In Defense of Corporate Church

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american culture, church, church planting, ministry

I can be hard on the church sometimes, so let me switch gears today and offer some positive thoughts about the idea of “corporate” church. There are probably hundreds of ways it’s true that the church is not a corporation and no shortage of ecclesial deconstructionists to point this out, but I’ve noticed one aspect of this critique that feels a little – what’s the word? – lazy. I suppose I see this in two ways. The first is simply a quick dismissal of any principle of organization or interaction that we think is too wooden as “corporate.” If you’re going to make that claim, think things through enough to back it up.

For instance, I know I’m oversimplifying a bit but any venture can be analyzed by looking at “ends” and “means” – or in other words, what we’re trying to accomplish and what we’re doing to accomplish it. Corporations (or “the corporate world”) pursue some goals that are compatible with the church’s goals and others that aren’t; and they seek to reach their goals using some methods that are compatible with the church’s and some that aren’t. And vice versa. For instance, one of the church’s “ends” or goals is to make disciples of Jesus and teach people to do everything he commanded. For the most part, this will not be an end that corporations share. Corporations tend above all else to pursue a profitable bottom line; this is not a major goal that churches share.

But the lack of compatibility in some instances – okay, the far majority of instances – doesn’t mean there’s no legitimate overlap.

Catechism Making a Comeback?

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american culture, christendom, church, church history, church planting, conversion, discipleship, ministry

So my first takeaway from the Missio Intensive conference, which has taken me five posts to work through (here, here, here, here, & here), has to do with how we define and organize the church on a big picture meta- level. My second takeaway was the amount of thought they put in and structure they give to the process of assimilating new folks into these missional church communities. In other words, they are very intentional about how people join their church. We’re finally recognizing that the church is weird, and as such people need to learn and experience what we’re all about before deciding whether to become part of our family.

The old-school term for this is “catechism,” and it’s an idea I’ve long been saying we need to revisit. Catechism has been a core practice of the church since the early days, and I’ve blogged some about it in the past.

What we got at the Missio conference was one example of how this is being done today, specifically at Adullam. Hugh described two different processes, one for incorporating non-Christians into their church and the other for incorporating Christians. (They explain all this in their book AND, but I haven’t had the time to read it yet; I’m intrigued to see whether what I took away from the conference matches what they see in the book – we’ll see!) The former had a looser more organic feel, whereas the latter was more structured and intentional. They have their own pictures in AND, but I like mine better. Here’s the first one:

What Atomic Bombs and Ministry Have in Common

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atomic bombs, BBC, church, church planting, ministry, stephen fry, television

My favorite new show Stephen Fry in America may be uncreatively titled (what else would we expect from the BBC?!), but it provides a unique look at many aspects of on-the-ground American culture that I’d never otherwise notice. (Legit voo-dooists, “body farms,” etc.) Among the many questions it forces upon us: What did ever happen to those underground bunkers used to store active ready-to-launch missiles during the Cold War? (Safe bet you haven’t thought of that question yourself in a while!) Apparently one of them was purchased a few decades ago – for only $40,000! – by some hippies who turned it into their home and then started a profitable business helping other hippies do the same. (Yes, you really should watch this show.)

Anyhow, while walking Stephen through the missile storage hanger, the cameraman drew attention to a sign that read: No Lone Zone – Two-Man Policy Mandatory.  Hippie-missile-man explained that due to the sensitive, powerful, and potentially destructive nature of the room’s “contents” and the ever-present possibility of foul play, no one was allowed to be alone with this missile many times more powerful than anything we or anyone else has fired. Some things just can’t be trusted to a solitary human being.

And forgive me if this is a stretch, but I promise it was honestly my first thought. Ministry should be a “no lone zone” too. On top of the fact that serving together is a biblical model, it just makes sense that no one person be given too much unchecked authority over something so powerful as the gospel, something so admittedly potentially lethal as “religion.”

Now I realize that many (probably most) ministry situations don’t come with the inherent flexibility to just go and hire a team. But having a formal team probably doesn’t have as much to do with it as sometimes think. The issue is whether you have others with you keeping you honest as you go about your work. And not just someone who likes to whine, but a legit peer who loves you and has earned your respect. Who do you have like that who has the permission and the courage to tell you when your decisions are bad, your sermons are sub-biblical, and your character is slipping?

Many lives have been destroyed by loose cannon Christian leaders who enjoy too much power without the proper checks and balances. I know I don’t want that to be my story, so for me the “No Lone Zone” two-man policy is, indeed, mandatory.

Without This There Is No Church

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church, church planting, conversion, crucifixion, gospel, jesus, new testament, old testament, paul, salvation, theology

In the last post we highlighted the importance of defining the church properly by exploring the claim that what we believe about the church determines how we coordinate its life together. Today we’re going to dig further into the definition of the church rooted in teachings by the fine folks at Missio: The church is a networked family of gospel communities on mission. 

