more on church attendance

However, on the day of Judgment, nonbelievers will not be able to blame The Church for its programming and attendance. For surely, there are millions of believers who do not simply “attend” and watch others perform. We may blame The Church for being so accommodating to consumers, but we may never blame Her for an individual’s choice to consume.

Church attendance

Church attendance and church programming may be the best way for nonbelievers to be actively involved in religion without having to be bothered by spiritual realities.

Remove “attendance” and “programs” where you watch others, and the only thing you are left with is what you are doing spiritually.

“I heard it through the grapevine”

You’ve had someone come to you before and say, “Somebody told me that you…(fill in with some bad sin). Is that true”?

Naturally you respond with vigorous defense, denial, and correction. Is there a better way? Yes.

An appeal to character is better than defense.

It is more effective to respond to the accusation with: “Does that reflect the character of the person you know me to be?”

Often people will ask a second question, “Then why would they say that”?

Again you could answer with a question, “Does that reflect the character of the person you know them to be?”

“Ohhh” is often the reply, followed by, “I should have known”.

Now let me leave you with the sister principle to this one: Gossips never ever tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And sometimes they invent whole lies. The only people believing them about you, are the ones who want to.

The Other Reason…

I want to practice my spirituality with other believers in a more natural way.

As I say that I realize how ridiculous it must sound. There is nothing more “natural” to most people, than organizing believers into programs of spirituality that happen at a central location at the same time each week. I have friends who are pastors for whom it is their very nature to build strong organizations of highly organized ministry programs to build believers. Praise God for them.

BUT I’M NOT ONE OF THEM. I AM NOT “MOST” PEOPLE.

And most people who know me would agree with that.

So what to do?

Do what comes natural to me. Begin to meet with believers in homes, parks, coffee shops, other churches, clubhouses, wildlife reserves, even the mall. And do what comes natural to us – worship, pray, converse, and love God and each other.

This in no way means that I want to do something disorganized. Not at all. I just want to focus on the organizational strategy being far more organic and noninstitutionalized.

In fact, I predict that many who come to do Soma will eventually desire the more Organized Church, or may have seasons of each. How cool is that?

Currently we are spending the next couple of years moving weekly through every story in Mark harmonized with the other gospels.

So natural for me is: Just Jesus, everywhere I can go.

Let me know if you want to go.
Onesoma.net

1 Question is worth a 1000 words.

A Question is worth a 1000 words.

Data: In Bartow County 80,000 people do not attend Church at all.
Question: How many of them will never go to Church as we know it (buildings, programs, staff), no matter what the Church does? Please respond with an number below.

Caution: If you over think this or try to turn it into some theological debate…you are really missing the point. Furthermore, this is in no way an indictment our 150 Churches – they have reached 15,000 people, and that’s good. (I don’t really know how many churches there are.)

Now take your answer and write it down and look at it. That’s _____# of souls.
Now what is the strategy for reaching that number in Bartow County? And remember, you can’t say “The Church” because by definition you’ve agreed that there is nothing the Church can do.

Update: That is what keeps me up at night. That’s what has driven me crazy for the past five years. That’s one major reason for…

Soma.

Now our Churches can be happy that they have a partner and an answer for that number.

What I am doing…

God has called me to make disciples and lead those who wish to make disciples – discipling them to do the same. A disciple is just a shorter way to say, follower of Jesus.

As I contemplate this role I have decided to take every single thing off the table of what it means for me to be a “pastor”. Left with nothing…place, time, or activity; I now ask myself, “Brad how are you going to do your job?” This is what I think so far (and you should always read Brad Martin’s thinking with the caveat – “what I think so far”)”.

First, I have to deal with me. I am called to follow Jesus. There are all kinds of ways to do that, the Church as we know it is one way, and it has reached many. What I want to do is different: I want to follow the forms and methods of Jesus, which I later see in Paul. That form is not real complicated: They went to people and they allowed people to gather to them when they got somewhere. Then they instructed them on how to follow God and Jesus and then they left, inviting people to go with them to the next place to do more of the same. So that is what I understand I am to do. Remember, I am not talking about you, just me and anyone else who decides, “me to.” Other people may find other ways.

