Sam Metcalf's Blog » Under The Iceberg » Movements

Influence – Steve Addison

Sam — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:00:13 +0000

One of the most effective and critical components of a strategy whereby the Christian movement can have a transformational effect on the world is through the multiplication of local churches, ie., groups of people wholehearted committed to following Jesus and together living out the presence of his kingdom in a given locale.

I know of no one today who is a greater, more persistent champion for such church multiplication than Steve Addison.

I’ve known Steve and Michelle for over 20 years. Throughout that time, through thick and thin, the planting of churches and developing leaders who can do such work has been the consuming passion of Steve’s life.

He’s doggedly overcome considerable obstacles to stay this course. What has resulted is that Steve has evolved into one of the leading authorities anywhere on the planet – well at least in Australia, which means the whole world to an Aussie – on movements, particularly church planting movements, and how they have repeatedly been God’s vehicle for winning back his lost creation.

It’s all finally getting into print in Steve’s new book: Movements that Can Change the World published by Missional Press. There is also a plethora of great resources on Steve’s blog: www.steveaddison.net/

Anti-organizational Bias

Sam — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:16:30 +0000

It seems fashionable today in missional circles to exhibit an anti-organizational bias. “Organization” and “structure” have become dirty words and smack of institutionalization, bureaucracy, hierarchy and modernity.

Even around CRM, we’ve been striving to purge “corporate” language and replace it with nomenclature that resonates with words and concepts that are non-business like, non-controlling and egalitarian. But I wonder, at times, if all of this neo-organic trendiness is inadvertently throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

It is an innate part of the human condition to organize. As every student in sociology 101 knows, human beings always bring structure to their relationships. There is not a movement throughout the 2000 years of the history of Christianity, no matter how spiritually vibrant or well-intended, that did not organize itself in one way or the other if it was to be fruitful and sustainable.

A powerful case study is the comparison of George Whitfield (1717-1740; above left) and John Wesley (1703-1791 above right).

Whitefield was the best-known preacher and one of the most widely known personalities in public life throughout England and America in the 18th century. He traveled through all of the colonies drawing enormous crowds and was one of the most recognized public figures in America before George Washington. Benjamin Franklin listened to him (without sharing his convictions) in Philadelphia and was astounded that his voice could be heard by tens of thousands at one time. He preached over 18,000 times and crossed the Atlantic seven times to itinerate in the colonies and was of the first to ever preach to slaves. Along with Wesley, he is credited as the co-founder of the Methodist movement.

Wesley, while also a speaker, focused on the organizational structure of the movement. He gave it shape and form through the infamous Methodist societies, classes and bands with their intense accountability and discipline. He was the organizational genius behind the movement.

It is bad history to devalue Whitefield’s contribution. His leadership was inspirational. But when it comes to the depth of social influence and sustainability of the movement, Whitefield doesn’t come close to the long-term impact of John Wesley. At the end of the day, effective organization won out.

Any movement, no matter how dynamic or how infused it may be with the power and the presence of the Triune God, is not sustainable without organization. Effective structure is essential.

What happens is that the organization that evolves to serve the movement invariably outlives the original movement, and what’s left is a shell that is powerless and impotent. But that inevitability is no excuse to write off the necessity of structure without which the immediate becomes transitory and even less is sustainable for the future.

The Hidden Mr. Wesley

Sam — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:14:50 +0000

Yesterday, Patty and I were returning from a lunch with a couple in the Marylebone area of central London.

We noticed a very small, shaded urban park on Marylebone High Street and took a detour through it, discovering it to be part of an old church graveyard. And there in one corner, we came across this monument which was over the grave of Charles Wesley.

I think I was stunned by its obscurity. And awed by the thousands who pass it daily in this major shopping area who have no earthly idea of who lies six feet under.

Along with brother, John who was the organizational genius, Charles helped bring into being the Methodist movement. He was the creator of a new epoch of religious music (sometimes called “hymns of the human school”) which, through easy melodies, words and style, made worship accessible to the unlearned masses and the illiterate.

While John provided the intellectual and theological firepower for the movement, Charles provided the emotional fuel by creating music that had an irresistible appeal through such songs as: Jesus, Lover of My Soul; Hark the Herald Angels Sing; Love Divine All Loves Excelling; and Christ the Lord is Risen Today.

What a remarkable legacy and what obscurity in death.

