Rob bell on the creative process

Notes from Rob Bell’s talk on the creative process at Greenbelt Festival. Brackets are mine.

Creativity starts with how you see the world
1. God is already present – first assumption. At every time you’re on holy ground learn to observe.
2. Capture the moment remember. Write things down. Take note. Take a photo.
Turn your edit button off until the thing is written/ or out of the brain. Get it out first then edit.
It nay be rubbish but unless you get it out you’ll never know.
3. You make stuff because you have to, they’re in you. (passion and need?). Youdfont have control over how it is received. The reward is not that it is received well but that you were able to create it. (God given creativity accomplished)
4. creativity is exhausting. That’s ok and it is a cost of creativity. Take a break if or when ideas don’t come.

Questions. Creativity doesn’t have to be written or artistic. Could be organisational. (Just following spirit really)

I did then ask a question about church-planting, and, in particular how he planted his church, but he didn’t really expand on the beginnings of his church any more than he did in Velvet Elvis – namely, that he was an associate pastor in another church and a group of them thought there was a need for a church plant. They were offered the use of warehouse building for the rent of $1 a year, and five weeks later they began. Velvet Elvis says that on the first week nearly 1000 people turned up. I was a little disappointed that he didn’t go into more detail on what happened in those 5 weeks.

Preaching Jesus

Notes from the Dwell UK session by Mark Driscoll, 12th July 2008, at St Paul’s Church, Robert Adam St. London.

Session 5: Preaching Jesus

Everything is about Jesus. If we talk about Jesus then our congregation will. During 1 to 1 talks, groups, preaching -> everything is about Jesus. So how do we preach about Jesus well?

Driscoll uses some framing questions to guide him in his preparation.

1. What does the original text say (do Hebrew and Greek work if you can)
2. What did it mean in that culture, then, when it was written [this will start to guide us as to what it means now]
3. How can it be memorable -  The sermon needs a hook to hang itself on. This could be a doctrine, a theological issue, an emotion, an image, a character study etc.
4. Answer possible objections to the point as these will be going on in the minds of our hearers. Why do we resist what the passage is saying? Engage in apologetics over the point.
5. Why does it matter?  – What is the missional approach? This is not just about a personal application, but why does it matter to our community now. Church is a witness of real community to the city – are we preaching a false gospel by how we live?
6. How is Jesus the hero? How does this sermon witness to Jesus through the passage. This will quietly train people to be evangelistic.

Teach and preach in such a way that everything is about Jesus.

But how do we find Jesus in more obscure parts of the Old Testament?

• forshadowing – OT prophecies directly about Jesus
• Christophenes – Jesus showing up as the Angel of the LORD in the OT
• Types of Jesus – e.g. Adam, priesthood, David and the kings, Prophets, sacrifices, Temple, shepherd, Judges, Bread, Vine, Light
• A Service that an OT character performs that Jesus does perfectly – e.g. Isaac laying the wood for his own sacrifice.
• OT Events – passover, exodus, exile
• Titles For God – e.g Son of God, King of Kings, etc.

Careful not to turn OT stories into moralising or simply stories of superheroes. The big idea is to tell people about Jesus. It it’s about Jesus it is good, even if other things about it are not good!

One other thing Driscoll said that I liked:

Until you’ve preached, like, 200 times, don’t worry that you’re not any good at it.

Planting Communities of Grace

Notes from the Dwell UK session by Steve Timmis, 12th July 2008.

Session 4: Planting Communities of Grace

Tuckman identifes 4 stages of development that groups go through as the form

1. Forming – people are being polite as the new thing starts. They are trying to get to know each other and being deliberately well behaved.
2. Storming – things start to get rocky. People get real and sometimes fall out as they feel they can be themselves. For some, their securtity is threatened. Others ask for structures to be put in place to hold the thing together
3. Norming – The group starts to develop its ow culture and begin to see a coherent vision. It feels more real, as friendships have survived the storming phase. Some become resistant to change in this phase so things don’t get difficult again.
4. Performing – A real sense of mutual dependence. There is shared ownership of the vision. Flexibility, loyalty and affection. The group does what it was formed for.

Question: Is it possible to avoid errors at the storming and norming phase? Timmis suggest we build in grace from the beginning.
1. The need of stand-out godliness (1 Tim 3:1-13)

People who model practical holiness in mudance bits of life – v2-4 contain a very ordinary list of virtues

• appoint people like that as they model grace.
• need for hospitality (that is, a love of strangers, of people not necessarily like us)
• godliness – have nothing to do with bribing, impressing or cajoling God. Godliness is an ordinary life lived with gospel intentions.

2. The Means of Godliness (1 Tim 3:16)

Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great:  He appeared in a body,  was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory. (1 Tim 3:16)

The secret is no longer a mystery (Paul writing against proto-gnosticism)

In the Old Testament, no one really knew how to live a godly life. People couldn’t really get there. The law exposed sin and condemned the sinner. The way was paved for Jesus.

