Christ Seeker

Why the call is important...

Heeding the call of God to "enter the lists" once again and contend for the Jesus Truth in our time is not simply a nice suggestion or just a good idea.  It is absolutely essential because of our propensity as a species for self-destruction.  Consider Scherer's words as he surveys the cultural landscape in the midst of WWII...(words, by the way, that could aptly describe our own time as well!)

"Mankind by exalting himself has finally become the puppet and the pawn of his own success.  The child of nature has triumphed over the child of God and has found in the triumph his own inexorable defeat.  Life in two dimensions has come off with all the garlands, and they are withered.  In its long rebellion against authority, in the violent assertion of its own mastery, it has cleared from the field both God and the human soul, to wander now among the ruins...The civilization which stemmed in Greek philosophy, and towered high in medieval cathedrals, has flowered in department stores.  The ends of life have become the goods of the body.  Existence has been turned into a continuous bank-run; and the bank is now closing.  That, I submit to you, is what crisis means.  It means that when an order has become thoroughly secularized it has committed suicide.  It means that the Kingdom of God is not a by-your-leave or an if-you-please; it is still a Kingdom, and to rebel against it is to pay the price of treason."  (11)

Now that last bit is so much a scare tactic as it is a statement of reality.  A reality without God.  Without God we spiral out of control and to our own destruction.  Without God, we fill the void with drugs, sex, money, possessions, power, you name it.  Anything to satisfy the cravings of the human heart.  And what we really, truly crave is transcendance.  We long for a purpose outside of our own appetites.  But without God we stumble in the darkness, searching in vain for a reason for living.  For something more than simply the weekend party or weekly paycheck or, as is the case for more and more people, basic survival.

Thankfully, God provides.  He doesn't leave us blind, walking in the darkness forever.  He sends us those whom he calls to guide us to the light, to show us the way back to Him.  And so when we talk about answering God's call, what we are really talking about is allowing ourselves to be used by God to bring light and life and joy and meaning and purpose into this world.  So the other day, I am having coffee with this group of men and one of them shares about his prior marriages.  Immediately, I am faced with a choice.  I can go with the flow and let the conversation spiral down into the typical ex-spouse bashing that usually takes place in such situations or I can, through a few honest, heartfelt questions, help the conversation flow in another, more healthy direction where this man can share a bit of what he's learned and how he's changed.  By simply and humbly asking him to share a bit more deeply, this man opened up in some amazing ways and the following morning thanked us for letting him talk about his past so openly.  This is why answering the call to share the love of Jesus with others is so important...

How many people truly have someone in their life with whom they can be transparent?  Someone they can share their struggles, hopes, and dreams?  One in six Americans (according to a recent Gallup poll) struggle with serious depression.  Sociologists like Robert Putnam at Harvard have charted the breakdown of community over the last several decades.  As we struggle through tough economic times, people are turning to drug or alcohol or food abuse to medicate their pain.  Or tragically, they physically take out their frustrations and fears on those closest to them.  What would happen if these people, caught up in such self-destruction, could experience the tangible, incarnated love of Jesus through us?  What a difference we can make...if we just answer God's call.

Not out of guilt.  Not because we "should".  Not because we feel obligated.  Not because "God said so".  But because we authentically want others to experience the joy we have in Jesus Christ.  Because we want those who are not yet part of God's family to trade in the world's "withered garlands" for a crown of glory.  Because we long for them to trade in their flat, two-dimensional existance and exchange it for a life of full, living color lived in three dimensions.  A life defined not by what we do or how much we make or what toys we have or the difficulty of our circumstances or the pain we have experienced but a life defined and shaped solely by God's creative and redemptive purposes.  This is life in the Kingdom of God.  And it is the life God calls us to share. 

We are all called...

