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margo-xmas

Parents often forget that their most important mission field is the home. Living missionally as parents means that God’s goodness should infect our homes as we humbly live out the power of the Gospel in our own lives. And as this happens, we pray God will woo our children to his saving grace.

I am so excited to share that last night, I had the privilege to lead my daughter Margo in a prayer of faith and trust in God’s grace for her salvation. What an unbelievable opportunity! Since Cooper trusted in Christ back in January 2008, Margo has been asking a lot of questions. There have been many moments over the last year of her life where I thought I saw the “lightbulb” come on for her, only to be convinced that she needed some more time.

Last night, we were reading the story of Jesus and the children from Matthew 19 from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones (an amazing Gospel-centered children’s Bible) and I could tell that something clicked in Margo’s spirit. She got it. The part of the story that she resonated with said this:

…no matter how clever you are, or how good you are, or how rich you are, or how nice you are, or how important you are – none of it makes any difference. Because God’s love is a gift and, as anyone will tell you, the whole thing about a gift is, it’s free. All you have to do is reach out your hand and take it.

…You see, children loved Jesus, and they knew they didn’t need to do anything special for Jesus to love them. All they needed to do was to run into his arms…

After I read this, Cooper said, “That’s what I did, Dad,” and Margo said, “That’s all I have to do, Dad?” I told her yes. It knew it was time. It had all been leading to this moment. We went upstairs and we talked for a bit and prayed together. Wow…

What is beautiful about this is that Cooper was drawn to the saving knowledge of Christ through the Word by the same Bible almost a year and a half ago. God’s word is alive!

She is so excited to get baptized, especially to show her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins about her decision, but she is almost more excited to take communion as a family. At The Journey, we come forward to take communion and Holly, Cooper, and I have been doing this together for the past year and a half. Margo has been joining us as we go forward but not partaking. She has been asking more questions lately about what the elements represent.

I think this has been another big part of her journey to Christ. It reflects what can happen when, as an ordinary family, as Tim Chester and Steve Timmis say, you do ordinary things with Gospel intentionality. Just having Margo around the sacraments made an impact on her. It drew her into wanting to be a part of God’s family.

I thank the Lord for the professions of faith of Cooper and Margo and continue to pray for my two youngest, Sloan and Everett. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord…

For further reading, the following post was written in January 2008 and captures my heart on bringing the Gospel to your children, highlighting what is most important and exposing some misconceptions. I would encourage you to read: Bringing the Gospel to your Children: What I’ve Learned So Far


the power of the touch

A beautiful story from my mentor, Mark Powell:

holding-hands


As in most urban settings, people with addiction and mental issues tend to gravitate toward the church. This is true for us because of our location, and it is true because so many with these challenges also live on poverty’s edge. That is why I wasn’t surprised when M. walked into our worship service yesterday. He’s been here before.

Actually, I have been working with him for five years or so, attempting to live-out the Gospel before him, while not seeking to overtly speak about church or Jesus, unless he brings it to the conversation. Instead, I have mostly offered to really listen to him the three or four times he visits each week, which means most of our conversations revolve around me encouraging him to stay on his meds, attend his meetings or respond to his requests for cash (which he always pays back).

So, while I wasn’t surprised when he came to church yesterday, I wasn’t too excited either. You see, the thing about M. and worship is that he rarely stays for an entire service. Most times, usually during the song-set, he will mosey out of the sanctuary, down the steps and out the door. Which is fine with me, my thinking being — around here, you are allowed to rise to the level of your own involvement.

Well, yesterday, he walked up to me before the service and said, “Is it OK if I come to your church today?”

To which I replied, “What do you think?”

He grinned and said, “Yeah.”

Since he had a twenty minute wait, I offered a seat, not really thinking he would even make the wait-time before the start. But, about five minutes before worship I saw he was still sitting there, so I tossed a prayer over the wall: “LORD, have someone sit by M.,” and to my surprise, someone did. When I stood to share my Conversation with the TEXT I noticed that B., a very frail senior adult lady, had moved across the aisle from her seat with her family in order to sit with him.

