Archive for February, 2009
Touchpoint » Blog Archive » An Encouraging Mega Church View
Posted by Todd Engstrom in austin stone, megachurch, missional on February 28, 2009
A great viewpoint from David Watson on mega church involvement in church planting movements.
From my perspective as a champion for rapidly multiplying small church planting, I do see a need for and appreciate mega churches. Mega churches could be the nexus for information, training, networking/connecting, strategy, and resourcing of all kinds, including human, vocational, business, educational, and financial. Please do not hear me say that mega churches should drive all this. They should be facilitators and servants who connect God’s people with the needs of those who work very hard to serve and reach the lost, wherever they may be found.
We must never forget that a church with 10,000 members is as much the Bride of Christ as a church with 10 members. Both are highly valued by God. Both have calls from God. Both have the same purposes and functions defined by the Word of God. All are needed if we are going to reach the +5 billion lost people on our planet. When we criticize any church, we criticize the Bride of Christ. As a husband, I am not too happy when someone criticizes my bride. How do you think Christ feels when we criticize His Bride?
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I love the externally focused mentality that this man has, and his vision for seeing all kinds of churches reaching all kinds of people. Secondly, I love his passionate defense of the bride of Christ, no matter the form. I pray that David’s vision will be caught by many throughout the church planting strategy spectrum.
When Planning Fails Churches
Posted by Todd Engstrom in austin stone, church on February 27, 2009
This quote from an article in Church Solutions Magazine adds some fuel to the fire from our conversations as a staff and implementing our strategy as a church.
The statistics tell the unfortunate truth. Eighty-seven percent of American churches have either plauteaued or are declining in attendance. We can and should innovate until we are blue in the face. We can Twitter and blog and connect through social networks. We can have conferences and cheer each other on. We can do multisite and plant churches. But the fact remains that of the 13 percent of churches actually growing, less than 3 percent are growing by conversion growth. That means 10 percent are just doing a better weekend that attracts more Christians. Jesus didn’t come to reorganize, he came to simply seek and save lost people. He came to reconcile us with the undeserved and unthinkable love of God.
I pray that God would use The Austin Stone to not only impact the lives of those in the church, but to change the face of the city of Austin for the glory of God.
What motivates you to mission? | shawblog
Posted by Todd Engstrom in christianity, discipleship on February 26, 2009
My friend and colleague has written some fantastic thoughts on ministry to Muslims, which have broad applications for motivations for ministry. Below is the concluding quip from a great post:
Passion for obedience to the basic commands of Jesus in response to His love for you. The 2 greatest commands of Jesus are very clear and simple: love God and love your neighbor. God has, in fact, fulfilled these commands already in Jesus (He loves God and He loves you). Is that enough to motivate you to passionate sacrifice for the Muslim world, ~87% of which has never met a follower of Jesus?
Litmus question: Do you require more motivation than the basic commands of Jesus to live sacrificially and missionally among Muslims? Can you articulate in your life how your understanding of the Gospel has motivated you to love Muslims more?
Although the post deals specifically with ministry to Muslims, it is a fantastic question to ask for every Christian as they engage in ministry. Are my motivations driven by obedience to King Jesus, or something altogether different?
Discipleship and Training | TheResurgence
Posted by Todd Engstrom in austin stone, discipleship on February 25, 2009
I really like the Resurgence blog. It always has great thoughts, including the one below on discipleship.
The primary context for training should also be the church in situ. I find it strange that this assertion should be so contentious when the weight of the biblical evidence is behind it. Timothy was trained in gospel ministry as he went about doing gospel ministry. Paul took him under his wing, mentored and tutored him, sent him off into various situations, and talked him through whatever problems he had to deal with. The task of training is equipping people to be better gospel ministers, and an apprenticeship model in situ is the vehicle best suited for that task.
I am thankful to be at a church who takes this concept seriously, both in reaching out and in pastoral training. I am the recipient of some fantastic discipleship from Kevin Peck, and my current role is the product of in situ training for the pastorate. It is a tremendous risk in the evangelical world for a church to not hire the formally trained, but to train those whom God calls from the body. Praise God for churches and pastors willing to invest in training up leaders.
This was brought home again for me at our staff meeting on Tuesday, which recast our vision to be disciple makers (2 Timothy 2:2) as a team. The thrust of Kevin’s talk was we do not have a “know how” problem, we have a “want to” problem. Discipleship simply isn’t that complicated, it is a question of our willingness to obey.
I pray that God would keep me faithful and obedient to entrusting the Gospel to faithful men who entrust it to others as well.
Forgiveness in Marriage
Posted by Todd Engstrom in christianity on February 23, 2009
I’ve been reading through This Momentary Marriage by John Piper in preparation for our Nearly/Newly Wed class at The Austin Stone. Although the content hasn’t been earth shattering, I’ve been reflecting on Ephesians 5:22-32, and specifically some applications for marriage from Christ’s covenant keeping love for His church.
First, Piper has often made the point that this passage is his justification for why divorce is such an abomination to God (Malachi 2:16). We are supposed to display the same love that Christ has for His church, which continues permanently without divorce despite the unfaithfulness of His bride.
I think the corollary that struck me as I was reading that shines the beauty of the Gospel more than prohibiting divorce is the fact that within the covenant of marriage, if it rests on the same grace of Christ, creates an unbelievable atmosphere of freedom. If you can believe that your spouse, regardless of what you do to sin against them, will demonstrate the same grace and love as Jesus in the face of our sin, then you can be completely free to confess and repent in marriage. A truly God-glorifying marriage rests in the truth and power of the Gospel bent toward one another.
Secondly, from this idea of Gospel centrality in marriage, I’ve been thinking about forgiveness. Forgiveness for me is often done out of an “I ought to do this” mentality, rather than reminding me of the depth of my depravity and the forgiveness of the Gospel. To be more clear, I think I tend to forgive and forget, without ever even considering the power and depth of the Gospel. Forgiveness is an automatic response, not one that stirs my affections for Christ and my love for my wife.
This Gospel-driven thinking is working in my heart, and I pray that God continues to show me how to connect many of my assumed or rote behaviors in marriage back to the heart of the Gospel of grace.
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