notes from mercyview lab #5

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christianity, Gospel, Old Testament, community, culture, culture making, discipleship, evangelism, incarnation, incarnational, missional, missional church, missional living, prayer, social justice, vision, work, worship
• Date: Aug 20,2010

This past Sunday marked the end of the exciting first phase of planting the Gospel in urban Tulsa. God has been good! It has been a great summer as we have looked at the ethos of mercyview and how it fits in the spiritual and social climate here.

This Sunday, August 22, we will dialogue formally and informally about the base-level covenant and pray that by early September, God will bring together a group of deeply committed men and women to help plant the Gospel in their hearts and in the city of Tulsa.

But this post is to share the notes from mercyview lab #5, particularly for those of you that weren’t able to be with us. First, here is the all of the content from the previous labs:

–-Lab #1: The Gospel: The Center of Everything [download synopsis here]

–-Lab #2: Salt and Light: An Alternative City Within a City, For the City [download synopsis here]

–Lab #3: A Missional People: Sent as Missionaries to be Witnesses [download synopsis here]

–Lab #4: Seeking the Shalom of the City: How a Center-City Church Transforms Culture [download synopsis here]

Lab #5 was the final piece of the DNA of mercyview: the apex of holistic ministry interlocks the four ministry fronts [evangelism + worship // community + discipleship // justice + mercy // faith _ work] well. Here is a synopsis:

–Churches that thrive in cities should be characterized by an integrative balance of four ministry areas: missional evangelism, community formation, justice and mercy, and the integration of faith and work. Christians should seek personal conversion, deep Christian community, justice, and cultural renewal in the city.

–It is rare for a church to combine several of these emphases in ministry and extremely rare to have them all. One of the reasons is that the leaders of these ministries often resist and resent the others. But there is no reason to pit them against each other. They do not contradict but rather supplement each other.

–Only if we do all of these ministries at once will any of them be effective. They are interdependent and interlocking. And it is the only way to see our cities comprehensively influenced for Christ.

A. Connecting people to God: Missional Evangelism + Evangelistic Worship

1. Missional Evangelism [2]

–Evangelism rarely happens by osmosis. A prevelant myth in many churches is that if you give not-yet-Xians a chance to rub shoulders w/Xians, they are guaranteed to catch a dose of the Gospel. This myth is sometimes used to justify not making any special effort to provide evangelism programs or training. It allows churches to feel that they are obeying the Great Commission just by doing good deeds for Christ’s sake. A holistic approach places spiritual nurture and social care on a equal footing from the start.

What is missional evangelism?

a. We share the Gospel by word and deed, not word or deed. Modeling the Gospel through personal piety, acts of kindness, and the pursuit of justice is powerful and can draw people to Christ – if they learn why you are doing what you do.

b. We expectantly hope that those who hear the Word will embrace the message and repent. The bedrock of the Gospel is Christ’s incarnation of God’s love to a broken world. But accepting that love brings more than warm feelings – the powerful love of a just and holy God calls for repentance – turning away from personal and social sin through the power of the Holy Spirit.

c. Evangelism does not stop when someone accepts Christ. The ultimate goal of evangelism is not to win converts but to make disciples. Discipleship-oriented evangelism is concerned not only with non-yet-Xians but also dechurched Xians. The radical life of obedience preached by Christ is impossible without the teaching, accountability, and fellowship (koinonia) of a loving church community. If we make converts but fail to connect them to a Biblical, supportive, worshiping Xian community, then you have not completed the evangelistic mandate.

How do you do missional evangelism?

a. Pray: Prayer is the key to unlock relationships – it is what will draw, change, cause people to be comitted to their relationship with the Lord. Because salvation is God’s work, we must permeate all our evangelistic activity with prayer.

b. Listen: The temptation in proclamational evangelism is to try to take the conversation where we want it to go. Evangelism takes place best when the target community is treated not as a project but as people that have dignity and deserve respect.

c. Look: Look for a way to serve (go the extra mile), to connect (no two people are alike), to invite (take next step in their relationship with God-the journey from unbelief to to belief is a long one), and to fellowship (long-term relationship)

2. Evangelistic Worship [1 Corinthians 14:5-25 + Acts 2] [3]

–Non-believers are expected to be present in Xian worship. Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:23 expects both “unbelievers” and “the unlearned” (literally “a seeker”– “one who does not understand”) to be present in worship.

–Non-believers must find the praise of Xians to be comprehensible. It should not be missed that Paul tells a local congregation to adapt its worship because of the presence of unbelievers. It is a false dichotomy to insist that if we are seeking to please God we must not ask what the unchurched feel or think about our worship.

–Non-believers can fall under conviction and be converted through comprehensible worship. . In 1 Cor 1,4 it happens during the service, but in Acts 2, it is supplemented by “after meetings” and follow-up evangelism. God wants the world to overhear us worshipping him. God directs his people not to simply worship, but to sing his praises “before the nations.” We are not to simply communicate the gospel to them, but celebrate the gospel before them.

B. Connecting people to each other– Community and discipleship [4]

–We seek to spiritually form people mainly through community. Growth in grace and wisdom and character does not happen so much in classes and instruction, or even in coming to large worship gatherings. They happen mainly through in counter-cultural communities where the implications of the gospel are really worked out cognitively and ‘worked in’ practically in ways that no other setting or venue can afford.

