the Weary Pilgrim

sustaining relevance...

From Len ( Next Reformation ), in Kelowna...

Reggie McNeal writes,

“The point is.. all the effort to fix the church misses the point. You can build the perfect church–and they still won’t come. People are not looking for a great church… The age in which institutional religion holds appeal is passing away.

“Church leaders seem unable to grasp this simple implication of the new world–people outside the church think church is for church people, not for them.”

* * *
“The church was created to be the people of God to join him in his redemptive mission in the world. The church was never intended to exist for itself. It was and is the chosen instrument of God to expand his kingdom. The church is the bride of Christ. Its union with him is designed for reproduction, the growth of the kingdom. Jesus did not teach his disciples to pray, “Thy church come.” The kingdom is the destination. In its institutional existence the church abandoned its real identity and reason for existence.

“God did not give up on his mission in the Old Testament when Israel refused to partner with him. God is a reckless lover. He decided to go on with the mission himself. We do not need to be mistaken about this: if the church refuses its missional assignment, God will do it another way. The church has [refused], and he is [moving on]. God is pulling end runs around the institutional North American church to get to people in the streets. God is still inviting us to join him on mission, but it is the invitation to be part of a movement, not a religious club.”

The build it and they will come mentality has come and gone, no matter how shiny and attractive we make it. Attraction works for awhile, but it becomes a weak magnetic force after awhile, nothing seems to stick and stay. So, we try and create something better...because our survival is in their coming.

We have come to believe growth of the church, the numbers who show up on a given Sunday is building the Kingdom. Have we really expanded the Kingdom...or have we actually caused it to shrink.

By looking at where the time and $$$ of an organization is spent, we can determine their central purpose. Does the majority of time and money flow out out, or is it consumed by the church, seen as a type of investment to hopefully increase numbers bring more money in to keep it going for another day. That is the purpose...if we can not sustain the building, and the Sunday morning service...we have failed.

My oldest daughter grew up in the church, a degree in Poli sci and environmental policy, she no longer finds the church relevant. She is passionate about her faith, social justice, the environment and local community. She finds the church to preoccupied with itself. Sustainability, is a reality in her everyday living, as it is for most young people these days. When she invests $$$ in expressing her faith, she looks at what is the best return on her investment. ( The parable of the talents, what investment will yield the greatest return for The Kingdom ).

She lives communally in large house in Vancouver with 9 people ( 3 couples, and 3 singles ). They discuss issues of faith, politics, environment, and daily living all around a large common table. The neighbourhood that surrounds them is a collage of humanity...gays, straights, addicts, homeless, wealthy, educated and iliterate. These are the neighbours, the people they interact with daily. In Romans 12, it says, " So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it." She and her friends try and live this out. To her this is sort of church.

I am increasingly find far more opportunities to invest and expand God's Kingdom outside the parameters of the existing church. Opportunities with First Nations people on the reserves, and on the inner city streets. Whether I ever get one of these people into a church does not worry me. For me it is their friendship, helping them to discover Jesus, and to find Him in their daily living.

In the existing economy, and as we strive for more sustainable practices, and the best returns on our investment of time and money...I wonder if the " business as usual " church can exist much longer.

(Extra)ordinary vision...

Just so you know I'm still kickin', I thought I would post this part of an e-mail from Fred Peatross:

If the church is going to turn the corner on the consumerist twist it finds itself caught up in, it will do so because leaders involve themselves in building a culture of the ordinary evangelist (a faith-community niche). Jesus’ apprentice is not going to be formed through Sunday morning sermonettes, drama, worship teams, or edifices fit for comfort but through clear, intentional teaching that says evangelism is forged through a process of salvation. And ordinary attempts are the turning points. Now, here’s something you might not know. Every Christian makes ordinary attempts. But Christians need to be made aware:

 

• They need to understand that the process of ordinary is as important as the event of salvation

• They need to understand how significant and important their role is in the process of salvation

• Christ wants them to know! The vision must come alive!

 

Teach it! Practice it! Talk about it every time the community

gathers!

 

It’s time we rally around a niche and there is none more important! Make your Sundays a time for ordinary stories among ordinary Christians! Culture building…until Christ comes back! So…Do we invite the missing to our environment? Or follow Jesus’ mandate to “GO” and walk with them in their environment?

