Missional-Life

I’m currently writing a 5-week discipleship course for folk within our children work. Here are the titles for each session:

DELIGHT. Finding true delight in a world of cheap imitations

GLORY. Finger painting for the glory of God

CROSS. The cross-shaped life

IDENTITY. Who am I?

SERVANTHOOD. The upside down kingdom

As part of my research I’ve just reread Bill Hybels book ‘The Volunteer Revolution’. What a suburb book! It is short and easly accessible, but filled with some great truths about team, servanthood all firmly rooted in the mission of the local church. Here are just a few of quotes:

“I have never done a single thing of value without the assistance of others.” (p. 9)

“We love, serve, and care for others because that us normal behavior for people who are filled with God’s Spirit. We are Christians. Christ was the ultimate servant. We can’t help but serve because the Spirit of the Servant has filled our hearts. When we serve we are just being who we naturally are.” – Steve Sjogren (p. 35)

“Jesus, our Lord and Teacher, took the very nature of a servant. Here Paul challenges us to a new perspective. He calls us not just to momentary emotional hype, but to a crisp, intellectual understanding of what Jesus models for us. He asks us to allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds so that our reflex reaction at home, work, at church, and in our community is humble service to God and people.” (p. 42)

In is a real joy for me to be able to republish this next Converse interview (first published in October 2008 on www.theologising.info). Jon Watts leads the Rock Christian Centre in Sheffield. He is also a good friend!

Adam Bradley: Please can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

Jon Watts: I was born and brought up in rural Bedfordshire. I started helping on farms when I was 10 years old and studied for an HND at ‘Shuttleworth Agricultural College’. In 1979 whilst at Agricultural College I was converted and soon after felt called towards ministry. After working in Horticulture for a short time I went to study at London Bible College where I gained a degree in Theology and a Diploma in Pastoral Studies. From 1982-2003 I was based at Greenford Gospel Church in West London, first as Assistant and then Pastor from 1989. In 2003 I moved to Sheffield to lead ‘Rock Christian Centre.’

I am married to Tricia, a part time Teacher & Youth Worker. We have 3 children. Sarah, studying at York University who was married in August 2008; Bethany, studying at Warwick University; Thomas, who is supposed to be studying for his GCSE’s!

My main hobbies are DIY – restoring our old city centre house, cars, gardening, sailing.

Adam Bradley: Please can you tell me some of the highlights of your testimony?

Jon Watts: I was born into a family with a long Protestant, non-conformist Baptist history. I was brought up among the ‘Gospel Standard Strict & Particular Baptists’. I rebelled strongly as a teenager and was wonderfully saved through the courageous witness of a fellow student at Agricultural College. Within weeks of being converted I felt God’s call to the ministry. I threw myself into student evangelism and eventually became ‘National Student Chairman’ of UCCF. I believe I was baptised in the Holy Spirit when I was converted, however I was in a cessationist environment. For me it has been a long and often painful journey of theological discovery and experience to bring me to the freedom and liberty of the Spirit that I am able to enjoy today. I still have a long way to go and am a passionate believer that God always has more for us than we have already understood or experienced!

Adam Bradley: What church do you lead? (background, denomination, philosophy of ministry, etc)

Jon Watts: I lead ‘Rock Christian Centre’ a thriving, multi-cultural inner city church in a deprived area of Sheffield. The church was planted in 2000 as an outreach to the spiritually and economically deprived North East of Sheffield. The church started with just 6 people meeting in a local Council Flat, it has now grown to a congregation exceeding 150 adults and children from more than 20 different nations.

We are a totally independent church with no denominational links. We are affiliated to the Evangelical Alliance and enjoy good relationships with other churches across Sheffield and beyond.

We are a ‘Word and Spirit’ church, with a strong emphasis on the teaching and preaching of God’s Word as well as encouraging the freedom and liberty of The Spirit’s work amongst us.

We have a four fold vision based on Acts 2:42-47 – Growing Up in maturity; Growing Together in community; Growing Out in evangelism; Growing Bigger in numbers.

Adam Bradley: What books are your currently reading?

Jon Watts: Many people are surprised to discover that I am not a great reader. I am a strong people person and activist and have to discipline myself to read! The ‘bread & butter’ books I read are Bible commentaries in preparation for preaching.

