Anonymity Is The Key to Growth

Most churches think that the key to church growth is growing friendlier. So, in an attempt to be "super friendly", churches bend over backwards to make their places of worship more interconnected, more intermingled, more "shiny happy people holding hands (to quote the rock band REM)." To this end, churches will build beautifully constructed name tag boards, they will post extra friendly greeters on the street outside the church, they will ask new visitors to stand and introduce themselves, they will offer first time visitors a flower to wear (as if to draw a circular target around the person's heart, for all established members to aim at and to shoot). I have even been to church growth seminars that actually taught people how to be friendlier to one another on Sunday mornings - make sure to smile like this....and not this.

Unfortunately, friendliness (in a clingy, "insiderish", enmeshed kind of way) is actually the opposite feeling that a church wants to engender for outsiders, if growth is the goal.

The key to church growth is actually - Anonymity!

Think about it this way. If you were slightly interested in buying a new car (I don't mean fully interested - as in you have to buy a car this weekend because your Ford Focus just died), what would be your course of action? Would you personally go visit a car dealership and say, "Hi, I'm Joe, I'd love to buy a new car." No way!. You would drive by the car lot 16, maybe 20 times first. You would scan the lot from the safety of your own car, before you stopped to ask for more assistance. You would want the necessary distance to be able to process the decision to buy a new car. You would want to be able to compare the styles, colors, interior designs, price tags in your own way, on your own time, through your own anonymity!

When we first started Highlands Church, way back in the movie theater days, our biggest asset was the darkened room in which we met. Every week when we would begin worship at 8:30, 9:00 or 11:00, there would inevitably be a whole section of chairs (in the darkened section) that would be vacant and empty. You could hardly see these seats or anything around them, they were so dark. Then, sometime before the first and second song, the silhouette of a single individual could be seen, sitting in the darkened section of the movie theater. Before the end of the service, the silhouette was gone, removed from the space as if never to have occupied it at all.

In those early years, more people came to Christ and were baptized in that movie theater than at any time in my entire ministry. I can never be certain, but I could swear there was one man who simply came to sit and cry, in that darkened space. One of the main factors in our ability to grow was the extent to which we allowed people to remain anonymous, for as long as they felt comfortable remaining anonymous.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is of Jesus' arrest at the garden of Gethsemane. The book of Mark describes the scene of Jesus' arrest in the same ways the other two gospels do. However, in Mark's version there is an extra figure. He is unknown. He isn't given a name. He is anonymous; "A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind." Unfortunately, we will never know for sure who this young man was exactly. Some have said that he was the "rich man" described in the incident of the rich man who came to Jesus to ask what he must do to inherit eternal life. No one will ever know. He seems similar to many of the silhouetted figures that I have encountered. Maybe all he wanted was to remain anonymous for a little while...

All for Now,

GB

Did Jesus know Jujitsu?

I am working on a Doctor of Ministry degree at Fuller Theological seminary - and just finished an absolutely incredible class by Dr. David Augsburger. In one of the 30 books we had to read, "Getting to Yes:Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In" I read about the ancient East Asian martial arts practice of jujitsu.

Jujitsu - in case you aren't familiar with this form of martial arts - relies on the energy, the blows and the "aggressive moves" of the other person to work against the person who is implementing them. For example, if you were getting into a verbal jujitsu match with someone else:

* When they asserted a position, you would not reject it.

* When they attack your ideas, you don't defend them.

* When they attack you, you don't counterattack.

* Instead of pushing back, you sidestep their attack and deflect it against the problem.

* You break the vicious cycle of violence, by refusing to react.

So, this got me to thinking, did Jesus know jujitsu? Obviously, this is a silly question, on it's face, since nobody in the Jewish culture of Jesus' day really had any concept of East Asian martial arts, or even the existence of the East Orient.

However, many of Jesus' responses to His critics remind me of jujitsu moves:

* When Jesus is asked whether it is lawful to pay taxes, he side steps the question, and uses the question on his opponents. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's." In other words, pay Caesar's tax, and remember that you are actually giving it to God, since God owns all things. Hyaa!

* Jesus tells us, "if someone strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic." This phrase has often been interpreted as an instruction to be passive in the face of aggressiveness. Perhaps, Jesus means that we should not be passive, but rather, be aggressive in a more intelligent way - through spiritual jujitsu.

As David Augsburger said on more than one occasion; "Sometimes the role of a spiritual leader is to figure out how to outwit sinners."

Wash on, Wash off

Hyaaa!!

All For Now,

GB

"Match Lighters" and "Fire Stokers"

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book, entitled; "One Hundred Years of Ministry," to be published by Greenleaf Press in the Fall of 2011. I thought, viewed as a cameo, that it might be of interest as an exclusive preview to my blogreaders. Thank you for your continued prayers for me as I endeavor this writing project...

