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  • Mark 9:02 am on March 31, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: City on a Hill Community   

    BOTH AND 

    While I’m the first to admit that there needs to be “all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people” – there’s a catch in my throat even as I say the words.

    I think its because I know that most Christians when they hear those words believe that today’s dominant expression of church in America should continue to be the default image in our minds when we think “church” .  This expression of the Church is the Sunday morning programmatic model, built around staff, buildings, high-cost infrastructure – with the aims of becoming another “mega”church.  This the picture most people think of when they think of “church” – at least here in the West.

    And yes – every part of me is thankful to God that there are tens of thousands of churches built around that expression of God’s family – it is obviously reaching tens of millions of people with the authentic Gospel of God!  Praise God for that!  Lives are changed!

    And yet – there are still 250 million people who were not a part of a church gathering last Sunday – and have no connection with a church…many more still may have no true commitment to the Lord Jesus.  And that number is growing all the time.

    So a quote stands out to me:

    “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve already got.” — Genius unknown

    Jeff Kirsch, a member of the City on a Hill faith community has a recent, great post on some of the metaphors and assumptions Jesus used to describe what God’s Family looks like – yeast, field, flock, seed, soil… this is a Kingdom, a church that doesn’t need institutional maintenance and a ministry marketing department -

    …it is a “subtle contagion”…

    …or as in Mark 4:26-29 the farmer (read pastor) sleeps while the Kingdom grows beyond his control!

    Why not work with the grain of the Kingdom, rather than against it?

    Let the Gospel seed grow underground in your friendships, permeating every nook and cranny of your life – truly trust that the fire of mission and divine love will bubble up in people as you share life on life with them.

    Trust that Jesus truly is the head of the Church – and not you and your staff.  Could it be that our churches look too much alike – each vying for the same 15% of the population – meanwhile hundreds of millions more are looking desperately for a church that looks like Jesus-with-skin-on in their context, only to find the same praise band or Powerpoints wherever they go.

    I’m writing this not out of anger or bitterness; I’m writing this as a missionary, crying desperately for the Christians to reach out to a lost world.  Could it be that the biggest obstacle for people in discovering the true Lord Jesus and his Church is our pre-conceived notions of what church is and how it should function in the world?

    The lost need us to recapture the characteristics of the Kingdom of God and to tear down the walls of the church-box in our mind.  The desperate are dying for us to incarnate the Gospel in fresh ways on our block – even as we love and bless what God is doing down the street.

    I am cautiously optimistic though, as I look at the horizon of “church planting” – the wineskin of the church is becoming fresh, new. Churches gathering in nightclubs, poetry circles, homes, parks, under overpasses and in city centers.  Churches that live together 24/7, that function as a little family and a source of light and healing for their blighted neighborhood.  I’m seeing new forms of God’s family take shape in our little organic church network.  I’m seeing new faith-community experiments bubble up all over Chicago, and the country.

    Its time to take the lid off – where might things spread if we took Jesus’ images of his Church seriously?

    Its BOTH/AND.

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    • peter lambert 2:30 pm on March 31, 2011 Permalink

      are you suggesting we actually follow Jesus instead of the institution? You Heretic. Lol. Some very serious food for thought in your post

    • Mark W 4:24 pm on March 31, 2011 Permalink

      If we explode the image in our minds of what church is – if we let down our guard and our expectations – if we set aside our own visions of success and look instead for what God might want to do; even as strange and unique as it might seem to the prevailing “church planting” world – for God’s glory – let’s give it a shot and see if it sticks! I think a little “bio-diversity” in God’s garden might do us some good.

    • Jon 'JB' Butler 4:08 pm on April 3, 2011 Permalink

      Good thought provoking post.
      I think we can sometimes forget that maybe our lives and expression of faith in the living God, should be as living as him.

    • Mark W 4:22 pm on April 3, 2011 Permalink

      Jesus presented with us a “way” meaning he didn’t ask us to “admit he existed” or “attend a specific gathering on a specific day” – This Way is what 1 John 2 means when it says, “we are to live as Jesus lived.” That’s what discipleship is about – as much as we’d prefer it to simply be a series of worship songs and prayers, etc.

      Jon – thanks for your thoughts – how does our lives provide an “expression of faith in the living God” as you suggest?

  • Mark 11:40 am on February 16, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: James Davison Hunter, James Dobson, Shane Claiborne   

    World Changers 

    Are Christians called to change the world?

    If you attended Christian college, or if you were awake for even a few of your pastor’s sermon series – you’d be forgiven if you thought that “change the world” were the very words of Jesus Christ.  But nothing could be farther from the truth.

    In fact, it might be said that every chance the Church has taken to “change the world” has ended in utter disaster – and yet even current Christian churches and organizations (political and otherwise) are making “change the world” evolve into their raison d’etre.

    We’re seeing a backlash from the culture in the Christian attempts at changing the world into a Christian world.  To sculpt our picture of heaven as it is on earth. Could it be that Jesus is calling us to something else besides political campaigns, protests, and all forms of effective ministry?  Could it be that even efforts like serving the homeless, caring for widows and orphans, and bringing hope to the hopeless is merely another form of “changing the world” that has nothing to do with the mission of the Church?  Whether you are James Dobson or Shane Claiborne, your “change the world” project is actually counter to Jesus’ desire for his Church…

    …That’s the premise of James Hunter’s To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. He states that the Church in our day, or in Jesus’ day for that matter – was never to change anything.  Only God can change a human heart, or a human world bent on its own destruction.