1. The function of Xian community

a. Mission: The quality of our community is the real secret of mission. When the world sees exceptional community it is both 1) more convincing of the truth of Jesus’ message, and 2) far more inviting and encouraging to join up with.

b. Character: Jesus created communities of learning, where there was plenty of time to work out truth in discussion and dialogue and in application. Therefore, the crucial (though not exclusive venue for discipleship is in communities, not classes. Character is mainly shaped by the people with whom we live–with whom we eat, play, converse, counsel, and study. It is therefore our primary social community that makes us what we are at the deepest level.

c. Ethics: Most of the “ethical principle”‘ or “rules for behavior” in the Bible are not just code-books for individuals but descriptions of the new community of love and holiness.

d. Spirituality: A human being is too rich and multi-faceted a being to be known one-on-one. We think we know someone but an individual can’t bring out all that is in the person. We need to see the person with others. And if that is the case with a human being, how much more so with the Lord. You can’t really know Jesus by yourself.

Summary

It is a typical mistake of Christians to miss the centrality of community. We often think of community as one more thing we have to do in the “rules” of behavior. But community is the way we are to do all that Christ told us to do in the world. It is the way we do ‘ethics’; it is the way we do learning.

C. Connecting people to the city – Justice and mercy [5]

–We did not want to emphasize mainly evangelism (as conservative churches do) or mainly social justice (as liberal churches do) but give a very high emphasis to both. A gospel-centered church should combine ‘zeals’ that are ordinarily never seen together in the same church.

What is justice?

–Bruce Waltke: “The tzadiq [just] are [those who are] willing to disadvantage themselves to advantage the community; the wicked are [those who are] willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.”

–Living justly means the constant recognition of the claims of community upon us; it means disadvantaging ourselves in order to advantage others. According to the Old Testament, God’s justice means to share food, shelter, and other basic resources with those who have fewer of them (Is 58:6-10.)

–The basis for ‘doing justice’ is salvation by grace. Xians may disagree about the particular political approach to the problems of injustice but all Xians must be characterized by their passion for justice and their personal commitment to annihilate injustice through personal giving, sacrifice, and generosity.

What is mercy?

–Xians are to “show mercy” or eleos. This word is used to describe holistic ministry in Luke 10:25-37 and James 2:14-17, two of the key passages in the Bible about wholistic ministry. “Mercy” sometimes has a general meaning but sometimes it specifically refers to helping the poor and needy.

–Martin Luther: “We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.”

Keeping justice and mercy in tension

–There are two unbiblical political ideologies and reductionisms that reign in our culture today. Many ‘conservatives’ are motivated to help the poor mainly by mercy. On the other hand, many ‘liberals’ are motivated to help the poor mainly out of a sense of indignation and aborted justice. Both views, ironically, become self-righteous. One tends to blame the poor for everything; the other to blame the rich for everything.

–A balanced motivation arises from a heart touched by grace which has lost its superiority-feelings toward any particular class of people. It is the gospel that motivates us to act both in mercy and in justice.

D. Connecting people to the culture – Integrating faith and work [6]

–All of our work matters to God. We agree with the original Protestant Reformers that so called “secular” work is as valuable and God-honoring as Christian ministry.

–When you use your gifts in work you are answering God’s calling to serve the human community. Our work then, whatever it is, matters greatly to God.

–On the other hand, God matters to all our work. That is, we also believe that the gospel shapes and effects the motives, manner, and methods we use in our work.

–What then is our vision? We do not want Xians to privatize their faith away from their work nor to express it terms of a subculture. Rather we want to see growing Xians working in their vocations both with excellence and Xian distinctiveness, transforming the culture in which we live from.

========

[1] Adapted from “Integrative Ministry” by Tim Keller from London Church Planting Consultation, 2008-2009.

[2] Adapted from Chapter 3, “Making Evangelism Central,” from Churches That Make a Difference: Reaching Your Community with Good News and Good Workds by Ron Sider, Philip Olson, and Heidi Unruh, 2002.

[3] Adapted from “Integrative Ministry,” Keller.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

notes from mercyview lab #4

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Bible, Bible study, Christianity, Gospel, Great Commission, Israel, Old Testament, Paul, Poverty, Revelation, acts, church, church planting, city, community, culture, culture making, emerging culture, evangelism, homosexuality, incarnational, mercyview, missiology, mission, missional, missional church, missional living, post-Christendom, religion, social issues, social justice, theology, urban, work
• Date: Aug 3,2010

This past Sunday, it was great to see new and familiar faces, to intercede for one another and the future of mercyview, to dig into the Sacred Text, and to dialogue at mercyview lab #4 [we have one more next week before we move into a new phase for our burgeoning community].

We are fervently praying that as we approach the end of the summer, the “culture” of mercyview is crystal clear and God will call together a group of men and women who have an overwhelming desire to plant the Gospel deeply in their hearts and in the great city of Tulsa.

Here is the content from the previous labs if you’re interested:

–-Lab #1: The Gospel: The Center of Everything [download synopsis here]

–-Lab #2: Salt and Light: An Alternative City Within a City, For the City [download synopsis here]

–Lab #3: A Missional People: Sent as Missionaries to be Witnesses [download synopsis here]

In Lab #4, we talked about how a center-city church, seeking the “shalom” (peace) of the city, can redeem culture. Here is a synopsis:

–In Jeremiah 29, we find the purpose of the Babylonian exile for the Israelites was cultural assimilation and while the Jews were living in that place, as a counter-culture, they were to engage fully in life, even in the life of a city that was ostensibly opposed to God, “seeking the peace and prosperity” of the city.

–This may sound radical to us today but it is very much in accord with what Jesus deemed to be the second greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39). And It is right in line with the idea that Israel, God’s people at that time, was to be a “blessing for the nations” (Gen. 12:3)

God’s invention

–An Old Testament city would look like a human settlement surrounded by a fortification or a wall. This was very important because behind the wall, human society was very different than what existed outside of the city in the countryside.

