God unBoxed

I’ve been on a goal-setting kick for the past week. I thought I’d been setting goals my entire life, but now realize that what I’d been trying to do is to hit a target or to set some sort of artificial standard. The difference may be minor for some, but for me that difference has turned out to be the determining factor on whether or not there’s any real chance of achievement. It turns out I can’t get behind a target or a standard… there’s no passion in it for me. But a real goal? One that I can get excited about and sink my teeth into (even if it scares the crap out of me)? Yeah, now that has potential for creating real change.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (ESV)

In the passage above, Paul uses running a race as a metaphor for self-control and discipline. He chooses a runner and a race very deliberately. A runner does not go through the discipline of preparing for the race for the simple target of being “in shape” – he is running for a very specific goal. While I’m sure Paul is talking about the prize of Christ, this principle applies to any discipline in life.

As I said, the majority of my goals have turned out to be merely targets or standards: read the Bible for 15 minutes each day, walk 2 miles at least three times a week, practice my guitar at least 10 minutes each day, etc. I know – some of you call these things “goals” and, for you, they may very well be goals. I’ve found that these do not work for me. I need something more tangible – something to cause a longing in my heart.

I never studied the Bible more than when I needed to study for teaching youth as a youth pastor. I never read the Bible more than when I needed to read and analyze a book of the Bible for a discipleship group. I never wrote more than when there was a passion welling up within me that compelled me to share. I’ve never practiced more than when I had a difficult song given to me that I had to learn for a show. For me – that’s the real definition of a goal. I have always felt that doing things for these reasons was a cop-out and showed a lack of discipline… but when I didn’t have a reason like these, I invariably ended up doing nothing.

This is why I’ve taken up The Ephesians Project and also why I’ve begun training to run the Jingle Bell 5K in December. I need more fitness in my life, but without something to shoot for, I’ve been aimlessly trying to walk/run/meander in my fitness program. I’ll be taking swimming lessons this summer (Lord willing) to try and see if I can get comfortable enough in the water to swim for distance and then set the goal to enter a sprint triathlon (crazy, I know). So, 5K training has started yesterday, swim training will start this summer, bicycling program will start this fall at the earliest, 5K happens in December, and hopefully a triathlon will happen sometime in 2011.

Neither of these goals is really as crazy as I want them to seem. I’ve read and studied Ephesians so many times that I could probably just run through the book and do The Ephesians Project without really spending any add’l time studying, but it would defeat the purpose of the goal and would produce a junky devotional. I’ve never run before, but people do it all the time and a gradual 7-month training program has worked for people in worse shape than myself. I know I can do these things and I’m actually excited to tackle these two big goals.

What are your goals? Have you spent your days trying to live up to a self-imposed standard only to fall short every time? Is it time for you to re-evaluate what you’re trying to accomplish? Some of us can run the race and discipline ourselves for more abstract reasons and I applaud you if you can. I’ve never been able to and, looking at the state of lives around me, I’m pretty confident that I’m not alone. What crazy goal can you set for 6 months from now or even a year from now that creates within you that strange mixture of fear and excitement? Do that. Start today.

As I’ve gone from devotional to devotional and read guide after guide regarding individual worship as well as trying to find good resources for family worship – I have never been able to find what I was looking for. So, I’ve now decided to make it myself.

My goal is simple – I’m going to create a devotional for the Book of Ephesians that provides a basic framework for weekday devotions (5 days per week) with a whole host of items that can be cherry-picked for your specific comfort level. The hope is that the busy person can complete the basics (scripture reading, devotional, questions for reflection, prayer) in less than 15 minutes, but can also be used to tie together all the spiritual disciplines in your life into a cohesive study. My plan is for the devotional to contain the following elements:

1. Weekday readings
   • Short passage from the book of Ephesians
   • Short reading of what I believe are important elements in the passage
   • Short description of the passage for children
2. Meditative Selection – one very short, memorable verse from the selected passage that can be used as a point of meditation throughout the day
3. Questions for reflection
   • 2-4 questions for individual or family reflection
   • 1-3 questions specifically geared for children
4. Points of prayer – no written prayers here – just things for you to consider in your own prayer for that day
5. Topic for Journaling – something related to the reading that you can use to journal with for the day
6. Challenge for missional application – this will be something directly related to the passage designed to make you think of ways to apply this in an outward way to the people you encounter on a daily basis. It’s about taking the gospel and making it real. This challenge can be the same for the entire week.
7. Topics for further study – this could be books to read, other passages to study, commentaries to review, whatever I believe has been helpful in my development of this specific passage.
8. A weekly project for families with small children to explore the concepts of the gospel being presented in the book (borrowing heavily from the more narrative portions of scripture).

