What Dangerous Calling is to pastors, The Church Planting Wife is to every pastor or church planter’s wife.

It is a breath of fresh air, reviving the soul with truth while sympathizing with the challenges that church planter’s wives face, but rarely feel the freedom to discuss. It is written to the woman who has the difficult task of ministering to the man who ministers to everyone else.

Christine Hoover is married to Kyle Hoover and in 2008 they moved to Charlottesville, Virginia to start a new church to bless the people of Charlottesville and the students at the University of Virginia. Her new book is candid, transparent, and direct in teaching to church planter’s wives about the joys and struggles, trials and triumphs of church planting. It combines storytelling, teaching, and counseling to care for the heart and life of the church planter’s wife.

The book begins with her recounting the difficulties of the first year and how they brought her to question God’s plan as they lost their meeting place one year into their efforts. While every person in ministry I know has come to this crossroads, Christine highlights God’s purposes so well as she unpacks God’s work in her life.

“God allowed the difficulty of church planting to sift me, to bring the issues of my heart to the surface. I realized that if I didn’t address these things, my marriage, my family, and my own heart were in danger. God was refining me, cleaning me out, and teaching me dependence rather than self-reliance. I could continue my attempts at controlling and relying on myself, or I could submit myself in dependence on Him…I chose to trust Him with my heart and let Him do – through church planting – the work He needed to do in me.” The Church Planting Wife, p. 19-20

Christine goes on to expose her heart and the lessons she has learned along the way. From wrestling with the role of the church planter’s wife as she hears God remind her “Follow Me. Serve your family. Love people.” to dealing with the sacrifices every church planter and pastor’s family face along the way.

She takes us along her journey to understand friendships in this new world of church planting, how she has learned to stay encouraged amidst discouragement and criticism, and provides practical wisdom connected with powerful truth to guide wives through their own challenges.

Impactful for Any Believer

I found myself incredibly encouraged and challenged simply by being reminded to be dependent on God, trusting Him, and letting faithfulness be my banner of success. This book is refreshing for any believer, but certainly powerful for every church planter’s wife. I would also recommend it to any pastor and his wife as well. The insights are spot on for what every pastor and his wife that I know have and are facing.

She includes interviews from other church planter’s wives, such as Lauren Chandler, Yvette Mason, Ginger Vassar, and Jennifer Carter. Women, who like her, have learned through joy and challenge the blessings of dependence on God in church planting.

A Book for Every Man’s Wife

As I read this book and heard Christine describe all she has learned while supporting her husband and family in church planting, I couldn’t help but see it as beneficial for every man’s wife. Church leadership and church planting have a unique way of reminding those involved that they are on God’s mission, but the call for every Christian is no different, we just don’t always see ourselves as sent by God to that new job in a new location.

I’ve seen many wives follow their husbands to new cities and new careers face some of the same struggles and challenges, and they would all benefit from Christine’s wisdom as she learned to trust God, support her husband, care for her family, and love her neighbors.

I’ve known the Hoovers for over a decade, they did our premarital counseling, and Kyle officiated my wedding. It is no surprise to me to see their faithfulness to God being used to start a church that loves people and serves their city well. It is also no surprise to see such a fantastic book filled with truth, grace, and wisdom be written and published to bless God’s church.

You can buy it on Amazon here: The Church Planting Wife. You can also read more from Christine Hoover on her blog, gracecoversme.com.

My last resolution is to be a faithful shepherd, pastor of my church, but also to be a fellow brother in Christ with my church. The fourth of four resolutions is simply to be a friend and to be a friend in need. 4a & 4b if you will.

To be a friend & a friend in need

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a powerful thing, powerful to save anyone from a life bent away from God’s desires, transform anyone, and empower all who embrace it by faith to meet the needs of others. Throughout the scriptures, God speaks about blessing people with Himself in order that they would be a blessing for others.

Part of this reality is that I am have been given certain gifts and a certain role in the body of Christ, for me it is to be a pastor. This involves studying the word of God, praying, counseling people in the scriptures, dialoguing about Jesus and His gospel with anyone regardless of their beliefs or background, and cultivating communities that do the same. If you were to boil it down to one idea, it’s to be a true friend to anyone I meet, to love them with the love of Christ that they might know about a relationship with God.

But the gospel of Jesus Christ is also powerful enough for me to confront my weakness. This brings freedom to acknowledge that there are times when I am a friend in need and that God has provided people in my life, from all background or beliefs and especially in the church that share my beliefs to help me when I am in need.

The perception that the pastor has it all together all the time is an impossible expectation because no one does, except for Jesus. We are all in progress, constantly learning and growing, and the gospel of Jesus Christ brings freedom to walk in this reality. This allows me to sit down with a friend and be honest. I can let people know that there are times when I’m tired, times when I’m not as happy as I wish I was or had been last week and that I need their help to change. That there are times when I’m not fired up about reading the scriptures or talking about the Lord, but I don’t want to feel this way and many times it is the help of other people in our community, using their stories and their gifts that God provides a path toward change.

Use My Gifts and Benefit from the Gifts of Others

This also provides me perspective on how I’m gifted and to celebrate how others have been gifted. It takes the pressure off to always have the solution, to be able to say I don’t know, and to honor how God has uniquely gifted other people. God’s design was to gift all of God’s people to serve all of God’s creation.