Current Books –

‘The Hope of Glory’ Sam Storms – Crossway Books

‘The Purpose Driven Church’ Rick Warren – Zondervan

‘Darkest England & the way back in’ Gary Bishop – Rubicon Books

Adam Bradley: What’s sermons/preachers are you listening to at the moment (the i-pod question)?

Jon Watts:

I don’t have an ipod!!!

‘Louie Giglio’ – dvd series – some available via myspace etc

Neil Anderson & Steve Goss – ‘Freedom in Christ’ series

Various Preachers – ‘Life in the Spirit’ conference CDs

Adam Bradley: As a seasoned church leader, what would you say are some of the most important lessons you could pass on to a new emerging leader?

Jon Watts:

‘Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God’ (William Carey’s life motto)

The Importance of Character – insecurity, low self esteem & poor self-discipline lie at the root of most flawed, frustrated & failed leaders.

The Importance of Commitment – stick at it, don’t give up, overcome the obstacles.

The Importance of Courage – Face your fears, Lead from the front, take action

The Importance of Convictions – Know what you believe and why.

The Importance of Compassion – Genuine heart involvement with people, ‘Jesus was moved with compassion.’

The Importance of Charisma – Love life, have fun, smile, laugh at yourself, sense of humour, share yourself.

Adam Bradley: What is the greatest desire you have for your church over the coming 5 years?

Jon Watts: Holy Spirit Revival of genuine, lasting conversions among the ordinary ‘working classes’ living in the many of the deprived council estates in North East Sheffield.

Continued growth of the church with the aim of establishing church plants / Eden projects in those estates.

Yesterday I preached at Christ Community Church  from 1 Samuel 14:1-23 on adventuring with God.

Here are my 5 main headings:

1. Adventurous faith is a risk-taking faith (v1-2)

2. Adventurous faith is a knowledge-based faith (v6)

3. Adventurous faith is not presumptuous faith (v8-12)

4. Adventurous faith is infectious faith (v7)

Here’s the story I also opened my preach with…

Larry Walters was a 33-year-old man who decided he wanted to see his neighborhood from a new perspective. He went down to the local army surplus store one morning and bought forty-five used weather balloons. That afternoon he strapped himself into a lawn chair, to which several of his friends tied the now helium-filled balloons. He took along a six-pack of beer, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, and an air pistol, figuring he could shoot the balloons one at a time when he was ready to land.

Walters, who assumed the balloons would lift him about 100 feet in the air, was caught off guard when the chair soared more than 11,000 feet into the sky — smack into the middle of the air traffic pattern at Los Angeles International Airport. Too frightened to shoot any of the balloons, he stayed airborne for more than two hours, forcing the airport to shut down its runways for much of the afternoon, causing long delays in flights from across the country.

Soon after he was safely grounded and cited by the police, reporters asked him three questions: 
”Where you scared?”  “Yes.” 
”Would you do it again?” “No.” 
”Why did you do it?”  “Because,” he said, “you can’t just sit there.”

It is a great pleasure to be able to introduce my next Converse Interviewee. Mark Alderton is one of the Pastors Sovereign Grace Church – Aurora, CO.

Adam Bradley: Please can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

Mark Alderton: I was saved at age 19 in college while pursuing a degree in chemical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The university was a very secular environment but God pursued me with his grace and I was regenerated in 1980. For the rest of school I was involved with a campus Christian organization where I grew in the faith. After finishing my degree I moved to Minneapolis where I joined Grace Church of Richfield (years later renamed Sovereign Grace Fellowship). While a member there I married my wife of now 19 years, raised 5 kids aged 16 to 4 years as of today, and spent 15 years as a scientist in a company that made pacemakers and defibrillators. I left that job in 2002 to pursue training with Sovereign Grace Ministries (then still called PDI) to become a pastor. At the end of that 9 month training I was privileged to join the staff at Sovereign Grace Fellowship, where I was associate pastor for the last 5 years. Two months ago we moved to the Denver, CO area to replant (for lack of a better word) a Sovereign Grace church there.

Adam Bradley: Please can you tell me some of the highlights of your testimony?

