Each week I (or an elder @ Kaleo) end our worship service with a benediction.  I used to do these benedictions based on verses in the bible.  In the last 6-months I have transitioned to Triperspectival Benedictions that follow the sermon.  The three elements of the benediction are:

Normative/Information: What was the passage, topic or emphasis we examined from the Bible.

Existential/Transformation: How, as Christians, are we changed by God in this area?  What is God's grace doing in our lives?

Situational/Sending: What is our call to now live in response to this new reality.  How are we a sent people to be on mission and proclaim/live this reality?

This was today's benediction based on a sermon in Acts chapter 9 that dealt with Paul's conversion and his radical life of faith through the gospel.

Kaleo, may you grow in faith in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

May you see yourself as the children of God.  That you are forgiven, that you are more loved, accepted and approved than you dare imagine.

May you go and live as the children of God, rejoicing and telling everyone the good news of what God has done.

Go in peace. 

Just another crazy triperspectival idea from the Kaleo guys. 

Here are a few links of interest:

Seminary’s, Vocation, Depressed Cities & Tentmakers - Learn how seminary's, church Bible schools, cities with high unemployment can utilize the Tentmaker Group to make a difference.

The Porn Myth - Great article on the myths of porn by an early feminist.  As Challies says it, "I delight in finding articles in secular publications that just say what the Bible has been saying all along. In many ways, this is just such an article." 

An Interview with Tim Smith - Including info on the Continuous Worship Conference.

The 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis - It was only a week ago we (and those at the GCA conference) drove across this bridge several times.  Read John Piper's "Putting My Daughter to Bed Two Hours After the Bridge Collapsed".

I've been reading Total Church, a remarkable book that looks at a 'radical reshaping around gospel and community'.  In it they talk about the community formed at The Crowded House, where: 

We are committed to caring for one another, discipling one another, investing in relationships and resolving conflict. We will expect one another to make decisions with regard to the implications for the church and to make significant decisions in consultation with the church. We will not view church as a meeting you attend. We will not let conflict continue unresolved. (emphasis mine)

Chester/Timmis argue that just as a 'married man must take into account his wife and family' in making decisions, the same should be done in the family of God.   The book then points out:

This is not a process of 'heavy shepherding' where the leader tells people what to do.  Our statement does not say decisions are made for people.  It says they are made with regard to the community to which they belong.  Nor is it top-down.  It is a community process in which everyone is accountable to everyone.  As leaders, we submit our schedules, priorities and key decisions to the community. 

In the book they cite one attender who quit his 'high-paying' job as a bank executive to teach English as a second language.   Is the American church ready for this?  (The book is not yet released in the US.  I believe Mark Moore has 50 copies for purchase.)   They go on to say:

I cannot be who I am without regard to other people.  Into our pervasively individualistic world-view, we speak the gospel of reconciliation, unity and identity as the people of God.  This is perhaps the most significant 'culture gap' which the church has to bridge.  (emphasis mine)

Here is the session I did at GCA on Communication in Our Post-Christian World (86-page PDF).  There is a lot of stuff the pdf won't explain but it will provide a general idea of the conversation.  For example,

We are in the middle of one of the greatest worldview transitions in recent history.  Gen-X is turning 40. While much has been discussed in terms of culture/postmodernity, it is now beginning to take hold institutionally as this generation moves into positions of power.  How the values of Gen-X & Y are reshaping ecclesiology, theology and mission and causing greater diversity in the forms and expression of the church.  

The ghost of Christianity and Christendom and it's gospel inoculation impact on mission.  The reversal with new church expressions seeing 'tradtional/modern' churches as synchronizing to a dying culture.

How the increased connectivity of Gen-x & Y creates a Virtual Tribalism and the impact on evangelism, outreach and churches. A look at this hyper-affinity and the 10 Idols of these new generations. 

For those who asked for the church planting movie, it's located here: Post-Christian America & the Urgency of Church Planting (This post also has the link to all stats/sources) 

I attended Emerging 1 & 2 and Evangelism 1 & 2 today. Emerging Session 2 was led by Steve Treichler from Hope Community.  Some quotes:

"We are in the middle of the greatest worldview shift in 200 years and evangelicals have largely sheltered themselves from this transition."  (Meaning: we no longer understand our culture)

"The gospel is a chocolate covered waffle cone.  In 11 years of our church  I have never told our people, "'you should invite your friends to church.  We do  very little 'should'." (Meaning: If our people don't see the gospel as something to prize and share, our people don't get it.) 

