Helensvale Baptist Church - Matt's Blog

CrossLife - what's in a name?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:34 +1000

Changing the name of a church was an emotionally charged decision. And once you announce it its not over!! There was some discussion on our new church name "CrossLife - a baptist church" on another FB page this week, and one poster asked "What's the background to your new church name?" I thought I'd include my answer for others to consider.

What I loved about our whole process of name change was that we weren't changing our name for the sake of "rebranding". Rather our new name was part of an entire restructure of the church, and a new embracing of our mission to serve the world around us and share the Lord Jesus and the gospel with people. This meant the name could have a greater depth and meaning for what we were becoming, not what we already were. So how did it unfold?

It was a 7 month process. We don't really know who came up with "CrossLife" first! And we love it that we don't!! No one can say it was "their idea" or feel like it was someone else's. We had a short list of three names after an open nomination process but CrossLife was not on the list. As we considered that short list we felt we wanted something with Cross (it figured in two of the short listed names), but also we wanted something positive alongside it - which lead us to 'Life'. We also wanted to keep 'baptist' and 'church', but wanted a different structure of the name because we are now a multi-site church, not a church with one site. So the official name of the church is 'CrossLife - a baptist church''.

We are glad for the name, it has been a wonderfully unifying thing for us. As a New Church Name Group, the small group who had oversight over the process, 'CrossLife - a baptist church' fulfilled three priorities we had identified that gave us confidence God was behind the name: it said something of who we are, not what we are, it was a unifying name (no winners and losers) and it reflected those matters that we felt God had not "taken away" during our seven month name process - Cross and Life summed up those two thoughts that we felt the Lord left with us. So that's the background.

By way of interest we only found one other church in Australia was called CrossLife - a community of house churches based on Cowra, NSW. We approached the pastor and shared our thoughts of using the name, he encouraged us and in the end wrote a letter to our churches to encourage us that was read out at the church meeting that launched CrossLife. In his letter he said this about CrossLife.

Let's consider that the name CrossLife - even my dictation program knows enough to form it as one word - the cross and the life are joined or, better still, cleaved together in Christ Jesus. Death and Life, you can't have one without the other. Normally for us human beings, it is life and death but, because of the love of God and the redeeming work of our Lord Jesus Christ it is now death then life. Without the cross of cavalry we would have no life.

Now that gave us a great sense of God's hand on what we were doing!! We pray we can live up to our name!

By this all men will know

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:25 +1000

This is blog 8 in a series on the new multi-site Baptist church on the northern Gold Coast formed by Helensvale Baps and Southport Baps. But its not just those two churches: we are also embarking on a new church plant (campus plant in the multi-site parlance!!) at Highland Reserve, Upper Coomera as part of the new church, the first of many we hope. And this is fundamental to the new church.

My previous blogs have been, mostly, about “us” as church and the impact the multi-site structure might have on those in the church. However, in our particular example, although acutely aware of the impact the multi-site model will have on the church, our reason for proceeding has been more about “out there” than “in here”! We have consistently reminded both churches that proceeding down this line is about positioning ourselves under God’s leadership and direction to be in the best place to plant more churches around the northern Gold Coast. I believe the strong support at both churches for proceeding with this proposal is a marker of this truth: It is remarkable how a Jesus-centred, mission-focused idea can bring Christian people together.

And it follows the words of the Lord Jesus: when we truly selflessly love another (John 13:34), and when we reflect the oneness that is in the Trinity and practise a unified church, the world will stand up and notice (John 17:20-23) – and notice something is going right! There is something about true selfless love and unity that is compelling and attractive to the world around. When self-centred actions and relationships play out in the public domain – politics, sport, even in the church itself - we can hear the groans in the media and in conversations over coffee with friends: even more so when they personally experience it in families, community and sporting clubs and the like.

There is something about a church/churches working selflessly together under the Lordship of Jesus, the true Leader (Head) of the church, that stands out in the world. Paul calls it “the fragrance of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14-15). The church is not a club or an organisation, it is an organism, and as one person put it, the only ‘group’ that exists for the benefits of non-members!!

When churches work together in ways the world never will, it gives a greater witness to the world around. And that is something else about our experience that gives it an intangible feel for the outsider. HBC, or me, did not approach SBC about this, Ken O’Rourke, SBC Senior Pastor approached us (through me). There is something in Ken’s humility, openness to God, commitment to the selfless unity of God’s church, and heart for the lost that God will honour. Why would a smaller church approach a larger church to consider this structure? We’ve only got to remember the anger and cries when footy clubs had to consider merging. None of that here. Why? Because Jesus was at the centre of a demonstration of Christ centred humility and honouring of each other for the call to see more follow Him.

This sort of selfless oneness not only demonstrates Paul’s cry in Ephesians 4:1-6, but is something I believe God will honour evangelistically as we remember we exists for His glory, and that more will come to follow the Lord Jesus as Lord and Saviour. As I and others have begun working this week on trying work out how the leadership structures will play out in more detail, we have had this outward focus always around us. To quote one email, how do we encourage a spreading of the good news focus in our governance models to help us to not become entrenched in just looking after what we do now? Good question. It reflects the heart and desire that we must practise a oneness together so that the world would see Jesus (John 17:20-23).

God willing, this heart will remain and we will not drift into institutionalism. Rather, we will increase all the more in an outward oriented focus – and see that we are in the best place for the Lord Jesus to build His Church, and see more of them planted under His leadership and direction.

Let's get to the end ... together

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:00 +1000

This is the seventh in a series of blogs on our thoughts for the new multi-site church HBC and Southport Baptist Church are going to form on the northern Gold Coast later in 2011, including a new church plant at Highland Reserve. You might note my more certain language about this – that’s because last Sunday both churches affirmed this as God’s direction for us at our respective Church Meetings. Southport affirmed it with a 75% majority. At HBC it was affirmed with one “no” vote from 98 members and 18 non-members (including postal votes): 99.14% support. You can get more information about this on our webpage.

My last blog talked about how the multi-site church might provide a greater diversity of vocational ministry opportunities, and so a greater spread gift mix in vocational pastors in their right place of serving. Although important, there is perhaps an even deeper need in the Australian church, that the multi-site structure could meet, if followed in a humble, Lord Jesus honouring above all, way.

Unfortunately the list of burnout, run down, isolated “ex-pastors” in Australia continues. A decade or more ago I heard stats like “there are 10,000 ex-pastors across Australia”. Recently I heard someone suggest it was now more like 20,000. I don’t know the truth of the figures, nor how one would find it out, however the comments reflect a reality: pastors struggle to see vocational ministry through well – not to mention the many church volunteers that have broken down or walked away. In his article “In search of the city-wide church” Toowoomba pastor Lyle Shelton wrote,

“While the attractional mega-church model has resourced the church in Australia with contemporary worship music and helpful programs, the downside is competition and isolation as pastors strive to grow their works. The burn-out rate of pastors and the continued decline in our culture by every measure is clear evidence that whatever the church in Australia is doing – it is not working.”

http://au.christiantoday.com/article/in-search-of-the-city-wide-church/3873.htm

Lyle is right. Church in Australia is not working (that’s another story, and a long one!). Part of the evidence is pastors not finishing well.

