Hugh Halter - Church planter, pastor, consultant, and missionary to the US. http://hughhalter.com Wed, 29 May 2013 12:19:33 +0000 Wed, 29 May 2013 12:19:33 +0000 hourly 1 3600 SnapPages.com Another Cake Fiasco Hugh Halter Hugh Halter
CLICK HERE:  http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/05/29/another-cake-fiasco Wed, 29 May 2013 12:19:33 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/05/29/another-cake-fiasco
CLICK HERE: THE CAKE WARS




My Take? Regardless of your stance on the sin of homosexuality, I hope you can at least see the massive self-righteous discrepancies that the standard Christian views the world through.  Once again, a host of other "sinful"  lifestyle choices are overlooked and the sin of homosexuality is singled out.  I have come to realize that what makes Christianity sooooooo repulsive to the world is not the strong stances we may take on certain issues. The problem is that we have no consistency and chose to make our own sins not as bad as another person's. That's called "self-righteousness," and Jesus condemned it in believers because he knew it would not reflect the heart of the father to the world.  We ARE hypocrites on the first order until we put our sins as equal to those of any other person.

Back to my break,

hugh

Read my original blog here: Hugh Bakes a Cake

]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/05/29/another-cake-fiasco#comments 9 What the Duck? Hugh Halter Hugh Halter  
Imagine a gaggle of good-hearted Avatars from the Beta Antares solar system zooming to our planet to find out what the various gods of Earth are like. One gets sent to the North American Christ-following humans, and his brothers go to various other Earthly quadrants to complete an important mission. Their [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/04/19/what-the-duck Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:24:39 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/04/19/what-the-duck  
Imagine a gaggle of good-hearted Avatars from the Beta Antares solar system zooming to our planet to find out what the various gods of Earth are like. One gets sent to the North American Christ-following humans, and his brothers go to various other Earthly quadrants to complete an important mission. Their entire race doesn’t actually have a God, and the superiors want them to go find one that could make sense for them. 

If I were helping the open-minded missional Avatar, I’d keep it simple by inviting him over to watch a few of our culture’s most respected TV shows about God.  I’d lead out with The History Channel blockbuster “The Bible,” then end with a chaser of five back-to-back episodes of “Duck Dynasty.” 

A few days of this would probably be good enough to confirm what all evangelicals know about God, His Story, and His Son.  He could go back and let them know that the BIG GOD of the North American quadrant is mostly cranky and mean. Further, Satan is some guy named Obama, and that God’s Son, Jesus, is a gorgeous Men’s Fitness model from Alabama.  And then, after just a few “Duck Dynasty” viewings, he would have even more detail about Christian families.  They live in ornate, eclectic, woodsy communes full of mansions and mobile homes, and they spend all their free time blowing squirrels out of trees with long metal fire sticks.   Most importantly, the young avatar could tell them that real Christians always wear cammo.
Ughhh. I just don’t know quite what to say anymore to people that are trying to find the real story of God.  Don’t get me wrong, I actually love “Duck Dynasty,” and I’m sure “The Bible” also shared the basic story of God in a videographic entertaining way. But dang if we don’t always seem to give people as much to laugh at us about as we do to make them curious.  We still don’t even let Jesus look Jewish or Middle Eastern!

Last night I was sharing a 6-hour presentation called “The Story of God” to 30 real estate agents who asked me to help them understand God without all the religion.  It was a great time, and as I walked them through the entire narrative, I could see them come alive with hope that God and Jesus could be found without the trappings of the odd stuff that makes even us old-timers scratch our heads. 

When it ended, I felt pretty good.  Many came up and gave me hugs and thanked me profusely for the unique way I shared the story without making them feel weird or judged.   And then one man came up and said, "Thanks, Hugh. Tonight was really good for me, but I’ve got to be honest.  I’ve been watching ‘The Bible’ on TV and I am always amazed at how goofy the depictions of Jesus and other characters are.  I might believe in the story you told, but I could never be a Christian. They are just too weird!”

I drove home with a pain in the pit of my stomach…again. 





I actually have no real issue with those two shows.  My issue is that it seems as though conservative Christians (which I think I am still one of) always seem to come off as out of touch, inappropriate, clueless, one-sided or blind-to-culture boobs.  Our story is always pretty good and fairly accurate, but the mediums by which we tell the stories (church services, TV shows, mini-series, or the lives of average Christians) trump the good story with lousy images. 
And can someone tell me why cable has to always load up a bunch of biblical TV shows right before Easter?  My honest take is the people of God don’t seem to make the story approachable or intriguing the rest of the year, so we’re happy to support advertisers who will make us look like we care about the world for a week or two.  Double ugh.

The scriptures paint a strange reality that we, the people of God, are the book of God that the world reads.  We are letters by which people see or don’t see His character.  Jesus told us we would be the witnesses.  That means we wouldn’t just tell the story of God, we would show the story by how we live.

I’ve heard Christians say how excited they are to try to invite their friends over to watch episodes of “The Bible,” as if that is the silver bullet for reaching their friends, but I surmise it would be far more helpful if we learned our neighbors names and put a good year or two into making the kingdom tangible to them first.

The only hope to helping an Avatar—or your next-door neighbor--find the real story of God is to live it.  As the scriptures declare, it is “Christ in us that is the hope of Glory.”
Yes, I’m sure a few people will come to faith by watching this stuff. But the shows’ biggest impact will be to bless a few of the already faithful, and then raise a few hundred of million dollars for next year’s Easter prelude.

No, our only hope to turn the sneering, jeering, laughing, eye-rolling gaze of our culture is to find a few Christ followers who live such large and loving lives that no amount of Americanized portrayals of faith can overshadow the truth they see in fallible but real people who humbly admit their need for a Savior.  That truth would be something even an Avatar would talk about. 

Hugh Halter  

]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/04/19/what-the-duck#comments 4 How you tell the story is as important as the story you tell... Hugh Halter Hugh Halter [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/04/01/how-you-tell-the-story-is-as-important-as-the-story-you-tell Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:39:17 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/04/01/how-you-tell-the-story-is-as-important-as-the-story-you-tell



When we consider the power of the message of Christ, consider also the power of how we share this message.  People sniff out trite religious stories that have little reference to our human condition. This unchurched, barely-believing friend, was open to the Jesus story not just because of the story.  She was open because the messenger was believable.  Because a divine message was housed in a human.  This isn’t a pat on my own back, or evidence that any human is more important than the story.  But it does show that it matters to Jesus how we bare witness of Him.  In other words, how we tell the story!  I believe the posture of how we engage the lost world was modeled by Jesus and as we are encouraged in 1 John, ‘to walk as Jesus walked,’ we have an opportunity to be tell His story well or at least better than we have been.esR

During this sermon, I did apologize for how Christians have not lived the story or made it sound easy to believe. I was honest about my own continual failure and even about my occasional doubts.  I gave real examples of how Jesus has made small incremental changes in my life, over many years, but I didn’t make it sound like I had reached some pinnacle that others can get to in a weeks time.  The story our collective community told was that there’s no insiders or outsiders and that God’s story is for everyone.  They could see it and feel it in how we related 30 minutes before the service together as well as how we stayed another 30 minutes after the ‘religious time’ was over.

These simply changes in posture don’t remove all the barriers to someone finding faith, but they sure do make it easier for the story to be heard. And that’s a good starting point.
 
Hugh



]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/04/01/how-you-tell-the-story-is-as-important-as-the-story-you-tell#comments 2 A Few thoughts on Marriage Hugh Halter Hugh Halter
Church, why do you fight so hard against those who take positions on marriage or civil unions [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/03/22/a-few-thoughts-on-marriage Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:57:41 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/03/22/a-few-thoughts-on-marriage
Church, why do you fight so hard against those who take positions on marriage or civil unions that appear to contradict this mystery? Why do you fear man's attempt to rename or reconfigure this thing called marriage? With or without a fight, it is highly likely that in all 50 states, marriage will no longer require a pastor to perform it and will be granted freely by humans to humans. 

