Evangelism

I’ve been starting to have thoughts about this lately.  I love this summary by David Fitch:

“In post Christendom, people generally (even among those raised as Christian) come to God in Christ broken, often from homes of divorce, sexual abuse, places of despair. The gospel cannot be a concept, it must be the invitation into an entirely reordered way of life - the world of redeemed creation.”

Read more:

The Bad Habits of Christendom Evangelism

Welcoming a New Reality

I wrote this stream of consciousness blog while I was on the plane out to San Diego last month. There’s not really much explanation necessary…

The opportunity is here to align ourselves with the kingdom of God and its fullness. Asking the question, “What is church?” is actually giving ourselves permission to dream of an alternative future. The time of hand-wringing is over. The time of theological posturing is over. The house is burning, the fire alarm is ringing, it’s time to get out of our bunks, slide down the pole and go put out the fire. No one else will do it, because no one else understands what is really necessary. Those who lead the church are still not convinced the house is on fire. They believe the tide will change and their schemes will succeed. But in reality they are not prepared and never could be.

Our advantage is that we are rapidly moving into a time where our mobility and flexibility will trump an organization’s ability to create a social reality. Vibrant social networks are forming without the help of traditional institutions. Our power will be through tapping into those natural social networks and spreading the kingdom virus through those means.

Note that this will happen best on a local and organic level - not through translocal networks or associations. The emerging church failed as a movement because some tried to domesticate the necessary (but un-domesticatible) process of moving from the old to the new. Imagine if Jesus tried to ‘engage’ the Jewish religious establishment on their terms. No, he paid his ‘respects’ at the temple and then gathered nobodies around him who he empowered with a message - and Spirit - that created a new reality.

Our gospel cannot be either ’spiritual’ or ’social’. Our relevance will inevitably depend on our ability to create a new basis for community - society - to exist within the worlds we live. There is no substitute for relationship. As my wife says, “Time is the only thing we really own and relationship is the only thing we can buy with it.” Our gospel business is in relationship – John on Jesus’ breast, the woman at the well, Mary’s tears. It happens there, not within our crusades or initiatives.

There is also no substitute for Spirit. Kingdom does not work without Spirit. Mission is not accomplished without Spirit. Ecclesia does not exist without Spirit. If we refuse to acknowledge the absolute centrality of Spirit to this whole enterprise, we do it to our own demise. We will fail without the Spirit’s direction, empowerment, favor, comfort, leadership, and vision. Yes, vision. We really do see through a glass dimly. Our perspective is not just limited, it is almost blind. But that is by design so that we will keep returning to the only thing we really have control over – who we are and how we relate to others.

Read the Sermon on the Mount. Some have tried to make the core Jesus’ message economic or spiritual in nature. But the Sermon slaps you in the face with reality: If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If you hate your brother, you might as well kill him. Don’t be an arrogant ass and pray on the street so everyone can see you. The message from Jesus strikes to the heart of why church is so largely ineffective at doing what he did with 12 nobodies. We think it’s about changing the world – He knows it’s about changing us.

If we are successful at creating new community, it will be because we are taking the message of Jesus seriously and living his teachings by the Spirit. Everything else – including what happens to the world and how its problems get solved – will come out of that fountain.

They Like Church But Not Jesus

“I want to subvert a culture that turns the church into an incredibly expensive and remarkably harmless spectator sport.”

Brant nails it in this post about the incongruencies at his job as the host of a morning radio show at a Christian station and the plain message of Jesus.

New Questions

Well, since my buddy Marshall actually mustered up a few posts again, I’ll have to follow suit.  My time of late has been consumed with work, trying to sell a house, and spending time with new friends.  I haven’t even done much book promotion yet, although Jason Evans has graciously set up a reading at his house next weekend while I’m out in San Diego for a weekend with him and some other friends.

My mind has started to recharge lately in spite of everything else going on.  I just didn’t realize how much brain energy writing a book takes - obviously my blogging has suffered considerably.  The fact is, this blog was my canvas for the past seven years to work through new ideas (or perhaps old ones, depending how you look at it).  Now that I’ve published something cohesive from that work, it’s difficult to go back to dabbling again.  I start posts and find myself sitting in front of the computer trying to not write a book.  Not very good for blog production I’m afraid.

