What is Your Mission? (Guest Post: Nathan Magnuson)

I try to meet a lot of people and I try to meet awesome people. This guy is pretty much the most awesome guy I have ever met. He has Masters in Organizational Leadership, he is the author of "Thoughts for the Everyday Leader", and he has more goals and aspirations than anyone else I know. Nathan is brilliant, a leader, creative, a visionary, driven, a great friend and mentor, and just an all around fantastic person. Read his thoughts. You'll be better for it!

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A couple years ago I was having coffee with a local pastor in Atlanta.  He recounted to me all the effort he had put into creating a multi-year church leadership program for men but had garnered only a fraction of the interest and participation he had anticipated.  Why wasn’t this more important to them, he lamented to me.  Contrast that conversation with another one I had recently.  At a “career as calling” event at the church I attend, a friend of mine noted, “I’m a teacher.  It’s more than a job to me since I’m always trying to come up with new ways to reach my students, even outside of classroom hours.  Yet when I go to church or small group, I feel they want me to talk about my spiritual needs instead of what consumes the majority of my day-to-day attention.”

Nathan Magnuson

We ask an awful lot from our church members these days.  From their incomes they fund church salaries, building projects, and missions outreach.  After professional and family responsibilities, they give their time to run church programs.  And most are happy to make their contribution.  “Church” certainly would not be able to function without them.  But creating a tug-of-war for involvement is counterproductive.  Is it possible this distraction with everyday responsibilities could be a good thing?

What would it look like for the church to position itself as a mission partner for members as they go about their daily work, recognizing that God has uniquely gifted and strategically positioned them to bring His image to bear in all the different organizations, disciplines, and activities they find themselves a part of?

Andy Stanley says that our pressing needs are often different than our primary need.  But as churches, many times we are quick to address the primary spiritual needs of our communities without investing in the pressing needs they experience every day.  What would happened if we began to see the lay church member, who is intimately involved in solving the pressing needs of the community, as the church’s best chance to reach a community for Christ?

So what does a mission partner do?  A mission partner helps its operators articulate the needs of their mission and then provides support in accomplishing that mission.  But none of that is possible without first seeking to understand the nature of each operator’s mission.  For a teacher, this could mean caring about students and finding new ways to reach all of them with a quality education.  For an advertiser, this could mean finding creative ways to communicate positive messages.  For a law enforcement, military, or intelligence officer, this could mean identifying new security strategies to ensure the safety of the community.  I’m privileged to work for a consulting firm, so for me, this means finding ways to help clients identify strategic initiatives and facilitate positive change in an organized manner.

So much is at stake in each of these individual missions.  Without a quality education, children encounter significant professional and social challenges.  Without positive messages, culture suffers.  Without security, communities live in fear.  Without leadership and organization, firms make rash decisions that bring harm, not good.

People do not exist to serve the church (brick and mortar), the Church (worldwide community of believers) exists to serve people.  We meet the primary spiritual needs by being and sharing the gospel, and we meet pressing needs by bringing God’s image to bear in each setting we find ourselves in.  Moreover, meeting a pressing need is often the best way to earn the opportunity to meet a primary need since it involves investments in hard work, relationships, and positive contributions over time – things lay church members are best positioned to provide.

So how can churches take more of a mission partnering approach?  There is so much that can be said on this topic, but here are a few ideas:

·         Help your members identify the needs they are uniquely burdened for and positioned to reach.  A great event to have at your church is to bring in a speaker to encourage church members to look deeper into the needs they are passionate about meeting.  Then follow it up with facilitated breakout discussions where each attendee is able to journal and share ideas.  Some attendees will already be on point, but for others, this will serve as a starting point.  The support of coaches and more experienced attendees will help to launch them in the direction of their new mission.

·         Spotlight “secular” mission successes from the pulpit.  Giving missionary updates is pretty common, but ignoring successes from the rest of the church members tells a very lopsided story.  What about the missions of the majority of church members who may not be receiving full missions support and working aboard?  Whenever I speak to students, I inevitably try to ask, “If you are on a mission in the area of (business, law, medicine, athletics, etc), doesn’t that make you a missionary as well?”  Sure, worship services only have a limited amount of time, but the need remains.  Find creative ways to celebrate their success stories!

