Many of my conversations with other church planters of late have centered around worship services/gatherings. I am usually the one raising the topic as I have been curious to learn from the experiences of others as we shape our strategy for Austin Mustard Seed.

One thing has been significant in these conversations. I’ve talked to several planters who think they started doing their public gatherings too soon, sometimes much too soon. It seems that the weight and the expectation that comes with a worship gathering overpowers the intimacy that existed prior to it. While I have talked to others who don’t feel that way, I have yet to talk to someone who thought that they waited too long before they launched public gatherings.

Some go so far as to not have worship services at all. I don’t fit in that camp, because I think there is something to be said for the collective coming together to celebrate the work of God in a community. I think is it important for all of us to recognize that we are a part of something bigger than we are — bigger than we are able to control or manage.

The question for me has been shifting in emphasis from when to what. In our efforts to do the best possible gathering, it can become a black hole. The gravity of what is required draws resources and energy, and attention is easily diverted from both relationship and mission. The church loses focus on itself as a community, and church becomes something we go to.

Knowing that this gravity exists, I have been wondering how it might be possible to put it to use. When spacecraft are to be propelled great distances, they often use the gravitational pull of the sun or a planet to gain momentum. As they whip around the large object like a sling shot, they are hurtled off in a new direction with greater speed. What might it look like to have worship services function as missional gatherings of this nature? What could it mean to use the large gathering not to draw in all of our resources, but to refocus and hurtle the body back out to be the sent people of God?

I’m sure that few would disagree with my thinking on this. So how does our language or our gatherings need to change? How do we need to restructure of our gatherings to create an outward momentum rather than an inward pull?

“You should really connect with Kester Smith.”

I’m not sure how many times I heard that phrase in the last few months as we have transitioned to Austin. Kester and I have a number of mutual friends (but maybe that is because Kester has about 340973 friends on Facebook). I can think of at least six people who had told me to connect with him.

Last week, after a few failed attempts, we were finally able to connect over a coffee on Friday afternoon. On Sunday, our families got together. Last night, my friend and church planting coach JR Woodward joined Kester’s Austin Inklings discussion at a pub near the UT.

Despite the fact that he likes Wilco, and doesn’t seem to care that the NFL begins this weekend, Kester and I hit it off. Kester and Rachel planted Immanuel Austin Community a few years ago. As we swapped stories and dreams, it was a blessing to me to see how similar our hearts and dreams are for how a church community might look. I hope and pray that we will have many opportunities to get together and remind each other that we aren’t crazy.

As we call people (back) to faith in God through Jesus Christ, we must help them to articulate an answer to the question ‘What do we have to become Christians for?’ At least part of the answer to this question will have to be: ‘In order to be enlisted into God’s ministry of reconciliation, peace, and justice on earth.’ It should be natural for Christians to be committed to these values. In a sense … there is already very much believing in Western society. What we do not need, then, is to introduce more religion. The issue is not to talk more about God in a culture that has become irreligious, but how to express, ethically, the coming of God’s reign, how to help people respond to the real questions of their context, how to break with the paradigm according to which religion has to do only with the private sphere.” — David J. Bosch, Believing in the Future

After hearing about some of our dreams for a unique church community in Austin, a friend sent me a copy of Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna. Talk about a book that has left me with mixed feelings…

Viola and Barna make a case that much of what we see as critical elements of the contemporary church originate in cultural practices that the church has adopted through history. Thus, as the title suggests, the church is filled with Pagan practices.

Their research is thorough, and for a history lover, interesting. They do an excellent job of helping the reader strip away so much of what we have added to the church and remind us what the church was at it’s beginnings. For that reason, I loved it. There is a freedom in starting with the simplest ideas of what church can or should be, and then beginning to dream from there.

What troubled me was their stance through much of the book. Viola and Barna feel strongly that the church should strip away these practices and return to how the church operated in the first century. I appreciate their passion, but they come across antagonistic. I share a number of their ideas, but found myself arguing with them throughout the book. Unfortunately, I think their posture will turn many off from hearing what they have to say.

For a thorough response to the book, read Bob Hyatt’s thoughts. You’ll have to scroll down, because I haven’t yet been able to convince Bob to create direct link to this series.

My friend Justin recommended a helpful resource to me several months ago. (BTW, he does great work with an organization called Life in Abundance International and you should check it out.) It’s a little booklet by Henri Nouwen called The Spirituality of Fund-Raising and you can request a free copy from The Nouwen Society.

Nouwen’s thoughts have helped me refocus a few times as we’ve been fund raising this year. Nouwen reminds us that fund-raising is “first, and foremost, a form of ministry” and that it is a “concrete way to help the Kingdom of God come about”. If you are involved in fund-raising, or in any form of ministry with financial expenses, take the time to order this pamphlet. It’s a quick and easy read, but one that should be digested slowly.

Hello to all who are thinking about blogging. I’ve been at it since mid 2004, and I think I have one important lesson to share. There may be other lessons I could offer, but I think I am more qualified than anyone to talk about this particular topic. Google seems to think I am too…

I would suggest that you not use any combination of the words “strange”, “weird”, “sex”, and “ideas”. For instance, if you have the words strange and ideas in the title of your blog, it might be wise to never mention the word sex. (Unless, of course, that is what you want to blog about. If so, go for it…I’d be happy to let you surpass me and take the #1 spot on Google.)

And, for the five or six of you who show up here everyday looking for strange, or weird, sex ideas… I don’t want to be presumptive, but I am going to assume that you are looking for some ways to spice up your sex life. My advice is simple. Ready? Love — truly love — the person you are with.

