Month: December 2010

A Reservoir Not a Canal

Posted on December 13, 2010

In a past-paced society which is prone to success more than solitude, this excerpt from Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) pinpoints why it is so important that we slow down.

If you are wise therefore you will show yourself a reservoir and not a canal. For a canal pours out as fast as it takes in; but a reservoir waits till it is full before it over flows, and so communicates its surplus…We have all too few such reservoirs in the Church at present, thought we have canals in plenty. – Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on Song of Songs

Be a Reservoir Not a Canal

Rest, reflection, and extended times of listening to God are essential to blessing, serving, and honoring others. People who do not slow down to fill up, never really live, work, or minister out of a deep reservoir of grace. If we’re honest, many of us are more like a canal. We dispense advice, counsel, creativity, labor, and parenting as soon as it arrives in our minds. Our half-formed notions run from our heads and out of our mouths with little reflection at all. When the flow dries up, we trudge on generating sludge that drips out in complaining, bitterness, cynicism and despair. A canal never fills up; it just runs out and eventually runs dry. A reservoir, however, fills up and flows out.

We Have Too Few Reservoirs in the Church

“We have too few reservoirs in the Church.” A ten century old stinging critique. I long to counsel, teach, preach, parent, and live out of deep wells of grace, but sometimes life and ministry cause them to dry up more quickly than others. Bernard reminds me that in times of dryness, it is all the more necessary to run our cups back under the waterfall of God’s fountain of never-ending grace.

To bully on without a reservoir is not only foolish but sinful. It is a subtle, but deep declaration that all we need is Self, and that God, should he play a part in our day, is privileged to do so. This is an act of self-worship, a gross heresy that flies in the face of the gospel. Fortunately the gospel of grace is big enough for this. Out of his great love God may press our nose into our odorous behavior, not to shame us, but to lead us into pastures that are green with repentance and flush with joy, to lead us by streams of living water, where once again we can be awakened to God’s deeply satisfying presence. Repentance will be necessary to escape the run-off of a canal lived life.

A Reservoir Waits Til it Overflows

Bernard reminds us that we know a reservoir by its overflowing. Pastors, if we are to speak, work, write, teach, counsel, and preach with depth, we must wait until our reservoir is full. Waiting over God’s Word and in prayer until our affections, thoughts, and desires are flooding with grace and wisdom. For me, this is a daily if not more frequent necessity. My health and the vitality of those I lead depend on it–an overflow of grace. Lord, make us reservoirs not canals!

4 Ways Church Planting Training Must Change

Posted on December 8, 2010

With missional ecclesiology in full swing, many of the current missional training structures are becoming outdated. If church planting networks and organizations are going to continue to stimulate deep, sustained mission to all kinds of peoples, then some our training structures will have to change.

1. We need to offer both information and experience-based training. Much of the church planting training today is based on theological and missional podcasts, talks, and breakouts. If we are to train a new generation of missional leaders that dive deeply into the 100s of American subcultures, training will have to be based in an experience of their missionfields. We need to offer training that sends church planters into their fields during their training. For instance:

  • Half a day is spent learning principles and half a day is spent in coffee shops and clubs getting to know the values, beliefs, and culture of hipsters
  • Half a day in a immigrant neighborhood knowing on doors, visiting ethnic restaurants, to learn values, beliefs, and objections to Christianity among ethnics groups
  • Half day spending time downtown among professionals, going to happy hour, and attending their power lunches to understand the demands, aspirations, and values of professional life.

2. We need to train planters on both traditional “core teams” and non-traditional missional teams. If we are to reach the increasingly divided people of America, we will need not just missional core teams that gather in living rooms to train, but missional teams that start workshops for the poor, new music venues among artists, new buisness ventures among professionals. Missional teams that create value, good will, and community around the felt and exisiting needs and working places of unreached peoples in the U.S. In some cases, it will be better to “launch” a business or venue before “launching a church.” For example:

  • Starting a workshop to train homeless in microfinance and job skills
  • Starting a music venue to engage musicians and artists
  • Starting a thinktank discussion group to address neighborhood issues

3. We need to equip planters to preach and to cultivate gospel-renewing environments. We need to think through how we not only launch services and small communities, but also how we sustain those people over a lifetime of suffering, adversity and change. This will require a depth of understanding in how the gospel addresses their whole human experience–family, vocation, stage of life. We will need gospel-shaped environments that foster personal and communal renewal over a lifetime not just over a meal or a meeting.

4. We need to cast vision for planters who plant not isolated churches but networked churches that partner for regional and urban renewal. Church planters need to mobilized to think beyond “their church” in order truly plant, multiply, and grow God’s church. If church plants are to effectively renew cities, they must think and plan well beyond their own borders. They will need to partner with other churches in order to effectively address the whole of city and region needs. Urban renewal will not happen one church at a time, but many churches working together at a time. Only then, collectively, can we leave an indelible gospel mark in history for the good of our cities.