Rob Wegner: Blog Archive

AND 2011: What Questions Are You Asking?

What kind of questions are you asking?

For years, many of the questions have seemed to orient around “product” questions. Church leaders scrambled to find the latest and greatest product that was working for someone somewhere and then figure out how we could “plug and play” that product in our environment…as quickly as possible.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-product. By all means, there’s no need to recreate the wheel. However, in the rush to find the product and plug it in, too often we’ve been shortcutting something this absolutely critical to becoming the people of God.

More and more I hear a different category of question being asked by church leaders. I’m excited about it. This question is a dangerous question, one that could lead to revolutionary change. The question is usually framed something like this, “Instead of just showing us the ‘finished product,’ let us seek the work in progress. What is the process?”

We focus is moving from product to process.

More and more leaders have given up on standardized solutions, realizing that emedded into the mission of the church is the necessity of contextualization. No longer are we looking for a standardized model we can simple replicate. The truth is a unique model must be developed and contextualized for every setting. As we begin to dream about unleashing missional movements together, the most important thing to share is not ultimately “the model” we’ve developed, but the process of how we got there.

If it’s a good process, it will continue to recreate our model.

It’s this thinking that is fueling a new approach to the AND conference this fall. In 2011, we’re going to share the process—what we’ve done over the past year. How does a team bend the AND – missional  and attractional – around the facility, systems, staffing, philosophy and programs they’ve built over the past 25 years? We’re going to go there on September 22-23. And, here’s how.

• Choose your own adventure. The schedule will be customizable to your own interests, needs, and questions.
• Content-rich learning environment. We’re only offering a couple keynotes, so we can offer a load of specific and practical electives for you to choose from…over 70 are scheduled already with more to come.
• The elective will come in all shapes and sizes: lectures, practical workshops, leader panels, peer discussion, and amazing keynote sessions.
• Experience an amazing mix of thought-leaders, visionaries, and practitioners. The line- up includes Alan Hirsh, Mike Breen, Dave Ferguson, Hugh Halter, and the entire Granger Team.

We can’t wait to engage the process with you. Let me know if you’re coming, I’d love to meet you in person.

Get all the details and register while the early bird rate still lasts.

Want to Understand the New Normal?

Want to understand the New Normal?  Want to understand the genius of the AND?

Block out 14 minutes and watch this. 

Amen

When I became a Christian I said, Lord, now fill me in,
Tell me what I’ll suffer in this world of shame and sin.
He said, your body may be killed, and left to rot and stink,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen - I think.
I think Amen, Amen I think, I think I say Amen,
Look, I’m not completely sure, can you just run through that again?
You say my body could be killed and left to rot and stink,
Oh, yeah, that sounds terrific, Lord, I say Amen - I think.

But, Lord, look, there must be other ways to follow you, I said,
I really would prefer to end up dying in my bed.
Well, yes, he said, you could just put up with sneers and scorn and spit,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen - a bit.
A bit Amen, Amen a bit, a bit I say Amen,
Look, I’m still not entirely sure, could we just run through that again?
You said I could put up with sneers and scorn and spit,
Well, yes, I’ve made my mind up, and I say, Amen - a bit.

Well I sat back and thought a while, then I tried a different ploy,
Now, Lord, I said, the Good book says that Christians live in joy.
That’s true he said, you’re going to need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow,
So do you want to follow me, I said, Amen - tomorrow.
Tomorrow, Lord, I’ll say it then, that’s when I’ll say Amen,
You see, I’ve got to get it clear, let’s just run through that again?
You say that I will need the joy, to bear the pain and sorrow,
Well, yes, I think I’ve got it straight, I’ll say Amen - tomorrow.

He said, Look, I’m not asking you to spend an hour with me
A quick salvation sandwich and a cup of sanctity,
The cost is you, not half of you, but every single bit,
Now tell me, will you follow me? And I said Amen – No, I quit.
I’m awfully sorry Lord I said, I’d like to follow you,
But I don’t think religion is a manly thing to do.
He said forget religion then, and you think about my Son,
And you tell me if you’re man enough to do what he has done.

