Category Archives: church planting

Why Mission Matters Article

Posted on by
1

This is my first meager attempt at getting something published. I wrote this article for New Wineskins magazine and you can view it here: http://ow.ly/27oFL or read the complete text below.

by Ryan Woods
July – August, 2010

82 - What Really MattersI tried to be a missionary once. I failed. For two years I spent time in a ghetto suburb of Lisbon, Portugal trying to save the world. The world did not get saved. As a matter of fact I did not technically save anybody. I learned to love soccer, I spent time with teenagers and homeless men, and I grew my hair out. But missionaries are supposed to grow churches, see hordes of people come to Jesus, and perfect their altar calls.

I did none of those.

I helped my Angolan musician friend Rey Kuango write lyrics in English. I fed homeless folk and saw a community emerge at our church from their ranks. I provided a place to stay for my friend Nikko away from his cockroach-infested home, where his light fixture consisted of a light bulb and two wires that he shoved into the outlet. But I never performed an altar call. Being a missionary is nearly one of the hardest things I have ever done. But it was nothing compared to what it prepared me for later in my life of ministry.

Jesus’ Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 says “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…” This scripture has been core to our identity in the Churches of Christ, developing in us a sending mentality, reminding us of the transformation that happens around baptism, and the absolute invitation into the work of evangelism.

This passage, however, does not simply send us to do mission. The “go” that Jesus speaks of is not one of destination. There is no arrival implied in Jesus’ sending words. Rather, in the original language, Jesus’ words tell us that “as we are going” we are to make disciples, invite people into baptism, and teach what obedience looks like.

You see, if we believe that mission work is something that does not simply happen when we step foot onto foreign soil or speak a foreign language – but rather happens in our homes, neighborhoods, work places, grocery stores, and cafés – then our level of commitment to discipleship and evangelism have immediately multiplied exponentially. When ministry is dependent on my going to a particular place or destination I preclude the as-you-go mentality and replace it with a once-I-get-there attitude. Once-I-get-there is controllable. I control when I leave, I control if I leave, I control where I go, I control. When evangelism is defined as something that happens as-I-go, then I had better be ready for life to be messy.

I had better be ready to miss a mission committee meeting when my neighbors water main breaks and he is in need of help.

I had better be willing to stay at work late when my coworker opens up to me about his struggling marriage. I had better learn to accept that people might stop by my messy home uninvited.

I had better take seriously Peter’s words to “always be prepared to give an answer…” because that moment could happen anytime or anywhere, and often it will happen through my actions long before it happens through my words!

Jesus’ invitation to an as-you-are-going life was marked by such words as death, carrying your cross, dying to yourself, and loving your enemy. It is impossible, then, to follow Jesus down this path of being available to the world as-we-go, all the time, at any moment, without following him down the path to death.

Death is a core tenet of the Christian faith. We are to die to ourselves daily to live for the world. We are to die to ourselves daily to allow the Spirit to bring new life in us. We are to die to ourselves daily because we are following a God who did nothing less.

Neither Objects nor Projects

Moments ago as I sat in a local downtown café sipping on the best locally-roasted coffee, my friend and I knocked our mugs together in mini-celebration over the awkward moment that had just passed. You see we were talking about the church that my wife and I are planting in downtown Vancouver and my friend – who is not a Christian – kept accidentally dreaming with me about what this church might look like. While she does not buy into Christianity, she nonetheless is beginning to take ownership of this fledgling church despite the fact that she does not believe. The clinking of glasses was done jokingly to celebrate her acceptance of the inevitability of using the word “we” when talking about this church. At that moment, she allowed my dreaming to be her dreaming, the potential church activities to be her activities, and the conversation immediately twisted to “we” instead of “you”. It was a valuable celebration.

In Jesus’ other commission in Luke 10, we hear him sending his seventy disciples out to the nearby towns to proclaim the kingdom. Surprisingly, however, he sends them out without the necessary provisions. They were sent without money, a bag, or even shoes. Instead they are told to be open to the generosity and hospitality of the people to which they have been sent. In other words, they have been sent in search of partners. Partnership is also important to Matthew’s Great Commission as Jesus states that while authority is his, he is sending us.

Us? He is the one who has the power, but he has commissioned us as his sent agents of hope in his world. Partnership. Jesus invites us to partner with him. The reason this is so key is that when we transition from an arrival mentality of mission to an as-you-are-going mentality, we are challenged to change our view of humanity around us. No longer are they objects of our mission; no longer is their salvation our goal. Our neighbors are those who surround us as-we-are-going and we are invited to see them as fellow journeyers, as partners in journeying through life. If we believe God’s Genesis 1:31 statement that what he has created is very good and if we believe that “For God so loved the world…” was referencing all of God’s created people, then we must believe in the inherent dignity of God’s loved people. Mission is how we live with these people; it is how we die for these people; and it is how we partner with these people as we traverse this life and pursue a new God-ordained future for us all.