Here are a couple quotes from Martin Ban who is currently the Senior Pastor of Christ Church Santa Fe.  These are from his session, Making Room: A Trinitarian Reflection on Evangelism and Cultural Engagement with the Gospel. This was an excellent session which impacted me particularly as it relates to how God has allowed us to be IN Christ.  I'll have to digest this for a bit, but here are two quotes that struck me (but don't really indicate the thrust of the message). 

"The gospel is not efficient."   (As it relates to loving others and being missional.

If our people learn a Systematic Theology of Grace it results in a reduction of risk (taken by people).  We need to teach our people a Kingdom view of Grace with enables them to take greater risks. 

Dan said one of his mentors was Dick Kaufmann (he also mentioned Frame, Keller, Schaeffer, Newbigin and others) so I liked him from the get-go.  Plus, he presented his session with a triperspectival understanding of evangelism.  Eg., He discussed things like the Logos, Ethos and Pathos in evangelism.  He's going to send out his presentation PowerPoint so I will refresh myself on a couple thoughts and post on these.  

This week has been extremely crazy, as the Monk team is in town planning the future of Ekklesia 360 Church CMS.  We now have over 750 churches and ministries using our system and growing rapidly!  Secondly, I am wrapping up my two sessions for the GCA Conference on Message and Media: Communicating the Gospel in Our Post-Christian World.  It will be held at John Piper's church next week.  I haven't been able to finish a couple posts I'm working on, so here are a few links that have caused me to think:

Part-time pastors are making a comeback (another reason the Tentmaker Group is so necessary…) 

Top 25 Church Planting Churches in America : Reformed vs. Reformational (David Fairchild)

A new book is released, entitled: Signs of Emergence by Kester Brewin.  (HT: Jordon Cooper with a full review of the book.) In his discussion of how the cities have changed into complex, bottom up systems, Brewin says this (pg 63),

There are still those who cry for revolution, for a revival that will change things in a snap, make everything OK as thousands flock to church… But the days for revolution are over. The cry for revival is too often a cry for abdication: you do it all, God. Well God has done God's bit, it is the systems that now need to change. This is the faith we have signed up for: the Church as the body of Christ where we have real parts to play, real responsibilities. 

Lastly, if you haven't already done so, I'd encourage you to check out Tim Chester's blog : Reformed spirituality, radical ecclesiology.   Chester and Steve Timmis are releasing a new book (not yet in America) called Total Church.  I leave the summary to Mark Moore :

Total Church is one of those books that you hold in your hand and think two things after you've read it. First, Wow! This book says it all. Second, Wow! This book says it all. The first "wow" is the one you say while cheering and applauding that someone has said things that you have desperately wanted to hear. Each page drips with gospel understanding and real life love for the church. The second "wow" is the one you say while realizing that you pretty much have nothing new to offer the world at this point other than a copy of this book. The things you had been thinking about that seemed so "radical" and "refreshing" are now nothing more than restatement of what's been said.

A new book is coming out entitled, Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution. This book is a collection of over 40 writers, many well known bloggers, authors, missional thinkers and pastors. (I wrote a chapter: Will the Internet create a new Reformation?)   The Wikiklesia Project has announced July 23, 2007, as the release date for this first volume which explores “spirituality contextualized within a culture of increasingly immersive technology.”  All proceeds from the sale of the Wikiklesia e-book, audio book, and print version will go to the Not For Sale campaign.

Check out The Wikiklesia Project press release for more details.

Is the American church in the middle of a transformation?  Over the last couple years, there are an increasing number of pastors who are rethinking church and Christianity.  Many of these shifts were recently expressed by The Gospel Coalition.  These three shifts will radically change the face of the church (quotes from The Gospel Coalition):

1. The Bible as Story (Normative) - The Church is being transformed to see the Bible as a redemptive story, which competes with the cultures worldview.  It is holistic and involves all of someone's life.  Compartmental Christianity doesn't work if this is being taught.  This type of reading positions itself against individualism and consumerism, two of the biggest idols of our culture.

To read along the whole Bible is to discern the single basic plot-line of the Bible as God’s story of redemption (e.g., Luke 24:44) as well as the themes of the Bible (e.g., covenant, kingship, temple) that run through every stage of history and every part of the canon, climaxing in Jesus Christ. In this perspective, the gospel appears as creation, fall, redemption, restoration. It brings out the purpose of salvation, namely, a renewed creation. 

2. The Gospel as bigger than an salvational entry-ticket (Existential) - Could the "10 Tips of Being a Better Husband" era be coming to a close?  Will the gospel be seen as a solution of more than an individual's personal problems?  The Church will begin to expand it's vision of God's redemptive plan both in terms of how this shapes a person's motivation and how they see the plan of redemption.  The grace-renewal of this radically changes a person's desires and how they live.  This type of gospel battles the idol of religion & legalism, common in our churches.