·         Build a networking system that can identify church member associations, skills, and mission activities.  This may not seem that important at first.  But without a means to identify and connect church members together, the needs your church is able to respond to are significantly limited.  If your church becomes aware of a legal need in the community, and it has a group of 20 legal professionals all connected via a church network, sharing the need can be instantaneous.  Also, such sites facilitate support and collaboration among members, such as sharing best practices, thought leadership, updates, and prayer requests.  The older and more experience can teach and support the younger.  Systems can range from an online directory, a Sharepoint website, or a Community of Practices website.  LinkedIn Groups is probably my favorite platform, but many organizations use Yahoo and Google groups as well.

·         Create small groups that address specific needs.  We need small groups that align to biblical topics, sermon series and Christian theology.  I’ve been a part of many of them.  Interest groups can be a great community-builder as well.  (The “Milkshake Monday” summer group I attended was a hoot!)  But we also need action-oriented small groups that form to address specific needs in the community.  Much can be accomplished in just one semester with the right vision and the right people applying the right skills with a sense of responsibility.  Invent something, solve a problem, design and deliver a training course, build something for someone, write a book together, produce a music album.  Don’t wait until you have all the solutions; start a group to get the conversation going.  Ironically, these outward focused groups can sometimes accomplish the most significant inward spiritual growth.

If your church could do just one thing to better partner in the missions of your members this fall, what would it be?

If you’d like to collaborate with me further, please feel free to connect with me via one of the methods below:

nathan@visionchampions.com

www.visionchampions.com

www.nathanmagnuson.blogspot.com

www.linkedin.com/in/nathanmagnuson

Stop Waiting on God

  My brother once told me a story about a really bad flood. No, not the one the bible speaks of with Noah. This flood he told me about was in Eastern Missouri. It was on the Mississippi River I believe.

  James told me about a guy that lived out on a farm and was a deeply religious man. I can't remember his name, lets call him Darrell. So the river started rise and the water actually mad it all the way to Darrell's Farm. Not just to the farm, it started to rise around the house. Within a few hours, the water was up to the rafters and it forced Darrell out onto the roof. He realized that he pretty much needed a miracle at this point, as the water was still rising fast.

Actual flooding in Missouri

  He prayed a bold prayer. "God, save me!" Not long after this prayer, a man in a small John Boat paddled up and called out to Darrell. Darrell quickly explained that he would be fine, God was going to save him. Despite the man in the boat pleading with him, Darrell would not be swayed. Not long after the first man, a larger boat manned by the sheriff motored up to the roof. The sheriff and the other people in the boat begged Darrell to come with them to safety, but Darrell again insisted that God was going to save him! Not 15 mins after that boat, a helicopter flew over, returned, and hoovered over the house. By this time, Darrell was standing atop the chimney, with the water up to his knees and rising fast. After 4-5 attempts to pick up Darrell, the helicopter was finally waved off and they left Darrell.

  The water continued to rise and lead to Darrell's unfortunate demise. He arrived in heaven and was immediately brought to God. He was asked why he was there. Darrell angrily shouted that he had prayed for God to save him, but God had done nothing to rescue him from his situation. God shook his head and stated, "I sent you a small boat, a large boat, and a helicopter. What more did you want from me?"

  While this story is utterly fictitious, it brings to mind a very valid point. We often find ourselves in situations where we cry out to God to save us. Then we wait. We wait for God to solve all our problems. We wait for miracles to happen. While I believe that God can solve your problems and can make miracles happen, I also believe he much more often works in very practical ways.

  Is it possible that the situation in which you find yourself, can be solved by the gifts God has already given you? Could your answer already be in front of you, but you are too busy waiting on miracles to happen? Perhaps your miracle is your talent, your personality, your drive, or your character?

  Prayer was NEVER meant to be a substitute for hard work.

   Pray and then get busy using what God has already blessed you with. Pray, do your best, try your hardest, be creative, and leave the results to God. Don't leave all the work at the hands of God. He wants you to do the work, he wants to provide the victory.

(Some people are in situations that are far beyond their control, and that is totally understandable. I believe that the number of these people are a small fraction of the people waiting on God to do all the work. If you are in a situation that is completely out of your control, prayer may be your first and last recourse. If this is the case, message me so I can join you in your prayer. Email me at: Josh@audacitychurch.tv

You can follow the blog on facbook HERE.

Now it's time for you to get involved in this blog: Do you believe God answers prayers? If so, what is the biggest prayer you have ever seen answered?

