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Saturday, December 11, 2010

You aren't a styrofoam cup


I’ve mentioned before that when I was in seminary an older, well-respected professor told us very pointedly that it was our responsibility to cultivate friendships and community outside of the church for which we worked.

I’d love to say that this was a forward thinking teacher seeking to instill within us a commitment to cultivating relationships in our community or connecting directly with non-Christians. As I look back over my years of ministry in established churches, my lack of connection to people outside our church is one of the things that I regret most. I accept full responsibility for that sad fact, but I also recognize that the system made doing so very difficult.

I’ve talked to many ministers who share this frustration. The demands of preparing lessons, attending meetings, counseling members, being available at all hours for any random thing, implementing programs and attending more meetings left little room for friendships outside the congregation. It is no wonder that so many of us who have a passion and calling for introducing people to the way of Jesus find church work draining.

It would have been incredibly helpful if professors had made us aware that the church would want to monopolize our time and if we wanted to be salt and light in the dark places of our community, we’d need to build that time into our schedule intentionally. It would make the interview process more difficult with most churches, but I wish I’d have thought to tell them, “Hey, I want to have the freedom to be a neighbor; the freedom to model the way of Christ to those who live around us.”

I could have done this. I could have cut back on programs and invited people from our congregation to go with me: joining the city softball league (as opposed to a church league), participating in a city organized fall festival rather than hosting our own, drinking coffee at Denny’s at the same time on a regular basis, attending city council, PTO and other civic meetings. There’s no reason we couldn’t have done all this...except that it was so foreign to the way we thought, it never crossed our minds.

I wish I could say that this was precisely what that professor was trying to help us imagine. But it wasn’t.

The community he encouraged us to develop was a collection of other ministers and mentors who could help us deal with the difficulties we’d face in ministry because our church could not be our community. The reason he gave was quite simple. “You are an employee that can be fired at will. You are an outsider, this is not your home.”

I remember a range of emotions during that lecture. I was indignant, angry, sad and very concerned. I wanted to say he was off his rocker. I was the youth minister at a church in Dallas at the time and had no intention of remaining on the outside. What upset me most was that I knew, from one perspective, he was right. This was how the church functioned and I had no idea what we could do to change it.

I wrote an essay a couple weeks later entitled, “Marrying Gomer” in which I compared the minister’s call to fully embrace a community that could break his or her heart to the prophet Hosea being called to marry the prostitute Gomer. I felt convicted then, and even more so now, that we cannot love and serve a community as God intended if we come from the posture of a hired gun. I had no idea what we could do to change the system, but I knew it wouldn’t change if we just gave up and gave in.

About six months later the church laid me off for budget reasons. It strikes me now that perhaps the timing was more than just ironic. For a moment or two I considered agreeing with that professor and developing a more detached approach for my own preservation. Instead, I felt a growing conviction that (to quote Brian McLaren) everything had to change. My professor was right in his appraisal of the system, but terribly wrong in accepting it - and teaching others to just accept it as well...


For months now I’ve been captivated the little reminder on Whataburger’s styrofoam cups: “When I am empty please dispose of me properly.”

It is fairly common to hear Christians refer to themselves and others as “cracked vessels,” and I’m afraid that we’ve taken that to mean that they (and everyone else) are marked with Whataburger’s not-so-subtle reminder. Whatever it means to refer to people as vessels, it certainly shouldn’t mean that they are disposable.

When a quarterback has taken too many hits, he is let go and replaced by a newer healthier athlete, regardless of what he’s done for the franchise. It isn’t personal, its a simple necessity.

When a business needs to keep shareholders happy, scores of employees may receive a little pink invitation to contribute one last thing to the company. I actually know of one company (and I think this is probably common) that paid enormous bonuses to the management for laying off a large number of people. Their actions helped the company’s stock rise and they were compensated. Its not that the managers are bad folks, they were just doing the job they were ordered to do...but if there was money for bonuses, wouldn’t it have been great to pay it instead to the fathers and mothers that were now wondering how they’d feed their children?

When a church wants to grow and hasn’t done so in a while, a new preacher seems like a good solution - so its, adios padre, be warmed and filled...we’ll miss you and may even throw you a “get out of here party.”

