Carey Nieuwhof

Me? Status Quo? No...I Mean Yes....

The longer you are part of the status quo, the more you will want to defend it.  

There.  Finally said it.  Been wrestling with this for months now, and I finally got out the tension/struggle/principle in a single sentence.

Here's what I don't like:  I actually do struggle with wanting to defend the status quo. Which is a hard confession.  I've always thought of myself as a bit of a renegade.  Bucking trends, changing things up. Some of that is self-deception I'm sure, but there is a track record of change.

It's easy to point fingers at the establishment and say that they've fallen in love with the status quo. But what happens when that establishment is you? To a certain extent, we all represent the establishment of something.   You are the 'establishment' in your business, your ministry, your department, your shift, your family, your book club, your whatever.  And you'd basically love to perpetuate what got you there.

Connexus is eighteen months old.  I love this church.  I had a role in creating it.  But at 18 months a church ought to be transitioning.  Thinking and rethinking.  Great ideas will stick.  Bad ones will fall by the way side.  

How do you fight this tendency?  For me, it's a question of constantly exposing myself to ideas I didn't think of, view points I don't agree with, and initiatives I didn't have a hand in birthing.  The more I am open to the contributions of others that are forward thinking and innovative, the less I will tend to defend the status quo.  I also find that the older I get, the more ideas from younger leaders seem 'weird' to me, which means (guess what), I might be shoring up the status quo.  Gotta stop that.  Now.

The longer you are a part of the status quo, the more you will want to defend it. 

In what ways are you defending practices that are a window to the past, to the way things were done, not to the future and the way things ought to be done for emerging generations? 

 

A Bias Against the Bible?

This post isn't about the media or 'secular' society.  It's about people who say they follow Jesus and our attitude toward the Bible.

The last month has brought me into contact with an attitude I've seen over the years that just doesn't seem to go away.  The attitude?  Nearly everybody wants to hear from God, but a lot of Christ followers really don't like to read their Bible. 

Let me say that again - a lot of people just don't like to read their Bible.  So they don't.  And then they wonder why they don't hear from God.

The issue's been a live one during our Signs from Beyond series - I really believe we mostly hear from God through scripture - not direct revelation. 

But I've heard variations of this over and over again over the years and intensely again in the last month:

Yeah, I just don't really read my bible.
I find the Bible too confusing.  
I don't get anything out of the Bible when I read it.  
I wish God would just speak to me directly.  

Bottom line:  if you don't access God's word, your probably not going to hear from God.  And your faith won't grow.  And you won't develop an intimate relationship with Him.  And you will end up making foolish decisions because you didn't consult God, but then you'll blame him for your misfortune.  And you'll be frustrated because you'll think God bailed on you.  But in reality, you bailed on Him.

As to whether the Bible's too hard to understand, I'm not sure that ultimately holds water. Check this out. 

No, I'm not in a bad mood.  I'm just sayin.... Because I've seen it over and over and over again.

What do you think?  Do people like to read the Bible? Do we read our Bibles? Is it too hard to understand?

On Monday, I'll come back with a plan I'd like to propose to change people's views about the Bible. In the meantime, chime in....

Let Me Encourage You....

Nobody I've met to date has been over-encouraged.  I've never encouraged someone only to have them respond with "Hey - you know what? I've had way too many good things said about me.  I'm at my max. Lay off a little."  

On the other hand, most of us probably feel like we could use an encouraging word.  I even keep an encouragement file.  Every time someone sends me an encouraging note, I drag it into that file on my desktop.  Many of you do the same thing I'm sure.  

Sometimes, though,  I wonder whether we misuse encouragement.

Let me ask a hard question:  when someone encourage you, do you file it away as affirmation, or do you use it as encouragement? 

What I mean by that is what the word literally says - encouragement is designed to give you courage. Are you encouraged to do bolder, greater, more ambitious things because of the words that came your way?  I'm pretty sure that what the Kingdom of God needs is more risk takers, more people to boldly push out frontiers, try new things, experiment and explore.  

If you're not advancing the Kingdom, then you're either managing it (adding no new value), justify your inaction (there are lots of reasons not to be bold) or blaming others (if they wouldn't be so....). Managing has a season, but justifying why you aren't doing anything of significance or blaming others for it really don't make for a compelling story.  It's way too easy to end up spending most of our time justifying, blaming or managing yesterday's fading success.  And meanwhile, nothing of significance gets done. Fear and the power of inertia gobble up our drive.  

