The main idea behind conVerge is that you have a mission and then you have a plan. For the most part, people agree on the mission. The mission is pretty simple, more people worshiping and following Jesus. That’s it. We can phrase it a lot of different ways, and the term mission has become popular because it’s helpful to not forget that this goal is a mission, but there is nothing new here. It’s what most Christians, nominal or not, have always claimed to be about.
Once you get past basic theological issues, I think disagreements always come down to the plan. What is the best way to get to more people worshipping and following Jesus? The answer to that question is what causes people to part ways. No one is ever going to be able to answer that question perfectly, but conVerge is going to make its best attempt. So far this has meant:
1)Being the church. For whatever reason, people being the church causes more people to worship and follow Jesus. We’ve seen this so clearly in Ephesians this past summer. People want to follow Jesus because he is Truth. The best evidence of that is the changed lives of his followers, and that should be most evident through our community. Thus, we have to be the church without being detached from the world we are trying to reach. This makes some people uncomfortable out of fear that in caring for ourselves we will not care for the outside world. But that’s a tension we have to live in, because if we remove ourselves from community then we’re attempting to show Jesus to people on our own, and that’s not how he intended it. We can’t give people Jesus without also giving people his Body, which is the very fullness of Jesus. This is all in Ephesians.
2)Building the church. If we just wanted people worshiping and following Jesus, then we wouldn’t have to build the church. We could just be the church and be happy that we’re saved and live a nice comfortable life however we please. This is where most Christians are. But the mission is more people worshiping and following Jesus. It’s that pesky word ‘more’ that causes us to disagree on what it is we are supposed to be doing. Some people don’t even believe that we should be concerned about more people (isn’t God Sovereign, they say), but again they need to read Ephesians. Time and time again Paul tells us to actively work to build the church and if you read the context he’s talking mostly about adding more people, not the personal growth of the people already there - not to say that’s unimportant. This should be Great Commission basic, but we keep having to defend it. Anyway, if you accept that the mission is about more people, then we’re caught in another tension of how do we hold fast to the truth while continually attempting to contextualize it to our culture. If you pretend like this tension doesn’t exist as people like Mark Dever do, I don’t think you’re taking building the church seriously. That’s why we’re missional-attractional. But at the same time, the whole counsel of Scripture much be preached, which will necessarily offend some.
3)Give up your life to be and build the church. This is where we step on toes and it’s at this point that many people check out or leave all together. If being the church and building the church is what the mission of Jesus is all about, and if our whole reason for being here is the mission of Jesus, then we have to give our whole lives to that mission. Jesus himself said we would have to give up our own lives for the sake of the gospel. Being and building the church is who we are all day, every day. We can’t turn it on and off. It invades all of who we are and what we do. All our relationships are about the church. All our time and energy is spent being and building the church. It’s what drives our decisions about things big and small. Some people don’t like this. I think the biggest reason is they don’t want to lose control of their lives by submitting to the church, despite the fact that we’re clearly called to that in Scripture. Because of past sins and human imperfections people view the church as a flawed human organization and not the body of Jesus – an organized movement of Jesus followers. The local church especially is downplayed in favor of the universal church, without understanding that you can’t have one without the other. Others who don’t want to give up their whole lives for the church haven’t actually been changed by the gospel. They are just looking for an activity or two to check off their list and make them feel as if they’ve fulfilled some spiritual obligation. So many are trapped by this and do not realize it. But it’s not until the church invades your entire life that you’re beginning to live the life that Christ intends for his followers - you can’t do it outside the church. But once you submit to that idea and allow Jesus to start using you as a part of his Body, you’ll never be the same.
Posted on August 23rd, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 1 Comment »
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:17 AM]:
well, i have a pretty funny story from last night
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:17 AM]:
so i finally got rid of the stove that’s been on craigslist
Gentry, Stephen Murphy Jr. [8:17 AM]:
yeah?
