Good is the enemy of great.

And that is one of the key reasons we have so little that becomes great.

We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have great government,  principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority of companies become quite good- and that is their main problem.

I was reminded of Collins’ work these past few weeks as I have reflected on what it takes to truly make disciples. Finally at 3DM in Atlanta it became clear to me. It takes desperation. It takes a fundamental belief that church as usual is so flawed that it will never accomplish what God ultimately asks of us. It takes a willingness to sacrifice that which is good for something great.

When we were gathered in Atlanta the 3DM team kept remarking that this learning community was the furthest along in the process of anyone they had worked with. The reason? Desperation had set in. We know that what we are doing isn’t going to cut it anymore. The group gathered there was simply open and hungry to a new paradigm for being the church. Our previous successes were no longer clouding our minds.

Ultimately that is the question we have to ask ourselves in the church. Are our perceived successes as a church getting in the way of listening to what God wants to do through and in us? Success as the world defines it (crowds, money, staff, facilities, fame, being cool, book deals, etc..) is the absolute enemy to humble obedience to the voice of God. It makes us soft. It makes us comfortable. It works as cotton balls jammed in our ears filtering out the whisper of God to be something more. It blinds us to the realities of how the world is changing around us. We see other churches that are behind the times and their people are leaving and their churches are dying and we pity them. We pity them as our churches swell with the sheep of other flocks and we confuse this migration for fulfilling the mission of God. All the while God is calling us to greatness in the kingdom of God and our own presumptive success is killing our will to listen to God. It is shutting us down to the truth.

Paul says in Romans 13

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Paul is speaking right into the heart of our churches today. He is speaking right into our hearts as leaders and pastors. We have lost our zeal to hear the voice of the Lord. We have traded a continual zeal and humility to what God desires for the comfort of fitting in with everyone else. That exchange has left us woefully short of seeing the glory of God truly revealed in our midst.

I keep asking myself, where is good enough for me not nearly good enough for God? Where am I so comfortable or so arrogantly self affirming in my beliefs that I have long since stopped listening for the voice of God? If we are going to change the course of the North American church it is this humility and desperation to listen to the voice of God that will spark our new path.

May we all have such desperation that it supersedes our comfort and arrogance and leads us into the greatness that only birthed through obedience to our Father.

That is the question I have been asking myself for the past week as I have reflected on some of the teachings of Mike Breen I heard in Atlanta. Mike challenged us as leaders to evaluate the leaders we invest into not through their competency but according to their capacity, chemistry, character and calling.

The first one of those categories is the one I want to reflect on today, capacity. What determines one capacity for leadership? The more I have thought of capacity I have begun to think of it as bandwidth. As you use the internet, the bandwidth (or bit rate or channel capacity or throughput for my proudly geeky friends) available to you determines what you can do. It determines what you can upload, download, stream, view, and how long it takes you to do those things. As a leader your capacity determines the magnitude of leadership you can exhibit, how many tasks you can juggle, the output of your time, and your ability to lead others and organizations.

Instinctively I have always been drawn to high capacity people, without putting that name to it. I have always been drawn to people who have extraordinary abilities to impact others. Because of this I have a lot of friends with very high capacities. Capacity goes far beyond gifting, however, and that is the part that intrigues me. There are many things that affect our capacity.

Looking at my own life I recognize that the investment of others into me has enlarged my capacity. They have helped me enlarge my view of leadership, the kingdom and God. A bigger view, better understanding, and greater experience enlarge capacity. Education can grow capacity. Not information, but transformation through learning experiences enlarges our capacity. Life experience is huge for capacity. It is often the lowest moments of life that expand our capacity. The experience of leading a congregation through tragedy and healing grew my capacity exponentially. It was the type of learning that no amount of classroom time could ever provide.

Obediently living expands capacity. The longer and more faithfully we serve in the Kingdom of God the more capable we become of helping others do the same. Often times the people whose capacity surprises me are those who may not appear extraordinarily gifted, but they are so filled with the presence of God that their capacity is truly extraordinary.

