The Confusing Language of "Calling" Series: Click | View Series

It is common Christian parlance to say, "I feel called to do so and so." What we're usually trying to communicate is that we feel God has given us a specific "missional" assignment in his kingdom. I wonder, however, if that language is misleading and harmful.

Why Wait on the Call?

Think of walking through your city one day and coming upon a small, handicapped child laying on the railroad tracks. The child cannot move, and you hear the sound of an oncoming train. Do you stop, get on your knees, and ask if it's God's will to pick up the child? If you don't get a clear sense of God's call, do you move on? Of course not. God's will is clear. Save the life.

I often think about this in regards to the question of whether or not we need to go overseas. Jesus made it clear that his will was for people of every nation to know the gospel. Why, then, are so many Christians waiting on a warm and fuzzy sensation—for God to spell out "Afghanistan" in their Cheerios—before they go? The call has been given. Go. If your talents can best serve God's kingdom by using them overseas, why would you wait on a call to do so?

So let me say it plainly: I don't think you need to be "called" to go overseas, any more than I think you need to be "called" to live missionally wherever you are. As a disciple, you must ask, "How can my talents best be used in God's worldwide mission?" If the answer is that you can be part of an overseas community-building, Jesus-preaching project, don't wait for a special calling. Pack your bags.

The Area of Greatest Need

Now I often hear the objection, "Why should we send people all over the world? Aren't there lost and needy people here?" Certainly, we should be committed to blessing our local communities and multiplying our churches here in America. But there are still many places in the world where there is no gospel witness at all, which is in direct violation of Jesus' command.

While one third of the world's unbelievers are Muslims, only half of one percent of all our resources (i.e. our people and our money) goes toward reaching Muslims for Christ. Does God prefer the Western world so much that it justifies such a lopsided allocation of resources?

I meet people who say, "If God calls me to go, I'll go." Perhaps the better posture is, "If God tells me to stay, I'll stay. Otherwise, I'll go." Over there is the area of greatest need. Every disciple of Jesus must consider what his role is in obedience to Jesus' command.

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The Confusing Language of "Calling" Series: Click | View Series

It is common Christian parlance to say, "I feel called to do so and so." What we're usually trying to communicate is that we feel God has given us a specific "missional" assignment in his kingdom. I wonder, however, if that language is misleading and harmful.

Our Call Has Already Been Issued

Christians don't need to be specially "called" to live missionally; it is inherent in being a disciple. To become a disciple of Jesus means that you evaluate your passions and talents in terms of how they can best be used to spread God's kingdom. The call has already been issued: "Glorify me in all that you do. Love and serve your neighbor. Go into the world and preach the gospel to every person." That's it.

Each person must evaluate how they have best been suited to fulfill that call, but the call is clear. If you are a businessman, you are to do excellent work to the glory of God, to the benefit of humanity, and to the testimony of Christ in your community. You don't have to wait on a special call to begin to do so—you've already received that call as a Christian. We talk about finding God's will; it's not lost.

Specific Directions in Active Participation

I know that sometimes God gives specific directions. God tells Paul in Acts 16:8 to go specifically to Macedonia, but those "course corrections" were given in the context of Paul's active participation in God's mission. The Holy Spirit tells the church at Antioch to set apart Barnabas and Saul for a church planting mission (Acts 13), but both Barnabas and Saul were already active in preaching and serving.

I say this because we have so many people sitting around waiting on a warm, fuzzy, and goose-bump-inducing vision from God before they embark on some ministry. Maybe we've invented the whole language of calling to mask the fact that most Christians don't want to live missionally.

To be continued.

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International Church Planting Series: Click | View Series

International Church Planting Should Be In Our DNA

We believe God has called us, the Summit Church, to plant 1000 churches in 40 years. We believe that many, if not most, will be overseas. Currently, we have plants in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Africa. We insist that every domestic church we plant incorporate into its DNA, from the beginning, international church planting.

I have been told by some that a new church should wait until it establishes itself, grows to a healthy size, and has planted a few domestic churches before it engages in international church planting. I do not agree with this at all. God has clearly told us, from the beginning, to go to all the nations. We talk about "finding God's will," but it's not lost! God's will is for every believer to be involved, in some way, in seeing his fame known in all the earth.

International church planting, just like church planting in general, needs to be part of a church's DNA from the beginning. After all, it was part of the original Great Commission. For more on this, check out John Piper's classic, Let the Nations Be Glad! It is, I believe, his best book!

