Sometimes life's experiences can just leave you dumb founded and unable to articulate well what took place. As I said in my last post I've been having trouble articulating what happened as we dreamed about Montage last weekend. My gut reaction was to try and explain all the details but then I thought "this is boring....even to write". So I'm just going to give you some words that I think act as a good synopsis of how I feel and what we experienced:

Hope - for God's preferred future in Toronto.
Humility - that people will lay themselves down, their comfort and pride, for the sake of Jesus
Love - I felt more love in that cottage than in almost any situation I've ever been in.
Excitement - if our faith community can look like this I really believe Jesus will be massively attractive to people.

If anyone is interested in the basic outline of what happened feel free to get a hold of me :-) I'd be more than happy to give you the details. 
 

Life is a series of markers. Significant events by which you measure the passage of time. Some days are totally lost in the mire of the unremarkable and others are forever burned into your minds eye - quickly and vivdly recallable despite the passage of time.

I'm certain that Saturday and Sunday will be the kind of days that years from now I will still be able to remember the faces of my friends just as they were, the exact number of American flags I counted in the cottage and the wonderful scent of the candles that were burning. All those things are memorable to me but what I will most remember, what I will fight to defend and recreate, is the sense of the Holy Spirit I felt as we met together. You see, I think what happened this weekend is several people, all unique, came together, allowed themselves to be shaped by the Spirit of Jesus, and something wonderful was created. We wrestled with what the church HAS to be...and what perhaps we should look to lay aside for the sake of the mission Jesus put us on. Each person laid their unique gifts at the feet of Jesus, Montage's real Leader and Pastor, and asked him to do something with it. And he did.

We were able to create together pictures of the future, values that will be held dear for years and years. This is exciting to a strategic thinker like me. But what I was most excited about was the genuine love for Jesus and for one another that I felt in that cottage this weekend. I don't know what God has in store for the people he brought together this weekend but I do know this - Montage moved beyond my wife and I and Jesus this weekend. In a real way it came into the world there in that little place by Lake Huron and the picture of it's birth was glorious. Jesus did in that place and time EXACTLY what I feel he wants to do in Toronto. He took ordinary people, all unique, and created something far more beautiful with us than we'd be able to created in and of ourselves. If that picture continues to be painted, continues to grow and be nurtured, I will feel so blessed and won't have to try hard to remember it 20 years from now. I really believe if we can continue to be and capture that as a faith community, I'll remember it easily because myself and many others will live it everyday by the power and will of Jesus.

Thanks you you who gave up your time and talents for this. Thanks to those who prayed. Thanks mostly to Jesus, our leader, who propelled us forward on His Mission. I promise I'll give more details at a later point. Right now I want to focus on being grateful.

This weekend Melissa, myself, and 6 other close friends will be huddled in a cottage somewhere near Port Huron, MI to ask the question "what if?"

The 8 people who gather this weekend are being asked to engage their imaginations in thinking about a faith community that doesn't yet exist. We'll be asking the question "what if" a lot. 

What if...Jesus really can do immeasurably more than we can hope or imagine

What if...God moved in power in the city of Toronto and did a new thing?

This weekend, would you pray that God`s Spirit comes and rests on us as we imagine what if God comes and moves through Montage. That`s my greatest desire in all of this - that God moves and we follow as he blows us away by what he is capable of. 

I CAN`T WAIT to share with you all some of what comes from this weekend.

As I mentioned in the last post, we spent several hours yesterday with Alex McManus learning about what he calls Culture Pubs. I'm going to try to write about a few of the questions he raised and I am not processing. Before I do that though I want to try and give a brief history of where the vision for creating Culture Pubs came from.

CP's are the brain child of the International Mentoring Network - a network that Alex started initially to talk about how to plant churches in this new era. Alex gathered thinkers and practitioners from various denominational backgrounds and the result of the their discussions was the inspiration to take a new angle on church planting. 

The groups saw three common barriers to church planters and church planting. They were as follows:

1. Access to unChurched People
2. A platform from which to speak that unChurched people would actually listen to
3. Status in a community that would quickly gain them the right to be heard

You see, there was a time when a new pastor in a community had instant status and platform in the community. People respected and appreciated the church for what it was. Those days are largely behind us. There are many fractures in the relationship between the average person and the church. In fact the church really has lower status with many skeptics than nearly any other religious, community or not-for-profit organization. So the question became how can we overcome those obstacles and get planters doing what they should be doing which is reaching and interacting with not-yet-Christians?  