So here's a little thing that could make a difference.  When someone encourages you (and they will, if not today, then tomorrow), use it to give you courage.  It's not just affirmation.  It's directed, by definition, to make you do things you wouldn't have done but for the encouragement.  Be bold.  Do something!

You'll have to push past the fear that always stands between the status quo and progress.  But then that's the dynamic that fuels every story worth reading and every major act of progress in human history.  Someone pushed past their fear and moved forward.  

Today, be encouraged.  For real. 

The Reason We Do This

So we've heard from a lots of people this week.  Thank you for the avalanche of messages.  But one or two comments have a way of putting it all into perspective.

Sam spoke volumes when he posted this on the blog.  This is all he wrote:

I'm so glad Connexus came along. I was dying spiritually before. Thanks for introducing me to Christ.

Among the emails was one from a woman who started attending one of our campuses at Easter because a friend invited her.  She is so grateful that her relationship with God is coming back into focus.

Elvis and Katie attend our Orillia campus.  Their story is a powerful indicator of how God puts lives back together again when people are committed to creating the kind of environment where people with little to no church background can find Christ.  

Had another moment on Sunday when I watched several families bring their children in front of God and a community stand around them committed to helping families win at home.  

I love it when stories about people who had given up on church or never thought about church start to pour in.  

Two things:  First, thanks to our incredible team that makes this happen.  Our amazing staff team, our unbelievable volunteers (did you see the blizzard footage in Hip 2B Holy?  Our crew is crazy!) get up every day in the hopes that people would find an environment where they could enter a growing relationship with Jesus.  

Second, church for people who don't go to church is possible. Among the emails and notes have been inquiries from across Canada about whether there are churches like this in their region.  There are some great churches emerging.  It's so encouraging.  But we need more.  More churches that strip away the human baggage and lead people into an authentic relationship with Christ. 

So here's my question: if these stories move you, if there's something burning within you that makes you want to offer this kind of environment, what's stopping you from gathering a team and starting a church in your city or region or repositioning your existing church for a new mission and strategy? 

What if there were hundreds - thousands - more stories waiting to be written, and God was looking to you - as a believer or a skeptic - to be part of the plot line?  

A Story Bigger Than You and Me

A thought I've had on and off for years grabbed me again this morning:  

Wouldn't it be great to live a life story so compelling only God could claim credit for it? 

In the Old Testament, God had a reputation. It would have been absurd to claim personal credit for the parting of the Red Sea or for the collapse of the walls of Jericho.  The people of God were caught up in events so big only God could plausibly get credit.

Jesus' life is another example. In the early church there were miracles to be sure, but their extreme generosity and self-sacrifice turned heads.

Part of me wants to write my own script (okay, a big part of me does).  But if I write my story, it will be pretty small.  I'm not talking about fame or renown (it's not that kind of "big" I'm talking about). I'm just saying on my own strength I can accomplish about an ounce of good.  God could accomplish an avalanche of good through any of us, if we let him. He can write stories I could never write.

The problem with a lot of North American Christianity is that our stories are too small.  We're less into life-change and more into life modification or amendment.  We prefer order to disorder, predictability to unpredictability and control to surrender.

So what story do you think God might want to write in you?  Struggling with mood?  Surrender it.  He could use you to bring joy.  Struggling with your marriage?  Surrender and let him write a new chapter...heck, a new book.  Struggling at work?  Let him change you.  Your church boring or stuck? Give it back to God.  It was his in the first place.

My prayer today is this: God, give me a story only you can write.  Whatever that looks like or what it accomplishes is up to you.  But give me (and our community) a story that only you can write.

What's your prayer? 

Shift - Clarity

Been doing way more twittering than blogging lately (y'all on twitter yet)?  But I do have a few thoughts that take more than 140 characters to express...so I'm resurfacing....

I've been thinking about shifts that we'll see (or that we'll need to see) in the church in the next five years, and I want to outline a few that I'm wrestling with.  Some of these shifts are already underway - some might yet need to happen. Would love to hear what you are wrestling with too.  Some of these are really thinking in pencil.   But the church and culture are always moving and changing.  Sometimes it's hard to spot the trends ahead.  So hereogoes.

Shift One - Clarity
We're exposed to a wider variety of choices every year, but is more always better? There's a growing opinion that excess choice leads to paralysis.  Faced with ten options, people start to feel overwhelmed and end up either doing nothing or making an ill-informed choice.

