This is the final section on our series reflecting on the Greenhouse Conference (Story 2) that took place here in Chicago, Feb 19-21st.

In the previous section, we peeked into the petri dish of organic church cultures, the reproduction of disciples, leaders, churches, and movements.  We considered the particulars on preparing the soil for nurturing and harvesting leaders as they emerge in and for a local movement.  Leadership is especially important in the early days of a network’s formation, so that patterns that are woven into the fabric of the network will result in spontaneous reproduction of healthy leaders.

The Church has always been about glocal influence.  In gardening, this ever-spreading and multiplication is known as propagation.

All over the world (global) this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you (local) since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all truth — Colossians 1:6

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. — Isaiah 61:11

“The Kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.” — Matthew 13:33

If the Church influences at the glocal level, what is its purpose?

The Church exists to bring glory to God and to bring God’s glory to all people.

That means indigenous worship, social justice, mercy, reconciliation, spiritual formation…holistic salvation!

Beginning with the End in Mind

Think about the destination, then make all your plans to get there.  For God, its about his creating a city – a living, organic city – and bringing it to earth where people of every tongue, tribe and nation are present and compose one diverse family…bursting with worship for God! (Rev 7:9-10)  With this picture of God’s dream in mind, how can we join God in his mission?

By cultivating a vibrant family of God’s from every tongue, tribe and nation in our part of the world. That is our mission.  Saturation church planting for the purpose of propagating God’s Kingdom in the hearts of each person on earth.  We dream that justice from heaven would pour out like a mighty river and that peace would be finally given a real chance. This stuff is what God has been about, and what the earliest church was intent on.

This is different than your typical “church plant” – this is about giving each people group on earth a in-life picture of Jesus-with-skin-on in their context.  With that said, we cannot continue to only propagate churches that reproduce like elephants — we need “rabbit” churches.

Watch this video for a good description of “rabbit churches” that exemplify saturation church planting.

Missionary Resources Teams

I’ve written elsewhere on MRT’s, even wrote a paper on the topic of Five-fold missionary resource teams… and Neil Cole ended Greenhouse by peeking at these teams.

Think of these teams as the catalysts in the chain reaction of gospel propagation – or maybe the connective tissue for energy to flow through.  They are the gifts of Christ to the Church (Ephesians 4:7-11), apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher.  These folks are not titles, offices, or even positions.  They don’t wear badges or funny liturgical gowns.  They are functions – and their function is to work together to equip those who have spiritual gifts to do the work of ministry (v16).

Much of the recent study on church leadership has come from (1) deeper study of the terminology itself (apostolos, etc), (2) the several brief passages that address the subject (3) doing bios on people in the New Testament that lived as examples of one of the five giftings (4) church history and (5) your own walk with the Spirit of God.

This does not kick out “elders, deacons and widows” from church leadership, it simply augments it to provide a fuller picture of God’s catalyzing force in his Kingdom.

Here’s a brief snapshot of each of the giftings:

Apostle: A sent one to lay a foundation for the expansion of the church with a specific God-given assignment. Helps the whole church say, “I can do this!”

• A sent one (apostolos) is often looking for new places and people to spread the Kingdom of God.
• Lays a foundation in a given region (Eph 2:19-22) and like a good foundation are not noticeable after the building has begun. Does not build on another’s foundation. (Rom 15:20-21)
• Identifies/empowers leaders quickly, and is often the one who will call out the other functions in the MRT. (1 Tim 1:18, Acts 14:23)
• Reads cultures and sees open doors for the message.
• Has a relational authority rather than positional.

Prophet: One who hears and speaks a specific word from God to a distinct person or persons.  Helps the whole church say, “I can hear from God!”

• Encourager, comforter, and strengthener. (1 Cor 14:3)
• Often speaks for God, and reminds others that God’s ways are higher than our ways. (1 Cor 14:25)
• Consumed by the truth – tells the truth without fear of consequence.  Can be a polarizing force in the church.
• Often unappreciated. (James 5:10)

These two are the “start and go” team – the “foundation” of the church.  They function as a start-up team that can initiate the momentum and get down all the needed systems for viral multiplication. (Eph 2:19-22) When the whole church can say with confidence, “I can do this!  I can hear from God!”  anything is possible.