When a friend proves to be too much work, we just stop returning their calls. When someone on the street asks for help, we don’t even make eye contact as we say, “no.” Most of these folks will just use our money for beer anyway...and we don’t have time to sort through every story, do we?

When a church doesn’t sing the songs we like, doesn’t hire the preacher we wanted to replace the old guy, doesn’t have the same awesome youth ministry that the “other” church has...we just “vote with our feet.” None of this is personal.

And that’s the problem. If relationships with other people aren’t personal what is?

There isn’t much we can do about the punch-drunk quarterback - his job has a shelf life, he knew it when he was drafted and if he isn’t let go it could kill him. We can try to do something about companies focused on maximizing profits at all costs (and we should) but so long as unchecked capitalism rules the day, this will be an uphill battle.

But there’s no reason we can’t do something about how you and I function in day to day life. The issue is systemic and it is quite difficult to address all the areas in our lives where we’ve unconsciously viewed others like styrofoam cups, but its an addiction worth breaking.

If we continue to view life through the lens of the present empire, we may not even be able to see where change is possible. If we understand church as a business then staff will be hired and fired on the same principles that Wal-Mart uses and our continued employment with such a church will be dependent on their ability to compete in the marketplace of religious goods and services. Likewise, people’s membership in such a church will depend on the quality of the product they feel they’re receiving for the tithe.

However if we continually seek to view the world through the Kingdom of God, things get turned on their heads. People may be disposable “out there” but when Jesus proclaims that the Kingdom of God is at hand, both out there and in here become places where a new reality is possible - even demanded. In this reality we are concerned not only with our own interest but also with the interest of others.

In this reality we commit to others for reasons beyond our own benefit. We do so because such is the way of Christ. In our society, to urge others to think beyond themselves is typically seen as becoming a “socialist.” That makes perfect sense, capitalism and socialism have been the only two options for organizing people since the beginning of time, right?

It’s time to move beyond the talking heads on FOX and MSNBC; beyond the rhetoric and propaganda of the Republican and Democratic parties, both sides of the carpet are advocating for the same kingdom. It is time instead to heed the word of the prophets who reminded us that God is unconcerned about our worship when we are unconcerned with the welfare of others (Isaiah 58). It is time to heed the words of THE prophet, Jesus, who warned that without love for one another we cannot uphold the most sacred of commandments.

I’m not going to get into the argument that says this is nice for the church, but it won’t work as a way to organize society. Like my old professor, this logic is only true if we’ve conceded defeat to the present system. All I will say is that whether we think that operating in this way could ever be feasible for a government or not doesn’t matter so long as the Church and the individual disciples of Jesus aren’t willing to embrace it themselves.

The time has come. People are not resources to be used and discarded. Relationships are not transactions. Churches are not businesses. And if we respond by saying, “but they are, its just the way it is. We have to pay for the building and advertising and blah, blah, blah...” then we need to sell everything we have and give it to the poor. Today.

If the church has a building and paid staff and all these other things and is able to avoid behaving under the rules of the systems of this world, then great. But if any of these things; if any of our traditions, hierarchies, operating procedures, cultural expectations or anything else are keeping us from practicing the principles of the new kingdom then they need to go. In the end it is “Christ and him crucified” that matters. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus served, among other things, to step into the cycle of violence, power and oppression and stop it in its tracks. The church should not be responsible for helping the powers and principalities get keep that cycle on life support.

This isn’t a nomadic church planter’s rant against established churches and buildings. The same critique must be leveled at ourselves. Not having a building payment does not mean we are free from treating other people as disposable goods. We have all accumulated the trappings of the present system. Rather than focusing on the bottom line and seeing people as “contributing units,” our temptation may be to see someone as the next house church leader or “person of peace.”

Just like buildings and programs, this isn’t inherently bad at all - quite the contrary. The problem enters the equation (in either instance) we begin seeing the next house church leader instead of a person; the need to pay for the building instead of the need to proclaim hope. We begin viewing people in terms of how they can help us, benefit our agenda, boost our ego. It isn’t that the people no longer matter, its just that they take second place to what they have to offer.

Tone of voice is hard to decipher in written text. To be clear, my tone is resolved but not meant to be overly harsh. I am deeply convicted that we have a serious need to shake loose the bonds of our syncretism, but I hold this conviction with humility understanding that I myself am implicated. None of us are perfect. None of us can boast pure motives - myself least of all. We strive for perfection and Christlikeness not because we are deluded enough to think we’ll attain it (not on our own power anyway) but rather because there is no other goal worthy of setting our sights.