And yet companies like Apple, Toyota and Honda, who offer surprisingly little choice when compared to their competition, are gaining market share, not losing it.  Increasingly it seems like people would like fewer choices among quality products rather than a sea of mediocre options.

How does this translate into church leadership?

 People can't follow a fuzzy calling, random messages or muddy strategy.  Here are three shifts I think need to happen in churches:

• Our call needs clarity.  There can be a temptation to play to bigger and better.  But you can get there by shuffling Christians out of a church that is slightly less hip or relevant than yours.  Bad move.  Ultimately, if I am not over the top crazy in love with Jesus and the people Jesus died for (read 'the general population), I probably ought to quit.  I am struggling more with this call now than I have in a while, and I think that's a good struggle.  You can play to an audience in the church or give your life to loving and serving the world for which Jesus died.  He usually doesn't call people into ministry to impress the already-redeemed. 

• Our message needs clarity.  Too many of us have walked out of a 40 minute message and asked what on earth it was about.  The application isn''t clear or (often) is non-existent.  In the guise of being "deep", the content is over people's heads or obscure.  Maturity is sometimes defined as being able to sit through long sessions of these.  I know as a preacher I am constantly being challenged to be clearer, simpler and more direct in the messages I give.  It's much harder to be clear than to be fuzzy, but I think people would be so much better served if we shifted to clear, applicable and easier-to-follow messages.

• Our strategy needs clarity. As ministry leaders, we often let random things happen in our ministry because we have no clear plan or path in mind and don't like saying no.  If you pick up a church program or browse a web site and no clear path is in place, how do we expect people to make progress?  If you're not sure where you're going, any path will take you there.

What's your take on the need for clarity?  Do you agree?  Where else might we need to become clear?

We Interrupt This Series to Simplify Things

Okay church leaders, we're not done the Dangerous Questions series (a landmine question coming next), but here comes a quick break to share this.

I'm a bit of a passionate/crazy Simple Church advocate.  What's the philosophy of simple church?  Rather than offering a hundred programs in ministry, we offer very little in terms of ministry options at Connexus, believing that less is more. That philosophy is even reflected in our slogan... Real Life...Simplified.

So for adults, all we do is Sunday morning and community groups.  That's it.  We believe so strongly that community groups currently offer the best impact for life change that we don't want to muddy the waters.  We just picked our best option and we're running with it.  That's it.

I always challenge church leaders with this: if you can't explain your ministry strategy on a dinner napkin, it's too complicated.  If you can't say it in a sentence, you probably don't understand it. 

A simple ministry model is to church what Apple is to computing, what Toyota and Honda are to the automotive world.  Rather than offer dozens or hundreds of mediocre choices, they offer very few choices but what they do offer is high quality.  And as this article points out, it's working.  At least for Apple.  And one might argue for Honda and Toyota.

I know this is still controversial, but several years into a simple church model, I'm so glad we made the change.  It might not just be a good church model/business model, it might also be a great life model.  Pick a few things, and do them well. 

Just sayin'....

Dangerous Questions (1)

We're starting a short blog series today I'm calling "Dangerous Questions."  The questions are only dangerous because if we really pay attention to them, they could change us deeply.

The purpose?  Most of us will live our lives with assumptions or beliefs that don't serve God or even us particularly well.  Assumptions that place limits on how God can use us.  So in this series we'll simply ask questions that challenge those beliefs and assumptions. 

Today's question:  What if you viewed all you had (your time, energy and resources) as things entrusted to you by God for which you had to give an account?

Last night, for example, I watched tv for 2.5 hours.  Great use of time?  Not really.  Nothing wrong with tv, but 2.5 hours?  Really.... Well what if I believed that the time entrusted to me belonged to God, not me?  How would I use it differently?  How would I have used it to add value to the lives around me?  How would my day have been different?

Apply that to what's sitting in my bank account.  What claim does God have on the money not only that I give back to the Kingdom, but to the money I use for monthly cash flow?  How is my leadership a stewardship?  How is my time best used if it really doesn't belong to me?

The easiest way to get your head into this space is to imagine you entrusting an investment adviser with $1000 for you to invest (remember we talked about this a few times at Connexus?).  Imagine you come back six months later and

• The adviser has no idea what happened to the money or where it went.
• The adviser says you lost 'approximately' 10% but isn't sure exactly how much and is not interested in answering your questions.
• The adviser used your money to take a trip to Cuba.

