we are perfectly designed to achieve what we are...
TRANSCRIPT
We are perfectly
designed to
achieve what we
are currently achieving
How can you do 'new math' problems
with an 'old math' mind? ~ Charlie Brown
.
What got us here will not get us where we need to be.
~ Alan Hirsch
.
The Missionary Nature of God & the Church
The Missionary Nature of God & the Church
He has...
sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
sent me to proclaim freedom for the captives,
sent me to release from darkness the prisoners,
sent me to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
sent me to comfort all who mourn
sent me to provide for those who grieve in Zion –
sent me to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of
ashes
sent me to bestow on them the oil of gladness instead of
mourning
sent me to bestow a garment of praise instead of a spirit of
despair. (Isaiah 61:1-3)
Reformation Heritage View
The point is that Protestants have inherited a particular view of church from the Reformers, which emphasizes
the right preaching of the Word, the right administration of the ordinances, and the proper
exercise of church discipline. This view has left us with
an understanding of the church as “a place where certain things happen.”
Contemporary Variation View
The most prevalent way people in America understand
the church today is that as “a vendor of religious goods and services.” From this perspective, members are viewed more as customers for whom the religious
goods and services are produced. Churchgoers expect the church to provide a wide range of religious
services, such as great worship music, preaching, children’s programs, small groups, parenting
seminars, etc.
Missionary View
The alternative vision of the church is to see it as a people called and sent by God to participate in his
redemptive mission. The nature of the church—rooted
in the very nature of God—is missionary. Rather than seeing ourselves primarily as a sending body, we must
see ourselves as a body that is sent. The church still gathers, but the difference is that we don’t gather for
our own sake, but instead for the sake of others.
Missionary View
The alternative vision of the church is to see it as a people called and sent by God to participate in his
redemptive mission.
The nature of the church—rooted in the very nature of
God—is missionary.
Rather than seeing ourselves primarily as a sending body, we must see ourselves as a body that is sent.
The church still gathers, but the difference is that we don’t gather for our own sake, but instead for the sake
of others.
The Missionary Problem(Right Here, Right Now)
To grasp the importance of the church as the
missionary, consider the idea of cultural distance. This is a tool that we can use to discern just how far a
person or a people group is from
a meaningful engagement with the gospel. In order to determine this, we can to see it on a scale like this:
m0 m1 m2 m3 m4|---------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|
Each number represents a cultural barrier:
language, beliefs, traditions, family background, history, religious views, etc.
Remember it is we who are the “sent” people of God, which will sometimes mean we must go to
where people are. If we fail to go to the people, then to
encounter the gospel meaningfully they must come to us. This is the inbuilt assumption of the attractional
church; and it requires that the nonbeliever do all the cross-cultural work to find Jesus, and not us! And make no mistake, for many people coming to the
church involves some serious cross-cultural work for them. When we ask them to come to us we are in
essence asking them to be the missionaries!
m0 m1 m2 m3 m4|---------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|
Incarnational MissionIncarnational Mission
While the 1st paradigm shift deals with the
missionary nature of God and the sentness of the church, the 2nd key shift has to do with how and wherewe are sent. Missional speaks to our direction -- we are
sent -- while incarnational speaks to the manner we are sent. It is really about the posture we take towards
our context.
If the essence of missional living is sending, then the heart of incarnational mission is staying.
(John 1:14)
It must involve proximity and presence.
Philippians 2 / John 20:21
The Incarnation reminds us, the greatest impact in Christian mission comes through the discipline of
presence.
Corporate Gatherings
Outreach EventsClasses
Small Groups
Missional Communities
People Group Encounters
Missionary Engagement
The issue of missional-incarnational vs. attractional
is not an “either/or” proposition.
When evaluating church “success” we must move
away from measuring only numbers relating to the large gathering.
The traditional matrix of
buildings, budgets and butts will no longer suffice.
When starting a new church, we must begin with missionary activity and not with the corporate
gathering.
(Planting a church is really code for “launching” a Sunday morning worship
service.)
When the emphasis is on the large gathering,
we by default, lose focus on what God is doing in the surrounding context.
Mission is the mother of adaptive ecclesiology
Where on the continuum do you as a church leader spend the majority of your time and energy?
Where do the majority of the people in your
congregation spend their time?
What might you do to encourage people to move to
different places on the continuum?
Participation in the missio Dei
Participation in the missio Dei
missio Dei = Mission of God
Mission flows directly from the nature and purposes
of a missionary God.
It is not that God’s church has a mission;
but God’s mission has a church.
Game changer in at least 2 ways:
How would specific ministries in your church look different if they were informed by the missio Dei?
What about youth ministry? Children’s ministry? Small groups? Men/Women’s ministries?
Mission as the starting point:
Discover
Discern
Do
Debrief
What would you do differently if God’s mission
was the starting point for ministry?
