I LOVE THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND, AND I BELIEVE WE ARE LIVING IN A DAY WHEN THE STAKES COULDN’T BE HIGHER AND THE OPPORTUNITIES TO SHARE CHRIST AND CHANGE LIVES COULDN’T BE GREATER!

I love all the churches in New England looking to make Jesus famous one life at a time.  One thing that really ticks me off (and there are only a few things:-) is when I hear someone bashing God’s Church, picking apart God’s church (not just my church, but any church that is listening to Jesus and doing exactly what He says – that’s not to say that we can’t point out sin or offer suggestions for improvement, or evaluate, how else will we get better at the mission of Jesus?); but all too often we can get caught up in criticizing the church in front of an unchurched culture – we think we are relating with the unchurched culture but we are only confirming their suspicions.  A good friend of mine recently said, “What if New England is the most unreached region in the country because the church is the most divided in this region. It’s time for churches to stop competing against one another and start completing one another.” In fact we are going to partner with a ton of New England churches at the end of the summer for something called www.UnitedLove2010.com.  You can check it out!

Here is what I believe about the New England Church (this is an email I recently wrote to my staff):

TheDC will reach New England for Christ because there are a handful of hardcore Christ-learners unwilling to let their neighbors, co-workers and friends die and go to hell. TheDC will reach thousands for Christ because there is a staff team willing to do whatever it takes to reach those far from God with the life altering gospel of Jesus Christ! TheDC will see hundreds of unchurched people every year follow Jesus in baptism because there is a team of committed Christ followers willing to GIVE AND SERVE AND INVITE LIKE THEY NEVER HAVE BEFORE. TheDC will experience life change through hundreds of life groups meeting in homes, pubs, clubs, cafes, and college campuses all around Greater Manchester because we believe that ongoing life change happens best in the context of authentic community.

We will change the spiritual landscape of this great city because we worship a Jesus WHO IS BIGGER THAN WE COULD EVER IMAGINE AND HE IS WORTHY OF OUR ABSOLUTE BEST IN EVERY SINGLE AREA AND HE IS UNWILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH!

We will feed the poor, clothe the naked, house the homeless, and give hope to the hopeless in ways that inspire unchurched people to investigate Jesus and want to follow Him. We will not be a church that simply SPEAKS THE WORD OF GOD, BUT ALSO LISTENS TO THE CULTURE AND FINDS WAYS TO SERVE THE COMMUNITY AND REACH THE COMMUNITY WITH THE GOSPEL.

TheDC will move into buildings 100x our current size and we will see hundreds of people invite Christ into their life for the very first time because you guys REFUSE TO DWELL ON THE FEW WHO LEAVE, BUT REMAIN RELENTLESS TOWARD THOSE WHO’VE NEVER COME!  Every available seat is an opportunity for life change, every filled seat is a heart experiencing Jesus!

We will find creative ways to communicate the message of Christ to a culture that is far from God and completely unchurched. We will see the most spectacular sinners be ruined by the cross of Christ and commit their lives to sharing Jesus with all those around them. We will take the gospel far beyond Manchester and start DC campuses all over New England so the most unchurched region of our country can become the most TRANSFORMED REGION OF OUR COUNTRY.

We will give and go to lands far away in order to plant network churches; why should we keep the gospel we have to just American soil, but why not bring Jesus to the ends of the earth. We will impact the poorest of the poor around our globe through partnering with remarkable Christ-centered organizations to be the hands and feet of Jesus through TheDC Global Initiative. We will send teams of DC members and life groups to serve cross culturally in places that have never heard the gospel or don’t have enough resources to keep their own children alive. We will stand for biblical justice and fight against gross injustices such as human trafficking and the sex trade.

We will help young men find freedom from porn, young girls remain pure until marriage, teenagers not to take their own life because their dad has walked out on them, marriages to turn to Christ so they will stop fighting each other and start FIGHTING FOR EACH OTHER.

