It Takes A Church...

Which Kind of Community?

In his most recent blog post, Fuller Theological Seminary President, Richard Mouw, offers some perspective on the struggle within many churches today regarding being "seeker sensitive" vs. "traditional".  Both Reformed and informed, Mouw draws upon the work of Robert Bellah for a better description and more insightful question: "Should we attempt to be communities of interest or communities of memory?" 

That is to say, which is more important: restructuring churches to appeal to the outsider who is searching for God and responding to the missional opportunities and challenges present in the culture or insuring that churches remained focused on the liturgical, doctrinal and sacramental elements that keeps the church anchored in it's core beliefs and practices?   

Mouw, drawing on John Calvin no less, answers (with characteristically Mouwian wisdom): We must focus on both. I won't restate what Mouw writes so well here, but I will make another point that I want to spend more time on in the days ahead:

If this is so, (as I believe it is) then once again, the challenge of church leadership is inherent in the complexity of serving a community with (supposedly) unchanging core convictions in an (absolutely) ever-changing world.  In the phrases of some leadership experts, the church must be both "built to last" and "built to change" at the same time.

Personally, these thoughts come out of an experience I am having of moderating a task force in our Presbytery that is working on restructuring the goals, and systems of our Presbytery to fulfill our long stated vision to be a "missional presbytery."  As my colleagues and I talk together about the inherent conflicts when deeply held "competing values" are at the core of a community, we find ourselves searching for ways to articulate and formulate a path for transformation of our Presbytery and our churches to better equipped to face the challenges of our changing culture without losing the "soul" of what makes a church, well, a church. 

Somewhere amidst the "both/and" of our ecclesial identity and the hard choices that we must face in expressing those identity markers for the sake of the world is our mission. 

And in my next post, I'll offer some thoughts that have been milling around in my head since I visited a big group of Maine Methodists last fall.

Missional Must-Reading

Lately I have been in a number of conversations about the growing interest in what it means to be a "missional" church.  This is both exciting and, at times, exasperating as what was once a clear theological grid for refocusing the priorities of the church back to the Mission of God, has become a buzz-word that indicates many different and often contradictory things.  Christianity Today has a great article that both confronts and clarifies this confusion at exactly the right time.

"With so many variant views, the term missional church now needs something like an FDA label: Warning: Contradictory and conflicting views of the church inside."

I encourage my missional-minded colleagues to read this and then join the conversation over with the thoughtful and visionary folks at Presbyterian Global Fellowship. Conversation is a key missional strategy, and after spending some time with some great leaders of PGF yesterday, I am eager to be part of more conversations with them.

To that end, I want to enter the conversation about one of the key elements that is being overlooked, but thankfully is highlighted in the CT Article,

 
"Missions" should not be one church program among many, but the church's core identity as witnesses sent by God into the world. Missional Church authors were not merely "redesign[ing] the church for success in our changing context," or seeking a pragmatic "method and problem solving" approach to ministry. Instead, they sought to diagnose the cultural captivity of today's church, including its obsession with marketing and technique. More importantly, they painted a theologically rooted vision of the church as a community called to participate in God's mission in and for the world.

The last sentence leads me to where I want to take up an aspect of missional theology that is already getting lost in what I see  are a number of false dichotomies ("attractional" vs. "missional"; church gathered vs. the "real church" scattered", to name two that I have heard repeatedly), but focusing on  this  radical  church-changing idea that flies in the face of the individualism that is the single-most influential idea of modernism: The COMMUNITY as the basic unit of mission.

But more on that next post.

PS.  I would encourage all who have been so inspired by recent missional writers to return to the roots of the movement by taking the time to read through this book and visiting this site, also.

It's so nice...

...when a "hero" in the faith is the real deal:  A genuine, gracious person who is everything in person that we hope they would be. 

Having met a few Christian leaders in my day, I have had enough disappointments to be wary when I am going to meet someone in person whom I have only met previously through writings.  But these past few days reminded me of another time when I met one of my spiritual heroes and was so very pleasantly NOT disappointed.

