Mark Driscoll revealed today that Mars Hill Church is going to open an out-of-state campus in a different time zone as part of the church’s strategy to grow to 100 campuses globally. Driscoll’s preaching will no longer be satellite-fed in real-time; rather, sermons at the Ballard campus will be captured on video and mailed out on DVD to the other campuses, to be shown the following week. Media will not be uploaded for podcast/vodcast until after it’s been seen/heard at all MHC campuses.
What do you guys think about this development? I guarantee it will stir some lively in-house discussions within Acts 29. On the one hand, if you had to choose between a non-gospel-preaching church or a Mars Hill campus, wouldn’t you choose the latter? The model will undoubtedly work, because Driscoll is one of the most gifted and engaging preachers in the world right now (and an all-around faithful, enjoyable, godly man). So if a Mars Hill campus strategy allows for the spread of the gospel and the reaching of more people for Jesus, it’s hard to argue against.
On the other hand, there are some potential drawbacks.
Does this lead toward a “franchise” model of church?
Does this work against contextualizing the gospel – especially in preaching – to a particular city-culture? What makes Driscoll so great is that he knows his context. He preaches to Seattle. But Seattle is not the same as Dallas or London or Omaha.
Does this become a substitute for church planting? Let’s take a hypothetical city-center and compare the cost and risk of a) dropping a Mars Hill campus there vs. b) raising up a properly gifted and qualified lead planter who will gather gospel missionaries and form the nucleus of a new church plant. A) wins, hands-down. It costs less, it’s less risky, and it’s WAY easier to find a qualified campus pastor than a qualified church planter. Plus, when it comes to quality preaching, Driscoll beats out almost every church planter. Does the ease of reproducing a successful formula work against raising up faithful church planters who will give their lives to shape a faithful gospel witness within a city?
Does this work against training men to preach? You only learn to preach by preaching. But if I have the choice between suffering under the preaching of a young church planter who’s just learning vs. sitting under one of the world’s best (and still having a local campus pastor to do the hands-on, people-focused work), the latter seems more desirable. This new model, if accepted broadly, would seem to move the church at large in the direction of outsourcing our preaching to a handful of very gifted men, essentially removing preaching from the average pastor’s job description. (Maybe that’s a long-shot scenario, but it does seem like an implication of this model.)
This past week we were privileged to have Kevin, Katie, and Quinn Cawley in town for a day to hang out with the Coram Deo staff and build synergy for church planting. The Cawleys planted Redeemer Church in the Westport area of Kansas City last June. The story of how God called them to KC is fraught with God’s gracious providence. Basically, a 140-year-old dying Baptist church in the heart of KC voted to terminate its existence and hand over its 60,000 square feet of real estate to Acts 29 to plant a new missional church in its place. Darrin Patrick from The Journey in St. Louis asked Kevin, who had been praying about planting in KC for years, to take the building and lead a planting effort. Long story short… on June 1, 2008, a “funeral service” for the Baptist congregation was held, celebrating what God had done throughout its long and storied history. On June 8, 2008, Redeemer Church was planted in its place.
God has used Kevin’s past to prepare him well for this role: he graduated from Wheaton College, served as an intern under John Piper, earned 2 master’s degrees in theology, and went through a church planting residency with Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock. But more importantly, he spent a year just getting to know the culture and context of Kansas City, which earned him credibility with the locals and gave him a vision for how the gospel can redeem its brokenness. Also, like most wise men, he married way out of his league to a wife who shares his vision for ministry.
If you missed our Coram Deo prayer gathering last week, you missed a good chance to meet Kevin and pray for God’s work through Redeemer. But you can still be involved. Ten percent of the tithes and offerings we receive at Coram Deo go right back out the door to fund the work of church planting around the world. Redeemer is one of the churches we’ll be helping this year through our church planting fund. Thanks for your generosity, which helps us support leaders like Kevin in the work God has called them to.
[Author's edit 4/26/09: I have been convicted that the tone of this post borders on obnoxious. I think the issues raised are valid, but the way I stated them is not as charitable as it should be. Readers, please accept my apology. Thanks for bearing with me as I grow in the gospel.]
Highlights from the congregational survey we did last week… some interesting facts. Lots of good data here to ponder as we think about how to effectively lead our church into mission in our city.
