Video number 4 from the Jet Set Vision Trip in Taiwan all goes down during a cab ride through Taipei as Ray Chang and I talk about how second generation immigrant churches in America can be involved in God's global mission. Ray is the pastor of Ambassador Church (an Evangelical Free congregation) in Brea, CA.
Watch and listen as a second generation Asian American leader talks about his vision for the nations. It's worth your time!
If you missed the earlier videos, they are listed below.
I am blogging from Taiwan. You can't get much farther away from Nashville.
While here I will be working with the Upstream Collective and another organization. For some contextual reasons, I won't be saying the name of that organization in my blog posts.
And, as you can tell we will be avoiding some other terms as well. Many of our M friends move between different regions in the area and they have asked us to be careful.
I am bringing several pastors with me on the trip and we will be post video content here are on several other blogs. Our hope is that we might give some global focus on the missional conservation.
Here are some of my friends who will be posting content in the next week.
This morning, I am meeting with some leaders from The Anglican Mission in the Americas. I have a great appreciation of the AMiA folks and am glad they have come in so we could spend the morning talking about church planting and evangelism.
I had the opportunity to keynote one of the early Anglican Mission in America meetings. It was an amazing thing to see hundreds of Anglicans, gathered under the Bishop of Rwanda, worshiping together and talking about God's global mission. And, it has been good to keep in touch with a few of the bishops and pastors.
For those of you who do not follow the drama of "all things Anglican," the Anglican journey has been a challenging one over the last few decades.
Wikipedia has a helpful article on the Anglican realignment. Be sure to visit the Wikipedia article for much more information, but here is an introduction:
Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under different oversight within the Anglican Communion. The movement is primarily active in provinces traditionally part of The Episcopal Church (United States) and the Anglican Church of Canada. The conventions of four dioceses of the Episcopal Church voted in 2007 and 2008 to leave the Episcopal Church and join Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America. Twelve other jurisdictions with approximately one hundred thousand members formed the Anglican Church in North America on December 3-4, 2008, which was set up to create a separate ecclesiastical structure within the United States. The Anglican Church of Nigeria declared itself in communion with the new church in March 2009 and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans has recognized it as well.
Two major events which contributed to this movement were the 2002 decision of the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorise a rite of blessing same-sex unions; and the ratification by the general convention of the Episcopal Church in the USA of the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay non-celibate man, as Bishop of New Hampshire the following year.
The movement differs from previous ones in that Anglicans are seeking to establish different ecclesiastical arrangements within the Anglican Communion rather than separating themselves from it. Some Anglican Communion churches, particularly in Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and the Southern Cone, are seeking to accommodate them.
A number of parishes that are part of the Anglican realignment have severed ties with the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada and associated themselves with bishops from other national Anglican churches or provinces. Some other American dioceses and parishes (approximately 800 out of some 7,000 Episcopal Church parishes) still officially remain within those two provinces of the Anglican Communion whilst exploring their future options.
Please be praying for these meetings today as we talk about how to advance the mission of God through the planting of new churches.
Steve Addison is the Director of Church Resource Ministries (CRM) Australia, and the author of a new book, Movements That Change The World. Steve is called to encourage church planting movements around the world and is therefore a student of the history of movements that spread the gospel. His new book is a look at that history.
I asked Steve a few questions for the blog. It's short and packed with content - sort of like the Gospel of Mark, just without the divine inspiration. :) Steve is in Australia, so with the time difference he wont be able to check out your comments and questions until around 6pm. But he will make it to the blog to interact. So hit him up now and he'll respond later this evening.
Why did you write Movements that Change the World?
A number of reasons. As a church planter I remember hearing Peter Wagner say, "Starting new churches is the most effective form of evangelism under the sun." I thought if that's true, then starting church planting movements could be even more effective.
I dived in to some church history and discovered that God was continually raising up movements for the renewal and expansion of the Christian faith. I learned that those movements are always on the fringes.
I began looking at Jesus as the founder of a missionary/missional movement that now spans the globe. I read Acts and Paul that way, and the lights came on.
You've identified the characteristics of dynamic movements. Tell us about them.
