January 17, 2009
Three O’clock People feeds and tries to help Portland’s street people. I’m part of the group and usually our team is down on the streets once a month. We always set-up at the same place and time (three o’clock) so the people know exactly where and when we will be there.
Some of us will be down next Saturday, but because of a severe cold front that was due to hit Portland yesterday, I knew our friends (Clayton, Harold, Debbie and over 80 others) from the street would need what little we had now and not next week. But I have to tell you, I resisted God’s prompting on this all the way down and came up with all kinds of reasons (most of them self serving and ego driven) on why I should not bother — little knowing that God had gone before and was working.
Here is the story of this last Saturday as written by Matt Tamura, the Three O’clock People group leader.
————————-
“Where do you sleep?!?!” He asked me with more than a small dose of desperation in his voice. I started stammering so he asked my mom, “Where do YOU sleep?” He was new to the streets, his first week for sure, maybe his second night. He didn’t have familiar faces to eat with, no one was willing to answer his questions. Those who do find a good awning or bridge spot aren’t usually willing to disclose its location to strangers.
“These people, where do they all go to sleep at night?”
“Under a bridge?” I reply, more of a guess than an answer.
“I need to find someplace to go…I am gonna get wet tonight…it’s gonna be really cold.”
“Ummmm…warming centers?” I say.
“Where are those?”
“Um….downtown?”
Why is every answer a question? It’s because I know the new warming center is for people with families, with kids. And I don’t want to tell him that I don’t know, that I don’t have any solution.
Paul showed up at Three O’clock People (our weekly feeding) today not really knowing what was going on. He had a small green rolling suitcase. He seemed youngish, maybe 35ish, good looking with only three or four days of stubble on his chin. “Are you going to feed us? Where is the soup kitchen?” I laughed: “It’s right about where you are standing.” We set up our tables and serve on the sidewalk. It isn’t always the most comfortable or convenient place, but it feels good to be out in the elements, beside them for an afternoon.
I had some blankets, but what he needed was something that might keep him dry. You don’t want to get wet on a night like [it’s going to be] tonight. Well thank God for Rick, who was going to be bringing some donated items next week, but had the premonition that they might really be needed this week. As if he were Paul’s guardian angel, Rick brought tarps and gloves and socks down to hand out.
[Paul got a tarp.] “WE ARE GONNA STAY DRY TONIGHT BABY! YEAH!!” Paul jumped and cheered and pointed to the sky. “That’s my God up there. He’s looking out for me.” Paul left with a little less fear, and a little more hope. He said he heard they might open up the Foursquare Church up the street for the night, and he was headed there to check it out. I watched him leave our corner of 9th and Pine, heading up Sandy and over to Ash.
What would be in your little rolling suitcase, if you had to leave your house today? What things would you stuff in your pockets? What if, in addition to losing most of your stuff, you lost contact with your family and friends? What if you were in an unfamiliar city, or a different country? I think loneliness is what affects me the most sometimes.
Another guy named Matt hung out with us and talked for a little bit. He has flip flops attached to his backpack shoulder straps even though he may not use them for another six months. When he goes out for a bite, he has to take everything he owns with him. Wow.
There is something all of our lives have in common. Routine. We have to go here to get food, go to this place to sleep, and be close to these people because they have our back. It’s easy for me to get into a routine. But then someone shows up and says “I don’t know where I’m going to sleep and I’m scared, can you help me?” And my heart was broken. That wasn’t in the script.
A few hours later I was still thinking about Paul, and I wanted to make sure he had a place to stay. I drove around looking for him. I circled the Foursquare church twice, noticing some homeless people hanging around one of the doors. I didn’t see Paul there, but I was kind of glad. I’d been praying that he was inside.
————————-
Posted in Missional 
No Comments »
January 13, 2009
Michael Craven is the guest columnist at Christian Post today where he has written an excellent article on “What is the Missional Church and Why Does it Matter?”
He rightly notes that missional has been “co-opted by those driven to maintain pace with the latest trends, techniques, and strategies” and also points out that some “see the missional church as meeting people where they are and thus want to reinvent the church for postmodern culture.”
Craven then goes on to note that he is not using the term missional in either of these “negative” ways, but rather wants to focus on how the term is rooted in the very nature of God and quotes David Bosch in saying, “Mission [is] understood as being derived from the very nature of God. It is thus put in the context of the doctrine of the Trinity, not of ecclesiology or soteriology.”
