Sermon Central has published my new article on Christmas called, "Advent without the Conspiracy."

Here are some excerpts:

The very word "advent" essentially means the arrival of something. So, as we celebrate Christmas, we supposedly celebrate the arrival of God into human form. The Incarnation is a moment to savor. All of our presents and lights and parties ought to have a better meaning. But usually, they don't. So, in a bid to create a more relevant/helpful/meaningful advent season, the church of late has sought to delineate itself from the commercialization of our country's Christmas culture. Oddly enough, we have done so by simply offering Christianized versions of what they were already doing--Christmas dinners, Christmas plays, Christmas musicals, and Christmas events in every size and shape. But alas, we have done no better than my neighbor. The church has cluttered the advent season with our own set of lawn décor.

Sure, our event planning seems more spiritual than the guy who wants his house to be seen from outer space. And yes, our events are done so with the façade of telling people the ubiquitous "reason for the season." (Am I supposed to capitalize "reason"? I don't know any more.) But are we bringing anyone closer to understanding the gospel? I fear we are only adding more decorations onto the already crowded front lawn of culture...

But we must show them the real Jesus. The tidy Anglo version will never connect. The perpetually smiling Jesus is not realistic nor biblical. They deserve to see the gritty moment of the advent. Though we are enamored with what is pretty, they need to hear that Jesus' entrance into the world was done through a working-class Jewish family in the backwaters of the Roman Empire. It was a moment of struggle--like most of life seems to be...

Our advent celebrations should find their embodiment in work similar to His. He spoke the truth--so should we. He cared for the outcast--so should we. He sacrificed personally--so should we. It is not complicated to emulate a living example...

We have a message that is worth conversing about over coffee. There is no need to protest in the streets over the manner of holiday greetings. There is no need to snarl back at the cashier who says "Happy Holidays" with a grumbled "Merry Christmas." Our task is not to be the lingo lawmen of culture. We need not employ protest as our major method of evangel. The gospel surpasses the mundane manner in which the world speaks about their vacation time at the end of December...

Our return to the simplicity of the gospel is a necessity this advent season as it is in every moment of the year. The gospel never needed tinsel to look good anyway.

Right now, I am meeting with the Church Planting Leadership Fellowship. In this picture, Todd Wilson is teaching about starting churches through servant evangelism ministries.

Other presentations included Rick Howerton on Small Groups in church plants, David Garrison on Church Planting Movements, Gary Rohrmayer on denominational influence, Hutz Hertzberg on church planting assessment, and John Bailey on church planting systems. (I will post the available presentations on the blog later this week. Not all will be available.)

We have 45 people here from about 30 denominations committed to planting evangelical churches. Here are some of the groups here learning from each other:
-Assemblies of God
-Baptist Missionary Association of America
-Christian and Missionary Alliance
-Christian Reformed Church in North America
-The Greehouse Church Planting Network
-Churches of God General Conference
-Conservative Congregational Christian Conference
-Evangelical Covenant Church
-Evangelical Free Church
-ReachMore, Foursquare Church
-General Association of General Baptists
-Grace Communion International (formerly the Worldwide Church of God)
-International Pentecostal Holiness Church
-Church Multiplication Ministries Evangelism USA
-Southeastern District
-Missionary Church/Church Multiplication Training Center
-Mission American Coalition
-Growing Healthy Churches Network
-Stadia (Independent Christian Churches)
-Vision Ministries Canada
-Mission To North America, Presbyterian Church in America
-Southern Baptist Convention, NAMB and several state conventions
-Outreach North America
-United Methodists
-Church of the Nazarene
-Fellowship of Evangelical Churches
-Mission America Coalition
-The Wesleyan Church

We talked research and a couple of the presentation were via video, including this research (see pic on the right) on assessment from Hutz Hertzberg's Ph.D. dissertation on church planting assessment.

You might find my opening words from the first meeting to be of some interest. In some ways, they relate to comments I made at the Advance09 panel a few months ago.

It is a bad idea theologically, with bad results historically, for us to partner and jointly plant churches. But, it is a bad stewardship and irresponsible missiology for us not to find ways to learn from each other.

When it comes to church planting, it is not really the same as evangelism. In church planting, we need to plant our own gardens. But, we will consider this an agricultural co-op where we learn to do it better by learning from one another.

So, that is why we are here: to learn and share best practices with other Christian denominational leaders committed to plant churches.

We had a great meeting with much helpful interaction. The groups also break down into peer settings for idea sharing and prayer.

