10 Ways to Spot Pride in Your Life (1-10)

Following along with our Humility series, we thought it might be helpful to post some help identifying pride in your life so you know how to identify it. As we mentioned in the sermon Sunday, sometimes getting humans to discern pride in their life is like a fish trying to discern water--it's everywhere. In light of that, our hope is that by posting these "pride indicators," we can all press into Jesus, be amazed by his shocking humility, and put sin to death by the power of the Holy Spirit. So to kick us off, here's the first 10 ways to spot pride in your life:

1. Are you caught up in sin that nobody knows about? Do you avoid confession because of how you might be viewed?
2. Do you have a hard time rejoicing when God provides and blesses someone, because you feel like your needs are much greater and more desperate?
3. How much do you bring up yourself in conversation, or make yourself the center of the conversation? Do you always talk after somebody says something?  Do you always have a story to relate the conversation back to you?
4. Do you immediately defend yourself and attack people when they correct you?
5. At work, do you think more about how frustrating your job is and which aspects of it are beneath you? Do you have a hard time just being grateful for God providing a job for you?
6. Are you bitter?
7. Do you have low self-esteem? You've inflated yourself so much that God's voice has no room to speak truth into your life. When he says, "you're valuable because you're made in my image, and defined by what I did for you in the cross," you don't hear or don't believe it because you're so consumed with what you don't like about you.
8. Are you consistently angry? A short temper says "who do you think you are to talk to me like that or do that to me? Do you know who I am!? How dare you disrespect me?!"
9. Are you easily annoyed?
10. Are you sinfully competitive? Is your attitude and outlook on life significantly altered, even temporarily, when you don't win?

What Happens at Kidtown?

Volunteers take pies to the face. That’s what really goes on in Kidtown. Now, before you decide to take your family elsewhere where the volunteers seem more sane, let us explain. One week at Kidtown, a volunteer provided one of our children with a pie. The child was told she could do anything she wanted with the pie--anything at all. So as expected, the child soon returned the pie to the volunteer's face. Then a second pie was brought out. The volunteer made it clear that "I now get to do whatever I want with MY pie." As the kids all chanted for revenge, another Kidtown volunteer walked up, intercepted the pie, and slammed it into his own face.

The volunteer then explained that the just thing would be for the young girl to take a pie in the face from the volunteer. It’d only be fair payback. But, Tim, the male volunteer, steps in and takes what the girl deserved. Becca teaches the class that this is grace and this is exactly what Jesus did for us. Though it might look like just a bunch of volunteers entertaining kids with silly antics, something much more is being displayed.

Kidtown exists to teach your kids that Jesus is the hero we all need. Kidtown wants to lay the foundation of the good news of Jesus for families to build off of back at home. We’ll go to whatever lengths necessary to see this happen (even if that means taking the occasional pie to the face). Kidtown isn’t simply childcare while parents are taught in the main gatherings, but each Sunday is intentionally leveraged to teach your children all about who God is and what God has done.

If you’re a parent, Kidtown wants to do more than watch your kids, we want to help you lead your family. If you’d like more information, please feel free to come visit us on Sunday.

Where does Teaching & Preaching Come From?

Launching out from James 3:1, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly," we are rolling out three blog posts explaining Biblical foundation for teaching, warnings for teachers, and our teaching philosophy at Midtown.  This is the first one that explains the Biblical foundation for teaching and preaching. God is a speaking, teaching and preaching God. In Genesis 1, the Bible starts with a picture of God speaking. In the first picture of God, He is talking, using words and language. But He’s not just talking because He likes the sound of His own voice. His words are vibrantly full of purpose. He could have created in any way He wanted to, but He chose to use words to do so. Genesis 1 has been called God’s creation sermon. The whole chapter displays the amazing effect of God’s words. God’s words create things. They create life. They create order and an environment in which living things can exist. They separate and divide and organize. They reveal who He is and what He’s like. They accomplish his purposes in powerful authority.