–The average city in Old Testament times was 1000-3000 people and 205 people per acre (NYC has 105 people per acre). What made a city back then was not “bigness” but density, diversity, and mixed use (within 10 minutes you can walk to work, eat, learn, shop, live). The same is true for today’s cities.

–It is widely understood that when God tells Adam and Eve to “have dominion” and “fill the earth” he is directing them to build a God-honoring civilization. They are to bring forth the riches that God put into creation by developing science, art, architecture, human society. Therefore, God was calling Adam and Eve to be city builders.

–This new Jerusalem is the city is the Garden of Eden, remade. We began in a garden but will end in a city. God’s purpose for humanity is urban! Why? Because the city is God’s invention and design not just a sociological phenomenon or invention of humankind.

–City building is an ordinance of God just like work and marriage. God made the city to be a developmental tool, designed to draw out the riches he put into the earth, nature and the human soul at creation.

Cities develop culture

–Cities are the main creators of culture, values, and belief.

–Whatever develops in the center-city tends to have a profound effect throughout the rest the city, region, nation, and world. Influence tends to move from the center-city outward.

–In the latter half of the twentieth century in America, many churches left the cities and moved out to the suburbs. Today many evangelical Xians in the United States bemoan the fact that they have lost their influence on the culture. The reason is obvious: they are no longer in the cities.

How cities develop culture

1. The city as a place of refuge and safety

–It has always been a place where people come who are too weak to live in other places. When Israel moved into the promised land, the first cities were built by God’s direction as ‘cities of refuge’, where the accused person could flee for safety and civil justice. Thus God invented cities to be a sign of divine, not self, protection.

–Even today, people like the homeless, or new immigrants, or the poor, or people with ‘deviant’ lifestyles, must live in the city. The city is always a more merciful place for minorities of all kinds. Why? The density of the city creates the possibility of strong minority communities.

–Density creates diversity.

2. The city as a cultural “mining” center

–Even the description of the wicked city of Babylon in Revelation 18 shows how the power of the city draws out the resources of creation-of the physical world and of the human soul.

–Cities draw and gather together human resources and tap their potential for cultural development as no other human-life organization structure can.

–The city was designed by God to do, as an instrument of glorifying Him, by ‘mining’ the riches of creation and building a God-honoring civilization.

3. The city as the place to meet God.

–Cities are the key to evangelism in any area. Paul’s missionary journeys essentially ignored the countryside. When he entered a new region, he planted churches in the biggest city, and then left.

–Because of the diversity and intensity of the cities, urbanites are much more open to radically new ideas – especially the gospel. Because they are surrounded by so many people like and unlike themselves and so much more mobile and subject to change, urbanites are far more open to change/conversion than any other kind of resident.

–We need to care about the center-city: We need to be concerned about the city, if for no other reason than our future is likely to be profoundly influenced by what happens there.

–We need to change our view of the center-city: It is not an evil place from which we ought to flee. Negative views are directly linked to disengagement.

–We need to understand the crucial importance of the center-city: We need to commit ourselves to living in the city. All true ministry is incarnational. We are unlikely to have much effect on the city if we are not living where we can be salt and light.

–We need to engage the center-city at many different levels: proclaiming Christ to individuals and communities, doing justice, engaging culture, and integrating faith and work

–We need to reach the center-city to reach the rest of your city, the region, and the world

–We need to reach the center-city to reach your own heart with the gospel: You will eventually come to see that you need the city more than the city needs you. Tim Keller says it this way:

1. In the city you’ll find a) people that seem ‘hopeless’ spiritually, and b) people of other religions or no religion and of deeply non-Christian lifestyles that are wiser, kinder, and deeper than you. This will shock you out of your moralism and force you to either finally believe the gospel of sheer grace, or give it up altogether.

2. In the city you will find that the poor and the broken are often much, much more open to the idea of gospel grace and much more dedicated to its practical outworkings than you are.

============

[1] Adapted from Allen Barth and Tim Keller, “A Vision for our Cities,” from Redeemer City to City.

[2] Adapted from Tim Keller, “A Bibilcal Theology of the City,” from Evangelicals Now.

[3] Adapted from Tim Keller, “City Vision” from UPL Consultation 2 mp3.

[4] Adapted from Barth and Keller, “A Vision for our Cities,” from Redeemer City to City.

ethos of a missional community

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christianity, Gospel, church, community, culture, evangelism, hospitality, incarnational, mission, missional, missional church, missional living, orthopraxy, relationships
• Date: Jul 22,2010

One of today’s brightest thinkers on the issue of missional communities is Jeff Vanderstelt, lead pastor of Soma Communities and Vice President of the Acts 29 Network.

Recently, Jeff sat down with Scott Thomas, president of A29, and shared his thoughts on the ethos of missional communities and the interviews were posted on the A29 blog. Watch these four videos and let them challenge your thoughts about what being in community and mission look like:

Life on Mission

Life on Mission from Acts 29 Network on Vimeo.

Being on Mission Together

Being on Mission Together from Acts 29 Network on Vimeo.

How To Share Your Faith

How to Share Your Faith from Acts 29 Network on Vimeo.

A Life That Needs Gospel Explanation

A Life That Needs Gospel Explanation from Acts 29 Network on Vimeo.

notes from mercyview lab #2

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Bible, Christianity, Gospel, Jesus, Jonah, Matthew, New Testament, Old Testament, Paul, Poverty, Revelation, Tulsa, acts, church, church planting, community, contextualization, culture, evangelism, history, idolatry, imago Dei, incarnation, incarnational, kingdom of God, mercyview, ministry, orthopraxy, social justice
• Date: Jun 28,2010

This past Sunday, we held our second mercyview lab to introduce people to the heartbeat of a new church community in the city of Tulsa and we had a great time together. I was particularly encouraged to see some new faces.