When all gifts are celebrated, honored, and embraced by the church, the church truly begins to embody Jesus Christ who possesses and exercises all of the gifts perfectly. The church would like everyone they interact with to experience Jesus through them, but it’s only possible when individuals are introduced and invited to experience the entire community of Christ followers.

I hope this year involves helping people identify how they have been uniquely designed and gifted by God to serve others, to equip them and empower them to do so and to see those gifts be used to love others well.

These are my resolutions and I hope that I can look back at the end of the year having been fully present to enjoy my marriage, love my kids, and serve the city we live in by empowering and serving my church. Here’s to 2013.

These are my kids. They are each unique, funny in their own quirky ways, and teach me more than they will ever know about life, God, and what matters most (candy & fun of course!). I’m amazed at the gift they are to me, blessings even though they are imperfect, and how easy they are to love despite their rebelliousness sometimes.

Barnabas Piper wrote an article recently titled 7 Things a Pastor’s Kid Needs from a Father on the Gospel Coalition. It was incredibly encouraging to hear him be open about his own experience and also offer wisdom for others. When I first became a parent, I didn’t consider the thought that I would be a pastor eventually and that my kids might be known as “pastor’s kids”. They are just my kids and I am just their dad. As I considered these resolutions, these sentences stuck with me.

A pastor’s children, though, are carried on the current of their parents’ calling. It is often a life of singular struggle and uncommon needs. These struggles often stem from the failures of the father. This isn’t to cast full blame on pastors for their children’s problems. But it is to say that pastors need to work to be good dads…

He also leads off with the number 1 thing our kids need is to just be their dad.

Yes, you are called to pastor your family, but PKs want a dad—someone who plays with them, protects them, makes them laugh, loves their mom, gives hugs, pays attention, teaches them how to build a budget and change the oil and field a ground ball. We want committed love and warmth.

So the third of four resolutions is to just be their dad.

Fascinated by them and aiming for fun with them

For me this starts with being fascinated by them, being curious at the things they enjoy, want to do, and the things that bother them, annoy them, and hurt them. Each of my children have their own personality (and a growing confidence with it). They like different things, some of those are easy for me to like, but others I’m learning to enjoy.

As I’ve walk home each evening this year, I pray for my children and my wife. I’m also asking for grace to enter into my home ready to play, eat dinner, and talk with my kids instead of wanting to rest and disconnect. Frankly, it’s not easy to transition home, but since I’ve been doing this, I find myself more prepared to get beaten up and wrestle with my boys while trying to enjoy the tea and fake cookies my little girl has made on her fake kitchen.

We’ve always tried to Sabbath together as a family on Saturdays, planning a family outing that we enjoy together, to make memories, and most times we come home physically tired. But I’ve found that physically tired can provide an enjoyable “rest” if it’s from delighting in the family. I’ve also found great joy in a Saturday afternoon playing baseball with my boys, just being their dad, where they don’t think of me in light of Sunday responsibilities.

Listening and Sharing

As my sons get older and come home from school, we have some of the most fascinating conversations. From discussing why singing “Hey Sexy Lady” from Gangnam Style (thanks for having only 3 English words) doesn’t honor women to bullies, why we have to read when we can just do math, and which girl my sons are sure they are going to marry.

I’m learning to listen, to ask questions about how it makes them feel or what it makes them think instead of immediately jump to teaching or correcting mode. I’m also learning to remember some stories from my childhood, the things I thought and learned along the way both in failures and success. They love to hear stories about my life that mirror some of their experiences. It’s also helpful for me to remember that I was a knucklehead once with loving parents, and by God’s grace I made it to today.

Discipline and Delight

When I was in Tacoma, Washington last October at Soma School, I picked up a book at my host home that I don’t even remember, but it was about the husband and father’s role entering into a home. The idea that has stuck with me is that a husband/father must be able to enter or leave the home without disrupting or damaging the environment.

I’m reminded about this when my presence sends our kids into hyper-excitement right before dinnertime. I have to be conscious of what I’m walking into, but I also must be a part of setting that environment. This has involved recognizing that our hope is for our family to delight in one another, to love and honor one another, but that doesn’t just happen when a family is in the same room.

We’ve discovered that discipline and delight are linked. We have 5 family ways that we encourage and teach our children to aim for in hopes of loving one another well, but just like me they don’t always love and honor one another. They fight, steal each other’s toys, and whine (yes, just like me). We’ve discovered that discipline, without anger, creates an environment of delight. Confession and forgiveness, from me and them, has been helpful as we hope to create a delightful environment.

This resolution is essentially aiming to be fully present at home for my kids and not for my own benefit. I need to be resolved to remember this often because I am susceptible to selfishness, as we all are, and my selfishness doesn’t aim to enjoy and love them, it’s aims to find that for myself.

These are my kids and I love them. I love being their dad.

The second of my four resolutions is simple: just to be her husband.

We’ve served as marriage mentors and been a part of guiding pre-marital counseling for other couples and every time we do that we learn so much from leading and teaching. Last year, I read Real Marriage by Mark Driscoll and The Meaning of Marriage by Tim & Kathy Keller. They were both incredibly helpful books that moved beyond the concept and theology of marriage into the practical realities of a marriage growing and flourishing amidst parenting and everyday life challenges.

