Missional Mish-mash

Recently there has been a lot of great conversation going on about the word "missional." It is a very necessary conversation as this word continues to be watered down to the point it's like my iced tea yesterday after sitting in the sun for two hours. In our culture there are many buzzwords that are birthed with a specific meaning that are then either highjacked or broadened to the point they mean nothing and then they pass away. I credit Alan Hirsch, one of the people who has popularized this term, with realizing that this was happening to the word "missional" and trying to do something about it.

Read Alan's post on this here.

From my perspective (which is the only perspective I have) one of the biggest reasons missional has become marginalized is that it is understood as a church thing rather than a people of God thing. A church is not missional because it has an outreach program--even if it's an extensive outreach program. It seems so many churches now want to highlight the ways they're reaching out to the community and then call themselves missional. Now those programs may contribute to the mission of Christ in that church, but unless the people of God in that church have apprehended a missional mind, heart, and way of living that is exhibited throughout their life (not just when they go to volunteer at the outreach event) then the church is not missional.

Somehow we have arrived at a place in Western Christianity where discipleship is outsourced to the staff and programs of a church rather than it being a part of every Christ-follower's life. All a person has to do is show up on Sunday morning and then participate in some of what the church has going on and BAM that's discipleship. But it's not. That can be a helpful part of discipleship, but being conformed to the image of Christ is not a program or something a pastor can force on you, you have to open yourself and allow Jesus to transform you. In this transformation we will become missional because we will apprehend the heart of God for the world and will seek to join him in that mission in every moment of life. As that happens churches will be missional because the people are missional.

Here are a couple other posts you should check out on this issue.
Ryan Taylor on missional and discipleship
Cory Whitehead on Alan Hirsch

Reclaiming the Word "Missional"

I had the opportunity to meet Alan Hirsch a couple weeks ago, which was a great honor and, of course, included captivating, thoughtful discussion.

As part of his stop at CTI, he did an interview with Leadership journal and Out of Ur. You can find the audio here.

The short clip focuses on what "missional" really means (because everyone seems to be using the word these days), and I've included a few of my notes here:

• A missionary stance toward the culture
  
• Treat neighbors as a cross-cultural environment
  
• Pretend you're in Papua New Guinea and have to learn all about a new culture
  
• There are hundreds of subcultures around us (different music tastes, hobbies, dress code, political thinking, etc)
  

What does an attractional church do if it realizes they need to shift their posture to a more missional mindset?:

• Win the battle of the imagination
  
• Dethrone Constantine (that the Church exists beyond the institution)
  
• Be patient because it's such a huge shift
  
• Everyone has to take an active role and realize they're more than consumers
  
• Know that people will be upset by this shift
  

Listen to the short audio clip for more context.

Frustrating!

Throughout our process of starting Infuse we've looked for both local churches and church networks with whom we can partner. We're thankful for the few that we've found and our affiliation with them. But it is amazing how difficult it is to find any who are willing to experiment with something like Infuse!

In almost every case church planting organizations require a building to be bought or rented within a couple years, a large number of "members" to be gathered, a worship team, certain programs to be established, etc. It's not that I'm opposed to measurement or accountability, but with a missionary venture like Infuse these measurements just don't fit! In my interaction with others pursuing missional/organic church planting this is one of the biggest frustrations. We are often unable to partner with the existing church because they set up rules or procedures that just don't fit with what we're doing. This makes me all the more thankful for those who are flexible enough to work with us!

Exponential: Ed Stetzer

Missional Manifestations
Ed Stetzer

• When you move beyond a single cell you need systems to help a church live.
• There are numerous shifts taking place in church planting movements in the West.

from demographics to discernments
from models to missions
from attractional to incarnational
from uniformity to diversity (of church forms)
from professional to passionate
from seating to sending
from decisions to disciples
from additional to exponential

• Church needs to be biblically faithful, culturally relative, counter-cultural community for the gospel and the kingdom of God.