Here's the good news: No matter how we (heterosexuals/homosexuals) defile the INSTITUTION of marriage through our sinful human condition, the ORDINANCE of marriage can and never will be defiled. God thought it up, God alone holds up his own design for a man to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." Marriage between a man and a woman is safe because it is a spiritual mystery that God sees, ordains, and blesses. 

We defile marriage daily as we speak harshly to our spouses, embitter our children, log onto porno sites, neglect placing our spouses as the most important focus of our lives. We divorce, remarry, and do it all over again, as Christians as much as non-Christians do. We screw it up hourly, yet God does not wring His hands, throw His arms in the air and declare marriage a wasted design or waste of time. Marriage under the hand of God is safe for eternity because He alone designed it. May we all work towards His design but receive grace when we fall short. 

Hugh Halter

]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/03/22/a-few-thoughts-on-marriage#comments 1 Righteous Brood- New FREE e-book Hugh Halter Hugh Halter
Most parents have huge hopes for their children. Peace, safety, ample provision, happiness and the American Dream. But God has a bigger dream for your family that should make you rethink everything. People are leaving [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/02/15/righteous-brood-new-free-e-book Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:00:32 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/02/15/righteous-brood-new-free-e-book
Most parents have huge hopes for their children. Peace, safety, ample provision, happiness and the American Dream. But God has a bigger dream for your family that should make you rethink everything. People are leaving the church in droves. Three out four children will also choose to opt out Americanized Christian religion. Why? It doesn’t capture the heart, stretch the mind, or call for any substance. Fortunately, God’s story is big enough and the “Family” remains His best way to inspire, include and disciple the missional life in our children. A Righteous Brood is a prophetic call, but also a practical guide to making the home the front line of mission.

Inside A Righteous Brood, Hugh Halter will take you behind the scenes of this family as they planted two churches. With a severely disabled son, a 50 hour-a-week job as a house painter, and two other children in hockey six days a week, Hugh will get beyond the fluff and help you see God’s power behind a family that gives itself to divine purpose.





This story-formed book will keep you laughing, crying and discovering answers and hope for your mundane struggle of balancing real life with God’s mission and your call to make disciples under your own roof.

A Righteous Brood will change the missional influence of your church!

The author would like to thank the following sponsors for enabling his eBook to be a free download:

Exponential www.exponential.org
deidox.com www.deidox.com
missiopublishing.com www.missiopublishing.com
coachnet.org www.coachnet.org
arenaimpact.org www.arenaimpact.org

Click on the book above to download the book. 

]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/02/15/righteous-brood-new-free-e-book#comments 0 The Wrong Questions of Leadership Hugh Halter Hugh Halter The Wrong Questions of Leadership

Originally posted August 2011

Take no thought of your life…"Whoever wants to find their life must lose it for my sake…if you want to be first, you must be last and be a servant of all.”

This last week I received an email from a pastor who I have [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/02/07/the-wrong-questions-of-leadership Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:45:31 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/02/07/the-wrong-questions-of-leadership The Wrong Questions of Leadership

Originally posted August 2011

Take no thought of your life…"Whoever wants to find their life must lose it for my sake…if you want to be first, you must be last and be a servant of all.”

This last week I received an email from a pastor who I have never met, but who felt compelled to ask me for wisdom related to his call in ministry. He had been pastoring for almost a decade and as he processed the future of the church and the missional call of God on his
congregation the questions came out like this.

“What will happen to my job if I really call my church to kingdom action and even confront our spiritual lethargy?”
“Will I still have a job?”
“How can I change my job description so that my roles line up with what I feel I want to spend my time on..and will my Elder board accept and still want me to pay me to do less inside the church?” “How can I make sure I spend most of my time in my gift areas?”

These are all great questions and ones which I have often asked in my own mind, but the longer I work with professional Christian leaders, the more I believe these to be exactly the WRONG questions for anyone to ask.

Now, that I’m going on 25 years of Christian leadership, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, God does not answer the wrong questions. Thus if we really want to hear from God regarding our future, we need to get the correct questions in view. The three scripture that are spliced together are the words of Jesus to the ancient day version of the wrong questions. The boys who wanted to follow Jesus were wondering about their role in his economy, his community, and his kingdom. Some wanted to see where they stand in relation to the other guys; some wanted to figure out how to rise to the top or at least be positioned within the key circle of influences, and some were trying to figure out the cost of being with Jesus.

Regardless of their motives or questions, Jesus makes it simple by leveling the confusion related to ministry/leadership/and provision. It isn’t about US, OUR calling, OUR gifting, or OUR roles. Everything is about Him, His desire, His plan, and His glory.

Thinking back to now hundreds of emails and conversations with present church leaders and young emerging leaders, I realize that I can count on one hand the amount of times a certain leader actually brings up God or the lost, least, or leery in their considerations. Why don’t
I hear, “Hugh…I really have a heart for these people, or a burden for my home town, or a burning pain in my heart to see this situation changed…can you help me figure this out?”

These should be the question we ask, and I’m absolutely positive, that God will answer them!

Now of course, his answer may shock us. If you have a genuine burden for young people, he may direct you to become a teacher, a social worker, or start mentoring a troubled youth in
your neighborhood. If you’re heart is for the poor, he may ask you to start by volunteering at a poverty-needs ministry in your home town or give money away.  If you can’t make it through the day without crying or praying for lost friends, he may just ask you to throw a party, join a Yoga class or volunteer at an Aid’s hospice. Answers on how to help real humans come fast and easy…at least if you’re serious.






To spend time re-orging your job description or trying to figure out how to keep your paycheck could be a waste of His time and yours. Yes, if you’re trying to move from paid professional church staff positions, you’re in a bit of a pickle if you really want to help the ones Jesus might
be more focused on. I say this tongue in cheek but also with a great sense of seriousness. In the present church/culture divide, pastors are the least positioned to help where the rubber meet the road, so begin with a heart/gut check and decide if your heart is on the pavement or
not.

What do you really want to do? Who do you really want to help? What do you really want your life to count for? If the answers come back “people/hurt/pain/redemption/life change/transformation of neighborhoods/evangelism…..open your mind and heart and let God lead you to people. If however, your tensions are between church growth, church establishment, paychecks, parishioners in the seats on Sunday…expect a long
drawn out silence from God. Calling isn’t based on provision: Plumbers are just as called as anyone else and their provision allows them to minister to a few friends, their
children, or a neighbor.

Our gifting isn’t the same as doing what we like to do. Gifting is based on God empowering you to do something you don’t necessarily feel confident about or even want to do in a given situation. Biblical Financial provision is for those who feel called to equip the saints to do the work,” not for people who do the work. Regardless of your longevity in ministry posts, realize that there should never be any sense of positional entitlement. God does not owe us
anything. Remember, we’ve been bought with a price and we owe God everything and if he wants to bring us low, low is the place to be. If he wants to bring us high, then high is fine. Getting paid or retaining a certain lifestyle was and is still not part of the “perk package” of
Christian leadership. Christian leadership will always be based on who wants to dive under the muddy ropes and slither through the real life dirt and grime of human pain. That was the life of Jesus, our great cloud of witness, our prophets, and this paradigm of life will be life of the
leaders of the future church, if the church is to have a future.

Hugh.



]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/02/07/the-wrong-questions-of-leadership#comments 2 The Art of Neighboring Hugh Halter Hugh Halter  
Jay Pathak and Dave [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/01/28/the-art-of-neighboring Mon, 28 Jan 2013 16:27:20 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/01/28/the-art-of-neighboring
State Farm has something right when they say, “Like a good Neighbor, State Farm is there.”  In times of crisis we need our neighbors most.  Our neighbors can be our greatest advocates, support systems, and our best friends if we take time to pursue them, and do this with a genuine heart.
 
Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon wrote a book rich with solid and simple advice about how to love our Logistical Neighbors. The ones that live right next door. (Not the people we come in contact with everyday, but really, the person who wakes up in the house, apartment, or yurt next door to us, across the street, or road.)   The Art of Neighboring shows us what it means to literally obey the second commandment.
 
