The Relational Mission

Yesterday I wrote about the unpredictable nature of being a disciple of Jesus, about how followership never happens in a straight line. I saw this as I was watching The Two Towers . Click here to read this post. Today, let's look at this in the light of leading the church. The typical pattern usually works this way: First, the leadership sets a vision for where it wants to go. Second, they identify where the church currently is in relationship to that vision. Third, they set out a strategic plan that will get them from point A (the current state of things) to point B (the vision). Sounds logical. Sounds like responsible leadership to me. However, there are huge problems with this very logical approach to leading the church. Let me name a few. It assumes that leaders are in control. Namely, it assumes that leaders are in control of people. I've seen so many God-fearing leaders who developed a great vision—one might even say that their vision actually lined up with the h...

A few days ago, I watched the beginning of The Two Towers , the second entry into The Lord of the Rings Trilogy . I've read the books at least twice and seen the movies at least eight times, so I know the story quite well. But this time I saw something new. In the first movie (book) we are introduced to a group of nine who volunteer to destroy an evil, powerful ring and they set out toward the one place where the ring can be destroyed. But at the end of the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring , they are attacked and the group is split up. Two are killed, two hobbits head off one direction to destroy the ring, two hobbits are captured, and three expert fighters are left standing wondering what to do next. This is where the story twists. Logic, strategic planning and good leadership would say that the three strongest fighters need to remain focused on the primary cause, that of destroying the ring. Instead they chase after the two captured hobbits. Now if you have seen the ...

"The love of God revealed in Jesus Christ is his total unconditional self-giving to mankind, love in which he does not withhold himself from loving to the utmost or cut short its full movement, and it is upon that love that our hope of redemption and resurrection is grounded. It is the love of the eternally self-affirming and self-giving God, and so the love he pours out freely upon us through the Holy Spirit is love that affirms itself as love against all that is not love or resists his love. ... He does not hold back his love from the sinner, for he cannot cease to be the God who loves and loves unreservedly and unconditionally." (T. F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God , 246). What do you do with a quote like this? It's one of those statements that all Christians who have any knowledge of the Bible affirm, but most of us have little clue regarding its actually meaning. In other words, we affirm it with our minds, but with our experience we opt for something muc...

Reflections on Ephesians 1:1 from a missional perspective. "Paul, an apostle ..." Being that Ephesians is a crucial book for the missional conversation—as it is one of the most quoted books of the Bible in the missional literature—I thought I would immerse myself into this book for a while. While I'm doing this, I'll write weekly entries sharing my reflections. Let's start with the opening words. I'm not going to get into authorship and all those questions. I'd rather focus on what we have from a canonical perspective. As my teacher Gordon Fee always said in the first lecture on an epistle, this greeting is a typical of the time. This is the way letters began, the authors name followed by a title or self description. If we took this pattern in the world today, someone from the accounting world for instance might write, "I'm John Doe, a certified public accountant with Ernst and Young." Of course we have letterhead that takes care of thi...

I've had Missional Communities sitting on my desk for a few weeks screaming at me to review it. I've started reading Reggie McNeal's stuff years ago and have always been encouraged by what he writes. As with the rest, I was not disappointed by this one. The subtitle of the book is "The Rise of the Post-Congregational Church" which might cause some to assume that he is advocating an "anti-congregational" approach to church methodology. Refreshingly, he does not take a contrarian stance. Instead in this book, he acts as an observer of what is going on in forms of church life that intersect "people in the middle of life--in their homes, their workplaces, their leisure pursuits, and their passions to help others" (xx). At the same time, he does contrast this approach to church against the congregation-centric methodologies that dominate our imagination. These points of contrast are helpful for the sake of clarification especially since the t...

