The Relational Mission

“Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” —Philippians 4:8 A good life grows out of good input. Our brains are remarkable. That little organ has been designed to constantly receive and process data, even when we are not trying to do so. Of course, we think about the fact that our brains taking in information when we are reading a book or sitting in a class while the teacher gives a lecture. This is a form of active learning where we intentionally engage our brains to learn something new. But there is also something that we might call passive learning. Passive learning occurs perpetually. It’s on auto-pilot and there is no off button. Most of the time we don’t even know what we are learning as we are learning it. It just happens as we go through the day. The most obvious example of this happens when we grow up...

To walk the journey of life well, you must learn to pivot. The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.—Proverbs 16:9 As we walk through life, we will face twists and turns, along with roadblocks and barriers. When I was in my twenties, I traveled from Hong Kong to Guangzhou on a train as a part of group visiting some house churches who were meeting illegally. I was traveling with a British citizen of Hong Kong (this was when it was still a British territory). He had been arrested, tied up, and beaten for practicing his faith. When his British passport fell out of his pocket, and Chinese police let him go. To say the least, this experience was not something he had put in his planner. In fact, it messed up a significant list of things that he was aiming to do.  This is a rather extreme example, but, nonetheless, it does illustrate that life never works as we plan. That does not make planning unimportant. In fact, having a plan for the steps you will take is helpful....

God did not call us to be heroes. He did not challenge us to be zealots. And he did not invite us to be radicals. Instead he renamed us. He called us "saints," that is holy or set apart for him. Think of it this way: to be holy is a bit like those special dishes that were passed down to your mom that you only used once a year at Christmas. They were distinct from the everyday. They were treated with special care. God's church, God's people, are his group of saints, God's advertisement to the world. Of course we don't look like saints. And by the way, neither did the people in churches during the first century, but Paul addressed them as "God's holy ones" nonetheless.  However, we live with the myth that the success of the church depends upon us. And since we are far from looking like saints, the clarion call to heroic Christianity, to zealous discipleship and to radical mission looks so appealing to serious Christians. Being that the av...

“[W]e preach Christ crucified, which is a scandal to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” —1 Corinthians 1:23 CEB The Bible is the most unique book ever written. The reasons for this are many, but the fact that it claims to be the word of God and that the central figure claimed to be God, but that God was killed on the cross makes this the most unusual kind of story ever. As Paul wrote, it is foolishness and a scandal. This one attribute, the reality that God died on a cross, while the most shocking claim in history, reveals a God that is at work in this world in ways that we cannot predict or control. It reveals truth that comes to us from God, not something that we could ever drum up. This foolish truth of the Bible must cause us to ask: What kind of book is this? Of course, we often read the Bible by domesticating it. The truth of the Bible is so beyond what we expect that we try to fit its message into already conceived notions. We read it to confirm what we already believe. Li...

I grew up in small church in rural North Texas called Foote Baptist Church. The pictures below depict the actual building restored back to it's early 20th century look. When I say "I grew up" I mean that. I spent a ton of time in that old school house church building. It was just part of my childhood. And listening to sermons was part of my childhood. There was not children's church. That was the day when we sat with the adults. As I've reflected on the sermonizing of my childhood, I realized that there was a basic pattern to them. It went like this: Part 1: The Passage and What it Said—In this part, the pastor would identify the passage and explain what it was about. Part 2: The Meaning of the Passage—Here would come the interpretation. Part 3: Application—Here is where we were challenged to implement the passage to our lives. This approach to sermons was based upon something called decision-based ethics, which assumes that when we hear the truth that we ...

Last week, I wrote a post that challenged the practice of complaining about the things we see wrong . Most specifically, I challenged the habit we have in the church of complaining about stuff over which we have no direct influence. We like to complain about our concerns and we get stuck there. But this raises the question: What do we do with our concerns? Or What do we do about the things we see going on in our world over which we have little to no influence? Besides re-posting something on Facebook, is there another option? The answer is found in one word: Lament. But we don't lament in our culture. We don't lament in our churches. We don't even talk about lamenting and how central it is to the a biblical imagination. Just read the Psalms or the first chapter of Nehemiah. It's all over the place. We understand complaining. But we don't understand lamenting. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn." This is the most paradoxical of all the b...

One of the best things about my work is the fact that I serve churches across a variety of traditions. I find it a great honor to enter into the life, tradition, and culture of different streams of faith to see what God is already doing amongst a local church and help them develop small groups that fit them. Last week, I had the honor or worshiping with, leading training sessions for, and interacting amongst the leaders of Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, TX. I participated in their high church service, their contemporary Uptown service, and their very Anglo-Catholic evensong service. Then I attended the morning service on Monday at 7:30 am. Because I wanted to understand them so as to help them shape small groups that fit them, I needed to pray and worship with them.  Their buildings which are under construction are pictured above. This is a far cry from the low-church experience of most of my life. The picture below is of the church where I worshipped. I must admit, I...

