Below is a recent letter to those in our fellowship here in Las Vegas, but there are certainly aspects that are universal in terms of principles and lessons learned...
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What we are doing, why we are doing it, and how to participate.
Why do this? And what exactly is “this”? And what does it all mean to you? The question as to why a person, or group of people, would voluntarily leave the comfortable confines of traditional church and full time ministry to pursue a marginalized concept of faith whose “success” is difficult to quantify is a good one. The following is my answer to that question.
What is “this”?
For us in
Bi-Vocational Lifestyle. This simply means consciously leaving a full-time paid ministry position, and adopting a lifestyle that remains ministry focused but does not include regular financial support from the group which I lead and/or serve along side.
Outreach. This means funneling available time and resources toward outreach, whether local or global. We purposely do not define outreach and leave this to God to define for each person and/or group.
Why?
Simply put: it is what God is doing and we are participating in it. The shift towards this type of ministry lifestyle is undeniably happening globally, as evident by research and testimony. Specifically, my role has been focused on helping bring this shift to Foursquare through living out these three points publicly and then telling the stories.
The negative implications of living out this life have been many, ranging from financial loss to relational destruction to professional embarrassment to spiritual desert lands, and on. A person who shifts from a traditional life to a life should expect that same difficulties and trials to varying degrees. The positive implications are many as well, ranging from a release from religiosity to authentic faith to more time with family to significant more time and resource for outreach, etc…
A major difficulty of this new lifestyle is that there are very few quantifiable milestones of success. In our former traditional church lifestyles, there were many regular measuring sticks for whether we were achieving our goals and we were able to “define a victory” so to speak (i.e. weekly attendance, financial stability, raised hands, etc…). There is much security in these measuring sticks, but to a degree they became our “decision stones” and we would consult these measuring sticks as to what we should and should not do. The local pastor, after consulting these “decision stones”, would then pass on the decision to the congregates who would then fall into line with the corporate vision. The fruit from this process is undeniable and to discount the positive outcomes of this is ignorant. But, God very rarely leaves well-enough alone, especially when we begin misusing and misinterpreting those structures (remember, He is not afraid of destroying even that which He created).
To the pastor that goes through this shift, it ranges from very difficult to impossible to function normally and/or make sense of what is happening. In fact, because of the removal of these constant measuring sticks and personal praise, the most insecure of us will go down rabbit trails, start businesses, write books, and seriously question their faith and calling altogether, all in attempt to regain a sense of purpose. But, this time in the desert is necessary and God-designed to break the prior paradigms and destroy thought patterns, so that new things may grow up in their places.
For the attendee that goes through this shift, it is very confusing at best, and offensive at worst. Formally, the pastor was the figure head of their faith and gave direction as to vision and helped them relate to God, both personally and by creating a weekly meeting in which the attendee engaged and encountered God. In this new shift, the pastor appears to shirk his former responsibility and appears to give little to no direction or leadership, and does not provide the Pope-like example to follow. This is difficult to process for the attendee because their paradigm of faith and church was centralized on this meeting and this definition of a pastor – with out the meeting or this Pastor as they know it, where does that leave their faith?
This presents a quandary. Does the attendee go back to their former traditional church life? But, whenever that person re-engages a traditional church, it just doesn’t seem right or authentic. There remains a gap in how this new lifestyle could actually be church, leaving them wondering if they are disobeying God or even if they are Christians anymore. In fact, they wonder if they are failing God and the people around them. The irony is that at this point of humility and doubt they are probably as close to God as they have ever been, seeking God from a humble place, without the pride and hindrance of knowing all the answers.
The other major hurdle is the shift of responsibility for a one’s own faith. The responsibility for a persons faith shifts to them and them alone – not the former pastor, not the church, not the dynamic worship. They are responsible for reading their Bible, and worship, and outreach, and church multiplication – if they don’t take responsibility for it then it won’t happen. Ironically, for a person who did not grow up in church, this seems completely natural, and the thought of some outside person telling what to think, what to do, and how to do it seems very odd and controlling. To those coming from inside the established church, this control is exactly what we want and what we are used to…in fact, it is what we paid for…because lets face it: it is easier to pay someone else to be Jesus than to actually live out the tenants of our faith with passion, purpose, and responsibility.
After a time of shifting, we are left feeling like we are in a desert place and very little makes sense – it’s all very confusing. “Great, now what do we do? You brought us out here to die.” Read the account of Moses and the Israelites at the
Your dreams are either gone, or very, very difficult to define, sort of like looking through a fog. In fact, because we’ve been so accustomed to explaining our vision and life to others with an underlying pride, its frustrating and embarrassing because now it’s vague at best and really doesn’t make sense (and peoples eyes glaze over because they don’t understand). Quiet persecution and critical whispers from outside don’t make this transition any easier. You could see “clearly” in your old life, but now what do we tell other people? How do you answer there criticisms? What do we tell ourselves about our own lives? What is my life about?
