the drum|rob fairbanks

A Call for the Church to Repent

I have long felt like my calling in life has been to help change the mind of the church. Jesus made it clear that he came to proclaim the good news that the Kingdom of God was near. The imperatives related to this declaration were for his followers to believe and repent (Mark 1). Repentance, while it means many things, at its simplest, most rendered definition it means to change one’s mind. I believe that is what the church in the West must do - change its mind regarding its identity.

Part of repentance means to turn from one direction to another. The negative side of the turning happens by deconstructing what has become of the church in what many would call Christendom. Though it is not the thrust of this post, the church must turn from its over-reliance on power and cultural control, it's political co-opting, and it's baptized mimicry of a consumer driven society (Have you visited many churches lately? IMHO, most churches are discipling people further into the consumer life, all the while Jesus actually calls us to deny ourselves and to daily take up our cross).

The positive direction of repentance is most activated by reimagining how we engage culture. I feel that as a leader, this is one of my most important functions…to get people to dream about how we live into Christ's prayer for his Kingdom to come in our local context just as it is in heaven.

One of the exercises that I use in my teaching is to have groups imagine leaving where they are, where the church is a siloed subset of whatever else is going on in their lives, and move to Grasse, France to plant a church with me. The reason I do this is to push them to imagine what life would look and feel like if they were to relocate to a context where less than 1% of the populace go to church. Not only to relocate, but to move there as missionaries.

Because I am semi-familiar with Grasse (pictured here), I know that on any given Sunday, out of the one hundred thousand or so people that live there, only about 70 to 90 people go to church. You will find around 15-20 in the historic Catholic Church and roughly 50-60 in two other storefront congregations (This information raises serious questions about church planting in most U.S. cities for me). One other note, while finding only a sliver of worshiping Christians in this once Christianized nation, you can find up to half of the hundred thousand people worshiping in a mosques. That's right, up to 50,000 Muslims in this western city. So, the question begs to be considered;

• If we were "sent" to Grasse, France as missionaries would you live life the same way we currently do in your normal lives?
• What would it affect? Would it influence how you spend your time?
• Would it impact where you and I live? Would we choose where we live in the same way we do in the United States?
• Would it challenge the way you spend your money?

I honestly don’t think so. I think it would change everything. See, by changing locations to a place where our intended purpose is recalibrated and the trappings of Christianity no longer hold any benefit or sway, we can begin to realize that the church’s identity must be recast if we hope to impact Western culture. Through answering these questions, we begin to bump up against some of the issues and challenges that the church (the people of God) must become aware of...and repent of if we are to regain our true identity.

r

Church Planting in Real Time

I've been involved in church planting for a long time now. Practically my whole adult life. The first church that I planted was 26 years ago. It was a massive learning experience and an abysmal failure. We closed it with a sad groan after 3 arduous years. I don’t know if you remember the CD some years ago by Lauren Hill, but it was entitled, “The Miseducation of Lauren Hill.”  In a very real sense, my first church planting experience could’ve been given a similar title – The Re-Education of Rob Fairbanks. For the first two or three years of pastoring prior to launching out in the church plant, I found my tutelage in the “Church Growth Movement.” It was an inebriating experience. As a voracious learning, I drank long, hard and often. With my competitive orientation, the “by the numbers” approach to a growing a large church became a drug of sorts, which deeply confused my motivation for planting.  I have written about that wonderful/painful progression elsewhere, so I won’t go into detail here, but suffice it to say that I needed breaking (which happened) and re-educating (which I am still doing almost 30 years later).

The second church that I planted was in 1991, 22 years ago (New Community). I went on to pastor that church for close to 20 years.  To say that it was an easy experience would be to lie, but the community of people that eventually emerged ended up being a beautiful and fruitful symbol of what church could be in a west coast city of the U.S.

Running parallel with both of those experiences I have had, in varying degrees, the privilege of assisting in planting eight other churches.

