I just finished day 2 of a 4 day conference in Orlando centered around reproducing churches. It has been a whirlwind of great information and great networking. I'm hanging out right now with 3 other church planters and have met a ton of people over the past couple of days. There are about 3,000 people from across the world attending this Exponential Church conference.
Over the past few years we have refined the purpose of New Hope, "To honor God by making passionate followers of Jesus Christ through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit" and our core value as "Transformation through Grace, Growth, and Generosity." This has really allowed us to focus what we are about and how we make ministry decisions. However, as we have been challenged to refine our vision to the point of making it portable, Andy Stanley challenged us. He asked, what is the vision of the "One" campaign that Bono is leading -- "To make poverty history" - sure, there are more details with that, but it is memorable and everyone knows what it is about. He asked, what the vision of Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barak Obama were... the only one people knew was Obama's "Change" - everyone shouted it out. The point is that vision must be simple to remember and portable.
As Pastor Bill and I have chatted about our already refined purpose and vision, we started dialoguing about a perhaps even more refined vision. We toyed with "Reproducing Transformation". The idea here is that we want to be transformed and to reproduce that transformation in other individuals (through mentoring), through small groups, and churches. We are about transformation and we are about reproducing that transformation in others. Perhaps this does not discuss all of the theological elements of it, but we need to be able to clearly articulate what we are about. "Hey, what is New Hope all about?"... "Reproducing Transformation."
What is small groups about? Reproducing transformation
What is mentoring about? Reproducing transformation
What is children's ministry about? Reproducing transformation
What is Sunday morning services about? Reproducing transformation
Why do we have adult sunday school? Reproducing transformation
What is mens, womens, seniors, young adults about? Reproducing transformation
Why do we plant churches? Reproducing transformation
What d'ya think?
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
The Body
This morning, pastor Bill dug into the issue of the different parts of the body working together for the good of the entire body. As we were doing the drama and being interviewed, it occurred to me how much of my past willingness to serve was related to my own sense of self-worth. I do not want to serve when I am not feeling good about myself or I'm lacking confidence. But as I thought more about this I realized how closely this is tied to having our identity in Christ. The more I am assured in my identity as an adopted child of God, the more I am willing to put myself out there. Like any relationship, starting to serve is sort of like going on a first date: what if they don't like me? what if they think I'm weird? what if I don't like them? how could I end it if I know its not working?
Any time we step out into something new, it is a risk. But as each one of us are transformed, we start to understand that growth comes from risk. Risk to serve in an area with no expertise. Risk to ask a question about God that no one else dares ask. Risk to say we don't have it all together. Risk or being transparent. Risk of seeing the transparency of others.
But we are the body. We are brothers and sisters. Perhaps there exists a truly functional family and, in that hypothetical family, I think there is transparency and trust. Conversely, it seems one of the traits of the "most" dysfunctional families is there lacks the ability to be real. I strongly desire the family of New Hope to be healthy; we may not be fully functional (although that's the goal), but we must be healthy. This means we share what is on our mind, including the truth in love. It means we need to accept hearing the truth in love. It means we are patient with each other and realize each person is uniquely wired by God.
It's exciting to be part of a larger body. I'm so honored to be part of the family of God and even more specifically of the family of New Hope. Like brothers and sisters, we'll walk through disagreements and conflict, but at the end of the day, like Sister Sledge sang, "We are family!"
Any time we step out into something new, it is a risk. But as each one of us are transformed, we start to understand that growth comes from risk. Risk to serve in an area with no expertise. Risk to ask a question about God that no one else dares ask. Risk to say we don't have it all together. Risk or being transparent. Risk of seeing the transparency of others.
But we are the body. We are brothers and sisters. Perhaps there exists a truly functional family and, in that hypothetical family, I think there is transparency and trust. Conversely, it seems one of the traits of the "most" dysfunctional families is there lacks the ability to be real. I strongly desire the family of New Hope to be healthy; we may not be fully functional (although that's the goal), but we must be healthy. This means we share what is on our mind, including the truth in love. It means we need to accept hearing the truth in love. It means we are patient with each other and realize each person is uniquely wired by God.
It's exciting to be part of a larger body. I'm so honored to be part of the family of God and even more specifically of the family of New Hope. Like brothers and sisters, we'll walk through disagreements and conflict, but at the end of the day, like Sister Sledge sang, "We are family!"
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