Unity Means Sharing Power

I finished reading the State of the Union. I always find them interesting. What I find most interesting is that the key word in every one that I can remember is "bipartisan".

Last year was the year of "Lincoln" for me. I really enjoyed Team of Rivals and a few other things I read on him. What struck me about his leadership was that he viewed himself "first among equals" and as a result did not do what most Presidents do. He did not surround himself with "yes men". Lincoln shared power with his rivals.

I think that the Church has the opportunity to truly help the world by showing the world what "bipartisan" really looks like. Our leadership must reflect gospel reality. That means that those of us who are in positions of leadership must realize that we need a team of people around us to lead with us. To do this we have to let go of power and give it over.

The simple reason that "bipartisan" does not happen in Washington is because the folks there are constantly trying to consolidate their power.

If we are going to be agents of reconciliation in this world we must be a people who will daily choose to not consolidate power. We must be willing to live in the leadership tension that Paul speaks of (2 Cor 12:9), "But he [Jesus] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."

This is verse in context is speaking about Paul's "thorn in the flesh" and is not speaking specifically to leadership. However, I think that it provides a principle that can be applied to gospel leaders.

Most of us are not comfortable with our weaknesses. We hide them. We cover them up. We try to fix them. Paul says, "NO! Embrace them!  Because through embracing them we are experience the power of Christ."

This is the kind of leader that understands "bipartisan". This is the kind of leader that shares power. Pray with me for our leaders that they would lead this way. Pray with me for the Church that we would lead this way and be an example for the world.

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Do You Have A Building? or Confessions of a Church Planter

Every time I talk with someone about +The Antioch Movement these are the questions that inevitably get asked in the first three minutes:

• Do you have a building?
• How many people are coming?

These are really good questions because they show that the person cares deeply about me and wants me to be successful. I am grateful that I have so many people in my life that care for and love me. 

The hard part is that these are two gauges of success that we are not using. They create a pressure to become something, that in my opinion, is not biblical. 

What do I mean? I mean that the Scriptures do not give us a scorecard of success that is based on buildings and numbers.  Success is determined by faithfulness to the invitation and commission of Jesus. I am convinced that if we are faithful to following Jesus and proclaiming his excellencies that everything else will take care of itself.

The danger for me is not to caught up in the question or to take my cues about success from the question. There is a vortex in the church planting world, not all that different from high school, of comparison. All church planters want to be considered successful. There are some church plants that look successful because they are a campus of a larger church. Some look successful because they are cool and draw people from existing churches.

Then there are the church plants that take a long time to grow because they are not attractive to existing Christians. They are more concerned about embodying the gospel Monday through Saturday in the lives of lost people than they are with numbers on Sunday morning.

I shared our strategic approach with some missionaries who serve in Albania. They got really excited but cautioned us, "This approach will not work with Christians, it is most useful in reaching people far from God."  This simple sentence has been a source of fuel for me over the last number of weeks.

The Antioch Movement will be successful if the handful of Christians that are starting it multiply their lives in groups within their spheres of influence. We will be successful if we send laborers to launch other movements in other towns.

We will be successful is we remain faithful.

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Showing Up Is Hard To Do

It's true. Showing up is really hard to do. That's why most of us don't. We typically do not show up because it is really hard to get up enough momentum to actually get there. There are always excuses that we can make and do make. But really those excuses are nothing more than the sad reality that we are objects at rest and they tend to stay at rest.

In his ninth chapter, Luke records this interaction:

On the road someone asked if he could go along. "I'll go with you, wherever," he said. Jesus was curt: "Are you ready to rough it? We're not staying in the best inns, you know." Jesus said to another, "Follow me." He said, "Certainly, but first excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have to make arrangements for my father's funeral." Jesus refused. "First things first. Your business is life, not death. And life is urgent: Announce God's kingdom!" Then another said, "I'm ready to follow you, Master, but first excuse me while I get things straightened out at home." Jesus said, "No procrastination. No backward looks. You can't put God's kingdom off till tomorrow. Seize the day."

Three men who couldn't show up. They had great reasons but the reality was they had no momentum. They were objects at rest and they stayed there. 

Jesus challenged people this way because he knew that they needed a spark to turn their potential energy into kinetic energy. He knew that there needed to be an explosion to move them off the spot and so that they would show up. 

