Poll Dancing Evangelism

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Feb 21, 2007 in Church, Culture | 9 comments

Lately, we've been gripped with the idea of what a city would look like as it's changed by the Gospel.  Oddly, in several situations in prayer and conversation the love for strippers has come up.  How would a church reach women and men in strip clubs?  One woman (wisely, only women are allowed to go in the ministry) from our church plans to attend a local ministry that reaches out to strip clubs.  Women pay the entry to strip clubs and buy lap dances from stippers.  It is during the lap dance they use the time to witness to the strippers.  

Last Sunday David mentioned one city changed by the gospel and how it impacted prostitution: 

There was an old preacher in Wales in 1735 which none of us have probably heard of because his messages were in Welsch.  His name was Daniel Rowlands.  He was an Episcopal minister who was spiritually dead.  No one liked his messages; his church was dying.  He thought Christianity meant being a moral person. 
He went to hear a man preach who was visiting, who said, “The determining factor in your relationship with God is not what you have done, but what Christ has done for you.  It is grace alone, through faith alone because of Christ alone.”  Daniel went back and thought about this for a month, until one night he was taking communion and this truth exploded in his heart.  He realized what Christ had done for him and it became a power to him. 

The first thing that happened to him was a revolution in his identity.  This is always what happens first in someone’s life as the Gospel becomes objectively and subjectively true.  You see yourself and a child of God first and everything else second. 

Secondly, the things that once controlled his life and scared him, like failure, simply lost its hold on him.  He no longer was ashamed of the Gospel. 

This truth exploded in his church and it began to experience revival.  This revival flooded out of the church into the streets of Wales to the degree that the prostitutes began to attend prayer meetings and morning services. 

People were inquiring as to why this was happening so they went and asked one particular prostitute why she was going to these meetings.  She said that there were a couple of factors.  One was that the business had but left.  People were no longer visiting the streets and looking for prostitutes.  But the most important factor she said was that for the first time people on the streets began to treat her with dignity and respect.  She couldn’t deny something was going on and had to come see.

This woman had previously been vilified by the religious people who spat upon her and scorned her and she was used by the irreligious who objectified her and treated her like peace of meat.  Not any more. 

Now if the Gospel had not come in power to these people, what would have happened if it were just religion?  Well, she may have no longer found clients, but she would have been more severely vilified and made to feel less human by the religious who spat upon her and scorned her.  Instead, these people were converted by God’s grace who understood the Gospel and treated her like she’d never been treated before. 

This is the power we need, this was the essence of the Christian faith, and this will cause a revolution. 

View/listen to the whole sermon:  Early Transformissionaries

Church Planting and Survivability

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Feb 20, 2007 in Church, Church Planting | 5 comments

Ed Stetzer has been working an a number of church planting statistics that we've all been waiting for…well wait no more: 

Statistics are a dangerous thing. Some use them well; some use them badly; but most evangelical leaders use them—and church planting is no exception.

One of the statistics that is frequently cited but never sourced is the survivability and health of church plants. I've heard quite an array of statistics—but one of my favorites is that often repeated "80 percent of new churches fail in the first year."

Well, not so fast.

Full report by Ed Stetzer:  Church Planting and Survivability

‘Secular’ Work as a Calling and Design by God

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Feb 19, 2007 in Church, Church Technology, Culture | 2 comments

People spend roughly sixty percent of their life in work or work-related tasks.  Yet, according to a poll conducted by Career Impact Ministries, ninety percent of Christians had not heard a sermon, read a book, listened to a tape or been to a seminar that applied biblical principles to everyday work issues.  Sadly, if you view sixty percent of your life as 'not counting' or not valuable to God (other than 'witnessing' or 'supporting ministries') we're talking series life/faith implications to a large part of your congregation.  People will either seek to reject Christianity because they will find their meaning from work or feel guilty they aren't in ministry.  

Sadly, most of us don't recognize God created us in His image as co-workers.  This means, God is a worker and we were created to do work (not labor post-Fall but the beautiful creativity of reflecting God's glory in His intended creation.) We are "co-workers in his creating, sustaining, redeeming and consummating work in both the church and the world." (The Other Six Days R. Paul Stevens)  Stevens goes on to say, we must be one people loving and serving in both the church and the world.  