As Austin Mustard Seed prepares to move into our first gatherings, we have been asking friends and supporters to join together in 24 hours of prayer over on our support team blog. This will take place next Saturday through Sunday evening, and we’ve filled about 70% of the half hour slots. If you’d like to help us make it 24 consecutive hours, please take a look at the schedule to see what time slots are still open, and then let us know.

‘Mission’ is a word that spans the total distance between God and the world’s salvation. The whole dynamic of the church’s life may be conveyed by this single verb.” — Paul S. Minear in Images of the Church in the New Testament

Some current and recent reading on what the Bible says the church should be has helped me find new language for a question that is often present for me. Is the Bible meant to be prescriptive, or descriptive?

If the Bible is prescriptive, then we come to it with an understanding that it is a manual of sorts. It prescribes how life is to be lived by humans both individually, and in community. If we need to know how the church should operate, or how a marriage should work, or most any “how to” question, we assume that the Bible can prescribe the appropriate answer to that question.

To understand that the Bible is descriptive is to hold to a more historical understanding; the Bible describes what was going on with God’s people in the specific context that each book was written. For example, Jesus’ teachings (Sermon on the Mount, parables, etc.) should be understood primarily the the lens of what he was trying to communicate to his listeners at that time. (Or, for another perspective, what the Gospel writer wanted his original readers to understand about what Jesus had communicated to those hearers.)

I think the obvious answer is that we have to see both patterns in the Bible. But, modern Christianity often errs on the side of prescriptive, and we should err on the side of descriptive. While there are prescriptive portions throughout the Bible, the whole of the Bible should be seen as descriptive. It is the contextual account of how God has been at work in creation and with humanity through recorded history. Those parts that are taken as prescriptive must first be placed within a descriptive framework.

To put it simply, context, no matter how elusive it might sometimes be, always, always matters.

I enjoy reading enough that even grad school wasn’t able to take the joy out of it. It just exposed me to a lot more material that I haven’t read yet. Being a few months removed from all that required reading, I’m starting to develop some patterns for what I’m reading.

I’m usually in the middle of five or so books at a time. This means I have something available that I might be in the mood for at any given time. Sometimes you get tired of a book and you don’t want to go on, so it is nice to have a book available that grabs your interest. (Note: I have a sickness and I have to finish a book if I start it. It’s a bad, bad thing. Don’t be like me. There are plenty of books out there that aren’t worth finishing. (Note about the note: But, there are also some books that are hard to read, but worth the effort, so my illness does have some upside.))

To make sure I’m working with a decent selection of books, I usually have a book going in each of these broad categories:

• Knowledge/learning: I try to always have one book going that is mostly information…usually leaning toward an academic kind of book. These are the ones that require me to set aside some undistracted time and discipline myself to work through. These are usually theology or history books.
• Church/leadership: This is the category that I can almost always be excited to read from…books about how the church should work, or what it means to function in the leadership role of a church.
• Personal growth/interest: This category is wide open. This might be anything from a book on creativity or culture or food. Anything that I see on Amazon or in a bookstore that catches my fancy. I also subscribe to Fast Company and Wired which are representative of this category.
• Fiction/narrative: At the beginning of this year, I committed to always be reading a story, whether that be fiction, or some other form of narrative like a biography. No regrets. I’ve read, and been stirred, by some fantastic stories.
• Bible study: Alongside fiction, this is the category that I try to read in daily, if possible. I like to read something alongside a Scripture. For the past few years, I’ve been reading through NT Wright’s For Everyone series which I find to be a good mixture of practical and scholarship.

You might think these categories are very broad, and they are. There is a lot of crossover between all of them. Each category informs the other, which is why I think it is so helpful to have several books going at once. Reading one book through the lens of another often leads to some interesting insights.

I used to have my current reads in my sidebar, but I have moved them to my readings page. I’m annoyingly obsessive about keeping it up to date, so take a peek any time you like.

I spent much of the last week putting together the website for Austin Mustard Seed, the new church community we are part of in Austin. I love this creative part of the process — taking ideas that have been developing for years and shaping them into words within a layout.

There is a part of me that wants to think twice before making the website public…wondering if something might not be said well enough. Or maybe something’s missing. But that’s the beauty of web over printed materials. A website is never finished…it is able to shape and evolve even as the church does. This is just the beginning and I love being able to peer forward into an unknown future.

If you know anyone in Austin who might be interested in connecting with us, please send them our way.

Last night, while watching Michael Clayton, I started playing around with a new template for this blog. That might not have been the best idea, because I missed about three, or fifteen, important developments in the plot. But at least I have a new template to show for it.

My sidebar had built up about four years of clutter which I have scraped away. Some of the sidebar content was moved to subpages, thanks to the miracle of WordPress page templates. The rest of it is just gone.

Enjoy.

I’m cool enough to have read most of Dave Eggers’ books, but not cool enough to know if it is still cool or not to like Dave Eggers. But I do. And all the more after listening to his TED talk from earlier this year:

(Here’s a direct link if the embedded video didn’t work for you.)

This is a fantastic story of a group of people creatively putting their passions and experience to work for the greater good.

Yesterday, I was working on the layout for our new church website and I got to reminiscing about my web designing back in the good old days. The Wayback Machine reminded me of some of the webpages I did back when Prince was still formerly known as.

Here’s the old website from my part-time graphic design gig. Too bad the archive didn’t preserve my stylish and sleek Chandler-Design logo or the uber cool background image I had.

…you paste your face in a 1978 yearbook picture, and the only thing that looks different is your hair color.

This photo brought to you during time spent entertaining my son, courtesy of YearbookYourself.