DownshoreDrift

Losing Stuff. Finding God.

Last night we had our life group meeting at our home. It was really more like a big party than it was a "meeting." That is how it works with our small group. We have anywhere from 7-9 families each week and there are a bunch of children. It is a lot of fun and we pray for one another and encourage each other in our walk with God.

Last night after life group, my six year old son, Peyton, thought he lost his wallet. Over the past year or so, he has saved up all of the money that he has been given for birthdays, Christmas, etc. for a grand total of $105. Well, in the confusion with all of the kids over last night, we thought that his little brother Caelan found it and hid it somewhere. We also heard that all of the money was gone. Suddenly, we were worried that it had been lost somewhere. Peyton was really upset. He started crying and said, "I could try and make more money, but it just wouldn't work!" This was said with a quivering bottom lip and tears running down his face.  So, instead of engaging in a lecture on the dangers of materialism and consumeristic greed, I had another thought. Maybe God wanted to reveal Himself to my son.

The Joy of Simple Conversation

Something does not have to be profound to be of value. I ran across some interesting thoughts this morning on "The Importance of Drivel" by Paul Watson. I have often heard religious leaders lament the superficiality of much of our church experience because people spend so much time talking about the the everyday things of life like children, houses, the weather, sports, current events, etc - basically just hanging out. "When are we going to get to the spiritual things," they ask?  We miss that the spiritual things are often thrown into the midst of the mundane and would not be available to us unless we engaged with people conversationally in things that make up their day-to-day world, which is actually much more spiritual that our dualistic minds can comprehend. Watson, in relaying a conversation that he was having with a friend about how frustrating on-line conversations that are really drivel can be, answered his objections by saying,

“Well, how much of day-to-day offline conversation is drivel? Yet we have to have it because the drivel allows us to feel out how interested people really are in me, my life, and in things that are important to me. We use drivel, like humor, to test the boundaries of relationship. If you don’t care about the drivel, you won’t ask for more. If you do ask, then maybe you care. I don’t know - that’s my gut feeling about it all. Maybe drivel is pretty important.”

A couple of days later, I talked with my wife about drivel as we got ready. “It’s all the little comments between the drivel that clue us into what’s going on in people’s lives.” She listened while doing her hair (She’s really good at that by the way - listening and getting things done at the same time. Amazing!) I went on, “You know what I mean - in the middle of the ‘I’m going to see this movie.’ or ‘I just got back from the store.’ comes ‘I got a letter from my brother in Iraq.’ or ‘My sister isn’t doing so well.’ Or maybe people stop talking altogether and we wouldn’t notice if we hadn’t been listening. If we don’t get used to the rhythm of drivel in someone’s life, then we miss important cues for things that really matter.”

I think that this is true. I am not always the best listener when it comes to conversation with people. I am usually thinking about a million things and I will key on something that they said that interests me and take it from there. But, I am trying to work on that. Everything doesn't have to come back to me and what I think about something. Often, people just need to express what is going on in their life or what they are interested in and they want to share that with someone. As we open our lives to the little events in the lives of others, we show that we care and then we have the chance to participate in the things that are perhaps weightier.  We should not despise the moments of seemingly random conversation. That is the stuff that relationships are built out of and we find that when life happens, it happens amongst people who were at one time just talking about the football game last weekend.

I think that this is why we establish social events and meet at coffeehouses and for dinner and actually DO things together.  A context must be established before we can actually engage in the bigger questions of life with people. The purpose is not the coffee, but it is the unplanned conversation that takes place around all of the "drivel" of daily life.  Maybe that "drivel" is not as meaningless as we sometimes think it is.

Is the IMB Axing "New Directions?"

I've been hearing rumblings for a couple of months that New Directions, the strategy adopted by the IMB in 1998 that pushed all of their mission work through the concept of Church Planting Movements (CPMs) is effectively dead.  Apparently this has been in the works for some time now and during the most recent trustee meeting, a task force has been developed to "Renew the Vision" and assess the IMB's structure, strategies and plans for the future.  In the aforementioned article, Dr. Rankin points to "a time of 'unprecedented global advance,' with 609,000 people baptized and 25,497 new churches reported overseas last year through the work of Southern Baptist missionaries and partners."

Here are some questions: If all is going so well within the IMB and it's mission, then why the reorganization? Why dump New Directions if it has doubled the number of baptisms within the past ten years? Why kill the strategy behind CPM's?  The article states that a task force will meet a few times before the next board meeting in September to do some work on the reorganization. Does anyone really believe that a task force can get anything done in a few meetings with something of this magnitude? No, I would confidently say that these plans have been in the works for some time now.

