The Book: Living at the Crossroads. An introduction to Christian Worldview I have a lot of respect for Bartholomew and Goheen. Bartholomew is a first rate biblical-theologian and philosophical hermeneutical scholar, and Goheen always has keen insights into postmodern culture.

Product Description
How can Christians live faithfully at the crossroads of the story of Scripture and postmodern culture? In Living at the Crossroads, authors Michael Goheen and Craig Bartholomew explore this question as they provide a general introduction to Christian worldview. Ideal for both students and lay readers, Living at the Crossroads lays out a brief summary of the biblical story and the most fundamental beliefs of Scripture. The book tells the story of Western culture from the classical period to postmodernity. The authors then provide an analysis of how Christians live in the tension that exists at the intersection of the biblical and cultural stories, exploring the important implications in key areas of life, such as education, scholarship, economics, politics, and church.

About the Author
Michael W. Goheen (PhD, University of Utrecht) is the Geneva Professor of Worldview and Religious Studies at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia. He also is the minister of preaching at New Westminster Christian Reformed Church. Craig G. Bartholomew (PhD, Bristol University) is the H. Evan Runner Professor of Philosophy and professor of religion and theology at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario. He is also a visiting professor in Scripture and hermeneutics at Chester University College in the UK. Goheen and Bartholomew are coauthors of The Drama of Scripture.

The Conference: The Conference has already passed but the audio is posted for free at the website developed for it here. Below is a breif explaination about the theme and goal of the conference;

The church is at a crossroads.  The cultural landscape is shifting and it requires considerable thought into how to be a relevant witness in this time.  This conference will prepare you to understand the current cultural story, where it is heading, and to equip you to be a relevant witness in our time.

And Drew Godmansons take on it: He lists the links here, and talks about the book and the conference here.

Last night I began reading the reader Paul Weston has creatd on Leslie Newbigin, he starts out with a brief biography. One of the many things that stood out to me about Newbigin’s life was the role his wife played in their overseas mission calling to India. Here’s the brief capture of that moment by Weston; “It was together that they decided that God was calling them to missionary service in India, where Helen’s parents had been missionaries.” (pg. 4)

Newbigin was perhaps the most influential missionary theologian of the 20th century and his journey as a missinoary began by he and Helen being called to serve where her parents served. Imagine if Newbigin hadn’t met Helen, if Helen’s own passion for India hadn’t been burning within her.

Every married man knows what a beautiful and deep influence his wife’s passions are on him. I thank God for Jess and the role her heart for the lost and the dechurched play in my life. Already I’ve seen just how significant her giftings and passions are in helping confirm and lead us out as a family into the everyday mission. Like Charles Spurgeon has said so long ago a man’s wife is not the Holy Spirit but the voice sound awefully similar Praise God for wonderful wives who moves us out into God’s everyday mission!

So my book summary and review of Wright’s “Simply Christian” has been slow coming. Its not because I haven’t read it, rather its due to my own struggle to do service to the quality of his prose in the second half of the book. To be honest I’m not sure how to summarize it without skipping over vital points.

In the interim here’s a review of his “The Last Word” which was a very light and easy read. I read most of it on my plane ride back from Denver and finished it off today. It was a pleasurable read with a number of fine metaphors that drew out Wright’s arguments.

In order to keep this review brief I’ll break it down into three sections: very concise chapter summaries; pro’s & con’s of the book; and a few links to fuller reviews than my own.

Chapter Summaries:

Prologue - Wright begins his prologue with a war warry note that the Bible is again today the center of battling and division. Then he takes his readers through a breif forray of the Bible in Church History and draws his readers attention to five areas where the Bible is hotly disputed in contemporary culture: 1) Culture, “The continuing and much-discussed interplay between “modern” and “postmodern” culture has created a mood of uncertainty within Western society at least.” (pg. 6) Born out in the older dominant stories of culture being deconstructed; the notion of truth being re-raised or abandoned; and the problem of personal identity; 2) The second area of Bible battling occurs in the political arena as areas of international concern have heightened in the past few years; 3) The third area is philosophy where new issues of epistemology like postmodernity or sociology like postcolonialism have come to the fore; 4) The forth area is Theology, with the emergence of new contextual materials from the ancient world and the wider appreciation of the interperative role everyone plays as a ‘reader’ new battles have emerged; and finally 5) The fifth area is ethics with things like feminism and homosexuality coming to the fore in the public arena the Bible has again become a host for embattlements. Wright closes the prologue by notng that these modern battles echo the 16th century battles over scripture, tradition, and reason. Themes he give more reflection to as the book unfolds.

