The Forgotten Ways - Part 3

The second element of mDNA that Hirsch describes in The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church was a little surprising and unexpected for me, but it makes perfect sense. That element is disciple-making. Immediately behind the first element of being firmly centered on Christ (christocentric monotheism) is the focus on discipleship. Without this, everything else teeters on failure. In fact, Hirsch cites a painful story from his past about what happened in a previous church when they neglected discipleship.

According to Hirsch, one of the biggest obstacles to true discipleship is the consumer mentality prevalent in the Western world today. It has invaded all arenas of life, including the church. He writes,

Ninety percent or more of the people who attend our services are passive. In other words, they are consumptive. They are the passive recipients of the religious goods and services being delivered largely by professionals in a slick presentation and service. Just about everything we do in these somwhat standardized services and "box churchs," we do in order to attract more participants, and to do this we need to make the experience of church more convenient and comfortable. It is the ultimate religious version of one-stop shopping - hassle-free. But alas, all we are achieving by doing this is adding more fuel to the insatiable consumerist flame.

- Hirsch, 110.

These words sound a little harsh to me, and I'm guessing his 90% figure is a guess based on his experience and not hard data, but I think he is making a valid point in general.

I had a great conversation this past week with a friend about church gatherings. If "the church" is a missional community, or even a collective of missional communities, then what should gatherings look like or be about? Corporate worship, mutual encouragement, sharing, teaching? I think this is a big question for missional churches today. In other words, how can a missional church still gather together regularly (although not necessarily weekly) and yet keep the focus and emphasis on its mission and not the gathering? Because once the gathering becomes the focus, we are back in the attractional paradigm.

Hirsch would say (I think) that we must maintain an emphasis on discipleship - discipleship that follows the model that Jesus gave us. He continues by saying,

And this is exactly how Jesus does discipleship: he organizes it around mission. As soon as they are called, he takes the disciples on an adventurous journey of mission, ministry, and learning. Straightaway they are involved in proclaiming the kingdom of God, serving the poor, healing, and casting out demons. It is active and direct disciple making in the context of mission.

- Hirsch, 120

Hirsch is convinced we cannot disciple people or become disciples ourselves by passive listening and learning. We must be engaged in the process, actively working out what it means to follow Jesus as his disciples in everyday life. "I simply do not believe we can continue to try and think our way into a new way of acting, but rather, we need to act our way into a new way of thinking" (p. 122).

The Forgotten Ways - Part 2

A while back, I mentioned that I had started reading The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church by Alan Hirsch. Well, I'm finally getting back around to trying to finish it after many diversions over the past month or so. My neglect in finishing it certainly has nothing to do with the book - it's a phenomenal read. Which is why I wanted to say a little more about it here.

In section 2 (the main part of the book), Hirsch tackles in more detail what he believes is the engine behind some of the tremendous Jesus movements throughout history. Through his research, he has identified six elements that are common in these movements - what he calls the missionalDNA (mDNA) that is inherently present within the church. The full aggregation of mDNA composes what he calls Apostolic Genius, the "phenomenon resulting from...real experiences of God, types of expression, organizational structures, leadership ethos, spiritual power, mode of belief, etc" (pg 78). But before he gets too far, he spends a little time talking about what he means exactly by the term missional. While recognizing that mission and missional have been somewhat overused and misused, he can't seem to bring himself to simply dismissing the terms in the hopes of better descriptors. Instead, he wants to readdress them and pack them with deeper meaning. He says,

...in my opinion it [the term missional] goes to the heart of the very nature and purpose of the church itself. So, a working definition of missional church is a community of God's people that defines itself, and organizes its life around, its real purpose of being an agent of God's mission to the world. In other words, the church's true and authentic organizing principle is mission.

- Hirsch, 82 (emphasis mine)

Then he sets out to describe those six common elements present in mDNA. The first is what he calls a christocentric monotheism - expressed simply in the statement, "Jesus is Lord." In other words, whatever form a church takes, this is the foundation - the heart of the matter. A church can never become that agent of God's mission to the world without first and foremost being centered on Christ. Hirsch writes,

What does all this practically mean for those seeking to recover Apostolic Genius in the life of the community of God? For one, it will involve (re)engaging directly the central confession of "Jesus is Lord" and attempting to reorient the church around this life-orienting claim...I have become absolutely convinced that it is Christology, and in particular the primitive, unencumbered Christology of the NT church, that lies at the heart of the renewal of the church at all times and in every age.

