Jonathan Dodson
For years Kerry coasted in his Christian belief. Burned out by the legalistic culture of his Christian college experience, his postgrad years were a combination of disillusionment and disengagement with church. Church attendance was infrequent. Instead of investing in spiritual things, he decided to pursue his career, start a family, and carve out a spot in the good life. He climbed the career ladder pretty quickly. Before he knew it, he was living in a half a million dollar home in a nice neighborhood, father to two, and enjoying a new community among fellow cyclists. What could be better? After a while, though, his good life seemed flat. He tried a few things to jump start it, including increased church attendance, but nothing seemed to work. 2
One day Don , an ex-rockstar buddy turned Jesus freak, shared with Kerry how God was changing his life through community. Skeptical but interested, Kerry began to ask more questions and even invited Don's pastor over to his daughter's birthday party. The more Kerry learned, the more he was intrigued. Something was different about this church. Not only did they care about one another, but also cared about their city. Kerry joined them in social service projects and even showed up at some house church meetings. Deep down, he knew this was something he had been longing for, something much better than the so-called good life. He began asking God if he should sell his house and become a missionary. Little did he know he was already becoming a missionary. Kerry was beginning to understand the gospel in a new way. Apologetic Power of a Gospel-Centered Missional Community It wasn't until he started sharing his struggles with others that Kerry really sensed significant change. As he and his family integrated into the church, Kerry joined a small group. He began meeting with other Christians who were serious about fighting sin, enjoying God, living in community, and serving the city. He began living by the power of the gospel, in the community of the church, on the mission of Jesus. It was through these relationships, through being the church, that Kerry rediscovered the power of the gospel. He came to understand that the gospel of grace wasn't just something that makes you a Christian. It is something that keeps you Christian. Not only that, it compels us to live outwardly focused lives extending the hope of the gospel in all of life. In time, Kerry's family hosted members classes, small groups, and they eventually became deacons in the church. What changed Kerry's view of faith and the church? A gospel-centered community. A group of people that made grace, not law, central to their discipleship. Instead of emphasizing legalistic rules, they focused on the grace of God in the promises of Christ. His small group meets regularly to pray together, share life together, and fight sin, and serve the city together. Through these relationships, Kerry rediscovered the power of the gospel and the preciousness of Christ. America's One-Third Gospel Unfortunately, Kerry's story is the exception and not the rule. The American landscape is dotted with churchless Christianity. Church has been reduced to a weekly or bi-weekly event. Instead of being the church, we have fallen into merely doing church, and far too often our doing is disconnected from being. We have devolved from being a Jesus-centered community into a loose collection of spiritually-minded individuals. Too many churches have too much in common with shopping malls, fortresses, and cemeteries. Too many of them have become consumerist, doctrinaire, lifeless institutions rather than Jesus-centered missional communities. Why this radical devolution? There are far too many reasons to discuss here, but one fundamental reason that Christianity in America is both churchless and in decline is that it is characterized by a one-third gospel. This one-third gospel is hardly a gospel at all. It focuses on Jesus' death and resurrection as a doctrine to be believed, not the way forward into a Person to be trusted and obeyed. It is a personal and private gospel reduced to the status of a ticket that gets us to glory. But the biblical gospel is much more than personal conversion or a heavenly reservation. The gospel has two more "thirds." The gospel calls us into community and onto mission in Jesus.