You and I may be cracked vessels, but its time we stopped resigning ourselves and others to being disposable cups.

Monday, December 6, 2010

A Few Thoughts on "Church" Leadership

For years, the idea of leadership in the church has been tied very closely to preaching and teaching. Over the past couple years, I’ve begun seriously questioning this assumption. In some contexts, leadership is tied to business and organizational decision makers...an assumption I began rejecting even sooner! My previous post raised the question of whether or not the increasing apathy about theology among some is actually a reaction to unhealthy leadership models within the church.

The challenge that has been in front of Christ Journey for a while now is to sort through what leadership actually is. What does it look like in decentralized, informal contexts such as our own? My suspicion is that the answer to this question for our context can also shed light on (though not answer) the leadership issue in more established congregations as well.

Over a year ago Chris read a letter to Christ Journey which basically confessed his exhaustion with the roles and expectations of leadership that had developed.

We had talked about the need for new models of leadership and had read of similar quests in other places, but in reality, none of us were quite sure what that looked like. In part, I think the inability to conceive of a different approach to leadership influenced the reactions of many members of our community. Because we could only imagine one way to lead, when Chris said, “I can’t lead in this way any more,” people heard “I can’t lead anymore.”

I must confess that though Chris and I function as co-leaders, Christ Journey has always viewed me in a support role - to this day even. Not knowing exactly how I should function in the midst of our leadership dilemma, I probably let Chris shoulder too much of the public burden. For that, I’m sorry.

In fairness, neither Chris nor I knew what leadership was going to entail going forward, we just knew that we hoped it would be a shared leadership among the community. People wanted a clear description and we didn’t have one. What we hoped for was a community to help discern just what that entailed.

We’ve learned a lot in the midst of this struggle. The mass exodus of friends was a hard experience, but it too has taught us much.

Today, I think I’m beginning to appreciate the value and understand the reality (somewhat) of non-hierarchical leadership. One of the main differences is that I don’t see my role as a teacher and preacher as indicative of my leadership - it is merely one of the ways I use my gifts to bless my community. I think this still probably confuses some people who expect the person speaking on Sunday morning to use that occasion like a coach’s half-time speech. Instead I’ve tried to take the posture (often poorly) that I learned from as wise man to be simply one hungry beggar sharing bread with another.
Instead of coming from my role as a teacher, I’m learning that leadership is tied more directly to my own engagement in life with Christ in such a way that others can see and be encouraged to continue as well.

I used to struggle with Paul’s comment that what people have seen in him, they should put in practice. It seemed to be a bit arrogant. As I’ve reflected, it is much more humbling and difficult to understand leadership in terms of the old cliche, “practice what you preach,” rather than merely “preaching about practice.”

My ability to lead others then is directly related to and derived from my own willingness to submit to a continual process of spiritual formation; to engage in hospitality and the mission of God, and to be willing to do all these things alongside and in full view of others.

Without time spent considering the implications of my theological convictions, I doubt this realization would have become clear. If I hadn’t spent time wrestling with a theology of leadership that seemed consistent with the mission that God has called us into, I would most likely have continued to accept the roles I saw around me...and perhaps would have walked away from church leadership because of it.

My role as a teacher and preacher are no less important, but perhaps they are not best understood as primary functions of leadership in our church. I wonder, how would congregations be affected if the role of preaching and teaching were seen as another offering to the community and not as the embodiment of leadership?

Would those who do not feel gifted to speak publicly find more empowerment to lead others? Would communal understandings of evangelism move from the realm of information and persuasion toward cups of cold water and loving our neighbors? Would our concept of faith be rooted in discipleship rather than (primarily) agreeing on doctrinal statements and propositions? Would our understanding of corporate worship transition from an event meant to “feed us” spiritually to an opportunity to praise God for the acts of Divine love we’ve witnessed?

Our quest for more shared leadership in Christ Journey doesn’t let Chris and I off the hook as ones who have been called by God to lead in this place. (I think that last line is worth rereading for those of us in decentralized contexts.) It does help us realize that we are called to be leaders of leaders as well as followers among followers. John Perkins and Shane Claiborne in their book, Follow Me to Freedom, remind us that the response to bad leadership isn’t no leadership...its good leadership. Good leadership is best displayed and practiced by those who endeavor to be good followers of Christ.

