Keith Broadbent :: Friends blog

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2008/08/something-neue.h

As the Compelled by Love Blog Tour continues Phillip Nation and I had a chance to be interviewed by Ashley Wolpert at Neue Resources concerning the ideas we present in the book. Neue Resources is a ministry aimed at equipping ministry leaders of the 21st century church. Neue is the from the team behind RELEVANT magazine. "What RELEVANT is for consumers, Neue is for the leaders, innovators and frontliners that are shaping the future of the church." What follows appears in Neue's newsletter (and is printed with their permission).

Missional Living
By Ashley Wolpert

In a culture that feeds off a vast array of social justice causes, it seems that the term missional living is being bandied about increasingly in our churches. But what does this really look like? Recently Dr. Ed Stetzer, co-author of Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living, spoke with Neue about what exactly "missional living" means, how church leaders can encourage their community live missionally and what some major barriers are. Philip Nation, Stetzer's co-author, follows with a list of practical tips to help communities engage in missional living.

How would you define "missional living"?

Missional living is essentially living with our primary perspective as that of an ambassador for the Kingdom of God. It means making our lives not about us, but about Jesus and His Kingdom.

In an alliterated sense, missional living is an incarnational (being the presence of Christ in community), indigenous (of the people and culture) and intentional (planning our lives around God's agenda) focus on the power of the Gospel to bring the reign of God into people's lives.

When did you first arrive at this idea of "missional living?"

I think I first read missional ideas in The Missional Church (1998), edited (primarily) by Darrell Guder. I believe the subtitle of the first chapter is a great summation for the entire work: "From Sending to Being Sent." After that, I was most impacted by Francis Dubose's God Who Sends, which I read during my Ph.D. in Missiology.

Through their writings, and those of many others, the late 21st-century Church was again reflecting a local missiology for churches that moved from "pay for others to go" to "pay the price for me to go."

Working through these ideas for nearly a decade as a church leader and missiologist, I arrived at the conclusion that the vast majority of missional literature and conferences were solely for the benefit of church leaders. So, I asked Philip to co-write with me to address that. Compelled by Love is a remedy for the average believer who is looking for a theological and practical bridge to move their lives in a missional direction.

What would you say is the greatest example of "missional living" in the Bible?

Without hesitation--it is Jesus Christ. He is sent by the Father. He is the incarnation of God. He sets aside His privileges (and rights) to live in our neighborhood. He communicates the Gospel in a way that is understandable to us. And, He is supremely sacrificial in the manner of His life and death.

Choosing one such example from mortal humanity is tough. However, for today, I'll choose Moses. Without his knowledge, God was preparing him to participate in God's work of deliverance. After he had failed miserably because of his sin, God still chose to use him--an imperfect vessel for God's great work. In his old age, Moses served as God's emissary to declare the glory of the one true God, awaken hope in the people of God and shake a society.

How can church leaders encourage their community to live missionally?

Missional living must be motivated with the truth and from the heart. Without the truth of Scripture and the Gospel, there is no reason to live any particular way. Since God has revealed the truth of His character and will, we should teach it to the Body of Christ as what we should do. Church leaders leading people boldly to understand God and His Kingdom should influence our manner of living.

We are blessed that God also desires for the truth to affect us. So through such heart motivations as love, hope, urgency and compassion, believers can be shown how missional living must be a compelled portion of life. Obviously, that was the point of Compelled by Love, as we used 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 as the central theme of the book. Because they are learning the greatness of God and His truth, believers must exhibit a deep desire to share such with the world.

What keeps people from missional living? Would you say there are any unique barriers for twenty- and thirtysomethings?

Believers do not live missionally for two primary reasons:

a) because they believe someone else is doing it; or worse,

b) they are selfish.

Too many Christians assume or deceive themselves into believing that someone else has explained the Gospel to our neighbors, co-workers and friends. Beyond that, believers choose their traditions over the mission. Entire congregations have decided that "the way we do things" is superior to the mission to go, be and tell the Gospel in understandable ways to the culture surrounding them.