The five characteristics are: white-hot faith, commitment to a cause, contagious relationships, rapid mobilization and adaptive methods.
White-hot faith is the engine room of a dynamic movement. The apostle Paul was not converted by clever arguments but through a powerful encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road. We would not have had the Reformation without Martin Luther's struggle with the question of, "How can a holy God forgive a sinner like me?"
The secret of Jesus' life and ministry was his relationship of loving obedience to the Father and dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit. He drew his disciples into the same relationship and sent them out with no other resources.
A white-hot faith provides the motivation, energy and legitimacy to go change the world.
Next is commitment to a cause. For good or for evil, history is made by people committed to a common purpose. Nothing changes unless people care deeply and are willing take action. Jesus had high expectations of his followers. So high, that some of them walked away.
John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist movement. On one occasion he visited Bristol. When he arrived there were 900 people in the local Society. When he left 143 of them had been removed for various reasons: among them wife-beating, smuggling, and drunkenness. Wesley led a disciplined movement that changed the world.
The third characteristic of movements is contagious relationships. We are all just six handshakes away from everyone on the planet. Ideas, like viruses, spread from person to person and from group to group. In the age of the internet, contagious relationships are still the most important form of communication.
The most responsive people to the gospel are those who have recently seen someone in their world come to faith.
Whenever we see the Christian faith expanding exponentially, it's traveling across networks of preexisting relationships. We tend to focus on building quality relationships with a few. Jesus focused on connecting broadly and then through one responsive person, reaching households and villages. That's how we see the gospel spreading in Acts.
The fourth characteristic is rapid mobilization. Movements don't abolish the clergy, they just ordain everyone for ministry. What did Jesus do? He went after ordinary people and trained them on-the-job. His lecture on the nature of faith was conducted on a sinking boat in the midst of a storm. There was theological content integrated with life and ministry. Jesus grew leaders and released them to go and change the world.
You don't get dramatic expansion of a movement if everyone is a paid professional. If anyone is paid, they are paid to pioneer new fields and mobilize others. Whether they are in New York or New Delhi, that's what missionaries do.
The last characteristic is adaptive methods. The best illustration of an adaptive method I can think of is the game of soccer. Soccer is the world's game played by hundreds of millions and watched by billions. Why? I think it's because you can drop a ball at the feet of a three year old and she can start playing. It may take a lifetime of practice to master the game, but only an instant to begin enjoying it. Try doing that with American or Australian football.
Adaptive methods are simple, flexible and transferable. That's one reason why Jesus taught by telling stories. A good story, like the prodigal son, can be told by anyone to anyone, even across the boundaries of culture and time.
Movements are unchanging when it comes to their core message and beliefs. At the same time they are willing to change everything else to get that message out and get the job done. Unfortunately we have churches that are unwilling to change their methods, but quite happy to change the heart of the gospel. They have the worst of both worlds and the fruit is clear to see.
Where are the current examples of dynamic movements today?
The exciting news is they are mostly in the developing world--Africa, Asia, Latin America. These are also the regions of greatest population growth. Today, over 90% of new Christians will come from these regions. Expect that trend to continue.
In the US I've been encouraged by leaders such as Neil Cole, Bob Roberts, Ralph Moore, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, and Jimmy Seibert who emphasize multiplication of disciples, workers and churches rather than just growth. A growing band of leaders are seeing the church as a movement.
The whole missional/emerging discussion has helped unfreeze us all in our understanding of church. If that is combined with a commitment to the Gospel and a passion to multiply disciples it could be quite fruitful.
What are some contemporary examples of adaptive methods?
I think the Alpha program is a good example. The strategies that David Garrison and others have developed to fuel church planting movements around the world is another clear example.
Who do you want to reach with the message of this book?
As I wrote I thought of a number of actual people. A couple leading a home group who have led eighteen people to Christ in the last year, and are wondering if this is the beginning of a new church. I thought of the leader of a large church in Kenya that is growing leaders who plant churches in the suburbs and the slums. I thought of a young woman in China who has come to faith, and is now reaching her friends with the gospel. I thought of a church leader in New York with a vision to reach the cities of the world.
