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Communicating For a Change: Book Review

Rodlie Ortiz —  March 17, 2009 — 10 Comments

Here’s the question: Out of all the messages, speeches, and sermons you’ve heard in your lifetime, how many do you still remember many years later?

Perhaps you remember a phrase or a visual, but for the most part, we forget the content of these messages. Andy Stanley, in his book Communicating for a Change, let’s us know why.

If you’ve ever taken a speech class, you know the drill. There are three parts to a message. The intro, body, and conclusion. Often in the body of the message there are about three points. In the preaching world, we refer to this classical model as “three points and a poem.” This is a style that’s best exemplified by preachers such as Rick Warren. But is this really the best way to effectively communicate a message? Andy Stanley says no.

Andy Stanley presents what has been called the “one point message.” So the entire message is built around that one point. He says, “With this approach, every message should have one central idea, application, insight, or principle that serves as the glue to hold the other parts together” (p. 103). If this sounds somewhat familiar, it’s because Haddon Robinson, in his classic preaching book, Biblical Preaching, first introduced this basic method.

What’s an example of one of those main points? Here are a few from the book:

  • Your friends determine the direction and quality of your life
  • Purity paves the way to intimacy
  • When you see as God sees, you will do as God says
  • Maximum freedom is found under God’s authority
  • God takes full responsibility for the life fully devoted to him
When I first started reading about this method, I was worried that my messages would end up being much too short. If you’ve ever heard one of Andy’s messages, though, you know that this is not an issue. What is unique about his approach, though, is how he structured each of his messages.

Here’s a breakdown of the five sections (p. 121) with an example from the book:

ME: “Sometimes I find myself wondering how to respond to situations in my marriage.” In this section, you begin with a question or problem about yourself through which tension is created that begs for resolution.

WE: “I imagine you have found yourself in situations where you weren’t sure what to do either.”
“Having made it clear to our audience that we are wrestling with a particular tension, the next step is to broaden our tension so as to include every body listening” (p. 124).
For example, “Sometimes I wonder why I even bother praying (ME). I bet you’ve wondered about that as well” (p. 124).

GOD: “The Bible teaches that we are to submit to one another; put the desires and needs of our spouse ahead of our own needs and desires.”
“The goal here is to resolve the tension, or at least some of it, by pointing people to God’s thoughts on the subject at hand” (p. 126).

YOU: Next time you aren’t sure what to say or do, ask yourself this question-”How can I put the needs and desires of my spouse ahead of my own in this moment?”
Conclusion: In a marriage, submission is generally the best decision.
“…this section is typically referred to as the application of the message. This is where we tell people what to do with what they have heard. This is where we answer the questions ‘So what?’ and ‘Now what?’” (p. 127).

WE: Imagine what would happen in our community if all of us began to model that kind of mutual submission before our friends and neighbors.

“WE is really about vision casting. It is a moment you call upon your audience to imagine what the church, the community, families, maybe even the world would be like if Christians everywhere embraced your one idea.”

I’ve really resonated with this book. I’ve thought back on a lot of the sermons that I’ve done, and I have to admit that many of them are this “three points and a poem” type message that I, myself, have forgotten after I’ve preached them. I’m looking forward to re-routing and re-tooling to a method that is easier to preach without notes and is much more memorable in the outcome.

What about you? How have you tailored your messages for maximum impact? Are you using this method? If so, what effect has it had on your preaching?

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My Problem With Pagan Christianity: Book Review

Rodlie Ortiz —  February 5, 2009 — 54 Comments

Pagan Christianity is a book that seeks to examine the “source of our churches traditions and then ask how these practices square with Scripture and the practices of the first-century church” (ix). It’s been one of the most hotly debated books that I’ve heard of recently, creating quite a stir. Most people either love it or hate it.

