How NOT To Be a Missional Church series: Click | View Series

The missional church movement has been good and bad. On a positive note, let’s focus on the bad. I want to suggest three ways to not be a missional church. In continuation of the series, this post examines some of the defects of social action-driven mission.

Social Action-Driven Mission

This approach probably creates the best community of the three mentioned in this series. A socially-minded and active church attracts socially-minded non-Christians. When my City Group recently cleaned five apartments from top to bottom for some homeless women and children, we all got a little closer. There’s something about being on a common mission—the sweat, the jokes, the empathy, and the memory–that unites folks. Creating a missional memory strengthens community and mission. It also raises questions with non-Christians you serve. But is social action enough?

1. Social action-driven mission isn’t unique to the church.

There are plenty of non-Christians engaged in social mission—serving the poor, the needy, the abused, and the homeless. They don’t need a church to engage in social mission. There are thousands of non-profits that can do this. What sets the church apart? If we are banking on social mission to be the unique contribution of the church, we’ll lose the game, and more importantly, the souls.

2. Social action doesn’t create new community.

Although social action mission creates community, it doesn’t create new community. Regenerated, new creation is the unique work of God the Spirit (Tit. 2.11; Gal. 6:15) through faith in the Son (Tit. 3:6-7; 2 Cor. 5:17). If we convert people to community and social mission alone, and not to Christ, we offer a very incomplete gospel. Regeneration is both social (Matt. 19:28) and spiritual (Tit. 3:5). The Spirit, not social mission, makes men new.

3. Social mission can lead to liberal church.

When we reduce mission to social action, we run the danger of becoming a socially-minded liberal church that neglects large stretches of the Bible requiring repentance and faith in Jesus. When missional communities focus on social mission alone, they disregard their evangelistic identity, gifting, and responsibility as the church of Jesus Christ, the Jesus who died and rose to make all things new—people and products, souls and society.

This series has attempted to identify some of the shortcomings in expressions of missional church. When mission is driven by events or evangelism, or social action, we engage in incomplete mission. When we engage in incomplete mission, we offer an incomplete gospel to our neighbors, towns, cities, and world. In a future series, I will take a more positive tack by exploring three areas that promote being a missional church.

This series is based on Jonathan Dodson’s talks at the LEAD ’09 conference.

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How NOT To Be a Missional Church series: Click | View Series

The missional church movement has been good and bad. On a positive note, let’s focus on the bad. I want to suggest three ways to not be a missional church. In continuation of the series, this post examines some of the defects of evangelism-driven mission.

Evangelism-Driven Mission

These churches focus almost exclusively on evangelism. Their view of the gospel leads them to see social action as optional. For them, mission is synonymous with evangelism, and evangelism is highly programmatic. They focus on training individuals through evangelism training programs, apologetics, and use of evangelistic tracts. What’s wrong with learning evangelistic presentations, memorizing apologetic defenses, and using tracts?

1. Evangelism-driven mission is often answer-based and heaven-centered.

These churches train individuals and teams “How to present the gospel” in a brief period of time. Typically, these programs look for the person being evangelized to offer a specific answer. For example, “If you died tonight and stood before God and he said: ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ What would you say?” Notice that the questions are answer-driven. The goal is to get someone to say the right answer and to believe the right facts, like “Jesus died for my sins.” What we need is less belief and more faith.

In his new book, The Future of Faith, Harvey Cox makes a helpful distinction between belief and faith. He writes: “We can believe something to be true without it making much difference to us, but we place our faith only in something that is vital for the way we live.” We can believe without it making a difference.

Many Americans believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, but it makes very little difference in their lives. They possess mere belief. This mere belief undermines the gospel. What we need is faith. Moreover, mere belief in the right answer baits people, not with Christ, but with heaven. It is heaven-centered, not Christ-centered. In evangelism-driven mission, Christ is subordinated to the treasure of heaven, instead of heaven being subordinated to the treasure of Christ. The goal is heaven, not Jesus. Answer-driven and heaven-centered evangelism leads to nominalism and distorts the gospel. Evangelism-driven mission can undermine, not advance the gospel.

