Go & Plant Churches

September 29, 2007 | Filed Under church planting, missional | No Comments

Here is a link to a good article by Tim Stafford on church planting in the latest issue of Christianity Today. Here is a sample:

Perhaps most important, studies show a consistent difference between old and new churches. George Hunter of Asbury Theological Seminary says, “Churches after 15 years typically plateau. After 35 years, they typically can’t even replace those [members] they lose. New congregations reach a lot more pre-Christian people.” Those who study churches say established congregations tend to turn inward, no matter how hard they try to resist the trend. But new churches must look outward to survive. Richard Harris, vice president of NAMB’s church-planting group, says that established SBC churches report 3.4 baptisms per 100 resident members, whereas new churches average 11.7. It’s not hard to conclude that more new churches would lead more people to Christ.

Thirsty Planet

September 27, 2007 | Filed Under justice | No Comments

Here is a link to part one of a series titled “Thirsty Planet” presented on NBC Nightly News this week. Part one discusses the very disturbing state of the Ganges River in India and the lack of fresh water for the 1.1 billion people who live in India. My question is why are there not water purification plants being built throughout the country? Does anyone know solutions that are in the works?

The Barna Group Update

September 25, 2007 | Filed Under church, culture | 5 Comments

If you have any doubt about the waning influence of the church in America read Barna’s latest update here. A new study conducted by the Barna Group among 16 to 29 year olds shows that a new generation is more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age just a decade ago.

I find many of Barna’s findings to be reminiscent of Kimball’s latest book “They Like Jesus But Not The Church.” What this generation is skeptical of is not the way of Jesus, but the “way” of judgmental, hypocritical Christians. I appreciated one of the final paragraphs in the Barna update:

Some Christians fear the changing reputation of Christianity and it certainly represents an uncomfortable future. Yet, rather than being defensive or dismissive, we should learn from critics, especially those young Christians who are expressing consternation about the state of faith in America. Jesus told us to expect hostility and negative reactions. That is certainly nothing new.

But the issue is what we do with it. Is it a chance to defend yourself and demand your rights? Or is it an opportunity to show people grace and truth? Common ground is becoming more difficult to find between Christians and those outside the faith. When the Apostle Paul advises believers to “live wisely among those who are not Christians” and to “let your conversation be gracious and effective,” (Colossians 4:5-6, NLT) he could be writing no better advice to committed Christians in America.

Blessing From Justice in the Burbs

September 24, 2007 | Filed Under books, justice | No Comments

May the God of peace, justice, and hope lead you on the pathways of mercy and compassion. May you have the heart of God, the eyes of Jesus, and the leading of the Spirit as you seek to join with the work of those who have gone before you. And may you grow in grace.

“A Final Blessing” from Justice in the Burbs by Will & Lisa Samson

Night Light Ministry

September 24, 2007 | Filed Under justice | 1 Comment

A couple of months ago I posted here on a ministry based in urban Bangkok called Night Light that combats the sexual exploitation of women and children. The devastating amount of pain and hurt those trapped in this trade experience is unfathomable. Yesterday we received an email prayer letter that illustrates the deep spiritual warfare that is taking place. Please take time today to prayer for these mentioned and for Night Light. More>>

Rethinking Worship Evangelism?

September 21, 2007 | Filed Under church, ecclesiology, missional | No Comments

There is probably a good chance you have already seen this article from Sally Morgenthaler, author of Worship Evangelism. Morgenthaler’s article was first published in Rev! Magazine but recently was offered on the Allelon website as well as this month’s Next Wave ezine.

I used a portion of Worship Evangelism as part of the curriculum for a course on Worship from 1999 to 2003. I appreciated her emphasis on challenging seeker targeted churches to rethink performance based “worship” to that in which seekers would sense and experience the presence of God. Morgenthaler challenged church leaders to consider the evangelistic potential of authentic worship.

However, today Morgenthaler has become increasingly uncomfortable with the “worship-driven subculture.” She has become convinced that the focus on culturally relevant, authentic worship has been at the expense of understanding and living the Christian faith with a missional perspective.

