Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Dr. Matthew Lee Smith

From all of us at Eagles In Leadership, we want to thank you for your support over the past year. We wish you a …

And in the New Year we look forward to our mutual partnership to Encourage Achievement in Godly Leaders by Emphasizing Servanthood!

 

 

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Urban World Being Tackled By Agrarian-Structured Denominations

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Dr. Matthew Lee Smith

In a recent article in the California Southern Baptist, Mark Kelly reported that Focus 21 Task Force Chairman E. Glen Paden, a retired pastor and president emeritus of California Baptist Foundation, said committee members agree dramatic changes are needed to take the gospel to more than 37 million Californians-at least 60 percent of whom will be non-Caucasian in 25 years.

“We see that happening in the public school population among the young people here, and if we don’t set our sails to our future residents in this state, recognizing this change that’s occurring, we definitely will miss the boat,” Paden said. “There is no question in my mind that, not only here but all across our Southern Baptist Convention, changes are needed.

Eagles in Leadership would ask you to read the following paragraph very closely …

“We are basically an agrarian-structured denomination, and our structure and frame-work of our convention life have not changed very much, even though the world has changed significantly,” Paden added. “The geography from which our denomination was constructed was so limited, and now through electronic media and other ways, those lines have all gone, but we still maintain those structures.”

Urban centers are so radically different from agrarian society that we must think new thoughts if we are to do more than have a token presence in the city!

That’s our thoughts and we would love to hear yours!

<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>

Original quotes from an article entitled, CSBC task force to bring recommendations By Mark Kelly in the California Southern Baptist, Volume 70, October 2011, Number 10.

 

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Dr. Smith Speaking in LA This Weekend!

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Dr. Matthew Lee Smith

I will be at Pacific Baptist Church in El Segundo this Sunday for worship at 11 am. The message this week is on the topic: “How to Have a Spirit of Selflessness!” from Philippians 2.1-4.

I know you will want to be there for the encouragement and inspiration the Word of God and the Spirit of God will bring along with the AMAZING John Scott leading worship!

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Dr. Smith Speaking in Chicagoland This Weekend!

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Dr. Matthew Lee Smith

Dr. Matthew Smith will be the worship speaker this Sunday, December 4th at the Brainard Avenue Baptist Church in Countryside, IL.

 

He will speak that the 9:30 am worship service on the subject, It’s All About the Mission!

 

This powerful message will inspire you and encourage you to reach out to friends, family, and neighbors during the holiday season with the life-changing message of the Good News of Jesus Christ!

 

The church is located at 6251 S. Brainard Avenue, Countryside, IL 60525.

 

You are invited to attend and encouraged to bring family and friends!

 

For more information, you can contact the church at 708-354-6797.

 

On the web at http://www.brainardavenue.org/

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Transformed Talks With Big Daddy Weave!

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Dr. Matthew Lee Smith

Our own Mike Powers caught up with Mike Weaver about their tour and their new song, “Love Come to Life!”

For more than a decade, Big Daddy Weave has been one of Christian music’s most successful and musically compelling groups. Their songs, including hits like “In Christ,” “Audience of One,” “What Life Would Be Like,” “Every Time I Breathe,” “You Found Me” and “You’re Worthy Of My Praise,” have been among the genre’s most treasured.

Formed at the University of Mobile, the quintet—Mike Weaver, Jay Weaver, Joe Shirk, Jeremy Redmon and Jeff Jones—has earned a reputation both for the musical conviction that has carried their songs to the top of the charts and for the joy and passion that have made their live performances such moving and memorable experiences.

Big Daddy Weave has also compiled a stellar list of milestones: “One And Only” debuted in SoundScan’s Christian Top 5 and stayed in the Top 20 for six weeks; “In Christ” peaked at #2, stayed for 24 weeks on R&R’s AC chart, and became one of ASCAP’s 25 most performed songs of 2002; the group was nominated for a Dove Award as New Artist of the Year in 2002, honored at ASCAP’s Christian Music Awards in 2003 and 2004, chosen for the WOW Hits compilations in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011, and won a Dove Award for Christmas Album of the Year in 2010.

“The Ultimate Collection” summarizes the group’s career to this point and, with their new single “Love Come To Life,” points the way to one of music’s most promising futures.

