Tim Clark’s Blog

If you came to our church for very long, you would know we often say goodbye to people. One of the reasons we exist is to equip leaders for the Kingdom and then help them find places of service that are quite often not in our little family. And that means sending folks out.

Sending someone across country to pastor a church (like we did 3 weeks ago) can be a clear cause for a real celebration, but what about when someone is feeling led to transition across town to serve another congregation? I think if it is a healthy move, it should be celebrated just as passionately and often just as publicly.

One time we were doing this—publicly praying for and giving a gift to a faithful family that had felt called to transition to another church—and a guy who was new to our church pulled one of our elders aside. “I can’t believe what I just saw”, he said, “we just blessed that family that is going to a church down the street—I’ve never seen that before”.

Sometimes I’ve even wondered if we should throw a combined party every month for the new folks at the church as well as for the ones who are leaving. We could say hello and goodbye (that kind of reminds me of the Hebrew greeting Shalom…and the Hawaiian Aloha!)

I want to always remember that our local church does not exist to build OUR kingdom, but we live to operate in GOD’S Kingdom. It is the Holy Spirit’s job—not mine—to assign people to different parts of the Family. People may seek, and I will give, pastoral wisdom and advice as they consider why, and whether, to go, but in the end, I can’t hold on tightly but should celebrate what the Lord may be doing in them as they look towards a new season of service.

I think it helps our church culture that we rarely talk about people leaving our church; we say we are sending them to serve another congregation. When we talk about godly transition publicly we model what it can look like to go somewhere else for a good purpose, instead of sneaking out the back door for a bad reason. That helps us all keep proper perspective. And it models for others why and how healthy moves can take place.

“You will do well to send them on their way I a manner worthy of God…we ought to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.” (3 John 6 & 8)

I led worship this week on Sunday morning for the first time in years. Though my technical skills are a little rusty, I really enjoyed it. Worshipping (and leading worship) is one of the things that tap into my passion.

While I was leading (and destroying) some of the songs, there was a sense of breakthrough in our congregation. One of the best worship leaders I know, my friend Caleb Quaye, was visiting this week and later, over coffee he confirmed that God was doing something very powerful.

But it wasn’t because of the quality of music (he confirmed that too) and it wasn’t because we sounded “like the CD”, or because we designed the set just right.

What I needed to remember was that our songs in worship are simply a vehicle to an encounter with the living God. Too often in our church culture we look at songs as if they are a destination: Get the ‘band’ to play them just right, nail the transitions, build to an emotionally satisfying crescendo, and end big and right on time, and we feel that we just had an amazing worship experience.

As good as that might feel, the target is more musical and emotional. What we need is a spiritual target. When I am told of the churches where the Holy Spirit was moving so powerfully in the 70′s I hear that they sang simple songs without great transitions and often with little more accompanying them than a Piano or Organ. But worship was powerful. People got saved and healed and baptized with the Holy Spirit every week. Folks walked into the room and said “God is truly among you”.

And it wasn’t because the music was amazing. The songs were decent and true, but they were simply a vehicle to real worship where God moved in and through the praises of His people. I fear that we now have become so enamored with the songs themselves that we worship the worship, and not the God that the worship is designed to get us to meet (for more about what God thinks of that kind of worship, read the Old Testament book of Joel).

Many of us church leaders want to know why people have such a hard time keeping a long-term commitment to serving. However, I don’t think the problem is as much about what we are asking people to do, but about who we are asking them to be. Let me clarify:

An artist in my congregation has a real servant’s heart and a long history of cleaning toilets (and other such tasks) in past churches. She’s had no problem serving in that way, but in a recent conversation I had with her, she wondered out loud if the Lord could ever use the gifts and passions resident within her for the sake of the local church.

