Implementing church programs can be a bit of a pain sometimes, can’t it? Sure, there are many benefits and blessings that come out of programs, but they require a lot effort, energy, and resources. They can dominate the allotted church service announcement time. They can even distract from the main thing as people get caught up in making the programs work.
I’ve heard mission described as a program that can become a nuisance. If everything is about mission, it’s been said, then people may water down real theology in order to boost numbers, promote extraneous activities to get people in the doors, and veer away from the truth so everyone can feel good about meeting people’s needs.
There’s just one problem here: the paragraph above doesn’t accurately describe mission. Mission is not a program.
Mission is the Latin word for the Hebrew “shalach” and the Greek “apostello.” It means “to send,” as in God sending Himself, sending people, sending prophets, sending disciples, sending the Word, and sending the Word made flesh, Jesus! This is no extraneous, time-frittering, church-growth-fad word. This is the core of God’s nature, revealed to us in the Bible. This is the ball game.
Without mission, there is no Word of God. Without mission, there are no sacraments. Without mission, there are no creeds. Without mission, there is no liturgy. Without mission, there are no Confessions. Without mission, there is no Church. Without mission, there is no life and salvation. Without mission, there is no hope.
As Georg Vicedom said in his classic book “The Mission of God”:
“The mission is work that belongs to God. This is the first implication of missio Dei. God is the Lord, the One who gives the orders, the owner, the One who takes care of things. He is the Protagonist in the mission. When we ascribe the mission to God in this way, then it is withdrawn from human whims…The mission, and with it the church, is God’s very own work. We cannot speak of ‘the mission of the church,’ even less of ‘our mission.’ Both the church and the mission have their source in the loving will of God” (pp.5-6).
If that is true, what human whims might we be putting above The Mission as we assert that The Mission is merely a human whim?
Showing posts with label Mission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mission. Show all posts
Monday, July 9, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Five Ways to Get Out of the (church) Box
2. Love on people in a local nursing home. Hundreds of elderly and disabled folks in our communities are lonely and forgotten. What if a handful of people from church invited non-churched friends from the community to gather with people there for conversation, songs, a brief devotion, and some games every week? The result would be a satellite congregation and many lives reached with the love of Jesus!
3. Deploy. What if you started a “preaching station” or a missional community in another part of town or in a town nearby? Why not stretch your boundaries by sending people to extend the reach of the Gospel?
4. Plant a church. What if you worked with your local Mission and Ministry Facilitator to seriously consider what it would take to get the right church planter on board to start a new ministry?
5. Serve. What if you blessed the community by finding a way to help make the community better? Talk with community leaders to see what needs exist. Then invite non-members to get involved with you. People will say yes to community service more often than to attending a church service. Let them see Jesus in action first!
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
A New Neighborhood
Relationships are no longer centered on geography. When I was a kid, all the moms on the block knew each other, knew each other’s kids, and had the right to discipline any of the kids on the block. Families typically had one car--a car dad used to go to and from work. Neighbors talked over the backyard fence, got together to play cards, and combined efforts to form the winning bowling team at the local bowling alley.
Geography and neighborhood went hand in hand. But not anymore.
Sure, there are some neighborhoods that are cohesive and neighborly, but new “neighborhoods” have sprung up as people have become more mobile, more networked, and more selective about who their “neighbors” are.
“Anthropography” has replaced geography. People are choosing the people they hang with--and people are being thrown together in ways they never expected.
Unfortunately, the church may still get hung up on geography. True, geographical neighbors are important, but if Christians are told that their neighborhood is limited to the homes or apartment units that surround where they live, new neighborhoods and new opportunities to share the Gospel will be overlooked.
Some people spend more time with co-workers than with people from their subdivision. You may spend more time with people in school, or online, or at the remote main office, or at your kids’ soccer games, or in the dialysis lab than you do with people who live just a front yard away.
How is the church preparing itself to reach these new neighborhoods? How are believers reaching beyond geography? What’s your neighborhood and how will you bring Jesus to it?
Geography and neighborhood went hand in hand. But not anymore.
Sure, there are some neighborhoods that are cohesive and neighborly, but new “neighborhoods” have sprung up as people have become more mobile, more networked, and more selective about who their “neighbors” are.
“Anthropography” has replaced geography. People are choosing the people they hang with--and people are being thrown together in ways they never expected.
Unfortunately, the church may still get hung up on geography. True, geographical neighbors are important, but if Christians are told that their neighborhood is limited to the homes or apartment units that surround where they live, new neighborhoods and new opportunities to share the Gospel will be overlooked.
Some people spend more time with co-workers than with people from their subdivision. You may spend more time with people in school, or online, or at the remote main office, or at your kids’ soccer games, or in the dialysis lab than you do with people who live just a front yard away.
How is the church preparing itself to reach these new neighborhoods? How are believers reaching beyond geography? What’s your neighborhood and how will you bring Jesus to it?
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The Stones Cry Out
Are you noticing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ seems to be coming from sources that you would never expect?
Justin Bieber, American Idol, Survivor, Tim Tebow, The X-Factor, and even the Queen of England’s annual Christmas address. In his blog, Steve Addison commented that the Queen’s words voiced a more profound understanding of Jesus than the messages from England’s clerics (read it here: http://www.movements.net/2011/12/26/the-queens-christmas-message.html).