Rock in My Shoe (Guest Post: Niki Zimmerman)

   I really love to have guest posts on here as often as I can. This one is a real treat! Niki Zimmerman is a fantastically talented individual. She is a crazy good photographer (She actually owns "Go Ahead Images") and is a pretty sweet graphic designer! She is funny, a hipster, fashionable, friendly, dope, gangster, creative, kind, honest, and an incredible writer. She told me about her observations the other day and I begged her to share them with you. Here she is:

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   If you know anyone who talked to me for an extended period last night, you can ask them and they’ll know- I had a very painful rock in my shoe. It was right under the base of my 5^th metatarsal (yes, I did just Google that to make sure I said the right bone), and every time I took a step, it both annoyed me and hurt.

   Now, I wasn’t trying to complain about it. I’m just the type of person that can’t focus on anything else when something painful is happening in my life—or in my shoe. So it kept coming up in conversation. Finally, one dear friend ever-so-politely suggested that I should just take the shoe off and get the stupid thing out. Instead of heeding her advice, I decided… not to. And the excuses flowed aplenty:

This is actually Niki Zimmerman!

   “I can’t just take my shoe off! We’re in a restaurant—this isn’t Arkansas.”

   “But they’re high tops, laced all the way up. That would take an excessive amount of time.”

   “No, no, I need to be taking pictures right now. Maybe later.”

   Eventually, though, the excuse river dried up and I couldn’t think of a good reason not to just deal with the discomfort. This stupid rock was killing me! But still… what if my feet smelled? Or what if people looked at me strangely? I distracted myself by taking pictures and making conversation, but the annoying twinge of pain stayed with me. Finally, I just stopped walking around and sat down.

   When I got home, the first thing I did was toss my bag on the floor and immediately begin unlacing my shoe, prepared to revel in the glory of being rock free! I pulled the shoe off and turned it over into my hand, smirking victoriously… only, it wasn’t a rock that fell into my palm. It was a pearl.

   It wasn’t an expensive, rare pearl; it was simply a craft bead that had somehow fallen into my shoe. But still—it was nicer than any rock I could imagine. Who knows what put it there? It certainly wasn’t useful to me while inside my shoe, but once it was out, I was able to put it away and I’ll be able to take it out and use it when it becomes necessary.

   I think that we do this often in our lives. If you’re like me, when something painful befalls you, it’s difficult to train your thoughts on anything besides that. Yet at the same time, there are plenty of excuses not to just take out the painful thing and deal with it: pride, fear, shame.

   We try to distract ourselves instead. We plug into 15,000 ministries, host movie nights, numb our minds with pointless websites, or pour everything into a relationship. But at the end of the evening, the rock still hurts and we still have to take off our shoes and remove it. And usually, it is just a rock. One that has been cutting into us for too long and one that will just be thrown away, but we’ll feel better when it’s gone.

   Sometimes, though, it’s not quite so awful— it’s a pearl that has wound up in a shoe. And while it’s entirely unenjoyable when it’s not being dealt with, we can take it out, realize its value, and put it away. Then someday, when it’s needed, we can take it back out and use this once painful thing to make something else more beautiful.

   I can’t help but remember the verse in Genesis where Joseph is talking to his brothers. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done: the saving of many lives,” he told them. I can’t say for sure if my shoe pearl personally intended to harm me, but it will be used for good later. Sometimes our life circumstances are harmful or hurtful, but God can use those things for good- to heal and restore!

   So do yourself a favor—quit complaining about the rock in your shoe, stop making excuses, don’t distract yourself. Sit down and deal with the things that seem negative, and just see what He does in your life.

Salty

Salt taste good. It adds some flavor to bland foods. Boring fries? Add salt. Dull chips? Add salt. Lame corn? ADD SALT! In most cases, we add some salt to make things go from boring to bazinga. Since most logical people will agree that this is in fact very true, the rest of this blog will be predicated (V. Found or base something on) on this principle: Salt adds flavor. 

This being said, I find it pretty interesting that the bible states that those that follow Christ are "the salt of the earth". 

The BEST kind of salt!

