Concerning A “Theology of Mission”

May 19, 2008 | Filed Under books, missiology, missional | No Comments

missionary-nature-of-the-church.jpgIs there, in the light of the present state of theology of the Old and New Testament, any occasion to speak of a separate “theology of mission”? One can maintain this, it seems to me, only  if one misunderstands the Church as well as mission.

The Church which has been chosen out of the world is chosen for this end — that she performs for the world the service of giving witness to the Kingdom of God which has come and is coming in Jesus Christ. If theology is really theo-logia — a speaking about God, then she cannot do otherwise than speak of the God who is not a statue but an overflowing fountain of good.

The triune God who is involved with the world in the sending of the prophets, of Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, also sends the apostles and the Church. I think that it would be a “back-translation” into old and theologically abandoned categories, if one were to vindicate the “theology of mission” as a separate field of theology.

The unity between Church and mission, the unity, that is, between mission as a service of the Church and the Church as sent  into the world, does not mean that there is no longer room for a basic reflection regarding the conditions  and manner  and extent  of the service of the Church to the world.

But every separate “theology of mission” will make acute the old danger of the separation of things which God has joined together in His Word. This can be nothing but a source of difficulties and problems.

There is no other Church than the Church sent into the world, and there is no other mission than that of the Church of Christ. The consequence for theology, I think, is that a theological reflection of missionary service is possible and extremely necessary, but not a “theology of missions.”

– Johannes Blauw in The Missionary Nature of the Church

Cultural Distance

May 11, 2008 | Filed Under books, missional | 3 Comments

tangible-kingdom.jpgAlan Hirsch, in The Forgotten Ways, shares a concept called “cultural distance.” It can be applied to missions and church in the sense that certain people and groups are really close to the gospel and others are very far away.

That is, some share much of what evangelical Christians hold dear, so all you need to do is provide a church in the middle of the suburb that provides safe child care, school tutoring, ice cream socials, divorce and alcohol recovery, and basic moral training, and you’ll probably see some growth in the church. Whereas people who don’t share the same biblical values will completely uninterested in our homogenized church expressions.

Cultural distance explains why there is room for some churches to stay the same, but also why most churches will need to make radical adjustments. It all depends on who you are called to reach. If your calling is to influence those with the most similarly held values, then you can keep providing the same thing. But if you want to influence the massively growing percentage of people who are much further from the gospel, you’ll have to provide, model, and invite people into an inclusive community that welcomes people with alternative values.

Halter and Smay in The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community

The Changing Face of World Missions

April 14, 2008 | Filed Under books, missiology | No Comments

changing-face-of-world-missions.jpgI recently began reading “The Changing Face of World Missions” by Michael Pocock, Gailyn Van Rheenen and Douglas McConnell. The book focuses on the dramatic changes that have taken place both in global society and in the church and the implications those changes have on how the church does missions. In chapter three, titled “Religionquake: From World Religions to Multiple Spiritualities”  Van Rheenen writes the following about the church’s relationship with other world religions:

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, theologians in the Western world sought to prove Christianity, to enshrine it as the queen of the sciences, or at least to give a rational foundation for believing God and the Christian way of life. In the new climate of the twenty-first century the most significant theological issue is the relationship between Christianity and the other world religions.

Later in the chapter he offers three very different ways Christians approach adherents of other world religions.

Reconciliation is based on the idea that truth is found equally in all world religions. Reconcilers employ inter-religious dialogue to arrive at common understandings of at least some truth.

Confrontation is based on the idea that non-Christian religions are demonic, estranged from God, contortions of ultimate reality as formed by God. Confrontational ministry is thus defined as a type of spiritual warfare. Confrontational methods may range from gentle admonishment and exhortation to prophetic denouncement.

Incarnation is based on the idea that God enables divinity to embody humanity. Christians, like Jesus, are God’s incarnation, God’s temples, tabernacling in human flesh (John 1:14; Phil. 2:3-8). Christians, spiritually transformed into the image of God, carry out God’s ministry in God’s way. Incarnationalists relate to seekers from other world religions personally and empathetically (as Jesus taught Nicodemus). Sometimes, however, they declare God’s social concerns by shaking up the status quo and “cleaning out the temple.” The end result of incarnation is a non-Christian world is always some form of crucifixion.

What do you believe are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Where do you find yourself when approaching other religions?

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

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.

Missional Reading List

February 27, 2008 | Filed Under books, missional | 2 Comments

books-books.jpgOver the past eighteen months I have read (or I am currently in the process of reading) each of the following books and journal articles. I thought I would provide them here, in alphabetical order, as a missional reading list. If you know of other writings that might be added to the list please let me know.

