• Archive of "discipleship" Category

    Multiplying Missional Leaders by Mike Breen & 3DM (Book Review)

    May 15, 2012 // No Comments »

    The book, Multiplying Missional Leaders: From Half-Hearted Volunteers to a Mobilized Kingdom Force, by Mike Breen and the good people of the @weare3DM team was released today. As someone who’s been working w/ 3DM from the angle of the future of theological education, I was privileged to receive an advance copy, which I read last week. I think this is an important and timely book and thought I’d share a few reasons why I might say so.

    1. Amidst the proliferation of “missional” everything, we have given scant attention to implications of this paradigm for church-based leadership development.

    It’s not that missional leadership has received NO attention. Alan Roxburgh, Tim Keel, and Lois Barrett among others (I especially want to get to this new book by Mark Lau Branson & Juan Martinez) have all written helpfully in this area. However, and this is what Mike and 3DM does so well, none have written quite so practically, providing explicit models for leadership development along missional lines. The reason that Mike and the 3DM team (by the way, I use “Mike & the team” rather than just Mike because having journeyed w/ these folks for a while I know how truly collaborative all their work is. Much to his credit, and in keeping w/ the point of this book, Mike is a rare find these days – an experienced and skillful leader who cares way more about empowering and deploying others then he does turning the attention to himself) are able to write so helpfully here is that they are primarily drawing on their experience. This isn’t theoretical speculation for them, it’s what they’ve done and how they’ve seen God at work. We could stand quite a bit more of this kind of exposition. It’s what, in my opinion, qualifies them to say…

    I would argue that our churches don’t have missional leaders, but I’d take it a step further. I also think that most of our churches have next to no leaders. Sure, we have leadership development programs. We have dinners, classes, meetings, and maybe even some training. But leadership means that we’ve been given a vision from the Lord for ourselves and given the power and the authority to execute the vision. This isn’t happening in our churches.

    That’s because in most churches, we don’t have leaders; we have managers. We have people who are executing and managing the vision of the few (or the one), not people who are implementing the visions the Lord has given them. Usually we have one genius with a thousand helpers. And to plug-and-play those helpers, we have manager development programs.  (3-4, pre-published version)

    It’s statements like this that indicate that the kind of leadership development that 3DM advocates is intrinsically tied to an understanding of the nature and purpose of the Church that differs significantly from its dominant expression in the West.

    2. The paradigm of leadership development held out in this book calls for a missional understanding of the church.

    For better or for worse, 3DM isn’t explicit about their ecclesiology. But as one considers what they have to say about Building a Discipling Culture, Launching Missional Communities, and the notion of Covenant and Kingdom, you can begin to put some pieces together. Discipleship and mission are at the core of how they understand the Church and they follow this conviction through to its logical and practical implications far better than many others who remain ensnared by the assumptions of Christendom patterns of thought. Their ability to escape these, I suppose, comes from having cut their “ministerial teeth” in the context of Post-Christian Europe. From the perspective of Breen & 3DM, the Church is called to join God in his mission in the world, principally, by making disciples. It’s what compels them to join in the (increasingly common) refrain of, “… if you make disciples, you always get the church, but if you’re really about building a church, you won’t always get disciples.” (14-15, pre-published version) Incidentally, I get what they are doing/saying here, but it’s precisely at this point that I wish they’d do some more constructive ecclesiological work because if discipleship is fundamentally an ecclesial responsibility then there is no such thing as making disciples apart from it, as the quip would seem to advocate.

    Nevertheless, the book offers a prophetic indictment against the Western Church’s penchant for celebrity, consumerism, and competitiveness (Ch. 3) as it calls for a a way of being the Church that leads to the creation of movements (rendered impossible by a focus on celebrity), is predicated on fruitfulness as people are invited to be producers (rather than consumers), and invites people to join God’s mission (as opposed to compete with one another over our own). Though it’s not taken up as a topic in the book, this perspective leads to a third and final reason I think this book is so valuable.

    3. In holding out a practical model of missional leadership development that calls for a missional understanding of the church, this book will add fuel to the fire of those who experientially or intuitively know that our systems of theological education are largely anemic when it comes to training men and women for this sort of service.

