Dream evening: I sat in my daughter and son in law’s Omaha home this evening, and got lost in great conversation. Nearly a thousand miles away from us, we rarely get to see them, so the times together are precious. I introduced them to Crazy Love, hooked them on Francis Chan, and other vodcasts they didn’t know about.
They sat wide eyed as I talked about what happens at a church planter assessment. “They are asked to use three adjectives to describe their spouse…they are asked to take a “fast fire topic” out of a hat and explain extemporaneously: “Is Christ the only way?” … “Imagine we are all completely ignorant of the gospel. Explain in five minutes.” … “You have just met a homosexual who is interested in going to your new church. Walk us through what you say.”
They are perfect candidates for a missional core for a church plant. They are young, attractive, articulate, likeable, leaders, who love lost people. The majority of their friends are lost people. They already host yard parties. They have not bifurcated their lives into sacred and secular, so all of life is touching the tangible Kingdom.
So, what is the problem? Their ministry is largely not integrated into the life of their church. They fail to make a connection there. If they engage the “Tangible Kingdom”, they will do it in spite of, not as part of their church. Not that their church is a lost cause; it is actually a vibrant church, but the notion that they could call their connection with unchurched neighbors as ministry escapes them.
The greater part of the dream evening was the idea of seeing them in one of our plants, using their gifts to saturate Austin with the gospel. Oh well, Dads can keep dreaming.
Aw, we made it into your blog?! What an honor! Miss you guys - keep rocking those church plants!
Posted by: Emily Taylor | May 27, 2009 at 09:09 PM