Exponential: Alan Hirsch 3

The Missional Magnet
Alan Hirsch

• In the context of persecution the people distill the message to "Jesus is Lord." (which assumes Savior)
• If you list the good qualities of the Pharisees, it's us!
• Jesus was theologically a Pharisee, but it's how you inhabit the doctrine.
• Ecclesiology is taking over and Jesus becomes a subset of the church.
• If you ask most people where you go to find Jesus they'd say a church. That's heresy! Jesus is everywhere, not contained by a building.
• The measure of success is not size, it's multiplication.
• We are polytheists. In politics, family, economics, career, etc. we don't let Jesus rule very easily. We serve different gods or philosophies in each.

Exponential: Alan Hirsch 2

Missionary Movement
Alan Hirsch

• The church is in decline in every Western setting.

4 Areas We Need to Recover

1. The Centrality of Jesus

• Christology lies at the heart of the renewal of the church.
• Jesus sets the template for what it means to be a Christian.
• Jesus' harshest criticism is for the religious people.
• It's easy to take Jesus out of the church because it's hard to live with a Lord.
• Christianity minus Christ equals religion.

2. Discipleship

• Becoming like Jesus.
• Embodiment is critical to transmission.
• Movements only grow in proportion to their ability to make disciples.
• Consumerism is killing us from within. It is an alternative religion and we've wedded ourselves to it.

3. Ethos/Structure of Apostolic Movements

• missionally responsive
• culturally adaptive
• organizationally agile
• mobilize the whole people of God
• every believer a church planter
• reproducible
• structurally networked

4. Missional-Incarnational Impulse

Exponential: Alan Hirsch

Lord Jesus...It All Begins Here
Alan Hirsch

• Missio Dei--as a missionary, God is a redeemer.
• Every Christian is a missionary, we're all sent ones.
• The church doesn't have a mission, God's mission has a church.
• Most people have "God experiences," they just don't know how to interpret them in and through Jesus.
• God is in the places we normally don't go.
• If you organize around ministry you never get around to mission, even if you have good intentions.
• Your budget says what you believe in.
• Worship is offering the whole world up to God.
• Communion should be happeningg whenever we eat and drink.
• We can change the world by regularly inviting the poor to our table.
• Our offer to others is to "come die with us" for the sake of others.

Being a Turtle

Sometimes pursuing things in a missionary way like we are feels like moving at a turtle's pace. I fight this battle of wanting to see more happening than we are and wondering if we're doing something wrong. So the video I watched today as a part of the training I'm doing was a great reminder. The speaker, Hugh, is a part of leading a missional community that has 14 villages (small communities) which consist of about 240 people. But in the video he talked about the process that he and his wife went through when they first moved to Denver. After 12 months they were friends with about 30 people, but still didn't have a gathering focused on spiritual growth--they were just forming relationships. After two years they had one community, ranging from 8-20 people who were pursuing following Christ in mission together. It was in the third year that things started happening more quickly.

It makes sense that this process is slow. It is a relationally-driven process that relies on Christ-focused community being formed and then multiplication taking place. This isn't something that can start quickly, but it is something that has great chances of exploding once the initial seeds start to bear fruit. I was encouraged today that as long as we are praying for God to work and then intentionally putting ourselves in positions where he can use us, it's okay to move like a turtle.

And if we really look at what's going on here, things are happening after only 6 months. We are building relationships with quite a few people (more about this in the next newsletter), there are other Christians who are exploring joining us in this mission, and we can point to tangible ways we see God at work. I'm convinced that we're moving in the right direction if we will stay the course and follow God's leading into mission.

Michelle's Thoughts on the First Three Months in Aurora

Moving to Aurora was one of the hardest steps of faith I have taken in my life. We are in a place where we hardly know anyone and we do not have the community of faith we have had virtually our whole lives. It has been a hard move for our family both relationally and financially. It is hard to meet people when you are a stay at home mom with two small children and you are not attending a traditional church. This has been a struggle in a lot of ways, but also a blessing as we are realizing what it takes to be misssional. If we had stayed in Denver our established friendships might have hindered us since we wouldn't feel the same urgency to meet people. I am desperate to meet other moms so I have created two moms groups in order to develop some life-long friendships as well as minister to people.

