On June 10th, 130 church pastors and leaders from over 50 churches and mission agencies came tog
ether to interact with Dr. Alan Roxburgh, a respected author The Missional Leader and a leading expert on our topic, “Exploring Missional Engagement”. This Symposium was sponsored by The Navigators church partnering ministry – The Small Groups Network. It was hosted by the Waterloo Mennonite Brethren Church.
Much of the content centred on how the
Church carries God’s mission to a people (our communities) and our
culture. Many of the churches that the
Small Groups Network partner with are discussing this and similar topics. They
long to see their people be agents of God’s Kingdom outside their church building
and be Good News, making a tangible difference in their neighbourhoods and
workplaces.
Alan spoke on the theology of mission. We know the Great Commission in Matthew 28. But Luke 10:1-12 gives it a different approach. – “Go and enter the house of ‘the other’ and give them your blessing of shalom. Receive their gift of hospitality. This implies “enter into their world and listen to their stories and share yourself and your story with them – which includes your life-in-the-kingdom of Christ.” Be co-sojourners exploring how their and your story fit into God’s big story in the world.
This helped frame the rest of the day’s content.
Here are a few of the comments from the leaders who attended:
- “Alan’s discussion of current culture was very helpful and relevant.”
- “appreciated interaction with scripture and opportunity to share stories with others around the table”
- “ a good chance to think about how to think about what the church does in order to accomplish missional effectiveness among its people”
- “Appreciated that Alan challenged and pushed me beyond where I normally think”
God’s Kingdom was discussed as a new social community where people’s stories and their narratives of God-at-work-in-them is valued. It is listening as a way of loving and valuing the other, believing that God is already at work in their story though they may not know it – and may even deny it. We must help people listen for clues as to where God is at work.
We also need to ask ourselves as followers of Jesus, “Is the church the safe place where people can express and have others listen to their stories / narrative?” Can we give them permission to put on the table their narrative of pain experienced in the church? Allowing them to be truly heard can be transformational both for them and for the church.
Some take-away lessons that can help us live and interact naturally, and listen for where God is at work in others’ lives include (thanks to my colleague Stephen Kidd for his contributing thoughts):
§ Initiate building authentic, meaningful, trusting, caring relationships with those God has already put in our lives
§ Reduce the pace of life in order to have quantities of time with people and not just “pop in” from time to time long enough to “get my message across”
§ Be a good listener, asking good, interested questions and journey together (not needing to have all the answers) as co-sojourners on earth; not using listening as a tactic, waiting for the “in” to share.
§ Be with people where they are, on “their turf” and not try to get them onto mine. Jesus entered our world; I want to enter theirs.
§ Listen to peoples’ narratives and help them see how they are part of God’s big story in the world and join in with Him.
Should you want to read the complete summary of the Symposium, click here. (pdf. Article)
Go to www.allelon.org to learn more about Alan Roxburgh or for missional church tools and articles.
Over the past month, the Small Groups Network Forum’s have been discussing a very challenging book by Scott Boren, called The Relational Way. Scott is Community Pastor at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul’s Minnesota. The book identifies ten assumptions that we as church leaders often make as we start or build our small group ministries. Boren categorizes these as "structural myths" that have quietly crept into how we think and act.
Boren says these myths have become such a subtle part of our "operational system" that until we read a book like this, we assume them to be true. Boren then provides a relational truth in opposition to each structural myth.
Alan Roxburgh, who we are bringing in as this years Symposium speaker says about the Relational Way, “This is an important book, read it slowly, prepared to have your view of small groups in the church reoriented. If you are a church leader wrestling with a desire to form God's people, then you're holding a book that can be incredibly important for your future”. So while this book can be considered a “small group ministry” title, it has implications far wider within the church. It deals with practical leadership issues, moving a church away from attractional, consumer-oriented ministry to a missional and Kingdom (counter-cultural) oriented church.
Over the next few posts, I want to share some of my key “take-aways” from the book that I found to be very helpful and also personally challenging to live.
My first is this - Christ’s Kingdom is counter-cultural to the world we currently live in – do we recognize it’s lies and the ways it has pulled believer’s into accepting the cultures’ norms? A Kingdom lifestyle could look quite different from the one most North American believer’s practice. One aspect that he raises is the lack of relationships we have within the church that he says would have “refrigerator rights” a term from Randy Frazee (The Connecting Church). Are our lifestyles so busy that we have no time and relational space for us to build deep relationships outside our immediate family? What does this say about the likeliness of small groups to be environments of transformation? Can we expect life transformation to occur by meeting 2 hours every two weeks?
