Christianity

This dirty laundry needs some airing out.

This week Out of Ur blog hosted a bit of a discussion between reviewer Chad Hall and authors Mark Driscoll and Tony Jones. Chad reviewed the books of both men and then posted responses from Mark and Tony.

The whole concept was bad from the beginning. Pit two authors and their books against each other to see which one is more like Jesus. Baptize one at the expense of the other. Call one humble and the other Egotistical. Label them as insignificant or impotent or trendy. It’s a replay of a tired and aging Right and Left (aka, Right and Wrong) political drama that doesn’t really exist unless we need it to. There is no matchup between emergents and new reformers unless you want there to be one. And I can’t for the life of me figure out why anyone would want such a fight, although I too am weak and am easily persuaded to believe in these lines.

Predictably, the match-up lured out the proponents of both factions, myself included. Folks rallied behind their superstar and accused the other of lacking humility and Christ-like-ness. Trenches were dug even deeper and viewpoints were caustically hurled through the virtual air.

I really appreciated the responses by the Tony and Mark. Yes, even Mark. (I don’t say that to say that Mark is less capable of graciousness, but to expose my own bias). Dare I say that Jesus just might have gained the upper hand here. Tony was true to his character as he brazenly defended his friends in the Emergent sphere while not personally attacking Chad. I’ve had the opportunity to meet Tony and I was struck by his clear desire to build relationships but not with sugary words or the right Christian idioms. There was much grace in his biting responses.

I also really appreciated the response by Mark. He was gracious and humble even as he tried to convince us that Chad labeling him as humble was a mistake. Folks are trying to claim that Mark is “turning over a new leaf” as of late with a less caustic attitude. And maybe he is. I hope so. And I hope that as such a thing emerges that those of us who have been offended by Mark in the past (with good reason) will be able to forgive. Such forgiveness will always move us in a good direction. I say that in a small voice because I am far from being one who has been hurt most by his words. I’m not calling on anyone to make any such move of forgiveness, but hoping that it can be a future reality.

I may not agree with Mark’s theology as much as I agree with Tony’s, but I will always agree with grace. Following Jesus is ultimately about giving off a fruity aroma and not about falling in line with a doctrinal team.

Tags: christianity, jesus, jones, driscoll, emergent, emerging, reform

An extended quote from the truly prophetic (think call for repentance, not fortune telling) book by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw:

Today the logic goes something like this: “Calling a ruler ‘Son of God’ is out of style. No one really does that nowadays. We can support a president while also worshiping Jesus as the Son of God.” But how is this possible? For one says that we must love our enemies, and the other says we must kill them; one promotes the economics of competition, while the other admonishes the forgiveness of debts. To which do we pledge allegiance? Surely, one of them must have the wrong idea of how to move history. Can a servant serve two masters? To say that we must kill our enemies and join the popular project to “rid the world of evil” is to call Jesus unrealistic. And that is possibly desirable for many; surely his ideas do not resonate with any common wisdom. But can you call Jesus the Son of God and say, “He just doesn’t understand the world today”? How ironic is it to see a bumper sticker that says “Jesus is the answer” next to a bumper sticker supporting the war in Iraq, as if to say “Jesus is the answer – but not in the real world.” Remember, Jesus’ followers were burned alive, beheaded, or fed to lions. They knew evil and the “real world.” They would meet it face to face. If there was anyone who tried to deal with evildoers and terrorists, it was certainly first-century Christians.

When the church takes affairs of the state more seriously than they do Jesus, Pax Romana becomes its gospel and the president becomes the Son of God. After all, what is the point in calling anything God if it does not also hold sway in every part of one’s life – especially one’s politics? (Haw/Claiborne, p.166)

Instead of worshiping flags and rulers and constitutions let’s start putting our hand over our heart in salute when we ask for forgiveness or when we say “thank you” to the provider (think sunshine, not Costco) for our daily bread. Maybe the act of saluting our creator will stop us in our tracks when we start to worship any other master.

Tags: politics, jesus, shane claiborne, chris haw, jesus for president, books, iraq, war

We’ve all heard politicians saying that America is the world’s greatest hope. While that is certainly not anything close to truth I have also heard some Christians saying the same thing about the Church. But is it?

Tags: America, hope, church, obama

Check with me in a few days. We’ll see if I really believe myself here or not…

I thought I might post some of my reflections so far from my reading of the various posts on missional. My intent here is not to generalize or dismiss anything that I disagree with, nor to fully endorse anywhere I might find myself agreeing. This is an exercise in sorting. Doing consciously what our brains are doing subconsciously at all times.

Do More

I need to address what I think is a grave error. We have missed a step. The worthy opinion is that to be missional is to get off your ass more often. By all means, YES, but that isn’t the road to a more healthy worldview or community. The ingenuity and servant movement of many of those who are living missionally is very much in tune with what it is to be a follower of Jesus. Faith has to be lived out, but the wonderful thing about the concept of missional is that we can stop believing that it is up to us to run the course while God cheers us on from the bleachers. Missional isn’t just action, it is action with, resulting from, in response to, in the wake of, in the footprints of, in the arms of our missioning God.

