Triperspectival Hermeneutics

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Jun 14, 2007 in Church, Sermon, Teaching, Triperspectivalism | 3 comments

David Fairchild and I spoke yesterday about a triperspectival hermeneutics.  He has posted some great insight into how to use a triperspectival hermeneutic .  Here is a snapshot, but I encourage you to read the whole post.

Our Triune God is omniperspectival and sees all perspectives simultaneously. This should humble us and cause us to seek other perspectives to gain a richer understanding of His truth since it shows us that we have a very limited view of things.

Prophet Perspective:

If we tend towards a prophet perspective, meaning that we are normatively and theologically inclined, we will often look at the text with a grid of systematic theology. This means that we read a passage of Scripture and almost instinctively think of the passage under its neatly categorized theological heading. We see the text as support for the bigger theological topics in an almost apologetic way.

Priest Perspective:

If we tend towards a priestly perspective, meaning that we are more often emotionally in touch and engaged, we may come to the text to see how this affects my heart, my emotions. We look at the text to “sense” what is happening within it. We may say things like “this is how it makes me feel,” or “I know it’s right intuitively, I just can’t explain it.”

King Perspective:

If we tend more towards kingly perspective, meaning that we are situationally oriented, we may come to the text with a concern for how this text applies to real life. How it is worked out practically. We look at the text to “see” what it looks like. The strength of the king is found in the ability to apply a truth to real life situations. A king will often come to the text and instinctively understand how it should look. A king may prefer discussion oriented learning rather that book learning. A king needs to get his hands on the idea and grapple with it in conversation. Kings are great at organizing structures and systems to work out the vision of the text. Kings are very creative when thinking through how to build bridges missionally to others as a church/corporation.

These are quick summaries, read the whole post at David's site including DIAGRAMS!  Our brother is getting creative over there.  Article: Triperspectival Hermeneutics

You Can’t Program the Gospel

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Jun 13, 2007 in Church, Leadership, Ministry Design | 7 comments

When Kaleo Church first started, there were a number of things we wanted to do because other churches were doing it.  One example is a Film & Theology night.  We desperately wanted our people to see culture through the lens of the gospel, but it never really took off unless David or I were there.  (Years later, a group started organically in our church and has been doing this as a weekly event.)  This and other events led me to think about how churches should start ministries & programs.  Here is a thought I'd throw out there:

If church leadership creates a program and tells people they should attend, it is not the gospel.

This goes for prayer nights all the way to film & theology.  There are two reasons:

1. The gospel say, "You are already approved and accepted", legalism says "this is what you need to do to be a good Christian".  Church leadership should facilitate natural outflows of the gospel.  Let's look at an example with prayer.  People, as they understand the gospel will want to pray together.  They will see their desperation for God to show up in order to reach the city, change hearts and everything else involved in being the people of God.  Churches should facilitate the process to ensure they are able to pray as a community.  At our church this has led to once a month prayer and fasting nights, prayer prior to service and a Monday night prayer night in addition to prayer being vital at all meetings and home groups.  If this is not happening naturally, church leadership should ensure that people are being taught the gospel as it relates to prayer and the Biblical call to prayer.  

2. The second reason (which is far less important) is that program driven churches lead from the center.  Church leaders should equip others, rather than being a pastor which will create a centrally lead church (see: Leading a Transformational Community).  In the long run, programs led from the center will hamper mission, create a precedent of non-missional people who rely on the pastors to do the 'real work' of the ministry.  At our church we've learned the hard way, when leaders have great ministry ideas for the church to do these 'programs' usually don't seem to survive in the long run.  Yet, when the people who are passionate about a cause are equiped, encouraged and supported, they are able to be released to do the work of the ministry in powerful ways.  These gospel or missional pacesetters help others see that everyone is able to be on mission and seek to advance the Kingdom. 

