“EMBODYING OUR FAITH”
(Part 4)


This final installment of my blog on Tim Morey’s book will offer some very practical suggestions and practices that Tim and his church have found to be most effective in responding better to those around us that we want to reach with the gospel of Christ. These ideas fall under the “embodied apologetic” headings described earlier: experiential, communal, and enacted.

EXPERIENTIAL: “As we consider how we can embed this aspect of our witness in the life of the church, the worship gathering is a key ministry structure. In worship, we bring God the praises he deserves, and as we do, believers are shaped into the image of Christ and inquirers experience the present reality of God in a unique way.”

•Worship gatherings are one of the church’s primary ministry structures for disciplemaking. The worship gathering can serve as a powerful experiential apologetic.

•A young atheist began attending (Life Covenant) only out of the sheer pain following his wife’s affair. When he eventually received Christ, it wasn’t the logical arguments that convinced him (though they helped)--but the undeniable sense that God was actually present with the church as we worshiped.

•In a postmodern world, experiencing God’s presence in the praises of his people carries a weight that an evidential argument typically does not.

•As we consider the role the worship gathering plays in our 21st century mission field, what theological and practical aspects of worship will emerge as especially important? And what are the characteristics of worship that will best contribute to its function as an experiential apologetic?

--God Centered: Worship must remain focused on God and not become a means to another end. Our goal must be to help people see God and cry out to him from the heart, not to engineer a hip, flashy, or entertaining event to elicit a desired reaction or result from people. The goal must be to help people grow as worshipers of God and apprentices of Jesus, not as consumers of religious programs.

--Authentic: In many boomer churches, worship is watered down in an attempt to make it more palatable to those who are seeking (religious symbols removed or minimized, worship space made less “churchy,” difficult theological language avoided, etc.). Spiritual life is made to appear “normal” and less mysterious. Those who are coming as inquirers do not want something devoid of spiritual mystery that looks identical to the rest of life. Ironically, they often reject Christianity because it does not appear spiritual enough!

--Contextualized: While issues of style are secondary to authenticity, it is deeply important that our worship is culturally relevant as well. To be effective in making disciples of the postmodern generation, we must worship in a way that allows them to cry out to God in their own heart language. Erwin McManus: “Perhaps the greatest tragedy of our time is that we have kept our pews and lost our children.” The goal is not to mimic popular culture and therefore better market the church (but) to let worship grow in our churches in ways that are indigenous rather than badly fitted imports from somewhere else.

--Transcendent & Immanent: We need to consciously pursue both reverence and intimacy. Postmoderns certainly want to experience God as near, but at the same time they react against God being reduced or tamed to look like “Buddy Jesus.”

--Historically Rooted: Postmoderns have a deep appreciation for the more ancient aspects of the faith. The rootedness that comes from knowing they are part of a rich historic community adds depth to their faith. Consequently, there is great interest in the spiritual practices, symbols, and teachings of earlier generations of the church. When we introduce aspects of ancient liturgy, spiritual disciplines, and the stories of historic figures in the church, we invite our people to be part of this history.

--Symbolic: In the modern age, easier access to printed media made the Bible accessible. The written word became the dominant means of communication and symbolic communication diminished. Mystery tended to give way to explanation and played a smaller role in understanding faith. In the postmodern era, there is a deep longing for a recovery of awe and wonder. “What materials do we need to construct a postmodern faith? Besides the message of premodern faith, and the reasons of modern faith, we need to supply the right signs and symbols for a postmodern faith.”


•In shaping the way we approach Sundays (at Life Covenant): 1. We inverted what most of us knew as a “normal” order of worship. Many of us are from traditions where the sermon was the main event and musical and other worship forms were treated as a warm-up for the message. As our understanding of worship took hold, it made more sense to begin our service by reading and teaching the Scriptures (God revealing himself to us) and then to build the rest of our time around responding to that word. 2. Our understanding of worship has caused us to value a sense of sacredness. 3. Our focus on worship--God revealing Himself, and our response--has led our congregation to value simplicity in worship.

