Kingdom Come!

It’s kinda funny… over to the immediate right is an ad for a book 2008 - God’s Final Witness.  YIKES! 

It looks like this is some Herbert W. Armstrong World Wide Church of God kinda guy selling the latest doomsday book right here on my blog! 

MY BLOG! 

So go figure!  Me the absolute last in line to buy anything regarding end-time prophecy, inadverdantly hawking Prophet Mr. Whoosit’s book.

But then again, that’s why this is a free blog.  Is it time for an upgrade?

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And speaking of books…

I just recieved the Missio Dei Breviary from the Missio Dei missional order in Minneapolis.  It looks really good and Phyllis and I will try to use it for our devotionals.

My friend James Graham sent me this link to a video lecture by Patrick Dixon.  Dixon is a futurist and gives some real insights into what the future holds.  (It’s about 45 minutes, so take some time to actually listen to what he says…)

Seems to me as we balance the globalization of our world (off-shoring services and multi-national manufacturing) and the tribalism (bikers, skaters, gear-heads, music-heads) of society, it becomes more important that we know and understand both The Gospel - what it is and what it means! - and the Church. 

Dr. Dick Braswell, pastor of a large church in Mobile, AL spoke last night at IGM and admitted that after 50 years in ministry and 45 years leading the same church (!) he’s questioning more and learning more about NT Church than at any point in his life! Yikes!

I’m excited by what I see and feel is happening in the marriage of “church” and “mission.”

And basically that’s what “missional church” is all about: the reclaiming of “mission” above “church” — or at least church as we know it (CAWKI)…

I like it when ”mission(s)” is no longer delegated to a small, under-funded, neglected part of “church.”  Mostly “church” is the “real thing” and “missions” is a once-a-year conference with fireworks and hoopla.  And the other 51 sundays are “real church.” 

(“Missions” is kinda like your Aunt Betty Jean’s 75th birthday party that you have to attend.  Have to.  And you have to eat the bad cake with too sweet frosting with gaudy yellow roses.  Have to.  And you have to drink that red punch that reminds you of antifreeze.  And you have to shake hands with Uncle Elmer and talk to cousin Frank with the bad breath.  You have to go and you have to be nice.  But basically - thank God! - when you leave, when you walk out the front door, you can get back to normal.  And you won’t have to see those people or think about them until Aunt BJ’s 76th birthday party.  Back to business as usual!) 

Reclaiming the missio dei - the mission of God - as the primary motivation and reason for church changes everything.  And making every person a part of that “mission” makes it real!

I’m excited when I see pastors and church leaders who begin to see beyond their dream, their vision, their world, their “in-flow” to see a bigger world where CAWKI no longer works.  Where CAWKI fails to impact and we look in The Book and see that CAGWI (Church as God wants it) functions and serves the People of God igniting their dreams and fueling their passions so that they can change their world!

When christology drives our missiology, then our missiology will shape our ecclesiology. 

OK, there I said it!  And I’m not taking it back!

I’ve posted a little about the feelings of Christmas… and okay, okay I’m a mushy sentementalist!  Now, let me take a few to say something about the reality of Christmas.  Sorta “Dragnet Christmas:” Just the facts, Mam; just the facts.

Christmas is about incarnation.  I love that word!  Incarnation: God becoming flesh.  It’s about virgin birth.  It’s about mystery and reality.  “Mystery” and “reality” are not mutually exclusive.

Christmas is about an event; about something that happened. 

Christmas is about a person’s birth: Jesus: the god-man.  God humbly taking on the form of man and yet remaining God.

There was a baby.  He was born to a virgin.  (I love what Rowan Williams says about the virgin birth.)

There were angels.  Real, honest-to-goodness angels.  Angels bringing revelation to common, smelly (opps, I’m probably embellishing here) sheep-herders.

There were visitors: Magi, wise men, guys from the East.  And they brought presents.  The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is taking some media heat because he said that much of what we do at Christmas regarding the Wise Men is “legend.”  (His interview that got him in hot water is here.)  He chose to be biblical rather than Hallmark-ian in his approach to the arrival of the Magi.  He stuck to what is revealed to us historically in the Book, rather than what we sing about around the tree. 