Showing up is hard to do. 

Jesus wants his followers to show up because we must become what we want to save. Religious people might drive long distances to be a part of something they consider "dynamic" but the irreligious, those whose journeys are moving away from God will not.  

If we want to be serious about reaching people far from God then we must show up. We must enter into their world. Jesus sends his disciples into the world. He wasn't satisfied with a following he wanted sent ones and he sent them. 

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40 Days of Change and Transition

Physical Representation of Transition

The last 40 days in the life of my family have been adventurous. We have listed a house, sold a house, rented a town-home, moved out of a house, moved most of our stuff into storage, moved the rest into a town-home, our kids switched schools, and we are now living boots on the ground in the place that God has called us.

That's a 40 days and 40 nights that even Noah would be impressed with.

This past Sunday I baptized the son of one of our core group members and as I reflect on that moment I am reminded how God continually makes good on his promises.

When we baptize a baby we are reminded again of the fact that our God is a promise keeping God. He makes covenants and keeps them. The promise to Abraham and his children was real and God made good.

As we enter into the life of Ypsilanti, MI through this thing called +The Antioch Movement I am consistently overwhelmed by the promises of God and how he makes good. He cares so deeply for us and his hand is holding us and guiding us every step of the way.

Last night was the Super Bowl. We had a small handful of people over. I was really nervous because we are used to hosting people in our home that was perfectly designed for hospitality. It turns out that God has provided for us a place where we can gather his people together and worship. Our town-home is well suited for such a gathering.

What is just as fun is how God provides for small things, like microwaves. When you have an active family the microwave becomes an important tool because you need to be able to quickly warm up leftovers. We needed a microwave to borrow and God provided. Yes, even microwaves are pictures of God's faithfulness.

I am excited to see how God is going to provide the remaining $70,000 we need for a full budget and I am excited for the day when our core group begins to multiply and we see new groups launched.

God is on the move. God is keeping promises. God cares.

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A Gut Response to the Tragedies of This Week

This week we have seen in our world two tragedies. Tuesday night a student at EMU was killed. Today we are experiencing the horror of a school shooting in Connecticut that has resulted in the death of nearly thirty children.

It is at times like this when I fall to my knees and ask God, "Why?" Where is God in the midst of this kind of tragic violence? Why did God allow this senselessness to happen? Why? Each one of the children in the Antioch Movement could have been at that school today.

Why?

We live in a world that is broken beyond our comprehension. Human sin is rampant. Self-hatred and hatred of others is at an all time high. Hate and distrust is the air we breathe.

So we ask, "Why God?"

The Scriptures are full of people experiencing pain, suffering, and evil. Psalm 88 is one of the darkest moments in human literature. If we are honest with ourselves we struggle in moments like these to believe that God is sovereign and good.

But he is.

We ask, "If God is omnipotent why didn't he stop this?" I don't know. I don't have any answers for the kind of pain that comes from moments like this. I struggle with God over why he allows evil to accomplish these kinds of things.

But, at the end of the day I am able to return to the fact that God is good and he is sovereign.

Do you know what comes after Psalm 88? Psalm 89, "I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithulness to all generations. For I said, "Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness." It goes on to say, "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you."

While, in the moment we have no answers what we can know with certainty is that righteousness, justice, faithfulness, and steadfast love are God's. That is why the Psalmist can enter into a time of sadness in the second half of the Psalm and then close with, "Blessed be the Lord forever! Amen and Amen."

We may never know the why from this week. We as followers of Jesus must change the question and reorient ourselves to the reality that God is just, righteous, sovereign, good, and full of steadfast love.

As the days go forward some in your lives will argue against God and use these events as reason for why God cannot exist. In reality they point us to the fact that the world would be much, much worse if we didn't have a God who is restraining most of humanity through his common grace.

Some people in your lives may ask why, it's OK to say, "I don't know." Remember though that while we can't answer the why we can answer the what, God is in control and that even in these dark times he is just, righteous, faithful, and full of steadfast love.

These are the moments that serve as reminders for us the necessity of the gospel. This man, needed the gospel. He needed to know he was forgiven.

God is sovereign and God is good.

