Enchanted Community

8.9.12 BLOG: “DESCRIBE A CONGREGATION GETTING IT RIGHT.”

One of my wonderfully provocative friends sent along this comment to my last blog: “I’m eager to hear you describe a congregation getting it right.”

Bingo! This comment nails, quite precisely, the very crisis that Lesslie Newbigin discovered about the diminishing influence of the church in the West. The scarcity of churches “that get it right” is at the heart of the problem. And the reason they don’t get it right is because they were, for the most part, not established to get it right. They were founded on the foundations of a static Christendom concept of the church. In its early centuries the church was a disenfranchised missionary movement, without buildings or carefully defined clergy or permanence. It was focused on its message, its mission, and to that end it was contagious and it made disciples of every baptized member. The result? It grew exponentially.

But somewhere several centuries down the road, when it ceased to be outlawed, and became the new-found faith of an emperor, he did it a great disfavor by wanting it to have all of the accouterments of the pagan religions of Rome with which he was familiar. It acquired, thereby, buildings, priesthood, choirs, and developed a liturgy. The church ceased to be primarily a missionary community, became, rather, a place to which one went and participated in the liturgical performances. And since the empire now smiled upon the church, the church no longer needed to focus on “storming the gates of hell.”

In the Christendom era which followed—right down to this post-Christendom present—the pattern for church-planting was on this model: a place, a permanence, a performance, a professional clergy, and members who participated (often quite passively) in these ecclesio-centric institutions. The very idea of: “the church as the hermeneutic of the gospel,” as per Lesslie Newbigin, became foreign to the community.

Please don’t get me wrong: there were unbelievable things that took place in the intervening centuries, acts of faith and ministry that are mind-boggling. But Christendom churches were planted along the pattern inherited, i.e., with an activist clergy and passive laity. The missionary effort was an outreach by church professionals …  and not the essence of every member’s calling.

A subtle shift in focus. The church was to be a community called out of the dominion of darkness to incarnate the new community of the dominion of Light, … from the power of Satan to the dominion of God’s dear Son. Somewhere in there one senses the “relentless darkness” seeking to render the church impotent, sterile, non-reproducing, … comfortable with being forgiven and celebrating the liturgical year, … but not necessarily being a community “where men and women are prepared for, and sustained in, the exercise of the priesthood in the world.”

In answer to my friend: Yes, there are communities getting it right, but they tend to be much smaller groupings, colonies or cohorts inhabiting those institutions, or perhaps (as in my experience) in homes, around tables, meeting in coffee shops and pubs, … because the participants know they need to be nurtured and held accountable for that priesthood in the world.. (To be continued.)

8/6/12. (CONTINUED): “WHO EFFECTIVELY INTERPRETS THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE TO THE WORLD AROUND US?”

I would not be surprised but what there were a few raised eyebrows, or unconvinced snorts, at my last Blog about a church without clergy. Understandable. But the more pressing question would be: What, actually, is the God-given purpose for the church anyway? How is it part of God’s great good news to the world? What does it have to do with God’s purpose in sending Christ? … And then: Who equips it to fulfill such a purpose/design?

I want to introduce to my readers (who aren’t already familiar with him) the one giant voice who has probably done more than anyone else in the past half-century to alert the church to its missional purpose and essence, and to assist it in understanding what that looks like, and how it fulfills such. That figure is one Lesslie Newbigin. (You can check his awesome biography on Wikipedia.)

What provoked Newbigin—after a long and fruitful missionary career in the Hindu culture of South India, and his retirement in England—was that it was easier to engage the folk in South India with the Christian message than it was in the post-Christian, secular, humanist, pluralist culture of the U.K. and the West. Out of that realization came several very influential and disturbing volumes, but one I want to share with you here. It is entitled: The Gospel In a Pluralist Society. Chapter 18 is entitled: “The Congregation as the Hermeneutic [i.e., interpreting necessity] of the Gospel.” In other words, the congregation is the necessary compelling demonstration of the wonder of God’s New Creation in Christ. That sounds so off-the-chart!

