In response to some things stirring within me, along with the sense that there is some cultural context we are striving to find yet failing in our search, I am devoting my blogspace on Thursdays to what I am calling “3rd Culture Thursday.” It’s an exploration and conversation related to the idea of third culture kids and how we as the church should move towards embracing the concept within our own communities. This whole 3rd culture idea became aware to me from reading Dave Gibbons‘ book: The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership For A Third-Culture Church.
Gibbons defines 3rd culture as:
The mindset and the will to love, learn, and serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort.
A key element to the discussion is this idea of being committed to something while being in the midst of pain and discomfort. It involves honesty, conflict, hard work and an attitude of openness. These are all hard things to deal with on an individual basis, but imagine what life would be like if we were to take them all on once and then some. Imagine the amazing things that come about if we would at least try.
Here’s a video from Dave Gibbons that gives a bit of insight on the 3rd culture mindset:
Does this resonate with you? Are you intrigued? Beginning to feel a sense of connectedness? If so, it is my hope that this forum will help educate and be used as a way to lend a voice to others and engage in some new dialog.
Learn more by visiting Dave Gibbons’ 3rd culture website: http://www.3culture.tv or by reading his book: The Monkey And The Fish. Also, look for tweets with the hashtag #3ct or follow the aggregate list of tweets on twubs.com/3ct as I will be tweeting 140 characters at a time throughout the week to help facilitate better understanding and dialog on 3rd culture.
See you here next Thursday as we kick-off the conversation with a post titled “Who is your neighbor?”
Saw a post today by Todd Rhoades over at his blog Monday Morning Insight. It shared a video clip of John MacArthur responding to the question I used as the title of this post: What is the greatest threat to the church today?
MacArthur explains that in his opinion, the biggest threat to the church today is the lack of theology and expository preaching resulting in a watered-down gospel. That great oratory is taking a front seat to sound doctrine and is being widely spread via media so that others will believe it to be true just because it is so prevalent.
Acts 2:42 is a small glimpse into what it was like in the first century church:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Knowing Christ in ones heart is a personal matter. I truly believe that it can be an individual experience devoid of any preacher or church. However, what one chooses to do with their new faith is something that I believe requires others. God calls us to him individually, but wants us to become part of a collective body with Christ at the head. Seeking to know God’s truth through his word, engaging in fellowship with other believers, practicing the ritual of communion in remembrance of Christ, and prayer are all things that should be a extension of ones maturity as they grow in their faith. However, is topical preaching on things relevant to one’s culture such as managing finances, having a health marriage, dealing with stress, etc. the greatest threat to the church today?
Not to sound critical here, but I believe that the church is the greatest threat to the church today. Too often the church becomes driven by human leadership and numerical growth. Environments are created where people are encouraged to come from another church and be recognized by baptism in their new church, even though they have been publicly baptized already. In the church, we are made to feel guilt if we aren’t inviting our friends and co-worker to our church. Acts 2:47 reads:
praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
If we as the church love God and love others, then God will do his part and send people to hear the teaching, have fellowship, share in communion, and pray for each other. Numerical growth in the church shouldn’t be worked out in meeting rooms in the church by those deemed to be qualified to discuss such topics. It’s a natural outpouring of God’s love for his people. He will connect them in fellowship with others so they may be encouraged and prayed for and serve together. Acts 2 tells us this.
When the church tries to make formulaic processes the reason for health and growth then I see an error in that. When churches focus on loving God and loving others, they naturally seek to grow and mature and stand firm in truth and be steadfast to keep running the race they were called to. It becomes more about what is read in Ephesians 4:4-6:
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
And less about following a pastor, church creed, or membership bylaws to the exclusion of others.
If we look at where there is explosive growth in the church today, it is in places like China, not the US. In China, the church is mainly underground with people gathering at the risk of persecution because they feel the need to be together corporately and to encourage others to fight the good fight. They are not coming under threat of persecution to see Chris Tomlin or Matt Redman lead worship, nor to see Joel Osteen or Robert Schuller preach. They gather because they are the church! They let the Word of God stand on its own, they sing songs of joy and thanksgiving to One Lord, in one faith, under one baptism for one God who is over all. They rejoice in knowing that others are coming to know this same God throughout the world and it gives them strength and hope. The church is at large and believers are born again every second in China. In the US today, church is more like an institution with rules and regulations. There isn’t the freedom and inspiration of the early church as described in Acts 2 or the resurgence of the church in China. Therefore, it is the church that is the greatest threat to the church in my opinion.
