Missional Ordinariness

http://danwhitejr.blogspot.com/2013/05/missional-ordinariness.html

I met with some pastors a few weeks ago to see if I could help their congregations begin the titanic turn towards missional. I’m not sure if I was a little too tired or what, but I found myself irritated and a tad ornery within the first hour. I apologized for my attitude but then proceeded to identify why I was getting a minor headache from our meeting. These well meaning leaders seemed to be fishing for the “big catalytic innovation” that would “unleash a movement”; meanwhile the ordinariness of a communal/missional shaped lifestyle was seemingly unimpressive to them. These pastors humored my crankiness and I eventually warmed up to their eager questions. 

I’ve never been more convinced that it’s the ordinary stuff that we fumble because our eyes are darting elsewhere. The most ground-breaking missional excavating is in the unattractive details of our rhythmic ongoing lives. Addressing these details will bring about a collision with the primordial-ordinary ways we need to recover dwelling in our communities.  I won't get into what those specific ordinary rhythms are (I have in past posts). I'd like to point out, sorry it might come across a little preachy, some observations that I sense are lingering underneath the surface. These issues threaten to make the dynamic of "ordinariness" uninteresting.

Image
One of my frustrations is the knee-jerk thinking “how are we going to spin this to create excitement in our congregation”. We are bit too tickled and consumed with making our mark. We could benefit from losing some interest in ourselves. Under the mantra of "casting a vision" we begin to push buttons to manipulate corporate energy. When we lean into “being missional” it should not be attached to larger presentations. This bent deludes the authenticity demanded of us in Post-Christendom. It also perpetuates the obsession with landscaping while neglecting the major shifts occurring on a plate-tectonic level. We need patience to wrestle first with what’s going on in the backroom before mocking up the display window. Image management creates "cool" churches with poser sensibilities. These sensibilities smell of self-importance to those not yet convinced of Jesus. Swaths of churchy-stuff has been paraded in public which inadvertently has eroded relational credibility on the street. Our grand language should lag way, way behind our action. American life can feel like an insane asylum pulsating with noise, technology, information, and competition. The church does not need to add to that sub-static buzz. 

Integrity
We all have the tendency to let our talk outpace our practice. It takes discipline to move beyond the viral chatter we participate in. Sometimes the missional conversation is reminiscent of my time in youth ministry when I'd eavesdropped on a pack of Jr High boys talking like they were Casanova’s. The Missional conversation is in jeopardy of merely hovering at pontificating status. We need integrity in our speech. Integrity is forged in testing. The best diagnostics and valuable conversations are squeezed out of real-time practices that have survived the harsh elements. In my own trembling faith plunge, Missional Ordinariness has taken me to task, tempered my adolescent exuberance and caused me to “bring it down on a notch” when speaking about how dynamic missional living can be. Over the years a more weathered passion has formed in my gut from the trial of submitting my ideas to a flesh-and-bone community. A good half of my ideas were half-baked and blinded by idealism. For example, I’ve been part of the multicultural conversation for years, advocating for racial reconciliation, but it is one thing to be passionate about an issue like a “diverse church” and another reality to build solidarity in trust-soaked, diverse friendships. The same ethic goes for “Justice”, instead of trying to drum up a Justice initiative that makes large sweeping projections, instead, loyally and quietly, immerse in a couple relationships with impoverished people around you. This ethic again goes for "community", stop wishing the people you've connected with online were your "community" and dive deeply into a spiritual family for hell-or-high-water.  It's honorable to want to “save the city” but it's humbled by learning to “love your neighbor”. 

Impact
The word “impact” has connotations of a meteor slamming into a region, leaving a massive hole behind. Instead redefine success around sustainability. Don’t turn missional into a program, a weekend city event with a magnetic slogan or a sermon series to get things moving. Resist the urge. This is Pseudo-activity and is only cosmetic.  I relate with an imagination that longs to be part of something significant but I’ve observed how our dreams cause us to brush off the most essential ordinary habits needed. It takes a certain measure of rebellion to fight off the undertow to fabricate energy.  When we claw for self-importance outside localized community our fragile egos are exposed. Pursue self-awareness: Are we emotionally detached from our neighborhood? At this precipice in history, earthy traction will come from seedling communities that inhabit with a rooted, open-handed, sacrificial, unassuming presence in the wake of Jesus, the Servant King. Missional is not a four lane paved highway rather it's an overgrown dirt path forward. There is no missional fast track and there shouldn’t be one. It’s not a martyr syndrome I'm advocating, just a marginal one.  

