Daniel Im's Blog, page 19

Mass Gatherings and Movements

The year 2011 was the year of social media, mass gatherings, and movements, or as we now know it, The Arab Spring.

It’s believed to have all started in Tunisia when a 26-year-old man, who was trying to sell fruits and vegetables in order to support his widowed mother and six siblings, had his cart confiscated and was slapped by a policewoman. Humiliated and full of rage, he set himself on fire in front of a government building. This wasn’t the first time an instance like this had happened, but when it was captured by cellphone cameras and shared on the Internet, everything changed. This act of injustice, which led to the President of Tunisia fleeing the country a month later, awakened a sleeping giant across the Middle East. Just consider what else happened that year:

January 14, 2011: Government overthrown in Tunisia
February 11, 2011: Government overthrown in Egypt; President Mubarak resigns facing charges of killing unarmed protestors
February 15, 2011: Anti-government protests begin in Libya, and on October 20, Gaddafi is killed.

And the list goes on and on with Syria, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Oman.

Mass gatherings, riots, and movements are nothing new.

Just consider when over 200,000 people gathered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to hear Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech in 1963. Or what about the L.A. Race Riots of 1992 and the Ferguson, Missouri, riots of 2014? Then there are the riots that I am personally most embarrassed of—not because I was there, but because this was my home city—when, in 2011, the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup 4-0 against the Boston Bruins.

Fans went insane. Police cars were set on fire, shops were looted, glass was broken, and cars were overturned. It was chaos.

And at the end of 2016, let’s not forget the massive movement where millions came out protesting and calling for the impeachment of Park Geun-Hye, then President of South Korea.

We remember moments like these because people gathered. And when they gathered, they did something together they wouldn’t have been able to do by themselves. They saw both the dificulties and possibilities so clearly that they were able to visualize a different reality. This vision for a golden tomorrow has fueled movements in the past and is what will spark a church multiplication movement today.

Vision has fueled movements in the past and is what will spark a movement today.
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A Golden Tomorrow: Planting 1,000 Churches

Subtract your age from the number 80. Now take that number, and add it to this year’s number. What year do you get? 2050? 2070? 2090?

What if I told you that it’s possible to plant 1,000 churches before you get to that year? 1,000 churches in your lifetime? Would you believe me?

In fact, before you move any further, take a moment and try reverse engineering what you would need to do in order to plant 1,000 churches in your lifetime.

It’s happened before, and it can happen again.

We live in exciting times where we have the capability of reaching multitudes of people—more than any other generation before us. The world has grown smaller, and our capacity for knowledge transfer and multiplication has dramatically expanded.

Historically speaking, 1,000 churches have been planted in the average lifespan of an individual in China and Korea, as well as in the West with the Calvary Chapel, Vineyard, and Hope Chapel movements. Although this figure seems overwhelming, recent history has proven that when God is in the mix and the church is stirred to action, anything is possible!

It is our prayer that this concise book, 1,000 Churches: How Past Movements Did It—And How Your Church Can, Too, will increase your optimism and vision for church planting possibilities in a way that becomes catalytic and contagious for the kingdom’s sake.

When God is in the mix and the church is stirred to action, anything is possible.
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In chapter one of this book that Ed Stetzer and I wrote for NewChurches.com, we will take a closer look at each of these examples given as we explore movements and what’s taken place in recent history. This chapter’s aim is to inform so that reform and movement may be catalyzed. In chapter two, we’ll explore why there are no church planting movements currently in the West. Chapter three is where we’ll examine the characteristics of movements and their barriers with a view to greater impact and missional impetus. We’ll then conclude with an outline of the systems and principles required to plant 1,000 churches in your lifetime.

Let’s stop longing for the past, when things were better and when churches grew and expanded en masse in the West.

Instead, let’s look forward and pray that God would do it again in a fresh way. Let’s lift our eyes above what we see and allow our vision of the glory of God to shape our present realities and direct our future paths.

Download this book for free here, or purchase hard copies here.

Mars, Contextualization, and Church Leadership

Image: NASA
What time is it on Mars?

I was obsessed with space as a child. In fact, I still have my old books about space, and now my children are reading them! I can assure you that it was their decision, not mine. Going along the theme of loving space, I was naturally into Star Wars, but it was Star Trek that won the day for me. Now I’m definitely revealing my inner nerd, but I even had a manual that talked about all the intricate systems on the USS Enterprise.