When we started to explore the possible avenues in which she could express her artistic talents in our little faith community, she started to tear up. The church slots she was used to being asked to fill were not in the arts.  But I could think of many ways that her unique gifts could be stewarded well to resource God’s specific call to our church: In adult worship, kids ministry, communication, design, etc…

So we came up with a handful of ideas that she is going to run with; and she’s going to get her artistic friends to run with them as well. We’ll be a more complete church because they are passionately involved by being part of the body that they were designed to be.

But here is the kicker: As we talked about having a servant heart, I realized that as this young woman expresses her distinct design, if we need someone to vacuum the floor or clean the bathrooms, she will be more than happy to do so. She will joyfully engage any servant-tasks that need to be done, because her primary assignment will correspond to her primary gifting and calling.

In other words, I can clean toilets all day long when I know my value is not simply what I am willing to do, but that I am treasured for who God has created me to be.

When we treat people as gifted (and as gifts), they usually don’t mind being asked to serve in other areas, too. But when we treat people like servants, they will eventually loose passion and burn out.

Remember: We are all called to have a servant heart, but we should never treat anyone else like a servant.

Multi-campus churches seem to be the hot thing right now among exploding churches, and among churches that want to be exploding. I have no criticism about the strategic value of this practice—I’m sure it makes sense for some, and out of necessity we even embraced a second location during the school year—but something I read in the Bible the other day addressed the motivation for expanding ministry this way.

In 1 Kings 12 and 2 Chronicles 11 we read about a tale of two kings. Rehoboam was the son of Solomon and leader of the Southern Kingdom Judah, and Jeroboam was the newly installed monarch of the newly formed Northern Kingdom of Israel. Though each of them seems to be paying a pretty steep stupid tax (and I would suggest neither as any kind of model for leadership), they also both set up multiple “ministry venues”, but for radically different reasons. And I want to be clear—I’m considering the motivation here, not the model.

Jeroboam created two worship sites because he was worried about losing people. While there is an obvious serious problem with his idol-centered-theology, there is something else going on here: Multiple venues were all about keeping people in his kingdom.

Rehoboam installed commanders in various towns to distribute resources and protection among the people for whom he was responsible. Multiple venues were all about serving (ministering to) people who chose to be in his kingdom, and about providing a place for the next generation to exercise leadership.

Ministry strategies are as varied as the sand on the beach. But with every new tactic employed, we must ask, and honestly answer, “why we are doing what we do?” If we create new venues to simply extend our own ministry reach or build the kingdom of our church, we should repent.

On the other hand, if we multiply campuses so that we can serve our people better and develop the next generations of leaders who will be ready to pastor God’s people, we may be tapping into something positive.

Here is a great way to answer the motivation question: Are we ready to release our campuses to be full-fledged congregations as soon as the Lord impresses us to do so? Or, does our soul struggle with the thought because of all the money and energy and leadership that have been given to the endeavor?

One of my heroes, Ralph More, recently wrote “Healthy movements don’t own their church plants, they accept them as peers.” So, do we intend for a campus to “grow up” and become a self-sustaining autonomous congregation, or do we act like dysfunctional parents who make sure their kids always need them, not recognizing that healthy independence and intentional separation may be the best way to support generational Kingdom extension?

These are just some random things I’m thinking about this Monday morning. I honestly haven’t read a ton about multi-site, so this isn’t a critique of the practice, but just a challenge for the motivation. Maybe you can help support, correct, or refine my thoughts?

Are you intentionally looking for people who will speak challenging truth into your life?

This is one of the most effective ways to grow: Cultivate real relationships with people you trust who will tell it to you the way it is. We need those who will say, “you really blew that and here is why”, or, “that was pretty good, but it wasn’t great…and this is how it could have been great”.

In the debrief meetings our church has after events and services, we always ask people to weigh in on what went well (the good), what could have gone better (the bad), and what was a potential train wreck (the ugly).  I’ve discovered that most ministry folks are good at talking about the good, and can even muster up the courage to acknowledge the truly ugly, but they seem to be pretty timid about bringing up the bad and have an even harder time communicating why the good could have been great.