How to Kill a Movement

Sam — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:19:59 +0000

1. Require education for the leadership
2. Demand conformity of methodology
3. Refuse to provide administrative help and let it suffocate under it’s own weight
4. Get spooked by supernatural phenomena outside your paradigm
5. Make no room for younger, less experienced leadership
6. Be obsessed by theological purity
7. Put the safety of the people involved as a higher priority than sacrifice
8. Centralize the funding
9. Punish out-of-the box thinking
10. Manage it by goals and strategic plans
11. Reward faithfulness rather than entrepreneurial ability
12. Get tied to property and buildings
13. Let your critics define you
14. Be threatened by giftedness that’s not like you
15. Create an endowment
16. Treat creativity as heresy
17. Refuse to exercise discipline for the right things
18. Make sure you are related to existing institutions for credibility
19. Promote on the basis of seniority and longevity
20. Insist that decisions be based on policy instead of values
21. Make nurture and conservation of gains a focus
22. Don’t be intentional about leadership selection
23. Be risk adverse under the guise of stewarding your people
24. Justify your reluctance to raise money
25. Have a big need for approval and affirmation

Above all else, control it if, God forbid, he actually shows up!

The Essence of Movements

Sam — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:03:50 +0000

Sociologists Gerlach and Hines are often referred to because of their landmark work regarding change and the nature of movements. Simply stated, they argue that successful movements have five necessary components:

1. Structure
2. Recruitment
3. Commitment
4. Ideology
5. Opposition

Any movement can be evaluated on the basis of this criteria …Christianity, Islam, communism, pentecostalism, environmentalism, the emerging church, etc … When one of these elements is weak or non-existent, the movement is hindered and momentum and effectiveness can be lost. It simply runs out of steam. History is littered with such.

This theory can be descriptive or it can be prescriptive. I can use it to understand the nature of a movement or I can use it to help steer a movement and insure that it incorporates these essentials.

Why the Spread of Christianity?

Sam — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 02:08:14 +0000

I believe the History of Christianity by Kenneth Scott Latourette, the esteemed Yale historian, is the most comprehensive and rich overview of the Christian movement ever written.

The genius of the work is in its perspective. Unlike reading dry church history—which for me is akin to eating sawdust—Latourette is dynamic and vibrant. He brings to life the great epochs of the Faith and views Christianity through the twin lenses of expansion and decline. His is a history of a movement.

In his first volume, he outlines an array of reasons that led non-believer to embrace the Christian faith. In summary, the reasons are:

Signs and wonders, supernatural healing and demonic deliverance.
An explanation of the purpose of life.
People’s religious hunger and a sense of moral impotence were met.
The discovery of ‘truth’ in Christ.
Christian churches were the most inclusive and the strongest of all the various associations in the Roman world. They cared for the poor, the imprisoned, the aged and the infirmed. Solidarity of fellowship.
Inclusive of all races and classes, both men and women
Combination of flexibility and uncompromising adherence to its basic convictions.
Constancy of the martyrs.
Christianity lived the moral transformation which it demanded. High morality.
Miracle of moral rebirth.
Immortality by pointing to the historic Jesus.
Committed fellowship and a community of worship and mutual aid.
A faith sanctioned by immemorial antiquity as it pointed to the long record preserved in what it termed the Old Testament.
Intellectual satisfaction by presenting literature prepared by some of the ablest minds of the day.

“Careful and honest investigation can give but one answer, Jesus.

It was faith in Jesus and his resurrection which gave birth to the Christian fellowship and which continued to be its inspiration and its common tie. It was the love displayed in Christ which was, ideally and to a marked extent in practice, the bond which held Christians together.

The early disciples united in declaring that it was from the command of Jesus that the Gospel was proclaimed to all, regardless of sex, race or cultural background. The new life in Christ might express itself in many forms, but its authenticity was to be proved by high, uncompromising moral qualities as set forth by Jesus. Hence the combination of flexibility and inflexibility.

As against the mystery religions, those cults which had so much superficial similarity to Christianity, it was partly belief in God, partly a theology, a metaphysic, which gave the latter its advantage, but it was chiefly that as against the mythical figures at the heart of the mysteries, Christians could point to Jesus, an historical fact.

Through the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus came the moral transformations which were so marked in the Christian fellowship. The loyalty of the martyrs was to Christ, and his example and the promise of eternal life through him sere their sustaining strength. It was through the sign of his cross or by the use of his name that miracles were wrought. It was a true insight, even if exercised in derision, which named the members of the new faith Christians and in the city where non-Jews were first won in large numbers. Without Jesus, Christianity would never have been and from him came the distinctive qualities which won it the victory.”

*Painting is Christ at the Last Judgement, Sistine Chapel, Rome.

“A History of Christianity: Beginnings to 1500” (Kenneth Scott Latourette)

“A History of Christianity: Reformation to the Present (Volume 2: AD 1500 - AD 1975)” (Kenneth Scott Latourette)

New Book by Alan Hirsch

Sam — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 05:29:07 +0000

Alan Hirsch has just come out with a new book that I highly recommend, “The Forgotten Way: Reactivating the Missional Church..

In it, he makes a compelling case for the inherent spiritual DNA—what he calls “Apostolic Genius”—that exists in every individual who follows Jesus and in every community of such individuals.

