NOT a Zero-Sum Game

From Chris Marshall:

Ordinary Community: Being Ready
It is the sense of entitlement that I am speaking against when it comes to vocational roles in ministry. I am not against the idea of being paid, I am against the assumption that its the way it always has been and always will be. God does not owe us anything! Not a job, not a title of honor, not an air-conditioned office nor full time hours a week to be a spiritual leader. Now his provision may [embody] all of that for you, but we have to be okay if it doesn’t.

I think this is so important.  This weekend, as I reflected on this issue, I found myself being often drawn back to the idea that this thing (the transition, the economics of what it means to be the people of God in the early 21C) is NOT a Zero-Sum Game. “In game theory and economic theory, zero-sum describes a situation in which a participant’s gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant(s).”

This is not about one “model” of church being more “right” than the other.  It is not even about being more biblical, though I think that is an intriguing question.  It is about the Kingdom of God continuing to break in and how we are going to respond.  It is not about older, traditional church folks losing and young, hip, emerging Jesus-followers winning.  That is NOT the point.  It is about the Mission of God in our time and place.  It has always been about God’s Mission, we’ve just tended toward co-opting it to our own ends (and I’m as guilty as anyone on that matter).

I had a couple offline (i.e. real life!) conversations this weekend with 2 friends (Russell and Bethany) who read my (and others’) post about this topic.  A prevailing concern was that of older, traditional church and the older, traditional adults in them.  Does this move to a new form of ministry and church leave them in the dust?  What about inter- and multi-generational ministry?  What about all those presently paid clergy and staff, are they all doing it “wrong”?  Again, I don’t think this is a Zero-Sum Game.  Transition times are inherently liminal spaces and as a society (and as a global church) we’ll surely have a period of both/and-ness.  We’ll have traditional, institutional expressions of church who are honestly and sincerely seeking to follow in the Way of Jesus… right along side organic, emerging, experimental communities of faith also seeking to follow in the Way of Jesus.  We’ll have paid clergy who instigate Kingdom work partnering with bi-occupational pastors and missional leaders (Russell Smith is a great example of this!).

I think one of the points of this whole conversation is that many see that this transition is coming (and has in significant ways already arrived).  These deep cultural shifts aren’t going away.  The church has always and will continue to adapt to the cultural situation in which it finds itself.  My take on these (blog) writings of church leaders from around the country is that we’re seeing similar adaptations across the USofA.  These adaptations look less and less like the churches of our parents and grandparents (not necessarily less and less like Jesus - though every experiment will have the errant petri dish…).

So, during this transitional time we may have to work extra hard to facilitate inter-generational ministries.  We are by our nature cultural beings who feel most comfortable in what is familiar to us.  But, and I think this point is very important, we are not bound by our culture.  We have the ability to cross cultures and even be countercultural.  As a church our main identifier should never be the comfy cultural confines of me and mine.  This is equally pertinent for the postmodern-embedded college student and the retirement-home octogenarian - both (and all of us in between) must seek first the Kingdom.  We find our common cause in the cause of Christ.  Of course we’ll have disagreements and points of contention, but that is important too for the refining process.  Our unity is in Christ.  Working out the way we live as a people of God in a particular place and culture… well that takes time and an openness to the Spirit that cannot happen if we are tight-fisted about our way (which we always think is the “right way”) of doing things.

Mark Van Steenwyk’s comment on his blog in this conversation is helpful in this strain.  In response to what traditional (local churches, denominations, seminaries) churches can do, he says…

You can be helpful by doing what you’re doing…leveraging what resources you have at your disposal to think with a kingdom mindset, rather than with an Institutional one.

At some point, all of us tied into the status quo need to make a choice. We have to choose whether it is better to work hard to secure what we have…or work hard to secure the future. In other words, are we going to leverage everything to try to make sure that the Mennonite Church USA and Canada have a place in the future? Are we going to leverage everything to try to make sure Bethel Seminary and Mars Hill Grad school have a place in the future? OR are we going to leverage everything that MCUSA and MC Canda and Bethel and Mars Hill has to advance the kingdom where we see it breaking in, with a lesser concern for the role they will keep for themselves in that inbreaking future?

To say it another way: Maybe our educational institutions shouldn’t ask how they can survive the transition. Maybe they should ask, how can we risk our resources on our students so that they can thrive in the transition? Clearly there is a tension here. It doesn’t need to be an either/or. But the way most institution are operating (from the lofty philosophical level to the banal logistical level), I am seeing a stronger desire to maintain market share…to survive…than a desire to help create the necessary future.