I am blown away by the complex simplicity (or is it simple complexity?) of that realization. I would love to hear your response to the idea of leadership outside of the public speaker or program developer. Also, particularly if you are one who hasn’t seen theology as all that important, does it seem different if we’re talking about the community of faith considering the implications of our beliefs?

What is the role of leadership in the midst of and in response to such a conversation? (In case you’re wondering, these questions are not a rhetorical device, I’d really appreciate some dialog here!)

May God give me grace in the coming year to lead others with humility, compassion and willingness to be a public display of love for God and for others...and may God do the same with you.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Is Theology Even Important?

So I just finished posting the transcript of a podcast which describes a missional theology - or perhaps a part of one anyway. And the question that comes up in some conversations is, “Why does it matter?”

I’ve gone back and forth on how to begin a response to this question because I don’t want to sound like I’m going on a rampage against anyone...not today anyway. :)

So I’ll say this. I know many, well meaning people who love God and in whom I see the hand of God at work, who for several reasons find discussions or articulations of intentional theology to be a waste of time. My concern isn’t that they don’t have a theology, because everyone does. Theology is “God talk” - its what we believe about God and what God is up to in this place.

What worries me is that the opposite of intentional theology isn’t no theology, its unintentional theology. A recent conversation with an old friend reminded me of this point. He was describing how an acquaintance recently tweeted about God blessing his new business. My friend noted that this person was already very blessed materially and seems to be content with God continuing to bless him more without any concern for the difficult state of others. My friend made a comment to the effect of, “So why does God care about giving this guy more than he needs when other people have nothing?”

Of course, this is only a sound byte of the conversation. From the larger story, it doesn’t sound like the guy is a terribly greedy person who thinks he should have everyone else’s stuff. However, I do think that there are some consequences at play from unintentional theology. The guy, raised under the “personal relationship with Jesus” mantra seems to have no paradigm for how Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation has anything to do with the plight of others. Jesus came to earth so that I can be saved and salvation is about me going to heaven when I die.

I’ve written and talked about this topic before, so I won’t get on a soapbox. The point here isn’t that this theology is wrong so much as it is that, without thinking through the implications of our beliefs, our practice is effected without us even realizing it.

Here is why I believe it is important for the church - even decentralized, organic churches without the resources to pay “professional” theologians - to take theology seriously. If practicing the Way of Christ is our goal, then we need to be serious about considering the ways in which our beliefs about God and Christ lead to (or away from) practice.

I spend a good deal of time with folks who do not consider themselves Christians. It has happened, and I believe it will continue to happen, that these friends see something authentic in our commitment to God, to them and to one another and are drawn to our community.

I don’t think it is necessary for us to form a Christ Journey 101 class that lays out our written systematic theology. Most of these folks would head for the hills as soon as it was suggested. I do believe that, like the disciples of Jesus, we learn in process, as we go along. Learning doesn’t have to take place in a classroom or through a formal curriculum. That doesn’t mean that it should happen on accident or without thought.

Neil Cole, author of Organic Church, Church 3.0 and several others, is a proponent of rapid church multiplication. In his model, which is highly successful in what it sets out to do, new faith communities are started through an incredibly grassroots oriented movement and spread into new homes and coffee shops like wildfire. Leadership is very decentralized (even more so than in our context) and, in fact, he notes that it is common for churches to be born without any awareness of the church planter who “started” the movement...perhaps just a few months and few blocks away.

He has been asked about heresy in this movement, since there is little accountability outside of the small local group which may be comprised completely of new disciples. His response seems, to me anyway, to be very dismissive. He points out that heresy is more common in highly centralized structures because that is where someone who is seeking power can find it concentrated in one place. Decentralized movements are less prone, in his argument, because these power-seeking leaders don’t have a large group of people to influence. Thus, the leaders may take a small group off in a strange direction, but they don’t have a huge crowd to follow them and the heresy, in effect, dies out.

I see his point, and to a certain degree it makes sense. I’ve seen the way that certain kinds of unhealthy people seem to seek out positions of power to launch empire building schemes...and I don’t think they’d get much satisfaction attempting that with Christ Journey!

