oasisCHURCH

"Jesus or My Girlfriend?"

One of the blogs I read, FIDE-O, has had a series of posts called "Jesus or My Girlfriend?" (NOTE: The authors on FIDE-O can be a bit extreme, and some of their theology I do not agree with, but I do like most of what they have to say). In these particular posts Scott Hill is taking on many of the popular worship songs Christians sing and he’s asking the question, “What kind of theology is this?” The point he makes is that many of the songs we have accepted as “powerful” and "meaningful" worship songs actually have fluffy, lacking, and somewhat effeminate theology when you really stop to consider it. He calls these songs “Jesus is my girlfriend” songs and comments that it’s no wonder two-thirds of the men in this country refuse to come to church or sing in worship. Because many of the songs we sing to Jesus probably makes most masculine men feel a little creepy. Additionally, there is little biblical foundation for most of the lyrics.

What he does is post the lyrics of a particular song, and as you read it you are compelled to ask the question, "Could this song be sung to someone's girlfriend?" If so, then good chances are it's a theologically weak song.

I admit, his post stepped on my toes a little. But I appreciate it. And I need the challenge. We should be more discerning in what we sing.

I Must Confess Something

I have never been a fan of reality TV. In fact, other than sports and late night episodes of Seinfeld I really don't have any television addictions. None of the many different reality shows have ever gripped me to the point of having to watch them week after week. I know several people are into American Idol. But every time I have tried to watch it I get irritated at those judges. Every time I have tried to watch the show I have seen them pass up good talent for the sake of choosing someone with the right image. But then again, it is called American Idol, and in America we tend to worship image... so I guess it's accurate.

A few years ago I tried to get into the popular reality show Survivor, but every time I watched it I wanted to punch somebody. So I felt it best to turn that one off. I did sort of get into a couple of episodes of one FOX did a year or so ago called My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance. But I should repent for even saying that.

In the past five or six years I really have not had the opportunity or the time to commit to a regular TV series. There are some that I think I would really like, such as 24. But it seems like with TV these days if you miss one episode you would be lost for the rest of the season. So finding a reality television series that I like and commit to is something I have not done.... until now.

I must make a confession. I am hooked on a reality show. It is helpful that it doesn't come on until 10:00pm on Thursday nights. It's late enough that I am home by that time, and Thursday nights are usually open for me. And, in my opinion, it is the ultimate reality show because it leaves very little room for flukes, image, alliances, or any of that other garbage. Bottom line is, the toughest and best will win. And my urges to punch someone are always appeased. It's The Ultimate Fighter on Spike.

You're thinking, is that okay? A preacher likes Ultimate Fighting? Well, I don't know if it's okay or not, but I like it. I suppose when you consider the entertainment factor of all the other shows mentioned, I could either watch a bunch of vain, whining, gossiping, lying, slandering, conniving characters or I could watch some characters training their behinds off and being straight up forward with one another about how they plan to send them home by whipping the dog snot out of them.

I have always been a little fascinated by the art of fighting, even though I truthfully got into very few fights in my lifetime. But I have always enjoyed watching boxing whenever I've had the opportunity. During my last two years of high school I would go to my uncle Roger Stewart's house to work out and prepare for the upcoming baseball season. Roger used to train boxers, and there was always a couple of guys out there with me training specifically to box. Because you basically use the same muscles for baseball, and you could certainly use the conditioning, he always trained me like a boxer. I even got the opportunity to spar a couple of times.

But UFC is more than boxing. It's "mixed martial arts". Meaning, someone decided to take the world's most popular methods of fighting -- various martial arts, wrestling (not the WW-whatever kind of wrestling, but real wrestling like in the Olympics), and boxing -- and combine them into one. They train as hard as any athlete I have ever seen, then put two guys guys in an octagon-shaped ring with chain-linked fence around it and a referee, then they go at it to determine who is the ultimate fighter.

The other night after watching an episode of The Ultimate Fighter I had a dream about the show, but it was with all Oasis people. In my dream Ray Willford was the trainer (he was perfect for the role by the way), and his son Cassidy was one of the fighters. The other fighters were Jon Perrin, Chad Dodson, Jim Durst, my son Brock (I know, a little young), and myself. We never did fight in the dream, but we all had massive tattoos and did our training at the American Legion building. Maybe tonight I'll dream part 2 and we'll go over to the Methodist Church for our first match.

