The Blind Beggar

We have friends who worked for many years among the Uighur of Northwest China, before being expelled by the Chinese government. The Uighur are a Muslim ethnic minority in China, but a small Christian community has blossomed in their midst. Besides expelling our friends, the government has been making arrests of some believers including Alimujiang Yimiti.

Gulinuer, his wife, issued a call to Christians around the world to pray for her husband. In the recorded video message below, Guli shares her determination and persistence in her faith, despite the persecution against Alim and their family. The video was first posted on January 28, 2010.

You can learn more here.

Pray for Alim and his wife as well as the other Christians in the area.

I have a deep concern about this movement called missional. It appears that we are moving towards being not much more than books, conferences and conversation. Lots of talk, talk, talk.

Now I suspect I’m wrong on this point, at least I hope so. But if missional is more than just talk, where are the stories? Where are the tales of people living incarnationally in those communities where God has lead them to dwell? Why don’t we hear more from them? Why is story telling not an important part of our conferences and conversations?

I once read this about the power of story:

Story, as a pattern, is a powerful way of organizing and sharing individual experience and exploring and co-creating shared realities. It forms one of the underlying structures of reality, comprehensible and responsive to those who possess what we call narrative intelligence. Our psyches and cultures are filled with narrative fields of influence, or story fields, which shape the awareness and behavior of the individuals and collectives associated with them.

Note that story is a tool “which shape the awareness and behavior of the individuals and collectives associated with them.” We need this desperately within the missional movement. Without it we die.

I understand that many are reluctant to share the intimate and often confidential detail about their interaction with people. I don’t share certain stuff either, but it seems to me that general stories about community engagement could be told in such a way that it would honor the telling and encourage Jesus followers towards their own engagement.

So let’s start to tell more stories.

Christopher Hitchens was in Portland recently for a speaking engagement. Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell interviewed him for a local publication, Portland Monthly. The interview was pretty much what one would expect, but I did find the following a fascinating observation from Hitchens:

Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

Hitchens: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

This is a 2-minute video that attempts to provide a sense the change in perspective between our traditional view of church and missional church.

HT: Alan Hirsch

Back on January 17th in 9Marks on Missional, I took Jonathan Leeman, Director of Communications for 9Marks, to task on his post, “Is the God of the Missional Gospel Too Small?”

Since then there has been a number of others who have entered the fray including those listed below. Together they form a pretty good critic of Mr. Leeman’s scantily documented, poorly thought-out and generally uninformed article.

Leeman’s assault on the missional conversation should not be taken lightly, so I urge you to give each of these posts a read so you can become conversant with the arguments and rebuttals. Leeman may just be the opening shot of more to come.

• “A Growing Divide? 9 Marks and Missional”
• “Missing the Missional Mark”
• “You Might Not Be Missional…”
• “The Missional Slope, or Should Have Linked to Kinnon”
• “Losing the Plot”

Good read at Neil Cole’s blog today on the sin of self-preservation.

Here is a noteworthy observation:

We often approach church and ministry with a theology of SAFE.

Safe is…

Self-preservation = our mission
Avoidance of the world and risk = wisdom
Financial security = responsible faith
Education = maturity

Does that not describe many of the churches, denominations or ministries you have encountered?

Sure does, and describes the theology of many Jesus followers also.

Bill Kinnon tweeted a Rich Mullins song this morning that reminded me of the lyrics to a choice Mullins composition, Screen Door.

Here they are:

It’s about as useless as
A screen door on a submarine
Faith without works baby
It just ain’t happenin’
One is your left hand
One is your right
It’ll take two strong arms
To hold on tight
Some folks cut off their nose
Just to spite their face
I think you need some works to show
For your alleged faith

Well there’s a difference you know
B’tween having faith and playing make believe
One will make you grow
The other one just make you sleep
Talk about it
But I really think you oughtta
Take a leap off of the ship
Before you claim to walk on water
Faith without works is like a song you can’t sing
It’s about as useless as a screen door on a submarine

Faith comes from God
And every word that He breathes
He lets you take it to your heart
So you can give it hands and feet
It’s gotta be active if it’s gonna be alive
You gotta put it into practice
Otherwise….

It’s about as useless as a screen door
On a submarine
Faith without works, baby
It just ain’t happenin’
One is your right hand, one is your left
It’s your light, your guide
Your life and your breath

Faith without works is like a song you can’t sing
It’s about as useless as a screen door
On a submarine

Here is Rich and crew doing a live version of the song:

Oh course, the basis of the song is James 2:14-17:

Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? (The Message)

Many are quick to point out the issues they have with the emerging church conversation. So it is refreshing when we get to read a post that doesn’t address the negative aspects of this movement. Singing to the Deaf is one such post. In it Michael Newnham gives us a list of things we need to hear from the emerging conversation.

Here is the ten items:

1. We can’t hear you when you talk at us instead of with us.

2. Jesus said go and do after we sat and listened.

3. Jesus probably wasn’t a Republican.

4. The story is a lot bigger than proof texts.

5. Most of us wrestle with some truths we’re not supposed to question.

6. There was a Christian faith before 1900.

7. The Lord didn’t give us a dress code.

8. We would actually like to see each other after the lecture.

9. Anything worth believing can stand up to questioning…and the big one…

10. Isn’t this supposed to be about the love of God and each other?

Some good discussion also, so pop over a give it a read.

Have you notice the number of blog posts lately talking about the positive good the emerging church movement has had? The posts usually (but not always) reminisce about how the movement has been an important part of the authors journey. They are a good reminder of the significance this movement has been in breathing new life into the spiritual wandering of so many.

Here are some recent samples:

Five Things to Love About the Emerging Church

Wheaton College and Positive Things About the Emerging Church

What Do You Do When a Revolution Isn’t Sexy Anymore?

Why I am still a friend of Emergent (even if we don’t talk that much anymore)

There have been even more “Is the Emerging Church Movement Dead?” posts and even a few of the posts noted above almost sound like eulogies. For a perspective on this, you might read David Fitch’s “Emergent, Organic, Missional Church: Methinks We Worry Too Much.”

Most good movements eventually fade as the nucleus of the church takes on the beneficial elements it espoused and is transformed. Let’s hope this is the case with the emerging church movement.

Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and bring Him nearer to our own image. —A. W. Tozer