I recently watched a TED Talk from Nagin Cox, a Spacecraft Operations Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In it, she explained what life on Mars was like—she even referred to herself as a Martian! Now before you ask Google, Siri, or Alexa when humans first landed on Mars, let me clarify. She’s a Martian because she works on the team that controls the four rovers that the U.S. has placed on Mars since the mid-90s.

When the rovers are “sleeping” at night—in order to recharge their batteries—Cox and her team are hard at work creating the rover’s program for the next day. So essentially, Cox works the night shift.

Now unlike individuals who work the graveyard shift from 11 pm – 7 am here on Earth, things are a bit different on Mars. This is because a day on Mars is 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth. In other words, it takes 24 hours and 40 minutes for Mars to rotate once.

Not only that, but a year on Mars is almost twice as long as a year on Earth.

While this might sound like a minute detail (pun intended), this has actually created quite a couple of issues for Cox and her Martian colleagues, such as:

When you say the words yesterday, today, and tomorrow, how do you know if someone is referring to yesterday, today, and tomorrow on Earth time or Martian time?
Do you work the 11 pm – 7 am shift according to Earth time or Martian time?

Now what does this all have to do with church planting and leadership in the church?

Well, in order to solve those problems, Cox and her team had to contextualize.

This is a core competency for church planters that we’ve talked about at length on NewChurches.com, the resource for church planters and multipliers that Ed Stetzer and I lead together. You can scroll to the bottom of this article for further reading on the subject.

Let’s take a look at three ways that Cox and her team learned to contextualize, so that they could better adjust to life on Mars.

1. Speak the Local Language

In order to differentiate between the days on Mars and the days on Earth, Cox and her team had to first realize that their current vocabulary wasn’t sufficient. They had to learn the language of Mars. No, I’m not talking about learning some foreign alien language like Klingon, I’m talking about being able to verbally differentiate between a day on Mars and a day on Earth.

Since astronomers refer to a Martian day as a sol, Cox and her team decided to learn how to speak the local language when referring to time on Mars. So they created the following rubric:

Today on Earth = Tosol on Mars
Yesterday on Earth = Yestersol on Mars
Tomorrow on Earth = Nextersol or Solorrow on Mars

So that means, if they were talking about today on Mars, they said tosol. Yesterday became yestersol, and tomorrow because nextersol or solorrrow.

When moving into a new neighborhood to plant a church/campus or revitalize an established one, learn how to speak the local language.

You can definitely share stories from your previous context and the church you came from, but watch that you’re not doing this too often. In the first year, it’s fine, since it’s context and it often gives you a sense of legitimacy that you’re not wet behind the ears. But if you do this too often and too long, people will begin to wonder why you even moved to their neighborhood.

It’s fine to share stories from your previous church, but don’t do it too often.
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2. Live the Local Rhythms

Instead of coming to work everyday from 11 pm – 7 am Earth time, Cox and her team came to work everyday 11 pm – 7 am Martian time. They immersed themselves fully into local life on Mars. Since a day on Mars is 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth, the team had to come to work 40 minutes later every single day.

Now this might seem manageable for a couple days, but what do you think would happen after a couple of months? How would you even keep track? Especially when it would eventually be 4 pm Martian time, but 6 am on Earth. This sure puts the inconvenience of Daylight Saving Time to rest.

In order to adjust and live like a local on Mars, Cox and her team wore two watches—one for Mars and one for Earth. They adjusted the weights on one of their watches so that it would run slower and be calibrated to Martian time, instead of Earth time.

When moving into a new neighborhood to plant a church/campus or revitalize an established one, start living the local rhythms.

For example, when do the lights come on in your town?

Friday night, Saturday night, or Sunday night? Since moving to the U.S., I’ve begun to live like a local, in order to better pastor those in my church and reach those in my community. While my town might not be a Friday-night-lights-high-school-football type of town, everyone around here sure loves college football! So nothing at the church ever gets scheduled on a Saturday night.

Learn how to live the local rhythms in your neighborhood for missional engagement.
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Sure, I’d rather watch hockey on Saturday night like I did growing up (Hockey Night in Canada on CBC), but since God has called me here, I need to live into the local rhythms of my town.

3. Involve Your Family

What happens when you’re working in the middle of a Martian night, but there’s daylight streaming in through the windows, since it’s 11 am on Earth? You draw the blinds and you keep them shut until time aligns again, right? While this might be easy to do at work, since everyone’s on Martian time, what about your family?

In order to be successful at her mission on Mars, Cox understood the importance of involving her family.