Or even better yet, perhaps I'll dream that all the churches in Meigs County are training their men like fighting warriors... and the matches will take place all over the county... and they are on behalf of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I like that dream. That's a good dream. Men becoming men, and taking the lead in the fight for the Gospel in our communities.

The UFC (The Ultimate Fighting Christian). Who wants to sign up?

Throw Away Your "To Do" List, Make "Priority Lists"

In an email I sent out to our community today I mentioned that I hope the life of Christ is being lived out in your daily routines. We need to be careful of falling into the trap of allowing the busy nature of our days to become separated from our lives in Christ and our greatest priorities.

I know it can happen because I have all too often allowed it to happen. Here’s how it works. We first commit to too many different things. That’s where it begins. But here is where it gets worse. Out of all the things we commit to, it’s the things that matter least in the grand scheme of things that end up monopolizing our time, making us tired, bitter, and even angry. If we were to prioritize our lives and all the things that demand time from us, there is a good chance that many of the things that are getting the most time are the things that would end up on the bottom of our priority lists. This is where the frustration sets in. We feel defeated, deflated, and buried.

Have I described anyone besides MYSELF??? I suspect that I have. The reason Christ gets separated from our busy-ness is because the things that make us feel “busy” are the things that are at the bottom of that priority list. I would venture to guess that most people who are reading this would put things like: time with Christ in prayer, time in God’s Word, time with family, time preparing and doing the ministry God is calling me to do, etc. at the TOP of our priority lists.

So now, imagine if all of those were getting the top priority, and everything else was sacrificed until you got those things in line. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t do all of the things on the lower half of the priority scale, but just think how much different you would feel as you are doing those things. You would not be feeling guilty. You would probably not be as tired. And you would probably see a “missional” purpose in all of those lower priority activities as a result of keeping the higher priorities in order.

Okay, I need to stop now because I am whipping my own behind. Let me know if I am not alone in this. I will pray for you as you are praying for me.

Living Life Forward, Understanding it Backward

Download and listen to the accompanying audio to the following post by clicking here. You can also subscribe to our regular podcast by going to the Oasis Media Page.

It was Soren Kierkegaard who coined the phrase, “We live life forward but understand it backward.” The principle is that we often do not know exactly why things are happening the way they are happening in our lives, but when we look back and reflect on the different events and the way things went down over time, we can better understand it. By looking back it also helps us to live forward.

Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”

James 4:13-15 says, “Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

In my youthful cockiness and blind arrogance I set out to plant Oasis Christian Fellowship with a pretty good idea in my mind about “tomorrow”. Like James warns us against, I said to my wife, “we shall go to (Athens) and plant a church and do this and do that, and it will look like this and that”—yet I did not know what “tomorrow” would bring. The following is a summary outline of what the coming days would eventually bring us, leading all the way up to where we are today. The latter portion of today’s notes will be more detailed since they are dealing with church structure and leadership, while the first portion of the talk will be a basic outline of my narrative.

Oasis Christian Fellowship by name is approximately four years old, but Oasis Christian Fellowship of Meigs County is officially less than a year old. I know some of you are thinking, “Wait a minute, I have been attending meetings with Oasis for at least a couple of years, what are you talking about Chris?” That’s exactly why I am doing this talk today, as it is important to look back and see the path God has provided for us, and to understand how we got to where we are today. I believe we are finally at a place in Meigs County where the church is primed to move forward with energy and momentum. So sit back and enjoy this talk. Those of you who have been with us since the beginning will be very familiar with the stories. And hopefully those of you who have recently joined the Oasis family will be interested to know where Oasis came from and why there is a new church in Meigs County.

December 22, 2000
Chris and April make their annual trip to southeastern Ohio to spend Christmas with family. On the four and half hour trip from Wauseon we were listening to church planting seminars on CDs while talking and praying about church planting.

