By Cameron Crabtree
It’s getting harder to live as an ordinary Christian. Almost everywhere Christians turn these days, they are lured toward experiencing an extraordinary walk with God – which tends to mirror North American definitions of success and triumph.
Should they live their best life now or join the divine conspiracy? Focus on the family or spread a contagious Christianity? Better to spend 40 days on purpose or just wild at heart? Should the essence of devotion be radical, purpose-driven or missional?
If you’re familiar with such allusions, you’ve already spent adequate time in a “Christian” bookstore, listened to enough “positive alternative” radio or perused the plethora of mail-order catalogs offering discounted pathways to spiritual growth.
The industries comprising evangelical subculture seek to help, they can confuse fellow believers. It’s easy to understand why some people increasingly choose to free themselves of those entanglements and just go with “me and Jesus.”
Pastors and church staff don’t have it much easier as they face an almost constant barrage of subtle judgment about perceived inadequacies in ministry and their need to do more for God.
Among the popular burden of our day is the notion of setting expectations or goals so high that if they’re met, God’s handiwork is the only explanation. Perhaps that’s the modern-day version of William Carey’s famous adage: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”
Such well-intended ideas sound good in a sermon or book chapter, but people rarely live near the edges of triumph so much as in the trenches of daily burdens and responsibilities. One of the favors we can do for those we serve is to help them interpret the ways God works in and through them in their ordinary activities.
The weekly Bible study group in which I participate again has been walking though Sermon on the Mount. While the material in the discourse is familiar to almost everyone, what jumps out in our dialogue is just how much Jesus encourages his followers to live counter-culturally in the ongoing routines and relationships of life.
Certainly, we want to continue to commission those who give their workaday vocation to serving the kingdom of God in lives in so-called extra measure, but we also want to celebrate those who simply obey the commands of Christ in daily living behind the scenes and out of the public’s view.
John Ortberg suggested it best in a recent essay: “Our attention can be arrested by deeply dramatic moments. But our character cannot be reformed by dramatic events alone. That demand’s a longer, slower, less glamorous process. Our attention, like our habits, will have to be retrained. Spiritual maturity is not the capacity to see God in the extraordinary. Pharaoh could do that. Spiritual maturity is the capacity to see God in the ordinary. And if you receive that capacity, if you become someone with eyes that can see and ears that can hear, you are given a gift.”
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
NWBC Executive Board recommends budget with reduced staff
The Northwest Baptist Convention executive board will propose to messengers at the November annual meeting a $5.1 million budget for 2012, a $140,000 Sylvia Wilson Mission Offering goal for 2012 to support church planting & leadership development efforts and a 2013 calendar of events. In addition, the board elected Frank Shope as Church Planting Catalyst and Region 3 Team Leader. A former NWBC associate executive director, Shope has served since 2007 as a regional team leader for the North American Mission Board.
The proposed budget anticipates $2,840,000 in Cooperative Program gifts from NWBC churches (unchanged from the current year), $1,729,000 million from NAMB (down 13.5 percent from the current year), $64,000 from LifeWay Christian Resources, $130,000 from the 2011 SWMO and $336,200 from various sources.
Although the 2012 budget represents a 4.9 percent decrease from the current year’s spending plan, it contains significant line item increases or additions: an additional 1 percent in giving though the SBC Cooperative Program (from 25.5 percent to 26.5 percent of the CP budget), three new church health & leadership development staff positions (funded solely by NWBC), “Oasis” retreat for pastors/spouses, “missions mobilization” for assisting church planting recruitment & partnership development, evangelism training & projects and enlistment of contract workers for preschool/children’s and youth ministries.
But the budget recommendation also includes noteworthy changes in staffing: eliminating 10 existing field strategist positions (from 23-13) jointly-funded with NAMB and eliminating the equivalent of 3 full-time support staff positions (funded solely by NWBC) at the NWBC Center in Vancouver, WA. For staff remaining, the budget includes a 3 percent cost-of-living increase, additional compensation adjustment for more equitable salary ranges and restoring retirement contributions back to 10 percent of salary levels.
NWBC executive director Bill Crews, in a document written to the board, stated: “With the immediate and long-term refocusing of the North American Mission Board, we are faced with a strategic decision concerning the nature and shape of our partnership with NAMB. To be sure, the sharp focus on church planting is one that we agree with and plan to pursue. From the beginning of the development of the Strategy for the Renewal of the NWBC, our mission has been “to encourage and empower the churches of the Northwest Baptist Convention toward a spiritual vitality that results in a growing gospel witness and in the continuous planting of healthy, reproducing new churches.” This two-pronged approach to assisting the churches of the NWBC is still the mission of our network of churches and one we intend to pursue vigorously.