“By Whose Authority” 01 - “We now arrive at the central claim of this book: that the phrase “authority of scripture” can make Christian sense only if it is a shorthand for “the authority of the triune God, exercised somehow through scripture.” (pg. 23) Wright suggests that what often occurs in modern bible wars is that people hit oneanother with the ‘locked suitcases’ formed from using theological shorthand phrases like “the authority of scripture”, he says its time to unlock those suitcases and make plain what we mean by our doctrines. Rather than viewing scripture centrally as a theological text book or moralistic/devotional manuel Wright says we ought to view as a story. The question says Wright is “how can a story be authoritative?” (pg. 26) Viewing scripture as a story may help modern Bible readers before older Bible battles. The word authority itself should be understood in terms of the Kingdom of God context Jesus own ministry was carried out within. Scripture is there to bear witness to that work and push us into it. Wright suggests that words like “revelation” may also be misunderstood by us today, God is not conveying information alone but information in the midst of God carrying out his own mission. Even words like “devotion” when mixed with authority can be misleading. Wright instead says its as scripture moves us deeper into worship, transforming our minds, and sending us out in mission that its authoritative character has been heeded.

“Israel and God’s Kingdom-People” 02 - Just how was God’s authority excercised through his word to Israel? “Again and again the point of scripture was that it addressed a fresh, prophetic word to Israel in the midst of its often very ambiguous “experience,” breaking into Israel’s own world of muddle and mistakes - doing, in fact, in verbal form what God himself was doing to breaking into the world, and into Israel’s life, in judgment and mercy.” (pgs. 36-37) Wright likens inspiration to the philosophical notion of “speach acts”, saying that the word was not synonymous with written scriptures as much as it was an acknowlegement of YHWH’s “strange, personal presence, creating, judging, healing, recreating.” (pg. 38 ) Wright goes on to give a small yet sweeping description of how the ‘word of YHWH’ functioned in the life of Israel. He closes the chapter by carrying this thought over into the life setting of the early church in Israel, its second-temple  context. Scriptures ‘authority’ works in at least two interlocking ways: “1) It formed the controlling story in which Israel struggled to find its identity and destiny as the covenant people through and for whom God’s justice would ultimately break upon the world…2) It formed the call to a present obedience through which Israel could respond appropriately to God’s call.” (pgs. 40-41)

“Scripture and Jesus” 03 - Jesus accomplished that to which Scripture had pointed. “The work which God had done through scripture in the Old Testament is done by Jesus in his public career, his death and resurrection, and his sending of the Spirit. Jesus thus does, climactically and decisively, what scripture had in a sense been trying to do: bring God’s fresh Kingdom order to God’s people and thence to the world.” (pg. 43) Indeed, says Wright, Jesus did speak of the authority of scripture in its own regard but that was in lue of his fulfillment of that role.

“The “Word of God” in the Apostolic Church” 04 - The Apostolic church understood Jesus words as the fulfillment of the OT narrative. The word of God says Wright was not just the word about the Kingdom of God but rather the way in which God was realizing in the world what Jesus had completed. The word is also the vehicle of the Spirit’s authority whereby the Spirit energizes, shapes, and directs the church. Indeed the early followers of Christ found their place in that story because of Christ fulfillment of it. “In particular, precisely because of what the early Christians believed about Israel’s story having come to fulfillment in Jesus, they developed a multi-layered, nuanced, and theologically grounded reading of the Old Testament.” (pg. 53) Wright notes that the absense of that story was often times the catalyst for heresy in the early church like Macionism. Where does this leave us with the New Testament? “the New Testament understands itself as the new covenant charter, the book that forms the basis for the new telling of the story through which Christians are formed, reformed, and transformed so as to be God’s people for God’s world. That is the challenge the early Christians bequeath to us as we reconsider what ”the authority of scripture” might mean in practice today.” (pg. 59) 