Conversion to Jesus as LORD Jonathan K. Dodson :: Redeemer 2010
Over the next couple of days, I want to make the claim, perhaps a provocative one, that the Gospel converts us not just once but three times. Most Christians think there is just one conversion—we are converted to Jesus. That is incorrect. The Gospel actually converts us not just once but three times—to Christ, to Church, and to Mission. These are three conversions, not three options. Three commitments, not three electives. Now, you have to ask yourself: “Have I truly been converted?” If you haven’t, what needs to change? How you answer these questions will depend on your view and practice of Christ, what you believe and how you live. We will be looking at both. We’ll be examining this claim over the next few days from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Tonight we’re starting with Christology and tomorrow we’ll dig into practice. Jack-‐in because we’re going deep tonight so we can go broad tomorrow. So we’ll be looking at the hymn to Christ in Colossians 1:15-‐20 and thinking about the first conversion— conversion to Christ. {Read Col 1:15-‐20} A He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-‐ all things were created through him and for him. 17 B And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 B And he is the head of the body, the church. A He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Christology in Context: American Dualism This Early Church hymn or poem was written in a particular cultural context. One of the prevailing worldviews in 1st century Greco-‐Roman empire was platonic dualism. Dualism draws a sharp distinction between the material and the spiritual, between the visible and the invisible. Dualistic worldviews end up exalting one realm or the other, the spiritual or the material. Plato, for instance, taught that the spiritual realm, the realm of the Forms, was the really real and that the material realm was just the real, a mere replication, a copy, of the Forms. The Forms are superior to the inferior things they create. The classic example is the Form of a chair in the spiritual, which determines the chair-‐ness of a chair in the material world. The material world is a derivative of the spiritual world. The spiritual is greater the material world is lesser. We see this played out in extreme forms in eastern worldviews like Hinduism and Buddhism, where the goal is to escape this world and enter Nirvana or the Brahman. It’s even played out in the box-‐ office smash Avatar. In the movie Avatar, humans leave their world in order to enter the world of Pandora, the home of the Na’vi. Humans enter, not only the world of Pandora but also the bodies of the Na’vi. They become avatars they enter into a better world. In Hinduism, an avatar is not material. It is a manifestation. Avatars don’t sweat or die. Humans are entering the
spiritual world of the Na’vi. As it turns out, the world of the Na’vi is peaceful, serene, and beautiful. When you walk by flowers, they perk up and glow, mountains float in clouds, and everyone gets along. But the human world is depicted as a place of war and conflict. The marines have come to extract a priceless ore worth 20mL/Kilo from beneath the sacred tree of the Na’vi. Director James Cameron shows us how materialist humans exploit the spiritual paradise of the Na’vi, Pandora. The way of the Na’vi is depicted as superior to the way of the humans. This is dualism, divorcing the spiritual world from the material world. Now, when you do this you end up exalting one or the other, the material or the spiritual. Pandora exalts the spiritual world of Pandora. But in America we exalt the material world. We also draw a sharp distinction between the spiritual and the material. It’s no news that we are a consumer culture. What has been news is that our excessive buying, selling, and debt-‐making has led to a housing market crash, which lead to an economic recession, which led to record-‐setting unemployment. What happened? Very simply, our appetites for material things extended beyond our budgets and we just blew by our fiscal responsibility, buying and selling unethically. In our lust for material possessions, we have exalted the material world at great expense. Enter the Recession. Get the picture? Dualism leads to exaltation of either the spiritual or the material. We’ve chosen the material. See, when Dualism divides reality up into the spiritual and the material realms, one of them has to become more important, because there is no reason to hold them together.1 American Christians are materialist Christians. We have created a dualist Christianity where we exalt the material over the spiritual. We are functional dualists. We separate faith in Christ from life in culture, Heaven from Earth, invisible from visible all in the name of Christianity! How do we do this? We value comfort and convenience over Christ, Church and Mission. Consumerism, the Housing Crash, & American Evangelicals Perhaps some of you saw the December edition of Atlantic Monthly, the cover article read: Did Christianity Cause the Crash? The article pins the blame for the housing market crash on Christians who preach and live a prosperity gospel. God wants you to be wealthy and healthy. The article exposes materialist Christianity, Christians who are so consumed with convenience, comfort, and wealth that they purchase their homes, your car, your clothes, your possessions on credit and call it “by faith”! They live beyond their means. Muddy Christ’s name in pursuit of possessions. Preach a gospel of wealth! These Christians call upon heaven to get earth, exalt the material over the spiritual. Get that house, get that new car, that dress, that new computer, that video game, that trip, that meal out, that 10th cup of coffee this week even though it’s not in the budget. Put it on the card. So, who are the prosperity Christians? The TBN freak-‐show or are you and me freak show? Oh, you say, wait a minute; I didn’t cause the housing crash. I don’t preach a health-‐wealth gospel. I’m gospel-‐centered. I’m a missional. And when it comes to money, I tithe every month! I support missionaries. You’re right, it’s not really about the money for you; it’s about the comfort and the convenience that money secures. We want the comfort of the nicer home and car, the convenience of not cooking our own meals or making our own coffee. We live off of loans and credit, insisting on a standard of living that is well beyond our means. 40K millionaires. You say you don’t preach a health-‐wealth gospel, but look at your obsession with wealth-‐obtained comfort. This idolatry of comfort affects Community and 1
Unless, of course, they are blended together, suffused as in the pantheistic world of Pandora.
