reflections from a long break

It has been two months since I wrote anything in this blog.  Apologies.  Life has been hectic and confusing and out-of-round.  But people with lives much more hectic find the mindspace to contribute to the conversation in their "spare time", so I thought I should probably try my hand at it again.

I think one of my primary problems with faithful blogging is that I feel like I have to have something profound and verbose to say.  The reality is that a lot of the people that I follow on blogs and twitter and the like just post some thoughts or even just link to others' thoughts.

I have had a couple of days to reflect on life and church and family and employment and kingdom and I think I'm even more confused than when I started.  Those reflections are probably better left for another time and another place (3 pm in a Market Street coffeeshop seems a little too impersonal for some old-fashioned soul baring).

But as I look at the little community that God has entrusted to me and I balance that with the person that God has created me to be, I feel like I have abdicated some of my responsibilities to them.  I'm not sure exactly what I mean by that, but I can't help feeling that I need some more intentionality and discipline in order to lead in the way I have been gifted.  So, while blogging is a small thing, maybe it's the gateway drug to deeper discipline.

Since there's very little profound or verbose in my blogging today, I thought I could introduce some of you to one of my mentors, a theologian named Alan Hirsch, author of several books on missional church and one of the foremost thinkers in this missional conversation.  Here is one of his recent blog posts.  Enjoy!

http://www.thehousestudio.com/2012/christ-must-be-everything/

Book Review, The Road to Missional, by Michael Frost

One of the things that I am having the hardest time balancing in the midst of this transition is finding time to read.  With the pressure of providing for a family in the midst of trying to find a more consistent job (t-shirts are great, but intermittent), the thing that gets pushed aside is the reading.  But I am realizing that, as we embark on this missional journey, the only way that I am going to get answers for our little community is by reading about what people much smarter than me are thinking and doing.  And since I suck at retaining information from the things that I read, I thought it would make sense for me to do a “book review” of what I am reading for this blog.  That way I can let you in on what I’m learning while, at the same time, helping my own retention.

This past weekend I did a wedding in the Dallas Metroplex, which means I got a chance to go and buy books at bookstores that I usually can’t frequent.  While at one of these, I found another copy of The Road to Missional: Journey to the Center of the Church by Michael Frost (co-author of The Forgotten Ways with Alan Hirsch).  This book was recently placed on a list of the top 40 books for a thorough understanding of the missional church conversation by a missional organization called Sentralized (check them out at www.sentralizedgathering.com).  Anyway, I bought this book a few weeks before I moved out of my office, so I have no idea where my original copy is.  But, since I saw this one, I bought it and began reading it on the flight home.  Here’s a brief, somewhat haphazard review of the book:

This book is one of the Shapevine Missional Series (www.shapevine.com) designed to further the conversation on missional church.  Frost begins by defending the continued use of the M-word (missional) to describe the wholesale changes that he deems are necessary for the church to thrive in these changing times.  His premise is that, while missional has become a buzzword for churches around the globe, very few understand just what this entails.  Missional isn’t a trend to attract more people to church; it is the wholesale reorientation of the church around mission.  As he says on page 21: “Missional leaders don’t see changing the church as central to their cause; they want to change the whole world.”  He then brings up six examples of what this looks like in the six chapters that make up the book.  I’ll look at them chapter by chapter with some relevant quotes interspersed.

1. The Missio Dei - Seeing Mission as Bigger than Evangelism

This is rightly the best place to start.  In my conversations with people about what in the world I am doing, this becomes a sticking point almost immediately.  Those of us steeped in Christendom have a hard time understanding what the big difference is between mission and evangelism.  While I can’t do it justice in these few words, I’ll hit some high points about what this means.  Frost quotes NT Wright extensively in this book, and quotes David Bosch extensively in this chapter.  A few of their quotes may help me communicate the thoughts of this chapter.  First, Wright: “Despite what people think, within the Christian family and outside it, the point of Christianity isn’t ‘to go to heaven when you die’”(p. 23).  This has probably been the hardest thing that I have had to learn, that our efforts to “save souls” are in vain if we are not “transforming people.”  Bosch writes, “[Mission] is alerting people to the universal reign of God through Christ” (p.24).  This changes how we do things when we make the transfer from being primarily concerned about “there and then” and set our focus on “here and now.”  As Wright says elsewhere, it’s about life AFTER life after death – what things look like on a redeemed and restored new heavens and new earth.  The primary image that Frost plays off of in this chapter is the idea of a movie trailer.  Our lives as Christ-followers are to serve the role that a movie trailer plays.  We are to portray enough of what is to go on in the redeemed creation that people become drawn to it and “want to see the movie” themselves.  Frost also plays on an image that Wright uses in Simply Christian, where he talks about the Celtic concept of “thin places” – places where the veil between heaven and earth become so thin that the light of heaven shines clearly through into this world.  I love that image and will blog later in the week about a “thin place” that I saw this past weekend at a wedding.