“The First Sixteen Centuries” 05 - “Close to the heart of Christianity in the second and third centuries was the sense of the church as the community that lives with and under scripture.” (pg. 60) But that life was very early on challenged by ancient diversions from it, diversions that have become popular as of late as religious gossip labeled as newly discovered alternative Christianies. To add to this says Wright there was a diminishing focus on the narrative character and Israel-Dimension of scripture, gradually scripture began to be treated as a court of appeal for controversies and an individualized form of lectio divina. Allegorical exegesis was another flawed sign of the church’s commitment to stick with scripture. This is a bold claim by Wright given the dominant impression allegory made on early church discussions and developments. He goes on to say, “Allegorization, then, represents both an insistence that the church must go on living with and under scripture and a failure, at some levels at least, to understand how scripture itself actually works…allegorical exegesis always ran the risk of conceding a great deal at a more fundamental level by encouraging people to see the Bible in a destoried and hence de-Judaized way.” (pg. 67) Wright says the Medieval Four Senses were another flawed attempt to get at the rich contours of scripture. This hermeneutical development gradually lead to the particular notion of tradition which saw it as parallel or at least supplemental to the interpretative framework for the Bible. “The Reformers’ sola scriptura slogan was part of their protest against percieved medieval corruptions…The Reformers thus set scripture over against the traditions of the church; the recovery of the literal sense over against the lush growth of the three other sense; and the right of ordinary Christians to read scripture for themselves over against the protection of the sacred text by the Latin-reading elite.” (pg. 71) Wright says the Refomers say the literal sense of scripture figuratively at times and that the Reformers never went beyond the polarization of scripture and tradition [its unfortunate that Wright never really went beyond the early Reformers to explore how reformational readings worked either with or against narratival hermeneutics, he's missing the Old Amsterdam school as well as the Old Princeton developments]. Wright also says the reformers never went very far in narratival readings of scripture. Reason was the next impetus for development in the churches history.

“The Challenge of the Enlightenment” 06 - Reason eventually turned on the church and several enlightenment scholars tried to undermine orthodox Christianity. In fact says Wright, “Much of what has been written about the Bible in the last two hundred years has either been following through the Enlightenment’s program, or reacting to it, or negotiating some kind of halfway house in between.” (pgs. 83-84) The Enlightenment did two things to the way people read the Bible, it argued the necessity of reading scripture historically and several historians within it sought to undermine the faith by such readings. The Enlightenment offered its own eschatology rivalling that of Scripture where the birth of reason rather than th birth of Christ was the turning point in history. With the new eschatology came a new definition of evil where it was defined by the absence of reason rather than transgressions of God’s law. Wright says that one positive benefit was that people became aware that they are not indeed neutral readers but anticedently committed, this eventually lead to Postmodernity and the ascent that historical exegesis is still basic but no guarantee of modernities assured results. Wright says a bit before this last point that, “To affirm “the authority of scripture” is precisely not to say, “We know what scripture means and don’t need to raise any more questions.” It is always a way of saying that the church in each generation must make fresh and rejuvenated efforts to understand scripture more fully and live by it more thoroughly, even if that means cutting across cherished traditions.” (pg. 91) Postmodernities reaction to modernities ideals of reason was nearly correct but became itself a power-play ideology that could not stand to be challenged, ultimately, says Wright, it is itself nihilistic deconstructive. Postmodernity doesn’t welcome challengers either, “Indeed, challenges are routinely dismissed as an attempt to go back to modernity or even premodernity, leaving us with a fine irony: an ideology which declares that all ideologies are power-plays, yet which sustains its own position by ruling out all challenges a priori.” (pg. 98 ) Where does this all leave scripture, tradition, and reason? Wright has a vivid illustration in answer to this question; “scripture, tradition, and reason are not like three different bookshelves, each of which can be ransacked for answers to key questions. Rather, scripture is the bookshelf; tradition is the memory of what people in the house have read and understood (or perhaps misunderstood) from that shelf; and reason is the set of spectacles that people wear in order to make sense of what they read…” (pgs. 101-102) Experience cannot be added to these on equal footing but nevertheless has an important subjective contextual role to play.

“Misreadings of Scripture” 07 - In this breif chapter Wright offers several misreadings of Scripture from both the Right and the Left sides of the Bible battle divides. A way through these impasse’s is by adopting critical realism. He develops this further in the next chapter, one can’t help but sense overtones of Hans Frei’s “The Eclipse of the Biblical Narrative” in Wright’s thoughts here.

