The video below (produced/edited by Bill Kinnon) is an interesting conversation between Alan Roxbugh and Pat Keifert. They discuss a wide range of issues, including definitions/descriptions of missional church, common views of the contemporary church, and leadership in missional congregations.

In the discussion on leadership I appreciate Keifert’s emphasis on leadership being more about time than about a position. He speaks about the leader cultivating segments of time to assist the congregation in discerning what God is doing in their local context. It is about taking the time to create environments for people to dwell in the Word. It is about having the time to be patient — to hear from God and to hear from each other.

Another topic that I found interesting dealt with Keifert’s journey towards the missional church conversation. He shares how it involved both “failure” and “discovery.” The failure involved disenchantment with his own ministry experience in a traditional church. The discovery included the reading of Newbigin’s “Foolishness to the Greeks.”

I think Keifert’s journey parallels the experience of many. There is a deep sense of  uneasiness, frustration, or even failure in a current ministry setting. Church leaders recognize something isn’t right about how they do ministry. They sense that something has changed, but they are unsure about the essence of the change, or what changes might be necessary. At some point, however, they “discover” that others have experienced the same anxiety. They “discover” authors that begin to give language to these changes. Perhaps, like Keifert its Newbigin, or Bosch; or more recently, maybe it is Guder, Van Gelder, Hirsch, or Frost. But regardless of the author, they rediscover the missionary nature of God and His church, and the reality that the church is sent into the mission field that is now North America.

This has certainly been my journey. I wonder about your experience. Has failure + discovery propelled you into the missional conversation?

Why focus on the city? In the United States, more than half of the population now lives in just forty cities of a million or more people. In the past twenty-five years Las Vegas exploded with 250-percent population growth, while Houston grew by 140 percent. Cities are magnets pulling the hopeful across any barrier, and they endure any hardship. They are twenty-four-hour-a-day catch basins for the vulnerable. But some cities are losing population as old industries die. We are in the beginning phases of the most massive migration, both in and out of cities, the world has ever known. And it is ramping up.

Why focus on the city? Today’s cities, even more than nation-states, influence economic systems, political alliances and social movements. This makes cities a strategic investment: what influences the city influences the world. The city needs a growing cadre of young leaders – both college and graduate students as well as those already in the marketplace – who will link their skills, their privileges and their sense of well-being to the well-being of the city. In today’s globalized world, to shape the city is to shape the way people experience life itself.

Why focus on the city? While for some the city is the normal context of faith development, part and parcel of what it means to follow Jesus and the stage where the drama of life before God has unfolded, for many others the city represents a huge question mark. Is it a place where faith can thrive? Is it a place of blessing, or evidence of a curse? Is the city a spiritually fertile place where a person can sustain a vibrant relationship with God? For many whose faith was nurtured in the womb of a gated suburban community or in the calm rhythms of small town America, there’s a lot of doubt about the answer.

While books on ministry in cities, on community organizing, on urban evangelism or simply on how to serve people in cities abound, there are very few resources that view the city as a place to grow your faith and discover a meaningful life, as a place that transforms you or as a place where your own transformation can have an effect.

- Randy White in Encounter God in the City: Onramps to Personal and Community Transformation

I haven’t posted for nearly a month primarily because my family took a three week vacation to the east coast. We visited (or in some cases simply drove through) thirteen states, stayed in ten different hotels, and traveled over 3,300 miles. (My wife really should have been a travel agent!) For the most part the trip was a historical journey of early American history. We visited Colonial Williamsburg, Washington DC and Philadelphia for three to four days each. We toured historical sites such as Jamestown and Yorktown, as well as Valley Forge, Gettysburg and Mt Vernon (George Washington’s home).

