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Trusting the Renewed Future

Revitalization leaders may not be the leaders of the renewed church. Read that sentence a second time. The pastor who leads a church through the process of revitalization to new life, may not be the leader that God chooses to lead that now stable and flourishing church into the future. The unique gifting and pastoral heart needed to bring a church from decline to health may not always be the same gift set and disposition needed to serve a church in healthy times. For this reason, the Revitalizationist should commit to two principles in their renewal ministry. First, commit to building leaders for the future and second, commit to leadership development and discipleship as an integral part of your renewal work.

The pastor who leads a church through the process of revitalization to new life, may not be the leader that God chooses to lead that now stable and flourishing church into the future.

Both of these principles should apply to every leader in every ministry. Every leader in every level of God’s church should commit to naming and training the next generation of leaders, and do so with a self-sacrificial attitude. The overarching principle that should guide this commitment is to always do what’s best for the objectives of the church. Even in a healthy and flourishing body, there should be a plan in place for a pastoral transition to ensure that the church continues to be a blessing to its community going forward. Church renewal requires a special pastoral temperament and a different gift mix. In your commitment to doing what’s best for Christ’s church, a vision of that congregation in a healthy state may reveal that a different leader would be a greater blessing for the future. During the stresses of revitalization, it is also tempting to set this aside and worry about new leadership after the church has returned to health. You might say that there’s too much work to do, that there is not time to be training someone under fire, but, in reality, there’s no better time to raise up leaders for the future.

Your commitment to identifying, recruiting, and discipling young leaders during a revitalization blesses those people with a unique experience. These leaders will have opportunity to be in the thick of the ups and downs of the renewal process and they will be experience ministry that they may never see anyplace else. Developing leaders can be exposed to those things that brought about the decline in the church, learning to differentiate between internal causes and external demographic changes. In being exposed to these things, the leader will have opportunity to look critically at the ministry direction and efforts in the years before revitalization started, and learn how to avoid any of the pitfalls in the ministry they will lead in the years ahead. Young leaders can be discipled in biblical church structure, worship and discipling people on their own. The revitalization pastor needs to look at this as a unique opportunity to shape the leadership for flourishing.

Committing to working yourself out of your current call is a test of your faith. If you have discerned that God called you to revitalize, won’t you also trust that God has plans for your future as well? It might be mildly disconcerting to consider that eventuality after all the love, labor and heartbreak devoted to renewing the church, but we remember who we serve and who that renewed church belongs to. The relationship between Apollos, St. Paul and God is a useful meditation [1 Corinthians 3:6-7]. The Revitalizationist pastor is not alone in this either; these principles should guide every level of leadership within the church. Wartime elders and ministry leaders in the trenches of the renewal process should also commit themselves to discerning and raising up the elders and ministry leaders of the future. For all involved, could there be a greater blessing than being used by the Lord to bring new life into his church and then, if called to do so, to step back and simply be a part of the chorus that praises him for what he’s done?

The North American Baptist Conference has four principles that guide ministry throughout their churches. These principles [called End Goals by the NAB] are interwoven and intended to be understood as a whole. Ministry flows through each of the principles to form a holistic, missional philosophy of the Church in the world. The thoughts above are an interaction with End Goal 3: NAB Churches will develop spiritual leaders. In an article written by Executive Director Harry Kelm, the following appears:

As a conference, we must be committed to identifying, encouraging, equipping, and engaging the emerging spiritual leaders God is raising up. We invest in these emerging leaders by encouraging the growth of their abilities and the godly use of their giftedness. |Onward Spring 2023

Besides church planting, these principles should also guide revitalization efforts. As with the church plant, the legacy church has a place in being and proclaiming the gospel to their community. Use the principles to evaluate the alignment of your church’s ministry and leadership with the vision embedded in the Goals. Teach them and shape your efforts to reach your community and the world with the love of Christ and the hope of shalom.

Reconnecting the Church

It is all too easy for a church to discover one day that they have become disconnected from their block and the surrounding neighbors. Like Adam in the 1999 film Blast from the Past, church members can poke their head out of the cocoon of the sanctuary to discover that everything has changed. The people, places, practices that were once familiar are gone and the neighborhood no longer resembles what they remember. The change appears total, and it’s scary. God’s people could shake their fists and retreat into the safety of the familiar, but this betrays the mission. A missional outlook sees the community change in a different light, as an opportunity. Revitalization can come to church and community alike when they honor Jesus by getting reacquainted and reconnected.

