Discovery Church

Missional?

I have been reading “Comeback Churches” by Ed Stetzer.  In one chapter of his book, Ed gives 6 criteria that should exist in all biblical churches.  They are: scriptural authority, biblical leadership, preaching and teaching, ordinances (baptism/communion), covenant community, and mission.

I have been motivated by the last criteria: Biblical churches should be missional.  The question we must ask is whether our church is biblically faithful, acting as the presence of God in the community at large, able to relate God to people in culture, and is on mission. 

In short, is our church “missional”? 

Stetzer says that in its simplest form, the term “missional” is the noun “missionary” modified as an adjective.  Missional churches do what missionaries do, regardless of the context.  Context does not change the baseline activities of a missionary, or a missional person.  A “missional church” functions as a missionary in its community.  It eats, breathes, and lives within its culture, while sowing seeds of love, kindness, grace, redemption, and Good News. 

One distinction of a missional church is that it gives focus to meeting needs inside and outside the church.  It takes care of its own, but it also reaches out for the sake of the gospel.

Do you want to know if we're missional?  Ask: If our church closed its doors today, would anyone but its own members notice?

Characteristics of a Missional Church.  Not all churches look alike.  Stetzer’s study showed they came in all different shapes and sizes.  But there are some common characteristics of missional churches:

• Incarnational.  Missional churches are deeply entrenched in their communities.  They are not focused on their facilities, but on offering biblical community to a lost world. 
• Indigenous.  Missional churches take root in the soil of their society and reflecting, appropriately, their culture.  Being indigenous is harder than it sounds, because almost all declining churches already have a culture.  In most cases, the existing church culture is from a former era that is only meaningful to those in the church, not those in the community. 
• Intentional.  The cultural distance between our churches and communities continues to widen, making it harder to communicate the gospel.  Being missional means moving intentionally  beyond our church preferences, making missional decisions rather than preferential decisions.  The most effective churches will be those that intentionally think like missionaries in their context.  Simply stated, missional churches are biblically faithful and culturally relevant.
• Spiritual.  Spiritual experiences redirect and reenergize the lives of missional churches.

I have been enthused with the work that Ann Boyle and the Missions (Missional) Team is doing.  Local missional opportunities include the work we do at The Gloucester Manor Nursing Home, Literacy Tutor training classes and serving at Cathedral Kitchen in Camden.  New opportunities include helping at the Masonic Home of NJ (Voorhees Campus) and serving at Cedar Lane Missionary Homes in Blackwood.  Week long mission trips include this summer’s trip with NAMB to Appalachia, West Virginia and the upcoming trip to Romania.

I encourage you to get involved and make a difference this year – be missional!

Being God...

In Colossians 2:2, Paul says this,  "My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in LOVE, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ."  What he was saying is that we must share Christ and we must serve as Christ.  We need to take our mission into the world we live in.  This is the characteristic

I think Discovery Church can 

improve on in our day to day ministry in this new year.  This cute illustration brings home that truth:

There once was a little boy who wanted to meet God.  He knew it was long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six-pack of root beer and he started his journey. 

When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons.  The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase.  He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered a Twinkie.  She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him.  Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered a root beer.  Once again she smiled at him.  The boy was delighted!

They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.  As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and as he got up to leave he gave the old woman a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever.

When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face.  She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?”  He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!” 

Meanwhile, the old woman, radiant with joy, returned to her home.  Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?" She replied, "I ate Twinkies in the park with God." But before her son responded, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected.”

 

People need to see God in us.  We must do more than just talk about God. 

Discovery

Church

does a good job of presenting God on Sundays.  Our worship is excellent and God exalting.  We do well with ushering in God's empowering presence and the stewardship & generosity of our people is humbling.  Our LIFEgroups promote personal disciplines, community, commitment to loving/caring relationships and servant-leadership development.  Our leadership has wise administration & accountability and we network on a local, regional and national level.  But where we are deficient is in our presence in the community.  This is the characteristic we will focus on this year.

A Soldier

The following creed comes from Tom Miller, a chaplain in the US Army.  It is easy to apply to our lives as soldiers in a spiritual army.  Replace "American" or "United States" with Christian or Christ Follower and you'll see what I mean.  I especially was convicted about never leaving a fallen comrade...

