The Forgotten Ways: Example of Incarnational/Missional

What is a missional church and how do we find a mission?

I have been struck by a comment made once, though I don't remember where, regarding "community" and/or mission. It said something like this:

Community does not come out of community for community's sakes. No group or organization every lasted long or made great impact in the world by focusing on community. Too often, the church, focuses on creating community and eventually falls into narcisistic entertainment of "what I need for it to be community for me."

Instead, we must be focusing on the mission God has given us. Us individually, and us as a body or church. Once we embark on that mission we will find that community happens.

And community is never planned for or structured. Instead, community happens, and then a structure is borne out of that community. Unfortunately, over time, the structure becomes a box that limits, and eventually suffocates, community. Not because community doesn't happen or is not wanted, but because the mission has been replaced with a focus on maintaining the community. Once again, the mission is forgotten, and a narcisistic focus on "what I need for the community to continue for me" is focused on.

Churches need to pray for and follow what mission God gives them, not focus on creating community. The mission is not for our community, but to go out to tell people about Jesus and only in the going do we find "community" or the relationship of church that Jesus demonstrated and intended."

Hirsch makes some statements on that idea of being "missional" or "incarnational" (incarnational meaning living out your faith within the lives of the people and the world we live in - like God was incarnational as Jesus, we become incarnational in the world we live in).

We decided that in the context of Melbourne, a city obsessed with food and eating out, that we ought to try and see how we can engage our culture on its own turf (missional), rather than expecting them to come to ours (attractional). What drove us to this conclusion was asking missionary questions, namely, "What is good news for this people group?" and "What would the church look and feel like among this people group?" Both these questions assume that we dont' fully know the answers until we ask them in the active context of mission. They require that we pay attention to the existential issues confronting people as they experience those issues. And that we try to shape and form communities of faith so that htey can become an organic part of the cultural social fabric of teh people group we are tring to reach.

So, what is good news for the people around you? We can't know this until we know what the "existential questions" are, which simply means, what are the really really hard questions of life that they are asking? It could be as simple as, "Where am I going to pay my next bill?" or something like, "Is there more to life than this drudgery of working 9-5." Maybe they struggle with marriage, raising children, finding passion, depression, or whatever.

But we must go to them and live with them to find out. Then we ask, "What would a church look and feel like among this people and their struggles?" In other words, what would it look like for a people who had good news to my questions of life to live together? What would they be doing? How would they be living? How would they be spending their money?

What is good news for you? What would the church look and feel like for you?

"I am coming soon!"

We've been following some friends and their adoption process for an orphan in Liberia over the last year or two.

The short story is (I think I can try to summarize, but no promises on accuracy) they had just about adopted him and someone claimed him as family and wouldn't release him without being paid, which was strictly prohibited. Meanwhile, their son (which they had now been moved to already take him as that) was left in the orphanage.

Over time, the situation changed, and just recently they are finishing out the adoption process.

This most recent entry on their blog post is very very moving from just about any perspective:

It was bittersweet to talk to Samson on Mother's Day. While our whole family loved speaking to him and hearing his voice, I was haunted by his plea, "When are you coming for me?" He has been waiting so long. All I could say was, "I am coming soon."

I was awaken at 3:00 a.m. today with the burden to pray for him as well as the 143 million other fatherless who are wondering will they ever have hope for their future. Thank God for our Savior who came so we might not be left as orphans. I relate in so many ways to Jesus when He said to his disciples about the promised Holy Spirit: "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." (John 14:18).

He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon."
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.
(Rev 22:20-21)

Why give money to church or why tithe?

The church we've been attending has a very traditional worship service with hymns and standing up, sitting down, bible lesson readings, benedictions, the Lord's Prayer, and all that. Not my personal style, but I am learning to appreciate aspects of the liturgy and it's becoming easier for me to worship in it.

One of the things that we do is the traditional protestant passing of the offering plate and then the "offering benediction," or whatever you call it. When I was kid I used to hate that kind of worship, and frankly found it "pomp and circumstance." But I've learned to appreciate the aspect of "worshipping in our giving." That is, I understand more how worship is not just the singing, but all aspects of life, and aspects of the "gathering of the saints."

We worship in the giving of our provisions to the church.

The words to the "offering benediction" (again, I'm not sure what it's actually called, but I can sing it from memory) mean more to me now as I've had to live in times of quite extensive trust in God providing:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him all above ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost

Both of my sons like to put something in the basket as it goes by. My oldest, Eli, has made a habit of putting in his own money he earned or was given.

