Push-Back

I've been reading John Piper's God is the Gospel (which I highly recommend, especially since it's a free download!), where Piper argues that the Gospel is ultimately a vision of the beauty and desirability of God above all other desirable things. His starting point for this:

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:4-6 ESV)

It is possible to present the Gospel in such a way that it simply compliments are selfish desires or assuages our fears, but the joy that such a gospel might bring is temporary at best. Although I suppose they may make strange bedfellows, Michael Frost seems to agree with Piper here. Frost argues:

When the contemporary evangelical church tries to present what it believes is the core message of the Bible, it nearly always does so in individualized terms, and it nearly always does so by presenting the message of Jesus as being about personalized benefit either in this world or the next.

That quote is from Frost's book, The Road to Missional. Both Piper and Frost are pushing back against the individualized understanding at the center of which is a self-interested decision to let Jesus come into our hearts. McKnight seems to be pushing back is his own way in his new book The King Jesus Gospel. The book's product description says it in a nutshell:

Contemporary evangelicals have built a 'salvation culture' but not a 'gospel culture.' Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to the message of personal salvation. This book makes a plea for us to recover the old gospel as that which is still new and still fresh. The book stands on four arguments: that the gospel is defined by the apostles in 1 Corinthians 15 as the completion of the Story of Israel in the saving Story of Jesus; that the gospel is found in the Four Gospels; that the gospel was preached by Jesus; and that the sermons in the Book of Acts are the best example of gospeling in the New Testament. In the Beginning was the Gospel ends with practical suggestions about evangelism and about building a gospel culture.

These two books are definitely on my to-read list.

Three Things

The Gospel: The Story of Cosmic Restoration or the Plan of Salvation?

On the Way Teaching

Missional is not a Tame Lion
This last is the third in a series from Scot McKnight, referencing a new book by Michael Frost called The Road to Missional. [The first two in the series are here and here.] I love this post and I love the questions that McKnight asks. Here's a key snip:

Attracting members matters so much many churches have adapted and adopted market strategies. But Frost knows that the next generation knows marketing from missional, and it wants little part in the marketing and is up for the challenge to the missional.

Are we not disciples?

I really enjoyed the Stetzer/Hirsch conversation on the nature and meaning, and the theological underpinning, of the whole concept of the missional church. God is a sending God, and the church is a body of "sent ones," in the power of the Holy Spirit, whose purpose is given them by Jesus himself:

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” (John 20:21-23 ESV)

DebD asked in a recent comment, "what do you think it means when someone is a disciple (beyond learning from Him and going and making more disciples)? What does becoming a disciple look like?"

In answer, I think I'd go back to the Hirsch/Stetzer conversation, where Hirsch says, "the church does not create the mission, the mission creates the church." The mission precedes the church, and the church is the embodiment of the mission. This means that the church is not merely the dispenser of spiritual goods ("join now and we'll throw in one free hands-on prayer for healing before signing you up for the usher team!") but it is nothing less than the continuation of the church in Acts. A sent people, preaching the Kingdom, teaching, healing, forming community, worshiping God together, etc.

What that looks like is going to be somewhat different in every context, but it bears repeating, believers are disciples. All of them. They are radically committed to the practice of grace, embodying the gospel of grace in their relationships, explaining the significance and relevance of Jesus at every opportunity, being available to the Spirit for the work of the Spirit in drawing people's attention to Christ. They do this in their ordinary lives.

Hirsch and Stetzer on the Missional Manifesto

I haven't watched this yet myself. I'm storing it here to watch later.

The Exchange May 2011 - The Missional Manifesto with Guest Alan Hirsch from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

Missional Thinking

I think Ed Stetzer is writing some of the best stuff on the subject of missional churches. He's now up to 5 entries in his eight part series called Developing Missional Churches for the Great Commission.

