Reflections on Multiply (Anne Wang)

SERIES INTRODUCTION: Recently our staff and a number of lay leaders had the opportunity to attend the Multiply conference which focused on helping established churches fan into flames the God-given dreams for Kingdom expansion in Canada. We’ve asked each attender to talk about what God taught them through the week and how they see that affecting us at DHBC. Videos from the conference will be posted soon at https://www.c2cnetwork.ca/category/videos/

Reflections From Multiply (Anne)

2 days, 12 different talks, 19 pages of notes, and Kajle wants a summary? Please be patient as I do my best to put into words what God taught me through Multiply.

“Be known for knowing God”

I was challenged once again with the thought “do I know God? Am I taking the time to get to know him more? And do those that I interact with see that in me?” Knowing God means to love, trust, and obey Him.  Knowing God means seeking first the Kingdom, seeking things above, putting my hope in His promises. Knowing Him means having my life hidden in Christ (see Kajle’s post). Knowing God means the Fruit of the Spirit are evident in my life as I abide in Him. And from that overflow we can make Him known in our churches and communities.  

It brought to mind what Bill Clem talked about at our DHBC Retreat earlier this year: that discipleship is letting people catch you loving Jesus.

As we seek first to know God, we won’t be able to help but show those around us how the gospel has transformed our lives. Let’s be known for knowing God.

Encountering Jesus through Worship and Prayer

One of the talks was on worship in our churches.  I know I am not the Deacon of Music (thank you Wes for your leadership in this area), but Pat Sczebel did a really good job at a thoughtful and systematic way to unpack the gospel through our worship.  He laid it out this way:

1. God is Holy.  This is a call to exalt and adore Him as King of Kings, limitless, majestic. A big view of God is where worship begins.

2. We are Sinners. When we see the King, our sinful condition is revealed, and the reality of our uncleanliness leads us to confession and lament.

3. Jesus saves us.  What assurance! We have a great Saviour and we need to proclaim this grace.  We lift our eyes up off ourselves and see Christ.

4. Jesus sends us. As a response to the incredible gospel, we come to a place where we say “Here I am Lord, send me.”  He has restored us for His work and service.

As I have had my own moments of worship at home, and even times of prayer, I have been encouraged and found it helpful to follow this progression.  Sometimes I get stuck in a rhythm of praying for my needs, and this has helped to get me unstuck. I encourage you to take some time this week in prayer and worship and spend time meditating on each of these steps.

5 loaves and 2 fish

Again, Kajle already covered this one. I’d encourage you to go back and read how He summarized it. I just wanted to reiterate that God really does use all that we have. While we are not impressive, we worship an impressive God, and if we bring all we have to Him, He will multiply it for His glory.  

As our church goes through this time of transition, it is easy to look and say “God, we don’t have a lot right now.  We need to hold tight to what we have to make it through.”  But our challenge is to give back to God His church and say “Use it. Use us.”

Prayer through Transition

And finally, I was challenged with the importance of prayer through times of change, especially when making decisions.  As you know, our church has had to make a lot of decisions this last year, and we still have some big ones to come.  As leadership, the weight of this can be heavy as we seek to lead the church well.  

 I was reminded once more to bring our church to God in prayer.  Prayer for wisdom, and prayer for the steps of faith we may have to make. So please join me in praying: for the leadership of DHBC, for decisions that have to be made, for unity through the changes, but most importantly, that we will see God glorified through all we do.  

An Interview With Sally Lloyd-Jones

A little while ago a friend linked to this podcast which features an interview with Sally Lloyd Jones. Sally is the author of The Jesus Storybook Bible - a book I highly recommend for all parents to read with their children. I cannot recount how many times I have read it to my boys and how many times I have been moved by these stories and how Sally connects them to Jesus. Recognizing that The Jesus Storybook Bible has had a profound affect not only only Christians and children, but that many people are not likely to pick up a book with "Bible" in the title or many adults are not likely to read a children's book for themselves, Sally has recently released a new edition entitled The Story of God's Love For You.