Nineteen years ago this month, I had an opportunity to meet Henri Nouwen. Nouwen was at the time, the most influential writer for my journey of faith.  I have read virtually everything that he has written and his vulnerability, humility and spirituality was the tool that God used to inspire me to seek a deeper well of spirituality.  So many of his ideas became wisdom that I have lived by.  And meeting him was so very sweet.  My friend Mark and I met him at Daybreak in Toronto.  He gave us a tour of the facility, he showed us a huge copy of Rembrandt's The Prodigal Son and spoke of its meaning to him.  He led a small worship service and served me communion (the only time as an ex-catholic that I have ever partaken of the Eucharist in a Catholic mass since becoming a protestant in college), he took us to lunch, he bought us pizza and beer and wine and we talked for hours.  Then he gave us books.  As many of his books as we didn't have.  He was attentive, kindly, sweet and prophetic all at the same time.

While my interaction with him was less personal, for the past few days I have been at Laity Lodge attending a retreat with about 50 other folks that was taught by Bishop N. T. Wright.  Readers of this blog know of my high regard and deep appreciation for Bishop Tom.  Now, having met him, my respect and regard is all the more.  He is a brilliant man, a passionate teacher, a deeply committed, prayerful pastor who has only inspired me all the more to continue to study the Scriptures while listening to the deep hurts of the world.  His scholarship is clearly in service to the church for the sake of the mission of Christ to the world. 

He was generous with his time, he signed our books and engaged in meals and conversations and answered questions with all who would wanted.  He joined in worship, he attended the morning devotional and the late night worship and music service. His wife, Maggie, was charming and caring and funny.

While I have many memories of my time years ago with Fr. Henri and have a number reflections and lessons from Bishop Tom, that I will certainly continue to glean and pass on through this blog in the days to come, I am sitting here today keenly self-conscious about how grateful (and I guess, relieved) I am that both of my "heroes" (and many others along the way through the years) have NOT disappointed me.

I am more aware than ever of the profundity and high wire act of incarnation that is at the heart of the Christian faith. And how very painful and disillusioning it can be when a Christian leader disappoints.   

God's most risky strategy of using human beings as partners in the work of redemption and restoration has been so famously fraught with failure, but as G. K. Chesterton reminds us, every misstep by a Christian only affirms both the veracity of the Scriptural teaching of original sin and the truth that all human beings are fallen and in need of redemption.  The Spirit of God offers us new birth and new life, but we do feel the effects and groaning of incompleteness and brokenness until Christ is fully formed in us. 

The theologian who communicates academic arrogance, the leader who comes across like a most worldly power-monger, the pastor who can't live out the faith he or she so passionately proclaims all leave a mark. We are more disappointed than most of us want to admit when our models and mentors don't measure up or seem more human than we need them to be. Recent biographies of Nouwen point out his battles with depression and his struggle with sexuality.  I am sure that Bishop Tom has his share of oh-so-human attributes, too. I am not so naive as to need my spiritual heroes to be perfect and I pray that the small band of people who read or hear my words don't need me to be either.   

Christian faith is not  simply a matter of a holy book, doctrines and lessons to learn, but about people living out these texts and incarnating the story so that it becomes a real and vibrant encounter of the presence of God through a human instrument.   

And it is so nice when it actually works out that way...

Mission in the Midst

While Rev. Greg Hughes and Malibu Presbyterian start to work their way through the rubble and pull their community of faith together in life and witness, another pastor friend, Rev. Neal Nybo reports that 57 members of Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian church lost homes in the recent fires.

While our church evacuation site has been able to close up shop and begin the process of moving the ample amounts of donated goods onto partners and other organizations who continue to work with evacuees, today a team from our church will travel to Tijuana to build homes and offer support to a church partner with Baja Christian ministries.

When we recognize how vulnerable every one of us is to unexpected tragedy, it only inspires to live lives of compassion for all.

Faces from the Future of Christianity

From an Interview with Philip Jenkins (author of The Next Christendom: the coming of global Christianity.)

Interviewer: What's the big picture? What will the mass of Christians look like 50 years from now?