“How To Get Back on Track” 08 - Wright opens this chapter by stressing the need for an integrated view of the dense and complex phrase “the authority of scripture.” This phrase when unpacked “offers a picture of God’s sovereign and saving plan for the entire cosmos, dramatically inaugurated by Jesus himself, and now to be implemented through the Spirit-led life of the church precisely as the scripture-reading community.” (pg. 114) The place of tradition is to remain in living dialogue with previous readings. The place of reason is in being attentive to context, to sense, and to wider knowledge of all sorts. Wright’s famous ‘Act Five’ approach to living with the authority of scripture seems so well-worn by now that it almost seems redundant sharing it here, needtheless to say we now live in the fifth act of Redemptive history. ”To live in the fifth act is thus to presuppose all of the above, and to be conscious of living as the people through whom the narrative in question is now moving toward its final destination.” (pg. 124) Wright offers these strategies for honoring the authority of scripture;

• A totally contextual reading of scripture
• A liturgically grounded reading of Scripture
• A privately studied reading of Scripture
• A reading of Scripture refreshed by appropriate scholarship
• A reading of Scripture taught by the church’s accredited leaders

Wright closes his work with a suggested reading list for readers who’d like to go beyond where he has in this short book.

Pros & Cons of the Book:

PROS OF THE BOOK:

Its very accessible and as I mentioned a very easy read.

Wright does a fine job of raising the theological question of the authority of scripture within a narratival hermeneutic framework. Not to mention he exemplify’s what a critical realist approach to the question could look like.

His ability to at once praise and devalue postmodernity in a concise way is worth the price of the book.

He offer’s several penitrating illustrations that clarify difficult matters like the bookshelf one noted above or his Acts Five approach to scriptures authority in the life of the churches mission (see William Edgar for a critical engagment of this point).

Given a certain level of chastened polemical fervor it is not hard for readers to see that Bible battles often operate on less than charitable epistemically humble ground, and are as much culturally and epistemologically as they are exegetically motivated.

He’s offered a lucid approach beyond the wars which as one reviewer has noted is itself standing in the midst of the war, I don’t think he avoided getting into the fight but at least he has offered a way to humanize those on opposing sides of it.

CONS OF THE BOOK:

I do think that there were several terms that with a glossary and perhaps a running bibliography at the end of each chapter could have allowed his readers to better understand his position or outlook on them.

I think his depiction of Reformational thought was unfortunately truncated but I guess that goes as well for Counter-Reformation tendenz as well as Medieval discussions, etc. I think for most scholars there wasn’t enough gristle to move them beyond the Bible battles. But in fairness to request this from Wright here is to ask him to write an alltogether different book.

His development of the authority of scripture as God’s authority ‘exercised’ through scripture dropped into the background a bit during his chapters rehearsing church history (at least as I read them as such) which I think was unfortunate and could leave readers with the impression that his viewpoint is a rather late development in Christian thought. Which is true in as much as its apart of the Third Quest for the Historical Jesus but not entirely true given that narratival hermeneutics did feature in the Old Amsterdam and Old Princeton tradition represented in Vos. Because that occurs on a matter as central as the authority of scripture it could cause many of a more conservative outlook no light sense of anxiety.

The audience of the book was a little vague, some reviewers have seen it as lay readers and others as church leaders. This may impact Wright poorly in terms of his critics and their expectations.

Links to other reviews of the book: 

John Frame’s review can be found here.

D.A. Carson’s review can be found here.

Rev. Richard Kew’s blog review can be found here.

Below are the handouts I created for our class. They’re heavily weighted toward emphasizing and exploring the original context of the snapshots I chose but during the actual class I only used about a quater percent of the sheet and had a lot more dialoge and interaction with a view to toward the practical applications of these passages for the churches mission today.

WEEK ONE: An introduction to the genre and theology of the book of Acts

WEEK TWO & THREE: Pentecost as a Redemptive-Historical hinge; Pentecost and Peter’s interpretation and application of it; and the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues then and now.

WEEK FOUR: Luke’s snapshots of the church and the world; What makes a church the Church?

