Tag Archives: Church Inside Out

Talking about body life in Church Inside Out

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CIOChurch body life is a main focus of my new book, Church Inside Out. To give you a flavor, here are a few quotes on the topic

When Christians stay cooped up inside a church building, they grow frustrated. They complain. They argue. They “bite and devour each other,” as Paul told Christians in Galatia (Galatians 5:15).
When churches turn inward, infighting is the natural result. People begin to talk in terms of “us” and “them,” discussing how to get their own way so that “they” don’t take over the church. (pp.24-25)

Inward-focused churches miss out on today’s victories as they reminisce about yesterday’s successes. They fail to prepare for the future because they are too busy replaying yesterday’s mistakes. (p.26)

There’s a certain feeling of entitlement in the inward-focused church, especially among long-time members and affluent members. They feel that they’ve earned the right to have things their way, either through longevity or giving ability. That feeling isn’t bad in and of itself, but when people begin trying to leverage their position to get their way, the church suffers. (p.29)

I’m a member of the churches of Christ. We seek to honor Christ by referring to him when speaking of our church. But we fight a constant battle with the urge to put more emphasis on the church itself than on the owner of the church. We are truly Christ’s church when the world hears us talk about Christ more than we talk about the church. (p.32)

Like the inward-focused church, the members-only church pays little attention to the needs of those that come to visit. It’s assumed that these people should be in church, so the church is already providing a service. Why should it go out of its way to do more? (p.43)

We have made the Lord’s Supper about “me and God,” but the New Testament portrays it as a corporate time. What was the problem in Corinth, according to 1 Corinthians 11? The Christians were not being aware of one another. They were not waiting for one another. Their communion time was a reflection of the divisions within the church.
Christians break bread together. We wait for one another. We do it with an awareness of the gathered body, or we do it wrong. (p.44)

What we need are assemblies that please God, build members up, and attract outsiders. We don’t expect non-believers to perfectly understand everything that goes on; we do hope that what they see will convey a message of love and mutual edification. (p.45)

Tearing down is so much easier than building.
Paul writes the following to the Ephesian church:
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)
You can’t build by tearing down. Negative teaching won’t edify a church. Negative teaching won’t attract outsiders. Negative teaching doesn’t glorify God. (pp.61-62)

As people come out of the world and into the church, they will be a little rough around the edges. Just as we don’t expect non-Christians to behave like Christians, we can’t expect new Christians to know all of the things they should and shouldn’t do. We have to leave time for them to grow in faith and understanding. (p.100)

The church needs to develop an atmosphere where members can try new things; that’s the best way for people to discover their gifts. Service efforts are assumed to be spiritual endeavors until proven otherwise. Leadership should expect to be helping members carry out the things God has led them to do. (p.117)

People need to know that there is no shame in moving on from a ministry that is no longer fruitful or no longer needed.
People need to have the opportunity to try something and honestly evaluate the results. If what is tried doesn’t work, the church members must have the freedom to let it go. (p.118)

The process of acculturation in the kingdom of God is typically called discipling. In most churches, we do this through Bible classes and sermons. There’s an emphasis on information and knowledge. Although those things are important, they are rarely enough. People learn by hearing; they also learn by seeing and doing.
The best discipling approaches will offer information, but they will also allow the new disciple to work by the side of a mentor, a discipler. He will see what is done and have a chance to try to practice what he’s seen. (pp.170-71)

We should do our very best with the ministries that we do for the church, be it leading worship or cleaning communion trays. We should be as concerned about justice and truth and love inside the church as we are outside. Just as we seek to improve the lives of non-believers, we should try to make every encounter with other Christians an edifying one. We should make prayer a constant part of our church life, from Bible classes to ministry meetings, from youth activities to congregational work days. And we should be aware of each other’s spiritual needs, just as we watch the progress of non-believers. (p.189)

Remember that the power of God is at work in His church. This power can do much more than we can begin to dream of… so dream big dreams! Dream about glorifying God through your ministry. Dream about building the church through your ministry. Dream about impacting your community and your world through your ministry. (p.194)

Equip Conference in Orlando

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equip logoI’ve been invited to speak at the Equip Conference in Orlando, Florida, this year. It’s been 8 years since I’ve been to this conference (formally known as Spiritual Growth Workshop), so I’m really looking forward to being back. Hope For Life, a Herald of Truth ministry, is paying my way, for which I’m very grateful.

