Archive - L.A.
RSS Feed
Mosaic Thoughts on Communication
Church Planting w/ Erwin McManus & Co. (pt 3)
This is the 3rd and final installment of my notes from last week's church planting class at Fuller Seminary with various leaders from Mosaic.
Octavio Martinez:
I am at a place
where I just don’t care what people think of me unless they’re a non-believer.
I love my Christian
brothers and sisters. But I just don’t care if they are worried that I am
slipping from the faith, not focused enough on soul formation, or praying for
me (or my demise) because I am meeting with a non-believer at a local bar in
Whittier.
The church will
actually become a reflection of you – your DNA, your virus, etc. You cannot ask
people to do something you’re not doing. They are going to watch how you live.
That is their only frame of reference. So you may be able to talk a great game
about being missional, but if you’re not living it, it doesn’t matter.
Church Planting w/ Erwin McManus & Co. (pt 1)
This last week I had the chance to be a part of a church planting class at Fuller Sem with various leaders from Mosaic. It was beautiful in that the spirit of the conversation all week was, "This is what we've done, doing and trying to do and what we have learned along the way. It isn't necessarily right, this is just us." There was really a spirit of humility and it was very conversational all week. It made me proud to be a part of Mosaic.
Interestingly, however, there was some real hostility towards Erwin when he taught on Day 2 – had a couple walkouts, some angry questions and probably lost 1/3 of the class by the end of Day 3. This was especially interesting given both the spirit of humility and the fact that Erwin was far more gentle and accommodating than normal. Seeing such a lack of teachability and such a resistance to creativity and innovation in the church only served to reinforce my lack of faith in institutionalized Christianity and its ability to change. The class itself was a great illustration of precisely why we need new faith communities (and why having a seminary education in no way qualifies one for ministry).
I have had a few people ask for my notes from class, so I thought I'd share some of those here. Unfortunately, there is some great material that I didn't take notes on because I've heard it so many times in the last year. So what you are getting is bite size nuggets that stood out to me personally. I'll be rolling out my notes in 3 parts by presenter – Chad Becker, Erwin McManus and Octavio Martinez. Hope that they prove as helpful for you as they have for me.
Predestined to be a Scientologist
This past week me and the protege crew spent a morning touring a Scientology center in, of all places, Hollywood. This has been on our "to-do" list for some time now and it was great to finally get to do it. Part of our reason for going had to do with our discussion about tribes, but the main goal was to experience what it felt like to be on the other side of high pressure evangelism. Unfortunately, they knew we were a group of Christians before we got there so I think we got the non-fat version.
Aside from a hilarious South Park episode (which they cited as an obnoxious headache), I really didn't know much about Scientology prior to my experience the other day. After our rather vague tour that primarily centered around what an amazingly swell guy L. Ron Hubbard was, I still feel there is a lot I don't know. The thing we were a part of
was more like a introductory 'first experience' type thing. Although we asked a lot of
questions, the answers we got were pretty vague and some actually contradicted things we had heard from those with friends deep into Scientology. It felt more like a PR session catered just for us, but I still learned some interesting things I thought I'd share.
Though you'd never guess it with their horrendous sci fi looking book covers, they
are really good at marketing. They know how to draw people in, connect with them, and get 'em 'hooked' without ever having to address the truth behind the truth.
And at least on the front end, I can totally see why Scientology has the kind of following it does. They boast about it being the
one major world religion started in the 20th century (a rather odd thing to boast about, if you ask me), and frankly, it is
exactly the type of religion you would expect to be birthed out of the
20th century. The things they champion are generally good: keeping
street drugs out of the hands of kids; helping people become better
leaders, better communicators, better human beings; encouraging personal health and success; making families
stronger and homes healthier environments for kids to be raised in. These are all good things that most of us can agree on.
