Michael S. Foster's Weblog

Mike Edwards wrote a short but insightful post that encapsulates some of the lessons he learned from being a pastor of a “failed church plant.†Here are his bullet points: To get the rest click here. Strangely, I’m in the process of writing a very similar series of posts call, “The Debriefing of a Church Planter.†There will be a post on every Tuesday until the end of the year about my experiences as church planter.

I despise this not-so-new but ever so popular form of Christianity that prides itself in so carefully nuancing the Gospel that all hearers walk away still thinking that the bearers of the message of the cross are swell guys. It is as A.W. Tozer says: This great prophetic voice from the Windy City nails it. The truth is that all our nuancing has little to nothing to do with contextualizing the message of the cross and more to do with a wicked attempt to remove the offense of the cross. We don't want to be labeled bigoted. We want to be labeled reasonable, respectable, and open-minded. We want the praise and acceptance of men. I long for an army of men who will speak the gospel with such a great clarity that no-one can walk away without having their heart shaken by Christ and his cross. We need loud voices crying out in the wilderness of dead evangelicalism. Speak up. Speak clearly. Don't silence any part of the gospel. Silence is sin. Hear Tozer again: Give us loud voices, Lord!

Jeff Vanderstelt, an elder at Soma Communities, has a great post on Tri-Perspectival Identities and how they relate to training God's people. It is definitely worth checking out. If you haven't heard of tri-perspectivalism (aka multi-perspectivalism) you should study up on it. A good place to start is by reading through Drew Goodmanson's blog post entitled, Triperspectivalism, Multiperspectivalism & Other Large Words. People use it differently. Some use it mainly as a helpful pedagogical device. Then others, myself included, see it not just as a great teaching tool but also as a full blown epistemology. I've landed into this second category through reading John Frame's The Doctrine of God and The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God. I hope you'll give it a look but I can only lead a horse to water...

"You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say." - Martin Luther

I know of a thousand churches that would boldly speak of Christ, his cross, and the empty grave. I'm thankful that I can give such a testimony. However, I've learned to not just to pay attention to where a church is the loudest but also where they are the most silent. Many of those "loud" churches I spoke of have little to nothing to say about abortion and sexuality. These are two of the greatest issues before the church today. God will hold these bold leaders responsible for their silence. It is as Luther said elsewhere:

God rescued me out of a family that was deeply entrenched in the occult and new age. Ghosts, seances, Ouija Boards, aliens, evolution, the Age of Aquarius, and other factors all mixed together into a toxic pool of deception which was representative of the Foster family religion. I was recently reminded of this when I stumbled upon a book on Amazon entitled, "Guardian 1: The Answers." Here is the Amazon's product description for the book:

Now this book is clearly full of false teachings and satanic deceptions. Maybe you are wondering why I even reproduce this hogwash on my blog? Well, there is a reason. The author's name is Fred Foster. He is my grandfather.

When I found this book, quite accidentally mind you, I was stunned to see how far God has removed me from the evil heritage of my family. As far as I know I'm the only Foster in my entire extended family that is a Christian. God brought 1 Corinthians 6 to mind:

I'm thankful that God has plucked me out an heritage of hell and washed me so that a heritage of heaven can continue on through the Foster name instead. Thanks be to God!

I decided to start a new category on tools for networking within your local church and with other ministries nationally/globally.

Today, I'll start with Skype. I love Skype! I use it almost everyday. It has become an incredible tool for networking and growing long distance relationships with other ministry leaders. However, I also use it for local purposes. What is Skype? Its basically a free internet phone/video conferencing service. Here's a little more information from their website:

You can download it free and learn more right here. If you get it be sure to call me at grassrootscc sometime.

"The church is a whore but she is still my mother." - Augustine

I want so badly to see this quote on one of those inspiration posters with a perdy eagle flying over canyon for sale at a Christian bookstore.

I’ve some big news to share with all my readers. I’ve decided to step down from my present position as the pastor at Grassroots Church in Cincinnati, OH. I’m not doing this for any “bad†reason. There wasn’t any moral failure in our leadership. There wasn’t any major divisions or doctrinal disagreements. There wasn’t a crisis. There wasn’t a scandal. Quite the contrary, things have been going very well in our congregation. We’ve seen God do all sorts of magnificent things in our midst! We’ve had our share of marriages, babies, and conversions thanks to the gospel! Our ministry has been successful!

Why am I stepping down? Well, it is kind of hard to answer that question without all sorts of qualifying but I’ll give it my best try at keeping it simple. In a nutshell, I think this is the best move I can make for the long-term vitality of the work of the gospel in Cincinnati. I know God has called me to spend my life aiding the planting of new gospel-centered, missional, and communal churches in Cincinnati on out to the rest of the Midwest. I’m completely resolved to following through with this call. However, I feel compelled by a sober assessment of my own spiritual maturity and the incredible task at hand to make a slight detour before moving forward.

I’ve decided that before I resume my work here in Cincinnati a few things need to happen. First, I need to be trained to plant the type churches we are seeking to plant by people that are already doing it. Second, I need to assemble a well-equipped team of leaders that are prepared to shoulder this work together. Sidenote: I’ll explain the biblical basis of these two points further along with my evolving views on biblical church planting in a forthcoming series of posts.

So, what is next? I’m in the process of assembling a team of folks that will be moving to San Diego to be part of Kaleo Church for a couple of years. We will be making the big move this coming summer. I believe that Kaleo will be the right place for us to get re-equipped to return and finish the work that we started here in Cincinnati. I plan to keep everyone updated through this blog and a newsletter.

I'm all about discipleship. If you love Jesus you have to be about it. However, there is a growing movement I've noticed that blurs the line between the gospel and discipleship. I was beginning to think that maybe I was off in my observation because I didn't hear anyone else saying similar things. Apparently, D. A. Carson has noticed the same trend which is assuring to me. Here is his thoughts through the notes of Scott Thomas:

He gave four other trends which you can read here.