Vacation

I just wanted to write a brief note to let everyone know that I will be posting the next article after the first of August. Unfortunately, I have not had time to write in between prepping for our group’s off site launch in September and our upcoming vacation.  If you have something you would like to submit in the mean time, feel free to drop it by on my email.

Thanks.

Passing Out Condoms In Church

Someone sent me a link to a story from the United Church of Christ.  You can read the entire article here.

The article begins, “Highlighting the need for churches to be places of spiritual and physical wellness, UCAN, Inc. (United Church of Christ HIV and AIDS Network) has issued a statement encouraging condom distribution at places of worship.”

Now I grew up in a very conservative tradition, but I work very hard to be understanding of differing viewpoints.  I also think its a great idea for the church to care for the physical needs of people as well as spiritual.  But passing out condoms during church?  Is this a practical joke?  Am I missing the seriousness of the need to pass out condoms?  I understand the need to prevent disease.  I understand the desire for people to want to help.  But passing out condoms at places of Worship?

How can the church stand for bringing people into wholeness under the Shalom of God and at the same time support a practice that undermines the longterm health and stability of our culture?  I know its considered old- fashioned to support the idea that sex should be reserved only for a lifelong commited relationship.  But if the church never stands apart from the prevailing culture, then what’s the point of being Ekklesia in the first place?  What do you think?  Is this is a good way to support the community?  Do you agree/disagree?

On Instilling Missional Habits in a Congregation

I just read this article by David Fitch and I thought it would be a good for discussion.  You can follow his blog at reclaimingthemission.org

How do we lead a church community to engage mission as a way of life? How do we steer a congregation out of evangelism programs into everyday missional living? How do we train a congregation out of Christendom habits and instill post Christendom virtues (character for living faithfully in post Christendom)? I think leaders walk along and among their communities. Along the way, they lead by consistently (and kindly) rejecting some old habits and directing the imagination towards other possibilities. This is the never-ending work of cultivating missional habits of imagination among a people. Here’s my list of what to reject (slowly put to death in a congregation) and what to direct (nudge people forward) a congregation’s imagination toward. I’ve learned a lot of these things from missional thinkers/practitioners but have found all these things to be surprisingly simple and possible in my own life.

1.) Kindly Reject doing Outreach Events. Instead direct imagination towards ways of connecting with people where they are. Outreach events take up much time, planning and enormous “congregational capital” (if I may put it that way). In post Christendom outreach events rarely “work.” And you simply cannot compete with the local Park District or Megachurch event planning neutral site events. Instead, with little effort or cost, direct the people’s imagination towards seeing the ways you can connect with people in their everyday situations by going to the same place at the same time every week. Stoke imagination for the way ordinary life is the stage of God’s working. Visit the same places at the same time every week (this is easy for me because I am pathetically boring and love doing the same thing everyday). This has revolutionized my missional life with not a single ounce of extra-expended energy spent on my part. I believe the same could be true for every member of our church Body. Thanks to Alan Hirsch for teaching me about this.

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 where out or regular life God works to use your life to impact people for the gospel in unforeseen ways. There is no precision strike technique, instead we need to train our eyes to pay attention to our life rhythms and be ready to minister out of everyday life, where God is already working to bring people to Christ.

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. Instead stoke imagination for what can happen when we go inhabit the gyms already in the neighborhoods. 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 and places of hurt and pain too numerous to mention are all places where there are forces at work that can take under any one isolated saint. But 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. As we hover around the altar, in silence, in prayers of submission, in affirmation, in confession, in healing prayers, in the hearing of the Word, and the Table, as we sing in praise and thanksgiving at what He has done, and then as we are sent out by God in the Benedictory challenge, we are shaped for His Life in Mission. It is simple, organic, takes a lot less planning than a mega show, and alot less money. And if any non-believers do happen to come, they won’t confuse this with a Tony Robbins event.

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. Look for that one who, though never having heard the gospel, is dispositionally ready (been readied by God) to receive. (Thanks to Mike Breen at the EcclesiaNet conference this past week for this idea).

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. So don’t come to your neighbors as the one with the answer, but as the one searching for the answers that always point you towards Christ. 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, find out what they are looking for and appeal to it so that they are attracted to the idea of coming to church. Exegeting a neighborhood requires inhabiting the neighborhood, seeing the neighborhood as a place for redemption, discovering where the hurting are and the unjust structures are. See the possibilities for ministering the gospel to those who are lost and through the gospel (over time) seeing that very culture transformed.

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. Instead, let’s direct our community’s imagination to noticing where God is working among us and around us, to recognize it, praise God for it and participate in it through the gifts we have been given. Thanks to Mark Lau Branson for this insight.
These are just a few of the ways we can lead our congregations to make our whole way of life a participation in God’s mission. There are many more I am sure.

Do you agree?  Disagree?  Your thoughts?

Coming Soon to A Future Near You

I am trying really hard to stay up with the pace of technology and how it relates and informs the values and culture of the emerging generations.  I want to pass on the ancient art of following Jesus and submitting one’s life for the Kingdom of God.  What strikes me is how far behind the institutional church is in preparing and discipling the emerging generations in the way of Jesus.  I consider myself to be pretty adept at bringing the timeless truths of scripture into the 21st century.  And yet, as someone in my mid 30’s, I struggle to comprehend how the generations coming after me process information and see their world.  Frankly, the way I teach should have been the status quo in the church for the past 30 years.  I think I understand my generation pretty well.  But, I fear we are falling further and further behind the curve.

So how does the church respond to the reality of where the world and our culture is heading?  What does this mean for the way we love others; the way we teach the succeeding generations; how we as a church impact our world?  What does this mean for our global mission? And what does this mean for me in my context?  Is the church, as we know it now, flexible enough to reach these generations as it is currently constructed?