Of course, "the voice of the Lord calling laborers into His harvest is as varied as human life itself, as manifold as the endless patterns of the fields and the clouds.  It comes to every living soul by every conceivable channel." (6) 

I want to reflect on two very important ideas when it comes to the issue of calling.  First, there is this myth that "being called" involves some mystical, far out experience.  To be sure, there are times when the Lord speaks very clearly but it doesn't necessarily involve the heavens opening, lightning strikes, thunder claps, and booming voices.  Yes, Damascus road experiences do happen but they are not be taken as the standard way God calls His people to His service.  Scherer points out, "Amos must not be forgotten, with his long brooding on the social injustices of his day.  Isaiah may not be forgotten, with his sudden consciousness in the midst of national catastrophe that the Great God wanted another man.  Jeremiah may not be forgotten, with his reluctant answer to that pressure which had kept growing within him until it seemed the culmination of an age-old purpose...and James and John may not be forgotten, or Matthew and Peter with the face they saw, and the presence that would not let them go, the love that haunted them down the dreary roads and set them apart for the gospel of God." (5)  Yes, God's call comes to us in the midst of life as we live it.  It comes as often as not as a still, small voice somewhere deep inside drawing us out, claiming us for something greater than ourselves.  We doubt it.  We resist it.  We thrust it aside.  We struggle with it.  But in the end, the claim God has on our lives is greater than the claim we have and so we surrender.  And in that surrender we discover life has incredible meaning and depth and purpose.

And let me hasten to add here my second point which is to say that this calling doesn't just come to full-time vocational ministers.  I think of the many teachers I know who experience the thrill of working with students who love to learn and agonize over those students who don't.  I think of the police officer I know who understands and lives the motto, "To serve and protect", to the point of offering his life on an almost daily basis to keep society safe.  I think of the heroes who ran INTO the twin towers even as every instinct for self-preservation cried, "Get out!"  I think of a physician I know who is just as concerned about the spiritual well-being of his patients as he is their physical well-being.  I think of the soldier in the field who fights for freedom and I think of the peace activist back home who is just as committed to the same ideal.  I think of the single mom who works three jobs to make ends meet so that her child can have a better life.  I think of the engineer who works so hard to to create systems and machines to make our world a better place.  I think of the business man or woman who is driven not by profit but by the desire to create jobs for people and produce a product that adds value to our lives.  I think of the relief worker who gives so much of themselves in refugee camps at home and abroad.  I think of a social worker I know who is absolutely overwhelmed by her caseload and yet finds the time to drive supplies around to families in need.  If we have the eyes to see, we begin to understand that no matter what our job title may be, our fundamental vocation is to "keep alive and cogent on this earth that awareness of Almighty God which is the soul's creaturely response to its Creator...to open minds to the splendor that shines forever on the face of human life; to the beauty and the mystery of godliness; to the horses and chariots of fire that range themselves about this beleaguered place...to throw wide the door of every narrow room and let in the mountains and the sea...to hold all hearts everywhere under the creative spell of the Infinite." (6)

So can we once and for all dispense with this notion that our lives are made up of a bunch of hermetically sealed compartments?  As if God's hand does not cross over into "work" or "recreation" or "family" but is somehow relegated to what we do for an hour or so on Sunday morning?  Do we dare to aim higher?  Dream deeper?  See farther?  Can we muster up the courage to take our stand on "the threshold of God's two worlds of sense and spirit, and there, under the quiet hand of the Master of Life, interpret for all that will hear what there is about living that is most firmly true and most deeply real?" (7)  I pray with all my heart we can!

Calling

My favorite book exploring the nature of God's call to preach is For We Have This Treasure by Paul Scherer, a compilation of the Lyman Beecher Lectures delivered in 1943 at Yale Divinity School.  In these acclaimed lectures, Dr. Scherer reflects deeply on the epistles of the Apostle Paul, what he calls "listening in to the experienced genius of a fiery little apostle..." as he unpacks what it means to be a faithful pastor in our time. 

For years now, I have made it my practice to read this book through on an annual basis.  It reminds me and calls me back to the heart of my ministry which is to "relish, this taste and tang of life, with the immemorial figure of a Galilean in the center of it, waging his hungry, stubborn hopes."  And now that I find myself again in a time of transition, of preparation, as I wait for God to move me from one post in His Kingdom to another, I find myself turning again to Dr. Scherer's work. And I offer these reflections with the hope and prayer that perhaps others might find in them the same hope, comfort, peace, and inspiration I have found.