The theme of the conference is “Harvest.” I’ll be doing two classes in English and one in Spanish, all covering material from Church Inside Out. The English classes are labeled as being in the missions track; hoping no one will be disappointed, because I won’t be addressing missions in the traditional sense. I’ll be discussing churches engaging their communities, as the book focuses on. In Spanish I’ve been given the theme “Cultivating Relationships,” which will have an evangelistic overtone based on the overall theme of the conference.

If you’re going to be at the conference, I hope you’ll let me know in the comments section so I can be looking for you. I’d love to have you come to one, two, or even all three of my classes.

The conference is June 30-July 3. It will be held at the Rosen Centre, in Orlando. All of the information you need can be found on the conference website or by contacting the Orange Avenue Church of Christ in Orlando:

Equip Conference
c/o Orange Avenue Church of Christ
1511 East Orange Avenue
Eustis, Florida 32726
Phone: 352-357-6616
Fax: 352-357-5335
Email: Office@myoacoc.org

Why write a book?

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churchinoutChurch Inside Out is a book designed to help churches get outside of their own four walls in order to help others find their way in. Why write something like this?

  • I’ve been blessed to be able to visit many churches in many different places. Big churches. Little churches. Churches in areas with lots of Christians. Churches in areas with few Christians. I’ve been able to observe, and much of what I’ve written comes from things I’ve observed.
  • I’ve grown in understanding about some things. Doesn’t mean that I know more than others, but I definitely know more than I used to. And I’m sure I know more than many Christians about some things, just as others know more than I do about certain topics.
  • I’m blessed to be able to read and study widely. My life situation, my field of study in college, the jobs I’ve had over the years, the availability of materials on the Internet… all has worked together to allow me to glean ideas from Christians I’ll probably never meet. In this book, I try to share some of those ideas.
  • I firmly believe that God wants to work through his church to bless this world. I firmly believe the church can do great things through the power of God. No church is doomed to be what it has been; every church has the potential to do great things with God’s help.

Those are some of the reasons I decided to write this book. I remember a quote from a Keith Green album jacket:

If I’m worthy, let me be heard. If I’m heard, let me be worthy.

That’s not exactly how I feel. Mine would be:

Lord, please use me, what I say, and what I write, to allow others to hear you. Not me, but you.

Church Inside Out is here

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IMG_5650It rained styrofoam peanuts and snowed polystyrene flakes. Books and workbooks came out of the box, and a dream became reality. The first copies of Church Inside Out had arrived.

As I’ve mentioned, this is a book that I feel that I’ve put a lot of myself into. Helping the church improve its outreach and discipleship efforts is very important to me. This book/workbook set is my contribution to this effort. I hope to have the chance to go through the material in person with congregations through the seminars Hope For Life (a Herald of Truth ministry) provides.

I hope you’ll take a few moments and look at the material. 21st Century Christian has posted sample pages of both the book and the workbook.

Workbook Cover
You can find the book sample here: https://www.21stcc.com/pdfs/samplepages/9780890989159.pdf

Workbook Cover
You can find the workbook sample here: https://www.21stcc.com/pdfs/samplepages/9780890989166.pdf

You can order the book from the 21st Century Christian website. You can arrange for seminars focused on Church Inside Out by contacting Bill Brant at bbrant@heraldoftruth.org. There is no charge for the seminars. Churches need only cover my expenses and allow me to update your congregation/leadership on what Hope For Life is doing in the world.

The Two-Degree Rule

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church kitchenYesterday I shared the link to an article by Kevin Harney about using existing ministries as outreach ministries. I thought the ideas presented there were excellent and fit well with the ideas in Church Inside Out.

Harney makes a great statement at the opening:

Churches, by nature, are selfish. Because the church is made up of people, and people are fundamentally self-serving, the church ends up expending much of its time, money, and energy on those who are already part of the family of God.

Yes. Exactly. I think a case in point is the proliferation of short-term mission trips. Churches that balk at sending $5000 to a missionary will easily spend $25000 to take their members to visit that same missionary.

But Harney isn’t talking about mission trips; he’s talking about church events:

I began thinking about the amazing things that could happen if local churches would vector their time, creativity, resources, and ministries out into the community. I call this the “Two-Degree Rule.” The idea is that we would take the effective and plentiful things we do for ourselves and simply direct these same things out into our community.

Your monthly church meals become meals for the whole community. Your funeral ministry expands its reach to include people in your community who don’t have a church home. Baby showers are held not just for church members but also for needy families in your town.

You get the idea. And it’s a great one. Start dreaming about how to transform your “inward” ministries into “outward” ministries.