My plan, audacious as it may be, is to read through Ephesians multiple times and study it intently on my own as well as through referencing well-known commentaries and other notable works. I would then divide the book into a certain number of 5-day weeks and create a devotional plan for each of those weeks so that the entire book of Ephesians is consumed with some detail at a steady pace with different helps along the way. Not every element in the above list would be daily, but every element would be included. My hope is that this would help many people to begin implementing spiritual disciplines into their daily lives as well as provide resources for fathers and mothers to engage their children on a regular basis with the meat of the Gospel.

Am I crazy? Perhaps. But I have to try. As each section is complete, I’ll be submitting it to my church and some select friends for feedback prior to posting it publicly. We’ll see how it goes and I may add or cut sections based on feedback. I would then post those vetted sections to this blog for your review and comment. I have no plans to sell this or to try and make any money off of it – this would be a free resource to anyone and everyone to use. I would release each section as a PDF that could be downloaded and printed section by section.

Your prayers are appreciated – both that God would be glorified and that I would keep my shoulder to the plow and actually finish this incredibly huge undertaking.

So, I’m getting close to making some decisions… well, actually, I think I have made some decisions regarding my procrastination and how to move forward from here. My problem is that I seem utterly unregimentable. I can give myself a schedule, allow for free-time, make it seem perfectly reasonable and within days I’m chafing against this vicious taskmaster. So I change the schedule to accommodate and the taskmaster seems to follow me… er… viciously.

How do you regiment the unregimentable? How do you organize someone who rebels constantly against his own attempts to organize himself? I am, perhaps, the most fickle person I know. I have a Zune Pass because having to purchase all the music I’m interested in discovering and listening to would bankrupt me. My amazing wife has to constantly look for new recipes as history has shown I will quickly tire of whatever delicious thing we might have. I rarely go to the same restaurants because I can’t stand the repetition. And yet, I still like comfort: I will always eat pizza, for instance (though I never tire of new places to eat it). I love chocolate chip cookies (too much). I’m sure there are other things, but they escape me right now.

I wrote the above in February and never finished it… here’s where I stand now… I’ve realized that w/o real goals for the “things I want to do” I won’t actually do any of these things I’ve decided on. Whenever I think I’ve decided on something, I remember the story:

There are four frogs sitting on a log, one of them decides to jump in the water, how many are left? Four. He only decided, it won’t matter until he actually jumps in.

So, even though I’ve made some decisions, little has actually been done due to the lack of real goals. So, this is obviously the next step… taking some of these decisions and putting actual goals to them. The first goal has been set… but it’s audaciously crazy and I need time before I state it publicly (sorry… I just need some time to determine my actual, real, capabilities).

Yesterday was my 43rd birthday. I had determined this year that I would maintain an attitude of thanksgiving and joy for another year of abundant blessing in my life rather than being pensive and overly reflective. I’m glad to report that it was a smashing success – made easier thanks to my incredible family.

My day was a pretty typical day at work – except for this awesome flourless chocolate cake that our dear friend Kristina made for me… wow – total radness… truly. I come home to a house decorated to the nines by a 6-yr old and a 3-yr old (with the help of their mom). Zoë (the 6-yr old) was the mastermind behind this plot to throw their dad a family surprise party. I was moved beyond words… the love that my daughters exhibited and the care that Zoë took to ensure that she had everything covered was such an incredible reminder of what we should show God every single day of our lives.

To top it off, my wife gives me this card that just moves me to tears. I reflect on the awesomeness of who God is to provide me with a wife that gives and gives and gives. There are no words to express what a wonder it is to have a family that so obviously adores you except to be overwhelmed. I’m overwhelmed because I know I don’t deserve this kind of love. I’m overwhelmed because I know that I am flawed. I’m overwhelmed because it is God’s grace in extravagant form displayed by a young child who wants to cram as much as she can into one night to celebrate her dad. Even as I write this, tears come to my eyes (I’m kind of a sap… crying comes easy for me… too easy I often think.)

What does this kind of love do to you? When you know you’re not worthy – it compels you to be more worthy. When you recognize your own flaws – it encourages you. When you see the majesty of God as the root of it – it humbles you.

