Church Discipline Without Church Membership?

During the Total Church Conference, Steve Timmis shared that The Crowded House does church discipline without church membership. They advocate a culture of “gospeling” that promotes Jesus-centered discipline in little ways throughout the week. Apparently, this happens in their house church communities quite often.

He shared a story of a young woman who called him on the carpet for being impatient and touchy with someone on the telephone. He suggested that, done respectfully, this kind of “church discipline” should be normative in churches. Moreover, he argued that, if this church discipline method was normative, bigger church discipline issues could more easily be avoided. Provided that this is a gospel-centered phenomenon, I see some merit in it; however, I’m not quite ready to jettison church membership. Are you? Why or why not?

For more see the recent 9 Marks interview with Steve.

New Organic Resources

The Organic Leadership conference is Feb 19-21. Speakers include Neil Cole, Reggie McNeal, and Dave Gibbons. Cole and McNeal have some exciting new books coming out in early February:

Neil Cole: Organic Leadership : free excerpt

Reggie McNeal: Missional Renaissance

Let us know if you go!

Mission Meets Financial Crisis

During times of financial crises it is natural to slip into the self-preservation mode. We have a responsibility to provide for ourselves and our families. But what makes Christ-followers different is that our hearts and lives are shaped by the One who renounced self-preservation for the sake of our salvation. He was rich, but became poor so we could be enriched by his sacrificial love. As the people of God, we are called to be a community of radical generosity and hospitality. It is the poor in our city that might suffer most through these days. But, these times will give us amazing opportunities to exercise the radical generosity of the Gospel by giving, not simply out of our surplus, but sacrificially out of our limited resources. We will have amazing opportunities to show the hospitality of God by opening up our homes to those who might lose theirs. God forbid we should think only of ourselves and fail to love our city and those who live in it. But, with the mind of Christ, we will consider others more important than ourselves and look not only to our interest, but to the interest of others (Philippians 2:4).

By friend and colleague, JR Vassar. Read the rest.

Web Design

For anyone looking for website design, Austin local and planter, John Chandler does good work with Strange Idea Labs. Strange Idea Labs specialize in helping clients develop a web presence, brand identity, and printed materials.

While you are at it you might check out Sparo Design and Emblem Creative (who is designing our new website which I am very stoked about.)

Exegeting Your Culture

The more Austin planters I meet, the more I am encouraged about what God is doing in our city. Today I met Nathaniel Binion, lead planter for Kerygma. Nathan brings a good heart and head to Austin. I’m excited to see his plant unfold.

Another shameless plug for PlantR, newer planters have a great way reinvigorating older planters. They get more up-to-date stats and bring fresh ideas to the table. Older planters can pass on their experience and limited wisdom. The cross-pollination is critical for a flowering of the gospel in your city. As your plant grows, it is easy to assume you have “a handle” on the culture of your city, suburb, or whatever. A good missionary never arrives in cultural exegesis but is always exegeting their culture. To that end, here are some general and specific suggestions for continuing cultural exegesis:

• Ask your neighbors and fellow citizens lots of questions. Don’t interrogate them but show sincere, intentional interest in them and the info they possess. Anecdotal information about your city and fellow citizens is unbeatable. Ask them the what, how, and why questions: What do you think is broken in our neighborhood or city? What gets you excited about life? What do you think should be done about economic decline in our city? why do you drive across town to do X? why do you dislike traditional Christianity. Feel free to add to this in the comments.
• Read local, independent publications. Very often the stuff that looks like a waste of time contains some of the most clear voices from within your culture. Get local (not just national) opinions and reviews on movies, books, culture and politics. For Austin: Statesman, The Chronicle, Misprint, Austin 360 blog, the Austinist, etc. Feel free to add to this list in the comments.
• Gather historical information on your city and neighborhood. How did your city come to be the way it is? What political and cultural and economic issues have shaped the ethos and beliefs of your city? Read local authors and histories. Austin: Writing Austin’s Lives, History of Austin DVD, Bob Bullock History Museum, Neighborhood Assns, etc.
• Participate in local art, music, and business. Support local business, go to art shows, listen to local bands. Examples are endless in Austin.