Not only does the Bible start with God speaking, but it also ends with God teaching. Revelation 21:1-8 and 22:7-20 record Jesus preaching two powerful sermons about Himself and the gracious life that He offers free of charge to those who are thirsty as well as the righteous judgment He has stored up for sin and sinners.

Jesus’ public ministry starts in Matthew 3:17 when God declares who Jesus is with a short, quick sermon. Immediately, Jesus’ response is to start preaching and teaching in Matthew 4:17. His preaching ministry led and paved the way for all his other ministry.

God uses people to be His mouthpiece. In light of the reality that God teaches, speaks and preaches, we now have a foundation for why we teach. We are formed in God’s image and through the cross of Jesus, God is welcoming and inviting us to join Him in going to work with our Dad. Romans 12:5 says that if you have the gift of teaching, you should teach. 1 Peter 4:11 raises the ante when it says, “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.” When you teach, teach like God does. When you speak, speak like God does. Let your words have the same purpose that God’s words have.

God teaching is the foundation for our philosophy of teaching. God invites all of us to join Him in what He’s doing, and some of us to join Him specifically in His practice of teaching and preaching.

Coming soon: How do I know if I’m supposed to teach? What is Midtown’s teaching philosophy?

Why Doesn't Midtown Have a Lead Pastor?

If you've ever visited the leadership page on our website, you'll notice that there is no singular lead pastor listed. Since many churches in America do operate with a singular lead pastor, we thought it might be good to explain why we don't. Elders are the leaders of the church who in the Bible are also called pastors, bishops, and overseers (Acts 20:28; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 5:2). Elders are to be men chosen for their ministry according to clear biblical requirements (1 Timothy 2:11-3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9) and a elder’s duties include ruling (1 Timothy 5:17) managing (1 Timothy 3:4-5), tending (1 Peter 5:2-5), giving account (Hebrews 13:17), living exemplary lives (Hebrews 13:7), using authority (Acts 20:28), teaching (Ephesians 4:11, 1 Timothy 3:2), preaching (1 Timothy 5:17), doctrinal instruction (Titus 1:9), and discipline (Matthew 18:15-17).

When the bible speaks of pastors/elders at the local church level, it speaks in plurality. From our best understanding of scripture, it was always the goal for local churches to have multiple qualified elders serving together as a safeguard for both the church and the elders. This protects the church from inappropriately being built around one person, often a charismatic leader. It also protects the pastors from being crushed under the weight of leading a church alone.

The Bible calls Jesus the Chief Shepherd, or senior leader, of the church (1 Peter 5:4). Within Midtown's leadership, we reserve the title of Senior Pastor for Jesus, and with him as our leader, we have worked hard to train up and empower qualified pastors and leadership. Our hope is that, by God’s grace and through a team dynamic, being a pastor of our church will be more of a joy than a burden, and though the weight is heavy it would never be crushing.

Why Don't We Have Gatherings on Super Bowl Sunday?

The Super Bowl has become an event almost like any other in American culture. Over 100 million Americans will gather to watch the game, with countless more using the game as an excuse to throw a party and be with friends and family.  Along with major holidays, the Super Bowl is one the few events that brings our entire country together.  As missionaries in our neighborhoods and city, it seems to be good practice to take advantage of the Super Bowl phenomenon instead of fighting against it.  If Americans are that excited to have parties and watch the game (and maybe more so, watch the commercials) then we want to leverage it for Jesus’ sake. Church is not an event we attend, but rather a group that we belong to.  So, on Super Bowl Sunday we encourage our church family to throw parties or attend friend’s parties and use the day as a chance to build relationships with neighbors.   There are 100,000 people within five miles of the state capitol in downtown Columbia that do not know Jesus and we want to take advantage of every opportunity that God brings our way in order to see that number shrink.  This is one of those opportunities.

