Author of 3 Books – Glocalization, Transformation, & Churches that Multiply
Word captures from our sessions with Bob
Internationals get it, younger people get it, but most western pastors and religious leaders don't get it.
Talk about redefining the church is a waste of time – it's the people in the church that want to redefine it, but people coming to Jesus will love the church. We just need to redefine the Sunday Event.
Post-modern world doesn't exist, but the post-modern west does exist. Post-modernism is the discovery of an affluent society that having everything doesn't fulfill.
America is lost, and the reverse engineering of missions from the east will reach us. When our churches aren't growing, what makes us the experts when churches around the world are growing and reaching people like nothing in the west.
The great commission will be complete in 10 to 15 years as we are able to take to gospel globally like never before because of connectivity and because of the passion of eastern Christians. Only sin will keep it from being fulfilled.
There is no one way to do church – "Liquid Church".
How to's are what the boomers wanted, but the "why's" are what the busters and xers want.
When is Jesus going to be enough for you? – the question God placed in Bob's heart when the ministry was much smaller. When is it about God's Kingdom and not our empires? The church exists not for the church but for the carrying out of the gospel in the community and the world. Don't view yourself as a pastor to your church, view yourself and your church as a missionary to your community.
What does it mean to live the sermon on the mount? What does the Kingdom of God look like lived-out among God's people? Not just external signs, but internal transformation.
2 Core Questions
- Is the gospel sufficient to transform a person? - Yes
- Is the gospel sufficient to transform a community? – Yes
Why is this not happening in America? (Finish with mind, morality, marriage and ministry in tact). The kingdom of God is more than the Sunday Event. Our view is that the church brings pressure to bear on culture. It is not just enough to have right theology, we must have the right spirit to match. Reality – everything is the realm of the Father with or without the church. How would our theology be different if it weren't formed because of heresies, but simply out of the Word of God? It's a case of seeking God and obeying God. With the Spirit of God, people can understand the Word of God without us!
Word "missions" is not in the Bible, "kingdom" is. The church is missions, Kingdom in and Kingdom out. We are lost to modernity and success and consumerism and industrialism. When people leave a church because of style of worship, they don't even get what worship is…style doesn't matter, Jesus does. Churches lead by "stars" not "godly souls."
We have vocationalized missions when the whole church is supposed to be the missionary to the whole church not just professionals.
There are no closed countries, there's just stupid evangelism and intelligent engagement.
Net Effect of the Kingdom is TRANSFORMATION flowing from and around as an interactive relationship with God. Do a sermon series on how to hear God, you'll pack your church out. The early church didn't preach that series, they simply lived it! Teach private worship to bring power to your corporate worship. Real worship, Transparent connections, Glocal Impact. God is not impressed by our dollars. God wants the new DNA. WERE ARE CALLED TO THE KINGDOM, NOT CALLED TO PREACH. WHAT IS THE NET EFFECT OF WHAT GOD IS WANTING US TO DO?
Teach people that their job is their number one ministry!
Our Kingdom Job Description – make disciples! Remember, disciple-making is not linear, it is not fill-in-the-blank, it is life transformation.
WHAT IS THE GRID? Old Testament – Israel. New Testament – Church. But Bob suggests that neither are the grid, society is! Make Disciples. All Nations. How does the gospel jump cultures? (From all Jews to the Gentiles). When gospel lays upon the grid of the church it gets choked, when it lays upon society, it goes viral. Consider Abraham with no structure for worship becoming an obedient follower of God – All nations cf. great commission – all nations. The church is to be birthed out of evangelism, not designed to do evangelism. (see pg 46 of Glocalization). When religion becomes a domain of society, it becomes a competitor. Faith should be present in all domains as disciples are present in all domains of society, so faith become viral as lived out in the domains of culture.
Engage the society first and let the church evolve from that!
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