So I’ll stop apologizing and try to splat some words on the page.  Here’s what I’ve observed at a macro level over the past year (beware…mass generalizations ahead…):

-  The “Emerging Church”, whatever it was or wasn’t, is pretty much done for.

-  There are two theological camps that are now trendy to align yourself with - some amalgamation of Reformed (MacArthur, Piper, Driscoll) or some amalgamation of Social Justice / Kingdom (Wright, McLaren, Claiborne).

-  Your church is pretty weak if it isn’t Missional (TM).

-  Evangelical ministry leaders still don’t have a clue on how to lead in this context.

And some micro observations through local / trans-local relationships both new and old:

-  Those of us on the front-end of transition 8-10 years ago are pretty much either healed or off the deep end.

-  Todd Hunter was right.  Most of the groups we started during this transitional period lasted about 3 years and then died or radically changed.

-  There is an undercurrent of unrest in most evangelical churches, particularly among the 25-40 year old age group.  Their unrest is not cultural / theological / social, they are just dying for someone to authentically lead them.  They have kingdom-born dreams, but are bored out of their skulls for the most part because they have no advocates.

All of this has been leading to a question I’ve been asking myself.  Who leads those people that I described in the last bullet and how does their leadership work? If you doubt me that leadership is required, you haven’t been spending any time around typical evangelicals lately.  There won’t be another cohesive movement with evangelicalism anytime soon to replace church growth, so forget about “movement-ism” doing anything to sweep people into action.  Theological debates can be productive long term, but are pretty meaningless to the people on the ground.  The ‘missional church’ conversation is excellent for the most part, but has the tendency to be a little paralyzing when it comes to praxis.  Those of us who have been in transitional communities (house churches, new-monastic groups, or just plain outside the whole church scene) can come off way too out-there for typical evangelicals, to the point where it feels like we’re not even speaking the same language.  Finally, since we’ve adopted a much more egalitarian outlook on leadership in these communities, we’ve struggled to discern our role and what leadership is really necessary.

In the end - in spite of the challenges - I think we have a better chance at answering my question than the current batch of ministry leaders in evangelicalism.  They are, frankly, just too absorbed in crisis to deal with the question in the first place.  They’d love to do something about it, but when half your congregation is unemployed, you have to keep your priorities straight.  The problem is, many of us on the other side are dealing with our own personal crisises and don’t have the muster to deal with anything else either.  But on the whole, my guess is that our crisis will settle down faster.  Give me a little time and space (and debt relief, dammit) and goodness knows what I’ll accomplish.

At this point, I’m still a little in crisis, but I’m willing to question and dream again….

Yup. I Wrote Me a Book.

Top left corner of the page is a link to an Amazon page with my name on it.  Three years later - a bunch of Sunday mornings at Panera Bread, countless nights at Starbucks, a few long weekend writing retreats - and I’m done.  Why did I do it?  What’s it about?  Good questions.

I’ve spent a little time over the holidays updating the whatischurch.com site with some information about the book.  (Thanks to my lovely wife who found a great site that offers well-designed, low-cost templates - www.bludomain.com).  You can read more there.  Needless to say, I’m excited about seeing what happens with it.  It was written with a younger me in mind.  What would I have said to myself eight years ago to be an encouragement preparing to plant a church?  A few years into our journey, I wish I would have been able to have the perspective I do now (and the relationships I do now).  Hopefully this book will help others to see what is possible and to understand that they are not crazy.  God’s world is a big world, and his Church is a big Church.

Anyway, go grab you a copy and let me know what you think….

The Side Effects of Community

Recently I’ve noticed that our faith community is beginning to impact people who are not necessarily ‘full-timers’.  In other words, there are people on the periphery who hang out for friendship or something to do.  They also are not afraid to ask for help when they have a need, and we are not afraid to oblige.  The interesting thing is that these people often attend other churches and in some cases might not even like our gatherings.  But, just the nature of our relationship and our ‘life together’ is in some way encouraging or helpful to them.  While talking to a friend about this today I mentioned that I think this is part of our calling - to be an underground blessing to the Church and others.