Second, now I need to work out the best methods of training others who say, “Me to”. As I think on this I have decided that to take the bulk of our time each week and meet at the same building, at the same time, to do the same things, is not the most effective way to build missional believers. So I decided to begin to meet abroad, anywhere really that would enable us to experience “going” (Matt 28:19) and “gathering” (Heb 10:24) – Mission and Church. I think, “Wow, how effective to combine the two into the same experiences, not every time, but more often than never.”

Think about it from a strategic standpoint – Form and Function. If my goal is to get people to go and engage their world and worship God in the world and love people in the world then should I:
A – Tell everyone to come see me every week at the same place to talk about Jesus. (By the way the world is never there, except for those few who are interested).
Or
B – Tell everyone to go to some place where we can gather with the people in the world to talk about Jesus.

You see, it seems that the best way for me to create a growing group of disciples who follow Jesus as He reaches people is to just do that with them, rather than gather them to myself to tell them to go do that, but not until after first spending the time each week to come and do all the things that I want them to do here. I am finding that I can teach people about Jesus in all kinds of places where others can be with us.

This is discipleship on the “Go”.

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mid life crisis??

Someone asked me recently (and they have not been the only one), “Are you having a mid-life crisis?” Interestingly, each person who has asked that question, has done so with the tone or implication that mid-life crisis are bad things.

My answer, “Yes, I’m sure that I am.”

They always look at me strange.

What happens when you climb to the top of your ladder and find it leaning against the wrong wall?
You have a mid-life crisis. (Provided you are in mid-life, otherwise it is a young or old life crisis.)

So I’m there. And I climbed back down the ladder, fast, and now I have picked the right ladder. And please understand that I don’t think your ladder is wrong. It’s just not for me.

Now the good news is that I am not doing stupid things in my crisis. I’m not leaving Jayme for a 23yr old Swedish girl. I’m not buying a Ferrari (although I would consider an old GTO). And I can’t grow dreadlocks. Dang (about the dreads).

What I will do is leave what I know and have done for 25 years and turn my focus to the white fields, and ask Father if I can help Him harvest in the ones no one is working in. And maybe some of my other brothers and sisters will have a mid-life crisis and come and join me.

Outlaw Believers

There is a lonely place outlaw believers find themselves stuck. It’s a place called Between. There, the stone they lean against has worn smooth over the decades. The better outlaws spend a fair amount of time pondering their station. To the right they see a Rock, and to the left is a Hard Place.

The Outlaw knows both places well, but he can’t live in either. And the residents, good people, of each place share that mutual desire for him not to visit long. He has an inability coupled to unwillingness to conform to what either require for long peace with the inhabitants. He can neither obey the Traditions on one side or Worldliness on the other. Yet, he doesn’t relish his place in Between. He’s not looking for trouble and never wonders how to bring about shock and awe. Contrary to what some believe, honesty and humility are his highest values.

So he rides to and from, chancing conversations with those who come near the outskirts of either. He sees the tragedy of those in either place who try to go and live in the other’s world. The Outlaw meets scores of them. Some are worn out on the Rules and reject The Whole or compromise to find the Easy Street that travels behind Between, making it easy to visit both. Some from the Hard Place sneak in to visit just enough Tradition to get that “dues paid” feeling.

At the End of the Day one Outlaw always find himself sitting there in Between with his one possession, the Ace In The Hole. Its an old book of Truth his daddy gave him. In it he reads of another…the First One to get caught here. Reading His story always gives him what he needs – especially the end, where The Outlaw promises to be there for him.

He closes the book, prays both ways and enjoys the one thing no one can take…
His Freedom.
Gal 5:1

the Abram Principles: #1

The Abram Principles: #1

There are times when God will tell you to go. And He will not take questions, but He does promise good is on the way.

So God tells Abram to leave his kindred and “go to the land I will show you…and I will bless you”. “So Abram went, as the LORD had told him”. Genesis 12:1-4

Now Abram knew the destination he was traveling to, Canaan, he just didn’t know anything about it. That is how you make sense of Genesis 12:5 telling you he “set out for the land of Canaan” and Hebrews 11:8 “he didn’t know where he was going”.

This is my current reality. I have no doubt at all that God has told me to leave my kindred – the Traditional Church. I also know that I am journeying to what I know as The New World. I know nothing of it experientially. But I hear in my spirit descriptions of it as a good land, flowing with a simple spiritual lifestyle and natural rhythms of life that make daily sense of mission and worship and making disciples. All of it culminates in the development of reproducing Missional Community where believers live out an organic spiritual life together that becomes attractive and repugnant to the world.