This gospel fills Christians with humility and hope, meekness and boldness, in a unique way. The biblical gospel differs markedly from traditional religions as well as from secularism. Religions operate on the principle: “I obey, therefore I am accepted,” but the gospel principle is: “I am accepted through Christ, therefore I obey.” So the gospel differs from both irreligion and religion. You can seek to be your own “lord and savior” by breaking the law of God, but you can also do so by keeping the law in order to earn your salvation.

3.  A Missional posture towards the culture (Situational) - The idea of being missional is now everywhere.  People realize, sin is not a disease we can catch.  We are called to be in not of the world.  (Yet if #1 & 2 aren't what drive the mission, it will have less or little impact.)  Being on mission also moves past the self-obsessed depressive culture we swim in to be radically other-centered.  It is a natural outflow of the first two points being lived out.

We want to be a church that not only gives support to individual Christians in their personal walks with God, but one that also shapes them into the alternative human society God creates by his Word and Spirit.

A church that embodies all three of these is part of the Gospel Awakening that is taking place.  The Gospel Coalition states (Also read The Error of the Uniperspectival Church ):

"The ministry we have outlined is relatively rare. There are many seeker-driven churches that help many people find Christ. There are many churches seeking to engage the culture through political activism. There is a fast-growing charismatic movement with emphasis on glorious, passionate, corporate worship. There are many congregations with strong concern for doctrinal rigor and purity and who work very hard to keep themselves separate from the world. There are many churches with a radical commitment to the poor and marginalized."

More and more, churches and leaders will be challenged to re-think how they are being the church through the broader lens of the Gospel.  Is it part of a larger transformation that will lead to The Gospel Awakening?  Only time will tell….

A while back I recall seeing the Did You Know? Shift Happens video and wanted to create one for church planting and the state of the church in America. So here it is, just in time for us to celebrate July 4th Americans! (I've compiled statistics from a variety of sources such as Planting Missional Churches, Christianity Today, Barna, stuff from Tim Keller and other books. All-in-all I hope it is a powerful call to the church to support church planting. If you are interested in the statistics, they are all located at Church Planting Resources: The State of the Church in the U.S.) Enjoy.  Watch Church Planting in a Post-Christian U.S. >

UPDATE: I've had several requests, so a Quicktime file is available for download at Church Planting Resources .

It was on July 1st, 2004 that I made my first post @ Goodmanson.com.  In the last 3 years there have been hundreds of posts and thousands of comments.   To celebrate:

1. I loaded up a new website design.

2. I re-organized the Article page based on categories for the top posts. Now you can find posts based on categories like the Gospel & Self,  Church, Mission & Ecclesiology, Church Planting & Ministry, Technology & the Church or The Future Church.

Thanks for participating in the conversation…

I returned last night from the annual Acts 29 pastors retreat where we spent most of the week in Sonoma. It was great to see friends and spend time with other church planters from across the country. A couple things came from the conference, which I may post on more:

1. Acts 29 re-organizing from a network to a movement.  Leadership, structures and vision are all adjusting to reflect this.  Some exciting news is that John Piper & Tim Keller will return to speak at Acts 29 bootcamps.  (Tim Keller's is the month after his new book is supposed to come out in March, 2008: In Defense of God: Doubting Your Doubts (Hardcover).  Start reserving your tickets now!

2. Ed Stetzer (pic of us @ Jonathan Herron's blog ) spoke on the history of the word missional which traces it's origins from three streams of thoughts: missio dei, mission & missionary.  He presents why we may all use the same word, yet it means radically different things for emerging churches, evangelical camps and the reformed community.  So when Tim Keller speaks about being missional it is not the same thing as when it used by John Franke or Alan Roxburgh.  He plans to publish a paper on this soon which will be extremely helpful for the missional conversation. 

3. Scott Thomas and then Driscoll did a State of the Union address on the network.  More changes will be coming soon…

The cultural mandate calls us to be stewards of the world and cultivate it for God's glory.  This includes our work.  Yet, churches have largely left work to the domain of the 'secular world'.  There are two reasons I believe this occurred, first Western Christians are shaped by an enlightenment, Platonic dualism worldview  (creating a false secular/sacred divide).  Secondly, we have a limited view of the gospel.   When the gospel is reduced to just individual salvation, the fullness of God's redemptive plan is not understood.    The evangelical world had focused almost exclusively on the great commission at the cost of seeing their entire life as part of God's plan. If we broaden our gospel understanding, how does this change the way we think about work?