As we drove through Athens we both got the sense that the Holy Spirit was speaking to our hearts and He was calling us to move and plant a church in Athens. The very words out of our mouths were, “If there is anyplace that could use an Oasis it’s down here,” as we were driving down route 33.

May 4, 2001
Chris and April put their house on the real estate market in Wauseon, OH and began gathering a team of people to move to Athens to join in the planting of Oasis Christian Fellowship of Athens.
During this same time Chris and April began contacting family and friends “back home” (in Meigs County) with the news that they were moving to Athens to start a new church. Already some of those people from Meigs County were getting excited about the possibility of a new church, and were even willing to drive to Athens to join it.

August 31, 2001
Chris and April finish packing up all of their belongings into a U-Haul and move from Wauseon to Middleport. Wait, Middleport? Why not Athens? Because between May 4 and August 31 we became convicted that we needed to vow to God that we would take the risk and move before September, even if our house had not sold by then. Until it sold we were obviously still paying the mortgage on it, and therefore could not afford rent in Athens, but we had made arrangements with my mother and father, Mike and Sharon Stewart, who graciously agreed to allow us to live in an extra bedroom in their house until our house in Wauseon was sold. We would then find a home to either rent or purchase in Athens and move there. We were anticipating that this would be a month or two, maybe three at the most.

In addition to April and I moving, fifteen people from Wauseon and one from St. Louis (Jared Stewart) moved to be part of the new church plant.

September 11, 2001
Eleven days after moving, Chris is leading worship at a retreat for Keith Wasserman and Good Works, when we hear the devastating news of terrorism in New York City. Two days later the real estate agent calls us to tell us that no one is sure what is going to happen to the market, but she will do the best she can and keep us posted. We heard nothing for 3 months. No one even came to look at the house for additional 3 months. Finally, in March of 2002, we had an offer on the house. It fell through. There would be no more activity on the house for another year and two months.

In the meantime we were trying to figure out what to do with our church plans. Looking back, here is a brief summary of the progression of Oasis:

• October of 2001 >> We began having gathered worship meetings at the Ohio University Inn and Conference Center in Athens, using nearly every dollar of our weekly offerings to pay the hotel conference room cost of $75 per week.
• June of 2002 >> We were not having enough people or money to justify continuing to meet in the OU Inn. It was at this time that Chris met with three different families to discuss having church meetings in their homes. Two of these were from Athens (neither still meeting), and one was in Middleport (Mike and Sharon Stewart’s house).
• Summer of 2002 >> On two or three different occasions we met in special larger gatherings on Sunday evening, in Mike and Sharon’s yard and at the old Meigs Middle School. In the Middleport house church we were having between 7 and 15 people on a regular basis.
• Fall of 2002 >> We made arrangements with the American Legion Post 128 in Middleport to use their annex building for weekly Sunday gatherings. These took place in the evening until October 13, which was our first ever Sunday morning meeting. On that first Sunday morning we had over 40 people come, and on a weekly basis we were having between 15 to 25 people at the Sunday morning gathering.
  During this time we were still determined to eventually move the gathering to Athens someday, as the church was still operating as Oasis Christian Fellowship of Athens, although it was meeting in Middleport on Sundays. There was no vision or plan for beginning a church in Meigs County at this time.
• Between October 2002 and August 2003 >> During this time period every individual except two (Amy Hoffman and Jared Stewart) who moved to participate in the church plant decided that they no longer wanted to be part of the ministry of Oasis in southeastern Ohio.
• August of 2003 >> Chris called together a team of people to meet with him on a monthly basis for prayer and accountability in ministry. This advisory team became a catalyst for Chris to bounce off vision and ideas and help in minor decisions.
• Between August 2003 and TODAY >> We continued meeting in homes throughout the week and in the American Legion Building on Sunday mornings, and have begun to recognize the “official” work God is doing in Meigs County through Oasis.

December of 2005
“Oasis Christian Fellowship of Meigs” receives incorporation status from the state of Ohio.

We had a plan… and God had a BIGGER plan
Looking backward at how things have unfolded, it has become obvious that God wanted to do much more with us than simply plant a church in Athens. Yes, we still believe He wants to plant a church in Athens. But one possibility I was not ready for was that he wanted to plant an Oasis in Meigs County first.

