What is a Missional Church anyway?

I've been posting a lot about Missional Church lately. Here's a little bit of clarification about this model I'm strongly resonating with.

What Will Consume you?

     Our cohort is taking a look at the impact of economics on culture. Of our reading material, I was so interested in the concept of consumption. What consumes you and what do you consume? I appreciate the potential Christians have to speak to this issue. Check out these videos. 

What challenges you about the concept of our consumer culture? 

What is a convert?

This semester I'm taking two classes. One of which is with one of my youth ministry heroes, Dr. Chap Clark, Author of Hurt: Inside the World of Today's Teenagers (Youth, Family, and Culture). 

In our first few weeks we have been reflecting on something called Incarnational Witness. The basic idea is that our methods of evangelism should reflect the life and model of ministry Jesus practiced. This model dictates that evangelism should be motivated by the same things that motivated Jesus, like being sent by the Father. We should model our evangelism after Christ's example, leaving our place of comfort to go to the broken, the hurting, and the forgotten.

• These lectures are invigorating my love for youth ministry!
• The course material is also solidifying my belief in relational youth ministry as opposed to creating a class or a program for every kind of problem teens will face. When I look back at my adolescence, it was people who journeyed with me that made the difference and not classes or even sermons! I remember the way my youth pastor and youth leaders listened to me, came to my games, and took my questions. I pray that I can be that for our youth and train others in the same model. 

When you think back to your teenage years or even a recent crisis, what made the difference for you?

Are we welcome?

This past Sunday we had a service where our youth sent in questions via text message and our team took turns answering them. I was struck by one of the questions, "My parents and I used to be Jehovah's Witness and now we've made up our own religion. Are we welcome at Shoreline?" Most of my thoughts were drawn from Shaping of Things to Come, The: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church

• First off, I posted about our predominant culture's posture towards 'do it yourself' religion and was not surprised to see it show up in our youth meeting. 
• I also spoke to her about our Church's philosophy. Shoreline wishes to engage Austin's culture and to say that they were not welcome to attend our services based on their beliefs of behavior wouldn't sit well with our leadership. We don't make attendance about belief and behavior, however we make no apology for teaching very specific things about how we believe and how our church family should behave. 
• Then, there was almost sadness in the question. "Are we welcome?" That part of the text, as it was read aloud broke my heart. In it I heard a longing for community, for belonging, and for connection. This is so prevalent in our culture, regardless of age. 

How about your experience with church communities? What is your experience with church community?  Are there things that people do or believe that would make them unwelcome?

"Radical Alternative"

I forgot where I found this, but it showed up in a file I clipped from my studies.

Stanley Hauerwas and William Willmon propose a "confessing church" model as a "radical alternative" to the "activist" (Constantinian) or "conversionist" (privatized) models that are current. What they envision is the church as "an alternative polis, a countercultural social structure called church." Such a church has its overriding political task "that again asserts that God, not nations, rule the world, that boundaries of God's kingdom transcend those of Caesar, and that the main political task of the church is the formation of people who see clearly the cost of discipleship and are willing to pay the price." They invite us to see ourselves with the exilic eyes as "resident" aliens, an adventurous colony in a society of unbelief."

• The privatized church model is centered too much on the individual for me. The church is not a provider of goods and services. It is something so much more than that. 

• Whether we like it or not, we are "resident" aliens in our surrounding culture.  

What if we (as the church) viewed our apartments, homes, or where ever we live as foreign embassies, representing another kingdom? 

How would this change our church programs? How would this change the way we work, go to school, and interact with our neighbors? 

Risky Improvisational and Experiment

A church which pitches its tents without constantly looking out for new horizons, which does not continually strike camp, is being untrue to its calling. . . . [We must] play down our longing for certainty, accept what is risky, live by improvisation and experiment. —Hans Küng
Frost, Michael; Hirsch, Alan (2001-01-01). Shaping of Things to Come, The (Kindle Locations 34-38). Baker Book Group. Kindle Edition. 

This is the type of life I know the Collins' family is called to. This is the kind of church community I dream of, one that lives like performance artists and functions like a light in the darkness. Have a great week!

What thoughts have challenged you recently?

Is there one way to Heaven?

In a service on Christmas day, our worship pastor made a comment about Jesus being the only way to Heaven. The claim was a little more direct than we usually make, but I thought it was well in the appropriate bounds for a Christian worship gathering. I knew there was a Muslim man attending our service to watch his son perform in our service. I remember glancing his way to see his reaction and I was surprised to see him clapping. Even more so, he came up to me after service to tell me how much he enjoyed worshipping with us and to thank me for mentoring his son.

