The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community
Hugh Halter & Matt Smay

Jossey-Bass—Church Ministry | Leadership
179 pages

The Kingdom of God is not the property nor the sole possession of the church (institutional or organic), rather the church is the property of the Kingdom, and it is the church’s responsibility not to exploit but to extol the Kingdom in all of its glory. Could it be that this is where the church (institutional and organic) lose the focus? That somehow we see the Kingdom as a means to our end, the purveyor of our own self-fulfillment residing completely within the church as opposed to our residence within the Kingdom that is revealed throughout the world? These are the initial questions that I am wrestling with…

At the end of chapter 1, Smay posses the question: Describe some times in your life when you’ve wanted to tap out on God and the activities of the church. Talk about a loaded question! As I thought through my time as a “professional” Christian, there are three distinct times that I have felt a strong, strong desire to simply throw my hands in the air, say “f*ck it all!” and walk away. I have not had the easiest time in ministry, however at each and every stage, through every single turn, I have found God sitting with outstretched arms simply beckoning me to “come” and rest. And I am extremely glad that I have listened, fallen into his arms and allowed him to challenge me once again to continue on in his grace (”my grace is sufficient!”). This isn’t the end of the journey, and it certainly won’t get any easier… however He will continually be there at every step, waiting.

It’s not hard to understand why so many are walking away from the church, the statistics are startling, and as Clegg & Bird state (as quoted on page 12)

The inescapable conclusion is that we must throw out any notion that God is truly at the center of the church’s heart in North America. The shift in society’s view of the church has resulted in the marginalization of the church and the secularization of society. Christianity has lost its place at the center of American life. Christians must learn how to live the gospel as a distinct people who no longer occupy the center of society. We must learn to build relational bridges.”

I love that line: “Christians must learn how to live the gospel as a distinct people who no longer occupy the center of society.” (emphasis mine) I find that absolutely fascinating, brilliant and eerily similar to St. Francis, “Preach the gospel always and if necessary use words,” the mantra of the incarnational church. Talk about the need to understand the issues of contextualization! Halter continues: “…something must change to reverse the trends. We need to start by doing some of the things we haven’t been doing, and we must stop doing some things that we have been doing. The world around us is growing increasingly disinterested in our Christian story.”

Smay asks the question for reflection: “What are some of the ways you believe we’re losing our saltiness?” Now, honestly this could be an entire blog post, but for the sake of brevity I’ll narrow it down to the issue of evangelism. I believe the way we “communicate” the gospel (skywriters scrawling “Jesus loves you” in the sky; tracks that look like money left as tips to waiters and waitresses; bullhorns on the corner shouting “You’re going to hell!”; etc.) although they are the extreme cases, they are the picture our culture has of Christians. When we boil the gospel down to a “Get-out-of-Hell Free” card it begins to lose its effectiveness as a beautiful way to live amidst the destruction, pain and horror the world has to offer. The gospel is more than eternal destination—it’s about living beautifully… it’s about shalom.

Smay then concludes his reflecting questions with this dandy: “What do you think of the increasing disinterest of the culture towards church means for the future of the church?” My instant response was “GOOD!” I think it’s a good thing that culture has become disinterested in the church for one simple reason. It should (and I believe has to an extent) force the church to eventually begin understanding and dealing with contextualization issues! I believe that this could be the beginning of a re-awakening of the church, a great revival of sorts, right here in our midst—if and only if we are attentive to and receptive of the Spirit who is working among us. I truly wonder what this re-awakening and re-emergence of the (American) church will look like, and the amazing things that God has in store! We’re in store of a re-awakening or we’ll simply go the way of the Dodo… I’m hoping for a re-awakening!

Here’s part 1 of the three-part “Dude” series from the Exponential Conference.

Pt. 1 - Raising the money.

This was my first foray into the world of church planting conferences and boy was it a doozy! A week in beautiful, warm, sunny Orlando, Florida and and amazing thoughts and ideas from some of the foremost thinkers and practitioners of our day: Andy Stanley, Rick Warren, Tim Keller, Alan Hirsch, Dave Ferguson, Efrem Smith, Ed Stetzer and a fantastic collection of others! (Once the podcasts are available, I’ll be sure to post a link for all to listen!)

