Archive for the 'Missional Church' Category

A Post Worth Reading: The Bible and communitas : The Forgotten Ways

Published
by
Justin
on December 6, 2008
in Missional Church
. 1 Comment

I read a lot of blogs…read is an overstatement..I browse a lot of blogs. But this post is worth reading:

The Bible and communitas : The Forgotten Ways.

If you don’t know what the heck Alan is talking about with words like ‘liminality’ or ‘communitas’ or ‘Apostolic Genius’, you should take some time to learn what they mean. They are not just buzz words for a new fad in church talk. His books do a great job of defining these things…the titles of them are: The Shaping of Things to Come, The Forgotten Ways, and a new one called ReJesus. They aren’t in a series, and I’ve only read the first two (until I get to the states and get a copy), but it’s good to read them in the order above as they build on each other. 

Imagine what the church is going to be in 20 years if things continue the directions that they are heading. If we merely do more of the same we’re fooling ourselves to think that we’ll bring about the change we hope for. These books, in a gentle way, point us in a new (yet old) direction…check ‘em out.

Slavery + Children = Global Reality

Published
by
Justin
on October 18, 2008
in Life and Missional Church
. 4 Comments

Here is a trailer for the Call + Response Film…

I love that quote, “Justice is what love looks like in public!” I need to put that idea up to 1 John and let God go to work on my heart.

Jen and I have some dear friends who do work in Cambodia named Don and Bridget. They’ve helped begin a ministry called AIM for Asia that is actively doing something about this issue on the front lines. Check out what they do and be a part of the solution…

Remember the days when…

Published
by
Justin
on October 13, 2008
in Head to Fingers, Missional Church and Theology
. 1 Comment

Remember the days when the simplicity of the Gospel was protected, taught, and fought for? Remember the days when leaders would rather stand alone with the Gospel, than stand in a crowed with a shade of it?

I read Galatians this morning and let’s just say…Paul really brings the pain here. Not in a, “You should do this, this, this, and that” kind of way. More in a, “Are you stupid? Why in the name of Jesus are doing this, this, this, and that as if it’s going to change anything?!?” I’m sure it was just a slip of the pen when he said that they were not intelligible, unwise, and foolish…no good pastor would ever say such things…

But here is my favorite rebuke of Paul’s…which would easily be included in a list of top 10 things teachers should say that they don’t/can’t/won’t anymore:

Galatians 1:8-9

Whoever tells you a good news that is different from the Good New we gave you should be accursed, even if he is one of us or an angel from heaven. I’m now telling you again what we’ve told you in the past: I’m now telling you again what I told you in the past: If anyone tells you good news that is different from the Good News you recieved, that person should be accursed.

Not just once, but twice, does Paul make it clear that people who distort the freedom we have Christ (as he explains in the rest of this letter) should be accursed. Some translations say: condemned…one even says ‘condemned to hell’ (I think it’s for a little extra somethin’ even though it’s not in the greek…I had to look, thanks studylight.org!)

I think that if we get past the shock of Paul being so strong here, we can see something else. At this time in the Church, the purity of the Gospel was at stake. The Church’s message in it’s infancy could not be distorted and required protecting. If a corruption were to have occurred at this stage, then every offspring that this message produces would carry the same…wound. So, the message Gospel had to be purified of the untruths put on it.

Are any of view finding yourself asking the question, “uh, why did we ever stop protecting the clarity of the message of Jesus? Shouldn’t this be something that we still do?” I think this is a worthy question. And I think that Paul addresses it Galatians when he says, (1:10)

Am I saying this now to win the approval of people or God? Am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be Christ’s servant.

This says all that I could.

Amongst all the things that Paul says are not important to a true Gospel, he says three things that we should chew on ’till our jaw hurts…I’ll leave you with these:

“As far as our relationship to Christ Jesus is concerned, it doesn’t matter [what laws we do or don't follow]. What matters is faith working itself out in love.” (5:6)

“[Use your freedom to] serve each other through love.” (5:13)

“Certainly, it doesn’t matter whether a person is [following a specific law] or not. Rather, what matters is being a new creation.” (6:15)

Our Friends the Slyter’s

Published
by
Justin
on October 11, 2008
in Missional Church and News
. 1 Comment

I celebrate when I hear stories and see live of people who are loving God and doing what they love. This is the spot that I think God wants us all to be in. Our friends Tony and Tina have opened up a Grocery Outlet in Oregon and the local news put up a bit about them online. I’m not sure it’s in print or not…I hope it is!

Here is the link: Grocery Outlet Owners are Community Minded

There are few great lines that get put into this article…here are a coupld of my favorite:

“Owning our own store allows us to give back,” Tony said. “If we were working for another store, our hands would be tied, but here our hands aren’t tied. We didn’t do this to get rich - we did it to give back.

“I knew I wanted to do community service,” Tina said. “It’s important for both of us to get out there and talk to people. I think we compliment each other. Tony is going to join the (King City) Lions. We feel God granted us this store to be involved in the community. Our goal is to give back 10 times more than we get.”