I recognize that we need this kick in the pants because of our tendency to, more often than not, go the opposite way. But missional focus reminds us that ultimately it is our God who moves. With a spirit of watching the movement of God we can truly rest. Sabbath will cease to create anxiety because of our inaction.

As I mentioned in my last post, we have not simply been set loose by God to complete a task that has been laid out for us. Instead we are called into participation with Him as He recreates and renews creation. While our feet will be quickened to respond to his call when we truly live into this relationship, it is not our duty to march on and do what we believe God wants done.

More so, our duty is to notice. Notice the things that God is doing in our lives and the lives of our neighbors. When we really begin to notice what is going on we will see better the actions that are called for. Love notices, then responds. Love listens and then, perhaps, answers.

I fear that too often we believe that just because we have read a few books, including the Bible, that it is our job to be the Avengers; that by our actions the world will be a better place. This idealism is something I battle against in my own life and it never seems to work out all that well in history.

Let’s be less quick to just do it, and quicker to listen. Perhaps that posture of prayer and waiting is also a part of a missional life. Then, having regained our proper footing, we will be more ready to leap into action.

To everyone who has posted about our need to get out and do, know that I am not disagreeing with that at all, I just wanted to add one more spice to that recipe.

I’m probably going to post a few more reflections over the next couple days.

Tags: missional, missional synchroblog, prayer, gospel

I had a quick follow-up thought after putting up my Missional post last night. The thing that I find invigorating about a missional Christianity is that there is only one mission.

God’s mission is our mission.

Let me explain:

In the modern paradigm there seem to be two things going on.

One: There is God’s mission, which was to send Jesus into the world to die for our sins and then to prepare a heavenly home for us post-resurrection.

Two: There is our mission, which is to tell people about what God accomplished and will accomplish (note the past and future emphasis with nothing to say about today)

In a missional Christianity God’s mission is very much different. Yes it includes the sending of Jesus, the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. But those events are embedded in the thing that God has been doing all along. The past, present, and future work of the reintegration of all of creation with the purposes of God. In a missional Christianity we are called to be full participants in the work of this God on a mission. A God who most often has shown himself to us as He who is active and involved in His creation.

One mission. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Tags: missional, mission, creation, god, jesus, missioning

This post is a contribution to the Missional Synchroblog organized by Rick Meigs.

It held promise. Honestly, I had held out hope. As much as I had had issues with the direction of the place in the past, I had never heard a blatant rejection of the type of Christianity that I hold dear. In all actuality this is a place that for me holds a high place of honor when it comes to mission. A church with a proud missionary tradition of going to the farthest reaches of every continent, and even to our own indigenous people groups. They had sent people into the “darkest” places on earth. Those who were sent were known in every context to be people of great love and compassion. I know many of them personally and can attest to these claims.

Like I said, regardless of any other frustrations I have had with leadership, committees, programs, structures, and style, I had always said, “These people get mission.” I’m not sure if I still believe that… Let me explain.

What I heard today was a point by point upholding of the old ways. The “take Jesus to the dark places where they didn’t have him, and tell them the message that will save their soul from flames” way of doing mission. It wasn’t all bad, but much of it was downright horrible.

Things started off well enough. We sang songs (you can’t go wrong with a good old hymn sing). We sang and prayed about the importance of getting into God’s streams – of following Him where ever He may go. After all, it is true that “people need the Lord”. (He’s the open door)

The first lines of the sermon were pretty much great. “Your mission cannot fail because it is God who has ordained it.” Oh, but wait… what was that? As we walked a hop-skip-jump Roman Road for the next 30 minutes I found myself frantically searching for the context surrounding the cherry-picked verses that outlined a lot of stuff that did seem to be in that context…

• how knowledge about Jesus was what people need to be saved
• how if there is anything we need to include in a gospel message it is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus – anything else we may do or say can just get in the way
• how people first need to know that they are doom to eternal hell (I had a hard time finding the word eternal in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man — but no doubt it was somewhere in Romans)
• we heard how the biggest prayer meeting in all the cosmos was going on in Hell right now
• we heard how when Jesus said to GO he added on the “make disciples” line as a secondary command. Sort of a “while you are going and saving souls you might should probably make a few disciples along the way as well.”

All of these statements trouble me to various degrees, but their were two things that troubled me more than anything. I heard today that God has given us a mission. We as people have a mission to reach people. Our mission is crucial because it is the way God has chosen to work in this world. God has chosen to limit himself to using people to accomplish the gospel. Over and over it was Our Mission. God didn’t seem to have much to do with it at all, outside of giving us the power to accomplish it. So, the question that arises is, “What is God really up to then?”

How did we miss it? Being a church that has stood on its head for mission for the last 50 years, where have we been looking that we have missed the most crucial aspect. How did we not hear anything about the fact that GOD has a Mission in this world? Did I miss something? Has God completed what he is doing and now he has chosen to sit back and watch us do our thing? Not a chance! Our God is active. He is present. He is at work. He is reaching out to the broken and hurting. He is sitting patiently and moving actively with the stubborn and stressed, the hungry and suffering, weak and afflicted.

Yes, we are part of this. God wants us to be a part of this. God wants us to find our place in His mission. Our God is a Missioning God who has called us to partner with Him for His cause. That cause being the restoration and completion of ALL THINGS. The redemption of all sin (disintegration from God). The patching up of broken dreams and relationships. The patching up of wounded knees and hearts.