Here are some problems that I have with the book, though:

1. His mixed use of phrases: In the introduction to the book (p. xxxi) he gives some definitions of terms that he uses frequently. The problem comes in his definition of the use “unbiblical.” The Random House Dictionary defines unbiblical as “not in accord with, or sanctioned by biblical teaching.” In other words, something that is unbiblical is something that is against biblical principles. But Viola uses the term to refer to something that is not found in the Bible. Here he confuses the term extra-biblical with unbiblical. Something that is extra-biblical is something that is not found in the Bible. It is an emotionally neutral word.

The Bible doesn’t mention chimneys or a million other things. Those things are extra-biblical. It doesn’t mean they are evil, they just are not mentioned in the Bible. Yet, Viola uses the term unbiblical to refer to things that are not mentioned in the Bible. Unbiblical, of course, is an emotionally charged and loaded word. So when he uses the word unbiblical, it gives the impression that what he’s referring to is violating biblical principles. This is irresponsible. Crusades were taken because people violated biblical principles. Yet he uses this word with full force nonetheless.

2. His dismissal of Old Testament principles: With one quote Viola dismisses himself of any attachment whatsoever to anything that’s written in the Old Testament. He says, “Ancient Judaism was centered on three elements: the Temple, the priesthood, and the sacrifice. When Jesus came, He ended all three, fulfilling them in Himself…Consequently, the Temple, the professional priesthood, and the sacrifice of Judaism all passed away with the coming of Jesus Christ” (11).

 He uses this argument to attempt to erase any semblance of order in a worship service, leadership, or place of worship. So with the one quote, he completely divorces himself from the Old Testament and any principles that may be applied, and moves on to his ideal worship service. He uses this same argument to disavow any use of pastors in the NT.

3. His questionable application of historical facts: Though the book is filled with lengthy footnotes, it does not do them academic justice. You see, it’s one thing to have an observable fact. The other thing is how you apply it. It’s one thing to have data, but another thing how you extrapolate the data. He takes what happened in the New Testament as a prescriptive ideal of what has to happen in order for a church to be biblical. By doing this I think he misses the point that what happened in the New Testament worked as it should because they were being led by the Holy Spirit in the midst of persecution.

4. His dogmatism related to paganism itself: Viola wants to draw the line with anything that could possibly have had any pagan influence. I think one of the more important questions involved is, “can a pagan symbol be redeemed for Christian use?” I think the answer to that is yes. For example, in Numbers 21:6 God sent serpents amongst the people as a punishment for their rebellion. To quell the serpents that were biting people, the people were commanded to look upon a bronze serpent that Moses had shaped on a pole. Ever since Eden, serpents had been considered a symbol of sin, a symbol of rebellion against God. Through this action, God redeemed this “pagan” symbol and used it as a symbol for salvation. In Acts 17, Paul used the symbol of a pagan altar addressed “to the unknown god” (Acts 17:23), and used it as a bridge to take them from what they know, to where God is. He used a vehicle that was very familiar to them, and “reframed” it for the sake of Christ.

Regarding preaching he attempts to find its pagan roots through traveling-preaching pagan philosophers (89).  But did not Jesus preach and teach? Did not the disciples gather to preach? Did not Paul preach and teach constantly? He says, “research conducted by the Barna Group has shown that sermons are generally ineffective at facilitating worship, at drawing people closer to God, and at conveying life-changing information to those in the audience” (104).

This quote, however, is in direct conflict with research done by Thom Rainer, author of Surprising Insights From the Unchurched, which shows  that quality biblical preaching is one of the biggest factors in attracting the unchurched. Rainer says, “…we noted the high correlation between expository preaching and evangelistic effectiveness. Now we are hearing from the formerly unchurched that preaching that truly teaches the Bible in its original context is a major factor in reaching the unchurched…the formerly unchurched told us that they were attracted to strong biblical teaching and to understanding Christian doctrine” (58).

