Steve Addison's Blog, page 45
March 31, 2019
186-What will it take to win the West?
Russell Godward (UK) and Troy Cooper (USA) talk about multiplying movements in the Western world.
March 28, 2019
Steve Smith
Steve and Laura Smith
In December 2005 I had just left China and was passing through Singapore where James Creasman introduced to two men named Smith who were devoting their lives to training and coaching movement pioneers across Asia. I knew movements as a careful observer, they knew movements as participants. I shared the lessons that ultimately ended up in my first book, Movements that Changed the World. They listened and encouraged me to keep going, as I was on the right track. One of those Smiths was named Steve.
I understood movement principles, Steve Smith helped ground those principles in action. I met Steve again in Singapore in 2010 at a gathering of movement trainers. I think there might have been 40 people. Steve got us in the room and facilitated peer learning and application. I watched the way he drew people together, among them some strong personalities and opinions. He led with skill and spiritual authority. He was a man committed to building coalitions to fulfill the Great Commission.
When I stop and think of Steve Smith right now, two words come to mind — grace and determination.
We met many more times at various gatherings, I can recall Houston, Dubai, Dublin and England.
This is what Steve Smith taught me—give your life to obeying Christ’s command to make disciples of the nations. Pursue it with all your might. Don’t be content with your own efforts, train and mobilize God’s people, build coalitions, learn from other practitioners. Go deep with God as you depend on the Holy Spirit and obey his Word. Steve and Laura modeled what it means to go this journey together as a family. Lastly, Steve taught me that you can face anything in this life, even the horror of cancer and the confusion of unanswered prayer, and with Christ, you can triumph.
After a long illness, Steve Smith died on March 13. He was fifty-seven. He leaves behind Laura, three grown sons: Cris, David, Josh and wife Caroline and twin grandsons.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Tim 4:7
March 27, 2019
March 26, 2019
This is What a Movement Looks Like
Some people see Muslim migration to Europe as a problem. For others it’s an opportunity to make disciples and plant churches. When persecution scattered the believers in Acts 8:1-4 they took the gospel with them to Antioch and multiplied disciples and churches.
As refugees and immigrants move into Europe, opportunities to reach Muslims are opening up.
Here’s a report from a worker somewhere in Greece:
We drove 554 km to another city to gather new and newer Muslim background believers and help them form into a church. We took them to scripture and defined who makes up the church, what does the church do activity-wise, where and when does the church meet, and what is the purpose of the church. We taught them how to choose elders in a local body of Christ via character and integrity, and then the church lays hands on them after fasting and prayer.
It was a great three days of training delving into the Word of God. The final day we modeled what a church does as we taught them about the Lord’s Supper, and they took the Lord’s Supper together for the first time as a church. We will be traveling back and forth to strengthen that church.
Soon many of them will be moving to new places, so we looked in the Bible at how churches planted churches in the New Testament. We challenged them that when they leave for another place in Europe, they are a dandelion church that will birth new churches by gospeling among Arabs, discipling them and gathering new churches; we expect them to make disciples who plant churches who plant churches.
We did this type of church formation training twice in the past months with the scattered believers; as Titus was sent to set in order the work that Paul had started, we have the opportunity to help gather these new believers into church and help train their leaders regularly. We have started a long-term discipleship and leadership training that go hand-in-hand. Disciples study 30 stories from creation to Christ, and the leaders study the same 30 stories but are taught how to use an inductive Bible study method so they can train their new believers in their churches.
Don’t get lost in the missional fog. This is the core missionary task—gospel, disciples and new churches from where you are, to the ends of the earth, until Jesus returns.
Find someone who has fresh stories like these. Get them to train you. Go make disciples.
March 20, 2019
185-The Rise and Fall of Movements and the Local Church
Steve Addison talks about his new book, The Rise and Fall of Movements, with Dale Stephenson. Dale is the senior pastor of Crossway in Melbourne, Australia.
The Rise and Fall of Movements: A Roadmap for Leaders is due for release in May 2019.
March 17, 2019
Universalism — opiate of thought leaders and the clergy
Michael McClymond
Christianity Today interviewed Michael McClymond about the rising popularity of an idea Christians have rejected for most of church history. Universalism is the doctrine that all human beings will come to final salvation and spend an eternity with heaven in God.