We understand this scenario because the assumption is that the money belongs to us, not to the adviser.  The problem is that the adviser acted like the money was his when it wasn't.

If our lives belong to God, why do we resent God's incursion into 'our' lives to give an account for 'our' time, 'our' money and 'our' energy because we assume it's 'ours'.

What if it's not?  What if it's His?  How would your day be different?

Why I'm Tempted to Take Over Customer Service

So yesterday, my frustration peaked again with companies that act like they really don't want your business.

I have spent a disproportionate amount of time trying to get home internet in the last three weeks.  Without boring you with the details, here are some of my frustrations:

• The modem for my original ISP died December 14th.  It was 10 days out of warranty.  They would not honour the warranty and were going to charge me for a service call and a new modem.  I purused other options.
• One company billed me $376 for a new install on home internet, and then did not call me for 10 days.  I called them several times and finally canceled when they were still unable to do an install or explain what happened.  I got a full refund, but no internet.
• Another company said they had two potential solutions.  One was not in stock anywhere in Central Ontario and no store knew why.  The company wasn't shipping new units, leaving the local dealers at a loss to figure out what happened.
• I bought portable internet in another form from that company.  It wouldn't install on my computer (and the signal strength wasn't that great.)  They gave me a full refund.  But then their parent company billed me for the first month anyway.  They refunded it.  Spent over five hours in line or on hold in the process though.
• I went back to my original company for new technology they offer.  It's been nine days.  They promised an install in 3-5 days.  No one has called.  I have called them twice.  They sent the order to the wrong store.  No apologies.
• Total time invested in getting home internet - probably 10-12 hours in the last three weeks.  Yikes.
• I still have no home internet.  Maybe today.  Maybe tomorrow.

I'd really love to take over the customer service industry.  I'd love to bring back a customer centered angle.  At Starbucks recently they forgot to put vanilla in my drink.  I brought it back (only because I'm not man enough to drink it black).  They offered to make me a new one (not necessary, I said, so they just put vanilla in my drink) and then they gave me a coupon for a free drink next time.  Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about... They exceeded my expectations.

Sometimes I think that many people would rather defend the institution than serve the customer.  And here's what worries me...do we do that in the church?  I worry that the answer is yes. 

When we meet people, are we more interested in how we can serve them or how they can serve us?  When any organization becomes more interested in how people can serve us, we lose our soul. You don't need to know much about Jesus to know that somehow the Gospel takes the side of serving others, not self.

What good practices/bad practices do you see in the church (any church)?  And what can we do to get a service mentality back?

Wasting Your Time

So I'm all for grace, and I need more in my life, but today the Bible rocked my socks once again.  I was reading the Sermon on the Mount, and understood once again why people reacted both positively and negatively toward Jesus' teachings.  I could be wrong about what I'm going to say next, and many of you are going to resist what's coming next.  That's okay.

After teaching us to love our enemies and to not judge people,  Jesus then tells us not to throw our pearls to the pigs, because they'll trample the pearls and turn and attack us. While the meaning of the verse is not 100% certain, it's hard to miss one fact: Jesus is telling us not everyone is worth the investment and that if we invest in the wrong people, our best efforts will backfire.  So stop investing.  Just don't throw them more pearls.

Later in the chapter, Jesus warns us to stay away from people who claim to represent Jesus but don't.  And he says there is an easy test - just look at their actions.  Actions, more than talk, reveal a person's real heart.

Personally, I've met more than a few people who I've invested in deeply who have turned and attacked me or others.  I kept the relationship open in the name of grace. I still got attacked.  Some of that clearly is my junk, but what if its not all my junk? What if not only our lives get unnecessarily complicated by people who should get cut out, what if our churches get messed from the same thing?

Is Jesus saying we need to cut the tie sooner?  Do you think he's saying not everyone is worth the investment?  That at times we just end up wasting our time? 

Are some people just a waste of time?  Are there people you need to cut out of your life now?  And before you start to dump non-Christian friends, realize that these texts are mostly talking about people who claim to be Christian. If you're struggling with this, check these passages out. 

I'm still not sure I'm the guy to figure out who to cut out and who to leave in.  That would require prayer and good counsel.  But what if Jesus is actually saying, "cut some people out." 

• How would you start? 
• What would you do?
• Would the Kingdom of God be stronger if it was purer? 
• How would I know whether I am one of the guys who needs to be cut out?

These are big questions....what do you think?