No doubt, you've heard plenty about Facebook and Twitter. You're probably sick of hearing about social networking sites. But what if you decided to stay locked inside your house, completely disconnected with the outside world? That would make you non-social and non-networking, wouldn't it? You'd be called a recluse or a hermit.
Do you realize that a church can live a hermit existence? Are you aware that it is possible for God's people to become reclusive?
Social networking is nothing new. When Andrew found out about Jesus, he "posted a message" to his brother Peter: "We have found the Messiah!" When Philip started to follow Jesus, he immediately "tweeted" Nathanael and told him the scoop about the One the Scriptures foretold. After the demon possessed man was healed in Luke 8, he made sure the whole town knew how much Jesus had done for him. The woman at the well did the same thing in John 4. After Matthew started to follow Jesus, he got his friends list out and invited all of them to a party with the Savior. It's social networking. It's all about relationships. It's reaching new people who don't know and who aren't included, so they can know and be included. There's no limit to a friends list. No one refuses to allow more Twitter followers. The more, the merrier. If more people are connected, more people hear the news.
Sometimes followers of Jesus forget that they are still on earth in order to be all about social networking. Sometimes the local church forgets that fact, too. Instead of sharing the news with as many people as possible, followers of Christ get comfortable with a finite list of friends. They meet and sit with the people they know, never thinking about who might still need to hear the Good News of Jesus. Instead of actively pursuing open doors of service in the community, a church busies itself with in-house activities and programs, not realizing that new relationships may create opportunities for a great harvest of souls.
Followers of Jesus are called to be--and happy to be--social networkers. With every new encounter, in every new relationship, during every chance meeting, a follower of Jesus thinks, "What might God have planned? How might this lead to an expansion of His Kingdom?" As churches get involved in the community, serve in schools, volunteer at nursing homes, visit hospitals, participate in the chamber of commerce, host community events, and get mixed into the community in a thorough and effective way, they need to be on the watch for new believers, new leaders, and new possibilities for the advance of the Kingdom.
The Church was not created to be a hermit or recluse. It is to be the ultimate social networker. The cascade of relationships resulting from the efforts of God's people will bear the fruit of lives saved for eternity. This is God's will and desire.
How are you and your church social networkers? How are you bringing Jesus outside the walls of the church?
Check out some ideas in the excellent article from Christianity Today.
Showing posts with label Missional Communities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Missional Communities. Show all posts
Monday, August 23, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Neighborhood Genius
I’m writing this blog at the Exponential Conference in Orlando, Florida. No, I’m not writing during the sessions. I’m writing while I play hooky at Disney World (just kidding!).
As I wander through the hallways at the conference, I’ve noticed that a lot of church planters and missional leaders are injured. An oddly high number of people have casts on their arms or legs, are wearing slings, and are moving around on crutches. I’m beginning to think that living out a missional life is really dangerous!
A missional life is, in fact, daring and risky. Instead of living for yourself, serving your own interests, and being protected in your bubble, you decide to really care about people. You take time to engage with your family. You take steps to get involved in people’s lives. You venture into the community to serve others. You ask God and yourself, “How can I live out Jesus’ love in public today?”
I was having lunch with a few colleagues recently when a fellow church member approached our table and introduced us to a friend of hers. The friend had experienced all kinds of tragedy and hurt. She was barely scraping by. The church member had been doing a great job introducing her to the care and love of Jesus. There was one problem, the friend mentioned casually. She didn’t have a driver’s license and couldn’t visit our faith community.
You could see everyone thinking, “Hey! We’ll give you a ride!”
I had another thought: “What if she were to help start a gathering in her own neighborhood? There would be no pressure for a driver’s license and she could invite a whole bunch of her friends. She’d be able to explore with people in her life who God is.”
That kind of invitation was extended to my wife recently. A neighbor invited her to gather with a group of ladies to explore who Jesus is and do life together. They would meet in her home, just a few blocks away.