Are you man enough to see the need, are you man enough to go,
Are you man enough to care for those that no one wants to know,
Are you man enough to say the thing that people hate to hear,
And battle through Gethsemane in loneliness and fear.
And listen! Are you man enough to stand it at the end,
The moment of betrayal by the kisses of your friend,
Are you man enough to hold your tongue, are you man enough to cry?
And when nails break your body - are you man enough to die?
Man enough to take the pain, and wear it like a crown,
Man enough to love the world and turn it upside down,
Are you man enough to follow me, I ask you once again?
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said Amen.
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen,
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said, Amen.

Adrian Pass

Here's What I'm Up To At Exponential 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next week, part of the Granger staff team will be headed to the Exponential Conference in Orlando, Flordia. Here's what I'll be up to:

Missional Moves Workshop

Wednesday, 3:00-4:00pm Faith Hall 355

Jack and I will share the missional DNA and the new leadership model that has helped unleash redemptive movements from inside an "attractional" church into inner city neighborhoods and third world villages.  We'll explore the differences and connections between formal and fractal leadership, centralized and decentralized leadership, organized and autonomous leadership, attractional and missional leadership.  How can the two work together?

Main Session #2: Imagine: The Power of Missional Imagination

Thursday 8:30am Main Auditorium

Missional Imagination is key for the church to see the mission as Jesus sees it.  Every follower of Jesus and every local church needs to "see it," before they can "get it" or "do it." Only after we have eyes to see and ears to hear can a missional movement become possible. I'll share Granger's story and how God opened up our eyes to see a new future with an identity as church as movement.

Staffing - What Makes a Great Team Work?

Thursday, 10:30-11:30am Main Auditorium

Mark Beeson, hands down the wisest and most intuitive leader I know, along with Tim, whose also a leadership genuis, will lead this workshop with Kem and I on church staffing. We have an average of 15 years tenure together and we've seen a lot of ups and downs. This workshop will be a time of frank and open discussion about how to make a staff work when you have high capacity team members with strong opinions about how to get stuff done.

If you're going to be there, give me shout out so I can look for you.  I'd love to meet you in person at a workshop. I'm especially stoked about hanging out with the revoluntionaries from the EnterMission Coaching crew.  Interested in learning more about EnterMission?  Check this out.   If you'd like to investigate more, let me know.

If you're not going, I'd be so grateful if you'd pray that we'll be able to serve the leaders there in a way that will amplify Jesus' Lordship and help local churches embrace the centrality of the mission of God.  Plus, I'm nervous about the main session!  :) 

Do You Have One Day?

Check this out!  Coming May 14th.

You can join the One Day team here.  I hope you will!  Every opportunity that is apart of One Day is tied into on-going teams who serve in those environments week in and week out. That means you can be confident that the short-term investment you make at One Day will add strength to a long-term impact.

This Spoke to Me

                                                                                     (Photo courtesy of Nathan Gibbs)

My own experience has been something like this. My knowledge of God, beginning on a very low plane, and in the midst of greatest darkness and ignorance, advanced slowly through many stages, and with a vast amount of useless conflict and wrestling, to the place where I learned at last that Christ was the ‘express image’ of God, and where I became therefore in measure acquainted with Him, and discovered to my amazement and delight His utter unselfishness, and saw it was safe to trust in Him. And from this time all my doubts and questioning have been slowly disappearing in the blaze of this magnificent knowledge.

Hannah Whitall Smith, 1832-1911, From The Unselfishness of God (1903)

Further up and further in today!

Spring Break Photos 2011

Seth Abram

Music, when it is true, reminds us of the interlocking realities of Heaven and Earth.  Music, when it is true, expresses the tension that is resident in a world made up of incredible beauty and stomach-turning ugliness. Music, when it’s true, speaks to our greatest joys and our deepest suffering.  

Seth Abram’s new album is true in that sense.