That's not the first surprise. The people who were offended by the claim were from our congregation. This week, these two youtube videos are assigned viewing in my Contemporary Cultures class at Fuller. 

What do you think of these? Is there one way to Heaven or are there multiple ways? Has Oprah gone off the deep end here? How would you respond to these women?

I'm pretty conservative in my beliefs, but I'd like to know what you think. 

The Bible and Missions

     Helen Montgomory was more than an author. She was a public offical, missionary, scholar, political activist and preacher (Rochester Regional Library Council 2000). Living at the turn of the 20th century dramatically effected her worldview, especially in the area of justice. I think this plays a large part in her perspective on the Bible and Misisons. She spent most of her life on missional projects and her education, culture, and gender must have made the missioal motifs of justice, God’s heart for the oppressed, and the nations leap off of the page.

     Her thesis is clearly claims that the Bible is concerned first and foremost with God’s mission (Page 7). Her thesis goes so far as to claim that when one reads the scriptures, “the missionary message is inescapable.” (Page 7)

     Montgomory remains true to her predominant modern culture by presenting a well constructed linear presentation to support her thesis. She shows the reader what she will say in outline form (Page 5-6; 52-53) before each chapter. As she begins to unpack her arguments she opens with definitions of various missinal motifs and key concepts (Page 8). Her prose is lively and it conveys the feeling that she strongly believes in what she’s writing.
     Then she gets to work. In he following secsions she highlights in broad strokes the missional motifs in the major sections of the Hebrew Bible. She strengthens her claims by admitting that she cannot mention every motif and every example because there are too many for a brief treatment. This concession only helps her declarations because it makes the reader wonder how many other examples there are to support her thesis. Montgomery repeats the same pattern for the Christian Testament in the second section, organized first by section or genre and stopping at various high points of each book.

     I must respond to Montgomory’s thesis as directly as I can. To put it bluntly, She had me at Goethe. Her diction and writting style was thoughtful, but not too thick to take down. I did make liberal use of the dictionary feature in my PDF reader though. To analyze this book after the ML 520 seminar is not much of a fair fight. I came into this assignment with some strong preconcieved ideas, so I must admit my bias.

     I was particularly drawn to her treatment of Micha where she highlights his distaste for as she calls it “formal religion” (Page 35). Working in a Mega Church causes a tension inside me as I reconcile my weekly activities. I want so badly to make sure that I’m pleasing the Lord, but the seduction of performing or working to make things look good is an easy pattern to fall into. This book is familiar to me, but she highlighted something new to me in the previous sections. I never consicously considred that most the Hebrew prophets wrote about cultures similar to mine. I knew it, but the reality never sunk into my heart in a way that got my attention.Taking Micha’s words to heart, I am asking God to continually “purify” my religion and make it an offering that will please him.

     This book will compliment shifts in living and thinking Marie and I are already attempting to make. We converse about what kind of children we think God wants us to raise and what kind of family God wants us to become. My preaching and teaching topics are also more missional in the kinds of words I use. Many of the topics are the same. However, I approach them from a different perspective of God’s mission. For a while, I will use this book as a resource for preaching. When I’m preaching on a text, I’ll make sure to glance at Montgomory’s comments about it, as to avoid proof texting or justifying my mission (Page 7).

References Cited

Rochester Regional Library Council: Western New York Suffragists. 2000. “Helen Montgomory” http://winningthevote.org/HBMontgomery.html

Elevate 2011 Summer Camp: Last Morning Service

Stanley Hauerwas on Leadership

We just finished a book by this guy. It was a collection of his essays and it really challenged the was I look at my family, Shoreline Church, and topics like sex and abortion. If you are a youth leader or a leader in the church. This is a guy you should know about. He's brilliant. He's a bit over my head, but it's a good stretch. Check out this video and get a few nuggets of wisdom out of it.

I also think he may be the voice of Jesus in the Vintage 21 videos. (posted below) :-)

Planning Season for Youth Ministry

The first half of the year is over and it's well past time to put our fall ministry plan into effect. This video explains how how I feel about the process. If Jesus was running your church's youth ministry (it's a crazy claim, I know), what would his dreams be? (HT to Chad for the vid)

Book Review: Jesus and Community

About the author: Gerhard Lohfink grew up in Germany in the midst of rising national tensions as nations built up to World War II forcing him to move many times. He excelled in the field of academics gaining permission to pursue higher degrees while serving as pastor and chaplain in various posts. His perspective as a German, a priest, and college professor uniquely qualify him to make bold claims with his thesis and to support it with evidence from scripture, early church history, and first hand experience.