This definition requires further definition if it’s going to be helpful. What is the gospel? What is community? What is mission? Today we start with the gospel.

My Favorite Books on the Church / Ministry

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american culture, church, church planting, discipleship, new testament, real life church, small groups

As a follow-up to yesterday’s list of my favorite books on Jesus, here are my favorites on the church and ministry. Once again, I very much welcome your thoughts and especially your own favorites. These are the ones that have shaped me and that keep me on my toes.

1.  Jesus and Community by Gerhard Lohfink. I talked about this book in the Jesus list, but I wanted to include it here as well, mainly because (as I mentioned) it confirmed my conviction that the church was not an afterthought to the coming of Jesus the Messiah. On the contrary, core to Jesus’ ministry was the gathering of a body of people to continue God’s mission in the world. This book provides an excellent exegetically based theology of the church as just this very thing. Given that the church is full of sinful people (including me!) and can therefore be pretty frustrating at times, it has proved invaluable for me to remember that you can’t have Jesus without it. Or as William Willimon puts it, “The church may be a whore but she’s also your mother.” (Joey says Lohfink’s Does God Need the Church? is rockin too, and it’ll probably supplant this one when I do read it.)

Purposes of the Church

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church, church planting, discipleship, gospel, jesus

Every time I come back to work after a semi-long break (like the one I just enjoyed celebrating the birth of our daughter Claire!), I always need reminders about what it is I’m / we’re doing with the whole business called “church.” I confess that one of the questions I most often ask myself is, So what the heck are we doing anyway? So I usually revisit some list about aims or purposes of the church. No list is perfect or complete, but I spent about half of 2009 working on this and I figured it was finally time to share…

…

…

1. To celebrate, embody, and proclaim the gospel of God’s saving reign inaugurated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.
2. To exclusively worship the God who is faithfully revealed in the story of Scripture as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
3. To form new creation communities of mutual care and sharing, friendship and hospitality, accountability and reconciliation.
4. To teach and train one another to take up our cross and follow Jesus in the way of cruciform faith, hope, love, joy, and peace.
5. To share the joys and burdens of ministry by exercising our Spiritual gifts under the guidance of consultative leadership.
6. To resist the forces of evil and death by exposing idolatrous lies and refusing conformity to the patterns of this world.
7. To suffer with and seek justice and healing for the physically, socially, economically, politically, and emotionally vulnerable and poor.
8. To reflect God’s image by cultivating creation’s fruitfulness in family, work, rest, play, art, poetry, and care for earth.
9. To honor but not idolize our children and to intentionally raise them to be radically faithful disciples of Jesus.
10. To practice the historic disciplines of prayer, fasting, meditation, study, simplicity, service, confession, submission, & direction.

“Missional” Video – Thoughts?

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american culture, christendom, church, church planting, missional

POLL: What’s Next for the Church in America?

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America, american culture, church, church planting, persecution, polls

If you vote, I may even send you a sticker.

On Being “Counter-cultural”

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America, american culture, church planting, discipleship, grace, politics

It’s not that we set out to be counter-cultural for its own sake, though doing so may indeed be worthwhile. It’s just that we’ve been called as witnesses to a reality that simply is entirely counter to the culture. We are not anti-world, but we’ve been called to live into a vision of the world that is often opposite the world we see everyday. It’s not that we get kicks out of saying that what the world thinks is wrong; it’s just that what most of us often think actually is wrong. Examples? We can’t save our lives by seeking security from every risk; we can’t find lasting pleasure by seeking it directly; we aren’t acquitted simply because we choose not to see the evil effects of our way of life; our problems can’t be solved apart from the grace of God – that is, his stooping down to be present and active among us. We believe that apart from grace, redemption just won’t happen, no matter what we call it and how we try to get there. So be counter-cultural this weekend, not because it’s cool or because it makes people notice you, but because you really do believe in a vision of reality that is different from the dominant ideologies and assumptions of our time.

Plowshares and Pruning Hooks

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church planting, discipleship, isaiah, life journal, old testament, politics, prophets, salvation

Life Journal // 006

Isaiah 2.1-4: This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

This is a picture of the future as God sees it (and therefore as it will be), and it is a future we are called to begin in the present. Isaiah 2.1-4 was one of the most consistently used passages in the early church’s attempts to teach new converts about the faith and make disciples out of them (catechism). It should play a similarly central role in how we understand our calling. We are the people of God’s future, a preview of things to come, a sign and foretaste of God’s heavenly kingdom come to earth. The point is not just “going to heaven when we die” but rather “bringing heaven to earth” in the form of a transformed community that lives according to a different story, with different allegiances and ideals, than the communities of our world. God will heal the world, and we are called to be the advance guard of that great healing operation. And this very well may cost us dearly. May we have ears to hear.