2. Evangelism-driven mission can be defensive and fact-oriented.

Training in apologetics has its place; however, when our approach to non-Christians is driven by apologetics, we very often reduce people to projects. Apologetic mission can foster too much defense and too much offense because it aims at the head to the exclusion of the heart, to change someone’s mind, but not their lives. Just because someone agrees with our facts and embraces our logic doesn’t guarantee true conversion. We need to be prepared, not only to defend the faith, but to love people intelligently. Most objections to the gospel have existential and personal roots. If we can get beyond the arguments to the idols of the heart, we can show just how tremendously superior and satisfying Jesus is to whatever they love, desire, and pursue most!

3. Evangelism-driven mission is often outdated and fails to contextualize.

The methods used are often prepackaged and outdated. Evangelistic programs falsely assume that our listeners still understand the meanings of sin, Christ, and faith. But very often, they hear something very different, like legalism, moral teacher, and mere belief. When we fail to express the gospel in context and vocabulary that our listeners can understand, we fail to share the gospel. Christ dated and contextualized himself to all kinds of people so that his message would make sense and connect with their deep needs for redemption. Using packaged illustrations and methods assumes a one-size-fits-all, but the Incarnation reminds us that the gospel is much more personal and dynamic.

4. Evangelism-driven mission is individualistic.

This approach to mission trains individuals, not communities. It reduces the gospel to a conversation between two people, without focusing on embodying the gospel in communities. Statistics have shown that individuals are consistently converted to communities before they are converted to doctrines. Our methods are often doctrine-driven and individualistic.

Jesus prescribed a kind of communal evangelism in John 17, where our community is so redemptive and rich that it points people to Jesus. Paul called for a distinctive discipleship in churches that set the community of faith forth as an example, as salt and light in their cities, attracting others to them. Individualistic evangelism doesn’t create community because it doesn’t convert people to the church. It aims at converting individuals to a set of answers and to heaven. Evangelism-driven mission has very little to do with the Jesus of the Church, the Head of the Body.

To be continued.

This series is based on Jonathan Dodson’s talks at the LEAD ’09 conference.

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LEAD 09 recently finished up at East Auburn Baptist Church in Auburn, Maine. The conference theme, “Gospel, Community, and Mission”, was designed to challenge our beliefs about what the church is and what it means to be called a follower of Jesus. Here are some reflections and resources from the conference.

Josh Cousineau – Conference Director
Can you share a bit about the vision of LEAD 09?

It is shocking when you hear that churches and mission agencies are sending missionaries into your region.  When this happens you begin to wonder about how effectively you’re doing ministry, how you’re living on mission, how the gospel is shaping the way you live, and how well the gospel is being proclaimed. 

In New England, gospel-centered ministry must look different from a lot of typical church models. The LEAD conference was birthed out of a passion for advancing the gospel in a post-Christian context. 
 
What’s next for the LEAD conference in New England?

Plans are well underway for LEAD 2010, with the hope that LEAD will be an annual event that brings the gospel to the forefront of ministries and encourages the faithful in New England and beyond.

Tim Chester – Conference Speaker and co-author of Total Church
Why is this conference so important?

Many people feel alone, surrounded by legalism and liberalism within their churches, and by secularism and apathy outside their churches. To come together with like-minded gospel people, to be part of a wider movement, to share a common vision; it's hard to under-estimate the importance of these things. I hope and pray that LEAD 09 will be the start of something significant, a movement of gospel-centered churches throughout New England. 

Jonathan Dodson - Conference Speaker and author of Fight Clubs
What was unique about this conference?

LEAD 09 struck a unique balance between theology and practice for mission in 21st century America. It’s rare to find a conference that integrates biblical theology, cultural reflection, and best community and missional practices. Interestingly, the combination of British and American speakers offered a unique perspective on present and future challenges for the western church.

Resources

All LEAD 09 audio and video can be found here. Main sessions include:

• Making God’s people the heart of God’s mission – Tim Chester
• Community as lifestyle – Tim Chester
• The Gospel: Conversion to Christ – Jonathan Dodson
• Making God’s mission the heart of God’s people – Tim Chester
• The Gospel: Conversion to Community – Jonathan Dodson
• The Gospel: Conversion to Mission – Jonathan Dodson
• Mission as a lifestyle – Tim Chester

Resurgence Literature

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How NOT To Be a Missional Church series: Click | View Series

The missional church movement has been good and bad. On a positive note, let’s focus on the bad. Over the next few posts, I want to suggest three ways to not be a missional church. We’ll organize these reflections under three headings:

1. Event-Driven Mission
2. Evangelism-Driven Mission
3. Social Action-Driven Mission

Event-Driven Mission

These are churches that, in the name of mission, throw block parties, do Easter egg drops from helicopters, hand out water at intersections, do gas buy-downs, or even, as was recently suggested to me, do coffee buy-downs. What’s wrong with these approaches to missional church?

