It was bound to happen.  I spent a season as a columnist writing a weekly column called the Sheep & Goats for the San Diego Reader, which 'reviews' churches and other places of worship.  This last Sunday, Matthew Lickona came (the new columnist and much better writer than I ever was!) and reviewed Kaleo Church.  It could of gone a lot of ways, but Lickona focused on the experience one may have visiting Kaleo, particularly the sermon and the centrality of the gospel & grace:

But preaching the Gospel, he said, was essential and more important than telling stories and teasing out meanings and lessons. "The Gospel is news about what Jesus has done; it is not advice about how to live. Why? Because we are saved by grace. News is about something that is done; teaching is about something you do. If my role is to teach you about what to do, then what I'm saying is that you can be saved by following my teaching." Christianity, argued Fairchild, is unique among world religions in that it is not about following a teaching, but about believing in particular historical events concerning Jesus. "We're saved by grace, by something that's been done for you." If not, "that puts you on the hook: earn your own salvation. If Jesus Christ did not live, then we are in grave, grave trouble."

Full Article: Kaleo Church @ the San Diego Reader 

Welcome to Goodmanson.com .  If you are new(er) here, I began this blog in July of 2004 and today I've posted for the 500th time.  I got out my calculator and discovered that over these 825 days, I've made a post every 1.65 days.  Over the years I've posted a lot on church planting, technology, churches, leadership and culture.  Here are some posts I'd recommend if you haven't been here the whole time.

CHURCH PLANTING 

Five Trends for the Future of Church Planting 26Aug06

The State of the American Church - Why Church Planting is Critical to the Future of American Christianity 16May06

CHURCH

A Partnership of Externally Focused Churches 11Aug06

Emerging From Church De-Construction to Church Kingdom Building 19Sep05

Fun with Angry, Yelling, Legalistic Christians who Know Everything 03Apr05

Is the Twelve Tribes a Cult? 02Nov05 (From my year-plus stint as a weekly Sheep & Goat column for the San Diego Reader)

LEADERSHIP

Preaching the Gospel to Yourself 26Oct06

Deacon Training & Development 02Jun06

Triperspectival Ministry Assessment 12Oct06

The Dangers of Confession while in the Pulpit 20Oct06

TECHNOLOGY

Why God is more glorified by Web 2.0 09Oct06

Technology and the Mission: Conference Session 25Sep06

List of Church Technology & Website Blogs & Resources 27Sep06

CULTURE

My own ‘Sin City’ 18Apr05

The role of the Christian artist in the secular world 20Aug04

FAMILY

New Son Roman! 30Jan06

Gideon Turns 2 Years Old 26Mar05

As some have asked, I am no longer writing the Sheep & Goats column for the San Diego Reader. The new writer is Matthew Lickona, author of Swimming with Scapulars - True Confessions of a Young Catholic. You can see more of Lickona’s work at his blog, www.matthewlickona.com. If you want to know more, Lickona’s bio on his site begins, “Matthew Lickona was born in 1973, the second son of a developmental psychologist and a sometime caterer. Raised in Cortland, a city in upstate New York, he enjoyed a happy childhood (marred only slightly in adolescence by an alarming, curly mullet). Afterward, he attended Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California…”

This week’s World Magazine includes an article on my former boss (when I wrote a weekly column at the San Diego Reader), Roe v. Wade: Counterculture clash. The article details Holman’s activism for the pro-life movement while he publishes a “urban alternative” weekly.

A city councilman, who is also an ordained minister running on a morality platform, accepts campaign contributions from a strip-club owner.

2003: A rising-star mayor moonlights as a slumlord, pocketing millions while evicting impoverished tenants who complain.

2005: A prestigious hospital chain tests a synthetic blood substitute only on trauma victims too ill to consent in poor and minority neighborhoods.

Those are among the sidewalk-pounding investigative reports that appear in the archives of the San Diego Reader, the kind of urban alternative weekly found in free stacks in bohemian coffeehouses and other bastions of cool. You might expect the publisher of such tough exposés on religious hypocrisy and social injustice to be a card-carrying liberal, take his political cues from George Soros, or at least wear Birkenstocks to work.

