One Story, One People, One Mission

In my opinion, One by U2 is the greatest song of the 20th century. That's a big statement, I know. But seriously, listen to this and tell me it's not awesome: httpv://youtu.be/ftjEcrrf7r0 It strikes me that this could be a theme for the people of God.  There is a distinct theme of oneness in the Scriptures.  Ephesians puts it this way:
"I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:1–6 ESV)
This is a great summary of the teaching of "one".  Paul highlights this core teaching because it is central to our identity as Christians and it is central to maintaining the authority of Scripture. I think I would summarize it this way, "One story, one people, one mission." There is one story.  The story of the God of the universe actively pursuing his glory. In the midst of this story we find heartbreak, promises, love, joy, sadness, and redemption. This story is the overarching story.  There are many mini stories that make up the chapters of this larger story. We see a Father pursuing his child. We find stories of exile and redemption. We experience a bridegroom sacrificing for his bride. There is one people. These are the chosen people of God.  They were hand picked by him from before the world began. These people come from every tongue, tribe, and nation.  These people are called the sons of Abraham. They are people who live by faith not by sight.  They are people who have come to the end of themselves and found themselves to be wanting.  They are people who though dead have been made alive. These are the people of God, one people, from the beginning. There is one misson. This one people of God who find themselves in the midst of the one story of God find that they are on a single mission from God. This mission is like nothing that they have experienced before.  It is not about what they should be doing or not doing.  It is not about rules, laws, or legalism.  It is not about going close or going far.  It is about finding in their daily lives that they are to be pursuing the very same thing that their God is pursuing - his glory.  In doing so they live, act, and do things differently. They become a people concerned about what their God is concerned about.  They become a people who press out locally, regionally, and globally joining their God at every turn. Some may argue that God works differently with his people at different times.  They may argue that certain people are more special to God than others.  They may state that there is a great distinction between the first 39 and the last 27 books of the Scriptures.  I would encourage these people to take a step back and consider Ephesians 4:1-6 and then go listen to a little U2.

Flaming Potatoes and the Sovereignty of God

The previous two posts explored bits and pieces of the Ephesians 1:11-14 and how sovereign grace actually effects the way that we actually live and move and do life.
“11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
We have discussed "in him" and "obtained an inheritance", no we turn our sights to "having been predestined according to the purpose of who works all things according to the counsel if his will." We must not get hung up in theological debate regarding the issues surrounding the doctrine of predestination.  Those discussions are for another time and place.  The point of this series is to discuss the "so what" so as to send us on and expedition of faith. I became a follower of Jesus in the summer of 1995, since then I have sought to follow him into the world where he would be. I have changed and grown.  My following has matured but it is no less passionate.  Early on I struggled to come to terms with the doctrine of predestination.  It bothered be to think that God may not have chosen some to be his people.  I struggled to see what the point of engaging a lost world was if God was sovereign over salvation and if God had to be the one to bring people back to life. I really wanted to believe in a synergistic faith and not a monergistic faith. Then I read, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
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 and God Centered Evangelism
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. These two books transformed my view on doing ministry under the sovereign grace of God.  I discovered that God's sovereign grace actually propelled one to a radical evangelism because there was a confidence in that God would act and make himself known. This is the beauty of the phrase that we are looking at here in Ephesians 1:11.  There is a purpose for all things.  It is not simply an accident that some people trust Christ or don't. It all with purpose and in accordance with the God's good, pleasing, and perfect will. There is nothing that we experience that is without purpose.  With purpose comes meaning and with meaning comes hope. The follower of Jesus runs on sovereign grace. We find hope, meaning, and purpose in its midst.
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In college my floormates had a potato gun.  One night we took the screens out (which was illegal) of our third floor dorm rooms and fired (illegal) potatoes across the quad at another dorm (stupid).  It was exhilarating to watch the small purple balls fly across the night sky and explode as they hit the wall of the other dorm. To fire the gun you needed Aqua Net hairspray, an airtight compartment, and a flint to create a spark. The doctrine of predestination is the flint for the follower of Jesus.  When it rubs against our sensibilities it creates a spark that sets aflame the Spirit of God within us. We are propelled like a flaming potato into God's mission for his glory (even if we don't agree with the doctrine, it still works!).  