Jenkins: "My argument is that one of the big factors will be ethnic. In the United States, looking at the whole population, something like a third of Americans will have either Latino or Asian roots, and the vast majority of those come from backgrounds, which are presently Christian. I think it's quite likely that those people will still continue to be Christian and they will certainly be very dominant voices in the Catholic Church and probably most of the mainstream churches.
    Globally, Christianity will be much more of a black and brown religion. The figures I suggest, with all awareness of the queries about numbers, somewhere between four fifths, and five sixths will be in Africa, Asia, Latin America, or from migrant communities in the West. Non-Latino white Christians will represent only about a fifth or sixth of the whole, so Christianity will be much more a black and brown religion."

Where I Always Want to Be

After listening to me talk about the people I met in the Philippines, Beth suggested that I listen to a song by Mercy Me called, "Caught up in the Middle."  The key line:

I believe Your Spirit is alive and on the move
Oh I want to be caught up in the middle of You

This is exactly my prayer for me and for our church: What does it mean to be "caught up in the middle" of God's Spirit?  What will that require of us?  Where will it take us?  Who will become part of us as we are more and more in the middle of what God is doing in the world? How do we need to continue to grow and change?   

Seeing God and the “Nameless and Faceless”

I am grateful to a new friend, Rheo Loseo, the National Director of Youth with a Mission Philippines for the whole idea of God’s movement in the world being led by a multitude of “nameless and faceless” Christians.  His words have reverberated in my heart as I have spent time with the 38 young leaders gathered together here at International Chrysalis Institute.  It is worth saying that by “nameless and faceless”, I don’t in anyway mean “unimportant” or “insignificant”, but instead those who most of us will never know or see.  Not big names of recognizable faces, but those who are faithfully serving Christ wherever they are with great conviction and at great cost, in areas and regions that most of us have never even heard of.

At this conference so far I have spent time with (among many others):

• A Philippine leader received death threats from Muslim radicals because they are sending missionaries into Isalmic countries in the name of Christ.
• A young seminarian from India told me of being a minority as a Christian in his country. After finishing his classes, he wants to return to India and start a ministry with street kids who are orphaned and then rejected by the harsh caste system of his native land.
• A woman from Malaysia who is anxiously finishing up seminary so that she can return to her home village and become the pastor of her local church.
• A 34-year-old president of a family-owned Philippine oil company that has moved into producing ethanol and bio-diesel.  His company is dedicated to “enhancing the lives of Filipinos” by, among other things, protecting the environment, as an expression of his Christian values.
• A young church planter who has led a ministry that has trained up the leaders and planted 16 new churches in the past two years (with, yet another, indigenous group of people whom I had never even heard of before).

This morning in our devotional a Chinese Malaysian professor quoted a Chinese proverb: “Because you don’t see God, you don’t see people.”  It points to how the arrogance of living oblivious to God leads to the injustice that comes from being self-absorbed.  We can only see others when we open our eyes to the God of the entire world. And the more we seek to see God, the more we will see others. 

It seems clear to me that the more time I have spent seeking the Lord on this sabbatical, the more I have been given eyes to see more people in the world.  (All praise be to God!) Now, how do I, as a pastor, become a guide helping others to see both God and what he is doing in the nameless and faceless of the world?

Credible Evangelism Today

“How can this strange story of God made man, of a crucified savior, of resurrection and new creation become credible for those whose entire mental training has conditioned them to believe that the real world is the world that can be satisfactorily explained and managed without the hypothesis of God? I know of only one clue to the answering of that question, only one real hermeneutic of the gospel: Congregations that believe it.”

Lesslie Newbigin, Word in Season, p. 42.  Cited in Tim Stafford, In Jesus’ Steps.

“The gospel does not present the church as a savior.  Rather the church is the place where the Savior lives.  The message can be heard rising out of the church: ‘Jesus is changing the world.  Come and join us as we follow Jesus.’”  Tim Stafford. 

Truly Transforming Missions: A list of Suggestions.

This set of posts was inspired by two only minimally connected things:  One was my encouragement of the ONE Campaign and the various opinions that I read in comments emails, and other posts.  The second is the set of articles based on Calvin College Professor Kurt Ver Beek’s research and then subsequent email conversation with Robert Priest of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School about the relative ineffectiveness of most Short Term Missions Programs to bring about Christian transformation for either the STMers or the recipients of the ministry.