Instead, Jim Holman is a bit of a square peg in the alternative-weekly universe, a devout Catholic of libertarian leanings with Horace Greeley newsman instincts coursing through a persona that seems two parts Renaissance man and one part Mr. Rogers.

Mr. Holman’s name became news in 2005 when he became the major financial backer of Proposition 73, a California ballot measure that would have required abortionists to notify parents before performing abortions on minor girls. Discreetly wealthy and passionately pro-life, Mr. Holman helped brainstorm the initiative and contributed $1.2 million to pay for signature gathering, media, and grassroots outreach. While the governor’s reform package weathered a brutal media storm, Prop 73 was unrelated to it and enjoyed winning poll numbers as late as November. But on Election Day, it failed, dragged down in Mr. Schwarzenegger’s political undertow.

Read Full Article: Roe v. Wade: Counterculture clash

[This is a reflection on my San Diego Reader Column where I visited a different church each week for 2005 and part of 2004.]

One theme that developed as I spoke with different pastors/priests for a variety of denominations and faiths is that each one was convicted that their expression was the true expression of faith. Catholic Priests had a sense of confidence that “theirs was the true church that traced itself back to Peter and Jesus Christ.” The Mass was the place where the Eucharist was served and followers needed to access the grace offered here. Yet, other splinter Catholic groups (Byzantine and Old Catholics) were quick to point out their legitimacy in relation to the “ROMAN Catholic” traditions.

On the other side of the world, Eastern Orthodox congregations (visited two, one Greek and the other Antiochian) were most vocal in their position as ‘truest church’. ["I believe the [Greek Orthodox Church] is the true church, but I’m not going to rub it in anyone’s face,” said Nazo Zakkak, an altar boy at St. Gregory of Nyssa Greek Orthodox Church.]

Both these groups (Catholics & Eastern Orthodox) often citied the amount of denominations in the Protestant movement as an indictment against Evangelicals. “There are 20,000 some-odd denominations, any time an Evangelic has a minor doctrinal disagreement, they just go off and start their own church,” is a common comment about Protestantism.

Where does this leave us? How do we deal with the denominational divides? One comment is often, “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty.” Yet an Orthodox Father pointed out that denominations aren’t even in agreement on what is essential or non-essential so how can their be unity. It seems like the church is in a mess but why does God allow such a divergent expression of faith amongst people who call themselves Christians?

Last week was my last San Diego Reader article for the Sheep & Goats column. Beginning in 2006, I am no longer writing the column. It’s been a great season over 2004-2005 to visit different places of faith and interview people to learn more about their experiences and what they believe. Here are a few of my favorites: (A few of my favorites are not online)

Anchor Point Church - an honest and open story of a church plant that closed it’s doors.

The Resolved - An opening line that created quite a controversy, “Beer is one of our core values”. (So much controversy the pastors wrote a letter to explain this sarcastic comment about church pragmatism.)

What’s NEXT? I’m excited about this transition because life has been crazy focusing on three different ventures (Kaleo Church, Monk Development and San Diego Reader). Here are the plans:

1. Become more full time at Kaleo Church. This is a big year for us as we really take a lot of the things that are functioning and move them to healthy reproducing ministries.

2. Launch Ekklesia in a big way the next two-months and continue to build a world-class application for churches to use the internet for the Kingdom.

3. Write creatively. Spend more time writing articles I’ve been putting off.

4. Begin Covenant Theological Seminary’s Master of Arts (Theological Studies) with an emphasis in contemporary culture.

5. Go on long walks with my wife.

6. Adopt a new child.

and more that I’m sure will be added soon….

Thanks for all of you who read the articles and provided feedback and encouragement.

(This is an article written for my weekly San Diego Reader column on spirituality and places of worship.)

Wally the Wiener, a 15-foot inflatable penis, stands erect behind XXXchurch’s “Erotica LA” booth. Wally is just one of XXXchurch’s attempts to get attention from the 40,000 pornography fans and stars at the convention. “We have to use outrageous methods to get people to pay attention,” said Craig Gross, a pastor, and one of the founders of XXXchurch. In 2002, Pastor Gross and Pastor Mike Foster founded XXXchurch to create porn awareness, accountability, and recovery to people inside and outside the church.

