Why I go to church: Something every church planter should know!

A church planter should answer this question of themselves, why they go to church, the reason as a Christian. The answer as to why will determine what they invasion the church they plant is to be like for the members, what they will experience at the church gathering.

Why I go to church, I gather with other follower of Christ in order to: Read here>>>

Church getting it right as to money! Element Church

The second church that has it right that, that is following the lead of Pastor Francis Chan is a church gathering called Element in Nashville, TN. Their pastor Jared Wilson after hearing the story of Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California, see yesterdays blog. Pastor Wilson said “it grabbed my heart and wouldn’t let go. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and dreaming it. I was thinking about the ministry buzzword “missional,” and I began to think that, while Element has already been operating and teaching as such that “missional” is not just empty sloganeering for us, it could and should mean more.”

So he went to his board and got them to voted to do the same, so "Element will designate minimum 50% of its budget to missions, and 10% to church planting or to other gospel-driven ministries. This means that for every dollar we receive, 60 cents will go back out the door. Our operating budget will be 40% of our offerings."

Pastor Jared Wilson stated that "We will give to both foreign and local missions, but more will go to local missions, because our idea is not just to write a check (or checks) and wipe our hands of it, but to be giving regularly to local mission agencies that we can actually visit, partner with, and do on-site service projects with.

Here’s what gets me: Jesus said to his followers that whatever they do to the “least of these,” they are doing to him. This means it’s not some nameless, faceless people out there who are shivering and starving and dying. It means it’s Jesus who is shivering and starving and dying. And while it shouldn’t matter if someone is nameless or faceless, while not seeing someone shouldn’t dissuade us from action, we are seeing this as a great way to bless Jesus, to worship Jesus."

Amen, see how one revolutionary can start a fire, as everyone knows California is being ravaged buy wild fires right now. And it is there that God has started a wild fire in one man, one church that has now leaped, like wild fires are know to do, clear across to Nashville. May this spread like the California wild fires through the church all across America, and go up to90% going to God, by giving it to the hurting, poor, starving, dying and missions and only 10% or less to building and salaries, Jesus said when you give to one of them you are giving to Him. Amen!

The United Nations estimates that the cost to end world hunger completely, along with diseases related to hunger and poverty, is about $195 billion a year. And that if the Church in America gave just 50% of its income to fight poverty it would bring an end to poverty, no one would go hungry.

The number one criticism of God is why does He allow poverty, starving children, that a lot of people refuse to accept God on that issue alone, they blame God for it, for not doing something. When the truth is God did do something, He commissioned, commanded His people, His church to do something about it, gave His people, the church the resources to do something, but they have chosen not to, to disobey Him. To spend the money on fancy building, programs and salaried staff.

How much the church would be a living, tangible expression of the love, compassion and mercy of God if they did what He said to do, and that is exactly what it is to be? No one could accuse God of being unloving or uncaring. The church would be the light to the world it is called to be, be the interment of Restoration, Renewal, Reconciliation and Redemption to our world that it is to be, reflect who God is to the world.

May a thousand churches follow Cornerstone and Element this year and more the next tell every church does as they are.

Church getting it right as to money! Francis Chan does

I blogged back in December about churches not giving the money they take from their members to God, giving only on average less than 3% to God,that they instead spend 97% of it on buildings, salaries and other worldly things. They do not use it for what God said, how we are to give to Him, by giving to the needy, poor, orphans, widows and starving, and as we read in the book of Acts, that no one in the church was in need because they took care of each other.

I just read about two churches that have it right, are doing it the way God said to. One of them is Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California.

Around nine months ago Cornerstone Community Church when the church was set to spend $20 million on a new facility the pastor Francis Chan said, “No” He said he could not in good conscience be the pastor of a church that spent $20 million on a building. Instead He suggested that they build a much, much cheaper facility, an outdoor amphitheater and community park. And the multi-millions left over? He said they should give it away. His board agreed. Apparently several hundred people left the church, because they where so outraged by this decision. Which I think goes to show that a lot of people give only to reap the benefits to themselves, amenities they can enjoy, you know a Starbuck in the lobby and cushy pews with cup holders and elaborate sound systems, the biggest building in the city. But Chan and his fellow ministers committed to giving away millions and millions of dollars. Chan said that one great benefit of the outdoor space is that whenever it was too hot/cold/rainy/windy, it would remind those gathered that there were many people around the world who never have a roof over their head.

