Maintenance or Mission?

This was posted on William Willimon's blog some time back. It was on my mind today.....

MAINTENANCE OR MISSION?

1. In measuring the effectiveness, the maintenance congregation asks, “How many pastoral visits are being made? The mission congregation asks, “How many disciples are being made?”

2. When contemplating some form of change, the maintenance congregation says, “If this proves upsetting to any of our members, we won’t do it.” The mission congregation says, “If this will help us reach someone on the outside, we will take the risk and do it.”

3. When thinking about change, the majority of members in a maintenance congregation ask, “How will this affect me?” The majority of members in the mission congregation ask, “Will this increase our ability to reach those outside?”

4. When thinking of its vision for ministry, the maintenance congregation says, “We have to be faithful to our past.” The mission congregation says, “We have to be faithful to our future.”

5. The pastor in the maintenance congregation says to the newcomer, “I’d like to introduce you to some of our members.” In the mission congregation the members say, “We’d like to introduce you to our pastor.”

6. When confronted with a legitimate pastoral concern, the pastor in the maintenance congregation asks, “How can I meet this need?” The pastor in the mission congregation asks, “How can this need be met?”

7. The maintenance congregation seeks to avoid conflict at any cost (but rarely succeeds). The mission congregation understands that conflict is the price of progress, and is willing to pay the price. It understands that it cannot take everyone with it. This causes some grief, but it does not keep it from doing what needs to be done.

8. The leadership style in the maintenance congregation is primarily managerial, where leaders try to keep everything in order and running smoothly. The leadership style in a mission congregation is primarily transformational, casting a vision of what can be, and marching off the map in order to bring the vision into reality.

9. The maintenance congregation is concerned with their congregation, its organizations and structure, its constitutions and committees. The mission congregation is concerned with the culture, with understanding how secular people think and what makes them tick. It tries to determine their needs and their points of accessibility to the Gospel.

10. When thinking about growth, the maintenance congregations asks, “How many Lutherans live within a twenty-minute drive of this church?” The mission congregation asks, “How many unchurched people live within a twenty-minute drive of this church?”

11. The maintenance congregation looks at the community and asks, “How can we get these people to support our congregation?” The mission congregation asks, “How can the Church support these people?”

12. The maintenance congregation thinks about how to save their congregation. The mission congregation thinks about how to reach the world.

Decisions?

Have you ever had something that is on your heart and mind that you know is a faith step experience? One that changes everything you are doing? One that will change your life every day if you decide to go a certain direction.

During our lives we have those types of life-changing decisions that come our way. Many say no. A few say with God's guidance, I'm going with you down that path wherever you want to take me.

Tolerating Pain in Leadership

One of my favorite articles that I pass on to individuals often....................................

Tolerating Pain in Leadership
John Maxwell

There are many keys to being an effective leader.

In order to be an effective leader you have to be able to tolerate pain. Your own pain as well as the pain of others. Sometimes others will inflict pain upon you. You must absorb and carry it forward in order to lead. Sometimes you will be called upon to inflict pain on others for their own good or for the good of the organization you lead. If you don’t think leaders inflict pain, then go make a decision and see if anyone yelps. Sometimes you will inflict pain upon yourself when you inflict pain on others because you care so much about those whom you are leading.

Without a doubt, one of the hardest things to do as a leader is to watch people we love squirm with emotional pain because of a position we’ve taken. Most of us end up caving sooner or later and we sheepishly reverse our position or change our direction in order to dull the pain and keep the peace.

Research indicates that the reason most churches are struggling to move forward in any kind of discernible way is because their leadership is spending all their time and energy trying to avoid pain. They think the absence of pain is a sign of good leadership. Making sure no one gets hurt may be a win for a bank robber (Put your hands in the air and do what you’re told and no one gets hurt), but it’s a terrible way of judging how well we’re doing as leaders.

All pain avoidance does is delay the inevitable, which is . . .pain.

Leaders who try to avoid pain will someday be confronted with the worst pain of all, the awareness that the end result of their perpetual pain avoidance is the collapse of the organization they were supposed to be leading.

Are you called to lead? If so, and if you’re not ready to experience and tolerate some pain, then please say no to the call. Whatever organization you’re being called to lead will be better off without you in leadership. If you’re ready to deal with some pain, then step up and buckle in, because it’s gonna hurt.

