MIM Ezine, April 26, 2010

-- Purpose-Filled Ministry-- Authenticity in Christian Community, by Teena Stewart.

-- Book Review, "Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God," by Francis Chan with Danae Yankoski, reviewed by Teena Stewart.

A handful of us gathered Sunday morning for our usual community, Bible study, and sharing time. It’s often this way at Java Journey, our coffee shop ministry. The topic for study and dialogue was compassion…and the conversation was amicable and animated. As discussion time drew to a close, Ben, one of our younger members, shared some of the struggles he was having. He related that a few days earlier a woman had come into the coffee shop while Ben was on duty behind the counter and struck up a conversation with her. He learned that as a newcomer to Hickory she was not only struggling to find her way around, but also adjusting to a new culture which was much different than that in the northern state where she had moved from.

Ben was sure he was supposed to minister to this lady: “after all, wasn’t that what this crazy coffee shop ministry is all about?” But as they talked, the woman ended up giving him a message that he needed to hear. Instead of him ministering to her, she had ministered to him. Ben courageously admitted that for many days leading up to the meeting with this woman, he had been struggling with several different issues. As a result he was very angry and had a real attitude problem. But he shared that, “God sent this lady to help me out. She said some things I needed to hear. And I just want to say ‘I’m sorry’ to you all for having such a bad attitude.”

Ben’s genuineness and willingness to confess his own human struggles opened the door for me to share as well. I had arrived at the coffee shop that day very upset and hurt. Our leadership had decided to reduce the number of face-to-face meetings we were holding. And their solution was to use online discussion forums and email. In theory, this would allow us to get more done without overtaxing busy leaders by allowing them to meet “virtually.”

In many ways this new system works well, but sometimes it can be difficult to cover everything online if the subject is a particularly complicated one. Online meetings and emails can also be misconstrued. One can’t read voice inflexion or tone without seeing facial expressions. It is easy to be offended through online messages because the other party can’t immediately ask the other person to explain. Much is left unsaid and hurts can fester as a result.

I know because I’ve experienced this first hand. While trying to organize a computer recycling drive for our ministry in the hope of promoting community service and raising funds, I had made several leaders anxious about what was taking place. One leader, in particular, alarmed by something I had said, responded with what can be best interpreted as shouting and chastisement in his online post. It wasn’t the first time it had happened. More than once his emails had seemed condescending and lecturing. That evening as I sat down to post, I had just learned that a dear friend of mine had died. As I read this leader’s email response to my post about recycling, I was deeply hurt. I fired off a response stating that I was very upset and that we could hash it through the next day, which was Sunday morning.

That evening as I cooled down, I felt convicted. Maybe some of the concerns the leaders had posted were on target. How would I deal with this the next day without reopening my wounds or lashing out? I was sorely tempted to skip church that day, but decided that really wasn’t the answer.

That Sunday, as Ben finished pouring out his heart, I wanted to keep what had happened the evening before hidden. But Ben’s authenticity and humbleness of spirit assured me that if he could admit such human frailty through confession, that maybe I could too. The Holy Spirit nudged me to speak and I related my own hurts and apologized for my response online the evening before. I explained the circumstances leading up to my post, that I was very emotional because of the loss of a friend, and I also shared that I was going through what could best be described as Founder’s Syndrome. As a co-founder of the out-of-the-box coffee shop ministry, it was painful to let go of what I felt was best and let other leaders make the decisions too.

The rest of the group listened respectfully, and the leader who had caused my deep hurt apologized to me. He admitted he might have overdone it and said he would try to do better. As we wrapped up our gathering, Jeannie, one of our other leaders spoke up. “Something amazing is happening here. I am so impressed with this group.” She went on to talk about another church plant she had been a part of where things had not fared well. At one point, when there were disagreements, the group could never reconcile because they were never able to be authentic and honest with one another. That church plant was never able to move past those wounds. Eventually the group disbanded. “This group is incredible,” Jeannie continued. “When we started this ministry we all warned each other that adversary would try to attack and sabotage our mission. He (the evil one) is trying very hard, but I don’t think this group is going to let that happen. We are determined to survive. We are willing to work at it. We are so authentic…”

Before we adjourned that day we prayed for one another and walked away knowing something significant had happened. We’d had a breakthrough and the façade came tumbling down.

