Paul Stewart

Poets don't make arguments, they reveal mysteries

"What the congregation needs is not a strategist to help them form another plan for achieving a desired image of life, but a poet who looks beneath even the desperation to recover the mystery of what it means to be made in God's image." -- M. Craig Barnes, in The Pastor As Minor Poet: Texts and Subtexts in the Ministerial Life.

HT: Jesus Creed

thegatewaychurch.com

Our website is live! Go to http://www.thegatewaychurch.com and then go and tell three friends!

Our site and our logo were built on a vintage-inspired look. We were going for a clean, minimalist look with a nostalgic feel. We used vintage photos from Des Moines in the 40s as the continuation of the look. Think of your favorite local restaurant where everyone waits in line because they don't take reservations. 

My thanks to Chip and Casey at Fearless Films. These guys are extraordinary! They came up with the design concept and did an incredible job. Check them out HERE.

I also want to thank the good people at Clover. They provided the platform for the site and could not have been any easier to work with. Seriously, great product.

We hope this site will draw many people to our new church… so tell everyone you know to check out The Gateway Church

What About the Kids?

As my wife and I prepare to launch a new church downtown Des Moines reaching out to people who are far from God, one of the issues that we have wrestled with immensely is what this will mean for our kids. What kinds of things will they be exposed to? Is this a safe environment? Are we prepared to deal with outside, negative influence on our children?

As parents, we obviously want is best for our children - safety, education, good friends, and a community that will help to nurture, develop and affirm the values and beliefs we are teaching them at home.

This seems to be consistent theme among many of the parents we have spoken to about our new church. In The Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost argue that in middle-class America there seems to be a preoccupation with safety and security developed mostly in pursuit of what seems to best for our children.

I think this is understandable as long as it does not become obsessive. But these impulses for safety and security often fuse with consumerism, and we end up with an obsession for comfort and convenience. And this is not a good mix. At least as far as the gospel and missional church is concerned.

In fact, while the Bible is clear about parents’ responsibility for the spiritual nurture of their children (Deut. 4:9, 6:7, 11:19, Psalm 78:1-8, Eph 6:1-4), this kind of obsession for safety seems to be contrary to authentic gospel values.  The disciples go so far out of the safety of the church to create new communities amongst the lost that none of them come back alive.

In other words, the desire to protect our children from the world we have been called to reach is actually counterproductive to their spiritual development (for a good example of this read this). Because, after all, if we are teaching our children to do something other than following Jesus, then we are not building Jesus-followers.

What if instead of trying to protect our children within the fortress of the church, we raised children willing to love and serve lost people? What lessons could we teach that would help children understand that God loves people regardless of their rebellion to him?

Recently Larry Shallenberger spoke about these issues at the Willow Creek Conspire Conference and then wrote this post about some the resistance he received. The concern was that if we teach our children to have concern for “bad kids” and to befriend them that their character would suffer. Proverbs does say that bad company corrupts good character. But on the other hand, the savior of our children dined with famous sinners. If our children are to truly imitate Jesus they are going to need to learn how to enjoy the rough kids in their class without being changed by them.

One workshop participant even asked if there was a way to teach children to love their classmates without being friends with them. Shallenberger's answer was simple: “NO.” Jesus enjoyed the moral misfits. We need to teach our children do the same. "The only prophylactic we can offer our children to guard again sin is love. If our children are passionate about loving God and loving their neighbor (all of them) they will less likely to contaminate themselves. Life inside the fortress builds boredom, cynicism, and legalism in our kids."

Despite our desire as parents to provide the best life for our children, there is just no way to eliminate risk in the parenting process. But if we raise children to hide behind the church “fortress” they will be unprepared for life outside the "fortress" as adults. And if our children watch us “repairing our walls” from the attacks of this world by being judgmental and hypocritical, they will grow up to do the same thing.

Shallenberger ends his post by comparing the gift and responsibility of raising children to the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. “God has given us children to develop. We are to multiply their talents and passions. We are to give them a passion for lost people. If we bury these young “talents” in an effort to not lose them, even for the most noble of reasons, we become the evil and lazy servant."

From Fellowship to Enterprise

"In the beginning the church was a fellowship of men and women centered on the living Christ. Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. Next, it moved to Europe, where it became a culture. And, finally, it moved to America, where it became an enterprise." -- Richard Halverson, former chaplain of the US Senate.

Source: The Divine Commodity by Skye Jethani

Jr. High Band

When I was in jr. high I joined a band. The drummer wanted to name our group "Mastectomy" which I found out later in life would have been really, really weird. We dreamed of playing playing in front of our classmates, becoming the envy of all our friends, and being followed around by the most gorgeous pre-adolescent groupies (hopefully Lindsay, Meredith and Rebecca and maybe even some high school girls). 

We ended up just playing Nirvana's Nevermind over and over and over again in my friend's basement. Actually, we got pretty good at the intro to Zoo Station too... but the rest of our dreams went unfulfilled. I think it was a lack of promotion, but it could also have been the complete lack of natural talent or the distraction of Tecmo Super Bowl or the inability to commit to something longer than two weeks. 

But, I know that if we could have overcome those few tiny obstacles we would have sounded just like these guys...

Good Friends

This weekend I had the privilege of performing part of the wedding ceremony for my good friends Matt Moeckl and Jena Vandenberg. Growing up, Matt was like a big brother to me. He is an encourager and true friend. 