•Elements incorporated into Life Covenant’s worship:
--Prayer
--Music
--Teaching/Preaching - 21st century preachers must become skilled at exegeting three sources: the biblical text, the surrounding culture, and the human heart. We try to approach preaching less as giving answers and more as raising the right questions, and to preach in a way that the mysteries of God are not alleviated but embraced.
--Communion (celebrated weekly) - In many churches, communion has been reduced to a mere intellectual recall of Christ’s suffering. The mystery has been removed and we are left with little expectation of actually meeting God.
--Giving
--Story
--Psalms
--Ancient Prayers & Writings - We are part of something very ancient even as we follow God into the future.
--Food
--Silence
--Art
--Meditation
--Benediction - “You do not dismiss a church--you disperse it!” (Martin Luther) Go out of the church door and into the world to be the church. We don’t go to church; we are the church.

COMMUNAL: Being made in the image of the triune God, the desire for community is imprinted on our souls. “Evangelism is less an invitation to an event and more of an invitation to enter into community.” (Dan Kimball) The most significant source of spiritual growth for most believers is the people they are journeying with..members of a small group, a mentor or apprentice, accountability partners, or simply good spiritual friends. Expressions of community such as these are one of our congregation’s three primary ministry structures. They serve as a crucial vehicle for spiritual formation, and simultaneously function as a communal apologetic for those outside the faith. How does this take place?

--Community As Theological Reality: connectional (doing life deeply together); authentic community (a greater reality; what it truly means to be the church). Our task is not to create it out of thin air but to recognize it’s presence, and to cultivate an environment that will help that community flourish. Community is based in the very existence of God: Triune God! The communal nature of Christ’s work, especially reflected in the sacraments. “At the moment of baptism we are no longer merely ourselves by ourselves; from then on we are ourselves in the community of similarly baptized persons.” (Eugene Peterson) For the ancient church, the tremendous bond that exists between believers was pictured in the communion event. There is a sense in which fellow believers are more closely connected than blood relatives or friends who know each others’ deepest secrets. Vibrant, life-giving community does not happen automatically. As with all living things, it must be cultivated and nurtured.
Community is messy! At its best it involves real people bringing their truest selves into the presence of others. Community is messy because grace is messy. The more graceful we become as a church, the more freedom people will feel to be real and the messier life will become. Ironically, this messiness is part of what attracts emerging generations to faith. An embodied apologetic is only effective as the church looks like Jesus.

--Authentic Community As Apologetic: (a story of Tim’s that described nonbelievers coming to Christ through involvement in small groups aimed at strengthening believers) “The missional church evangelizes primarily through immersing the unchurched in the experience of community.” (Robert Webber) All people are created with a deep need for community. For postmoderns, however, this need is often right on the surface (because of breakdown of the family, tripling of divorce rate, rise in dual-income families). A most fundamental question: "Will you be there for me?” The community that has been transformed by Christ may be our greatest apologetic. Inviting outsiders into our small groups allows them the opportunity to belong before they believe. If this is the case, it serves to further highlight the need to emphasize spiritual formation as part of discipleship. Not a seeker approach.

--Belonging Happens In Multiple Spaces: Not everyone has the same belonging needs. There is a temptation for churches to find one vehicle (usually small group ministry) and treat it as a panacea for all of the people’s belonging needs. What we need are relationships that are significant, not necessarily relationships that are close or intimate. Four levels of belonging: public, social, personal, intimate. (Need for) strategy that will entail creating an atmosphere where people can grow significant relationships in all four of these spaces.

