03.08.09

Instilling missional habits..

Posted in community, ekklesia, formation, mission at 5:30 am by len

David Fitch asks how we lead a church community to engage mission as a way of life? How do we train a congregation out of Christendom habits and instill post Christendom virtues? Curiously, I had a conversation a few mornings ago and was reminded of a comment Todd Hunter made some years ago. “Nurture the kind of life and practices you want; starve those you don’t want.” Dave advocates the gentle rejection of certain assumptions and practices in favor of a missional imagination and missional practices. He lists nine items, and this is the shorthand..

1.) Kindly Reject doing Outreach Events. Instead direct imagination towards ways of connecting with people where they are.

2.) Kindly Reject evangelism as a one time hit on a target with a preconceived outcome. Kindle imagination toward seeing mission as part of regular daily, weekly and monthly life rhythms.

3.) Kindly reject building multiple use buildings as if by building a gymnasium on the church campus we can bring people into the orbit of the church. We should build less third spaces, and inhabit more the ones already there.

4.) Kindly reject one-on-one evangelism and the techniques associated with such apologetic persuasion. Instead direct imagination for inhabiting places in two’s or three’s or more. Hospitals, PADS Centers, the school systems, the park districts … two or three Christians together become an undeniable force for the kingdom under the Lordship of Christ.

5.) Kindly reject the Sunday morning gathering as an evangelistic event for it cannot be that in the new post Christendom cultures. Instead fire up imagination for the formation that comes from a communal encounter with the living God in Jesus Christ.

6.) Kindly reject coercive persuasion and argument in our witness. Instead stoke the imagination of your people for seeking “one person of peace” (Luke 10) among the lost of their neighborhoods.

7.) Kindly reject presumptuous postures of power as we live our lives among those who do not know Christ yet. Instead direct the imagination towards the way Christ always enters the human situation in humility. Come to your neighbors humbly and in need. Instead of offering them a meal, find ways to participate in a meal with them. If you’re in the suburbs ask them if you can borrow their lawnmower.

8.) Kindly Reject Surveying the neighborhood – Direct the imagination toward exegeting the neighborhood. Surveying looks at the neighborhood as a place to market our church,- Exegeting a neighborhood requires inhabiting the neighborhood, discovering where the hurting are and the unjust structures are.

9.) Kindly Reject problem solving – instead direct the imagination towards “appreciative inquiry.” We often approach church through problem solving. What is wrong with our programs? What needs are we not meeting? What needs to be tweaked? What are we not doing right? This is negative, mechanical and lifeless.

I suggest # 10 and #11
10. Kindly reject strategic planning in favor of thoughtful preparation. We really don’t know the future… but we know that the Spirit is birthing his kingdom among us as we respond faithfully day by day. We keep our eyes on Jesus. Newbigin warned us that, “the significant advances of the church have not been the result of our own decision about the mobilizing and allocating of “resources” [rather] the significant advances have come through happenings of which the story of Peter and Cornelius is a paradigm, in ways of which we have no advance knowledge.” (The Open Secret)

11. Kindly reject heroic paradigms of leadership. Sola pastora is neither a biblical principle nor sound wisdom, and our emphasis on professionalism has subverted the spiritual nature of the task. Furthermore, Paul’s letters are addressed to entire communities (except Timothy, Titus and Philemon), and Eph. 4 tells us that apostolic teams are the norm. Missional thinkers like Alan Hirsch, Eddie Gibbs, Robert Webber and Alan Roxburgh have demonstrated that certain leadership types are conspicuously absent in our communities. Others have helped us to see that hierarchical models are unbiblical. (See Fitch ch 3 The Great Giveaway, Gibbs, ch 2 LeadershipNext and Missional Church ch 7).

12. Kindly reject the dualistic mode of Christendom, and rediscover the Holy in daily life. Lots could be said about this..

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