2.  Slow Evangelism – Moving Beyond the Four Spiritual Laws

On the heels of his discussion that the purpose of the church is so much bigger than evangelism as it has been traditionally interpreted, Frost talks about what evangelism should look like in a missional community.  Unlike many of the postmodern church thinkers who deny the importance of the proclamation of Biblical truth, Frost acknowledges that the announcement of good news is an important aspect of mission.  As he points out, the St. Francis quote that many love to quote about preaching the gospel at all times DOES include the important point that, when necessary, USE WORDS!  He does contend with Hauerwas and Willimon that “The only way for the world to know it is being redeemed is for the church to point to the Redeemer by being a redeemed people” (p. 56).  But there has to be a balance between announcement and demonstration.  His missional indicators for the church on pp. 62-63 are worth looking over to get a better handle on what this chapter means for the church.

3.  A Market-Shaped Church – How Membership Has Trumped Mission

This is one of the concepts that I absolutely believe with everything that is in me – that the church has become so infected with a consumer virus that we don’t even realize that we have it.  I would guess that over half of the institutional church leaders across the country would agree as well.  The problem becomes, how do we change it?  This is where so much of my mindspace goes these days.  How do we change a church culture when that culture is so intertwined with capitalism and “American values” that we can’t untangle them?  As Frost says on p. 76, “What we require today is a radical rethink about the degree to which our churches have unwittingly embraced what Bryan Stone calls the logic of production, and an uncoupling from that paradigm, setting churches free to embrace the alternative paradigm presented by Jesus, a paradigm of truthfulness, love, and incarnation.”  This might be the biggest challenge for the church moving forward.  While Frost identifies the problem well, I am not sure that he provides great and clear solutions about where we go from here.

4.  Triumphant Humiliation – The Cross as a Missional Paradigm for Holiness

In this chapter, Frost points out that the cross needs to be “not only the means by which our sins are forgiven, but also the template for all subsequent Christian living” (p. 87).  He advocates a cruciform model of discipleship, including a mentor who is willing to give his life for an apprentice.  I loved how he put it on page 85 – “Discerning what Jesus would do in any given situation, especially when we live our lives among the poor and the marginalized, is actually hard work.”  We have often reduced discipleship to a set of rules and regulations and in so doing have robbed the cross of its power.  Frost spends most of the chapter contrasting piety and discipleship.  Piety (rule-following) is easy and leads to an offensive self-righteousness; discipleship (Spirit-following) is difficult and leads to attractive humility.

5.  Breathing Shalom – Bringing Reconciliation, Justice, and Beauty to a Broken World

One of the hallmarks of the missional movement is the emphasis on Shalom, the Hebrew word that is usually translated “peace.”  Shalom is a much richer concept than our view of peace, which we usually use to communicate a personal calm or a lack of conflict.  Shalom might be better translated “wholeness,” that idea of things being “as they should be.”  Our task as Christ-followers is to recognize shalom when we see it and to do everything in our power to foster shalom in our world.  The three primary areas that Frost points to are restored relationship, reestablished justice, and recognition of beauty.  As Wright says, “We are called to be part of God’s new creation, called to be agents of that new creation here and now.  We are called to model and display that new creation in symphonies and family life, in restorative justice and poetry, in holiness and service to the poor, in politics and painting” (p. 115).  This chapter created many life-giving thoughts and dreams for what our new missional community should look like.

6.  Moving into the Neighborhood – Living Out Incarnational Mission

I love that even recognized authors such as Michael Frost have to put up with stupid/smart people.  He tells the story of his argument with a seminary student about his “misuse” of the Incarnation as the model for mission, since clearly the Incarnation of Christ was a once-in-a-history kind of event.  Yet, we are called to live the life of Christ among the people we are called to live near.  I loved Frost’s example of how many church people live in one neighborhood yet church in another.  (Yes, I just turned “church” into a verb.  Deal with it.)  The examples of this chapter stretched me and challenged me to rethink what it means to live in a neighborhood.  It caused me to rethink what my calling is in the midst of that neighborhood.  I especially loved the parting quote from Alan Roxburgh – “And until we build transformed communities, there is no hope for a broken world” (p. 140).