I think that these would be words Jesus would have said if He owned a Grocery Outlet…

Tony and Tina…I want to publicaly (to all 5 of my readers) say that I love that you guys are doing this and I pray that as you live out your dreams that God will give you wisdom and prosperity. Some of us start churches, and others of us start businesses…and each are equally important and influencial in the Kingdom! Thanks guys for your example!

Simplicity

Published
by
Justin
on October 7, 2008
in From Out of Nowhere, Missional Church and Movements
. 5 Comments

I’ve been reading through 1 John the last few days. Today this part stuck out to me:

1 John 3:23

This is [God's] commandment: to believe in his Son, the one named Jesus Christ, and to love each other as he commanded us. Those who obey Christ’s commandments live in God, and God lives in them. We know that he lives in us because he has given us the Spirit.

The simplicity of this verse stands in stark contrast to the amount of all that I’ve read, heard, and lived in regards to being a follower of Jesus. My reasoning for this error is that we live a culture that values the pursuit of knowledge above most else. In the story of the Garden in Genesis…what does the serpent tempt Adam and Eve with? Knowledge. Abandoning the simple trust in their God, they chose it.

I wonder: In our pursuit of knowledge about God, scripture, and what we believe is Christian living; in what ways have we abandoned the commandment of God: to obey Jesus, and love each other.

I wonder: How would the world be different if we traded our talk, thoughts, and plans for loving others - for actually loving others?

I wonder: Will we ever be content with the simplicity of love? Or will we continually be tempted to add more to it? …maybe as a justification for our lack of obeying Jesus’ commandment to love?

I’m serious about this choosing love thing. We’ve done the knowledge thing for a long time and it’s gotten us only so far. I say we allow our knowledge to evolve into love and let God have a shot using that for a few generations.

Hmm…we gotta do some thinkin’ on this one

Published
by
Justin
on August 5, 2008
in Leadership, Missional Church and To Think About...
. 2 Comments

I got this stat from another blog called ‘Next Reformation‘ who writes from Canada…Worth a listen and some time asking this question, “If we are really serious about blessing the world around us, are we really listening to what those further from God care about or do we just simply want to do what we care about better?” 

“Studies have shown that only 10% of the non-churched population are comfortable with and open to ‘contemporary worship’ style services. (ie. Hillsong style singing - preaching etc). Yet the same study shows that up to 90% of churches are moving towards this type of service. By my calculations that leaves around 90% of the unchurched population without a church presenting the message of Jesus in a culturally relevant method for them.”

This stat could be seen as a negative thing…but I see it like this: We have much possibility for innovation in the ways in which we express the Kingdom. And if our innovations move towards blessing others there are lot of people who will be on the receiving end of the good that Jesus will do through us.

Missional SyncroBlog

Published
by
Justin
on June 23, 2008
in Missional Church and Posts That Even Make Me Mad
. 0 Comments

A Portland blogger whose blog is called The Blind Beggar has proposed to those of us in the blog world (I hate the term blog-o-sphere…it’s just lame) to on this day write about the topic of ‘What is Missional?’ You can read his article on this here. 

So here’s my take…(I just ran my hand over my balding head in an effort to warm up my brain on this chilly Oregon summer evening)

Whether or not someone or something is missional, is not an exterior performance issue. Being missional is a core heart issue. It will affect everything and anything that a person sees or does. At the core of being missional is deep desire/calling/burden to know the heart of God. When we really take in the meaning of Jesus’ life on earth we can’t help but have our view of God be changed and formed by His decision to come to where we are/were. The true miracle of Christmas is not that God came as a baby, but that God came at all…the baby thing is God’s way of making a point to show the extent to which He would become like us! We must come to grips with the reality that in Jesus we see that God chooses to come to us. He chose skin and bones to show us the extent to which He could have communion with us, even in our broken form. He knew in advance that He was ultimately going to be betrayed, abandon, dismissed, and killed…yet He still chose to come. Not only did His life have meaning in the present, but it also gives meaning to all of eternity.

Our chief aim as Christians is to model Jesus…to be learners of His ways…to become “mini-Jesus” in our worlds, as one author puts it. And if we are bold enough, just crazy enough, to make a true effort at being like Jesus then we are going to have to at some point realize that being like Him is choosing ‘to go’ as He did. I say ‘as He did’ on purpose because the way in which Jesus came should be most disturbing to us! Jesus intentionally went to the irreligious, but honest. To sinners, who were seeking…to the people that should never have been a part of the Kingdom according to the rules. Jesus intentionally chose the hurting over the religious. At the cost of His own reputation he ate with, partied with, drank with, talked with, the people that a prophet/rabbi/teacher/Messiah should not be doing these things with…or should he? 

