TheDeSocios.com

Recently I was talking to a PCA elder (@RaeWhitlock) on twitter. And he made the connection that Obama’s use of technology is to Mars Hill Church’s use of technology as John McCain’s use of technology is to The PCA’s(Presbyterian Church in America) use of technology.
And while that might leave a certain unpleasant taste in some people’s mouth, it seems to be a fair statement.

John McCain has a website, while Barak Obama had a web presence, sites, blogs, txts, social network, the works.

Now using this comparison might further alienate some in the PCA from using technology, but here is the question I am thinking about: will the PCA and, other similar denominations, be a day late and a dollar short when it comes to its use technology? Because if they are, what is going to happen is that they are going to end up interacting with a ever-decreasing segment of the population.

Mark Driscoll recently traveled to England to speak about the importance of church planting. The lectures can be found here.

At one point Mark, a brother whom I greatly respect, talked about when a “number one” Pastor should step down. His argument, there are some guys who are really, as he puts it, “number two” guys who are in number one positions. He argues that these guys need to step down. According to Mark, pastors who struggle with sermons, who shrug off vision and “architecting”, and whose churches are stagnant are probably number two guys in the number one slot.
Mark advises that they need to step down, and let a real number one step up. It seems like he is arguing that Preaching and vision are things that a number one does, while shepherding and counseling are for the number two.

Let me share what I disagree with, before I move on to what I agree with.
First, Mark often speaks about the problem of simply pulling your church’s structure for culture. In fact he has gone to great pains to show how he is a two office guy, Elders and Deacons. These statements hurt that part of his witness. This idea seems to come more from the corporate world than the New Testament. Putting a value judgment on guys as being primary or secondary is wrong. Its wrong when Presbyterians devalue ruling elders, and its wrong when Mark devalues these number two guys, and it divides the office of elder.

In addition I think its unhealthy to score different aspects of the ministry of an elder. Here is the problem and this might sound mean. Mark has forgotten where these guys are coming from. He points out in Confessions of a Reformission Rev. that most churches are less than 200, which means that most churches only have one guy on staff. Which means that the specialization that Mark is talking about is entirely unknown to most of the guys he is talking to at church planting conferences. Regardless of if these small churches are healthy or not, I think that Doug Swagerty is right when he says that a church is not a fault for being small. In a larger church, with multiple full-time elders (ie. Pastors) it is understandable that different men need to specialize. I think Mark might be setting up for church planters the idea that 2000 plus people should be the norm for a church, when factually this is not the case.

I understand that he was not trying to devalue these specialized pastors who don’t preach, but I think he explained his idea in the wrong way. I also understand that this is a blog, one that very few people read. My critique is probably not going to change the way that Mark talks about this stuff, though it would be nice if it did. I think Mark has to realize that many Pastors are going to be both ones and twos, most of my seminary professors showed the ability to cast vision, to teach, to prophetically call people to follow Christ. At the same time these men, can along side of their students, they encouraged and counseled them. It is not as easy as saying your a one and your a two. I would argue that the majority of good pastors are going to be a mix of both.

Instead of simply speaking of number one preachers and number two counselors, I think Mark should have gone to Scripture to argue for the diversity of gifts on a pastoral team, something that I agree with. As I was listening to his lecture, I immediately went to Acts 11. In Acts 11, Barnabas, is working in the church Antioch, he is preaching, teach, and shepherding this new church. The Spirit is using Barnabas and the result is an explosion in the growth of the church. Barnabas, though he is a gifted speaker, realizes that Paul’s teaching would build up the church so he seeks out Paul, and asks him to join the ministry in Antioch. It seems fair to say that Paul and Barnabas, though sharing many skills, each brought their own talents to the table. From what we gather later in Acts, Paul seems to headline much of the speaking, while even Barnabas’s name reveals his counseling gifts.

I think Mark could, and should say, that if you are a Barnabas, and you see that you need someone else to come and minister with you, you need to find that Paul. Even if it means that visibly your place in the church will decrease.

I don’t think that Mark should presuppose that all churches will reach a point where all their staff can specialize, but I do think that in in the western church, there has been a culture of solo. Even the Presbyterian system, which is still being refined by God’s word, has for too long seen the Teaching Elder as alone in his ministry. In the New Testament, men ministering alone was the exception not the rule. In part, I think what Mark was getting at is the importance of realizing the need to be connected to other men in ministry. This commitment to connection must be valued even if it means that, like Barnabas, one pastor’s role might become less visible.

The challenge is to not setup success as our functional savior. A pastor’s desire must be to see people come to love Jesus, and each other, and not to be know for seeing people come to love Jesus and each other.

In Ezekiel 37 there is a passage that might be called the zombie chapter. Way before George Romero made the undead famous, Ezekiel wrote about the dead rising back to life. Of course when you read Ezekiel 37, and see how the undead come to life in Romero, there are few similarities. In Romero’s films the zombies are no truly alive, but simply reanimated, they come to life from some unknown source, and they have very base needs. Ezekiel, the dead are made alive, their flesh is regenerated, and their are given life by God. For Ezekiel the Word of God brings us back from death, not to be half human-mobs, but to be sons and daugthers of God, made more perfect, and living with God as our perfect and loving father.