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The Difficulty of Staying True

When I began the process of church planting there was one thing that became abundantly clear, vision is the first casualty. Every time I share with someone about what is happening with the Antioch Movement they have advice for me. This advice is their vision, their hope, their dream of the church.

It seems like every time a conversation like this takes place there is a vortex that grows. Another voice is added to a litany of other voices that are clamoring for attention.

When you add to this the details, hoops, and other things that call for your attention it becomes easier and easier to move away from the heart of the vision. I look around for the people who sat in coffee shops with me and dreamed with me about what the "church" can look like.

Many of them are gone.

The ones that remain are a balm to my soul. They encourage me and refocus me.

The ones that are gone bring me grief. The ones who have "sold out" break my heart.

A good friend reminds me every time I spend time with him that the vision must be protected. That I must remain true to what God has laid on my heart. He reminds me that the draw to the world's view of success is real and it is significant. The sucking of the vortex cannot be escaped. Therefore, it is necessary to find a center place that grounds you and reminds you of what God has called you too.

Thankfully the community that God is building in The Antioch Movement provides that for me. He is raising up a people who own the vision and remind me of what we are together called to be. We have our roles and we each play different parts, but we are in this together and it's beautiful.

When I begin to despair or struggle with the calling an email or a Facebook post or a meeting over coffee happens that reorients me.

I'm not alone.

The difficulty of staying true is real.

But it's getting easier because...

I'm not alone.

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The Danger of Trusting in Celebrity

I have recently had a few people tell me, "Pastors keep failing. I think that God is raising up athletes to be his spokesmen to reach this generation." Then the names of certain prominent Christian athletes are brought up.

Pastors fail all the time.

So do athletes.

The ones we know about are also celebrities.

Christian celebrity is a new phenomenon. It really began with the First Great Awakening. Prior to that most pastors labored locally. Some traveled (the Methodists are the best example) but most settled in for a long faithful pastorate caring for and preaching the gospel to a particular people.

In the last handful of years we have come to see the rise of the Celebrity Clergy taken to a new level (Billy Graham is the prime example). When these pastors began to have moral failures (Bill Graham is thankfully excluded from this!) many Christians have begun to look for new heroes to share the gospel for them.

Thus, the rise of the celebrity Christian athlete. When a professional athlete wins and begins to state his faith in Jesus and praising God many good Christian folk begin to look to that person as one who can be a hero for them, one who can share the gospel for them.

When we begin to look for a celebrity to be a representative for Jesus on our behalf we are missing something.

Where does this come from?

First, many of these folks listen to many pastors. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. However,  it creates a competition in their heart over their local pastor. In my tradition becoming a member is like getting married. Vows are made. I think we need to consider the ramifications of searching out other pastors. I think there is something similar to this and men who "check out other women" and how that often leads to an affair. We are better to commit ourselves to a community and not allow our hearts and minds to wander by seeking out famous pastors.

Second, I think this comes from a desire for people who desperately want folks to come to know Jesus. They want this so bad that they are unwittingly giving themselves over to a worldly model of gaining acceptance. What do I mean by this statement? When the world wants to sell something they find a celebrity to embrace the view or product that is being pushed. We do the same thing by turning the keys of the kingdom, as it were, over to the next celebrity Christian. We want to be accepted and think that this acceptance will bring conversion. But we are wrong. This simply sets us up for failure

Finally, we have lost our sense of mission. We talk a good game but ultimately most of us in the West believe that you have to be a professional to share the gospel. We have forgotten that within each Christ follower is the capacity to launch a movement that will transform the world. Because we have forgotten this we place our hope in the celebrity, whether an athlete or actor, we look outside ourselves for someone to "really" represent Jesus more broadly than we ever could. No, God has not called celebrities to stand in the gap for us. He has and will continue to use the average, everyday Christian to be his witness.
These mindsets, attitudes, and actions are lies. We must call them out as such and move on from them. We must stop placing our hope in the celebrity Christian.

We have come to a time when we must place our hope in the living God. Or even better as Paul and Timothy put it in Colossians 2:6,7:

6 Therefore,as you received Christ Jesus the Lord,so walk in him,7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith,just as you were taught,abounding in thanksgiving.

Friends, it is time to "walk in him". Stop looking to celebrities. Look to Christ and walk in him.

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