Thoughts on The Multiplying Church

Bob Roberts Jr.’s, The Multiplying Church, is a very practical guide to church planting.  So, for those of you not interested in church planting I would suggest skipping this post.  Further, for those of you inclined to buy books I write about, I would recommend Organic Church over this work.  With all of that said, Roberts does makes some good points.

Foreword:

At the center of Roberts’ thinking is the dream of planting churches that plant other churches.  This is something he has done very well out of his church in Texas.  To accomplish this he focuses on leadership development and discipleship. 

In this vain Roberts encourages pastors to “constantly encourage members to get out where real people with real problems live and be Christ” (11).  This focus is similar to Missional Church thinking and Organic Church thinking—leave the safety of the church building and start living out faith in the real world.

Chapter 1:

The first chapter focuses on Jesus movements in Asia.  Helpfully, Roberts observes that these movements do not start because of a plan but rather individuals experiencing Jesus and being so passionate that naturally they reach out to their friends and family and the next thing is there is a church.  There is almost no institution.

The key in this type of movement is pouring into the lives of people and making authentic disciples rather than buildings and programs.  These movements are predicated on believers having an authentic relationship with Jesus and everything else flowing from that.

Chapter 2:

Roberts dream is to launch a global church planting movement.  To do this he wants to see local churches start to plant churches.  And for local churches to plant churches it will mean the involvement of everyone at the church including people like lawyers and business owners.

Chapter 3:

The key is to plant churches that plan on planting other churches.

Research has shown that “hiving,” sending part of an existing church off to start a new church is a very slow process.  Most churches can only hive once or twice and each time it takes about five years to recoup the leadership sent off.  So, instead, Roberts brings potential church planters to his church and mentors them and then sends them off to start churches from scratch.

Chapter 4:

Roberts argues that the goal of all church planting is transformation.  His hope is that church plants will be focused on transforming the communities they are part of.  To do this churches must engage in all spheres of a community’s life.

Chapter 5:

A huge component of all of this is for pastors of small churches to be willing to invest and train church planters.  For example Mark Harris has run a church of 150 people for fifteen years and planted 18 churches from that base.

Chapter 6:

The key trait of a church planter is to be a daredevil—church planting is a risky endeavor.  Also, they are visionaries who can lead others to see their vision as well.

Chapter 7:

The lay disciple also needs to be set free to take risks for God.  The key for a church to plant other churches is a pastor who can make heroes out of ordinary disciples.  It’s not about church planters but rather disciples.  To accomplish this we have to be willing to let disciples do more than just help run programs on Sunday morning.  Further, we need disciples who view their work place as their primary ministry.

Also, disciples need to be servant minded, prayerful, and willing to live a Christian life, which is an adventure.

Chapter 8:

The key is to start with the community and work towards planting a church that will transform the community.  Part of this is looking at all domains of a particular community.

Chapter 9:

One key is to gather a core group that is excited and in love with Jesus.  Then the hope is to let the enthusiasm of new believers reach other people.

Chapter 10:

Roberts lays out a seven-step decision matrix that he uses in this chapter which is actually pretty interesting.  The first step is call—“everything starts with a call.  What has God called you to do?” (142).  This point is very valuable—often in ministry almost everything works against fulfilling one’s call.  The second step is values—values determine behavior—so working towards the right values is key.

The third step is purpose.  Roberts argues that God has a purpose for all of us—which is helpful—but I’m not really sure the difference between call and purpose.  Roberts really does not lay that out.  The fourth step is vision, which lets us see the place we are going.  The fifth step is strategy, which combines the first four steps into a more concrete plan. 

The sixth step is leadership, which focuses on developing other leaders.  And the final step is evaluation.

Chapter 11:

Finances are the greatest stress point of a church plant—and it really takes a miracle from God for church plants to make it financially.  One key issue is for the church planter to make the biggest financial risks and be the most sacrificial with their money.

Chapter 12:

Another big struggle of church planting is learning how to do everything publicly.  The planter learns how to plant a church amidst doing all of life publicly and this is very challenging.  There is never enough time to get everything done and it is very difficult to balance family life along with spiritual practices.

Reflections From Week 7

For my readers who are Christian, and especially those involved in development work and mission, I implore you to read this post.

