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Living as a Missional Community

January 27, 2012 in Church Planting, Community Life, Faith, Ministry with 0 Comments

One of the things that fascinates me about Jesus was that he was a masterful communicator. One of the ways that he loved to communicate was via word pictures.

Jesus loved to paint word pictures.

He did this because he knew that, through word pictures, we would be able to intrinsically understand and connect the truths that he was teaching us with our real lives today.

Two of the most powerful word pictures that he used to describe you and I were salt and light.

Matt. 5:13    “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
Matt. 5:14    “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

When we read these verses, we, in our western individualistic world views, think that he’s talking about you and I individually – that we are individually the salt of the earth and the light of the world. However, when you look at the original language, the word “you” is actually plural.

 

You (the community together) are the salt of the earth.

You (the community together) are the light of the world – a city on a hill.

You (the community together) are the body of Christ, and each of us is a part of it (1 Cor 12:27).

Jesus never intended any of us to journey through life alone. Faith is not a private thing, it’s a community thing. We each have our own relationship with God, but it is in the context of community that we live it out and grow.

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Eating as a Holy Act

November 22, 2011 in Books, Church Planting, Community Life, Concepts, Culture, Ministry with 0 Comments

Did you know that over the past three decades, there has been a 45 percent decrease in entertaining friends and a 33 percent decrease in families eating together? And more than half of those families watch television as they eat together – I know it…that’s what my family did growing up (research from Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone).

What did you eat today? Whom did you eat it with? When’s the last time you had a meaningful time of relationship and community with another person? Was it around food? Most of us not only organize our day around our meals, but is is the social glue that connects families and friends together. Isn’t that why the big holidays, like Christmas and Thanksgiving are celebrated with family, friends, and a big meal?

However, we oftentimes eat without knowing and understanding the significance of it, other than satisfying that hunger or satiating that palette.

So what would it look like if we began seeing food and our meal times through the eyes of Jesus? How did he view the table?

Well, in the New Testament, here are three of the ways that the sentence “The Son of Man came…” is completed:

  1. …not to serve, but to serve (Mark 10:45);
  2. …to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10);
  3. …eating and drinking (Luke 7:34).

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Book Review: The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission – Lesslie Newbigin

August 14, 2011 in Books, Church Planting, Community Life, Concepts, Culture, Ministry with 0 Comments

The following is an analytical review on Newbigin, Lesslie. 1995 The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission Revised Edition. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Kindle Edition.

 

Leslie Newbigin (1909-1998) was a theological missiologist/missionary and a missiological theologian. There are over six decades worth of his writings on mission theology and practice. Thus, he is considered to have had one of the greatest influences on the theology of mission in the twentieth century. Furthermore, Newbigin was a scholar practitioner since his works were always rooted in his living relationship with Jesus Christ; after all, he modeled what he wrote. He was also a Western missionary to India from 1936-1974, and upon returning to Great Britain, his missionary focus turned to the West (Shenk 1998).

The thesis of this book is that Christian mission is an open secret. It is open in the sense that the gospel is proclaimed to all without any boundaries, but it is a secret in that “it is manifest only to the eyes of faith” (Location 2556). As a result, mission cannot be relegated as a side task of the church, but it is the central calling and purpose of the church, yet the church does not own the mission, the mission is God’s (Location 256). Newbigin’s prophetic call to the church is for it to reemphasize its missionary character “to bring all things to their true end in the glory of the triune God” (Location 2556).

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Book Review: The Mission of God – Christopher Wright

August 8, 2011 in Books, Church Planting, Ministry with 0 Comments

This is an analytical book review of Christopher Wright’s The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative.

Rev. Dr. Christopher Wright’s passion is bringing life to the “relevance of the Old Testament to Christian mission and ethics.” In addition to his current role as the Director over Langham Partnership International after John Stott’s death, he has experience as a High School teacher, theological professor, and as an ordained minister with the Anglican Church of England.

The Mission of God is a magnum opus describing the mission of God. In other words, the thesis of this book is not only that Christian mission is firmly grounded in Scripture, but also that Scripture is most accurately read through a hermeneutical framework that is centered on the mission of God (Wright 2006, 26). In other words, “God’s mission is what fills the gap between the scattering of the nations in Genesis 11 and the healing of the nations in Revelation 22” (455).

Wright navigates readers through his comprehensive study of the mission of God by dividing his book into four parts: The Bible and Mission, The God of Mission, The People of Mission, and The Arena of Mission. In the first part, Wright describes what a missiological hermeneutic of the Bible entails. He argues that individuals need to understand the Bible’s grand metanarrative, and also that the proper way to read the Bible is messianically and missionally (31). In the second part, Wright unpacks the identity, uniqueness, and universality of the God of Israel and Jesus Christ and the ensuing implications for mission (27). He finishes the section by paying attention to the opposition of the mission of God – idols and gods. In the third part, one discovers that the primary agent of the mission of God is the people of God. This is noticeable by examining the biblical covenants and the narrative of Scripture. Wright finishes his magnum opus by concentrating on the Arena of Mission – the earth, humans, and all culture and nations.

There have only been a few books that I have read and come away with a sense of awe, humility, and a passion to reread it and act on what I have read – The Mission of God is the most recent.

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Every Believer is Called to Full Time Ministry

July 14, 2011 in Church Planting, Community Life, Ministry with 0 Comments

“Every believer is called to full-time paid ministry – God just chooses to route our paychecks through different sources.”

- Jeff Vanderstelt

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What are Missional Communities? Resources

July 12, 2011 in Books, Church Planting, Community Life, Ministry with 0 Comments

I am in the process of gathering information, reading books, and seeing what missional communities would look like in my context and I have come across tons and tons of resources.

Before presenting all my findings here, I’ll list some of the resources I have been using and looking at.

  • Soma Communities have probably been the most inspiring real life story of a network of missional communities living out the Gospel together. Click here to see a video describing their story.
  • The Acts 29 Network is always a great resource on church planting
  • Books:

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    Being Missionaries to Our Cities – Soma Communities

    July 4, 2011 in Church Planting, Ministry with 1 Comment

    I haven’t seen any other video that has moved me and reflected my heart’s calling more than this video.

    I know that God has called me to be involved with church planting, and this is what it’s about. You have to see this.

    These are my favorite quotes from the video:

    • “If you don’t have multiplication at the end of what you are supposed to do then you won’t actually do what you’re supposed to do”
    • “A lot of churches have become orphanages. They know how to have babies, and they have a couple of fathers and moms for all the babies, but not enough to care for them all. And not enough to send them off to have their own families.”
    • “My exhortation to church planters is, if they don’t have that kind of love for the people that God has put around them, then they gotta ask God to give them a bigger heart coz this isn’t about them. It’s not about their church or their successes, it’s about God’s glory and the lost people who don’t know the love of their Father.”

    Enjoy:

    Soma Communities – Tacoma, WA from Verge Network on Vimeo.

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