What difference do you hope the book will make?
I want people to discover Jesus as the leader of a movement that changes the world.
Jump into the comments to ask Steve all your questions. He'll show up tonight for the discussion.
Posted on August 14, 2009 at 8:00 AM ~ 13 Comments
John Avant is not just a friend of mine (which is almost enough of an introduction), but he is also the Senior Pastor at First West, and author of Authentic Power and The Passion Promise. His new book, If God Were Real: A Journey Into A Faith That Matters, asks what it might look like if we lived as if our God was actually, you know - real! In pointing out some of the ways we disconnect for the God who is truly there he encourages believers to live life on mission with God. I had the chance to ask John a few questions relating to the book. He's hanging around on the blog today to interact with all of us here. So be sure to jump into the comments and hit John up with your questions.
What does the title "If God Were Real" mean and what inspired the title?
I have become increasingly concerned over the last several years that most Christians and most churches have actually stopped believing in God! Think about the audacious things we say we believe: God becoming a baby, the Creator's rebellious creation creates an instrument of death on which the Creator dies and yet won't stay dead. The gospel is revolutionary! So why do we live such timid, unchanged lives? Seems to me we may be practical atheists. I wanted to explore with the readers what it might be like if we actually lived like we believe what we say we do.
I also wrote this in the hopes that atheists and seekers, some of whom are friends, would take a look at God from a different perspective and without the "battle mode" Christians and atheists are normally in. After all if atheists don't believe in God and we live like we don't, we may have more in common than we thought!
You say that you have given up on Christianity and so should everyone else. What do you mean by that?
The word "Christian" is a good word - a biblical word. When you add "ity" to it you get something I don't see in the New Testament. I think this has become our problem. In the first century there was a Jesus Movement that changed the world. In the western world today there are lots of Jesus monuments that don't change much of anything.
I am not giving up on the church. I don't think we have actually tried being the church very often yet! I am sure not giving up on the Scriptures. I believe them to be the very Word of God. So some have asked what does it practically mean then to give up on Christianity. 3 things for me: I have given up on the Christianity that has become defined by institutions, opposition, and isolation. I have given up on any institution that is not visibly a part of a Jesus movement. I have given up on the thought that if we just oppose enough evil people, we will usher in the kingdom. I have given up on the isolation that has resulted in most churches becoming religious clubs for its members, divorcing us from the very mission in the world to which Jesus called us.
You talk a lot about "transformation." What should that look like in the Church and what does it look like in yours?
As evangelicals when we read the Bible we get very excited about the Philippian jailer getting saved. But we forget that Philippi itself was transformed! Think of how much of the New Testament is about what God was doing in the cities of their day. I am as committed as ever to the salvation of every soul. But it bothers me that even in the case of many of our largest churches, there is not a lot of evidence that the community around them is being transformed.
I have only been at my church, First West in West Monroe, La for a few years but I believe we are going to be a lab for what it would look like if the churches of a community lived together like God is real. We already have over 100 churches committed to the same vision: "to see the spiritual, cultural and physical transformation of our community so visible it can't be missed." We are working together with city leaders, business leaders, education leaders, and churches to bring the transformative power of the Gospel into the real issues of our community. I could write forever about this. We are committed together to break down barriers that have divided us and see with our eyes what a city can become. We are changing the metrics of the way we measure success as a church to reflect this vision. If we have more butts in the seats but more drugs on the streets we have failed.
I don't know. I think one of the mistakes of many of those who love and pray for revival has been to expect God to do what He has done before. He is a Creator, thus unlikely to repeat Himself. The Great Awakenings brought so much change that many traditional Christians rejected them. If we want revival we better begin to pray for God to change everything. Normally we just want Him to change things back to the way we were most comfortable with. I do believe that revival always requires a movement of prayer. At our church we have determined to meet and pray like we believe in God. We call our prayer service "Destiny." I told our people that we were going to ask God to do more than we could imagine and if he didn't we could all become atheists and play a lot more golf! That may sound presumptuous but since God told us in Ephesians 3:20 that He would do that, we have decided to believe Him! And we are seeing Him do things we have never dreamed of! I long to see the next Great Awakening. What happened in Brownwood, Texas in 1995and 1996 changed me forever - and continues to bear fruit all over the world.