Ultimately our kingdom capacity is determined by our openness and connection to God. The closer we are to God the more God’s power can flow through our lives. We get to be a conduit for God’s grace.

Wherever I have experienced great movements of God’s spirit it has happened because of high capacity kingdom people. They haven’t been leaders predetermined by education, gender, age, or business acumen. They have been faithful servants willing to be used by God.

So what is your leadership capacity? How has God expanded your capacity? Who are the people with the greatest capacity that you have encountered?

But many of us who have seen significant growth in our churches know a dirty little secret: Significant growth has its own ill effect on helping communities develop deep faith. Numeric growth of Christianity doesn’t indicate a more harmonious was of life with God. The metaphor of the body is a good one for churches. A body that’s too big puts a strain on the systems of the body. At the same time, communities who never embrace new people or new perspectives find themselves starving. Both obesity and starvation are pathways to death.

Doug Pagitt in Preaching in the Inventive Age

I have been wrestling with this quote for a couple of days now. Both obesity and starvation are pathways to death. It struck me because we are the most obese culture that has ever lived. Obesity is an epidemic that is radically altering the future of our country. It is going to bankrupt the health care system of this country. It is going to forever alter the generation that is growing up obese right now. It has changed our view of ourselves and the view the world has of us.

But until I read this quote I never associated obesity with the megachurch culture that dominates the landscape of American Evangelicalism. Can we equate, to a degree, over-sized churches with obesity? I am beginning to think that we can. Obesity goes beyond poor eating habits. It truly becomes a disease. Once the body has too much fat and has increased beyond a healthy mass it begins to effect the bodies ability to function properly. It takes a lot more energy for the body to simple keep running. It puts a strain on the heart. It puts strain on joints. It can lead to diabetes by effecting the kidneys. It effects movement, activity, flexibility, rest, and long term life expectancy.

Unfortunately, how we are being the church in our country can lead to a lot of the same symptoms. The amount of work and resources necessary to maintain a megachurch is immense. This always increases stress levels and the health of those responsible for making that church work. It certainly effects flexibility and the ability to hear from God and adapt quickly. It can certainly effect life expectancy, sometimes for the church itself, and certainly for the staff members involved. Obesity disrupts the natural healthy ways the body is supposed to function. In the church this can certainly be the case as well.

The major concern with obesity in our country right now is its effect on children. Growing up obese simply ramps up the medical issues that can accompany it and effect life longer and more severely. Young children who struggle with obesity very seldom grow up to be healthy adults. Might this be true in the church as well? If a church grows too big too fast at too young an age might it also have the same effects? If a church doesn’t have the depth and maturity to handle large crowds and large resources in a healthy way is it creating a ticking time bomb of destruction for itself and its staff? Interesting question to consider.

I am not throwing megachurches under the bus here, I am simply pointing out some of the inherent dangers at being over-sized. You can be over-sized and healthy, just look at some of the monstrous specimens in the NFL and NBA. However, studies show that the long term prognosis for these athletes isn’t good unless they take big steps to get healthy as they age and reduce their mass over time. The life span of an average NFL lineman is a depressing statistic.

At the core of this whole thing is the simple reality that God has designed the church like he has designed our bodies. There are healthy ways of living that maximize our ability to live productively and healthfully. Without careful attention to what we need to be healthy we can end up in a place where bad habits and poor consuming habits have rendered us unhealthy and unable to do the work God has created us to do.

What do you think? Is there more to this than I have stated? Am I overreaching? What do you think of Doug’s quote?

From a theological perspective I really love this protest. I agree with these companies that these bills are a bit limiting, even if the idea behind them isn’t bad. The urge to try and protect American jobs and intellectual property is a great thing. The way this bill goes about doing it may not be the best way in doing so. I understand the objections. I am not up in arms about the bills, but I get why people are so upset by them.

