imagining how the church can reorient around mission

    I’m not sure how to handle
forgiveness. The culture tells me I’m entitled to my grudges, my animosity, my
lifelong hate against someone who wronged me. My friends tell me that I
shouldn’t allow that one person back into my life—much less forgive them. That
it’s idiotic for us to be close friends after the devastating breakup. That the
walls I build are justified.  

    Christ and his kingdom step in and call me quite clearly,
against the expectations of the world, to tell an alternate story. To forgive
seventy times seven, yes, but also to be perfect as my Father is perfect. And
yes, that’s great, and yes, I tell myself that I have forgiven and so fulfilled
the letter of the law but I still hold a seed of hatred in my heart. I beg off
forgiving completely, because they hurt me, they used me, whatever the
situation may be, I’m completely and undeniably justified. read more

 
    I venture to say, based on observations as far as I am able
to see, more people are calling themselves Christians while more Christians are
denying the title for all its negative connotations. Have you heard anyone
claim their faith as “believer” or “follower of Christ” or “Jesus lover”?
That’s dandy, and true. But the term “Christian” has been taken away from us,
much as the symbol of the rainbow has. As a young person learning that I am in
the midst of much needed revelation and change for “the church,” I fear the
negativity toward the church. I fear for non-believers because it will keep
them away, and for believers because of unforgiveness and bitterness toward
those who have been getting it wrong. I fear the anger I’ve seen. I fear more
splitting, more division dangerously close at hand within the whole Christian
body. I pray it doesn’t happen that leaders who are making right changes due to
convictions about how the church has been failing begin to find new titles. I
don’t want to see a new movement rise up again only to lose itself in its
mission once more. I want to see the church be taken back; for the term
Christian to be taken back.  To bring
them back to mean the body of Christ and Christ-like. The only way to know
those meanings is through Christ himself and we find him in the Word, our
Bibles, and in prayer. I think this means we must look at the broken church
with a heart of forgiveness. Jesus saw the broken and flawed and he forgave
them, then said, “now sin no more.” Forgiveness and correction. Jesus was, is, for the church, his bride, so I want
to be, too. Jesus’ heart probably breaks for her, I want mine to, too. Let us
lift the church back up to what it should be, not break it down.

   “And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything
they had… they worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the
Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity- all while
praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord
added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” Acts 2.44, 46-47

    

“We need to kill
the Church.”  As a lingering skeleton of
good intentions, the Church has become ineffective at relaying the only
knowledge that truly matters in this world—telling all who Jesus truly is.  When I say, “We need to kill the church,” I
am speaking about the institutionalized Church of our current day which caters
to societal trends, fashions, and the myriad of other “things” that draw people
in to church each week.  However,
something is lost when we glitz and glam up our churches to fit the marketplace.  That same “something” is also lost when we stand,
stiffly and uncomfortably, waiting for praise and worship to end, so we can
finally sit down and mindlessly listen (or daydream) while the pastor, priest,
or whoever stands on stage for forty minutes talking about how Jesus died for
our sins.  The same “something” is even
lost in services where enthusiastic worshippers get that “tingly feeling”
during a “really good song” or those chills when the pastor brings a sermon
home.  These “somethings” are
self-edifying, but sadly, they stay within the walls of the church building
never to see the light of day.   What is
lost?  Jesus.  This man who was born as the lowest of low,
who knew ultimate joy, and suffered an unimaginably brutal death is lost.  There is no raw, real Jesus in our
institutionalized church today; we have fashioned Him to be either a condoning
sweetheart (so we can feel good about ourselves and our actions) or a
hardnosed, fire and brimstone bringer of wrath and judgment (so we can look
down our noses at homosexuals, druggies, and all the “true” sinners of the
world).  So, let us, as the Body and
Bride of Christ, choose to shut this “Church” down.  This “Church” that is more a business seeking
consumers than a delightful extension of our missional God. 

    This is not to
say there are no churches doing it right; that would be absurd!  Of course there are churches, many, who seek
after Jesus with everything in their being. 
Unfortunately, our society (even Christians) send these churches into exile
and deem them crazy radicals. Salvation and eternal life are radical concepts;
shouldn’t we believe so passionately to the point of fearlessly seeking God’s
holistic view, and not just pieces of it? 
We understand the world does not know us because our identity is in
Heaven, so let’s not become offended when people disagree with us for making
waves.  As long as our actions are
biblical and in accordance with God’s character and will, we are surely a force
to be reckoned with!  Through community, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, and the ability to imagine
in radical ways, we can collectively step into our role as the true Body of
Christ, how the Church was intended to be. Arise, Church, as the hands and the feet
and the ears and the eyes of Christ to kill this institutional “Church” and
bring Jesus to the center where He belongs. 
In this way, we, as the body of Christ, and the whole world will be
forever changed.

