The Journey to MDiv Lead at Briercrest Seminary
As I write this blog post, some 530 of you have read my previous post, “What A God!! What A Ride!!! Fort Mac Here We Come!!!” I am truly humbled that so many people are interested in what God is up to in the life of myself and my family. Many of you have left public comments in various parts of Facebook and a few on the blog itself. Others of you have sent personal messages and emails. Thanks for all your words of encouragement, celebrating with us these amazing doors of opportunity that God has opened. We remain awestruck by how God showers his love on those who seek Him.
In the next few blog posts I am going to attempt to answer a few of the questions that some of you have been asking, some more privately than publicly. Questions like, “I still don’t get your excitement for Fort McMurray, are you sure that’s where you really want to go?,” or “Why did you choose to serve in a much smaller church than where you’ve been, when other doors were open?”
Today I just want to provide a bit more insight into what happened after I said “yes” to going to Fort McMurray Alliance Church, which meant saying “no” to being the Dean at Briercrest Seminary. What happened was totally unexpected. I put it in the “only God,” category, because only God would design a situation that is so in tune with my wiring, where I get to be the Lead Pastor of a compassionate missionally minded church in a city with explosive potential, while being able to be a significant influence in the training and mentoring of the next generation of men and women for vocational ministry through one of Canada’s leading seminaries.
To help you see the way God works, let me share with you an email that Dustin Resch, the Interim Dean of Briercrest Seminary sent to the students of the school on Saturday.
Greetings,
As you are aware, we have been involved in several faculty searches over the course of this year. I am excited to provide you with an update on one of those searches.
In February, we interviewed three candidates for the position of Dean of the Seminary and Master of Divinity Lead. Of those, we decided to bring two to visit our campus. There was overwhelming support from our search committee and students for one of those candidates—Doug Doyle, a long time pastoral veteran from Thunder Bay. We were excited about how Doug would add a significant perspective and unique gift-set to our Seminary faculty. However, like the good pastor he is, Doug was deeply drawn to ministry in the local church and heard God’s call to pursue pastoral work in Fort McMurray, Alberta. This means that Doug felt he should decline our offer to make him Dean of the Seminary.
However, we are thrilled to announce that Doug Doyle will still be able to play a significant role in our Seminary. We have offered, and he has accepted, an innovative new role to lead our Master of Divinity program from a distance. While residing in Fort McMurray, Doug will provide strategic and visionary leadership for our MDiv program, work to foster a network of mentorship for pastoral leaders, MDiv students and recent graduates, as well as to teach two courses per academic year in our seminary. We are ecstatic to have Doug join our team in this way.
The role of Dean of the Seminary continues to be in process. We hope to provide an update for you on that matter soon.
If you have any questions, please do contact me and I will be happy to help.
Peace,
Dustin
Dustin Resch, PhD (McMaster University)
Interim Dean of the Seminary
Assistant Professor of Theology
Briercrest College and Seminary
Dustin, thanks for those very kind words. I too am ecstatic at the opportunity to team with such a spiritually passionate and talented faculty as together we seek to train, mentor and equip men and women for vocational ministry in Canada and around the world. And while this will on top of a significant Lead Pastor role, I’m pumped by the opportunity as a front line ministry practitioner, to bring those front line realities into the formation of future pastors and ministry workers. Only God could come up with such a crazy combination of opportunities. Only God knows exactly how I’m wired and how to open doors to allow for that wiring to be fully engaged for sake of seeing “God’s kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven.”
What A God!!! What A Ride!!! Fort Mac Here We Come!!!
Downtown Fort Mac looking north up the breathtaking Athabasca River
What a God!! What a ride!! The journey we’ve been on pursuing God with the dreams He’s planted in our hearts has led to my becoming the Lead Pastor of the Fort McMurray Alliance Church in the bustling Oil Sands community of Wood Buffalo, Alberta – the fastest growing municipality in Canada. I start May 1st. I can’t tell you how incredibly blessed we feel by what God has done on our behalf.
But it doesn’t end there. In addition to serving as the Lead Pastor of the Fort McMurray Alliance Church, God has opened up an amazing door for me to continue to pursue my passion to see men and women well prepared for service in local church and other kingdom ministries. Effective August 1, I become the MDiv (Master of Divinity) Program Coordinator as well as Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry at Briercrest College and Seminary.
I’m humbled by God’s goodness. I get to lead a local church that already has a passion to make the invisible Jesus visible to their city and world by being a grace filled community that is welcoming and sensitive to those who are net yet in a life transforming relationship with Christ while figuring out what it means to do ministry both within and beyond the walls of the church. I get to do this in a high growth region that is one of the primary economic drivers of our county. It has a permanent population of 64,000 but a total population of over 104,000 when non-permanent residents are included. The municipality is expected to double in a decade and the permanent population is projected to reach 230,000 by 2030. Simply explosive.
