The Missional Church... simple

In contrast to the "How to plant a church" video

How to plant a church

I love this video! Although, I have to admit it's really a bit of a tragic comedy.

Thankfully, there's other ways to plant a church. For example see www.jacobswellspokane.org or check out www.christianassociates.org/index.php

Switchfoot - Dare You To Move

"Welcome to the fallout, Welcome to resistance, The tension is here, The tension is here, Between who you are and who you could be, Between how it is and how it should be"

Anybody else feeling this tension? Sometimes I feel it so strong I think it's going to rip me to pieces!

Isn't this "tension" God awakening our hearts? That sense within us all that says, "This world is not what it's meant to be...I'm not what I'm meant to be" That's Jesus knocking on the door of our heart. Christ came preaching, teaching and showing us a NEW way. He spoke of restoration and of what His coming Kingdom is like. I pray this tension "Dares us to move" toward Jesus and His coming Kingdom. It's in Him and His Kingdom that we all find the answers that drive us in our quest for genuine life.

Good News?

"What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad... Do you know what I'm talking about?"

The Matrix

I think the gospel is good news to those that explore the ideas that there's "something wrong with the world" and "this can't be the way it was meant to be."

I believe the most frightening thing of all is when we DON'T feel that gnawing sense that things are not what they are supposed to be or when we see it, but say to ourselves, "Maybe this is just the way it is" and we slowly go numb in our addictions and succumb to resignation.

I think salvation begins when we start to understand what Jesus meant when He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". When we recognize our own poverty of spirit, our own nothingness, it can be "like a splinter in our mind driving us mad" , but when that drives us to seek out answers it can be the dawning of a new day. The gospel has nothing to say to those who are content with themselves and the way things are. But to those that mourn (Blessed are they that mourn for they will be comforted) because of the state they find themselves in, the gospel becomes the "pearl of great price" the "treasure in the field" the thing that they will give up all to have. No price is too high to obtain this good news. So, first the gospel seems to cut down before it builds up. Otherwise, we wouldn't see it for the priceless treasure that it really is.

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like...

I've been exploring and meditating on the "Kingdom of Heaven is like" statements that Jesus mentioned in the gospels. The one I feel like I'm somehow discovering for the first time is, "The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." Matthew 13:31-32

What I think I'm discovering is that Kingdom works usually begin so seemingly small and insignificant yet, are capable of growing into something beyond what we would ever think possible.

I think over the years I've planted a few "mustard seeds" and failing to recognize their potential, I never watered, never cultivated, never recognized the awesome potential. Then wondered why I never saw a harvest.

Lately, life is taking on new meaning as I walk the neighborhood, meeting new folks, learning new names, inviting people in, giving away tomatoes and chestnuts and praying silently as I walk along and ask God to open my eyes. When I see these God lead activities as planting and cultivating a crop that eventually grows into something massive, it becomes easier and easier to envision a different future. Actually, it almost becomes difficult NOT to! If one goes out into a field and plants a whole row of pine trees, he expects them to grow and he dreams of what that will one day look like. I suppose in a sense, he is seeing into the future.

I see a future neighborhood that is forever changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ and marked by genuine love for one another. I see a future neighborhood where there is genuine community and where Christ is exulted and lived out in everyday life. A neighborhood where relationships are prized over possessions and where hospitality is valued over independence.

Lord, I pray your Kingdom come to this neighborhood, help us see where your Spirit is currently moving. I humbly pray that I and my family could be apart of your work here.

Summer Highlights

Our Summer started in mid-May, by going to India to pick up Alesha from the orphanage.

One of the things God showed us while in India was what hospitality looks like. The family we stayed with took us in and treated us as though we were part of their family. I struggled a bit because I was so worried about being a burden to them. I learned that people who practice true hospitality, tend to not see it as a burden but, as a privilege. I think April and I are learning to move in this direction, I have a long ways to go. Thank you Uma and Yaman for SHOWING our family what hospitality looks like.

Once we got home from India we entered an exciting, yet very difficult summer. Alesha had some stubborn health problems that haunted us for most of the summer. April has been much more faithful in blogging than I have so, you can read about some of the health problems Alesha was having over the summer here

We also had a few great times over the summer that I hope are captured in the photos below.

Beautiful flower in Kolkata

April and Alesha meeting for the first time in the orphanage.

Mother and daughter bonding.

April with Uma and Yaman, our wonderful host family while in India.

Children from the slums of Muneer a small Muslim village outside of Delhi.

4th of July at the McMillans. Todd riding "little blue".