The multi-site church may be one way God is leading us to respond to this need. In an earlier blog I wrote of the multi-site church has to be centred upon the Lord Jesus and Him above all, and how that has to be reflected in humility, gentleness, peace and patience in its leaders. Indeed such relationships will help any church structure be effective. Yet the multi-site structure pushes this all the more in two ways,

First, the multi-site structure is founded on the truth that we can’t do this alone. Teams and leadership development are its basic building blocks, and I cannot ignore one of the main reasons I am to work hard in ministry under Jesus is to uphold and see the ministry effectiveness of another pastor/leader/campus increase, above my own!! By broadening this supportive team structure across a number of campuses, more vocational pastors can receive the benefit of the encouragement, support and challenge of working together at an ever-growing deeper relational level. Indeed, perhaps the multi-site church provides more opportunity to develop new teams and new leaders as there is more than one campus. One of the greatest challenges we will have at HBC/SBC will be the development of Campus Pastors at our campus’s, including me finding someone to join the Highland Reserve Planting team I am leading to take the work into the future in a few years: I have to hand it over – both in action and in my heart – for the multi-site structure to continue to be effective.

Second, the multi-site structure provides a greater opportunity for financial and relational sustainability. The shared resources mean more is available to more people: or should be made available. Yes, some might suggest there is also more demands, but the greater base of people, giftedness, and contribution can be harnessed, if led humbly, to see God’s kingdom grow through supported and strongly connected teams of ministers – both vocational and other.

These two points mean, I hope, pastoral staff in a multi-site church structure might “get to the end … together”. To follow up Lyle Shelton’s comment, whereas the single campus mega-church might provide more funds, it may not provide a structure that calls pastors to act with humility and a heart for each other under the Lord Jesus (the competition and isolation her refers to). Embracing a multi-site structure, on the other hand, is an admission that I can’t do this alone, that one church can’t do this alone, and we need to work together to serve the Lord Jesus and the world around us to His glory: competition and isolation cannot, or should not, operate in that environment, and hopefully that means we can support one another, build each other up, and see ministry through to the end … together. The challenges of serving Jesus and proclaiming Him in 21^st century Australia wont’ let up, and to meet those challenges well I need others around me, as does HBC. And if we do, who knows, those looking in at the Lord Jesus life in His people might just take notice. But that’s the next blog …

A new multi-site Baptist church for the northern Gold Coast

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:50 +1000

Well, church planting on the northern Gold Coast and its northern growth corridoor got a big impetus today: both Helensvale Baptist Chuch (HBC) and Southport Baptist Church (SBC) agreed to join together and form the new multi-site Baptist church in respective individual church meetings this morning. Included in this was starting a new campus work at Highland Reserve, Upper Coomera (HR), by a planting team headed up by Matt Hunt, current HBC Ministry Team Leader. This, we hope, is the first of a number of campus (church) plants from this new multi-site church over the next decade or so in this growing region of Australia.

At HBC, 102 people were present at their church meeting including 86 members. It had six motions before it including: plant a new work at Highland Reserve (HR), Upper Coomera (unanimous support); Matt Hunt to head up the HR planting team (unanimous support); start an intentional journey to appoint a Campus Pastor at HBC first looking at Stef Maslen (unanimous support); revised MFP to fund this in various ways (unanimous support); form the new multi-site church with SBC (1 no, the rest yes); appoint the New Church Team Transition (1 no, the rest yes). The SBC meeting was attended by "quite a few" and supported the motion to form the new multi-site church with a 75% majority.

Tonight we meet together at SBC for a meal and rpayer and worship - good way to start really. yet, to quote one church member "look like more work ahead!". As there should be in gospel work.

Please join with us in prayer as we proceed with the transition toward the multi-site church and see the first new church plant at HR. God willing the new multi-site church will be officially formed later in 2011. If you have any questions, feel free to email HBC, or phone at the church office.

A pastor's career path??

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 09:36 +1000

I have regularly heard over the years of churches that regularly see themselves as “sending bases”: they raise up youth and young adults to follow the Lord Jesus and serve him in ministries in the church. Some of these young adults then sense God’s touch to go to Bible College and prepare for vocational ministry. Upon completion, or during study, they leave their home church to serve at another church somewhere. It is celebrated as a “sending out”, and in one sense it certainly is. However, as it seems more the 'norm' of church practise of leadership development than the exception, perhaps one of the unsaid reasons for this is also that the finance is not there for the home church to support the new vocational worker.

Now there is nothing wrong with sending people out into gospel ministry – not only do needy churches and areas of the world need vocational workers, but the Bible clearly speaks and describes the church, among other things, as a sending agency (Matt 28:18-20, Acts 13:1-4). However, there is another issue besides the struggle of finance: our structures of vocational ministry, and local church based ministry in particular, point people to one predominant expression of vocational ministry: the traditional pastor. I remember at College being told, or getting the implied message, about the “pastoral career path”, which went something like youth pastor – associate pastor – solo pastor in the country – solo pastor in the suburbs – senior pastor of a small team in a suburban church – senior pastor of a big team in a big suburban church (then the top of the pile - denominational leadership). Some may follow this path and it may be God's way for them. However, when this is the ONLY development path for pastors it can raise more difficulties than it resolves. Not only does this sort of implied, systemic career path for pastors promote the human centred pride I wrote about of in previous blogs in this series, it also is a narrow expression of vocational ministry. It can force those who sense God’s hand toward vocational pastoral ministry into ministry positions that have them like square pegs in round holes.

A multi-site church can go some way to go against this the following ways;

As I outlined in earlier blogs in this series, the multi-site church structure can promote a humble Christ-centred framework for ministry development. If this is reflected in relationships and ministry, this heart will encourage people to trust the Lord Jesus more, and have an attitude to serve others first. This can enhance both a greater diversity in pastoral teams and yet also a unified impact.

Secondly, the multi-site structure, by providing a greater variety of potential places in which men and women can serve in vocational ministry, releases people from within the church to serve the church and the wider community rather than always presuming the only way ahead is to be sent off to a different church or place: it provides an appropriate development pathway for pastors from within. This “specialisation” of pastoral work has been growing in recent decades as team ministry has increased in priority and practise in churches, but the multi-site structure enlarges the possibility of it even further.

Related to this, is the different pastoral roles the multi-site church can provide for people. Providing alternatives to the traditional career path for pastors, alongside the spread of leadership responsibility across a wider church base, means there are a greater variety of options for pastoral focus. For example, a campus pastor role fits people who preach well, have a pastoral heart, but have no desire to initiate the provision of visionary or directional leadership, or the structures and processes required to promote such things. Other potential positions could involve coaches for small group leaders, pastoral visitation team leaders and community oriented pastoral positions. More pulpits provides both more opportunities for more preachers, and yet also the scope for not promoting the pressure that comes from one preaching spot which can make it hard to provide opportunities for early or developing preachers or those who aren’t “top shelf” preachers but who should still preach at times.

The multi-site structure also provides a greater financial base to support this widened potential for vocational ministry. Through sharing resources and finance, more campuses can support the growing pastors who the Lord can release to serve them in varying capacities. Further, by stopping the duplication of some activities such as administrative support and structures of financial transparency and accountability, excess funds can be released into supporting vocational pastors all the more.

