Questions and Progress?

I finished reading Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and I was actually pretty impressed with many of the ideas about community in the book. It's not an easy read, and it's certainly not a perfect book by any stretch of the imagination, but it is very helpful when you try to think about the Biblical theology of community in the Church. I'd love to give some of my observations about community but I'm not sure this is the right forum for those discussions. I might start up another blog, I might not. I haven't decided.

For now I think this blog is better when it's used to share what we feel like God is doing through us out in Los Angeles, and through the support of many of you who read this regularly.

We just celebrated Mindy's 30th birthday on Monday! Yes, my beautiful wife is thirty, and yes she's still smoking hot. It was another fun time with our friends...



We are just now starting to get back into the swing of things with our meeting together. The break was good, but as we've regathered ourselves, and reoriented back to the realities of our lives in LA, we're face to face with several critical questions we have to answer in the coming weeks.

We've been meeting together since October, it took us all fall just to recover from the trauma of the summer and our break with the Wagners, and now we're back, ready to resume an all out push to plant a church in West Los Angeles. Yet the challenge is staggering. Probably the biggest question I'm wrestling with on a daily basis is a simple question:

What does "progress" look like right now?

I have to ask this question for several reasons. The most important is that if people aren't making progress in their spiritual lives as a result of our teaching, equipping, and community, then I'm doing them a disservice by continuing. We are always striving to grow. But the issue is complicated when you start trying to describe what "progress" is. Is it numerical growth? Is it better Bible knowledge? Is more social action? Is it more time of prayer and worship together? A better management of sin? Etc. etc. etc.

I'm convinced all of the above are important, but none is primary. Numerical growth can be an indicator of God's movement in your church, but it can also be an indicator of misplaced priorities. I've seen both. Numerical growth is what I want to see most often because I want to see lost people saved, a buzz about what's happening, and shamefully, at times because I'm financially supported by people on the outside, and let's face it, showing them 500 people at the church looks a lot more exciting then showing them 15 people at the church.

So as we open the doors, I want to take growth serious, but numerical growth is NOT the goal. Making disciples is the goal. The growth is an overflow of that goal.

So keep us in your prayers. None of our people are reluctant to invite new people into the church if we are truly experiencing the presence of God in our community. That's what we're constantly pursuing with one another in this journey.