Prayer walking

Yesterday I went for a prayer walk through downtown Helena. Up through the older, redeveloping Rodney Street neighborhood. Past the courthouse and so many law offices I had never noticed. Over to the Neighborhood Center and the Rocky Mountain Development Council. Down into Anchor Park and past the library. Into the walking mall and then on to Last Chance Gulch. Past restaurants, boutique shops, and banks.

I was tempted to head right into the Fire Tower coffee shop at that point. I could hear the call of the cappuccino. But I looked up, and God's Love, our homeless shelter was right before me. I kept walking, praying for the shelter and those people there, and headed down Helena Avenue. I cut over to the Great Northern Town Center and walked around those big, beautiful, new buildings.

On my walk I noticed homes and businesses, low rent apartments and upscale merchants. Walking in a prayerful attitude I certainly saw things in a new light. We've done a lot of talking about being a church for Helena; it was good to actually walk some of our streets and pray for our city.

Prayer is crucial. We keep saying that as we work on planting this church. But so often prayer is little more than a cliche. I remember long ago I saw a spoof in the satirical Christian magazine, The Door. It had a handy guide to help non-Christians understand Christian lingo; it translated Christian phrases into everyday language. And so what, according to The Door, does it mean when a Christian says, "I'll pray for you"? Nothing.

Ouch. But it only hurts because there's a kernel of truth it.

We cannot let prayer become a meaningless cliche or a merely good intention.

And so we're going to take our praying seriously. On Wednesday this week we'll meet to pray. And some of us will also be fasting that day as well.

If you are so moved, pray for us on Wednesday. Pray that God would refine our vision for this church. That God would give us great compassion for those he wants us to reach and those he wants us to serve. That we would become the people God designed us to be.

Stick a fork in me

We made it through. 11 teaching sessions. Breakout sessions. Q & A. Various discussions with our regional director of church planting. A meeting with the national director. Talking with other planters. Lots of note taking. Endless PowerPoint. Eating. Coffee. And occasionally stepping outside to see the sun.

Tomorrow we can actually sleep in, pack up and get on a plane. And we'll head back to Helena and have dinner with the rest of our core launch team.

So, for now, good night.

Day two data dump

Okay, we're all feeling a bit punchy after another drink from the fire hose today. Even the leaders of our training call this a big data dump. It's a lot of information. But it's been good.

Today we spent time focusing on developing those strong roots that will support our church plant. A huge realization for us was that we don't need to be ashamed of taking the time needed to develop a solid team of people to make sure that we launch well. It's very tempting to want to jump right into putting on a worship service. We heard story after story of church planters who took four, five, six months or more to get their core launch group developed and ready to go public.

We looked at the importance of truly understanding our community and its needs. We looked at having people with a variety of spiritual gifts. We looked at the kinds of people attracted to new churches. We looked at problems that can arise early on. We looked at criteria and benchmarks will help us determine when to take next steps. And on and on.

We also took time to get away from the big group and talk and pray together just as our team. This was huge. With so much information, we were starting to feel like we were swimming into deep waters, waters that were threatening to overwhelm us. It was a lot to take in. So it was good to step away, take a breath, pray, and encourage one another.

So now--time to get some rest and hit it again tomorrow.

Through Day One

What happens at church planting training? I'm glad you asked. I'm in Denver with three members of our new church's core group. There are about 15 other groups like ours from other Covenant church plants around the nation.

Our opening session was on the nature of the gospel. An hour-and-a-half on the gospel. Wait a minute? Isn't this a room full of pastors and committed Christians who should know what the gospel is all about?

True. Nevertheless, it was a great session to once again get ourselves focused on what the gospel is all about. The profound message of the saving grace of Jesus can get drowned in the million details of administrating church life. Jesus’ victory over Satan and the powers of darkness can be neglected in our scientific and rationalistic age. His work to change our hearts can be overshadowed by our culture’s proclivity toward self-help and pop-psychology. His call to minister to the oppressed and marginalized can be neglected as merely a social gospel and not really important in the face of eternal issues. And his establishment of his church can be belittled in our individualistic approach to spirituality.