Their focus is
intellectual and rational, they celebrate knowledge as progression (think "modern"), and interact a lot with popular psychology. They also
acknowledge that God exists (something the vast majority of people are willing to
agree with) and they will even go as far as to say that "if we miss God, we miss
everything." Interestingly, their worship services look just like a church. They have a pulpit, the attenders sit
in rows, they baptize babies, do weddings, worship
together, even have a leather bound bible (though not called that) written by L. Ron
Hubbard himself, filled with sermons for all different kinds of occasions.
They proudly admit to sampling from
every major religion and then, perhaps most importantly, they affirm people's personal beliefs while
giving themselves and everyone else permission to agree to disagree on
most everything spiritual. We hung out with a woman who is an ordained
minister and she outright said, "God is the most important thing there
is. And there is only one God. There is not a god of the Jews, and a god of the
Muslims, a god of the Mormons, etc. There is only one God…" (alright,
sounds good, I am tracking with this lady so far…then she
says,) "But what God is for me is probably very different than what God
is for you."
Bam. There it is. They have essentially taken the
things we can all affirm as 'good', championed those things and
invested their resources in helping people with them, and then
subtracted the one thing that every disillusioned Christian,
atheist, apostate, and postmodern thinker has a problem with: the idea that one belief is 'right' and
other beliefs are wrong. They have essentially created a community that both empowers personal development and acknowledges spirituality, without ever having to articulate what that spirituality is, allowing each person to define it for him or herself. From our brief introduction to Scientology last week, it almost seems to be the perfect man-made religion.
Spoiled by Church Planting
The past eight
months I have found myself consistently having to wrestle with feelings of frustration and I am trying to figure
out why. I mean, I am a part of a really cool church that has a global
reputation for missionality and innovation, whose core values I am personally
passionate about, and it is led by a man I greatly respect and admire. So what’s
the deal?!
I think the answer
to that question has more to do with what I love than with what is frustrating
me, per se. I mean, sure, L.A. people can be really flaky – often saying
they’ll do something but rarely following through. And sure, people mostly keep
to themselves and as a result sometimes come off as being cold or detached. But all
in all, it isn’t a bad place to live. There are good people here. And more cool
things to do than any one person has time for. All in all, my wife and I are
digging L.A.
I think my real
problem is that I have been spoiled…spoiled by church planting.
Can I just say that
I love church planting? I do. Think about it: no rules. no walls. no history.
no
baggage. just a blank canvas, a bunch
of dreams, some ancient promises, and a group of people crazy enough to think
this thing might work.
I mean, sure, it’s
scary. It's unpredictable. And yea, some sources do suggest that 80% of them fail. But that means
20% of them work, and if you ask me, that is reason enough to keep doing it.
What do most people
cite as their reasons for not going to church? “It’s boring. It’s dated – like
stepping into a Chuck Norris film, only without all of the great one-liners. It’s full
of hypocrites. It’s unhelpful. They just want my money. I don’t have time. I
just don’t want to.” Those are good reasons. And can I admit something? I agree that many of these things are
true of far too many churches. The sad part is that those churches are not a
good representation of what the message of Christ is and what his movement was
intended to be. Even those outside of the faith understand this to be true. As
a result, scores of people (Christians included) have walked away from the
church. And it is totally unnecessary.
Most people haven’t given up on God. They have given up on church. New movements are needed that are willing to try new things in order to connect them with Jesus.
Starting a new community
is an opportunity to try things that just aren’t going to happen in many
established churches. Too much hierarchy. Too many politics. Too many
committees overseeing committees overseeing committees. Too much of a lot of
things. Even if an established church wanted to change some of the fundamental
things they do or the ways in which they do them, by the time that something is
presented, debated, voted, passed and implemented, it is no longer such a great
idea anymore. Hard to create movement in something designed to be static. Church
planting is an opportunity to start a movement.
All that to say
that I have really been spoiled. Even in a church as unique and innovative as
Mosaic, there still exists things like hierarchy, red tape and due process. Of
course, in a church of 3k there almost has to be. It has really just served to
affirm my passion for church planting and to clarify that I am probably not cut
out for mega church ministry. Good people, good work, but just not my style.
