the drum|rob fairbanks

Diego from Uruguay Talking about Missional

Diego is a part of one of our projects in Latin America.  The Project's name is El Living   Listen as he explains the unique nature of doing mission in Uruguay.

Connect Interviews - Diego from Christian Associates on Vimeo.

From the "I Just Had To" category

Ok, I had to put this on because I had the first Rap album (vinyl) - Sugar Hill Gang, Rappers Delight.  This is very entertaining. If you are from the 70's you might just have to "get up off'a that thang."

The Church as Sign, Foretaste & Instrument of God’s Wonderful Kingdom

 Just in from Spokane where Rob Fairbanks and I facilitated our second session of INFUSE, CA’s training in the theology and practice of missionary living. Some 70 – 80 leaders, missional pioneers and church folk participated in this second beta. From a presenter standpoint I think it went okay, though I feel I have yet to find a stride in presenting some of Lesslie Newbigin’s ideas. On a conceptual and very practical level, Newbigin has really helped me understand the church’s call in a much broader and more positive light. When Newbigin returned to his native England in 1974 after decades of cross-cultural immersion and ministry all across India, he recognized the dire need of his own culture to have what he called “a missionary encounter with the gospel.” The church in the UK had lost its ability to relate to the lives of normal people. It had failed to listen and adapt to the soundings of context, which left it seriously crippled in its capacity to interact and juxtapose its own key Story within the cultural milieu of secularism and emerging postmodern diversity. The gospel (which literally means “good news”) was no longer viewed as relevant to the needs and lives of Western people.

via dansteigerwald4ca.wordpress.com

Here is a wonderfully thoughtful blog from my colleague, Dan Steigerwald. We have constructed a training project intended to raise up missional pioneers entitled Infuse. This blog is a follow up from our last session in Spokane which he taught on Newbigin's famous axiom, "The community is the hermeneutic of the Gospel."

Enjoy!!!

The Video Venue Farce: Why Video Venue is the Antithesis of Missional - by David Fitch

via www.reclaimingthemission.com
 

Here's another important (and well thought out) take on the Driscoll, McDonald Multi-site video clip by David Fitch.  Hit the link to see his whole post (You can watch the video on my last post and read some more of my thoughts on the subject on this post). You owe it to yourself to read David's thoughts.

Where does this end?  What's the upshot? Hey, how about just stay in our homes and watch the preacher on our widescreen?  Now that's novel.

More on Multi-Site - Driscoll, McDonald and Dever

Ok, I am going to limit my comments to only two:

1) I honestly had a hard time listening to this entire conversation.  One person used the word "vacuous" in describing this interview.  Maybe too kind.  Ok, for me, there was something quite odd about McDonald in this dialogue.  I was certain that Driscoll would be the one I was most put off by on this topic...surprise.  BTW - At the beginning, why did Driscoll keep interrupting Dever, when Dever was simply giving a common lexical definition of "ecclesia."  Seriously?

2) Read my blog on this topic for more of my thoughts on this.  I actually had some resonance with Dever here, although he let them off the hook way too easy (although, I can see why he just stood down, because they weren't listening to him anyway). Here is the link to the past blog: A Multi-Site Rant

via vimeo.com

Apostles, Prophets...? How Do We Live Into Paul's 5-fold Leadership Model

I have long believed and longed for a true/workable/sensible plan for utilizing the 5 fold leadership model that the apostle Paul laid out in Ephesian.  I have not felt comfortable with much out there - even my own working out of this.  Chris Wienand is a friend, and a fellow traveler in attempting to figure out how this can happen in a local/trans-local context. Check out his Blog Link!  I really resonate with some the thoughts in his latest blog.  

What do you think?

 

What is Biblical Justice? by Paul Louis Metzger

Biblical justice involves making individuals, communities, and the cosmos whole, by upholding
  both goodness and impartiality. It stands at the center of true religion, according to James, who says that the kind of "religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:27). Earlier Scripture says, "The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern" (Prov. 29:7).

via www.christianitytoday.com

This is definitely worth reading. With all the nonsense generated by certain Fox News commenters - ok just one, this is a welcome Biblical rejoinder to help bring clarity!!!