Furthermore, I get to do this in a city where the average age is around 31 – making it one of the most challenging and unchurched demographics in Canada, a city that occasionally takes on a bit of a frat house feel. This means I get to do this in a city full of young adults and young families who are just starting to figure out how they want to see their lives and the lives of their children unfold. It’s also an amazingly diverse city attracting people from the world over. A growing First Nations community is also found throughout the municipality. Youth and diversity simply spells opportunity!
Let’s keep going! I get to do this in a city with incredible outdoor sports and recreation opportunities (just a forewarning to the moose and walleye) as well as with some of the most amazing indoor sports and recreation facilities for a city it’s size. I could keep going!! One way you can describe Fort Mac is that it is Thunder Bay on steroids. Okay the shopping sucks, but online changes a lot of that!
Briercrest College & Seminary
Caronport, Saskatchewan
I also get to invest in the lives of young men and women and some not so young men and woman who have heard God’s call to vocational ministry. I’ll be teaching two modular courses a year at Briercrest College & Seminary while helping to shape the future of ministry preparation in Canada by providing strategic and visionary leadership to Briercrest’s MDiv program from my home base in Fort McMurray. This is an incredibly bold and innovative move on the part of Briercrest that simply speaks of their willingness to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that the next generation of ministry leaders are well prepared to serve effectively in our ever evolving contemporary Canadian culture, as well as our vastly changing world.
And while God’s been at work responding to the dreams and aspirations he has planted in the hearts of Jane and myself, we see His hand at work in our family as well. As I head to Fort McMurray, our son Graeme heads to the Vancouver Film School chasing after a dream God has planted in his heart. He recently received news that he had been awarded a $10,000 scholarship, the largest the school has ever given! Many of you know that our daughter Meagan, having graduated from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, is pursuing her dream that currently involves her serving and learning as a pediatric resident at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. Susan and Chris are now taking steps to pursue their dream a living for a year or two in New Zealand before settling down and having a family, perhaps in Fort McMurray.
And while this might sound a bit materialistic, it does speak of the goodness of God who cares for the practical, physical details of our living. On June 15th we take possession of an incredibly beautiful 1,588 square foot bi-level with over 3,000 square feet of sweetly finished living space, adjacent to some of the most picturesque urban trails in the country. With 5 bedrooms we still have room for boarders or family, however things all unfold! And if any of you have any idea about the difference in housing prices between Thunder Bay and Fort McMurray, you’ll understand that this is nothing less than a miraculous provision on the part of our great God!
As we entered this journey, it was with the words of Proverbs 3:5-6 in mind: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (NIV11) With that verse and a little encouragement from reading Mark Batterson’s, “The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears,” I prayerfully and humbly laid my heart aspirations before God, and watched as He answered prayer beyond what I could ever ask for or imagine! (Ephesians 3:20) We are so pumped to be moving to Fort McMurray with the opportunity to impact the next generation both in Fort Mac and the rest of the country and through them the world. To God be the glory!
Doing Life “With God!”
As 2011 warps up in a little over a day and we enter into the whole new world of 2012, I find myself in the midst of the blessed experience of a period of sabbatical and transition. Now sometimes I’ve had to convince myself that this really is a blessing. Stepping down from almost 20 years of leadership that saw Redwood Park Church grow not only numerically but more importantly in missional effectiveness, is a huge personal deal. Myself and my family have invested a great chunk of our lives into Redwood and have watched God create a uniquely flavoured ministry that has caused so many folk to open their lives up to Christ and get excited about being part of a church family that is tangibly making the love of Christ visible to our city and world.
Stepping out of a vibrant high impact ministry as has developed at Redwood creates this instant sense of an enormous void. Rest and transition and waiting on God for what’s next “seems” to pale in comparison to the everyday excitement that comes from life on what one “supposes” are the frontlines of kingdom advance.
What I’ve discovered in this time of sabbatical and transition is that I have tendency to stake too much value in “living for God,” rather than simply “living with God.” That sometimes I forget that God’s greatest work is simply what he’s doing with me and in me. It’s not that “living for God,” is wrong, it’s just that I have tended to err by making mission the irreducible centre of the Christian life and not God himself. I always imagine that God is the centre, but it’s in times like I’m in right now where I’m able to step back and see a bit more clearly.
It was reading Skye Jethani’s, “With: Reimagining The Way You Relate To God,” that I was confronted anew with the tendency I have to turn mission into an idol. As Jethani notes, it’s not that I don’t “long to see more Christians engaged in the good work God has called us to,” but a “life spent for God,” is not the ultimate goal. No, the ultimate goal is “God Himself.” A life spent for God, must take a backseat to a live lived with God. Hence the title of Jethani’s book, “With.”
