Book review: Lost and Found by Stetzer, Stanley and Hayes

The idea of Lost and Found is to help pastors and churches connect the gospel with young adults. It's the result of lots of polling and interviewing and aims to understand how twenty-somethings think about the church and spirituality (part 1), what they value (part 2) and how churches are already effectively reaching them (part 3).

Part 1: Polling
The first part is statistic-heavy but provides some fascinating details. 63% of 20-29 year olds say they'd attend church if it 'presented truth to me in an understandable way that relates to my life now' (p.56). 89% said 'if someone wanted to tell me what she or he believed about Christianity, I would be willing to listen.' (p.55) But it's pretty telling that 90% believe 'I can have a good relationship with God without being involved in a church.' (p.54)

Part 2: Listening
The second part of the book was by far the most compelling for me. In this section the authors highlighted the four key values of the young adults they interviewed; community, depth (and content), responsibility and cross-generational connection. As someone right in the middle of the 20-29 age group I could totally identify with their findings. The church desperately needs to take these things on board, not just because it wants to reach young people but because the Bible has so much to say about them. The book is worth getting if only to read through this section and think through ministry in its light.

Part 3: Reaching
The third part of the book gives examples of how some churches have been reaching young adults. The authors identify nine common characteristics in their approach to young adult ministry, the key idea that really governs all 9 points is authenticity.

Some reflections
One of the important things to realise about this book is that behind the data is a philosophy of ministry far removed from the practice of many churches. The information it gives is extremely helpful but if pastors don't take away more from it than the need to join facebook it won't do them much good. Stetzer and co. give this challenge early on:

And let me add, you should not just read this book. You should spend some time listening to and talking to unchurched young people. (p.21)

The findings presented in Lost and Found almost function as a proof for the missional approach. The research indicates that unchurched twenty-somethings are willing to talk but much less likely to come to church. To get them to church it will first be necessary to go to them. It's science.

One thing kept popping into my mind as I read 'I wonder how far we can apply this to Australians'. As I mentioned, I could easily relate to the key values in part 2 but there'd have to be some differences. I guess that's where I need to spend more time talking to people.

This research is loaded with implications for ministry. In the interests of not letting this review balloon more than it has I won't get started on them here (but stay tuned). Overall Lost and Found is definitely worth a read. Its findings ring true and it's heartening for anyone who cares about reaching young adults.

Voodle

I found this somewhat disconcerting little present in our letterbox this morning.

Prettying up

We really really like our new house. It's comfortable and spacious and easier to keep clean. It's an old terrace house, so it's not really light but it's pretty good considering. Oh yeah, did I mention it was spacious? For a one bedroom house it feels very big. You can walk from one end to the other and it seems like a long way! Anyway, we are very thankful to God for it.

Even though it's so cool in all those ways, it does need a bit of 'prettying up'. The paintwork and the carpet are both very old. The courtyard out the back and the front verandah were both looking pretty neglected. And because it's all op-shop or off the street, none of our furniture matches.

But what I really wanted was a garden! Unfortunately it's all concrete. So for my birthday last year (we already knew we would be moving in here) Nick gave me a very generous budget to go and buy stuff to make a garden. I'd been collecting pots and tubs for a while but had nothing to put in them. And I didn't quite know where to start. Then I found some planks and bricks and had a bit of an ideal. After a big trip to Flower Power (which is awesome) and Bunnings I came back with heaps of stuff to get started on. It's not finished yet, but here's the start of my pretty front garden:



Because the house is pink (yeuch!) I've kept the colours to white, silver, purple and light dusky pink. There's loads of alysum, pansies, and sage. There's lisianthus and some other stuff. In the window box (which is very shaded) there's white impatients. We've just had loads of rain, which was probably awesome for all my new plants, but it does make them look a bit limp! Will post more as it gets finished off.

We both love sitting out the front. I often have my lunch out there. It's really sociable too because there's always someone from college walking past.

