Vintage Faith

Meeting Jesus in Orlando

I was speaking at the wonderful LeadNow and Fusion event 2 weeks ago in Orlando. I have been part of Fusion/LeadNow for several years in a row and it truly is an incredible event that Marc and Brian and their teams put together. Marc and Brian and the RightNow and Bluefish TV team have become very important to me personally. Their ministry intentions and motivations are so incredibly pure - and what they do for the gospel mission of serving others is contagious. I love being with them and I wish we lived closer as I would be hanging out with them for sure. Marc and Brian both wear crocs however, and I struggle a lot with that part of our friendship. But croc shoes shall not be a barrier to the shared mission and friendship we have.

While I was in Orlando, I finally got to see The Holyland Experience. The Holyland Experience is not a theme park with rides, but it is sort of a re-creation of biblical places such as the Temple, the tomb of Jesus, a multimedia experience teaching about the Tabernacle and is more of an educational theme park.

I did have a very friendly person dressed in an New Testament outfit come over to me since I was alone and say hello and then he pretty quickly and pretty directly asked me if I was "born again". I am not sure how I would have responded if I didn't know what that term meant or if I wasn't a Christian, but he was very sincere in asking me. It seemed his role as I watched him and heard him ask the same question to someone else,  was actually walking up to people and it seemed like to see if they were Christians or not and evangelism.

  When you pull off the exit from the highway, it is very strange as you see the Temple. It is quite large, and even as large as they made it, it still is only 1/3 of the size of the real one from what I understand. But there off the highway, is Herod's Temple standing tall. You walk into the place and the walls are all recreations of the Jerusalem walls, the interior of the park is extremely clean and the Holyland Experience staff all wears garb of New Testament times or Temple or Tabernacle garb.

Conversational Evangelism in Minneapolis

There is a conference in a few weeks I am part of "Conversational Evangelism" in Minneapolis on May 16-17. The web site is here. It has Todd Hunter, Jim Henderson, Becky Pippert, Mark Mittleberg, Gary Poole and Rick Richardson.

There are so many incredible conferences that are happening each year and as I determine which ones to participate in, a major, major factor is if the conference has evangelism and focusing on that as part of it. If you know me, you would redundantly hear how I am quite concerned about how we can get in groups and talk theology and be dissatisfied with forms of church and even talk about what we wish church was like - but we remain rather small ingrown churches made up of already Christians who left former churches. This may be fine for a while if healing is needed for individuals, but in the longer run - are these communities being used by God to see new people coming to saving faith in Jesus?

Not embarrassed to be using a PC

Yesterday, I got a new Dell XPS M1330 laptop computer.

I had the option of getting a MacBook Pro, but I chose to get a PC.

About 15 years ago, my first several computers were Macs. At that time, they were the option for creativity and user-friendliness and I used them for a couple of years back then. The PC's were quite ugly and harder to use at that time. However, at the church I was on staff with back then, made the decision to go all PC so reluctantly I switched from Mac to PC.

A lot has changed over the past 15 years. Today, PC's are as easy to use as Macs and very user-friendly. I have not experienced any crashing or poor performances from the PC's I have owned. The Dell XPS I have sitting before me has a 13.3" screen and it's color is "Tuxedo Black". It is very attractive, cool looking, sleek, strong, intelligent, futuristic, artistic, adventurous and even sexy (in a wholesome usage of that word in a non-lusting of the flesh way). I mainly use my laptop for writing, creating PowerPoint presentations, creating some graphical handouts with Adobe software, emails, web cam communication, using Bible study programs, web browsing, playing and storing music with iTunes etc. So for me, PC's have functioned just great and I have had a wonderful relationship and usage of them for 15 years. So I continue to use PC's as they now both look great and function great for how I personally use a computer. I do use my laptop constantly and travel a lot with it, so the laptop is a very important part of my life and what I do as a church leader, communicator, author, student etc.   

Fairly recently, all around me, many of my friends have bought Macs. I know that for those who do musical recordings using their computers, Macs are good options as they have a specific recording and editing program that I hear is very good. I know that Macs are often better suited for the serious professional graphic designer due to the way the programs function in the Mac operating system. That is very understandable. I am not anti-Mac at all and they seem to be fine and wonderful computers. I hadn't thought too much about those who used Macs and those who didn't.