About twelve years ago McClymond had “an unnerving encounter in which I saw God’s coming judgment arriving in the form of an overpowering storm; people in the path of the storm were pleasantly chit-chatting when they ought to have been seeking cover. The dream left a lasting impression. It suggested to me that we’re unprepared—both inside and outside of the church—for the return of Christ.”
McClymond continues,
“Universalism isn’t just a theological mistake. It’s also a symptom of deeper problems. In a culture characterized by moralistic therapeutic deism, universalism fits the age we inhabit. As I argue in the book, universalism is the opiate of the theologians. It’s the way we would want the world to be. Some imagine that a more loving and less judgmental church would be better positioned to win new adherents. Yet perfect love appeared in history—and he was crucified.
Universalism seems, then, to be fundamentally out of sync with the New Testament narrative of God’s loving initiative in Christ provoking some to faith and others to offense and even hatred. Because of its incongruence with the gospel narrative, universalism is, to my mind, not the first step off the path of orthodoxy, but perhaps—in Kevin DeYoung’s words —“the last rung for evangelicals falling off the ladder.”
Movements rise and fall depending on their alignment with the life and ministry of Jesus. Once dynamic movements are often led into error by thought leaders and clergy seeking a more socially acceptable faith. Obviously, the reality of a God who is both loving and holy is an uncomfortable truth for us all. But it is true.
If universalism is true, we’ll need to redefine what mission is — if no-one is lost we will have to save society or the planet instead. Universalism is the end of the evangelism.
McClymond asks,
“Where are the universalist evangelists, going to the ends of the earth, painstakingly learning and transcribing hitherto unknown languages and suffering opposition, up to and including the prospect of martyrdom, so that they can deliver their message of final salvation for all? Among the non-universalists, there are tens of thousands of such laborers.
He finishes with this challenge:
In light of past history and experience, I wonder whether the evangelical church of the 21st century will truly recover its spiritual, ethical, and missional urgency without first renewing its preaching (and awareness) of Christ’s return and the awesome reality of God’s final judgment of each individual”
March 12, 2019
We have a Cover!
The Rise and Fall of Movements. COMING SOON!
We have a cover for the Rise and Fall of Movements: A Roadmap for Leaders. Thanks to Lindy Martin at FaceOut Studio and to everyone who provided feedback. The manuscript is in the hands of the proofreader and the typesetter has begun work.
March 6, 2019
JD Payne Interview on The Rise and Fall of Movements
My friend J. D. Payne has just published a podcast interview we recorded on my forthcoming book, The Rise and Fall of Movements: A Roadmap for Leaders.
March 5, 2019
I need your feedback
Help me choose the cover for my next book. Can you visit the movements.net Facebook page and leave a “like” or a “love” or an emoji or a comment?
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March 4, 2019
The United Methodist Church: Is there Hope for Declining Denominations?
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Conflict in the United Methodist Church last week reminds us that all over the Western world, denominations that were once dynamic movements are in decline. Some have been on the slide for generations.
Demographic trends, secularism, prosperity, cultural shifts — they all play their part. Yet the answer is to blame external factors. The issue is much closer to home.
The great mistake that movements make is to lose touch with who they are.
Every living thing needs to adapt to its environment or it will die. As it does so, it continually refers back to its unique identity. It changes and it stays the same.
How do the United Methodists do that? It’s as simple as asking what did John Wesley do? What did Francis Asbury do? What does that look like today?
Know who you are. That’s the conservative side of renewal. Express that Identity in a fresh and innovative way. That’s the radical side of renewal.
Think about the movement pioneer who inspired Wesley and Asbury. What was his Identity? Between his life as Jesus of Nazareth, and the launch of his missionary movement, stand two events — Jesus’ baptism and wilderness testing. They reveal and test the Identity of Jesus and by implication, the movement he will found. Three essentials stand out:
1. He obeys his Father’s living Word.When the Father speaks to the Son, he echoes the words of Scripture. When Jesus confronts Satan, his only weapon is to quote the written Word of God — “It is written!”
2. He is dependent on the Holy Spirit.The Spirit comes upon him at his baptism, the Spirit drives him into the wilderness, the Spirit returns him to Galilee in power to launch the movement.
3. Jesus is faithful to his Mission.He will give his life as a ransom for many and starts a movement that will go to the ends of the earth multiplying disciples and churches.
These are the three essentials that drive the rise and fall of movements. A church that is willing to obey God’s Word, depend on his Spirit and pursue multiplying disciples and churches throughout the world will be renewed. It must, because God is faithful and he is our only hope.
