The New "In" Thing...

"Discipleship" is all the rage these days. It's a main catchword for church activity.

It's even the title of IOLBC's Beyond Ministry website: www.everydaydiscipleship.org and our family blog: www.discipleshipkitchen.blogspot.com

There is good reason for this. Jesus' followers are called "disciples." Jesus invites them to be "disciples." And Jesus commanded disciple reduplication. In fact, it is the one main command Jesus gives the disciples at the end of Matthew's gospel:

As you go about your lives, make disciples of all peoples...(Matt. 28:19)

Still, it can be a little concerning when it gets mixed up with American consumer-Facebook-media driven-"what's in" culture. Or a lot concerning. A recent article from Missio Alliance reflects this concern. The article questions the use of "discipleship" as some sort of fixer to ignite more excitement and participation in church. Discipleship is not to be a church program or a catchy idea to get those people who are not quite "in" on the church thing.

Not Everyone is the Same Kind of Christian

This is the third post in a series that attempts to think through some matters related to the church today, based on a series of posts by Ed Stetzer at Christianity Today. Click to go to part 1 or part 2. 


Not everyone is the same kind of Christian.

We all get this. There are Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Reformed, E-Free, Mennonites, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and so on. Even within these denominations there is much variety. Some might say division.

But, I'm not talking about these groups.

This is REALLY Crazy!

Part II of a series on the church today. See part I here.

So I came across this news the other day. Some scientists are talking about bringing the woolly mammoth back. From extinction. See the video here.

Regardless of whether or not it can actually happen, I'm more interested in the thought behind it.

What's wrong with being extinct? Isn't extinction part of the natural order? Do we want to mess with that? Maybe I'm over simplistic in my scientific understanding, but it seems to me that it's actually good for things die out and new things to replace them. It's an important part of life.

Churches in America...Leaders Take Notice

Over at Christianity Today's blog, Ed Stetzer began a blog series on "Churches in America" this summer. Over the next few weeks, we'll course through this with some thoughts and questions to engage you, church leaders, with some of what he says.

His first post is here.

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"Facts are our friends." This is an important point Stetzer makes. We can embrace them or ignore them.

One fact: the church's influence on people is fading. It's a slow fade, to be sure. But it's still fading. It might be that the slow fade has been part of the problem. It's been slow and gradual enough that too few churches and church leaders really noticed. But now, for many churches, the fade has hit a crucial point, and it seems for some that there's no return.

Stetzer also points out, however, that there is no credible research that shows Christianity is dying. It's just people are less interested in attending church and less influenced by the church. That, I think, is a really interesting dynamic.

Owning It.

There are some recent buzz words, especially among Lutheran circles--"sharing your story," "telling your story," and the like.

I'm not a fan of buzz words or catch phrases that become their own insider lingo. But I do like the idea that these particular ones are trying to get across.

With "sharing your story," the idea seems to be that it is important for people to be able to tell about their lives, where God has shown up in their lives, how they see their lives connected to what Jesus is still doing in the world.

This is more than just "sharing" one's story, though. This is "owning it"--personally expressing how one's life has been drawn into the family of God, swept up by the Holy Spirit. Some evangelical circles used to (and still do) call it "giving your testimony." Lutheran and other circles for whom this is a new catchphrase are really just using different language to talk about the same thing that evangelicals have been doing for a long time.

What's Your Plan for Youth Ministry?

Doing youth ministry well requires time and planning. A youth minister can hang out with kids a lot. But it takes time and planning to go somewhere with the relationship. And it takes time and planning to turn "youth ministry" into ministry to youth and ministry with youth in a way that turns youth into agents of the gospel in the world and generates vibrant involvement from other in the church. Doing this in a way that keeps youth ministry from being nothing more than the thing the young gal or guy on church staff does takes time, planning, and vision.

The summer months are a great time to start this sort of thing as you look ahead to what you want to accomplish in the coming year.

Over at Churchleaders.com, they have a helpful little article that gives some steps to develop a strategic plan for youth ministry. I recommend it to you--youth leaders or just those invested in ministering to youth.

Here are the main points briefly:

1. Assemble a team. The more investment from those in the congregation, the better. 
2. Develop a specific purpose/vision. You may have an overall church vision/mission. What you do should fit into this. If the church mission/vision is too vague or needs work, then this might need to be another conversation. But even beyond this, you will want a specific vision and mission for what exactly you want to accomplish in the coming year. You can even have a mission/vision for smaller increments of time (a semester, Advent season, etc.)
3. Look at the landscape. You must always reassess the landscape, because it changes. What you did last year may well not work because this next year is different. You need to get a pulse on the youth and their families and listen--what's going on? What are the needs? What questions are they asking? Your plan for the year should fit on the landscape.
4. Develop a plan. How exactly will you get from point A to point B? What steps will you and your team take?
5. Set a date for review. Don't wait until the end of the year to do this. Set review times throughout the year to get a pulse on how things are going and to maybe tweak things as you go.

Go to their website to read the whole thing.

Happy planning!

What are our ministries designed to achieve?

In their book, Right Here, Right Now: Everyday Mission for Everyday People, authors Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford make a very thoughtful statement:

"we are perfectly designed to achieve what we are currently achieving."

Interesting statement, isn't it? It begs us to look at what we are currently achieving in our ministries. Whether we're experiencing "success" in our ministries or not, taking this statement seriously might mean rethinking. It might mean "back to the drawing board." This is potentially a very tough question to face because of what it could tell us about our ministries and what we're not doing well.