iMonk on the SBC

Michael Spencer has been encouraged by the Southern Baptist Convention so far. It sounds like the younger generation is pushing for a move away from the culture wars and a re-emphasis on missions.

American Syncretism

I was a missions major in college. We talked about the importance of expressing Christianity in culturally appropriate ways. After all, Christianity in South America need not look like Christianity in the United States. The process of tailoring Christianity to a particular culture we called "contextualization."

Contextualization especially comes to the fore when it comes to worship styles. Should missionaries translate western worship songs into native dialects, or should they encourage nationals to compose their own worship in their own style? Contextualization encourages the latter. Every missionary has to be conscious of contextualization.

You can even see contextualization in missional churches in the United States. Mars Hill in Seattle may be an example of a church contextualizing itself to the indie-rocker youth of urban Seattle. Willow Creek may be an example of a church contextualizing itself to the corporate-ladder boomers of suburban Chicago. (See below for why I say “may be.”)

Another thing we are conscious of in missions is "syncretism." Syncretism is contextualization gone wild--when you take blatantly non-Christian elements of a culture and try to shoehorn them into Christianity.

For instance, polygamy is a huge challenge for contextualization. Polygamy is acceptable in many cultures. What does a missionary tell a new convert who has 2 wives? Divorce one? Only sleep with one? What if both wives have children? Do you kick one set to the curb? Does Christianity allow for polygamy? How does 1 Corinthians 7 apply?

However one chooses to answer that question, most would agree that it is wrong for an already-converted Christian to marry a second wife, even in a polygamist culture. That would be syncretism, as the New Testament advocates monogamy.

So, the challenge of missions is being "contextual" without being "syncretistic."

I am reading The New Shape of World Christianity by Mark Noll. It's a great book about how American Christianity compares to global Christianity. Ours is an age of a post-Christian West and a post-Western Christianity, and there is no reason for us to assume that American Christianity is normative.

In the book, Noll points out the challenge in identifying syncretism in other flavors of Christianity. He writes, "The contrast between the West and the non-West is never between culture-free Christianity and culturally embedded Christianity, but between varieties of culturally embedded Christianity." Great point! Just because another culture does something different does not make us orthodox and them syncretistic. It could be the other way around!

So, I have a question for you. Let's imagine for a second that you are a first-century follower of Jesus. Maybe you are even the Apostle Paul. You are caught in a time machine that not only carries you into the distant future (2009), but also lands you in the USA in a typical suburban evangelical church. What practices do you label syncretistic, and what do you label contextual forms of orthodox Christianity?

Evangelical Untouchables 2

iMonk has posted the second discussion in his Evangelical Untouchables series. This discussion was about how the "seeker" movement has affected our worship. You can see my response and that of the other untouchables here.

El Tiempo Ha Venido

Michael Ewen is in Guatemala right now doing some independent humanitarian work (his family is a part of Believers Fellowship). He focuses on micro finance, clean water projects, and food aid, and his blog is El Tiempo Ha Venido. Check out what he is doing; it's good stuff! I am sure that when he gets back to Washington he is going to look to expand the project. I think my church will get involved!

Renewal Video

Here is a video of the work we did with YFC Tillicum (described below).

The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church by Alan Hirsch

In The Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsch lays out a paradigm for church leaders in the West to return to the missional strategy of the early church. Hirsch combines data from the Book of Acts with that from the house church movement in China to recover the “Apostolic genius” that drives successful missionary endeavors. He then describes how the Apostolic genius might apply to churches in the West.

Hirsch calls Part 1 of The Forgotten Ways “The Making of a Missionary.” In these early chapters, he recounts his experience as a missionary in Australia and outlines what he thinks is wrong with the dominant paradigm of “doing church” in America. In short, the Western obsession with the “seeker sensitive” movement has created a dichotomy between the professional Christians who do ministry (10% of the body) and the others who sit and watch (90% of the body). Emergent conversation-based models might increase the ratio to 20/80, but they still leave the majority of church members uninvolved. The medium, he argues, is the message—Christianity is about sitting and watching while the professionals do the work.