Also, those two little words, "and partners" are much more powerful that most Southern Baptists realize. The truth is, the vast majority of baptisms and church plants are the work of indigenous believers throughout the world that are connected in various ways with IMB missionaries. Still, the question remains: Why reorganize if things are going as well as we have been told again and again?

Where might we be headed? Some are speculating that we are going to see more church supported and initiated mission work with missionaries reporting directly to churches. Others are speculating that NAMB is going to be reorganized as well and the two entities will be combined. That is strongly opposed by IMB leadership, but with the rumblings coming out of NAMB regarding problems with leadership, the future does not look bright for that organization.

I had also heard that we would see a revisitation of some sort of the IMB guidelines regarding ppl and baptism at this board meeting.  Surprising no one, we find out that nothing happened.

And the beat goes on . . . 

Andrew Jones Gives the "Skinny" on Missional

Check out Andrew's synopsis of the term "missional" and the movement that it has inspired HERE. This is really good stuff. I really like the term and since I picked it up in San Francisco at GGBTS in the late 90's from Andrew, Thom Wolf, Linda and Eric Berquist, Jonathon Campbell, Dr. Francis Dubose, and others,  then I feel pretty good about using it. I think that it is a helpful term, especially in describing the movement of God that flows from a missiological reading of the Bible. If we see God as the God who is coming after us and then sending us to help rescue others, then our reading of Scripture begins to make a lot more sense. Anyway, check out Andrew's post for some background of the term.

Believer's Baptism Vs. Paedobaptism and Covenant Theology

In an attempt to educate and inform on all things of even slight interest to me, I point you to a post by Jason Robertson at Fide-O on the Reformed Presbyterian practice of infant baptism (paedobaptism).  Being a baptist, I obviously believe in a believer's baptism by immersion, but I am still interested to know what other groups believe and what causes divisions between denominations. Some say that divisions don't matter and we should all just join together. On some levels that is true, but on others, the divisions actually mean something. Of course, we should have a charitable spirit toward all whether we agree on everything or not, but it is still interests me to understand where we are all coming from. Any thoughts on this issue?

Americans Create Their Own Religion

According to the recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, America is the most religious nation in the world (I doubt that), but we are also very pluralistic. 92% of Americans believe in God and 70% of people with religious affiliation believe that there is more than one way to heaven. Apparently, we believe a whole host of contradictory things at the same time. This is a pretty groundbreaking study, so I wanted to make sure that I pointed it out here. Thoughts?

Alan Hirsch Conference pt. 3 - Middle Class Consumerism and the Gospel

After talking about our views of Christ and calling us to discipleship to Jesus, Alan Hirsch began to talk about one of the major hurdles to discipleship in the West today: Pursuit of the Middle Class lifestyle and Consumerism. Hirsch said that the major issues in Middle Class living are safety and security. In the realm of Consumerism, it is comfort and convenience.

Hirsch said that the Market dominates our lives. It is the metanarrative of Western Capitalism and defines our identity and purpose in life through thousands of messages. Brands offer meaning, identity, purpose, and belonging. This has taken the place of religion in our society. This is the Matrix - the church has bought deeply into this. The Church Growth Movement has bought into this as well. We use entertainment to try and bring people into the Kingdom, but we cannot entertain people into discipleship. Our churches do not disciple people as they should - they primarily affirm our present lifestyles.

We buy more stuff and bigger houses to find our security against the dangers of the universe and to secure our status. We are experiencing status anxiety all throughout our culture. Status anxiety is defined by what others think of us and our rank in society. If everyone is below the line and we are all in the same boat, we are happy. If one person rises above the line by having success in some way, then everyone else is upset. We become unhappy when others move past us, not because our situation has changed, but because we feel less than because we constantly compare ourselves to others. We live in a meritocracy - our worth is based on merit.

All religions offer meaning, identity, purpose, and belonging. Consumerism is spirituality. It offers all of these things. Do we buy into a Consumerist spirituality, or do we follow Jesus? If we follow Jesus, then we have to die to this life. We have remade Jesus to provide a pleasant, middle class, consumerist lifestyle for us. As Christians, we have to live from an alternative story - the story of Jesus.

In our culture, our identity comes from what we look like. This destroys our soul.

The best way to change society is to tell a different story. We ahve to live a qualitatively different life. It must take place in community.

The traditional church is a dembodied message - Sermon is separated from life and people.

Contemporary church keeps the spectator perspective (disembodyment), but makes it entertainment oriented.

Emerging church shakes things up, but it still focuses on the presentaton. While creative, it still creates passivity.

Family has become an idol for many people. Instead of being a small community of faith that represents Christ to a hurting world, the family has become a place of withdrawal and protection. The gospel is a threat to this. In the name of the family, we attenuate (cut down) the real gospel. Jesus must becme mediocre to support this lifestyle.