What new things might be birthed if the church started with God’s mission?
.
Summarize This Shift in Thinking
With 4 Words:
Sender
Sent One
Place
Purpose
What then is the appropriate response
to the challenge?
The solution is to recognize the church’s relationship to
the culture in terms of a missionary encounter. In other words, to see that in a Post-Christendom context the
church is once again placed in an alien world.
The church is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave, but instead
to call them out in order to send them back as agents
of God’s kingship.
~ Lesslie Newbigin
Sent to
Your Places
Sent to
Your Places
Framing Missionary Formation
The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee
Shops, Community Centers, Beauty
Parlors, General Stores, Bars,
Hangouts, and How They Get You
Through the Day
by Ray Oldenburg
1st, 2nd & 3rd Places
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to
Babylon:
Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their
produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage,
that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and
do not decrease.
But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare
you will find your welfare.
Jeremiah 29:4-7
Exile vs Empire Mentality
1. Pray for Your Neighbors.
2. Be Outside.
3. Organize a Garage Sale / FB Swap .
4. Invite People for Dessert.
5. Have a Cookout.
6. Ask for Advice.
7. Join a Community Cause.
8. Have an Open House.
9. Watch for Special Needs.
10. Start a Home Bible Study/Discussion Group.
Meeting The NeighborsMeeting The Neighbors
Don’t make people your project
“Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious,
seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person”
~ Colossians 4:5–6
Too often our evangelism is “excarnate” (out of flesh) rather than being “incarnate” (in the flesh)
What is Biblical Hospitality?
What comes to mind when you hear the word “hospitality”?
In the NT the Greek word for hospitality is philoxenia.
Combination of two words: love (phileo), and the word for stranger (xenos).
It literally means “love of stranger.”
“When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich
neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be
repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed,
because they cannot repay you.” (Luke 14:12-14).
In a strict sense, strangers are those who are disconnected from basic relationships.
Making space for hospitality is not only about creating physical environments that are welcoming to others,
but it is also about the posture we take towards human relationships in general.
It’s really about inclusion.
But why don’t we do this?
What are the barriers that keep us from offering biblical hospitality?
Lack of margin in our lives.
Hospitality cannot simply be added to already
overburdened lives.
This is “our” space, and those we may “invite” into that space are carefully chosen based on whether they will
upset the delicate status quo, inconvenience us, or pose a threat to our perceived safety. In other words,
visitors, especially strange ones, stress us out. And while this is in some sense culturally understandable,
the negative result in terms of our spirituality is that the
family has effectively become a pernicious idol…. Culture has once again trumped our social
responsibility. In such a situation, missional hospitality is seen as a threat, not as an opportunity to extend the
kingdom; so an idol is born.
It’s not hard to see how this is absolutely disastrous from
a missional perspective. Our families and our homes should
be places where people can experience a foretaste of
heaven, where the church is rightly viewed as a community of the redeemed from all walks of life
(Revelation 21). Instead, our fears restrict us from letting go of the control and safety we have spent years cultivating.
– Deb Hirsch, Untamed
The question is not how dangerous is that stranger; the question is how dangerous will I become if I
am not more open.
2nd Place
Theologically speaking our vocation is NOT about economic exchange. It is not about making more
money, or achieving the American dream.
It is about contributing to and participating in God’s mission.
3rd Places
The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors, General Stores,
Bars, Hangouts, and How They Get You Through the Day
by Ray Oldenburg
•Identify and Enter
•Create Environments
•Support
More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around,
greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball,
and be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a
privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of
presence.
Still, it is not as simple as it seems. My own desire to be useful, to
do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is
so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences,
study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the
streets.
It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an
urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social
progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be
to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to
their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words,
handshakes, and hugs that you don’t simply like them, but you truly
love them.
~ Henri Nouwen
L
I
G
H
T
isten to the Holy Spirit
nvite others to share a meal
ive a blessing
ear from the Gospels
ake inventory of the day
Language
Language Creates Culture
"We don't go to church, we are the church"
"Every member a missionary"
"Everybody gets to play”
“You have already been sent”
“Relationships happen in the margins”
“What is God doing? How does He want me to participate?”
“God's church doesn't have a mission, God's mission
has a church”
“Gospel of the Kingdom”
Participation in the missio Dei
Participation in the missio Dei
Missional Leadership
(non-hierarchal / no laity-clergy divide)
(need balance among the gifts & we must value the diversity of the gifts)
APEST (4:11 Team!)
Apostle – sent ones / pioneering / extend the gospel
Prophet – bring correction & challenge of dominant assumptions
Evangelist – recruiter to the cause / infectious communicator
Shepherd – nurturer & protector / caregiver
Teacher – understand & explain
Without the input of other gifts what might happen?
Who has most influenced the “shape” of church today?
(Key: they are not leadership roles, they are gifts in everybody in the body!)