Pastors Foster and Gross have received a lot of attention because of their involvement in the pornography industry. “At the Erotica show, people are wondering why two pastors are here,” said Gross. “But this is exactly the place Jesus would go. He wouldn’t stand outside picketing the porn industry. He would want to meet these people individually.” This year, XXXchurch’s booth gave “Jesus Loves Porn Stars” T-shirts to porn stars. “We handed out 245 free T-shirts. This is a way for us to plant seeds with porn stars and help them get out of the industry,” said Gross. “We stay in contact with many of the porn stars to keep a dialogue going.” Last month, Trinity James was the first porn star to leave the industry through this campaign. “Trinity was living in Las Vegas and has been doing porn and legalized prostitution for four years. She realized that this is not something she can do any longer.” XXXchurch raised $14,400 to assist James’s transition, which included the cost of the move to Indiana and tuition to cosmetology school. Gross said he hopes this is the first example of many porn stars’ exodus out of the industry.

Full Article: XXXchurch

(This is an article written for my weekly San Diego Reader column on spirituality and places of worship.)

“If someone at our synagogue becomes religious, don’t blame me. I just teach the Torah,” said Rabbi Baruch Lederman of Kehillas Torah. “I am passionate about helping people see the beauty of the Torah. I want to help raise them to a higher level of understanding and increase their acts of kindness to others. This is what life is all about. It’s about a relationship with your creator.” I asked Lederman about his relationship with God. “I pray and talk to God all the time. Life is one giant conversation with God. I love, revere, and fear God. It is very similar to how a child thinks about their parents.”

Fred Wolf, a member of the synagogue, said Lederman helped change his life. “In recent years, I’ve gone through a lot of trials. I went through a divorce with two children and a parent dying. It made me think about what is important in life.” Wolf said this process led him back to his Jewish roots. “I was struggling with the divorce. I entered a period of darkness and depression. Rabbi Lederman helped me out during this time. He was warm and open-minded. He doesn’t lecture people; he enjoys teaching people and letting them make their decisions for themselves. He doesn’t care where you came from; it’s where you are going. He is the most unorthodox orthodox rabbi I know,” said Wolf

Full Article: Kehillas Torah

“[When I'm taking the Eucharist], I’m consuming Jesus’ body, if you view it with eyes of faith,” said Eileen Carton, a volunteer at Holy Spirit Catholic Church. “How else can you get that close to God? When I take Eucharist, if I lack faith, I am given faith. If I am burdened, Jesus takes my burden.” Carton said she’s been enamored with communion since she was seven years old. “As a Japanese-American, I was raised Buddhist, but when a friend took me to Mass with her family, I saw the holiness and beauty of the Mass. I was taken aback by seeing Jesus at the consecration. When I saw this, Jesus spoke to my heart and told me I was home. I get so excited about this, I just thank the Lord.” “What really makes the Catholic Church different is that we take Jesus seriously when he gave us the Sacrament of Holy Orders. We take the wine and bread and believe they become the literal body and blood of Jesus,” said Dennis Gorsich, a pastoral associate. “We’re actually at that Last Supper during the Eucharist. It’s like being in a time warp. I often feel closer to God because I’ve taken the Eucharist. Jesus is clearing away the things that are not good in me.

Full Article: Holy Spirit Catholic Church

“I was stoned when I accepted Christ,” said Jared Lee, a volunteer at Calvary Chapel San Diego. “When my parents got divorced, I started getting into the drug scene. I would smoke an ounce of weed in three days and would steal. Everything was about getting the next high.” Lee’s life changed when three people approached him in Balboa Park and told him about Jesus. “I found hope. There was something more in life,” said Lee. Lee now believes Christianity is the only true way. “God opened my eyes.” Lee joined Calvary Chapel and participated in their Fellowship in Recovery program. “The program follows the same 12-step program for Alcoholics Anonymous. I went from being a curse to society, as a drug addict and a worthless guy, to a blessing. I moved in to help my grandmother when my grandpa died. I am a high school teacher now, and I work with the youth at church. If I hadn’t accepted Christ, I would be in jail or dead.”

