a Monster Wolfgang Portal

At Third Day, we are trying to do something simple. But simply impossible. Actually, something that has not been done much at all for many years. As Trinity said to Neo , "But no one has ever done this before. And as Neo firmly resonded to Trinity: "That's why it's going to work."

I wasn't exactly sure when we launched if we were a "cell" (small group-based) church or a "celebration" (Sunday morning) church. It turns out the answer (as often in these days): "yes."
Though I have from the beginning envisioned leaning more towards the house/cell model (I still say "The fundamental relationship base at 3D is 3-12 people meeting weekly in homes."), my leaning has been more equilibrated of late to strengthening Sunday morning as well. We are well aware of the American church's default idolatry of Sunday mornings, and buildings..we want to way more organic that that...even on Sunday mornings. Free of the "edifice complex."

Dallas Elder, our apostolic leader, helped bring clarity to what I likely already knew in my heart. While teaching one day he casually used me as an illustratuion, saying "Some churches have a cell model, and some have a celebration model. The church I am standing in is an example of a celebration model. Other churches in our network are cell/house models. Dave's church is an example of doing both at the same time."

Which is impossible.

Hardly anyone else has done this before.

Which is why it's going to work.

So we draw from the best of both models. We will never be the fancy sanctuary, formal sermon, Sunday morning model. But there is a lot to learn from those who do Sunday well.

And there is a ton to learn from those who do house-church/cell church well. And one of the most amazing books of our lifetime, "Houses That Change The World," is loaded. The author, Wolfgang Simson, an unassuming (see his PR photo above!) former taxi driver now apostolic church planter, though he would be quick to deflect it, is an example of his own maxim: "You probably wouldn't recognize an apostle when they walk into the room."
Many have completely missed or dismissed the book without reading it, assuming from the title that it's only about house church. Far from it. It's about life; it's about prayer; it's about fivefold ministry: it's about doing church of any kind...even the sunday morning kind. It's about the shift in church and culture that he calls the Third Reformation. Heck, it might even be so wide-ranging as to have few brownie recipes and backmasked jokes embedded in it! . It is prophetic on many levels. Best of all: it's a free download!

Como?

That's impossible.

No one has done that before.

Which is why the download is going to work.

Here below, let me create a mega-Wolfgang portal for all interested. Here lieth the free book download, and all the articles and excerpts I am aware of online. So, enjoy, and let a Wolfgang blow your house down..or up, as the case may be.

"Houses That Change the World"..download entire book
15Theses for a New Reformation
Nobody recognizes apostles when they walk into the room
Look Again, Under the Heap
With Whom Shall We Work? Transitioning Leadership God's Way

How the Mosaics will change Christianity
The Top 10 Churches in the World
Spritual DNA and Biotics
Giving ministry away with five fingers
Church, Learn from Freemasons, Marshall plan

Disarming the Irregulars
Welcome to the 4th Industrial Revolution
A Wedding A Week?
fathering orphans

Advantages of house church over traditional church

God wins German elections?

more collage photos

More photos of "Collage Day," continued from the "Collage Day" post and other photos found here . (Sorry, they wouldn't all fit on that page). What kind of church did you say this was??

doing collages..instead of preaching a sermon??

I love one of Kevin Foster's mottos for his new congregation: "Dream really, really, really big." He honors me (his elder) by hardly ever calling me "Dave"; never "Reverend" (thank God and Kevin!), but by the only title on my business card: "chief dreamer."

The journey towards realizing how damn dammed-up the dreams of most Christians.. and congregations.. are, was firstcatalyzed in me by a study we did in a previous church; a "Fifty Day Spiritual Adventure" called, daringly, "Daring to Dream Again (available here). I heard things like "I have totally buried my dream of becoming a ______!" to "I am daring to dream again!"

And more recently, as I have had the privilege of meeting with those with those sensing a call to ministry or church planting, one of the crucial questions we often ask is not "How qualified do you really think you are?", or "How educated are you?"...but a straight-faced "How can we make your dreams come true?" Faces light up, and folks look instantly younger upon just hearing that question.