In a response to an email posted at CT.com, Ver Beek describes both the good that mission trips accomplish and the almost inevitable result of returning home to our “consumerist cultures”:

Students come down to Honduras for four months and we do our best, with God's help, to share our passion for creating a Honduras and a world more pleasing to God—more just, less poor, and filled with more people truly knowing and serving him. We have seen many students change their majors and careers goals based on their experience. I think the time here is very powerful for all of them.

But then they return to the United States, to their busy life with friends, family, studies, a consumerist culture, and churches that do not often emphasize these issues. Their experiences have lent support to my belief that we all need encouragement and accountability if we're to turn powerful experiences into lasting change.

Two students may leave Honduras equally motivated and "changed," but the one who returns to their old group of friends without staying in touch with their Honduras friends or joining a group with similar interests is unlikely to seem much difference after a few months. The one who stays in touch and gets involved in a social justice or mission group on campus will often end up making even more radical changes than they talked about in Honduras. So I think the young person who does a STM trip for only one or two weeks would need even more support in making sure those weaker impulses translate into action.

In many ways, Kurt Ver Beek says all we need to know, but I’ll wrap up these posts with my own short list of suggestions for those who are considering being part of a Short Term Mission and especially for pastors and mission committees who are responsible for structuring and funding these trips. 

1. Focus first on relationships before results.  Americans are “doers” and what often motivates us is “doing some good.”  But much of the pain and disappointment in the world today has been, in the words of my friend, Steve Haas, a Vice President at World Vision, “well-intentioned people who really didn’t know what good to do.”  The key for avoiding this kind of painful outcome is to think more about “who I want to be in a mission with” before thinking “what do I want my mission to accomplish.”   

The “Who” Questions: Who will be my partners? Who will go on the trip with me?  Who will be learning from?  Who are the CAREER MISSIONARIES in the 3rd world country that we will connect with?  Who are the Christians that we will get to know and form relationships with are far more important at the beginning than figuring out what you will do (I.e. evangelism, feeding the hungry, building project, vision trip, etc.).  In many ways, this is the real genius of the Y-Malawi Partnership and the reason that we are connected to it.  While so many people are doing good in Africa, we really wanted to be in relationship with these folks.

2. Go as a church and connect with career missionaries and local church leaders.  Yes, this is a subset of number 1, but it should be stated even more clearly.  I am not a big fan of mission organizations that recruit individuals from around the country, but them together for a one week or two week experience and then go do something and leave.  Often times the only experience any one ever has on a mission trip is with an American STM organization that is really little better than a travel company for disparate people to come together to have an experience.  Far better is to start with the relationships that you’ll have when you return and connect to people who will have long relationships in country after you leave.

3. Every mission experience should last at least a year.  Now I don’t mean that the actual trip should be a year long (most people cannot do that), what I mean is that when planning trips, asking for commitments from participants and prayer partners, funding and scheduling expectations, the mission trip should “start” 6 months before the travel date and not “end” until 6 months after returning home (minimally!).  Not only should there be ample preparation, cultural sensitivity training, trip preparation meetings (including getting shots, equipment, etc.) and involvement with the church in sending the team, but there needs to be an equal commitment to the post trip follow-up, study, integration of experiences and support after returning.  I would like to see every person who commits to a STM to understand that it is a twice-monthly meeting commitment for one year with a two-week trip in the middle of that year. 

4. Get involved at home in anything that reinforces the commitments you made abroad. This brings me back to the ONE Campaign and why I want people to take small steps to raise awareness and involvement.  Mostly it is for me.  I need to be reminded of what I learned and felt by speaking up, by getting involved, by having more discussions, and yes, sometimes, by wearing a little white bracelet. 