In the next couple of days I hope to share from this list the ten most helpful thus far in my studies.

Anderson, Paul N. “The Having-Sent-Me Father: Aspects of Agency, Encounter, and Irony in the Johannine Father-Son Relationship.”
Semeia 85, no. 1 (1999): 33-57.

Banks, Robert and Julia Bank. The Church Comes Home: Regrouping the People of God for Community and Mission.
Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1997.

Barrett, Lois Y. Storm Front: The Good News of God.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.

Barrett, Lois Y. Treasures in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.

Blauw, Johannes. The Missionary Nature of the Church: A Survey of the Biblical Theology of Mission.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962.

Bliese, Richard. “The Mission Matrix: Mapping Out the Complexities of a Missional Ecclesiology.”
Word & World 26, no. 3 (Summer 2006): 237-248.

Bosch, David J. “Evangelism: Theological Currents & Cross-currents Today,”
International Bulletin of Missionary Research 11, no. 3 (July 1987): 99.

Bosch, David J. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1991.

Bosch, David J. Believing in the Future: Toward a Missiology of Western Culture.
Valley Forge: Trinity Press International, 1995.

Christensen, Derek. “Marketplace and Missional Church.”
Stimulus: The New Zealand Journal of Christian Thought & Practice 13, no. 1 (February 2005): 13-18.

Cole, Neil. Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.

Dubose, Francis. God Who Sends: A Fresh Quest for Biblical Mission.
Nashville: Broadman, 1983.

Engelsviken, Tormod. “Missio Dei: The Understanding and Misunderstanding of a Theological Concept in European Churches.”
International Review of Mission 92, no. 367 (October 2003): 481-497

Ferreira, Johan. Johannine Ecclesiology.
Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998.

Fjeld, Roger W. “A Set-Apart and a Sending-Out Community.”
Currents in Theology and Mission 16, no. 5 (Oct. 1989): 337-340.

Frost, Michael and Alan Hirsch. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church.
Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2003.

Frost, Michael. Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture.
Hendrickson, 2006.

Glasser, Arthur F. and Charles Van Engen. Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003.

Goheen, Michael W. “The Missional Church: Ecclesiological Discussion in the Gospel and Our Culture Network in North America.”
Missiology 30, no. 4 (October 2002): 479-490.

Goheen, Michael W. “As the Father Has Sent Me, I Am Sending You: Lesslie Newbigin’s Missionary Ecclesiology.”
International Review of Mission 91, no. 362 (July 2002): 354.

Guder, Darrell L. Be My Witnesses: The Church’s Mission, Message, and Messengers.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985.

Guder, Darrell L. “Incarnation and the Church’s Evangelistic Mission,”
International Review of Missions 83, no. 330 (July 1994): 417-28.

Guder, Darrell L. Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
More>>

Mission in John’s Gospel

February 20, 2008 | Filed Under books, missional | No Comments

christianmission.jpgThe crucial form in which the Great Commission has been handed down to us (though it is the most neglected because it is the most costly) is the Johannine. Jesus had anticipated it in his prayer in the upper room which he said to the Father: “As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18).

Now, probably in the same upper room but after his death and resurrection, he turned his prayer-statement into a commission and said: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (John 20:21).

In both of these statements Jesus did more than draw a vague parallel between his mission and ours. Deliberately and precisely he made his mission the model of ours, saying “as the Father sent me, so I send you.” Therefore our understanding of the church’s mission must be deduced from our understanding of the Son’s.

- John R.W. Stott in Christian Mission in the Modern World

Social Location of the Western Church

February 14, 2008 | Filed Under alan roxburgh, books | No Comments

alan-roxburgh.jpg“The fourth and twentieth centuries form bookends marking transition points in the history of the church. Just as the fourth century adoption of Christianity by Constantine forced the church to struggle with its self-understanding as the new center of culture, twentieth century Christians must now struggle to understand the meaning of their social location in a decentered world.”

- Alan Roxburgh in The Missionary Congregation: Leadership and Liminality

The Benefits of an Incarnational Witness

February 12, 2008 | Filed Under books, incarnational | 1 Comment

feet-of-jesus.jpg“The case for an incarnational approach to missional witness is based, on the one hand, on the character of the biblical record; that is, the way in which the church’s missionary vocation is shaped by the earthly ministry of Jesus. The emphasis upon the necessary congruence of witness is rooted in God’s way of revealing himself supremely and finally in the incarnation of Jesus. The comprehensiveness of the biblical understanding of witness calls for an incarnational interpretation.