And finally, the multi-site church puts team ministry on the agenda at an even deeper level which supports a variety of people to serve in their unique capacities and gifts. When team is practised in a humble, Christ-honouring and other people oriented way, people can feel better supported, coached and therefore be prepared to take the risks required for God-centred missional ministry leadership. But I am getting ahead of myself …

Leader, leaders, leaders

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:00 +1000

Our understanding of the multi-site church here on the northern Gold Coast is that it won’t happen without the ongoing development of new leaders. Indeed some multi-site church proponents describe the multi-site church as an incubator for leaders: leadership development is fundamental to the ongoing effectiveness of a multi-site church.

We saw this as we drafted the ministry in the multi-site church paper for HBC and SBC. One of the ten priorities of the multi-site church is one (flexible) ministry team staff (pastoral staff) across the whole church. By having one staff team, pastors and staff members can be mobilised across any campus of the church as needs arise and the campus and church agree. This is a great example of the shared resources of a multi-site church: one campus believes its kids’ ministry needs to be enhanced, another has a kids’ ministry thriving under the leadership of a pastor set aside for kids work. By having one staff team, the kids’ pastor could be released to invest two days a week (or whatever) in the second campus to encourage the development of the kids’ ministry team on that campus.

But of course there is a catch. The church could not release this kids’ pastor to the other campus, unless the first campus, and indeed the kids’ pastor, had been investing in that campus’s kids ministry team to release new leaders to take on responsibility for the kids ministries at the first campus the kids pastor would have to be released from to invest in the second campus. Thus leadership development is fundamental to the model.

You can see the same between the Lead Pastor and the Campus Pastor roles. One of the greatest problems in churches in Australia has been the issue of transition from one pastoral leader to another. Many a church thrives under one leadership, only to flounder under the next as the original leadership group was never intentional about developing new leaders to carry God’s ethos, values, mission and vision of the church on to the next generation. Having Campus Pastors alongside Lead Pastors in a multi-site church provides a potential structure for transition and leadership development even for this significant leadership issue.

In this sense the multi-site church demands that leadership development and training goes on. Without it the principle of shared resources is merely words.

But there is another sense in which the multi-site church is all about developing leaders. It also provides a greater variety of structures and frameworks to release people into vocational (paid) ministry. More on that next week.

Have the same mindset as Jesus ...

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:40 +1000

This is the fourth blog is a series on the multi-site church – a decision about which is before HBC and Southport Baptist Church, this Sunday 10^th April 2011. The potential new multi-site church will also include a new church, or campus, at Highland Reserve, Upper Coomera.

I finished yesterday quoting Philippians 2:1-4, and saying it cannot be read, or practised, without reference to verse 5, “⁵In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus …”. This passage, alongside others such as Ephesians 4:1-6, and even the Lord Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-23, are key passages and biblical principles for God’s church. The multi-site church structure seeks to put these principles and heart of the Lord Jesus into practise. Once again I’m not saying a single site church would not do this – you can find a heart for unity and Christ-centred behaviour in any church community. Rather the multi-site church structure grabs these priorities of unity and oneness in the body of Christ to a deeper and more “in your face” level as the traditional walls and boundaries of division in the Aussie church are brought down in the light of them. The most prominent wall of division being the divide between individual single site churches and their expression: their ministries.

Perhaps this is one reason why the multi-site church structure is both questioned and even avoided: We are so used to the single site church model and the difficulty of Christ-centred unity within that church structure that we can’t get our head around it when there is more than one “church”! And so we continue in our isolated, independent mindset seeking to honour the Lord as much as we can, but not being willing to trust Him in a new setting or structure that goes closer to His heart as expressed in these and similar passages, and, even more so, strikes at the heart of what “church” means to us in Australian evangelicals.

It’s as if we can’t trust Jesus to maintain unity in a broader sense, so don’t go there. Now our history of denominational and individual church divides, let alone other divides in the broader church, gives us good evidence to question whether we can. But the biblical reality is WE don’t. He does as we look to Him. I think of it this way. A truly Christ-centred unity can only evolve when I hold loosely to my self-made expressions of who I am such as my denominational commitment, leadership status, ministry passions, or, theological constructs and instead see my relationships with others in the context of a mutual submission to the New Testament Jesus Christ. I can and should do this with integrity regarding my personal expressions, but I cannot and should not lift these expressions above the Lord Jesus. He is our Lord, not me or my expressions. Our oneness as the Lord Jesus’ people is founded on His work through His death and resurrection. But the practise of true, humble, godly unity, although reflecting gospel principles, must be rooted explicitly and deliberately on our mutual submission to the Lord Jesus.

This commitment means my ministry practises should work to lift up the ministry of others, to give my all to point others to Him and to use all my gifts to encourage His work in others. And the multi-site church drives me to that practise. Any other attitude or approach will be found out in the multi-site church. It will destroy the whole foundation of the practise of the church: Christ-centred humble relationships. Such Christ-centred practise can, and should, be expressed in a single site church model, but the multi-site church model, through its freshness and enormous challenge to the predominant structure of church (single site) brings these biblical priorities of Christ-centred unity into stark reality all the more. In this sense the multi-site church structure puts into practise the Lord’s priorities of unity in the body of Christ all the more clearly.

These last three blogs have been about some of the biblical principles behind the multi-site church. I am not trying to argue a multi-site church is “more biblical” or a “better” church, rather I have been seeking to show how the multi-site church reflects biblical priorities. But how does it work really? Well, we haven’t got there yet, but the next set of blogs gets a bit more practical about how we see some key practical church issues and challenges may be dealt as we have prepared for the (possible) launch of this new multi-site church on the northern Gold Coast.

We really do need each other

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:45 +1000

I have a friend of mine at HBC who is well known for quoting Reuben Welch, “We really do need each other”. And he is right. If there is anything the experience of church life tells us, let alone the Bible itself, it’s that we can’t do this whole church thing alone. Of course we are quick to admit that on an individual level. But it is just as applicable at a church communal level.

And this mantra needs to be repeated, because our default system of church leadership, behaviour and practise is “we can do this on our own!” It reflects the sinful default position of our own hearts that says “I can do this alone”, whereas the gospel shouts out to us we can’t – we need God’s initiative, help and direction. The Lord’s work does not stop at salvation though. His initiative, help and direction is just as important in “doing church”, in fact, perhaps it is the most important thing about ‘doing church’.

This is why the Holy Spirit gives gifts to us, to be used not for me, but for others. I exist in the church for the sake of others and their edification, encouragement and service to the world. The wonder of the multi-site church is that it calls church leaders, and the church as a whole, to practise this selfless, other person oriented, servant hearted, Christ-centred humility all the more: The multi-site church structure calls our own pride to account. Now, you might say any church structure promotes this, how does the multi-site church do it any differently?

By calling the people of one campus to have a vision and heart bigger than itself: including other people and “campuses” as part of them in deeper and more committed ways than the past.
By calling campus pastors to have a vision smaller than a traditional pastor: operate as ministry overseers not overall vision casters.
By calling a Lead Pastor to see his role as the greatest servant: to exist for the ministry and leadership of others, in particular the Campus Pastors he mentors, encourages and wants to see fly.

I suppose it’s like a marriage. You’ve got to have a heart and practise for someone else above yourself for a marriage to work. Single people can and should be humble and other person centred, and they are. Getting married doesn’t make you “more humble”, it just, by definition, brings a whole new context and challenge to where and how that humility is expressed and grows (as does parenthood I’ve come to realise!)

