Bob Mayfield

Are We Unifying or Dividing the Church?

I read JD Payne's blog today about all of the adjectives that we have in front of our church's today and it just made me stop and reflect about the author's topic. (Some of his humor was pretty good too: "Will there come a day when we speak of “Baptist, post-modern, seeker-sensitive, gen-X, cowboy, house churches”?  How’s that for your business card?")

Check the blog out here: http://bit.ly/aMH5vH

The basic context of the post in my view is this: do all of the adjectives we put in front of the church help spread the Gospel or discourage it? JD says it well:

"Do we teach our Japanese churches that they are just as responsible for reaching African-Americans as the African-American churches?  Do we teach our cowboy churches that they are to evangelize and plant churches among the hip-hop subcultures?"

I'm even wondering the same thing regarding our small groups and Sunday Schools? Do our groups understand that even though they may be a young adult group, they are also responsible to reach senior adults? Preschoolers? Students?

J.D. Greear - Conveying Truth in a World of Opinion

Pastor J.D. Greear of Summit Church in RDU, North Carolina was one of our keynote speakers at the Missional Ministry Conference in Norman, OK a couple of weeks ago. JD did a great job in this opening session sharing the biblical basis behind the importance to talking truth to culture.

Missional Ministry Conference Review

We have completed reviewing the surveys of this year's Missional Ministry Conference, which we hosted on March 25-26 in Norman, OK. It was a great conference this year and J.D. Greear and Alvin Reid did a superb job as our keynote speakers. Our video team has been editing the videos for us, and they just about have them all done. I'll start posting the videos here on the blog, and they will also be available on the Missional Ministry website, www.missionalministry.net.

Something that I do not often go into is some of our philosophy behind the Missional Ministry Conference. Among the conferences done by state conventions, I believe that the MMC is one of the more unique meetings that is done. Since we just completed our fifth MMC, let me share some of the philosophy behind what we are trying to accomplish through the conference.

First, we really try to create an informative, seminar style setting. We arrange the room we use for the large group meetings in a fan shape and around tables. Until we grow to the point that we have to lose the tables and sit in rows (ugh!), we'll keep this arrangement. The tables make it easier to take notes. Also, using tables encourages community and sharing. It also gives church staffs the opportunity to sit together and share ideas between sessions.

Second, "we are who we are"... and we don't apologize for it. Yes, the music is going to be edgy and maybe loud for some folks. Others love it! The speakers are probably going to say some things that you may not agree with entirely. In fact, we hope they do! Every year I have several people share with me after the conference, "Bob... thanks for bringing (insert name here) to the MMC. He stretched my thinking and I needed that." We do not try to play it safe at the MMC. Also, we are not trying to make everyone happy. That's impossible anyway. But at the same time, our team will look at the evaluations very carefully. We often find some great ideas in the evaluations, and we also realize sometimes that we goofed up on something too!

We try to keep the cost as low as possible. This year's Early Bird Rate (about 75% of attendees) was $85.00. Registration fees for other conferences similar to the MMC are often two to three times that amount. Of course, we use some CP money to help subsidize the MMC, and we are not trying to turn a profit. We're very successful on that last point!

As we have developed the MMC, we have gradually moved toward offering something for leaders of the major age groupings and ministries we find in our Oklahoma churches. We value the interaction of each group, and we also have begun to understand the value of getting the leaders of church ministries involved in the missional dialogue together. This opportunity that church staffs have to get away from the office and find breakout sessions designed specifically for them has become a valuable part of the MMC.

Finally, we view the MMC as an opportunity for those pastors and leaders in Oklahoma who want to be missional in their communities to gather together, network, learn, and be inspired. This last MMC had a very broad spectrum of people in attendance. We had leaders whose churches are on the edge of missional ministry, some leaders who want to learn how to lead their church to be missional, and some others who are checking the "missional" thing out. We had young leaders sporting soul patches and some leaders wearing a crown of gray hair. During one of the sessions, I realized that about 10% of the conferees were Native Americans!

New eBooks Available

We have taken the two series I put together called "31 Days of Sunday School" and also "31 Days to a Better Sunday School" and put them in ebook format for you to download free. Combined, this series of practical suggestions about having a quality Bible study ministry gathered over 10,000 hits. I had several people ask if we would put them on the web, so we did. My assistant Tiffany did a great job reformatting everything.

Just click here on our Missional Resources page and these new eBooks are available now for download.

We also included an e-version of last year's book, Missional Pivot Points as well. Pivot Points is also available on the Missional Resources webpage.

