The Best of Missional

June 26, 2008 | Filed Under alan hirsch, missional | 7 Comments

path.jpgI have not yet read all of the 50 posts from Monday’s Missional Synchronized blog, but of those that I have read here are four that you should not miss.

The first is an excellent post by Alan Hirsch titled “Missional The New Emergent?” While Alan uses the phrase “Emerging Missional Church” in The Forgotten Ways, he argues in this post for the need to make a clear distinction between the words “emerging/Emergent” and “missional.” Alan writes:

Emerging forms of the church must always be subservient to the missional purposes of the church. We can use the term, as I do in my writings, the “Emerging Missional Church”, but the emphasis should always fall on the term ‘missional’. Actual mission must precede any new cultural understandings that the church might develop of itself. The Emerging Church has a certain validity as a renewal movement, but renewal movements come and go, the Missio Dei however, is something that must have abiding implications for the Church’s theology, lest we lose the irreplaceable redemptive core inherent in the Christian view of the world. My advice to ‘emergents’ is therefore, don’t emerge before you have a mission.

Alan then goes on to not only passionately defends the use of the word missional but to argue for the term “missional-incarnational” to best capture far more completely a sense of the Church’s deepest theology and missionary calling. Alan concludes his post with a wonderful statement concerning the use of this combination term when he states: Mission always sets our Agenda and Incarnation must always describe our Way.

You will also find a lively and thoughtful discussion within the comments on Alan’s post.

The second post is “What is Missional? Or A Little More Missional Shampoo” by Bill Kinnon. While Bill has written on the use of the word missional in earlier posts, this post gives some great background on the use of the term as well as mention of some of the key players in the missional discussion.

The third excellent entry is “Missional: to dwell and to die” by Erika Haub over at The Margins. Erika’s post is influenced by the powerful phrase: The consequence of the incarnation is the crucifixion. She writes:

I think if there were one thing I would want us to remember today as we consider all things missional, it would be that as we talk about incarnational living and incarnational ministries and being incarnational wherever we live, we are talking about a way of life that leads to the cross. It did for Jesus, and if I read Philippians correctly, it should for us as well.

Finally, the fourth post that should be a must read is Kathy Escobar’s “upside down, inside out and against everything business school teaches.” Kathy begins with:

I honestly do not use the word for one primary reason–the people I know who are really truly “missional” don’t talk about it too much and the people who are trying to catch the latest church-trend use it a lot.

She then moves to the heart of the issue in a series of wonderful reflections on how each of the Beatitudes should be “woven intricately and deeply into the fabric of our hearts, our communities.”

I should also add how much I enjoyed Grace’s thoughts on how missional must be “With Not For.”

As we walk together with others in their faith journey, we walk in mutual relationships, both giving of ourselves and receiving from them.  When we share the love of God with others, we encounter Christ himself in their midst.  The idea of mutuality is expressed by doing things With rather than For others.  This necessitates that we take the time to know them.  We develop relationships of commitment, to be with them in their journey rather than to simply show up for charity work.

Missional: More Than a Buzz Word

June 23, 2008 | Filed Under missional | 17 Comments

sending-out.jpgMissional: More Than a Buzz Word
(The Sequel)

In an earlier post I shared three theological distinctions that I believe are necessary to bring clarity and explanation to the use of the word “missional.” Today I want to move the discussion toward practical issues in congregational life.

However, before considering steps that may be taken to help move a church in a missional direction it is necessary that we challenge our basic theological assumptions about who we are as faith communities in God’s Kingdom. Without such theological considerations we run the risk of simply attaching the word “missional” onto everything the church is already doing rather than gaining a fresh perspective to see more clearly what the missional church is all about.

Therefore, I want to begin by elaborating on the three theological distinctions discussed earlier and then add five practical reflections on how to best foster a missional posture within a new or existing faith community.

1. The Missional Church is about the missionary nature of God and His church.

The church is a vital part of the missional conversation. However, the church must not be seen as “a place where religious goods and services are provided,” but instead it should be understood as the “gathered and sent people of God.”

Scripture is replete with language that speaks to the missionary nature of a Triune God. God the Father sends  the Son, and God the Father and the Son sends  the Spirit, and God the Father and the Son and the Spirit sends  the church. In the Gospel of John alone, Jesus describes Himself more than thirty times as “one sent.” In the final climatic sending passage in John’s Gospel, Jesus sees himself not only as one sent but also as one who is sending: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).