The distribution and use of resources is a HUGE issue with all this.  Who has what resources and how are they being used is an important part of the process of how any ministry works.  It also says a lot about our lived theology and priorities… follow the money.  Figuring out how to leverage resources (money, time, property, etc…) for the Kingdom is essential.

May the Kingdom Come…

MT 520 - Biblical Foundations of Mission

I just registered for a new class at Fuller, via Distance Learning.  After this is completed (on June 13!!!) I’ll only have 4 left!  Praise God!

Fuller Theological Seminary-IDL Courses
MT 520/620: Biblical Foundations of Mission (4 quarter hours)
LECTURER: Charles Van Engen, Professor of Biblical Theology of Mission

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

A central theme of the Scriptures is the mission of God as it relates to the present and coming Kingdom of God. The sovereign living God exercises absolute reign in and through history, and establishes a covenant relationship with the people of God redeemed and called to be God’s instruments among and for the nations. The Great Commission is the culmination of Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom of God and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is the climactic event which creates the Church and completes the Christ event. From Pentecost onward the mission of the Church must be viewed eschatologically because the glorious appearing of the Kingdom at our Lord’s coming marks the end of the Church’s mission.

ASSIGNMENTS:

*  A summary paragraph for each book of the Bible read describing the mission of God.

*  Six 2-page book reviews following given instructions for each textbook.

*  One 15-20 page paper tracing a biblical theme of missiological significance through the Old and New Testaments.

REQUIRED READING:

Briscoe, Jill. Jonah and the Worm.  New Berlin, WI: Jilcoe/Hemp, 1983.

Glasser, Arthur. Announcing the Kingdom.  Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003.

Kaiser, Walter. Mission in the Old Testament.  Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000.

Newbigin, Lesslie. The Open Secret. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.

Nissen, Johannes. New Testament and Mission.  New York: Peter Lang, 1999.

Van Engen, Charles, ed. Good News of the Kingdom. Mary Knoll: Orbis Books, 1993.

By the way, if anybody around Cincinnati has those texts I’d love to borrow them!

New Beginnings

Yes, I really do blog.  Life has been overfull of late (as evidenced by the mound of dirty dishes on the counter…. umm, maybe they’ll get washed tomorrow).  I really like keeping a clean and organized house, but with small children I find it increasingly difficult, if not approaching impossible!  So needless to say I haven’t had much time for writing and planning, but I have been thinking.

Here we are at the beginning of 2008 and, I must admit, I’m very excited.  I anticipate that 2008 will be a year of new beginnings, hope, and change.  Chief of those for me is the dream of a new community of faith birthing in Cincinnati.  So how do we get there?  What are the first steps?  How does this all work with the rest of a full life?  What is the “time-table”?  Good questions.  I certainly don’t pretend to think these sorts of things “just happen”.  I’m reminded of Dallas Willard’s helpful little acronym V.I.M. from Renovation of the Heart (link to article about VIM).  Applied to church planting it looks like this:  What is the Vision of life in the Kingdom for this neighborhood?  What do we Intend to do in birthing this new community of faith?  What are our Means by which to accomplish our intended church plant?

Honestly, I feel like I’ve been held up in my articulation of these things for a deeper reason.  True, life has been full these last few weeks of holidays, small children, and a lingering cold that fills my head with too much mucus - but I think I’ve been stymied by an unseen specter of “You’ve got to get this just right”.  I’m going to do my best to ignore those voices in my head and just try to tell it as I see it….

The Vision of life in the Kingdom for this neighborhood is one that lives within the heart of an actual community of faith.  A small community of 150 folks or so that intentionally follow Jesus together.  The Kingdom of God - or to borrow Greg Boyd’s phrase, “the dome in which God is King” - is evident in this community of faith as a sign pointing the way and illuminating Emmanuel, “Christ with us”.  It is evident as this community works together and with others to bring the Kingdom  - God’s extravagant Grace and Reconciling Love - to bear in our homes, streets, schools, and workplaces.  It is evident as this community lives its life together in the Way of Christ, loving the least, the last, and the lost.  Kingdom life is a life lived in accord with one another and with the Triune God.  Simply put, we envision a community of faith living a Kingdom-life together.  And just to be clear (because I don’t want “Kingdom” to sound jargon-y), “Kingdom” means that “dome in which God is king”, in that “dome” is a life of deep grace, true love, and real peace.  But, it is not a Utopian, pie-in-the-sky life, but a life lived in concert with the Creator and Sustainer.  Kingdom-life takes suffering seriously, believes that healing is real, and works towards reconciliation with God, humanity, and creation.

