Putting the "Hip" in Church Planting Fellowships . . .

I'm Not Cool . . . and That's Getting to Be More and More Okay

     About ten years ago, I had the honor of serving for two years with Campus Crusade for Christ. (Yes, for the most part, I still refer to it as Crusade.) One of the tremendous blessings of serving with Crusade for that time period was working with some other Christians whom I still think of fondly. I remember there was a song that my good friend Seth and I latched on to for a little while by a guy named Scott Krippayne. The title, "I'm Not Cool," pretty much conveys the gist of the song. Scott Krippayne had come to the realization that a lack of coolness didn't ultimately undermine God's love for him. (If you want to check it out, I put a link to the song on YouTube at the end of this post.)

     The song gets across a pretty fundamental reality that should be held close to the heart of every Christian, not only because it's comforting to those of us who would rather go to a historical sight than Six Flags, but because it's biblical. And if that doesn't run like rebar through our lives as Christians, we better double-check what is, right? Being cool, hip, good looking - none of these things are commended to the church of Jesus Christ as being a focal point of our identity. If anything, we're given some pretty clear ideas that God delights to use those who aren't in those categories for the very purpose of showing how great He is through those whom the world at large would write off as unimportant, obscure, and undesirable. It's a hard thing keep in view when sin is in the business of self-promotion, but it's necessary. Which brings me to what this post is about - and what I'll be writing about over the next number of days in the hope that it resonates with some folks and provides perspective on what I believe is a subtle, yet pervasive issue affecting church planting fellowships in the United States.

Putting the "Hip" in Church Planting Fellowships

     I really need to kick this off by stating something with crystal clarity: I am thrilled at the resurgence of church planting as a focus among denominational and para-local church organizations. It's a blessing and I rejoice that there are more and more who are heeding a call to serve the cause of Christ by proclaiming the gospel to communities devoid of significant and faithful gospel witness. I have friends who have left and are leaving the "security" of other positions to pursue church planting in the very contexts that I'll be talking about here. Further, what I'm going to be discussing over the next handful of days isn't something that should be discarded as worthless or unworthy of pursuit. Let me write, in bold letters, that my desire is that we would become aware that an over-emphasis on a particular "kind" of person or subculture can have unwanted consequences that we would do well to check ourselves on. That's my disclaimer. So don't get hot under the collar because of stodgy old Chris. I hope that's clear at the outset and should be clear throughout the posts on this issue. Good deal? Alright.

     The posts to come will talk about specific aspects of the concern I'm voicing here, but today I'm giving the birds' eye view. It's been alluded to already in the bolded words above, but what my intent is over these posts concerns a pattern I've become concerned about lately for a few significant reasons. Essentially, what I've become troubled by is the increasing tendency among church planting fellowships over the past twenty-five years to focus church planting efforts on what are seen as majority or emerging subcultures. The efforts are put forth to send out a church planter who is passionate about - or identifies with - a particular subculture, in the hopes that the shared affinity, concerns, likes, appearance, clothes, you name it, will serve as a magnet to draw people into the new church. Take a guy who has a heart for evangelism and also happens to really like fishing and drop him off in Tomahawk, Wisconsin. That's a really boiled down, over-simplified idea of the approach.

     So what's wrong with it? Well, frankly, nothing - inherently. There isn't anything necessarily wrong with a church planter liking the same music or sports team as the folks he's seeking to reach. It can be an asset. However, the inherent non-issue can become a real issue fast. And the fact that is an issue can stay well under the radar screen until some damage has been done. So as we move into looking at this trend in church planting - particularly the unintended "side-effects," I want to pose a few questions to stir some thought related to why this inherently benign approach can quickly undercut some very important priorities of New Testament ministry:

• How does this square with Paul's missionary heart that reveals a design to maintain a gospel-centered focus and still work to serve "all people" in the proclamation of the gospel?
• Who decides what communities/subcultures are more or less in need of church planting? Should Anytown, which has 30,000 residents (20% of which are considered "aging") and an employment environment of low-mid income manufacturing and only two decent churches, be deprived of a gospel-centered church in favor of Cooltown, which has 50,000 residents, twenty decent churches, and a large percentage of unchurched baby boomers and tech professionals?
• When targeting subcultures, what can inevitably become the missional focus - the people in the subculture or proclaiming the gospel to the community as a whole?
• What happens to the non-targeted subcultures? Honestly speaking, are there many church planting initiatives seeking to incorporate the elderly? The "religious yet unsaved"? The home-bodies? The guys working shift jobs?
• When riding cultural trends, is there a danger of losing connection with the larger history of the church throughout the world?
• And finally, When church planting takes on this approach as an identity, is there a real danger to rely (inappropriately) more on these cultural affinities than on the power of the Holy Spirit to bring dead sinners to life and put their trust in the gospel of Jesus Christ?

