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Idol Factory – new message series

admin — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:29:24 +0000

Excited about our new message series that starts on Easter. IDOL Factory will be an eye-opening journey exploring the First Commandment. John Calvin wrote, “The human heart is a factory of idols… Everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” You might be shocked at some of the subtle things that might be replacing our devotion to Christ. Idolatry is not about statues or religious trinkets, it’s a matter of the heart.

Lord Save Us From Your Followers

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:26:20 +0000

Lord Save Us From Your Followers, Dan Merchant’s much anticipated documentary about Christianity’s PR problem, opens today in select theaters. It will no doubt spark tremendous controversy and hopefully, much conversation. Go to the website and watch some of the clips and follow the story.
Here’s the movie trailer:

Amazing, absolutely incredible!

admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:05:59 +0000

Did that get your attention? ChurchCrunch had a post yesterday on how we oversell things in ministry by the big words we use and how that has spilled over into the technological front. He showed a mashup of Apple’s keynote and their excessive use of these words.

I have grown tired by the over promotion, hyped up marketing, that many pastors and churches use to promote their next series, program, worship or whatever it is. “Don’t miss my next series it will change your life.” “Hear never before heard revelation that not even God knows!” “Our worship is the best on the planet and even the angels stop their worship to hear ours!” “This word I’m going to deliver is going to blow your mind!”

It seems that in order to keep people coming back they have to one-up their previous message as if the Gospel isn’t enough to keep people coming back. When everything is amazing, incredible, the best, wonderful, stellar, will blow your mind, knock your socks off and awesome — well then, nothing is!

I’m for marketing but we had better make sure we are delivering on our hype. This over use of powerful adjectives has desensitized a whole host of people to what is truly amazing, incredible, life changing, majestic, glorious, awesome — Jesus, transformed lives, maturing Christ followers, a community growing in love and good deeds and people coming to Christ. Now that’s amazing!

Psalm 12:3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts”

What do you think?

Exponential Conference Reflections: Part 4

Dan — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:20:48 +0000

It’s hard to put in to words the closing session of Exponential. I felt like I was part of UCF smackdown. Francis Chan brought the sledgehammer to this session. He pastors Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California. He is the author of Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

I first heard Francis at Catalyst ’07 and his message there rocked my world. Francis has a unique way to call you back to the simplicity of the Gospel and following Christ passionately, radically and intensely.

Some notable points:

“When was the last time you were astonished by someone’s boldness?” – Acts 4:13 “God wants to astonish people”

“If I could start all over I would start with more boldness and start with the scriptures.”

The problem today is that most people do eisegesis instead of exegesis. If we just read the text and interpreted it without our bias, would we really come up with most of the expressions and ways that we do church today? Probably not!

Francis closed the session ministering to those that were called to church planting. His sincerity and passion is most definitely contagious.

Exponential Conference Reflections: Part 3

Dan — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:00:24 +0000

What can I say, Craig Groeschel, lead pastor of LifeChurch.tv, has got to be one of my favorite speakers. LifeChurch.tv has been on my radar for about 6 years now and I have been following their multi-site strategy for some time now. We had two back to back sessions with Craig and it was like drinking from a fire hydrant. I’ll outline both messages here:

Reflections on Movements

What I believe about church will determine how I do church.

Remix of Romans 12:2 – “Do not be conformed to the pattern of the American church”

A movement will never be safe, predictable and clean. We must become dangerous again. Our churches today are too safe. We are asking people to come to Jesus for a better life. Preach a dangerous message, preach Christ. Lukewarm pastors build lukewarm churches.
A movement will never be about your ministry, it will be about His kingdom. Build your church on what your church is about, not on what it’s not about.
You will not lead a movement based on the old measurements of success. The scorecard has changed. The old measurements of “nickels and noses” are not valid. Your identity cannot be wrapped up in the numbers or you will be tempted to do things to bring people in rather than bring glory to God.

“What if” questions on Leading a Movement

Dare to ask the questions no one else is asking. What if…?

