We've had two significant events take place today. I can't tell you about them yet because it's not 100% but suffice to say they are BIG and awesome! Praise God!

Also, please pray for me in the next 2 days. I'll be speaking at WLA in both services for 10 minutes. I'm still not 100% decided on what to say so pray that God works in me and gives me his words to speak. I want to be encouraging and challenging at the same time. 

 Recently I had an experience in which I was quite conflicted. Without going into unnecessary details I was offered a form of support in exchange for a service. It was acutally a very good opportunity and I could see ways in which saying yes would have benefitted the Kingdom and my own development. However, it became clear to me that saying yes would have taken too much time away from the mission God has given us and so I had to say no. 

I started to learn about this from Andy Stanley some time ago but ran across a blog this morning that just reminded me of this story. If you aren't familiar with Seth Godin I think you should be. Technically Seth is a marketing guru but I think he is just a really smart guys. He's not a Christian but I think we'd be better off by listening to some of his advice. See what he has to say about saying no. 

This leads me to ask - what kind of good things do you say no to in order to do the BEST thing? How are you saying no nicely but purposefully? If you aren't doing this then why not?

 So here I am, hanging out at Starbucks, waiting for Melissa (by my choice) and thinking about living life on mission. For me Starbucks has been a part of my missional living for a couple of years. Now, before you get to thinking "oh poor Tim...I know with his love of fine coffee that being on mission at Starbucks must be such  a sacrifice for him" (that was all supposed to be heard in your head with your best whiny, sarcastic voice BTW) let me explain myself. Two years ago I was really feeling useless when it came to engaging with not-yet-Christians. Being on staff for the first time at a church I found my relationships with those who don't attend a Sunday service going WAY DOWN. So being convicted of this and inspired by Dan Kimball's book that I mentioned on the blog some time ago I decided that I'd spend one morning a week at a coffee shop so that while I was working I could simultaneously be making myself available to have conversations with someone other than church folks (no offense to you people I love who go to church :- ) ).

So that's how missional living and Starbucks started their relationship in my life. What a wonderful match maker I am ;-) Anyhow, as I was walking in here today I started thinking about how to stay focused on living missionally. One tactic I find myself doing often is simply praying that God would remind me that I'm supposed to be on mission for him and asking him to give me opportunities to live out the mission in this next activity of my day. So while I'm here enjoying a tall Gold Coast with no room (away with you defiling cream!) I'm hoping God will grant me the opportunity to share him with someone. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't but that's not my thing to worry about...I just need to stay at the ready and follow the Spirit's leading.

I'm wondering...how do you stay mindful of your mission? Do you have some helpful tactics that you'd be willing to share with the others who read this? Please leave comments... let's be helpful to one another.

ps - Here's another blog post I found that gives some tips for staying gospel centered which I think is quite similar to being mindful of the mission.  

 I just finished reading 2 Timothy and I've been pretty impacted by it. I'm considering using chapter 2:24 - 3:9 as the basis for a ten minute sermon I have to give at an assessment in June in Minneapolis. The passage basically contrasts Timothy with false teachers and shows us how to identify false teachers. I think false teachers are a bigger problem than we might give them credit for. For instance...

Have you ever had someone who is struggling to understand Jesus and the church how it is possible that the church is responsible for all the deaths and wars it's been responsible for over the years? I know I've been asked that question. Normally I tell them that not everyone who claims to be a Christian actually is one. While this is true I think it falls a bit short as an answer because it doesn't account for why at some points in history it seems huge portions of the church have not been following God. What accounts for this? In my mind its false teachers - men who have been given far too much power and preached an inaccurate gospel. 

My passion and zeal for the accurate teaching of the word of God is increasing moment by moment these days. I feel personally burdened to study it harder and know more accutely what it says. I hope the study will turn into life transformation and bring Christ glory. Another result of being more passionate about the inaccurate teaching of God's word is that if I sense inaccuracy in another's teaching then my blood really start to boil.

There are some very popular authors, pastors and speakers out there who are entertaining and controversial but clearly fall under the label of false teachers. I plead with you all...don't read them for the sake of learning what they're teaching. For the most part, stay away from them. That's what Paul said to do. Let's not return to the days where iaccurate teachers get a wide sweeping influence. It hasn't worked out well for us in the past. 

Am I being paranoid?  

ps - pray for me as I learn to be a better teacher (something I'll be doing this next year)...I desperately want to handle the word of truth accurately.