But, don’t go away! The church neglects this to its own peril. Listen up:

“The only effective hermeneutic of the gospel is the life of the congregation which believes it.

“Insofar as it is true to its calling, it becomes the place where men and women and children find that the gospel gives them framework of understanding, the ‘lenses’ through which they are able to understand and cope with the world. Insofar as it is true to its calling, this community will have, I think, the following six characteristics: [of which I want to quote only # 6 as apropos to last week’s blog.]

# 4. It will be a community where men and women are prepared for, and sustained in, the exercise of the priesthood in the world: a) The congregation has to be a place where its members are trained, supported, and nourished in the exercise of their parts of the priestly ministry in the world; b) The congregation must recognize that God gives different gifts to different members of the body.”

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So, … if all folk see is a respectable bunch of religious folk meeting in their church clubhouse, … that contradicts the very purpose and calling of the church to be the hermeneutic of the gospel. (To be continued)

8/2/12 BLOG: “A CHURCH WITHOUT CLERGY?” … NOW THERE’S A THOUGHT”

Imagine a church without “clergy,” or church professionals, or those personable institution-keepers who preach sermons (and who tend to be formed by, and captive to, the clergy-seminary sub-culture).

What if, rather, there were some really cool, authentic, mature follower of Jesus, who rather naturally spotted inquirers, or new believers, or confused and struggling believers, … and moved up alongside them, made himself/herself available to them in an unhurried fashion, tuned-in to their doubts, questions, misgivings, blank spots, … then spent time walking them through the life and teachings of Jesus, his promises and demands, the meaning of his death and resurrection, so that they would know how to respond to God’s grace and love? What if she/she stuck with them until that same person had sufficient confidence needed to share that same with others in community of believers? That would illustrate the gift of the teaching-pastor, or teaching-shepherd.

And what if that person, or another, who had real skills and grace in engaging in good conversations with those god-seekers still outside of the faith, in which the gospel was sensitively shared, … and sensed that you were very insecure in such settings, and so invited you accompany him/her as he met some of these folk for coffee or beer? What if you could watch him listening to them, fielding their questions and hostilities, laughing with them, sowing gospel seed, … until you could say: “Whoa! I could do that. I think I will.” That would illustrate the gift of evangelist.

And what if that person, or another, with a keen ability to diagnose or analyze the whole cultural setting in all of its dimensions, and in which you and I live our daily lives in home, workplace, neighborhood, etc. … what with all of its preoccupations, trivia, cynicism, and even disaffection with the Christian faith, … and so could help you and the others interpret all of this in terms of the gospel of the kingdom of God? This would illustrate the gift of prophecy.

Or maybe some such person who could, maybe, get you into a supportive group of other believers meeting in someone’s home, and could, in time, propose that your own home or apartment would be the good locus for a spin-off group in which you yourself would be the facilitator. That would illustrate the gift of the missionary-apostolic-church planter.

All four of these gifts are said in (Ephesians 4) to be necessary to equip every believer to maturity in Christ.

Actually, this appears to be the pattern given in the New Testament. After all, there were no clergy ever mentioned in those records! And the invention of clergy seems to have displaced Christ’s provision of gifts for his church, alas!

(Boy! Am I ever in trouble with the clergy-union.)

* We think the technical difficulties with our Response capacity are ironed out. Try me.

BLOG: 7/30/12. “NOT CHURCH MEMBERS, … BUT DISCIPLES”

Did you ever notice that in the New Testament there is never any mention of church members? Never. Or, that there is never any invitation to join the church? (Nor is there any mention of any such category as clergy, or church professionals, … but that is for another time.)