So what are the next steps in this peculiar journey?
For three years we lived as a fellowship of people without a clear definition of who we are or where we are going. I don’t believe this has been all bad. In fact, it has been very good. It has taught us that Christianity is a life to be LIVED, and church is not a country club or a place you go once a week or a program you attend. It is a family, and it is something we ARE. We have learned how to be the church.

Learning how to BE the church is a vitally important foundational principle that we must never forget as we continue to grow and develop in maturity. And as we grow and develop in our maturity we will obviously become more defined and recognizable in our culture. At the same time it is becoming very important to focus on leadership development. The Scripture has some very specific instruction and qualifications for church leadership and organization. And it is essential that we do not overlook this important aspect of our church’s health.

Last week I took three posts to discuss the important aspects of healthy church leadership development. You can find those under the title: "Qualifications of Church Planter" Part I, Part II, and Part III. As we build for the future we must fix our eyes on our mission. God has a plan and a purpose for each person who finds fellowship with Oasis in Meigs County. Now that we have looked backward in hope of better understanding what God has been doing among us, let us look forward and LIVE life to the fullest.

May 14, 2006 to five years from now...
Oasis in Meigs County is a growing, healthy church of people who have fervor for the work of Jesus Christ and are faithfully living out the mission of God (missio dei) throughout the various neighborhoods, communities, and towns in Meigs County. The church gets to participate and celebrate in seeing hundreds of people put faith in Christ and join the mission. We get to see God raise up people from our own number to become pastors/elders, deacons, and missionaries in their schools, in their homes, and in their workplaces. We get to train and help raise up people from our fellowship whom God is calling to begin an Oasis in another town, and perhaps another state, or even another country. We get to see God develop the people and the plans for the Oasis church plant in Athens.

Visualize yourself in five years. In relationship to the mission of Oasis, where will you be? Where do you want to be? What do you want God to do with you by then?

What do you need to do NOW to begin working toward that goal?

I believe that Oasis Christian Fellowship of Meigs is in existence today by the providence of God. Looking backward, it is easy to see the ways He has put this fellowship together like pieces of a puzzle. We are the pieces of the puzzle. And He is moving us to where we are supposed to be. We are not finished yet. I believe He’s just now getting all the end pieces put together. Now comes the meat of the puzzle. The middle. Take comfort in the knowledge that God can see the picture. He knows where we are going. We are in His hands. Let’s keep living life forward so we can understand it backward.

Qualifications of the Church Planter III

In this post I will simply pick up from where I left off in the previous post. Again, the thoughts in this summary are a combination of personal reflections and notes from the Acts 29 Boot Camp session on developing elders, deacons, and members.

Once God has called someone to go and begin a new work, that "dude" must begin gathering people to join him in the mission God has him on. The mission is not to start a church. The mission is to make disciples of Jesus. And when disciples of Jesus are found, a church is formed. As the church begins to gather together, it will need to grow and be healthy (which are simultaneous terms). A healthy and growing church will have some form of structure and leadership.

III.  Elders/Pastors are the Sr. Leaders under Jesus. "Elder" and "pastor" are synonymous terms biblically. They are also called "bishops" or "overseers". They lead the church by example and direct instruction. We see examples of functioning elders in the New Testament (Acts 20:28; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 5:2).

Elders are men chosen for their ministry according to clear biblical requirements (1 Timothy 2:11-3:7; Titus 1:5-9) The lead pastor who founds the church must function for a time as the solo elder until a plurality of elders can be established. When additional elders are installed, the function of the elder is to lead the church and never represent factions, agendas, or disgruntled or pushy people within the church.

