the drum|rob fairbanks

Re-Blog: The Missio Dei

I love this post from Frank Viola on the Missio Dei - below is an excerpt.  You can find the post in its entirety at The Missio Dei  Take a look.

The big sweeping epic of God’s timeless purpose is centered on a bride, a house, a body, and a family. These four elements make up the grand narrative of the Bible. The mission of God—the Missio Dei—is wrapped up with each of them.

God’s mission demands more than a theological head-nod of agreement. It demands practical expression. The Lord wants a people who embody the bride, the house, the body, and the family in every city on this planet.

In this post and the next, we will briefly explore the practical question of what it looks like when a local fellowship of believers fulfills what God is after and His eternal purpose moves from eternity to here.

In an era where many are dismissing the Bride of Christ as unneeded or worse yet, ugly, Frank gets at some essential aspects of what it means to be church.

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Brownes Addition

          By Monte

          Recently, I went to the Browne’s Addition neighborhood, which is just west of downtown Spokane. The neighborhood is an interesting mix of differing incomes. Browne’s Addition is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Spokane, and thus it includes some of the oldest homes: extensive mansions with ornate siding and framing and large porches. Two to three-story apartment buildings are scattered throughout the neighborhood, providing low-income housing for young adults or the folks that are just barely getting by. The wealth-gap found in just this small neighborhood is unlike many places in the state. Yet the people here are somehow given commonality in that they share the sidewalks, the streets, the one main park, and their favorable proximity to downtown and views of the Spokane River.

        Emmanuel Lutheran Church remains the one church within the Browne’s Addition neighborhood. After talking with the secretary of the church, I found out that a lot of the congregation does not live in the neighborhood, consists of only 5 families with kids, and the remaining members are older than their fifties. They have dinners once a week for those in the homeless community, allow outside groups to use the church facilities, and even have recently started a community garden.

            I thought about the impact this church has in Browne’s Addition. I was tempted to think that, because the church’s members are not living in the neighborhood, it certainly cannot have any significant impact. But this is only a result of what I imagine the missional church in Browne’s Addition to look like. I imagine a gathered people from all the differing socio-economic groups in the neighborhood, coming through the doors of the church and worshiping together. I imagine everyone in the community sharing a meal together or even just saying “hello” to a familiar face as they pass on the street. Then, I began to wonder what the Kingdom of God in that neighborhood might look like to the couple in their mid-sixties that attends Emmanuel Lutheran Church. Perhaps they see the Kingdom at work as they place their check in the offering on Sunday morning. I have to thank God for them as well. In the same way that the wealth-gap exists in the Browne’s Addition neighborhood, so there must also be a gap in how the older generation and I think of mission, how we think of Kingdom work, and how we think of service inside and outside of the church. And this gap is something to be celebrated. After all, that older couple is really the committed activist while I’m just a dreamer, a hopeful college senior imagining a better neighborhood.

Kingdom Living: Youth Style

By Kirsten

    

    The Kingdom of God is a concept crucial towards developing an understanding of salvation offered through the cross and a relationship with God. There isn’t really one clear answer, but Scripture does mention that the Kingdom is near, has come, is to come, and should be approached with a very humble and repentant heart. Mark 1:15 says, “”The time has come,” Jesus said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”” The Kingdom is also wrapped up in the idea of Jesus sending people out into the world with the Holy Spirit. John 20:21-22 says, “Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.””

            The Kingdom of God is most importantly the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The incarnation, God taking on human flesh in the man of Jesus Christ, is part of God’s mission to send people out into the world to make disciples of all nations. Dean places the incarnation into a youth ministry mindset: “To participate in God’s own sending of Jesus Christ, youth ministry must attend to both missionary principles of the Incarnation: God’s coming to us and God’s sending of us, God’s blessing and God’s calling, God’s radical acceptance and God’s radical challenge.” Teaching youth that a personal relationship with the very God who became a man can also become an encouragement to reach out into the world and show other people that they too can have a personal relationship with God. It is impossible to understand God’s nature, characteristics, or his death without accepting that he is a God who sends people into the world, most importantly his son, in order to bring healing and redemption.

