A couple years ago, after the success of The Passion of the Christ, several film makers tried to tap into the Christian word-of-mouth marketing.  I cringed (see: Hollywood: Turning the Christian Faith into a Marketing Gimmick) when I saw Rocky's newest film use a faith-based marketing approach.  Marketing for Rocky included sermon resources at RockyResources where you could show clips of Rocky respecting Adrian and tie it into a sermon on Esther.  After my posts, I was subsequently interviewed on NPR and labeled the 'Pastor who takes issue with Rocky'.

….but it looks like the bubble has burst.  As Hollywood looks at the struggle of the latest Narnia film  (which I haven't seen yet, but clearly this is more appropriate to connect to Christians than Rocky.)  The Hollywood Reporter writes

Indeed, Adamson's first "Narnia" came on the heels of 2004's "The Passion of the Christ," which grossed $370 million domestically and tipped studios to a potentially untapped audience of faithful moviegoers.

But in the years since, studios that have waged extensive faith-based campaigns have garnered mixed results, leading some in Hollywood to lose faith in the practice.

Read The Hollywood Reporter's How effective is marketing to faith-based audiences? 

I'd encourage all church planters to attend one of the most important church planting conferences to come. This one is a must attend for church planters who are thinking about planting missional churches to reach our culture. The Total Church North America Conference 2008

REGISTER EARLY BENEFITS!

1. Registering prior to July 12th and receive a discounted rate.
2. Immersion program.  Lodging for out-of-town registrants will be provided by members of Kaleo Church on a first-come first-served basis as long as we have lodging available.  Space is limited.  This will save on hotel costs for the conference and give visitors an opportunity to see the life of the community at Kaleo.

Be the Church

Total church is a way of thinking about church and mission in the 21st century which sees the local Christian community as integral to Christian living and Christian mission. The Christian life is 'total church' - our identity is communal.

Why Attend?

- Create a community centered on the gospel, equipped to do the work of the ministry.
- Make your community a community of church planters.
- See what it means to be the church on mission through ordinary life with gospel intentionality.
- Dialog with missional church leaders from across the world.
- Learn from seasoned practitioners how to form missional communities and transition traditional churches toward mission.
- Did we mention its in San Diego?

Dates: August 12-14, 2008

Location: San Diego, CA

Main Sesssion Speakers: Steve Timmis and Tim Chester are the authors of Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community (Crossway). They lead The Crowded House, a family of church planting networks that started in Sheffield, England. They have also started The Porterbrook Network to train people for mission and church planting in the context of ministry.

Break-out Sessions will be led by church planters/practitioners from The Crowded House, Kaleo Church, Soma Community & Providence Community.  Break-out sessions will be added but will include:

• Beyond Total Church – Sowing the Seeds of a Movement
• Moving from Traditional to Missional - “What do I do next?”
• Engaging the Domains of Society - From Business to Media and Beyond
• Communicating in a Post-Christian Culture
• Evangelising the Urban Poor
• New ways of funding a plant & planter in a missional movement.

Stay-tuned as more break-out sessions are added.  There will be several tracks for people being introduced to a missional mindset all the way to those who have formed missional communities to learn from others around the world leading missional movements.

The first Total Church was held in Sheffield, UK, in 2007 at the end of October, hosted by the Crowded House. The conference is named for the book, Total Church -A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community which will be released in the Fall in the US.

Learn more: Total Church North America Conference 2008

If you have a chance I'd encourage you to attend the Dwell Conference in London.  Many of you already know Mark Driscoll & Scott Thomas, but maybe some of you haven't been exposed to Steve Timmis.  I've had the opportunity to visit Steve in England and I strongly encourage you to learn from him.  At the Total Church conference in England, his sessions were provocative, a bit edgy (in a good way) and caused many of us to go home re-thinking what we are doing.  Keller fans- Redeemer is bringing Steve & Tim Chester to NY in '09 to train all their leaders on being the church formed around the gospel, on mission in community. 