The most common measure of demographics is ethnicity and culture, and these are the first important baselines for the church to review. Many places have changed in their ethnic composition over the years, a change not always paralleled in the church. If the declined or plateaued church does not reflect the surrounding neighborhood, we find an opportunity in asking why? In older churches, where people lived in the parish boundaries of their church, this question went unexamined. As transportation became personal and movement away from cities and towns became commonplace, many churches have declined because the remaining congregation now commutes to church. Their only connection with the neighborhood is parking there on Sunday morning. The radical solution is to move back into the community, but, barring that, the first missional step to take is to find ways to integrate our lives with the people of the neighborhood.

Demographics extends beyond race, ethnicity and culture. Income disparities can also arise that separate the congregants from the neighborhood. The missionally-minded church can serve this neighborhood, and therefore their neighbors, being careful not to hurt as they help. Embracing mission in this context is within the reach of every church, regardless of their size. It can range from the provision of basic needs (Matthew 25) to supplementing the education of the neighborhood children by tutoring to helping the adults to become proficient in English. Each of these touch-points offers a gospel opportunity; your life of service reaching over barriers embodying the gospel. As we build trust in the neighborhood, it sees the church as a part of the community, and a new season of growth might take the place of decline.

Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate…but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:14-15; 24

As the declining church embraces the missional calling, we have to recognize that the missio dei involves more than crossing racial or ethnic or socio-economic boundaries. We must remember that the ultimate objective of God’s redemptive plan is the restoration of wholeness in creation, the return of shalom. As we engage with our church’s role in the redemptive plan, we must be prepared to engage with injustice in the many forms that have injured our fellow image-bearers. We engage by devoting ourselves to listening and learning about those areas where unrighteousness—as defined by God—has been visited upon our neighbors. After hearing, the church is blessed by opportunities to act in their interest. This might be the most challenging and demanding aspect of a church on mission, but it is also one most likely to express the immense love of God for those trampled by the fallen nature of humankind through the ages.

There are very few churches left who only see their neighbor as someone who looks like themselves. There are equally few churches who don’t recognize the missional call to love that neighbor in both word and deed. It can be challenging to cross cultural boundaries, especially those that the church has ignored or denied through the years, but it can also be enormously rewarding. The promise of the new heaven and new earth is one of all people together enjoying the return of shalom. The promise for our neighborhood is found in a church that embodies the promise of Christ to unite all peoples, regardless of worldly differences – “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female,… All one in Christ Jesus.” [Galatians 3:28]

The North American Baptist Conference has four principles that guide ministry throughout their churches. These principles [called End Goals by the NAB] are interconnected and intended to be understood as a whole. Ministry flows through each of the principles to form a holistic, missional philosophy of the Church in the world. The thoughts above are an interaction with End Goal 2: NAB Churches will seek opportunities to engage cross-culturally. In an article written by Executive Director Harry Kelm, the following appears:

The church – the body of Jesus Christ – is to be a people of God that consists of many nations and ethnicities. John 17 tells us that though we are different from one another, we become one in Jesus. Engaging in cross-cultural ministry is embracing the diversity found in our oneness as God’s people. Onward Spring 2023

In addition to church planting, these principles should also guide revitalization efforts. As with the church plant, the legacy church has a place in being and proclaiming the gospel to their community. Use the principles to evaluate the alignment of your church’s ministry and leadership with the vision embedded in the Goals. Teach them and shape your efforts to reach your community and the world with the love of Christ and the hope of shalom.

On (the Same) Mission?

So, your church is missional. Your pastor talks about it. The website says it; you know it; we’re on mission! Great, but what mission? Is everyone on the same mission? Our tendency within the Church is to assume that everyone is speaking the same language, that we all understand what we mean when referring to mission. From that assumption we believe that our commonly held definition leads to mutual participation and that we’re all seeking the same goals. But how often do we stop to check this?

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. | Ephesians 4:3

Sorry, I may have misled you. I’ve broken every rule of ‘Smart Brevity™’ because this post is less about the missional church than it is the unity within that church. In one form or another, every church is living out their interpretation of the mission of God and there’s danger there. Two or more ideas of what defines the mission can create two or more factions within the body that compete with each other. Those factions will have different ideas of prioritization and practice and those differences might sow division as either side decides that their interpretation is truer and worthier of allegiance. God rarely (never) blesses division of this sort.

Building unity around a mission begins with defining terms. The foundation of unity begins with a definition that views God as missional in His character; as Missiologist David Bosch writes, “mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God.” When we locate mission as a defining characteristic of God, it orients the church to view it as a movement from God toward creation, with the church functioning as a participant in that mission. Our theology of mission (the missio dei) sees God having a desire to engage with creation, and this shapes our interpretation of the biblical narratives about the intervention of God into human history. To say that another way, we see the mission of God in the calling of Abraham, in the sending of Jesus, in His atoning death on the cross, and in his installment as king. The church’s understanding of how our missional God has already been at work answers the question of how we are to define mission within the body.