So this also works for the house, for at home. I’ve been on Mars time three times, and my husband is like, OK, we’re getting ready for Mars time. And so he’ll put foil all over the windows and dark curtains and shades because it also affects your families. And so here I was living in kind of this darkened environment, but so was he. And he’d gotten used to it. But then I would get these plaintive emails from him when he was at work. Should I come home? Are you awake? What time is it on Mars? And I decided, OK, so he needs a Mars watch.

When moving into a new neighborhood to plant a church/campus or revitalize an established one, be sure to involve your family.

Experience new restaurants and parts of the city together as a family. Don’t just take your family to places you’ve been to before. Explore together and involve your family fully into the mission that God has called you into. For God has not just called you to your church, but He has also called your family to it as well. So serve them, shepherd them, and involve them in your ministry.

God has not just called you to your church, but He has called your family to it as well.
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Further Reading on Contextualization:

Contextualizing “Personal Jerusalems”
Are We On the Same Page?
Understanding Before Being Understood

*My article here was originally published on April 11, 2017 in Christianity Today.

Missional Living and the Scriptures

Mission is not something that your church does. Nor is it something that your church can opt out of. And it’s not a strategy, preference, or style of ministry either.

Mission needs to be core to the identity of any and every local church. After all, a church without a clear understanding of its mission is a church without power. As scholar Martin Kähler said a century ago, “Mission is the mother of theology.”

—— Enter the giveaway at the bottom of this article for a chance to win one of four Goatskin Leather copies of the new Christian Standard Bible ——

What It Means to Be Missional

I’m not talking about having a mission statement. I’m talking about the great and grand mission that God has invited us all into: the mission of God, the missio Dei. The concept of missio Dei is recognition that God is a sending God and that the church is sent.

Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you. (John 20:21 CSB)

In describing the mission of the church, Tim Keller notes: “God does not merely send the church in mission. God already is in mission, and the church must join him. This also means, then, that the church does not simply have a missions department; it should wholly exist to be a mission.”1

The church does not simply have a missions department; it should wholly exist to be a mission.
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The church has been sent to join the most important mission in the Scriptures.2 Jesus Christ embodied that mission; the Holy Spirit empowers for that mission; the church is the instrument of that mission; and the culture is the context in which that mission occurs.3

As missiologist Wilbert Shenk points out: “The Great Commission institutionalizes mission as the raison d’être, the controlling norm, of the church. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ and a member of his body is to live a missionary experience in the world. There is no doubt that this was how the earliest Christians understood their calling.”
4

And this is how we need to understand the word mission or its adjective, missional, today. A missional church is a church that’s adopting the posture of a missionary, joining God on His mission, and learning and adapting to
 the culture around them while remaining biblically sound.
 Think of it this way: missional means living and acting like 
a missionary, even if you never leave your city.

Missional means living and acting like a missionary, even if you never leave your city.
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A Missional Translation

In addition to preaching out of the CSB as a Teaching Pastor at The Fellowship, a multisite church in Nashville, TN, I’m also reading through it, cover to cover, for my personal devotions.

What I love about the translation is the readability of it. It just flows. The sentences are written in a way that makes sense and are easy to memorize. It’s like I’m reading a modern day play, rather than a play written by Shakespeare or Chaucer.

However, at the same time, after examining the translation methodology of the CSB, I can trust that what I’m reading is what the original manuscripts said. I’ve found the CSB to be both readable and trustworthy.

Missional Living

In order to lead the members of your church to live and act like missionaries, you need to equip them with the one thing that matters above all else—the Scriptures. Ephesians 6:17 equates the Scriptures to the sword that every soldier needs in order to walk onto the battlefield.

…the sword of the Spirit​—   ​which is the word of God. (Eph 6:17b CSB)

We’re in a battlefield—a spiritual one.

And that means we need to give our congregations a sword that they can actually lift and that is strong and reliable. We need to give them a translation they can understand and one that adheres closely to the original meaning.

To live and act like missionaries, you need the one thing that matters—the Scriptures.
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If you want to equip your church members to live and act like missionaries, they need to be so familiar with their swords that they can easily wield them against the lies and temptations of the evil one.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. 13 For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. 14 Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, 15 and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. 16 In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit ​— ​which is the word of God. (Eph 6:12-17)

Enter to Win

Next Steps:

Enter the giveaway to win one of four Goatskin Leather copies of the new Christian Standard Bible
See the different versions available for the Christian Standard Bible
See what pastors and leaders are saying about the Christian Standard Bible here
Read the CSB for yourself

____________

1 Tim Keller, Center Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 251.

2 Köstenberger and O’Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth, 269.

3 Wilbert R. Shenk, “Mission Theology,” in Phillips and Coote, Toward the Twenty-First Century in Christian Mission, 221–23.

