A thoughtful (if a little indirect) post from Tony Jones on this topic is HERE.

A page from Bob Hyatt on N.T. Wrights recent comments on this topic  (referred to by Tony in his post)  is HERE.

This is a subject all followers of Jesus need to wrestle with, within the terms of  God’s love and good gift for all humanity.

I also recommend a book called What some of you were: Stories about Christians and homosexuality edited by Christopher Keane.

I know a guy who knows Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.  I met a guy who is a good friend of Rob Bell, one of my favourite Christian speakers.

Network theorists reckon that we are, at the most, only 6 steps away from every other person on the planet.

Now if I were to influence the guy who I know  knows Obama and he in turn were to influence Obama…?

God has given us so much potential for positive change.  When you stop, and look at the world from this perspective, you might just start to see that our lives are not as insignificant or meaningless as they sometimes feel.

Maybe Jesus had something like this in mind when he said;

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

A new Barna Group study reveals that “many churchgoers and clergy struggle to articulate a basic understanding of spiritual maturity.”

This is something I have wondered about quite a bit, particularly more recently.

So, I’m interested.  Tell me how do you define spiritual maturity? And, do you think having a “missional” perspective of faith and spirituality affects your definition?

The further I go with our mission project the more important the practice of relationship seems to become.  It’s a subject that keeps popping up and has played a significant role in some of the Christians who have been involved in our community not hanging around for long.

This subject is very much related to the concept of community and mission, especially the kind of community the writers of the New Testament envisaged when they talked about relational things - i.e. the church.

The funny thing is, when it comes to mission, or church or community, many of those we meet and are involved with who have little or no church background or who have come to Jesus through strenuous, difficult paths (drug addiction, sex abuse etc.) seem to intuitively accept the deep relational aspect of community.   That willingness to be involved in each others lives, for better or worse, over the long term.  Maybe, through experiencing bad community (unhealthy relationship) a picture of healthy community, like that taught by Jesus, is easier to grasp?

For Christians, particularly those with fairly solid, regular church, backgrounds, the concept appears elusive and divisive.

I’m not talking about co-dependant communities though.  That is communities where personal well-being (and contentment) are dependant upon the emotional state of others.  Not the kind of relationships where everyone expresses a loving fluffiness that is ultimately shallow and unable to withstand the pressures of life or deal with the crises that come along.  But relationships built on and through the agape of God the Father.

The Greeks knew what they where on about when it came to love.  In the West we tend to abuse the one word we have to express all of our positive emotional feelings (even if they are not always expressed through positive action).  “I love my team”, or “I love jogging!”, or “I love you”, or “I love chocolate”, or “I love my kids”, or “let’s make love”.

The Greek’s had a suite of words to describe almost every aspect of love.  They were able to clearly differentiate in their conversation the kind of positive emotional feeling they were talking about.  When it came to God and expressing love for his creation, the New Testament authors almost exclusively use the Greek word agape.

Agape is the deep, relational love Jesus expressed for his followers in laying down his life for them, it is the deep relational love the Father expressed for his creation in sending his son into it, it is the deep relational love that Jesus said would characterise the way his followers related to one another and the world around them.

Simply put, you cannot have agape without relationship.  If you can’t have agape without relationship then you can’t truly be the church  (at least the church in practice) and you can’t begin to understand mission from God’s perspective.

At the end of the day, agape formed relationship is hard.  It means entering into lives with a commitment to share the ups and the downs for the longer time.  It is a commitment akin to that of the marriage commitment (”husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church … being willing to die for her” - my paraphrase) and it is a commitment paralleled by the Father’s own unconditional commitment to redeeming his creation, no matter the cost (back in Genesis 15 God seals the deal with Abraham by putting him to sleep and walking between the covenantal elements himself, and in so doing relieving Abraham of all responsibility for upholding the agreement - the covenant.  The covenant was, and continues to be, the Father’s responsibility).

Len Sweet describes relationships like this:

Relationships are more complex than math problems.  Forget about all the romantic celebration of ‘community’ found in some Christian circles today.  17th century Dutch Jesuit saint John Bergmanns got it right, when he described community life as; ‘my greatest mortification’.  Relationships are hard, exhausting, unpredictable and time consuming.  Which is one reason why too many of us enjoy relationships  with the life span of fruitflies.  Relationships don’t come to us like Christmas packages, all neatly wrapped with ribbons and bows.  Relationships come more to us like an abused package from the post office.  Ripped, torn with its guts spilling out, the contents often broken.
(Leonard Sweet. Transcribed from the audio book version of  So Beautiful, 2009).

