Exponential East 2014 Session One

Exponential East 2014 Monday afternoon. Pre conference session one

Vince Antonucci 

Jesus announced why he came to seek and save the lost...his mission...he gives us the mission...as the father has sent me I send you.  He says it a number of ways.

We get to be a part of most important mission in the world. 

Tells story of losing his child in a crowd.  That's what God feels like

Jeremiah..oh anguish oh anguish ...my people are ...senseless children wi no understanding..return to me.  

Come to me all those who are weary.

Jesus heart races for his lost children...like the fathers heart.

Matthew 9 He had compassion on them...Compassion...from splagna...refers to ones intestines twisted or ripped out.  Compassion is from the gut.  Seeing sheep with no shepherd...people without their heavenly Father makes him feel sick.  Jesus tells his disciples to then pray for harvest workers. 

We are the answer of Jesus prayer. 

New churches starting everywhere but 8 million people less in church now than 10 years ago. 

How come?

There are churches reaching people...just not lost people. 

2.2% of churches are reaching lost people. ( Stats from book "American church in crisis" ) 

Note to self...change web page to say " we love gay people, odd people, ridiculous people normal people, straight people, sex workers, homeless people, white collar, etc etc etc"

How do we start a church with evangelistic DNA?

1. Have evangelistic DNA yourself.  You can only pass on the DNA that you have.  Do I have that?

• You raise your passion for lost people by hanging out with lost people. Listens to the Counting Crows lyrics for Mrs. Jones. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/countingcrows/mrjones.html 
• How? If you have kids...use them.  Think like a missionary to your town. Take up a hobby that mixes you with other people. Pray. 

2. Have evangelistic stories and metaphors that you share regularly as you build your church.  E.g we are a steak restaurant for PETA people.  We only want people who don't want church to be a part of their lives. So what do we want our church to look like to attract those types of people? What will we say to people when they are in church? Will we repel them with how we speak? (not what we say). How do we do a church services so an atheist will come back...without compromising our non-negotiables? It will he hard for sure. We have a God who says nothing is impossible.  So say the same thing all the time,s just in new ways.  "we are like a hair club for bald people!" Burn this into your people all the time. Have great stories for your people. 

3. We must know how to live missionally out in the community and how to connect to unchurched people in our church.  You have to fish for sharks where the sharks hang out and with shark bait. 

Church services are usually good to really good...for Christians.

4. We must be willing to make the sacrifices it takes to reach lost people. If only 2.2 % of churches reach lost people...   Are you willing to sacrifice to be on a winning team...to be in a church that reaches lost people?  Will you fire people who don't have evangelistic DNA.  You'll get criticized by other churches, or by thumb sucking Christians who need to be fed...and who tithe and then they leave. My church will be smaller than most every other church in town. The question to answer each of these questions is...would Jesus?

Do what it takes to start an evangelistic church with that DNA.  When he found his lost child...it was the most relief he has ever felt. When we get to heaven maybe God will throw a prodigal son welcome party for us.  Even better maybe God will let us hide and watch as he welcomes into heaven each of the people we had a hand in their journeys to God. What could be better than that?

Gambling in New Hampshire

New Hampshire has had it's first State of the State address from our new Governor Maggie Hassan.  One big change that Hassan has introduced is to drop all of the resistance to legalizing big gambling in the state.  So we shall soon have our first casino.  Not just one either, but probably two and maybe three.  All of the concerns about this have been swept aside in favor of the great benefits.  Jobs will be created we are told, tax revenue generated and poor areas of the state will be revitalized.

I disagree with the pro-gambling spin.  Yes, I am likely to be prejudiced because I believe gambling is morally, theologically and reasonably wrong.
It's morally wrong because the house always wins and the gambling public almost always looses - sucking hard earned and much needed money away from families, children and reducing human flourishing.  There is a reason casino's are opulent - you pay for it.
It's theologically wrong because God gives us the material resources to live well land bless each other so that we might exercise wise stewardship over it.  Gambling is taking some of those resources and dis respecting them by undervaluing them - as it they were ours to fritter away on a momentary exercise in avoiding boredom. Such a view of money disrespects the blessing and thereby disrespects the Blessser. Those who are faithful in a little will be given much and those who are faithless with a little will have even the little they have taken from them, says Christ.  That's not so much a threat as an observation of what happens to people who disconnect their material wealth from the God who provided it.
It's reasonably wrong because, as I've said,m the house always wins and you always loose.  That one time in a hundred you end up winning does not counteract all the times you loose.  If you want a swanky night out that costs you money - buy expensive tickets to a high class charity ball.  At least you'll be mixing it with classy people and contributing to some real good.

Then consider the communities, the smaller venues for entertainment and arts that will have the life sucked from them as the big casino stage takes all the entertainment dollars and books all the big acts.   Community arts will diminish in scale and reach.  If you think Walmart hurt downtown, the casino will do so as much.
Then consider the hundreds and hundred  - thousands of families that are flourishing now.  Those who don't know that Dad or Mum will take the family budget and piss it away at the slot machine or the table.  The addiction to short term 'thrill' that decays into chronic dependence.  Before you dismiss this thought, take an evening and visit any Gamblers Anonymous meeting you like (they're anonymous!) to hear the stories of heartbreak from teachers, bankers, business owners and tradesmen and women whose lives were destroyed by this insidious industry.

Big Gambling doesn't care about you, your family, your community or your state.  It only cares about your money.  It will give you a show and toss a bone to the education system to justify it's existence.  And it will suck the breath right out of your lungs, one little gasp at a time.