To lead a movement you will have to SEE what no one else is seeing. Ask God, “what’s coming?”
To lead a movement you will have to DO what others won’t do. Revolutionaries break the rules.
To lead a movement you will have to HURT like others don’t hurt. You will be misunderstood, criticized and maligned. The difference between where we are and where God wants us to be, is the pain we are willing to endure. You will be broken.

Exponential Conference Reflections: Part 2

Dan — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:15:18 +0000

Erwin McManus has been a big influence in my life. His writings and teachings have expanded my understanding of God, life, culture and what it means to be a Christ follower. His church, Mosaic, is largely considered one of the most innovative churches in America. Erwin is a futurist, I would dare say, a modern day prophet. He is articulate and has a unique gift of communication.

His message at Exponential was taken from his Wide Awake series at Mosaic and is based on Acts 17:16-34. I had heard the podcast of that message and this seemed to be a slight variation of it. It is still very powerful.

Some notable points:

What exactly are we trying to move when we talk about a movement.

There are three spaces we need to be aware of: 1st space, 2nd space and the 3rd space.

The 1st space is our place of comfort, it is the space that we try to invite others into to — the church. Paul went immediately to the synagogue to reason with the Christians.

We need a church planting movement motivated by love, not self interest.

The 2nd space is the marketplace. Paul engaged those outside of the church also. We need to engage this space because people are looking for those with the undeniable presence of Jesus.

If we don’t relate to the world we will not be effective in reaching it.

The 3rd space is the space you cannot go to unless you are invited. Paul was invited to speak at the Areopagus.

In this space we must earn the right and respect to be invited.

Erwin shared a lot of his personal story about the criticism he receives for engaging culture and he remarked that in order to enter that 3rd space we must be willing to suffer the disdain of the “Mary’s and Martha’s in order to reach Dionysius and Damaris.”

Exponential Conference Reflections: Part 1

Dan — Sun, 03 May 2009 20:46:56 +0000

This was my fourth year attending the Exponential Conference here in Orlando. I spent the last two weeks reflecting on what was unpacked during those three days so I thought I would get some of the main highlights down. Each year I get a renewed reconfirmation on my calling as a minister and further clarity as to my future. This year was no exception. Almost three thousand attended this year’s event and it is the premier conference for church planters around. It is wonderful to see all of these kingdom builders gather under one roof with no agenda other than to equip and build the church.

This year’s theme was The Art of Movements. I believe as ministers we are called to work “on” the church as much as we are called to work “in” the church. We should should structure our churches for reproduction and movement. Our founder Jesus, founded a movement, not an institution. Churches that forget that resemble a museum more than they do the vibrant, dynamic and subversive church that Jesus initiated. I’ll post the outlines of my favorite communicators in my subsequent posts.

The Party’s Over for Western Evangelicalism, part 2

Dan — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:34:00 +0000

Continuing with the previous conversation on Michael Spencer’s article on The Coming Evangelical Collapse, I will share some of my observations. Refer to the previous post for links to the article.

Michael makes 7 points as to why he believes the collapse is inevitable – read those here and come back for my take – go ahead – I’ll wait.

1) The love affair that evangelicals have had with a one party affiliation is over. Jesus resisted the politicization of the good news of the Kingdom why do we think that we know better than him. This previous election proved that the shrill message of the Religious Right did not resonate well with the rank and file. The limited issues that have been part of the platform of the Right ignore the tsunami of compassionate social and justice issues that younger evangelicals are swept up in to.

2) Barna’s current research shows that 1/2 of 1% of born-again Christians between the ages of 18-23 have a Biblical worldview. That means 99% of our churched young adults DO NOT possess a Biblical worldview. Our young people have not embraced the faith no matter how much money we throw at youth ministry. We need a massive wake up call in this area to make sure that we are really making Christ followers of our young people, not just giving them hype!

3) There is a reformation coming to the Western church. Reggie McNeal makes a brilliant case for this in his current work, Missional Renaissance. There are some megachurches that will thrive in the future but they must be missionally and incarnationally focused.