Forty-three isn’t really a “milestone” year – but this is one I’ll never forget. I’ll never forget how God compelled me to have a good attitude at what is traditionally a day of pensive reflection and rewarded me with a shower of love so magnificent that I’m still in awe of His extravagant display. Grace continues to be amazing.

What a whirlwind this has been so far. I think I believed that this conference was going to be more missional theory… but it’s not. In fact, this conference is about moving from theory to action, or as Ed Stetzer so aptly put it, it’s about getting off our blessed assurance and doing something. We must act. I am inherently lazy.

I do not have a passion for people. Not really. I go through the motions hoping that the motions will somehow stir up passion. This is wholly wrong. The missing ingredient? Prayer. Today, Dave Gibbons said, “If prayer isn’t a central part of your life your not dependent on the Holy Spirit, your dependent on your own power.” This is me. Prayer is not a central part of my life. In fact, I would go so far to say that prayer is mostly an afterthought or something I do because I know I should… not because I recognize its necessity.

If I were to list the single most important thing that is missing in my walk, it would be a life that is devoted to prayer. Wow – what’s amazing to me is that cerebrally, I know what I’m missing. Power and insight and passion and the ability to live the Gospel in everyday life – these are all impossible without a life devoted to prayer. Church makes it so easy to live without praying – we create language that is easily mimicked, we congratulate people for shallow confession, we empathize with people for the smallest difficulty. This creates a comfortable, easily accessed, and watered down life. After all, a little good is better as long as they’re coming to church, right?

My prayer, yes – I mean that, is that I would be a man of prayer. I pray that this revelation would soak into the core of my being so that going without prayer would be unfathomable to me because I recognize how desperately I need Him to open my ears and my eyes and to empower me to glorify Him. Help me Lord to be a man whose life is devoted to prayer so that I would wholly rely on you for my very breath, every word that comes from my lips, and every act of my hands.

We’re in for some pain… a lot of pain. It seems like that’s what God is telling us.

Dave Gibbons told Francis Chan: The highest form of love is when you can love someone who you feel betrayed you, left you, or abandoned you. Let these people beat you up and love them still. God is working on you, God is pruning you.

1 Pet 4:12 – trials should not be viewed as a surprise or a strange event

At the end of the day, it’s all about the Holy Spirit and what He’s called you to do. It may look different from this guy or this guy – are you willing to do that? I have to go after whatever God calls us to – even if none go with me.

Matt 10 – Jesus didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword.

Mark 8:34 – Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.

John 15 – the world hated Jesus before it hated you

Acts 5 – disciples joy for being made worthy to suffer

Romans 8 – provided we suffer with Him in order that we may be glorified with Him

1 Cor 4, 2 Cor 1:5, Gal 6:12, Eph 6:11-12, Phil 1:29, Col 1:24, 1 Thess 3:4, 2 Thess 1:5, 2 Tim 1:8, 2 Tim 2:3, 2 Tim 3, 2 Tim 4, Titus 1,  Hebrews 13

If you’re not suffering, you shouldn’t be at peace. Some of us need to suffer just to know if we’re for real. Fellowship of His suffering, intimacy – Paul wanted that level of intimacy with Jesus… the fellowship of His suffering.

If it brings you more honor that I die, I die – if it brings you more glory that I live, I live. The Korean missionaries who wer captured by the Taliban desired to be back there because they were so close to Jesus in that moment. The fellowship of His suffering brings an intimacy that cannot be duplicated through any other means.

Why do you need a comforter if you’re comfortable? If we are serious about really wanting Christ, then we can rejoice in sufferings and we can rejoice in being rejected. This is not something edgy, cool, or a new thing. It’s a biblical conviction that’s been killing us. I’d rather be in a pit guarded by Taliban with Jesus than in comfort without Him. It’s the Holy Spirit’s leading. My guess is what He’s calling you to do is different than what He’s calling me to do – but it will be painful for both of us.

Hugh Halter – The Power of Our Posture

The attitude of our body, the inflection of your voice – our non-verbals. Non-verbals are the most important part of our communication. Missional is the sending impulse. Incarnational is the posture and is more important. Missional without incarnational is ineffective. Our posture is disorienting for the unbeliever – our rhetoric does not meet their reality.

Woman caught in adultery – incarnational story. Incarnation is to be an advocate for lost people – to consider them disoriented. Being their advocate can win their heart. We should not be concerned about condoning behavior but winning the heart of the world. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He was our advocate.