285 respondents
60% female, 40% male
81% between the ages of 18 and 35
60% single
43% have been connected to Coram Deo for less than 1 year
89% attend worship gathering every week
72% got connected through the “side door” (missional relationships)
63% are involved in a missional community in some way (53% “consistently”)
55% would consider themselves “mature disciples of Jesus;” 45% non-Christians, new Christians, or religious people who are just starting to ‘get’ the gospel
Questions I have:
Really? 55% of Coram Deo people are ‘mature Christians?’ I think some of you are being too generous with yourselves, seeing as how only 30% of CD attenders give financially and only about 25% are church members. Maybe your measure of maturity and Jesus’ are a little different (Matthew 6:21; Matt. 28:18-20). Stick around, we’ll try to work on that.
Where are the dudes? A 60/40 female/male split is about the same as the national average. I thought we were closer to an even 50-50, but apparently we have some work to do. Either that or we have passive men who don’t fill out surveys.
Where are the dudes? Apparently our church has a high number of young, single, Christian women who regularly attend worship. Men… is this not the kind of woman you’re interested in? Time’s a wastin’…
We will do the surveys again this Sunday to try to catch anyone who wasn’t present last week. We estimate we may have missed about 100 folks whose input we’d like to hear. Thanks to Justin and Tracy Curtis, our fabulous deacons who sorted through 285 surveys and compiled all the info.
To be a gospel-centered church, we must understand the gospel, experience the gospel, and live the gospel. Last Sunday we sought to deepen our understanding of the gospel by contrasting the full biblical gospel (saved and sent, by God and for His glory – 1 Peter 2:9) with two common reductions of the gospel (being saved and being sent). Each of these reduces the gospel to something less than it is; each is true, yet incomplete.
The table below might help illuminate the differences more fully.
SAVED
SENT
SAVED AND SENT
Nature of Sin
Internal/Personal
External/Social
Idolatry (Personal AND Cultural)
Salvation
Saved from Guilt
Saved from Selfishness
Saved from Self-Worship, to live for God’s glory
Jesus
Gets me to heaven
Shows me how to live
Is the source of my life and the object of my worship
The Coram Deo Women’s Retreat is less than 3 weeks away (May 8-9). Mary Beth McGreevy will be our speaker for the weekend. She is currently a professor at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis and is a frequent speaker for women’s retreats and conferences. She is a godly woman who loves Jesus and is gifted at speaking to the heart of a woman as an image bearer of God. The weekend promises to be a great time of teaching from the Scriptures and also connecting with the other women of Coram Deo. The Retreat is for every woman in Coram Deo as well as their friends and relatives, but we do have a limited number of spots available. Go to the conference website for all details and to get registered.
We like to speak of Coram Deo as a gospel-centered missional church. We like to speak of Acts 29 as a gospel-centered church planting movement. But what do we mean when we say “gospel-centered?”
We must know the gospel (gospel message). Most Christians overestimate their own understanding of the gospel message. The gospel is something “into which angels long to look” (1 Peter 1:12). And angels are smarter than you. Which means: if you think you “get” the gospel, you probably don’t. We must devote ourselves to an ever-deepening knowledge and appreciation of the gospel of Jesus.
We must experience the gospel (gospel motivation). The gospel is not just a message to be believed, but a power to be experienced. Until the gospel transforms our motivations, we will obey God primarily out of things like fear, pride, duty, or guilt. Those motivations simply aren’t strong enough to sustain lifelong, radical obedience. Only when we begin to live out of our new identity in Christ will we find ourselves loving God deeply and obeying him freely.
We must live the gospel (gospel means). Popular Christianity has adopted a very truncated view of what it means to “share the gospel” (think evangelistic tracts, outreach events, and Christian radio). But the numbers don’t lie: these methods aren’t working. Why? Because they’re only part of the equation. The gospel demands that we ask: how do we declare and demonstrate the reality of the gospel in everything we do? How can the gospel inform and transform our daily rhythms so that the very stuff of “normal life” becomes a tangible expression of the gospel? What if our neighbors not only heard the gospel from our mouths, but saw it reflected in how we eat and celebrate and listen and rest and express generosity and participate in community?
These are the things we’ll consider together over the next few months. We refer to it as shaping “gospel DNA.” Our goal is to work the dynamics of the gospel so deeply into our souls and into our church culture that it gets expressed and replicated in everything we do.
For those of you who have been around Coram Deo for awhile: how would you describe the difference between merely knowing/believing the gospel and really being shaped by the gospel (having gospel DNA)?
I first met Jeff Vanderstelt a couple of years ago at an Acts 29 gathering. As we were talking, he began speaking of the “missional communities” that formed the core of Soma (his church). After repenting of my self-righteousness in thinking I had invented that term, I realized that God had birthed in both of us a very similar vision for the church. Jeff and his fellow elders at Soma have been really helpful advisors as we’ve wrestled with how to shape a church full of gospel missionaries who engage the culture around them, naturally and organically, for the glory and fame of Jesus.
