I am going to head over to my dad’s house this afternoon for the last time. I am taking my wife and kids to say goodbye. The moving trucks are coming soon to transplant a collection of tangible memories, necessities and furniture to a new abode. All of this is bittersweet. This is the home I grew up in and have my most vivid childhood memories. I lived in this home during elementary school, middle school and high school. It is the home that I came back to during my college days. It is the home where I invented a thousand adventures in the backyard and the home I rested in for decades. I have spent dozens of Christmases and holidays in this home. I proposed to my wife in this home. My kids love going there and swimming in the pool, playing in the yard and spending the night with grandparents. Bittersweet for sure.

I have myriad great memories—and some difficult days—in that home. The Lord has stitched together both the good and the bad to refine me. It wasn’t a perfect place, but it was the place the Lord had me for the majority of my life. Honestly, regardless of the season of life, this home has always been a safe place. It was a demonstrable sign of security for my wandering soul. I could literally always “go home” and just simply “be.” The contours of my life have drastically changed as I am now building a home for my family. I am hoping that they will one day look back on the memories of our home and bless the Lord for the time they had there. It won’t be a perfect place, but I pray it is a place of rest and security and laughter and love.

In the end, with the closing of one season, the building of a new one and the beginning of another, Acts 17 seems to place it all under the right perspective:

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.”
(Acts 17:26-27 ESV)

The debate over whether to build a 13-story mosque and Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan — two blocks from Ground Zero — heated up over the weekend. It seems that everyone from the White House to various politicians to the victims’ families have contributed to the dialogue. Although most of the contributing voices have political motivations, I want to look at the issue from a pastoral perspective.

For the believer in Jesus Christ, we are not afforded the opportunity to compartmentalize issues into various categories. The gospel has transformed our hearts and reconciled us to the Father through the effective and sufficient death of His Son so that we live reconciled lives (2 Corinthians 5).

The result of Christ’s work in our lives should produce a heart yielded to Him in all things with eyes that view all of life through the lens of the gospel. Therefore, we have a new ethic and way of living and loving. The right response for the believer is a life that is gospel-centered, gospel-driven and gospel-submitted. The alternative is a compartmentalized life that segregates faith apart from everything else and neatly contains it to a worship service. It is a divided life and a complete aberration of God’s will as revealed in the Scripture.

A New York City panel unanimously voted to reject landmark status to a building a few blocks from the World Trade Center site, thus paving the way for the mosque to be built. Essentially, this answers the question of whether of not they (the Cordoba Initiative) can build a mosque. Legally, the laws of this land and the freedoms afforded to all through the Constitution protect them. They are certainly within their rights and we, as believers in Jesus Christ, should be the first to affirm this. But, there is a greater question revealing a greater ethic: should they build the mosque?

In 1 Corinthians 8-10, the apostle Paul reveals that love should trump liberty. In every case, the right of a believer is subservient to good of his neighbor. He writes, “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor (1 Corinthians 10:23-24 ESV).” Although the Cordoba Initiative has the right and freedom to build a mosque, it is in extremely poor taste void of brotherly consideration to consider doing so. Interestingly enough, their purpose statement is to “improve Muslim-West relations,” which seems to clearly run contrary to their actions.

The Scriptures are also clear that believers should examine the log in their own eye before trying to remove the spot in someone else’s (Matthew 7:3). In the end, my role as a pastor is to walk in humble submission to Christ and faithfully shepherd the flock that God has entrusted to me.

EDITOR’S NOTE: On Sunday, Aug. 15, Matt Chandler addressed staff organizational changes in his teaching to the church and the reasons for those changes. In this accompanying blog entry, Josh Patterson provides background and takes a look at further reasoning. Members were provided a hand-out with campus ministry leaders on Sunday.

Introduction

It takes a team to build a skyscraper. There are those who can envision the building while others see the plans. Ultimately, it takes a team to envision, design, build and implement. There are many members, but only one body.

“Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained” (Proverbs 29:18). Vision, as it pertains to leadership, is the ability to see what others do not. A leader gifted in vision can navigate through thick darkness and find his way in a dense fog. Vision answers the question, “What?”

Vision engenders hope and sparks passion. It defines the contours of new possibilities and creates appropriate boundaries. It fuels freedom and is the catalyst for ingenuity. It is a fundamental element of leadership. But vision without design is mindless chatter or vain intentions; “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23).

“The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception” (Proverbs 14:8). Design, as it pertains to leadership, is the ability to formulate a plan, process and strategy to realize the vision. One definition states that design is, “adaptation of means to a preconceived end.” Design answers the question, “How?”

“For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God” (Hebrews 3:4). This is our confession and our charge. We are charged to dream and design, while we confess that God is our deepest desire and the Chief Architect. As we labor to build a spiritual house, we know that vision is the end and design is the means all to the glory of God. Vision is our product, but design is our process. Our vision is a disciple steeped in maturity and design is the process of movement. Here is our call:

“to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love ” (Ephesians 4:12-16).