 

Road stories are crucial. Like the early Christians, we need to, once again, become known as people of the way. How?

 

• By walking with and listening more to what the people Jesus misses the most have to say

• Drop the infamous slogan “We hate their sin but love the sinner,” and actually get to know and become a fellow sinner’s best friend

 

If we really desire to reach out to this culture, we’re going to have to become like the spies Joshua sent out and boldly walk across our faith borders and engage the land God wants to give us. It’s time we break out of our Christian circles, stop the busyness of church, face outward, take a look, and experience the world beyond the borders of our community gatherings.

 

subverting the ordinary...

tr.v.   sub·vert·ed, sub·vert·ing, sub·verts

1. To destroy completely; ruin:
2. To undermine the character, morals, or allegiance of; corrupt.
3. To overthrow completely

Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw are making the rounds, they were in Toronto ( Church of the Redeemer, Bloor Street ) a few nights ago...pimping the movie " Ordinary Radicals ", and talking about subverting the empire. Shane Claiborne has done wonderful work expanding the Kingdom, and God's mission. " Irresistible Revolution ", was a great book revealing the reality of simplicity...that small mustard seeds can grow into great things.

But on every seat...glossy brochures...Simple Way's new magazine " Conspire "; Ordinary Radicals, the Movie; Jesus for President, the book.

The Ordinary Radicals website, a website featuring some of the most highly regarded thinkers in the North American church. Among the names I noticed Tony Campolo –a man I greatly admire. It is hard to overstate my regard for Tony, he has mentored and help shape my faith. The blog is an advertisement for the upcoming documentary and as it lists, features Interviews with: Becky Garrison, Shane Claiborne, Jim Wallis, Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo, Rob Bell, John Perkins, Brooke Sexton, Michael Heneise, St. Margret McKenna, Logan Laituri, Zack Exley, Aaron Weiss and many more Ordinary Radicals. All great people, shaping the Kingdom...but;

I am frustrated by the absolute “un-ordinary-ness” of the people it is about. Alot of the people on the list are international superstars in the christian marketing culture, have been on “The Colbert Report” and CBC's " The Hour ", any number of high profile talk shows and television appearances. Most of the above names are regulars on the conference circuit. They are highly educated and enjoy flexibility and some notoriety. Wallis is the founder of Sojourners, a prolific author, and teaches at Harvard. Campolo " Red Letter Christians ", was a personal adviser to Clinton and a protégé of Albert Einstein. Claiborne is ...irresistible. McLaren the" New Kind of Christian ",is considered by most to be the foremost spokesman for the emerging church. Rob Bell, Nooma Video series, " The Velvet Elvis "...speaker extraordinare.

Subverting the empire: the movie. Subverting the empire: the magazine. Subverting the empire: the book tour.

Sadly we are being subverted from the reality of the " extra-ordinariness " of faithful living. It's not books, magazines, the conference hype. It is those simple acts of faith...stopping and talking, helping, feeding the poor drunken addict you find passed out on the street.

We want to subvert the empire...imagine if we all started living, by simply practicing extravagant love and faith everyday.

missional ...transformation

“Being church” is first and foremost about nurturing the understanding that this is how things really are – even if the way we behave and the way the world looks to us often suggests something else. Church isn’t primarily about projects, meetings, fine buildings, grand ideas and great deeds. There’s nothing wrong with such things – if they really do embody God’s unconditional love. But if they are simply about our need to boast, to be needed, to neurotically “do something”, then they risk missing the point catastrophically. The point of the kind of community we call “church” is to develop the type of worship, common life and shared purpose that will continue to sustains us in living out Christ’s sacrificial love in every aspect of life, even when the going gets tough.

Hope in the triumph of a good able to achieve real change, to turn our grasping world inside out, is not a matter of individual aspiration or wish-fulfilment. It requires a community of character – people trained, through prayerfulness, through human service and through genuine mutuality (what we rather piously call “fellowship”), to go on enduring, in spite of everything. Such endurance becomes possible not via the superhuman efforts of a few spiritual athletes, but through the recognition of us plain, ordinary people that we are empowered by a promise and a possibility that goes way beyond our own capacities – one residing nowhere less than in the heart of God.

