Marc's Messages

The Blogger's Prayer 1.2

Andrew Jones upgraded the Blogger's Prayer he wrote five years ago:

Our Father
who lives above and beyond the blogosphere

Give us this day a life worth blogging,
The access to words and images that express our journey with passion and integrity,
And a secure connection to publish your daily mercies.

Your Kingdom come into new spaces today,
As we make known your mysteries,
Posting by posting,
Blog by blog.

Give this day,
The same ability to those less privileged,
Whose lives speak louder than ours,
Whose sacrifice is greater,
Whose stories will last longer.

Forgive us our sins,
For blog-rolling strangers and pretending they are friends,
For counting unique visitors but not noticing unique people,
For delighting in the thousands of hits but ignoring the one who returns,
For luring viewers but sending them away empty handed,
For updating daily but repenting weekly.

As we forgive those who trespass on our sites to appropriate our thoughts without reference,
Our images without approval,
Our ideas without linking back to us.

Lead us not into the temptation to sell out our readership,
To see people as links and not as lives,
To make our blogs look better than our actual story.

But deliver us from the evil of pimping ourselves instead of pointing to you,
From turning our guests into consumers of someone else’s products,
From infatuation over the toys of technology,
From fame before our time is right.

For Yours is the power to guide the destinies behind the web logs,
To bring hurting people into the sanctuaries of our sites,
To give us the stickiness to follow you, no matter who is watching or reading.

Yours is the glory that makes people second look our sites and our lives,
Yours is the authority above all authorities
Yours is the ranking above all rankings

For ever and ever,

Amen

House churches 'more satisfying'

According to Barna's latest research "house churches are more satisfying to attenders than are conventional churches". The difference is about 15-20 percent. Barna describes a "house church" as "a group of believers that meets regularly in a home or place other than a church building. These groups are not part of a typical church; they meet independently, are self-governed and consider themselves to be a complete church on their own... not associated in any way with a local, congregational type of church."

Interestingly Barna found that "half of the people (54%) currently engaged in an independent home fellowship have been participating for less than three months, and three out of every four house church participants (75%) have been active in their current gathering for a year or less." This is an indication that the house church phenomenon is spreading rapidly in the States.

I'm just a bit cautious when he uses words like "satisfying" and "attending", and even saying that 76% of house churches have "formal teaching time" (read: sermon). This raises the question: what is house church all about? Is it a mini-version of church-as-we-know-it with a bit more food on the table, or a dangerous unit in a new Jesus movement?

Jesus and animal rights

"Christ of the Wilderness, hear our confession.
We are MacDonald's, we confess our sin,
This is our temple, where we eat our fast feasts,
We are ready to enjoy a happy meal, but not to eat a meal of sadness for injustice.
HUNGRY GOD - HAVE MERCY ON US."

Andrew Jones explains what a 'Cruelty-free Christmas' is all about, and why Jesus followers should support a standard of animal welfare. He will be happy to know that the Netherlands now has an Animal Party in Parliament, of which the leader was elected 'political animal talent of the year'.

Yes, I would support any boycot of fast-food restaurants. The animal issue is one thing, but the food is also quite ugly, the floors and tables are greasy, the atmosphere is noisy, the chairs are intentionally uncomfortable to make you move as soon as you finish your meal so they can handle more customers and make more money. So rather a dry piece of bread than a Big Mac.

If you prefer foie gras over a Big Mac or a piece of bread, then check out this YouTube movie that Kees van Velzen mailed me.

Jesus or Paul in the Millinx

Is Paul's approach to forming communities universally prescriptive or inspirational? Did Jesus in his life model the 'DNA' of Church as He intended it, or not? To what extent do the Kingdom and Church overlap? Important questions, and I posted a few comments addressing this on Matthijs' blog (here and here), partly responding to Youth for Christ missional workers, who seem to be a bit hesitant to call their communities 'church'. Roland Allan also has some good things to say in this classic work 'Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours?'.

Btw, over Christmas I read Daniël de Wolf's excellent book 'Jesus in the Millinx. Words and Actions in a Poor Neighborhood in Rotterdam' (Dutch only) in which he challenges the existing church by applying an unconventional incarnational approach in one of the most notorious city areas in the Netherlands.

Death by ministry

"Do you know how difficult it is to be a pastor in a traditional church?" asks John White, who works as a house church coach with Dawn Ministries. "I do. I was one for over 25 years." Consider these statistics from Resurgence:

- In the US 1500 pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout or contention in their churches.
- Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce.
- Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.

- Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
- Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.
- Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.
- Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.
- Eighty percent of pastors' spouses feel their spouse is overworked, and wish they would choose another profession.

Makes you wonder why anyone would want such a job! Also makes you wonder if this was really what God had in mind for His church. A growing number of pastors are leaving "the system" and joining "the revolution". And this can be tremendously freeing. In fact, everyone I know who took this step, describes it in the same way. Like a liberating wind, a blow of fresh air, like a yoke being taken from their shoulders.

Christian or Christ Follower?

Peter de Kraker mailed me the link to these four funny YouTube movies, a parody on the Microsoft PC versus Mac commercials. They say it all. The 'Christian No More' series originates from Christian Community Church in Naperville, Illinois.

What is church?