This is the second way the multi-site church reflects the priorities and directions of the Bible. Philippians 2:1-4 challenges us, “¹Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” This, and many other passages, challenges us about the practise of unity; a humble, other person oriented practise. The multi-site church cannot survive without it. Getting back to Reuben Welch’s comment, a multi-site church challenges the mindset of “we can do it ourselves” and instead brings together things that have traditionally and historically divided us as churches: a multi-site church only works when we practise the truth of “We really do need each other!” Should a multi-site church be practised in a humble Lord Jesus honouring way, then the differences in the church can be released to complement each other rather than be separated and struggle on their own. In this way the multi-site church seeks to put into practise in a radical and deeper way than has been traditionally expressed in recent decades in the Aussie church, the church as the body of Christ.

We really do need each other!!

But of course Philippians 2:1-4 cannot be read, or practised, without verse 5: “⁵In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus …” and this Christ-centred call is lies at the heart of the biblical background to the multi-site church …

"To the church at ..."

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 11:56 +1000

There is no ONE model of church government or church structure in the NT. Just get a Baptist, a Presbyterian and an Anglican together to read and share their conclusions on Acts 15 and you will see that! The banks of the river called “NT church structure” are perhaps further apart than sometimes we presume! But is the multi-site church structure contained in that river? We see some descriptions of the church in the NT that can reflect a multi-site church structure in this formative time of the church in its history.

In 1 Corinthians 1:2 we read Paul is writing to the church of God in Corinth. There are similar verses in Paul’s other letters. At the same time we find regularly references to churches meeting in homes (Acts 2:46, 20:20, Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19). One implication from this is that churches based in towns had a number of meeting places, namely, homes.

Further, we see a spread of leadership responsibilities as the church developed in the NT. In Acts 6:1-6 we see spiritual oversight (prayer and the word), and no doubt strategic direction as part of that, put into the hands of the apostles and elders, whereas day-to-day activity was the responsibility another group of leaders. This ‘operational responsibility’ was not a spiritually insignificant role or limited the spiritual influence of these leaders, as seen by both the qualifications of those selected (“known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom” - Acts 6:3), and the calibre of them: the bible teaching and courage of Stephen is seen in the way Acts 7 records his story as the first Christian martyr. Paul also reflects this spreading of spiritual leadership in Titus where he calls Titus to appoint elders in every town in Crete (1:5), and yet also recognises overseers/elders and deacons (Acts 6 guys!) in Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3.

These biblical pictures are also part of the background to modern day denominations, let alone the development of dioceses, regions, sessions and presbyterys within them. Is the multi-site church just denominationalism in new clothing? I look at this from our Baptist background and see the multi-site challenge is more a reaction to the independence of individual churches and the breakdown of the shared ministry relationships and evangelistic impact churches can make together. Can this impact be made without the radical step of closing two churches and forming one new church? We’ve asked this question many times during the last 12 months and have come up with two responses. On the one hand, ‘burning our bridges’ by closing churches and forming a new church commits us to working together in ways we have never expressed that commitment. Secondly, if we could have done it as two autonomous churches – why haven’t we done it to date? We haven’t because our system of church practise, leadership as much as congregational perception, has been biased toward one church working on its own. This system does not encourage humility, partnership or centredness on the Lord Jesus. We needed to be realigned to God’s priorities and hold nothing back from His challenge.

As much as we can say the New Testament provides some biblical background and encouragement to a multi-site church model, we cannot say it is THE church structure/model of the New Testament church. As I said at the beginning of this blog, the NT doesn’t teach one model of church government or structure: our church structures can and should reflect the time and culture of the world in which God has placed us. The reality is any church structure can be effective and honour the Lord Jesus provided those who contribute to that structure, and its leaders in particular, reflect the deeper principles of Spirit filled behaviour we see in the NT: maybe that’s why the NT is far clearer on these matters than a model of church government or structure. How does the multi-site model encourage this behaviour of its leaders? That’s our next blog!

Its all (possibly) about to change!!

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:41 +1000

On Sunday 10^th April, Helensvale & District Baptist Church (HBC ) will make some profound and rare decisions regarding the future direction of myself and my family in vocational ministry, itself as a church, and, potentially under the Lord Jesus, the kingdom of God on the northern Gold Coast. These decisions are centred on forming a new multi- site church on the Gold Coast, including starting a new campus (church) work in Highland Reserve, Upper Coomera. Alongside these resolutions, HBC and Southport Baptist Church (SBC) will also be deciding before God whether SBC should join HBC in forming this new multi-site church. The meeting will not form the new church, but rather, is a decision to proceed and not go back, the burning of the boats as it were. The actual forming of the new church would be later in the year.

The impact on the future direction of HBC is clear from the nature of the decisions. The impact on the future of the Hunts is that the decisions include my appointment as the leader of the Highland Reserve planting team and also moving toward my appointment as Lead Pastor of the new church (this appointment will follow later in the year when the new church is formed). The impact on the kingdom of God will only be seen by the evangelistic thrust and impact of the new multi-site church both in terms of the Helensvale and Southport localities, and the planting of more new Christian communities around the northern Gold Coast, like the first one at Highland Reserve.

There has been much talk about “doing church differently” in the last decade or so. Why would two churches consider this sort of radical future? I mean it will mean closing two churches and opening a new one. Other questions that arise may include, “what would this church look like? What sort of impact could it have?” In this series of blogs I am going to outline our responses to these questions, and perhaps a few others. You might want to feedback some questions by email to our HBC webpage or on facebook. Please, go ahead.

To start with I want to outline the basic principles and priorities and of our multi-site church model, however to do so, I need to define two terms. When I use the word “church” I will be referring to the whole church, across all its sites. When I use the term “campus” I will be referring to a local site of the church. Should HBC and SBC both agree on this concept on 10^th April, this new multi-site church will have three ‘campuses’: Southport, Helensvale and Highland Reserve.

Our approach has been to work hard against any sense of perception of a takeover and/or franchise approach. Yes, the new church will have one ‘brand’ (name, values, mission) and one overall leadership, however, we have sought to partner that with presumptions and structures that affirm “coalface” decisions and ministry is at the campus level. This means there are two principles we are seeking to reflect: ministry leadership at the campus level, and shared resources across the church. How we practise the interdependence of these two principles will have a profound impact on the effectiveness or otherwise of the new church. This interdependence is reflected in figure 1. The church is the strongest ‘identity’ of the Christian community (the continuous line of the larger circle), however the campuses will develop their own expression of that identity (different colours of the small circles), and there relationships with one another will be open and shared (the dotted lines of the small circles).

These two principles give rise to the following ten priorities of the multi-site church:

A Campus pastor for each campus (either F/T or P/T as determined)
A Campus leadership group for each campus (ministry/operational oversight).
One Eldership for the whole church (spiritual oversight).
One Church Board for the whole church (policy/strategic oversight).
One financial purse for the whole church.
One Lead Pastor for the whole church. This person should eventually NOT be a campus pastor.
One Ministry Team Staff (pastoral and ministry staff) for the whole church.
Ministry Team Staff to be able to be moved across the campuses of the church under the leadership structure.
Ministry led from the campuses.
Training and coaching of ministry leaders to be raised to a higher level of significance and expectancy.