Ironically enough, with all the focus on church growth, most seeker sensitive churches fail to produce any real growth. (The few notable megachurch exceptions make it seem like the method works.) Further, most of the growth from seeker sensitive churches is from transfers from other churches. The problem, according to Hirsch, is the method itself. The whole notion of a seeker sensitive church is to cater the style of a church to target a specific demographic. Hirsch says that this does nothing but encourage consumerism—you can have church the way you want it. Again, the medium is the message. (He also cautions that Emergent-style churches can do the same thing for a different demographic. “Come to our church. We’re hip, trendy, artistic, and relevant.”) Further, all of the seeker sensitive churches compete over the same suburban middle class demographic so that only the fittest will survive. And, while the seeker sensitive churches compete over the suburban middle class, the majority of the population is ignored. Thus is any area you will have one or two “successful” churches (the ones with the best music and preaching) that draw the entire target demographic, and a large population of unchurched people.

In contrast to the Western seeker-sensitive model is that model espoused by the early church and by the persecuted church in China. These churches have been forced into limiting congregations to 15 people and they have been prohibited from having “professional” ministers. As a result, the church in China, like the early church, is flourishing. Hirsch asks, “What are they doing that we are not?” and concludes that the Chinese have recaptured the “Apostolic genius,” the church planting model of the Apostles that led to success in ministry. Hirsch pushes for a return to these forgotten ways.

In Part 2 of The Forgotten Ways, “A Journey to the Heart of the Apostolic Genius,” Hirsch describes how churches in the West can apply a successful missionary paradigm to their own ministries. The main tenets of the Apostolic genius are:

• The Lordship of Christ. This means that the message of the church is that Jesus is Lord. Christianity is not about praying a prayer, walking an aisle and joining the church, it’s about making Jesus Lord.

• Disciple-making. This refers to reproducing followers of Jesus within a church. The focus shouldn’t be on better music and more relevant preaching, but on making disciples of Jesus.

• Missional-Incarnational ImpulseThe church needs to get outside of the walls of its building and into the community. In institutional churches, the focus is on the church and preserving the institution. With a missional-incarnational impulse, the church is focused on the community.

• Apostolic Environment. This refers to leadership. Every church should have an Apostolic figure who focuses on starting new things—getting the ball rolling and bringing the focus back on mission. Underneath this Apostle are various teachers, pastors, evangelists and prophets who do the work of the ministry.

• Organic Systems. This approach is about abandoning the institutional framework and instead viewing the church as a growing organism.

• Communitas. This is community based on mission and liminal activities, not on getting together for coffee and Bible studies.

The Forgotten Ways has a lot to commend. Like Michael Frost in Exiles, Hirsch emphasizes the need for communitas, not community. This was the best part for me. There is something about sharing in a liminal experience (a dangerous experience comparable to a rite of passage) that produces community like nothing else can. As long as we play it safe, our relationships are only going to be surface. Further, I appreciate Hirsch’s emphasis on mission. Too many churches focus on the institution. This is very unattractive. Nobody wants to be a part of an institution. People want to be a part of a movement. Finally, I appreciate Hirsch’s emphasis on dynamic leadership and disciple-making. A movement is going to catch the vision of a leader. If that movement is focused on that leader’s charisma and abilities, then the movement is only going to be as big as the leader. However, if the movement is based on the vision of the leader and on that leader’s development of disciples, it can do much more. These ideas truly are “forgotten ways,” and I appreciate Hirsch reminding us of them.

Despite the wealth of good information in The Forgotten Ways, there are some historical and methodological issues that diminish the value of Hirsch’s Apostolic genius. Hirsch makes the same error that a lot of missions-minded folks make—he glorifies the Book of Acts and the 20th century missionary movement to the detriment of the rest of the New Testament and church history. Hirsch is anti-institutional. This is the thesis of his book. However, the early church was not free from institutions. Most of the New Testament is letters from Paul to the churches that he founded, in which he is exercising a kind of authority over them. There were structures. There were leaders. I would even say there were institutions. Further, Acts could be called a work of propaganda, glorifying the early church to the Roman Empire. The rest of the New Testament isn’t so generous. Do we want a church like the ones in Galatia? What about Corinth? There were problems even in the romanticized early church. Further, the “institutionalized” church made a lot of progress for the kingdom of God in history. It had/has problems, but it also did some good.

The Forgotten Ways is a welcome reminder of the Apostolic genius. Even if we don’t adapt everything that Hirsch suggests, we need to acknowledge that something isn’t working. A return to mission and communitas seems like the proper prescription for the Western church. However, abandoning all of the institutions seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture by Michael Frost

In his book Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture Michael Frost compares the situation of the western church to that of the Israelites living as exiles in Babylon. Christendom has collapsed, and Christians have to learn to live in an empire that is hostile to our ideals. Far from being tragic, the collapse of Christendom may end up being the best thing that ever happened to western Christians as it will force us to take seriously what we believe and why we believe it.