•Cultivating an environment for community:

--Commitment/Membership -The view that one can claim membership in the universal, invisible body of Christ without identifying with a visible community of Christ followers would not be recognized by the New Testament writers. “We can no more be a Christian and have nothing to do with the church than we can be a person and not be part of a family. It is part of the fabric of redemption.” (Eugene Peterson) Membership as a truly valuable tool for spiritual formation. We have begun calling out our generation’s fickleness and calling believers to make a significant commitment. This is radically countercultural, serves to remedy the consumer mentality that plagues the church, and aids in growing into Christlikeness. The flabby commitment exhibited in many local churches today: too often Christians see themselves more as consumers of than contributors to church. Our growth as Jesus’ disciples is dependent on a commitment to belong to a community of believers.

--Small Groups - Two primary types of small groups that are fairly typical of churches: 1. Bible study model, with an emphasis on life application. Primary strength: it helps people engage deeply and be shaped by Scripture. 2. Therapeutic model, with the primary goal of listening to and helping one another in our walk with Christ. Primary strength: it can effectively connect believers in community as they seek to follow Christ in day-to-day life. Life Covenant’s approach is a sort of hybrid: Missional small group, characterized by both study and fellowship, but within the context of mission. Study of the Bible is not reduced to mere knowledge acquisition, and fellowship is never reduced to mere therapy. These groups function as missionary bands...as they embark on mission together. 3 goals: to facilitate the spiritual formation of believers; to seek out, welcome, and embrace those who are from God; and to serve together in ministries of compassion and justice. Life Covenant also encourages smaller gatherings of two or three people to meet for mentoring or accountability with peers. “In a community where confession of sins is not taking place, only a thin veneer of fellowship can exist. Pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

--Hospitality: Practice of inclusion (ex. Jesus’ radically inclusive table fellowship in which he regularly welcomed notorious sinners (Samaritans and Gentiles) to become his friends). Jesus’ first followers continued his practice of hospitality and table fellowship. Hospitality is a central practice of emerging churches, meeting the postmodern generation’s hunger for community. These churches see hospitality as a two-sided coin: welcoming the stranger and serving the stranger. Life Covenant eats together every six to eight weeks. Families fill their tables with others from the church on a monthly basis. This simple ministry has been a key facet of assimilating newcomers into the church, as well as developing bonds between those in the church who might not naturally cross paths.

ENACTED: (a story of Tim’s about a young couple he met at Starbuck’s who were not interested in church or talking about God, but the door to spiritual conversations began when he told them about Life Covenant’s compassion work. “Our ministries of compassion and justice gave them a reason to listen and entertain the idea that there might be something good about Christianity. Also the way the church reached out to them with food and cards when their baby died: ‘None of them have even met us. Why would they want to do all this for us?’”) If our witness is to be plausible in a postmodern world, our faith must be lived out in ways that show God’s compassionate heart. It is not enough for us to talk about God’s love for the world--we have to enact it.


--Compassion And Justice In The Mission of God: Giving is at the heart of the gospel. The biblical record is the story of God giving Himself to His people. Scripture has much to say about God’s heart toward issues of poverty and injustice. “We are not elected for privilege but for service; to live not as exclusive beneficiaries of God’s saving work but as bearers of this grace to the rest of the world.” (Leslie Newbigin) This truth needs to be seen in a church that is focused outward, committing itself to the work of evangelism, compassion and justice on both a local and global scale. When we neglect this we fall short of the biblical understanding of righteousness. Some of the harshest critiques that the prophets uttered were aimed at those who claim to worship God but neglect the poor and those suffering injustice.

