Introducing the Missional Church - a review

I recently read Introducing the Missional Church by Alan J. Roxburgh and M. Scott Boren. I think this is perhaps the best book on the subject I have read so far. They've taken the work of Leslie Newbigin and made it easier to understand and more readable for simple folk like me. In fact, the point of the book is phrased in three questions: What is the missional church, why does it matter, and how does a church become missional?

I thought the first part of the book - where they explain the concept of "missional" - was the best. My only complaint is with the last section. It seems to become a bit of a sales pitch for the author's resources in helping your church become missional. There is still useful information though.

The book is broken into three parts, like so...

Part 1: One Missional River
Ch. 1 - Not All Who Wander Are Lost: Stories of a Church In Between
Ch. 2 - Just Give Me A Definition: Why Missional Church Is So Hard to Define
Ch. 3 - Does Missional Fit? Can My Church Be Missional

Part 2: Three Missional Conversations
Ch. 4 - What's Behind the Wardrobe? The Center of the Missional Church
Ch. 5 - We're Not in Kansas Anymore: Missionaries in Our Own Land
Ch. 6 - Why Do We Need Theology? Missional Is about God, Not the Church
Ch. 7 - God's Dream for the World: What Is a Contrast Society?

Part 3: Countless Missional Journeys
Ch. 8 - The Journey Ahead: Following the Winds of the Spirit
Ch. 9 - Starting from Here: Where is Your Church Now?
Ch. 10 - The Missional Change Model: Getting There from Here
Ch. 11 - The Awareness Stage: Staring Reality in the Face
Ch. 12 - The Understanding Stage: Can We Really Talk about These Things?
Ch. 13 - The Evaluation Stage: A Snapshot of the Church
Ch. 14 - The Work of the Church Board: How Do Innovators and Traditionalists Work Together?
Ch. 15 - The Experiment Stage: Little Steps toward Something Big

There were a few quotes that particularly stood out to me. The book starts out with this very nice paragraph on what being missional means...

There once was a people who were neither significant nor exceptional nor privileged. In fact they did what most people of the time did: worked, married, raised children, celebrated, mourned, and carried out the basic stuff of life. You would not think them unique, because their dress, homes, and professions were much like that of everyone else. What was different about them, however, was their strange conviction that they had been chosen by God to be a special people, a journeying people who were forced to discover again and again what God wanted them to be doing in the world... At every stage in the biblical narratives is hope for a future reality toward which the people are moving. Being missional means we join this heritage, entering a journey without any road maps to discover what God is up to in our neighborhoods and communities.

On p. 21 was this insightful little ditty which might differ from the "getting back to the NT pattern"...

As an alternative to the attractional, some take up a contrarian stance. They become anti-building, anti-clergy, anti-denomination, anti-megachurch, anti-tradition, and anti-structure. They point fingers at what is now in place and tear it down. Many are stuck on the negative, and they know how to write blogs that deconstruct and talk about what is wrong. Who doesn't know how to do that? There's nothing creative about it, even if the media is used well. Others move past the negative by elevating an ideal or dream of what the church should be. This is understandable, but it is not helpful. As counterintuitive as it may sound, we don't cultivate a missional imagination by setting up some ideal type of the church or telling people what we should be. There are different forms of these dreams. They often come in some form of getting back to New Testament patterns or describing some point in the church's history that we need to recover. Some use quite strange, almost nonsensical language about how the church must become deinstitutionalized (we actually haven't come across any human system that isn't institutionalized in one form or another) and that it needs to return to a preinstitutionalized state of organic life. None of this is helpful, because it fails to recognize where the Spirit is actually at work in shaping a new imagination.

On p. 24 they state clearly three perspectives they are hoping to challenge with the book...

First, we are challenging the elevation of any model as the way to do church... Second, we challenge arguments that the Bible reveals a missional secret or formula that provides twenty-first century Christians with a magic pill for entering missional life... Third, we are challenging the idea that there is some point in history of the church that provides us with just the right pattern and formula for creating missional churches...

As you can tell there are some fairly provocative ideas in this book. I thought it was quite good, and I would recommend it for any church leader or anyone interested in the missional conversation.