One of the value statements (phrases that snapshot our culture and DNA) of Third Day is "developing dreamers." As I have begun (mas o menos) speaking on each value statement in turn, I am wanting to be prayerful and careful that such is not just a lecture series, not just "speaching," but participatory, collaborative and engaging. And how about fun? (Or isn't that a Kingdom virtue anymore?) Instead of "preaching" at all about "Developing Dreamers," we just did it.

One of my seminary professors, the right-brain and right-on Chuck Killian, in a "Storytelling and Preaching" class, had us make collages...ripping out any pictures or text that got our attention from magaizines, and assembling collages. Of course, it was hilarious to see all the distinguihed graduate theological students walking the halls of academia with..not a two-ton stack of theological texts..but collages (I think we even had homework involving crayons once!): "Oh, you're in Killian's class, I see!," the smirking passersby would goodnaturedly tease. But what other seminary assignment do all of us still remember vividly..and what other assignments from seminary were "off the wall" enough to still be literally somewhere on our walsl these years later? It was a creative way to get in touch with ourselves, our spiritual life, our darkest demons, wildest hopes...and our dreams.

I have not heard if any of Dr. Killian's students through the years have ever re-enacted this project in the church (I wouldn't be surprised..only disappointed... if I were only one)...but I had only done it in small groups over the years, never until now as part of the (gasp)Sunday morning....(gasp!!)"sermon." No, as the
sermon. ATS alumni, please post here if you have gone and done likewise; you are someone we need to know!

Anyway, my stealth-photographer dad snapped sone great photos of the coalescing of the "collaging." It was a wonderfully chaotic and a holy mess as we created and crafted. And many are counting it a landmark moment for their daring to dream again. Church/religion/pastors tend to crush dreams! Yet we dared to kickstart them.


We processed some of the collages in the gathering. We would simply wander around the impromptu art studio and ask a brother or sister, "Tell me about your collage." And we listend, and learned. It was sacred. Each collage was like an X-ray of the person's soul; fears; dreams.
Some interesting questions were: Why is every white space on your backdrop covered, while your husband's collage had tons of white space/room between pictures? Does this picture you chose remind you of someone you know? Some intriguing observations: a variety of styles (meticulously angled pictures vs. random). And some artistic choices were fairly obvious to unpack. For example, It doesn't take a rocket scientist, or trained pyschoanlayst to discern that peole often placed images/text relating to their central heart-commitments (Christ, family) in the center of their collage.

I have not been able to google the source on this next part of the "collage interpretation," (or hardly anything on this type of collage, period..except for maybe this),
so maybe it was Chuck Killian's own. But he suggsted that we might uncousciously divide our collage into four quadrants, with
each
quadrant possibly representing images/impressions from different seasons of one's life. He suggested that the lower left may be where people place images reminding them of their
past; the upper right, their presnt; lower right, near future; and upper left, far future. Now this is not to be an infallible Freudian grid, or some kind of holy Rorshach test, but I have always founded that this grid has validity in many cases, and in a few cases radically connects dots...even changed lives as tears and memories flowed. Again, not that this overlay is perfectly prophetic, but it is worth putting into the mix.

Some serendipities this time: I purposely gave a minimum of instructions, I gave no guidelines about the backdrop posterboards, for example. Everyone thus just kept the standard rectangular posterboard as it was...except one soul, who shall remain nameless (Jeromy!) , who creatively cut it to inpcoporate its shape into his collaged message...Sometimes medium is message, and canvass is art! Especially rewarding was watching folks walk around the room to say to someone they knew: "Hey, here' s a pictuer of Bono (for us middlin' age men ) or Toby Mac (for several of our kids). "I know you like him, do you want this picture for your collage?" As it should be in the Body: we get to share in, sew into, and contribute to each other's "sermons," lives, dreams and visioning. Open-source Wiki-church, just as I Corinthians 12 prophesied over us !

One of the treasures of making what we used to call "pastoral calls" (I now call it, in deep theological terms, uh, "Just hanging out with some of my friends from church") in people's homes is having people "show you their stuff." Whether it's childern letting you see ..or even hold..their favorite toy or precious animal; or the elderly woman gently handing you a framed photograph of her deceased huband, there is no higher honor then "handling holy things." To taste this exeoperince en masse.. was off the charts for me. I was humbled and honored to be so quickly offered entree into the souls of Third Day bodies present.

Perhaps some of the saints that were there that day will post comemnts below, or even digital photos of their soul...uh, I mean, collage.