One thing clear from this list is that in the multi-site church, leadership is spread across the two expressions of the church and the campuses: Spiritual oversight and strategic or policy direction rests in the overall church leadership groups. Ministry and operational oversight rests in the campus leadership group.

Is there any biblical background to this model of church? I will blog on this question next.

Jesus: Above All

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:12 +1000

What is your occupation? We all jump to answer that question with “My job is …” but that is not the heart of the word “occupation”. What is your occupation, asks what is your focus? What occupies your mind the most? Here’s a hint to find your answer: whatever you are occupied with comes out of your mouth. It’s what you talk about all the time. Jesus put it this way, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45) Hmmmm. What do I talk about the most? Sport? The weather? My country? My problems? Me?

The heart of living life the best way is that the Creator of life lies at the centre of your life. That He is my “occupation”. He is what I speak of and imitate. The truth of the Christian faith is that it is only Jesus Christ who satisfies a dissatisfied heart, body and soul. The greatest of pleasures, the pinnacle of achievements, the purest passion, is Him.

Jesus is above all: Above all rulers and authorities, above all ideas and philosophies, above all powers and prestige, above all achievements and fears. The list is endless because Jesus is above all. As Colossians 2:6-8 reminds us,

⁶So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. ⁸See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forcesof this world rather than on Christ.

The story of Agnes Milowka is illustrative. I read of her story on the ABC News website in late February. Agnes, 29, was a renowned deep sea cave diver who knew the risks of her passion, and on the weekend of 26-27 February this year she met that risk head on when she died in one of Australia's longest underwater caves, Tank Cave between Millicent and Mt Gambier in South Australia's south-east. Agnes believed cave diving was the true essence of exploration. She recently uploaded her thoughts on You Tube saying,

"I dream about caves. It is an all-consuming interest. It is a passion. It is an obsession. There is no greater feeling in the world than finding a passage that no-one ever in the history of the world has seen before. It is like any pursuit that is inherently dangerous. If you are pushing the boundaries of that sport, you will find yourself taking on bigger and bigger risks. To me, those risks are worth it because the rewards are worth it."http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/28/3151103.htm

We can, and perhaps should, admire Agnes’ passion for deep sea cave diving. And we can sympathise with her friends and family’s sense of loss and grief at her passing. However, there is something grander, bigger and far more fulfilling to be consumed by than diving in deep, water-filled caves – even previously unexplored ones. Indeed it’s not a something, but a Someone: The Lord Jesus Christ. What if the Lord Jesus’ people were passionate, obsessed and all consumed by Him above all other hopes, visions, dreams, identities and ministries? What would be achieved by a group of people that were radically committed to following King Jesus ahead of all other priorities and desires? What would they die for? What would they live for? What would we speak of more than anything else?

Simply Jesus. Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola in their 2010 book Jesus Manifesto put it this way,

“A spellbinding apprehension of Jesus by our hearts wipes everything else off the table. Jesus bests all things. He dwarfs every competitor. Concisely, a person who is fully occupied with Christ, who knows him well, and who is in touch with Him through daily fellowship can boldly say, “Christ is all I need. You can strip everything else away from me, and I would still be left with Christ. Take away my gifts and my ministry; take away signs and wonders; take away the sense of His presence; take away my ability to read; take away every spiritual and religious pursuit I have, and I will still have Christ. And in having Him, I have everything.”Sweet, L., Viola, F., Jesus Manifesto, Thomas Nelson: Nashville, 2010, pages 21-22

This is our next sermon series at HBC as we run up to Easter. Come and join us and pray God would open your eyes to see that the Lord Jesus Christ is above all.

Lausanne Congress Update

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 10:59 +1000

Welcome to my first blog for 2011 – the fact that it is 18th February reveals what a busy start to 2011 we’ve had here at HBC!! This has been attributed to many things including the QLD floods, the struggles in some people’s lives we have been trying to help, preparing for our new Ministry Finance Plan, the preparation for the new church plant at Highland Reserve, and preparing the final report on our investigation on forming a new multi-site church with Southport Baps alongside the HR church plant.
Late last year I said I would blog on some matters relating to the multi-site church. These matters would include responding to some of the questions and issues we have examined as we’ve looked at this model of the local church. But, before I start those blogs, I want to do an update on my blogs on the Lausanne III Congress and the Cape Town Commitment – the document that was to come out of the Congress as a summary of what God was saying to the global evangelical church through it.
Well, the Cape Town Commitment has now been completed. It was published earlier this month. It is a fine document infused by a common commitment to the Lord Jesus and His people working together to see more people from across the globe starting following Him as their Saviour and King.
Although I was generally positive about the Lausanne Congress, I had some concerns which I shared in this blog. Two in particular, and there were perhaps my strongest concerns were; a weakness on its recognition on the place of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus in the gospel, and, a silence on the strategic and practical expression of our unity in the Lord Jesus perhaps worded in terms of our mutual submission of our identities and passions to Him. My blogging and discussions led a few people to encourage me to write and raise these issues with Dr. Chris Wright of the Langham Partnership who was coordinating the writing of the Cape Town Commitment. I did this, particularly because the first part of the Cape Town Commitment was published at the end of the Congress, and it reflected my first concern - a weakness on its recognition on the place of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus in the gospel.
Well Dr. Wright wonderfully received my email and said he would consider it. And, I have to share, the publication of the final Cape Town Commitment showed he and the group did. Not only was the references to the resurrection strengthened, but when issue of partnership is addressed in Part II it includes this paragraph,
“Partnership in mission is not only about efficiency. It is the strategic and practical outworking of our shared submission to Jesus Christ as Lord. Too often we have engaged in mission in ways that prioritize and preserve our own identities (ethnic, denominational, theological, etc), and have failed to submit our passions and preferences to our one Lord and Master. The supremacy and centrality of Christ in our mission must be more than a confession of faith; it must also govern our strategy, practice and unity.” (Cape Town Commitment, 2011, 43)
I emailed and thanked Dr. Wright for his gracious receiving, and using, of my material. In his reply he wrote, “I felt that what you wrote did echo a sense and a feeling that I heard from the platform some times (e.g. Patrick Fung), and many would agree with you - which is why it seemed right to include it in the Commitment.”
I share this to honour the leaders of Lausanne and the humility and openness of Dr. Chris Wright in particular. But, even more importantly, I share it to encourage us all to embrace this strategic and practise of our oneness in the Lord Jesus. Not only did he pray for it (John 17:20-23), and Paul call us to it (Ephesians 4:1-6, Philippians 2:1-5), but our witness and the growth of God’s kingdom to His glory, is positively impacted whenever we do (1 Corinthians 3:1-10). And this is one reason why, I believe, God has challenged HBC and Southport Baptist, to consider the step of joining as one multi-site church with a new church plant at Highland Reserve (first of many I hope!). But I am getting ahead of myself. That’s my next blog!!

Pondering Christmas

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 15:11 +1000

“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)

I’m sort of using this verse as the basis of a few Christmas messages this year. It’s a great comment not only on the impact of the Lord Jesus and his birth on his mother, but also about how we, like Mary, should respond to Jesus’ birth, what we call today Christmas (She didn’t of course, “Christmas” as a Christian celebration wasn’t introduced until about the 4^th century). Despite how familiar the story is, we should treasure and ponder the coming of the Lord Jesus.