But something weird is happening.

Social Justice - yes.....Heaven and Hell - yes

* I added an interview link and and some words from N.T. Wright who feels we should weep over those who will experience "hell" when they die. Thanks Treven!

Yesterday in all 3 worship gatherings at Vintage Faith Church in our "Enter Hope" series, we focused on teaching how followers of Jesus need to understand a holistic gospel. We have formalized the formation of a ministry team who is developing and overseeing our local involvement in compassion and oppression projects and relationships in the community. We already have a global team established and we just went on a trip to Uganda to support an orphanage and local ministry there, we have supported Living Water International and have taken several trips to Mexico (another one is happening in June) where we help an orphanage there.

The teaching was shared by myself, and the two point leaders of the local team, Jon Havens and Joann Collier. Jon is 25 years old and Joann is 21 years old and one of my greatest joys as a leader is listening to the passion and ideas of those like Jon and Joann and seeing them dream and create new possibilities for us as a church. Jon walked through the biblical narrative and pulled out the consistent teaching of how God cares for the oppressed - throughout the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. The whole Bible is loaded with the concern God has for those experiencing injustice, those whom are poor, those in need etc.

Jon mentioned how there are over 300 verses dealing with this alone. Joann then shared the various ways we will be directing our efforts as a local church in our community. We will be partnering with Elm Street Mission where we will be starting a new weekly ministry in serving low-income and poor elderly and families. We also will be helping out with their homeless efforts, but this will be a distinct new branch of focus that we will be starting. Some other things too will be developed as a befriending ministry to the mentally ill in our town and training about this and partnering with local organizations in this.

Danielle Fox was creating artwork during the sermon which was matching the message that was being given. We have been painting large 6 foot tall letters each week of "H-O-P-E" that will be hang somewhere in the church building to remind us of this series.

I shared in the teaching how as we talk about this, we don't see this as a "program" of the church but instead see it is part of the DNA of who we are and who we desire to be as a church. There is a big difference between the two. I told how if you asked me 8 or 9 years ago what is Christianity all about and the gospel, I would have answered "it is about putting faith in Jesus and His work on the cross so we can go to heaven when we die."  I wrote about my change of understanding about this in The Emerging Church (2003) on page 282-283 where I wrote about the importance of "living in the Kingdom now, not just when we get to heaven". I wrote about the difference of focusing the gospel entirely about going to heaven in the next life when it is more than that the focus is also on the Kingdom now on earth and our roles as followers of Jesus in it.

I spoke Sunday about we need to repent if we have simply bought into the "going to heaven when we die" mindset and not taken our role in this life and on this earth seriously now. God seems to be moving amongst the church as the many churches who did not take this seriously have seemed to awaken to this false dichotomy. So it is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to see this happen. I have nothing but thrill to see and hear this happening and I can only imagine the delight of God as He sees this happening. We only have just begin too as there is so much work to be done, the marginalized, the oppressed, even the way we steward caring for the earth and environment really all plays into this. But it is just incredible seeing the work that is now beginning and happening with those of us who did not understand the impact the gospel holistically makes.

But, I as I listen, watch, read, observe.... I have a sort of nagging in the back of my mind/heart concern......questions.... trying to project things out 10 years, 20 years...... I did speak about this Sunday at Vintage Faith Church as part of the message. I also raised it up at Willow Creek Community Church when I was there 2 weeks ago which you can read about and see a video clip here and also it was written about here by someone who covered the event.

What I am wondering about, is how do we avoid patterns of the past when the church jumps strongly in the realm of focusing on the gospel's impact for this earth and in this life - but slowly neglects teaching and reminding people of the gospel's impact about the reality of eternal heaven and eternal hell in the life to come after we die?

Theology and Leadership - Catalyst article

I have known of the Catalyst event that happens in Atlanta each year for a while, but only recently have got caught up on it and what is really happening with it. I got to hang out with Brad Lomenick who leads the event and mission of it when I was speaking at North Point Church recently in Atlanta.

I am going back again to North Point in August to speak at the 7/22 gathering that happens on Tuesday nights. The night I am speaking, it will also be the release of Charlie Hall's new CD and he will be there leading the music.  So that should be a fun night and I look forward to hanging out with Jarrett Stevens and seeing the other North Point staff I got to know when there last.