Godliness is a heart issue before it is a behaviour issue. Godly people demonstrate Jesus in their life – they are a lover of God and others (most important commandments). The Mystery of Godliness is not about me, it is all about Jesus.

3. Where the need and means come together (1 Tim 3:15)

if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. (1 Tim 3:15)

The Church is the pillar and foundation of the truth – God’s household. This truth is to be proclaimed over and over.

• the pillar holds the roof. In the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the marble roof called out to people from afar.
• the church doesn’t need an ediface like that – the truth is the gospel of grace. This calls out to people.

If we plant communities of grace, we will produce churches and people who emanate grace and draw people to glorify God. It is a family likeness. God should be evident in the godliness of the church.

Tuckman added a 5th stage 10 years later.
Adjourning stage - the group has done what it set out to do. It’s goals are met.
- Each congregation is to adjourn as it plants new congregations with the DNA of grace in the updated context. This starts the cycle again.

Total church (v) – church planting

Continuing the series going through the book, Total Church, by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis.

Chapter 5 of Total church talks about church planting. Chester and Timmis claim that at the centre of the apostolic vision of mission was church planting – this is what Paul and his companions were doing all throughout the New Testament. The church is the agent of mission and as such, church planting is the primary form of mission.

Of course, by church, Chester and Timmis are not talking about the church as an institution of as the universal church. They are talking about the church as a loving and close knit family – as the early church congregations were. The early churches met in households, running a church was compared to running a family. Once this family of the church had outgrown the size of the household that they could meet in, they split into two smaller congregations. (Timmis and Chester giver references for this from Acts).

Local church congregations therefore are to look out and care for each other, to have the gospel at the centre, and are deeply integrated in their local community. Mission and evangelism, then, are part of the DNA of the church as they care for each other and for the community.

Why doesn’t this happen in most churches today? Total church claims there are a number of factors. One is that the church slips into ‘maintenance mode’. As a church gets bigger it starts providing programs and courses and so on, all of these create jobs that need to be filled in the church. The focus of the church then becomes keeping these programs going, rather than reaching out in new ways to the local community.

I guess the main focus of the chapter is simple: that the mission of God involves engaging with the surrounding community and planting communities (church groups) where God’s grace can be lived out and witnessed in the community. Quite simple really.

Am I a Church Planter?

Notes from the Dwell UK session by Scott Thomas, 12th July 2008, at St Paul’s Church, Robert Adam St. London. In my opinion this was the weakest of the sessions.

Am I a Church Planter?

The way to find out is to match yourseld up against this list.

1. Am I a Christian – is Jesus Lord of every area of life?
2. Does the Bible affect my heart?
3. Am I Spirit-filled and led?
4. Am I qualified as an elder (according to the model offered by Titus – being above reproach etc.)?
5. Do I love the local church as an expression of a gospel community of mission?
6. Do i feel like a missionary to the city I am in?
7. Do I have a clear vision for how the work would happen?
8. Am I willing to pour myself out in obedience to the vision?
9. Am I physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally healthy?
10. Am I a leader that other people will follow  – have I had experience to back this up?
11. Can I preach effectively?
12. Am I theologically clear an can you Biblically back it up. (people with doctrinal error who leave some churches often start new ones)
13. Can I put in steps to start a new thing (part of this is understanding who you are and what skills you have)
14. Am I called to plant a church at this time an at this place. (Do we love the place?)
15. Have my church leaders commended me for this work?
16. Am I hard working? (will i persevere)
17. Am I adaptable to new people and things?
18. Can I raise funds to support me and my families needs, not just the needs of the church?
19. Am I humble enough to learn from others who have gone before?

If questions 1-18 didn’t get you, question 19 is sure to! As I said I thought this was the weakest of the sessions at the Dwell UK conference. What bothered me was a couple of things. Scott Thomas kept going on about being a family man and the importance of family support – it was like he was saying that you needed to be a married man in order to even consider planting a church.

Early on in the session, he sais “You never want to just plant one church!” He claimed that as a church planted you should try and plant many. I think I disagree with this. Many people are called to cplant a new church in a particular area, and part of that is being committed to the area for a long period of time. Bill Hybels planted the Willow Creek church in Illinois as a youth congregation. It is still there, he is still there and the church is thriving. Hvaing said that, I’m sure Willow Creek as gone on to plant new congregations from it’s first one.

Church Planter as a Minister of Grace

Notes from the Dwell UK session by Steve Timmis, 12th July 2008.

