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Edward Fudge said:

Fred writes from the edge where faith meets the future and his writing often leaves me a bit uncomfortable — which, I usually conclude, is exactly what I need.

Wade Hodges compared Fred’s writings

“as alcohol, they must be taken in moderation. Otherwise, Fred will mess you up!”

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Conversation with Alan Hirsch

Read my conversation with Alan Hirsch, the author of The Forgotten Ways [here]

I was shocked when I heard that Leonard Sweet had accepted the position left vacant at Grace Community Church with the firing of John MacArthur. Read the complete story [here]

The Way of the Kingdom

My good friend Larry Chouinard, who blogs at Spiritual Conversations, has made his most recent publication, The Way of the King, available as a free download. [download it here]

What Happened to Small Groups?

Think about the evolution of small group ministries from its inception until now. What happen to small groups? What has become of this ministry today? Would it be fair to define small group ministry as a robust group of young believers who are actively engaging the missing? Or would we see a small group of Christians who passionately pursue intimacy and nurture in relationship. With all that said, I remember a very talented parachurch group that traveled across America offering training in small group evangelism. Small groups were being herald as the solution to church intimacy and church growth. The prospect was exciting.

The most creative idea I heard that weekend was the empty chair concept. We arranged our chairs in a semi-circle and the group leader sat an empty chair in the middle of the circle. He then emphasized the importance of filling the chair with one of our friends or neighbors in the coming week. This was my first experience with the empty chair and it pumped me up. But not only me, everyone was encouraged to think, “friend.” The session ended with a rally cry. And we kept it very close to our heart: “they might not come to a church building but they’ll come to your home.”

It’s been almost twenty years now. And I find it unfortunate that this may have been as close as we came to establishing a missional goal for small group ministries. If so, at some point in time we lost our way. Most small groups I’ve been involved with have become a home bible class study with no concrete evidence to offer that would show our care and concern for the people Jesus misses the most. And few have shown a concern for building relational intimacy with other believers. Maybe the format is not conducive to the accomplishment of those things.

Small groups never took off because of the natural tension that exists between nurture and evangelism. Nurture comes natural, evangelism does not. I can remember the dialogue—should we incorporate nurture groups and evangelistic groups as one or should we form two separate groups? There was never clear direction on this so we went with what came natural–hoping we could be evangelistic without being intentional.

Allelon Telecast with Sally Morgenthaler and Alan Roxburgh

Don’t leave this post until you watch this podcast. You’ve got to. Take the time; it’s an awesome conversation illustrating what it means to follow for Jesus. It runs for approximately 30 minutes. Grab a coffee, a Latte, or a Mocha and sit still for a few.

Do it. Now!

Get out of your own backyard. […link]

Finding the Found to Find the Lost

The greatest barrier to a clear Kingdom vision may be a misunderstanding of what a priority- missional community looks like. I acknowledge that most Christian churches have a missional aspect. But when one examines a missional-priority church more closely, one discovers a significant difference between church outreach and a missional church. That difference begins at the theological foundation and ultimately finds expression in practices inherent to the broader Kingdom vision. Practically speaking missional-priority means spending more time with the missing than with Christian friends

Individually some of us do this at work and in our neighborhoods. But leaders “who are in the know” become responsible for building a culture of missional priority believers.

How does a conventional church reverse its direction?

In short, missional leaders begin by systematically talking to the community about process salvation and each individual’s place in the process.

Missional leaders help the community understand the ease and simplicity of entering into salvation’s process and correct the common held belief that it is the Christian’s responsibility to take God to the missing. That old container is removed by helping the community understand that no one takes God to anyone. God is already in the lives of their co-workers, friends, and family. Missional leaders teach the community the simplicity of helping their friends connect the dot.

This becomes the center-piece of the assembly. It’s talked about every time the community comes together

• Missional leaders remove the fear. Ordinary attempts replace memorization, speeches, and coercion
• Unfortunately, there are those in church leadership who suffer from a “missional instinct deficit” which makes missional culture building impossible. Church leaders can’t be talked into or coerced to live passionately for building a culture of missional Christians. It has to come from deep within because the process of culture building is time intensive-demanding a tremendous amount of energy and patience
• All across America churches are expending energy and time crafting the Sunday morning ‘worship’ while a large percentage of resources are being consumed by staff and buildings. Churches that opt for missional culture building will have to redirecting their focus and resources. Otherwise the process will never get out of the starting gate.

For the conventional church the man in the pulpit has to consider missional culture building as important as sermon building if change is to take place. He has the pulpit. He has influence. But he must have the wisdom and the understand as well as a strong passion for developing a missional community of believers  If all these things come together a faith community has the potential of transcending the attractional consumer church and sparking a community to belief and action.  

But without a total commitment to the idea of missional culture building on the part of leadership, it’s a stillborn thought.

I haven’t given up on the conventional church as many have, but it would sadden me to think historian Barbara Tuchman was right when she said…

“In the scaled of history, inertia always outweighs that of change”

Seven Things Jesus Didn’t Do

1. Didn’t bring a lost person to decision
2. He offered forgiveness without confession of sin
3. Failed to ask about the prospect’s (yuck, hate that word) spiritual background
4. Didn’t use healing as a bait for decision
5. Failed to get the prospect (yuck, again) into a Bible (Torah) study
6. Failed to communicate the urgency of the encounter
7. Forgot to assign a spiritual person to do follow-up

adapted from a Doable Evangelism Seminar