1. Event-driven mission is works-based.

It begins on the wrong foot, the foot of action instead of the foot of identity. It makes mission out to be an act of man, not a participation in an attribute of God. Mission is something we are before it’s something we do. Event-driven approaches to mission turn mission into an event, something that is optional for the super-spiritual, gets us points with God, and gets him on our good side. But God can’t be bribed by mission or anything else. Event-driven mission builds mission on works, not grace.


2. Event-driven mission is very often consumerist.

The event approach to being a missional church often appeals to consumerism, not to genuine social or spiritual needs. It aims at the consumer-in-want-of-stuff, not the sinner-in-need-of-grace. These attempts at mission appeal to the consumerist longing for a deal, instead of the sinner’s deep down longing for redemption. They try to buy people off: “I’ll give you an Xbox if you come to my church. I’ll pay for your gas if you visit on a Sunday.” If you have to pay people to come meet Christians, something is seriously wrong with your understanding of gospel and mission. Event-driven mission makes appeals based on idolatry, not grace.


3. Event-driven mission doesn’t work very well.

In urban contexts, people can smell a bait and switch a mile away, and that is exactly why they left the church (if they were in it in the first place). If we want to reach non-Christians in a post-Christian context, then we will have to prove to them that they cannot be bought off, that we are a real community, and that we care about them enough to live next door to them, eat with them, work with them, suffer with them, rock out with them, and be with them. Event-driven mission is a bait and switch.

To be continued.

This series is based on Jonathan Dodson’s talks at the LEAD ’09 conference.

Pastor Dad

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Spirit-Led Leadership: Click | View Series

In his stirring book David: Man of Prayer, Man of War, Walter Chantry contrasts the life and leadership of David and Saul. Chantry’s little book is packed with practical and gospel insights for leaders. I love his emphasis on the Spirit.

3 Differences in Leadership between David and Saul:

1. God’s Spirit Incites Zeal. In the face of Philistine blasphemies, David was incited with zeal for the Lord: “He was stirred to the depths with concern for the glory of God.” What is stirring you? Are you stirred to the depths for the glory of God? Do you hide out in your tent, your library, your office, or are you incited with zeal for the Lord to pursue his glory through counseling, discipleship, mission, and preaching? Are you passionately pursuing God’s glory or your own glory?

2. God’s Spirit Incites Faith. Saul relied on bribes to get others to fight Goliath (1 Sam. 17:25). Saul discouraged young leaders like David (to not fight Goliath) because he was motivated by fear, not faith. Remember, God doesn’t look at appearances, but at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). Samuel would never choose David, but God did. Are you leading your church or leaders based on fear or faith? Do you insist on control or relinquish it to let others rise up in faith? Are you judging by appearances or looking at the heart? Often we are too doubtful about some and too confident about others. Judge by the Spirit, not the flesh; by faith, not fear.

3. God’s Spirit Incites Wisdom. David’s zealous faith was marked by self-control and tempered by wisdom. When mocked by his brothers, he didn’t pick a fight or defend his abilities, but channeled indignation towards his enemies (1 Sam. 17:28-29). The Spirit produces leaders that are balanced and discerning, not merely zealous and faith-filled. Instead of getting side-tracked by petty issues, Spirit-led leaders learn to lead with, as Spurgeon put it, “one blind eye and one deaf ear.” We need wisdom to discern what voices to listen to and which ones to shut out. We don’t entertain every idea. We follow the Spirit through wisdom, not ambition.

May God make us zealous, faith-filled, and wise. May he never take his Holy Spirit from us. May we lead well and finish strong, ever dependent upon the Spirit, glorifying our great Redeemer and King Jesus!

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Spirit-Led Leadership: Click | View Series

In his stirring book David: Man of Prayer, Man of War, Walter Chantry contrasts the life and leadership of David and Saul. I’m not a big fan of moralistic character studies in the Bible. All too often, they are poor interpretations of Scripture. However, Chantry’s little book is an exception, packed with practical and gospel insights for leaders. I love his emphasis on the Spirit.

David vs. Saul: What’s the Difference?

