Because you need to see this again (or perhaps for the first time):
The Overflow
"For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." -Jesus
Category Archives: Resources
Dan Kimball: “If tradition gets in the way of mission, then it’s a sin!” Does Jesus agree?
Check out these comments from Dan Kimball:
Have you ever witnessed a local church holding on to traditions that kept getting in the way of their God-given mission to seek and to save the lost? Any examples you’d like to share?
Dan makes a bold statement: “If tradition gets in the way of mission, then it’s a sin!”
Watch the video and tell me what you think – is he right or wrong?
I believe Dan is right.
In fact, he echoes Jesus’ own words in Mark 7:1-13 (cf. Matthew 15:1-6):
Mark 7:1-13
1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and
2 saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were “unclean,” that is, unwashed.
3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.
4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”
9 And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!
10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
11 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God),
12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother.
13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
(NIV)
Look at that – Jesus said in verses 7 & 8 , “Their teachings are but rules taught by men … You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men,” in verse 9, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commends of God in order to observe your own traditions,” and in verse 13, “You nullify the word of God by your tradition …”
Wow!
And is this still an issue today?
Well … ?
Is it always easy to distinguish between manmade traditions and the will of God? Why or why not?
Neil Cole’s critique of multi-site churches
I just finished reading a five part blog series critiquing multi-site churches by Neil Cole, author of Organic Church and Organic Leadership.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term multi-site church: a multi-site church is one church that utilizes multiple gathering places at the same time for their meetings.
Let’s say a church has a building that seats 500 people comfortably, but they grow to over 600 and have to switch to two services – morning and late. Pretty soon, both services are filled with people, so they switch to another. Within a few months, the third service is full. It seems the only option is to build a new building, and that’s extremely expensive! But is that the only option?
No, it’s not. Instead of going the expensive route and building a new building, that church decides instead to rent space at the strip mall up the road that has seating for 300 people. Now, instead of spending millions on new land and a new building, they lease space at the strip mall fairly cheaply and send several hundred of their people to the new venue. This frees up much of the space at the original location and allows for even more growth.
Many churches are doing this today. In many people’s minds, this is clearly the best way to spend a church’s money, and some churches grow so large that they have to repeat this process several times and end up with six or seven campuses in a single city.
You ask, “But what about having a church leader on site?” Simple – another staff person is hired to oversee the new location. They’ll be the church’s pointman there to handle the face to face interaction and do whatever else needs to be done.
“But what about the preaching?” Simple too – either setup a satellite feed to pipe in the preaching from the “mother church” via video, or have the new staff person handle the preaching.
“But aren’t those two separate churches?” That’s up for debate, but the churches who’ve bought into this model will tell you they aren’t. The various locations still go by the same name and are under the same elders. The material taught is usually the same, and even where the preaching isn’t piped in via satellite, the main points of sermons are usually the same as agreed upon ahead of time.
The numbers speak for themselves. Nearly all of the fastest growing churches in the United States are operating from this model. For instance, at the Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA, major growth is a regular occurence. On one Sunday last year they added 2,000 new members, and regularly baptize new believers – sometimes several hundred in a single day!
Churches like Mars Hill wouldn’t be able to handle that volume of growth without utilizing a multi-site approach – it simply wouldn’t be possible.
So does the multi-site approach sound like a good idea?
Neil Cole sees good and bad. It’s good in that church growth is better than the alternative, and good in that it’s better than division. Neil thinks it’s bad in that it’s a hinderance to leadership development, and bad in that it isn’t true multiplication. According to Neil’s write-up, virtually none of the new satellite churches go on to plant additional ones.
I’ll let you read the rest yourself – check out Neil Cole’s five part series on multi-site churches:
- Neil Cole, The Multi-Site Church Model pt. 1
- Neil Cole, The Multi-Site Church Model pt. 2
- Neil Cole, The Multi-Site Church Model pt. 3
- Neil Cole, The Multi-Site Church Model pt. 4
- Neil Cole, The Multi-Site Church Model pt. 5
If nothing else, Neil’s opinions will make you think. They certainly made me do so.
What do you say – thumbs up, or thumbs down to the multi-site church model?
The Overflow 