Let me stop there: before I tell you about what a culture pub is we should discuss whether you agree that these three obstacles exist and need to be overcome. So, do you? If not, what are the obstacles? Would you agree with the folks at IMN that the church as a whole is not doing well at addressing these issues within our current methodology? 

I'm interested to know what you think!

 I'm really excited about today. This afternoon we get to spend a few hours with Alex McManus and learn about something he calls Culture Pubs. Here's Alex's own description of Culture Pubs:

What is a Culture Pub?

• A Culture Pub is not a Christian Cafe
• A Culture Pub is not a cafe church
• A Culture Pub is not about reconciling the church and the arts.

A Culture Pub is a missional framework and process that reverses much of thinking and practice of the church today. The Culture Pub process seeks to engage and encounter God within the culture we are seeking to reach.

Who would benefit? Practitioners, thinkers, supporters, coaches, church planters, church planting coaches, teams, network leaders all welcome.

You see, above every other motive I have in church planting it's this - that we would be able to GO and reach people far from God. I think in order to do that we need to stop asking "how can I get people to come to church" but "how can I bring Church to people". 

It's not about arts or artistic people. It's about a framework by which people who are not a part of church culture or who don't fit the mold of the average church might hear and experience the gospel. I really hope the principals we learn in these sessions will help us develop a framework for all kinds of people - that's how Montage will thrive - a church in the culture for anybody.

I wonder - how many of you think we're do for a change away from the invitational and toward the incarnational? Does it seem right to try and do church in other venues? What are your hesitations? Where do you see the church headed in the next 10-20 years?

I've just gotten home from one of the most encouraging events I've had the honor of being a part of. Perhaps you've heard me talk about Vision360 in the past. Today was a special day for the Detroit Hub as they were saying goodbye to a man who has obviously helped change the Detroit area for the better and welcomed a new "Catalyst" to town. 

Nick Boring is a man I've only ever met once but his heart is evident. He is moving from Detroit to just outside of Washington, DC to become the Catalyst (read networker, planner and encourager) for the 50 city hubs that 360 has in the USA. Nick was instrumental in getting Paradox started and it's obvious many other people have be blessed by God through Nick. He's a man who is focused and yet wears his heart on his sleeve and wants nothing more than to bring glory to Jesus.

Alex McManus is taking over for Nick in the Detroit area. I'm really excited for this because for some time now I've been tracking with Alex and being influenced by his thinking. I'm excited to see how God speaks to us through him.

The really encouraging thing about today though wasn't just these men. It was the guys sitting in the seats. The planters. Man these guys rock! They're out there, bleeding every day for the gospel. They're on the front lines, something I don't know anything about yet, and advancing the Kingdom day by day. It's hard but they do it with joy. 

Their stories bring me hope. Hope for God's plan. Hope for humanity. Hope that a faithful church can grow out of nothing by the power of God working through ordinary men and women who will follow him. 

I think every person in that room echo'd Nicks closing sentiment to us - that they want to be serving Jesus until the moment they meet him face to face. Indeed, I can imagine no greater desire than to be actively following Jesus the second I pass from this life to the next. I want to be working diligently for his glory every minute of every day until I'm called to be with him. Not so I can earn my place in heaven but so that Jesus can be made known in my every step.

 The next two weeks are going to busy and filled with lots of exciting things. I thought I'd just post some of it so that people are informed and can pray better. As always, this is a reciprocal relationship - in other words, send us an email so we know how to pray for you!

10/15/09 - Vision360 Event. V360 is one of our possible partners! Pray that we make good connections there.
10/17/09 - Mel and Layla are coming back from 17 days away. YIPEE! Please pray that they'd have an easy time at the border!
10/18/09 - I'm preaching at Paradox. I'm excited about this one. Pray that God speaks through me and uses me this week
10/19/09 - Mel and I get to spend the day with Alex McManus and learn from him on reaching into the culture. Exciting! Pray that we'd be wide open to his teaching and shaped by the conversation.
10/24/09 - Some friends are coming to Port Huron with us to help shape the vision for Montage. Please pray that above all else we'd seek God's will and wisdom for his church.

That's all the big events and then the regular things in life also. Thanks for caring and praying! 

So I was driving in my car today, trying to find something to listen to. I landed on the local Christian radio station WMUZ. I'm not naturally inclined to listen to it cause frankly it feels fake and I don't like the music very much. But this program caught my ear. The show was called "Duking it out with Dutko" and it was a political left vs. political right show. Both men were Christians apparently and basically arguing on air about what position Christians should support. 