When I met with Brad, I loved hearing Brad's heart for the Catalyst event, and how it has amazingly has developed over the years. They are looking at developing a west-coast Catalyst soon which will benefit those of us over here for sure.

I was recently asked by Jesse on the Catalyst team to write an article for the Catalyst web site e-zine. What came to mind to write about was the importance of theological thinking for leaders in churches. It is what I have been really thinking about a lot lately, and even spent 3.5 hours talking about it at Willow Creek's Shift Conference last week in the workshop I led. In a culture of rapid change and idea sharing, we need to all the more be thinking theologically as we lead our churches.

I did write a blog entry recently that talked a little about this, but here is the article on the Catalyst web site that I wrote. They named it "Sticks and Stones". 

I also just looked at the whole Catalyst web site when looking at the posted article, and it is really quite a plethora of information for leaders. So I will be returning to it for sure, as they really are engaging what leadership in our emerging culture is about.

OK... hope the article is interesting and encouraging and check out the rest of the Catalyst web site.

Willow Creek Shift Conference - youth leaders are pioneers

I just got back today from speaking at the Willow Creek Community Church Shift Conference. It was a such an encouraging event and being among youth ministry leaders is one of the greatest joys and honor I can think of. Youth leaders to me, are the pioneers of the future church and serving youth is a holy thing to me in the major influence they have which effects youth the rest of their lives. So being amidst them is an extreme privilege.

The Shift Conference had a couple of thousand people there. I led a 3.5 intensive worshop On "Theology and Youth Ministry" and I was the main session speaker Friday to close it up.

You can read a brief overview of the main session I spoke at and see a video clip of a few moments of it over at the Leadership Journal Out of Ur blog. They reported on the event via blogging and posting video clips.

In the main session I started with sharing how I attended the very first  and second Willow Creek youth leaders conference back around 1991 or 1992. I was just entering ministry at this time and had never been to a youth leaders conference before, so I was quite nervous and wondered if I would fit in. When I got there, I was somewhat horrified to see that the youth leaders fashion hairstyle of that time was a version of the mullet. It wasn't the crazy big mullet like Joe Dirt (David Spader), but more of a tamer Christian version of the mullet. It seemed 90% of the youth leaders had one back then and I sat there getting more nervous seeing this. I was internally wrestling as I sat there thinking "Lord, I am not sure I can do this....." (if it meant getting the Christian shorter mullet haircut). But much to my relief, Bo Boshers did not have a mullet.

Bo was the leader of the student ministries at that time and is now overseeing Willow Creek Association's Student Ministry focus and was the host of the Shift Conference. I shared that it was through Bo and those first 2 conferences back around 1991, I was implanted with three things that have seriously impacted and sent me on a trajectory of ministry since then.

Willow Creek Shift Conference

I am quite thrilled to be back at Willow Creek Community Church for their Shift Conference that started yesterday. I will blog later about my history with Willow, but it was at the very first youth ministry conference they had here which I went to and God used it tremendously in my life and Bo Boshers in my life and ministry which has carried through to this day in major ways, which I will explain later.

I am the main session speaker tomorrow and today I am leading/teaching a 3.5 hour Point Leaders session today called "Theology and Youth Ministry".I will be walking through how as youth leaders we need to be aware of how we do teach theology in so many ways whether intentionally or unintentionally - from how we use words such as "worship" and "church" to how we even set up a room when we meet. I will be stressing why I feel it is so important it is for youth leaders to be thinking theologically about everything we do, and looking at history of theological patterns of the past. I will bring up some of the key theological issues that I believe we need to be preparing youth for today that they will be forced to be thinking through after they graduate such as: how they define the gospel,  the trustworthiness of Scripture, how they define "church", homosexuality and sexuality in general, the role of men and women in the church, religious pluralism etc. I think the issue of social justice has been prominent here so far, so I won't spend time on that for this. But that is obviously important too and I will talk about the need for both orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

A lot of this will stem from how I was a youth pastor for many years then shifted to college and young adult leader for many years - all in the same church and town so I got to see what were some patterns of issues that I wished we addressed and cultural questions that arose post-high school. So that will be later today.