We are also called to proclaim the message of God. We are called to proclaim the message of Jesus, our hope of a life lived in the glorious reign of God. His Kingdom here on earth. Our Saviour who would could not be beaten by the powers of this world. But who was resurrected as fully aligned with the Kingdom of God as ever before. Our Saviour the fully integrated person of God, moving and active in our world then just as He is today.

Today, in that church service, the question repeated over and over was “do you know where you are going after this life?” The question I believe God would have us ask is much more Missional, much more Incarnational. God’s question to us is, “do you know where you are living Today? Are you living in My Kingdom, or are you living in the Kingdoms of this world?”

The second thing that bothered me is very much tied into the first. Since we are called to participate with God’s Mission in the world we have to ask ourselves, what is God’s Mission? I believe He is doing the same thing Jesus was doing. Proclaiming peace in the midst of war, healing in the midst of sickness, hope in the midst of despair, subversion in the midst of Empire, and life in the midst of death. As missional Christians we are called to live a life that is marked by our Master. A life drenched in Kingdom values. We are not called to lead people toward an intellectual understanding of how they are sinners, need Jesus, and can have Jesus come and save them so they can have be given life after this life. Jesus’ intellectual conversations on the metaphysics of salvation were few in comparison to his many interactions with “the least of these”. Interactions where he provide immediate healing and hope, not just a hope for tomorrow or the next life, but a glorious hope for today. Coupled with this hope was the call to “go, and sin no more”. Jesus called those he had healed into a life in the Kingdom.

And you know what. Missionaries get this. In spite of the bad focus that I heard from the pulpit today, those who are really going out into the world have the heart of Christ guiding them into acts of compassion that far exceed their drive to provide personal conversions by intellectual understanding. Missionaries are far more easily found in hospitals tending to the sick or in service garages fixing some chap’s car or on the streets of some megacity playing with the street-kids, than in pulpits and seminaries and libraries.

So today at the commissioning service of two people who I adore and who I know have a desire to join in with God and His work in the world I found myself torn in two directions. Every thing preached from the pulpit spoke of the modern assumptions of a world that is run by a distant, removed God who touched humans and sent them on their way to reconnect with Him, eventually, in another life. Everything in the faces of those two people spoke of a God who resides with his people. A God who would not be traveling across the ocean with them in a few weeks, because he would already be there when they arrived. A God who is doing mighty things in this world and who has called us all into FULL participation with Him. Not as an afterthought to salvation, but as a way to be involved in God’s work toward the redemption of ALL THINGS.

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I definitely urge you to explore the rest of the participants in this missional synchroblog. All 50 are linked below.

Alan Hirsch Alan Knox Andrew Jones Barb Peters Bill Kinnon Brad Brisco 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

This diagram by Len Hjalmarson has done a lot of great things for my brain.

Len says, “Each brings their own renewal dynamic to the broader church, and I’m convinced that the convergence zone is where some of the most creative experiments will occur.” I too believe in the convergent zones being the places where the really good stuff happens. And from my own experience, this convergence is inevitable (as I pray all healthy happenings should be).

Len’s doodle reminds me of a whirlpool, or one of those big funnels in the mall where you can roll a coin down into the center. When you enter one of these three worlds (Missional, Emergent, Monastic) you get pulled into the others. In my experience, the more excited I became about the movements and ideas circling within Emergent thought, the further I was pulled into the ideas proposed by the Monastic and Missional movements. I find myself swirling around from one to the other and being pulled toward the inside of the funnel where I am more and more influenced by all three simultaneously. Relationships in one sphere lead to relatioships in the others. There is no sense of having to pick one camp over and above the others. In this way the center is not a crushing place that squeezes all things into one thing, but a broad place where more depth and variety of experiences just seems so much closer and accessible. The closer you get to the center there is more energy and more movement. Life seems to flow even more vigorously.

The center is really a non-center. In my experience it has been like the classic idea of a blackhole that opens up into another world on the other end. There has been a lot of spinning and confusion and joy and sadness and question and answer and question and in the midst of it all a broad horizon is becoming visible. An environment that is experienced and felt, and yet is far off. Allow me to indulge in some quick and dirty photoshopping…

The disappearance of the previously contentious issues is so refreshing – another thing that Len hits on. Gone are the squabbles over musical choice, emotional faith or intellectual faith, dispensational gifting, sheep stealing, or denominational representation. These sorts of squabbles seem to have been left on the other side of the squeeze. The further we all travel into our future, the more these things fade into the past. No doubt there are other issues arising that our children will distance themselves from in time. That’s just humanity. But maybe our journey down the slippery slope will provide a better vantage point for our future to deal with these emerging issues.

A great short by The Work of the People

All things…

All things…

All things…

it echoes throughout scripture.

Tags: liturgy

“The God we affirm is then, at its best, inspired by the incoming of God and born there, but it is never to be confused with God.” – Peter Rollins

You know those times when your thoughts are building and changing so quickly that you barely have time to reflect on each of them and give them the brain time they deserve? Those times when all you can do is pound your hand on the table or attempt to suppress a squeal of excitement? Yes. Those times.