What one does find, however, is a significant focus on disciples, on the command to “repent and believe,” and on the invitation to “follow me.”  And what one finds is, rather than clergy or church professionals,that there are gifted leaders who are those with specific and proven gifts given to equip and facilitate the church in its mission, which is to: “Go and make disciples:” disciple-makers.   Such disciples are each, then, to be those who spontaneously, themselves, make other disciples, so that the church is always growing organically: “like leaven.”

Such a principle of disciple-making seems so utterly, utterly, foreign to such a huge percentage of those who constitute the church institutions as “members” or “communicants” in this North American scene. It becomes highly questionable whether the lives of such have anything at all to do with New Testament Christianity, or with the Kingdom of God and the mission of God.

But disciples? Disciples are those who are being transformed into the image of the Son of God (Romans 8:29), being conformed to Christ’s likeness.

How does this happen? Well, for starts, begin with Jesus, who chose twelve to spend significant and ‘up close’ time with himself, … he invited them to come be with him, taught them all about his purpose in coming, all about the gospel of the Kingdom of God which he was inaugurating, all about his suffering, death, and resurrection. Then he sent them out on missions of do what he had taught them. He called them back and processed their experience.

Ultimately, he gave them (and the whole church and all of its participants) the command to go and make disciples, i.e., to do with others what he had done with them.

Face it: people need models. They need not just information, but models and coaches. Paul states this disciple-making role beautifully: “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9).

Or, as my dear friend, the late Pete Hammond explained it to me: “Disciple-making is spending such significant time with others until you reproduce yourself in them.”

Sound strange? Try Paul’s principle: “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:1). Disciple-makers are not just teachers, but models of what they are teaching.

Not members, … but disciples.

[… To be continued.]

7/26/12. “THE CULTURE MOVED, THE CHURCH DIDN’T”

One of the most devastating subversions ever perpetrated upon Christ’s church was in that (circa) 4^th century decision (assisted by its new enthusiast, the Emperor Constantine) that it needed temples, priesthood, liturgical performances, etc. so that it didn’t play second-fiddle to the pagan religions of the day in the Roman Empire. What this ultimately resulted in was the creation of a custodial office of pastor-priests (clergy) and a passive-dependent laity who received services and attended the rites of what would become the primary visible expression of, and understanding of: the church to this day.

What got displaced, and essentially forgotten by the vast majority, was that core-discipline given to the church by Jesus: disciple-making. All of that resulted in the church being essentially emasculated or neutered, i.e., it turned from being an organically and spontaneously growing missionary movement and highly reproductive, … to that of an ecclesiastical institution that sought status but was not intentionally reproductive. I say: a devastating subversion.

I am reminded of that when I occasionally read one of my favorite poems, one by Oliver Goldsmith: The Deserted Village. Goldsmith is lamenting the demise of the quaint Irish village of “Sweet Auburn, loveliest village on the plain” (mid-18^th century). At the heart of the nostalgia is his pleasant memory of the centrality of the village church, and the gentle, caring (custodial) pastor. All of that came to an end with the emergence of several social factors, among which were the greed of the gentry who did not was the peasants growing gardens and hunting (poaching) on their estates. Then, at an even larger social dislocation was the industrial revolution where cottage industries were replaced with textile factories in the cities, and the peasants were forced to leave Sweet Auburn, and move into the squalor that resulted in the cities.

But the gentle, custodial pastor had not made disciples in Auburn. He had simply provided a religious security for these simple folk. They were not equipped to be spiritually reproductive. He had failed in the core-discipline of disciple-making, so that in their new urban-industrial location without the village church, or the Sabbath tradition, they were absorbed into the urban darkness and inhumane conditions written about by Charles Dickens (and Karl Marx).

Conversely, in the 20^th century, the Cultural Revolution in China disenfranchised Christians, expropriated their institutional properties, made it illegal to meet—and what happened? The church went underground, remembered its counter-cultural essence as the people of the Kingdom of God, learned again what it was that Jesus called them to be and do, … they became disciple-makers again, and the church grew exponentially.