Passionate activist leaders like myself who love to live life on the frontlines of missional advance need to be careful not to put “the good mission of God into the place God alone should occupy.” In contrast Jethani gives this observation about the Apostle Paul, “He understood that his calling (to be a messenger to the Gentiles) was not the be the same as his treasure (to be united with Christ.) His communion with Christ rooted and preceded his work for him.”
And that’s what makes this period of sabbatical and transition such a precious blessing, that I have the gift of time to recalibrate and make sure that I fully lay hold of this treasure, what it means to live with Christst. It’s a time to see that my calling to serve as an instrument of missional advance flows from and takes a backseat to that “with Christ” relationship.
As we read the New Testament, the Apostle Paul was pretty clear about this priority of living with God. Paul calls myself and all of us, “to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that (we) might be filled with the fullness of God,” (see Ephesians 3:14-19). He challenges us to understand what it means to “have Christ in (us), the hope of glory,” (see Colossians 1:27).
AB Simpson was the founder of the Christian & Missionary Alliance, the church family I’ve served with for well over 30 years. That means I’m old enough remember some of his hymns that are now relics of past worship eras. It seems to me that Simpson as a passionate activist leader also struggled with finding self worth in what he did “for God,” and not always in living “with God.” Let me quote just a few random lines in the middle of one of his better-known hymns called “Himself.”
Once ‘twas painful trying, Now ‘tis perfect trust …
Once ‘twas busy planning, Now ‘tis trustful prayer;
Once ‘twas anxious caring, Now He has the care …
Once ‘twas what I wanted, Now what Jesus says’
Once ‘twas constant asking, Now ‘tis ceaseless praise.
Once it was my working, His it hence shall be;
Once I tried to use Him, Now He uses me.
Once the power I wanted, Now the Mighty One;
Once for self I labored, Now for Him alone.
Yes in the end, it really is all about Himself! It’s all about living with the God who lives in us! It about allowing His love to fill and transform who we are from the inside out so that whatever we do is secondary to what He is doing with and in us. It starts and ends with “Christ in you the hope of glory!” (Colossians 1:27)
Jethani also explores a few other idols we Christian gets caught up in – idols like living under God, or living over God, or living from God rather than living with God. In each case the situation is similar: we allow some good motives which in and of themselves are not wrong, to usurp the priority of simply living with God Himself. And when we do that, we rob ourselves of the ultimate treasure God has for us, and that is “God with us, Immanuel.” How quickly we forget what the real gift of the Christmas we just celebrated is, “Immanuel.” (see Matthew 1:23)
As I look to 2012, I am eagerly looking forward to what God has next for my family and myself. And I do that with the resolve of keeping “Himself” as my treasure, knowing that “life with God” means that having a healthy soul and successful ministry do not have to be mutually exclusive.
The End of an Era, but not a Destiny!!
Wow, what a party!! Thanks to all of you who came, as well as to Annika Pretchuck and the team that put together such a wonderful evening for Jane and myself, celebrating our 20 years with the Redwood Park Church family!! Twenty years is a good chunk of time! And a night like that we just celebrated is so bitter-sweet, so full of tremendous memories and heart-felt emotions!! And above all of that, so many incredible stories about what God has done over these years. Fact is we are not immediately leaving the city, but even so, starting that process of saying “good-bye” is so tough!! Again thanks to those of you who came out and made it such a great night of celebration!! And yeah, thank you for that wonderful gift of a trip to Cancun for the whole Doyle family!! You have always been so generous! We love you all so deeply!!
The past 20 years have been an amazing ride for the entire Doyle family, as we have watched our kids grow up here at the Thunder Bay site, as we have watched a church truly embrace what it means to be an outward focused community who love God with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength, and from that love for God have really embraced loving their neighbour locally and globally as themselves. Redwood is truly a unique church family with a heart full of love and grace for people who are far from God. Beyond Thunder Bay it’s been our privilege to develop a satellite campus in Barrie and have impact around the world. Incredible when you start to think of all that’s happened. I look back over the years and can only say, “Wow, only God!! Only God could have accomplish what we’ve seen happen here in Thunder Bay, Barrie and beyond through the Redwood Park Church family.” What’s happened at Redwood is unmistakably divine. I’m just so thankful that I got to be a part of what God wanted to do through this church family.
About a year or so ago Brian Houston, from Hillsong Church in Australia made this statement at a pastors’ conference: “The end of an era is not the completion of a destiny.” That statement has been so powerful to me, as Jane and I step out and trust God for what’s next in our lives, and as the Redwood community does the same for their future. Exciting and scary days for all of us. But then that’s all part of “Life, Passion and Adventure!”
So let’s pray for each other, that as one era ends and a new one opens up, that we will truly hear the voice of God and trust him to lead us and make our paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6). Know that I will be praying that God will continue to advance His kingdom powerfully through the ministry of the Redwood family.
