My church’s Summer Bible Study has been on the topic of “being missional”.  It has been an intriguing (and convicting) study of what it means to be a missional person.  The lesson this week will focus on the “social ministries” aspects of the missional lifestyle.  We will see what the Bible has to say about God being a God of social justice and of charity.  We will learn (yet again) that Christ’s mindset was always toward helping the underprivileged.

But even as we read convicting passages from God’s Word, many in my church will be thinking to themselves, “Our church needs to be about feeding hungry people and helping the homeless in our community…our church needs to continue clothing them and providing other help for them…this is something our church needs to do.” And those are good thoughts, but they are indicative of the institutional mindset which is keeping many of us from ever reaching our true Christian potential as individuals.

You see, there is more to the missional mindset than just becoming a missional institution.  The missional lifestyle is a lifestyle for each of us as individual Christians, whether or not our particular church is ever seen by its community as being missional.  The attitude at my own church provides a great example.  Thirty years ago, my church was literally blazing trails in the area of social ministries.  We owned and operated a restaurant run almost entirely by volunteers, the profits from which went to feed people in our near-by soup kitchen.  We provided leadership in some of our community’s homeless shelters and clothes closets.  We had a strong presence in several of our city’s project housing complexes.  We provided Christmas meals to between 400 and 500 impoverished families each year.  In this area of social ministries, our institution was a well-run machine.

So, over the last 30 years, each of us as church members could pat ourselves on the back because our institution was doing great things in this area and we each had the good judgment to be a member there.  Mind you, the vast majority of us were doing next to nothing in these ministries (other than supporting them financially), but when confronted by conviction about caring for the underprivileged, we could each conveniently check this item off…instead of “I gave at the office” we could say, “I gave at church.”

But if Christianity really is to remain the revolution Jesus intended (instead of just the institution we tend to make it), then whether or not my church is seen as a “missional church” doesn’t define me one way or the other.  Only I can define me, through my own actions and through my own heart and mindset.  If I am seen as a person who genuinely cares about people less fortunate than I, then I am seen as “missional” in that respect.  If not, then I have work to do irrespective of whether or not my church offers me this opportunity through one of its ministries.

Isn’t it time for us to stop defining ourselves through our church membership and start defining ourselves through how we live each day of our lives?  Then, we can stop worrying about whether or not our church is a missional church.  Because when its people are missional, it will inevitably follow.

© Blake Coffee

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

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

As of the original writing of this post, if Michael Phelps were a nation unto himself, he would have ranked third in the number of gold medals won at that point in the Beijing Olympics. That’s impressive. Watching him and his 4 x 200 relay team members shatter a world record by almost 5 full seconds was impressive. Watching the Chinese gymnastics teams (both men and women) was also impressive. I do love the Olympic games.

One of the things I noticed about myself as I watched is how many new numbers I learned. Before last Summer’s Olympics in Beijing, I never knew what a world class split time was for 100 meters freestyle. Before then, I never knew how to calculate team averages in gymnastic rotations in the team competition. But I found my brain awash in these calculations night after night as I watched with anticipation. For a guy who went to law school so I wouldn’t have to learn any more math, I got wrapped up in the math of competition quickly…because the numbers are important in Olympic competition. It is how we remember athletes’ performances. It is how we keep score. And let’s be honest here, keeping score is important to us.

But in matters of grace and forgiveness, numbers are apparently not important to God. So I believe Peter was a bit befuddled by Jesus’ response to his question about forgiveness in Matthew 18. And I believe we are right there with Peter. Our chests swell with pride over how forgiving we have just been with a brother…for the [fill in the blank with your favorite number]-th time. We are proud because we are still keeping score. Keeping score is important to us. Not so much because we ever intend to do anything with it…that, after all, would be wrong. No, the score is important to me just so that I can feel good about myself. It’s a way of measuring my sacrifice, my worthiness, my self-perceived value to the kingdom of God. It’s not so much that I want to flaunt it (o.k., maybe I do want to flaunt it a little, but I won’t because that would appear vain), I just want to hold onto the number for my own private benefit.