We are also undertaking two research projects with different denominations participating in each. One will focus on urban church planting and the other is on church planting assessment. We have now officially committed to do the assessment research and several denominations have signed on to co-sponsor.

I am thrilled we could convene them and gather them together for this mutual learning.

More soon...

I had a great time teaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School a few weeks ago. It was a tremendous week.

While I was there they shot a video about the school to start their "professor run in" series. You can take a look at it right here:

I love the mission statement at Trinity:

Trinity International University Mission Statement

Trinity International University educates: men and women for faithful participation in God's redemptive work in the world by cultivating academic excellence, Christian fidelity, and lifelong learning.

They flesh it out as follows:

• Trinity offers nonformal opportunities to the public for continuing education, as well as formal degree programs.


• Believers are called to be God's co-laborers in God's ongoing work in our broken world (1 Cor. 3:5-9), as we anticipate the return of the Lord. Wherever or however we serve, we are to be agents of restoration and transformation for the glory of God and the good of the world.


• We seek to instill in our students the habit of doing academic work with excellence for the glory of God and the good of society.


• A goal of our education is continuing faithfulness to Christ and his Gospel, to biblical authority, and to Christian doctrine as a guide to ethical living.


• Habits of learning must be sustained throughout life for individual growth and for effective service in a changing world. These habits of learning characterize the TIU community of learners--faculty, staff, students, and graduates.

Good stuff. All of it is great, but the highlighted section speaks to the recent post on "Gospel Definitions."

I hope to see you in a TEDS class soon.

New research coming out of the Barna Group sought to get some insight to a questions many of us ask. "What is the connection between childhood faith and adult religious commitment?"

From the Barna Update,

The survey asked adults to think back on their upbringing and to describe the frequency of their involvement in Sunday school or religious training. The Barna researchers then compared those reported early-life behaviors with the respondents' current levels of faith activity and faith durability.

So, what did the research reveal? here are some quotes from the report.

More than eight out of every 10 adults remembers consistently attending Sunday school or some other religious training before the age of 12.

Adults recall their church involvement as teenagers as less frequent than their participation as children.

...

Among the most active as children were Catholics (86%), upscale adults (78%), Midwesterners (76%), notional Christians (75%), college graduates (75%), women (73%), political conservatives (73%), and those ages 65-plus (73%). The least likely population segments to have attended Sunday school or other religious programming as children were atheists and agnostics (35%), people associated with faiths other than Christianity (52%), Asians (53%), unchurched adults (56%), 18- to 25-year-olds (59%), never-married adults (60%), Hispanics (61%), and residents of the West (63%).

The types of Americans most likely to recall religious participation as teenagers were evangelicals (61%), those ages 65-plus (60%), born again Christians (58%), Catholics (58%), women (56%), political conservatives (56%), residents of the Midwest (56%), married adults (55%), and Protestants (54%). On the other hand, atheists and agnostics (19%), members of other faith groups (30%), unchurched adults (31%), never-married individuals (33%), economically downscale adults (40%), and men (44%) were the least likely to have frequently attended Sunday school or other religious programs during their teen years.

How did those who were plugged into Sunday School and religious instruction and children and youth remain connected to faith as adults?

The research examined four elements of adult religious commitment: attending church, having an active faith (defined as reading the Bible, praying, and attending church in the last week), being unchurched, and switching from childhood faith.

When it comes to church engagement, those who attended Sunday school or other religious programs as children or as teens were much more likely than those without such experiences to attend church and to have an active faith as adults. For instance, among those who frequently attended such programs as a child, 50% said they attended a worship service in the last week, which is slightly higher than the national average and well ahead of those who rarely or never attended children's programs. Among those who frequently attended religious programs as teenagers, 58% said they had attended a worship service in the last week. In comparison, less frequent participation as a teenager correlated with less frequent adult participation.

David Kinnaman points out that the research uncovers a correlation, between early instruction and continued adult spiritual engagement, and not causation. Yet it does provide "clarity that the odds of one sticking with faith over a lifetime are enhanced in a positive direction by spiritual activity under the age of 18." (Might I add that it is refreshing to see someone release research that explains the difference between correlation and causation.)

Head over to the Barna Group, read the entire article, and then come back here to discuss.

When we think about the mission to make disciples we obviously need to do more than provide good teaching for adults and provide a cool/fun atmosphere for the young ones. What might this mean more specifically as we consider how the church teaches children and youth, and develops parents who are capable of discipling their own children working in partnership with the church?

There is a lot of talk about the gospel these day. Yes, it's all gospel and gospel-centeredness, and yet many are still fuzzy when it comes to defining the good news of Jesus Christ.