4) Christian education has not done its job in producing people that are growing in Christ-likeness. Christian education must move from a Hellenistic model of merely transmitting information to a Hebraic understanding of focusing on obedience to the teachings of Christ, not just mere knowledge. Willow Creek’s Reveal study proved that – ’nuff said!

5) People are not going to continue giving to massive building programs that are monuments to man and fat paychecks for the professional clergy. People will give to initiatives that are community focused and transformative. Here the church must morph from an inward focus to an outward missional impulse.

6) Yep, the southeast won’t be the Bible belt for much longer. Post modernism and secularism is here to stay and we must learn to contextualize and incarnate the Message in this environment.

7) Again, the shift in finances will move away from the consumeristic demands of the Baby Boomers to the altruistic vibe of the emerging generations. I don’t see a problem with that.

This collapse to me is not terrible news. Tomorrow I’ll share why I don’t think this is all bad news. Share your comments.

The Party’s Over for Western Evangelicalism, part 1

Dan — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:37:59 +0000

The blogosphere was set ablaze over the past week with the publishing of InternetMonk’s article on “The Coming Evangelical Collapse” in the Christian Science Monitor.

You can read the CSM article here.
The original post from Michael Spencer, a.k.a. Internet Monk, can be found here, here, and here.

Michael postulates about the demise of evangelicalism and the rapid onset of a post-Christian western world. He declares that the party’s almost over for evangelicals. The collapse will be heralded by the ending of thousands of ministries, the decline and influence of Christian media, and the unemployment of ministers, missionaries and Christian workers.

Michael does not consider himself a prophet or futurist but here is his grim outlook from the InternetMonk post:

I believe this evangelical collapse will happen with astonishing statistical speed; that within two generations of where we are now evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its current occupants, leaving in its wake nothing that can revitalize evangelicals to their former “glory.”

It’s important to point out that there is a monumental difference between Western evangelicalism and true Biblical Christianity, a point I will outline in my next post along with my commentary on InternetMonk’s predictions and assumptions. Stay tuned!

Ministry predictions Phil Cooke style

Dan — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:12:06 +0000

Phil Cooke had a post, here, about his predictions for ministries and non-profits over the coming year in light of our current economic climate. I’ll post his observations and my comments.

1) The “easy way out” will be big. Prosperity and gimmick guys will do well. It’s because too many people look for easy answers in a tough economy.

ME–How true this is with the superficial gospel we present in the U.S. Christians have learned to despise the process and the journey of becoming a disciple and want the magic pill that will make all of their problems go away, even though many of those problems were self-imposed. It’s a vicious cycle. True shepherds of God’s people won’t lead the flock astray.

2) The pool will shrink – religious organizations and non-profits are getting fewer in number. If you can survive, there will be less choice for givers in the future, and you may actually emerge stronger than ever.

Me–The pool has been shrinking for some time it just hasn’t been as noticeable. There will be massive hemorrhaging from those churches that ignore the shift that is taking place. The body of Christ is in desperate need of a cleansing. Some ministries will increase due to this surge.

3) Lot’s of re-organization (to no avail). Too many people think “reorganizing” means “progress.” So when times get tough, they have meetings and reorganize things instead of actually being productive.

Me–Usually when this happens, it’s too late. Most organizations won’t confront the brutal facts and take the necessary corrective action. They assume minor tweaks will initiate the sweeping reform they would need in order to survive.

4) Panic will ruin a lot of good organizations. In tough times, too many leaders make decisions they’ll regret later.

Me–Decisions not bathed in prayer, with great counsel and wisdom, will be the downfall of many churches and ministries in our current climate. Those that are prone to be reactionary will pay the price. A proper exegesis of Scripture and culture are necessary.

5) Those without a long-term strategy will fail. If you’ve been simply living from month to month then get set for a shock. The organizations that survive this downturn will be organizations that have been strategically planning for the future.

Me–On this point, I would say we need long term strategy but we need to hear God’s voice even more. I mentioned this in a previous post here and here.