But what intrigues me much more is the way these companies have gone about their protests. Oh, I am sure they have spent a lot of money (because they have it) on lobbying Congress about this bill. But using the internet itself and their withdrawal from the system, even if for a day, is a great way of trying to promote change. Sometimes the only way to make the system stop and take notice is to withdraw from it’s support. Not every circumstance calls for that type of response, but more circumstances call for it than certainly we as American Christians want to acknowledge.

Sometimes not voting is the best vote. Sometimes not buying a product, or any product has a greater impact. Sometimes we have to use the system to do our work and sometimes we have to abandon the system to make change. A lot more people will be aware of these bills and their impact after today. Regardless of what the bills mean and whether or not we should protest them, I am very intrigued by the actions of these companies.

What do you think? Are there any lessons for us in the church that we can apply from this?

Seeing a ship sitting on its side like that however, seemed to be a metaphor for so many things in our world right now. With whole countries on the verge of bankruptcy, with massive investment firms and corporations having already sunk below the surface, and with once vibrant and flourishing churches collapsing beneath the weigh of debt, overhead, and dwindling numbers the world seems awash with capsized cruise ships. Is there a common theme? Are there lessons to be learned?

Over and over again we find that the actions of those in leadership can have dire consequences. Not all is known of the actions of the captain of this ship. Why did he choose a different course? Why did he go so close to shore? Did he abandon the ship before the passengers were off? Was he asleep, not paying attention, or being stupid? We don’t know, at least yet. But we do know that on a clearly laid out route this ship makes all the time the captain deviated from the norm and the results were disastrous.

There are so many things that can make us deviate from our prescribed course. In the financial realms the disasters we are experiencing are the result of greed, short term gain vs. long term intelligence, and a love affair with debt. All of these are deviations from the prescribed path. All of them lead to bad choices and capsized cruise ships.

In the church our deviations are frankly very similar to the those in the financial realms. Churches regularly practice greed and pride in the name of expanding the kingdom. Christ called us to go and make disciples. He said that he would take on the task of building his church. But bigger buildings, more people, more money, and more fame are tempting for anyone. They are justified when you slap the “work of God” label on them. But we already see how quickly this road can lead to a church that is capsized, taking on water and simply trying to rescue the people who are jumping off into the water. We lose our way as the church when we chase a seat at the table of power. Whenever we think we need to take things into our own hands in order to do the work of God, instead of relying on God’s power, direction and methodology we risk running aground.

This cruise ship disaster is also a reminder of what is at stake. People are dead because of this mistake. People who were on vacation, on honeymoons, and gathered for family reunions lost their lives when that ship ran aground. In our churches people’s lives are at stake as well. Those who are broken and lost turn to us for hope. When we deviate from God’s will we lose our ability to give them hope. We lose credibility to our story. The lost stay lost, the broken stay broken and that is on our shoulders.

I think I will print up a picture of that cruise ship and hang it over my desk. I need the reminder of what is at stake for the choices I make personally and for our church corporately. There is too much at stake to veer from the course God has laid out for us and run the risk of losing it all.

Seven churches that left the Episcopal Church to join the Anglican Mission in America are now being forced to give up their property.

There are some really interesting ramifications of this ruling. First there is the issue of having to vacate your church building and start over. Some of these churches have been in these locations for a very long time and have very large congregations. This isn’t just a matter of going over to someone else’s house. This is finding a space for thousands of people to worship each week. As a pastor this is a logistical nightmare that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Second there is the issue of what does the Diocese do with these buildings. They can probably put small congregations back into the existing buildings or maybe try to start new ones, but what are the long term prospects for that? The Episcopal Church is not exactly renowned for church planting, neither is it growing at this stage.

It is very easy to imagine the diocese needing to sell this property in a short period of time because they don’t want the cost to maintain it. So will the churches that are being forced to vacate try to buy the property from the diocese? Will the diocese even consider this? Would they sell the buildings back churches that have left them? Will bitterness prevent this?

There are so many interesting questions stemming from a terrible situation. This is a situation that should sadden us all. This is the Body of Christ being broken by sin. This is the unity of the Spirit being ripped apart by a battle for the heart of the church. This is sad. The pain and brokenness of this body being ripped apart is far from over. I simply pray that God will give grace to all involved and that somehow his Spirit will being able to repair the rending apart of his body, not just here but throughout our world. I pray that we will no longer need the courts to mediate our disputes as a the Body of Christ.

