This is the whole thing:
How to take a church from 14 families to 40 families in only 10 years of bivocational ministry
Read the Bible. Pray. Talk to your church friends in long conversations over meals and coffee for years and years. Learn to love each other so that whatever you do in church gets filtered through your concern for how it will affect others in the community. Then do church in the ways that seem right to you. Let no other concern EVER surpass your desire to be right about church.
Postscript to pastors – Be prepared to find a second job.
What do you think?
-WK
This entry was written by , posted on July 2, 2009 at 12:50 pm, filed under Church and tagged Church, How-to Guides, Pastoring. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
First Flip Video Entry:
WK
This entry was written by , posted on June 18, 2009 at 1:28 pm, filed under Christianity, Church and tagged Bible, christians, idolatry, Jesus, theology. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
So one of the requisites of being in Student Leadership at Tyndale (Student Council President – no big deal) is a weekly hourly session that involves talking about important aspects of being in Christian leadership: spiritual discipline, mentoring, community, and discipleship. We’ve been talking about community for the last month and it is starting to really bother me. The reason is because Canada sucks.
Canada sucks because we live in a culture mired in individualism.
Canada sucks because we are trained from an insanely young age to ignore and hide our neediness.
Canada sucks because our Christianity generally finds itself stuck to ideals and not people.
Canada sucks because our leaders are put on pedestals far above where any mortal should be.
I think I’ve found where the majority of my church problem reaches its breaking point.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on February 3, 2009 at 7:30 pm, filed under Christianity, Church and tagged Church, Community, crisis, individualism. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
I wasn’t sure if I should post this, since it is about someone particular and not the machine, but then I said, “Hey. My Blog. Comments are go. I’m opening myself up for conversation, to be corrected if need be.” So here goes:
The New York times just put out a piece on Marc Driscoll, from Seattle, WA’s Mars Hill Church (as opposed to Grand Rapids, MI’s Mars Hill, run by Rob Bell). Before you go any further, read the article here.
After reading the article, I have some big concerns (if the allegations are true – if they aren’t, then I apologise to Marc for some of the following I’m about to say) about Driscoll as a Christian teacher and leader.
First, the idea that “questioning is sinning” is a big one for me. I have been taught to test and discern everything that is brought to my attention through the teaching of the word, like the Bereans in Acts 17:11. For someone to tell me that to question is to sin, and that blind following is the moral and Christian thing to do, then I would tell that person that they are a dangerous person and I’m not following your cult. By blindly following another human being, you put yourself in a false freedom – you are bound not to any god, let alone the Trinity, but to one person’s teachings. There is no freedom there. You take Driscoll’s yolk, not Jesus’: That’s contrary to the Gospel.
Second, Marc Driscoll is a straight-up jackhole. Pardon my rude language, but I really believe this. I’ve been following his remarks online for years now, and I bought his Vintage Jesus book as well, and I’ve heard next to no respectful things come from his mouth about anyone that disagrees with him. For someone who espouses what should be a humbling theology like hypercalvinism, he is an arrogant jerk who seems to show no sign of good fruit in his public life. Am I the only one who sees this a major problem? I don’t care about his swearing or vulgarity, all power to him, but he seems to murder people in his heart all the time. No Grace. I don’t see love in his actions or words. That’s the deal-breaker for me.
It seems that, in an effort to get away from the hyper-sensitive love Gospel being preached in North America in many places, Driscoll has gone on passed the middle and gone to the other extreme of truth with no love. I worry mostly that Driscoll’s position of power will propogate itself in the congregation(s) under his care and ultimately result in a Christianity with little love and grace, like early Calvinism and Lutheranism during the religious wars of the 1600′s.
I guess I’m just worried that the baby is being thrown out with the bathwater.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on January 12, 2009 at 12:36 am, filed under Christianity, Church and tagged Christianity, Church, Driscoll. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
This is a follow-up to my last post about feeling alienated in the North American Church.
So I’ve been speaking with quite a few of you out there. Some have responded directly to the blog in the comments (always appreciated), while others have communicated with me face to face and online elsewhere. There seems to be a growing number of people out there, in the early-to-mid 20s, that seem to have a growing dissatisfaction with Church at large. I, in my limited wisdom and knowledge, do not know if this is transcendent amongst all twenty-somethings for all time, within the Church, or if this is a new(er) phenomenon. If it is something that happens to everyone, everyone over the age of 30 give us some sage wisdom; but if it is something beyond that, I think we all need to listen to everyone around us for some clues.
Before I write anything further, many of you will come forward and say that my education is what’s to blame for this, and to an extent, it is. I can’t unlearn the evils (re: realities) of literary and historical-cultural biblical criticism, nor can I ignore the same realities and implicaitons of what bodily resurrection and homousion really mean either. More importantly though, I’m bringing this up because my problems are being felt by people outside of my educational circles as well. So I’m going to write what I think are the most important things not to do in this time of disillusionment:
Don’t start a new church.
The Lord has enough buildings and institutions consecrated to him. Adding another with a new faith statement and a new, hip congregation will not make you feel better. It is better to work within the places we know and the places that have kept the Church for us to inherit. It is harder, to be sure, but for now, in North America, let’s start in the places we are.
Don’t stop going to church.
This is probably the worst idea of all. To cut yourself off from other believers is to tie your own spiritual noose. Read a book like Life Together, by WWII martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer to understand what I’m getting at on this one. We are made to be in communion with other believers. Don’t ever forget that. Even if everyone at your church is a moron, try to love them and look for their genuine love – if the spirit is in them, then you will see the love.
Don’t feel overly righteous about your own convictions.
Like I said at the top, we don’t even know if we are right about the problems going on. We could just need a slap to the side of the head and a suck it up to realize we are being whiny wimps. Humility is the number one thing to strive for in this time. (Trust me, this is hard – probably what I struggle with most, being so knowledgeable and wise and all.)
Don’t stop questioning.
We shouldn’t just shut up, however. If you see something that is wrong, pursue and learn and critique. Get some answers. Challenge the authority. You might even be able to effect some change.
Don’t stop listening.
Despite our own unease, our Church fathers and mothers still have a lot of good to teach us, so don’t close your ears and eyes to it all around you, while you wait to be vindicated. Listen to what people are saying, and maybe you’ll find you aren’t the only one after all.
Don’t stop loving.
Finally, I urge you to never, ever, stop loving your Christian brothers and sisters. We’re all saved and we’re all going to be with Jesus eventually. If you get into a big argument with someone, it’s only because both of you care about how God wants his church today. Keep loving others to keep God the focus of this transition.
I might be talking more about this later, but until then, remember these intermediary priniciples.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on January 5, 2009 at 1:54 am, filed under Christianity, Church and tagged Church, Disillusionment, Evangelicalism, North America. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.