British Food

My American friends  tell me, with some frequency, how poor British food is.  I usually just smile and say nothing.  To correct them would seem like protest or defensiveness.  British food can stand on it's own.  Indeed if the food is simple, it must be of high quality, unadorned by masking sauces.  In addition, the food of Europe, and indeed the once British Empire, comes to Britain, and is now usually grown here.  Here is my Christmas Day food, for your reading pleasure:

Breakfast: Cereal Muesli grown in Dorset with skimmed milk from Surrey and a Banana from Jamaica.

Mid morning nibbles: roasted potato segments from Norfolk brushed in oil infused with thyme and a think spread of melted Kent cheddar cheese.  Melted sticks of Somerset camembert cheese coated in breadcrumbs.

Christmas dinner:  Roasted leg of British lamb with rosemary from my Mum's garden, roasted russet potatoes from Lancashire in extra virgin olive oil, roasted parsnips from Devon coated in Cornish parmesan cheese and roasted in goose fat from Cheshire, Brussels sprouts and sweet garden peas grown locally this summer and frozen,  Bisto gravy with a dash of British sherry and rosemary for flavour.

A small glass of ginger wine made in Wales was enjoyed by family members, al accompanied by carols song by the world's best choir (Kings College Cambridge),a d topped off by Cornish clotted-cream ice-cream and the Queen's annual Christmas speech on the world's best television - the BBC.

After a suitable period of recovery, a bowl of Christmas Pudding (from Marks and Spencers of course) topped with brandy cream and/or rich custard from Wiltshire.

Tea time:  'Mince' pies with cornish clotted cream (one can never have enough), Ecclefechan tarts and slice of stollen cake, Indian black tea with skimmed milk.

Us poor deprived British.  We just don't know any better.

In fairness, most Brits think we Americans schnarf down McDonalds burgers and put cheese on everything...which is completely false, except for the cheese.

Wendy Cope's 'A Christmas Song'

A Christmas Song, by Wendy Cope - posted without her permission, but I hope she would forgive me, since this is a great poem for those whose Christmas carries a thread of grief, as well as joy.  How often those two go together!  Christmas blessings to you.  here's the poem: 

Why is the baby crying,  On this, his special day,  When we have brought him lovely gifts,  And laid them on the hay?

He’s crying for the people,  Who greet this day with dread,  Because somebody dear to them,  Is far away or dead,

For all the men and women,  Whose love affairs went wrong,  Who try their best at merriment,  When Christmas comes along

For separated parents,  Whose turn it is to grieve,  While children hang their stockings up,  Elsewhere on Christmas Eve,

For everyone whose burden,  Carried throughout the year,  Is heavier at Christmastime,  The season of good cheer.

That’s why the baby’s crying,  There in the cattle stall:  He’s crying for those people.  He’s crying for them all.

Reframing for Thanksgiving

"...I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:11b-13 ESV

Contentment is a decision, not a condition.  It's not something a person is, so much as something that a person decides to be.  We need to decide in every ungrateful moment of discontent, to become content.  Maybe after a long habit of doing so, we can start to become grateful and content as our default condition.  I'm not there yet.  So I'm grateful to our forbears for this one day a year we call Thanksgiving - a uniquely American frame of mind.  Europe or the Islamic world would never have come up with such a public holiday.  neither one of them has a worldview that can acknowledge God as the giver of all good gifts.  Neither do I.  Which is why I need Thanksgiving Day.

I used to be happier.  I used to have more friends, deeper friends, I used to have clearer purpose, more confidence, a sunnier disposition, more peace, less heavy, less grumpy, less sorry for myself and easier to be with, closer to my family and generally less of a jerk.  That's life.  But I am closer to Jesus, love music more; I am older and quite a bit wiser.  I still have people who put up with me.  There are a handful of people who still call me 'pastor' and for that I could not be more grateful.  I have my health.  My family are still around me and doing OK. So I'll decide today to get over myself and practice contentment with this generally ungrateful and dark egocentric heart.  God knows. 

Randy Stonehill recording "Billy Frank"

Here is a treat for you.  A great song about a great man from a great guitarist, singer songwriter:

http://www.youtube.com/v/MDvREqeRqXQ?autohide=1&version=3&attribution_tag=1d3KCCHECQbEWsn39YoVNw&autohide=1&showinfo=1&feature=share&autoplay=1

Beautiful insignificance

"I need regular reminders of my call to faithfulness, not to success. How easily I forget what's important. I still have some major unlearning to do about identity, results, and ministry. I am not defined by what I do, but by who I am. Or, more importantly, to whom I belong."

This little quote from J.R. Briggs tidily expresses where I am in my ministry these days.  It encompasses a kind of identity shift away from the metrics of corporate success and into something that roots down towards the person and work of Christ in my own heart, and thereby into ministry.  I came across the quote in Paul Pastor's beautifully written article here: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2013/october-online-only/among-successful-failures.html

I love fine art - painting - and try to visit the great galleries whenever I travel. So often it is not the really famous paintings that move me. (The Mona Lisa comes to mind.)  It's the little corner of a painting that suddenly captures a moment, a truth, a beauty. I am encouraged to set aside the allure of significance and profile that I see some of my pastor-friends reaching for.  I'm happy to do some little thing really really well.  Something that very few people would ever notice, but that God will enjoy.  It'll probably be regarded as a misguided ministry failure or more realistically not be noticed at all. But it'll be worship, and what is better than that?