M. ended up staying for the service, and as B. left she said, “You know M. is a nice man, but he was so nervous I ended up holding his hand.”


theologyontap

Wednesday night, I had the privilege to attend “Theology at the Bottleworks,” a Midrash ministry of The Journey [my family's home church + where I am doing my church planting internship] at a pub, Schlafly’s Bottleworks, in beautiful Maplewood.

In older, simpler times, a pub or “public house” was often the focal point of the community, playing a similar role to the local church, where people gathered to openly discuss significant issues of the day. The Journey is re-entering the “public house” to reach into culture by tackling spiritual, political, and philosophical themes in an open environment.

And yes, this has been the setting for the infamous “Beer and the Bible” controversy that brewed, pun intended, back in 2007. There is great comment from my good friend and Journey pastor, Jonathan McIntosh, on the web home for Mike Corley of The Mike Corley Program here about TATB [unfortunately, the audio seems to be nonexistent]. You can read a couple of somewhat objective articles about TATB from the Baptist Press here and the Christian Post here…

I am shadowing the moderators for the next couple of months to eventually become a part of the moderation team over the next year. And let me say, after observing my new friend Matt moderate last night, this is going to be one of the most difficult yet shaping things I have ever done. I’m excited about what God is going to do in me through this…

This particular evening was unique in that it was the 4th anniversary of this outreach event. To be specific, this was the 48th TATB event. Pretty astounding.

There were probably about 50 people there and I was told that there are usually 70+. And my best guess was that it was split down the middle: 50% religious, 50% non-religious.

The topic was “The Impact of Technology on the American Way of Life.” And a lively topic it was. Here were some of the great points made/questions raised across a wide spectrum:

>technology makes us lose touch with reality into isolation
>human interaction is overrated
>technology pits art + creativity vs. efficiency + mass production + instant gratification
>technology makes you more human, not less
>does technological innovation undercut traditional fundamentals?
>technology makes us skip the fundamentals of knowledge, i.e., spelling
>new technology wouldn’t be realized with the fundamentals changing
>are we headed to a Wall-E or Matrix world?
>technology can enhance relationships but cannot substitute for human touch, empathy, etc.
>do we like where technology is taking us?
>technology moves us away from real sources, i.e., analog musical recording vs. digital
>to curb abuse of technology, we have to discipline ourselves and self-moderate
>technology is neutral; we use technology, it doesn’t use us
>technology is good for scientific + medical purposes but not relationships
>we are trading quantity of connectedness over quality of connectedness, i.e. Facebook friends vs. real friends
>there is no counterbalance with technology from the spritual + ethical side of the equation
>should we limit/restrain technology?
>Bible gives principles not specifics on how we should handle “stuff”, i.e., Genesis 1 “subdue” principle

So what does this have to do with why we aren’t missional?

I sat at a table with a non-religious, 50+ year-old Greek curmudgeon, a non-religious 30+ year-old Asian-American (originally from Hong Kong) molecular biologist and resident at Children’s Hospital, and a 30+ year-old skeptic and non-practicing Orthodox Jew. Uh, yeah. And it wasn’t the large group discussion that impacted me. It was the discussion with my three new friends after the discussion that did. Big time…

My experience Wednesday night unearthed some things inside of me that I need to preach to myself to help me understand where my heart and head don’t line up with regards to my missional posture to culture. So I thought I’d invite you to join me on the journey.

As a part of a series, I am going to unpack what I believe are the 5 main things that keep us from being salt and light in culture. I hope you join me in the conversation…


bodybillboard

In light of my recent post on seeing people, not as commodities, but inherently made in the image of God, or better, “eikons” in need of repair (to borrow from Scot McKnight), I really resonated with this post from Skye Jethani entitled “Your Body as a Billboard.” Here is a blurb:

The problem is when we make sacred things into commodities…we no longer see God as inherently worthy of our worship because of who he is but because of what we believe he can do for us, he becomes a divine commodity (hence the title of my book.) But we do the same thing to people created in God’s image. Whether it’s a corporation reducing people to a means of production, a society reducing unborn children to “tissue,” or churches reducing families to “giving units,” we live in an age when human beings carry no inherent value. They are expendable commodities whose value is determined by their usefulness.