You know those times when thoughts start to crawl beneath your skin and into your eyeballs amidst the most queasy of itchiness? When you find yourself only able to think about how you need to stop thinking about these concepts because they are burning worse images in your head than those Faces of Death videos from grade seven? Yea…

Admittedly, three years ago the ratio of the first to the second would have been entirely reversed, but still, Pete’s latest book had me in both regions of anxiety. When reading The Fidelity of Betrayal the table pounding squeals far outweighed the eyeball squirms, but they were still there.

Pete takes us through three (four) aspects of our experience of God that we possibly need to be ready to betray in order to avoid mistaking these objectified realities for the creator God we worship. These being the Word, the Name, and the Act of God – the fourth being Truth itself (himself).

My biggest pauses came when I heard myself saying things like, “Aw that snake wasn’t such a bad guy,” Even though my beliefs about the story of the fall have changed drastically in the last while, I was still believing that the person-hood of God was contained in the words written about the encounter between God, Eve, Adam, and the Serpent (poor snake). Pete’s intent is not to pull us into a sympathy for the devil but to pull us from a loyalty to our words about God as contained in the Bible. We need to search out a deeper devotion to our creator born out of that betrayal. So while I’m not ready to run off to join some serpent cult, I am more ready to embrace the ambiguity of God’s nature within the Biblical narrative and try to see past my simplified ideas about a knowable personality of God.

Skipping ahead to the end of the book, Pete prompts us to consider a betrayal of our secured church boundaries in favor of a communal encounter with a God that we find in a religion without religion. A religion founded on the movement of God in miracles of love and reflected on through sacraments and then third and least made knowable through a set beliefs and creeds. I’m still to find a church institution that doesn’t try to downplay 1 John 4 in some way – to attempt to house the “of Gods” first within a church structure, system, or belief net.

So, I finished this book angrily and over-joyed. I’m angry because I feel alone. I feel alone among a sea of churches and Christians. I feel an insecurity in my beliefs that somehow fills me with a wonderful desire to fill the absence with love. I’m angry that I believed for so long that doubt and insecurity would be my enemy in life – that I needed to make sure I built my house on a church-rock. The problem being that the church-rock lately has felt much more like quicksand. Quicksand that pulls down anyone that doesn’t fit in order to make room to stabilize those who would do well in that system. And the thing is, I have a vision of Jesus jumping right off that church-rock too. Not to pull people back up on top, but to be present with those who have been sucked down.

It seems scary, and right now I feel alone, but I am going to try to stop squirming and go down too. I’m thinking that’s where I’ll find God. It seems that’s where heaven is.

At the beginning of the year I set a goal for a certain number of books I was aiming to read this year. I think I am fairly far behind it right now. The goal was more to encourage me to continue to search out voices to hear. I don’t really read a book just to get through it. I’ve found myself slipping into an old habit of reading more than one book at a time and taking a while to finish any of them. Therefore, I am proposing to myself that I grab one book this weekend intending to read the whole thing in one go. I haven’t done such a thing in many years. I think the last time was grade nine while reading a fantasy series by David Eddings called The Belgariad (fantastic, as I recall – which would be why I read the whole five book series in one week).

So, tomorrow I’m going to turn pages in Post-Charismatic? by Rob McAlpine (aka RobbyMac). I’m not from the charismatic stream officially, but have interacted with the local Pentecostal and Vineyard churches quite often throughout my life. I’m especially interested in learning to engage more fully with this stream of Christianity to move forward into a more generous and spiritually expressive future. I’m excited about the opportunity to look both look backward while facing forward into a hopeful future together with my charismatic and post-charismatic sisters and brothers.

Oh, and Rob, I’m really sorry about the absence of picture on the amazon.ca page. That’s actually my fault and it will be corrected next week!

Pax

Tags: reading, charismatic, postcharismatic, robbymac,

I am really looking forward to this…

Tags: phyllistickle, emergence, emergent, books

Mudhouse Sabbath – Lauren Winner

In the last few days I have devoured this tiny book during lunch hour reading sessions. Mudhouse Sabbath is an honest and concise exploration of how ancient and more modern Jewish practices can enrich the lives of Christians if only we would look outside our own houses once in a while. Lauren takes us on a journey through a selection of Jewish spiritual practices including shabbat (sabbath), avelut (mourning), hachnassat orchim (hospitality), tzum (fasting), kiddushin (weddings), and mezuzot (doorpost inscriptions). In her distinctively vulnerable way, Winner takes us through her own attempts at incorporating these practices into her adopted Christian life. Lauren’s deep love and respect for both spiritual traditions and her knowledge of the quirks and intricacies of them each surfaces in every personal reflection.

One large theme echoed in my head in each chapter. The first and most important reason for a Jew to engage in all of the mentioned practices is because they were told to. Their first thought was never to personal benefits that arise from the practices, but to God’s command to be faithful; although the personal benefits are indeed numerous. “They don’t light Sabbath candles simply because candles make them feel close to God, but because God commanded the lighting of candles. Closeness might be a nice by-product, but it is not the point.” (Winner, xii)

Christians are more likely to practice spiritual discipline for personal benefit and it is a great freedom and privilege to do so. However, we would do well to consider the selfless attitude of obedience that marked the consistency with which the Jewish community has committed themselves to remembering these time-honored rhythms.

