Mercyview Launch in Pictures

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: baptism, church planting, communion, Gospel, Jesus, kingdom of God, mercyview, preaching, resurrection, sabbath, sacraments, sacred space, urban, worship
• Date: Apr 26,2011

It has been 11 months since my family moved to the urban core of Tulsa, Oklahoma to plant Mercyview. Within our first few months here, God graciously brought a humble band of urban missionaries around the mission and vision of Mercyview. Since that time, we have sought to plant the Gospel deeply in our lives, praying that out of this, God would graciously plant His church in the center city of Tulsa. And I’m humbled to say that He has!

But what is the church? Is it an institution? It is a building? Is it a worship service? Well, when I say God has planted His church here, I mean that He has planted His people in a particular time and place to cultivate the knowledge of the rule of His Kingship. George Ladd says, “…there can be no objection to the recognition that the church is the organ of the Kingdom as it works in the world.” God is building His church, His redemptive Kingdom agents on mission, here in the urban core of Tulsa and we are stoked!

The church began with the deep belief that Gospel transformation typically happens best in smaller groupings of people. We have experienced this firsthand in our time here with our missional community. Our missional communities are inter-generational, small groups that meet weekly in homes, sharing meals, prayer, the Scripture, and our lives with another, as well as participating in missional endeavors.

At the turn of the new year, I felt that God was moving us to provide another environment for individuals to experience the Gospel, community, and mission at Mercyview through a gathered worship experience.

We began to talk about this as a community and I was blown away at how God was already moving in the hearts of those that were a part of this to move in that direction. We made plans to launch a worship gathering on Easter Sunday, knowing that God was going to have to provide a space, sound equipment, kid’s items, etc. We stepped out in faith and asked the Lord to meet us at the point of our need.

Well, this past week, we celebrated the launch of Mercyview’s first worship gathering on Easter Sunday!

God graciously provided a space that seats around 125 people, has rooms for children’s ministry, an abundance of parking (which is a precious commodity in Midtown Tulsa), and room to grow at Tulsa Adventist Academy, in the neighborhood just to the east of the University of Tulsa called Turner Park. We had churches, organizations, and individuals donate special financial gifts, sound equipment, kid’s items, and Bibles to help us with our launch. And I am so proud of our team – they did an amazing job in pulling this together in a short amount of time!

Now, we haven’t arrived. The goal has never been to launch a worship gathering. Our goal will always be to find our identity in Jesus and to live in the freedom that His grace and mercy bought for us. This will happen in our gathering. But it will also happen in our scattering. It will happen in the neighborhoods we live in, the businesses we work in, and the places we play. God willing, He will continue to build a people who will make Him famous in Tulsa and beyond.

Here are some pictures from our special day:

The Trialogue of God, Culture, and Contextualization: The MissionShift Conversations, Part 1

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Bible, Christianity, church, church planting, contextualization, culture, eschatology, Evangelicalism, Gospel, history, Jesus, kingdom of God, missiology, mission, missional, missional church, missional living, missions, orthopraxy, resurrection, sanctification, sent, Trinity
• Date: Jan 17,2011

[This post is an entry in the Missionshift Book conversation happening @ edstetzer.com]

MissionShift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium is a timely book in the midst of the missional conversation we find ourselves in at the top of the 21st century. It’s a book that I hope gets the press it deserves because it is a indispensable resource for those wrestling with what it means to be “missional.” A big thank you goes to David Hesselgrave and Ed Stetzer for compiling this opus.

At a cursory scan, the book is moored by essays related to mission’s past, present, and future from three of the leading-edge missiologists of our time: Charles Van Engen, the late Paul Hiebert, and the late Ralph Winter. In response to these essays, Hesselgrave and Stetzer gathered a “who’s who” in the field of missiology to interact and debate about the issues therein.

In the coming weeks, I am going to respond to each section in MissionShift. Today, I would like to comment on the first section of MissionShift related to mission’s past.

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I have to admit that Van Engen is one of my favorite missiologists. His books, God’s Missionary People and Mission on the Way, are must-reads for any pastor, church planter, or missionary who is engaged in mission today. These books have informed my thoughts on how mission, the church, the Kingdom of God, and eschatology intersect, like few other.

Van Engen begins by showing us the plethora of ways the word “mission” is being used today — and thus the confusion surrounding the term. Some are attempting to use it correctly, while others are using it to “stand for any kind of new life, vision, vitality, and direction of the church — often with little or no theological or missiological reference.” (10)

I concur with Van Engen that due to this blurring, “it is especially important that the Christian church wrestle with its mission in the sense of articulating the reason and purpose for which it exists” because “a cohesive, consistent, focused, theologically deep, missiologically broad, and contextually appropriate Evangelical missiology has not yet emerged for this new century.” (10, 24)

Van Engen is the consummate historian in this essay, accentuating the important shifts in mission thinking in two millenia of mission’s history. He capably takes us through mission’s past by walking us through mission in the early church through the Constantinian era through the late 1700s circa William Carey through mission reconstruction in the 20th century.