In my Missional Church class at ReTrain this week, I share some thoughts on the gospel. Why? Well, I believe that what you believe about the gospel will be the foundation for your understanding of the mission.

To do that, I first reviewed some gospel definitions assembled by Trevin Wax at his blog Kingdom People. You can find a PDF and lists by names by clicking this link. Then, I shared a few of them (at first I did not identify the source). You can download a PowerPoint of the ones I shared here: Gospel Definitions.ppt. I took some pleasure in watching the students agree (at times) with the definitions from people with whom they disagree.

As I explain in this post, whenever I teach on the missional church, it is always an opportunity to talk about the Gospel since I tend to present the ideas around:

What is the Gospel?
What is the mission?
What is the church?
What is the Kingdom?

So, we began our definitions at ReTrain by having the cohorts make a definition and report back. Here are those gospel definitions...

The Gospel is the good news that God has sent his son Jesus Christ into the world in order to reconcile Creator to creation, which will renew all things and he has done all this through Jesus' perfect sinless life, bloody atoning death on the cross and subsequent resurrection from the dead. - Admin Cohort's Definition

Our glorious God created everything we know. We, his creation, rebelled seeking our own glory and deserving the full wrath of God. The gospel is the good news that Jesus lived the life we should have lived to the glory of the Father. He died in our place, for all our sinful, false worship. Through Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, we live a new life to His glory. As we behold the glory of Jesus we are transformed to look more like Him, united in the Church as His body through which his kingdom is advanced making all things new.
- Worship Cohort

God created man in His image to glorify Him
Mankind rebelled against God in sin
The gospel is the good news of Godʼs provision of redemption
Through the atoning work of Jesus the Christ
Who died in our place for our sin on the cross
Rising from the grave to conquer Satan, sin and death
Giving new life to all who by grace
turn to Him in repentance and faith
Calling them to a life empowered by His Spirit
To accomplish the mission of His kingdom
To the glory of His name
- Campus Pastor Cohort

The gospel is the power of God for salvation of everyone who believes. Through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection God overcomes sin, sin's consequences, Satan, and death and subjects all things under his feet. And, in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, God is reconciling the world to himself.
- Biblical Living, Family and Community Group Cohort

God redeems fallen mankind through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus which regenerates individuals through the Holy Spirit and renews all of His creation as He establishes His Kingdom.
- Church Planting Cohort

The Gospel is the truth that Jesus Christ, God the Son sent from the God the Father, empowered by God the Spirit, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for the atonement of sinners, and rose from the dead triumphing over satan, sin, and death in accordance with the Scriptures.
- Acts 29 Church Planting Cohort

One of the key issues is this question: Is the gospel only God-Man-Christ-Response or does it include elements of Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration. I think it is interesting how the worship leaders cohort differed from the Acts 29 church planting cohort (and, I should add, there was a "minority report" from the Acts 29 church planting cohort that wanted to include a Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration focus).

In class, I shared this article, on the difference between the gospel and the effects of the gospel, with the class. D.A. Carson and I discussed it recently while I was teaching at Trinity and I like it. Carson explains:

If the gospel is the (good) news about what God has done in Christ Jesus, there is ample place for including under "the gospel" the ways in which the kingdom has dawned and is coming, for tying this kingdom to Jesus' death and resurrection, for demonstrating that the purpose of what God has done is to reconcile sinners to himself and finally to bring under one head a renovated and transformed new heaven and new earth, for talking about God's gift of the Holy Spirit, consequent upon Christ's resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on high, and above all for focusing attention on what Paul (and others--though the language I'm using here reflects Paul) sees as the matter "of first importance": Christ crucified. All of this is what God has done; it is what we proclaim; it is the news, the great news, the good news.

For another view, see Scott McKnight in Christianity Today's Out of Ur blog. Also, Matt Chandler makes a case for including both God-Man-Christ-Response and Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration in his SBTS chapel message (including mentioning some helpful warnings about how we speak of others "tribes" in the church).

Below is the definition I am using. I am still tweaking and revising it (but trying NOT to make it longer). If Packer can define the gospel as, "God saves sinners," I figure we should be able to do it in a paragraph!

Anyway, here is what I am using today:

The gospel is the good news that God, who is more holy than we can imagine, looked upon with compassion, people, who are more sinful than we would possibly admit, and sent Jesus into history to establish His Kingdom and reconcile people and the world to himself. Jesus, whose love is more extravagant than we can measure, came to sacrificially die for us so that, by His death and resurrection, we might gain through His grace what the Bible defines as new and eternal life.