For the last four years I've been leading an organization with a stated purpose that is exclusively church planting. Its mission statement reads: “The mission of Christian Associates is to establish churches who follow Jesus in transforming their world.” I got the chance to drop in on communities from North and Latin America, through most of Europe, all the way to Russia. It was an exhilarating experience. (Link to Christian Associates)

Now, at 54, I'm embarking on a new church-planting venture. Some have wondered about my sanity. Heck, I've wondered about my sanity. I've always said that church planting is a young man's sport. The church is called Immanuel Church and is in Spokane, WA. While I have a veritable lifetime of experience in church planting, I find that moving back onto the ground as a practitioner brings about many challenges that I simply don't have pithy answers for (I am finding that it is much easier to be a strategist when you don’t have to actually put it into practice - :-/). I am a bit of novice all over again. Well, I don't want to suggest that I don’t have any answers. I do have a general idea of how to go about this and a functional progression in mind of how church planting happens best in Western culture. Perhaps I will talk little bit about that in future blogs but it is my intention to travel along those guidelines that I have, along with others, discovered over the last 27 years.

Some have wondered if I will utilize methodologies for church planting such as an "attractional" approach or simply planting a "worship service" as I begin this new project. Seems like odd wonderings. If I did, it would be the first time. We have always operated out of a decentralized approach where the "gathered" community was responsive to what the church was doing in the world...even before there was "missional" language to describe it.

I guess the only thing I can promise is:

• I'll try not to be stupid regarding things I should already know.
• I will attempt to stay in a humble, learning posture.
• I will seek to honestly travel along the pathway of my personal convictions about how I believe mission happens.
• I will seek as much as possible to follow sensitively where I perceive the Holy Spirit is leading.
• and all 4 of those will happen within a community of real people who are trying to live out the Gospel of the Kingdom in a particular context.

Is that enough?

I hope so. I can't think of anything else besides that as a way forward.

Peace,

r

Thankful

Today as I sit in my house in Portland, sipping coffee, and listening to the sweet sound of rain fall on the ground outside, I am thrust into waves of peace. I am reflecting on a month of learning, laughter, increased friendship, sorrow, and deep joy. The past three weeks I got to spend listening to amazing classmates (who I now consider friends) discuss and grow in what it means to be the church. I again learned that there is no perfect church, mostly because there is no perfect person. And in my most vulnerable moments, I have to remind myself that the church is people. Beautiful, broken, alive, and challenging people. 

We read the Gospel and understand maybe a tenth of what Jesus was trying to teach and model to us. Reading through Mark 10 and 11 a few minutes ago, I am in awe of how little I seek the Kingdom of God and instead seek the opinion of the world. How often do I stop and listen? How little do I remind myself that joy is a gift and a choice? How terrible am I at thinking of myself as a little child, hopeful that God redeems and saves? How often do I care more for my possessions than I do for my present relationship with God? 

All of these questions I examined this past term and found that there is no greater answer than the person of Christ. And for me, that begins by being thankful and being disciplined enough to listen wholeheartedly to God. So today, I don’t have any huge theological answers to how the church should function better, serve God more, or be wholly united. But I am able to live into the posture of being thankful. Thankful for a class who tested me, encouraged me, and put up with me. Thankful for a Creator who is infinitely more able and loving than I. 

Thankful.

Katherine

Coffee Shop Christianity

    “The coffee was bad, the chairs uncomfortable, and the music wasn’t really my taste. Plus it didn’t really have a cool vibe. I don’t think I’ll go back.” Initially, one would have thought that my friend was talking about the new coffee shop that had just opened down the street. Unfortunately she wasn’t though, this was her response to me when I asked if she liked the new church she had attended the previous Sunday. “I mean the message was good, it just wasn’t my thing.”

    I think few of us would like to actually admit it, but it often feels that looking for a church frighteningly correlates with the way we would look for a new favorite coffee shop. I think this is especially true for the arising younger generation of today. The marks of a “true church” seem to resemble a coffee bar, worship pastor in skinny jeans and toms shoes, abstract art on the wall, cool typography in the bulletin, and a well-dressed congregation. Where is the power of the gospel in that? The importance of doctrine, community, ministries, and service can come second to that of the “vibe” of the church. This focus on being relevant, cool, and hip is not inherently bad or evil, I think, but unfortunately it can dangerously skew the priorities of a church, it’s members, and those seeking to find a place in it. It can turn the church into a chill environment where Christians go to hang out, meet cool people, and sit for a few hours. This selfish, consumerist institution has little resemblance to the Church Christ spoke of. The church he recounted was one of hope, kingdom priorities, selfless love, power, and incarnational living. “Church is God’s people intentionally committing to die together so that other’s can find the kingdom” (Halter, Smay). The church is not a Coffee Shop. 

