The Big Red Tractor – My New Favorite Metaphor

The Big Red Tractor from Jacob Lewis on Vimeo.

Francis Chan has given me a new metaphor. My grandmother’s phrase for anything difficult was, “It was like pulling teeth…” In the past, I have used that phrase myself when I found it difficult to lead the congregation forward. “It’s like pulling teeth to get these people off dead center.” So often church leadership has felt like pulling and pushing an old ship trying to get it to move.


I relinquished the role of pushing and pulling when I realized no amount of human effort can result in the accomplishment of God’s mission. We do not make it happen. That is why the St. Exupery quote means so much to me: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

I found that after more than twenty-five years of ministry I had been drumming up the men, gathering the wood, dividing the work and giving the orders to orchestrate the accomplishment of God’s mission. Now I know that the only power for that mission comes from God. I can stop expending errant energy and instead rest in the Father’s power.

This background lets you know why Francis Chan’s metaphor via his cartoon “The Big Red Tractor” made such an impression on me when I saw it at Verge 2010. Watch it yourself and make your own decision to “find rest for your soul.” By the way, your kids and grandkids will love this one as well! Thanks Francis…again, you have stretched us with your creativity and passion.

*Photo provided by the VERGE 2010 Media Team

Haiti, Hope and Missional Faithfulness

In the midst of prolific conversations about the historical and spiritual background of Haiti and the influence of that history on recent events (e.g. Pat Robertson comments) a better question was included in my friend Andrew Jones’ blog, Tall Skinny Kiwi.

A better answer was provided by Dr. Dieumeme Noelliste, president of the Caribbean Evangelical Theological Association. His comments can be accurately applied to many other global contexts where faith is separated from the marketplace, where there is an inappropriate divide between spiritual and secular, and where the church’s voice is not penetrating society at large.

QUESTION: How is it that a country which has so much Christianity also has so much poverty? How can the two coexist? Here’s an answer by a leading Haitian theologian, interviewed by Christianity Today.

"In my view: The gospel that has been preached in Haiti has left a vacuum—has left the political landscape untouched. The church doesn’t see its business as being a prophetic witness to those in power. The result has been a political sector left to its own devices; this is why the common people were the first responders to the crisis, not the government. This is the result of the gospel being truncated, emasculated, instead of confronting the powers that be to do what God intends for them to do: protect and enhance life."

I am amazed at the divergent interpretations of the missional movement. Some argue that ‘missional’ thinkers understand the Gospel to be about social justice, others about spiritual salvation. May God help us those of us who are communicating a missional message to be clear about the total implications of the whole Gospel as proclaimed and modeled by Jesus and His church. The Gospel is bigger than our segmentation. It is about both spiritual redemption and social justice…and it is about so much more. In fact, it is about everything that is on the heart of God.

I often say, missional is messy. The missional church will often look liberal in social engagement while it is conservative theologically. As we pursue a missional posture, some will say we have become liberal because we engage in addressing issues perceived as being in the social domain. We would adamantly respond, “No, we are not liberal. We are theological conservatives who have read the Bible and found throughout its pages a call to engage the world with loving compassion: meeting needs, touching lives, and sharing the ultimate Hope that outlasts every physical structure.”

More from Christianity Today

Every Saint a Full-Time Paid Staff Member

Jeff Vanderstelt, one of the pastors of Soma Communities in Tacoma, Washington echoed much of my own conviction about implications of the Body as God’s missional people. Soma Communities is a church planting church and I first learned of Jeff and the Soma family while in Riga, Latvia. There I ministered along side a young church planter who had attended Soma School in Tacoma. Jeff Vanderstelt and the body of Soma are making an incredible impact globally as they equip and empower believers to minister the Gospel and start missional communities.



Jeff began by reminding Verge 2010 participants of the position of Christ and the role of the Body. Referring to Ephesians 1, he said, “Let’s understand the position and inheritance we have in Christ. He is at the right hand. He is the head of the Body. God has put all things under his feet. There is no other senior pastor than Jesus Christ. It is not us building a church, but Jesus building His church through us.”

He went on, “At Soma we act upon the assumption that every saint is a full-time paid staff member to do the work of ministry. It doesn’t matter whether the check we receive has our church’s name in the upper left hand corner, or Microsoft, Boeing, etc. Wherever the check comes from, it is God’s channel of bringing his resources into your life to enable you to do your full time ministry as God’s sent one.


A critical question we must ask is, ‘Have we structured so that everybody becomes a ‘carrier’ of Jesus and see all of life as the ministry they are called to?’ The most effective carrier of discipleship is not an event. It is doing life together.

No one gets equipped in meetings. We may get informed, motivated, etc., but equipping requires us to be doing, not just hearing. We must live life together in community or we cannot equip each other. How do we know if a man is faithful? (2 Tim. 2:2) We know that only if we are doing life together.

We do not put on a lot of events that extract people from life…instead we equip for life with one another. Unless we call people to focus on mission, they will ultimately become internalized and segregated from the world. We must reorient our whole lives around reaching out to people. Do whatever it takes to be a missionary to a particular people group.

When we started Soma, it was not about a big launch service. We launched people and commissioned them to start their own groups. Each leader has an apprentice. Those who lead small flocks well are those who become entrusted elders of the congregation.”

Theirs is an equipping and empowering process that has the Acts of the Holy Spirit written all over it!