Grass Roots Podcast - Episode 20 - CGGC Leadership Initiative

I have spent the last five years in the CGGC like a guy who stumbled upon a sleeping bear in the woods. I froze and have kept my eye on the bear, for the bear, if it notices me, could devour me. Then I started backing away slowly. I have not participated much regionally or nationally, though I've been told by both regional and national directors that I am welcome and would be appreciated at both levels.

Over the past five years, I have become a fan of Reggie McNeal, a former southern baptist denom official in South Carolina, who I believe understands the exact change that the North American church needs to make and who articulates it in a way that churches at large can get a handle.

So while attending IMPACT as a breakout leader (teaching Reggie McNeal's three shifts for the church), I overheard that Reggie was coming out to consult. Rather than a desire to be helpful denominationally, I selfishly have sought opportunities to sit in the same room as Reggie (and I wasn't disappointed). So I asked if I could sit in and was warmly welcomed.

The results caused me emotional confusion. I left hopeful, passionate in fact about the idea of participating in this leadership initiative, hopeful that this could be a prescription for renewal in this denom that I do truly love. Confused, because I've been wary of the bear, pulling me away from what is most important for me -- local ministry.

My fear is that the people who need to be involved in this initiative are also people who have stumbled across the bear and who also have been slowly backing away. I hope these are the people who listen to our podcasts. These (you) are all people who I have found to be intelligent and reflective and I would love to have a conversation with you about the pros and cons of this initiative. But since I can't, I did have a conversation with Lance Finley, Fran Leeman, and Bill Sloat about it. I thought the conversation was helpful. I think it might be helpful to you to listen to it and get some feel for this initiative, which Lance incredibly optimistically would like to roll out in January.

I am not an official representative of this leadership initiative. I'm just a pastor who loves our denom and who heard something that sounds hopeful coming around the bend. This recorded conversation was a frank and honest evaluation of what we know so far.

We invite your feedback.

Download: Podcast - GrassRoots - Episode 20 - CGGC Leadership Initiative

I made a compressed version that plays about 20 minutes shorter. It is the same as the other, just plays faster.

Download: Podcast - GrassRoots - Episode 20 - CGGC Leadership Initiative Compressed

IMPACT and Reggie McNeal Consultation

Thanks to everyone who participated with me and Bill at IMPACT -- Jerry, Jim Wilder, Bill Reist, Dan Horwedal, Joe ?, a proud father from Columbia City, Judy Nolt (Doug's wife), and others. I thought the initial discussions were great, but as we reached the peak (talking about leadership changes suggested by Missional Renaissance), the conversation broke down. Oh well, the summit is the hardest to climb!

The next week on July 30 (?), Reggie McNeal came to Findlay to consult with the denom about a leadership initiative. Upon hearing about it, and my obvious fandom for Reggie (who sat by me at lunch!), I asked if I could sit in and my request was granted.

Reggie led the group through the process of defining what a leadership initiative would like with the hopes of changing the culture of the CGGC to be a missional movement. (These are my descriptions of what happened. Whether it is the official view of the CGGC, you'd have to ask them.)

The proposed process is a two-year intensive with the best CGGC leaders we can find. I'll be dead honest -- it was the most hopeful thing I've heard in my 20 years with the CGGC. They hope to start in January.

Here are the two requirements for success. (In my opinion)

1) They have to keep the deal intense. They need to pay the money to get Reggie to lead most of the six gatherings (over two years). Reggie exudes mission and excellence. And it will rub off.

2) They have to get 'buy-in' from 25-50 of the best leaders in the CGGC. I would say the best leaders in the CGGC have made it a policy NOT to get sucked in to denominational initiatives. They will have to be convinced, and that leads me back to my first requirement. It has to be well worth their time.

2009 Exponential Conference

I spent the last three days in sunny Orlando Florida. Several CGGCers were there, including Ed Rosenberry (who I only saw at dinner... could he have been at Disney World the rest of the time? :) -- a joke). Thanks to Midwest CGGC for paying for me and one of my leaders to go.

Here are some quotes from the conference I wrote down. They may not be exact quotes. I wrote them down as I heard them.