My favorite sessions were led by Tim Keller, one a breakout in the Reproducing Church track as he espoused the beauty of the gospel, the need for and characteristics of revival and the then immediately went into his main session talk bringing about an even fuller view of the gospel (the tripod view). (Much of which can be found in his article in the newest Leadership Magazine.) Keller was certainly introduced in a unique and exciting way by Community Christian Church’s very own Eric Bramlett. “Tim Keller will redeem the day!”

From my perspective, Rick Warren was probably the most disappointing speaker of the conference. I was looking forward to hearing what he had to say, the challenge, the encouragement and the gusto with which he would send us out to take the world… but unfortunately he missed the mark. You could politely say “It wasn’t what I was expected” and leave it at that… but I would like to hear from those of you that were there and see if I’m just being a little ungracious… so allow me to give a brief rundown of my reflections.

The first thing that didn’t help things out was hearing the talk given on Wednesday night at the NewThing dinner, and then hearing it exactly again (same jokes and all) on Thursday afternoon. Immediately I went into a hyper-critical mode as I listened to him once again repeat his resume of accomplishments (a repetition of numbers, and claims unique to Saddleback) world-leaders he has met, spoken with and worked with in forums. My initial thought was “We know who you are… we know your story, just get down to business.” It felt almost like he was bragging in some way and extremely untruthful as he made claims like: “Saddleback was the first church with a website; the first to use the fax machine; the church with the largest population of millennial’s in the country; etc, etc, etc.” I struggled to listen from there… but it was simply repetitive. It almost felt as if he were under-prepared or not really all that into what he was doing—like it was second hat. Again, it is possible that I am being very ungracious… what were some of your thoughts? I did, however, appreciate his praying for all the church planters, and their spouses.

The conference was a great time of networking, reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones! I am amazed at how God continues to pull things together towards San Francisco—and this conference continued to re-iterrate that God is at work. I am very much looking forward to next year, another great learning party, and the chance to share our story in San Francisco with as many people as possible!

The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community
Hugh Halter & Matt Smay

Jossey-Bass—Church Ministry | Leadership
179 pages

While at the Exponential Conference I stumbled across this book and was immediately captivated by the title: The Tangible Kingdom—Creating Incarnational Community: The Posture and Practice of Ancient Church Now. I had never heard of the authors, Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, but with the endorsement of Reggie McNeal (who wrote the forward) and The Leadership Network, I figured it’d be worth a shot. So, I picked it up and began reading… I haven’t been able to put it down yet! It’s an absolutely fascinating book full of exciting and thought provoking lines that have made me realize that instead of flying through the book and moving on, I need to savor it and truly spend some time reflecting on the content and questions at the end of each chapter. I truly want to learn and explore this idea of incarnational community.

So, in order to truly savor this book I’m going to blog through the book. (I’m not sure I’ve ever done this before—and if I have it’s been quite some time!) So, in order to take it slow I’ll only read 2 chapters a day (there are 21 chapters total) and spend the next two weeks posting a segment a day of my reflections of the chapters and questions at the end. I’ll post quotes and thoughts and hope that you’ll interact with me throughout. If you feel so inclined to run out and buy the book and join me that would be fantastic! I’ll be posting the first reflection on Wednesday, so join me in this journey of learning and attempting to understand a bit more about this thing called incarnational community.

Community Christian Church in Naperville is holding their annual Kingdom 5k run/walk next Saturday, April 26th. Today I was told that the proceeds of this race will go to benefit the San Francisco Project! We are very excited and extremely thankful!

So, if you’re in the Chicago-land area and are looking for a timed CARA race, or for a great start to the running season you can register by clicking on the logo to the left. Also at the site you can learn of all the prizes and different ways you can participate in this exciting event and ultimately through this event help people find their way back to God!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

The new website for the San Francisco Project (our church planting venture) is up and running! It’s compete with an RSS feed, updates and information on the project. It’s taken a couple of weeks to complete, hence the lack of posting here. Things should get back to normal in the next day or so!

