Review: The Church As Movement by JR Woodward and Dan White, Jr.

In August, I received a copy of The Church As Movement: Starting and Sustaining Missional-Incarnational Communities by JR Woodward and Dan White, Jr. from their publisher, Intervarsity Press. I was excited to dig into the book as I have known JR for a long time, and I’m regularly impressed by his thoughts on church and faith. When I first met JR, he had recently transitioned from an incredibly successful church plant on the campus of Virginia Tech to starting a cluster of neighborhood churches in three different communities in Los Angeles. Since that time, he has been on the forefront of missiology and church planting in various contexts in the US and abroad. While I am not familiar with Dan White, I know that JR keeps company with many thoughtful individuals who are serious about a fresh embodiment of what it means to be a Christian. I have enjoyed many long conversations with JR through the years about living a deep and fulfilling life of faith and leading others to do the same, and I deeply appreciate his friendship, his example, and his words for fellow sojourners on the journey.  

The layout of The Church As Movement was not what I expected it to be. When looking at the cover and skimming the pages, this book is not just laying out some new theory on church-planting or comparing and contrasting styles of developing and cultivating faith communities (although there is some of both in its pages). Rather, the book is meant to be a workbook and a framework for mission focused faith communities who are serious about facilitating transformation in their neighborhoods and the world.

As I read through each section, I found myself laughing out loud at some metaphors, and quietly nodding my head in agreement at the ideas developed on the pages. I read it as someone already aligned with the concepts laid out in the text. JR and I have had many conversations (although we have not been able to connect directly for a few years) about how to facilitate growth of individuals and communities with a primary focus in depth.

The book is laid out as a series of chapter concepts and sub-concepts with a series of reflective questions at the end of each section. The questions are meant to help land concepts as well as perform self-assessment of the reader and his/her faith community. Each chapter’s questions drive toward discovering gaps and thinking through how to address potential pitfalls for an aspiring church planting team or existing faith community looking more seriously at how they can aspire to be a sign, a foretaste, and an instrument of God’s Kingdom come and will being done on earth as it is in heaven.

Are you looking for a personal or communal assessment tool for evaluating the strengths of your faith community? Are you trying to think about how you can take the Good News of Jesus into the world without being a clanging gong or without being obtuse? Are you curious about how to think about shifting your thinking about faith from an extraction or attraction mindset to an embodied and missional mindset? Do you want to learn more about how to lead as a team and not with a CEO mindset? Would you like to see your faith community develop into one that looks more like the early church? If you answered yes to any of these questions, or if you just want to take a look at different approaches to living out a life of faith in community, I believe you will appreciate The Church As Movement. I hope you will give it a read, and that it will stir your imagination to think about all that is possible for running strong in your personal and communal life of faith.

Ash Wednesday 2016 And Lenten Commitments

Each year, on Ash Wednesday millions of Christians around the world begin a pilgrimage of sorts. Ash Wednesday begins a period of intentional reflection and deeper identification with Jesus as individuals add disciplines or fast from certain foods or activities during the weeks leading up to Resurrection Sunday. For me personally, I have found Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season to be an incredible period for assessing where I am in my faith journey and for resetting or recalibrating my focus. It is so easy over the course of a year to become distracted or start a gradual or subtle slide into lethargy, complacency, or worse, and to lose sight of one's purpose or focus because of those urgent but often unimportant activities that can quickly swarm to drown out the voice of Jesus.

Today, I started Ash Wednesday in the way I have for many years, after a tradition instilled in me by my former chief. Although today was somewhat different because I did not actually make it to a gathering to receive ashes, I did carve out time in my early morning this morning, and my late evening last night to consider what I would be doing to grow in my faith and "journey with Jesus in the wilderness" during this season. Would I add to my devotional habits or practice self-denial in order to more fully connect and identify with Jesus during the weeks leading up to Easter?

Here is where I have landed. For the last eight years, I have walked through this book, Developing Intimacy With God by Alex Aronis. This book was suggested to me by a good friend of mine, JR Woodward, during the summer of 2008 as I was considering a potential shift in vocation. The book is an excellent framework for walking through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. After reading Aronis' book for the first time in 2008, I have gone through it at least once a year--usually during Lent. And, I plan on doing the same this year--that's my Lenten commitment.

Why do the same thing? I have found this book to be an incredible gift, far beyond what I would have considered when JR suggested it a few years ago. It has been a gift because it has helped me to cultivate greater simplicity and generosity in my life, and it has helped me to grow in my relationship with God. Each time I come to the book, it encourages me toward an abiding in Christ, and rather than concerning myself with what I can do for Christ, the exercises encourage me to simply spend time with Christ. In a world that is growing increasingly distracted and "busy," taking this time to reset and refocus has been transformative, and in my opinion, could be one of the best things we do for spiritual health.