As Mike Breen states it: “Churches don’t make disciples—disciples make churches.”

We’re at that point in history where the culture is moving rapidly into something quite different, but the church is slow to respond because it has forgotten its calling, forgotten its core-discipline: disciple-making.

7/23/12 BLOG: QUESTION, LANGUAGE, PLUS A REQUEST

The Question: “Who is the target audience for your blog, Bob: clergy or laity?” That question came from a guy who is both a respondent to what I have been blogging, and also a very dear friend. He elaborated on the question by reminding me that if I was writing to laity (to him), then I needed to be aware of my use too much confusing theological jargon. Good point!

My answer is that, unequivocally, I write primarily to that 95+% of the church who are God’s people, the laity (Greek: λαος), or “the saints” (of Eph. 4:12), and who are the cutting-edge of the church’s mission through their daily incarnation as the children of Light, whatever and wherever that may be. I also do really want to see the church returned to the laity, and I would like to see the pastor-teacher role re-conceived into its original intent: that of making disciples, of equipping every one of God’s people so that they can function maturely as the sons and daughters of Light, wherever their 24/7 incarnation places them. This is, and has been for a half-century, what motivates me, and comes straight out of that Ephesians 4 description of Christ’s gifting of his church for its mission (along with apostle, prophet, and evangelist – but that’s a whole study in itself).

Language: But, yes, I am a product of the liberal arts and theological academies, which means that I speak the language and use the jargon of “the clergy-seminary subculture” all too much, … and I guess I need to apologize. But then, every geographical, professional, and social sub-culture has its own language and jargon, which always needs translating to those unfamiliar with it. One learns this early on. The summer, during my grad-school days, when I worked in the Firestone regional warehouse in South Philadelphia was the first time I had been outside the South, and I had to learn the colorful jargon of those South Philly warehousemen. (Profanity was an art-form!)

Through years of one-on-one encounters with friends in the medical, engineering, IT, industrial, agricultural, etc. subcultures, and their particular language, … I have learned to understand this reality.

Request: My blessing in all of this has been close friends with whom I have been engaged in significant conversation, and who would sometimes tease me, but then ask for clarification or explanation with tough questions, or responding critically but helpfully to my public teachings, … and so keep me honest, even as I was helpful to them in their quest for faithful discipleship.

Blogs only provide occasion for dialogue as you, my readers, avail yourself to the Comment access on this website.

Primarily, I would cherish a friendship in cyberspace with you when I can be in some dialogue with you, and, to a degree to be a long-distance disciple-maker.

Thanks. I do aspire to be lucid.

7/19/12. “WHERE IS THE CHURCH ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON?”

I’ve been reading David Kinnaman’s provocative book: You Lost Me. It is a well-researched study about how the church is losing the twenty-something generation (variously called: Mosaics, Millennials, or GenY). Kinnaman is with the Barna Group, which keeps up with cultural trends.

His study focuses on those young adults who grew up in the church, and the reasons they have left.  He has broken them down into three categories: 1) Prodigals, those who have actually moved away from, or forsaken, the Christian faith altogether; 2) Nomads, those who have left the church over disillusionment with the church, and are looking around for alternatives, but have not forsaken the faith; and 3) Exiles, those who take the faith seriously but have found their church experience totally disconnected from their serious intent to engage their 24/7 lives with the culture, and to make their Christian presence influential through the excellence of their New Creation lives.

It is those defined as Exiles that speak to my own heart. I’m not a twenty-something (I’m actually an eighty-something), and I too am dismayed by the disconnect I find between so much of the church I experience, and any evident intention to equip and encourage God’s people for a fruitful engagement with the realities of the social, cultural, economic, political, controversial, hostile, sexual, and relational setting they live with. There seems not to be too many in church leadership who realize that the scriptures, well-taught, really can set people free to operate hopefully, freely, maturely and joyously during the other six days.