Yesterday I got to meet up with Brian McLaren and we chatted about things emerging and emergent and how things are going and about some questions about criticisms and all types of things. I get to hang out today with Scot McKnight today too which I look forward to. I have been talking to Scot often and he is becoming a sort of guru-theologian to me. One of the ultra-joys of being at conferences is getting to hang out with other people and learn and chat and build friendships.

I do miss Becky, Katie and Claire - and I always bring a photo of them and put it next to my bed on the nightstand like here in the hotel I am in now. I look forward to when Katie and Claire get old enough to travel with me when I go on trips like this. And I do miss our church and Josh and the staff, although I guess not in the same way to where I put Josh's photo by my bed too.

Springsteen show with Becky

Last night Becky and I went and saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in San Jose. I counted last night while we were having dinner before the show, and realized this was the 9th time I have seen him play live. I grew up in New Jersey and Springsteen music through the years formed  a Jersey-roots soundtrack for various times of my life. I didn't connect at all with Bon Jovi, who is the other main Jersey band.

 

Outside the HP Pavillion were of course (as they always are out there for concerts) our super-evangelist friends. They stand out in front with a bunch of different sized signs which are lists of sins, or about hell etc. To round it off, they also do use megaphones and preach (I should say shout) to the 20,000 who go into concerts. They are the cartoon caricature of Christians holding signs and literally using megaphones to preach. I stopped and talked to one of them and asked what church he was from, but he wouldn't tell me. The last time I saw this group and asked them what church they were from, they didn't tell me either. He just said there were several churches who come out to evangelize (what they consider evangelism). It was interesting watching them for a few minutes as no one was paying any attention to them. They were visibly loud with very large signs. They were very loud shouting with their megaphones. But I would watch people walk by them and most weren't even turning their heads to look at them. Maybe they are used to them being out there and they just don't even bother looking at them anymore and just ignore them. I know they have good motives and desire to serve Jesus. But it just reinforces the whole image of Christians I so try to see change. Not that hell or sin isn't a reality - but how you go about talking about it and telling people about it. 

The concert was quite good. Out of the 9 times I have seen Springsteen I can't remember a time when it wasn't. One year it felt like he was going off a bit too much on politics which I didn't quite feel was necessary. But it is his show, so I guess he can do what he wants. I have been following the setlists of this tour and last night he played a different diversity of songs from usual.   

Awaken Fun

  Just got back from being part of the Awaken Conference in Pasadena which was held at Mosaic Church for the past 3 days. It was quite fun and quite relaxing as the format of this conference was primarily panel discussions led by Erwin McManus. Bill Hybels and Wayne Cordeiro gave 30 minute messages, but the rest was panel discussions of different sorts. I was on three different panels, two were focused on evangelism and one was on leadership. One of the evangelism panels was myself, Lee Strobel, Mark Mittleberg, Rick McKinley and Eric Bryant and of course apologetics came up with Mark and Lee there. I always really enjoy being with Lee and Mark and I love how they are apologists who have such a healthy balance apologetics in a relational and conversational context. I hope that apologists see this need as Lee and Mark do, in how apologetics is used in culture with people today.

Erwin did a really great job hosting this and kept things moving well and I didn't sense any lulls or people losing connection to what was happening. I loved hearing spontaneous thoughts from people. Nancy Beach, Nancy Ortberg, Mark Batterson and so many others that had great things to say about real life ministry. Erwin's closing words of the conference were the strong reminder how he repeated "it's all about Jesus, it's all about Jesus, it's all about Jesus" and stressed the importance of the centrality of the cross. Erwin was one of the people I emailed Kevin about (see last post) in the book he wrote "Why We're Not Emergent".

Interesting and Ay Yi Yi

There is a new very interesting book out called "Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be".

With the books or blogs so far that have been written from an anti-emerging or anti-emerging church perspective, many of them (but not all) are unfortunately somewhat extremist and highly over-the-top in what they report on. I am often amazed at the hyper-caricatures made based on a sentence or two from someone's writing and then an unfortunate very large broadbrush is applied to everyone who has anything to do with the emerging and emergent churches. However, out of all the critical books so far written on the emerging or emergent church, this seems to be the more readable and overall balanced. Their tone is somewhat more gentle than others and they didn't just focusing on only one or two people for all of their conclusions. They do say some negative, or maybe a better word is cautionary things about me in it and things I have written.