The gospel is about more than just going to heaven when you die. The gospel is the forgiveness of sins. It’s the defeat of powerful spiritual enemies that seek our harm. It’s the change of hearts. It’s bringing blessing to the hurting and wounded, the outcast and oppressed. It’s the creation of new and true community.

So that’s how we got started. Our second session focused on prayer. This, too, was a great reminder, a wake up call. We can do all our research, get organized, and have the best plan, but it means little without prayer. Our team discussed ways we might commit to prayer and fasting as we proceed with our planting efforts. It was great to get motivated to make this a priority.

Session three put us face to face with the state of the church in America. Put bluntly, it’s not a pretty picture. The mainline denominations are hemorrhaging members and churches. Catholic churches are in decline. Evangelical churches are barely hanging on. Meanwhile, population is increasing, so the actual percentage of churches to population is in a kind of free-fall.

This dire picture quickly led to the case for church planting. This was kind of preaching to choir—virtually everyone at this training is either proceeding with or preparing for church planting. Still, it was great for all of the teams to see the case for what we’re doing.

We moved from the big, depressing, national picture to a look at our local contexts. We focused on how to look at where God has put us: what kind of people can we reach? What are the needs in the community? These and dozens of other questions can help us hone in on what our community is like and what kind of church God is calling us to be.

Our fourth and final session of the day was on outreach. If we relearned what the gospel was in the morning, we relearned what evangelism was all about in the afternoon. So often we think of evangelism as persuading someone to make a decision. Like it’s getting a hard drinking, wife-beating, tax-evading, atheist to fall on his knees and pray the sinner’s prayer. We so easily focus on that moment of decision to the exclusion of everything else. In this session we focused on helping people take one step closer to Christ—from wherever they are. Good, challenging stuff.

After these four sessions we met for prayer with other teams from our regions. And then we wrapped up with a big, gnarly Mexican dinner at Casa Bonita, which has to be seen to be believed. Cafeteria style Mexican food, complete with mariachi bands, high divers, and cheesy dramatics. Ole!

Getting rolling in Denver

So we're in Denver now and ready to begin our church planting conference. It's already been good to meet with others who are in similar places. Chris is a church planter in Bellingham, WA who's in a very similar situation to us. Kyle's a planter in Issaquah, WA and his church had their first service last week. We met a team of people from the Portland area who will be having their first service in late October. So it feels like we're in the right place.

Leaving on a jet plane

Today, four of us in the core group are heading to Denver for a Church Planting Training put on by our denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church. (No that is not Denver, but I did visit that beach this year. Pretty fun.) It will be a great time to learn, meet with other church planters, and refine our vision. We're all pretty excited.

I've had a few conversations with people lately about our plans to get our worship services happening. Our plan right now is to have one service in each of the coming three months. When I say this, sometimes I get the raised eyebrow response. And I understand that. People think pastors only work on Sundays. Apparently I'm only planning to work once a month!

This is where the planting imagery is helpful. Think of the public expression of the church--worship services, groups, outreach, ministries, service to the community, etc.--as the fruit. It's the good stuff. It's pleasing. It's tasty. Yum!

But in order to have fruit, there must be branches to support the fruit. There must be a trunk (or a vine) to support those branches. There must be roots to support the trunk. And there must be good soil to support the whole plant.

What happens if you focus on the fruit before the soil is tilled, the seed planted, and the trunk and branches have been established? You get a dead plant. If we put all our efforts into weekly worship right away, we'll never develop strong roots or branches. So in order to have a strong healthy plant, we're working behind the scenes to put together good systems and structures so that we will bear good fruit down the road.

What does this mean practically? This morning I met with Tony, who will be leading our worship. We spent a ninety minutes looking at our plans for communion, the use of scripture in worship, the value of liturgy and spontaneity, addressing the needs of children, etc.

