Missional-Life

Today I spent the afternoon doing some vision and planning for the future of Nene Family Church

This is a great talk by Mark Driscoll, from Mars Hill Church (Seattle)

What is the Church by Mark Driscoll from Vintage21 Church on Vimeo.

If you have not read any John C. Maxwell, then this is a great little post that I found on his website…

William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural address of any U.S. President, taking two hours to plod through a whopping 8,445-word speech. Even though the speech was delivered outdoors on a frigid and rainy day, the President stubbornly refused to wear an overcoat or hat. As a result, he caught a cold that developed into pneumonia, and he died a month later. The leadership lesson: it pays to simplify.

Two Myths about Simplicity

Myth #1 Simplicity Lacks Depth

A few years ago, I was being interviewed on a television talk show. “John,” the host said, “I’ve read several of your books, and they are all so simple.” His mocking tone made it clear to the audience and to me that the comment was not intended as a compliment.

My response was direct: “That’s true. The principles in my books are simple to understand, but they are not always simple to apply.” The audience applauded, and the talk show host conceded that what I said was true.

We often associate simplicity with a lack of depth or shortage of intelligence. Conversely, we ascribe intelligence to people who communicate using big words or hard-to-grasp concepts. Somehow, we assume that anyone speaking in a dense, academic style must be smart.

The issues we face in life can be complex, with all sorts of intricacies. However, as leaders and communicators, our job is to bring clarity to a subject, reducing rather than adding to its complexity. The measure of a great teacher isn’t what he knows; it’s what his students know. Simplicity is a skill, and it’s a necessary one if you want to connect with people when you communicate.

Myth #2 Simplicity Is Easy

When we encounter something simple, we assume it has been hastily thrown together or not fully thought out. To us, simplicity means taking shortcuts and denying the complex reality of life. However, in a society flooded with information, simplicity has never been more difficult to achieve. Nor has it ever been as important.

Perhaps nobody understands simplicity better than Apple, Inc. The company put its computers back on the map by touting their user-friendly interfaces. Then, Apple leapfrogged the competition by pioneering devices that simplified the way we access, store, and share information.

Despite his success in bringing about simplicity, Apple CEO Steve Jobs attests to the difficulty of doing so.

If you read the Apple’s first brochure, the headline was “Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication.” What we meant by that was that when you first attack a problem it seems really simple because you don’t understand it. Then when you start to really understand it, you come up with these very complicated solutions because it’s really hairy. Most people stop there. But a few people keep burning the midnight oil and finally understand the underlying principles of the problem and come up with an elegantly simple solution for it. But very few people go the distance to get there.

A leader’s initial attempts to resolve a problem raise a host of questions that make the problem appear bigger than it did at first. However, as leaders persevere through the haze of complexity and wade through the maze of possible remedies, they often arrive at a simple solution. Once they have the solution, and can state it plainly, leaders are in position to connect with their customers.

Summary

It may seem counterintuitive, but if you want to take your communication to the next level, don’t try to dazzle people with your intellect or overpower them with information. Give them clarity and simplicity. People will relate to you, and they’ll want to invite you back to communicate with them again.

Also, don’t expect simplicity to come easily. At first, your attempts to find clarity may seem to backfire. Nevertheless, press on and maintain focus. Eventually, you’ll reduce your problems to a manageable size, and you’ll uncover simple principles that will aid your ability to connect with those you serve.

ABOUT

John C. Maxwell is an internationally respected leadership expert, speaker, and author who has sold more than 18 million books. Dr. Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP, a non-profit organization that has trained more than 5 million leaders in 126 countries worldwide. Each year he speaks to the leaders of diverse organizations, such as Fortune 500 companies, foreign governments, the National Football League, the United States Military Academy at West Point, and the United Nations. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell has written three books that have sold more than a million copies: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. His blog can be read at www.JohnMaxwellOnLeadership.com.

Yesterday a good guy from our church led us in communion. He opened up the communion by applying John Piper’s worship quote to communion. He said… “our times spent round the communion table should be times of gravity and gladness”. Gravity and the magnitude of what Christ both gave up and accomplished for us. Gladness at the wonderful inheritance that is now our due to his sacrificial death for us. What a fitting description!

Please do take a moment to visit our new church website:

http://www.christcommunitychurch.co.uk

The following video clip is from  the Worship God 09 conference. C.J. Mahaney & Bob Kauflin (Sovereign Grace Ministries)  discuss the leadership lessons and dynamics of working together to lead God’s people in coroprate worship. It is really intresting video!

Lessons Learned from Three Decades of Leading from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

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.

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.

Over the past few years there has been much talk in church planting circles about the importance of ‘going for the cities’. I thought the following comment by Roland Allen in his amazing book Missionary methods, St. Paul’s or Ours? (first published in 1912!) is really thought provoking!

“Important cities may be made the graves of mission as easily as villages. There is no particular virtue in attacking a centre or establishing a church in an important place unless the church established in the important place is a church possessed of sufficient life to be a source of light to the whole country round.” (pg. 12)