All of our pietism must end up doing something.

Consumerism co-opts everything. Even our social causes and religion gets co-opted and sold back to us in trinkets and symbols. We buy good feelings.

Rodney Stark - How did Christianity grow in the Roman Empire? During the plagues, the Christians cared for the sick. They were different.

If we don't embody the gospel, then we cannot effectively transmit the gospel.

Live Jesus' dream for America instead of America's Dream for itself. What would the American Dream Redeemed look like? 

Chasing the American Dream?

Barna Research Group has some new information out about what constitutes the American Dream in people's minds. I'll jump straight to the polling results and commentary and then provide my thoughts at the end:

What Adults Want Their Future to Include

Desired Outcome	2008	2000	1993	1991
having good physical health	85%	91%	92%	93%
living with a high degree of integrity	85%	81%	n/a	76%
having one marriage partner for life	80%	79%	n/a	n/a
having a clear purpose for living	77%	75%	71%	n/a
having a close relationship with God	75%	70%	74%	72%
having close, personal friendships	74%	75%	79%	73%
having a comfortable lifestyle	70%	61%	72%	59%
having a satisfying sex life with your marriage partner	66%	63%	n/a	n/a
having children	66%	65%	n/a	n/a
living close to your family and relatives	63%	60%	63%	67%
being deeply committed to the Christian faith	59%	53%	n/a	n/a
making a difference in the world	56%	47%	n/a	n/a
having a college degree	46%	51%	n/a	n/a
being personally active in a church	45%	42%	n/a	n/a
traveling throughout the world for pleasure	28%	26%	n/a	n/a
working in a high-paying job	28%	29%	43%	36%
owning a large home	18%	21%	30%	23%
owning the latest household technology/electronics	11%	9%	n/a	n/a
achieving fame or public recognition	7%	6%	10%	10%
survey sample size	1003	1002	1202	1003

The Ideal Life

In commenting on these outcomes, George Barna, who has overseen this tracking research since it originated in 1991, pointed out some of the highlights of the new findings.

"Stability rules," Barna noted. "Out of nineteen factors, only two have seen even a ten-point shift in nearly two decades. That’s rather remarkable consistency. So much in our world is changing, yet people’s dreams for their life hinge on the same, unchanging desires: health, relationships, character, faith and comfort. As our life context changes, so do the ways in which people pursue and realize these dreams, but their desires remain anchored to some fundamental values that seem to weather the changing times."

Barna also indicated that the mainstream media has portrayed American society as changing more radically than it has. "There have been some hugely significant changes in the laws of the land over the past quarter-century. However, when you examine what people want, in essence they are seeking what used to be described as traditional family values: a single marriage for life, a solid family experience, displaying good character, living a life that has meaning and impact, and having an active faith.

"Sometimes the abundant opportunities and challenges of daily life distract or divert people from their commitment to these outcomes," the researcher continued, "but in their hearts they have retained some pretty basic and traditional hope and dreams. Leaders might take note of this and compare their own vision and plans for the future with the ideal life that Americans hope to experience."

_____________________________________________________________________________

Me: I am beginning to distrust a lot of these polls, because I don't think that people are answering truthfully, or if they are answering truthfully they might just be saying what their aspirations are without taking any real steps to accomplish them. I can say that spiritual growth is a goal in my life, but if I never get up from in front of the television and do anything to grow spiritually, then it really is not a goal. The same can be said about a number of issues. I think that these polls might reveal the things that people think are good in life, but when it comes down to it, our choices show what we really want. For example, only 18% of people say that owning a large home is a value to them? Have you seen the size of new homes recently? How many people that you know are still scrambling to get into bigger and bigger houses?  That might not be happening all over the country, but it is definitely happening where I live. It might be embarrassing to admit that that is a goal, but I think that it remains a goal for a large number of people.  Some of these values just do not match up with how people really live, day in and day out.

It has been said that you can tell what a person values by looking at their calendar and their checkbook. How we spend our time and our money says way more about us than random polls do. I am glad that 45% of people say that they want to be personally active in a church. But, considering the fact that the most recent polls tell us that average church attendance is actually around 20-25% of the population, it makes you wonder how much difference there is between people's stated desires and their actual behavior. It does seem that many people have decent values, at least according to what they say. Maybe the big problem is that they do not know how to live according to their values, or they do not see how it is possible. Maybe the tyranny of the urgent, selfishness, or weariness keeps them from really pursuing the things that they say they want. We live in a country where 75% of people want to be close to God, 59% of people want to be deeply committed to the Christian faith, and 45% of people want to be personally active in a church, yet church participation is falling throughout America, and every other philosophy is gaining ground. Why is this? Are these desires really genuine, or do people just see God as a means to a happy life?