WEEK FIVE: Putting Ananias and Sapphira in their Redemptive-Historical context; The holiness of God and the Church today

WEEK SIX: Guest teacher, no notes

WEEK SEVEN: Persecution and the secrete to the growth of the Church; The gospel to the physical half-breeds; the gospel to spiritual half-breeds; and Church growth then and now

WEEK EIGHT: Cornelius, Peter, and the Jew/Gentile relationship; The Gentiles Pentecost; Jerusalem’s hesitation and ‘acceptance’ of the real mission; and Peace for the Church and the world today

WEEK NINE: Jerusalem, Antioch, and the spread of the gospel; To the Jew first and then the Gentile; Luke’s exemplars of how the gospel encountered the Gentile city; and Cross-cultural missions today

WEEK TEN: Antioch and Jerusalem: the role of church government in mission; Peter & James’s resolve “saved through grace just as we are”; the resolve dispersed among the Gentile churches; and Unity in the Global church today

WEEK ELEVEN: Paul and the public square of Athens; was Paul contextualizing the gospel or giving an apologetic defense for the faith; the cost of compromise or the bridge of future faith; and Apologetics and a public faith in a Secular Square

WEEK TWELVE: Forthcoming…

I serve as an assistant pastor (though the title isn’t a reality until I finish ordination) of a small Perimeter church plant in the Northeast area of Georgia outside of Atlanta. I’m over Community Groups, Mercy & Justice, and Youth Ministries. If you click on the image above you’ll be able to download a powerpoint presentation that I shared a year ago with the parents of our youth. I created the model I use, I call it a “Missional-Eclectic Approach” to youth ministry.

Basically its an eclectic approach because it seeks to unify the existing models that youth pastors use within the world of youth ministry with some personal burdens that have formed in my own heart for youth after serving in this area for ten years (as a leader, intern, and pastor), as well as the particular concerns that parents often have for their youth. My own conversion to Christ happened as a youth and a big part of that story was the way the whole youth group reached out to me. They had a vision that as a community they were on a mission. A vision I hope our youth ministry has as well. That’s the missional component.

If you click the image below you’ll be able to download a powerpoint presentation I created in lue of an annual review I have tommorrow with the senior pastor where I serve. I list several of the ministry concepts I used to address each part of my philosophy. If you’re a youth pastor or a volunteer leader in youth ministry and have some insight or feedback on this model I’d love to hear it. Please comment below…

UPDATE: One of the readers of this blog, Rick, passed to me in the comments a great link for helping youth transition. I encourage you to go and check it out.

Thanks for a great conference Life Bridge Church and all the many volunteers that made it happen. As a pastor over community groups and mercy ministries and youth I leave encouraged and equipped…

Robert Lewis is Pastor-at-Large for Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he served as Directional Leader for over 20 years. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Leaders Network and is on the Board of Fellowship Associates, a church consulting and leadership training organization.

He has authored a number of publications including” Raising a Modern-Day Knight” (Focus on the Family), the “Raising a Modern-Day Knight Video Training Serie” with Dennis Rainey (Sonlight Productions), “Rocking the Roles: Building a Win-Win Marriage” (NavPress), “Real Family Values” (Multnomah Press) and “The Church of Irresistible Influence” (Zondervan). Robert’s most recent book is “Culture Shift: Transforming Your Church From the Inside Out” published by Jossey-Bass. He is also a contributing author to “Building Strong Families”, edited by Dennis Rainey and Faith Factor in “Fatherhood”, edited by Don Eberly. His most recent publication is the “Men’s Fraternity Bible”. Married since 1971, Robert and Sherard Lewis reside in Little Rock and have four children.

Robert opens with a story from a famous bridge builder who bridged the Niagera gorge. The terrifying chasm that he had to cross is like that pastors today have to cross, mistakes can be costly. We face today the voice that says you’re no longer wanted in the community. Here’s the question churches need to ask: Do you think we’re having any impact out there? Pastors may feel close their people, as church members may feel with each other, but do they feel close to the city [or their immediate community]?

In the gospel Jesus pressed his people to think outward. The word inward is a heresy in the gospels. You are to be invading the city was the tone of the ministerial outlook for them. Jesus most challenging words were “if you only love those who love you what good is that.”