My guess would be that if God moves powerfully in our day it will be in the marketplace and schools, likely among young people and young adults, and very possibly apart from most of our established churches.
You address both believers and unbelievers in this book. So what impact do you hope the book has on believers and unbelievers?
I hope unbelievers would hear me as a friend, or at least a potential friend, and consider if they have rejected the wrong God - the God of hatred, anger, isolation and institutionalism that they think we want them to believe in. I am an atheist too when it comes to that God!
I hope believers will revolt against what we have made of Christianity and move together into the awesome, passionate, scary-but-worth-it journey of living like God is real. That's my hope!
Hit John with your questions in the comments. And don't bother with those softball questions. :)
Posted on August 3, 2009 at 11:21 AM ~ 21 Comments
First, I interview Luigi who talks about the church he is a part of in Venice. It is a fascinating story of an indigenous believer now serving as an elder at his church. Second, is Scott. Scott is the real deal-- a church planter with a heart for the people to whom God has called him. I was told that less that 10% of missionaries return to France after 1 five year term. Scott is coming up on his third term. He has my respect and you should give him a moment of your time.
Luigi in Rome, Italy
Luigi, like many in Italy, grew up Catholic, but was later led to Christ through the ministry of an American missionary. After a year of hearing the gospel, and then attending worship he says he could see the difference between the religion he grew up with and the gospel and was converted. He is now an elder, leading worship and preaching at Christian Bible Church (it sounds much cooler in Italian). He stays connected to the community through his fulll time work in the electronics business.
Luigi talks about the religious culture in Rome (people are Catholic, but typically do not attend church but 2-3 times a year) and explains why the church of Jesus Christ in Italy needs partnership from their brothers and sisters in the States.
Scott in Marseille, France
Here I talk with Scott at the Notre-Dame de la Garde about gospel ministry in the post-Catholic city of Marseille. Here there is a very small Evangelical presence and a growing Muslim population in the midst of a very secular culture. Scott shares some of the difficulties of missionaries coming into this area, and explains that the key is relationships and time. He also talks about how North American Christians and churches can get involved.
I was interviewed by Brian Proffit for Rev! Magazine concerning the "80/20" rule in most churches - where 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work. It's a good conversation to have and I wanted to share ours with all of you here on the blog.
I talked about the most common sin in many churches. I am guessing there are many, but I think one of the most common is a lack of obedience.
My observation is that we often preach against sins that are not a problem in our church (sins more prevalent in the world) while not preaching against sins that are a common problem in the church (like lack of ministry involvement in this case).
We are here for a few reasons. First, we are taking a little time off today. Then, I have some meetings at the North American Mission Board tomorrow. Finally, we are staying over for a conference on Monday called ChurchPlanters.Com. (It's a great conference so check out the web page if you are in the area-- more about that on Saturday.)
My meetings at NAMB revolve around some recent research.
Obviously, I believe in research. It doesn't hold out the hope for fallen humanity, but I believe that research is valuable to the church as we seek to communicate the gospel, plant churches with strategic precision, and lead congregations that are effective in their God called tasks.
I've been blogging about The Upstream Collective and their Jet Set Tours happening this Spring over the last few months. In case you missed it, here's an explanation from Upstream Collective.
The Jet Set Tour isn't your typical mission trip. Then again, the people you'll meet won't be your typical missionaries.
Jet Set Tours, hosted in various cities in Europe, provides a week-long opportunity for you to experience a European culture, not only through tourism, but by learning about the people. Prayerwalk the streets of Barcelona's Gothic neighborhood. Meet with artists in Rome. Talk to a Christian businessman about what church is like in Zurich. Ask a professor in Madrid about the worldview of the students he teaches.
As many of you know I am on vacation, out of reach, and having a great time. But I want you all to have some food for thought as it relates to the need for strategic partnerships bringing the gospel to Europe and the upcoming Jetset Tour to Europe via the Upstream Collective.
The following is piece written by Caleb Crider and Larry McCrary.