*Photos provided by the VERGE 2010 Media Team

Francis Chan Session 1

Simon Says…Jesus Says

I was deeply moved as God spoke through Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Semi Valley, California and author of Crazy Love. Chan began by asking the Verge participants to forget they were in a conference and instead to simply be people gathered in the presence of God. He encouraged our passion for God, more than for mission, reminding of Moses’ words, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us…” (Exodus 33:15).



Chan echoed something many of us have said, that God is moving and speaking the same messages into lives around North America that do not know each other. Chan asked, “How in the world can all these people be saying the same things…hearing the same things from God…responding in similar ways?” It must be clear that God is calling His bride to a fresh love with Himself and new abandon to His purpose.

At the outset we agreed with Chan that the Verge conference was born as a response to what God was already doing in developing missional communities. “It is not our place to initiate a movement. That is God’s doing.” Disciples did not get together and organize the day of Pentecost. It wasn’t a plan. It was the Holy Spirit of God doing something. The disciples were along for the ride.


Chan challenged those present to make sure that what we are doing is theologically right. He suggested that “If we just read the scripture and follow what it says, we would make disciples.” We would obey.

He said, “When I was young we played, Simon Says. All of us have played it…well maybe not the younger generations, because there are no app’s for it. Someone would say ‘Simon Says’ and we did it. But when ‘Jesus says,’ in church we act like ‘You don’t have to do it…you just have to study it and memorize it.’ If I tell my daughter to clean her room, she doesn’t come back in an hour and say, “Okay Dad, I memorized what you told me to do.”

Jesus told us to love one another. No one out there has ever seen God, but if we as the Body would really love each other, they would get a glimpse of His love. When we love each other in unity, the world will believe that Jesus was sent from God. It is not through our apologetics that the reality of Jesus will be known, rather through our love.

When the early disciples experienced Jesus alive again after His death, everything else took a back seat to obediently sharing the Good News of Jesus with others. “Stuff” didn’t matter anymore when death was conquered and Jesus’ Spirit came upon His church. Jesus changes everything. And we are invited to join His mission of loving the world to Himself.

*Photos provided by the VERGE 2010 Media Team

Missional Living

I was blessed in reading the blog of Terry Timm, Lead Pastor of Christ Community Church of the South Hills in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvaina. Terry is teaching a missional church course for which my book Shaped by God’s Heart is the text. In one of his blog posts, he quotes Dianne Bergant speaking on Advent life. I have adapted her words and copied some of Terry’s comments. Together I think they are a beautiful description of the missional life:

“The [missional] life does not necessarily require unusual behavior on our part, but it calls us to live the usual unusually well. It affects the everyday events of life; it directs the way we interact with people; it informs the attitudes that color our judgments and motivations. It is as ordinary as the birth of a child; it is as extraordinary as the revelation of God.”

Jesus calls us to live the usual unusually well. This reminds me of Eugene Peterson’s translation Romans 12:

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.”

God is not looking for extraordinary and unusual acts of faithfulness, courage, daring or sacrifice. Worship is offering our everyday, ordinary lives back to God for the life of the world.

What would it look like for you to live the usual unusually well? And how might God take our simple acts of faith, hope, and love – infuse them with His Spirit and use them in the establishment of His kingdom here on earth?

Verge 2010 P1

Over the next days, I will be posting insights from Verge 2010 Missional Community Conference which was held February 4-6, 2010. It was my privilege to be part of the Social Media team for the event.

Matt Carter, lead pastor of Austin Stone Community Church said missional community may be what this generation of believers is remembered for during session 1 at Verge 2010 Missional Community Conference in Austin.


Missional Community has the potential to be what this generation of believers is remembered for; that which historically defines this generation. Grandparents were remembered for Billy Graham and Navigators; parents for mega churches and contemporary Christian music and worship. I believe missional community is the long awaited structure that the American church has needed desperately to release every day believers into the mission God has intended for them in their everyday life.

There is a growing tension as everyday believers wonder why what they read in the book of Acts is not occurring in their own church experience. “When do I get to get in the game? When does the Holy Spirit get to manifest himself in and through me?” Missional Community has the potential to awaken the sleeping giant of the church.

There is also a danger that missional community is what we will be remembered for rather than our love for Jesus. The danger in that kind of community is that we love our mission more than our savior. If you love your mission more than you love your savior, then your savior will have no part in your mission.

The church at Ephesus was a church that exercised discipline, held true doctrine, persevered for Jesus’ sake. Yet, this was the church of which Jesus said, “I have a serious problem with you. You have left your first love.” After having identified five good things they were doing, Jesus said, “You have lost your relationship with me. I am no longer the first thing in your life.” In other word, you love your mission more than your savior.

The consequence of that failure was the removal of the “lamp stand.” For us the question becomes: If Jesus took everything away from you, never had one shred of success in ministry again; never saw a dream come true, would Jesus alone be enough?

*Photos provided by the VERGE 2010 Media Team

Pray for Boldness

The new year has already shifted into high gear. So much is happening around the world; tragedies and victories, depths of pain and wonderful causes for celebration. As 2009 ended, I reflected on our need for boldness in this season. My thoughts ran to the first century church, the challenges faced, and her desperation for God's gift of boldness. This brief video captures some of my thoughts. It begins with a reminder of the upcoming Verge 2010 Missional Community Conference in Austin. I trust that you will join me in asking God to gain glory through that gathering!