On a practical note, one of the things we did at the Summit recently, that really got everyone totally jacked up, was to trace the history of church planting "from Jerusalem to RDU." Doing so showed our congregation that we are part of a church planting movement larger than ourselves! To see what that would look like, I put it in script form here.

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International Church Planting Series: Click | View Series

Planting Churches Fulfills the Great Commission

In Acts, God's means of changing the world is through the planting of churches. It is no coincidence that right after God gave his apostles the Great Commission in Acts 1:8, the first thing he did was to plant a church (Acts 2:42-47). The church was to be the operational means of fulfilling the Great Commission.

When a local church was placed in a community, the gospel would be preached from house to house and in the streets, and the generosity, joy, and worship of a local body of believers caused "great fear and awe" to be on everyone, favor to be had with the community, and God to "add to the number daily those that were being saved." Thus, everywhere the apostles went, they planted churches. They didn't simply do preaching, miracle crusades, or community ministry. They planted churches that would do preaching, perform miracles, and serve the community. As Tim Keller said, the apostles' strategy was very simple: go to the most strategic cities in the world and plant churches. The church is the one institution of the New Testament.

To the Ends of the Earth

What we sometimes overlook is that the scope of God's commission, from the beginning, was to "the ends of the earth." When God sent the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, the apostles spoke in tongues of every language, a clear sign that the gospel should go to every people of every nation on earth. This gospel was not to be centralized in one city or one culture. God would be glorified by his gospel taking root in every culture.

However in Acts 2-7, despite God's clear command and signs to go to all the nations, the apostles do not budge from Jerusalem. So in Acts 8:1, God sent persecution on the church, and believers scattered throughout the region. The parallel language of Acts 1:8 and 8:1 is not coincidental. If the apostles weren't going to obey God's commission to go to the world, God would make them. In a truly bizarre move, God even beams one of the apostles, Star Trek style, into a place where he can engage a foreigner with the gospel.

On one hand it is refreshing to me that the apostles were not too dissimilar to us, preferring to stay in their own city and culture, and to build a megachurch there. On the other hand, it is a little alarming that God is so determined for his people to plant churches internationally that he will bust them up if he has to and beam a few of them overseas if they won't obey. While the beaming sounds kind of cool, the busting up does not. So we have decided, from the beginning, to plant churches internationally.

To be continued

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Revitalizing a Church Series: Click | View Series

In Parts 1 and 2, I posed two questions that I recommend anyone considering church revitalization should ask. Revitalization is nothing short of a work of the Holy Spirit. Unless you believe that God is working in the group of people that currently make up the dying church (and not the institution itself), and that he has big plans for them in the future, I would not advise trying to revitalize. There are too many lost people to waste your time with stubborn, hard-hearted religious people who don't want to change.

That being said, I want to offer a couple of words of advice and encouragement to those who do feel God leading them to attempt church revitalization.

Somehow a wimpy heresy has infiltrated American pastors: when people rebel, verbally rip apart your ministry, or try to take over the church, you should obsequiously take it on the chin, humbly assume the fetal position, and hope for the best. Real Christians don't fight.

As we say in North Carolina: hogwash.

A Good Shepherd Fights

A good shepherd takes on the wolves that threaten his flock. He fights. It's never in self-defense, of course, but quite often, what is being threatened is not the reputation of the pastor but the health of the church—someone is trying to harm the flock that Jesus purchased with his blood! The church is Jesus' most expensive investment, so how can we not fight to protect it?

What's Best for the Flock?

Paul provides a great example for us. Paul's decision whether or not to fight is based on what is best for the flock, not for him personally. In certain places he does not defend himself because, as he sees it, defending his reputation will provide no immediate benefit to the local church (Phil 1:13). In others, however, he goes to great lengths to defend himself and his work because doing so helps the local church (2 Corinthians).

Protect the Body, Not Your Reputation

In other words, we should never fight to protect our reputation, but we should be willing to fight to protect the body. It may superficially appear "humble" and "Christ-like" to obsequiously walk away and surrender when you are being attacked, but you may be doing the church a great disservice in doing so. You may be turning your flock over to wolves. No shepherd worthy of Jesus' name should ever do that. You need to say "only over my dead body." The church is Jesus' most expensive investment. She is worth fighting, even dying, to protect.

These thoughts about revitalization are by no means complete, but I hope they get you started in the process. I am also filling this out a great deal on my own blog, www.jdgreear.com, because I get asked the question so much. You can read more about revitalization there.

