BLeach

The Tribes of Christ

This Sunday I'll begin a new teaching series I'm calling The Tribes of Christ.  God has always had a people.  The Old Testament is the story of His covenant with twelve tribes called Israel.  The New Testament introduces a new covenant, inaugurated by the birth of Christ and the subsequent birth of Christ's Church.  Now God has thousands of tribes in every Continent, country and zip code. 

God started with twelve tribes.  They were His people.  He chose them and challenged them to be a holy nation.  Now, with as much care and involvement as ever, He is building His Church.  We are His people.  He chooses us and challenges us to be a holy nation.  We are the tribes of Christ (1 Peter 2.9).

What is the nature of The Church?  Why are there so many local churches?  What is the purpose of starting even more?  Why should churches grow?  How do churches grow?  Where do I fit in The Church? 

My goal is to shed some Bible light on these questions.

So many people that I meet are longing for something great to give their lives to.  I believe The Church is the mission they're designed to advance.  I hope that this series will help explain what God is doing in the world and how one local tribe in Metro Detroit fits into His plan. 

Bill Hybels says the local church is the hope of the world.  I tend to agree.

All tribes unite!

A Farewell Tribute

This past weekend our church celebrated Ryan Bachman. He came to us in the winter of 2003 for a 4 month internship. He wound up staying over 3 years. There's not too much in our church that he hasn't done at least once. On Friday he'll load a trailer and leave for Missouri. He's pursuing God's call to plant churches overseas.

I bought my house in December 2002. Ryan came in January, 2003. He's the only roommate I've ever had at 3931 Phillips. So this past weekend I put together a little tribute video to say goodbye. Thanks to Eddie and Tim for the help.

Enjoy, and remember Ryan:)


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Back to Blogging

I'm re-entering the blogosphere after a stretch of busy days.  I knew I had to get back in the routine of posting after my mom called me out yesterday! 

I had mixed emotions this morning.  Ryan filled in for me in both services at our church.  I took advantage of the break to swing over after our first service to the gathering at The Oaks.  They finished their first 6 week series of teachings today.  It was surreal to realize our first daughter church is now six weeks old.  I loved seeing the core group we sent working so hard.  They're making it happen.  The best part though had to have been seeing the new faces of people The Oaks is reaching.  These people may never walk through the door at Church of the King but they are an extension of our faith.  Most of them are totally unchurched.

So the good news is that Ryan was filling in for me.  The bad news is that Ryan was filling in for me!  I wanted him to share his story because today was his last Sunday as a part of our staff.  He's on his way to start the process of becoming a full time church planting missionary.  He caught the vision and now he's taking it to places I may never even visit.  It's a faith step for him and I was glad to see so many in our church rally around him with prayer and encouragement.

For three years we've lived together and worked together.  I've never had to say goodbye to a brother before:)

Warriors in the Waiting

I'm really enjoying the Resurgence blog.  I think Mark Driscoll is one of the leading theological thinkers for emerging culture and he deals with important issues.  I love his passionate focus on Jesus.

This post deals with leadership selection, something I recently posted about.  It introduces a tension that I've been thinking about.  He is talking about the kind of leaders that a church planter needs to select to serve in his church.  He lists and describes several types of people who should be avoided.

• Needy People
• Insecure People
• Nice People
• Disgruntled People
• Seasoned People
• Church Kids
• Dreamers
• Flaky People
• Wolves

His thoughts make sense on a logical level.  All of these people have the potential to fail or at least hinder a ministry.  But I have one question.

Who is left?

There is the category of unchurched people who can be discipled to become leaders.  But alot of the unchurched people I have relationships with are needy, a little flaky, or even worse, nice!  Not to mention that if an unchurched family has kids, they will soon be church kids, and disqualified for leadership.

This list disqualifies me for leadership!  Yesterday I spent half the day feeling insecure.  I'm a church kid.  Most days I'm a dreamer.  And I'd like to think that every now and then I'm nice:)

What about Jesus' style of leadership selection?  He had an insecure guy (James) who worried about where his seat would be in heaven.  He had a dreamer (Peter) who lived with such high ideals that he struggled to actually do what he said he would do.  All 12 of them seemed to be pretty needy.  He even had a wolf (Judas).  I wonder if Jesus' knew at selection that Judas was a wolf? 

And then there's David.  Read this passage.  David started with three groups of people:

• Distressed people
• InDebted people
• Discontented people

David became their leader, and they became warriors. 

I wonder how many insecure people in our church are warriors in the waiting?  I wonder how many needy people in our church are warriors in the waiting?  I wonder how many seasoned people in our church are warriors in the waiting?  I wonder how many church kids might even grow up to be a warrior? 

I do believe that we need to put more emphasis on the gift of discernment in selecting leaders.  Leading the church that Jesus bled for isn't recreation.  It is for committed disciples.  But isn't it also for flawed disciples?  If Peter hadn't been selected by Jesus, he could have avoided hearing the rooster crow.  He also would have avoided the leadership adventure that is Acts 1-10. 

For what it's worth, the two types of people who concern me the most on Mark's list are disgruntled people and wolves.  My experience has been that people who come to our church mainly because they're frustrated with their old church will eventually become frustrated with ours.  And Paul tells pastors to specifically watch out for wolves (Acts 20.29).

Here's the tension I feel.  I want to select only the leaders that Jesus has selected.  I just can't help but wonder if some of the leaders He has selected have some imperfections.