Erwin McManus

"The church is scared to death of reality." -- Erwin McManus

"Jesus Christ died in the most heroic act anyone has ever done and then asks us to live our most heroic lives." -- Erwin McManus

"The gospel of the traditional American church is the most narcissistic story in our society." -- Erwin McManus (He was speaking of the "I'm a sinner. Jesus died for me. I get to go to heaven if I say I'm sorry.)

McManus said he almost cut his ties with Christianity (at least with organized Christianity) a couple of years ago when he was labeled a heretic for going into the "Marketplace" and discussing Jesus such as Paul did at Mars Hill. He would rather cut ties with organized Christianity than feel any limitation to sharing the gospel.

Alan Hirsch

Alan Hirsch defined what Missional is not.
-Not emerging church
-not simply being evangelistic
-not just social justice
-not church planting

"The church doesn't have a mission. The mission has a church." -- Alan Hirsch

Hirsch spoke of prevenient grace as the ability for our church to participate in mission.

Tri Robinson

"Vision is being who God made you to be and doing what he told you to do." -- Tri Robinson

Bob Roberts

Bob Robert's Ten Things to Learn from the Church Around the World

1. Gospel of the Kingdom of God -- not just the Gospel of Salvation

2. The Gospel encompasses the reconciliation of all things.

3. The focus is on the disciple not the preacher.

4. All religions are all places which makes for a naked public square and thoughtful communication.

He spoke of meeting with muslim and communist leaders all over the world and gaining access to share the gospel by invitation rather than by secrecy.

"Christianity started as a Jewish movement to Jesus. It will end as a Muslim movement to Jesus" -- Bob Roberts

5. Knowing other religions isn't just for experts but for everyone who would communicate who Jesus is.

6. Risk is seen in life and death not nickels and noses.

7. Never, never, never, never vilify another religion.

He didn't finish the ten but they can be found at glocal.net

Bob is always my favorite speaker. I could listen to him for hours. His books don't have the same effect at all unfortunately.

Neil Cole

Weeds in the Garden of Leadership

1. Institutionalism -- elevate institution as only institution doing God's work.
-Over 50% of Christian leaders will not finish well. Their calling became a career.

2. Corruption of Leadership -- the desire for power, fame (being liked by everyone), possessions, or pleasure

3. Legalism -- Protecting the powerful -- non-biblical traditions become equal to God's commands

4. Still in the Dark Ages - contributing to ignorance in an age of scholarship (keeping the Word out of the hands of the people. you do it more than you think.)

5. Bound by Chain of Command -- we're a mess from top to bottom

"Make everybody a disciple of Jesus so they will fall short of Jesus. If you make them your disciple, they will only fall short of you." -- Neil Cole

Efrem Smith

"What was it that disturbed you when you decided to plant a church? You can't live in disturbance. If you live angry, you will be dysfunctional, but that disturbance should continue to be at the core of your vision." -- Efrem Smith

"If you study the roots of most things (Hip Hop Culture for example), you will find "God Thoughts." -- Efrem Smith

Two Keys to turn white churches multi-cultural
1. Preach the Bible as a multi-culturally strong document.
2. United by Faith -- the measurements for multi-cultural church are not as high as you think. Dominate group is not more than 80%.

Francis Chan

"You wouldn't read the Bible and think, 'I need a building, a band, a sermon, and a room for the kids to have church.'" -- Francis Chan

An Example of APEST in Action

As someone who is interested in how good ideas might work out in practice, I found an interesting article by Alan Hirsch from Leadership Journal.

Hirsch tells us that his church movement in Australia made sure that they included a person from each gifting on their leadership team.

It is worth reading in it's entirety, but here is a 'practical' application:

"When facing any ministry issue, we begin by committing ourselves to the common mission of the group. We covenant to do whatever it takes to see our mission fulfilled. But this kind of interpersonal commitment requires a bond that goes beyond the professional relationships that exist on many church staffs.

We lived out our unity in Christ by living together, struggling together, worshiping together, praying together, and facing our problems together. It was the healthy trust developed on the team (fit) that allowed divergent opinions (split) to be expressed without fear of offending one another. It was the strong sense of commitment to one another that gave each member permission to operate out of his or her own ministry biases, and then unapologetically represent their perspectives on the issue at hand.