Maybe this disconnect has something to do with what David Kinnaman has found in his research, also stated on the Barna website in February, 2008 (He also wrote the book unChristian along with Gabe Lyons):

People are expressing more hostility, doubt, frustration and skepticism toward Christianity - and this is particularly true among young people. Their perceptions of Christians are filled with images of judgmentalism, hypocritical lifestyles and political activism. They also believe Christians have singled out homosexuality above all other sins. They conclude that Christianity is old-fashioned, boring and unintelligent, and that Christians are insincere and too focused on getting converts. The followers of the Prince of Peace are thought to be unable to live peaceably among others.

These may sound like harsh statements, but they spring from extensive research we have done with Americans ages 16 to 29. Whatever your impressions, these negative views are front and center in the minds of young people in our culture. In just a decade, the perception of evangelicals has become eight times less favorable among young non-Christians when compared to the image held by Boomer non-Christians.

In fact, one of the most common reactions that young people have about the faith is that present-day Christianity is no longer like Jesus intended . This is where we initially came upon the term "unChristian." In our research with young people, they kept saying things like, "Christians go about things in an unChristian manner."

So, how do the stated aspirations of people in the aforementioned poll jive with the frustrations of emerging generations? Has the Church lost Jesus in our daily lives? Do people take their spiritual search elsewhere because we do not effectively or intentionally display who Christ is to a watching world? Do people want Jesus but not the Church? Or, is it just all their problem? This could be a great wake-up call for us! Perhaps the Church could come in here and do more to display the beauty of the Christian life in community so that people can see that the life that they have wanted is available in Christ. Isn't this why "sinners" flocked to Jesus? Of course, to gain eternal life, you have to lose your life, and that might be the kicker for some people. Repentance is not a popular concept, even among Christians. But, I still think that the Church can and should be the connection point between God and people's daily lives. Maybe we can actually connect people with the good values that we have if we would look to and live for Jesus and display His glory in the community that He has initiated: the Church (Please note that I am not talking about the institution here, I am talking about the ecclesia, the called out ones who come together to live for Christ). It seems like His plan is a pretty good one and if we would sincerely follow it we might be able to connect a generation of truth seekers to Christ.

UPDATE: Read the latest Pew Research Polls on American's diverse beliefs in religion HERE. Here's a preview: 57% of evangelicals say that "they believe many religions can lead to eternal life."  Wow.  I wonder if they even know that this contradicts what the Bible teaches (John 14:6 - "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.").  Compare these beliefs with the theological disaster that is the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF), (check THIS out as well) and we see the need for evangelicals to actually know what the Bible teaches.

Presenter to Baptist Group Questions The Deity of Christ

I know that I have expressed frustration toward the SBC leadership on this blog more than a few times. But, let me say how glad I am that the SBC was rescued from going the route of theological liberalism that is being expressed by this theologian as he presents his views on the Bible to a group of Baptists.  The views were presented in a workshop at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's (CBF) General Assembly. There is a disclaimer that the CBF does not hold to all the views of all their speakers for their workshops, but I am really wondering why this type of perspective would be articulated if there was not some sympathy with it. John Killinger, theologian in residence at Marle Collegiate Church in New York City said such things as:

Alan Hirsch Conference, Pt. 2: Who Do We Say Jesus Is?

This is the continuation of my notes on the conference that I attended in New Orleans last Saturday with Alan Hirsch.   Alan continued his presentation with a discussion on the views of Jesus that we have developed in our lives. He said that we will never become missional if our discipleship does not flow out of a correct Christology. We do not live missional lifestyles because we are not disciples of Christ. We are not disciples of the real Jesus because we have often replaced Him with a false Christ of our own making. He used a series of pictures with each view that I will try and replicate here. He said that our view of Jesus becomes heretical when we place our own image of who Jesus is upon the biblical Jesus. We must come to Him as He is related to us in Scripture, instead of as who we want Him to be.  Please note that all of these views of Jesus have some truth to them, but they are just not the whole story. We must take Jesus for all that He is, not just for the parts that we want of Him.

Spooky Jesus is the Jesus that is so otherworldly that his approachability and humanity are gone. We have so mystified Jesus that we forget that He took on flesh and made His dwelling among us. We forget that he suffered every temptation that we did, yet was without sin. If we lose the humanity of Jesus, then we lose the truth of the Incarnation and we also lose the truth of the Resurrection.  Jesus put on flesh. He humbled Himself and became a man. We must not forget that. If we do, we lose the Savior. We are not able to relate to Him or approach Him.

The other extreme is the Buddy Jesus.  Jesus is my buddy and he takes care of me. He is my co-pilot, the Big Guy upstairs. This is also heresy. In this view, there is no reverence and no submission to the Lordship of Christ. He continually meets us on our terms.  He does not transcend our human existence and instead of being Lord of Lords and King of Kings, He exists to take care of me.