The unique barriers for twenty- and thirtysomethings are also twofold. First, many are trying to await the renewal of the Church. Their hope is to show up one Sunday and it will suddenly be different--more missional, more externally focused, more compassionate. The problem: It won't, unless they are willing to lead the way by serving in the church to which they are committed.

The second barrier is that the culture they face is farther from the Gospel than any other in American history. The young adults and families today have grown up without a mooring to biblical truth, and young Christians now have to begin at the beginning. They were raised to present five-point Gospel outlines, and it is not working very often. Instead, they must describe God in Genesis 1 and then Colossians 1. They will need to share about the freedom God offers first from Ecclesiastes and then Galatians. What I am trying to say is that twenty- and thirtysomethings must recognize the distance their culture is away from the cross and be prepared to work in soil that is dry and parched.

Philip's ideas for missional living are also in the magazine:

1. Understand the Gospel. The mission of God is consumed with the person and work of Christ. As you understand Christ, you can accurately participate in God's work of redemption. So read the Gospels--a lot.

2. Take an eternal view of people. The friends, neighbors and co-workers around you have an eternity in front of them. We need to see them as God does and care for them accordingly.

3. Be friendly. A Christian should be the most trustworthy confidant another person has in the world. Believers should be the kind of people everyone else wants to be around.

4. Watch for a chance to serve. People use up all of their energy on family, work and menial chores. Look for ways you can care for your neighbors--even if it is just cooking a simple dinner for them.

5. Be truthful. Missional believers contend for the faith while speaking in a way understandable to the hearer. No matter what, be ready to talk about the truths in Scripture.

6. Love like Jesus. He lived a robust life of caring for the lost. In elevating sacrificial love far beyond any previous thinking, He gave an example for us.

7. Be on guard. As you work alongside the King to extend His Kingdom, our spiritual enemy will immediately attack. Guard your heart in holiness.

8. Live missionally at home. Family is the first place for the mission of God in your life. When people see the impact it has on your home, they will be more willing to trust its veracity for their own lives.

9. Show patience. People are farther away from understanding the Gospel than in previous generations. Do not hesitate to invite them to submit to Christ, but know that they have plenty of questions that might need answering first.

10. Do it for one reason--the glory of God. The only reason to be missional is to make Christ more widely known. God is worthy of being honored by all of creation, and it should be the main reason why we participate in His mission.

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2008/08/webinar-today-on

Come join me for a Webinar today:

11a.m. Pacific,

12n Mountain,

1p.m. Central, and

2p.m. Eastern.

I will be discussing what we can learn from our research on the 100 fastest growing churches in the United States.

Here is the 'register' link for the seminar.



Or, if want to just jump in at the time, click here.



Also, the schedule of all the NOC webinars is here. There are several and you will want to come back for more conversation.

This is part of the lead up to the National Outreach Convention.

They have a great line up of speakers. It should be a great conference.

The webinar is free. See you then.

http://www.kezrush.com/2008/08/new-kicks.html

Check out Selah's new shoes!

http://church20.blogspot.com/2008/08/record-for-podcast-interviews.h

http://frankviola.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/my-top-three-favorite-youtube-videos-breaking-news/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/376164069/

Back we go to the series of posts on organic systems…

Not surprisingly as we move closer to a network structure, we will not only find ourselves closer to the structures of the NT people of God but also more aligned around the dynamics of Apostolic Genius. It is therefore critical to explore the nature and forms of networks. In doing so, we need to realize that this is closer to our truest expression of ecclesia, even though it might at first seem somewhat strange to us at first. In doing this we must realize that we explore things that relate not just to issues of reactivating missional church, but to much of what we experience in God’s world. Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, the guru of network thinking says it this way..

Network thinking is poised to invade all domains of human activity and most fields of human inquiry. It is more than another useful perspective or tool. Networks are by their very nature the fabric of most complex systems, and nodes and links deeply infuse all strategies aimed at approaching our interlocked universe.”