The apostle would press the need to galvanize the community around mission and extension. The prophet would challenge just about everything and ask probing questions about how God fit into our grand schemes. The evangelist would always emphasize the need to bring people to faith and expand the reach of the gospel. The shepherd inevitably expressed concerns about how the community could remain healthy amid change. And the teacher tried to discern the validity of any new idea from Scripture and history.

The presence of these divergent interests inevitably caused debates and arguments (contend). But we did not try to resolve disagreement too quickly—much to the discomfort of the shepherd on the team. In my experience, the greatest tension usually arose between the apostle (with the missional drive) and the shepherd (with the community health impulse), but we almost always managed to overcome conflict through dialogue and prayer (transcend).

Remember, we were committed to stay with the problem until we had assessed all options and had, through dialogue and debate, arrived at the best solution. As a result, the outcomes we reached were more full-orbed, faithful to God, sensitive to the needs of not-yet-believers, sustainable, mature, and theologically well grounded."

Missional Church Network

Brad Brisco left a link for the Missional Church Network. I thought I would give it a little more prominence and embed the Hirsch video found there.

A Letter From Pastors Brian Miller and Fran Leeman

Dear friends and fellow-leaders in ministry,

As we begin this letter, we begin with a plea: read it carefully, take seriously the words that follow, and please consider the invitation we are extending to you.

Over the last several years, the tide of people asking serious questions about the church in Western culture has been steadily rising. Significant thinkers like N.T. Wright, Dallas Willard, Bob Roberts, and Alan Hirsch have been writing books that explore questions about whether some things are seriously wrong with how we think about the Gospel, the church, and what it means to live life as a Christian.

But more than that, many of us who lead and pastor on the front lines have gradually become convinced that the church here in America (even in its evangelical or "Bible-believing" forms) has in many ways ceased to reflect the values and flavor of the Jesus we find in the Gospels. These questions are not just the long-time debates about who is liberal or conservative, or who takes the Bible literally enough, or who has just the right doctrinal understandings. Rather, they are questions about whether we have rightly understood the mission for which Jesus came and what it looks like to share in that mission.

If you doubt whether we really need to take a hard look at our understanding of the Christian faith and how we live that out in the church, take an honest look at the perceptions of the non church-goers and non-Christians in our culture. Books like Dan Kimball's They Like Jesus, But Not the Church have chronicled what people hear the church and Christians saying. And what they hear us saying are things like:

It's just about getting your free pass into heaven and staying out of hell.

Believing in Jesus is how you get your hands on "the good life".

We just want to pass laws to keep all the gay people in line.

Jesus' message was "The time has come! The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the Good News!" (Mark 1:15). He told his disciples that when they went into a village they should announce that "The Kingdom of God is near you!" (Luke 10:9). Jesus' message was different than what the church today is often saying.

Jesus' life was different from the way today's Christians live. Jesus did not embed his life into a religious club that stood back from society and condemned the people who didn't fit the club's tastes. He went where people were— where they lived and shopped and got their water. He ate at their tables, asked them about their lives, listened to their stories, and loved them in a way that could help them find the way.

His primary concern was not how to get them to show up at the synagogue, but how to heal their brokenness and awaken them from their blindness about life, God, and their own hearts. The whole point of the incarnation seems to have really been that God wanted to be "with us", as opposed to preaching at us from a distance. Much of the church today has become a religious enterprise rather than a mission to enter and bless the world (Genesis 12:3).

The simple fact is that few people experience Jesus as being anything like the warm, tantalizing, enjoyable, puzzling, intriguing, engaging, challenging, radical, life-giving Nazarene of the Gospels.

And so more and more of us are asking:

What would it look like to live like this Jesus… to be the hands and feet and voice of God to the world of human beings which surrounds us?

And what would Christian communities that look and smell and think and love like this Jesus look like?

And what would it be like to see people enter into these churches like they did in the early book of Acts, where all the believers had everything in common and none was without need?

Over the last year, we have noticed that God has started to connect us to more and more people willing to ask the hard questions, people who are hungry to recover a way of following Jesus and ways of being the church that resonate deeply with the Jesus of the Gospels and take seriously His message of the Kingdom of God.