So Cornerstone Church amended their budget to now give 50% to missions. Half of everything they receive goes right back out the door to the hurting, poor, starving, and dying. They even made an additional pledge to give $1 million to the Children's Hunger Fund over the next year and they made that mark in April, in less than a year. And have committed to give as much every year.

Amen and praise God, a church that has it right, that has read the bible and is doing what Jesus said to, how God said to give to Him.
I applaud pastor Chan and his staff and the people of that gathering of the church, and there is so much more to this church, more to talk about later. Take note pastors, take note body of Christ, behold a real church that is doing it right. Tomorrow on the other church that has followed Chan lead after hearing his story. Read part two.

Who is and what is a real Christian? Part 2

Matthew 28:18-20 (known as the Great Commission) is by far the most quoted passage on mission. But it is not the only one, aside from the entirety of scriptures saying that God’s people are a sent people, a people who are to live their whole life on mission, it is their main purpose for living. We have three other passages where Jesus gives the command for us to go, be missionaries, live on mission. Or another way to say it, what Jesus expects from His followers, what He wants His followers to do, to carry on His mission.

1. Commission: “I am sending you.” “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21).
2. Strategy: Make disciples. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
3. Content: the Gospel. “Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:44-49).
4. Geography: your city, national and international. “… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

We read in John 20:21 that Jesus explains that He is sending us as like the Father sent Him. Therefore all true followers of Jesus are sent just as He was sent, we believers are sent out, are to live on mission just as Jesus did, and the first disciples did, as Paul said imitate me just as I inmate Jesus.

Second, Jesus explains the design behind being sent out into the world, which is to make disciples of all nations. How? By conversion and entry into the community of God, baptism, and by teaching followers of Jesus to obey all that He commands.

Third, Jesus explains the content of the message is the Gospel and He is the Gospel, and He wants to go out into, be taken into the ends of the earth, the entire earth. And the Gospel,is based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is centered on the person and work of Jesus (biblical Jesus), and it achieved the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to the Father for those who repent and believe in Jesus (biblical Jesus.

So a Christian is someone who is sent, living sent, living on mission, missional, any which way you wish to call it. A Christian is one who is taking the gospel to the world, and that world begins in but not limited to their neighborhood, their city, and goes to the ends of the earth, as long as they are spreading the gospel where ever they are. Baptizing in the name of the trinity and making disciples (and doing so as Jesus showed us to, a daily commitment to their lives, teaching them by example.)

God told Abraham to Go, Mosses to Go, and on and on all through the bible, He is a sending God, and we have Jesus sending everyone, commanding everyone to GO.

I can see no way of describing, defining who and what a Christian is without saying they are someone who is sent and they are living sent, someone taking the gospel to the world,and making disciples. Jesus says that is who a christian is. It has always been the calling of Gods people to live sent, to go to the world.

Bad Church Equals bad Fruit

Thursday in my morning reading of the scriptures I read in Mat 8:17 “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” I witnessed this very clearly on the 4 of July while attending a BBQ get together at a friend of a friends place. They all belong to the same church, about 30 to 35 people, which was the connection for all of them, except for me.

During the course of the night I never heard one person mention Jesus, God or anything about their daily relationship with Jesus nor the word of God. Nothing about what God is doing in their life, nothing about living for God, serving God in any capacity, not one conversation involving the word of God, or Him, nothing in 4+ hours of conversation. I heard nothing that reviled any person who was in love with Jesus, someone who's whole life was centered in Christ, who was in a love relationship, intimately involved with God.

In my past years as part of churches such as Calvary Chapel, The Vineyard, The ROCK, and FCF every encounter with other members, ether at a church gathering or outside of the gathering included at the core of every conversation was God, Jesus and the word. No one could hold a conversation at any length with out talking about Gods involvement in their daily life, what God was doing in them, with them and through them, what they where or where wanting to do for God. They could not hold a conversation with talking about the one they loved, their intimate love relationship with Jesus, without praising Him, loving on Him, talk about their prayer life, their intimate times with Jesus and His love for them.With out talking about the Word of God, what they read that day, what the Spirit taught them trough it, discussing it in detail, how they where applying it to their lives and or life situation.

