missional Archives - Page 4 of 9 - a church for the world

“Gazuntite”

"Gazuntite"

In Alan Hirsch’s book, The Forgotten Ways, he talks about how the Gospel spread so quickly in the early church – in the midst of persecution – by making the Gospel “sneezable.” I’ll be honest; I don’t think the idea of making evangelism or missiology analogous to the action of a bodily discharge has ever crossed my mind. I mean even the phrase bodily discharge sounds really awkward and weird – let alone comparing the apostolic efforts of the early church to something I do when my nose is tickled. But upon further contemplation (and reading a little bit further down the page), I find this analogy to sneezing illuminating just as it is provocative. Hirsch argues that the early church was able to “sneeze” the Gospel, or in other words “distill” the Gospel (Note: look up the definition of distill. It is a verb that essentially means to condense – not to remove or compromise – but to condense down to its purest and simplest form, without changing it.) because of the great persecution they were under. In other words, these early Christians didn’t exactly have months or years to really explain and unpack the contents of Scripture in a 12 sermon series. More often than not, these guys (and gals) probably only had minutes. What they essentially “distilled” it down to is this; Jesus is LORD. Hirsch goes into some detail to set up and explain why the proclamation – Jesus is LORD – was so scandalizing and meaningful. We might look at that and think, eh, no big whoop. But to the early persecuted church, affirming or denying those three words was literally a life or death decision. This and other factors helped make this Gospel message spread like an epidemic or infectious disease. It just so happens that many infectious diseases are spread by sneezes. Interesting. My point in bringing this up isn’t much of a point; it’s more of a question. Maybe two or three questions actually. What if, or what/how would it look like, in a modern post-Christendom culture such as ours, to preach the Gospel in a similar “sneezable” manner, that was so “infectious,” it would cause some freak Jesus epidemic? Is that even plausible in such a comfortable and affluent “Desperate Housewives” suburban society? Something tells me that there is a lot to learn from the early church, and also examining how the Gospel still manages to spread like wildfire throughout persecution to this day. It will obviously look different, but I think there are definite lessons to be learned and extrapolated to our post-Christendom/post-modernity culture in 2011.
– jessemac

January Posts!!! A Missional Church Class

For the month of January there will be 22 amazing guest posters on "The Drum" from a course I teach at Whitworth University to upper level theology majors entitled, "The Missional Church." They are required to post twice a week from the readings, class material or their own personal research on the topic.

The required texts for the class are (along with numerous other essays, videos and articles): read more

Desperation for the Kingdom of God

I do not know how to blog. This blog is not one of intellectual prowess, I find it perplexing that you should take the time to read it, but here I am, honest and open with my struggles, knowing that through wrestling with these issues, God will transform my heart. I am consistently finding myself in desperation. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Yahweh is in control, yet I am subject to a nearly continuous feeling of urgency. I want God. Now. We live between Jesus’ two comings and have been commissioned to be lights to His world, dull as we may shine. How do I, a 20 year old child with close to no knowledge of my Creator and his ways, not only accept this mission, but enter into it with faith? Is the answer found in words? And furthermore, who is able to articulate this answer? Search your soul and answer me this, how do we, as servants of the Most High, bear witness to the world of the reality of the Kingdom and the good news therein? I feel wholly inept, but in my immense feeling of inadequacy, I find a crucial dependence upon the Lord. You and I are called to respond to His word, and I find myself stymied. If my soul had a face, surely the expression would be one of wide eyed, restless confusion. I long to venture further into this journey set before me, but am overcome by a feeling that I will only blunder about, hoping that I may somehow bump into God. To depart from our threshold of comfort devoid of God would be foolish, yet it is necessary to find the balance between knowing God will come through for us, and operating under a false justification that we are acting in the will of God, for his Kingdom.

Emilie

Francis Chan of Assi Assi

This may be old news to you faithful bloggers, bloggee's, or blogperts – whatever you guys (and girls) call yourselves these days – but after just catching word yesterday of Francis Chan's decision to leave behind the comforts of his pseudo-Staples Center mega-church in sunny So-Cal to live in Asia was quite a shock to me. But in a good way.