"Our story begins with what the apostle calls my divine commission as a priest of Christ...in the service of God's gospel.  It was this sense of high appointment that undergirded him all his way along.  It sent him back to the stones at Lystra.  It filled him with a passion that turned as at a signal now into some desperate entreaty, now into a hymn of gratitude.  Here is some quick severity, there an eager tenderness.  Over and over again are sentences that pay no attention to grammar, with the words tripping on one another's heels, piling up into a kind of chaos, with the light of God on it, the gallant sunshine of His soul.  If I could only clear these windows of mine to let it through!  Wherever I go, he writes after the trouble he had had with the church at Corinth, God makes my life a constant pageant.  The whole procession of the days - peril, shipwreck, hunger, thirst - moves along some Via Sacra, brilliant and full of color.  Nothing drab about any of it!"  (pg. 4)

One thing I know.  I could not do what I do if I didn't think God Himself had called me to it.  I remember when I first was exploring my call to ministry and I approached the pastor at the church where I had grown up to ask him why he entered the ministry.  I will never forget his response.  "It's a recession proof job."  Now I am sure he said a lot more than that but these words sounded such a deeply discordant note within me that I have never forgotten them.  At the time I remember thinking to myself, "You know, I don't know much, but that can't be right!"  Thankfully, there were other people in my life, most notably my grandfather and the pastor of the church I attended during college, who pointed me to God.  A divine commission, the apostle Paul calls it.  A sense of high appointment, so says Dr. Scherer.  A deep, mysterious, almost unexplainable conviction that burns within the heart.  And this conviction is so compelling that, as one preacher famously remarked, "if you can imagine yourself doing something else...then go and do it." 

To be sure, this call is not for the faint of heart.  This life demands all that we are and more.  On the one hand, we get a front row seat to some of the most wonderful moments in a person's life.  Weddings, childbirth, answered prayers for healing, hope, and restoration.  We get to see people grow in their faith and in their relationships with others.  We get to see monumental acts of mercy and compassion and mission.  We get to see communities uplifted and strengthened as people come together to serve the least and lost in our world.  It is inspiring.  On the other hand, we also get front row seats to tragedy and despair.  Marriages that end in divorce.  Terrible accidents that claim the lives of children or young people.  Jobs lost.  Families displaced.  Cancer.  Death.  Hope turning to despair.  And through it all, we are expected to find words of comfort, words of peace, words that point people again to God. 

Then there is the pressure, because of the culture we live in, to produce.  To get the numbers. Woe be to the preacher under whom attendance lags, or dollars diminish, or buildings crumble.  It may be due to any number of factors but it is often the preacher who wears the bulls-eye during these times.  Or consider the weight of expectations that is put on the preacher personally, or their spouse, or children.  And yet...there is God.  God in the midst of all the chaos of our lives calling us, beckoning us to this grand adventure, "making our lives a constant pageant."  This call sends us back despite the failures, the shipwrecks, the peril, the hardships, the pain, the suffering.  It fills us with hope amidst the despair, turns our mourning into joy, and brings light out of darkness.  It raises us out of the muck and mire of this world so we can see the glory God is slowly, but surely, revealing in all of us.

Indeed, you might be able to say a lot of things about the life of ministry but one thing you cannot do is call it "drab!"  There is nothing mundane, drab, or dull about any of it!  If we have the eyes to see, it is LIFE in full, vibrant colors!  The Jesus LIFE.  The abundant LIFE of God that He promises to us through the Holy Spirit.    

Looking up!!!

One of my favorite stories in all of Scripture is one from the Old Testament in 2 Kings, chapter six where the Aramean king is trying to defeat Israel.  Over and over again he tries to attack but the king of Israel always seems to know when and where the attacks will happen.  Finally, the Aramean king asks his servants how this can be and they tell him that Elisha the prophet is the one to blame.  He is the one sending the information and so the king turns his armies towards Dothan where Elisha is staying.  They show up and the array is impressive.  So impressive that Elisha's servant is scared to death.  He cannot imagine how they will get out this trap.  But Elisha prays and asks the Lord to open the servant's eyes so he can see what is really going on.  The servant looks up and suddenly sees the chariots and horses of the Lord surrounding the Arameans! 

Look up!  See what God is really doing in the world.  Stand ready and faithful to go on mission with God. That's what this life is all about.  Last evening, I had the pleasure of hanging out with a new friend.  He and I met because he is intrigued by what God is doing through this new church in Sun Prairie.  He attends another church about forty minutes away but has been feeling God's call to be more involved locally.  So we met and I described the vision we have to equip and send out God's people to be missionaries in their workplaces, their homes, their neighborhoods, wherever God has already placed them in life.  He struggled at first but then you could almost see the tumblers fall into place.  Instinctively he knew "church" was more than a building or a worship service.  In his soul, he knew that God had a greater vision for his life than an hour on Sunday morning or a committee meeting during the week.  God wants him on mission.  God wants him reaching out to his unchurched friends with the Good News of the Gospel.  God wants him to be a part of what God is doing in our community and in the world. 

