Chapter 5 follows on the chapter on leadership, and now focuses more narrowly to strategic considerations. This one is titled, “Herding Cats: Leading a Church into the Borderlands.”

Gary opens with a strong metaphor, recalling the western style commercial that was designed for Vanderbilt University’s IT department.  Herding cats may be messy and chaotic.. but the point is getting to a certain end together.  Or, as Roxburgh and Romanuk put it, “The key to innovating new life and mission in a congregation is not so much a strategy for growth as it is cultivation of people themselves.” (87)  “Cultivation” gets at the issue of soil as well as the ethos. Leadership is about atmosphere, and what we are now talking about is culture.

Gary talks about the need to shape values by our being, for the purpose of transforming lives. This requires, primarily, that leaders be trustworthy. Moreover, “the development of an atmosphere of encouragement, permission and experimentation” is a critical component. Gary shares the story of a young pastor who was more interested in his career than in the “cats” he served among.

In the following section (89-90) he addresses leadership and from the perspective of context. Context will always require a particular style. Gary is addressing congregational culture here, which arises partly from local context, history and tradition. Leadership transitions sometimes fail because a leader is imported from a long distance away.. and the distance is primarily social and cultural. It takes years to understand a community and enter its rhythms.. and some leaders never make that transition. (Another solid argument for growing local leaders).

In the next section Gary addresses congregational culture directly.” Over time, congregations develop values (what is accepted as best), choreography (how one should behave and act), and even a unique language (how groups distinguish themselves from others.. Every congregation weaves together threads of history, rhythms and rituals that elicit recurring cultural practices..” (91). While Gary doesn’t say this, culture shapes practices, and practices shape culture in a dialogical manner. And generally this knowledge is tacit and not articulated, making its absorption difficult and time consuming.

I was particularly glad to see this discussion arise here, because frankly until we understand that many of the issues we face are cultural issues, we are forever going to spin our wheels. Changing a culture is much more difficult than simply changing a few behaviors. And we need to understand how culture is maintained in order to effect change. If our goal is discipleship and formation toward an alternative kingdom, then we are now at the heart of the issue. After giving an example of an action that did not take the congregational culture seriously, Gary notes: “The unique themes and unwritten rules are known as constructs.” And I suspect that we are getting very close to Charles Taylor’s “social imaginary.” Gary also refers to these constructs as assumptions and a congregational mythology (94). This story about cats and monks by Mike Riddell illustrates the idea.

In the next section Gary talks about getting to know the context and the constructs. He argues for listening deeply, and taking the position of a learner. He cites Edgar Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership. Many of the problems related to leading change relate to a failure to understand and evaluate organizational culture. (See also the work of Peter Senge, Margaret Wheatley, and Ronald Heifetz in this regard). Gary cautions that change takes time.

Next he notes that a good way to discover the constructs of a congregation is to uncover the gatekeepers. Gaining their trust is difficult and they are potentially dangerous resisters. Their assumptions are strongly held, but often in contrast to the reality of the context they live in, formed in a world that may no longer exist. Constructs that restrain missional engagement must be challenged. This is a key process in leading change.

However, missional desire already exists in many congregations. Often it must be coaxed out. One of the leadership arts is to enable vision to emerge within the congregation. Ritual and language must be aligned. Gary notes that words of inclusion to seekers may be negated by structures and language that tell them that they don’t belong. Gary tells the story of a ritual that told members that only in-church workers had real ministry — a new ritual commissioning members for daily mission in the world had to be designed (103).

The following section is a “wine and wineskin” approach.. we need structural reform, and we need to be reminded that there is nothing sacred about our forms. They were a response to a particular context and need. And “even cats need structure.” Gary quotes Jonathan Wilson, “The strength of evangelicalism is its willingness to adapt its practices to the demands of Christian mission.” (107) One of the challenges we face is to recover the dynamic of a missional movement (see esp. Frost and Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways and also Addison, Movements That Change the World).

Gary closes this chapter with some cautionary words. As with any journey, one may make a wrong turn. Gary cautions us to avoid  becoming inwardly wired or outwardly oblivious. He cautions us to recognize leadership aversion and to avoid trivial pursuits. He warns us not to ignore those on the edges, nor to fear evaluation. Finally, he cautions against nominalistic passion (Rev. 3:16). He then advocates  for certain affirmations and lists seven, including the importance of hope (109).

Gary’s first turn is to examine the pastoral landscape. The context of ministry has changed drastically, and thus the pastor’s role in the community has shifted. A sense of irrelevance is common. But this anxiety around identity colors pastoral experience and assessment.

Moreover, ambiguity is now the norm. Expectations have changed and may be amorphous. Congregations are often living in the past, yet pastors are attempting to live in the new world in order to connect. But how to make the shift? The problem is not that information is lacking, the problem is that we are buried in it. We are overwhelmed.. what to prioritize?

Meanwhile, our beliefs about and images of the church are themselves in transition. The interplay of community and institution can be daunting. Are designed structures or emergent structures the starting point? How do we do discipleship in a consumer culture? Is the church a business or a community — we live in a world of mortgages and multiple staff where it seems to be both.