Until now (promptly after watching Mark Driscoll and Joshua Harris – both of whom are extremely "successful" and affluent pastors of their own independent mega-churches – interview, and at times almost interrogate, Chan about his St. Francis of Assi Assi-esque decision to leave the comforts of fame and fortune for poverty of the third world), I held Chan in the same regard as other mega-church pastors, such as Driscoll and Harris – not very favorably. Not to say that I am against everything that these modern day Christian heavyweights have done, I just have always had my own personal misgivings and hesitations – and at times nausea – when it came to mega-churches. Without being too damning and for lack of a better term or explanation – people just get nutty. read more

Dark and cold we may be…

I am afraid.

It is a frightening thing to realize that the world in which you were raised is actually ending. Over. It is like walking out the door of your house and suddenly halting (with a firm grip on the door jamb) because the street that you would normally step onto has been replaced with the edge of a cliff. Staggering, open-mouthed, you stare at the head-spinning distance before you. And you scream silently, “Oh God! What does this mean?” read more

Church the People, not “Church” the Building

I have always heard people referring to groups gathered together, focusing on God as the Church. The phrase I have heard is, “We are the Church.” I never really thought much of this; it was just a
phrase that I identified myself with and ultimately overlooked. Reading Hayner’s Article, “The Story of the Missional Church,” I was intrigued when I read that the term Church was originally referred to as God’s people. However, the 4^th century is when this definition became vaguer and ultimately less meaningful. The building the believers met in developed the label of “Church,” rather than the people themselves being the Church. Sadly, this notion still exists widely today and even the people who attend the “Church” overlook it, such as I did. How does this affect someone’s outlook on their own faith or on the Christian belief system in general? What if someone never wants to enter, do to their understanding of the people that do enter? It breaks my heart to think about the group of people that never want to enter. Specifically, because they are so set in their pre-conceived notions of what goes on in the “Church,” along with the seemingly “self-righteous” people that come out of it, that they do not want anything to do with those that spend time there. What can we do in response? How can we as Christians affect these people in a positive way, to help better their understanding of us as a true Church body? I think it is essential to pray that God works in their hearts, to apologize for whatever initiated the bad taste towards us, and to not push anything on them. As we have talked about going out on mission, our drive should be to meet these people where they are at, letting God do the work and allowing him to change their outlook towards us to loving people with good intentions, rather than evil building dwellers.

-Colten

Do You Have Those in an 11?

Is it just me or is trying to get plugged into a church like trying to find a pair of shoes? I am speaking not of the church as the body of Christ but as a congregation that meets in a building (A church). I, of course, can’t speak for everyone, but this is how I see it. I don’t look for new shoes too often, but when I do there are certain things I always take into consideration. First of all, they have to fit me perfectly. I have a bad back so I need arch support. I look at the style and color and think does this fit my personality or my wardrobe? How well will this pair of shoes express who I am and match with what I already wear? Finally, I look at what can this new pair of shoes offer me that I haven’t experienced in an old pair of shoes. I think that choosing a church goes the same way in our heads. Will this church provide what I need it to? Will it change who I am or does it bring out positive qualities in me? Does it have support in all the right areas? Is it a perfect fit? I think that looking for the perfect fit has become something that modern Christians are too comfortable doing. We trust that some church out there is tailor-made just for us. I think the sad reality too is that new churches are looking to do just that. There are too many churches today looking to fit a specific niche; to reach a specific group of people. I wonder what would happen if churches didn’t worry about fitting into a niche or following a trend (or breaking an old one!), but instead opened their doors with the intention of reaching out to all people and exciting people about the church being a collective body not a building or a certain, isolated group of people.
-Jack

On being Missional: Finding the Person of Peace

We often talk about the “Person of Peace” strategy that Jesus clearly outlines in Luke 9 & 10 and then see playing out in the rest of the Gospels and in the early church. Admittedly, this can be difficult to wrap our minds around if we have only ever seen blitzkrieg evangelism used. Understanding that Jesus meant for evangelism to be deeply relational and keenly strategic seems a bit off if you’ve never seen it done before.

via mikebreen.wordpress.com read more

CHURCH PLANTING IN THREE FLAVORS

I am sitting on a plane as I type this, on my way back home from Madrid. We have just had our annual Advancement Team retreat. The Advancement Team leads CA's church planting work in Europe. I lead this team together my friend and colleague Kevin Johnson. The team consists of 6 people: five of us serve as regional 'facilitators (we prefer the word 'facilitator' to 'director' as it emphasizes the serving nature of the role more). The sixth person is Al Dyck, our HR liaison.

via ourjourney.typepad.com read more