(I)n our world today sex sells, and the reason sex sells is because it has become intrinsic to who we are, except not in a good way.

Paris describes the root of this problem when she says “Whether it’s in the area of shopping, sports, jobs or sex, Western values encourage people to discover what they really want and then go for it; the happy person is one who can freely do what he or she wants to do. Desire and action are closely linked, so harmony between wanting and doing is believed to bring fulfillment” (pg 126). This understanding may be the norm for us living in the Western world, but it shouldn’t be the norm for those of us who want to live in the kingdom. Everything about Christianity involves giving up what we want and doing the will of God instead – sexuality is included here. Human desires are fleeting, but God’s intentions remain firm.

The issue of sexual identity and its overpowering role in our culture is at the root of most of our struggles within the church in exhibiting and teaching a Godly sexuality. We make sex too big a deal in some regards and not nearly a big enough deal in others. We overvalue what it means to us personally and undervalue what it means to our spiritual life. I will definitely start digging into this book soon. Has anyone out there read it?

Those are the very important questions I have been wrestling with since returning from the Missional Learning Commons on Saturday. Is our struggle to make disciples in the North American church rooted in a poor understanding of the gospel?

That certainly is a part of our struggle, if not the majority of it. So long as we have hold onto the gospel message in part instead of in whole, we will struggle to effectively shape people for discipleship. What does this look like?

For me, and for many who grew up as evangelicals, the gospel we grew up with was primarily one of sin management and an eternal transaction. Jesus died for my sins so that I can be forgiven and go to heaven when I die. And between now and then I should do my best to stop sinning. The would have been my description of the gospel up until my early 20s. This was a gospel that inspired thankfulness to Jesus, hope for leaving this world behind, and frankly quite a bit of frustration with the sin management piece. But I can’t say that it inspired much of a sense of mission or a desire to turn my whole life over to Christ. The only mission I caught onto was the mission to get more people to punch their ticket for heaven.

Now I would describe the gospel in this way. Hear the good news – God our Father, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, invites us to take our rightful place as his children in the story of his redemption of all of creation. As the children of God we have been granted the authority and power of God, through the Holy Spirit, in order that we ,might be co-laborers with our Father in this work of redemption.

That version of the gospel gives me a sense of identity, it gives me a place in the story of God that is far bigger than myself, it gives me an empowered life, and it gives me a mission that connects what I do today with what I do for eternity. That gospel compels me towards discipleship.

How have you seen this play out in your life? How has it played out in your ministry? How would you describe the gospel?

We should all have a party tonight, dress up in absurd outfits and and teach our children to go begging at one another’s houses to celebrate this fine German scholar of the church.

For the record Logan and I are dressing up as Mario and Luigi for Reformation Day (ok more so for Halloween). He is really excited that we are dressing up alike. There will come a day when dressing up with Dad won’t be fun for him anymore. Even then I still will dress up like him, just to annoy him. That is the kind of dad I am.

Anybody celebrating Jesusween?

When an Apostilic Brit and a Prophetic Canadian get together, whohoo the fun ensues…..

It was truly wonderful to gather with a great group of church leaders at the Missional Learning Commons hosted by Northern Baptist Seminary this past weekend. The purpose of the gathering was to get together with church planters, pastors and church leaders who are committed to and exploring what it means to be missional. The gathering involved presentations from a number of different leaders, lay people, and pastors focusing specifically on the topic of discipleship.

What a great opportunity to dig into the connection between discipleship and carrying out God’s mission. The interchange between academics, people on the front lines of missional communities and interested parties was very fruitful. What I found especially fruitful was the interchange between Mike Breen from 3DM (The Apostolic Brit) and David Fitch from NBS (the Prophetic Canadian).  Since I am currently interacting with 3DM on a daily basis, Fitch’s commentary and questions were especially relevant to me. Their dialog was really great and fairly rabbinical. David asked Mike some pretty challenging questions and Mike responded with tangential stories and ideas and let them simmer. He didn’t try to tackle them head on, which was too bad in one regard, and perfect in another. The tension between the questions (not between them) is one we should live in and work through. It didn’t need a quick answer. They hugged at the end though, so it was all good.

