In an attempt to be a better blogger, I’m going to try to post more without fleshing things out. I hate leaving things unsaid or not answering objections, which means I’m left with 25 unposted blogs over the last couple months (seriously). So here goes.
The idea of a specific calling to church planting is insulting to the Holy Spirit. Every Christian has God in them. Try to wrap your mind around that idea. So now God’s not powerful enough to help someone plant a church? Yeah, I want my biggest, baddest dudes out there on the front lines. Some people, because they are unwilling to change and equip themselves, are just obviously not ready to put the necessary work into planting a church. But I don’t believe for one second it’s due to some kind of supernatural deficiency in Holy Spirit power - I think it’s due to human laziness. We need to be really careful when we start attributing human diligence to God because we make our own work irreproducible, which is inherently anti-missional. We think we’re doing God a favor, but really we just have a weak view of the Holy Spirit if we think he can’t work through anyone the way he works through us - on top of the fact that we’re letting a lot of Christians off the hook.
Thoughts?
Posted on July 8th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 1 Comment »
This week we’re studying the importance of prayer and connecting with God from the last section of Ephesians 3. This is something our community must start doing if we’re going to be about the mission of Jesus like we want to be. Right now we’ve got a lot of people saying and thinking “we need to pray more” or “we need to reach out to people more” or “we need to _____.” I’m one of those people, as these things are all true. But what we really need is more people to say “I will ____ .” For each of us, it’s got to start with “I will,” and we can’t be distracted by what everyone else is not doing. I will connect with God every day.
Posted on June 17th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 1 Comment »
Being missional involves both intent and intensity. It involves both sincerity and scope. I have discovered over the past few months that people have a relatively easy time understanding the intent and sincerity involved with living missionally, but a much harder time grasping the intensity and scope that is required to truly be missional. Without intensity and scope we’re just another nice, dying church.
The mission of Jesus compels us to love others and live a life that is a good witness. In other words, we learn to always have the intent of showing Jesus to others, and we are sincere about it. This is not an easy task, but it also does not require much sacrifice on our part. Once we understand what Christ has done for us, who doesn’t want to live a life so that others can also know this?
People are much more reluctant to acknowledge the intensity and scope of the mission of Jesus, because these things require much of us. I believe our English translations get Matthew 28 right - Jesus did not say “while you are going, make disciples,” he said “go and make disciples of all nations.” See here for a defense of this view. In this command we have both the intensity and scope of our mission.
First, we have to go actively and intentionally. It is not “missional” to reflect the love of Jesus to the people we come into contact with in our day-to-day lives - that is simply what a good person who knows Jesus would do, and certainly we must do this. But we become “missional” when we are intentional about going to other people, and if we are not doing this then we are not following Jesus’ command. As we always make clear, intentionally going to other people that we do not naturally come into contact with does not mean that we have fake relationships with people to tell them about Jesus, or that we go door to door. It is a tough, life-long commitment to intentionally form new meaningful relationships with people. You have to be intense about the mission in order to be willing to do this.
Second, the scope of our mission is everyone - all nations. From this we derive the command that we are to meaningfully reach as many people for Jesus in our lifetime as possible. It means the scope of the mission is unlimited, so there is never a point at which we can say, “we’re doing our part, we’re doing enough.” Christianity doesn’t work like that. We can rest confident in God’s sovereignty, knowing that we are being obedient and striving to reach as many as possible. But I don’t think that a Christian who knows his or her own sin will ever feel that they have arrived when it comes to the mission of Jesus. Realize that following Jesus involves a life-long commitment to a mission that will never be finished until Jesus returns. I’m just telling you the way it is. But as always, it’s worth it.
Posted on April 26th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 3 Comments »
Well, for the summer anyway. This past Sunday we talked about moving with God and being willing to give up what we thought our life would look like for what Jesus wants it to be.
It occurred to me that some of the people in our church are about to spend their whole summer taking a break from following Jesus. If you find yourself in that situation and you’re willing to step out and do something about it, please let us know. If you want to stay in Lynchburg for the summer and be a part of conVerge, we can help make that happen.
It’s your choice.
Posted on April 23rd, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 1 Comment »
“Every Person Matters” means that the person you don’t know matters just as much as your friends. It means the person you don’t know matters just as much as your parents. It means that the person you don’t know matters just as much as YOU. It means that if you would rather be by yourself and those you are comfortable with than with the people God has put in your life to bring into His kingdom, you are an idolater and you do not believe that every person matters. It means that we value redemption over comfort, and in doing so find both.
Is this a ridiculous standard? Of course it is. And no we’re not all living like this yet. But if you wanted the status quo, there are a lot of other places you could get it. Jesus, once again, was not lying when he said that following Him would be hard.