His conclusion is the “the missional church is a church that is surrendered to the redemptive mission, methods, and purposes of God in the world, rather than a people who gather for their own sakes.”
Good read and he indicated that he will be doing a follow-up where he explores practical ways in which this missional mind-set can be expressed personally and corporately.
Posted in Missional No Comments »
January 12, 2009
Our urban neighborhood was like many others. People living in isolation with little interaction. It was a residential area, not a community. But we started a neighborhood project a number of years ago that finally got finished and has had brought dramatic positive change.
We lived in an area which had unimproved gravel streets. Since I grew up on a farm, gravel streets was never an issue. But for many in our area they were a problem. Localized basement flooding and street erosion caused by inadequate stormwater drainage from these unimproved streets led many to improvise stormwater systems, as well as creating the need for annual street repair.
Neighbors started to come together looking for a solution. After years of wrangling with the City of Portland’s transportation department (all rules and no vision), we had several neighbors approach Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services where we found a responsive city agency with vision.
Since our neighborhood is situated at the headwaters of Stephens Creek, (one of the few streams in southwest Portland that still flows freely to the Willamette River, and contains wetlands) we insisted that the project be environmentally driven. BES responded eagerly with a proposed “Green Street” project.
A “Green Street” is one where the streets are designed to integrate a system of stormwater management within a street’s right of way, reduce the amount of water that is piped directly to streams and rivers, be a visible component of a system of “green infrastructure” that is incorporated into the aesthetics of the community, make the best use of the street tree canopy for stormwater interception as well as temperature mitigation and air quality improvement, and ensures the street has the least impact on its surroundings, particularly at locations where it crosses a stream or other sensitive area (from Wikipedia).
The project was finished this past year, although some wetland work continues.
Even though this was a neighborhood initiated project, the Bureau of Environmental Services spearheaded the planning and work. The project manages stormwater runoff from a 17-acre basin and includes:
- Ten blocks of street improvements with narrow, 20-foot-wide streets and a sidewalk.
- Fourteen swales and a wetland detention area to manage stormwater runoff.
- Acquisition and restoration of a 0.62-acre wetland to detain and filter water before it enters Stephens Creek.
- Driveway connections to existing homes.
- Improved street lighting.
How did our neighborhood benefit? It brought our neighbors together around a common cause which overnight brought down the walls of isolation. We are a community now where we know each other, visit, pick up mail when others are on vacation, children play together and we have even taken some to doctor appointments and other errands. It enhanced the livability of the area, created green space and wildlife habitat (ducks are back and we had a deer walk down the street last week), preserved the maximum number of mature trees, enhanced Stephens Creek, and solved street and flooding issues.
One other important aspect was our insistence that sidewalks be included. On the very day that the sideways were done, people were out walking and visiting, and it has not stopped. Sidewalks are a key to ensuring that walls of isolation remain down so that relationship building can continue. And as these relationship have matured, we have had many opportunities to verbally share our live and faith as Jesus followers.
Further, because of my activism in this project, I’ve been able to connect with many of our Southwest Portland neighborhood leaders and city officials. This has and is leading to greater community involvement of myself and our faith community in the life and affairs of the local area.
Posted in Missional No Comments »
January 9, 2009
Back in the 80’s I had a very wise and forward thinking pastor. His name was Dr. Wayne McDill, who is now Senior Professor of Preaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
I was looking through some old journals for a specific piece of information. As I’m want to do, I got sidetracked reading notes and observations from the past including an item Wayne shared in a disciplining session for his elders. Using the illustration below, he talked about two models a pastor or leadership team could use to “build” a faith community.
The viewpoint of the pastor or leadership in the exploitation model is that people are the resource for the work. Note that the focus is on the leadership directing and using people so they can “build a great church for God.” The common lament is, “If only the people were more committed.”
The viewpoint of the leadership in the edification model is that God is the resource and that he will build his church. The focus is on God and Eph. 2:10 and Eph. 4:11-16 would be the guiding ideal.
I was recently reading a paper by Krista Petty titled, “Making Good Ideas Happen: How to Help Your People Unleash Their Best Innovations,” where she talks about flipping the common church leadership paradigm and equipping and guiding the people of God to launch new ministries. Like Dr. McDill, she sees two models.
Using the first diagram below, Ms. Petty explains, “The senior minister, staff or leadership are paid to come up with the vision and direction, followed by the events, activities and programs to make the vision a reality. Often, leaders have the ideas and together with the people, they do the work.”