Mosaic: 6 Months In
It has been just over six months since my family and I
picked up and headed westward to Los Angeles to be a part of Mosaic’s “Protégé
Program.” There is a lot of buzz about Mosaic. As I travel around, some people
get pretty jazzed when I tell them what church I am a part of. Others, however,
give me the scarlet letter treatment. For better or worse, a lot of people are
interested in what Mosaic is doing and what they’re all about. So I thought it
might be of interest to share some of the things I’ve found in my first six
months of serving at one of America’s most influential churches:
Mosaic is just a
church.
Although this may sound like a negative statement, it’s
really not meant to be. Before moving out here, I had been following Mosaic for
some time. I believe it was roughly 6 years ago that I heard Erwin speak for
the first time at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. His message on the
Barbarian Way forever changed the trajectory of my life. I would follow Mosaic
from a distance for the next several years. Tuning into the podcasts, reading Erwin’s
books and articles, Mosaic felt like a home away from home. I found myself
captivated by the visions for life and church that I heard cast through the mp4
airwaves and I tried my best to replicate those visions in my own ministry
contexts.
When I caught wind of the protégé program, everything in me
wanted to be a part of it, but being locked in a mortgage and ministry context
of my own, I just didn’t think I’d get the chance. As fate would have it,
however, I got my chance just a couple years later. So six months ago, my wife
and I pulled up stakes, packed up our stuff, and left friends and family to
move half way across the country to serve and learn at Mosaic.
To my initial disappointment, however, I learned pretty fast
that Mosaic is just a church. I’m not sure what I expected, but whatever it
was, it wasn’t realistic. Mosaic is a church. It is an extraordinary church.
But it is still just a church. It is filled with imperfect people trying to
serve God the best they know how. It is led by imperfect leaders who probably occasionally
struggle with mixed agendas, pride, and a culture of cool. They don’t have it
all figured out. In fact, there is quite a lot that they don’t have figured out.
They try some stuff that doesn’t work. Other things they try probably shouldn’t
work, but they do. Coming to this realization has really been a good thing for me because it grounds me as I look to the future and potentially church planting. I fear that had I not come here, I would have always had unrealistic expectations of myself and others based on my perception of Mosaic.
Erwin is the real deal.
Erwin remains one of the most extraordinary people I have
ever met. Although he sometimes gets a
hard time for being introverted,
opinionated and somewhat intimidating, if you ask me, he is still one of the most
compelling human beings I have ever known. The guy is legit. Being on the
inside of Mosaic allows me to continually hear stories about Erwin. Some of
them are the epic types everyone gets to hear on the podcasts. But many are the
kinds of stories that happen behind the scenes in the week to week stuff every
church leader has to deal with and few people ever hear about. I am continually
amazed at the kind of wisdom, courage and character Erwin displays in the
seemingly insignificant moments of every day leadership. Which leads me to my
next point…
Never Underestimate
the Impact a Single Person Can Make
One of the things I have always insisted on believing about
Mosaic was that unlike most churches with
celebrity pastors, this one wasn’t
built on a personality. That is mostly true. Mosaic wasn’t built on Erwin’s
personality. But Mosaic was most certainly built on Erwin’s leadership. Erwin
is at the center of everything that really thrives at Mosaic. In fact, they
have tried starting gatherings where Erwin doesn’t teach (I currently serve at
one) and they just haven’t been successful at getting them off the ground. They
found just a year or two ago that Erwin doesn’t preach, attendance drops by
60%! I think Erwin wishes this wasn’t the case and he has told me that he
dreams of the day when his communication gifts are no longer needed on Sunday,
when the gifts of others are more needed than his own and his involvement at
gatherings is maybe 10%. If you ask me, however, that day isn’t anywhere in
sight. Although Erwin spends a large portion of his time traveling and speaking
now, he is still the primary leader, communicator, vision caster and (for lack
of a better word) “draw” at Mosaic. If he were to step away from Mosaic
tomorrow, I’m not sure the church could survive. At the very least, they’d have
to make some BIG changes.
