The Blind Beggar

This is an 11 minute news report from Nashville on the state of the church in America. Contextualized for their area, but still interesting.

HT: EdStetzer.com

One of the classic, if not the classic, peace movement song was written in 1950 by American-born Canadian folksinger Ed McCurdy. The song was popularized by many folk singers and became the anthem of the 60’s and 70’s.

Johnny Cash does a haunting rendition on his American VI album, which was posthumous released on February 23, 2010. Here are the lyrics to, Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream.

Last night I had the strangest dream
I’d ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war

Last night I had the strangest dream
I’d never dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.

And don’t miss the title track, Ain’t No Grave (Can Hold My Body Down), of this last Cash album. Stirring, emotive and poignant.

I started making micro loans through Kiva in the fall of 2006. To date, 91 loans have been made of which 58 have been repaid, 27 are being paid back and 6 ended in with a small loss.

It is interesting that those which ended in a loss were not due to the borrower failing to make payments, but because of financial irregularities (bankruptcy, fraud or poor operations) with the Field Partner. A Field Partner is the local in-country microfinance institution which connects Kiva with the borrows and then services the loan once it is funded. Regardless, I’m pretty pleased with my experience.

Here is how the Kiva system works:

A great book to read on how micro lending started and the impact it can have is Dr. Muhammad Yunus’ “Banker to the Poor.” You can read my review here.

You might consider Kiva also. Lend as little as $25.00 to a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq. It’s a potent and sustainable way to empower someone to lift themselves out of poverty.

Alan Hirsch spoke at the 2010 Velocity Conference on February 22, 2010 at Mountain Lake Church in Cumming, Georgia. In this 47 minute talk, Alan deals in detail with the concepts of cultural distance, more of the same, and innovation and new forms of church. If you can get past the first 1.5 minutes, it is well worth the time to give it a good listen.

They don’t allow the video to be embedded, so click here and then on Session Two.

Back in June 2008, we had over 50 people participate in a synchroblog around the question, what is missional? There were any number of ways one could blog on this topic including, illustrate what the term means, describe what it is not and how it is wrongly used, define the term, explore its misuses, explore its theological foundations, etc.

The purpose of that synchroblog was to recapture the true essences of the term, since, over the years, its meaning had become fluid and often co-opted by those wishing to find new and trendy tags for what they were already doing. Unfortunately, we still face the problem today.

David Fitch once said that most missional thought leaders “emphasize incarnational forms of church over attractional; the church as Missio Dei over mission as program; organic forms of missionary living in neighborhoods over ministry set in a building.” Yet many other “purveyors of missional emptiness” continue to add the term to the current program they are attempting to promote or make cool sounding. As Ed Stetzer noted, “The word missional is used to bludgeon legalism and antinomianism alike. To some it is a sign of freedom from all established forms of the church and to others it is a degeneration into syncretism with the world.”

Then comes an ill-considered attack from Jonathan Leeman, Director of Communications for 9Marks, where he claims the missional conversation is leading to an ill-conceived emphasis on social justice which is “but a first step toward a new liberalism.” See my post “9Marks on Missional.”

So, do we abandon the term and move on? Not yet, because the concept behind missional is really big and words help us when we can agree on their definitions— or at least we can agree what we mean when we use a word.

Over the next few weeks, a group of bloggers want to thrash out the meaning of word “missional” and the activity which accompanies a missional church and lifestyle. It will be discussed here as well as at other places including the blogs listed below. As the conversation moves forward, I hope you will move from blog to blog and offer insights from the scriptures and from how you see missional happening in your local community.

There are a number of people working toward a “Missional Manifesto” that will be rolled out as a part of the missionSHIFT conference on July 12-15. The intent with the manifesto is to say, “This is what we mean when we talk about being missional.” It is not the manifesto’s intent (or within its ability) to say this is what everyone should think or say about the term, but reflects a hope that it will help us all be clearer and more mission-shaped in our own thinking and practice. Your comments and thoughts will be passed onto this group to help them frame and forge this manifesto.

In the weeks to come, we will be addressing certain points or issues in the missional conversation that need consideration and perhaps clarity.

Here is the initial group that will be leading this conversation (more will be added):

Tiffany Smith: Missional Mayhem
Bill Kinnon: kinnon.tv
Brother Maynard: Subversive Influence
David Fitch: Reclaiming the Mission
Jared Wilson: The Gospel-Driven Church
Jonathan Dodson: Creation Project
Rick Meigs: The Blind Beggar and Friend of Missional

Conversation on the grassroots level is important, so be sure to join in here and at the other blogs and let’s see where God take us.

For the sake of conversation today, leave a one sentence comment on your own definition of “missional.” Here’s mine (but not original to me): Instead of the usual live your life and share your faith, missional is about living your faith and sharing your life.

Interesting post at Out of Ur today on the Five Myths about Emerging Adult Religion.