It's a question that has popped up over and over in discussions over the past few years: what is church? Is there something like an 'ecclesiological minimum' or 'maximum'? I formulated some thoughts as a comment on Matthijs' weblog. Sorry, only in Dutch this time, but here is a post in English along the same lines.

The female factor

Lammert Vrieling has an interesting post on Rodney Stark's book 'Cities of God', in which he states that the appeal Christianity had on women in the Greco-Roman world is one of the main factors why this 'new religion' conquered the urban centres of its time. It makes you wonder what happened down the road, as today wicca has much more appeal to women than Christianity. And on Andrew's blog a discussion is going on why even in 'organic' and 'emerging' circles most church planters seem to be men. Not so in Korea and China, where 80-90 percent of small groups are led by women. So perhaps especially the Western church has a problem here?

Stuff from outer cyberspace

I came across some interesting blog posts and articles on organic/emerging church: Recentering on Christ (Steve Hill), Barna's Bungle (Scott Friderich), Apostolic migration (Simson at Simplechurch), Ancient voices (Neil Young), Ough! (Mirko Sander), Sorry (Philip de Cavel), Speak up or shut up (Andreas Wolf), Monologue or dialogue? (Gijs van der Neut). Websites/blogs: The Crowded House (UK missional church), Male Spirituality (Richard Rohr), Let's put the kettle on (Lisa Borden).

And here's a collection of some other, not really emerging, but still intesting links. Websites: DeadChristiansSociety, Web 2.0 companies, PersonalDNA. Articles: The top-50 books that shaped Evangelicals, The Borat Show, Homeschoolers jailed in Germany, Thou shall not share Christ. Movies: 911 Revisited, Gabrielle (spiritual experiences in film, scroll down for the movie), Kash (a Christian becomes Muslim for 30 days), Islam vs Christianity, Imperial history of the Middle East. Photography: Gold.

What to do with church buildings?

Today in the news: the Swedes have more trust in IKEA than in the church. Not really surprising. Although I would suggest it's still easier to plant an emerging church (especially without definition) than to assemble an average piece of IKEA furniture. But that's another story. In Copenhagen, in the light of Martin Robinson's missional challenges, I pondered on the question what we should do with our church buildings as we won't be needing them in a post-christendom age. This is what I came up with, again in a simplified PPT slide.

Download what_to_do_with_your_church_building.ppt

The emergent guru speaks

OK, continuing my last post - maybe we can safe some time here. For the 'emerging church' newbies and wannabees: Andrew Jones, aka Tallskinnykiwi (because he's from New Zealand and only one micro-inch shorter than me), is probably the emergent guru around, at least in Europe (well, on verge that is, when you take the second street left after Orkney Islands, you fall off the continent). He's so cool and innovative that everyone who wants to appear trendy puts him on their bloglist.

When I veejayed for him when we did our seminar in Copenhagen last week, I summarized his whole teaching on just ONE PowerPoint slide. Yes, I'm using that modernistic up-dressed piece of software now and then, and readily admit that it was Rick Warren who inspired me to simplify the complexity of all this emerging stuff to just ONE slide. I offer it as a free download. No credits please. Intellectual property TSK, images courtesy to Tim Berners-Lee.

Download tallskinnykiwi_basics_light.ppt

Defining 'emerging church'

On Matthijs' weblog a whole discussion is going on about 'emerging church'. The one who comes up with the best definition (in Dutch) will get the incredible reward of 12,50 euro, and not even in cash. That's peanuts for a lot of brainwork that has to satisfy even outspoken critics like Bram Krol; a typically Dutch kind-of-prize if you ask me.

I already suggested that 'emerging church' is undefinable anyway, so why waste time on a description. If you're really postmodern, you're not bothered by lack of definition, are you. To be honest, i find these discussions quite boring. Yes, I've been there, seen it, bought the t-shirt. Now let's move on. Let's look at the fruit of the various new expressions of church. Perhaps the essence of 'emerging' is that we stay sensitive to what the Spirit is saying and doing, and the cultural context in which we live and work. That's all. Nothing new. And if we do this well, we'll keep on 'emerging' until Christ returns. Amen.

Feet washing in Brazil

Cancao Nova in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is one of many thriving charismatic communities in the Catholic church. Tony Palmer was there several weeks ago for a national conference of the Catholic charismatic movement. He reports: "My words have no power to transmit what took place there. It was mindblowing to hear the bishops share their experiences of being baptized in the Holy Spirit and praying for the infilling afresh."



"When it was our time to speak, we (the ecumenical delegation) decided to wash the feet of the Catholic Church in Brazil. This set the meeting on fire with a love that was actually tangible. We asked for forgiveness on behalf of our non-Roman brothers and sisters. After we served them, they shocked us by getting on their knees, washing our feet and kissing them! No words can express the historic influence this may have on the Church in Brazil. And it was televised live to 83 different countries, including the Vatican."

The Germans are coming!

The Germans have something with kickstarting movements. Mirko uploaded two cool historic movies on his weblog about the early beginnings of the Jesus Freaks, a fast growing alternative church planting movement, that now spills over the borders of Germany. Part one is about ministry in the red light district in Hamburg. Part two explains more about the vision of the Jesus Freaks.