On the other hand, this approach helps us deal with some serious problems in our particular Western context. We see in both our mission history and our current evangelistic practices so much that is contrary to the incarnational character of the gospel. We see a gospel of peace proclaimed in divisive, judgmental ways. We see a Gospel of love conveyed manipulatively, insensitively, condescendingly. We see a gospel of healing obscured by distortions that hurt people and evoke resentment.

Thus we arrive at the concept of incarnational witness as one way of expounding the character of our missionary vocation. In the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God revealed himself as the One who is with and for his creation.

Now, as the Risen Lord sends his Spirit to empower the church, we are called to become God’s people present in the world, with and for the world, like St. John pointing always to Christ. The most incarnational dimension of our witness is defined by the cross itself, as we experience with Jesus that bearing his cross transforms our suffering into witness.

Incarnational witness is, therefore, a way of describing Christian vocation in terms of Jesus Christ as the messenger, the message, and the model for all who follow after him. To speak of the incarnation missionally is to link who Jesus was, what Jesus did, and how he did it, in one great event that defines all that it means to be Christian.”

- Darrell Guder in The Incarnation and The Church’s Witness

More Guder & Incarnational Mission

February 11, 2008 | Filed Under books, incarnational | No Comments

the-incarnation.jpgThe word mission is the Latinized version of the central theme of John’s Gospel: sending. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). As the Father sends the Son, as the Father and the Sonsend the Spirit, so the triune God sends the church to carry out its mandate of witness.

When we use the term incarnation, then, we are referring to the specific and historical event in which God’s mission reaches its central point and its fullest disclosure. We are also emphasizing the fundamental character of movement and purpose that God’s action reveals: “into the flesh” testifies to the fact that God is active and sending within human history.

The God of both testaments engages the history of his creation, speaks in such a way that his voice can be heard, and calls people not only to respond to his voice but to become part of his mission. In sending Jesus as the Christ, God draws all of salvation history together, as witnessed to the Old Testament, and simultaneously opens it up for proclamation to the entire world.

- Darrell Guder in The Incarnation and The Church’s Witness

Darrell Guder & Incarnational Mission

February 7, 2008 | Filed Under books, ecclesiology, incarnational | 2 Comments

A few months ago a Professor at a local seminary shared with me that he was uncomfortable with my use of the phrase “incarnational mission.” He believed the phrase was not very useful, moreover, in his opinion its use minimized the significance of the incarnation event.

Following is an excerpt from an excellent  little book (60 pages) by Darrell Guder titled “The Incarnation and The Church’s Witness” where Guder speaks directly to the meaning of “incarnational mission” as well as the “risk” involved in such language.

darrell-guder.jpg“By incarnational mission I mean the understanding and practice of Christian witness that is rooted in and shaped by the life, ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The critical question that motivates this study is this: Can and should the unique event of the incarnation of Jesus that constitutes and defines the message and mission of the church have concrete significance for the way in which the church communicates that message and carries out the mission?

Understanding mission incarnationally . . . could prove to be a remarkably integrative way to approach the church’s missionary vocation. It could counter the typically Western reduction of mission to one of the many programs of the church. It could recast that mission as the definitive calling of the church. It could seek to read the biblical record in its own terms and to address serious problems in Western mission that have surfaced in this century.

Thus, the language of incarnational mission could be both constructive with regard to the biblical and theological understanding of message, and polemical with regard to the context and history of mission, especially in the Western tradition.

Just as any theological concept is susceptible to distortion, there are ways of misconstruing the linkage of Christian mission with the incarnation. It is possible to dilute the uniqueness and centrality of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ when his incarnation becomes a model for Christian behavior. A primary ethical or moralistic interpretation of the life of Jesus, such as was characteristic of nineteenth-century liberal theology, often downplays or dilutes the event-character of the gospel.

But it is that event character, the historical ‘happenedness’ of Jesus’ life, that both enables and defines Christian witness. As we seek to explore the missional significance of the incarnation, we need to resist every temptation to dilute the centrality of the incarnation event. The risk represented by the concept of incarnational mission is worth taking, I think, especially as we are challenged to develop a viable mission theology for the Western world, which by common consent is now a very challenging mission field.”

Jesus Says

February 6, 2008 | Filed Under books, way of Jesus | No Comments

frederick-buechnerd2.jpgIf 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

What Is A Missional Church?

January 31, 2008 | Filed Under books, ecclesiology, missional | No Comments

treasure-in-clay-jars.jpgA proper, biblical ecclesiology looks at everything the church is and does in relation to the mission of God in the world. The church does not exist for itself, but for participation in God’s mission of reconciliation. “Mission” is not just an activity carried out by special people in faraway places. Mission is the character of the church in whatever context it exists.