The Missional Church recognizes the purpose of the church is derived from the very nature of God which in turn compels it to be sent as a missionary people, individually and collectively.

2. The Missional Church is about the church being incarnational rather than attractional.

Those with a missional perspective no longer see the church service as the primary connecting point for those outside the church. The missional church is more concerned about sending the people in the church out among the people of the world, rather than getting the people of the world in among the people of the church. Others have described this distinction as a challenge to “go and be” as opposed to “come and see.”

Missional churches see their primary function as one of actively moving into a community to embody and enflesh the word, deed and life of Jesus into every nook and cranny. Eugene Peterson’s “incarnational” rendering of John 1:14 in the Message paraphrase illustrates this well when it states, “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.”

3. The Missional Church is about actively participating in the missio Dei, or mission of God.

Many times we wrongly assume that the primary activity of God is in the church, rather than recognizing that God’s primary activity is in the world, and the church is God’s instrument sent into the world to participate in His redemptive mission.

This distinction clarifies the difference between a church with a missions program and a missional church. A church with a missions program usually sees missions as one activity alongside many other equally important programs of the church. A missional church, on the other hand, focuses all of its activities around its participation in God’s agenda for the world.

As the sent, missionary people of God, the missional church understands its fundamental purpose as being rooted in God’s mission to restore and heal creation and to call people into a reconciled relationship with Himself. It is God’s mission, or missio Dei, that calls the church into existence. Or in the words of South African missiologist David Bosch; “It is not the church which undertakes mission; it is the missio Dei  which constitutes the church.”

Fostering a Missional Posture

So what will it take for the church to foster a missional posture? We must first begin with deep reflections and dialogue surrounding the three theological distinctions mentioned above. Beyond these three points there are at least five practical, yet no less important considerations.

1. Start with Spiritual Formation

As mentioned above, 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” 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.

2. 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.”

3. Create a New Scorecard

The church must move far 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.

A missional church may ask how many hours has the church spent praying for community issues? How many hours have church members (including staff) spent with unbelievers? 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, we will continue to allocate vital resources in misguided directions.

4. 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.

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.

5. Tap into the Power of Stories

Instead of trying to define what it means to be missional, it may be helpful to describe missional living through stories and images. 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 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.

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. This conversion will not be easy. The gravitational pull to focus all of our resources on ourselves is strong. My prayer, however, is that a clearer understanding of the word “missional” will help to form us and ultimately move us in the proper direction.

To read what others are saying about the word missional, check out the following links:

Alan Hirsch, Alan Knox, Andrew Jones, Barb Peters, Bill Kinnon, Brad Grinnen, Brad Sargent, Brother Maynard, Bryan Riley, Chad Brooks, Chris Wignall, Cobus Van Wyngaard, Dave DeVries, David Best, David Fitch, David Wierzbicki, DoSi, Doug Jones, Duncan McFadzean, Erika Haub, Grace, Jamie Arpin-Ricci, Jeff McQuilkin, John Smulo, Jonathan Brink, JR Rozko, Kathy Escobar, Len Hjalmarson, Makeesha Fisher, Malcolm Lanham, Mark Berry, Mark Petersen, Mark Priddy, Michael Crane, Michael Stewart, Nick Loyd, Patrick Oden, Peggy Brown, Phil Wyman, Richard Pool, Rick Meigs, Rob Robinson, Ron Cole, Scott Marshall, Sonja Andrews, Stephen Shields, Steve Hayes, Tim Thompson, Thom Turner

Missional Meanderings

June 12, 2008 | Filed Under missional | 1 Comment

jesus4.jpgHere are two very good links to check out. The first is a nine part series titled “the sent church” from Brad Andrews at relevintage.

The second link is David Phillip’s post on measuring success in ministry. If a church is going to develop a missional mindset they will no doubt need to create a new “scorecard” to measure ministry effectiveness. What else do you think needs to be added to David’s list?

This Is NOT Missional

June 10, 2008 | Filed Under missional | 8 Comments

come-and-see.jpg

HT: Rick Meigs

Missional: More Than a Buzz Word

June 2, 2008 | Filed Under missional | 15 Comments

pay-per-view.jpgHere is a short article on the use of the word “missional” I wrote recently for our Baptist state convention paper.