I chose not to include the response to the gospel ("repentance by grace through faith alone," for example), but just tried to focus on what the gospel actually is. I edit it regularly as I try to grasp and preach the gospel to myself.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to share your own definitions or interact with the ones listed here. Then, I will learn and edit mine!

Keep sharing your stories of 2009 breakthroughs in yesterday's post, but let's also look forward. Here are some reasons you should be involved in church planting in 2010. For that, we turn to OnMission Magazine.

Carol is the irrepressible editor of OnMission Magazine. She always does a good job putting together a fine magazine. For some odd reason, she lowered her standards and included an article I wrote.

I believe that the current economic and cultural situation is an opportunity for churches to partner together to plant other churches. I have excerpted the article below by including the whole list but only filling in part of the explanations. Check the site for the whole article.

Here are 10 reasons to partner for church planting sooner rather than later.

1. The current economy is a perfect opportunity.

The current recession will force people to make hard decisions about where they place their values. It is not unprecedented to discover many anecdotal reports that say people are more open to church during such times. According to a recent Texas Tech study, economic growth and evangelical church growth are counter-cyclical. As the economy goes down, church attendance goes up...

The consequential reason for this is simple: when our money and possessions disappear, we are forced to face our spiritual crises. Just as the prodigal son "came to his senses" after he'd squandered it all (Luke 15:17), the prodigals of our nation are primed to face their spiritual needs since they can no longer mask the need with their material wants...

2. Plants do better when local people are sent out.

Continue reading 10 Reasons to Partner in Planting Now.

As you may know, I do a monthly column for Outreach Magazine. The magazine is looking for stories of ministry breakthrough in 2009. By breakthrough, they mean those turning points when local churches and networks of churches sensed that their outreach was moving to a new level. In other words, what are these divine surprises?

Here is what my friend and editor, James Long, passed on:

For the January/February 2010 cover story (print and online), we're talking to church and ministry leaders nationwide to find the stories of hope in evangelism, outreach and community engagement. We want to tell those stories that include transferrable concepts--it happened in one place and could be replicated elsewhere. And we're looking for stories of inspiration and innovation--bold and novel ideas that may be so unique to one time and place, but that inspire a spirit of imagination in ministry. We're also looking for those stories that are inexplicable, except that "God showed up."

The key is to answer the question "What specific story or example in the last year has really inspired you and reaffirmed to you that the church (including local churches and ministries) is turning a corner and making a difference?"

The editors of the magazine will be looking in here to find some examples, so feel free to share yours or, even better, share the story of someone else. When you submit your story, your email goes into the form but is not posted... and I will forward your comments and email to the editors of the magazine.

Today, Frank Viola comes by the blog and interacts for the day.

As I have written before, I like Frank. He is not a subtle man. He is calling for big changes. And, he loves Jesus. Those are some good qualities.

Now, if you have read my books and my blog, you also know that Frank and I have some pretty significant differences about an important subject-- ecclesiology. And, I believe that ecclesiology will be one of the defining issues in the evangelical conversation in the years to come.

I am so passionate about the subject, my next scholarly book will be on ecclesiology, probably out in 2012 (my missiology textbook comes out in 2010), so I am pretty concerned about this subject and have some firm convictions.

And, it is no secret to Frank that I found his last two books to be lacking in ecclesiology (as I see it in scripture), but I appreciated his passion for the church and God's mission in From Eternity to Here. His passion for the church and its mission comes through in From Eternity to Here. Whereas his other books seemed to want to deconstruct the church (in a way I found destructive), this one provides the reader with reasons to love the church.

I also see this when Frank writes against "churchless Christianity," something I was encouraged to see. He did so in two parts at Out of Ur:

Remember that Bon Jovi song from the late 80s, "Living in Sin?"

Well, I'm guessing half of you do.

It's about "love" justifying living together as a married couple, without a marriage covenant.

The song shouts, "I call it love, they call it living in sin!"

Remember? Rock ballad, black and white video?

Anyway, people are still talking about it and more people are living together today than they were back in the 1980s. At LifeWay Research, we wanted to know more.

In June of 2008 (and September 2007), we conducted related surveys (thankfully, not about Bon Jovi) for a recent book on parenting, The Parent Adventure: Preparing Your Children For a Lifetime With God, by Selma & Rodney Wilson and Scott McConnell.

In our study, we found that 6% of all parents with children under 18 years of age in their home are living with a partner to whom they are not married.

To give this some context, we first determined that 69% of all parents are married and 31% are single. We asked these single parents the following questions:

I'm contributing an article, sure, but the video is why I am posting about it.