Full Article: Calvary Chapel San Diego

“Christians can’t fight battles of sin alone. I failed miserably when I tried to deal with sin on my own. I felt alone. I was fearful of sharing my struggles with others,” said Jim Allsop, New Life Church’s treasurer. Allsop said he appreciates New Life because of the community’s involvement in his life and assistance in his fight against sin. “It’s the body of Christ working together.” Jim Allsop has experienced this community since his arrival in 1991. “A friend introduced me to New Life. At the time, I wanted to find a church that was willing to take on the hard questions about the Bible.” Allsop said one of the difficult questions he came across involved limited atonement. Limited atonement is the belief that Christ’s death on the cross was sufficient only for those who are part of the church. “I always thought Christ had died for everyone. But as I studied the scripture, it became clear that God knew who he was going to save before time began.” Allsop said this belief changed his Christian faith. “This really shook me up. It made me rethink my view of God. I now recognize that I’m so desperate for his grace and mercy every day for the sin that remains in my heart. I’m constantly trying to kill the old [sinful] man and put on the new [Christian] man. It is a daily war.”

Pastor Brian Tallman preached behind the large pulpit, only his chest and head visible to the congregation. “Today, we are examining 1 John 3:4–10,” began Pastor Tallman. “In this text, the children of God and the children of the devil are made obvious by John.” Tallman observed that unlike in John’s time, it has become difficult in the church today to determine who is a Christian. “Today, in the church, there is no distinction in behavior from those inside and outside of the church. According to The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience , those proclaiming to be Christian are no different in their racism, divorce rates, sexual immorality, or physical abuse in the home.” Tallman suggested two reasons why the church has demised: the lack of church discipline and preachers who offer cheap grace. “Preachers today tell people that they can live any way they want. That Jesus makes no demands on how you should live,” said Tallman. Tallman concluded that Christians need to believe the right things about the Bible, love their brothers, and that their faith should manifest itself in how they live.”

Full Article: New Life Presbyterian Church

“Most people have no idea what the Orthodox Church is. When I joined the church, my [Protestant] family was perplexed. They thought I had joined the Catholic Church, and Protestants are Rome-a-phobic,” said David Hunt. Hunt transferred to St. Anthony’s Orthodox Church from Horizon Church after he started to read church history. “I was happy in a nondenominational church, until I had a family member attend New Life Presbyterian Church and say he had found the true church. This got me thinking, maybe there is something more out there.” Hunt said he began to read Ignatius, Clement, John Chrysostom, and several other early Christian writers. “I was initially shocked and distressed.” Hunt said the shock was over beliefs he held for years without any question that were under attack. Hunt and his family began to seek a new church that reflected three truths he saw in church history. These truths included a church with Episcopal government, sacramental focus, and liturgical service. “The historical church is Episcopal in government. This means that a bishop is over the pastor and that there is a leadership structure. In typical nondenominational churches, if someone doesn’t like a pastor, he can just move on to the next church. All it takes is someone who decides to start his own church, come up with his own doctrine, and he goes off and forms his own church. That was not how it was meant to be,” said Hunt. “A church needs also to be sacramental. There should be a focus on the Eucharist and how God works through mysteries to bestow grace to us.

Full Article: St. Anthony’s Orthodox Christian Church

In 2005, churches will mail over 50 million direct-mail postcards created by Outreach, Inc., the largest provider of Christian outreach products and services in North America. In addition, churches will hang 200,000 Outreach door hangers on houses, hand out several million bulletins, and display 160,000 banners to promote their church. “2005 was a big year for us because of The Passion of the Christ ,” said Matt Harper, product manager at Outreach. Outreach’s goal is to help churches reach local communities and convert people to Christianity. Last week, several thousand pastors and church leaders attended an Outreach conference in Mission Valley on how to attract non-Christians. The conference offered workshops “led by some of the fastest growing and most innovative ministries and church leaders.” The workshops included, “They Like Jesus — Not the Church,” “How to Attract Visitors Through Direct Mail,” “The Modern Day Orphans: Ministry to Kids in Single-Parent or Blended Families,” “Reaching the Business Leaders in Your Community and Reaching Today’s Urban Youth: They’re Closer than You Think.”

Exhibitors promoted additional outreach services, from golf events by In His Grip Golf Association, financial management seminars based on the Bible, to business-leadership seminars with telecast lectures by people like author John Maxwell, supermodel Kathy Ireland, and NFL quarterback Peyton Manning. Outreach promoted a comedy event for churches. “A comedian will come and perform 40 minutes of stand-up comedy that is family-friendly,” said Paul Pickard, Outreach events general manager. “The events are effective and are not something that the community expects from a church. It allows people to attend a church that might otherwise not feel comfortable.”