The Three Conversions
Jonathan Dodson © 2010
Mission. You won’t even “go to Community Group” because “you had a long day” or because so and so makes you feel uncomfortable. You’re not on mission in your neighborhood; you don’t even know your neighbors “because they are on a different schedule.” Comfort! Convenience! Health & Wealth Gospel. We might not preach it with our lips, but we declare it with our lives! And we belittle the Christ of Colossians. Are Evangelicals causing the housing crash? Probably not. We’re causing the crash of something much greater—the crash of Christianity (in America). We are so far into materialist Christianity that the early Christians wouldn’t even recognize us. People who, “believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need (Acts 2).” We live like prosperity people not Christian people, like dualists not disciples, and we separate Christ from our comfort, spiritual from material, heaven from earth, invisible from visible. Why?! Why do we live such indistinct, consumerist, un-‐Christ-‐like lives? Because we have a little Christ, a pocket-‐sized Jesus instead of Jesus is my LORD! There is a terrible distance between what we say and what we do, because we have only been converted once, if we have been converted at all, and for many of us that first conversion to Jesus was half a conversion, not a conversion to the Christ of the Colossians. It was to the consumerist, comfortable, convenient Christ, the get you into heaven so you can live like hell Jesus of American Christianity. The problem, brothers and sisters, is that many of us have not been converted at all, or at the very least we have been converted only to half a Jesus. What we need is conversion to a whole Christ, and that is precisely what Colossians offers us! Conversion to a Whole Christ Paul writes: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Image of the invisible God. What do you think Paul’s getting at? At first blush we might think copy, fax, a scanned image of God. Not exactly what Paul has in mind. Jesus isn’t a cheap rip-‐off, derivative, platonic reproduction of the divine Form. He’s not an avatar. Remember, avatars don’t sweat or die because they aren’t real. Jesus did both. But he did make the invisible God visible. How? By being the “image of God.” This well-‐chosen phrase draws its imagery from the story of creation. As you may recall, Adam was made in the image of God, which means, among other things, that he was to exercise dominion, rule, over creation. He was king of creation. We are meant to see Jesus through the lens of Adam. The reign of Christ is an echo of the reign of Adam, but this reign is perfectly exercised, not through Adam but through Jesus. How does Jesus make visible the invisible God? He exercises the reign of God in Adam-‐like rule over all creation. Jesus is the visible manifestation of God’s kingly rule over the cosmos. He calms raging storms, multiplies fishes and loaves, manipulates the molecules of water to turn them into wine. He is Lord of creation. The problem with American Evangelicals is that we don’t see Jesus through the lens of Adam. We don’t see him as Lord of creation; he is Lord of redemption, Lord of the spiritual not the material, lord of salvation not of our stuff. He gets our soul and we get our society, our comfort and our convenience. He is Lord of heaven and we are lords of the earth. Dualist Christianity. This is precisely the view of Christ that Paul was writing against (Col 2). It’s also the view of Jesus that we teach our children. Not too long ago I ordered a children’s book from a Reformed bookstore. The goal of the book is to explain the gospel of Christ to kids. While it says some good things, like we can’t make ourselves good enough for God, it persistently teaches the children dualistic Christianity by pointing them to the hope of heaven, not the hope of Jesus. A few quotes: The Three Conversions
Jonathan Dodson © 2010