Here are some of the thoughts  from the weekend. (I am sure some of these will be broken out as their own posts later in the week)

- We talked a lot about how to shape our culture so that it creates disciples. This is the topic of Mike’s book (which is helpful) but this conversation expanded my thoughts on it a bit. The big part was simply the recognition that all churches are shaping people into something, just not necessarily disciples. Our culture, its language, our practices, our symbols, our mission, our life together, all of these are shaping people into something. The question is what are people being shaped to?

- The other question I had from that is where are we failing to shape people, and instead allowing them to shape our culture instead? Nobody comes into the faith community unshaped or without influence. So are our practices reshaping them or are their practices reshaping us? Are they ending up looking more like Jesus? Are we ending up looking less like the bride of Christ?

- Mike kept coming back to the image of a petri-dish when talking about cultivating discipleship. I found this helpful. What is growing in the petri-dish of our faith? What has been planted there and is now taking shape before we can even verbalize it?

- The other part of culture I keep thinking about is how much more powerful it is than instruction or teaching for discipleship. For the vast part of my walk I have thought of discipleship primarily as information transfer. If we can teach people the right things, especially through sermons and small groups, then those beliefs will take root and change them. But how we live, and the practices we use daily do more to shape us as discipleship than knowledge ever could. This is just so important.

- A lot of the conversation was also around the connection between the Gospel and mission and discipleship. Here is the question that is lingering with me. Does the gospel you preach naturally lead people to discipleship? That is a big question that deserves its own post. In short, however, I would say that the gospel I believed for the first 22 years of my life or so was not sufficient to lead me to a life of discipleship. That has certainly changed and as my experience of the gospel has expanded so to has my ability to preach it in a way that calls people to discipleship. How this has happened and what that means for ministry are probably going to be my next post.

Several people requested that I post the video that we used in worship yesterday. We were looking at Luke 15 and the three parables there of the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost sons. This video is our intentionally silly but purposeful reflection on what it feels like to be lost and then found. When we started the project there was no intention of me being on film doing a bad Macho Man Randy Savage impersonation, but sometimes these things just happen.

Good for Mars Hill. In response to all the chatter about their trademarking of their name and cease and desist letter they issued an apology and a helpful clarification. A lot of what they say is really true and frankly sad in regards to how quick we are to try to copy the success of others in the church. Here is an excerpt.

We’re not the only church called Mars Hill, and occasionally there arises confusion between us and other churches that share the “Mars Hill” name, particularly as we now have our churches in four states. This was the case recently when one of our members called us to find out if we had planted Mars Hill churches in the Sacramento, California area. We had not, but when we went to these churches’ websites, it was obvious to us how people could be confused. Each of these three connected churches in the Sacramento region—planted in 2006, 2007, and 2010—bore the “Mars Hill” name and their logo was substantially similar to the logo we’ve used since 1996.

When cases like this arise in the business world, it’s customary for a law office to send a notice asking the other organization to adjust their branding to differentiate it. This is commonly referred to as a cease and desist letter. On September 27, 2011, our legal counsel sent such a letter to these three Mars Hill churches requesting that they change their logo and name. In hindsight, we realize now that the way we went about raising our concerns, while acceptable in the business world, is not the way we should deal with fellow Christians. On Friday we spoke with the pastor of Mars Hill in Sacramento to apologize for the way we went about this. We had a very productive conversation and look forward to continuing that conversation in the days and weeks ahead.

Friday and Saturday I am heading to Northern Baptist Seminary for the Missional Learning Commons 2011. Mike Breen and the 3DM crew will be presenting some of their material and there will be some really wonderful interactions with the connection between discipleship and mission through the two days. This event is only $10. You should come and join us.