However, the trip wasn’t all about studying history and visiting museums, we also plugged in time to relax and enjoy the sights and sounds of many new destinations. We spent a couple wonderful days on the beach in Cape May, NJ, went to the National Zoo in DC to see Mei Xiang and Tian Tian (the Giant Pandas), visited the Louisville Slugger factory, and made a stop in Canton to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

I wanted to share just a couple of quick observations from our trip. First, I was reminded that what is significant and memorable to a ten year old boy can be quite different from those a bit older. Ten days into our trip, and after visiting several of the most significant historical sights, I asked our ten year old what was his favorite aspect of the trip thus far, and his response was; “the driving, the hotels, the food, and the metro (subway) in DC.” I believe these aspects of the trip were important to him because they were not “things” or “events” that he experienced individually, but they were moments in time that we were truly together. It reminded me that while we may want our children to be experience rich, it cannot come at the expense of being relationally poor.

Second, now several days after returning home, I am still overwhelmed by the character, wisdom, and determination of so many of the men and women that contributed to the formation of our country. There was clearly a sense of duty, honor and sacrifice that we don’t see very often today, especially in our elected officials. In stark contrast to today’s “professional” or career politicians that too often seem to be driven by the desire for power and influence; those engaged in politics in the early years of our country were first and foremost great leaders, thinkers, and statesmen that were thrust into the political arena. As a result of the trip, I have committed to reading at least one biography of Washington, Franklin and Patrick Henry.

Third, I will not bore you all the details of the different sites we visited in each location, but I will share my favorites. If I had to pick five or six “must see” locations from our trip I would have to say, in no particular order: the National Archives, The National Mall, Mt Vernon, Independence Hall, Christ Church, and Gettysburg. Each of these locations stirred a deep sense of awe and inspiration, not only in regards to the great events of the past, but also how those events should better inform and influence our present.

Lastly, I have to say that I was reminded how much I love my family. We really had a blast together. Was there a time or two that we wanted to kill each other as a result of spending 24/7 with each other for three weeks? Yes, I think there was a least one occasion. But it quickly passed, and we went back to enjoying our time together and collectively learning just how blessed we are; and furthermore, how those blessings must compel us to be a blessing to others.

The videos below include two segments of a conversation between Alan Roxburgh and Simon Carey Holt. The videos are a companion resource to an excellent workbook written by Roxburgh titled “Moving Back into the Neighborhood.” The MBiN workbook can be downloaded here. As mentioned before, I initially thought the $30 price tag for a 77 page download was a little pricey, however I have discovered the workbook to be worth the investment.

In the videos Holt shares from his book “God Next Door: Spirituality and Mission in the Neighborhood.” His emphasis is that the neighborhood is a place where God is, and it is a place where God calls us to participate with Him. In the first video, Holt shares a tragic story that played a significant role in his journey towards an emphasis on the local context.

In the second clip, Holt speaks to the importance of fighting against the neglect of our neighborhoods. Even though most people live in a series of relational networks that function outside of the neighborhood context, we must recognize that neighborhoods remain an important piece of the fabric of society. While watching the second video, I was reminded of my favorite Eugene Peterson quote: “The way of Jesus is always local and ordinary.”

Mark your calendars for an event coming up this September in Kansas City. We will be hosting a conference titled “Turning the Church Inside/Out” with Reggie McNeal.

The conference will be on Tuesday, September 14th from 9:00am to 5:30pm. McNeal will lead three main sessions focused on helping church leaders understand the cultural shifts taking place in North America and how to best maneuver the necessary missiological and ecclesiological changes. There will be special emphasis on the importance of developing and deploying church members as missionaries in local neighborhoods and work places. There will also be six breakout sessions offered that will assist participants in making personal application in a local context.

The conference fee is only $30, which will also include lunch. For additional information on the conference, including location, lodging and a detailed schedule check out the conference website here. If you have further questions about the conference leave a comment or send me an email at brad.brisco@gmail.com

I am in the process of reading an excellent book by L. Paul Jensen titled Subversive Spirituality: Transforming Mission through the Collapse of Space and Time. I hope to share more in the near future, but for now I want to take a moment and recommend Jensen’s work. Subversive Spirituality is not only a very insightful and profitable read, but I find it to be extremely timely. Among the vast array of voices in the missional church conversation, few are speaking on the importance of spiritual formation, both in informing and empowering our missional activities. Jensen does just that.