Hey, thanks for all the loving words and stories that you shared with Jane and myself at that party. We treasure them all. But perhaps the most unique words were those that came from our friends John and Joy Cutts in Papua, Indonesia who wrote:
Dear Doug and Jane
Thanks for taking a walk on the wild side! It has been great working with you and your teams who have come alongside our Papuan brothers and sisters and blessed them in so many ways.
I will never forget your first trip and how you wanted me to explain how huge this moose was you were hunting, and this to villagers who’s biggest animal is a wild pig!! In light of that, I am DHL’ing the biggest gourd I can find on the island for the biggest story teller I know with also the biggest heart for Papuans!!
Blessings as you tame some new jungles for God. . . . .
John and Joy Cutts
Village Heartbeat
Sentani, Papua, Indonesia
www.villageheartbeat.org
Do pray for us as we seek God about those new jungles as we move beyond Thunder Bay!! Thunder Bay has been a wonderful city to live in and the Redwood Park family have made and will continue to make Thunder Bay, Barrie, the Papua Highlands and on and on, even sweeter places to live. And again thanks so much for being a part of our lives these past 20 years. To God be the glory great things He has done!! Oh … and I can’t wait to get that gourd from John and add it to my collection!!
And hey, check out the videos below to get a bit of a flavour of our past ministry and the cities and places we served in. The first video is our 2011 Missions trip to Papua, Indonesia and the second video was prepared for Redwood’s 65th anniversary. Enjoy!!…
Let’s Build Communities of Faith, Hope and Love!
There is hope for the church in Canada! No longer is the picture one of demise! These are encouraging thoughts I picked up from an interview with Reginald Bibbey, a sociologist at the University of Lethbridge, that took place at the Canadian version of Willow Creek’s Global Leadership Summit at the end of September. Many of these thoughts and the related statistics are backed up by research found in Bibbey’s latest book, “Beyond the Gods & Back: Religion’s Demise and Rise and Why It Matters.”
According to Bibbey’s research, several encouraging signs are emerging on the horizon of Canadian culture: (1) what we call the secularization of our country has pretty well bottomed out; (2) the decline in participation in organized religion is no longer a fact and could potentially turn around; (3) significant numbers of Canadians raised in homes without faith, are over time embracing some sort of faith, discovering that they have needs that can only be answered by “the gods,” whoever they may be.
Bibbey sees two groups in Canada who are best positioned to work with this growing yearning in the next generation for answers that only faith can provide, namely the Evangelical and Roman Catholic faith communities.
Bibbey then shared what for me was an amazing statistic. He claims that 50% of adults and 40% of teens who do not regularly participate in any faith community, would engage with a faith community, if they perceived doing so would be more worthwhile.
And what would make a faith community more worthwhile? Bibbey gave two initial statements followed up by a third. So firstly that the faith community would actually address deep felt spiritual needs. What that might mean is all over the map, but what is clear is that there is a deep desire to connect with spiritual side of who we are on the part of Canadians.
Secondly, Canadians are looking for a faith community that can touch deep personal needs. We’re talking communities that can address hurt; communities that can help us figure out how to live our lives in a way that makes sense. Thirdly, and Bibbey saw this particularly among youth in Canada, if a faith community actually demonstrated love. If love was tangible in how we related to one another, as well as with people who are different than us. The thrust of the session included a call for us to demonstrate love to the marginalized, those with differing values, or those of varying ethnicities.
And it struck me as Bibbey was talking, that what he was saying is that there are three things that Canadians are yearning to get from a church family, those three things being FAITH, HOPE and LOVE. I was reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul, “Three things will last forever – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13, NLT).
FAITH that addresses the deep issues of spiritual yearning that is found at the core, the heart of every Canadian. HOPE that emerges from the ache that comes from living with so much brokenness and hurt in our world. And LOVE, crazy, forgiving, I’ll put your needs over my needs kind of love; love that embraces people far different than myself.
Faith, hope and love – that’s what Canadians are looking for. And if they can find it in our church community they say they’re willing to give it a try. So let’s rise to the challenge and allow Jesus to form us into communities of Faith, Hope and Love. All that Canadians are really asking of us, is that we be what we’re supposed to be! Imagine that!
ACT! LEARN! REPEAT!!! Thoughts from the Global Leadership Summit 2011
Since it began in the summer of 1995, I have attended every Leadership Summit but one. You’d think they would eventually get stale and boring!! But for me, what is now called the Global Leadership Summit has proven to be a much needed annual reminder to stay focused on the basics of spiritual leadership, while always providing me with a number of profound new insights that aid in thrusting my leadership journey forward. I guess I’m a slow learner who needs a good annual refresher course while being challenged with a few new ideas at the same time.
I came to the Summit this year after a year of seeing the big ship Redwood slowly begin to move in a direction where we are catching a bit more of the wind of the Spirit. Once again we are beginning to move forward with a little more ease. This comes after a couple of years in which from a leadership perspective we’ve experienced a bit of the doldrums. Nothing hugely disastrous, just not enough movement forward for a variety of reasons including my own leadership inadequacies.
