SENTralized

Need More Help

Okay guys and gals...Alan and I need some more help. What would you think about a website called "hubbubclub.com"?   Fire away...like it or hate it? And why?
Thanks

i heard it through the shapevine

Alan (Hirsch) and I are needing your help...right now! Below is copy from what Al just posted on his site...
i heard it through the shapevine

OK, I need your advice and comment.  I and some friends are looking at starting a online cafe environment where people can converse (using video feeds and audio links) around the great ideas of our time. We are going to provide a place where people can engage with great thinkers and practitioners in a very personal dialogue.  It’s going to rock….really!  Now here’s where I need your help.  We have to nail down a name for the website. We have come up with the name shapevine.com. The idea being the place where Christianity in the 21st Century is being explored and shaped, particularly in a missional way. Think about James Brown’s “I heard it through the grapevine” ringing through your head as the byline.

Now be kind!  And if you don’t like it.  Suggest some alternatives.

ORGANIC CHURCH MOVEMENTS CONFERENCE

I am at the 1st annual Organic Church Movements Conference, sponsored by Neil Cole and his group. This has been a really good time. This afternoon I had a great visit with Ori Brafman, co-author of The Starfish and The Spider. This book is must reading for just about anyone interested in leading from a selfless stance. It is uncanny in its description of the leadership model we see in the Kingdom of God. Ori is an absolutely delightful and gentle soul. The conference has really been enjoyable. The whole organic, house church, movement is gaining such phenomenal momentum and there is a wide variety of people present. Some of the folks have been involved in this movement for years. Others have just jumped on the train in the last few months, even weeks.  

Jesus in "The Least of These"

The following is an unedited email I received from my little buddy,Aaron Snow. Aaron and his crew are doin' the stuff! (here is a shot of Aaron hitting on a girl in Vietnam when we were there in the spring)

Hey guys,
     If you were with us last night you know about this.  For those of you who were not, and would like to hear what happened check it out: Last night a group of us went to eat dinner at Uno's Pizzeria in downtown Ft. Worth.  We planned to eat and then go back out to where a few of the night shelters are located downtown.  We had some jackets, coats, gloves, socks, and water-proof parkas to give out.  It was about 38 degrees last night, and raining. I'm sure the thought had crossed some minds earlier that day, "hey, are we still going out there tonight? It's raining and cold outside."  What a thought!  These homeless people live in the rain and cold!  Isn't that just like us! We're such comfortable and neat little Christians.  We love to do ministry…but what if we get cold?  What if we get wet, stay out late, and lose some sleep?  For the majority of us the rain and cold was a
motivating factor to going out there.  We were determined to be obedient, and do what God has so blatantly called us to do in Scripture…even if it makes us uncomfortable:
    "My brethren, count it all joy when you face trial of many kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."(James 1:2-3) "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."(2 Corinthians 12:10)
"We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God."(Acts 14:22) "You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary."(Revelation 2:3)
The need was great last night, and we wanted to do what we could to see that need met.  You see, at ten o'clock the Night Shelters close their doors, and stop letting anyone in.  Hundreds of homeless men areleft out in the rain and cold. We're learning that homeless people love a hot $1 double cheeseburger from McDonald's, so we chipped in a few bucks each, got fifteen burgers, and fifteen waters.

Missional Imprinting

Imprinting in the wild is the communication that takes place between mother and offspring within seconds after birth. This process of bonding strengthens the maternal/infant relationship and this helps to ensure newborn survival. You may have seen documentaries on this. There is one unique ability limited to birds alone that makes geese, the first, and ducks, the second, most natural animal companions to humans. I’m a dog lover and that’s hard to believe, but it’s a fact. “That ability, which is one of the strongest forces in nature, is the imprint. No one understands exactly what happens inside a bird’s brain when imprinting occurs, but the results are unmistakable. The imprint is strongest in geese and almost as strong in ducks. Basically, a duckling or gosling knows that it is the same species as whatever living creature larger than itself it sees upon hatching or shortly thereafter. I said, KNOWS. It doesn’t think it is, it doesn’t use the creature for a replacement until it finds its own species, it doesn’t pretend to be that species; it is that species in its mind. The imprint is so strong in birds that when one is raising a wild baby bird to be returned to wild, it must be fed with hand puppets of its own species in order to prevent it from imprinting on a human instead. So, if you want a bird to live with its own species, you avoid having it imprint on a human, but if you want a bird to live with humans, you make sure it does imprint on a HUMAN. It imprints on the species right away, but doesn’t recognize an individual face for about a week even though it may recognize a voice.” (http://www.thegoosesmother.com/id6.html).
The issue of imprinting is vital to missional churches as well. The default mechanism in most church folk is to meet for bible studies. There has become this crazy notion (more of an addiction) that studying is doing. Jesus didn’t hold “bible studies”. He held labs, that combined teaching with doing. Early on, I see it as absolutely vital that fledgling missional groups and communities “imprint” on mission immediately. Do something. It does not matter greatly what it is… just do something missional together. This imprinting is vital to set the DNA of the group as a missional community and not just a missional-minded bible study.