Camping at Camp Dakota. Had fun until Alesha's head starting oozing smelling strep and staph infection and we had to cut the trip short and come home early.

Luke and I had a great time heading up to the north-east side of Mt. Hood to camp out at Tie In Rock at about the 8,000 ft. level. Never seen so many shooting stars in such a short period of time in all my life.

Martin is playing his first year of football. After seeing how cookie cutter the "professional" photographers mass produced the years photos, I had a moment of inspiration and this is what followed.

Camping with the Hawley and Pfeiffer men at Stub Stewart State Park. Like my friend, Ian, I enjoyed the cigars at least until the last part when I was questioning whether or not I was going to hurl. I am thinking a smaller cigar for the next camping trip.

Yes, these look like marsh mellows, but are actually powdered donut holes. The idea was to warm them up before eating them. The problem was they took on a smokey flavor, which does not necessarily go well with the powdered donut flavor.

We finished out summer by going kayaking with our friends the Hellers at Hagg Lake.

As you can see Alesha had fun in the water and wasn't afraid of the dirt.

Going to India today!

We're heading to India today, our flight is schedualed to leave in about six hours. It feels pretty sureal at the moment as we finish up some of the last details.

I've been praying for quite some time now that God would give us eyes to see on this trip, that we will see what God sees as He looks upon the heartbreaking poverty of Delhi and Kolkata.

I pray Lord that you will give us understanding, help us to see truth, to see where you are working in India. Let our hearts not be hard or dull, rather let them break over the things that break your heart.

Thank You God, for this humbling opportunity to embrace your daughter and offer your love to her. May she sense your presence in us somehow, please give her peace in this time of massive transition.

Please pray for us as a family, pray that we learn to walk in His Spirit, in His strength.

Pure Gospel...

"Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." Luke 17:33

"Lots of people more or less believe in God. But most of us do our best to customize God to suit our convenience by adapting and modifying, making him "relevant to our situation." Prophets insist that God is the living center or nothing. Our task is to become relevant to his situation. They insist that we deal with God as God reveals himself, not as we imagine him to be." - Eugene Peterson

Neighborhood Garden

For several years now, April and I have talked about doing a garden in our yard. We figured since we have a half-acre of weeds, perhaps we should grow some vegetables. This discussion has taken place year after year with weeds remaining and no vegetables to be found, at least not in our yard...

Towards the end of last year we've started to get to know some of our neighbors a little bit better. We learned that a number of them are versed in the art of home gardening. So, with the help of our generous neighbors we recently broke ground on the "Ivy Glen Neighborhood Garden" I say, "with the help of" but really, I'm simply following their directions and trying not to get in the way!

Breaking ground March 27, 2010

On the job injury.

Tearing it up, April 17, 2010

Pema, making the job look way too easy!

SOME VERY USEFUL INFORMATION...

YOUNG@HEART - OFFICIAL TRAILER

My family and I watched this film last night. It was absolutely beautiful! I loved the juxtaposition of the lyrics penned by a younger generation sung by people nearing the end of the road. It was so cool to expirience these songs from a totally different perspective. The lyrics mean something completely different from the original, yet they could have been written by these people in their old age.
That's the mysterious power of art. You can be familiar with something, you think you know it through and through, then you see it through an artists eyes and it's as if you're discovering it for the first time!

Mike Frost - Missional v. Attractional

What makes a church "missional"? I think Mike Frost gets to the heart of it. A community that organizes around mission is a truly missional church.
An attractional church can "do missions" as a part of their programing but, not necessarily be a missional church.
The more I understand, or at least think I understand, what a missional church is, I'm concluding that I've had very little exposure to that kind of environment..."It's not just a tweeking of a system...But, a complete paradigm shift"
I also like his closing words about the two models somehow working together, "cheering one another on"
It's important for me to remember it not "good vs. bad" or "right vs. wrong" Perhaps, it's more of a question of which model is most prevalent in the New Testament? Though I think examples of both could be found, it seems that the early church (before Constantine) was very much a missional incarnational movement.

The Tangible Kingdom - Incarnational or Attractional

Should the church be attractional or incarnational? This is not a new debate but, it's one that I think is of utmost importance. How one answers this question will indeed impact how they live.

The term attractional, to me, is where a church primarily attracts people to a building for services and programs. "Come and be a disciple"


The term incarnational, on the other hand, is the idea of Christians taking the gospel to the people/world as well as being the gospel to the world. As we go we embody the good news. "Go and make disciples" The above video communicates this concept well...can't wait to read this book!