“even children can grasp God’s saving love and his promise to adopt them and give them a home in heaven.” • “You cannot go to heaven because you have done bad things. This is a big problem.” The problem is not, not having a home in heaven; it is being eternally separated from an infinitely glorious Creator and Redeemer. • “When you trust in Jesus he will give you a home in heaven.” (P.19) The goal is heaven, because that is where Jesus is Lord. Eight times there is a reference to heaven in a book about the gospel of Christ! See, we bait our children with heaven while we give them the world. We tell them to trust in Jesus for salvation and to trust in us for comfort and convenience! We have believed the very same half Gospel. We have placed our faith in half a Jesus, parading our consumerist faith before our kids every single day. Why? Because we believe in a Jesus who is Lord of salvation not Lord of creation. Because we see Jesus through the lens of materialistic dualism instead of through the lens of Adamic lordship. We have been converted to half a Christ. Now, why is it that Jesus is Lord of Creation? For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-‐ all things were created through him and for him. Paul grounds his cosmic claim that Jesus is Lord in the fact that Jesus is Creator. All things, not just heavenly things, not just invisible things like salvation, grace, and faith—all things were created through him and for him! Jesus is Lord of all the stuff we love too much, our homes, our cars, our jobs, our computers, our phones, and our children. He is Lord of creation because he is agent of creation. What he makes, he owns and exercises sovereignty over. We see this with kids all the time. They create a Lego castle and declare it “Mine!” They insist that no one touch it. This is my creation. How much more can Jesus declare over all the earth, over every square inch of our lives, “Mine.” But we stubbornly refuse his lordship over our possessions, our standard of living. We refuse to live in dependent community because we are lord. We refuse to live on mission because we are too busy making enough money to be comfortable. We are dualistic Christians with divided loyalties. We swear allegiance to Jesus for salvation and allegiance to Comfort in creation. We desperately try to push and shove Jesus out of his rightful domain. But he is LORD. He is regent because he is agent. He is king because he is Creator. All things are made in, through, and for him. See, NT Christology fundamentally rejects our dualism, precisely because everything exists in Jesus. Jesus holds the material and the spiritual together. He does not permit our division between the material and the spiritual. Everything is spiritual. He is Lord of redemption and Lord of creation. Therefore, we cannot live for King comfort and live for King Christ. We cannot live for convenience and live for Jesus. And as we will see tomorrow, this Jesus calls us into uncomfortable community and inconvenient mission, to be converted not just once but three times. So the person and nature of Jesus Christ fundamentally rejects our heretical Christianity, a Christianity that accepts Jesus as Savior but not as King. The Colossian hymn exposes our conversion to half a Christ and calls us to repentance from faith in Lord Comfort and to faith in Lord Jesus. Before you leave, make sure that you respond to this Christ, the Jesus who is LORD, by asking for forgiveness and renewed faith in a whole Jesus. Conversion to Christ is the first and primary conversion, and when we get this conversion right it will lead, inevitably, to two other conversions—conversion to church and conversion to mission. Tomorrow we will unpack those conversions very practically. We’ll see that conversion to Christ is conversion to Church and to Mission. •
The Three Conversions
Jonathan Dodson © 2010
Conversion to the Church Redeemer Church І Jonathan K. Dodson If you were here yesterday, you heard me argue that the Gospel converts us not just once but three times—Christ, Church, Mission. These are three conversions not three options. They are three simultaneous conversions upon our faith in Christ. If all three conversions aren’t present in our lives, then we are either unconverted or disobedient. Last night we saw that the first conversion is conversion to Christ, but realized that many of us have been converted to only half a Christ, to Christ as Redeemer and not Christ as Creator, to Jesus as Lord of salvation but not Lord over our wealth, comfort, and convenience. See, when our functional lords are comfort and convenience they threaten to undo our Christianity making church and mission optional. See, the first conversion, conversion to Christ, does not stand alone. The second conversion of the gospel is conversion to