“CHURCH IN TRANSLATION” continued...

This week I promise to conclude my summary of the things Dan Collison shared in his Midwinter workshop. The final two categories of Mission and Evangelism for us to consider in re-shaping how we do mission and evangelism in a post-Christian world:
•Leadership and Evangelism: Merging Missiology And Ecclesiology
•Worship and Evangelism: Practicing Missional Worship

LEADERSHIP AND EVANGELISM: MERGING MISSIOLOGY AND ECCLESIOLOGY

Dan continually underscored the fact that CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING! If we are serious about merging our ecclesiology (our understanding of the Christian Church - origin, purpose, doctrine, its discipline, relationship to Jesus Christ, etc.) with our missiology (cross-cultural communication of the Christian faith), we will only proceed as far as our ability to engage our context (our environment, those around us, cultural realities, etc.). And this is more difficult work than we can possibly imagine!


No wonder most established congregations put their hands up, resist the hard work required to do this, draw back in fear and apprehension--not even knowing where to begin--and simply try to sustain “what has been” (what they know, love, are comfortable with, is meaningful to them, etc.).

To help us get a handle on this, he recommended the book, “They Like Jesus But Not The Church.” It’s a book that seeks to answer why only 20% of Americans go to a church of any kind. Dan reasoned that if the secular person is intrigued about Jesus but not institutional Christianity, there must be a disconnect between what churches are valuing, doing, and messaging and what Jesus values, does, and communicates. He then checked out a broad sampling of evanglical churches across America to see what they were messaging, and discovered that many had the same basic grid of vision statements, strategic plans, and statements of purpose that sounded a lot like what Saddleback and Willow Creek constructed in the 1990’s! Which built church institutions and a balanced diet for the Christian faith in the context of a 20th century church institution-centered world. But these are not adequate for the 21st century world we are now living in! The CONTEXT has changed! Their language is not strong enough to transform people and churches in a world that is crying out for more embodied Christ-following on the streets than bodies of Christ followers in church buildings. We need to expand these simplistic grids and think more deeply on more levels, which can happen with this second proposed move for churches to become more effective in evangelism and mission in the 21st century by merging our ecclesiology with our missiolgy. This is done by placing the best thinking and practices of both disciplines side by side and looking for connecting points, then identifying a set of values that represent these merged expressions of ecclesiology and missiology, which can then guide one’s congregation into the future.


Values are an interesting and crucial phenomenon because, while we can state what we believe, we always live out what we value. Values trump belief every time! Churches often have very clear belief statements, but the difference between what they believe and what they live lies in their stated or unstated values. So the purpose of merging ecclesiology and missiology into stated values is to help us live more like Jesus in our time and place (our CONTEXT).

Now what does all of this mean and look like, practically speaking? Dan worked out nine values, which are discussed at length in his book, “Church in Translation.” Here they are, briefly stated:

VALUE 1: “Live God’s Word With Humility” - Express the Covenant’s “where is it written?” with humility! People don’t know the Bible today - help rebuild Bible-love! Use non-Christian language and vocabulary of people in the 21st century. We must be thoughtful and graceful too; declaring “We are Bible-based!” slams the door in the faces of unchurched people. We must reframe and reintroduce Jesus to people (He’s known already in some way by them).

VALUE 2: “Pray As If It Matters” - Design churches through PRAYER!


We go for techniques, planning, budgeting, resources, etc. It seems that fervent, persistent, pervasive, and systematic prayer has not been a core value of American churches Many churches have social groups, music groups, support groups, and even sports teams, but if this is all the church does, with an absence of focused prayer, the church is treating prayer as an ‘add on.’ Perhaps this correlates with the statistical decline in church attendance and fewer people coming to faith in Jesus!

VALUE 3: “Stay Curious” - This is key for the 21st century because people are curious. We must nurture the life of the mind and encourage intellectual pursuit, not the anti-intellectualism of some evanglical streams. Diverse meta-narratives surround us today--learn about them! Make biblical facts fun and attractive!

VALUE 4: “Hold Community Close” - The value of relationship is at an all-time high. Practice “belonging before believing” with people. We do this with children in our churches! We must do it with unchurched secular people coming into our churches too. Altar calls and strong pushes for people to accept Christ is seen as manipulative and pushy, especially to people who have been damaged by the Church. We must be more subtle and persuasive by creating safe space for people to be in community together before they believe.

VALUE 5: “Collaborate In Healthy Leadership” - Pursue an organic, holistic team approach (not looking to the pastor alone) and seek collaboration. Embrace Christian organizations working with both Christian and non-Christian organizations. When moving into revitalization, get a strategy team and then move into the imagination of the community.