What about you? Do you have any Lenten traditions you have or commitments you are making this year as you take time to identify with Jesus during his wilderness fast and journey to the cross?

May each of us who participate in this ancient tradition grow in the depth of our love for God and neighbor, and may this growth spill over into action for the good of the world.

Creating A Missional Culture

JR Woodward’s CreatingA Missional Culture is a book that I have anticipated reading for a long time.  JR has been discussing and testing the content of this book for the last ten years as he has worked together with multiple teams to lead a missional faith community called Kairos in southern California, and has also deployed his skills in an effort to build a missional network of churches called Ecclesia as well.

The book is a mix of personal narrative, theory, practice, and a proposed alternative and unconventional structure for churches. The proposed alternative was precipitated by an array of experiences and data reflecting high levels of burn-out among modern vocational ministers, and what Woodword points to as a need for plurality to insure that the local expression of the church can be all that it is meant to be.

For me, this book could serve as a handbook for much of what I attempted to cultivate in faith communities of college students in Morgantown, WV. As I read chapter after chapter, I felt affirmed and encouraged to read that our local way of “being” church was in-step with concepts generated by JR and others who are part of the Ecclesia Network.

The book is broken into sections to help a church begin thinking through how it can become more missional in its focus.  It also has a series of chapters dedicated to five key types of leaders Woodward believes help a local community be all that it can be in Christ. These practitioners/leaders are people who work together to help the larger faith community discover their calling, seek justice, experience healing, contextualize the Gospel, and grow in their understanding of scripture.  He uses new terms to talk about equippers mentioned in Ephesians 4 apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher, because depending on denominational background and perspective, these terms can mean something very different. In his book, he also charts a path forward for communities seeking to move toward a polycentric leadership structure.

JR’s book falls in a similar category to South African born writer Alan Hirsch’s writings about the five equipping gifts and a need for plurality in leadership, and I believe the two are friends. That being said, JR offers a quality handbook that moves quickly beyond theory to practical steps a faith community can take to move toward a more polycentric leadership structure.  He even includes a reference form that can be used to assess potential leaders/equippers for their strengths and qualifications for leading as an equipper.

I would recommend this book for church planters as well as people in vocational ministry who are looking for a more team oriented approach to leading their faith communities.  It is an informative book, and was written by a person who walks the talk and has been doing so for several years. 

Going Viral With The Good News

ViralHope at Live LA Church, originally uploaded by dream awakener.

My good friend JR Woodward just compiled and edited a wonderful book. I think it is actually the first publication of Ecclesia Press which is the publication arm of the Ecclesia Network, a church planting network started by JR, Chris Backert, Jim Pace and a few sundry other friends who love Jesus. If you are interested in learning more about planting churches, or getting networked in a group that is highly thoughtful in it’s practice and execution of church, I highly recommend Ecclesia.
I also highly recommend JR’s book, Viral Hope: Good News From The Urbs to the Burbs. It’s a delightful book, and it can easily be read in an afternoon or over a longer period. It’s a series of short essays written by fifty different authors from around the world. Each author was charged with the challenge of summarizing “What is the Good News?” and to consider the audience being a local newspaper.
What came out of the exercise was a beautiful picture of the beauty and diversity of the Gospel as it makes it is translated from community to community in a unique way.
I love the title of the book as well—viral hope. Often in today’s world we talk about viral movements and we mean something either really bad or really good. When something “goes viral” it spreads really quickly and viruses themselves tend to adapt as they spread from location to location—all without compromising the integrity of the virus itself.
So we all know how viruses can spread, but what about hope. What if hope spread like a virus. What if hope passed from community to community adapting and getting stronger as it spread? What if instead of massive amounts of negativity in the world there was a massive movement of hope?
When Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God, he talked about it in terms of hope, but he also talked about it spreading really quickly—like yeast working it’s way through dough, or like a tiny seed that grows into a tree where all of the birds of the air can find rest and make their homes.
I highly recommend you read this book—it was originally intended to be read between Easter and Pentecost, but it could be read any time during the year. It could also be read in a group as well. Maybe a group could read to each other as they gathered in a home or another relaxing space.
I also highly recommend that you consider the question as well. What is the good news? What would it look like if the Kingdom of God broke forth in your workplace, in your classroom, your home, or even your city? Personally, I think it’s a good question for any Christian anywhere to strive to answer. What does it look like for the Gospel to take root in your community? What differences should we see? What would it look like to be “infected?”
I hope you will give some thought today about how you might see this message of hope spread like a virus in your community and beyond.