I would recommend reading the entire article on one of the sites linked above, but here is a sample of Morgenthaler’s struggle: More>>

Franciscan Benediction

September 20, 2007 | Filed Under missional, prayer | 1 Comment

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

(HT: One for the Road)

Spiritual Transformation - Key #8

September 19, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, missional, spiritual formation | No Comments

Today Georges Boujakly completes his series on “keys” to spiritual transformation. Earlier posts in the series can be found here: key #1a, key #1b, key #1c, key #2, key #3, key #4, key #5, key #6, key #7.

Spiritual formation is plural.

The Bible is plural. It was born among a people, a community. Its truths and message were hammered out on the anvil of faithful community living. It is addressed to a people not to individuals. When it is addressed to individuals, (say Philemon, Timothy, or Titus) it is still for the spiritual formation of the community.

It is not often that Jesus is found one on one in the gospels. Even when he is, the community is close by and the work he does is in the context of community.

In his most recent work A Community Called Atonement Scot McKnight states:

Once again, we return to Mary, to Zechariah, to the inaugural sermon, and to the Beatitudes: Jesus’ mission, his vision of the kingdom, is about restoring the blind, giving limber legs to the lame, wiping the skin of the lepers clean, filling the ears of the deaf with music, and sounds, bringing back dead people from the grave, and making sure the poor are taken care of by restoring them to their proper social location.

The mission of Jesus is healing justice, the ending of disease, dislocation, and oppression. Beyond those conditions, Jesus announces the creation a covenanted community where the covenant, God’s will, is lived out for each and every person.

We cannot back down on this: if this is Jesus’ vision, and atonement is one way of speaking of what God’s redemptive work in this world is designed to accomplish, then the creation of a community where God’s will is done is inherent to the meaning of atonement.

The Gospel is inherently communal. Spiritual formation in the kingdom of God is inherently communal. It is necessarily individual but only in the sense of beginning there but never ending there. Everything about Christianity is communal in nature: The Trinity, the Gospel, Salvation, Sanctification, the Eschaton.

We go to great length in hiring the best preachers money can afford, develop the most fun programs we can muster, have the greatest music in the cosmos, house them in the best facilities money can buy, and not much of it has had a successful record in changing the character of the church or of society! While sitting in the chair next to us, in front and behind, is a community waiting to flourish and lead us to be conformed to the image of Christ.

How is plural spiritual formation happening in your community?

Where would you start in making spiritual formation a communal endeavor if this becomes a passion for your and your church?

Next Missional Network Gathering

September 17, 2007 | Filed Under books, missional, networks | No Comments

The next Missional Network gathering will be Thursday October 18th. For this gathering we will be discussing The Sacred Way by Tony Jones. The Sacred Way offers a helpful survey of the practices of the spiritual life. I like how Jones categorizes the practices into contemplative approaches to spritiuality including such practices as silence and solitude, sacred reading, centering prayer and spiritual direction; and bodily approaches to spiritually with such things as fasting, service, sabbath and utilizing the Labyrinth. Jones also provides a very helpful list of book and web resources for further study with each of the practices.

I think Jones’ book is very applicable for incorporating spiritual practices in everyday life, especially important for those with a missional mindset where the desire to see the church “go and be” rather than “come and see” is presented.

While all the practices are certainly not for every follower of Jesus, Jones uses Thomas a Kempis to provide wisdom concerning the varied type of practices:

All cannot use the same kind of spiritual exercises, but one suits this person, and another that. Different devotions are suited also to the seasons, some being best for the festivals, and others for ordinary days. We find some helpful in temptations, others in peace and quietness. Some things we like to consider when we are sad, and others when we are full of joy in the Lord.

KC Network
Thursday, October 18th
4:00pm-7:00pm
Kansas City Association
8745 Ballentine
Overland Park

Spiritual Transformation - Key #7

September 16, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, missional, spiritual formation | 5 Comments

Spiritual formation is not a luxury for the most spiritual among us.

It would not come as a surprise to know that Jesus did not have an elite club. Would it? Those we might consider elite as we read the gospels, were not so elite in Jesus’ book. Sure they had their special place as his chosen ones to lead the new people of God, but like their counterparts in the first testament they were just as messed up as the next guy.

In the past, I labored under the illusion that those who studied a particular 13 week course of study in discipleship were more spiritual than those who didn’t. Until a member had taken the course, obtained the certificate, he or she was not a serious disciple. Although this was well-meaning, it was misdirected. My greatest teachers were the older people who had had a long life of learning to love God and others in the crucible of life. While I am not knocking the intellectual development in discipleship, I am saying at the same time that gathering biblical information is not the key to character development or spiritual formation.