This hasn’t always been the way Christians have thought about the character of the church. In Christendom (where church & nation/culture were hand-in-glove, and it was assumed that almost everybody was Christian somehow), the church’s mission only related to cultures other than the dominant culture.

This was especially the case in Europe and North America. But Christendom is dying. Our context in North America is more like the New Testament context of the church, where the church is on the margins, not at the center of society. The mission field is right around us, as well as around the world. We can no longer assume (if indeed, we ever should have assumed) that everyone around us is Christian.

Nor is a missional church simply a congregation with a mission statement. All kinds of organizations have mission statements, and not all of those mission statements are aligned with God’s purposes in the world.

A missional church is a church that is shaped by participating in God’s mission, which is to set things right in a broken, sinful world, to redeem it, and to restore it to what God has always intended for the world. Missional churches see themselves not so much sending, as being sent. A missional congregation lets God’s mission permeate everything that the congregation does — from worship to witness to training members for discipleship. It bridges the gap between outreach and comgregational life, since, in its life together, the church is to embody God’s mission.

- Lois Y. Barrett in Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness

Sending Christology in John’s Gospel

January 25, 2008 | Filed Under books, missiology, missional, way of Jesus | No Comments

salvation-to-the-ends-of-the-earth.jpgHere is another great excerpt from Salvation to the Ends of the Earth where the authors encapsulate the sending theme found in the Gospel of John.

“In John’s sending christology, the sent one is to know the sender intimately (7:29; cf. 15:21; 17:8, 25); live in a close relationship with the sender (8:16, 18, 29; 16:32); bring glory and honour to the sender (5:23; 7:18); do the sender’s will (4:34; 5:30, 38; 6:38-39) and works (5:23; 9:4)); speak the senders’ words (3:34; 7:16; 12:49; 14:10b, 24); follow the sender’s example (13:16); be accountable to the sender (passim; cf. esp. ch. 17); bear witness to the sender (12:44-45; 13:20; 15:18-25); and exercise delegated authority (5:21-22, 27; 13:3; 17:2; 20:23).

John goes to great lengths to show that Jesus fulfilled all the functions of a sent one perfectly. He does so in part for the purpose of presenting Jesus as a model for his disciples to follow. When Jesus commissions his followers (20:21), he functions, for the first time in the Fourth Gospel, not as the sent one, but as one who sends others. Like Jesus, his disciples are to fulfill the manifold functions of one sent as outlined above.”

Blessed to be a Blessing

January 21, 2008 | Filed Under books, missiology | 4 Comments

salvation-to-the-ends-of-the-earth.jpg“Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all people on earth will be blessed through you.”
(Gen. 12:1-3)

Five times in Genesis 12:1-3 the words “bless” and “blessing” occur. Pointedly, they stand in sharp contrast to the five instances of the word curse in the narrative describing the spread of sin (Gen. 3:14, 17; 4:11; 5:29; 9:25), and thus underscore the point that in the summons of Abram we have the divine response to the human disaster of Genesis 3–11.

- Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A bibilcal theology of mission by Andreas Kostenberger & Peter T. O’Brien

Quotes From Organic Community

January 14, 2008 | Filed Under books | 3 Comments

organic-community.jpgI am only about half way through Joseph Myers’ Organic Community but here are a few good quotes from the first four chapters:

When planning a new initiative, I prefer to ask, “What are we hoping for?” Your answer to this question, whatever it might be, will serve as an organic guide. Most likely, the answer will allow enough flexibility to deal with future questions as they emerge and the guiding principles to answer those questions more effectively. (p. 32)

Prescriptive patterns rarely start out as such. They are usually rooted in descriptive patterns. We see or experinece a pattern that “works,” and then we assume that if we repeat the pattern exactly, we can manufacture the same result. This works almost well enough often enough to convince us that it could work all the time. (p. 40)

Many church leaders have spent too much time on the art of getting people to participate and too little time trying to understand how people participate. (p. 53)

If we only concentrate on the numbers, we’ll miss what is really happening. (p. 72)

Story is the universal measurement of life. (p. 79)

Tagged By Tony @ Sets ‘n’ Service

January 10, 2008 | Filed Under books | 5 Comments

Tagged: Tony at Sets ‘n’ Service.

One Book That Changed Your Life
One Book That You Read More Than Once
(same book for both questions on this one!)

The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard

spirit-of-the-disciplines.jpg 

I have read Spirit at least three times. I believe it is one of those “must reads” for all Christians. I have used the book as part of a discipleship course at a small Christian college for over 8 years and inevitably every year at least one student will ask “why have I not been told to read this book earlier in my Christian walk!”