Read Jethani’s entire post here: Your Body as a Billboard by Skye Jethani

And here is the NY Times Article referenced: The Body as Billboard by Andrew Adam Newman


ddevito

“If you want to talk to somebody honestly as a human being, ask him about his kids, find out what his dreams are, just to find out for no other reason because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it’s not a conversation anymore, it’s a pitch. And you’re not a human being you’re a marketing rep.”

-Phil, played by Danny Devito, from The Big Kahuna

I have begun meeting with an older mentor who is providentially working God’s truth deep into my soul. Last week, we met and he challenged me on the issue of what I “lead with.” Especially in conversations with those who don’t follow Jesus.

What do you lead with? Do you lead with what you do? Is what you do who you are? Or is what you are not defined by what you do? Is telling people what you do even important?

People are not commodities. Evangelism is not a recruiting scheme. Conversation and relationship should not be bait-and-switch.

We must be compelled by love.

See also: Doug Pollock: Ten Spiritual Conversation Killers


This is Shane Hipps, author of The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture and the new Flickering Pixels. The big takeaway for me from this were Shane’s four convictions on what real, meaningful, missional community looks like – juxtaposing these convictions against virtual community. They were:

1) Shared history – establishes sense of identity of belonging
2) Permanence – it is how you get the shared history
3) Proximity – you have to be with one another in order to create meaningful connections
4) Shared imagination of the future – going in the same direction; this is the hardest one to get I think Shane is on to something.

As I ponder his convictions, I think he highlights a few implications we need to wrestle with when we think about how to “do” community in our ministry contexts. For example, are short-term, seasonal small groups really the most effective way to build meaningful community? How can you have a sense of shared history, permanence, proximity, and shared imagination of the future when you have to start over with a new community group every six months?

It seems like there needs to be room for more organic expression in community in our churches, particularly where groups are given ownership of the length of time they meet and gasp, who is a part of their community (which, btw, should always be open to unbelievers being “invited” in to belong before believing).

I’m walking through Joseph Meyer’s books, The Search To Belong and Organic Community, and listening to Shane, I’m sensing that the church’s tendency is to program or try to “make” community. It’s not working.

Community that is meaningful, shared, real, authentic can’t be manufactured.
On most levels, it must be organic or it becomes a real life version of what a virtual community is online: no shared history, no permanence, maybe a bit of proximity, and a smidgen of shared vision for the future.

I think I know why we lean towards programming community. It’s easier. It’s pragmatic. It’s streamlined. I understand that. But how could we create a “system” that promotes long-term community and short-term “affinity” groups that come after the first priority of the long-term community group? How can we see our neighbors as our “community group?”

The one caveat in this discussion is what to do when your group grows to be too big – however the ministry context defines “big” – and needs to reproduce. I haven’t come up with a sufficient thought on this yet. Still wrestling with that…
___________________

On a side note, I just received Shane’s new book, Flickering Pixels, and I’m excited to read it because I’m sure it will push back on my technological ways. In a prophetic way…


coffeeconvo

My new friend, Art Rogers, reprinted Michael Frost’s four “P’s” of missionality (love that word). I’ll re-re-print them here:

Proximity – We must be in the lives of those needing the Gospel. It is not something you can do from the sideline or as a tourist.
Presence – We must live incarnationally, revealing the presence of God to those not looking for Him otherwise.
Powerlessness – We must disavow the political, material and temporal leverage that the institutional church has long represented and coveted. It has discredited us and eschewing it commends us to those previously disillusioned.
Proclamation – We must openly declare that Jesus is the reason that we are living as servants, abstaining from worldly power struggles. People don’t need “good people” they need the Gospel.