How would you respond to this question. Is the greatest threat different in your mind?
One of the things I was really looking forward to at The Idea Camp was a chance to hear people bouncing ideas off of each other, especially in the area of merging technology with the church. In the end, not a lot of ideas were really opened up, but many people came with lots of questions. In particular, the questions were about technology and social media.
It seems that people are hearing about twitter, yet not quite understanding it. It seems some are hearing about facebook, but not quite getting it. Unfortunately, I truly believe that if we don’t keep up with the pace of tech and social media we will get left behind. Some are willing to let the rest of the world pass them by.
I must admit that as technology oriented as some people think I am, I am really behind the times. I started with myspace and didn’t like it, but found that the kids in my youth ministry wouldn’t return calls or emails, but would reply to myspace messages. Then I tried facebook about 2 years ago and hated it. It was so plain and everyone else’s page looked the same…it was homogeneous with no personality. However, I soon realized that once again, friends that wouldn’t respond to email or phone calls, were responding to facebook messages. So, I adapted and have learned to like facebook because it is convenient and I can update through my cell phone while on the go. Next came twitter, which was just so boring and voyeuristic. I signed on with twitter July 31, 2008 and after barely breaking 100 followers last December, I now have over 770–an increase of about 670 followers in just the past two months. I’m not even really trying. It’s taking off like crazy with more new connections being made daily! These are people I wouldn’t ordinarily get to meet without a tool such as twitter.
At some point, with cell phones such as the iphone being able to do just about everything a notebook computer can do, email will be obsolete completely and even sms messaging could fall by the wayside as twitter and facebook take over.
As speakers were on the main stage, we in the live audience and all viewing the streaming webcast could use cell phones to text message the speakers with a question that would get answered. Programs and schedules were not printed and distributed online in advance of the gathering. Off-site meetings for lunch were coordinated via tweetups. It was quite a sight to see so many people moving along the conference halls knowing where they were going because they were plugged in.
The Idea Camp proved to me that I need to stay connected with others and continue to develop my networks. I got a chance to connect with several people that I had only known through twitter such as: @charlestlee, @djchuang, @jonathanhochan, @cynthiaware, @laurencetom, @marcpayan, @gregatkinson and @scotthodge. Social networking facilitated conversation and connection, but I have to admit that meeting face-to-face really solidified these friendships. I am now a real face that had a chance to engage with them in dialog and vice-versa. Even some people that I had not connected with previously, but followed on twitter came up to me and introduced themselves such as @joshchow and @nellechang.
I’m learning a lot through my journey in social networking and using technology and new media. have a funny feeling that we haven’t even scratched the surface yet and there are more exciting new ways to connect coming on the horizon. I’m looking to implement some of these technologies for open communication within our church plant later this August.
Do you have any takeaways from The Idea Camp in regards to tech or social media? Maybe you have an interesting way you are implementing tech into your ministry? I’d appreciate seeing your ideas so please comment with them!
While reading through some blogs this week I came across a blog post on Christian leadership. It talked about discipleship as the main function of pastoral leaders. After reading the post (which was very interesting!) I scrolled down to the comments and saw this:
“I love Pastors, but honestly, I don’t trust them very much anymore.”
It was in reference to the church becoming more about the personality of the lead pastor and less about God and the Holy Spirit. Seeing this made me reflect upon 1 Corinthians 1:12 in which there are four men named as having followers: Paul, Apollos, Cephas and Christ–all within one church.
We can argue and debate over what methods we incorporate in our worship and about the theology behind a sermon, but can we really argue over who is at the head of the church? If Christ is the indisputable head of the church, then why do we have so many quarrels and divisions within the church? Could it be that we choose to follow one pastor over another, a deacon over an elder, one member over another, or possible we are following our own will above all else?