Real Vinegar

I tasted real vinegar for the first time today. This stuff wasn't generic "white wine vinegar" it was the real deal: Semillon Sauvignon Blanc white wine vinegar. Now, this is the shizz! I did a taste test to compare and it had much more flavour and much less acidity than the white wine vinegar I'd previously been buying. And I bought it from Coles for only a little more than the generic stuff. It was totally worth it. Makes such a nice vinaigrette dressing.

Cleaning Tip

Maybe you're really good at cleaning the shower. But if you're more like me and it's lucky to get done once every couple of months you'll probably find that it's pretty grubby. Well, either it is or otherwise you must be! Not only am I lazy though, I'm also a perfectionist. So when I do get around to cleaning something I'll be down on my hands and knees scrubbing until it's completely spotless. Cleaning the bathroom 'properly' is usually about a 4 hour job.

Anyway, to get to the point! It's a little odd, but laundry 'stain remover' spray (which you can buy for about $2 homebrand) is the BEST thing for cleaning soap scum off smooth surfaces like glass or enamel. It's better than all those 'super power no scrub easy off' sprays. And a heck of a lot cheaper. Just spray on liberally, wait about 5-10 mins then with a brush or damp scourer sponge give a light scrub and rinse off. Works a charm.

I was looking through job ads and stumbled upon this gem. It was for a reception and general office admin role (very similar to what I was doing in my previous job). I thought we had it pretty good but how's this for eco-trendy benefits:

We offer all our staff a professional development program and training budget, a shared well-being budget that includes yoga classes, a fully stocked organic kitchen, company bicycles, GoGet Car Share membership, tickets to gigs and other regular staff-selected initiatives.

I wonder if they have organic beer-o-clock?!

Christian Research Association

After reading lots of American church planting books I'm starting to get jealous about all the research they're able to draw on. I reckon plenty of it is still useful for us but there are differences between America and Australia and it'd be nice to know more about them.

The other day I found the Christian Research Association website. It's not quite on the same scale but it looks like there's some useful stuff on there. Apart from their studies, you can pay for them to do an analysis of particular suburbs. At some point I'm going to see what they can tell me about Glenorchy.

Four steps to beginning a new missionary work: 4. Find Out What God's Already Doing

4. What's God already doing?
As you get started you should visit all the churches you can, follow up any leads you get, find people who are already there, find out what God is doing already. This will help you make connections much more quickly, find potential partners in the ministry and will mean that the work won't be as dependent on you.

We've found that everywhere we've talked to people about our plans, we've had people come up to us and tell us about people they know, people we should talk to, etc. That sort of help is invaluable. I'm really looking forward to making the most of these contacts when we're back in Tas.

Things we learned in Tas: the need for a long lasting ministry

One of the things that came out as we talked with people about church planting in Glenorchy was that there have been at least a few other attempts at church planting there in recent-ish times. The thing is, none of them are around today. They started with varying degrees of success but all of them disintegrated for one reason or another. It underlined that we don't just need to start something, we need to be in it for the longer term.

Read a book on church planting

One of the ways you can support a church planter is to learn more about church planting.

Read Planting Missional Churches or 44 Questions for Church Planters. At the very least they'll give you an insight into some of the things your church planter friend is thinking about and trying to do and will help you pray for them.

Four steps to beginning a new missionary work: 3. Research

3. Research
You need to take the time to do your research. Don't rush, don't take shortcuts. It might seem more holy and earnest to skip this and go in all guns blazing but it'll sabotage your ministry.

I mentioned our plans for this on the roadmap post. We're going to live in the area for a year before we even start on planting a church. In some ways this goes against all my impulses but we're convinced that this is an essential part of the process for us. We're not natives to Glenorchy and we really want to make sure we can communicate effectively. I'm not sure why but whenever we've talked about our plans, people have responded particularly positively to this point.

Things we learned in Tas: think bigger, find more church planters

One of the convictions I left Tassie with last week was that I need to start looking now for another church planter to come to the Northern suburbs with us or very soon after us. That might seem a bit ridiculous since we haven't even started but I think it's necessary. For one thing I can see a couple of churches that need to be planted right off the bat. Secondly, it would give us much greater flexibility and support. We could start out together, but we'd be able to plant another church whenever the opportunity presented itself. Also, it often seems to take a couple of years to find someone which means I want to start looking now to be ready for then.

