are hosting a free online event on Wednesday, March 3rd.  40 speakers are given six minutes each to share new ideas for ministry, leadership, and church development.  It’s perfectly free, but you must register to participate.  Check out their website for details. 

The Leadership Network also hosts a number of other events to promote innovative activity and thinking in the church.  Check out these two:

 

We have an innovative God who, by His very nature, is creative.  What if the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada had a centre for innovation?  What if we fostered a culture that encouraged ideation?  What if ordinary people had an avenue to bring forward their ideas; a place where the church could make room for broader dialogue and action?  I believe that the Lutheran church could thrive in a culture of innovation.  I believe that our creative God would be delighted if we joined Him in His ongoing creative and redemptive work in the world.

What if…it was all about God’s story

I spent my most formative teen years growing up in the Evangelical Covenant Church.  I was surrounded by Swedish Lutheran families and it was our Pastor Rob Peterson who gave me the language that I needed to see myself as part of a greater story – God’s story.  Recently Pastor Rob Peterson was asked to be the senior pastor at Thornapple Covenant Church in Grand Rapids, MI.  In his first sermon to the congregation he asked,

“Have you ever been bored with the Christian life…thinking, there’s got to be more?  The reason that that happens for me is that I lose the sense of drama, I lose the sense that I’m part of this huge story.  I get pushed into thinking that what matters is my story.  I know my story matters to God…but when my life seems a bit small and pedestrian, I need someone to come to me and say, ‘turn around and look at God’s story.’”

Are people bored with church where you live?  Are they bored with the weekly routine and the occasional potluck?  I think we need to get reaquainted with God’s story; the grand, magestic, sweeping story of God’s epic creation and redemption of the world.  Why?  Because as followers of Jesus that story becomes ours and there is nothing boring about it.  What if we found creative ways to recount this grand narrative today?

You can hear Pastor Rob’s whole message here.

What if…the difference is Jesus

For years, various charities would advertise on the TV or in print and it was only in the fine print that you would find out if they were faith-based or not.  Perhaps it was a fear of frightening away donors.  That’s why I was so surprised last month when I was reading Maclean’s magazine and came across a full page ad that proclaimed, “The Difference is Jesus.”  It had a picture of a family and below the picture it said,

“My name is Ajinta.  I’m a mother of two children, a boy and a girl.  My husband and I trusted in spirits to bring us prosperity and good fortune.  We found only sickness and pain.  It was Jesus who rescued us.” 

Compassion Canada boldly declared that Jesus makes all the difference in helping people find their way out of poverty.  Check out these amazing stories.  Here’s what their website says,

“Compassion believes it takes more than education, healthcare and social programs to make a difference in the life of a child and help nations escape from poverty. It’s only by the gospel of Jesus Christ that poverty can end, and lives be forever changed.” 

Christian aid agencies over the years have been compelled to tame any Christian message, but Compassion is sticking the name of Jesus right front and center.  It’s a bold step in a world that asks Christians not to say the name of Jesus too loudly (Acts 4:18-20).

As mainline churches prepare for continual divisions, schisms, and general malaise, what if we were to boldly re-declare that “The Difference is Jesus.”  What if we truly believed that no amount of structural reorganization could change our rapid decline?  What if we came to realize that renewal can only happen if we meet Jesus anew and invite him to transform us. 

“The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada: The Difference is Jesus.”

Catchy, isn’t it?

What if Haiti had better infrastructure

By Guest Blogger Sean Bell

The same earthquake hitting any ‘modern’ city would not have done nearly the damage. And those buildings that did fall down would be quickly picked up and searched by advanced heavy duty equipment and hospitals would have received the wounded quickly.

I was reflecting on some friends of mine who are on a Panama cruise right now… I was puzzling over what it must be like to be in the lap of luxury, well fed on a boat, trying to have a relaxing and good time, while all hell has broken loose just a few miles away in Haiti.

But then… this is just a microcosm of the reality of our nation standing rich next to the world of suffering and pain and death and malnourishment that is just a few thousand miles away everyday.