 By Melissa Reading through the Bible in 80 days (I hope)

I was sitting here reading through Psalm 72 and the very last verse says "The prayers of David, the son of Jesse are ended”. What struck me about this simple statement were the words "David, the son of Jesse”. David could have just said David or King David and we would have known to whom he was referring to. The bible has so much to say about family and its importance. I mean just look at how many verse and chapters are devoted to genealogies and list of names that I really can't pronounce.

I was at a friends house the other night and we were chatting about teenagers - she has 2 of them - and she tries to mention to her son as he leaves for a night out with his friends "Remember who's you are". I need to be saying that to myself every few minutes I think. Remember for one I am the daughter of Tom and Karen Nagel - they raised me to be strong and to follow after God and second and more important (no offence mom & dad) but I am a daughter of the KING!  I am daughter of the Creator - He has called me his own - I am apart of a royal priesthood. I should be signing off every email "This email of Melissa, daughter of King has ended" 

Remember who's you are today. In those moments when you are frustrated, in the moments when you accomplish something great, in the quite moments of rest, and in the moments of blessed chaos that family life can bring. Remember.

A quick reading suggestion: unChristian. If you're wanting to know more about the image problem the church needs to address then you should read this book

One of the reasons we`re headed to Toronto is because of the opportunity to effect culutral change in Canada by transforming that city. It`s a big and exciting opportunity that we`re trust God to take advantage of through the group of believers who serve there. See what Mark Driscoll as to say about the strategic nature of doing ministries in major cities. 

 We were just praying this morning in the group formerly known as JELLO that the members of our church would not go on break this summer when it comes to their life in Christ. Oddly enough I found this article not an hour later. It's good practical stuff. Give it a read and maybe you'll pick up a new idea on how to make this summer count

Let's pretend someone were to suggest you get involved in a multilayered accountability structure. Myabe the process begins by helping you to get to know yourself better through several assesment type tests that show your personality traits, spiritual gifts, fruits of the spirit and knowledge of the fundamentals of Christianity. Suppose you developed a plan for your development over the next year that was based on the results of those tests. Suppose this structure included the standard methods of accountability like a weekly meeting to share how you did at those things you mean to be working on in your daily walk with God. Suppose that was a group interaction and you also had a personal mentor (probably someone older than you) to help provide reproof and correction. Do you suppose this would be a helpful method?

What if we added in the need to retake those tests and have formal written evaluations by those people you're in an accountabilty relationship with say every two years? Would this be helpful?

What I'm getting at is can we up the ante on accountability by using certain modern day assessment tools to help us be more objective. I wonder if part of the puzzle to discipleship is having more obective, third party evaluations of our growth. I know I tend to flatter myself way too often and wonder if this might be part of the solution. What do you think? 

ps - This is not an original idea... Barna cites it as one of the common threads of churches who are highly successful at producing disciples. I have a feeling people would be uneasy taking a test to assess their growth but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Await your replys :-)

Let me tell you something Pastor Mike shared with me today. It was a helpful correction regarding using the greatest commandment as a starting point for discipleship. Pastor Mike pointed out that there are two parts to the commandment for a reason. The first foul all have to do with loving God - including the heart. So one can't just use the four and call the heart loving people because heart is supposed to be about loving God.

However the verse goes on to say that the second is like the first, love your neighbor as yourself. So perhaps there are five apects of discipleship? I'm still thinking this through but to my mind this is a large part of what the blog is for - fostering discussion around the central idea that life is meant to lived loving God and love others. We learn how to do those things by becoming more complete disciples of the one who showed us the perfection of living as though love is a verb.

 I don't have a ton of time to blog right now but as I was thinking last night this thought came to mind... isn't the core of discipleship to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength"? Can those four areas (heart soul mind strength) become the foundation for how we determine if people are mature or maturing disciples? Really quickly I think they might apply like this:

Heart - love for people
Soul - our increasing holiness
Mind - knowledge of the word
Strength - more and more of our time and effort directed to these things

Too simple? Missing something? Can we start from here?

So I thought maybe it would be wise for me to back up some of what I said in my last post. Namely that we need to rethink our discipleship models and definitions of what makes a mature follower of Christ. Before I get to giving you some of the info that Barna's book lists let me say this: I am in no way referencing any particular church or ministry in my thoughts here. It's not a cloaked attack or a lashing out of any kind. Nor am I trying to pretend I have this all figured out. What I am doing is flushing out some of what's going on in my brain as I contemplate all of what I need to think through before planting a church. As I said, a church that fails to disciple well fails. Period.