Authenticity means taking off the masks and sharing the deep stuff. How often do churches and groups of Christians manage to really do this? So often we want to appear to have our act together, when actually we are genuinely struggling. How often does the Adversary use this to destroy the body of Christ? Authenticity starts with vulnerability. All it takes is one brave soul willing to risk being misunderstood in order to be real…It starts with you. Are you willing to tear down the walls?

Teena Stewart and her husband, Jeff, operate Java Journey a Christian coffee shop ministry (http://www.javajourney.org.) She is a published author, ministry consultant, and speaker. Her most recent book is Successful Small Groups from Concept to Practice. For more info about Teena see http://www.ministryinmotion.net/teena_stewart.html or http://www.serendipitini.com. You are welcome to email her with questions or comments at smartwords@embarqmail.

Jenny looked around the small group that had gathered in the kitchen at the parsonage. They were not a powerful and influential group by this world’s standards. A couple of them were retired school teachers. There was a stay at home mom, an auto mechanic, and an administrative secretary. None of them were financially secure or wealthy. None of them had been featured in anyone’s Who’s Who. But they were an awesome group with huge dreams of what God might want to do in their town.

Jenny was operating out of a couple of assumptions. First, the current economic climate of uncertainty is likely our new reality for the next several years. Waiting for an economic boom to suddenly fill the church’s coffers was as unrealistic as waiting for some rich uncle to remember the church in his will.

Frankly, that is not the way God generally works anyway, Jenny thought to herself. God has a way of doing things when they seem most impossible. Her mind quickly ran through a list of the Biblical stories that seemed to emphasize that point.

But it was more than money. They needed some expertise and some community connections her visionary band of prayer warriors lacked where would they find it?

The new reality for effective ministry in the 21^st century was not just recently invented, but it will become the norm for ministries more and more. It is called partnerships. Very few churches and other ministries will be able to garner the resources they need to effectively respond to God’s call all on their own. With today’s economic climate most ministries will have to creatively partner with a variety of other agencies and organizations to address ministry opportunities.

Moreover, healthy partnerships multiply our own range of ministries and services, maximizing the stewardship of resources. For example, the local YMCA has a gym and a couple of classrooms they do not use on Sunday morning. They are closed. The local church has four classrooms they do not use during the week. The Y offers their gym to the church to launch a contemporary worship styled satellite campus and the church offers their classrooms to the Y during the week to sponsor a preschool and day care program. It is a partnership waiting to happen.

The local bank needs space to expand, but doing so on their current footprint eliminates much needed parking. The church next door is also seeking to expand their parking, even hoping to purchase the bank’s property at a less than market cost. Together they purchase a third property that they share for parking. Generally, each of them needs it when the other party does not. It is a partnership waiting to happen.

The local community center wants to provide weekend meals for children who may not get much to eat when school is not in session. Many of these children use the community center’s recreational and tutoring services. But the community center lacks the kitchen facilities required to prepare and package such meals. But the local church has just such a kitchen and a number of volunteers who care passionately about young children. However, the church cannot qualify for the government grant that will cover the costs of the food. It is a partnership waiting to happen.

How does Jenny help her band of visionaries get there? First, they pray. This is not just because we are Christian and we can’t scratch our ear without first praying. It is because ministry partnerships can become so complex and so challenging that they will not work unless God is in the works. Prayer is how we seek God’s will for our ministries. Prayer is how we begin to align our hopes and dreams with God’s hopes and dreams. Prayer is how we begin to tap the passion and energy God has planted within us to pursue what may seem to be impossible to us. Prayer is also how we begin to tune our attention to others God may be raising up to partner with us in ministry.

There are four more key components to developing ministry partnerships. Check in next month to explore these and see how they fit your ministry opportunities!

Tom Hanover is Advertising and Promo Director of MIM ezine. He has served in a variety of pastoral leadership roles for more than 35 years, including seven as a District Superintendent supervising the ministries of more than 100 pastors and churches in southern Ohio. He is currently Senior Pastor of Sulphur Grove UMC, a multisite ministry in Dayton. He has a BA (cum laude) from Taylor University, and the MDIV and DMIN degrees from United Theological Seminary in Dayton. You can contact Tom at hanover@dbmim.net.

The 2010 Winter Olympics have come and gone and one question continues to plague me. Why on earth would anybody think curling is an Olympic sport?

For those of you who don’t know, curling is an activity that involves one person scooting a heavy teapot-looking thing across the ice while a couple of other people furiously sweep or scrub the ice in front of it. It looks like just the type of thing the ice rink maintenance crew might have invented when they were supposed to have been working. Think about it. It’s 4:00 a.m., all the supervisors have gone home for the night, and there are still three hours left in their shift before it‘s time to punch out. What do you think the cleaning crew is going to do? That’s right. They’re going to take some junk out of the maintenance closet and invent a “sport.”