Then I came back to my office and worked on my planning spreadsheet. We need to craft a communication plan for our worship (what kind of brochures or bulletins to use), figure out how to take offerings (and not lose track of the money), determine what children's materials to use, get communion ware, find a screen, get some music stands, make a plan for refreshments, confirm our location space and worship time, figure out how to follow up with people... There's a lot to do. Oh, and I'll also need to write a sermon.

Now, don't misunderstand me. We're all busy. We all have long lists of things to do. My point here is that we're starting from scratch. When established churches put on worship services every week, they're not having to invent all of the infrastructure each time. We're like a theatre troupe that has just gotten together. We're still just looking at scripts. Heck, we're still learning each other's last names. Our worship services coming up this year are like rehearsals. Of course we want to have everything together right away, but undoubtedly we'll be learning what will and won't work as we go.

So we're off to Denver. To learn from those who have gone before us. To see things that work. And to find out what doesn't. It's like a big bag of fertilizer for our plant.

Closing in on a space

We're this close to getting a location for our first worship services nailed down. We had an encouraging meeting with a potential landlord; hopefully the final details will come together.

Establishing a new church doesn't happen over night. We don't just start having full-on worship services all the time right away. We don't roll out Sunday school and small groups and midweek ministries and everything else on the first day.

Right now we're taking the time to figure out what all of those things could look like at the new church. And we won't even have it all determined at our first worship service. Things come together a piece at a time.

But it's exciting to see this piece--our initial worship location--coming into focus. I'll keep you posted. Until then--pray!

And now...prayer

Our core group has been busy exchanging emails (or at least getting lots of them from me!) as we make plans, discuss location possibilities, refine our vision, and so on. It's easy to become fully immersed in planning, planning, and more planning.

So tonight we'll put aside agendas, resist the pressure to make big decisions, and spend time together praying. How counter-culture is that? We're wired to be goal-oriented and purpose-driven. We like action items and measurable results. It's hard to wait on the Lord. It's hard to be faithful to the call to "be still and know that I am God."

Even as I look forward to our time in prayer tonight, I find myself not-so-secretly hoping that some of the issues we've been wrestling with will suddenly become clear. God will speak to us. We'll make progress.

But that's my goal-oriented side coming through. And if God in his wisdom does give us direction in some of our concerns, that's great. But it's enough to simply be together in his presence. Demanding more leads us into idolatry.

Tonight, Brahms

What's on tap tonight? A little Brahms Requiem. Musikanten Montana will be performing this, my favorite piece, on November 1 & 2. So I'm off to a rehearsal for it tonight. We'll see if I still have my choral singing chops after something like 13 years since I sang this kind of music.


Check out the wikipedia page for more on this fantastic piece, including a recordings of all seven movements, texts, and translations right on the page. Very cool.

Theology on Tap

Last night I attended the first Theology on Tap in Helena, organized by Jon Bennion and Regan Clancy. We met at Bert and Ernie's for some food and drink and a discussion of the Trinity. After initial welcomes and introductions, Dr. Mark Smillie from Carroll College here in Helena presented on the topic for about 20 minutes and then we had an open discussion--about everything from God's nature, to the Council of Nicea, to prayer, and more.


Theology on Tap is typically a Catholic ministry to young adults. But Jon and Regan have intentionally established this as an interdenominational group. The twenty-plus people who attended introduced themselves and the church affiliation. It was great to see Catholics and people from a variety of Protestant traditions together discussing the Trinity in a relaxing and fun atmosphere. I don't think it worked that way during the Reformation...

Cool organization or compelling leadership?

I was discussing some of our big ideas for this new church with a friend yesterday. How we're trying to find the right rhythm of worshiping, growing in our faith, and serving our community. How we want to establish structures and patterns and rhythms that are healthy, honor God, and have transforming power in our lives and in the lives of others. It's an exhilarating ride. It's a time of exploration and creativity. It's fun.