My first group is a playgroup on Wednesday mornings, we have around 5 moms that attend and we let our children play and we talk. Isaiah and Ayla love it because they have friends to come over again, and I love to be able to be with other moms. The women are each unique and a gift. This past meeting I felt so encouraged as there were some beginning discussions about church and life. I am already learning tons about the women and look forward to serving them. I also recently started a moms' night out group that is purely to really converse with other moms. Our first meeting is this week and I am very excited to see how God uses this as well! Thinking about my groups, it is a real eye opener how people are yearning for
relationships. People truly need people, that is how God has created us. These two groups are not "it" in terms of being missional. We are missionaries. We are trying to meet people wherever we go (Starbucks, scrapbooking, grocery stores, etc.) and changing our mindset to be open to how God might use us. It is a challenge in many ways to be here, especially being away from the deep relationships we had in Denver, but also good since it forces us to be our in our world, loving people as He does.

Church Plant FAQs

(Below are frequently asked questions that have been asked of us as we're preparing for this church plant. Hopefully it'll help you understand more of what we're planning, however, we realize that the Holy Spirit will direct this.)

What is a missional church?

It is a group of Christ-followers who organize their lives individually and corporately around the two-fold mission of spiritual and physical redemption in the world.

Why are missional churches like Infuse needed?

American culture has undergone major changes in relation to Christianity over the last fifteen years. There are about 100 million unchurched Americans, and the church only reaches about 35% of the demographic range of the population.

As Jim Peterson says in Church Without Walls, "We must take into account the fact that we live in a society that is, in many ways, reverting to paganism. Biblical beliefs and values are becoming increasingly foreign to popular thought."

In the past people have come to the church for guidance, relationships, and spiritual insight. For many, this is no longer the case. The United States is following in the footsteps of other Western countries, such as Australia and England. Those countries are now considered to be largely spiritually dead.

What are your hopes and dreams with Infuse?

Our hope is that the Holy Spirit will move in a mighty way through our efforts to bring people into a relationship with Jesus Christ that will result in lifelong discipleship. We desire that out of this movement there would be three primary outcomes:

--A missional church planting movement would be spawned that reaches outside of Aurora. Many other networks similar to this are being formed all over the country.

--That the prayer Jesus told us to pray, "Your kingdom come," would be increasingly answered as we change our world by serving and loving people in practical ways.

--We would foster true discipleship that leads people back into their own world as missionaries.

What will you be doing through Infuse?

Much of what we do will center around cell groups. We view these as a cross between a house church and a small group. They will be given a great deal of freedom to self-organize around the values of worship, community, and mission. We want them to take a unique shape based on the people participating in them and the segment of culture they wish to reach. We do not see them as being controlled by a centralized leadership, rather they will be networked to each other through open communication and bound together by the common values.

When we have more than a couple groups, we’ll also start a weekly gathering for all those involved in the network. This gathering will not be used as a front entry to the church—that’s what the cell groups are for. This will be a place to worship together, communicate our vision, and hear stories of life transformation.

Are you working with a church, denomination, or church planting organization?

Yes, we’re partnering with Christian Resource Ministries and their missional branch, Missio. They’ll provide training and lead us through these beginning stages. You can find more information at these links: http://www.crmleaders.org and www.missio.us. We’ve also established a board of directors that will guide and support us, and provide accountability. Finally, we are setting up missionary-type relationships with a number of existing churches.

Where can I get more information about what you’re doing with Infuse?

We will consistently be updating our church website and our blog. You can find more at these links: http://infusechurch.com and http://infusing.blogspot.com. Or, of course, give me a call or send me an email.

How will your day-to-day life change?

My day-to-day life won’t change a lot. I’m still working full-time at Christianity Today, but my time away from work will be focused on Infuse. My service will focus on meetings and strategy, practical community service, and relationship-building.

What are your financial needs?

Trevor will be spending the most time with Infuse. We’re praying that he’ll only need a part-time job and the rest of his family’s needs will be subsidized by support that we raise together. In addition, our support will go to community service and outreach in Aurora. An example of this might be a tutoring program at a local housing complex. There will be some overhead, like office supplies and a computer. In total, our goal is to raise $100,000 the first year with that decreasing as people join us and tithe to the church network.