community. As promised, these two sessions will be very practical, but let me first make a case for the second conversion. The Head of the Family Sociologist Robert Putnam traced the decline of community in the United States in his book Bowling Alone. Here’s what he discovered: • Over the past 25 years, attendance at club meetings has fallen 58 percent • Family dinners are down 33 percent • Having friends visit has fallen 45 percent. If you are finding community difficult or not finding it all, you are not alone! But community does not equal church. Community is only part of the church. Look with me at Colossians 1:17-‐ 18: And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church.” Here we find the center of the Christ hymn or poem. These two lines form the middle of chiastic structure of the poetry as if to say, “Hey, this is really important. This is a key point about Jesus.” What’s the key point? That Jesus has supremacy over creation (he was existed before it) and Jesus has supremacy of the Church (he is head over us). Jesus is Lord over creation and Jesus is Lord over the Church. The word Paul uses here is “head”, which some commentators associated with the Greek concept of cosmic rule, head of the cosmos. However, I think the origin of the meaning for “head” comes from the OT, where we see the same word used of the “heads” of Jewish tribes. These heads are referred to as paterfamilias. This Latin term gets at the role of the heads. Perhaps you can detect its meaning? Pater means “father” and familias means “family.” Father of the family. The paterfamilias or head was to give protection and provision to his clan, sometimes up to 50-‐60. We are meant to see Jesus, not just as the royal lord over his people, but as an intimate father who cares for his family. He is our pater-‐familias! He is head of the body, which is the church! Providing and protecting and guiding. To switch metaphors, He is not a disembodied head, but a head connected to the body, providing guidance and vitality to the rest of the parts. He unites us as one family. Now, think about our great paterfamilias, our Head. How does he relate to us, how does he provide for us? Col 1:20 reminds us that he is sacrificial and loving. What does it mean to sacrifice? It means we embrace discomfort for the sake of someone else. We give up a night at home for a night with others. We give up our income to pay someone else’s bill. Sacrificial living embraces discomfort not distances it. What about love? Love embraces inconvenience for the sake of someone else. The Three Conversions
Jonathan Dodson © 2010
Love isn’t thinking nice thoughts about a person; it is active. It’s terribly inconvenient and inefficient. I could get a lot more done with my time by staying at home on a Wednesday night reading and writing than I could hanging out with a group of awkward people who are struggling to follow Jesus. Jesus embraced both discomfort and inconvenience, to the point of death. He calls us to do the same. How are we doing? What does your Redeemer group look like? What does your life look like? Are you marked by inconvenience and discomfort, sacrifice and love? What does your community say about your church? IS there any family resemblance between you and Jesus? Are you a gospel-‐centered family, a community, or are you a loose collection of individuals? a. Church: Steady State Community i. Social: Ordinary things with Gospel Intentionality 1. Meals – 2/21 a. CG Potlucks b. Pizza Parties c. Workplace d. Saturday Morning Breakfast e. Klebs buy their Meals f. Grocery Bill UP, Discretionary $ DOWN g. Tweeting your Eating h. Gospel Meal 2. Hobbies (not Xn) a. Running, Cycling, Book b. Gingerman c. Movies in Community not NetFlix Individualism d. Shopping, Errands, Coffee ii. Missional 1. This kind of community is missional 2. Invite people into your life, not your CG 3. See this afternoon’s message iii. Gospel 1. Forgiving, offending, repenting. Lot of correction and repentance in our community. 2. Praying, on the spot not just afterwards 3. Loving, clean-‐up or hangout after CG 4. Sharing, lawnmowers, weed-‐eaters 5. Parenting, glass breaks b. Gospel-‐centered Community i. So, does your life, your groups bear the family resemblance? Bobblehead Jesus? ii. Master Community is a Bad Master iii. Jesus is a Good Master iv. Imperfect people pointing one another to a Perfect Christ The Three Conversions