Attitude

Three people were at work on a construction site.
All were doing the same job, but when asked what his job was, the answer varied.
“Breaking rocks,” the first replied.
“Earning my living,” the second said.
“Helping to build a cathedral,” said the third.

Jesus

Most of us are familiar with Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism. In his gospel, God makes a public announcement: “This is my son, whom I love. I am well pleased with him.”

But in Mark and Luke, these words come not so much as a public proclamation but as an affirmation and blessing from Father to Son: “You are my son. I love you. I am so pleased with you.”

I love N. T. Wright’s insights about this blessing:
“The whole Christian gospel could be summed up in this point: that when the living God looks at us, at every baptized and believing Christian, he says to us what he said to Jesus on that day. He sees us, not as we are in ourselves, but as we are in Jesus Christ. It sometimes seems impossible, especially to people who have never had this kind of support from their earthly parents, but it’s true: God looks at us, and says, ‘You are my dear, dear child; I’m delighted with you.’ Try reading that sentence slowly, with your own name at the start, and reflect quietly on God saying that to you, both at your baptism and every day since.”

Mike Cope

Ready to Quit?

The mother of Titans, quarterback Vince Young, said he indicated he doesn’t want to play football and is “hurting inside and out.”

Felicia Young said in last Wednesday editions of The Tennessean that her son is tired of all the negativity he’s faced after being booed during a 17-10 win over Jacksonville. On Monday, Titans coach Jeff Fisher called police to help find him.

“What would you think if you were tired of being ridiculed and persecuted and talked about and not being treated very well, what would you do? What kind of decision would you make?” Felicia Young said “He may not want to deal with it (all), but you have to get to that point before you make that decision first.

Our society is tough not only on athletes but people in general.

It doesn’t matter if you are a NFL Quarterback or a trash man just doing the very best job you can, you will be ridiculed and talked about.

As a superintendent, I must have very thick skin. The decisions I make always makes someone happy and someone upset. I often think that you can live some place too long. Ever think about where you can shop? What store I am welcomed in? What group I can talk to at a game or activity? I sometimes have to think about that. Many times I think, “who haven’t I upset in this town?”

But then I think about what Christ went through during his brief ministry here on earth. I haven’t been beaten (physically), haven’t been spat upon (yet), I haven’t been crucified on a tree in humiliation and shame. My shoulders can get a little bigger when I think about what my Savior went through for me…………..

Sunflowers

Sunflowers. One of my favorite fall landscapes.

There are many fields of sunflowers in Osage County, Kansas, this September. At one of the fields, we actually stopped the car on the highway last Sunday so Debbie could get a picture of the flowers reaching towards the sky and sun.

This past week, after the rain, I noticed that the field was full of droopy sunflowers. Only a handful had their flowers pointing up towards the sky.

I think about the Christian life when I see those drooping flowers. How easy it is to be a negative individual in this dark hateful world we live in. But the few who keep their heads up and look heavenward are the ones everyone notices and wants to know what is so special about their life? Why are they always positive and have a great outlook on life?

In Matthew 5, Jesus encourages us to let our lights so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

We do that by keeping our heads lifted toward the Son and being positive examples to those who are tired of life’s struggles.

So, when you drive by the sunflower patch, look at those who keep their heads up even when it becomes cloudy and dark.

Doing Church

For those of you who are not satisfied with “doing church”, not satisfied with coming to church for an hour or two a week to check off a box, and not satisfied with a mission that has a ratio of 9/1 inward focused/outward focused ministries and budgets…realize that you are not alone. There is a whole generation coming up that doesn’t care how nice the building is or how small the budget is. They are more concerned with being the church and taking the mission into world because that is what God has asked us to do and who he wants us to be.

Young people today could seriously care less if they meet in an auditorium that seats 5000 or in a living room with 10 other people as long as it is done intentionally and out of a heart for spiritual transformation. Young people today will not be satisfied with budgets that are focused on keeping on the ac in the building while millions around the world go without food. If this strikes a chord in your heart, realize that you are not alone and that there is a wave of change that is coming that will be refreshing and terrifying all at the same time. I am sure it will make its way into different congregations and communities at different rates and times but it is going to happen and is already happening.