While you are there, you will also find podcasts, PowerPoint presentations, and some inspiring videos for you to use as well.

John Piper on Small Groups

I've never really thought of "John Piper" and "small groups" in the same thought, but here is this very well-spoken pastor encouraging his church to get involved in a small group, and sharing why it is important.

Lately, I have been trying to update the definition of Sunday Schoo/Small Groups. The age-old axiom is this:

Sunday School is the church organized to do the work of the ministry.

My new definition is simply a 21st century expression of the one above:

Small Communities is how the church organizes for mission.

It is imperative for church leaders to understand that the church's classes and groups need to be the organization carrying the major responsibility to carry out the church's mission of making disciples. This is best done by impacting lostness in the culture, bringing them to repentance and salvation in Christ, and then walking with people in their journey as Christ-followers.

I am finding it very common now for churches to assign the church's mission to the missions team, or the youth group, or through broad appeals from the platform to just go. Our classes and groups want to be involved in the core mission of the church, and should be the platform through which the church organizes itself for mission. Smaller groups are easier when it comes to understanding mission, communicating mission, and also for accountability.

J.D. Greear and Alvin Reid

This year we are thrilled to have J.D. Greear and Alvin Reid as our live keynote speakers at the Missional Ministry Conference in Norman, OK on March 25-26. I say "live" because Ed Stetzer is going to join us via the web to share new insight regarding "Missional Intersections". J.D. and Alvin sent us this video where they share their excitement about coming the MMC and also the importance of communicating truth in the missional context of the church.

J.D. Greear and Alvin Reid talk about the upcoming Missional Ministry Conference, March 25-26 and the importance of communicating the gospel in a world of opinion.

For more information about the Missional Ministry Conference, and to register, go to www.missionalministry.net.

Is It Time to Bury Arthur Flake?

At a recent meeting of State Sunday School directors in Nashville, I asked our group this question and threw it open for discussion: "Is it time to bury Arthur Flake?" For those of you who do not about Flake and what is now called "Flake's Formula", you might want to do some noodling on this guy. Arthur Flake is the patriarch of the modern Sunday School movement. Almost 100 years ago, Flake became the Sunday School director for the Baptist Sunday School Board, now known as LifeWay Christian Resources. Flake pioneered several different aspects of Sunday School. For example, Flake recognized that Sunday School teachers teach theology in their classes, so Flake began the Doctrine Clinic, an effort to provide doctrine resources to pastors to teach their Sunday School leadership. But Flake is best known for what has come to be known as Flake's Formula or Flake's Five.

1. Know your possibilities;
2. Enlist and equip your leaders;
3. Enlarge your Sunday School organization;
4. Provide space;
5. Go after the people

Although there is no book containing this formula in bullet-type format, you can find this formula scattered throughout the many books he wrote. In addition, Flake probably used this formula for his "talking points" as he drove all over the southern USA promoting evangelistic Sunday Schools.

Arthur Flake has impacted Southern Baptist life and culture for over 100 years. Perhaps only Herschel Hobbs and WA Criswell have had as much impact on Southern Baptist life as Mr. Flake. So the question remains, is it time to bury Arthur Flake and his formula?

I know that right now there are Sunday School leaders all over America who are downing entire bottles of blood pressure medication. Flake's Formula still works today for church leaders who understand and practice the five principles. But the question must be asked, is it time for Sunday School in general and Southern Baptists in particular to move on to a 21st century philosophy of Sunday School and thank Mr. Flake for his work?

First, a short critique of Flake's Formula. You may notice that God, prayer, Jesus, etc are not mentioned in the five principles. Spirituality is an assumption we put into the formula. This model would work in non-Christian church too. I have business friends who tell me that this is essentially the same formula they use to grow their business (by the way, Mr. Flake was a lay salesman). Also, let's remember that Flake's Formula was written to help build the church when society was more focused on institutions. Our culture today is less concerned (okay... maybe even skeptical) about institutional church growth and more concerned with personal growth.

I believe the time has come, not necessarily to bury Mr. Flake, but for leaders of small communities (Sunday School, small groups, etc) to begin a more earnest dialogue about how to transform lives in our culture. In other words, were Mr. Flake alive today, what principles would he be encouraging pastors and church leaders to use to reach our communities today as effectively as his generation reached his culture?

As a further note, I am writing a new book right to be released in March of 2010. The title: Flake's Hammer: From Methods to Missional Small Communities. I am going to address Mr. Flake and propose a different paradigm for reaching our culture today that I think would find Arthur Flake's approval.