This is nothing new or earth shattering. People met in homes in Acts chapter two. But it really works. It’s close in proximity. It’s convenient. It involves natural relationships. It causes life-sharing and Christian conversation. It leads to mentoring and caring. It even creates groups that serve others. It is the church in action. It’s very meaningful. It’s what people yearn for. And anybody can do it.
The gathering my wife attends isn’t part of a small groups program at a church. It’s simply being the church.
I call it neighborhood genius. God put you in the middle of a whole bunch of people—in your family, at work, at school, in your apartment complex, at soccer practice—you get the idea. It’s your neighborhood. Then, in your neighborhood, you get people together. You talk and care and live and bring Jesus there. He’ll show you the way. And lives will change. People will be lifted up. People will receive God’s love. People will band together to bring that love to more “neighborhoods.”
At the conference I’m attending, I heard the story of a water skiing instructor who worked on Sunday mornings. He didn’t feel good about missing church, so before he took people out on the water, he asked if he could read some Scripture and pray for them. This caught on. Soon he had 60 water skiers gathering for breakfast, the Bible and prayer each Sunday before they all went skiing. A group of locals joined in to help people with their boats in case they needed some repair and help. The ski instructor said to his pastor, “You know what, I think I accidentally started a church!”
Neighborhood genius! It sounds like what God told Abraham in Genesis 12, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you." What a plan! Genius. How are you working in your neighborhood?
As I wander through the hallways at the conference, I’ve noticed that a lot of church planters and missional leaders are injured. An oddly high number of people have casts on their arms or legs, are wearing slings, and are moving around on crutches. I’m beginning to think that living out a missional life is really dangerous!
A missional life is, in fact, daring and risky. Instead of living for yourself, serving your own interests, and being protected in your bubble, you decide to really care about people. You take time to engage with your family. You take steps to get involved in people’s lives. You venture into the community to serve others. You ask God and yourself, “How can I live out Jesus’ love in public today?”
I was having lunch with a few colleagues recently when a fellow church member approached our table and introduced us to a friend of hers. The friend had experienced all kinds of tragedy and hurt. She was barely scraping by. The church member had been doing a great job introducing her to the care and love of Jesus. There was one problem, the friend mentioned casually. She didn’t have a driver’s license and couldn’t visit our faith community.
You could see everyone thinking, “Hey! We’ll give you a ride!”
I had another thought: “What if she were to help start a gathering in her own neighborhood? There would be no pressure for a driver’s license and she could invite a whole bunch of her friends. She’d be able to explore with people in her life who God is.”
That kind of invitation was extended to my wife recently. A neighbor invited her to gather with a group of ladies to explore who Jesus is and do life together. They would meet in her home, just a few blocks away.
This is nothing new or earth shattering. People met in homes in Acts chapter two. But it really works. It’s close in proximity. It’s convenient. It involves natural relationships. It causes life-sharing and Christian conversation. It leads to mentoring and caring. It even creates groups that serve others. It is the church in action. It’s very meaningful. It’s what people yearn for. And anybody can do it.
The gathering my wife attends isn’t part of a small groups program at a church. It’s simply being the church.
I call it neighborhood genius. God put you in the middle of a whole bunch of people—in your family, at work, at school, in your apartment complex, at soccer practice—you get the idea. It’s your neighborhood. Then, in your neighborhood, you get people together. You talk and care and live and bring Jesus there. He’ll show you the way. And lives will change. People will be lifted up. People will receive God’s love. People will band together to bring that love to more “neighborhoods.”
At the conference I’m attending, I heard the story of a water skiing instructor who worked on Sunday mornings. He didn’t feel good about missing church, so before he took people out on the water, he asked if he could read some Scripture and pray for them. This caught on. Soon he had 60 water skiers gathering for breakfast, the Bible and prayer each Sunday before they all went skiing. A group of locals joined in to help people with their boats in case they needed some repair and help. The ski instructor said to his pastor, “You know what, I think I accidentally started a church!”