--Compassionate Service As Enacted Apologetic: “In North America, our primary method of bearing witness to the cross of Christ is verbal. We have little room in our understanding for incarnational action constituting evangelism.” (Eugene Peterson) In a postmodern society dominated by skepticism and distrust, something more (than verbal witness) is needed, often before a verbal proclamation is given. Actions precede words. Postmodern generations are longing for purpose, and are eager to give their lives to causes that will change the world. An apologetic that is enacted speaks to this longing. “Those outside the faith are more interested in the ethics of Christians than their doctrines.” (Gibbs/Bolger)
Such an approach is well-supported by Scripture, the early church, and beyond the first century as well.
In the 21st century, a faith community that looks like Jesus is itself a powerful, enacted apologetic. Postmodern generations need to see our faith embodied if they are to accept the claims of Christ. The evangelistic function of compassionate ministry is much like that of worship: evangelism comes as a byproduct. Good compassion is good evangelism. To have an apologetic function, our compassion ministries must not have a hidden agenda. While our earnest hope is always that those we serve might come to know Jesus, we have to make sure our efforts aren’t just another kind of bait-and-switch ploy. If we are to enact our apologetic, these acts of compassion cannot be programs that come and go, but must become part of the fabric of the church--the stuff of the everyday lives of our people.
As spiritual formation, we dare not underestimate the shaping power of compassionate ministry as a discipline itself. How many in our churches...are immature not for lack of biblical knowledge, but for lack of obedience to Christ’s command to serve those in need? As we reach out to others in need, we find that our compassion expands, and consequently so does our capacity to receive and give away God’s grace. Through compassionate service we learn humility. The compassionate life develops in us an appropriate selflessness. Compassionate service also shapes us in our relationship with our money. The disciplines of simplicity and generosity historically have been used by God’s people to keep money from occupying an improper place in our hearts. 21st century Americans are the most affluent people to ever walk the earth. For Christians in America, we need to accept the responsibilities that come with being the church at this junction in history. On a corporate level, making compassionate service one of the primary ministries of the church keeps the church focused outward.

--Evangelism Or Social Action?: For the first half of the 21st century, a debate raged in the church over whether evangelism or social action was the more faithful embodiment of God’s mission. Scripture makes it clear, however, that both of these activities are critical in God’s mission (and consequently in the mission of the church). Many churches struggle to live out social action when evangelism, with its eternal ramifications, seems it should be the church’s priority. Ultimacy rather than primacy of evangelism: priority implies that an activity is most important and should be our starting point, while in reality this is not always possible or practical, nor does it reflect the ministry of Jesus. “Mission may not always begin with evangelism. But mission that does not ultimately include declaring the name of Christ, the call to repentance, and faith and obedience..is a defective mission, not a holistic mission.”

--Giving Shape To Our Compassion: If we are to see an enacted apologetic embedded in the life of the church, it needs to be more than a stated value. We need to provide specific ministry structures that can serve as vehicles for this value to be lived out. Our goal at Life Covenant is to provide multiple vehicles, both locally and globally, to enable us to carry out this aspect of our discipleship to Jesus. (In doing this) we want compassion to be part of what the normal Christian life looks like, and not something that is only practiced on “field trips.” (Also) we want the community God has place us in to see, hear and feel the benefits of his work through us in their midst.

•Tim concludes his book with specific examples of how his congregation does this, both locally and globally: ministry to the homeless and working poor, education help, “Do! Team” (practical help to people, like home repair, babysitting, etc.), micro enterprise ministry in Mozambique, and more.


•One of the primary questions postmoderns ask is, “Do I want to be like you?” Living out God’s compassion is part of embodying our apologetic, and it gives them reason to answer “Yes!” to that question. In the same way, as we prayerfully engage in worship and nurture authentic community in our churches, we not only are formed as apprentices of Jesus but also find opportunity to embody our apologetic and allow those around us to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” May God use our humble efforts to his glory.

So that’s it! MUCH to ponder and chew on. Tim’s practical experience, as well as his theological understanding, seem to hit the nail on the head though, as to how churches in our day need to shift their understanding and approach to “being Church” today if we hope to be vital, vibrant, authentic congregations in our communities. “Church as usual” simply will not do. We will not survive with such a mindset and pattern--no matter how meaningful, relevant, and comfortable "Church as we know it" is to us.

May God guide us and enable us to shift, change, and embrace new understandings and approaches so our “embodied apologetic” will truly reflect our Savior, Jesus, and serve as a beautiful magnet that attracts others and makes them want to follow Jesus too.

My next blog will happen after I return from India! I’m sure I’ll have LOTS to share. Thanks for reading.