No doubt Mary’s pondering “in her heart” led to more than an “intellectual” consideration of the incarnation. Such depth of pondering would have rooted in her life and changed her life. As should ours. So, what sort of pondering on Christmas would change our lives? My pondering this year has settled around a common theme. Can you see it?

That God would use a helpless baby born in a humble place (town and venue) at a backward time underlines for me that He moves close to the humble, poor, childlike and trusting. To quote Mary herself, “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:52-53). When I feel weak and broken: God is closest
Related to this, Christmas tells me He uses us to His glory best when we are humble, poor, childlike and trusting. Of all the things I must work against the most, it is the pride and control of believing I have all the answers and can work it all out. At that moment, I move further away from being best used by God to grow His kingdom. As the Lord Jesus later said, “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” … and, just to underline the point, … “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:15,23)
When I ponder Christmas I see that when I am, or feel, wise and powerful, I must still give, kneel and trust one who may seem much weaker than me, but who is the King of Kings, and the wisest of wisest ones. This to me seems part of the message of the wise men’s visit to worship the baby Jesus. (Matt 2:1-12). This is not to say Jesus is weak or foolish, rather that I might sometimes think he is. Paul’s words were as much in 1 Corinthians 1:25, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

Michael Card summed up these thoughts in his great song “God’s Own Fool”, which in his live album he introduced by saying “This song has got me in a lot of trouble over the years” – perhaps more of us need to ponder Christmas!!

Seems I've imagined Him all of my life

As the wisest of all of mankind

But if God's Holy wisdom is foolish to man

He must have seemed out of His mind

Even His family said He was mad

And the priest said a demon's to blame

But, God in the form of this angry young man

Could not have seemed perfectly sane

We in our foolishness thought we were wise

He played the fool and He opened our eyes

We in our weakness believed we were strong

He became helpless to show we were wrong

So we follow God's own Fool

For only the foolish can tell

Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

So come lose your life for a carpenter's son

For a madman who died for a dream

And You'll have the faith His first followers had

And you'll feel the weight of the beam

So surrender the hunger to say you must know

Find the courage to say I believe

For the power of paradox opens your eyes

And blinds those who say they can see

So we follow God's own Fool

For only the foolish can tell

Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

[. From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/m/michael-card-lyrics/gods-own-fool-lyrics.html .]

Ponder Christmas, and have a merry one,

from Matt and Rob and our wonderful boys, Stephen, James and Benjamin

Are multi-site churches bibilcally legitimate?

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:32 +1000

As we at HBC are continuing to move toward a multi-site church structure - both with planting a new church at Highland Reserve, and investigating with Southport Baptist Church about whether God would have them join us - I will be blogging on the value and place of a multisite church in how the Lord Jesus builds His church in the new year. In preparation I've been doing a bit of research and surfing on multi-site church today, and I thought I'd put up this great, brief 12 minute video of a debate between James McDonald, Mark Driscoll and Mark Dever on the whole multi-site thing (Dever has a church of one site, the other two have multi-site). It is humorous, engaging and informative.

Their debate provides a great background for thinking about the multi-site structure for church. But what grabs me most, and its evolved more and more as we've been investigating the idea with SBC, is that its all about church planting, not just making existing churches "better". This is the heart we've been unearthing at HBC.

Anyway, enjoy watching and come back in 2011 as I blog more on the multi-site church and see it evolve at HBC et al!!!

http://multisitesolutions.com/blog/are-multisites-biblically-legitimate

Matt

How much have we been sucked in again ... again!

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00 +1000

Been a while since I’ve blogged, but the reason for that is that I have fallen for one of the very things I want to blog about as I reflect on a final three things that Christians in the west may have been sucked in by our godless western culture.

First: choice. No, I didn’t fall for this one, but I see it all around me. We are constantly driven by the expectation that we should always “have a choice” about things. Now of course there is value in some level of competition between providers of goods and services: it acts as a great check and balance on monopolies and abuse of power by sole providers. For example, more competition in our banking sector will promote a more transparent service oriented banking sector – they are trying to “win our business” as it were. However choice can become such a god that it can not only freeze us, but it starts determining our behaviour in unhealthy ways. When was the last time an electricity retailer was knocking on your door to try and make you change your power provider “in the name of choice”? And then we can go to telecommunication providers, schools and even churches with all their options, or trying to develop more options!! It needs so much work to understand all the offers to compare and make a choice, that we can spend more time choosing than using! But perhaps the worst part of choice being our god is the way it takes a default place in the framework of our decision-making rather than trusting the Lord and His sovereignty. He is a much better place to frame our life decisions.

As the Lord Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10)

Second, and this is where I got sucked in: “busyness”. “Busyness” is one of the drastic outcomes of the drive for self-driven achievement and fulfilment. How do we achieve and find fulfilment? By doing more! How do we feel like we’ve achieved? By doing more! We can so easily get sucked in to doing stuff, ticking off a longer and longer to do list that we get over busy. There are many stories and motherhood statements about the value of a busy person. And they hold some truth. I am not arguing for self oriented laziness here. Let me reflect on my vocation a minute. Although pastoral work can lead to laziness – I regularly come across the joke that pastors only work one day a week – I am also so very conscious that pastors can fall also fall prey to being “too busy”. The reality is that although you work more than one day per week, there is no week of the year where there is not a Sunday (let alone the other days!!) And this is the real thing godless influence of “busyness”: that it takes out the centre of rest in our lives. We’ve got to work, and work hard. But the Lord put a Sabbath rest in the week for a reason, and the busyness of western culture is a not too subtle pressure against that place of rest.

And in whom that rest can be found? As the Lord Jesus promised, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Third: urgency. Although this is related to the “I want it now” pressure I referred to previously, the pressure of the urgent provides a different motivation for seeking resolutions, fruit and “success” in our actions to the “I want it now” syndrome. Perhaps it’s because our western culture celebrates achievement, success and the perfect image that we prioritise the urgent over the best. We need to see results now, presuming to not do so is failure, and so we orient planning, strategy and action to see things happening urgently, when perhaps we should be prepared to wait a little longer, even if this brings loss in the short term. The clearest example currently would be the reaction to the Australian cricket team not winning a test match in the last seven, and now being down 0-1 in the Ashes battle with England!! It’s a bit hard to take if you’ve only known Australia when it’s been winning since 1989 (my memories go back further than this!). Debate bounces around the media over who to drop, whether to drop and whether it’s time to blood young players. Maybe we are in this place because we didn’t blood younger players before – a reflection of seeking the urgent! I see the church regularly falling for this with same sort of drive to see fruit of outreach, discipleship and development NOW driving decisions, assessment of godliness, and even of whether God is involved in His work (now that’s a conundrum!!). We need to lower our expectations to increase our faith, or, lower our expectations of what can be achieved in the short term and have bigger plans for the long term! I was saddened to hear a pastor say twice to me recently that “I don’t want to waste the next ten years of my life on turning this church around, I want to start making a difference now.” He was being driven by the urgent above the best – and perhaps the godly.