So, why does Barna (and I agree with him for the most part) say we need to rethink some of our methods of discipleship? Consider some of these findings...all questions were asked on a scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree and were asked of people who fit the description "Born again". IMHO in most of these cases the only Biblical response was either to strongly agree or disagree depending on how the question was asked. Anything less than that indicates, to me, that there was failure to communicate and transfer accurate information or to encourage accurate life change. Accuracy should be understood as Biblically accurate. Consider the following facts found by Barna and his researchers:

40% of people poled did not strongly agree that the Bible is 100% accurate
80% feel the Bible teaches that God helps those who help themselves
37% think Jesus sinned when he was on the earth
40% question whether Jesus came back to life physically
31% think we are reincarnated after we die
44% do not believe you go to hell if you fail to accept Jesus
Only 46% believe they have a responsibility to tell others about Jesus
Apparently Satan is not real (only 43% disagree that he's not real but only a symbol)
23% Think success is more important than pleasing God
38% don't think Jesus wants them to help the poor
47% think all faiths generally teach the same things

Are you beginning to see the problem? Does this grieve your heart? Believe me, there was more in the book. It also looked at a plethora of key indicators in which Christians should differ from non Christians and practically speaking the difference was almost nothing. All in all this makes me sympathetic with those outside the church who look and think we have nothing special to offer and are hypocrites. It seems that even we don't know what we believe...so how can we live it out?

While being sympathetic is also motivates me to live a better life in Christ personally and do whatever I can to help others become more of the people God is calling for. So this week I'm just going to flush out some of the thoughts in my mind onto this blog and invite you to challenge my thinking. I don't pretend to have this figured out. There are some who have been doing this A LOT longer than I have and I would love to engage in discussion with them (you if you're reading). Our goal is the same - ministry effectiveness. I'm wondering, as God calls me to this ministry, what it needs to look like. How should it be exactly the same as what we've been doing and how it needs to be different.

What do you think of this? Does it ring true or are you skeptical of this information?

I'm so thankful for this week. We've gotten to meet with some of our dearest friends and to share what God has set ablaze in our heart. I hope the conversations have been as encouraging to them as they have been to us. We got the meet 11 times this week with people, couples and families. Unfortunately we missed getting together with 4 other groups but that is to be expected with everyone's busy schedules. A funeral came up at our old church, a son came home early for a visit and we just need to role with that and see God's hand there as in all things.

We'll be hitting the plane tomorrow and coming back to London. We've got 2.5 months left of life with the people at WLA and I'm excited for the work to be done there. I pray that these days will continue to be friutful and full of joy for all.

Right now my mind is focused on discipleship. I'm thinking hard about how I would define a disciple. What are the characteristics important in the life of a mature follower of Christ? How do we go about measuring where people are in that journey? How do we equip them to get there? How do we measure their yearly growth and our success as disciplers? The reality is that a church who doesn't focus on discipleship isn't much of a church at all. Also a reality - most churches aren't doing a great job at creating disciples. Don't believe me? I'd encourage you to read Growing True Disciples by George Barna. If the facts in this book don't disturb you... well, they should disturb you. They're ripping me apart right now.

 The last 24 hours we've met with nothing but musicians. All of these people were involved in the band I played in here in Calgary but most of them I knew well before that as they were part of the church we attended here. I've got more meetings with people form this sphere but I've got to say these are people I love especially. There is something special about the bond that band shared for a time here. Life long friendships were created and it was just a joy to hear where they are and the things God is doing in their lives. It just reminds me how precious time and life is. It makes me grateful for the time I got to spend with them and wish I'd had more.

Do your best to recognize the special people in your life these days. Spend your time with them because when God calls you on you will hold those moments as memories to get you through many a rough day and friends who you can always call to be encouraged. 

I feel like everyday we've been here in Calgary we've learned something significant. The lesson for Wednesday was to be patient. I have this tendency to get locked in on things. Recently I've been locked in on a computer (we didn't own one of our own) and a new camera. Both are somewhat necessary for us in ministry but perhaps not necessary this second. I got really obsessed with the PC 2 weeks ago and so ordered one to basically get rid of the obsession. In one sense I felt like I should wait but I didn't.