Cooking with Jesus

JR and Lenny, originally uploaded by chanchanchepon.

While JR was showing us around town, we stopped at his church in East Hollywood and he gave my dad a tour of the space. As we were walking around he introduced us to a guy named lenny who fixes two meals a day for the homeless people in the neighborhood. Lenny was a really cool guy who’s passion for Jesus shined through during our conversation. While I would like to capture for you everything he said during our short exchange, I’m afraid it would be extremely difficult, so I will just touch on highlights.

Lenny explained to us that he had been doing this ministry for a long while and that he was amazed at the food that was produced because with his limited ingredients, he couldn’t make food that tasted so good. But he was not alone in the kitchen. He was cooking with Jesus, and he said that Jesus made every meal very special and added something special to the meals to make them taste so good.

Lenny talked about cleanliness, and how much easier it is to keep something clean than it is to let it get really dirty and try to clean it. I feel like different area’s of my life have been a testimony to both sides of this story over the years too. Lenny provided me with a good reminder to keep on top of things the best I can. He said that as we let things go that they become burdens, and Jesus didn’t come for us to have burdens. We experience freedom when we don’t allow burdens to pile up on us day-by-day. Pretty cool insight.

As we talked Lenny shared with me a fresh insight with regard to the Bible being the “living Word”. He said that one of the ways the Bible comes alive is through us. You see we give the words life when we live them out. When we become advocates for the poor, or when we take the time to care for someone who feels like they can’t be cared for, we make the word of God come alive for that person. Sometimes I think we can get so self-centered in our faith that we forget about caring for this good world that God that has made, and all of those who inhabit it.

A few years ago, Lenny started cooking two meals a day for homeless people in East Hollywood. When he started, there were about 25 people each week who would come out. Actually, he said it was twenty five total people coming, but it was really the same five guys who all lived near the church. Sometimes only one or two would make it to a meal because the others were drunk and hungover. But Lenny labored, and shared His faith with these men and impacted them—one by one. And now, today, Lenny cooks food for about 60 different people each meal. God has expanded his ability to give, to care, and to impact the city with his meal ministry. He started the ministry, and he continues the ministry as a way of being Jesus to the world, and sharing His love and His hope in his neighborhood and beyond.

When we do care for the poor, the suffering, the downtrodden, the lonely, and the hurting in obedience to Jesus, we become his hands and feet to the world. We become the only Bible that many people read, and we change the landscape. Personally, I think the world needs to see more people who have trusted Jesus for their salvation being Jesus to the world around them. How are you being Jesus in your neighborhood?

Lord Reign In Me

I've really been thinking a lot about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, and what it means to be living in the Kingdom of God. Many people have written books about the subject, but it is a very radical concept, and one that finds a hard time getting a voice in a world with so many other competing voices and competing kingdoms. There are so many other teachers that people are following. Jesus says that his yoke is easy, and at the same time it demands that we take up our cross. The first part of that last sentence is very comforting to me and the second part is world shaking, but we must consider them both if we are to follow Jesus.

I've also been thinking about vision and the future of our campus church in Morgantown. I get these ideas, and I just want to run somewhere to write them down, but I have had minimal access to a computer, and minimal time for writing. Thankfully, I have had time to think and reflect. I have also been able to spend more time in prayer. Rather than running to write down ideas, they are getting more and more time to "percolate." I have been praying for each member of our church, and also for many people who have very little, if anything, to do with our small faith community.

This time in Amsterdam has been exhausting at times, and extremely refining. I believe that the Lord is sustaining me through His Spirit and your prayers (so keep it up!). The name of the conference is Awaken, and I feel like God is stirring me personnally very deeply. Ephesians says "Awake sleeper and rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you." Ironically, this verse has not been quoted in the conference, but it is one that God keeps bringing to my mind.

At the conference there are people from Poland, Ukraine, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Canada, United States, and the Shawnee Nation (can I get a whoop for the Shawnee people?) It has been amazing to be packed in a small room (maybe half the size of the sanctuary at the waterhouse) with 250 people speaking and singing in many languages).

I have heard some of the best teachings during the conference so far. My friend JR gave the best talk I think he has ever given (or at least the best one I have ever heard) last night. I only heard the last part of it, but it was really compelling.

Take some time today and reflect on what following Jesus means. Maybe God also wants to speak to you about new ways you can begin to follow Jesus as well.