Relationships are critical. Theologically we prefer the communitarian and organic modes — but in practice we seem to operate like typical corporations. Leadership has become an individual and lonely pursuit. We recognize its importance but seem unable to implement the best practices. We know that the ABCs are wrong metrics, but we live under the pressures of an Industrial and number-crunching mindset. (Reg McNeals chapter in Missional Renaissance is helpful here, as is Neil Cole’s Organic Leadership.) Most pastors are aware of the dissonance of business models with the NT mandate, yet have been slow to jettison CEO type frameworks. Gary points out that the CEO modality is seductive because it promises a certain distance in relationships and a specific status. Yet the writing is on the wall — these rationalized models are not sustainable in the new world.

This section closes with the need to jettison the Christendom view of the Church. We need to do the theological work to recover a biblical expression; the alternative is to remain obsessed with data and technique. (And sadly, this is what the sociologists would predict. Ronald Wright’s work on the history of progress has demonstrated that Empires – like ideologies – always collapse inwardly via the dynamics of denial).

Pastors and church leaders lacking a grounded theology of the church live in a panicky obsession with data and technique. Data and technique junkies find themselves caught in an obsession with “managerial missiology” (Engel and Dyrness). This approach enables leaders to focus on the quantitative and cosmetic frameworks of strategy and programs while avoiding the theological, relational, and content-oriented processes that are the places where visions and dreams are realized. (71)

The next section in this chapter examines “the personal tool-kit.” Gary opens this discussion with a call for balance in the internal life of the leader. In particular, he points to the need for personal differentiation. This term comes from systems theory and Jungian psychology. Differentiation describes the ability to maintain a non-anxious presence in an emotionally charged system. Gary writes that, “Healthy and effective leadership requires more than technique. it is a lifelong process of spiritual and emotional discipline that enables leaders to maintain balance.” This requires “the capacity to become oneself.” (72) Gary lists seven qualities that demonstrate differentiation in the life of a leader.

Seven admonitions follow that describe the way to lead. They are to “lead from..”

* your own story
* humility
* sensitivity
* prophetic vision
* influence
* in order to model
* lead into the community

There is a lot of wisdom in these pages, but I will only highlight a couple of things.

“It is obvious to [secure leaders] that vision and possibilities emerge from the community and not just the leaders. Borderland leaders are community builders that draw vision, giftedness, and relationships out of the community while warring against the tendency toward going it on their own. In this cultivated atmosphere, the missional imagination of members emerges in greater clarity. it is a vision that does not come from pre-planned strategies void of dialogue or process, but from the community’s shared experience of God’s moving in its midst.” (77)

“All the literature on leadership points to the idea that leaders shape values and mobilize people through character, not just through technique and efficient management frameworks. Efficiency and technique may create good processes and systems, but they do not build deep communities of faith that effectively move into the borderlands of mission and ministry.” (80)

“Borderland churches need borderland-friendly clergy, comfortable in the worlds they so passionately and purposefully encourage people to engage. Leaders wired only for the Christian sub-cultures find it difficult to encourage borderland living because it is impossible to guide others to places .. where you are not willing to go yourself.” (80)

The final section is to “face the call” of borderland living. In discussion with pastoral leaders moving into the borderlands Gary has noted four repeating themes. These are not held in some kind of synthetic balance, but often in great tension. The call of leadership today is to be apprentice-pastor-theologian-missionary.

Apprentices are formed in the hard disciplines of prayer, study and reflective action with the intention of producing passionate followers of Jesus. Disciples “systematically and progressively arrange their affairs” under the guidance of the Word and Spirit. (83)

Pastors are committed to the formation of a genuine community of faith. Only genuine communities can fling themselves boldly into the world. I recall Jim Wallis: “Community is the place where the healing of our own lives becomes the foundation for the healing of the nations.” (Agenda for Biblical People, 118).

Missionaries intentionally cross borders, learning the language, the rhythms, and the values of those they engage. Missional leaders must understand the times and places where they dwell in order to have genuine encounters.

We must also be theologians. “The role of theology has been suppressed in the last decade because of our love for the pragmatic…  deep theological and biblical reflective frame must be formed in the pastor’s life.” (84) Leaders must not only “have” a theology, they must be adept at doing it. The tension of the first themes is informed by the practice of theological reflection. Gary notes that when this is absent, the content required for effective borderland living is also absent. He closes this chapter with a call to courage and the famous paragraph of Peter Senge:

“In the knowledge era, we will finally have to surrender the myth of leaders as isolated heroes commanding their organizations from on high. Top-down directives, even when they are implemented, reinforce an environment of fear, distrust, and internal competitiveness that reduces collaboration and cooperation. They foster compliance instead of commitment, yet only genuine commitment can bring about the courage, imagination, patience, and perseverance necessary in a knowledge-creating organization. For those reasons, leadership in the future will be distributed among diverse individuals and teams who share responsibility for creating the organization’s future.”