Another German who aims to make history is Reinhard Bonnke, known for his mega evangelistic healing campaigns in Africa, who just released his Full Flame Film Series. He wants to use the power of story and cinematic experience to ignite a grassroots movement. "Picture what could happen if believers everywhere were truly inspired to share their faith in fresh, simple, and dynamic ways, out of their own experiences and Christ-like motivation!" Bonnke's slogan: "When you preach the Gospel, the Gospel happens!" Cool. C'mon Germany!

Goodbye, theologians

Peter Wagner is stirring the waters again in this guest commentary for Ministry Today. He says: "Let's do away with the term 'theologian'. Why? The idea that certain members of the body of Christ are theologians while the rest are non-theologians is traditional thinking embedded in the old wineskins of the church. [...] The theologians often see themselves as the elite guardians of the truth." I appreciate C. Peter's effort to do away with the unhelpful clergy-laity divide, and his approach to teach healing and deliverance by application on theological seminaries is excellent. But I would also place two comments:

1. Wagner says the term theologian is not in the Bible, and so we better stick to the equipping ministries mentioned in Ephesians 4. I agree with that, but obviously - and he points that out later - the function of explaining and guarding biblical truth is certainly valid. There are two approaches to that: the legalistic approach of the pharisees and sadducees that lacks the Spirit of God and creates a distance between clergy and laity, and the teacher-apostle role that is recognized by the body and combines a (Spirit-led) revelation dimension with spiritual maturity. There's a lot of confusion these days about the labels, but what's important is that we recognize people's function in the body, no matter whether they happen to have a so-called theological degree or not.

2. I don't think Wagner is really consequent in his argumentation and practice. He says theologians often disagree and (apparently) apostle-teachers don't. This is obviously not true (put Wagner, Wolf Simson and Neil Cole in one room and you know what I mean), and he runs the risk of just reforming a few definitions and labels instead of church practice. I guess he would mainly like to see theologians replaced by apostles, and the vertical apostolic hierarchy he is suggesting is in fact creating a new clergy-laity divide, where the apostles are considered the 'elite guardians of truth'. Please let's not call that 'new wine' or a 'new wineskin', that's just a new label on an old practice. I could easily imagine a group of real apostles being a better deal than a group of theologians, but I doubt whether most New Apostolic Reformation guys would fit that criterium. See earlier conversations here and here.

Fellowships of the heart

There needs to be a degree of commitment by individuals who form a community, says Andrew Black on his weblog. Laissez-faire is not a great recipe for the Body of Christ. But how to go about it? He links to an interesting post on contract versus covenant. Also helpful is this excellent chapter from John Eldredge's Waking the Dead, titled 'Fellowships of the heart'. Read it, you will love it. He describes a commitment to fight for each other, that's rare to say the least, and that's for instance modelled in the story of Lord of the Rings (or David's army if you prefer a biblical narrative). More Eldrege materials at Epic Reality and Ransomed Heart.

First wiki-style Bible

At Freakstock I bought a copy of the newly released Volxbibel, a German translation of the Bible in street language. What makes it special is that it is the first open source Bible translation in the world. Both experts and users worked on it in a wiki-style collaborative webspace. A daring spiritual experiment that will - no doubt - arouse criticism of the more established Bible experts. Although I read a nice reaction of one pastor in the German IDEA magazine: "It's the fish that should like the bait, not the family of the angler."

Because God speaks everyone's language, Matthew 2 in the Volxbibel reads: "When the researchers went to Bethlehem, something wild happened: the star that they saw led them like a kind of GPS-system straight to the house where the baby was." In Matthew 3 John the Baptist explains his ministry: "I'm only the trailer to the main movie, the taster of him who comes after me." Look forward to more.

The heretical imperative

Bram Flippo told me that the Northumbria Community (see my earlier posting here) is committed to what sociologist Peter Berger calls 'the heretical imperative'. They breed a community culture in which people are expected to speak out when necessary, and ask awkward questions that upset the status quo, thus making relationships the priority, and not reputation. I love this, in fact I think it's a sign of healthy church life when things can be questioned anytime. I also found an interesting conversation about this on Jason Clark's weblog.

A mohawk in the family

"An event of familial importance took place today," writes Andrew Jones on his blog. "Today my little boy got his first mohawk... oohhhhh ahhhhh... I'm soooo proud of him." Most Christian parents would get nervous over these things, but for Andrew and Debbie it's perfectly ok if their kids dress up in all kinds of imaginable ways, they're even setting the example. "I have a concern with Christian parents who insist that their sons maintain the hair-cut of a 1950's 6 year old boy throughout their teens and beyond," Andrew says. It's not the first time that Sam (15) changed his haircut. When he was 7 he shaved his head in a tonsure and walked barefeet for six months because he got so inspired by Francis of Assisi. And when he was 8 he grew long hair like the Jewish Nazarites. There you go. Expressing your spiritual journey in fashion.

Getting things moving

"Motion is back and it’s about time," says Andrew Jones in this article for Worship Leader Magazine. "For too long, our western churches have generally defaulted to a static stationary position for worship or prayer. But in the Bible worship festivals were often very mobile. And the Psalms of Ascent (120-134) were worship songs for hiking, for physical motion outdoors, not written for a chair-bound audience." He suggests six ways to get things moving at your church.