This particular Sunday he gathered $0.21 from his "doggy bank" (we have a dog instead of a pig, so we call it a "doggy bank") to put in the basket. 21 pennies from his penny bank. He actually pulled out 20, but then found a penny on the floor that he dropped and decided to give that. My youngest, Caleb, was listening to his older brother gather money and found 4 quarters on my desk and decided that's what he was going to give.

Caleb doesn't know the value of money. But Eli knew Caleb was giving "more" money by giving 4 quarters, and felt a little ashamed.

We talked about money a bit and daddy's job and how daddy used to make alot more money than he does now.

Eli said, "When I grow up I'm going to get a job and make alot of money."

Well, I summarized the story of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar (read it here: Luke 16:19-31), and how the rich man worked for all this stuff but died and went to hell and the poor man went to be with God. Not exactly the Gospel, but I did explain that money can be good or bad and is not one of the most important things (I've taught him that the two most important things are "Love God and Love others" so that when he is doing something he shouldn't I ask him, "What are the two most important things?" and then say, "Are you doing those?" It worked till I realized the definition of love had to be taught, so now I'm teaching him by asking, "What is love?" and he's learning that it is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"... my point being...money was not one of the important things.)

It was difficult because I've never really talked to Eli about the penalties of sin being "hell."

(I've always used examples of suffering because of sin, but I've never talked to him about "hell." I don't know that he's ever conceptualized "hell" before, but he does know sin and the damage it does to relationships and that Jesus died so that his relationship with God can be restored now. I guess I've always tried to talk in terms of forgiveness is now, redemption is now, and the Kingdom of God starts now...but I digress from the topic of money...)

Then I asked Eli,

"Do you know why we give money to the church?" He said, "To give to the poor." I thought that was a better answer than I would have given. Yes the church should be giving to the poor.

Why do we give to the church?

I think the church should be giving to the poor. But not that church.

What I mean is, Yes, I think the church, the body of Christ, should be giving to the poor and taking care of the poor. I am not sure it's as helpful if the "church," by that I mean the organized 501c3, is caring for the poor as much as the body of Christ should be.

Don't get me wrong, I think it is helpful (not as helpful), and probably necessary, that the organized church "budget" should reflect caring for the poor. But I think it's much more important that we, the body of Christ, us the believers, the true church, should have budgets that reflect caring for the poor, or at least being generous with our money that we do have.

What is a tithe then? Why do we give to the church?

Tithe means 10. You can't "tithe" unless it is actually 10%. That is, I can't say I'm tithing if I've given only 5%. That would be "penting" (greek word for 5).

I'm not overly scholarly on this, and there is much more in depth studies to be had, but I like the idea of "kiss"-ing it (Keep It Simple Stupid) for myself. So this is what I understand as a "tithe" biblically:

A tithe in the OT was 10% of everything you had (primarily agricultural at the time) that was given to "God" through the temple:

Leviticus 27:30" 'A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.

And then the tithe was used for the "Levites." The Levites were the tribe of Israel (remember, there were 12 and one set aside for work in the temple, or the place to come before God before Jesus), because the Levites were not given any land by God. Instead, God made their work be in the temple and provided for them by requiring the people to give a "tithe," or a tenth, of their provisions:

Numbers 18:23 It is the Levites who are to do the work at the Tent of Meeting and bear the responsibility for offenses against it. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites. 24 Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the LORD. That is why I said concerning them: 'They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.' "

So, a tithe was 10% of all you produced in life (materially or monetarily) and then:

1) Given to the Tent of Meeting (temple or place of worship) for the gatherings
2) Used to provide for the people who served at the Tent of Meeting, the Levites

A tithe doesn't seem to translate perfectly into our New Testament and American culture.

There are a whole host of problems with trying to directly translate a tithe to the New Covenant under Jesus and the Body of Christ.

One problem with drawing the idea of "tithe" from the New Testament is that we don't have one place of worship, or Tent of Meeting, that God asks us to meet at. We, the people, have become the "temple." We are the place of the Holy Spirit, (I Cor 6:18-20) the living stones, (I Peter 2:5) that are where God meets us because of the death of Jesus Christ on our behalf. It is Jesus' death that allows us to go directly to God from ourselves.