We Intend to birth a new community of faith in Cincinnati.  This community of faith would a People of God on God’s Kingdom Mission in our neighborhoods, homes, schools, and workplaces.  We would be a Jesus-centered community.  We would be a real community - in that we would intentionally live our lives together (not just see each other once a week at a religious gathering).  We would “do life together” - in our neighborhoods, in mentoring relationships, in small groups/house churches, and in larger corporate gatherings and projects.  We would be around 150 people who would meet together weekly to worship together.  We would meet throughout the week in one another’s homes, coffeeshops, bars, and chili parlors.  We would live within proximity of one another and share food and resources (and childcare).  [There are questions here, I'm sure.... how is this different than Vineyard Central?  And what is our current/future relationship with VC?  Why 150?  What happens if we get to 151?  Would we pay staff/pastor/leaders?  Would we buy a building, own property, rent/lease/borrow space to worship?  Who let the dogs out? I'm not going to address these questions here, but they are all things I've spent time considering.  Leave a comment or send an email and I'll address the ones that you are curious about or ask me other questions]

The Means by which we accomplish this intended church plant are as followed (based on current standings):
1.  Pray (something I want to get better at doing)
2.  Write out Vision, Mission, Values, and relevant Issues pertaining to church planting (so as to facilitate being on the same page!) and complete New Church Plan for RCA
3.  Propose intention to our House Church
4.  Enter a month of sabbatical and prayer as a House Church to discern next steps
5.  Form a planting team of folks committed to seeing the new community birthed
6.  Initiate an advisory board of wise folks to help us navigate the waves and decisions of the first year

Well, that’s all I got right now.  Sarah just got home and I want to post this and email it some folks (I suspect my readership is way down).  Peace.

Decompressing and Reading

The children are nestled all snug in their beds. Praise the LORD! To those who do not have children and to those who have been parents longer than I… a confession: parenting is hard work. Before I became a parent I had NO IDEA how hard this would be. It is by far the hardest (and most wonderful) thing I have ever done. I suspect that those who have been parents for a long time just smile and nod - “now you understand”. Well, I reckon I do.

Sarah is in a new job now which means she is gone Sunday-Thursday evenings. Eventually she’ll work 8-midnight, but these three weeks she has been in training from 6-10 PM. Thankfully the wee-ones go to bed around 7:00, but that hour and a half from the time she leaves till bed time is a challenge. Happily tonight I had enough energy left to pick up around the house, write a blog post, and hopefully read a bit (oh, and maybe work on a puzzle).

I’m reading these 2 books:

Here are some quotables:

From The Open Secret, p. 34 - “The reign of God is not a new “movement” in which those interested may enlist.  It is not a cause for support, a cause that might succeed or fail according to the amount of support it attracts.  It is, to be precise, the reign of God, the fact that God whom Jesus knows as Father is the sovereign ruler of all peoples and all things.  The announcement means that htis fact is no longer something remote - far up in the heavens or far away in the future.  It is an impending reality, in fact, the one great reality that confronts men and women wit the need for decision.”

From Counterfeit Community, p. 21 - “Community is organic, not contractual or artificial.  In a sense it is a living organism that is continually changing and adapting to challenges in the environment.  …  The degree to which community develops is ultimately dependent upon the nature of the social, economic, and political fabric of a group of people.  Community is not formed by people who get together and agree to sign their names to a document to form a community; rather, it is created over time as people form connections with each other, develop trust and respect for each other, and create a sense of common purpose.”

Ok, that’ll do for now.  Good night all.

Wondering about that Jesus character…

All this business about discipleship as apprenticeship to Jesus has caused me to wonder what it really means to follow Jesus in 21st century America (specifically Cincinnati).  I mean he lived 2000 years back, in a vastly different world/context.  So when we read the things he said and did and what he called folks to do as they followed him then I’d say we have a good bit of translation work if we are going to apply that to ourselves.  That much, I suspect, is obvious to most.

It is his talk of the Kingdom of God that fascinates me.  When I read the Gospels now it just leaps out at me, but when I was in high school starting to read the Bible for the first time (seriously, not just as “children’s stories” for Sunday School) I never noticed the Kingdom.  So, how do I translate this Kingdom stuff to 21C Cincinnati?  Well, how do WE translate Jesus’s message about the Kingdom to 21C Cincinnati?  Great question…. let’s live the answer!