In two days thousands of students will arrive on campus here at Kent State. Members of our church will be creatively introducing ourselves to these students and seeking to bethe church on mission during this crazy yet fun season of year. In preparation for some long days, I took a little break today to simply sit in silence, prayer, and thought before the Lord. This practice of retreating just before a busy season of ministry helps me avoid the great danger of ministry, namely doingfor the Lord before simply being with Him. There is such a strong pull for church people (like me) to worship ministry rather than the God who calls us into ministry. Embedded in this temptation is a more dangerous belief that we workers own the mission and are ultimately responsible for it. I’ve been in that place before. I never want to go back.
But is it even right to say that we do ministry for the Lord? The mission belongs to God. Redemption belongs to God. The pursuit of the hurting and confused belongs to God. The maturation of the Christian belongs to God. And yet (here is the best part), he invites us to join with Him. He knows that we will never experience much of the life of Christ if we do not enlist in His work of renewal. We’ll never fully grasp Christ-likeness (what we’re called to) unless we make our mission His mission.
I don’t want a life of basking in the goodness of my own redemption. I don’t want to spend my days reminding myself that I’ve correctly understood a few basic principles of the faith that lead to my salvation. I want so much more than that. Don’t you? So, what’s the “so much more?” It’s the missio Dei, God’s ongoing work of renewing His creation and inviting humanity into the Kingdom where He reigns supreme. Here everything is different than what we see in our broken world. Some say it’s heaven on earth. Here and now. And we are asked to participate with God in bringing this reality of His reign to the world we find ourselves in. That vision I can give my life to. Can you?
This quote from Mortimer Arias, bishop of the Methodist Church in Bolivia, says it perfectly:
We need to recover the capacity to dream. The reign of God is God’s own dream, his project for his world and for humanity! He made us dreamers, and he wants us to be seduced by his dream and to dream with him.
I want to be withGod so that I can join withGod in His work of realigning my life and my church community’s life to His mission.
Today while surfing through my favorite blogs, I found two excellent sites that provide a collection of free web resources on missional church, including book reviews, interviews, blog lists, websites, audio/video links, etc.
The first is a page on a blog authored by Jonathan Dodson, a missional church planter in Austin, TX. His site is worth a read. Check it out here.
The second is an article by JR Woodward available here.
I recently read a perceptive article by Alan Roxburgh titled The Church in a Postmodern Context in Craig Van Gelder’s collection of essays on the gospel in North America. Some writers just seem to answer the questions you never quite know how to ask. Or they answer the questions you never thought to ask. But in doing so they lead you to a new level of understanding. Alan Roxburgh does this for me. Here are his thoughts on the church in postmodernity:
What is happening is that the “beginnings” are disappearing in the constant work of rewriting the script for every moment, since the last moment will not do for the new. We need to distinguish between the need for a contextualized church and a theological critique of the context that is grounded in a different narrative. The postmodern context is forever rewriting the script, so that it is continually being born again in newer forms. A proper contextuality is one that brings the power of an alternative narrative into an encounter with this reality…
…This is what is not happening. The postmodern church is forever embracing the new in the name of reaching the unchurched, and therefore is in danger of losing the gospel.
Yesterday in my seminary class titled Missional Church we watched a portion of this lecture given by Dr. Michael Frost at the 2007 Presbyterian Global Fellowship. Frost challenges the church to see God, the church, and the world differently. If you want to learn more about the missional church movement, this is a great introduction.
For a term paper in my History of Christian Mission course, I am studying the missional nature of the Church before the reign of Emperor Constantine (272-337), whose decision to legalize Christianity drastically altered the primitive and pure faith of the early church. Here are a few quotes I think speak to how the first Christians understood the faith and their mission as followers of Jesus.
Eusebius, the great Church historian, who lived from 263-339, wrote:
Then did they show themselves to the heathen in the clearest light. For the Christians were the only people who amid such terrible ills showed their fellow-feeling and humanity in their actions. Day by day some would busy themselves with attending to the dead and burying them; others gathered in one spot all who were afflicted by hunger throughout the city, and gave bread to them all.
Lucian, a Greek satirist and writer, who lived from circa 125-180, wrote this:
It is incredible to see the ardor with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator (Jesus) has put into their heads that they are all brethren.
What might we learn from our ancestors? Their compassion for others is simply a “given.” No need for powerful, guilt-producing sermons from the podium. No “hunger awareness week” on their church calendar. No visit and lecture from a social justice expert. No outsourcing the work of mercy to experts. No division between gospel and social action.
None of that. Instead, just plain-old obedience to Jesus’ command to love others before self.
A month ago I wrote about the Ecclesia National Gathering in Washington, DC. Though I haven’t been to many conferences, it ranks as the best I’ve ever attended. What I appreciated most was that it combined the best of the academic world with innovative and experienced church planters and pastors. Represented were men and women sincerely concerned for the future of the church in an increasingly post-Christian America and who believe strongly that the answers to our declining influence are not to be found in the arena of technique or style (better methods of attracting people). The way forward, instead, must originate in a theological shift in our understanding of the church, wherein the Kingdom of God and the Mission of God are paramount.
I strongly urge you to visit the Ecclesia site and listen (for free) to the main session teachings. If you only listen to one, I would suggest Session 5 by Dr. Darrell Guder. In this lecture he unpacks the meaning and theology behind the word “missional.” Since the site does not provide them, I am including the session titles below. I hope this helps you choose which ones you’d like to listen to.
Engaging: Missionary Strategies Then & Now
Organizing: Structures for Incarnational Church
Challenges: Barriers to Mission in the Western Context
“From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seemed to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
at which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity,
Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.
Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead
of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye,
Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.”
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