Pastor Marcos 6/19/24 Pastor Marcos 6/19/24

Who’s ready to do something different?

A friend of mine was travelling last year and visited the SDA church near his hotel. He had never been to this town before. No one knew him.

He walked into the church on Sabbath morning and was there from Sabbath School all the way to main service.

The entire experiece was dry, monotonous, lacking in life and energy with songs sung half asleep and a sermon that had no intelligible point to it.

But that wasn't the worst of it.

Not one person spoke to him the entire morning.

No one said hello. Asked where he was from or invited him to eat.

He felt so crushed by the experiece that he decided to visit the local evangelical church the next Sunday.

As soon as he walked in he was warmly greeted, and not just by a greeters team but by every day church members.

They had never seen him before and wanted to meet him. It wasn't overwhelming or over the top. It was sincere and genuine interest.

They made sure he had a good seat. During the altar call another member came by and sat next to him and asked him if he would like to pray together.

They invited him to stay and eat and gave him a flyer with information about their mid week small groups so he could connect during the week and find a good support network.

After telling me this story, my friend (a committed SDA elder who has planted 3 churches himself) looked at me with despondency in his eyes and asked:

"What is wrong with us?"

We sat there in silence. Neither knowing what to say.

I don't know whats wrong. I honestly think its the wrong question - the kind that takes you down a pointless rabbit trail that ends nowhere.

My prefered question is this: Who’s ready to do something different for the kingdom?

Who’s ready to say 'no more'?

Who’s ready to move without permission, love without restriction, and serve without condition?

If you said "I am" to any of the above questions, then I want to encourage you. The future of our movement depends on a new generation of believers like you who value relationships over religion, people over programs, and togetherness over tradition.

Get moving! I'm in your corner rooting for you. And if you need help along the way, feel free to check out my website for training resources and content to empower you along the way.

Here's to an Adventism. Redesigned.

Pastor M

Pastor Marcos | Missional Church Planter

P.S. Are you ready to shatter the status quo and reach secular post-church generations in a way that truly resonates? The Mission Collective online school is the ultimate game-changer, offering a treasure trove of proven strategies, innovative approaches, and insider secrets to help you share the Gospel in a way that's both authentic and compelling. With 30+ workshops, relevant resource downloads, and weekly live sessions, you'll be equipped to break through the noise and connect with those who need it most. Join the movement and apply now to become part of a vibrant community of global believers who are passionate about mission and dedicated to making a real difference! Apply HERE.

Pastor Marcos 6/10/24 Pastor Marcos 6/10/24

Effective Missional Outreach Doesn't Work, Unless…

In the last 10 years of active ministry, I have noticed that we Adventists loooove a good old “model”.

A one-size-fits-all evangelism blueprint we can copy and paste without having to work too hard while still guaranteeing results.

I can already hear the advertisement:

"Discover the ultimate evangelism shortcut! Our New Model guarantees baptisms without requiring personal connections or time-consuming relationship-building. Simply follow our proven, step-by-step formula and watch your church grow - no friendships needed!"

Whoever designs this new model is guaranteed to get SDA rich! (Remember me when you make it big 😅)

Jokes asside, depending on what your particular task and context are, blueprints can be helpful.

But when it comes to mission in the secular, post-church age I need to be super clear:

There is no blueprint. No one-size-fits-all. No standardized model. No copy-paste system.

Yes, there are basic principles. (Which I share exclusively in my Monday Missional emails. Subscribe here to never miss out.)

But outside of those basic principles, there is no system you can mindlessly inject into your local context and expect wild results. And here is the main reason why:

Secularism is fragmented.

I know, I know — what on earth am I talking about with my fancy-schmancy words, right?

Let me put it this way: If you are a missionary in a Buddhist society, you will find there are a diversity of Buddhists.

However, you will also find a general “worldview” that unites all Buddhists. Same in Muslim countries, or really any religious society.

But in the secular post-modern west, there is no agreed upon worldview that people unite around. Everyone just kinds of makes up their own as they go along. So rather than a united perspective, secular countries have a fragmented one which means secular people are not the same from one house to the next, let alone one city to the next.

