Jonathan Edwards and the First Awakening

Yesterday, I mentioned Jonathan Edwards in my sermon as I spoke about the First Great Awakening (early 18th century). If you want more information on Edwards, here are some links:

Yale's Jonathan Edwards Center (http://edwards.yale.edu/) contains free texts of Edward's complete writings

Wikipedia articles on Edwards and the Great Awakening

Marsden's excellent biography of Edwards

Banner of Truth's compilation of Edwards' writings about the revival

7) Why Multi-Site Is A Biblical Model

Multi-site churches have been effective.

They are not without problems, sometimes caused by an overly aggressive strategy or a merely pragmatic approach to church leadership. It is certainly proper to ask: is this approach even valid for Biblical Christians? Is there at least a hint of doing church this way in the New Testament? Shouldn't churches stay together?

"The New Testament nowhere demands that a local church meet all together each week. Nor is a single service assembly the only model given in Acts. While it is certainly true that we see evidences of local churches assembling all together (1 Corinthians 11), we also see evidence of single local churches which met in multiple locations. The new congregation in Jerusalem is frequently referred to in the singular, one "church" (Acts 8:1; 11:22; 15:4). However, they obviously had to meet in different times and locations. Historians tell us there was no space in Jerusalem available to the disciples in which three thousand or more people could have met on a weekly basis. It also appears that many first-century house churches came together to celebrate the Lords supper as one citywide church (see 1 Cor 11:17–20; Romans 16:5)." --JD Greear (in the 9Marks Journal. May/June 2009. © 9Marks. Website: www.9Marks.org. Email: info@9marks.org)

A mega-church with a mega-campus is attractive with it's programs. Many existing Christians flock to a large campus. But is that the best stewardship of God's resources? But a multi-site church may be a better way to display the unity of Christians in a city, while reaching into diverse neighborhoods and people-groups.

Other multi-site proponents highlight: increased evangelistic effectiveness, easier leadership development, financially effective church growth, benefits of big/small churches in community life, and shared mercy/mission work.

If Silicon Valley needs 200+ churches at least and we are willing to help God's Kingdom expand, then why not function through a variety of models at the same time? Imagine a network of churches: six of them have three sites each, two are regional campuses, one has ten multi-sites locations, fifteen are small churches in non-English speaking neighborhoods. Twice a year, all of those members gather for a great celebration! The gospel is changing this corner of the world. Jesus is praised.

Next, we'll count the costs and see what it takes to launch a second site.

As always, we welcome your response, questions and feedback. Discuss below, or contact any pastor or elder directly.

3) New Church Communities

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
1Peter 2:10

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8

The first commitment for our church to unite around is a commitment to launching new church communities. We need to agree that these new bodies are part of God's plan, for his Kingdom in general and for our church.

Clearly, by any measure Silicon Valley is not a particularly Christian area. In fact, it is one of the least Christian places in North America. Estimates range from 90-95% of the people in the South Bay would not identify themselves as evangelical Christians. How would these people, nearly two million of them, understand the gospel message? Mass communication is easy to ignore, street preaching is disregarded, door-to-door evangelism is too 'cult-like' and disturbing.

What cuts through the noise of 21st century life?

A non-threating, loving, caring relationship with Christians that defy stereotypes. Christians who are gracious and not judgmental. Christians who apply a gospel worldview to their lives. And Christians who share their life in meaningful church communities.

• These churches should understand the Bible, apply it to everyday life, build up Christians in gospel maturity.
  
• They should grasp the questions and doubts of people who do not believe, and treat those people with respect.
  
• Worship should be richly historic and still fresh.
  
• Ministries should inspire people's gifts for serving rather than force them to serve out of pressure and guilt.
  
• They should be surprisingly welcoming to outsiders without being manipulative or phony. If a member of the church invites their friends to a church like this, they should not be embarrassed, because "church" itself is intimidating to people who are not connected to churches.
  

Realistically, one church cannot fulfill all of these ideals. Christians are redeemed sinners; churches are filled with redeemed sinners. Nothing in this life is perfect, but a gospel saturated church community is the best environment to be honestly transformed by Jesus.