This year, Midtown will be hosting a Super Bowl party for our homeless friends at the Winter Shelter, as well as hosting a party for middle and high school students and their families.  If you are interested in attending or being involved with either of these parties, you can find more information about the the party at the Winter Shelter here, or the Student Superbowl Party here.

Some Potential Questions about Dustin's Transition

With the transitions mentioned in the two letters above, we wanted to take the time to address and give answers to some potential questions our church family might have regarding Dustin's transition to the new position at NAMB. Did something suspicious happen behind the scenes? No, not at all.  The letter from Midtown addresses this more fully.

Who will be preaching more? Dustin had been preaching at one of our campuses approximately every other week.  We will continue to operate with a teaching team that prepares sermons together and you will simply see more of the same people preaching as before.  As always, we will continue to train and develop people in our church family with the giftedness to teach and hope to always be ready to give preaching opportunities to them.

Will we hire someone else? We have already hired Kent Bateman to come on and take a more substantial role than he previously had as a staff intern.  He has served our church in a volunteer capacity for years and we are glad to be able to bring him on in a full time role.

Will this affect our vision moving forward? In short, no.  We have no plans to slow down our efforts towards being all about Jesus, living as church family, and loving our neighbors in Jesus’ name.  When Jesus comes back we can take it easy.  Until then, there is a lot of work to do!

What will happen with Vision Team? Our Vision Team pastors serve as the overseers of our overall church direction and heath.  You can find more information on our church's leadership structure here. Allen Tipping and Adam Gibson will continue as Vision Team pastors and will be praying about who should be added. The goal is for Vision Team to consist of 3-5 pastors.

Am I allowed to talk to Dustin and ask him more questions? Yes.

When are Dustin and Renie moving to Atlanta? March

How long have the pastors known this was going to happen? Around the first of December is when we began to discuss and pray together. In God’s providence, we talked about being ready for change on our Family Vacation trip in November.  We had no clue that this would be one of those changes, but God did.  He continues to lead our church quite well.

Are other people planning to leave? No. We have been working to develop a culture of ‘family’ in our church.  We want for all of us to see church as family and Columbia as our home.  Our hope is that people will stay in Columbia to be a part of Jesus’ mission here unless God specifically calls them elsewhere. We want Columbia to be our default location.  But when Jesus says to move, we move, no matter how hard that move is.  Our staff has adopted this mentality and Columbia is home for us.  We are here and ready to get to work.  If Jesus says to move, then we move. If he doesn’t, then we stay because Columbia is home and we are family!

How can I be praying for the Willis family? Dustin & Renie have been very clear that one of the most difficult things about this move is that they are leaving their best friends here in Columbia. Obviously this will all be difficult for them.  Pray that God would bring them new friends quickly in Atlanta. Pray that God would lead them to a new church family that they can be a part of.  Pray for a quick transition into Dustin’s new job and for more and more churches to plant healthy churches all over North America.

How can I be praying for the Midtown family? We have a lot of changes going on right now.  With Sunday morning gatherings that require even more people to serve and an upcoming move to Devine Street, it’s a lot to take on!  Pray that Jesus would continue to lead us and make us ready for whatever he brings our way.  Pray that more people would meet Jesus in Columbia. Pray that Jesus would keep raising up godly, strong leaders to oversee our growing church family.  Pray that Jesus would protect us from burning out, as we have a lot of paid and unpaid people who give every drop of energy they have in service to God through Midtown. And specifically, pray that God would continue to provide for us financially by growing our generosity and bringing more adults into our family.

A Letter from Midtown

Dear Family, Beginning with Midtown’s first day as a church, we have done our best to emphasize the missional calling on the church.  Throughout the New Testament, Christians were spreading out all over cities and being sent to new places to do new works in Jesus’ name.  We have tried to follow in this pattern by spreading out around Columbia as missionaries here, as well as sending people to other countries and cities as God has called.  The opportunity that Dustin and Renie have been given with the North American Mission Board (NAMB) falls exactly in line with this vision.  They will have the opportunity to help churches plant healthy churches all over North America, essentially taking what God has done here in Columbia through the Midtown family and spreading it to other churches.  We are delighted to send them out for this role, but are very sad to see them go.

