We Are The Church (Red Week #1)

 

On the back of a highly successful and inspiring Red Sunday a couple days back, in the week to come we will be launching our first ever Red Week where we seek to flesh out our continuing journey in learning how the church really can be the church. We believe that Jesus is in a sense auditing the very core of those who call this local church community home at the moment and we are trusting for the things we profess with our lips to match up with the actions and motives of our hearts.

The ease in which it is to just slip into playing church is a scary reality for us and we are beginning to take our identity as the real deal very seriously.

 

We ARE the church. 

 

If we don't step up to the plate in our community, someone else (or something else) will. There is just no such thing as a spiritual vaccuum. We've been given authority, but if we don't exercise it the powers and principalities of darkness will take up that mantle very quickly.

 

So the burning question is how does the church operate in her rightful authority?

 

Is it "storming heavens gates" with all night prayer vigils?

Is it binding and loosing excessively until our voices are hoarse and our frown lines are permanent?

Is it picketing and marching against the major wrongs and evils prevalent in our society?

 

Maybe.

 

But just maybe true authority is exercised in the way a man named Jesus did it.

 

"If you want to be the greatest, serve"

 

A life of laying down his rights and any judgemental lenses didn't make him any weaker. Christ showed his strength and divine power through servanthood and the greatest moment of authority and dismantling of spiritual strongholds was when his feet couldn't march, when his hands couldn't hold a picketing sign and where his voice could do nothing but cry out in desperation to his father.

 

As Rory Dyer recently said,

"Until we feel the depths of our city's pain, we will not see the depths of His power"

The Golfing Pastor

Golf. (noun)

 

THE original four letter word.

The activity that consumes pastors thought lives (above church growth, tithing and the age old Armenian versus Calvinism debate) and that same past-time that becomes the basis for every second sermon illustration.

If you haven’t heard an AW Tozer quote, the new buzz word “mission” or a good golfing anecdote recently, then you haven’t been in church for a while.

Over the last month or so I have had the privilege of playing golf with church-planters, pastors, leaders and friends (or at least I thought they were friends until they got all competitive on the old links) and the incredible truth is that it’s hard to separate the pastor from the golfer. By this I don’t mean that there’s a lot of praying on the course, except maybe when a wayward drive is heading to the out of bounds. What I am suggesting is that one can learn a huge amount about the style in which a fellow minister of the gospel is leading his church just by observing them closely as they traipse up and down the eighteen hole golf course.

Let me explain what I mean by suggesting that there are four types of pastor-golfers:

 

1.       The Big Hitter

-Impresses all those surrounding the first tee by confidently whipping out “the big stick” (usually with a comment about which tour player is also presently using it) before smashing a drive into the stratosphere to the sound of muffled gasps (usually emitted by an already downcast and short-hitting red head). Don’t be surprised to find that the next 18 holes will be filled with conversation around new buildings, the next big thing in church ministry coming out of their church and why Mark Driscoll isn’t all that he’s cracked up to be. Right here is our Visionary pastor.

2.       The Up and Down Scrambler

-Usually pretty straight off the tee, albeit not that far, but will surprise everyone at the half way house when his five unflashy pars and his four one-putt bogeys put him in the lead with a solid and some-what workman-like 40. You won’t hear much from him from tee to green but from the time a putt is sunk and the yardage book is taken out on the next tee this pastor golfer will tell you the book he’s currently reading, ask you searching questions on a heart level as well as offer you an invite to come preach at his church soon. Tick yes and you’ve found your four-ball’s pastor.

