The Message & Mission of Jesus

The Message: The Good News That Jesus Came To Speak.

He came:

- To forgive our sins and reconcile us with God.

- To destroy the power of Satan and deliver people from bondage,

- To change hearts of stone to hearts of flesh.

- To treat people with compassion, mercy and justice, as God’s beloved creation.

- To love and invite followers to become The New People of God.

The Mission: The Good News That Jesus Came to Act Out.

He came:

- To be the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.

- To personally fight the deciding battle with Satan and triumph through the grave.

- To be physically authenticated as the Son of God through the power and shock of His  ressurection.

- To challenge the earthly principalities and powers through His ascension.

- To establish His Church as the New People of God on the Day of Pentecost.

(Source: Dave Olson, Evangelical Covenant Church, Director of Church Planting)

Not Again!!!!

We will be meeting with our launch team on Thursday to nail down our Mission Statement and the Core Values that support that statement.  You have heard me ranting about not simply coming up with something that sound “nice,” posting it on the wall and moving on never to think about it again. 

(Oh no!  He going to blog and blow about this again!)

I am sure I may also take some heat for returning to business writings for clarification on how to do this in a meaningful way, but that is my frame of reference and where I do a fair amount of my reading, and additionally business leaders and writers have probably thought about this more than many in the “church” world have. 

In this week’s Business Week magazine (Jan 14, 2008) Smackin’ Attackin’ Jack & Suzy Welch’s  “State Your Business” column on the final page of the zine answer a question addressing this very issue.  Following are excerpts in bold type from the column. My comments are in parentheses.

Gerald McLaughlin from Shanghai writes, “Like most startups, we launched with a big mission that was going to change the game. Now, several years out, it appears our mission isn’t going to deliver to the extent we had hoped. How do we come up with another?   (My hope is that we do this well and don’t need to “come up with another, so listen up!)

(Jack & Suzy respond,) “What an honest and admirable question. First, because so few leaders have the candor to admit: “Our approach to the market seems to be tanking. We need to change direction.” And second, because few leaders actually get the point of forging a mission with real grit and meaning. Even fewer work with their people to come up with a short list of values that will make their mission come alive. We just don’t get it! Sure, as your case seems to suggest, having a mission doesn’t guarantee winning. But not having one invariably spurs the opposite.  (I love the idea of winning, especially when you put it in the context of winning hearts and minds for Jesus Christ.)

Sound obvious? We would have thought so, too, except that for each of the past three years, we’ve conducted a two-day seminar with about 100 CEOs. The first year we thought we would breeze through mission and values in about a half-hour before moving on to matters more pertinent to top executives. To our shock, more than 60% of the CEOs in the room did not have a company mission, and 80% had no explicit set of company values describing how employees should behave in order to achieve the mission. The second and third years were basically no different except that we were prepared for several hours of discussion on these two messy topics.

Messy because the terms mission and values, hijacked by business school professors and consultants, have largely devolved into fatheaded jargon. Almost no one can figure out what they mean. And so, like the CEOs we’ve worked with, they sort of ignore them or gussy up a vague package deal along the lines of: “Our mission is to be the best fill-in-the-blank company in our industry” and “Our values are excellence, integrity, and customer service.”

In other words, ‘Business as usual.’

To answer your question, then, here’s how we’d suggest you create a new mission for your company, and just as important, a new set of values. Basically, the mission starts with you, the leader, since you’ll be held accountable for it. Yes, listen to everyone with something smart to say about your market and product— especially contrarians and customers. Gather and grok data galore. But then make a choice about how your company will win. Don’t mince words! Remember Nike’s old mission, “Crush Reebok”? That’s directionally correct. And Google’s mission statement isn’t something namby-pamby like “To be the world’s best search engine.” It’s “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” That’s simultaneously inspirational, achievable, and completely graspable.

With your mission set, more of your team must get involved in establishing values. After all, you are trying to describe the best behaviors of your best employees on their best days with enough clarity to make those behaviors easy to emulate, measure, and reward. Consider some of the best values we’ve heard: Never lose a superstar. Communicate bad news quickly. Take personal ownership of results, not process. Unlike the usual drivel, those mean something. They compel action. And that’s what you want, both with your mission and your values—especially as you change course. Good luck setting sail again.

(We must not “mince words” as we describe the mission that we believe God has given us in this church plant.  We want to reach out with the winning message of Jesus Christ of his uncompromising love for those on every road of life.  No churchy “business as usual.”  No “fatheaded” religious “jargon.”  Our Core Values must describe how we will behave to carry out our Mission.)

Naming The Baby III

We had an interesting exchange of ideas and free flowing discussion as we zeroed in on a name.  We have submitted two to the Covenant for review and approval:  Every Road Covenant Church, and Life Journey Covenant church.

