the gospel...an inconvenient truth

Yesterday afternoon I had coffee with a friend I hadn't seen in quite awhile. We was, and still is part of the church I used to attend, and apart of the leadership team there. As he shared his year with me, it became obvious, it was one of those seasons when everything is pulled out from under you. You are left grasping. And even there, you question what few things there are to hang on to.

I think these profound seasons effect us all. Sort of like when the sun, moon and earth are aligned in such away we see greater tidal forces. On our journeys, the heart, the mind, and the events of life can collide, and it is usually at that point of impact where the deepest questions of faith arise.

In our conversation he asked me where I was going to church, and why I had left. Partly it was direction, and partly I did not believe in what was being said. It was only after I got home, that I wish I had of pulled those words apart a bit more.

Direction was an issue because the "church" had become the center of focus. The mission was to get people "into the church." Implied or real pressure put on small groups as franchises to feed the bigger church. I understand the business side of church. There is a building, and there is a product to be sold , and consumed. And it costs, money. Harsh words, maybe. Truth, yes.

The big question, people should have been asking was, " who do we get the church 'into the world, the neighborhood.'"

A missional imagination is not about the church; it’s not about how to make the church better, how to get more people to come to church, or how to turn a dying church around. It’s not about getting the church back to cultural respectability in a time when it has been marginalized…. This [missional] imagination turns most of our church practices on their head. It invites us to turn towards our neighborhoods and communities, listening first to what is happening among people and learning to ask different questions about what God is up to in the neighborhood. Rather than the primary question being, ‘How do we attract people to what we are doing?’ it becomes, ‘What is God up to in this neighborhood?’ and “What are the ways we need to change in order to engage the people in our community who no longer consider church a part of their lives?’ This is what a missional imagination is about. ( Alan J. Roxburgh and M. Scott Boren, “Introducing the Missional Church )

The reason we don't do this...it's an inconvenient truth. At this church, there was two extremely wonderful missional opportunities. One with a local Food Bank, and another a Breakfast Club at a local high school. Neither happened, because there was no imagination. Getting past ownership, flying your flag, overt evangelism, all became obstacles to big to imagine anything else. So a cheque was sent to buy a fridge.

The inconvenient truth is it's going to take a lot of time, and people...and sacrifice. I was involved in a breakfast program, with a retired Anglican minister while my daughters were in high school, so I know its opportunities...and it works. You might have to get past ownership, flying your church flag, and overt evangelism...and just work on building relationships. Relationship takes time, lots of time. But in the midst of relationship, there is the opportunity to plant the seeds of faith conversation. I had the opportunity to pray with kids over personal matters, school stuff. I never pushed an agenda, nothing...like flowers in a garden, they opened when the time was right.

I love these two images, because for me it instills a hidden truth that a lot of missional imagination is unseen. It is more about presence, of being there, commitment, the inconvenience of time...and planting your life, like seed into the neighborhood and world around you. It is the light of Christ, that illuminates the truth.

I remember talking to Jim Henderson, maybe a year and a half ago, where he shared a similar story. A friend of his had planted a church into a neighborhood, and to engage the community they were going to partner with a food bank. It was the same issues of ownership, the concern about overt evangelism, which the food bank wanted no part of. But, the church plant was willing to just let go of all the " churchy " stuff, and build a relationship. And it evolved, with, yes the inconvenience of time, to where the church is an integral part food bank. And the food bank and integral part of the church.

I'm just in the process of reading a draft copy of Sara Miles' soon to be published, " Jesus Freak ", but in her earlier book, " Take this Bread." She tells of a similar experience. We need to rekindle a missional imagination of seeing the " church in the world." You'll surprise yourself by how much more attractive this is to outsiders, rather than the finely crafted worship music and high tech visual stuff on a Sunday morning. There is something profoundly attractive when the neighborhood sees the gospel lived out. Again, it's inconvenient...but it speaks with more clarity, more honesty and more imagination.

And, lastly when I told my friend I know longer believed in what was being said. It wasn't because I was becoming an atheist, it was something deeper. In the year I spent reading and reflecting on the Gospels only...I guess it ruined me. It was at that collision of heart, mind and life's events that my sense of belief in the gospels changed dramatically. They had to " be-lived ." If I was to find the deepest truth of the gospels, the stuff between the lines, where the Spirit inspires life. I had to live the gospels. They had to become the fabric of my life...of what holds it together.

Again...another inconvenient truth.

When moving from believing the gospels...to be-living them, truth becomes much more inconvenient. Right now, it's pouring rain, cold and damp and windy, and the forecast is for it to continue into the night. It's CARTS tonight, street ministry in Victoria's downtown streets. It would be so easy to hunker down in the house tonight, throw a log on the fire, and read the gospel. No, I'll be out there, on the streets with my friends, and be-living the gospel. The gospels...they are an inconvenient truth.

The inconvenient truth of the gospels are opting to be vulnerable; being taken advantage of; absorbing pain and suffering; realizing inconvenience is a gift; taking risks;being overwhelmed; learning to be content with questions more than a clever answer; building relationships, as the art of being a gardener, being patient to see something grow; the willingness to see forgiveness as a constant state of heart, mind and soul; that there really is no such thing as them, it is " us ", we're all in this together; and Grace...more, and more, and more...it's endless.

The gospel...an inconvenient truth.

Comments

[hope]

A few days ago Richard Rohr's daily email had, in part, this to say: "We need much more of a lifestyle-based Christianity: not “What do you believe?” but “How do you live?” What you believe in your head asks almost nothing of you. Lifestyle asks everything of us, and every day, and on ever new levels of choice. It is a journey that never stops."

Your post made me think of that quote when I read it.

[Al]

Thanks, Ron.

This is powerful, and SO needed.

I second your comment that: "There is something profoundly attractive when the neighborhood sees the gospel lived out."

See you at CARTS!!

[Randy Hein]

I think you nailed it, Ron. It has always been my prayer that churches would not be primarily known and recognized by their cosmetic appearance on Sunday morning - whether it be High Church sacramental liturgy or "The Hill Song United Wanna-be-a-Christian-rock-star" hour. My prayer is that we would would be known and identified by our impact during the rest of the week. Frankly, that's all my neighbors care about. Maybe it's all Jesus really cares about. At the very least, I don't think he would be all that impressed by the things that impress us pastors.

I agree that it will take a quantum shift in how we resource ministry and cultivate expectations, but (maybe secretly) I haven't given up hope (yet).

[ron cole]

Randy, I agree about it taking a quantum shift, and I too, haven't given up hope. I guess maybe the reassuring lie is faith alone will get you into heaven. It maybe true, only time will tell. But, maybe we never see the Kingdom until we live out the profound truth of the gospels.This is not faith by works.Maybe, the more we, the church immerses itself into the gospels, and then live out the profound truths in our neighborhoods. Maybe then, it is like finding that precious treasure in a field...and we'll sell everything to hang on it. Maybe our lives...maybe even the church. And, I think the quantum shift is when it's not the responsibility of the pastor, or the church to come up with missional programs ( although in some cases they may be important )...but when it goes viral, infectious, or grafted into the DNA of ever member of the church. At that point, I think we can say as Jesus said when he was an incarnational presence in the midst of humanity...the Kingdom is near.

[wilsonian]

Yes... you nailed it.