Soldier’s Creed

I am an American Soldier.

I am a Warrior and member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I am disciplined,. physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.  I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.

I am an expert and I am a professional.

I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.

I am guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

I am an American Soldier.

The following creed comes from Tom Miller, a chaplain in the US Army.  It is easy to apply to our lives as soldiers in a spiritual army.  Replace "American" or "United States" with Christian or Christ Follower and you'll see what I mean.  I especially was convicted about never leaving a fallen comrade...

Soldier’s Creed

I am an American Soldier.

I am a Warrior and member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I am disciplined,. physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.  I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.

I am an expert and I am a professional.

I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.

I am guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

I am an American Soldier.

OLD PEOPLE HAVE COOTIES

There were four kids in my family.  Two boys and two girls all fighting for the same ice cream cone, the same space in the back of the station wagon and the best seat at the kitchen table – the one with the view of the television.  When we weren’t fighting, we got along and in those brief, peaceful times we would play a game called “Cooties.”  If you were chased down and touched, you had cooties (whatever they were!).  Cooties became a part of our vocabulary and I remember somewhere between eight and twelve years old our extended scientific research drove the Smith kids to conclude that old people had cooties – permanent cooties.  Old people made noises when they moved, sat down or got up.  Old people smelled funny.  Old people always wanted to kiss you (ugh!) and old people always dressed funny.  Generally speaking, they had cooties!

Funny thing is, the perception in many of our churches today isn’t much different.  We target, market or outreach (depending on your preference) to a generation that has about $1,200.00 in their retirement fund and thirty years to go before they can use it.  Our music is loud, our lights are bright and our service orders literally vibrate with the energy and creativity of the young generation.  And that is good...

...BUT...

We are missing out on something when we ignore the older generation.

I’m just going to go ahead and say it!  I like old people!  When it comes to church, I don’t like their music, I don’t like their formality, and I don’t like some of their traditions but I like the people.  More importantly, I like to learn from them and hear their stories.  Admittedly, we don’t have a ton of old people at Discovery (see the previous section about loud music and bright lights), but talking to those who are there fascinates me.  We have a World War II B-29 pilot, an all-state football player who played with no face mask on his helmet, we have women who cried when they first voted or got jobs, and a couple who went through the Depression and spent Saturday nights listening to the radio for entertainment.

We also have some amazing spiritual history sitting in the seats and in our small groups.  We have missionaries, teachers, preachers and former leaders from several denominations (deacons, trustees, elders, and such).  I’ll bet the few older folk you have in your pews, seats or bean bag chairs have a storied past too.  A past that’s just waiting to help you build a church.

I think we hurt ourselves when we exclude the oldsters.  They have wisdom, they have time, they have energy (for short periods of time!) and for all you pastors, they usually are good stewards!  I’m not advocating that you haphazardly appoint five or six AARP members to your Executive Leadership Team.  Actually, I’d warn you not to do such a thing with any age group.  But I am saying that we need to find ways to marry the wisdom and years of spiritual growth of the old with the energy and adventuresome spirit of the new.  How that’s done is your job to figure out – you’re the leader...lead!

When teaching at the NEXTinitiative.net church planting seminars I often defend our style of doing church by saying, “The methods are different but the message is the same.”  You’ve probably repeated the same mantra.  Well, let’s turn it around and expand it some.  The methods of the older generation won’t reach a thirty-seven year old couple with an eight year old BUT the message is the same and they have years of maturity and wisdom.  Let’s find creative ways to tap into that knowledge.

In Acts

2:16

we find a spine tingling promise, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”  Let’s find creative ways to harness the dreams of the old men (and women) and use them to motivate the visions of the young!  When we do so I think we’ll find that cooties aren’t so bad after all.

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Single adults - this generation's "widows"

The most outstanding thing about this week was my realization that single parents are my heroes.  In the church world we are so oriented to marriage and parenting as couples that we sometimes overlook the double or triple duty that single parents do.  I spoke with several single parents this week - in varying stages of "singleness" - and I am amazed at their struggles and their stubbornness to raise their kids right.  Singles and single parents are this generation's "widows" that Jesus cared so much about.  We will answer to Him if we do not seek to are for them.

