The new & improved Keith McCallum

Elaine Stedman, Pastor Ray Stedman’s wife, calls Keith McCallum “the Firebrand from Ohio.” He will be flying out from Columbus to San Francisco the third week in March.  Keith has been on the forefront of Christian radicalism for thirty years. You can read more about him on his magazine’s web-site link and a little about his plans to visit the West Coast at link. I’m looking forward to meeting him and am planning to drive down to the Bay Area when he flies in – probably with Lambert Dolphin at PBC (Penninsula Bible Church) the church Ray Stedman led for close to thirty years.

Please be in prayer for his visit. Keith’s vision closely corresponds to mine.  He too has been touched deeply by the Luke 14 vision; however, instead of calling those who attend the the supper “the dispossessed,” he calls them the “disestablished” – and includes not just the “down-and-outers,” but students as well – calling them the “unestablished” – meaning persons not yet invested in the “here and now.”  We both place little stock in the “established” – meaning persons who are deeply invested in the “here-and-now” and have, therefore, little interest and little time for the gospel. Keith has played a pivotal role in raising up a church that ministers to almost five thousand persons in and around the Ohio State campus in Columbus. (I’m looking forward next year to Cal, my alma mater, thrashing Ohio State in football.)

Greg surveys the spiritual landscape

For the first time in years, NeoXenos trustees gathered at an Elder’s retreat rather than a Sphere Leader’s Under-shepherd Ministry (SLUM) retreat. The Michaleks and Hughes’ were trustees, but at the the October Body Meeting they were appointed Elders by common consent. The difference is not small, because the Bible says it should be those with Elder character qualifications who lead Christian ministry (See 1 Tim. 3 and Titus 1).

Together with the McCallums and Morschers, who were already Elders, the group met for two days on the shores of frozen Lake Erie to survey the spiritual landscape and get a fix on future directions.

As we see in Acts 6, Elders should focus on “the Ministry of the Word” and prayerful leadership. The challenge of an Elder’s retreat is discerning God’s leadership, understanding how God’s Word applies to NeoXenos, and discussing how “to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:12)

The Ministry Landscape

The ministry in 2010 looks considerably different than last January’s SLUM retreat when we were faced with such tremendous persecution and opposition. Not only did Jesus lead us into vindication and protection, He also brought us tremendous spiritual victories:

1. All ministries are reporting salvations.
2. All ministries are seeing new and competent leaders and teachers.
3. We saw unprecedented growth (nearly 25%) across our ministries.
4. We were blessed with 12 new qualified Deacons and two new Elder-teams!
5. We expanded our support to include the Meeting House in Canada and Ray Stedman’s people in California.
6. We were blessed with free (and quite exquisite) meeting facilities at the KSU Chemistry labs!
7. And two student Home Churches split!

All of these advances are quite astonishing, considering that NeoXenos was a renegade, vagabond Christian fellowship last January. It seemed the whole world was set against NeoXenos for no reason anyone could identify!

For 2010 please pray that Jesus will continue to provide for us! Even with all these great advances, we are still a church “with only a little power.” (Rev. 3:8)

Issues for the 2010 FST Retreat

Despite all this good news, we are facing tremendous hurdles for 2010:

1. Financial shortfalls continue to limit our future prospects.
2. We desperately need to hire part-time student  interns in order to sustain our growth and take advantage of new ministry opportunities opening up to us.
3. We cannot lose our zeal for spiritual revolution, now that we are no longer facing persecution and opposition.
4. The expanding ministries with new leaders and teachers desperately require equipping in the Word.

These hurdles are significant, because we must also expand into these new and exciting ministry opportunities:

1. We must spread and export the Jesus Revolution we enjoy so much; what a tragedy it would be if this ministry remained bottled-up in Ohio while spiritual decline spreads across the rest of the country!
2. We must do more to “remember the poor” and suffering that surrounds us. New opportunities are under consideration.

The Elders emerged from their weekend with an exciting list of prospects to meet these challenges, however. And this will be the topic of the upcoming Fiscal Support Team Retreat (FST) in February!

Stay tuned for more…and fill out a Pledge Form for the FST retreat!

