the drum|rob fairbanks

A Missional Ecclesiology [In Brief]

In an attempt to describe a missional ecclesiology in brief, I am reminded of one of the most
  influential theologians of the last century, Karl Barth.  He reintroduced the classic doctrine of missio Dei, this idea in scripture where you have God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit, and then the Father, Son and Spirit sending the church into the world for the sake of the world.

via jrwoodward.net

A good blog by my friend JR Woodward. It tracks nicely with some of what I have been writing about movement. Take a read!

Me and Clive

Here I am in Belfast at the C.S. Lewis library.  Lewis has long been one of my hero's and Belfast was his birth place.

 

A Poem from Dublin

While in Dublin recently I stopped into a bookshop to look for a few gifts. I asked the lady who was running the shop to give me a list of famous Irish poets. The first name she gave me was Seamus Heaney. Here’s a beautiful poem from the book I purchased.   I felt it was particularly outstanding.  I hope you like it as much as I did.

The Skylight

You are the one for skylights. I opposed

Cutting into the seasoned tongue and groove

Of pitch pine. I liked it low and closed,

Its claustrophobic, nest-up-in-the-roof

Effect. I liked the snuff-dry feeling,

The perfect, trunk-lid fit of the old ceiling.

Under there, it was all hutch and hatch.

The blue slates kept the heat like midnight thatch.

 

But when the slaves came off, extravagant

Sky entered and held surprise wide-open.

For days I felt like an inhabitant

Of that house for the man sick of the palsy

Was lowered through the roof, had his sins forgiven,

Was healed, took up his bed and walked away.

Review: Brian McLaren's 'A New Kind of Christianity'

Brian McLaren has grown tired of evangelicalism. In turn, many evangelicals are wearied with Brian. His most recent book, A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming
  the Faith (HarperOne), must be understood as his latest iteration of a project of deconstructing the old and reconstructing a new kind of Christian faith. In it, he poses a question that this review will seek to answer. It is a question he asks of himself: "How did a mild-mannered guy like me get into so much trouble?" Or, as he asks one page later, "How did I get into this swirl of controversy?"

via www.christianitytoday.com

Here is a clear thinking link to a book review of Brian McLaren's book, "A New Kind of Christianity," and his ideas about Christianity by Scot McKnight. Scott is the interviewer in the Youtube post from a week ago (On Being a Heretic) . It was recommended to me by my friend, Gustavo Martin and I would readily encourage you to read Scot's review as a follow up to watching the video.

Mission as Two Tables

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

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

For me, I want to be careful to not fall back into a dualistic approach to spirituality where certain things are spiritual and others aren’t. One of the most freeing things in my life has been to recognize that all of life can be viewed as sacramental if turned toward God (the Hebraic concept of “kavanah”). That being said, Jesus did tell us to remember certain things and to do certain things as a community, i.e. break bread and drink from the cup, be baptized. Those aspects of sacramentalism were initiated not just occupy our time, but to ensure that we continue on, not just begin in the faith.

I think the two tables approach is worth thinking about as we attempt to be missional people and incarnate the life of Jesus in our communities.

apostles, prophets, and underdogs « Uffizi Mission Project

I am going to go ahead and step into being an apostle and a prophet – for the good of the underdogs.  I don’t care what is on my business card, or how big the liquid movement is, or how this might be perceived anymore.  I see that the underdogs in the city need more apostles and prophets.

via www.uffizimission.org

From my colleague and (p)rophet friend, Jeff Shaffer. I would be interested in your thoughts on his journey.

A Case Study of the Effects of Christendom on Western Worldviews

While in Birmingham England I picked up a local newspaper and read an article entitled, “Britain’s Most influential Muslim–and It was All Down to a Peach.” The article is about a guy named Timothy Winter who is considered one of the most influential people in Islam. He is a white European and a convert to Islam.

 The interesting thing about this particular article is what brought him to the point of conversion. Let me give you just a short excerpt from the article that describes the pathway of conversion to Islam: “In my teens I was sent off by my parents to cottage in Corsica on exchange with a very vigorous French Jewish family with four daughters,“ Winters recalls. “They turned out to be enthusiastic nudists. I remember being on the beach and a scene conjured up before my adolescent eyes every 15-year-old boy’s most fervent fantasy. There was a moment when I saw peach juice running off the chin of one of these bathing beauties and I had a moment of realization: the world is not just a consequence of material forces. Beauty is not something that can be explained away just as an aspect of brain function." Okay, here’s where it becomes interesting to me. He goes on to say, “In a Christian context, sexuality is seen as a consequence of the fall, but for Muslims, it is anticipation of paradise. So I can say that I was converted to Islam by a teenage French Jewish nudist.”