What’s going on?
I wonder if the stones are starting to cry out. Remember in Luke 19, as Jesus entered Jerusalem to the praise-filled shouts of the people, the church leaders tried to quiet the people down. Jesus replied to these representatives of chosen Israel, these holders of the keys to the Kingdom, these shepherds of the flock, these keepers of the Word: “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (vs. 40).
What happens when the church starts to suppress the Gospel? What happens when the actions of God’s people do a disservice to the sacred message? What happens when those who are appointed to represent Christ focus more on representing themselves? What happens when the church turns inward, removes itself from its role of being a city set on a hill, and busies itself with survival and control instead of sacrifice and outreach?
The stones cry out.
I get a little scared about this. God sent Israel into exile because they squelched the message and mission. He had people like Nebuchadnezzar and Darius proclaim the Savior to the world. The “stones” cried out when the church forsook its first love.
So, back to Justin Bieber, Survivor, and Tim Tebow. As the stones begin to cry out, shouldn’t we in the church be shaken enough to remember our first love, repent, and get back to risking it all for God’s mission? What will that look like for you?
Justin Bieber, American Idol, Survivor, Tim Tebow, The X-Factor, and even the Queen of England’s annual Christmas address. In his blog, Steve Addison commented that the Queen’s words voiced a more profound understanding of Jesus than the messages from England’s clerics (read it here: http://www.movements.net/2011/12/26/the-queens-christmas-message.html).
What’s going on?
I wonder if the stones are starting to cry out. Remember in Luke 19, as Jesus entered Jerusalem to the praise-filled shouts of the people, the church leaders tried to quiet the people down. Jesus replied to these representatives of chosen Israel, these holders of the keys to the Kingdom, these shepherds of the flock, these keepers of the Word: “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (vs. 40).
What happens when the church starts to suppress the Gospel? What happens when the actions of God’s people do a disservice to the sacred message? What happens when those who are appointed to represent Christ focus more on representing themselves? What happens when the church turns inward, removes itself from its role of being a city set on a hill, and busies itself with survival and control instead of sacrifice and outreach?
The stones cry out.
I get a little scared about this. God sent Israel into exile because they squelched the message and mission. He had people like Nebuchadnezzar and Darius proclaim the Savior to the world. The “stones” cried out when the church forsook its first love.
So, back to Justin Bieber, Survivor, and Tim Tebow. As the stones begin to cry out, shouldn’t we in the church be shaken enough to remember our first love, repent, and get back to risking it all for God’s mission? What will that look like for you?
Monday, November 28, 2011
Reformation Rumblings
Not long ago, I heard Felicity Dale, co-author of “The Rabbit and the Elephant,” make this comment: “During the Reformation God put the Bible into the hands of ordinary people. Today, God is putting the church into the hands of ordinary people.”
The content of the comment struck me as thought provoking. But the fact that she brought up the Reformation also struck me as very interesting. I’m hearing a lot of talk about the Reformation these days.
As a Lutheran, I observe that we tend to claim the Reformation as “our thing.” Martin Luther, “A Mighty Fortress,” “Here I stand, I can do no other,”--we celebrate, remember, and treasure the Reformation.
More and more, however, I am hearing Reformation talk from broader Christian circles. They’re making it more “their thing” too.
Why? What’s happening?
Let’s answer the question by looking at five key phenomena happening then and now:
1. Technological Innovation: 75 years after the invention of the printing press, the dissemination of information was at a new level. Today, immediate digital communication is in the palm of people’s hands. Something new is happening and the church is wondering how this might impact the mission of God.
2. Institutional Fatigue: As the Roman Catholic Church battled corruption and financial desperation for in-house projects, today’s mainline denominations continue to hurt financially and disintegrate theologically. The church is wondering what this might mean for a post-denominational and post-congregational mindset.
3. Personal Conviction: Luther was gripped by the Gospel. The message of salvation by grace through faith drove him to be a voice for God’s true Word. Today, many are being gripped by mission, the sentness of God’s people into a lost world. New voices are being raised to advocate outreach action and sentness versus inreach complacency and isolation.
4. A New Location: Rome was the epicenter of the church during the pre-Reformation era. Germany was on the fringe of where “it was happening.” But change happened from outside the institutional safe-zone. Today, Asia, Africa, and South America are demonstrating rapid movements of Kingdom expansion while the church in the west is, at best, trying to figure out the key to church multiplication and, at worst, distracted by its own inward thinking.
5. Transitional Times: The Reformation was a messy time of new communication modes, new ways of life, new thoughts, and re-developing theology. We live in a similar time--in-between conventional and new methods of communication, in-between the old analog and new digital, in-between store and online shopping, in-between church the way it was and church reinvented. It’s a messy time of transition, and we don’t know how it will end up.
The times are very similar to Reformation times. Do we realize it? Are we engaging in asking questions, lifting up our prayers to the Head of the Church, and listening for His guidance? Are we willing to be courageous as the ways of man are cast aside and the ways of God break through into our lives?
During these Reformation days, are we willing to be a part of it or will we resist it to preserve our comfort levels and control?
The content of the comment struck me as thought provoking. But the fact that she brought up the Reformation also struck me as very interesting. I’m hearing a lot of talk about the Reformation these days.