It's not pragmatic to shoot for ordinary. We've been lulled into thinking extraordinary is where the real world-changing happens. I contend that the West is fried over on ambition; tantalized into comatose. What beckons us now is a supernatural, subversive ordinary; one where the mustard seed offers us a template for the everyday. Call out those little thieves that come to steal away your enjoyment of missional ordinariness. Embrace the ordinary way of being in the world.

A Theological Alphabet (Letter A updated)

A

Absolution – though it has become a rite in various churches enacted through various actions and regulations, its stunning primal truth is that in and through Jesus Christ we have been freed from the guilt and power of our lives formerly held in a death grip by the power of sin (our hearts curved in upon themselves, as Luther put it)!  Jesus has given you and me the unfathomable privilege and authority of announcing and enacting this freedom to one another in Jesus’ name.

 

Advent – a time of waiting, expectation, examination, and repentance; the four weeks and Sundays prior to Christmas; reveals God as “a God who calls.”  Bonhoeffer: “A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes - and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.”

 

Affinity – what is our point of unity and community?  It’s not an idea, or a program or cause, not a feeling or sentiment, as important as all these may be.  None are sufficient to establish and sustain the affinity necessary to be and become God’s people.  Only Jesus Christ, in all his accessible mystery, suffices.  In him we discover a multifaceted, symphonic affinity with one another strong and supple enough to enable us to welcome and nurture difference as the gift that keeps us young and vital in the Spirit and fit to be the vehicle through whom God has chosen to bless the rest of the world.

Anfectung – Luther’s wrenching daily experience of Satan’s unbridled, vicious assault on him. At times, it seemed as if the whole world was against him, as well as the flesh and the devil. It was prayer that sustained him:  “We know that our defense lies in prayer. We are too weak to resist the devil and his vassals. Let us hold fast to the weapons of the Christian; they enable us to combat the devil… our enemies may mock at us. But we shall oppose both men and the devil if we maintain ourselves in prayer and if we persist in it.” (Larger Catechism)

Ascension – the conclusion to Jesus’ earthly ministry as he returns to his Father to be installed as the triumphant Son and world ruler, though one bearing forever in his resurrected flesh the marks of his passion and death as the appropriate signs of his exalted royal status; God is known through the ascension as the God who “completes” all his good intentions for us and our world; is less about Jesus “absence” than how through him heaven and earth have found anew their original forfeited unity.

Atonement – Jesus is God’s great atoning act by which he reclaims and restores fallen creation to his “eternal purpose” (Ephesians 3:11).  Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection reaffirmed God’s covenant relationship with his people.  In sum, Jesus “got it right” (as humanity had not), his “’might makes right” (suffering love turns out to the sovereign power of God to achieve his purposes), and he “makes us right” (reconciles all things according to God’s will).

Auferstehung – German for “resurrection.”  Thomas Torrance relates that Barth once ended a conversation they had about Jesus’ resurrection saying, “Wohl verstanden, leibliche Auferstehung!” – “Mark well, bodily resurrection!”  Nothing more important than this, no Christianity without it.

Awe – A bit more than the “wonder” that drives philosophy; this more derives from magnificent presence we encounter in theology, a personal presence to whom we owe existence, allegiance, and love.  Kenneth Grahame captures this beautifully in his wonderful children’s story The Wind and the Willows:
'This is the place of my song- dream, the place the music played to me,' whispered the Rat, as if in a trance. 'Here, in this holy place, here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him!'
Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that turned his muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to the ground. It was no panic terror, indeed he felt wonderfully at peace and happy, but it was an awe that smote and held him and, without seeing, he knew it could only mean that some august Presence was very, very near. With difficulty he turned to look for his friend and saw him at his side cowed, stricken, and trembling violently. And still there was utter silence in the populous bird- haunted branches around them; and still the light grew and grew . . . 'Rat!' he found breath to whisper, shaking. 'Are you afraid?'