As “The Rev”  aka “Pastor Tess”  wrote today, “Each one of our stories reflects a unique road of  coming to know and understand our relationship with Jesus Christ.  We all have been drawn into relationship with him, understand our sinfulness and need of His forgiveness, and believe in his death, burial, and resurrection.  Our lives reflect different continents that we were born, different denominational influences, different professional roles, different family structures, and certainly different personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. We have traveled many different roads and Jesus has brought us together for this time and purpose.”

Naming The Baby II

As rudimentary as the process may seem, we have tried to be wise and considerate with the process of naming this new outpost for Christ.  As I wrote before, you suddenly become aware of all the various shades and meanings of words and their juxtaposition with others.We hope to have this nailed down and approved by the Covenant in the next couple of weeks.

Having the name and the core values agreed upon will allow us to do so much more in attracting additional help to our launch team.The discussions among our team have ranged across the possibilities, and the concepts of “journey” “progress” and “road” kept cropping up.  

So we started visiting various scriptures and fairly quickly we realized how often “roads, ways, and streets” were mentioned in various contexts and meanings.   In addition, both journeys and progress are made on roads; and these same scriptures emphasize movement, journey, progress, and action.

Following are a few of the Roads we found in scripture.  We are certain we can help each other find even more examples. 

The Wilderness Road:  The Road of Seeking & Salvation    Acts 8: 26-36 tells the story of Phillip meeting the Ethiopian eunuch on the road and leading him to Jesus. 

The Damascus Road:  The Road of Confrontation                 Acts 9:1-8 & 27 tells the story of Paul being confronted on the road by Christ and called to a new life.         

The Samaritan Road: The Road of Mercy                               Luke 10:30-37 Jesus tells the story of the man being beaten and left for dead on the road until the Samaritan comes and put mercy into action by caring for him.                     

The Prodigal Road:  The Road of Reconciliation & Restoration of Dignity                                                                                     Luke 15:11-32  Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son and how his father ran to meet him when he was still far down the road from home and restored him to his family.

The Jericho Road:  The Road of Healing                                  Mark 10:46-52; Matthew 20: 29-34; Luke 18:35-43 all tell the story of Jesus healing Blind Bartemaeus on the road to Jericho 

The Emmaus Road: The Road of Understanding                   Luke 14:13-35 Luke recounts the story of the disciples  coming to understand that Jesus was truly the Christ when he encountered them on the road to Emmaus.

The Jerusalem Road: The Road of Celebration                            Mark 11:1-10; Matthew 21:1-9;Luke 19:28-40 tell the story of Jesus triumphal entry on the road into Jerusalem

The Road to God: The Road of Decision                                John 14:6-7 Jesus proclaims himself to be the only road to the Father

The Road of Hope: The Street of Gold                          Revelation 21 describes the main street of heaven appearing to be paved with pure gold.

Everyone in life is traveling their own road. Every Road has its shares of joy, sorrow, pain, happiness, and despair.  Life’s Journey has the potential for decision and growth.  The Way requires decision and choice.  The Path provides opportunities for healing and restoration.  The Journey ultimately leads to a confrontation with the Word, the Creator, the Christ.  Ultimately, no one can approach the Father except through Jesus Christ – The New Road.

A general theme seems to be emerging…

Working on Sticky Ideas

It will be interesting to see what we ultimately settle on as the passions, values and ideas that drive us to plant a new church.  Here are some of the writings and thoughts from our launch team at this time.  I have edited them down from several sets of notes and emails.  I trust I caught the spirit and essence of each. 

One concept was expressed in these four core values.

Our church is driven by these values and their progression:

Express Love:   Christ’s love is what sets His church apart from any other movement or religion in the world.   We are required to love everyone at all times.  ‘I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ John 13:34-35 “…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Matthew 22:37-39

Extend Mercy:  Christ’s words and example consistently showed that love had to be demonstrated by actions of mercy.  ‘…Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’ Matthew 9: 12-13 

Expect Growth:  As we come to experience the expression of Christ’s love and mercy as demonstrated by his Church, we are then expected to grow, mature and multiply as we walk these healing paths.  ^‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ Matthew 28:19-20 ‘Do not be conformed to this world,^* but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Romans 12:2^{* *}           

Effect Change:  Finally in addition to basking in Christ’s love and mercy, and growing in our spiritual walk we must actually do something with what we have been given, and so in effecting change in our world we allow the cycle to start again for those to whom we serve. “…For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”  Matthew 25: 35-36

Another view point includes these concepts: 

Orientation->Disorientation->Reorientation: – in general, psalmists are dealing with situations from Orientation (seeking God’s will and direction in life) to Disorientation (through trials/sufferings/sins) to, by the end, Reorientation (through acknowledging the presence of God). That leads to the acknowledgement of peace not as the absence of suffering; but as the presence of God. 

