Contextualizing the Story

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Dec 7, 2007 in Church, Sermon, Teaching | 15 comments

I've been able to enjoy a few days with Caesar Kalinowski from Soma Communities a movement that is led through people living missionally together to reach their cities (South Puget Sound).  Of all the churches we (Kaleo Church) have come across, we are finding we share the most in common with Soma.  Caesar has spent years studying communication as it applies to mission.  In these years of training, they have created a story-based dialogical approach to developing disciples, which has led to far better results than just telling people information.

Did you know that in the USA…

• Researchers believe that 70% or more of the people in North America prefer non-literate means of communication.
• Over 50% of people over age 16 are functionally illiterate*.
• 58% of the U.S. adult population never reads another book after high school.
• 42% of college graduates never read another book.
• 80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
• 57% of new books are not read to completion. Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.
• Each day, people in the US spend four hours watching TV, three hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.
• It is estimated that people spend as much as 80% of their non-working, non-sleeping time in front of a screen – TV or computer.

You can learn more about story & these statistics at Echo the Story.

Jesus’ disciples came and asked him, "Why do you always tell stories when you talk to people?”

Matthew 13:10

To see some of the stories & the questions that implicate people (meaning it's more than trying to throw application in the mix) into God's story and disciple them (I've done a couple with my kids and it's been GREAT.  Gideon is 4 and his answers have been excellent in thinking this stuff through) download these Gospel Story Narratives. 

UPDATE: Caesar sent the following, "in Soma we are also using narrative and dialogical forms of preaching that hold to a very high view of Scripture and the Gospel."  This is important because many who attack story/dialogical often dismiss this because they believe it diminishes the Bible as the authority.

QUESTIONS?  Ask away, Caesar has promised to answer any questions as to why current forms of preaching are not as effective and betray our missional endeavors and why he believes story/dialogical is critical to the future of the church. 

A Day in the Life of a Church Planting Movement

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Oct 21, 2007 in Church, Church Planting, Culture, Leadership, Ministry Design, Teaching | 3 comments

I haven't posted in a while, but wanted to share some of what is going on:

Total Church Conference – Monday, David and I leave to England to participate in this conference.  We will be joined by kindred-spirits from Acts 29, including Jeff at Soma Community in Tacoma and James and team at Providence in Dallas.  (All of us are doing multi-site, multi-congregational missional movements).  You can read more about the Crowded House Values that shaped the concept of Total Church.  Or here is a quick summary from one of the authors, Tim Chester:

Two key principles should shape church life: gospel and community. Christians are called to a dual fidelity: fidelity to the core content of the gospel and fidelity to the primary context of a believing community. Whether we are thinking about evangelism, social involvement, pastoral care, apologetics, discipleship or teaching, the content is consistently the Christian gospel and the context is consistently the Christian community. What we do is always defined by the gospel and the context is always our belonging in the church. Our identity as Christians is defined by the gospel and the community.

While we are there we will be staying in the homes of people in the community.  I may be able to bring back a handful of copies of the book since I don't know if it has been released in the US yet.

Global Church Advancement (GCA) invited me back to do a couple sessions at their North America Church Planting Conference in Orlando, FL: January 28 – February 1, 2008. The North America Church Planting Conference is an inter-denominational training event designed to equip church planters, coaches and supervisors to start, grow and multiply healthy, gospel-centered churches that result in the spiritual, social and cultural transformation of entire cities and regions. Christian leaders from more than 30 countries, representing over 100 denominations and mission agencies, have taken this church planter training.

National New Church Conference (NNCC) Todd Wilson informed me there will be sessions on city transformation.  City transformation is something I've been very excited about.  Don't just plant a church or start a movement, change a city.   Plus, I'd love to hear Keller & Hirsch who both are main speakers.

Bob Roberts (GlocalNet & Vision 360 ) is flying into San Diego and I will be picking him up on the 11/8.  I look forward to spending some time with him.  He is one of the nations leading church planters and I would like to learn more from his experience as he engages his city and plants churches.

David and I continue to meet with the team from Strategic Focused Cities.  The Southern Baptists have selected San Diego as next on the list.  In addition, we have met with the local Vision 360 guy, where they are beginning to raise funding and seek to support, asess and fund church planters.

It's been a busy season with the city transformation movement we are starting called Re:Novo City Group.  A big piece of this initially is our Tentmaker concept.  We've trained four classes of Tentmakers, with our fifth shaping to occur in early November. I'd estimate 50+ people will be trained by the end of this year.

Lastly, Monk Development continues to expand our Ekklesia 360 Church/Ministry CMS.  Monk is now opening an office in South Africa for international sales, support and development.  I hope to make a trip there next Fall to meet with our new team.  

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

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.

Rick McKinley Launches Blog

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Apr 1, 2007 in Church, Church Planting, Teaching | 2 comments

In the quiet of the night, Rick McKinley (pastor @ Imago Dei, church planter & author ) launches a blog.  Previously, he had resisted:

So…I am officially entering the blogoshphere. I have always resisted it since most of them that I read describe the types of cereal people enjoyed for breakfast and other odd details of their days events. 

Latest posts deal with the gospel, his sabbatical and gospel identity.  

The Pastor as Identity-Worker

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 25, 2007 in Church, Sermon, Teaching | 5 comments

This Sunday, Steve Trout from the Kaleo Counseling Center preached a message entitled, Gospel-Centered Counseling.  One idea he unpacked stuck with me:

How you see yourself tends to determine what you do & what/who you end up loving.

The Bible would agree.  Think about how much time is spent on identity, new names or even (as Steve pointed out) in the 6-chapter book of Ephesians there are 20 different mentions of a Christians new identity.  

Saints, the beloved, adopted, co-inheritors, Jesus workmanship, fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, a dwelling place for God…

It seems much of the work of a pastor is helping Christians believe this new reality so thoroughly it shapes how they live.  Sadly, in a world where many Sunday's messages are dedicated to how to live in response to Biblical principles, the identity created is a religious people.  These people must put on the outward works-based righteousness because it is the identity being told to them each Sunday.

Identity work is critical. The powerful nature of the gospel is that instead of pressing against someones will, which may lead to outward change, you can help people see they are a new man now alive in Christ.  They are ambassadors, fellow heirs, saints, a dwelling place for God almighty, beloved and accepted in Jesus Christ.  If more Christians believed this, how different would we live out this inward reality in how we live and love others?

Of course, many of us have to first believe this too…