Jonathan Dodson © 2010
Gospel-‐centered Church So, how are you doing? In your lives, in your groups, is there a family resemblance to your Head, your paterfamilias, your Savior? Have you been converted to the church? After writing Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam came along and did a follow-‐up study in a book called Better Together, where he noted six traits of communities that flourish, with high social capital. And the most important trait was that these communities had a goal other than community. When we make community the solution to the problem of community, we create a Community Idol: In community churches, people idolize community begin to measure their security based on how connected they are to others. What happens when community fails us? When your small group, church sins against you? Cynicism. Bitterness. Gossip. When community is your god it will either beat you or exile you. You will live in constant desire to please others, to be connected. And when you fail community, it will fail you. When the acceptance and love of others is uppermost, we are destined for a downward spiral. When community is our god, it offers very little resources to work through the problems of a sinful, broken community. Community is a bad master; it kicks you when you are down. But what does Jesus do? Jesus doesn’t kick you when you’re down; he dies for you! He forgives you. He gives us grace. He reminds us of the gospel, that community isn’t the head of the church, Jesus is! The gospel converts us, not to community-‐centered churches, but to Jesus-‐centered church, communities huddled around Jesus, not one another. Gospel-‐centered churches lift Jesus up, and when they do, community rises with Him. Churches that keep Jesus as Head of the Church.
The Three Conversions
Jonathan Dodson © 2010
Conversion to Mission Redeemer Church : Jonathan K. Dodson We’ve seen so far that the gospel converts us to Christ and his Church, to Jesus as Lord and to Community. So, we’ve got a 2/3rds gospel. The final third, the third conversion of the gospel is conversion to mission. And this is the great contribution of missional ecclesiology, missional church. Missional church comes along and critiques Community church, community as the focus of church, the purpose of church. It insists that mission is the purpose of church. Mission is not an option; it is a conversion. It is not a project; it is our purpose, Mission is not a tack on for super-‐spiritual Christians; it is the way of living for ordinary Christians. The church does not merely do mission; it is mission. Where do we get this? He is sthe beginning, tthe firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For uin him all the vfullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and wthrough him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, xmaking peace yby the blood of his cross. 1 I. Mission in Colossians A. Body Metaphor is a Missional Metaphor 1. Walls – “the full stature of Christ is a multiethnic, new humanity.” 2. Jesus uses the word “stature” to communicate growth in height (Luk 2, 11) 3. Growing up into the Head B. Jesus as Reconciler 1. The Beginning, Firstborn from the Dead 2.Reconcile by blood of the cross. C. Other 2 Conversion Metahpors 1. 1 Peter: Cornerstone/Living Stones/Expanding Temple 2. 1 Cor/Gospels: Lord of Harvest/Stalks of Wheat/Harvest 3. Eph: Head/Body/Stature D. Mission as Community TRANS: How does this work practically? II. How to Do Mission s Rev. 3:14 t Acts 26:23; 1 Cor. 15:20; Rev. 1:5 u ch. 2:9 v See John 1:16 w See 2 Cor. 5:18; Eph. 1:10 x See Eph. 2:14 y [Eph. 2:13] 1 The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Col 1:18-20). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
A. Missional Church: “Raise the problem of mission, solve it with the solution of the gospel, in the context of community.” B. Our Ways of Being a MC 1. Mission as Community: Jesus centered missional community is the best apologetic for the Gospel.Everyday Mission 2. Everyday Mission a. 8 Ways to be Missional a. Be a Regular b. Walk, Don’t Drive c. Serve Your Neighbor d. Pick a Non-‐Profit i. If you cant do this, then you haven’t been fully converted. You need to repent and ask Jesus the Lord of the Mission, the Beginning, the Firstborn from the Dead to forgive you and empower you to live out your new identity in Christ. ii. Littlehelpinghands.com 3. C. Stories 1. Lance – unlikely persons ACCEPTED by a gospel-‐centered community 2. Jerry – suffering is COMFORTED by a gospel-‐centered community 3. Chris C. – broken is FORGIVEN by a gospel-‐centered community