“The challenge before us is that the North American Mission Board, our primary partner, is intent on shifting most of the financial part of the partnership toward the church planting strategy. … the ultimate aim of the partnership is that almost all of their financial contribution will be directed into church planting. The suggested transition could be spread over the next two or three years, but the ultimate goal is that the NWBC would assume the responsibility for funding ministries beyond church planting. NAMB’s resources would be directed almost exclusively into church planting. … In consultation with the Strategic Leadership Team and other NWBC leaders, the counsel was to make these changes in 2012 and begin to actively pursue our mission of assisting our churches in pursuing spiritual vitality and health and partnering with NAMB in the planting of new, healthy reproducing churches.”
The proposed budget anticipates $2,840,000 in Cooperative Program gifts from NWBC churches (unchanged from the current year), $1,729,000 million from NAMB (down 13.5 percent from the current year), $64,000 from LifeWay Christian Resources, $130,000 from the 2011 SWMO and $336,200 from various sources.
Although the 2012 budget represents a 4.9 percent decrease from the current year’s spending plan, it contains significant line item increases or additions: an additional 1 percent in giving though the SBC Cooperative Program (from 25.5 percent to 26.5 percent of the CP budget), three new church health & leadership development staff positions (funded solely by NWBC), “Oasis” retreat for pastors/spouses, “missions mobilization” for assisting church planting recruitment & partnership development, evangelism training & projects and enlistment of contract workers for preschool/children’s and youth ministries.
But the budget recommendation also includes noteworthy changes in staffing: eliminating 10 existing field strategist positions (from 23-13) jointly-funded with NAMB and eliminating the equivalent of 3 full-time support staff positions (funded solely by NWBC) at the NWBC Center in Vancouver, WA. For staff remaining, the budget includes a 3 percent cost-of-living increase, additional compensation adjustment for more equitable salary ranges and restoring retirement contributions back to 10 percent of salary levels.
NWBC executive director Bill Crews, in a document written to the board, stated: “With the immediate and long-term refocusing of the North American Mission Board, we are faced with a strategic decision concerning the nature and shape of our partnership with NAMB. To be sure, the sharp focus on church planting is one that we agree with and plan to pursue. From the beginning of the development of the Strategy for the Renewal of the NWBC, our mission has been “to encourage and empower the churches of the Northwest Baptist Convention toward a spiritual vitality that results in a growing gospel witness and in the continuous planting of healthy, reproducing new churches.” This two-pronged approach to assisting the churches of the NWBC is still the mission of our network of churches and one we intend to pursue vigorously.
“The challenge before us is that the North American Mission Board, our primary partner, is intent on shifting most of the financial part of the partnership toward the church planting strategy. … the ultimate aim of the partnership is that almost all of their financial contribution will be directed into church planting. The suggested transition could be spread over the next two or three years, but the ultimate goal is that the NWBC would assume the responsibility for funding ministries beyond church planting. NAMB’s resources would be directed almost exclusively into church planting. … In consultation with the Strategic Leadership Team and other NWBC leaders, the counsel was to make these changes in 2012 and begin to actively pursue our mission of assisting our churches in pursuing spiritual vitality and health and partnering with NAMB in the planting of new, healthy reproducing churches.”
Friday, January 28, 2011
Renew enthusiasm for starting churches
by Cameron Crabtree
A primary aim of the Northwest Baptist Convention’s cooperative mission effort is to start healthy, reproducing churches — lots of them. A barrier to achieving that goal, however, is skepticism among too many existing churches about the need for and effectiveness of such an effort. That must change.
If you surveyed some of the Northwest Baptists you know and asked them to identify the main purposes of the church, you’d likely predict most the responses — worship, evangelism, missions, ministry and other familiars. In many instances, you’d find the variations and visionary phrases on banners or other signs reminding church members of Jesus’ Great Commission task.
But usually missing from that list of responses is any concern about churches reproducing themselves. Without a commitment to reproduce itself in a new expression in a new community, a church may never enjoy its fullest impact.
As a convention of churches scattered across a vast territory of diverse populations, we must find a way to develop a movement of “missionaries” committed to sharing Christ through new churches and the development of ministries that reach new people.
In traveling across the Northwest in recent years, be it in the vast rural areas or the major population centers, it’s clear that our basic approach to church life — despite rhetoric to the contrary or attempts to change when given ample opportunity — is about the same in just about every setting. Indeed, God has blessed Northwest Baptists with leaders trying to share Christ with more creative approaches, but for the most part there’s little difference reflected in the diverse settings.