Over the last 40 years, authors and preachers have commonly used Jesus' parable of the wineskins to argue for new ways of being and doing the church. In the early 1990s I was a part of a new wineskin, an organic/missional experimental church in Houston. Of course we did not call it organic or missional, but that’s what we were trying to be. We did not fit the normal patterns of church life as we tested new ways of forming and living in community. We saw many people embark upon a new relationship with Jesus, and we had a very strong leadership core. We did NOT have traditional expectations of church life and if you spent any time with us this was very clear. However, we had many people join us who had had exposure to traditional church forms. Those who came to Jesus for the first time through the relationships in our church joined right into the life of the group quite well. I remember one person going on a vacation and sharing her shock at the way the traditional church she vis...

God wins. Yes we know that. The Bible makes this clear. However you interpret the book of Revelation, this one fact is quite obvious. Jesus will return. He will be crowned as King and there will be a new heavens and a new earth. God wins! But here's the question for us: How does God win? That's the rub. Therein in seems to the questions that drives a hard line between different camps within the church. From my perspective it's really not about whether there is a hell and who will go there. It's really not about whether there will be a rapture. It seems to me that we are really dealing with our view of God. It seems to me that there are a lot of people who want God to win the way we win today, by being bigger, better and stronger than our opponent. In other words we want a God that is different than the God revealed on the cross, the one who revealed perfect love. At least that's what John says in his first epistle. How does God win? If Jesus on the cross rev...

Now you might be thinking that your church is small and you don’t need all the elaborate processes ( discussed in this series ) for moving people to get on the airplane of missional community. Or you might be a new church plant that has started out with a vision for missional community from the beginning. Good point. Let’s address the small church today. Tomorrow, we will look at the new church plant. You would think that as much as we talk about mega-churches that there are more of them than there are. But the reality is that over 90% of the churches in America are less than 100 people. I grew up in one of those churches in North Texas. It was actually a very good experience for me because it was a healthy loving group of people. But if you insert a vision for missional community into that church, people will do a little “freaking out.” In the 1990s we observed this in church after church as we consulted with churches to help them develop organic, missional small groups. One small...

When one gets to an airport, it is clear that the point is to get people in the air. No one expects to hang out at the ticketing area for an hour and then return home. Nor do people expect to walk up and down the halls of the terminals and then leave. But that exactly what we’ve designed churches to do. This last Sunday we had a packed house, excellent worship and a powerful message. It’s easy to look at that and think “Things are going in the right direction.” A few years ago, a church building consultant told me that if every seat in every church in Houston, Texas was filled on a Sunday that less than 20% of the population would be worshiping. If all we are doing is filling seats, then we are setting our hopes far below that of God’s hopes for the Kingdom of God. In order to reshape the imagination of people who come to worship at your church and thereby reform their expectations of what it means to participate in God’s Kingdom, you must make it clear  that the point is to equi...

This video speaks for itself: You could play this short video in your group and discuss it. Here are some questions: What is your immediate reaction to this video? How is our group like this? How has our group fallen short of this? How does our individualistic way of life hinder our ability to experience this reality? What is one thing we could do differently this week in order to experience the lessons from the geese? Read John 13:34-35:  “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.   By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

If friend were to drop you off at an airport and all you had was airplanes which you were supposed to board for your trip, you might think, “What an efficient airport. It only has the most important part." However, unless the airplanes are very small and you are flying a very short distance, then such an airport would only be a nice place to park planes. Think about it this way. Think of a missional community as a Boeing 777 jet. But most people in America are not ready and equipped to fully commit to life in a missional community in healthy ways.  This is especially true of Christians who are accustomed to traditional forms of church life. So the weekend service could play the function of the ticketing area in an airport. And connecting communities could play the function of the terminals that get you to the airplanes. There are those who castigate traditional church services and traditional church programs in hopes that disparaging words will promote the vision for miss...

When new ideas come along in the church, we get attracted to their novelty and even their benefits and start exploring what it means to adopt those ideas. But new ideas never pan out like we expect. As we move toward something like the idea of being a “missional church” we buy into it but we face stress along the way. One stress point has been the feedback that the “missional” conversation downplays and even de-emphasizes evangelism. It's common to measure the value of church's vision and strategy by how many baptisms are recorded. And because that way of talking is not an focus of the missional conversation, many jump to the conclusion that those involved with “missional” are really more concerned about social justice issues than people’s eternal salvation. In times of stress or times when we don’t know how to respond, the natural tendency is to revert back to what we know. In this case, the old paradigmatic battle of whether a church emphasizes personal salvation or socia...