We won’t GIVE UP, WE WON’T WALK AWAY, WE WON’T BACK DOWN AND WE WON’T BAIL ON THE JESUS WHO CALLED US, COMMISSIONED US, AND CAUSED US TO FIND LIFE AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS!

We are the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST AND WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE!

1. Pray: if we don’t pray for people to meet Jesus, then our hearts won’t ever be broken enough to actually share Christ with them and invite them to experience Christ in and through His Church.  Also, if we don’t pray for boldness and courage during these times we won’t act, and that could mean someone’s eternity just went up in flames.
2. Study: look to the Scriptures for your example.
   1. Peter provides one way of “invitation” – Peter was very in your face, sort of confrontational. Peter was great at working with “churched” people or the religious Jews (which is why he stayed in Jerusalem).
   2. Paul was much more strategic and intellectual – He was also skilled with the unchurched (the Gentiles). Paul knew how to become all things to all men so that some would be saved.  Paul was the ultimate servant and a great multiplier of leaders.
   3. Stephen was the “truth teller”.  Stephen got to preach one sermon then he was killed, not sure I want that evangelistic style!  But Stephen also knew how to speak the truth, even when it hurt (what a great lesson we can learn from this amazing man of God).
   4. Philip was the “conversationist”; he was able to “slide into any conversation” and turn it towards Jesus.  In this case, he meets an Ethiopian Eunuch who is reading an OT prophet and he finds a way to lead him to faith in Jesus Christ.
   5. James, the half brother of Jesus, was definitely a man of “faith and prayer” (He wrote a lot about in his book, James).  James talks about confessing your faults to one another and praying for one another.  James knew the importance of being authentic and real about your struggles if you are ever going to win this world to Jesus.
   6. John was the “lover”.  In the gospel he wrote, he quotes Jesus saying, “By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” Wow!
   7. So, you see there are different ways to invite people onto this journey with God…BUT THEY ALL COME BACK TO JESUS – YOU AND I CAN’T GET TO GOD EXCEPT THROUGH JESUS.  Make sure your invite is ALL ABOUT LEADING PEOPLE TO JESUS.  Maybe you use your intellect, maybe you find ways to serve their needs, maybe you have long caffeinated talks at Starbucks, maybe you work on projects together, maybe you have to confront and have some tough love talks – but ultimately your invite has to be all about leading people to Jesus – because only Jesus can change them, only Jesus can heal them, only Jesus can revolutionize their life and this world!
3. Speak: I am all for “acts of kindness” but at some point we must attach them to a larger strategy (or intentional plan) of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with people and by that I mean SPEAKING THE GOSPEL INTO THIS UNCHURCHED CULTURE. “Random acts of kindness” (which I am for as well) without the expressed purpose of inviting people to hear the gospel, interface with the gospel, meet people of the gospel, or get a gift that ultimately leads them to the gospel is simply “too random” and not really that kind at all. At the end of the day, people who die without Jesus Christ really do go to hell.  And our mission as the local church is to make it hard to go to hell from Manchester (in fact, its to make it hard to go to hell from all of New England because our heart is to reach new england with the gospel of Jesus Christ).
4. Do: As the church we MUST feed the poor, we MUST clothe the naked, we MUST care for the fatherless and widows, BUT if we don’t ever open our mouths and SPEAK THE WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST into people’s lives then we are really doing them a disservice, because people with a fully belly still go to hell without Jesus, friends with a full wardrobe still go to hell without Jesus, families with a home still go to hell without Jesus.  So, let’s not be incomplete in our spiritual mission of sharing Christ – WE MUST DO ACTS OF KINDNESS WITH THE EXPRESSED PURPOSE OF SHARING THE LIFE-ALTERING REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST!

Tomorrow, I will share 10 PRACTICAL WAYS TO INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO CHURCH…

If we are going to grow as leaders for Jesus then we must be willing to listen to formative feedback, or constructive criticism.

Many times the thing that keeps us from growing as leaders is PRIDE. We think we already KNOW IT, or we think we SHOULD ALREADY KNOW IT and so we don’t ASK QUESTIONS. Pride keeps us from learning from those further along.