I always want to be very open to criticism or listening to people who may have concerns with something I wrote or speak about. We should always be open and willing to listen or read criticism to see if there is truth to what someone is saying they are concerned about. We are all learning and growing and I have had people point out things of concern, I ended up agreeing with them and made changes. Other times I just disagreed with them and didn't change, as it became a difference of opinion. But criticism can be a very good thing. We are stretched when we are challenged by other people and it causes us to look more closely at what we are saying or believing which is a healthy and needed thing.

(You can click below here to read the rest of this post. I am copying my friend Scot McKnight in how he breaks up his posts so it isn't one long one on the page).

Enter Hope

It is Easter evening - (Resurrection Day evening)... Today in our gatherings we started a new series called "Enter Hope". The series will be going through various ways the resurrection of Jesus gives us hope.

This is our 5th Easter Sunday as a church - as we planted Vintage Faith Church in February 2004. Time flies so fast, I can't believe we planted Vintage Faith 4 years ago already and this is our 5th Easter together. 

Near the end of the gathering, we had rubber stamps and ink pads that were passed around that had the word "hope" on it. People then stamped there hand and we stressed to remember all day long about the reality of the truth and hope that the resurrection brings.

This morning we started with walking through a section from 1 Corinthians 15. We talked about the way the death and resurrection of Jesus occurred "according to the Scriptures" (v.3-4) and the confidence we can have in the Scriptures. Then talked about the resurrection itself. We tried to communicate hope and also set up the series we will be teaching through the lens of the resurrection.

It was one of those preaching times, where I struggled during the first gathering. I didn't feel I was too focused a few times with clarity of points,  but after that gathering the next felt better and more focused. Preaching is an odd thing sometimes.

It was a good day, it is always a joy to see children in the gathering and there as a group who sang at each one. Josh had picked out a song and then gives the CD to parents and Katie and Claire have been singing "Every Step I Take" or whatever that song is. Not The Police "Every Move You Make" song but a worship sing with a lot of happy "na na na's" in it that children love to sing. I am kind of glad it is over as I have heard that song dozens of times the past few weeks. But it is so cool seeing kids involved like that in the worship gathering. 

We had the video overflow happening in the coffee house during the gatherings.  We have been doing that for a while in the evening gathering due to lack of space but haven't had the need in the morning, but did because of Easter. I am so torn about video venues and overflow. I can understand overlfow like we do when you run out of seats - so it is an overflow. But launching video venues off-site is a diffent thing and I am always thinking of how they shape one's ecclesiology. The medium does (in my opinion) make a difference in the message. But that is a whole other discussion and I am tired right now and may try to sleep.

Easter Sunday - Resurrection Sunday...  "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to Scriptures"   (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

A wonderful Sunday with our new portable baptistry

I blogged about the new kind of weird looking baptistry that we just got to be able to baptize people in the building we are now in. It was a slightly a weird color, so we did end up covering the outside with a cloth and other than the color - it was great.

People share their stories of what has led to their baptism before they are baptized and it was incredibly thrilling (and I am not just saying that as cliche words) to hear how God has worked in their lives.

Cliff, is a 24 year old who shared that he grew up outside of the church. God used a friendship that he made with someone in high school who brought him to the young adult ministry Josh Fox and I were leading at Santa Cruz Bible Church. He went a few times and then stopped. I met Cliff at a wedding I was performing and we chatted over dinner that night. Cliff then shared how he decided on his own to check out Vintage Faith Church and began coming. He got connected with some new friends whom God used in his life. He got into a guy's mid-week community group and he told us the story of how they were reading through the book of Luke. One night as they were reading about Jesus' agony in the garden before he was arrested - Cliff was profoundly moved and began crying. He went into the bathroom to gain composure and in the bathroom prayed to trust Jesus as Savior. He didn't even tell the guys in his group until last week. (Cliff shared all this with everyone.) He then wanted to be baptized.

Laura is a college student who also grew up entirely outside of the church. She had an interest in art and got intrigued with biblical art. Her English Lit professor encouraged her to read the Bible. As she did and was journaling about it - she also trusted in Jesus and put faith in Him. She then looked up our church on-line and emailed Kristin to tell her she had never been to a church in her life and wanted to get some guidance. So Kristin (who is in the picture here too) met with her and helped her get connected and she then wanted to get baptised. It is amazing when you hear these stories of people who never set foot in a church before and their experience.

