The Call to Collaboration

Several years ago, while serving as the co-director for Enfoque México, I learned many life-shaping lessons in the world of partnering. Some of them marked my life with great joy and others brought a good deal of pain. But through these learning experiences and the wise counsel of wonderful friends, the Lord impressed an important truth upon my heart: The Gospel will only achieve fruition through partnering and collaboration among believers. This is, very simply, the body of Christ in action.

Two wise friends, Eric Swanson and Sam Williams, were the first to bring my attention to the significance of Jesus' prayer for all believers in John 17:

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. [italics mine]

Hundreds of times I've read these verses and still never caught it. Through my Western cultural lenses I would think, "Wouldn't that be nice if we could all be unified." But here, Jesus doesn't give us that luxury of thought. His prayer effectively hinges global evangelization on one thing: The unity of believers.

How should we respond to Christ's prayer? We would all agree that unity is a noble goal and should be pursued, even at great cost. But let's be honest. The realist in all of us finds the thought boring, an inhibitor to creativity and rapid expansion, an unnecessary burden, or some combination thereof. But how should the great importance Jesus places on unity translate into our modern world?

Obama Administration Wages New War

Let me begin with a preface. While I do my best to stay clear of politics on this blog, I do, from time to time, find it worthwhile to respond to something in the media or politics. And after a week of very candid efforts by the White House to censor the freedom of the press, I consider it not only worthwhile but of grave importance to draw attention to a few of Barack Hussein Obama's positions on Americans' constitutional freedoms.

You may know about President Obama's comments on NBC, where he alludes to Fox News as "a talk-radio format". And, as an American citizen, he certainly has the right to his opinion. You may also know about the recent attempt of the White House to exclude Fox News from interviews with executive pay-czar Kenneth Feinberg. That's crossing a line. And the other news networks felt the same way.

But what I find even more troubling, are the people Obama surrounds himself with. Glenn Beck, an admitted conservative analyst, does a fine job connecting the dots.




At this point, I don't consider it a stretch to say that we should have given a little more consideration to Obama's friendships with people like left wing radical and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.

Annapolis Missional Community Plant

For the past several weekends, I've made my home with the Pastermack's, a wonderful couple about my age in Annapolis, MD. They're doing something that I've only dreampt about. They own a very popular ice cream shop on Main Street, live right above it, and have a church that meets in their home, not to mention that every weekend night you can walk upstairs and find anywhere from 5 to 15 people having real conversations in their living room. Now that's fun!

Initiated by the big suburban Bay Area Community Church, this new missional community is committed to reaching downtown Annapolis. Squeezing 50 people into the living room on Sundays takes some imagination, and so does reaching the very different people groups downtown. I love that the mothership has given this core group permission to plant simple missional churches. They're laboring and struggling to figure out what it looks like, but the core remains the same - loving Jesus, loving one another, and loving those outside their little fellowship.

It's refreshing to see a church blessing and empowering its apostolic members. It will be fun to continue to watch this hybrid network of big church and simple church unfold. They're providing a model other megachurches would do well to learn from.

You Made Us Jump - Big Time!

You guys are amazing. When I posted about the honeymoon giveaway yesterday, we had under 40 comments on our story (which put us in about 15th place on the website). By the end of the day we jumped to well over 100, and now we're in 3rd place in comments with 182! Not bad out of 1600 stories.

Well, the judges will choose the top 5 stories in just four days. Should we make it, that's when it really counts because the story with the most votes wins the grand prize honeymoon!

Honeymoon Giveaway

Wouldn't it be sweet to win a honeymoon prize package to Mexico valued at over $8,000? We think so. That's why I'd like to ask you to take 30 seconds and leave a comment on our story! Seriously, we've got a shot at this. (You can also read the really short version of our story. Yeehaw!)

Characteristics of Dynamic Movements

Ed Stetzer posted a good interview with Steve Addison, director of Church Resource Ministries (CRM) Australia and author Movements that Change the World. I've posted Steve's answer to what characterizes dynamic movements below:

The five characteristics are: white-hot faith, commitment to a cause, contagious relationships, rapid mobilization and adaptive methods.

White-hot faith is the engine room of a dynamic movement. The apostle Paul was not converted by clever arguments but through a powerful encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road. We would not have had the Reformation without Martin Luther's struggle with the question of, "How can a holy God forgive a sinner like me?"