I want to learn more about the missional church movement. Do you recommend any good books?

Yes, definitely! Here are a few of the books that have shaped what we’re doing.

Church Without Walls by Jim Peterson.
The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch
The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal

Also, Leadership journal recently dedicated an entire issue to missional churches. You can find a summary here.

Emerging and Missional--Part Two

Based on the reading I've done in both emerging and missional literature, and conversations I've had with people who claim to be both, it seems there are some fundamental differences between the emerging and missional churches, but that they are not mutually exclusive and many people are bringing the two together.

It is much easier to deduce the basic principle of the missional church. As Alan Hirsch says, "the church's true and authentic organizing principle is mission." This is the starting point for anything that can rightly be included under the label of missional church. The focus is on a spiritual and physical redemption of individuals and the world. Things like community, worship, gathering, prayer, service, and study sprout up through the soil of mission and in its support. This does not mean that any of these things are purely utilitarian, but the Christian life is a whole that grows best in the context of mission. It is mission that shapes our prayer life to be more about God's kingdom than ourselves, worship to overflow from the fullness of a heart that is seeing God at work, community that is forged in the heat of shared endeavor. All of these things are a part of what it means to be the people of God in this world, but they are informed by mission--it is their context.

The missional church also has an inherently anti-institutional bent. As institutions grow they take more work, time, and resources to support themselves. All of this can naturally lead to an internal focus, which is anti-missional. There are some institutional churches that are very intentional about being missional, but institution has not proven to be the most conducive setting for fostering mission. (I would also say that being anti-institutional doesn't automatically make you missional. I think less institution fits better with mission but neither necessitates the other.)

The emergent church is a little harder to pin down. From my reading it seems to be more interested in engaging the predominant Western theology and pushing its boundaries. This has led to some wonderful discussion, but the outcome of it isn't always clear.

The emerging church movement also seems to fit better with the institutional church than the missional movement. There is more discussion of how to tweak and work within existing forms to make them more artistic, participatory, and engaging.

Both the emerging and missional church movements are disproportionately fueled by people under 40, but there are strong voices in each who are older. It will be interesting to see how each of these movements continues to take shape in the future.

Is the Emerging Church Missional?

Are “emergent” and “missional” connected? Both of these are words that are being used to describe movements in the church, especially (though by no means exclusively) in the West. But what, if anything, do they have to do with each other. I have run across books and websites that indicate that they are very closely tied and others that make them seem almost completely separate.

Before I give my thoughts on this I thought I’d see if anyone else has a perspective on this question. I think it is an important one because these two terms are being lumped together by some and it is important to know if this is a plausible thing to do.

Faithful Invitation

One of the issues the missional church must deal with (and any church for that matter) is how we are to faithfully pursue the conversion of those who are not “in Christ.” Do people belong before they believe (a well-worn conversation)? Is it our job to make Christianity attractive? What are we converting people to? There are many biblical episodes that can inform our discussion, but one I don’t hear used very often is how the Jesus’ first disciples came to follow him.

In the second half of John 1, we’re told of the first four who follow Christ. In that story it is striking how the commitment of the prospective followers is nurtured through an invitation to be with Jesus personally. In the words of the writer, there is an offer to “come and see.” Jesus extends this offer to Andrew and his companion, Andrew brings his brother Simon to Jesus to see, and Philip extends the invitation to the skeptical Nathanael. In each case these men base their commitment to Jesus on a personal encounter with him.

Today, Jesus does not live with us in bodily form, so we cannot invite people to “come and see Jesus” in a personal, bodily way. But the invitation for people to come and see is no less important and I believe we give this invitation in two primary ways. 1) We invite people to see Jesus in his body—us. The difficult thing with this is that we must be manifesting the true nature of our master in our actions. If we are not faithful to Christ then we invite people to see Jesus in our midst but do great damage because they do not really see him. So it is imperative that we live our lives—individually and corporately—in ever-increasing faithfulness to Christ. 2) We invite people to see Jesus in the Scriptures. The Word of God has tremendous power to allow people to have an encounter with Jesus (Isaiah 55:10-11 and Hebrews 4:12).