  Sara had a church experience growing up, but shared how she pretty much gave up on church and faith for a while. She ended up coming on her own to Vintage Faith and eventually got connected with other people, she joined a class which is several months long and intensive Bible study and life sharing which God used to draw her back to Him. And she wanted to get baptized.

Lauren shared also had given up on the church for the most part and through a friend ended up coming, met people, got in a mentoring relationship with an older woman in the church, also got in an intensive class for deeper study and life sharing. She then wanted to get baptized. Sarah Martin in this photo too as she was part of Lauren's story and helped baptize her. 

These very short summaries of their stories do not capture at all the heart and emotions that they shared with us as they told their stories and their love for God they have. It is just incredible to see how God works in lives and in each of these stories, it was from ordinary people whom God used in their lives in different ways to draw them to Him.

It was a wonderful, wonderful Sunday and I am glad we got the odd portable baptistry and am so glad to see how God worked in their lives. Becky brought Katie and Claire to the evening gathering as we were telling them about baptisms and they saw the baptismal in the mornng when they were there. They wanted to see a baptism. Gracie Franklin (in photo) was there too watching. They just turned 6 years old and normally are in bed at that time - but how could we refuse allowing them to stay up late and watch people getting baptized? So we broke their normal time for bed for this night too. 

Pagan Christianity and Frank Viola - Part 2

I began blogging about the book Pagan Christianity a few weeks ago. The author, Frank Viola and I have become email friends over the years and I said I would post about this book. I have read it thoroughly 2 times and I have a "love/hate" relationship with this book (hate is too strong a word). What I love, love, love, love about this book is how it goes into the origins of why we do what we do in our churches. I believe it is very important to know origins, as we can sometimes get locked into systems or ways of doing ministry that aren't from Scripture, but were developed in a certain time period and certain culture for a certain purpose that fit that culture. But we can then not question why we do what we do and not want to change and it can hinder the mission of the church. I teach about these origins like Frank writes about in this book in seminary classes, in conferences and have taught about them in our church. So, I love, love, love this and I highly, highly recommend the book for that.

I also, love, love, love the heart of what Frank and George desire to see the church be and for Christians to experience. I couldn't agree more and I am so much in agreement with these things. I have read every single book Frank has written and I love his heart for the church and for Christians to experience what God intended for the church.

But what I don't really agree with, is the way that the book subtly and not too subtly stresses that the "pagan" things we have added or developed into church culture and practice is almost all bad. There is a subtle and not too subtle argument made for the small organic church to be the way true health can be experienced. What I disagree with is that if we follow this, then we should be all reading Scripture only from scrolls, as the "pagan" printing press was not around at that time and the "pagan" way we bind the Bible today and put them into pages was all developed hundreds of years later. Or that we have "pagan" forms of communicating and use laptops, blogs and the internet (I am using hyperbole to make a point, but it is this type of reaction which I feel the book consists of in how it stresses many of it's practical conclusions).

I also don't agree that large established churches with paid staffs are bad. I think that you can have a healthy church of 5,000 and a healthy church of 15. Or you can have a unhealthy church of 5,000 or an unhealthy church of 15. I am not into numbers. We intentionally don't count the people in our worship gatherings so we don't fall into the "we had 30 more this week" or "30 less than last week" trap. We do count (so to speak) leaders and those in Community Groups as that is a more accurate way to track health (and other ways too). So, I truly am not into just asking about numbers for the sake of seeing how big or little a church is. But like any farmer checks the growth and multiplication of crops, in the church we shouldn't be afraid of asking and checking about growth and multiplication over time and in the right seasons. Jesus said to go and make disciples and the Bible records times and numbers of people putting faith in Jesus. Jesus said to be fishers of people, which means there was an expectation that new fish would be caught (so to speak). George Barna, who is the co-author of Pagan Christianity makes arguments and cases for things using lots of numbers and statistics. His last book Revolution was based on surveys and numbers. So numbers in the right motive for asking, shouldn't be bad to do.

So with Frank, I wanted to be asking how he has personally seen growth and multiplication over the many years he has been part of a house church. Not how it is going in India or China and in that different cultural context. But how about his own church? He lives in a populated area and with a healthy church of any size, over time we should see conversion growth of some kind and multiplication of new house churches since they intentionally remain small and then are to launch new ones.