     These questions are important. And again, they're not meant to lop off anyone's legs. But they are there to provoke some thought about why we do what we do and how we do it. By way of extension, most of these questions are equally applicable to existing local churches and the way we approach our "philosophy of ministry" in our relationship to ministry and culture. Over the next number of days, I want to draw out what I believe are some unintended, yet major consequences that attend an over-identifying our philosophy of ministry with the targeting of sub-cultures small and large. I do hope that this can be truly edifying and perhaps stir up some of us not to avoid church planting as a ministry, but to pursue church planting with even greater vigor and dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ.

As promised, here's the song "I'm Not Cool" by Scott Krippayne:

(I appreciate the reference to the bizarre nature of the El Camino.)

Book Review : Dangerous Calling : Paul David Tripp

One of the things I appreciate about having a library card is that I can go online and find repair manuals for cars, look at them for free, and save a chunk of money on a) taking a car to the mechanic and b) showing up at AutoZone and buying one. It's a nice perk of the whole public library system, because while I may be eminently unqualified to open my own repair shop, the fact that others know what they're doing gives me some confidence to not consign all of my car repair needs to a "professional." Because frankly, at the end of the day, some of these repairs just aren't that difficult if you follow the manual. You just have to trust that someone actually knows the vehicle enough to tell you what to do.

Paul Tripp writes repair manuals for people. Solidly grounded in Scripture, the man has written some profoundly helpful materials that combine wisdom gained over the years, a readable style, helpful examples, and well-applied exposition of the Word of God. I have yet to find something of his that is not worth consulting concerning the issue it addresses and would unhesitatingly recommend that any Christian pick up a copy of one of his books to work into a better understanding of their own heart and the precious and sometimes painful process of growing in godliness.

I was excited, then, when I saw that Dr. Tripp was releasing a book geared especially towards the issues that face men called to serve in pastoral ministry. And the title of the book hits the sweet spot for communicating the core reality that serving as a shepherd of God's people is not simply about "showing up." Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry is a book that begins to tackle some otherwise sorely unaddressed issues facing pastors (both vocational and "lay" elders, more on that in a bit). Some of the chapter titles include "Big Theological Brains and Heart Disease," "More than Knowledge and Skill," "The Missing Community," "Mediocrity," and "Self-Glory." Those are just some of the titles that give a hint about what's behind the door, while the other chapters get just as involved in addressing issues that pastors face, but are rarely warned of.

In essence, Dangerous Calling is the literary equivalent of a short-term mentoring relationship with a man who has faced these issues personally and seen them unfold as a counselor to both individual pastors and local churches dealing with them. Thinking back on reading through the book, I can almost picture Dr. Tripp sitting down across from me and talking through some of the most perilous issues pastors face with a good dose of personal care and an equal dose of "don't mess this up."

While addressed to pastors - and it really should be, so far as "contemporary" books are concerned, on the syllabus for any pastoral ministry course offered in seminary - the book is also aimed at elders (who are truly pastors of the local church, even if they're not paid for the service rendered), the wives of pastors, and pastoral search committees. For that matter, it would be decent reading for any Christian to understand the unique challenges facing pastors and, perhaps most importantly, what kind of expectations are fair in their relationship to the men called to serve as soul-shepherds.

My goal here is not to go into all the content found in the book because the vast majority of it is both necessary and well-stated. But I want to highlight a major purpose of the book that, in my eyes, should be held in view as a primary purpose of why reading this book should be on the assignment list for folks in the above-mentioned groups for the coming year. That purpose is to provide a biblical and realistic context for understanding the pressures, temptations, and fragility relating to men serving in the office of elder. Because in the final analysis, we all (pastors and non-pastors alike) bring some pretty strange assumptions to the table regarding what it means to keep watch over the precious entity called the local church. With an increasingly bizarre and counter-biblical character, the "evangelical" sub-culture simply doesn't provide a consistent display of pastoral service. And the very real experience of many professing Christians jumping from one church to another with near-regularity, it's just (with great sadness) not realistic anymore to expect deep relationships to exist between shepherds and sheep. Which makes it horribly difficult to expect that a sound regard for the pastor's role and responsibilities should be found among the majority of the folks pastoring and being pastored. It's sad, it's unfortunate, it's scary, but it's a reality that exists in the 21st century American church. And that makes Dr. Tripp's book a healthy dose of medicine to start treating an illness that is literally robbing the local church of health at the pace of an epidemic.

