A Convergence, Of Sorts

My whole life is finally converging.

The doctrine of Providence states that “God, the great Creator of all things… directs, disposes, and governs all creatures, actions, and things” (WCF 5.1). Providence means that “all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). Occasionally, as you look back over the course of your life and the path God has brought you through to get you to where you are, things all start to make sense. That’s happening for me this week.

(Apologies to the reader: the rest of this post may contain references to people and movements and ideas that are obscure to you. Some more theologically astute readers, or just those who have known me longer, will catch more of the impact.)

Apart from my parents, whose influence upon me has been immense, there have been three shaping influences in my spiritual life: I learned the gospel from Jack Miller, I learned theology from Richard Pratt and John Frame, and I learned church planting from Tim Keller and Steve Childers.

Early on in my marriage and ministry, I was immersed in a missional community around a Bible study called Sonship. That Bible study taught me the gospel all over again. Though I had followed Jesus from my youth, I had never understood that “the gospel is for Christians, too.” Or, to put it more theologically, the gospel does not just justify you, it sanctifies you. It is not just the ABC’s of the Christian life, but the A to Z of the Christian life. The Sonship material (later revised as Gospel Transformation) was the magnum opus of Jack Miller, a pastor, church-planting missionary, and seminary professor who died in the 1990s. The rich truths of sanctification by faith were deeply shaping to me and have marked my life and ministry ever since. When we talk about being a gospel-centered church, when you hear me talk about heart idols, when we repeat the twin truths that “I’m a sinner and Jesus is my only hope,” we are standing on the shoulders of Jack Miller.

Shortly after my first exposure to Sonship, I began attending seminary. My primary mentor was Richard Pratt, a brilliant teacher who built much of his work on the foundation laid by John Frame (under whom Pratt studied in his early years). Frame had proposed a Bible-based philosophy of knowledge called “tri-perspectivalism.” In its basic essence, tri-perspectivalism holds that there are three objects of knowledge: God, the world, and the self. But when it comes to an act of knowing, the three cannot be isolated from each other. We cannot know God apart from the world and ourselves, we cannot know the world without reference to the God who made it and to ourselves as knowers, and we cannot know ourselves except as creatures who are part of God’s world. So human knowledge involves looking at reality through three interdependent perspectives, or lenses: the normative perspective (what does God’s word say about this?), the situational perspective (what are the facts of the situation?), and the existential perspective (what do I sense?). For God to be Lord means that He is the authority over everything (normative), He is in control of every situation (situational), and He is present everywhere (existential). Frame’s model satisfied all my uncertainty about knowledge and gave me a philosophically rigorous, doctrinally sound grid for seeing the world.

When God began to move me toward church planting, He providentially put me under the tutelage of Dr. Steve Childers, an RTS professor with a massive love for Jesus. Childers often spoke about a church called Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, led by Dr. Tim Keller. He told his students, "Get your hands on everything they put out and read it cover to cover.” I spent the spring of 2004 soaking my mind in Keller’s writing and teaching. Besides loving everything he said, I began to notice a strange similarity to both the Sonship material and to Frame’s tri-perspectivalism. Coincidence, right?

Wrong. Providence. Today’s featured speaker at the Acts 29 bootcamp was Dick Kaufmann, former associate pastor at Redeemer in NYC. And he put all the pieces together in a way that made me stand back and laugh.

From 1976-1980, Dick Kaufmann was a student at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He and his friend Tim Keller both attended New Life Church, pastored by Jack Miller. They also both studied under John Frame. Keller and Kaufmann have intentionally worked together over the last decade to do two things: 1) apply the gospel-centered paradigm of Jack Miller to preaching and teaching; and 2) use Frame’s tri-perspectivalism as a grid for understanding how the church should relate to God, the world, and the self. In other words: their entire grid for missional church planting - which is now affecting movements like Acts 29 - rests on the foundation laid by Jack Miller and John Frame.