By my experience, most church budgets reflect about a 40%-60% of the "tithes" as salaries, or provisions for staff. In actuality, it is considered very bad "church business" to allow the budget to be much more than 50% for staff. I mean, what if people stop giving? Then what would the staff do? (a little sarcasm there - the staff would trust in YHWH Jireh, which means "God the provider").

So the first problem is that tithes in the OT were provisions for the Levites, but today our tithes tend to be about 50% for the workers in the "organized building place of meeting" and 50% for the upkeep of the building and other things. Some of that "stuff" is necessary. Others should be closely evaluated as whether they are necessary or not.

My point is, that the OT tithe is not something we can give today in the same capacity in the New Covenant or the church and the body of Christ.

There are some great principles behind the church's idea of tithing. But there is something more important.

TO MAKE A LONG POST...SUDDENLY SHORTER B/C IT'S BEEN SITTING IN MY QUEUE A FEW DAYS...

I see a few major biblical ideas that are influencing my ideas of "tithing" or "giving" to the church.

The true church, the people, should be doing two major things with their money:

Number 1 thing to be doing with money and stuff: Take care of one another, and the poor, and the needy. Widows, for example, that had no way to provide for themselves anymore (early part of Acts). The poor, obviously, since Jesus made that pretty clear. Not hoarding it, obviously, or making money a use of power and ultimately a place of putting our trust (easy for us to trust in a retirement plan to take care of us - hey, it's the American way to save for that...maybe some wisdom in it too...but I'm not sure how to think about that yet).

Number 2 thing to be doing with money and stuff: Advancing the "ministry of the word" or the spreading of the Good news of Jesus death and resurrection on our behalf so we could be with God now. Sometimes stuff is helpful for that, like a building can be. But sometimes the stuff can get in the way.

For example: Are we spending money on us, for us, our things, our stuff, our entertainment, our style of church, and not for those who are in need of the Gospel? Or maybe, paying the church to provide for us the ministry of the word when we should be doing it ourselves - that is, giving a tithe so the church reads and tells us what is in the Bible rather than us searching the Bible alongside them. Do we pay the church to read the Bible for us and tell us what it says? I fear we do far too much.

As far as giving, I have these concepts in mind:

My number 1 Biblical concept about "tithing:" In Acts people gave money and "put it at the apostle's feet" so that people's basic needs were taken care of:

Acts 4:34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

The emphasis to me is that we are all bringing what we have and who we are - ALL OF IT! And trusting the leaders in our body of Christ, or trusting those we choose to walk with and learn from spiritually, to help us understand how to use it to serve the Kingdom of God.

Number 2: Somewhere along the line we are to use the resources for everyone to partake in the "ministry of the word" to the world in which they live and are sent by Jesus.

I Timothy 5:17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.

My problem with the "standard american protestant church" is that the tithe, a large percentage of it, is to support programs, buildings, material things, and what not, that have nothing to do with what the church (the people in the church) should be doing.

The money should be going to people who are living in the Kingdom, want to live in the Kingdom, and are using their gifts to live in the Kingdom. Not to things that get in the way of that.

And I do think we pay far too much for "stuff" in the American church, just like we do in our homes. Our churches often reflect the culture, sometimes to reach the culture, but sometimes we end up assimilating too much to the culture, even in how we spend our money.

A LONG POST, WAY TOO LONG, BUT I'M TIRED OF IT SITTING IN MY QUEUE, SO I'M JUST POSTING IT...FOR NOW...EDIT LATER....MAYBE....

The Forgotten Ways: Institutionalism or necessary organization?

One of my biggest struggles over the years in church has been the "institutionalism" that I've run across.

In the leadership of a church I was previously in they were committed to "Roberts Rules of Order" in every meeting. At first, I found it fascinating, that no action could be taken outside of the written order of the meeting made by some random leader without saying, "I make a motion that..."

I once pondered out loud what would have happened if Peter had to follow such rules. "Excuse me, but I make a motion that we listen to what the Holy Spirit has laid on our hearts right now through the tongues of fire that seem to be appearing above each of us. Does anybody second that?"

I suggested that I was going to make a motion that we do away with Roberts Rules of Order, but was curious how we were going to "second" the motion and then apply the motion if we did away with Roberts Rules of Order. The suggestion was not laughed at as I had intended.