Mark Alderton: I was raised Catholic, which God used to give me a fear of hell and a conviction that there was a God who had to be dealt with. My senior year in high school I knew I would be leaving my small town to go to the big city and big university and I felt I needed some grounding in what I really believed about God and the world and life. So I read the Bible my senior year. The result was a vague notion that I needed to have God lead my life, but no understanding of the gospel. For the first three semesters of my college life, Christians came witnessing at my door. Finally, I was confronted with the truth that I was a sinner who needed forgiveness, and that Christ died on the cross for my sins, and that if I repented and believed I would be saved. All of grace.

Adam Bradley: What church do you lead/involved in? (background, movement/denomination, philosophy of ministry, etc)

Mark Alderton: For the last 5 years I was pastoring on staff at Sovereign Grace Fellowship, which is one of the churches in Sovereign Grace Ministries, a family of churches based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Now I lead Sovereign Grace Church in Aurora, Colorado. Sovereign Grace is committed to local church planting and church strengthening as the primary means of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. Our understanding of that task includes modern day apostolic oversight, which are those men whose gifting lends itself to serving multiple churches, whose Christ-like character has been confirmed by observation, and whose fruitfulness and wisdom in church planting with the gospel are recognized. There are many more things that could be said, but I would refer you to www.sovgracemin.org for a complete statement of faith and explanation of many of our distinctives.

Adam Bradley: What books are your currently reading?

Mark Alderton: Just finished “In My Place Condemned He Stood” by J.I. Packer and Mark Dever. Now reading “Holiness Day by Day” by Jerry Bridges for personal edification and reminders of the gospel. For preaching I’m consulting the Word Biblical Commentary on Colossians by Peter T. O’Brien, “Colossians & Philemon” by Murray Harris, and “The Hope of Glory” by Sam Storms.  I’m reading aloud to my kids “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens.

Adam Bradley: What’s sermons/preachers are you listening to at the moment (the i-pod question)?

Mark Alderton: No iPod! However, I’ve been downloading the Sovereign Grace leadership podcast series and listening online. Next up is “The Pastor and His Time,” by CJ Mahaney, Jeff Purswell and Joshua Harris. You can find these podcasts at the Sovereign Grace Ministries website.

Adam Bradley: Why is church planting such a passion for you?

Mark Alderton: When the Holy Spirit set aside Barnabas and Saul (Paul) to the work he had prepared for them, the first organized, church-based foray to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth, it was a church planting mission, not merely evangelism. Acts 13 and 14 recall the story of their first missionary journey, and it ended with Paul and Barnabas returning through the cities in which Paul had been stoned and they had been persecuted for the purpose of strengthening the souls of the disciples (Acts 14:22) and appointing elders in every church (Acts 14:23).  Their mission, indeed the Holy Spirit’s work, was to plant churches with identifiable elder leadership. Church planting from local churches under apostolic oversight is the model that brought the gospel from the upper room to the halls of Rome when every nation was an unreached nation. It remains the model that we are passionate about.

Adam Bradley: What would you say are the three most important principles for any young want-to-be church planter?

Mark Alderton:

• Know the gospel (theological ac.
• Love the gospel (passion for Christ and him crucified, not just orthodoxy)
• Preach the gospel (applying it to all of life and founding the church on it)

Adam Bradley: Here’s your opportunity to say anything else you like…

Mark Alderton:

Press on in the good work, fellow soldiers of the cross….

Adam Bradley: Thanks Mark!

It is a real pleasure to be able to introduce my next Converse Interviewee. Tony Thompson is a church planter to the core! On a personal note, he was very helpful to me in the early days of planting Christ Community Church.

Adam Bradley: Please can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

Tony Thompson: I’ve been married to Anne for over 30 years. We have 2 grown up sons, one working in Hong Kong, the other in Mumbai., India. Dispite my advanced years (I’m over 50) I enjoy running and regularly compete in the London Marathon and other local races.

Adam Bradley: Please can you tell me some of the highlights of your testimony?

Tony Thompson: I do not come from a church going background. At University I started arguing with Christians to prove them wrong. To my shock and horror I eventually came to the conclusion that they were right and I was wrong. All the arguments that I put up to show that Christianity was not true were demolished. I then recognised that the only likely explanation for the empty tomb was that Jesus really had risen from the dead. If that had happened at the very least I had to take seriously the other things he had talked about. In short I needed to follow him.