Culture, Consumerism, and Church

By Corey

Consumerism not only leads to covetous desires among Christians, consumerism also plays a different role in the church. The American church has always seen itself as a hub to send Christians out of. Thus, the church sees itself as the senders rather than the sent. This idea has in part helped to ‘consumerize’ the church. Many Christians view church as a store to pick up services from the church. This way of thinking has led to the term, ‘church shopping’. Chris Rule in his article, “How to go Church Shopping” compares finding a church to buying a pair of Chuck Taylors. Through this way of thinking, Christians become consumers of the church and it creates a mentality based on searching. Because of this the church, whether it wants to or not, has to compete with other churches to get people through the doors. Alan Hirsch presents, “The problem for the church in this situation is that it is now forced to compete with all the other ideologies and –isms” (The Forgotten Ways, pg. 109).

One can see that church has become a marketplace. Christians and non-Christians alike in America can browse through churches evaluating them and their practices based off of personal preferences. But why do Americans tend to view churches this way? Hirsch seems to believe that modern day Christians behave this way because it is natural for them in their culture (pg. 109). If this is the case, then the American culture needs to be changed. The idea of living missionally has never been more relevant. Clearly, culture is negatively influencing the church and I believe it is Christians’ job to engage the American culture to benefit the advancement of the Gospel.

Stretching for God

 

By Josh

In reading Alan Hirsch’s book “The Forgotten Ways” I was very interested and intrigued by the leadership model labeled SMRC goes APEPT. If you have no idea what I am talking about, go to this web address and scroll down to page 8 of 10.

http://www.theforgottenways.org/uploads/what-is-apest-sidebar_7_0_1.pdf

What I love about this model is that it cannot work if only 20% of the people in the church are active. This model is very good at getting everyone involved with the church in some way. Although many churches are trying to get people involved in some way, I think that being involved in the “church planting” section is better than being in the church bowling league. My point is that this model is a biblical way of getting people involved and active. I think many of the churches these days are trying so hard to get people involved that they are stooping to using carnal means to do it. Not that being in a bowling league is a “bad” thing, but if that is the only way that you are “contributing” to the church, then it probably is a bad thing. People need to be stretching themselves a little in church. It is not always a bad thing to be a little uncomfortable. In fact God can use the things that we find uncomfortable as the most effective ways to bring about his kingdom. So my challenge to churches is to adapt a biblical model of how people can get involved. And my challenge to individuals is to be involved with your church in a way that is just a little more than you are comfortable with. Stretch yourselves a little!

What is a 'Personal Relationship' with God really for?

By Peter

Christianity in America today has become very individualized.  We hear a lot about having a personal relationship with God and often that is all it is.  There is a high emphasis placed on private devotions and spending time reading the Bible and praying so that a strong relationship with God might be developed.  However, the words personal and relationship are never even used within this context in the Bible.  The role these play should be to allow us to imitate Christ better and become more and more like him in word and action.  By spending more time in devotions and seeking God's guidance, we are better able to translate this into our lives and our witness of the Kingdom.  A personal relationship clearly plays an important role as a spiritual discipline but should not be the main focus of our gospel.  

In describing different stages in the establishment of the church in America, Darrel Guder identifies the post 1960s as being characterized by the privatization of society.  He writes that “People no longer assumed that the church had anything relevant to say on matters beyond personal faith.  Public policy became increasingly secularized, as public morals became increasingly personalized and privatized.”  A culture that celebrates individualism and privatized religion creates a self-centered gospel that causes the church to focus inward rather than looking outwards to the needs of the community around it.  Social issues are often seen as pertaining to the public sphere of responsibility while ‘heart’ issues and religion are kept private.  We are happy to leave the complicated social problems in our society for the government or other organizations to fix while the church is often left on the sidelines or plays a minimal role.