This section, like much of Gary’s work here, begs for expansion. I could almost with to see a Volume II built around the framework he works at in pages 82-84.

Gary asks us to consider replacing the word “theology” with the word, “image.” Just as every church has an implicit theology, it also has a dominant self-image. (And as I am reading this, I am thinking of a similar approach articulated by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost around “story” — we story our experience and what we notice and articulate says much about who we are. To bring change requires us to change the story).

One of the inevitable challenges, and this is true also within the framework of narrative therapy, is that our dominant image of who we are as a community may have little to do with God’s intention. Gary contrasts our need to theologize with the need for grounded reflection. God’s redemptive work in the world is not about creating theology, after all, but creating a living people, a new community, living in the shalom of the coming kingdom. “We get sidetracked into focusing on the activity of the church rather than its purpose,” and as a result we focus on models that will bring us success without asking deeper questions. Gary pushes us back to the questions, “who, what, how and why” of God’s purpose.

Who is the community of God’s intent? We are “called out” and called to serve, not to rule. We are an alternative community.

What is this community like? We are “called together” for the sake of the world under the reign of a Just King. We must live out the reality of this Lordship, embodying the truth, a sign and a foretaste of the new creation. Moreover, we are priests to the world and to one another.

How will this community function? We are “called for” God’s purposes in the world.The variety of images of the church in the New Testament all describe something vital in God’s heart for His people, but a key image is a community of disciples – learners and apprentices to Jesus.

Why does this community exist? We represent to the world God’s Kingdom reign. the Church is not an end in itself. Our participation in God’s reign comes under a rhythm of three themes: community, witness and service. “We must discover and imagine what it means to be the church in the particular neighbourhood and context to which we have been called.” (57)

As a Borderland community we live within the missio Dei — we are sent. “The church’s mission,” says Robert Webber, “is to be the presence of the kingdom.” Lesslie Newbigin makes a distinction between the missionary dimension of the church and its missionary intention. These two dimensions describe both ethos and action, presence and performance.

This chapter was not what I expected. I expected to hear something about historical traditions, perhaps an argument for the recovery of liturgical rhythms. Instead, we have a short tour of ecclesiology. The next chapter will consider leadership, and then the following chapter will focus on strategies for moving a community into the Borderlands..

A sound was heard in Ramah,
weeping and much lament.
Rachel weeping for her children,
Rachel refusing all solace,
Her children gone,
dead and buried.

“I was thinking about the above passage this week. It seems to me to echo the decree of Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every boy that is born [b] you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

“I’m sure I’ve heard that pointed out before, but I can’t cite a reference. What struck me this week was that Herod was also the power behind the temple. So at the beginning of Matthew we’ve come full circle.

“Having been rescued from Pharaoh to come to the promised land and having a temple of their own, now the power behind the temple is killing young boys as Pharaoh had done.”

How depressing! When once our light has become darkness, how great the darkness! The coming of Jesus was literally the coming of a new Moses, a new Deliverer to lead God’s people out of bondage. And I can’t imagine a more relevant message for the church in our day.

When Israel was delivered from bondage they followed God in the desert. They following the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They had a living relationship with a living and active God.

They were a nation on the move because God was on the move. But once the Temple was built by Solomon, institutional power grew and combined with the Royal reality, the people learned to follow human rulers. Justice was compromised in favor of national priorities. Similarly in our own day Walter Brueggemann argues that we moved from text to Temple, and only now as we fall away from the power we had under Christendom are we moving from Temple to text. We are rediscovering that we are not called to comfort, but to follow a God on the move (missio). We are discovering that the good news of the Empire (peace and prosperity) is an alternate gospel than the vulnerable, liberating shalom of God’s just reign.

Moses cry to Pharoah.. which was really God’s cry to the Powers through Moses .. is sounding again.

LET MY PEOPLE GO!

“A time is coming, and now is, when those who worship the Father
must worship him in Spirit and in truth.”

Gary begins by noting that Joshua’s experience of moving across the Jordon to the promised land serves as a framework for today’s church — we are invited out of the security of the familiar into the borderlands. For Gary the Hebrew word, ‘abar will define this experience. It is translated “crossover,” and this is the first time it appears in the Old Testament. It describes a decisive moment, perhaps a “kairos” time. The people of God will cut themselves off from what has been and move into the unknown world. Like the Latin word “limina” it describes a threshold — we can’t go back and we may not want to go ahead — and it conjures the anxiety that we experience in those moments that require us to intentionally leave our comfort zones behind.

The challenge is that we have to manage our own anxieties as well as that of those around us. But there are other challenges, and I think of Eric Hoffer’s comments from many years ago:

“Moses wanted to turn a tribe of enslaved Hebrews into free men. You would think that all he had to do was to gather the slaves and tell them that they were free. But Moses knew better. He knew that the transformation of slaves into free men was more difficult and painful than the transformation of free men into slaves…Moses discovered that no spectacle, no myth, no miracles could turn slaves into free men. It cannot be done. So he led the slaves back into the desert, and waited forty years until the slave generation died, and a new generation, desert born and bred, was ready to enter the promised land.” (Diary entry, May 20, 1959).