    Plain and simple, our currently dominant models of theological education (and therefore our systems of accrediting) are simply not capable of cultivating leaders who can serve and reproduce along the lines sketched in this book (and I say this as a guy well on his way to a third theological degree!). Why? I could name a slew of reasons, but the bottom line is that by and large people have to evacuate churches and other ministry contexts in order to engage in programs of theological education. As convinced that Mike is when he says,

    You see, I am absolutely convinces that 100 years from now, many books will be written on the phenomenon that is the late 20th Century/early 21st Century American church. And I am fairly certain that it will be with a large degree of amazement and laughter that people, in reading about it, will say to each other:’You must be joking! Seriously? People actually thought it was a good idea to structure the church as if it were a business? Honestly? (4-5, pre-published version)

    I am convinced that in the future we will find the notion of theological training apart from ministerial rootedness every bit as laughable.

    Many, and I mean tons and tons, of current and aspiring Christian leaders will read this book and something inside of them will not only resonate with it, but will leap w/ a desire to be led and lead others into the vision of church and leadership development offered within it. Sadly, they will have precious few places to turn for examples, guidance, and training. Good for 3DM, bad for nearly everyone else – really bad for those places of theological formation who are without the flexibility or vision to engage and respond. The model of leadership development offered in this book, predicated as it is, quite simply, on the life and ministry of Jesus, is an invitation to us to reconsider what the purpose of theological education for church-based ministry is really all about and how we ought to be re-structuring our programs in light of it.

    Conclusion

    That’s really more of a personal reflection than a proper review of the book I suppose, but those were my major takeaways. The book is an easy and accessible read that really seeks to do one simple thing, encourage us to look to Jesus and the pattern of the early church as we think about cultivating leaders around principles related to discipleship and mission. On that count, I think there is a lot of good stuff to be gleaned here. This is a book I would encourage any Christian leader to pick up and work with.

    Chad Stoianoff liked this post

    Posted in 3DM, bible, books, christendom, culture, discipleship, Jesus, missional, missional theology, post-christendom, review, spiritual formation, theological education, theology, western culture

    Non-Western Reflections on Disciple-Making

    April 10, 2012 // No Comments »

    Though I surrendered my life to Christ as a sophomore in high school, I don’t think the notion of discipleship really came on my radar until one of my college professors invited me into a “discipleship group.” While others (FCA leaders, my youth pastor, small group leaders, etc.) had definitely invested in me in significant ways, these relationships had more of a programatic nature to them. The group I was invited into in college had a much more personal and relational feel to it. In any case, I look back at this experience as foundational for the way in which life-on-life discipleship took center stage in terms of my own formation as well as with regard to my personal ministry philosophy. That is to say, contrary to all the popular trends of the time and the ethos of the particular church I came on staff at, when I launched out into the world of student ministry over 10 years ago now, I resolved that the central feature that would mark the structure and rhythms of our ministry to students would be relationally-oriented, life-on-life, discipling relationships.

    Since then, I have only grown more and more interested in the issue and practice of disciple-making (little wonder it has become the focus of my doctoral dissertation ;) Discipleship, as both the core feature of Jesus own life, ministry, and teaching as well as (albeit in a different way) the primary focus of the apostle Paul’s work and writing, has come to occupy a central place in my theological perspectives, my ecclesiology, even my understanding of the nature of salvation and the atonement (thanks Dallas!) However, it’s only been recently that I’ve begin to ask questions and look into non-Western conceptions and practices of discipleship and disciple-making.

    I’d love it if anyone had more resources to share on this, but I thought I’d share a three-part article entitled, “Seven Paradigm Shifts in Twenty-First Century Discipling,” by Edmund Chan, a Singaporean pastor, that came to my attention.

