Jason Locke's Blog

On my sabbatical this summer, I rediscovered several important priorities about how to "do church" in the 21st century. Instead of endless controversies about what should or shouldn't happen in a worship service, the church needs to rediscover a sense of mission outside the bounds of traditional worship gatherings. Simply put, the church must become a people once again shaped by the mission of God. In writing this, I am not at all down on the traditional worship gathering. Regular assemblies are an enormous blessing to many existing Christians, myself included. We need to continue to slowly walk these gatherings toward being healthy and edifying for those who depend on them. As we continue to do this, however, it's time to STOP putting the wrong expectations on these worship gatherings, be they comfortingly traditional or radically contemporary. We should NOT expect worship to carry the load for evangelism, education, revival, fellowship, and every other necessary asp...

In an earlier article, I wrote about a key discovery from my recent sabbatical. It's that we need to start leaning into DISCIPLESHIP FIRST methods of reaching out rather than solely relying on WORSHIP FIRST approaches. A worship-first approach works fine in a world where people are looking to belong to a church, but this method becomes increasingly futile in a society where most could care less about attending a formal worship service. You can read my article about this here . But just what does it look like? Why is this important? I was a college student at a state university in the 1980s. I was one of the key leaders in our campus ministry there, and we had tremendous success in growing the campus ministry and affecting change. Then I worked as a campus minister at a different state university in the 2000s, hoping to see the same kinds of positive results. In the decade or more in between, however, a monumental change was occurring that would deeply affect ministry in the US. Thi...

On my sabbatical, I've made multiple (re)discoveries about how we might think differently about doing church work today. Here is number two! It's that we need to think of strategies that put discipleship first, not worship first. The pieces were already in place for me to understand this one. What was lacking, however, was the imagination to see what it actually looks like in practice. Sometimes you just can't think yourself into a better way of acting ... you have to lead with your feet! That's what this discovery will allow us to do, or so I think. Everything I've ever known about how to do church involves a WORSHIP FIRST strategy. This means that the goal of interacting with non-Christians or unchurched people has been to get them to visit and then regularly attend a church's worship service. As a missionary in Europe, I was always trying to gradually move people closer and closer to the ultimate goal of getting them to join our church worship gatherings. Eve...

Fifteen visits spread out over twenty-one days in the United Kingdom. It's been a whirlwind tour. I've visited with lay leaders and clergy. With those launching Christian communities in new developments. With those trying to renew a sense of mission in ancient, dying parishes. With those bringing new forms of Christian community alongside traditional worshiping assemblies. With budding enterprises in rural villages and creative outreach in urban areas. With leaders whose churches no longer meet on Sundays, or no longer use their sanctuaries. With churches who have transformed or rebuilt their spaces. With churches who have one vicar for eight congregations. With churches who have hired innovative lay leaders to reach out in their communities. With Anglicans. Baptists. Methodists. Scottish Presbyterians. And with those who coach, train and inspire these folks. I'm hardly the first person to have experienced such a journey or visited these church settings. But I don't kno...

Last Friday, we left for my first ministry sabbatical. The trip to Germany was mostly uneventful. Completely full flights. A strange delay of 2.5 hours at DFW. But no real problems. We had an eventful Sunday, which I describe below. On Monday morning, though, I woke up with congestion, headache and sore throat. Since I had a couple meetings planned that day, I believed it wise to take a Covid test to rule it out. The result was positive. Shocker! No idea if I picked it up before leaving Fresno or somewhere on the flight over. This has led to the very sad cancellation of a number of activities and appointments I had this week. We're extending our stay in Frankfurt to try to get well quickly. Back to our arrival in Frankfurt... We got checked in to our simple hotel in the heart of Frankfurt and then had one goal for that day: Stay awake until evening. The worst way to overcome jetlag is to succumb to the afternoon-nap temptation on day one. Mission accomplished. I was in Frankfurt on...

This summer, I embark on my first ministry sabbatical. It's a very unusual sabbatical, not least because this should have happened in 2014, after 5 years of ministry here. The timing back then was terrible, so I didn't even bring it up. And it hasn't been great in recent years either. Finally, the moment has come. Summer of 2022 sabbatical, here we come. The idea of a sabbatical comes from the academic world, or so I'm told. It's a period of paid leave for the minister or teacher, who spends that time in research, writing or exploration of one kind or another. In university settings, a tenured professor might receive a year of sabbatical for every seven years of teaching. In ministry settings, two or three months is a more normal length. In my church tradition, sabbaticals are not a common thing. It's not because people think it's a bad idea — it's just not something they are probably familiar with. The concept has taken root, however, and an increasing ...