This week we begin a season at Coram Deo where we’re seeking to clearly articulate our DNA as a church. In preparation for this series, I want to invite you to watch this interview with Jeff. It will help you understand why we talk the way we do, why we’re structured the way we are, and how we’re thinking about the mission God has given us. Coram Deo isn’t exactly like Soma… but we’re so similar that this interview will be real helpful.
Angels who descend in earthquakes, speak and roll back stones; tombs that are empty; apparitions that appear and disappear; rich men who make graves available; thieves who comment from their crosses of pain – these are legends all… If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. - John Shelby Spong
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. – the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 15
In August of 2005 my dad left for work one morning and never came home.
Two days later a local farmer found his car, with him inside, in an alfalfa field outside of the town in which we lived. My dad had succumbed to painful addictions he struggled with for years, and unbeknownst to me, had lived a very hopeless and desperate existence for quite some time. In the final minutes of his life he was surrounded by no familiar faces or comforts; only the empty passenger’s seat next to him, the unknown field he had driven to and the noise of guilt and shame too loud to bear any longer.
My dad didn’t know the Lord, as far as I could tell. I was one of the few Christians he knew. I was also probably one of the most angry, combative, resentful persons he knew. In my college years, my relationship with my dad became somewhat volatile. I disagreed with and was hurt by many things he did and/or said. Out of that, I harbored a lot of ill will towards him and frequently made it known. I even uttered words like ‘I hate him’, ‘I don’t care what happens to him’, and encouraged my mom to divorce him numerous times.
We didn’t get along. And I didn’t care. We often argued and purposely hurt each other – both very passive/aggressively. I ignored him in hopes that I’d make him feel small. If I were to ever make eye contact with him, the only thing he saw was disdain, disappointment, and disrespect; not love, not forgiveness, not compassion, and definitely not grace. I was mean. I was nasty. I was hurt and I wanted him to hurt just as bad.
In May of 2005 I started hanging out with the community that would soon become Coram Deo. I met friends who taught me some novel (to me) ideas about what it meant to love Jesus and believe the Gospel. Consequently, I began to see my dad through the eyes of my heavenly father. I started to initiate conversations with him, inquiring about his work, what he did that day, if he read this or that in the paper, and told him about my life, as well. His birthday was that June and I bought him a book that I knew he’d really like. This was a huge step in faith for me, as my parents would usually buy gifts for each other and say they were from us kids. I made a bold move (for me) in love and faith only by God’s grace. We finally began to understand one another and grow in love. I truly treasured those three very short final months of my dad’s life.
The night before my dad left us, he had his television turned up a little too loud at the back of the house. Initially, I was irritated by the noise, but walking down the hall towards his room I prayed for a softened spirit.
“Dad? Would you turn down the TV just a hair,” I said softly, poking my head in the doorway.
“Yeah, you bet,” he replied half asleep, climbing out of bed to turn it down and then crawling right back into bed.
“Thanks. Good night, Dad,” I whispered as I began to pull his door shut, “I love you.”
“Love you, too,” he replied as he closed his eyes.
I walked back down the hallway and laid down on the living room couch, where I eventually fell asleep, realizing the exchange we just had was not a natural or common one in our relationship.
That was the last time I saw and spoke to my dad. The memory will be forever etched in my brain. How gracious of God to have softened my heart so that I could share that final moment with my dad in such a way. And as tender as that moment was, looking back I still can’t help but feel so terribly sad to have spent so much time being so angry with him for so long before that. There isn’t a moment that passes that I don’t think of him and feel, as I’ve heard someone once describe it, “a wince of pain in my soul.” I wish I would have loved him well even if it was difficult at times, respected him and the fact that he was my father, responded to hurts with forgiveness, said words like ‘I love you’, ‘thanks Dad’, ‘I appreciate you’, and taken more initiative to know him before it was too late.
Papers, following the week of my dad’s death, reported that he died of ‘a self-inflicted gunshot wound’. I think he died of what the author of Proverbs 13 writes: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” I’m saddened that as a believer I had not been a beacon of light and hope for my dad, but instead with insults and unloving actions fed into many of the lies he had already believed.
This Lent season I grieve the depth of the hideousness of my sin towards my dad.
This past week we were privileged to have Kevin, Katie, and Quinn Cawley in town for a day to hang out with the Coram Deo staff and build synergy for church planting. 