For Redwood the years 1995 through to 2006 were pure adrenaline. The charts kept pointing up and to the right – increased attendance, increased giving, increased involvement, yada, yada, and the ride was pure exhilaration. It led to our moving into a new facility and establishing a ministry to the poor and disenfranchised in our city through the Opportunities Centre in our old facility. Life could not be sweeter.
By about 2008 the city of Thunder Bay was working through a massive economic downturn including significant population loss while I had hit a lid in terms of my own leadership capabilities. That deadly combination created a great deal of stress for myself personally that while not felt throughout the church, was certainly felt by the leadership core. God chose to work in those years through the Global Leadership Summit in particular to give me both the tools and the passion I needed to work through the issues, so that I myself and Redwood would be in a better position to catch the life giving wind of the Spirit.
I came to the Summit this year with a sense that we are just on the cusp of catching something a bit more robust than just the gentle breeze of the Spirit that we have begun to be more recently blessed with. At the same time I remain very much aware that we continue to live in uncertain times for the North American church as a whole. And while Thunder Bay is doing better economically, a sense of uncertainty is still very much here. So all this and more contributes to a bit of uncertainty still lingering in the air at Redwood. The question is: “Will this slight breeze of the Spirit, sweet though it is, yet again become the gust we so long for?” This twinge of uncertainty left me wondering what role the Summit would play in the life of myself as well as those attending the Summit with me that would impact the future of Redwood.
Quickly the Spirit ambushed me through the speaking of inspiring leaders from both within and beyond the Christian community. Let me touch on just a few of the multiple highlights and God moments for me.
Perhaps some of the most helpful teaching from this GLS targeting what I’ve been wrestling with came from LEN SCHLESINGER, current president of Babson College, who has 20 years of teaching experience at Harvard, as well as hands on executive experience in companies including Limited Brands. He pointed out the half-life of a Fortune 25 Company is a mere 10 years!! The problem from his perspective is that we were taught in school to learn and base our strategies on cause and effect, thinking that the future can be extrapolated from the past. His point was passionate and strong, “the future is not a linear extrapolation of the past.” And his plea was equally strong, “If you can’t predict the future, create it!”
For those issues that we are passionate about, and we in the church certainly are passionate about a few issues, Schlesinger calls us to simply launch into action without over-thinking!! Just take action with whatever financial and human resources you have in hand and take a small smart step toward your goal and see what happens! Then evaluate what you learn and if you like the results, take another step. His mantra: ACT. LEARN. REPEAT. Wow, talk about counter-intuitive!!
BRENDA SALTER-MCNEIL and STEVE FUTRICK continued this theme with a call to interpret these catalytic times we find ourselves in through the eyes of faith and then act. Popular blogger SETH GODIN drove it home with a plea that “if it’s worth doing, do it!” What I heard from many of these speakers was a strong bias towards action. Act now in the direction of your goals. Next evaluate whether it works or not. Then take a next step, act again. And for the Christ follower, do so in tune with the leading of the Spirit.
BILL HYBELS AND HENRY CLOUD both gave some very practical tools on how to work with our teams and key leaders for the accomplishment of these goals that we need to act on. Cloud divides the world into wise people, foolish people and evil people and gives a very different strategy on how to work with each group, reminding us that we are all fools sometimes. Very helpful thoughts here, especially his loving but firm approach to “fools,” which includes all of us from time to time.
And then as we launch into action with this audacious faith, it only happens effectively as we lead with humility and vulnerability. Australian rector JOHN DICKSON as well as business consultant PATRICK LENCIONI simply restated the obvious that leaders like myself need to be called back to time and again. Like I said, I’m a slow learner, and I just need this basic stuff over and over again.
I could keep going, so much good thinking packed into a couple of days, but let me wrap up with two other thoughts. Kudos to Bill Hybels who demonstrated godly leadership in his gracious response to Starbuck’s CEO Harold Schulz’s withdrawal from the Summit because of pressure from the Gay community. Check it out by clicking here. This was not only a great leadership moment, it was for me a proud moment to be called evangelical.
And the ultimate highlight for me? Hands down it was just the chance to spend a few days with the team from Redwood. Ten of us in total, 8 from the staff team, one board member and my son Graeme. It was just sweet to hang out with this dedicated group of leaders, who love God, love each other and are passionate about the mission Redwood is on. It was great to talk leadership and dream about the future!! It was also not too shabby getting to a Cubs game at the historic Wrigley Field after some classic Chicago deep dish pizza at Giordano’s.
A great few days with an awesome team!! I’m really looking forward to what God does with it!!
And to the folk at the Willow Creek Association, both in the US and Canada, thanks for all you do to feed and inspire guys like our Redwood team and myself.