As the church we must invite people to “come and see” Jesus and allow him to transform them.

For some great reading in this same direction check out The Insider.

Just A Fad?

As I've delved deeper into the blog-o-sphere I made a startling discovery--not everyone thinks the missional church is a movement of the Holy Spirit! Okay, so I wasn't really surprised, but as I was reading through numerous posts and comments that gave the missional church the "fad" label, I began to wonder if I was being duped into giving my life to something that would pass faster than the rat tail.

After some reflection and prayer I was encouraged that the direction the missional church is headed isn't a fad. There are a few things that make me say this.

1. I continue to have conversations with people who are thinking "missional thoughts" without prompting from me or others. I believe the Holy Spirit is moving and bringing people into agreement and toward movement. I realize lots of people buy into fads, but the question is who motivates the thinking and action taking place.
2. I believe many of the concepts being advanced in the missional church paradigm are more philosophically consistent with biblical Christianity than the church philosophies that have dominated since the institutionalization of Christianity.
3. The missional church philosophy leads to a more biblical praxis of faith. This is especially true in how the form(s) communicate the deep cost of following Christ.

The reality is that only time will tell if it is a fad or not. I am convinced enough to give my life to it.

The Missionary Congregation, Leadership, and Liminality

After reading The Forgotten Ways, I shuffled through the bibliography (which took a few minutes since there were 87 sources) and picked out some books for further reading. I just completed the first of the ones I ordered and it was great. The book is called The Missionary Congregation, Leadership, and Liminality by Alan Roxburgh. I know, catchy title.

There were some concepts in the book that I hadn't been exposed to before that were really helpful in my continuing pursuit of understanding where our culture stands and how the church can best engage that faithfully. Below are a few of my favorite quotes.

"This role [pastor] is based on the cultural assumption of a church in the center of a society where people come from their public lives for spiritual instruction."

"The church's understanding of its changed social location will determine its praxis."

"Throw up a thousand spires higher than the Sears Tower, but they no longer have the power to attract."

"One fears that in North America, rather than hearing this call of the Spirit to embrace and listen to the voice of God in a place of strangeness, the churches are continuing to work hard at rediscovering modes of existence and symbols of power that will move them back to an imaginary center."

The book is only 67 pages long and well worth reading. But if you can find it at a library I'd do it. Those 67 pages are $14.95!

The Priority of Prayer

Yesterday morning Jon Haley, a missionary in Spain, preached an amazing message called the Horizons of Life. It was out of 1 Peter 4, and what caught my attention most was Peter's call to be clear-minded and self-controlled (NIV) so that we can pray. As I have delved deeper into the missional paradigm of church I have enjoyed reading and interacting with people about all kinds of concepts and ways of thinking. I have made time for this reading and these conversations. I make time to write on this blog and to read others. Many times I do not make time to pray.

One of the things I have loved about the missional church conversation is the call to reliance on the Spirit of God. We take action but understand that it is not our strategies that will transform lives, ours or others. One of the logical outcomes of this should be a desire, even a need, to cry out to God and say "your kingdom come!" Yet lack of discipline in our lives can defeat the best of intentions. I came out of the sermon yesterday wanting to spend significant time calling out to God, but if I do not create the time for this to happen it will not happen.

I was talking with a friend this morning about where prayer should come from. By that I mean specifically, should we wait until we have a desire to pray and then do it, or should we discipline ourselves to pray and then hope our heart follows. We both spent much of our lives setting aside time to pray because we were supposed to and our hearts didn't follow. But I think it is also possible to have a heart that longs to pray but never do it because we are not disciplined. It seems to me that both of these elements are essential. We must seek God and be given a heart desire to be with him, but we also have to create time when this can happen. We must be both passionate and disciplined about prayer. Prayer reminds us that we are reliant on Him and that we will see greater things that we could imagine when it is His power and not ours at work.