The camera I was better about. I had bought one but returned it because the reality is that we've got a digital camera and a camcorder. I didn't feel it was good stewardship to keep the camera.

The lesson of patience came yesterday. I one meeting someone specifically said if you ever need a computer just let me know. The second meeting we got given the same camera I had really wanted. Unreal. God has so many more resources that he can and wants to use to bless his children. When we feel the pressure to get going sometimes the best thing we can do is give God the chance to provide in miraculous ways. Be patient Timothy.

Yesterday we went to visit an old friend and mentor of mine. Tim Bergmann is one of the most loveable and God fearing men I've ever met. It was awesome just to sit and talk with him. A long portion of our conversation focused on his efforts to memorize large chunks of the bible. One of the most impactful and creative "sermons" I've ever seen was Tim quoting the whole book of Philippians as a sermon.

The conversation reminded me of the power of the word of God. Tim mentioned how a few weeks ago the senior pastor at his church interviewed him about memorizing. He said how when he'd quoted just 4 verses of scripture the whole palce errupted and clapped. How awesome! What more do we need? The word of God is POWERFUL! We all should strive to have more of it in our lives.

So I'm wondering...does anyone wanna tackle memorizing the book of Philippians with me? We'd look to memorize 4 verses a week and could get together over the phone or web chat or something else to tell each other the verses we're memorizing. It'd be a 6 month journey and would take a big commitment to one another and the word for that time. Tim says I need to find someone crazy enough to do that. Are you crazy enough?

I looks like we're going to meet with upwards of 15 people/couples this week. We had our first meeting last night... over steak :) I love this chance to just catch up with people and hear their stories. It's crazy how much life can change in three short years.

It's also odd the things God uses in your life to speak to others. In the course of our conversation last night it came up that I've recently purged some of my guitar collection. Back when I first became certain God was calling us to plant a church and calling me out of full time arts ministry I felt God was asking me to sell two of my three nice electrics and put that money aside for this venture. When the person we met with last night heard that they said it spoke more loudly than much of the other things we had said. I think it spoke to Him of the work God is doing in our lives through this process. It showed him that we're serious about this. And we are - immensely. 

I don't write that here to brag but hopefully to encourage you to think... what things are you doing in your life that seem like simple obedience to God that might actually speak volumes and give great glory to Jesus? Sometimes we just don't know. Be open to sharing all the areas of your life in which God is chipping away that rotten flesh and giving you new life. Use discretion but be willing and ready to give account. 

So Mel, Layla and I are in Calgary this week. We're here to reconnect with friends we haven't seen in three years. We want to know what God's doing in their lives. We want to share what God is doing in ours. It's my hope that this week will be an incredible week of iron sharpening iron and the people of God demonstrating their love for one another. I'm excited! 

Let me say this - if you happen to be one of those friends we haven't seen in three years and for some horrible reason we haven't called you yet please get in touch with me. Leave a comment here and I'll be sure to find out how to contact you. Our whole reason for being here is you! We've done our best to get ahold of you all but perhaps we've missed connecting with you so far. Let's not let that be a hinderance!

Hope to talk with you all face to face very soon! Come on back for daily updates and other goodies!

 By Melissa - Reading through the Bibe in 40 days?

Okay so I've been pretty bad about blogging about my journey and attempt to read through the Bible in 40 days. You guessed it; it's probably not going to happen. So instead of feeling guilty I've decide to simply add another 40 days. My main motivation is not to simply force my way through the Bible but it's to get into a habit of needing the Word in my day. So often I live my day without even picking up my Bible and finding out what God, Creator, Saviour of my life has to say to me. I want to desire God's word to fill me. I want it to be so deep on in my heart that when I speak it often what will leave my tongue "Out the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks"  

Right now I am about half way through. I've enjoyed the challenged and the need to focus my day on being with God. I pray that it continues to change my heart and my life. As Tim and I focus our lives on being Missional we need the Word of God to guide us, strength us, feed us, comfort us, bring us joy and life. All of this is in that book. 

 Sorry for the absence these past two days. It's been busy. I post for you today this article from Ed Stetzer. It's got some great content. Give it a read and feel free to post comments.