3.       The Very Chatty Mulligan Taker

-Probably the snappiest dresser in the four-ball, this pastor-golfer is all style and talk whilst on the course and his slender handicap only makes sense when you realise he “gives” himself a couple do-overs on each half of the clubhouse. He will also be the one to help you search for your ball in the rough though, mainly to get in the punchline of his joke, but also to add some helpful advice on what he would do from where your ball now lies behind the tree at the corner of the dog-leg. Amongst all the “you dropped your lip-stick” and “get in the hole!” comments, he will also likely speak about the latest Bethel phenomenon, tell you about his church’s new preaching series as well as have worked out what everyone’s score will be if “we go even the whole way home”. Will also pay for everyone’s food and drinks at the 19^th hole. Introducing your prophetic pastor

4.       The Pro

-His pale blue Pringle shirt is tucked into his chino’s to give the perfect shirt-belt-pants combo, and his softly guided four iron off the tee down the middle let’s everyone know that he’s got this one under control. He hardly misses a putt, leaving all and sundry either marvelling at his unflappable temperament or muttering under their breaths that “he obviously has a lot of time to practice.” He has a big church, but he doesn’t have to tell you. The mere fact that he purposefully turns off his phone shows that he is expecting calls but he has a big enough team at home-base to cover it. Don’t know if that or the consistent backspin on his wedges is more impressive. He talks about preachers you’ve only heard on i-tunes by simply just using their first names. Everyone likes him, until he makes them putt a three footer for the win, and on the backstroke reminds you that this putt is to avoid paying for breakfast. He plays hard on the course and laughs hard (at you? With you?) in the clubhouse. He’s your strategic pastor.

And he definitely does multi-site.

The Heart-Beat of the Apostolic

 

Tomorrow I head off for the weekend for my second ever visit to Namibia. Just two months ago I spent just under a fortnight in the nation's capital with All Nations Church and my heart was so captured by this incredible local church and Her story of influence in the city that I find myself counting down the hours till I am back with them again.
Here is an attempt at explaining why we still prioritize travelling +-1500km's,spending four nights away from the city I love and even missing out on a Sunday at home base

 

 

Friendship before function

 

I am still a firm believer in the above well-worn-phrase. In a fast "developing" brand of inter church relationships, the word "apostolic" has seemingly become tied up with the word "mission" to such an extent that real heart to heart friendships that weather storms as well as sail in the wind are being given less and less value. Questions of whether we gather together primarily around similar theological viewpoints, common tasks and events or firstly around the reality of relationships have held much sway in these types of conversations.

 

My heart's conviction holds all three elements as valuable, but it is my natural bent,reading of the scriptures that conveyed Paul's heart, as well as seeing the present prevailing wind of self-interest and emperial thinking that leads me to push the relational aspect to the front of the queue.

This weekend I will definitely preach and declare the message of the King and His Kingdom (which is great theology and strongly missional focused if I can be cheeky enough to say so myself), but what is of real worth to me will be the dining room conversations, laughing with one another, the late nights engaging with new and even newer friends around our common denominators of Jesus, church and the life-changing Gospel, laughing with one another, sharing communion together...and did I mention laughing with one another?

 

 

I'm not going seeking a platform to preach

I'm not going to further a "movement"

I'm not going to see what opportunities there are for us in Namibia

 

 

The apostolic heart is a sefless one. One that says I will come even if it costs me.

Yes, I do go because I want to change the world.

Yes, I do go because out of friendship we will want to do more together.

But for the world to be turned upside down, we first need to be turned inside out.

Our motives and agendas need to be ongoingly re-examined.

It's not friendship for friendship sake...it's friendship for your friend's sake.

No greater love is there than this, that a man would lay His life down for his friends.

 

 

This is what we've been called to. This is the apostolic heart.

 

 

Jesus, sent from the Father, laid His life down for His friends

Other related posts:
http://gabephillips23.blogspot.com/2012/07/namibia-part-one.html
http://gabephillips23.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-nations-are-our-inheritance.html

The right questions

 

 

In a world where the quick answer has become king, the rewards of asking the right question becomes less and less appealing and this leads to an almost wreckless pursuit of solutions rather than of truth. And we all have the tendency to ask the wrong questions. It's human nature. Fueled by the competitive lenses that the world has sold us, when-ever we get together whether we are being successful or not is put up against a pre-determined measuring stick. Our questions of each other and that we ask of ourselves are often based not in an endeavour to get at an answer, but rather based on what we've already established (or allowed to be established) the answer to be.