And yet, there are a couple major flaws in Cole’s assessment. His assumption seems to indicate that bad theology is the result of a dangerous person with an agenda. That isn’t always the case. Each of us have some levels of bad theology we’re working through and there are scores of well meaning people with unintentional theologies pulling them in directions that move them away from active participation in God’s mission. It is our connection to the larger community, including but also beyond the friends who gather in our living room from week to week, that allows to hold our beliefs AND actions up for discernment, consideration and continued formation.

If the assumption is that people are blank slates and a simple reading of the Bible, with no outside influence is going to lead to healthy discipleship...I think Cole has missed out on the warning of history.

We all have theological assumptions (good and bad), whether we were raised in a Christian church or not. People in the Bible belt may have heard the “personal relationship with Jesus” mantra. They may believe that God is merely a vending machine for all our wants and wishes. They didn’t put money in the machine before because they thought it was empty, but now that they’re starting to believe...its time to find that roll of quarters. I have several friends who haven’t attended a Christian worship gathering in years (and who only went before that because their parents carried them kicking and screaming) and others that have never “gone to church” who, when they do talk about faith, do so in these terms.

My friends who have been missionaries in Africa talk about the difficulty they had in getting African converts to stop worshiping their ancestors. Studies in the history of African missions (and early missions to North and South America) are full of warnings against colonial approaches that simply transplant Western Christian theology, dress and church polity over the old “pagan stuff.” It doesn’t work.

However, the answer can’t be to simply ignore both the old theologies and new ones and just hope something good comes about. We have to think carefully about our beliefs and their necessary actions; every context is cross-cultural and demands that we treat it with respect and careful consideration. We must ask, “What is the Gospel in this place?” That question will get us nowhere if it is a strategic marketing consideration. It is deeply theological. It gets to the very essence of “God-talk.” What is God’s message of reconciliation to these people? Where is the darkness that is pregnant with anticipation for the light? What are the ancient infected wounds that pump toxin into the system generation after generation? What strongholds of the old kingdom are cowering in a dark corner, praying that the Kingdom of Light doesn’t discover their presence?

These questions are not best answered in a lab, by the scholar’s pen or in a seminary classroom. They are answered by the community of light that is following Jesus into that darkness. And they are questions of theology.

My other concern with Cole’s laissez faire approach to theology and discipleship is that it seems to put rapid multiplication of churches ahead of people; ahead of reconciling the brokenness in the world. This seems odd, given that it is a highly relational context that emphasizes the ability of everyone to read the gospel and put it into practice. However, what if, instead of patiently walking with and instructing the struggling early church, Paul had decided, “Meh, they won’t affect that many people anyway.”

This mindset in effect says that if people are led into some unhealthy theology, its their own fault for listening to bad information...and there are a million other bodies to take their place. I’m not sure that this is significantly different from the modern church that sees each family as a “contributing unit.”

Is the mission of God to start new churches or to inaugurate a new kingdom and a new life? If it is the former, then theology isn’t that important. Just organize folks around the Bible, call them a church and who cares what happens next. However, if the point is new life with a whole new paradigm of what’s up and what’s down, then a more intentional process may be warranted. We are learning to think in new ways, spend money in new ways, interact with neighbors in new ways. If just putting a Bible in people’s hands and calling it victory was sufficient, the Gideons would have completed this task years ago. In case you’re wondering, that’s a gross oversimplification for emphasis, and I feel like I should acknowledge that there is a lot to commend in the work of Neil Cole. He is a leader in the movement to reclaim Christianity as a way of life which engages and embraces God's Kingdom breaking into this world...

I think there is still a great need for intentional theology that is processed and discerned in the midst of the community of faith. Perhaps what we’ve reacted to are propositions formed in “the ivory tower” that are passed down to be accepted blindly by the masses. Many of us have a strong reaction to rigid hierarchical leadership that, again disseminates the accepted beliefs everyone must uphold, though from the pulpit rather than a distant headquarter.

However, I think that what we’re struggling against here are forms of leadership rather than the need for theology. We who are attempting to follow Jesus into the dark places are more in need of clear theology than those who see their role as simply filling a pew. When people ask us why we put the grill in the front yard, our answer (whether they or we realize) is deeply theological. That answer says something significant to what we believe about God. We need intentional theology.

