Talking about church and the work of Christians gets me excited. This journey we are going through is a good one.
Having processed and chewed a bit more on the topics a couple of thought rise to the center for me.
1. Truth. The truth of the gospel and God's Word change lives.
2. Influence. Whatever channel you have to influence people through it should look like Jesus. Servantship, leadership or whatever we should look like Jesus in our interactions and thoughts.
3. Personality and giftedness. The strengths that God has given you will show up in how you lead, and communicate will effect your structure and model of church.
On the side of truth, I see absolutes. If God is who He is (just, wise, never changing, consistent, the same yesterday, t0oday and forever, our strong tower, the way, the truth and the life) it makes sense the world he would create would be just, fulled with wisdom, and truth. I think truth is that which best reflects reality. If "that which best reflects reality" is created by God and has it's foundation in God. God never changes, so it would follow that truth never changes. However, our perspective on that reality, needs to be rooted in scripture and confirmed by other Christians in our community and taken with humility.
The missional movement and emergent and all of these "new postmodern" movement from my understanding don't agree with what I just said. Truth is not absolute but forming collective realities is the focus. The issue is does absolute truth exist? That changes everything if it does.
I think the "traditional" church, which has existed on the foundation of centuries of good and not so good ideas, needs to be seen not as a straw man or through our past bad experiences. The perspectives of George Barna and Eugene Peterson however informed or influential they are, aren't the necessarily the norm. And they are not the norm of the churches I know in town or that I've seen or been at.
Often from a distant these statements of Hybels and the church growth movement people get narrowed down into two or three points. Yes, Bill Hybels has some not so accurate points. To me business minded and consumer driven ideas have been bi-products of his church. But however Willow Creek has down more than just the those two ideas. Their focus is to, like Rick Warren, be more than just fellowship and discipleship and include worship, service AND yes, evangelism.
That concept of "seeker sensitive" megachurch church is not from what I can tell the norm for evangelical churches. Afterall, the average size of church in America is still under 100.
All that to say, I'm not a big missional guy so far. I do however think the next generation of church leaders needs to know the post-modern mindset of people, they need to be less guided by one man's perspective on where church go and focus AND they needs to get more involved righting the wrongs of social issues in our own communities as well as overseas.
But balance needs to be seen here. Don't throw out the focus on good leadership because we need to focus on serving. Can't we do both?
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5 comments:
I do think Missional is the way to go, I just have never had a term for it. Missional tends to be my mode of leadership, in business and the church, which is why I buy into it. It is my personality to do things that way. One point to that though. It is how I do things, not necessarily the way others should, nor do I think it is best. Nor do I think Jesus only employed one certain mode. It seems to me he tailored his mode to what the people needed. I am not Jesus, so I have a hard time changing styles, just as I am sure someone that uses a different style would struggle.
What I am struggling with is how missional will work in the current church context.
Mike
For me missional is not about a certain style Todd, but an attitude regarding how we relate to what God is doing in the world. Mission as we talked about on Saturday is what God is up to, its his work, not ours. It becomes our work as we participate with God by being in relationship with him through Christ Jesus.
Regarding truth - I understand truth to be grounded in Christ, and therefore absolute because Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. However, our situations perceive that truth differently because we view it through the lens of our worldviews, be they western, consumeristic, etc. So a consumeristic Christian perspective, sees the truth of Christ as making the Gospel about me, my needs, rather than what first and foremost concerns the heart of God.
Missional then, is more a less of a posture of obedience to the will of God and what God is doing redemptively in the world.
So Hybels and others - I believe seek to be in God's will, but I question the "lenses" through which they see it and engage in it.
Roland
If all the missional perspective is joining God's work, then I think even Bill Hybels would say he's missional.
As far as leadership and serving others, he would as well fit that by what I've seen, and friends I know who have worked there. He is a servant and treats all people well.
So I guess I don't get the missional perspective. Maybe I've seen it described too broadly (being about following God's mission and doing that through serving people through relationship).
If that's what the missional perspective is count me in, I like believe firmly that ministry is about relationships. I firmly believe that I want to nothing outside of the will and mission of God.
Guder, Chapter 5, I think gives a pretty good description that I found helpful.
Mike
Todd,
I encourage you to be openn to reflect through the course and then see if you still have the same struggles with what it means to be missional.
Roland
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