Author: Brandon

I desire to follow Jesus Christ through this adventure of life by loving God and loving others. I'm a dad, husband, and Presbyterian pastor.

“A Holy Discontent”

“If God were to pour out His Spirit like He did during some of the great historical spiritual movements of the past, we wouldn’t have the right container because we haven’t equipped our people to realize and embrace the idea that they’re on mission.”

This is a quote from an excellent article called “The Church’s Sleeping Giant” that talks about the roughly 60% of people who will not be reached by our traditional church models. It makes an argument for leveraging mega churches and multi-site churches to launch new  missional communities. I would argue that mainline denominations could be leveraged in a similar way. Take a look, it is well worth reading.

Give Us a Name!

How often do you get to have the chance to name a new church? For a long time now we have been referring to this new faith community in many different ways: Mountain View’s daughter Church, Mountain View’s sister church, Stanwood New Church Development, etc. Now we have arrived at that point where we need to find a name. Our discernment team has begun brainstorming, but we would love to hear your ideas as well. Below is a word picture from the documents that we have created so far with the most often used words in bigger type (as a way to spark ideas). What do you think?

Who do we need? The Missionary Plan

Our team worked hard to put together a detailed plan for who we think we will need in various leadership positions to get the new church off the ground. I’ll share the timeline with you soon in a separate post and save the position descriptions for another time as well. We are excited to begin searching for the people that God is leading to be a part of this new church!

MISSIONARY PLAN
STANWOOD/CAMANO ISLAND NEW CHURCH DEVELOPMENT

 PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Jesus is already present and working in the Stanwood/Camano Island, Washington area. God has initiated a church planting process through Mountain View Presbyterian Church and the Presbytery of North Puget Sound in this community. Our task is to try and connect with where the Spirit is moving and leading us to be involved.  The purpose of starting this new church community is to share the love of Jesus and his good news by living our lives on mission: pouring ourselves out in service and love, building relationships, and providing an environment where all followers of Jesus can grow and live out their faith. The founding members believe a church community built on missional communities and regular worship gatherings is the best way to achieve these goals.

KEY LEADERSHIP POSITIONS NEEDED:

The following leadership positions have been identified in our mission plan as necessary to launch this new church (full position descriptions are available). They are listed in order by priority of which positions should be filled first.

Organizing Pastor

The primary focus of the Missional Community is to make disciples that make disciples. With this focus, the organizing pastor is called to teach and equip the missional community leaders and members. The organizing pastor will help lead the church to fulfill its vision in Christ Jesus. During regular worship services the organizing pastor will preach and teach the Word, administer the sacraments, and baptize believers. This will be a paid full-time position.

Brandon Bailey, a certified candidate under care of Mountain View Presbyterian Church has been the point person for our discernment process and has been identified as a good candidate to fill the role of organizing pastor. He is currently on staff of Mountain View Presbyterian Church and is a resident of Camano Island.

Missional Community Leaders

The primary focus of the Missional Community is to make disciples that make disciples. With this focus, the missional community leaders are called to be missionaries within their neighborhood and community, leading a group of disciples to share the good news of Jesus Christ and serve others. The missional community leaders will be responsible for organizing the missional communities and leading them in their calling in the community. They will also be responsible for training leaders to lead additional missional communities.

These will be volunteer positions that will require ongoing training in group settings with the organizing pastor. The initial leaders will likely need to attend training offered at other churches with existing missional community models in place. The organizing pastor may be a missional community leader in the beginning.

Worship Team Leader

To draw, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the gathered body of Christ into true wholehearted worship of the one true God. This will include leading a team of musicians and other leaders, in cooperation with the organizing pastor, to plan and lead the worship gatherings. This position will begin on a volunteer basis. As the position develops and the church grows appropriate compensations will be established.

Administrative Team Leader

To be responsible for the ongoing management and operations of the missional communities and church gatherings and to assist the Pastor and missional community leaders as needed. This position will begin on a volunteer basis. As the position develops and the church grows appropriate compensations will be established.

Mission Plan Complete!

Our discernment team has been steadily working to complete the discernment process by July. I am pleased to report that we have completed our “mission plan.” It is now a permanent page on this blog.