I really don’t want to talk about Islam in this blog as much as a misinformed Christianity.  His view saddens me for several reasons. The first is that he has an exceptionally misinformed idea of sexuality as it relates to Christianity. His idea of sexuality from Christianity’s perspective is that sexuality emerged as a result of “the fall.” Perhaps some Christians might believe this, but this could not be further from the truth. The beauty of sexuality emerged at creation and was distorted at the Fall.  That is why we see such abuse related to it. It has become self-centered, consumptive, exploitative and even violent for many people. Sex is a lovely thing for those who truly understand Christianity. I could write much more on this topic to fill the point out, but suffice it to say, Mr. Winters (along with many others in the West) simply doesn’t “get it.” The second thing that disturbs me, though, is the effect of Christendom on Western culture. Because the Church dominated prevailing culture and had a view of sexuality that was distorted and mired, he moved his thoughts away from what is a free and attractive understanding of Christianity. The is the missional side of this issue. The question I have is, how many people are there like this man who are operating based upon a caricature of Christianity…a distorted view that has grown out of the Christendom model.  He rejected Christianity based upon false understanding.

For years I have battled this myself. I’ve had to deconstruct the church-dictated version of Christianity that has been foisted on many of us, failing to understand that it came neither from clear, true theology nor from the Bible.

David Mach's "Die Harder"

An amazing (and a wee creepy) sculpture of the passion of Christ.

 

On Being a Heretic - Brian McLaren

via vimeo.com

I would be interested in your thoughts about this video regarding Brian McLaren. Please listen to it before responding. I am in Belfast right now, so I might not be able to respond immediately, but would be very interested in your input...  Peace!

A Fine Day in Dublin

I had a wonderful time in Dublin today. Kevin Johnson and myself were on our feet most of the day going from one place to another.  I am quite exhausted, but thrilled by the experience.  Here’s where we went and what we did.

We first made our way down to the city center and along Grafton Street to St. Stephen's Green – a lovely park. We hung out along Grafton Street for some time talking and for me, reminiscing of a trip I took some 15 years ago with Robi.   That time we toured with a group of high school all-star basketball players. This time was more focused. It was a fantastic time of chatting and dreaming about Christian Associates.

 From there we headed over to Trinity University where we got a chance to actually see the Book of Kells along with several other ancient early Christian documents. It was a fabulous time. The intricacies and the labor of work that went into these ancient “illuminated” writings were profound. It is estimated that the Book of Kells was written around 800 by Celtic monks.

We then made our way to a traditional Irish pub to have lunch with the missions pastor from Crossroads Raleigh, Doug Gamble and his wife Kathy. It was an amazing time talking about our mutual history with Christian Associates and dreaming about what might happen in the future as we seek to do mission in Europe together. With them we went over to see Christ Church.
  It is a beautiful old church building dated around sometime after 1023. I seem to never grow weary of looking at the architecture of old buildings. What is it about old things? They enchant me.  The time inspired me because I love learning about the history of the Christian church, yet discouraged me because at one time faith in Christ was much more deeply held in this land.

One of the things that both Kevin and I wanted to accomplish in Dublin was to visit the Peterson pipe store. It is a semi-famous pipe company (actually, I am not really sure if they are famous – some of the CA folk rave about them though).  Both of us splurged and bought lovely pipes. Afterwards, we found some chairs along the Liffey River and enjoyed a bowl.

We also got a chance to have dinner at another typical Irish pub where I had 
 the traditional Bangers and Mash (I was a bit leery of ordering it because I had tried Blood pudding for breakfast and my taste buds went into all-out insurgency). The “Sausage” and “Mashed potato’s” weren’t on my diet, but I couldn’t resist. I am a weak man!  The order was not a disappointment. We enjoyed the company of Eva and Chris. They’re a delightful young couple who were both bright and encouraging to us as we talked about life and faith in Jesus.

It was a truly full day and I got to see almost everything I wanted to see in Dublin. The only other thing was the Guinness factory. I hear that it’s a place that everyone should see when they come to Dublin.

Off to Belfast tomorrow. A place I’ve never been before. It should be exciting!