Breakout Session: Matt Chandler/Brian Tome
Final day is beginning. I’m in the session that will be taught by the guy Jonathan Lewis has a man crush on: Matt Chandler. He’s the pastor of Village Church in Highland Village, TX. I have high expectations for this session. I bet I’ll get my Bible out. The session is titled “From the Weekend to the World”. He’s going to talk about how the church’s mission isn’t for Sunday morning worship, but to reach the world.
Sorry, Jonathan, but I just found out Matt Chandler didn’t make it for some reason. They said something about a hooker and a kilo of something, so a guy named Brian Tome is filling in. Oh well, slightly disappointed, but God must have something for this guy to say to me. My ear is stretched out and my heart is wide open. Oh yeah, that hooker and kilo comment was a joke. But here’s a question: if you google Matt Chandler and hooker will my blog come up now? Maybe I’ll teach a session here next year: “How to grow your church by creating blog traffic through slander.” Ok, enough stupidness.
Brian is talking about how his church views their place in the city and in the world. Theologically they realized:
--The Kingdom of God is to be lived out in the world. The kingdom of God is not only to be realized in the future when the King returns. It is to be seen in part here and now in believers. How?
--We are called to good works. All of the NT passages commanding believers to do good works (Eph. 2:10; Gal. 6:9-10).
Let me pause here and affirm Tim Bailey the new leader of our city team. This is his heart. He is excited about the effect that good works in the city of Huntington will have for the kingdom of God. We live in a culture that is suspicious of Christians and the church, so we have the hard but worthy task of revalidating ourselves in Huntington. This is only effective as we make much of the king, Jesus. If not then we’re simply a social philanthropist.
Practically they realized:
---They shifted their emphasis (resources, money, staff) away from the weekend worship gatherings to weekday service. They obviously still worshipped and did it well, but it was for the purpose of launching the church out as missionaries into the city.
They Learned:
--Do a Few Things Well
--Start Small and Build
--Do Official Public Things and Empower Unofficial Private Things
--Cheerlead From the Front (Let people know when we win)
Sorry, Jonathan, but I just found out Matt Chandler didn’t make it for some reason. They said something about a hooker and a kilo of something, so a guy named Brian Tome is filling in. Oh well, slightly disappointed, but God must have something for this guy to say to me. My ear is stretched out and my heart is wide open. Oh yeah, that hooker and kilo comment was a joke. But here’s a question: if you google Matt Chandler and hooker will my blog come up now? Maybe I’ll teach a session here next year: “How to grow your church by creating blog traffic through slander.” Ok, enough stupidness.
Brian is talking about how his church views their place in the city and in the world. Theologically they realized:
--The Kingdom of God is to be lived out in the world. The kingdom of God is not only to be realized in the future when the King returns. It is to be seen in part here and now in believers. How?
--We are called to good works. All of the NT passages commanding believers to do good works (Eph. 2:10; Gal. 6:9-10).
Let me pause here and affirm Tim Bailey the new leader of our city team. This is his heart. He is excited about the effect that good works in the city of Huntington will have for the kingdom of God. We live in a culture that is suspicious of Christians and the church, so we have the hard but worthy task of revalidating ourselves in Huntington. This is only effective as we make much of the king, Jesus. If not then we’re simply a social philanthropist.
Practically they realized:
---They shifted their emphasis (resources, money, staff) away from the weekend worship gatherings to weekday service. They obviously still worshipped and did it well, but it was for the purpose of launching the church out as missionaries into the city.
They Learned:
--Do a Few Things Well
--Start Small and Build
--Do Official Public Things and Empower Unofficial Private Things
--Cheerlead From the Front (Let people know when we win)
posted by Josh Perry at
8:57 AM
3 Comments:
Although I'm still working through my man crush issues with Matt Chandler, my lawyer has assured me that I won't have anymore trouble as long as I maintain a distance of 500 feet away from him at all times. Just kidding (it's actually 600 feet).
I think this is one of the areas that Crew does a great job in already. One of the early things that really got my attention with Crew was the constant talk of impacting the city of Huntington for Christ and really embracing our part in the city. Having spent my previous 3 years at a church in Morgantown that had just built a 2,000 seat facility and moved AWAY from the city, I was really surprised/excited to hear Crew's vision for its role within the city.
Thanks for the updates Josh. I've enjoyed reading them all week.
Thank J Lew. I completely understand the man crush. Did you know I love Bob Dylan?
Yeah, I know about your Bob Dylan thing. I was just having fun with your comments. It was nice to get a blog mention though. Thanks again for posting throughout the conference.
Post a Comment
<< Home