Missional

Driscoll & Piper Email Exchange

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Mark Driscoll posts (with permission) his email exchange with John Piper after speaking at the Desiring God conference.  It puts to rest the idea that Piper and Driscoll are at odds, as has been the discussion on the web.  From Piper's last email to Driscoll, after Driscoll asked if he could post their email exchange online...

...tell the world that, I wouldnot have .001 seconds hesitation in having Mark Driscoll come back tomorrow to our church or our conference. I LOVE being on the same team and consider my self a learner in your presence more than a counselor.

Loving Our Neighbors

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Renewal_way_of_lifeLove for our neighbors...like love for ourselves, involves something vastly more significant than the meeting of individual needs.  It involves God's reaching out in us and through us to build a kingdom, a sphere of rulership, in which his will is done in the fallen world as it is in the sinless heavens; in which cruelty and disorder and the distortion caused by sin are supplanted by love, order and righteousness.  Loving obedience to God produces much more than individual goodness, respectability and the alleviation of suffering.  It builds the kingdom of heaven.

Richard F. Lovelace in Renewal as a Way of Life, p. 40.

Desiring God: Keller and Driscoll

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Challies has posts with content from the Desiring God conference messages (mostly relaying content in his own words) of Tim Keller...

There has to be a lifelong process of realizing the wonder of thegospel. Religion gives you control which is why it's so popular. Religion is "I obey, therefore I'm accepted." The gospel is "I'm accepted, therefore I obey."

...and Mark Driscoll...

John Calvin was not just a contender but a contextualizer, so we must redeem what it means to be a true Calvinist. When persecution happened in Europe, people flocked to Geneva. Calvin trained them and then sent them out to share the gospel. If you are a true Calvinist you are not just a contender, but also a contextualizer.

9Marks & The Missing Keller

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9Marks Ministries (Mark Dever) has a new set of articles up about the "missional" church (see left side of their homepage).  Jonathan Leeman's article, "What in the World is the Missional Church?," is most prominent and includes history, quotes and thoughts from Guder to Stetzer.  You may find his article and others at 9Marks worth reading, and at least an honest attempt of baptist reformed types who desire to understand "missional."

An obvious problem with Leeman's article is that he didn't even mention Tim Keller.  Keller is a reformed conservative (as is 9Marks & Dever) and so discussing Keller should have been essential, and maybe even central to this article.  On top of that, missional thinkers admit they owe much to Keller's writings, sermons, conference messages and local church example.  So in my mind, regardless of some of the thoughtful things Leeman says, missing Keller is missing  "missional."  It's disappointing.

Keller & Driscoll: Desiring God Videos

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Driscoll Updates Ministry in Seattle

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Driscoll_1Mark Driscoll has a nice, long post on what's happening in his life & at Mars Hill.  It's an interesting post with a look at a few people who are throwing stones at him, the growth issues they face at Mars Hill as well as the number of people they have in various recovery groups, and stuff he is writing. 

Whatever you think of Driscoll, it's good to keep up.

600 Pages

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I recently read three books, each running about 200 pages.

Hsu_2 The first was The Suburban Christian by Albert Hsu.  I thought it was a very helpful book on suburban Christian spirituality that fills a gap in understanding life in suburbia.  There are points Hsu makes that I don't completely agree with, but all-in-all this is a good book worth checking out.

Simple The second was Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger.  I really wasn't sure what to expect since I hadn't read Rainer in near a decade.  I really enjoyed the book.  It was similar to something Andy Stanley might say (and at times has said), and I say that as a compliment.  If you are a pastor or church leader, this book will have plenty of good advice for you.

Speaking_1 The third and final read I both started and finished last night.  It was Speaking of Jesus by J. Mack Stiles.  This book has been on my shelf for a few years at least.  I really was looking to read a book that gave some practical, conversational helps.  I wasn't disappointed.  There were a few places where I wish Stiles would have taken a more missional approach, but as a whole I liked the book and would encourage my people to read it.  If you are looking for some practical advice on talking with people about Jesus there are many good things out there, and this book is a good one too.

The Task of Evangelism

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The task of evangelism is...best understood as the proclamation that Jesus is already Lord, that in him God's new creation has broken into history, and that all people are therefore summoned to submit to him in love, worship and obedience.  The logic of this message requires that those who announce it should be seeking to bring Christ's Lordship to bear on every area of human and worldly existence.  Christians must work to help create conditions in which human beings, and the whole created world, can live as God always intended.

N.T. Wright in TNTC: Colossians and Philemon (on Colossians 1:19-20), 79-80.

Suburban Christian: Place and Anonymity

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When we speak of "community," we usually mean it in the sense of affinity groups, like the arts community, the African American community, the gay/lesbian community, the Christian community.  Lost today is the sense of physical community, in which "community" refers to a particular geographic area or neighborhood that anchors us and defines us. (p 117)

The chief antidote to suburban anonymity and isolationism may well be the Christian practice of hospitality. (p 132)

Both from Albert Hsu's The Suburban Christian.

The Suburban Christian

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HsuI just got Albert Hsu's The Suburban Christian and immediately read about half of it last night.  I'm really enjoying it.  What I find fascinating is the way Hsu speaks of suburbia in much the same way some speak of the city.  Here are a couple of quotes.