Your comments are welcome!

Great Commission Churches

At the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma last week, our Executive Director Anthony Jordan shared his annual convention message, titled "Going First Class to the Wrong Destination."  "Dr. J" as we call him with all due affection, made several outstanding points in his message, but one of them deserves extra consideration in light of the considerations of our Great Commission Resurgence Task Force.

Dr. J pointed out that the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma is "not a convention of denominational structures but of partnering churches". It seems to me that we Baptists seem to struggle over structure. Apparently, no matter what structure we are using, it is not good enough. Dr. Jordan's point is that ultimately, we are a group of people and churches who have chosen to partner together for the advancement of the gospel. Structure is a tool to help us with our partnership. Structure is not the message, the gospel is our message!

In his book, The Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsch makes this comment which I believe that we could apply to our denomination: "Start with the church and the mission will be lost. Start with the mission and the church will be found."

Baptist Messenger has Dr. J's convention address here as a MP3 podcast.

Missional Living

I found this video at Timmy Brister's blog. It may be a little long, but I think it shows the difference between attractional evangelism (bringing people to church) and incarnational evangelism (bring Christ to the culture).

Now that you've watched the video, where are you being led to be the hands and feet of Jesus today?

One Day Update Pt. 2 - The Results

Yesterday I explained where we were regarding the equipping of our Sunday School and small group leaders around the state of Oklahoma and how we came up with the One Day concept. I do have people ask occasionally why we call it "One Day". The original plan for One Day was actually a simulcast that we were going to do on Tuesday, August 25. Our plan was to have 100 sites and involve about 10,000 leaders. A couple of things changed this: One was the technology required to do a satellite uplink and also that our 100 sites had to have a satellite receiver. But the other issue was that August 25 might not be the best date for training on many church calendars. So we decentralized the training and went with a DVD for the plenary session and let the churches choose a date that works best in their calendar.

So what are the results for One Day? They have been amazing! We had 273 churches register to participate in the training (That's about 75 more than we were having at associational clinics). The chart below will give you a good comparison.

	2008	2009
Associations/churches	28 (associations)	103 (churches reporting)
Leaders trained	2,600	7,508

Yes, we tripled our leadership training participation so far this year, and we still have 170 churches who have not reported back yet! Of the 103 churches that have returned a survey to date, 97% have had a positive response to One Day. Here are a few of their responses:

We have had several families step into roles in ministry since the One Day training. It was an amazing tool. We look forward to it next year! From a church in Oklahoma City.

We had the strongest leadership training in recent memory: 49 in Adult Div., 17 in Youth Div., 15 in Child Div., 8 in Preschool Div.  The Ed Stetzer video was extremely well received (maybe THE hit of our training). - Andy Teague, Enid.

It went very well. We were able to break into separate groups for Preschool/Children, Youth and Adults. There were some good conversations. Our event was held on a Friday night and one of our adult classes had already discussed and settled on two separate mission projects by that following Sunday! From a church in Sapulpa.

Our church is 8 years old and we have never really thought about equipping our small group leaders. One Day was great and helped us focus on our purpose in our small groups. We're going to do this every year now and we are looking forward to next year. From a church in Bixby.

As you can see, the results from our churches in Oklahoma have been tremendous. We have had churches of all sizes and shapes participate, from megachurches to rural churches to innercity churches. From what I can tell, here are some reasons why the One Day Initiative has connected with our churches:

• First, the training is decentralized. Ownership of the training was shifted from the state convention to the local church (or association in a few cases).
• Second, a local church does not have to have a "professional" to teach the breakout sessions. We encourage pastors to enlist their own people to lead the breakout sessions. We did train a number of consultants, but feedback we have received from them indicates they were not very busy. Part of our intent here is to uplift and encourage the development of new leaders within the church.
• Third, our video team did a great job capturing Ed Stetzer on video. I believe that having this video available on DVD was instrumental in helping us paint a broad and appealing picture of what a class or group's purpose is. Although churches may have different contexts, the mission of making disciples is the same. I believe that we must clearly communicate the purpose of Sunday School/groups in new ways and terminology so that we are keeping our people on mission.
• Finally, with 26 breakout sessions available to download online (we also burned a few on disk), each church was able to customize the training for their situation. Rather than being forced into one topic, churches were able to pick and choose training topics that were beneficial to their context.

Tomorrow, I am going to complete this One Day evaluation trilogy with a look at what we have learned this year and some things we are doing next year to help make this process even better.