"The target of the church should be the world and not the pew." – Ed Silvoso
Chapter 5 of 'Transform your work life', entitled 'To Hell with the Church' is causing a bit of a stir! That's good news! Here's an excerpt from that chapter:
Where is the best place to ‘shine your light’ and be ‘the salt of the earth’ (Matt 5:13–15)? You need to shine your light where it is dark of course! For many years I made the mistake of thinking that a church’s success is measured by its seating capacity (how many people are in worship on a Sunday). The truth is that a church’s salt, its real worth, is measured by its sending capacity. God does not care how big the ‘salt shaker’ is, rather what God is concerned about is how much salt is shaken from the salt shaker, and how much light the church shines in the darkest places of society.
Let me ask you another question, if your church were to close its doors this week, who would notice that you are not in ministry any longer? Of course the members who worship in your congregation would care, but would the homeless in your area notice? Would the hungry and the abused of your society realise that you are not operating anymore? Would your closure have an impact on the sick and the elderly people in your community? How about the schools and businesses in your community; would they notice that you are no longer ministering in the community?
When Jesus said that He would build his church and the gates of hell would not overpower it (Matt 16:18), there was a clear assumption that He builds his church at the gates of hell! One of the most loving things we can do with the church is to send it to hell. We need to find the places of suffering, brokenness and need, and be the church in those places so that Jesus can build his church there. In my experience those places are not very far from where you work!
What do you think? Where should the Church's ministry be focussed? Either leave a comment below, or post a message on the discussion forum here.
The June / July edition of the Lausanne World Pulse was released today. I am so blessed that an article that I wrote has been published in this edition.
In the introduction to this edition of the Lausanne World Pulse Doug Birdsall writes of the fact that the unchanging message of the person and ministry of Jesus must be presented in new and effective ways to encounter the evolving expectations and experiences of people across the world. He notes that technology, and particularly communication technologies, are having a radical effect on the globe, and so too on the way in which we can engage the people of the world with the Gospel of Christ. Of course communication technology is but one small part of the changing landscape of the world - advances in science, medicine, economics and even warfare all have to be taken into account if one is to bring the Gospel of Christ to bear on the world in order to work for Christ driven healing and transformation.
There are some wonderful scholarly and popular articles to get one thinking and praying along those lines.
The German theologian Helmut Thielicke once commented, “The Gospel must be constantly forwarded to a new address because its recipient is repeatedly changing his place of residence.” This is a very challenging yet true observation about the nature of mission and evangelism.
One of the most significant Christian books of our era is Philip Jenkins’ The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. Jenkins quotes Philip Yancey, who notes that:
As I travel, I have observed a pattern, a strange historical phenomenon of God “moving” geographically from the Middle East to Europe to North America to the developing world. My theory is this: God goes where he’s wanted.
There is no doubt that the geographical movement of Christianity throughout history has radically changed the manner in which the gospel is shared—from its birth in Israel among disenfranchised Jewish peasants; to a state-sanctioned religion under the emperor Constantine; through Europe and the Reformation; taking a detour via the dominance of media and mega-church-driven North American Christianity of our recent history; to where Christianity seems to be finding its place among African, Asian, and South American believers. Each new context presents challenges and opportunities for the gospel and the faith.
The Next Shift in Global Christianity But what if the next shift in Christendom is not merely a geographical shift, but in fact a shift into cyberspace—a movement of a completely different kind?
Have you given much thought to the way in which the 'next shift' in global culture is reshaping the way in which to Gospel should be shared? I would like to encourage you to read this month's articles on the impact of technology on Christianity and the world.
If you have some ideas, or maybe some examples or more compelling statistics to share, please drop a line in the comments below.
I have been a fan of Ron Martoia's work for some time now. I devoured his recent book 'The Bible as Improv' (on my iPad no less!) and found it to be one of the most accessible, and clearly reasoned books on forming a Biblical faith in a world of competing truths. Ron's style is not to skirt around thorny issues, but to approach them head on, thoughtfully and meticulously deconstructing the facts from the fiction. His work is well researched, extremely well written, but what sets it apart from other such excellent texts are his ideas!
Ron has a passion for authentic faith and an authentic expression and experience of being in community with Jesus Christ. I find a great personal resonance in his passionate approach to knowing Christ and making him known. When I read Ron's books, and the posts on his blog, I get an image of someone who is not willing to live with a lie, or a half truth, or a denial of the difficulty of being in relationship with God in Christ in real world situations! There are far too many Christian authors and theologians who skim over the tough questions and real challenges for the sake of comfort; placing a higher value on appeasing the masses than on discovering and sharing expressions of truth.