Frost believes that living as exiles in a hostile empire involves four things: keeping dangerous memories, making dangerous promises, making dangerous criticisms, and singing dangerous songs.

To Frost, the dangerous memories that Christians maintain are those that tell the Christian story rather than that of the empire. Frost reminds us that Jesus was "a radical and a subversive"--he challenged the status quo and got into trouble for doing so. Thus, we could say like N.T. Wright that our dangerous story is "Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not." Remembering our story will keep us from buying into the metanarrative of our host empire. Frost challenges us to get outside of the traditional church and into "third places," where we will come into regular contact with those who do not believe.

In addition to dangerous memories, Frost challenges the church to make dangerous promises, namely "We will be authentic," "We will serve a cause greater than ourselves," "We will create missional community," "We will be generous and practice hospitality," and "We will work righteously." Frost rails on the "hyper-reality" of our culture. We are addicted to "reality" TV and internet chat rooms as if these media were actually real. Instead, Frost challenges us to get our heads out of the clouds and be real because the world doesn't need any more shiny happy people. He also encourages as to pursue "communitas" rather than "community." Community is the myth that people can live together in perfect knowledge, understanding, acceptance, and harmony without any kind of struggle. Too many churches seek community and fall short. Instead, Frost urges us to seek communitas--they kind of community that develops out of living a mission. Just like soldiers comes home from war with a heightened sense of community with each other, Christians can develop communitas by challenging the empire and living for Christ together. To develop these "missional communities," Christians must promise to be generous, practice hospitality, and work righteously.

In addition to their dangerous memories and dangerous promises, Frost also urges exiles to make dangerous criticisms of our host empire. Exiles cannot be comfortable in the empire, they have to stand up against it and criticize it for misbehavior. Frost says that we have to point out injustice, especially the economic injustice prevalent in an unbridled worldwide free market economy. As capitalism increases wealth, it also widens the gap between the rich and poor. Exiles need to speak against injustice. Further, they need to speak out against the destruction of the environment. God has charged us to take care of our earth, yet civilization consistently seeks to exploit it. Further, history teaches us that cultures collapse when they reap from the earth more than what is sustainable. Exiles need to criticize the empire that would exploit our earth. Finally, exiles need to criticize the empire for allowing worldwide persecution of God's people.

In addition to their dangerous memories, dangerous promises, and dangerous criticisms, Frost argues that exiles should sing dangerous songs. When you read the songs of the prophets, they don't read like "Jesus is my boyfriend." They are radically subversive. Many of them would have been considered treason by the host empire. Our song is that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not, and our worship needs to be singing this song.

I loved Frost's book. It's the best one on "doing church" that I have read in a long time. This is probably because I was a missions major in college and this book more or less takes everything that I learned in school and applied it to being a missionary in western culture.

One of the things that frustrated me most about being a part of a large suburban church in Dallas was the perception that everything that we were doing was advancing Christendom rather than Christ. We were more concerned about getting people to join the church than we were that they were following Jesus. I am happy to read about others who are equally as frustrated with McChristianity. We are ready for something new--something radically subversive of the American middle class evangelical system--something that cares about justice and mercy and the kingdom of God.

I love where I am at now. I love that church is low-key. I love that we are about changed lives. I love that we are about getting outside of the walls of our building and making our community a better place. I would love to see us continue to develop the communitas.

Missional Street Cred

The Internet Monk has a great post on the missional/emerging church, and who has the credibility to talk about appropriate methods. For instance, just becuase "Pastor Joe" has a church of 50,000, is he an authority on the missional church? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe he's just an authority on being a rock star.

Gig Harbor Community Development

Fresh on the heels of my meeting with the folks from NLF, I met with leaders from several churches in Gig Harbor to talk about how we can work together to develop the community around us. Again, what a great meeting!

We all seemed to be on the same page with everything--that Incarnational ministry was the key to making a significant difference for the kingdom of God, that parachurch ministries and other agencies were doing a better job at this than most churches, and that the best way for us to move forward would be to partner with these agencies to help the community of Gig Harbor.

The next step for us is to talk to the leaders of our respective churches, find out the key ministry areas that each of our churches are interested in, and then come back together to see where our interests overlap. This way, we can have the support of the leadership to make sure that this multi-church effort is a success.

