BLOG 11/11/13. CONCEIVING OF ‘THE CHURCH FOR THE OTHER SIX DAYS’ (CONT.)
Stick with me as I pursue the theme of the 10/31/13 Blog on a ‘church for the other six days.’ One of the initial complications I face in even seeking to address such a church is the fact that a very large percentage of the church, and its leadership are not interested (other than in theory) in such a conception of the church. And there’s a reason for that. Let me refer you back to my Blog of October 2 in which I retrieved Wes Seeliger’s marvelous metaphor from his Western Theology of the two kinds of churches: the Settler church, and the Pioneer church. That imagery was (and is) incredibly insightful.
In that imagery the Settler church wanted permanence and security, and so hunkered down in the town, and the church was the courthouse where they met on Sunday. They have ice-cream socials, get inspiration, and are content with such. God was the mayor, and had everything under control, and so Christians were comfortable settlers. Not so with the Pioneer church. For the pioneer church the church was the covered wagon. Remember?
What we’re dealing with is the reality that a large percentage of the church in the west, which has been formed for over a millennium and a half with a settler conception of the church. The church is a place of spiritual security under the careful control of church professionals. It is focused on the rites held in church buildings. What happens the rest of the week is not at all the focus. And, all too often, the participants like it just that way. To even propose that every follower of Christ is to be engaged in the twenty-four/seven ministry of the church is received with non-comprehension. I am willing to conclude that most don’t even have ears to hear such an alternative conception of the church. Such Settler churches become what one has called: stagnant pools of religious Christianity.
Pioneer churches are quite the opposite. They are those where no one is uninvolved, and where all must be equipped to confront the challenges every day. In the Pioneer church the church is the wagon train, and is about life on the trail of life, sharing goals, dangers, intractable problems, resources, in a mutual life of arriving at a destination. No one is passive. When they circle the wagons at the end of the day, they share their stories and needs and mutual challenges. It never gets dull.
Such a conception of the Pioneer church is a great metaphor for the church that is truly missional. A truly missional church begins with every member knowing what it is that Christ came to be and to do, and knowing why it is that they are called by Christ to be engaged in the mission. It is with such an understanding that the Ephesians 4 passage on the four gifts of the Spirit throbs with relevance for us. It contends that Christ gave four gifts so that all of God’s people be equipped for maturity, “to the measure of the stature of Christ,” i.e., for life on the trail.
The teaching-shepherd gift is the one that equips with the understanding of how Christ and his calling are the determinative reality of all the rest. But the other three gifts speak to the involvement of all of God’s people in the mission of engaging this present scene as the incarnations of the design of God to make all things new.
But you’ve got to have ears to hear such a calling, or else you become a settler, and totally miss the point of God’s calling.
A church for the other six days comes with significant demands by Jesus Christ, it requires a cross! [Invite your friends to subscribe to this Blog and join us in the journey.]