Gary notes that we live in a crossover time. On page 30 he quotes Mike Regele, noting that change today is not like change in the past. First, it is global rather than local. Secondly, the rate of change is much faster. We are mostly aware of this, but many of us continue to live with the illusion that we have a choice whether or not we will engage this strange new world. Our choices are crucial. We must find the faith to move forward.

But HOW we move forward – how we engage — is also crucial. Some may want to rush across into the new land. This is also a choice generated by anxiety and fear. We want to rush into solutions. Gary describes the people of Israel as they move across the river (31).The Ark of the Covenant goes before them and it is set up in the middle of the river. God’s presence.. not our own skills or our courage.. secures the ground. Moreover, we are not permitted to run ahead. We follow the leadership of the Lord.

Next Gary typifies the difference in American and Canadian approaches to change. The American approach may be to rush ahead. The Canadian approach may be “let’s have another conversation.” He quotes Jonathan Wilson who argues for a third way, participating together in God’s grace. We must reframe our attitudes and assumptions, listen to the Holy Spirit, and embrace the process at His pace. “Tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you”  (3:5). Gary writes, “Borderland living comes from the kind of people who are open to the God who is the ever-present surprise of the Christian life and sovereign over the church and its mission.”

Next Gary notes that while this time may be unique, it is also similar to other places the Church has been — like Joshua’s crossing over. Recovering a missional theology, then, is really the recovery of a central biblical story. As a result, the church that is emerging in this crossover time is very different from the church that grew out of the last two decades of the twentieth century. Many churches have continued to operate in the “come to” model (attractional), a model that was a product of Christendom. With the death of that compact we are in a new place. The old model was a success because of certain cultural conditions — conditions which are now disappearing. The shift we are now seeing takes us to a new location and requires a new posture — an incarnational “go to” posture.

Gary references the work of Lesslie Newbigin in helping recover a theology of mission and a missional posture (see a tribute HERE and HERE). Newbigin noted that it was not enough to understand culture and then to shape mission and ministry in response; church communities must themselves first be shaped by the Gospel (37). Gary tells the story of a church family that met directly across from a high school and yet never saw itself as in a mission field. Eventually they began to see themselves in a new way, and they made connections with staff and administration in the school. The entered the life of that community and became a resource — serving the school. Gary references Bosch here and makes a strong connection to the Trinity. “The missio Dei emerges from the very nature of who God is.” He quotes Gibbs and Bolger: “The missio Dei changes the funcation direction of the church from a centrifugal (flowing in) to a centripetal (flowing out) dynamic..” (39).

“How will we know we are crossing over?”

“It begins with a new attitude that can only be described as ‘openness.’”

“Members ask the exploratory question, “Why not?”

“Borderland churches know their  neighbours, their politicians, and their neighbouring businesses. They share in the community activities and are recognized by the agencies that work there.”

In seven chapters and seven appendices Gary Nelson offers a Canadian take on what it means to live in the borderlands. Or, more precisely, he challenges us to embrace the borderlands where we live. These really are two different things, because like our American brothers to the south, we have largely failed to live in the communities where we dwell. The borderlands are a place where faith and unfaith intersect, and a place decidedly outside the comfort zone of Christendom structures.

Gary is the General Secretary for Canadian Baptist Ministries. He brings a wealth of experience to this task, and the book straddles an academic and practical line with ease. While Gary works at a theological task, his emphasis is on practice and to that end he stories this journey very well. Moreover, he is passionate about his purpose, and the stories he tells help us to envision a new kind of church and a new level of engagement in our communities in Canada.

The book is comprised of seven chapters, as follows:

1. Learning to Sing the Song
2. Crossing Over
3. Recovering our Roots
4. Landscapes and Tool Kits
5. Herding Cats
6. Missioning the Church
7. Mapping the Journey

The generous number of appendices are indicators that Gary hopes this book will become something of a handbook, enabling existing congregations to engage and embed in their neighborhoods.

This first post will really only be an introduction. To that end I want to share a personal impression, gained after completing the book and then exchanging a couple of emails with this brother.

I have opportunity to meet Canadian church leaders from time to time. I have met leaders who are tired and coasting; I have met leaders who are cynical. The older a leader, the more likely he has something to protect. And as Gary makes abundantly clear in Borderland Churches, being on mission is never a safe task.