So if you will, please pray that God will be getting someone ready to join us.

Four steps to beginning a new missionary work: 2. Prayer Support

2. Prayer support
Make sure you get prayer support early on. Don't just ask people in general to pray for you, make them commit to it. It's serious and important and it should be treated as such. People won't take it seriously unless it costs them.

That was part of what we were doing in Tassie on our recent trip and also is what I'll be down for in March. We outlined our plans to churches and asked them to commit to praying for us every day. God answered our prayers by giving us a team of people who are praying for us and Glenorchy. We'll also be doing the same at our church in Sydney later on.

If you want to commit to pray for us every day, let me know and I'll add you to the mailing list.

Four steps to beginning a new missionary work: 1. The Call

This is a paraphrase of advice I was given by a missionary I spoke with last year. It's probably been the most helpful stuff we've heard for preparing for church planting. It's advice we've been following and will keep following.

1. The Call
Don't do it if you haven't had the call.

The first I knew about church planting in the Northern suburbs was 17th or 18th of January 2000 in a sermon by Pete Woodcock at the Evangelism Conference. I knew I had to do it. After that I tried to avoid it but God prevailed eventually through Bron, circumstances and my conscience. The moment I finally gave in to God on this point was sometime in 2005.

Prayer walking in Glenorchy

James Burleigh and I wandered around Glenorchy the other day. We walked and looked and prayed. I plan to do this again next time I'm down (and take a camera too).

We saw:
• A church building now owned by the council
• 10-12 year old kids asking us for money in the bus mall
• A primary school
• Almost all the men we saw were wearing wifebeaters or polo shirts
• A giant Chickenfeed plus a Big W and a Best and Less
• A relatively new Centrelink building
• Rows of pamphlets in Centrelink for services about kids and domestic violence, men taking responsibility for their behaviour, counseling for children, being a dad, drug rehab, a food van and employment services
• A gourmet butcher
• Two mobile phone shops
• Two women's fashion shops
• A cinema, a video shop, a computer game shop
• A large food court which was full at 11am
• An Anglicare office
• A community hall up the road on Tolosa St

There are at least a couple of churches that need to be planted there. It was exciting to see some possible opportunities even in the short time we were there.

If you've got a spare 1/2 hour or so I really recommend going for a walk around your neighbourhood and praying for the people/opportunities you see. It helps you see the place differently and is a great habit, I'd love to see whole churches getting into this.

Welsh preaching goodness

David Jones preached a couple of fantastic sermons at the church planting conference in Tassie. He reminded us all of why we plant churches. With church planting being the flavour of the month and most of the books emphasising methods we totally need to hear it. Here are a couple of the lines that stood out to me:

Church planting mustn't be allowed to gain a life of its own.

Imagine that said by a passionate Welshman.

It's possible to plant churches without proclaiming Christ.

This is what scares me the most when I think about planting a church, that we'll just end up planting something that 'succeeds' but that doesn't see genuine conversions.

The sermons should be online sometime and I'll link to them when they're up.

Church planting in Hobart by numbers

There are four big regions in greater Hobart: central Hobart, the Northern suburbs, the Eastern shore and Kingborough.

This is the breakdown if V100 is going to be pursued roughly according to population distribution:
• central Hobart needs 28 churches
• the Northern suburbs need 28 churches
• the Eastern shore needs 33 churches
• Kingborough needs 11 churches

This is based on the population stats for greater Hobart. Kingston Reformed have their eyes further South (greater Hobart only extends to Howden) so the Kingborough number should be higher. These details show just how much work we have to do, especially in the Northern suburbs and the Eastern shore. The Eastern shore in particular is going to be a challenge as the population is quite spread out.

Our roadmap

I've talked about heaps of my reflections over the last 6 months but I thought it might be helpful to briefly set out our plans for church planting.

We want to plant a church in Glenorchy which plants churches throughout the Northern suburbs of Hobart and beyond.

