The Ultimate Power Source

10 11 2009

Tuesday Re-mix – This is a popular post from last year, updated and resubmitted for your consideration and comments.

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17b-19

The love of Christ may be the most awesome, profound, world-altering source of power ever known or experienced by creation.  And it is available to any of us as a free gift.  Paul taught about it, wrote about it, and prayed for it.  The church has been teaching about it and, in some very limited sense, demonstrating it for centuries.  The stories about it abound by the millions over the last two thousand years.  Creation itself speaks of it.

The Bible says it over and over and over again in no uncertain terms.  There is no substitute for it, no limit to it, and nothing else that even resembles it.  It is easy to spot, easy to desire, and relatively easy to access.  It gives meaning to everything.

It is the only “pearl of great price”, worth pursuing at any cost.  Millions have died for it, either for the right to proclaim it or trying to defend it.  Entire empires have stood because of it and have fallen because of it.  Its power is indescribable and immeasurable.  It is the source of life itself.

It is stronger than any government, deeper than any ocean, more expansive than the ever-increasing universe, and more valuable than knowledge itself.  It is why the church exists, why Christianity exists, and why I (as a Christ-follower) am still on this earth.

Why, then, are there ever days in our lives when it is clearly not our first and best pursuit?

© Blake Coffee

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com


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Categories : Church Unity, Spiritual Formation

Cultivate ‘09: The Power (and Responsibility) of Church Communication

5 11 2009

This is the third in a series of posts about Cultivate ‘09, a one-day conversation held at Park Community Church in Chicago about church communication.  Born out of conversations among some  respected consultants in this field (Dawn Nicole Baldwin, Tim Schraeder, Kem Meyer, among others), Cultivate was the first of what I hope will be many similar gatherings.

In my mind, there is an obvious connection between church unity (my calling) and church communication. Church unity is all about relationships.  Relationships, in turn, are all about communication.  You can do the logic from here.

There is an element to church communications which is not so much about PR or marketing or branding or logos.  A critical part of the ministry of church communications is how a church communicates within the body of believers. The ministry of church communications necessarily must include some strategies about how to facilitate conversation among the church itself.  Sitting and talking with Cultivate participants, it was clear to me that many of these communications professionals at least have a glimpse of what this means (actually, some have much more than just a glimpse).  There is power in formatting how a story is told.  More importantly, there is responsibility in using that power to bring about God-honoring results.

In a session with Kent Shaffer (of Bombay Creative and churchrelevance.com), he said it this way: “Communication [in churches] is more than just sending the right message…it is evoking the right response.” When we begin to take seriously our objective of “evoking the right response”, we begin to see that we can actually empower how people see each other.  We can facilitate conversation among them, strengthening relationships.  We can help bridge communication gaps within a church body, and thereby “preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  Pretty amazing, wouldn’t you agree?  Here is an example…

generation gapIn more than one of the sessions I attended, there were people struggling with the communications challenge of being in a church who feels called to reach every generation.  From a secular communications standpoint, that is not just a challenge, it is planning to fail.  But in the kingdom of God, it is not only possible, it is actually pretty common among churches.  So how can the power of communications be put to use in that setting?  People gifted with communications skills can actually help create environments where stories can be effectively told across generational lines.  Teenagers can be taught how to stand in front of a group of adults and share what God is doing in their lives.  We can put a senior adult’s amazing story about God’s direction in her life on video in a format which engages the attention of students.  Again, I am not talking here about messages going out from the church leadership…I am talking about people sharing their stories with one another.  We can help our people succeed in giving testimony of what God is doing among them, and by doing so, we can strengthen the body.

That is a ministry worth fighting for.  That is why this church whisperer is so passionate about church communications.  We can be part of the answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17: “Father, make them one, so that the world might know that you sent me.” Count me in.  How about you?

© Blake Coffee

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

 


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Categories : Church Communications, Church Unity, leadership

Coloring God…

3 11 2009

Tuesday Re-mix – This is a popular post from last year, updated and resubmitted for your consideration and comments.

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. I Corinthians 12:7

When I was in elementary school it was kind of a big deal how big your box of crayons was.  They had little boxes of 8, bigger boxes of 24, large boxes of 48 and then they had the super duper extra large box of 64.  That last one was the one you wanted.  It was important.  You just never knew when you might need those odd colors like goldenrod or periwinkle.  You wanted options.  You didn’t want to find yourself limited to just a few simple colors, especially if you had a project that demanded a broader spectrum.  You didn’t just want “red”.  You wanted every imaginable shade and phase of red.  It was frustrating trying to color pictures with a few colors when an entire palette of colors was required in order to get it right.

In that same vein, I’ve always been troubled by interpretations of “Spiritual gifts” which purport to limit the “gifts” to a list of 5 or 9 or 14 gifts.  I know there are several New Testament passages which discuss spiritual gifts and which do list specific examples of them, but I see those lists as just that: examples or illustrations of the larger concept.  After all, Spiritual gifts are a “manifestation of the Spirit”.  So, how many ways is the Spirit capable of manifesting Himself through a believer?  Does anybody really want to limit God to a number?  It is  like someone handing you a box of 8 crayons and saying, “Now, go and color a picture of God.”  If ever there were a time when you would want the absolute largest box of crayons imaginable, this would be it.

I have also always been a little troubled (not a lot, just a little) by those “Spiritual gift inventories” which try to pigeon-hole my gift, slap a label on it, and send me on my way.  I tend to think about spiritual gifts more in terms of a “package” of ways in which God manifests Himself through a believer.  It is a blend of gifts, maybe a little bit teacher and a little bit encourager in one person but a whole bunch of evangelist with just a touch of teacher in another person.  It’s more like a combination of ingredients in different proportions than any one ingredient.  I just don’t think trying to describe how the Spirit of God manifests Himself through a believer with a single label or descriptor is a concept big enough to encompass our God.  It seems terribly limiting and I do not believe it captures the essence of the scriptures’ teaching on the subject.

The concept of Spiritual gifts is not complicated.  A Spiritual gift is simply how the Spirit of God shows Himself through a believer.  The gift is not just an ability or a talent; the gift is the Spirit of God Himself.  Moreover, your “gift” (i.e., how God shows Himself through you) is not for your benefit at all…it is for the benefit of the body of Christ.  Specifically, the purpose of your Spiritual gift is “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:12-13. So, if you ask me how many different ways God is capable of doing that, I am more than a little uncomfortable trying to put a number or labels on it.

When it comes to trying to describe God as He is manifested through a brother or sister in Christ, I’m going to need a bigger box of crayons…

© Blake Coffee

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com


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Categories : Church Unity, Ephesians 4, I Corinthians 12, Spiritual Gifts

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