And without a united worldview to anchor in, we simply can’t develop a singular blueprint of mission to secular culture.

Unless…

When I was a soldier training to go to Iraq, a lot of the cadre used to say that whatever they taught us was likely to be outdated by the time we made it into the combat zone.

The reason was insurgents studied the tactics used by the Army and would develop counter-tactics specifically designed to frustrate our most well developed plans.

The only way to stay one step ahead of them was to develop a culture of “elasticity” where we anticipated their counter-tactics and counteracted them before they had a chance to implement them.

Sounds confusing, I know. But the bottom line is this: Our enemy was so smart, so ahead of the curve, so creative and innovative that unless we abandoned our love for strict military structure and embraced a flexible approach, we would lose lives.

So we switched tactics. Uniformity was out the window.

Strict plans were out the window.

Elasticity (flexible, adaptable tactics) was in.

And its the same in secular mission. While secular people differ from house to house and city to city there is at least one thing we can always count on being true no matter where we go and its this: they will be fragmented.

To put it in plain english:

“The only thing that makes secular people the same is that they are never the same”

And because of this, we can count on the fact that secular mission must look different everywhere we go. Once we embrace that simple paradigm shift, we can begin to develop new missional approaches that are flexible, adaptable, and contextual.

This, I believe, is one of the primordial keys to mission in our secular, post-church age: elasticity.

It’s time we threw away the unformity. The standardization of local church ministry. The blind allegiance to a manual. And the copy-paste model of evangelism.

In fact, its time we threw away our desire to find a blueprint altogether.

Instead, lets get back to kingdom basics: raw, on the ground relationships where we listen deeply, adapt accordingly, and connect contextually.

Pastor Marcos | Missional Church Planter

Pastor Marcos 6/4/24 Pastor Marcos 6/4/24

The Top 3 Worst SDA Outreach Habits

The top 3 worst SDA outreach habits I have seen in my 10+ years of ministry:

1. Assuming What People Need: I once had a church member complain that they had tried giving a co-worker a book. The co-worker said they weren't interested and refused the book. The Adventist was upset that the co-worker didn't accept the book. After asking a few questions here is what I learned: The co-worker was a secular person who had no religious affiliations or background. The book the Adventist offered them was about the Waldensians. Now, I don't want to shame this dear member for giving outreach a go, but I think its obvious what went wrong in this whole scenario.

2. Explaining our Message in 19th Century Ways: I shared this story recently but heres a shorter version: I once sat in on a Bible study with an elder trying to explain to a secular seeker why the state of the dead was such an important topic. His reasoning? Because if we think people go to heaven when they die, Satan can deceive us by pretending to be our dead loved ones. The secular guy was lost, unamused, and unimpressed. This approach to the state of the dead might not be "wrong" but its outdated. And the truth is, we do this with almost all our doctrines. Sabbath vs Sunday? Dated. Investigative Judment as defending God's transparency? Dated. The Health Message as increasing longevity? Dated. We can preach the same message in modern ways that actually make sense to people in the 21st century, cause it ain't 1890 anymore.

3. Handing out Literature without Relationships: I get it, there isn't always time to build relationships and sometimes media is the best way to get the message out there. There is nothing wrong with that. But here's a quick story: A guy I knew was in rehab. Some local SDA ladies brought him a meal and with it, a bag with a whole stack of EGW books. He wasn't SDA so he called me to ask what that was all about. He said at first he felt really blessed by the food, but when he saw the bag with all the books he immediately felt like a project. Whats worse, the ladies never came back, never visited him again. It was as if, once they dumped the EGW library on him, their job was done. No relationship. No connection. Just drop and go evangelism. And it sucks.

The wild thing is each of these scenarios would have been 100% better if the Adventists did 1 thing differently. Not 10, not 5, just 1. No need for a degree, for special training, or for a unique set of skills. This 1 simple thing would have made all the difference and anyone can do it.

It's called listening. Thats all. Thats how you avoid being tone deaf. Thats how you avoid being disingenous. Thats how you avoid being agenda driven. You listen. And you listen with intention. To know, to learn, to understand, and to serve.