And so, we are taken aback by Jesus’ response to Peter (and to us): “You’re not gonna want to try and keep count of this, because you’re gonna need to be doing this constantly, all day, every day, as often as it takes.” (My paraphrase). We are taught that we are to forgive as God forgives (Ephesians 4:32), and God isn’t keeping count. The only quantity that matters in questions about God’s grace is the quantity “enough”. God’s grace is enough. No matter the sin, no matter the person and no matter the circumstances, God’s grace covers it. Therefore, keeping count (i.e., keeping a track record) becomes unnecessary, in fact, distracting. It defeats the whole notion of forgiveness, which is to wipe away all debt so that nothing more is owed. It is starting from zero (again).

In matters of forgiveness, God isn’t keeping score and neither must we. In fact, if you’re keeping score, you probably haven’t forgiven. Keeping score is for Olympic athletes and gold medals…not for Christians and forgiveness.

© 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

I am in South Africa with a team of teacher/facilitators from our ministry, teaching “Five Principles of Unity” in churches there.  Look here for our schedule and how you can be praying for us.  Here is some of what we are teaching:

…fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. Hebrews 3:1

The Principle of Focus: My focus should be on Christ.

Picture a buzzard and a hummingbird flying side by side over a desert.  The buzzard looks down and sees nothing but dead carcasses.  The hummingbird looks down on the same desert floor and sees nothing but desert flowers.  Why is that?  It is because that is what they are each looking for.

If you come to your church’s gathered worship looking for problems in people, you will never be disappointed.  As long as there are people, there will be problems, because people are flawed.  It doesn’t take a Spiritual gift of discernment to find people’s flaws.

But if you come to your church’s gathered worship looking for Jesus, He will meet you there every time.  Bad preaching won’t prevent it.  Bad music won’t prevent it.  Bad people won’t prevent it.  If you are really looking for Jesus, you will find Him.

This is an especially important leadership principle, because as a leader, you do establish the focus of your congregation.  It doesn’t even matter whether you’re a good leader or a bad leader.  It is just the way we are as people.  We look where our leaders are looking.  Leaders establish focus.  That’s always been an interesting phenomenon to me.  No matter what kind of leader you are, no matter your style nor your effectiveness, people will tend to focus where you focus.

From the perspective of a church consultant, that means that I can spend a few hours visiting with a congregation and noting their apparent focus and immediately learn something about their leadership’s focus.

So, as you gather with your congregation this next time, where will your focus be?  To what (or to Whom) are you teaching them to look?  Remember, whether you are a professional minister or a lay leader, you establish the focus of your congregation.  Establish it well, my friends!

© 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

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

Remember this commercial from Wendy’s?

Pretty brilliant advertising, really. I’m convinced it is what started the current trend by restaurants and burger joints to sell us embarrassingly HUGE portions of food. Remember back when you could actually finish a plate of food you ordered at a restaurant? So, Wendy’s pokes a little fun at burger joints for giving us smallish burgers and look what we’ve got now…massive amounts of beef everywhere. Score, Wendy’s.

Since it worked so well for Wendy’s, I’d like to propose a communications campaign for the church in America. It will be called the “Where’s the Power?” campaign. We’ll run adds of “man on the street” interviews asking people why they are so repelled by the church, to which each of them (in some fun, unique way) will respond, “Where’s the power?” And you know what? They’ll be right.

In Matthew 18, when Jesus described his “church” and how it would function and what it would be like (remember, none of the disciples had ever seen anything like “eklesia” before, so it required some vision-casting by Jesus), he brought his entire lesson to a climax when He described the supernatural power with which His church would be equipped:

“I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:18-20

Powerful stuff, right? Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? I would like to find this church and join it. The problem, of course, is finding it. This is NOT the church in America. I’ve heard accounts from South America and from Africa and from South Korea that it IS the church in other places around the world, but I don’t think any of us can make a colorable argument that these words describe the church in America, with the possible exception of some small pockets of believers here and there.

What is clearly missing so often in the western church is an actual empowering of the Holy Spirit toward God-sized things that simply cannot be explained in human terms. That is the God of the Bible. When He moved, there was never any doubt about whether this was the accomplishment of man or of something much bigger than us. It was always clear.

I believe there is an entire lost and broken world looking for God. I do not believe, however, that we are really showing Him to them in many cases. We’re showing them how great WE are at singing and preaching and building facilities and being creative and relevant. But most of what the world can see can easily be explained in human terms; nothing really God-sized about it.