I ran across this related quote today from Jean Vanier’s book Community and Growth:

“We shouldn’t seek the ideal
community. It is a question of loving those whom God has set beside us today.
They are signs of God. We might have chosen different people, people who were
more cheerful and intelligent. But these are the ones God has given us, the ones
he has chosen for us. It is with them that we are called to create unity and
live a covenant. We choose our own friends; but in our families, we do not
choose our brothers and sisters; they are given to us. So it is in community
life.” - Jean Vanier

Good stuff.

Your Love is Strong

Heavenly Father
You always amaze me
Let your kingdom come
In my world and in my life
You give me the food I need
To live through the day
And forgive me as I forgive
The people that wronged me
Lead me far from temptation
Deliver me from the evil one

I look out the window
The birds are composing
Not a note is out of tune
Or out of place
I look at the meadow
And stare at the flowers
Better dressed than any girl
On her wedding day

So why do I worry?
Why do I freak out?
God knows what I need
You know what I need

Your love is
Your love is
Your love is strong

The kingdom of the heavens
Is now advancing
Invade my heart
Invade this broken town
The kingdom of the heavens
Is buried treasure
Will you sell yourself
To buy the one you’ve found?

Two things you told me
That you are strong
And you love me
Yes, you love me

Our God in heaven
Hallowed be
Thy name above all names
Your kingdom come
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us today our daily bread
Forgive us wicked sinners
Lead us far away from our vices
And deliver us from these prisons

-Jon Foreman

Recycled Change

Isn’t that a metaphor for American life?

I saw this while taking out the trash yesterday morning and I started thinking about the word ‘change’.  In presidential elections of course, it is a slogan that means “Our administration will be different than the last guy’s…so vote for us.”  Coupled with the right marketing, shrewd presentation of an alternative platform, and a personality that a diverse population can rally behind, you get ‘change’.  But what about our lives?  What does real change look like?  Can we measure it?  Should we even talk about it?

When most people talk about changing their life, they usually mean “I want to be different.”  Usually this has to do with an unfulfilling job, relationship, or something about their body.  But when Jesus announced the availability of the Kingdom of God to his followers, he wasn’t talking about tweaking our exercise regime or taking pottery classes on the weekends.  We typically equate the word ‘repent’ with individual sins - repent of your greed, lust, anger, etc.  But what Jesus meant by ‘repent’ was much more political and comprehensive.  He was saying, “Give up you agenda, your solutions to yours and the world’s problems, and follow me.” His call to repentence certainly had personal, moral implications, but it also required allegiance to Jesus - to in effect give up your life.

Surrender is something Americans don’t do very well.  We truly believe that if we work hard enough, we can fix our problems and then take on the world’s.  But Jesus’ idea of change is obviously quite a bit different from ours.  I’m not sure you can measure change, but I think I know what if feels like.  It’s not pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps kind of stuff.  It identifies with the broken - the losers, the spit-on and shat-on, those without hope that anything of significance could ever be different. Jesus came announcing his Kingdom - a place where things truly are different and transformation is real.  Instead of recycled change, he promises resurrection.  And that’s got my vote.

My Wifey Kills It…

One of the best things I’ve read related to the election recently and one of the best things she’s ever written.  I’m a proud hubby…

Gentle Words Give Life Part 3

Time to Wake Up

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” - Mark 1:15

Tomorrow is November 3, 2008, the general election.  There will be millions of Americans streaming in and out of polling booths…many with rabid enthusiasm for their candidates.  When it’s all over, a new president will be chosen, along with thousands of other political office holders.  Contrary to some people, the world will not end…or become a paradise overnight.  The stark reality is that the sun will rise on November 4th and we will still have houses we can’t afford, credit cards we can’t pay, addictions we can’t shake, marriages we can’t save, wars we can’t end, and questions we can’t resolve.

Tomorrow will be a quiet day for me.  I’ll go to work, eat dinner with my family, go for a run with some friends, enjoy some time with my wife, and go to bed.  (If you must know…I did vote by absentee ballot a few days ago).  But my mind will not be on elections or the bright future or the dark days ahead.  Tomorrow I am going to carry a little card around with Jesus’ words from Mark 1:15.  I am going to meditate on those words, pray them, live with them.  The time has come, he says.  Repent and believe the Good News…

I’ll let you know how my day goes.