Why is that? I think a big reason is our bent towards encouragement in the church. We want to build others up, not tear them down—and that’s good! But our understanding of the word encouragement is flawed.  Encouragement literally means to put courage into someone, and encouragement is only needed when there is a reason to be courageous.

It takes courage to recognize your weaknesses. It takes courage to see where things fell apart. And it takes courage to admit that you missed the mark. Then it takes courage to stand back up and try again!

Who is going to help you find that courage? Who is there to say, “this is not going well for you, but I believe in you, and think that by digging deep and making a few adjustments, this thing can turn around”?

If you don’t have a friend who will tell you the truth in love, start looking for one. He or she will make you a better, more effective person. And when you find that person, really listen, without defending yourself, and figure out where change is necessary. Then thank them for the honesty.

If you are a leader, one of your primary responsibilities is to be that person in other people’s lives. It may not feel good to correct or challenge people, but the alternative is to let them stagnate and never become all they are called and gifted to be.

Remember: Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. (Proverbs 27:6)

Most churches I know have a great volunteer challenge. It takes a high percentage of volunteer workers in order for everyone to be served well within a given structure. But, season-by-season, those workers are hard to come by, and sometimes even harder to keep.

Most mature believers will step up to the plate and fill a slot that needs to be filled—for a while. But when push comes to shove, they’ll look for a gracious way out. I’ve even known people who leave the church altogether because they served too long in a role they had no passion for, and didn’t know how to say they were done—so they simply left.

John Fehlen is a friend of mine who pastors the effective and exploding West Salem Foursquare Church. Earlier today he tweeted the following question: “Awesome 3000: a study in volunteerism. How come churches can’t find volunteers for children’s ministry but a race attracts hundreds?”

The Awesome 3000 is a huge annual run in his town of Salem Oregon. Hundreds of adults come out to volunteer and thousands to celebrate as over 3,000 kids participate in this non-profit fundraising event for local schools.

Anyways, I couldn’t stop thinking about John’s question today. But my mind wandered from the kids ministry volunteer question to why non-profit runs that take place all over the country attract so many participants in the first place, and how anyone who works with volunteers can learn from this:

A Calling: Let’s call it passion—something that really floats your boat. Some people just like to run. Give them any opportunity to do so and they will sign up. But many didn’t figure that out until a friend invited them into the activity. You usually need to be introduced to something to catch the ‘bug’ and find the passion. Most volunteers don’t just ‘find’ their calling, they have to be introduced and invited into it.

A Community: Running solo is for the few, the proud, the…(fill in the blank).  What people really love is carbo-loading before the race; running with others; knowing there are people cheering them on; looking forward to the after party—that is what attracts even non-runners to this thing. It’s also interesting that most long runs have ‘mini-versions’ of the race too so even more folks can be included into the community—and for every runner there are usually multiple people providing logistical support, encouragement, and participating in the community in other ways. Volunteers, too, can’t operate in a vacuum, but are seeking a real community to join.

A Cause: In many of these runs there is more than just running going on. Whether it is raising money or raising awareness, there is usually some focus for which the race exists. Another example: I’m never going to buy a candy bar from someone simply selling sweets door-to-door, but when it is tied to a cause that I understand and believe in, I’m at least tempted to do so (even if I’m on a diet). What is the clear cause our volunteers know they are joining?

A Competition: The thrill of victory; the agony of defeat—It may sound unspiritual, but I’m convinced that if we could clearly articulate what we are fighting for, people with a competitive spirit would have an inner drive to step up to the plate to help bring the win.

A Completion: Even in a Triathlon, there needs to be a finish line. I’m not talking about having a defined season of service (an end date to your volunteering), but about understanding the definition of completion in your ministry. Andy Stanley says that every ministry needs to establish what a win looks like, because people need to be able to determine whether they are winning or how to adjust if they are loosing.