Full Article : National Outreach Conference

I spent today at the National Outreach Convention. I will dedicate a post to each session I attend to share what I learned. Here are the sessions I plan or have to attended:

Breaking Attendance Barriers

Do you desire to see your church grow to the next level? Do you feel stuck at a certain level in your church’s growth? In this session you will learn how to effectively develop growth systems that work whether your barrier is 125, 250, 500 or 1000.
You will learn:

* How to identify and remove the barriers that keep your church from growing
* How to develop effective systems for staff, space, small groups, and finances in order to strengthen your growth potential
* How to think strategically about growth in order to avoid future barriers

The TurnOut Solution: Solving the Problem of Plateau and Decline

Churches lapse into plateau and decline because, over time, they turn more and more inward. The solution is simply that churches must turn outward in order to correct spiritual negatives and to reach lost communities strategically. When they do, they foster health and growth, and see an increase in turnout.

You will learn:

* The origin and nature of plateau and decline.
* Spiritual and strategic dynamics of moving from plateau and decline to health and growth.
* The first steps in turning their churches around by turning their churches outward.

Putting E-Communications to Work in Family Outreach

Our culture is media dominated - a fact particularly true for young marrieds and younger families where the opportunities for preventing marriage and family problems vs. remedial efforts to fix problems are the greatest. These same opportunities provide an open door to use marriage content to reach families for Christ via e-communications.

This presentation will highlight the latest research from secular studies and the Barna Research Group on how the Internet is changing daily life. Identify opportunities for impacting marriages and families through church e-communications.
You will:

* Learn how the Internet & e-communications are shaping daily life among various age groups
* Understand the fundamental and basic considerations in choosing e-communication objectives
* Experience some best practices in using e-communications in marriage, family, and outreach ministry

Creating a Church that Connects & Integrates Visitors

This session is for those who are looking for practical tools that will greatly increase visitor assimilation in their church. Gain insights from a leading authority on assimilation in a concise presentation that provides practical “lessons learned” and “best practices” from fifteen years of working with thousands of churches.
You will learn:

* 7 Laws of Assimilation with associated principles
* Best practices and lessons learned in assimilation.
* The big picture of assimilation

The Power of the Internet for Outreach, In-Reach, and Up-Reach

Websites: The hub of communication inside and outside the church? The front door of today’s church? The meeting room for ministries? When the doors are shut and the lights are off at the church can your website can be used of God to actually reach people?

You will learn:

* How to use your church website as an Outreach, In-reach, and Up-reach tool for your church
* Website keys to create stickiness and generate ongoing traffic flow
* How to improve communication to your community, your membership, and your key leadership
* Practical web-based applications and ideas to harness the energy from your other internal and external media, advertising, and outreach initiatives

“If a Christian is a true seeker of God, they are better off reading the word of God at face value than buying into the traditions of mainstream churches. When a believer sincerely cries out to God, God will lead them into [our] community,” said Wade Skinner, an elder of the Twelve Tribes community in Vista. Twelve Tribes was born out of the Jesus movement by Elbert Spriggs in the 1970s. “To me, Spriggs’s teachings have an equal authority to Peter, Paul, or John,” said Skinner, a friend of Spriggs for 15 years. Spriggs visualized the community as a new spiritual nation of God. The Twelve Tribes has grown to 50 communities in nine countries with two communities in San Diego County. The Twelve Tribes community believes they are the only true disciples of Jesus on earth. “After the book of James was written, Christianity underwent a period of Dark Ages, where there is no evidence there were people living as the Holy Nation. Sincere Christians today are righteous people, but they are no different than atheists,” said Skinner. “If you are the seed of Abraham, you must do the deeds of Abraham. This means Christians will live as the early believers did in Acts 2, who sold their possessions and shared based on the needs of people.” People who join the community give their possessions to Twelve Tribes. “When Christians hear about our community, they are very threatened by our life. All they want is personal salvation. But they are not truly God’s people.”

Full Article: Twelve Tribes : The Commonwealth of Israel

(Also read my post Is the Twelve Tribes a Cult?)