Freedom From Consumption

100 Ways to Escape from Affluenza

This is a list of ways to break free from Consumerism. If you've read the book Affluenza you are familiar with the term. I am convinced that the thorny ground Jesus spoke of is consumerism in our day. It chokes the word and makes it unfruitful in our lives. Missional communities should be ever conscious of this stronghold that neuters fruitfulness and discipleship.

"THE Guy"

For true success in missional churches one of the key issues comes down to "the people". I still remember driving in Boise years ago with one of my mentors. I asked him, "what is the key issue to planting a church?" He said, "Do you really want to know?" He said, "The guy". What my mentor was saying was something very true in strongly attractional churches. You've got to have a guy that is a catalytic, charismatic personality. And he has to be skilled at developing organizations. Now...I would not go so far as to say leadership is not important, because it very much is. The difference is that the "guy" is not a significant part of the attraction. When you have a church that people don't show up for if they know "the guy" is not preaching on that Sunday...thats a sign of sickness and something that is built on flesh and sandy soil. A truly missional church gathers around the missio dei (mission of God) and lives from the life of the community, the body of Jesus. The pastor is not the head... Jesus is. This is one of my reasons for railing against the overemphasis on sermons. Because most of that is tied to "the guy". A huge transition for missional church members to make is to understand that they all (everyone) is "the guy". Mission becomes the galvanizing magnet that draws the community together. They no longer gather to "worship"... it becomes a time where worshipers gather. The lives of the people become the most important sermon that gets preached on a weekly basis. No one who has never pastored can fathom the pressure of feeling that this thing will be a success of failure based on me. This is a dangerous two way street, because if it is a success it is because of "ME!"  Woefully perverted.

More on the Pulpit

The latent power and exponential growth witnessed in the early church and today's Chinese church happens through the lives of people. This is the point of my last blog on Pulpits. At issue is this--Does the church grow... are disciples made... is a community impacted to the degree we see in the early church and the Chinese church via the energy and resources spent on sermonizing or does it happen through incarnational/sacrificial living of normal-joe Christ followers. It's a rhetorical question. Am I against preaching? Duh no. I still preach/teach... whatever you want to call it. But the most bang for the buck comes from the time I spend one on one or with little groups of people... doing and teaching (Acts 1:1). My core point is that church planters go out everyday to start churches and they dang well work hard on sermons and would not even consider church apart from sermonizing, but the majority give their time-scraps toward discipling. In fact, most guys are afraid of discipling. It's too slow and too messy. I have always told our interns, "If you can't tell someone, 'Follow me as I follow Him,' "Imitate me...'  Then you are not fit to plant a church."  The issue here is , in the words of Alan Roxburgh, "Ours is a culture that believes if it has been heard it has been done". Look, you can not talk/monologue/sermonize people into discipleship. And if you are not going to make disciples then stop mucking around and calling your work a church. Just stop it, for the sake of the Kingdom of God. I'll say it again, Preaching is overratted and discipling is undervalued. Discipling is the afterthought of the church. Google "church planting conference" and then look at the menu for the biggest conferences... Where is discipleship on the plate? It's probably not even there... if it is it is very small and given very little attention. On the other hand, Jesus was all about discipling and barely even mentioned church (twice). Churches evolve from disciples.

Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company

This is a great example of what a missional community can do.

See/Hear Tim Keller on Missional Churches