But I’d better stop writing and start doing!! Now is the time to ACT, LEARN and REPEAT, seeking the gusts of the Holy Spirit to lead us.
The Redwood GLS Team with Tim Taking the Picture
C3 2011, Ed Young & Fellowship Church
We have a huge value at Redwood to get our staff and key leaders exposed to the best practices as well as solid leadership and biblical teaching from other churches in their context. It’s one thing to watch these guys on video, it’s a totally more powerful experience to be there with often hundreds even thousands of others and experience not only good teaching and training but to be infused and encouraged by the manifest presence of God. So often these events are profoundly transforming experiences helping us not only to take the next step forward in leadership, but to journey further and deeper in our relationship with God. In many ways they are like ancient pilgrimages where folk travel far, not because God wasn’t where they are, but simply because he often is better able to connect with us when we are well beyond the distractions of our home environment.
So myself, our Student Ministries Director Paul Ireland, our Children’s Ministry Director Heather Poulter and our Middle School Pastoral Apprentice Jesse Hochstetler took off for a 3-night 2-day conference sponsored by Fellowship Church in Dallas, under the leadership of Ed Young.
For those of you who know us at Redwood, our pilgrimages don’t often stray that far from places like Willow Creek Church in Chicago or Saddleback Church in Orange Country. So heading to Fellowship was a bit of a leap outside of our normal circles moving into a much less seeker sensitive environment, as well as a substantially more classic evangelical environment than we are used to. It’s good to shake things up a bit and be exposed to styles outside of your own. It’s also good to separate the good stuff form perhaps the not so good stuff!
Our primary purpose in heading to C3 (where C3 stands for Creative Church Culture), was to expose our children’s and student ministries leaders to new ideas and best practices from a church that is very effective in these ministries. Currently we use the “Elevate Curriculum” produced by Fellowship in our children’s ministry. Our expectations here were not only met, but exceeded. This is a church that as it works with the emerging generation understands the ethos we have at Redwood for “Life, Passion and Adventure.” They understand the need to connect at the heart level with a sense of adventure, encompassed with passion, on the foundation of what it means to become fully alive in Christ. I was impressed on how they introduce a strong sense of adventure into their children’s ministry right from Kindergarten. Their understanding of the mind and culture of kids and students and how to connect there is in my estimation, leaps and bounds ahead of most churches, even most contemporary mega churches.
Now the theme of the conference was, “exce3ed: go beyond what you are allowed.” Fellowship and C3 are an interesting mix of rebelling against the way most churches do church in the US south, while actually emphasizing some elements of that culture which in my view not only grate against the sensitivities of unchurched Canadians, I suspect as well, a lot of Americans without a churched background. But it sure works with a good number church raised folk from the south! There is a clear market or demographic they are effectively targeting, a demographic in abundance in the south, but sparse in Canada!
These guys take hype and pragmatism to whole new level! For me, uncomfortably so. They totally crossed the line with their nightly offerings that employed crass emotionalism and manipulation that sadly worked really well for them. And while I am convinced that it is over the top as an effective tool for reaching the average unchurched person, and while it comes across as inauthentic within the culture I serve, I get that these guys are totally sincere. The hype is not just put on, it is at the core of who they are and how they just naturally operate. What you see on the stage is how they interact off stage and with each other. And it works at reaching a key segment of the churched raised but turned off of church demographic they appear to be targeting.
Overall it was a most worthwhile experience. We were able to affirm who we are as Redwood and why we do things differently, while at the same time grappling with a few new ideas and learning’s that we would not have encountered by staying closer to our comfort zone. And like pilgrimages of old, we were able to have a fresh encounter with God that has left us inspired, encouraged and strengthened for the work he is call us to.
Church, Vacation and the Dreams of Youth
So Jane and I have taken a quick post Christmas break in warm and sunny Orlando. Unlike last year’s escape, the temperature is actually nice, it hit 81F/ 27C yesterday! Unfortunately the traffic is like double last year, perhaps a sign of an improving economy or just good weather, or both, but I digress …
Let’s get to the point. Yeah, I do church on vacation. I love the church and I love God’s people. In times past the location of a good church has influenced where a vacation might happen! It’s the only way I get to experience church as a casual attender. I love the opportunity to experience the diversity of how God’s people worship and work out their local and global mission. There’s always something I can learn. So often God uses these times to speak directly to me. And I must admit so often it causes me to appreciate the amazing church family I’m a part of and how we approach worship and mission.
So this morning Jane and I connected with Summit Church, a multi-site community whose main campus meets in a renovated twin screen movie theatre in an older area to the northeast of downtown. Currently 2,500 strong, Summit was founded in 2002 by now 30-something Isaac Hunter and two of his friends dating back to their teen years. As 18-year-olds, this trio began to dream about creating a church that would truly reach people with the love of Christ, the hope of the Gospel and love each other well in the process. They held onto that dream and are finding themselves on an amazing ride orchestrated by the hand of God.