Our Mission and Vision

The Village Church exists to bring glory to God through lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The mission of the Church of Jesus Christ has been the same since her inception. The message is the same, but the methods are new. The call is consistent, but the context is ever-changing.

Our mission statement succinctly describes our heart. We are God-centered; we exist to bring glory to God. This is the chief aim and purpose of humanity and of all creation. The glory of God is ultimate. The Scriptures share the wonderful news that God is glorified through changed lives. Life change is both an event (salvation) and a process (sanctification). Life change is conditioned by a qualifying statement in our mission statement: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

People’s lives can be changed by a dramatic event, traumatic news or an enticing culture. But, the only kind of life change that allows a person to have a right relationship with God the Father is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ died for our sins and was raised to life three days later. That’s the gospel.

The vision for The Village is to have our five Core Values — Truth, Christian Spirituality, Community, Foot Washing and Missional Living — expressed through our members and extended to our community.

Where the mission of the Church is solid, static and not open for change, the vision is a growing and flexible understanding of God’s specific purpose for our local body. Our vision is dynamic and unique. We believe our five Core Values accurately reflect God’s thematic purposes for His people. Our desire is to see these values expressed by our members in their daily lives.

Borrowed Buildings and Old Blueprints

Pride tells us we are different rather than a piece of the puzzle in God’s unfolding mission. Our story is woven into the various movements that have shaped the church for hundreds of years.

Interestingly enough in the mid-70s Grace Temple Baptist Church of Denton funded a mission church in Highland Village (the irony of sovereignty). Through times of hardship and struggle, the mission failed and the church disbanded. Shortly after this, Lakeland Baptist Church funded another mission that eventually became Highland Village First Baptist Church. HVFBC changed over time and eventually morphed into a seeker-driven church in the late 1990s. Struggle is no respecter of philosophy and this proved to be true in Highland Village. The church lost its pastor and searched for a hopeful solution to reach the next generation.

On Dec. 8, 2002, HVFBC called a new lead pastor, Matt Chandler. This young pastor had the experience of travel, the courage of youth, an unprecedented gift to communicate, and the vision to promulgate a new theological and philosophical climate. It was also his first pastorate.

Change followed in rapid succession. Theology, philosophy and numbers were all tilting the ship in a new direction and the spiritual building of HVFBC would continue to morph:

• 2003: began calling ourselves “The Village”
• 2004: rapid numeric growth and expansion of services; new constitution and bylaws leading to new structure of church governance through a body of elders
• 2005: staffing restructure in response to growth
• 2006: the HV expansion to 725 seats which enabled us to grow numerically by 50 percent
• 2007: “Venture,” Denton campus, staff size increased and purchase of the Albertsons building
• 2008: elder candidacy, slow down on hiring, introduction of department heads, staffing restructure with “centralized” and “model-ministries,” rewrite of membership covenant
• 2009: Dallas Northway campus, Flower Mound campus, multi-site reality grows in earnest, continued growth and complexity
• 2010: continued growth and complexity, staffing needs

This timeline only captures snapshots of the change we’ve experienced. The church’s leadership has been both reactive and proactive. The ever-changing environment oftentimes forced the issue, while prayerful forecasting produced proactive change. Change always brings an element of discomfort and unknown, but the alternative is often complacency, irrelevancy or stagnation.

We do not change for changes sake; rather, we believe that the Lord is leading our church in a direction, and we want to follow. We have continually prayed for wisdom and have sensed His leading by observing the environment of The Village Church, engaging in conversations with those who have gone before us, and honest dialogue among the elders.

The impetus for the staff organizational change was recognition that our current staff model is not structured to lead us moving forward. We believe the future holds great opportunity for The Village to see our members grow in gospel-centered living, express and extend Christ to their communities, steward future growth and complexity, while continuing to wade into the waters of being a resourcing church. For these hopes to be realized, we need to make several key directional and structural shifts:

1. Vocational elder leadership—We desire to have staff elders represent church-wide staff leadership as an extension of the elders as a whole. The Scriptures are clear that the elders are charged with overall church teaching, governance, direction, care and leadership.
2. Expanded executive staff—We desire to have the executive staff increase in size and have more elder representation; therefore, campus pastors will also be on the executive team along with finance/administration, communications and operations. This allows for ministry leadership to model collaboration with ministry services.
3. Campus empowerment through decentralized ministries—We desire to have the ground-level direction of ministry be at the discretion of the campuses. Decentralized ministry enables the campuses to contextualize with more fluidity, leverage specific strengths, shore-up specific weaknesses, empower campus-specific staff to innovate leadership, and clarifies authority and expectations.
4. Simplified, flexible structure—We desire to have a staff structure that is simpler and more nimble for future change. Each year the Lord has brought new challenges and changes, so we want to be poised to receive what He has for us next. We believe this structure enables us flexibility and simplicity.
5. One Church, multiple campuses—We desire to be one church in multiple locations. Our “oneness” is demonstrated through:
   1. One name
   2. One eldership
   3. One staff
   4. One mission, vision and philosophy
   5. One teaching and membership
   6. One budget

The following video can also be found on The Village Church YouTube Channel:

Many of you have requested to see the message that I gave at the 2010 SBC Pastor’s Conference. We have been given permission to post this video on our website.