And we also need good healthy leadership. As much as we may think we want to, we can’t get away from either. So, on Monday, I’m going to post a few thoughts about leadership. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the relationship between theology and leadership. Specifically, I’ll be wrestling with the common assumption that our preachers, teachers and theologians are the primary leaders in our churches, precisely because of their role as teacher. Is that the best approach?

It may be that our resident theologians help guide discernment as participants in the conversation rather than as the authoritative leader. What if the role of preaching, teaching and theologizing was not where we understood the locus of leadership to reside? What say you?

Thursday, December 2, 2010

a Missional Theology: part 3

I recently posted a podcast at our new site - www.MissionalMonks.com - titled "a missional theology," which addresses my understanding of who we are called to be as God's people. I decided to post the transcript of that podcast here. Its a little long, so it'll show up as a series of three posts (this is the final of the three).

Note that its entitled "a" missional theology...not "the" missional theology. What I attempted to describe are some basic understandings of functioning as God's community of ambassadors to all creation. There is plenty of room here for the different denominational distinctions and doctrines - I didn't even try to get in to all the finer points of systematic theology here. So, if you think that something I added is wrong, please feel free to open dialog. If you think I left something out...I did. Add it and serve faithfully.

If you aren't interested in reading 3500 words over three posts, you can listen to nearly the identical thing at missionalmonks.com - the "music" player is in the left hand column - its just under 30 mins including the intro (shorter than most of my sermons...). Whether you read or listen, I'd love your feedback.

Towards a Missional Theology
part 3

Broken or not, we are created in the image of God and I think one of the great examples of human pride is the false belief that there is anything we could have done (like the concept of original sin and total depravity) that could ever completely destroy what God placed in our very essence.

We are not God. We are broken and fall very much short of our ideal, but we still carry within us the image of the Divine Creator. Because of this, our identity is formed not only by our difference from God but also by what we’ve seen God at work doing, who we’ve seen God revealed to be.

Before the beginning God existed as a complete Community of Love. Unlike the claims of some religions that hold the beliefs that the gods need human worshippers to maintain their power, we worship the God who needed nothing. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit share in a fully contained and unified community of Love. The full understanding the Trinity is certainly beyond us. But this much is clear, one cannot love without an object to receive love. Unlike us, God needs no external object because the Father loves the Son and Spirit, The Son loves the Father and Spirit and the Spirit loves the Father and Son. And yet, the nature of love is to make room for others to experience loving community and so God created. And when God created, God made room at the table for creation. However, this is not a story of a wealthy landowner simply throwing occasional parties at his mansion. Time and time again we see that God is not only willing, but apparently anxious to be out in the midst of those God loves.

Communitas
I am grateful to Alan Hirsch for introducing me to the word communitas. It is a latin word that refers to community which develops and is cultivated among people who have a shared struggle, ordeal or mission. Like sports teams that endure long difficult seasons, or soldiers who share a foxhole, communitas refers to that bond that comes from being in a place where you have no choice but to depend on those around you. We see this in the very nature of the Triune God. Be it the act of creation or the redemption of creation through the cross, we find Father, Son and Spirit with a shared mission and apparently even a shared struggle. It doesn’t take away from God’s greatness to acknowledge struggle - because the struggle doesn’t come from God’s inability to overcome, but rather from God’s willingness to neither overwhelm creation nor abandon it.

If we are the people of God, created in God’s image, then communitas is going to be a vital component of our lives. When it isn’t, we know something is missing. This is part of why both gangs and fraternities are so popular - whether they are healthy or not, they are an experience of communitas. I also think this is why buddy movies, war movies, sports movies are so captivating - they tap into our desire to go through something significant with others.

Hospitality
Because God, the Community of Love, not only created us but made space for us within the Community, we see the importance and even centrality of hospitality. When we trace the story of Scripture we see over and again that God welcomes us into his presence. We see God clothing the naked and even the poorly clothed like Adam and Eve. We see God feeding the children of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. We see Jesus feeding the multitudes, washing the disciples’ feet and going to prepare a place for us in his father’s home. (Which by the way, is a reference to ancient marriage customs...where a betrothed male would actually build a room for he and his future wife onto his father’s house. He would continue working on the room until the father decided it was ready to be inhabited and then the father would send the son to get his bride). Throughout the old testament we find God instructing the Israelites that they were to be people of hospitality - welcoming the stranger into their homes, making sure that foreigners and the poor were taken care of, even ensuring that they’d have a place at the annual feasts. Hospitality is a central component to the revealed nature of God and is a vital piece of identity for the people of God.