Negative people

I read something interesting on another pastor's blog this morning.  As you know, Notre Dame has a long tradition of winning football.  A tradition that has sometimes suffered recently.  Look at what the coach Charlie Weis has to say in an article on ESPN.com.

"If you sit there and try to be a vengeful person and be worried about every negative thing that people said, that really doesn't get you anywhere. You don't do something about it by going to a public forum and going tit for tat with somebody. What you have to do is go win more football games. Really, it's the only way of answering it."

The amazing thing is that in football or in church or in life you will always face negative talk.  (Wow!  what a surprize!!!)  Tony Morgan says in his blog, "In fact, I'd go so far as to say the bigger, better or more successful the organization, the more people will criticize it (think Microsoft, Wal-Mart, New York Yankees, Willow Creek, etc.)."

Most importantly, I think when the negative talk stops that you should be worried.  At that point, you're probably not doing anything worthy of a critic's time and attention.  You've probably entered into mediocrity.  Thanks Coach Weis!  You gave us a good reminder that it's better to focus on the next victory than the negative people in our lives.

Sunday Night Review

Sunday Night Review

What a weekend!  Here are a few thoughts before I collapse.

·         I love what I do!  Where else could you invest in people and build new things (campuses) and see miracles happen all the time.

·         Woolwich had its first full-blown Preview Service.  I was amazed at how first time visitors showed up.  Our next Preview Service is Dec. 23^rd – we’ll be presenting a special Christmas service.

·         Jim D’Amico is working on getting iChurchLIVE online.  We get requests each week for our services to be available on the internet.   I FIRMLY believe the most effective ways of reaching people haven’t even been discovered yet! 

·         I was thinking about some of our future sermon series. – Baggage, Urban Legends, and How To Be Stupendously  Outrageously, Extravagantly, Wonderfully and Tremendously Blessed."  There are some awesome series coming.  In fact – I would go as far to say the best sermons, best music and best churches that ever will be are yet to come…maybe because the people God is going to use to bring them about haven’t even received Christ yet!  Speaking of that…

·         God is leading me to pray some REALLY BIG PRAYERS regarding the year 2008 for our church–I will be sharing a review of this past year as well as the vision of what God has in store on December 30th…I am pumped about this service RIGHT NOW!!!

·         We are going to be putting some of the songs off our worship CD and some one minute “talks” by our pastors onto a CD we’ll be mailing out to visitors. 

·         The “DREAMING” concert on Dec 1^st should be on your “must attend” list.  This fundraising concert will celebrate where Discovery has been and where it’s going.  Feel free to ask a friend!

·         The ladies of Cherry Hill Baptist have invited our ladies to a Christmas Tea, Dec 1^st.  It would be awesome if you ladies would support this.  Check your e-mail for more info.

·         Speaking of Christmas, the Christmas services at DISCOVERY are going to be off the hook.  We will be talking more about our Christmas services next Sunday – BUT I can tell you that Sunday, Dec 16^th (Voorhees and Township) and December 23^rd (Woolwich) and then our combined Christmas Eve service at our new Cherry Hill campus will be amazing.  Everyone will be talking.

·         I got the coolest CD – the Waffle House Jukebox Favorites CD featuring such hits as “Waffle House Family,” “844,739 Ways To Eat a Hamburger,”Waffle Do Wop,” and my personal favorite, “There Are Raisins in My Toast.”  In case you didn’t know, each Wafflehouse has a jukebox and there are about 15-20 songs that have Wafflehouse themes in each one.  Next time you go to my favorite place – Waffle House – tell ‘em Randy sent you and play a few songs in my honor!

I love this church!!  Way to go Discovery

Reflections on Sunday

Wow!  What an awesome day.  Here are my observations...