4 Wilbert R. Shenk, Write the Vision: The Church Renewed (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2000), 90.

Sanctifying Your Ambition and Faith

If you missed my last two posts on ambition, you might want to start there:

The Paradox of Ambition and Faith
Ambition, Faith, and Timing

Oftentimes God has to bring you through the desert before he can use you.

In other words, he has to sanctify your ambition and faith in order to use you for his purposes.

If you haven’t yet gone through a desert experience where your world has been turned upside down, then expect to. God uses these desert experiences to accomplish things through you that you would never be able to accomplish apart from them.

Oftentimes God has to bring you through the desert before he can use you.
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In fact, spiritual leaders find their greatest insights and contributions in these desert experiences.

Moving back to Canada from from Korea was definitely a desert experience for me. I felt like my world was turned upside down.

I knew that God had called us to Korea, but if that was really true, then why did he allow us to leave Korea the way we did? The ministry was multiplying, people were being transformed, and we had just signed a lease for a new place and bought all new furniture, only then to turn around and leave it all?

My wife, Christina, and I didn’t understand why God was allowing us to go through this, but by his unbelievable grace we did sense his presence along the way.

When we moved back to Canada, we were jobless, hopeless, and our savings were running out fast.

I was disillusioned with ministry and knew I needed a break, but I also knew my family needed to be fed.

Thank God for my parents who let us stay with them. Since food, coffee, and ministry were all I knew, I decided to apply anywhere and everywhere to just start getting a paycheck.

No one contacted me back—Costco and Starbucks were silent, as well as every single church position I secretly knew I was “overqualified for”. I finally got the hint and realized that perhaps God wanted to do something in my heart before he was willing to use me elsewhere.

While worshipping, praying, fasting, and studying the Scriptures, I began to process what had happened in Korea.

At that point my friend Josh, called me up and asked whether I would be willing to be a guest speaker at their young adults retreat in Calgary, Alberta. As I was preparing for that retreat, God did the greatest work in my heart.

I decided to preach through the life of David and began to sit under Eugene Peterson’s teaching on it.

I soon discovered that David went through two major desert experiences in his life—first when he was being chased by Saul and later on when he was being chased by his son Absalom. As I began to study what happened to David during those two desert experiences, God began to reveal to me that he was doing the same in my life.

For David these desert experiences were the most formative years of his life.

Through these desert experiences his ambition was being sanctified, and his faith was being refined. For example, when he was being chased by Saul, he knew he was going to be king one day, yet he had to wait on God’s timing.

In the desert, God will sanctify your ambition and refine your faith.
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Imagine how hard that would’ve been when he had the chance to kill Saul in the cave (1 Sam 24:1–22). The future was in his grasp, the promise could’ve been fulfilled that day, but God was using this experience to test and teach David: “Are you going to have faith in yourself to bring this to pass? Or are you going to have faith in the God who can bring this to pass?”

The reason you go through desert experiences is because God wants to do a work in your life; he wants to refine your ambition and faith.

After all, “the Lord disciplines the one He loves” (Heb 12:6).

When facing a desert experience, you have an important choice to make.

If you respond positively by waiting on God and engaging in spiritual disciplines like praying, fasting, meditating on the Scriptures, being in community, and worshipping, then you are allowing God the opportunity to refine and sanctify you.

However, if you respond negatively by ignoring the situation, isolating yourself, or even turning away from God, then you’ll never get out. Or the same situation will keep on coming up, over and over again.

So welcome desert experiences when they come. Not if they come, but when they come. Instead of fighting them, invite God to shape and mold you through these experiences…regardless of how painful they might be.

Welcome desert experiences when they come. Not if they come, but when they come.
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If you would like to learn more about desert experiences, you can read my series here:

Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 1/4
Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 2/4
Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 3/4
3 Ways to Avoid Losing Your Job (Part 4/4)

*This was a modified excerpt from my book, Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Starting Churches that Multiply (2nd ed). 

My Seminars for Exponential East 2017

I’m excited to be speaking this week at Exponential East 2017!

If you are at the conference, I’d love for you to join me at one of my seminars.