Understanding What We Mean When We Talk about Being Missional
The Great Commission and Missional Thinking
The Challenge of Being Missional
The Missional Idea in Scripture
God Sends

By the way, "mission" and "commission" need to be closely connected or you will go off the rails.

And also, for another linked set of posts, take a look at Kenny Silva's personal resolutions. Good stuff.

Missional Blogger

I like Till He Comes, the blog of Jeremy Myers. He's a missional guy.

Just musing here

Hey folks. After a week of not posting I'm not exactly refreshed, but hey I'm back!

The Missional Manifesto. I think it's a useful correction or re-orientation, working against the persistent therapeutic model which dominates so many churches today. Meanwhile, Ed Stetzer has been working his way (thoughtfully) through the document (here, here, and here).

I've not been keeping up with the Christian blogospheric conversation lately (although that word "conversation" is used loosely here). All the to-do over Rob Bell just turned me off. What amazes me lately is just how many voices are involved. That is, just how many people have national/international ministries, glossy websites, books, speaking schedules, podcasts, marketing plans, etc. All of them claiming to have some special angle, or a unique message to help the vast needy masses become un-needy at last, achieve that great triumph they've been dreaming of (or that they've been trained by marketers to think they must achieve, or else life will not be whole). It's a great big house of cards, that's what I think.

Social media has weighted these "conversations" against the local and in favor of the "digital." In other words, a lot of digital voices talking among themselves, agreeing and disagreeing, having their weighty say, while down at the street-level there's relative silence. So it seems to me.

Just musing here, but what if we all just, well, shut up. I mean, we don't really need more books, do we? More and more and more every year? We don't need more marketing? We don't need more promises . . . if you'll only attend the conference, buy the book, sign up for the daily edevotional. What maybe we need is "faith working through love," (Gal. 5:6) which happens relationally, locally, after we put down the book, look up from the smart phone, close the lap top, and actually talk to the person next to us.

Praying the Kingdom for Your Workplace: the Jesus Prayer as Missional Prayer

The prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, often called the Lord's Prayer, can be found at Matthew 6:7-13 and in a briefer form at Luke 11:2-4. If you've ever been a member of a liturgical church, you probably recited this prayer every Sunday. On the other hand, in typical non-liturgical Evangelical churches of today it is no more emphasized than any other passage of the NT, and the recitation of its words as prayer is somewhat mistrusted as mere rote repetition.

But the bottom line is, when some disciples asked Jesus how to pray, Jesus said, "Like this," and recited this prayer.

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
(Matthew 6:9-13 ESV)

As it stands, the prayer seems a bit lofty and even generic. But it's my opinion that we do well when we get specific, making the prayer uniquely our own. What does "your kingdom come" mean, after all, in my own particular context? What "daily bread" am I or my family or my co-workers, or whomever I'm praying for, in need of? "Forgive us our debts"? What do I owe and to whom? And have I forgiven the debts of other toward me? Perhaps I hadn't been thinking in these terms when I expected an apology from my boss or my friend. You see, I contend that when we begin to take this prayer of Jesus personally, addressing God in the manner and spirit that Jesus suggested, it can change the way we see the world and our place in it, and thus the way we talk to God.

First, understand that this prayer is a missional prayer, in which you the praying disciple take an active part in the missio dei by asking that the Lord's will would be done in the context of your life, your corner of creation. "May your will be done in my workplace as it is in heaven. In my relationship with my son as it is in heaven. In my voting, in my neighborhood, in my driving . . . as it is in heaven." You fill in the blanks.

Now note: when you pray the prayer in this personalized way, the prayer becomes--you can't help but notice--not only a beseeching of God, but also, by His grace, a call upon your life. For example, if I am praying for the kingdom to come in my workplace, the conviction soon dawns upon me that, by the grace of God, I may well be the vessel by which he answers that prayer for my co-workers. I cannot run from this like Jonah, or my prayer is a mere charade.

You can see this same dynamic when you begin to pray the other parts of the prayer with specificity.