I also really love the devotion to community and hospitality as a spiritual discipline above all others. If your adherence to dietary laws does a disservice to your interactions with others then it ceases to be a blessing. The rhythms in the Jewish wedding and mourning traditions give preeminence to the role of the community in those celebrations. Often we think of spiritual discipline as something we act out in our bedroom when we are supremely alone with God. But a faith that is only personal gives us a very partial view of the real blessing awaiting a community that practices together.

My own attempts at spiritual discipline are always disjointed and more valiant in my head than they end up being in practice. The simplicity in Lauren’s book has strengthened me to try again. Practice is never all that fun, but the results are always thrilling and most surprising.

Tags: reading, lauren winner, judaism, christianity, spiritual discipline

Will Samson says, “I am collecting preliminary data for a more detailed social network survey in the fall. The survey involves the Emerging / Emergent Church, and the people who tend to be connected to that conversation. If you would be willing to help out, Click here to take survey.”
UPDATE: The survey is now closed.

Tags: emerging, emergent, christianity, survey

scott: i have been pondering over the weekend about the word ‘missional’

scott: i find that defining terms is not something that i excel at, but i have sort of narrowed it down to 3 bible passages that make the term work in my life

david: right. i’m hoping we can all help each other to understand it better

david: i have yet to put something together too.. i use it often, but I think i use it differently

david: on different days

scott: haha

scott: it seems to be the kind of word that can have more than one meaning to it

david: ya… well that’s part of it.. i wan to get beyond the missionaries/normal people way of thinking about it

scott: i am on board for that

scott: i have been seeing it as a ‘team-working’ (if you can’t tell, i just made that term up) of the greatest commandments, the sheep and goats being judged, and the great commission

david: cool

scott: for me it focuses it on the main aspect of loving people, and because of that love, taking care of their physical needs and sharing the gospel

scott: i like looking at it like that because it can work on a micro and a macro scale

david: you mean, it is about individual relationships and also relates to the call of the church as a whole?

scott: yes… to the individual and to the body. also, it relates the day to day with the long term

david: or the whole mission of god

scott: yes

scott: the mission of taking care of spiritual and physical needs in an ongoing way, based off of the love that we have for others

david: i think that’s one of the important distinctions

david: we tend to think of our mission as first and foremost shouting on street corners

david: forgetting that jesus said that the gospel is good news to the afflicted

scott: for sure… and going that out of obligation and not as an act of love

scott: going = doing

david: right

scott: so yeah… that is what i have been thinking about the word ‘missional’

david: i believe mission has to absolutely foundational to a group of people that would call themselves part of the church

scott: i would have to agree with you, sir. for most of my life, the word mission dealt with profession

david: right

scott: that is all the word was to me, but i think that it should be a purposeful lifestyle

scott: a sincere one, at that

david: i believe that is why people leave churches

david: they have not been given a chance to be missional

david: it is fairly unfulfilling to just take up space

david: many times we take away the job of everyone and give it to the professionals

scott: that is a very good point, dave

scott: and when people can’t pitch in, then they aren’t actually a part of a family, they are a guest

david: the majority of the church is told that their job is to fund the professional christians

david: which is great, but comes up short

scott: haha… for sure, which makes it a business relationship more than anything

david: share holders

scott: exactly

Tags: missional, church, jesus, incarnational

Right now I am engaged in conversation with friends. Tuesday night church it has come to be called. We are collected from a variety of backgrounds (city and country, pastor and student, business world and outdoors enthusiasts) with a shared thirst for true community and mission.

We are dreaming about and beginning to participate in a community that we have decided to describe as missional. Missional was the FIRST word that we chose as a point of connection. It came before church, baptist, relevant, emergent, postmodern, purpose-driven, subversive, or biblical. All buzzwords begin to lose immediacy through our careless useage as characterized by the grandfather of buzzwords: Christian. Before the followers of “The Way” were labeled with the first-century buzzword of “Christian”, they were engaged in mission.

Every successful buzzword has action at its core. Christians were those in communities that were following the mission of God as perfected by Jesus, and living it within a cultural mission flavoured by the Jewish and Greek customs of the day. But somehow the perfect example of Jesus didn’t finish the mission. He sent his followers onward to continue to live this mission. To be missional is to be in transit. In the past there was a bestowing of mission. That comission is then acknowledged and acted on. We are now Missioning.

To be missioning is to live intentionally restorative reflections of God’s creative purpose into every part of our lives. Every relationship, every endeavor. Our missioning community is aiming to create connections and space to empower each other to live these lives of deep restoration. We are determined to not build walls, but instead to plant gardens. We are determined to go kayaking and laugh together in the woods. We are determined to cry with each other. We are determined to never wear our “Sunday Best”.

Since friendship and strategy just don’t seem to fit together, we are determined to avoid every 4 step evangelism strategy. In the words of Brian McLaren, we are counting conversations, not conversions. Instead, we commit ourselves to knowing each other’s strengths. We commit ourselves to listen to the purposes of God in the people we don’t yet know. We commit ourselves to our commission beyond our allegiance to any buzzword. Christian, Postmodern, Emergent, or Missional.