Why YOU should plant a church

Bob Hyatt of Evergreen Community posted a refreshing article on why you and I should plant a church. "Through my experience in church planting I have learned that there's a hard way to do this and an easy way," Bob says. "The hard way involves plans and proposals, hundreds of thousands in seed money, denominational strings and a host of headaches. "Start with a bang!" they will tell you. "Mailers to every home in three zip codes!" they will advise you. "A full band! Complete children's ministry! Advertising!!!" Don’t listen. Start small. Raise some support, trust God for the rest and get a job at Starbucks if need be. Let your community be what it will be. Refuse to do for the people who come the ministry that they should do for themselves. Concentrate on laying a foundation of community and common core values and let your church grow organically without superimposing a grand 'vision' on it."

Heretics at home?

The most-heard argument against the house church movement is the suggestion that house churches are more vulnerable to heresy. As a historian I never understood this argument, as it's so obvious in church history that most heresy came (and still comes) from established churches, but because it's established heresy no-one really notices. How refreshing then to hear an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God defend the house church movement on exactly this point, stating that "house churches are in fact the least likely seedbeds of heresy. They are the natural offspring of the Reformation's cry Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda (the church reformed and always to be reformed)." Check out his article on the Ministries Today weblog.

Brian McLaren's observations

Brian McLaren travelled intensively this year, engaging in conversation with many leaders and practitioners in the global emerging-missional community. In this article he shares nine observations. "I frequently see a number of people in various places getting 'anti-' about one thing or another," says McLaren. "In every case, they've identified something worth being against. But I've also noticed that whenever a group reacts and becomes anti-something, two things happen.

First, they limit their options. There may be some percentage of good in what they're rejecting, and by their rejection they cut themselves off from it. Second, when people strongly react against something, they're in danger of swinging to the other extreme. Dangers seldom come in ones, and the line between good and evil or wisdom and foolishness usually runs through, not between, alternatives."

Good food for reflection and critical self-examination. While, starting with the Council of Nicea, conformism to one theological point of view and practice became the norm, which led to many religious fights throughout the centuries, the emerging church embraces variety and draws from the different streams of life in the church. That in itself is reformational, and inevitably also provoking.

Web 2.0 and Church 2.0

Tim O'Reilly wrote an interesting article on 'Web 2.0, design patterns and business models for the next generation of software'. Web 2.0 is not something new, but rather a fuller realization of the true potential of the web. When reading this article I couldn't help but thinking of Church 2.0, a phrase coined by my researcher friend Andreas Wolf.

Just imagine a church that has an 'architecture of participation', a wiki-style collaboration, and really harnesses collective intelligence in an open source way, that forms a radical experiment in trust where users add value and are treated as co-developers. I like the idea of church as a 'perpetual beta'. But I'm afraid most segments of the church are not even version 1.7 as Andreas suggests, but in terms of network dynamics and organic thinking in a pre-web phase (0.5 if you like). And as O'Reilly states, "a single monolithic approach, controlled by a single vendor (read: church/denomination), is no longer a solution, it's a problem." What we need is "lightweight programming models that allow for loosely coupled systems and remixability." If you're interested in this topic, also check out my earlier posting on the participatory church.

The Church is meant to fly

"The Body of Christ is going through a paradigm shift like the caterpillar who turns into a butterfly," says DAWN colleague Reinhold. "Tell a caterpillar that it will be able to fly in two weeks, and it will laugh at you. The Church is meant to fly, not only to creep. And the way is not to develop some more legs that she may creep a bit faster, but to wait patiently. It is in our DNA that we might fly one day, that we might become a movement."

And to church leaders who think it's possible to fly within the structures I would say: this picture is NOT how it will look like. ;-)

A Churchless Faith

Just finished Alan Jamieson's book 'A Churchless Faith: Faith journeys beyond the churches'. It's the first sociological study of the out-of-church phenomenon in Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in New Zealand (but I think the findings are also relevant for other western nations). What makes people stop attending church and what happens to their faith after they have left?

Jamieson's research kills some of the prevailing stereotypes/myths about church leavers, and clearly shows that the majority of people who leave EPC churches are in their thirties and early forties, have been active and committed church members for years (often functioning in a leadership role), and left the church box because their faith journey (following Christ) was taking them beyond the theology and practice of the church. In other words: the church became limiting, rather than releasing.

I guess I match this profile fairly well. I recognized many of the personal stories Jamieson included in his book. He describes four types of church leavers: displaced followers, reflective exiles, transitional explorers and integrated way-finders. I'm a mix of the latter two (see this table with the different characteristics).

What I found most helpful is that Jamieson links these out-of-church species to James Fowler's theory of faith development (see this map). Fowler discerns six faith stages, from a person's initial surrender to Christ until the final stage of becoming a saint of the Bonhoeffer and Mother Theresa type. Now, surprise, surprise - most church-goers are loyalists/conformists (phase 3), which means that "the individual is acutely tuned to the expectations and judgements of significant others" (read: church leaders and fellow-loyalists). The whole church system is designed to serve this group. People who reflect and ask critical questions (phase 4) or develop their own God-given vision (phase 5) don't fit in the church box anymore. As most churches are scared for (and therefore don't offer space for) the foundational conversations these people are engaged in, and are not ready to change the format, these people are more or less forced out.