 

 

Confused? I think we all are...and that's the problem!

 

 

Here at Life Changers, we are on a journey of rediscovery as we have begun to deconstruct the targets that we've been aiming at, whether they've been self-erected ones or simply just aiming points that we've inherited from our world-view and from those around us. The question of what success looks like has become so disfigured and tarred with such carnal brush-strokes that we've sent ourselves on never satisfying and very expensive rabbit trails that have often left us jaded, guilty or just ready to give up.

 

The simple agenda of this blog is to suggest that maybe we've been getting the wrong answers because we've been asking the wrong questions.

 

Or maybe we've not posed the right questions because we've allowed wikipedia, google or the latest best-selling growth book with 10 easy steps to success to lead us into frustration for too long.

 

Or maybe the problem is quite plainly the fact that WE'VE been asking the questions in the first place!

 

Maybe one day when we hand-over all our solutions and ready-made answers to all our insecure, self-imposed questions, He will quiet our posturing, push aside our growth strategies and ask us these questions:

 

 

"When I was hungry did you feed me? When I was thirsty did you give me something to drink? When I was a stranger, did you invite me in? When I was naked did you clothe me? When I was sickdid you look after me? When I was in prison did you come visit me?"

 

 

A good way to end this blog is with a good question...

 

What questions, or even better still, whose questions are we allowing to motivate our pursuit of success?

NCMI SA Equip (Part four)

3 things that may have escaped your attention during worship at this years SA Equip:

1. Jono Warmington forgetting to switch on his amp
-picture this...opening night, Cornerstone Church bursting at the seams, the masses pushing right up to the stage counting down (almost to the state of delirium) with the countdown on the main screen, the kickdrum and bass come in right on queue, crying babies go unnoticed, every eye is excitedly rooted to the stage AND...worship leader Jono Warmington realises that his Vox AC 30 amp which is being mic-ed in the backroom had been forgotten to be switched on!

2. Stage dives on Night two
-On Friday morning, Grant Crawford and a panel of interviewees attempted to ask the question, "what does success look like?". Probably a more pertainent question after Thursday night's wild worship would have been, "what does a successful stage dive look like?". And I would have been the first to put my hand up in shouting out the answer, "anything except Werner Derckson's!"
After the usual fare of Bruce McAlpine and 5 excited teenagers (averaging 50kgs each) leaping off the stage into the outstretched arms of the seething crowd, a moment of pure joy was when Werner (not the lightest guy) prepped himself like an olympic athlete for his assault on gravity. The corporate groans of apprehension from the rest of the worshippers was only matched by the fear in the eyes of those who were going to have to perform a modern day miracle in catching the jump. That not one of them backed away shows that Tyrone Daniel's message of being Partners and not just Friends had truly hit home!

3. The red-hot worship of the Son of God
-for three days, over 5000 hands were lifted and +-2500 voices were raised, as together we exalted Christ Jesus. From all cities and towns from around Southern Africa, from churches big and small, black, white, rich and poor, young and old, the worship of our King became our common language and theme. This is the heartbeat of our lives and our mandate. Worship, that is not contained to a moment, to the church walls or to a certain key or style, but discipling nations to bow their hearts and bend their knees to the One and Only.
"Mission's exist because worship does not" (Matt Redman)
We've always known this, but something of this was recaptured in our hearts this past week.


Flight tickets to Joburg from Cape Town and back: R1800
Food for the week: R450
Buying that pretty girl a coffee: R10
Moments like these: priceless

NCMI SA Equip (Part three)

Thursday was a good day.