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This post is part of a Missional Synchroblog organized by Jonathan Brink

Synchroblog Participants
Jonathan Brink - Meeting God Where He’s Already Working
Ben Wheatley - Are Things You Are Living For Worth It
Blake Huggins - What Does Missional Living Look Like
Alan Knox - Living in the love of God
Dave DeVries - The Missional Challenge
Bryan Riley - What Does Missional Living Look Like To Me
Jeromy Johnson - What is missional living to me
Tim Jones - Living Like the Word Says
Nathan Gann - Inevitability?

Tags: Missional, Emerging, Emergent, Church, Christianity, Jesus

I’ve been browsing around GapingVoid today, thinking about Hugh’s concept of emerging marketing being driven by the Social Object. Here is a great quote by Seth Godin about emerging marketing:

“You make what my friend Hugh MacLeod calls “social objects”—things that people want to talk about. That’s what the iPhone is. People say the iPhone was superhyped, but Apple didn’t hype it. People hyped it to each other. The challenge is not “How do I spend $50 million on advertising?” The challenge is “How do I spend $50 million on product development, so I can make a product people will talk about?”

The premise here is, in a hopeless quest for relevancy, many companies believe that if they digitize their products they will find new market shares and be validated to continue to make the same product they have always made. Money is poured into new marketing streams, but renovations to the product itself do not receive similar funding. The goodness and usefulness of the product is seen as timeless once it has been validated using one marketing method. Seth Godin again:

“First, companies have to decide: Either they’re in or they’re out. You either make meatballs, or you’re part of this new regime. But if you only want to use the regime to just sell more [meatballs], you’re going to fail. Gillette invented the safety razor on the back of two things: a really good factory and aggressive mass marketing. And they’re really good at it. The question is: Why do we think Gillette deserves to succeed in this new medium? My answer is: They don’t. There’s nothing about what Gillette does that makes them worthy of conversations online, that makes their ads in Google clickable, that makes you want to visit their website.”

The church is struggling with the same tension. Certainly, almost eveyone has recognized that the forms and structures are changing and need to change, but we have been very slow to pick up on the fact that these changes are actually compelled by a need for a reinterpretation of the Gospel itself. Otherwise we end up looking just as silly as Gillette.

The Gospel was a compelling social object in Jesus day. It was Good News to everyone. It drew crowds. It breathed hope into a people that had been demoralized by empire. It wasn’t the relevancy of the packaging that drew people.

The Gospel is a compelling social object in our day. It is not a timeless truth that simply needs to be given a new slogan every decade. It is a fully incarnated, integrated reality, necessarily different in every way, every day, but never diminishing in goodness through each incarnation.

Tags: Gospel, Marketing, Social Object, Seth Godin, Gapingvoid, emergent, emerging

Andrew Sullivan gives quite the high praise to Barack after his recent, self-written speech.

“This is a candidate who does not merely speak as a Christian. He acts like a Christian.”

EXTRA NOTE:
How cool is it to hear a presidential voice telling stories! Imagination gets a second life. Hope.

Tags: obama, politics, christianity

Is it just absolutely horrible that as I read Brian and Sylvia’s incredible book on the dangers of nationalism above our call to be disciples that I feel a sense of pride that these fine folk are Canadian? Probably. I expect to be horribly convicted of this patriotism by the end of the book.

This has been a fascinating read. Challenging too. Right now in my life I am very quick to deify post modernism as a cure-all for what ails the modern church. This book has done a marvelous thing for me. Calling me back to an allegiance to the Kingdom of God rather than to the philosophies and empires of earthly systems. While I don’t think I will ever dispose of the critical methods of deconstruction and the desire to give ear to “the other”, I will also push to first and foremost pledge my allegiance to the Slaughtered Lamb.