The need for new churches in the South Bay is staggering. "But there are already churches here!" is a common objection. True, and many of these churches are doing a great job of reaching out. But the vast majority are shrinking or stagnant. Even the vital churches are unable to reach the 90%+ who are not connected to Jesus. New churches reach new people and they help restore people. They go into places, like Jesus did, where there is doubt or darkness.

Next, we'll consider the role of God's spirit as he creates revival.

As always, we welcome your response, questions and feedback. Discuss below, or contact any pastor or elder directly.

[photo by evie22, flicker]

2) Adapting a Kingdom Vision for 21st Century Realities

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save

what was lost. Luke 19:10

As Grace Church approached the 2010 horizon, leaders began asking how we could launch a new church. The attendance, staffing and financial resources for sending off an independent church were not present. Sending out a large core of members to an independent 'daughter church' would likely harm the original church and put the new church at significant risk. However, we remained committed to the bigger calling.

Was there another way? Could God's Kingdom expand through our church community with a greater possibility of thriving? After prayerful research, our pastor proposed to the elders for their consideration a multi-site model. We presented the multi-site concept to the congregation in April 2008, opening up a time of prayer and discussion. In particular, the community groups around San Jose began discerning a call for them to unite together as a launch team for a new site.

Multi-site churches are not technically new, but the movement has grown in the last ten years. Hundreds of churches in America have adapted to become churches that are united in purpose with different segments of the congregation meeting in different locations. Rather than simply adding another worship service on an existing campus, additional services begin in new locations.

Multi-site is a method to achieve a greater purpose: expanding God's Kingdom. Among the many different ways to serve missionally, a multi-site church brings several strengths. It is not the best approach for every church at every time. The leadership of Grace Church sees this method as an effective way that God could enable our church to live out its core vision. Multi-site churches combine some of the strengths of local, smaller churches (community, neighborhood focus, outreach) with some of the strengths of larger churches (experienced staff, broad impact, joint ministries to needy people).

Bottom line: We're moving in a multi-site direction because of our deeper missional commitment. Multi-site is NOT for convenience, for trendiness, for personality, for merely adding attendees, even simply for its practical benefits. Multi-site is for the sake of Jesus.

Next, we'll see why new churches are essential for God's kingdom growth.

As always, we welcome your response, questions and feedback. Discuss below, or contact any pastor or elder directly.

[photo of central San Jose by Steve Dorsey. from flickr]

1) Grace Church: A History of Mission and Ministry

Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
Psalm 96:3

The story of Grace Church begins in 1999. Our founding pastor and his wife were considering several church planting opportunities around the country. They had recently received approval at the PCA Church Planting Assessment Center and were seeking God's call to a location that matched their passion and gifts. Silicon Valley was presented as a region with very few churches and a majority of people who did not follow Jesus. As a globally connected region of innovation and influence, Silicon Valley clearly rose as God's primary calling.

The hope was to create a network of connected churches that resourced Christians throughout the area for ministry, discipleship and worship. We hoped to become a collection of affiliated churches where secularized skeptics and devoted followers could meet Jesus together. The need for new churches in the South Bay is staggering; some estimate that several hundred new churches need to begin within the next decade.

Grace Presbyterian Church began worship in April 2001 with a small committed core of people who shared that vision for a network of new churches. As the church grew from one site to the next, more people entered into the community. The first group of elected lay elders recommitted to the mission in 2005, and set a five year goal of planting a second church within five years (by 2010). That dream was a way to acknowledge the Great Commission call to our church community.

Mark 16:15, Jesus's call to preach the gospel in all the world, is not a nice addition or a mere suggestion. It's part of the gospel itself. God's grace is offered to undeserving and needy people, who receive it simply by grace through faith. Growth as a follower of Jesus includes reaching out in service and love to others. It's impossible to claim a deeper understanding of grace if that gift is kept to yourself.

The Kingdom of God is an active, alive Kingdom. The Kingdom is already everywhere in the universe, of course. But that Kingdom is resisted by many, to the continuing harm of those who miss the gospel. The deliberate re-instituted rule and reign of Jesus brings comprehensive restoration to the fallen world.