I am excited about what is going to come of this. Although I want to see our church strengthen its relationship to Tacoma, I would also love to see us helping people here in the Harbor. After all, there are legitimate needs here, they just aren't always as blatant as they are in the Hill-Top area or in East Tacoma.

The combined work of all of the churches in Gig Harbor could make some serious progress for the kingdom of God. Chapel Hill Presbyterian, the largest church in Gig Harbor, already does some great things (as do the other churches, but we don't have near the resources and influence of Chapel Hill). I can only imagine what we can do if we pool our efforts. I imagine a time when the Gig Harbor churches have built such a reputation for community development that when the city faces a crisis it looks to us for relief. THAT would be cool. We'll be there some day. This is a much-needed first step.

How the Inner-city can Save the Suburbs

I had a great lunch meeting with some people from the Northwest Leadership Foundation yesterday. Duncan Wilson, Kris Rocke, and Ron Vignec joined me at this Thai restaurant on the MLK in the Hill-Top area of Tacoma to talk about ways that Believers Fellowship can develop a relationship with the city of Tacoma. What a conversation! Duncan is the director of Sound Youth Counseling, a ministry that offers masters-level counseling to the youth of Tacoma for sliding-scale fees so that no one is turned away. Ron is a Lurtheran pastor at a sweet inner-city church in East Tacoma and he also works to raise awareness about the different "associations" within the city of Tacoma. Kris works for NLF, specializing in urban youth ministry. He trains leaders in the city to better understand the urban context both in America and worldwide.

Our conversation revolved around how suburbanites can get involved in the city without doing more harm than good. We all recognized a couple of things about our world. First, we agreed that something is wrong with our socio-economic system in which people in Gig Harbor and East Tacoma can live so close to each other and yet live such radically different lives. He agreed that the Gospel compels us to right what is wrong in our system. Second, we agreed that building real, meaningful relationships is the best way to "help" the city. For instance, Ron mentioned that food is always a need in the city. It's one thing to set up a food bank where people can come and get groceries. It's another thing to have food available and then bring it to people's homes and share their lives. While the former might provide some temporary relief, the latter is working toward a solution to the problem. As long as the suburbanites continue to view city folk as charity cases or problems-to-be-solved, they will make the situation worse rather than better. Only where there is a give-and-take in a relationship can there be meaningful growth.

I appreciated what Ron and Kris were getting at, but I had to ask them their thoughts on this issue from my perspective. I said:

"What does all of this mean for me? I live in Port Orchard. I work in Gig Harbor. I get up every morning, drive to Gig Harbor, work my job, and then return home. I rarely go to Tacoma, even though my job is only 11 miles from downtown. I recognize a disparity in the living conditions between the communities in which I live and work, and in the inner-city community, but I don't have any meaningful contact with inner-city folks on a daily or weekly basis. How, then, do I try to be a part of the solution rather than the problem? Do I just focus on Port Orchard, since that is my community? Do I try to build relationships in the city with people whom I otherwise wouldn't see? (That seems a little artificial to me.) What do I do?"

Everyone recognized the problem, and we dialogued to come up with a solution. The following conversation is paraphrased:

Kris: "Everyone whom I've ever met that moved from the suburbs to the city said that the move was healing for them. There is something about living in the city that is therapeutic. Suburbanites need to discover how the city can help them, not just how they can help the city."

Ron: "In the city, you can't hide your problems. If you have a drug problem, you might have to rob/shoot someone to pay for your habit. Then the story goes all over the news and everyone knows about it. You can't hide your problem. In the suburbs, you can hide your problems. The problems in the city and in the suburbs are the same, they are just easier to hide in the suburbs."

Matt: "There is a real problem in our suburban culture with people learning to be real with each other. I've heard suburbanites described as 'strangers living hospitably amongst one another.' We've created this system where failure is not an option. Sure, people work hard and they succeed, but they are also pressured to conform to a culture of success. Every now and then, someone snaps, and everyone wonders, 'How could that have happened in our community? Why didn't anyone see this coming?' In reality, there are hundreds of people an inch away from snapping, but you wouldn't know it by looking at them because they have learned to play the game."

Kris: "Maybe the city can help the suburbs by teaching people how to grieve. Maybe when suburbanites are confronted with people who can't hide their problems, they will be more willing to own up to their own shortcomings."

Matt: "Wow. Sounds like the church."

We need to build relationships between the city and the suburbs, but these relationships need to be give-and-take, not just us going dowtown to solve poverty.