Sustainability

I had a great conversation the other day with Dave Ferguson, Pastor of Community Christian Church in Chicago. It’s a large church with multiple campuses. Dave’s an awesome guy and has a heart for church planting. Since Austin New Church has officially entered the journey of helping plant churches (not just be a church plant ourselves), we were talking about the sustainability of some of the modern church planting movements. And he asked me the question, “What do you mean by sustainable?”

Great question. Initially I thought, well, sustainable is when a church can survive on it’s own without outside support. But then my mind flooded with all the things that should be sustainable that are much more important than even financial feasibility. Is our vision sustainable? Are our values sustainable? Our hope is to create a reproducible model, but while it may reproduce, will it sustain? Do our goals have an inherent reality of sustainability? Are our intentional relationships based on a sustainable foundation or do they end after an event is over? The list continues.

The reality is, the only things that are sustainable are the things of God. And today’s scripture struck a chord with me. Psalm 45 is a wedding song. It’s laced with the imagery of Christ as the coming groom and the church as His bride. As the psalmist begins his description of the groom he writes,

“You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword upon your side, O mighty one; clothe yourself with splendor and majesty. In your majesty ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness; let your right hand display awesome deeds.” - Psalm 45:2-4

Christ, and all He represents, is eternal. Verse four tells us that it is in truth, humility, and righteousness that He rides forth victoriously and that in his right hand He displays awesome deeds. Verse two says that His anointing mark is grace. It is in His grace that all things sustain. It is in His grace that we find eternity. It is in His grace that we will find purpose beyond our plans.

I’ve had an interesting day already. After leaving an early morning meeting with a group of men from my neighborhood, I sensed the urge to pull over into the parking lot of a traditional Baptist church that I know has seen some recent ups and downs. I sat in their courtyard for a while and just prayed for them. During that time, God convicted me that while I knew all the church planters in the area, I didn’t even know the name of the Pastor who led that church.

As I sat there reading Psalm 45, a wedding song for the Bride of Christ, He reminded me that His purposes are far greater and more sustainable than my plans could ever be. He reminded me that whatever I do as a leader, it needed to include sustainability for HIS church, and never be about “my” church.

It doesn’t take much to make the jump and apply these truths to our personal lives as well. Whether it’s in our family or our career (hopefully both) there are sustainable pursuits and those that are fleeting. Somewhere in there we’ll find contributing factors to the difference between what our reputations are and what our legacy becomes.

Father, your Son taught us to pray for your Kingdom to come and your will to be done. May we see your Kingdom break through in our churches, our lives, our families, and in our priorities. We know this will happen when we submit our will to yours. Give us the desire, the wisdom, the hope, the courage, and the will that it will take. Amen.

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” - Psalm 51:12


“Sustain me according to your promise, and I will live; do not let my hopes be dashed.” - Psalm 119:116


“Let me live that I may praise you, and may your laws sustain me.” - Psalm 119:175

“The LORD sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.” - Psalm 147:6


“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” -Isaiah 46:4


“The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” -Isaiah 50:4


Just Because

Here's something that just lifted my spirit a bit today. Thought I'd share:

Our Need for Mission

This is kind of a rePost of a Post of sorts. My friend Michael Stewart from the Austin Stone Community Church posted this from what Alan Hirsch wrote, in his book The Forgotten Ways. It's a good reminder. And in it, he tells this story about missional community:

"In a remark ascribed to Gordon Cosby, the pioneering leader of that remarkable community Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C., he noted that in over sixty years of significant ministry, he had observed that no groups that came together around a non-missional purpose (e.g., prayer, worship, study, etc.) ever ended up becoming missional. It was only those groups that set out to be missional (while embracing prayer, worship, study, etc., in the process) that actually got to doing it." (p. 235)

Hirsch goes on to say that experience tells us that a group that aims at community seldom gets to mission even if it sincerely intends to do so. But the group that aims at mission will have to do community, because community "is the means to do mission... By planting the flag outside the walls and boundaries of the church, so to speak, the church discovers itself by rallying to it - this is mission." (p. 236)

Tribal Leadership

Seth Godin's brain is larger than his head. That leads to a pressure that apparently must be released through him writing blogs. Good for us! Here are some of his thoughts (and some of my thoughts following them) on his post: "Leadership is now the strongest marketing strategy"

Yelling with gusto used to be the best way to advertise your wares. There was plenty of media and if you had plenty of money, you were set. Today, of course, yelling doesn't work so well. What works is leading. Leading a (relatively) small group of people. Taking them somewhere they'd like to go. Connecting them to one another.

It's enough if the tribe you lead knows about you and cares about you and wants to follow you. It's enough if your leadership changes things, galvanizes the audience and puts the status quo under stress. And it's enough if the leadership you provide makes a difference.

Go down the list of online success stories. The big winners are organizations that give tribes of people a platform to connect.

Go down the list of fashion businesses or business to business organizations. Same thing. Charities, too. Churches, certainly.

It's so tempting to believe that we are merely broadcasters, putting together a play list and hurtling it out to the rest of the world. Louder is better. But we're not. Now we're leaders.

People want to connect. They want you to do the connecting.

What stands out to me first is his statement that "it's enough" for the tribe you lead to (1) KNOW you (2) CARE about you and (3) WANT to follow you. Those are huge... to know and to care comes only from vulnerability. It's the key between "knowing of" or "about" someone and really "knowing" a leader. It's the catalyst for creating empathy and connection on a team regardless of circumstance. It's the key for building two-way trust. And it's our responsibility as a leader to create that kind of culture.

The second thing that stood out was the statement that the list of success stories constantly show organizations (certainly churches, he said) that give tribes of people a platform to connect. This doesn't happen in a corporate gathering of one-way communication to multiple tribes at once... it happens in chewable bites. And it doesn't happen because of casual contact... it happens specifically through a unified vision or purpose to action... call it addressing a CRISIS... or together simply fixing something broken or improving something that needs improvement. In the Army we had what we called a "Rally Point". If something goes wrong... and we disconnect somehow... we all know, we can meet back at that place and regroup. It's a necessary, if not life saving, element of connectivity. No one wants to go at it alone. It's alone that we are at our weakest. And together that we are at our strongest.