Melissa

The Kingdom Ethic

By Brendan

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. ‘Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters…and multiply there and do not decrease. ‘Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare (Shalom) you will have welfare (Shalom).’” – Jeremiah 29:4-7

This prophetic passage from Jeremiah is one of the more difficult passages of scripture for us to wrestle with. Ultimately God has brought the Israelites into slavery under the pagan Babylonian Kingdom, not exactly what the Israelites had in mind of a “promise land.” I can only imagine what this must have been like, here you are “God’s chosen nation” brought into slavery to this pagan Kingdom. Going from a prominent Kingdom and a particular way of life in Jerusalem to captivity within Babylon. Many people are uncomfortable with change and most hate it when even the smallest wrench gets thrown into their plans. Just imagine being uprooted and transferred to an entirely different city, into an entirely different culture, having to re-establish yourself and formulate a new way of life; not something people generally get excited about (especially later in life). But this is what the Israelites experience, and then on top of that it was God who led them into exile. God uproots them and calls them to live among a pagan people. Strange, or is it?

God calls them to establish themselves and carry on with life as they know how. He calls them to build homes, take wives and multiply, and seek the Shalom of the city. Now, if I were in the Israelites shoes I can imagine myself not super thrilled with this turn-of-events, but as an outsider looking back on this amazing story we can truly see the Kingdom at work. This is God’s calling for us to as well. We are sojourners in our own nation and culture, a people of God called to bring his Shalom to our cities even if we do not “feel a call” to any particular place, Jesus has called us in essence to build houses, take spouses and multiply, pray for those around us, and make disciples as we are living. As we are faithful to this call we will experience the Kingdom.  

 

 

The Elephant in the Room: Paying Attention to an Issue that is not going away

By Kenny

We live in a society where tolerance is king. Everyone is allowed to believe what they want to believe and to say otherwise is worse than murder. We are a progressive culture.

Then there’s the church. The church is above culture. The church tries to adapt within culture. Sometimes there is no difference between culture and the church.

The hot topic for the last decade both in culture and in church is homosexuality. A lot of people have a lot to say on this topic. A lot if it is controversial with varying degrees of conservatism and liberality. The church is stuck somewhere in between. This can be an uncomfortable subject. I think especially the younger generation feels conflicted with how homosexuality fits into the church. Many of us know homosexual people, are friends with homosexual people and respect homosexual people. I know some homosexual people who love Jesus and are incredible followers! But the church, and everyone that makes up the church, have to decide where they stand. The church has to decide whether gay people can be leaders of the church or those people should be taught to turn away from their homosexual lifestyle. For total equality or against it, in relation to the church (to be neutral or undecided is essentially to be against). To believe homosexuality is unnatural, or a perversion of God’s creation, is to say a necessary mission field opens up. I don’t really see a realistic middle ground.
Personally, I have an incredibly difficult time to even think about what being missional in a homosexual community would look like, especially if the people of that community were Christians. Honestly, I find Scripture clear on the subject – homosexual relationships are unnatural and they are not how God intended relationships to be. However, on this front, I want to believe that they can accept Christ all the same, receive salvation and pursue a healthy relationship with God. In my youth ministry program I will undoubtedly have students who are homosexual. Statistically, I already have. I cannot think about trying to turn them from this lifestyle without potentially severing my relationship with that student and potentially damaging how they see God and the church. I continually struggle with how I might teach the subject without burning bridges.  I will inevitably have to take a stance beyond the stance that God loves everyone. Students will have questions and I will have to answer them according to Scripture.

KH

Going out and into the tension

 

In youth ministry, there's no question of whether or not games, social gatherings, or even the occasional all-nighter should be included in the regular run of things. As an adult, you have to be crazy to help out at an all-nighter. Well, if you are not already, you'll become crazy, waking up on an odd-smelling pew in the back of the auditorium around 8am to kids running circles around you, still making use of the Mountain Dew high that peaked around 4 in the morning. That's my experience anyhow. I gave in to the pleading for an all-nighter, which kids might claim to be the true "life-changing" event of our time, because it's one of the events they have always done as a youth group. So who I am to stop it? I mean, I'm sure the parents just love the seemingly useless, zombie-fied status of their post-all-nighter children for the next 48 hours, right?