If we want to do REAL Kingdom Christianity, it requires us to dig in and be neighbors. Jesus commands it. We need to drop the agenda… the undercurrent of being friends with our neighbors with the sole purpose of converting them to our faith. We simply just need obey Jesus, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s it.  He didn’t say Love your Neighbor to get them to Love me. OR Love your neighbor to get them to love you. Just Love Your Neighbor as Yourself.
 
At Adullam we encourage people to do community in proximity to where you live. We want people to dig into their neighborhoods, to be responsible for their neighbors, the ones who love Jesus and the ones who do not.
 
If we are trying to truly impact the world for His kingdom, people will know us by our love. By the way we care for each other, the way we come along side each other in times of crisis.  The past few months we have had some painful doozies at Adullam and I have had some great opportunities to meet my congregation’s actual neighbors…the actual people that live next door, or across the street who are coming in and taking care of each other’s needs.  The blessings that come out of loving your neighbors are many and rich -- security, resources, support, advice, companionship, and these are just a few.  Dave and Jay challenge us to do a better job of loving.
 
The Art of Neighboring is a book that I would suggest you buy and read… and I don’t do that a lot. If you are a church planter/pastor type, suggest it to your congregation. Their website is rich and full of resources including sermons to start a neighboring movement in your own community.

http://artofneighboring.com/



]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/01/28/the-art-of-neighboring#comments 0 Jesus’ Full Definition of ‘Disciple’—What It Means for Your Family and Church Hugh Halter Hugh Halter
But here’s a question we all need to consider: How can a church be missional unless the families [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/01/24/jesus%e2%80%99-full-definition-of-%e2%80%98disciple%e2%80%99%e2%80%94what-it-means-for-your-family-and-church Thu, 24 Jan 2013 08:48:46 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/01/24/jesus%e2%80%99-full-definition-of-%e2%80%98disciple%e2%80%99%e2%80%94what-it-means-for-your-family-and-church
But here’s a question we all need to consider: How can a church be missional unless the families are?

I’ve spent the better portion of 20 years training pastors on “how to make their churches more missional,” but I’ve come to believe that it’s really not about the pastors. Every church would be missional if a good percentage of the families are, if the parents understand their role in discipling their children.

Generally, we understand the word “discipleship” to mean “teaching our children or our friends, or any convert for that matter, the truths of Scripture, the doctrine and theology of God, and establishing the moral codes of the faith.” All this is good, but only if we understand the fuller meaning of Jesus’ idea of what a disciple is.

When He used the word, He actually meant what we might call an “apprentice.” I often use this personal example. As a house painter for 20 years, if I wanted to model evangelical Christian forms of discipleship in my business, I would hire a young man, pay him a small wage and ask him to observe me painting for a summer. If he casually watched me from his seated position on the back of my tailgate for three or four months, he could probably explain some correct concepts about house painting to a friend. But if I want to make an apprentice of this young man, I’d have to call him off the tailgate, give him absolutely every tool I had, and help him learn every aspect of actually painting. He’d have to get dirty, deal with his fears, take responsibility and so on.

Western, non-participatory discipleship, in other words, is satisfied when a person knows concepts about God, but apprenticeship isn’t satisfied until the person has learned to live the life of God. This is a simple but profound switch in thinking for several reasons.

First, God is going to hold us accountable on the level of apprenticeship. Especially with regard to our children. More specifically, God wants us to form not just doctrine, theology and moral codes in our kids. He wants us to form the very life of Jesus in them.





Second, apprenticeship puts the onus on the parents, not the pastors or youth pastors. Pastoral staff can disciple your kids, but the one who is designed to spend the most time and who can actually model the life of Jesus is you! So they won’t love Jesus, the king, or His kingdom unless they see you selling out for Him.

Third, apprenticeship creates kingdom citizens. It’s a strange concept, but Jesus actually warned His apprentices to watch out for the “leaven of the Pharisees.” The leaven was the doctrine-focused spiritual fervency that naturally extracted them from truly loving people. Jesus didn’t come to belittle them or suggest that scriptural knowledge and moral living was bad, but He came to fulfill, enlarge, and expand what true spiritual formation was. He came to model a holistic life where doctrine, theology, knowledge and morality were coupled with love, mercy, faith and action.

Lastly, and most importantly, Western non-participatory discipleship tends to shrivel the heart, whereas active apprenticeship actually helps Jesus come alive in the heart, and that’s what causes them to love their king. Paul summed up the power of kingdom apprenticeship this way, and it should be the goal of every parent, “That Christ be formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). That is the whole life of Jesus:

The mind of Jesus and how He viewed people and His calling to be faithful to the Father;

The heart of Jesus that broke over the things that broke the Father’s heart.

The character of Jesus that protected Him and gave Him street cred with people;

The mission of Jesus which gave Him purpose for his life.

All parents want the character of Christ, the heart of Jesus, or mind of Jesus to be developed in their children, but not the life or mission of Jesus. The character is safe, but to be honest if your children get the heart of Jesus, they may choose to live a life of service that makes you squirm. If they have the mind of Jesus or they live His life, they may not go after the American dream as many of us have. They may instead seek justice, live for the poor, put themselves in harm’s way, all because they love Jesus. So the gut check begins with us: Do you really want all of Jesus to be developed in your children?

Share with us  the best way you can develop the character, the life, and the mission of Christ in your kids....

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This post is an excerpt from the free Exponential Resources Series eBook, A Righteous Brood by Hugh Halter. To download the book, click here.



]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2013/01/24/jesus%e2%80%99-full-definition-of-%e2%80%98disciple%e2%80%99%e2%80%94what-it-means-for-your-family-and-church#comments 0 Finding the Balance between Gathering for Church and Scattering for Church. Hugh Halter Hugh Halter
Finding the Balance between Gathering for Church and Scattering for Church.
 
Hi friends, this email just came to me from a pastor who has taken the missional community bug pretty seriously over the last five years.  He’s now wrestling with a question we get asked over and over. Maybe [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/12/27/finding-the-balance-between-gathering-for-church-and-scattering-for-church Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:42:55 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/12/27/finding-the-balance-between-gathering-for-church-and-scattering-for-church
Original post September 2011.

Finding the Balance between Gathering for Church and Scattering for Church.
 
Hi friends, this email just came to me from a pastor who has taken the missional community bug pretty seriously over the last five years.  He’s now wrestling with a question we get asked over and over. Maybe it is something you’re wrestling with as well.
 
Ken says, “I wanted to asked you what you learned about the gathering dimension of your community especially the every week worship pros and cons. We only meet all together once per month and I’m rethinking my hard stance on not “over celebrating” and would love your thoughts. Secondly. How do you keep folks from wearing out in mission? I. E. How do you keep a high bar for mission and support your leaders and core teams?”
 
My response: To answer the how we support our leaders, core teams, missional community leaders, we do an every 8 week village leader gathering to keep them visioned up, loved on, and do group coaching. So far that’s been enough. We also offer “coaching” whenever the leaders just need more of our time.  Most take us up on this once or twice a year but Matt and I see them informally all the time so we have a pretty good idea how they’re doing.
 
*As far as helping people not wear out, I think you have to coach them and ask them why they are so tired. Are they naturally integrating life with lost people into normal daily experience or are they over programming even their community time.  The biggest issue we see is people getting too intense about their weekly community. They drive it like a mega-church pastor has to drive program!
 
We keep a 2-1-1 schedule for our folks and they don’t seem to bring up being tired. So in a given month, we say, get together twice a month for a spiritual time around scripture/prayer, etc, once a month go serve people together, and once a month throw a party for friends together.  That’s just one thing a week so even if you do a weekly church gathering, it should not be that big of a deal.  Even on the “bible study” type of weeks, we discourage a two-hour talk. For my own village, we experienced a deep time together just by downloading “sacred-space.com” and doing a 10-minute liturgy together followed by just talking. We were all hockey parents with practice 5 days a week so this was perfect and restful for our entire group.
 