A Celebration: At the end of a race there is usually a massive celebration. It’s the afterglow that makes it all worth while; the stories of how you felt when you hit the wall, the play-by-play of the little and big details that made running satisfying; the hours on the couch with your friends while your body recoups. This celebration is the culmination of all of the other elements combined. Volunteers want to be able to regularly celebrate with one another for the important and impacting things they are accomplishing together.

For a first hand account of the kind of experience I’m talking about (that, frankly, I can’t provide) you might want to read this ‘running’ post from a guy I met in Wisconsin a few weeks ago.

But lets get back to John’s original question: Why will hundreds of volunteers show up to help with a kids race but not sign up to help in kids ministry? It’s not just about their personal calling, community, cause, competition, or completion (though I think it is part of it), but it’s about helping the kids discover these things, too. When you volunteer for an epic event that engages kid’s imaginations and impacts the way they see the world, you know it was worth it.

Does our children’s ministry engage the passion of both the adults and the kids, or is it mostly about asking adults to fill necessary slots and about providing obligatory care and teaching for kids in the church without fully contending for that which is epic and passionate and impacting and memorable? I think the answer to this could make a big difference with our volunteer situation.

I was just asked an important question from a bright young pastor: “Why is Easter a week when we would expect that un-churched people would want to come to church?”

It is, in fact, a very good question with an answer that is not as easy as you might think. Let me rephrase it: “In a post-modern, increasingly post-Christian America, why would anyone think that Easter is a more important day to go to church than any other Sunday in the year?”

For Christians, of course, Easter is our Super-Bowl Sunday. Jesus died for our sins, and was resurrected for our salvation! And because HE experienced resurrection, we are going to, also.

For those who come from a Christian background or culture, this is the day they might be open to going to church with you. If a person who had dropped out of Church, but who still had a soft spot in their heart for Christianity, was invited to an Easter service, there might be something inside of them that said “I probably could go to Church on Easter”.

But even if a person has no cultural background or connection to Christianity, it makes sense to invite them for Easter. Though my church is continually pointing to the death and resurrection of Jesus as the central fact of our faith, Easter is our “High Holy Day” when everything we do focuses on this amazing reality—and we are very intentional to make sure that every person will be able to understand the clear and uncompromising message of the salvation and eternal life that Jesus secured for us through His death and resurrection.

Furthermore, this is not just a message that can be read in a book, but it comes alive when the presence of the Holy Spirit is evident within a worshipping family of believers. Christians have been transformed by Jesus’ death and resurrection, so when we get together to specifically celebrate that, it is something worth checking out.

In short, if someone is at all interested in experiencing what is most important about the Christian faith, Easter is the time when it is most clear.

So, on Easter we invite people because they may be culturally open to coming—and the Holy Spirit will regularly use open doors like that to engage people. More than that, we invite others because on Easter we have a great opportunity to say, “This message, presented in this community in the presence of this God, is what my faith is really about”.

And if we don’t ask people to join us because we think Easter is for Christians, then we’ve missed the point: Here we have the chance to welcome others into our unique celebration of the most important thing that has ever happened in human history in hopes that they, too, will welcome the risen Lord into their lives.

This week I was reading my Bible alone in a Starbucks and I kept being distracted by an exchange that was taking place at the next table.

There was a new Starbucks partner (employee) being trained by a more seasoned worker. Binders were out and conversation was flowing. They were talking about the cash register, morning and afternoon pastries—yes there is a difference—and scheduling, among other things. There was more than information being transferred here; culture was being developed.

It reminded me of my days training for Starbucks almost 12 years ago. There were classes and there were workbooks, but what I remember best are the one-on-one conversations. These connections were the backbone of the training program then, and they still are today. Every new partner had (has) various veterans who ensured that positive development was being made.

And it made me think of how we might help new believers get acclimated to the faith.

Many of our churches have regular classes for new Christians. These training opportunities are important and can provide an overview or primmer on what is necessary to understand as a person follows Jesus.

It is probably a good idea, too, to give people some material to read and work through. Lectures in classrooms can sometimes be static; most of us need to engage with and tangibly work through information on our own to make sure it ‘sticks’.