In referencing the use of the word “pastor” in Ephesians 4:11, Viola says, “This is the only verse in the entire New Testament where the word pastor is used. One solitary verse is a mighty scanty piece of evidence on which to hang the Protestant faith” (106). What Viola misunderstands, though, is that the modern role of pastor is akin to what is called an elder in the Bible. The apostle Paul would plant churches and set in place elders to lead the church. This was in line with the role that God had called him to as an apostle (church planter). But instead of noticing this, Viola tries to make the awkward connection that since Paul would start a church and leave, that churches that have pastors are functioning in an unbiblical form.

Although I agree with many of the findings Viola makes regarding pagan origins, I don’t agree with his conclusions that the only acceptable and God honoring form of meeting is in a home with out any kind of leader. As Christians, our job is to be missionaries to whatever culture has yet to be impacted, and to seek whatever methods we can to reach them that does not violate biblical principles.

The reason that Christianity is a little different in every country and culture is because people have taken this missionary principle seriously. What we bring to culture is not a form of worship, or a building, or a model of leadership, we bring them Christ. And our job is to speak to them in the language that they understand, all for the purpose of them understanding and accepting Christ.

Do you agree? Disagree? Why?

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Go Big: Lead Your Church to Explosive Growth- Book Review

Rodlie Ortiz —  January 18, 2009 — 4 Comments

Is there a reason why 90% of churches have less than 200 people attending? Most of us are painfully aware of this figure. The question is, “what can we do about it?” According to Bill Easum and Bil Cornelius, authors of the above titled book, there is much that we can do.

Here are ten action steps that I distilled from my reading of the book:

1. Examine my leadership: “Lead pastor, if your church is not growing, you are the stopping point. If your church is growing, you are the catalyst. It’s that simple” (9).

2. Seek to evaluate church’s leadership structure: “The rule of thumb we see in the thriving churches today is the less democracy in the church, the more authentic and effective church can be in advancing the kingdom of God…the Bible is void of any reference to Representative Democracy or Congregational rule and the pastors of these thriving churches are hamstrung by boards or committees that micromanage the day-to-day ministries of the church” (21).

3. Seek to clearly define role of staff vs. members: “In most dying or plateauing congregations the laity make most of the decisions, both missional and tactical” (29).

4. Prepare for the people God wants to send: “It is not good to ask God to double your attendance without preparing for the inflow of people. You have to expect it and prepare for it…If you’re not prepared for God to respond, why are you asking God to provide?” (43).

5. Do “Big Days”: Churches talk a lot about evangelism and reaching people but seldom make any big, outlandish push. What you need to do is focus all your efforts on one big, single day—you’ll see your church make jumps of 20-80 percent on Sunday because you focused everything you were doing on one day” (51).

6. Understand the relationship between the weekend worship service and small groups: “Most people think that small groups will help their church grow. That’s not usually the case. Small groups help to retain the people who are already coming to your church. For that reason you should never focus primarily on small groups and forget on reaching out to the community” (51).

7. Do “Big Days” on special days: “The best special days are secular holidays, like September 11, Fourth of July, or Super Bowl Sunday, Christmas, and Easter” (55).

8. Staff wisely: “In studying many thriving churches we’ve noticed there is a logical progression in adding staff. The first paid staff person to hire is a worship leader. Failure at this point usually results in a small congregation” (61).

9. Use your time where it will yield greatest results: “Sometimes pastors are so busy writing messages that they have no energy or time left to focus on strategic pursuits like adding a service or staff member or advertising or getting out among the public. Instead of spending so much time in the office, we recommend buying another pastor’s sermon series, whoever’s teaching you happen to like, and teach his or her series for a month” (70).

10. Emphasize the importance of service within the “service”: “Great service allows guests to feel at home and comfortable in their surroundings, and that enables them to pay attention to your message. We don’t need to change our content. God’s word doesn’t need improving. The problem is the people who are supposed to hear the good news aren’t there because the week before no one said “hi” to them when they visited, the child care stunk or wasn’t even provided, the music was terrible, and the place looked like a wreck” (94).

