GlocalNet

It just could be.  This was the first time I’ve ever been asked to speak to a group of church planters that were ALL MEMBERS OF THE SAME CHURCH - about 50 of them.  Grace Fellowship, where David Nelms is the pastor and Greg Kappas is the missions pastor, hosted us with their networks - Timothy Initiative and Grace Global Network.  We’ve had many “non-pastors” go through our training, but to see so many laymen from a single church was really exciting to me. 

Sunday, David gave an invitation challenging members to start churches - many of these will be cells or house churches - this 78 year old lady came forward and said God had called her!  She was at all the training, alert and awake.  Before you discount her, don’t forget God called Abraham at 75 and gave him a son at 100.  It was also reflective of the world in that the majority were immigrants and from all over the world - not so many “white” people.  These first generation immigrants are going to be our salvation in terms of multiplying churches and I’m excited about it.  The world is coming to us - to bring hope - we welcome you - we desperately need your help!

Change comes one of two ways, one way through crisis - and that demands character as I wrote in my last blog - you need a Churchill or Lincoln, but change also comes through progress - or digress!  To handle that change requires innovation.  This would be an Edison, Gates, or Jobs.  A lot of people have great ideas - but great ideas are not enough - without execution those ideas will stay on the shelf.  Sooner or later, someone will execute them because some of those ideas come from the same observation or necessity that generates the idea.  The success of the idea is not the idea or the product, but the introduction and the execution of it.  That’s seen over and over again.  Sometimes an inferior product or idea wins out because of marketing or positioning.  So, when you have a hot idea - and I have tons of them - what have I learned about moving forward with an idea?

1.  See the big picture.  Where is everything going? Where does it fit? What is the value?  If you can’t understand it yourself, you’ll never be able to explain it to other people. 

2.  Bounce it off your confidants.  Tell them why, what, and how it matters.  Make sure some of them are strategic thinkers - they won’t say yes or no, but what they will do is make you ask questions that will lead to a conclusion. 

3.  Bounce it off a person in the field.  Know that they may have been working at it from a different angle for years.  They may push back, or they may go, “WOW,  we gotta do this!” 

4.  Test your idea in a controlled environment.  Don’t implement your idea big until you understand it and its effects as much as possible.  A controlled environment allows you to see things happen, develop, and prepare you for the unintended consequences of change. 

5.  Increase the breadth of your idea and begin to build tracks and systems for it to roll out.  Every idea has to have a way of moving from the head to the hand.  Engineers are vital at this point.  For those of us in religious and humanitarian work “social engineers” are critical.  I’m reading a book right now called “The Design of Business” by Roger Martin.  It’s about design thinking and how “mystery” or …

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My son Ben and I were talking recently about leadership.  Who would you say the greatest leader of the 19th century was?  Lincoln - globally as well because the war for the freedom for slaves was so massive.  Who was the greatest leader of the 20th century?  Churchill, hands down.  Yes FDR was a great American leader - but Churchill was more of a global leader than even FDR. 

What did those two men have in common?  They were failures all throughout their careers.  You know the stories, both ran for office and lost.  Both had huge failures in their work and careers, but each moved forward.  Amazing how someone could be such a failure and such an incredible leader - not really.  This is the stuff legends are made of. 

Failure is a reality for all of us.  How we handle failure is the test.  Those who failure beats up, discourages, and causes to quit wind up disappointed, sour, bitter, going nowhere, dreaming of what could have been.  Those who learn from failure, grow from it are the real leaders.  When moments come - they’re ready and they’re present. 

BUT - you can’t plan for moments like this - you never know when and why they will come.  Moments don’t wait for leaders like this, moments come and go and history will be defined by the quality of leader present at those “moments” when leadership is so critical. 

The Civil War was a moment in time.  WWII was a moment in time.  For both to have the outcomes they did, required men like Lincoln and Churchill.  Here’s the thing, men and women like that aren’t waiting for a moment.  They are surviving their moments.  Anyone can be in a place of leadership if you have money, connections, etc.,  Not anyone can lead like those men did - they had deep deep character. 

There are many other leaders like Churchill and Lincoln - and even if they don’t have a moment that history demands of them - they are fine.  Because they have depth within themselves see life and people for what they are and wherever they are they make a difference. 

History is also filled with moments - even recent history - when a moment came, it called for a BIG L leader like Churchill or Lincoln - and they weren’t present - …

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My very good friend, smart man, good writer, and challenged Anglican, Mark Galli, Senior Editor for Christianity Today just did an editorial on organic church.  You can read it - here’s the link:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/januaryweb-only/11-41.0.html

I don’t know that Neil Cole, Alan Hirsch, and especially Frank Viola (of whom I respect but disagree with on various points) would consider me a “champion” of organic church.  We share many of the same principles, theology, ideas, views.  I’m a mega-church (albeit a little one for Texas!) - many in the “organic” movement don’t care for the likes of mega-churches, but I’m from Texas - everything is bigger here!