My friend does is not a believer, but she is partnering with us in planting a church. What is more shockingly strange: that we are partnering with her or that God has chosen to partner with us?

Boxes not included

If we accept Jesus’ invitation to mission as-we-are-going about our life, we are accepting the inevitability that everything will change. We cannot die to self as-we-are-goingabout life without a change to the way we live. Mission requires intentionality.

My life, as it normally goes, is about me. I go to a church that fits my preferences and feels comfortable to me. I live in a neighborhood that feels safe for me and my family. I prepare food that I like. I eat at restaurants that I prefer. I avoid people who make me uncomfortable. I value my time, my stuff, my ministry, my thoughts, my opinions, myself. I am not terribly different from you; I am not terribly egocentric – I am just being honest about myself. When I look at a photo, guess who I look for first?

The manner in which I go about my life is not wholly transformational nor on mission for Jesus. Yes, I may have a church meeting or ministry that I am involved in, but those are duties that fit within a scheduling block on my full calendar. As-you-are-going does not necessitate more meetings, small groups, or duties. Quite the opposite: As-you-are-goingtranscends scheduling. As a matter of fact, it necessitates a scheduling transcendence because it necessitates availability and spontaneity. If we take a moment to study the life and ministry of Jesus, which we cannot do here, we will discover that much of his ministry happened as he was going. It happened because he was available, he was interrupt-able, he was willing to be spontaneous.

Strangers do not follow our schedules, life does not cater to our wants or preferences, and mission happens in the midst of the messiness of our lives. So to protect ourselves, we create boxes. We are attracted to boxes. Boxes allow me to sing This World is not my Home on Sunday and spend Monday through Saturday storing up treasures on earth. Boxes allow me to act one way with my Christian family and another way with my coworkers. Boxes give me a freedom from accountability to my neighbor. Boxes make me feel safe. Terrifyingly, dying-to-self requires that our boxes to die along with us. This means that we are on mission every moment of every day, available to the Holy Spirit regardless of time, function, or location. We must allow our boxes to be taken down so that a holy availability can then stand. And where there is a person indwelt by the Spirit, available to his neighbor, there is a missionary. Mission becomes our identity. We become missionaries.

Mission Matters

I may have failed at attracting hordes of people to my soapbox sermons in Lisbon and I may fail in planting a church in downtown Vancouver. Death is the paradox of the Christian faith, is it not? “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies…” Through Christ’s death, we find life. Through our death, our neighbors find life. And through their death (celebrated in baptism), they will inherit life.

Mission matters. Mission is to attach the phrase “for the sake of the world” to the end of any Christian statement, structure, schedule, or plan. Mission is the invitation to be salt and light in our neighborhoods, at the car wash, at the café, at work, in the car, and in our Sunday worship gatherings.

Mission is to die to my own preferences in order to love my neighbors preferences more fully.

Mission is to listen first and answer later.

Mission is to heal the sick, care for the needy, mourn with those who mourn, celebrate with those who celebrate, to seek people of peace, to receive as well as give, to worship with our hands, our feet, our bodies, and even with our mouths.

Mission is to wait tables for the sake of the world, to sell homes for the sake of the world, to eat meals for the sake of the world, to gather on Sundays for the sake of the world, to live for the sake of the world.

Mission matters because we have been commissioned by the creator of the universe to partner with him in the unfolding of his alternative reality in our broken world.

So the question must be asked: Will you go on mission? Will you be on mission as you go?

And will you die trying?New Wineskins

Ryan and Jessica WoodsRyan Woods lives in Vancouver, WA where he is an associate minister at the Renovatus Church of Christ, a church plant that he and his wife helped to start in 2005. In 2011 he and his wife will lead a daughter church plant in the downtown district of Vancouver. This church plant will be a grassroots, neighborhood driven church where a group of dedicated Christ followers will live and die for the neighborhood until a sustainable church emerges. Ryan enjoys reading, gardening, coffee, and human interaction. He and his wife Jessica just celebrated their seventh year of marriage and have two kids. For more information you can read at [www.downtown.renovatus.com]  or write him at [ryan@renovatus.com].

Heresy

Posted on by
3

“Jesus reveals God to us; God does not reveal Jesus to us…We cannot deduce anything about Jesus from what we think we know about God; we must deduce everything about God from what we do know about Jesus…”

As a Christian Jesus is my ideal starting point. If I want to better understand the mystery of God I should seek to better understand Jesus. If I want to better understand the whole of Scripture I should seek to better understand Jesus. What does God feel and think about suffering? Look at Jesus. What does God feel or think about rejects and freaks? Look at Jesus. What does God think about money, materialism, and consumption? Look at Jesus.