Willard writes that “full participation in the life of God’s Kingdom and in the vivid companionship of Christ comes to us only through appropriate exercise in the disciplines for life in the spirit.” More>>

The Celtic Way of Evangelism

December 28, 2007 | Filed Under books, culture | No Comments

celtic-way-of-evangelism.jpgThe Church, in the Western world, faces populations who are increasingly “secular” — people with no Christian memory, who don’t know what we Christians are talking about. These populations are increasingly “urban” — and out of touch with God’s “natural revelation.” These populations are increasingly “postmodern”; they have graduated from Enlightenment ideology and are more peer driven, feeling driven, and “right-brained” than their forebears. These populations are increasingly “neo-barbarian”; they lack “refinement” or “class,” and their lives are often out of control. These populations are increasingly receptive — exploring worldview options from Astrology to Zen — and are often looking “in all the wrong places” to make sense of their lives and find their soul’s true home.

In the face of this changing Western culture, many Western Church leaders are in denial; they plan and do church as though next year will be 1957. Furthermore, most of the Western Church leaders who are not in denial do not know how to engage the epidemic numbers of secular, postmodern, neo-barbarians outside (and inside) their churches.

- George Hunter III in The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach The West . . . Again

The Forgotten Ways

December 16, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, books | 2 Comments

tfw.jpgWhile reading JR Woodward’s review of The Forgotten Ways this week I was reminded of how much I loved this book and how much I enjoyed reading and blogging through the book several months ago. I thought I would pull together each of the summaries for those who may have not yet read it. If you haven’t read it yet then get a copy now!

The Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven

January Missional Network Gathering

December 14, 2007 | Filed Under books, networks | No Comments

missional-tree.jpgThe next Missional Network gathering will be Thursday, January 24th. For this gathering we will be discussing Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect by Joseph Myers. Hope you will get a copy of the book and be prepared to discuss it together.

Here are a handful of helpful reviews/reflections on the book: Adam Cleaveland at Pomomusings, Todd Littleton at The Edge of the Inside, Ariel Vanderhorst at BitterSweetLife and here at Emerging Women. Also here is a bit of the description from the book cover:

organic-community.jpg Community is a fundamental life search and one of the key aspects people look for in a congregation. But community cant be forced, controlled, or easily created. The problem, says Joseph R. Myers, is that churches are too focused on developing programs instead of concentrating on environments where community will spontaneously emerge. Organic Community challenges key leaders to become environmentalistspeople who create or shape environments. Outlining nine organizational tools for creating a healthy environment, Myers shows readers how to diagnose their current situation and implement patterns that will develop possibilities for healthy communities.

Kansas City Network
Thursday, January 24th
4:00pm-7:00pm
Kansas City Association
8745 Ballentine
Overland Park

A Mile In My Shoes - Chapter 4

December 3, 2007 | Filed Under books, spiritual formation | 1 Comment

a-mile-in-my-shoes.jpgToday I want to conclude the review of Trevor Hudson’s wonderful little book “A Mile in My Shoes.” Thus far I have shared briefly from chapter 1, chapter 2 and chapter 3.

In chapter 4 Hudson emphasizes the necessity of reflecting on life’s experiences. While this is the shortest chapter in the book, I found Hudson’s call to serious reflection in this chapter to be the most important. He writes:

I [am] firmly convinced that, unless we value and practice reflection, little personal transformation occurs. Unreflected-upon experience seldom yields its life-giving secrets. Too many of us work and live without reflection, without gaining any objective perspective on our behavior or any understanding of why we do what we do.

Think of how often we make the same mistakes, repeat the same destructive behavioral patterns without ever pausing to look at what may be taking place in our lives. Only when we stop to reflect upon these experiences and extract their hidden insights do we open ourselves to the possibilities of real change.

I think Hudson’s assessment here is correct. We typically live such hurried, chaotic lives that we seldom have time to reflect on life’s experiences. How can we hear God speaking and uncover life changing insights if all our time is filled with noise and activity? 

Hudson suggests three particular activities to facilitate a reflective lifestyle, both on a “pilgrimage of pain and hope” (as discussed in earlier posts) and in our daily lives: keeping a pilgrim journal, structuring a daily time of solitude, and sharing our experiences with one another.

I am curious to know what place solitude/reflection has in your present way of life?

What do you do to allow significant time to reflect on your daily experiences? What might you suggest to others?

What commitments are you willing to make to create time to reflect individually and with others?