"Give us, here at [insert name of workplace], our daily bread. That is, what we need for sustenance this day within this context. What we need to do jobs well and to serve others in love (for that's your kingdom coming)."

Or think about the debts you owe one another in the workplace. The things you expect from one another and begrudge when they are not paid.

Forgive us our debts, here at [insert name of workplace], even as we forgive the debts we owe one another.

If you pray for your workplace in this way, you may be the only one doing so. It may be that some are praying for a debt to be paid ("They owe me. God, make them pay up!") But you, when you pray according to Jesus' instructions, are praying the will of God for creation. What does the Kingdom of God look like? Well, for one thing, every debt has been paid, an no one owes a thing to anyone else except thankfulness to the one who paid it all. That's why praying for an atmosphere of forgiveness in the workplace is praying down the kingdom of God, and praying the very heart of God's purpose for creation (including his purpose for your workplace). It is a radical prayer, a potent prayer, and again, you can't help but notice, it sets up a call on the very heart of the one praying. The forgiving of debt in the workplace might have to begin in your own heart!

And what about temptation? There are temptations associated with your workplace environment that may be quite unique. In a small workplace like my own, and one where none of the other employees really have a kingdom of God mindset, you may be the only one who sees and understands how certain temptations are effecting your workplace environment (beginning with your own). In truth, you are standing in the gap when you pray this prayer for your workplace.

All of this is a kind of test of the sanctified imagination. Perhaps you've never thought much about "daily bread." Use your imagination. Think specifically of what you need, and what co-workers need, not only to get them through the day but to get them a step or two closer to the promised land. If you think about this, and about specific encounters and conversations you've had at work lately, you'll begin to think of daily bread with great insight and precision and pray accordingly. The same goes for forgiveness, and temptation. Your understanding is enlightened as you pray this prayer with your eyes open in your workplace.

Finally, it should be kept in mind that God's ultimate purpose is that his kingdom should come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That should control the way you think of the other parts of the prayer, which indeed are nothing more than sub-headings of "your kingdom come." I would invite you to think of the component parts of this prayer as they apply to the idea of God's kingdom coming in your own workplace, family, relationships, or whatever, and to make this the pattern of your prayers. As praying believers, you are a focal point of God's kingdom expression, and your prayers for the kingdom are in turn a call upon your life. They are central to your mission as believer. The aroma of Christ is all over this work. Go to it.

Just sayin' . . .

More on missional: Jonathan Dodson's Transitioning to Missional Church. I like the chart (midway). It says a lot, in a little space. If all this is true, then the church (building) is not the place where everything happens, and the "leader" is not the person who makes everything go. A church that "gets" this will be easily recognized.

Missional Thinking

I've been listening to some helpful talks on the whole idea of the missional church . . . what it means, what it is and isn't, and how it changes things . . . by Jonathan Dodson. Dodson is a good teacher, thorough, very well-organized (no distracting rabbit-trails), very clear and direct. The talks were given at a conference in Lubbock, Texas, and you can find the links at Jonathan's blog (here). Good stuff. It'll get you thinking.

Communitas

Michael Frost. He's a missional church guru. His new book is Jesus the Fool. I recently posted a brief video of Frost here. Now here's another:



HT: Brad Briscoe

Did you see the trailer? The movie's gonna be even better!

Michael Frost's new book is provocatively titled Jesus the Fool. I read and very much like his book ReJesus. Here's Michael speaking about "the purpose of the church."

Dodson on Hirsch

Alan Hirsch's new book, Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship, is reviewed nicely by Jonathan Dodson here and here. I liked Hirsch's book ReJesus a lot.

The Jesus Prayer is a Missional Prayer

Our part in God's mission, says Leslie Newbigin in The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, is threefold: to announce the Kingdom of God, to share in the life of Jesus, and to do the work of the Spirit. Although I haven't read Newbigin's classic text (it's on my list), I do think this little triad seems a good way to think about discipleship.