Today Ron released his 'Transformational Trek Tribe Manifesto' - it is a challenging series of invitations for authentic Christian living. As I read it my perceptions of the Christian faith and Christian living were challenged and reshaped. It is only 12 pages long, but perhaps these are among the best 12 pages I've read this year. There are some points that I am still digesting, considering, and praying through. I guess that is the way it should be with challenging thoughts! You may not agree with everything that Ron writes in the ttTribe Manifesto, but it will certainly challenge you to seek a deeper, more sincere, and more authentic faith life in Christ and the world. I invite you to read it!
I will be making this required reading for my students! Once you've read it I would love to hear your feedback and comments!
In this video you'll see an image of the WHOLE of the Newlands Rugby stadium on the 22nd of May at the Stormers semi final match. It opens on our company's Box, I then zoom back and go to the half way line and zoom in to a picture of myself (just above the flag in a blue Rugby shirt). Incredible!
In this post you'll find a good video interview about ‘Transform your work life’. Moreover the interview gives some good insights into the concepts of ministry in the marketplace and being a marketplace minister - if you're missional and mission minded this would be a good primer on the subject of living your faith beyond Sunday's Church service!
What is God’s purpose for work? How can you find blessing during your worklife? How can you transform your workplace without alienating your co-workers and clients? Does God automatically bless Christians? Should Christians only work for Christian companies?
These questions, and many more, are discussed. You’ll also get some insights into ministry in the marketplace and being a marketplace minister.
Yup, that headline may come as a shocker, but after about 3 years of using iPhones (if my calculations are correct, I got my first generation iPhone shortly after they came out), I am considering moving on - in a manner of speaking - from my iPhone.
Let me give you a little background first. I have a 16Gig iPhone 3GS that is running iPhone OS 3.0 (so that I can tether it to my Mac, and use it on the MTN network in South Africa). The iPhone has been relatively stable for an unlocked / jailbroken phone. In truth, when you jailbrake an iPhone OS device it looses quite a lot of its stability! The phone has served me well in most instances. The one annoyance I have had is that every so often the screen stops responding (I have to power off and on to get it to work again), and because I'm on OS 3.0 there are a few applications that I cannot run on my iPhone. Also, I have found that the iPhone does not always work when I travel overseas (I have had to take to keeping my old Nokia E90 on hand just in case I land somewhere and find my iPhone doesn't connect to the local network).
Well, my personal phone contract came up for renewal late last year. I posted a poll to find out what phone to get and didn't find anything worth upgrading for (most persons suggested the Blackberry 9000 or the iPhone at that stage). So, when I upgraded I got the Nokia E63 and gave it to my wife. Her contract came up for renewal last week and so she offered me the chance to get a phone - I was surprised to find the Motorola Milestone (basically a European version of the Motorola Droid) on offer without the need to make any additional payment! So, I snapped it up!
The Milestone is a great little Android phone (Android is the Google OS) with a physical keyboard, an exceptional screen (much better than my iPhone) and a 5 Megapixel camera (you can see the full specs here). I have had it for about a week now and am loving it. It works with our Microsoft Exchange server, there are plenty of great apps to help me manage my personal and work related social media activities (twitter, facebook, flickr, tumblr, QIK, youtube, wordpress etc.), the camera is fantastic for stills and video, it has HSDPA data and an incredible screen.
So, my iPhone is no longer my primary phone... What!? Yup, I have decided to relegate the iPhone 3GS to second place in my arsenal of communication technology. You'll notice that I am NOT doing away with my iPhone - I, like many South Africans, am in the position to have two cellular phones. I have a private contract and one supplied to me at work. So, my work sim card has now moved from my old Nokia E90 into the iPhone.
There are some things that the Android phone does not do too well. That's where my iPad comes in! The iPad and the Milestone make for a perfect combination. I can use my Milestone as a wireless hotspot for my 16Gig iPad, and the iPad functions like a great full powered computer on the road! Last week at the Global Day of Prayer conference I used my iPad to keep track of each venue, each speaker, the timelines for plenary and track sessions, all important numbers, and even to show and create presentations for my own talks (as well as videos). I used a ticker app to manage my time when speaking and used the iPad with a mifi to download email, update facebook, and even make some calls on Skype.
Just perfect!
Is anyone else out there using an Android phone (I saw a journalist recently with an Google Nexus!)? Has anyone else given up their iPhone for a different phone? ALSO, are there any more people in South Africa who have got their hands on an iPad?
Well, perhaps my enthusiasm for the Android phone was a little too much! I eventually swapped the Droid for a Sanyo Xacti HD camcorder and a Blackberry 8900 cell phone! The Android has a great new home, and I have two great devices to use.
My reasons for leaving Android were simply that the keyboard on the phone was not good enough for me to use it for serious work, and I found the user memory too restrictive! I have over 3800 contacts, when those are synced and you load a few applications the memory is full! I found it frustrating to have to device which applicaitons I wanted to uninstall just so that the phone would work.