Had listening taken place in scenario 1, a book on the Waldensians would never have been offered to a secular co-worker. Instead, the Adventist would have gotten to know the person, built a relationship with them, and sought to serve them according to THEIR needs.

Had listening taken place in scenario 2, that secular seeker and elder would both have had a much more enjoyable, productive, and relevant Bible study rather than an attempted indoctrination session.

Had listening taken place in scenario 3, a lost soul in a rehab center would have encountered hope in genuine people rather than being repulsed by the phony kindness used as a guise to convert.

Listening. We're not very good at it as SDAs. We "have the truth" so we prefer to do all the talking. Well, we can keep talking all we want. Truth is, folk stopped listening a long time ago.

Its time we zipped our lips. Surrendered our pride. And learned to listen. This is the key to mission in our post-church age.

P.S. Adventists love a good conspiracy theory, so I decided to create my own secret society. 😅 Wanna join? Tap here.

Pastor Marcos 5/13/24 Pastor Marcos 5/13/24

Over 90,000 Baptisms? 😲

Have you heard the news? Over 90,000 people were recently baptised in Papua New Guniea during the PNG for Christ campaign.

THAT. IS. INCREDIBLE.

Since this took place, I have heard a few SDA’s ask — what will it take for that to happen here, in Australia?

And by extension, how can we see the same results in other secular western countries like Europe, Canada and America?

Here are my thoughts:

We must keep context in mind. Long before SDA’s showed up, 98% of PNG’s population already identified as Christian. To the contrary, Australia’s Christian population has dropped from 86% in 1971 to 44% in 2021. In the meantime, the number of people identifying as having “no religion” has grown from 7% in 1971 to 38% in 2021. In other western secular countries, the stats are much the same.
Context dictates method. PNG’s culture is deeply religious which means a traditional religious frame works in evangelizing its population. To the contrary, Australia has a deeply secular culture meaning a different frame must be used if we want to root the gospel here.

But what does this actually look like?

Here’s what it DOESN’T look like:

More church programs
More traditional prophecy or doctrinal seminars
More advertising campaigns

These approaches simply don’t work in secular, post-church environments for three reasons:

Secular people are by-and-large uninterested in religion no matter how its “packaged”
Millennials & Zed’s are the most “advertised to” generations of all time. They can smell a sales pitch from a mile away, especially a religious one.
Almost every outreach model our church fails to speak meaningfuly to the anxieties faced by emerging generations.

So, if what we are doing doesn’t work — whats it going to take?

I recorded a simple video to help answer that very question,

Tap here to watch it

Pastor M

Pastor Marcos 10/28/19 Pastor Marcos 10/28/19

Is Your Local Adventist Church Like Jesus? (A Quiz)

Is your local Adventist church like Jesus?

This week, I want you to take a quiz. Do it on your own, but also invite others in your church (leaders or not) and do it with them as well. In this quiz, we are going to identify wether or not your church is like Jesus.

Good news: There are only three questions. (Sort of.) But first, we need to read the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15:1-7 because the quiz is based on the parable. So here goes:

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’

I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

— The Parable of the Lost Sheep

OK, now that you have read the parable I am going to break it down into 3 overarching points. Those 3 points will form the basis for our quiz.

Who Does your Church Attract?

The first point that leaps out from this parable is that the sinners were “all” gathering around to hear Jesus. Not the religious folk. Not the culturally conservative. Not the theologians or scholars. They were the ones in the back of the room judging, condeming and complaning about Jesus. In their heads, they couldn’t figure out how a holy and sacred God would associate with people like that—people who were clearly immoral. So the story begins with this simple picture: The religious people on one side of the room, Jesus on the other. And where are the sinners? With Jesus.

I had a friend years ago who was part of a ministry that gave free rides to drunk students on campus. During one of the rides, a student asked her: “Why would people like you (Christians) want to be around people like us?” In the same vein, I have had so many friends tell me they will never set foot in a church. “The building might burn down” some say. “Ill get struck by lighting” others say. But in the end, the message is the same - todays culture does not see the church as a safe place for sinners. We are, in effect, the opposite of who Jesus was. While Jesus attracted sinners, we scare them away.

