imagining how the church can reorient around mission

About a week or so ago I had the privilege to take one of several to come, walking tour of Madrid.  My guide, (April Crull) took us to the Royal Palace and Cathedral.  We were hoping to look inside the cathedral, but it was quite congested around the site.  After looking around for some time, April comes to us and blurted out something that I found quite metaphorical.  She declared, “The problem with churches in Europe is you can’t find the door to get in.”  I thought to myself that may actually be the problem with churches everywhere.  I’m not talking about how attractive they are or how engaging they are.  What I am talking about is how the church can actually end up becoming the opposite of what it is here for.

In a recent talk, Alan Hirsch referred to a survey that he and some associates did in Australia getting soundings on peoples attitude toward faith.  They asked people about their attitude toward God, Spirituality, Jesus and the Church.  Without reading too much into the study (it loses a bit of umph because it was done in Australia), but I think it is indicative of the attitude of many I meet.  You can probably guess the outcome: God?  Ok.  Spirituality?  Still no problem.  Jesus? Not surprisingly positive (although most are making up a Jesus in their own likeness).  When asked about the church, however, it was overwhelmingly negative.  I don’t think it is an overstatement to say that the church in the west has a bit of a reputation problem.  read more

Lesslie Newbigin has made significant contributions to ecclesiology.  First, along with with Bosch, he helped recover the missionary nature of the church by reminding us that mission is not primarily a task given the church, but the church in her essence is missionary, just as God is a missionary God.  His eschatological vision of all people from all over the world under one God, drove his ecumenical spirit to seek to bring what he saw as three ecumenical streams (preaching of the gospel, right administration of the sacraments and the Pentecostal approach) together. He shares the strengths that the various branches of Christianity have, but how all are necessary.  He demonstrates through Acts 19 that the main question is: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Not what Protestants might ask, “Did you believe exactly what we teach?” And not what Catholics or Orthodox might ask, “Were the hands that were laid on you our hands” (156)? The Holy Spirit unifies the body of Christ.  Finally, Newbigin brought significant clarity to the “relationship between ecclesiology, mission and the contemporary Western culture” (157). He brought to light people’s epistemological presuppositions, thus he has helped the church to both affirm and critique culture; modernity (modern scientific rationality that led to individualism) on the one hand, and the “nihilism and hopelessness” of postmodernity on the other.  Newbigin helped us understand the importance of becoming missionaries to our own culture, thus enrichening our understanding of contextualization.

via jrwoodward.net read more

“The church is in God’s keeping.  We do not have the right to be anxious about it.  We have our Lord’s word that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Lesslie Newbigin – Evangelism in the City

"The church doesn't exist for itself; it exists to serve the world. It is not ultimately about the church; it's about the people God wants to bless through the church. When the church loses sight of this, it loses its heart."

From Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

 

"The local church in much of Europe is like a crippled man.  We must not turn in disgust and abandon this hurting man.  We also must not criticize him for how he got himself in this position, or walk around him to get our task done.  We must come alongside him and help him to walk straight and powerfully.  Indeed, this man could bring great hope to his people if first healed and directed onward!" read more

 Just in from Spokane where Rob Fairbanks and I facilitated our second session of INFUSE, CA’s training in the theology and practice of missionary living. Some 70 – 80 leaders, missional pioneers and church folk participated in this second beta. From a presenter standpoint I think it went okay, though I feel I have yet to find a stride in presenting some of Lesslie Newbigin’s ideas. On a conceptual and very practical level, Newbigin has really helped me understand the church’s call in a much broader and more positive light. When Newbigin returned to his native England in 1974 after decades of cross-cultural immersion and ministry all across India, he recognized the dire need of his own culture to have what he called “a missionary encounter with the gospel.” The church in the UK had lost its ability to relate to the lives of normal people. It had failed to listen and adapt to the soundings of context, which left it seriously crippled in its capacity to interact and juxtapose its own key Story within the cultural milieu of secularism and emerging postmodern diversity. The gospel (which literally means “good news”) was no longer viewed as relevant to the needs and lives of Western people.

via dansteigerwald4ca.wordpress.com read more

This response came after reading Gustavo Martin's thoughtful
comment on the last post here from David Fitch. You might want to read that first.  I really appreciate Gustavo and his earnest commitment to the
church and the Gospel!

"Agreed (and BTW – thanks for the interaction).
That being said, I think you may have some misunderstanding of the term
attractional. You might be getting it confused with the term attractive. The
gathered church is to always be attractive and winsome. When most people use
the term “attractional” they are normally referring to the concept of
“extractional” (removing people from their natural sphere of influence for the
Kingdom by eating up all their time with internal church stuff). read more

While sitting with my friend Martin Robinson the night before last, the
topic of whether the church is needed to do mission in Western culture came up.
Many people that I know at this point are extremely interested in missional
living, but are taking on the attitude that forming churches simply clutters or
confuses their efforts.

Martin, who is a theologian and missional leader in the UK,
suggested we look at our Mission ventures with

  the picture of two tables. One
table is an open table, free for everyone to come and join and eat. He would
say that that is the missional venture part of who we are as Christians. The
second table, he would say is a “sacramental” table. The idea is that we invite
everyone to a large table or feast regardless of faith or background or gender
or anything else, but our call has to be to also invite them to the sacramental
table as well. Mine along with his experience has shown us that the sheer
mission without connection to the Christian community is a shortsighted
approach. The hope for each of us is that people become Jesus followers not
only now but in the future. The problem with doing unattached missional
pioneering is that there’s no tether or connective point for people to continue
to grow in their understanding, love and knowledge of Jesus Christ. read more