In the past, the two of us led an organization called Midwest Church Planting, which focused mostly on the logistics of jump-starting new churches. After MCP died off, we knew that the way we would try to help other leaders in the future would look different than it had in the past. What has become clear to us is that what most of us need, as pastors and leaders, is others with whom we can share this journey, with whom we can explore and find better pictures of the Kingdom of God, of following Jesus, and of leading our communities in His beautiful mission.

So in response to this new movement that God has stirred up toward a more centered, incarnational, and missional church, we are forming a fresh network called Grass Roots. The purpose of this network is to help us search for these better pictures, and to help us better lead Christ's community.

What will Grass Roots do? At least once a year (maybe twice) we will hold a Grass Roots Gathering, a two-day event for you and any leaders you care to bring, where we will explore specific questions about the Gospel, discipleship, incarnational living, being missional churches, etc. These will neither be vague discussions nor quick-fix seminars because we believe that deep discipleship and good churches will flow from right perspectives and right hearts.

Our first Grass Roots Gathering will be November 7-8 in Urbana, Illinois. The format of the gatherings will involve several talks, each followed by discussion in smaller groups, then feedback and dialogue back in the larger setting. What we want to create is an environment where we learn from each other, fueled by thought-provoking presentations. There will also be times of worship and time to just be together interspersed into the gatherings. There are two other things we hope will emerge through Grass Roots:

1) Seeing people share in missional adventures together, whether that is with New Life for Haiti, collaborating to birth new churches, or some other mission you bring to the table.

2) Seeing people cross racial and cultural divides. So we hope we will have at least Hispanics, Anglos, and African Americans gathering to encourage and teach one another.

In the near future, there will be a Grass Roots website, through which we'll be able to keep each other informed and point each other to good resources.

Grass Roots is not intended to replace your current connections (to denominations, who you have ministerial credentials with, etc.) We just want to form a family of leaders who want to help each other learn to see and live like Jesus and create communities through which God's Kingdom is made evident.

There won't be any membership fees or lifetime commitments. The only costs will be whatever it costs for us to pull off the gatherings. The content for the first gathering this Fall is already in place, and one thing we can promise – you won't be is bored! We're going to be exploring the shifting sands in the western church, asking how the church today is like/unlike the Jesus of the Gospels, and play with some pictures of what more authentic discipleship, community and mission might look like. The attached flyer has all the details—I've attached it in both JPEG and PDF formats (if you can't open PDFs, click the JPEG to open it larger).

Our hope is so much more than to just create more conversations. We want to restore the nature of the church to be the most effective force in expanding the Kingdom of God in North America. Interested?

Fran Leeman Brian Miller
August 26, 2008

GR Gathering Flyer.jpg
GR Gathering Flyer.pdf

New Life For Haiti

Brian Miller and Michelle Donnell were interviewed on the WCIA noon news show concerning the upcoming fundraising banquet on January 12, 2008 at the Walkway in Mattoon, IL. See www.newlifeforhaiti.org for more information.

New Life for Haiti is an organization that was founded by three Church of God churches in the Midwest Region. We are working with missionaries Steve and Jolene Moore (whom some of you may know). The work is in southwestern Haiti, south of Jereme, in the Grande Anse River Valley. All of our work so far has been in Marfranc.

This year, we expanded a primary school. Next year, we plan to build a Medical clinic, a secondary school, and a guest house so that Steve and Jolene and our teams can be closer to the work. If anyone has any interest in working with us, please let us know.

This work came about because of an encounter we had with Pastor Bob Roberts in Keller, TX. We had asked him how we could be more successful in planting churches since his church plants more churches in the United States than anyone else. He said, "Boys, if want to plant a few churches around Chicago, don't waste my time. Find some place hard in the world to work. Work there 20 years. And then you will know what to do around Chicago."

Welcome to emerging cGgc

Here is the first post from Sept 2005 from this blog.

Wayne Boyer, Executive Director of the Churches of God General Conference, said in his weekly "It's Friday but Sunday is coming..." newsletter that efforts were being made to create a dialogue for an emerging/postmodern conversation in the CGGC. I offered to create this blog to provide such a space. Wayne said other efforts will also be made to create such a space. I'll keep this space up as long as it is useful and fruitful.