The Kingdom belongs in every corner of the world, to every person in the world. The true Church, God's gathered followers, is a core part of that bigger Kingdom. The history of the Church is a history of God's Kingdom working through his followers to expand the glory of Christ throughout the world. From Jerusalem, to the Roman empire, to every nation, the gospel has moved from one generation to the next.

Each place and time causes the church to rethink why and how it lives out the gospel. Many ways exist to fulfill God's missional call, for example: personal relational evangelism, global missions, mercy ministries, inviting and including people into a church community, church planting, bi-vocational ministry. Each of these ways are useful means of God's kingdom expansion.

Next, we'll explore what God can do through our church.

As always, we welcome your response, questions and feedback. Discuss below, or contact any pastor or elder directly.

Multi-Site Conference in San Diego Live Blog and Materials

Materials for the conference are available for download here: 

http://www.harboruptown.org/conference-materials-for-download/ 

Also, D J Chuang from Leadership Network is live-blogging from the Conference here: 

http://multisitechurch.typepad.com/mscr/2009/03/liveblogging-from-pca... 

You can 'listen in" and learn from the same teachers that are presenting live.

We should never forget

Saturday's Catalyst Meeting was great. A key part of Saturday's gathering was putting lots of ideas out for discussion. Toward the end, small groups summarized the dozens of concepts into a simple question: "As we prepare, we should never forget..."

Our Catalyst meetings are ways to gather the terrific group of Grace Church people who live around San Jose into a team that's willing and able to start a new worship site. Through their efforts and an emerging Palo Alto-centered team, we're moving toward becoming a multi-site church.

With busy Silicon Valley lives, it's easy to forget all of the things that we said we shouldn't. So here is the list, in no particular order, without duplications. Paste it to your fridge, your dashboard, your desktop, your forhead. It's a great list for any new endeavor.

As we head toward becoming a multi-site church, we should never forget:

• Our values and identity
  
• Gospel centrality
  
• Our worship style
  
• Outward looking
  
• Worshiping God leading to our mission
  
• We are part of a larger Grace Church community
  
• It's going to be hard
  
• God leads us
  
• We begin with who we already are
  
• To pray
  
• To be humble and flexible
  
• There will be another one, this is just the first
  
• The bigger community that we are reaching
  
• To include whole families, children too
  
• To be transparent and warmly welcoming
  
• The power of our own bias as we plan
  

How will you use this list?

Being Multi

Last week was a great week for forward momentum on multi-site. I spent Thursday researching the lastest approaches to multi-site churches. Well over 1,000 churches in America are multi-site = one church meeting in multiple locations. It is inspiring to see the variety of ways that churches creatively bring their church into their context.

On Sunday evening, a group of representatives from all four San Jose area Community Groups met with me to plan the initial steps of exploring this mission approach. That late-night meeting felt like the early days of our church plant back in 2000 -- a few people sitting in a living room envisioning a new work of God.

We're planning a series of San Jose gatherings: to get everyone in that region together to dicuss how our vision could work through multiple worship sites and to begin crafting a launch. These 3 Catalyst Meetings will prayerfully seek God's leading. These same three gatherings will be repeated in Palo Alto to reboot the mission there.

A few important lessons from other churches:

1. A church cannot just 'have multi sites.' Rather, it has to become a 'multi-site church.' Everything changes: the DNA has to become stronger, leaders have to be developed at every site, ministries and staff and decisions have to be shared.
2. Multi-site churches are very effective at evangelism and community service. They frequently avoid the inevitable inward focus of established churches and remain in mission-mode longer.
3. This will not be easy, but it will be fun! More people getinvolved, often wearing several hats. At first, things may seem like a mini-step backwards. The simplicity, however, gives a focus to ministry.

Many more lessons will be learned! I just created a new Multi-Site page to Grace Church's online bookstore. While you're there, consider Tim Keller's new book "The Prodigal God," to be released on October 30.

Multiplexiosity

Grace Church is talking about multi-site as a means of advancing our mission in Silicon Valley. We live in such a large and diverse region, which means that many different types of church communities will be better at serving our area. Since 95% of the people in Silicon aren't at church, there's plenty of room to expand!