It’s important reading for anyone serious about the future of the Christian movement and what is necessary for us to participate with the Spirit of God in the type of spiritual dynamics that can, and should, affect the course of history.

“The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church” (Alan Hirsch)

Unsung Heroes

Sam — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 13:35:27 +0000

Argentine and Shawni are missionaries in Moldova.

He’s Moldovan and she’s from Ukraine. They met in university in Romania and returned to his native Moldova after graduation. She is a medical doctor but prohibited from practicing since they moved. Together, they are part of a team that gives leadership to a nascent church planting movement in this region of the country. Three new churches have emerged from the efforts of this team.

They are quality leaders. Quiet, deep, tenacious, servants committed to multiplying a new generation of leaders and churches in this former Soviet republic and beyond.

Wherever I come across fruitful movements such as this, inevitably at their core are people like Argentine and Shawni. They don’t write books. They don’t spout theory. They don’t blog. They simply do it.

A Movement in Moldova

Sam — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 15:46:30 +0000

Last week I was in rural Moldova (former Soviet Republic) and had the joy of observing a burgeoning church planting movement.

Pictured here are the leaders of three new churches that have begun to multiply. I had the privilege of spending an evening discussing issues of leadership with this group. This has all happened because of a team of Romanian missionaries sent to live and minister in the region three years ago. (The leader of this apostolic band, Dan, is in the center with the red jacket and translating for me at left). These missionaries come from a similar church planting movement in Northwestern Romania called Ecclesia which CRM has been involved with for many years.

As in most such movements, the core issue is not structure, education, or money. It’s all about the leaders—their character, spirituality, and giftedness—and their willingness to live sacrificially for the sake of Jesus and his kingdom.

Logistics and Movements

Sam — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 17:28:17 +0000

“Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your vision and strategy are if you can’t get the soldiers, the weapons, the vehicles, the gasoline, the chow or the boots to the right people at the right place at the right time.” – Tom Peters

I see it all the time. People with great ideas and passion. Men and women with incredible vision. The blogging world is full of this type of verbiage. But how do you make it happen? How does one translate ideas into reality?

Great vision, without the resources and the means to carry it out, is only a dream.

The Christian movement is littered with people of magnificent vision who never were able to translate their idealism into action. And the critical issue all too often the acquisition of resources. It’s logistics. As General of the U.S. Army, Omar Bradley of WWII fame bluntly put it:

“Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.”

The lesson to be learned: Behind every great movement, somewhere lurking in the shadows, is someone with logistical genius.

20th Century Turning Points

Sam — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 18:51:53 +0000

Historian Mark Noll writes:

“If it were possible to summarize the momentous changes in world Christianity over the course of the twentieth century, five themes might emerge:

The decline of Christianity in Europe as a result of a steady erosion in Western Europe and the traumatic class with communism in Eastern Europe.

The renovation of the Roman Catholic Church, symbolized by the 2nd Vatican Council, to reflect both cultural conditions of the modern world and the growing presence of the Two-Thirds-World in the Church.

The displacement among Protestants of Britain and Germany as the driving agents of Christian expansion by the United States.

The expansion of Christianity into many regions where the Christian presence had been minimal or nonexistent, including China, Korea, many parts of India and much of Africa.

A change in the pressing issues bearing upon the Christian heartland, from the jaded discontents of advanced Western civilization to the raw life-and-death struggle of poverty, disease, and the tribal warfare in non-Western civilizations.”

Turning Points

Sam — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 02:32:24 +0000

Historian Mark Noll in his book, Turning Points, lists these twelve events as the most decisive moments in the history of Christianity

70 – The Fall of Jerusalem: The Church Pushed Out on Its Own.
325 – Council of Nicaea: Realities of Empire.
451 – Council of Chalcedon: Doctrine, Politics, and Life in the World.
530 – Benedict’s Rule: The Monastic rescue of the Church.
800 – Charlemagne: The Culmination of Christendom.
1054 – The Great Schism: Division between East and West.
1521 – The Diet of Worms: The Beginnings of Protestantism.
1534 – The English Act of Supremacy: A New Europe.
1540 – The Jesuits: Catholic Reform and Worldwide Outreach.
1738 – The Conversion of the Wesleys: The New Piety.
1789 – The French Revolution: Discontents of the Modern West.
1910 – The Edinburgh Missionary Conference: A Faith For All the World.

Five were primarily political but with great religious implications. Five were the initiation of movements, four of which were missionary in structure and intent. Three were actions to conserve and consolidate the Christian movement and/or Christendom. Four were schismatic and resulted in new initiatives breaking from old institutions.

Some resulted in advance of the Christian movement. Some contributed to its decline. And some are mixed in their results.

“Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity” (Mark A. Noll)

Gathering of a Movement

Sam — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 15:46:27 +0000

This was the scene June 16-21 in Santa Barbara, California as close to 700 people, from over 25 nations on every continent, gathered for CRM’s once-every-four-year staff conference. It was held at Westmont College.

This was a remarkable event. Although there are many incredible things to describe, probably the most prevalent impression I came away with was the overwhelming presence of God. God’s anointing was palatable from the countless personal encounters and intense relational times to the plenary experiences of worship.

For an apostolic movement such as CRM, there is no substitute for simply being together with those of like heart, passion and commitment. Being together and celebrating our common vision as a multi-cultural kingdom community had a spiritual and emotional dynamic that was at times overwhelming. Soli Deo Gloria!

Sustaining Dynamic Community

Sam — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:11:45 +0000

We arrived today at Westmont College for CRM’s World Wide Conference in Santa Barbara, CA. This unique, every-four-year event brings together all of those serving with CRM around the world and their families for five days. Close to 700 people will participate.

So why are we doing this? Why go to all this effort and expense?

In May of 1997, during a discussion prior to the first such event in Hungary, those of us in CRM leadership were wrestling with this very issue. John Hayes (who leads InnerCHANGE, CRM’s order among the poor) eloquently articulated (as only John Hayes can) the importance of such a gathering and why InnerCHANGE staff – who probably have the least amount of money available to apply toward such an event – were committed to attend.

I was so impressed by his arguments, that I asked him to put those words into writing. What resulted is a timeless explanation of why getting people together like this is an essential in an apostolic movement such as CRM. John’s words today are as timely as when they were written almost a decade ago when he said:

“Years ago, I ransacked the gospels for practical insights into sustaining dynamic community over the long haul since that was important for InnerCHANGE (and CRM as our larger apostolic community) if we were to survive in our ministry.

In the short term, I sensed community would come naturally and easily. . . as we were all pioneers thrown excitedly together in some difficult, challenging contexts. But I was concerned that we would fall prey to the deterioration of relationships that seems to mark so many movements or organizations with the passage of time.

Luke 4:24, in which Christ references the proverb, “A prophet is without honor in his home town” seemed to speak a warning to our hope of maintaining a close, relational atmosphere for the long haul. What we wanted was more than “team,” more than “organization,” it was family. And as family we enjoyed a natural intimacy. But with family comes familiarity, and with familiarity came the tendency to under-appreciate one another or even diminish one another.

“Familiarity breeds contempt” is simply a more contemporary restatement of the proverb Jesus quoted that was circulating in His day, and we have wrestled with symptoms of that same contempt. One of the symptoms of under-appreciation I have occasionally noticed manifesting itself is a resistance to attending important functions like annual conferences or a cynicism about gathering at other times as staff.

I believe that when organizations first begin they gather naturally with joy and eagerness regardless of the agenda. There is a tacit sense that gathering as family has value for its own sake. Families gather. They nurture one another. They sharpen as iron sharpens iron.

However, with time, as the “prophet-in-his-hometown-syndrome” begins to deflate our sense of one another’s value, a subtle transition can take place. No longer is it important intrinsically to gather together—-we must know the agenda and know that the agenda of the gathering is “worth our time” or “worth all this money.”

I am not suggesting that agenda is not important or need not be discharged in an excellent manner or that costs are difficult to bear—-I am suggesting that when our concern about the agenda of a conference or the cost supplants the value of gathering as our unique, apostolic expression of the Body, we are in danger of under-appreciating one another and “professionalizing” our relationships.

So I believe as we gather in Hungary in 1998 as the CRM Family from around the world (or any other time we gather together) we will be expressing again the value we have in one another’s lives intrinsically as a John 13:34 community over and above simply what we can “take” from one another or from the conference presentation to advance our personal learning curves. For many reasons, being in Hungary is important, but this reason alone should be justification enough.”

Celtic Passion

Sam — Thu, 11 May 2006 22:31:01 +0000

“I will kindle my fire this morning,
In the presence of the holy angels of heaven,
God, kindle Thou in my heart within
A flame of love to my neighbor,
To my foe, to my friend, to my kindred all,
To the brave, to the knave, to the thrall …”

- Celtic Prayer to begin the day from the Carmine Gadelica

“The Celtic Christian Movement proceeded to multiply mission-sending monastic communities, which continued to send teams into settlements to multiply churches and start people in the community-based life of full devotion to the Triune God.”

- George G. Hunter in The Celtic Way of Evangelism

There is much to learn from the Celtic movement as we seek to re-introduce authentic, expressions of orthodox, biblical Christianity in the increasingly postmodern, “neo-barbarian” Western world. Hunter’s book, and other studies, provide provocative case studies of a movement replete with missiological implications for our era.

For CRM, there are striking (and deliberate) parallels between this ancient movement and InnerCHANGE and NieuCommunities. May God multiply all such movements.