Hospitality means so much more than just inviting our friends to our house for dinner. It literally means to welcome the stranger...and if we take Jesus seriously, it will also include loving and welcoming even our enemies. It means caring for the poor. It means remembering those who are overlooked and forgotten by society. It means that we are a community that practices the customs of the new Kingdom, the Kingdom of God that is here but still coming. It means that we should live in a way that seems radical and even foolish in our get ahead at all costs society.

Missional Living
But again, God doesn’t merely welcome us in, God comes to us and brings his peace with him. In addition to hospitality we see that God is the preeminent missionary. In other words, from the very beginning to the very end and everywhere in between, God is not content to sit in heaven and watch our lives from a distance. God draws near. God sets up his tent among us. In Exodus we read about the Tabernacle. It was basically a large tent that the Israelites carried around with them. The Tabernacle represented God’s presence with the Israelites.

Several years ago I realized that in the Gospel of John when it is says that Jesus made his dwelling among us, the Greek word used is the word for tabernacle. In other words, like God with the Israelites, Jesus set up his tent in our midst...as Eugene Peterson says it in the Message, Jesus moved into the neighborhood. The cool thing is that when you read Revelation 21 - the end our Scriptures. It says that when everything is finally brought to its culmination, the new Jerusalem will come DOWN out of heaven and God will dwell with his people. Again the word is tabernacle. The dwelling of God will be with his people. From the beginning, to Jesus’ life to the culmination of all things, God chooses to come down and tabernacle with us.

How can we choose anything different? If we are God’s people, formed in the image of God we must seek to cultivate communitas - which means that our life in God will not be carried out alone but in community. We must be a people of hospitality, welcoming the stranger. But we must also be a missional people - a community sent out by God to dwell among the people, among creation, in the dark places where the light needs to break in.

These six things: discipleship, spiritual formation and worship because we are not God and communitas, hospitality and missional living because we are created in the image of God, are not meant to be the final formula to fix the churches problems. However, I contend that if we, as a church, can live into these principles we will find that we are in a place where we are more likely to witness God at work, praise God for what we see and answer the call to go and do likewise.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

a Missional Theology: part 2

I recently posted a podcast at our new site - www.MissionalMonks.com - titled "a missional theology," which addresses my understanding of who we are called to be as God's people. I decided to post the transcript of that podcast here. Its a little long, so it'll show up as a series of three posts (this is part 2 of 3).

Note that its entitled "a" missional theology...not "the" missional theology. What I attempted to describe are some basic understandings of functioning as God's community of ambassadors to all creation. There is plenty of room here for the different denominational distinctions and doctrines - I didn't even try to get in to all the finer points of systematic theology here. So, if you think that something I added is wrong, please feel free to open dialog. If you think I left something out...I did. Add it and serve faithfully.

If you aren't interested in reading 3500 words over three posts, you can listen to nearly the identical thing at missionalmonks.com - the "music" player is in the left hand column - its just under 30 mins including the intro (shorter than most of my sermons...). Whether you read or listen, I'd love your feedback.

Towards a Missional Theology
part 2

Discipleship
And so, because we are not God and in too many ways we are not like God, we are called to discipleship in the way of Jesus - which teaches us, conforms us, transforms us not into gods...but more fully into our humanity, which was created in the image of God. Discipleship is more than just Christian education. Learning what the Bible says is a fundamental aspect of our life...but merely knowing Scripture does not make you a disciple any more than knowing the menu at a fancy restaurant makes you a chef.

This may sound obvious, but experience suggests that it might not be. I was raised in a culture that seemed to equate bible knowledge with being a good Christian. We seemed to think that if we could just raise the level of biblical literacy then all our problems would be solved. I began to suspect this wasn’t the case as I got to know some pretty nasty individuals who could quote whole books of the Bible.