Sovereign Grace - It Makes Us Go 2

In the previous post we began to look at Ephesians 1:11-14,
“11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
We dove into the first phrase, "in him".  Now we must grapple with the next, "we have obtained an inheritance".  What is this inheritance? How do we obtain it? What does this mean? How is this connected to sovereign grace? The inheritance that we we obtain "in him" is that of the Kingdom of God. We have been transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of the Beloved Son.  You see, by being "in him" we have all that he has.  Just take a look at Ephesians 1:3-10 for a sense of the inheritance. We gain this inheritance by being "in him" and get to be "in him" by his grace.  There is nothing that we can do to earn our way into being "in him" we are all broken beyond recognition.  That's the way it is.  If you don't believe me, look in the mirror. Seriously, can you tell me you're not broken? I know I am.  I am broken beyond self-repair. So, we need help, we need to be brought in and we are done so by his grace. Check out Ephesians 2. This all means that we have been given something that is bigger than ourselves and we have a responsibility to do something with it.  We must act now in response.  We don't have to.  That is the beauty of sovereign grace.  We are not needed but we are wanted. This is significant.  It means that we can respond to God in proportion as we come to grips with a deeper more full understanding of his grace. We can't judge ourselves by others.  We can only look at the inheritance and ask, "How am I responding?" So, how are you responding? What kind of grace have you experienced?  

Book Review - Church Planting Movements by David Garrison

Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World
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 by David Garrison and published by the International Mission Board is a very helpful text. I thoroughly appreciated this little book in its simplicity. David did not write more than he needed too. He laid out the need, the vision, and the how-to in a way that is easily grasped. This text is perfect for any person who is stepping outside of Western Christendom trying to figure out how engage the world in a more biblical way. Garrison defines Church Planting Movements (CPM) as "A rapid and exponential increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment (8)." The key words being rapid, exponential, indigenous, planting. If one can grasp these things then we are able to replicate this model. I really appreciated the structure of the text and how succinct it is. He lays out the core components of a CPM in chapters 3-5 with a list of ten components each. He also provides the leader with answers to FAQ's and obstacles. The stories from countries around the world paint a clear picture of how CPM's work. I have two criticisms of the text. The first is that in the definition of a healthy church there is no mention of church discipline. This is a key component to keeping a church healthy in the long run. The absence of such has led to the downfall of most of Western Christendom. The second is that there are no stories of this happening in a Western context. While I understand that David works for the International Mission Board, if this is going to be global then it needs to include examples of this working in all contexts. It may be that this is not happening in the West. However, it seems unlikely since I can think of a number of CPM's that are being developed in metro Detroit, MI. All in all, I would strongly recommend this book. It will be especially helpful for leaders who are moving away from the Boomer Generation's "If you build it, they will come" mentality and the "attractional" mode of church.

In Christ...So What?

As we continue to wrestle with what it means to be on mission and how our mission is shaped and determined by our theology we looked briefly at the reality of being "in Christ". We left off with a simple question, "So what?" So what, if we as followers of Jesus, are in him?  What bearing does that have on any aspect of our daily reality? What does that have to do with our mission? The ramifications are significant.  A good friend makes that clear in a recent post (which got me kickstarted to write again). I really like what Alan Hirsch says here, httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jePGylrJWhM&feature=player_embedded You see Alan is making the point that we must be where Jesus is, this is obvious because we are in Christ, if those of us who say that we are "in Christ" are moving in mission then we necessarily must be doing it together. Did you catch that? To be on mission necessarily means doing it together. If one is in Christ then she must be on mission with someone else, a community of people.  I prefer the term (from Hirsch) Communitas.  This is an understanding that the community of Jesus is necessarily a people on mission. I like this definition,
Community is a ship in port.  Communitas is a ship at sea. The ship is not designed for port. The ship is designed for the sea. The church is not designed for community.  It is designed at its core DNA to be communitas.
I find it interesting that much of the Christian West is seeking to find "community" when it needs to be looking for communitas. However, we don't really believe the necessary outworking of the fact that to be a Christian is to be "in Christ" with all the other Christians. We seek holy huddles. We seek comfort. So, what happens if we instead begin to seek communitas? We will get really uncomfortable, we will have to enter into the lives of others, we will have set aside ourselves, it will be inconvenient. To be "in Christ" means to be unified with the whole of the body of Christ and the local expression of that body particularly.  Here are some questions that have been bouncing around in my head as far as evaluation goes:
  • How often are you spending time with people from your particular church outside of church sanctioned meetings or events?
  • How many close friends do you have within your particular church? Do you spend time with them outside of official church meetings or events?
  • Would you vacation with anyone from your particular church?
  • Who in your particular church would you call in a time of crisis (besides your pastor or deacon)?
  • Is there anyone from your particular church that you do mission with?
I would love to know if you have any questions to add to this list.  Just throw them in the comments section. In summary, to be "in Christ" means to be on mission together, communitas.

