BrianIngraham.com | ASPIRE

About a month ago I had the opportunity to sit around a table with some exceptional men who love the word of God and who are wanting to see God’s Kingdom advance again in Scotland. Some from the greater Glasgow area, some from Edinburgh, some from other places like Stirling, Perth, and Dundee.

We all got together and listened to Iain Murray, of Banner of Truth Publishing, speaking to us about what we, as the young Church leaders of today, can learn from the Puritans.

Michael Luehrmann recorded the session and has made it available HERE.

I found this to be a casual time jam-packed with gold… enjoy.

One of the oddities of Re:Hope is the high amount of men who regularly attend, especially single men. It may be the only church in Glasgow with obviously more men than women on any given Sunday. It is not uncommon to hear people joke about our church being “Man Church.” I love it that we are reaching the men of this city, but were someone to ask how we are reaching men I wouldn’t have had a clear answer.

Last weekend, I was browsing a bookshop and came across a book by David Murrow entitled “Why Men Hate Going to Church.” I looked at it and thought to myself this could either be the biggest waste of time and money, or it could help me understand the unique phenomenon happing at our church.

“Why Men Hate Going to Church” turned out to be the most insightful and encouraging book I have read in years pertaining to evaluating church. I think the book contains not only answers on how to begin reaching men, but also how to reach the emerging generation as a whole.

Some good lines include:

“Men fantasize about saving the world against impossible odds. Women fantasize about having a relationship with a wonderful man…. Is the purpose of the Christian life to find a happy relationship with a wonderful man, or is it to save the world against impossible odds?”

“Men regard churchgoing like a prostate exam; it’s something that can save their lives, but it’s so unpleasant and invasive, they put it off.”

“Please, don’t gauge a man’s commitment to Christ by his tears (or lack of them)… some men are genuinely broken by God without ever shedding a tear. Sometimes the Holy Spirit works without Kleenex.”

“If you want your church to attract men, you must put a high priority on developing leaders…”

“Today’s church doesn’t need Greg because it doesn’t need his gifts, in fact masculine gifts often gum up the works of the ministry machine. If only Christianity required risk taking, boldness, aggression, and heroic sacrifice, Greg might find his place in church.”

If you are in some leadership or influence capacity in a church or intend on moving that direction, especially working with the emerging generation, pick this book up. Even if you find yourself effective, read it. I am glad I risked it.

I found this quote from a man who lived over a hundred years ago. The following was part of a description of the kind of preachers he desired to see Scotland full of. So much of this resonates with what I wish for this land as well.

“…Let him preach with a thrilling heart; let him preach like one amazed at the glory of the message; let him preach in the tone of wonder and gratitude in which it becomes sinners to realize the great work of redemption, –not only will the congregation listen with interest: they will listen with profound impression… We greatly need preachers for the people. A preacher to the people needs to be very clear in his views, homely in his style, full of illustration, direct and courageous in his application, rich in brotherly sympathy, and very warm and vigorous in his delivery. Alas! They are not common.”

W. G. Blaikie (1820-1899) said this about the kind of preachers he wished to see cover Scotland. Over a hundred years latter, I concur. If only Scotland were blessed by such preachers in our day… people who love God, love his word, and preach like that. What amazing days we might see.

Last Sunday a man I had never met before approached me at church. Apparently he was doing some research for the Church of Scotland about reaching the emerging generation. When he looked around our church he was struck at how many young people there were and he said, “Most ministers say that the young are not interested in God these days and yet I look around here– How is this possible? How?”

Jim Goll comments on Daniel chapter seven saying, “What Daniel was witnessing here is a vision of the revival of evil… Daniel wanted to look beyond the revival of evil to see the Lords response to it….“

I can see how God’s people in such an extremely post-Christian context, in a time of a revival of evil, and the collapse of many churches, could be driven to giving up hope of the young ever returning to God. And yet, all it takes is the Spirit’s movement. I live in a city where no truer word could be said than the words of Zechariah, “It’s not by might, nor by power but by My Spirit’ says the Lord.”

Keep looking beyond the revival of evil to see the how the Lord is already responding to it in powerful and obvious ways. God is challenging his people to look past what they see and believe that the God they have heard about, the God they have read about, has begun moving in our day like in the days of old.

Why is there so much Christian resistance to reading the Bible? Why do I find it extremely rare to find church leaders who enjoy the bible? Pastors who read it even when they don’t have to prepare to teach it? Why is it I no longer expect to meet a pastor who loves the word?

The single most alarming crisis in Christianity today IS NOT cultural changes (although that sure is shaking things up) but the abandonment of the bible by its leadership. Sure, it is still being used, but is the word of God precious to anyone? I hear a lot about leadership challenges due to this cultural shift. I hear a lot about revisiting theology. Both of those are valuable, but where is the call for a generation of ‘Biblicists?’ Is anyone looking for bible-centred leaders? I wonder if in the age of pop-Christendom and church growth if we forgotten what really matters.