Instead of this American triangular organizational business model with top-down results, Petty suggests that “shared-vision leadership can present itself more like a diamond as both leaders and individuals shine with vision and passion to reflect blessing to the community. As individuals are impassioned with service ideas, successful church leaders will not be the only keepers of the vision; they will also serve as a conduit and encouragement for helping others develop in Christ and for community ministry benefit.” Sounds similar to Dr. McDill’s edification model.
I really don’t think many in the modern institutional church realize just how much American business models and theory have seeped into and permeate the way we go about the work of God. Our dependence is all too often on the right model, marketing effort or program (a business model) instead on God and his people.
Posted in Leadership 7 Comments »
January 7, 2009
Ponder this:
Let’s reflect by asking the following questions: “What is the role of leadership within the body of Christ?”, “How does the modern church define leadership?”, and “How do we move from the current leadership model to an Ephesians 4 ideal?”.
What is the role of leadership within the body of Christ?
It is pretty clear from what Paul taught and from what we see in the first century church that leadership was about discipleship. A key text is in Ephesians 4 where Paul tells us that God has given the body of Christ, “…the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to [become mature], to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…” (Eph 4:11-13, ESV).
It is plain that Paul sees the role of these “leaders” to be that of equippers (ESV, TNIV), perfecters (KJV, Amplified), trainers (The Message, Holman). He sees them in the role of disciple makers fulfilling the commission given to them by Christ himself (Matthew 28:19-20). Because they took seriously their task of equipping the saints for the work of ministry, when a problem arose, they were able to confidently turn to the saints and have them select people who could deal with the issue. Acts 6 is a classic example.
We see that the role of leadership is discipleship - to equip, train, and perfect the saints who then become leaders able to do the work of ministry.
How does the modern church define leadership?
Unfortunately, the modern church (and maybe even the church from the time of Constantine) has defined leadership in terms of a hierarchical organizational model where the pastor is the CEO with paid assistants who deal with the programs and problems. Any discipleship that occurs is done using some programmatic methodology which tends to focus on imparting information.
And where are the apostles, the prophets, and the evangelists in the leadership of the body? Why is only the pastor considered the only valid leadership gift?
Is it any wonder that in the modern church so few of the saints are involved in any work of ministry?
How do we move from the current leadership model to an Ephesians 4 ideal?
Within an existing congregation full of consumer driven saints who only know the CEO leadership model, I don’t think it is easy to move to an Ephesians 4 ideal. But I do believe it is possible to make some progress over time.
The first step is to make a commitment to doing personal discipleship. Identify a small group of people who you can begin to equip, train, and perfect. My suggestion is that you start with those who already have influence, like your elders or deacons. As they grow and mature, it is going to be much easier for you to wean yourself from some of the organizational maintenance responsibilities and their dependence on you being in such a role. They will have understanding and can support such a transition.
Don’t expect this to be an overnight transition. Expect it to take years.
Understand that making disciples is not a matter of more or correct biblical knowledge. Having classes where you impart more information is not enough. You have to move out of the classroom and get them involved in right actions. For more on this, read what Alan Hirsch has to say about acting our way into a new way of thinking.
I know most pastors by nature seek to ensure that there are no “messy situations” or conflicts within the body, but in the process of disciple making you are going to have to trust the people you are working with knowing full well that they will make mistakes. Use such situations as a training time. Don’t back away from empowering them to act and do ministry.
Finally, you need to begin the process of expanding your leadership to include the apostle, the prophet, and the evangelist. The team is incomplete without these gifted people.
Posted in Leadership 6 Comments »
January 6, 2009
This is a rewrite of a post I did for the June 2008 Missional Synchroblog.
Are we merely devotees, who, as a mark of our faith, attend church weekly, participate in a bible study and often invite a friends or neighbors to join us? Or are we disciples of Jesus whose life is consumed 24/7/365 with, as Hirsch stated it, “the practical outworking of the mission of God (the missio dei) and of the incarnation”? Most operate in the former when God calls us to the latter. Missional is about the latter.
So why does the average Jesus followers labor to understand Gods missional call and to live it out?
One core reason for this struggle stems from our western culture adopting the Greco-Roman supposition that all the world is divided into two realms: the sacred and the secular. The average Jesus followers segregates their lives (all they are and do) into one of these two boxes.