I felt a lot like Elisha last night.  It was very cool to watch the Spirit open this young man's eyes to see the glories He has prepared for us if we will just faithfully follow.  And it reminded me once again that the failure of the institutional church to inspire is my failure.  It is my failure to cast a vision that is worthy of God and worthy of God's mission in the world.  God's people long to be a part of something bigger, something grander than themselves and if we will just release them, challenge them, encourage them, SEND them out, they will surprise us with their passion! 

Two Challenges - Crossing the Bridge/Continuing the Journey...

I am continuing to think out loud about this whole transition from ITA (institutional/traditional/attractional) to MI (missional/incarnational) in the local church.  And I want to highlight a couple of salient points made by my colleagues that are important to note as we continue the conversation. 

First, the goal is not just to cross the bridge.  My friend Joel's image of sailing the wide open sea actually captures this idea much better but for the sake of consistency let me stay with the whole "trail maintenance" analogy for a bit longer.  Obviously, the goal in building the bridge isn't just to get people to the other side.  It's to help further and continue the journey.  So while we discuss our "bridge-building" efforts, lets always remember that these things are but a means to a greater, higher end...the Kingdom of God! 

Second, my friend Andy makes an extremely important point from inside an institutional context.  Many if not all of these churches began with a missional heart.  They were propelled into god-forsaken (just kidding!) places like Kansas by the missio Dei.  Unfortunately, these institutions lost their sense of mission and purpose and became focused on self-perpetuation.  Andy is spot on when he says that what we need is to recapture the initial narratives that formed and shaped our communities from the beginning.  (Check Alan Hirsch here and here because I think this is exactly what he's talking about...)  Let me give you an example of the power of narrative to shape our thinking.  The church I served in Mobile, AL began fifty years ago when a local pecan orchard owner donated land to the presbytery for a new church.  This organic image really shaped the initial years of the church and it grew tremendously.  However, due to several factors (poor pastoral leadership being the main one) the narrative quickly changed and "the orchard" was replaced by "the family."  In the subsequent decades, the church became focused on how it met the needs of "the family" and as a result became more and more disconnected from its community, particularly as the community demographics changed and became more diverse.  Recapturing the original narrative of "the orchard" and all of its rich, growing, organic power to shape imagination might help recapture that original, missional ethos.

However, also as Andy points out, there is now the weight of the institution to bear.  The buildings.  The programs.  The staff salaries.  The overhead.  Quite frankly, the bridges that span the gulf between the ITA and MI shores are not strong enough (nor should they be...) to bear this load.  Or to use Joel's image, the ships we sail are simply not able to carry the ITA baggage we want to bring with us without sinking.

This, I think, is one of the more significant issues we face when we talk about the transition from ITA to MI.  We cannot take our "stuff" with us and this poses a major problem for us because of how much time and energy and money we have invested in the "stuff" of ITA church.  If we are going to set sail or journey along the MI shore, then we are going to have to divest ourselves of some of the baggage we are trying to carry.  To put it in stark biblical terms, if we are going to get back to a Tabernacle lifestyle, we cannot bring the Temple with us.  The tabernacle was built for movement, for the journey, for the wilderness wandering.  The Temple was built for permanence, for stability, to be the center of society.  MI churches long to take the tabernacle and go.  ITA churches long to build the Temple and stay.  This is the difference and why the transition from one to the other is so hard.

So, where does that leave us?  Are there concrete steps we can take (or pegs to hang out hats on in a local context - thanks Scott!) that will help us recapture a missional/incarnational ethos and set sail once again?  Here are few of the ideas bouncing around my head on this one...