Matt is also an incredible leader. He is the program director at Wildwood Hills Ranch in St. Charles, IA. Wildwood collaborates with organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters as well as the Department of Human Services to identify and assist “at-risk” children in Iowa. Most have been abused, neglected, or completely abandoned by their parents.

Wildwood brings these kids in for a weeklong summer camp experience where they can just be kids and simply have fun. Many get to go hiking, swimming, horseback riding, and fishing for the first time in their lives. During the week camp counselors help teach these children the meaning of honesty, integrity and respect – core values that most of these kids are unaware of simply because of the situations life has dealt them. Everything they do is based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. 

Matt & Jena are also a part of our Launch Team at The Gateway Church and have already played an integral role in getting us up and running. So thankful for friends like these. 

Blog Renewal

In anticipation of The Gateway Church's new website (set to arrive sometime next week), I spent the day redesigning my personal blog. All of the "incredible" content is still here, but now I've added even more, all for the same amazing price... FREE!

I wanted to create a place for our prayer partners and financial donors to find out more about our vision that was separate from our upcoming church website. 

If you are interested in finding out more about us and why we are starting a new church in Des Moines, just click on any of the links above.

Thanks for following along!

ho·mo·ge·ne·ous prin·ci·ple

ho·mo·ge·ne·ous prin·ci·ple = people like to become Christians without crossing racial, linguistic, or class barriers.

This principle was put forth by Dr. Donald McGaveran in the 70’s and led to the church-growth movement of the 80’s and 90’s. This movement focused not only on attracting people just like us, but on making church as comfortable and convenient as possible.

In The Monkey and the Fish, author Dave Gibbons calls for a dramatic change in our church-growth strategies. In chapter three entitled “Neighbor” he appeals to rapid worldwide globalization as well as the biblical story of the Good Samaritan in his case for a theology of discomfort.

"In the world we now live in, the single best thing a church can be doing is contrary to the homogeneous principle. It means rallying behind kingdom values and vision, rather than skin color and socio-economic status…

Here is the reality: if we really want to see our churches grow in the way Jesus would want us to grow, if we really want to see Christ revealed in our communities and through our lives and in this global world of ours, then we must focus our strategic initiatives of love on people who make us feel uncomfortable, who don’t fit into our thinking and our conventions, who are marginalized and even considered misfits and outsiders.

Individual churches might not grow as quickly, but I believe with all my heart that the Church would be even more enduring and virile and robust and alive than ever…

When the world sees the church willing to forego size and scale to love and embrace people who are not like us, treating them as neighbors, they can sense an expression of true and genuine love. It’s a thing of miraculous beauty. And people know beauty when they see it." (pp.78-79)

What does this look like in your community? In your church? Are you intentionally including people in your life that make you uncomfortable? 

How to Choose Your Dreams

Another inspiring post by Seth Godin:

"There's a story in the bible with very specific instructions for building an ark. Included in the instructions is a call for using tanned dolphin leather. Regardless of your feelings about the historical accuracy of the story, it's an interesting question: why create an impossible mission like that? Why encourage people who might travel 100 miles over their entire lifetime to undertake a quest to find, capture, kill, skin and eventually tan a dolphin?

My friend Adam had an interesting take on this. He told me that the acquisition of the leather is irrelevant. It was the quest that mattered. Having a community-based quest means that there's less room for whining, for infighting and for dissolution. Having a mission not only points everyone in the same direction, it also creates motion. And motion in any direction is often better than no motion at all.

All around you, people are telling you two things: 

1. whatever you want, forget it, it's impossible, and 
2. sit still, preserve resources, lay low.

And yet, the people who are succeeding, creating change and (not coincidentally) are happier aren't listening to either of these pieces of advice. Instead, they're on the search for dolphin leather.

Frank Sinatra had it wrong. Your dream shouldn't be impossible, but it sure helps if it's improbable. Don't choose your dreams based on what is certain to happen, choose them based on what's likely to cause the change you want to occur around you."

Why Church?

“...the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose.” - CS Lewis

Last night was our second meeting as a launch team. Twenty-two of us gathered in my living room and discussed the Church.

We started by sharing one thing we would each improve about the Church if we could.

It sounds weird to say this, but I was so encouraged by people’s frustrations with the Church! We talked about hypocrisy and protectionism; about the façades and games Christians often play; we discussed a lack of sincere worship and clear vision, and corrupt leaders and on and on.

Next, I asked them to forget about everything we just mentioned. To let go for a minute of all of the baggage and preconceived notions we have of the Church and to imagine that Jesus, rather than coming in the first century, chose to arrive in the twenty-first century…

To imagine that our group had just spent three years with Jesus. We listened to him teach, witnessed his miracles, watched in horror as he was crucified and buried, and in awe at his resurrection.

That we were standing together at Camp Dodge overlooking the city of Des Moines when Jesus ascended into heaven.

Jesus has just left us with a mission to reach our city, our state, our nation and our world with His Gospel. Essentially he says, go out and do what I did… and by the way, you’ll do even great things than that!

So we come back to my living room and start praying. We meet every night for a few weeks (maybe upstairs), and then the Holy Spirit falls and empowers us and sends us out on God’s mission.

What would we do?
Where would we start?
What would our church look like?

What followed was the beginning of The Gateway Church.