“With many other words he warned them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’ Those who accepted his message were baptized, about three thousand were added to their number that day.” (Acts 2:41)

Jesus’ disciple Peter was a person who loved to initiate new things. He was a natural born leader - a person who helped bring about a major change in the way the church related to the world, indeed, the way the church was manifest in the world. Peter was an emotional person, quick tempered, and quick witted. Peter loved the large groups that gathered to see Jesus. He loved the miracles, the healings, the attention that the Roman government gave Jesus. Though Peter was at once repulsed by the last moments of Jesus’ life, he at the same time was strangely attracted to them. Peter did not slink into the desert after Jesus’ arrest, but hovered around the temple courtyard fires, like a groupie at a rock star’s concert. Peter was a “match lighter.”

Thomas, on the other hand, was not a “match lighter.” Thomas was a cautious person. Historians aren’t certain, but Thomas could have been an assistant to Judas as a member of the finance team on the board of the “twelve disciples.” Thomas made sure there was enough money to keep Jesus’ ministry going. Thomas probably helped to arrange accommodations for the disciples when they traveled. It was possibly Thomas who, among a handful of other disciples, warned Jesus that he should probably bring his talk to a close, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” (Matt. 14:15). Thomas never liked to make decisions unless he had weighed all of the evidence first, and debated all of his options. Thomas’ nickname was the twin – a designation which might have pointed to his tendency to not want to take a position, as much as it might have suggested that he “was a twin.” Thomas wasn’t swayed, necessarily, by big crowds, important people, mass hysteria or group demonstrations of Spiritual outpouring. Thomas, was a “fire stoker.”

My ten years of experience in being a pastor, and the experiences of all three generations of pastors before me, has taught me that every healthy church needs an equal balance of “match lighters” and “fire stokers.” The two designations speak for themselves. Match lighters are people who light the match. They get the fire started, where before, there was no fire burning. They are self-starters. They are usually extremely charming, sometimes even seductive (even to their own detriment). They are more emotional, and more grandiose in their church perspective. They like larger crowds and enjoy the attention that ministry sometimes affords. Match lighters like new projects. They lay awake at night thinking up intricate schemes for the organization of a special worship service or a ministry event that will make people all say, “Wow, that was amazing.”

“Fire stokers” are, of course, the opposite. Fire stokers are the ones who make sure there is enough wood throughout the night, to keep the proverbial “home fires burning.” If you have ever had the job of keeping a fire burning all night long, it is no small effort. It requires diligence, perseverance, planning, and most of all constant care. In general, fire stokers don’t like new ideas, new plans, new projects. Big ideas sometimes scare them. However, they are the ones who keep institutions afloat. They are the ones who figure out how to pay the bills, keep the lights on, manage the calendars, avoid getting in trouble with the law, and just keep a general sense of presence and perspective about life. Fire stokers keep the home fires burning.

Most mainline denominational churches (I am speaking out of a primary understanding of Presbyterianism), suffer from an over abundance of “fire stokers.” For years, they have kept the fires in their churches burning, mostly through austerity efforts to cut budgets, streamline programs, scale down staff, and modify ministry approaches. Because of them, the church still exists. Ironically, also because of them, the church might not survive long term. Too many years of fire stoking simply leads to a depletion of wood and natural resources. Fire stokers are good at working with the commodities that exist, rather than creating new ways to create heat. Interestingly, most Finance committees and Building Committees are comprised of fire stokers. The very nature of their job is to figure out ways to keep the church’s resources from drying up too soon.

When Highlands Church first started, we actually had an overabundance of match lighters, rather than fire stokers. Where most churches don’t have enough match lighters, we were on the verge of having too many. Our church was all propane and no fire retardant. It was all outreach and action and outward expansion, and no inward stability, self reflection or discipleship growth. About the second year of Highlands Church’s existence, I knew we were in trouble. If we didn’t get rid of a few of the “match lighters” on the staff quick, and replace them with some “fire stokers” we were in trouble. Too many “match lighters” and a church goes up in smoke.

One last point on this. It is a fascinating fact, and sometimes a frustrating one, that fire stokers and match lighters, generally don’t like one another. Fire stokers see match lighters as being too spontaneous, too frivolous, too out of the box. Match lighters see fire stokers as being too conservative, too safe, too cautious. The job of a healthy head of staff, pastor, or church leader is to make sure that the balance between the two types of leaders is never out of kilter or out whack. Match lighters will always have something bad to say about fire stokers, and vice versa. The key for a good leader is to see that both are essential to the health and progress of an organization, and to understand whether a church, at a particular juncture, needs to light a match or simply stoke the fire.