1. PLANT NEW CHURCHES!!!  Did I emphasize that one enough?  The data is unequivocal...churches that are growing and expanding the Kingdom of God are seriously committed to planting new churches.  (See Ed Stetzer and others for the research...)  New churches not only do a better job at reaching the unchurched, they are also a great concrete way for existing churches to literally "give themselves" away for the Kingdom of God.  Depending on the model you use (and I would advocate here for a multiplicity of models...), you have to give away resources, time, people, money, etc.  Without further belaboring my point here, I don't think there is a more effective way to sharpen a missional focus than by planting new faith communities. 
2. Begin a systematic divestment in your property...I know this one is scary and radical and I don't pretend to have any experience with it at all.  It just seems to make sense.  Perhaps this divestment means renting out your physical space as much as possible to the community.  Perhaps it means selling the property and becoming a renter yourself.  Perhaps it means selling the whole deal and moving.  I imagine there are lots of ways to skin this cat and would suggest exploring any and all opportunities since our property often forms the bulk of our overhead and exerts the most inward pressure because of mortgage and maintenance needs. 
3. Begin exploring alternative staffing models that don't include as many "professionals"...This one scares even me because of what's at stake personally for me.  However, I have begun to wonder if the whole idea of a professional clergyperson is antithetical to missional movement?  I know that the single greatest piece of overhead we have as a NCD is my salary.  Is this healthy?  Do I need to find a "real" job? :-) What resources could we turn loose if we didn't have to bear the cost of my salary, housing, benefits, and pension?  Just a question for us right now but I think one we need a lot of conversation around. 

Obviously, these are three radical steps and I don't suggest we take these lightly or flippantly.  There are serious issues at stake and choosing to pursue any or all of these will result in significant changes and new challenges for the local congregation. 

Searching for a bridge...

When I was growing up I had the distinct pleasure of participating in the Boy Scouts of America.  Troop 357 was one of the most active camping troops in south Denver, heading up into the mountains eleven months out of the year.  Twice a year, we went to Hankins Pass to perform trail maintenance on the hiking trails that had become worn through weather and heavy use over the previous months.  We would drive up Friday night, work all day Saturday, and then come home Sunday morning exhausted after a hard weekend's worth of work.  One of the main "maintenance" tasks was to build bridges where the old ones had washed away. 

Over the last few days I have raised a couple of very hard, very honest questions about the paradigm shift that is taking place in the church.  In doing so, I am trying to build on the work of much smarter people than myself (folks like Michael Frost, Alan Hirsch, Reggie McNeal, etc.) by drilling down and asking how these ideas translate to the local context of a PCUSA church.  In doing so, I fully recognize that every context is different and there is no "one size fits all" kind of church.  However, I do believe each congregation needs to struggle with what it means to be the church in a rapidly changing world and be willing to explore different ways to connect to our culture and our communities.  I have been challenged by my colleagues whom I have great respect for to think more deeply and not so easily reject institutional/traditional/attractional churches (ITA) and the transformation happening in their midst.  This leads me to pose yet a further question...

If we find ourselves on the banks of the ITA church looking across to the banks of the MI (missional/incarnational) church, are there bridges we can build to get from here to there?

Certainly, I am not the expert in these matters but perhaps have a somewhat unique perspective in that I served a small church in the Deep South for six years, have seen firsthand some of the struggles and heartache that comes with trying to instill missional/incarnational DNA into an established church, and now, as has been noted, I am an NCD pastor trying to nurture MI community from the start which comes with its own set of challenges!  The few ideas I offer here are preliminary at best and I would love to see others add their own ideas based on their own unique experiences.  In offering this list, I am taking for granted the definitions of missional/incarnational that I laid out in my first post, "Thinking out loud" and assuming that a church has decided to pursue MI not as a growth strategy but for the sake of God's Kingdom.