The next faulty image of Jesus that we hold is the Sunday School Jesus. We see flannelgraphs of Jesus and the little children in pastoral scenes. Of course this is a partially true representation of who Jesus is, but it is not the whole story. The Sunday School Jesus is a sanitized version of Jesus for middle class people who like to have their lives neat and tidy. It leaves off all of the offensive edges and presents Jesus in a way that is very safe and secure. Jesus does love the little children, no doubt. But, he does not just love them by securing for them a safe lifestyle. As Mr. Beaver in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe said when asked if Aslan was safe, "Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good."

Hirsch went on to say, "If you want a nice, middle class life for your children, then hide the gospels from them. We have made Jesus into the teacher of middle class mediocrity."  Ouch. I think that many of the conference attenders began to squirm at this point. But, Hirsch went on, "It is easy for us to identity with the Pharisees. They created a manageable religion." He then asked us to list the good qualities of the Pharisees. We came up with this list:

• Kept theology pure - Anti idolatry
• Engaged in spiritual disciplines
• Defended Scripture
• Zealous, passionate
• Well-respected - custodians of the identity of Israel
• Holy
• Believed in miracles, the Resurrection, angels, were Messianic
• Tithed
• Leaders

These are the people who put Jesus on the Cross. Then he said that this is how Evangelical conservatives live today. Jesus affirms all of the actions of the Pharisees, but he told them that they had lost the heart of God in the midst of all of their good-doing.  God wants them to keep doing the former good things while not forgetting justice, mercy, sacrifice, and love. He said that it is easy for Evangelicals to do lots of good things, yet lose the heart of Jesus in the midst of it all.

Jesus surprises us. Everyone gets it wrong, even the religious experts. In Revelation 3, Jesus is knocking at the door of the Church at Laodicea to come in. Why? The Laodiceans have locked Jesus out. They love their wealth and oppulence.  But, you can't serve both God and money.  It is hard to live with Jesus. He demands everything of you.

Poll: Are Republicans Serious About Outlawing Abortion?

Or, do they just use the issue to keep their conservative Christian base disciplined and in the fold come election day, with no real intention of doing anything about it? Or, is it more complicated than that? I am very stridently anti-abortion and I am very conservative politically and socially. But, I wonder if Republicans are really serious about every doing anything on this. What is your opinion about the political implications of this very serious moral issue?

Engaging People "Between the Times"

Eugene Peterson in, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction refers to Paul Tournier's description of being "between the times" when he says that it is when we engage in

the experience of being in between - between the time we leave home and arrive at our destination; between the time we leave adolescence and arrive at adulthood; between the time we leave doubt and arrive at faith. It is like the time when a trapeze artist lets go the bar and hangs in midair, ready to catch another support: it is a time of danger, of expectation, of uncertainty, of excitement, of extraordinary aliveness.

These are the times that people are most open to God, I think. God spoke to Abram and said, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you" Genesis 12:1. God put Abram in a "between the times" moment so he could hear from Him and be transformed, learning to rely only on God. Israel was in that moment both during the Exodus and when they entered the Promised Land. Jesus experienced it in the desert during the temptation when He displayed reliance upon God in overcoming every temptation. This happened before He started His ministry. The Bible seems to make much of these moments and they dominate our literature and film. "Between the times" moments constitute the fabric of all of our great stories.

How can we minister to people during these moments of potential growth and transformation? When people are in college and are getting ready to step into the world, how can we speak into their lives in ways that help draw them to reliance upon God? In 2004, I travelled through Europe and met many college students and young adults who were "between the times" of college and grad school or were about to enter the workforce. They were taking a pilgrimage, so to speak, to discover some things and figure out where they were headed. I got into more natural spiritual conversations with people on that trip than at any point in my life, I think. So many people are just trying to figure out how to live. In April, we were in Rishikesh, India, and there were Westerners everywhere who had come to this holy city on the Ganges looking for enlightenment. They were "between the times" in their lives and were looking for truth and direction. Yet, there were no Christian missionaries there to meet them. The only Christian witness in the entire city was a ministry that we had connected with that was doing work in the villages and with school age children. They were indigenous Indians. But, what if there were Western Christians or Indians there to meet the Westerners who were travelling "between the times" so that we could interact with them and point them to Christ? This is when they are open. It seems that we do not do these things because our ministry to people has become so tied to church growth that we almost think that random encounters are a waste because we cannot see the results. For many, this type of ministry would require a lot of faith. But, I think that it needs to be done.