No one could tell you their life story with out it being filled with God, how and where they have served, how God has worked in every circumstance in their life, directed their life, and interceded in their life. And they could not talk about their future plans with talking about where God is leading them, their passion to serve and accomplish things for God, a calling to be fulfilled, and a passion for the things of God.

This really brought this scripture to life for me on the 4^th, "a bad tree cannot bear good fruit", I really saw as that scripture says that a bad tree (church in this case) cannot produce good fruit. If the church leadership is not passionate about God, nether will its body. If it is not Christ centered in all its teaching, nether will its people be. If it is not passionate about the word of God, does not teach word for word, encourage by example love for the word of God, nether will its people be. If the leadership is not in love with Jesus, in a intimate, personal, passionate relationship with the Real Biblical Jesus, than it will not saturate their teaching, an nether will the people be in love with the Real Biblical Jesus, in a intimate, personal, passionate relationship with Jesus, and it will not saturate their lives and conversations. If the pastor’s sermon is not filled with the word of God and passion for Jesus, gospel centered, then the people will not be. If the church is spiritual dead, so will the people. A bad tree / church leadership can not produce good fruit.

Church, asking the right questions.

It all stated with my discontent with church in America, my heart longed from something more, I found my self in total discontent with church, my spirit cried out for something more. It was as if it knew that what I have experienced was not the way it was to be, so I studied every verse about the church to get a picture in my mind of what the first church was like, and I wrote out a paper, a blueprint of what the Church looked like described in the N.T, the church started by Jesus with His first disciples. I quickly discovered that the church blueprint I had written out from the scriptures did not match the church I see in America. The one stated by Jesus, modeled in the N.T. is not found in the traditional American church. But what I did find in the scriptures matched my hearts longing; it was what I ached for inside my soul. In the course of my studying and seek the Lord about His church, the process of my seeking out what is the church, the Lord gave me a greater vision of Himself and His church than what I have seen in the church in America. I feel that what I have discovered is that the Lord is calling true believers out of the consumer church, out of the religious church and into the Christ-centered community of Kingdom life He started with His disciples two thousand plus years ago.

In my dialog with others who are on the same page, fellow church planters, those whom their souls also cry out for the church Jesus started, the one we see in the bible, feel the same call of the Lord to His people and His church; I have found my discontentment in the hearts of so many others.

I agree with one of my fellow pilgrims in the quest of the church we see in scripture that we are asking the wrong questions about the broken and flawed imitation of the church we see, it is not the one that Jesus built, the one the disciples continued building and spread across the known world in the first century. We must begin asking the right questions. We must seek to allow the Lord to exchange our old paradigms for new ones, we must not as the scriptures say pouring New wine into old wine skins. This sort of revolution will only come by us honestly asking the Lord to give us the right questions to ask to reveal to us the true knowledge of Himself and His bride, the church, and to be willing, open to, submissive to, to receive, accept and put into practice what He would revel to us, without discrimination to our personal wants and personal vision as to what it is to be and who He is.

How is it possible for us revolutionaries to conquer the old paradigms? Scripture is the key because Christ is the key within them that unlocks the church. The written word of God reveals the living Word of God, Jesus; it unveils the mysteries of God, and the mystery of the Church. Unfortunately too often believers stop short of their purpose for the church, they are too nearsighted, me-sighted in only seeing their ticket to haven as the sole purpose of salvation and church as nothing more than a dispenser of religious consumer goods for their own pleasure and entertainment. And to often even the revolutionaries stop short too, they are in such a hurry to get out of the old in into the new, that they ask the wrong questions thereby getting the wrong answers, resulting to leaving out Jesus also. They pursue other passions, things other than Jesus and His real church as well. The answer is not found in a method, movement, or post-modern emerging, emergent postmodern philosophies or a set of new programs to join. The problem is not the scriptures, Jesus or Church itself. But the turning away from the scriptures, the real Jesus and what they say and want Church to be. The answer is not found in purpose-driven products, you’re Best Life theology or some other religious gimmick. It is found in Christ; He is the answer to our problems in the church today, it is in the scriptures that we find the blueprint for the church not in culture or the latest guru of the post-modern believers and their philosophies. We do not need to reinvent Jesus, we need to seek out and embrace the real Jesus and reinstate Him as Head of the Church. We do we need to reinvent the church but rather to reinstate the original Church, that is follow the model of the church set before us in scripture. And ask the right questions of Jesus as to how do we get out of Your way, and follow what we see in the first century church. So, in order to see a biblical image of Church we must ask questions which are biblically sound instead of denominationally, culturally, me-centered or emerging that are missed colored with bias and misconception and bad theology.