The heart of the book is a survey of the practical rhythms of spirituality and mission in (1) the life of Jesus, (2) the early church, (3) the church in recent centuries, and (4) the church today. Jensen highlights the actual spiritual disciplines and the interplay with mission/ministry activities throughout each time period. He provides compelling evidence of the vital relationship between spiritual disciplines and mission practices throughout the history of the church. He then argues that the church today must recapture such spiritual rhythms if it hopes to engage in significant, effective ministry in a Post-Christian culture.

In the introduction Jensen writes:

The book seeks to show a correlation between inward spirituality and outward mission in the historical context of space and time and the current cultural collapse of these. Findings from my cultural, Biblical/theological, historical, and field research will demonstrate this correlation. My thesis is twofold: (1) that empowered inward spirituality — expressed in creating time and space for God through solitary and communal spiritual practices — correlates with transforming outward mission — expressed in word and deed; and (2) that because of the cultural collapse of space and time, postmodern mission requires the church to subvert these temporal-spatial codes by devoting more plentiful space and time to spiritual practices in her structures of mission, church, and leadership development.

Has anyone else read this book? I would love to hear from those who have. Has it changed the way you have thought about mission/ministry? If so, what has changed? I would love to have a dialog around the key elements of the book.

I am excited to share more information on the mQuest training series that will be kicking off in August. The training involves a cohort based learning format where participants will join a small group of like-minded sojourners for training from presenters like Alan Hirsch, Dan Kimball, Neil Cole, and others.

There are several unique aspects of mQuest. First, the training begins with a one-day interactive format that will be limited to 30 participants. Additionally, the one-day event will be captured on video so participants can review the material at a later date. Second, there will be two live webinars where participants can continue to dialog with the main presenter. Third, there will be on-going online peer learning and coaching provided on the Shapevine platform. Fourth, the training will be presented in six different locations around the country to provide regional networking opportunities, as well as making the training as logistically convenient as possible. The first training will take place in Los Angeles with Neil Cole on August 23rd.

The additional dates and locations include:

September 20 or 21, 2010: Philadelphia with Dan Kimball
October 19 or 20, 2010: Dallas with Alan Hirsch
November 1 or 2, 2010: Nashville with Neil Cole
November 9 or 10, 2010: Los Angeles with Alan Hirsch
December 6 or 7, 2010: Philadelphia with Neil Cole
December 13 or 14, 2010: Kansas City with Alan Hirsch
January 18 or 19, 2011: Nashville with Alan Hirsch
February 17 or 18, 2011: Dallas with Dan Kimball
February 23 or 24, 2011: Philadelphia with Alan Hirsch
February 23 or 24, 2011: Los Angeles with Dan Kimball
March 14 or 15, 2011: Kansas City with Neil Cole
April 5 or 6, 2011: Kansas City with Dan Kimball
May 16 or 17, 2011: Dallas with Neil Cole
October 12 or 13, 2011: Nashville with Dan Kimball

To learn more about mQuest check out the video below, or simply go to the mQuest page at Shapevine. After viewing the information online if you have further questions shoot me an email or leave a comment.

I really like this short video of Michael Frost talking about the importance of developing new “measuring sticks” or “scorecards” for the church. He emphasizes the need to find new ways to measure where the rule/reign of God is flourishing. What sort of things can we “measure” that will illustrate evidence of the Kingdom?

This video made me reflect on why we are apparently quite good at measuring church stuff; such as buildings, butts, and bucks, yet seemingly struggle with identifying measurables for activity outside of church life. I am afraid it boils down to the fact that as church people we know very well how to live in the church, but struggle mightily with knowing how to live in the Kingdom.