SEX, TIM TEBOW, MISSIONAL, OBAMA Move It or Lose It

By Kenny

          When someone makes the commitment to become healthy after an extended period of a sedentary lifestyle, they are faced with some heavy burdens. It’s not just about getting on the treadmill a few times a week. If the person is fully committed, they need to eat right, they need participate in some diverse work outs and they need the self-motivation to follow through with what they are trying to accomplish. The church needs to follow a similar regiment. Sure, the church can eat healthy, can have decent blood pressure due to their discipleship programs and what not, but if the church is really going to perform at its highest potential the church needs to hit the gym. Without going the whole nine yards, the church is idle compared to how it could be functioning. If the church were to embrace this thing called missions and not be content with settling while there is so much more it could do, the church would find itself thriving as it did the first few centuries after Christ’s resurrection. The church is blessed with an exceptionally wise and devout trainer, Jesus Christ. He has given the church a detailed diet plan – Scripture – and now Jesus, accompanied by the Holy Spirit encourages and pushes believers to start using their muscles – to be active in this world.

                When someone takes a class to learn a new language there are a set of verbs that will always appear on the first exam and maintain a majority focus throughout the course. The verb ‘go’ is one of these verbs. To have gone, to go and to be going are essential in every language and every culture and so much emphasis is put on this verb for good reason. It is simply a necessary part of life! The verb ‘sit’, the verb ‘stand’, the verb ‘rest’ will eventually make their way into the course material but they will never be given as much attention as the verb ‘go’. So when Christ tells his believers ‘go’, his believers should not hesitate, they should not second guess, they should go.

Life is a Journey of Learning

 By Holly

I have learned so much in this class. Throughout this month, I have been praying and envisioning a community in the Hillyard neighborhood where Jeremy and I would do ministry and serve God’s people. This in itself is not a bad mission, but without Christ leading me, it is an empty mission. I think that God worked on my heart this January in order for me to be willing to go wherever he calls. I had to be willing to move into somewhere like Hillyard in order for God to use me anywhere. Yet, I am still in the discernment process and I am unsure of where we will live after graduation.

The important thing is to understand that God is present everywhere. “If I look to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths you are there,” (Psalms 139: 8). Now that I have a passion and a vision, my prayer is that I will begin this process of discernment by listening to God and to what is going on in my soul. I want to be willing but I don’t want to dive into any situation without God’s purpose and grace guiding my steps. My prayer is that I will take what I have learned in this class and apply it to my life, wherever I go. Ultimately, I pray that I will continue to see life as an opportunity to learn and be humbled by the gracious, sovereign God. I know that my prayers are simple and maybe even far off from what God wants me to pray, but I have to trust that he will use my foolish, simple self in order to live out Christ’s powerful and perfect plan. When we listen to God, he enables us to trust him. This is good news to my burdened, overwhelmed and distracted soul.

Caring for the Physical Body as a Way to Honor God

 

By Kayla

         One of the reasons that healthcare can possess missional significance is the importance of the physical body as God’s creation. “Apparently Jesus thought the earthly body of an individual has real value. He chose to heal the sick not as an expression of Gnostic pity for their spiritual weakness but because, all other things being equal, it is good to be physically healthy” (Thobaben). Many Christians seek separation of the physical and spiritual bodies so that the spiritual life may be exemplified. However, “any extreme separation of the physical body from the rest of what constitutes the individual is not historically appropriate,” says James R. Thobaben. “ As is apparent from the healing miracles of Jesus, physical well-being is not to be separated from the well-being of the whole person” (Thobaben).

            As children of God, we were each created in his image and thus by honoring our bodies, we can in turn glorify God. Paul felt very strongly about this particular issue. As he writes in the book of Corinthians, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price therefore honor God with your bodies” (1Corinthians 6:19-20).

            The fact that Jesus’ blood was a ransom creates tension in the way we live out our daily lives. As Paul so perfectly puts it, we were bought at a price and it is because of this price that we owe our lives to Christ. The very least we can do it respect our Father’s creation by caring for our bodies. As James R. Thobaben puts it, “ The significance of biological existence arises from the ultimate relationship of the whole person to the Divine. The full human, including the damageable and disorderable biological body is worthy of Christian concern because it is one of God’s creation” (Thobaben). Healthcare is a way to address this very issue. Public health clinics help to heal the physical body and bring Glory to our creator in doing so.