So over the years, I wanted to know at least some guesses about this in terms of people who weren't Christians or disciples, how many came to faith and became part of the house church (in the right season). And how many over the years - new house churches have been launched and multiplication happening? Over a long time period, if there is 15 believers and our mandate is to make disciples and multiply in a healthy way - what has happened in Frank's church? So, I asked these questions - since co-author George Barna bases his arguments from numbers usually. And a farmer growing strawberries wants to see how many new strawberries are produced over time etc.

So with that, I will do in Scot McKnight fashion of having the entry continue on another page, have this continue with Frank's responses as you click here to go to the next part.

Thinking about St. Patrick the missionary

I am wrapping up preparation for the sermon tomorrow, which is the last week of our evangelism series. We are concluding it with several baptisms. As it is St. Patrick's Day on Monday, I also am going to briefly touch on St. Patrick because his life is an example of what we are teaching about. Not the totally fictitious St. Patrick and the leprechauns, 4-leaf clovers and green beer and all that. But what we know of the historical St. Patrick.

Two of my missionary heroes are Hudson Taylor (China) and St. Patrick (Ireland). The reason is that they understood the need to contextualize how you go about church and mission in different cultures. I also am reminded that they both were criticized by their "home" base of Britain (in both these cases in totally different time periods). But they got criticism for changing how they went about "church", how they adapted their ministry even their dress and look if needed, to proclaim and teach the gospel catered to a specific culture.

I was just re-reading tonight the book "The Celtic Way of Evangelism" by George Hunter, which was a very influential book in my life several years ago. There are some who have disagreements with the author's take on the Celt's (as there is a variety of time periods and complexities in their history, so it is hard to say in a generic form "The Celts"). But never-the-less, it is a great and inspiring book. I will simply put a few quotes here from the book in memory and honor of the ministry of St. Patrick.

Patrick was kidnapped by the Irish at age 16 and became a slave for many years. He eventually escaped and went back to Britain. But then he ended up going back to the very people in Ireland he escaped from to share Jesus and proclaim the gospel. But he didn't do in normal ways. He did set up formal biblical training and education but so much was done relationally and creatively.

We can get fearful of being rejected or that people won't like us when they know we are Christians. But look at this description of the people Patrick went back to:

".... stripped before battle and rushed their enemy naked, carrying sword and shield but wearing only sandals and torc...  while howling." (page 19)

Patrick got to understand those he was trying to reach:

"..Patrick understood the people and their language, their issues, and their ways...When you understand the people, you will often know what to say and do, and how. When the people know the Christians understand them, they infer that maybe the High God understands them too." (pages 19-20)

"After years of reflection on how the Irish might be reached, he moved into mission....employing parable, story, poetry, song, visual symbols, visual arts and perhaps drama to engage the Celtic people's remarkable imaginations. Often, we think, Patrick would receive the people's questions and then speak to those questions collectively." (page 21)

"They did not rely upon preaching alone to communicate the fullness of Christianity." (page 74)

The results:

"They baptized many thousands, probably tens of thousands. Patrick's mission planted about 700 churches. Within his lifetime, 30 to 40 (or more) of Ireland's 150 tribes became substantially Christian." (page 23)

The criticism that followed from the British and Roman church leaders (sounds like some similar criticism of today):

"One would naturally assume that the British Church which ordained Patrick and sent him to Ireland, would continue to affirm his mission and celebrate its achievements. This was far from the case. The British leaders had expectations that he was to be administer to local churches and care for faithful Christians. The British leaders were offended and angered that Patrick was spending priority time with "pagans", "sinners" and "barbarians". (pages 23-24)

"The Roman church leaders repeatedly criticized the Celtic wing for not doing church the "Roman way".....the hairstyle of the Celtics contrasted with the "tonsure" of the Romans. In hairstyle matter, and many others, Celtic Christianity had adapted to the people's culture; the Romans wanted Roman cultural forms imposed on all churches and people's - a policy that was alien to the Celtic movement's genius. The driving issues was control. That is why it was so important to the Romans for everyone to do church the "Roman way." (pages 40-41).