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The folks at Forge Canada offer a concise summary of Newbigin’s view of missional community from The Gospel in a Pluralist Society:

Newbigin distinguished between missions and mission. The church both “does mission” and “is a mission.” Missions are specific activities undertaken by a human decision to bring the gospel to places or situations where it is not heard. These efforts have quantifiable results. But while missions activities are a part of healthy churches, they do not adequately describe the fullness of God’s work in the world.

The concept of missio Dei, however, captures Newbigin’s wider intention. The mission of the church is less a “missionary mandate” than a participation in the ongoing work of redemption. The missio Dei is God’s mission – the grand story of creation, fall, and redemption. And it is a “story,” not a list of propositions. Propositions are helpful in particular times and places, but are enculturated by language and ethos. The story, however, rooted in time and place, transcends both. When we attempt to export a set of propositions from one time and place to another, we are usually operating in a colonial mode.

The Church is less the agent of God’s mission than the locus of that mission. The missio Dei is the ongoing work of God in the world in which we are all invited to participate. More than a project out there, it is a posture wherever we live.

The church therefore becomes the place where the story is lived and mission is practiced in the real world. Newbigin identifies six characteristics of a missional community:

1. It practices corporate praise, thanksgiving, gratitude, and grace;
2. It declares truth that challenges the reigning plausibility structure
3. It establishes relationships within a local neighbourhood
4. It encourages mutual service in the priesthood of all believers
5. It expects mutual responsibility rather than individualism
6. It nurtures hope and a re-imagined vision of the future

Over the past few months I have had an increasing number of conversations with pastors and church leaders about moving existing churches in a missional direction. I have been asked what key issues or topics need to be considered when attempting to transition a traditional church. The following list is certainly not conclusive or comprehensive, but here are nine elements that I believe need to be considered when making a missional shift:

1. Start with Spiritual Formation

God calls the church to be a sent community of people who no longer live for themselves but instead live to participate with Him in His redemptive purposes. However, people will have neither the passion nor the strength to live as a counter-cultural society for the sake of others if they are not transformed by the way of Jesus. If the church is to “go and be,” rather than “come and see,” then we must make certain that we are a Spirit-formed community that has the spiritual capacity to impact the lives of others.

This means the church must take seriously its responsibility to cultivate spiritual transformation that does not allow believers to remain as adolescents in their spiritual maturity. Such spiritual formation will involve much greater relational underpinnings and considerable engagement with a multitude of spiritual disciplines.

One such discipline should involve dwelling in the word, whereby the church learns to regard Scripture not as a tool, but as the living voice of God that exists to guide people into His mission. If we believe the mission is truly God’s mission, then we must learn to discern where He is working; and further discern, in light of our gifts and resources, how He desires a church to participant in what He is doing in a local context.

2. Cultivate a Missional Leadership Approach

The second most important transition in fostering a missional posture in a local congregation is rethinking church leadership models that have been accepted as the status quo. This will require the development of a missional leadership approach that has a special emphasis on the apostolic function of church leadership, which was marginalized during the time of Christendom in favor of the pastor/teacher function.

This missional leadership approach will involve creating an apostolic environment throughout the life of the church. The leader must encourage pioneering activity that pushes the church into new territory. However, because not all in the church will embrace such risk, the best approach will involve creating a sort of “R&D” or “skunk works” department in the church for those who are innovators and early adopters.

A culture of experimentation must be cultivated where attempting new initiatives is expected, even if they don’t all succeed. As pioneering activities bear fruit, and the stories of life change begin to bubble up within the church, an increasing number of people will begin to take notice and get involved.

3. Emphasize the Priesthood of All Believers

Martin Luther’s idea of the priesthood of all believers was that all Christians were called to carry out their vocational ministries in every area of life. Every believer must fully understand how their vocation plays a central part in God’s redemptive Kingdom.