I can hear curling enthusiasts even now. “But you don’t understand! It really is a sport! It’s very difficult to scoot that teapot thing so that it winds up in the right place.”

I was watching the ski jumpers the other night and it was truly amazing. These folks race up a ramp and hurl themselves about three stories up in the air while doing three or four flips and spirals. I could never hurl myself that far into the air. Well, not without hurling, that is.

Then, there are the down-hill skiers who race down a mountain at break-neck speed. Just to make it a little harder, they have to dodge these little flags that are strategically placed so that they slap the skier in the face when he goes by them. At the same time, he has to dedicate a portion of his brain to constantly repeating the mantra: “Don’t ski off the mountain or you’ll die. Don’t ski off the mountain or you’ll die.”

The thing that really impresses me about ice skating is that the skaters have to twirl around insanely on the ice, while wearing uncomfortable, tight-fitting clothing that you know has to be riding up a bit. I imagine their inner-dialog to be something like, “Double axle, spin, twirl, I hope I don’t split my pants in front of all these people, triple axle.”

Bobsledding is one of those sports that looks relatively easy because all the occupants do is push the sled and then hop in for the ride. Admittedly, leaning in a small vehicle doesn‘t seem that impressive, but--and this is an important point here--they’re leaning in a vehicle rocketing down an ice chute at 90 miles an hour.

Ah, yes. A bunch of bundled up, middle-aged folks out on the ice who are intently manipulating a slow-moving, inscrutable object at a mind-numbingly slow pace. This “sport” has the all the drama of melting ice and all the allure of government paperwork.

If curling qualifies as an Olympic sport, then I would like to humbly submit the following activities for consideration for inclusion in future Olympics:

I guess when it comes right down to it, there needs to be some new rules governing just what exactly constitutes an Olympic sport. I suggest:

2] If a pregnant woman can do it, it’s not an Olympic sport. (You’re going to think I’m kidding about this, but there was actually a pregnant women competing in Olympic curling this year.)

3] There has to be at least a decent chance of serious injury. None of us wants to see this, of course, but my point is, the sport cannot be easy or it’s not a sport, it’s a pastime!

My point is, there are some things in life that should be hard, such as Olympic sports. And there are other things that shouldn’t be as tough, such as a relationship with God.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a cost of following Jesus. It will cost you your life, your possessions, your self. But the act of following Jesus doesn’t come with a lot of heavy legal statutes and obligations. The reason for that is that when Jesus owns your heart, your actions will follow.

Jesus said, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:30 NIV) I think that means that walking with God is supposed to be a life of joy and discipline, instead of a difficult and strenuous performance.

Well, enough of this. It’s time for me to go sit on the couch and watch some Olympics highlights on TV. Hey! Look at me. I’m an Olympic athlete!

Francis Chan with Danae Yankoski, 2008, David C. Cook, 205 pages, ISBN #978-7-4347-6851-3

What does it mean to experience God’s love in such a powerful way that it completely changes how we live and interact with the world? Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love asks this question. When we respond the way Jesus wants us to, with complete and utter love, we cannot help ourselves to be anything but radically transformed and have a powerful impact on the world in which we live.

Early in the book, Chan helps us understand the nature and character of God, but in the remainder of the book he urges Christ followers to consider their complacency regarding their faith and their lifestyle. What might we need to change?

Do we really need the material possessions we have? Most of us could do with much less. What does a simpler lifestyle look like and what difference does it make? Chan doesn’t just preach a simple lifestyle. He lives it, even going so far as selling his nice home for a smaller one. Consequently, he has more resources he can give away to those who truly need them.

Why are so many churches and professing Christians living lukewarm existences? Following Christ should be a whole-hearted passion affair. Chan says, “If life is a river then we should be swimming upstream.” Many of us have stopped swimming and are floating downstream with the current.

If you currently feel restlessness or dissatisfied with the present climate of American Christianity, this book will stir you up even more. Chan’s intent is to awaken followers of Christ and instill in them an urgency regarding changing how they personally live and how they interconnect with others. At the least you will likely find yourself reflecting on your Christian walk. At best you will be motivated to alter how you interact with others so that you make a greater impact for Christ.

Francis Chan pastors Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California and is also the founder of Eternity Bible College.

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DBMIM April 26, 2010