This is part 4 in a series called "Is Both/And Possible? ( Click here for the previous entries. ) We have tons of excellent options for setting up connecting small group experiences. ( See previous post. ) In addition, the options for excellent curriculum choices almost endless. But let's not assume that grouping people and getting them to talk about the Bible will move them toward mission. Without a way to create a sense of urgency for more, people will grow satisfied with a connecting group experience. Who can blame them? In many cases such groups have provided the richest and safest places they have ever known. What more could there be? We need to help people hunger for more. If they never develop any sense of urgency they will remain the same, forever cycling through group after group, and some church after church. This is where we need to think in terms of discipleship that leads to missional living. By this I don't mean a slew of classes. Instead I mean some th...

This is Part 3 of the series entitled "Is Both/And Possible?: Click here to see other entries in this series. If you are going to think in terms of BOTH connecting small groups AND missional communities then you need to develop a connecting strategy that fits your church. When you read a book that speaks to a specific connecting strategy, you often find them writing as if their strategy is THE VERY BEST strategy ever found and that it will work in any and every church. Well, we all know that that is simply not the case. I have never found one connecting small group strategy that works in every church. When I work with churches and help them develop a connecting group strategy, I think in terms of options. Then I try to understand the church culture, the culture where the church is located, the history, and the already present systems to help create a connecting strategy that fits the local church. In most cases, what develops is an adaptation of one or two of these approaches: ...

There are aggressive people. There are passive people. And there are passive-aggressive people. Leading the first two can prove easier because you know what you are dealing with.  But passive-aggressive patters are a little harder to understand and predict. Here is a video from a trainer in the business world but it provides insight into understanding how passive-aggressive behavior works. What can happen to a group when passive-aggressive patterns go unchecked? How have you responded to these behaviors in the past? What are some positive ways to respond to passive-aggressive behaviors? Here are a few tips: Don’t let your response to the behavior drag out to the point that you have to deal with it. Often it’s too late at that point. View them as persons loved and highly valued by God. See beyond their behavior. Pray and seek help from your coach or pastor, especially if the situation is potential toxic. Look for ways to help the person come to that “moment of truth.”...

This is part 2 of a series entitled "Is Both/And Possible." ( Click here for part 1 ) If you are leading an established church, no matter the tradition, it has been shaped according to an attractional church pattern. The point of the church has been to get people to attend a weekly service and then set up systems so that they will continue to attend that service. I make this point not as ya critique of that fact. I'm just stating the obvious. But let's take it a bit further. The people in your church have been shaped by this attractional pattern. They attend if they find the church experience beneficial--even if they only attend to appease a sense of guilt. If they don't find it so, they attend elsewhere or quit going altogether. Connecting small group programs, used to keep this from happening. Again this is not a critique. It's just a clarification of terms. Now let's imagine that you have developed a vision for developing communities that are miss...

When you survey the literature about small groups and community, something becomes quite clear. There seems to be two distinct camps. On one side you find those who write and speak about how to develop "connecting" small groups. On the other side there are those talking about missional communities and missional small groups. In most cases, each side talks about their approach in exclusion to the other experience. Let me be clear: writers about connecting small group structures focus on how to develop systems and curriculum that focuses on things like closing the back door, making the church 'sticky' and getting 100% of the church involved in groups. Of course there is a kind of life that they want those groups to experience, usually identified as "healthy" but the system is set up to connect people who attend the weekend services. Writers about missional community focus things like creating a way of life that is in contrast to the dominant culture, em...

