Yes - We're Strange

If you didn't know it, Michelle and I are a little strange. I didn't ask her permission to say that - so don't tell her. (I don't think she reads this anyway!)

Our strangeness is found in Ephesians 4:11 which lists the five leadership gifts that God gives to people in order to build up the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

There is varied opinion on if this is an exhaustive list, if these gifts apply to every believer, if they are listed in some sort of order, or if every leader has at least one of them. I don't want to get into those issues. Instead, I want to complain (vent) a little, and tell you why we're strange.

You see, Michelle and I tend to have the apostleship and prophet gifts. Before you think we've gone beyond strange to certifiably looney, let me define those gifts for you. (It doesn't mean we can see the future or we are one of the original 12!)

• Prophet - someone who sees in black and white and is constantly pulling the church back to the basics. They are able to look at the culture as a whole and see where it is going astray.
• Apostle - someone who has a big vision for the kingdom of God outside of any one individual organization. Someone who focuses on the needs of a culture rather than the capabilities of the church, and would rather train other leaders to be successful than have their own organization. Think about Paul in the Bible.

Here is our struggle: if you reverse the order of the list in Ephesians 4 (putting prophet and apostle last), it roughly estimates the importance the current church structure in the USA puts on each gift. Teachers are highly valued - after all what's church if you can't learn something new. Pastors are also highly valued, but if they can't teach well, they are always looking for a job. Evangelists are around - but make everyone uncomfortable and often end up striking out on their own. Then there are the prophets and apostles ... which most people in the church wouldn't even be able to define.

So, Michelle and I are here in the States trying to live out leadership gifts that we can't even define well under a church culture that usually doesn't think the same way as us. And we wonder why we're always frustrated! It seems that most people who think like us drift away from church. They go to work in non-profits somewhere or maybe they just give up on the local church altogether. We don't think God is asking us to be those people. He wants us where we are.

So whether you're working with us trying to figure out how to help our community at Engage, trying to help Indian women in poverty at Renew, trying to start church planting movements in India or South Africa, or even working with us on the ever exciting finance team, bear with us ... we're just weird people trying to figure this whole thing out.

5 Transitions

At Engage** last week, I introduced 5 transitions that believers need to make in order to effectively and Biblically share Jesus. It is my belief that much damage has been done by people not sharing Jesus in the way the Bible teaches. All you have to do is look at the prevailing opinion of 'church' and 'evangelicals' to see the results of this.

These five transitions pretty much come straight from David Watson - someone who actually knows what he's are talking about. (http://www.cpmtr.org/) These may seem kind of 'out there' to some of you. I challenge you put aside your traditional understanding, and read the Gospels and Acts for yourself looking for these patterns. You will see them all over the place.



Transition #1 is from Comfort to Calling.
We need to live our life as if we are sent by God into the world to obey his commands resulting in making disciples. We live as 'sent' people because that's what we are. Obedience becomes the norm rather than just the gathering of knowledge.

Transition #2 is from Ministry Only to Searching for People of Peace
We obey commands such as 'love your neighbor', but we don't stop there. We also begin to look for responses from people that show God working in their life. We realize that God works in people's lives, not us. We don't force God on people who aren't interested, but we look for people who show interest.

Transition #3 is from individual to group
We don't look to pull one person from their group of family and friends into ours. Instead, we seek to develop relationships with that person's family and friends in hope that they will all discover God together. [Only 3 people came to know Christ individually in the New Testament. Individual salvation was the exception to the norm.]

Transition #4 is from group to Bible study group
We point the 'Person of Peace' to the Bible and let him/her work with their group to discover God together. We don't teach or convince. We guide and let them discover God for themselves.

Transition #5 is from Bible study group to Church
As the group discovers God, they develop habits of listening to Him and obeying his commands. This results in baptism, and eventually in Church.

**For those of you who don't know, Engage is a weekend service at our church (Westside) that Michelle and I lead. The intent is to form a community of believers who reach out to share Jesus with the community. Stop by at 6:30 on Saturday nights and check it out!