    I’m not quite sure that everything discussed in these brief articles really qualifies as a “paradigm shift” in the truest sense of the phrase, but I appreciate what he has to say nonetheless. As one who is convinced that one of the greatest needs of the Western church is to shut up and listen to our non-Western brothers and sisters for a while, I appreciate perspective like this. Here are the articles…

    Article 1 of 2 | Article 2 of 3 | Articles 3 of 3

    Posted in culture, discipleship, spiritual formation, theology, western culture

    #Occupy Empire: Anabaptism in God’s Mission

    March 4, 2012 // 1 Comment »

    All sights are set right now on the Ecclesia National Gathering coming up next week… and I’m sure I’ll have plenty to report back on after returning, but for those of you who stand within (or look longingly upon from without!) the Anabaptist tradition, I thought I’d let you know about a mini-conference happening in just over a month at Eastern Mennonite University.  The event is entitled, “Occupy Empire: Anabaptism in God’s Mission” and is part of the Anabaptist Missional Project.  You can see the highlights in the image below, but the rest of the details and registration options are available here.  For some additional details on where the idea for the conference came from and what the purpose is, check this article.  

    I’ve written before about how I found a theological home w/ in the Anabaptist tradition, so I am really looking forward to spending some time with people who have been swimming in that stream for quite a bit longer than me.  If you can swing it, hope you’ll consider joining us!

    Posted in anabaptist, conference, discipleship, missiology, missional, missional theology, post-christendom, spiritual formation, theological education, theology, western culture

    A New Era of Theological Education May Be Dawning

    March 1, 2012 // No Comments »

    OK, that title might be a little over the top, but a guy can hope right?!  Time, as it always does, will tell!

    Last summer I started to talk about a partnership that was brewing between Northern Seminary and 3DM (Part 1, Part 2).

    Well, at long last that partnership has been officialized as Northern now offers a masters emphasis in Discipleship & Mission as well as a DMin in Discipleship and Mission, while 3DM is able to offer those who journey through their Learning Communities as part of a “Scholar Track,” seminary credit for doing so.  You can read Northern’s announcement here and 3DM’s here.

    I think this partnership embodies an important and concrete step toward one way to get at the new models of theological education that I’m convinced we so desperately need.

    While it’s not a full program – the masters emphasis is equivalent to 9, 3 credit-hour courses and the DMin track leaves only 3 additional “core courses” – what is being presented here seeks to make theological education…

    more accessible - through regionally, or ever nationally accessible intensive courses

    more affordable - by bringing the support of churches and ministry organizations more centrally into the mix and allowing students to remain where they live and work

    more integrated - as all learning is structured around its relevance for and application to actual ministry contexts and diverse subject matter (biblical studies, theological reflection, and ministry training) is interwoven amongst all modules as opposed to segmented out into their own courses

    more sustainable - as these options are deigned for those who take a longer-term view to their theological formation

    more formational - as students aren’t just offered content, but are invited into mentoring relationships with content experts who are also ministry practitioners

    more robust - as students root their education in a community of learning as opposed to simply tackling it primarily on an individual basis

    These are the sort of advances and initiatives that those of us who launched thefutureoftheologicaleducation.com and contributed to the production of the video and white paper hosted over on that site get really excited about!

    Of course I hope that this partnership and these program options are fruitful.  But even more, I am anxious for what will be learned as schools like Northern open themselves up to models of theological education that are simply better suited for preparing men and women to serve the Church as reflective practitioners, missionary leaders, and Kingdom citizens.

    Posted in 3DM, christendom, church, discipleship, individualism, kingdom, leadership, missiology, missional, missional theology, Northern Seminary, post-christendom, sustainability, theological education, theology

    Discipleship Workshop

    February 24, 2012 // No Comments »

    The Church is about discipleship or it’s not the church. Plain and simple. One of the ways that I’ve learned to become a disciple and to lead others into a deeper level of discipleship is through something called Huddles (a framework for discipleship developed by 3DM).

    If you don’t like “huddle,” fear not, the name doesn’t matter, but the process does and I think there are lots of really great things to be said about the process of huddles. So, if you’re free March 12-13, I’d like to invite and encourage you to be part of a huddle workshop that is going to be held at Northern Seminary led by my good friend (and someone who I’ve personally benefited from being in a huddle with!) Ben Sternke.