The secret of Jesus' life and ministry was his relationship of loving obedience to the Father and dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit. He drew his disciples into the same relationship and sent them out with no other resources.

A white-hot faith provides the motivation, energy and legitimacy to go change the world.

Next is commitment to a cause. For good or for evil, history is made by people committed to a common purpose. Nothing changes unless people care deeply and are willing take action. Jesus had high expectations of his followers. So high, that some of them walked away.

John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist movement. On one occasion he visited Bristol. When he arrived there were 900 people in the local Society. When he left 143 of them had been removed for various reasons: among them wife-beating, smuggling, and drunkenness. Wesley led a disciplined movement that changed the world.

The third characteristic of movements is contagious relationships. We are all just six handshakes away from everyone on the planet. Ideas, like viruses, spread from person to person and from group to group. In the age of the internet, contagious relationships are still the most important form of communication.

The most responsive people to the gospel are those who have recently seen someone in their world come to faith.

Whenever we see the Christian faith expanding exponentially, it's traveling across networks of preexisting relationships. We tend to focus on building quality relationships with a few. Jesus focused on connecting broadly and then through one responsive person, reaching households and villages. That's how we see the gospel spreading in Acts.

The fourth characteristic is rapid mobilization. Movements don't abolish the clergy, they just ordain everyone for ministry. What did Jesus do? He went after ordinary people and trained them on-the-job. His lecture on the nature of faith was conducted on a sinking boat in the midst of a storm. There was theological content integrated with life and ministry. Jesus grew leaders and released them to go and change the world.

You don't get dramatic expansion of a movement if everyone is a paid professional. If anyone is paid, they are paid to pioneer new fields and mobilize others. Whether they are in New York or New Delhi, that's what missionaries do.

The last characteristic is adaptive methods. The best illustration of an adaptive method I can think of is the game of soccer. Soccer is the world's game played by hundreds of millions and watched by billions. Why? I think it's because you can drop a ball at the feet of a three year old and she can start playing. It may take a lifetime of practice to master the game, but only an instant to begin enjoying it. Try doing that with American or Australian football.

Adaptive methods are simple, flexible and transferable. That's one reason why Jesus taught by telling stories. A good story, like the prodigal son, can be told by anyone to anyone, even across the boundaries of culture and time.

Movements are unchanging when it comes to their core message and beliefs. At the same time they are willing to change everything else to get that message out and get the job done. Unfortunately we have churches that are unwilling to change their methods, but quite happy to change the heart of the gospel. They have the worst of both worlds and the fruit is clear to see.

Where are the current examples of dynamic movements today?

The exciting news is they are mostly in the developing world--Africa, Asia, Latin America. These are also the regions of greatest population growth. Today, over 90% of new Christians will come from these regions. Expect that trend to continue.

In the US I've been encouraged by leaders such as Neil Cole, Bob Roberts, Ralph Moore, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, and Jimmy Seibert who emphasize multiplication of disciples, workers and churches rather than just growth. A growing band of leaders are seeing the church as a movement.

The whole missional/emerging discussion has helped unfreeze us all in our understanding of church. If that is combined with a commitment to the Gospel and a passion to multiply disciples it could be quite fruitful.

The Engagement Story (E Day, Phase 5: The Celebration)

After the excitement of the proposal, we proceeded back to the limo. Jessi made sure to show off her ring to the driver. Thankfully, though we had never looked at rings or even spoke about them, Jessi absolutely loved hers. What a blessing for me to see her exhilaration!

With the surprise almost fully complete, we drove back to the restaurant for our private dinner. After enjoying the meal and a few more pictures, our wonderful photographer Sarah headed home, and I set the stage for one last surprise.

I convinced Jessi that our ride had come to pick us up, so we scurried out the door after thanking Stephanie, the Operations Manager, for playing a pivotal role in our fun evening. We passed in front of the gelato store next door and Jessi’s eye caught a few friends inside. By now she was prepared for all my charades, so she knew right away that I had asked a group of our friends to come and celebrate with us.

While the ladies encircled Jessi to relive the evening, I summarized it for the guys. With the last hoorah out of the way, exhaustion set in. I felt like I had just completed a 4-hour workout, but what a joy to experience it all!

Thanks for the dozens of comments on Facebook and Twitter and for joining in our happiness!

Return to Phase 4 (The Proposal), Phase 3 (The Day), Phase 2 (The Win), or Phase 1 (The Registration).