My wife is and has been my best friend, her passion for life and Jesus challenge me and have made me into a better man. So what would this resolution mean if things are already good?

Focusing even more on Friendship & Romance

The bible speaks to husbands to live with their wives in an understanding way and to lead them well. Without getting into theological convictions, I’ve learned over 7 years that you never stop learning about your spouse, especially as life and circumstances change.

Amber and I met as ministry partners in college and we remain an effective couple serving God and others together. As we’ve grown as parents, we’ve learned to parent our wonderful, though not perfect, children together. We work well together, but marriage is more than complimenting one another and serving side by side. It’s a continued growth in relationship in friendship and romance.

In friendship, I’m learning to listen to the joys of life alongside the challenges and hurt. My tendency is not to fully celebrate the joys and to jump into problem solving mode before ever sympathizing with the problem (note: not the best for a friendship). Since moving to NYC, our friendship has grown exponentially as we’ve learned to rely on one another through transitions in our life together and it’s been amazing to learn to enjoy one another while also sympathizing with one another. Our nights usually end over a glass of wine and good conversation involving laughter, dialogue, and coming to a consensus on the approach to what’s going on in life. Our friendship is great and I don’t want that to slip, so I’m resolved for it to be a focus so that our friendship continues to get even better.

Each week I’m considering, how can I grow as a friend to my wife? It’s fun.

In romance, I’m learning to increase my displays of love in little ways while also planning consistent date nights and even fun getaways together to communicate my joy and love for her. I’ve never been the hopeless romantic, but I’m learning what makes my wife feel special, not what a romantic comedy communicates makes women feel special. Last night we went on our date night, enjoyed a great meal and time together while friends of ours had fun with and watched our kids. Our family is better when our enjoyment of one another is better. Our kids enjoy life more when mom and dad enjoy each other as husband and wife. Plus they love our friends (they call them their friends) and we’re glad they feel a part of our family life.

I’m also asking myself often, how does she feel loved by me recently? Not to feel guilty, but to imagine new ways.

This resolution has been helped by the first that I mentioned yesterday, to be fully present, to care for my wife as she feels cared for in the moment. I fail, miserably at times, but I’m learning and I’m excited about this year, for the fun and joy that it will bring to our home.

Instead of looking at something to change me on the outside (i.e. eating better, not drinking Dr. Pepper, or working out more) I decided to evaluate what changes would play into my normal rhythm of life and have a qualitative influence. As I considered these things, I took some time to evaluate what was most valuable and if there was anything over the last year that prevented me from enjoying what I value most.

I’ve decided on 4 resolutions and over the next 4 days, I’ll explain what they are and why. Putting it on a blog for me is essentially asking for public accountability and serves as an opportunity for me to return to it at the end of the year to see how these resolutions affected the year.

The First: To Be Present

I’m an internal processor of what is going on in my life, often carrying ideas, stress, or random thoughts with me even in the midst of sitting in my living room playing legos with my kids or mid-conversation in public. It’s easy for my mind to wander to what might be on Twitter, if someone liked my latest Instagram picture of my kids (because what else would I take a picture of? Food?) or if I received an email about that issue we’ve been trying to resolve at the office.

I’ve noticed myself over the last year bringing the stress of things undone, the sadness of tragedy or hurt from a person in the church, and the next ministry idea to the kitchen table or living room in my head. When this happens, I’m not fully present and my family recognizes it. It’s not an issue that just comes up at home, I feel it in meetings at the office, over coffee, or even walking around NYC. I’d like to pretend it doesn’t affect my relationships, but I know that’s incorrect.

“Wherever you are, be all there.”

Jim Elliot, a missionary who was killed in South America by the tribe he was hoping to bless, said “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”

That’s my hope for this year. That each moment, I’m faithful by being present and engaged with whatever the situation may be. I’m trying not to respond to every notification on my phone, to listen intently to the conversation and care more about the one talking than where I wish the conversation was actually going.

As I’ve tried to do this, I’ve discovered already some helpful ways to free my mind mentally. Before I go home, I take 10-15 minutes to write down all that is on my mind, what is left undone, what emotions I’m carrying home and what emotions/thoughts I’d like to take home instead. I’ve found that writing this out and praying to God about these things has brought a peace that I didn’t have over the last year in leaving the office. Before each meeting I’ve found myself praying for grace and strength to focus on the immediate, trusting God for time to focus on the things undone I can’t wait to work on now or time to plan for the future.

I’m enjoying it so far and I hope it continues. Relationships, conversations, and activities are all a little more fun when you’re fully present. It seems small as I consider it, but I’m pretty sure this resolution will influence and impact of the rest of my resolutions. I’ll expand on those in the next few days, but for now enjoy this spoken word from Propaganda titled “Be Present”.

this picture is from NY Mag’s Hurricane Sandy Pictures

Last week I was able to attend the celebration of Hope For New York’s 20^th Anniversary as an organization serving the poor and the marginalized of New York. Hope for New York was started by Redeemer Presbyterian in 1992 at the advice of John Perkins who founded the Christian Community Development Association. They work with 39 (and ever-growing) non-profit affiliates to serve the needs of New York. Our church, Apostles, is one of three partner churches who send volunteers and resources to support Hope For New York.

