The sermon was entitled “Christmas in July,” and the text was 1 Cor. 5:12-16. Some of you asked to hear the sermon. Well, below is a link to a very poor quality dowload. We’ll get better at recording.

ALSO, SINCE BEESON IS OVER, I HAVE A NEW BLOG SITE. You can find me at http://missionalorientation.wordpress.com/

Here’s the sermon audio:

Christmas in July

In this past week’s episode of Only A Game, the host Bill Littlefield interviewed Peter Golenbock, the author of George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Build the Yankee Empire. Golenbock points out that the Yankees had their best years following times when Steinbrenner was suspended from his duties as Yankee owner. During these times, the capable people that he hired were able to work their plan without intereference.  The Reggie Jackson years of the 1970′s followed a Steinbrenner suspension or else Jackson may have been traded sooner. A similar course of evenst happened in the 90′s. Steinbrenner has always been suspicious of prospects and has often pressured general managers to trade prospects before they hit the big leauges. In this case, a suspended Steinbrenner was unable to pressure the general manager to trade s star shortstop. Today, Derek Jeter is a nine-time All-Star with four World Series rings.

So, what do we learn from this? First, Steinbrenner hired capable decision makers and managers. Second, Stenbrenner resourced those decision makers to succed. Third, quite unfortunately, Steinbrenner involved himself far too often in the decision making process. With this poor practice of micromanagement, Steinbrenner directly negated his own good leadership qualities.

It’s another tale to illustrate a basic leadership prinicple: Hire good people. Give them what they need to succeed. Leave them alone!

There are two key components to missional discipleship. First, to be a disciple, necessarily, means that one is a witness. Therefore, discipleship does not stop at evangelism and conversion. Instead, from the very beginning, the process is “oriented toward the reign of God” (Chilcote and Warner, The Study of Evangelism xxvi). Membership is not an end unto itself. Rather, “the Church is God’s instrument for the healing of creation” (Guder, “Promise & Threat”). Discipleship equips the believer to know the faith, to relate to others, and to live in a way that non-believers come to faith. In other words, missional discipleship focuses on “orthodoxy, orthopathy, and orthopraxy” (Frost & Hirsch, ReJesus 156).

The second key component for missional discipleship involves the environment for growing missional disciples. In the missional church, relationships are the conduits for real transformation. Catechism is delivered through intensely relational processes. While group instruction may exist, individual mentoring and small group experiences provide the forum for discovery, reflection, and action.

Life Transformation Groups (LTGs) are a good example of the importance of intense relationship as a platform for transformation. Developed by Neil Cole, LTGs only involve two or three individuals. The time spent together includes confession, Scripture reading, and prayer. When a fourth person comes to join the LTG, a second group is created (Search and Rescue 166-176). Each LTG, then, becomes another witness for the gospel with organic growth possibilities.

The apostolic and relational emphases of the missional church movement have a profound affect on how missional disciples live. In the “come and see” church, effort is directed toward gathering the faithful often for worship, study, prayer, administrative duties. Because of this tendency, those who would be the best witnesses for Jesus Christ are removed from the mission field. Missional disciples, on the other hand, are encouraged to move outward, toward the community. The simplicity of missional discipleship frees the disciple to be active salt and light in the world. Therefore, as missional disciples, we “create margin in our lives for the other” (Mick Noel, “Coaching Established Churches for Missional Change”).

John Franke believes that missional theologians and practitioners “get accused by some of domesticating the gospel.” For example, in a culture dominated by the corporate church with professional clergy, some may question the wisdom of not having well educated leaders of these groups. One may argue that the work of discipleship belongs solely to those with specific training. The missional church, however, trusts the Holy Spirit with discipleship. As Franke says, “The domestication occurs when one group pins [the gospel] down for everyone else” (video, Shapevine.com, “Roundtable Discussion”).

In its most basic form, missional discipleship is oriented toward the reign of God and forged through relationship.