- Hirsch, 99

I couldn't agree more. More to come in future posts...

Fall quarter is just around the corner

My books came today for my class this fall: Systematic Theology 2: Christology and Soteriology. I'm looking forward to getting started again after having the summer off, but these books look serious:

A great quote

This quote is at the end of Len's post I referred to earlier. I need to read this often. How about you?

“The cliff edge of our anxiety about the future may indicate that God is calling us to a new and different level of faith. When we walk, praying for guidance, to the edge of all the light we have and breathlessly take the first step into the foggy mystery of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen: either God will provide us with something rock-solid to land on and stand on, or he will teach us how to fly.” The Crime of Living Cautiously, 137

The Challenge of Large Churches

This is a great post about some of the pitfalls of large churches...it's a little long but worth it. Thanks Len!

The Agony of Defeat

Today, Sunday, September 14, 2008, at approximately 5:00pm on the North Ranch Community Tennis Courts, my friend, Kevin, beat me for the first time by a score of 6-4.

I was defeated.

There will be no living with him now...

Unexpected divergence

I realized something this morning as I was walking. It seems like the closer I get to God these days, the farther away I feel from my church. What is up with that?

Certainly it's a combination of internal changes in my own heart plus changes in our community. Here's one very recent example. Last Sunday, about 15 minutes before the service began and I was to speak, I heard something which really caught me off-guard. I pushed it aside in the moment to focus on the service, but that afternoon it resurfaced in my mind and turned me a little upside-down. Then I had lunch with one of our two senior pastors on Monday to make sure I had heard correctly and, if so, to express my concern. And, yes, I heard correctly. And, no, nothing would likely be done about it. And, yes, it's a big deal for me. He understood my concern and validated my feelings about it. Then we talked about living in that kind of tension when we don't agree with each other or decisions that are made. And about how that is one of the things we are striving for in our church. Living in the tension. Even if it's over values - not just theology or philosophy or ministry.

Ok, so pause that for a minute and let's go back to the whole missional/attractional church thing. Our church is very much an attractional church - meaning, we put a lot of energy into trying to get people to come to our Sunday morning service. In fact, I would say that most of our resources (time, money, effort) go towards pulling off a great Sunday service. And often we do. Beyond that, we offer serving opportunities for people to get involved either in our church or in the broader Tucson community. But that is sparse, at best. Now please don't hear me wrong. I am not bashing the attractional church paradigm. I grew up in this paradigm!

In a missional church, though, service to the community is not a ministry of the church or a program of the church. It is the church. Everything is focused and expressed through being a missional movement in the larger community. Emphasis is placed on the church going out instead of trying to get others to come in. In my opinion, the two paradigms are 180 degrees apart. And for me, as I've said before, I'm having more and more difficulty seeing church any other way than as a missional movement of people loving God and loving their neighbors.

So as I wonder what that kind of missional church might look like and how it would operate, I often struggle with what church gatherings should be. Should a missional church still meet every Sunday? And if so, for what purpose? And I often think that, for a missional church that is living, working, and playing in it's mission field, a regular gathering should be a type of break or time-out. It should be a time of refreshment, encouragement, rest. A time when we would come together to talk, laugh, cry, share, support, reflect, celebrate and get ready for whatever comes next. But a time of tension? No, I don't think so. There's already enough tension in life. Tension at work, at home, at school, and in relationships. Tension caused by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, sickness, and death.

As I think about my church trying to foster an environment of differences, to celebrate those differences, and to live in the tension of disagreements - even over big things - I'm beginning to ask myself this simple question: Why? For what purpose?

Again, please don't hear something I'm not saying. I'm not saying we should be a Stepford church where everybody acts the same, thinks the same, or does the same thing. How boring would that be? There will always be differences. But, shouldn't there be some common ground, some common values, some common mission that brings us together and moves us forward?

When I consider what areas in my life are causing me the most stress, the most tension, the answer is clear: my church. How do I celebrate that? What am I missing in all of this?