The implication of Fowler's theory is that the moment you move on in your faith journey (say from phase 3 where most churches are to phase 4 or 5), there is often no turning back. When you've grown-up, it's counter-natural to still go to kindergarten or highschool. In Chapter nine Jamieson compares this process of church leaving with jumping ship. Organized church is like a big cruise ship with its routines, one-size fits all, and fixed destination ports. But there are some people who buy their own sailing yacht, set out their own track, and explore new shores. More freedom, but also more responsibility to (learn to) navigate yourself.

Interestingly the group that should understand why active Christians leave church - church leaders - generally have no clue what's going on. They don't do exit-talks. They assume people are overly critical or backsliding, and so nothing really changes. As I wrote in an earlier posting, there are seven things church leavers wished their church had done/been to help them stay involved. The two main ones are a. providing places to explore, question and doubt, and b. including a theology of journey. In other words: being principally open to people who think differently, and making room to grow, even to the point of helping people to leave church, and move into their next phase. Jamieson challenges EPC churches to become not only seeker-sensitive, but also leaver-sensitive. In the last chapter he even proposes a dialogue between EPC churches and liminal groups (emerging and organic expressions of church), as they can both learn from each other.

Missional church meeting

Matthijs and Rogier report about the first network night for Dutch missional/emerging/organic church pioneers. I'm sorry I couldn't be there, but happy that it was thoroughly enjoyed by the participants. Peter Jansen told a special story about his work in Kanaleneiland, a disadvantaged neighborhood in Utrecht where many Muslims live.

How are the Brits doing? (2)

Mr. Simple Church Alexander Campbell wrote an extensive report on church planting in the UK since the year 2000, that can be ordered here. He gives a good number of interesting examples of emerging, organic and simple churches (guess these terms can be used more or less interchangably), their basic theology and practice.

Conversational teaching

Reinhold explains on his blog how he facilitates conversational teaching times in his home. "Conversational teaching is a combination of light guidance from my side and great openness to whatever someone brings up. The important thing is providing light leadership and feeling when you have to follow somebody's ideas or when you have to come back to the center." Even the dog can join in.

No more tithing (2)

Steve Hill just mailed me an article he wrote titled 'The tithe and the covenants', which provides clarity on how the Jewish tithing system worked (including the parties). "The whole economic life of the nation was centered around faith, obedience, generosity and justice," he says. Tithing was only requested from the land owners, not from the wage earners. Jesus and Paul did talk about money, but not about tithing. The focus of giving was on the poor and missions, not on buildings, salaries and churchy programs. Churches who request tithes from the believers, and/or limit leadership to those who tithe, come close to a money cult, says Hill.

Download follow_the_money_2.pdf

End or new beginning

When we had our 'shift meeting' two weeks ago, Lucas suggested me to read Feitse Boerwinkel's book 'Einde of Nieuw Begin' (End or New Beginning). This book was first published in 1974, so I had to chase an antiquarian bookseller to get it, but it's still incredibly relevant for the megashift we are in today. Boerwinkel describes from a cultural historic point of view that since World War II six eras are speedily coming to a closure: the agrarian era, the constantinian era, the renaissancistic era, the era of white supremacy, the era of male supremacy and the era of the Jewish exile.

In 255 pages he gives an excellent analysis, and really brings meat to the bones to show that these eras will not come back. There's no use resisting it - the challenge for the Church in this time of megatransition is to find new, constructive ways forward. Boerwinkel was probably too prophetic for his time, as 32 years after the publication of his book the Church is still trying to keep the constantinian era going. But it's over, finito. If you can read Dutch, try to dig up a copy of this book at your local antiquarian, it's really worth reading.

What's up in the desert?

Once upon a time there were six men on a journey in the desert... Matthijs Vlaardingerbroek illustrates the six streams of living water (Foster/Renovare), the six great traditions of Christianity (contemplation, holiness, charismatic, social justice, evangelical and incarnation), with a self-made story (in Dutch) of six travellers in the desert who discover an oasis and react on that discovery in six different ways. Matthijs asks his readers in which reaction they recognize themselves most. I placed a cheesy comment saying that in my view all six are acting quite weird, and how I came to that conclusion. Matthijs said he had a good laugh. Could the real Christian please stand up?

No more tithing

Matthew Narramore sent me copy of his book 'Tithing: Low-Realm, Obsolete & Defunct', in which he builds a case that tithing is not for Christians. In fact, he says it's even bad for your spiritual health. It's an easy read - I 'scanned' it in 30 minutes - and it's even available online for free. I agree with most of what he says, as it's so clear from Scripture that tithing is part of the Jewish law, and Christians are not under the law. When I teach about it, I always say: "If you want to follow the law, then follow the whole law and get circumcised." That normally scares people off sufficiently. ;-)

Several years ago I read a more in-depth book on tithing titled 'Beyond Tithes and Offerings: A closer look at traditional giving and its impact on Christian responsibility'. For those who want to dig a level deeper, this book by the Webb brothers is a good investment, though it will probably not convince any pastor, because in many churches tithing is the cork on which the whole system floats. But that's why I like these books: it confronts church tradition head-on. It even goes further: it confronts social injustice because in most churches a tithing system is used to maintain a structure God did not ask for in the first place, at the expense of the poor and oppressed.

