imagining how the church can reorient around mission

    

“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

I have been fiddling around with the premise that
life transformation requires a genuine encounter with Christ.

I know, you’re
thinking, “duh!” Everyone knows that. The reality, however, is much of what the
church proffers as the best of discipleship practices are built around the
concept that if we educate people enough, they will experience
transformation.  It is the “educate people unto obedience” maxim.  It
was the mantra of the movement that I came out of.  I can hear in the back
of my head right now the founder’s foundational cliché, “Just teach the Word.”
The upshot of that was, the community of faith essentially became a teaching
center.  Of course, in these communities, many other things took place –
mission, small groups, and member care – but, the main show was the Pastor
giving a sermon. It is like that cog of an entire week was built around a 30-45
min dispensement of God stuff from the professional.  Sorry, I am letting
my cynicism loose a bit, but this approach almost enshrined the local pastor as
a localized protestant pope.  The mentality entrusted almost an “ex
cathedra” type authority because “he” was the purveyor of truth from God’s
Word. He had special status.

Don’t get me wrong; I think there is an important
element of discipleship connected to education. The problem though, is two-fold: 1)
Communities emerge who think about Christianity only as they are informed by “the
guy” even though the congregation is encouraged to read the Bible for
themselves.  They were told how to understand the text in a very narrow
perspective that often times missed huge swaths of historic Christianity. 
2) There emerged a great number of people who knew stuff about the Bible, but
lacked substantial life transformation.  They knew a lot, but lacked elemental
elements in their lives such as compassion for others, integrity in life
practices, forgiveness asking and granting in their personal relationships and
indifference about critical social issues around the globe.   read more

Here is a poem that was just published from my friend, Shann Ferch. His words are deeply reflective and redemptive. I love him and his art.

Here is the link where you can find it online: Here read more

My friend Nick Webb from Manchester sent me an email yesterday with this Buechner excerpt attached.  Buechner is an extraordinary artist…each sentence he writes sings.  I can almost taste what he is saying about Advent.  Enjoy!

“The house lights go off and the footlights come on. Even the chattiest stop chattering as they wait in darkness for the curtain to rise. In the orchestra pit, the violin bows are poised. The conductor has raised his baton. In the silence of a midwinter dusk, there is far off in the deeps of it somewhere a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself. You hold your breath to listen. You walk up the steps to the front door. The empty windows at either side of it tell you nothing, or almost nothing. For a second you catch a whiff of some fragrance that reminds you of a place you’ve never been and a time you have no words for. You are aware of the beating of your heart…The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.”

— Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark, pp. 2,3

The following is a letter I drafted to the crew who pray for us and help support us financially.  It is related to a huge change that is happening in the Fairbanks' lives. I thought it might be a good note to drop in here as well to keep the readers of this blog in the loop, just in case your not on my email mailer. I will be filling out more what we are doing as things get clearer.  Pray for us, will you?  Peace.

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

What is discipleship? What are the foundational ideas you hold concerning discipleship? How do people become more like Jesus in real time.

I have a new feature on my blog.  You can now subsribe to get each new post delivered to your email inbox.  Plug your email address into the box that says "Subscribe" on it (I know, stating the obvious) just to the left of this post and you'll start getting them. It is a convenient way to stay in touch.

Peace,

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