Student Church Planting - Recently Updated Pages

Marketplace Ministry

iamdavidchiu — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:27:43 CST

My heritage has given me a key asset: a deeply ingrained desire to be biblical. I want to live in the story of God and by the guidance of Scripture. I want my world to be formed and defined by revelation. It's no different for ministry or missional business. It must come from the Book and be formed in that same reality.The pitfall of this is patternism. It's the idea that simply reproducing the form of things in Scripture guaruntees faithfulness. To do so when seeking guidance for missional business is a mistake. After all, where would we look? The New Testiment only mentions business in passing as a side note to mission: The business of Jesus' female friends pays the bills and Paul's tent making supports his band of revolutionaries, but that's it. All that such a pattern can say is that business played a supporting role and that it's not wrong for those on mission to do it. The Old Testament could perhaps shed more light on the subject. There are considerable details of the business ventures of Abraham, Jacob, and a few other patriarchs. However, the behavior and results of these men is so mixed, it would be hard to think of their practices as "the model". For example, Joseph makes a killing selling stored grain collected through a tax. He sells it back to the Egyptians at such a premium, Pharaoh ends up owning every person and all the property in the land [{bible}Gen 74:13-26{/bible}]. While this may be evidence of Pharaoh's great wisdom in making Joseph his right-hand man, it could hardly be seen as conforming to God's standard in terms of justice. In fact, it might have been this practice of Joseph that legally justified the binding of the Israelites into slavery. I could point out the problems in several other examples, but that's probably not necessary. It's enough to say that we must pick and choose which practices of the ancient business men we reproduce and use their stories to draw out rich messages of the profound power and grace of God despite human messiness.The Law, Books of Wisdom, and some of the Prophets could do more to lay out guidance for missional business. They provide many insights into ethical practice, successful character, and just interactions. While this is helpful in setting boundaries and definitions, it does not form a coherent core from which a model can grow and thrive organically. These precepts and principles have been applied by Christian business men for ages, but the typically nominal relationship of faith and business (or faith's accommodation of all financial maneuvering as "business is business") shows that faith must be more than a check or balance to business and more that just a moral consultant. It is my conviction that purposes underlying the Old Testament principles of business have been circumvented in modern practice as much as they were in Israel's day. This is largely because -- like in the case of Israel -- Christians have leveraged business for their own kingdom building and not often for the Kingdom of God. Just as Israel failed in business to live out the commission to be "a kingdom of priests" [{bible}Ex. 19:6{/bible}] and "a blessing to all the nations" [{bible}Gen. 26:4{/bible}], so to the church has largely failed to be "salt and light" [{bible}Mt. 5:13-16{/bible}] in business and instead settled for a domesticated faith-based "value system".Our Jesus must subvert this because "from him and through him and to him are all things" [{bible}Ro. 11:36{/bible}]. It is not enought for a Christian to simply be ethical in her business dealings. She must bend business to the service of the Kingdom like all other aspects of her life. She must be about the revolution of destroying that which does not conform to the reality of God and building and growing what does. This means there is no justification "business is business" and every activity and practice must be made to conform to the mission of God.This isn't easy. Anyone who has done business for long will tell you that everyone must make compromises. We compromise treatment of employees in order to motivate them. We compromise honesty in order to retain customers and increase profits. We compromise on our own boundaries or time and energy in order to please others and climb the ladder. The "real world" is making a victim of God's world, and in many cases we seem helpless to stop it.Beginning with the right model at the center could help. I think the Bible is intentionally vague on the details of business as much as it is vague on the details of Christian community and personal spiritual development. This is because in all these cases, the seed of Christ and faith in him -- which is developed in the Bible in great detail -- must be planted so it can grow organically into a new thing. We get hints of what that tree might look like from the text. But there is no blue print other than the DNA of Jesus. In missional business this means that we must build our enterprise with Christ -- asking the Risen Lord to lead it in his power and presence. He must provide the creativity to circumvent the usual barriers and develop holistic solutions that model the Shalom (complete peace and prosperity) of the Kingdom.Christianity in general has suffered from a largely unconverted heart. Too often we stumble because we expect God to add his grace to those things we have already possessed. But this amounts to asking God to bless our kingdoms. His Kingdom can only come when we discard the usual and look for the divine. We must remain on the quest for a city whose architect and builder is God. It is not enough to add our faith to the American Capitalist system of economics and business. It is not enough to tag on some Christian trappings to our occupational lives. Instead we must first come to possess the Kingdom of our inheritance as Children of God, and then let it fill us with such passion that we will subvert, undermine, capture, and convert everything for the sake of Christ and his glory -- not the least of which is business.

