Stealing some Missional Thinking

In my Missional Leadership class for GFES, we’re reading and chewing on Alan Hirsch’s book The Forgotten Ways (Hirsch also happens to be our instructor).

I wanted to give you a picture of the online dialogue between me and one my classmates:

For a large part of Western history, the church has created its own culture. It has its own rhythms, its own demands, and it’s quite separate from the rest of the prevailing American culture. As that “church culture” has become more and more marginalized, the culture created by the church is more and more out of sync with the surrounding culture. An organic approach to church would help us realize that we, as the church, don’t need to create our own culture through the use of institutions, but we can see the natural rhythms of the postmodern Western culture infiltrated with the beauty of the Gospel. This is essentially why Hirsch and Frost both like to always tag “missional” and “incarnational” closely together.

Then, my colleague questioned:

You say…
For a large part of Western history, the church has created its own culture. It has its own rhythms, its own demands, and it’s quite separate from the rest of the prevailing American culture.

In remembering Dr. Delamarter’s lecture last year in our February F2F on Sociological Models for Understanding Religion in the Modern World it seems that the Western church has responded to the culture as opposed to creating it’s own culture. Id’ be very interested in knowing your thoughts….

My response:

It’s really both/and. It’s undeniable that the church has created it’s own culture with it’s own rhythms and language– Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night… you know the drill, as well as the phenomenon known as “Christianese.” The church has also borrowed massively from culture, ala CEO leadership models. If I could clarify… I would say that for a large part of the 20th century, Evangelical Culture and American Culture were tightly woven together. Separate but very much joined. What we see happening, especially in the last 30 years or so, is an exacerbation of the “separation” aspect of that marriage. It’s now largely a psychological problem. Those steeped in the Christian culture believe America belongs to them, but there are plenty of people not connected to the Church that would easily argue otherwise. Unknowingly, our churches are borrowing from a mythological, Evangelical-American culture and at the same time alienating themselves from the immediate pockets of culture and life rhythm that surround them.

Missional Thinking & Forum #3

A few minutes ago we concluded our 3rd and final Young Adult Forum, a conversational gathering for the young adults @ HPPC to come together and share their stories of trying to follow Jesus in the midst of busy lives. Hopefully we can get people to realize that there’s a great, collective young adult story here that could possible spur some prophetic imagination about what the future will look like. As in the past two forums, conversation was up and down. There were good thoughts, challenging moments, and, of course, awkward silence (don’t all good church “meetings” include this?). Over on the online forum, I posted some words as I reflected on the conversation that was had today:

The simplest way I would explain “missional presence” is using the word Awareness.
Following Jesus should produce in us an awareness of the things of God–-God’s character (and perhaps its antithesis), the work of God in the world, and the wonderful grace which we’re able to live under. Essentially, we start to pay attention. Before, we were lost in a haze of selfish pursuits, and now we’re paying attention to God’s calling. That means we start to take notice of the fact that God’s been at work for far longer and in far more places than we realize.

What this amounts to is a 24/7 Christianity. All moments are taken captive for God’s glory; all “parts” of our lives are now reconciled to one pursuit of Christ. We need this. We need a 24/7 Christianity, not a Sunday morning and Tuesday night (or whatever may be the case) Christianity. It’s a Christianity rich with dependence on others and heavily influenced by passion to see the world the way God sees it and desires for it to be.

We can’t do this on our own. We need to be “centered” on Christ and living in accountable community to see missional presence “truly flourish.”