 

 A morning filled with moustaches and Mexican gang terminology (Terry Kreuger), New Zealand accents and distasteful All Black references from Bruce Benge and rounded off with the stories of plane crashes and fearless courage from Hennie Keyter, I joined the chip and dip queue for lunch with a heart stirred afresh as well as with the very unsanctified thought of who I would least like to meet in a dark alley out of the three morning speakers. 20 minutes later the stirring had become more of a heart-burn as I ate my salty lunch way too fast, but I digress.

 

By the time 7pm rolled around and the countdown clock moved swiftly to zero, the prophetic voices were released to fearlessly declare new seasons and unmarked paths as well as to remind us of God’s original intent. Gill Patterson, Ash Bell and finally Mike Hanchett masterfully lead us through a very organic evening of refreshing and empowering. Definitely an unscripted evening, but the fingerprints of heaven were all over our gathering as the Spirit of God moved amongst us.

 

As Tyrone and others have echoed on numerous occasions, we are through transition and God has us in position. And if Thursday was a day of increased positioning, I have no doubt today we are ready to be launched.

 

And in terms of the dark alley question, I polled extensively (three guys nearest me at the time) and we all agreed that we feared Terry Kreuger the most.

That moustache alone would kill you.

 

NCMI SA Equip (part two)

3 things to bring you up to speed about night one...

1.       It was FULL

-upstairs, downstairs, the side hall, the mom’s rooms and even the floor space at the back was filled with lines and lines of people crowding into Cornerstone Church. And this was only just  Wednesday night!

2.       It was LOUD

-it’s always a great indicator of the temperature of hearts when the band are being drowned out by the passionate voices of the rest of the worshippers. Fresh new original songs were picked up on quickly and belted out with gusto while old favourites stirred hearts once again. The floor and roof was rattling and our souls rejoiced.

 

3.       It was UNIFIED

-agendas, histories, regions, individual church issues were left at the door as from the get go we set our eyes corporately on the object and the subject of our worship, Jesus.

 

“What unites us is not just our purpose, but chiefly it is our captivation with our King”

 

And if you missed last night but want to sound as if you were there, then make it a priority to throw in the phrase “it’s go time” into as many conversations as you can.

NCMI SA Equip (Part One)

 

I remember it just as if it was yesterday.

 

 Every year the announcement would go out at church for leaders to register for “Bloem”. The fact that a city was being referred to in its shortened state as a simile for a 5 day leadership conference was not lost on anyone. As the announcements became more frequent in the lead up to the September school holidays, so too did the increasing rate of the church’s excitement. The 7 hour drive in convoy from Durban on the early Monday morning, the bets being placed on who would “open the batting” in the first session, counting down the times someone said the words “in our togetherness”, Dudley Daniel’s insistence to “avoid fame like the plague”, massive choirs, Mimosa Mall hangouts with our best mates from around the country who we saw only once a year and all the way through to the inevitable and yet heart stirring culmination with “Be thou my vision”, “Bloem” never failed to leave an impression as we all left determined to change the world.

Now years later, the journey continues after many mountain top highs and valley lows. The venue has changed, fresh voices have appeared, new songs have been written and we even have had to become used to new terminology (“Equip”). But the mission and very heart-beat of the motley group of men and women who come together in friendship and mission from all over the globe under the name of NCMI remains the same. For the King and His Kingdom, we still believe that the local church is the hope of the world, the nations are our inheritance and He will not return until every tribe, tongue and people group have heard.

 

This is what courses through our veins!

So once again we gather “in our togetherness” in the third term holidays. But this is no mere conference or inspirational get together. We gather to be scattered afresh with the Gospel at our centre and with the nations in our line of sight.

As Alan Frow year in and year out fearlessly declared all those years ago, “we will go for the sake of the cross, we will go for the sake of the lost”

(NCMI SA Equip 2012 - 3rd -5th October at Cornerstone Church in Joburg)

(Follow me on twitter for live tweets - https://twitter.com/GabePhillips23 )