This past February I had the opportunity to join Ed and a dozen other pastors on a trip to Barcelona, Spain. The purpose of the trip was to raise an awareness of the spiritual climate in modern-day Europe. Like many Americans, my view of foreign missions was primarily confined to the continents of Africa, Asia and South America. I had never considered Europe a priority for missions. The evening after my arrival, I sat in on a meeting with group of missionaries from across Europe. One of them told me, "I have been a missionary in Taiwan, Korea, Africa and now Europe. Europe is by far the hardest place I've ever been. Europe is a graveyard for missionaries." Those words rocked me.
From May 22-May 30, 2009 I will be hosting a vision trip with Darrin Patrick and some of my friends with the Upstream Collective to Rome, Italy and Marseille, France.
While each of our vision trips are unique we want to incorporate the following elements into each tour:
Here is the final video put together by the Central and Eastern Europe team. I do hope you will considering partnering with the folks there in church planting. Here is the link where you can find all the info about the ministries there.
While I was there in Europe, I also spent a couple of days in Rome. I will be talking more about this later. Darrin Patrick and I will be leading a group to Europe (Rome and Marseille) May 22 through June 1, 2009. More on that soon, but here is an interview at the Vatican talking with Chris Watts about church planting in Rome.
I began to mention my conflict with Al on my Twitter feed (and Al did the same).
I shared about Al, his objections to "missional," his ego, and his demands. Several people began to guess who "Al" really was and I, of course, did not know anyone named "Al" who fit that description. So, we waited.
Then, we had our first conversation and it became a little more clear.
The second conversation seemed to go worse than the first, but it did clarity the issues.
Well, yesterday, Al and I picked a very missional location and worked it out. It was not easy, but I think we got "mission" and "al" back focused on being "missional." Take a look and let me know what you think:
Thanks to the guys at the Acts 29 bootcamp in Dallas who showed these videos-- you got a bit of a preview!
Posted on November 20, 2008 at 10:08 PM ~ 4 Comments
Here is a Wordle of my recent Twitter activity while in Europe. I'm wrapping up my blogging series by providing all the links in one place and sharing and few more things (including some downloadable resources) that may interest you.
You can get some background information here in an excellent story written by Natalie Kaspar.
On to Europe...
First, here are my Central and Eastern Europe Mission Posts (in order).
And, be sure to follow Natalie Kaspar and Larry McCrary on Twitter as well. If you want more information, be sure to interact with them.
Finally, are are some "Concept Papers" for Europe Planting
This is from Leadership Network's European church planting strategy teams. All are worth downloading.
I will be discussing these papers and other things at Leadership Network's Innovation3 gathering which, as best I can tell, has more speakers than 10 normal conference combined. It looks pretty amazing, so click the link above and register.
Anyway, back to Europe: thanks for following a long. Thanks for all of you that have expressed an interest. And, I hope you will consider it a place you can partner in church planting!
Posted on November 12, 2008 at 5:47 AM ~ 4 Comments
Donna and I returned from Europe last night. I will tell a bit more about our time there in the coming days. If you are so inclined, you can find some interesting pictures at Twitter).
When Donna an I talked on the plane coming home (faces 11 inches apart), we were struck by how these church planters live incarnationally. Europe was their home-- and they were seeking to live sent on God's mission.
When we went to the Vatican, we did not find it to be a spiritual experience. It spoke to us, but not about faith. It spoke to us of power. It did not evoke "go and tell." Rather, it was clearly "come and see." (And, that same sentence would be true in many non-Catholic settings as well-- including a few I know all too well.)
We taked some about the contrast of "being sent" and "maintaining structure" in a Bible study with Threads called Sent: Living the Missional Nature of the Church. In Session 3 of the study, I tried to use an illustration of a yo-yo to describe how a church should constantly be pushing outward into its surrounding culture.
The logic goes like this. Most of us have a Constantinian model for church which, very simply, is summed up like this: building + clergy + program = church. We saw it quite clearly in St. Peter's Basicillica. The fallacy comes when we start to see those components as rules rather than tools-- that was clearly found at the Vatican but is often found in my church and denomination as well. When you create a system with God-given tools, then turn them into rules, you end up with a system that needs to be serviced not a mission that needs to be lived.