What strikes me about many senior Canadian leaders is that they are not willing to play it safe. I find that deeply encouraging. And even more than that.. inspiring. Because I want to be a person who is unafraid to risk. My wife and I have not placed our own needs first as we have lived this journey; but if we felt we were alone in this choice, it would be far more difficult. For that reason I am grateful to those who are sold out – they inspire and challenge me to stay the course. In these times when many churches and many leaders are service providers, but not stake-holders, tourists but not pilgrims and sojourners, we need those who truly show us Jesus – surrendered to the will of the Father, living for the vision of a city they have not seen and praying “Your kingdom come.. on earth as it is in heaven..”
The Book

On pages one to ten Gary offers an introduction. He sets his work clearly in the Canadian context, and then offers some reflections on the task at hand.  Gary begins by noting the paradox that in Canada spiritual interest is growing at the same time as churches are dwindling. The tension this induces for religious leaders causes many to look for the “magic key,” a key which does not exist. But the hope and desire for that key has led us on a journey — from seminar to seminar, and book to book, and in particular attempting to import American models which were touted as the path to success or “the next great thing.” We often failed to do the needed work — theological and cultural-exegetical — or to engage in a listening posture in the places we live because we hoped we could simply adopt a working model from somewhere else. And now.. we are reaping what we sowed.

At the same time, however, many churches and leaders have seen the writing on the wall. At one level or another there is a growing response to the movement of the Spirit, calling us to engage in the borderlands instead of remaining safely encamped around the boundaries. This brings us to the first challenge (p 9): “It will be impossible to lead others to places of effective missionary engagement if we, as leaders, are uncomfortable in the borderlands. Borderland living for the church requires catalyst leaders who are more than pastoral caregivers or great visionaries. They live what they teach… merely developing authority [and then] telling others what they should do will not be enough to mobilize.” Gary offers some examples, and then we move into chapter 1: “Learning to Sing the Song.” Psalm 137 is the paradigm.

The movement Gary is describing is also documented by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay in The Tangible Kingdom. On pages 103-110 they draw the structural diagram of a typical business model for the last century.. leaders on top, and those implementing the vision and following the commands from above in the wide body below – a triangle. But the missional paradigm requires that we turn the triangle on its side.. with leaders out front learning and risking, and the entire body mobilized in their neighborhoods, work places, and tribes.

“We aren’t in Kansas anymore.” Ripped out of the familiar world, Israel had to learn to sing the Lord’s song in a strange and foreign place. Out of a deep sense of dislocation, the faithful of Israel must seek the face of the Lord. The temptation is to dwell in the past, in the “glory days” when there were predictable rhythms, adequate funds, respect in the wider community. When we lose these things we feel frustrated, often angry, sometimes desperate. Instead of pulling together and looking to the future we fight with each other about what change means and how to recover a sense of stability.

Gary quotes John Kotter of the Harvard School of Business: the greatest hindrance to needed change is lack of a sense of urgency (18). Kotter studied organizations which were struggling and found that complacency was entrenched. No one was asking if there was a better way. In fact, to his surprise, measurements of effectiveness were often adjusted to meet the downward spiral. Negative feedback was often ignored and the status quo was celebrated.

The most important element for healthy change in any organization is a sense of urgency.A deep and unsettling questioning of reality always precedes congregational renewal. Yet the paradox is that leaders ultimately only have control over themselves. So our greatest task is to engage in mission, question our familiar frameworks, and be transformed. As Margaret Wheatley writes,

Whenever we’re trying to change a deeply structured belief system, everything in life is called into question-our relationships with loved ones, children, and colleagues; our relationships with authority and major institutions. One group of senior leaders, reflecting on the changes they’ve gone through, commented that the higher you are in the organization, the more change is required of you personally. Those who have led their organizations into new ways of organizing often say that the most important change was what occurred in themselves. Nothing would have changed in their organizations if they hadn’t changed.. “  Margaret Wheatley in “Goodbye Command and Control,” in Leader to Leader, 1997.

I appreciated that Gary closes this chapter with a challenge to theological reflection as well as courage to resist the calls to “go back to Egypt.” We want the story to be about us.. our comfort, our welfare. But this isn’t the story that God is writing — it is much, much larger. A consumer focused ministry is not about the Gospel, but about a distorted western reading shaped by the Enlightenment and a market culture. Gary quotes Eddie Gibbs in Leadership Next, and then we move to chapter two..

Theology Pub is a monthly gathering of Christians in Toronto. We gather for fellowship and to discuss theology with a desire to grow in our love for God and obedience to him; to sharpen and encourage each other; and to pray for the city of Toronto.

It’s hosted by our friend Darryl Dash and looks like a great night out for all of you theologians out there.

Anyway. Its a hard thing to receive a redundancy letter, despite how nice your employer has been about it. Its like getting dumped by a girlfriend. Its a blow to your ego. It whispers insulting challenges to your accomplishments, It highlights the ‘dunce’ part of ‘redundancy’ when you say the word too many times in the same sentence.

You can support his ministry and the Jones family over on his blog.

One of the more interesting discussions is on the whole question of a “social” gospel as opposed to regeneration as the heart of the issue. Mike quotes from Jonathan Dodson that “social action doesn’t create [the] new community:”

Although social action mission creates community, it doesn’t create new community. Regenerated, new creation is the unique work of God the Spirit (Tit. 2.11; Gal. 6:15) through faith in the Son (Tit. 3:6-7; 2 Cor. 5:17). If we convert people to community and social mission alone, and not to Christ, we offer a very incomplete gospel. Regeneration is both social (Matt. 19:28) and spiritual (Tit. 3:5). The Spirit, not social mission, makes men new.