The frequency with which we all hear about a pastor doing something unethical or illegal has created a great deal of suspicion in all of us when dealing with situations like this one. Unfortunately, when one of the more visible pastors leaves a church, it seems to usually be for bad, if not sinful, reasons.  With that in mind, we thought it best to directly state some of those reasons and assure everyone that none of them apply in this instance.

1. Moral failure. Moral failure happens too often with pastors and to make matters worse, the issue is often handled unbiblically. In spite of 1 Timothy 5:19-21, the pastors sin is often covered up and the pastor simply moves on without the pastor or the church announcing what has happened. This typically allows the disqualified pastor to get a job at another unsuspecting church. At Midtown, our goal is for this type of thing to never happen. If a pastor’s persistence in sin disqualifies him for ministry and he is asked to leave, it will be stated as such publicly, as 1 Timothy 5 instructs us to do.

Dustin has not failed morally.

2. Career advancement. Some men view being a pastor as a career instead of a calling. These types of pastors rarely settle in, put down roots, and give their lives serving a particular place for Jesus’ sake. Instead they are always looking for the next step up the ladder...a bigger church, a pay raise, a higher-profile opportunity. The Bible confronts these types of pastors as those who "peddle the word of God for profit."

Dustin views this, as we do, as a calling; not career advancement.

3. Unrepentant, unfruitful church members. Sometimes pastors are stuck with a church full of people who have no real love for Jesus and no interest in seeing their city get saved by Jesus. Despite a pastor’s best effort to preach the gospel and organize for mission, there is simply no interest from the members of the church.  This is an exhausting situation and often the pastors of the church will eventually move on to more fruitful opportunities.

Dustin, along with all of the other pastors, loves the Midtown family and has continually felt it a joy to be a part of leading them on mission here in Columbia.

4. Bad relationships. One of the effects of the fall is that relationships become strained and sin comes between people...and pastors are people. When relational sin isn't appropriately dealt with, it tends to fester. These relational tensions can make life miserable for the pastor who doesn't do his part to confess sin, reconcile with others, and repent as necessary.  Sometimes these bad relationships continue to go sour until the drama and conflict is unbearable and the pastor involved finally just leaves as a way of avoiding the issue.

Dustin is in great standing relationally with the Midtown family. There are no issues here at all.

5. Philosophical differences. Sometimes pastors will have the desire to make changes within the church that they serve but will be met with resistance. This can be very difficult for men who feel they are being led by God to make changes but find God's people unwilling to follow along. Eventually the pastors of that church burn out or lose their fire because it seems that there is no hope of progress and kingdom advancement.

Dustin is actually taking much of the philosophy of ministry from Midtown and communicating it to leaders and churches all over North America. So it is safe to say there are no philosophical differences.

We are delighted to emphatically say that none of the above mentioned reasons apply to this situation. Our church family is healthy and flexible, all relationships are intact, and there have been no moral failures. Instead, here is our best summation of why & how Dustin and his family landed on this decision, and why the others pastors agree with them:

After the opportunity with NAMB was presented, Dustin talked with some of our pastors so they could all talk and pray through this together. Nothing was done abruptly, secretively, or in isolation. The other Midtown pastors think that this position will be a good fit for Dustin and to be honest, it very much appears to be a job that Dustin has been specifically gifted to do.  As a result, we are excited to see much fruit come from it.  He and Renie both sense that God is leading them to this ministry during the next season of their lives.   We are extremely grateful for Dustin’s service as a pastor in our church and are very sad to see our friends being sent out, but we are grateful to have such a huge kingdom opportunity.