I think it was Rick Warren who made popular the phase “every member is a minister.” While this phrase is a helpful slogan to move people to understand their responsibility in the life of the church, God’s purpose for His church would be better served if we encouraged people to recognize that “every member is a missionary.” This missionary activity will include not just being sent to far away places, but to local work places, schools and neighborhoods.

4. Focus Attention on the Local Community

As individual members begin to see themselves as missionaries sent into their local context the congregation will begin to shift from a community-for-me mentality, to a me-for-the-community mentality. The church must begin to develop a theology of the city that sees the church as an agent of transformation for the good of the city (Jeremiah 29:7). This will involve exegeting each segment of the city to understand the local needs, identify with people, and discover unique opportunities for the church to share the good news of Jesus.

5. Don’t Do It Alone

Missional activity that leads to significant community transformation takes a lot of work and no church can afford to work alone. Missional churches must learn to create partnerships with other churches as well as already existing ministries that care about the community.

6. Create New Means of Measuring Success

The church must move beyond measuring success by the traditional indicators of attendance, buildings and cash. Instead we must create new scorecards to measure ministry effectiveness. These new scorecards will include measurements that point to the church’s impact on community transformation rather than measuring what is happening among church members inside the church walls. For the missional church it is no longer about the number of people active in the church but instead the number of people active in the community. It is no longer about the amount of money received but it is about the amount of money given away.

A missional church may ask how many hours has the church spent praying for community issues? How many hours have church members spent with unbelievers? How many of those unbelievers are making significant movement towards Jesus? How many community groups use the facilities of the church? How many people are healthier because of the clinic the church operates? How many people are in new jobs because of free job training offered by the church? What is the number of school children who are getting better grades because of after-school tutoring the church provides. Or how many times do community leaders call the church asking for advice?

Until the church reconsiders the definition of ministry success and creates new scorecards to appropriately measure that success, it will continue to allocate vital resources in misguided directions.

7. Search for Third Places

In a post-Christendom culture where more and more people are less and less interested in activities of the church, it is increasingly important to connect with people in places of neutrality, or common “hang outs.” In the book “The Great Good Place” author Ray Oldenburg identifies these places of common ground as “third places.”

According to Oldenburg, third places are those environments in which people meet to interact with others and develop friendships. In Oldenburg’s thinking our first place is the home and the people with whom we live. The second place is where we work and the place we spend the majority of our waking hours. But the third place is an informal setting where people relax and have the opportunity to know and be known by others.

Third places might include the local coffee shop, hair salon, restaurant, mall, or fitness center. These places of common ground must take a position of greater importance in the overall ministry of the church as individuals begin to recognize themselves as missionaries sent into the local context to serve and share.

In addition to connecting with people in the third places present in our local communities, we need to rediscover the topic of hospitality whereby our own homes become a place of common ground. Biblical hospitality is much more than entertaining others in our homes. Genuine hospitality involves inviting people into our lives, learning to listen, and cultivating an environment of mercy and justice, whether our interactions occur in third places or within our own homes. Regardless of our setting, we must learn to welcome the stranger.

8. Tap into the Power of Stories

Instead of trying to define what it means to be missional, it is helpful to describe missional living through stories and images. Stories create new possibilities and energize people to do things they had not previously imagined. We can capture the “missional imagination” by sharing what other faith communities are doing and illustrate what it looks like to connect with people in third places, cultivate rapport with local schools, and build life transforming relationships with neighbors.

Moreover, we can reflect deeply on biblical images of mission, service and hospitality by spending time on passages such as Genesis 12:2, Isaiah 61:1-3, Matthew 5:43; 10:40; 22:39; 25:35; and Luke 10:25-37.

9. Promote Patience

The greatest challenge facing the church in the West is the “re-conversion” of its own members. We need to be converted away from an internally-focused, Constantinean mode of church, and converted towards an externally-focused, missional-incarnational movement that is a true reflection of the missionary God we follow.