There are so many other venues where "between the times" ministry can take place: Nursing homes, pre-marital counseling, boot camp for the military, youth ministry, ministry to young couples or young parents, etc. May God lead us into these situations so that we can meet people who are open, even if we receive nothing in return but the joy of seeing people open their hearts to God.  Really, that is all the reward that we should ever seek anyway.

Micah-the-Pastoral-Intern's Book Reviews

We have a brilliant pastoral intern this summer named Micah. He will be a senior in college this year and he is praying about going into vocational ministry. So as a formative experience, we developed a learning internship for him this summer. He has shadowed me to meetings and events and he went with me to the Alan Hirsch conference this past weekend in New Orleans. We've spent a lot of time together, and even though Micah's been a part of our church since he was 13, my respect for his heart for God and intellect has grown exponentially in the few weeks that we have been doing this.

I've given Micah quite a few books to read as the internship has begun and have asked him to write a short reflection on each book. We sit down and talk through it together, exploring different issues that emerge. Initially, we are looking at issues that might frame his perspective on ministry in the 21st Century. Where and how can he most faithfully represent Christ to a dying world?  He has posted his reviews online at http://collegerambling.blogspot.com/ .  You seriously need to check out his reviews from writers like Eugene Peterson, Ron Sider, Bob Roberts, Alan Hirsch, George Grant, Watchmen Nee, and Marty Duren (Micah is going to spend some time at Marty's church in North Georgia this weekend).  Micah will be interning with us through the summer and his experiences and learning have just begun. Keep him in your prayers, especially if you are a part of Gateway and you are reading this.  If you have any advice or encouragement for a young man trying to discern whether or not to enter vocational ministry, I'm sure that it would be appreciated.

Are the Suburbs in Decline?

Chuck Warnock thinks so. In anticipation of my next post from the Alan Hirsch conference on the dangers of consumerism, check out Warnock's post, The Decline of the Suburb.

I'll have a lot more on this tomorrow, but in the meantime, what do you think the future holds for the 'burbs? How has suburban life affected the witness of the Church positively or negatively?  What might a post-suburban evangelical church in America look like? I'd love to hear your ideas. I'm really thinking a lot lately about how the Gospel of the Kingdom relates to suburban/planned community living in America.

Alan Hirsch and the Centrality of Christ for the Missional Church

On Saturday, I travelled to New Orleans with Micah, our pastoral intern, and met Andrew, a former member of our church and a student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Andrew emailed me a while back to invite me to attend a one day conference with Alan Hirsch, co-author of The Shaping of Things to Come and author of The Forgotten Ways. I jumped at it and I'm glad I did. This was one of the best 7-8 hours that I have ever spent in a conference. Every moment was a bombshell. Every thought shared and digested was life changing. Alan Hirsch delivered truth about the person and work of Jesus Christ and the mission of the church in ways that were extremely challenging. Over the next few days, I'm going to share the notes that I took on the conference and also share some other thoughts along the way.

The title of his presentation was "Re-Calibrating the 21st Century Church." He began by telling a story about Swedish evangelicals. Out of 9 million people in Sweden, approximately 300,000 are evangelical. They are very passive and they have lost their adventurous spirit. If they do not make decisions to change things soon, they will be responsible, or will be the ones on watch, for the demise of Christianity in their land. Europe is now post-Christian.

We have to re-think church and mssion requires recovering our most ancient and powerful story.

The church is now in a post-Christendom culture. The problem is that we have innoculated people AGAINST Christianity. People think that they know who Jesus is, but we have not correctly represented Him because we do not really live for Him. Where Europe now is, America is headed.

Einstein said, "You cannot solve the world's problems with the same thinking that created those problems in the first place."

We must recover the centrality of Jesus Christ in His own movement. Christology lies at the heart of the renewal of the church. We must be refound by going back to the Founder. We must genuinely radicalize in order to missionalize. To radicalize means that we must go back to the root. We must return to Jesus and really know Him as He is and reveals Himself, or we will never become missional.

Christology > Missiology > Ecclesiology.  Jesus is not easy to live with. He demands everything from us.

What is the church meant to be about? That is answered by recovering Jesus. Not only is Jesus God-like, but God is Christ-like. We cannot look at God except through the lense of Jesus. How you think of Jesus changes everything.

We must go to the root (Jesus) to radicalize. Jesus defines the movement. When you go back to Jesus, you find the core of Christianity. When we radicalize (go back to the root), we become more like Jesus. Do we look like Jesus? Do our churches look like Jesus?

If we do not go back to Jesus, then Ecclesiology dominates. The Church becomes the focus and Jesus gets locked up within the Church and our religious activities. Jesus becomes domesticated to the church's agenda. Missions at this point becomes a sub-committee of the church so that we can get Jesus out of the church and into the world. In the correct view, ecclesiology should come last and our missiology should flow out of our Christology. Churches should form because people know Jesus. Our view of Jesus should propel us to a lost world because that is exactly where Jesus went. If we are His disciples, we should end up looking like Him.