Having said this, there's nothing wrong with giving ten percent of your income away. But God doesn't require it. If our lives are surrendered to Christ, it's a non-issue, because then everything belongs to Him anyway.

How are the Brits doing?

In South Africa Martin Robinson gave me a copy of his new book 'Invading Secular Space: Strategies for Tomorrow's Church', which touches on a number of areas where the church has to shift from maintenance mode into a Kingdom dynamic. He also analyses the DAWN process in the UK, why it went off-track, and how it could be revived. It's an inspiring read. Martin recently set up a broad church planting and missions training called Together in Mission.

My DAWN colleague Andreas just returned from Mission 21 in Sheffield, probably the main church planting conference in the UK this year, but somehow didn't get too excited. "It's so much good things being achieved by great people with godly passion and lovely servant's hearts, but yet - it's still all 'doing church'. Doing more church. Doing church better. Doing more bettter. Doing better more."

"And it's all 'church 1', or probably already 'church version 1.7', but I keep desiring to see 'church version 2.0'! There are some clear hints here to the fact that "NEW things ARE in fact under way" (see for instance Alexander's research report on simple church), but it's generally acknowledged that we do not yet know what the shape of church will be, nor do we actually seem to even have understood it's DNA."

Talking about DNA, Andreas also spent a full day sitting at the feet of our mutual friend Rabbi Simon bar Mason "with his highly packed, refined, and powerpoint encoded information flowing from a deeply empassioned heart," which brought things back to the basics of following Jesus.

Andreas' observation of the British church version 1.7 reminded me of an e-mail another German friend copied me in on, reflecting on the British situation. I hope I'm not offending anyone by making this e-mail downloadable, I like to open these kind of discussions up, because it helps us to grow and discern together (and disagree if you like). In his view "most apostolic folk in Britain are trapped in the old system of church and leadership." He comments: "God's purposes won't be achieved if we just make Anglican churches a bit more mission-shaped, if we create more boiler rooms, if we label churches new that are just culturally new but have no changed DNA, if we call prophetic people apostolic, if more Nigerians have more megachurches in East London." His assessment: "There is a high level of frustration within England as a prophetic nation with very little apostolic output. Mission means mostly exporting UK spirituality."

Download britishmission.gif

Analyzing, he suggests that the Brits have difficulty receiving input from other nations. I think he has a point here. Our British friends are mainly exporting, not importing. I don't know many leaders from the continent who were invited to speak on a British conference. The discussion is open.

Prophetic paralysis?

While referring to my posting on the Big Five, Steve Hill ("success is in the grandkids") wrote something interesting in his newsletter:

Some people dream about making a difference, others stay awake and do it! Another one of those prophecies about a change in season was sent to me this morning. Isaiah 43:18-19 is just about worn out! And right up there with prophecies about change are the prophecies about the new generation that is coming. If I had a dollar for every time I have heard or seen one of those words, I could take a very nice vacation! If I had a dollar for every time I had given one of those words I could at least take a weekend away! But I have not given one of them for a long time! Why not?

The word about a new season, about change is a very powerful word because it is a very true word. But it loses its power and creates paralysis when it is misapplied to a season which is to come! God only has two seasons. There is the season of law and there is the season of grace. There is no new season to come! We are in the new season and have been ever since the day of Pentecost! If we are true declarers of good news we will continue to declare the new season but we will declare it to be now! Paul said, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (II Corinthians 6:2b)

If I declare the season is to come, I create a mindset of waiting on the season and then prophets start to use words like "alignment" or "positioning" to be in the place to take advantage of the new season. These words of "spiritual technology" are code for submitting to my ministry and coming to my meetings. If meetings could bring in the harvest it would be here! But we have a "geography problem". Jesus said, "Go!" We want people to come to us!

We are waiting for the revival, for the harvest, for the next wave, for the new anointing, for the next wind, for the fresh fire and we do nothing but go to the next conference to hear about the next new thing. So much of the prophetic imagery and language is old covenant! We are not back there! We are not waiting for the new! We are in the new! So much of this talk about the new is, in reality, a denial of it!

And all the while those who are doing the gospel are seeing the fruit of the season of grace, of harvest and of the power of the Spirit! The Chinese church is not waiting for harvest. They are doing it and have been for years! Check out some reports from a DAWN conference on what is happening in India. And even in America!

The problem with "the new, radical generation" prophecies is similar. There is no new, radical generation yet to come unless you are still in the Old Covenant! God has only one new generation and that is the generation of Jesus Christ. He has only one new man and that is the new man in Christ. These words about the radical new generation to come only build up pride in the hearers- "Wow! We are the generation that will bring in the harvest!" and create paralysis. They are waiting for a bus that will never come! There is no magical thing going to happen that will make any generation special. Will you obey and do or not!

We have become consumers of religious information and religious experiences. Religion will celebrate what God has done in the past. Religion will celebrate what God will do in the future. Religion will not accept the words "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21) because these words demand obedience and faith now!

