Challenging Times

In an earlier post I asked whether the main purpose of the Gospels is to tell us how we should live as followers of Jesus, or whether their main purpose is to tell us who Jesus is and why he died. I still believe that this is their main purpose, but I’ve just read this note in the NLT Study Bible:

One of the core purposes of Mark’s Gospel is to help his readers understand and accept the call to take up their cross and follow Jesus. This call is addressed not only to those who would be Jesus’ apostles, but to all who desired to follow him. For some, the call to discipleship is very hard but God provides grace. Others find it easy to respond to Jesus’ call.

For everyone, following Jesus requires a total commitment to turn from selfish ways. Taking up one’s cross is a metaphor for giving up one’s life to follow Jesus even to death, as illustrated by Jesus’ crucifixion. For example, Peter, Andrew, James and John left their homes and their source of income to follow Jesus. For a rich man, turning from his selfish ways required selling all he had and giving the proceeds to the poor. Following Jesus also means being identified with him without being ashamed, and being faithful to Jesus and his teachings. It requires removing anything that would interfere with following Jesus, regardless of how painful doing so might be. It requires entrusting one’s life entirely to Jesus and repenting of sin. It even requires putting loyalty to Jesus above loyalty to one’s own father and mother. Jesus explicitly commanded his disciples to proclaim his message, as recorded elsewhere. Jesus and the apostles, through their teaching and example, call Jesus’ followers to proclaim the Good News wherever they may be.

Alongside Jesus’ demands for discipleship are the rewards of following Jesus. Those who follow Jesus are promised entrance into the Kingdom of God. They receive his forgiveness for their sins, and they become members of the family of God. They are saved from judgment, and obtain eternal life. (NLT Study Bible page 1667, references not included.)

Ouch. I may need to repent of what I said earlier.

Recently I’ve been reading ReJesus, by Mike Frost and Alan Hirsch. It’s a great book, and I warmly recommend it. (There’s a review coming up in the Slipstream podcast for May. There’s also a written review here.)

If you know me, you’ll know that I have a huge amount of respect for Al Hirsch and Mike Frost, and think that they are saying something vital for the Church in the western world to take on board.

In ‘ReJesus,’ the heart of their message is that we need to become followers of Jesus, not just believers in Jesus. We need to learn from him and become like him. This seems to me to be completely right and biblical:

‘For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the first-born among many brothers and sisters.’ (Romans 8:29, NLT).

Frost and Hirsch quote – presumably with approval – some words of C S Lewis:

‘In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful… whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose. It says in the Bible that the whole universe was made for Christ and that everything is to be gathered together in Him’

Right on the nail. Preach it, Jack.

But… (you knew there had to be a ‘but’, right?) At one key point, I’m really not convinced that what Hirsch and Frost are saying is right. Watch this space.

I’ve blogged several times recently about the idea of making mission the ‘organising principle’ of the church. I’ve looked at some reasons for this (here, here, and here), and at one of it’s greatest strengths.

But it also has a major weakness: however many qualifications and exceptions you put, it does pitch mission against worship.

But the fact is that the no. 1 purpose of humanity is to worship God and to enjoy him for ever (paraphrasing the Westminster Shorter Catechism). And, as John Piper says:

‘missions exists because worship doesn’t.’

One day, mission will cease, but worship will go on for eternity.

So it doesn’t work very well to pitch mission against worship.

The problem is about how we think of mission and (more importantly) how we think of worship. I listened to a sermon the other day which had a significant section about worship, and the implied understanding – never actually discussed – is that worship is what we do when we gather together in the church building and sing songs. This is simply an unbiblical and narrow understanding of worship. (I’m sure that this isn’t how the person preaching that sermon really understands worship – but it was still the default message that came through.)

So is there a better way to re-focus on the importance of mission? A way that doesn’t pitch it against worship (properly understood)? I believe there is.

Watch this space…

In his talks, Mike Frost says that we should explore what it looks like to make mission the organising principle of the Church. The most important reason for this is biblical – the sending God.

But there is another important reason: our times require that we organise around mission.

It was probably pretty obvious to the early Church that they needed to organise around mission – that’s why they grew so fast.

It’s pretty obvious in many parts of the world today that we need to organise around mission.

But for the past fifteen hundred years or so, it hasn’t been so obvious in the western world. In the world of Christendom, the Church occupied a privileged place at the centre of society. Pretty much everyone was baptised in church. The vast majority were married in church… and in due course buried in church too. Even people who didn’t believe were ‘Christian atheists’ – the God they did not believe in was the God of the Bible.

In the world of Christendom, we didn’t have to worry about mission so much, because large numbers of people ‘went to church,’ and even those who did not knew where to find us.

But we aren’t in Christendom any more. For something like 90% of the people around us, the Church is a massively irrelevant non-event. And an approach that waits for people to find us, or that invites them to come in to our buildings and our services to hear the Good News on our terms… just doesn’t cut it.

In a post-Christendom world, we need to organise around mission, or we will die. It is as simple, and as stark as that. And (like you) I know of plenty of churches today who are choosing death over discomfort.

There’s so much more I could say about this, but once again, other people have already said it, and have said it better than I could.

One of the best is Stuart Murray Williams, in his two books ‘Post-Christendom‘ and ‘Church after Christendom.’ (I don’t agree with everything Stuart says – especially with his views about the atonement. But on the subject of post-Christendom, no-one else gets near him.)

Other good places to look for a discussion of Post-Christendom are Mike Frost’s book ‘Exiles,’ and Alan Hirsch’s book ‘The Forgotten Ways.‘ Both of these have good short sections on this.