Session 2: The Church planter as a minister of Grace

In 1 Timothy, Paul was an experienced church planted and knew about Grace. Timothy was his young protege trying to get a new church back on the ‘gospel’ track

1. Grace is Primary Identity as Church Planters

In 1 Tim 1:15, Paul says that Christ came to save sinners, and that he is the worst of all.  This is in the present tense. How cam Paul still have an identity as a sinner after all these years?

v13 – Paul says he was bad, but he was shown mercy. But he seems to see his sin more now (writing 1 Tim) than he did then
- As we look back we reflect and are reminded of it, despite the joy of forgiveness – often it is with a shudder – how could we have done the stuff we did?

v14-15 – Paul sees God’s grace as more than abundant. We are great sinners with a great saviour
-> Grace is to be our primary identity. Despite our sin, our names are written in heave by grace.

Therefore the primary identity of anyone who wants to plant churches is that of grace – a saved sinner. This combats pride in how many churches we may have planted.

2. Ministry as Church Planters

Paul’s emphasis is on grace in order to draw them away from legalism – there was an over-reliance on Old Testament law. Paul combats this false teaching in the church by refreshing Timothy’s heart and mind with the gospel – he teaches Timothy about grace. He wants Timothy to command and instruct them away from the false doctrines, done out of love (1 Tim 1:3,5). Timothy has to stand up in front of the church and be clear – he must keep a sincere faith and a good conscience.

3. What is the relationship between primary identity and ministry.

If our identity is that of a recipient of grace, the identity will define the ministry. Conversely, if we find we are expecting legalism through requirements made on others, it might be because we are legalists at heart.

Our identity as recipient of grace

• will enable us to practice grace with others and the leadership
• will enable us to love the unlovely and unloveable (because at heart we know we are)
• will enable us to realise that our grasp of the gospel is not down to our ability
• will help undermine power plays

We will be able to handle failure and criticism, because it is not our pride and identity at stake, but God’s gospel. We are all children of God through grace and saved sinners through grace.

Gospel of Grace vs Religion of Works

Notes from the Dwell UK session by Mark Driscoll, 12th July 2008, at St Paul’s Church, Robert Adam St. London.

Session 1: Gospel of Grace vs Religion of Works.

The Gospel is something we continually learn – we don’t just learn it and then move on from it, we need to keep reminding ourselves of it and keep learning what it means.

1 Cor 15:1-4 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

From this, the gospel is:

1. proclaimational – it must be spoken. Community, relationships and stories are great, but they are not sufficient.
2. personal – it is something that each needs to personally receive. We can ask of people ‘What do you believe?’
3. essential – no-one can be saved apart from the gospel of Christ.
4. central – it is of primary importance and it mustn’t be changed
5. Biblical – contained in the scriptures.

The gospel is about Jesus. If church leaders talk about Jesus naturally in their conversations and in their services, the people will get used to talking about Jesus

• they will not be ashamed of him
• negative reactions to Jesus are often against incorrect stereotypes of him
• give people the truth about Jesus, and people will at least hear it and maybe accept it.

Enemies of the Gospel: Idolatory and Religion

Both idolators and the religious need to repent and come to faith in Jesus

1. Idolatry
Luther said – all sins are the fruit of idolatry

• something that takes the place of God
• the root of coveting, lust etc. is the worship of something that is not God (cf. Rom 1)
• idolators end up worshipping something created.

Idols make promises that are lies.

• They usually promise good things, such as identity or value, but they can’t take the place of God
• what we love generally enslaves us. (aside: was the plague of the first born sons in Exodus a judgement of God agains the idol of family?)

Idols work my pulling us from a bad definition of hell to an unbiblical definition of heaven. For example:

• being single = hell, married = heaven. The saviour then becomes the partner
• of – begin childless = hell, the saviour is then the child.
• just about all advertising and movies promote a false heaven

The question “What are you most afraid of?” or “What do you most long for?” can help point us towards our idols.

People who use Jesus to get to what they want  – such as health, a spouse, a job etc, are just making Jesus the means to get to an idol. We have to ask ourselves whose approval we are seeking.

All people struggle with idolatry. All are spiritual for the wrong thing. All need to repent and turn to God

2. Religion
Idolators assume they are righteous enough or good enough. The religious person assumes they need to o something (through guilt or shame) so they strain to get to God.

Religion

• If I obey God, he will love me
• keeps people in fear and guilt and in condemnation to control people
• sees the world as good and bad people. If they are good – they’re on our side. This is used over Bible interpretation, eschatology, politics and more. It creates a scorecard for righteousness
• is about what you do. Why do you read the Bible, for how long, have you spoken in tongues
• sanctification (holiness) leads to justification (being seen as right before God)

Gospel

• God loves me, so I am able to obey.
• there are no good and bad – we are all sinners  – just some have repented and some have not
• Jesus said “It is finished”. He has done everything for us
• justification is offered for free and this leads to sanctification

Ultimately – religion is about me and the gospel is about Jesus. Religion leads to either pride of despair – you either make it or you don’t.

Rom 1:16-17  I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.“

Everyone needs the gospel – both idolators and the religious.