As a Lutheran, I observe that we tend to claim the Reformation as “our thing.” Martin Luther, “A Mighty Fortress,” “Here I stand, I can do no other,”--we celebrate, remember, and treasure the Reformation.
More and more, however, I am hearing Reformation talk from broader Christian circles. They’re making it more “their thing” too.
Why? What’s happening?
Let’s answer the question by looking at five key phenomena happening then and now:
1. Technological Innovation: 75 years after the invention of the printing press, the dissemination of information was at a new level. Today, immediate digital communication is in the palm of people’s hands. Something new is happening and the church is wondering how this might impact the mission of God.
2. Institutional Fatigue: As the Roman Catholic Church battled corruption and financial desperation for in-house projects, today’s mainline denominations continue to hurt financially and disintegrate theologically. The church is wondering what this might mean for a post-denominational and post-congregational mindset.
3. Personal Conviction: Luther was gripped by the Gospel. The message of salvation by grace through faith drove him to be a voice for God’s true Word. Today, many are being gripped by mission, the sentness of God’s people into a lost world. New voices are being raised to advocate outreach action and sentness versus inreach complacency and isolation.
4. A New Location: Rome was the epicenter of the church during the pre-Reformation era. Germany was on the fringe of where “it was happening.” But change happened from outside the institutional safe-zone. Today, Asia, Africa, and South America are demonstrating rapid movements of Kingdom expansion while the church in the west is, at best, trying to figure out the key to church multiplication and, at worst, distracted by its own inward thinking.
5. Transitional Times: The Reformation was a messy time of new communication modes, new ways of life, new thoughts, and re-developing theology. We live in a similar time--in-between conventional and new methods of communication, in-between the old analog and new digital, in-between store and online shopping, in-between church the way it was and church reinvented. It’s a messy time of transition, and we don’t know how it will end up.
The times are very similar to Reformation times. Do we realize it? Are we engaging in asking questions, lifting up our prayers to the Head of the Church, and listening for His guidance? Are we willing to be courageous as the ways of man are cast aside and the ways of God break through into our lives?
During these Reformation days, are we willing to be a part of it or will we resist it to preserve our comfort levels and control?
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
This is Hard
I received a note from a friend of mine who has served as a missionary in Burkina Faso, West Africa for twenty years. He shared the news that for the very first time in history, the local people who are now believers will be praying for their people. Most of the Koromba people are either animist or Muslim. A small band of about 30 believers in an area of over 100,000 people will be lifting them up in prayer that all may know Jesus and the life He gives.
This is a big deal. It’s taken decades to get to this point. It’s been a challenging, stretching, high-effort, persistent, relational outreach. Little by little fruit is being borne.
When we in the U.S. hear about the growth of Christianity in Africa or Asia, we rejoice, but we also may veer off in two directions.
First, we may think it’s easy. We think the Western cultural barriers don’t lend themselves to a movement of Kingdom expansion. We imagine that our lives are much more complex, fragmented, technical and advanced. People in our culture, we conjecture, aren’t as amenable to the Gospel. But in Asia and Africa--well, life is simpler, more networked and, therefore, “easy pickings” for the spread of the Gospel.
Second, we may miss the point. Instead of marveling at the work of the Holy Spirit in the Southern Hemisphere, we may start to worship the movement. We may become enamored with the numbers and lust after the phenomenon as an idol. Crying out “We want a movement, too!” may be more about possessing success than seeing God succeed in people’s hearts and souls.
Two truths need reinforcement among us in the West. First, the movement of the Gospel in Africa and Asia is hard work. It’s a difficult journey. The blood of many believers cries out from the ground of those nations and forms a foundation for what is happening today. The living Word continues to pound against spiritual and cultural barriers that we can’t even imagine.
Second, a primary weakness in our lives is the production of idols. The book of Deuteronomy opens with a dissection of our souls, making us aware of the fact that we always lean toward idol development and worship. As the Church expands around the world, we need to keep our eye on the ball--the cause of the Gospel, and not lapse into competing for the best world mission movement.
Around the world, every believer in the East, West, South or North has been called by Jesus to deny himself and take up his cross and follow. It’s hard. And it’s all about Jesus, not about us.
This is a big deal. It’s taken decades to get to this point. It’s been a challenging, stretching, high-effort, persistent, relational outreach. Little by little fruit is being borne.
When we in the U.S. hear about the growth of Christianity in Africa or Asia, we rejoice, but we also may veer off in two directions.
First, we may think it’s easy. We think the Western cultural barriers don’t lend themselves to a movement of Kingdom expansion. We imagine that our lives are much more complex, fragmented, technical and advanced. People in our culture, we conjecture, aren’t as amenable to the Gospel. But in Asia and Africa--well, life is simpler, more networked and, therefore, “easy pickings” for the spread of the Gospel.
Second, we may miss the point. Instead of marveling at the work of the Holy Spirit in the Southern Hemisphere, we may start to worship the movement. We may become enamored with the numbers and lust after the phenomenon as an idol. Crying out “We want a movement, too!” may be more about possessing success than seeing God succeed in people’s hearts and souls.