How will this affect Midtown moving forward? When the bible speaks of pastors/elders at the local church level, it speaks in plurality. From our best understanding of scripture, it was always the goal for local churches to have multiple qualified elders who serve by providing overseeing leadership through preaching and teaching, care, and decision-making.  This is what we have tried to model at Midtown.  The Bible calls Jesus the Chief Shepherd, or senior leader, of the church (1 Peter 5:4). With Jesus as our Senior Pastor, we have worked hard to train up and empower qualified pastors and leadership, and our church operates around a team concept.  God has been incredibly gracious to our church family by raising up strong leaders and as we transition Dustin out of his role as one of the lead pastors in our church, the teams that were already in place will continue to function as before, with a few people moving around and some roles being adjusted. Our vision is still to see missionaries spread all across Columbia and Jesus name be lifted higher in our city.  Jesus has promised that the gates of hell cannot withstand the onslaught of his ever-expanding kingdom, so we will continue our aggressive approach to ministry.  We are currently finalizing plans regarding church planting and campus expansion for the next few years and are excited to roll these out soon.

By His Grace, The Leaders of Midtown

A Letter From Dustin

Dear Midtown Family & Friends, It is with a heavy but peaceful heart that I announce to you that I will be transitioning out of my current ministry role in Columbia and moving this March with my family to Atlanta, GA where I will begin serving as a National Church Planting Strategist with the North American Mission Board.

This was by far the hardest decision that Renie and I have ever faced. We did not take this decision lightly as we prayed, fasted, read the Scriptures, and sought wise counsel throughout the process. As I have even taught, we want Columbia to be the default home for people in our church family unless God calls us elsewhere. There have been many tears shed and I am sure there will be more to come, but it seems as though this is the new mission field that God is sending us to. It has been extremely encouraging to have the affirmation of the leaders and pastors of Midtown as Renie and I truly feel that we are being sent into this gospel-centered mission to help plant more churches.

Moving with Renie and a small group of friends to Columbia six and half years ago to start Midtown began an extraordinary journey that has continually been marked by the grace of God. Seeing hundreds of people baptized, homeless people moved off the streets, Homes of Hope started in India, addictions broken, the gospel understood, and overall life transformation take place has been nothing short of amazing. Serving as a Lead Pastor at Midtown over the years has been a blessing from God, as I have personally grown deeper in my understanding of the gospel through my relationships with you, my church family. To see a group of people who center their lives on the work of Jesus, love one another deeply as family, and join God in his mission to the world has been incredible. The great blessing of my new role in Atlanta is that I am essentially being sent out to take the DNA and vision of Midtown and help infuse that into new churches all across North America.

The plan moving forward is that we will be in Columbia into the month of March and then will begin our transition towards Atlanta. In the interim I will teach at the gatherings as well as work closely with staff and volunteers on the upfit and transition to the new Midtown Devine Campus.

This next season for Midtown is going to be incredible as Sunday morning gatherings are added, as well as the move to Midtown’s first permanent facility (Devine St.). I look forward to watching some of the godliest men I know, my best friends, lead Midtown forward as a Jesus-centered family on mission. With some of the facility changes on the horizon along with the great vision to focus more on being missionaries in neighborhoods, I have no doubt that Midtown is getting ready to go through a period of healthy growth. Prepare yourself for the continuation of the incredible mission God has given us in this city. I look forward to visiting soon and seeing the amazing work that God is going to do through you, His church. I will potentially have the privilege of coming back from time to time to help train some of the future church planters that will be sent out in the years to come as we all seek to live out the mission of the gospel.

Thanks to each of you who are a part of this incredible mission in Columbia. Continue pressing forward with the gospel, as there are 100,000 who do not have Christ in our city. Thank you for all of the love, grace, and encouragement that you have given to Renie, Jack, Piper, and me over the years. We love you guys more than you know and we look forward to spending time with you during this season of transition.

By His Grace, Dustin

A Video From Dustin

http://vimeo.com/35232968

Why Did We Start a Blog?