Jesus was with the disciples in Samaria (John 4:34- 38). They saw barren ground which was four months from harvest. He saw fields "already white for harvest". The problem was not with the field! The problem was with the vision. The problem was not with the season! The problem was a problem of faith and obedience! Jesus saw harvest and had harvest!

He is the Lord of the Harvest! And he has commanded us to pray for laborers for the harvest fields. You cannot harvest while talking inside the barn!

Waiting for the next season? According to your faith, so shall it be unto you!

There's no pulpit like home

Tim Pynes posted his highlights of the DAWN consultation in South Africa, and noticed that the emerging Europeans are all at least 6' 5'' tall. So you know in which direction we emerge.

Tim also made it into the March 6 edition of TIME magazine. The article is titled 'There is no pulpit like home', and tries to grasp why more and more Evangelicals are abandoning megachurches for minichurches.

Underground subcultures

Connect friend Barbara Leite from Portugal joined the recent Jesus Freaks International hang-out in Germany on church planting in the underground subcultures in Europe (goths, punks, new agers, etc.), and reports on her weblog. She's currently setting up prayer rooms for young people all over Portugal.

Google's emergent leader

Tallskinnykiwi Andrew googled for an image of an emergent church leader. Guess who popped up at number 1 and 2 on Google's aggregation, leaving guru Brian McLaren behind? He he...

Skinny's comment: "Is this the new face of emergent? What's with the towel on the head? Looks kinda Hindu to me... Its actually another good friend of mine, the Dutchman Marc van der Woude sitting in a Finnish spa. I wonder when the Americans are going to make it into the emergent church picture?"

Well, they probably won't, because when you type in modern church leader in Google, the American senior senior senior Mormon pastor Gordon Hinckley pops up, a few places before the late pope.

The seven-day weekend

Sometimes you read a book that makes you jump up and down on almost every page, because it's provocative, insightful and inspiring. 'The Seven-Day Weekend. Changing the way work works' by Brazilian entrepreneur Ricardo Semler is one of those books. If you ever wondered whether it's possible to run a company of 3,000 workers organically, and apply organic principles to business, government and organisations, then this is a must-read. Talking about reformation in the workplace - Semler did it and is still doing it after more than 25 years. "But," he says, "there's only one minor issue - you have to give up control."

Just imagine a company where people are empowered to schedule their own working days, choose their own job, make their own business cards, and even decide on their own salary. Utopia? Not really. It's common-sense for people who think and live outside the box. Semler is a catalyst, he broaches weird ideas and aks dumb questions that force you to foundationally rethink what you're doing. Like: Why does a workweek have five days? Why does a weekend have two days? Why nine-to-five? Why have an office? Why have employees? Why have rules? Why grow at all? Why not shrink? Why is money so important? Why not make attending meetings optional? Why have a permanent CEO?

There's not one hidden success factor in 'The Seven-Day Weekend'. Semler applies organic thinking to every aspect of business and leadership. One application is that business units never exceed the size of an average house church. Semler: "If you organize employees into groups of ten people, these clusters can be counted on to monitor and manage themselves. It's a question of respecting the basic atomic structure of a nuclear family." Don't tarry one more day - get your own copy of this book, you wont' regret it one second.

How everything is Linked

Andrew Jones, aka Tallskinnykiwi, named Albert-Laszlo Barabasi's book 'Linked: The New Science of Networks. How everything is connected to everything else and what it means for science, business and everyday life' his most enjoyable book of the year 2005. Not sure if I agree with him, because in December I started reading a book that I enjoy even more, and about which I will blog as soon as I finish it. But 'Linked' is certainly a great book for everyone who wants to understand network dynamics, whether it is the internet, social networks or biological networks.

According to Barabasi they all work according to the same laws, as if God created it. Well, probably He did, and the whole rediscovery of 'living and working organically' is just that - a rediscovery of what is already embedded in creation. When reading 'Linked' it becomes immediately clear why conventional church doesn't work, and the immense potential of organic church networks. Barabasi could be right with his claim that networks will be the central science of the 21st century. Certainly those who understand the underlying principles of networks will have a strategic advantage over those who think institutionalized.

Check out Andreas.com or DougSimpson.com for an outline of the book.

Charisma's Barna-bashing

Charisma editor Lee Grady, who's often prophetically sharp in his observations, jumped on George Barna last week and killed off 'Revolution'. The response he got on the Charisma forum is quite interesting. Quote:

"Lee, you can bash Barna all you want, but he's absolutely right. The traditional, program-driven, facilities-based church is dying, and while it may not seem like death is imminent when you look at the Lakewoods of our country, it will accellerate toward the end and surprise even those of us who anticipate it. A new, organically-grown church will emerge, pastored by unpaid men and women of God whose lives are filled with relationships with unbelievers and relevancy. Lee, embrace the certainty of our future as Christians in this time of transition. It will not only go easier for you, but we'll end up with an unstoppable grassroots movement that will be far more powerful than what we have now."

I'm not surprised that the strongest resistance against the organic church comes from leaders with an invested interest in maintaining the conventional church structures - pastors and editors of charismatic magazines who live from the advertisements of the megachurches.