I know conversation is good and important but do we honestly think Jesus would be in favor of a show that necessitates two followers of his fighting on public radio? Seriously? I was just highly disturbed that these men thought that somehow this would help Christians. Perhaps a brief reminder of the times Jesus encouraged us to be one would help them out?

I know, I'm just the Canadian and I am not making a comment about the US or Americans in general but man, this can't be helpful. I kind of feel like I owe every person I know who doesn't know Jesus an apology on his behalf.

Can anyone help me understand this? Does this kind of thing make anyone else frustrated?

The Catalyst Conference is celebrating it's 10th year this year. In case you've never heard of Catalyst search for #cat09 on twitter. It's huge.

I just read some notes from the opening session by Andy Stanley and he just tore it up from what I can tell. He made every leader think about why they lead. If you lead ANYTHING you should read this.

Andy Stanley @ Catalyst 2009

• What man is a man who does not leave the world better?
• All leaders will leave a mark — what kind of mark will you leave?
• You won’t understand the mark you have left until long after you have left it.
• Forgetting God removes our dependence on Him.
• Charles Stanley: “God takes full responsibility for the life wholly devoted to Him.”
• It is not about who is for you or against you — it is about who you are for.
• When God does His greatest work through you, you will not know about it.
• Our mark is not worth our life.
• Living to make my mark is too small a thing to give my life to.
• To be positioned to do whatever God wants to do through me — THAT is worth giving your life to.
• I do not want authority — I want to lead under God’s authority.
• If this issue can be settled once and for all, then we will be PERFECTLY positioned for God to do the most extraordinary thing He can do through us wherever we are — in every season of our life.
• Leaders leave marks.
• Daily question: whose mark is it going to be?
• Let us not waste our entire lives leaving our itty bitty insignificant mark.

You know one of the things I'm really concerned about as Mel and I plant this church? It's that we'll give the impression that it's somehow about us. I don't ever want people to think this is about us. It's not. We're the low people on the totem pole. The pecking order at this church looks like this:

1. Jesus Christ
2. Others
3. Us

Plain and simple that's it. So at times I'm hesitant to blog and put things like my sermons online. Who am I? I'm just a fledgling preacher. Posting my content online can really seem like self promotion. I hope it doesn't come across like that. Rather, I post it in the hopes that it might be helpful - I believe it's God's words coming through me. They're meant to change me and hopefully change others. Second, I want feedback. Good, bad, indifferent let me know what you think. I'm a big guy (literally). I can and want to take it. 

Check this page out if you want to listen: http://www.luvisaverb.com/index.cfm?i=8791&mid=18

I am looking for someone to be my Minister of Getting Crap Done. Never heard of that job before? Check out this blog post from Steven Furtik at Elevation Church.

Honestly, plating a church is a big job. I know God has people out there who he means to minister to our community differently than I will. I'm such a futurist that at times the things in the present falter. I believe a church needs people to look into the future and cast vision and it also needs people to serve the church by making sure the good ideas are implimented and carried through.

So, if you're up to working long hours for less money than you could make other places, all for the sake of seeing people in Toronto who are far from God become followers of Jesus, consider becoming our minister of GCD. 

Have you ever picked up and read a book that really just spoke to your soul on a profound level? One that, for a time, you couldn't get enough of? Reading Brennan Manning's Ruthless Trust was like that for me.

I'd never heard of Manning before the people at ELI told me a I had to read him last month but I'm sure glad they had heard of him. Manning's plea to his reader is that we would move beyond mere faith to a place of faith AND trust. That might sound a bit odd but let me explain. You see, for many people faith is a belief that never leaves the confines of their skull. We believe God can do so much. We say it out loud. We make faith promises to God. When push comes to shove though we often shrink back when God leads us into a time of uncertainty or testing. Faith seems to vanish in the blink of an eye.

On the other hand Manning says "the basic premise of biblical trust is the conviction that God wants us to grow, to unfold, and the experience the fullness of life" and that "the essence of trust is to be convinced of the reliability of God". You see, trust only comes through experience and exercise. While faith can remain an ethereal concept (one that we should have!) trust requires action and abandon.

Manning's poetic prose will remind you again of the beauty of Jesus. I finished this book with a more wholesome and beautiful image of who God in Jesus is and how much he loves humanity. If in any way you are like me, prone to forget the majesty of Jesus and so lack trust in His every word and deed, I'd recommend getting Ruthless Trust.