reveric'stuff

Qualities of a Post-Modern Mission

I'm reading through Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches.  He has a great list of the qualities of a culturally sensitive church in the post-modern world:

• Being unashamedly spiritual
• Promoting incarnational ministry 
• Engaging in service 
• Valuing experiential praise 
• Preaching narrative expository messages 
• Appreciating and participating in ancient patterns 
• Visualizing worship 
• Connecting with technology 
• Living community 
• Leading by transparency and team  

It's the best list I've seen in a good-long while.   I've had long roads to end up at each one of these places, and here they are, all together.  Volumes are written on each one.  They are each vital (some moreso than others).  I think this is a good place to start with a list of essential qualities of a church in the post-modern world.  
  

The Church I Want

  The hardest challenge as a pastor has been to lead a church that I would be excited about bringing people to and that I'm excited to be a part of.  This sounds crazy, doesn't it?  It's easy to be pulled into a sense of trying to create something - programs or services - that would satisfy some unidentified requirement/expectation.  Most of that time, I'm wondering if this is something I could really be enthusiastic about bringing people to as something that would be welcoming and redemptive, particularly to the unchurched. 

Internet Monk referred to and connected to Scot McKnight thoughts about the church and community:

 Scot Mcknight astutely points out that we have a lot of people taking the church very seriously these days, but ironically, many of them can’t find the church they need. Not because of a lack of entertaining programs and preaching, but because they are looking for a community where they can faithfully struggle alongside other strugglers in the discipleship journey.

McKnight, in the article to which imonk refers, goes on to say:

 "If reading the Bible as Story teaches us anything, and we need to emphasize this one more time, it teaches us that God's work in this world is to form communities that visibly demonstrate the power of God at work in this world."

I think people, myself included, are longing to be part of a community that is focused, not on attractional activity and preaching, but on being the visible demonstration of the power of God at work in this world and in our lives.  That's a group I want to be a part of.  And it happens when a group of people actively love, care, support, edify, challenge, and love each other (I know I said 'love' twice).  That's attraction enough.  And that's the power of God at work. 

The Tangible Kingdom "Talk"

The authors of The Tangible Kingdom have a 'talk' for those interested in their community who are coming from other churches.  It summarizes what is different and demanding about their community for Christendom church-goers.  It speaks volumes of the consumer and rugged-individual orientation of the churches from which we stem.  

"'I just want you to know that we're not a church, we're a mission to Denver.  I don't feel any compulsion to feed you spiritually, but I will look after your spiritual formation.  I believe you won't grow unless you live like Jesus lived and try to do what he did with people.  This mission probably has nothing to offer you.  However, I'm interested in finding out if God brought you to us, and what your part in serving this city might be.'  I go on to suggest that they won't fit with us unless they are willing to open up their homes and lives to Sojourners and participate in a missional community within the city." (p. 54)

The Goal of the Gospel

Halter and Smay write provocatively in The Tangible Kingdom:

"Church must not be the goal of the gospel anymore.  Church should not be the focus of our efforts or the banner we hold up to explain what we're about.  Church should be what ends up happening as a natural response to people wanting to follow us, be with us, and be like us as we are following the way of Christ." (p. 30).  

Church should be a venue to express and live our love for Jesus.  Sometimes, though, it becomes an idol and takes the place for our love for Christ.  When that happens, it actually inhibits that which it is supposed to enable.  As the church separates further from our culture and develops a culture of its own, we need to find other means to express and model our love for Jesus to the world.  The world looks into the church and doesn't necessarily see Jesus.  Frankly, they've stopped looking.  Now, individuals can be invited to look into the lives of individual and small groups of Jesus followers and be introduced to the love of Christ.  People will fall in love with Jesus through deep, sacrificial, gentle, loving relationships.  

Jesus - the point of it all

I read a great article tonight from the internet monk blog. Way too often, the church gets in the way of Jesus.  Even though we're his body, we get so wrapped up in ourselves, we forget the point of being his body is that we're the temple where He dwells by the power of the Spirit.  imonk writes about a time when he forgot about Jesus and focused on the church.  Yikes.  Ouch.  Hmmm.  Especially now, when I'm grieving church, re-imagining church, looking for church, re-discovering church, alternating between excitement and disgust of church, it's easy - too easy - to forget about Jesus.  

The Joy of the Lord is my/our strength.    Lord, you are good - so good.