Jesus had both match lighters and fire stokers on his leadership team – he had Peter and Thomas. We should too!

Originality is Overrated

One of the great contradictions of my life, if I can be so bold and self-revealing in a first sentence of a blogpost, is that I want so badly to be unique, but in reality, my life is not all that different from anyone else's. I desire to be special, when in fact, I am special in some ways, but in many other ways, I am pretty ordinary. Most of all, the burning desire of my heart has always been to be original, but in truth, my life is so much like the lives of so many people who have come before me. I am unoriginal!

Recently, I was having lunch with a nice man who had come up to visit Highlands Church and to study all of the ways that Highlands Church is innovative. He wanted to know what our church was doing that was, "cutting edge ministry," "carving out a new path for faith," "charting a new course for Christ followers." I was honored by the fact that he wanted to visit our city and church to learn about who we were and what we were doing. I always am. But then I noticed a change in his demeanor. I noticed it, about three-quarters of the way through lunch (the moment when big realizations always occur in a lunch - though that is the subject of a different blog post). I noticed his disappointment. It cascaded like spring water, crashing down a Yosemite canyon.

"So, you do Maundy Thursday services?" "Yeah," I said. "And you do Christmas worship with traditional carols and a traditional text?" "Yep," I acknowledged. "And you start your Easter Services with the phrase, 'He is Risen?' "That's right, I said. I could see this man's hopes and expectations deflate like a hot air balloon cresting over the Himalayas. I could see his unease with our traditionalistic church liturgies and customs. We were - sin of all sins - unoriginal!

Then I gave him the Full Lewinsky (a phrase I am lifting for the use of this blog post, originally used in the wake of the Bill Clinton, Lewinsky scandal, where a person actually did all seven Sunday morning television talk shows, for the first time in history, in one single sitting). "I am a fourth generation Presbyterian Minister," I told him. He actually then said, "You're kidding right?" What he instantly saw was that not only was I not as original as he had hoped, but that I might even be the walking poster child for unoriginality.

Here's the truth. I have tried, with every crevice of my body and soul, to be original my entire life. I have tried to be outside the box. I have wanted to be a "new thing that springs up" (as the book of Isaiah so eloquently puts it). But I must admit that I am not. In some ways, what happened for me, is that my quest for originality began to become a form of idolatry in and of itself.

It was only after I realized, somewhere in my 25th year, that originality is overrated, that I began to become, really, who God wanted me to be. What I have come to learn is that my main originality as a person comes from the original love which God gives me every day. I love how the apostle Paul described himself to the church in Corinth, "I Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God...." (1 Cor. 1:1). What Paul was acknowledging in this first sentence was that he was just like all of the other disciples. No better, no worse. He was unoriginal in Christ.

That's what I strive to be!

All for Now,

GB

Three Lessons from the Business World

Sometimes I think that we in the church feel we have all of the answers, all of the time, for all of the world's problems. While I, of course, believe that the church should have some of the key answers, to some of life's issues, I don't think we have lock on the market (so to speak). While I believe that the ultimate questions (about life and death, and eternal life and death) are all answered by the Bible, I also believe that we can also learn a lot from the "outside world." Here are three things I learned about church growth this week, while talking to people in local businesses around Paso Robles.

* Gas prices effect business (Big Time!). A local business own told me that they always know when business is going to be bad, based on the evening news. When the evening news does a report on the cost of gas going up, their business vastly decreases. When church leaders plan large church functions (like VBS, or Easter, or a Family BBQ), how often do we turn to one another and ask, "What are the gas prices right now? How is Libya doing? What is the condition of OPEC?"

* When people leave your business to go to a competitor, the purchaser always feels worse. This little tid-bit was actually offered to me by a local dentist. He told me that when people leave his practice, and go to another dentist in town, it is always the patient that feels worse than the doctor. People will actually avoid my dentist friend on the street, rather than have to say, "hi!". My friend told me that his tactic is always to "normalize" the exit, and allow the person who left his business to feel better about the experience.

* When a person leaves a business, they will always come back, and then, you charge them double. This nugget of wisdom was offered to me by my hair stylist. I asked her, "Do you ever feel bad if someone leaves to get their hair done in another salon?" Her answer was distinct and unforgettable. "No," she said, "I don't feel bad. I don't feel bad because I always know they will come back, and when they do, I charge them double." What if we charged people who left church double, after they got back? Maybe not....

