Its just not another bad news story...

Perhaps you were like me and riveted to the events that unfolded on April 15, 2013 at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. As the news of the terrorist style attacks became known, major news agencies focused all their programing to cover the events in Boston. I found myself watching the news as if it were a TV crime drama or a made for TV movie and I fully expected that the bad guys would be caught before the end of the program.

It is only in the days since the attacks that we have seen the devastating affects of the bombings - lives lost, horrific injuries and individuals whose lives will never be the same. We also have had an ongoing commentary about the suspects and their lives - who they are, where they are from, did they have help and are there more bombings still to come. The number one question on everyone's mind is, "Why?" Why did these men do this?

On Thursday, April 18 the news was awash with the headline "Bombing Suspect Killed in Shootout" and my Facebook and Twitter feeds said "One down, one to go." TMZ tweeted, "Dead bombing suspect heavy into hip hop." I'm not sure if that is relevant news but it was reported on. Then on Friday we watched as the second suspect was caught after a day that saw all of Boston shut down. The end of another bad news story.

But this is more than just another bad news story because it should cause us to think about the issues surrounding the story. Those who call themselves followers of Christ should examine their attitudes about terrorist acts and the people who perpetuate terrorism. How many Christians felt bad for the victims of the bombing and then wanted revenge on the perpetrators? Is wanting revenge right? How many Christians rejoiced when one of the attackers was killed in a shootout with police? Should we rejoice over the death of an individual, especially the death of someone Christ himself died for?

One author I read a lot of (and I would encourage you to do the same) is Miroslav Volf. Dr. Volf is a theology professor at Yale and in his recent book, A Public Faith, he has this to say about Christianity and violence,

"Thin" but zealous practice of the Christian faith is likely to foster violence; "thick" and committed practice will help generate and sustain a culture of peace.
(p. 40)

A thin faith, according to Volf, is a faith that serves primarily to energize, heal and give meaning to the business of life for the believer whereas a thick faith maps the way of life of the believer based on strong ties to the ongoing tradition of faith and clear cognitive and moral content. Thin faith is self centered while thick faith is other centered.

There are no irredeemable people in the world and no one has the right to close the path of redemption on another.

Blessings.

Game of Thrones...

(Spoiler Alert for Game of Thrones fans)



I recently have been caught up in the HBO TV series "Game of Thrones" which follows a complex and interweaving storyline of various royal household seeking to ascend to the iron throne and rule the seven kingdoms. One of the main characters is "King slayer" Jaime Lannister who is the eldest son of the richest man in all the seven kingdoms. Jaime Lannister is blond, good looking, rich and one of the best soldiers in all the kingdoms. From a very young age Jaime was taught how to fight and he understands that his mission in life is to fight for his family and for his kingdom (the two are closely linked). Since he is one, if not the best, swordsman in the land, he accomplishes his mission with relative ease and only the fool hardy dare to challenge him in open battle. Then he was captured by one of the competing ruling families and used as a ransom to secure the safe return of the sisters of his captor. While on their way to Kings Landing, Jaime's home, Jaime and his guard are apprehended and Jaime has his right hand, his sword hand, cut off. Now Game of Thrones fans (at least those who never read the books) have to wait and see how Jaime will fulfill his mission without being able to use the one thing that he was known for.

This is the same situation that faces churches today. How do we fulfill our mission for the Kingdom of God without being able to use the tactics that brought us success in the past? How do we accomplish our mission if what worked for us in 1882, 1982 and 2012 is taken from us? The answer: We learn new ways to accomplish what we are called to do.

Some believe that if we just keep doing the same things we used to do we will get the same results. That is not true if you are using methods that are outdated. Those ways of doing things have been cut off by the new age that we live in so don't think it is possible to just pick them up and they will work like they used to. We need to remember that God is a God of the new thing. Look at what God told Jeremiah to say to the Israelites,

“And when your land is once more filled with people,” says the Lord, “you will no longer wish for ‘the good old days’ when you possessed the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant. You will not miss those days or even remember them, and there will be no need to rebuild the Ark. In that day Jerusalem will be known as ‘The Throne of the Lord.’ All nations will come there to honor the Lord. They will no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires. Jeremiah 3: 16-17 (New Living Translation)

I have no idea how Jaime Lannister is going to cope without his right hand. I do know that churches that fail to find new ways to accomplish their mission after their "right hand" is gone will eventually die. Sadly they will not have accomplished their kingdom objectives and ultimately disappointed the King who sits upon the throne.

Blessings.

Image Statement...

I was at a Church Planting Conference in Vancouver and I heard Len Sweet tell the delegates that what the church needs in this day and age is not mission statements but image statements. He commented that society today thinks in stories and narratives and that they relate best to metaphors and so the church must learn to speak the language of the times.

I left that gathering and returned to my church in Niagara Falls, an amalgamation of four congregations, wondering what metaphor we could use as an image statement for our new church. Believe it or not, it is not easy to do! After much pondering and "shower time" (I do my best thinking in the shower) the image that came to my mind for Niagara Orchard Community Church was the recycle bin.



The image of the recycle bin for our church explained to others about who we were. When we recycle we take items that we no longer have use for but we know that it is wrong to just discard them - they may be made into another item. NOCC was comprised of four congregations that at one time were lively churches but over time had become a shadow of their former glory. Rather than just closing the doors and sending these churches to the "landfill," The Salvation Army decided that these churches had the potential to be made into something new - to be recycled. The recycle metaphor is biblical as we read in Ephesians 4 where we are told put off our old self and be made new (Ephesians 4:22-24). It is the mission of the church to help people see that God can make them into something new - a new creation. A further extension of the image of the recycle bin came when NOCC purchased an Anglican Church building that was no longer wanted by that denomination and made it into their new place of worship - and old church building recycled to house a new congregation.