This is both helpful, and incomplete…

It is helpful because it is important to know what we mean by regeneration, referencing the work of the Spirit in the heart of a believer. It is incomplete, because it tends to push us away from the frame of missio Dei – which is the movement toward shalom, a wholeness of God in action in the world, where there is no “spiritual” gospel as opposed to a “social” one. It is abundantly evident in the Old Testament that justice and economic issues are near the heart of the gospel. It is equally clear in Jesus defining statement of his ministry in Luke 4.

However, Jonathan is right that social mission alone does not produce shalom. It may create the conditions that make shalom possible, and it certainly makes shalom visible. But to say that it does not PRODUCE shalom does not mean that it has no value in this world. These last points are really important. The Gospel becomes visible in the new community, through signs of the kingdom, foretastes of the shalom that God will one day bring in fulness. The new community performs and proclaims the word in its shared life in the neighbourhood.

And this life and work for justice has real value — God genuinely loves and cares for this fallen world, and will love and care for the world in spite of its response. If nothing else, Matthew 25 should instruct us that God’s care for the poor has no conditions attached. God in Godself overflows with self-sacrificing love, pours himself out for this world knowing it might reject him. Ultimately we embody the love of God in our communities not because we know that love will transform the world, but because this is the nature of God. Ultimately mission appears as the self-unfolding of contemplation.

The Thursday morning session again featured Stuart Murray and Juliet Kilpin — really a great combination of reflecting, wondering, and putting forth theology and frameworks: a great blend of academics and on-the-ground but in-process experience. It leads me to hope that Urban Expressions might publish a book about what they are learning.

Stuart opened yesterday’s plenary by noting the shift in the last ten years. In years past when we went into a neighborhood we assumed that God had not been there until we showed up. Now we assume the opposite — that the Spirit goes before us and has already been at work. So we look for signs of the kingdom and we watch and listen to see and hear what God is doing.

The second shift, growing out of the perspective above, is that we do not focus on building a congregation but on partnering with what God is already up to. As Juliet later pointed out, this translates into saying “yes” to many things we would have considered distractions in the Christendom frame of church planting. We say “yes” to participate in neighbourhood initiatives, “yes” to hospitality, “yes” to lending and borrowing equipment, yes to helping neighbours with projects, and yes to advocacy. We find ways into the warp and woof of neighbourhood life. The feel is more like chaplaincy with missional intent, entering as priests of a parish where the buildings are our homes.

One of the implications, often pointed out by David Fitch, is that planting missional communities will take much longer, and metrics along the way will be completely different. Instead of quantitative, they will be qualitative, found mostly in stories of belonging and care.

As a result, the scope of church planting is both larger and smaller than we previously thought. It is smaller — so much is already happening and our part is only to attend, to notice what God is already doing and join with him. Moreover, the kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision.

It is larger — it moves toward shalom with the wide scope of the meaning of that word — reconciliation, justice, peace, sharing, beauty, healing, and no one left behind.

In this morning’s session Juliet pushed at some of the things that restrain us from embracing a missional vision. Our Christian sub-culture has increasingly assumed that safety is one of God’s gifts to us — this in spite of the nature of the sacrifice that brings us to a common table. We have become risk averse — and more so as we and our structures age. The more we attain, the more we might lose. She used a clip from “The Bucket List.” The patient is on a death-bed — do we simply call it quits or do we try to find the joy again?

Stuart called us to STOP starting with church. Missiology must precede any renewal of ecclesiology, and this is going to call for a freedom to experiment and attention to context. His thoughts here reminded me of Hugh Halter’s take on process in The Tangible Kingdom. Our temptation is to begin with structure — structures are familiar, offer a sense of control, and provide a sense of safety. But instead we must start with people. Forms will follow function and relationships built in the context of kingdom life.

This isn’t easy for people who are used to success via tried and true methods, who are used to being at the center and not on the margins. Yet there is so much GOSPEL here.. leaven in a lump, the mustard seed that is small and annoying and persistent. Much of the push back we hear during an event like this comes from men and women who want a new method handed out in a box.. a quick fix.. or a three step solution that allows things to remain more or less as they are. Sadly, we don’t have this luxury. Instead we are invited into a risky adventure with God — called to lose our lives in order to find them, called to the same vulnerability that characterized Jesus incarnation. We are called to a city we have not seen. Newbigin writes of Roland Allen that,

“[his] charge against modern missions was that they had been tempted by their alliance with colonial powers to act as though the mission of the church could be pursued in the style of a cultural educational campaign, as though the object was to multiply replicas of the sending churches. In contrast Allen rightly saw that in the New Testament portrayal of mission the central reality is the active work of the living Holy Spirit himself. It is the Spirit who brings about conversion, the Spirit who equips those who are called with the gifts needed for all the varied forms of ministry, and the Spirit who guides the church into all the truth. The Spirit is not the property of the sending church or the missionary who is sent. It is not part of the missionary’s duty to mold the new church in to the style of the old. The Spirit is sovereign and free…”
Newbigin, The Open Secret, 130

After a day in meetings with the Forge Canada National Team, and with the first plenary session on its way, we arrived at a restaurant not far from Center Street. We were to meet another group which included Stuart Murray and Juliet Kilpin of Urban Expressions UK.