I also believe that the focus is on engaging the society through disciples, not trying to reformat the church as a whole which is a waste of time.  Just doing church and doing life together can often be a substitute for obeying Jesus.  What is worth time, is planting new churches with a different DNA, of which we do a lot, and as a result we are seeing a lot of cool stuff.  Missional communities, simple church, house church, to me are not the answer - only part of the expression of the broader and larger church. I love it all, house, missional communities, simple, mega, complex, yo-mama hippin’ hoppin’ - it’s all fine with me those are merely labels and expressions outwardly.  What matters is what’s deep down inside and that’s the life of Christ. 

YES, the organic church movement will die as denominations are dying.  History bears that out. 

WRONG, I don’t believe it’s even a movement, yet.  I believe it’s an idea that many are drawn to and giving expression to in local churches.  Books, conferences, seminars, marketing, or hype do not a movement make.  Movements are a thing of the Holy Spirit - read my book The Multiplying Church - you can’t make them happen.  They’re out of control exploding - that ain’t happenin. Good stuff is happening, it’s just not a movement as defined by the rest of the world. 

NO MARK - I WILL NOT WORRY IF A MOVEMENT LIVES OR DIE.  I believe in the sovereignty of God!  Movements are a thing of the Spirit.  I want in on God’s movements - not those we can create on our own.

JESUS IS MY MOVEMENT.  I’M NOT GIVING MY LIFE TO A MOVEMENT …

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Yesterday as I was sitting outside drinking coffee with a friend a beggar approached us -  I did nothing.  He looked like a drug addict - so I was justified in not doing anything.  He probably would spend it on booze or drugs.  I did have a $50 bill in my back pocket.  It may have been a curse to have given him - or maybe not. I’ll never know.  What should I have done? I’m not sure.  Was I right? I don’t know.  I travel the world and am used to beggars, if you stop for all of them, you’ll never do anything else and many are there because of themselves.

I really enjoyed my personal worship time this morning.  I read about God calling Abraham - he begins his call on Abraham with one word - “Go!”  Just like the Great Commission!!!!  Then he tells him he’ll be a blessing to all families (nations, ethnos) of the world.  So Abraham being the ultimate disciple, goes - and the rest of his life - he primarily blesses others - not himself.  For him to leave his home, his wealth, as an old man, made absolutely no sense - he was already rich and successful in every way - he should enjoy his later years.  But, he was the ultimate disciple, and obeyed. 

I then read Luke 6 - the Sermon on the Mount.  In every way Jesus was a blessing.  He begins the Sermon on the Mount by saying “Blessed” because he was blessing us.  Read Luke 6 - it was non-stop blessing.  And it was blessing beyond our understanding of blessing - to the degree that it was opposite of what we would do.  He was healing people on the Sabbath, and the poor that couldn’t give an “offering”, at that.  He would bless his enemies.  We would bless those on the same page with us, who agree with us, who promote us, who we have something to gain from.  What did Jesus gain in all that blessing?  Our redemption - great - but what did he gain? 

His heart and his DNA are radically different from ours in that he would redeem something of his, that cost him so much whereby he would gain so little.  “It is more blessed to give than receive,” summarizes the heart of his disciples.  There is reciprocity when we …

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I’ve just had an awesome personal worship time with God this morning.  A few weeks ago God brought me to Luke 5 and I camped out there.  As I’m reading through the Bible this year, I’m reading Luke first instead of Matthew for my New Testament reading.  I read 2 chapters in the Old Testament everyday, starting with Genesis, then 1 chapter of wisdom literature - those are the books of Job- Song of Solomon, then a chapter in the New Testament. 

As I was in Genesis 11 - I read of the tower of Babel.  I’ve always loved that story.  It was a common language, the world being made into one, and with technology God says “nothing they set their minds to do will be impossible for them.”  That little verse speaks volumes.  It describes our world today.  We are now connected (sounds like my book about to come out!) and anyone can do anything anywhere in the world.  Desire, technology, communication all came together for that tower.  I wrote a prayer in my Bible about us as Jesus followers being wise in the world we are in today and using all the tools for the glory of God. 