However, I wonder if we tend to miss the most vital element of passing important understanding from one ‘generation’ to the next? Relational connections can’t be beat in discipleship, because ultimately our faith is not simply about information, it is about transformation, and a relational, discipleship-based connection promotes a transference of life and not just of knowledge.

Just a thought: What if every person at your church who indicated they were interested in following Jesus was partnered with a more seasoned believer for a series of conversations that flowed around some important aspects of the faith? Maybe a workbook could serve as a practical tool for those conversations, but the outcome would be more impacting than a workbook alone could give.

Propagating relational connections might be a little more work than simply providing a class and it would certainly take more investment than handing a new believer a book, but in the long run, I think it would be much more effective.

You are about to cross over and take possession of that good land. Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol… (Deuteronomy 4:22-23)

In much of Deuteronomy, Moses is telling the Israelites about their impending journey into the Promised Land. He’s reminding them of their deliverance from bondage, of God’s Covenant with them, and of the civil laws they must agree to live by. He won’t go with them, but he wants to set them up for success.

And in the middle of it all, Moses warns them about idols. These people who have seen the undeniable supernatural hand of God would be tempted to make and worship idols. This seems strange to us, but we quickly rationalize that it was a different culture, a long time ago, in a land far, far away.

But let’s not be quick to limit idolatry to little faux-avatars made of gold, wood or clay. We have idols, too; and not just cover girls, leading men, and fast cars. In ministry, our idols are much more subtle than those easily recognizable things.

I think we idolize methods of church growth. I’ve seen other churches and pastors made into idols. We idolize buildings, books, and broadcasts. Programs become idols, too.

It generally isn’t the fault of these things that they get made into idols. A few verses earlier, Moses was warning Israel not to make bird idols, sun and moon idols, men and women idols, even fish idols! Verse 19 says the Lord provided these things.

Big churches and impacting programs aren’t inherently bad, but when I secretly worship them I’ve allowed something else to take God’s place, and that isn’t good.

How do we worship those things? We put our hope of future effective ministry in them. We also give those tools the credit when ministry growth or fruit happens.

When God brings me into a place of promise and fruit, I am to give nobody else the credit. When you read Genesis through Joshua that is one of the great subtexts: These Hebrew people had nothing to do with God choosing them or God delivering them or God giving them the Promised Land. Every time they tried to take things into their own hands, they failed miserably. Their success wasn’t because they were good warriors or because they had the right strategy or because the Sun was on their side. They were wholly dependant on Yahweh for any success, and their part was always and only total obedience.

That’s our part, too. God speaks; we respond. Period. In ministry and in life there are many methods, tools, and strategies that can be good and God-given. I think we’re free to appreciate and use these gifts. But the minute we start giving them credit for what God is doing, we have crossed into idolatry—and God won’t share His glory with anyone, or anything, else!

My friend Charles Lee is starting a sermon series on the Book of Acts at the church he pastors. As a part of his presentation, he included the following video that briefly explains the Missional Church. I saw it tonight and I like it. Though I’m not certain whether it can come across as too black and white (I DO think that a church with a good preacher, good music and, yes, even occasional big events, can have at its core a Missional passion), the last 30 seconds simply but effectively represent my understanding of the Lord’s strategy and call for the church I pastor.

With appreciation to Charles…enjoy, and reflect!

“…And so Moses finished the Work. Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” (Exodus 40:33-35)

When I read this I get hungry for the manifest presence of the Lord in my life. There is something in me that wants to encounter the Lord in such a tangible way that I have a hard time entering the room.  It’s what I’d like to see in our congregation, too. Though I fully embrace the understanding that we don’t need to ask the Lord “show up” when we gather, because He is already there, I can’t deny my longing for this kind of undeniable powerful encounter that would indelibly mark our community.