If you want to post to this blog, simply send me an email at bedrock3@gmail.com, and I'll set you up immediately. Everyone is free to comment. I just ask that you be gracious with your words. This can be a sensitive subject. I am looking forward to this conversation.

Wayne told me two things that never came to fruition. One was, "other efforts will be made to create such a space." My effort was to be a temporary effort. The second one was that they would set up an emailing system outside of the CGGC so as not to give any endorsement to this blog. That also never occurred. I'm not upset by these inactions, but they do lend to misunderstanding. I've also stated more than once that I regret calling it "emerging cGgc" and would have liked to have called it something with the term "missional" instead. This would have stopped all the people frustrated with McLaren from linking all his work with the thoughts on this blog.

So to answer Ken's question in one of the myriad comments on the previous post, this is my blog. I have several blogs and they are all on one blogger account, so I couldn't give this blog to somebody if I wanted to (which I have wanted to).

Though the CGGC has not endorsed this blog, Wayne and now Ed have encouraged me to continue this blog. I have made it open to as many who are interested. There came a point where some guidelines were demanded of me, so I made up some guidelines which are linked from the sidebar.

There will be a day soon (at least by the end of the year) where I will make some changes to this blog, which could include ending it, moving it, or modifying it.

Michael Frost on Missio Dei, missional living

Wrap-Up at PGF 2007

Jesus & The Kingdom

Brian McLaren discusses the liberating yet disturbing message from Jesus about living in the Kingdom of God.

ed stetzer on engaging our culture

This is some thing that can speak to us in the CGGC.

Allelon

A Missional Verse

When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’?”

Answer

McLaren ppt

Here are Power Point slides Brian McLaren used on his visit to Sweden last year.

The Post-Modern Transition: ministry in a new world

Emerging Missional Churches

Food for thought!

Missional Living

One of the values in the emerging church is the idea of being missional or missional living. This is a values that should be at the core of every church emerging or not. Often we think of the mission of the church as doing outreach or leading discipleship training or other ministry in the church, which it is but the idea of being missional is much more then that.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"All believers are missionaries who are sent to be a blessing to the culture around them through a lifestyle that mimics God's kingdom here on earth. Theologically, the incarnation of Jesus Christ informs the missiology of the emerging church. As God entered earth in human form, adherents also enter (individually and communally) into the context around them, aiming to transform culture through local involvement. This may take many forms, including verbal evangelism, social activism, hospitality, acts of kindness or service particular to the personality of an individual."

"Being a missional person/community means emphasizing the need for a Gospel which enhances the lives and communities of people regardless of culture or beliefs. Therefore, social action, community involvement, and sacrificial hospitality are as important as preaching and teaching. It means affirming what is good in culture and challenging that which is oppressive and abusive."

The following was written by my "old" friend Dr. Rob Guy as a Theology of Ministry for a ministry in a Nursing Home (ARC). I call it Missional Theology.

"We believe that the incarnate and resurrected Christ is Himself the mission of God, and is ever present and active in pursuing us, that we may personally know and love Him in return. Therefore we, as His Body, joyfully participate in His redemptive mission of love, through His real presence in the Holy Spirit."

Missio Dei—We recognize that it is God who is on a mission. He who created us and has loved us from the beginning, and has sent His Son to redeem us, continues to pursue us, and to work within us. He is the Good Shepherd, who is tending the flock. The ministry is His ministry.

Participatio Christi—Our role, then, is to participate in what He is doing. We neither determine our own agenda, nor merely imitate His, but rather participate in His, according to His call and guidance.

Imago Dei—We recognize that each person is created in the image of God, and thus possess the inherent dignity and value that accompanies it. We recognize also that God has been, and continues to be, at work within them, leading them on a unique and sacred journey.

Corpus Christi - We recognize that together we, who participate in this ministry in any way, comprise the Body of Christ. Christ, of course, is our head. Each member is a valid and valuable member, and as such, is God’s gift to the body. There is an inherent interconnectedness, and interdependence. In participating with each other, the weak with the strong, the old with the young, the advanced with the beginners, we cooperate with Christ in what He is doing in our midst.

For discussion what experiences of missional living do you see happening in your churches? Is it happening in your churches?