As our conversation continued, we turned to a frustrating reality: no matter how carefully we craft our structures; no matter how perfectly we engineer our policies and plans; no matter how well we organize our methods and systems; some people will not buy it. Some people won't care for our approach. Some people will want to buck the system, do it their way. Some people will rebel, flake out, give up, or drift away.

What's this all mean? That the system is not our savior. Systems are great. Plans are essential. Organization is necessary. But the bottom line is Jesus, not our cool plans. People need an encounter with the Lord.

The Bible talks about organization a bit. It gives broad insight into the how question. But it's much more interested in the who question. It's about knowing Jesus. It's about loving God and neighbor. And it's about following someone. Jesus said, "Follow me." And amazingly, Paul said, "Imitate me." He didn't implore people to live according to a system; he implored them to learn to be like someone who was already a disciple.

And so as our conversation was wrapping up, we faced that reality. Systems are great, but we need someone to follow. Organization and structures are great, but the church needs leaders. Some people will love our ideas and our plans and jump in. But many will need to connect with someone who they can follow.

It's a humbling, even daunting prospect. But can it really be any other way?

Sound and spaces

In two days I've had two pastors offer me the use of their sound systems. Very cool. I have been so impressed with the support I'm getting from other pastors in town that I've told about our church plant. It's great when we don't give in to fears of competition but rather encourage and support one another.

I'm also learning more than I ever thought I'd need to know about zoning, occupancy limits, fire codes, investors, brokers, developers... yeah! It's actually fun.

location, location, location

On tap today: checking out a potential location for worship for the new church. We've had open houses for the new church at my home (we were packed out with 50 people here--and a bunch of those were kids out in the yard and in the bounce house) and at Grandstreet Theatre in our historic downtown.

Thankfully we've got a person in our core group who is well connected with real estate people, property managers, business owners, and the chamber of commerce. That's a huge help.

Thinking about this whole issue puts the tension in the forefront: the church is the people, not a building; but the church needs an actual physical place for a significant part of it's life. At our first open house, it became clear that my house won't serve for 50 people.

That said, our core has been meeting at our house and will continue to do so as we get things organized and running. This Sunday we'll meet for some time in the word, some prayer, as well as a meal and planning time.

Costly grace in Genesis

In my last post we saw glimpses of the gospel in the opening verses of Genesis. It gets even clearer in the account of Adam and Eve. We all know the story. The serpent, the tree with its fruit that was pleasing to the eye, a denial of God's warning, and soon a life in paradise is shattered by sin.

Before they ate the fruit, Adam and Eve were "naked, and were not ashamed" (Gen 2:25). But when their eyes were opened to good and evil, suddenly they felt shame. Suddenly they were worried, they felt exposed, they wanted to hide. Bring on the fig leaves!

The story goes on with God searching for them in the garden and Adam and Eve hiding because of their nakedness. Pretty soon Adam's blaming Eve, Eve's blaming the serpent, and God curses all three of them for their sins.

The scene ends with Adam and Eve banished from the garden, expelled from paradise. But before that, in an almost throwaway line, God shows his grace to the miserable couple. After cursing them, God takes animal skins, makes garments out of them, and clothes Adam and Eve (Gen 3:21).

A sacrifice was made. Blood was spilled. Innocent animals gave their lives so that the shame of two sinful people could be covered. Right away we see that sin is costly. It cost Adam and Eve their life of perfection in the garden. Now they were driven out, cursed with pain in the labor of childbearing and pain in the labor of working the ground. And right away we see that grace is costly. Covering the shame of these two cost the life of innocent animals. One day, covering the sin of the world would cost the life of God's innocent Son.

God is a God of love, a God who takes great pleasure in his creation, who declared the people he created to be very good. Indeed, he created humanity in his own image. And God is a God of compassion, having mercy on those in distress. His mercy and compassion are the fruit of his grace--his costly grace.