What has God been doing in the last 10 years of my life? I thought He was simply teaching me sanctification, good theology, and good church planting strategy, and getting me under some good people to learn all that stuff from. Now I’m realizing that He was doing much more than that. He was accomplishing a great divine convergence, preparing me to help plant gospel-centered missional churches. The transformation of my heart, the shaping of my theology, and my calling to church planting were not three things, but one. I’m sort of embarrassed that it took me this long to see it.

What Does It Mean to be Missional?

Missional. The new church buzz-word. Everybody wants to be missional. And that's a good thing; after all, it only means that we want to be serious about the Great CoMISSION that Jesus called us to.

But the problem with buzzwords is that eventually everybody adopts them, so they lose their distinctive flavor. Missional is an adjective that was originally framed in contrast to terms like "missions-minded" or "mission-driven." To give some more substance and clarity to the term "missional," here is Tim Keller's explanation. (It's adapted from his document on Missional Church Planting, which is posted in its entirety on our resource page, but since some of you sucklings would rather watch Grey's Anatomy than read good theological writing, I'll nurse you along with this milk-not-meat version. Apologies in advance to Evan, who is going to cringe at the twist of prepositional phrases. But Ev, come on... you have to admit that a mere preposition can change the whole meaning of a sentence!)

To be missional means that we are a church FOR the city/culture/people where God has placed us.
Some churches are OF the culture. They so embrace the culture that they lose their distinctiveness.
Some churches are AGAINST the culture. They so oppose the culture that they lose their relevance.
Some churches are ABOVE the culture. They so super-spiritualize life that they lose their point of contact.
On the other hand, a church FOR the culture engages the culture in order to transform it.

Day One: Impressed

Some churches and leaders have really solid, strong, Reformed theology... but they are missionally constipated. "The frozen chosen." Solid on the sovereignty of God, but with no passion or life or zeal for Jesus and His kingdom.

Other churches and leaders are zealous about evangelism and mission and reaching people... but their theology is weak and vapid and unsound. They can make converts, but not disciples, because they don't have the doctrinal depth to sustain deep transformation.

When you find churches and leaders that are both theologically sharp and missionally engaged, you worship God, and you pray for their tribe to increase! So far, that is what I have found among the Acts 29 pastors I have connected with in San Diego. From a distance, A29 can seem to have an edge - no doubt driven by that maverick, prophetic, church-planting, missional spirit. But up close, these are humble, Christ-centered, deep-thinking men of God who are passionate about both good theology and good missiology. They are a beautiful rarity in American evangelicalism.

And it seems that God is granting them success. A29's success rate in church planting is 100%. Read that again. Then realize that nationally, 80% of church plants fail. A29 has a zero failure rate so far. That should tell you something about the rigor of their assessment process. The numbers don't lie. If we want to be a church that plants other churches and does it well... these guys definitely have some things to teach us.

Why Are You A Part of Coram Deo?

Have you ever thought about that question?

If your answer is, "Because it's a good church and I like it," that's decent. But a better answer would be, "Because I am passionate about seeing Jesus exalted in my culture, and that means I must be a part of planting new churches. To do anything else is to fiddle while Rome burns."

Sometimes we slip into thinking that church planting has to do with "starting something new and hip and cool." Sometimes I slip into thinking that. Thankfully, when I do, God usually brings me around by way of the facts. When I worked in politics, we used to say, "The numbers don't lie." Here are the numbers regarding church in America:

• About 3,500 churches close their doors each year
• Nationally, the population grew 13.2% between 1990 and 2000, but new churches were only planted at a 5% rate
• The churches that are "growing" are predominantly the megachurches, and most of their growth is not coming from the unchurched, but from Christians who are leaving smaller churches to move to larger ones
• The United States remains the fourth largest mission field in the world

If anyone asks you, "Why are you helping to plant a new church? Aren't there enough already?" now you have an answer. Statistically the answer is plainly, NO!! May God renew in all of us not just a calling to Coram Deo, but a calling to church planting in general. May He use our humble efforts as a small part of His means to exalt His name by re-contextualizing the gospel of Jesus Christ for a post-Christian, post-church culture.

More on Justice

We are spending a few weeks at Coram Deo thinking about the topic of justice. Specifically: what responsibility does a Christian or a church have before God to perform acts of justice?