I believe that, when the church in America falls under this conviction: that there is truly NOTHING meaningful we can accomplish apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, that we don’t need bigger buildings or better programs or more relevant music unless we first get a healthy dose of the Holy Spirit and His power…I believe then we will find answers to so many of the questions we have been asking about cultural relevance and missional worldviews and doctrinal purity. I believe our answers to these (and other) burning questions will come much easier when we start asking the first and foremost question:

“Where’s the Power?” And how do we get it?

© 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

I am in South Africa with a team of teacher/facilitators from our ministry, teaching “Five Principles of Unity” in churches there.  Look here for our schedule and how you can be praying for us.  Here is some of what we are teaching:

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1

The Principle of Accountability: I have responsibility for my brother’s relationship with God, and he has responsibility for mine.

Imagine a high school football player playing on a Friday night under the lights with all his friends and loved ones sitting in the stands watching.  He’s having the time of his life until BAM…he takes a vicious hit and has some trouble getting up.  The coach and trainer come out to help him and they get him over to the sidelines, where they sit him on the bench and begin to assess the damage.  Ol’ Doc Sullivan, his family doctor, is sitting in the stands and comes down to the sidelines to help.  The boys’ parents come down as well.  This small group of people who love him and take care of him most are all standing in a circle around him and all wince together as they cut off his shoulder pads, revealing a horribly separated shoulder.

This is where the weird part begins.  Everyone of them, parents, coaches, doctor and trainers, all know what needs to happen next.  This shoulder is going to have to be set, and it going to be excruciatingly painful.  Everyone looks at the parents.  “Don’t look at us…we’re just parents.  We have no idea how to do this.  Besides we can’t bear to see him in that much pain.”  The coaches say, “Well it’s certainly not our job.  We make him a football player, somebody else is responsible for this part.”  The trainer says, “I’m just a trainer, not a doctor.  I think the doctor should do it.”  The doctor says, “I don’t really have the kind of relationship with this boy that I think he will need for this.”  And nobody sets the shoulder, because they all have an excuse.

Crazy story, right?  It would never happen in real life.

But it happens every week in churches across America and around the world.  Someone gets horribly Spiritually out of sorts and needs someone to love them enough to do something about it, and everyone has an excuse.  “Leave it to the professionals.”  “I don’t want to jeopardize our friendship.”  “It’s judging, and I don’t want to judge.”  “He/She has a right to privacy, and it’s not my business.”  “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”  Etc., etc.

None of these excuses are the real reasons we don’t confront each other in the church.  The real reason is that we don’t love each other enough to confront each other.  I can see that you are making a series of decisions in your life that move you further away from God and from God’s people, I can see the Spiritual brokenness in your life, and I just do not love you enough to ask you about it.

Let’s not lie to ourselves.  That is the real reason we don’t practice Spiritual accountability with one another, or when we do, we do it in a way to push people away rather than pulling them into fellowship.  When you get right down to it, it is a love problem.

By the same token, when it is done right, when the Biblical model for Christian accountability is honored, it is likewise a result of love.  There is no other valid motive for doing it.

We either love each other enough to do it, or we do not.

© 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

I am in South Africa with a team of teacher/facilitators from our ministry, teaching “Five Principles of Unity” in churches there.  Look here for our schedule and how you can be praying for us.  Here is some of what we are teaching:

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Romans 12:17-18

The Principle of Perceptions: I have responsibility for how others perceive me.

I consulted with a traditional, small town First Baptist Church who was in severe conflict.  There was a variety of issues, but the primary problem was broken relationships.  So we spent some time addressing those relationships.  One of the personalities involved was a young, dynamic high school teacher who had a fantastic presence with the teenagers.  He truly loved the Lord and brought teenagers to the Lord (and to the church) by the busloads.  Literally hundreds of them.  He was a bit eccentric, which is why the teenagers were so attracted to him.  He shaved his head, wore old blue jeans and a “Jesus Freak” tee-shirt to church, even on Sunday mornings.  His theology was solid, his teaching was wonderful, he loved his family (wife and three kids), and they loved him.  As I met with him, I remember thinking to myself, “I wish my own teenagers could meet this guy.”