2) The harder questions is the gathering/scattering dilemma.  We’re finding that people are succeeding and failing at all ends of this spectrum so it’s really hard to give you my impression. Because we started with a more scattered ethos, we’ve been able to do one week gathering-next week scattering; we’ve done every week gathering, and even this summer we had no gatherings because we didn’t have a building. Everyone did fine regardless. But now we’re back to weekly so we’ll see what happens.
 
Here’s my gut sense however: *** most Christians aren’t very incarnational and thus they need the gathering just to keep their heads above water. Yes, it does create a more consumeristic leaning but it doesn’t have to go that way as long as you create enough vision and opportunity for them to give their lives away.  So regardless, never “just do church.” Make the gathering heavy on vision, outward focus, speak often and fondly of what your communities are doing and keep a good pace of assimilation into training and non-consumer experiences.
 
For instance, we make everyone go through the TK Primer. And in a few months we’re launching a “barefoot primer” which is another 8 weeks in social needs experiences for all our people. And we’re going to mandate that for everyone in adullam and all our communities. So even with a weekly gathering, we’re going to keep kicking butt toward holistic/sacrificial/missional gospel life.
 
*Yes, I know everyone seems to think we’ve got this nailed, but half of our communities are ‘barely missional.’  People are deeply broken and their brokenness hinders missional life.  Thus, having a gathering for baseline spiritual connectedness and entrance into the missional life is critical.
 
For a Midwest crowd, I think I would give them more gatherings but also add some gathered experiences that push them out. For instance we always take the months with 5 weeks and take everyone out to serve together.  We also take 4-5 Sabbath weeks off, like we did this Labor day. We take July 4th, Sunday after Christmas, and a few others to simply rest and that also seems to help people not be dependent upon a church service.
 
Hope that helps a little
Hugh

]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/12/27/finding-the-balance-between-gathering-for-church-and-scattering-for-church#comments 1 Missio Insider Continues Hugh Halter Hugh Halter
Thanks for being a part of Missio Insider.

If you are not a part of Missio Insider yet, Join us here.

It has been a lot of fun to bring you some great conversations the last couple of months.

So far [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/12/05/missio-insider-continues Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:27:39 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/12/05/missio-insider-continues
Thanks for being a part of Missio Insider.

If you are not a part of Missio Insider yet, Join us here.

It has been a lot of fun to bring you some great conversations the last couple of months.

So far we've covered:
*  mDNA (a brief overview)
*  missional sermon prep
*  gatherings that encourage scattering

Coming up we have some great discussions from some of our Missio Friends:  
Brandon Hatmaker will be with us to talk about the Barefoot Church and Ceasar Kalinowski will be taking a turn, too, giving us some great stuff about the Gospel.  Can't wait for those!  We'll get the word out to you as soon as we get those on the calendar.






]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/12/05/missio-insider-continues#comments 0 Missio Insider Hugh Halter Hugh Halter
The Missio Team has just launched a new pathway to missional connections and conversations called Missio INSIDER.

"Missio Insider" is an access point to get you more of the Missio Team -- Hugh Halter, Matt Smay and other Missio Friends.

For only $50 a year Insiders will get 12 [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/11/04/missio-insider Sun, 04 Nov 2012 15:07:00 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/11/04/missio-insider
The Missio Team has just launched a new pathway to missional connections and conversations called Missio INSIDER.

"Missio Insider" is an access point to get you more of the Missio Team -- Hugh Halter, Matt Smay and other Missio Friends.

For only $50 a year Insiders will get 12 online webinars (and some other bonus goodies) full of content and laced with opportunities for interaction with the Missio team and connections with other Missio Insiders. Our hope is simply that you'll know that you're not crazy and you're not alone!

This little promo is not just marketing for me. Over the years I've read the books from Missio, I've been to the trainings, I've gotten to know the guys behind it all. Each time I have stepped away from any of those experiences I've had one response....I wanted more. I had a longing to learn more, to ask more questions, to work all this stuff out. I had found people that were speaking my language and I wanted to be around them more.

And that's why in this season of my life, I'm giving tons of energy and time to making sure others like me get MORE.

I believe these concepts, principles, ideas and relationships are game-changers for the church...right now and for our future.

So, I humbly submit to you an invitation to Missio Insider. I promise you that it will stretch you, provoke you, encourage you and inspire you to live more fully in the Way of Jesus.

Go to missio.us/INSIDER to sign up.

]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/11/04/missio-insider#comments 0 Missio Insiders Hugh Halter Hugh Halter Click here to head to Missio Insider [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/10/11/missio-insiders Thu, 11 Oct 2012 09:13:20 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/10/11/missio-insiders
Click here to head to Missio Insider

]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/10/11/missio-insiders#comments 1 Hugh Bakes a Cake. (Would Jesus Bake a Cake for a Gay Wedding?) Hugh Halter Hugh Halter Would Jesus Bake a Cake for a Gay Wedding?

Last week, the national news posted a story about a bakery owner who chose not to bake a cake for a wedding between two gay men.  It probably got some attention because it appeared to be similar to the well-publicized Chick-fil-a story.  The stories were quite different in nuance, [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/08/08/hugh-bakes-a-cake-would-jesus-bake-a-cake-for-a-gay-wedding Wed, 08 Aug 2012 21:35:48 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/08/08/hugh-bakes-a-cake-would-jesus-bake-a-cake-for-a-gay-wedding Would Jesus Bake a Cake for a Gay Wedding?

Last week, the national news posted a story about a bakery owner who chose not to bake a cake for a wedding between two gay men.  It probably got some attention because it appeared to be similar to the well-publicized Chick-fil-a story.  The stories were quite different in nuance, but nonetheless brought up very serious and real questions every Christ follower should take seriously. 

I posted this question above and had over 3500 onlookers and a truckload of great responses within a few hours.  I’ve tried to synthesize many of the responses down to a few simple thoughts that I hope will be helpful for those serious about incarnating their lives into the real world around us.

First, thanks for your respectful tone.  Even though the Christian responses were a 50/50 split on the question, there were some great perspectives on both sides and I hope we all learned a few things.

Second, I know that many who read this will not be Christian in orientation.  So forgive the “internal doc” tone.  I am trying to speak to our own Christian tribe about how we view sin and people in the world.  In Jesus’ time and obviously now, people often use the word, “sinner” in a derogatory way to label people that weren’t “in the know” or who didn’t live based on the same set of religious/moral/theological convictions that the establishment did.  In Jesus’s time it was the Jewish religious system based on the Law of Moses, and today, it continues in many tribes of Christianity.  For the sake of the argument, I’ll keep using the word “sinner” as it has been incorrectly applied, in hopes that we can at least agree that we all share the same problem.  We’re all jacked by sin!

I must also be honest with you and say that I, have to submit my wisdom under the wisdom of the revealed scripture in regards to all facets of life.  I don’t understand everything, like everything, and will have a long list of questions to reel off when I see God, but I believe that He did design sexuality to be blessed within the bonds of heterosexual marriage. 

However…

This article isn’t about trying to convince people of my view on this.  This article is to address how any of us, of any persuasion sexually, theologically, or religiously, should treat each other.  Especially how Christians should treat people that don’t believe what they believe.  I will submit that anything that doesn’t reflect the original design of God is sin and that list is long. And if we for sake of argument can say that homosexuality is a sin, I believe how Christians have treated the gay and lesbian community, in God’s eyes, may literally be of equal and maybe even greater offense to God. 

The question of whether or not Jesus (The corner bakery owner) would bake a cake for a gay wedding?  is posed so that we can finally talk about the dignity of each person’s story and how the love of God can break into all of our brokenness so that his revealed will and blessing can touch us all.


For dealing with the cake situation or other “grey zones,” here are a few anchors I try to keep in mind.

1) We don’t have to Condone or Condemn.  In so many situations we often think that we have to pick either a stance of condoning (which we assume happens if we fail to confront or form real friendships) or condemning (which we assume is a necessary response if we simply speak the truth and call people to account for their behavior. ) Some think you should just “LOVE” without truth, and some think you should just “TRUTH” em’ regardless of love.  What you’ll find in the life of Jesus is that he doesn’t pick one or the other.  He did neither.