VALUE 6: “Express The Artistry Of God” - The arts and artistry abound in Scripture, so use them today! The importance of creative arts was embraced by the Christian Church until 1517, then the Reformation simplified and purified the Christian faith. One unfortunate change was the almost complete removal of creative arts from the Christian community. The Reformers declared “faith through Scripture alone!” We need much rethinking in the Protestant world in the 21st century regarding the creative arts in the life of the Church. The arts are also deeply significant and meaningful to postmoderns.

VALUE 7: “Risk Love” - The mission-minded church is people that are sent into the world to risk loving in the name of Jesus Christ. The Church as people is truly the “church without walls” and considers the church building a mere missionary outpost that sends everyone into the work of mission. Shades of John Notehelfer, 15 years ago! 21st century pastors: let your congregations know you cannot be their chaplain if you’re going to be a missionary to the world. The reality of the world we’re in: multicultural, diverse, complex. Risk missiology (I Cor. 9:19-23 MSG).

VALUE 8: “Seek Justice for Everyone Else” - Justice is a way we can advocate for people who are oppressed and stand up for marginalized. This has a big impact on mission and evangelism. The Church is perceived to be a selfish institution that only cares for itself (buildlings, politics, money). The socially aware church reverses these perceptions. Non-Christians value justice! This can be a bridging component for us. How do we lead a congregation into this? Leaders must pastor it! Social justice establishes credibility - and it is messy! Process the stories in front of the congregation with honesty! Journey together into being a 21st century church.

VALUE 9: “Live Glocal” - We exist in a “glocal” reality (the convergence of local and global cultures) There is pain in the midst of our multicultural, diverse culture. Ask questions and seek advice and help. There is an urgent need for multicultural conversations to take place and multiethnic churches to be developed. The Covenant is committed to this and has been intentional in implementing this value throughout our denomination!

WORSHIP AND EVANGELISM: PRACTICING MISSIONAL WORSHIP

This was Dan’s third and final category for us to consider in re-shaping how we do mission and evangelism in a post-Christian world. He started this section of the workshop with this statement: “For better or for worse, our corporate worship experiences are the most revealing demonstration and outworking of our practices of mission and evangelism. Existing in a predominantly post-Christian secular Western world, how we think about and plan our public worship experience is of critical importance. It can make or break our desire to be healthy missional churches.”

Evangelism provides the introduction to the Christian faith and continues the pulsing framework for all of church life. (My question to us at HCC is: does it? Or in reality is evanglism just part of our mission statement; words on a bulletin or overhead, yet not truly practiced--or downright avoided--in most of the life of our church? Are people finding Jesus in our midst? Or are we more focused on other, more inner, concerns?) Corporate worship is the congregation’s unique and penetrating experience of God which reflects the voice of the congregation and discerns the voice of the community surrounding it. Today, because the world is an increasingly complex and discontinuous reality, churches must develop strategic, collaborative teams with multiple competencies to guide the evangelical church toward opportunities and away from pitfalls. This is particularly true for designing the corporate worship experience. Finally, the missional church movement is a clarion call for the evangelical church to return to its most simple, accessible form: the basics of the gospel mandate.

Dan proposed three steps for engaging missional worship:

#1: Define the church’s mission. Again, this requires an honest examination of what the church’s mission is, even if one does not currently exist. Leaders must be completely honest about failures, disconnects to mission, embedded theology, and all practices that are self-serving. Armed with this strong self awareness, the leadership team must then study the gospel mandate, the church’s specific cultural context, characteristics of the missional church movement, and discern the strengths of their faith community. Step 1 is completed when the team synthesizes and summarizes into a clearly written document the purpose and mission of the church.

#2: Define the church’s specific worship mission. This includes decisions about worship theology based on the biblical story of worship, Christian history, and the church’s affiliations (Covenant, in our case). The leadership team must also come to conclusions about a missional philosophy of worship based on the church’s context, artistic abilities, and interpretation of postmodern issues. When these are established, a team should develop a planning process to create, implement, and evaluate the design of corporate worship.

#3: Explore the entire worship spectrum. One element of being missional is connecting to and with the “big picture” of what God is doing in worship. This requires crossing denominational, stylistic, cultural, and socioeconomic boundaries in order to learn and share frameworks of worship.