For those of you in the US, Steve and Tim will be joining Soma Community, Providence Community & Kaleo Church at the Total Church North American Conference.  Space is limited!

On June 24th at 4pm EST (1pm PST for locals) join David Fairchild as we are interviewed on Shapevine.   From Shapevine, they requested to "dialog about your leadership models (Priest, king, prophet, etc.) I think you are helping form a new language, and practical way of doing MC's that many people have struggled to find in their practices."  So the topics include:

• Triperspectivalism (Prophet/Priest/King) and how this shapes a local churchs ministry philosophy.
• Our transition from a more traditional church to missional movement.
• Practical Missional Community structure and decentralizing.

If you have questions you'd like us to discuss, post them here.

The three sessions from the Living at the Crossroads: Church & Mission conference are now up for download.  At the sessions we received a packet of all the PowerPoints to go along with these, I'll ask Dr. Goheen if we can release those. Here they are:

Session 1

• Understanding Our Cultural Story: Our Life through a Lens (PART 1)
• Understanding Our Cultural Story: Our Life through a Lens (PART 2)

Session 2

• Understanding Our Current Time: Postmodernity, Globalization, and Consumerism

Session 3

• Living at the Crossroads of the Biblical and Cultural Story: Relevance and Faithfulness (PART 1)
• Living at the Crossroads of the Biblical and Cultural Story: Relevance and Faithfulness (PART 2)
• Living at the Crossroads of the Biblical and Cultural Story: Relevance and Faithfulness (PART 3)

Also, there are three gospel stories by David Fairchild, Jeff Vanderstelt & Caesar Kalinowski, visit the conference session archives.

For those of you interested in learning more about how living in the Western Story impacts your Christianity, I'd encourage you to pre-order Michael Goheen's book Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview.  The sessions he did at the Church Bootcamp caused a room filled with church planters and ministry leaders to feel overwhelmed with the tensions we live in.

Description: How can Christians live faithfully at the crossroads of the story of Scripture and postmodern culture? In Living at the Crossroads, authors Michael Goheen and Craig Bartholomew explore this question as they provide a general introduction to Christian worldview. Ideal for both students and lay readers, Living at the Crossroads lays out a brief summary of the biblical story and the most fundamental beliefs of Scripture. The book tells the story of Western culture from the classical period to postmodernity. The authors then provide an analysis of how Christians live in the tension that exists at the intersection of the biblical and cultural stories, exploring the important implications in key areas of life, such as education, scholarship, economics, politics, and church.

Thoughts from Living at the Crossroads: Church & Mission with Michael W. Goheen. 

"One of the reasons we have to create evangelism programs is that no one is asking us questions such as, "What is the reason for the hope within you", "Why do you live so differently" or "Why do you love the poor, provide service widows and care for prisoners?" Our churches are so rooted in the Western story that would our neighbors think if we had Jesus removed from our life that our treasure would be removed? Or would they think it would be a small loss in relation to how we live seeking to pursue the American dream along with the rest of our unbelieving neighbors?  In Acts and the early church evangelism was built on questions because of the radical alternative way Christians lived."

A couple weeks ago, Kaleo hosted a conference Living at the Crossroads: Church & Mission. At this conference, Michael Goheen spent three days helping us understand the current cultural story we live in. The Western Story that we live in is rooted in the faith of progress propelled by reason and science. Our educational, governmental and political systems are built on these notions.  I became overwhelmed with the tension that was presented as it became clear how immersed I am in the American story, with much of its foundations in direct contrast to God's story.  We have drunk from this story so deeply that it defines us.  Goheen presented this story's belief system and faith assumptions (examples: the more goods we have, the happier we will be and if we let the market be free for the economic self-interest of individuals then it will guild us to a better future for all (Adam Smith's ‘invisible hand').  One quote that he gave was a confession of faith based on the beliefs of the West (again science, progress & technology are not bad things but we make them ultimate things).  

Western Confession of Faith

I believe in Science Almighty. I believe in the power of human reason disciplined by the scientific method to understand, control, and change our world.

