Praying with Ignatius of Loyola

March 31, 2008 | Filed Under prayer | No Comments

ignatius-loyola.jpgDear Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to seek reward, save that of knowing that I do your will.

– Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)

The Church Does What It Is

March 27, 2008 | Filed Under church, ecclesiology | 1 Comment

essence-of-the-church.jpgThe church is missionary by nature, created by the Spirit to participate fully in the redemptive reign of God. The very existence of the church in the world creates a missionary condition. All that the church does in living its life and in carrying out its ministry is missionary by intent.

The church is missionary by nature because God through the Spirit calls, creates, and commissions the church to communicate to the world that the redemptive reign of God has broken into human history.

Because the church is the creation of the Spirit, its ministry is a work of the Spirit. The church’s ministry flows naturally out of its nature. This means that the church does what it is. . . . It is helpful to summarize the key elements of the church’s nature that have a direct bearing on the church’s ministry.

1. The nature of the church is defined by the mission of God in the world.

2. The nature of the church is the result of the redemptive work of Christ.

3. The nature of the church is holistic in relating redemption to all of life.

4. The church exists as a social community that is both spiritual & human.

5. The church exists as a full demonstration of a new humanity.

The attributes of the church’s nature determine the church’s ministry.

– The Essence of the Church  by Craig Van Gelder 

More Radical Hospitality

March 25, 2008 | Filed Under hospitality | No Comments

radical-hospitality.jpgListening is always involved in hospitality. The most gracious attempts we can muster are meaningless if we do not actually hear the stranger. Listening is the core meaning of hospitality. It is something we can give anyone and everyone, including ourselves. It takes only a few minutes to really listen.

A young man who worked all during his high school years bagging groceries said that the vast majority of people who went through his line never looked at him when he asked, “Paper or plastic?” He said people did not meet his eyes, smile at him, or acknowledge him in any way.

What a tiny thing. Look up; look into the eyes of the young person and smile.

The former bag-boy said, “My mother asked me one day why I always hung around her, talking, after work. I didn’t know why until Mom and I talked about how I feel at work. I feel like I’m not quite human.”

This is what happens to the one who feels as if no one ever listens. Most of us cannot imagine such an existence, but there are homes and places where people are not heard. Children are often not listened to; they are viewed as objects to be maintained rather than real human beings.

Hospitality is a way to counter the thousands of times another human being has felt less than human because others didn’t listen. Listening is the power of hospitality; it is what makes hospitality the life-giving thing it is.

– Radical Hospitality: Benedict’s Way of Love by Daniel Homan and Lonni Collins Pratt

He Has Sent Me

March 23, 2008 | Filed Under scripture | 1 Comment

isaiah-61.jpgOne of the passages to consider when highlighting the missionary/sending nature of God in the Old Testament is Isaiah 61. In the Hebrew, the phrase “he has sent me“ is the main verb controlling each of the redemptive deeds that follow. Unlike most English translations, the CEV and NEB have arranged the words to emphasize this fact.

The Spirit of the LORD God has taken control of me! The LORD has chosen and sent me

to tell the oppressed the good news,
to heal the brokenhearted,
to announce freedom for prisoners and captives.

This is the year when the LORD God will show kindness to us and punish our enemies. The LORD has sent me to comfort those who mourn, especially in Jerusalem.

He sent me

to give them flowers in place of their sorrow,
to give olive oil in place of tears,
(to give) joyous praise in place of broken hearts.

– Isaiah 61:1-3 (Contemporary English Version)

Missional Distinctives

March 18, 2008 | Filed Under alan hirsch, missional | No Comments

write.jpgHere are the links to two good articles on missional distinctives. The first is the latest entry from David Dunbar’s Missional Journal. This issue is titled “A New Imagination for the Church.” 

The second is an article from Christianity Today’s Building Small Groups website by Alan Hirsch. In this article titled “Small Groups and the Mission of God”Hirsch discusses the missional capacity of individual disciples and small group communities.

Making Room: Recovering Hospitality

March 14, 2008 | Filed Under hospitality | 1 Comment

making-room.jpgHospitality is not optional for Christians, nor is it limited to those who are specially gifted for it. It is, instead, a necessary practice in the community of faith. . . . Several aspects of early Christian life combined to make hospitality central to Christian practice.

