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Many of us have a gnostic view of money. Church planting good; fundraising bad. Preaching great; money evil. Pastoral ministry is truly spiritual, business, finance, and administration are sub-spiritual. This is not a biblical view of the world. We were baptised into one faith and one Lord who is both Creator and Redeemer. He is lord of the physical and lord of the spiritual. To quote Rob Bell, “Everything is spiritual for God.” Gnosticism is a dualistic philosophy that exalts the spiritual over the physical, the eternal over the ephemeral. The recent issue of Cutting Edge contains a series of article that address Church Planting and Money. The opening editorial reads:
ONE OF THE OLDEST ERRORS IN THE CHURCH IS FALSE DUALISM, PITTING “SPIRITUAL” REALITIES AGAINST MERE “EARTHLY” REALITY. IN THIS VIEW, PRAYER, BIBLE STUDY, AND CHURCH SERVICES ARE TRULY SPIRITUAL AND WORTHWHILE PURSUITS, WHILE DEALING WITH MONEY, ADMINISTRATION, OR LEGAL MATTERS ARE SEEN AS UNFORTUNATE REQUIREMENTS—DUTIES AT BEST, AND CORRUPTION AT WORST. WHILE YOU RARELY HEAR A PASTOR SAY “I HATE DEALING WITH PEOPLE’S PRAYER LIVES” OR “I HATE TEACHING THE BIBLE,” IT ISN’T UNCOMMON TO HEAR SOMEONE SAY “I HATE DEALING WITH MONEY” OR “I HATE ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS. (p.3)
Some of us need to repent of our dualism, of seeing God as sovereign and concerned only with our piety and not with our pocketbook. Some of us need to redeem our view of money with an understanding that the Gospel redeems consumers to spend, not just “spiritually” but practically. Our money should be governed by the gospel and move towards mission. But that is uncomfortable. We would rather live with the comforts of unspiritual spending, than invest our whole lives into the mission of God. Our idols of comfort, clothing, and standard of living hide beneath our functional gnosticism. God is calling us to repent and believe that Jesus is Lord over our entire lives, finances included, to bring us into a life of joyful giving and worship.
As I write this, Austin City Life is approximately 55% self-supporting, and our outside support is in decline. We have had public church gatherings for just over a year, though we existed in decentralized form for a year prior. We are experiencing gospel renewal, radical community, and growing mission. But is Jesus Lord of our finances, our budget, our discretionary income, our savings? We need to consult our hearts and our spending patterns to find out who really is lord of this part of our lives. We also need more financial support, to be a community that loves with our giving and not just with our being.
Pray. Repent. Give. Love. And enter into the joy of obedience to Jesus as Lord, and of full participation in his mission. For Jesus, everything is spiritual and nothing is gnostic.
Robie provides a stirring reminder of the humanity of church planting, especially for planter’s wives.
Boundless is running a new article (Failed Disciple), a version of a post I wrote a few weeks back on Creation Project called Confessions of a Failed Disciple. This article was adapted from the introduction to my forthcoming book Fight Club: Gospel-centered Discipleship, which is getting very close to being finished! An excerpt from the article:
“Along the way, I’ve come to understand that following Jesus alone is not really what it means to be a disciple. Both the church and the parachurch taught me that being a disciple means making disciples. I was told that this meant two primary things. First, I should be active in “sharing my faith.” Second, I should find Christians who are younger in the faith to tell and show what it means to be older in the faith.
It took me quite a while to realize that this practice of making disciples was incomplete. Making disciples requires not only “sharing my faith,” but also sharing my life — failures and successes, disobedience and obedience.
Making disciples is not code for evangelism, nor is it a spiritual system whereby professional Christians pass on best practices to novice Christians.”
We need the prayers (and the wisdom) of elderly saints. My wife has befriended an elderly saint. We will call her Emma. Robie visits Emma with our two kids. It’s good for them because the average age in our church is about 30. Emma seems to really enjoy their visits too. Recently, Emma sent Robie this email containing a prayer for our church:
Dear Robie and all,
In my quiet time today, I was reminded that God sent Ananias to a street called Straight. Also I was reminded of Luke 3: 4&5, ” The crooked shall become straight.” Then I praised God that you are going to the crooked to help them become straight! I’m believing God that He is changing East 6th St into a street called Straight,because of your ministry. Miss you. Blessings on you all!
Love, Emma
We need the missional prayers and insights of older saints. What an awesome prayer–that God would make straight the crooked street our church gathers on every Sunday, the infamous 6th St. We would appreciate your prayers as we move into more bars on 6th, prayers for the wisdom and power of the Spirit to engage the lostness in our city.