Following Christ involves sacrifice and we are called to be dead to ourselves so that we may be alive in Christ (Romans 6:11)! If the world wants to make it all about themselves I can understand that. However, if we are living for God and credit him with our righteousness and really appreciate that Christ was sacrificed for our sin, what kind of example are we when we associate ourselves with following someone other than Christ in Christ’s own church?
If we believe that the Word of God is for us and that we have life only due to Christ’s death, how much faith do we have in that if we can’t follow the wisdom in Colossians 1:17-20:
17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
In a perfect world we would have unity and peace, especially in the church. However, we must be held accountable to our own actions and we must commit to take the steps required to give peace and unity a chance! Just because a pastor asks you to follow him even if division is a result, be sure you are following Christ first. Pastors are sinners just like the rest of us and following a man instead of your Lord & Savior is bound to lead to destruction.
Follow Christ and learn from his example and he will make a way for other to stand firm with you for the sake of unity within the church.
A large part of the missional church movement is a call to action within our communities. There is an underlying core belief that we need to get out and let the world know we are disciples of Christ intent on sharing his love with others, rather than holed-up in a building on Sunday mornings with others that believe as we do.
I know the mission of the missional church clearly rubs some people the wrong way. Let me clearly state that I while I don’t feel called to lead a fellowship of people into becoming the next mega church or follow purpose driven principles, I applaud you for doing what you do and reaching people the way that you do. However, your calling is not my calling and God will use all sorts of people through all sorts of methods to see people come to know him through his Son Jesus the Christ.
A lot of us in pastoral ministry tend to take sides on evangelism. We all cite the Great Commission as something that needs to be taken seriously as disciples, yet we don’t all agree on what carrying the Great Commission looks like. For some it’s having an attractional church with lots of programs to meet the needs of families. By drawing them in with programs, they can be exposed to the gospel. Others send missionaries to various parts of the world and help support them. Many churches will do special events and ask congregants to take advantage of the opportunity to invite their friends and neighbors and co-workers for a chance to come in and be hooked by the gospel.
The one thing that I stand upon is that nothing about the gospel in Scripture is attractional. Throughout the entire New Testament, there is one clear, underlying theme to the gospel: repent and be baptized. Call upon the Lord for forgiveness of sins and profess his name and you will be saved. In so doing, the Lord will never leave you, nor forsake you. It’s pretty simple and blatantly clear.
To me, being attractional means living a life in celebration of Christ and taking seriously his commands. So, I guess in that sense I am attractional. Our vision for planting and launching Revolution Church Sacramento is based upon this through our vision statement: We want to be a gathering of transformed people that God uses to help transform the lives of others in the Sacramento area. I am a firm believer that our vision and mission are supported by Scripture in Acts 2:42-47:
42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
If we live a life of faith praising God and give of ourselves for the sake of others that have need, God will add to our number daily those that are being saved. This is first and foremost they way we should evangelize. We cannot cause someone to know Christ, but through us and our living witness to the glory of Christ Jesus, God can use us to sow seeds that he will nurture and grow into fruitful service to the kingdom of heaven.
Father God, I pray that you will continue to speak to your servants and call them to be used by you for the sake of others coming to know you through your Son Jesus. Thank you for your call upon all of us as your ministers of the gospel to live a life that honors and glorifies you and being open to be at the right place at the right time, doing the right thing to impart thoughts of your love into the minds and hearts of those you are about to call into the kingdom of heaven. Thank you for using each of us individually to do your work for your people. That no greater love exists than your love for your people. A love so strong that you sent your Son to die for the forgiveness of all sin because we could not do not so by ourselves. Bless the work of your Church and the people in leadership to show love for all and to be burdened for others more than for themselves. Bring us to a place of peace and unity within your body so that we may be living witnesses that draw others to be added to our number daily those that are being saved. You are good and your mercy endures forever. I pray your anointing and favor on your people and those in pastoral ministry whom you have entrusted with your flock. In the name of Jesus, amen.
One of the things I was really looking forward to at 
At some point, with cell phones such as the iphone being able to do just about everything a notebook computer can do, email will be obsolete completely and even sms messaging could fall by the wayside as twitter and facebook take over.