In the world of the corporate church, big personalities and programs overshadowed the organic movement of vision within the people of God (“Church Transformation”). Will Mancini says that each church has a unique role to play in the mission of God. The imposition of outside programs and borrowed strategies neglects this uniqueness (Church Unique 9). Therefore, the missional leader extracts missional qualities of a particular church rather than imposing the latest program.
One of the more helpful paradigms used by Mancini illustrates how a missional community finds its unique vision. The “Kingdom Concept” defines how the church will affect the community for the mission of God. The Kingdom Concept is found is the confluence of three elements of the church. The “local predicament” describes the location of the church and the specific issues of the surrounding community. The “collective potential” includes all resources available to the church. The “apostolic esprit” describes the ideas that energize leadership. Where these three meet, the local church finds its kingdom concept (85). The missional leader guides this discernment process.

While a primary missional leader may guide the process, in missional communities, missional leadership teams share the vision and move the vision forward. R. Paul Stevens laments in The Other Six Days that the call of God to all believers has been narrowed to such a degree in Christendom that only ecclesiastical calls are recognized (155). God calls all Christians to perform functions for the mission of God. In Christendom, unfortunately, those functions became identified with clerical offices (146). This led to a sharp distinction between laity and clergy. Missional communities lessen this distinction between laity and clergy greatly, involving a wide range of people in the leadership of the church.

True community and discipleship are key ingredients to a missional leadership team, which should embody the greatest hopes of the missional congregation (Rouse and Van Gelder, A Fielduide to the Missional Congregation 86). If the broader church is to be a sign of the coming Reign of God, then the leadership team should model this as well. Through true community and personal discipleship, missional leadership teams create a healthy climate where the Holy Spirit can lead the church (91).

The missional church’s relationship with denominational structure ebbs and flows. The primary concern of the missional movement appears to be that denominational structure would be applied to local congregations and thwart the organic movement of the Holy Spirit (Shaping of Things to Come 21). Hirsch provides a more helpful paradigm in The Forgotten Ways. He describes “networked structures” which enable and expand ministry while being agile enough to change directions quickly (196). These networked structures allow organic movement to shape direction. Cole’s image of the exoskeleton is instructive here as well (Organic Church 125).

Undergirding the entire conversation about missional leadership is an understanding that the Holy Spirit is a work within the people of God. Craig Van Gelder notes that the massive changes in societal attitude toward the church could be evidence of God’s movement (The Ministry of the Missional Church 48). Even in times of change and disruption, missional leadership trusts the movement of the Holy Spirit and asks “What is God doing?” and “What does God want to do?” (58, 60).

Newbigin paints a picture of a church whose people are deeply connected to the hurts and troubles of the neighborhood. The connection to the neighborhood becomes their witness because it flows from relationship with God. “Then it is possible for the outsider to see that the one springs from the other and he is led to ask about the spring from which faith, hope and love flow. The compassion and the action of the church members then become signs that point beyond themselves” (61).

Some of the pioneers in discussing the life of the missional community are Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. If the Gospel and Our Culture Network (GOCN) is the academic trunk of the missional movement, then Frost and Hirsch are the first well known practitioners. With experience in turning dying congregations into community embracing and life changing vessels of God, Hirsch and Frost bring a decidedly sociological focus to the missional conversation.

While the GOCN appear to hang in the areas of missiology and ecclesiology, Hirsch and Frost are forming a practical Christology. According to them, Christology (what we believe about Jesus) informs missiology (how we understand our purpose), which, in turn, shapes ecclesiology (how we form and structure the Church) (ReJesus 6). In their latest work, ReJesus, the authors openly criticize theologians for making Christology “a complex science that in effect excludes the theologically uninitiated person” (ReJesus 13). Through the Forge Training Network, the Forgotten Ways website, and numerous teaching engagements, Hirsch and Frost are positioning themselves to be equippers of the next church movement.

The Christendom church, according to Frost and Hirsch, is “attractional, dualistic, and hierarchical.” An attractional mode skews and distorts the gospel to be only about meeting the needs of the individual. A dualistic church holds such strict lines between the sacred and profane that God’s movement in the world cannot be detected. The hierarchical church is bloated with bureaucracy and cannot respond to quickly changing microcultures (The Shaping of Things to Come 18-21). In contrast, Frost and Hirsch are calling the church to be “incarnational, messianic, and apostolic.” Through being incarnational, the missional church moves out to be with people instead of expecting them to come to church. A messianic community does not present sharp contrasts between the sacred and profane. Instead, the messianic community practices an active faith in Jesus Christ. Lastly, instead of being top heavy and slow, the apostolic community is continually finding new people groups to reach and new places to take the gospel.