The Crazy Life of a Pastor’s Wife. That’s the name of my wife’s new blog. It’s candid and insightful. She also happens to be a church planter’s wife, which makes her double crazy. If you are a planter, and your wife doesn’t have a steady flow of fellowship with another planter’s wife, perhaps Robie’s thoughts will help fill some of the gap. Those kind of relationships are so important. If you’re a planter, her thoughts just might help you love your wife better, even to pastor better. Robie offers refreshing, challenging honesty wrapped around the gospel. Enjoy.
Due to the popularity of my 8 Ways to Easily Be Missional (and because I want to try out Scribd technology), I have included a downloadable version of the article below. Feel free to make as many copies as you like, provided the content is not substantially altered and proper credits are given.
Here are a few tips for early stage church planters on everything from fundraising to evangelism:
- Don’t forget to ask the pagans! If you are fundraising, remember that God used the pagan king Cyrus to fund the rebuilding of an entire city. He can definitely handle your church planting needs. Most pagans know more about your city than you do, and some of them love it more than you.
- Spend more time with people and less time with books in the first year of church planting. Learn your city, know its lostness, love your city, re-learn how to share the gospel in your context. Fall in love with your target people. The more you know and love them, the better your witness to the gospel will be, including your preaching.
- Identify the top 10 Obstacles to the Gospel in your Context. Don’t do this from the armchair, do it from anecdotes (conversations) and cultural exegesis (spending time in pockets of resistance or indifference).
- Identify the top 10 Obstacles to the Church in your Context. Anecdotes and exegesis. Learn the history of hypocrisy in your city or town so that you can apologize and distance yourself from mockeries of the Church. What do people think of when they think “church”? Have they ever gone to one? Why did they stop?
- Don’t spend ungodly amounts of money or time on developing your first website. It will all change anyway, several times. You should be with people, not websites and blogs (!). Here are two good, inexpensive web solutions for early stage church planting: Church Root & Clover Sites.
Video
- Mark Driscoll – “What Is the Church?“
- Tyler Jones – “The Resurgence of the Church“
- Bryan Chapell – “Communicating the Gospel Through Preaching“
- Matt Chandler – “Preaching the Gospel to the De-churched“
- Q & A with Chandler, Driscoll, and Chapell
- Ed Stetzer – “Keys to Understanding the Church and Kingdom“
- J. D. Greear – “Planting Is for Wimps: Revitalizing a Church Around the Gospel“
- Eric Mason – “The Ultimate Shepherd“
- Mark Driscoll – “Ministry Idolatry“
- John Piper – “Let the Nations Be Glad, Part 1“
- Danny Akin – “Marks of a Healthy Community of Faith“
- John Piper – “Let the Nations Be Glad, Part 2“
- Q & A with Piper, Driscoll, Greear, and Stetzer
Audio
- Mark Driscoll – “What Is the Church?“
- Tyler Jones – “The Resurgence of the Church“
- Bryan Chapell – “Communicating the Gospel Through Preaching“
- Matt Chandler – “Preaching the Gospel to the De-churched“
- Q & A with Chandler, Driscoll, and Chapell
- Ed Stetzer – “Keys to Understanding the Church and Kingdom“
- J. D. Greear – “Planting Is for Wimps: Revitalizing a Church Around the Gospel“
- Eric Mason – “The Ultimate Shepherd“
- Mark Driscoll – “Ministry Idolatry“
- John Piper – “Let the Nations Be Glad, Part 1“
- Danny Akin – “Marks of a Healthy Community of Faith“
- John Piper – “Let the Nations Be Glad, Part 2“
HT: Resurgence
I’m excited to announce the June 28 release of Austin City Life’s first worship cd One. You can preview the tracks at our ACL MySpace. The mp3s and chord charts will be available around June 28, (perhaps sooner). Keep an eye on the usual places: iTunes, CD Baby, Rhapsody, Noise Trade, and so on. You never know when stuff will leak out 
The EP is a product of worship from a community for a community. Each of our three worship leaders have contributed to this 6 song album, drawing on their unique gifts and artistry to produce songs that don’t quite fit within the usual worship stream. Some of the distinctives include:
- City focused
- Gospel-centered
- Martin Luther on the Spirit
- High Colossian Christology
- Ancient hymns to progressive tunes
- Reflective worship that builds and crescendos
- Integration of Gospel, Community, and Mission in the song writing
I hope you are compelled to worship God in all of life through the power of his Spirit in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ through this music. May we lift our voices and our hearts in Christ-cherishing praise all our days.
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