John Burke – Gateway Community Church

If your unchurched friends are not finding faith and becoming the church, you are not missional. The Pharisees were doctrinally pure and moral and missional – but their hearts had no love and no patience.

Am I serving the spiritual and physical needs of my neighbors? Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve. If we call ourselves missional leaders and do not fill the spiritual and physical needs of our neighbors then we are not being missional like Jesus was. Do we really believe God can change people? If people know you are for them and not against them, they’ll start to believe your God is for them and not against them.

Do you see and point out God’s work in them? Do we simply listen and point out where God is already at work? If you ask them what they’re longing for and listen, you’ll see the God put that desire in there.

Are my unchurched neighbors now leading in the church? If not, your church is dying. Are we preparing to enfold people who come to faith to train them to lead others? If you are on mission with Him, eventually your friends will find faith and in a short amount of time they will start leading others to find faith as well.

Jeff Vanderstelt

Worship leading is to do anything in any way that leads to Jesus being worshiped and praised. Train your people to know their biblical story and redemptive plan of God. Train them to know the stories of the people they’re sent into. In order to do that well, you have to be people who listen well. We are not very good at listening to God nor are we good at listening to people. We are called to engage in the celebrations of the people and we bring the better wine. We ought to party like crazy – be known for partying as we have the greatest thing to celebrate.

When you eat, it reminds you that you need something outside of you to fill a deep need within you that can’t be filled within you. Open your table – open your table. Our common union with unbelievers is that we’re all hungry and our hunger is fulfilled in Christ. Christian artists should be the most creative people on the planet because they don’t have to create art for approval, because they’re already accepted in Christ – they’re free to create. We should be the most creative and most refreshed people in the city. In our job, our work is worship to God because we’re already approved by Christ. We’re asking people to live normal life with Gospel intentionality.

Story-Formed – LISTEN – Celebrations – Bless – EAT – RECREATE

Equip your people in the everyday – not the spectacular.

Dave Gibbons

What are the most important characteristics of a leader. We use nomenclature that kinda fascinated people. If we really break it down, the mission is very clear. Love God and love your neighbor. How? Love. Who? Your neighbor. The problem is how we define our neighbor. It’s someone you would hate – someone unforgivable to you. How do we go about that love?

Embracing the theology of flow and blessing. Your called to be like Jesus. He only did what He saw His Father doing. It’s not your job to initiate and make it happen, you listen and look to see what God is doing. When you’re walking through a large crowd, make sure you walk slowly and see the anointing of God, the blessing on them.

What’s in your hand? God’s given you something. He’s given you a story. He’s given you some unique things. How much do you leverage the power of the Holy Spirit? If prayer isn’t a central part of your life, your not dependent on the Holy Spirit – your dependent upon your own power.

What is your pain?

Can anything good come from Nazareth? Who are the fringe – the fringe are the ones who lead movements.

There should be no foster children in any city in America. Eastern societies look at how we treat our elderly and consider us barbaric.  It’s not easy, but the road called us to is to love. It’s not about our passion, it’s about our obedience.

Unedited notes from an AMAZING evening session – good stuff in here

Disciple making is in every movement. We’re being discipled every day through media. The task of advertising is to create desire. Consumerism is being defined by what we consume. Consumerism is the alternative religion of our day. Without doubt it is the secular religion of our day. Jesus advice can be taken quite literally… DIE.

George Patterson

The best kept secret among evangelicals – far easier to win people to Christ, plant churches, multiply cell groups – do evangelism and make disciples like the apostles did. Stop describing Jesus through facts – they need to experience the living risen Jesus. The main point, the punch line is his resurrection. They must experience the risen Christ.

They mobilized everyone to witness. Ordinary Christians doing 95% of the evangelism while being mentored by the gifted evangelists. Who did they go to? Stop trying to shove the camel through the eye of the needle. Average American church spends almost all of its time on camels. Almost all Americans are camels (the rich people) in comparison to the world. Jesus came to preach the Gospel to the poor. He didn’t start His public ministry among the rich and the powerful. He started with fisherman, people with callouses on their hands, or people who were despised like tax collectors.

They used every method. Don’t get hung up on method. Use a method that works. Only one approach that’s been consistent – do it the way the apostles did. It doesn’t need a lot of money. It doesn’t require a Phd.

American Evangelism tends to see people as isolated individuals, how does God see him? Part of a community.

Bring the seekers into a group of their own peers and work in the circle – don’t pull them out of the circle.