So check your comfort zone at the door and be ready to have your traditions challenged while maintaining a sensitivity and accountability to sola scriptura. It should be an interesting ride. Good thing we don’t have to do it alone. Thank you for being here. Thank you for contributing. Continue to ask questions. Continue to be a voice for the kingdom. Be ready to wait and see how God responds.

Matt Dabbs

Yellow Leaves

This is an excerpt from Frederick Buechner’s book Yellow Leaves. It makes you think about what takes place on Sunday's at 11:00 a.m...................

…Fresh from breakfast with his wife and children and a quick run through of the Sunday papers, the preacher climbs the steps to the pulpit with his sermon in his hand. He hikes his black robe up at the knee so that he will not trip over it on the way up. His mouth is a little dry. He has cut himself shaving. He feels as if he has swallowed an anchor. If it weren’t for he honor of the thing, he would just as soon be somewhere else.

In the front pews the old ladies turn up their hearing aids, and a young lady slips her six-year old a Lifesaver and a Magic Marker. A college sophomore home for vacation, who is there because he was dragged there, slumps forward with his chin in his hand. The vice-president of a bank who twice that week has seriously contemplated suicide places his hymnal in the rack. A pregnant girl feels the life stir inside her. A high-school math teacher, who for twenty years has managed to keep his homosexuality a secret for the most part even from himself, creases his order of service down the center with his thumbnail and tucks it under his knee…

…The preacher pulls the little cord that turns on the lectern light and deals out his note cards like a riverboat gambler. The stakes have never been higher. Two minutes from now he may have lost his listeners completely to their own thoughts, but at this minute he has them in the palm of his hand. The silence in the shabby church is deafening because everybody is listening even himself. Everybody knows the kind of things he has told them before and not told them, but who knows what this time, out of the silence, he will tell them? (Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy & Fairy Tale, pp. 22-23)

God Reveals New Things Each Day

The carolers managed their way along the sidewalks of Princeton, New Jersey on a snowy Christmas Eve. They came upon an old man’s place and began to sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem”. The old man was a musician who, being Jewish, didn’t necessarily celebrate the way the carolers assumed. Yet after coming to the door, he turned to retrieve his violin to offer perfect accompaniment. This man worshipped Mozart and felt such an artist was more than a musician; he was an explorer to be idolized. The gentle soul’s violin marvelously blended with the young singers the rest of the way through the song…and then he turned and vanished behind the closed door. The old man had such a zest for the unknown. He felt Mozart was the epitome of world leadership and vision. If only society could discover as Mozart had, all would be better off…..thought the sweet man. This amateur violinist was a master of many things…..many things. He once was sought to be President of Israel, yet he declined as he continued to now live in the Americas. His passion for improvement never faded. His drive for looking the present square in the eye and adjusting it to become even more productive had driven this ageless wonder to pick up the violin and learn to play it masterfully. He had to conquer so many things, but this stringed instrument was paramount. The old man? Never did he become the President of Israel; yet, he is known as a world leader in his own right. His name is Albert Einstein.

I encourage you to note the world leaders who explore for more information and affirmation than has yet to be discovered. God is not nearly done revealing new criteria and invention anymore than the sun hanging in space is about to burn out. There is more to come! Love life!

Terry Rush

Good to Great

I've been thinking all day of one of my favorite quotes. It's from Jim Collins in Good to Great. The opening lines of the book remind me that what is true of business is sometimes true of churches:

“Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don't have great school 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 become quite good--and that is their main problem."

What's missing?

Appreciate Gary Souder sending this to us last week......

So removed is our understanding of the gospel as a relational invitation that recently, while teaching another class of Bible college students, I presented a form of the gospel but left out a key element, to see if they would notice. I told them in advance that I was going to leave out a critical element of the gospel, and I asked them to listen carefully to figure out the missing piece.