Posted on April 14th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 2 Comments »
We‘ve got to pray more. I don’t have a whole lot for this post or any new revelations that have made me post it. This is simply a call to more prayer for everyone at conVerge, starting with myself. As we take strategic steps to get more and more serious about the mission of Jesus, we can‘t forget to both rely on and anticipate God to work and move. I don’t think we’re really doing that right now.
Pray that God would continue to bring new people into our sphere of influence that He wants us to reconcile to Himself through Jesus. Pray that we would begin to take action on all that God has taught us these past few months, and not be afraid to make changes in our lives.Pray specifically that God will raise up leaders to further the movement of conVerge Church.
Posted on April 3rd, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 2 Comments »
It’s been quite awhile since I last blogged. I really don’t have much of an excuse, not that things haven’t been busy. But I do want to make blogging more of a priority going forward. There are a ton of things going on at conVerge and tons of thoughts to go along with them.
So what compelling issue has brought me back from my blogging slumber? Uh, well it’s the Chipotle vs. Moe’s debate.
A lot of people I know have a lot of explaining to do. Ever since Moe’s has opened in Lynchburg and been amazing, I’ve heard it mentioned numerous times that Chipotle does the same basic thing but much better. This is hard to believe as good as Moe’s is, and today I have confirmed that a lot of people I know are full of it. Today I ate both Chipotle and Moe’s and was able to compare the two. Given the rave reviews people seem to give Chipotle, I was expecting it to be at least as good, if not better. So the odd thing is that I don’t think the competition is even close in favor of Moe’s. Based on my experience today, Moe’s is significantly better for 4 reasons:
1) Ingredients - Moe’s gives you all kinds of options to put on your burrito. Chipotle does not. At Chipotle my only options were salsa and cheese, whereas Moe’s offers those along with all kinds of vegetables, including jalapenos. I can’t believe Chipotle doesn’t offer jalapenos, and that’s a huge minus for me.
2) Chips - This is an easy one, Moe’s gives you free chips and Chipotle does not. After eating both meals today, I can say that this is a big deal. My meal was much more complete at Moe’s. I was still hungry after Chipotle.
3) Size of Burrito - Sorry, the Moe’s burritos were much larger than the Chipotle burritos. It’s true.
4) Chipotle Ranch Sauce - This is by far the biggest thing. It’s kind of amazing to me that the restaurant called ”Chipotle” doesn’t have chipotle ranch sauce or anything like it, but it doesn’t. Moe’s does. This is the #1 key to what makes Moe’s burritos so much better than Chipotle burritos. I would imagine that people who like Chipotle better don’t know about chipotle ranch sauce at Moe’s.
The overall taste of the burritos was basically the same, except for all the great extras that Moe’s offers. So basically, Moe’s is much better and if you think otherwise, you’re just wrong in a very sad, pathetic way. The end.
Posted on March 29th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Humor | 1 Comment »
Church as an organization has really messed up a lot of things. Because most of us have only been involved in local churches that are organizations, we read scripture from this point of few. Take 1 Corinthians 12.
Most of us consider Paul’s whole analogy of the body and everyone using his or her gift to do their part in the context of operating a church organization. We need some people to be greeters, some guy to preach, some people to run child care, some people to be small group leaders, some people to clean up afterwords, and on and on and on. You need to understand how twisted this is. Not that ANY of those activities are unnecessary or unspiritual, but it’s just that Paul is talking about SO much more. Read this passage in the context of the church as a missional movement of Jesus, and every part of our lives being spiritual. Paul is not telling us how to get everyone to pitch in to operate a church service!
What Paul is describing is the church as a movement of people who are living on mission for Jesus. He isn’t saying that from the pastor we need 60 hrs a week because he is so important, but from the greeter we need 6 hrs a week because she hasn’t been gifted as much! No, we need every person, on mission, all the time, all day, EVERYDAY! We have different gifts and so we will do different things, but the whole of each of our lives is essential to the missional church. Wherever you go, in whatever you do, it is essential that you are on mission with Jesus, or the whole church misses out on your unique contribution.
At conVerge Church, we want to teach you how to form a plan so that every part of your life can be lived on mission with Jesus. Everything is spiritual. How you live today is as important as what you do to help operate the church service on Sunday. Jesus isn’t asking for your time. He’s not asking for your service. He’s asking for everything. All I can tell you is, I’ve met Him, and it’s worth it.