Two truths need reinforcement among us in the West. First, the movement of the Gospel in Africa and Asia is hard work. It’s a difficult journey. The blood of many believers cries out from the ground of those nations and forms a foundation for what is happening today. The living Word continues to pound against spiritual and cultural barriers that we can’t even imagine.
Second, a primary weakness in our lives is the production of idols. The book of Deuteronomy opens with a dissection of our souls, making us aware of the fact that we always lean toward idol development and worship. As the Church expands around the world, we need to keep our eye on the ball--the cause of the Gospel, and not lapse into competing for the best world mission movement.
Around the world, every believer in the East, West, South or North has been called by Jesus to deny himself and take up his cross and follow. It’s hard. And it’s all about Jesus, not about us.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Doing Nothing
Former Hootie and the Blowfish lead singer, now country artist, Darius Rucker has a new song out called "Got Nothin'." In the song he details how he has nothing left to offer as a relationship falls apart. It's a sad song, but it reflects an important reality in our relationship with God. We've got nothin'; He's got everything. We're dead in our sins; He makes us alive with Christ (Ephesians 2). We sit around and do nothing; He gives growth to the church.
Wait a minute! That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that we plant and water (1 Cor. 3:6). The Bible says that we are God's fellow workers (1 Cor. 3:9). The Bible says that we're sent (Luke 10:2-3, Mark 16:15, etc.). The Bible says that we are to let our light shine (Matthew 5:16). The Bible says that we don't sit around and do nothing.
Recently I was told that challenging believers to action was doctrinally unacceptable. If that's the case, then the Bible is doctrinally unacceptable.
There's a message in the church that is confusing and immobilizing God's people. Instead of allowing grace and faith to flow into the works God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10; the book of James!), the message of grace is being used as an excuse for immobilizing the church. Justification is being used in place of sanctification. The message is: "You, dear people of God, are justified by grace alone! Therefore, you are justified by grace alone." The refrain goes on with the announcement of the free atoning work of Christ. But sanctification is neglected, omitted, and removed from the message. Walking in the newness of life, being a new creation in Christ--His ambassador, living in the power of the resurrection with the knowledge that our labor in the Lord is not in vain is excised from the proclamation of the Good News. Only half the news is given and the church sits on its hands, doing nothin'.
But as the redeemed people of God, we've got somethin'! We are called, gathered, enlightened and sanctified so that we can declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). By His grace, God shares His mission with us. He makes us fellow workers. He entrusts us with His Word and sacraments, not so we can sit in fear that Kingdom action might get messy, but so we can go out into the world with these tools and see the darkness shrink back and the gates of hell buckle in the wild and messy adventure of God's Kingdom action.
If we really stand for truth and purity of doctrine, let's take the gift of a sanctified life seriously. Let's give a voice to faith that works. Let's stop doing nothing.
Wait a minute! That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that we plant and water (1 Cor. 3:6). The Bible says that we are God's fellow workers (1 Cor. 3:9). The Bible says that we're sent (Luke 10:2-3, Mark 16:15, etc.). The Bible says that we are to let our light shine (Matthew 5:16). The Bible says that we don't sit around and do nothing.
Recently I was told that challenging believers to action was doctrinally unacceptable. If that's the case, then the Bible is doctrinally unacceptable.
There's a message in the church that is confusing and immobilizing God's people. Instead of allowing grace and faith to flow into the works God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10; the book of James!), the message of grace is being used as an excuse for immobilizing the church. Justification is being used in place of sanctification. The message is: "You, dear people of God, are justified by grace alone! Therefore, you are justified by grace alone." The refrain goes on with the announcement of the free atoning work of Christ. But sanctification is neglected, omitted, and removed from the message. Walking in the newness of life, being a new creation in Christ--His ambassador, living in the power of the resurrection with the knowledge that our labor in the Lord is not in vain is excised from the proclamation of the Good News. Only half the news is given and the church sits on its hands, doing nothin'.
But as the redeemed people of God, we've got somethin'! We are called, gathered, enlightened and sanctified so that we can declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). By His grace, God shares His mission with us. He makes us fellow workers. He entrusts us with His Word and sacraments, not so we can sit in fear that Kingdom action might get messy, but so we can go out into the world with these tools and see the darkness shrink back and the gates of hell buckle in the wild and messy adventure of God's Kingdom action.
If we really stand for truth and purity of doctrine, let's take the gift of a sanctified life seriously. Let's give a voice to faith that works. Let's stop doing nothing.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
A Super-model of Mission
It all started when supermodel Niki Taylor and her team lost their task competition. What usually follows is a brouhaha in the boardroom with Donald Trump. Accusations fly. Cut-downs dominate. Arguing, crying, and merciless self-justifying assertions saturate the paneled walls of the Donald's inner sanctum of power.
But Sunday night was different. Supermodel Niki Taylor sat composed and confident. She said that her team worked together. Each person pulled her weight in the task. They did the best they could, but did not prevail in the end. With that, she let Donald know that she was the only one who could be held responsible for the loss. She should be fired.
And Donald fired her. The boardroom was quiet. Each member of her team could be heard saying, "What a class act." "That woman is pure class." Donald echoed the same sentiment. Then with head held high, Niki Taylor exited Trump Tower and returned to the life she loved as a hard working wife and mother.