I can’t say enough about the amazing people on our discernment team and the work that they have done! All of them have given up countless hours over the past six months to go through this process with us and listen to seek out God’s leading for us – even in the midst of challenging life circumstances. Thank you Adam and Andrea Anderson, Jason and Becca Kreutz, John and Jackie Fuller, and Kristina Bailey! You are amazing!

What’s next? At our final team meeting we will create a timeline for the months ahead with some critical steps and we will post it on the blog. Some of these next steps include presenting our work to the sessions of Mountain View and the Executive Board of the Presbytery of North Puget Sound. Our team has completed their commitment and will be deciding what is next in their own lives. For some of them, stepping forward to be a part of our new church leadership will be the natural next step. For others, God called them for this particular purpose in the process and they will be moving forward with other forms of ministry and service.

From “Where?” to “When?”

I feel like we are approaching an exciting and critical time in our process of starting a new church. In the beginning, when we talked to people about our vision for a new faith community in Stanwood/Camano we generally were asked “where will it be?” I interpret this question as people searching to understand and grab hold of what we are trying to start. But now, when we talk with people about the new church, we often get asked “when will you start meeting?” That is usually followed up by a person indicating that they are interested in being a part of it, or that they know someone who is. These conversations are increasing in frequency – I usually have three to four a week. There is an anticipation building! Hopefully, some of this anticipation is because we have been doing a better job of communicating and clarifying our vision. However, I believe that some of it is also because God is stirring the hearts of those called to be a part of this new church and the time is drawing near!

Progress Update: July Goal!

Our discernment team had a very productive day-long retreat at Warm Beach Camp last Saturday. We wanted to have more time together to move through a larger chunk of the discernment material. Although we hoped to move through multiple “gatherings” from our handbook, what actually happened was that we spent most of our time filling in the details on our mission plan. Our team is nothing if not thorough! And I, for one, am glad that we are because when we finish something it is done with excellence and is something to be proud of! It was good that we took the time for the retreat because we discovered that we had more to discuss in the mission plan than we thought.

The mission plan is basically complete with the exception of some smaller details that need to be filled in (like some budget numbers). We hope to be ready to share it very soon. We are moving forward with the final phase of the discernment process which involves developing a “missionary plan” (leadership positions and job descriptions). Our goal is to have the discernment process wrapped up by the beginning of July so that we will be ready to present all of the material to Mountain View’s session, Presbytery Executive Board, and eventually the GA grant.

Obviously the process of starting this new faith community does not end with the conclusion of the discernment process, it just transitions into a new phase. One of the final tasks of our team will be to create a timeline for what will happen next. This will include a timeline for when we will begin worship gatherings. From there we will begin searching for the leaders we need to get things going and begin putting together a core team. All along the way we continue to pray and listen, seeking God’s steps as we go. I am reminded of one of my favorite scriptures (recently quoted to me by a member of our discernment team):

In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps.

– Proverbs 16:9

What to Measure? Beyond Butts, Bucks and Buildings…

We’re at a fun point in the discernment process right now where we have completed our mission plan (rough draft) and are beginning to think about how to measure success and/or failure in the future. If your primary measure of success is not worship attendance, income, and facilities (the “three B’s” – Butts, Bucks and Buildings), then what do you measure? There are some great thoughts at the end of this short video:

I especially love that last comment by Alan Hirsch: “A mission church is a church that measures its effectives by its impact on those outside the church not simply those inside the church.” It might be a little more difficult to do, but it seems to be worth the effort.

Did you “go” to church?

“Where is your church?” “I’m going to church.” “I just left church.” “Did you go to church today?” “Church is boring.” “What time does church start?” “When does church get over?” “I do church by myself.” “Do you want to get together after church?” “Did you like church today?” “I wish we had a traditional church” “I wish our church was more contemporary.” “What kind of church do you go to?”

We all talk about “church” in this way at some time or another. Intellectually we know that church is more than a building, a time in a week, a worship service, a style of worship, or a liturgy. And yet, our language and our actions often betray us. We put on our “church hat” for a couple of hours on Sunday morning, get our “church” done, and then move on with real life. We sit in service thinking about all of the things we will do when “church” is done. And yet, we know that this is not the way that we want it to be. We long for something more!