The term “missional” has become a popular buzz word in Southern Baptist circles over the past couple of years. Because of its frequent use, some people have assumed that “missional” is a new word. However, the term was used by Dr. Francis DuBose, former professor at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, in his book “God Who Sends” published in 1983.

Despite the fact that missional terminology has been in use for at least a quarter of a century, it is being applied today in such a wide variety of ways that many times it results in confusion. While any word is defined at least in part by the intention of the person using it, I believe there are some essential distinctives that can be identified to bring clarity and explanation to the use of the word missional. I would argue for the inclusion of three key elements to best understand what it means for a church to be missional.

The Missional Church is about the missionary nature of God and His church.

The church is a vital part of the missional conversation. However, the church is seen not as “a place where” religious goods and services are provided, but instead it is understood as the gathered and sent people of God. The Missional Church understands the purpose of the church is derived from the very nature of God.

Scripture is replete with language that speaks to the missionary nature of a Triune God. God the Father sends the Son, and God the Father and the Son sends the Spirit, and God the Father and the Son and the Spirit sends the church. In the Gospel of John alone, Jesus describes Himself more than thirty times as “one sent.” In the final climatic sending passage in John’s Gospel Jesus sees himself not only as one sent but also as one who is sending: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).

Therefore missional churches are those communities of Christ-followers who see the church as a missionary people sent, individually and collectively on a mission. They understand that the church does not simply do mission, instead it is mission.

The Missional Church is about the church being incarnational rather than attractional.

Those with a missional perspective no longer see the church service as the primary connecting point for those outside the church. The missional church is more concerned about sending the people in the church out among the people of the world, rather than getting the people of the world in among the people of the church. Others have described this distinction as a challenge to “go and be” as opposed to “come and see.”

Missional churches see their primary function as one of actively moving into a community to embody and enflesh the word, deed and life of Jesus into every nook and cranny. I love Eugene Peterson’s “incarnational” rendering of John 1:14 in the Message paraphrase when it says, “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.”

The Missional Church is about actively participating in the missio Dei, or mission of God.

Many times we wrongly assume that the primary activity of God is in the church, rather than recognizing that God’s primary activity is in the world, and the church is God’s instrument sent into the world to actively participate in His redemptive mission.

As the sent, missionary people of God, the missional church understands its fundamental purpose as being rooted in God’s mission to restore and heal creation and to call people into a reconciled relationship with Himself. It is God’s mission, or missio Dei, that calls the church into existence. Or in the words of South African missiologist David Bosch; “It is not the church which undertakes mission; it is the missio Dei which constitutes the church.”

Missional Places in the Suburbs

May 30, 2008 | Filed Under missional | 1 Comment

red-door-white-fence.jpgHere is an excellent post titled “Looking for the Poor in the Suburbs: 10 Ways to Engage Missions in the Suburbs” from David Fitch at Reclaiming the Mission. Fitch acknowledges the difficulty of identifying the poor (in spirit and well as in wealth) in the suburbs.

However he writes that as he walked and prayed throughout the neighborhood his imagination was “stoked by the Spirit.” As a result he shares 10 “missional places” in the suburbs that lend themselves to great ministry opportunities.

To continue your reflections on Fitch’s last point, which is hospitality with your neighbors, you might want to check out this piece as well.

Minister From the Margins

May 28, 2008 | Filed Under missional | No Comments

“For all its challenges, postmodernism presents the church with a tremendous missional opportunity. By learning to minister from the margins, the church will rediscover the true power of the gospel.”

– Craig Van Gelder

Reggie McNeal

May 20, 2008 | Filed Under kingdom of God, leadership, missional | 3 Comments

Here are two excellent presentations from Reggie McNeal recorded at the Reformed Church in America’s One Thing Conference last February.

While McNeal’s presentations are always laced with an abundance of humor, he never fails to present a great challenge to the church to struggle deeply with why and how the church functions. These two sessions are certainly no exception. I especially appreciate McNeal’s emphasis on the Kingdom in the first presentation. His thoughts on developing a “blessing strategy” are also very refreshing and applicable.

You can also download the audio of both sessions here.

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

When the Missional Church Gathers

May 13, 2008 | Filed Under church, missional | 7 Comments

candles2.jpgThe purpose of the formation of these communities, initiated by Jesus with his disciples and continued by the apostles, was not to create enclaves of the pure and the righteous who lived in legalistically defined isolation from their polluted environments. These communities were to demonstrate before the world the nature of the love and healing that God had made real for all in Christ in the way that they lived and related.

