Steve Addison's Blog, page 39
January 5, 2020
Will Latinos save America?
According to a LifeWay study:
First-generation immigrants are leading the Latino evangelical expansion in the US—drawing in more unchurched believers and new converts than the average church plant, despite having smaller congregations, less funding, and tensions surrounding US immigration policy.
What the Latinos lack in outside funding and facilities, they make up for by taking the gospel to their local community.
New Hispanic congregations were more than twice as likely to keep up evangelistic visits and door-to-door outreach beyond the initial launch of the ministry.
New Hispanic congregations were less likely, however, to engage in local politics or use “fun social events” to meet people in the community.
Here’s a fun statistic: 42% of the churches that sing songs with a Latin rhythm plant a church within five years. The number drops to just 15% if they don’t sing in a Latin style. Clearly God loves Latin music.
January 2, 2020
The Archbishop and Why Movements Fall
The Church of England has appointed Stephen Cottrell as Archbishop of York, the second most senior position.
Bishop Cottrell has … warned that the Church’s stance on same-sex relationships means that it is ‘seen as immoral by the culture in which it is set’ and has suggested that prayers of thanksgiving for these relationships — ‘perhaps a eucharist’ — should be offered.
In a diocesan-synod address in 2017, he warned of the ‘missiological damage that is done when that which is held to be morally normative and desirable by much of society, and by what seems to be a significant number of Anglican Christian people in this country, is deemed morally unacceptable by the Church…
The soon to be archbishop’s approach to sexual ethics is an example of why movements fall. They become more concerned with being out of step with the culture than faithfulness to the Scriptures.
At its best, Christianity is often out of step with whatever culture in which it finds itself. That’s the example of Jesus, the Apostles and early church, and the martyrs down through the ages.
Movements rise and fall as they move towards, or away from, the life and ministry of Jesus — obedient to the living Word, dependent on the Holy Spirit and faithful to the core missionary task.
December 18, 2019
The Meaning of Christmas
The Adoration of the Shepherds by Bartolome Esteban Murillo
It’s Christmas and from activists to retailers everyone has an agenda. What’s Christmas really about? The glory of God in Christ.
Clear your mind from the clutter of Christmas with this article by Steven Hawthorne: The Story of His Glory.
Have a great Christmas and I look forward to returning in 2020.
December 11, 2019
December 9, 2019
The Movements Podcast passes 250,000 downloads
The Movements Podcast has gone well past a quarter of a million downloads. Thanks for your support. Thanks to all those who have spread the word by word of mouth, through social media or by leaving a review.
December 8, 2019
What was going on at Jesus' baptism?
In The Rise and Fall of Movements, I argue that the stories of Jesus’ baptism and wilderness testing are essential to understanding the nature of his mission and the missionary movement he began and continues to lead.
At his baptism the Son demonstrates his love in surrender to his Father’s will, as the Spirit rests on him and the Father declares his love and his pleasure in the Son.
Michael Reeves explains,
The way the Father, Son and Spirit related at Jesus’ baptism was not a one-time-only event; the whole scene is full of echoes of Genesis 1. There at creation, the Spirit also hovered, dovelike, over waters. And just as the Spirit, after Jesus’ baptism, would send him out into the lifeless wilderness, so in Genesis 1 the Spirit appears as the power by which God’s Word goes out into the lifeless void. In the very beginning, God creates by his Word (the Word that would later become flesh), and he does so by sending out his Word in the power of his Spirit or Breath. In both the work of creation (in Genesis 1) and the work of salvation or re-creation (in the Gospels), God’s Word goes out from him by his Spirit. The Father speaks, and on his Breath his Word is heard. It all reveals what this God is truly like. The Spirit is the one through whom the Father loves, blesses and empowers his Son. The Son goes out from the Father by the Spirit. Hence Jesus is known as “the Anointed One.”
Our efforts to multiply disciples and churches to the glory of God must begin with who God is and a knowledge of how he works in the world. Movements rise as they move towards the life and ministry of Jesus, they fall as they move away from the life and ministry of Jesus.
December 3, 2019
Institutions in Decay — Watch and Learn
SCM: Missionaries to Marxists in two generations
The story of the Anglican Church in Canada is the story of an institution in Decay — the last and final stage in the rise and fall of movements.
It’s a recurring pattern in history. In The Rise and Fall of Movements I tell the story of a dynamic missionary movement on both sides of the Atlantic that inspired tens of thousands of university students to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.
It was known as the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM), it’s expression on local university campuses was called the Student Christian Movement (SCM).
I contrast the SCM of the 1880s in the United Kingdom with the SCM of the 1980s. The divergence could not be more stark.
What’s the relevance for today? The pattern recurrs again and again. Evangelical movements that once pursued the Great Commisson — multiplying disciples and churches — drift from and then deny their Identity. It may take decades, but the results are always the same — Decline followed by Decay.
Here are the signs of a movement in Decay:
From drift to denial: The declining institution wanders from its Identity. In Decay the institution denies its Identity as a missionary movement under the Word and the Spirit.
Breakdown and collapse: It experiences a rapid loss of membership, leaving a band of bureaucrats whose beliefs and behavior no longer reflect the movement’s origins. The institution exists on artificial life-support through asset sales, state support, and funds invested by past generations.
Bypassed: The rise of new movements: New movements arise on the fringe and are rejected by the declining institution; these new movements eventually replace the decaying one. (In the case of the Anglican Church of Canada, and the US Episcopalian Church, they are being bypassed by the rise of the evangelical Anglican Church in North America.)
What are we to do to avoid Decline and Decay? Watch and learn: Be sober and alert, praying you would be renewed by his Word and the Holy Spirit and remain faithful to his Mission.
December 2, 2019
What is the Core Missionary Task?
There are many good things we can do in this world, but there is only one core missionary task.
Thanks to Rick Preato for shooting and editing this footage from The Rise and Fall of Movements US tour. Thanks to e3 Partners for supporting the tour.
December 1, 2019
What's Behind the Rise and Fall of Movements?
And the Church must be forever building, and always decaying, and always being restored.
—T. S. Eliot
The Anglican Church of Canada is an example of a church in Decay. It’s a sad reality that churches, ministries, mission agencies can drift from and ultimately repudiate their Identity in Christ then go on living off the assets of past generations.
The Scriptures repeatedly warn God’s people to return to their first love expressed in obedience to God’s living Word, dependence on the Holy Spirit and faithfulness to the Mission God has given them. There are dire consequences for drifting from and then repudiating our Identity.
God is faithful and will discipline and restore his people, but there is no way back if we place our word above his Word. We judge ourselves by ourselves.
A movement lives for a cause beyond itself, an institution exists to perpetuate itself. Throughout history, great missionary movements have settled down and made this world their home. That’s the trend of history. Is there no hope?
Our hope is in Christ who was the obedient Son of his Father, dependent on the Spirit, laying down his life to fulfill his mission and launch a movement that would multiply disciples and churches to the glory of God.
God comes to his people repeatedly to renew our Identity in Christ. Sometimes that new life renews existing institutions, often it breaks out to form new movements on the fringe. Either way, our hope is not in our best efforts but God’s ability to make dry bones live again (Ezekiel 38). Jesus rose from the dead, there’s nothing he can’t do.