Consider the following differences between two kings of Israel, David and Saul, taken largely from 1 Samuel 16-17:

David

• Unimpressive stature
• Inexperienced
• Heart after God
• Repentant
• God-reliant
• Spirit-filled

Saul

• Impressive stature
• Experienced
• Hardened heart
• Resistant
• Self-reliant
• Spirit-possessed

God uses the unexpected, unimpressive, and inexperienced to accomplish remarkable things. Saul was a head above most men. David was ruddy and smaller in stature. Saul was driven by an evil spirit and died a crazed, God-forsaken man. David drove an evil spirit from Saul with the sound of his lyre. Saul hid out in his tent when Goliath taunted the Israelites. David stood up for his people and God and defeated Goliath. What made the difference between these two leaders?

The Spirit of the Lord

The Holy Spirit made all the difference between these two men. The chronicler of Israel’s history reveals the primary difference between these two kings. He writes: “And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul…” (1 Sam. 16:13-14).

The ultimate contrast between these men was not their appearance or experience; it was their spirit. We’re told that the Spirit rushed upon David, while the Spirit departed from Saul. One man was Spirit-filled and led. The other was Spirit-devoid and distrusting. David would plead with God not to take his Spirit (Ps 51:11). God, on the other hand, would take his Spirit from Saul.

To be continued.

Resurgence Literature

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Redefining Culture and Engagement Series: Click | View Series

Redeeming and Creating Culture

In a recent article, Westminster professor William Edgar reminds us that one of Paul's lessons was how culture can be redeemed: "It is never enough simply to decry the evils of the world, and then to offer salvation either as a way of warring against culture or as an escape from the world. In his Mars Hill speech, Paul reminds his listeners of the original purpose of history. God is the maker of the world and everything in it. He is to be worshiped as such." Edgar suggests that we employ Dick Keyes’ concept of "near and far idols." The near idol surrenders God-given cultural dominion to worship at the altar of another god, like power, money, or success. The far idol is our actual trust in the near idol, a belief that power, money, or success is reliable or will bring us happiness.

Identifying near and far idols is redemptive engagement with culture (or applying the gospel to everyday life). Edgar says also that redemptive engagement happens through redirecting or redefining cultural patterns affected by the Fall, such as Paul's interaction with Greek philosophy, and contemporary efforts, such as Prospect 1, to use art to rebuild New Orleans. We could say that there is external and internal redemptive engagement. The external redeems visible culture; the internal redeems our invisible relationship with culture.

Credemption

In Culture Making, Andy Crouch has advocated not only the redemption of culture, but also the making of culture—good culture for an infinitely good Creator. Instead of simply condemning, critiquing, consuming, and copying culture, the way forward is to create a good alternative. Otherwise, we are simply left at square one, with very little Christian progress in various cultures. So, instead of bemoaning bad movies, make better ones. Instead of copying contemporary music and inserting Christian lyrics, create new music and contribute to cultural change through innovation and creativity. Draw attention to your Creator through superior or innovative cultural action.

I suggest that we engage culture redemptively and creatively (“credemptively”?). Instead of choosing between the two, what would it look like for you to bring a redemptive worldview into your workplace, where you bring a gospel perspective upon a problem or person, while also working well to generate new solutions and answers? When you gain success, redemptive engagement calls you to make much of God, not of yourself. Instead of bemoaning the failing copier, you take the time to fix it and then use it to make copies of your new ideas to better your company! Instead of bragging that you fixed the seemingly unfixable copier, you remain humble and rejoice in the fact that it is working! Instead of just making new innovative music, make music that gives proceeds to relieve poverty and rest in Christ for your significance, not in your notoriety. Be credemptive!

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Fight Clubs Series: Click | View Series
Get the eBook here.

Our spiritual war is a war against the flesh, that lingering vestige of our pre-Christian lives that must be beaten to death so that we can live in the fullness of life given to us in Jesus. The apostle Paul says, "Fight the good fight of faith" (1 Tim 6:12). We are to beat the flesh in the power of the Spirit: "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Rom 8:13). These texts call us to "fight" and "put to death" the deeds of the body, our sinful patterns of anxiety, self-pity, anger, fear of man, vanity, pride, lust, greed, and so on. Upon becoming a Christian, we are inducted into a Fight Club—the Fight Club of faith.

The Three Rules of Fight Club

Fight Clubs are small, simple groups of 2-3 who meet regularly to help one another beat the flesh and believe in the promises of God. Men meet with men, and women meet with women, in order to effectively address general and gender-specific issues head-on. We have three rules:

1) Know Your Sin.