And he’s not far wrong.  They are difficult and dirty - particularly when practiced well.  But they are also an essential part of the kingdom of God, of being the church and living out the gospel in our world. Resulting in lives and the world around us changed and  fruit of fulfillment and purpose and belonging being experienced.   If we can’t get our head around this then we are not going to properly tap into the way of life God intends for us to live.  Christian life will simply stay centred around a day of the week, or a meeting,  or the stuff we know.  It will stay in doors, and outside the community.  Unable and ill-equipped to play a part in God’s mission of redemption in the world.

I read P.K. Yohannan’s book Revolution in World Mission about 5 years ago while visiting Rwanda, and it helped catalyse a few of the ideas I had been having about the role of the Western church in contemporary mission and represented a fairly revolutionary way of looking at mission, to me at the time.  You can still obtain the book for free from the Gospel for Asia website.

Today I received a promotional email from Gospel for Asia (Yohannan’s organisation) advertising the following video.  It is a pretty amazing example of incarnational living.  I hope you are moved and inspired as much as I have been.

I tried to embed the video but can’t work out how to do this with the Wordpress Console!  So here’s the link:

http://www.gfa.org/slum-dog?cm_mmc=GFA-_-Email-_-535975-_-

Sunday I posted a bit about one of our activities as a “missional” community (I use that term cause I don’t really know how else to describe us - maybe “mission project” or “community development project” is better) - our fortnightly “social Sunday” BBQ.

The BBQ has become a bit of a point of contention within the group.  I covered it briefly in the previous post and don’t really want to go into too much further detail on this side of things, as it is something we are trying to work through as a community.  However, now that we are starting to discuss it, one of the biggest failings of the BBQ has come to the fore.  That is I haven’t done a very good job of explaining how the BBQ relates to mission.

And so, in order to clarify this for our guys as well as for anyone else who may be interested, I want to outline the things that can make a BBQ mission.

I think it’s important to firstly define “mission” as we understand it.

Mission stems from God’s redemptive plan for this world and it’s inhabitants.  It is God’s mission to “save” his creation.  The biblical concept of God’s mission (in Latin, the missio Dei) is based on the premise that God first sent his son, the Christ and that the Christ extended his role in the missio Dei to his followers.  You can get an idea of this from reading John 17 (a pastoral prayer prayed by Jesus just prior to his arrest and crucifixion) and John 20:21 (“As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you“) and from the “great commission” found in Matthew 28:18-20 (Jesus explicitly tells his followers that they are to “go”).

So for Alternate[Or] Community - a community where mission (or being missional) is our number one purpose - this is how we understand mission.

So what makes a BBQ mission?

BBQs in and of them self are not necessarily mission activities.  That’s not to say that socialising can’t be approached “missionaly”.  I believe it can, as can all aspects of life.  However in our case, there are a couple of things that make this BBQ, in particular, missional.

The BBQ has a specific purpose.  While on the surface, we really are just socialising, underneath there’s a lot more going on.  Since we first started as a community our goal has been to extend the New Testament concept of “kingdom” (as an environment where followers of Jesus and those who are not yet followers of Jesus can coexist) to the marginalised in our community.

This was done through the purposeful creation of safe spaces.  Places where people who are used to being judged, who are not part of healthy communities, who are marginalised to the fringe of society for any number of reasons, can come and feel acceptance and can belong.  This idea came about after studying the “kingdom” parables in Matthew 13.  In particular the parable of the mustard seed (the kingdom is like a grain of mustard … when it’s grown it’s larger than all the garden plants … and becomes a place the birds of the air can nest and shelter in).

We understood this passage to be describing the kingdom as an environment (the tree is the environment) and the birds of the air as those who are not of the kingdom benefiting from it.  The tree didn’t “produce” the birds, but it does provide a safe place for them to nest and raise their families.

While this parable doesn’t say too much about our role - the role of the disciples - it does say plenty about about the kingdom (but that is its purpose!).

The BBQ then becomes an expression of the kingdom as a safe environment.  Somewhere people who don’t have many safe places or any experience with healthy community (functional families, unconditional love, care without strings) can come and experience some of these things.