But this awesome and transformative event didn’t happen in a vacuum. As I pay attention to the text leading up to this beautiful moment in Exodus 39-40, I see sixteen times that explicitly say Israel did everything exactly “as the Lord had commanded Moses”.

Let’s be honest: Many of the things that God had commanded Moses to do seem a bit overly specific, maybe even, can I say, pedantic? Things like: Fastening a blue cord to a turban; putting bread on a table on the north side of the tabernacle outside of the curtain; ensuring that Aaron and his son’s were dressed just right, with the correct amount of ringing bells and cloth pomegranates alternating around the hem of their robes.

I’ve sat through classes that go on for weeks explaining how each of these details is somehow related to the bigger picture of salvation history. While I have no doubt that God had very specific reasons for this level of precision (many of which DO have to do with prophetic foreshadowing of Salvation issues), I also believe that a lot of the reasons are completely lost on us. We can analyze the actions commanded all day long and never figure out exactly why they were required.

And I think that’s part of the point. Moses and the Israelites didn’t know why they needed to do these things, but they did know that God required them. Because they knew this, a group of refugees stuck in the middle of the desert obediently complied; right down to the last detail. And when the job was completed, as soon as “Moses finished the work”, the palpable glory of God manifested.

Maybe it’s possible that we have issues in our lives that we know are not being handled exactly as the Lord has commanded, or that have been started but not finished. Perhaps we have been given important work to do and we’ve put it aside because it doesn’t make sense to us, or it’s just too difficult to engage. I’m not proposing a works-based theology—God loves us and saves us and is with us regardless of our effort—but there is blessing that springs from radical and exact obedience.

I want to take an opportunity this week to examine my life and discern where I may not be doing things exactly as the Lord has asked me to. As I walk in humble and precise submission to the Word of God, I provide an open door for the Holy Spirit mark me as a person wholly surrendered and submitted to Him; and that kind of life, I believe, is where God’s authentic Glory will manifest !

As a pastor I’ve always loved Exodus 18 and Acts 6 because of the wise and practical action that the leaders took to distribute the work of the ministry. I just think it makes good organizational and strategic sense to do this, and I’ve regularly revisited these passages to rethink how I could put those principles into practice.

This year, as I was meditating through Exodus in my devotional reading, I had a new thought. God told Moses at the time of his calling (Exodus 3) that He would use Moses to lead His people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, and that the first important stop along the way was to be the mountain of God.

What happens at the mountain? This was where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, as well as where Moses stayed 40 days to receive the instructions for Worship. It’s where a motley but massive group of Jacob-descendants became transformed into the nation of Israel. If you had to pinpoint an important moment in the formation of over 4,000 years of Jewish History, or recognize an epochal event that would lead to the coming of the One who would fulfill the Law, I imagine that Moses’ time on Mt. Sinai would rank way up there at the top.

And here, the timeline is very important: Moses doesn’t get to go to the mountain (chapter 19) before he figures out how to give away ministry (chapter 18).

While he was busy being burdened “from morning till evening” sitting and having people come to him to make life and ministry decisions, he was never going to get to Sinai. Jethro’s advice to his son-in-law to distribute the leadership was not just a practical pastoral principle, but was an absolute mandate if God’s people were ever going to make it to their land of promise. Yes, the people had been delivered from bondage and formed as a community, but the Divine journey towards their ultimate destiny would not be reached if Moses continued to act as the hero-martyr and fill his days with things others could and should be handling.

Similarly, in Acts 6, the Apostles were not ‘above’ waiting on tables and serving widows, but they realized that if they were busy hoarding ministry from morning till evening, the things (prayer, preaching and distribution of ministry) that would move the infant church into its glorious promise would never happen.

How many congregations do we know that are right on the edge of amazing momentum into God’s design for them, but they will never get there because only the primary leaders are fully released to do ministry and make decisions? How many of those primary leaders can spend significant time listening to the Lord and responding in obedience while they are overwhelmed in the day-to-day needs of their people that others are competent to meet?