1. Begin by modeling the missional/incarnational life yourself.  Pastors are among the last people who truly exercise a great deal of freedom over their schedule.  Take advantage of this!  Schedule regular time out in your community.  Move into close, relational proximity with the people in your neighborhoods, in your community, and in your city. Ask the Spirit to guide you into new and deeper relationships with the people who live in those spaces.  Listen to them.  Live among them.  Love them without strings.  And let their needs, struggles, heartaches, passions, and perspectives enrich your life and give you new eyes to see!  Most importantly, make no exceptions for "church work" except in cases of dire emergencies!!!
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to identify a small group of people in your congregation who are open and willing to pursue MI life together.  Here we take seriously the "Way" of Jesus who called twelve disciples to pursue life alongside him as he lived and proclaimed the Kingdom of God.  Let me humbly suggest that we probably shouldn't expect to handle more relationships than the Son of God himself and maybe should set our sights on a group of about six to eight.  :-)  Pour your heart into these people, live life authentically before them, share with them your struggles and victories, your failures and successes, pray with them, read Scripture with them, and above all, do mission with them!  Move out into the margins of your society and live among the poor and the suffering.  Take the "Way" of Jesus literally as only so much can happen in a living room, classroom, or sanctuary!  After some time has passed and the MI life has taken root, turn them loose. To use a biblical metaphor, catch and release!  Empower them to invite others into the journey with them, to establish their own rhythms, and follow their own unique callings.  And then repeat the process yourself.  Grab another six or eight folks and, oh by the way, they don't have to all be in your congregation! Do this over the course of ten to twelve years or so and I imagine you will be looking at a completely different congregation. 
3. Privilege spiritual formation over administrative business.  This is one of the more difficult changes to instill but if you stick with it, I think you will find it bears great fruit!  All too often our leadership meetings are business meetings bookended by prayer.  Those who are more bold add a five minute devotional to get things started but what if we went further?  What if most of the time in our meetings was dedicated to Bible study and prayer?  What if we rejected the tyranny of the urgent and desperate drive for efficiency and instead walked the more narrow road of discernment and growing a truly spiritual community?  A recent quote I read sums it up well, "Nurture the kind of life and practices you want; starve those you don't want."  Let me warn you to be ready for resistance! After I shifted our agenda, we began spending an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes (of a two hour meeting) in Bible study and prayer.  This change probably took a full year to implement if not longer at the church I served.  There was a great deal of resistance to it initially but an amazing thing happened as we persevered.  God began re-focusing our attention.  We learned to listen better to each other and to the Spirit.  We were able to let go of petty business items we once spent so much time on.  And a spiritual community emerged.    

Will the practice of these lead to the emergence of MI community?  I must confess I am not sure.  Then again, if I am honest, when I think back to the Saturdays I spent doing trail maintenance with the Scouts, there were times I was sure we couldn't bridge the gulf.  Perhaps the river ran to swift or the gorge cut too deep or the raw material simply wasn't available.  However, there were also those times when help came from unexpected places and what seemed impossible became suddenly, surprisingly possible. Lesslie Newbigin shares with us great wisdom when he says, "the significant advances of the church have not been the result of our own decision about the mobilizing and allocating of resources rather the significant advances have come through happenings of which the story of Peter and Cornelius is a paradigm, in ways of which we have no advance knowledge." (The Open Secret - as quoted by Len Hjalmarson.)

Should all churches make the Missional/Incarnational leap?

My short answer to this question is "no" and that may surprise you.  You see, I am not convinced that this missional/incarnational way of life is for everyone.  Like I said yesterday, this shift is radical. The "surgery" required is radical.  The structural overhaul is radical.  And if we are not careful, the patient (in this case, a local congregation) may bleed out while on the operating table.  I think pastors and elders who have a passion for missional/incarnational community need to really wrestle with this question before they get started.  Here are some issues to think about if you are considering leading your church down this road...

• What does our community need from us as a church?
  