Alan Hirsch makes a significant point that we need to keep before us in regards to our organization or institutionalism. It is a point I have often tried to put words to myself, but he does it quite well:

"I am critical if institutionalism not because I think it is a bad idea, but only because through my study of the phenomenal Jesus movements I have come to the unnerving conclusion that God's people are more potent by far when they have little of what we would recognize as church institution in their life together. For clarity, therefore, there needs to be a clear distinction between necessary organizational structure and institutionalism. As we shall see, structures are absolutely necessary for cooperative human action as well as for maintaining soe form of coherent social patterns. However, it seems that over time the increasingly impersonal structures of teh institution assume roles, responsibilities, and authority that legitimately belong to the whole people of God in their local and grassroots expressions. It is at this point that things tend to go awry."

The Forgotten Ways; How do phenomenal Jesus movements come about?

I've read and re-read the book "The Forgotten Ways" by Alan Hirsch, and I highly recommend the book.

I would greatly appreciate anybody's thoughts and discussion after reading it. I am greatly impacted by the book as it speaks to and puts "meat" to many things my heart has been longing for and called to be a part of as a body of Christ.

One of the questions asked in the book is, "How do phenomenal Jesus movements come about?"
There is a great summary on it by Hirsch in the book (page 21) where he discusses the early church and the Chinese Church movement.

"...the awakening of that dorman potential [of a phenomenal Jesus movement] has something to do with the strange mixture of the passionate love of God, prayer, and incarnational practice. Add to this mix the following: appropriate modes of leadership (as expressed in Ephesians 4), the recovery of radical discipleship, relevant forms of organization and structures, and the appropriate conditions for these to be able to catalyze. When these factors come together, the situation is ripe for something remarkable to take place."

He does discuss in more detail what each element is and how they have happened historically.

Do we (Journey) have a passionate love of God? Forsaking all unnecessary things for Jesus?

Do we (each member of Journey, and us as a body) pray with rich passion, intimate desire, hope for God to reveal himself, and faith that He is involved?

Do I/you/we practice our passionate love of God and prayer "incarnationally," meaning in every aspect of the life we live?

God as silent

I recently heard something on the radio that said something like this:

We need to, as Christians, begin to realize and teach that sometime in our lives we will NOT hear from God and we will NOT feel like He is present and we will NOT know whether we are making Godly, righteous, or Biblical decisions. Let's make sure we tell new Christians to understand that every walk of Faith in the Bible, at some point or another, reaches out to God, speaks to God, and hopes for God, but gets silence or seemingly no answer.

Even Jesus struggled with the Father's seeming silence and abandonment: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

What makes us think we will not? Or should not?

What makes us think we have to hide it when we do feel like God is silent, uncaring, or indifferent?

Just because we might get silence from God, does not mean we stop believing. It just makes us have to choose to believe in the midst of doubt - THAT IS WHERE FAITH BEGINS.

For it is precisely when we experience these things of "silence" that we cannot live in His Kingdom - and by trusting in Faith in those moments we ironically begin to live in His Kingdom by His power alone.

What do father's think?

This coming week's Message is mostly for Dads. Some of the questions given to us in an email to think about are the following:

Questions to Think About:
1) What do fathers think of when they hear the Gospel story?
2) Does God tell you what to do in life?
3) Is the Bible an instruction manual?

I wanted to respond to this personally, and thought I'd do it on the blog here. I have no idea what specifically will be talked about this weekend.

I have always struggled with almost no direct New Testament examples of fatherhood. There are implications of actions, but nothing like the Old Testament where we read about David and his sons or Abraham and his sons.

How in the world did Peter have a family, even a wife, and travel around the way he did? Did he feed and provide for them? How? Did he ever fight with his wife? About what?

I imagine it going something like this:

Peter: I need to travel up to the Antioch church for a meeting with the leaders there.

Petrina (since we don't know her name I'll be creative): Ok...um...well...we have this bill coming due (I know there were no bills, but work with me here). I guess I'll just go get full time work and put our children in daycare now at the local synagogue where they will be taught the law over Jesus.

Peter: But I gotta go to this gathering of the leaders...the Jewish Christians up there want to circumcise the whole bunch of Greek born servants of the church (what the word "deacons" means) and if they do that now in the middle of winter who's going to get all those locked in widow's the food and wood they need for heat?

Petrina: What about our table!? Our kids?!

Peter: I know, I know. I'll find some way to make some more money or bring home some fish to eat or sell.

Petrina: And you're gonna do that where on the road to Antioch! Water into wine...multiplying bread and fish...healing my mother...but are you gonna turn dirt into fish?