In John 1:14 it says that Jesus came into the world in the form of a man and helped us to see the glory of God because he was full of Grace and Truth. As an example of what he hoped every Christian would be, he showed how grace (non-judgment) and healing, restorative words of truth can go together like peanut butter and jelly.  He was the most non-judgmental person you would have ever met, yet people wanted to hear what he had to say about their broken lives and when he spoke, people did change and turn from sin.  Jesus even said that he “did not come into the world to condemn but to save.” And he did exactly that. People around him didn’t feel condemned but they responded to his truth. 

He regularly ate with the worst of the worst.  Clearly, many would have pulled him aside and said, “Jesus, by eating with them, you realize that you are causing them to feel a false sense of acceptance by you, don’t you think it more wise to avoid letting them feel accepted so that they might come to their senses and stop doing what they are doing?”

In one such dialogue, he said, “I didn’t come for the healthy but the sick.”  In that statement, he was saying, “to help the sick you have to be with the sick and by being with them in their sickness, I’m not actually making them more sick, but creating a pathway to pull help them out.” 

In other words, being present with people in the mess of their lives, being true friends, fully accepting, is the way of Jesus. It is neither condemning nor condoning to make a cake or be at a wedding of people that don’t believe what we believe… It  is simply being a friend. 

To those who say that baking a cake communicates support for a non-biblical defilement of the institution of marriage, I’d suggest that we defile the institution of marriage all the time.  50% of the heterosexual Christian marriages end by defiling the institution through divorce.  And good percentages of those who don’t divorce defile the marriage daily as men cheat on their wives through pornography.  None of it is God’s intended design!  In Matthew 5:28 Jesus went further, “You who lust in your heart after a woman have committed adultery!”  In other words, don’t think just because you were married in a traditional heterosexual union, that you’ve done the institution justice and have the right to judge the next wave of people who will fail my design.”

In line with Jesus argument with the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11, Jesus would say to the non cake bakers, “You who have modeled a perfect marriage, go ahead and withhold the cake, but if you have ever sinned against my design of marriage, you better start whipping up some frosting!”

Look, God doesn’t need us to stick up for his created order of heterosexual marriage.  The institution of marriage is set not because we do it correctly. It’s set because God created it and marriage will always be his idea.  If we don’t stick up for the sanctity of life, life is still sacred because God says so.   He’s a big boy and knows that this beautiful union that he intended between men and woman is going to be fraught with brokenness in almost every situation and so baking a cake is not the issue, but not baking the cake would most certainly create an impossible space of tension between Jesus and the people he would hope to influence.

Jesus must have known that advocating for ‘sinner’s doesn’t make them feel better about their sin. It actually opens their heart to someday turn from their sin!

2) There is no sliding scale of sin

When I picture this bakery owner trying to decide whether or not he should bake a  cake for a gay wedding, I have to ask, what his reasoning or motives are based on.  In other words, why did he say NO?  I can only think of three reasons.

First, he could have thought that by baking the cake, these men would be pulled deeper into sin so if he made a cake he would be contributing to their ungodly union and sinful lifestyle.  Clearly this isn’t the issue and if he baked the cake, these two men would not be more gay or do more gay things?  The cake is just a cake! So that can’t be it.

So maybe, as a Christian business owner, he believes that he should represent God in who and how he gives his services away?  He might think that since God is clearly against homosexuality, I must display God’s view of sin and never give my services or products to people who are sinning in this way.  But consider the hypocrisy if he really sticks to this consistently.

Since gluttony is listed as a sin twice as many times as homosexuality is listed, then he would have to deny giving a scrumptious buttery croissant to anyone that looks to be overweight. And pastors who buy this guy’s donuts should therefore also not serve donuts every week at church, or create two lines and force the more sturdy lot into the glutton free, fat free line.  To not do this would be to help people sin, right?

And since lusting after a person sexually is a sin, and the most harmful environment for lust, pornography, and explicit viewing is on the internet, it would follow that anyone who helps build, fix, create software, or sells computers should probably shut their business down immediately as well.  For helping the computers work will be making it easier for people to sin.

And even if we aren’t business owners and just consumers, if we operate based on this line of thinking, before we purchase anything, we should make sure that whatever we buy is not the product of any Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, Mormon, or Muslim, liberal, or fans of The View! For if we help them even gain a dollar, we would not be representing God. 
 
You can see that this probably isn’t a practical solution.

So the third and only other option is that this baker believes that some sins are just so bad that he doesn’t want to touch it with a ten-foot pole.  That’s what we called the subtle “sliding scale of sin” argument.  In other words, there are just some sins or ways of living that transcend normal logic and we should just make a stand against it!  I think this is honestly where most of us go when we chose to bless or help a non-Christian or not...

So just a few thoughts on judging levels of sin:
First, what is worse, doing something you don’t know is wrong or doing something you know is wrong?  You’re right if you guessed the latter. Clearly, when people do things that they don’t feel any conviction against or don’t know are against God’s intended design, we would call them blind, or lost, but certainly not bad or evil.  But what about people that know what is right and wrong, good or bad and continue to do or not do what they should?  Well, yes, that would seem to be worse because at least they understand.  So disobedience is worse than ignorance.  Do you agree?

People that have not yielded their lives to Christ didn’t get the memo we might have gotten about God’s design.  Romans says that every person will still be held accountable to some knowledge that there is a God by simply looking out the window and seeing that something has ordered the universe, but they do not have a context for their brokenness.   But a Spirit-enlightened believer; A Christian glutton who keeps chowing down on buffalo wings; a man who will not face his pornography addiction, a pastor who fudges on his taxes, a Christian man who lies on occasion to save face, the Christian soccer mom who leaves her weekly bible study and heads to the mall and keeps running up the visa tab to buy whatever her Oprah magazine tempts her with... they all know that they are being disobedient to God, but they still do it!  As a  Christian pastor, that is my story! That was the testimony of our greatest new testament leaders. Paul said, “I delight in the law of the Lord the idea of Godliness, the hope of living better, but dang it!!!! My flesh just keeps failing and am a wretched man!” 

Christians!!! Please…finally…take a sharpie and write this on the inside of your eyelids. “YOUR SINS OF DISOBEDIENCE ARE JUST AS BAD AS THEIR SINS OF INGORANCE!”  There is no sliding scale of sins and if you’re going to withhold baking a cake for a gay man, you better shut down the whole dang bakery because no one is really worthy of your red velvet!
Look, if I sound ticked remember, this exact same situation came up in Matthew 23:27 and Jesus called them out, “"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs--beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity.”

Okay, no more name calling. What about the good side of our desire to see people find God and his ways?  You’re not a good parent, a good friend, or even a good citizen if you don’t have a desire to help people find God and his design for areas of their lives.  So is there a way forward?
Yes, there is, but you have to change your practical theology.  You must…

3) Change from the old covenant of the law of Moses to the New Covenant and remove your judges hat and go buy a nice rocking chair and wait on your front porch.

Let me explain.  The Old Law told us to go judge people’s sin, discipline or kill them and for sure reject them until they cry “uncle.”  The New Covenant of Grace now requires that you become like the Father in Luke 15:11ish who bakes the cake, gives it to his son, let’s his son go off and make a mess of things, and then waits for the natural story of free will to run it’s course. He knows that if he gives him the money, gives him the car keys, he’s going to jet. The Father is broken hearted, and deeply sad, but he knows that if he doesn’t give the son these gifts, he’s leaving anyway. 
Why didn’t the father say, “Son, I know you’re going to leave and go sin your face off and I won’t stop you, but I’m not going to help you either. I will not give you my inheritance or my blessing?”  He didn’t take this route because he knew that someday, the son would remember how he blessed him even though he didn’t agree and it would allow a space for redemption.  He didn’t like it, but he knew that at all costs, keep the relationship open!