“The world is overcome not through destruction, but through reconciliation. Not ideals, nor programmes, nor conscience, nor duty, nor responsibility, nor virtue, but only God's perfect love can encounter reality and overcome it. Nor is it some universal idea of love, but rather the love of God in Jesus Christ, a love genuinely lived, that does this.” Bonhoeffer's Meditations on the Cross

A love genuinely lived by a people joined to Christ for the sake of the world. That is the church and its mission in a simple phrase.

Thanks to Simon Barrow @ Ekklesia

Missional Synchroblog...

From Rick Meigs...

To help reclaim it, I propose a synchronized blog for Monday, June 23rd on the topic, “What is Missional?”

There are any number of ways one could blog on this topic. You could illustrate what the term means, describe what it is not and how it is wrongly used, define the term, explore its misuses, explore its theological foundations, or you name it.

"missional landscape...borderless, scandalous table fellowship"

Well, here I am, it's Sunday night and I've had a week to reflect on " Missional ". I thought in the time the musings tumbling in my mind would have settled out and solidified into something concrete.Well, they have and they haven't. Maybe missional musing, should always be unsettled. But this morning, a typical Sunday morning gathering and these sound bytes; " ' we come here to meet God ', we come here for healing ', we come here to worship." Our focus is " Us " and " Place."

I love this quote from Ed Stetzer's Planting Missional Churches, " It's possible to be a missionary without ever leaving your zip code."

To understand " Missional", is to immerse ourselves in the reality of the gospels and rediscover that Jesus' church lived in the world and practiced an outrageous and scandalous table fellowship. From day one as Jesus calls his followers on a journey, he's not scouring the temples for the most religious and holy, he's not visiting the classrooms of Rabbi's for the wisest. Fisherman, tax collector, banker...a collection of the least likely to succeed on a faith journey. Jesus doesn't rent class room space to introduce a program, a plan, or start another religion. John's Gospel, in the opening chapters says Jesus pitched his tent in the midst of humanity, he moved into the neighborhood...Jesus moves his followers into the midst of humanity. They would journey dusty roads, back alleys, the open water...into poverty, oppression, sickness, homelessness, hunger.

The first experience of seminary on the road would be the Wedding Feast at Cana. Fascinating, that the introduction of the Good News would begin to unfold at a wedding, an instant snap shot of life. Here you would have the reality of life, community, family...the misfits, the dysfunction, the old, the young...the newly wed, and the nearly dead. Here Jesus, immerses, dunks his followers into the midst of humanity...as if to say, " this is what I'm all about...all of life, every speck of it. This is where I want you to live life, and give life."

This feasting and Table fellowship would weave its way throughout the gospels Here Jesus' followers would learn that missional may not be some arduous journey to a far off foreign land...that perhaps the longest journey maybe just sitting across the table of a stranger, the sick, the poor, and the oppressed. Whom you eat with defines whom you won't eat with. With Jesus it never appears to be a " social " program...it is radical, scandalous, outrageous...it's the Kingdom. It is the servant returning to his master's table with unopened invitations and list of excuses, and the master sending him out again. This time the servant heads to back alleys filled with syringes, skid row hotels, park benches, under bridges...any where, so his masters table will be filled to overflowing. All are welcomed all are invited. Here at this open table, we discover the world upside down...where suddenly the host is the guest, and the guest the host. Where the host is blessed more than the guest. Jesus entered into the other's world, and let them invite his followers as their house guests. In that way grace, life, healing, restoration could be poured back and forth.

Another story of outrageous table fellowship, is the feeding of the 5000.This table is not constructed of wood and four legs...it is the Lord standing on a hillside with 5 small barley loaves, and 2 fish, raising arms giving thanks and blessing. Two miracles here, one that 5000 people were fed...and 5000 people shared this table fellowship. There is the outrageous reality that in faith, we often find surplus when we welcome those outside our boundaries and borders.

These table fellowship stories could be the reality of what " Missional " is, it is " Sacramental Living." Not as a ritual, but as the redemptive imagination that is it's spiritual truth. It is sad in a sense that we have ritualized the bread and wine. This ritual of who's in and who's not...who's welcome and who's not. I wonder if Jesus imagined it to be that. Jesus table fellowship, the meals of bread and fish always reflected the Kingdom...surplus, and food the fed the poor. Jesus table fellowship always reflected the truth of the Kingdom, the truth of what missional should be about...redemption, restoration, justice, community, the reordering of a new creation.