Last Wednesday I heard one of, if not smartest lectures, I have ever heard.  The presenter was Vinoth Ramachandra and his lecture mainly came out of his book, Subverting Global Myths: Theology and the Public Issues Shaping Our World. 

His analysis of global consumer culture was unbelievably penetrating.  In essence, the rapid spread of consumerism changes how American Christians interact with the rest of the world.

One example he gave was that in emerging generations both the American child who constructs all meaning via brands and the majority world child who makes those products for pennies are victims of the consumer machine.  Vinoth has inverted traditional thinking to suggest that not only are the produces victims but also the consumers.  So, when one Fuller missions student asked Vinoth the role of white middle class men (like himself) in global missions, Vinoth responded simply saying, “there are a lot of white middle class men who need Jesus.” 

Like very few others, Vinoth understands that those in developed countries are some of the spiritually sickest people in the world.  This revelation calls for a reshaping of all mission and development work. 

The Great Debate—Part 4: Believe, Act, and Succeed

Before I continue on to the wilderness option I want to explore another issue in the Egypt/Promised Land debate.

I first got interested in this text my first year at Westmont College.  At the same time I was reading this text I was also reading William James’ The Will to Believe.  I like to read this debate in light of an observation James makes in his brilliant little essay.

James postulates that often, in matters of life and faith, belief is the only way to generate certain outcomes.  Even in the beginning of the 20^th century, when he was writing, there must have been a lot of guys with Approacher’s Anxiety because James uses an example from the world of dating.  He writes that to successfully invite a woman on a date one must believe that she will say yes.  If one does not believe that a yes will come he will either never even bother to ask her or even if he does ask his lack of confidence will turn the woman away.  James makes a similar observation about interviewing for a job.

He does not guarantee a certain outcome if one is willing to believe but is noting that certain outcomes are only possible if one is willing to believe first while the outcome is still uncertain.

In his essay, James will go on to argue that the same is true of religious experience.  To have a religious experience one must first be willing to believe that there is a God even if God has never been experienced.

On the East Bank of the River Jordan opposite of the Promised Land there is the exact same paradigm at work.  There is the blatant empiricism of the Egypt faction arguing that all they can see are giants and impregnable city walls.  To counter-balance this Joshua and Caleb are arguing that God will act, and although they do not make this argument, I think it is safe to assume they are basing this on historical observation that God acted for them in Egypt, on the shores of the Reed Sea, and in the wilderness.  At the end of this debate what the people should do is uncertain.

And here is where William James would have made a great arbitrator for this conflict.  He could have pointed out that the only way God could act is if the people were willing to believe that he will act.

In the bizarreness of faith, the only way to get to the Promised Land is confident belief that God will act even though that is by no means certain.  There is no way for them to experience certainty that God will act on their behalf before they act.

The Promise Land is possible but only through trust.

The Great Debate—Part 3: Life in the Promised Land

After the ten scouts freak out and panic the other two scouts, Caleb and Joshua, make a desperate plea.  “The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land.  If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.  Only, do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them” (Numbers 14:7-9).

Their argument lacks the guttural appeal of the Egypt argument.  Their argument hinges on trusting that God will act.  Evaluating whether or not it is worth trusting one’s life in God’s hands is not an easy decision.  It is not nearly as tangible as seeing big fortresses defended by giants.

However, upon closer reflection there was a lot of good evidence to think God would act.  These people have seen God send ten plagues against Egypt, part the Reed Sea, bring water from rocks, and bring bread and quail from the heavens along with a lot of other stuff.  God has acted.  But, in fairness, God could have acted more and could have acted faster—it hasn’t been an easy journey—in fact at multiple times they’ve been on the verge of death.

And, I find this dynamic very present in the 21^st century.  God saved me from killing myself only to let me wake up the next day to a string of 500 of the worst days of my life—no magical solution.  God let me finish a 67,000 manuscript—but it took six drafts, five years, every paragraph was a war, and it currently still sits unpublished.  And I could give many more examples.