So you may have noticed, but in mid-December, we launched this blog you’re looking at. We thought it’d be good to share just a little about the vision for the blog and why we started it. So here’s some reasons we did it:

• Vision. We are consistently trying to make sure our whole church understands the vision we have for the church God wants us to be. Before the blog, the best place for us to do that was Sunday night announcements (which is limited to a few minutes), and Twitter/Facebook (limited to 140-ish characters). So we wanted another medium through which we can communicate who we want to be as a church and how we’re getting there.
• Transparency. We are big fans of open communication at Midtown. We try to be as open as possible with our communication and decision-making as a church, because 1) we don’t have anything to hide, and 2) because we think being transparent is a big part of being trusted. From Family Meetings (where we let members in on what’s coming, let them ask questions, and give feedback), to posting our budgets online for anyone and everyone to see, we want to err on the side of over-communication. This blog is one more attempt to do that.
• Question Answering. Often we have people ask us things like “why do we do this?” or “how does this work?”, or “why didn’t we do this?” Before the blog, there wasn’t really a great avenue for having those questions answered. We think the blog will be a great way to do that. While we can’t answer every question that everyone ever asks, we hope to answer some of the more prevalent questions here on the blog. If you have a particular question about how Midtown works or why we do certain things, you can submit it here or by using the Contact link at the top left of the page. If there’s enough requests for it or we think it's a question that a lot of people would benefit from hearing the answer to, we’ll write something up and post it.
• Resourcing. As we grow larger as a church, we sometimes have other church leaders and church planters ask us how we go about things and how we make decisions. We hope this blog can be an easily-accessible resource for people outside of our church to find out about how we do things. We’re not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but by God’s grace we’ve gotten some things right and would love to serve others with that information in any way we can.

How can you help with the blog? Since one of the goals with the blog is to get everybody on the same page about why we do what we do, the more people that see it, the better. Every time we publish a post here, we’ll tweet about it or post it to Facebook. Feel free to re-tweet, re-post, or link to the post yourself to help us spread the word. The blog is RSS-enabled so feel free to subscribe to it as well. We are currently working at incorporating the blog into www.midtowncolumbia.com, so that it can be a one-stop shop for all things concerning our church.

Why Do We Take Two Weeks Off Around Christmas?

For two weeks around Christmas our office is closed and we do not have any gatherings. We do this for a few reasons:

1. To give the leaders in our church family a break. It takes a huge group of people to pull off two campuses and 5 gatherings each and every Sunday. From Host teams to production teams to Kidtown workers, there are hundreds of man hours involved on a weekly basis.  We want these volunteers to continue to see their service as a blessing and not a burden, and sometimes a break is very helpful in that regard.
2. To allow pastors and staff to rest. Dropout rates amongst pastors are startlingly high due to the weight and constant pressure they experience.  A pastor’s job is never done because people are never done, and there are always more people who need Jesus.  Being a pastor is as much a way of life as it is a job, and there are always things to be thinking about, people to be praying for, things to study, and opportunities to research.  Having a couple of weeks off gives our pastors time to attempt to only think about enjoying time with their families and friends as they celebrate the incarnation of Jesus. We hope to see our current pastors continue being pastors for the next 30 years, and if a short break is helpful then we are delighted to do so.
3. To remind us all that church is not a once a week gathering, but rather a community of people unified around Christ and his mission. One of the great failures of the church in America is that we have reduced our idea of  ‘church’ to an event we attend.  In our experience oriented culture there is no shortage of consumer Christians who are simply looking for the best ‘worship experience’ to call their church.  We hope to consistently push against this, and this is one particular way that has proven helpful.  Even when we do not gather, we are the covenant people of God committed to the mission of God.  Our gatherings do not define us or make us, Jesus does.  We hope you enjoy Christmas by taking some time to meditate on Jesus’  holy, missional, and sacrificial birth which lead to His holy, missional, and sacrificial death on the cross to atone for our sins. Please use these weeks to drink some eggnog, worship Jesus, and leverage time with your friends and family to be the church and push back darkness in Columbia (or wherever your travels take you).