Pre-Conference: Developing Better Disciple Makers – Hosted by Discipleship.org

Join Jim Putman, Ralph Moore, Bobby Harrington, Bill Hull, Ariyana Rimson and Daniel Im to learn how to get better at personally living out Jesus’ final command. The sessions will be practical and led by some of the nations leading authorities and, more importantly, practitioners of disciple making.
Time: Monday 1:00pm – 5:00pm
Location: Henry Chapel

Pre-Conference: Embracing Disruption – Repurpose Your Church to Redeem Your Community – Hosted by Mosaix

An increasingly diverse and cynical society will no longer find credible the mere explanation of theological truth apart from effective community engagement. Advancing the common good, then, and thus the very Gospel, itself, must involve more than mere words, and the building of large congregations filled with people of a similar race, class, or cultural background. In this present future, our common confession must be validated by concrete action and accompanying measurable results along spiritual, social and economic fronts. Indeed this is the expectation of Christ in Matthew 5:16 and of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:10. Whether you’re the pastor of an existing church or soon-to-be church planter, don’t miss this first ever presentation designed to help you advance disruption innovation, effective community engagement, and maximize your church’s influence in the community.
Time: Tuesday 8:00am – 11:30am
Location: Faith Hall – Room 350

Workshop Session 1: Pathways: The Shift from Level 3 to Becoming a Level 4 Leader and Church

Join Daniel Im, Mac Lake and Chris Lagerlof as we discuss the process and steps to successfully shifting from being a Level 3 (growth by addition) church to becoming a Level 4 (reproduction) church. We will look at barriers to making this shift as well the necessary steps you must make in your own personal leadership and ministry to successfully navigate this shift. Our conversation will focus on helping you and your church, network or tribe build a culture of reproduction and a level 4 mindset. We will also discuss the pathway and process to successfully be a Level 4 leader and church.
Time: Tuesday, 2:30-3:30pm
Location: Henry Chapel

Workshop Session 2: A Discipleship Strategy for Multiplication

In order to multiply, you need to have a discipleship strategy in place. After all, the multiplication of your church always begins with the multiplication of disciples. In this workshop, learn how to create a strategic discipleship pathway that will help you develop multipliers, rather than consumers.
Time: Wednesday, 8:45-9:45am
Location: AP Buildings – AP 7

Workshop Session 4: Values for Multiplication

What distinguishes your church from the one down the road? Learn how the values for your church affect your strategies for multiplication. Discover the four types of values and leave with an audit that will help you discover your unique multiplication identity.
Time: Wednesday, 2:30-3:30pm
Location: AP Buildings – AP 7

Workshop Session 5: 5 Shifts for Multiplication

What if someone told you that you were only a few shifts away from unlocking and unleashing a new season of fruitfulness and multiplication in your church? Discover the five micro-shifts that will set your church in motion towards macro-change. There is no silver bullet. There is no one solution. But there are a series of small changes that you can make today that will change the course of your church for tomorrow.
Time: Thursday, 8:45 – 9:45am
Location: AP Buildings – AP 7

Click here  to access the audits, tools, handouts, resources, and powerpoint presentations that I referenced during one of these talks.

Ambition, Faith, and Timing

Last week I covered the paradox of ambition and faith. Today, I want to add a third variable to the mix: timing.

What relationship does ambition and faith have with timing?

Although spiritual leaders can have ambition and God-placed faith, there’s still one major area they can mess up in—timing.

It’s easy for spiritual leaders to mess up in this one area–timing.
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Abraham had a significant calling on his life, and it was to be the father of a great nation, one that was intended to be a blessing to the entire world and one from which the Savior of the world would come. To even believe that this could be true, for him took a great measure of faith, and only a truly ambitious person would’ve even accepted this grand assignment.

The only problem was that Abraham was impatient.

I don’t blame the guy, though. After all, he was childless and seventy-five years old at the time God commissioned him (Gen 12:2–4). In the ensuing years Abraham moved, experienced a famine, lost his wife, then received her back, moved again, got into a fight with his nephew Lot, experienced war, experienced the destruction of a city, and moved again (did I already say that?), among many other things.

In and through these experiences, God reminded him multiple times about this calling that he had placed on his life.

God will often use your current circumstances to remind you about your calling.
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Eleven years later Abraham and his wife Sarah (their names were Abram and Sarai at that time) got fed up about continually hearing this calling and not seeing it come to pass, so they ambitiously took their faith into their own hands.

“Sarai said to Abram, ‘Since the LORD has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family.’ And Abram agreed to what Sarai said” (Gen 16:2).

Spiritual leaders understand that there are two different ways to understand time in the Scriptures.