It is interesting how movements begin. I love looking back and seeing how history unfolds. Opportunities arise for people to step up and call their generation to see things differently, to believe accurately and live passionately. Some movements are short-lived while others have a lasting impact. You have micro-movements of subcultures—smaller cultures within the greater culture. You also see macro movements that can change nations or potentially the world. They are led by imperfect people who oftentimes did not necessarily desire to start a movement. God, in His sovereign plan, weaves people into His story to play roles that bring about His purposes. They are bit players in a bigger drama.
I have been thinking about a specific group of guys for a long time. I have watched their lives and considered the impact they are having. I have wondered how far reaching their scope potentially could be and marveled at how God has orchestrated their lives for such a time as this. I have often thought about how powerful the gospel is to transform and redeem as I have considered their ways. In short, this group has been an encouragement to me in a way that has caught me off guard. This group consists of four front-line artists who simply don’t want to waste their lives: Lecrae, Tedashii, Trip Lee and Sho Baraka.

They are Christian rappers who formed ReachRecords and 116 Clique with a passion to reach this generation with the gospel. It’s not gimmickry. It’s not ego. It’s not hype. They are cultural missionaries who use the medium of rap to share the message of Christ. It’s not unlike a medical missionary using the medium of surgery to win the opportunity to share the message of Christ. They are preachers without a pulpit, teachers without a podium. They are slowly infiltrating the hip-hop culture with turntables and microphones, seizing the opportunity to share the gospel by utilizing their gift as a platform.

I found their calling significant for several reasons. First, they are unashamedly preaching the gospel of Christ. Their music is Christocentric and culturally decipherable. Every song and every lyric points to the Savior in some form or fashion. Every event is a crusade. Every medium is an opportunity to preach.

Second, rap and hip-hop is far reaching in scope. Rap music appeals to the inner-city teenager as much as it does to the upper-middle class yuppie. This style of music draws from a diverse group of people. It is hard to profile; therefore, their reach is wide.

Third, they are African-American role models. The fatherless epidemic has plagued the inner-city and contributes to many of the cycles that continue to bind this segment of society. Here is a group of men being faithful husbands and faithful fathers. Here is a group upholding the worth of marriage and esteeming the role of a father. Here is a group deflecting fame and fortune to show that Christ is better. As they live faithful lives, a generation is watching.

Fourth, they are doctrinally solid. On the whole, the African-American church has been strong in faith but weak in doctrine. These men espouse the need for both. They are not watering down lyrics to make them palatable; instead, their lyrics are rich with sound doctrine that teaches the deep truths of God’s worth. They are Christ-centered, not man-centered. They call a generation to forsake worldly pleasures and seek prosperity in Christ alone.

Fifth and finally, their calling reminds me that mine is no different. We certainly have different mediums and spheres of influence, but I am called to unashamedly preach the gospel of Christ. God has placed me in an arena of influence in which I am to be faithful. I am a role model to the next generation. Even if I impact no one else, I will impact my family. I want my wife to marvel at the love of God because of how I love her. I want my children to see a marriage saturated with grace, godliness and goodness. I want to pass on to my little ones the beautiful reality of the Savior and watch them, by God’s grace, pass it along to their own. I want to see chains broken and new branches of a family tree begin. I desire to see our little home play its part well in the drama of God’s unfolding, redemptive story. I want to teach them the rich and deep truths of Scripture. I want our home to be free in the Lord and bound in His love. Regardless of musical taste, we have a lot more in common through Christ. It is stronger than beats or rhythms. It’s a family called the Church and each member is faithfully playing their part.

I hope this is much bigger than a movement. I hope it’s a revolution, a gospel-centered revolution. Rap it. Preach it. Live it. Don’t waste your life.

jp

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Obviously there are other people contributing to this work and influencing the movement. You should also check out:

• Dhati Lewis; twitter.com/dhati and Blueprint Church in Atlanta.

• Eric Mason; twitter.com/Emase73> and Epiphany Fellowship in Philly.

• Adam Thomason; twitter.com/redrev and The Red Revolution in Dallas.

The Village can sometimes look like a trauma center. Since 2002, we have asked God to send us broken, hurting people to proclaim the gospel to, and He has. It’s messy and at times exhausting, but watching God work in the severely wounded is a beautiful thing.