The best way to learn how to connect with your community is to stop doing what your doing and go ask those who are leaders in it how you can help them. After this then create a survey for your church community to get a sense of them and add to this a survey for your area. A few things will appear as those that you should do after this. You’ll know what you’re going to do and why your going to do it. And that makes a big difference.

Put in a lot of time discovering where your church is going to serve, and then start with a  big win that many in your church can do. A big win is an event that gets everyone’s attention. When you have a big event everyone is encouraged, one example would be what Lewis’s church has done with “Share Fest”.

To your yearly big wins add ongoing community partnerships, some of these will happen because your church got involved in a group in a project and the service momentum kept going. These ongoing relationships keep us focused on ‘our Jerusalem’s’. With this we need to add another step, at some point we need to give people in our churches permission to dream and create their own ministries and support them in that. This may mean you have to change your ministerial mindset and with that some of your church structure. Robert says that they had to recognize that his church was actually holding back people in his body. People may be waiting to be set free.

One example for Robert of this was a group from his church who formed a missional group called “Excell” that now has a half a million dollar budget that they use to support mentors in public schools. Another example was the “Arkansaw Arts Festival” that was spearheaded by a person in their church and is an state-wide festival. Robert says that because of these amazing testimonies they have created a new staff person to help more people fulfill spiritual dreams, this pastor is called a “Release Pastor”.

You should regularly hold up these heroes in your church so everyon can see and celebrate what God is doing with them.

Alan Nelson, Executive Editor Rev! Magazine
Alan Nelson has been a pastor for 20 years, planting two churches, and is the executive editor of Rev! Magazine, one of several things he does at Group to serve pastors and church leaders. He is the author of a dozen books, including Me to We, and has a doctorate (Ed.D.) in leadership. He has been married to Nancy for 26 years. The Nelsons have three sons and live in Fort Collins, CO.

Alan starts us out by having us engage the person next to us and ask them who they are and what their church is about. He also went around and said hello to everyone and found out why they were here.

The role of the pastor is not to be the predominant purveyor of ministry but to be a supporter and equiper of the ‘we’. What does this mean on a national level? What are the national symptoms? \

National Symptoms:

• On any given weekend, only 20% of people are in church says Rev. Magazine contra Barna’s stats that say 50% are. The differenc is that Barna did not actually go out and see who is in church versus what people say.
• Attendance is estimated to be 50% of what it is now, by 2050
• “Regular church” attendance is now twice a month
• Less than 15% of churches are growing (<1% primarily due to evangelism outside the church)

Local Symptoms:

• Over worked pastor, staff and faithful few
• Lack of commitment of people (time, money)
• Outreach is becoming more difficult
• Spiritual maturity is lacking (see the Reveal study posted by Willow Creek)

The question is what are we doing to get and help our whole church to be externally focused? [ok this is funny Alan used the video about church I posted last week on this blogsite] Being externally focused isn’t just about evangelism though its also about discipleship. What does this look like:

• Most churches can absorb approximately 1/2 of their active attendees in internally focused ministries.
• To become externally focused, chances are you’ll need to involve over 50% of attendees in a role of service.

What’s the problem churches face in all this? PCMS: Pastor-Centric Ministry Syndrom. Pastors need to become minister equppers. How to get here: the power of teams. To illustrate this Alan had us group up in teams of four and build chains out of paper clips, first he has us do it individually and then as a team and discuss the differences of these two ways of working.

Shifting Pastoral paradigms: Moses is the traditional American pastor Exodus 18, very busy but about to lose his family and marriage, and people let him get there. You need to decentrialize yourself and the ministry. The “Moses-Syndrome” is the typical paradigm we see in the American church. Look at how Jesus lives as a leader, he picks twelve people and pours himself out into them and notice that Jesus picked these guys he didn’t invite all to come. Look at Paul, he was a multiplier; the role of a pastor is to be a multiplier. The local church is really to be a seminary for people to grow up in and be pastors themselves. [In this section Alan challenges the 'notion' and 'value' of seminary trainning - I think his concerns are fair].

Why we went from a we to me? Historical, Economic, Social/Psychological reasons: 

• Historical: He does some simple deconstructive steps on the church from Constantine to today, and the emergence of the emerging/missional conversations. This is interesting, he puts the Externally Focused Church crowd in concert with these but doesn’t really develop the idea, leaves us thinking about it…
• Economic: Churches have to be a certain size to have full-time pastors, the American church pays pastors to work for them rather than the pastor working with them. This for-with shift is big.
• Social/Psychological: People like an ego to stroke and pastors like their ego stroked; there’s a social/psychological shift we need to take to reverse this. Pastors need to struggle through this, we need to be able to say to our people, “your going to do greater things than you see me do”.

