anthonycoppedge.com church tech blog

Day 17


Zach Neese, one of the song writers at my church (Gateway - www.gatewaypeople.com and www.gatewayworship.com), wrote this about the beautiful and moving song that he wrote, Alabaster Jar. I thought it was so incredible that as I began to write about “pouring out” (today’s assignment), this trumped any words I could have stitched together.

When I write a song, I begin in a moment with God, a gem of truth, and a cry that the Church needs to learn to vocalize. Alabaster Jar is a moment in the life of a person who remains at the feet of Jesus. The truth is that worship is not something we simply sing, but it is an attitude of the heart that motivates the actions of our lives. The cry is the chorus, “Here I am. Take me as an offering. Here I am giving every heartbeat for Your glory.”

The title refers to the sinful woman in Luke 7 who anointed Jesus’ feet with oil and tears and wiped them clean with her hair. I understand that woman. When you have been pulled off of the dung heap where the world casts aside its used-up, worthless garbage, you cannot remain unmoved. This woman permitted God to move her. And when she moved, it was an all-out act of worship; selfless, pure, extravagant, even embarrassing to the religious establishment. It takes a heart that has been wooed by forgiveness to love that deeply.

She bowed at His feet and poured out the wages of her past - everything she was. She poured out the security of her future - everything she could ever afford to become. She even poured out the tears of her broken heart and laid bare the wounds that they had pooled in. Then this amazing woman loosed her glorious hair and used it to wipe Jesus’ filthy, neglected, feet clean. She used her glory as a dust rag to serve Christ.

Her actions more eloquently expressed gratefulness than any words she could have spoken. That is worship. Worship is not lip service, but the grateful response of a heart that has been won by mercy (Romans 12:1).

That is how I want to live. God is worthy of nothing less.

Wow. That’s a powerful picture of pouring out, isn’t it?

When we serve, we pour out.

When we help a friend in a desperate time, we pour out.

When we are obedient without reservation, even when we don’t understand, we pour out.

Matthew 25:40 - “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’“

Here’s your assignment:

• Serve this weekend with the heart of one who pours out like the woman in Luke 7.
• Provide for a friend in desperate times; you have no idea how much they will appreciate it.
• Be obedient in that area where you are finding it hard to understand God’s plan.

The very first comment to my post on counting vertically and measuring horizontally, prompted this question from David:

Anthony,

I appreciate what you seem to be getting at here. The Great Commission is a call for the church to be making both converts and disciples.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this question: Why should we make the effort to measure either one?

It’s a great question, and I’ve wrestled with how to give this the proper perspective. For if we first understand that we are in a society that has taught us to evaluate, categorize and analyze everything, it gives us our first clue that this might be an exercise in Greek thinking instead of Hebrew thinking. But, when we look back at Scripture, our thinking here might not be as simplistic as a measuring stick.

In the book of Acts, there are about 15 times when numbers are mentioned and/or expressed as a measurement. However, the context of those numbers seem, to me, to be based on the description rather than the numerical value of counting. Here’s how it breaks down:

Acts 2:41 - “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
Acts 2:47 - “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Acts 4:4 - “But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.”
Acts 5:14 - “Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.”
Acts 6:7 - “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith/”
Acts 9:31 - “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.”
Acts 9:42 - “This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.”
Acts 11:21 - “The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.”
Acts 11:24 - “He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.”
Acts 11:26 - “So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people.”
Acts 14:1 - “There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.”
Acts 17:4 - “Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.”
Acts 17:12 - “Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.”
Acts 17:34 - “A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.”
Acts 18:8 - “Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.”

The results are what Luke describes in the book of Acts. The quantitative numbers are the barometer; the qualitative numbers are the effect. Both give context and provide value. Numbers help us identify, codify and understand. It’s easy to look only at attendance as the main measurement tool, but it takes maturity and discernment to understand the fruits that are represented through the results of growth.

In churches that focus more on evangelism (top priority) than discipleship, numbers become the goal, so that practices change to pursue the numbers rather than engaging the practices that result in the numbers. Yet, on the other side of the coin, churches that focus on discipleship more than evangelism often don’t change their practices when the numbers represent stagnation.

I do not write any of this to throw stones one way or the other; to do so would be divisive and unhelpful and continue to reinforce the “either/or” mindset. Instead, I share my thoughts as an edification to believers for “both/and” in leveraging the measurement of quantitative and qualitative results.

Please share your thoughts, too.

Disclaimer: I’m not a certified church growth expert. I’ve not written a book on growing churches, nor do I pastor a large church that’s had a ton of numerical growth. But in talking with a very good friend of mine I’ve thought through some ideas and wanted to share my thoughts on measuring growth. - end of disclaimer

Yesterday I blogged about the Fellowbackgrangepoint Church model as a way of trying to describe what I’ve seen happening with churches. You might have your own church model that might look more like the Willoharvesttemple Church or the Friendshipcommunityofbible Church or any other mash-up of churches that your leadership has tried to emulate.