Let me quickly add one caveat before I move on. Things are not simple! Just looking at Jesus is not simple. The reality is that I don’t have a clear picture of Jesus. I only see him through my own world view, through my own baggage. So while it is an incredible and difficult task in a sense to look at Jesus, I do believe that it is a forgiving task full of mercy and grace along the way. One of the beauties of following Him is that he knows my baggage, he knows my (in)ability to comprehend and understand who he is and what he is about. And most importantly he is able to meet me where I am at and create transformation and a new creation despite my ignorance or brokenness!

My purpose in this blog is to talk about church. If we are honest about ourselves we must accept the reality that most of what we practice and believe about church is solely taught or read about in the book of Acts and the letters in the latter half of the Bible. Very little of how we define and practice being the church is founded in our reading and understanding of Jesus. While I do not believe that Paul (who wrote many of those aforementioned letters) and Jesus would disagree with each other or throw down in fisticuffs if given the opportunity, I do think that we have improperly done our theology about church (in biblical theology circles this is called ecclesiology). Similar to how we try to fit Jesus into our understanding of God instead of the other way around, with church we have spent more time trying to fit Jesus into our understanding of Paul. Would things be different if we started with Jesus? Would things be different if we attempted to define what a movement of Jesus followers (church) would look like based on the life and ministry of Jesus himself and then look into Paul and the other New Testament writings to see what they came up with in doing the same process?

Take a step back and think about the early church. What did they have? They had the stories about Jesus. They had the Old Testament. They had their own context. And they had the working of the Holy Spirit. WE, on the other hand, get all that PLUS the stories of what those early faith communities did, what they struggled with, the questions they asked, and the dysfunctions they developed. If I created a formula to better describe how the early followers of Jesus came up with what church looked like, it might look like this:

  • Jesus + History (including the Old Testament) + Context + Spirit = first century church

Couldn’t you look at our churches, our ways of defining how to do church and suggest that our formula looks more like this:

  • Paul + your grandpa’s context + Spirit = western church

What if we tried to craft a different formula? Would church today look different if we made an authentic effort to live and practice out of this formula:

  • Jesus + Church History (including rest of Scripture) + OUR context + Spirit = ?

I’m no scholar, but I know that much of the early churches structures, practices, and disciplines were not new. They were things that they borrowed from out of their own context, history, and surrounding culture. They borrowed things that were of value in following Jesus. We, in turn, have made those things concrete. Have we made the wrong things concrete? Have we inadvertently practiced idolatry by elevating that which is not holy (the practices and structures) to a place of holiness? In Paul’s writings we see a community of people struggling with the equation, with the formula. In those writings we see the churches journey, their story, their “becoming”.

Have we I ignorantly tried to adopt their culture, their context, their problems, and their journey without following their lead? Would it not be more true to their journey, to Scripture, if I was to follow the early churches lead by looking at my Lord, looking at my context, looking at my story (history), and listening/looking for God’s untamed Spirit? I wonder what type of church I would end up with?

Sorry for the heresy. I’m an out loud processor, I grow most through dialog, through putting things out there that I may not even agree with…though, to be perfectly honest, I’m kind of liking what I’ve come up with.

Nick's Hallelujah

Posted on by
3

I have only known Nick for three months, but in three months he had become a part of our family. It was normal to have him randomly stop by our house, by the cafe I might be studying in, or to call at any hour of the day to talk. Come midnight we would always kick Nick out of our house so we could go to bed, but that would always translate into an extended conversation at our front door. Those nights (and there were many) were filled with conversations about theology, about Al Gore (whom he loved), about politics, family, faith, church planting, Bagby hotsprings, and everything in between.

It was right about midnight, the day before he died, that we stood at the door and he told us about a time where he almost killed himself driving around a corner on highway 14. We laughed, as usual, at his ridiculous stories that surprisingly always turned out to be true. Earlier on that same Sunday night we grilled Nick about how fast he was driving his new bike. We told him to slow down. My friend said to him “don’t make me go to your funeral”, and he responded by saying that the saddest thing about crashing would be the thought of his bike getting beat up. That’s just how Nick was.