ONE: Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world
ALL: Have mercy on us
ONE: Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world
ALL: Free us from bondage to sin and death
ONE: Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world
ALL: Hear our prayers prince of peace
ONE: For the victims of war
ALL: Have mercy
ONE: Women, men, and children
ALL: Have mercy
ONE: The maimed and the crippled
ALL: Have mercy
ONE: The abandoned and the homeless
ALL: Have mercy
ONE: The imprisoned and the tortured
ALL: Have mercy
ONE: The widowed and the orphaned
ALL: Have mercy
ONE: The bleeding and the dying
ALL: Have mercy
ONE: The weary and the desperate
ALL: Have mercy
ONE: The lost and the forsaken
ALL: Have mercy
ONE: Oh God have mercy on us sinners
ALL: Forgive us for we know not we do
ONE: For our scorched and blackened earth
ALL: Forgive us
ONE: For the scandal of billions wasted in war
ALL: Forgive us
ONE: For our arms makers and our arms dealers
ALL: Forgive us
ONE: For our Caesars and our Herods
ALL: Forgive us
ONE: For the violence that is rooted in our own hearts
ALL: Forgive us
ONE: For the times that we turn others into enemies
ALL: Forgive us
ONE: Deliver us oh God
ALL: Turn our feet to the way of peace
ONE and ALL: Hear our prayer, grant us peace
ONE: From the arrogance of power
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: From the myth of redemptive violence
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: From the tyranny of greed
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: From the ugliness of racism
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: From the cancer of hatred
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: From the seduction of wealth
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: From the addiction of control
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: From the idolatry of nationalism
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: From the paralysis of cynicism
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: From the violence of apathy
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: From the ghettos of poverty
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: From the ghettos of wealth
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: From the lack of imagination
ALL: Deliver us
ONE: Deliver us oh God
ALL: Turn our feet to the way of peace
ONE: We will not conform to the patterns of this world
ALL: Let us be transformed by the renewing of our minds
ONE: With the help of God’s grace
ALL: Let us resist evil wherever we find it
ONE: With the waging of war
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With the legalization of murder
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With the slaughter of innocents
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With laws that betray human life
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With the destruction of community
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With the pointing finger and malicious talk
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With the idea that happiness must be purchased
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With the ravaging of the earth
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With principalities and powers that oppress
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With the destructions of peoples
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With the raping of women
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With governments that kill
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With the theology of empire
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With the business of militarism
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With the hording of riches
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: With the dissemination of fear
ALL: We will not comply
ONE: But today we pledge our ultimate allegiance to the Kingdom of God
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the peace that is not like Rome’s
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the gospel of enemy love
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the kingdom of the poor and the broken
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the King who loves His enemies so much he died for them
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the least of these with whom Christ dwells
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the transnational church that transcends artificial borders of nations
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the refugee of Nazareth
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the homeless rabbi who had no place to lay his head
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the cross rather than the sword
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the banner of love above any flag
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the one who rules with a towel rather than an iron fist
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the one who rides a donkey rather than a war horse
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the revolution that sets both oppressed and oppressors free
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the way that leads to life
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: To the slaughtered lamb
ALL: We pledge allegiance
ONE: And we together proclaim His praises from the margins of the empire to the centers of wealth and power:
ALL: Long live the Slaughtered Lamb

Written by Shane Claiborne, James Loney and Brian Walsh.

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Listening in on a conversation among professors at Dallas Theological Seminary as they discuss the points of the various expressions of the emerging church movement. I am so fantastically excited by this dialogue! It is so fair and non-confrontational on all fronts. Honestly, there is a level of respect I honestly did not expect from a conservative, evangelical institution. During the conversation they bring up many diverse aspects of the movement and deal with them all fairly. Often they first applaud the work of various folks in the movement and then offer a word of caution against the dangers that, may or may not be real right now, but could be if certain paths are followed without enough foresight.

The profs affirm the health and balance that the emerging movement is bringing to the many parts of Christianity. Perhaps a conversation of this level coming from this corner of evangelicalism will spur on some more responsible debate from others in that tradition.

HT: TSK

Tags: emerging, emergent, christianity, theology

I found a couple books on Darryl Dash’s blog that it looks like I will want to place in the front of my reading queue.First is a novel called The Shack that I don’t know much about, but sounds quite intriguing based on Darryl’s description.

The second is a book on church history and practice that makes me absolutely salivate. I am a massive believer in constantly looking to the first century church to see where we could in improve in our “Body of Christ-ness” and this book, Pagan Christianity does this like few books dare.

This time of year we get so up in arms about people saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, but the majority of Christians don’t even know why we celebrate Christmas anyway. Well, we know a good reason to celebrate it (Jesus is the Reason for the Season), but we don’t know when or how or why we began this tradition in the first place. Ditto to almost every church practice. These pagan incorporations along with classroom / seminary incorporations have tag teamed, to create a church environment that is faily unsuitable to the mission of community and neighbourly love that we were commissioned with in the first place.

I hear critics of postmodernism saying that deconstruction is bad and eventually we have to start reconstructing. This really comes from a poor understanding of what deconstruction is. It does sound like a negative or destructive venture. Until you disengage yourself from the rewards of your actions. Oh dear. Now this is really straying from my original topic of conversation. I will leave my connections between Jesus and Hinduism for another inflamatory post…

Here is an excerpt from a questionaire I filled out for my friend Tim. The questions dealt with differences and points of conflict between traditional, evangelical Christian beliefs and emerging Christian beliefs. I spoke as someone who had some emerging views and another fellow represented a more traditional stance.

What follows is part of my answer to this question:
How would you classify the predominant Christian thought that stands in contrast to the Emerging Church, as you understand it?

The idea that the Christian’s mission is to get as many people as possible to convert to Christianity by praying a prayer and/or verbally affirming (in the witness of other ’safe’ people) that they subscribe to a set of dogmatic statements so that one day when they die they will go to heaven and be with Jesus is terribly unbiblical and is the single most unhelpful cause we could possibly be a part of. The Christianity that on one hand says that Jesus only saves those who turn to him, but then will try to defend some fluffy belief that babies that die will be in heaven is absurd. It really misses the point of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus never commended anyone for having his or her doctrine right… that was the role the Pharisees wanted to play. He commended those who had an awareness and love for those around them – their enemies and friends alike. He commended those who gave away their belongings to live in balance with the rest of their community. He commended those who practiced love and the Christian ethic of intentional community before they knew anything about the fact that they were supposed to believe Jesus was the one the prophets were pointing toward.