'Afraid?' murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. 'Afraid! Of him? O, never, never! And yet, and yet, O, Mole, I am afraid!'

Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.

Reaching the Unchurched

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2013/05/16/reaching-the-unchurched/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatheosJesusCreed+%28Blog+-+Jesus+Creed%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher#

May 16, 2013 @ 10:25 By Scot McKnight Leave a Comment

Carey Nieuwhof:

Many today will want to say “reaching” is the wrong, and unmissional, word; some will say relationships for the sake of evangelism are wrong; yet, there are other questions: Does evangelism matter to you? How does one evangelize those who have little interest?

So how do you reach a growing number of people who are learning to live comfortably without God?

1. Build relationships. Jesus was deeply relational, and it seems he liked relationships with people outside the ‘church’ more than he liked hanging around people inside the ‘church’. One of the best ways to encourage people to build relationships with unchurched people is to stop running ministries in your church every night of the week. Encourage the Christians in your church to get involved in their kids schools, to play sports in a community league, to get to know their neighbours. Pick a few key ministries and do them well (we encourage people to serve on Sundays and be in community group one night a week; that’s about it). Salt only realizes its purpose if it gets out of the box and into the food it needs to season. You can’t influence people you don’t know.

2. Speak to success, not just failure. In your preaching and in your conversation, if you are only prepared to speak to people in their moments of weakness and despair, you’re going to miss a big chunk of your city. If every example you share is of someone in a crisis or who has deep problems, you will never connect with people who like their lives or who have decent marriages, even without God.  That kind of talk is also a bit of a guy-repellant.

So what might you say? A few ideas:

i. Talk about success, but ask questions about its emptiness. Most successful people I know are always on a quest for more. Success promises, but never (quite) fully delivers. Speak to that. Ask questions like “do you ever wonder if there’s more?” Or “ever wonder what that gnawing desire is really all about?”

ii. Assume people are doing their best. The derogatory and condescending caricatures of unchurched people by some Christians are just insulting…especially if you have unchurched people in the room. Most people are doing their best. They really are. If you start with acknowledging that and empathizing with them, they will accept your challenge at the end. Even value it.

iii. Respect their intelligence. Most people have done some homework. Often quite extensive. They believe what they believe or don’t believe for what they see as good reasons. When you respect them, they are more likely to respect you and your views.

3.  Value the good you see.  The everything secular is evil attitude of many religious leaders is not only a bit off base biblically, it’s also ineffective. Common grace is still at work in the world. If you read Acts 10; God appears to have valued people like Cornelius for his prayers and his gifts to the poor, even before his conversion. Jesus never started a conversation with an outsider by condemning them (that’s actually how he started his conversation with insiders…think about that), even if he finished it with a challenge (“go and sin no more”). Maybe that’s because Jesus actually loves unchurched people.

Advice on Church Growth & Assimilation: Open the Back Door!

http://cole-slaw.blogspot.com/2013/05/advice-on-church-growth-assimilation.html?utm_source=feedly

For a long time now, thechurch growth world has told us to get as many people to our church services as possible and keep them there as long as possible. The thought is that if they are in church they will hear the Word, be saved and go to heaven.

We even classified people in two categories: "the churched" and "the unchurched" as if they were those in Christ and those who are not. But of course this is wrong and now we are realizing it. Lately the fasted growing segment when it comes to attending church is the "uncommitted." These may actually be highly committed when it comes to Christ, just not church service attenders. I for one fall into this rising category.

In church growth speak we used to hear about assimilating visitors so that they become attenders, and hopefully, members of the church. The language we used was that we need to "close the back door" to the church–implying that we need to keep people from leaving. Wow, when I say that it sounds awful doesn't it? [Cue the sinister Vincent Price laugh–ha ha haaaa!] While it sounds like a mouse trap offering cheese at the end–but no escape–nevertheless (much to the chagrin of the fire department) that is the language that we pastor-types would use.