Now the church community I’m a part of, Redwood Park, has a somewhat unique flavour that impacts it’s Sunday worship experience and approach to mission that is not found elsewhere as often as we at Redwood might expect. Our desire for a passionate worship experience that is relevant and inviting to people who are not yet committed Christ followers combined with our missional focus to see God’s invisible Kingdom made visible in a way that draws more and more to personal faith in Christ, seems basic but it’s not always all that easy to find.
My sense is that Summit shares many of these same values. One of my take-homes from Summit is their “jobSERVE” program where they are seeking to work with the unemployed and underemployed in their lower income location by offering resume coaching, mentoring and counseling in job attainment skills. This might be something we at Redwood should consider.
Unlike Redwood whose demographic is well spread over all age groups, Summit’s demographic is highly skewed towards 30-somethings with young families. The tight worship band has a definite 30-something appeal. The low key, dry humoured Isaac Hunter has a speaking style that is engaging to the under 40 crowed. One of the reasons his speaking works is because it’s not typical of most large successful evangelical churches. Hence in contrast to Redwood, this results in a lot, if not most of the growth coming from evangelically raised young adults looking for a more authentic grace oriented church with a pumped but not charismatic worship experience. Like Redwood, NT Wright is clearly a respected theologian at this church.
While Isaac speaks very well of his father Joel, who is the Senior Pastor of the mega 12,000 strong multi-site Northland Church, this is clearly not his father’s church. There are similarities for sure, but Summit is clearly further down the road of eliminating those things in evangelical culture that cause so many unchurched folk to run in the opposite direction. Summit seems to understand the balance between the Gospel as good news for individuals who need to experience Christ personally, and the Gospel as good news for our neighbourhoods, cities and world as a whole.
But what really struck me is that three 18-year-old devoted Christ followers had a dream together and didn’t let go of it. They have allowed God to use them to break through so much traditional evangelical church culture that can be such a turn off for the younger generation apart from Christ, creating a fresh expression of church bringing God’s kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. May God raise up a few 18-year-olds around Redwood with such vision and passion to do church and extend God’s kingdom in a way that is relevant to the next generation.
So if you happen to be visiting Mickey and the Orlando area sometime, don’t forget to include church in your schedule. And a church well worth the visit would be Summit: http://www.summitconnect.org/ Check out their founding story here at vimeo.
2010 in review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 5,300 times in 2010. That’s about 13 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 8 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 21 posts. There were 20 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 15mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.
The busiest day of the year was August 12th with 79 views. The most popular post that day was The 2010 Willow GLS: Leadership in Transition.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were redwoodpark.org, facebook.com, insideredwoodpark.org, twitter.com, and northernboy.theadvancecommunity.ca.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for u2 album, u2 no line on the horizon, bill hybels, missional canadian, and arthur guinness christian.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
The 2010 Willow GLS: Leadership in Transition August 2010
4 comments
Perhaps St. Guinness? March 2010
9 comments
Surprised By Hope in U2′s “No Line On The Horizon” March 2009
2 comments
The Bible: One Big Story June 2010
Halloween: Let’s Enjoy it!! October 2009
6 comments
Church Governance: An Ongoing Journey …
This Saturday the Pastoral Staff and Governing Board of Redwood are going to meet for a full day to brainstorm about church governance. In these rapidly changing times from modernism to postmodernism, thinking on how major directional and financial decisions are made, how accountability is accomplished, how staff and board relate to each other, as well as how the church family as a whole speaks into the direction of the church, is undergoing significant re-evaluation.
I say re-evaluation because the issue of governance has been a hot topic for local churches for the last 20 years or so, especially among those who are older or more modernist in their perspective. Over the last 20 years, churches appear to have been moving in one of two predominate directions.
• Often midsized to larger churches including Redwood have moved in the direction of what can be best described as a “staff led/board affirmed,” governance model, where vision and direction are set by staff under the leadership of the Lead/Senior Pastor, and the board exists as an affirming presence, championing the direction of the ministry. In this model the Board also serves as guardrails, insuring that the Lead pastor and his team do not take the church off track.
• The second model that has emerged, that is more typical of small churches is the “elder led/staff-executed” model, where elders or board members discern vision and direction, and staff is responsible for executing the vision and direction.
• Both models employ some level of what is called “policy governance,” where ultimately the board is responsible, whether on it’s own or with primary input from the Lead Pastor/staff team, to establish what the mission is, what metrics for success are, and establishes policies within which staff operate in order to achieve these metrics. Over the last 20 years it’s become increasingly understood that church boards or elders boards do not meddle in the day-to-day affairs of the local church, nor do they play a direct supervisory role with any staff other than the lead pastor.