Blueprint of the God life and church

I have come to understand the God life and church much differently than the traditional belief of the American Church. What I read in the scriptures and see in the life of Jesus is something much different. So I have come up with a new blue print for the God life I desire to live, of what the church is and how it functions. This is still a work in progress, I am still trying to come to grips with and understand the God life, Christian life and church. Above is a diagram of a flow chart of a missional God life that is to be the foundation, blue print of my life in Christ. Each layer, phase of the missional flow of the God life links to a web site that I have made explaining, laying out that part of the life, church and what I see God saying it is to be, that Christ lived and modeled for us to reproduce.

Individual expression of Jesus

www.thechristiannextdoor.com

Individual expression of the Church

www.churchnextdoor.us

Collective Expression of the Church and Kingdom life

www.thecrowdedhouse.us

Synergetic[1] expression of the Church and body of Christ

www.fourteentwentysixgathering.thecrowdedhouse.us

I believe our life should be the touch point for others to see and experience the person and life of Jesus, they should know that He was and is because they see Him and the life the bible said He lived manifested in our life, world view, thinking and actions.

That our home should be the touch point for the Kingdom of Heaven, God life for them, you, your wife and children should be first where they see the kingdom life manifested, lived out. And should be where they see the church lived out (where two or more are their I am), their touch point for the person of Christ. Be where they see and touch the Kingdom community life lived out just as Christ lived it out with His disciples. You at work or school or while shopping at Target should be where they encounter the church and Jesus as well, all of these instances should be where they see the life of Jesus on lived out. Our homes should be more known and identified as the church in the neighborhood than the cold stone buildings that have a sign out front call it a church. Our lives and homes should be know as the place to go to experience church, be part of church, not some glamorizes entertainment center that calls it self the church.

Mouseover the image to and click on to see full flow chart, copy and paste in your browser the links from center of page to visit websites.

---

[1] Synergetic \Syn`er*get"ic\, adjective. [from Greek expression, from to work together; sy`n with 'e`rgon work.]. Definition: Acting together; enhancing the effect of another force or agent.

The 80/20 church must go away

All churches in America are made up of what pastors call the 80/20, that is20% of the people doing all the work, the truth is what we have is 20% working to provide a Christian country club to the 80% of the attendees. And those 80% do nothing but consume the religious goods and services provide by the 20%. And so that 20% cannot exist for Missio Dei, but for only the comfort and selfish needs of the 80% so that they might have their comfortable religious experience and fulfill what they believe is their obligation to God, so that they can get their ticket to heaven.

Statistically less than 3% of the people and recourses are actual being used for Missio Dei, less than a 10^th of a percent serve as missionaries (and the rest believe that it is only that 10^th of a percent that is responsible for the Missio Dei) and less than 3% of church income is used to fund missions and feed the poor and need, provide for the widow and orphans of the world, they very things we are to be doing something about and using our recourses for. The church would be better off the just remove the 80% who are nothing more than dead weight prohibiting the other 20% from being the real church. What we need it for the church be 100% people who are living as the church in their every day lives, on missio Dei, and being the church for the sake of the world, using recourses to take care of the poor, widow and orphan as God said to. And to live sent into the world, each one going out on mission, living out and taking the gospel to the world, making disciples of them. Their would no longer be the need for multi million dollar entertainment centers, no need or buildings at all really, no need for programs or paid staff. Just the real church we see in scriptures, especially in Act’s, remove the element of church being a building, and institute, and entertainment center that must cater to the 80% that are nothing but consume the religious goods and services provide by the 20%, and you change the pyridine of how church is church.

You can read more about my personal life as a Christian and being the church at www.thechristiannextdoor.com and www.churchnextdoor.us