There is more to the Great Debate though.  At stake is life in the Promised Land—a land of overflowing abundance.  And although getting out of Egypt and surviving in the wilderness has not been easy God has always shown up in desperate moments when they most needed him.  So, as counter-intuitive as it seems, the Promised Land is theirs.  Joshua and Caleb are right.  They’ve come this far with God and they need to trust him one more time.  They are so close to their dreams of freedom in a land of abundance.

And in the 21^st century it still rings true.  After trudging through almost two years of severe depression and loneliness I was able to trust God just barely enough to choose to go to Westmont College.  Although I was all but certain I wouldn’t fit in, I’d fail my classes, and that I’d be a loner I thought that was where God wanted me.  Within 30 minutes of being on campus God had greatly surprised me.  I had already gotten my first date and people were already starting to call me “the Greek God” and “BMOC” (Big Man On Campus).  As a sophomore in high school I sat all by myself for most of the year—now, in the Promised Land of Santa Barbara everyone thought I had been the quarter back for my high school’s football team—it was awesome.

I find it easy to be fearful in life that things will not work out—that maybe God won’t do anything—or that maybe everything is just too hard.  And yet, ultimately I trust Caleb and Joshua’s words (and yes I write out v 9 from memory every day) that, “the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”  As hard as it is, I do not want to let fear keep me from the Promised Land.

Reflections from Week 6

For my non-academic minded readers, as always, feel free to skip this post.

Dr. Bolger continued to lay out different aspects of contemporary culture—sharing culture, remix culture, and collaborative culture—and as always it was very interesting.

Sharing culture is most noticeably seen on blogs and Facebook pages.  The hallmark of sharing culture is that traditional gatekeepers of knowledge no longer have control.  For instance, political blogs started by truly average people are often more popular than the ideas professional politicians and professors.  In essence, blogs and Facebook pages are the new way to launch grassroots movements.

To understand Remix culture it will be helpful to first give a brief history of entertainment culture in the U.S.  Until the 1850’s people were entertained in their own homes by their neighbors and relatives singing, playing the piano, or telling stories—all entertainment was local and personal.  In the 1850’s there started to be regional traveling road shows that offered slightly better entertainment than one’s friends could provide.  In the 1920’s recorded music and movies dominated the traveling road shows because once again the quality of entertainment was higher.  This change meant that entertainment went from being regional to national.  However, because of a variety of technologies that came into being at the end of the 20^th century, production costs of media plummeted greatly once again allowing for local entertainment.  This can be seen most notably in millions of Utube videos that will only be viewed by ten people.

Remix culture, however, is not about being original but rather about combining different forms of media.  So a video might have a popular song playing in the background or be a spoof on a popular scene from a movie.  The significance of remix culture is that once again entertainment can happen at a local level.

Collaborative culture is seen most noticeably in Wikipedia.  In essence people want to, and are willing to, create things as a group without much supervision.  An interesting feature of this culture is that almost everyone has some small piece of unique knowledge to share.

Dr. Bolger fits all of this into participatory culture.  An interesting aspect of this culture is that it is a “fan” culture.  By this Dr. Bolger means that for no pay people are willing to give their time and energy to do the things they love—for instance make a Utube video or write a blog.

Another interesting piece of participatory culture is that sociologist have discovered that to assimilate the values of a particular sub-culture one must spend between 6-10 hours a week participating in that group.  For instance, for people who spend less that six hours in a faith community they divorce at the same rate as the rest of culture.  For those who spend more than six the rate drops dramatically.

The Great Debate—Part 2: Slavery in Egypt

What started the great debate was the return of twelve scouts who had gone into the Promised Land ahead of the people of Israel.  Their mission had been to see what the land was like.  Upon returning, ten of the spies reported, “the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large, and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there (Sons of Anak were giants about the size of Goliath, roughly nine feet tall)…we seemed like grasshoppers” (Numbers 13:27-33).

Upon hearing this report the Israelites cried to their leaders, “Would that we died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt” (Numbers 14:1-4).

Here, the scouts and people make a good case for going back to Egypt.  When one looks at the situation at hand it seems hopeless.  There is a really good land—but it is occupied by powerful armies.  Surely, from a military perspective, to attack these numerous giants behind strong city walls is a suicide mission.  Unless God shows up, the guaranteed outcome is to either die at the base of these city walls by enemy arrows or if lucky enough to survive the arrows to be stabbed to death by a giant waiting at the top of the walls.