About the Thesis: His thesis claims that Christian Community’s form must come from the practices of Jesus that we have in the form of the gospels, which was uniquely focused on Israel, gathering it together so that the world my experience the kingdom of God, bringing God’s reign into the earthly realm, standing out in the midst the dominant culture, and acting as Christ’s agent of change.

About the Structure: He supports his thesis using a 4-section structure. First sections define Jesus’ model of Community as implied by his actions on earth and Old Testament precedent. The final sections outline how Apostles and early followers continued the important aspects of community instituted by Christ. These practices include but are not limited to: praying for the sick, living as a contrast society, bearing the identity of “God’s people,” passively resisting the kingdom of this world, and cultivating a community of equals that serve each other.

Personal Reaction: Lohfink’s repetitious structure aided my understanding of his thesis. With out the repetition of a claim, a scripture, an explanation of the passage, and conclusions, he would certainly have lost me. Thankfully we did not have to read it in German. From my perspective these insights are valuable, but perhaps too familiar. This may be a byproduct of the generation I’m a part of and the generation of people I work with, but I found myself too easily agreeing with Lohfink’s highly authentic, communal, egalitarian, peaceful, and accountable version of Christian community. After reflection, I find myself asking, “Why don’t more people in my stream of Christianity know about this book?”

About Application: As for application to my ministry situation, I think this book will find it’s place in a stockpile I’ll return to in a search to provide Shoreline’s youth an alternative to consumerism. The image I found most vivid was in the introduction. It talked about a priest, a counselor, and physician roaming a city “on call” (Location, 84). This vivid picture illustrates a tension I currently feel in ministry to a large church. We want to help people, but Lohfink challenged my thinking about the way Mega Churches serve congregations. There certainly isn’t anything wrong with serving a parishioner, but what if the structure of a community actually encourages individualism? If Jesus was in charge of my youth group, (a bold thought, I know) what would he say about our programs and the impulses they feed? How would they compare to the picture of Christ’s community provided by Lohfink?

Initially, I think we have a long way to go as a contrast society. We have a gathering, but I wonder about how much of Lohfink’s community we experience. There are brilliant moments that punctuate our program, that come in Small Groups, Retreats, and Summer Camps where young people catch a glimpse of what God’s Kingdom might look like, but this rarely translates into the day to day life of our community. This issue cannot be solved with a sermon series or a small group study. Perhaps I need to look at my own life and ask if I’m buying what I’m “selling?” My gut level hunch is that young people will not do it until they see it, so perhaps what our group needs is a contrast society within our community.

Book Review: A Community of Character

A bit about the author: Stanley Hauerwas plainly says that he identifies strongly with the (Southern) Methodist tradition, but is open to ideas from other streams of Christianity (Page 6). He’s the son of a workingman from Indiana, who pursued higher education instead of staying close to home. He taught at Notre Dame and currently teaches at Duke Divinity School. He’s a prolific author and thinker, whose books are required reading in many theology programs.

Thesis: Hauerwas claims that the Church is to be a group of people who view life through the lens of Biblical Narrative and live in such a way that is true to those stories (Page 1).  That is the main way that Christians will “reassert” their relevance to culture (Page 1).

Structure: This book is a collection of essays grouped into three sections. Part 1 explores and explains what Hauerwas means by a narrative and it’s implications for community. Part 2 builds upon the definition of narrative and broadly traces it’s development and usage historically and ends with implications for spiritual formation. Section 3 takes advantage of the stage set by previous definitions and explorations and delves into critical areas in Christian Social Ethics. These issues are a definition of family, politics, how to talk about sex, and a response to the issue of abortion.

Personal Application: I am grateful for the way the thesis challenges the Church to be different from the world without withdrawing from it. Growing up in the height of the Religious Right’s popularity, left me questioning if the church’s main responsibility was in the arena of social policy, especially politics.  He supports his arguments and even includes many ideas contrary to his own position. This made his ideas more credible, even if it was hard to stick with the overarching thoughts in each essay. It was a stretch for me to read. I found myself agreeing with his positions, but perplexed as to how to apply it to my discussions with teenagers and parents.