At the event, their Executive Director, Elise Chong, discussed the recent Hurricane and its aftermath. She described it as many have over the last week as a tale of two cities. Above a certain street there was power and resources along with life as if Sandy didn’t happen. Below this certain street there was no power and a lack of resources.

My family felt this firsthand as we were without power for 5 days. On Halloween, we went to the Upper West Side, had dinner and trick-or-treated in a gracious relative’s building. It was walking around the Upper West Side as it functioned normally in contrast to my neighborhood, which was so amazing. It was a different New York, in my neighborhood every grocery store, shop and restaurant abandoned as daily people made the trek north for food, internet, and to recharge phones and iPads.

At least that was the tale of those able to do so.

During the second part of Elise Chong’s talk she highlighted the fact that the two distinct New York’s during Hurricane Sandy only revealed that there have been and are consistently two distinct New Yorks. There is the New York of people who have the power and resources to take care of themselves without any assistance and there is the New York of the poor and the marginalized where there is no power and very little resources to chart a different path.

In Chelsea, I joined our church community and other churches in serving the Chelsea projects. A mandatory evacuation was ordered for the projects citywide, the government even shut the water and the power off before the storm to get people to abandon their apartment for a shelter to make it easier to care for those in need in our city. Many did not leave their apartment as the last time they did, Hurricane Irene last year, their apartments were vandalized and looted.

This left many, including elderly and disabled, without the ability to get basic needs for many days. These apartment buildings are 20+ stories high, which is a challenge to get down in a dark stairway anyways, let alone for those who struggle to be mobile already.

It was a joy to join other churches to serve, but it reinforced the reality that many in our city live in need every day, on the brink of being unable to meet their basic needs, struggling to make it. The church can do more than relief and it must move from relief to development in the days to come. The church can fill a gap that our society has started to expect from the government, but the government (no matter how local, small, or big) is unable to meet these needs.

The church is a family, adopted by God to exist as children who have all their needs met because they have a Father in heaven who provides all their needs. This enables the church of God to become servants and missionaries to their city, freed from the bonds and concerns of themselves only to care for the concerns of those around us.

This is also about relationships. Initiating and establishing relationships with people to meet more than tangible and physical needs. Every human made in the image of God has emotional, spiritual, and physical side to them, so the government is never able to meet the needs of the people because it typically addresses just one of these components. The church can provide an ongoing family to care for them, provide friendships, and assist them as they seek to meet their physical needs providing for them occasionally.

In the tale of two cities, the church has an amazing opportunity. It has started to realize it and awaken to action. I could not be more encouraged by my church community’s love for God and our city. It gives me great hope for the future of our communities living as the family of God extending the grace of God through Jesus Christ to others in deed to demonstrate the message of the gospel.

One of the most interesting chapters in Soccernomics focused on the difference between American football and British football (Americans call it soccer). Soccer has become the global sport, but American football remains America’s favorite sport with little influence throughout the world. This chapter forced me to reflect on the church as it seeks to influence the world for the good of the entire society. The approach of the church has largely mirrored the American approach to influence around the world, while it could follow and learn much from the British approach.

The spread of soccer as the global game also can be attributed to relational influence the British tend to use as the means for creating culture.  The church has often aimed for positional influence in the culture and often finds itself on the losing end. There is much to learn from the British approach. The authors began describing the different approach of the British and Americans in fighting wars and colonization by quoting John Gray, a professor at the London School of Economics.

“The United States has rarely even aspired to vast cultural reach. The country fought wars, but mostly tried to avoid creating long-term colonies… In Vietnam and Iraq, for instance, the aim was to “go in, do the job, get out.” Unlike Britons, Americans generally didn’t want to be in the business of empire.” Soccernomics p. 160

The authors went on to describe the British & American Army’s use of different tactics in working with local officials in the Green Zone during the Iraq war. These tactics reveal the different approaches to influence.

“We know an American lawyer who spent a few months working for the British government during the occupation of Iraq. In the “Green Zone” in Baghdad he noticed a difference between the way Brits and Americans operated. When American officials wanted an Iraqi to do something, the lawyer said, they would generally call the person into the Green Zone and if necessary “bawl him out.” Sometimes this strategy worked. Sometimes it didn’t. But the Americans summoned Iraqis only when something needed fixing. British officials worked differently, said the lawyer. They were always inviting the Iraqis in, for parties or just for chats, even when there was nothing in particular to discuss. This was exactly how the British had operated both in their colonies and in their “informal empire”: they made long-term contacts.” Soccernomics p. 161-162 Emphasis mine

Positional vs. Relational Influence

The contrast is in using positional influence vs. relational influence in culture shaping. The church is famous for culture wars, seeking positional influence to primarily legalize morality. It rarely works, when it does it alienates people and places a judgmental label on the majority of the church. It seems to be an inherited trait from a time where the church played a vital, and in many cases, helpful role in society. The church no longer finds itself in this position, she finds herself on the margins of society.

There has been a lot written about the culture wars and the majority written from my generation is tired of it. The next question is how to move forward. There continue to be faults in the response to culture wars and much seems to be a pendulum swinging in the opposite direction. Many seeking to have a voice in the culture compromise aspects of the Christian faith that have been held to since the beginning. In doing so, they sacrifice the benefits to society of Christianity they are trying to bring into mainstream culture. Still others dig their heels in and maintain the core tenets of Christianity, but adopt an us-against-the-world posture continuing in the war on culture despite poor results.