-Ben Cheek

Without Apologies

iamdavidchiu — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:24:07 CST

Speak from that place in your heart where you are most yourself. Speak directly, simply, lovingly, gently and without any apologies. Tell us what you see and want us to see; tell us what you hear and want us to hear....Trust your own heart. The words will come. There is nothing to fear...."
-Henri Nouwen "Life of the Beloved"

David Chiu

David Chiu's Blogs

iamdavidchiu — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:24:01 CST

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How to use this page

scpx — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:20:53 CST

Greetings,

If you are looking at this page it means you have some interest in helping build this site. While I am still new to most of this I can guide you on certain things:

Site Organization:
1.On the left hand side you will find a navigation menu with categories such as Resources and Regions. The resources page will be the location to which training materials will be posted.

2. The regional category is mainly how this page is sorted. The regions are broken down into different geographic regions of the United States and also one category for International users. If all goes according to plan, users will be able to post photos, videos, blogs and testimonies in respect to which region they are from.

3. Along the top you will see a panel with a following list of: Home, Discussions, Photos, Videos, Update etc. Under the Updates tab you will find an easy way to view updates on this page according to user, time, and category.

Adding material:
1. To add new material select the appropriate category on the right hand side and then click Add a New Page at the bottom.

Student Church Planting FAQ

scpx — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:17:01 CST

1. What is the Student Church Planting Movement?

What is the student church planting movement?

The student church planting movement is nothing more than a genuine burning desire that has been birthed within young individuals to radically love God and love people. It is founded upon a rising revelation that Jesus has given all authority on heaven and earth to all believers to make disciples, baptize them, and to teach them to obey (apply) all that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:18-20).

The student church planting movement arises out of a need in many college campuses and cities where many individuals are genuinely interested in spiritual matters but feel misplaced, misunderstood or unwelcome by conventional churches.

In essence, the student church planting movement places heavy emphasis on "missional living" and "missional community" as seen in Acts 2:42-47 where students involved in the community essentially share life together. While not necessarily feeling the pressure to completely replicate traditions and methods seen in the book of Acts, students involved in church planting merely abide by what is most practical to their situation under biblical principles and guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Far from being an isolationist-reclusive community, students in these missional communities are encouraged to live "apostolic" lifestyles which emphasize individual empowerment to love and represent Jesus to all those around them. Eventually students are encouraged to plant new churches of their own.

Resources

scpx — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:16:45 CST

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International

scpx — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:13:01 CST

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Southwest

scpx — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:12:26 CST

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Northwest

scpx — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:12:02 CST

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Midwest

scpx — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:11:54 CST

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Southeast

scpx — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:11:25 CST

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Northeast

scpx — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:11:08 CST

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Regions

scpx — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:10:24 CST

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SCPx Home

iamdavidchiu — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:27:35 CST

What is the student church planting movement?

The student church planting movement is nothing more than a genuine burning desire that has been birthed within young individuals to radically love God and love people. It is founded upon a rising revelation that Jesus has given all authority on heaven and earth to all believers to make disciples, baptize them, and to teach them to obey (apply) all that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:18-20).

The student church planting movement arises out of a need in many college campuses and cities where many individuals are genuinely interested in spiritual matters but feel misplaced, misunderstood or unwelcome by conventional churches.

In essence, the student church planting movement places heavy emphasis on "missional living" and "missional community" as seen in Acts 2:42-47 where students involved in the community essentially share life together. While not necessarily feeling the pressure to completely replicate traditions and methods seen in the book of Acts, students involved in church planting merely abide by what is most practical to their situation under biblical principles and guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Far from being an isolationist-reclusive community, students in these missional communities are encouraged to live "apostolic" lifestyles which emphasize individual empowerment to love and represent Jesus to all those around them. Eventually students are encouraged to plant new churches of their own.

WikiAnswers for CPx users

scpx — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:42:11 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

I HAVE THE POWER!

scpx — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:55:47 CST

So I guess with this any user can add pages videos, pictures.....still looking for a better way to do a more detailed newsfeed.