There’s chronos time, on the one hand, which is linear time. Linear time tells us that today is Monday and tomorrow will be Tuesday, or that it’s 3:01 PM now and it will be 3:02 PM in one minute. This Greek word is used in passages like, “Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth” (Luke 1:57), or “they spent considerable time with the disciples” (Acts 14:28).

There’s a difference between chronos time and karios time.
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On the other hand, karios time refers to an occasion, season, or a set time that only God knows. Karios is used in passages like, “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:15–16), or “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1:15). It’s also used in other passages like, “Watch! Be alert! For you don’t know when the time is coming” (Mark 13:33), and “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time” (1 Pet 5:6).

Abraham and Sarah were tired of waiting, so they decided to take time (chronos) into their own hands and attempt to force the promise to come to pass.

Unfortunately, if they had only followed God’s timing (kairos), they would’ve only had to wait another thirteen years and God would’ve brought his promise to pass, without all of the heartache and pain that resulted and continues to result from their chronos decision. I say that as if waiting thirteen years is an easy thing to do.

For me, it’s hard enough to wait overnight to get something shipped, let alone wait one year!

For Abraham and Sarah, it took twenty-four years to see just a seedling of that God vision come to pass with the birth of Isaac!

So let me ask you a question, what has God placed on your heart?

Is it church planting? Is it revitalizing an established church? Is it to wait? Is it to mend broken fences? Is it to go back to school?

Whatever it might be, don’t give up. Persevere and push forward. Bring it before God and before the church. Trust in him.

Persevere and push forward. Bring it before God and before the church. Trust in him.
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Since this is an excerpt from Planting Missional Churches, let’s talk specifically about church planting.

If God has placed church planting on your heart, you need to seriously pray through the what and the when! This is because we all need to be about church planting, but we are not all called to church plant.

It may be the case that he laid this burden on your heart so you can pray for the other church plants around you.
It may be that he wants you to plant churches from your existing church.
It may be that he is calling you to fund church planting or join a church planting team.
Or it may be that he wants you to go and plant a church in six months, or maybe it’s six years from now.

Receiving a calling for church planting is not synonymous with a green light to do it right now.

It’s okay to be ambitious; just make sure your faith is not in your own ability to get it done but in our God who can get it done.

Make sure your faith is not in your own ability to get it done but in our God who can get it done.
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Next week, I’ll continue this series by addressing one of the most powerful ways God sanctifies our ambition and faith.

*This was a modified excerpt from my book, Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Starting Churches that Multiply (2nd ed). 

The Paradox of Ambition and Faith

A 7-Eleven Vision for Church Planting

“What’s your vision for the orphanage and for Thailand?” I asked the pastor of the orphanage.

“You know, whenever I think about you Koreans and South Korea, I get mixed feelings.”

I was starting to think that I shouldn’t have asked this question in the first place.

The pastor continued, “On the one hand, I’m astounded as to the spiritual transformation God can accomplish in a single country over a short period of time. But on the other hand, I’m upset because 100 years ago, Korea and Thailand were basically the same country—rural, economically challenged, and spiritually lost.”

After giving a sigh of relief, I paused, wondering whether I should interject, but then the pastor continued.

“Have you noticed that there are 7-Elevens pretty much on every street corner in Thailand?” asked the pastor.

I nodded.

“I have this dream that God would do such a transformational work in Thailand that, instead of 7-Elevens on every street corner, we had churches. And I want that work to start here in the orphanage with these children,” explained the pastor.

As I walked away from that conversation, I thought to myself, now that’s ambitious.

The Paradox of Ambition and Faith

What does an entrepreneur dreaming up a new solution for the next greatest app have in common with that pastor in Thailand dreaming about planting churches on every street corner?

In both situations we are talking about highly ambitious individuals whose vision of the future is driven by an image of faith.

Is your vision for the future driven by an image of faith?
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Herein lies a paradox for most Christians—ambition and faith.

A paradox is “something that is made up of two opposite things and that seems impossible but is actually true or possible.” When examining the Scriptures, ambition and faith seem to be two opposite things, but as we will see here, they’re actually two sides of the same coin.

Ambition has “a particular goal or aim”; it is commonly used to refer to the future hope that drives individuals to obtain more, achieve more, and get things accomplished.

When we look at the New Testament, ambition (Greek = erithiah) is used in connection with the word “selfish” in Galatians 5:20 and, as a result, is categorized as one of the works of the flesh: “For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want” (Gal 5:17).

In this passage ambition stands in direct contrast to the fruit of the Spirit.