The biggest challenge for me is how to apply these thoughts to my own family. I found myself without a quick answer to why I want children (Page 157). I’ve wanted to be a Father as long as I can remember, but I found myself without a vocabulary to explain why. After this read, and a little bit of thinking, I can say that I want my family to be ambassadors of another kingdom. I want us intimately involved in our neighborhood and church community. Now comes the hard part, doing this on purpose. Marie and I used to dream of taking our daughters to outreaches, doing things for our neighbors, and modeling a different way of life for them. However, much of this fervor gave way to the daily pressures of life. Hauerwas gives hope to this as well, as we can even see the mundane as “heroic”  (Page 174).

Jesus and Community

     I just read somehting in this book that really struck home. In the introduction Lohfink talks about a mobile pastoral unit that operated in West Berlin in the 1980's. It was comprised of a car, a short wave radio, a priest, a psychologist and a physician. They would patrol around ready to serve needs of various individuals.

     The author didn't see this as a good thing because it nurtured peoples consumerist attitude toward Churches. I'm not even finished with the introduction. I had to stop and ask myself what the main thrust of my ministry efforts is going towards. Am I in customer service or am I interested in the Kingdom of God? No doubt the two are held in tension. The Church (big C) should take care of people for sure, but I'm really interested in this new layer that Lohfink suggests: we can do it in such a way that encourages people to participate in community, rather than leaving them in the gutter of individualism. Thus we will avoid being a supermarket church where people can come in, shop, grab what they need, and then go back on their merry lonely way?

How have you seen a church help someone in a way that nurtures community? Ideas?

What wakes me up at 7 AM Sunday morning: A mini rant

Can we talk? (I guess so since you're reading this.)

If I'm honest I have to admit that I'm frustrated. There are a handful of amazing youth workers that show up to volunteer first service on Sunday morning. I realize that support and consistency are huge emotional needs for me, but what frustrates me goes beyond my emotional health. I could rant about being true to one's word, keeping commitments, and duty. Relax, I don't think that will help. I realize that much of my frustration comes from the fact that I'm asking people to serve 12-14 year olds at 8 AM on a Sunday morning. The rest of it comes from an inability I've had as a leader to cast a vision that helps people see the importance of what happens from 8:30 AM -10:00 AM each week.

I want to be clear that I'm not mad at any specific person. I don't think there are bad guys or gals in this situation. I also do not think that a church service is an 'end all' 'be all' to a young teenager's spiritual formation.

I have however, accepted the responsibility and the task of making sure that young teens are loved, guided to God's presence, and personally engaged every week, regardless of the time.

Here's a few reasons why I show up on Sunday.

• Someone did it for me.
• On some level, young people expect to meet with God at church. It's an honor to be a concrete representative of Christ when someone is looking for Him!
• It's fun.
• It makes a difference. The longer I'm involved in relational youth ministry, the more effective I've been with teens, parents, and their families.  Trust takes time, and after 5 years I'm seeing more "results" than ever. 
• The "week to week" matters.  With tons of change at school, community, and family, young people benefit greatly from knowing that there is some consistency in their lives.

Ok, I feel a bit better now. I keep thinking if people really knew what goes on in our services, it would be difficult to STOP them from helping these teens. Maybe I'm crazy. 

Thoughts?

Sunday's Coming - Satire on church

I sent this video to our church staff after seeing it on Marko's blog, to look at the culture we create at Shoreline. I'm not saying our culture is bad, right or wrong.I'm saying that we should be able to laugh at ourselves and then ask, "why are we laughing?" I wonder if sometimes the massive efforts the Church makes to be relevant, hip, and effective unintentionally create a sub culture? 


It's ironic that the attempt to do away with cumbersome ineffective models of communication, legalistic messages, and poor perception have created a culture in itself. Brilliant! In College, I took an intro to theatre class with Dr. Laura Holland and I'll never forget her saying, "an artist cannot not communicate. I believe that statement was more about communication that just theatre and it applies to the way churches as well as artists communicate.


There was a point in my life where I would have jumped all over this video in order to make mega churches look bad. I'd point out how shallow and cold big churches can seem. I'd pick out a few examples and judge them. Looking back, I freely admit that I was merely jealous of other people's "success." What is success anyway? I don't think a church is healthy or unhealthy based on size alone.  My definition of success is different than it was 5 or 6 years ago and that let me watch with an open mind. It helped me laugh without judging. Make no mistake, this is a funny video, but why is it funny? If you don't go to church, does any of this even make sense? Thoughts?  



