T-Life: Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts

Those who really do things don’t talk about it. You gain trust by keeping your mouth shut.

Pastor in Jakarta has a church of 15,000 that is defined by the Sunday event. He wrote an article, “It’s all about Sunday”.

Sunday had taken too much preeminence in the American church.

One church has 62 cell groups. A politicians group, a business man’s group.

The best models are not reading white guys books from the states; it’s from around the world.

The white guys are not the ones leading change in the church. The western church is no longer leading the change. We need to be learning from the other side of the world.

The West needs to learn from the Rest.

What would a fourth great awakening look like if it took place.

1. It will be global.

2. It could be the last one.

Where do we need to listen to hear this?

In the first through third Great Awakening (GA), there was much evangelism. Evangelism was in the context of an awakened church.

Today there is evangelism outside of an awakened church. What does it mean for the future if we are seeing evangelism in an unawakened church?

Luke and Paul were buddies. We tend to glorify Paul too much and forget that the early church, not because of Paul but because of the whole body.

The missionary church began in persecution, not just because of Paul. This didn’t happen because of the Jerusalem church. Persecuted Christians went to Antioch and shared their faith with gentiles.

The first missionary church was driven by Jewish laymen, persecuted and led people to Christ. Church planting became the response to evangelism.

Campus Crusade has become the largest church planting entity in the world. They started by focusing on evangelism and then people came to Christ. Then the church became necessary.

When the world is won, it will not just be won by religious leaders. It will be won by the grassroots.

Ministry must become viral, not structural. How do we get back to viral: a lifestyle of Christlikeness, sharing our faith, and personal conversion?

We have a

When faith is not an infrastructure, but lays across all infrastructures, that’s when change happens.

Instead of mobilizing just conservative politicians, we share the gospel with all politicians. When enough are converted there will be change.

Faith is so organized today, that people can marginalize “them”. If it was viral, it comes in unexpected ways.

A lady at Continental airlines started churches at all the hubs of the airlines. A Chinese man in Indonesia led 100 people to Christ and they are integrated throughout society.

If we’re going to do church planting, we don’t need the Holy Spirit. With effective marketing, good pastors, good video and other quality stuff, your church will grow. That’s why pastors can be corrupt but the church will still grow. Why can we baptize people and then three months later they can’t be found.

I grew up in East Texas. It was very legalistic. As I grew up and went to college and seminary I ended up in a mega-church. I assumed that mega-churches were mega-spiritual. I saw immorality and graft. I was disillusioned.

I wanted to start a “pure” church assuming that I was pure. I started a church that grew to about 150 in a year.

I met Rick Warren and I didn’t like what he had to say. Rick taught me how to grow my church. Another man taught me how to grow “the church”: Tom Wolfe.

I went through a ministerial conversion. We started a new members class. That’s what contemporary church. In 5 years we grew to 500 and we built a building.

Then we went to Willow Creek. We voted to sell our new building and moved to a shopping center and bought 500 acres. In 6 weeks we declined from 500 to 350. I spoke about the difficulties.

Tom Wolfe: it is the

I said we’re in here for the long haul but after we moved to the shopping center I wanted to leave. I kept my word because I’d promised publicly.

One day I asked God why he wasn’t blessing me, when others who were immoral or corrupt had bigger churches.

Up until this point I didn’t need the Holy Spirit. God spoke to me through question. Out of the blue comes this question, “Bob, when will Jesus be enough for you?” I was not content. I was embarrassed. I had never come to grips with the darkness of my heart.

I wept. I wanted to be someone else.

I began to thank God for all the things he had given me. The more I thanked him the more I began to week.

I began to hear, “it’s about the kingdom.” What did that mean?

I began to read the Sermon on the Mount and I realized that I was good at keeping the Ten Commandments, but poor at understanding the Sermon on the Mount. I began to reevaluate the Ten Commandments.

First, we will Church the area.

Second, from this point, I want to live the Sermon on the Mount. How do I know how to do that?

Leighton Ford said I want your mind, marriage, ministry and morals intact by the time you retire. He brought in counselors to tell us where we were broken and to provide healing.

I had people who were holding me accountable to be honest. It changed me so much my wife and kids wanted to know what happened to me.

We began to work around the world and see that our notions of discipleship were flawed. We always did things by the book or books. Work through the books and you’ll be a good disciple.

Discipleship is behavioral and emotional transformation. Not just information transfer.

Discipleship has been defined by the University model of information transfer.

We pulled atheists and agnostics together. Don’t write a curriculum. The culture allowed us to do this, not a curriculum.

What is a kingdom culture? It is a journey, a river, not programmed and organized. We teach this in our new members class.

I’m in two small networks of international pastors. The greatest things that are happening around the world are not in the West.

What is T Life, the transformed life?

It must be simple.

Interactive Relationship with God. Some call it up or communion or intimacy with God. When this happened for me I began to journal. Instead of reading it to understand it intellectually, I would ask God what he wanted me to learn from the passage. I usually read it in the light of areas that God is changing in my life and the places where God is working. A journal is a discovery of how God is working in your life.

Transparent connections. We don’t like the word community because it has come to mean so many things.

Global Impact: how are you going to change the world?

T-Life
Quit making people do religious work. The thing they know better than anything is their job. What if their job was their ministry? We ask them to do it globally and locally. Glocally. When people discover their job is their ministry it transforms them.

Church planting is growing to what your systems can handle. Church multiplication grows beyond systems.

Eric: God is doing something new in missions. Mobilizing business people and acting globally and locally.