Work, clubs, hobbies, school, recreation, vacation, money and other such things go into the secular box. Sunday “church,” bible studies, home groups, short-term missions trips, feeding the poor, quiet times, bible reading, prayer, teaching Sunday School, serving on a church committee, tithe and the like go into the sacred box. This thinking leads to considering the secular as pretty much devoid of anything sacred or spiritual. And anything spiritual must happen in the sacred box.
When you attempt to explain the concept behind missional, the average Jesus follower simply can’t comprehend how they could possibly live their entire life in the sacred box (where all things spiritual happens, right?) unless they became full time clergy (the clergy/laity divide is a result of dualism). In their mind, to live 24/7/365 as a missionary would require them leaving behind the secular. But which activities do most of our contacts, dealings and interaction with our neighbors and community spring from? Can you see an oversees missionary thinking of their vocation as anything other than a powerful tool to be use to accomplish the practical outworking of the mission of God in their context?
Kary Oberbrunner in his new book “The Fine Line” (Zondervan, 2009) states that this type of worldview is toxic on multiple levels. “As God’s people, we’re called to fight against this human tendency to compartmentalize, represented in what I call the Fragmented/Dualistic worldview.”
Oberbrunner provides this helpful diagram.
| Worldview |
Fragmented/Dualistic |
Connected/Holistic |
| Relationship of Christianity/Culture |
In opposition with one another |
Integrated with one another |
| Mind-set |
Greek/Western |
Hebrew/Eastern |
| Motto |
Some things are spiritual |
All things are spiritual |
| Concept of belief and action |
What I believe can be different from what I do |
What I believe is defined by what I do |
| Concept of priesthood |
Professional ministers |
Priesthood of all believers |
| Concept of categories |
For Christians there are two categories: Sacred/Secular |
For Christians there is only one category: Sacred |
| Concept of prayer |
Material is bad and immaterial is good. Our prayers sanctify the material |
All things, material and immaterial, can be good. Our prayers bless the God who grants us the material |
| Kary Oberbrunner, “The Fine Line” (Zondervan, 2009), page 52-53. |
I realize that most people have more gray between their two boxes than I’ve portrayed here, but my point is that we have to deconstruct the belief in dualism if you want to be able to communicate the missional concept. Believers need to see their life holistically and completely sacred before they can begin to grasp what it means to be missional.
Part of the point of the missional movement is to recapture a biblical worldview, an understanding of who we are and the life we are called to walk. A life where we are consumed 24/7/365 with the practical outworking of the mission of God and of the incarnation. A life where “the way of Jesus*” informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living for him and others and where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. But it will not happen in a church (the ecciesia) that operates within the concept of dualism.
* Seeking to consistently embody the life, spirituality, and mission of Jesus.
Posted in Missional 10 Comments »
December 26, 2008
Matt Stone has done a great post on Attractional vs Missional Services. It is a great post, so be sure you go over and read it.
To make his point, Matt used this illustration:
Think about it. In an attractional model, what is the primary door to the community of believers and faith? Answer: The Sunday morning service. But in a missional context, the primary door is engagement with the faith community (individually and collectively) away from the Sunday gathering. This engagement with non-yet-Christians leads to involvement with the community which leads to belonging which leads to faith (believing). You might diagram it something like this:
Engagement —>> Involvement —>> Belonging —>> Belief
Or you could illustrate the way I have here:
Posted in Missional 1 Comment »
December 17, 2008
In his book The Great Good Place (Marlowe & Company, 1989), Ray Oldenburg contents that pubs, cafés, markets, coffee shops, community centers, and other “third places” (in contrast to the first and second places of home and work), are central to local community vitality.
He says, “Life without community has produced, for many, a life style consisting mainly of a home-to-work-and-back-again shuttle. Social well-being and psychological health depend upon community.” Oldenburg further argues that, “What suburbia cries for are the means for people to gather easily, inexpensively, regularly, and pleasurably — a ‘place on the corner,’ real life alternatives to television, easy escapes from the cabin fever of marriage and family life that do not necessitate getting into an automobile.”
What do third places “feel” like? Oldenburg lists eight characteristics of third places:
1. They’re neutral ground
2. They’re “levelers” where rank and status don’t matter
3. Conversation is a main activity
4. They’re easy to access and accommodating
5. They have a core group of influential regulars
6. They have a low profile instead of being showy
7. The mood is playful
8. They feel like homes away from home
Since a missional church is made up of individuals willing and ready to be Christ’s people in their own situation and place, who know that they must be a cross-cultural missionary (contextual) people in their own community, creating or using existing third places can be/should be a primary means of being part of our neighborhood. It gets us out of our sheltered Christian world and puts us out into the community.