 

 

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Dr. Matthew Lee Smith

From Melodee, Tabitha, Mike and I to you and your family,

Happy


Thanksgiving!


Remember that we show our thanks by the way we give!

“In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” (Acts 20:35, ESV)

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Signs of Impending Death in an Urban Church

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Dr. Matthew Lee Smith

Visit most any urban church in America and you will often find a small group of people rattling around in a large facility. The “glory days” for the church have passed them by and things are currently being held together by the barest of means.

 

If you look and listen carefully, you will find many signs of the impending death of that local church. But, like many other topics in life, no one speaks of the elephant in the room. What are we avoiding?

 

#1 – Infrequent adult baptisms

 

Adult baptisms indicate conversions … life is happening on a missional level. When there have been few to none of these in the recent past, death is lurking at the door!

 

#2 – Reluctance to participate

 

Whatever the reason for the attitude, when people disengage from the ministry to and mission of the church, forward momentum ceases.

 

#3 – A desire to decide

 

Coupled with the reluctance to participate, an urban church often has to deal with people who would rather tell others how to live and do church. Such hypocrisy taints the spirit of the body and people flee such manipulation, thus shrinking the resources and size of the congregation even more.

 

#4 – Acceptance of entropy

 

With less, the church services and facilities deteriorate. Since the Gospel is “go and serve,” the urban church now stands as a statue to a by-gone era in the midst of a teeming metropolis of lost people.

 

#5 – A hostility towards innovation

 

Arthritis sets in to the small group left and any new movement causes an eruption of the inflammation that plagues God’s people. Stakeholders nix any new idea for fear what remains will be lost.

 

While no one seems to speak of these things, they are crushing the urban church. Innovation and a fresh wind of the Spirit are needed to restore the vision and mission of Jesus Christ in the local, urban church. Eagles In Leadership exists to help you live and thrive in the changing setting of your urban center. If you would like to learn more, feel free to contact us at admin[@]eaglesinleadership.org.

Posted in Church Health, Leadership Blog, Missional, Multi-ethnic / Urban | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Courageous Movie Interview With Stephen Kendrick

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Dr. Matthew Lee Smith

Honor Begins at Home

Four men, one calling: To serve and protect. As law enforcement officers, Adam Mitchell, Nathan Hayes, David Thomson, and Shane Fuller are confident and focused. Yet at the end of the day, they face a challenge that none of them are truly prepared to tackle: fatherhood.

While they consistently give their best on the job, good enough seems to be all they can muster as dads. But they’re quickly discovering that their standard is missing the mark.

When tragedy hits home, these men are left wrestling with their hopes, their fears, their faith, and their fathering. Can a newfound urgency help these dads draw closer to God … and to their children?

Filled with action-packed police drama, COURAGEOUS is the fourth film from Sherwood Pictures, the moviemaking ministry of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. Riveted moviegoers will once again find themselves laughing, crying, and cheering as they are challenged and inspired by everyday heroes who long to be the kinds of dads that make a lifelong impact on their children.

Protecting the streets is second nature to these men. Raising their children in a God-honoring way? That’s courageous.

In Theaters September 30

Click here for details.

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Alan Hirsch on Missional Discipleship!

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Dr. Matthew Lee Smith

Welcome back to the Transformed podcast. We are honored to have Alan Hirsch with us on the podcast today!

 

Alan is the founding Director of Forge Mission Training Network. He is the co-founder of shapevine.com an international forum for engaging with world transforming ideas. He leads Future Travelers, a learning journey applying missional-incarnational approaches to established churches and is an active participant in The Tribe of LA, a Jesus community among artists and creatives in Los Angeles.

His experience in leadership includes leading a local church movement among the marginalized as well as heading up the Mission and Revitalization work of his denomination. Alan is and adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary and lectures frequently throughout Australia, Europe, and the U.S.
Known for his innovative approach to mission, Alan is a teacher and key mission strategist for churches across the western world. His popular book The Shaping of Things to Come (with Michael Frost) is widely considered to be a seminal text on mission. Alan’s recent book The Forgotten Ways, has quickly become a key reference for missional thinking, particularly as it relates to movements. His book ReJesus is a radical restatement about the role that Jesus plays in defining missional movements.  Untamed, his latest book (with his wife Debra) is about missional discipleship for a missional church.

