Archive for February, 2010

Colossians Remixed

We covered the first ethic (ethic of secession) a few days ago. The second ethic in Colossians Remixed is the “ethic of community.” Walsh and Keesmaat quote Rodney Clapp, who states that the early Christians “were about creating and sustaining a unique culture…and they were determined to be a culture, a quite public and political culture, even if it killed them and their children” (p. 179; emphasis mine). The last line sticks with the reader. Losing one’s own life for a cause is difficult to perceive but to also put one’s children in harm’s way is seemingly inconceivable. The writer of the paper is indifferent about this statement, but it makes the reader think about his or her family’s commitment to the cause of Christ. The Jesus painted by much of American Christianity, frankly, is not worth dying for and especially not worth putting one’s children in harm’s way.

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Colossians Remixed

Part 1.

Jesus is no longer worth following, or, at least, the Jesus painted by twenty-first American Christianity is not worth following. He is not exciting. He does not energize. Many in America have made Jesus into a prosperous, white-collared North American in order for anyone to pay interest. On the other hand, the Jesus, who Paul espouses, is exciting and challenging. Through Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat in their book Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire bring to light a first-century Jesus, who is the Lord of the whole world and an alternative to Caesar and his empire. Based on this type of Jesus, the authors do well to remind the reader of a few things that he or she should take into account. They take this first-century, subversive message of Jesus and apply it directly to followers of Christ today. This Jesus is worth following.

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Theology

We’ve explored two specific marks of the missional church over three different posts. This leads us to the last mark of the missional church — a theologically educated laity. As one approaches the general laity in his or her congregation, he or she can quickly assess whether or not the local church has properly served its congregants by providing some type of theological education for engaging everyday life. In the trend of seeker-sensitivity, many churches have neglected theology believing that “seekers” individuals have no interest in such training. However, Tim Keller suggests that missional churches need to theologically train laity for their vocations when he explains, “In a ‘missional’ church, the laity needs theological education to ‘think Christianly’ about everything and work with Christian distinctiveness…lay people renewing and transforming the culture through distinctively Christian vocations must be lifted up as ‘real kingdom work’ and ministry along with the traditional ministry of the Word” (p. 2). As seminaries continue to close their doors and biblical illiteracy increases, theological education of laity must be of utter importance in the Church’s call to disciple-making.
The twenty-first Church continues to struggle with its identity in the current context. However, there are numerous things, which the Church should continue to focus upon, if it is to be a peculiar people. The Church has and must continue to be shaped by the Great Commission, specifically surrounding the area of discipleship. As stated, discipleship is the most important task for the twenty-first century, missional Church. In light of this, the Church must paradoxically engage culture while at the same time promoting a counter-cultural mentality. These are difficult to balance, but the Church must be able to do both. The missional Church is counter-cultural specifically by promoting multiracial communities and rejecting consumerism and nationalism. In the end, it is important that laity be theologically trained in order to participate as missional people in daily life. The Church for so long has relied on Christendom to assist its efforts for making disciples. However, Christendom overemphasized conversion and not discipleship; thus, neglecting the Great Commission. The people of Christ are to be a peculiar people. If the Church forgets this and falls into the trap of overemphasizing something like relevance, it forgets its identity. If the Church focuses strictly on conversion, it forgets its identity. If the Church becomes racially homogeneous, it forgets its identity. Thus, the Church is a peculiar people, and a peculiar people that have forgotten their identity can never fulfill Christ’s words to “make disciples of all nations.” These things must mark the missional Church in order to do ministry in a twenty-first century context.

There is not enough time to cover all the “marks” so what “marks” would you add?

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Conclusion of series on “The Marks of the Missional Church”

Read Part 1 on Discipleship here. Part 2 - (Counter)Culture 1 here. Part 3 - (Counter)Culture 2 here.

Citations for all posts:

1. DeYoung, C. P., Emerson, M. O., Yancey, G., & Kim, K. C. “All Churches Should Be Multiracial”, in Christianity Today 49 (April, 2005).
2. Emerson, M. O. & Smith, C. (2000). Divided by faith: evangelical religion and the problem of race in America. New York: Oxford.
3. Hirsh, A. (2006). The forgotten ways. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press.
4. Keller, T. (2001). “The missional church.”
5. Walsh, B. J. & Keesmaat, S. C. (2004). Colossians remixed: subverting the empire. Downers Grove: IVP.

Consumerism

Thoughts on a multiracial church lead to the second way in which the Church must be counter-cultural. The Church must be counter-cultural by standing against the overwhelming consumerism, most prevalent in American culture. Emerson and Smith suggest that evangelicals are not immune to consumerism when they state, “The organization of American religion is characterized by disestablishment, pluralism, competition, and consumer choice. This organization is partly shaped and often capitalized on by evangelicals. And as a consequence of sociological and social psychological principles at work, congregations become and remain highly racially homogeneous” (p. 151; emphasis mine). The racial homogeneity of Christian congregations is a by-product of the emphasis of the surrounding culture.

