You've probably seen this photo. Today I heard the girl's story on NPR's "All Things Considered." Read--or even better, listen to it --here. She has a profound testimony of learning to forgive... by coming to faith in Jesus.Our first church planting open house is tomorrow night. I’m looking forward to getting into what this whole thing is going to be about. Here are some of what we’ll be looking at:
Are you excited about this? Is there something that you’re wanting to know about as we launch the church plant? Let me know what’s on your mind.
Last night I went to a free outdoor showing of The End of Suburbia, put on at
The point the film makes is that the American suburban lifestyle—with it’s endless tracts of single family homes, miles of interstates, and people driving everywhere in their personal cars for everything needed in life—is simply unsustainable in a post-cheap-energy world.
I realize that this kind of topic, along with anything vaguely political or environmental can quickly polarize people. So why bring it up when I should be making some more insightful comments about the new church?
Because the church needs to engage the realities of the world. Because our values as a church— from how we organize, to where we hold meetings, to how we will be involved in our community, to what kind of society we want to contribute to—our values are not isolated from the rest of life in our community.
I am not interested in a private spirituality that has no relationship to the rest of my life. I live and work in
And so our understanding of what it means to follow Jesus Christ must take into account what it means to live in society. We compartmentalize our faith, work, entertainment, finances, politics, and so on at our peril.
This film made me all the more want to walk more, downsize to one car, consume less (in every respect!) and simply simplify in general.
And interestingly enough, simplicity is one of the classical spiritual disciplines. Faith has always been tied to how we actually live our lives. We need to consider this as individuals, as the church, and as a society.
“If we come to plant a church in a particular area, we’re not perceived as doing anyone any favors. But if we’re starting a café, an Internet launderette, or a day-care center, we’re seen as bringing something of intrinsic value to the community. We’re serving those to whom we’re sent.”
That’s from Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, authors of The Shaping of Things to Come.
We may be excited to plant a new church in
As we think missionally and incarnationally, we must consider our community. What it needs, what it’s lacking, how we can contribute to its well-being. We must ask, “How can we bless our community?”
This is a glimpse of what it means to be missional in our church planting efforts. Attractional thinking says, “How can we package the gospel so that people will come to us?” Missional thinking says, “How can we get involved in what is already going on in the community and bring the transforming power of the gospel with us?”
Again, it's about getting in to the community.
I’d like to write more about what a missional approach could look like, but first I put the question to you: how can we take a missional approach to ministry in
On a personal level, what kind of people are you connected with? Think about the places where you are a regular, where people know you by name. Maybe it’s at the club or a restaurant, a civic group or service organization, an arts group or a local sports league. Wherever you have connection is where you can have influence, where you can incarnate the gospel of Christ.
Now what could a missional approach look like?
How do we reach people with the gospel? So many churches have completely bought into the idea of “attractional ministry”—that we just need to do something cool enough, compelling enough, amazing enough, and people will come. We gotta get the hippest music, the coolest video effects, throw the most raging events and people will break down our doors to join us. “If you build it, they will come.”
There’s just one problem: it doesn’t work. Sure, some people will come. But we can’t be hipper than the Wachowski brothers, cooler than Death Cab for Cutie, or as wildly creative asSound intriguing? More later.
My big task this week is to whittle through all of the interesting issues and ideas and get the main themes clarified so that we can see the big picture at the open house without going down a lot of rabbit trails.
Jesus was always in the midst of the community. He wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, to hang out with the wrong crowd, to be present in the daily lives of regular people living their workaday lives, their troubled lives, even their decidedly unethical and unholy lives. He got in and they were never the same. Jesus was all about getting in and having influence.
But all too often people who decide to follow Christ immediately get out of the world. Sever all ties. Get comfortably ensconced in the church subculture. And lose influence.
The call of Christ does not demand that we sacrifice our voice in our communities. Rather the call of Christ is precisely the opposite. We are called to influence people in the world in the name of Christ. And this can’t be done without being in the world.
Are you in?
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