Here is what Scott says in his book, "Individuals meet as a group every week, but they still live in isolation, searching pragmatic answers to personal success. They don’t become a part of a people who form an alternative society or contrasting city, one that lives differently than the culture. Instead, it only propagates the operating system of the culture because it uses the lifestyle of the culture as its measurement for success. The church in America does not need more groups that function within the cultural operating system. It needs to adopt a relational operating system that helps people develop refrigerator rights. Churches don’t need another growth program with small groups at the center. They need a way to help people connect with one another in meaningful ways so that they create contrasting way of life to the environment in which society lives.”
Maybe it has to do with expectations.
I’m not going to stop going to small group because there is not enough
“life-changing” happening. Maybe it’s
not the right environment for some changes to occur. The small group that I belong to are seeking
to live as Kingdom ambassadors. We’re learning. Thank you Scott for writing a book that both
challenges my assumptions and gives me hope in what God can accomplish through
me and others.
I look forward to reading your follow-up book, How Do We Get There From Here?
My friend and Navigator colleague Nabeel Jabbour has written on a very relevant topic: The Collision of the Muslim and Christian cultures. You can view his video on this @ the website www.godtube.com. Nabeel Jabbour:
Nabeel has been a tremendous resource to our Navigator staff, Canadian churches and seminaries over the past four years. Nabeel is an Arab Christian with a profound insight into the life and thinking of Muslims. His latest book from Navpress is called The Crescent Through the Eyes of the Cross.
Nabbeel says this, "God has taken me over an incredible journey. I feel like He has designed me to do what I am doing these days. My childhood years in Syria, the many years in Lebanon, the fifteen great years in Egypt, and the twelve years in the States are all part of His program for my life.
I am grateful to God that I have had the opportunity to learn to stand in the shoes of Muslims and to see Islam from their point of view. I am also grateful to God that I have learned to interpret Islam to Christians in America."
His earlier book is "Unshackled and Growing", both books are available through the Navigators Resource Ministry website. I would encourage you to read this book and tell your friends about it as well!
It’s not often that I will pick up
a work of fiction. My wife Ruth reads all the time, almost all of it is
fiction. She’s a speed reader – must go
through a book a day! (She makes me envious – oh how many books I could read if
I could speed read like her!) The last fiction I read was Chasing Francis – a story
of a pastor in crisis and how re-discovering the story of St.Fransis helped him restore his faith. It
was a great read that helped me during my initial journey of what it means to
be “missional”.
So when I kept hearing rave reports of The Shack from my colleagues – I took the opportunity to read it. I usually am biased on whether I will read a book based on who the authour is – and I never heard of this guy William Young. If you are interested, read his background at his blog. A very unlikely man to become a best-selling author!
The book has become popular
because of readers recommending the book to others. It’s also caused some
controversy as there are those who feel Young has introduced unorthodox views
of God and Christianity.
Let me give you my take on the Shack and why I think it’s worth your time to read.
First of all I believe the book
doesn’t try to portray God that is not consistent with Scripture. However the
authour doesn’t give a totally balanced view of what Scripture says about God
either. I think one needs to realize is
that William Young isn't trying to sell some great theology - he makes it clear
that this fictional story is not perfect theologically.
Also we need to realize that we
all have bias when it comes to our interpretation of God. We all interpret God
through our own lenses much of the time... instead of the ideal of seeing him
through His word. Young has taken
interpretations... concepts... ideas of his experiences and thoughts and put
them down on paper in the form of a novel. This is not a theological text book.
It is a fictional story.
So that being said – if you read
it as a fictional story, you may come away with a fresh perspective of God, the
Trinity and the goodness of God -- I
know I did. He broke down some
stereotypes of who I pictured God to be, and how the mystery of the Trinity
could possibly function as “three in one”.
The book addresses why God seems to stand back when tragedies and injustice
occur in our world. Here I wish Young would expand on his concepts – as
explanations through the story are sometimes simplistically presented.
I hope you get a chance to read The
Shack and form your own opinions and thoughts of Young’s picture of God. Go to
this link to read an excerpt from the book:
http://theshackbook.com/read.html