Are elders only men? Yes. From the book of Genesis all the way throughout the rest of the Bible it is clear that God created male and female completely equal, yet distinct in their roles, strengths and weaknesses. Meaning, they both have different strengths, different weaknesses, different roles, and when put together they function very well. They are made to compliment one another. In establishing the family, God gave the responsibility of headship (the one who is held responsible for the covenant of the marriage and the leadership of the family) to husbands. A drastic misunderstanding of this has caused much grief in recent days in the church, to the point where the gender-role pendulum has swung so far to one side then the other, that we have become completely confused as to what we should believe. God's church is a family. Just like in our nuclear families we are called to live with Christ as the ultimate head, and everyone answers to Him. Under Christ are Godly men, husbands who fear God and love their wives and kids the way Christ loves the church. He leads them and encourages them in the Scriptures, and he also receives from them and are encouraged by them as they function in the gifts God gave to each of them. All working together makes a strong family. All trying to lead or do the same things can be a disaster. We must learn how we are built to compliment one another.

Here is the key. Go to the Bible with a humble heart (that is very key). Trust God and His Word. He is good. And He acts with good purpose. So we must be okay with the fact that God has ordained that men are to serve in positions of spiritual leadership authority in the church. And we must understand that this is not because men are necessarily better teachers, or because women are inferior or less intelligent (which is certainly not the case). It is simply the way God designed the church to function. Men are to set the example in spiritual leadership -- in their lives and through their words. Why does God set up the family and His family (the church) with men as the Sr. Leaders? I don't know. But I trust He has good purpose for doing so. Why did God create women with more beauty and an ability to nurse children? I don't know. But I also don't argue with Him on those things. He has good purpose. He is the Creator. We are the created.

IV.  Deacons are the Secondary Leaders under the Elders/Pastors. Although Acts 6:1-7 does not explicitly mention deacons, we can extract the biblical principle that when the senior spiritual leadership is overburdened to the degree that they are unable to simultaneously get time for prayer, Bible study, and care of needy people, they are free to appoint pastoral assistants to help alleviate some of their burden (read Acts 6:1-7). These pastoral assistants are deacons.

The Bible clearly supports female deacons, and the early Christian churches had female deacons. In fact, most churches are filled with female deacons even if they don't recognize them with the title. Unlike elder duties, the duties of a deacon are not stated in Scripture because a deacon is simply a servant that serves however they are needed. However, their qualifications and rewards are spoken of in Scripture (1 Timothy 3:8-13). You will notice in that section of Scripture that Paul lists some additional qualifications to include women deacons (Note: the word translated "wives" in verse 11 is more literally translated "women", and can mean either wives, women, or deaconesses. You can check this here.)

V.  Church Members serve and lead under the elders and deacons. Church members are Christians who are devoted to their church and to ensuring it's health and growth by giving their time, talent, and treasure to the mission of their church. The Bible speaks of this community with many different metaphors:

• Christians are to work together like a family (1 Timothy 3:15; 5:1-2)
• Christians are to work together like the parts a human body (Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:16-17)

The early church had a recognizable membership. Like I mentioned before, there is no clear and direct statement of "church membership" or record of qualifications for membership, but that does not mean it is a bad idea to call people to covenant together in a specific location for a common mission.

I have argued in the past that because the Bible does not speak of local church membership, then we must not burden people with such an "extra-biblical" concept, and we must recognize that we are members of every church in town. I still believe in the principle of that statement (that we must recognize that we participate with the Church on a much larger scale than our local fellowship), while I would also ammend the statement as I continually grow in wisdom. While we do not find indisputable proof texts for local church membership, we do however find passages that imply that there was a recognizable (perhaps even "formal") membership or covenanting together in local gatherings.

Mark Dever writes: "Paul's formal exclusion of the brother in Corinth presupposes formal inclusion.  Paul exhorts the Corinthian church to remove a brother from their ranks who was sinning in a way not even approved by pagans.

You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst….Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened.  For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed…  I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.  But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler - not even to eat with such a one.  For what have I to do with judging outsiders?  Do you not judge those who are within the church?  But those who are outside, God judges.  Remove the wicked man from among yourselves (1Cor 5:2, 7, 12-13).

Paul is calling for the "exclusion" of this immoral brother, which would imply that it meant something to be "included" in that church.  He would lose the privileges of membership previously conferred upon him. Formal exclusion presupposes formal inclusion."

I think the number one key for the church when it comes to membership is this. We must renounce the idea that church membership is equivalent to being in an exclusive club where you get a parking (or pew) pass and other privileges as long as you pay your dues and show up when the doors are open. Being a church member means you have enlisted as a missionary in God's army and you are now choosing to engage in the local church's mission in that specific community, and may even be called to engage in God's mission in another location someday and be sent out from that church as a church planter.