There is great content to be found here, from treating the pastor in his temptation to seek a small empire to the much neglected need for the pastor to see himself as another part of the body that functions by the same grace and according to the empowerment of the same Spirit that all other Christians do. The book is well-worth the time and money to pick up and read and highlight and share. Elders should discuss it together, wives should nab it off the bookshelf, and pastoral search committees should read it together before coming up with a job description and application. This is certainly one of the best books I've read on the heart of pastoral ministry and I highly recommend it. Thanks to the folks at Crossway for providing me a complimentary review copy, with no expectation of a positive review.

Book Review : Encounters with Jesus (Ancient Context, Ancient Faith) : Gary Burge

A prevalent term for conversion in the contemporary church (at least at the turn of the century) is someone "coming to know Jesus personally." When someone turns from their sin and puts their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for their righteousness, that person truly does come to know God in a personal way, as one claimed in the New Covenant and the indwelling, personal presence of the Holy Spirit. The Christian is someone who has come to know the God whom we had been at enmity with and come to know Him by His sovereign grace. So "knowing God" describes a change in relationship between the Christian and the Triune God. But a change in relationship sets the table for what follows in coming to know who God is, what He is like, and what He has done. Which is why we are greatly helped in applying ourselves to the great tasks of learning Scripture and learning about Scripture as it reveals to us the work and character of our great God.

Gary Burge's third entry in his series "Ancient Context, Ancient Faith" is entitled Encounters with Jesus and, like the previous two, the title doesn't veer much from accurately summing the book's content. Like the other two volumes, Encounters with Jesus is written in order to provide a better sense of the richness of Scripture by developing the context surrounding different passages or themes. And because reading about the Savior can help us, by grace, come to know Him better, this book can be particularly helpful for those looking for a more devotionally-applicable book supplying context to our understanding of Scripture.

The book is divided up into six chapters, the first of which is essentially an introduction. The first chapter opens by asking "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to encounter Jesus personally?" That question sets the tone well for and provides ample justification for remaining interested in this book that is uniquely devoted to developing the cultural context of five "major" encounters between individuals and the Savior recorded in the Gospel accounts.

The five encounters opened up by Dr. Burge in this volume involve:

• The woman with a chronic hemorrhage (as recorded in Matt. 9:18-26 & Mark 5:21-43)
• Zacchaeus the tax collector (as recorded in Luke 19:1-10)
• The Capernaum centurion (as recorded in Luke 7:1-10)
• The Samaritan woman at the well (as recorded in John 4:4-26)
• The Greek woman at Tyre (as recorded in Matt. 15:21-28 & Mark 7:24-30)

Dr. Burge, as a New Testament scholar, provides trustworthy background on these encounters while remaining accessible to Christians with little academic/theological background. The presence of pictures on so many pages gives a good visual sense to the reader, while Burge's language is engaging and keeps the chapters flowing well.

Altogether, this book sits right alongside the other two entries in the series offered by Dr. Burge previously (The Bible and the Land and Jesus, the Middle Eastern Storyteller) in this series. This book does a serviceable job in providing a better and accessible understanding of the cultural relationships that set the background for the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus poured out in the lives of certain individuals recorded in the Gospels. Hopefully that understanding pushes the reader to draw with greater expectancy to the throne of grace. Thanks to the folks at Zondervan for supplying me with a complimentary copy, without any expectation of a positive review.

Book Review : Jesus, the Middle Eastern Storyteller (Ancient Context, Ancient Faith) : Gary Burge

The broader series objective remains the same for this second book in the "Ancient Context, Ancient Faith" series, released by Zondervan.  Attempting to address deficiencies in Bible background held commonly by Christians without formal biblical training or sustained interest in issues of biblical culture and history, Gary Burge provides this second entry, Jesus, the Middle Eastern Storyteller, in order to meet what is a sure need in the evangelical church at large.  My earlier review of The Bible and the Land explains a bit more concerning the series, so the review for this and the remaining titles in the "Ancient Context, Ancient Faith" series will be much more brief and address the merits of the book individually and their value as an entry in the series.

Dr. Burge supplies fairly straightforward analyses of various story-types throughout this book, drawing primarily from the middle of Luke's Gospel, while also addressing Matthew's account of the parable of the unforgiving servant and a general introduction to the place of stories as a didactic method in first century Israel.  Overall, the book meets a place of need so far as the general topic of the book is concerned.  Sadly, many are easily persuaded to hold to some unhelpful cultural reinterpretations of Scripture, whether it be the vogue theologies of the day or outright liberal understandings of doctrine and Christology.  Because of this, to have a scholar like Burge provide an entry that would appeal to the desire for "unlocking hidden meanings" while supplying orthodox backgrounds to ground the reader is of great value.  Whether the reader is coming from a perspective needing significant correction or just wants to fill in some gaps, this book does a fine job serving the purpose of painting a helpful, biblical, and accurate picture concerning some of the central stories employed as teaching tools by the Savior.