The first rule of Fight Club is "Know your sin." If we don't know our opponent, how will we beat him? We must become well-acquainted with the areas in our lives where the flesh gets the best of us, where we are prone to sin.

2) Fight Your Sin.

The second rule of Fight Club is "Fight your sin." Once we know our sin, we know where to strike. The challenge then is to actually strike, to beat up our flesh.

3) Trust Your Savior.

The third rule of Fight Club is "Trust Your Savior." How do we fight? We fight, not in our own strength but with the strength of the Spirit.

One day the fight will be over. Faith will become sight. Our image will be perfectly aligned with Christ's image. We will no longer know our sin, fight our sin, or struggle to trust our Savior. But until then, may God grant us his sovereign grace to fight the good fight of faith, for our joy and his eternal glory.

(Adapted from Fight Clubs, Chapter 5: A Spiritual War)

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Fight Clubs Series: Click | View Series
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Real faith is fighting faith. This faith fights not for perfection but for belief. We fight to believe that Jesus is more precious, satisfying, and thrilling than anything else his world has to offer. We fight every day of our lives. We fight from salvation, not for salvation. This is the faith that works through love (Gal 5:6). It is faith that works, not faith in works. It is faith in the gospel—the grand announcement that Jesus has defeated sin, death, and evil, and is making all things new—which includes us. Our faith is a faith that fights.

Repentance and Faith

In order to receive the redemptive benefits of the gospel, we must repent from trusting in false gods and exercise faith in the one true God. We must fight. Repentance and faith are the two sides to the coin of the gospel. They are not a one-time act to get us into heaven, but an entire way of life to maintain Christian joy. Repentance is not a work we tack onto our faith; it is an expression of faith.

Fighting with God's Promises

Repentance can be described as giving up our sinful behaviors and turning our affections away from false gods. God wants our hearts, not just our morality. Repentance is a stepping-stone to true joy. Faith, then, is trust in the one, good, true, dying, and rising-from-the-dead God. It is relying on the person of Jesus through the power of the Spirit by the promises of God. It is not blind faith but perceptive faith. Biblical faith sees the truth, goodness, and reliability of God's promises and chooses to trust them over the fleeting, false, and bad promises of the world.

The Christian life is a constant repenting from belief in false promises and an increasing belief in the true, good promises of God.

Repentance, then, is letting go of false gods and promises, both with our affections and actions. Faith is grabbing onto the one true God and his promises with our affections and actions. Faith is not merely belief in the facts of the gospel message; it is trusting and treasuring the gospel medium—Jesus Christ our Lord.

Repentance and faith form the bridge that leads us away from union with false gods and promises and into the promise of joyful union with the one true God. This is a gospel that motivates, that animates the life of a disciple of Jesus!

(Adapted from Fight Clubs, Chapter 3: Faith and Repentance)

Religion Saves

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Redefining Culture and Engagement Series: Click | View Series

Engaging Culture

All too often when we speak of "engaging culture" we fail to take into account the complexity of culture. Engagement isn’t mere participation in culture as opposed to refusal to participate in culture. With our more comprehensive definition in place, it becomes quite clear that conservative or liberal views that perceive "the culture" as something to be attacked or defended are misguided. Rather, there are complex systems of act, artifact, and belief that need to be carefully engaged. While there are cultural behaviors and beliefs that should be rejected, deciding what to reject and to celebrate should be a careful and thoughtful process. Like it or not, culture is something we engage, deliberately or un-deliberately, consciously or unconsciously. The challenge is to engage culture in a very deliberate, thoughtful, and theologically informed manner.

Careful Consideration

Culture is complex and cannot be rejected or celebrated without some thought or value. The remarkable thing about culture is that it allows society to create, function, and promote human flourishing—civilization. However, every human is responsible for their actions in contributing or detracting from civilization. And our response will be motivated by certain beliefs. At this point it becomes apparent that we need some kind of belief lens or worldview to help us make ethical decisions about our cultural values and assessments. Are they good or bad, right or wrong, constructive or deconstructive, wise or foolish? Do we engage culture as agents of redemption or as consumers of entertainment? Do we engage culture as fearful critics or as uncritical participants? We all engage culture; we have no choice. The question is: "How will we engage culture?"

To be continued.

Resurgence Literature

Re:Lit is a ministry of Resurgence. There you will find a growing line of books to help guide the resurgence of the new reformed. Find out more.