Neighborhood genius! It sounds like what God told Abraham in Genesis 12, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you." What a plan! Genius. How are you working in your neighborhood?
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The Reformation and Missional Communities
When Martin Luther was ousted from the church, the struggle of being the church became a new challenge. Were the Reformers really the church? The Roman Catholic authorities told them that they were most certainly not. They weren’t church; they had no real pastors; and the people were apostate outsiders cut off from God’s grace.
The Roman Church possessed the authority to be church. The understanding of the Word was theirs. The administration of the sacraments was under their control. The outsiders were a sham, fake, inauthentic.
So the struggle began. What were these little communities of believers in Jesus to do?
As they searched the Scriptures they discovered something. They WERE the church!
Thus began the development of the Reformation Church as missional communities.
The Lutheran Confessions express this joyful discovery of the reformers. The Apology of the Augsburg Confession says in Articles VII and VIII: “In accordance with the Scriptures, therefore, we maintain that the church in the proper sense is the assembly of the saints who truly believe the Gospel of Christ and who have the Holy Spirit” (Tappert, p.173).
Article XII of the Smalcald Articles declares: “We do not concede to the papists that they are the church, for they are not. Nor shall we pay any attention to what they command or forbid in the name of the church, for, thank God, a seven-year-old child knows what the church is, namely, holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd. So children pray, ‘I believe in one holy Christian church.’ Its holiness does not consist of surplices, tonsures, albs, or other ceremonies of theirs which they have invented over and above the Holy Scriptures, but it consists of the Word of God and true faith” (Tappert, p.315).
Based on the Bible, the Reformers saw church as the body of Christ, “holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd,” bunches of redeemed people gathered by and gathered around the Word of God.
The Reformers resisted the assertion that church could only be church when papist authorities deemed it to be church by their control and decree.
The church was more than an institutional entity. It was living, fluid, vibrant, and reaching. Article IV of the Smalcald articles comments on the Gospel: “We shall now return to the Gospel, which offers counsel and help against sin in more than one way, for God is surpassingly rich in his grace: First, through the spoken word, by which the forgiveness of sin (the peculiar function of the Gospel) is preached to the whole world; second, through Baptism; third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar; fourth, through the power of the keys; and finally, through the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren” (Tappert, p.310).
God was moving among His people. His movements were not limited to the authoritative outlets that the Roman officials allowed.
The church of the Reformation established itself as missional communities: assemblies that were fully the church, filled with and utilizing the gifts God bestowed upon the church, reaching out with a life-transforming Gospel for the expansion of the church.
Under the heading of the Mass, Article XXIV of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession states: “As for outward appearances, our church attendance is greater than theirs [the papists]. Practical and clear sermons hold an audience…The real adornment of the churches is godly, practical, and clear teaching, the godly use of the sacraments, ardent prayer, and the like” (Tappert, p.259).
Real church—the body of Christ—was reaching real people in real, practical and completely Scriptural ways. The Reformers successfully “bucked the system” to defend that fact that they were really the church—more real than the dead, Scripture-forsaking opposition.
I wonder sometimes if the church today is squelching the spirit of the Reformation church. Do we discourage anything outside of our institutional controls, our human structures, and our personal plans, or do we really believe that the church is the body of Christ, missional communities that gather around, and fill the community with, the Gospel? Are we opening the floodgates of Gospel by recognizing and encouraging the mutual conversation and consolation of God’s people for a lost world, or are we, like the Pharisees in Luke 19, commanding the followers of Jesus to quiet down, organizing them in ways that make them a harmless and benign group of near-sighted lemmings?
I hear people say that our denomination needs to define its ecclesiology better. From what I read in the Scriptures and Confessions, our ecclesiology seems very clear. Perhaps we look for a better one because our current one is risky, entrepreneurial and uncomfortable.