This is why Hugh Halter bakes the cake, and shows up to be a friend at their wedding.  I don’t like a lot of things either, but one thing I do want is that they know I really do love them and I want the relationship to stay open.  I’ve not condoned or condemned. I’ve not led them into sin, or helped them sin more. I’ve not misrepresented my God, or become a self-righteous jackwagon.  I’ve just been a friend of sinners like Jesus or like the old man waiting on the porch for his son to return home.

Befriending sinners is better than belittling sinners…better to be on the porch waiting for a struggling friend to return than on the side of a relational grand canyon you’ll never be able to cross.  People almost always in times of great personal need, return to those who have dignified their personal journey and given them space to learn for themselves.

4) Incarnation must precede proclamation: In other words, Grace must precede truth if we are to model our lives after John 1:14 and be incarnational in the way of Jesus.

We know it’s true, whenever we share our opinion about someone else’s lives without significant trust or relational bandwidth, it comes across as condemnation. Since Jesus didn’t come to condemn but to save, we must learn the skill and patience of winning the trust of those we hope to influence.   In baking the cake, what I’m hoping will happen is that someone at the wedding does ask, “Wow, great cake, who made it?”  And then to have someone say, “That guy over there... I think his name is Hugh, he runs a bakery. I heard he was a Christian too…Sort of weird he’s here but he seems different than the other Christians I’ve run across, he’s actually been here all day helping us set up.” 

This type of scenario has happened a lot to me and it often leads to the non-Christian friend pursuing relationship, dialogue, conversation and a discipleship relationship.  As I always say, when relationship is closed off, nothing will ever move spiritually, but if we gain trust through blessing and presence in the lives of people, then hope is always one conversation away.

If you become of friend of someone, you’ll know their true story, and if you know their true story, you’ll understand their sin, and when you understand their sin, you’ll know how to pray, and when you know how to pray, God will show you your own sin and how to love, and when you love, and keep loving, and keep loving, they will want to know what you think, and then you will speak truth, and they will want to hear, and they will want to know your God, and God will change their heart, and then He will help them change the way they live.  (Hugh’s paraphrase of Grace and Truth)

Your other option is to be a self-righteous jackwagon and you will never see them again.  Your choice!

As I write this, I feel an incredible sense of humility hoping that my struggle through these issues encourage you to keep struggling yourself.  Thanks for engaging this question.

Here’s a link to another great article I just read here, and if you want to dive deeper into incarnational dilemmas like this, I dealt with the theology of engagement much deeper in SACRILEGE.

Please pass this along to any friends, consider using this topic and content in your small groups, churches, and for sure, apologize to anyone you may not have treated in the way of Jesus.





]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/08/08/hugh-bakes-a-cake-would-jesus-bake-a-cake-for-a-gay-wedding#comments 38 Some Days Are Better Than Others Daniel Allen Daniel Allen I enjoyed reading Daniel Allen's thoughts for young leaders.  Sadly missing in our church focus is an intentional pathway for young men and women to process deep issues of calling, character, and the engagement of culture. Daniel does a uniquely awesome job, go check him out here.

Blog  http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/07/27/some-days-are-better-than-others Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:24:00 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/07/27/some-days-are-better-than-others I enjoyed reading Daniel Allen's thoughts for young leaders.  Sadly missing in our church focus is an intentional pathway for young men and women to process deep issues of calling, character, and the engagement of culture. Daniel does a uniquely awesome job, go check him out here.

Blog http://www.danielallen.me/ 
Tiwtter @danielallenauth
Facebook Daniel Allen

And...Here is a guest blog written by Daniel.   

Some days are better than others
by Daniel Allen

U2 gets it right when they sing about the differences in the days of our
lives...

Some days are dry, some days are leaky


Some days come clean, other days are sneaky


Some days take less, but most days take more


Some slip through your fingers and onto the floor


Some days you're quick, but most days you're speedy


Some days you use more force than is necessary


Some days just drop in on us


Some days are better than others

Followers of Jesus can sometimes think, because they've wrongly been
taught, that following Jesus will make life's problems go away. That's not
what he said. In fact, just a few short chapters after his famous "Good
Shepherd...abundant life" talk in John 10, Jesus warns his followers: "In
this life you will have trouble." But thankfully he adds, "Take heart. I have
overcome the world" (John 16:33).

He seems to be saying to look to him and his overcoming presence - in the
middle of the "some days" that are not as good as the "other days."

One of my favorite vignettes in the Bible is Luke 24, when Jesus appears
and starts walking with two disciples who are heading to the village of
Emmaus after the events of the crucifixion. They're downcast. Distressed.
Confused. Life is not going as they'd hoped. "...we had hoped," they say to
their mysterious traveler, "that he was the one who was going to redeem
Israel."

How many times have you found yourself saying those very words? Or
some variation of them? "I had hoped..."

For the travelers to Emmaus, they saw Jesus alive again when he was
revealed to them in their home, in their shared meal. And this followed their
hearts being "strangely warmed" while he was discussing scripture with
them on the way to their home.

How's your day today? What was it like yesterday, when you celebrated
(or didn't) Father's Day? Was it one of those days that slipped through your
fingers and onto the floor?

What might it be like to take out a small portion of scripture, like Psalm 23
or the road to Emmaus section of Luke 24, and place it on the table with
some bread and drink, and sit there quietly for a time, asking Jesus to
reveal himself to you anew? To strengthen you through word and shared
meal?






]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/07/27/some-days-are-better-than-others#comments 0 How I Coach People into TRUE Missional Leadership. Hugh Halter Hugh Halter http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/06/28/how-i-coach-people-into-true-missional-leadership Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:05:10 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/06/28/how-i-coach-people-into-true-missional-leadership
"This week I had a chance to share some coaching pointers with some great leaders at the New Thing Network.  As the church is changing, so leaders must change and the coaching questions we used to use may not fit the life, tensions, or reality that many leaders now face.  I coach to incarnation not just proclamation. I coach to community and cultural engagement not just tasks of running a church of weekend Sunday experience.  Every leader gets lost and blind in their own world and sometimes the most powerful way to influence leaders is by asking the right questions. Jesus did this and it changed history so consider browsing through this list and make some suggestions. Someday this might be a great list that we can all share. 

I am giving you four key aspects of a leaders life that must be coached for a true missionally incarnational leader must be:
Deep in Character, Clear in Calling, Culturally Savvy, and Able to Lead Inclusive Community.






  • What are you anxious about this month, this last week?
  • How much are your concerns stressing you out? How is that showing up? Anger, withdrawal, harsh words, criticalness or any moments of depression that you can’t dig out of?
  • Is anyone being hurt by the stress level in your life?  How can you apologize this week to those you’ve hurt?
  • What are you hearing from God about these concerns?
  • Have you been regularly finding a place of silence to hear from God?
    What do you think He is saying to you about your marriage, your heart, the balance of leading people vs. leading your family?
  • How are you dealing with battles of your mind? Purity? Pornography? Do you need some help with this?
  • Have you felt any undue pressure to lie, or try to prove your worth to anyone this last month?
  • Have you been speaking well and praying for other pastors in your city?
  • What have you been reading for your own encouragement?
  • Do you feel like God loves you this month? Do you feel like He wants to give favor to you or do you feel like he wants to discipline you? Why?
  • Where do you feel dark spiritual forces hassling or attacking you? Have you specifically exposed these issues and asked people to pray?
  • Do you feel you have real friends right now? Who? Why or Why not?
  • What things have made you the saddest this last month?
  • What things have made you laugh and find joy this last month?
  • What are you afraid of right now as we talk?