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Revitalizing a Church Series: Click | View Series

In Parts 1 and 2, I posed two questions that I recommend anyone considering church revitalization ask. Revitalization is nothing short of a work of the Holy Spirit. Unless you believe that God is working in the group of people that currently make up the dying church (and not the institution itself), and that he has big plans for them in the future, I would not advise trying to revitalize. There are too many lost people to waste your time with stubborn, hard-hearted religious people who don't want to change. That being said, I want to offer a couple of words of advice and encouragement to those who do feel God leading them to attempt church revitalization.

Don't Underestimate Staying Power

"Pastors consistently overestimate what they can accomplish in five years, and they consistently underestimate what they accomplish in 20 years." That was some advice I once received from Ligon Duncan, former head of the PCA (Presbytery of Calvary). Additionally, a pastor of a large, historic Baptist church told me, "You are not really the pastor until year ten. Up until then, you haven't really established trust with your leaders, and the DNA you have tried to inculcate hasn't yet set." Both of these statements make the same point: staying in one place and being a consistent force of leadership will bring lasting change.

The Flywheel Concept

Jim Collins, in his classic leadership book, Good to Great, talks about "the flywheel" concept bringing real change. Inculcating DNA works like spinning a flywheel (a big, heavy metal wheel mounted horizontally on a vertical pole). In your first "spin," you exert an extraordinary amount of effort for very little result. However, your next "effort," building on the momentum of the previous movement, takes less energy but results in a faster spin. On and on it goes until the momentum of the wheel causes the wheel to turn itself, requiring only the slightest tap from your fingertips.

Organizations are like that, Collins says. Few leaders can come in, give it a mighty spin, and be done. Most of us push, then a little more, and a little more, and over time the movement we desire is created, with each year's momentum building on the momentum from the year before.

God Wants Us to Be Persistent

Think about Jesus' story of the persistent widow and the unjust judge. The whole parable seems ridiculous—God is compared to an unjust, uncaring judge who answers a widow's request simply because she is annoying. It almost seems blasphemous, but the point is that if an unjust judge will respond to persistence, won't the just, compassionate God of the universe? For whatever reason, God has ordained that some miracles only come through persistent asking. Sometimes we give up when we don't see an immediate miracle, but we might be giving up right before God gives us what we are seeking.

To be continued

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Revitalizing a Church Series: Click | View Series

I am often asked by guys whether or not they should try to revitalize their current church or plant a new one. Only God can show you what your situation requires, but I want to pose two questions that I think anyone considering revitalization should ask.

Here is the second question, continued from Part 1.

Has God Been Preparing the Church for Revitalization?

If God has not orchestrated revival, and you don't see signs of God's movement within the congregation, I would not advise attempting to revitalize the church.

People are often deceived by our story. I came to the Summit Church in 2002. Shortly afterwards, we sold our building and replanted the church under a new vision. What most people don't know is that God had taken the church through a painful process prior to my coming on as pastor. There was a lot of turmoil about what direction the church should go. Many left. By the time I took the helm in 2002, those who remained were ready to do whatever it took to reach people. Voting me in as pastor was their decision to move forward.

In other words, I did not come in with my cape flapping in the wind and playing my magical flute, with everyone hypnotically following me. I was simply one stroke in a movement God was working in the church.

Don't Waste Your Time

I would not suggest, generally speaking, trying to revitalize when you don't see signs of God working in ways that are independent and larger than you. Yes, there are exceptions, but this is a case where I think Henry Blackaby (Experiencing God) got it right years ago. Discover where God is working, and go join him in it. Pray with Moses, Jonathan, or any number of the Bible heroes, "God, I won't go up, unless you go with me."

If you don't sense him moving in that congregation, go plant. Find a fertile field and invest your life there. You've only got one life, and there are billions of lost people. In my opinion, you should not waste your life banging your head against the wall, trying to lead people who don't really want to be led, unless God tells you in clear terms that is what he wants from you.

To be continued.

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Revitalizing a Church Series: Click | View Series

A Church Revitalized

I've been asked to speak on church revitalization at the Advance Conference this year. Six years ago when I was called as a pastor, Homestead Heights was a declining 41-year-old Baptist church. Attendance was down to about 350 people, and more were leaving. Today, the Summit Church consists of four campuses spread across Raleigh-Durham. To God's glory, this past Easter we had 4400 people in service and saw 160 profess faith in Christ.