I recommend Sally's book and also this interview where Sally talks about her writing, but also how God shaped her and continues to use the passions He has given her for His glory. That goes far beyond writing "christian" books, but really using her abilities and passion to glorify God. If you have an interest in art, children or thinking through your vocation for mission and worship, I'd encourage you to listen in HERE.

Reflections from Multiply (Wesley)

SERIES INTRODUCTION: Recently our staff and a number of lay leaders had the opportunity to attend the Multiply conference which focused on helping established churches fan into flames the God-given dreams for Kingdom expansion in Canada. We’ve asked each attender to talk about what God taught them through the week and how they see that affecting us at DHBC. Videos from the conference will be posted soon at https://www.c2cnetwork.ca/category/videos/

Reflections From Multiply (Wesley)

There is much to do with leadership and church multiplication that I gleaned over those two days together at Multiply.  I'm still in the processing and categorizing stage with a lot of that as I think about how it applies specifically to my own life as well as our life as a church.

  So for the time being, I want to share just one highlight from the two days that continues to inspire my heart and mind and stir my affections for Jesus.  It was during the evening session where Francis Chan spoke and the event was opened up to the general public, so an already full Westside church building was now filled to capacity.  And the guy leading the music - Pat Sczebel - was leading us all in an up-temo and then stripped down rendition of the classic hymn "How great Thou art."  And as we all sang our hearts out, something inside me just said, "Wes, stop singing for a minute and look around you."  I don't know if you've ever done this even at DHBC, but the experience was really profound to me.  As I looked around at this packed theatre of 1,800+ people from all different nationalities, denominations, churches, and walks of life, lifting up their hands and singing their lungs out in praise and adoration of their Saviour Jesus Christ,

 "And when I think that God His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on that cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin.  Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee - How great Thou art!"

   And along with how beautiful this sight was in itself, I suddenly had Revelation 7:9-10 in my mind where John writes,"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tried and peoples and languages \, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'"

   And I praised God all the harder b/c I realized I was seeing the smallest taste of heaven as I worshiped alongside these other brothers and sisters that night. 

   That vision is still so clear in my mind, even as I write this. And the worship that moment created in me continues still. Some Sunday when we're singing at DHBC, give this a try: stop singing for a minute and just listen to God's people praising Him; just look around you at hands and voices raised in worship of the only One worthy of our praise.  Then multiply that sight in your mind by a billion and you'll have a taste of what awaits those whose hope is resting in Jesus.

 

Reflections from Multiply (Kajle)

SERIES INTRODUCTION: Recently our staff and a number of lay leaders had the opportunity to attend the Multiply conference which focused on helping established churches fan into flames the God-given dreams for Kingdom expansion in Canada. We’ve asked each attender to talk about what God taught them through the week and how they see that affecting us at DHBC. Videos from the conference will be posted soon at https://www.c2cnetwork.ca/category/videos/

Reflections from Multiply (Kajle)

What are we known for?

Right at the start of the conference Francis Chan forced us to dwell on the question of what we want to be known for. I have big dreams for DHBC to make a difference in Dunbar, Kerrisdale, Point Grey and on UBC campus. I want to be a faithful, humble leader and I want us to be a dynamic, sacrificing, gospel-driven community of believers. And all of those are great things. But without a solid core, all of those will collapse on themselves. Faithfulness, humility, sacrifice – all of those things – are just symptoms of life when we have our proper core.

So what is that proper core? What should we strive to be known for? I need to be known as someone who knows God. We, as a community, need to be known as people who know God. It isn’t enough to just know about God. It isn’t enough to just be obedient. We need to dwell with God. We need to seek Him. We need to grow in our love for Him. Without that, everything else will collapse; we will take pride in our faithfulness and humility, we will grow weary of mission and sacrifice, we will loose the gospel even as we seek to proclaim it.