Though most Christians would flinch at the comparison between a B-horror film and the Bible, in reality, many Christians hold to principles that seem to be closer to Zombie Films than to the Old Testament Prophet. Let me explain, in many of these films, the zombies are fixed on one thing: consuming human flesh. These zombies have limited mobility, but are still able to detect their needs and seek them. If you want to attract a zombie all you have to do is make some noise, and in moments they will show up. Many churches look at nonchristians more like the zombies of Romero, than the dry bones of Ezekiel. They think that if they make enough noise or put some meat in the air, that those zombies will come running. This is true across a wide variety of churches, from traditional presbyterians, to 3rd wave pentacostals, they are both looking to attract the zombie.

Spiritually people are alive or they are dead. Though many nonchristians might be offended by this idea, it is true and people who take a honest look at their lives will see the signs of death all around them, the destruction of relationships, the yearning for belonging, the desire to be something they are not, death is all around them.

Unfortunately many churches treat non-christians as spiritual zombies.

In Ezekiel 37, the Spirit of the Lord moves Ezekiel to the bones, the bones don’t come to Ezekiel. So many Christians still think that they are honored in their community just because they are the church, all they have to do is let people know they are around, and the zombies will start coming to them. Ezekiel goes to bones that are dry, and he preaches the word of God, and it is that word that brings the bones to life.

Lets leave the zombie motif behind.

Ezekiel went to the bones, and spoke to the bones, while they were still bones. So many christians today want to see non-christians hold to a certain set of moral standards before they will welcome them. They expect that these dry bones will get up and come to hear the word of the Lord, instead what Ezekiel says is that God sends his people to the spiritually dead to give them the one thing that can bring life.

Last Sunday Marshill started their new fall series in the book of Philippians.

Here is my relationship to Marshill, I love Jesus and they love Jesus.
I would consider myself a diaspora Marshiller, but I am not a member of the church. I have been reading Driscoll and listening to his sermons for 2 years now, since I came across his article in Criswell’s Theological Journal. When I hear people are moving to Seattle I tell them to check out Marshill. If I meet someone from Seattle I ask them if they go to Marshill. In fact for a time last year we were seriously considering moving to Seattle just to go to Marshill, God had different plans.

Well I am excited about this new series, i though Nehemiah got a bit off tract toward the end.
Here are some things I noticed in the first sermon:

1. New Technology in the Service.
2. Driscoll played a video of Olsteen and then corrects what he said about health and wealth. Bravo!
3. Mark is back to wrestling with the text. Which is my favorite part. I guess some people do better with Epistles than they do with narratives.

All this to say: if you have never read or listened to Mark Driscoll check him out. You can read about his ministry in a recent article put together by Christianity Today.

If you don’t necessarily like churches or Christians. Still check out Marshill. Its not your regular church, and they are not your regular stuffy Christians, they enjoy tattoos, tobacco and even beer, because they say its all made by God to be enjoyed by people.

Driscoll talks about punching bloggers in the Throat. He encourages anyone who wants to be a pastor to study comedians, such as Chris Rock. Marshill has a band called “team strike force”.
Here is the link to the last sermon.

There is a great scene in the movie the 13th Warrior, where Ahmed(Antonio Banderas) is traveling with the 12 viking warriors, and he doesn’t know how to talk with them so he is just listening. They are telling stories, and laughing each others jokes. Then all of a sudden he understands one part of what they are saying, and then another, and finally Ahmed start to speak with the rest of the warriors, he even responds to a joke about him.

I have been learning over and over again that this clip is actually a pretty good picture of what Christians are supposed to do as missionaries. We are supposed to observe how people are communicating, and learn the best way communicate to the people we are trying to communicate with. This is how we are supposed to go about communicating with people its the same for someone, in urban africa, rural india, or Post-Christian-America. Its called being missional.

I have been reading about the practical side of being missional(being a missionary in a Post-Christian/Non-Christian context). One of main work on the topic,The Missional Church, is also one of the shortest, and guess who wrote it? One of my favorite Pastors-Tim Keller surprise, surprise.

Here is a one sentence summary of the work:

Stop thinking like its all about the alreadys(Those already the church), and focus more on the not yets(people not yet part of the kingdom).

Here is a good example from the paper:
“Now the culture’s story is– a) to be free and self-created and authentic (theme of freedom from oppression), and b) to make the world safe for everyone else to be the same (theme of inclusion of the ‘other’; justice). To “re-tell” means to show how only in Christ can we have freedom without slavery and embracing of the ‘other’ without injustice.”

If you still think that people need to act like you in order to fit into your church, I beg you, please repent. Open you Bibles to 1st Corinthians 9, and ask the Spirit to give you a heart like Paul has in that passage. While your at it, pray that everyone else will get a heart like Paul as well.