So my first question in our quiz today is: Who does your church attract? Does it attract sinners or saints? The easiest way to find out is to ask a few followup questions. Questions like:

Who is most at home in your church? (If the religious folk are, its often at the expense of the non-religious.)
Who loves your church most? (If the religious folk love you, it’s because your church caters to them and not the lost.)
Who is most excited to attend your church? (If there is a trend of visitors coming and not staying at your church, it’s because your church only connects with saints, not sinners.)

So who does your church attract? Thats the first question.

Who Does your Church Prioritise?

Jesus attracted the sinners while the religious folk did not. So Jesus tells them a story that reveals exactly why. In the story, Jesus asks a really interesting question: Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

Jesus question is interesting because he states it as a matter of fact: “Doesn’t he”? Its as if Jesus is assuming that the normal thing to do if you lose one sheep is to leave the 99 and go find the one. But from an investment perspective, this makes no sense. If you lose one the best thing to do is count your loss. You don’t leave the 99 “in the open field” and go searching for the one because you risk losing another ten! It seems to me that the best thing to do is count your loss on the one and preseve the 99 you have left.

But Jesus does the oposite. He leaves the 99 and goes searching for the one. It’s as if Jesus is saying: The 99 are not my priority anymore. The one is.

Funny thing is, most of our churches tend to operate the other way around. We live to coddle the 99. We exist to keep them happy, pacify their desires and pamper their every whim. When the 99 complain, the leaders have to find a way to keep them happy. And the sad part is, many of the 99 want a church where they are comfortable—a church where the one doesn’t fit in.

And this is why Jesus attracted sinners while the Pharisees repelled them. Jesus did not exist to coddle the 99. He did not come to the earth to make church folk happy. He came to reach the one. He had a heart that beat for the one. He wasn’t concerned with meeting the expectations of the 99. He was concerned with reaching the one.

Who does your church prioritise? Is it the 99 or the one? Here are some build-up questions that can help you figure it out:

Which department in your church gets the most money? (If your outreach budget is tiny compared to the amount of money you spend on “in house” things, thats worth contemplating.)
How committed is your church to understanding its un-Christian neighbors? (Is your church constantly putting on programs that only feed the saints with things that have little to no missional use? Or is your church investing in resources and tranining on how to connect with its secular surroundings?)
How open is your church to changing its culture and methodology in order to more meaningfully connect with the lost that surround it? (Most churches refuse to change any of their cultural or methodological practices because thats the way they “like it”. This is a sign of a church more interested in the 99 being happy than in the one that is lost.)

What does your church celebrate?

People celebrate when they win. And the easiest way to know what your church celebrates is to find out what it considers a win. Celebration isn’t always a loud party. A celebration can be quiet and hard to identify. So don’t answer this question by trying to find the times when your church throws a party. Instead, dig for the “win”. What is your church’s win? Because when it happens, a celebration ensues wether or not its evident.

For Jesus and all of heaven, a win is the one coming home. When the one returns, Jesus celebrates. Now most churches are happy when theres a baptism - I mean, who wouldn’t be? But that doesn’t mean they are celebrating because a baptism may not be a win for them. Instead, there are churches who consider it a “win” when they disfellowship someone. Others consider it a “win” when they get rid of a particular pastor, gain control over a particular issue in the church, or when they finally scare off those pesky young people with their weird ideas.

Some churches have no win whatseover (in that they have never discussed what a win is or have no unified win) and others consider it a win to reject or resist particular theological developments (ex. churches that pride themselves in being anti-WO or anti-”new theology” etc.).

But Jesus didn’t have any of those as a win. His only win—the only thing the Bible says heaven ever has a party over—is when the one comes home.

So then, what does your church celebrate?

These three questions: Who does your church attract? Who does your church prioritise? And What does your church celebrate? constitute the “Is Your Local Adventist Church Like Jesus? Quiz”.

What are your answers? Share them below and lets chat.

You might be asking: What do we do if our church is not like Jesus?

To answer that question, I have put together an online mission and discipleship school. Tap the button below to learn more.

Learn more