Some will question (like essay respondents Keith Eitel and Andreas Kostenberger) the length at which mission’s past influences Van Engen’s mission present. But as Ed Stetzer notes in his response, the privilege of Biblical revelation does not “preclude us from gaining favorable insights from the history of the church…where God’s truth about the world and the people who live in it may be discerned.” (77)

One of Van Engen’s most important contributions in his essay is where he reminds us that the original Biblical meaning of the word “mission” — apostello and pempo — denotes being sent “forth to service in the Kingdom of God with full authority (grounded in God).” (11)

His point here is to highlight that mission is participating in the mission of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the sender is Jesus, whose authority “defines, circumscribes, limits, and propels Christian mission.” (12) This is a simple but profound subtlety in the debate over mission today. Who sets the agenda? Whose bias is inserted — the mission agency, the denomination, the sending church, the non-for-profit or something/someone else? Van Engen says, “Biblical mission is God’s mission.” (12)

So how do we let God set the docket for mission?

I believe we do this in large part as we see mission as robustly Trinitarian (as respondent Enoch Wan argues Van Engen is lacking — though Stetzer will later argue that Van Engen is not neglecting in this idea). Van Engen seems to purport this idea but I wish he would have been a bit more clear on this issue. To be fair, Van Engen leans toward this notion in a couple of ways:

1) First, he says “The church is sent by her Lord” and then goes on to say, “mission is participation in the mission of Jesus Christ…in the power of the Holy Spirit,”; I think we can synthesize his thoughts here to support a Trinitarian grounding of mission, but it’s not easily ascertainable (12)

2) He does cite David Bosch’s magisterial definition of mission from Transforming Mission in which Bosch says, “Mission [is] understood as being derived from the very nature of God. It [is] thus put in the context of the Trinity, not ecclesiology or soteriology.” (footnote, 24)

I believe that as we reflect and dialogue on the implications of a Trinitarian grounding for mission, contextual orthopraxy will emerge. These questions strike me as helpful questions to ask ourselves as we use the filter of the Trinity for mission:

–What does the story of God tells us about how God interacts with His people? How does this inform us on how to interact with people?

–How does the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus show us how to live in such a way that the Gospel is attractive to those in our spheres?

–How can we pursue the leading of the Holy Spirit to make prayerful, discerning decisions about mission in our contexts?

In summary, the most helpful respondent essays are from Stetzer, Darrell Guder, and Wan as Eitel’s is polemic in nature and the least helpful. Kostenberger’s response is generally helpful but also seems to show a paranoia that Biblical revelation is being usurped in the name of contextualization.

Guder specifically enriches the conversation by stating, “The authority of Scripture is not then defined so much by our anxiety about boundaries and guidelines but by the powerful way in which God’s written Word continues our conversion to our vocation.” (53) This reminds me of Tim Keller’s thoughts that the key to a Christian’s sanctification is not to tread into deeper theological waters but to come back to the Gospel found in the Word again and again. One of the by-products of this Gospel-wakefulness converts us to a community of faith that understands our vocation as missional.

Stetzer hits the nail on the head when he says, “For us to be biblical…in our reflections on the church’s mission, we must have a theological interpretation of the message of Scripture… (and) of our culture, and a theological application of the gospel to our culture.” (77) This Newbiginian-like trialogue of God’s story (Bible) and culture (context), and practice (contextualization via the local church) does not dilute Biblical revelation but rather enhances it to the glory of God flowing from Trinitarian mission.

notes from mercyview lab #1

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 1 Corinthians, atonement, Bible, Christianity, community, Galatians, Gospel, incarnation, irreligion, Jesus, justification, kingdom of God, mercyview, New Testament, 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.

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[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, church, church planting, Gospel, Great Commission, Jesus, kingdom of God, Mark, mercyview, mission, missional, missional church, missional living, New Testament, organic, orthopraxy, Paul, resurrection, sermons, Tulsa, 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

authority for the gentle missional conquest

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Bible, discipleship, Gospel, Great Commission, Jesus, Matthew, mission, New Testament, resurrection
• Date: Feb 8,2010

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Andreas Kostenberger, professor of New Testament at SBTS and editor of The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, looks at how Jesus’ authority emboldens his followers to join in God’s mission without fear.

Kostenberger:

…it is only after the crucifixion that Jesus claims to have all authority in heaven and on earth. It is the risen Christ who, in the manner of a conquering, victorious general, ascends the mountain and commissions his followers to go and conquer the worlds, similar to Alexander the Great and other military leaders who set out to subdue the universe and subject it to their will. But Jesus’ will be a gentle conquest…

He continues:

…as his followers go into all the world in order to disciple the nations, Jesus himself, Isaiah’s Immanuel, which is translated “God with us” (Matt 1:23), will be with them: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” How, then, can the church’s mission possibly fail, if Jesus, the risen Christ, the conquering general, will himself be present with his people in the power of the Holy Spirit?

Read the entire post here.

tim chester’s new book, the ordinary hero, out in ’09

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Bible, books, Christianity, cross, Gospel, New Testament, resurrection, theology, video
• Date: Dec 23,2008

Tim Chester, co-author of the seminal book, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around the Gospel and Community with Steve Timmis, has a new book coming out in mid-2009 called The Ordinary Hero: Living the Cross and Resurrection.

Here is Tim talking about the ethos of the book:

You can find all of Tim’s books here at Amazon.

You can read Tim’s blog at: Reformed Spirituality and Missional Church.