Furthering the discussion of missional communities, Hirsch makes distinction between “community” and “communitas” (The Forgotten Ways 217-241). Communitas happens when a group gathers around a certain purpose or change. Hirsch speaks of the communitas experienced among teenage boys as they experience changes in their role, their bodies, and their way of relating to one another. During that time, boys establish strong bonds. For the church, communitas occurs when people gather around mission. Hirsch, therefore, defines communitas as “the journey of a group of people that find each other only in a common pursuit of a vision and of a mission that lies beyond itself. Its energies are primarily directed outward and forward” (The Forgotten Ways 236).

While the shared mission of God forge missional communities, other markers of missional communities also exist. Frost and Hirsch talk specifically about how missional groups interact with the broader community. Rather than withdrawing or putting up facades, missional communities interact with the broader community with authenticity. This “incarnational” mark of missional groups seeks to create a “real connection” that shows the broader community that Jesus cares for them, a “real demonstration” that works on behalf of the broader community, “real access” through deep involvement in the community, and “real encounter” that plants Christ in the hearts of the people of the community (Shaping 73-74).

In a similar way, Neil Cole describes the missional community as being “organic.” As the missional community builds relationships, it should be able to shift and mold to respond to what is happening in the broader community. This makes for more dynamic leadership and organization. Cole presents an anatomical metaphor to make his point. The missional community is not bound by an exoskeleton that limits movement and growth. Instead, the structure of missional community acts as an endoskeleton that allows for growth and maturation in an organic way (Organic Church 125).

Next up:  Missional Leadership

The GOCN is the academic stream of the missional church movement, attempting to reshape the study of the church toward the missio Dei. More precisely, the group focuses on ecclesiology. While ecclesiology has been a focus of theologians for centuries, precise inquiry into the mission and purpose of the church has been lacking. As Guder says, “Ecclesiology neglects mission totally” (“The Promise and Threat”). Missional Church places the focus squarely on a missional ecclesiology for the Church in North America.

Over the last decade, the GOCN has produced eight books dealing with the ministry of the missional church, developed a newsletter, and launched (and relaunched) a website. The books have ranged from evaluating missional communities (Treasure in Clay Jars, Barret) to, most recently, how denominations fit into the missional church schema (The Missional Church in Context, Van Gelder). The current focus of activity for the GOCN is the development of a structured missional hermeneutic. In a recent newsletter, George Hunsberger outlines a strategy for reading Scripture through the lens of mission (“Proposals for a Missional Hermeneutic”). Through this new venture in missional hermeneutics, the GOCN continues to provide a strong trunk for the missional movement.

One of the primary areas of confusion about the missional movement is its relationship to the emergent movement. The two movements have been somewhat related in their desire to bring innovation to the church. However, they developed quite differently and have quite different goals. The emergent movement shows more interest in the formation and understanding of the Church. For instance, “emergents” recognize a movement beyond the modernist, bifurcated view of the church that places “liturgicals,” “social justice Christians,” “renewalists,” and “conservatives” at odds with one another (Tickle 140). The goal is to better communicate with the broader culture and have a better understanding of the meaning of “the Church.”

The missional movement has been inconsistent in responding to the emergent movement. On the one hand, Guder warns that the emergent movement is a reduction of the gospel, which tends to tie the Church too closely to culture (Guder, “Promise & Threat”). If the Church is tied too closely to culture, it will simply embody the problems of the culture. On the other hand, Alan Hirsch appears to welcome the emergent group into the missional conversation, referring to the “emerging missional church” throughout one of his primary literature contributions (The Forgotten Ways 66).

The rapid growth of the missional movement, along with confusion about the movement, makes surveying the movement difficult. Therefore, ordering the movement is important in researching the movement. Leadership Journal has been extremely helpful in mapping the movement. Below is a crude construction of the idea. Click here for the original Leadership Journal version from Hirsch’s website). Viewing the movement as a tree, Leadership Journal places Missional Church as the root, while identifying the branches of the missional church movement as “missional leaders,” “missional communities,” and “missional disciples.”

