broken//stained//glass

Missional Outposts 4

Missional has become the overused (and misunderstood) phrase in church leadership these days. (My favorite line was a pastor that confidently started, "Oh, we're missional...our church has a missions department!" Ugh). As Leadership Journal wrote, "Is there a pastor that you know of who is proudly anti-missional?"

Which brings up a set of new questions:

Should we continue to use the word missional or drop it from our vocubulary?
And, if so, is there a better word that can be used in its place?

Missional Outposts 3

Last week I was on a teleseminar conference call with Eric Bryant of Mosaic in Los Angeles and Alan Hirsch, missional guru and author of many books including The Forgotten Ways.

Here were a few highlights from the conversation...

Alan mentioned that there is a radical difference between traditional discipleship and missional discipleship.Traditional discipleship is done in the context of a church, usually based around personal morality/personal holiness. But we've missed the other half - that of missional discipleship - where we’re concerned about where we're hanging out and who we are hanging out with, what we’re doing for the poor - where we're concerned about being Jesus out in the world.

He mentioned that oftentimes we put way too much emphasis on personal morality and we’ve not emphasized where we stand. Great line: "What you see depends upon where you stand."
Another marker of missional discipleship is a mindset that says its not just about stopping doing things, its about starting new rhythms as well.

Then he asked this great question: What cultural idols tend to disciple us more than Jesus?
That question deserves about a week of my attention.

Missional Outposts 2

Who are the most mission-minded people in America today?
My answer might surprise you.

I believe it's the Mormons.

Why?
Think of their strategy.
They start training their people at a young age (high school) with an intense discipleship regimen (daily training every morning before school).

And they give each high school student three things: a backpack, a Bible and a map of their neighborhood.

You may not like the answer, but that's thinking missionally.
Imagine if as followers of Jesus each of us were involved in an intense discipleship training process where we were given a backpack, a Bible and a map of our neighborhoods...and actually used all three of them?

I think you would find many faith communities living on mission.

Missional Outposts 1

A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with Hugh Halter, author of the fantastic book The Tangible Kingdom. He said something that really stuck with me.

He said part of the job of a missional leader is to create tension.
He said that if consumerism is the predominant force in the church culture today, and consumerism is amissional, then the best thing to do is to remove those things that create consumerism.
If people are consuming good worship maybe what we need to do is take it away for a while.
If people are coming to a service simply to consume good teaching maybe we remove it or change it from its traditional form for a season.

But taking stuff away makes people mad.
It essentially creates tension.

Missional leaders have to learn to appreciate living in a world where they create tension.
The question I should be asking this week: How can I create healthy tension with God's people?

A photo in need of a caption

It's been a while since we've had a Create-a-Caption contest on the blog.
The funniest caption wins.
But keep it, ahem, appropriate...

Inauguration Picture from Space

Long exposure photography

Check out these beautiful photographs if you have a moment.

Earl Stafford's modern day parable

The presidential inauguration is the big news today.
But this story also needs to be told.

It reminds me of two passages in Scripture.
1. A kingdom parable Jesus told about a banquet.
2. Direct words of Jesus regarding party invitations.

Earl Stafford's story preaches a pretty good sermon...

Penn and Proselytizing

If you are familiar with the show Penn & Teller you know that Penn is an outspoken atheist.
Check out this fascinating YouTube video of Penn speaking candidly about believers who proselytize. Here's just a snippet of what he says (again, this is coming from an atheist):

"I don't respect people who don't proselytize. If you believe that there's a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell, and you think, 'Well, it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward'... How much do you have to hate somebody not to proselytize?"

Watch the video...its worth five minutes of your time.

"It is impossible to survive in this life and not have a good story"

Last month I was on an airplane and read the ever-present and intriguing in-flight magazine. I always read those in-flight magazines from cover to cover. Some of my most creative ministry ideas and thoughts come from those in-flight magazines Pastors and leaders: on all your future flights, stop reading that book, wake up from your nap and read that in-flight magazine! There's ministry gold in there if you look for it. (But skip the SkyMall magazine: its the best collection of the most creative - and expensive - insignificant gifts you'll ever find...as Chris Seay says, if you need a Lord of the Rings ring for $399 then you really do need to get a life).

The issue I was reading featured an interview with the very private Jewish actor Liev Schreiber. One quote jumped out at me. He said:

"I firmly believe that everyone's got a great story, whether or not they acknowledge it or a journalist acknowledges it. It's impossible to survive in this life and not have a good story."

This raises all sorts of questions and implications about the gospel.
What sort of Story do you believe that we find ourselves in?
Am I asking people to tell me their story?
Is the gospel story a good story - truly, 'the good news'?
If not, do I undertand it well enough?
Am I seeking out opportunities for storytelling?
Am I sharing my story?
Am I sharing the Story of God with my life? Is it compelling?
Do I believe the Story of God is hope-filled, compelling enough to help us not just survive, but thrive?