The goal is to convert church members into missionaries. Even better, if every Christian who desires to participate with a local church (Oasis for example) recognized themselves a missionary to begin with, then the misconceptions of membership would disappear. And instead of having a church full of "members" we would have a church full of "missionaries".

Qualifications of the Church Planter II

The thoughts in this summary are a combination of personal reflections and notes from the Acts 29 Boot Camp session on developing elders, deacons, and members.

First of all, if we hope to be a healthy, growing church we must develop a biblically based leadership structure in the foundational years of the church. We are currently in the foundational years of our church. "Growing church" and "structure" are a couple more of those words that I have not focused on for the same reasons noted in my previous post. Typically, Bible Belt people hear the word "growing" and they immediately think of "attendance", and when we hear the word "structure" or "organization" we often think of a rigid institution that has forgotten how to function like a family.

But the fact is a good family should grow -- in strength, in wisdom, in maturity, in number, in intimacy with one another. If a family is healthy it will be a strong, influential family and people will recognize the family name.

A good family also has structure and organization. It is not rigid because it is a family, and therefore its structure is based on relationship and love and trust. Everyone knows who the leaders of the family are, and everyone knows what their role in the family is. When these work together you have a beautiful, diverse, healthy family.

So what does a healthy, strong, mature, and growing church structure look like? Before I jump into this I want to define a few words that I will be using in the upcoming paragraphs:

• Christology - This term refers to the study and understanding of Jesus. A Biblical understanding of Jesus Christ is crucial to our salvation. Many cults and world religions claim to believe in Jesus Christ. The problem is that they do not believe in the Jesus Christ presented in the Bible. That is why Christology is so important. Who is Jesus? And what has Jesus accomplished? Those are the primary questions we must begin with in developing a healthy and growing church.
• Ecclesiology - This term comes from the Greek word "ekklesia", which simply means a gathering or meeting. The word structure comes from a combination of Greek words that can mean "called out from" and was used to describe a group of Christians being called out from their homes to gather together in a given location. Ecclesiology helps us to understand the role of the church, and more specifically our role in the church. It teaches us about how church leadership is to be chosen and structured, and what the church is to be doing in regards to believers (worship and discipleship) and unbelievers (ministry and evangelism). So, to understand ecclesiology we will be asking the question, How does the Bible structure our church leaders and members to most effectively be God's missionaries in our culture?
• Missiology - This term has been defined in many ways. But the most accurate definition in relationship to the other two terms above has to do with the mission of God and the mission of the church. "Mission" is directed towards the world, therefore missiology is concerned with culture and with people of who are outside of the church, ultimately outside of Christ. This is a very important thing to grasp, because many people think that the worship of God is the primary mission of the church. It is not. Yes, the worship of God is the center of theology, but theology is discovered and tested in our engagement in mission. Worship inspires mission, and engagement in mission leads us to worship. So the question we will ask in refernce to this term is, How can we most effectively expand the kingdom of God in our culture and more specifically in our neighborhoods, city, and county?
• Ministry - Every member of Christ's church ought to be asking this question, and living the answer to this question. If this is not happening, then the church is not healthy, it will not grow, and it will eventually stagnate, wither and die. The question is: How does Jesus want me to help serve his mission?

Now that we have a better understanding of those terms, lets take a brief look at the structure of a helathy, growing church.

I.  Jesus is the Sr. Pastor of the church. This is of utmost importance. The key to having a good ecclesiology (understanding of church and how it's organized) is to have a proper theology of Jesus Christ (Christology). If the person and ongoing work of Jesus is not exceptionally clear and practically integrated into the church then eventually the church will become very sick.

II.  The Dude. No matter where you are reading in the Bible, every story and book reveals the same general principle. That is, when God wants to get something done He starts by selecting a "dude" (an individual called by God) to lead that change and He then works through that dude. Examples include: sparing humanity (Noah), founding a nation (Abraham), liberating a nation (Moses), establishing a throne (David), building a Temple (Solomon), preparing hearts (John the Baptizer), reaching Gentiles with the Gospel (Paul), and redeeming creation (Jesus).