Peter: Look...If I don't get up there we'll see a bloody mess from those circumcisions at Ananias' house and at least days of miserable pain for the wrong reason! You don't know what that will do to those marriages! And you know Ananias' wife - a great hostess but a stickler for keeping things clean!

Petrina: If Jesus can let you heal the blind and lame and drop a blanket of potential unclean food in front of your face to eat, why won't he at least drop me a blanket of food to put on the table...kosher of course so we don't offend the neighbors.

Ok, so maybe that's just my situation! But where in the New Testament does it tell us how to be fathers and follow Jesus "at all cost"?

I mean, the best thing we might have for teaching about sex is Song of Solomon. I can hardly understand that or read it to my wife without blushing. What about a 8-10 year old (which is the age we have to start these days, if not earlier!)

But there are some great instructions in the Old Testament, that seem to apply.

I think the greatest ideas of teaching in Scripture, and the most difficult to actually do, is to teach your children alongside you as you do the work of God, the mission of God, together:

Deut 4:9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

Deut 11:18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,

And though this doesn't apply to children, it's along the same lines of how to teach each other and the next generation:

Exodus 18:19 Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him. 20 Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. 21 But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.

So, practically, I'm wondering what it looks like to do things alongside my children.

Like, taking them to the shelter and serving food. Or, do they know about how we spend money? Tithe or not tithe? Do I come to church, spend church with them, and talk to them about what it all means, or do I just send them to some Sunday School program? Do I let them participate in my prayers?

What this seems to mean is that we should spend our lives with them, explain why we go to church, what we want from it, when it fails us, what Jesus' intention is...ideally, all this stuff we talk about as we do it.

Jesus loved kids and we do too. They are part of our community and we welcome them in our midst. More than anything, we hope your kids come away knowing they are loved and enjoyed. As you follow Jesus, they will follow you. We want them to notice and learn that you are devoted to learning from the Bible, to genuine worship, to prayer, to an honest walk with your Creator, and to a commitment to caring for others in the body of Christ and in your community. We do not believe it is the church's responsibility to teach the children what will be taught in the home. We will not try to replace you; it cannot be done. The story of your life will powerfully teach your kids and thus, as your children watch you, we want them to see your relationship with Jesus changing your life. That will be the best lesson they will ever receive. Our first goal is to equip you to lead them in both word and action to an understanding of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The difficulty is often that these days I don't work alongside my children, nor do we in America. We leave the house to work, and then come back to the house. It used to be that they learned the same things as fathers and mothers to learn a trade. Now parents leave the house and spend the majority of their "awake" time away from the house. Kids in school, parent's are at work. When do our worlds intersect? Not much anymore.

It actually makes it a greater sacrifice to be with your children in our culture, because we have to sacrifice "me" time.

A friend once said to us that we should home school because if you send them to elementary school they will learn how to relate in the world primarily from other children. This isn't about home schooling, just making the note that our kids in America, from the age of 5 on, spend more time walking alongside their peers than they do their parents. And those peers, and probably our own children, spend more time in front of the TV learning about how to relate in the world than they do from adults around them, much less parents. The TV and media teach children, and the children teach each other.

I really have to be more intentional about doing things alongside my children. I'm not sure how to do that, but I want to keep my eyes open to it.

And I have to remind myself that watching TV together doesn't count!

I saw a mailing the other day and it had this family all smiling and sitting on each other's laps and laughing. It was an advertisement for a Dish! So, if I got a dish, we'd make a great family right?

It's funny how the world knows what we want, and uses what we want to sell us stuff that will do exactly the opposite of what we want.

I've got to keep myself attuned to what is being "sold" to me as easy ways to get what I want, but that will do just the opposite.

As a church we've got to be just as careful. It's easy for us to start up children's programs, theology, teaching, and other things that promise great things we really and truly want, but

it's often the simplicity of Scripture, and it's simple truths, that we need to humbly apply. And that is very difficult because to do that means we do have to deny our own time (like our TV programs), our own enjoyments (like my sports or my reading), our money (working a little less or going out less or not paying for TV, Internet, or other things), our desired standard of living, and ourselves.

I am guilty of not denying myself to be a father very well.

Again, I have to remember...it's not about making my children or my wife like me. It's about loving them whether they like me or not.

Boy, my family would be upset if I thought we needed to cancel the cable. Got to pray about that one!