PlantR: From Planting to Movement

It’s easy to get stuck planting your own church. With so much to do in the first couple of years, it’s difficult  to think beyond the boundaries of your own plant. The funny thing is that most church plant visions are bigger than their own church, like ours—“redemptively engaging peoples and cultures“? Or what about “To call every person to the Life Change found in Jesus Christ”? Yet, if our visions are going to translate into reality, planters need to work in partnership with like-minded leaders, churches, planters, and organizations to see their God-sized visions fulfilled.

In Austin, we are discovering planters who want to think beyond planting to city renewal. The remarkable level of kingdom-mindedness has fostered an attitude among planters that suggest moving from planting to movement is possible. With churches and plants partnering together, we envision a Christ-centered, context-sensitive church planting movement for social and spiritual renewal of Austin and beyond. This is the vision of PlantR, a trans-denominational network committed to helping church planters plant and reproduce healthy missional churches.

PlantR is coming into its first full year as a formal network. We have a lot of dreams about seeing this vision fulfilled. But what is most exciting is the people who are willing to partner across theological and denominational lines to bless a city in the name of Christ. Our cool new website, designed by John Chandler at Strange Idea Labs, is up and is filling out. Consider joining us by:

• Check out the site and adding it to your links
• Comment on the blog
• Joining the Network and participate in the Forums (on the way)
• Check out the church plant map
• Come to our first 2009 monthly meeting on Thursday, Jan 22.

We need your help to reach this city! Look for more thoughts to come on moving from planting to movement in the future. I will be co-leading a breakout on this topic at the Missional Community Leader Conference on Feb 6-7.

Interview w/ Steve Timmis (Total Church)

9 Marks is running an interview series with the British, insightful Steve Timmis, co-author of Total Church. Steve’s quotation of David Fairchild regarding the pastoral advantage of dialogical preaching is worth the whole interview:

Extended monologue can cause me to think about the sermon more than I think about the gospel and the people the gospel is for.  If I think of the people, I think about how I’m going to communicate the gospel to them.  If I think of the gospel, I think about how I am going to communicate the gospel to a particular people.  If I think about a sermon, I don’t much think about either of them at worst; at best I think about them as a sort of homiletical box to check.

Plant & Thrive: Acts 29 Conference

Plant & Thrive looks like it will be an immensely practical conference for guys checking out planting or already several years in. Check out the speaker line-up and topics:

Track 1 – For all potential A29 church planters

• Mark Driscoll
• Wayne Grudem – Gospel Centered Reformed Theology
• Danny Akin – Preaching the Gospel
• Scott Thomas – The Biblical Mandate on the Man
• Andreas Kostenberger – The Effects of Planting on Family & Self
• Mark Driscoll & Wayne Grudem – Q & A
• Tyler Jones – Mission Rises out of Community
• Ed Marcelle – Mission Rises out of Discipleship
• Daniel Montgomery – Our Mission
• Mark Driscoll

Track 2 - For planters in years 1-4

• Jason Roberts and Chris Atwell – Coaching Introduction
• Elliot Grudem – Leadership Development: Elders, Deacons, Volunteers
• Mark Driscoll – Q & A
• Jamie Munson & Nate Williams – Systems & Structures
• TBA – Strategic Planning
• Jamie Munson, et al. – Q & A
• TBA – Small Groups
• Chris Atwell – Assimilation to Membership
• Wayne Grudem – Q & A
• TBA – Children’s Ministry / Funding / Holistic Justice
• Jason Roberts – Debriefing: Long Term Implementation
• Mark Driscoll

Feb 4-5. More info here.

Hirsch vs. Stetzer on Ecclesiology

Here are a couple graphics that Ed and Alan use. They are helpful in clarifying their respective understandings of how christology, ecclesiology, and missiology relate. By the way, these guys are friends not foes, so I’m not trying to make them enemies (see Ed’s recent interview with Alan). I know you’ll appreciate that. Great discussion on the previous post.

Ed Stetzer

Alan Hirsch

Which Comes First: Ecclesiology or Missiology?

Alan Hirsch advocates that Missiology should shape Ecclesiology.

Christology → Missiology → Ecclesiology

Ed Stetzer advocates that Ecclesiology should precede Missiology.

Christology → Ecclesiology → Missiology

Which do you support and why?