Opening Our Eyes to What’s in Front of Us

  By Jannah 

Yesterday we divided into groups and went out into various communities within Spokane. The exercise was designed to get us to look at the neighborhood through different lenses. It’s so easy to go through life without noticing much around us, even in our own neighborhoods. It made me think of the places where I live, both in Spokane and back in Montana and how it would look to reach out in both of these places. In Spokane, I live off-campus just north of school. I don’t know anyone we live next to. The homes are all mostly duplexes and it fits most suburban stereotypes where people are gone most of the day and enter their garages at night closing out the world behind them. Reaching out here would require devotion to intentionally get out to know our neighbors. I feel like it would take awhile and honestly, it’s difficult to want to try since we’re only here for a short period.

          I mostly thought about my community back in Montana. I live in a rural farming community, 10 miles out of town. For some people, the closest neighbor is several miles away. My house is located in a slightly denser area, but it is still a very wide-spread community. As such, it is difficult to reach out. We have many community events, mostly in the summer as people travel to rodeos and markets. Outside of these, most are kept busy by work. It’s easier to reach people in town, but in the valley, people have a way that things have gone and they like them to keep that way. Change is difficult to bring, though it’s coming slowly. People are mostly content with the way life is. Neighbors are friendly and ready to help those in need, but it’s easy to miss the needs closest. We have many people who live out their faith and are reaching out daily, but there are just as many who faith is more of a tradition that has been passed down. How do we reach out to those? How do we show them there is so much more in living a life of faith?

 

Persecution = Growth?

By Peter

One of the main physical threats to the early church was persecution.  Many of the New Testament letters include words of encouragement for believers facing intense trials and suffering as a result of their new faith identity.  Despite dedicated efforts from people such as Saul (Paul), the church grew rapidly.  Any doubts of the commitment of these believers were erased by their willingness to put their life on the line to defend their new faith.  In describing the underground church Alan Hirsch observes that “if one is willing to die for their faith, one has gone beyond easy believism into the realms of genuine faith and love for God.”  In the United States today it is rare that Christians are ever forced to go beyond this “easy believism” and prove that their faith is really genuine and deep-rooted.  Unprecedented growth is being seen in countries like China where there is still a lot of persecution of Christians.  

Hirsch attributes this growth in the face of persecution to the idea that the church has gotten rid of “unnecessary impediments” such as the institutional conception of ecclesia and a simpler gospel message.  He writes that the underground church “has neither the time nor the internal capacity to maintain weighty systematic theologies and churchly dogma.  It must “travel light.”  Therefore all unnecessary complexities are extracted, and in the process a miracle happens – the people discover their true message, and the movement is born.  Faith is once again linked in utter simplicity to Jesus, the author and completer of the faith.”  Simplicity would probably be one of the last ways to describe the Christian faith in America.  Not only have we complicated our message by having so many different denominations, we have also incorporated the larger culture into our faith so that we can hardly tell the difference between the daily life of a Christian and any other regular person on the street.

Ecclisalogical Snobbery: Churches please fix this!

By Trevor 

I just read the latest blog by Todd Bolsinger and he expressed why he is staying with the PCUSA despite the major split that is about to happen. In the blog, he expresses the quest for creating a missional church in today’s post-christiandom world and how he is frustrated with everyone’s instinct to split and try something new. He says that he will be metting with 100 other people about transforming the church while 2 hours away 2,000 people will be meeting about leaving the church. And after reading this blog I am so incredibly irritated with all of this (If you would like to read the blog here it is: http://bolsinger.blogs.com/.

For some odd reason when we think of living out a missional church we want to disassociate ourselves from everything of old and start new. You never hear of a non-denominational church working with a denominational church or ever hear about them learning from each other and transforming together when BOTH of them have loads of wisdom to teach the other. For example, what if a PCUSA church learned incarnational ministry from a non-denominational church or a non-denominational church learns some wisdom from the church that has been there- done that. But we don’t.

We’re all asking the same question and we are all trying to come up with our own answer of how to be a missional church. And even though we are all asking this question we will never collaborate with the church down the street. Like C.S Lewis’ “Chronological snobbery” we have created an “Ecclisalogical snobbery” where we think what our church is doing is the best way to do it. So please Pastors, Elders, and Deacons meet with other Pastors, Elders, and Deacons and let’s all figure out what a missional church looks like in a post- Christendom context before we all have our own church in our own denomination doing ministry alone.