 

We are aware there are some audio imperfections in this interview – Alan’s connection wasn’t the best. However, we know you will learn a lot if you turn up the volume and stay focused to this great discussion.

 

We are giving away TWO copies of Alan and Deb’s book, Untamed as well! Check out these simple rules and tell your friends.

To be eligible for a FREE copy …

1.     Just sign up for the Eagles In Leadership blog notifications (Right side of this web page) if you are not already signed up.

2.     Make a comment below this post on the web page indicating your desire for the book and how you would envision using it.

3.     Deadline for the free copies will be October 15th.

Winners will be notified after the contest concludes.

Posted in Book Reviews, Church Health, Discipleship, Interviews, Transformed, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Urban Churches Suffocate Under WWII Era Government Structures

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Dr. Matthew Lee Smith

It seems every time Eagles In Leadership is asked to come and help an urban church, one of the key issues strangling the life out of that faith community is their church governing structure. Notably, you will find the current version of their constitution dating from the 1940s or 1950s – usually the post-WWII years when church planting was in a growth surge.

 

This is understandably so; polity is usually cultural and often tied to the origins of the congregation – we reproduce what we know. However, as someone wisely pointed out, “This isn’t the ‘50s anymore!”

 

How can you tell if your governing structure needs a retool?

 

  • Everybody wants to be in charge! (This is often known as congregational rule.) The problem is, you can’t find this structure in the New Testament and urban ministry isn’t about being in charge – it’s about touching lives with the hope and healing of Jesus Christ. It’s about deployment not government!

 

  • The Pastor is an employee! Since a post-WWII structure made everyone the boss, they have to have someone to boss! That “someone” becomes the pastor(s). In an urban church, where the lead pastor is often a community leader, organizer and influencer, such a model simply stifles the progress of the Gospel. Look in the New Testament and seek after words that catch this idea: “And Paul and Barnabas told the community leaders, ‘We will check with our congregation and reply to you after the next quarterly business meeting, after the congregation discusses the matter and come to a majority vote.’” Obviously, you won’t find it! Urban ministry is about making decisions on the fly – understanding that the pastor(s) – like the people – are already authorized for ministry and don’t need a majority vote to do it!  Pastors are leaders of sheep, not employees of companies!

 

  • The people are to be served! Part of the constitution (and the ethos) of the shrinking urban church is the fundamental idea that those people will never grow up; that they will always need a baby-sitter, i.e., the pastor. Essential to the WWII-era constitution is the idea that, “We deserve and expect the pastor to serve us!” Read: Marry, bury, visit, coddle, placate and care for us in any way we so deem. (If you’ve ever been to a business meeting in a “congregationally ruled” church, you totally understand.) Urban churches need to become armies of men, women, teens and children who transform their neighborhoods with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, just as you see happening in the book of Acts! A nursery can’t do this. Only a trained, equipped army of willing workers can! A church’s people are the workers of the ministry, not the babies of the nursery!

 

  • The community exists for the growth of the church! Often we have the wrong target in the urban center: We believe the whole purpose for our existence is to grow the church! So, when someone visits, we begin sizing him or her up for a much-needed infusion of help in our children’s program, our music ministry or committee because the constitution demands we have these! Yet, urban ministry is all about bringing the love and leadership of Jesus to the broken all around us – out in the community – in an effort to see them changed through the work of the Spirit so that they might help others who need such similar rescuing!

 

  • Whatever else you do as a new person, don’t change anything here! Part of every struggling urban church is the non-negotiable truth that the constitution and the culture it birthed and built should never be changed. It is almost as holy as the Bible itself. When someone suggests that we no longer need 4 business meetings a year, three or four bullies will pull down Heaven and Hell to stop such change! Any change is to be stopped at any cost. This creates a real problem because every new member brings change and affects the very DNA of the church! One of the reasons urban churches die is because new people often want to accomplish something for Christ, but realize change and growth isn’t possible in this WWII-era church! Church ministry isn’t about the procedures of the past; it’s about the people in the present!

 

Urban churches need a structure that addresses where they are now! If we can be of help to you in structuring your church for the 21st century, please, let us know!

 

You can email us at transformed [at] eaglesinleadership.org

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