At the end of the day there’s a lot of ‘me too’ churches that are honest and sincere in their application of proven lessons. But the results are an overlay of formats that are missing the key ingredient: who God called your church to uniquely be.

There seem to be a couple of prevalent schools of thought floating around:

1. Measure attendance, because each number is a life in need of Christ
2. Measure discipleship growth, because life change matters most

Why is it either/or instead of both/and? If a church has 10 people that go very deep in studying Scripture and are a tight-knit fellowship of believers, but never reach people in need of Jesus, they’re ignoring the Great Commission (go and make disciples). Conversely, if a church has a huge front door with thousands coming in and nearly as large back door with thousands going out, why aren’t they discipling those people who are in and out?

So here’s the question I want to posit:

If we count vertically (attendance) and measure growth horizontally (how many serving and changing lives), our metric system is holistically valid.

Obviously, measuring attendance is a lot easier than measuring changed lives. But isn’t that worth the effort? I think it is.

We have to be careful in implementing this process, as it would be very easy for a leader to stop counting and begin judging those who are growing and serving with personal life-change. Yet, with a solid leadership infrastructure and a commitment of group leaders, capturing both anecdotal as well as tangible data is very do-able. In the end, I don’t think we should look for a hard and fast number for the horizontal growth, but maybe more of a barometer that gives an honest and accurate sampling of the result.

Given the plethora of church management systems software packages available, I know first-hand that the right reporting tools exist. The question is, are we being trained to use them to capture both the vertical and the horizontal?

How about your church? Is this honestly what’s happening? Or do you find yourself in an either/or situation? How can you move from where you are to the genius of the and?

I’d love to hear your thoughts…

Day 16

Sometimes, you just have to push through. Ever heard that term? It means you keep going, right on past…

• the pain…
• the circumstance…
• the situation…
• the moment…

Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Walking through, not stopping in. That’s the key; that’s pushing through.

But lest we fool ourselves into thinking it’s by our effort alone, here’s a better look at what this verse really means for us!

The Lord is my Shepherd
That’s Relationship!

I shall not want
That’s Supply!

He makes me to lie down in green pastures.
That’s Rest!

He leads me beside the still waters.
That’s Refreshment!

He restores my soul
That’s Healing!

He leads me in the paths of righteousness.
That’s Guidance!

For His name sake
That’s Purpose!

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
That’s Testing!

I will fear no evil.
That’s Protection!

For You are with me
That’s Faithfulness!

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me,
That’s Discipline!

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
That’s Hope!

You anoint my head with oil,
That’s Consecration!

My cup runs over.
That’s Abundance!

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life.
That’s Blessing!

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord.
That’s Security!

Forever
That’s Eternity!

I wish I knew who wrote that, but I can’t find the person to credit. Still, it’s powerful and it’s a reminder to us of just how much God loves us and how much we need to rely on Him in our times of struggle.

Here’s your assignment:

• Rest in the Lord. Don’t get too stressed, but rest in His provision.
• Welcome testing from the Lord. Let him purify your heart and mind.
• Push through, knowing that God is right there with you today!

The crew up at Granger will be hosting a Tech Arts Forum, roundtable-style, on May 30, 2008.

Just thought you’d wanna know.

I have friends at Fellowship Church, Saddleback Church, Granger Community Church and North Point Church. They know I love and respect them, so this post isn’t about ’slamming’ them. Hardly. They’re all great churches doing great things. Love it.

Each of these churches offer conferences which give insight on the why and what of how they do things. Again, great things. Love it.

But there are more churches contacting me who have lost their own identity in the race to implement the Fellowbackgrangepoint Church model. What model is that, you say? Why it’s the mash-up of all of the best practices of each of those churches distilled into an unreproducible, unauthentic version of their own church!

Now before the flame-mails start flying… don’t be hatin’. Like I said before, those are great churches doing great things and I love it. And while we should all learn from others, taking best-practices and applying them where appropriate and applicable, trying to overlay multiple models on top of each other leads to a church without identity.

“Come visit our purpose-driven, seeker-friendly, creatively-inspired, pop-culture manic, church-in-a-kitchen. What does all that mean? Simple: we’re all things from all churches for all people. And we’re hip/casual in a Starbucks kind of way.”

What’s the vision for your church? Who are you trying to reach? How good are you in identifying with your local community? What unique attributes make your church unique? How is God moving in your church?

Those are the questions we should be asking. And, yes, we should be learning from those churches above - after all, they don’t suck. But at the end of the day, don’t create a brand of sameness. Dare to be different! Embrace your unique staff, volunteer and community attributes and celebrate the church God has called you to be!