imagining how the church can reorient around mission

Gallop just published it most recent poll of religion and American life. They discovered that almost 40% of Americans go to church. WHAT? Where? 

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Perhaps the title of this blog is a bit too provocative, but I want to write a public apology.

There has been quite a bit of blogging done recently about women in leadership of the church. I don’t want to comment much on that except to say that I am sad to have been one late to the party of affirming full equality for women in the church. read more

Years ago, I was having a weekly breakfast with a group of pastors who led downtown churches in my city (that is what pastors do, right? Eat!). One of them I became exceptionally fond of. He was nearing retirement and I found his insights particularly insightful. On one occasion, I asked him if he had any wisdom he’d like to pass on to me (I was one of the young ones then). He said if he were to do it all over again he’d sell the church buildings. Firm, resolute…unflinching…sell em all! He felt like they stole focus from the “main
thing” he was trying to accomplish.

That was years ago now and in my nearly 30 years of pastoring I have
heard his words echo in the back of my mind at many crossroads. In those years, I have rarely pastored a community with a “church building.” We’ve rented a few, but to truly occupy, none…until now. God has graciously seen fit to loan us one. I say graciously because it was not what we were looking for. We simply were seeking to embed our community in a specific location. For us, it was the north central part of Spokane. We all sensed this was where we were to put down roots. read more

Incarnating the Gospel

What does it mean to incarnate the Gospel? Observing God’s love toward humanity best captures the idea of incarnation. It is actualized by God taking on human flesh and lovingly drawing near to His creation. As a matter of fact, in John 1 it is articulated by verse 14, which says, “The Word became flesh and
made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and
only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Literally, it means God came near, even moving into the neighborhood. read more

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him (enthroned) at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to
come.” Ephesians 1:18-21

In the 1^st chapter of Ephesians there is a remarkable passage that talks about power.  In
particular, it refers  to the type of power that Christian’s possess as a result of their union with Jesus. I guess the question for me is what is that power? What does it look like? The text is emphatic; it is spectacular. As a matter of fact, Paul uses four different words, synonyms, to describe how dynamic that power is. What it is compared to in the text is the power that raised Christ from the dead and enthroned Him as King. That’s significant power (as I wrote that last sentence, my voice unsurprisingly deepened and got louder like Moses in the movie, “The Ten Commandments”)!!! read more

I’ve been involved in church planting for a long time now. Practically my whole adult life. The first church that I planted was 26 years ago. It was a massive learning experience and an abysmal failure. We closed it with a sad groan after three arduous years. I don’t know if you remember the CD some years ago by Lauren Hill, but it was entitled, “The Miseducation of Lauren Hill.”  In a very real sense, my first church planting experience could’ve been given a similar title – The Re-Education of Rob Fairbanks. For the first two or three years of pastoring prior to launching out in the church plant, I found my tutelage in the “Church Growth Movement.” It was an inebriating experience. As a voracious learner, I drank long, hard, and often. With my competitive orientation, the “by the numbers” approach to growing a large church became a drug of sorts, which deeply confused my motivation for planting.  I have written about that wonderful/painful progression elsewhere, so I won’t go into detail here, but suffice it to say that I needed breaking (which happened) and re-educating (which I am still doing almost 30 years later).

The second church that I planted was in 1991, 22 years ago (New Community). I went on to pastor that church for close to 20 years.  To say that it was an easy experience would be to lie, but the community of people that eventually emerged ended up being a beautiful and fruitful symbol of what church could be in a west coast city of the U.S. read more

I believe that there is a direct correlation between how a church
spends its money and its effectiveness in engaging the world. If the church
spends all its money on itself (I mean using it to run the “show” – I would
include staff, building, etc. in this), there's a pretty good chance that it's
going to be stalled out as far as growth is concerned. I am shocked (although,
I shouldn’t be) by how most churches use their money. Seriously, many churches
feel like it is a herculean achievement to allocate 10% of their money outside
of the building and its members. 

One
of the churches that I've had the privilege of helping start, Emmaus Church,
actually spends 50% of its budget outside of their building/members, in the community where they reside. read more

Here is a liturgy I wrote for our new group, Immanuel to attempt to put into practice what I have been talking
about the last two days.  Enjoy!

Note: I passed out the
texts in advance to others so I was not the only one leading. read more

I am reading the book, The Household of God by
Lessile Newbigin.  The below is a seminal thought about the church and its
role in the world.

“It is surely a fact of inexhaustible significance
that what our Lord left behind Him was not a book, nor a creed, nor a system of
thought, nor a rule of life, but a visible community. He committed the entire
work of salvation to that community. It was not that a community gathered round
an idea, so that the idea was primary and the community secondary. It was that
a community called together by the deliberate choice of the Lord Himself, and
re-created in Him, gradually sought – and is seeking – to make explicit who He
is and what He has done. The actual community is primary; the understanding of
what it is comes second.” The Household of God (p.20) read more

“Do not have your
concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the
Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.” -Hudson Taylor

“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” (Lk.
5:16) read more