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Also, the NewThing tab up at the top will be changing over to a direct link to the San Francisco Project soon…

Community Christian Church is up to something big… really big. In fact, something that’s fairly unheard of in a mega-church. On April 19-20, the offering collected that morning will be given away—all of it. For the past couple of months we’ve been talking about this and making preparations for a huge response from people as we’ve given them the option to join one of four teams: the Uganda Team, the Philippines Team, the East Aurora Team, and the NewThing Team.

The Ugandan Team will be using the money pledged to them to start a reproducing church in an impoverished village in Uganda that will eradicate poverty, and reproduce themselves into another village and so forth. The Philippines Team is set to do something very similar in partnership with Frontline Ministries in the Philippines. The East Aurora Team is set to do the exact same thing in East Aurora, which maintains the the highest population of Latinos outside of East L.A. It’s a highly impoverished area, and the dream is to work in partnership with Community 4:12. The NewThing Team is set to launch multiple reproducing churches around the country and throughout the world in partnership with a vast array of church planting organizations.

This is going to be an amazing experience, all with “reproducing” as the key element running through them all.

I had the opportunity this past weekend to speak at the NewThing vision dinner and share a little about my experience here at Community as well as share what we’ll be doing in San Francisco. It was one of the most exciting experiences of my life, where for the first time I was able to communicate to over 100 people, in a public setting, the dreams and visions behind The San Francisco Project. All of a sudden, this thing is getting more and more real with every passing day!

I’ll update you on the offering totals for this in a couple of weeks when the final tally is in!

Revolutionaries Syncroblog.
(Read introductory post for details and more great posts on the subject)

As I looked back over 9 years of ministry (a “professional christian” as some may say) I am amazed that I’m still at it. You could say that I’m a glutton for punishment, that I tend to find myself, more often than not, in some of the worst ministry situations imaginable each progressively worse than its predecessor. It feels as if I have been continually battered and beaten, each time progressively cutting deeper and deeper into my ravaged soul. The stories of pain, and trauma becoming more and more unbelievable with each passing season. It feels as if my spirit, my heart, and my passion have been consistently abused in an attempt to destroy the fiber of hope that lay deep within. In fact, a dear friend and mentor once made the hard observation/comparison that my relationship to the traditional/institutional church is like the woman in an abusive relationship that keeps going back determined that he is going to change… So why have I stayed?

I have found myself in some of the worst situations not because I actively seek them out, but rather, because I long to see change in the church. I desperately want the traditional/institutional church to be the fully-realized, incarnational hope of the world—the beautiful bride of Christ that she was intended to be! There is a deep desire and an everlasting sense of optimism within my soul that has never quite shriveled up no matter how tough the circumstances; this keeps pushing me to see the traditional church for what she was meant to be… the embodiment of Christ on Earth revealing the mysteries of the Kingdom.

Although this eternal optimism has driven me to stay, it’s been a few key relationships in my life that has given me the proper perspective in making it through the hard times. If my friend Gentry hadn’t been there to listen and offer his prayers, allow me a place to get away from the situation and explore my dark night of the soul; if it hadn’t been for my mentor Hank and his “kick in the pants”, the constant encouragement of my parents and the support from so many others I’m not sure I would have stayed… I’m not sure I would’ve made it. The people that I allowed in, the people that I allowed to experience these things with me have been the greatest God-send of all. If it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t have experienced the greatest season of healing and ministry of my life.

For nearly a year I have been at Community Christian Church being allowed to heal from the past, serve on my own terms and timetable, and prepared for a new phase of ministry… planting a reproducing church in San Francisco. My experiences here have given me a new, broader sense of hope in the church, a feeling of excitement in what is next and what is possible, and a belief that the institutional church can change the world. These are the experiences that I hope to carry with me as I continue this journey in the institutional church.

Ultimately, this is why I have stayed.

I’m writing this from the front seat of a packed out charter bus (Fung Wah—a charter bust that takes you from China Town Boston to China Town NYC) and it’s certainly an interesting experience. All around me are people of different ethnicities, speaking in different dialects and languages on their cell phones and in conversation… it’s like I’ve somehow entered into a Pentecostal worship service and everyone is speaking in tongues. It is, however, an amazing experience nonetheless to hear so many people from all over the world come together to travel the same stretch of road.

I wish this bus was more indicative of what local expressions of the church look like. I wish that we could break through the cultural and ethnic lines that keep us separated and somehow come together as one, journeying along the same road towards revealing and proclaiming the Kingdom to the world.