A better equation is this: body + mission + kingdom = church. We need to be a body on mission for the Kingdom. The session goes onto explain:
The biggest disparity between the two models can be seen in the focus. In the Constantinian model, the force is centripetal, moving inward. In the biblical model, the force is centrifugal, pushing outward...
Think of it in terms of a yo-yo. When you swing a yo-yo around, two forces are at work simultaneously. The centrifugal force (technically 'inertia') pushes the yo-yo outward, and at the same time, the centripital force is exercised by the string, pulling the yo-yo inward. In the yo-yo, these forces are in balance at the same time.
The church's challenge is similar. At any given moment, there is a centripetal force pulling us inward, tempting us to care most about ourselves, our comfort, and our development. This strong force is actually part of human nature, and it results in things like the Constantinian model of church. What makes it even more conplicated is that the thicker the string, the greater the force pulling inward. So the more stuff we have-- the more programs, buildings, and clergy we add-- the greater the temptation to focus primarily on ourselves. When that happens, the church becomes little more than a spiritual department store, a kind of Wal-Mart for Jesus, providing religious goods and services to Christian consumers.
Now there is certainly a balance to this argument, but for far too long we have been dominated by the thickness of the string. So we tend to look in rather than looking out.
It was enlightening to stand with missionary church planters on the steps of the Vatican while we talked about starting New Testament churches in Rome and Marseille. These churches might meet in homes, cafes, or storefronts, but they would seek to make them missional in their contexts. These missionaries are making great sacrifice, being far from their families with little resources so they could reach people far from God and tell them about a relationship, not a religion. They would let them know that Jesus would live in their hearts and not a temple built buy human hands.
Be sure to drop by the other posts to follow along on Europe missions week:
Why sit in a room and talk to three classes of Polish college students to discuss culture, politics, and faith? Well, for one reason, the students learning English has often never spoken to a native speaker. For another, it can be a bridge to share some really good news.
Our Poland group spent one day teaching at Jagiellonian University. the oldest university in Poland.
Many of you who are readers of my blog know of my concern for global missions. With that in mind, I am "shared" with the IMB several times each year as part of a joint venture. I speak at some events, consult occasionally, and try to connect pastors with God's global mission.
But we do share a sense of style. It looks like we shop at the same store for our glasses (Lenscrafters, I am guessing). But I'm not sure where Brian get's the idea that I am smaller than Palin. And why am I hiding behind her?
Missionaries
When some people think of international and cross cultural missionaries they conjure up unrealistic images super-saints. Here's a video that shows a more honest picture of those who have gone into West Africa; who they were before life on the mission field, and who they are now.
BTW: If you know an SBC-affiliated 20 something guy or gal, the West Africa mission has a fully-funded (insured and salaried) 2 year mission experience with their name on it! (They have a real need for guys especially because in some of the cultures in Africa guys can go places women are not allowed.)
Posted on September 4, 2008 at 10:28 PM ~ 9 Comments
I wrote an article for the September/October issue of Outreach Magazine called, "Learning from Each Other." In it, I point to those I call the "theologically preoccupied" and the "evangelistically fixated" and encourage us all to learn from one another. If you are not a subscriber, you can and should be: click here.
Here's the article as it ran in the magazine. I will follow it with a few additional comments.
Learning from Each Other
I am a blogger. Just thought I should get it out there in the open. Mind you, I am not a member of the Pajamahadeen--you know, one of those Bible bloggers who lives in his mom's basement, sleeping till noon and writing theology in his pajamas. But I have met them--and they've partially inspired this column.
Moths drawn to the flame
Certain blog posts seem to attract the Pajamahadeen like moths to a flame--for instance, when the post contains key words like "Rick Warren," "missional," "emerging" and "loving people." They seem to hate these topics and post 3,800-word comments with 27 links proving they've exposed the evildoing of their latest heretic du jour.