We said Sunday that biblical justice must be Christ-centered; in other words, doing good for good's sake is different than doing good for God's sake. Another way to say the same thing is to say that doing justice must be rooted in the gospel. Tim Keller says:

All problems, personal or social, come from a failure to use the gospel in a radical way, to 'get in line with the truth of the gospel' (Gal. 2:14). All pathologies in the church [and the city]... come from a failure to use the gospel in a radical way. We believe that if the gospel is expounded and applied in its fullness in any church [or city], that church [or city] will look very unique.

I was reminded of that Keller quote during a session with Scott Thomas, director of the Acts 29 church planting network. Thomas went on to say that having a love for the city means 1) longing for the planting of churches within the city, and 2) committing to stay in the city, where the influence resides. The city, not the suburbs, is the nucleus of education, money, power, politics, culture, music, art, and athletics. Culture is shaped in the city and exported to the suburbs and rural areas.

Which means that if we are to be for Nebraska, we must be for Omaha, and specifically the heart of Omaha, which is downtown. That is why we meet where we meet and do what we do!

Theology Matters, Again

Some of you guys are getting tired of hearing me say that good theology matters. But I'm going to keep saying it until you start believing it to the point that you study your Bible relentlessly and read good books (by dead guys) and wear out the pages of your systematic theology text.

In case hearing it from another source might convince you, I want to point you to one of my preaching mentors, Dr. Matt Cassidy, who played a formative role in my life in the early years of my marriage and ministry. Today on an airplane flight, while the lady next to me spilled her tomato juice all over the floor, I fired up my new iPod and listened to Matt preach a sermon from Judges called The High Cost of Low Theology. Give it a listen.

(For you discerning listeners, any similarities between my teaching style and Matt's are totally and absolutely intentional. He has been a shaping influence in the way I communicate.)

By the way, listening to preaching is a great way to make the most of your idle time (i.e. sitting in airports, driving, etc). Preachers, even bad ones, are still better than most pop music!

The Church Planting Version of Napster

Undoubtedly some of you reading this were part of the Napster craze a few years ago. Whereas music stores sold music according to their rules - a whole CD at a time, for a premium price, inside their walls - Napster allowed you to download whatever songs you wanted, from any computer in the network, for free. Instead of top-down (retailer-purchaser), it was peer-to-peer. And it changed the face of the music industry.

Next week I travel to California to connect with the Acts 29 church planting network. A29 is a peer-to-peer network of churches planting churches. If denominations are sort of like the music stores of the church planting world, A29 is like Napster (except that it's legal). Instead of relying on a top-down system of hierarchy and governance, A29 creates relationally-driven partnerships among churches who are 1) theologically like-minded, and 2) committed to church planting. As we pray together about spurring a church planting movement in Omaha and beyond, A29 may be a key piece of the puzzle.

To find out more, you can check out the Acts 29 website here. And by the way, if you still have illegal music on your hard drive, Jesus says to delete it.

Lane is a Blogger

Uh-oh, Lane is officially a blogger. Welcome, Lane, to the world of being argued with and disrespected by people all over the universe!

Seriously... how cool that God has put people in His church who enjoy writing and thinking and processing. It's not the way all of us learn and grow... but for some of us (I think I speak for Lane as well as myself), writing is a key piece of the spiritual formation process. Thanks to the rest of you for putting up with us and sometimes even affirming our writings.

Read Lane's first Musings post here.

The Spiritually Formed Person

Dallas Willard has served as a reliable tour guide in our biblical study of spiritual formation. As we prepare to close out the series, I think it useful to share Willard's own summation of what the spiritually formed person looks like. (The following is from his book, Renovation of the Heart.)

Let us now draw together the results of our studies... to form a composite picture of 'the children of light,' drawing on how they have changed in the various essential dimensions of their being.

Thought life: Simply stated, they think about God. He is never out of their mind. They love to dwell upon God and upon his greatness and loveliness, as brought to light in Jesus Christ. They adore him in nature, in history, in his Son and in his saints. One could even say they are 'God-intoxicated'... Because their mind is centered upon God and oriented with reference to him, all other good things are also welcome there (Philippians 4:8).

