Middleware and Models

Most of the books, conferences, and blogs available these days seem to fit into one of two categories:

• Practical - I love reading about best practices. I want to learn from anyone I can, including business stuff. But the practical stuff doesn’t seem to go deep enough. I’ve attended entire Christian conferences, for instance, in which I can’t remember opening a Bible. It’s as if we believe we need to leave the Bible behind in order to be practical.
• Theological - I love theology, and I love Scripture. But I’ve often been exposed to lots of material that is heady, but not translated into the life and ministry of the local church. It’s as if we think that we just need to get the doctrine right, and everything else will take care of itself.

This is a problem. It often feels like I’m bouncing between the pragmatic and theological, instead of applying theology to life and ministry.

We need two things:

Middleware - Tim Keller talks about this in his book Center Church. He calls this space between theological foundations and ministry models middleware. It's a theological vision that bridges the gap between our doctrinal foundation and the particular forms of ministry. He writes:

This is something more practical than just doctrinal beliefs but much more theological than “how-to steps” for carrying out a particular ministry. Once this vision is in place, with its emphases and values, it leads church leaders to make good decisions on how to worship, disciple, evangelize, serve, and engage culture in their field of ministry — whether in a city, suburb, or small town.

I’m convinced we need more books, conferences and blogs that dwell in this middle space, bridging the gap between theology and praxis.

Models - For a long time it seemed like all the people with good theology had unhealthy churches, and all the healthy churches had slightly wobbly theology. I had a hard time finding churches that were theologically thoughtful and effective in ministry. I’m sure it wasn’t really that way, but it sure seemed so. I’m grateful now for dozens of churches locally that model both. We need more models of good theology married to effective ministry.

We need more middleware and models. I’m praying to this end, and I hope you will too.

Saturday Links

Some links for your weekend reading:

How to Be On Mission in the City

1. Get grounded in the gospel
2. Learn your city's story
3. Engage in the life of the city
4. Discern your city’s idols
5. Retell your city’s story with the gospel

Open Up!

If we are a family of missionary servants, surely we’ll need to do more than meet once a week for a Bible study or just hang out together! Here are the things I’ve called my Missional Community to “open up” in order to be on mission.

Expectant vs. Reactionary Churches

Is your church more expectant or reactionary? Review these characteristics to see where your church is.

The Myth of Endless Growth

I’ve always been told that if a business or church isn’t growing, something must be terribly wrong. After all, healthy things always multiply and grow.

But frankly, that’s hogwash. It’s based on idealistic and wishful thinking. It’s a leadership urban legend. And a dangerous one at that.

Are you still working on your sermon Saturday night?

Many of the pastors that I interact with are frustrated that they are working on their sermons well into the weekend. If this is you consider applying the following principles to help you recapture your Saturdays.

What is the Gospel?

As you can see the word gospel is mentioned throughout scripture in various ways and in various settings. Yet, the question still remains, “What is the gospel?”

Twelve Ways to Prepare Your Children for Times of Doubt

1. Let them know that it is not abnormal to experience doubt.
2. Share with them some of the doubts you struggle with.
3. Help them prioritize their faith now.
4. Facilitate a love of Christian heroes.
5. Allow for a great deal of mystery.
6. Ask the difficult questions.
7. Make sure they know the heritage of their faith through church history.
8. Continually teach your children an apologetic defense of the faith.
9. Take your child on a missions trip.
10. Give them a chance not to believe.
11. Prepare them for suffering.
12. Teach them to take care of their bodies.

The Litmus Test of Genuine Christianity

James provides a short, two-item checklist: (1) love—helping those in need, and (2) holiness—separating from worldly influence. These two traits summarize the practical outworking of a life changed by the gospel.

Tragic Worship

Tragedy as a form of art and of entertainment highlighted death, and death is central to true Christian worship.

Daily Slogging in the Power of the Spirit of God

I am not impressed by young pastors who seem too eager to publish books and speak at big events and get noticed. They are doing the work of the Lord, and that’s good. But what impresses me is my dad’s daily slogging, year after year, in the power of the Spirit, with no big-deal-ness as the payoff.

Pastors: You Should Start a Study Group

Every May I gather with a group of pastors from Monday to Friday. The agenda is simple: to work through a book of the Bible together as we think about preaching it. Every year we bring in a different scholar who has written a commentary on that book. We also have our former preaching professor (Haddon Robinson) help us think through how to preach that book.