Help Us to Live Like We Sing

At the beginning of the summer, knowing that I was going to be speakng New Community's commissioning service at the end of August, I ask one of the young lady's (Danielle Estelle - who is a slam poet) from our church to write a poem about being sent out.  I asked her to use Isaiah 6 as a starting point and create from there.  Here is the wonderful upshot of her creative process.  After reading Isaiah 6 (also cited here), she recited the poem with such beauty and passion that morning.  I asked her if I could post it here for you all.  

 

I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:       

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;       

the whole earth is full of his glory."

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,

"Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"       

And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

-Isaiah 6:1-8

 

Today, salvation is the color of a coal mine resting in the palm of an angel

blessing our lips like a match

like a smoking chimney

like a forest fire flooding through our bloodstreams.

 

We have declared our delights

in mission, in commitment,

these are paths we’ve traveled down much too far

to even consider looking behind

 

because, Jesus, you’ve branded into our chests

hearts like dawn,

hearts like lighthouses,

hearts like a tide rising steady.

 

You said, behold,

heaven has kissed your lips,

coal has kissed your lips;

coal is what diamonds are made of:

how, then, could we not sparkle like redemption?

How, then, could we not believe as hard as freedom?

 

We are made Isaiah’s brothers,

Isaiah’s sisters,

this new heritage compelling us

to fall on our knees

to beg,

 

Send me!

Here am I!

Here are we!

Send all of us!

 

We will not simply

build you castles

we will not simply

lay cement for you,

because “settle down” is precisely

what this gospel is not!

 

We are too small

and it is too big

for its forest fire to be contained

within our hearts

 

though we are not flawless jewels,

though our candles will often flicker,

you are plenty shelter for us to outlive the rain

 

so make us like seraphim

let us carry ten thousand coals

to kiss this world’s sins goodnight

to declare that we will go

we will be sent

we will burn

 

into whatever land,

whatever neighborhood,

whatever place,

 

you would bless us to.

 

 

Some Clarification on the Idea of Attractional

This response came after reading Gustavo Martin's thoughtful comment on the last post here from David Fitch. You might want to read that first.  I really appreciate Gustavo and his earnest commitment to the church and the Gospel!

"Agreed (and BTW – thanks for the interaction). That being said, I think you may have some misunderstanding of the term attractional. You might be getting it confused with the term attractive. The gathered church is to always be attractive and winsome. When most people use the term “attractional” they are normally referring to the concept of “extractional” (removing people from their natural sphere of influence for the Kingdom by eating up all their time with internal church stuff).

I don’t find many people saying that the church shouldn’t gather nor that she shouldn’t be attractive. What they are referring to is the endemic phenomenon of people operating under a religious cover because they go into a building and feeling like they are living out the reality of Christianity. The analogy might play into this: Just because you go into you garage doesn’t make you a car.

Your response seems to have more to it than the simple quote by Fitch. As someone who has pastored a large church for close to 20 year, I can say that there are moments when you do look up and wonder if it is doing what you had initially hope it would. The larger a gathering gets, the more difficult it is to pastor effectively and the more the church structure requires/eats up peoples time – thus extracting them from culture. That is the rub.

To be sure, there is a both/and, but the key is to posture ourselves (regardless of gathering model) in the world in such a way that we can actually have the margins in our lives to intersect with those outside of faith in Jesus."

Gustavo also recommended an excellent article by Pope Benedict – I will include the link here.  It is worth reading.  It is entitled, The New Evangelization

 

David Fitch on having a Purely Attractional Approach

“If you’re not careful (with the attractional ministry approach), you’ll end up looking back after 30 years of ministry realizing the high point of your ministry was that one moment in time when you finally got all 300 people to come to your church and be happy at the same time.” 

- David Fitch