Jesus’ church is sent into the world with a mandate to continue HIS mission in the power of the Holy Spirit. His commission to those who are “in Him” is well known [Mt 28:18-20], but less well known is what it means to be “in Him.” More than just a ticket to salvation, to be united with Christ is to take part in His role, reflecting the glory of God [Rom 8:29; 1 Jn 3:2]. Our mission is to be a visible sign of the Kingdom by our proclamation of the gospel in word and deed. These deeds, the practical outworking of our understanding of mission, include our habits of discipleship in the ways of Jesus and extending that discipleship to our community. When the church’s missional objectives are structured with this theological framework in view, we become single-minded in bringing Kingdom life to the community, and our definition of mission is focused and, in that clarified missional definition, there is freedom. As the missional church proclaims and lives out the meaning of God’s redemptive activity in any number of context particular ways, our neighbors are blessed by the example we provide, and are invited into their own participation in redemptive kingdom.

If we anchor our theology and praxis of mission to the bible’s definition, we can avert most instances of division between good-hearted Christians. The ministry choices and direction of a church can all be evaluated fairly by looking to see if they align with the story of the Bible and the ultimate redemptive aim that it reveals. Does this mean that there’s only one way that a missional church can proceed? Not at all. As the church comes around to a shared definition, our question of application shifts from what we want to do to what God wants to do through us. Go and be.

Taking a Missional Footing

The commission that Jesus gives His Church demands that she remain on missionary footing “to the very end of the age.” [Mt 28:18-20] The Lord’s command is a cycle of preparation and movement, two ongoing actions: spiritual preparation and the spread of the gospel. When a church experiences the pressures and discouragement of plateau or decline, the missional footing becomes less sure, and the temptation is to retreat from the frontline to regroup. In most cases, this retreat becomes the norm. The revitalization pastor facing this reality has no choice but to nurse the spiritually wounded back to health and lead them once more to their community and the world beyond. A healthy church is consistently missional.

Being missional in ministry and outlook is not an innovation reserved for the younger churches in the family. The term describes the expected qualities of every church as they view their role in the larger Family of God. Every church is a citizen of both a locality and the kingdom, and the way this looks is unique to every context. Mission is not exclusive to foreign fields or underserved communities; the charge given by the Lord starts right where a disciple finds him or herself. [cf. Acts 1:8] Ignoring this local context while sending disciples across the ocean or to distant neighborhoods, the church finds herself out of place, disconnected from her parish while believing that she is playing her part in the kingdom mission.

“The gospel always comes as the testimony of a community which, if it is faithful, is trying to live out the meaning of the gospel in a certain style of life, certain ways of holding property, of maintaining law and order, of carrying on production and consumption, and so on. Every interpretation of the gospel is embodied in some cultural form.”
Lesslie Newbigin ‘Gospel in a Pluralist Society‘

In a church looking toward renewal, mission is often narrowly defined by the support and celebration of foreign missionaries, without equal attention to the neighborhood the church calls home. Revitalization begins with a restored vision of the community, a renewed belief that God was intentional in placing your church where it is. The demographics of the neighborhood may have changed over the years, the economic measure of a place may have shifted in one direction or another, but two things remain consistent: the mission of the Church and the power of the gospel. A fresh vision of what both mean for your community should be a chief topic of prayer among the faithful remnant. Challenging the church’s view of “the other” is a hard conversation that needs to be had. Loving those others must once-again be viewed as a debt [Romans 13:8-10] owed. A firm missional stance is the footing from which the first steps of renewed life in the church can be taken.

In an earlier post [The Inner Shaping of Mission], I emphasized the inseparable nature of discipleship and mission. The Missio Dei cannot be accomplished other than by disciples who are growing in spiritual maturity. [cf. Hebrews 6:1-3; 2 Peter 3:18] The axiom that we cannot give what we do not have applies here. The mission of the church requires vision and action, gospel vision developed through discipleship and action motivated by the same. Revitalization requires discernment to judge the preparation of the faithful in relation to these twin requirements. Renewal may require retreat from the outward expressions of mission for a season while you reengage the discipleship of the saints.