First, shared meals were a significant setting for struggling with cultural boundaries in the early church, especially in working through the incorporation of Gentiles into the early communities. At meals together, tensions surfaced between rich and poor believers; meals provided the context for instructions on equal recognition and respect. Hospitality practices in the Christian community were to portray a clear message — that of equality, transformed relations, and a common life.

Second, the gospel initially spread through the ministry of believers who traveled widely and depended on the hospitality of others. Hospitality to those first missionaries and the reception of their message were very closely connected. . . . Hospitality was the practice within which early Christians met the needs of traveling missionaries and leaders, religious exiles, and the local poor.

Third, the early church regularly met for worship in the households of believers. In such a location, hospitality was a natural and necessary practice. It helped foster family-like ties among believers and provided a setting in which to shape and to reinforce a new identity.

For the early church, then, hospitality both participated in and anticipated God’s hospitality. Christians offered hospitality in grateful response to God’s generosity and as an expression of welcome to Christ “who for your sake was a stranger.” For them, hospitality was connected to the promises of God and to the presence of Christ. It condensed attention to spiritual, social, and physical dimensions of life into one potent practice which was fitting conduct within the household of God.

- Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine D. Pohl

Radical Hospitality

March 11, 2008 | Filed Under books, hospitality | 3 Comments

radical-hospitality.jpgHospitality, rather than being something you achieve, is something you enter. It is an adventure that takes you where you never dreamed of going. It is not something you do, as much as it is someone you become. You try and you fail. You try again. You make room for one person at a time, you give one chance at a time, and each of these choices of the heart stretches your ability to receive others. This is how we grow more hospitable — by welcoming one person when the opportunity is given to you.

- Radical Hospitality: Benedict’s Way of Love by Daniel Homan and Lonni Collins Pratt

Praying With The Missio Dei Breviary

March 8, 2008 | Filed Under missional, prayer | 1 Comment

missio-dei-breviary.jpgMatthew 5:43-48

You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Closing Prayer

Lord, help us to love our enemies in both words and deeds. Help us to embody your loving, forgiving presence in our neighborhood—especially among those who resist the Gospel, especially to those who hate your name.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Week 1: Saturday Evening

God Who Sends

March 5, 2008 | Filed Under books, missional | 1 Comment

god-who-sends.jpgIn preparation for a message that I will be sharing this weekend on the missionary nature of God I read again the book “God Who Sends” by Francis M. DuBose. The book is a wonderful survey of the sending passages found throughout scripture. DuBose provides a wealth of insight towards the use of sending as the necessary and best approach to understanding the concept of mission.

I first read the book a year ago and at that time provided a short summary of DuBose’s survey. Here are each of the previous posts:

Being Sent and the Pentateuch
Being Sent and the Historical Books
Being Sent and the Prophets
Being Sent and the Gospels
Being Sent in Acts & the Epistles

The Church Between Gospel & Culture

March 1, 2008 | Filed Under books, church, missional | 2 Comments

church_gospel_culture.jpgOne of the most helpful books from the reading list in the previous post has been “The Church Between Gospel & Culture” edited by George Hunsberger and Craig Van Gelder. The book is a collection of twenty essays organized into four major categories, which include: “Focusing the Mission Question,” “Assessing Our Culture,” “Discerning the Gospel,” and “Defining the Church.” Authors include James Brownson, Inagrace Dietterich, Douglas John Hall, Alan Roxburgh, Wilbert Shenk, Paul Hiebert and several others.

In the essay titled “Up From the Grassroots: The Church in Transition”written by E. Dixon Junkin, the author argues that the church must once again recapture a sort of “church from below” mentality whereby communities of faith are easily birthed and are doing life rooted in a local context. While reading the following excerpt I was reminded of Neil Cole’s comment that we need to “raise the bar for what it means to be a disciple and lower the bar for what it means to be the church.” Junkin writes:

Instead of continuing to expend such energy trying to make outworn patterns of institutional life serve us, it seems appropriate to devote more attention to the task of creating new forms of common life that may, over time, allow a new consensus to emerge.

And it seems probably that the relearning of the meaning of Christian faith and life is most likely to occur in communities that are small enough to permit all their members to participate fully in the process of reflection, decision, and action.

One could probably describe such communities in many ways . . . let us imagine thousands of communities whose members in an intentional, disciplined fashion do the following six things:

1. Pray together.
2. Share their joys and struggles.
3. Study the context in which they find themselves.
4. Listen for God’s voice speaking through Scripture.
5. Seek to discern the obedience to which they are being called.
6. Engage in common ministry.