5. STMs should be seen as nothing more and nothing less than a lab-class for a lifetime of discipleship.  Ultimately, the best good that we North Americans can do in the world is to be more deeply devoted disciples of Jesus Christ.  STMs are intense hands-on, life-immersing experiences in the work of Jesus in the world.  And some of us may only have a chance to do this once or twice in life. But the goal isn’t to become an “experience junkie” or to “go on a mission”, but to become a person who is personally, passionately and permanently committed to the church’s shared mission of “being Jesus for the whole world” (to use Tom Wright’s phrase.)  If STM is not about discipleship, then it is nothing more than an adventure trip sprinkled with holy water. 

Learning to be more like Jesus is first, last and always the true transformation that is our mission. 

Truly Transforming Missions: The Final R

I arrived back at Los Angeles International Airport late in the evening.  By the time I picked up my car where it had been parked at a friends house for better than a month it was after midnight.  The often busy boulevards in the San Fernando Valley were empty as I drove home.  But whenever a car approached me, or even past a wary pedestrian, I kept absent-mindedly honking my car horn.  Over and over again, without even thinking about it, I just kept honking.  The cars must have thought something was wrong, the pedestrians wondering if I was suffering from road rage.

In LA, we just don’t honk.  At least not that often.  To honk is like yelling.  It’s almost always considered rude unless it is a genuine emergency. 

But I had just returned from a month in Haiti.  And in Haiti, everyone honks.  When I was in Haiti in 1985, many of the roads were newly paved for the first time.  Because of that, many of the villagers who were used to hearing cars noisily bumping down dirt roads were unwittingly getting injured by walking out in front of cars that were now passing by in virtual silence on the new pavement.  So, in order to be safer, everybody honks.  You honk when a car is coming at you, you honk when you are passing a boy who is walking his cow down the middle of the road.  You honk when you are approaching a women with five kids and only two hands, and a bundle of clothes on her head.  NOT to honk would be considered rude.  And dangerous.  And unfriendly too.  (You also honk in order to say hi.)

After driving in Haiti for a month, I now “naturally” honked when I drove in Los Angeles.  At least for a day or two…  Within no time I was back to my “honk-less” ways. 

It took me a month to learn a new habit, but less than a week to unlearn it.  To return to “normal”.  To go back to the way I was.  What happened to how I had been changed?

Taking up the gauntlet thrown down by two professors who questioned and discussed the genuine and lasting effectiveness of Short Term Missions, I have suggested that there are (at least) three elements that must be part of every Short Term Mission trip to make it truly transformative for both mission trip participants and those who receive them.

Relationship: the longer, deeper, more frequent and mutual interactions between teammates who go, churches that send and those who receive, the better.

Reflection:  Especially on returning home.  The more the mission trip causes all parties to reflect on their cultural and spiritual assumptions, the more that we reflect on the gap between our stated beliefs and our expressions of faith, the more we reflect on the differences between our life and faith at home and that of our new friends made in mission contexts, the better.

Now for the final R.  Reintegration. The more that we can consciously and deliberately reintegrate the lessons we have learned, the awareness gained and that spiritual focus we maintained on a mission trip into our “home” life, the more transforming the experience will be. 

For many of us the changes that occur on mission trips are in far more significant areas of life than driving and honking.  Spend a few weeks in a foreign mission field and you begin to take up the ways of that land, the examples you have seen, the lessons you have learned in life-enriching and awareness-building ways. 

But soon after returning home we "lose" it. 

While on a mission trip, we will think nothing of praying for someone in need, sharing my faith with a stranger we meet, identifying ourselves as Christians (and missionaries to boot.)  But put us in a coffee shop at home and we quickly pull back into our own little worlds, fearful of sharing our faith, forgetful that wherever we are, all believers are always missionaries sent into the world. 

For STMs to truly transform, then we need to maintain relationships and continue our reflections until the very convictions that became clear to us while on the trip become part of our lives at home. Again, this puts the onus on what happens AFTER the trip.

A conviction that God wants us to feed the hungry in Africa can lead to service in a local soup kitchen.  Two weeks of regular prayer and Bible study with mission teammates can lead us to join a small group when we get home.  The experience of overcoming biases to learn from Christians of other cultures can lead us to question our unquestioned assumptions of what Christians “look like” in North America.  And so on. 

Next post I will finish this with some things we can do to live out these three Rs and make our missions truly transformative.