Well, these bloggers provoked me--and you're reading the result. Whenever I blog about a growing church that is reaching people, I get comments like, "They're growing because they're not preaching the Gospel." Or if I pose some theological questions, I get it from the other side: "Why bother with theology, let's just do whatever it takes to reach people."
In this column three issues ago, I defended Bill Hybels and his view of relevance, mentioning John MacArthur in the process. To some, it was as if I decapitated a goat and threw it on an altar--"How dare you defend Hybels and not fully support MacArthur?"
When I had questions for multi-site churches two issues ago, one person expressed concern that I would "denigrate what others have given their lives to." Raising questions is denigrating someone's ministry? Oh, really? (Come by my blog and check out the discerning and charitable conversation multi-site author and pastor Geoff Surrat and I had about multi-site: EdStetzer.com--click on the multi-site info on the right.)
"Theologically Preoccupied" vs. "Evangelistically Fixated"
Blogs seem to magnify an existing problem in the body of Christ: We don't do a very good job listening to and learning from one another.
It seems large numbers of the Theologically Preoccupied scowl across the pages of their study Bibles at the Evangelistically Fixated and accuse them of being culturally adrift--in some cases rightfully so. Many of the Evangelistically Fixated chuckle when they see books on evangelism written by many of the Theologically Preoccupied who sometimes consider the smallness of their churches a sign of their faithfulness.
Let me propose a different way: Learn from one another and take the best from one another's approaches. Theologically deep believers with a passion for those far from Christ--I want both.
Back to balance
The first chapter of Acts closes with the disciples sequestered for days praying and waiting. Jesus kept talking about the Holy Spirit coming next. They weren't sure what that meant exactly, but there was no mistaking the power when He arrived. The rest of the book is replete with rock-solid, wrath-propitiating, substitutionary-atoning, life-giving, grace-filled, Kingdom-centered, culturally relevant, Gospel preaching. You read it from Peter, John, Philip, Stephen and Paul. They began with a deep, fundamental teaching of the Gospel and went out from there in love for people, preaching and serving in the name of Jesus Christ.
I don't see enough of this type of balance across Evangelicalism. As I move in and out of groups across the spectrum, I see a growing polarization between those who embrace and teach doctrinal orthodoxy and those who are aggressively reaching a lost world.
We desperately need each other and we need to strike the biblical balance of doctrinal soundness with missional engagement and creative action.
In the next issue of Outreach, I will share some insights from the largest and fastest-growing churches in America. Some will say, "But are they faithful?" Others will say, "But are they missional?" Those are fair questions, but can we also ask, "What can we learn from them?"
Originally published in Outreach Magazine Sept/Oct 2008
I hope we can all agree that theology should always give birth to word and deed, and evangelism make no sense apart from doctrine. To share the gospel is to articulate unchanging truths about God and man. Nevertheless, it is easy to drift into imbalance. For some theology is treated lightly and all serious efforts are poured into methodology. For others evangelism is put on the back burner in order to clearly develop a robust "body of divinity." This all amounts to serious illogical and unbiblical deficiencies in our churches. While God continues to use us in spite of our errors we are not excused from the pressing need to change where necessary.
Passages of Scripture like 1 Peter 2:9 speaks well to both camps. "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."
Those who are distracted from the mission because of theology are missing the point entirely. God has created us in Christ to be a people who proclaim his excellencies. This is essentially the dissemination of doctrine; the beautiful, life changing truths about God that, when received by faith, unite sinners to a holy God. It is unfortunately easy to see that some of us are better at knowing doctrine than sowing doctrine. Let me be blunt, amassing a knowledge of God and shelving it instead of sharing it is sin. We are made to distributors of his glory.
On the other side, the same passage of scripture challenges the evangelistically fixated. Eagerness to tell others about God is undermined if our theology is weak. Let me say it this way, you cannot proclaim God's excellencies if you do not know what they are.
I have been saying it for years, and I don't mind saying it again; we need to be both biblically faithful in doctrine and practice, and missiologically sound in our approach to people and cultures.
I believe many of us are in need of repenting of our willful weaknesses in one of those areas. Along the way, we would do well to listen to one another in those areas where we do excel.
Posted on August 26, 2008 at 10:48 AM ~ 20 Comments