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Culture

For the people of God to “make disciples of all nations,” they must be not run from culture but engage it. Keller suggests that Christians engage the stories of the culture in order that they might restate the stories in light of the gospel. Christians will be faced with a strong temptation to fall into sectarianism, but they must never yield to this. Engaging the culture marks the missional Church, as Keller states that “to ‘enter’ [the culture’s stories] means to show sympathy toward and deep acquaintance with the literature, music, theater, etc. of the existing culture’s hopes, dreams, ‘heroic’ narratives, fears” (p. 2). The missional Church must familiarize itself with its surrounding culture.

The Church has always been tempted to over-engaged culture that it becomes the culture’s bedfellow. Paradoxically, the missional Church must engage culture and be counter-cultural at the same time. If the Church is not counter-cultural, it ceases to be a peculiar people and abandons its calling. The Church has often neglected its calling by overemphasizing the desire to be relevant in order to reach the culture for Christ. However, in many situations, the Church fails to look different from culture since the people of God were so concerned with looking like society.

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Reflective Service at Redemption Church

Highlight(s):

1. Valentine’s Day was nice. Not because Amanda and I did anything spectacular, but because I know she loves me and I love her. I’ve become kinda bored with the “flash,” and I simply rest in the love my wife shows me.
2. Reflective, experiential, creative worship service at Redemption Church last night. We had an extended worship service. No preaching. We used stations of Jesus’ sayings and focused on Matthew 11: 28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Pretty comforting words, don’t you think? It was nice to see our church slow down and reflect.
3. Congrats to the Saints! It was a bittersweet Super Bowl since I am a huge Peyton Manning fan. However, you can’t win them all…just ask Brett Favre, Jim Kelly, and Dan Marino. I am really happy for New Orleans. They are a city that has endured a lot. May God continue to work there as he already has done.
4. What about all of this snow?! Philly received over 3 feet in about a week. It’s crazy. If the apocalypse isn’t upon us, I don’t know when it will be. The only thing left is for Sadaam Hussein to resurrect from the dead with the Pope his prophet and Barack Obama his puppet. I think that’s how Joel C. Rosenberg told me it would happen. It’s been awhile since I read those books.

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The Marks of the Missional Church

Over approximately two millennia, the Church has continually struggled with its mission to be the people of Jesus Christ to an ever-changing culture and society. The task has not always been an easy one. As the Church has entered the twenty-first century, the question of what makes the Church the people of Jesus Christ still lingers. The Church seeks to be ekklesia, a “called out” people, and becomes a peculiar people. This peculiar people must live in the twenty-first century seeking to fulfill the mission of Christ and dialog about what specifically marks the Church in its current context. These people are sent to the world as agents of Christ’s kingdom and should continually self-evaluate to see if it is living out its mission.

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Multiracial church?

There are multiple problems that attribute to evangelicalism’s position on race issues. Firstly, premillennialism became the dominant eschatological view during these sad years. Such a view sees the world as evil and in rapid decay until Christ returns (p. 47). Thus, social reform has been seen as unimportant, and evangelicalism’s sole purpose has become “saving souls” for heaven. Often, from an evangelical standpoint, social reform is left to the misguided, mainline churches. American evangelicalism finds itself as a far from innocent bystander on the issues surrounding race and a promoter of the status quo. The dichotomy of evangelism and social action is a false one, and, unfortunately, premillennialism encourages it. Thus, premillennialism must change or cease to exist.

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Highlights:

Matt Schaub lifts Pro Bowl MVP trophy

1. Amanda and I spent Friday night in the city. We stayed at the Hyatt by Penns Landing with a riverfront view. It was really nice to spend some time alone with Amanda, which I’ve found is more difficult when you have a kid (albeit, I wouldn’t change my life right now if I could). We ate a two fantastic restaurants that I recommend: (a) Amada Restaurant — Amada is a Spanish tapas based restaurant and is home of the Food Networks new Iron Chef, Jose Garces. Both Amanda and I thought it was fabulous. We ate off of the Restaurant Week menu with two courses and dessert. The garlic shrimp, marinated olives, and grilled chicken with a fried egg on top reminded us of our honeymoon in Spain.  (b) On Saturday morning, we ate brunch at Max Brenner, which offers its own self-proclaimed “chocolate culture.” From different styles of hot chocolate in their “hug mugs” to chocolate banana crepes, we felt like we tasted the chocolate river in Willy Wanka’s Chocolate Factory.
2. The NFL Pro Bowl received 12 million viewers. The largest viewing audience ever for the seemingly tag-football game of the NFL season. I guess the week before the Super Bowl will be the standard henceforth. Congrats to Matt Schaub for winning the MVP. With Peyton Manning out of the way, the guy shines. Just imaging if the Colts weren’t in the same division as the Texans? Houston might make the playoffs!

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