As I said last week, these “labs” are intended to give folks a “window into” what we believe God is calling mercyview to be in Tulsa. This will give many an opportunity to begin to pray about joining us in the birth of mercyview at the end of the summer.

In our first lab, I unpacked what is the “hub” of all of mercyview‘s ministry: the Gospel. Last night, I talked about what is looks like for a church to be a “city within a city” – an alternative society in a city that is “salt and light” (Matthew 5:13-16). Here are the notes from the evening:

–One of the foundational issues a new church has to figure out where they come down on is their relationship with culture. This has to happen before they can talk about how to be the church in the community.

–There is a lot of talk about culture these days but not always much clarity about what it really is. The truth is that the tension between church and culture has been around since the church began. People shout about culture and how the church should or should not relate to it but we have to think discerningly about what it is and how we engage culture.

–So how do we unpack this issue? I believe it involves understanding three things:

1. Culture matters
2. Relating to culture the wrong way matters [1]
3. How the church should relate to culture matters [2]

–Culture mattered to Paul. In Acts 17, we see four things:

1. Paul finds a space within the culture to proclaim the gospel – the Areopagus [Acts 17:22]
2. Paul acknowledged their spiritual questions contextually [Acts 17:22-31]
3. Paul understood Athens – observed their idols as he walked through the city; quoted a poet [Acts 17:23, 28]
4. Paul understood how to respond to culture [Acts 17:29]

–There are basically three choices we have to respond to culture:

1. Receive
2. Reject
3. Redeem

–As we respond to culture, we essentially receive all of culture and within in that “reception,” we must choose which aspects of it to reject or redeem.

–What is culture? The common ideas, feelings, and values that guide community and personal behavior that organize and regulate what the group thinks, feels, and does about God, the world, and humanity [Harvie Conn]

–Culture itself is not evil but a composite of good and evil – as understood Biblically. In any given culture we can find both the imago Dei and idols because all people are made in God’s image and reflect that reality in some ways.

–Those who say we should not “engage the culture,” are using the word “culture” in a way that missionaries wouldn’t [Ed Stetzer]

–Four ways that the church has related to culture:

1. Pietiest
2. Conservative activist
3. Cultural “relevant”
4. Counter-culturalist

–A pietist is someone who stresses Bible study, personal religious experience, and evangelism to the exclusion of trying to understand culture’s expressions: attitudes, customs, beliefs, ethics, and value systems. In essence, their attitude is one of indifference. They believe that since the world is going to burn up in the end, what matters is to convert as many people as possible. If we do that well, then society will be changed ‘one heart at a time.’

–A conservative activist perceives the main problem today to be the loss of moral absolutes. They believe Xians have become too much like the culture, which no longer believes in absolute truth. In this approach, young people are encouraged to recover a Xian worldview and to penetrate the higher reaches of the cultural economy.

–A cultural relevant, in reaction to the conservative movement, complains that Xians are perceived as too hostile and condemning and that they speak in language that is undecipherable to the average person. In this model, the church is called to deeply identify with felt needs of people – embodying love and truth by working against inequality and injustice in society.

–A counter-culturalist sees the main problem today to be that the church has tried to reform the world to become like the church. In this view, the church needs to follow Christ ‘outside the camp’ and identify with the poor and the marginalized. It needs to be a witness to the world simply by being the church, an alternate society and they shouldn’t try to ‘transform culture’ at all.

–Is the lack of very vibrant, effective evangelism for the church today a major problem? Of course. Thus, the cry from the pietists.

–Is it a major problem that Christians are vastly under-represented in many sectors of the cultural economy? Absolutely. Thus, the cry from the conservative activists.

-Is it a major problem that the evangelical church essentially exists in a subculture, not able to speak the Gospel intelligibly to most Americans, and perceived to be only concerned to increase their own power rather than the common good? Of course it is. Thus, the cry from the evangelical relevants.

–Is a major part of the problem the “thinness” of our Christian communities? Of course, that is an enormous problem. Thus, the cry from the counter-culturalists.

–Every one of these groups articulates a crucial and irreplaceable part of what is wrong with our church’s relationship to culture.

–So what’s wrong? Two things:

1. An unbalanced view of themselves
Each group is responding more to the other Christian parties than to the culture. Because of this, they exaggerate the imbalances in the other groups, and thus, are blind to their own.

2. An insufficient grasp of the whole Biblical plotline
The Bible’s narrative arc is—creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. The problem is that each approach represents just one possible emphasis of the arc within a comprehensive whole. The Biblical teaching about Xianity and culture is very rich and should provide Xians in every century and culture with both boundaries and freedom to devise an approach that fits their time.

–With the Gospel

Gospel ministry is not only proclaiming it to people so that they will believe it but it also shepherding believers with it so that it shapes the entirety of their lives, inside the church and out in the world.

For evangelicals to move forward, we must be able to come together around a richer understanding of God’s will for a renewed world without losing the sharpness and power of the classic understanding of the gospel.

–As Light

Jesus tells his disciples they are to be a “city on a hill” whose “good deeds” are a light that will lead non-believers to praise the Father in heaven. Christians are called to be an alternate city within every earthly city and they should be the very best citizens, seeking the “peace and prosperity” of the city (Jeremiah 29:4-7). Here is where the relevants and the counter-culturalists get it right.

Care for the poor is a thing so essential that the contrary cannot consist with sincere love to God. [Jonathan Edwards]

Revelation 21-22 makes it clear that the ultimate purpose of redemption is not to escape the material world but to renew it. God’s purpose is not only saving individuals but also inaugurating a new world based on justice, peace, and love, not power, strife, and selfishness.

–As Salt

This metaphor is a counterpoint to that of light – it is more modest in what it holds out for us. Christian living (like salt in the meat) is quite important to keep culture from degrading but here we are being warned not to necessarily expect fundamental social transformation.