There are two ways of using third places to become part of your community. You can find existing community gathering places and make them a part of your life and routine. Some groups and faith communities have taken a second route – they have created third places in their communities like a group here in Portland who started Urban Grind.
Existing Gathering Places
I’ve got three third places: 1) Our local café (Fat City) where they know me by name and what my order is. I know most of the help and many of the regulars. Sitting at the counter is the best place for conversation. 2) The local Starbucks where I meet friends several times a week and often bump into neighbors, other friends and others from my faith community. 3) A local pub (Raleigh Hills Pub) where I frequent less often, but it works well for many situations. I had a great Irish Stout there yesterday and made it a point to get the name of my regular server.
Creating Third Places
What do you get when you cross a coffee-shop with a faith community? You get the Main Street Crossing.
Ken Shuman, an ordained Baptist minister in the Houston area, is “now the general manager of Main Street Crossing, a popular coffee shop and live-music venue in Tomball, Texas, that has become a kind of Christian community center. By day, it’s just a coffee house. But on nights and weekends several ministries, including Shuman’s Wellspring Church, hold their worship services there.”
Full article is here.
From an article in the Christian Standard dated September 4, 2005, I found the following summary of how three communities are attempting to create third places.
Church! of Park Slope, Brooklyn—In New York City, a church-planting team had to find innovative ways to meet their neighbors. Since the city is a post-Christian environment where suspicion and hostility—instead of curiosity—could be a neighbor’s first response to the new church, the staff must find appropriate ways to intersect with the community.
The Postmark Coffee House helped the staff integrate with the community, meet their neighbors, and give the neighborhood a non-threatening way to stop by, drink some java, and check out this new church. In addition, the staff has invited the community to relationship-building events, like a kids’ story time or a postcard writing party.
Cedar Ridge Christian Church, Lenexa, Kansas—In the Kansas City suburb of Lenexa, Cedar Ridge realized it could use a multipurpose community center to intersect with its neighbors. A gymnasium, locker room, coffee shop, meeting rooms, indoor playground, and climbing wall are open all week to the community and—oh yeah—a church meets there on Sunday morning.
The adjacent park hosts a number of city festivals. In exchange for parking, Cedar Ridge is granted free booth space. Each event provides an opportunity to inform the community of upcoming children’s basketball leagues, fitness classes, and other happenings at their facility. Arts, education, and recreation fill the weekly calendar of the community center.
Apostles Church, Seattle—In Seattle’s artistically oriented Fremont neighborhood, Apostles Church is engaged in a multiphase plan to renovate a multiuse building that will house a coffee shop/restaurant, art school, and gallery, as well as a large meeting room.
“With the opening of the coffee shop, the neighborhood’s come to understand that we’re for them,” said Karen Ward. “The neighborhood knows we’ve been up front about being part of a church, but since we don’t have any self-conscious church publicity, we’ve been accepted as a contributing part of the community. When a community art center was proposed as a part of our new property, the local businesses and chamber of commerce offered to help us raise the money to make the art gallery a reality.”
I’d encourage you to find one of those “Great Good Places” in your own neighborhood. Frequent it often. Encourage the people of your faith community to do the same. Use it for all kinds of social gathering. If the community you live and minister in doesn’t have a good third place, consider starting one.
An Invitation to Conversation
Do you have a regular third place you visit? What is it like and what has been your experience? Do you run a third place? If so, I’d love to hear about it — tell us your story.
Posted in Missional 3 Comments »
December 13, 2008
Alan Hirsch defines missional in this article at the Leadership Journal website. Why the concern about the meaning of the word? Alan explains:
There are consequences when the meanings of words become confused. This is particularly true within a biblical worldview…. This is why I am concerned about the confusion surrounding the meaning of the word missional. Maintaining the integrity of this word is critical, because recovering a missional understanding of God and the Church is essential not only for the advancement of our mission but, I believe, also for the survival of Christianity in the West.
Alan goes on to give the proper meaning to the word.
This article is a must read because we are in danger of losing the vitality and force of the term by those who would transform its meaning through either lack of knowledge or self-serving exploitation.
HT: Andrew Jones
Posted in Missional No Comments »
content rss