TRANS: If we get on mission and in community, will we sufficiently correct the American church, our own failures in conversion to Christ and the Church? III. Conclusion A. Mission Idol B. 1/3rd Gospel C. 2/3rd Gospel Gospel and Mission Mission Idol: When we plant missional churches, one of two things happens. People idolize or become indifferent to mission. The people who idolize mission begin to measure their worth by how missional they are. Their knowledge of non-‐profits, their activism in their neighborhood, their number of non-‐Christian friends. If you are spending lots of time with unbelievers, socially active in your community, then your self-‐worth goes up. But what happens when you have an off week, month? You just can’t get to your service projects, work and family become incredibly demanding. Mission gets pushed aside a bit. Your self-‐worth goes down. When mission is your idol, your sense of worth will go up and down based on your performance. Mission is a bad master. What happens when you fail Mission? Is mission merciful to you? Not at all. It berates you; it knocks you down. You’re not missional enough. It kicks you when you’re down. But what does Jesus do, what does he do when we fail in mission, when we fail him? Does he kick us? No,
when we fail, Jesus doesn’t kick us; he dies for us! He forgives us. He is a good master. He doesn’t punish us; he loves us. So, take back your one-‐third gospel, your fictional Jesus that rescues from the world instead of redeeming you in the world. Be the church and get on mission. Repent for believing a cheap gospel and embrace the costly gospel purchased for us by Jesus. Believe the gospel of Jesus and live out all three conversions. Live under his gracious reign, in his community and on his mission. Missional Solution to Community: Missional Church? What we need is a new ecclesiology. We need something more than “groups of interacting people.” Well, interestingly, Putnam agrees. After publishing Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam came back and wrote Better Together a follow-‐up study of successful communities, communities with high social capital, where community flourished. And in his study he identified 6 Common Factors among communities with strong social ties. Here’s a key one: have a goal besides community. The Community-‐centered approach don’t have this. Community is their goal. Putnam says that in order to develop strong community, the community must develop: “the pursuit of a goal other than the sake (goal) of community.” In other words, you cant fix community with community. The small group movement is witness to this. What happens with small groups? They become ingrown and don’t grow out. They reinforce the Us/Them mentality, ostracizing people who are new to the church and new to the faith. Community will not fix community! What we do with “community church” is raise the problem of the community, and try to solve it with the solution of community. We’ve made community the problem and the solution. See, Putnam comes along and tells us that wherever there is strong community, that community exists for something other than itself. And his study includes churches. What could that something be? What is the goal, other than community, that the church could have? Mission? Enter missional ecclesiology, the missional church movement. What if we existed not for ourselves (community) but for others (mission)? Missional Church! Missional Church folk argue that community is created in the wake of mission. If we will all just get on mission, relationships will strengthen. Social capital will go up. If we get out of the living room, out of the church building, and serve our cities, our neighborhoods together, then we will get community. Community is created around mission. Missional Church people say, see you’ve been raising the wrong problem all along. You’ve been raising the problem of Community when you should have been raising the Problem of Mission. And when you raise the problem of mission, you end up with community. So what do we do? We get on Mission. How do we get on Mission? Let’s get practical.