Salt is a more negative metaphor as well. Salt in a wound kept it from festering but it was also painful. This means that Christians are to stand for truth and guard orthodox belief and practice but there will inevitably be opposition. (1 Peter 2:12.)

The salt metaphor is different in another way as well. Salt must spread out and penetrate to be effective. Christians then do not only effect the world as a counter-cultural community (‘light’) but also as dispersed individuals who take the Christian message and world view into every circle and sector of society.

–The people of God (the Church) become an alternative city within a city to display, as a foretaste, what the eternal city will be like. (Jeremiah 29; Matthew 5:3-16; Luke 6:20-36; 1 Peter 2:9-12)

–Harvie Conn:

Perhaps the best analogy to describe all this is that of a model home. We are God’s demonstration community of the rule of Christ in the city. On a tract of earth’s land, purchased with the blood of Christ, Jesus the kingdom developer has begun building new housing. As a sample of what will be, he has erected a model home of what will eventually fill the urban neighborhood. He now invites the urban world into that model home to take a look at what will be. The church is the occupant of that model home, inviting neighbors into its open door to Christ…

As citizens of, not survivalists in, this new city within the old city, we see our ownership as the gift of Jesus the Builder (Luke 17:20-21). As residents, not pilgrims, we await the kingdom coming when the Lord returns from his distant country (Luke 19:12). The land is already his…in this model home we live out our new lifestyle as citizens of the heavenly city that one day will come. We do not abandon our jobs or desert the city that is….We are to seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which God called us in exile (Jeremiah 29:7). And our agenda of concerns in that seeking becomes as large as the cities where our divine development tracts are found.

–Motivation? God left the culture of heaven to enter the culture of man, to bring redemption and restoration:

“We don’t relate to God as a person on the first floor of a building relates to a person on the second floor. We relate to God as Hamlet would to Shakespeare. Hamlet’s only way to know Shakespeare is if Shakespeare writes himself into the play. In the incarnation, God has written himself into the story of this world.”
-Tim Keller

====================

[1] Adapted from “Church and Culture” by Tim Keller from London Church Planting Consultation, 2008-2009

[2] Ibid.

notes from mercyview lab #1

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 1 Corinthians, Bible, Christianity, Galatians, Gospel, Jesus, New Testament, atonement, community, incarnation, irreligion, justification, kingdom of God, mercyview, religion, resurrection, sanctification, sent, social justice, theology
• Date: Jun 22,2010

mercyview is a new church community launching in Tulsa in August 2010 and over the summer, we are engaging those who are interested in it with five “labs” at the Andrews’ home in Midtown Tulsa led by myself.

The “labs” are intended to give a snapshot of what we believe God is calling mercyview to be in the great city of Tulsa and give folks a “no-commitment” opportunity to begin to discern if God may be calling them to join us in the birth of this new church community.

This past Sunday, we held our first lab and our house was full! I was humbled at those who came to be in community and conversation as we talked about mercyview‘s future. [This Sunday, June 27 @ 7pm, we will talk about what it looks for the scattered church to be counter-cultural missionaries in our community]

In the our first lab, I unpacked what I believe is and will always be the “hub” of all of mercyview‘s ministry: the Gospel. Here are the notes from the night for those of you who weren’t able to be with us, are peeking over the fence, or praying for us from afar:

-The four values of mercyview are: gospel, formation, community, mission. In many ways, the Gospel is really not one of the four mercyview values – it is THE value.

-When we talk about anything (formation, community, mission, parenting, marriage, mentoring, counseling, outreach, evangelism, church multiplication etc.) the filter for all of these things @ mercyview is going to be the Gospel.

-I don’t know of an evangelical church that doesn’t formally subscribe to the doctrine of the Gospel but most do not have a ministry that is actually gospel-centered. It is easy to think that if you have the gospel down accurately in your head then your ministry is automatically shaped by it as well.

-So how do we do it – how do we have lives and a church community that is centered on the Gospel? I believe it involves getting three things right about the Gospel [1]:

1. The Gospel isn’t everything
2. The Gospel doesn’t do just one thing
3. The Gospel affects everything

-The Gospel is one thing: how our alienation with God is addressed and removed by the work of Christ. All other alienations in life flow from that – all human problems are symptom and our separation from God is the cause.

-Thus, the gospel is primarily news about the historical events of Jesus – His life, His death, and His resurrection – and the three Gospel themes of the historical events of Jesus are:

1. Incarnation: Jesus represents
2. Atonement: Jesus substitutes
3. Resurrection: Jesus secures

-The gospel is good news not good advice (Martin Lloyd-Jones) — it’s not something we “do” but rather something that has been done for us and that we must respond to.

-We assume that the Gospel is simply what non-Christians must believe in order to be saved and then we step into deeper theological waters but the Gospel isn’t the first step in a stairway of truths but more like the hub in a wheel of truth. (Tullian Tchividjian)

-In other words, once God rescues sinners, his plan isn’t to steer them beyond the gospel but to move them more deeply into it. (Tim Keller). Therefore, the Gospel is for non-Xians AND Xians.

-Most Xian’s day-to-day rely on their sanctification for their justification, practically functioning on the principle “I live a good life, therefore Jesus accepts me” rather than “Jesus accepts me, therefore I live a good life through obedience.” (Richard Lovelace)

-So how do Xians live as if the Gospel is true? The pathway to Gospel change is beholding the glory of God. Beholding is becoming. 2 Corinthians 2:17-18 says:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

-There are two “thieves” of the gospel: religion and irreligion. Moralism/religion stresses truth without grace and relativism/irreligion stresses grace without truth.