Lots of people can provide constructive criticism, but listening to everybody will lead to insanity. Someone once said, there are two keys to insanity: trying to please everyone and trying to be understood by everyone. Bill Cosby once said, “I don’t know the secret to success, but I can tell you the secret to failure, TRY TO PLEASE EVERYONE.

Although, we can’t please everyone we must find a few trusted mentors and peer leaders that we can lean on, listen to, and be led by during times of pressure, growth, and conflict. Ed Young Jr says, “Conflict + Change = Growth”.

IF WE WANT TO GO TO THE NEXT LEVEL, THEN WE MUST PUT OURSELVES AT THE FEET OF THOSE ALREADY AT THE NEXT LEVEL.

SWALLOW YOUR PRIDE AND LEARN FROM THOSE FURTHER AHEAD OF YOU. As church leaders we REALLY ARE ON THE SAME TEAM. It is time for churches to stop competing and start completing one another!

Seriously, if you don’t know any pastors or church leaders who model this Christ-like attitude here are a few: AnthonyMilas.net, BuddyCremeans.com, JoshuaGagnon.com, PerryNoble.com, MacRichard.com, and Rob Willis. Now, as a young church planter and pastor, this should be easy for me to do, but it still isn’t. But I am a HUGE IDIOT if I don’t submit myself to other great men of God such as these.

For those who have been in ministry longer than me (I have been pastoring for over a decade now) it only gets harder to learn from others because you think you know everything, and the truth is, YOU DO KNOW A LOT; BUT LEADERSHIP ISN’T JUST KNOWING; IT IS BEING. AND YOU CAN ONLY PICK THAT UP THROUGH CONVERSATIONS, NOT CONFERENCES.

IF WE ARE GOING TO GROW AS A FAITH COMMUNITY & LEADERSHIP TEAM THEN WE MUST FIND CONSTRUCTIVE WAYS TO SPEAK TRUTH INTO EACH OTHER’S LIVES. Teams that grow faster and go further are teams that have committed to “speaking truth in love into each other’s lives” (even when it hurts).

THE AREAS WE NEED TO HEAR TRUTH ARE THE AREAS WE USUALLY PUSH BACK ON TRUTH.

My current guest blogger is Rob Willis from The Journey Church in Rochester, NH. Pastor Rob started his amazing thoughts on GOALS in a previous post, let me continue his thoughts here:

WHY SHOULD WE ATTACH NUMBERS TO OUR GOALS?

Numbers – everyone can get hung up on numbers. I’ve heard it said (even about the church I lead), “This church is all about numbers!” Well, yeah, it is. Numbers do matter – but not for the sake of determining our success so much as understanding God’s heart. Quick, Bible scholars – how many men did Jesus feed with 5 loaves and 2 fish? How many were saved and added to the church on the Day of Pentecost? How many apostles are there? How many books in the Bible are named Numbers J? You see, God cares about numbers because NUMBERS REPRESENT PEOPLE that He cares about!

So if NUMBERS are important to God (and they are), then we can set goals with NUMBERS and not be ashamed of it! When I would like to have 500 for Easter Sunday, it’s not because I want people to think I’m a wonderful pastor. No – numbers are all wrong then. It’s because that 500 people who will have a chance to connect with Jesus Christ and take great faith steps that day – and YES, that’s ALL RIGHT! Numbers matter to God, but not for the sake of building us up (see 1 Corinthians 1:31 for those who want to take all the credit). Numbers matter to God because people matter.

I love this piece of teaching from Jesus. The part I want to highlight is “I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH”.

Number one: Jesus will build HIS Church
The Church belongs to Jesus, He purchased her with His own blood (Acts 20:28). Jesus is the Senior Pastor of The Dialogue Church and I get to be His under-shepherd.

