PGF Outbox

Gravity

Yesterday I attended a seminar by a pastor named Ron Archer.  He is a pastor in Florida, chaplain to the NFL, and consultant to the White House.  He is an engaging speaker with an incredible story. 

He was discussing vision - how to share it and how to gather people around it.  He talked about gravity.   Newton assessed that the force of gravity was dependent on the size of the object.  The reason the Earth orbits the sun is because the sun is much bigger than the Earth.  The moon orbits the Earth because it is smaller.  So the force of gravity was dependent on its size. 

Einstein came along and posited a new theory.  Instead of being related to size, the force of gravity is dependent on density.  Black holes have an extraordinary gravitational pull because they are so dense.  

How do people relate to the vision of your church? Why do they stay connected to it as they follow Jesus Christ?  If you are trying to attract lots of people by getting bigger - bigger stage, more programs, better coffee - then you may be disappointed.  The question is how clear is your vision? How focused is your church on pursuing that laser focused vision?  Trying to be all things to all people will result in a fuzzy galaxy of loosely connected stars. 

Of course, you can have the wrong vision.  I know many churches who are laser focused on the 1950's - how their church used to be.  The primary theory of how black holes are formed is that a star dies and collapses in on itself.  Very large stars collapse in and become very dense.  Everything is trapped in its gravitational pull.  Even light is trapped and absorbed. 

A vision bright as the sun will give warmth, light, and life to those around it.  The sun exudes itself and the Earth benefits. A church focused on giving to the community, not on preserving itself, will be full of energy and enjoy its life-giving power. 

Big or small is not the question.  Missional churches come in all sizes.  The question is how clear, compelling, and mission committed is your vision?  Are you a black hole or a sun? 

What Do You Measure?

Reggie McNeal has me thinking about what we measure.  In an interview about his new book, Missional Renaissance, we states:

I wanted to help leaders develop a scorecard that rewarded their missional efforts. The church growth era certainly had a scorecard (one that we are still using) that declared winners and losers at that game. We 

need a scorecard that gives expression to the multi-dimensional facets of the missional church.

My experience with the church growth era scorecard is the classic ABC's - Attendance, Buildings, Cash.   This is what we as a body measure and publish.  Each congregation's attendance (worship and Sunday School) and annual budget is recorded and shared at Presbytery, online, and in conversations everywhere.  Certainly this is how the media talks about our church, in terms of declining members.  But I don't blame the media, because they learned it from us. 

What if we changed the scorecard? What would you measure?  I belong to a downtown church.  San Antonio has one of the highest rates of homeless children in the country.  What if we measured how many children are in stable homes because we exist as a church?  What if we focus on that number? 

The scorecard would be hard to compare because what is measured would be unique to each congregation. Small, large, city, rural - each church is unique with a particular calling to serve its community.  And maybe that is where it gets tricky.  How would we assess per capita, determine delegates to governing bodies, and such? 

Maybe we should try and find out.  Maybe when we focus on being the church in our community the rest will follow.  That may sound naive, but I would like to try.  I would like to belong to a church that measures our impact for the Kingdom instead of our collective worth in property, cash, and membership. 

What do you think?  How can we change the scorecard? 

Michael Frost in Texas - May 3-6

Two opportunities to engage Michael Frost - brought to you by Presbyterian Global Fellowship.  We are excited to have Michael back after his popular keynote presentation at the 2007 Inside Out Conference in Houston.  

First, Michael will preach all worship services at First Presbyterian San Antonio, Texas on May 3.  He will also further unpack what it means to be a missional Christian at a special "Conversation with Michael Frost" Monday, May 4, at 6:30 p.m. in Covenant Hall. This 90-minute session is open to everyone. Childcare is available for the May 4 event by contacting April Kuper at 210.226.0216, ext. 232.  More information at First Presbyterian San Antonio's website: Click Here. 

Second, Michael will go to Houston for Missional Living in Today's World.  He will address issues facing each of the diverse communities that are hosting his time. Chris Seay, Rudy Rasmus, Dave Peterson, and Jim Herrington will lead discussions regarding our faith communities, our city, and the various ways we struggle to be the real Jesus in the real world. 

What does it mean to truly be Jesus in the communities 

and cultures we live in?  