Christianity minus Christ equals religion. Religion focuses on some type of experience that fades over time, so rituals are developed to guard and convey the experience to the next generation. A priesthood develops to manage this and represent it to the people. Jesus develops an anti-religion where everyone becomes a priest and everyone who believe in Him gets in. A priest ministers to God and mediates God to other people. We all get to do this. As priests, we should not try and control people, but we should introduce people to Jesus. We are not responsible for people's decisions, but rather, we should share the truth of God with people.

As evangelicals, we camp out in the death and resurrection of Christ. But, we forget the Incarnation. We forget that He became a human being and, as Eugene Peterson says, "moved into the neighborhood." We are not Jesus, but we must become like Him. The totality of Jesus' life and work must come into play through the Gospel of the Kingdom.

We must rediscover the gospels as primary texts. We must return to the gospels and rediscover Jesus. How does He live? What does He teach? Do our lives look like His? We must rediscover Christ. We must return to Jesus and stop just believing doctrine about Him and start living like Him in relationship with Him. Jesus changes everything, yet He is not easy to live with.

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Me - Instead of trying to get people to be more missional by trying to get them to engage or to be trained, we need to continue to connect people to the real Jesus. A lack of desire for missional impact can always be traced back to a flaw in our Christology and discipleship. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Nothing should get in the way of us joining Him in that mission. We are a sent people. Many Christians do not embrace this view, and our churches are dying as a result. But, instead of trying to revive our churches or work harder, we must return to Christ. We must return to our first love and live the way that He calls us to. Our whole perspective needs to be changed instead of just adding some stuff to an already broken system.

Much more later . . .

Convention Finale: Does the SBC Have a Future?

I have written a great deal about the SBC over the past few days because I had a sense that what would be decided and discussed would have significance for the long term. I was pretty gloomy last night (Tuesday) about the overall tone of the convention, primarily because nothing was done about the IMB policies. But, after listening to Al Gilbert's covention sermon, hearing from the other speakers, seeing the passage of the resolution on regenerate church membership, and hearing the idea of a Great Commission Resurgence mentioned again and again, I am of the belief that the SBC leadership is moving in the right direction. Here's why: They are finally publically saying that they believe that there is something dreadfully wrong and they are taking steps to address it. As Dr. Frank Page said in his sermon, we have to see ourselves ae we really are and go to Jesus for change. On some levels, it appears as though we are doing that.

Apart from Dr. Patterson's claims that the SBC will be rescued by swarms of Southwestern graduates beating back the vultures attacking the SBC, the triumphalistic tone that has marked so many of our meetings was missing. There was a great deal more humility and recognition that we are in trouble. There was an awareness that all biblically conservative, BF&M affirming Baptists need to be mobilized to reach a dying world for Christ. It was the tone that Dr. Frank Page promised us when he became president two years ago in Greensboro. He has delivered. 

When I went to my first convention two years ago, I was a part of a small group of Baptist Bloggers calling for reform. I met up with guys like Marty Duren, Art Rogers, Todd and Paul Littleton, Ben Cole, Wade Burleson, Kevin Bussey, CB Scott, Micah Fries, Tom Ascol, David Phillips, and others who were saying that we were facing dramatic problems and that we had to reform and become missional or we would die. The reform group changed by adding new people and losing others, but the basic message stayed the same.  The small movement was initiated by the IMB policies that overstepped the BF&M, but it tapped into the truth that the SBC is losing members, young leaders, and ground. We are declining in baptisms and our churches are aging. We knew that something had to be done and so we hit on multiple fronts. My main focus was the IMB policies, because I felt that if they were rescended it would keep the door open for missionaries to get to the field and it would also send a message to the SBC that we do not need to narrow the doctrinal parameters of cooperation. My vision did not exceed that because I thought that getting the whole convention to move in a missional direction was a hopeless cause. Others, like Ben Cole, saw the main problem as being Dr. Patterson at Southwestern. Others, like Marty Duren, focused more on bringing a missional perspective to the SBC, and we all watched people like Steve McCoy and Joe Thorn who did more than talk about it. Then, you had the Calvinist perspective from folks like Tom Ascol and Timmy Brister. We never all agreed with one another and there were many parts of the reform movement that that some of us rejected. But, all of this came together to provide an unending, and I believe, God provoked push for change.  Unfortunately, those calling for change did not always do so in a God-honoring way and the movement sometimes struggled because of that.