Myth #1: Emerging adults serve out of concern for the common good.
Myth #2: Emerging adults reject their parents’ religious influence.
Myth #3: Emerging adults behave similarly, whether seriously committed to religion or not.
Myth #4: Emerging adults have abandoned liberal Protestantism.
Myth #5: Emerging adults tend to fall away from faith in college.

Michael Patton posted a couple of weeks ago on Why I Believe the Canon is Fallible . . . And am Fine with It! He asks, “Do we need absolute infallible certainty about something to 1) be justified in our belief about that something, 2) to be held responsible for a belief in that something.” Over 180 comments so far.

David Fitch enters the dangerous waters of dealing with Brian McLaren’s latest book, A New Kind of Christianity, in this post: McLaren’s New Kind of Christianity – There’s a parting of the ways here – and that’s alright – Towards a New Missional Nicaea (Someday)

“Others”
By Charles D. Meigs (written sometime between 1890 and 1902)

Lord help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way
That even when I kneel to pray
My prayer shall be for – Others.

Help me in all the work I do
To ever be sincere and true
And know that all I do for you
Must needs be done for – Others.

Let “Self” be crucified and slain
And buried deep; and all in vain
May efforts be to rise again
Unless to live for – Others.

And when my work on earth is done
And my new work in heaven’s begun
May I forget the crown I’ve won
While thinking still of – Others.

Others, Lord, yes others
Let this my motto be
Help me to live for others
That I may live like Thee.

I’ve been blogging on things missional for almost five years. Yet it’s often hard to get a firm grip on the paradigm and many questions still surround it. Questions like: What does a missional church look like? What exactly is the missional church model? How does it function? Can our old existing church become one?

These are some of the questions Scott Boren and Alan Roxburgh endeavor to answer in their book Introducing the Missional Church: What It Is, Why It Matters, How to Become One (Baker Books, November 2009, available in paper or Kindle).

I particularly liked the chapter titled “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” where the authors caution us to beware of formulas and models that can be copied and emulated. Instead they say “…we need to see ourselves being called out of the comfort and security of attractional church life onto a journey like Abram leaving Ur of the Chaldees; we are moving into a strange land without maps to guide us on our way to a land God will show us. We are like those early Christians after the church at Antioch was birthed by the Spirit. We know something has shifted, but no one has the formula; it’s confusing and filled with friction as we try to figure out the next steps.”

They dispute three perspectives in this chapter:

1. They challenge the elevation of any model, formula, or blueprint as the way to do church.

2. They challenge the argument that the Bible reveals a secret missional blueprint that will provide us with a magic pill for entering missional life.

3. They challenge the idea that there is some point in the history of the church that provides us with just the right pattern for creating missional churches.

The common thread through the book is that we are on a journey, we are wanders who need to “develop skills of reading the winds of the Spirit, testing the waters of the culture, and running with the currents of God’s call.”

“There isn’t one specific form, predictable pattern, or predetermined model. On these new waters we become pioneers who are creating new maps shaped in, with, and for the contexts and communities into which we have been called. Here we will learn to experiment and test ideas. Some will work; others will fail. Through trial and error we will imagine new ways of being Jesus’ people.”

There is also a great deal of practical assistance in the book for those existing churches who want to make this journey. Forty percent of the book is devoted to a missional change process that includes five phases: awareness, understanding, evaluation, experimentation, and commitment.

This table from the book will give you a feel for the process.

Introducing the Missional Church is highly recommended for those who want to begin or extend their “journey of entering into the missional river of mystery, memory, and mission.”

Further Reading

Brad Boydston or Scot McKnight.

Disclosure: I purchased this book with my own funds.

Thomas Nelson provided me with a complimentary copy of The Voice of Psalms for the specific purpose of reviewing it here.

The Voice of Psalms is the translation of the Psalms produced by “The Voice Project.” They have completed the New Testament and are now venturing into the Old Testament. The Project’s stated goal “is to create the finest Bible products to help believers experience the joy and wonder of God’s revelation…. The Voice uniquely represents collaboration among scholars, pastors, writers, musicians, poets, and other artists” to recapture the passion, grit, humor, and beauty found in the Bible that is often lost in many translations.

The book is beautiful from cover to cover. It is produced in a Trade Paper format, well laid out, an easy to handle size at 5.30 x 8.25, has a clear and legible type font, but above all, it is immensely readable. I’ve been using it for devotional reading and find it brings a freshness to the familiar passages. The translators have met their goal of recapturing the passion, grit, and beauty of the Psalms.

If you’re interested in a translation for personal reading, you should check out The Voice of Psalms.

My only disappointment is that it’s not available for my Kindle and the price seems stiff at $24.99.

110 spam comments yesterday and 79 so far today. Thank God for Akismet. Nothing gets pass this WordPress comment tool.

02-17-2010: 206 spam comments today. I have one popular blog.