It is wonderful the outpouring of money and concern I see. This is the same way we treat medicine… wait till there is a major problem and then fix the symptoms without getting to the root.

But what if we took our “mission for others” to mean that we had to make sure every place in the world were prepared for such eventualities. Primary Economic and Infrastructure care instead of treating the symptoms when the major natural disaster hits.

Sean

What if…we were poets and painters

I’m becomingly increasingly convinced that art is the door through which we will see ourselves anew, as individuals and as the Lutheran Church.  Well told stories, for example, have a way of preparing hearts to hear from God.  Images from Haiti have a way of calling us to action.  What if we re-embraced art as a tool for renewal?

I came across a thoughtful article about the power of art and design in the church, this part written by Adam Lancaster:

It’s not simply that art and design should matter to Christians in general or to the local church in particular, but that the right kind of art and design matter. Certainly, every organization must communicate effectively to create understanding among a particular audience, and every individual demonstrates a need for personal expression, but few value the importance of doing so in a way that is fundamentally aesthetic. The Church is a frequent offender, quick to manufacture seemingly artistic results without much knowledge or appreciation of the history or development of art and design (or worse, without a working Christian theology of art and worship). Dedication to a meaningful creative movement in Christian life and church will require a certain seriousness, beginning with addressing the cautious, contrived way some churches have tiptoed into the sphere of art and design.

But design and media is not the peaceful, swirling comet shooting across the sky of Van Gogh’s Starry Night—it’s a sharpened knife and a bloody ear. Art and worship is not Ray Charles’s “Georgia On My Mind”—it’s a lifetime spent overcoming the darkness. Creativity appears safe but it comes from an unsafe place, a cavernous recess in the soul where rusty cogs spin in irregular patterns, a molten core of heightened sensation that feels more deeply and sees more clearly than many ever will. There’s nothing kitschy about its raw imagination. There’s nothing glamorous about its burning emotion. To soft-pedal design simply to fill space in a service is to dishonor the medium.

Creativity is a holy calling and design is a prophet’s megaphone. Christian aesthetician Calvin Seerveld says that to accept this high calling is “to become a professional imaginator in order to help your handicapped, unimaginative neighbor … to give voice, eyes, ears, and tactile sense to those who are underdeveloped toward such rich nuances of meaning in God’s creation.” Far too few recognize those rich nuances of meaning, which are at the heart of God’s intended, abundant life. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is not satisfied with a mundane existence, but leads his sheep to the greenest, most delectable pastures. A proper use of art and design in the life of the Christian and in the Church can be that vehicle that plunges them headlong into deep, reflective, God-glorifying worship.

Art and design matters to the Christian and to the Church because it matters to God, who sees fit to tell of His goodness, not in scratching the surface, but plumbing the depths of life.

Check out Christians in the Visual Arts, Imago, and the Lookout Gallery for examples of God’s story being told through art in the Church.  Maybe just having a new church website is a start in using good design to communicate more effectively to those around you.  Clover’s mission, for example, is to help ordinary churches create good websites.  What would it look like if churches became centers of art?  I’m starting to think they would be brighter beacons for the gospel.

So how does change happen?

The question of how change happens in an organization or society is a fascinating one. One version of this (From the Book Getting to Maybe) might be worth considering. It involves stages of release, reorganization, exploitation and conservation. So what does this mean?  To make it easier the analogy of a forest is a good one for this.

Release – Where does new life come from? Well from the seeds of what came before. This though is not enough. There also needs to be nutrients, and usually this comes from the nutrients given by what came before, whether it is mothers milk or the charred remains after a forest fire. Some how the life of what has been needs to be released so that the seeds of the new can grow. This can be forced on an organization or intentional, but for new life, the old must give of it self for life to continue.

Reorganization – Continue is exactly what life likes to do.  As a forest grows new opportunities are sought, connections are made, and there is intense competition for resources. Think of the flourishing of life after a forest fire when all the seeds begin to sprout. So organizations need times in which almost anything is tried, possibilities are sought, and tried. Most will fail, but a few will succeed and grow.