Most churches in the west are of the attractional variety. From what I read in scripture, though, it would seem that the incarnational model of church is what we find most apparent in the new testement. Jesus and his disciples, the early church were constantly on the move taking the gospel to the world. "Go and make disciples"


Some would argue that the church should be both attractional and incarnational. Perhaps this is a good argument but, I'm not so sure it's a practical one. If a church is attractional, especially in America, then it must put a tremendous amount of time, effort, talent and resources into attracting the masses. With all this effort, is there really any time or energy left to go and simply be among the people? To take the gospel to them? I simply don't see how an attractional church can spend all the time necessary to keep the church machine running and still be truly incarnational. It's sort of like attempting to go on a business trip and a vacation at the same time. Either the business part of the trip is going to suffer and give way to the vacation impulse or visa versa. They're really two different paths. It seems difficult to have a mindset of "going and making disciples" while living in a "come to us" environment.

Can you imagine a church full of people that see themselves as missionaries? Where they see their neighborhoods and places of employment as their mission field? In this senerio, they would be seeking ways to take the gospel to their mission field. They would be asking questions like, "How can I express God's love among the people" and "How can I lead people to Christ" This approach is far different from simply having the goal to get people to come to the church and have the professionals (pastors) take it from there.

The very nature of the attractional model really tends to set the bar so low for the average church member. As mentioned above, if our primary goal as church members is to get people into church so that they can find Christ, then that means that our responsiblity to make disciples ends as soon as they walk through the church doors. Now it's up to the pastor and the discipleship program within the church.

I hope I'm not sounding cynical here but simply bringing people to church just doesn't cut it for me. It sets the bar so low. Christ calls us to be the church. To get out of our buildings and take Christ to our neihbors, schools, places of employment and into the world. He calls us to go, not to call the world to come to us.

I would argue that a truly missional incarnational church is very attractive as it goes forth making disciples spreading God's love, being salt and light in a dark world. In other words, if the church goes about making disciples around the context of mission...the attractional part will take care of itself.

I'm trying my best to live this out, not just talk/blog about it. At times this can feel a bit lonely but, I know it's the path God has called me to walk...It's the Jesus way.

The Cost of Discipleship

I recently finished a book called "Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ" by Jeanne Guyon.

I figured, what could be better than having a deeper relationship with Jesus? As I read the book, I quickly realized that it wasn't going to be a warm fuzzy, "5 easy steps/tips for a better Christian life", type book. Here's a sample from the book where she discusses abandonment, one of the key points in the book...

"Abandonment is casting off all your cares. Abandonment is dropping all your needs. This includes spiritual needs...All your concerns go into the hand of God. You forget yourself, and from that moment on you think only of Him.
By continuing to do this over a long period of time, your heart will remain unattached; your heart will be free and at peace!
How do you practice abandonment? You practice it daily, hourly, and by the moment. Abandonment is practiced by continually losing your own will in the will of God; by plunging your will into the depths of His will, there to be lost forever!...Abandonment must reach a point where you stand in complete indifference to yourself...Become abandoned by simply resigning yourself to what the Lord wants, in all things, no matter what they are, where they come from, or how they affect your life".

In reading this book, I'm confronted with the reality of how full of myself I really am. When growing closer to him means death to self...I pause, then take a step forward...wait, that hurts, this can't be right! Again, Christ calls me to take his hand and walk with him, leaving myself behind. Maybe, I don't need to have such a deep walk with him...Perhaps there could be some kind of compromise. Now I'm at the heart of the matter, am I really willing to bring all of my life under his Lordship, to let go of everything...to become indifferent to my own needs a desires, am I willing to abandon all to simply walk with my Savior?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "When Jesus calls a man, he bids him to come and die" Western Christianity is often at odds with biblical discipleship, in many cases American Christianity has warped us. We've set the bar so low for discipleship that we actually think that if we're experiencing pain we must be doing something wrong. The very path that Christ calls us to walk is one marked with pain and sacrifice. Dying to self in inherently painful!

So, why would anybody be willing to give up everything to follow Christ anyway? Once you've seen Jesus, Once you've been touched by Him, Once you've been in His presence...You know why. Like the pearl of great price or the hidden treasure in the field, no cost... is too high!

Paradoxically, the greatest freedom is dying to self in surrendered abandonment to Him...the very thing we resist! I pray that in 2010 we spend time in His presence, see His beauty, experience His touch and leave ourselves behind in the process. It's the only way we can truly know Him. We must decrease so that He can increase.