I believe in Technology and a Rational Society, its only begotten Sons which have the power to renew our world.

I believe in the spirit of Progress. I believe that a science based technology and a rationally organized society will enable me to realize my ultimate goals - freedom, happiness and the comforts of material abundance.

I believe in economism. I believe that the abundance of consumer goods and experiences and the leisure time and freedom to consume them will make me happy. To this I commit myself with all my money, time, energy and resources. Amen.

I preached a message based on these ideas (What Story are You in) asking if we are more shaped by this story than Gods.

Save the dates of August 12th-14th.  I'd encourage you to attend the Total Church North America Conference in San Diego, hosted by Kaleo Church.  This will not be your typical conference and will radically benefit those who attend so they can walk away changed and refreshed to do mission.

Total church is a way of thinking about church and mission in the 21st century which sees the local Christian community as integral to Christian living and Christian mission. The Christian life is 'total church' - our identity is communal. The first Total Church was held in Sheffield, UK, in 2007 at the end of October, hosted by the Crowded House.  The conference is named for the book, Total Church -A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community which will be released in the Fall in the US. 

Further Reading:

Total Church Post by Tim Chester (co-author) 

Total Church quotes by Steve McCoy

Total Church review by Mark Moore

More information to come… 

We have gone through a crazy season at the Goodmanson home.  In the last two months we have had 2-families, several guests and a homeless man stay with us.  One of the most substantial is Nate, who lived with us for parts of November and then December.  Nate's life has been transformed by the gospel and recently he shared his Gospel testimony during a Sunday service.

Nate's Story - I came to San Diego because my life fell apart.  My family who live in Arkansas & Georgia couldn't deal with my illness.  I was serving the military as a scout working with Special Ops on the Iraq/Syrian border when I was injured in a surprise attack.  I was shot and blown up, by an I.E.D. containing a combination of Saran Gas & Agent Orange which gave me both Parkinson & Cancer.  After I got out of the hospital I did odd jobs, in 2002 I became ill enough where my health started to decline.  Since 2003 I haven't been able to work.  My family fell apart, every time I got sick it would affect my moms health, and my daughter and her mother's emotional and mental stability would be rocked.  So I decided to leave.   Read Nate's Story A New Hope

Teri's Story - Teri is an actress who asks the question, "What roles should a 'Christian' actress accept?"   I am a Christian. I am a wife. I am an actress. I am those things in that order. What would I do then, if I was offered a part in a major movie such as "The Golden Compass"; a movie adapted from a book that has been expressed by its author to be in opposition to Christianity in theme and intent? Read Teri's Story Faith and Fiction: Navigating Which Role is Right?

Cultural Articles:

Cloverfield -Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.

27 Dresses -After serving as a bridesmaid 27 times, a young woman (Heigl) wrestles with the idea of standing by her sister's side as her sibling marries the man she's secretly in love with.

Know the Game – A Cultural Introduction I was once asked in a class to tell something about myself that no one knew, something innocuous and trivial but definitely personal. We would all write down the statements on small pieces of paper and then shuffle them, hand them out and read aloud.

Another idea that came from the Caesar visit deals with Transparency vs. Vulnerability in community.  As a church seeks to see the gospel transform their community and lead them to mission, sin/idols are exposed.  One potential danger is that people who enter into the life of the community are willing to be transparent, but they are not vulnerable.  Meaning, you can have a person publicly profess sin, being very transparent BUT they have no intention of letting other people speak into their life toward change.  This false transparency appears like humility but it is a charade of self-righteousness behind the 'right things to say'.  

As people get into each others lives, we must 'submit one to another' to allow others to confront the idols of our hearts.   

I spent the morning with Eugene, who heads up our missional communities at Kaleo.  One of the challenges we've faced as a church centers on discipling people and seeing leaders emerge to give their life to be on mission.  The following idea struck me from our conversation:

We often need structures to overcome our lack of community. 