Their work, beginning with how they earned their bread, to how their families lived, to the character of their called communities, to their interactions with their neighbors, was defined as their witness. It seems to me to be clear that the necessary outcome of the basic assumptions and insights of the current missional church discussion must be a strong focus upon the work of witness, which means, I believe, that the lay apostolate merits our full attention. As we see more and more evidence of the “end of Christendom,” especially in our public and cultural life, the issues of ministry in daily life become more urgent.

The constant question of the earnest Christian in the workplace is, “How shall we then witness?” The answers are by no means easy. To assume that North American society is still, in its core, Christian, is both dangerous and illusory. But the response is not to retreat to “fortress ecclesia.” Rather, it is to take the fundamentally missional character of the gathered church so seriously that we begin to ask, “How shall we prepare one another for our work as witness when we are gathered for worship, nurture, and fellowship?”

Darrell Guder from “Worthy Living: Work and Witness from the Perspective of Missional Church Theology” in Word & World, Fall 2005

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

Missional Video Clips

May 7, 2008 | Filed Under missional | 3 Comments

Here are two short video clips worth checking out. The first is from Alan Roxburgh and Allelon from the Euro Church Conference in Lisbon last month. The clip is about 10 minutes long and deals primarily with questions concerning church, mission and the gospel in the European context. In my opinion the best part of the clip is the last couple of minutes as Roxburgh discusses the need to consider the “long journey” rather than short-term solutions.

The second a very short (2 minutes) clip of Scot McKnight at Willow’s Shift Conference as he shares how Jesus was “other oriented” and that we in turn need to see ourselves as “the presence of Jesus in this world.”

For a handful of other clips discussing missional issues click on the video tap at the top of this page.

Missional Bible Study Questions

May 1, 2008 | Filed Under missional, scripture | No Comments

questions.jpgIn light of yesterday’s post on “Hearing the Bible Missionally” here is another good link from Tyndale University College and Seminary where they present five key questions (taken from the work of the GOCN) that will assist those studying the Bible to shift to a missionally-oriented approach to a specific text.

For more on this topic you might also be interested in Michael Barram’s article titled “Located Questions For a Missional Hermeneutics.”

Hearing the Bible Missionally

April 30, 2008 | Filed Under missional, scripture | 2 Comments

treasure-in-clay-jars.jpgDallas Willard has said that our churches are full of converts who do not intend to become disciples. Another way to put it would be this: Our churches are full of people who are there to receive the benefits of grace without knowing that they are receiving such blessings “in order to be a blessing.”

In such congregations, mission tends to be one of many programs done by the community, rather than to define the very purpose and character of the community. Mission sermons are preached now and again in order to mobilize action or resources for a particular outreach. People know that mission is a theme of the Bible, and they expect to hear about it now and again. But discipling is rarely focused on mission. It is primarily understood, where it is talked about, as a process of personal spiritual growth. . . .

Where missional renewal is happening, different kinds of questions are brought to the Bible. Congregations are open to being challenged, to looking hard at their deeply ingrained attitudes and expectations.

The missional approach asks: How does God’s Word call, shape, transform, and send me . . . and us?Coupled with this openness is the awareness that biblical formation must mean change, and often conversion. Christian communities may discover that their discipling will require repentance and that their way of being church will have to change.

– Darrell Guder in Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness

Alan Hirsch Interview

April 28, 2008 | Filed Under alan hirsch, missional | 4 Comments

This is a short interview with Alan Hirsch during last week’s Exponential Conference in Orlando. When asked about church planting in America as compared to planting efforts in the UK or his own Australian context he states that church planting in the United States is ”too bonded to the church growth movement.” He goes on to say that the church in the West has not yet adequately considered the missionary nature of the church. 

In other words we in the West are too centered on how to get our individual churches to grow, primarily through attractional means, rather than seriously considering how to think as a cross-cultural missionary focused on reaching those who have no interest in attending our church functions. Let me know what you think about Hirsch’s comments.

If you are not familiar with Alan Hirsch be sure to check out “The Shaping of Things to Come” and “The Forgotten Ways.”  Also if you haven’t read TFW I have blogged through the majority of the book here.