Despite the criticism, the type of people this missionary venture produced:

"They were devoted, compassionate, sold-out citizens of Heaven. They relied, through "prayer without ceasing" upon the Triune God's providence and power. They would do anything they could to help other people find The Way." (page 76)

I pray that as a church, we become devoted, compassionate....  and we would also do anything we can to help others find The Way, The Truth, and the Life." .............Amen.

Two wonderful meetings and the incredible portable baptismal

I just got out of two extremely wonderful meetings, which were ones which make me remember why I am in vocational ministry and the types that encourage me to keep going when often it is difficult.

The first meeting was with the volunteer team who is coming up with what our church will do with local social justice and compassion issues in our community. They have been brainstorming ways to be involved in the community in areas ranging from elderly homes, AIDS patients, homelessness, helping single mothers and children in need, assisting the mentally ill and several other ideas. They have been researching where in our community we can get involved and their passion was extremely evident and enthusiasm incredibly, incredibly high. We are meeting again in 2 weeks to have them narrow things down more to what we will be doing later this year as a church. They are pretty much making the decisions on this for the whole church, and I could sense their ownership and seriousness they have as they pray and research and are making the selections of what we will do.

The second meeting was with two of the four people we are baptizing this Sunday. I met with them right after the other meeting.When we were meeting at Santa Cruz Bible Church the first two years of our church we had baptisms happening pretty regularly as in that facility had a sunken in baptism/hot tub type of a baptismal in the stage area. So it was a pretty easy thing to do.

However, two years ago, when we moved to this facility (which is a 1938 Presbyterian church building) there is only a baptismal font in the building. So we have been wanting to have immersion baptisms and started looking for how to do it in this building. We have done baptisms at the beach, which are wonderful. But when you do baptisms off-site, it is a smaller group who is there and we have historically seen how when modelled and seen by the whole church in a worship gathering that it is a great way to be teaching  and showing baptisms which lead to others deciding to be baptized too. So we wanted to be able to baptize right in the worship gathering, instead of off-site.

   

Cliff, who is one of those being baptized on Sunday, helped me look for a baptism tank or something to use. He looked at a metal trough of some sort. But it would be hard to move when filled with water and also we would have to figure out how to empty it and have it at least warm. So then on the internet, I found a portable baptism. At first I thought it was kind of hokey, but as I read about it and saw it - it seemed to make so much sense to get one. It has a heater, it can be assembled in 15-20 minutes, it can be torn down and stored in sections pretty easily, and it has a pump to remove the water afterward. On the phone I asked Cliff about colors to help me pick one and we got a brown looking one. Most were sort of 1980's blue colors.

Interestingly, I was doing an image search for "portable baptism" for this blog entry on Google and when I did I just saw a photo of Mark Batterson in the mix and then it turned out that Mark blogged about baptisms and sure enough - there was the same baptismal we just got. He used it at National Community Church in Washington DC.  But in his blog he said how he covered it with black cloth, as the colors are a bit odd. So, I felt better and not so uncomfortable seeing Mark also using one of these portable baptismals

I will post about the baptisms with some photos after this Sunday. But it is kind of funny looking at the ads for this that say "Easy to Set Up" and "Ready in Minutes" and "Convenient to Store". But for those in situations like we are or like Mark is at National Community Church - having a baptismal we can set up, tear down and conveniently store is actually a big deal. And all I know is that because of this portable baptismal we are now baptizing 4 people this Sunday in the worship gathering.

I just finished meeting with two of those being baptized and all I can say is that God changes lives. What I love about baptisms is that we have the people getting baptized share their story. I sat through two incredibly moving stories of how God has given hope and drastically changed two people's lives. I will blog more about that after Sunday.

Two of those we will be baptizing were never part of any church prior to Vintage Faith Church. The other two had some church experience growing up, but had left the church for many years. But then through different circumstances have recently given church another try and heard about Vintage Faith and became part of church and involved in the mission. I have met with all 4 of those getting baptized and hearing their stories is what brings me hope and knowing that God does change lives. The Spirit is drawing people to repentance and change and hope and new life.

These meetings are the ones which enable me to carry one when depressed or wondering why we are doing what we are doing. I feel like a little boy with this portable baptism thing, as it just arrived today and I can't wait to open it and see how it will work. We are doing a trial set up tomorrow and then I can't wait till Sunday to the baptisms and the 4 of them sharing how God changed their lives.