I loved Nick because he was so raw, so authentic, and so passionately in love with Jesus. Don’t get me wrong, at times he could be a complete ass, but he was always the first to laughingly admit it in a proud fashion. It was in that spirit that he smiled as he showed us his shirt he wore that Sunday night at our churches worship gathering (it included the f* bomb) He always left us shaking our heads and smiling because he would say the most off the wall things, like when he said he thought Mother Teresa was in hell…umm…I hope he’s being proved wrong right now. He was passionate about being a missionary. As a recovering addict he saw himself as a missionary to his people, to addicts and homeless and broken people. You rarely saw Nick by himself, he was always inviting others, always bringing people along with him, he really was a missionary. In our short three months with him he went from wanting to be a missionary somewhere overseas, thinking that he had to go somewhere to make a difference, to passionately embracing the reality that God was using him here and now to change peoples lives. Because of that he was eager to plant a downtown church plant with us, a church that was focused on relationships, on loving every person because they’re loved by God. As a matter of fact, it was in our last moments with him that he kept pushing us to get moving with this church plant. He kept saying over and over again how he was ready to live in Christian community, how he wanted to start doing meals together a few times a week where we could invite neighbors and friends (ironically we talked about tonight being the first), and how we should start taking bums out for lunch together.

I love that for most of the Renovatus community the last words they heard from Nick was him yelling “Hallelujah” as he walked into our worship gathering late. It was loud and obnoxious, and genuine…it was totally Nick. The word “hallelujah” can be defined as an exclamation of “praise the Lord”, or more fully as what happens when you are so in love that you cannot help but burst in adoration toward your lover. This word might be the best description for Nick.

The best word to describe my house yesterday would be numb. We all just sat around, some of us crying on and off. We unloaded the dishwasher that was filled with the dishes from the dinner Nick made for us that Sunday night. On our house-mate’s desk sat a dvd that Nick was supposed to pick up on Monday, the day he died. The house seemed to linger with his absence.

I only knew Nick for three months, but in three months he became a dear friend. God’s people who are trying to live his kingdom within our messy world will miss Nicks presence terribly. I am not sad for Nick. I am sad for us, for the three churches he was involved in, for his friends who were in recovery with him, and for the ways God could have used him to be an agent of hope to the world.

Thank you God for giving my family three months of Nick. We feel blessed because of it.

Hallelujah!

Rumors of Success

Posted on by
2

I’m not huge into numbers, I think they motivate me too much and skew my perception of what is good and best. So don’t get too caught up in the numbers below, but read this message from Stan Granberg, executive director of Kairos Church Planting, and know that what Renovatus and the downtown Vancouver church plant Jess and I will lead are a part of something bigger, something that is changing the world, something that is…dare I say it… successful.

Easter Sunday, it’s a celebration of the resurrection power of God and it is one of two times each year we stand back for an objective look and let the numbers tell us how we’re doing. First I’ll give you the numbers, then a sense of what those numbers mean.

– 11 new churches reported, the oldest is 5 years old and the youngest 3 churches have not yet had their opening launch. – 1,169 is the average worship attendance in 2010. – 1,670 was Easter Sunday attendance. – 15 baptisms occurred the weeks prior to and following Easter.

Now here’s the perspective point. According to Outreach magazine, to make the 2009 list of America’s 100 fastest growing churches a church had to have “attendance greater than 1,000, a numerical gain of 300 or more, and a percentage gain of at least 5 percent.”

These 11 church plants have a combined average worship attendance of 1,169, they had 339 more people at Easter in 2010 than 2009, this was 25.5% higher than 2009 Easter and 30.5% higher than their 2010 worship attendance average! As a collective network (comparative to a multi-site church), these 11 churches would make America’s 100 fastest growing churches in 2010!

Now here’s the underlying story. About 50% of the people who are attending these 11 new churches would not have been in a church a year ago, or two years or three years ago. The amazing church planting couples leading these new churches are intentionally reaching for and gathering together God’s lost people. God is restoring his lost people into his great church family!

Thank you for supporting this amazing kingdom activity with your finances, your prayers and your attention. Next month look for the announcement of the “Ten for 10” prayer network. We’re looking for 1,000 people this year to join together in a regular, monthly concert of prayer on behalf of God’s lost people in America. We’re going to ask you to join this prayer endeavor with us.

Stan Granberg
Kairos executive director

Plea for Ukraine

Posted on by
1

You should read this short plea below and pray about possibly partnering with this good work in Ukraine. I’ve cut and pasted the text from an email I received from some old friends.

peace.

Hello, we are Brandon and Katie Price and we are trying to get to Kharkov, Ukraine to do mission work for five years. We still have a lot of money to raise before we can leave and so we are trying to get more people involved in helping us get there. If you’d be interested in helping, here’s what you can do:

  • Visit our blog, brandonandkatie.com, to learn more about us and the work we are wanting to be a part of.
  • Consider helping us achieve our financial goals by donating either one time or on a monthly basis.
  • Forward this message to everyone you can think of so that we can reach as many contacts as possible.
Please help us get the word out about our desire to move to Kharkov, Ukraine and to make disciples for God’s Kingdom. For any questions, please do not hesitate to send us an e-mail to pricebusiness@gmail.com!
Sincerely,
Brandon and Katie Price