One one hand, it is a celebration of what is good.   If you know what it is to be head over heels in love, you’ll find songs to crank up, while you roll the windows down and hit the road this summer. On the other hand, Seth is willing to be honest about the duplicity that we all wrestle with as we reach for our full humanity.  My favorite song on the album is Enlighten – hands down.

Look in my eyes can you see my fate
Poke some holes and will I deflate
Beat me down oh will I just break
Am I just hot air just second rate
If you could see through my body's state
Would you say my heart's just a fake
An it's all that I can take
I won't let the world mistake

We were made by the One who made the sea
Look inside, I feel it deep within me
I'm crying for wisdom beyond all my years
Here I am made for truth
Come enlighten me
Don't let me be less than what I need
To be a part of opening eyes that seek
And let it be known the strength is in the weak
Fill me up with what's true
Swallow me whole and make me new
Pour Your Spirit into me
Your what satisfies this life
Your what breaks me of this pride
There is nothing more I want to see

When I heard this song, it felt like he had crawled inside my head, then down into my heart, and came back out with this song.  That’s art at it’s best. I’ve had the joy of friendship with Seth, so I can tell you that these songs are all the overflow of a life flat out surrendered to Jesus.  That reality in Seth’s life actually makes his music less “religious” and more human, relatable to anyone. That’s art at it’s best.

As a has-been musician, I’ve got a fairly critical ear.  The melodies on this album are rich and very memorable without being cliché. Regarding the music, I was pleasantly surprised by the fresh arrangements and the little twists Seth and the band dropped into the arrangements.  There are enough “Easter eggs” to keep musicians searching, without leaving anyone else out.  But, without a doubt, the best instrument on this album is Seth’s voice.  Smooth, yet at times piercing… in the best sort of way.  I could listen to this guy sing all day.  He doesn’t just sing a lyric he embodies it with passion and meaning.

His album broke the top ten in the itunes singer/songwriter category last week, which shows you the kind of rabid grassroots support his music has already generated.  I hope you download this one today!  Check it out here and then purchase it at iTunes, bandcamp, or Amazon.

Our Story: A Church For The Community

We are not a church against the community.

We are not a church that simply exists within the community.

We are a church FOR the community.

God told his people while in exile in Babylon to not simply live in the city, but to love it and work for it’s welfare.  The actual word used is shalom.  Shalom doesn’t just mean peace or a cease fire of hostility. Shalom means universal flourishing. God’s people are to work for the economic, social, cultural, and spiritual flourishing of their city.

'Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.' Jeremiah 29:7 (NASB)

That’s our call to seek and work for the shalom of Michiana. This is our story.  If this doesn’t get your heart pumping, I don’t know what will!

Our Story from Granger Community Church on Vimeo.

I watched in awe this weekends as hundreds streaming forward onto the stage to declare their whole-hearted devotion to the New Normal. Read about the million dollar miracle here.

A Seed Planted For The New Normal

 

I received this message yesterday.

Break a window and leave it, the brokenness will spread. Fix it and it becomes contagious. I was reminded of that recently when talking to a gentleman about what I see along Western avenue. Since GCC came in and gave a string of decaying buildings a much needed facelift I've noticed that a flower is beginning to blossom. Its been amazing to see how the love that comes from within the walls of MC3 have greatly impacted that community but that is not where it stops. Since MC3 has been there car lots have moved out, transmission shops have moved, the highrise next door has been given a facelift. Both high-rises have new windows. There are renovations being done at the Cove. The Kroc center is rising fast. I see a community being transformed. I see a seed that's been planted and is blossoming into an amazing flower. I see a small picture of what the New Normal Project will accomplish in large scale and I couldn't be more proud to be a part of it! Thank you!                             Brendan Curtiss, member of GCC and servant leader at Monroe Circle Community Center

Michelle and I are “all in” – heart, mind, soul, and strength – for the New Normal Project.  We’ve prayed, talked, and decided. We just turned in our pledge.  That pledge is a symbol of our surrender to the Lordship of Jesus and devotion to the vision He has given God’s people at Granger Community Church.

Will you do the same? 

Let’s come ready as God’s people to move forward together this weekend into The New Normal.