Renaissance Innovation

Hi everybody.

Take care people!

Many leaders and pastors in churches seem to latch onto various ministry models from year to year.  I would really like to encourage ministry leaders to seek their guidance and wisdom from Jesus.  The more I think about it, the more I realise that we should stop seeking the flavour of the year and rather look for what God wants us to do here in our communities. 

Many leaders simply follow a specific model or philosophy or whatever.  As Erwin Mcmanus commented about pastors in SA  when he said that we take the worst of the US and copy that here next to the poorest of the poor.  We now also build mega buildings and have state of the art theaters.  But our neighbours have no food.

Why did God put us here in SA?  Because He wants us here and He wants to give us guidance.  No problem in learning from others, but our primary counsel should be the plans that God wants for our people.

I am just trying to put forward the suggestion that we start relying on God again and not some super mega church guru!!

Does it make sense?

Since being out of fulltime, payed ministry since May 2005, many people ask me what my highlight was of 2006, thinking that it’s making money or getting huge clients out in the corporate world. As exciting as it is to sell a product and succeed, let me tell you about a true highlight of 2006.

As a coach I spend a lot of time one on one with clients. Last year I spend 9 months with a specific client who was a beauty editor of a very prominent womans magazine. She was very disillusioned with God, church and her husband who she divorced during 2006. Being Catholic the guilt that she had overwhelmed her. She thought that she had failed in life and that she was rejected by God.

I went on a journey with her and just asked questions about her experiences of God, church and life. It soon became evident that she had a real problem with the church. All through the process her son started asking her questions about Jesus. She cursed at him when he asked saying it all was rubbish.

My discussions with her focused on the historical Jesus, rather than the Jesus that the church created. Jesus is so much more than what the church taught through the ages. I also put a specific focus on grace and that Jesus wept with her through her divorce. He understood her pain and wanted her to heal and continue with life.

After 9 months she went and bought a Bible for herself and her 7 year old son got the children’s version. From moving away from God this lady moved towards seeking God’s face once again.

That was my highlight of 2006!

I don’t know what happened last time, but it was a good post, so good I can’t remember what I wrote and thus I can’t repeat it.

I have really been thinking about many things lately.  For those of you who don’t know I am a recovering sinner, but also a recovering church pastor.  I have been working for myself the last 2 years and my business is doing well.  What has struck me the last 2 years is how isolated I was from the world working for the church, even though the church I worked for was seen as a leading missional church in South Africa.

 We had world renowned speakers visit us anually which included Bill Hybels, Rob Bell, Leonard Sweet, Brian Mclaren and this year Erwin Mcmanus made a visit.  What surprised me was that all these leaders always made great comments about the church, about how cutting edge the church is and that it is a world leading congregation.  Man, if we were on the cutting edge, the church world wide is in deep du-du!!

What I have realised is how we just kept a bunch of consumers happy, for their ten percent!!!  Then because we threw one hell or heaven of a show we robbed all the smaller churches from their consumers, because we had the better product!  We were a smooth sailing business.  Our leaders got more money, moved into estates and bought sports cars.  Meanwhile some of our African pastors that we supported had to find extra jobs to stay alive, cause the white affluent church did not pay them enough to live.  If you think apartheid is something of the past, it’s very real in the church over here.

Just thinking about all this, I realise that we are in trouble.  If this is the leading church in South Africa, we are going down.  I pray that we as Christians in SA would become what God intended.  I pray that we become authentic and honest again.  May God save us from our capitalistic, business perspective of church.

Everyday I meet people in the corporate world seeking.  People with pain, people with need, people who need Jesus.  I would never have met them, if I stayed a pastor.

Take care,

2007 has started.  3 years to 2010 and the Soccer World Cup.  Apparently we are behind schedule.  But I’m sure we will get there.  I just hope that we as a country can work together to make this work.

Adel and I had a great holiday.  We drove over 6000 km and basically drove around the southern tip of Africa.  I’m back at work again, Adel too.  We sense that this is going to be a great year for us and our movement.  We pray that God would move among us and take us to where he needs us to be.

 Mad Max, I’ll have Skype soon, promise, I just need the earset and microphone.

In South Africa, our whole country comes to a standstill in December.  It is summer and our small country takes a break from the ratrace.  Most people head to the coast. 

 This year Adel and I will tour the west coast for 28days.  From the first tot he 28th we will be away and basically relaxing.  I am taking 3 books with me. 

One day at a time - Trevor Hudson

Jesus before Christianity - Albert Nolan (great read!!!!!)

The secret message of Jesus - Brian Mclaren

The first 2 authors are South African and you should read their work.

Here is a link to find out more about our countries west coast: http://www.capewestcoast.org/

Take care and have a lovely Christmas.

Hey People.

Please check out www.francoisengelbrecht.voxtropolis.com

He is part of our movement here in Johannesburg. He is the first recruit to Voxtropolis.

Please go comment!