 I found this video really helpful in understanding what missional is at its core. I love his mandate to his church - that they are all missionaries and that's how they do evangelism. Watch this - 

 It seems like every few years a new buzz word hits the church world and everyone jumps on the train. Sometimes I think these labels are helpful and sometimes they aren't. Take the term emergent for example. I think in it's early days it was somewhat helpful. It expressed the idea that a new generation was rising up and putting their stamp on the Christian faith. Pretty soon though there were people inside the emergent movement who were a bit dubious and controversial and so everyone associated with the emerging church got a bad rap. Today (for those of you keeping score) the term emerging is pretty much dead and has been rejected by the majority of people who used to use it for fear of being lumped in with the aforementioned dubious members of the club.

The current buzz word is missional. Like all buzz words it starts out helpful and soon can get misinterpreted. For some the term missional seems to invoke images of the house church movement. Some churches who are missional are taking a house church model but being missional does not require you to be a house church or hippy like commune. What I think it does require is an all out dedication to calling the members of your faith community to live on mission. That is to live out Missio Dei 

See, God is in the buisness of redemption. You know that. The church is only here as part of God's redemptive plan. His mission. His mission was given to Jesus to fullfill. Jesus then transfered the work to his disciples (John 20:21). If God's mission is to be fullfilled in the here and now it's going to be through his people, through his church. Can we see that? If we do see it then we need to do something about it. This is not because God needs us to but rather because he wants us to and has called us to. 

At it's core a missional church is about two things - seeking to help those who are not-yet-Christians come to find the one true God and his Son Jesus Christ and calling his disciples to follow Him with EVERYTHING they have. 

Over the course of this week I'm going to post a few links I've found helpful in understand the term missional. Will you join me in praying for a passionate living out of Missio Dei in our lives?

The semester our small group has been using The Truth Project as our method of study. I can't say I'm head over heels about it but there are things that I really enjoy. Last night we looked at the subject field of labour and how God's intention is for us to delight in labour and work hard as an act of worship. This really strikes a chord with me. I hope I display a good work ethic. If I don't I think I'm failing miserably and someone should kick me in the pants. In fact I got the right kind of kick this week in relation to dropping the ball on getting charts and mp3's to my musicians last week. I thank God that I have people in my life willing to give me a swift kick (albeit gently in this case) when I don't appear to be working as hard as I should.

The video last night highlighted the 4th commandment which is "Remember the Sabbath, to keep it Holy...". Usually we stop there but the next verse is critical. It goes on to say "Six days you shall work..." Somehow I think we look at this and think the six days are simply to be endured until the seventh day. I don't think this was God's intention. God means for us to work. It's good to work; to be busy. We're continually reminded in the book of Proverbs how detestible a sluggard is. Lazyness is not an option for the follower of Jesus. We need to be setting the standard of hard work. We need to reject the world's view that work is simply a means to make money so that we can enjoy our leisure time. Far from it! Our work should be time when the glory of God shines in us brightly, attracting people to the ask questions about why we are so diligent. 1 Thessalonians 4 and 2 Thessalonians 3 should guide our thinking in this. We work to glorify God and so we should work harder than everyone else. Let's pray for one another and encourage one another on so that people might come to know Christ through our work. If prayer doesn't work, be ready to provide a swift and gentle kick...and to receive one :)

It's 3:28am. I've been up for nearly and hour. Sometimes I actually think this happens for a better reason than my daughter seems to have decided to practice for a career in latenight opera ;) This morning I've had a thought and I want to write it down. Here it is:

I think church planting is, at times, going to be a lot like dealing with a screaming 10 month old at 3am. Why? Because a screaming 10 month old at 3am sucks. It's tough to deal with. It's unexpected and grates on every last nerve of sanity that you have. I think there will be such times in church planting. Times (as in more than once). There are going to be things happen that just plain suck and they will test every last fibre of our sanity. These times will push us to the brink.

Mel and I were fortunate to have taken a parenting course through WLA which has really helped us in these times. It's given us a plan of action that if we stick to it and have some measure of faith in it, helps us deal with these kinds of mornings well.

I think the bible gives us the same help when dealing with trials in church planting or life in general. We need to have a plan of action and an unshakable belief that the plan of action is well made and worth trusting in. In the life of a church planter, or Christian of any kind for that matter, our faith has to be solely in the promises of Jesus. The promise that he means good for us - even if we have to go through trials to experience the good most fully. The promise that he will not give us more than we can handle - even if he gives us as much as we can handle. The promise that everything works out to His good end even if it's not how we might choose to get there.

Layla is asleep now. The plan worked. The trial is over - for now. I pray that we all will have the faith to endure and stick to the plan God has given us despite the toughness of it.