Lately, however, I am of a different opinion on the matter. Having become more familiar with the important parable of the soils (Mark 4:1-20; Matt13:3-23; Luke 8:4-15) I have come to think we ought to open the back door as wide as possible and let the people go. Actually, I've come to realize that this is the Jesus way.

According to Jesus' words, two thirds of the people are not good soil and will not bear fruit (Okay, I know the passage is not prescribing a percentage, but it is clear that more will be bad soil than good). Keeping them in the church really may not be the best solution if you desire a fruitful church.

I think that if people want to leave, let them leave. Don't waste your life trying to make people want something that they don't really want. I often say: If the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus isn't enough to motivate these people, my sermon isn't likely to do it.

Jesus let the rich, young, ruler walk away, even though He loved him very much (Mark 10:17-22). He never tried to convince people to follow Him, in fact, He did the opposite. He intentionally tried to thin the crowd on more than one occasion (Luke 11:29; 14:25-26; John 6:60-71). When a large crowd was gathered He would tell the few disciples it is time to leave and go somewhere else (Matt 8:18; Mark 1:36-38). Jesus invested in a few disciples and never gave his affection and trust to the larger gatherings (John 2: 23-25)

I've said for years: what you win them with is what you win them to. If you entice people to come with entertaining services you need to keep them the same way. Suddenly you find yourself competing with other entertaining churches to keep people attending your service–people that only want to be entertained. Open the back door!

Too often, in our desire to keep people, we change church to accommodate bad soil and end up with larger fruitless congregations that want all their needs met and have no desire to serve others. Open the back door!

Jesus drew huge crowds. But the Gospel accounts specifically tell us that He never gave His heart to the crowd because He knew that their motives were selfish. Open the back door!

Large crowds never changed the world. Real movements always are ignited with a few highly committed people. Open the back door!

New York Tirade (4) - My Least Favorite Song

http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2005/07/new-york-tirade-part-4-my-least-favorite-song-2/

July 11, 2005 — 2 Comments

While at the Yankees game this past week I was “asked” by 50,000 others to participate in the singing of “God Bless America” – that’s a lot of peer pressure and it raises a few questions.

1. Whose God are we talking about?

In the context of 50,000 people, whose God are we calling upon to bless America – the Jewish God, the Christian God, the Muslim God, the New Age God…” The fact of the matter is, we are not really talking about any God in a real sense of the word. What we really want to do is superimpose divine blessing on our rampant nationalism.

2. What is our concept of blessing?

If we submit that the song is calling upon the God of the Bible we better be quick to note how that God “blesses” people.

blessed are the meek
blessed are the poor
blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
blessed are you when you are persecuted

I wonder how ready those 50,000 people, let alone the rest of the United States, would be to accept this kind of blessing from God – the kind of blessing that Jesus both exemplified and called for?

3. What makes us think God is uniquely concerned with America?

Some might argue that that song itself does not lead to this question and I would be willing to grant that. However, this is certainly the prevailing attitude in which the song is sung – as if America were God’s chosen instrument in the world (a la Mr. Bush). God’s mission in the world pertains to all people in all places and his chosen instrument is the Church. It is those who follow Christ, not any country, who are to be the salt of the earth and a light on a hill.

Many live under the delusion that America is a Christian nation and therefore can lay claim on God’s blessing. It is not. No nation ever can be. There was another nation long ago which shared this mentality. They collectively believed that they held a place of honor in God’s sight. The result? God raised up other nations to utterly desimate them. Those who weren’t obliterated were led into captivity and forced labor. The were all but wiped from teh face of the earth. The nation was Israel and on a cosmic scale, God was teaching them a profound lesson. When God calls a people he calles them to responsibility and not priviledge. He calls them to bear a huble and sacrificial witness. When is the last time anyone characterized the USA as either humble or sacrificial?

The degree to which nationalism and patriotism has been assimilated into the church is western culture is distressing to say the least. Once one pledges his or her allegiance to a country or an ideology other than Christ and the Church, authentic christian witness begins to be seriously compromised. I am hoping that more and more of us take this into consideration the next time we are asked to take any kind of stand for our country in the name of the one Lord of the Universe.