What radical changes are required of congregations 

who want to focus on the mission of the Church as 

opposed to the traditions of the Church?  

How do we challenge the vision of the domesticated 

Jesus we learned about in Sunday School and truly 

follow the Jesus portrayed in the Gospels?

Schedule, more information, and registration at www.frost.mdpc.org. 

Not looking back

Darrell Guder, in the Rian lectures delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary, acknowledges the challenges confronting missional leadership.  "Christendom gave us wealth, legal protection, political power, and cultural hegemony.  It is unsettling that [these are] ending."

If you are not unsettled, then you are not awake.  As we live into the reality that Christendom is over, we find ourselves not knowing how to "be church."  As Reggie McNeal said in our Atlanta gathering, we know how to "do church."  But in the new reality of a post-modern, post-Christendom world, how do we  "be church"? 

This question is the reason Presbyterian Global Fellowship came to be and invites you to join the conversation.  Because it is a question and we are all in this journey together.  This is not a tall steeple movement, it is not a rich church movement, it is not a "theologically right" movement.  PGF is a gathering of individuals and congregations who are Reformed and discerning how to be Reformed in a post-modern world.  PGF is a gathering of individuals and congregations who seek wisdom and leadership from our global brothers and sisters who have been effective witnesses for Christ in places in which Christianity did not enjoy wealth, legal protection, political power or cultural hegemony.  Because they have a lot to teach us!  PGF is a gathering of individuals and congregations who seek to support one another during this difficult transition.  

Guder goes on to say, "But the end is an opportunity to discover new lenses that obscure our view of the gospel."  There are no glasses for looking back.  No matter how hard we try to forge them out of polity or fond memories of how it used to be.  

New lenses are good.  Guder says, "we can experience what it means to be under Jesus' lordship when his lordship is mysterious and not publicly acknowledged."  If you are up for an adventure, then PGF is the movement for you. 

Kelly Kannwischer

What is PGF going to do about....

This is a question that PGF gets all the time.  So, I want to take the time to address it and invite your input.  I have asked this question myself as the Executive Director, because it is easier to to motivate people to join a movement that is doing something.   

What PGF is committed to "do" is two very simple acts.  First, PGF will support, foster, and inject missional thinking.  In other words, PGF's purpose is to help Presbyterians become aware that there is an alternative to thinking about the church as an organization that needs to be maintained.  Instead, the church can be an organic group of human beings sent out into the world to serve and point to Jesus.  This may sound simple or redundant.  But it represents a fundamental and colossal change in what "church" means to most Presbyterians.  

Why does PGF bring in all these speakers and focus on conferences and gatherings?  PGF serves by engaging with thought-leaders.  These thought-leaders are scholars, missiologists, missionaries, authors, pastors, and other great servants who can help us understand how our communities of faith are being affected by the culture.  They also provide insight into how the church can effectively witness to the love of Christ in a postmodern and pluralist world.  In other words, we focus on conferences and gatherings because we need to hear the invitation to become missional!

PGF is criticized regularly for inviting so many non-Presbyterian types to our gatherings.  The reason is that we have easy access to Presbyterian leaders, thinking, and scholarship.  And it is wonderful.  But we also need to challenge ourselves by engaging thinkers who are NOT Presbyterian.  People who will inspire, shake us up, even point out where we are falling short.  How else will we learn and grow? 

The first thing PGF will continue to DO is support, foster, and inject missional thinking. The second is be  a support group for those brave souls and congregations who commit to transformation.  The shift to a missional understanding of church is no simple task.  It involves confession that the world has changed but the way we do church has not.  It involves grieving, because there is no going back to the 1950's model. It involves new thinking, which is hard for many Presbyterians to embrace.  

We need each other if we are going to make it.  We need to share the struggle, share what we are learning, share prayer, share resources, and share a commitment to keep Jesus at the center of it all.  As a fellowship, we will continue to provide the opportunity to be in community with each other in ways that is based on relationships and not on Robert's Rules of Order. 

What is PGF going to do about....  PGF is going to foster missional thinking and provide community for those who are braving the transition.  

PGF is going to do the work Christ called us to do.  To be his sent ones in the world.   With full assurance that he is out ahead of us, behind, us, in us, and loving us as our Lord and Saviour. 

Quite frankly, I think that is enough.