Other missional worship considerations:

•consider the sacraments as the new moment of invitation.
•create safe space for people to journey to Jesus and be ruthless about removing church subculture (careful with church vocabulary, “insider speak” and practices, de-politicize Christianity)
•deconstruct evangelical Church pathologies (wide-swinging pendulum between liberal revisionists and conservative fundamentalists)
•refrane critical conversations of today (ex. Andrew Marin in his book, “Love Is An Orientation: Elevating the Conversation With the Gay Community”)

Dan began his concluding thoughts by saying that his workshop is a moot point if we can’t lead our congregations into these new ways of reframing mission and evangelism in the 21st century. Many of our congregants will be reluctant if not downright resistant to these ideas. As pastors and leaders, doing mission and evangelism in a post-Christian world could be one of the most difficult tasks of our lives. Dan offered the example of the apostle Paul waking up to his call to extend mission and evangelism to the Gentiles:

Acts 22:21-22 - “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. They they raised their voices and shouted: ‘Rid the earth of him! He is not fit to live.’”

When Paul said this to his Jewish listeners it was too much for them to bear. They would have to expand their views and accept that God was moving beyond their Jewish cultural borders and barriers to God. We must have courage to make the three shifts: from Modernity to Postmodernity, merging Missiology and Ecclesiology, and Practicing Missional Worship. But it will require us to think differently, pray differently, act differently, and lead differently.

Dan finished his presentation with some quotes from “A Credible Witness” by Brenda Salter McNeil, who is well known in Covenant circles in coaching multi-ethnic leadership:

“I believe that God is calling all of us to make a difference, but to do this we will have to be intentional about leaving behind what is safe and familiar to us. We will have to put ourselves in places where we are not in control, and this makes us uncomfortable. For most of us, this place will be our ‘Samaria.’ Metaphorically, this is the place we’d prefer to avoid. It is the place where we are not in power. It’s the place where we don’t like the people, we don’t speak their language or understand their customs. We feel out of place. It may be that we’ve had a bad experience and are somewhat frightened of the people there. Whatever the reason, we really don’t want to be with them.

Where is your ‘Samaria’? Who is it that you avoid?


Geneally, ‘Samaria’ is relatively close to us, but we feel alienated and distant from the people there. It could be...a table in the cafeteria where people of certain ethnic groups eat together (or) a street corner near your church where homeless people regularly beg for money. Perhaps you feel most uncomfortable in a store or business establishment where the people don’t speak your language. You may find that ‘Samaria’ is with estranged members of your own family (or) a place where young, rowdy teenagers hang out (or) where many gay and lesbian people live. Whatever it is, ‘Samaria’ is a place where people are not in power and feel marginalized by us. It’s the place where people who differ from us gather, and if we intentionally sit down by the “wells” there, we just might have a life-changing encounter.

If we are going to regain our evangelistic credibility, we must recognize our need for people who are different than us and invite them into our lives. Instead of evangelizing from a place of power, we must begin by affirming that other people have something valuable to offer us. This will radically change how we approach people and how we invite them into our Christian communities.”

Can we--will we--embrace and practice what is required to be a church for the post-Christian postmodern world? Are we ready to re-think, re-evaluate, and re-organize our understanding and practice of being a church; one that will effectively wade into the unknown, frightening, disturbing, messy realities of people’s lives in today’s world (not some former understanding or view of the world people once lived in) and renew our commitment to see people come to Jesus? Can we give up what is comfortable, familiar, routine, and meaningful to us who are “insiders” in terms of the Church and faith and embrace these fresh attitudes, methodologies, understandings, and patterns that can effectively reach those who are “outsiders” to the Church and faith? Are we willing to be wholly uncomfortable in order to become a holy space for those we say we want to reach with the “good news” of the gospel?


Are we ready to recommit ourselves to walking closely with Jesus, to prayer, and listening to the Holy Spirit so we are a healthy, vibrant, deeply spiritual community of believers (not a collection of individuals of varied commitments, priorities, and spiritual “temperatures) that will be intriguing and enticing to all kinds of hurting and seeking people--church-damaged people, postmodern seekers, people with no religious or spiritual convictions or backgrounds? If we do, the Holy Spirit will bring people into our lives, individually and corporately, and we will joyfully and gracefully receive them, respond to them, build relationships with them (not simply remain with our already-Church friends), pray like mad for them, and help them in their journey toward Jesus. We will no longer rely on our abilities, methods, programs, attempts, and energy to “get people saved.” Instead, we will have discovered how to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and partner well with what the Spirit is doing in people’s lives today. No more “5 Easy Steps To...” or purchasing a program from some expert with workbooks, tapes and a leader’s guide that guarantees huge numbers of results. Instead, through prayer, corporate listening and seeking, personal and community worship, and intentionally doing whatever it takes to engage those in today’s culture, HCC will be a church that the Holy Spirit trusts to receive and respond to people He is already at work in--and He will bring them to us! Oh, that this would become our reality as a church today!