Here you are coaching through the intersection of real life and divine calling and roles.
  • Are you taking care of the one body God has given you? What are you doing to stay healthy?  If not, what are your plans to get going?
  • Is your spouse feeling “close” to you in your calling right now? How can you include them more in what you are doing? Do they want to be included more or protected more from your ministry calling?
  • Are you helping them find and pursue their passions while you pursue your own?
  • How often are you having time together without any ministry talk? What fun things have you done together this last month.
  • What types of conversations and experiences have you had this month with your children? What have you planned for this coming month?
  • Are you making choices with your finances that keep you moving toward freedom or bondage?  Any choices you want to run by me at this point?
  • Are you being mentored in any specific area of your life right now? What would you love to get help in?
  • Are you feeling motivated and excited to wake up every day? Why or Why not
  • Do you feel confident or alone in leading the people God’s given you?
  • Are there any aspects of your life that you feel must change in order for God to keep growing your influence or leadership?
  • If you were God, what would you absolutely tell me as your coach, that I should ask you about
  • What are you most excited about? What is giving you life and joy right now?
  • Do you feel that God’s word is alive to you or are you a bit dry this month?
  • Who are you hanging out with that inspires you toward better living?
  • Describe what your “Sabbath” is right now? Is that working? If not, do you see any way to make the happen?
  • Have you been consistently pre-planning your week or have you been more “responding” to the apparent pressures that come to you?  How will be making time to get intentional with your weekly schedule?
  • Where have you been wasting time?




Here you are coaching for their ability to engage the lost culture with the Gospel
  • Do you know the names of all your neighbors? If not, what can you do this month to get to know them without being a dork?
  • Are you doing any recreation, hobbies, or school functions with the intent to make friends?
  • Tell me about some good conversations you’ve had with lost friends this month? Have you made any plans to invite them deeper into your lives or go deeper into their lives?
  • How could you bless the children of the people you’re meeting?
  • Have any of your lost friends invited you to anything this last month? Did you go? How did it go? Any plans to thank them by inviting them to something cool?
  • Have you done anything this last month that you may need to apologize for to a lost friend? Maybe not being more helpful to them? Saying no to an invite they gave you?  Maybe being gone when something bad happened to them?
  • What are you finding is always good news to your lost friends? Have you made any plans to be good news? What is that?
  • Have you taken much time this month to exegete the needs of your community? Have you talked to any school employees, city workers or government officials? How can you make that happen or begin to help where they expose need?
  • How many parties have you thrown or gone to this last month?
  • What types of non-profits are working in your area that you could help out with and support?
  • Have you been able to share much of your story to a lost friend this month? How did that go? Any follow up?
  • Are you showing patience with the people around you or have you overstepped any lines the culture is giving you lately?
  • Have you helped serve anyone this month?
  • How are you praying for the people around you? What does that look like? Has God led you to do anything unique for a friend?
  • Have you invited any new friends to anything this last month? What was it? How did that go? Any next steps?
  • Are you and your spouse in the same stride in how much time you’re giving to lost folks? How many times a week or evenings have you been opening your home?
  • How many of your 21 weekly meals have you been sharing with people?
  • How have you been engaging the culture with those in your Christian community?
  • Do you feel that your Christian community is trustworthy to bring any new friend to? If not, Why and how can you mentor your community toward inclusiveness and trust?
  • Have you been advocating for any people this last month?
  • What common space, coffee shops, pubs, etc. have you been hanging out in consistently? Have any interesting relationships started to form?






Here you are coaching for their ability to lead people toward God and his church
  • What are you doing to help nurture the lives of the Christians who are with you now?
  • Are there any people in your community right now that seem to be struggling or fighting against what you feel God has led your community to do or be? What do you think God is asking you to do to address the problems?
  • Are any non-believers moving toward your community or in their faith with God? How do you envision integrating them into your “Christian space and rhythms?”
  • How are you feeding the sheep right now?
  • How are you teaching the sheep to feed themselves and each other?
  • Are the experiences that your Christian community participates in causing them to be less or more consumeristic? Less or more selfish and self oriented? Less or more individualistic?
  • Has anything come up this month that is a concern for you regarding the growth or missionality of your Christian friends? What are your plans to help them grow through this?
  • Is the DNA of your community clear? How do you know?
  • Describe how the spiritual activities your people have done this last month have displayed the DNA?
  • Where do you think you may be doing things that go against the DNA of the gospel?
  • How much time are you spending with Christians vs. Non-Christians? How would you assess the rest of your community on this question?
  • How are you leading your people beyond just head knowledge or doctrine but into action?
  • Have you had any weird or awkward conversations between your saint’s and unchurched sojourners? How have you helped navigate that?
  • This last month, do you feel more like a “doer” of the ministry or an “equipper”?  How can you get closer to the equipper? What could you give up or give to someone else to do? What is keeping you from doing that?
  • How are you managing the tension of working in your vocational job and your calling to lead people?
  • Has your community locked into any specific areas of need or found some relational causes to be a part of? Describe how that is being lived out.
  • What do you feel you should protect your community from? What do you feel you should expose your community to this month?
  • What conflicts have come up this month in your community? How are you leading them through this? How are you dealing with judgements and frustrations some might have with you this month?
  • Out of all the false or immature critiques of your leadership, what elements of truth might God still want you to acknowledge and grow in?


]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/06/28/how-i-coach-people-into-true-missional-leadership#comments 5 Church Maturity Hugh Halter Hugh Halter
Today on a missional facebook link a denominational president commented on how he thought the missional movement was maturing. He referenced Mike Frost's closing session talk at Exponential and also [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/05/01/church-maturity Tue, 01 May 2012 19:40:52 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/05/01/church-maturity
Today on a missional facebook link a denominational president commented on how he thought the missional movement was maturing. He referenced Mike Frost's closing session talk at Exponential and also mentioned Mike Breen who have been leading voices over the last decade.  The comment about maturing was due to both men speaking about the gathered as well as the scattered essense of the church. In other words, both men said we need everyone working together.  Agreed!!!

In the past, missional focused on sending or scattering god's people into intentional kingdom life and missional communities, and many in this movement therefore minimized the importance of the gathered church experiences.  Thus, there has been a "attractional-program-preaching-based-sunday oriented church vs. the organic, community-based, monday-saturday-focused church chasm. 

I deeply respect this denominational leader and I am glad that he noticed that some of the missional thought-leaders are not opposed to church gatherings, but I found it a bit misleading to say that the missional movement is maturing simply because of this. It felt as if the attractional church leaders view the missional ethos as immature and that they, the attractional-based leaders, are the mature ones. 

As church leaders from all sides are coming together, we must not view the 'missional' as the immature. The Missional essence, ethos, and practice is the foundation of THE CHURCH and began in Genesis and continues to this day.  In reality, the contempory church's focus on Sunday gatherings is the "new" or immature expression of Christianity, and its result or fruit as of the last century should not leave it feeling like the elder statesmen waiting for the "youngsters" to grow up. 

The thought leaders and practitioners of the ancient missional church, that is now being reborn, and that are clearly leading the church forward should not be listened to simply because they are kind to the existing attractional church. They should be listened to because the immature attractional church has left a pretty gaping hole in our culture. 

Yes, we should not deconstruct another man's approach to church or think that one way will win the day. Clearly, we do need everyone.  Those that focus on missional communities need to mature and allow for church gatherings, but the classic attractional pastor must also mature and sincerely learn how to send and scatter their people for mission.    And may the whole church grow into unity and maturity for the sake of Christ.

hugh


]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/05/01/church-maturity#comments 2 Ed Stetzer Interview Hugh Halter Hugh Halter Check out this Q & A that I did with Ed Stezer.  
Thanks Ed for your time! 

You can get involved in the conversation [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/03/23/ed-stetzer-interview Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:37:46 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/03/23/ed-stetzer-interview
Check out this Q & A that I did with Ed Stezer.  
Thanks Ed for your time! 