-What do both religious and irreligious people have in common? From the viewpoint of the Gospel, they are really the same. They are both ways to avoid Jesus as Savior and keep control of our lives through worldly pride (relativism) or religious pride (legalism).

-The gospel shows us a God far more holy than the legalist can bear (he had to die because we could not satisfy his holy demands) and yet far more merciful than a relativist can conceive (he had to die because he loved us).

-To “get the Gospel” is to turn from self-justification and rely on Jesus’ record for a relationship with God. The irreligious don’t repent at all and the religious only repent of sins. But Christians also repent of their self-righteousness. That is the distinction between the three groups–Christian, the religious, and the irreligious.

-Even though the Gospel is a set of truths to believe, it cannot remain a set of beliefs if it is truly believed and understood. The Gospel creates a whole way of life and affects literally everything about us.

-Returning to the three Gospel themes of the historical events of Jesus, we can see how the gospel affects everything:

1. The incarnation is the “upside-down” aspect of the Gospel: The Gospel creates a new kind of servant community with people who live out an alternate way of being human. The world’s values are “right side-up” but Gospel values are “upside-down.”

2. The atonement is the “inside-out” aspect of the Gospel: Traditional religion teaches that if we do good deeds and follow the moral rules in our behavior on the outside, God will bless us and give us salvation. But the gospel is the reverse of this—if I know in my heart God has accepted me and loved me freely, by grace, then I can begin to obey, out of inner joy and gratitude. Religion is “outside-in,” but the gospel is “inside-out.”

3. The resurrection is the “forward-back” aspect of the gospel: The coming of the King is two stages. At his first coming, he saved us from the penalty of sin, and gave us the presence of the Holy Spirit. But at the end of time he will come to complete what he began at the first coming — He will bring a new creation, a material world cleansed of all brokenness. Christians now live and serve in light of the future reality (“forward-back”) of a new heavens and a new earth.

-We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that remains alone. (Martin Luther). True gospel belief will always lead to good works. Faith and works must never be confused for one another but neither should they be separated.

======================

[1] Adapted from “Gospel Theology” by Tim Keller from London Church Planting Consultation, 2008-2009

blessed to be @ Lifepoint yesterday!

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 1 Corinthians, Bible, Gospel, Great Commission, Jesus, Mark, New Testament, Paul, Tulsa, church, church planting, kingdom of God, mercyview, mission, missional, missional church, missional living, organic, orthopraxy, resurrection, sermons, urban, vision
• Date: May 17,2010

It was a great privilege to be at LifePoint Church in Ozark, MO yesterday to worship and to speak about the Kingdom and its intersection with church planting and our new work in Tulsa, mercyview.

LifePoint is a city on a hill in southwest Missouri and Lane Harrison, their lead pastor, is the real deal leading this church community to be a hub for missional activity.

I’m honored to be in partnership with Lifepoint and look forward to the ways that we can serve one another for the sake of the Gospel. I also had the privilege to meet Seth Shelton, lead pastor of The Way Faith Church Community, a fellow brother in the church planting network I am part of, who is planting in Springfield, MO.

Here is a rundown of worship yesterday from LifePoint Worship’s Twitter account @lpc_worship. Note that it is in reverse order with the most recent tweets first…

We end our worship with “Here is Love” 11:54 AM May 16th via HootSuite

The worship team returns and we stand to sing “None But Jesus” 11:53 AM May 16th via HootSuite

80,000 people live within 3 miles of mercyview – which is on Cherry Street near a vibrant urban core. 11:52 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Brad shares his heart for the city he has been called to – Tulsa. 80% of people in that area do not attend church on Sunday. 11:50 AM May 16th via HootSuite

The USA is the 5th largest mission field in the world. No county in the US has a larger church population than it did 10 years ago. 11:43 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Church planting is the primary method seen in the New Testament used to extend the Kingdom. 11:42 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Could it you live where you live, work where you work, walk where you walk to be a herald of the Gospel? 11:41 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Our motivation to be on mission is not a what, it is a who – Jesus. 11:39 AM May 16th via HootSuite

That is what we are here for. To believe, experience, proclaim and enact the Gospel, with Jesus at the center of all we do. 11:38 AM May 16th via HootSuite

The Gospel of The Kingdom is a call to action. It is Good News to be believed, proclaimed, enacted and experienced. 11:36 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Because of American Individualism, we have a small Gospel. God’s intention is not simply to get us to Heaven individually. 11:35 AM May 16th via HootSuite

The Kingdom is not just limited to human hearts. It touches EVERYTHING on Earth. 11:33 AM May 16th via HootSuite

The Kingdom is not just Heaven – it is not just God’s rule and reign in spiritual space. 11:33 AM May 16th via HootSuite

In thinking off the Kingdom we need to think of authority and not locality. 11:31 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Understanding the Kingdom is essential to understanding Jesus. 11:31 AM May 16th via HootSuite

…to restore the Shalom of the created order that was ruined in the Fall. 11:30 AM May 16th via HootSuite

We see the story of God in His sovereign plan from Eden to Revelation… 11:30 AM May 16th via HootSuite

1 Cor 15:14 (http://esv.to/1Co15.14) if Christ had not been raised our faith is futile. 11:27 AM May 16th via HootSuite

In Mark 16, Jesus rebukes the disciples for their lack of belief in the resurrection. 11:24 AM May 16th via HootSuite

We must get our motivation correct. We are all busy, but does our business have any eternal significance? 11:21 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Our hope in eternity does not rest on what we do for God, but on what Christ has already done. 11:21 AM May 16th via HootSuite