The Tangible Kingdom

A couple of weeks ago, I finished The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay.  It's the clearest book I've read on church being "missional".  While it's such a catch-phrase these days, I believe this reaches past the fads into the heart of historic Christianity and articulates where God is leading the church today.  I'd describe it as biblical, incarnational, missional, orthodox orthopraxy and a bunch of other good stuff.  I think most evangelical Christians and churches are coming to a place of understanding the necessity of being missional, and are trying to plug it into their life and practices.  This book paints a picture of beginning with being missional and incarnational and life happening there. 

I would love this to provide the missional heartbeat of the church.  I marked the book all up, and I'm going to go back and take notes.  I'll meditate over some of the thoughts in the book in future blogs.  And I just ordered the workbook off their website Tangible Kingdom and will look to gathering some folks with whom to delve in.   Look for more in coming days. 

Future Visions

We had some friends for dinner last night.  We talked of deep and sometimes hard things the way friends do.  Eventually, they asked my vision of 21st century congregations .  Something like this blurted out, and it surprised me.  It was a helpful and encouraging process.  I expressed it in three parts:

 

1. Worship: we would have worship that is an act of the body communing with God.  It would not be meant to attract anyone.  This is not the place to enter the body, but the place where the body would be simply expressing its love and desire for God.  It would use all in its historical experience for this expression.  And among other results of worship, the body would be challenged, encouraged, inspired and empowered to be propelled to continue its worship as witnesses in the world.

 

2. Discipleship: Transformed lives through the power of the Holy Spirit would be the purpose of the church.  The bar would be set high - to take up our crosses and follow Jesus.  Membership would carry a high level of commitment to living out faith in the context of the community.  This is particularly true as the community continues to be more distinguishable from the culture and a greater servant in the culture.   

 

3. Missional: we would simply seek to love and serve the world the way Jesus did.  We would intentionally be in the world loving our neighbors with the love of Christ that richly dwells within us.  We would expect that our non-Christendom culture would not enter the community through an attraction to our worship, but through a partnership in our mission.  The world, seeking meaning, would desire to participate in our service (not only to receive it, but also to participate in it).  Relationships would be built, motivations shared, and people love and cared for.  Worship would be the result of relationship, not the means to it. 

 

I know I can articulate these better, but this is a start on three distinctives I see in a vision where the church must go in its next iteration. 

reading: "The Coming Evangelical Collapse" by Michael Spencer

  An article has been flying around a group of friends out the Christian Science Monitorby Michael Spencer called The Coming Evangelical Collapse.  It's a provocative title, but it's about pretty much what it says it is.  Article  What's interesting so far is that the discussion I'm hearing in the group is less about the veracity of the article and more about whether this is a good or a bad thing.  All those in the discussion are strong evangelicals.  The question is whether what is left from this time is more faithful to Christ than what entered.  It may be smaller.  It will certainly have a less dominant role in secular culture.  But it may be deeper, stronger, and more like salt to the world than just plain ol' being like the world.  

Here's a couple quotes:  

Is it a good thing that denominations are going to become largely irrelevant? Only if the networks that replace them are able to marshal resources, training, and vision to the mission field and into the planting and equipping of churches. [that sums up the heart of the Wineskins - going from regulatory institution to equipping network]

Is it a good thing that many marginal believers will depart? Possibly, if churches begin and continue the work of renewing serious church membership. We must change the conversation from the maintenance of traditional churches to developing new and culturally appropriate ones. [I like that he says "appropriate" instead of merely "relevant"]

I believe the relationship of the body of Christ with our surrounding culture in America is changing.  We are being forced to a relationship that reflects the relationship the early church had with its culture.  Evangelical culture will change with it.  I do not for a second, though, believe that the gospel or the body of Christ is threatened.  Rather, we're in a time of seeing God do a new thing.  

Veronica is fond of telling me that she saw this article in its original form.  She keeps up with Spencer's blog: The Internet Monk    Take a look!

A New Beginning!

I'm ready for a new start!  And I'm ready for some good conversation about what it is we're looking for in life, church, family, blogging, ...just about everything.  I'm hoping to revitalize my blog and get it going again as a venue to talk, think, write, dream and ruminate about all things church, life and God.  I'll get it rolling in the next few days and invest some time in content here and on the side.  I'll also connect to it through facebook where I'll reconnect with the daily stuff of life and point to the deep stuff of life here. 

By the way, that's Sam & Anne at Jamba Juice where we rode our bikes the other day. 

I love you all.

Off to a cabin tommorow

Were off to the Thompson's cabin tommorow at Donner Lake. We can't wait!