The North American Baptist Conference has four principles that guide ministry throughout their churches. These principles [called End Goals by the NAB] are interconnected and intended to be understood as a whole. Ministry flows through each of the principles to form a holistic, missional philosophy of the Church in the world. The thoughts above are an interaction with End Goal 1: NAB Churches will be trained for missional and formational ministries. In an article written by Executive Director Harry Kelm, the following paragraph appears:

Missionally and formationally multiplying is why the NAB plants churches, which has always been a commitment of the NAB. We plant churches with the intention of reaching people with the Love (of) God in Jesus. Missionally and formationally ministering is embedded in all our End Goals and in who God is calling us to be. Onward Spring 2023

Longing for Revival

I passionately believe in the possibility of renewal in the church, particularly the legacy church where the devotion to the Missio Dei has grown cold in favor of comfort and familiarity. I believe that the best way, but not the only, for revival to come to the church is through a return to first principles, a devotion to prayer and worship.

As a matter of regular meditation, I consider the list of things I believe:

The eternal God of the Bible created, sustains, and has a purpose for the universe and my life within it
Jesus gave His life to atone for the sins of the world (Mark 10:45) and by vesting belief in Him, people are saved (1 Corinthians 1:21)
The Holy Spirit of Christ miraculously indwells redeemed people (1 Corinthians 6:19)
The Colorado Rockies will win the World Series (someday, no scripture reference)
Many churches need and can have revival

I passionately believe in the possibility of renewal in the church, particularly the legacy church where the devotion to the Missio Dei has grown cold in favor of comfort and familiarity. I believe that the best way, but not the only, for revival to come to the church is through a return to first principles, a devotion to prayer and worship. A renewed sense of the mission of disciple-making results from the first sparks of spiritual life that ignite, giving evidence to my belief. I believe these things are Scripture honoring and God glorifying.

There are doubtless many reasons that churches fall into decline, some beyond their control. As we talk about revival, it’s important to distinguish between spiritual and material poverty as a contributing factor. Geographic factors and demographic shifts can be the reasons that churches find themselves in material decline, making closure a choice that has to be made. We can identify numerous other external factors as reasons for the death of a church, and we need to be clear-eyed in assessing these realities. Conversely, spiritual decline has but a single source, the dimming of the passion of the members of a body for the gospel mission. Jesus spoke of this as forsaking “your first love” (Revelation 2:4).

While external factors may be beyond the control of a local church, the spiritual fire they exhibit is not. I believe that the Lord’s promise to be with His Church always (Matthew 28:20) assures us that any spiritual spark can be fanned into a roaring flame through His power. What does it require? I believe this inferno lies at the juncture of a return to heartfelt worship and the restoration of the Church as a house of prayer. Does this guarantee revival? Perhaps not, but it ensures that any ministry that emanates from a church is glorifying to God.

Do I Really Want to Know?

#showyourmarble

Publicly, we almost always encourage others to “tell us the truth.” What we are trying to promote is our open mind and the willingness to be confronted by those things that others see in us. We say that we welcome the truth even if unpleasant.

Until the truth is actually unpleasant. And hurts our feelings because it hits a little bit close to home. And causes us to rethink our open-mind policy.

Though there is a certain ease in maintaining surface level relationships, conversations and social networks, it turns into a kind of prison. Jesus spoke bluntly to those who did not want to hear the truth in John 8:31-32 where he says “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” When we no longer have to hide the things co-habiting our souls we are truly set free. When someone speaks the truth to us—however unpleasant— and it is the key to opening the cell door, they have done us one of the great benevolent acts that can be done. They have loved us.

Will you as a disciple encourage the same searching and revelation on the part of God? Are you willing to let the Holy Spirit root around in your soul, opening boxes and nudging aside secret compartments so that he can bring the truth to the surface? No matter how uncomfortable and even painful it might be? In the psalmists words, inviting God to reveal our myriad hidden secrets is the key to freedom. We’re unable to walk the narrow path unguided and in the dark. We must have one who has gone this way before to lead us and show us where the stepping stones are. We need to the lamp of God’s Word to bathe the path in light.

Even if what he digs up is unpleasant. Even if our feelings are hurt because the things we believed to be hidden are suddenly brought to light.

Because ultimately, life with God is better than life without God. Because life with our rough edges revealed is better than a life consumed with masking and hiding them.

Will you invite God to search you and know your heart?

Idaho 2017

Warren Rachele

Six Things God Knows About YOU

And He Wants You to Know He Knows…

Christians will rightly spend time coming to know the attributes and Word of God in order to “know” Him better. To develop a relationship with God is to know what he has revealed about himself and come to see how those attributes affect one’s life. There is also a symmetry to relationship and it increases in depth and meaning when we contemplate those things that God knows about us. Not only does God know these things about us,He he also wants us to know that He is mindful of His people in this way.

