Frank Doiron, in a previous comment, has challenged us to actually get out of our comfort zones and step out into living kingdom, incarnational lives.
He quotes Alan Roxburgh who wrote:
“We are in a moment when the deconstruction and critique of existing maps needs to be wedded to a company of people willing to risk forth upon the seas to discover the holy gusts of the Spirit pulling us to new lands and worlds that can’t be imagined yet.”
Frank goes on to say:
My wife and I are asking personal questions…. What do we (personally) need to do to serve others. Are we ready to count the cost? How do we re-order our priorities, etc. If we wait for others (as in our house group) to come along we will never get started.
[WE are] getting on our knees and asking for partners in this work. (Those who are really interested in mission)…
We have no interest in planting church services…
I think there is a place for discussion and opinion but I know those of us who believe in mission long for a group that is ready to risk. A group where discussion leads us forward and not freezes us. A group where we don’t have to convince most of them of the need to reach out.
Frank invites you to email him if you want to share ideas and encourage one another on living missionally. Frank, put me on the list.
Comments
5 responses to “Frank’s Challenge”
Greetings,
I am new to this whole open discussion of the meaning and form of church. Twenty-five years ago I was a church planter in the traditional sense, and was always dissatisfied with what the church was patterned after, and what it always became. Over the years, my dissatisfaction turned to frustration, to disillusionment, and to cynicism.
My escape was to “hide out” in a large “boomer” church. And in time, my wife and I became involved with a group of people that meet in one of the Sunday-school rooms there, the majority of whom also meet as a smaller home groups. I guess you would call that a church within a church. Half of us no longer “attend” the larger worship service.
The “boomer” church is suffering a decline in attendance and is scrambling to change their marketing techniques in order to become a mega-church. The senior “pastor” has become CEO, and the associate pastors, managers. A dual campus “ministry” is in the plans, two market places for “spiritual” consumers, something for everybody, price tag, fifteen to twenty million. The elders have no real spiritual role, and function as straw men who hold a position because the by-laws require their existence. I am deeply saddened.
Less than twenty miles away, there is a large population in hopelessness, in poverty, in drugs, in violent crime, in broken lives, broken families, and abuse. They are among two groups of people that the church generally ignores, 1) Those, who are just different enough from us, so as not to be comfortable with us, and, 2) Those, who are so different from us, that we are uncomfortable with them. So the church ignores their existence, and would have them live and die without a touch from Christ at our hand.
Is there a place to which I can sink lower than cynicism? Maybe sadness is better. Sadness is not as angry.
I’m looking for another place to escape, but as I read the long discussions on house church, I sense that this is also not a perfect world. The struggle for a truer identity, a truer spirituality, a truer form and function, seems unending. It reminds me of what Paul describes on a personal level in Romans 7. My question is, what will it take for us to experience chapter 8, both personally and corporately. Are we focusing on the wrong thing? Are we so bent on “getting the form of church right” that we’re missing our mission?
Whenever Jesus is going to judge men for their works, it’s never about our form or style, or our church associations. There’s nothing said about our buildings, or our by-laws, our doctrinal statement, our fancy worship services, or about the lack of all of the above. It seems to be more about things like what James describes as “true religion”, “to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction”. Doesn’t Jesus say somewhere, “I was an hungry, and you gave me meat: I was thirsty, and you gave me drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in, naked, and you clothed me: I was sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came unto me.”?
I must admit that some of my fight against the organized church comes purely from my insatiable need to be “right”. Even my best is tainted with evil, “wretched man that I am”, Romans 7!
I wonder what would happen if we would open our eyes to see what God sees beyond ourselves, and if we would set our hearts and our hands to what James describes as “true”.
Looking for a city whose architect and builder is God.
Dale, this statement of yours made me realize that I too have been struggling to always be right:
“I must admit that some of my fight against the organized church comes purely from my insatiable need to be “right””
Thank you for sharing this, it will help me to get closer the Jesus in my own life, I see now how I often have been speaking against people as if to show that I am right.
God bless you in your situation. And may I be given the grace to be able to bless people in THEIR situations, not in the situations I try to push them into.
Speaking of organized churches, I can link to a blogpost I originally wrote on Baudrillard and his article, but that turned out to be a discussion of structure, organization and the Emerging church:
http://lighthouses.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/01/10/baudrillard-and-symbolic-truth.html
A couple of years ago, we (our worship team) parted ways with a traditional church that was largely not outreaching and seemed to resent our efforts to do so.
For a while, I felt incredibly lost and wondering what God had in store for us. What I thought was a passing thought, turned into a wonderful ministry.
We took our service to convalescent homes and reached those who couldn’t go out to church anymore. It has been vital, important, and incredible.
I would recommend anyone bringing their own idea of what “church” is to any place where they think people might be missing it. Hospitals, nursing homes, cruise ships, where-ever people are forgotten or have forgotten.
Whatever you do and however you do it, God will find a way to make it vital as long as you put Him at the helm.
Hi April
A couple of weeks ago my wife and I went to the hospital to sing for my wife’s 106 year old grandmother. I thought how much there is a need there. There is much lonliness. We all have gifts that God has given us. We may not all like to sing but we all have something…… “Go into the world” This has been very encouraging. Thank you…. maybe its time to dust off my guitar on a more regular basis……