“These are the times that try men’s souls.”  — Thomas Paine

Such words aptly describe our position as we charge full-steam into the darkness: it’s a hideous world of hatred and alienation against Jesus, the atmosphere is thick with deceit, and it’s a love-killing world. Who dares stand out as a target? (more…)

When classes are finished, we will have a Body Meeting Christmas Celebration Gala. There are several exciting and inter-connected efforts in-motion which we must explain beyond the few leaders and workers currently involved. As fast as we can, we’re posting it in the NeoZine, as podcasts and YouTube videos:

The Columbus Love Ethics Seminar now has its own Web space which also provides (new and improved) material for NeoXenos ministries.

Christian Persecution 101: view it at the bottom of the page or as a full-page Powerpoint presentation of Keith’s teaching at the recent Word/CBS worker’s meeting. (You can also see the full teaching as a 30-minute Google Video)

A new version underway...

Revolutionary Christianity: related to persecution is the biblical mandate for Christians to impact the culture. Unfortunately, Christianity is meek and growing meeker – is it happening with us? Watch out for these provocative studies and insights.

Future High School and College ministries – Xenos reaches “church outsiders” with the Gospel message; but how can we reach more “Millenials” alienated from Christianity? Related to this, a growing bias against Christianity in public policies (especially in education) provide wonderful opportunities to spread the Gospel, we think. These policies violate constitutional freedoms specifically for Christians, and federal judges are overturning them fast, but they keep growing. These are welcome trends, and we want to jump on them and understand how to work with them.

Uncommon Sense – a booklet similar to “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine. Keith and Kalie Brooks are collaborating to write a simple, readable, small booklet for the MySpace generation. It is a series of pictures contrasting the Kosmos and God’s Kingdom. The reader is invited to pursue a hopeful future. The booklet is tied to Persecution 101, Revolutionary Christianity, and our school strategies.

Meetings without boundaries – the New Testament church was highly mobile, and we are studying this further. This Fall we stepped into some “meeting fluidity”, and we are now studying how the early church managed this. Our interest is to plant and plant without getting stretched too thin in the process.

Additional Background

For about six months we’ve been generating some articles which provide some background to these new initiatives:

• The Protestant Reformation Series at the NeoZine surveys current church movements from a historical and biblical perspective. It explains the need to break away from Institutionalized Christianity. Noteworthy articles include:
  • The Fears in Legalism – the rise of Christian legalism and the differences between Old and New Covenants in the Bible.
  • The Dawn of Covenant Theology and Heartless Institutions – help Christian workers explain the problem of church history, which is a popular objection today.
  • The Fear Factor – is a bridge to these new ministry efforts, especially the “sending” strategy underway.
• “I had a dream…” is an anecdotal (humorous) background for these “sending strategy”. (A followup is due shortly.)

Please pray for us!

We need help!

• We need help researching, organizing, sharpening and publishing useful tools for our growing ministry!
• We need to catch up with our finances, because money is quickly becoming a limiting factor in this effort!

The Cool Poole-Pollock Ideas

First there was Doug Pollack’s book “Irresistible Evangelism” and his presentation two years in a row at the Summer Institute. Then there was the somewhat alien (by Xenos standards) “Bush Group” approach of Gary Poole’s book “Seeker Small Groups” and it’s plethora of real-world examples. Then there was the Xenos example of the fearless Howells and Morschers who launched a Discovery Group of their own.

Hearing their stories caused excitement and interest. Then the clip from the Dawkins/Lennox debate at CT attracted us and reminded me of our training in apologetics. Our men’s cell group viewed the entire Dawkins/Lennox Debate DVD. It was a ready-made presentation for an outreach group. We decided to invite some non-Christian friends to view and discuss the debate. Call it “Delusion I” (a play on the “God Delusion” title of Dawkins’ book).

Great Resources

Our group set the date, and Michael and Rick listened to audio versions of Dawkins’ “God Delusion” book. We found a wealth of online resources at William Lane Craig’s site (www.williamlanecraig.com), including debates and great evidence to believe in the Bible. In one of his audio files Craig said, “We get so defensive when we witness to unbelievers when we don’t know good answers to the questions or objections unbelievers give.”