A key to any large scale church starting effort in the Northwest is fostering a positive climate for such efforts. Too often, initiating conversations about the need to start churches in the Northwest invokes a look of concern from some pastors and leaders of existing churches. Their criticism often goes to their perception that a lot of money is spent on church planting with “nothing to show for it” just a few years later.
There is some validity to their concern. We sometimes use approaches that assume economic and cultural settings that simply don’t exist in many places in the Northwest. But that should drive us to plant churches with an even greater sense of spiritual dependence, an even stronger sense of calculated risk and a way to balance sustainability and short-term impact in a given setting.
NWBC history is full of seasons when churches were burdened with the need to plant more churches. That’s a burden worth renewing again — enthusiastically.
A primary aim of the Northwest Baptist Convention’s cooperative mission effort is to start healthy, reproducing churches — lots of them. A barrier to achieving that goal, however, is skepticism among too many existing churches about the need for and effectiveness of such an effort. That must change.
If you surveyed some of the Northwest Baptists you know and asked them to identify the main purposes of the church, you’d likely predict most the responses — worship, evangelism, missions, ministry and other familiars. In many instances, you’d find the variations and visionary phrases on banners or other signs reminding church members of Jesus’ Great Commission task.
But usually missing from that list of responses is any concern about churches reproducing themselves. Without a commitment to reproduce itself in a new expression in a new community, a church may never enjoy its fullest impact.
As a convention of churches scattered across a vast territory of diverse populations, we must find a way to develop a movement of “missionaries” committed to sharing Christ through new churches and the development of ministries that reach new people.
In traveling across the Northwest in recent years, be it in the vast rural areas or the major population centers, it’s clear that our basic approach to church life — despite rhetoric to the contrary or attempts to change when given ample opportunity — is about the same in just about every setting. Indeed, God has blessed Northwest Baptists with leaders trying to share Christ with more creative approaches, but for the most part there’s little difference reflected in the diverse settings.
A key to any large scale church starting effort in the Northwest is fostering a positive climate for such efforts. Too often, initiating conversations about the need to start churches in the Northwest invokes a look of concern from some pastors and leaders of existing churches. Their criticism often goes to their perception that a lot of money is spent on church planting with “nothing to show for it” just a few years later.
There is some validity to their concern. We sometimes use approaches that assume economic and cultural settings that simply don’t exist in many places in the Northwest. But that should drive us to plant churches with an even greater sense of spiritual dependence, an even stronger sense of calculated risk and a way to balance sustainability and short-term impact in a given setting.
NWBC history is full of seasons when churches were burdened with the need to plant more churches. That’s a burden worth renewing again — enthusiastically.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Church facing challenges in 2011
By Cameron Crabtree
As usual, the year began with the cycle of reflecting on events that have passed and anticipating opportunities ahead. If a 2010 analysis by a prominent research firm is believed, the church in North America has work to do on both fronts.
The Barna Research Group reviewed studies over the past year and came away with not-so-surprising but nonetheless unsettling findings — it terms them “megathemes” — about what is happening and not happening in America’s Protestant churches. Together, the themes reveal a challenge the church may not have faced in generations.
Log onto www.barna.org for the full report.
The group’s assessment that the church as a whole across the nation is becoming less theologically literate comes as no surprise. Trends have been pointing in that direction for years, despite the massive amount of resources constantly poured into preaching, teaching, discipleship efforts and other Christian education ministries.
The review lists several examples of this trend, including the fact that few adults surveyed believe their faith is “meant to be a focal point in life or integrated into every aspect of their existence.” For a movement that views such a belief as fundamental, that’s bad news. Barna suggests a “theological free-for-all” could ensue as “Busters” and “Mosaics,” those born 1965-2002, step with their suspect levels of theological literacy into leadership roles of many of the nation’s congregations.
The research group also believes Christians are focusing inward rather than becoming more outreach-oriented. Despite continual advances in communication technologies and prompts for engagement with the world ringing constantly in the ears of believers, the group noted an increasing number of Christians is becoming “more spiritually isolated from non-Christians” than a decade ago.
Again, Barna’s firm pointed to examples as evidence of its finding, such as less than one-third of born again Christians planning to invite anyone to join them for church events during the Easter season or teenagers less inclined to discuss Christianity with their friends than in the past. The group suggested a growing “absence of faith talk” may lead to diminishing prospects of young adults seeking a Christian church in the future.
Ironically, this is taking place even as a third, positive theme emerges: escalating interest in community action. Led in this area mostly by young adults, the group reported Christian are “more open to and more involved in community service activities” than in recent years.
While this could be a boon to churches aiming for greater impact in their respective communities, the group warns churches could see such interest wane without rooting it in a strong spiritual basis. “Simply doing good works because it's the socially esteemed choice of the moment will not produce much staying power,” the group predicted.