Multi-site is not new, but it's become an increasingly popular way of helping churches grow as they reach their communities.

Several different multi-site approaches work depending on the context and the congregation.

Within the PCA, three examples are Redeemer NYC, Harbor in San Diego and Perimeter in Atlanta, each doing the multi-site differently.

Other multi-ste approaches with video screens are run by Northpoint or Menlo or Willow Creek. 

A very creative group of churches around Chicago, called Community Christian Church have several resources online at NewThing

Over the next months I'll add more information and content. But we're all in this conversation... building a network of gospel churches and ministries is a grass-roots process.

DISCUSS: Check out a couple of church sites linked in this article. What impressions do you have?

Evangelism Dos and Don'ts

Sharing the message of the Gospel is a thrilling adventure. Having people in Silicon Valley think you're off your rocker is terrifying.

Share your Silicon Valley evangelism Dos and Don'ts.
Here's a few to get started...

DON'T whip out a little booklet called "Five Steps to Being Saved"
DO create genuine, caring friendships

DON'T ask your boss at lunch, "Are you washed by the blood of Jesus?"
DO explain how a Christian approach to a problem is sensible and compassionate

DON'T freak out if someone demands that you explain why God allows evil
DO ask good questions and find out what the person's question really is

DON'T think a big fish swallowing a "Darwin" fish on your bumper counts as witnessing
DO engage in thoughtful, challenging discussions in a caring manner

Ladies and Gentlemen, post your Dos and Don'ts...

Gifts for Ministry

Last Sunday, I taught about Spiritual Gifts and their use in the church. As Christians in Silicon Valley, which is so driven by talent/aggressiveness/tenacity, it's an encouragement to know that God gives his people (no matter who they are) the equipping they need to serve him.
We long to be a church where every member is fully using his or her gifts to be agents of the gospel in Silicon Valley. I gave eight facts about spiritual gifts that are important to consider our of 1Corinthians 12. In case you couldn't write fast enough, here are the summary eight facts.

1. Spiritual Gifts belong to JESUS and his church, not to individuals. It’s the entire “body” (using Paul’s language) working together that operates as Christ’s physical expression. Jesus himself had ALL of the gifts. The church (broadly and historically) has that fullness of gifting by analogy… but each individual part is just a piece.
2. Gifts are different than natural talents. Talents come from God's common grace -- Distributed broadly, even outside the Christian community for transforming culture (vs.) the Holy Spirit's special gifting of grace -- transforming the world through the church.
3. Gifts are different than spiritual fruit. Fruit is character (all of them growing in all Christians) (vs.) different gifts for each person. A person with a gift of wisdom may be still immature in their compassion and patience.
4. Gifts are different than our walk with God. A variety given to all Christians, sometimes in spite of our weaknesses. Not something that we “have” innately, but an application of salvation, it’s the super-abundance of God’s grace. Gifts can operate a bit even without growth in maturity. That could be dangerous, often is a cover-up for a declining Christian life.
5. Gifts don’t negate Christian duties. For example, the gift of celibacy: life-long gift of a few (Paul for example). A duty of every unmarried Christian, however, as long as they are in that state.
6. Gifts are found in clusters. Combinations of gifts affect the person’s use of them. Pastor-teacher, Preacher-teacher, Preacher-Leader, Wisdom-teacher, Pastor-encourager. ALL might end up as an ordained minister, but they would have very different kinds of ministries and churches.
7. Gifts can work through weakness. Because they are the SPIRIT’s gift, they can go around someone’s weaknesses. Example: Charles Spurgeon, arguably the greatest 19th century preacher was converted by an untrained deacon.
8. KEY: Gifts must have a Gospel oriented impact. They bear growth and change in other people in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit works his relational truth through people’s gifts.
   VERSE 3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. The key evaluative question, according to this passage, is: “is Jesus exalted?” by this service?
   Remember, the Holy Spirit is truth oriented. His gifts bring the greater truth about Jesus and the redeeming of the world into the existing world.

DISCUSS: Do you have a story of God working through you despite your natural weakness? Do you have questions about what your spiritual gifts might be? Respond! Also, this coming Sunday, we'll look at how to discover your spiritual gifts for use in ministry.