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:17 AM]:
the Reverend King showed up about 5pm apparently from the absolute sticks
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:18 AM]:
he pulls up in this, like 1970s station wagon pulling a trailer behind it, with his old as dirt wife in the passenger seat
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:18 AM]:
he’s short and fat and apparently has a bad ankle as he waddles in
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:18 AM]:
well, he gets in and first i tell him it’s down the stairs, so that’s an ordeal
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:19 AM]:
but finally we get down there and he wants to buy it; he asks me how much and i just say $10
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:19 AM]:
so we have a deal, but of course also a problem
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:19 AM]:
dave and I barely got this stove inside with the both of us
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:19 AM]:
now it’s just me and Reverend King with a bad ankle who barely could get himself down the stairs
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:19 AM]:
so, he has a dolly with him, and I think
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:20 AM]:
hmm, I’m pretty sure I could get the stove out the back on the dolly just by lowering it down the stairs
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:20 AM]:
so I get it all loaded up and get to the top of my back stairs in the basement
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:21 AM]:
and then, well, about as I was going down the first stair I have what I would like to call an “oh crap this was a terrible idea” moment
Gentry, Stephen Murphy Jr. [8:21 AM]:
lololol
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:21 AM]:
and, essentially, the story is
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:21 AM]:
me and the stove fell down the flight of stairs
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:21 AM]:
and the stove broke into about, 5 pieces
Gentry, Stephen Murphy Jr. [8:21 AM]:
hahahahahahahahaha
Gentry, Stephen Murphy Jr. [8:21 AM]:
i’m laughing out loud
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:21 AM]:
so there I am, on my lawn with the stove and the dolly all in a big pile
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:22 AM]:
and my stove is literally now a pile of metal
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:22 AM]:
but, the good part is the pieces aren’t really broken so much as come apart
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:22 AM]:
so I hand the Reverend King his $10 back
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:22 AM]:
and he says he’ll still take it to see if he can get it to work
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:23 AM]:
well, it being in several pieces made it much easier to load onto his trailer
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:23 AM]:
so that’s the story of how I got rid of the stove
Gentry, Stephen Murphy Jr. [8:23 AM]:
lolololol
Gentry, Stephen Murphy Jr. [8:23 AM]:
why didn’t you call me?
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:23 AM]:
i mean, i thought I could do it
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:23 AM]:
lolololol
Gentry, Stephen Murphy Jr. [8:23 AM]:
that is one of the funniest stories ever
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:25 AM]:
yeah
Schlomann, Nathanael Tod [8:25 AM]:
oh, and i’m not hurt somehow by the way
Gentry, Stephen Murphy Jr. [8:25 AM]:
that’s good
Posted on August 6th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Humor | 1 Comment »
In an attempt to be a better blogger, I’m going to try to post more without fleshing things out. I hate leaving things unsaid or not answering objections, which means I’m left with 25 unposted blogs over the last couple months (seriously). So here goes.
The idea of a specific calling to church planting is insulting to the Holy Spirit. Every Christian has God in them. Try to wrap your mind around that idea. So now God’s not powerful enough to help someone plant a church? Yeah, I want my biggest, baddest dudes out there on the front lines. Some people, because they are unwilling to change and equip themselves, are just obviously not ready to put the necessary work into planting a church. But I don’t believe for one second it’s due to some kind of supernatural deficiency in Holy Spirit power - I think it’s due to human laziness. We need to be really careful when we start attributing human diligence to God because we make our own work irreproducible, which is inherently anti-missional. We think we’re doing God a favor, but really we just have a weak view of the Holy Spirit if we think he can’t work through anyone the way he works through us - on top of the fact that we’re letting a lot of Christians off the hook.
Thoughts?
Posted on July 8th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 2 Comments »
This week we’re studying the importance of prayer and connecting with God from the last section of Ephesians 3. This is something our community must start doing if we’re going to be about the mission of Jesus like we want to be. Right now we’ve got a lot of people saying and thinking “we need to pray more” or “we need to reach out to people more” or “we need to _____.” I’m one of those people, as these things are all true. But what we really need is more people to say “I will ____ .” For each of us, it’s got to start with “I will,” and we can’t be distracted by what everyone else is not doing. I will connect with God every day.