So spiritual leaders who call themselves Christian have an obligation to crucify “the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). Other instances of ambition are used in a similar manner:

In Romans 2:8, ambition is used as a qualifier for the type of people who are going to receive “wrath and indignation” in God’s judgment.
In James 3:14–16, ambition results in boasting and lying and serves as a precursor to disorder and evil.
In Philippians 1:15–17, ambition is used in the context of proclaiming the gospel (Paul is saying that there are those who preach and proclaim Christ out of rivalry (same Greek word as ambition), which is not a sincere form of preaching Christ since the proper way to preach and proclaim Christ is out of love).

Another way ambition is used in the New Testament is with the Greek word orego.

In 1 Timothy 3:1, orego is translated as “aspire” and is positively used in conjunction with the noble desire to be a leader in the church: “This saying is trustworthy: ‘If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.’”
In 1 Timothy 6:10, this word is translated as “craving” and is used in a negative light to crave after the love of money, which is the root of all kinds of evil.
In the New Testament chapter of faith, Hebrews 11, orego is translated as “desire.” “But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one” (Heb 11:16). In this verse ambition and faith get tied together, become two sides of the same coin, and the paradox gets solved.

Ambition and faith are really two sides of the same coin.
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Let’s now take a moment to define faith.

Faith (Greek = pistis) is a more commonly used word in the New Testament with more than 233 instances of it. There are even more if you look at the root word of faith.

It’s used to refer to the faith that is required for the forgiveness of sins (Matt 9:2).
For the sanctification of an individual (Acts 26:18).
As the individual’s faith that Jesus uses to heal (Mark 5:34).
As the faith that is required to move mountains (Luke 17:6).
A life of faith is also used as a prerequisite for church leadership (Acts 6:5).
And it is something that needs constant re-strengthening (Acts 14:22).

Ultimately, a life built on faith stands in contrast to a life built on the law, and this is demonstrated through the life of Abraham.

Abraham “did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, because he was fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (Rom 4:20–21).

As much as faith is defined as a “strong belief or trust in someone or something,” spiritual leaders define faith differently as “a strong belief and confidence in the God who can do something.” For spiritual leaders faith is less about the what, and it’s more about the who.

This is seen when you read through the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11.

For every one of those spiritual leaders in Hebrews 11, they had such a great and grand understanding of God that they did not have to see the future to believe in it: “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going” (Heb 11:8). They believed in the God who could bring those promises to pass, so they acted on that faith. That’s why you’ll see the phrase “by faith” repeated over and over again in Hebrews 11.

For spiritual leaders faith is less about the what, and it’s more about the who.
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Faith results in action.

On the one hand, spiritual leaders have figured out that faith is not genuine unless you act on it. On the other hand, for nonspiritual leaders, ambition drives them to achieve their own goal according to a strong belief, or faith, in themselves and their own ability to pull it off.

Essentially, strong spiritual leaders have figured out that holy ambition can actually drive them toward a God-honoring and God-glorifying goal.

As a result, for the businessman or woman who is a spiritual leader, ambition might be to run a successful company in order to fund new church plants. For the church planter who is a spiritual leader, ambition might be to reach the lost in their neighborhood.

In either case the only difference is that the spiritual leaders’ faith is not in their own ability to get it done, while they do exhibit confidence; their faith is in the God who can get it done according to His ability.

Spiritual leaders have faith in the God who can get it done.
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Join me next week as I add a third variable to this discussion: timing. What relationship does ambition and faith have with timing?

*This was a modified excerpt from my book, Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Starting Churches that Multiply (2nd ed). 

 

The End of the Sermon?

“Online news isn’t journalism; it’s copy-and-paste from the newspaper.”

Guess what year that was written? …in the year 2000…

Faith Like Broccoli

“What are we going to do? There’s not enough food to feed the children. How did we end up here? How are the children going to react?”

These were the questions the orphanage leaders were asking one another on a hot summer day in Chiang Rai, Thailand. When I was pastoring in South Korea, I had led a team to serve the orphans at this particular orphanage in Thailand. The orphanage had close to 100 children. Some came from poverty-stricken homes where their parents couldn’t afford to feed and house them, and others lost their parents due to one circumstance or another.

These were children who, in the world’s standards, didn’t have much, but that didn’t seem to matter.

Constant laughter, joy, and childish pranks filled this orphanage, whether the children were in school, eating a bowl of rice, or playing games with sticks and vegetables.

…that is, until they ran out of food…

When the orphanage leaders realized they had no way to feed the children, they decided to break the news to the children before they prayed over their last supper.