The life of the Kingdom was not ever meant to flow through only one person (in Exodus) or a small group of people (in Acts), and leadership bottlenecks often occur because of the pride of those who think they have to have their thumb on every decision. True, releasing ministry might make for mistakes and messiness (some of which will never even be seen or cleaned up), but if the alternative is a well-oiled machine that never gets a church to its call and promise, I’ll take the mess every time!

Groups of people (companies, organizations, churches, etc,) develop traditions that are based on strong values, but the tradition may continue long after the underlying value is forgotten. This can become a problem; when traditions start to conflict with values, then we have trouble my friend (“with a capital “T”).

Eleven years ago I was in Seattle planting a church and working for Starbucks. The coffee company was considering whether to replace the manual espresso machines with much more efficient, effective, and consistent automatic ones. However, the new equipment just wasn’t the same: there was fear of losing the “human touch”; the sound of clanking and tamping, etc…

It’s a long story, but I had the opportunity to write a fable and get it into the hands of Howard Schultz (the CEO) who was concerned about the change. The narrative was about a woman who had fond memories of going to her grandma’s house for the best fresh peach pies she’d ever had. One day she had a vision to open up a bakery that sold those pies and also replicated the culture of grandma’s house: Swing music playing, 50′s style furniture, table games out—the total “grandma’s house” experience. Since grandma always claimed that the perfect pies were a result of the oven, this young woman bought the exact oven from her mother (who now owned grandma’s house) and used it in her first store.

The concept exploded. City people loved the country desserts as well as the oasis of a down-home family space. Soon more stores opened, and the oven—including its glass front and manual dials—had to be duplicated. Ten years and hundreds of stores later, the company was doing great, but the experience had started to deteriorate. Some of the employees didn’t understand the culture very well, and the original idea of having a “place to come home to” had morphed into lines out the door while people waited for fresh baked goods to take home with them.

One of the biggest challenges was that the ovens which had served the stores well at first were not so great for the exponential demand. The original appliances were temperamental and a bit slow. Though R & D could design equipment that would work more consistently and twice as fast, the founder was worried that the experience would be compromised—after all, the ovens had always been the centerpiece of the store design and feel; one of their biggest traditions.

After replacing the oven in a few stores, it was quickly discovered that customers could get their product more quickly, and that the employees had more time to devote to maintaining the culture and values upon which the stores were initially based.

I never found out if my story influenced Howard’s decision—but hey, within six months all the manual machines were being replaced by automatic ones (a guy can dream)!

Five months ago Brad Abare wrote something I’ve been chewing on since. Traditions aren’t always bad, but where they don’t fully support the values, they should be seriously examined and probably adjusted.

Here’s what Brad said:

Traditions guard.

Values guide.

Traditions perpetuate the good and the bad.

Values parse the good from the bad.

Traditions make way for the predictable.

Values make way for the potential.

Traditions are inherited.

Values are imbedded.

Traditions can stall progress.

Values can stimulate progress.

Traditions can be eliminated.

Values can be illuminated.

Traditions can stop a company.

Values can sustain a company.

Traditions are neutral to meaning.

Values are necessary to meaning.

Traditions are contextual.

Values are collective.

Continued from part 2…

If God is a creative God and humans were created to reflect that image, then all-God/all-man Jesus paints a picture of what a fully creative human being might look like. In the first chapters of Mark, we discover a few things about creative, out of the box ministry from the life of Jesus:

1. Creative ministry is fueled by prayer. Mark 1:35ff “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

There are congregations that want to be on the cutting edge of creative ministry but they don’t want to put in the time to listen to the Lord. If a church is known as creative but is not deeply driven by prayer, it may be hip and relevant to someone, but it won’t be truly prophetic to the world or relevant to God. 

2. Creative ministry does things in ways they have never been done before. Mark 2:12 “we’ve never seen anything like this.”