Posted on June 17th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 1 Comment »
Being missional involves both intent and intensity. It involves both sincerity and scope. I have discovered over the past few months that people have a relatively easy time understanding the intent and sincerity involved with living missionally, but a much harder time grasping the intensity and scope that is required to truly be missional. Without intensity and scope we’re just another nice, dying church.
The mission of Jesus compels us to love others and live a life that is a good witness. In other words, we learn to always have the intent of showing Jesus to others, and we are sincere about it. This is not an easy task, but it also does not require much sacrifice on our part. Once we understand what Christ has done for us, who doesn’t want to live a life so that others can also know this?
People are much more reluctant to acknowledge the intensity and scope of the mission of Jesus, because these things require much of us. I believe our English translations get Matthew 28 right - Jesus did not say “while you are going, make disciples,” he said “go and make disciples of all nations.” See here for a defense of this view. In this command we have both the intensity and scope of our mission.
First, we have to go actively and intentionally. It is not “missional” to reflect the love of Jesus to the people we come into contact with in our day-to-day lives - that is simply what a good person who knows Jesus would do, and certainly we must do this. But we become “missional” when we are intentional about going to other people, and if we are not doing this then we are not following Jesus’ command. As we always make clear, intentionally going to other people that we do not naturally come into contact with does not mean that we have fake relationships with people to tell them about Jesus, or that we go door to door. It is a tough, life-long commitment to intentionally form new meaningful relationships with people. You have to be intense about the mission in order to be willing to do this.
Second, the scope of our mission is everyone - all nations. From this we derive the command that we are to meaningfully reach as many people for Jesus in our lifetime as possible. It means the scope of the mission is unlimited, so there is never a point at which we can say, “we’re doing our part, we’re doing enough.” Christianity doesn’t work like that. We can rest confident in God’s sovereignty, knowing that we are being obedient and striving to reach as many as possible. But I don’t think that a Christian who knows his or her own sin will ever feel that they have arrived when it comes to the mission of Jesus. Realize that following Jesus involves a life-long commitment to a mission that will never be finished until Jesus returns. I’m just telling you the way it is. But as always, it’s worth it.
Posted on April 26th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 3 Comments »
Well, for the summer anyway. This past Sunday we talked about moving with God and being willing to give up what we thought our life would look like for what Jesus wants it to be.
It occurred to me that some of the people in our church are about to spend their whole summer taking a break from following Jesus. If you find yourself in that situation and you’re willing to step out and do something about it, please let us know. If you want to stay in Lynchburg for the summer and be a part of conVerge, we can help make that happen.
It’s your choice.
Posted on April 23rd, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 1 Comment »
“Every Person Matters” means that the person you don’t know matters just as much as your friends. It means the person you don’t know matters just as much as your parents. It means that the person you don’t know matters just as much as YOU. It means that if you would rather be by yourself and those you are comfortable with than with the people God has put in your life to bring into His kingdom, you are an idolater and you do not believe that every person matters. It means that we value redemption over comfort, and in doing so find both.
Is this a ridiculous standard? Of course it is. And no we’re not all living like this yet. But if you wanted the status quo, there are a lot of other places you could get it. Jesus, once again, was not lying when he said that following Him would be hard.
Posted on April 14th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 2 Comments »
We‘ve got to pray more. I don’t have a whole lot for this post or any new revelations that have made me post it. This is simply a call to more prayer for everyone at conVerge, starting with myself. As we take strategic steps to get more and more serious about the mission of Jesus, we can‘t forget to both rely on and anticipate God to work and move. I don’t think we’re really doing that right now.