Tentmakers – Funding a Church Plant or Ministry Transition

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Jun 8, 2007 in Church, Church Planting, Teaching | 41 comments

How do you fund a church plant?  For many planters money is the number one challenge to being able to pursue their calling.  I've been thinking about creative ways to do this and wanted to post an idea:  (This is at the idea stage, so things may change)

In order to (1) help church planters fund their ministry or (2) bring people on and train them up within a hands-on environment we would create a 'tentmaker' company. (Picture of Paul the 'tentmaker) This company would allow church planters to be trained and work part (or full time) from home or here in San Diego. The nature of the position would offer a residual commission, which would slowly taper off after a church planter quit working. (We're looking at a couple companies now that look like they'd work.)  The objective would be to create a plan that would fit earning goals of the planter, including after they quit working.

For people who want to transition into ministry, we would offer an intensive training.  During the day, trainees would work roughly 5 hours but also take one-class a day.  This class would teach practical theology for ministry, philosophy on ministry, missiology with hands-on projects to actively do this work in a multi-site church plant.  All this training would be done with other men who are learning from one-another and living in a community.

For example, we have a recent church plant on a college campus.  A person could come, work, be trained and actively participate in the new church plant.  The goal would be to transition the person to full-time ministry or to equip them to go plant a church at another college campus with a funding base from their work.

This is just a start, I appreciate any feedback/suggestions.  Church planters, is this something you would have wanted to do if you could have?

UPDATE: The Tentmaker Group has launched to help church planters raise funding.

Gospel Reformed vs Being too Reformed

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Jun 8, 2007 in Church | 8 comments

The gospel and triperspectivalism are essential for reformed people. Why?  Because all too often we see a strong relationship between being 'reformed' and being contentious (see 1Tim3:3).  The other day someone posted an 'ultra-reformed' reply on an old post.  I went to his blog and found a numerous posts bashing Rick Warren, Benny Hinn, Market-Driven churches and the Emerging movement.  I can't say I disagreed with some of the assessments, but to have the majority of your posts be negative/attacks seems pretty high.  It reminded me of my past, where I was more concerned with winning the argument than loving a person.  

Be only as reformed as the gospel allows. 

The gospel changes us to hopefully be more grace-filled in how we approach others.  As we grow in the gospel, we should become both more humble personally yet confident in Jesus.  We can rejoice in the identity we have already been given of perfect sonship.  The gospel removes the 'poke-them-in-the-eye' debate mentality to win at all costs.  The gospel means we are more concerned with mission than shooting Christians in the back on the way to war.

Secondly, perspectivalism helps us become a more well-rounded person through community.  I believe that those who come to the reformed position tend to be prophets.  Prophets can become doctrine-focused/Normative.  As John Frame writes in his Primer on Perspectivalism:

…perspectivalism is an encouragement to the unity of the church. Sometimes our divisions of theology and practice are differences of perspective, of balance, rather than differences over the essentials of faith. So perspectivalism will help us better to appreciate one another, and to appreciate the diversity of God’s work among us. 

Leading a Movement Not an Institution

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Jun 5, 2007 in Church, Leadership, Ministry Design | 5 comments

How can you structure leadership and decisions in a church to most effectively be on mission?  This is critical because when power/control are centralized in a church, the mission suffers.  Church leaders who micro-manage or want to be involved in every decision will end up creating an institutional church.  A previous post discusses framing decisions through a lens of Corporation, Community & Cause to create a transformational church. In that post, decisions are looked at as normative which need to be handled centrally, existential at the community level and situational which need to be handled by the 'cause leader'.  Here are three add'l criteria to leading a movement & decision making (see: Decision-Making Diagram ):

Vision/Values:  Elders and centralized leadership should decide and guard the vision & values of a church movement.  The larger the movement, the greater the effort should be made to minimize the centralized leadership from going beyond championing these areas.  This means beyond Biblical requirements, movements will need to ensure elders can function in overseeing a movement without micromanaging.  There will be a level of knowing that missional churches will tend to be messier than an institutional church.

Strategy: Ministry leaders or elders should be empowered to determine the strategy for their ministry focus or cause.  The strategy should agree with the vision & values and leaders should always be receptive to input, but the centralized leadership should be careful not to issue directives.

Tactics: Ministry Groups should be given authority to determine specific tactics on how to implement the strategy.  A team approach to ministry should effectively minimize the need for oversight from directors.

Credits: This topic was discussed at our Harbor Monthly Church Planters Meeting.