And how can we forget the table fellowship stories after Jesus' resurrection. Jesus cooking fish on a charcoal fire on the beach. The disciples gone back to their old jobs fishing on the lake and not having much luck. Jesus calls out from the shore, telling them to drop their nets on the other side of the boat. They haul in an incredible draft of fish. Peter seeing his dear friend wades through the water to shore. On the beach Jesus, invites, welcomes, cooks fish for his friends on an open fire, and turns to Peter, " feed on my behalf." And I'm not talking just feeding food, a meal in the soup kitchen, I'm talking about feeding them the incarnational reality of the life of Jesus. In other words go and invite. To live in the neighborhood of Jesus...is to live and believe that all the world is welcome...to go. If the world is welcome to God, if my neighbor is welcome to God, then every living moment is a door into God into which the other is welcome. Our calling should be clear.

" It's possible to be a missionary without ever leaving your zip code." Missional is dispersed in the midst of humanity. Jesus mission started with leading of the Holy Spirit. He sends us into the world under the leading of the same Spirit. It is to bear witness, to build, to expand His Kingdom ...to redeem, restore, to feed, and to heal.

To read the rest of the Missional Synchro-blog musings, click on the following...

Other Synchroblog Contributors

Alan Hirsch
Alan Knox
Andrew Jones
Barb Peters
Bill Kinnon
Brad Brisco
Brad Grinnen
Brad Sargent
Brother Maynard
Bryan Riley
Chad Brooks
Chris Wignall
Cobus Van Wyngaard
Dave DeVries
David Best
David Fitch
David Wierzbicki
DoSi
Doug Jones
Duncan McFadzean
Erika Haub
Grace
Jamie Arpin-Ricci
Jeff McQuilkin
John Smulo
Jonathan Brink
JR Rozko
Kathy Escobar
Len Hjalmarson
Makeesha Fisher
Malcolm Lanham
Mark Berry
Mark Petersen
Mark Priddy
Michael Crane
Michael Stewart
Nick Loyd
Patrick Oden
Peggy Brown
Phil Wyman
Richard Pool
Rick Meigs
Rob Robinson
Ron Cole
Scott Marshall
Sonja Andrews
Stephen Shields
Steve Hayes
Tim Thompson
Thom Turner

Kent Leslie
Maria
Pat Loughery
Hamo
Dave Faulkner
Peter
Malcomb+
Arnau van Wyngaard

instrument...or obstacle

If we want to be on a mission with God we simply must pause long enough to understand how God is on a mission. Only then can we know with some degree of certainty that we are aligned as his instruments and not misaligned as his obstacles. ( David Garrison )

Missional Synchro-blog...

From Rick Meigs...

I have a continuing concern that the term missional has become over used and wrongly used.

Audio Ur posted a podcast with Alan Hirsch yesterday and I got around to listen to it this morning. Alan takes up this very concern and says things like: It is a critical term. We must reclaim the term. The concept behind missional is really big and it would be terrible to lose it.

I think it is time to make a bigger effort to reclaim the term, a term which describe what happens when you and I replace the “come to us” invitations with a “go to them” life. A life where “the way of Jesus” informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living for him and others and where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. It speaks of the very nature of the Jesus follower.

To help reclaim it, I propose a synchronized blog for Monday, June 23rd on the topic, “What is Missional?”

There are any number of ways one could blog on this topic. You could illustrate what the term means, describe what it is not and how it is wrongly used, define the term, explore its misuses, explore its theological foundations, or you name it.

There have been 18 32 40 47 49 50 bloggers who have responded to my Call for Missional SynchroBlog for Monday, June 23rd on the topic, “What is Missional?”

Listed below are those who will be participating.