What is our divine purpose? What are we here for? 11:19 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Brad directs us to Mark 16 (http://esv.to/Mk16.14-20) The Other Great Commission passage. 11:19 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Brad Andrews ( @bradandrews ) brings the message this AM. Check out his blog at http://transformission.com/ 11:17 AM May 16th via HootSuite

As the last song of the first set, we sing “Missions Flame”. 11:10 AM May 16th via HootSuite

We sing “Adoration” as we further our worship by giving of our tithes and offerings. 11:06 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Lane offers prayer for these men and the work they are doing. 11:05 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Seth ask for us to pray for the sacrifices that he and his family make, that God would continue to work on him, and for support for the work 11:02 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Brad’s church can be found here – http://mercyview.com/ 10:58 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Seth’s church can be found here – http://www.thewayfaithcommunity.com/ 10:57 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Lane introduces our church planting partners Seth Shelton planting Way of Faith in SGF and Brad Andrews planting mercyview in Tulsa. 10:55 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Lead Pastor Lane Harrison dismisses the kids and teachers. 10:50 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Dan Seawel leads worship this AM. We open with “My Savior Lives” and “Christ is Risen” // I am sensing a theme here /mch 10:47 AM May 16th via HootSuite

it’s official: we are planting a church in Tulsa!

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Gospel, Tulsa, church, church planting, family, missional, missional church, post-Christendom, vision
• Date: Apr 19,2010

I have been waiting a long time to write this post…

For the last four years, my wife and I have been on the most exhilarating and faith-stretching journey we have ever been on in our lives.

In the spring of 2006, God sent a holy “interruption” into my life and called me to plant a church as the lead planter. In October 2006, I attended an boot camp to be formally assessed by an international transdenominational church planting network and since that time, I have been in a church planting internship and mentoring relationship with a local church here in St. Louis, The Journey. And I have needed every moment of these three years to prepare for the work God has for us.

At the beginning of our journey, we began to pray that God would create a burden for a people in the urban core of a mid-size Midwestern metropolis. God used our prayers and some providential conversations to lead us to a city with a unique personality and a unique set of challenges: Tulsa, OK. Specifically, He has led us to strategically land in the Cherry Street District which is set near downtown in the northern midtown area, defined by a portion of 15th Street dubbed “Cherry Street.”

I have been to Tulsa 8 times in the last two years to “exegete” the culture there and God continues to provide us with many providential relationships, a burden and love for the people of Tulsa, an emerging core group, and an overwhelming vision to plant a Gospel-centered, missional church in the urban core called mercyview.

Why share now?

Well, for the last four years as I have pursued this call, I have been working at Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis as professor of emerging trends in the church and worship. I’ve also had the privilege to intentionally disciple around 25 students that are a part of a paraministry of MBU. I was upfront with the committee that hired me at MBU about my future plans but I wanted to honor their commitment to me so I’ve tried to keep things discreet. Now that things have come together, I gave my notice to MBU last week and now I’m free to shout if from the rooftops.

All that to say, it’s official:

We are moving to Tulsa on Saturday, May 1 to a home on E. 16th Place, a block south of the Cherry Street District (the exact place we have been praying we could land as a family for the last couple of years) to begin the process of planting the gospel in the urban core of Tulsa.

Over the next few weeks, I would like to share more of my story with you, as well as our hopes and dreams for mercyview in the urban core of Tulsa, the High Plains region of the U.S., and beyond.

Our heart for planting in Tulsa can best be summed up by professor, author, and blogger David Fitch:

The landscape of post-Christendom demands we think about church planting with a new eye for faithfulness, truth and integrity. Church is the name we give to a way of life, not a set of services. We do not plant an organized set of services; we inhabit a neighborhood as the living embodied presence of Christ. Missional leaders now root themselves in a piece of geography for the long term. We seek to plant seeds of ministry, kernels of forgiveness, new plantings of the gospel among the poor of “all kinds” and then by the Spirit, water them, nurture them into the life of God in Christ.

We gather on Sunday but not for evangelistic reasons. We gather to be formed into a missional people sent out into the neighborhood to minister grace, peace, love and the gospel of forgiveness and salvation. If the old ways of planting a church were like setting up a grocery store, now it is more like seeding a garden, cultivating it, watching God grow it amidst the challenges of the rocks, weeds and thorns. [1]

Amen and amen…

=================

[1] David Fitch, “On Those Ones Who Would Go and Seed Missional Communities,” Reclaiming the Mission. Available from http://www.reclaimingthemission.com/on-the-ones-who-would-go-and-seed-missional-communities/. Internet.

“monday is for missiology” roundup

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christianity, Gospel, eschatology, evangelism, history, kingdom of God, missio Dei, missiology, mission, missionSHIFT, missional, missional church, missional living, social justice, theology
• Date: Mar 29,2010

I thought I would “roundup” the great posts happening over at edstetzer.com with the recent resurrection of his “Monday is for Missiology” series. This is really helpful stuff if you want to avoid the historical “naivete” that can tend to happen in the current missional conversation.

Here are Ed Stetzer’s thoughts as he sets up the series again:

Over the next few months leading up to missionSHIFT, along with introducing to you to the folks who are joining us at Ridgecrest to be a part of the missional conversation, I want to make sure that we continue to trace the roots of the missional debate historically and theologically. These posts will be a continuation of my “Meanings of Missional” series that has been on hiatus for a while. Okay, since October of 2007 (grin).

For many of you, this discussion may not interest you. Your focus is, “Let’s live on mission.” Fair enough– we will actually be talking about some practical discussion with some partners in the next few days. I don’t think this practical approach is a wrong approach– but I think that if we are to think deeply on issues of church and mission, it will require historic and theological reflection.