• BYOB@Discovery was a great success.  Attendance jumped about 37%. 
• OurMarriageStinks.com is a great series.  And today’s message on “Pursuit” was one of the best we’ve ever done at Discovery.  The music, the media, the drama and the relevance of the message all fit together perfectly.  GOOD JOB TEAM – it was Discovery as it should be!!!
• Who would have ever thought that the catch phrase from today’s message would be “Remember point 4!”  History has had its slogans that begin with “Remember the...” but the new one at Discovery is “Remember point 4!”  Husbands will be repeating that phrase for years to come!  For those of you who missed the message – order the CD.  (here’s a hint – it has to do with being naked!)
• What better way to end the day than with a baptism.  A special thanks to Stagecoach Christian Fellowship for letting us use their baptism pool.
• Speaking of the baptism, the Creative Team came up with an awesome idea – tailgating!  And congrats to the “Primetimers” (the Medford Lifegroup) – the winners of the best tailgating award.  They embarrassed the rest of us with their buffet and family style seating set-up.  I was bitter about losing until I walked through their “line” and had some homemade soup, potato salad, and chocolate chip cake.
• I was thrilled to see 60 people signed up to attend the Christmas choir cantata at Cherry Hill Baptist (the future home of the Voorhees campus).  This kind of thing will help make the transition easier.  Thanks Big D!
• I ended the night with the hope of “Number 4” but fell asleep watching the Eagles!  Anyone know how we did????????

Reflections on Sunday

What a weekend!  Here’s a few thoughts…

• I had several encouraging conversations and e-mails today–THANK YOU!
• Good attendance at all campuses.
• I’m looking forward to BYOB@discovery next Sunday – have you invited that buddy (friend)?
• Several of you sent a nice card or gift for pastoral appreciation week – thanks!
• Is this whole thing with the

  Cherry Hill

  campus unbelievable, or what? 
• I love Discovery!  Next to my salvation, my wife and daughter and my family (dad, mom, brother, sisters) - there is NO GREATER JOY in my life than getting to pastor this church.  I love you guys and I am excited about all that God is doing here.
• OurMarriageStinks.com is teaching me as much as I trust it is you.  I practice the message you hear on Sunday throughout the week and each time I feel like I should raise my hand or fill out a Communication Card.
• Is it just me or has the music gotten really awesome in the services?  We’ve had to make some schedule adjustments because of the additional campus and the musicians and vocalists have done a great job.
• I am going through a phase where I keep waking up at

  4:15am

  or so.  That’s not such a big deal if you get to bed early but the schedule I’m keeping doesn’t allow that…if you could pray for me I would REALLY appreciate it.  I really do like sleep!
• I am hosting a BYOB block party at my house on Halloween…lots of hot dogs for everyone!  Cammie is doing the “give me candy or I’ll ride my bike on your lawn thing” and when she gets home daddy will eat ALL her candy for her, hey, that’s what a dad is supposed to do.
• Our staff creativity meeting this Wednesday should be fun…we will be talking about our next series (called Baggage) and our Christmas services, which I am REALLY looking forward to.
• Just saw a special on ESPN.  Is anyone going to beat the New England Patriots this year– have they been checked for steroids?

That’s it–gotta go to work…see ya Sunday!

The way we do church

As you know, we are in the last stages of the negotiations for Discovery to purchase the property that is currently home to another congregation.  This congregation is facing the difficult decision of disbanding and selling the property to us at a fraction of the value.

This is a hard choice and many of the older congregation have questions.  I thought I'd share one of those congregant's concerns and my reply.  Hopefully, it'll help you see why we do church the way we do...

"...I have some questions in light of the the above and in light of the books - John MacArthur (editor): Fool's Gold: Discerning Truth in an Age of Error, and The Truth War - Fighting for Certainty in the Age of Deception:

What seems lacking, according to MacArthur, in the Purpose Driven Church, is: "Christ's Lordship spelled out from the beginning of a gospel presentation (in light of Creation and his true Lordship), the concept of the need for true repentance in light of God's hatred of sin - again in light of his true Creation/Lordship, the Cross as the remedy for needed justice for the evil on this earth,
that Christ's shedding of blood, being a true satisfaction to God for His justice, paid in full for the debt we owe to him as our Creator and loving God (who also sent his Willing Son as "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world)."