Take care

Some highlights of an online conversation from our movement.

EugeneB said…
Hermann I like what you have done so far and I cannot wait for our next meeting. What can we do to break down the layers that culture and tradition have put on loving Jesus today?

9:24 AM

Hermann/Adel said…
Eugeneb

I believe that we should not see ourselves as Christians any more, but imitaters of Jesus and His way of life. We should not tell others that we are Christians, but that we are people trying to live the values that Christ lived while He walked the earth.

Then we should watch out for all the pitfalls of the Christian sub culture. We are not better or less sinfull than anybody out there! We need the grace of Jesus like anybody else. We are all broken…

We need to start talking and acting differently and there should be more integrity in our actions.

I have learned a lot from the AA in this regard. Please go check out the website www.alcoholics.org.za This is a powerfull movement where all are equal. We as followers of Christ need to learn to see others as equal, because Christ loves them the same.

In short, we need to break down those layers by not judging, but accepting, like Jesus..

5:51 PM

EugeneB said…
I had a coversation with a friend over lunch the other day, he felt that what makes it difficult to have a relationship with Jesus was the feeling that he was just not good enough. The perceptions in his mind of what a Christian should look like does not fit with his perception of himself. His desire was to have a relationship with Jesus but he had no desire to become part of a church, nothing church offer appealed to him. What does a relationship with Jesus look like to you outside of Church?

5:13 PM

Hermann/Adel said…
Eugeneb

Church as an institution I believe offers very little for your relationship with Christ.

Church as a body with movement and momentum offers all the benefits as originally intented by Jesus and Paul.

To answer your question: I think a relationship with Jesus outside the insitutional church is most probably more authentic.

Most people confuse their relationship with Jesus for a relationship to an institution/church. That’s why if people move away from the church/intitution the relationship is most probably more authentic. If there is a relationship when they leave the church.

This relationship could be charactarized by more time alone with God and less time in church activity. We are the Church, the people, so if we gather, maybe once a month, then it is a church gathering, but if we leave there, we stay the church, moving around in the world spreading the Kingdom.

Does that make sense?

2:10 PM

EugeneB said…
I feel lately that life is moving at an incredible pace and I wonder if it is the way God intended it to be, we have segmented our lives to not live one day at a time but from one event to the next be it weekly monthly or annually. Is it not sad that we so look forward to our December breaks that we wish precious time away? What do we do in the movement to help people experience God daily and not one day a week?

3:32 PM

Hermann/Adel said…
Eugeneb

I think you are so right.

We are chasing wind! I see this everyday with my clients as they work long hours to afford a December break!!!!!!

One of our core values in the movement is simplicity. It is a value that we need to live and proclaim. We have made life very complex! We need to simplify.

Jesus lived in and with simplicity. We should become more uncluttered. This is a very tough process for me though as I try and meet all demands. The reality is I can’t, you can’t, that’s why we need to simplify. Henri Nouwen as an author has taught me a lot about simplicity.

I think simplicity helps us to focus and prioritize. I wish I was further down the road of simplicity, but I am not. It is something I pray for……..

10:44 AM

Anonymous said…
Guys

How are we talking to the others about the movement? How do we answer their questions?

9:40 AM

EugeneB said…
At the core of the movement is our love for Jesus and our desire to imitate his way of life. I think we should try and keep it simple when we tell others. We should try to break down barriers and not create new ones. The question to me is what is the most basic structure needed to follow Jesus? How do we ensure that the hunger for a relationship with God does not get consumed by the comfort that a structure may offer?

10:00 AM

Hermann/Adel said…
Eugeneb

We should never take the responsibility for other people’s growth. We should try and help people, but never make them so comfortable that they become co-dependant.

The movement is a place where you can give and develop yourself to live the calling placed on your life. It is not a place where you will recieve and keep recieving. You are the movement, you need to be responsible for your journey with God.

The structure should be minimal and flexible. But we need structure. But the goal is not structure, that’s why it needs to be flexible.

And somehow we need to keep people uncomfortable, other wise they fall into comfortzones. We need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, this brings growth!

11:15 AM

For the last 6 months a couple of us have constructively discussed a new movement focused on the values of Christ and the early church. I have mentioned those values in previous posts.

Our structure will be as follow:

Once a month a corporate gathering, but we will be at a different venue in the city every month.
Once a month a small group meeting at home, discussing the teaching of the corporate gathering.
Once a month families will work on a family Bible study, also based on the teaching of the corporate gathering.
Once a month a morning of solitude and prayer focused on the corporate teaching and applying that to our lives.

The vision of the movement will be to give vision to individuals and mobilize them, for mission.

The movement will be facilitated by 6 elders. Every person in the movement will be in lay ministry. No one will recieve financial compensation.

Our first corporate gathering will most probably be in early 2007.

Everything will be held together with a website and a blog, where all can comment and share conversation and get the latest news and venues.

Would love to know your thoughts?