“Children, we need to pray,” said the orphanage director, “we’ve run out of food, money, and all means to go and buy groceries at the market.”

The childish atmosphere immediately turned into nervous silence.

The director continued, “There’s really only one thing we can do; it’s to pray that God provides, as he said he would, and enjoy this last meal.”

So that’s exactly what the children and leaders did—they prayed and ate.

The next morning the director woke up to the sound of the telephone. When she picked up the phone, it was a local farmer telling the director to bring her truck out to the dirt road to get this order of broccoli.

“Broccoli?” asked the surprised director.

“I don’t know what happened, but when I woke up this morning, I had this urgent sense to bring this broccoli to you guys,” said the farmer.

“Now you need to understand two things. I don’t believe in this Jesus that you say you believe in, but I do know you are doing important work with those orphans. Second, this isn’t just any broccoli; this is export-grade broccoli.”

When the director drove out to the dirt road, she was stunned. This wasn’t just one trip’s worth of broccoli; she had to drive her truck back and forth three times to gather it all.

Needless to say, the childish aroma filled the air of the orphanage once again, and for the first time in history, no one complained about eating broccoli.

Doesn’t this make you want to get down on your knees and pray?

To ask God to change hearts, your city, and this world? To ask Him to break through the silence, destroy the chains of bondage, and set the captives free? Both in your life and those around you?

It should! Because the God that provided these children with broccoli is the same God that created and is sustaining this world, you, and I. He’s the one that is actively giving breath to our lungs!

So yes, we do need to pray. We need to pray and have the same kind of faith that these children did! Not faith in our ability to pray, but faith in the One that we’re praying to. Faith that He knows the right way to respond to the prayers that are welling up out of our hearts. The kind of faith that trusts in His timing over ours because “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” (2 Pet 3:8 CSB).

We need to have the kind of faith that has so much confidence in God that we can rest in Him and wait on His timing.

After all, what’s the use of praying if, while praying, we have so little confidence in God that we are busy planning our own answer to our prayer?

If you’re busy planning your own answer to prayer, why even pray?
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Why You Shouldn’t Be Worried About “Job Security”

“It’s all about job security, right?”

Over the course of my adult life, I’ve heard this phrase multiple times. And it’s always irked me the wrong way.

Now I understand where someone might be coming from—they want to be irreplaceable so that they’re never faced with a pink slip and are without a job. As a result, they never write down their process or train others to do what they can do. They hold onto “industry secrets” and proudly declare that they were certified or educated to do these certain tasks. If they get hit by a bus, then the organization will suffer, since no one else can do their job.

I guess that’s job security…but it sounds pretty selfish to me.

In today’s open-share economy, do “industry secrets” even exist anymore? Sure, education and certification are proof that you’ve gone through the steps, but they don’t prove whether or not you’re competent in an area. After all, there are plenty of courses that I’ve received an “A” in, but I’ll be the first one to tell you that I’m incompetent in Calculus and Organic Chemistry.

No one wants to lose their job. I get it. I’m in the same boat.

But what if I were to tell you that there was another way to guarantee your job security?

It’s about having a posture of generosity, rather than scarcity

Scarcity is a closed fist approach to work and life.
Generosity is an open palm approach to work and life.
Scarcity says, “Cutbacks are inevitable, so I need to make myself irreplaceable.”
Generosity says, “Those who develop others will never be without a job.”
Scarcity says, “I need to add more tasks onto my list of responsibilities so that I become more valuable to the organization.”
Generosity says, “When I develop others to do what I can do, I’ll be entrusted with greater responsibility.”

One of the most selfish things a leader can do is to refuse to reproduce themselves.

Gone are the days where job security was about making yourself indispensable by not sharing knowledge, skills, or expertise with others. In today’s day and age, things change so rapidly that learners and developers are the only ones who are truly indispensable.

Learners and developers are the only ones who are truly indispensable in today’s economy.
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So as long as you are constantly learning, developing, and reproducing yourself, you will never be without a job. Reproducers are always in high demand. But squatters aren’t. So don’t be a squatter. There should be a meme for that.

So start today.

One of the first steps to reproduce yourself is to write down how you do what you do.

Make it into a checklist.

Make it into a system so that you can get faster at it. This will not only benefit you in your work and in your productivity, but it will also help you train others to do what you do.

Reproducers are always in high demand. But squatters aren’t. Don’t be a squatter.
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For further reading on how to create an effective checklist, read Checklist Manifesto and Getting Things Done.