In the literature networks come in basically three types :

• The chain or line network, as in a chain where people, goods, or information move along a line of separated contacts, and where end-to-end communication must travel through the intermediate nodes.


• The hub, star, or wheel network, as in a franchise or a cartel where the agents are tied to a central (but not hierarchical) node or actor, and must go through that node to communicate and coordinate with each other


• The all-channel or full-matrix network, as in a collaborative network of green groups and activists where everybody is independent but connected to everybody else.

According to Arquilla and Ronfeldt

Each node in the diagrams may refer to either an individual, a group, an organization, part of a group or organization, or even a nation-state. The nodes may be large or small, tightly or loosely coupled, and inclusive or exclusive in membership. They may look alike and engage in similar activities, or they may undertake a division of labor based on specialization. The boundaries of the network, or of any node included in it, may be well-defined, or they may be blurred and porous in relation to the outside environment. Many variations are possible.

It might be clear to see that of the three network types, why the all-channel form has traditionally been the most difficult to organize and sustain. This is so partly because it requires lots of communication. But it is this precisely this form of network that maximizes potential for collaborative undertakings without centralized organization. And this all-channel form is gaining new strength and legitimacy from the information revolution—for instance in open source programming and online business and networking. In networks of this kind, the organizational system generally tends to be flat (as opposed to hierarchical.) Also, in its purer form, there is no single, central leadership, command, or headquarters—no precise heart or head that can readily be identified. “The network as a whole (but not necessarily each node) has little or no hierarchy; there may be multiple leaders. Decision-making and operations are decentralized, allowing for local initiative and autonomy. Thus the design may sometimes appear headless and at other times many-headed.” The structure will tend to be comprised of small units or cells. However, the presence of “cells” does not necessarily mean a network exists—a hierarchy can also be made up of cell, as is the case with most churches with an active cell group program.. It is the way in which the cells organize and relate that makes them a network.

We’ll take this further next post.

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2008/08/theological-preo

I have written an article for the September/October issue of Outreach Magazine called, "Learning from Each Other." In it I point to those I call the "theologically preoccupied" and the "evangelistically fixated" and encourage us all to learn from one another. If you are not a subscriber, you can and should be: click here.

Here's the article in total. I will follow it with a few additional comments.

Learning from Each Other

I am a blogger. Just thought I should get it out there in the open. Mind you, I am not a member of the Pajamahadeen--you know, one of those Bible bloggers who lives in his mom's basement, sleeping till noon and writing theology in his pajamas. But I have met them--and they've partially inspired this column.

Moths drawn to the flame

Certain blog posts seem to attract the Pajamahadeen like moths to a flame--for instance, when the post contains key words like "Rick Warren," "missional," "emerging" and "loving people." They seem to hate these topics and post 3,800-word comments with 27 links proving they've exposed the evildoing of their latest heretic du jour.

Well, these bloggers provoked me--and you're reading the result. Whenever I blog about a growing church that is reaching people, I get comments like, "They're growing because they're not preaching the Gospel." Or if I pose some theological questions, I get it from the other side: "Why bother with theology, let's just do whatever it takes to reach people."

In this column three issues ago, I defended Bill Hybels and his view of rel­evance, mentioning John MacArthur in the process. To some, it was as if I decapitated a goat and threw it on an altar--"How dare you defend Hybels and not fully support MacArthur?"

When I had questions for multi-site churches two issues ago, one person expressed concern that I would "denigrate what others have given their lives to." Raising questions is denigrating someone's ministry? Oh, really? (Come by my blog and check out the discerning and charitable conversation multi-site author and pastor Geoff Surrat and I had about multi-site: EdStetzer.com--click on the multi-site info on the right.)

"Theologically Preoccupied" vs. "Evangelistically Fixated"

Blogs seem to magnify an existing problem in the body of Christ: We don't do a very good job listening to and learning from one another.