So why should we make mission the organising principle of the Church?

The first, most important, most central reason Mike Frost gives is that God himself is a missionary.

The Father sends his Son to be the saviour of the world (1 John 4:14).

The Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit into the World.

And then the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, sends us into the world. So Jesus can say (in one of the most important missional texts in the Bible) ‘In the same way as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.’ (John 20:21)

The point is that mission isn’t some kind of ‘bolt-on’ activity that gets added to God. Mission defines God’s character. If this wasn’t so, there wouldn’t be any hope for any of us. If you could somehow take mission out of God, you wouldn’t be left with the same God, but doing one less thing. You’d be left without God at all, in terms of how the Bible accounts for God.

There’s a whole lot more that I could say about this. Fortunately, other people have already said it better than I could.

One of those other people is Chris Wright, in his massive book ‘The Mission of God.’ The cover blurb says:

‘Most Christians would agree that the Bible provides a basis for mission. Chris Wright believes that there is actually a missional basis for the whole Bible – it is generated by, and is all about, God’s mission.’

‘In order to understand the Bible, we need an interpretative perspective that is in tune with this great missional theme. We need to see the ‘big picture’ of God’s mission and how all parts of Scripture fit into its grand narrative.’

OK. It’s more than five hundred pages long, which will put some people off reading it. Still, if you’re involved in any kind of Bible teaching ministry, you need to read this book.

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If you really don’t have the time or inclination to read ‘The Mission of God,’ there’s a Grove booklet by Chris Wright that covers the same ground – and it’s only 28 pages long.

‘We may be accumstomed to citing Bible texts which show how important mission is. But do we realise that the Bible itself is a phenomenon of mission?’

‘Chris Wright’s fascinating study puts much traditional thinking about the Bible and mission on its head…’

Go here to buy ‘Truth With a Mission’ (also available as an e-book)

Mike Frost’s visit to the UK is over. In the coming months and years, I’m going to spend quite a bit of time digesting what he said, and some of that digesting will happen right here on this blog.

Probably the most important single idea he talked about is the ‘organising principle’ of the Church.

If you ask ‘What is the Church for?’ most Protestant / Evangelical / Charismatic Christians will come up with some kind of list of four or five or six functions that the Church must fulfill. Mike’s list includes:

• Worship
• Fellowship / community (koinonia)
• Discipleship / formation
• Mission

Mike then implies that in a less-than-ideal world, one of these functions is always likely to become the ‘organising principle’ which governs the others. It doesn’t mean that this is more important than the others, or that we leave out the others – just that we organise around one function.

So during the long dark night of Christendom, worship became the organising principle – worship seen mainly not in terms of the whole of our lives, but in terms of our gathering together to pray and praise God.

Thus the main way we ‘do’ community in a church where worship is the organising principle is by gathering together in our worship services.

The main way we ‘do’ formation is for people to sit in worship services and listen to sermons.

And the main way we ‘do’ mission or evangelism is by inviting people into our worship services (perhaps slightly re-configured as an evangelistic service, but still – a service, nonetheless).

OK, I know these are sweeping generalisations. Most churches do all kinds of home group and short-course stuff to help people grow as Christians. And we do Alpha or Christianity Explored for evangelism. And we have fellowship informally over tea or coffee after the service as well as in the service. Still, I think Mike has got hold of something valid and important about this organising principle thing.

And he poses the question: what would it look like if we made mission, rather than worship, our organising principle?

… If we worshipped in the context of being sent out on mission?

… If we did our spiritual formation through ‘on the job training’ of those sent out in mission?

… If our fellowship grew out of sharing a common task in mission?

I find this quite challenging.

Of course, one question is why mission should be the organising principle. I’ll come back to that.

I also think there are some weaknesses in terms of the whole ‘organising principle’ idea. I’ll come back to those too.

Meanwhile, it’s food for thought…

The venue for Mike Frost’s meeting in Bristol on the evening of Wednesday 8th October has now been confirmed as Redland Parish Church. The meeting will start at 7.30 pm.

Tickets are not needed for this event – just walk in! (An offering will be taken towards the cost of the event.)

We’re now offering a special discount rate for students for the Future Church with Mike Frost event at Central Hall Southampton, 3-4 October.

If you’re a student at university, Bible College, sixth form college or other FE/HE establishment, you can buy a ticket for £8.00 (normal price £15). Proof of student status (e.g. an NUS card) may be required on the door.

Go here for student discount tickets.

If you would like to book for the ‘Future Church’ event with Mike Frost at Central Hall Southampton on 3-4 October, but you aren’t happy with giving your credit card details online, we’ve now posted an off-line booking form. You can download this, print it out, and mail it with a cheque.

Go here for the offline booking form.

The Slipstream podcast for August is now online, featuring Mike Frost, author of ‘Exiles: living missionally in a post-Christian culture,‘ and co-author (with Alan Hirsch) of ‘The Shaping of Things to Come: innovation and mission for the 21st-century Church.‘

I asked Mike, ‘If you could say just one thing to the next generation of Christian leaders, what would it be?’ His reply was:

‘… that we re-discover in Scripture God’s great missional plot, that begins at the very moment of creation, and runs like a thread through the whole of Scripture, culminating in the person of Jesus, and then continuing to unravel even to this day.’

Go here to listen

This programme also includes a review of Mike’s book ‘Exiles,’ by Fiona Stewart, and the web page has an extract from ‘Exiles,’ where Mike talks about third places.

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