Exploitation -  If the previous phase succeeds it moves to the stage of exploitation.  A new path is seen.  Resources, and new structures are refocused so that the new growth can grow, thrive and develop roots. Think of when a few trees begin to grow above others, while smaller trees begin to die and fall down, making room for a few trees to thrive.

Conservation  is when the successful paradigme/form begins to dominate the landscape and consume all the resources. In some ways we can think of our previous model of parishes, with a building and a pastor, serving their dedicated members.

The danger of conservation, is that a rigidity sets in which prevents future adaptation. History is full of the bones of organizations like this. Basically they refuse to change, and then on mass collapse. This is much like the supper forest fires that have happened recently after smaller fires have been prevented for decades. – Since there is no release of resources, there is too few nutrients for new growth to easily spring up – clearly a danger we are now in as a church. There is also a danger in re-organization called the poverty trap, when a lack of focus and a lack of letting go can prevent adequate resources going to could thrive.

In many way the possibility thinkers group is like the time of release/reorganization, when what is needed is for resources to be freed for countless seeds to sprout. Yep, it might look like a shotgun approach, but this is good so that there is the possibility of every possible seeds to sprout. I was in the rain forest of Costa Rica last year. And interesting the largest trees which eventually dominate the landscape are actually from a seed that is often the last to sprout up and which grows the slowest. So really who know what might eventually thrive.

I think the current challenge is to get as many people throughout the church planting seeds, and seeing what grows.

We are also though at the release phase, and since we have allowed a strong set of rigidly to exist for a while now, the question will be extra difficult in terms of how to release the nutrients we need to allow new life to eventually thrive. That is perhaps one of the most important stewardship questions for the church at this moment. (I offer a strong hint for planned giving emphasising both congregations and individuals)

In time the danger we will face is if it never moves to exploitation, in other words if it remains with many sprouts, and nothing develops deep roots –if we never develop focus. That is still a problem for another day. For now our question is how do we release resources so that we can allow as many seeds as possible the chance of germinating, and sprouting into the church God is calling us to be.

What if we met together . . . Oh yea we did.

I was reminded by Eric that we should do an update on our Possibility Thinkers get together. It was a great day, we began by risking our life on icy roads (ah the fun of Alberta driving). We then had a great presentation by Ken Nettleton who has helped the Baptist churches imagine about congregational health and mission. Afterwords we did our own listening about where God was calling us. In many ways we have come to realize that we are truly in a time of listing for God’s call, being re-formed by God and re-discovering the values that shape our mission.

We have also heard that we need to invite others into the conversation. So the plan is to have a time at the Pastor’s study conference to discuss possibilities. At our convention we plan to set up some chairs, brew some good coffee (hey we are Lutherans) and invite who ever will stop by to join us in talking about what God might possibly be calling us to. Next fall there is a possibility of a conference hosted by Our Saviours and there is even a dream of a retreat, a time of listening together and formation. And yes we will keep blogging. In all of this we hope, and wait for the spirit to guide us and for Christ, who is born in our midst, in ways that we could hardly have imagined.

And  a very merry Christmas to all.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for participating in this exciting conversation over the past few months.  Join us in the New Year as we develop this discussion and, hopefully, meet face to face with you all in 2010 (so much more to come)!

Merry Christmas to all of our readers

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!

What if…1000 wasn’t too much?

A new website from the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) has just been launched, called anglican1000.  They’ve made a new proclamation that they intend to plant 1000 new churches in five years.  Now, I like to dream big, but that’s remarkable.  The ACNA formed recently with the aim of creating a “separate ecclesiastical structure” for Anglican faithful in North America distinct from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.  They now have almost 800 churches.

I seem to be reminded, again and again, that growth often comes out of grassroots renewal.  Old-line churches are shrinking on almost every front, but groups that grow up out of stagnation often have new motivation to develop leaders, engage in missionary activity, plant churches, and evangelize in new ways.  The proclamation even calls on seminaries and parishes to develop new models of ministry. 