  • I think there are still areas of the country where an ITA church would thrive.  I think you see it certainly among the mega-churches on the West Coast and in Colorado.  You see it in the Deep South in certain places.  Without a doubt people meet God in powerful ways through the ITA model and that will continue to be the case for decades.  Will it continue to be an ever-diminishing segment of society?  Yes.  But it is still a viable segment nonetheless.  
• Who is in our church? 
  • Something I read recently hits the nail on the head, "When Jesus said to put new wine in new wineskins, he didn't say throw out the old wine.  Jesus wants all the wine.  He doesn't want to lose a drop!"  We need to ask not only what the needs of our community are but whether or not the people in the churches we serve have the resources (spiritually, emotionally, and physically) to start and sustain this change.  And while I actually think the people of God will surprise us with their resiliancy and strength, if we just give them the chance, the reality is that some churches will simply not be able to undertake this journey.
• Why do we need to make this change?  What are our motivations?  
  • This is perhaps the hardest question to answer because as leaders we are often asked to lead God's people in directions only we may be able to see.  However, after we have exegeted both our community and the church, then this question may be easier to answer than we first think.  One of my spiritual heroes once shared with me his heart to be a missionary.  He longed to be in missions.  He was sure God had called him into that arena of service.  But the reality was that his family, particularly his children, simply didn't have the strength or stamina for the work.  A wise mentor of his said to him, "God may have given you a heart for missions but he hasn't given your children the bodies for it."  I think the same thing applies to us as leaders.  God may have given us a heart for missional/incarnational community but he may not have given our congregations the strength or stamina for it.  And if that is the case, then it would be selfish and destructive to move forward.  
  • I think we also have to ask our local congregations about their motives for engaging in this journey.  Is it to recruit more members?  Institutional survival? To assuage anxiety over an uncertain future?  I think if we are honest, many if not most of our churches are dealing with these issues.  I think of the number of times I've been asked lately about how a local church can become more missional.  When I've probed a bit, it becomes clear the question is not born out of a desire to pursue the Missio Dei but rather to increase the membership rolls of a church so we can maintain buildings, pay our full-time pastor, and keep our programs running. 
• Have we counted the cost?  Are we prepared for the sacrifice?  
  • We have to honestly face the reality that the shift from ITA to MI will involve a great deal of pain.  Paradigmatic change comes with a high price.  We have to count the cost.  People will leave.  Those who remain will be anxious.  Leaders will be under duress.  We may have to dramatically reduce budgets or sell buildings or let go of staff or kill some of our programmatic sacred cows.  Challenging people to step forward into mature discipleship will not be easy.  Moving people from participants to partners in the Missio Dei will rock us to the core of our being.  Not settling for anything less than fully engaged discipleship from God's people will shock those who are used to defining their relationship with the church by attendance, giving, and serving on committees.

It is so tempting to lash ourselves to the latest, greatest idea to come down the pike.  I well remember going through my own "Purpose-Driven" phase with its "40 days of purpose" for both individuals and churches.  When an idea becomes all the rage, it is hard to block it out long enough to do the kind of thoughtful reflection necessary to discern the will of God for our lives and for the churches we are called to lead.  Missional theology has become the buzzword of the moment in our denomination and while I am absolutely committed to it as a way of life for myself and the new church we are forming, I recognize through my own experience that it may not be and probably isn't for everyone.  Thoughts? Pushback? Questions? 

Thinking out loud...

Recently, I have been involved in a number of conversations in my denominational stream about how we transition from the institutional/traditional/attractional ways of being church to a missional/incarnational way of ordering our life together.  As many have recognized the paradigm shift required is enormous and scary and that has me asking some very real, very difficult questions.  Before I get to those questions, I want to set some ground rules for this conversation because I know how it can stir people's passions, including my own! 

Affirmations:

1. I believe God is at work in the institutional/traditional/attractional (ITA) church. 
2. I believe God is using the ITA church to transform lives and accomplish great things for the sake of His Kingdom.  
3. I believe the spiritual leaders in the ITA church love God with all their hearts and deserve our admiration for how they are pouring their lives out for the sake of the Gospel. 
4. I believe the ITA model is an excellent one for reaching people in a Christendom context.
5. I believe our cultural context is changing...Christendom is failing and we are rapidly plunging into what some have called a post-Christendom world.
6. I believe the changes are massive and impacting every sector of society, including the church.
7. I believe God is at work in the midst of this change, calling forth a new missional/incarnational (MI) paradigm for church.
8. I believe the discovery of this missional/incarnational paradigm will lead to new life and new vitality in the church. 

In addition to these affirmations, it is important to drill down to the main differences between the institutional/traditional/attractional and missional/incarnational paradigms. 

Institutional/Traditional/Attractional Paradigm

• Christology ----- Ecclesiology ----- Missiology (i.e. "the church has a mission")

Missional/Incarnational Paradigm

• Christology ----- Missiology ----- Ecclesiology (i.e. "God's mission has a church")

Now, having laid out the above affirmations and definitions, I want to turn to what I think are some very difficult but very key questions we must ask if we are to move forward into the future God has for us.  My first question is this...

Is it reasonable to believe that churches can actually make this paradigmatic leap?

I have to admit, I am not sure its possible.  I think the gulf may simply be too wide.  I believe this for a few reasons. 