We've had Bruce Waltke, George Guthrie, Douglas Moo, Daniel Block, and more. This week we've had D.A. Carson. It's hard to beat. I've been to a lot of conferences, but this by far is my favorite learning event of the year.

You should start one too.

I'm convinced that we as pastors have to go a bit deeper than what's offered at most conferences. We need more intimacy, more depth, and more encouragement than the average conference can afford. Many pastors graduate from seminary and never experience the same level of teaching just about the time that they can really benefit from it. I'm not talking about abstract, theoretical work. I'm talking about digging into the Word of God and thinking in depth how it applies to our lives and ministries.

Here's all it takes:

• A group of interested pastors. This may be easier than you think.
• A scholar. This, too, may be easier than you think. Most Bible scholars would love to spend a week with pastors helping them think through a text. Invite them, fly them in, and pay them well. You may have to pick them up off the floor when they find out that you're even interested.
• A structure. It's as simple as finding a place and setting a basic schedule. Then just set some ground rules and go.
• Don't try to do this in a church if you can. Get away so that you're away from the regular grind and can spend lots of your spare time together.

I stumbled across this, but I'm telling you: it's worth the effort. I would trade a dozen conferences for one of these weeks.

Most pastors desperately need the intimacy, depth, and encouragement that a week like this offers. There's power in coming together and digging into the Word together, and beginning to see what God does over a few years of sticking at this. I dare you to give it a try.

Blogging and Social Media

I've written a short piece for The Institute of Evangelism in Toronto on how and why you should consider starting a blog. Here's an excerpt:

One of the best ways to maintain an online presence is through a blog. Mohler says that we used to think that bloggers were all “twentysomethings in their pyjamas writing online rants.” But blogs are now “one of the most significant platforms for our cultural conversation.” It’s one of history’s “most cost-efficient way of communicating big ideas and solid content. If you are not writing a blog, you should be.”

I agree. Here are four reasons why you should blog...

Read the rest here.

Speaking of web stuff, I was interested to read about how astronaut Chris Hadfield made it onto Twitter:

He initially balked when his sons began preaching the merits of Twitter and Facebook more than three years ago...

During a family Christmas get-together in 2009 his son Evan, who now lives in Germany, and Kyle, who's in China, pointed out that they relied on the Internet to find out what's going on.

They got on his case again when his five-month mission was announced in early September 2010. It was then that they decided to set up his two social-media sites...

Upon his return to Earth this week, Hadfield was hovering around one million Twitter followers and more than 325,000 "Likes" on Facebook.

I'm sure glad his sons got on his case. I'm glad the same thing happened to Tim Keller (except, of course, the part about going into space or singing a David Bowie song). What I should say is that I'm glad his son pushed him onto Twitter.

I agree with Al Mohler.  If you’re not active online, you’re limited in your ministry to those who aren’t online. “That population is shrinking every moment. The clock is ticking.”

A Year Later

We’ve had a few annual events take place recently that have taken me back a year ago, when we were still very early in the process of planting Liberty Grace Church. These events have caused me to reflect, and they’ve made me grateful.

• A year ago on Maundy Thursday I took my family to Liberty Village for the first time for dinner. One year later we live in Liberty Village and love it.
• A year ago this month my wife went to Pastor’s Wives Conference. At that point, we were the entirety of Liberty Grace Church. A year later, we have a group of people who are walking with us, including some who have moved into the community with us, and others who are planning on doing so.
• A year ago I was attending an annual study group I’m part of, wondering about all that would happen before I returned in May 2013. I’m sitting in the airport boarding lounge right now filled with gratitude for all that’s happened, and excitement about our near future.

A year isn’t a long time. It’s long enough, though, to take a step back and to celebrate what God has done.

One thing has been clear: I have begun the process of planting this church in weakness. Despite this, God has been gracious. I have been reminded so many times this year that God is able, and that I’d better trust in his strength rather than rely on my own. It’s almost as if God has given me extra coursework here, but I’m still learning.

If you’ve been praying for us this far, thank you. Please continue to pray. We have lots of events planned for the community in the coming months, and we are working towards a public launch in September.

Please pray that God would continue to build our team, and that we will have a heart to love the people in the community around us. Pray for our practical needs as well, as I have quite a bit of work to do in fundraising before the Fall.

God has been so good. I’m glad he’s taken us on this journey.