…When you look at the historical trajectory of the “church and mission” conversation, it was a deeply theological discussion. We must continue to filter this discussion theologically. In fact, I would say that missional must be tied– and I believe it is– to something inherently theological, particularly, the missio Dei. If not, it is just another descriptor in a long line of descriptors: church growth, seeker-sensitive, church health, emerging.

Here are the seven posts that Ed has written since the start up of the series:

*Monday is for Missiology: The Eschatological Dimension of the Missional Church
*Monday is for Missiology: The Church, The Kingdom, and Mission
*Monday is for Missiology: Caveats Regarding the Eschatological Language of Mission
*Monday is for Missiology: The Church on Mission for the Kingdom
*Monday is for Missiology: The Connection Between Missiology and Soteriology
*Monday is for Missiology: How and Why is God at Work Outside of the Church?
*Monday is for Missiology: One More Run at Salvation

As an added benefit to the series, Ed has invoked the help of some of the leading missional bloggers to weigh in on the issues he is raising on their respective blogs. This team is working through these missional themes as a part of the “Prologue to Missional Discussions” synchroblog and they are:

*Rick Meigs: The Blind Beggar
*Bill Kinnon: kinnon.tv
*Brother Maynard: Subversive Influence
*David Fitch: Reclaiming the Mission
*Tiffany Smith: Missional Mayhem
*Jared Wilson: The Gospel-Driven Church
*Jonathan Dodson: Creation Project

I would encourage you to check the discussion happening at their blogs. And don’t forget to register for missionSHIFT — it’s going to be a great time to continue to talk about all things missional. See you there…

God’s mission is a global mission 2

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Bible, Christianity, Evangelicalism, Gospel, Great Commission, New Testament, acts, church, church planting, contextualization, culture, discipleship, eschatology, evangelism, kingdom of God, missio Dei, missiology, mission, missions, multiplication, post-Christendom, postmodern, world issues
• Date: Feb 24,2010

Last week, I posted on the importance of understanding that God’s mission is a global mission. I promised you some brand new and soon-to-be-released books that will help you put the “mission” back in “missional.”

Recently released:

Paul Hiebert: The Gospel in Human Contexts: Anthropological Explorations for Contemporary Missions

Product Description:

While the gospel is timeless truth, it enters into ever-changing and widely varied human contexts. In order to meaningfully communicate the gospel to particular humans, those involved in cross-cultural ministry need to understand people and the particular influences–social, cultural, psychological, and ecological–that shape them. Further, we must understand ourselves and the influences that have shaped us, since our own contexts influence how we understand and transmit the gospel message. Therefore, we must master not only the skill of biblical interpretation but also the skill of human interpretation. That task is the topic of this book, the summation of a lifetime of experience and thinking by a world-renowned missiologist and anthropologist, the late Paul Hiebert.

Timothy Tennent: Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty-first Century (Invitation to Theological Studies Series)

Product Description:

This unique text is arranged in three parts according to the Trinity’s roles, relationships, and activity. Tennent questions whether missions as currently conceptualized is adequate and he challenges the reader by building the book around key theological foundations such as “missio Dei” and the “new creation” vision for the global church. This volume will call and enable the reader to understand how missions is biblically and theologically basic to Christianity, and how missions is essential to living out an abundant and impassioned life.

Coming soon:

David Hesselgrave + Ed Stetzer: MissionShift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium (July 2010)

Product Description:

Veteran missionary David Hesselgrave and rising missional expert Ed Stetzer edit this engaging set of conversational essays addressing global mission issues in the third millennium. Key contributors are Charles E. Van Engen (“Mission Described and Defined”), the late Paul Hiebert (“The Gospel in Human Contexts: Changing Perspectives on Contextualization”), and the late Ralph Winter (“The Future of Evangelicals in Mission”). Those offering written responses to these essays include: Van Engen, Keith Eitel, Enoch Wan, Darrell Guder, Andreas J. Köstenberger, Hiebert, Michael Pocock, Darrell Whiteman, Norman L. Geisler, Avery Willis, Winter, Scott Moreau, Christopher Little, Michael Barnett, and Mark Terry.

Craig Ott + Stephen Strauss with Timothy Tennent: Encountering Theology of Mission: Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, and Contemporary Issues (Encountering Mission) (May 2010)

Product Description:

This fresh, comprehensive text fills a need for an up-to-date theology of mission. It offers creative approaches to answering some of the most pressing questions in theology of mission and missionary practice today. The authors, who are leading mission experts, discuss biblical theology of mission, provide historical overviews of the development of various viewpoints, and address theologically current issues in global mission from an evangelical perspective. This readable yet thorough text integrates current views of the kingdom of God and holistic mission with traditional views of evangelism and church planting. It also brings theology of mission into conversation with ecclesiology and eschatology. Topics covered include contextualization, the missionary vocation, church and mission, and theology of religions. Sidebars and case studies enable readers to see how theology of mission touches real-life mission practice.

a missional heart

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Bible, Gospel, New Testament, Paul, acts, confrontation, contextualization, evangelism, mission, missional
• Date: Feb 18,2010

Scot McKnight has a great series going on at his Jesus Creed blog on Paul’s missionary journeys called “Acts and Mission.”

In a recent installment, McKnight says this about Paul and his interaction with Festus in Acts 26:

Paul’s passion is for everyone to see the light of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ, and that means even Festus is in his circle of compassionate gospel preaching. Festus thinks Paul’s lost his mind with his belief in the resurrection as a gospel fully conversant with the Jewish Scriptures. But Paul asks him if he believes the Scriptures. Festus wonders aloud if Paul might not be trying to convert him right then and there, and so he says that very thing. To which Paul says: I wish everyone would see the truth of the gospel in Jesus.

I see here the heart of a missional man: using every opportunity to point people to Jesus Christ.

Read the story of Paul and Festus in Acts 26:24-32 here.