In my last post on praying in the way that Jesus taught, I tried to emphasize that the Jesus prayer of Matthew 6 was essentially a prayer of discipleship. A disciple is a follower of Jesus and, as Dallas Willard says, a student of Jesus. The Jesus prayer is the way of Jesus in prayer, his way of thinking through his "prayer needs." The prayer of Jesus shows us what was most important to Jesus, and what was the context in which he embedded all his intercession. The context was this: May your kingdom come, Father. Now. All the way. Forever.

That's the vision behind "hallowed be your name." It's the vision behind "on earth as it is in heaven." Jesus is not talking about hints and foretastes here, or about a really great worship set at church. He is talking about the Great Day that will be the end of days as we know it, and the beginning of something we oh so inadequately call "glory." That this day should come, ever, should be the dream of every Christian, and it is the mission of God to bring it to pass.

But short of that, short of the fullness of time and heavenly trumpets, every eye seeing, every knee bowing, the prayer of Jesus is for the four fundamental needs that will allow us to take our part in this great mission of God as it unfolds through history. These are: provision (daily needs), an attitude of forgiveness, power to overcome temptation, and protection from the evil one. These four needs correspond to four conditions that threaten our ability to carry out our mission as disciples (that is, to take our place in the mission of God). These four conditions are: want, bitterness, weakness with regard to temptation, and fear with regard to the evil one. Want, bitterness, weakness, and fear.

Jesus is telling his disciples to pray against these conditions, which can undermine their own part in the unfolding plan of God. To take our place in the plan is to proclaim the arrival of his kingdom, share the life of Jesus with others, and keep in step with the Spirit. That is the mission of the Christian. And so our fundamental reason for praying is to be that kind of disciple, for the sake of the kingdom. It's the way Jesus prayed, and the way he taught his disciples to pray. He wants us to take our place, and do our part, in the unfolding mystery of the kingdom of God.

Missional Mysteries

I consider myself a newcomer to the "missional" movement. A lot of what these folks are saying resonates strongly with me, and I recognize in the missional take a kind of positive response to the critique of the church that I'd been refining (some would say "mired in") for some time.

Anyway, although I know that for the missional crowd it's not about "going to church," I recently switched churches and now go to one that clearly wants to embody the missional outlook. Is it all just talk? Is it really just a superficial "new thing" that will soon be forgotten? I'm guessing not.

The missional understanding begins with the perception that Christendom, always a house of cards, is crashing down around us. And it's a good thing (never move into a house of cards). That's what Michael Spencer means when he talks about "the post-Evangelical wilderness." That's what I'm referring to in my tag-line above. But the tag-line pictures a dream, not a reality. Not much "dancing" going on 'round here, I'm afraid.

If you'd like to know more about these mysterious matters, Brad Briscoe has put together a nice reading list of formative readings in the missional conversation here. I'm a student by nature, so this jazzes me.

I think the future of this blog, if it has one, is as a diary of my missional journey. I'm going on a much-needed vacation in a couple of days and won't be blogging much I suspect, but I'm going to be thinking a lot about these things, and will report back soon as I can.

BTW, the Internet Monk nugget of the day, describing his audience of fellow-wilderness-travelers:

We are tribes, hermits, monastics, liberals, conservatives, traditionalists, emergers, contemplatives, prophets, lamenters, artists, solo players and plodders. Most of us have found a place to live out this wilderness experience and we go to work every day doing something for Jesus.

I love it.

Think about it

I'm listening to Michael Frost's definitive talk on what it means to be "missional." If you've got about an hour:



I especially like the discussion about the way "missio dei" relates to the way we see the world (starting about 34 mintues in). Also, the quotation from Willa Cather at the end. Warning: this message is tight; nothing of it should be left out. If you don't have an hour to spare, wait until you do. It'll make you think, wonder, question, maybe even repent.