The ACNA is asking a series of great questions that I think we in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada can ask, and resolve to pursue.  Firstly, who is Jesus (Christology), what is he doing in the world (Missiology), and how can we join him (Ecclesiology)? 

In closing, I like this:

“Bishop-elect Todd Hunter sent delegates and participants of the Inaugural Assembly out with a charge to help build the Kingdom of God.  “No one cares about our ‘brand’ or our internal disputes.  It is about making new Christians.”

Amen.

What if…we supported missionaries

Actions follow values, and if the actions of the ELCIC regarding missionaries was any indication of our values, we would scratch our heads.  We would be left with the realization that we have a lot to learn about global outreach.  A while back, I was very interested to find out more about our member to missionary ratio.  What I learned from a little research what very surprising.  After a few emails and a little bit of time of various denominational websites, I found the number of members in several denominations and the number of full-time missionaries supported by these faith communities.  I am not a statistician, but what I found was surprising, however you crunch the numbers.

I learned that the Christian and Missionary Alliance have 46000 members and 203 supported missionaries; that’s 1 missionary for every 226 people (226:1)

The Baptist General Conference of Canada has a ratio of 1014:1

The Pentecostals (PAOC) have 1807:1

The Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada have about 1 missionary per church (a ratio of about 300:1)

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (that’s us), we have a member to missionary ratio of 54000:1*  That’s right, fifty-four thousand to one.

Now, I concede that I am not factoring in Canadian Lutheran World Relief and the various aid agencies that each denomination supports.  But a strict look a the missionary numbers leaves us to consider that we have not been reaching out as we ought to be.  What if, in 2010, each Lutheran church was to take a group on a short-term mission trip?  What if we were to foster a longing in our communities for cross-cultural engagement?  Perhaps these experiences will inspire us to live out the Great Commission and get-out-there again.  What if we were simply not satisfied with 54000:1. 

For a full breakdown of my numbers, here is a PDF of my findings with footnotes, etc: Member to Missionary Ratio.  I welcome refinements to my data and the addition of data from other denominations.

*That’s not all.  As of Summer 2009, the ELCIC Long-Term missionaries will be managed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; effectively this means that there will be no full-time missionaries in the ELCIC as of this summer. We will send any support for long-term missionaries to the ELCA. The Volunteers in Missions program (VIM) will be cut and any mission volunteers will have to work with our American counterparts in Chicago. Both staff people managing these missionary efforts have lost their jobs as a result of this restructuring. Instead of expanding missions, the ELCIC National Church Council has seen fit to cut missions.

Possibility Thinkers Gathering

Well we are having a get together this Friday to tackle a new question . . . Now what?

We have spent the last several months, blogging, listening and watching for what God might be calling us to as a church. Now we get to wonder what our little group might be called to next. So if you have any ideas or suggestions add a comment and let us know.

The Prodigal Table

By Guest Blogger Sean Bell

What if we knew the story that was only beginning at the end of the Prodigal son parable?

So what did the older brother do?

I’m guessing as a rule follower he went back in the house like his Dad said. He still probably wasn’t happy but, as always, he did what was expected of him, and then went to bed as soon as it was polite… or perhaps he went off and gathered his friends to discuss the unfairness of the situation (if the Prodigal had returned… and was accepted back… the Older son may have just lost 1/2 of his inheritance…)

I wonder what that family looked like 6 months down the road?

What were the evening meals like? Were they really tense? Could the younger brother tell stories of his trip and squandering and wild living? Or was it all covered up and never talked about? Did the pain of his sin still rule the the family meals… or was he truly forgiven? Had laughter returned? Was there intimacy felt as a family? Was there healing?

Imagine that it is now 2000 year later. The loving Father is still calling people in for the family meal. Generations of children now gather around the family meal that the Father is still offering.

