This is 'part 2' of my notes from last week's church planting class at Fuller Seminary with various leaders from Mosaic.
Erwin McManus:
You cannot inspire passion when you start from a narcissistic core. It can’t be about your need to feel important, your need to be valued, your need to lead, etc. It has to be about what this tribe needs.
Passion and
excitement are different. Lots of communicators can generate excitement. It is
all about the moment, like fireworks. Passion is generated by sustained risk.
Passion is generated by people watching how you live, what you are willing to
risk.
When people sense that you are risking greatly for your own good, they might be willing to risk for their own good. But when you risk for the good of others, they will begin to risk for the good of others.
We need to stop asking what kind of church we want to plant, and start asking about the kind of world we want to create.
When nostalgics,
late adopters and early adopters have entrepreneurial leaders, their posture
changes. There are really good people represented in these groups but they need
others to help them navigate and create change.
My job as the lead
pastor of Mosaic is to always speak up for the person that has no voice. My job
is to make sure they are heard.
Once you believe in
God, theology is easy to believe. All of the things the bible says about God
are relatively easy to understand and believe. What is really difficult is to
believe what the bible has to say about humanity and to act on that.
We should create
places that provoke those who do not believe in God to experience God. Those
who already know God are not the priority because they should come already
experiencing him.
We have been taught
such a pervasively negative view of humanity that it is difficult to love
humanity. Every human being has good within them. Every human has the capacity
to love.
When the people
close to you are not drawn closer to Jesus, you have to ask yourself what you
are really expressing with your life.
Whenever you hear
someone preaching against something passionately and angrily, it is most likely
their hidden addiction. This is why the Ted Haggard situation shouldn’t have
surprised anyone. Whatever they are vehemently preaching against, it is likely
their personal demon.
I do not believe
the Western model of teaching is effective. I believe the most effective
teaching environment is experiential. We try to create a learner environment,
not a teaching environment. Because a teaching environment is all about the
teacher. People regularly come to Mosaic and think they have the ability to
teach and want to be given an environment to be able to teach. But that is not
the way we work. You have got to earn your right to be heard. You want to know
whether you have earned your right to be heard? Invite 10 people over to your
house to listen to you teach about Romans. You’ll learn real quick whether you
have earned your right to be heard.
It is really easy
to start a church in L.A. Just have a really good music and teach the bible
verse by verse and you’ll pack it with Christians. You just have to do both
well. You just have to be entertaining. What is hard is creating spaces that
resonate with those in Los Angeles that aren’t interested in going to church.
Whenever you’re
doing something that you’re really good at, it seems slower for you than for
everyone else. You are able to go faster than everyone else and it feels slow
to you. [Ex: Hockey goalies.]
The rate at which
you change in a culture does affect who is drawn to your culture. So if your
culture changes slowly, you are going to reach people that like slow change.
And if your church changes quickly, it might alienate those who prefer slow
change. It is not right or wrong, good or bad, but you’ve got to realize that
if 90% of churches change very very slowly, you’re only going to reach a very
small percentage of people. The best people to surround yourself with are those
who are one step behind you (10 steps is obviously too far).
God has created you
to be immensely dependent on the talents of other people; so you can develop
and nurture that talent.
Those who are not
naturally great at anything often become leaders / exceptional at whatever they
choose to do. Instead of depending on natural talent, they work tirelessly to
make up for their lack of natural talent.
People who have
character without the spiritual disciplines still see things through. There are
many people who don’t know Christ who never cheat on their wives. But there are
many people who consistently do the spiritual disciplines who lie, cheat, etc.
We don’t want to say it, but character is more important than spiritual
disciplines.
There are people
who don’t know Christ who live lives completely consistent with their
worldview, so they are living with more integrity than most Christians.
The point is never the practice. The point is connecting to Jesus.
[In speaking of 'get-everyone-in-small-groups' churches] Instead of trying
to focus on finding a “right” method that is supposed to work for everyone,
let’s ask them how they experience community. And once we know how they
experience community, let’s help them get there. People are very different.
There is no one size fits all. There simply is no substitute for human,
one-on-one contact.
I’m not saying
that we do things right. I’m just saying that since what we’ve been doing isn’t
working (and lost Britain, Europe & the U.S. through the same process), it
is probably time to try some new things.
Great movements always have a sort of cultic language. It is distinct, driving and catches on. Our language has become less Christian and more human. And so Christians come and feel like they don’t belong and they don’t know why.
The point is to use
language where a person who does not know God can come in and get it.
If you’re going to
team with people, it is always going to get slower, more cumbersome and less
effective. And so you’d better be committed to the people on the team and not
just the team. For most innovators and entrepreneurs, the team actually brings
performance down because they don’t need the team to perform well. So you’d
better be committed to the partnership and not just to the project.
Nobody wants to
work on a team that is only structured for your success. If you worry more
about personally succeeding (or the project succeeding), people will grow tired
of working with you. And the team will suffer. But if you care less about what
you get and more about those on your team, you’ll do well.
I decided a long
time ago that I would not be the guy who would give my son permission to be
unfaithful to a woman. And I decided that I would not be the guy that caused his
daughter to feel that she could never be loved unconditionally by a man.
I have had numerous
conversations in my home with leaders from Mosaic where I have said, “Look, I’m
not going to cheat on my wife. I will never be unfaithful to Mosaic. And I am
asking you to do the same. And I am asking you to protect my reputation just as
I will protect yours.”
I decided that if
we were going to do an experience, it needed to be different than any other
experience in L.A.
How do I plant
churches? I go make friends. I find my guide to the local culture. They have the respect of the
community, and I have the gospel.
Wherever you go, absorb the culture. Don’t be afraid to allow the culture to create a new you. Not all culture is bad. There are things about culture that are beautiful. Embrace those things.