The next three are the “stay and grow” team.

Evangelist: One who is called to passionately seek out opportunities to share the holistic gospel with others through word and deed, bringing them to relationship with Christ. Helps the whole church say, “I want that passion!”

• Good news-caster (euangelistes)
• Often more comfortable with lost than found (1 Cor 9:19-23)
• Makes opportunities to share the whole gospel (Col 4:5-6)
• Listens closely to the promptings of God (Acts 8:26)

Shepherd: One who has an overwhelming concern for the continuing care and formation of God’s people. “I can love these people!”

• Protects and cares for the flock. (Acts 20:28-31)
• Strengthens the weak and searches for the lost sheep.
• Helps feed the young Christians and models how to be “fed” directly by God.
• Values intimacy. (John 10:3, 13-15)
• Leads by example, and is trusted by the flock because he/she has relational authority. (1 Peter 5:1-3)

Teacher: One responsible for progressive growth in understanding and truth’s application. “I can feed myself and show others how!”

• Facilitates learning of truth and a kingdom lifestyle.
• Mentors on a personal level with a “bifocal vision”. (2 Tim 2:2)
• Aims people in a healthy direction. (Phil 3:15-17)
• Loves to expose false assumptions and reveal actual truth. (2 Cor 10:5)

There is and will always be dialogue and guessing on the roles of the functions mentioned in Ephesians 4:11.  I recommend not turning this into a “personality test” where you pigeon hole someone into one category, where they are stuck for the rest of their lives.

Its important to remember that Jesus held all of these gifts in a perfect balance.  All of them are Christ-like – there is no “super-gift.”  And its important to remember that the goal of the MRT is to equip the whole church to be apostolic/prophetic/evangelistic/pastoral/didactic.

Our God is a multifaceted God, our goal is to live deeply into those endless facets, and to express our God’s glory in endless ways.  For his Glory!

This is the third section on my reflections based on the content the Greenhouse Story 2 Training Weekend (Feb 19-21st).

***

Take a look at the back of almost any Bible and you’ll see a map of the Middle East and the Mediterranean Sea.  You’ll see four squiggly lines drawn in different colors and a little key at the bottom indicating that these lines are the apostle Paul’s missionary journeys.

As a kid, it always reminded me of those scenes out of Indiana Jones movies, where there would be a soft fade from a smirking Harrison Ford onto a parchment map, with a red line moving slowly over a map, indicating a plane’s path from Germany to Austria or some other beautiful locale.  It helped convey the story’s progression and the vastness of the tale.

But merely showing each movie’s mapped journeys would no doubt strip the Indiana Jones tales of their richness – the time between journeys, the relationships built in each movie, the enemies defeated…and of course, the explosions!

As nice as it is to have a map of Paul’s journeys spanning 30 years smashed on top of each other, we need to carefully consider the lives and happenings of Paul throughout Acts and the New Testament Epistles to see what those journeys mean – and it might just reveal how God develops a leader in the harvest that finishes well.  (As a side note, I highly recommend the 1981 TV movie Peter and Paul.)

First Journey

Paul’s first missionary journey (Acts 13:1-14:28) from 47-48 CE took place in Southeast Asia and was the start of the churches in the Galatian region.  See Paul during this time as a learner, and not a teacher.  A team covered 1500 miles as traveling evangelists leaving clusters of undeveloped disciples behind who were desperate for leadership.

The team felt that it was necessary that they revisit these churches several times to provide leadership, nevertheless, the churches suffered from immaturity and vulnerability, a weak understanding of the Truth, and was influenced at the hands of very strong and legalistic leaders.  Even though the team saw fruitfulness, it did not see its churches multiply.  The sickness of these churches and personality differences in the team seemingly caused frustration and division.

Lessons:

• The First Journey leader often tries to do it all himself, which leaves behind weak churches who are open to other “do-it-yourself” leaders who want to dominate others.
• The apprentice leader on his first journey beings to flex his own leadership muscles and become a leader in his own right, stepping away from his mentor.
• First Journey leaders are often in a hurry to move on.
• The First Journey leaders is where the leader gains the know-how to pass on to others – you cannot skip the first journey.

