03.10.10
Posted in ekklesia, gospel, learning, mission, theology at 9:04 am by len
One sentence definitions provoked by discussion on missional blogs heading toward the MissionSHIFT conference.
“Mission is not something the church does as an activity; it is what the church is through the mystery of its formation and memory of its calling. The church is God’s missionary people.” (45) Roxburgh and Boren
“Missional is a recognition of the Missio Dei as constitutive of the life and being of the Church, which calls us to exegete our own context, and results in a searching critique and renewal of the practices of the Church relative to the Gospel of the Kingdom.” (abbreviated from a proposal by Richard Yale)
“Missional is joining in the ongoing story of God’s reign, his putting all things to rights, first in our neighbourhood, then to the ends of the earth.” (my suggestion from an NT Wright point of view) Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in gospel, theology at 9:04 am by len
“A leading American pastor laments, ‘Why is today’s church so weak? Why are we able to claim many conversions and enroll many church members but have less and less impact on our culture? Why are Christians indistinguishable from the world?’
“Should we not at least consider the possibility that this poor result is not in spite of what we teach and how we teach, but precisely because of it? Might than not lead to our discerning why the power of Jesus and his gospel has been cut off from ordinary human existence, leaving it adrift from the flow of his eternal kind of life?
“The current situation in which faith professed has little impact on the whole of life, is not unique to our times, nor is it a recent development. But is currently at an acute stage. History has brought us to the point where the Christian message is thought to be essentially concerned only with how to deal with sin: with wrongdoing or wrong-being and its effects. Life, our actual existence, is not included in what is now presented as the heart of the Christian message, or it is included only marginally . That is where we find ourselves today.
“Once we understand the disconnection between the current message and ordinary life, the failure noted at least make a certain sense. They should be expected. When we examine the broad spectrum of Christian proclamation and practice, we see that the only thing made essential on the right wing of theology is forgiveness of the individual’s sins. On the left it is the removal of social or structural evils. The current gospel then becomes a “gospel of sin management.” Transformation of life and character is no part of the redemptive message . Moment-to-moment human reality in its depths is not the arena of faith and eternal living.”
-Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy 40-41.
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03.09.10
Posted in books, community, ekklesia, formation at 10:55 am by len
Scot McKnight posts a short note on Eugene Peterson’s latest release. Peterson is looking at Ephesians 4, exploring the meaning of the ascension for the church.
The post is HERE.
In a sense, this is much of what Alan Hirsch and others have been about, looking at our communities through the lens of the missing gifts. But what is important about Peterson’s work, at least in this short comment, is that the larger lens is community. Often in our focus, especially because we are often leaders looking at leadership, what looms largest in our frame is .. leaders.
But the wider context of Ephesians is UNITY, and the narrow context here is LOVE and community — toward the one new humanity being created in Christ.
Scot summarizes in four theses:
1. Christ in his Ascension is High King.
2. Christ exercises his rule by giving gifts.
3. The nature of his rule is not to lord it over but to invite others to participate in and extend his rule.
4. Maturity is about growing into the rule of Christ.
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Posted in books, theology, transition at 5:01 am by len
Stuart has presented the transitions of post-Christendom in hundreds of places. Reactions to these transitions have been varied, but nowhere have they been dismissed as inaccurate or inconsequential.
“Post-Christendom is a reality that western Christians recognize, even if this term is new to some.
“What reactions have I encountered? Here are three popular responses:
• “We recognize the reality you are describing, but we don’t want to embrace it. Can we not find a way to restore Christendom?”
• “Our church has never been part of the Christendom system. Might God be raising us and others like us up to replace Christendom?”
• “We do not believe the future will look like this. God will not allow it. There will be a revival that will turn our society back to God.” Read the rest of this entry »
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03.08.10
Posted in gospel at 5:00 am by len
“Post-Christendom is the culture that emerges as the Christian faith loses coherence within a society that has been definitively shaped by the Christian story and as the institutions that have been developed to express Christian convictions decline in influence.”
Post-Christendom includes the following transitions:
* From the centre to margins: in Christendom the Christian story and the churches were central, but in post-Christendom these are marginal.
* From majority to minority: in Christendom Christians comprised the (often overwhelming) majority, but in post-Christendom we are a minority.
* From settlers to sojourners: in Christendom Christians felt at home in a culture shaped by their story, but in post-Christendom we are aliens, exiles and pilgrims in a culture where we no longer feel at home.
* From privilege to plurality: in Christendom Christians enjoyed many privileges, but in post-Christendom we are one community among many in a plural society.
* From control to witness: in Christendom churches could exert control over society, but in post-Christendom we exercise influence only through witnessing to our story and its implications.
* From maintenance to mission: in Christendom the emphasis was on maintaining a supposedly Christian status quo, but in post-Christendom it is on mission within a contested environment.
* From institution to movement: in Christendom churches operated mainly in institutional mode, but in post-Christendom we must become again a Christian movement.
The last two items represent challenges we face if we are to respond effectively…
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03.07.10
Posted in books, life happens at 5:00 am by len
We’ve been busy at the METRO this past month preparing for a move. We go from one meeting place (Sunday only, a dance venue that was becoming increasingly too small for us — both for Sunday meetings and the reality that Sunday was our only access) — to two. Our Sunday gathering moves to an old restaurant in the downtown core. Meanwhile we have leased a storefront office on Water Street. This allows office space, a coffee bar, lounge, art room, and meeting space. It will also allow a consistent venue for some recovery groups. Initially other than the offices it will only be open Tuesday and Thursday, and an evening or two, but as volunteers and new ideas come forward we will expand.