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The Power of Leaderless Churches

Rodlie Ortiz —  January 13, 2009 — 2 Comments

I recently read the book The Starfish and the Spider, and thought it provided some interesting lessons on leadership in organizations.

The concept of the book is based upon a simple observation:
If you cut off the leg of a spider, you will slow it down. It you cut its head, it will quickly die. Certain starfish are completely different. If you cut off the leg, that leg can grow itself into a new starfish. If you cut it into eight pieces, eight starfish can grow from the stumps.
This is the main metaphor that the authors use to compare different kinds of organizations. 
Highly structured top-down companies like GE and MGM are compared to the spiders, where as companies like wikipedia, youtube, and grokster are compared to the starfish. 
Concerning how this applies to church work, there are varied opinions. Lane Douglas feels that the best application of this principle means that decision-making should be a decentralized process. The pastor should have less power, and more decisions should be made on the ground level. Tod Bolsinger sees the spider as being large churches, where as “organic” house-churches are the starfish. 
I’d like to point out a slightly different application that I see concerning small groups. I think the truest incarnation of the starfish model is the rise of cell-based holistic groups around the world. All of the top churches in the world are cell churches. They multiply rather quickly, are extremely decentralized, and could very easily survive the loss of many levels of leadership. Outside of the U.S., this is the predominant model that is thriving. 
Within North America, though, this model has not caught much traction. There are several cell churches here in the U.S., but by far, the largest churches here seem to be using a system of affinity groups. These are groups that can be based on any number of different “affinities” or “interests” such as basket-weaving, studying biblical finances, dog-training, or football. 
The genius of this method is that it truly decentralizes not only the structure, but also the topic and information. Cell groups only decentralize the structure, but the overall information is largely quite centralized, with many churches giving the outlines of what should be studied during the week. Whereas in an affinity-group based churches, people develop different kinds of small groups based upon their gifts, interests, and outreach opportunities.
At our church, we’ve currently been reading through a book by Nelson Searcy called Activate.
We haven’t yet implemented the affinity-based model, but I believe we will be transitioning to that in a few months. We’ve tried the cell-group model, and it just didn’t seem like the most effective way to reach people and to meet the needs of people across the faith spectrum.
What have you tried concerning small groups? What’s working for you? What’s not working?
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Simply Strategic Volunteers: Book Review

Rodlie Ortiz —  January 2, 2009 — Leave a comment

If you work in church leadership or for non-profits, you exist in the realm of volunteers. As a relatively new pastor I was hoping to get some good meat on how to motivate, manage, and lead volunteers. That’s why I read the book Simply Strategic Volunteers.

Suffice it to say, though, that I was disappointed.
The book has 99 short chapters, each about a page and a half in length. It’s written by two co-authors who alternate authorship for each chapter. One writes one, the other writes the other.
The shortness of each chapter keeps things fresh and interesting. But my problem comes from the content. It seems like they never really sat down to write an outline for what they wanted to present. I imagine them sitting in a room together and saying, “ok, what are 99 brief subjects that we can tackle quickly,” and then randomly begin calling out little experiences and topics. 
Literally, it seems as if they just took short blog articles that they’ve written in the past years and packaged them up into a book. In some way or shape, each chapter deals with church ministry or volunteers, but there was just no methodical presentation on developing a system for managing and leading volunteers.
And so I continue my search for a good book that deals with the topic of managing and leading volunteers.
Any recommendations on this subject?
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Top Books of the Year!

Rodlie Ortiz —  December 31, 2008 — Leave a comment

Nelson Searcy and Bob Franquiz from Church Leader Insights recently released a podcast with their top reading pics from this past year. Why is their recommendation so powerful? Because between the both of them they read over 300 hundred books and distilled these down to give their top eight books. These books range in topics from business, leadership, economics, public speaking, ministry, and others.

Without further ado here are the top eight books of 2008 for ministry leaders:
Happy Reading in 2009!
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