The Restoration of Human Dignity: – Luke 15 – the return of prodigal son. This passage depicts a son’s return to community and is restored fully. The Fall leads the human beings to become ‘less’. The restoration covers more than just the physical need, but emotional and spiritual. Human dignity is crucial and far more important than JUST providing physical needs. 

The Shift of Focal Point: – shifting from changeable and unstable leadership of human beings to the unchangeable and stable leadership of God brings out the true humanity. Human beings are created in the image of God and can only be truly and fully ‘reflected’ through the leadership of Jesus.

Humanize the Spirituality: – in general, church is considered to be a place to spiritualize people’s humanity. To humanize our spirituality, we acknowledge human beings are created in the image of God (our dignity), human beings are created in BOTH male and female (our gender), and human beings are created in community (not good for human be alone.)

Thirdly, these ideas have also been circulating amongst us: 

1. The Concept of “We:” The emphasis of a “we-ness” is based on integration and not assimilation.  It is dynamic, respectful, and at time fluid to allow creativity and growth. As applied to the church, it incorporated the Love and Mercy aspects we all treasure.  If we are to love unconditionally and to show mercy to those who need it the most, we must see them as one of us, he or she is part of the “We.”  Whether it is as simple as we are all humankind; we are all sinners; God loves us all; Jesus died for all.  Or as complex as the idea of we want to be “intentional” people, so therefore we will be open and willing to include others as “We.”  The “We” must exist for the love and mercy to be genuine.  Outreach is a process of inclusion and hopefully not a way to point out the exceptions.   

 2.  Reconciliation & Restoration:  As we as a church acknowledge our openness to meet people where they are at and God’s intentional love to the world, the hope is that the message of reconciliation and restoration is extended.  The primary subject of reconciliation is God.  Yet many churches miss the part of the restoration of the self and the reconciliation to others.  One in our team used the story of the prodigal son in making his point of restoration of personhood, the dignity of being human that was given to us as our birthright by God.  We are after all, the subjects of God’s love.  As the father extends his love to his prodigal son, he was intentional, inclusive and forgiving.  As we all know, reconciliation does not come easy; it is not often done without practice.  We hope that as a church we will be able to provide that safe place for people to practice.   

3. Live the Unlived Life:  We love the meaning of transformation.  Even though the word itself has been so overuse that at times it is meaningless, we have not, at this point, come up with a better alternative.  This a slightly different take on the previously discussed Orientation-Disorientation-Reorientation concept but was described as encouraging, challenging or even awakening people to live their unlived life.  This is where we want the church to emphasis the core value of embracing men and women equally, the values of team building and allowing God to transform us according to His original intent. 

4. Celebrate the Message and Mission of Jesus: We often cycle back to this concept with a sense of excitement.  As much as the four points previous points work together and integrate into some form of spinal upward movement at any given point of the life of a church, this is where we hope our community life will be  based.

Sticky Ideas

We have been working on thinking through and shaping our core values.  As I have written before, so many organizations with which I have been involved have worked on long and hard on defining the mission, purpose and values of the organization only to hang it in the hall or post it to the website and promptly forget about them.  Whatever you call these statements, they must be truly those principles which you constantly use to guide and define the path of the organization.  Obviously, (I hope) in a church setting these should have a foundation in scriptural truth.  But even the most “spiritual” mission means nothing if it does not truly grab you and constantly remind you of why the church was started in the first place.

One of the reasons that many well intentioned efforts get sidelined or forgotten is that they are just too complex and lack any “stickiness.”   The concept of stickiness has been popularized by many writers but I like this recent digest, written by Baldwin Cheng, a co-worker of my son at Publicis & Hal Riney.  It is an abstract of an article from the November 2007 McKinsey Quarterly called “Crafting a message that sticks: An Interview with Chip Heath” by Lenny T. Mendonca and Matt Miller.  Baldwin Cheng’s writes that, ”Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Chip Heath’s research suggests that sticky ideas share six basic traits:

1. Simplicity. Messages are most memorable if they are short and deep. Glib sound bites are short, but they don’t last. Proverbs such as the golden rule are short but also deep enough to guide the behavior of people over generations.

2.  Unexpectedness. Something that sounds like common sense won’t stick. Look for the parts of your message that are uncommon sense. Such messages generate interest and curiosity.

3. Concreteness. Abstract language and ideas don’t leave sensory impressions; concrete images do. Compare “get an American on the moon in this decade” with “seize leadership in the space race through targeted technology initiatives and enhanced team-based routines.”

4. Credibility. Will the audience buy the message? Can a case be made for the message or is it a confabulation of spin? Very often, a person trying to convey a message cites outside experts when the most credible source is the person listening to the message.  Questions—“Have you experienced this?”—are often more credible than outside experts.