Increasingly, churches need to understand the significance of people's work, in both the amount of time their congregation spends there, but in the redemptive process of God's great concern for humanity.  When we work with a Christian distinctive we see the world 'fabric' as unraveling because of sin. Our work of cultivation is to seek the knitting together of the 'fabric' to bring about shalom. Our call to the workplace is to serve the ordinary needs of others. We are here to meet our needs and the needs of others, knowing this redeeming process will not be completed until Jesus comes.  Your congregation needs to see that working in technical support or as a receptionist has value in itself.   We are fighting against the loss of shalom, miscommunication and chaos caused by the fall to provide and serve the needs of others.  People's work is God's work.  Only when your people have this type of theology, will they be set free to view their work in a Biblical perspective and see a holistic Gospel Redemptive plan that uses salvation but ends with the restoring of all things to God.

Some suggested resources: 

Your Work Matters to God

The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective

Anointed for Business

Developing Leaders to lead

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Feb 18, 2007 in Church, Leadership, Ministry Design, Triperspectivalism | 4 comments

How do you develop leaders at your church?  This is a common challenge for churches, who must utilize the volunteer pool to lead important ministries in their church.  Harbor Presbyterian, Kaleo Church and a group of other church planters meet monthly to discuss these types of challenges.  This is a document Dick Kaufmann put together that we will unpack further in the months to come.  The first 6-steps occur prior to identifying the leader and must be in place prior to the second 6.  (Based on a triperspectival model for those keeping track)

1.    Understand who develops leaders In developing leaders in the church, the most important question isn’t “how?” but “who?”  Who develops leaders?  The Bible makes it clear: Christ develops leaders in the church (Mt.16:18; Acts 1:1, 20:28; Ep.4:11).  Christ does it by exercising his leadership, in our midst, as:  prophet, priest and king.  

A.  Prophet – Authority >  Vision >  “This is where God is leading us!”

B.  King – Control >  Plan >  “This is how we can get there!”

C.    Priest – Presence >  People > “You can be a part of this.  I’ll help you!”

2.    Clarify the values we want to instill in leaders
A.  Gospel-Centered – Committed to viewing all of life through Gospel

B.  Missional – Committed to living in mission to engage culture

C.  Grace-Renewal – Committed to on-going grace renewal

3.    Commit yourself to developing leaders
To develop leaders you must be willing to:

A.  Share the ministry
    
B.  Make it a scheduling priority

C.    Pursue personal growth

4.    Cultivate and communicate vision   Leaders who develop leaders cultivate and communicate Christ’s vision for:

A.  The work of the church (Mt.28:18-20; Mk.16:15-16; Lk.24:45-49; Acts 1:8)

B.  The development of leaders (Ep.4:7-13; 2Tim.2:2)

C.  The potential of each developing leader (Mt.4:19, 16:18; see also A. above)

5.    Organize the ministry

A.  Develop a Ministry Map  

B.  Insert existing leaders

C.  Use brackets to show needs

6.    Pray for leaders

"One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God." (Luke 6:12-13)
"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (Mt. 9:37-38)

A.  Pray  

B.  Look

C.  Receive

7.    Understand the process

A.  Potential leaders  -To potential leaders, Jesus said, "Come and see" (Jn. 1:39). The key word during this phase is "know." The followers get to know Jesus, his character, his vision.  And Jesus gets to know the followers on their turf. (Mk. 1:16)

B.  Emerging leaders – to emerging leaders, Jesus said, "Come and follow me" (Mt. 4:19, Mk. 1:17). The key word during this phase is "show." Jesus models his life and ministry as the emerging leaders observe and listen.

C.  Existing leaders – to existing leaders, Jesus said, "Come and be with me" (Mk. 3:14). The key word during this phase is "grow." Jesus calls them into an intimate relationship with him and involves them in ministry.

8.    Know the potential leaders

A.  Where do you find them?  

B.  How will you get to know them?

C.  What’s the next step?

9.    Show the emerging leaders

A.  Identify (Three questions)

B.  Invite

C.  Involve

10.     Grow the existing leaders What do they need from you?

A.  Clear expectations

B.  Personalized leadership

C.  Regular and honest feedback

11.      Take time to reflect

A.  Evaluate

B.  Celebrate

C.  Recalibrate

12.      Help your leaders develop leaders Things to consider as leadership needs/base expand

A.  Revise Ministry Map  

B.  Assist leaders in developing apprentices

C.  Facilitate leadership connections

Download  Church Planters’ Meeting Developing Leaders pdf

Wedding Message – Redemptive/Gospel Centered

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Feb 18, 2007 in Sermon | 6 comments

I have new weddings scheduled this year.  I moved to a diff't wedding message I received from Stephen Trout (who is starting the Kaleo Christian Counseling Center) that is a redemptive historical/gospel presentation.  Feel free to download it.  Gospel Wedding Message (Word Doc)