Barna and the worship gypsies

Just watched the 6 December CBN broadcast on the organic church movement in America, including an interview with 'Revolution' author and researcher George Barna. A spicy quote from a former mega pastor about conventional church: "We've created a monster that we now have to feed." And from a simple church planter: "I don't have time to go to church, I'm too busy being the church." I also learned a new term: worship gypsies, a kind of nomadic worship leaders, going from house to house, from pub to pub. Check it out.

Learning from the Natives

My Connect friend Niina from Finland spent the past few weeks among the Native Americans in Canada, and blogged some of her experiences. "Western society has lost a sense of interconnectedness. Membership in groups is mostly contractual, we choose it ourselves, causing unintentional division and losing sight of being part of something bigger, God's creation. Native peoples understand there is collective responsibility for all people, both in good and bad."

Post- and Younger Evangelicals

Matthijs joined forces with his brother Steven and the guys kicked off a discussion on post-evangelicalism (part 2 here). Modern evangelicals create standard procedures, while post-evangelicals create a dependency on God, says Matthijs. Modern evangelical thinking is focused on the development of competence (especially in communication and management), post-evangelical thinking is focused on character development (especially in discipline and servanthood).

These postings are in Dutch, but in the Anglosaxon world this discussion has already been going on for some time. Check out Dave Tomlinson's book 'The Post-Evangelical' and Robert Webber's 'The Younger Evangelicals'. Also interesting is this discussion on Ship of Fools about whether there is a distinct post-evangelical movement.

Exploring neo-paganism

My DAWN colleague Andreas went to Basel to explore ministry among the neo-pagans. Don't know what happened there as he now uses esoteric vocabulary to express himself, and even sent me a link to a new DAWN network: the Denver Area Wiccan Network, an active, growing community who sponsors 'group rituals' and works together to change our world. Wonder what the next step is for my German friend... Saturation Coven Planting?

Beyond Popecasting

Thanks to Roderick Vonhögen, a priest of the Archdiocese of Utrecht, the archaic Roman Catholic Church is becoming one of the most innovative players in podcasting and videoblogs. Several months ago he started the Catholic Insider, a podcast that became immensely popular among non-Catholics because Roderick understands how to take people "on a journey of discovery through the fascinating world of the Catholic Church." His podcasts are "shows filled with music, humor, soundseeingtours, documentaries, interviews and much more."

His series on 'The Secrets of Harry Potter' is simply excellent. He brings a lot of symbolism back to God's Story, in a non-imposing way. He also has a series on StarWars, and podcasted about his recent trip through Ireland. The Praystation, a daily morning and evening prayer is too liturgic for my taste, but the idea of a daily prayerpodcast is great. His latest invention is the CatholicMinute, "your visual fast guide to the Catholic universe," a videopodcast. For Dutch television program 'De Wereld Draait Door' reason to interview him.

Rather rich than gay

One day three men enter into a church. All three are seekers and have an open attitude to God. They have been reading their bible for some time, and now took the big step to join a local church. They are warmly welcomed. Oh by the way, Eric is single, a lawyer and quite wealthy. Arnold and John are gay and have been living together for four years... Everything goes fine; people are friendly and hospitable towards them, until they discover that Eric owns a small capital, and Arnold and John are gay. Now what will happen in this Evangelical church?

My daring friend Matthijs is not afraid to burn his hands on churchy taboos. In most churches the gays will be confronted and ultimately forced to leave, while the rich lawyer can be at peace, and even make it into the church board. Read the first and second part of his comments. He offers four ways to deal with imperfection. Sorry, only in Dutch.

Diffusion of innovation

Ever heard of Rogers' diffusion of innovation? Very useful theory when you are determined the change the world. Always focus on the innovators and early adopters, while also keeping an open (though not intense) relationship with the early majority.

The innovators and early adopters are critical to launching a new product. If you could target your initial efforts at these groups, your limited resources will be well spent. They will become your champions. But who are they? From some studies, the characteristics of the innovators and early adopters are:

1. Venturesomeness: the willingness and desire to be daring in trying something new and different.
2. Social integration: frequent and extensive contact with others in one’s area.
3. Cosmopolitan: point of view extending beyond the immediate neighborhood or community.
4. Social mobility: upward movement on the social scale.
5. Privilegedness: attitude and possession of money (less risky to try something new).

Christians and disciples

"The most unhelpful word in my life is Christian," says Gaz Kishere. "Why? Because it seems to have irreversably lost any significant meaning. For most Christians the word Christian is an adjective - it is a description of a point of view, a political alignment, a belief in a system instead of a belief in a divine person, a membership to a viewpoint club, an association to a locatable static people group, etc. I met these Connect guys in Prague recently who make disciple-making disciples... end of story. But I could pretty much guarantee that I could walk into 9 out of 10 Christian households and not find a single disciple who is making disciples." More here.

Some more thought-provoking stuff from Gaz:
Don't start with church
Church on the way or in the way?
Unity: a crippling charismatics domain

Community talk

Community is more than a buzz word, says Heidi, it's a radical way of life. At the same time Andreas kick-started an interesting conversation on missional, intentional living together. And our friends from 24-7prayer just approved their 'boiler room paper', which describes the purposes, principles and practices of intentional mission-minded communities of prayer.