Adam Bradley: What church do you lead/involved in? (background, movement/denomination, philosophy of ministry, etc)

Tony Thompson: I currently lead Hope Church in Luton, part of the Newfrontiers family of churches. It is a charismatic, evangelical church.

Adam Bradley: What books are your currently reading?

Tony Thompson: I’ve just read Bill Hybels new book “Axiom”, I’m also reading again John Maxwell’s books “Developing the leader within you” and Developing the leaders around you.”

Adam Bradley: What’s sermons/preachers are you listening to at the moment (the i-pod question)?

Tony Thompson: I rarely listen to sermons on my Ipod. I tend to use my ipod to listen to things like “Great lives” and “In our time.” I like to keep abreast of wider issues and find podcasts a great way of doing that.

Adam Bradley: Why is church planting such a passion for you?

Tony Thompson: After I became a Christian I was told that part of the package was attending church. I played rugby on a Sunday morning – but if Jesus had died for me…….. What I discovered in church was not exciting. As someone not brought up in church culture I found it very hard to fit in. When the opportunity came to plant my first church I wanted to plant a church that would reach out to those who never dreamt that the answer to their questions was found within the church.

I am still passionate about planting churches, not for the sake of it or even any church plant. But passionate about churches that will reach out to the majority of the population unreached by existing churches.

Adam Bradley: What would you say are the three most important principles for any young want-to-be church planter?

Tony Thompson: To know that Jesus has called you to do it. If you are doing it because it is a good idea or because it is the trendy thing to do then don’t do it!

Be clear what sort of church you are called to plant. Not just the location but what flavour or character the new church will have. In short what is your vision.

Be able to concisely articulate the vision. To have an attention grabbing 2 minute vision talk, a 10 minute follow up and then a 30 minute deal clincher.

Adam Bradley: Here’s your opportunity to say anything else you like…

Tony Thompson: I think it is important for people to view life as a marathon not a sprint. We should have a long view of ministry. What is God really calling you to do? How do you prepare for that?

At key times in my life I have been tremendously frustrated that things haven’t happened as quickly as I would have liked. However with hindsight I can see that God was preparing me for what was in store – I just wanted to get on with it. I wanted to be used, he wanted to make me usable.

Yesterday Dave Capener who leads Redeemer Central Church (Belfast) posted a blog on his his weblog ‘The Broadcast‘, which I think has one of the funniest blog titles I’m ever read!

Day 152: Emergent detergent – proven to kill 87% of all known theological germs

As always I’ve got a number of books on the go at once. Here is my current selection:

• How to read a book (Mortimer J Adler & charles Van Doren)
• Finally Alive (John Piper)
• The difficult doctrine of the love of God (D. A. Carson) seconding reading
• Lectures to my students (Charles H Spurgeon)
• Preaching the Cross (Dever, Duncan, Mohler, Mahaney)
• Institutes of the Christian Religion (John Calvin)

beautifully shot video that is deeply provoking and challenging. It asks the question am I willing to be moved by compassion to live a mission-focused life.

Click here to watch it on youtube

It is a great pleasure to be able to republish my interview with Tim Chester.

Adam Bradley: Please can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

Tim Chester: I’m married to Helen and we have two daughters. I’m a church planter, writer, Bible teacher and blogger (www.timchester.co.uk). I co-direct The Porterbrook Network (www.theporterbrooknetwork.org) with Steve Timmis which currently consists of two training programmes: Porterbrook Training which trains people for church planting and missional church through distance learning and residentials; and the Northern Training Institute (www.northerntraininginstitute.org) which trains people for church leadership through guided reading, residentials and monthly seminar days. I’ve written a dozen or so books (http://timchester.wordpress.com/books/). I also love books, food, conversation, playing tennis, watching any sport with a ball (especially cricket), tidying up and washing the family’s clothes.

Adam Bradley: Please can you tell me some of the highlights of your testimony?

Tim Chester: I was brought up in a Christian home. I believe I became a Christian one Sunday night when I was four – a view, I discovered some twenty years later, shared by my parents. I struggled in childhood with assurance until reading John 6:37 when I came to appreciate that the question was not whether I had repented ‘enough’, but would Christ accept me if I came to him – something about which I could have no doubt. I was baptised at the age of 14.