After eleven wonderful years in Niagara Falls, my wife Karen and I were asked if we would consider embarking on a revitalization project with a church in Thunder Bay, Ontario. So in July 2012, we started a new ministry adventure at Thunder Bay Community Church. As we started the work of revitalization, I again began to think about what a possible image statement for the church might be. An image statement has to be something that is easily recognizable and can be used to describe the mission of the church. So the image statement for TBCC is a dandelion - not a bright yellow dandelion that children give their moms as bouquets, but the fluffy white dandelion.



The fluffy white dandelion is not alive and vibrant, rather it is at the end of its life as was the case with TBCC. The church has many faithful saints who have done an admirable job of keeping the church going, but despite their efforts the church was on the verge of having to close its doors if something drastic wasn't done. God is not done with TBCC just yet, and like the dying dandelion it still has a purpose. We all know what the purpose of the dying dandelion is - to spread its seeds so new dandelions will appear all over your yard. The purpose of TBCC is to be a transforming influence in the community, and from this dying little church I am confident that a new and exciting ministry will spring up.

Some will say that the dandelion is nothing but a weed and we do everything we can to keep them off our property - how is this a good image of the church? Well, we want to spread like a weed in all the areas Satan claims as his (Matthew 4:8-9). We want the wind of the Spirit to blow us into every nook and cranny so it is impossible to dislodge us from accomplishing God's mission in Thunder Bay.

This summer (if it ever arrives) when you are dealing with dandelions in your garden, say a prayer for Thunder Bay Community Church.

Blessings.

(Dandelion picture is from the art portfolio of Jessica Puddicombe. Check out www.paintingwithpurpose.org)

There is a reason why your church isn't growing...

A sad reality in Canada is that many Protestant churches find it increasingly difficult to keep their doors open and they face the unwanted choice of what to do when the church is no longer viable. The reasons why some of the churches find themselves in this predicament are as varied as the churches themselves; however there are a number of common reasons that contribute to the decline in the church that can be identified.

First, there is often a link between the life cycle of the church and its apparent decline. The typical life cycle of the church involves five stages: birth, development, plateau, decline and death. Those churches that are finding it difficult to remain open are either in the latter stages of decline or at the death stage of the life cycle. Second, there are often sustainability factors that are not being addressed that contribute to the church’s decline. These factors may be problems with people, programs, finances, facilities or style of ministry which can have a cumulative effect on church health and lead to the church’s demise. Third, the church may have theological issues that have negatively influenced the ministry of the church and thus contributed to its overall decline. The theological issues may involve a lack of understanding of the role of lay people within the congregation, or the place of women in ministry, to the congregation misunderstanding what their mission as a church should be.

Salvation Army theologian Philip Needham clearly states what he believes to be the church’s reason for existence when he writes, “The reason is mission. The church exists primarily for the sake of its mission in the world.”[1] Needham is not alone in this assertion. Leslie Newbigin believes that the church exists for mission and that mission is expressed in three ways, “in the proclamation of the kingdom, the presence of the kingdom, and the provenience of the kingdom. This threefold way of understanding the church’s mission is rooted in the triune nature of God himself.”[2] Mission that proclaims the kingdom is ‘faith in action’ that announces God’s kingdom, which has been present over all of human history and over the whole cosmos, has come to a particular place and time in history. As Newbigin explains, it is the “acting out of the central prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to use: ‘Father, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as in heaven.’”[3]

However, it is inadequate to simply proclaim the kingdom with words because such proclamations only speak of a future event that we are hoping for. Jesus embodied the arrival of the kingdom of God so that the kingdom was no longer a distant expectation but it was wrapped up in this man from Nazareth. It is for this reason that the early church leaders used a different language than the language Jesus used. “(Jesus) spoke about the kingdom, they spoke about Jesus.”[4] Mission expressed through the provenience of the kingdom is something that is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. Newbigin states, “Mission is not just something that the church does; it is something that is done by the Spirit, who himself is the witness, who changes both the world and the church, who always goes before the church in its missionary journey.”[5]

As already stated, churches fail for any number of reasons but often the reason for the failure can be seen in what the church deems to be important and what it considers to be peripheral in regards to their local theology. Loren Mead sums this up well when he writes “...in congregation after congregation, person after person, agency after agency, the one clear paradigm of mission stopped being clear. Mission, which had once been both a central rallying cry and basic assumption, instead became a subject of disagreement.”[6]

The good news is that it is possible for the declining congregation to turn things around by refocusing on the mission of the church.

Blessings.

 

---

[1] Needham, Community in Mission, 52.

[2] Newbigin, The Open Secret, 64-5.

[3] Newbigin, The Open Secret, 39.

[4] Newbigin, The Open Secret, 40.

[5] Newbigin, The Open Secret, 56.

[6] Mead, The Once and Future Church, 4.

In the Beginning...

This is a first for me. I have never written a blog before but it is a practice that I want to incorporate into my weekly activities. I think the reason why I never blogged before is because I never thought I had anything terribly important to say, but after reading other blogs, it seems that having something important to say isn't a prerequisite.

The subjects of my blog will all have to do with the church and its mission in the world. I will also use this forum to keep people up to date on things happening within my tribe here in Thunder Bay.

Of course I encourage your thoughts on anything I post and I look forward to interacting with you.

Blessings!