Neil Cole

Matt 5:39

The busier you get, the less compassionate you become. Compassion from the bowels – deep compassion. We don’t see the lost the way Jesus did. We need to see them through the eyes of Jesus. It will change the way we behave. Jesus created sheep to be cared for by a shepherd. Don’t even call it multiplying until you get to the fourth generation. You can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved. Look for the drowning victim.

David Garrison

Hab 1:5

God is doing something among the nations… meaning ethnic groups. Church planting movements.

Communists – God loves to show what He can do. Cuba. He brought the Gospel up within Cuba. “We went to seminary on our knees in prison. When we left, we were no longer afraid.” They’re on track by the year 2010 to see 100,000 churches in Cuba and over 1,000,000 baptized believers.

Muslims. We went to Libya. I’ve learned more ways not to win a Muslim. In 2002, we moved to Bangalore, India. They can cut my body into 1,000 pieces and every piece will cry out, “Jesus is Lord.”

Pray for the people of Iran – the Christians will be the fodder for any attack. We believe 25,000 are being baptized every day. Chinese official says – that’s a lie – we’ve been monitoring you – it’s been 30,000 every day.

Ed Stetzer

1 Pet 4:8-11

We want to see a disciple making movement that changes everything. We might have to change the way we do mission so that we can empower people to use their gifts. Disciples don’t just know – they do. That people might live how Jesus really intended us to live – it should be the norm, not the surprise.

Obedience based discipleship will lead to mission shaped disciples.

All have gifts. We tend to teach people to be passive spectators. If we disciple through knowledge and not action, we’ve trained people to be puffed up gnostics – people believing they have special knowledge but no power of transformation. Knowledgeable people who don’t live on mission and criticize those who are. They need to get off their blessed assurance and do something to server Jesus. God has placed people in your church and gifted them to produce something for the common good. Anything that disempowers and demotivates the people of God is unhelpful and perhaps sinful. Why? It destroys the common good. Scarcity brings clarity. When we do for people what God has called them to do, everybody gets hurt and the mission of God gets hindered.

God intends all to use. We’ve made it acceptable to sit Sunday after Sunday in church and do nothing and still call ourselves a follower of Jesus.

All people are called and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We have to stop letting God’s people off the hook. We have to trust the Holy Spirit within them. We have to stop enabling. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things for God should be normal in the Kingdom.

To Bring God Glory. I don’t care about the label – I care about the lifestyle.

Disciples see what Jesus is doing and they join Him in it. Is your church doing this? What am I going to make different about my message so they’ll join Jesus on His mission?

Unedited notes from the afternoon session.
(I missed a chunk of this session)

Dave Ferguson

A big part of this is establishing apostolic culture.

• Ordain every Christ-follower. You are a chosen people, you are a royal priesthood – the priesthood of all believers
• Lead with a “Yes” – ask “How” later on. Develop a “yes” reflex. Don’t always say “No”
• Teach them to “go” not just “bring.”
• Plant the Gospel before planting a church – what’s good news to the group you’re called to?
• Incarnational AND apostolic – bring along the apprentice – incarnational and reproductive

Dave Watson

We need to put aside the structure of our church and connect to the structures we live in. Some populations will require us to not be at the church on Sunday mornings. Our strategy has to be defined by the structures we’re trying to reach. Could you take a job in a sweat shop to work with sweat shop workers in order to reach them? They cannot be reached through the standard means. Somebody had to give up a good paying job and take a bad paying job in order to reach that group.

Do you know the structures in your community? Do you have any concept of what it will take to penetrate that structure? We have to be able to talk to people in those structures and find out what their needs are so that we can become friends with the right to share the Gospel rather than interlopers who interject the Gospel?

Unedited notes from the morning session.

Has to do with the organizational structure of movements. A starfish has a structure where any segment has the possibility to reproduce the entire structure. There’s a movement in every one of us. Begin with the end in mind – plant a movement, don’t just plant a church.

Neil Cole

Mark 4:

Three parables about the Kingdom that are organic in nature.

Sower sows seeds that lands in four different kinds of soil. The Gospel is not just a “Get out of Hell free card.” The Gospel is “The King has come.” The message of the Kingdom is Jesus. I’ve stopped telling people to plant churches. I tell them to plant Jesus. He’s the core of everything else. You can plant a church and not make disciples. We need to learn to trust in the seed. Church is the fruit, the outgrowth of the message of the Kingdom. The way to do this is to plant Jesus first. The world is more interested in Jesus than they are the church.