Watch for synopses of the three branches of the missional movement in the next few days.

Source: Leadership Journal

Almost There!

In less than two weeks, Christina and I will be running a half marathon.  On April 25 at 7:00am, we’ll leave from the starting line of the Music City Marathon in Nashville.  We are getting excited and geared up.

Of course, running in a half-marathon (or running at all) has never been a goal of mine.  My argument has always been that I could not stand to do the same thing for over 30 minutes.  I would rather play basketball, or walk 18 holes of golf, or just sit and watch television.  I didn’t have much choice but to participate in this marathon business, though.  Christina told me that we were going to run in it.  I would have fought it and told her why it was a dumb idea, but I couldn’t.  This brings me to the real reason that we are running.

Our nephew, Colin Sanders, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma when he was 14 months old.  Colin’s parents, Brett and Mindy, chose early to fight as hard as they could for Colin.  Soon after the diagnosis, Colin underwent surgery to remove the tumor that was in his abdomen.  Then, Colin suffered through a year and a half of excruciating and dangerous chemotherapy, including a stem cell therapy that wiped out his immune system.

We are thankful to God and to doctors and researchers that Colin is cancer free today!  The fear of recurrence is always present with neuroblastoma.  However, Colin has had clear scans since finishing chemo, and today he is an active two and a half year old boy who runs and plays and wrestles as much as possible.

In the past year and a half, Brett and Mindy have received incredible support from many in the community of Chattanooga, Tenn., where they live.  Some of those in the support group are parents who have experienced neuroblastoma first hand, including parents whose children were taken by the disease.  We will be running for Colin, for Brett and Mindy, and for all of the children and parents who have and are battling neuroblastoma.

I have been a bit quiet about the training.  I haven’t blogged about it or facebooked about it or tweeted the training because I didn’t believe that I would make it.  It seemed that I would hang in for the early stages and bow out as the distances increased and the race neared.  But there is something about knowing that you are hitting the pavement for a purpose.  On my toughest runs, I haven’t endured the pain of my nephew.  The inconvenience of adding training to my daily routine pales in comparison to the way that Brett and Mindy’s lives have changed.  The cost of the few running gear items that I’ve bought (shoes, nutrients, and water-wicking shirts) is not even close to 1% of the cost of Colin’s treatments.

This Saturday, Christina and I will run 10 miles.  We wish that we could make a grander contribution to cure neuroblastoma, but as a student with four children, our primary participation has been emotional support.  In a very small way, our 10 miles this weekend continues that contribution.

Take a look at this video.  It tells Colin’s story.  I encourage you to contribute to Emily’s Power for a Cure, one of the primary support groups for Brett and Mindy.  They do incredible things for research and for families struggling with the disease.  To donate, visit this site and enter Mindy Sanders in the fields “Find a fundraiser to support.” The group has not raised its goal yet.  However, you can help them, and in the process you will make a difference for a child and family.

Now, it’s about time for my holy discipline.

There is a silent period within the Bible.  There were over 500 years between the writing of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, and the birth of Jesus.  The intertestamental writings give great insight to what was happening during that time.  However, Protestants do not recognize those writings to be Scripture.  God was silent.

It was the resurrection that broke the silence.  Yes, Jesus was active and had followers while preaching and teaching throughout Judea.  Stories of healings and teachings probably circulated around the area.  We already know that following the death of Jesus, someone compiled a document of sayings attributed to Jesus.  However, the truth is that without the resurrection, these sayings would simply be good insights for healthy living.

Instead, God would not keep his silence.  Jesus was resurrected, and the truth of the identity of Jesus was proclaimed by angels and humans.  The Gospel writers’ inspired words became the newest revelation of God, and we are still hearing the story today.

The New Testament does not only include the story of Jesus, of course.  Acts tells the story of the early church following God’s mission.  The letters of the New Testament are instructive about life in a missional setting and shape our understanding of God.  However, the resurrection that broke the silence is also the final and definitive word.  It is all that we need to tell the world about a redeeming God with power to save.

Here is an inspiring story that is not all together nice and neat.