Pray that God would continue to bring new people into our sphere of influence that He wants us to reconcile to Himself through Jesus. Pray that we would begin to take action on all that God has taught us these past few months, and not be afraid to make changes in our lives.Pray specifically that God will raise up leaders to further the movement of conVerge Church.
Posted on April 3rd, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | 2 Comments »
It’s been quite awhile since I last blogged. I really don’t have much of an excuse, not that things haven’t been busy. But I do want to make blogging more of a priority going forward. There are a ton of things going on at conVerge and tons of thoughts to go along with them.
So what compelling issue has brought me back from my blogging slumber? Uh, well it’s the Chipotle vs. Moe’s debate.
A lot of people I know have a lot of explaining to do. Ever since Moe’s has opened in Lynchburg and been amazing, I’ve heard it mentioned numerous times that Chipotle does the same basic thing but much better. This is hard to believe as good as Moe’s is, and today I have confirmed that a lot of people I know are full of it. Today I ate both Chipotle and Moe’s and was able to compare the two. Given the rave reviews people seem to give Chipotle, I was expecting it to be at least as good, if not better. So the odd thing is that I don’t think the competition is even close in favor of Moe’s. Based on my experience today, Moe’s is significantly better for 4 reasons:
1) Ingredients - Moe’s gives you all kinds of options to put on your burrito. Chipotle does not. At Chipotle my only options were salsa and cheese, whereas Moe’s offers those along with all kinds of vegetables, including jalapenos. I can’t believe Chipotle doesn’t offer jalapenos, and that’s a huge minus for me.
2) Chips - This is an easy one, Moe’s gives you free chips and Chipotle does not. After eating both meals today, I can say that this is a big deal. My meal was much more complete at Moe’s. I was still hungry after Chipotle.
3) Size of Burrito - Sorry, the Moe’s burritos were much larger than the Chipotle burritos. It’s true.
4) Chipotle Ranch Sauce - This is by far the biggest thing. It’s kind of amazing to me that the restaurant called ”Chipotle” doesn’t have chipotle ranch sauce or anything like it, but it doesn’t. Moe’s does. This is the #1 key to what makes Moe’s burritos so much better than Chipotle burritos. I would imagine that people who like Chipotle better don’t know about chipotle ranch sauce at Moe’s.
The overall taste of the burritos was basically the same, except for all the great extras that Moe’s offers. So basically, Moe’s is much better and if you think otherwise, you’re just wrong in a very sad, pathetic way. The end.
Posted on March 29th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Humor | 1 Comment »
Church as an organization has really messed up a lot of things. Because most of us have only been involved in local churches that are organizations, we read scripture from this point of few. Take 1 Corinthians 12.
Most of us consider Paul’s whole analogy of the body and everyone using his or her gift to do their part in the context of operating a church organization. We need some people to be greeters, some guy to preach, some people to run child care, some people to be small group leaders, some people to clean up afterwords, and on and on and on. You need to understand how twisted this is. Not that ANY of those activities are unnecessary or unspiritual, but it’s just that Paul is talking about SO much more. Read this passage in the context of the church as a missional movement of Jesus, and every part of our lives being spiritual. Paul is not telling us how to get everyone to pitch in to operate a church service!
What Paul is describing is the church as a movement of people who are living on mission for Jesus. He isn’t saying that from the pastor we need 60 hrs a week because he is so important, but from the greeter we need 6 hrs a week because she hasn’t been gifted as much! No, we need every person, on mission, all the time, all day, EVERYDAY! We have different gifts and so we will do different things, but the whole of each of our lives is essential to the missional church. Wherever you go, in whatever you do, it is essential that you are on mission with Jesus, or the whole church misses out on your unique contribution.
At conVerge Church, we want to teach you how to form a plan so that every part of your life can be lived on mission with Jesus. Everything is spiritual. How you live today is as important as what you do to help operate the church service on Sunday. Jesus isn’t asking for your time. He’s not asking for your service. He’s asking for everything. All I can tell you is, I’ve met Him, and it’s worth it.
Posted on February 5th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Church | No Comments »