Kingdom Come!

Here it is Saturday again. Busy week.  Busy month.

Yesterday I took Andreas and Marion Pestke - our German houseguests for missions conference - to the airport.  They’re off on their new adventure to Nicaragua.  What a great couple and what an asset to the ministry there.  It’s very quiet and somewhat lonely here in the hacienda without them.

Then Phyllis and I had an IHOP breakfast with Doug and Beth Gehman and Danny and Judy Armstrong.  Now there’s a Fantastic Four for the Kingdom!  Danny and Judy have been Globe missionaries for (as they’d say in Cyprus) donkey’s!  (I think originally, they would have said “for donkey’s years,” but it’s been shortened to just “donkey’s.”).  And Danny and Judy have not only so much experience but dreams and visions for the future!

This whole week has been about dreaming and planning and looking at outcomes in training.  Globe International and Globe Europe’s leadership sat around the table sharing stories and ideas and came to the conclusion that all Globe missional training will ensure that:

All Globe Missionaries will…

• Be equipped to finish well in their personal life and walk with God…
• Be equipped to make a genuine and eternal difference in the people they are sent to serve…
• Be vitally connected to the Globe missions family and its vision and values…

That’s a big order for us who work in training others!  Yikes!  But we are looking to help “standardize” training to reflect our common values and vision.  (I really don’t like the word “standardize.”  It doesn’t reflect the real heart of the people involved, but it’ll have to do.)

Lot’s of good things happening.

And we’re putting the finishing touches on the 2008 BootCamps and looking to get everything in order.  There is still room in both camps and if they are as good as last year they will be fantastic!  It’s a lot on me trying to pull all this together, but I’m pressing on.

I’m working on a big missional teaching for the IGM and IWM classes called Going in Jesus Name.  In it I incorporate:

• The ideas of 21^st Century cultural stresses - different from any time before
• What it means to be the sent people of God - “getting” this makes all the difference
• Ideas of servanthood from Philippians 2 - serving is not like a light switch
• The Gospel we preach - good hermeneutics!
• The Culture we bring - nobody lives in a vacuum
• The Noise we encounter - everybody knows what the church is (but they’re probably wrong)
• The Static we cause - our presence causes confusion and interference

So for me, it’s a biggie!  And I want to do it right.

So what exactly was the NoBrand NonConference Retreat?

That’s hard to say.  Really. (One guy said he wasn’t sure if he wanted to come because he always thought of retreats - even mens retreats - as being kinda “girly.”  But he ended up saying this one was far from “girly.”)

Last year, I felt the Lord wanted me to spend some time with men this year, pouring into their lives in some way.  I endeavored to meet with younger guys and renew relationships with guys with some sort of history with me.  We have relationships from pre-JoyFull Ministries, days of ministry on college campuses, ministry overseas and now ministry with Globe and IGM.

After issuing about twenty-five invitations to friends, mentorees and colleagues from thirty years of ministry, we had a gathering of four guys and me at Beckwith Conference Center in Fairhope, Alabama .  These four guys – Casey, Eric, Ken and Jim – represented a history and revolving relationship with Phyllis and me of eighteen years to six months. 

The plan was to have a laid-back low agenda time with God.  We all wanted to hear His Voice and come away with a better sense of His Plan for our lives.

Arriving at Beckwith on Thursday evening, we spent time chatting and exchanging stories.   Casey brought Phyllis from Valdosta to Pensacola and we rode together to the conference grounds about an hour west.  We ate dinner together, then we watched the Globe BootCamp AOTW video   I’d not planned to do this but Jim was late arriving and the other guys wanted to see it.

Friday morning following breakfast, we spent time dwelling in the Word.  I taught about lectio divina and everyone scattered to different corners of beautiful Beckwith for an hour to read from Luke 10:1-24 and listen to God.  We then returned to discuss the “shimmering verses” that the Lord illumined to each of us.

Somehow, I’d pulled or aggravated an existing problem in my left shoulder.  The pain was excruciating but it came and went and was not (thankfully) constant, but it necessitated my resting often and not doing a lot physically.  Ice bags helped!  And prayer.  (In fact, by the time we left on Sunday morning, I was pretty much healed and pain-free.)

We spent a lot of time talking, exchanging stories and looking at Romans chapters 6-8 as well as deeply reading Luke 10.  We talked about church and missions and being missional in our approach.  We talked about being fathers and husbands and just being men of God.  We talked about losing our religious outlooks and taking on a real spirituality of grace.  I told stories of Africa and the Middle East and ministry successes and business failures and frustrations.

We watched a Brian Regan video and laughed a lot.

Saturday afternoon a couple of the guys went out in canoes.  I writhed in pain most of the afternoon, but then when we prayed again for healing – it came and the pain was gone.

And we agreed to begin – however we can in our own worlds and spheres of influence – BELLS.  We’ll see where that goes and how it happens.  I expect to hear a lot in the next few days and weeks.