It’s a daily occurrence now that the Father sits weeping at the door as someone takes there “fair share” and heads off into the world to find there own way. Some people can’t learn from a story alone that wondering off to the life of wild living is not ultimately going to make them feel whole… or even good.

It is also a daily occurrence that that Father shouts our with Joy and goes charging from the house, robe and sandals flapping about in an undignified way. Rejoice! Another Prodigal Son or Daughter has returned. Everyone, stop what you are doing… kill a cow! Light the fires! We must celebrate!

Again and again, the Father says kill the calf, let us celebrate. And… who comes in to the table when the father calls?

This is a vitally important question because this is what it is to be the children of God. God is setting a table for all… all are called. But do some choose to eat on their own? Do some of the non-prodigals decide to eat in the side room where we have proper manners and don’t have to watch the Father gushing over another prodigal child returned?

What does it do to the whole family when we look at the place where beloved brothers and sisters used to sit, and see that they have chosen a side room to eat in?

Imagine this scenario… the entire Family is called to the meal… and a whole group of the Family is missing. The Father goes about the house looking, and finds the missing group in a side room.

“Why have you not come?” asks the father.

“We’re waiting till they have eaten, and then we will eat.”

“But I called everyone… there is food for all”

“Yes.. and we will come, but we won’t eat with them…”

What if we all kept coming to the same table?

What if we could have our fights, and still come to the table?

What if…we came alongside

We talk a lot about the homeless in our cities, but its often from the safety of our homes and church buildings. “Come to us,” we say to them. “Come, where WE feel safe.”

My wife is quick to point out that the problem of homelessness can be quickly solved if we as Christians came alongside them and took them into our homes, adopting them. What a risk, but no one changes anything by playing it safe (a quote from another great movie: The Soloist).

The movie Blindside, the true story of just one such case, witnesses to us the possibility of what a people walking in God’s mission can do.

What if…the church was like a weed?

The Oak is a spectacular tree.  It evokes power, prestige, glory, and steadfastness.  Wouldn’t this be the best tree to represent the Kingdom of God?  It rises above challenges, it withstands the wind, and it is noble.

Jesus must have been wrong, then, when he said that the Kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard that turns into a tree.  A mustard tree is far less noble and glorious.  The mustard tree is more like a gnarly weed.  It grows large, but mostly in an outward direction.  It grows along the ground covering whole areas.  Jesus said that birds are able to find cover in the shade of its branches.  Surely Jesus was wrong when he likened the Kingdom of God to a sprawling weed.  Or was he?

In exciting pockets across Canada, Christians are gathering to take seriously God’s call to be like the mustard tree.  In mid November, I joined in with church leaders and passionate followers of Christ at the Renov8 Church Planting Congress in Calgary, Alberta.  I resonate with the words of Len Hjalmarson who wrote this about the Congress, “Seven hundred people from across the denominational spectrum and from rural, urban, and suburban settings across Canada coming together for a single missional agenda – to impact our country for Christ by seeding missional communities. And it is equally amazing that nearly half of this group have come to a Congress for the first time. Something is stirring in Canadian hearts — a work of the Spirit.”

God is at work and it’s exciting.  But what is this Missional conversation about and why would 700 people gather in Calgary to talk about it?

A bishop once said, “Everywhere Jesus went there was a riot, everywhere I go they serve me tea.”  Jesus’ life was by no means risk-adverse nor was he concerned with self-preservation.  His life was rustic.  Jesus was born in a manger, his parents lost him in Jerusalem for several days, he wandered for a year in the wilderness, and some accused him of being a drunkard and a glutton for eating with sinners.  To outsiders he might appear so, for his first miracle was to make more wine at a party.  And what was one of Jesus’ last commandments?  This “drunkard and glutton” asked his people to remember him by feasting together.  Today instead of feasting with sinners, we serve a thimble of drink and a morsel of bread every third Sunday morning.  We sip tea when we need to dish up a feast.