Wow. What if the church behaved like Niki Taylor? What if God's people focused completely and wholeheartedly on the mission? What if it wasn't about arrogance or position or seeking personal status and adoration, but was totally about the sacred mission to reach the lost and broken with the wholeness and hope of Jesus Christ?
We have a problem with that sometimes. As church people, we let pride get in the way too often. We seek attention and adulation through our accomplishments. We try to be Luther-like by stirring up controversy so we can make our personal mark in history. We get arrogant about what is right. We covet power and positions of prominence. It's the dark side of the institutional church. It's sinful.
God declared in Isaiah 42:8, "I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another." You see, the glory will not be ours. We are the created ones. We are the clay. We are the servants. We were dead, but now are alive because of God's mercy and amazing grace.
With humble and repentant hearts, we are called to live transformed lives--no longer ourselves prevailing, scrapping, and fighting--but Christ alive in us. It's the life of Jesus. It's the life of love. It is patient, kind, not envious, not boasting, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking (1 Corinthians 13).
It's what Niki Taylor demonstrated on Sunday night: mission focus, mission humility, mission integrity, mission words, and mission deeds. Oh that each of us could be led by the Holy Spirit to give up our own glory; move away from our self-absorption, fear, and haughtiness; and move forward in the mission that matters. Oh that each of us might emulate this supermodel of mission!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Church Seasons and Mission
What do I mean by "Church Seasons"? I'm referring to particular chunks of time in church history. There are many ways to divide church history, but as I listened to a summary of the three ecumenical creeds recently, I realized that the church has had an interesting historical flow that may relate to mission outreach--and the hesitance to reach out--during our era of church history.
An initial season of church history can be called a season of doctrine. For the first 800 years or so of the Christian Church's existence, teachers asserted ideas that were opposed to Biblical orthodoxy. Marcion didn't like anything Jewish, so he started to slice sections out of the Bible. Montanus advocated adding to the Scriptures through the revelations of his ecstatic prophets. Valentinus promulgated Gnostic teachings. Arianism led to the first ecumenical council in Nicaea in 325 A.D. There are plenty more, but you get the idea. Biblical orthodoxy was being defined in response to unscriptural teachers. Ecumenical councils were convened. Doctrine was being sorted out.
The next season to develop was a season of corruption. The institutional church became a place of power and control. Political and Ecclesiastical lines became blurred. Human traditions and inclinations supplanted Biblical mandates and emphases. The church was a mess. Money, sex, and power became the prevailing themes within the church. It was an ugly season.
The third major season of the church was a season of reformation. While many voices of reformation cried out during the season of corruption, Martin Luther stands out as the person who led a season of reform in the church. Luther sought to bring the church back to the Bible and back to the cross of Christ. It was a season of refocusing on God's will, His ways, and His gifts.
The season of reformation led to another season of doctrine. As the new phenomenon of protestant movements and denominations developed, departures from the historic teaching of the Scriptures came on the scene. The church wrestled with the definition and nature of the sacraments, teachings on millennialism, the nature of church and ministry, and more. Some older heresies resurfaced and caused the church to wrestle anew with ancient issues. Stretching into the 1800's and 1900's everything from Biblical liberalism to the development of false "Christian" groups presented the church with doctrinal challenges.
This second season of doctrine fueled another season of corruption. Religious charlatans, money-focused televangelists, and a sexual scandal laden Roman Catholic priesthood mark our present era. In addition, a desire for fame, power, and control in the church taints and distracts from the Christocentric aim of the body of Christ.
So, as one of my professors used to say, "Cui bono?" In other words, "To whom for good?" "What's the point?"
Here's the bottom line:
- While all these seasons happen to some degree all the time in the church, we are living in a time poised for another season of reformation. Will this mean a recovery of the mission of the church? Will it mean a return to authenticity versus institutionalism? I don't know, but we are moving toward reform.
- When the rumblings of reformation begin to happen, the people caught up in the season of corruption believe that change equals heresy instead of reform. This is very important. Corrupt church leaders try to cast Biblical and Gospel reforms as doctrinal errors. This is done to prevent change and to maintain control. The Roman Catholic Church excommunicated Martin Luther on doctrinal grounds. Instead of adopting a spirit of repentance based on an honest look at the Scriptures, the church in Luther's time did not want to surrender control and, therefore, misinterpreted reform.
It is important that we do not make the same mistake. The big question is: Can we recognize when change is true reformation and welcome it with a spirit of repentance?
What changes in the church today are moving us back to the cross of Christ? What changes are bringing us back to what the church was designed to be by its head, Jesus?
We're running into a season of reformation. We need to watch carefully.
An initial season of church history can be called a season of doctrine. For the first 800 years or so of the Christian Church's existence, teachers asserted ideas that were opposed to Biblical orthodoxy. Marcion didn't like anything Jewish, so he started to slice sections out of the Bible. Montanus advocated adding to the Scriptures through the revelations of his ecstatic prophets. Valentinus promulgated Gnostic teachings. Arianism led to the first ecumenical council in Nicaea in 325 A.D. There are plenty more, but you get the idea. Biblical orthodoxy was being defined in response to unscriptural teachers. Ecumenical councils were convened. Doctrine was being sorted out.