We were all making great adjustments:

• Me, coming back from living outside the USA … developing the whole Globe training thing…
• Jim, working as a substitute teacher and looking to do a major mission trip this summer as well as get certified to teach rather than sub…
• Casey, changing churches because of conviction and expanding his work in many areas…
• Eric, resetting his defaults to take more risks in faith,,,
• Ken, looking at how he can move more in missions… 

We talked about doing another one of these in maybe October and expanding it to include another circle of friends and relationships.

We’ll see…

Fred Paetross does an interview with Alan Hirsch here.

In it Alan says:

“Quite simply because when you adopt an missional-incarnational approach to engaging our world, then you are forced to a go-to-them, hang-out-with-them approach to mission before you ever get to ask the question, “What is church for this people group?” The problem is that we usually frontload our idea of church into the missional equation. And while the reality of the Church as God’s community is a vital, non-negotiable, part of the Christian faith, the forms that the church must take are almost entirely to be guided by the cultural context of the church. If this were not the case, the Paul’s argument in Galatians is flawed and we all should be adopting Jewish forms of church, including circumcision! Ouch! The church follows mission and not the other way around.”

My thought… somehow we have to reset our default swith of “what is church” so as not to always frontload this into every missional equation…

To live “missionally” is more than just to have a new cool label that replaces the last new cool label. 

It seems to me that many people do that.  They change labels on empty jars and assume that is enough.  The jar remains empty, but the label is updated with the newest jargon and logo.  And “missional” is now the label of choice.

A young man sat in my office recently.  He and his wife and a few friends spent the summer in Thailand helping an indigenous church.  And sitting in my office, he began to weep and get a distant look in his eyes.  “Since I came back form Thailand , I just feel this deep, deep sorrow.  And sometimes, I just weep and I don’t know why.  Sometimes I just feel so distant from the church, the pastor and the people there.  And I don’t know why.  Something in being in Thailand changed my life. And I feel sad.”

I understand. 

I understand the sadness.  A sadness so deep and so profound that it shatters something inside.  And that something – Heart? Spirit? Self? – cannot be reassembled to work in the same old way.  It can’t be bondo-ed and repainted to “look as good as new.”   It has been intensely changed; as if pieces have been lost; as if the shattering has left it defective and irreparable.

Doing missions God’s Way is about that.  God’s way is the missional way.  God’s way is the reaching outside of you, your community, your paradigm and into the hurting, ostracized world of grief and woe.

And it leaves you broken.

I remember hearing the story about a young girl who came forward in a church meeting volunteering for “mission service.”  When the wise old missionary asked her how she knew she was supposed to be a missionary, she replied, “Somehow, God put the whole world in my heart, and then He broke it.”

I understand.

Being missional means moving back in the neighborhood.  It means learning to care about the neighborhood.  The People.  The Children.  The broken relationships.  It means caring about the trash and the garbage.  And the death and the pain.

I understand.

Well, I’m back in the US of A – Pensacola, FL – and back in the swing of life.

Phyllis is enroute to Haines City, FL from Valdosta where we spent Easter weekend.  I left on Monday morning, stopped in Donalsonville and had lunch with mom and drove on to Pensacola .

Last night I taught in Globe’s IGM and had a great time talking about “Missionary Evolution.”  In this teaching I talk about the difference in 19^th, 20^th and 21^st Century missionaries and the way we perpetuate missions.

I’m convinced that the heart of God is missions.  Not necessarily “missions as we know it.” He is a sending god and we are His “sent people.”  Sent into all the world with hope, health, justice, grace and salvation.  And I’m equally convinced that we keep missing it.  We keep doing things in the way we’ve inherited, with mindset and paradigms that are not very New Testament/New Covenant in their approach.  In the effort to consolidate and bring things together, we often demonstrate more a command and control mentality that one of empowerment and release.  We are to be in the training (discipleship/mentor) encouraging, empowering and releasing business.

Vision and dreams of heart are the inherent right of all Followers of Jesus.  They are part of the Jesus package.  Jesus awakens in everyone who follows Him a dream, a vision, a passion to fulfill our destiny and expand God’s Kingdom.  Destiny is a non-transferable assignment from God.  And every born-again follower of Jesus gets to live out a destiny designed by God for the glory and purpose of God.

It’s to be lived out in community. 

The church is a faithful community of Jesus-followers.  Each individual has individual gifts, anointings and callings form God.  No one has it all.  No one has the full vision or the full ability to carry it out.  It is a joint-effort orchestrated by the Father through His Spirit in the individuals submitting together in loving relationship.  God’s purpose is fulfilled in community.  We are gathered together into community for empowerment, encouragement and sending.

It’s to be lived out missionally. 

Missional living is living outside the interests of the community.  We are not just to live for ourselves - either individually or collectively.  We are gathered to be sent.  And as we are sent on a mission with God we touch lives.  We intersect with men and women who are on a seekers journey.  And we work together with God to speak into their lives, give a glimpse of Jesus and His mercy and grace and help them know his salvation.
It’s to be lived out in the grace and power of Spirit. 