How can any person's life be changed by attending weekly programs?  Isn't this just a portion of what Willow Creek 'Revealed' in their failure to create meaningful disciples?  And they were THE model for the typical evangelical church.  Kaleo is diving headlong deeper into life-on-life mission to San Diego.  Recently a sermon was preached where we outlined part of what this may look like:  (This is a summary of the message preached 11/4)

Kaleo Community Covenant

We promise to honor one another, be members of one another, live in harmony with one another, build one another up, be like-minded towards one another, accept one another, care for one another, serve one another, bear one another’s burdens, be kind to one another, forgive one another, abound in love towards one another, comfort one another, encourage one another, stir one another up to love and good deeds, confess our sins to one another, be hospitable to one another, greet one another, fellowship with one another, submit to one another while not passing judgment on one another, not provoking one another, not envying one another, not hating one another, not slandering one another, and not bearing grudges against one another.

We do all this because Christ has loved us in each of these ways and this frees our hearts to love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34).

Again, this requires that we re-think a lot of things such as where we live, our patterns of life, how 'ministry' is done.  But all of us long for this type of community. 

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.  

"The most effective form of evangelism is church planting." If you are a pastor or church planter, you are bound to run into this quote.  The list of sources is endless, just do a search on 'church planting most effective evangelism').  In fact, many will even point to the apostle Paul going into cities to plant churches as the prototype way to reach cities and their suburbs.  This makes sense, since in Paul's day there weren't churches in these regions so he had to plant churches for the Christian faith to survive.  But today, there are many existing churches in cities, so pastors of established churches end up asking: Help - Why are church plants the most successful at reaching people and does my established church stand any chance of being renewed? (JollyBlogger)

Can established churches recapture the dna to reach people?  I believe church planting is the most effective form of evangelism only because in it's very nature it holds the ingredients that lead to being missional.   This means that established churches can re-capture these ingredients but by the nature of their history, organizational structure and emphasis they tend to NOT be as effective.  Here are some of these key ingredients I believe lead to greater conversion by church plants: (see my video that lays out some of the statistics of conversion in church plants vs. established churches )

1. Jericho Walls - Church planting requires a tremendous amount of faith and a slight bit of gospel insanity.  First, to believe you are called by God to plant a church is a pretty serious thing to say. According to a Psychology Today stat I read a few years back, most pastors surveyed said they were primarily a pastor as a line of vocation.  They didn't know what else to do.  They had become professional clergy without a sense of calling (which was one of the other options).  Church planters need to have a sense of calling because church planters have to look at the Jericho-sized walls of starting a church and addressing the world's unbelief and pray to God as desperate men who have to have God show up in order to plant a church.  And this is where God tends to arrive most, when there is a humble people lifting their hands desperate for Him to show up. 

Established Church Suggestions:  Change the vision of your church.  Has your church already arrived and accomplished what you set out to do?  (eg.  The unspoken contentment of wanting a nice big community that is 'house-broken'.)   What would happen if your churches vision expanded beyond the four walls of your building and including transforming the entire city you lived in?  In order for something of this nature to occur, God has got to show up.  This would require a change of heart of the people and the faith/desperation of seeking Him out.

2. Fat Cats Don't Hunt -  When church plants begin, there is a smaller number of people and they often have a much greater external focus.  Larger churches often see a great necessity for taking care of the people that are already showing up.  Therefore, a larger church tends to spend more time on internal programs.  Certainly larger churches may end of having more people visit each week, but these numbers are quite low proportionately to the effectiveness of church plants.  If you are a pastor of an established church, what % of your time as pastor/leader are you actively equipping others on external ministry?  Can you tell people to follow me and make disciples as you are?  If what is most important in the leadership of your church is becoming more wicked smart on the Bible or running church programs rather than being missional, why would you expect your church be missional?

Established Church Suggestions:  One of the areas I want to begin exploring more is the idea of equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.  Actively coming alongside people in the church who are already on mission and doing more Just-In-Time Theological Training.  Train them on mission rather than in a cul de sac Bible Study.  This would be in juxtaposition to creating 'church program' to equip people, a post I discussed in You Can't Program the Gospel.  A few of the suggestions I've unpacked in prior posts: Leading a Transformational Community, the Call to renew your Church’s Ecclesiology and Leading a Movement Not an Institution.