This vision of spiritual formation as what the church does for everybody (including children and seniors) is only dependent on the willingness of the disciple to be conformed to the image of Christ. It is not for a special category of Christian. It is for all believers.

Where Did We Miss the Person?

September 14, 2007 | Filed Under books, gospel | No Comments

Last night I was revisiting Leonard Sweet’s Out of the Question . . . Into the Mystery which I read a couple of years ago. Here are a couple of good quotes from chapter one which is titled “Where Did We Miss the Person and Get the Point Instead?”

Over a two-thousand-year period, but especially in the last two hundred years, we have jerked and tugged the Christian faith out of its original soil, its life-giving source, which is an honest relationship with God through Jesus the Christ. After uprooting the faith, we have entombed it in a declaration of adherence to a set of beliefs. The shift has left us with casual doctrinal assent that exists independent of a changed life. We have made the Cross into a crossword puzzle, spending our time diagramming byzantine theories of atonement. How did the beauty of Jesus’ atoning work get isolated from the wonder of restoring an authentic relationship between God and humanity?

And

The church may clutch Jesus to its side, but it no longer clutches Jesus to its insides. For the Jews, the unique place where God encountered humans was the temple and (before that) the tent or tabernacle. For Jesus, the unique place where God encounters humans is the human heart. But the church has embalmed Jesus in rules, codes, canonicities, and traditions that have everything to do with the church’s saving itself and nothing to do with the church’s saving the world.

And

Western Christianity is largely belief based and church focused. It is concerned with landing on the right theology and doctrine and making sure everyone else toes the line. The Jesus trimtab, in contrast, is relationship based and world focused. It is concerned not so much with what you believe as with whom you are following. It is less invested in maintaining and growing an institution and more invested in Jesus’ passion for saving the world.

Spiritual Transformation - Key #6

September 13, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, missional, spiritual formation | 3 Comments

Georges Boujakly continues his series on the key principles to spiritual transformation. These eight “keys” include the following:

1. Spiritual transformation is an inside job.
2. Spiritual transformation requires deliberate effort.
3. Spiritual transformation has a specific goal.
4. The goal of spiritual transformation is conformity to Jesus Christ.
5. The progress of spiritual transformation is always slow.
6. Spiritual transformation is the “business” of the church.
7. Spiritual transformation is not a luxury for the spiritually elite.
8. Spiritual Transformation is plural.

Today Georges elaborates on #6:

Spiritual formation is the business of the church

Dallas Willard has challenged the church to come up with a comprehensive process and curriculum that would take seriously the mandate Christ gave when he said in Matthew 28: “train them to do everything I have told you to do.”

Whatever training Jesus did with his disciples, he was entrusting to them (and to us) to pass on the training to do everything; ad infinitum!

One way to see this command is to understand Jesus’ words this way:

“You have one main business in the church; duplicate all I did with you. You heard me teach and you saw me practice many things. Some you won’t remember, but the Holy Spirit will remind you.”

The church should have one occupation, one profession, one process: That of the formation of the Spirit of Christ in his disciples. If that is not the business of the church whatever could it be? Willard, however chides the church for not taking this “everything I have taught you” most seriously. I agree, don’t you? More>>

The Sky is Falling

September 10, 2007 | Filed Under alan roxburgh, books, dmin project, gospel, missional | No Comments

This morning as I was reflecting on just how different the church would look if it was really shaped in terms of the missio dei, I ran across these words from Alan Roxburgh:

“Throughout Western societies, and most especially in North America, there has occurred a fundamental shift in the understanding and practice of the Christian story. It is no longer about God and what God is about in the world; it is about how God serves and meets human needs and desires. It is about how the individual self can find its own purposes and fulfillment.

More specifically, our churches have become spiritual food courts for the personal, private, inner needs of expressive individuals. The result is a debased, compromised, derivative form of Christianity that is not the gospel of the Bible at all. The biblical narrative is about God’s mission in, through, and for the sake of the world and how God has called human beings to be part of God’s reaching out to that world for God’s purpose of saving it in love. The focus of attention should be what God wants to accomplish and how we can be part of God’s mission, not how God helps us accomplish our own agendas.”