I told them man was sinful, and this was obvious when we looked at the culture we lived in. I pointed out specific examples of depravity including homosexuality, abortion, drug use, song lyrics on the radio, newspaper headlines, and so on. Then I told the class that man must repent, and showed them scriptures that spoke firmly of this idea. I used the true-life example I heard from a preacher about a man in Missouri who, warning people of a bridge that had collapsed, shot a flare gun directly at oncoming cars so they would stop before they drove over the bridge to their deaths. I said I was like that man, shooting flares at cars, and they could be mad at me an frustrated, but I was saving their lives, because the wages of sin is death, and they had to repent in order to see heaven. I then pointed to scripture about the wages of sin being death, and talked at length about how sin separates us from God.

Then I spoke of the beauty of morality, and told a story of a friend who chose not to cheat on his wife and so now enjoys the fruits of his marriage, committed in love to his wife, grateful that he never betrayed the purity and beauty of their relationship. I talked about heaven and how great it will be to walk on streets of gold and how there will probably be millions of miles of mountains and rivers and how great it will be to fish those rivers and sit with our friends around a fire beneath a mountain peak that reaches up into stars so thick we could barely imagine the beauty of the expanse. I gave the class statistics regarding teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, going into detail about what it is they would be saved from if they would only repent, and how their lives could be God-honoring and God-centered and this would give them a sense of purity and feeling of fulfillment on earth, and that God would provide for them in relationships and in finances and in comfort.

When I was done, I rested my case and asked the class if they could tell me what it was I had left out of this gospel presentation. I waited as a class of Bible college students - who that year had read several textbooks about Christian theology, who had read the majority of the Bible, all of whom had taken an evangelism class only weeks before in which they went door-to-door to hundreds of homes and shared their faith using pamphlets that explained the gospel, who had grown up in Christian homes attending strong evangelical churches, who had taken both New Testament Introduction and Old Testament Introduction - sat there for several minutes in uncomfortable silence.

None of the forty-five students in the class realized I had presented a gospel without once mentioning the name of Jesus. Nobody noticed, even when I said I was going to neglect something very important, even when I asked them to think very hard about what it was I had left out, even when I stood there for several minutes in silence.

To a culture that believes that they "go to heaven" based on whether or not they are morally pure, or that they understand some theological ideas, or that they are very spiritual, Jesus is completely unnecessary. At best, He is an after thought, a technicality by which we become morally pure, or a subject of which we know, or a founding father of our woo-woo spirituality.
I assure you, these students loved Jesus very much, and they were terrific kids whom I loved being with, it's just that when they thought of the gospel, they thought of the message in terms of a series of thoughts or principles, not mysterious relational dynamics. The least important of the ideas, to this class, was knowing Jesus; the least important of the ideas was the one that is relational. The gospel of Jesus, then, mistakenly assumed by this class, is something different from Jesus Himself.

(ie the gospel of Jesus from Mark; 1 Cor 15:1-4)

Order of Worship

Welcome:

Scripture: Mark 1:1-8

162 All Hail the Power of Jesus Name
167 Hosanna
221 Jesus, Name Above All Names

Scripture: Mark 1:9-11

176 O Lamb of God

Lords Supper

Contribution

Special Prayer-Jerry

2 x 2 Dismissed

186 Christ, We Do All Adore Thee

Message Evan Burdan

Invitation 286 Wonderful Story of Love

Announcements

Jesus You’re my Firm Foundation

Closing Prayer

Election 2008

Anyone else sick of the politics of this election? Wish we had a viable candidate.

Labor Day Weekend

We enjoyed a great weekend having Brian and Allison in Osage City. Allison is finishing up her senior year at Oklahoma Christian doing her student teaching. Brian works for the Anderson County Sheriffs Department as a Deputy Sheriff. Their wedding is scheduled for February 28 in Burleson, Texas.

UGG Australia

Craig is getting his fashion experience working at UGG Australia in New York City. He applied on-line before he left and had a interview the day after he arrived last week. He started school and his new job last week. He is enjoying both.

I had to find out what UGG Australia was.......the good thing about where he works, they have size 15 shoes!

Labor Day 2008

Here in the United States, today is the Labor Day, a holiday created in recognition of the organized labor movement.

"Whatever their faults, unions have been the only powerful and effective voice working people have ever had in the history of this country."—Bruce Springsteen

"Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts."—Molly Ivins

"If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves."—Lane Kirkland

"Every advance in this half-century—Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education, one after another—came with the support and leadership of American Labor."—Jimmy Carter

"The labor movement is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth."—Wendell Phillips