The Relational Mission

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 ...

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. " —Luke 9:23-26 My father was a fireman for 32 years in the Dallas suburb of Garland. When he arrived home after his 24-hour shift, I’d ask what went on at work. Did he go and save the day? He’d often respond with something like, “Well, we chased the ambulance on a few calls.” (Firemen would follow the ambulances to assist on many cases.) Or he’d briefly talk about a small house fire or a car accident. On most occasions, he’d say that they didn’t have any runs at all, that they had a few inspections, performed some drills, or...

"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matt. 16:17-18). When Jesus spoke these words about how the church would operate, he was reshaping the Jewish picture of what it meant to participate as the people of God. They were looking for a conquering King; he was giving them his presence, which would change how they related to others. N. T. Wright explains, “Jesus ... apparently envisaged that, scattered about Palestine, there would be small groups of people loyal to himself, who would get together to encourage one another, and would act as members of a family, sharing some sort of common life and, in particular, exercising mutual forgiveness.” These scattered small groups would act as kingdom outposts that embodied his presence after his ascension. Later in the development of the church,...

In my first semester of seminary—in Texas—I took church growth evangelism with Calvin Miller. Honestly I was in awe of him, his poetic prowess, his way of turning a phrase, and his wisdom after 30 years of pastoring. It was the early 90s so we were reading stuff by George Barna and talked a ton about the demise of the church and what could be done to turn it around. During that time, I also visited a ton of churches. The homogeneous unit principle was in full force. Church marketing was taking off. I remember one church who tried to set itself apart by saying they were "innovative." A few years later, I finished my masters degree at Regent College—in Vancouver, Canada—and while there I took a class with Eugene Peterson. Again I was in awe of his poetic prowess, his way of turning a phrase, and the fact that he had been a pastor for 30 years. He shared in one class about his concerns about church growth thinking. He told us that he did not want to pastor a church where he co...

As I survey the landscape of church leadership training—including that which comes from a "missional" perspective, I get concerned about how the focus seems to center around the need to experience some degree of success in church life. By "success" I am not referring to it as an antonym of "failure", which is how we typically view success. I am not espousing some kind of church victim mentality where we revel in failure. Instead, I'm referring to success that we achieve through a form of triumphalism, the kind that comes when we take control and we make things happen for God. The kind that comes when we put the mission of God on our own shoulders so that we can avoid suffering, pain, and deep questions that stir our souls. It's a subtle lie, one that arises when we talk about grace when we preach, but the rest of church is something we as leaders assume is our responsibility so that we can make church work. The only remedy to this kind of triumph...

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." —John 14:6 I’m a fan of adventure stories, my favorites being those of J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . Whether reading the books or watching the movies, I cannot get enough of this grand story. In the opening chapter of The Hobbit , we are introduced to the primary character, Bilbo Baggins, a self-proclaimed risk-avoider who does not go on adventures. In fact, he prides himself on staying to himself, not bothering other hobbits, and living in mediocrity. Bilbo could have written an enlightening book on the art of living a quiet, safe life, one that has very little conflict. The story opens: “This hobbit was a very well to do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighborhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, no only because most of them were rich but also because they never had an...

Small group meetings are important. If you don't do meetings that well, then people will not want to explore life together outside the group. However, if we don't have much life interaction outside the meeting, how good can the meetings actually be? It's a chicken and egg thing. Good group meetings can lead to life together. And life together generates good group meetings. In order to have great small groups the goal cannot be to have a great group meeting. As soon as we put the success of a group meeting in the cross hair, then we will miss one another. The point of it all is to love one another. We have great meetings to the extent that we see the other persons, when we encounter them in truth, and when we serve the other. Great group meeting occur when we turn our faces to one another and we experience the other. When we value the success of the group meeting over the people in the meeting, then we fail. It's a paradox. We actually have a great group exp...