Networking Church

When you ask someone if they go to church, there are a number of things that most people will immediately associate with this question. Some of these are--1)Going to church involves showing up at a building at a certain time each week 2) The church has a pastor or pastors who are paid to run the programs and make sure "church" happens 3) There are specific ministries for groups such as children, youth, men, women, etc. A couple other questions people might ask to find out about a church are--1) What style of worship does it use? 2) How many people go there? (Usually measured by how many show up on a given Sunday morning). 3) What is its doctrinal statement?

It is primarily for this reason, the baggage associated with the word "church" in the United States, that we have begun to refer to what we are doing as a network. We won't have a building that we own, when we do meet as a large group we will do things to make sure people know that it only one small part of who we are as a "church," we won't have specific programs for specific ages, and we won't determine the effectiveness of what we're doing based on how many come to a group gathering (to be more fair, many churches that measure this don't use it as their sole indicator of church health).

I believe that we will be a church, but I want to be careful how that word is used and what it might communicate. We are the church of Christ and so we will continue to be that even if we have to use some different terminology to describe it.

A House Church: To be or not to be?

I want to continue the discussion Cory brought up about house churches and whether we will be one or not. The answer to that question is yes--and no--it kind of depends on your perspective.

The primary place of connection and growth for people will be their cell group. These are groups that will often meet in homes, but will also meet in office buildings, bars, coffee shops, libraries, or wherever the group decides. That will largely be determined by the way the group approaches reaching out to people and out of which subculture the group is formed. For instance, if a group forms at a workplace it would make sense for them to meet at that workplace, at least for their regular meetings.

These groups will develop their own rhythm for what they do and when they do it (with the help of a leader and in accord with some core practices). They will determine what they study, how they will serve their communities, how to care for each other, to whom the will reach out and how, etc. The freedom each cell group will have would move it toward the house church category.

But these cell groups will maintain a consciousness of a larger affiliation. By having all the cell groups come together on a regular basis we will reinforce the vision of the network, its diversity, and visually remind people that God is up to something much larger than any of us.

The cell groups will also be guided and held accountable by the network leadership. But this won't be done in a "fill out this report and turn it in once a month" kind of way. We hope to do this in the way the apostles checked in on and encouraged the churches they started. To stay informed about what is going on and then encourage, guide, and challenge based on that, at the same time maintaining that the network leadership doesn't control a given cell group.

So this network will be a church of churches. The cell groups will share many characteristics with house churches, but they will move in the same direction as a larger movement rather than placing themselves on an island.

Convenience vs. Relationship

One of the things I appreciate about the missional church conversation that's going on right now is the critique of materialism and consumerism in the West. It is especially disturbing how our culture functions in a way that places products over people.

One of the specific ways this is communicated is through chain stores. You can go to a Starbucks, or Gap, or Aldo (that reference is for you Cory) almost anywhere and know what you are getting in terms of quality, selection, and price. We tend to go to whichever of these chain outlets is closest at the moment because we can get the product we need without travelling to a specific location.

The problem with this is that it is impossible to develop relationships with workers or patrons of a store if you seldom go to the same location. We consume the product without a thought to how this impacts our ability to form relationships. In the past there were only one or two choices for where to purchase things and the same people worked at the same times so relationships were inevitable.

It is important for us to consider how our consumer choices will impact our ability to build relationship and thereby impact people for the Kingdom. Being consistent at certain locations, even when it's not convenient, is an important part of not marginalizing relationships.

What Is Missional?

Welcome to our blog! This is our experiment with a few goals: 1) to communicate with friends about the progress of the network we're hoping to create, 2) to try to explain in more detail what it is we are feeling led to do, 3) and, at least for me, to help make some sense out of what's going on with the church, with culture, and how we fit into it.

First question you may have: what's a missional church? Leadership journal's most recent issue is on the topic of "Going Missional." To read about some common practices and commitments of a missional church, all of which we hope to accomplish, read this great article:

Missional Buzz
Will the real church please stand up?
by Tim Conder

Please feel free to post your questions about what we're doing, and we'll see if we can answer them. And thanks for supporting us in what we hope will be a terrific ride.