Specialists vs Work
Horses
I have always had a hard time with the tendency of mega
churches to move towards ridiculous specialization. You know, when they have
people on full-time staff with job titles like “Assistant Name Card Organizer
for the Children’s 3:15 Service.” I mean, really? Mosaic, however, finds itself
on the other side of the spectrum. Mosaic staff all do a little bit of
everything. A number of them step in and help out wherever is needed all the
time. Sometimes this just means running powerpoint for an experimental worship
gathering. But other times it means taking over leadership of the Mosaic
Alliance for all of North America. There is a sense of fluidity that I love. On
the negative side, Mosaic staff often do so much that sometimes it seems that
really important things only get “pet project” status. Some balls just end up
getting dropped. But by and large, I am completely blown away by all that the
staff are able to juggle and make happen. And one of the things I love about
the culture at Mosaic is that they are always asking their leaders, “Do you
still want to do this? Is this something you are still passionate about? Or
should we hand it off to someone else to free you to do what you love?” I love
that.
Excelling at the
Other Things
The ironic thing about Mosaic is that the things it
generally does poorly are the same things that 90% of churches already do well.
However, the things that Mosaic does really well 90% of churches don’t do well.
This is one of the things that makes Mosaic such a great place to learn and serve.
Empowering People
One example: Mosaic is an empowering place. Whereas most
churches seek to manage and control people, Mosaic seeks to unleash them. This
is one of the things I have most appreciated about Mosaic over the years. They
value the unique passions, giftedness, calling and contribution of each person.
Whereas many churches might give lip service to this, Mosaic actually fleshes
it out. When someone wants to come on volunteer staff, one of the first
conversations is about helping them identify how God has uniquely created them
– their interests, desires, passions, etc – and then encouraging them to use
and develop them in chasing after God’s unique call on their life. Sometimes
this results in the starting of new nonprofits, sometimes in results in sending
people to existing organizations, sometimes it means them getting involved in
stuff going on at Mosaic, and sometimes it means eventually losing some of
their best people to start new churches or to go overseas. There have been
years when Mosaic has averaged the commissioning and sending of three people or
couples overseas per month! That is 36 full time missionaries a year! What
Mosaic doesn’t do is begin the
conversation with its own needs. What they don’t do is make a laundry list of
positions they need filled. What they don’t do is try to force round pegs to
fit in square holes to cover their own butt. That is called manipulation. And
it is more about oiling the machine than serving people. I can’t tell you how
much I love this about Mosaic.
Re-Engaging Relevance
Relevance has been a favorite topic of conversation in many circles over the last decade. The word is everywhere. We have Relevant Magazines, Relevant Radio (& these guys definitely are), Relevant Churches, Relevant Worship, Relevant Performances (sorry, I had to) Relevant Multimedia, Relevant Para-church Ministries, Relevant Branding, Relevant Blogs, and Relevant Conferences where Christian leaders can learn how they and their ministries can become all things, you guessed it, relevant.
The word has soared to the great heights of Buzzword – reserved for only the most ridiculously over-used terms in Christendom – taking its place alongside former chart-toppers, like seeker, contemporary, community and postmodern. But like most buzzwords, the hype has since fizzled out leaving our poor word to hang out in ambiguity with the other has-beens. Here they are generally assumed to be understood by most, but rarely are. And since they are no longer considered a relevant part of the conversation, they remain misunderstood.
Thus is the case with our friend Relevant. And so I thought I'd bring him back into the conversation today in order to address some of the common misunderstandings about him and to better understand the valuable idea he still represents.