The Church belongs to Jesus; the Church does not belong to the government, so how could the “laws of the land” keep the church from growing (they couldn’t in the 1st century even when they were persecuting Christ-followers; the early followers of Jesus just spread the gospel all the more during their persecution and consequently the church grew all the more). Some people fear “hate speech” laws being implemented because it seems as if preachers would go to prison for preaching what the bible has to say about certain topics. Even though our “freedom of speech” rights be violated by our own government it CAN’T STOP THE GOSPEL AND THE CHURCH OF JESUS FROM DOING WHAT GOD HAS CALLED HER TO DO. Although, I will vote for “laws” that help protect our freedom of speech (by the way – this includes allowing people to speak freely against the gospel too), it is not the laws of the land that make the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST UNSTOPPABLE. JESUS MAKES THE CHURCH UNSTOPPABLE. I am praying that Jesus will do the UNSTOPPABLE here in our city and through our church (and network of churches). Honestly, without persecution how do we know when the church is being unstoppable? The government can not contain the work of Jesus, no matter how “anti-human” the laws may be. So, stop fearing and start trusting in the unstoppable Jesus!

The Church does not belong to ME. There is no human personality big enough or strong enough to contain the entire work of Jesus Christ. There is no single human personality (or preacher) so important that Jesus can’t go on without him or her. This doesn’t mean that the role of pastor and preacher isn’t important (it is vitally important – the Holy Spirit appoints pastors for a reason – to lead and feed the flock of God). But when a preacher fails morally or gives up on the mission of the cross; the Church of Jesus still goes on. A black eye may be delivered (and I hate it when a preacher fails) but the church belongs to Jesus, and since He never fails, the church will conquer, the church will win in the end. No preacher (or person for that matter) is irreplaceable.

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. (John 6:66 NIV)

In the last post we talked about how we can choose to feed on greed instead of on Jesus Christ, the only source of Divine and Eternal Life. We can choose to feed on a lot of things that we think will satisfy or bring pleasure, or even comfort in this life, but only when we feed on Jesus can we lay hold on LIFE WITH GOD.

Let me get back to an earlier thought, “the way in which Jesus says this truth is significant”. Jesus uses the metaphor of flesh and blood. The immediate thought conjurs up images of cannabilism or something worse. There is no doubt that there were groups in Jesus’ day that believed in such strange and evil practices as drinking blood and eating human flesh, but Jesus is NOT going there. Jesus is saying that we must spiritually eat His flesh and drink His blood – meaning we must fully accept His death and sacrifice on the cross. We must fully accept who He is and what He has done for us. We must invite the Incarnate Son of God to infiltrate our insides in order to morph us from the inside out.

Jesus knew what this would sound like to his original hearers, but He said it anyway. I love how Jesus is never afraid to speak the truth – that is definitely the direction I want to lead our faith community in. That is the direction that I want to go in, but at times I know that I am fearful of what others will think. I am fearful that others may leave if I speak the truth in such plain and direct language.

What Jesus said was absolutely true and absolutely led of God’s Spirit, something that I pray for every day and every week as I prepare and deliver messages from the Bible at The Dialogue Church (www.thedialoguechurch.com). But it was still MISUNDERSTOOD by some. There were those in the crowd who did not take the time to investigate Jesus any further. Maybe they were there to get something from Jesus: a miracle, a healing, a quick fix. There were those who probably got what Jesus said, but STRAIGHT UP REJECTED CHRIST. Isn’t that crazy? So many people today talk about how they would be so much more faithful to God if they had just walked when Jesus walked, but I can tell you that the WAY YOU ARE NOW, IS THE WAY YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN THEN, BECAUSE THE SAME JESUS THAT WALKED BACK THEN IS THE SAME JESUS THAT IS ALIVE NOW. The Holy Spirit lives within believers, that is a whole lot more intimate than walking next to Jesus, WE HAVE JESUS INSIDE OF US!