How does the Lord want my pastor friend to lead the church? What does “make a difference” mean? Just urgent results now at whatever cost? Or following timing and agenda of the Creator of all and the Lord of the Church knowing that His way is always the best. As 2 Peter 3:8-9 says, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

He can be trusted to lead His work. And that really is the antidote to not being sucked in. To build the discipline of learning His way through His word, of His direction by the Holy Spirit, and to know that the greatest moment is when the Lord Jesus will welcome me in saying “well done good and faithful servant”. Now that’s worth living for. I just wish I thought about Him more often than I do!

How much have we been sucked in ... again?

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:39 +1000

How much have we been sucked in ... again?

A few days back I blogged about how we in the western church, (and perhaps particularly on the Gold Coast!) can be sucked in by our western culture. I shared three points we must be vigilant to stand against, and to see as marked differences between ourselves and those around us who are yet to follow the Lord Jesus. Here are three more,

We are too easily offended: the drive in our western culture to protect ourselves and our rights above all else has a partner: being too easily offended. How quick people move to anger and affront when things go against them. Road rage, talk back radio, comments on web pages, we can see it everywhere. This quickness to be offended reflects the fact that in a world supposedly defined by greater ‘tolerance’, our ability to tolerate differences between us has dropped to such a significantly low level that conflict is resolved through passive escaping and only engaging with those ‘just like me’, or extreme measures of anger, violence and abuse.

We have not avoided this in the church. Indeed we continue to avoid differences and embrace too much hurt when others ‘rub us up the wrong way’: whether it is differences over ministry priorities, theological conclusions, or ways of relating, being offended rises to the top too quickly and division and breakdown results. Feeling offended then leads to defensive relationships, a sense of superiority, and bringing down others, and their contributions to the Lord’s glory through how He uses them. In the end the body of Christ doesn’t do its work and the kingdom suffers.

The apostle Paul wrote, “Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. (Rom 12:10-12)

We are too focused on our image: How often we are bombarded by our world around us that the external is the priority over all else about ourselves!! We are also told about the downside of this obsession with personal image; eating disorders and cosmetic surgery come to mind (men AND women can get sucked into these) but the focus on image remains dominant. But the world still tells us that unless our houses, cars and other material things are not beautiful and stand out in a crowd, then we haven’t ‘made it’ – just look at the ever growing gossip columns in major newspapers, or the way houses are presented and ‘sold’ in real estate agents! (not that I am against newspapers and real estate agents – we need them both!)

We fall for this as followers of the Lord Jesus not just individually but corporately. How much of the new building drive for churches is driven by lifting the image of the church? It is not unimportant - investing in a car park at HBC last year was both expensive and necessary – but there is a line where image takes over, do we check ourselves against it corporately? Even more sadly was an article I read on pastoral narcissism in Leadership magazine by JR Kerr (http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/thepastor/soulspirit/pastoralnarcissism.html). It’s not just the promotion of the church’s image (how big is your church?). I was saddened to read this comment, “I was recently part of a conversation where a number of Christian leaders were talking about their "personal brands." A brand is the (emotional) experience someone has when they hear your name, see your image, or think of your ministry. As the language of branding seeps into the church, more pastors are thinking about how they are perceived. It puts the emphasis on individual leaders rather than communities of believers. It elevates image and impressions above the always messier reality.”

Again, Paul writes to Timothy, “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

We are too won over by education as the way to change lives. I was struck as I was listening to the ABC this morning by a report on the growing numbers of obese people. The report was saying how more and more people are choosing to deal with their problem not through a change in lifestyle to eat healthy foods and exercise, but by the more drastic choice of surgery. One commentator said “all our years of public education campaigns just haven’t worked”. When there is a need for changing behaviour in society, our culture always seems to work on the assumption that “telling people what to do will change their behaviour”. How wrong we are, there is so much more to changing behaviour.

And we in the church get sucked in to this as well. We see it reflected in the priority of the gift of teaching above nearly all other gifts, the drive for the next conference or talkfest that might “change my church”, and the way each church wants to put on their own conference because “God has told us our practises and insights will help others and grow the kingdom”. We even see it in all the Christian believers who go to church and sit and listen to a sermon and leave with no change in their lives, or small groups that are focused nearly exclusively on teaching and bible study to the neglect of other ways God changes us. I am not anti bible study, or good sermons – teaching is one of my spiritual gifts – but teaching alone won’t change people’s lives to become more like the Lord Jesus.

James, the Lord’s brother, wrote, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”

Do we go any further in identifying how we can get sucked in? We must ...

How much are we being sucked in?

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 09:51 +1000

I’ve been reflecting more and more on the godless influence of western culture on the western church in recent weeks. I’ve pondered on a number of different ways the vibrancy of the lives of Christian people in the west, and the effectiveness of their witness, both individually and corporately, has been dulled by the subtle but never ending wearing down of Christian distinctive in our lives. Unfortunately, the debates Christians and churches get involved in the media, and so seem to get all the airplay, tend to miss some fundamental areas in which we are becoming more like our western culture, rather than graciously and charmingly different from it. Here’s three to start,

The most obvious to me is the consumerist hunger that lies behind seeking to have my needs met above all others: Advertising that suggests “You deserve it”, is just soft, wimpish, godless and selfish. We don’t ‘deserve’ anything, we are blessed by grace – the grace of God, and, at times, the grace of others. This we should celebrate, rather than ignore. This is rife in Christian land in Australia. Not just in the material things we seek, but even down to the whole “church-shopping” concept of going to a church that meets my needs – family needs, theological needs, ministry needs, or just plain comfort needs.

The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matt 5:6)

The desire for personal ambition and influence: I see this both inside and outside the church. From an outside perspective, I wonder how much of the cry for the church to be in public domain, and the cry for Australia to “rediscover its Christian heritage”, is more about an ambition for the church to grow in its public power and influence. Does evangelism and witness for the gospel require public influence? I wonder if, particularly in Australia where we are so cautious and cynical about institutions and power, this can be a blockage to the gospel. Christendom hasn’t brought people to Christ in this country, and maybe it never will. Perhaps the Lord Jesus wants to build His church through serving, unseen influence from the bottom up – that was certainly how He built the early church. Maybe this is His answer to the many prayers for a “New Testament church” we have heard in recent decades. From an inside perspective the whole empire building pressure still remains inside the church and its leadership. I sat with a QLD church planter yesterday and he told me, sadly, that as they were planting the church they visited the larger churches in their area, and not one of them was prepared to be a “sponsor church” for the plant. In the end another small church plant did it as best they could. Why do we keep our eyes narrowed to where we exercise our own influence and control? Why do we walk away from where we can’t control things?

The Lord Jesus said, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” (Matt 4:10, Deut 6:13)

Perhaps a final reflection in this group is our growing aversion to suffering, pain and loss. We are getting sucked into advertising that tells us “You can get better ...”, and lift high those things that protect us against suffering. This desire feeds church and Christian practises as prayers are nearly exclusively focused on protection, healing, success and growth, and ministry is planned with the desire for it never to go backwards. I too am guilty of this I know.

The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:10)

Maybe some more thoughts tomorrow ...

Lord you are like Wow!

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:15 +1000

Each Monday morning our HBC Staff meets together for prayer and worship. It all started about 6 years ago when four of us met and Stef Maslen, our Youth and Young Ads Pastor, prayed “bring on the giants Lord!” They have come, but have not prevailed!!