As it turned out, the restaurant had lost our reservation, and we didn’t have a lot of time to spare. Hmm.. isn’t that a pub next door? We checked it out.. no line up and not crowded. Why not?

It’s surprising how consistently good the food is in pubs, and the portions seem generally larger. I ordered one of the best chicken club sandwiches I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get BC Cider in Alberta, and I don’t like beer 

I sat at a table with Mike Frost, Glenn Smith and Anthony Brown. Mike was first up last night for the plenary last night and did a great job sharing his heart for the kingdom and God’s redeeming work in the world. At the pub I heard about his fondness for the beer produced by the micro-brewery in his home town of Sydney in New South Wales.

I sat beside Glenn Smith. Glenn is National Director for Christian Direction and professor or urban missiology at the Postmodern Metropolis Institute of Christian Studies in Montreal. I’ve linked a couple of papers by Glenn recently, and he is doing similar work on-the -ground as Robert Lupton. Sitting with him I had a chance to ask him about urban life in Montreal as well as his theological work. It turns out he is currently writing a piece that posits a dialogue between Charles Taylor and Karl Barth. Sounds fascinating, and perhaps we’ll be able to print a sampler in a coming issue of Missional Voice.

Glenn noted his pleasure with the work Charles Taylor is doing and the significance of his concept of the social imaginary. This is something deeper than worldview, and incorporates an inner dimension of vision that also involves our affections. Glenn closed his plenary session the next day be noting the tendency of evangelicals to live in our heads – a diagnosis and problem also strongly noted by James Smith in Desiring the Kingdom.

Glenn called us to move beyond this dualistic mode to embodiment – and thus the connection to “place” and neighbourhood. Ultimately we are only formed in place. As Eugene Peterson notes, “Everything that the Creator God does in forming us humans is done in place. It follows from this that since we are his creatures and can hardly escape the conditions of our making, for us everything that has to do with God is also in place. All living is local: this land, this neighborhood, these trees and streets and houses, this work, these people.” (Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places)

Grandview Calvary Baptist church, home to a number of new monastic communities, and Carey Institute are partnering to present a workshop on New Monasticism on May 2nd, 9:30am – 3:00pm.

Speakers include:

Jonathan Wilson (Carey Theological College)
Craig Greenfield (Servants Vancouver)
Tama Ward Balisky (Kinbrace Community)
Dave Diewert (Streams of Justice)
Tim Dickau (Grandview Calvary Baptist)
Aaron White (24/7 Prayer & 614)
Amy Wilson-Roberts (Nieu Communities)

Worship will be led by local musician Tom Wuest.

Email newmonasticism@gcbchurch.ca for more information.

Download an insert here, and an article here.

As I began reading, the question foremost in my mind was this: “How are the ecological problems we face related to sexuality?” The answers will surprise you.

One of the essays in the book was published elsewhere. Wendell Berry writes in CrossCurrents:

“I want to begin with a problem: namely, that the culpability of Christianity in the destruction of the natural world, and the uselessness of Christianity to any effort to correct that destruction, are now established cliches of the conservation movement. This is a problem for two reasons: First, the indictment of Christianity by the anti-Christian conservationists is, in many respects, just. For instance, the complicity of Christian priests, preachers, and missionaries in the cultural destruction and the economic exploitation of the primary peoples of the Western Hemisphere as well as of traditional cultures around the world, is notorious. Christian organizations, to this day, remain largely indifferent to the rape and plunder of the world and of its traditional cultures.

“The conservationist indictment of Christianity is a problem, secondly, because, however just it may be, it does not come from an adequate understanding of the Bible and the cultural traditions that descend from the Bible. The anti-Christian conservationists characteristically deal with the Bible by waving it off. And this dismissal conceals, as such dismissals are apt to do, an ignorance that invalidates it. The Bible is an inspired book written by human hands; as such, it is certainly subject to criticism. But the anti-Christian environmentalists have not mastered the first rule of the criticism of books: you have to read them before you criticize them… It entails, furthermore, the making of very precise distinctions between biblical instruction and the behavior of those peoples supposed to have been biblically instructed.”

More…

Related: “Domination or Delight?” in the latest issue of The Journal of Contemplative Spirituality

Related: Ecological footprint

Last year in Rwanda I met some incredible people from all around the world. That being said, it was the Africans I will never forget. My previous interactions with “the African church” had left me distressed – It seemed to me that colonialism was alive and well in the church, in that we had exported the worst of the church to Africa, where it still exists, while we ourselves have tried to move on. But this is not exclusively the case. I met many, many African leaders who are thinking differently. (In fact, if you read the first chapter of Brian McLaren’s book Everything Must Change, you will see that it was an African woman who came up with that title. And it was at an Amahoro Gathering in Burundi where that exchange took place.)