For now I am back to my iPhone 3GS and the Blackberry that I got in the trade. A good solution for my two phone accounts - iPhone for personal calls and personal browsing and the Blackberry for work, work, work (email, work calls etc.)
Balancing your work life and your family life is always something of a challenge. Megan and I have been blessed with two wonderful children. Our son was born three months premature and has had some health problems since birth. This afternoon he will go into hospital to receive treatment for pneumonia. Please do spare a prayer for him! I am reminded to pray for all parents who struggle to balance their work responsibilities and their family life.
Each Friday Megan and I fast and pray for parents and Children. You can read more about this on my blog, simply search for 'fast' it should bring up a few posts on this matter.
How do you cope with the balance between caring for your family and managing the demands and expectations of your work life?
We would sincerely appreciate your prayers! How do you balance caring for your family and the expectations of work life? I am fortunate enough to work for a person who is compassionate, allowing me some flexibility. I know that there are many who do not have this luxury!
Last week was an incredible week of blessing, encouragement, discovery, friendship, and learning. We had close to 1000 persons at the Cape Town International Convention centre for the Global Day of Prayer 10th Anniversary Celebration conference. The Global Day of Prayer started at Newlands Rugby stadium in Cape Town in 2001 and this Sunday (23 May 2010) was the 10th anniversary of what God has done in and through the Global Day of Prayer.
As Graham Power, the initiator of the prayer movement, says - the Global Day of Prayer is truly a testimony to God's power and grace. No person or committee or organization could ever have put together such a massive prayer movement. In 2009 and again this year in 2010 every single country on earth registered their participation in the Global Day of Prayer on Pentecost Sunday. From the rising of the Sun in Fiji until it set over the Hawaii Islands there were people in cities, towns, rural areas, schools, stadiums, Churches and homes praying together in repentance and prayer. It truly is the largest recorded prayer gathering in history! The conference was as great a blessing as the day of prayer. Our team started working on putting together the venue, speakers and participant care well over a year ago. I was in charge of setting up the program (simply visit the GDOP 2010 website and click on the list of speakers in each of the 5 streams for details of the speakers in the Church, Transformation, Prayer, Missions and Youth streams).
What struck me most significantly was the fact that God is using 'new', 'fresh' and 'emerging' movements and groups to achieve great things across the earth. The them of the conference was 'His Story, His Glory, His Call' and we emphasised that we wanted to hear from the global South and the emerging world. This was indeed the case as speakers and groups from Asia, Latin America, and Africa shared incredible testimonies of what God is doing to redeem both people and places. There were many stories of salvation coming to individuals and groups, as well as many stories of God's justice and mercy bringing healing and tangible transformation to political, social and economic systems throughout the world. It was such an encouragement.
I spoke in three sessions (a plenary and two track sessions). In the Youth / emerging generation plenary I used a quote from Philip Yancey (that comes from Philip Jenkins' great book The Next Christendom: The coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press), 2002):
As I travel, I have observed a pattern, a strange historical phenomenon of God “moving” geographically from the Middle East, to Europe to North America to the developing world. My theory is this: God goes where he’s wanted
Now of course this observation is true (I add a few subtle steps). Christianity began in Israel, then shifted to Asia (and North Africa), from Asia it moved to Europe under the rule of Constantine, then from Europe to England, from England to North America, and from North America the 'weight' of global Christianity has shifted to Africa, Asia and Latin America.
But, where is Christianity shifting to next? I my presentation (entitled 'Shift Happens') I made the conjecture that Christianity's next global shift will not be a geographical shift, rather it will be a shift onto the internet. If you were to take the registered users of facebook as a population group, facebook would be the 3rd largest country on earth (behind China and India). It is a simple fact that most of the emerging generation do not posit their primary identity in their geographical or primary cultural context, rather their identity and sense of being is shaped by global interactions through the internet, television, movies and others forms of rich media!
The title of my presentation 'Shift happens' comes from the incredible video below:
The question is: If this shift is so powerful why are there so few ministry groups and Christians doing strategic work on and through the internet? Most of the Christian groups I know use this 'new media' in an 'old media' manner - i.e., as a broadcast mechanism (posting reports, putting up text that does not allow for interaction, using 'long form' posts (such as this one!) instead of the short form posts like twitter's 140 characters...)
I've made a short video reflection on my thoughts in this regard which you can watch below.
The two persons I mention in this video post are @jaesonma and @olgalvaro - check them out. Of course you can also connect with me on twitter @digitaldion.