It seems large numbers of the Theologi­cally Preoccupied scowl across the pages of their study Bibles at the Evangelistically Fixated and accuse them of being culturally adrift--in some cases rightfully so. Many of the Evangelistically Fixated chuckle when they see books on evangelism written by many of the Theologically Preoccupied who sometimes consider the smallness of their churches a sign of their faithfulness.

Let me propose a different way: Learn from one another and take the best from one another's approaches. Theologically deep believers with a passion for those far from Christ--I want both.

Back to balance

The first chapter of Acts closes with the disciples sequestered for days praying and waiting. Jesus kept talking about the Holy Spirit coming next. They weren't sure what that meant exactly, but there was no mistaking the power when He arrived. The rest of the book is replete with rock-solid, wrath-propitiating, substitutionary-atoning, life-giving, grace-filled, Kingdom-centered, culturally relevant, Gospel preaching. You read it from Peter, John, Philip, Stephen and Paul. They began with a deep, fun­damental teaching of the Gospel and went out from there in love for people, preaching and serving in the name of Jesus Christ.

I don't see enough of this type of balance across Evangelicalism. As I move in and out of groups across the spectrum, I see a growing polarization between those who embrace and teach doctrinal orthodoxy and those who are aggressively reaching a lost world.

We desperately need each other and we need to strike the biblical balance of doctri­nal soundness with missional engagement and creative action.

In the next issue of Outreach, I will share some insights from the largest and fastest-growing churches in America. Some will say, "But are they faithful?" Others will say, "But are they missional?" Those are fair questions, but can we also ask, "What can we learn from them?"

Originally published in Outreach Magazine Sept/Oct 2008

I hope we can all agree that theology should always give birth to word and deed, and evangelism make no sense apart from doctrine. To share the gospel is to articulate unchanging truths about God and man. Nevertheless, it is easy to drift into imbalance. For some theology is treated lightly and all serious efforts are poured into methodology. For others evangelism is put on the back burner in order to clearly develop a robust "body of divinity." This all amounts to serious illogical and unbiblical deficiencies in our churches. While God continues to use us in spite of our errors we are not excused from the pressing need to change where necessary.

Passages of Scripture like 1 Peter 2:9 speaks well to both camps. "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Those who are distracted from the mission because of theology are missing the point entirely. God has created us in Christ to be a people who proclaim his excellencies. This is essentially the dissemination of doctrine; the beautiful, life changing truths about God that, when received by faith, unite sinners to a holy God. It is unfortunately easy to see that some of us are better at knowing doctrine than sowing doctrine. Let me be blunt, amassing a knowledge of God and shelving it instead of sharing it is sin. We are made to distributors of his glory.

On the other side, the same passage of scripture challenges the evangelistically fixated. Eagerness to tell others about God is undermined if our theology is weak. Let me say it this way, you cannot proclaim God's excellencies if you do not know what they are.

I have been saying it for years, and I don't mind saying it again; we need to be both biblically faithful in doctrine and practice, and missiologically sound in our approach to people and cultures.

I believe many of us are in need of repenting of our willful weaknesses in one of those areas. Along the way, we would do well to listen to one another in those areas where we do excel.

http://church20.blogspot.com/2008/08/free-background-loops.html

http://www.kezrush.com/2008/08/weird.html

It's weird to hear James Blunt change a song that's about falling in love with a girl when he was high and realized he could have her and wanted to commit suicide to a song about triangles on Sesame Street.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/374476189/

I have to admit that I totally love Nelson Mandela. I do believe he is the greatest leader alive today and a remarkable example of grace. Time magazine recently did an article on him and his view of leadership. Interestingly he says that these are not principles but tactics. He is a man of principles but in terms of leadership he says it is all about tactics. Here are his eight principles…

1. Courage is not the absence of fear — it’s inspiring others to move beyond it


2. Lead from the front — but don’t leave your base behind


3. Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front


4. Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport


5. Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer


6. Appearances matter — and remember to smile


7. Nothing is black or white


8. Quitting is leading too

Read the whole article here.

BTW sorry that I have been tardy with posting at the moment. I am very, very, busy.