There’s another way forward for the church and there are great examples of people pursuing it. It seems to match the British approach to colonization and long-term influence.

Creating Culture that is Attractive

Before describing the Green Zone differences, the authors of Soccernomics discuss British colonization, specifically how sports and culture were shaped by the British for centuries in countries they no longer occupy.

“From about 1850 until the First World War, Britain was the sole economic superpower. As late as in 1914, Britons still owned about 42% of all the world’s foreign investment. The British expats who inhabited the informal empire represented the empire’s economic might. The men tended to work in the railways (like Charles Miller’s father in Brazil), or as businessmen (like the Charnock brothers, who set up Russia’ first soccer club for their mill employees outside Moscow), or as school-teachers (like Alexander Watson Hutton, the Scottish teacher who in the early 1880s introduced soccer in Argentina).

These people only had “soft power”: the wealth and prestige of the British gentleman. That was enough to spread their games. Men like Hutton taught foreigners to see sports as an upper-class and hence aspirational product. If you were a young man like Mandela who wanted to become a British gentleman, one of the things you did was play soccer… Soccer conquered the world so fast largely because the British gentleman was such an attractive ideal. A century later a new British archetype, the hooligan, in his own way probably added to the game’s glamour.” Soccernomics pgs. 159-160

The “attractive ideal” was so compelling that it created a long-lasting culture. The church has lacked in presenting an attractive ideal, but Jesus was very much the attractive ideal of his day. People traveled to find him, to be around him, to learn from him, and many to follow him.

The church today has a massive opportunity to create culture that aims to benefit society, enhance current cultural beauty, but also to redeem and heal the brokenness in our society. Only the church has the tenets, grace, and wisdom of God that shapes a culture for its full joy, concern for the collective over the individual, and sacrificial generosity of time, resources, and energy to long-suffer in caring for the poor, needy, impoverished, and orphan.

Now some may say, the British empire has lost its power, why should the church mirror it? Christianity was never about power or about creating a Christian political nation. It’s an informal empire that moves beyond boundaries to the entire world.

How Does the Church embody Jesus as the Attractive Ideal?

First, the church must shift its method of engagement with the culture. Similar to how the British army engaged in dialogue with the Iraqis, the church must engage in dialogue with the culture with and without an agenda. This type of engagement creates relationships and relationships are the context for influence and change.

Relational influence carries more weight, but the aim must be the relationship over the influence. Aiming for influence only is engaging as the American army, only when it’s time to fix something, but aiming for relationship allows for influence and cooperation to seek long-term benefits for all in a contextual manner.

Secondly, the church must begin creating good culture, not settling for a knock-off subculture. The Christian subculture has become a Christian ghetto walled off to the outside world, turning inward which leads to foolish battles. Creating culture is seeking to provide an alternative way in which society as a whole, not just those of similar beliefs, benefits.

The early church humbled the government in its care for the poor, sick, and those without a voice. The government would then ask them for assistance when interacting with this sector of society because their influence was about relationships and caring. The church must embody a holistic gospel that matches the lifestyle of Jesus and the actions of Jesus, returning to the consistent practice of church history.

When we do this, we create culture worth participating in and a great example of this can be found in artist known as Lecrae.

This month, Lecrae, a hip-hop artist who happens to be a Christian, released his latest CD Gravity. It currently sits at #3 on the top hip-hop albums two weeks after it was released and has been number 1 for the majority of these two weeks. It’s quality hip-hop/rap music and Time Magazine published a bio of him online and an interview in their latest print magazine in the culture section. The reason was that his music was really good while also contrasting the prevailing culture in hip-hop. It presented attractive ideals for culture and people responding by listening, praising it, and telling the world about it.

When the church creates a good culture, the world will listen. We follow the most attractive ideal in Jesus and when we live like Him in the world, our workplace, our neighborhood, and our city will benefit. They most likely won’t beg us to lead or give us power (remember that they did kill Jesus), but our aim is to bless others not ascend to earthly power.

(This is post 5 in a series of blog posts on how a book on soccer, Soccernomics, can teach us much about the American church.)

From hiring practices to game strategy, soccer clubs love to do what has always been done which leads to unprofitable and unsuccessful soccer. The church is also notorious for lacking innovation in methods and this lack of innovation would be foolish in a culture that is changing the way they interact, plan their lives and engage with the wider society.

Lack of innovation in soccer

Soccernomics highlights the glacial pace at which most soccer clubs embrace new ideas and innovation. Often the ideas do not come from within a soccer club, but from an outside observer. One example was the Taylor Report in 1990, which simply evaluated the benefit that teams would receive from investing in their stadiums. The outside report led many soccer clubs to consider this for the first time resulting in growth in crowds and popularity. It’s as if soccer clubs discovered the world was filled with consumers for the first time. The authors also highlight the often foolish, yet ingrained way “things have always been done” in soccer clubs.

The hiring practices for a new manager for soccer clubs is often based on perception of his star power. This aim leads to managerial hiring that is often quick, lacking a thorough interview process, not assessing qualifications, but looking for immediate availability and making a media splash. Then when he fails, the cycle repeats because it was not the process that failed, but the specific manager.