Jesus certainly did this; David did, too. David took on the giant with a method that would drive the “experts” crazy. He had confidence that he could do the job, in God’s power, by using stones and sling. NOBODY had ever seen a battle won that way before, but young David was anointed by God; connected to God; and his questionable but creative and obedient actions immediately turned the waning momentum in Israel around.

3. Creative ministry is not just about novelty, but carries spiritual authority. Mark 1:27 “What is this? A new teaching —and with authority?”

Doing something in a new way is only good if it is done with anointing and authority. Many churches are caught up in looking for what is new, what has never been done before, what can set them apart from all the other churches, but their ministries lack real authority. I’ve learned that something can’t just be a “new teaching” (or program or style, etc,) it must also come “with authority.” It must spiritually and practically impact people at their core.

4. Creative ministry elicits a response. Mark 1:17 “come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Creativity is winsome. Creativity in ministry draws people into a conversation in which they are asking themselves questions about how they are going to respond with their lives. French writer Antoine de Saint Exupéry once said “If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” Both are important, of course, but the latter (an unquenchable desire to cross the ocean) will fuel the former (inspiring people to build a ship).

The goal of creative, prophetic communication is never to simply give information, but it must often result in powerful transformation.

Finally, a quote from Mosaic Pastor, Erwin McManus (who I think does an outstanding job of cultivating creativity for Kingdom purposes through the church he leads): “We risk too little; we dream too small. Each church has enough creative capacity in it to make a huge debt on the problems of humanity.”

If only we’d follow Jesus out of our boxes!

Continued from Part 1

If the church is a reflection of an infinitely creative and original God, then how does a congregation manifest that creativity? How do we start to climb out of the boxes we’ve learned to live in?

I think it starts with an understanding. We can choose to be—in the words of one of my hero’s, Ron Mehl—either “prophetic or parasitic”. The essence of a prophetic community or leader is that they hear and repeat God’s voice. A prophetic congregation is intently listening to the Holy Spirit and reflecting God’s unique design and desire for it. A leader with a prophetic perspective may learn and implement quite a bit from others, but will always first filter it through the distinct things about which God is speaking to him or her.

In other words, prophetic congregations are never built with cookie cutters or from following “5 easy steps to growing your church.” Every church that has ever impacted me has had a unique spark—the styles from church to church were massively different, but there was in each of them an original quality that distinctively reflected the heart of God for its own context. This quality drew me, and kept me, and changed me, and it transformed much of the surrounding culture, too.

Parasites, however, must feed off of other life in order to be sustained. Many congregations and leaders are always looking for the next big thing, and forgetting that God has something unrepeatable and miraculous to do through them. They miss it, because their strategy is to simply try to copy other “successful” church strategies so they can give off the perception of originality, creativity, and success. They want to be the next Saddleback, Willow Creek, Northpoint, Mosaic or Mars Hill (Seattle or Grand Rapids—take your pick), but they forget that each of those ministries was birthed out of a unique context, was full of unique people, was led by a unique pastor in a unique city, and was called of God to fulfill a unique purpose.

In other words, congregations are like snowflakes; no two of them are alike. Though we can and should learn from the wisdom of others, parasitic leaders will drive staff and congregations aimlessly ragged as they attempt to reproduce the flavor-of-the-month church or ministry, hoping it provides something that will create much-desired momentum.

The other day I read something that Joshua Blankenship from New Spring Church discussed regarding how this copy-cat ethos can do damage: “Ultimately, copying doesn’t affect the person being ripped nearly as much as the one doing the copying. After all, rarely is the faux as compelling as the original. But when you copy, you do yourself a disservice. You cease to do work. You cease to be inspired.”

True creativity is not manufactured or replicated; it is inspired (God-breathed) and it will inspire a sense of joy, and awe, and energy, and life, and passion in and through a congregation. When that starts to happen, people can’t help reflect the unique call of a living, loving, powerful God in a way that truly impacts the community and world God has placed them in.

Next, we’re going to learn from the ultimate example of a unique, inspired, creative individual doing ministry…

(To be continued)