The next Missional Network gathering will be Thursday, May 14th, from noon to 3:00pm. This month we are continuing our discussion through “The Contempaltive Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction”  by Eugene Peterson. Thus far the book has been a wonderful breath of fresh air as Peterson speaks with words of wisdom seldom found in contemporary pastoral ministry literature. 

In the foreword of the book, Rodney Clapp writes of Peterson:

“He pastors and writes from a scholarly background, having mastered the biblical languages and done doctoral-level work with the magisterial William F. Albright. But none of the learning is for show. Peterson is, in fact, uncomfortable with persistent questions about his books, insisting that his identity and aim in life is merely being a dependable pastor. In a world of mounting hype and glitter, he has dedicated himself to the unsung promotion of honesty, simplicity, and substance.”

Kansas City Network 
Thursday, May 14th
12:00noon – 3:00pm
Kansas City Association
8745 Ballentine
Overland Park

David Dunbar’s latest Missional Journal article – “Everything Changes.” Here David speaks on the importance of having our theology shaped by the missionary nature of God and His church. 

“What is crucial here is that mission is not first and foremost a job description for the church, but a reference to what God is up to in the world–God is on a mission!”

“The Church in a Missional Age” by Brett McCracken is a good basic introduction to the missional conversation.  On the same Biola Magazine website, you can also find a great interview with Ed Stetzer.

Here are “10 Ways Not  to Be Missional“

And finally, “Are You Attractive?”

“If you locked a new believer in a room for a month, and told him/her to read the Gospels and learn all they could about Jesus’ understanding of true spiritual leadership, there is no possible way that they would emerge a month later and suggest a CEO-style, management-based heirarchical model.” – Robby Mac

If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party.

The world says, “Mind your own business,” and Jesus says, “There is no such thing as your own business.”

The world says, “Follow the wisest course and be a success,” and Jesus says, “Follow me and be crucified.”

The world says, “Drive carefully—the life you save may be your own”—and Jesus says, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

The world says, “Law and order,” and Jesus says, “Love.”

The world says, “Get,” and Jesus says, “Give.”

In terms of the world’s sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion.

The Faces of Jesus by Frederick Buechner

Jonathan Dodson helps to remind us that living a missional life is not rocket science. In his post titled “8 Ways to Easily Be Missional” he encourages us to invite others into daily activities that we already do.

As I read Jonathan’s post I was once again reminded of one of my favorite quotes by Eugene Peterson’s: “The way of Jesus is always local and ordinary.”

As the church in the west attempts to recapture the missionary nature of God and His church, we must think seriously upon the doctrine of vocation.

How can we better understand, and “apply” the fact that God blesses us so we can be a blessing in all that we do? A book that I believe can help us do just that is “God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life”  by Gene Edward Veith, Jr.

Here are a couple of excellent excerpts that have helped me get a better mental picture of the importance of vocation:

“When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, observed Luther, we ask God to give us this day our daily bread. And He does give us our daily bread. He does it by means of the farmer who planted and harvested the grain, the baker who made the flour into bread, the person who prepared our meal. We might today add the truck drivers who hauled the produce, the factory workers in the food processing plant, the warehouse men, the wholesale distributors, the stock boys, the lady at the checkout counter. Also playing their part are the bankers, futures investors, advertisers, lawyers, agricultural scientists, mechanical engineers, and every other player in the nation’s economic system. All of these were instrumental in enabling you to eat your morning bagel.

Before you ate, you probably gave thanks to God for your food, as is fitting. He is caring for your physical needs, as with every other kind of need you have, preserving your life through His gifts. . . . And He does so by using other human beings. It is still God who is responsible for giving us our daily bread. Though He could give it to us directly, by a miraculous provision, as He once did for the children of Israel when He fed them daily with manna, God has chosen to work through human beings, who, in their different capacities and according to their different talents, serve each other. This is the doctrine of vocation.

When we or a loved one gets sick, we pray for healing. Certainly God can and sometimes does grant healing thorugh a miracle. But normally He grants healing through the vocations  of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians, and the like. It is still God who heals us, but He works through the means of skilled, talented, divinely equipped human beings.

When God blesses us, He almost always does it through other people. The ability to read God’s Word is an inexpressibly precious blessing, but reading is an ability that did not spring fully formed in our young minds. It required the vocation  of teachers.

God protects us through the cop on the beat and the whole panoply of the legal system. He gives us travel through the ministry of auto workers, mechanics, road crews, and airline employees.

He keeps us clean through the work of garbage collectors, plumbers, sanitation workers, and the sometimes undocumented aliens who clean our hotel rooms. He brings people to salvation through pastors and through anyone else who proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost. The fast-food worker, the inventor; the clerical assistant, the scientist; the accountant, the musician — they all have high callings, used by God to bless and serve His people and His creation.”

That is the doctrine of vocation!

“Confession is so difficult a Discipline for us partly because we view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. We come to feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We could not bear to reveal our failures and shortcomings to others. We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. Therefore we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy.

But if we know that the people of God are first a fellowship of sinner we are freed to hear the unconditional call of God’s love and to confess our need openly before our brothers and sisters together. In acts of mutual confession we release the power that heals. Our humanity is no longer denied but transformed.”

– Richard Foster (ht)