It happened in Bethlehem, David’s hometown.  At least the birth; not sure about the arrival of the Magi.  It involved people, places and things.

It’s a true story.  About a true event.  That asks us to believe, not to make it true (it already is) but so that we can embark on a deep mystery journey of encounter and faith, enrichment and challenge.

It’s not about knowing “about” Christmas, or “about” Christ.  It’s not about knowing if there were actually “cattle lowing” and Jesus sleeping silently in a feed trough.  It’s about God almighty, Creator of the universe becoming human, not just to “show off” or “know what it’s like to be human,” but to bring redemption to creation.

Incarnation happened with a purpose.  God became a baby, who grew into a man and who died, rose again and resumed his seat at the right hand of the Father.

The redemptive mission of God didn’t begin with Christmas.  But it is a good place for us to reflect on the whys and hows or that mission.

These are the facts; not all of them, ‘cause I don’t know them all.  But these are the facts that the Church has historically and fundamentally held to for centuries.  These are facts revealed through reliable sources.  And then facts engender faith that stimulates faithfulness in us and redemption for the world.

Phyllis and I - on the invitation of my friend Buck Waters - went to Olive Baptist Church yesterday to hear Dr. Ed Stetzer.  As always his message was missionally good!  Funny, poignant and mission-shaped. 

Olive is this huge plant!  Huge!  Phyllis says it’s so big they have maps in the hallway with arrows saying “You are here.”  That’s big.  Ed says that 89% of Southern Baptist churches are not growing by “decisions” or people coming to Christ.  89%!  And that’s among Southern Baptists - who are probably one of the most evangelistic groups in America!  Although most of the churches are still attractional rather than missional.

I chatted for a few with Dr. Ed about our history and his blog and Chris Wright’s The Mission of God.  I’ve spent hours reading Ed’s thought on his blog about the terms missio dei  and missional. 

I guess I have been blessed in that my roots - Southern Baptist… house church charismatic… New Covenant, Valdosta… Globe International - have all (at least most of the time) been about going outside the building to “seek and save.”  The Baptist churches I grew up in always reached out.  Attractional, but in the pre-mega-church environment of the 50’s and 60’s they were looking to take Christ to the streets.  And did.  In the 70’s charismatic world of house churches and store-fronts were did radical things like taking care of widows and old people and disenfranchised kids.  Doing it ‘cause Jesus and the book said do it!  (I blogged a little about it back on 6 NOV.)

But the mega-church move of the last few years makes us mega-consumers.  We come one-stop shop to get it all.  And we get it!  Spoon-fed to us every week - or as my new analogy has it - drizzled on us every week.  As I’m borrowing from Ed and changing it for my thinking… we become Sponge Bob Church Member - we sit, soak and sour!  (Told you I’d use it!  Take that!  Dr. Ed!)

Sit, soak and sour!  And occasionally we have “revival” - get squeezed out and a whole new infusion of clean water!  So we can soak again in the sink/pew waiting for the next “outpouring.”   Sponge Bob Church Member.

I’ve been reading Ed Stetzer’s blog regarding the meanings of “missional.”  You can read them here.   And I never though there was so much baggage attached to “missional” and “missio dei!” 

Where have I been?  What have I been doing?  Oh yeah, I’ve been out there  trying to join God in His mission to redeem the whole wide world and establish His Kingdom rule in the hearts an minds of everybody!  And thinking that missio dei was a cool way of saying it!  Missed  the fireworks - some happened before I was born! - but happy to use the words!  I think they’re appropriate and carry the right meaning in the way most folks I know are using them today!  (Although there are some serious co-opters out there who have shanghied the word “missional” to serve as a cool new word for attractional church stuff.  It ain’t!  It’s more tha that!)

Also, my new friend Rick Meigs (we met at Seabeck) over at Friends of Missional does a tremendous post (I know this is old stuff, but I’m just catching up, right?) about what it means to be missional.

And BTW, Len over at Next Reformation is no longer looking for community!  A pretty powerful post.  But then Len is a deep, deep guy with great heart.