Searching For God Knows What - VII

December 1, 2007 | Filed Under books, donald miller | 2 Comments

donald-miller-2.jpgHere is one last excerpt from my favorite chapter of Donald Miller’s “Searching For God Knows What.” Here Miller uses Communion to illustrate just how far removed today’s church is in many ways from that of the first century church, especially in terms of real life community. Miller writes:

How odd would it seem to have been one of the members of the early church, shepherded by Paul or Peter, and to come forward a thousand years to see people standing in line or sitting quietly in a large building that looked like a schoolroom or movie theater, to take Communion.

How different it would seem from the way they did it, sitting around somebody’s living room table, grabbing a hunk of bread and holding their own glass of wine, exchanging stories about Christ, perhaps laughing, perhaps crying, consoling each other, telling one another that the Person who had exploded into their hearts was indeed the Son of God, their Bridegroom, come to tell them who they were, come to mend the broken relationships, come to marry them in a spiritual union more beautiful, more intimate than anything they could know on earth.

- Donald Miller in chapter 10 of Searching For God Knows What

Finding the Missional Path

November 15, 2007 | Filed Under books | 1 Comment

missional-path.jpgIn 1999 Dr. Barry Winders resigned from the church where he was the senior pastor for twelve years. Leading up to the resignation, Winders was driven by numerical growth and consequently had become a proprietor of all aspects of the church growth movement. At the end of the day, however, he realized that his determination to grow a church had come at a high relational price.

As a result of Winders’ experience he recognized the need for a new approach for “distracted churches” and busy pastors who had left their first love. The outcome of his research and reflection is a new book published this past August titled “Finding The Missional Path: Five Steps to Transforming Distracted Churches Who Leave Their First Love.”

In chapter one Winder highlights the missional reality of the church and how churches become distracted from that reality. Discussing the issue of becoming distracted, Winders asks: “What would the church look like if we stopped counting people, stopped soliciting new donors, and stopped staffing or funding ministry programs that serve only our members?” The answer, hopefully would be that the church would develop an externally focused, missionary perspective that would have eyes for those outside the church. More>>

Red Letters: Living A Faith That Bleeds

November 7, 2007 | Filed Under books, justice | No Comments

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I recently finished reading Red Letters: Living A Faith That Bleeds by Tom Davis.  With heart-wrenching stories Davis shines the spot light on the devastation surrounding the issues of world poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. His message to the church is that the gospel is not just to be read, but it is to be lived. Furthermore, there is absolutely no excuse for the church to not step up to the task. He writes:

Poverty has many faces and none of them is pretty. Consider these difficult-to-comprehend facts: 1.2 billion people are estimated to live on less than one dollar per day, and almost 3 billion on less than two dollars per day. Do the math: That’s 3.9 billion of the 6.5 billion people who live in our world.

Doesn’t it seem ridiculous to you that billions of people are living in poverty? With all our wealth, all our technology, and all our resources, why haven’t we solved this problem? Almost 2.5 million children die every year because of malaria. Hello? We have medicine that kills malaria. It’s cheap. It’s easy to transport. Yet, we aren’t doing what it takes to get the medicine to the people who need it. Here’s a surprising and disturbing truth about poverty that really ticks me off: It’s preventable.

In regards to AIDS, which Davis calls the “greatest crisis” he states the following:

Experts tell us World War II killed 62 million people. Even with all of the advances in medicine, AIDS continues on a path to eclipse that number, having already killed 25 million people since the first case in 1981. The UN estimates that 39.5 million people are now living with HIV. Of that total, 4.3 million were new infections in 2006. There were 2.9 million AIDS deaths in 2006, the highest number reported in any year.

How do you describe a crisis like this? Catastrophic? Disastrous? Devastating?

Words just can’t paint an accurate picture of what this disease is doing to our world. Dr. Peter Piot, the executive director of UNAIDS, said, “Countries are not moving at the same speed as their epidemics.” Without rapid improvements, the pandemic will only worsen, the officials said. This is the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced.

Davis doesn’t leave the topics of poverty and AIDS without some specific ways to get involved. “Taking a step of faith can rescue someone from poverty, provide life-saving medicine for a person suffering from AIDS, or offer an educational opportunity otherwise unavailable to a school-age child.”

In the last chapter of Red Letters Davis shares 5 things every person can do to help the 50 million people in our world suffering from HIV/AIDS. Here’s how it works:

Give 5 minutes a day to pray for those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
Give 5 hours a week to fast for those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
Give 5 dollars a month to the Five for 50 Fund and support worthy causes.
Give 5 days a year to travel overseas & help alleviate poverty & suffering.
Give 5 people an opportunity to join you on your journey.

You can learn more about what you and your church can do at 5 For Fifty.