I have more questions than answers on this one.  Thanks to Mark for inspiring me to think about it.

It Could Have Been Us

Yesterday was a fun day. We celebrated the conclusion of our Spring Extreme Makeover. I was proud of the way our Life Groups rallied around our 4 adopted moms. 3 of them were with us yesterday in the services.

We also thanked our five site managers with home depot gift cards. These guys are construction geniuses. They are my heroes.

One of them, Glen Frank, sent over a video this morning. I was glad this didn't happen to any of our construction teams!


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Church Planting Guys

Today I was invited to a dream session with some like-minded church planters from around the country.  I was out of my league but blown away by the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of my heroes. 

I met Jeff Leake, Ron Johnson, and Lance Stoddard last night for dinner.  Jeff pastors Allison Park Church in Pennsylvania.  Their working on their seventh daughter church.  Ron pastors Bethel Temple in Hampton, Virginia.  They've planted several dozen churches around the world.  Ron also oversees a church planting movement in Stockholm, Sweden and Uganda.

My friend Bruce Van Haul was also at the meeting today.  He oversees all the sent churches out of Mount Hope Church in Lansing.  They've planted about 41 churches.  I'll be speaking at their church planting school in June. 

I also got to meet several great guys. 

Rob Ketterling started River Valley 11 years ago.  They just launched their first daughter church in January.  Rob had some creative financing ideas that really caught my attention.  River Valley bought a strip mall.  The church uses 20,000 square feet and leases the rest of it to several tenants, including Walmart.  The tenants pay for the mortgage on their building, and over time as they move out the church is expanding its ministry space.  He also shared a networking idea for financing new church plants that really stirred some faith for me.  I love their current series which is playing off The Office.  I love Rob's blog. 

Scott Bruegman planted a church in Denver less than two years ago.  They're now pursuing a dream to plant five churches in the next five years. 

Rod Loy, Don James and Dave Cawston were also here.  They all pastor churches that have planted other churches. 

The meeting was put together by Alton Garrison and Steve Pike.  They are leading church planting for the Assemblies of God at the national level.  Pray for them.  They carry a vision to see church planting movements transform our cities.  They're the real deal.

By the time the meeting ended at 3.00 pm I was getting antsy.  I'm ready to plant more churches:)

I'm headed to a St. Louis Cardinals game tonight with Jeff, Ron and Lance.  Thought we'd catch them while we're in town.  They play the Diamondbacks. 

Go Tigers:)

The Madras Miracle

Wednesday night David Mohan spoke at our Michigan District Council service.  He pastors New Life Assembly of God in Madras, India that has now grown to 30,000 people.  They are currently building a sanctuary that will seat 55,000.  He began the church with 7 seekers. 

When they started small group ministry they launched 50 small groups.  They now have 4,500 small groups.  A few weeks ago New Life baptised 900 people in water.  About 100 of them were converting from Hinduism. 

They've also mothered about 120 church plants.

I was struck by his simple passion for prayer.  On Friday nights they have between 400 and 1,000 people who gather at the church to pray all night long. 

At one point he began talking about a 100 million dollar Hindu temple that is being constructed close to his church.  He became so irritated while mentioning it in his message that he paused and began leading all of us in prayer that the construction would be halted.   

His most striking comment to me was this.

If I don't pray as a pastor, then I am saying I can build my church without God's help.

David Mohan's story reminded me of something so simple.  Cities aren't changed because of good ideas.  They are changed by God's power.  Prayer connects us to God's power.

Looking back over 4 years of church planting, I can identify definite stretches when I practiced prayer more than others.  That's not good enough.  My goal is to develop consistent dependency on God by saturating every season of my life in prayer.

Prayer can do anything God can do.

Blogging from the Business

I'm at District Council today for the Assemblies of God in Michigan.  My dad preached this morning and knocked it out of the park.  He's a great preacher and an even better dad.

ROC (Revival Outreach Center) is hosting the convention.  They've gone all out.

• Free Caribou coffee
• Free workout room
• Free haircuts
• Free lunches and dinner
• Free massages

Hospitality is one of the undervalued spiritual gifts.

They also have free wireless internet in the sanctuary.  This one may have been a mistake.  I've thought about adding wireless to our building, including our sanctuary.  Now I'm wondering how many people will be doing what I'm doing right now while I'm talking on Sunday:)

Got to go.  I think I'm supposed to be approving a report or something right now.

Slow Down

Be still in the Presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.

Psalm 37.7 (NLT)

Blogging Pastors

I'm glad to welcome three new ministry friends to the blogosphere. 

Mike Dubbels was one of my best friends at College.  We've spent many hours dreaming out loud together.  He just joined the leadership team at Crossroads Community Church in Indiana.  He's an administrative whiz with church planting in his blood.  He's also alot better at basketball then he looks:)

Jeff Leake is one of my church planting heroes.  He pastors Allison Park Church in the Pittsburgh area.  His church now has 6 daughter churches.  Jeff's vision to plant churches helped formulate mine.  His annual church planting roundtable has been the catalyst for some new ventures that are coming up for our church.

Bobby Hawk enrolled in CBC my Senior year.  We spent alot of time together that year.  The following summer he was in our inaugural team of interns and helped us launch Church of the King.  He returned two years later and started Pontiac Family Worship Center in the inner city of Pontiac.  I'm really proud of what he's accomplishing.  I should offer a cliche warning for Bobby.  He's the king of the one-liner.  I don't think he can help it.

I'm glad to have these guys added to my blogline feeds.