And You Welcomed Me

April 23, 2008 | Filed Under hospitality, missional | 2 Comments

and-you-welcomed-me.jpgOver the past couple of months I have been reading several books on the topic of biblical hosptiality. I am convinced that if the church is going to cultivate a missional ecclesiology we must understand the neccessity of biblical hospitality and embrace its practices.

The books that have informed my own understanding of biblical hospitality so far have included Radical Hospitality: Benedict’s Way of Love  by Homan & Pratt, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition  by Christine Pohl, I Was a Stranger  by Arthur Sutherland and New Testament Hospitality: Partnership with Strangers as Promise and Mission  by John Koeing. The most recent has been And You Welcomed Me by Amy Oden.

What makes Oden’s book unique is that she presents a wide collection of early Christian texts that speak to the centrality of hospitality and its practices in the life of the early church. The range of excerpts come from letters, diary accounts, sermons, travelogues, and community records and rules.

In the beginning of the book Oden shares the common theme that runs through each of the ancient texts:

If hospitality is welcoming the stranger, this begs the question: who is the stranger? In this collection of early Christian texts, descriptions of hospitality and its constituents cover quite a scope. Early Christians talk about hospitality to the sick and injured, to the widow and orphan, to the sojourner and the stranger, to the aged, to the slave and imprisioned, to the poor and hungry.

At times it seems there is no class of people not included within the scope of hospitality. Perhaps that is as it should be, for there are many ways to construe otherness, in terms of health, economic class, family relations, nationality, or social status.

If we look closely at the specific categories of people who warrant hospitality in these texts, we will see that they have one thing in common: they are all vulnerable populations. They exist on the margins, both socially and economically. They can easily be ignored and seldom bring status or financial gain to those who reach out to them.

Oden concludes the book with a beautiful and important word on hospitality as a means of grace. She writes:

For me, the central insight is that hospitality is a means of grace. It is an avenue, path, or opening to God’s grace in the world in which we both receive grace and pass it on to others. Means of grace are often very simple acts: eating together, praying together, listening to God’s word, or simply being together in fellowship.

Such concrete experiences become doors that open to the grace that infuses the universe. Hospitality is a way of life infused with grace, a participation in the grace of God all around us, not a set of particular actions or behaviors. Hospitality is more a matter of becoming attuned to grace, and participating in its movement, than it is trying to create a particular atmosphere or situation.

Put this way, hospitality can start to sound ethereal and vague. For hospitality is indeed less than discreet deeds and more of an orientation embedded in the Christian life, a way of being in the world that entails acts of welcome and sustenance, yet is more than those particular acts.

This way of being includes mercy, justice, and recognition. All of these characteristics speak of communities and individuals with a mature spiritual awareness of God’s grace and presence. It may be that the best way to cultivate hospitality is to cultivate a deep awareness of God’s grace and the means that open to it. Only out of that awareness and gratitude can hospitality be genuinely practiced.

The Tangible Kingdom

April 22, 2008 | Filed Under kingdom of God, missional | 1 Comment

tangible-kingdom.jpgLeadership Network’s featured resource this month is the new book by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay titled “The Tangible Kingdom.” I hope to begin to read the book this week and offer a review soon. In the meantime here is a short interview that Leadership Network did with the authors. You should also check out both Hugh’s and Matt’s blogs for more discussion on missional living.

Kingdom Evangelism

April 17, 2008 | Filed Under kingdom of God, missional | 2 Comments

howard-a-snyder.jpgHere is a link to an excellent paper titled “The Missional Church and Missional Living”  presented by Howard Snyder to the faculty at Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto. 

While the entire 15 pages are well worth reading, I found the last four pages (12-15) to be especially profitable. Snyder present a holistic approach to evangelism that is not limited to “conversion evangelism” but instead involves the comprehensive nature of the Kingdom.

More Making Room: Recovering Hospitality

April 6, 2008 | Filed Under hospitality, missional | 2 Comments

making-room.jpgHospitality should be understood as a way of life rather than as a task or strategy. It is easy to slip into viewing hospitality as a strategy for reaching migrants and refugees, or for that matter, for reaching postmodern youth or homeless people. But such an approach misunderstands the basic orientation of hospitality. Hospitality is not a means to an end; it is a way of life infused by the gospel.

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

Missional as a Humble Renewal Movement

April 3, 2008 | Filed Under missional | 1 Comment

In David Dunbar’s latest issue of Missional Journal he speaks of the Missional Church as a much needed renewal movement; but one that should be characterized by humility and charity. This was a good reminder for me! 