But as wonderful as he was, the jeans and tee-shirt were a bit of a problem in the eyes of some of the older folks in the church.  Actually, as things got increasingly tense, it became a problem with quite a few of them.  But in his mind, that was their problem, not his.  He told me, “When I come to worship, God isn’t concerned with what’s on the outside, He’s concerned with my heart.”  True enough.  And you certainly couldn’t argue with the results of his ministry.  Obviously, God was using him powerfully in the lives of the youth.

But at the same time, his choices in attire were carving out an entire section of the congregation and saying “I don’t care what they think about me…I don’t want to be a Godly influence in their lives.”  Wasn’t this a major theme in Paul’s letter to the Roman church?  In chapter 12 and again in chapter 14, he dealt with this attitude among some of the gentile Christians toward some of the more traditional Jewish Christians.  Paul would say to them, “Let us stop passing judgment on one another…Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way…if your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love.” Romans 14:13-15 (selections).  Likewise, I think Paul would say to this dear teacher, “If those older folks are small-minded and cannot see the bigger picture, so be it…it is who they are for now…do not ruin your testimony in their eyes just for sake of being right.”

At least that’s what I think Paul would say.  And it’s what I said.  And it is what the Principle of Perceptions is all about.  If I am to have influence in someone’s life, I really do have to care what he or she thinks about my choices.

And so, the principle of perceptions sets up a two-pronged test for the choices I make: (1) what does God think about my choices, and (2) what does my church think about my choices?  You don’t HAVE to ask yourself these questions.  Only if Godly leadership is something to which you aspire.

© 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

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

My impression is that the church in America is getting LESS Biblically literate, not more. I don’t have any scientific data to support that impression. Maybe the Barna Group or someone like that has researched it. I’m just saying that, when we compare the evangelical church of today to the one that existed 50 or 100 years ago, I have a distinct impression that our understanding of the God of the Bible is not deepening–rather, it is getting shallower. I believe we are becoming a Biblically illiterate church. I would welcome your impression on that issue.

If I am right about that, then here is what is really mind-boggling: I suspect we are graduating more students from our theological institutions than ever before. I mean, I strongly suspect that there are actually more theologians among us today than we have ever had among us at any other time in the history of the church. Moreover, the church in America has groomed and perfected the art of preaching beyond measure. We have truly amazing, gifted teachers and preachers in the American church, and their lessons and sermons have never been more accessible than they are right now. Anytime I desire, I can go on line or tune into the radio and listen to Charles Stanley, Andy Stanley, John Ortberg, John MacArthur, Max Lucado, Chuck Swindoll or any of hundreds of other great preachers. You want choices? The church in America has choices galore!

So here is the critical question: how is that we have so much fantastic preaching and so many really smart theologians in the church today but we are actually less Biblically literate than ever?

Let me add another perspective. Again, this is just my personal experience working with churches–no hard data to back it up. I have traveled to churches in Ukraine and Romania in recent years. In either of those places, the churches have significantly fewer choices in terms of preachers than we have in the American church. I’ve been in little churches in Ukrainian villages who have no choices at all. They have one preacher and most of the Christians in those villages will live and die without ever hearing anyone else preach. And that one preacher is, in many cases, only marginally theologically educated. And yet, the Christians I meet in those churches know so much more scripture and have such a deeper understanding of God than we in the American church do.

So, to what do we owe this disconnect? I have a theory (you knew that was coming, didn’t you?).

I don’t think the church’s knowledge of God and His ways (and His Word) is tied directly to our preaching, because I don’t think listening to preachers is the best way to know God or even to learn scripture. I think we have overestimated the art form that we call preaching, and I think we have underestimated the importance of gathering together in small groups around the Word of God and speaking its truths into one another’s lives.

Jesus’ teaching changed lives. I’m not so sure the preaching we are teaching our seminary students to do is really the best vehicle for changing lives. Maybe that’s not the point, I don’t know. I certainly have an appreciation for preaching (it’s my favorite part of the gathered worship service). But for Spiritual transformation, for really coming to an intimate, personal understanding of scripture and for experiencing the power of God’s Word in my life, I think small groups have it over preaching hands-down.

So, as we chart the course of the church in America over the coming years, and we have to decide whether to spend more time and energy on preaching or on small groups we just need to decide whether Spiritual transformation is really what we’re after or not. At least that is the way I see it. How do you see it?

© 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