The next season to develop was a season of corruption. The institutional church became a place of power and control. Political and Ecclesiastical lines became blurred. Human traditions and inclinations supplanted Biblical mandates and emphases. The church was a mess. Money, sex, and power became the prevailing themes within the church. It was an ugly season.
The third major season of the church was a season of reformation. While many voices of reformation cried out during the season of corruption, Martin Luther stands out as the person who led a season of reform in the church. Luther sought to bring the church back to the Bible and back to the cross of Christ. It was a season of refocusing on God's will, His ways, and His gifts.
The season of reformation led to another season of doctrine. As the new phenomenon of protestant movements and denominations developed, departures from the historic teaching of the Scriptures came on the scene. The church wrestled with the definition and nature of the sacraments, teachings on millennialism, the nature of church and ministry, and more. Some older heresies resurfaced and caused the church to wrestle anew with ancient issues. Stretching into the 1800's and 1900's everything from Biblical liberalism to the development of false "Christian" groups presented the church with doctrinal challenges.
This second season of doctrine fueled another season of corruption. Religious charlatans, money-focused televangelists, and a sexual scandal laden Roman Catholic priesthood mark our present era. In addition, a desire for fame, power, and control in the church taints and distracts from the Christocentric aim of the body of Christ.
So, as one of my professors used to say, "Cui bono?" In other words, "To whom for good?" "What's the point?"
Here's the bottom line:
- While all these seasons happen to some degree all the time in the church, we are living in a time poised for another season of reformation. Will this mean a recovery of the mission of the church? Will it mean a return to authenticity versus institutionalism? I don't know, but we are moving toward reform.
- When the rumblings of reformation begin to happen, the people caught up in the season of corruption believe that change equals heresy instead of reform. This is very important. Corrupt church leaders try to cast Biblical and Gospel reforms as doctrinal errors. This is done to prevent change and to maintain control. The Roman Catholic Church excommunicated Martin Luther on doctrinal grounds. Instead of adopting a spirit of repentance based on an honest look at the Scriptures, the church in Luther's time did not want to surrender control and, therefore, misinterpreted reform.
It is important that we do not make the same mistake. The big question is: Can we recognize when change is true reformation and welcome it with a spirit of repentance?
What changes in the church today are moving us back to the cross of Christ? What changes are bringing us back to what the church was designed to be by its head, Jesus?
We're running into a season of reformation. We need to watch carefully.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Who's Story?
Time Magazine's Millennium Edition rated Martin Luther as one of the most significant people in the past 2000 years. We would tend to agree. Why? Was it because of his courageous action? Does it boil down to German pride? Hermann Sasse asked these questions in his book Here We Stand. His conclusion? We don't worship a hero. We don't celebrate heritage. In fact, Luther and the Reformation are not stories of human triumph or theological development. Sasse cited "the profound conviction of Luther that church history is not a history of what human beings have done, but a history of what the living and mighty Word of God has accomplished in its course through the nations of the world" (p.184).
This is all about the Gospel. This is not our story. It is God's story.
In The Message paraphrase of Romans 4, Eugene Peterson expresses the first part of verse three ("What does the Scripture say?") as: "But the story we're given is a God-story."
By God's grace, we are living in His story. This has powerful implications for mission and ministry--implications that follow the pattern of Luther's life.
What does being in God's story do?
Being in God's story creates in us to zeal for the Word of truth versus concern about personal status. Luther gave up his standing in the church and was willing to give up his life because the true Gospel was too important to compromise. Luther was not nitpicking about traditions. He knew that people would be lost eternally if the Gospel was not given free course. He understood that the light of Jesus Christ could not be placed under a bushel. The news of salvation by grace alone could not be blockaded by traditions of men. It could not be diminished into meaninglessness by the distracting and destructive "add-ons" of human tradition and contrivance. The main thing was the Word of life, and the Word of life had to get out into the world. God's story needed to prevail.
Being in God's story also grows in us a sense of servanthood verses a quest for control. As the institutional church sought to crush Luther, the Reformer focused on helping people understand and share the Gospel. Papal pawns worked to reinforce the control of those in command, but Luther continually brought people back to the Word of God. What gifts did God give? What was His calling? What is His mission? How is God dislodging us from our plans and preferences in order to serve Him and His people? Being in God's story leads us to be faithful script followers not commanding playwrights.
Finally, being in God's story leads us to expansive vision versus self-centered shortsightedness. I recently heard two pastors discussing which of them could get a certain church planter for the new missions they wanted to launch. What a refreshing conversation! The "competition" between these churches was all about new outreach. The energy of these pastors was being devoted to Kingdom multiplication. Instead of internal squabbles or a comparison of how each church was doing, an expansive and contagious Kingdom vision was taking hold. Being in God's story means the Church has an exciting future.
Who's story are you living? Through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the grave, you're given the gift of a God-story. Live it well.
This is all about the Gospel. This is not our story. It is God's story.
In The Message paraphrase of Romans 4, Eugene Peterson expresses the first part of verse three ("What does the Scripture say?") as: "But the story we're given is a God-story."
By God's grace, we are living in His story. This has powerful implications for mission and ministry--implications that follow the pattern of Luther's life.
What does being in God's story do?