We are a Spirit-filled people, not left to our own devices, plans and schemes.  We are a people destined to be useful because Christ lives in us.  And we have both the power and gentleness of the Holy Spirit to guide us and use us.

But, it’s to be lived out!  Not dreamed about or feared or directed by someone else. 

And we have to do everything is ways that the Holy Spirit is directing and guiding.  It’s a new day…

Tim Keller discusses what it means to be Missional…

 

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!

Christianity Today has a good article What Makes a Church Missional?  With a subtitle of “Freedom from cultural captivity does not mean freedom from tradition.”  And I’m reading Tom Sine’s new book The New Conspiritors.  In it, he divides the new movements into four groups: emerging, missional, mosaic and monastic.  Each has it’s own flavor and deconstruction of the current and traditional church.  And in my own experience (and Len Hjalmarson’s too) there are a lot of “bleed-overs.”  People who are “missional” are also “emerging” and also perhaps, “monastic.”

Also, Ed Stetzer did some things several months ago regarding the meaning of “missional.”  You can check it here.  (I’m sure it’s probably research for his next book…)  But he says some really great things.

And I talked about growing up (spiritually) in a “missional” enviornment here.  And I’m blessed for it!

---

This week I leave for a few days in Scotland… Actually I leave on Friday, 14 March and return on the 20th.  I’ll be with Bob and Melissa Hill in Dumbarton planning the June BootCamp.  I’m a little excited about the camp.  We will have a second one in Nicaragua in July.  Busy summer for an old guy.

Then I have the NoBrand Non-conference Retreat coming up 3-6 April at Beckwith Conference Center.  I go into this with fear and trembling… fear that no one will actually show up… trembling that they actually will!

Last week in Michigan, my friend Ken and I were chatting about church…  (Do I ever chat about much else besides Jesus, church, misions and culture?  What a drag I am!  Or OCD about Jesus…)  And I mentioned my take on Jesus’ parable about going into the highways and hedges to bring people to the Banquet.  (LUK 14)  My take on this is that participation is more impotant than perfection.  Involving people in the Good Things of God (aka Gospel) is more important than everything being perfect: perfect attendees, perfect food, perfect message, perfect…

But it is about not being a spectator but a participant!  Seems we’re a group of spectators watching the professionals do their ego-centric thing and mess it up.  That’s not Gospel 

In doing a little reading ths morning in the Blogsphere, one thing led to another (as it seems to do in my life…) and I ended up on a blog quoting John Wimber, one of my heroes!  So, I thought you should share in it with me…

As John Wimber wrote, everyone seems to be able to see this except those of us in the church.

Folks, the world knows what this is supposed to look like. Years ago in New York City, I got into a taxi cab with an Iranian taxi driver, who could hardly speak English. I tried to explain to him where I wanted to go, and as he was pulling his car out of the parking place, he almost got hit by a van that on its side had a sign reading The Pentecostal Church. He got real upset and said, “That guy’s drunk.” I said, “No, he’s a Pentecostal. Drunk in the spirit, maybe, but not with wine.” He asked, “Do you know about church?” I said, “Well, I know a little bit about it; what do you know?” It was a long trip from one end of Manhattan to the other, and all the way down he told me one horror story after another that he’d heard about the church. He knew about the pastor that ran off with the choir master’s wife, the couple that had burned the church down and collected the insurance—every horrible thing you could imagine. We finally get to where we were going, I paid him, and as we’re standing there on the landing I gave him an extra-large tip. He got a suspicious look in his eyes—he’d been around, you know. I said, “Answer me this one question.” Now keep in mind, I’m planning on witnessing to him. “If there was a God and he had a church, what would it be like?” He sat there for awhile making up his mind to play or not. Finally he sighed and said, “Well, if there was a God and he had a church—they would care for the poor, heal the sick, and they wouldn’t charge you money to teach you the Book.” I turned around and it was like an explosion in my chest. “Oh, God.” I just cried, I couldn’t help it. I thought, “Oh Lord, they know. The world knows what it’s supposed to be like. The only ones that don’t know are the Church.”

When you joined the kingdom, you expected to be used of God. I’ve talked to thousands of people, and almost everybody has said, “When I signed up, I knew that caring for the poor was part of it—I just kind of got weaned off of it, because no one else was doing it.” Folks, I’m not saying, “Do some-thing heroic.” I’m not saying, “Take on some high standard, sell everything you have and go.” Now, if Jesus tells you that, that’s different. But I’m not saying that. I’m just saying, participate. Give some portion of what you have—time, energy, money, on a regular basis—to this purpose, to redeeming people, to caring for people. Share your heart and life with somebody that’s not easy to sit in the same car with. Are you hearing me? That’s where you’ll really see the kingdom of God.