Although not arriving in the Promised Land sucks it is surely better than certain death and enemies taking your wives and children as slaves.

So what direction should the Israelites head if they are not going to be able to make it to the Promised Land?  The most obvious solution is Egypt.  The slavery there was brutal but at least it was familiar.  Plus, they had always eaten as slaves and would not die by enemy arrows or swords.  Slavery might have been brutish but that is what they had known all their lives—it seems like a good solution.

In a 21^st century context going back towards Egypt still has the same appeal.  When I first became a Christian, rather than killing myself, things were still incredibly desperate.  Often I would scream at God wondering why he didn’t let me just go through with my suicide.  It was so hard to deal with academic failure, my soul mate breaking my heart, and a whole wake of debris from a lifetime of shattered dreams.  Living was so hard and death would have been so easy.

And when I started writing War For My Soul, at the same time, I was getting a B in English 1A at Pasadena City College and had just failed calculus.  Trying to write a book was equivalent to fighting giants behind city walls.  Why not just burn the outline and delete the first chapter—it certainly would have been easier.

And even now why keep going?  Why not gorge myself on TV?  Why continue trying to publish War For My Soul when I have no CV?  Why keep living at home with my parents and spending my money on seminary rather than have my own place and a more lucrative career?  Why not hook-up with beautiful girls I don’t like rather than waiting for a new soul mate?

The common sense answer is that I should watch TV, I should delete my 67,000-word manuscript, I should move out and drop out, and I should hook-up with every beautiful girl I meet.  By the world’s logic these answers all make tremendous sense.  They make the exact same sense as going back to Egypt.  The Promised Land is risky, Egypt is predictable and mediocre—why not choose that? 

Although, every time I make any decision my gut always tells me to go to Egypt, in the long run I can never settle on this direction or decisions that will take me there.  Ultimately, I don’t want the mediocrity of slavery in Egypt and am more than glad to die at the base of the enemy’s walls or parish by his sword on the ramparts.

The Great Debate—Part 1: Introduction

To my faithful readers I apologize for the lack of posts in the last week.  It has been a really busy week at school.

Before I continue with the TV Fast series I need to explain a key way in which I understand the world and make decisions (after reading the last post I’m sure you know it’s not blindly submitting to what I’ve been told to do at church).  Everyday I ask myself if I am going towards Egypt, the wilderness, or The Promised Land.  To understand this paradigm it is key to know a little bit about the Bible.

In the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, God’s people (the Israelites) are in slavery under the Egyptians.  It turns into a very savage slavery as the Egyptians first try to work the Israelites to death and after that fails try to exterminate the male babies.  In this context the people groan to God, he hears them, and he gets to work on saving them.  This process will include Moses being called at the burning bush, the ten plagues, and finally (the most memorable scene) Moses parting the Reed Sea.  Once the sea is parted the Israelites escape the Egyptian chariots.

Following their escape the Israelites end up in the desert/wilderness.  Here they will receive the Ten Commandments and make an idol of a golden calf. 

Finally, after some more wandering, the Israelites end up near the Promised Land.  I like to imagine that they walk all the way up to the river that marks the boundary between the Promised Land and the desert/wilderness.  Here, they run into a problem.  They realize that the land on the other side of the river, which God has promised to them and led them to, has strongly fortified cities and mighty enemy armies. 

This will lead to the Israelites having a great debate about what direction they should head.  One option is to go back to Egypt and be slaves again.  A second option is to trust that somehow God will allow for them to successfully displace their enemies in the Promised Land.  And a third option becomes wandering around in the desert/wilderness.

Especially during my first two years of being a Christian, while I was at Pasadena City College, I had this debate in contemporary terms daily.  In fact, the sequel to War For My Soul is called Insane Asylum (currently only 10,000 words long) and exclusively deals with these debates and their outcomes.  Although the intensity of the debate is not so loud anymore, I still run every decision I make through the grid of whether it is taking me to Egypt, the Promised Land, or the wilderness. 

I’m sure this grid is still incredibly vague.  Over the next three days I will make the case for each direction both in the terms of the great debate, which occurred on the banks of the Promised Land, and in contemporary terms.