This may help you understand part of what attracted me to the missional church. It too is a renewal movement. I see it as a moving of God’s Spirit within the Western church at a very critical time in its history. We find ourselves (most Christians probably agree on this) in a time of decline. Churches in the West are in trouble: internal dissensions, the failure and discouragement of leadership, loss of our youth, widespread negative perceptions of Christians by outsiders, and the death of many congregations. Just the kind of dry-bones situation where the breath of the Spirit often begins to blow. . . .

When missional leaders point out current problems in the church, they often appear to have an arrogant disregard for what God has already done–as if the Holy Spirit has been totally absent for the last century and nothing of eternal significance has really been accomplished! Good people thus feel attacked and undervalued, their contributions unwelcome and unneeded.

I suspect most renewal movements, whether by intention or misunderstanding, have conveyed such messages. To those who have felt attacked, I apologize. The point is not to discredit the sincere and often productive endeavors of the past, but to ask, “How can we be faithful to the gospel in the new cultural situation of the 21st century?” Of course any attempt to answer this question involves evaluation of our current situation and some level of critique of the current state of the church.

Read the rest of the article here.

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.

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.

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 the New Testament

February 25, 2008 | Filed Under missional, scripture | 1 Comment

In preparation for writing the biblical rationale chapter for my dmin project I have been reading several good works that focus on the biblical theology of mission. So far I have discovered the two most helpful to be “Salvation to the Ends of the Earth” by Andreas Kostenberger & Peter T. O’Brien and “Mission in the New Testament” by William Larkin and Joel Williams.

Here is an excerpt from the Larkin text which emphasizes that Jesus was not only the one sent by the Father, but after the resurrection he assumed the role of sender:

mission-in-the-new-testament.jpgMartin Hengel has called Jesus “the primal missionary.” In so doing he places his finger on a key aspect of Jesus’ self- understanding. The record of Jesus’ teaching found in the synoptic gospels reflects the fact that he had a clear understanding of his own mission. He taught that he was sent by the Father with the task of seeking and saving the lost and that — although he envisioned a future worldwide mission — his own mission was focused on the nation of Israel. Jesus’ teaching on mission, however, encompassed more than his own task. It inclued the task entrusted to his disciples.

Prior to the resurrection, the disciples’ mission was identical to and an extension of Jesus’ mission. The resurrection, however, brought a significant change both to Jesus’ role in mission and to the disciples’ actual mission. As the risen Christ, he assumed the role of sender, who sent the disciples with the task of bearing witness to the forgiveness of sins that was now available in him. Their mission was now to be to “all the nations,” and that universal mission was to be carried out by obedient disciples who would continue their mission until Jesus returns.

- John Harvey, “Mission in Jesus’ Teaching” in Mission in the New Testament, William Larkin

May God Bless You With Foolishness

February 21, 2008 | Filed Under justice, missional | 3 Comments

light_cross.jpgMay God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in the world so that you can do what others claim cannot be done to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

- A Franciscan Benediction

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

Praying With The Missio Dei Breviary

February 15, 2008 | Filed Under missional, prayer | No Comments

missio-dei-breviary.jpgSovereign God, everything we have belongs to you. May we use what we have to bless others and woo people into the Kingdom, rather than for our own comfort and ease. Bless us so that we may bless others. If we do not bless others, take our resources from us and give them to those who will bless others.

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.

- Closing Prayer from Week 2: Friday Morning, The Missio Dei Breviary

Incarnational Mission

February 4, 2008 | Filed Under incarnational, missional | No Comments

word-became-flesh.jpgIncarnation is one of the distinctive words in the Christian vocabulary to summarize the gospel event of Jesus Christ. Although the word is not found in the Bible, it is based on John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.”

With this statement, the evangelist created a powerful picture of God moving into the flesh. The thrust of this imagery is missional. It emphasizes that God is active and decisive, that God has taken the initiative in the healing of broken and sinful creation. The scriptures, as Spirit-empowered testimony, witness to God’s missionary action, beginning with Abraham and reaching the climax in the incarnation of Jesus, the Son.

God the Father has sent Jesus the Son as the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One, whose life, death, and resurrection are the epitome and turning point of God’s mission to redeem humanity and the world. The Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit to call and to empower the church to carry out its witness to this gracious good news.