A long time coming...

I have not posted in a while.  This means that I have broken the number one rule of blogging.  That rule states that you are to blog approximately thrice weekly. But, you see real life, the place that is not connected to a computer has become full. Therefore, I haven't had time to write. Even writing this I feel like I should be doing ten other things. So, here's the deal, I am hopeful that things are going to begin slowing. I need the space to write. It gives me a place to work out what is going on in my head. I want to continue writing about how our theology and doctrine drives us into mission. But, right now the mission is demanding my time and the keyboard doesn't hold a candle to the mission.

Before the Beginning...applied

So, if Jesus is the center, his life, death, and resurrection culminating in the reality that he is Lord, how does this apply to mission? How does this reality determine how we ought to live and act as his followers? Well, that's just it, we have to follow. I really like what Rt. Rev. Dr. David Zac Niringiye says here, it has been stuck in my head. We are to be followers. If Jesus is the center then we go where he goes. We follow where he leads. We love how he loved. We extend grace like he extends grace. We engage the lost world at the expense of our own safety and comfort. We enter into relationship with people who are the same and different from us. We speak truth. We live truth. We love the Scriptures. We ask questions. If we accept the invitation to follow and we believe that Jesus is the theological center of everything then our lives cannot be lived as our own. 1 Corinthians 7 offers a helpful reminder:
You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. (1 Corinthians 7:23 ESV)
If Jesus is our center then we cannot, must not, retreat behind the walls of a holy hideout. We must, we have to step out into the lost and broken world and... engage it, question it, challenge it, transform it. Following Jesus necessarily pushes us out and into the world as transformative ambassadors who bring a story, a message, healing, love, grace, mercy, truth, transformation. To call yourself a "Christian" means you are required to go on expedition on behalf of the one who bought you.

An Expedition...

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Over the last few days I have been interacting with folks about a great many things. Something that has struck me is the cavalier attitude toward doctrine. Many of us no longer seem to think that doctrine matters. We say things like, "I am not a theologian, but..." Here's the reality: doctrine does matter. What we believe matters. It matters big time. When hardship and conflict come it is what we believe that will determine how we respond. Because, what we believe matters. I have been heart-sick over the way those who hold a similar theological position as I have responded to a book that came out recently. They responded with polemics and rhetoric (some even before they had read the book!). Most have not responded with discernment or charity but have looked for a way to hang a "heretic". I have also been thoroughly disappointed in the way that those from other theological positions have either blindly defended or tried to move themselves away from a position which is the logical outcome of their own. I am more convinced than ever that what we believe matters. Then I read David Fitch's recent post over at Reclaiming the Mission and I understood again why what we believe matters. David coherently points out the distinctions between a "coalition" and an "expedition". As I read this post I kept thinking back to a friend's description of Jonathan Edwards as an "experiential Calvinist" and another concept that has been rattling around my head, the "experimental Church". It is sad to me that those who hold to the Reformed view of theology (not Calvinist Baptists like Piper, Driscoll, etc...they are not Reformed and as a result they are not in view here) have struggled to follow Edwards. It makes me wonder if we don't really believe what we say we believe. It seems to me that if Reformed theology is true then it demands from us an expedition into the experiential and experimental Church. Why? Because if Reformed theology is true then it is unflinchingly pointing us toward Jesus and his Kingdom. This requires us to follow Edwards to the frontier. It requires us to step out and actually act on our beliefs in the sovereign God, the in-breaking Kingdom, and the imputation and incarnation of Jesus. It is my opinion, that Reformed theology (not Calvinist Baptist theology) is best suited for a post-Christian world, because it necessarily drives us toward the lost, culture, transformation, community, and authenticity. But, only if we believe it. But, we will only believe it if it matters. It matters. Over the upcoming weeks we will look at how our beliefs drive the mission and as a result help us to understand why doctrine matters.