Second Journey

God begins the team’s second journey through the disagreement over John-Mark’s readiness for another mission trip.  It can be read about from Acts 15:36-18:22.  As it turns out, this spurs Paul to multiply his mission team and cover more ground.  This time, Paul’s team is much bigger, dropping a member off in each city rather than leaving churches alone.  This worked out well at first — Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke…which became… Paul, Silas and Timothy…which became…Paul.  Stuck again – alone and frustrated.  One night in a dream, Jesus gives Paul the answer to his perpetual loneliness and frustrations with the finiteness of his mission teams.

In Acts 18:9-10 Jesus teaches Paul a valuable lesson in multiplication growth.  Stay in Corinth and develop a team from the harvest!

Lessons:

• A Second Journey leader realizes that his plans are not God’s plans.  Learning to listen to God makes him more flexible and prepared for producing spiritual fruit.
• Don’t be surprised if the Second Journey emerging leader steps out from under their mentor and starts doing things on his own – a seasoned, godly mentor will allow this “rebellion” and pray for the emerging leader’s success.  Over time, they will be restored and their relationship will be even stronger than it was before.
• The lesson of the Second Journey is learned through aimless confusion, emptiness, pain, conflict, loneliness, and fear.
• You can’t skip the Second Journey either.

Third Journey

Paul’s third missionary journey (Acts 18:23-21:16) is very different from his first two.  He is learning the role of an organic, catalytic missionary. This time no team is mentioned, and he doesn’t travel from Corinth for over 3 years!  This time, he didn’t even start any churches – instead he recruited indigenous followers of Christ to start the churches, which kept them from being overly dependent on him. In 3 years, all of ASIA IS REACHED with the Gospel! (Acts 19:10,26)  All this, and Paul does not even leave the school of Tyranus.  How??

1. Paul established a regional base for church planter development in a global city (Acts 19:8, Acts 20:18)
2. Mentoring one-on-one became central to his strategy, by life example, and by formal teaching.
3. Missions, evangelism, and discipleship became less ethereal and more “on-the-job” training. (Acts 20:21)
4. Now the Holy Spirit was allowed to pick the teams and to call people to mission.
5. Paul empowered leaders to connect directly with God, so that he was no longer necessary (Acts 20:32)

Lessons:

• Third Journey leaders attract more quality leaders.  God gives his best to Third Journey leaders because they now give everything to the emerging leaders.
• Third Journey leaders have an ever-expanding influence as others take their message further than they could ever go themselves.
• Though they may do less work, Third Journey leaders are now more focused and the work they do is more fruitful and reproductive.

Fourth Journey

This is where things go really wacky.  The Paul’s fourth missionary journey is as a prisoner from Jerusalem to Rome. (Acts 21:17-28:31)  Its hard to think of this as a missionary journey, until you realize it was his intention from day one to make it to Rome, and that doing it this way all his expenses were paid by the Roman Government!  As he was under house arrest for 2 years or longer, he spoke with church leaders and helped encourage the largest church network of the First Century.  According to Paul, this was his most effective missionary journey (Phil 1:12-14)…yet he never left his apartment!

Using his influence as leverage to speak to new levels of human authority, he got the Gospel even into Nero’s household!  He used set-backs like imprisonment and a shipwreck in Malta to start new churches!  He even used his confinement to pump out FOUR letters that would carry his message throughout the world, and history.

Another less obvious blessing of the Fourth Journey leader is that they’ve been sidelined, yet their influence continues to grow. Like a former basketball player who became the coach – Paul’s being ‘locked up’ compelled others to take up his work.

Lessons:

• Most Christian leaders never make it to the Fourth Journey – they usually die or plateau on a previous journey.
• Daily provisions and preparing for the future is no longer a major concern. (Phil 4:10-19)
• Their influence now grows also in the eyes of secular world leaders, and they humbly find expansive, possibly international influence.
• Fourth Journey leaders write more than ever before – multiplying their message, wisdom, experiences, and maturity into countless lives.
• …And he’s not done yet.