A key piece to anyone recovering from a broken and sinful world is an understanding of what the problem is. Everyone knows there is something wrong with the world, but what you think the problem is will determine how you try and solve it. Unfortunately, most people spend all their efforts on symptoms rather than the disease that’s causing those symptoms.

“Grace-Driven Effort” goes after the heart. I am always amazed at how so many people have separated their actions from their hearts. There is a reason you have a crummy marriage, lack patience, are always angry and addicted to ________________.

There is a reason you have to tear down other women constantly and why you feel led to point out their flaws and failures. The reason is you have a wicked, idolatrous heart. If you simply try to handle the symptoms without addressing your heart as the source of those symptoms you’ll never see sin mortified in you. “Grace-Driven Effort” uses the weapons of grace on our hearts not just to manage a behavior.

The following video can also be found on The Village Church YouTube Channel:

Let’s continue diving into the idea of “Grace-Driven Effort.” We have already stated that people don’t stumble into godliness. Paul uses great phrases to describe our growth into holiness and reflecting the Glory of God and His reign and rule over our lives. Paul talks about “training ourselves in righteousness” (1 Tim. 4:7), “laboring in prayer,” “running to win,” “counting it all a loss” (Philippians 3) and “beating his body” (1 Corinthian 9:26-27).

Paul’s language doesn’t paint the picture of sitting on the couch and falling into godliness. The problem as I perceive it as a pastor is that most who claim to know and love God want to see sin lose its power in their lives and walk in greater intimacy with Christ, yet they are exhausted and have been trying to mortify sin by promises and threats, rather than through the weapons grace provides.

By promises I mean they believe that they will have life to the “full” and get a great house in heaven if they behave in this manner or that manner. In Dallas, this plays itself out with church attendance and comparing ourselves to others. If I go to church frequently and am better than I was a couple years ago or if I’m better than other people who attend my church then I must be good. We love to compare our strengths to others’ weaknesses and grow confident in our goodness.

By threats I mean that many try to behave and modify their behavior because they fear hell and God’s wrath and so that they can earn their way out of hell. The problem with this is that heaven isn’t a place for those who fear hell; it’s a place for those who love God.

Another very popular sport in the Bible Belt is fighting residual sin with our own vows and resolutions; these become our defense. In the end, as we have already discussed you are simply pitting sin against sin and in that scenario, you lose. We fight sin and grow in godliness by using the weapons grace provides. There are at least three:

• The Word of God- 2 Timothy 3:16-17- “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” The Holy Spirit illumines the Scriptures as the “storehouse of weaponry” in the battle against sin and for godliness. All that we need to stand and fight are found within its pages. The reason I think so many people stumble about when it comes to residual sin and maturing in Christ is they have no idea what the Scriptures say when it comes to those subjects. The Scriptures are where we find and are trained to do battle in such a way that victory is found.
• The Blood of Christ- Ephesians 2:13- “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” One of the reasons Paul constantly preaches the gospel to people who already know and believe is because it is human tendency to run back to the law instead of trusting in the blood of Christ to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. You see this especially in Galatians 2:20-3:5. When we stumble and fall we run to God, not from Him. This is made possible by having God’s wrath removed from us and absorbed by Christ and Christ’s righteousness imputed to us. A mark of Christian maturity and genuine gospel understanding is not running away from God to clean yourself up and then come back, but a broken and contrite spirit that runs to Him, asking Him for forgiveness and strength.
• The promises of the covenant- Hebrews 9:15- “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” I remember singing a song in VBS as a kid about God hating liars; I knew I was in trouble. If the 10 Commandments were a quiz or test, I would have easily failed. I’ve been guilty of every one of them. The law was given to show me I can’t be perfect, that I’m going to fall short, that I am in desperate need of a Savior (Romans 1-7). When we stumble and fall, the Spirit reminds us of the Scriptures that promise that there has been a death for those failures and that there is a new covenant resting on Christ now and not on my ability to obey the law. This allows me to pursue Christ without fear and by “beholding his glory I am transformed.”

We’ll try and finish up this series this week with a blog about going after heart instead of action.

Grace-driven effort comes from a new heart. Without this new heart and this work of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, there can be no grace-driven effort. (Ephesians 2:1-10). There can only be effort driven by the applause and praise of men or from pride or self –righteousness. Without the transfer out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13), we will simply pit sin against sin.

It is not uncommon to watch men and women battling their fears and anxieties with control or manipulation; their lust with self-righteousness. No matter which issue wins out…sin still reigns in the ring. It is imperative that we understand what the gospel is and why it is the good news it is. We have been saved by grace ALONE through faith ALONE so that no one can boast!

We will continue trying to define “grace-driven effort” over the next week. I think there are at least five more pieces.