Like many who grew up in the church, Sunday school small group Bible studies shaped my life. Then I added home Bible studies. Then I got involved in the early days of the cell church movement in the 1990s. Sermons, Bible studies, Bible teaching sessions, conferences—how could I ever count the hours of information that I've poured into my brain about the Bible. My situation is not that uncommon. Many in the church know a lot about the Bible. I've even heard it say that we know more Bible than we can obey. As an alternative, many propose a focus on Bible application. So the point of a sermon or a Bible discussion time in a small group is to get people to the question of How can I apply this to my life? Or What am I called to obey as a result of this study? Or How is God calling me to respond to this passage? I don't think that the problem in the church is having too much Bible information. Nor is it about having the right information. And I don't think the solution is...

"A new beginning! We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life. Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises. Imagine that we could walk through the new year always listening to a voice saying to us, "I have a gift for you and can't wait for you to see it! Imagine!" Henri Nouwen, Here and Now , 16 For years, I would read a Henri Nouwen book about once every 12-18 months. I would mark it up, take notes, and copy quotes like this in my journal. Then I would put the book aside and think, "Well, I'm just not there yet." Upon reading his stuff, I would get what he is saying conceptually, but my soul didn't get what he was really saying. I felt like a little league baseball player watching the high school team practice. Then I realized that I had never been through the period...

I wrote this post and then I deleted it by accident. So here's the second post. I think it turned out a bit better. I've found that most Chrisitan know that they are supposed to pray. But I've also found that prayer can be a very frustrating experience. This is especially true when we view prayer as a something we have to make happen. You know the kind of thing that we do by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and we do out of effort and discipline. I've been there, oh so many times. I've prayed ACTS, through the Tabernacle pattern, and by walking through the Lord's prayer. I've journaled my prayers. I've forced myself to get up far too early in the morning. And I've copied the patterns of those held up as prayer warriors. Effort, effort, effort. Trying to make prayer work can be exhausting. Over the years I've found that prayer can be a joy when I don't focus on trying to make it work. Instead, I allow a different way of praying to ...

American Christians are more known for what we are against than what we are for . This seems to be more true of Evangelicals than any other group. The shining example of this occurred when Reformed Christian leaders came out against Rob Bell's book Love Wins . Their ranting against Bell's message propelled that book up the bestseller list. I see this happening all over the place, especially in social media. It seems like the most popular blog posts are those that are coming out against something or someone. Like cats fighting, we know how to be antagonistic. I've only recently seen the problem with this against mentality. For years I was blind to it because my Christian imagination was formed by it; it was the water in which I swimmed. As a kid growing up as a Southern Baptist, I was more known for what I did not do than for what I did. Good Christians do not smoke, chew or go with girls who do. We were against abortion, against invasive government and against homosexu...

Foster Environments for the Re-Socialization of Jesus Followers that  Results in Community & Mission  Developing small groups that live in community and on mission is about helping people live in a way that aligns with the life that Jesus demonstrated when he walked on earth. He came not only to save us from the penalty of sin. He also opened a door of freedom so that we might freely live in a new and different way, what Jesus called “abundant life.” This abundant way is a revolt against the “principalities and powers of this world” that do not line up with God’s ways. They include patterns of this world such as individualism, nationalism, sexism, and racism, just to name a few. These are ingrained patterns that shape our thinking and are so common that they go unnoticed. We have been socialized by these patterns, which means that we have “picked up” disciplines that reinforce the life according to these patterns. When I say that we “picked up” or socialized, I mean...

What's the source of our identity? What is the root of our being? What is the ultimate being of our life? What is the ultimate cause of our being? These are questions that are raised by the philosophical discipline called ontology. Rene Descartes asked these questions and came up with cogito ergo sum which is Latin for "I think, therefore I am." He determined that his ability to reason is the source of his being. As I've reflected on how we do life today, I think there are many other options that lie at the source of our being. While most of us don't think about these things in what we might call an ontological way, we all live according to a certain ontology. For instance,  I feel, therefore I am. I have fun, therefore I am. I work, therefore I am. I have power, therefore I am. I make money, therefore I am. I possess, therefore I am. I'm sure we could add to this list. For those of us who follow Jesus, we might add something like, "I love, ther...

Focus on Discipleship Most small group systems focus on the development of small groups. But the small group systems that stand the test of time are not founded upon small groups at all. They do small groups for the sake of discipleship. Their goal is not small group participation. Instead, it’s helping small groups of people confront the typical American life so that they can be formed or discipled into an contrasting pattern of life. These churches are aiming to generate an alternative way of life. Small groups for the sake of small groups will always blow in the wind of the culture. But small groups for the sake of discipleship have a deeper, transformational, and missional purpose. Elizabeth O’Connor writes of the missional experience of The Church of the Savior in Washington D.C. She states, “This deepening of the spiritual life is not spontaneous. People do not just become great Christians. They grow as they make certain purposeful responses to life and to the grace of God. W...