- Alan Roxburgh in The Sky is Falling

Hit the Bullseye

September 7, 2007 | Filed Under books, church, leadership | 1 Comment

I spent the majority of this week with a group of denominational leaders discussing various issues dealing with congregational health and the need for rethinking denominations and judicatories to be better equipped to coach and resource churches. The bulk of our discussion centered around the book “Hit the Bullseye: How Denominations Can Aim the Congregation at the Mission Field” by Paul Borden.

While my expectations of the book were not very high initially, the more I read the more I appreciated Borden’s candor in regards to the ineffectiveness of much of what takes place in denominational life. Here are a couple of samples of what I mean:

The problem with denominations is that they want to shape the mission around their polity, rather than shape the polity around the mission. The latter view is the spirit of all the founding fathers and mothers of every denomination, while the former is the sorry state of every denomination today. The lack of mission urgency in North America means that denominational leaders think they still have time to develop modest, incremental strategic plans to tinker with polity, and time afterwards to then go about mission. The truth is just the opposite. The eternal destinies of individuals do not allow such laxness.

And:

Our current polity systems usually enfranchise those people who are the least able to lead while tying the hands of the most creative and able leaders. This statement assumes that the most able leaders are still around after any brief exposure to how religious bodies function. Our polities allow the managers, administrators, and politicians who understand complex bureaucratic systems to become the leaders in congregational, judicatory, and denominational life. In the meantime these systems weed out those with entrepreneurial and leadership skills. These people for the most part leave and create their own ministries or shadow organizations that go around the bureaucracies created by our polities.

Borden argues that there is far more time and effort spent on keeping the institution going than on focusing resources on the local congregation as the major unit of mission. Deep, paradigmatic change is needed if there is to be hope, and such change must be systemic not incremental.

However I am afraid that the vast majority of those in denominational life have been fitted with one of these: (HT: geez)

You Might Be Missional If

September 5, 2007 | Filed Under church, kingdom of God, missional | 1 Comment

Larry Chouiard provides a bit of humor (and a lot of truth) over at Spiritual Conversations with a post titled “You Might Have Missional Tendencies If:”

1. You talk more about the Kingdom of God than you do your local church.

2. You are more in awe of the radical Jesus than you are the charisma of your pastor/preacher.

3. You feel a greater sense of community in the parking lot than in the pews.

4. You’ve oftened muttered leaving a ‘church service’, “there’s got to be more to it than this”.

5. You’ve often wondered why the church couldn’t meet in the park or Starbucks once in a while.

6. You’ve cringed at the coldness and indifference of church people when someone shows up at our ‘church service’ that looks and smells different.

7. You’ve wondered why Christians only hang-out with Christians when Jesus seemingly never missed an opportunity to party with the riff-raff.

8. You’ve wondered what God does the other six days of the week.

9. You’ve had the urge to spill your guts to the next artificial inquiry, “I’m fine, how are you?”.

10. You’ve had the compelling urge to join the preacher at the podium to present an alternative perspective.

11. You’ve wanted to fall to your knees while everyone stood for another happy-clappy song.

12. You’ve wanted to close a ’service’ by shouting from your pew, “NOW WHAT?”

13. You sometimes find more spiritual depth and authenticity in the lives of those who do not go to church.

A Holistic Gospel

September 2, 2007 | Filed Under gospel, kingdom of God, missional | No Comments

For some time now I have enjoyed JR Woodward’s blog dream awakener. Over the past few weeks I have been following a series of posts that he has been doing on developing a holistic Gospel.

Woodward argues that to try to separate personal from social salvation is to argue against the law, the prophets, Jesus, and the Apostle Paul. I would like to hear your thoughts on his perspective. Here are the links to the first ~~ten~~ twelve posts:

A Holistic Gospel - Part I
A Holistic Gospel - Part II
A Holistic Gospel - Part III
A Holistic Gospel - Part IV
A Holistic Gospel - Part V
A Holistic Gospel - Part VI
A Holistic Gospel - Part VII
A Holistic Gospel - Part VIII
A Holistic Gospel - Part IX
A Holistic Gospel - Part X
A Holistic Gospel - Part XI
A Holistic Gospel - Part XII