"Relevance is not about being cool. It is about being understood." – Jason Jaggard
Tuesday I spent the day snowboarding at Big Bear with buddy Kurtis. If you've never been to Big Bear, it is a relatively small mountain consisting of 90% snowboarders, 75% fake snow, and 100% terrain park. It is a x-gaming terrain freak's dream. Every run on the mountain has terrain features – even the bunny slope. We're talking table tops, jumps, rails, funboxes, trees, wall rides, bonks, even conversion vans and broncos (the car, not the horse) on which to pull your sickest trick. The venue naturally pulls in a large hipster crowd from all over L.A. and Orange County.
In surveying this melting pot of cool, a converted midwesterner, like myself, can't help but muse on the almost comically obvious reality that I have stepped into a world far from the one I was raised. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto." As we took another ride up the mountain, Kurtis and I talked about the importance of fashion to L.A. You don't even have to live here to see it. Visit L.A. anytime of the week or weekend and you'll see it. It is everywhere. But here is the interesting thing about L.A. fashion, it is both necessary and relative. There is no one way to dress that is deemed cool or in. There is no one designer, one look, one anything, there are many. There is an understood freedom to express oneself. And because it is relative, no one is really better than the other. However, the one thing that isn't acceptable is to disregard the importance of fashion – in essence, to say with your look that you really don't think fashion matters. To do this is to essentially take a shared value of the culture and say that you do not deem it to be worthy of your time. Like all matters pertaining to relevance, it is a sure way to alienate yourself from the culture in short time.
And so herein lies a valuable truth about relevance to culture: It is not about being cool. It is about being understood. And at least in part, it is about communicating to others that their interests, concerns, struggles and needs are worth your time.
Relevance is about starting on even ground.
Sometimes pastors make the mistake of thinking that being relevant gives them "one up" on everyone else; as if one's ministry could only be cool enough, hip enough, edgy enough, it would almost certainly succeed. This is not the function of relevance. Relevance only affords you the opportunity to start the conversation on even ground. Irrelevance, on the other hand, forces you to start from behind. In ministry and relationships, it can often cause you to lose your voice with people before you even start speaking.
Relevance, therefore, is only Step 1. Failing to engage people in a relevant way may prevent you from ever getting to Step 2. And so it is important. Very important. But again, it is only Step 1. If relevance is all you have to offer, you don't have much.
Relevance is not a tool. It is a worldview.
Please hear me on this, being relevant does not mean repackaging what you are already doing in a trendier way. In
fact, if you want to guarantee failure in engaging with those outside
of the church, keep on doing what you're doing and repackage it to
look like something different. That is not innovation. That is not vision. That is manipulation. And many pastors and churches are really good at manipulation. Relevance is not a tool to get people to do what you want. It is not the missing piece in your life or ministry. It is a worldview. It is a way of approaching life and ministry that puts the desires and needs of those who do not yet know Christ before your own and before those in your church.
It is the latter part of that statement that often makes leading relevant movements so difficult. The desires and perceived needs of church people almost always conflict with the desires and needs of those who do not yet know Christ. And just to spare you some time, the two mix about as well as oil and water. Choosing to pursue relevance may force you to make some difficult decisions. You may have to decide between talking about real and uncomfortable issues or maintaining the status quot. You may have to axe some programs that are loved by your members but that do not serve the mission of your church. You may have to watch friends leave and big tithers take their checks to the church next door. You may have to endure a lot of pain. Ultimately, you will have to choose between which voices you will listen to – the loud, constant and often powerful ones coming from within your church's four walls, or the soft, unspoken, unrepresented voices of those who do not yet know Christ.
Your relevance and irrelevance will be decided by which of these voices you choose to listen to. It is a choice that is made not once, but one that must be made continually. The voices will continue. The powerful voices within your ministry will continue to campaign for their interests, and that might involve also campaigning for your resignation. But that is the price of leading a ministry that strives to do what Jesus called us to. That is the price of relevance. Is it hard? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