The soccer clubs are often so concerned with the immediate fan reaction that they make foolish decisions about players, thinking a big signing will generate fan interest immediately rather building for a long haul and we’ve already addressed the suspicion of outside ideas about soccer strategy.l

Lack of innovation in the church

The way it’s always been done is not only cherished in soccer clubs, but in the local church. It is often unquestioned and off limits for being challenged in most churches.

One thing is certain for churches, theology does not change. We are a modern expression of an ancient faith articulated extremely clearly and well in the scriptures. Culture would like much of it to change, but changing God’s words are impossible since they originate from the unchanging, eternal God. We embrace the fullness of God in Jesus letting His truths shape our life, ministry practices, and the mission to meet the needs of others with the message and mercy of Christ.

Theology doesn’t change, but methodology must be evaluated and this is where the glacial pace of embracing change is so easily seen. I’m no stranger to this myself, as I once hated the idea of changing of a method of small groups to missional communities. Sunday services, Mass, and gathering mid-week at the local church only are not enough. This has become clear from declining numbers that churches aren’t the most welcoming places for people who are far from God. If the mission of the church is to help people who are far from God grow near to God, why are we waiting for those far away to stumble into a church?

Away From Programs & On toward Mission

There are too many churches that are filled with programs. There’s a pre-school ministry on Sunday morning, another one (Awanas) on Monday night and a Mother’s Day Out program during the week so your child can overdose on church meanwhile the rest of the world takes their kids to the local playground. There’s a men’s ministry, women’s ministry, singles ministry, marrieds, retirees, pre-retirees, and the list goes on. For every affinity, the church has adopted the Field of Dreams “If we create a niche ministry, they will come.”

The church is meant to be a community on mission and over-programming a church leads to death of the mission for outsiders at the embrace of a mission for insiders. In churches that are under-programmed it can be difficult for people to feel involved because this mentality of over-activity at the church has become so ingrained over the last few decades.

The Widening Gap Between Cultural & Church Norms

I am not advocating for any kind of aim toward cultural relevance, I’m asking that we as the church evaluate whether we place unnecessary burdens and barriers towards encountering our culture to provide a complex dialogue about faith and life. Are the activities of the church normal to our society or have the methods become so abnormal that they are uncomfortable to those outside the church? Think about the ways churches gather as small groups or form for mission.

These small groups often meet in a local home, gathering in a circle to discuss the bible and the challenges of life. Where does the rest of the world gather? Local restaurants, pubs, playgrounds, school yards, PTA, and sports clubs to discuss how their worldview is shaping their experience of life. They might not describe it as their worldview, but their frustrations at home, work, or in relationships are because of their aims in life (i.e. worldview).

Looking at the life of Christ, it is easy to see one who is confident in God, freed to enter into every arena of life, risking reputation, to demonstrate the goodness, strength, and love of God to those far from God. Those who claim to represent Him are called to do the same. Our methods of church are not the silver bullet to seeing people come near to God, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God to see people be reconciled to relationship with God. But our methods can have a way of distracting from the gospel, of bottling the gospel, and hindering it from being demonstrated and declared.

Preaching to the Choir or those who aren’t there?

As this gets demonstrated in soccer clubs at matches where the team with foolish practices doesn’t do well on the pitch, Sundays demonstrate the culture of the church. Music, sermons, and whether a people are welcome demonstrate if we are preaching to the choir or preaching to those who aren’t there.

Are we simply gathering to comfort and enjoy our fellow Christians or are we hoping to bring a friend, neighbor, or co-worker? If we did would they hear preaching that is aimed at the long-time Christian or aimed to exalt Christ for Christian & non-Christian alike? Our Sunday gatherings should be a reflection of our community life outside Sundays. If neither reflect a desire to connect with the people of our culture to engage in a complex dialogue the way Christ did, our methods are failing our gospel.

Since the gospel of Jesus Christ never changes, we should be ready, willing, and quick to evaluate and embrace new ideas in methodology rather than write them off because they don’t fit into what we are used to. The mission of God was made to enter into any environment with grace, love, and power. Innovations in pursuing this mission without compromising the truths of the gospel are a gift from God rather than a diversion from Him.

Decisions can often be made in a vacuum in business, professional sports clubs, and churches. They lack information from a variety of sources that allows them to make appropriate decisions.

The authors of Soccernomics highlight the French soccer club Olympique Lyon, a club that in 1987 was unknown and unloved even by local residents, but now consistently finds itself competing in the Champions League as one of the sixteen best teams in Europe. The rise of this soccer club is largely attributed to their management over their coaching and Soccernomics highlights their use of the wisdom of crowds in decision-making when choosing their players, which is large part of the success of a soccer club.

“Lyon’s method for choosing players is so obvious and smart that it’s surprising that all clubs don’t use it. The theory of the “wisdom of crowds” says that if you aggregate many different opinions from a diverse group of people, you are more likely to arrive at the best opinion than if you just listen to one specialist…If you ask a diverse set of gamblers to bet on, say the outcome of a presidential election, the average of their bets is likely to be right. (Gambling markets have proved excellent predictors of all sorts of outcomes.) The wisdom of crowds fails when the components of the crowd are not diverse enough. This is often the case in American sports. But in European soccer, opinions tend to come from many different countries, and that helps ensure diversity…

At most clubs the manager is treated as a sort of divinely inspired monarch who gets to decide everything until he is sacked. Then the next manager clears out his predecessor’s signings at a discount.” Soccernomics p. 68-69

Lyon’s stability of leadership and method of incorporating a number of voices when selecting a player provides a consistent strategy that leads to success regardless of the manager.