In a fourth arena, according to the group, people are becoming more interested in pragmatic solutions for life than in spiritual principles. When teenagers were asked about life’s priorities, faith takes a back seat to other priorities and is “not necessarily perceived to affect their ability to achieve their dreams.”
The trend isn’t much better among adults, who “consider survival in the present to be much more significant than eternal” matters. The Barna group makes an important observation: “Because we continue to separate our spirituality from other dimensions of life through compartmentalization, a relatively superficial approach to faith has become a central means of optimizing our life experience.”
The group noted in a fifth theme the broader culture’s insistence on tolerance is “winning over the Christian church.” The group suggested a mix of issues has severely weakened churches’ influence in areas of morality: biblical illiteracy and lack of spiritual confidence, fear of being labeled as judgmental, limited accountability within the body of Christ and Christians believing churches should be dogmatic about fewer and fewer things.
We serve the Lord here in the Northwest at a crucial cultural moment. Certainly, we remain confident in Christ’s ultimate triumph in the world. But to serve the Lord faithfully — when many of the cultural advantages his church in our nation once enjoyed have disappeared — we may need to consider what it means to demonstrate his love in new ways effectively. With the page of a new year’s calendar now turned, it seems a good time to think it through and take some risks.
As usual, the year began with the cycle of reflecting on events that have passed and anticipating opportunities ahead. If a 2010 analysis by a prominent research firm is believed, the church in North America has work to do on both fronts.
The Barna Research Group reviewed studies over the past year and came away with not-so-surprising but nonetheless unsettling findings — it terms them “megathemes” — about what is happening and not happening in America’s Protestant churches. Together, the themes reveal a challenge the church may not have faced in generations.
Log onto www.barna.org for the full report.
The group’s assessment that the church as a whole across the nation is becoming less theologically literate comes as no surprise. Trends have been pointing in that direction for years, despite the massive amount of resources constantly poured into preaching, teaching, discipleship efforts and other Christian education ministries.
The review lists several examples of this trend, including the fact that few adults surveyed believe their faith is “meant to be a focal point in life or integrated into every aspect of their existence.” For a movement that views such a belief as fundamental, that’s bad news. Barna suggests a “theological free-for-all” could ensue as “Busters” and “Mosaics,” those born 1965-2002, step with their suspect levels of theological literacy into leadership roles of many of the nation’s congregations.
The research group also believes Christians are focusing inward rather than becoming more outreach-oriented. Despite continual advances in communication technologies and prompts for engagement with the world ringing constantly in the ears of believers, the group noted an increasing number of Christians is becoming “more spiritually isolated from non-Christians” than a decade ago.
Again, Barna’s firm pointed to examples as evidence of its finding, such as less than one-third of born again Christians planning to invite anyone to join them for church events during the Easter season or teenagers less inclined to discuss Christianity with their friends than in the past. The group suggested a growing “absence of faith talk” may lead to diminishing prospects of young adults seeking a Christian church in the future.
Ironically, this is taking place even as a third, positive theme emerges: escalating interest in community action. Led in this area mostly by young adults, the group reported Christian are “more open to and more involved in community service activities” than in recent years.
While this could be a boon to churches aiming for greater impact in their respective communities, the group warns churches could see such interest wane without rooting it in a strong spiritual basis. “Simply doing good works because it's the socially esteemed choice of the moment will not produce much staying power,” the group predicted.
In a fourth arena, according to the group, people are becoming more interested in pragmatic solutions for life than in spiritual principles. When teenagers were asked about life’s priorities, faith takes a back seat to other priorities and is “not necessarily perceived to affect their ability to achieve their dreams.”
The trend isn’t much better among adults, who “consider survival in the present to be much more significant than eternal” matters. The Barna group makes an important observation: “Because we continue to separate our spirituality from other dimensions of life through compartmentalization, a relatively superficial approach to faith has become a central means of optimizing our life experience.”
The group noted in a fifth theme the broader culture’s insistence on tolerance is “winning over the Christian church.” The group suggested a mix of issues has severely weakened churches’ influence in areas of morality: biblical illiteracy and lack of spiritual confidence, fear of being labeled as judgmental, limited accountability within the body of Christ and Christians believing churches should be dogmatic about fewer and fewer things.
We serve the Lord here in the Northwest at a crucial cultural moment. Certainly, we remain confident in Christ’s ultimate triumph in the world. But to serve the Lord faithfully — when many of the cultural advantages his church in our nation once enjoyed have disappeared — we may need to consider what it means to demonstrate his love in new ways effectively. With the page of a new year’s calendar now turned, it seems a good time to think it through and take some risks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)