Happily, not all churches fall into this “disconnected” description, but it does require church leadership to seriously engage with the individual followers of Jesus, who make up their church community, and to be committed to equipping them both in personal contact (disciple-making), and in public/pulpit/worship communication, … unto maturity: “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). Every member of such communities is to be equipped to be a mature disciple, and equipped to function fully and freely in the mission of God, wherever their week may take them. Every member!

I wrote a chapter for a book once (the book was never published), entitled: “Where Is the Church on Thursday Afternoon?” Good question.

I like that question. Where is it, and what is it doing? This might point us to some answers to give Kinnaman’s Exiles. I’ll be exploring it in future Blogs. Peace!

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7/16/12 “EMPTY LIES THE [CHURCH] WITHOUT MEANING”

Isaiah looked at the city of Jerusalem (8^th century B.C.) and lamented: “Empty lies the city without meaning” (Isaiah 24:10). The buildings were all there. The temple was there. The liturgical rites were being performed, … but Israel had forgotten why it had been called out in the first place: To be “a light to the nations.” The nation was forgetful of its purpose, its raison d’être, in the cosmic and eschatological design of God.

I am intimately familiar with all too many present day churches suffering the same forgetfulness, over which one could easily lament: “Empty lies the church without meaning,” … also forgetful of why Christ calls the church. This is a perennial danger for the church and its leadership

Allow me to share with you my own understanding of the purpose of church with four principles, or components, that I have found helpful to myself, and so keep before me in my journal in order to keep me focused on what the church, in which I have been a leader, is to be and do, and how I am to equip God’s people for such. These may be helpful to my readers. If the church is to be the glory of God, then let us define glory as “the radiant display of the divine nature” (G. Boyd).

FIRST: The church is to be the visible, flesh-and-blood communal demonstration of the lifestyle, or praxis, of the people of the kingdom of God (or God’s New Creation in Christ). This is, probably, best defined in the Sermon on the Mount, the word of Christ. As such, it is self-consciously and intentionally and radically counter-cultural (cf. Matthew 5:16). The church is the glory of God in its praxis.

SECOND: The church is to be the flesh-and-blood demonstration of the relationships within God’s New Creation (kingdom) community, i.e., the human community as God intends it to be, inter-animated by love and service as modeled in the Trinitarian community (perichoresis). (John 13:34; 15:9). The church is the glory of God in its relationships of humility, love and service.

THIRD: (I found this in the writings of our Latin American colleagues, probably Miguez Bonino) The church is to be the missionary arm of the Holy Trinity. It is to be God’s own agent to bring the gospel of the kingdom to all nations (ethnic entities).  Every participant in Christ’s church is to be equipped to be a mature unit in this mission.

FOURTH: (This I have found especially in the writings of our charismatic and Pentecostal colleagues.) The church is to be so formed, to be always preparing itself, to be a beautiful Bride for the Lamb: “ … in splendor, without spot or wrinkle …” (Ephesians 5:27).

These four principles, or dimensions, or components together will focus the church and its leadership on its purpose and integrity so that is never lies empty and without meaning.

I share these, and would welcome response.          

7/12/12. “ … THE PLAN OF THE MYSTERY HIDDEN FOR AGES …”

A few weeks ago the world’s scientific community was all agog abut the confirmation of the long suspected reality of Higgs boson, that invisible particle that is responsible for holding the whole atomic structure together (or something like that). Big celebrations took place in the world’s scientific community.

But, if I may say so, that pales in significance with the discovery, or revelation, heralded by the first century missionary: Paul. Are you ready for this? The discovery of: “the plan of the mystery hidden for ages” that has been brought to light, made known, revealed in the event of Jesus Christ. We finally know what our lives and this whole world scene are all about!