We need to do better as stewards of the church. We need to take risks, to live up to the Reformers, let alone Jesus Himself. Through the master in the parable of Luke 19, Jesus said, “Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag” (vs.26 The Message).
I’m for Reformation style risks. How about you?
The Roman Church possessed the authority to be church. The understanding of the Word was theirs. The administration of the sacraments was under their control. The outsiders were a sham, fake, inauthentic.
So the struggle began. What were these little communities of believers in Jesus to do?
As they searched the Scriptures they discovered something. They WERE the church!
Thus began the development of the Reformation Church as missional communities.
The Lutheran Confessions express this joyful discovery of the reformers. The Apology of the Augsburg Confession says in Articles VII and VIII: “In accordance with the Scriptures, therefore, we maintain that the church in the proper sense is the assembly of the saints who truly believe the Gospel of Christ and who have the Holy Spirit” (Tappert, p.173).
Article XII of the Smalcald Articles declares: “We do not concede to the papists that they are the church, for they are not. Nor shall we pay any attention to what they command or forbid in the name of the church, for, thank God, a seven-year-old child knows what the church is, namely, holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd. So children pray, ‘I believe in one holy Christian church.’ Its holiness does not consist of surplices, tonsures, albs, or other ceremonies of theirs which they have invented over and above the Holy Scriptures, but it consists of the Word of God and true faith” (Tappert, p.315).
Based on the Bible, the Reformers saw church as the body of Christ, “holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd,” bunches of redeemed people gathered by and gathered around the Word of God.
The Reformers resisted the assertion that church could only be church when papist authorities deemed it to be church by their control and decree.
The church was more than an institutional entity. It was living, fluid, vibrant, and reaching. Article IV of the Smalcald articles comments on the Gospel: “We shall now return to the Gospel, which offers counsel and help against sin in more than one way, for God is surpassingly rich in his grace: First, through the spoken word, by which the forgiveness of sin (the peculiar function of the Gospel) is preached to the whole world; second, through Baptism; third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar; fourth, through the power of the keys; and finally, through the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren” (Tappert, p.310).
God was moving among His people. His movements were not limited to the authoritative outlets that the Roman officials allowed.
The church of the Reformation established itself as missional communities: assemblies that were fully the church, filled with and utilizing the gifts God bestowed upon the church, reaching out with a life-transforming Gospel for the expansion of the church.
Under the heading of the Mass, Article XXIV of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession states: “As for outward appearances, our church attendance is greater than theirs [the papists]. Practical and clear sermons hold an audience…The real adornment of the churches is godly, practical, and clear teaching, the godly use of the sacraments, ardent prayer, and the like” (Tappert, p.259).
Real church—the body of Christ—was reaching real people in real, practical and completely Scriptural ways. The Reformers successfully “bucked the system” to defend that fact that they were really the church—more real than the dead, Scripture-forsaking opposition.
I wonder sometimes if the church today is squelching the spirit of the Reformation church. Do we discourage anything outside of our institutional controls, our human structures, and our personal plans, or do we really believe that the church is the body of Christ, missional communities that gather around, and fill the community with, the Gospel? Are we opening the floodgates of Gospel by recognizing and encouraging the mutual conversation and consolation of God’s people for a lost world, or are we, like the Pharisees in Luke 19, commanding the followers of Jesus to quiet down, organizing them in ways that make them a harmless and benign group of near-sighted lemmings?
I hear people say that our denomination needs to define its ecclesiology better. From what I read in the Scriptures and Confessions, our ecclesiology seems very clear. Perhaps we look for a better one because our current one is risky, entrepreneurial and uncomfortable.
We need to do better as stewards of the church. We need to take risks, to live up to the Reformers, let alone Jesus Himself. Through the master in the parable of Luke 19, Jesus said, “Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag” (vs.26 The Message).
I’m for Reformation style risks. How about you?
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