"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Welcome Back Pastors Rob and Laura!

I just came across this video on our church's website. I could attend due to other responsibilities with the middle schoolers. So many friends and family have extended prayers and well wishes to our church since loosing Caleb. Thank you so much for that. This video contains highlights from our Pastors' first service back with us since loosing their son.

Welcome Back! - Aug 30, 2009 from Bryan Martin on Vimeo.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

We Are The Church - Part 1

Earl McClellan, spoke in big church a few weeks ago and delivered a sermon called: We Are The Church - Part 1you can listen here. He lays out the strategy of how our church is going to reach our community and I've never been so excited to be a part of what's going on here.

Our hope is to shift away from a professional clergy based church model. We want our congregation to see themselves as priests. We want people to think about church as something so much bigger than what takes place on Sunday. I'm guessing that this is the sort of thing that lots of churches talk about and kick around. We've talked about this paradigm for years now, but something is different now.

The people we work closest with are youth workers, young adults, and singles. They are getting it. There have been numerous occasions of them beating us to the hospital when someone is sick, having a baby, or going through a hard time. Personally, I'm realizing the work of a Pastor, to train and equip the saints for ministry. It's happening and it is beautiful. I can't wait to articulate some of these ideas to our middle schoolers this Sunday.

The big idea of the sermon comes from Jesus' words to Peter, "the gates of hell will not prevail against you." Jesus is in a sense calling a play for us, the Church (with a big C). He's saying, "beat back the gates of hell, beat back the gates of hell." It's up to the team and me to train these kids to be "Jesus with skin on" to their families, schools, and neighborhoods.

I'm not going to talk long, just set up this idea. Then we're going to do it. We had planned to have someone donate 10 inches of their hair on stage to locks of love, but the hair stylist fell through. Instead, we're having a Funraiser (yes FUN raiser) for Caleb's Place - an orphanage in Caleb Koke's memory. We'll also have a station to get them in a connect group and another for them to fill out cards for kids in Dell Children's hospital. Should be fun!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Missions

I just got a message via facebook about this discussion going on with Fuller's Youth and Family institute. A mission trip with lift is going to happen some day, but that doesn't mean that we should jump into the first thing that comes along. A short term mission trip changed my life for sure. I am grateful that the work I did supported the local people groups that I was working with and did not center on me or my team. When lift does go on missions, I want to make sure that we are assisting the local church in whatever place we go to and that our youth have their perspectives challenged and broadened.

Check out the link below and contribute to the discussion.

1. Materialism and Missional Living Post-Trip:
Many of us have returned from mission trips with kids who vow to be less materialistic and live on/consume less stuff. Then next week happens and they’re back to their old patterns and lifestyle. What effective strategies have you seen work in helping kids’ drive away from materialism stick beyond the STM experience?
Respond:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=8545&uid=23898203591

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Secondhand Jesus: A book Review

I just reviewed this book on Amazon, but thought I'd repost it here.

I appreciate Glenn Packiam’s perspective as a pastor, musician, theologian, and worship leader. He currently lives in the context of western Christianity, and recently weathered one of the biggest church scandals to ever come along, with perhaps the exception of PTL in the late 1980’s. He also has a unique perspective of Jesus from outside the Mid-Western church box since he is from Malaysia. In the tradition of Donald Miller and Mark Steele he writes in a memoir story style that is perceptive and easy for the reader to digest.

As a youth pastor in a mega church in the Southwest, I ask questions along the line of Packiam’s thinking. I’m grateful for the way he articulated his questions. It wasn’t bitter or snobby. I can tell he genuinely loves the Church (with a big C). At our church, we have great volunteers, a supportive pastor, more than adequate meeting space, and a genuine desire to help youth in our community. However we as a youth ministry, feel like we are missing something. Glenn puts his finger on many areas youth ministries need to work on.

Specifically, Glenn highlights Jesus teachings about the “good life” dismissing the rumor that God just wants people to have “easy” lives. Glenn Packiam also observed the propensity for many churches to become a “one-stop spiritual shopping” church. We have groups for everything that you can think of and if we are not careful churches can point people to themselves instead of Jesus.

I’m thankful that Glenn Packiam didn’t attempt to wrap everything up in a nice little bow with trite formulas and cheesy slogans. He doesn’t set himself up to have all the answers. Instead, he leaves these rumors open for dialog. This is a great book for conversation and to read in community. I look forward to adding this book and its ideas into the curriculum of our ministry to teenagers and young adults and recommend it without reservation.