Being in God's story creates in us to zeal for the Word of truth versus concern about personal status. Luther gave up his standing in the church and was willing to give up his life because the true Gospel was too important to compromise. Luther was not nitpicking about traditions. He knew that people would be lost eternally if the Gospel was not given free course. He understood that the light of Jesus Christ could not be placed under a bushel. The news of salvation by grace alone could not be blockaded by traditions of men. It could not be diminished into meaninglessness by the distracting and destructive "add-ons" of human tradition and contrivance. The main thing was the Word of life, and the Word of life had to get out into the world. God's story needed to prevail.
Being in God's story also grows in us a sense of servanthood verses a quest for control. As the institutional church sought to crush Luther, the Reformer focused on helping people understand and share the Gospel. Papal pawns worked to reinforce the control of those in command, but Luther continually brought people back to the Word of God. What gifts did God give? What was His calling? What is His mission? How is God dislodging us from our plans and preferences in order to serve Him and His people? Being in God's story leads us to be faithful script followers not commanding playwrights.
Finally, being in God's story leads us to expansive vision versus self-centered shortsightedness. I recently heard two pastors discussing which of them could get a certain church planter for the new missions they wanted to launch. What a refreshing conversation! The "competition" between these churches was all about new outreach. The energy of these pastors was being devoted to Kingdom multiplication. Instead of internal squabbles or a comparison of how each church was doing, an expansive and contagious Kingdom vision was taking hold. Being in God's story means the Church has an exciting future.
Who's story are you living? Through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the grave, you're given the gift of a God-story. Live it well.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
The Mission Service
Church Planting Series, Part eight
The grandson of a friend of mine became a pastor at a church where his grandfather had served many years before.
Imagine the thrill as the grandson sifted through old files and saw his own grandfather’s handiwork: minutes of board meetings, fliers from ministry initiatives, printed sermons and bible class notes.
As the grandson scanned old worship service bulletins, he kept coming across a calendar item that confused him. Each Sunday in the late afternoon there was a calendar listing called “The Mission Service.” What in the world was “The Mission Service”? The grandson was intrigued. In the worship bulletins after his grandfather left, “The Mission Service” listing disappeared. The church also began to decline.
It took just a few phones calls and personal visits to unravel the mystery. The old-timers remembered what “The Mission Service” was. Every Sunday afternoon the grandfather traveled to a neighboring community to hold a special service. The location of the worship service varied from community to community. Sometimes church members would attend; sometimes the pastor would venture out by himself. But every week the pastor tried something new. Some of the services kept going for months until a person was raised up to take over the worshiping community. Other services never caught on or “fizzled” out due to lack of response. But as an elderly man who grew up under the grandfather’s pastorate said, “Your grandfather taught us that a church should always be reaching new communities.”
This is a true story. This is how the church used to behave. This was NORMAL for the church. Pastors had multiple preaching stations. They tried new things. The congregation not only supported these efforts, they participated in this outreach. Why? Because a church was about reaching new communities.
The goal of a local church was not to become comfortable, or to acquire wealth, or to become the stylish place to be, or to be the “high-tech” church of the area. It was to reach new communities.
For the new pastor’s grandfather, the strategy was “The Mission Service”—-create some relationships in a new area, get people talking, do some publicity, knock on some doors, discover some needs, and go there to do something. Make a “splash” and see what God does with it.
These days we are challenged in two ways. First, we must not overlook the old and simple ways of reaching out. Get out of the office and try something! Bring the living Word of God with you and see what happens.
Second, we need to shatter the notion that a few “expert” paradigms from the last fifty years are the only options we have for church planting and ministry expansion. There are simple and exciting ways to reach meaningfully into communities. We just need to listen, watch, pray, and go to work.
What might make a “splash” for Jesus in an unreached area near you? What will your “Mission Service" look like?
The grandson of a friend of mine became a pastor at a church where his grandfather had served many years before.
Imagine the thrill as the grandson sifted through old files and saw his own grandfather’s handiwork: minutes of board meetings, fliers from ministry initiatives, printed sermons and bible class notes.
As the grandson scanned old worship service bulletins, he kept coming across a calendar item that confused him. Each Sunday in the late afternoon there was a calendar listing called “The Mission Service.” What in the world was “The Mission Service”? The grandson was intrigued. In the worship bulletins after his grandfather left, “The Mission Service” listing disappeared. The church also began to decline.
It took just a few phones calls and personal visits to unravel the mystery. The old-timers remembered what “The Mission Service” was. Every Sunday afternoon the grandfather traveled to a neighboring community to hold a special service. The location of the worship service varied from community to community. Sometimes church members would attend; sometimes the pastor would venture out by himself. But every week the pastor tried something new. Some of the services kept going for months until a person was raised up to take over the worshiping community. Other services never caught on or “fizzled” out due to lack of response. But as an elderly man who grew up under the grandfather’s pastorate said, “Your grandfather taught us that a church should always be reaching new communities.”
This is a true story. This is how the church used to behave. This was NORMAL for the church. Pastors had multiple preaching stations. They tried new things. The congregation not only supported these efforts, they participated in this outreach. Why? Because a church was about reaching new communities.
The goal of a local church was not to become comfortable, or to acquire wealth, or to become the stylish place to be, or to be the “high-tech” church of the area. It was to reach new communities.