Ministry is more complex: “All hands on deck” today. Competition as a ethotic preassure is real. Incarnational ministry is desireable: “Show me your faith.” Experiential individualism is increasing: “I want to express myself”. The rise of educaiton and information. Younger generation whats to lead more.

Me to We Benefits:

• Staff invest 70% of time in your sweet spot, if not you need to decentralize yourself in other areas and get there.
• Lay people take ownership; increasing financial and attendance commitment.
• God grows people when the body utilizes their individual gifts. We grow when we’re being used.
• The synergistic effect builds unity and momentum, diminishing criticism and consumerism.
• Leaders are impowered to lead the church. When you need to change a church you need leaders, when these catalytic people step forward a church will change.

We need to take advantage of the volunteer empowerment tools available in the church today. One Alan emphasizes is www.churchvolunteercentral.com. Alan also suggests www.rev.org ie Rev! magazine which he edits. (Alan uses a great video called “God Pies”). Alan uses a graph he’s created that helps measure the me to we reality in the church. Basically he moves from discourages others-delegates to others-drives from 1-10. 1 being the most centralized pastor, and 10 him being decentralized.

How do pastors move up from one to ten? Here are some values that pastors need says Alan:

• valuing self-image vs. sermon series
• valuing becoming a coach vs. a teacher “answer-person”
• valuing being responsible vs. being the “fixer”
• valuing manufacturing vs. sales
• valuing resourcing the system vs. running the show
• valuing training ministry ministry leaders to run teams vs. being the talent.

Alan closes the time asking us to write what’s one thing we want to grap onto and what’s one thing we want to let go of to be a better equiper?

Rick Rusaw is the Senior pastor of Lifebridge, the host church for the externally focused church conference. Rick is also th author of the book “The Externally Focused Church.”

Rick kicks off the day, as we enter the door we’re handed a puzzle piece probably signifying that we’re all apart of the Master plan. This is the second time we’re brought physically and prophetically into the message. The first was when Rick McKinley had everyone come up and put their spare change in a fountain they put on stage with running water. The change was meant to signify that together we can make a big difference in bringing clean water to those in the world without it.

Rick starts off by talking about the healing of the lame man by Jesus at the Pool of Bethesda in John 5. People like this man are quick to say that they want to be better, but what they really mean is that they don’t want to change they just want the pain to go away. There are things that we say matter but we are not willing to change ourselves to maintain them and/or have them. Then he uses Isaiah 32 as a frame for his talk emphasizing a noble man, a noble plan, and noble deeds.

We need something to anchor to today , Jesus sets us free from the little ‘t’ truths and brings us to the BIG ‘T’ Truth. John 6 When we’re living out from the BIG ‘T’ Truth. The world needs this, but how do we engage the world with it? We do it by service, when the world realizes that its falling apart it first looks for those who’ve been serving it and loving it and seeks help from them rather than some ‘professional’ minister or ministry. (Book suggestion “Blue Ocean Strategy“) We need to serve in an innovative way, we need blue ocean strategies - new ideas imparting new value to areas of life; not red ocean strategies - sticking to what and where we’ve always been.

When we say service in the church we often mean we need people to serve us and our vision rather than the good of the community. At LifeBridge they say they want people to discover grace, grow in grace, and live in grace. How are we as leaders in the church engaging people in what God is up to in their lives already. Here’s an idea use the PGA principal, Rusaw says it means asking ourselves what is it that we want to be. Purposes sit in judgment of Goals, and Goals sit in judgment of Activities = PGA principle. Here’s the thing we are only free to succeed when we are free to fail. We need to serve to serve, not serve to succeed. “Good deeds create good will and that creates the opportunity to hear good news.“

L-oves, I-ntersection, F-ortune, E-ternity; another neumonic device Rick used basically emphasizing that noble deeds flow out into every part of life. Rick at this piont has us pull the puzzle piece out, and emphasizes that the puzzle isn’t complete until all the pieces are together.