This is your opportunity to participate. Times are tough, I know. But you must come anyway. Forget logic, forget prudence, forget even financial responsibility. Just come. I’m looking for Canadians in particular. Last year there were two others besides me–one who lived in the US, and one who lived in Burundi. It’s time for Canadians to venture out again and re-enter this conversation.

Here’s a message from my friend Claude Nikondeha that arrived in my inbox yesterday:

As we look toward The Gathering in South Africa this year, we are anticipating a great time of connection, conversation and transformational opportunities as we come together from Africa and beyond in the name of Jesus. Our African friends, innovative leaders from across the African continent, are already gearing up for this time together. Our South African team is vigorously planning the many details for our time together, eager to host friends and create a space that is rich soil for new friendships to grow. We all are aware that when we gather, good conversations happen, good connections happen and we are all transformed!

So we want to, once again, invite you to consider joining us in South Africa for The Gathering. So many good things await you in Africa! The presence of Western friends at The Gathering is a deep encouragement to our African leaders, a tangible reminder that they are not alone, that they are not invisible in their Kingdom endeavors. When you come, the most wonderful gift you bring is your very presence, your voice joining theirs in worship, discussion and laughter. But you will also be encouraged by these leaders, you will confront new realities, learn new lessons about following Jesus and be inspired to be part of God’s repair of the world – in Africa and in your home community. We are all enriched when we come together in Jesus!

These are times that stretch us economically. It would be easy to delay coming to Africa until there was more money in the bank. But it is good to remember that Jesus did not work from a mentality of scarcity, He moved about in generosity, and He taught His disciples that where He was, there was ample provision, enough to feed crowds if necessary! So for those who are feeling the draw of Africa, who are longing to connect with African leaders, please come.

Registration is still open! In order to confirm your spot, you will need to send your $200 non-refundable deposit in to African Liaison Group / Amahoro Africa (p.o. box 5394, Bend, OR, 97708). We are now encouraging people to purchase their plane tickets as well, so we are definitely getting ready to gather in South Africa! Please join us, come and be part of the conversation!

P.S. For more information on the Gathering – Please email us at: gathering@amahoro-africa.org

Amahoro,

Claude Nikondeha

I’ll add my own “Amahoro” to Claude’s, and encourage you to think very seriously about this… but don’t think about it for too long.

The Evolving Church: Amidst the Powers will seek to identify and wrestle with the powers, and forces of oppression in the world. Inspired by Ephesians 6 and Paul�s claim that our battle is not against flesh and blood, we will seek to answer the question: how can the Church exist as a distinct faith community that does not succumb to the powers that surround her, but instead offers a different way of being amidst the powers?

The Conference is coming to Oakville on March 21, 2009.  You can find out more information at www.epconference.net.

Here are some details:

Church Beyond Belief
Edmonton unconference with Peter Rollins
February 5-9, 2009
Event blog
Main events location: Taylor College Campus, & Deweys’ Cafe on the U of A Campus

Sounds like it’ll be good. Pete, pack a couple of extra sweaters…

Although the web site is not updated yet, I have it on good authority that the event will be held March 20 & 21 at the Vancouver Central Seventh Day Adventist Church. It turns out though that this is a very busy weekend. I’ll be in New Mexico at The Emerging Church: Conversations, Convergence and Action event. Others I know will be in Ontario for the big Evolving Church: Amidst the Powers gig. So there’s no shortage of places to be that weekend.

Here’s Boyd on Charlie Rose to whet your appetite:

Part 2
Part 3

“..is hard to grasp for those of us living in a post-Enlightenment technological society. Landscape and spirituality are not, for us, inevitably interwoven. We experience no inescapable link between our “place” and our way of conceiving the holy, between habitat and habitus, where one lives and how one practices a habit of being. Our concern is simply to move quickly (and freely) as possible from one place to another. We are bereft of rituals of entry that allow us to participate fully in the places we inhabit.

“We have lost the ability even to heed the natural environment, much less to perceive it through the lens of a particular tradition. Modern western culture is largely shorn of attentiveness to both habitat and habitus. Where we live – in what we are rooted – no longer defines who we are. We have learned to distrust all disciplines of formative spiritual traditions, with their communal ways of perceiving the world. We have realized, in the end, the “free individual” at the expense of a network of related meanings.

“Without a habitus – particularly one that is drawn, at least in part, from the rhythm of the land around us – our habitat ceases to be a living partner in the pursuit of common wholeness. We become alienated from an environment that seems indifferent, even hostile. Habitat turns into scenery, inconsequential background. Habitus is reduced to a nonsacramental, individualistic quest for transcendent experience. We lose any sense of being formed in community, particularly in a tradition that allows us to act unconsciously, with ease and delight, out of a deep sense of what is natural to us and to our “milieu.” We are, in short, a people without “habit,” with no common custom, place, or dress to lend us shared meaning.”