Assumptions make what?

By Jeff

Are we not missional because we make assumptions? Just last night I was talking with a long-time friend (Christian) about an injustice in our society and consequently discovered something shocking about the church. As silly as it may sound, I discovered that not all professing Christians consider the Bible to be authoritative, and I do not think it is their fault. Also, it quickly became clear why we rubbed each other the wrong way so often when talking about injustices.

Christians who live this way are not even aware that the Bible needs to be authoritative. What shocked me is that this very bright person who had attended private Christian schools nearly their entire life believes that the Bible is merely a set of guidelines. Baffling. It is not baffling to me that this individual views the Bible this way, it is baffling that all throughout their life other Christians around them had assumed that this individual understood that the Bible is authoritative. How could someone spend almost an entire academic career in Christian schools and grow up in a church going family and come to the honest conclusion that the Bible was only meant to be a set of guidelines?

 

Is it possible that there are multitudes of Christians like this out there? In a way I hope so, because this would mean that our generation has a remarkable chance to bring about the Kingdom. If this is the case, then we need a revival to turn the vision of these Christians to the Kingdom! How could you not want that rather than living in what they would consider to be a hopeless state?

 

I guess that I had assumed all along that since this person was a Christian that they believed the Bible to be authoritative rather than just mere guidelines. How many Christians are out there who share this same view?

Surveying the Land

By Troy

For class today, we had to explore various neighborhoods around Spokane. I enjoyed this activity for several reasons:
1)    We didn’t have to sit in a classroom for three hours.
2)    I got to see parts of Spokane I’ve never seen and probably would have never visited.
3)    It was sunny and beautiful outside, despite the icy sidewalks.
4)    I realized the value of ‘community exegesis’.
Before this assignment, I had underestimated the value of knowing a neighborhood. I have heard the term ‘community exegesis’ used before, but putting it into practice was valuable.
If I ever have the privilege of starting or joining a ministry in a neighborhood, I think it’s realistic to dedicate at least two-three months getting familiarized with the neighborhood. Today we spent two hours walking around the South Perry area, and although I feel like I got a general feel, there is so much more to learn. We met the mailman, Rich, who seemed to be a longtime neighborhood fixture, waving to residents as they passed in their cars. Meeting the mailman is just one small example of community exegesis. We also observed the physical characteristics of the neighborhoods, including: parks, schools, yards, and housing. As someone trying to do mission in an area, it is critical to know the people and environment first.

Blinded by the Glory

By Caitlin

And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” (Acts 9:4-5)

Saul was quite the religious zealot. He was born a Jew, and grew up to be a very educated and devout man. He knew the scriptures front and back, and thought he knew God as well as anyone could. Up until Jesus came, the way religious things were done were pretty set, inflexible, controlled. These Christians were promoting something completely different from everything he had ever learned about God or seen in scripture. From his point of view, they had everything wrong, and were wreaking havoc on the controlled world he had always known. The only way to stop them from blaspheming the God he had always known was to persecute them.

It took a huge blow to his pride to change his perspective. When the light from heaven flashed around him and his sight was taken away, he suddenly had no control-- he was physically at the mercy of Jesus, whom he had been persecuting. He had no ground for pride in the presence of such blinding glory. He was humbled.

Why does Christ emphasize humility so much? He not only says “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” (Mtt 5:5) but exemplified this by “humbling himself, and becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:8) It was the proud who thought they knew Yahweh, and rejected him when he came in human form. It was the humble who were able to receive him, and to serve him.

Paul, in his pride, thought he knew God, thus, he thought he was doing the right thing by persecuting Christians in God’s name. It wasn’t until he was humbled that he actually began to know the God he had always claimed to follow. This makes me rethink the way I live-- if I am to actually know and serve Christ, it must be done from a spirit of humility. Otherwise I will merely be a prideful fool. God, make me humble, no matter what the cost may be, because at the end of all things, I want to say, like Paul, “I count everything a loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Phil. 3:8)