What all this has meant is volunteer labor and some volunteer capital. A huge amount of volunteer labor has been involved in deconstructing, then some visioning and rebuilding. An entire kitchen was donated, and a whole set of appliances. And most of us have added some labor with painting, scraping and clean up activity. We move into our Sunday digs tomorrow — the rest late next week or the following week.
It’s fair to say we are excited about the changes. We will be cramped on Sundays, but since nearly 50% of our Sunday traffic is drop in, it should work out okay. I am on the watch for a simple bible study curriculum oriented toward people who may not have completed high school and who are in recovery. If you know of something, drop me a note.
* * *
A nod to Harvey Cox and his new book, and HT to Paul at Prodigal Kiwis. Paul links some interviews in both written and audio form. The written interview is HERE. I’ve heard some interesting things about this new book, though I don’t think I will buy it. I may attempt to borrow at some point, however.
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03.06.10
Posted in gospel at 5:00 am by len
From the article by this name at preaching.org, Ervin R. Stutzman.
“Cardoza-Orlandi (“What Makes Preaching ‘Missional?’”, 3) asserts that the faith’s “bloodline is energized as the Christian religion crosses all types of boundaries—geographical, cultural, religious—and interacts with those realities. The Christian struggle to bring the faith to bear on the daily life of God’s people becomes the hermeneutical key to understanding the vitality of the faith.” This struggle, in his mind, “should be the sine qua non of preaching, particularly missional preaching.”
“Cardoza-Orlandi (5) believes that the theorizing about the missional church could be greatly enriched by an intercultural dialogue between North Americans and our neighbors to the south. He asserts that “the struggle for daily bread or the challenge of interacting daily with neighbors who profess a different faith creates a unique relational dynamic” that can provide unique insights on the interaction between faith and daily life. Traditional Western theological reflection often centers on the Bible, tradition, denominational polity, etc., and misses the richness of discussion engendered by existential intercultural and inter-religious praxis.
“Cardoza-Orlandi continues (7): “Missional preaching is a ministerial, personal, and communal action in which the congregation listens and discerns the testimony of the Christian people in their struggle with and participation in the activity of God in the world.” The existential praxis of people, engaged in witness in daily life, provides much of the grounded resources for missional preaching.”
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03.05.10
Posted in ekklesia, formation, theology at 5:00 am by len
From the article by this name at preaching.org, Ervin R. Stutzman.
“As a leader in the GOCN, Hunsberger (2003, 149) set forth four trajectories of self-awareness for the missional church:
1. “We own our cultural-ness, our own culture.” We join with our secular neighbors in living within the particularities of the American culture.
2. “We have the habit of continuous conversion.”
3. “We are a living demonstration of the gospel.” More than rational proof, secularized people want to see whether it is possible to live by the mandates of Christian discipleship.
4. “We structure our lives around being a sent community instead of a vendor of services.” For many churches, this involves a fundamental shift in identity, pastoral leadership habits, community formation, and orientation to the church’s mission…
“Brownson (The Church Between the Gospel and Culture, 252) goes on to say that “for New Testament writers, the gospel is inextricably tied up with the identity, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, a story that is announced as an act of God that finds hopeful promise for the whole world. The New Testament finds its point of departure in the conviction that the person of Jesus, including his death and resurrection, is “news” of public significance that needs to be told.”
“Hunsberger (Bearing the Witness of the Spirit, 17) asserts that kerygma and its verbal counterparts, although they are usually translated “preaching,” have “nothing to do with what we now call preaching–a homily or exposition or sermon given in the context of (usually) Sunday worship. Its meaning field has to do with the function of the “herald,” the news announcement by the official spokesvoice of one in power or authority. The public broadcast of the news, the “public action” of it, is the form of witness the New Testament describes.”
“Linford Stutzman and George Hunsberger (Treasure in Jars of Clay, 95) posit that in the New Testament communities, “life together ’in Christ’ was purposeful, intended to manifest before the watching world the promise and possibilities of the coming age.” “The church as a community, the church’s message, and the church’s worship are all cast in the most public of language. Worship is public witness.”
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03.04.10
Posted in books, gospel, theology at 8:43 am by len
A video clip from a Tom Wright interview gets to the heart of the matter. What’s the big story we see in Genesis 1-3? These texts have been used in all kinds of debates spanning science, the age of the earth, the relationship of genders. But what is the heart of the matter?
The discussion relates closely to the recent debate around McLaren’s latest book, A New Kind of Christianity.
And in that regard, see also Ron Cole’s generous post. Thanks Ron for reminding me there is so much more in the book than the points of contention.
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Posted in justice, semiotics at 5:00 am by len
Our next theology cafe addresses this topic. We are reading a short paper by Vinoth Ramachandra, “Christian Witness in an Age of Globalization,” and a couple of chapters from William Cavanaugh, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire. Ramachandra writes,
“Positively, globalization has the potential to encourage genuine dialogue across cultures. In the presence of the ‘other’, things that used to be taken for granted are now open to question. Even where traditions assert themselves in the face of perceived external threat, loyalty to traditional ways of life and thought has to be put on a new footing.
“However, given the huge inequalities of economic power between cultures, the tendency is for the more powerful cultural images, icons and practices to dominate the less powerful in a largely one-way traffic. So, while Americans and Europeans enjoy the best cuisine from Asia in their restaurants, most Asians have access only to American fast-food chains. The dominance of English as a world language, and the control of scientific and technological research by a relatively small number of nations, means that authentic cross-cultural interaction rarely happens. Thus the idea of a global village, in which peoples and cultures regularly interact in a mutually enriching exchange, is still largely a myth.”
For more on Cavanaugh and the implications of this issue see THIS post.
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