Our role, as the “sent ones” is to be present.  To take an interest (even in the mundane aspects of life) and to commit to relationship over the long term.  For everyone that comes, regardless of background, while they want to be a part of this aspect of our community (and even if they choose not to continue to be involved) the door will always be open and they will have friends and a place of relative refuge.

The benefits found for those who participate are probably best explained in terms of social science.  The community (or group) experience has therapeutic benefits.  Particularly given the background of many of those involved, e.g. in substance abuse, sexual abuse, crime, homelessness etc. It provides social and emotional support in an alternative way of living to that found in their community of origin.  In other words we try and role model (as followers of Jesus) an alternative way of living and of relating, of showing respect, treating with dignity, caring for and being willing to serve those who come.

Through this trust grows, relationships develop and before long involvement (where there was no prior engagement) extends beyond the BBQ into other areas of life.  Opportunities to serve, support and advocate exist.  To grow and strengthen and continue the process of engaging people in a way of life that is ever growing closer to the way God intended them to live.

We don’t hide our faith - everyone who comes knows that we are followers of Jesus, as relationships develop opportunities present to share more of this aspect of our lives in a verbal way however we are clear that there is no pressure to conform or to get involved in the other aspects of our community.  However the opportunity to get further involved is always there and, along the way, some do take this up.  Most, however,  just keep coming back.

While there is a part of me - that part that was infected with a much more propositional approach to the “sharing” of faith and mission/evanglism/outreach activities - that at times struggles with the lack of apparent spiritual progress in the group there are a couple of things that help me get back on track.

Firstly, I truly believe salvation comes through Christ as a work of the Father.  It is not my job to “save” anyone.  If we, as a community, can present in a corporate way the imperfect lives of disciples of the perfect One, surrendering our weaknesses to God, allowing his agape to flow through us and being open and genuine about who we are, we are doing all we need to.  The rest is God’s work.

Secondly, ensuring we are able to provide opportunties for those who are drawn to Jesus and begin expressing an interest in learning more to enter into other aspects of our community - the times when we, as disciples, come together to worship and to discuss the Scriptures and to pray.  This has been an interesting experiment and at times, a struggle, as we have experimented with new ways of doing this for post-literate/illiterate people.

Alternate[Or] Community is a community starting from scratch.  I read somewhere the comment that “mission doesn’t start with the church, rather the church starts with mission“.  I think that sums up fairly nicely what we are trying to do.

Our city (of around 60,000 people) has more than 36 churches.  It doesn’t need another church (even another house church).  What it doesn’t have is anything remotely like our Social Sunday BBQ or the other smaller scale things we’re involved in, where the “unchurched” out number the “churched” in a healthy expression of community, where people who have no other contact with followers of Christ or his kingdom, come into regular contact with a different way of life and living and are willing to keep coming back. But not just to keep coming back, even enthusiastically inviting their friends and in so doing expanding the network and the possibilities for the MRI of the body to be enacted in our city.

Because of who it is that is organising and holding these BBQs (followers of Jesus) and because of the purpose behind them, at the end of the day they are explicitly “missional”.  They are a way in which we, as followers of Jesus, can corporately live out our faith and our calling - being the salt and light and ambasadores for the kingdom among the marginalised of our city.

I’ve been listening to the audio book version of Leonard Sweet’s latest book, So Beautiful: Divine design for life and the church.

While I’m only about 1 sixth of the way through the book I’m really liking what I’m hearing.  Sweet has been criticised in the past as being too critical of the contemporary church.  However, and this is the first book of Sweet’s I’ve read (or listened to), I don’t get the feeling he’s criticising without a solution.  There is a strong prophetic undercurrent in all he has to say.

That undercurrent surfaces in a splendid way via his discussion on the church’s in-built operating system. That is its DNA.

Sweet enlarges on the thesis put forward by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost in books such as The shaping of things to come, and Hirsch’s Forgotten Ways, where a latent force - the Missional DNA of the church, is described.  Hirsch and Frost define this DNA as a course correcting mechanism - a part of the Creators design within his people, with the specific purpose of enfusing them with the ability to come back to their redemptive purpose. Sweet likens this course correcting ability to a reboot of a computers operating system.  Restoring the church to its “original” condition, enabling it to fulfill the function it was designed for.

What is particularly cool about Sweet’s discussion on this “missional DNA” is the way he has labled it - nailing it in the initials: MRI.  Sweet’s contention is that MRI is indicitive of God’s inbuilt plan for his people and can be found from Genesis through to the end of the NT.

So what is MRI?