• In the Christian & Missionary Alliance, of which Redwood is a part, how this works out is a bit more complex. The CMA local church constitution has slanted things in favour of a staff lead church or even more so a Lead Pastor led church, by essentially granting the Lead Pastor the position of first among equals on the board. In the Christian & Missionary Alliance the chairmanship of the Board defaults to the Lead Pastor unless he chooses otherwise. Constitutionally the Lead Pastor is a direct report to the District Superintendent. Much of this is in reaction to congregational church governance, which historically the Alliance has seen as counter-productive to the visionary leadership needed for church growth. The Christian & Missionary Alliance is fairly unique in Canada in its approach to leadership in the local church.
As we look to the future, the two major trends as well as the unique Alliance approach to those trends is being questioned. Over the years as we at Redwood have tried to move towards a well defined staff led “policy governance” approach, neither staff nor board have ever been all that settled with how this could work. You would often hear the statement that the clear delineation between staff and board roles is not something you can find in the New Testament. The passion has always been to work more closely together, collaborate more and not be so worried about who has final authority. While the documents with well-delineated roles, responsibilities and policies made sense, the result didn’t sit well with the heart felt passion among our board and staff for what New Testament including John 17 style community looks like.
Add to that the passion of our key leaders and volunteer workers who are so avid about the mission of Redwood that they desire to get right in the middle of dialogue around Redwood’s future, and it’s clear that our current structures as well as the direction we have been moving in reflecting the values of the past 20 years, will not be satisfactory for the future.
It appears to me that the future looks a lot more collaborative and a lot less hierarchical than the past including our current Alliance constitutions. I don’t think it means abandoning everything that has made policy governance a giant step forward for so many churches. Nor do I think it means reverting to congregational government that so often solidifies the status quo and puts the brakes on change. I suspect it looks different than anything we have at present.
It’s not that there isn’t a role for the Lead Pastor as an initiating visionary leader, but that much more room needs to be made for others to contribute to the dialogue. The future involves a lot more dialogue between key leaders, staff and board, in a way that is not bureaucratic, cuts through red tape and is responsive to rapid change when rapid change is needed to move the mission forward.
Our staff and board are actually pumped to be able to spend a day thinking about this kind of stuff. They love being together. They truly want to find a way to work more effectively, more collaboratively together. Should be an interesting day that leads to further discussion involving more of the church family. Ultimately is should lead to a revamped governance structure that more effectively advances our mission while being more collaborative and less bureaucratic. Coming up with something like that is no small task! Your prayer about all this is appreciated!
About
Doug has just recently accepted the position of Lead Pastor of the Fort McMurray Alliance Church in the bustling Oil Sands region of Wood Buffalo in northern Alberta. Fort Mac Alliance is a church with a passion to tangibly make Jesus visible to our municipality and world, serving as a grace filled community that is welcoming and sensitive to people whatever their faith background and wherever they may or may not be at in their faith journey. It’s an adventurous community that is willing to think outside the norm while prayerfully wrestling with what it means to be involved in ministry both within and beyond the walls of the church facility. This results in a passion to see individual lives and the city as a whole touched and transformed by the love of Christ. Being in a city with global influence, Fort McMurray Alliance is seeking to be a unique global influence for Christ in partnership with it’s denominational family, the Christian & Missionary Alliance.
Doug is also involved with Briercrest College and Seminary in Caronport, Saskatchewan, where he teaches two courses a year as an Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology. From his home base in Fort McMurray, Doug serves as the Program Coordinator for Briercrest’s MDiv (Master of Divinity) program, with an urgency to see the next generation of ministry leaders raised up up to serve effectively within our ever evolving Canadian culture, as well as our vastly changing world.
Previously Doug served for 20 years as the Lead Pastor of Redwood Park Church, a multi-site missional community that is committed to seeing the message and life of Jesus impact Thunder Bay, Barrie and beyond. LIFE, PASSION and ADVENTURE are three words that both Doug and Redwood uses to describe the nature of Christian spirituality.
Doug is married to Jane, who possesses an amazing gift of hospitality and the ability to cook for hundreds! They have three young-adult children. Meagan is a pediatric resident at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. Susan who is married to Chris Groenheide, among other things supply teaches at Dennis Franklin Cromarty First Nations High School and promotes “eating local” through a variety of greens and specialty vegetables from her market garden. Graeme who has been involved in an eclectic mix of insurance and financial planning, working for a highway line painting company, and ushering at Thunder Bay’s Community Auditorium is heading off with a generous scholarship to the Vancouver Film School. Each of them in their distinct way has a yearning to be difference makers in this world.
Meal times at the Doyle household tend to be a bit of a party, but you might want to ask what it is you’re eating – as sometimes Doug enjoys a hike with a good friend and a gun in the beauty of our rugged Canadian outdoors, or maybe a paddle on a remote lake with rod in hand. He’s thinking that with the move for Fort McMurray, he might have to break down and add an ATV to his toys.
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