The wisdom of crowds involves incorporating team leadership and cultivating a collective vision. It isn’t easy, but it’s worth the challenging process for guiding people toward a common mission.

Could the American church benefit from using the wisdom of crowds?

The church tends to lack this mentality and can often operate like an English soccer club, where one or two individuals are the divinely inspired voice to make each and every decision. The result for the church is often copying the latest trends, adopting someone else’s methods, and doing little in the way of applying biblical principles to the local community of God.

The Bible speaks to a different way that actually precedes the theory of the wisdom of crowds and speaks to the value of seeking counsel and plurality of leadership. Proverbs 15:22 says “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisors they succeed.” Proverbs 20:18 “Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.”

In the New Testament, the church in Acts, the instructions of the authors of the Epistles, and the method of Jesus was a plurality of leadership. It was 12 apostles that Jesus sent out, it was different gifts that Paul pointed to in Ephesus as the equippers of the saints of the church, and elders were always to be appointed to lead in the church. The wisdom of crowds appears to be God’s idea and design.

While the American church agrees with this, it has adopted the CEO model of the business world pointing to the idea of ‘first among equals’ in leadership which tends to place final authority in the hands of one. 9Marks, an organization focused on building healthy churches, has some good thoughts on this here.

While there is inevitably a first among equals that has to make the final decision, does that authority come from the teachings of scripture or from the position? While there can be a specialist on a church staff in community, preaching, mercy & justice, counseling, and even vision, that does not negate the wisdom from other members of that staff and church. The specialist actually improves their ability to lead by listening to other voices, diminishing their pride in their own ideas to let the wisdom of crowds shape a better path going forward.

Sounds like a great idea, but how would this practically function in a church, a small group, or other ministry?

Develop a Collective Vision: Come with a Plan & Open Hands

I can speak to how I’m seeking to incorporate this into my leadership and in leading a small group. I’m a internal processor who likes to think through every aspect of a plan, develop a strategy and assume it’s bulletproof, but as I’ve come to find out (shockingly) my ideas are not always comprehensive, complete or perfect.

So as we enter into a new season of Community Groups, I’ve chosen to solicit feedback and create environments to utilize the wisdom of crowds. I still have a plan, a rather thorough one, but I come with open hands to listen to how the plan may shape out in a particular area or to see what holes I may be blind to.  This is kind of a first draft of a vision if you will. Effort is put into it, but I’m not holding it so tight that it cannot evolve to the ideas and wisdom of other invested members and leaders.

On our church staff, I’ve become known as someone that develops lengthy documents on ideas because I want the document to be the beginning of a brainstorming process. From there it’s been a hard, but good process to let my ideas be shaped, critiqued, and molded by the wisdom of others.

For our community groups, I’ve set up a community group roundtable dinners with different sets of leaders to allow them to ask questions, solicit feedback on what they hear when the vision is set before them, what areas are unclear and how they see this vision being accomplished in their local community. These are often refreshing times for me to listen to what is going on in each community, hear their questions and challenges to incorporate these ideas in shaping the final direction of the vision.

In our community groups, I encourage our leaders to think through how to incorporate our core values of Gospel Enjoyment, Intentional Community, & Prayerful Mission practically in their local neighborhood. After they think through this, I encourage them to discuss these ideas with their community, invite their feedback and form a collective vision and understanding going forward. This collective vision process creates ownership and momentum towards the entire community being on board to implement their vision and not the dictated vision from above.

Do we believe God has gifted every believer or is that just rhetoric?

For the American church, and likely the global church, we have to confront whether we truly believe what the scriptures say about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The New Testament clearly states that every person who has placed their faith in Christ and seeks to live their life following His ways is empowered by God the Holy Spirit with gifts that are used to build up the body of Christ. Every church leader cognitively believes this, but not every church leader practically believes this.

The professionalization of the ministry and mission of God tends to lead to a separation between church staff and church attenders. The staff has been given by God to spend their energy listening to God and forming a plan, but incorporating and empowering the members of the local church to shape, finalize and join the mission of God to love, care for, and speak into their neighborhood with the gospel.

The wisdom of crowds is not merely a sociological idea, it’s the design and gift of God as He gives the church a community to establish their collective vision for extending the good news of Christ to their city. When the church moves beyond rhetoric and begins listening to the empowered believers in their church, it will benefit greatly. It does not negate the value of church staff, but rather enhances their leadership.

The transfer market is largely a gamble and a rather costly one at that. The transfer market is different from the free agent market that we are used to in American sports where a player chooses where to take his talents. At the end of the season, soccer clubs make players available for transfer, letting the league know he’s available and then soccer clubs pay each other for the right to sign the player. Most teams are awful at the transfer market, but Arsenal seems to have figured it out (Go Gunners!).