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Stay tuned for the next part of the Greenhouse Story 2 Coverage!

All I can say is WOW!  We had a great weekend at the Greenhouse Conference, with Neil Cole and Ed Waken!  It was packed out like never before – over 100 people went through the intensive training weekend, preparing each of them to implement simple strategies for relational outreach, reproducible discipleship, and organic church planting.

Of course, the absolute best part of the weekend was spending some quality time with friends in the Underground, and reconnecting with other leaders across the Chicagoland area. Shared meals, coffee breaks, sharing dreams… nothing from the front of the room can compare with connections made there.

Check out these photos of our time together!

The “fire hose” of content that we received this weekend might best be unpacked in a series of blog posts.  I find that’s the best way I learn, so if you missed the conference, here’s your place to tune in!

*** Keep in mind – there were actually TWO conferences going on at the same time this weekend.  Greenhouse Story 1, and Story 2.  I went to Story 2, so these posts will be looking primarily at what was said at that conference.

Organically Multiplying at Every Level

CMA Resources, the organization that presents the Greenhouse Conference, sees their purpose as

facilitating church multiplication movements by focusing resources on reproducing healthy disciples, leaders, churches and movements.

Story 1 focuses mostly on resources for making disciples that make disciples… Life Transformation Groups are one of their strategies – what we call the Micro Layer of the Onion.

Story 2 then is left to talk about Leadership, Churches, and Movements.

Organic Leadership

Organic Leadership starts as a seed planted within yourself.  Unless you are personally seeing Christ’s life transforming power within you, whatever else you do will be disaster.  Your “organic church planting” will be more like “sowing the wind, and reaping the whirlwind.” (Hosea 8:7)  The choice to participate with God in cultivating organic churches across your city and region is to commit to being a certain kind of person; filled with the Spirit, a humble, authentic walk with Christ, always growing and changing, and empowering and serving others.

There are two kinds of people in the world – people who have the adventures – and people who only read about them.  Dive right into this life – let it immerse you.  At the end of your life – know that you have run the race well, and that adventure was not a book on a shelf, but a lifestyle well-lived!

Not sure if you’re out in the bush or only reading about the victories of others?  Do a quick check of your own life — Do any of these characteristics describe your plateau?

Avoids relationships of accountability // Infrequent application of God’s Word // Looking for greener pastures // Joy and love replaced with resentment and fear // Faults are in others, not so much in yourself // Compromising previous personal ethical standards // Sticking to areas of expertise, rather than risking new areas of learning // Talk more than you listen // Christian life for you is mere a routine.

The Right Kind of Authority

There’s a lot of resistance against the word “authority” in our culture today.  Even “power” in any form is suspect.  But is there a godly form of power?  What does it look like?

There’s a clip from Braveheart where William Wallace is speaking with the Princess of Wales says, “I understand that you have recently been given the rank of Knight.”

William repsonds, “I’ve been given nothing.  God makes men what they are… a lordship, title, gold…that I should become Judas?”

The Princess replies, “Peace is made in such ways,”

William: “Slaves are made in such ways!”

William is making known the temptation in all leaders – to take on the title and the gold and the power and make it their very identity.  Positional Power is never as power as Relational Power — anything William wanted, the Scots would have given him, died for him, because they saw his courage and personal contributions to the cause they all believed in.

Too often, we take our leaders from a shrinking pool of fish.  What Organic Leadership challenges us to is to reorient our recruitment for leaders from the very harvest field we are trying to reach!  Jockeying for the few of us that have been seminary-trained and groomed for maintaining a single congregation will never make a major dent in transforming our world for Christ.  It must become a living movement, made up of local leaders straight out of the harvest field.

So what do Organic Leaders do?

They are a lot like Organic Farmers!

Tending:  the work of leaders to create a Christ-centered environment in which healthy famly life and ministry can occur freely and fully.

Harvesting: is a result of intentionally developing disciples, leaders, churches, and missional teams. Here leaders are multiplied with personal mentoring that has a long range view of one’s whole life.

Propagating: is the extension of the whole gospel via ordinary disciples and apostolic teams into the sectors of city life, across a region, and globally among unreached peoples.