Discipleship should certainly include a familiarity and love for Scripture, but it must go beyond that. Discipleship is about committing our lives - every aspect of our lives - to learning the way of the one we follow. Like an apprentice to a master we learn the way of our teacher not just so that we’ll know what they know, but so that we can do what they do.

Becoming a disciple carries a recognition that we are not a master, but what kind of apprentice would attach themselves to a master if they never had any intention of taking on the master’s trade? That isn’t a disciple. That’s a groupie.

So being a disciple will entail regular excursions into the realm where our master is at work. We’ll be uncomfortable at first, but we keep pressing on. Periodically we withdraw to process, rest and prepare for our next adventure. But these periods of rest should follow and precede engagement, they shouldn’t exist to simulate or worse, replace, them.

I love the TV show Scrubs...no apologies, I love that show. There is an episode that guest stars Dick Van Dyke as an extremely well-loved older doctor. There is a point in the show where it becomes apparent that he simply hasn’t kept up with the advancements in medicine through the years. His practice was stagnant and because of that it actually put a patient in danger.

There is a great need for practice. I don’t mean practice in the way that the Dallas Cowboys really need to practice more during the week. But practice in the way a doctor practices medicine. As Scrubs reminds us, we need ongoing practice in our practice, continuing ed credits as my teacher friends are familiar with.

In addition to our need for discipleship, we who are not God and are thus finite and imperfect, need a set of spiritual practices that keep us grounded in a rhythm of connection to God and the world. This spiritual formation goes hand in hand with discipleship.

Spiritual Formation
Spiritual formation has been very important to me for a long time. I absolutely love opportunities to help others learn and embrace practices that can have a lifelong impact on their spiritual health. BUT I’d be a big fat liar if I pretended that my deep interest in spiritual formation didn’t come, at least somewhat, from my own need for formation. I have a theory that for many of us, the things in faith that we are most drawn to often come not from a place of abundance but a place of poverty. I love prayer and meditating on scripture, but I am so prone to stumble through my life dealing with whatever is right in front of me. With all honesty I will admit that without serious intentionality - and usually unless I have friends helping me - I will go days, even weeks without any significant time spent in prayer or reading scripture outside of preparing to help someone else.

But I can say with a tremendous degree of confidence that you can trace many of my highs and lows spiritually by tracking how intentional I was about cultivating spiritual practices at that time.

Christians throughout the ages have referred to an intentional plan or rhythm of spiritual formation as a Rule of Life. Whether you call it that or not, if you are not God, a Rule of Life is an important aspect of faith that many of us are missing out on. I’ve only recently come to realize the value of developing a communal Rule in addition to a personal one. I can’t say that we’re models of this, but some of us in Christ Journey have experienced the benefit of ordering our life in connection with others; joining one another in a rhythm of prayer, scripture reading, service to others and shared meals. Not all of our spiritual formation looks that “spiritual” on the outside. I’ve found that committing myself to a place - such as my favorite booth at Denny’s - on a regular basis has opened up unbelievable doors for my own spiritual formation - in addition to placing me in the midst of God’s work in others’ lives.

Because we are not God. Because we’ve seen the master at work as we’ve engaged in discipleship. Because we’ve reflected on God’s greatness in the midst of our spiritual formation. Because we’ve opened our eyes, just a little, to see what God is doing all around us, the other natural response is worship.

Worship
Some say worship is where we go to get recharged as Christians. Sure that is sometimes the case. But worship is not about me getting my batteries charged - in fact, if we follow Jesus’ example, our batteries will be charged as we do God’s will...as we follow our master into his workshop and join him in his craft. Worship, properly understood, is where we respond the charging we’ve received. It is where we share stories of the master at work with one another, where we debrief by telling the tales of a God who is not like us, but has invited us into community nonetheless. Worship is where we shout with joy for the great things we’ve witnessed, weep together over the brokenness that has yet to be healed and approach God on behalf that brokenness.

This doesn’t only take place in a “worship gathering” - though I’ve come to appreciate those times so much more as I’ve slowly learned that they aren’t about the worship style, location or presentation.

Worship takes place anytime we are moved to respond to God - in praise, thanksgiving or lament.

It is important that we remember we are not God. It is important that we commit ourselves to discipleship, spiritual formation and worship BECAUSE we are not God. However, if we only recall how we are not like God, we miss out on the greatness of what we are created to be.

to be continued...