Soccernomics highlights that Real Madrid paid $35 million to Arsenal for Nikolas Anelka in 1999. Chelsea paid $44 million to Olympique Mareseille for Didier Drogba in 2004, then a record. Both of these players are cited in Soccernomics as being transferred to a new team, a new city, a new culture and given no assistance in helping them or their families adjust. Drogba succeeded despite the challenges his family faced, but Anelka struggled tremendously and was quickly moved to Paris Saint-German.

Soccernomics highlights that these players and many others face significant challenges off the field when they relocate and that influences the way they play on the field. The authors argue that simply hiring one employee to assist players in relocating would increase the success of these players involved in the transfer market. This assistance would include helping them find housing instead of a hotel, learn about school options for their family, and generally being available to new players. Nike & Adidas seem to agree because they send assistants to players they sponsor when they transfer to insure their investment is a success.

The Church & Relocation Assistance

Teams that provide relocation assistance often see the greatest benefit from transfers. The issue for the church is that we live in a transient society as people move jobs, churches, and try to adapt in transition. The church not assisting people in transitioning from what they are familiar with to their new context and environment hinders the mission of God in churches. This is largely because of false assumption and lack of effort from the church.

False Assumptions

“What if you had a clean slate?”

At an Acts 29 Regional back in April, I was asked how I would lead a missional community if I had a clean slate, meaning starting from scratch with people. It’s a nice idea, but a terrible assumption.

No one comes in with a blank slate about church and God’s mission. Everyone has a preconceived or imagined idea unless they are hearing the gospel for the very first time and even then typically have a stereotype of a Christian. Some people come from a highly programmed church background and feel as if there is less for them to do in a missional community church leading them to feel less connected. Other people assume what they have come from is missional and do not assess what needs to change to join the mission of their new church.

While this is happening with current Christians, there are newcomers or those exploring Christianity who can gather an unclear picture of the overall mission and direction Christianity and the church. Insider jargon, lack of communication, and not expecting to come alongside people in transition is unhelpful. We have no choice but seek a better way to assimilate and care for new people in the church.

“They just need time in our church”

This is the assumption that learning must take place by osmosis in being around the community, but nothing can or be done to teach it. Ultimately, this provides the depth of understanding, but assumes too much of the culture of your organization’s ability to communicate without direct language.

People feel comfortable enough connecting on their own

Most churches have a connections environment and a connection card where people fill out their information. It connects with some people, but not everyone feels comfortable putting themselves out there and connecting with people. The church often puts it on the visitor to figure everything out rather than providing environments and encouraging people to help a new face understand how things go.

Here was Anelka’s situation on day 1 that can mirror a newcomer’s experience at church.

“On Day 1 the shy, awkward twenty year old reported to the club, and found there was nobody to show him around…As he said later, all Real had told him was, ‘Look after yourself.’”

This can sound similar to someone new to church that is never greeted by anyone or never invited to have a conversation beyond hello. The Sunday gathering has become too comfortable for Christians to focus on being taught and not enough on Christians seeking to welcome people into the loving family of God.

What can the church actually do?

While the answer for soccer clubs is simple, spend less than 1% of the transfer fee and hire a relocation specialist, the churches solutions are a little different.

Churches that I have seen do this well provide consistent early entry environments to give people specific information about the church and next steps for them to be engaged with the church’s mission. They also have some sort of membership process to allow for more depth than the early entry environment.

Mark Dever, the pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in D.C., advocates for an intensive membership process including an interview to confront any assumed agreements so that long term agreement and understanding is established. While lengthy, it does go through the hard work of clearly articulating the unique culture and methods of mission of his church.

What about going a little further to help people with God’s mission? What if the transition for the entire family or outside influences of the cultural context affect the ability to be on mission? How can a church address those?

Relocation Assistance: Moving People to Mission

Manhattan is 60% transplants and is constantly seeing new people come to New York. There are unique benefits, challenges, and quirks to living in Manhattan, especially if you have children. The space is different, the school system is unique, and the pace of life is different. Until people move from transplants to residents and begin calling New York home, they will never care for the city like Jesus does.

While every city, town, or neighborhood doesn’t have the transient nature of New York, each has their own unique issues that both highlight the beauty of God and need the gospel of Jesus Christ to heal the brokenness.

What is the church provided contextual assistance, listening and learning from their neighborhood, and provided an overview of the area to newcomers?

A relocation assistance brochure or class on the city/neighborhood/town would communicate about the purpose of the church, the concern and the enjoyment of the neighborhood.  People need to be shown how they could generally live in an area if they are ever going to be on mission there. In addition the church can highlight the ways they are seeking to benefit and bless the neighborhood.

As much as we assimilate people into the church, we need to assimilate them out of the church and into the mission of God to care for their neighbors.

Is it about the church or about people?

In Soccernomics, a relocator was quoted as saying of the soccer clubs “I guess it comes down to the fact that they see the players as merchandise.” The players are merely pawns in their game to make more money and win more games. Despite this reality, soccer clubs don’t see their value increases through concern for the players through assisting them be better on the field.

The church has to confront that they may be more concerned with numbers inside their church than helping the people attending the church care for their neighbors. The church can become a place where people are merely cogs in their machine of religion, rather then equipping them to be bearers of God’s love on mission. God’s mission is about people and He’s chosen to use people to accomplish it.