Paul will say this three times in his letter to the church at Ephesus, in Asia Minor (1:9; 3:3; 3:8-10). What this means is that what has happened in Jesus Christ is that we now have meaning, we know that God has reconciled the world and us to himself at great cost, and that we have a confident hope and a future

If I may state it this way (using a few ten-dollar words): the cosmological, eschatological, and salvific design of God for his whole creation is now made plain. This is so huge. There are several near-synonymous concepts that are all windows into this design (though, sadly, these have been too-often subjectivized, diminished, and reduced to religious talk that doesn’t reflect the profound dimensions of them). They are:

• The kingdom (or, dominion) of God. This would have been more understandable by the Jewish community who had always anticipated the manifest reign of Yahweh, their God.
• New creation, and eternal life, which usage would have communicated this awesome reality to a gentile, or Greek world.
• Salvation in its larger, cosmic dimensions, as well as in the individual and personal reality of the rescue.
• “The age to come” now present because of its inauguration by Jesus and his cross.
• And, sometimes: righteousness, as reflecting that state of being in total harmony with God.

… for starts. The mystery of the ages is that it is God’s purpose to enter into his own creation, and deal the whole problem of evil—that rebellion that defiled his creation—and to reconcile the world to himself, to make all things new, to make known infinite love and grace, to destroy the works of the devil, and to inaugurate his ultimate Shalom.

It’s the kind of thrilling announcement and discovery that you can’t keep to yourself, whether in a public forum, or over a beer at your favorite pub. It’s just huge! Think of it! Congratulations to you scientists on the confirmation of the Higgs bison, but Christ’s work is much more awesome, if that word has any meaning. What do you think?

HOW IN THE WORLD COULD THAT BE: A CONTAGIOUS CHURCH IN A HOSTILE SOCIETY?

On our North American scene, one hardly mentions the word “church” in conversation with one’s ‘sojourning’ (as defined by someone: “spiritually confused god-seekers”) and often suspicious neighbors. The church’s image is so muddied (muddled?) and confusing, given all of the reports of scandals, bizarre personalities, ostentatious buildings, and on and on, … that it actually becomes a stumbling-block.

But consider another setting: the first century seaport city of Ephesus, which was the second largest city in the Roman Empire, pagan through-and-through. Look what happened there. The missionary, Paul, being a Jew by birth, stops by Ephesus on the way from Greece. He finds the Jewish synagogue. Take note that the Jews themselves were a suspect bunch in the Roman culture. At the synagogue he found a dozen guys who were incomplete disciples of Jesus—that is, they had only heard the message about Jesus from John the Baptist, which only predicted that Jesus would be the long-awaited answer to Jewish prayers. So Paul fills them in on the rest of the story: Jesus life, teachings, death on the cross, and resurrection. These twelve guys believe and Paul baptizes them, and they evidence the signs of the Holy Spirit’s presence in them. Then he taught them over a period of months.

Remember, this was a hostile setting. Not only was Caesar the undisputed deity-emperor, but Ephesus also had a civic deity, Diana, and the whole city revolved around her. So to come in with another teaching that challenged these powers wasn’t too cool!

Now note: Just after this event is recorded in the Acts history, there is this sleeper note: “ … so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10).

How did all of the residents of Asia (Minor) hear that word? From whom did they hear it? What did they hear? Who were the agents of this communication into that hostile culture? Given the setting of this passage, this could only have been done by these new believers/disciples from Ephesus! They were tradesmen. This was a commercial center. There were trade guilds. These guys traveled to the other cities in the region—and they were contagious with what they had discovered in Jesus Christ. Paul had reproduced himself in them: “…  be imitators of me” (I Cor. 4:16). Paul was consumed with the awesome wonder of what God had done in Christ, and he communicated his life-transforming and contagious faith in Christ to these. Contagious faith. Contagious love. Contagious hope. Contagious freedom. A contagious sense of the meaning of it all. That’s disciple-making, … and the implications are mind-boggling for our present mission here in neo-pagan North America, and the too-often sterile and moribund church.

Stand by. Let me hear from you.