1. Cultural Conditioning: Many of our people have been brought up and/or spent their entire lives in the ITA model.  Their worldview and cultural assumptions have been shaped and formed for the a world (Christendom) that no longer exists and it is simply too frightening to start over. 
2. Historical Lessons: History teaches us that the church struggles mightily during periods of massive paradigmatic change.  Typically, those committed to the new paradigm either have to leave or are asked to leave by those committed to the more traditional way.  For example, consider Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, the Anabaptists, John Wesley, Aimee Semple MacPherson, etc.
3. Emotional Systems: Edwin Friedman and many others have taken family systems theory and applied it to local congregations in recent years. The reality is that emotional systems seek equilibrium and shifting paradigms on this level cuts against that grain in significant ways. 
4. Medium IS the Message: Or to put it another way, the way we structure our life together as a church communicates and conditions us to look at church in a particular way.  Bottom line, if mission continues to flow from central command (i.e. our building or Sunday morning event or pastor/staff) then it is difficult for me to see how we will make the shift from ITA to MI.  At the same time, structuring for MI may be so radical that we will lose the patient (if you'll pardon the extreme analogy) in the process.  Regardless, I do not believe ITA structures lead to MI community. 

Surely there are other reasons I haven't suggested here but these can at least get us started.  I would love to have some pushback or to have someone argue the other side of this question.  Any takers?

A Year with Calvin...

Princeton Theological Seminary has offered a reading schedule for 2008 in John Calvin's most important work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, in honor of the 500th anniversary of his birth.  You may not be a theology geek like me, but this is truly one of the most important works in Christian history.  If you are interested in following the reading schedule then go to this link and have it sent to you via Google reader or some other feed on a daily basis. 

The Means to the End...

If the first question is, "To what end?"  The second question must be, "What are the means to that end?"  Yesterday, I argued that God created and redeemed us for a specific purpose.  Relationship.  This is our "end", the goal of our existence, the purpose for which we were brought into being.  Specifically, three relationships...with God, with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and with the world.  And I further argued that we need to be growing in vital ways in all THREE of these relationships if we are to become spiritually mature followers of Jesus. 

Today, I want to discuss the means to that end.  What does a community need to look like in order to produce spiritually mature disciples who are growing in their relationships with God, with one another, and with the world?  And how does the church become a fertile environment where these kinds of relationships are grown and nurtured?  What makes up the DNA of such a church?  What spiritual practices does it engage in?  What covenants are in place?  What commitments are made? 

Thankfully, we are not left without guidance as we take up this question.  All we have to do is look at Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-37 to catch a glimpse of how the first Christ followers tried to answer this question.  Remember that Peter had just preached his first sermon on Pentecost and over three thousand folks were baptized.  The challenge for the apostles was to take this group and help them grow as faithful disciples of Jesus.  So what did they do? 

"And they devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer."  (Acts 2:42)  The Greek word used for "devoted" in this instance suggests passionate commitment.  Clearly these folks weren't just interested in showing up and filling a pew.  They were passionately committed to studying the life of Jesus, to investing in one another, to sharing the Lord's Supper together, and to prayer.  And they did this through home groups that met, I imagine, throughout the city precincts.  These groups were not run by clergy nor were they a "program" of some larger, institutional body.  They were organic.  They sprung up as "the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."  They spread virally without a whole lot of top-down organization.  And lives were transformed.  Furthermore, from this vibrant koinonia flowed corporate worship in the Temple complex and mission as the community pooled their resources to meet the needs of those who were struggling.  So committed were these early Christians to the mission of Jesus that the Bible actually says there was not one person who remained "in need" among them.  People who owned homes and land would sell them and lay the proceeds at the feet of the apostles for distribution to anyone who was struggling.  There was unity, these early Christians were "of one heart and mind" which is amazing when you think about the cultural diversity of the group.  These folks came together from across the Mediterranean basin.  They had different languages, different cultural norms, different expectations, different life experiences and yet they experienced a unity so profound in Jesus that it transcended these differences. 

It's a powerful picture, isn't it?  And it makes me wonder if we have made things too complicated, too complex.  What if we simply got back to the basics?  What if instead of focusing on getting buildings built as quickly as possible or designing and staffing programs, we simply established networks of home groups who were devoted to studying Scripture, to deep and authentic fellowship/koinonia, to sharing the Lord's Supper together, and to prayer?  What if corporate worship and mission to flow out of this koinonia into the community?  For my part, I am willing to bet that we would see signs and wonders take place as lives are transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.