Monday Discussion
In March of last year, I posted a blog titled, MacArthur and Osteen are Pastors of the Same Type of Church. That post and the post that followed it Attractional Churches Create Barriers to Ministry, generated quite a bit of good discussion and some great ideas from many of the responders in the comment thread.
Both posts reflect the spirit of what I try to do in this blog, which is to be provocatively opinionated without being overly critical of others. We don’t make progress toward what God wants us to be as leaders unless we stretch ourselves. So my hope is that the posts this week accomplishes that for you.
For the rest of this week, I am going to explore some of those ideas and let you, the reader, carry the discussion.
In answer to the question, How do we keep our congregations on mission for God (taking the gospel to the culture) when the structures through which we shepherd them create barriers to their understanding of mission? One of my former students and church planters, Michael Kim, made a number of thought provoking suggestions.
Here’s one of them:
“Shutting down and not meeting [one] Sunday a month to get people used to the idea of hanging out with not-yet-Christian friends on Sunday mornings. Sunday = perfect mission time on THEIR turf, not corporate worship time on ours.”
Any takers? Tell us your stories. When will you do it? How will you prepare the congregation for it? Who did you meet? How did you meet them? What resistance did you have in the congregation, in the community? What joys and surprises did you experience?
ChosenRebel's Blog 
I ran across this and felt I should share it .
A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis
August 6th
Reliant Stadium
Houston, TX
The event was conceived, initiated and called for by Texas Governor Rick Perry. There will be no DVD sales, book sales, CD sales, T-Shirt sales, and no vendors…just water, fasting and prayer. Below are his remarks last week in Longview:
Governor Rick Perry
Transcribed speech
Longview , Texas
May 23, 2011
In 1977, I had left the Air Force and moved home. I’ll be real honest with you—I was a bit lost spiritually, and I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. So I moved in with my mother and father. Now thatʼs a real trip! I had been an aircraft commander, traveling all around the world, seeing amazing places that a boy from Paint Creek , Texas, had never even dreamed were out there before. I had this great epiphany during my mid twenties. As I had lived in Europe and South America and the Middle East , I saw all these different countries with different forms of government. I was actually paying attention to the dictatorships, theocracies, monarchies, democratic states, etc. I started making the connection between how those people lived and the form of government they had. It was most interesting for me, as Iʼd never really given that much attention to our form of government in America . Iʼd taken for granted this extraordinary country we live in, but I came to realize that America is really a special place. I also made the calculation that inside that really cool place was this incredible place called Texas!
At twenty-five, twenty-six years old, it dawned on me what an incredible country we live in, and that the vast majority of the people take it for granted. They abuse the privilege of living in a free country. They don’t realize how so many other people live around the world. But with that knowledge, I went home and lived with my mom and dad. I moved back into my old room. At eighteen years old, I left to go to my beloved Texas A&M University . Nine years later, I came back into my old room. I swear to God, I know mother cleaned it, but it looked exactly like it did the day I left. It had my football number on the door, and it had the all-star football game program still stuck on the bulletin board. It was an eerie moment for me to move back home. My dad was pretty sure I was the same stupid eighteen-year-old that had left. I was pretty sure he hadnʼt gotten any smarter either. So we went through this really brutal period of time of finding our comfort zone. But God was dealing with me. At twenty-seven years old, I knew that Iʼd been called to the ministry. Iʼve just always been really stunned by how big a pulpit I was gonna have! I still am. I truly believe with all my heart that God has put me in this place at this time to do His will.
On Aug the 6th of this year, 2011, we are going to have a day of prayer and fasting. And itʼs going to be the real deal. Itʼs not going to be some program where we line up a dozen political figures to come in and talk. Itʼs going to be people standing on that stage, projecting and proclaiming Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior at Reliant Stadium in Houston , Texas . Let me tell you, thatʼs a big stadium and there will be a lot of people. But itʼs going to send a powerful message across this country! Our countryʼs broke. Well, actually, Washingtonʼs broke; our countryʼs going to be just fine. But weʼve got to have men and women who are willing to stand up to proclaim the values that this country was based upon.
In 1774, at the Continental Congress when they got together and penned that first document, they talked about “life” and “liberty.” Interestingly, the third thing they talked about was “property.” A couple of years later, when they actually wrote the Declaration, they changed that “property” to “the pursuit of happiness.” I just signed a piece of legislation today, the immanent domain legislation. I tell people, that “personal property” and the ownership of that personal property is crucial to our way of life. Our founding fathers understood that it was a very important part of the pursuit of happiness. Being able to own things that are your own is one of the things that makes America unique. But I happen to think that itʼs in jeopardy.