In other words, how would Randy acknowledge the dilemma of shunning worldliness and shunning the conforming our thoughts to the very evil ways of the world, while at the same time seeking that 70% of necessary "cross-cultural knowledge" to be able to communicate well to our own culture - or any culture we wish to know well and deal with.  Paul graciously tried to do that - but he did it biblically ("to the Jew I became a Jew, to the Greeks, a Greek, etc.") There is apparently some real neglect, perhaps even leading to duplicity in the way Christ is possibly presented in some Purpose Driven Churches  - Does Randy see the need for combating these things mentioned here as valid criticisms/suggestions - and would he endeavor to tackle them?

I think these are very fair questions from someone who is not well acquainted with a purpose driven church and is only getting one side of the issue from a guy like MacArthur - who obviously is not that acquainted with Purpose Driven Churches either (smile). 

In any case, here is my answer,

"Thank you for your questions.  Most of what you asked has been answered in an article I posted on our website at http://www.discoverychurchnj.com/seeker.htm.  I encourage you to read the article - it will answer many of your questions.

Just in case you don't have the time to visit the site, there are a few main thoughts I'd like to convey. 

First, being what John MacArthur calls "seeker sensitive" does NOT mean compromising the message - it just means you communicate it in words that non-believers understand!  Jesus drew enormous crowds ("multitudes") without compromising the message. He was just clear, practical, and loving.

Second, being seeker-sensitive doesn't mean the preaching is shallow. I challenge the people of Discovery to invest in the lives of those far from Christ.  We need to have dinner with them, play golf, and spend our lunch hours with them.  When we do, and if we really listen to lost people, we'll discover that their felt needs are quite deep. They have the need for meaning; the need for purpose; the need for forgiveness; the need for love. They want to know how to make right decisions, how to protect their family, how to handle suffering, and how to have hope in our world. These are deep issues.  What's really interesting is that these deep issues are just as real for Christ-followers.  These are the issues we address.  By the way, we are moving a way from the "seeker sensitive or obsessed" term.  We like to say we are a family expecting guests.

I think the real issue here is one of selflessness and balance.  If we are to reach our worlds, the church must have spiritually mature members who are unselfish.   We'll never be able to start an evangelistic movement that grows into a discipleship lifestyle until we are willing to limit their own preferences and worship style in order to reach lost people for Christ.

We must also be balanced - that’s the message Acts 2 is really teaching.  In the early church worship, teaching, discipleship, spiritual gifts, evangelism and even stewardship were balanced against each other to produce a vibrant, growing ministry in Acts 2.  Balance should be our objective.

So how does balance apply to our discussion about "guest sensitive" churches?  For some reason, authors like John MacArthur neglect to get outside the Sunday morning service.  There is more than just "Sunday."  Simply put, there is more to a properly balanced church than just the Sunday service.  Besides hosting services on Sunday morning or on Saturday evening, the balanced "guest sensitive" church goes to great lengths to have times of extended worship, bible study, discipleship, small groups and growth seminars at other times during the week.  They just don’t do those things on Sunday morning!

A balanced guest sensitive church strives to maintain the equality of the purposes of the church that the Acts 2 church exhibited.  A balanced guest sensitive church wants to follow the balance that Jesus commanded when He left this planet, "Go into all the world and make disciples."  There's a balance there - one every church (regardless of their orientation) should work hard to keep.

A biblical church balances the different purposes of church - grace (outreach), growth (worship, prayer, bible study), groups (fellowship, discipleship, community), gifts (service) and good stewardship - against each other so that the ministry does not become known for it's accomplishment in one particular area ... but rather for it's commitment to all five!  As a result, the leadership of a guest sensitive church strives to keep a balance in maintaining the purposes of the church as a goal in every activity, event or decision.

Christ told us to reach and teach, go and grow!  If a guest sensitive church neglects to keep the balance and it forgets or neglects to disciple and train Christ followers, it will become shallow.  At the same time, if too much emphasis is placed on the believers, the church can become self-absorbed - uninviting or alien to the unchurched, even closed.  We must keep a biblical balance in ministry and if a biblical balance is kept - if irreligious people are being turned into devoted followers of Christ - the guest sensitive church can’t help but grow and change its world!

God's best!

randy