"I have come to see how I am not the protagonist of God's story. In fact, I am not even a main character. This does not diminish my importance or value in God's eyes. It is simply a confession of the fact that God acts and initiates, and our part is simply a response to his initiation. But so often, we focus way too much upon our initiation and too little on what God does." This is a paragraph from a book manuscript that I'm writing. Anyway, a friend has read an early draft of the book and found this paragraph to be helpful. I am been meditating on it over the last few days to see if it is really saying what I want it to say. Here I want to experiment with a few expanded thoughts. Scot McKnight's book, The King Jesus Gospel, helps us to see that in order to understand what the Bible means by the word "gospel" that we need to think in four big ideas: The Story of Israel/the Bible The Story of Jesus The Plan of Salvation The Method of Persu...

There is a ton of talk about missional community right now. Reggie McNeal provides a very informative survey of the various expressions of or approaches to this vision in his book Missional Communities: The Rise of the Post-Congregational Church. (Watch for my review of this book in the next couple of days.) Last week, I talked with a Presbyterian pastor who has a heart for developing community that, in his words, "does life at the margins." But he also realizes that most of the people in his church are not ready for this. This is a common conversation I am having now. Some have jumped quickly into the missional community vision, turning all of their groups into MCs by giving them a new name. Then they realize after the fact that their people are not prepared for life in community on mission. So if you have a vision for missional community and you only have a handful of people who are ready for it, what do you do with the rest of your people. Here are some thoughts to ge...

"He must increase, I must decrease." These words were the climax of the ministry of John the Baptist. They are words that preach really well because they tap into our popular slogans like "it's all about Jesus", "Jesus is the answer" or "Jesus is all I need." Don't get me wrong, I'm not making fun of these slogans. Tomorrow night I will be training a bunch of small group leaders about the importance of making Jesus the center of a small group. But let's get real. We like to say these words, but they are a lot harder to actually embrace. Nobody really says what we are thinking: "I want to lift up Jesus all the while "I" also become somebody along the way." I know I'm not the only one who struggles with this. It's the way of celebrity church life today. There are so many personalities, promotional stunts and pretty faces leading the charge within the church. It's almost impossible today not to gathe...

Is your group just a group of individuals who happen to meet once a week or has it become a team? Teams always come in groups, but groups don't always become teams. And if you want to lead your group into a rewarding experience, it's helpful to know the difference. Here's a short video that illustrates the importance of teamwork: What do you see going on in this video? How does teamwork protect individuals from circumstances of life and the attacks of the enemy? What makes this group a team? How can you help your group take steps toward becoming a team? (A note to small group pastors: This is the kind of stuff that you can send out to your leaders on a weekly basis that will help equip them.)

Life is a song that we sing. Sometimes I think about the life song sung by heroes of the faith like Mother Theresa as she worked with the poor in India or Jackie Pullinger as she helps drug addicts find Jesus in Hong Kong or some who moved to Haiti to work with victims of the earthquake. I think about the radical song they have sung and the impact they have had on the world. Their distant stories touch me and cause me to thank God for people who sing such songs and make the world a better place. Then I think about my life and my song. I'm no hero. I don't live in the slums of India nor with drug addicts in Honk Kong. I've never been to Haiti nor participated in disaster relief. When I look at my life the song I sing could be judged as ordinary, maybe even "unradical." In fact, my life is shaped by relatively ordinary stuff of being a husband, father, church leader, and employee. No one would call me a zealot, a radical or someone who is taking missional ...

Are you a good trainer? Here are a few questions that can help you answer this question. Answer all of these on a scale of 1-10 (10 being you agree totally with the statement, 0 being you disagree totally): Leading a training event gives me tons of energy? When I lead a training, I work hard to speak no more than 60% of the time. Participants interact, ask questions, contribute creative ideas at least 40% of the time. In training sessions, we come up with collaborative solutions and apply the concepts presented. After a training session, people express a desire for more. This is not a scientific test, but if your score is less than 35, your training might very well be a barrier to small group development. I tend to be the kind of person who likes to teach, but through the years, I've learned the skills to create training environments. And I've found that I really like doing it. At the same time, how to lead good training, the kind that large companies pay professional...