Feelings: ...They love lots of good things and they love people. They love their life and who they are... Joy and peace are with them even in the hardest of times - even when suffering unjustly. Because of what they have learned about God, they are confident and hopeful and do not indulge thoughts of rejection, failure, and hopelessness...

Will (Spirit, Heart): ...Children of light really are devoted to doing what is good and right. Their will is habitually attuned to it... These are peope who do not think first of themselves and what they want, and they really care very little, if at all, about getting their own way... They do not hesitate to do what they know to be right. It is the obvious thing to do.

Body: ...Their body has come over to the side of their will to do good. It is constantly poised to do what is right and good without thinking... It is no longer true of them that their 'spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak...' The bodies of these people even look different. There is a freshness about them, a kind of quiet strength, and a transparency.

Social Relations: ...They are completely transparent. They do not conceal their thoughts and feelings (nor do they impose them on everyone). They do not try to manipulate and manage others... They know how to really 'be there' (wherever 'there' is) without sharing in evil, as was true of Jesus himself... They know how to 'love the sinner and hate the sin' gracefully and effectively.

Soul: ...All of the above is not just at the surface. It is deep. ...The things we have been describing are not things the children of light are constantly trying hard to do, gritting their teeth and carrying on. Instead, these are features of life that well up out of a soul that is at home in God.

The biggest danger is that, as you read the above, you hear a voice in your head telling you that you will never look like that. That is Satan. Reject him. The picture above describes the kind of people Jesus intended us to be. Let us lean on his grace and exert ourselves to make it so!

SF: Questions

Two Sundays from now (August 20), we will wrap up our sermon series on spiritual formation. On that day, in addition to reviewing the things we've talked about, I want to do my best to answer any questions that may be brewing in your mind as you ruminate on these matters.

Please help me by using the comment thread to throw out 1) questions, 2) areas you still find unclear, or 3) matters you'd like to see covered before we leave the topic of spiritual formation. This will really help me in preparing for the 20th.

Seriously, if you don't post anything, it will be a really short message.

God's judgment on all of you who read that last sentence and responded with secret delight!

Providence

It's good to see this guy conscious!

See previous post here

The Cross Chart (In Words)

Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives. Many have so light an apprehension of God's holiness and of the extent and guilt of their sin that consciously they see little need for justification, although below the surface of their lives they are deeply guilt-ridden and insecure. Many others have a theological commitment to [the doctrine of justification], but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for justification... drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance, or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience. Few know how to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther's platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.

In order for a pure and lasting work of spiritual renewal to take place within the church, multitudes within it must be led to build their lives on this foundation. This means that they must be conducted into the light of a full conscious awareness of God's holiness, the depth of their sin and the sufficiency of the atoning work of Christ for their acceptance with God, not just at the outset of their Christian lives but in every succeeding day.

- from Richard Lovelace's book Dynamics of Spiritual Life

Character

An interesting quote that relates to spiritual formation (becoming the kind of person Jesus wants you to be):

Character is personal, but it is not private. Everybody who knows you has an opinion about the kind of person you are. You might as well let them know the kind of person you are striving to become.

- from Andy Stanley's book "The Next Generation Leader" (thanks, DWhite, for the Cliff's Notes)

Think about it: all your friends already have an opinion about the kind of person you are. You're not fooling them! So are you striving to become anything different?

New Job

I've been going through some assessments recently to get CD connected to a church planting network. Here's what the cool, objective, test result printout told me:

Common occupational choices for your personality type include Business Strategist, Insurance Actuary, Editor, Technical Writer, Chemist, Biologist, Physicist, College Professor, Architect, Scientific Researcher, Systems Architect, Hardware Designer, Museum Curator, Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Minister, Priest, Rabbi, and Foreign Language Translator.

What do you think? Did I miss my calling? Which occupation would you guys vote for me if this whole church planting thing doesn't work out?

Sidenote: apparently this means that T-Lo, Dr. Corr, and Lane F. would all be good church planting movement leaders. You guys want to trade jobs?