God’s church does not have a mission, God’s mission has a church

Missional leaders in Canada are starting to make some powerful assertions about the future direction of the church.  Gary Nelson, in Borderland Churches says that, “The missio dei changes the functional direction of church…from centrifugal (flowing in) to a centripetal (flowing out) dynamic.  This in turn leads to a shift in emphasis from attracting crowds to equipping, dispersing and multiplying Christ followers as a central function of the church.”

Dispersing? Multiplying?  This sounds less like an ancient tree, and more like a spreading weed.

But isn’t the church supposed to be like “a tree planted by streams of water” (Ps. 1:3) whose roots run deep?  Yes!  But the water we draw from is Christ, not our church culture, not our ethnic background, not our ecclesiastical preferences, and not from anything that may sound pious and holy; if it’s not Jesus, it won’t satisfy.  When we die to ourselves and give our lives over to Christ we join a missionary God who is on the move out into the world.  We get our cues from Jesus, he becomes our reference point.  And what a reference point he is!  There is life, risk, joy, and new challenges around every corner.  There is nothing stagnant here! 

If Jesus is moving, then we as a church need to move also.  This may include rethinking our colonial and attractional models; they just do not work anymore.  Taking our cue from Jesus, we need to reclaim models that are missional, relational and incarnational.  Leonard Sweet says that, “Christians in the West can no longer expect to have that home court advantage…God is defragging and rebooting the church.”

We can no longer put our faith in the structures and hierarchy of Christiandom either.  We are living in a post-Christiandom world.  The old oak construct will fail; especially if we are not moving with God into his activity in the world.  Isaiah likened those who were not connected to God’s movement to be like unwatered oaks, “You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water” (Is. 1:30).  Perhaps that is why Jesus was happy to share the vision of the mustard tree.  Oak trees fall, but weeds dig in, spread, and don’t easily go away.  From the tundra to the tropics, weeds are thriving in almost any climate. 

David Augsburger writes that the church “is an alternative community – an alternative to human communities that live by coercion, competition and collective self-interest.  It seeks to be a community of disciples who obey the particular ways of God that are revealed in Jesus.”  Is your church an “alternative community”?  Is it different?  Does it follow a rustic and risky, joy inspiring Jesus?  Does your church strive to be the independent oak, or the sprawling weed that can’t help but grow into its neighbourhood, providing shade and life for those in its path?  Does your church, synod, or denomination live for a collective self-interest, or is it willing to follow Jesus out into the world? 

Want to join God’s movement in your neighbourhood?  It all starts with a mustard seed.

What if…my dream is about the ELCIC

Last week I had a dream.  A real, true blue, “while I was sleeping” dream.  I welcome your interpretations.

The dream begins with me packing a bunch of stuff into a big back pack.  Heavy stuff like books, boxes, I think there was even a candelabra that I had to fit in there.  I didn’t like that all this stuff was being jammed into the back pack but I felt strongly that I had to fit it all in. I didn’t even like most of the stuff but I was moving from one place to another and I felt a great pressure to bring it all with me.

Once I had loaded the back pack I struggled to lift it onto my back.  My legs quivered under the weight.  Eventually I secured the big back pack to my body with several straps and such and put a few last things that I didn’t want getting squished into a smaller bag that I carried in my hands.  I then began to walk.

After I had walked a bit I ran into somebody on the street.  While we visited the weight of the pack was ever present on my mind and body.   Finishing the conversation we parted ways.  I walked a little farther only to realize that at some point during my conversation on the street I had put down my small bag of valuable goods .  Still quivering under the weight of the heavy pack I retraced my steps and luckily found my small valuable bag where I had left it.  Turning around again I marched towards my destination.

The same pattern repeats itself two more times (distraction, put down the important bag, realize later what I’ve done, retrace my steps, all the while struggling to support the weight of this big heavy back pack of books and candles).

The final part of my dream takes place on this epic stair case that I struggle to reach the top of…only to realize that I had forgotten that little bag again!

I woke up from the dream walking back down those stairs.  I never did take that heavy back pack off.

So tell me, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

“Come to me you who are weary, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  (Jesus Christ)