First, it should change how we think about our job.   The themes of creation/fall/redemption are a pattern we must examine our work by.   For example, here are conversations I've had with people regarding their work:

Insurance Broker - God provided for man in creation placing him in the garden, because of sin, death/disease entered the scene.  An insurance broker seeks to bring peace in the face of sin by providing people with health care so they can be taken care of in a time of need.  This is redemptive work bringing shalom to a broken world.

Merchant Service Account Exec - (Provides credit card processing at a company that eliminates banks as the middle-men so they offer significantly lower rates).  In the garden we should have shared and taken care of one another.  In the OT God forbids the Jews from charging interest to one-another.  Because of sin, we don't want to help others in need and charge high interest rates (and because of sin people abuse credit.)  Lower interest rates seek to reduce the consequence of the fall as best as possible.  It is trying to reduce the impact of the fall.

It is important for Christians to see their work as valuable as they act as agents in this mandate. Are churches encouraging Christians to think this way?  How would it change for Christians if they connected their work to God's redemptive plan?  

Second, kingdom-mindedness would mean companies would re-org in effective ways to reduce waste, miscommunication, lack of delegation and responsibility.  Shouldn't distinctly Christian organizations be leading the way as it relates to employee satisfaction, customer service, etc?  In addition, these companies would re-invest back into the community.  What else would a kingdom-minded company look like?  (I'm excited that a member of our church is starting a job where he will provide consulting to companies that want to think through what it means to be kingdom-minded.  It will be interesting to see what develops from that.)

Lastly, work should play a bigger part of life in the church.  What would it look like for churches to be involved in enterprises, employing people, meeting needs, job training?  Doing all of this with the cultural mandate in mind?  Fortunately, there seems to be a re-discovery of the cultural mandate.  Hopefully this will broaden people's understanding of work beyond just a 'mission field'.  We will recognize that our job of cultivating the garden was given prior to the fall. Cultivating the earth was our primary mission.  Yet we know this redeeming process will not be completed until Jesus comes. 

Triperspectival Leadership Essentials (David Fairchild) - Examines three essential elements of leadership, character, competency and the often overlooked compatibility.  Also check out his recent posts on Gospel Worldview Questions & Gospel Diagnostic Questions.

Rick McKinley's talk @ the Q Conference. Here is one of his points from 4 ingredients of divine imagination:  (read more at Q - Rick McKinley, Church Relevance or Q day 3)

deeply transformed disciples.. it is not about church but movement. We can grow big churches full of undisciplined disciples, but they will not transform culture. Create a movement of transformed disciples. Truly transformed disciples don’t need permission or a program to reach people. They are a movement of God to release on the city.  Ask: Who in my congregation that has been so transformed by the Gospel, and talk to them about giving it all up and going on this crazy journey…

Some bloggers to check-out: Gospel Driven life (pastor), Hsu’s Views (city-focused campus crusades), Mike Edwards (church planter) & Buzzard Blog (church planter).

A few days ago I posted an idea to help fund church planting and transitions into ministry.  Since then I've been thinking a bit more about a 'tentmaker' organization that would create sustainable church planting movements.  The concept comes from the apostle Paul who worked as a tentmaker in Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus (cf. Acts 18:3, 1 Thess. 2:9) in order to plant these churches.  The goal is to create an organization to equip church planters so that they can provide for their families and transition with income into the ministry as their church develops.  The church planter could even seek to start a tentmaker organization in their city to provide ongoing support for their first and hopefully future church plants.  It is like Agathos' plan of One Church One Village, who instead of asking for continual support to fund their ministry to the orphans of aids victims in Africa, seeks to buy farms to create ongoing support.

By focusing on self-sustenance, and requiring that each village be self-sustaining, costs to each participating church are limited to a specific amount – capital costs. No further funding will be needed for each village. 

Do traditional methods of raising funds to plant a church impair the mission of the church?   Is there a connection between typical funding that requires church planters to put on a more 'event-driven' church in order to attract Christians who attend other churches and tithe?  Does the church focus more on Sunday's service than the very life of the people living on mission throughout the week?  Does it re-define what is a successful plant?  Can a church never 'break-even' and still be seen as successful?  Are there areas (inner-city, small towns) where it is impractical for a church to support itself through the congregation? 

How might church plants supported by accompanying resources from a tentmaker organization re-define success?  Could it change unspoken priorities and challenges of money to allow for intensely missional living with a longer-term view of 'success'?   There is still a lot to think through…

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

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.