The Missionary Nature of the Church

November 6, 2007 | Filed Under books, dmin project, ecclesiology | No Comments

missionary-nature-of-the-church.jpgThere is no other Church than the Church sent into the world, and there is no other mission than that of the Church of Christ. . . .  If one wants to maintain a specific theological meaning of the term mission as “foreign mission,” its significance is, in my opinion, that it keeps calling the Church to think over its essential nature as a community sent forth into the world.

Seen in that light missionary work is not just one of its activities, but the criterion for all its activities . . . . It is exactly by going outside itself that the Church is itself and comes to itself.

- Johannes Blauw in The Missionary Nature of the Church

A Mile In My Shoes - Chapter 3

October 30, 2007 | Filed Under books, spiritual formation | No Comments

a-mile-in-my-shoes.jpgAfter introducing the pilgrimage experience (chapter 1), and preparing for the pilgrimage (chapter 2), Hudson takes the third chapter to flesh out the first of three essential ingredients of the pilgrimage experience.

When discussing the importance of truly encountering our suffering neighbor, Hudson writes:

For over twenty-five years I have pursued the call of being a pastor. This daily work includes the daunting responsibility of enabling others to grow as disciples of Jesus. In responding to this vocational challenge I lead Bible studies, host silent retreats, offer spiritual counsel, conduct teaching seminars, participate in small groups, and engage in countless pastoral conversations.

While all these ministry endeavors are definitely worthwhile, without the specific ingredients that the pilgrimage experience offers, these efforts at spiritual formation lack a vital ingredient. Arising from careful observation of the changed lives of those pilgrims who have opened themselves to their suffering neighbors, this conviction shapes significantly the way in which I now encourage others along the Christ-following path.

I encourage the pilgrimage experience as a method for personal transformation and change not only because of what I see in others’ lives. In my personal experience, my suffering neighbor is where I meet the crucified and risen Christ. Each day I am given privileged access into the lives of persons who suffer greatly.

These daily encounters with the terminally ill, the depressed, the economically poor, the retrenched, the divorced, the childless, the addicted, the elderly, the bereaved, and other suffering men and women affect profoundly my understanding and experience of the Christ-following life. The Spirit has used these relationships to foster my ongoing conversion.

Hudson believes that when we really open ourselves up to those who suffer, the Spirit of God will do three things. He will open blind eyes, uncover our own inner poverty, and reveal our hidden riches. More>>

Searching For God Knows What - VI

October 26, 2007 | Filed Under books, donald miller, gospel | No Comments

donald-miller-2.jpgHere is another excerpt from my favorite chapter of Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller. In this section of chapter 10 Miller is discussing the dominant metaphors used to describe our relationship with God. He argues that many of the attempts we make to explain the gospel somehow miss this crucial relational dynamic.

Miller writes:

“Biblically, you are hard-pressed to find theological ideas divorced from their relational context. There are, essentially, three dominant metaphors describing our relationship with God: sheep to a shepherd, child to a father, and bride to a bridegroom. The idea of Christ’s disciples being His mother and father and brothers and sisters is also presented. In fact, few places in Scripture speak to the Christian conversion experience through any method other than relational metaphor.

Contrasting this idea, I recently heard a man, while explaining how a person could convert to Christianity, say the experience was not unlike deciding to sit in a chair. He said that while a person can have faith that a chair will hold him, it is not until he sits in the chair that he has acted on his faith.

I wondered as I heard this if the chair was a kind of symbol for Jesus, and how irritated Jesus might be if a lot of people kept trying to sit on Him.

And then I wondered at how Jesus could say He was a Shepherd and we were sheep, and that the Father in heaven was our Father and we were His children, and that He Himself was a Bridegroom and we were His bride, and that He was a King and we were His subjects, and yet we somehow missed His meaning and thought becoming a Christian was like sitting in a chair.”

North America as a Mission Field

October 24, 2007 | Filed Under books, ecclesiology | 3 Comments

bk_confidentwitness.jpgIf the church takes seriously the fact that North America is now a mission field, this has tremendous implications for congregations. One of the most important implications is that many of the assumptions that have guided the development of the church over the past several centuries are now in need of critique and redefinition (e.g., denominations, individualism, and success).

Another implication is that the church will increasingly need to recognize that its own location in the present culture is no longer at the center, but at the margins. Being on the margins, however, can provide fresh opportunities for thinking about offering confident witness as the church.