I was amazed at the sophistication of the arguments piling up over the centuries. When compared to Dawkins’ arguments against Christianity, I really began feeling embarrassed for him. He did little to prove atheism or disprove theism.

It’s great to know the evidence for God’s existence for several good reasons:

1. Great evidence is available!
2. It’s very difficult to answer Christian evidence in one night.
3. Since it may take several nights, weeks or even months to plumb the depths, it’s a new Discovery Group approach!

Then we prayed and prayed again and again.

And THEN…

Alas, two self proclaiming atheists and an agnostic showed up from Michael Toth’s long list of friends (one even grew up in the Riverwood Community Church!). Following a relatively short time of getting acquainted while eating hors ‘dourves prepared by chef Jordan, Michael, Bill, Katrina & I sat down with our guests to watch the first half of the debate DVD.

I thought, “Whoa, I have no idea where this is going…I may have to bite my tongue.”

I believe Lina was right in her Discover Group article: when you provide a safe forum in which to discuss the “big” questions of life, non-Christians feel comfortable enough to discuss their own views. One of our guests admitted to being a “closet atheist” in her work environment for fear of how fellow work associates might react to that fact. She apparently felt totally at ease sharing that with us. That was cool beans man!

The issues were varied and strayed from those brought up in the first half of the DVD. We determined “rabbit trails” to be fine for now. In fact, very little control was exercised.

Then one very interesting question came up: “What would it take for you to lose your faith?” Without blinking, Bill said, “if Christ had not been raised, our faith is worthless.” And I added, “Yeah, the Apostle Paul said we would be of all men most to be pitied.”

Is it possible to begin a potential Discovery Group, deliver your testimony and the gospel, all in the first night? Sure it is! We did it! It really happened so naturally.

Our guests are looking forward to “Delusion II” on Friday, October 17, 2008 and apparently an additional person will come along.

Please pray for us!

Fresh.  Exciting.  Right.

These are the words that express how we felt about starting a Discovery Group (DG) last fall.  The guided discussions in an accepting and listening atmosphere were thought-provoking for people who came. (more…)

God’s power unleashed in Northeast Ohio — new groups, new people, new leadership, and unusual results – Greg, Joel, Keith and Mark discuss the amazing new ministries underway this Fall in a “Roundtable Discussion”. Let us know what you think of the Podcast!

Still interested in the implications from the 2008 Servant Team Retreat? There were many positive elements, but the STR also raised confusing issues. Read about the potential fallout and join the discussion about the future direction which affects NeoXenos almost as certainly as it will affect Columbus Xenos.

Two articles in the NeoZine discuss the need for change not only in Columbus, but Northeast Ohio as well:

• Driscoll Versus the Weenie Wars, Part 1 discusses the sound leadership paradigm proposed by Mark Driscoll, one of the upcoming speakers at the Summer Institute in Columbus. It’s good exposure to how Driscoll approaches Christian ministry, but it some of what he teaches requires careful consideration at NeoXenos.
• Driscoll Versus the Weenie Wars, Part 2 tackles the tough issues of planting new churches. The article raises issues that all Christians should consider, but certainly the impact on NeoXenos should be quite noticeable if these proposals are adopted.
• The Real Xenos Model – did we lose our way somewhere? It doesn’t look good when our mentors say they lost their way! Willow Creek is now rethinking its “seeker-sensitive” business-leader model. This has implications for the new directions NeoXenos is undertaking as well.

Leave your comments about these articles at the NeoZine.

Calvary leaders warn churches against adopting their model, because “they teach that immitation is carnal,” Dennis said. “Chuck teaches that you need to get your own vision from God.”

But “they have a good, hot theology of ministry,” Dennis added. “It’s already affected Columbus significantly, but not how they do church, though.” He said Xenos churches will benefit from examiningthe following issues closely and considering how to impliment them. (more…)

Years of searching, questioning and cross-country travel were involved. Xenos sent teams of researchers to scores of growing, cutting-edge churches across America. Yet for all those hours and money invested, the quest to find a church-planting movement reaching mostly non-Christians was a frustrating failure. (more…)