Al Gilbert's Convention Message

He begins speaking from 1 Corinthians 4. He starts by telling the story of his own almost-cancer and said that he had a "death check" that caused him to look closely at his life. The SBC is getting information that we are sick and dying. Will we ask the tough questions about what we are doing? We face a challenge of denominational priorities. We are going to have to pass the baton to the next generation, but they do not seem to want it. From 1 Cor. 4, we should be seen as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. We should be seen as servants of Christ. Paul used a term for servant that appealed to the idea of being an "under rower." The under rower is to push and pull the oars at the bottom of the ship to move the ship forward. Jesus gives us direction and we are to follow. We are to also be stewards of the mystery of God - we are to be found faithful to managing God's truth and caring for it. We are accountable to God.

The primary mystery that Paul was referring to was the message of the Cross. He quoted Dr. Mohler saying that the church is the repository of the gospel. 2 Cor. 5 says that God has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation. God pleads with the world to be reconciled to Him through the church. We are not just given the message of the Cross, but also the mission of making this message known to the world so that the world will be reconciled to God. The mystery of the gospel is that the Nations would bow down and worship the Lord. We have been entrusted the message and the mission of the Cross - we are stewards to tell the whole world about Jesus. This stewardship has been given to ALL.

Thoughts on the Convention from Timmy Brister's Blog

Timmy Brister did the best job by far of covering the Resolution on Integrity In Church Membership. His typing skills are AMAZING and he got the whole thing. His pastor, Tom Ascol, was the author of this resolution for the past 3 years.  Start reading the coverage of the resolution HERE. He gives the full text of the resolutions and also of the amendments. He also gives information on the other resolutions that passed. Here are a few thoughts from that comment stream that stood out strongly and are important for us all to consider:

Timmy Brister: (Before the resolution passed) UNBELIEVABLE. The Resolutions Committee stripped out over half of the resolution from either Tom or Yarnell/Barber. Any kind of amendments will require the insertion of numerous paragraphs–paragraphs with the resolutions committed seem none to resolved about. What this resolution by the committee represents is a proverbial hat tip to the debate and as it stands contributes nothing to the cause of integrity in church membership or the call to repentance or the need for recovering our Baptist distinctives–all of which baptist historians and theologians stand in agreement.

Marty Duren: Timmy-I have to gently disagree. It is completely and thoroughly BELIEVABLE.

Your thoughts about pre-Greensboro and pre-Indy relating to the influence of blogs was interesting. A not insignificant insight is that all the blogging that took place pre-Greensboro had to do with SBC reform. Frank Page’s election (benefiting from whatever blog weight one chooses to assign) was seen as an outgrowth of a growing discontent with the “anointed annual candidate” and the “CP resurrection” being driven by the State execs and the Executive Committee.

This year, there is no reform movement to speak of. The vast majority of the vocal ones have long since given up trying to reform the SBC. The singular place where I disagree with Steve McCoy is that the SBC won’t be changed as our churches change–it will be abandoned. (Well, it will not be changed for the better.) The reason blogs like SBC Today, Peter Lumpkins, et al, do not have the weight needed for change is because they are not offering any. Nobody is motivated by passion to keep the status quo.

Even the Church Membership resolution (and I would have voted for Tom’s each year including this one) speaks much more to how near we are to the end of denominational existence than a hope for renewal. Who could have imagined a baptist denom having to go on record as to what it means to be a church member? And this after 25 years of resurging? It tells a tale that we have to continually define and redefine who we are to smaller and smaller gatherings each year, while not a single resolution thus far (that I’ve read) has anything to do with positively impacting culture, building bridges to those in need of Christ or, of course, repentance.

Timmy Brister: (After the resolution passed) Having now a Convention consensus on the matter, may we all pray for churches and pastors to implement the hard work of practicing regenerate church membership. Remember that no resolution is binding on the churches, but it can be binding on our hearts. May the conversation not end, but begin to translate into action, so that, five years from now, we will not look back and see that it was just a resolution–nothing more, nothing less.

Frank Page: Bobby Jindal Baptized and Led to Christ by Tommy French

Frank Page just told the convention that Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal (R) told him that he had been baptized and led to Christ by Louisiana Baptist pastor Tommy French. This is pretty significant. I was under the impression that Bobby Jindal was a Catholic. At any rate, Jindal is on the short list for the VP nomination to run with McCain. He is a young governor of Indian ancestry and is probably one of the brightest lights in the Republican Party. If you have not heard about Bobby Jindal, pay attention. I would not be surprised if he ran for president in the near future.

Al Mohler's Southern Seminary Report

Al Mohler is giving his Southern Seminary report. He starts by saying that he is excited about being a Southern Baptist, because where else is a denomination affirming biblical doctrine on regenerate church membership? Many denominations are debating same-sex marriage and ordaining homosexuals. But Southern Baptists are reminding themselves of what the Bible says on the importance of believers baptism and church discipline.