The popularity of the stories addressed by Dr. Burge lends a particular degree of helpfulness to the level of applicability owned by the book.  Addressing parables from Luke 15 and the Good Samaritan has tremendous potential benefit because they are among the most (American) culturally popular passages to be found in the Gospels.  Because each chapter is under 20 pages in length, one sitting can yield a helpful amount of information without a great degree of time commitment on the part of the reader.  And, because Dr. Burge provides background without delving into bizarre assumptions or assessments found among other books attempting to account for the cultural context of Scripture, the content is orthodox.

By and large, this book would be a fine, inexpensive, and helpful addition to the library of any Christian wanting to squeeze a bit more out of some significant parable/story passages found in the Gospels.  My only complaint with the book is that it doesn't broaden its scope to include more from the other Gospels, particularly Matthew, which is, like Luke, heavily stocked with content that would fit the bill for Burge's stated aim of contextualizing the story content of the Gospels.  Nevertheless, the book does its job and does so in manageable, engaging, and helpful chapters that are accessible to a wide audience.

Book Review : A Theology of Luke and Acts (Biblical Theology of the New Testament) : Darrell Bock

When associating biblical scholars with their area of specialty, the realm of Lucan studies (at least in my mind) belongs to Darrell Bock.  His two volume commentaries on Luke and one volume on Acts in the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series are commonly regarded by conservative evangelical scholars as close to, if not the best available.  Bock's acquaintance with the Lucan material is unquestionably deep and his work on the material will most likely be, taken together, his magnum opus contribution to the field of biblical studies.  For depth of treatment and faithfulness in scholarship to Luke-Acts as the very Word of God, Bock is arguably the number one draft pick to take if treating the inspired physician's New Testament contributions is your priority.

In 2009, Andreas Kostenberger published the inaugural volume of a series plainly called Biblical Theology of the New Testament.  His contribution, which I have not finished reading, addresses a theology of John's Gospel and letters.  I found the portion of the book I've read to be helpful.  When I saw that Bock would be releasing the next volume in the series on Luke-Acts, I was excited and looked forward to reading a biblical theological treatment of Luke's NT contribution.

I began reading Bock's book, A Theology of Luke and Acts: God's Promised Program, Realized for All Nations, with high hopes.  And, altogether, the book doesn't disappoint in providing an encyclopedic treatment of the themes Dr. Bock writes about in his contribution to the BTNT series.  The book is, above all things, informative.  If you have a question about how Luke addresses a particular matter, consulting this volume could be a first stop for you.  That being said, I have to say I found it difficult to make it through the book for the following reasons:

1)  As noted, the book is informative.  It reads more as a reference volume and less as a contribution to a series that seeks to connect biblical theological dots.  This isn't a knock on the book as a matter of content, necessarily.  However, it is to say that it's not as engaging as I expected and doesn't provide as many new angles on biblical theology as I expected.  I'm certainly not looking for bizarre interpretations of texts, but I was hoping to be helped by a Lucan scholar to string things together in a more memorable way.  This, I suggest, is the primary weakness I found with the book.

2)  I was hoping to find Bock addressing some of the more controversial issues that find justification in Acts, particularly, from a solid biblical perspective.  The explosion of the charismatic movement over the past hundred years has given rise to a generation of Christians who have an understanding of Acts that is largely deficient.  It would have been very helpful for Bock to write more (as he does address it somewhat, though, in my opinion, not nearly enough) on the way that Acts functions as a descriptive/prescriptive book in relation to other portions of the Scriptures.  That would have probably been the most needed thing to take away from a book like this and I'm disappointed that it wasn't addressed, seeing as there is both a deep pastoral need and it fits within the parameters of a book devoted to addressing Luke's relationship to biblical theology.  After reading the book, this would be my primary request for something that wasn't handled and could/should have been.

These things being said, Bock does a fine job of presenting the material and staying in bounds with Luke-Acts.  His integrity as a Lucan scholar is clear throughout the book and he doesn't wander into unnecessary territory.  Apart from the above, there's not much one can find fault with in this book and it would do any man well who has a responsibility to preach or teach Luke and Acts to get a copy of this book to support that work.

Altogether, Dr. Bock's contribution to the Biblical Theology of the New Testament series was not as enjoyable as I expected, though it wasn't because the book veers off a cliff anywhere.  It just wasn't as readable.  As a reference volume, the book does a fine job (with the primary exception of my concern regarding the normative nature of Acts, particularly).  I would not recommend it as a book to "read through," but rather as a book to "consult," in order to give a healthier perspective on themes in Luke and Acts.  Thank you to the folks at Zondervan for providing a complimentary copy without expectation of a positive review.