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

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

February Missional Network Gathering

January 30, 2008 | Filed Under missional, networks | 2 Comments

missional-tree.jpgThe next Missional Network gathering will be Thursday, February 21st. We will be continuing our discussion of Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect by Joseph Myers. If you were not able to join us last month don’t hesitate to jump in to the discussion since we only got as far as chapter one!

Here again are a few 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. I also hope to blog through the first few chapters between now and the 21st. Here are a couple of quotes from chapter one that kept us busy for a while last time:

organic-community.jpg“Organic community has the human complexities that promote artistry over mechanics. In our worship of ‘how-to’ pragmatism, we have in some cases treated the church as an object and programmed the life out of it. It would do us well to remember that our job is to help people with their lives rather than build infrastructures that help institutions stay alive.” (p. 27)

“‘Where are we headed?’ is a destination-based question. ‘Where’ necessitates that we respond with a place or point. ‘What are we hoping for?’ is a journey-based question.

‘What’ asks for an answer that will help with the journey — where-ever it may take us. ‘What’ also helps us recognize the substance of the journey, not merely the direction or destination of the journey. We often have little control over precise direction. We do have some control over the substance of the journey.” (p. 32)

Kansas City Network
Thursday, February 21st
4:00pm-7:00pm
Kansas City Association
8745 Ballentine
Overland Park

Being Sent “Just As” Jesus

January 29, 2008 | Filed Under missiology, missional, theology | No Comments

salvation-to-the-ends-of-the-earth.jpgIn [John] 20:21, the point seems to be that the mission of Jesus’ followers is to be guided by the same kinds of parameters that determined the sender-sent relationship between Jesus and the Father. Also, Jesus is shown to invest the disciples with authority and legitimacy.

The more general reference to ’sending’ ties the disciples’ mission to the characteristics of Jesus’ relationship to his own sender, the Father. At this stage, Jesus, the paradigmatic ’sent one’ (9:7), turns sender.

Now Jesus’ followers are to embody the qualities characteristic of their Lord during his earthly mission. As Jesus did his Father’s will, they have to do Jesus’  will. As Jesus did his Father’s works, they have to do Jesus’  works. As Jesus spoke the words of his Father, they have to speak Jesus’  words. Their relationship to their sender, Jesus, is to reflect Jesus’ relationship with his sender.

These correspondences are explicated well by the following observations on the force of kathos (’just as’) in 20:21:

The special Johannine contribution to the theology of this mission is that the Father’s sending of the Son serves both as the model (the comparative aspect of kathos) and the ground (the explanatory aspect of kathos) for the Son’s sending of the disciples. Their mission is to continue the Son’s mission; and this requires that the Son must be present to them during this mission, just as the Father had to be present to the Son during his mission (R. E. Brown, The Gospel according to John)

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

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.”

Church Planting Via Missional Orders?

January 17, 2008 | Filed Under missional | 2 Comments

path.jpgOver the past year there has been a considerable amount of discussion surrounding the idea of a missional order. For several months friends and I have been reflecting on the longings for some type of missional order as well as how to best describe and participant in such an order. I will be sharing more details as things come together and a new website is created.

For today, however I want to encourage you to watch the latest video from Allelon as David Fitch discusses church planting via missional orders.

Fitch emphasizes the importance of planting “from the inside out versus the outside in” (my words not Fitch’s) especially in a Post-Christendom society. As the church moves further and further away from the dominant seat of culture in the West, and as fewer and fewer people associate themselves with the church the more important and necessary it is to plant churches out of incarnational living. I would like to hear what you think about Fitch’s comments.

For more great stuff on Fitch’s blog check out a piece titled “Confessions of a Missional Pastor (Wannabe?)” from a couple of weeks ago as well as an excellent post on what the commitments of a missional order might look like.

Shapevine: A Community of Collaborators

January 4, 2008 | Filed Under leadership, missional | No Comments

shapevine_logo.jpgIf you are not already familiar with the resources available at Shapevine be sure to check out this site. Shapevine is a multi-dimensional website created to provide a forum for discussion with a wide variety of authors and leaders.

The dialogue is made available via video cafes, podcasts and live Webinars. Some of those participating include Alan Hirsch, Reggie McNeal, Michael Frost, Neil Cole, Leonard Sweet and others. Shapevine looks to have the potential to be an excellent learning community for missional leaders and church planters.

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