Here is a portion of my summary statements:

Proverbs 3 sums it up. We do not worship our understanding of God… we worship God. We leave it to Him to reveal what he will reveal. We are not called ultimately to understand God and find our eternal security in our knowledge. We are certainly not called to judge the eternal souls of those who do not find the answers we have found. We are called to do justly, to give away the first of our harvests so that no one will go hungry. We are to trust above judging. We are to converse above arguing. And above all we are called to LOVE.

Feedback? Do you connect with these statements? Are there big questions that you are left with? How could I have stated things better?

Tags: emerging, emergent, christianity, god, gospel, religion, church

[AC] Advent Conspiracy from Jon Collins on Vimeo.

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I’ve just started into Brian McLaren’s most recent book, Everything Must Change. I’ve been trying to avoid reviews by various bloggers. I have peaked at a couple and I am going to read Scot McKnight’s chapter by chapter examination as I go along, staying a couple chapters ahead of him in the process.

I must admit, I do not expect to disagree with Brian. Already a couple chapters in we get a sense of the global frustration with modern gospelizing. I’ve been hearing some critics say that these emerging folks are just pushing Jesus into these new places because they are bored in their rich north american churches, and have grown fat on their freedoms. New Monasticism has a lot to say in response to that idea – but also Brian’s interactions with these African Christians shows us that it is not simply the place of privilege to question our “saving souls from hell” approach.

One other quick mention… So I think I am somewhat of a sucker for one-liners. But this is just fantastic…

“The time had come, we said, to center our lives on the essential message of Jesus, the message of the kingdom of God – not just a message about Jesus that focused on the afterlife, but rather the core message of Jesus that focused on personal, social, and global transformation in this life.” – page 22

This series was started over a month ago over at http://www.jesustheradicalpastor.com, but i just discovered it and thought it was worth sharing. Some very important points in here.

JESUS: THE FIRST EMERGENT LEADER

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Tags: emerging, emergent, jesus, deconstruction

c/o the Tall Skinny Kiwi

Keep reforming! Continue the counter-cultural subversive movement toward the message and reign of Jesus. Babylon may be all-pervasive, but love is certainly the “greatest.”

EDIT:
Perhaps “happy” isn’t the best term to put in front of a date recalling Luther’s grief over the infiltration of earthly values in the church of his day. It might be a happy day if that one Reformation was enough. We need to grieve along side our brothers and sisters of history and continue to push ourselves to repentance. Perhaps what we need today is not merriness and pride over our past righteous acts, but fasting, prayer and reflection for our current struggles.

Thankyou, Martin. We won’t stop.

Question:
Is the main concern of the church its own expansion? Is the main concern of the church the discipleship of its members? Is the main concern of the church the protection of truth? Is the main of concern of the church to be a beacon in its community? A little bit of all? Maybe.

Where am i going? Well, that’s my question. What is our direction? Where do the currents go? Are we sucking people into the doors of the church building? Or are we pushing people out the doors to help the neibourhood surrounding us? How exactly do we benefit the needy in our community by simply getting them to come to Sunday services? Are those living in God’s blessing not there to be a blessing in turn?

“Jesus never says to the poor, ‘Come find the church,’ but he says to those of us in the church, ‘Go into the world and find the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned,’ Jesus in his disguises.” – Tony Campolo

Here is another possibly (not) off topic quote…

“We are trying to shout the Gospel with our lives.” – Sister Margaret

I get really mad when I hear Christians talking about escaping this world and dressing up for heaven and junk about this life just being a rehearsal for our real life in the fluffies.

I just wanted to link to a great rant on an upcoming event that I had been thinking was really missing it. And I think this particular ranter really nailed some stuff. Check it out.

Read the post at Frank’s blog

He doesn’t update often,
He should though.
Doug Pagitt’s Podcast contains some great thoughts on faith and community. I just finished listening to the sermon/conversation about conversions of Peter and Cornelius. Do you want to be challenged? Listen hard. Think this stuff out. Wow. Who really needs the Gospel? The “wicked” pagan or the wayward and stubborn “righteous” believer?

Seriously. check it out. Let me know what you think.

The more serious I get about passionately following the teachings of Jesus, the more I find myself at odds with the majority of Christians in my local church. I’m becoming somewhat convinced that protestant evangelical tradition has done just as much to hinder the actual “Gospel” as it has to help sustain it.

I was passed a copy of a conservative evangelical propaganda piece trying to dismantle the Emergent conversation as a cult. And strangely I found the quotes proffered as evidence for the sinfulness of Brian McLaren and Tony Jones to be wonderful, uplifting and REAL voices of leaders to whom we should be paying more attention to.

I think the article was based on an essay or radio program by Dr. John MacArthur, who seems to have a BIG problem with the emerging church. MacArthur’s main concern is over the supposedly Postmodern influenced “wishy-washy” spiritualism that he sees in Emergent. To be honest I don’t see it at all. What I see and hear from Emergent is a call for us to reach an even deeper REALITY of the GOOD NEWS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON EARTH that needs to be rediscovered and reinvented (or just simply discovered) otherwise known as the Gospel.

I love this quote which, incidently, was offered as a proof text of the Un-Christian-ness of Brian McLaren. It makes me giggle and clap! This is the opening argument against McLaren and Emergent

I present a short excerpt from the article Interview with Brian McLaren about the previ