Suburbia has become the context and center of millions of people's lives, and decisions and innovations made in suburbia influence the rest of society.  If Christians want to change the world, they may well do so by having a transformative Christian impact on suburbia and the people therein. (27-28)

While an individual suburb might not be a microcosm of the total city, it is an essential slice of the larger metropolis that cannot be partitioned off or seen in isolation, just as a traditional local urban neighborhood is an essential component of the whole city. (29)

Gospel & Our Culture Network

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The Gospel and Our Culture Network has a revamped site which looks good.  If you are unfamiliar with GOCN, here's some info from their site...

The Gospel and Our Culture Network has been spawned by:

  • the cultural currents of Western society and ethnic tradition that have shaped how we live in North America.

  • the rapid changes taking place as we move from a "modern" to "postmodern" form of society.

  • the growing un-ease of the church as it experiences a dislocation from its prior places of importance.

The aim is to explore what these things mean, under the light of the gospel, for the life and witness of the church.

[...]

The network offers companionship for Christian leaders and groups eager to work together with others who share similar concerns. It brings together people from a wide spectrum of churches -- from Mennonite to Roman Catholic, from Anglican to Southern Baptist -- and a range of local ministry settings.

  • It puts theological educators and ministry practitioners into fruitful contact with each other so that effective strategy and sound theory may be wedded together.

  • It provides mutual encouragement between denominational administrators and local congregational leaders to discover models of the church capable of sustaining a living and faithful witness to the gospel in our contemporary world.

  • It encourages the formation of local groups in which pastoral and lay leaders of congregations work together to develop practical responses to contemporary challenges.

  • It makes available resources and materials to facilitate vision and change in the missional life of the church.

Following Jesus Into Exile

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Exiles_1A couple of quotes from Michael Frost's Exiles...

We cannot demonstrate Christlikeness at a distance from those whom we feel called to serve.  We need to get close enough to people that our lives rub up against their lives, and that they see the incarnated Christ in our values, beliefs, and practices as expressed in cultural formes that make sense and convey impact. (p 55)

I would argue that in today's society, any attempt to model your life on the life of Christ must include a genuine attempt to hang out regularly in third places.  Genuine incarnational living demands it.  Missional proximity can best be developed in bars, pubs, gyms, grocery stores, beauty parlors, community groups, and coffee shops. (p 59)

Links Matter

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A few links...

John Piper has written a manuscript responding to N.T. Wright's view of justification.  Who knows if/when we will see it since he is seeking the thoughts of others on it, but the conversation at Justin Taylor's blog about it is already interesting.  Piper wrote this on his summer sabbatical at Cambridge.

Brian Spears writes on the 10 things you'll learn by visiting other churches.  Always helpful for those of us who too rarely get to visit other churches.

The Church Planting Resources site is looking good, and is now considered to be 83% sexier (according to Drew Goodmanson).  It's a site for "free exchange of information to help build the Kingdom and ultimately spread the gospel." 

Comback Churches has some good stuff from Ed Stetzer, including his "Stirring the Waters" articles.

And have I mentioned before the PeopleGroups website?  Some good, basic demographic stuff for you.

Core Values

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I'm preaching through a series on Core Values for my church.  We have five: Truth, Beauty, Redemption, Community, & Mission.  This Sunday the Core Value is community. 

The series has been phenomenal, for me as the pastor-teacher and for the congregation.  It's been a great discipline to derive some values for our church in our context, prepare the messages, and watch our people respond.  The response has been exciting.

This has been a more difficult series in some ways for me.  I typically preach through books of the Bible, so this is harder work.  I also realize that once I define the values they are considered defined.  I feel obligated to be comprehensive yet simple.

One thing I have done is to not only apply the values so we know how we live them out, but also to have one significant and challenging application each week.  I want our people to respond concretely to each value. 

So, for example, the first Core Value was truth.  For our concrete application we took an offering for Bibles that we could buy in bulk and have for giving to friends, relatives, co-workers and neighbors.  If we value truth, let's get the Word out!  The offering allowed us to buy 120 ESV Bibles (Outreach Edition, both OT and NT).  It's fun to watch our church respond and see something tangible happen because of it.  The Bibles arrived early this week.

This week as I prepare to talk about community, I've realized how helpful it is for our community of believers to think through what we value together.  God is doing some great things.

Reform & Resurge: Chandler

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Chandler_1What are you doing right now?  Whatever it is, it's not important.  Stop it. 

Now, go and listen to Matt Chandler's message from Reform & Resurge called Gravity: The Weight of Pastoring and the Knowledge of Christ (video).  One of the most important and helpful messages I've ever heard.  It sparked a very sober discussion with my buddies in Seattle, and I hope the trend continues. 

Matt Chandler is the pastor of The Village Church in Highland Village, Texas.

UPDATE: I just finished listening to the message from Matt Chandler again and I almost broke down.  It's directed toward pastors and people in ministry, but it's relevant to you no matter who you are.  I'm working hard to not get too dramatic, but please, seriously, listen as soon as you can.  It just may save your life, or your marriage, or your church or ministry.