M = Missional - The act of being sent.

R = Relational - The practice of engaging in deep, ongoing involvement with other human beings (what my friend Hamo would call “going deep”.

and

I = Incarnational - Living this missional/relational life everywhere, regardless of the culture, the time or the geographic location as authentic (in the way we were designed) examples of humanity.

In the first 6th of book, Sweet is calling the church to reboot - to reset itself back to its original operating system and to re-enage with the world in the MRI way.

You can download the audio book version of So Beautiful Here (for a short time - follow the “free download” link in the top right hand corner of the site).

I ordered a new CD from Amazon a couple of weeks back.  It’s by a new, Southern Californian artist (the CD isn’t available in Australia yet) by the name of Molly Jenson.

Jenson’s had a couple of songs on cable TV series in the US and her debut album, Maybe Tomorrow features a duet with Jon Foreman, frontman for indie rock band Switchfoot and includes songs written by Foreman.

Jenson’s music is indie rock, with a sound, in places, reminiscent of Alanis Morissette and flavoured by Switchfoot - thanks to Foreman’s influence.

I’m really enjoying this album, having listened to it two or three times now since getting it in the mail last week - I’m probably one of the only Aussies to have heard it!

In my last listen I picked up, what I assume to be, some thinly veiled pokes at the shallow materialism of the church in many places, particularly in the songs Do you only love the ones who look like you (the Foreman duet) and Wait for you here.  These pokes at consumerism/materialism are something Switchfoot has become known for in their later albums, particularly Oh Gravity, with songs such as American Dream and Faust, Midas and Myself.

If you like indie rock, Alanis Moressette and Switchfoot, I think you’ll like this album - I know I do.

Around 18 months ago, when Alternate[Or], our missional community,  first started meeting, one of our team suggested we have a regular social time - a chance for everyone to hang out and get to know each other a bit better.

Funnily enough that person never came back, but we took up the suggestion and for the first month or so 4 of us met fortnightly at the beach for a Sunday afternoon BBQ.

Soon some of the young guys I was associated with through my informal mentoring and work in social services, began to come along and join us for a  feed.

What started as a way of the team getting to know each other better fast became a means of engaging the disengaged youth I was involved with, in an aspect of healthy community quite new to them.

I began to see this as a means of providing social and emotional support for these guys.  Of connecting informally - away from the counselling room or the court house or other professional environments.  A couple of our un-churched friends also cottoned onto the benefits and began to join in along side us as we tried to model an example of healthy community - no drugs, no expectations, just good food and a chance to hang out.

18 months down the road things have progressed well.  We have a solid core of regulars - unemployed, marginalised youth, a couple of single dad families (also from the margins of society) and an expanding network of friends of the original partakers - coming along and joining in as trust and friendship is conferred.

While this has proved a fantastic way of building friendships I am beginning to feel like the time has come to re-think our Social Sunday BBQs.  Half the team (the Christians) have not accepted it or the people who come along and don’t or won’t participate.  This is a struggle for Alyssa and me, particularly given the core purpose  of our community - Mission, with a healthy emphasis on this as a corporate activity.  One of our most committed “servants” (those of us who participate in order to serve those who come) is not a believer.

One member of the team has left because of the BBQ (it didn’t meet their needs) and the murmuring from others is that the BBQ should be shelved.

Today is Social Sunday - it’ll be my first in 6 weeks because  of my surgery.  I enjoy these times and feel the need to build more into them - to use them as a basis or springboard for other opportunities for action in community and among those we serve, but I don’t know how viable this will be as a “community” activity if half the “community” won’t join in!

One of the issues stopping Western Christians from understanding mission as a way of life is simply the back-to-front way in which they understand church.

In my short life as a Christian, I have discovered one, very important thing (well, at least “one thing” that I am going to share with you here, now).  That is that a practical faith (missional faith), lived in serving relationship with others (particularly others not found in churches), is food aplenty for growth of faith and purpose.

But how often have you heard this spoken of from the front?  Mostly, if not exclusively, food for spiritual growth is purported to come from the mouth of the pastor on a Sunday morning when he delivers his weekly sermon.

Nothing against sermons here, I just don’t think this is what Jesus had in mind as the exclusive method of feeding our faith.

In fact, in his dealings with the disciples during the “woman at the well” incident, Jesus put it quite plainly.

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” John 4:34.

As disciples of the incarnate One, that should probably tell us something about our choices when it comes to our “food” source.