The early church was never perfect – as long as sinners have been gathering there have been conflicts (remember Jesus’ disciples arguing about who was the greatest while they were with Jesus?).  Nevertheless, as we seek to reflect on what it means to be the church, it is helpful to look at the birth of the church in Acts 2. When we do this, we see a very clear picture: the church is people sharing life together as they follow Jesus (“koinonia” in Greek). The church is not a “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” or “how.” The church is a “who!”

As Mountain View moves through the process of planting a daughter “church” in the Stanwood/Camano Island area we have been trying very hard to take this “who?” question seriously. We recognize that the Church is already alive and well in the community, but that there are many who are not yet a part of it. God is calling us to seek to reach them and to faithfully model what it means to be followers of Jesus. As part of our strategy, we are planning to use the missional community model of organizing a church. In this model there is not as much time and energy spent on programs. Instead, there is an emphasis on multiplication of leaders, service in the neighborhood, and introducing people to the Biblical story at home and in “third places” (public locations where people already gather). There is an emphasis on sharing life together, supporting each other, and accountability for living as “the church” in our work, school, and home. Small “missional communities” will meet weekly to seek how to live life out on mission together and reach their neighborhood.

Of course, our daughter church will still have weekly “gatherings” where all of the missional communities come together to worship, share in the sacraments, and engage the Word of God. And yet, the details of “where?,” “when?,” and “how?” to do this do not seem as pressing when our focus is on the “who?”

Very soon we will have a final version of our mission plan available for you to see. We ask that you continue to lift up our discernment team in prayer as we push toward the end of the process and creating our “missionary plan.” We will be taking a day-long retreat on June 9 to work through a big chunk of this. Also be praying that God will lead the right group of mature Christian leaders to join us as missionaries on our “core team” once we are ready to launch.

As always, the ultimate answer to the “who?” question will always be Jesus Christ! May Mountain View always be a church that centers its life and way of being the church around Jesus and following him into the world!

Confessions of a Youth Pastor

First confession: I’m not yet an ordained “pastor,” but the title I used sounds more interesting than “Confessions of a Youth Director.” Second confession: I’m scared to death of being the parent of teenagers!

I have two boys, ages 6 and 8. By all accounts, I should not worry about being the parent of a teenager yet. However, if 14 years in youth ministry have taught me anything, it is that kids grow up faster than parents expect! When my oldest son turned 8 in December I realized that I had less than ten years left to plan for a college fund and only eight to plan for him driving on his own! Yikes!!  Scarier still: only 5 years until he is officially a “teen!” In recent years, some of the teenagers I work with have asked me if I wouldn’t like to have a girl. I have a pat response: “Yes, I would love to have a little girl, I just don’t want to have a teenage girl.” This usually gets a good laugh from the boys and indignant protests from the girls. It’s funny, but it is also totally honest! It’s not that I think boys are going to be so easy, it is just that I at least understand some of what they are going to face, and I hope (probably naïvely) that it will help me a bit.

So what does any of this have to do with this blog about our new church development? This brings me to my next confession: one of the biggest reasons that I want to be part of planting a church is that I have a desire to see my boys living and growing up in a community of faith that is deeply woven into their lives – in their school, on their sports teams, in their neighborhood, in their home, etc. I want them to “see” and “feel” what it is to be the church more than I want them to hear and talk about it.

Now please do not hear the wrong thing: I am NOT saying that Mountain View cannot be that kind of church or that there aren’t other churches in Stanwood/Camano that are like this. What I am saying is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to use our current models of being and doing church to disciple young people. This is not a radical statement – almost any book or conference on youth ministry today will be talking about this phenomenon of young people leaving the church after high school. I think that older generations in the church are finally admitting that this is not simply a repeat of previous patterns of young people leaving the church and then returning when they have a family (the statistical trends are simply too obvious for that kind of speculation now. See #5 in Five Myths by Barna). So what we need in order to disciple young families are new models. Models that can be integrated into the lives of families, equipping them to live out their faith together during the week where they work and play in order that more people may come to know and believe in Jesus Christ. 

So we need to experiment. We need to try new things. We need to fail, try again, fail, and try again. We need to embody the church as people more than place. Since I know that the church is going to have to change in order to be faithful to God’s calling in the world, I might as well get on board now! I want to be able to look my boy’s in the eye someday and tell them that I at least tried to live out what they hear me preaching from the pulpit, even if it means letting go of some of what has been comfortable for me.