Art asked for thoughts. Here was my response:

i think it’s pretty strong. many “missional” folks leave out proclamation. great to see that…

on the proclamation front, people like frost and his buddy, hirsch, show they are thoroughly evangelical. unfortunately, they are still on the margins of much of evangelicalism. i see their prophetic influence slowly seeping out, but there is much work to be done…

i do want to say that we need to be careful how we define proclamation though. we typically do this: proclamation = preaching. that’s a slice but not exclusively what it is. proclamation is an all-of-life, “giving a reason for the hope..,” verbal proclamation of our faith. at the appropriate, discerning time…

the one thing i would add is the impetus of the declaration that Jesus is the reason we are living as servants isn’t first because we are resisting worldly power struggles but we are servants because the cross was the fullest expression of service. We serve because Jesus’ obedience to the Father was the ultimate act of service. i’m afraid if we don’t do that, people will not see the gospel as the impetus, rather an apple for apples trade off – service vs. power struggles. i hope that makes sense…

i understand that early in conversation, it may be helpful to use the apple for apples idea as a gateway, but we have to be careful to expand the idea at the most appropriate time so we model the gospel as the prism they need to look at all things, especially mission.

i would say it this way: gospel-less service is merely activism but gospel-filled service is mission!


extract’d

disciples

…we need to think hard about our definition of success in church planting and in the life of the existing church. Too often, pastors and leaders are hearing an unspoken communique that success is leading a church of several hundred or growing 10% in attendance every year or building a new building…Maybe success is about obeying the voice of God and making disciple making disciples. Maybe the only numbers we should be counting in our churches is the number of missionaries that leave the parking lot on Sunday morning rather than the number of people who came to see the show.

-Darren Casper, from his article, “A challenging piece on,’what is church?’” from his 1.22.09 St. Louis Metro Baptist Association newsletter


fruit

Brother Maynard, in a recent entry entitled “Missional Conversation for 2009,” waxes on what he believes will be at the forefront of the missional discussion this upcoming year. One of the things he says should be at the center is evangelism. And it should be…

In light of the recent hubbub over the issue of “conversion” and the “fruit” of the missional church via Dan Kimball, et al., there is no question that those of us in the missional conversation must wrestle with the issue of evangelism as it relates to conversion.

On the one hand, David Fitch is right when he says that in the post-Christian culture, “converting” the truly unchurched – as opposed to the dechurched, who have some Christian memory – will be a much slower process that will take extreme patience. The world knows a bait-and-switch when they see it and we have to honor the process, discerning our part on the spectrum of one’s spiritual journey. We may be the seed “planter,” “waterer,” or “harvester.”

On the other hand, as we are “compelled by love” to engage in relationship with unbelievers because we believe their greatest need is on the soul level, we will have to discern if and when our job is to “harvest” and be ready to lead others to Christ and not, for the sake of offense, be so hesitant to do so because we are so intent on going “slow.”

There is no question that evangelism has been subsumed into the “mission” at various points historically, many times in the name of the missio Dei. When it has done so, “conversion” was no longer important. Rather than explicitly share the Gospel, one must merely express “solidarity” with an oppressed people group for Christ to “save” them. No proclamation of the Gospel, just presence. In this paradigm, as Stephen Neill has said, when everything is mission, nothing is mission.

In other words, if a narrower definition of mission is sharing the good news of Christ, then “sharing” may be a part of the equation depending on our role in the process. Expressing oneness with someone alone will never lead anyone to Christ. It may be an excellent gateway, but cannot be equated with what historically has been understood as evangelism.

I believe the fruit of the missional church will be seen in our ability to live in the creative tension of earning trust and credibility with the lost, going slow and discerning the Spirit’s leading to our “role” in their spiritual journey and if given a window of openness to the Gospel, boldly and lovingly, leading our friends into the Kingdom.



Photo by hickory hardscrabble

I thought I’d wait until we had a little space from Christmas to re-post something here on the blog so your visceral reaction would not so closely connected to the present tense.

Just before Christmas, my friend Shaun Groves wrote a four-part series on the idea of “going giftless.” (And yes, I’m using the word “guiltless” in my blog title on purpose; a little turn of the phrase)

It’s challenging. You may not agree with everything in the series but I think it will be good for your soul to wrestle with this. Holly and I took a big step in this direction with our family this Christmas. I’ll tell you about that tomorrow…

Here is the series:

Going Giftless Part 1
Going Giftless Part 2
Going Giftless Part 3
Going Giftless Part 4


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Husband and father of four, university instructor, seminarian, worship consultant, and church planting intern.

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