The format of our meeting is not unlike our HBC Life - Groups; we share an icebreaker, have a short devotion and spend some time in worship before we pray. Our worship time can involve singing, or some silence listening to a song of worship, or worship oriented prayer focused on the Lord and his character and work. This morning Stef led our time of worship and after reading Psalm 98, encouraged us to focus on God’s work and in response write our own psalm of thanks and worship. We have done this a few times, and it is a great discipline to develop. This was mine and it reflected where I am at even now after a busy, but fruitful, weekend, month, year, and indeed 8 years of serving at HBC,

Lord you are like Wow!

I struggle, I persevere, I fall

And You are like Wow!

I yearn, I want, I wait

And You are like Wow!

Things fall short, they aren’t there yet,

And You are like Wow!

Two steps forward and then one back

And You are like Wow!

As I waver, You stand firm

As I wonder and muse, You know

As I plan and work, You direct and bear fruit

As I rest and look to You, You empower

You are great, You never stop

You are right, You are true

You are faithful, You always do what is best,

Lord, You are like Wow!

Thank you Lord

Effective Christian Partnerships

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:16 +1000

My first week back has been a blessing. To re-engage with our Ministry Team Staff and Admin team at HBC has been great, as has the normal routine of work. At times I’ve struggled with implementing the routine again, but is good to be back.

I am being struck more and more since I’ve come back from Lausanne, and perhaps because of it, of the importance of Christ-centred partnership within God’s people. The whole bounded empire building, even unintended empire building that the western church gets involved in must break God’s heart. I’ve had two meetings this week that have underlined this. On Monday night there was the monthly New Church Investigation Team meeting with Southport Baps as we investigate forming a new multi-site church on the northern Gold Coast. We’ve met since April and we are now building significant momentum to our final report and decisions at both churches in March 2011 whether to proceed or not. I won’t blog in detail, but it has been a good and intense journey as groups of people from both churches have been forced to engage with what unifies them, not what separates them. And it is bearing fruit as we remind each other of our common Lord Jesus and our common mission to follow His lead in every way. The old story goes that if you put 10 Baptists in a room you will have 15 opinions has not held water here!! Yes, there have been differences of opinion, and we will find more as we now engage with all of both churches even more, but they are being worked through in a Christ-centred and Christ-led environment.

The second meeting was a consultancy I am doing on conflict resolution with a Christian school on the coast. This school comes from a different church tradition to me, and has a variety of church involvement on its staff, but we have worked as a small group of 8 on how to develop a process of resolving conflict between staff members, and others in the school community, that has been once again placed under the Lord Jesus leadership and direction. Yesterday was a bit of a watershed as we really clarified the process and documentary expression of our work.

Sometimes working in small work teams and committees can be laborious and feels like working uphill with no fruit from your work. I have experienced this. But these groups, and others, seem to be producing value. But it’s not about the great work the members of the team do alone. Psalm 127:1 is true, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the labourers labour in vain.” I have felt like I have laboured in vain in some teams and committees I have been involved with in the past, but not now. I wonder what impact putting the Lord Jesus explicitly and deliberately on a regular basis has made on this? The Scriptures tell me it is significant.

Which brings me back to truly Christ-centred partnerships: We can’t do it alone. Not just me, and not just us. We desperately need each other. But perhaps even more importantly, we desperately need the Lord Jesus and His leadership. It is the heart of true Christian, missional, and effective partnership. None else will do the job.

What I learnt at Lausanne III

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:22 +1000

This is my final blog on the Cape Town 2010 Lausanne III Congress. Today I am going to share what I learnt at Cape Town 2010. There are many things I could outline here, but here is the top of the list!

The church is much bigger than the church in Australia: as happens whenever I travel – and perhaps you too – I connect with how much Australia is on the edge of the world!! Sometimes we can be so focused on what is happening in our own backyard, that we can think the world stops there – there is so much more God is doing through his people around this world: people who speak differently to me, look differently to me, have different passions, priorities and hopes than me – but who follow this same Lord Jesus. I have learnt a new humility, patience and gentleness in ministry because I follow BIG God. May my ministry reflect that humility as God is gracious even to work through me.
That the call for suffering, persecution and obedience is stronger than ever. Sitting and listening to story after story of God’s work through suffering and persevering believers in the global south was compelling. To hear a North African pastor say “when muslims come to Christ we teach them about salvation and persecution first”, made me feel how much we seem to play around the edges of following the Lord Jesus in the west, Australia, and perhaps particularly the Gold Coast. That night I was sitting with a group of Aussies and I turned to them and asked “we know little of persecution in the Aussie church, and yet it is fundamental to the Lord Jesus’ teaching, do we have to choose persecution?” We didn’t have an answer that night, but the question remains, and I am going to engage with it in my teaching.
One matter I concluded from point 2, and it is another thing I learnt, is God calls us, particularly in the west, to a greater call to be counter cultural and different from our world around us. In recent decades there has been a call to be relevant, build bridges and engage with the unbelieving world around us. A good corrective to past church practises, perhaps particularly in evangelism. But I learnt at Lausanne, that we need to be more counter-cultural, not so much in the Christian values that get all the publicity of sexual practises, family and relationships, but on top of those, values of suffering, persecution, patience and not wanting God to meet my needs first. This is the greatest influence of the devil on the lack of effectiveness of the church in our setting. Maybe we do have to choose persecution, by seeming “stupid” and strange in the sight of the world around us. The call for a simple lifestyle with love, patience and submission in the face of anger, right-fighting and success- driven may be what God is calling from us. And men need to do this first.
What will bring this about? The fourth thing I learnt follows some of the frustrations I felt at what was missed at Lausanne. As John Piper said in his interpretation of Ephesians 3, only when we are taken by the wonder, glory and awe of the Lord Jesus Christ, when we treasure him above all else, will we make these choices that God is calling us too. I have learnt that I’ve got to be even more taken by the Lord Jesus and focus all the more on him above all else to see his people be effectively developing as devoted disciples; above ministry, theology, strategy, and even evangelism. It is the most strategic thing I can do to see Him build His church.
And perhaps this is a fifth thing I learnt, once again flowing from the other four: the need for discipleship. We need to invest all the more in discipling Christian people so they will stay the course with the lifestyle God uses to extend His kingdom: patient, self-sacrificial, other people centred, Jesus honouring lifestyle. Only as we live this way will the funds be released, will the gifts of the Spirit be released, will the church be released and the power of God be evident for the world to be transformed by the gospel. I am renewing my commitment to teaching strongly on these things, and call Christian people of all ages and depths of commitment to a renewed passion and decisions to live simply to honour Jesus with strong grace, mercy and a smile!!
And the last point I learnt is what I kept talking about both at the Congress, and in this blog: to a renewed commitment to hold loosely to my identity in submission to the Lord Jesus. To work to lift up the ministry of others. To give my all as I see it at the time, to point others to Him. To use all my gifts to encourage, focus, and develop how he is working in others, even as I sit, think and minister differently to me. Lord help me. I can’t change anyone else. But it can start with me.

Lausanne III was an amazing privilege and experience, but it was a first baby step for something far more significant: seeing more people come to know the Lord Jesus through His gospel. May He bring it on.

Matt