I think that this is a unique issue specifically for the American church at large to take on. We are (as a country) the melting-pot of the world comprised of so many different nationalities, ethnicities, and cultures, and perhaps (in my estimation) the only country in the world like this. This presents a unique opportunity for us to do something remarkable as local expressions of the body of Christ.

I’m not exactly sure how to break through these lines, but we will certainly be attempting such a feat in the very ethnically diverse city of San Francisco where to be Caucasian is no longer the majority (46% vs. 54%)—a growing trend in cities and urban centers all over the country. Times are changing, and I’m excited to see what this next move of ethnically and culturally diverse churches will bring about.

The purpose of my trip to Seattle was to attend a training event put on by Nexus and hosted by the CEA called The Art of the Start. For four days we interacted with church planters and the material being presented in preparation for planting a church in our various contexts. It was truly one of the most beneficial events I could have ever attended and I would highly recommend it for anyone that is preparing to or thinking about planting a church.

I was able to meet several different planters that are planting around San Diego, Los Angeles, Oregon, Seattle, and in the Bay Area and it was fantastic to network and learn from each of these new planters. I am certainly looking forward to future conversations with them.

Perhaps one of the most interesting and inspiring (?) moments was as I was leaving the conference. I said goodbye to a group of about 4 planters and as I made my way out of the room still within earshot I heard one of them say, “He’s going to plant a church in San Francisco…he’s got guts.” I’m not sure guts would be the right term, sheer naivete would might fit better.

Also while I was there I had a great opportunity to connect with a couple of other church planting organizations that reside on the West Coast and cast the vision for what the San Francisco Project is all about. There is the possibility of a partnership with all the West Coast church planting organizations on the horizon, which could be a beautiful thing! We’ll just have to wait and see what God has in store!

The launch of a brand new church in San Francisco is just a little under a year away… and I couldn’t be more excited… or terrified at the same time!

From here on till the end of the month, I’ll be traveling… and I’m really looking forward to it! It’s a trip devoted solely to learning about church-planting!

I fly out today to Seattle for a conference entitled “The Art of the Start” put on by Phil Claycomb and Nexus geared to helping church planters get up and off the ground in a healthy, positive and successful way. I’m really looking forward to it and getting out of the fog that this initial phase of “planter-dom” (pronounced and understood as: “planter-dumb”) has brought. I have found myself overwhelmed, confused, and ultimately lost in thinking through what’s next. This should help lift me out of that fog in a great way!

From Seattle, I fly home landing at midnight on Friday, only to come home grab a couple hours of shut-eye and head out to the airport again at 4:30 am to fly to Boston! Tracy will be accompanying me for a part of this trip as we’ll be spending Easter with Hank Wilson and the Reunion Christian Church team! They meet in the Back Bay of Boston and launched just a little over a year ago. They’ve already multiplied to 2 services, are averaging over 250 in attendance and have had several baptisms (6, I think). I’m looking forward to observing how they do what they do, asking a multitude of questions and taking the newfound wisdom from Seattle and Boston to pull me a little more out of my fog!

From Boston, I hope a charter bus ($15–who knew!) down to the Big Apple in the heart of Manhattan to spend the remainder of my time with Brian Moll, Caren Fog and the rest of the team at Forefront Church. I’ve never been to New York City before and I’m really looking forward to it!

Forefront has been around for a little over 3 years and are meeting in the Blender Theatre… averaging over 300… and have also had a number of baptisms throughout the course of the past year. I’m looking forward to observing how they do what they do, asking a multitude of questions and gleaning all the wisdom and insight that I possibly can especially as it relates to missiology in the urban center.

Both of these churches are a part of the NewThing Network, of which I too will be a part of in San Francisco. I’m so thankful that I get to be a part of such a successful, healthy, ground-breaking, and innovative movement of church plants in this country, and this world! (Yes, there’s a church plant in the Philippines!)

(I get back home on March 31st, at around 9pm…)

It’s been a really crazy couple of months, so I combined the February and March e-update into one.  It’s been emailed out to everyone, mailed out to the rest and is now available online to everyone else that would like to follow along…  just click here and find it at the bottom.