And just maybe Professor Killian is online today, and will post below some of the incredible stories he must have of master's students in theology ripping pages out of magazines with childlike abandon..and watching in the untold joy and awe that only loving and sagatious teachers know, as God snuck up on us. I see he is "emeritus" now (and even got his hair cut!) ; that doesn't necessarily mean he's old, but that he's got some time on his hands to post here and help us regular folk to dare to dream again.

Picture that!


More photos of "Collage Day"..click here!

Contest

We recently commissioned Bert Boyd (r) as assoc. pastor of Grace of God Fellowship Dinub, Calif. first person to post the correct answer as to the name of the guy in the middle (that's me on the left), and why all three of us are laughing, wins a big prize.

Bert has been an amazing example of a Christian excecutive/entrepreneur, impacting the marketplace and culture from his "secular" job. Now that he is officially a pastor (that's tougher sledding on impacting the culture). The cool thing is that he is man enough and secure enough to submit to his senior pastor...and wife...Nancy.

He'll be speaking about that..or heck, anything he and God want... Feb 26 at 3D

Here's Bert's better half being commisioned. Part of the reason she is smiling is she knew her hubbie was next:

http://www.gracecovenantint.com/website/newspast/February_2004/002.jpg

Pastor's Dress on EBay

By popular demand...Thanks to all three who asked!(:...my "true
confessions" story:

“MY DRESS FOR SALE ON E-BAY”

BUSTED: FAKING THE "BIG ONE"

I had been busted. Immediately plunged into crisis by a
simple question. I intuitively knew that my answer to the simple,
straightforward question would change my life. But for the life of me, I had no
clue what the answer would, could or should be. The question was innocent and
innocuous enough, but any answer would inevitably undress and unveil me as
guilty. And it was not a “yes or no” question, but an open essay question. I had
to actually talk; I had major explaining to do. But I was numbfounded and
nailed. And busted big time. The practical, provocative question that the bold
asker asked, with equal parts “This is so bizarre; I really need to know” look
in his eyes, and “I’m not sure I want to know” fearful waver in his voice? Read
on, but only if you can handle the truth and whole truth (so help you, God)
about me. Hold your breath..and if possible, your judgement. And don’t call the
cops on on me…yet. The life-rearranging question at hand: “Pastor, If you don’t
mind my asking…Why are you wearing a .....

read the rest here

Solomon's new box

As a sequel to yesterday's post..

I knew Solomon's porch was moving..but I didn't realize that it was to an old-style architectured Methodist church. That's "re-imagined" alright! What an awesome opportunity to be creative with space. Of course the first thing they did was "un-pew" the place. Here are the first pics
(More photos here ).

And a blurb from their website about space:
Our Gatherings are designed to be interactive and participatory. The set-up of the furniture is in the round to help us engage with one another during the music, prayer and discussion. So while it may seem a little odd to face people during church, give it a chance for a while and see how it grows on you.

Deconstructing Solomon's Box: Derrida and Paggit

As you can see, the last building we nomads of Third Day Fresno rented for a celebration center/HQ was a bit outta the box...so we winkingly nicknamed it "The Box". Designed by respected architect Arthur Dyson, it had won numerous architecture awards, was famous/infamous for it's completely (!) mirrored bathroom , and was a blast to meet in. It was recently bought ..believe it or not..by a dentist for his office, so we had to move out. We miss it. The real estate promo sheet called it's architectural style "whinsical" (perfect for church, eh?). Some neighbors called it the spaceship. We called it home.

So we took pains and steps to make it feel like home.

Physical set-up..especially of chairs/sofas has always been intentional and strategic for us. Not because we want to be hip or emerging or creative; not because we are pomo-driven, but simply because seating charts are theological; they preach just as much as I do. We want to sent a message (through the medium, which may be the message) that, a la 1 Corinthians, all are important; all can participate. I have often set up the space to send/incarnate the message that there is not one "professional" or "lecturer." Hence, though you see me here in a backsliding momement speaking from a music stand up front; we have no pulpit; let alone pews. Several times we have arranged the space so everyone is facing other folks, as in Jim Rutz's suggestion for "Open Church."