    The Western
church is no longer center stage in modern culture, and as we are shunted aside
it seems reasonable to think that becoming more like the world will entice more
people into our buildings. Then I come upon Jesus’ words, “Blessed are those
who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Hold up, what?! Blessed are who? It might be a small stretch to equate
marginalization and persecution, but I am beginning to think that being pushed
out of mainstream culture could be the best thing that has happened to the body
of Christ today.

    In his book The
Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsch points to the church in two different times and
geographic areas, the early Christian body and the underground church in China.
Both of these groups of believers became vibrant and large communities during harsh
and unrelenting periods of persecution. Hirsch sees that “Persecution drove
both the early Christian movement and the Chinese church to discover their
truest nature as an apostolic people” and it “acted as a means to keep these
movements true to their faith and reliant on God.” read more

Here is an interview I did for an organization called, The Aqueduct Project.  I am answering questions about the challenges of mission work in western culture.  There is a part 2 coming, but thought this first installment might prove helpful for many of you.

For the interview click here: Mission Work in Western Culture

I promise that I'll stop dropping these Nouwen excerpts in here, but I have been so moved by this string of his thoughts about the church that I have not been able to stop myself. I have posted two other: Here and Here.  I hope you are both as encouraged and challenged as I have been.

"When we claim our own poverty and connect our poverty with the poverty of our brothers and sisters, we become the Church of the poor, which is the Church of Jesus.  Solidarity is essential for the Church of the poor .  Both pain and joy must be shared.  As one body we will experience deeply one another's agonies as well as one another's ecstasies.  As Paul says:  "If one part is hurt, all the parts share its pain.  And if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy" (1 Corinthians 12:26). read more

I am always poking around the web looking for resources that could be used to help understand the theology of mission.  Here is one that could be a great assest.  John Franke has be a bit of a harbinger of the emerging/missional movment.  He is bright and rooted.  Check it out.

 

What
does it mean to be a missional community of faith?  There is much talk about what that is, what it looks like
and how it works.  Newbigin (one of
the true forerunners of the current movement) 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
   neighborhood
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

I
love these.  read more

Here are the required texts (for now) for my Missional Church class that I referred to in yesterday's post.  I have the students read a variety of other articles and essay's, but here are the books.

• AND: The Gathered and Scattered
  Church – Hugh Halter and Matt Smay
• Lesslie Newbigin – Missionary Theologian – a
  Reader – Paul Weston
• Missional Church, Eerdmans 1998 – Darrell L. Guder et al.
• Mission Between Times – Rene’ Padilla
• The Forgotten Ways – Alan Hirsch

Here is a list of the recommended readings:

• A Community
  Called Atonement, Scot McKnight
• Light
  to the Nations, A: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story, Michael W.
  Goheen
• Believing in the Future – David Bosch
• Breaking
  the Missional Code, Ed Stetzer
• Celtic Way of Evangelism – George G. Hunter
• Foolishness
  to the Greeks – Lesslie Newbigin
• Generous Justice – Tim Keller
• Introducing the Missional Church – Alan Roxburgh and Scott Boren
• Journey to the Common Good – Walter Brueggemann
• Missional Spirituality: Embodying God's Love from the Inside Out – Roger Helland and Leonard Hjalmarson
• Permenant Revolution – Alan Hirsch
• Post-Christendom – Stuart Murray
• Salt, Light, and a City: Introducing Missional Ecclesiology - Graham Hill
• Transformation
  in Mission – David Bosch
• The
  Church Between Gospel and Culture – Ed. Hunsberger and Van Gelder
• The
  King Jesus Gospel, Scot McKnight
• The Open Secret (Revised Edition) – Lesslie Newbigin
• The
  Mission of God, Christopher J.H. Wright
• The
  Mission of God’s People, Christopher J.H. Wright
• The
  Missional Leader – Alan Roxburgh, Fred Romanuk, and Eddie Gibbs
• The
  Missionary Congregation, Leadership and Liminality – Roxburgh
• The Tangible Kingdom – Hugh Halter and Matt
  Smay

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I have taught a class at Whitworth University every year for
some time now called on the Missional Church. 

First of all, next year I hope to change the course's title to
something like, “A Church for the World.” 
It is book title I am messing around with.  The Missional Church idea is, perhaps, missing the centrality
of what I am teaching and is also a bit dog-eared (can you say overused?). read more