Becoming missional is beyond a simple filter change…it’s not just looking at the world with new glasses. Becoming missional is a re-identification process/event that will forever change the very eyes we see with. With these new eyes we see the world the way that Jesus saw it…We see people’s lives as life in process of redemption and we join them there because that’s where Jesus is at work. When our eyes are changed we can no longer sit back and wait for life to come to us…we become addicted to the discovery of redemption at work. We long for it…we go to it like it’s a magnet. We sacrifice comfort, popularity, convenience, and our former priorities…just like our Lord Jesus did when He came to earth and lived as He did…because we’ve come to see how when we pursue the agenda of blessing others we are what God calls us to be. 

There is no way to program ‘being missional’…it is not a piece of the puzzle, it is the picture of our lives on the puzzle. Becoming a mission oriented person is not about the external practices only, it is about our hearts getting in tune with the heart of our God expressed in Jesus Christ. This will radically alter our desires, the questions we ask, the way we view the world, and ultimately, the way we love the world that we are here to steward. It is this transformation that Jesus has called and lead us to…to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, to freely give, to think outside of our individualistic concerns, and to join Jesus in the process of transformation. I guarantee that once we taste and see this goodness, we’ll settle for nothing less. 

 

 

I want to be a worship rock star

Published
by
Justin
on May 28, 2008
in Head to Fingers, Missional Church and Posts That Even Make Me Mad
. 5 Comments

I’m in one of those moods. So, forgive me if this is too much pessimism…and if this resonates with you…let’s move from beyond complaining to figuring out some real answers and some real ways to frame worship…enough disclaimer. 

So, my brother-in-law and I were watching some worship stuff on tv by a really well known group of churches. I really like this groups music…I’ve lead worship playing some of the songs I was hearing…I want to be a worship rock star just like them! But there was something really weird about what I was seeing. It felt like I was watching a rock concert. People’s eyes were closed, packed up close to the stage, raising their hands, jumping around…It just looked like a middle class rock concert. The funny thing about ‘worship music’ and the worship phenomena in the Church today is that sometimes we come off as our own version of rock stars. We have our own celebrity worship leaders that charge royalties like in the real world. We have our own worship CD’s with trendy graphics and trendy recording (yes recording can be trendy…listen to how similar all ‘cutting edge’ worship albums sounded 5 years ago…and listen to how they have all ‘progressed’ the same today). Worship has become an industry. It has become another thing to consume. And we do a dang good job of it. And nobody seems to complain…our Jesus music gets better and better, the ‘worship experience’ becomes bigger, the fun factor for musicians goes up, and everybody wins…or do we? I want to be a worship rock star. 

But I have to wonder, was Jesus’ vision of His Church’s worship rock and roll? For me, and many others, Church is no longer defined by gatherings on the weekend, music, teaching, and programs. Church for me is the people of God living out redeemed life together in this world. Talk of being in the presence of Jesus is still there, but it comes through clothing Him, “when we see him naked.” Or by giving Him food, “when we see him hungry.” Or talking with Him, “when we see Him lonely.” I want to be a worship rock star…but not when I’m holding a guitar. 

I am a wanna be worship rock star. In all of my critique of this scene, the irony is that I am a worship leader for Church gatherings. I led worship at a church a few weeks ago. I played guitar in a band at a church in Portland for a while too. And I love good worship music…I connect with God when I sing along with music that I like and when I play guitar to music that is fun. Singing, playing instruments, and worshiping God through song are all found in the Bible as expression of praise…and it is a good thing. But it is not another thing for us to consume…worship in song is only true worship when we expect to get nothing out of it…only to bring focus to our hearts desire to give something back to God. I’ve expressed on my blog before that my fear with some of the trends in Christianity today are that we are just reproducing a young generation of consumer Christians whose palates are more refined than ever to critique every Church experience that we come across. I just get this gross feeling in my gut when I think about all of the times I’ve heard people say, “I didn’t get a lot out of worship today.” *pause while I run to bathroom and lose my dinner* 

I just wonder…How would our world more accurately reflect the Kingdom of God if we spent as much effort, money, and time on missional expressions of worship as we do with music? I think that’s a fair question. Worship through music is generally for those of us who are already believers. Some people will experience God for the first time through our music, but honestly, worship can be polarizing as well. I wonder how the Church would be a more effective agent of global change if we were to serve as wholeheartedly as we sang. I know that if practiced serving as much as I do the guitar I would be changed! The one thing that went through my mind as I was watching this production was, “For all of the emotion, power, and experience that these people were having, how many left truly transformed by the presence of God?” If we really touch the living God in our times of singing, why do we still get caught up in the worries of the world week after week. I mean, if God is who we believe that He is and we spend 35 minutes a week in an atmosphere where His presence is that intense…why aren’t more of us being transformed? Why am I not more transformed when I am the one leading these songs?!? Is it me? God…help me to be changed when you are near. 

I want to be a worship rock star…but I don’t care about experiences where I (and others) are left unchanged…I want to offer God worship that expects nothing in return. That simply desires to reveal God for who He is. That stretches my life…not just my vocal chords.