My sin cost Jesus his life on the cross. My sin. For my sin his blood was spilled and his nakedness exposed. What irony--God covered the nakedness and shame of Adam and Eve, but allowed Jesus to be stripped bare and shamed as the life ebbed away from his broken body.

The point here is not to feel more miserable about the cost of our sin. It's not about feeling guilty with our heads hung low, mumbling our regrets. All too often we have those feelings, only to have them fade with the passing of time and in the face of something interesting on TV.

Embracing the costly grace that God has for us isn't about getting over our feelings of guilt. It's not about "moving on."

Our natural approach to dealing with our sin is to sweep it under the rug. If it can't be denied, we rationalize and justify. If we can't explain away our failures, we compare ourselves to those who are obviously worse. But this is all just so much smoke and mirrors. We can hide our faults, explain them away, or point to the other guy, but still our sin remains. And all the time grace, that costly grace, is right before us. It's available. It's free. And only it can effectively deal with our sin and our shame.

Adam and Eve tried hiding. They tried explaining. They shifted the blame. All to no avail. They were found out, just as we are found out. God knows all about our sin. The only ones fooled by tactics of trying to hide, explain, and shift attention elsewhere... are ourselves.

What are we to do? Own up to our sin. Own it. Say, this is mine. I did it. I have broken the commands, I have thought those terrible things, I have wanted what is not good, I have failed to love, I have been completely consumed by my own selfish and sinful desires.

Jesus takes away our sin. But all too often we pretend like there's no sin for him to take. Who me? I didn't do it; that's not mine! You must be thinking of someone else... Own your sin. Don't hide or pretend or shift the blame. And then see how God's costly grace takes it away.

Wow, that is a good deal.

The gospel in Genesis

I've been thinking about the gospel in Genesis; it's all over the place, not just in the Gospels with a capital "G," not just in Romans or Galatians or the rest of the New Testament. Even the first pages of the Bible point to the gospel.

The opening verses describe the world as "formless and empty" and covered in darkness. And the Spirit of God is there, "hovering" over the waters and the darkness. God transforms the chaos into order, into something good.

Throughout the Bible the image of the sea is an image of menace and death. There's a reason that in Revelation 21, where the new heaven and new earth are described, there is no longer any sea--sin, evil, and death have been completely defeated.

Do you see how the Bible opens with a threatening picture? It's all darkness, the menacing deep, and chaos. And God is there. The Spirit of God is moving over the chaotic scene, hovering, brooding. And then: "Let there be light."

And so the gospel begins: our God is a God of transformation. Transforming darkness into light.

Transforming darkness. The gospel isn't for good people; it's for people in darkness. Skipping ahead to Isaiah for a moment: "the people walking in darkness have seen a great light..." The gospel isn't for nice people, refined people, people who have their act together and just need a little spirituality on their resume. It's for people in darkness.

Picture the Spirit of God hovering over the city: over the misdirected lives, the broken lives, the not-at-all-nice lives. Over the rebels, the abusers, the addicted, the cruel. And God says, "Let there be light." How does this light come to the people in darkness? Through God's people. It wasn't for nothing that Jesus said, "You are the light of the world."

I'm praying for light in Helena, praying for God's light to come through our new church. People need the gospel. I invite you to pray with me... and to walk in the light.

Going full time

I'm into my first week of full time church planting now. Almost all of the books are out of my old office...and piled all over the floor in my new office at home. I've got one bookcase on order and am working on plans to redo one of my closets to hold a bunch more of the my seemingly endless supply of scholarly tomes.

It's been a great week so far. Meeting with people in our core group. Meeting with people who are still checking us out. Sitting around our backyard fireplace with people and discussing all kinds of aspects of what our new church will be like (that's the way to have a church meeting--with 'smores!).

Things are beginning to coalesce, beginning to take shape. On our immediate agenda is finalizing our name and doing some legwork to get a facility secured for our first real worship service in October. Hopefully I'll have news on both of those fronts soon.