    The only thing the Church is called to do is to live as a “faithful presence” in the world – to be a consistent and intentional “picture of Jesus” before the the broken world.  To be an icon of grace – to be the “2nd incarnation of Jesus,” but not to try to change the world – because you can’t change anything, not even your own life – only God can.

    I don’t agree with Hunter.  I DO see his point.  I see the abuses of many of us in the Church putting our own desires for worldly influence to wash out the call of Jesus Christ to renounce power and become a slave to the world.  I see his point that whether its the politics of the Christian Right or the Christian Left, the conversion tactics of the Evangelicals or the social justice of the Ne0-Monastics, “changing the world” can potentially be about changing the world to look more like ME – not more like God or his Kingdom.

    Even still, I believe that the dream of a brand new world made possible in this one is central to what Jesus invites us to as his followers.  ”Making disciples of all nations” is a call to change the systems built by the Evil One.  That we are to be a “city on a hill,” “salt” and “light.”

    I do love Hunter’s impulse – let’s live incarnationally; and humbly ask God to change the world for his sake, rather than feeling as if the change needed will come from ourselves.  Live in proximity to the people you feel called to – and God will do the changing in the lives and neighborhoods you are investing in – only he can change us, only God can save us…

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  • Mark 10:57 am on February 15, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

    For All the Wrong Reasons 

    “Missional living.”

    That’s the buzz word I’m hearing all over Christian circles these days.  What in the world is “missional” you ask?  Good question -

    Like many words, its started in at the crossroads of the practitioners and the halls of academia.  A beautiful confluence of theory and practice; missionaries and theologians bringing together their best to uncover a truth — that God is a missionary…and we too, as the children of God are his missionaries.

    Living “missionally” is to live with the characteristics of a missionary, and therefore, with the characteristics of God.

    But what is a missionary?

    Essentially – a missionary is one who is going… going in two directions: going out, and going down.

    Missionaries:

    1. are sent into a new culture, far and away from their comfortable home, and missionaries…
    2. are buried deep into that culture and put on the clothes of that culture…to “incarnate.”

    This missionary God can be seen throughout the Bible as (1) consistently sending himself to his creation, and who (2)  is regularly “putting on flesh” by coming to his people in ways that we can understand – Living like God in this way is not something we just DECIDE to do – it is a grace that comes over time…a LONG time.

    There is a LOT of good that comes from calling people to live like our missionary God.  Imagine the way in which followers of God are doing infinitely more than Jesus alone could have done. (John 14:12)  We are, to borrow a phrase from Martin Luther, billions of “little Christs” spread like yeast throughout the earth!

    But too often, the call to “live missionally” becomes just another way for a church leader to brandish the whip of guilt and shame, to keep their congregation loyal to the their agenda.  And even if we put aside the temptation of leader’s to twist the godly call of living “missional” into a form of controlling their congregation, even if the call to live as missionaries is out of pure desire to follow after God -

    …the call to live missionally can become a burden or a pressure that replaces the “light burden” of Christ.

    We put a lot of pressure on Christians these days – We declare: “The church is always one generation away from extinction!”  ”Give to our church’s capital campaign and receive God’s ‘blessings!’”  ”The church in Europe is dead…you don’t want that to happen in America, do you?  Then get out there and save the church!”  All these things can develop an unhealthy pressure to live under the fear of negative blow back, rather than living missionally for the glory of God, and in the delight of your Creator!

    God is “missional” not because he is under some threat, or because he’s been guilted into it.  He’s missional because he loves; because he desires intimacy with his scattered, lost children!

    Here’s my point: If we ask Christians to “live like God” to “live missionally” – then it must come from a similar motivation!  Otherwise, we won’t create “little Christs” we will disciple someone into guilt, fear, and “twice the son of hell” that we are… (Mt 23:15)

    Missional living flows out of love.  It flows out of desire for intimacy.  Let it start there – and then wait about 30 years to see fruit from your missional living…that’s how long Jesus took – and do you really think you can out pace Jesus in this whole “missional living” thing?  :)

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    • chad 7:59 am on February 16, 2011 Permalink

      Re: God not under some threat…not only is he not under the threat of someone else (the direct parallel to what you’re saying about one Christian coercing others to missional living), but God, God’s eternal plan, God’s kingdom are under no threat. The victory is won even if it hasn’t played out yet.

      It was helpful to me when a professor once said, “God doesn’t need you.” It helped me avoid a tendency to feel the need to be Jesus (in an unhealthy way, that is to try and save people of my own doing). It reminds me God is in control…though thats sometimes hard to see.

      it also makes it easier for me to think about my place in the kingdom. a humble servant, invited (not coerced, but invited) to a better life. thus it reminds me about the message Jesus calls us to share – not first to remind people of their sin and their need, but to inspire people with the hope of a better kingdom, a better life, a better relationship to which a loving God invites them.

      thanks for the thoughts mark

    • Mark W 3:00 pm on February 17, 2011 Permalink

      Re: “God doesn’t need you.” That is such a controversial statement in our culture today! Not only does it get me thinking about the nature of God’s character — he is ultimately strong – and therefore is not dependent on ME to get the work done…he can do it on his own…

      At the same time – Does he NOT need me? He created me. Why would he do that if it had nothing to do with something he needed? I’m thinking about Eph 2:10: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

      Not that it is in my power to do these things – but it is almost as if God’s joy would not be complete without working alongside his children in the project of “saving” the world.

      What are you thoughts on this? Does God NEED me…the way I need a friend, a lover, a co-worker to make life worth living?

      Great thoughts Chad – you are always pushing me to thinking deeper. I appreciate that about you!

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