Posted on February 5th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | No Comments »
As the ministry of conVerge Church becomes more and more public, I find myself obsessed with defining what we are about as a church. In one sense I fear that as we get off the ground running with the “business” of church, we will all tend to revert back to systems and institutional structures that we have grown up with and that are familiar to us. But at the same time, I’m delighted that we have this new sense of urgency about the mission of Jesus that compels us to act now, regardless of whether we have everything figured out. We never will have everything figured out, so I am determined that we never lose that urgency nor stop pressing forward.
So, as we ever press forward, the work of reconstructing church must go with us. I am more convinced now than ever that what conVerge must be is a missional church, and moreover that none of us really comprehend what this will mean, or the amazing redemptive and transformational power that accompanies this methodology. The concept of a missional church is becoming more and more popular within the evangelical subculture, and I hope this is a good thing. But I’m sure that for many the tendency will be to tack on missional living as a band-aid to a church organization that is dying, and it will lose its value.
I don’t think everything must change. I’m not convinced that the house church movement is the most appropriate church model for the culture we find ourselves in. I am convinced that it is in many places (China, India). But I think we can leverage our prosperity and freedom to explode the mission of Jesus faster than ever here in America and other western countries. But that’s not going to happen if we keep doing church the same way. Some things must change.
One of the concepts I’ve been thinking about the most is that conVerge church must not be an organization, but instead it must be an organized movement. I don’t think this means that our weekly corporate gatherings will look very much different than those we are accustomed to, but their attitude, purpose, and culture will change dramatically. Right now most churches are organizations. People join up because of various benefits they receive based on membership. These would include fire insurance, social networking, status, help connecting with God, teaching and instruction, and because joining up is what followers of Jesus do. Not all of these things are bad, and in the Everything is Spiritual sense, I would say that none of them are bad. But organizations allow for compartmentalization, and compartmentalization kills missional living.
What we need is an organized movement. People do not need to be members of an organization, they need to join a movement that is about a way of life and living on mission with Jesus. As a part of this movement it makes sense that we will meet once a week in a building to worship God, to meet and encourage one another, for instruction and teaching, and in general to be organized about the movement. Our prosperity and freedom allow us to do this, but we have to remain a movement. Everything always has to be about the mission of Jesus and how we’re living our lives in such a way to spread that mission. If we ever lose this sense of adventure, this sense of calling on the lives of every follower of Jesus, we will become an organization and just another dying church.
I’m more convinced than ever:
Remember the Mission, Every Person Matters, Live Differently, Move with God.
Posted on February 3rd, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 2 Comments »
Well, I guess I can do one of these posts now. I honestly don’t know where to start. I feel relieved, elated, excited, frustrated, hopeful, fearful, encouraged, humbled, awestruck, and tired all at once.
Relieved – We all made it through, everyone did fantastic, and we launched our church. So many unsung people played their parts perfect and I just hope I can remember to thank each one of you tomorrow, and sorry if I missed any of you earlier tonight.
Elated – There were 112 people there tonight. Honestly, it’s great. It’s amazing. There were more people there than any of us could have dreamed of 3 months ago, and I hope they keep coming back or read the website to really get a full view of the vision of conVerge Church and why it really is something God is doing.
Excited – No stopping now. We’ve got tons of work to do during these next 2 weeks before our next service and I’m excited about it. I hope we meet lots of people over these next two weeks because of the service and that we can connect them to Jesus’ mission.
Frustrated – I blew it big in one area for this service but it’s not gonna happen again. Not beating myself up over it, and clinging to the truth that God is in control and His Word will go out – and it will. But I will also learn and grow and do better next time.
Hopeful – I’m hopeful about the fact that as great as tonight was, I can see so many areas where it is going to get much MUCH better – and that is cool.
Fearful – I’m probably gonna have to talk to these people on stage at some point – well next week for the announcements at least. Petrified would be a better word.
Encouraged – I see so many ways that I know we’re gonna get better and more on target with our message of exploring a mission and forming a plan – yet many people are right now telling us they love what we are doing and will be back. I’m also so encouraged about how well people responded to the music, but I kind of thought they would. I think JT and the rest of the guys are really onto something there and I can’t wait to see how they progress as well in the coming weeks. The music was absolutley amazing.
Humbled – God has been so good. More than anything, He has been good in sending us people who want to live missionally. It’s really all been about the people he has sent. There are literally too many to list their names here. That’s crazy, and it shows how good God has been. And for all you guys who know who you are, realize it is God that has brought us all together. It is God who has done this, and we have to continue to rely on Him going forward.
Awestruck – Is God really going to let us start a church and partner with Him and the mission of Jesus? Really? Us?
Tired – I’m going to bed; and I’m going to sleep like a (c)alvinist
Posted on January 27th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 1 Comment »