- Craig Van Gelder in Confident Witness - Changing World

A Mile In My Shoes - Chapter 2

October 19, 2007 | Filed Under books, spiritual formation | No Comments

a-mile-in-my-shoes.jpgIn chapter two of A Mile In My Shoes, Trevor Hudson talks about preparing for a pilgrimage by cultivating a pilgrim attitude. Developing such an attitude is not only crucial for a week long type of excursion illustrated by the Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope but it is equally important in our daily lives. Hudson writes:

How, then, do we go about cultivating a pilgrim attitude? Applicable to every apprentice pilgrim, whether embarking upon a planned pilgrimage experience or not, the question deserves careful attention. Otherwise our lives run the risk of becoming characterized by aimless drifting, smug self-concern, and bland superficiality. Based upon the biblical witness, insights from mentors, and my personal experience with the Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope, I will outline three interwoven ingredients of a pilgrim posture.

So what are these three ingredients?
More>>

A Mile In My Shoes - Chapter 1

October 16, 2007 | Filed Under books, spiritual formation | 3 Comments

a-mile-in-my-shoes.jpgIn chapter one of “A Mile In My Shoes: Cultivating Compassion” Trevor Hudson describes the birth of a Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope, an eight day pilgrimage experience for his largely middle-class suburban congregation. Hudson describes it as an “immersion into the struggles and joys of our suffering neighbors.” 

Illustrating that Christian groups have not always approached such attempts with the proper posture, I appreciated that Hudson shared the concerns of friends and colleagues who ministered in possible pilgrimage sites with comments like “come as pilgrims, not tourists; as learners, not teachers; as listeners, not as talkers.”

After the first Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope Hudson committed to three things: (1) He would plan for his congregation an annual, week long pilgrimage; (2) he would try to shape the pilgrimage experience into an effective means of spiritual formation; and (3) on a personal level he would seek to become a “pilgrim” in daily life. Throughout the remainder of the book Hudson provides very practical and insightful encouragement on each of these points.

After reflecting on almost a decade worth of leading his congregation on Pilgrimages of Pain and Hope, Hudson concluded that the concept rested upon three essential ingredients: Encounter, Reflection, and Transformation. While Hudson explores each ingredient more fully in later chapters, he introduces each in chapter one with a brief explanation.
More>>

A Mile In My Shoes

October 15, 2007 | Filed Under books, spiritual formation | No Comments

a-mile-in-my-shoes.jpgOver the weekend I finished reading A Mile In My Shoes by Trevor Hudson. The book is published by Upper Room Books. I really like this little book and plan to post on each of the six chapters over the next several days. Hudson serves on the pastoral team at Northfield Methodist Church in Benoni, South Africa. The book is primarily about cultivating compassion but I believe it has much to say about spiritual formation and living a missional life as well.

Newbigin’s Call to the Church

October 14, 2007 | Filed Under books, lesslie newbigin | 1 Comment

foolishess-to-the-greeks.jpgThe church is the bearer to all the nations of a gospel that announces the kingdom, the reign, and the sovereignty of God. It calls men and women to repent of their false loyalty to other powers, to become believers in the one true sovereignty, and so to become corporately a sign, instrument, and foretaste of that sovereignty of the one true and living God over all nature, all nations, and all human lives. It is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God’s kingship.

- Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks

Searching For God Knows What - V

October 4, 2007 | Filed Under books, donald miller, gospel | No Comments

searching-for-god-knows-what.jpgHere is another excerpt from my favorite chapter of Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller. In this section, titled “The Gospel: A Relational Dynamic” Miller is arguing that the essence of the gospel is relational rather than the mental ascent to a set of theological statements or an agreement with a list of bullet points.

Miller writes:

It doesn’t make a great deal of sense that a person who went to Bible college should have a better shot at heaven than a person who didn’t, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense either that somebody sentimental and spiritual has greater access.

I think it is more safe and more beautiful and more true to believe that when a person dies he will go and be with God because, on earth, he had come to know Him, that he had a relational encounter with God not unlike meeting a friend or a lover or having a father or taking a bride, and that in order to engage God he gave up everything, repented and changed his life, as this sort of extreme sacrifice is what is required if true love is to grow. We would expect nothing less in a marriage; why should we accept anything less in becoming unified with Christ?

In fact, I have to tell you, I believe the Bible is screaming this idea and is completely silent on any other, including our formulas and bullet points. It seems, rather, that Christ’s parables, Christ’s words about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, were designed to bypass the memorization of ideas and cause us to wrestle with a certain need to cling to Him. In other words, a poetic presentation of the gospel of Jesus is more accurate than a set of steps.

- Donald Miller in chapter 10 of Searching For God Knows What

Blessing From Justice in the Burbs

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

justice-in-the-burbs.jpgMay 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

Next Missional Network Gathering

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

tsway.gifThe 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

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