However, this conversion will not be easy. The gravitational pull to focus all of our resources on ourselves is very strong. Because Christendom still maintains a stranglehold on the church in North America – even though the culture is fully aware of the death of Christendom – the transition towards a missional posture will take great patience; both with those inside and outside the church. Many inside the church will need considerable time to learn how to reconstruct church life for the sake of others. At the same time, the church will need to patiently love on people, and whole communities, that have increasingly become skeptical of the church.

I am very excited to share about a new training opportunity from Shapevine that will be kicking off this summer called mQuest. The Missional Quest series is a cohort based learning journey that will give participants the opportunity to join a small group of like-minded sojourners with training from Alan Hirsch, Dan Kimball, Neil Cole, and others.

There are several unique aspects of mQuest. First, the training begins with a one-day interactive format that will be limited to 30 participants. Additionally, the one-day event will be captured on video so participants can review the material at a later date. Second, there will be two live webinars where participants can continue to dialog with the main presenter. Third, there will be on-going online peer learning and coaching provided on the Shapevine platform. Fourth, the training will be presented in six different locations around the country to provide regional networking opportunities, as well as making the training as logistically convenient as possible.

To learn more about mQuest, including dates and locations go to the mQuest page at Shapevine. You can also check out the mQuest Facebook page here. After viewing the information online if you have further questions shoot me an email or leave a comment.

“Within the Christian church, we have tended to define spiritual growth as disengagement from the world rather than engagement with the world. We often measure spiritual growth and formation as an increase in cognitive knowledge about God or religious activities (i.e., greater knowledge of Scripture, a disciplined prayer life, weekly church attendance).

In many contexts, discipleship has been redefined as a weekly meeting at Starbucks with a mentor who helps me grow in understanding God and how my spirituality facilitates my personal development. Many pastors and Christian leaders who disciple new believers don’t include evangelism or service as part of the growth and maturation process.

As a result, our vision of discipleship can look very different from the experiences that Jesus introduced to His disciples. Modern-day disciples of Jesus can confess belief in the right things, but their lives are not congruent with the values and actions of Jesus. And what is more, they don’t see how the living out of those values and realities in mission for them to experience the promises of God.”

– The Kingdom Life: A Practical Theology of Discipleship and Spiritual Formation

In this latest video clip from Michael Frost he speaks to the self-preserving use of resources by the church in North America and how such use leads to an unbiblical separation from the “world.” In the clip Frost shares a great statement when he contends that, “Your missional effectiveness is directly proportional to your relational capacity.”

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When attempting to transition a “traditional” church in a more missional direction I believe one of the topics of discussion must be the importance of “the priesthood of all believers.” If we believe the church is God’s agent sent into the world to participate in what He is already doing, then every member must be developed and deployed as missionaries into the local context. The church is sent, not just collectively, but individually. Therefore, the church needs to be affirming and “commissioning” every member to engage their local mission field.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to hear Deb and Alan Hirsch tell a story of how they “commissioned” the entire congregation of South Melbourne Restoration Community, one Sunday morning. I was glad to discover the story in their latest book, Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship.

At South we took the “priesthood of all believer” (that every person is a minister and needs to be released as such) seriously. This didn’t mean that our community always lived this out, but it was a value we tried to live by (and at times used humor to reinforce). In order to drive this point home, one Sunday morning, as our community arrived for our gathering, we greeted each person at the door and handed them a two-inch-wide strip of white flexible card and a fastener. Many looked puzzled but decided to play along, wondering just what we were up to.

A short time after the service began, Al asked everybody to stand up and fasten the white strip around their necks. He then proceeded to lead the whole church through an ordination ceremony. It wasn’t quite what people were expecting, but that morning each and every person gathered at South was officially ordained into the ministry of Jesus. Once they were all ordained, they could dispose of the symbolic (and very unnecessary) dog collars and just live out their commission.

Here are two additional videos clips of Michael Frost speaking on the priority of mission. The first focuses on the catalyzing nature of mission, while the second deals with the “dis-ease” that the Holy Spirit brings upon individuals as they engage in mission.

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