Also, consider this. Long after the next Lausanne congress has met, hundreds of thousands of people from all across the earth would have interacted around the issues of bringing the whole Gospel to the whole world. And, after the participants in the third Lausanne Congress have left Cape Town, after the World Cup Soccer has come and gone, the conversation will continue! Rather than a 'static' medium (such as a journal with conference papers) the collective wisdom, and immeasurable wealth of international connections and relationships will be the force that sustains and informs evangelism going forward!
Shift is happening - my prayer is that more Christians will get ahead of this shift. This does not mean an abandonment of the 'established' ways of being faithful in worship, service and community. But, we do need to engage people where they are moving to!
The theologian Helmut Thielicke summed it up best when he said:
The Gospel must be constantly forwarded to a new address since its recipient is constantly changing his place of residence.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this point! Do you think I am missing something?
By the way, I have a more critically researched article on this phenomenon being published in the Lausanne World Pulse in the next month or so. I'll post a link here once it is published. That has both statistical and empirical research as well as clear references.
This pentecost I have been challenged, once again, that the purpose of faith is to love God, and the purpose of religion is to serve God's will of transforming the world.
This quote from Karl Barth was quite challenging in that regard:
"The Holy Spirit establishes the righteousness of heaven in the midst of the unrighteousness of the earth and will not stop or stay until all that is dead has been brought to life and a new world has come into being." - Karl Barth, from his book The Word of God and the Word of Man
As an undergraduate in Theology at Rhodes University our Systematic Theology Professor (Brian Gaybba, an expert in pneumatology who wrote the book The Spirit of Love) would pray the following liturgical prayer at the start of each lecture:
V - Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
R - And kindle in them the fire of your love.
V - Send forth your spirit, Lord, and they shall be created.
R - And thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray,
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of your faithful; grant that in the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolation. Through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen.
This prayer has often been a source of encouragement and strength when facing challenging tasks and difficult people. So, today I want to encourage you that we have a task, the task is transformation. It is a difficult task, but we do not face it alone. God empowers us by His Spirit, the Spirit of Life, truth and love.
When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.
- Acts 4:31
Let us be filled with God's Spirit that we may have joy in proclaiming God's loving word with boldness.
This video interview was conducted by Xena Lee from 1Africa / CVC Media for our book 'Transform your work life: Turn your ordinary day into an extraordinary calling'.
Why should you take Jesus to work? Does God automatically bless Christians in their work life? How do you share Christ's love in a tough environment? How can you be a Christian at work without alienating others?
Watch this short video to get some insight into the book, some of the ideas that we discuss and consider in 'Transform your work life' and to get some practical insights and inspiration for your work life.
Thanks for all of the prayers and support! Let's keep praying that more people will find ways of discovering blessing and becoming a blessing in their work life and their workplace.
Yesterday we launched 'Transform your work life' at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) as part of the Global Day of Prayer 2010 conference. We were in the main ballroom and had about 400 people attending. It was so fantastic to have Megan, Courtney and Liam there! Megie's parents also attended the launch. Ed Silvoso, Brett Johnson, Al Caperna, Steve Johnstone, Graham Power, Anja Morkel and I spoke at the event.
The book has already been selling well! I am humbled and grateful! I believe that we sold over 500 copies during the week (it certainly felt like I signed 500 copies!!!)
It also launches in Malaysia on Sunday! And will soon be available in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Taiwan, and Indonesia - it is being translated into Indonesian, Chinese and Portogeuse. We are concluding the deals for the US and Brazil. How cool is that!? Thanks so much to everyone who has played a part in this special project please be praying with us!
God bless, and please keep praying that the message and testimony encourage and help many Christians to find blessing and be a blessing their workplace and their work life!
The Methodist Church of Britain has just launched an iPhone app - the application is available for free from the iTunes store and works on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad (in fact the screen grab that you'll see in this post comes from my iPad - I have it expanded to double size to fill the iPad screen).
I think this is a marvelous, missional, idea! In a context where persons are far more likely to want to structure their encounter with the Christian faith around their available time and location this is just another wonderful means of adding value to people's lives! Don't get me wrong, I am still convinced that people need community and places of real connection (such as that offered by a local congregation). But, we have to be honest - in Britain there are fewer persons who will want to make a faith connection through their local Church, than those who may be willing to receive a daily prayer and some reflection upon scripture on their phone (to read wherever they are).
The application is quite simple - it has a 'Spirit' section which has one part that offers prayers chosen from the Methodist prayer book and another section that offers thoughtful reflections upon sections of scripture. The other part of the application offers news (naturally with a Christian, Methodist, and UK slant).
I think this is a great idea! It even got some international news coverage! We need more forward thinking like this in denominations across the world!
Do you use a devotional application on your computer or phone? Do you have any others to recomend? Do you know of any other Churches or Christian groups that are offering similar outreach tools on creative technology platforms? I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback!
Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 1:26PM 