Likewise, a church cannot be successfully planted and expect to survive if it is not initially led by a dude who obediently follows God as He speaks through Scripture and leads through the Spirit. This particular point speaks volumes to me, because I can remember like it was yesterday the burning I felt in my spirit to be involved in church planting, and to eventually plant a church in southeastern Ohio. What an incredibly sobering task! But the key is to remember who is ultimatley at the helm of the ship. JESUS is the Sr. Pastor, and He always will be. I labor with Him. We labor with Him.

Later this evening or tomorrow morning I will make the third and final post on the qualifications for the church planter. I am separating these to give you some time to digest each one. I will also be covering some of this material at this Sunday's Oasis gathering as I trace the steps of how Oasis Christian Fellowship of Meigs began.

Qualifications of the Church Planter I

This post is Part 3 of my summary from the Acts 29 Boot Camp in Orlando. Sorry for the long delay between posts, but hopefully the wait will have been worth it. I hope you are challenged and encouraged by the following paragraphs. I have taken some extra time to internalize and digest the information myself, as it pertains directly to me. But I am also confident that it pertains to many others who are now finding fellowship with Oasis.

Very simply, Mark Driscoll took us through 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 to illustrate the qualifications of a church planter. Those sections of verses are the basic minimal criteria for biblical eldership. And anyone who desires to be a lead planter of a new church ought to also meet this criteria, because for a certain time period he will be functioning as the lone, single elder. And he will need to begin training and preparing other men to ensure the church is overseen by a plurality of elders. Therefore elder qualifications are the same qualifications for anyone desiring to be a lead church planter.

Now, let me pause here for a moment.

We live in a culture that has been raised and nurtured on the northeast edge of the proverbial "Bible Belt". What does that mean? Wikipedia defines the Bible Belt in this way:

A Bible Belt is an area which Christian Evangelical Protestantism is a pervasive or dominant part of the culture. In particular, in the United States, it is the region where the Southern Baptist Convention denomination is strongest. It includes the southern states of the Midwest and the entirety of the South. Bible belts can also be found in other countries, including Canada and some parts of Europe. The name is derived from the (perceived) overriding importance of the Christian Bible among Evangelical Christian thought and practice.

What this has meant to us and to those in Appalachian culture is that we have always had some frame of reference for "Christian" terms or phrases. And it also means that everyone, either directly or indirectly, has been influenced in some way by the church, particulalry the predominant church or denomination in their specific location. This influence can be both positive and negative. One thing it has most certainly done is this. It has created for people a glossery, or an encyclopedia of what church looks like. And the definitions found in those glosseries and encyclopedias may or may not be an accurate biblical portrait.

For example, whenever a person in our culture hears the word "elder", immediately a picture comes to mind of what an elder is. For someone who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah a much different picture would come to mind. And neither would be an accurate biblical picture of the role of elder. The Salt Lake City guy would think of young, teenage "elder Joseph" who will one day rule his own planet, while the Bible Belt guy will most likely think of a very old man who was elected by the church at a congregational meeting and now he can pray over the communion on Sunday and argue with other angry men about pressing decisions of the church. The point is, most people's concept of elder is skewed because we typically rely on culture to define things for us rather than God's Word.

Another factor in the Bible Belt is that many people have experienced some form of church abuse, or burn-out related to overbearing and pharisaical expectations that are not rooted in the mission of the Gospel. Therefore, when terms like elder, deacon, and church membership are brought up in conversation those people want to immediately gag themselves, or they just want to run away to avoid the same thing happening again.

I understand this completely. That's why I have been working on starting a new church for over three years now and if I had a nickel for every time I have used the terms "elder", "deacon", and "member" I would barely have 15 cents. I have shied away from them, mostly for all the reasons stated above.