If you are familiar with Doug Paggit's Preaching ReImagined , and our church's DNA, you might guess taht this book has been huge and helpful in letting us know we are not alone in seeking to restructure and reimagine. Anyone that includes a chapter on "Physical Setup" in a preaching book...not to mention their church's "rule" about cell phones ("We say, 'Keep 'em on, something important might happen!'" p.130).... well, that's just gotta be a Kingdom thing! We're out of the same box!

Anyway, in the aforementioned chapter, he quotes the following blog post by Micahel Toy, relating the exeperience (medium and message) of watching the Derrida documentary:

there are a
couple of beautiful moments (in that documentary), and i thought
i would try to share one of
them here.

they try to do the normal
"sit the thinker down in a library
and have them pontificate" scene. as i
watched this scene, it was like derrida
vanished and i was listening to
Jesus:

Interviewer: "You're very well
known in the united states
for deconstruction. Can you talk a little bit about
the origins of that
idea?"

Derrida: "Before responding to this question,
I want to make
a preliminary remark on the completely artificial character of
this
situation. I don't know who's going to be watching this, but I want to
underline rather than efface our surrounding technical conditions, and not
feign
a "naturality" which does not exist".

I've already in a way
started to
respond to your question about deconstruction, because one of the
gestures of
deconstruction is not to naturalize what isn't natural – to not
assume that what
is conditioned by history, institutions, or society is
natural."

he is
refusing to pretend to have a philosophical
conversation in front of books, but
instead insists on beginning the
conversation with a recognition of how
unnatural it is to be sitting in
front of a camera, talking to people who aren't
there, and pretending not to
be talking the whole film crew, who is there.

i think people love
different things about jesus. some people love his
compassion for the poor,
others love him because he walked in power and could
turn water into wine.
listening to derrida i think i realized that i love jesus,
to a great
extent, because he was like this. you want to have one conversation
with
him, and he wants to have a deeper one with you. in order to invite you
into
the deeper conversation though, it is almost as if he has to destroy the
language you have used all your life before you can hear him.

Paggit sifts all the above, and concludes:

"This is a call to be prophetic in the deconstruction of systems of power. When we are willing to notice, point out and name the issues of power in our settings, we're creating a better situation in which the gospel can be preached." (210)

That is good news enough, but if Walter Wink is correct, there is also a deep dismantling and defanging of systemic evil in simply "naming the powers" and even noticing the systems that we can become embedded and enmeshed in. Even rearranging a few chairs can be strategic level spiritual warfare (as anyone who has messed with the seating chart in a traditional church has undoubtedly learned!).

A few years ago, my son, now 12, said "Daddy, what do you call those long, uncomfortable things we used tos it on in church?" I smiled as I brough the "pew" back to his memory. Then just last week, I mentioned the word "pulpit," and he quiized me "What's that?"

Hey, I am glad for churches that are blessed with pews and pulpits. It's just not us. It's just that for us, there is no going back. I might even buy an old pulpit one day just to chain-saw it (see this unforgettable account!).
But we also agrre that just monkeying with the chairs, and adding a few couches, doesn't bring the Kingdom down, and doesn't automatically demolish the strongholds Wink has identfied. Heck, it could even be just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

But it is one practical way we have found, in our exeperimental church, to facilite and foster a context where
we have powerfully heard the voice of the Lord through those that would never be allowed to speak in most churches, when we would have missed it if so-called "laypeople" were not given the floor, "pulpit"..and space to speak. The only alteranative would be what Paggit calls "sit there and take it" church. Paggit claims that, despite the fears of "This (letting the saints talk) will lead to more heresy," it leads to less. Our church can amen.

One church with a sense of humor (may that tribe increase), in their hilarious, tongue-in-cheek but dead-serious "bulletin" , feels the need to explain and justify this practice of "letting the unwashed masses actually say something in church":

We like to share the wealth. Seeing as most of our ministers with bible school
training got it via mail order, we don't feel that hearing from God is something
only one of them can do. Everyone in our church could potentially be sitting on
a great sermon, so we like to let everyone get a chance to speak. So we have a
five minute slot. Occasionally we get some weird discourse on helicopters and
UFO's, but 99.9% of the time or more it is a good message.

That's a good perecentage. And worth a little deconstructing, reconstructing... and thinking a bit outside the box. Even if its a Dentist Office Box that looks like a UFO.