So it's a regular occurrence for students to ask me what the next fun event will be or to give me new ideas for one. In a sense, this is good because, of course, kids want to do fun things together and they are investing their thoughts and ideas in the youth group. But when does it become too much? At what point do we have to say, "Alright, hold up, what about us carrying out the calling of Christ outside these four walls? What about living a life of service and reaching out to the poor, the broken, or our next door neighbor?"

Recently, I heard a pastor say that a church's greatest mission should be to get people to move OUT, to live out the Gospel. He followed that by clarifying that this might mean saying no to the kind of programs that essentially keep people IN. So there's a tension in youth ministry, between the building of relationships through fun, highly-social events (which also can hopefully satisfy the cravings of the wild teenage spirit) and the pursuit of living a missional life outside of these events. Perhaps one of the greatest goals any youth ministry could have is to direct the wild teenage spirit to be poured out and into mission, thus relieving the tough balancing act of the time we spend inside of and then outside of our four walls.

Pegs and Holes

By Josh

Imagine a machine that is designed to carry large chunks of marble up out of mine shaft where it can be packaged and shipped off. Now imagine what people would say if the miners suddenly struck oil and the man in charge decided that they would use the exact same machine to elevate the oil to the surface.

People would declare that the man is insane! They would say that his system was built for a different purpose and for a different environment. They would say that the oil they are dealing with is uniquely different than the marble that they have dealt with in the past. Therefore it is only logical that a new machine must be built; one that can conform to and handle this new material.

In the same way, western missionaries are moving into countries and establishing church organizational structures that were built for an entirely different “substance”. It is ludicrous to expect a church system designed for a mega church in Seattle, filled with wealthy middle class Americans, to work for a nomadic tribe in Central Africa. The very “substance” that we are dealing with is different. All cultures are not the same, and the church or machine must therefore be modified or changed in order to handle different types of cultures. The machine is still doing the same thing, but simply by a different process and means.

When you look at foreign missions from this perspective it seems obvious that the organization and way that the church functions must be very different from what is common in America; however, sadly, it is still very common for western missionaries to go into a country and try to conform that countries culture to his system of church organization. We might as well try to put a square peg in a round hole. With enough pressure the square will fit into the hole, but it will no longer be the square that God uniquely created to be a square. Westerners have fallen into the trap of thinking that God only makes round pegs and round holes. We think that God has made everyone like us, and that those that are not like us need to change.

-JS

take off the skinny jeans and put on your carhartts

There was a philosophy that I heard stated in different ways when I was in youth ministry and every time I heard it, it always drove me a little crazy. That philosophy was something along the lines of “if you can win the quarterback, you will win the school.” And whether stated or unstated, it was the basis of most of the youth ministries I observed. Tons of energy was poured into reaching the cool kids.

via theycallmepastorbryan.com

This is a fantastic blog (my opinion) from a good friend on frustrating trends in church planting.

Do you think he is accurate, is he missing something or is he just a frustrated "hipster"? :)

rob

Church Planting Among the Catalan - my time in Barcelona

A month ago I got the amazing privilege to wander around Barcelona with one of Christian Associates missionary families, Justin and Jenn Powell.  I was deeply impressed with how they lived and how they intentionally connected with so many people.  While we walked, it was remarkable how many people Justin knew by name.  This came about as a result of them taking the time to, what we in our church planting lingo call, “embed” in their context.  That simply means for us the first step for every missional church planter is not to plan or start a worship service, but to actually make friends…I know that is an amazing concept, but you’d be surprised if you knew however many people just don’t get the habit of listening and learning the culture they seek to bring the Gospel to.  We use the phrase “listen for the joys and laments of a particular context.”  Jenn and Justin do get it and it shows.

Here’s a video of their project in Barcelona.  You can catch right away that Justin has become a keen student of his city and as a result has fallen in love the Catalan people. 

BARCELONA from Christian Associates on Vimeo.

 

 I would be interested in what you think of their work.  Maybe doing something like this is in your future.  If it is, click the CA Join the Movement link.  Thanks!  That will get you started.

Peace!