ONE: He knows how you’re put together. You are not just a random assembly of cells. You are a vessel so unique and valuable that God imprints his image upon you. This is not a licensing deal; God has elected to take an active role in the knitting together of those who will bear the divine image (Ps 139:13; Jer 1:5)

TWO: Because of his intimate involvement in shaping the vessel of his image, the Potter also knows your heart and mind. He knows you to the depth of your personality and soul. He knows what makes you tick and what ticks you off. (Jer 17; 1 Kg 8:39)

THREE: Every corner of your heart is familiar territory to God and there are no shadows obscuring any feeling from His gaze. He knows your joys and triumphs as well as your hurts and troubles and He cares about both. (Ps 56:6; Ps 103:13)

FOUR: God knows your needs even before you can find the words to declare them. This might be a challenge to understand sometimes because, as people, we often are more aware of our surface desires than we are of our deepest needs. God does not struggle with that differentiation and wants to help us to recognize what our deepest and most fundamental needs are. (Mt 6:8)

FIVE: The irreplaceable image of God baked into every human being creates within them a desire to be reunited with the creator. In other words, God knows that you want to know him even before you become aware of that desire. In this knowledge God has commissioned his Spirit to be about the work of heightening awareness and creating opportunity for this reunification to occur. (Eph 1:17-19; John 17:3)

SIX: Your name summarizes the essence of who you are as God demonstrated to Moses with the thunderous “I Am” and God knows your name. You are not a chance occurrence, but rather, an infinitely valuable creation, known and treasured by God. (Is 43:1)

Genocide Of The Innocents

God’s plan for addressing the genocide of the unborn diagnosed with Down Syndrome is simple. It is His people.

IN ALL THINGS GOD WORKS FOR THE GOOD OF THOSE WHO LOVE HIM : CHARLESTON EDITION

So where was God at work for those who love Him when the shooter in Charleston entered His house and began making martyrs with a pistol?

In the title you likely recognized a very familiar passage from Romans often ripped from its context and applied to different life situations indiscriminately. When that happens the meaning of the verse in the larger passage becomes muddled, and even lost. The idea of God working all things for good can adopt a diminished connotation, taking on the secular definition of good — a positive, pleasing outcome.

So where was God at work for those who love Him when the shooter in Charleston entered His house and began making martyrs with a pistol?

The answer requires that you travel back months and years in the faithful journey of the pastor and the disciples of the church who were mindful of preparing their hearts and souls for an event that they never imagined would be visited upon their church. They took seriously what the Lord taught in the Beatitudes and shaped their souls with his command to love your neighbor as yourself. They knew the necessity of recognizing the heart as the wellspring of life and were diligent in prayer and study to strengthen in shape that heart.

The good that God had worked in his people in the AME Church in Charleston was seen almost immediately in the aftermath of the shooting. A feverish news media descended on the crime scene looking high and low for someone who would shout words of racial division or a demand for the scalp of the shooter. Disappointed, all they received from the remaining members of the church were Christ-like words of forgiveness and love for the young man who had made such life shattering decision.

This is a challenge to understand until we grasp what Paul is saying in this verse in its context. The good that God works for is those things that increasingly conform us to the likeness of our Savior. It may be positive things and it may be life-changing events. Both stretch and test our souls in different ways giving the Holy Spirit ample opportunity to shape and mold us into the people that our Father intends us to be.

People whose first impulse is to love and forgive when hateful revenge seems to be the most appealing course.

image by Ken Wilcox

The Glory of God in the Cross

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

A series of preceding posts looked at the work accomplished by the Savior on the Cross. Each focused on the salvific work and the categories of understanding that theologians have applied: propitiation, redemption, justification and reconciliation. Limiting our descriptive language to this taxonomy leaves us questioning; we see what God accomplishes on the Cross but we are deficit in hearing the complete message that He wants to communicate via this moment in history.

The first revelatory facet that we note is God’s glory revealed in the Cross. The same glory that filled the Temple in Old Testament revelation is also seen in Jesus, who dwelled among us for a little while (Jn 1:14). In addition to satisfying God’s righteousness requirements, in fulfilling His demands for justice, Jesus proclaims how the Father’s glory is seen in his humiliation and sacrifice (John 17:1). As Stott points out “the glory that radiates from the cross is that same combination of divine qualities which God revealed to Moses as mercy and justice, and which we have seen in the Word made flesh as ‘grace and truth (Ex 34:6).”

Grace and peace to you…

image claudio.ar