All for now,

GB

Don't Tip Toe Around The Cross

It's Friday evening and I just returned from my two week DMin. (Doctor of Ministry) class at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. When I say that I just returned, I mean...just returned - my car is engine is still hot and the frame is ticking - the characteristic sound of a car cooling down. I love that sound...but that's a different blog post...

I wanted to write down an idea that I heard this weekend from Dr. Paul Pierson (former chair of World Missions at Fuller Seminary, former pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Fresno, and 17 year missionary in Brazil), and who I am lucky enough to call a friend and mentor. The idea has been one which I have been mulling, contemplating, sorting-through, pulling-apart, synthesizing and thinking about for the past three hours.

Don't Tip Toe Around the Cross.

So, Paul Pierson and I have been talking for the past hour or so, and I am at his front door, in Monte Vista Grove, where he lives. I notice a book on the way out called, "The Atonement" by Tom Torrence. "Light reading?" I ask Paul. "Yeah, I try to read some serious stuff every now and then, to keep my mind fresh." Then he says, "I'll tell you a story about Tom Torrence. I (meaning Paul) and Tom Gilespie were at Tom's bedside as he was about to die. We had said our goodbyes, then, we were slowly walking out. All of a sudden, Tom, quickens from his bed, and says, 'One last thing fellas...don't ever tiptoe around the cross.' Then," said Paul, "Tom died. Those were literally Tom Torrence's last words...Don't Tip Toe Around the Cross." As I waved Paul goodbye at Monte Vista, he yelled out to me, "Remember, Don't Tiptoe Around the Cross...you can preach that!!!"

And so I will...but what does it mean?

I just returned from my trip to Pasadena, as I mentioned, and Star and Haley were both asleep. I didn't want to wake either of them up, as I know how hard it was to get Haley down for her nap, earlier this afternoon. I quietly opened the front door, and I quietly moved through the house, and I furtively came into my office here where I am writing this blog post. I TIP TOED. Why? Because I didn't want anyone to notice. I didn't want to bother anyone. I didn't want to wake them up, or cause them alarm, or do anything that made them notice that I was here. I want them to sleep.

"Don't Tip Toe Around the Cross" - must mean the same thing. It must mean living the Christ following way by:

* Not worrying who notices

* Not being upset about bothering people about it

* Not caring whether we 'wake people up'

* Not worrying if we cause people alarm

* Not just letting them sleep.

I had better go and unpack my car...very quietly:-)

All for Now,

GB

Pink Snow

Here's just an FYI: A big part of the reason that I write a blog post is so that I can remember some of the thoughts that I have throughout the week. It's highly selfish in that respect. I have always found that when I get an idea, or I see something beautiful, or I have an incredible conversation, or I witness a remarkable act of kindness, that if I quickly write that experience down, I can imprint it on my brain in a deeper way than if I simply try to remember the episode. An even better way to imprint a thought on my mind and soul is to write an experience down, and then read it aloud, so that it re-enters my consciousness through my ears. The imprinting goes deeper and deeper, the more that repeat this process. I had a New Testament professor as an undergraduate at Macalester College in St. Paul Minnesota (Dr. Calvin Reotzel) that once gave me the great advice that, "You don't know what you think until you write about it."

So, here's the thing that I want to try to imprint on my brain - today - and that I want to try to think deeply about, and not ever forget...

As I was driving home today from Pasadena, Fuller Theological Seminary, and my Doctoral class seminar on Conflict Management, I noticed something very strange, on each side of the car, outside my driver's seat window...

Pink Snow!

Flanking each side of my car, as I bulleted up I-5, were almond trees (AMAND Trees if you are from Fresno or the Central Valley - they are aLmonds until you knock the "L" out of them...). These almond trees were in full bloom last week as I was making my way down to Fuller. The limbs of the almond trees were verdant, and heavy, with beautiful, frollicky, pink blossoms. They vaguely reminded me of the cherry blossoms that I witnessed in Washington, D.C., as a youth, that shrouded the Jefferson memorial. The pinkness was reminiscent of a well made cherries jubilee, a flock of flamingos, a fushia colored cadillac on Rodeo drive. But this pinkness was on the ground, not on the trees.

After a week of storms and wind, the almond blossoms had all been blown off of the trees, and were covering the ground in a deep, blanketing, frothy, fluffy, feathery, kind of way. I really did have to turn twice on each side to figure out what the pink coloring on the ground was. After peering for some time at this natural phenomenon, I determined, at long last that it was, in fact;

Pink Snow!

Then I quickly reflected on this verse from Paul in the book of Romans; "Ever since the creation of the world, the invisible existence of God and his everlasting power have been clearly seen by the mind's understanding of created things." (Romans 1:20).

That's all,

God created Pink Snow!! I want to remember it. Now hopefully you will too!

All for now,

GB