For the new pastor’s grandfather, the strategy was “The Mission Service”—-create some relationships in a new area, get people talking, do some publicity, knock on some doors, discover some needs, and go there to do something. Make a “splash” and see what God does with it.
These days we are challenged in two ways. First, we must not overlook the old and simple ways of reaching out. Get out of the office and try something! Bring the living Word of God with you and see what happens.
Second, we need to shatter the notion that a few “expert” paradigms from the last fifty years are the only options we have for church planting and ministry expansion. There are simple and exciting ways to reach meaningfully into communities. We just need to listen, watch, pray, and go to work.
What might make a “splash” for Jesus in an unreached area near you? What will your “Mission Service" look like?
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Too Small or Too Big to Reach Out?
The mission church barely had 100 people in worship. Attendance was declining. The pastor had accepted a call and moved on. The community seemed unaware of the church's existence. Now what? How in the world could this dwindling group of people do anything?
That's when Marty, Al, and Richard--leaders in this mission congregation--decided to do something. "We've got to reach out," they said. "We'll die if we don't get outside ourselves."
So they reached out. The congregation decided to help launch a church. They dedicated 2% of their annual income, over and above their tithe to District and Synod missions, to help start Iglesia Luterana La Santisima Trinidad. It was located on the southwest side of Chicago in the "Little Village" neighborhood. Along with their offerings, they began a weekly food collection for a food pantry at the fledgling church. They organized workdays with the core group at La Santisima. They threw themselves into reaching out with time, talent, and treasure.
The result? Two churches started to grow. The focus on missions expanded in both congregations. These days Marty, Al, and Richard help lead a church that is still a mission congregation--even though worship has swelled to nearly 1000 people. The congregation is working to reach 200 nations around the world by 2020 AND is helping to launch two more new church plants. La Santisima Trinidad has sent five young men into pastoral ministry and has transformed countless lives in the city of Chicago. One of those pastors is raising up a new generation of leaders who start new churches and ministries.
Conventional wisdom would have told both of these churches that they were much too small to do anything. Conventional wisdom didn't listen to Jesus talking about mustard seeds.
I was visiting with a pastor who just returned from a meeting with church planters in Argentina. The pastor told me that when a congregation in Argentina reaches 100 in worship, they send a worker to start another church. That worker is supported for about three months until he can find a job. The worker immediately reaches into the community and starts gathering with people in Bible study. He raises up leaders. He seeks the lost. When his groups reaches 100 people in worship, guess what happens? The church has grown up! It's time to send more workers to start more churches--to reach the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified. These pastors are bi-vocational and tri-vocational. Many are strategic about their jobs so they can connect with people in the community. One delivers bread to homes so he can ask the people who live there about the bread of life. Another repairs bicycles and speaks with his customers about The Way.
If in our culture we think that small churches are too small to plant churches and big churches have too many internal ministry commitments to plant churches, how will new churches and ministries ever begin? How will the lost hear about Jesus? Who is telling us that we're too small or too big? It doesn't sound like Jesus.
Ask Marty, Al, and Richard. They'll tell you how faithful God is when you get outside yourself.
That's when Marty, Al, and Richard--leaders in this mission congregation--decided to do something. "We've got to reach out," they said. "We'll die if we don't get outside ourselves."
So they reached out. The congregation decided to help launch a church. They dedicated 2% of their annual income, over and above their tithe to District and Synod missions, to help start Iglesia Luterana La Santisima Trinidad. It was located on the southwest side of Chicago in the "Little Village" neighborhood. Along with their offerings, they began a weekly food collection for a food pantry at the fledgling church. They organized workdays with the core group at La Santisima. They threw themselves into reaching out with time, talent, and treasure.
The result? Two churches started to grow. The focus on missions expanded in both congregations. These days Marty, Al, and Richard help lead a church that is still a mission congregation--even though worship has swelled to nearly 1000 people. The congregation is working to reach 200 nations around the world by 2020 AND is helping to launch two more new church plants. La Santisima Trinidad has sent five young men into pastoral ministry and has transformed countless lives in the city of Chicago. One of those pastors is raising up a new generation of leaders who start new churches and ministries.
Conventional wisdom would have told both of these churches that they were much too small to do anything. Conventional wisdom didn't listen to Jesus talking about mustard seeds.
I was visiting with a pastor who just returned from a meeting with church planters in Argentina. The pastor told me that when a congregation in Argentina reaches 100 in worship, they send a worker to start another church. That worker is supported for about three months until he can find a job. The worker immediately reaches into the community and starts gathering with people in Bible study. He raises up leaders. He seeks the lost. When his groups reaches 100 people in worship, guess what happens? The church has grown up! It's time to send more workers to start more churches--to reach the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified. These pastors are bi-vocational and tri-vocational. Many are strategic about their jobs so they can connect with people in the community. One delivers bread to homes so he can ask the people who live there about the bread of life. Another repairs bicycles and speaks with his customers about The Way.
If in our culture we think that small churches are too small to plant churches and big churches have too many internal ministry commitments to plant churches, how will new churches and ministries ever begin? How will the lost hear about Jesus? Who is telling us that we're too small or too big? It doesn't sound like Jesus.
Ask Marty, Al, and Richard. They'll tell you how faithful God is when you get outside yourself.
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