Itʼs in jeopardy because of taxes; itʼs in jeopardy because of regulation; itʼs in jeopardy because of a legal system thatʼs run amuck. And I think itʼs time for us to just hand it over to God and say, “God, Youʼre going to have to fix this.” (I think it was Herman Cain who stood up the other day and said, “Howʼs that “Hope and Change” thing working out for you?”) I think itʼs time for us to use our wisdom and our influence and really put it in Godʼs hands. Thatʼs what Iʼm going to do, and I hope youʼll join me. I hope you’ll join us in Houston on the 6th day of August and really start a revival across this country.
Hereʼs what I want to leave you with. I know from time to time, people will say something like, “There goes Perry. He wants to secede.” But I love this country. Weʼre a special place. We were created by God-fearing individuals who understood those biblical values and how powerful they could be and would be in the future. And I suggest that for our country, our best days are ahead if weʼll get on our knees and ask God to take over and give us wisdom. I may wear the Lord out every day in prayer. I pray for this country. I pray for restoration for this country. I pray for our president every day. I pray that God turns buckets of wisdom out on his head, that God will open his eyes. We can change this country, but it requires our giving it to Him and letting Him guide us.
*********************************
–“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes”.
The event was conceived, initiated and called for by Texas Governor Rick Perry. There will be no DVD sales, book sales, CD sales, T-Shirt sales, and no vendors…just water, fasting and prayer.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
best regards,
Jim Murray
331-575-8823
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I am going to allow this response to stand even though it is off the mark in terms of a response to this particular post. I’m not letting it stand because I am a Rick Perry fan (really don’t know that much about the man), but because the subject of prayer and fasting for our nation is a great theme and one that I personally endorse. I’m glad to know about this event. I am going to mark my calendar to join with those who will be setting aside that day for prayer.
But this is the last response I will allow that is over 500 words. I try to keep all my posts under that number and expect the same from contributors here. Any response over 500 words in the future will be edited by me.
Thanks for alerting me to this event.
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This is a good start for us. Churches that don’t use our time to reach the lost by preaching the gospel. It is a good start to developing a heart for the Lost. Prayer walking is another entry into getting out of the bldg into the streets.
Good topic!
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I really like Michael Kim’s idea of shutting down one Sunday a month in order to get the congregation out in the local community. When I was in college I attended Wheaton Evangelical Free Church and they did something along these lines. Once or twice a year they would send out a large number of people from the church on a Sunday morning to go do yard work for families in the community for free. I participated in this while I attended the church and found it to be helpful in getting me to think about the people who lived in the community and what their needs might be.
If I was to challenge my church to consider adopting a practice like this on a regular basis, I think several things would be important to remember.
Communication
1. Make sure to communicate the change from the normal practice well in advance.
2. Send a letter, email, text message, facebook message, tweet, etc. to everyone who regularly or intermittently visits the church so they are aware there will not be a normal worship service on the given Sunday/Saturday.
3. Consider posting a couple volunteers at the regular location to redirect anybody who forgets or didn’t know to an opportunity nearby to join others from the church who are engaging the local community.
Preparation
1. Pitch the vision clearly and passionately for why the church is doing this and why it is important and how it will hopefully help the church participate more actively in God’s mission on earth.
2. Have a brainstorming session where many creative ideas can be listed as options of how to engage the community on a Sunday morning.
3. Encourage the congregation to do things they are passionate about and consider doing them together with a few others from the church so people have others to debrief with afterward.
4. Equip people to start spiritual conversations and teach them to listen well to “not-yet-Christians”. Teach people to memorize Bill Fay’s 5 questions and provide opportunities for people to practice using them to turn conversations to spiritual matters.
Accountability
1. Remind people about the change of plan the week prior and the day or two before.
2. Ask people to share what they are planning on doing. (the temptation may be for some or many to just stay home and do nothing or to simply attend another church that Sunday)
3. Ask people afterward what they did, what they learned, how God used them.
4. Have time the following Sunday for some testimonies to be shared during the regular worship service.
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Tony,
Great response with some very practical ideas brother. I like the way you have broken it down into Communication, Preparation and Accountability. Good incorporation of all the newest technologies to get the word out. Your #3 in each section is particularly helpful. Good work brother. I think God is going to use you mightily as a church planter.
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