We've got 2009 in Sydney finishing off Bible college, meeting up with church planters and missionaries and raising money. 2010 will be all about getting a feel for Glenorchy. We're going to live there, I'm going to get a job there and we'll do that sort of missionary acclimatisation stuff. The idea is that that way we'll learn more about how to plant a church that will be effective at reaching Glenorchy. Then in 2011 we'll be starting the church plant.

It'd be great if you'd pray for us, we need it.

What's A Deck?

"Deck" is cool-speak for slideshow. Trust me, I worked around cool people for a few months. If it's cool, it's not a "powerpoint" it's a "deck".

Cool Christians kind of rejected powerpoint and all it's associated dagginess.

"Powerpoint behind your sermons? Pah, it just distracts people from what you're saying! Studies show that contrary to being a learning aid, it actually makes people remember less. Don't bother!"

I know, because I have said these things.

But maybe there was a baby in that bathwater. There's this cool marketing blog that I read which is very futurey. In a post about some Twestival (twitter/festival), the guy has some asides on why they put together a slideshow to explain something:

We put together this deck to explain what it's all about because, well, because some of us think in decks now, but also because there is something really useful about the way decks package up data.

They reify information - give it thingness, circumscribe its edges - which makes it easier to pass around and share with people and that, which is what makes slideshare awesome.

Hey we're in the business of passing around and sharing information too aren't we? So like, maybe someone creative should do something about that ;)

Baby B!

Here's our little baby girl. It was very cute seeing her squirming around on the ultrasound picture. She was a real wriggler! They checked her heart and brain and spine and hands and legs and feet and even measured the length of her nose! Check. All present.

On the way home I was grinning. Couldn't help thinking of the Black Adder quote:

"A boy without a winkle! Heavens be praised it's a miracle!

Then Sir Thomas More pointed out that a boy without a winkle is a girl, and everyone was really disappointed."

But I'm not disappointed - I'm delighted to be having a girl! Well, probably a girl. It's pretty common for them to be wrong on that one!

Just one thing for friends and family... PLEASE don't buy pink. Any kid of ours is quite likely to have red hair. And I will not put pink on a red-headed baby.

My brain is kind of melting so I'm not sure how coherent this will be! It's only 30 degrees, but after the cool of tassie the heat and humidity up here are much harder to deal with!

Tassie... ah.... Tassie! We had an awesome trip. It was lovely to hang out with people. The conference was great, the weather was delightful, and we had a great time staying with David and Ruth.

I've fallen in love with Tassie all over again. It was so wonderful being there! Two things that stand out: the amazing natural beauty of the place and the gospel vitality in all preaching we heard. I found it really really encouraging, both at the conference and at Cornerstone, Crossroads and TBT.

Now, if only I can figure out how to make a swimming pool in our lounge room!

Ministry and family

Ed Stetzer has just posted about how he and his wife manage work and busyness and their relationship. It's excellent and obviously comes from years of working at it. Here are some of the gems:

My wife and I talk and pray about how to balance ministry and life. I give her veto power over all ministry related issues. If she is higher priority than ministry, she much have veto power of it. If she is more important than ministry, she has priority over it.

And then from the end:

All of this investment is important because my family is my first calling and ministry. One day, I am going to leave LifeWay and the church I serve. We are all going to retire or perhaps make a move to another role. And, when you do, the only people that go with you are your family. Remember that.

Good times

Well, we've just finished the conference. It was fantastic, hopefully a really significant moment for V100 and the Christian Reformed Church in Australia. The preaching was superb, praying and singing together was exceptional and that was before we even got to the seminar content!

It's been a huge week and although we've had internet access it's been difficult to know what to post. I think it'll take a few more days for me to process my thoughts and then there'll be another onslaught.

Tonight we'll be visiting TBT and asking for prayer support from them, tomorrow I'll be meeting up with a few leaders and mates and then we'll be on the plane and back to smelly Sydney, all charged up for another year. God has been so good to us, giving us far more than we'd asked for, our trip has been even better than I'd hoped.