But to ignore them and never teach you the truth about them would be a great tragedy because it would mean we are ignoring God's Word and a vital part of the teaching Paul, the greatest church planter in the history of the church. (When suggesting that the Bible teaches these things directly I am primarily referring to "elder" and "deacon", because many will argue that there is no church membership in the Bible. It is true that no official roles of people belonging to a particular church can be found in scripture, however, it is also clearly taught throughout the entire context of the New Testament letters that Christians "belonged" to one another, and were subject to the leadership of a particular body of believers, even to the point of being disciplined [1 Cor. 5]. It would be very difficult to discipline someone unless they saw themselves as a member of the body where you were responsible for it's well-being. So it is obvious in the New Testament that Christians viewed their church involvement as a covenant with others, making them members of a particular group of people in a given community.)

So what I am saying is this. Yes, the Bible says our church must have a plurality of elders. So we must know what an elder is and does. Where do we get that information? From the Bible.

And yes, the Bible says our church will be healthy if there are many deacons leading ministries and overseeing the practical work of the church. So we must know what makes a person a deacon and what their function is in the church. Where do we get this understanding? From the Bible.

So... before I finish the rest of this post I am going to give you an assignment. Open your Bible and read the following short passages of scripture:

• 1 Timothy 3:1-7
• Titus 1:5-9
• Acts 2:37-47
• 1 Corinthians 5
• Romans 16:1-16

Feel free to post any thoughts you have in the comments section. Either tomorrow or later this evening I will post more on these things.

Book Recommendation

Confessions of a Reformission Rev.
by Mark Driscoll

In this book Mark Driscoll recounts many of the stories from the first years of his church planting experience and summarizes the stages of growth along the way, from having 0 people to having over 4,000 people. Driscoll is the lead planter of Mars Hill Church in Seattle and founder of Acts 29 Network of church planters, which has assisted in over 60 church plants in the United States and abroad in the last six years. This book is gut-wrenchingly hilarious, raw, and honest. The insight Mark brings to young churches who are still in their early years of life (like ours) is very rich and valuable. We will be ordering a few copies of this book for the Oasis Bookstore, and you can purchase one at our Sunday gathering.

I began reading the book on our flight back from Orlando last week, and I couldn’t put it down. A couple of times April was falling asleep next to me and I would begin laughing out loud and wake her up and say, "Here, read from this line down to this line." Over and over again she got to read pieces of the funniest stories. Here is a sample excerpt of one of the stories that made us laugh. It comes from the chapter when they were between 75–150 people.

During the summer, we continued our midweek outdoor Bible study but moved it to a new park just off a waterway that was heavily trafficked by boaters. People sat on a grassy area under a large totem pole, while the band and I stood on a dock. It was a beautiful setting with boats passing by and the sun setting over Lake Washington. We baptized new converts in the water while everyone cheered.

The only problem ended up being the boaters. I could not see what was going on behind me because my back was to the water while I was teaching. During our first meeting, our people kept waving at boaters who passed by, which was annoying but kind of cute. One evening a few weeks into the study, no one was looking at me while I taught, and everyone had troubled looks on their faces. I turned around to see a bunch of frat guys with their shorts around their ankles, mooning my church as what was apparently one of their dad’s boats passed by. It was tough to preach with a backdrop of hairy heinies.

A few weeks later, I again noticed that no one was looking at me while I preached and turned around to see a few well-endowed young women passing by on a boat, lifting up their shirts like Mardi Gras princesses as they flashed our Bible study. I used the moment to say something about choosing the location because of its natural beauty but not anticipating that much natural beauty and went on to say something about total depravity and how only in our city could we be flashed at a Bible study.

Here are the chapter headings for the book:

1. Jesus, Our Offering Was $137 and I Want to Use It to Buy Bullets
   0-45 People
2. Jesus, If Anyone Else Calls My House, I May Be Seeing You Real Soon
   45-75 People
3. Jesus, Satan Showed Up and I Can’t Find My Cup
   75-150 People
4. Jesus, Could You Please Rapture the Charismaniac Lady Who Brings Her Tambourine to Church?
   150-350 People
5. Jesus, Why Am I Getting Fatter and Meaner?
   350-1,000 People
6. Jesus, Today We Voted to Take a Jackhammer to Your Big Church
   1,000-4,000 People
7. Jesus, We’re Loading Our Squirt Guns to Charge Hell Again
   4,000-10,000 People