Alan Hirsch
Alan Knox
Andrew Jones
Barb Peters
Bill Kinnon
Brad Brisco
Brad Grinnen
Brad Sargent
Brother Maynard
Bryan Riley
Chad Brooks
Chris Wignall
Cobus Van Wyngaard
Dave DeVries
David Best
David Fitch
David Wierzbicki
DoSi
Doug Jones
Duncan McFadzean
Erika Haub
Grace
Jamie Arpin-Ricci
Jeff McQuilkin
John Smulo
Jonathan Brink
JR Rozko
Kathy Escobar
Len Hjalmarson
Makeesha Fisher
Malcolm Lanham
Mark Berry
Mark Petersen
Mark Priddy
Michael Crane
Michael Stewart
Nick Loyd
Patrick Oden
Peggy Brown
Phil Wyman
Richard Pool
Rick Meigs
Rob Robinson
Ron Cole
Scott Marshall
Sonja Andrews
Stephen Shields
Steve Hayes
Tim Thompson
Thom Turner

Pauquachin Grad...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This has been one of the highlites from working out on the Pauquachin Band Reserve the past three years.Thats me on the left, then Nigel in the suit, Max the youth worker on the reserve, and Landon in front. Nigel has done what no one in his family has done before...graduate high school. Not a big deal for most kids living in suburbia, or the city, but, on the reserve most kids don't make it to grad. There were times when Nigel would have liked to have thrown in the towel and walk away, and not so much because of poor grades. It had more to do with becuase he didn't fit, a clash of cultures...racism. We like to think in our neighbourhoods it doesn't exist. But, you spend time with the kids and youth on the reserve...you begin to grasp what they go through...the racial comments, the isolation. But Nigel, is a fighter, full of determination...and a constant source of encouragement for the other youth.

 

Nigel and I have also played alot of soccer over the past three years. He likes to call me the " old guy ". We push and shove, always in fun ( I think ). This year the games did seem a little more serious, I suffered a broken toe, and broken index finger.

 

Congrats Nigel...Knowing you, sharing life, meals, conversations, has blessed me more than you can imagine.

The Mustard Seed...in My Father's House

This scene from the movie " The Blues Brothers " sort of sums up last Saturday evening at the Mustard Seed inner city church. We knew something was up right from the very start, people just seemed a whole lot more agitated. Usually there is 100-120 people show up, living in poverty, homelessness, addictions and mental issues, but Saturday there were over 190 people...not including dogs and cats. And then throw into the mix, we had new servers that evening. The food just wasn't coming fast enough...for some it was the first meal of the day. So there was yelling, shouting and screaming, usually it never gets to that point. But tonight, the whole place was like a washing machine on the agitation mode...tumbling and bumping.

We prayed over the meal, for love, care and protection over this collage of humanity from the inner city. You get an image, that maybe these are the guests the servant brought back to his masters table when the invited guests didn't show up because of their excuses. This is church...not peaceful, with fragrant incense...it was noisy, with the stench of poverty. But you really sensed Jesus was here with us...praying, blessing, hugging, kissing and weeping. 

At one point the noise was getting a little out of control...that we should be playing behind a chain link fence. We prayed and talked about homelessness, that Jesus was in fact a homeless man, and how Jesus talked about his Father's House...the openness. No matter what your condition, what you've done, where you've been...the door is always open. Then we sang this song.

Slowly it was almost as if a gentle breeze blew throughout the gathering. One after the other tables became silent, the listened...there was a hush. There was some tears, uncontrollable sobbing, holding hands and hugging. And we prayed, prayed and prayed.

He is so faithful, in the midst of the chaos, our clumsy efforts...all we did was to try and get out of the way leave Him some room, a seat. Jesus always has away of showing up when we least expect it...usually in the midst of poverty and suffering, and always when there is hunger.

( Later, we would find out the cause of much of the agitation was due to bad cocaine on the street...and that there were 3 overdoses that night. We could see a couple of fairly well dressed guys, at the end of the evening standing outside the Mustard Seed...likely preying on the least of humanity )

knowing less...loving more

AS APPRENTICES [of Christ] we are … unskilled, unformed, undeveloped. The good Master will present us with tasks just beyond our reach, tasks that build on our strengths and challenge our weaknesses, and he will stand by us in our clumsiness as we learn. Our ignorance and mistakes put us into a searching, inquiring mode: How can we do this better? Are there others who could give us tips? Have we understood the instructions? Being an apprentice means starting, quite honestly, where you are rather than where you should be.

- Robert Corin Morris ,Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life

It's funny, well into this journey for close to 40 years, I actually know less than when I started, if that makes any sense. There are a mere few things now I am absolutely certain of and one of them is " Love."  That is how we live on the rough edges of everyday life. From 1 John, chapter 3...

God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.