You can get involved in the conversation here. 
-Hugh



]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/03/23/ed-stetzer-interview#comments 0 Helping you find community might be a waste of time! hughhalter@gmail.com hughhalter@gmail.com Last night my wife had to watch the Super bowl on a small TV in an adjacent room from where my high-school girls were. They were hogging our big screen TV room with all their friends, mostly students from a hard, inner-city school. My oldest is dating a great kid named Dre, and his band of pirates are mostly poor, misguided, farts that [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/02/14/helping-you-find-community-might-be-a-waste-of-time Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:26:00 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/02/14/helping-you-find-community-might-be-a-waste-of-time Last night my wife had to watch the Super bowl on a small TV in an adjacent room from where my high-school girls were. They were hogging our big screen TV room with all their friends, mostly students from a hard, inner-city school. My oldest is dating a great kid named Dre, and his band of pirates are mostly poor, misguided, farts that eat all our food, and break windows, like they did during the 3rd quarter. To avoid killing them all and embarrassing my girls, I headed out to a friends house to watch the rest of the game.
After duct taping the window this morning, my wife and I headed off to breakfast and talked over how much we really loved these kids, faults and all. Because Dre grew up without a father, we have gotten to know all these kids by going to their sporting events, and because they always would rather be at our home than anywhere else, especially there homes.
While sipping our coffee and laughing a bit over their collective cluelessness, we once again talked about how it’s time to really give our lives to kids like these. After 10 years of YFC ministry, I vowed I’d never return to youth ministry, but it just seems as though it’s the real deal and that every minute we spend with them is transformational.
Because it was Monday I diverted the discussion to my personal frustrations I was having in where to spend my time. As is the case every week, my email loads up with adults Christians, most of whom have been Christians their entire lives, asking for a cup of coffee, some chat time, or a little help getting connected in our church. I suppose this is all good activity that most pastors give time to. And I even suppose that if I didn’t do it, people would just leave and go to another church because we didn’t help “plug them in.” But all of a sudden the pressure of choosing who would get my time, hit me square in the face.
Cheryl, cut through my fog with something like this, “So…you’re feeling bad that you can’t give all these people help in finding other Christian adults to be in community with, when all over our city are teens who have absolutely no help, no hope, and no clue of how to navigate their lives? Are you serious?”
I just stared deep into my mug of java and took another sip.
As we kept munching on our amaretto and white chocolate pancake, I felt my heart bubble over with frustration and clarity about what my role as a Christ follower should be. Not my role as a pastor, which seems to only bring confusion. But simply the role, the job, or the life that Christ wants me and everyone else to live.
At some point, someone has to bust through the minutia of nebulous get togethers and scream…who’s really going to give some time to people that need it?!! When will we as adult Christians stop prioritizing finding more Christian friends to have a small group with, or another bible study? When will we actually take a few disadvantaged or disillusioned people under our wings and give flight to God’s heart for their lives?
Most people know that I’ve spent my life’s work trying to help people form incarnational communities that witness of the Gospel in every nook and cranny of our cities, but I’m coming to find that when people focus too much on community and not the gospel, they become nothing more than 30 year old 8th graders looking for friends. They in turn forget that community is not the goal of life. Community, true biblical, missional, and gospel-centered friends are supposed to be the people we go on mission with, not the people that keep us from going on mission.
If pastors are supposed to be spiritual leaders, and leadership is taking people past where they are to the place God wants to take them, then it must begin with some jackwagon like me going, “Enough is enough!” So, that’s what I’m doing right now.
If you want to do coffee with me, I sure hope you’ve got a reason that is at least as important as the “least” of these around me.
Not trying to be mean, just trying to follow Jesus.
Hope you do to.
Hugh

]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/02/14/helping-you-find-community-might-be-a-waste-of-time#comments 6 New Website and Free Stuff Hugh Halter Hugh Halter Start http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/02/09/new-website-and-free-stuff Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:27:00 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/02/09/new-website-and-free-stuff Start HERE). We've tried to keep it as simple as possible while maintaining a certain level of practicality. You'll find quick links to resources as well as video introductions and coaching tips for other Missio Resources.

We need your help: If you'd like to help us get the word out, we'd love to send a free copy of SACRILEGE to the first 20 folks who would take a moment to do the following things: (1) Post on twitter with a link to the main page of the website, (2) do the same for Facebook, then (3) Subscribe for this blog by clicking the button on the top right and leave a message below in the comment section with your mailing address.

  • Twitter: Check out my friend @hughhalter's new website at www.hughhalter.com

  • Facebook: Take a moment to check out Hugh Halter's new website at www.hughhalter.com. It's packed with videos and other resources to help you along the way.

  • Comment: Be sure to leave a name and address below and we'll send out a free copy of Sacrilege to the first 20 comments.


]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/02/09/new-website-and-free-stuff#comments 61 Fighting Consumerism Hugh Halter Hugh Halter
Regardless of whether you are a new church plant or an existing church trying to reform and reposition your congregation to thrive during tough ministry and economic [...]]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/01/25/fighting-consumerism Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:21:00 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/01/25/fighting-consumerism
Regardless of whether you are a new church plant or an existing church trying to reform and reposition your congregation to thrive during tough ministry and economic times, consider a few systemic tweeks that can release your congregation from needless waste of both time and money. Here’s a few thoughts.

1) Consumerism only exists where it’s allowed to.

So to change people’s orientation from going to church to consume a presentation or program TO becoming a part of people who give their lives for the gospel, begins with REMOVING things they don’t need. It’s actually a theological impossibility to “Go to Church” so begin changing the paradigm with language and stop referring to your Sunday gathering as “Church.” Start the air war by only using the word “church” for the people, or activities that take place during the week. Change your weekend lingo to reflect what you actually do on Sunday. Maybe call it “Teaching time/The gathering/seminar/etc.”

2) After beginning to change lingo, begin the non-consumer paradigm by changing your own role from “doer” of ministry to “equipper” of the saints to do ministry.

The only reason anyone should get paid for ministry is if they equip others to do the actual work. So if you’re role right now is “teaching” on Sunday, start pulling together your best potential teachers either of small groups, & missional communities and start a monthly, “teaching training.” If your role is as shepherd or pastor, start a monthly shepherding training. There’s always more bang for the buck when you spend your time developing leaders instead of developing messages or programs.

3) As you move your own job into the role of equipper, deliberately spend 50% less time on your own sermon as a starting point.

That should immediately give you an extra 10 hours a week to work with leaders.

4) Work to move from nebulous ministry time to becoming a coach.

View every appointment as a means to an end. The end is that they will do the work of ministry. Have a plan of basic coaching questions for each meeting. (What is on your heart to do? What is hindering you from doing this work of ministry? How can I help you overcome these obstacles? What is the one thing you can do this week to move forward? As you view your role as a coach/consultant/ and connector of people, you’ll immediately begin decentralizing ministry to people who are desperate to find their place in God’s kingdom calling.

5) Move from maintaining present ministries to modeling new forms of missional leadership.

There’s no easy way to say it, Missional leaders must lead by example. You don’t have to be the best at cultural engagement, evangelistic relationship, service to the poor, etc., but you must be in the fight so that your life can inspire others. Just like your people have to work a full time job and then learn to give an evening a week or a few hours on the weekend to missional community, you must do the same. If you have to, begin redrafting your own job description to free up space.

6) Consider part-time salaries instead of full time.

Most of the jobs we traditionally pay full time salaries for can easily be done in half the time. So only pay for “equippers.” This includes YOU!

7) Consider “outsourcing” basic functions like “set up/tear down/nursery/financial services.”

We often spend more than we need to on services that don’t directly relate to ministry.

8) If you’re going to pay $$ to staff, only pay for what you really need and staff to your greatest need.

Most churches can actually find people who have a passion and gifting to teach or lead worship, or work with kids without any financial remuneration at all. If you don’t pay for these roles, it may open up financial space for people and ministry ventures outside the church. Many missional churches now staff “community developers” “business for mission” ventures, and other outside the box roles. Ask yourself, what would be good news to my community and if we were to be good news, what types of people and roles do we really need? Have the courage to put money into speculative ventures that bless the culture around you instead of just propping up the same ol’ roles that haven’t been producing fruit for years.

If you really want to work through these issues, join us in Phoenix January 18-19 for our next Missio Intensive. Info at www.missio.us. Look for Missio Intensive

Hugh

]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/01/25/fighting-consumerism#comments 2 Some thoughts from Hugh on Sacrilege... Hugh Halter Hugh Halter http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/01/20/some-thoughts-from-hugh-on-sacrilege Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:23:00 +0000 http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/01/20/some-thoughts-from-hugh-on-sacrilege
]]> http://hughhalter.com/blog/2012/01/20/some-thoughts-from-hugh-on-sacrilege#comments 0