If I was young and looking to become a Christian leader, I would search high and low to find a godly man of the word and a man of prayer and I would seek to become like them. I wouldn’t waste my time on training programs that teach ‘Christian leadership’ unless the Bible and prayer was CENTRAL to the program (meaning that you read the bible not just pull points from it.)

We live in a lazy age. Who wants to spend all that time reading the bible over and over and over again when you can just word search what you are looking for in the moment? Reading the bible is seen as too much work, too time consuming. In an age where things move fast who takes the time anymore? Does anyone else see the impending crisis?

This is from Sam Metcalf, who got it from Steve Addison who was hevily influenced by Paul Pierson. I am posting it for two reasons. One, if those guys think it is worth processing then it is worth processing. Two, if I don’t put this somewhere I will probably misplace it.

• They always begin on the periphery of the institutional church.
• They are motivated by a transforming experience (grace) of God by an individual or group.
• The result is the desire for a more authentic Christian life that often leads to concern for the church and world.
• Face-to-face groups for prayer, Bible study, and mutual encouragement are important.
• New methods of selecting and training leaders become important. These are less institutional, more grassroots and lay-oriented.
• There are theological breakthroughs, that is, rediscovery of aspects of the Biblical message that have been forgotten or overlooked by the Church, usually they involve a focus on the gifts of every believer.
• There is a levelling effect, distance decreases between clergy and laity, social classes, races, men and women, and denominations.
• The movement is countercultural in some ways, often because it reaches out to those who have not been valued by their society.
• Consequently there will be opposition by many in the dominant culture and church.
• There will often be manifestations of spiritual warfare. Such movements sense the reality of evil and the need to recognize the victory of Christ in the cross and resurrection.
• At times there will be unusual manifestations of the power of the Holy Spirit; healings, visions, glossalalia, miracles, etc.
• More flexible structures of church and mission will be needed and often emerge, different from traditional structures.
• The movement will be led to significant re-contextualization of the Christian message, which will be communicated more widely by lay persons to those outside the church.
• New music is often a characteristic.
• Biblical concepts ignored by the traditional church but relevant to the hearers are often discovered.
• There will be a growing concern for the marginalized, often expressed in ministries of compassion.
• At a later stage this often leads to concern for broader social transformation.
• As the movement matures there will be concern for the renewal of the broader church.
• As the movement continues to mature many will see themselves not only as part of the particular movement but also as citizens of the Kingdom of God, transcending their own movement.
• Finally, every movement is less than perfect and often messy at the edges and sometimes, at the center. This is inevitable as long as sinful humans are involved.

Neil Cole, founder of the Church Multiplication Associates in Los Angeles has some good words on discipleship.

If you can’t reproduce disciples, you can’t reproduce leaders. If you can’t reproduce leaders, you can’t reproduce churches. And if you can’t reproduce churches, you can’t reproduce movements.

We are in the business of ‘making disciples.’ This has global implications for tomorrow. There is an interconnectedness and ‘domino’ effect that consistent, effective ‘disciple making’ has on the trajectory of the Christianity of tomorrow. The more attentive we are to the ‘great commission’ the more potentially vibrant the church of the next generation.

This is straight from Steve Addison’s blog…

Margaret Wheatley believes streams can teach us about organizations (movements) and the need for adaptive methods

I am attracted to the diversity I see, to these swirling combinations of mud, silt, grass, water, rocks. This stream has an impressive ability to adapt, to shift to the configurations, to let the power balance move, to create new structures. But driving this adaptability, making it all happen, I think, is the water’s need to flow. Water answers to gravity, to downhill, to the call of the ocean. The forms change, but the mission remains clear. Structures emerge, but only as temporary solutions that facilitate rather than interfere. There is none of the rigid reliance on single forms, on true answers, on past practices that I have learned in business. Streams have more than one response to rocks; otherwise, there’d be no Grand Canyon. Or else Grand Canyons everywhere.

” Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World Revised” (Margaret J. Wheatley.)

I have not had the joy of living during a time of great spiritual awakening of people far from God, nor a time of revival. Internationally speaking, that may not be true, yet in the context of my life, in the west, I have not seen it… yet I pray for it.

Recently, I finished reading a biography about John Hyde, a missionary to India during a time of revival. What caught my eye was a reflection on what they thought they should have done differently.

“We ought to have emphasised the lesson of absolute obedience more than we did. I believe it was want of obedience that grieved the Holy Spirit and stopped that Revival.”

If we pray, or in the very least hope, for a time of awakening or revival shouldn’t we also be astute to lessons learned from the past? If we desire to be particularly astute in taking heed from the past, we might even seek to lay a foundation of obedience bordering on absurdity before revival even breaks out.

I have seen a shocking lack of obedience in the faith of the young, a virtual absence of integrity in my generation. If lack of obedience squelched the revival in India 100 years ago, it is no wonder a revival can’t even get off the ground in my generation.

Does my generation even know that downloading free mp3’s via peer-to-peer networks is almost always illegal (disobedient to God.) Do they realize you need to pay for ALL the software on your computer? It doesn’t seem so.

I think it is time to call Christians back to their bibles, prayer, and costly and absolute obedience in everything.