My friend Nate Magnuson recently tweeted, "To be salt, you gotta...preserve the culture, disinfect, and add flavor!" This got me thinking, are Christians all that salty? I mean, when was the last time a non Christ follower came to a Christian in search of some flavor? It seems that in totality, the Church has become what is bland and the world has the flavor. We see churches and Christians pulling from non Christians so they can            access their flavor. I'm pretty sure this was never the plan. Not that Christians have a corner on the creative and "Flavor" market, just that we should be leading the way. 

                                                                                         
                                                                                                   

How long has it been since the Church and Christ followers lead the way in creativity, art, ingenuity, innovation, music, and just plain flavor? There was a time when we had flavor. The printing press was invented to print bibles. The Sistine Chapel was painted to add beauty to a Church. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote much of his music while serving as a Church organist. In their day, these people were the bee's knee's. Somewhere along the line, we lost the flavor though.  

We (Christ followers and the Church) have gotten good at the disinfecting part. We know how to challenge corruption in many cases, but we have gotten so incredibly bland that people have lost interest. I think in many cases we have just stopped trying. Church architecture mostly sucks these days. Church web design looks like a hot mess in most cases. The music many Churches ask us to worship too is a poor replication of something that was a  sub-par creation in the first place. None of these things are in and of themselves indicative of a lack of a biblical perspective. However, when taken in on a wide scale, we can easily identify a lack of flavor. No creativity. A bland attitude. 

Here is my solution: STOP IT. For real. Stop. Stop believing it is ok to stifle creativity. Quite accepting a lack of vision and passion. Get away from people that shout that stuff has to always be the way it was in days gone by. There is a new theme for us. Flavor. Add flavor. Be what the world craves. You have the creative, passionate, holy, righteous, innovative, and miraculous spirit of God living in you. It's about time that we start acting like we have something the world does't. Be Salty my friends.

Church is Gay

Only 15% of US churches are reproducing. This is not a good thing. In fact it's kinda gay.

Hear my logic on this one:
Many churches spend a lot of time raising a ruckus about homosexuality.While, this blog post is not intended to frame my views for you on homosexuality, I will be throwing the term around rather losely, so if you are easily offended, now is a good time to quit reading this.This is meant as an object lesson on growth.

In many of these churches you will hear that being gay is unnatural, it's weird, that homosexuals can’t reproduce, and therefor being gay is just not right. Here is my point. For the most part, Church is gay. Well, 85% of Churches, statistically speaking, are gay. How are Churches gay you ask? Well, most Churches don't reproduce.  

Many Christians will rant about how wrong homosexuality is, but 85% of our churches are not reproducing them selves and that seems, according to a common argument, gay.

 How is this ok? Do we think it was Christs plan to save a few Christians and then have them only hang out with each other and make no attempted to love people that are different than them? How is that not gay? The Church is dying because we are not, as the kingdom of Christ, reproducing ourselves. Each church individually is gaining weight, but not reproducing! The church must stop carrying the attitude that they can be self-absorbed and only focus on existing churchs, or the church will continue to decline.

If a dude were to only hang out with other dudes, talk about how wrong women were, have house parties for only dude friends, and never interacted with the other sex, people might start to question their sexuality a bit. Why do we treat the Church and Christians differently in that line of thought? Why is it often ok for Christians to only hang with other Christians, talk about how horrible non-Christ followers are, have parties for only their "Christian" friends, and refuse hang out with people that are not already Christians? That just seems to be hypocritical a little bit. While it is not wrong to hang out with only Christians, its probably not what Christ had in mind when he died for all mankind. I think the news of Christ is to be lived, shared, and gifted. 

Have you noticed that churches often hang out with other churches and focus on their relationship with existing churches, rather than investing time and resources in new growth? This must stop. As a Big “C” Church, we must devote energy toward growing not just individually, but locationally as well. If the Church does not put a greater emphasis on growing itself, it will continue to die off. I'm not saying it's WRONG for a church to not plant new churches, nor am I saying it is WRONG for a Christian to hang out with other Christians. I AM saying that if things do not shift some of these habits, we will severely limit the potential and ability of  the gospel of Christ to be spread to people that need to hear it. 

Please note: I love my Church and I love my Christ following friends, but my heart aches for the millions that don't know the love of Christ and that are living far from God because they have never experienced life in Christ. I want them to have a brighter future. Please also note that I love your Church too. God's kingdom is way bigger than me or a church, it's a movement. This post is not meant to criticize, just to inspire us to reach higher. Whatever your church is called to do, do it well!

Thanks for your time.