Adam Bradley: What church do you lead/involved in? (background, movement/denomination, philosophy of ministry, etc)

Tim Chester: I lead The Edge Network, a group of three household congregations which is part of The Crowded House (http://www.thecrowdedhouse.org/). The Crowded House is gospel-centred in all that it does (missional church) with a strong emphasis on community as the context for mission, pastoral care, discipleship and so on. We emphasis ‘ordinary people living ordinary life with gospel intentionality’. We also speak of home as the primary location for church and most of our congregations meet in homes. Our approach is summed up in our ten values (http://www.thecrowdedhouse.org/?q=ourvalues) and described in more detail on a book I co-wrote with Steve Timmis called Total Church (IVP/Crossway). http://astore.amazon.co.uk/timche-21/detail/1844741915/202-7594482-7212630

Adam Bradley: What books are your currently reading?

Tim Chester: I need to finish a book for IVP by the end of October on how the cross and resurrection should shape our lives as Christians. So much of my current reading is geared around that. It’s mostly re-reading books: Andrew Lincoln’s book, Paradise: Not and Not Yet, Michael Gorman’s book, Cruciformity, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic, The Cost of Discipleship. I’ve just finished Atonement by Ian McEwan (I haven’t seen the film version). I’m also reading a book by Roy Strong, The Spirit of Britain: A Narrative History of the Arts.

Adam Bradley: What’s sermons/preachers are you listening to at the moment (the i-pod question)?

Tim Chester:

None.

Adam Bradley: Why is church planting such a passion for you?

Tim Chester: Because it’s a lot of fun! Am I allowed to say that? I’d rather be church planting than coping with all the admin and change issues that my friends in established churches have to face. I guess my ‘proper’ answer is that church planting puts mission at the heart of church and church at the heart of mission.

Adam Bradley: What would you say are the three most important principles for any young want-to-be church planter?

Tim Chester:

1. Recruit a team

You can’t do it on your own! It doesn’t need to be a big team. Half a dozen people would be enough. What does matter is that you have people who are on board with your vision. We routinely ask people not to join us. (Our rule of thumb has been not to have Christians from other local churches join us just because they fancy a change of church.) We want people to feel a sense of coming to be part of missional team (even if they have a full-time secular job).

2. Develop a vision

Start to develop a sense of what kind of church you want to be. What principles or values will shape you? Try to express this is in a clear way so that everyone in the team can articulate it for themselves. We don’t have much in the way of programmes, plans, structures and buildings. But we do try to set a clear vision so everyone knows what they should be doing and has the freedom to innovate within the vision.

3. Hang out in your area Walk the streets, prayer walk, spend time in local cafes (do your reading and prep there), join community groups, talk to people about your area. This serves a double purpose: (1) it will help you contextualise and (2) it will begin to build bridges with people in your neighbourhood.

You can do all these three things in an iterative way – they all feed into one another.

One other word of warning. Don’t rush to start do something called ‘church’ until you are confident your team has a radically different vision of church. The business of ‘doing church’ (services, children’s work, etc.) can be a distraction. You might want to call yourself a ‘missional team’ for a long time and then let slip that you have been church all this time and this is how you’re always going to do church. Or consider waiting to plant a church until you have the home of new convert in which to meet. This may help you get your contextualisation right. Let church be done on the hoof.

Adam Bradley: Here’s your opportunity to say anything else you like…

Tim Chester: Treasure Christ. Don’t find your identify in being a cutting edge, on the ball, hip and cool, orthodox and conservative church planter. Don’t try to prove yourself. don;t be controlled by the opinions of other people. Enjoy each day the grace of God to your in Christ. Return again and again to the cross. Treasure Christ. Be disciplined about it. Meditate on all that he is and all that he has done so that he is enough. Then you can bear fruit in every season, as Psalm 1 puts it. You can face disappointment, failure, temptation and still be full of joy because your joy is in the Lord.

“But, ultimately, my reason for being very ready to give these lectures is that to me the work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called. If you want something in addition to that I would say without hesitation that the most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and most urgent need in the Church, it is obviously the greatest need of the world also.” (Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)