3. Risk & Reward - New churches have greater freedom to be flexible, change on the dime and try new things.  This means they can experiment with new methods, sounds, styles and often this can reach untapped people groups.  The same principles are seen when start-up companies are more innovative and surpass the larger bureaucracy-laden companies in tapping new markets.

Established Church Suggestions:  Prevent your church from becoming a bureaucracy.  Church plant, go multi-site do whatever it takes.  Create a missional mindset in your people. 

Other Resources: Thom Rainer wrote Breakout Churches: Discover How To Make The Leap, pick up Ed Stetzer's Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can, Too or The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World by Alan Roxburgh & Fred Romanuk.

NOTE TO CHURCH PLANTERS: All of these three points are important for church planters to think through, because we are already seeing several church plants become more established. 

When most people think of church, they envision a place where Christians gather on Sunday.  A building dominates the mind of both Christians or non-believers.  Today, the concept of church has been de-clawed of it's full of meaning.  The gathered people of God (who once overthrew the most powerful empire that ever existed, without political, military or economic power) are now house broken.   

Sadly, even most Christians have reduced the Church to a spiritual box.  It's a place where our spiritual needs are met.  We have compartmentalized our faith and removed it from the rest of our life.  This is something more of us are thinking through, not how do we grow our church, but how are we going to change a city.  At Kaleo Church we seek to re-capture a broader scope of being the church in our city.  Here are some ways we want to express being the church and seek to change our city:  (because of U.S. law some of these would be separate legal entities.) 

Launched

Metro Church Alliance - [Church Partnering/Kingdom] The Metro Church Alliance was created to facilitate partnerships between churches in local cities.  The San Diego Alliance is our relationship with several churches in San Diego to partner in the gospel to see the city changed.  We meet with other churches (12-20 pastors) once a month and seek to continue to broaden this.

Tentmaker Group - [Employment, Education, Resources & City Investment]  The Tentmaker Group allows us to fund church planter/planting but it also lets us re-invest in the city.  Part of our goal is to provide jobs in a company that will bless the city.  Many of the things we seek to do (stripper ministry, homeless work, etc) requires money.  The Tentmaker Group will be a company that use it's profits for the good of the cities we are in.

Kaleo Counseling Center -  [Counseling] This ministry seeks to provide gospel counseling to both people in but also outside of the church.  Counseling is the modern hope and we would like to be able to provide free (or low cost) counseling to those in need.

Church Bootcamp - [Church Planter Training] conferences to train church planters.  We believe church planting is the best way to change the city through effective transformation of individuals by the power of the gospel.

Church Planting Resources - [Church Planting Resources] A site to provide resources to assist church planters.

Developing

Think San Diego - [Social Concerns, Government/Politics, Society & Awareness]  Think San Diego will be a vehicle to create awareness to the issues surrounding our city/county.  The goal would be to influence thought on laws/voting, to help foster positive social activism and to present issues (eg. illegal immigration) through the lens of the gospel.

Imagine San Diego - [Mercy Ministries, Environment, Cause]  Imagine San Diego is an gathering of people to mercy ministry.  It will call businesses, leaders and churches to participate in city renewal.  We have begun to gather groups in other cities for the Imagine City Group, an umbrella non-profit other churches and cities can participate in.

Gospel @ Work - [Vocation & Stewardship] Gospel AT Work is is a ministry that will offer programs, groups, and ministries focused on integrating the Christian faith with our work.

Geneva San Diego Academy - [Education] Classical Christian Education to train the next generation with a gospel worldview.

San Diego Artist Forum - [Culture & Art] Engaging culture and the arts through the lens of the gospel.

the Courtyard - [Performance & Art] Events/Performances and shows hosted as a 3rd place to engage the city.

The Cloud Network - [Technology] Using technology and search engine optimization to connect & gather Christians and be on mission to the world online.