    Here’s what you can expect out of this 2-day workshop…

    • What Huddles are
    • How they work
    • Practical sessions for your context
    • Several chances to be in a Huddle personally
    • In-depth teaching on the discipling language of LifeShapes and how it is used in Huddle
    • Lots of Question and Answer
    • A chance for you to step into a continued coaching relationship if you want to continue learning how to use a Huddle in your ministry context

    Lunches and dinners are covered by the participants.

    It’s just 30 bucks so get all registered up over here.

     

    Posted in 3DM, discipleship, Northern Seminary

    A Quick Hop Back Into the World of Student Ministry

    February 14, 2012 // No Comments »

    As a college student at Malone University, I majored in youth ministry.  I did internships as a handful of different kinds of churches, the last of which actually led into a full-time role as a student pastor at a large church, overseeing separate junior, senior high, and college-age ministries.

    When I was a grad student at Fuller Theological Seminary, I continued to serve in the world of high school student ministry as an interim director at yet another kind of church.

    Later, after some time working in a seminary context, I launched into yet another pastoral position at a new church, this time working exclusively with college students and other young adults.

    However, I haven’t really done much in the way of student ministry since the spring of 2009.  So, after nearly a 3-year hiatus, I was excited when my college buddy, Scott, who’s been a long time youth pastor at The Chapel in North Canton, asked me to come back into town and help lead a retreat for his high school student leaders.

    As you might expect, the topic of the retreat was leadership.  There were to be three main sessions over the course of our time together Friday night and through the day on Saturday, plus a final sermon on Sunday morning.

    The theme for Friday night was, “Leadership as Followership: Jesus’ Plan to Destroy Your Life.”  Here, we focused our discussion around Matthew 20:17-28 and reflected on how Jesus’ role as a leader was located not so much in clever skills and abilities, but a central focus on following where and how God was leading him.  We talked about how a relinquishing of our personal ambition and agenda is fundamental to receiving what it is that God might have for us.  I also sought to pass on a discipleship framework for leaning how to get better and better at recognizing where and how God is at work and responding faithfully.

    On Saturday morning our theme was, “Leadership as Discipline: It’s Always Easy… Until You Have To Do It.”  We moved our attention to Matthew 26:36-46 and we spent some time talking about how, contrary to the aberrant Celebrity Culture that seems to mark contemporary Evangelicalism, Jesus-shaped leadership is anything but glamorous.  Rather, a commitment to lead like Jesus did will nearly always take you to a place of utter desperation, disappointment, and dependence upon God.  In terms of discipleship, we focused on what it might mean and look like to structure our lives around practices that intentionally root us in relationship with God, fellow believers, and others who are hurting and/or far from God.

    The final session of the retreat on Saturday afternoon revolved around the notion of, “Leadership as Mission: Death as a Way of Life.”  As we spent time working through Matthew 28:16-20, we discussed what actually drove Jesus as a missionary-leader, namely submission to the unique role he was to play in God’s mission in the world.  We also reflected on Jesus’ commitment to equip and send others as opposed to keeping everything isolated to his direct (human) endeavor.  This led naturally into presenting a process for discipling others toward maturity and mission.

    On Sunday morning, in sharp defiance to the notion the Piperian notion that, “God has designed christianity to have a masculine feel to it,” Amy and I preached the sermon, “Leadership as Partnership: Embodying a New World Order,” as partners who together, as male and female, reflect the imago Dei!  We spoke out of Acts 2 and Ephesians 4, calling attention to the primary role of the Holy Spirit in constituting a body of people who, against all worldly convention, seek to lead one another out of their unique giftedness in partnership for mission.

    Seeing some family and friends was a highlight as always, but man, getting back around high school students for a while was a blast.  I was super-appreciative of just how seriously they took our time together and how much creativity and passion they brought to the discussions.

    Shame on youth pastors (Scott’s not one of them!), who sabotage their opportunity to shape a generation of students because they are so focused on growing a huge, cool youth group.  Double shame on senior/lead pastors who, out of their own insecurity, put that kind of pressure on youth pastors to do it!

    Posted in Amy, church, discipleship, God, Jesus, leadership, preaching/teaching, sermon, travles, young adults, youth ministry

    « Previous Entries