Then I read Luke 5 - WOW - it’s as if those two chapters were born to go together.  Here Jesus is calling his disciples.  It’s in the morning; he’s borrowing Peter’s fishing boat to push out from shore so he could see everyone he was speaking to.  He finishes and then comes in and the carpenter tells the fisherman to fish again.  Peter’s response was we’ve fished all night - but, if you say so.  To have caught a fish or 2, or a partial net full would have been nice - but no way - so many fish the nets began to break and others had to come and help - other boats.  The next story in the chapter is Jesus healing a man who hadn’t sinned but was just sick.  The next story in the chapter is of a man who was paralyzed and people wanting him healed but couldn’t get him in the room in the house where Jesus was speaking so they tore a hole in the roof and lowered the man in!  In that instance - Jesus forgave the man - his sickness seems to have been due to his sin.  Next …

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You can go to Northwoodchurch.org and listen to my message yesterday about the State of the Church - where we’ve come from, where we’re headed - it was a blast yesterday.  Last night I met with the Leadership of Northwood and we talked about why churches grow - and know there are a lot more reasons than this but these are the ones we talked about:
 
1.  They have a story.
2.  They are on a mission.
3.  There are sticky places for people to grab on.
4.  Excellence - people go above and beyond.
5.  Teamwork
6.  Authenticity
7.  Relevant
8.  Leadership
9.  Go against the grain.
10.Expect more of their members than most.

Last night we celebrated with a few hundred leaders all they have done.  Churches do not grow without people behind the scenes driving it all and working.  We had many of them share their stories and then we celebrated.  We just tried to communicate that THEY MATTER so much.  Northwood - YOU MATTER - you are an above and beyond kind of church.  Powerful worship yesterday, fun celebration and exciting times we are in the middle of - keep it up!!!! Here’s what I shared with them:

1.  It’s more about obeying big than dreaming big that God responds to.

2.  It’s more about God’s glory than “my” story.

3.  It’s more about pleasing God than public recognition.

4.  It’s more about consistency than big talk.

5.  It’s more about others than me.

This morning I got up - and I’m reading through Luke - large portions at a time - something I’ve been doing with several books over the past few months - it’s a very powerful thing.  The last prayer I wrote in my wide margin Bible for 2009 was from Luke 11:28 - “Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.”  More than anything that is my desire for my life, my family, my church, my country - and the whole wide world.

When I look back over 2009 it was both an exciting year and a tough year.  Exciting in the people who found Jesus, the ministries that flourished, the doors and opportunities that continue to open, the families that were healed, kids that matured and developed into adults - I could go on and on and on.  Tough - in the economy, tough as growth always means change and having to get out of your comfort zone - tough as in having to learn to say “No” to a lot of really “great” opportunities and things so you can say “Yes” to things that are “blessed” and “directed” by God.  I could go on about all the tough stuff - it’s just a part of life. 

Nikki and Jill and I came to Hanoi for Ti’s wedding and to meet with the staff here.  We wound up meeting with lots of business and government leaders.  The fruit of what NorthWood has done here is exceptional and it just continues to grow.  We’ve already had pledges and offerings that amount to over half of what we need in our glocal budget this year - incredible!  Church planters continue to call in record numbers, Haltom City is exploding with NorthWood members doing things - as well as Mexico.  We’ve also been looking anew at how we engage at a far deeper level right in Keller. 

My response to it all?  Gratitude - for who God is, for what he’s done for us personally, for what he’s done for us as the body of Christ.  Last night I had supper with some young business leaders in Hanoi and we were talking about God and different religions as they were asking me about my faith.  I mentioned that, at the core of all we believe, it comes down to a grateful response for all that God …

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I woke up this morning and read Luke 4 - for me it’s the Day after Christmas - so I continue to think about next year.  How Jesus starts his ministry is good for all of us.

1.  He was full of the Holy Spirit and so was led by the Spirit in the wilderness where he faced the temptations - then in v14 he returns in the Spirit.

2.  He wasn’t distracted by the opposition - the first came from Satan - the other would come from men in Nazareth who didn’t believe he was who he said.

3.  Wouldn’t allow anything to rob God of his glory - be it his needs, power, or the spectacular.

4.  Made clear his intentions: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the Gospel to the poor, heal brokenhearted, preach deliverance to captives, recover sight of blind, set at liberty . . “

5.  His ministry began with a fast.

6.  He was about preaching the Kingdom of God v.43

If we just did those few things this next year - wow what would happen in all our lives and for his kingdom?

I always wondered what Christmas would be like here - and now I know!  We arrived late last night in Hanoi - got up this morning and got organized somewhat after having ran around lake Hoan Kiem.  I surprised Nikki and Jill at 5:30pm with an old car picking us up that’s been restored.  We rode around the lake taking in the lights, then we ate at the Opera Restaurant - incredible food - and bill as well!  We then came back to our hotel and in the lobby there is a choir called “The Immanuel Choir” from the Catholic Church in Hanoi - they were awesome - singing about Jesus, the Star - the Star part really got me - as they sang Noel they sang beneath a huge tree with a star on it - all I could think about was these young people singing for Jesus about Jesus here in Hanoi. 

There are many people meeting at churches, house churches, celebration events - no one should dare assume the story of Jesus isn’t going out here - it is - and in a powerful way.  I’ve seen Vietnam change a lot in the 15 years I’ve been coming here - it all came home tonight.  Thanks God for letting us get to see what you’re doing here.

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