As we continue to lift up Jesus and let Him transform our faith community and our hearts from the inside out we must remember that THE TRUTH WILL COST US. There will be those who MISUNDERSTAND our leadership and our message from Jesus. They will either seek to fight us or flee from us (hopefully the latter). They may even try to rally some troops against us, twisting what we say for their own personal gain. Then there will be those who BAIL ON JESUS. There will be those who totally get what Jesus is saying but they don’t want to give up their own personal agenda, sin, comforts and conveniences.

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. (John 6:66 NIV)

Jesus had just got done laying out the hard core teachings of the gospel story. Basically, that Jesus is the Bread of Life, He is the very sustenance of life and eternal salvation and it is only by feasting on Jesus alone that we have hope in this life and the next. It is through Jesus Christ that we have eternal life with God.

The way in which Jesus said this truth is so significant. I believe we can learn so much from this story. Let me try and unpack a bit of it:

#1. We are what we eat – Jesus says, “the one who feeds on me, will live because of me”. That is amazing. We must feed on the Way of Jesus (the words and teachings of Jesus as found in the Scriptures). If we want life the way God dreams it – then we must feed on Jesus.

Sure, we can choose to feed on greed, but the MORE MONSTER will consume us. We will never have enough money and so we will continually strive for more and more until it kills us, robbing everyone else around us. Greed is the insatiable desire for more – especially more money, stuff, resources. There is nothing wrong with money, but it is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil. If we feed on greed it will consume us. When we are pursing the almight dollar more than the almighty God then we are feeding on greed. When we put our jobs before our worship on Sundays, we are feeding on greed and not on Jesus. When we put our new TV, car, golf clubs, books, etc before bringing God His Tithe we are feeding on greed. When we put the worry of our job (whether losing it or finding the next one) above faith in Jesus’ promises then we are feeding on greed.

Here is how I am fulfilling this commitment:

1. I am committing to spending more time on leadership development in my own life. That means I am going to immerse myself in leadership books from those who are getting it done with the mission of Jesus. I am going to be visiting leadership conferences hosted by the nation’s top church leaders. And I am going to be committed to sharing all of that with all of you.

2. We are raising the bar on what it means to lead for Jesus here at The DC. That means if you don’t like it, then move on. I am serious. What Jesus has called us to is bigger than me and you combined. I will not get in the way of what Jesus wants to do here, and I won’t let anyone else get in the way either.

3. One more way I am going to really invest in leadership development here at The DC is by feeding each of you on a regular basis what I am learning in leadership and offering practical ways to grow in your own areas of ministry. One new tool for disseminating this leadership advice is through this blog.

Here is what I am inviting you all to do:

1. Pray for God to ruin you for the mission of Jesus. Ask God to break your heart for those far from God here in our city. Like I said, even if we had a 100 churches running 1,000 people every Sunday, we would still only be reaching half of this Greater Manchester Area. We live in the most densely populated region of the country and yet we have the lowest church attendance and the smallest churches in the country. That needs to change. Pray that God will burden your heart about this. Pray that God will enlarge your vision for The Dialogue Church and your involvement in the mission of Jesus through the vision of The Dialogue Church.

2. If you have sin in your life, then confess it to Jesus. He loves you and went to the cross for you. Sin will keep you from serving Jesus authentically, and sin will keep you from truly impacting others with the gospel. We can’t have that on our leadership team. So confess it and leave it behind you. Jesus will give you the strength to overcome it. If your sin is embracing a mediocre spirituality then confess it to Jesus and start pursuing Christ above all else.

3. Subscribe to the new leadership blog. If you are on this leadership team then I want you to subscribe to this leadership blog. If you need help with this step I can easily help you, just ask. This step is critical in feeding you leadership lessons from the Bible’s crater in my own life. If you don’t subscribe then I will assume that you don’t care about the mission of Jesus and making it hard to go to hell from downtown Manchester!

PS: If you have noticed that I am fired up about Jesus and His mission, well I am! And you haven’t seen anything yet. Just wait until this Sunday! More people need to meet Jesus, and we are here to make sure that happens! Nothing else matters!

Be strong and be vigilante because the Devil doesn’t like getting kicked in the nuts!