5. Emotions. Case studies that involve people also move them. “We are wired,” Heath writes, “to feel things for people, not abstractions.”

6. Stories. We all tell stories every day. Why? “Research shows that mentally rehearsing a situation helps us perform better when we encounter that situation,” Heath writes. “Stories act as a kind of mental flight simulator, preparing us to respond more quickly and effectively.”

If Jesus Made Noomas

Do you think he would have posted them on the internet and charged ten bucks for them?

Heritage

Growing up in independent Baptist circles had some advantages, but one of them certainly not an attempt to connect us to an appreciation for religious heritage or tradition.  It seemed as if history and tradition were viewed with a high degree of suspicion.   I understand and even appreciate the concept that we were being taught to focus on the person and work of Jesus, and not on symbols, icons, or a traditions.   At the same time, I feel that in this approach I missed a great deal of the mystery and majesty that surrounds God.

We are now associated with the Evangelical Covenant Church and just the little reading I have done of its history, and the church plant training we did a few weeks back has sparked an emerging understanding that we are on the current cutting edge of the movement of  God through human history.  If you grew up in churches that have great traditions and identifications with various creeds and practices, this may seem elementary; and it is, in a good and profound sense.

For the first time I am beginning to grasp the grandness and depth of God’s character and love as it is expressed in symbols and rituals that stretch back through the ages.  I will be excited to see how we incorporate both new and ancient worship practices and rites designed to encourage our sense of awe and devotion of The Creator.

Leadership

One thing (among many) that I have to learn over and over and over again is that not everyone thinks like me.  Amazing, isn’t it?  A corollary to that is that not everyone leads like I do, either.   This includes my pastor.  It get slightly more complicated when you also sleep with your pastor.

As I wrote previously, we are in the very early stages of a church plant.  Setting the tone and style of leadership is obviously critical to the future, the look and the feel of the church.   It is a really good thing that I have not been called to be a pastor, because I am always just trying to get things done so I can check it off the list and move on to the next thing. 

I am humbled and chagrined as I sit in a formation meeting that my wife is leading and find myself fidgeting and thinking, “OK, OK, let’s get on with it,”  only to find myself five minutes later (or the next day,) discovering that her way of leading the group to think about a particular issue is far superior to mine, and much more inclusive.  Not only that, but it draws significantly more insight from the group than my, “lay the facts out, make a decision” style.    Also, most everyone else in the group gets it far before I do…I HATE it when that happens! 

I admit I am not much of a servant leader.  It is becoming distressingly obvious to me that I have a great deal to learn from my pastor and the others in our group. Hmmm, maybe that’s why God is letting me be a part of this adventure.  I am going to have watch, listen, and apply; and, oh yeah…I am going to have to shut up occasionally. 

Naming the Baby

Since this is a brand new church plant, one of the things we will need to do is name it.  The launch team and the ECC will be very involved in this.   There was a time when naming a church was very straight forward; if you were first Baptists in town, then, hot diggity, you got to nail down that fact for posterity.  No question about it you were “First Baptist Church.”  (I’m not sure what how that squares with Jesus and the whole “first shall be last” thing, but that’s a whole ‘nother subject.)   If you were really wily about it you made sure it was First Baptist Church of Podunk – that way, when one of deacons inevitably got mad over losing a vote on the carpet color in the fellowship hall – the people he took in the split could not call themselves the Podunk Baptist Church.  My guess is we will not use our ciy’s name – but who knows?  One of my favorite town name churches is the Dinosaur Baptist Church in Dinosaur, Colorado

One of the churches my Dad pastored was in a small Northwest community with a strong Dutch settlers influence; I am not kidding, there were probably 14 Dutch Christian Reformed Churches inside the city limits of a town that had less than 3,000 souls in it.  Some of them were big too, the town population probably quintupled every Sunday as all the families out on the farms in the county went Sunday-Go-To-Meeting.  They handled the first four churches simply by calling them First through Fourth.  It would have been cool have them keep that up through 14th.

 Then there is the tradition of naming your church after the road it sits on; there is 19th Baptist Church in San Francisco and everybody has heard of Thomas Road Baptist (R.I.P  J.F.), but that is kind of boring and could be problematic depending on the name of the road; imagine a church on Stoner Ave, in Fayetteville, AR, or Kitchen Dick Road in Sequim, WA.

For a while you had to have “Community” in your name, but that appears to be a fading fashion.  Now it seems to be hip and fabulous to give your church a more exotic moniker: there are a couple of Mars Hills (think Paul in Athens,) an Imago Dei in Portland,  and there is even a “God’s Party” In Culver City, CA.  

You suddenly become very conscious of shaded meanings and possible problems as you start thinking of a name.