Revitalized To Be Gospel-Centered

I've entitled my talk "Planting is for Wimps: Revitalizing a Church around the Gospel." That is, of course, tongue-in-cheek; we believe, and are heavily involved, in church planting (and if not, I'd never admit it at an Acts 29 conference)! We have started a church planting center at our campus called SendRDU, and our goal is to plant 1000 churches by 2050. But at the same time, America is rapidly becoming a boneyard of emptying churches, and our situation cries out for pastors who can lead their churches away from the idolatry of traditionalism and back to the centrality of the gospel.

Considering Revitalization?

I am often asked by guys whether or not they should try to revitalize their current church or plant a new one. Only God can show you what your situation requires, but I want to pose two questions that I think anyone considering revitalization should ask:

• Why, exactly, do I want to revitalize this church?
• Has God been preparing my church for revitalization?

We will address the first question here, and the next in Part 2 of this series.

Why Do I Want to Revitalize?

There are a lot of bad reasons to attempt church revitalization. Here are two major ones:

1. To Restore Institutional Glory

Often we want to revitalize a church because we remember how great it used to be. We are saddened to see a once-thriving church in decline, so we want to "save" the institution and restore its glory days. The problem is that a local church is a covenant community, and it's composed of the people who are currently part of that community, not those from its past. Jesus died to redeem the one universal church and will preserve it forever. In heaven, there will be no "Summit Church," no "Mars Hill Church." If you want to revitalize a church, do it for the care of its members or the excitement over those it could reach, not to restore the glory of the past.

2. To Save the Resources of the Church

On one hand, you hate to see the sacrifice of previous generations go to waste and millions of dollars of property "lost." On the other hand, the Bible repeatedly instructs us that we should look to God to meet the needs of what we are doing today. The story of God's provision of manna in Exodus 16 shows us that God does not want us to depend on his provision yesterday for what we need today. Practically speaking, you will likely waste time and money trying to redeem resources that could be better spent starting something new. The most valuable resource of the church, the only one really worth saving, is its people.

To be continued.

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"Dear, Lord, three things I pray..." I know that sounds like the opening to a bad Ben Stiller rendition of the Lord's Prayer, but there are three things that I pray every morning that help me begin my day centered on the gospel.

I don't offer these as a formula or mantra, but just as a practical way to live a gospel-centered life. (I, for one, have found that it is easier to espouse a gospel-centered theology than live a gospel-centered life!) Embracing these principles each morning applies the gospel to my heart, helping me to subdue my idols, counter my propensity to works-righteousness, and grow in the grace of God. Enough intro. Here are the three things I pray:

Unmerited Love and Grace

"God, because I am in Christ I know there is nothing I can do today that would make you love me any more, and there is nothing I have done that makes you love me any less."

As Martin Luther said, the default mode of the human heart is "religion." Even after we are converted, our hearts gravitate back toward works-righteousness unless we continually set them on the gospel. This prayer helps me remember who God has made me, by his grace, in Christ. According to John 17, God loves me now as much as he loves Jesus. Wow. On that basis, the notion that I can add to or take away from his love becomes absurd.

Joy In Christ's Sufficiency

"God, your presence and approval is all I need to have joy today."

This prayer helps me battle against my natural proclivity to idolatry. John Calvin described the human heart as "a perpetual factory of idols." We were made to worship, but we substitute the creature for the Creator (Rom 1:25). We turn anything that we find pleasing into an idol, looking to it for happiness rather than to God. This sentence helps me remember that I don't need man's praise, monetary blessing, success, or even "happiness" to have joy.

Resting In God's Goodness

"God, everything the gospel tells me about your intentions for my life is TRUE."

In the gospel, God shows me that his intentions for me are blessing, not cursing; hope, not despair; and resurrection, not death. This completely changes how I approach the day. I realize that God's plans for me, my family, and my ministry are good beyond even my wildest imagination. The sky is literally the limit (Ps. 103) on the salvation he wants to work in and through me. It helps me to, in the words of William Carey, "expect great things from God, and then attempt great things for God."

Abiding Through Meditation

Meditating on these three things allows me to leave the house "abiding" in Christ, which is, as Jesus said, the way to abundant fruitfulness. Meditation, though a lost art among Christians, is essential for gospel-centered living. It is different from Eastern meditation, where you cleanse your mind of everything, commune with Enya, or lie naked in the grass and listen to John Denver. It is meditation on God's promises, which brings God's presence into our lives.

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