3 for Thoughtfulness

1. Tim Chester said:

"There is no program for creating a unprogrammed church."

I've been watching the video from a recent conference in Maine where Chester presented a talk on ordinary life with Gospel intentionality. Excellent.

It's more important that people see grace at work in your life than that they see your good works.

[Note to Joe from Freeport: thanks for calling. Tim is describing what I'm looking for, maybe what you're looking for too?]

2. Wow. Ex-pastor gets real about church. Had to become an ex-pastor in order to do so. What does that tell you?

2b. Michael Spencer engages with this fellow's points in his latest podcast (second half). Piercing, as usual. Listen carefully. Spot on.

Viola on "the embodiment of all spiritual things"

I'm looking forward to reading Frank Viola's From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God. Viola posted the books afterward at Shapevine. There's he details the successive Christian bandwagons he'd jumped onto in the early years of his faith (in his case, in very rapid succession, it seems). I can relate to a lot of this, but in any case Christian-bandwagon-ism is a sorry thing, especially when it comes with a self-justifying theological/Biblical gloss, and Viola's description of his own passage through various Christian trends is wonderful. His conclusion:

All of the churches and movements I was involved in had effectively preached to me an it. Evangelism is an it. The power of God is an it. Eschatology is an it. Christian theology is an it. Christian doctrine is an it. Faith is an it. Apologetics is an it.

I made the striking discovery that I don’t need an it. I have never needed an it. And I will never need an it. Christian its, no matter how good or true, eventually wear out, run dry, and become tiresome.

I don’t need an it, I need a Him.

And so do you.

We do not need things. We need Jesus Christ.

Viola proceeds to flesh out the implications of this realization. Pretty brilliantly, too.

Upon reflection, it seems that many Christians regard salvation, evangelism, peace, power, holiness, joy, service, church practice, ministry, and doctrine as simply Divine “things”, all detached from the living Person of Christ and made something in and of themselves.

But God never gives us spiritual things. He never gives us virtues, gifts, graces, and truths to acquire. Instead, He only gives us His Son. He gives us Christ to be all things for us.

Consequently, Jesus Christ is the embodiment of all spiritual things. He is the substance of all Divine realities. He is the incarnation of all spiritual virtues, graces, gifts, and truths. In short, God has vested all of His fullness into His Son.

But Viola's ultimate concern here is with ecclesiology -- the church. The last portion of this afterward is titled, Toward the Reality of the Church.

To put it candidly, you will never have an authentic experience of the body of Christ unless your foundation is blindly and singularly Jesus Christ. Authentic church life is born when a group of people are intoxicated with a glorious unveiling of their Lord.

The chief task of a Christian leader, therefore, is to present a Christ to God’s people that they have never known, dreamed, or imagined. A breathtaking Christ whom they can know intimately and love passionately. The calling of every Christian servant is to build the ekklesia upon an overmastering revelation of the Son of God. A revelation that burns in the fiber of their being and leaves God’s people breathless, overwhelmed, and awash in the glories of Jesus.

All in all, this one of the best things I've read in the Christian blogosphere, ever. You really should read it. As I say, I can't wait to get the book.

Good Stuff

"In the following pages we will explore what it means to read Scripture missionally by: 1)learning to read Scripture in light of its missional origin; 2) its missional narrative; 3) our missional context as readers; and 4) the missional engagement of Scripture with our culture."

Reading the Bible Missionally

David Bosch on the Mission of the Church

More from ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, by Hirsch and Frost. On p. 29 we find this quote from David Bosch:

Mission takes place when the church, in its total involvement with the world, bears its testimony in the form of a servant, with reference to unbelief, exploitation, discrimination and violence, but also with reference to salvation, healing, liberation, and righteousness. . . . Looked at from this perspective mission is, quite simply, the participation of Christians in the liberating mission of Jesus, wagering on a future that verifiable experience seems to belie. It is the good news of God's love, incarnated in the witness of a community, for the sake of the world.