In our prior lives, we had vision, direction, and we could measure our success. In this new lifestyle, the only measuring stick of success comes in the quiet times with God. This quiet time was previously created by someone else, through worship experiences and devotional plans. We no longer have the luxury of these walls and direction,… we must hear God for ourselves and then follow through on what we hear.
So, now we’re left looking at a giant blank canvas, one that previously had a beautiful picture of what we were to do, what to say, how to act, what success looked like (and we’d ask God to bless our picture)….and now the picture is now gone, it’s been erased. We’re left with a Bible and no vision – and that’s it. This is where God would want to lead us – back to the beginning, stripping away all our pre-conceived ideas of what God wants, and leaving us with no vision, no direction, nothing really, except quietly waiting for God – it’s our only option, we have no where else to go.
Now, it is up to us to sit quietly enough to hear Him speak, and let God be the initiator of any vision and let Him paint the new picture. It’s not the responsibility of anybody, including yourself, to build a vision for your life – it is up to God to build that vision. This may be the single most difficult thing that we who are shifting from the traditional church could ever endeavor to do because we no longer have safety nets, no one to blame, no one to claim as our king other than Jesus. There is nothing between our ears and the voice of the Holy Spirit and no one to dictate our response.
For us to be able to hear, our lives have been deconstructed. I can attest that once there is an acceptance of the “stripping away” by God that there is a tremendous freedom and weight lifted. Embrace the white space – embrace the lack of vision and allow it to be an opportunity that is divinely created. As for outside criticisms, I can guarantee that for every subtle, doubtful whisper that you’ve encountered, I’ve heard all of them times ten over. I encourage you to be secure enough to answer those questions with a humble “I don’t know the answer to that question,” and deny the internal pressure to say anything more. Sometimes knowing all the answers doesn’t allow God any space to move and create in our lives…..and sometimes not knowing opens up the door for God to bring the answer.
We have been chosen by God to be on the very tip of the spear in regards to this bi-vocational, simple church, outreach life style and to live as prophets to our denomination, which then affects much of the Christian world. This prophetic life is not easy, but in comparison to other prophets in the Bible, at least we don’t have to marry prostitutes, walk around naked, be in stocks, or lay on our sides for years on end.
What do we do now?
We are moving from what seems to be the first phase of our journey (I say “what seems” because none of this is planned) to a second phase. The first phase was “Survive and Establish” and the fact that you are still here means you survived and helped establish it. Why was this important? Before, it was “not OK” to plant non-traditional churches, and it was not talked about. Now it is – our existence helped significantly to facilitate this major shift, and it means a lot more people entering ministry and it means less people burning out. We’ve already seen this to some degree with the DVD and we hear the testimonies about people that are inspired to act – we praise God for this.
Now we are moving into what seems a second phase of “Go and plant”. I can’t say this for sure until we are experiencing it, but there have been several things that indicate we are shifting. Again, instead of fighting this, lets see what God is doing and participate in it.
What does it mean to participate in it? It means earnestly asking God if He has anything to say to you about how to be the church to those around where you work and live. Again, I am not telling you what to do or think, but I am saying that the general shift happening is toward “going and doing” now. This probably won’t happen fast or because we grit our teeth – it will happen because we sit quietly and hear God, and then respond.
In order to hear God and respond obediently, our lives can’t be riddled with immorality (not to say we must be perfect), both from a spiritual standpoint and from a logistical standpoint. People don’t trust immoral people, so any conversations about faith will be quickly discredited if we are immoral and untrustworthy.
Secondly, we have to trust God. We have to know what God would call us to do and what He wouldn’t call us to, so that when we do hear His voice, we are confident that its authentic and its right to respond boldly. Simply put, read the Bible and commit following what it says.
Thirdly, we have to commit to giving time for God to speak to us. How do you do this? Sit quietly and listen after asking questions like “do You have anything you’d like to tell me about this or that situation, or about ministry, etc..” Then sit and listen. Out of these times, expect to be called to action from time to time, and then be open with your faith and/or studying the Bible with someone at work or something of that nature, or engage people on a ministry level either by praying for them, or whatever opportunity God would open up – be faithfully obedient.
We are at the forefront of a revolution happening worldwide. Our particular part of that revolution is happening within Foursquare, which will then set the stage for other denominations to adopt similar approaches.
The end goal, as it seems God is defining it, is that we would plant churches, many of which will remain simple churches and others that will grow into mega-churches and/or traditional churches. But we are to start them with simple, bi-vocational, outreach oriented principles at the outset.
I believe God has opened up the door for you guys to be those church planters if you so desire. What shape those take is up to you and God. These churches may be as simple as you and a co-worker studying the Bible for 3 months or starting a regular service.