But knowing God has a cost. Francis spoke from Colossians 3:1-3 which is one of my favorite texts in Scripture. (I refer to it so much that Wes blasphemously refers to it as Kajle-ossians) Francis was speaking about our lives being, “Hidden with Christ in God” and that our lives are so defined by and tied to Christ that Paul says “When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” And I love how Paul emphasizes who we are made to be and that great connection that we have with Jesus – who takes our shame-filled identity and the wrath that we deserve and gives us a restored identity and the glory that He deserves.

But as I thought about our lives being hidden in Christ, I thought about what doesn’t fit. As we put our lives in God, what doesn’t fit anymore? If you reach into a jar of candy and you take a big handful you often can’t pull your hand out. You have to release a little of your stash before you can squeeze your hand out. What am I holding on to that stops me from squeezing my life into Christ’s? What sin? What desire? What fear? Where am I lacking trust?

You see, when I answer those questions I see places where the greatest desire of my life is not to know God. It isn’t to be known as someone who knows God. And if I’m going to bring renewal to this city – if we are going to bring renewal to this city – we need to be renewed first. Reminded that our Jesus is our life.

What we bring (or don’t) to the table

On the second day, Marc Pillon (a Fellowship pastor from Quebec) reminded us that every leader and every church is no more than 5 loaves and two fishes to God. While that isn’t much in the world’s eyes and that pales in comparison to the need, God takes even insignificant amounts given to Him and multiplies it to feed the multitudes.

We have a vision to renew our city, but we are not a large church. We have nothing particular or out of the ordinary to offer.  Just like that little boys lunch, we are not a great. But it is not the size of the gift that matters, it is the one it is given to. The overwhelming percentage of churches in Canada are our size and smaller. And even those that are larger and have many more resources still pale in their potential to the need they are called to fill. We are all no more than 5 loaves and two fish … But we serve a God who multiplies. He takes our humble gift. He takes our weak help. And He blesses it. He works through it. He completes the task He has given us. Because it is Him that matters, not us. Not our glory or our shame. Not our weakness or our strength. Merely our faithful service and His sufficient strength.

Our purpose as a church

The final thing that really stuck out to me over the course of the conference was a confirmation of our purpose as a church. I think, far too often, we have a vision of the church that culminates on itself. We exist for ourselves and for ourselves alone. Sunday morning is our pinnacle and our staff exist to serve and minister to the body.

But I think this is a bit of a mis-calibration of the actual purpose of the church. Our church does not exist solely for it’s own sake, but to grow in worship of our God. That includes drawing others into worship of God by, as we say, “Bringing renewal to our city and world by demonstrating and declaring the transforming power of the gospel.”

Because of this, our Sunday morning gathering is not the culmination of what we are doing, but it is the primary place of equipping and sending out to do our real mission. Because of that, we talk about Everyday Mission and that Everyone is a Minister.

This was re-enforced to me by Jeff Vanderstelt at the conference. Two things that he said stuck out to me. First, there is, “No place for perpetual infancy in the church.” The church isn’t just a place to come and be fed. The church is a place to come and be grown to be a minister. Being a minister doesn’t necessarily mean you are in leadership, but it does mean that you are growing and God is working in you and through you to others.

The second thing Jeff said was, “Don’t pay people to do ministry. Pay people to equip and to do administration so that ministry can happen.” In other words, my job is not to do ministry, but to help equip, support and train everyone to be ministers to do the ministry. So when Wes or Michael or I preach, we are not just ministering, we are equipping those who hear to be transformed by the gospel to be agents of renewal in our city. I think that changes how we approach our roles as staff. It also shifts us as a congregation from receivers to doers.

Moving forward

We continue to be in a time of transformation and working towards being a body of believers that is partnering with God in what He is doing in our neighbourhoods. This is not an easy process, but it is an exciting one. I hope that you are looking forward to it as much as I am.