Marginal Christianity

Written by  David Fitch   on November 30, 2016 If there’s anything the election of Donald Trump has taught me it is this: We evangelicals have gone liberal and it’s taking us down a wrong path. Let me explain. The Word “Liberal” Current American Politics “Liberal” is a word that can mean many things. In everyday use, the word refers to the opposite of “conservative.” If Republicans are conservative, then Democrats must be liberal. To be conservative socially is to support traditional values and personal responsibility. To be liberal socially is to advocate for personal freedom, self-expression and personal flourishing on all social moral issues. Evangelicals tend to be conservatives in these ways. Classical Liberalism The more classical use of the word however, in the political tradition of John Locke, J.S. Mill, John Rawls, describes a brand of individualist politics. The goal of this kind of “liberal” is to order a society around the freedom of each to...

The church, as we all know, is hopelessly divided an deadlocked on all manner of issues surrounding sexuality. Quite likely, there will be more and more separation and division among churches and Christians on account of it. I don't have any magic bullet or new answers to this issues. All I have is a modest proposal that will likely not satisfy anyone in the present volatile atmosphere. Yet, I, a hetero-sexual male, keeping pondering an praying over the all this, my feelings and reactions, and the seeming hopelessness of the church enduring no more division. Some are certain they know what they believe – on each end of the spectrum. They will have the most difficulty I'm afraid with my proposal. I know what I think, but I'm not a zealot for it. I'm more interested in discovering what the “in love” part of “speaking the truth in love” is all about. And it seems to me ironic that the vast majority of churches have found ways to live with deep divisions over war an...

  Posted on September 16, 2014 by David Fitch — No Comments ↓ Several times, after presenting to a group of pastors on re-shaping the practice of the church for Mission, I lead a closing session where I ask pastors to share their top reasons for why “this will never work.” Last Spring I was in Nebraska leading a pastor’s workshop for the American Baptist Pastors, and during this session one of the pastors gave me his top ten reasons in written form. I think they are great. My apologies to the pastor who wrote this list because I do not have his name. The list is instructive as to what blocks congregations from change. Here’s the list in bold, along with my quick responses in italics. What other hurdles do you face in leading change in your church body? What responses might you have to this list? 1. “We’ve never done it that way before!”   And that’s possibly why we need to do this? Change requires doing something different than what ha...

http://www.reclaimingthemission.com/?p=4395 Posted on  April 16, 2014  by  David Fitch   —   1 Comment ↓ Growing up in Canada, (an intentionally bi-lingual country), I would read the  cereal boxes  every morning in both  French and English . I would learn what  French  words meant in a French built around the vocabulary of breakfast cereal. It was an entry point into a whole entire world of French if I would just follow its discipleship (which regrettably I never really did). I still remember more French from the cereal boxes than I do from the endless all comprehensive French classes I had from third grade on because there the French was decontextualized. There’s a lesson here in the how’s and why’s of contextualizing the gospel. It illustrates that contextualizing the gospel is about finding an entrance point and being confident that any given entrance point into the true gospel will lead to the whole of the gospel if one foll...

http://www.reclaimingthemission.com/?p=4335&utm_content=bufferaf3b3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer Posted on March 12, 2014 by David Fitch — 5 Comments ↓ Yesterday morning I posted on Twitter (@fitchest) : The local church doesn’t demand sanctification upon joining. It requires commitment to the communal processes of sanctification upon joining To me this is worth thinking about because it gets at the conundrum missional communities face when we start to think about membership within a decidedly post-Christendom culture where those who seek to commit to us have little formation in the Christian life. How do we discern membership? What requirements (encouragements) are necessary to make joining a body possible? To even make a social body of Christ a reality? Many churches have tossed out the whole idea of membership out. Church becomes in essence a consumer activity, people coming and going to...

David Fitch responded to Mike Breen’s above-named blog post by claiming that a “missing ecclesiology” is what creates the failure of the “missional” church to grow more than individual “missional” disciples.   I think he’s right. I believe this “missing ecclesiology” is endemic to American Christianity (in part because of the individualism Breen focuses on) and is the chief cause Christianity in this hemisphere has been vulnerable to, even eager, to be chaplain to North American culture rather its primary critic, or at least court jester who shows and tells the rest of the world that the emperor is wearing no clothes! I suggest that the biblical picture of God’s people contain just these later elements.   And they are irreducible and non-negotiable.   In whatever form we meet this people, -wandering families                          ...

Authority in The Kingdom is Different Posted on November 6, 2013 by David Fitch — 11 Comments ↓ A Theological Excursus on the authority/power in the Kingdom versus the world. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.   And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10  Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11  The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12  Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Matt 23:8-12 Summary Statement Authority in the Kingdom is different than authority in the world. The way authority operates in the Kingdom is a whole different dynamic. This is not to say that this authority is not at work in the world (through Christians). It is just operates differently than the way authority operates in the world in independence from God. A...

http://www.reclaimingthemission.com/?p=4173 Posted on   November 12, 2013   by   David Fitch   —   No Comments ↓ A Missional Community Diagnostic: Some Questions To Ask In Order to Discern Whether We’re On the Right Track Over several years now I’ve been visiting/coaching and leading the birthing of missional communities. Whether it’s a one time visit, a regular coaching relationship or ten years at our own church just leading alongside other leaders, I’ve gathered a list of questions I think are worth asking and discerning together. Often I have found that some of the topic heading of these questions have been avoided entirely by missional communities. For instance “gathering” can often be an anathema for missional communities. But if done out of a Kingdom posture, it is life giving, very clarifying, more often discipleship, and never turns into salesmanship.  It should not therefore be avoided. (Paul after all did gathering at the synagogues...

The Holy Angst of Dislocation Posted on September 3, 2013 by David Fitch — 3 Comments ↓ The angst of dislocation is something every human goes through. It’s part of living  in modern society. It happens if you leave home for college or when you go out there looking for a first job. It happens when you get fired or laid off, when you move from a place you’ve lived for more than five years, when you leave the comfort of family, job and church for a new location. It happens when tragedy strikes in your life, through death, divorce and other losses. It happens when you enter a new context to do ministry. It happens when you are forced to think about ministry differently than you’ve always thought about it before. It happens of course when you move to a foreign place, learn a foreign language. International workers for the church are trained for this angst and get used to it as a vocational hazard to be embraced.I contend we church-...