I know that I have not done an adequate job of conveying Michael Frost’s great work in this book.  As I re-read this “book review,” I have completely missed the overarching role that Jesus plays in this whole matter.  Frost does a much better job keeping us focused on Jesus.  What I greatly appreciated about this book was the variety of authors quoted.  He quotes Wright and Bosch and Newbigin extensively, but also spends some time quoting Piper and Keller and McLaren.  He even introduced me to some new people, like Kristin Jack and Marilynne Robinson.  I am going to pass my two copies of this book (once I find my other one) around to my little community to read.  I would recommend that you read it if you’re wanting a clearer picture of where the missional conversation came from and why it’s not done yet.

All quotes are from The Road to Missional by Michael Frost, ©2011 by Michael Frost, published by Baker Books (www.bakerbooks.com).

A Place at the Table, day 29

I have a feeling that for the next several posts, the thoughts will be more about life changes than about the fast.  Most of you who follow this blog know that I have made the decision to leave Raintree, the church that I have been at for over 10 years, to pursue church in a different fashion.  I'm sure that there will be many posts in the future about this new plan, but for today I want to focus a bit on the leaving.

My wife and I had a little tiff yesterday over my office.  You see, I am what's known as a "book whore." (It's my own term, but I love it, so I use it.)  Despite the fact that I already own hundreds that I haven't read, I am constantly buying books.  And all of those books have to be out of my office by Sunday -- thus the tiff.  My library is one of my favorite things.  I am a big believer that you can tell a lot about some one's passion for ministry and study based on the contents of their library.  I have books that I disagree with because they're too conservative, and books I disagree with because they're too liberal.  (I made a joke to myself yesterday in the midst of moving 17 boxes of books that the books from a liberal perspective are even lighter to carry!  I thought it was funny and had to share.)  I have a few books that were from my grandfather's library, and a ton of books that were from my dad's library (talk about a heritage!).

Every time that I move my books (and I try to do this as infrequently as possible), I am reminded of how much I love my library.  When I handle certain books, I am reminded of the impact they have had on me.  Books like "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning, "Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell, "A Celebration of Discipline" by Richard Foster, "Desire of the Everlasting Hills" and "The Gifts of the Jews" by Thomas Cahill, "SoulTsunami" by Leonard Sweet, "The Tangible Kingdom" by Hugh Halter & Matt Smay, and "The Forgotten Ways" and "Untamed" by Alan Hirsch bring back all sorts of memories of where I was in my walk with Jesus when I read them.  Sometimes those memories are filled with longing for a more simple approach, but mostly those memories are filled with happiness over where I am now in the journey -- often BECAUSE of the content of those books.

Books contain information and information can lead us to knowledge and wisdom and transformation.  Whenever I find myself in a funk in my relationship with Jesus, you can probably trace it back to the fact that I'm not reading.  This fast that has literally transformed the way I think is the result of reading a book -- A Place at the Table, by Chris Seay, in case you're new to this blog.

As I loaded up almost all of my library (17 boxes last night -- not sure where they'll all fit in my "home office"), it hit me that a love for reading is one of the most important things that I will hand down to my kids.  I have a 10-year-old daughter that consumed the entire Percy Jackson & the Olympians series in about three weeks.  I have an 8-year-old that is constantly reading Wimpy Kid or Dork Diaries or her American Girl magazine.  And I have a 4-year-old who "reads" Chronicles of Narnia picture books all the way to school (while rocking out to the David Crowder* Band, no less.)  She also refuses to go potty at home without a book in hand.  (That reminds me of a Seinfeld plot line . . .)  This will be an important part of the legacy that I leave to my children and grandchildren.  I might not do everything right with them, but I feel like the love that both Wendy and I have for reading is being passed down in a healthy and life-changing way.

Maybe you're struggling with life right now and you're not sure how to pull out of it.  It won't solve everything, but might I suggest trying to better yourself by reading a good book?  If you haven't read "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Manning, that'd be a great place to start, a great reminder of the grace and love of Jesus.  Some others that come to mind are "Permission to Speak Freely" by Anne Jackson, "Blue Like Jazz" and "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller, or "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" by Anne Rice.

What books have spoken to you?  What books have YOU read that I need to read?  I'd love to hear your suggestions!