The man doesn’t know how the seed grows, but he knows it does and knows to harvest when it’s ready. This is the spontaneous growth of the kingdom – the seed sprouts and grows all by itself. When is this man busy? Sowing and Reaping, he’s not busy during the time of growth. When are we most busy… during growth – look at any Christian bookstore. We commit so much time, energy, and resource trying to make things grow that we don’t plant the seed. We need to see the church more like a farmer and not a CEO. We need to realize that we need to plant the seed. Curriculum is not the solution to changing lives. Books don’t change lives. The Bible does. We can’t just read the bible asking “What do the people need to hear.” We need to read it to hear God speak directly to us through His word. We make disciples by planting the seed, not a seed substitute. You can’t make something grow any more than tugging on a plant will make it grow. The growth comes from within. We need to trust that Jesus will bring the growth. Let’s bring the message of Jesus right into the darkness of our lives… take the Gospel to your drug dealer. If we trust in our methods and message more than the Seed itself, we fail.

David Watson

Have you ever caused someone to die?

I will not do this until You show me from Your Word how to start churches. After six months, the how started to emerge. Let people discover God on their own from His word. Show them the scriptures, ask them what it says to them, ask them what they’re going to do about it?

I still cause people to die, but instead of dying for a system of religion, they’re dying for a savior. The power of forgiveness has been given to us. In order to withhold forgiveness, we must simply do nothing. By doing nothing, we’re saying, “You’re not forgiven.” This isn’t easy because this isn’t about religion.

What are the paradoxical differences? You have to go slow in order to go fast. You have to start with the right people… sometimes the right one person. Each effort has 2-4 years of mentoring leadership. Focus on the one in order to win the many. Jesus told His disciples to find the one person and stay there.

Jeff Vanderstelt – Soma Communities

Eph 1 – a people who exist for the praise of His glorious grace.

There is no other Senior Pastor except Jesus Christ. Jesus building a church in and through us. Most people think of the church as a building people go to. People give money to fund the activities. These serve almost like containers to hold people in. It’s almost like we’re extracting people from the world…

You are not going out to be Jesus to people, you’re going out with Jesus for Him to fill people with Himself. We’ve been saved by grace and saved for God’s work. The five-fold ministries are to equip and train the people to minister. Every member of the church is a full-time paid minister for Jesus Christ. The saints need to be doing the ministry and the pastors should not be doing the ministering for the church. “The mercenary mentality of the church.” We have to call the church to be the church.

It’s not the pastor’s job to feed the saints. It’s the job of the saints to feed others. If volunteering at the service is your highest view… it’s event volunteering.

Have we structured things so that everyone is a declarer of the Gospel and that they see all of life as the ministry they’re called to? The best place for equipping is in life. MC is a family of believers living life together – all of it. It’s the whole deal. How do you know someone is faithful to what you taught them? By seeing them live it out. The only way to disciple is life on life in the midst of everyday life. Let’s not put on programs that extract people from life but we equip them for life.

We have to help people know what their mission is. Who are they called to? Can you imagine if you were sent to another part of the world – what would you do? We ask them to realign their whole life to make disciples of a specific people group. Let’s launch and commission people. You don’t plant a church – a church emerges. Our elder track is not sitting in a classroom, but we train our elders by having be the elder of small group of people. You’d be surprised what the church can do if you believe Jesus is in them.

Alan Hirsch

Jesus sneezed. Viral movements. Viruses can teach us many things. Pretty resistant, marvelous creatures. Really good ideas always spread like viruses. The more complex you make it, the harder it is to pass it along. Simple is reproducible.

Pay it forward. If we simply stayed with that methodology, in 11 iterations of pay it forward, we would reach every American. I’m going to disciple three people into the kingdom. Discipling them all the way through. In 11 iterations with all the people in this room, we’d reach the entirety of America. Expand this to a church – each church plants three churches. We’d saturate America with churches.

Two elements to an exponential movements. Apostolic Mission – traditional – won’t be enough. Mission of the People of God – every person and every domain has their role to play. It takes both to create an exponential movement. [over-k-dover]

Whatever you do has to have the capacity to reproduce itself. If it can’t be – you have to call that into question. If your idea of church is so complex – that is not easy to reproduce. Paul planted a church in 9 days. Your baptism is your commission – it shouldn’t take 7 years to train someone to be a leader. It’s a people movement.