IRELAND UPDATE

Hugh Halter / "A Missional Scorecard"

My friend Paul Dzubinski spotted this post from Hugh Halter.  It's a challenge to the way we think about and evaluate "progress" as we pursue the Great Commission..  Definitely worth reading and considering...

 

Dublin Street Performers 2009

Basic but often essential Irish. **  Click HERE to check the rest of the pictures from the day.

Baligians: Dublin / London / Detroit

Just came off of an encouraging phone call with our friend Andy Baligian,  He and his wife Kim and daughter Catherine lived in Dublin last year to explore missional incarnational ministry in Europe.  They also led a summer team of people considering long and short term options in the U.K.   

After returning to Detroit (their home city) they started up a local apprentice (discipleship) group and have since begun sharing the missional / incarnational vision with others.  Out of that experience Andy has begun to put together a "missional bootcamp" especially for those with a vision for seeing the gospel impact Detroit.  Have a look at Andy's blog (HERE) to get a taste of what they're offering. 

So what about London?  Well one of the biggest challenges for us is to find new co-workers who understand and own missional incarnational discipleship AND who are already following Jesus and living this life out in North America.   (You're not likely to live a life cross-culturally in Europe that you're not already actively living out on some level in North America first.)    So we're continuing to connect with Andy and with others who are leading missional communities and sharing vision for what God is doing in Europe and we're inviting them to be part of short term projects and teams in Europe.  We're praying that some of those will catch a vision for what yet needs to be done cross-culturally in this continent as well.

Here's a clip from our London project last summer.

"You can't join our church."

Whaaat?? 

"But you COULD join our mission."

I've been thinking more about the contrast between membership and mission.  Somehow those two concepts have become disconnected for a lot of people who think of themselves as Christian.

There are all kinds of groups you can't just sign on and join.  You only become part of these groups through sharing a common life and shared experience..  And it's only becasue of THAT shared life and experience that you have a shared identity.

Lately Cheryl and I have been thinking about joining one of the local hill walking clubs.  But the problem is..you can only join by actually going hill walking. 

Our 40th high school (secondary school) reunion is coming up.  I know it seems narrow and exclusive.  But you can't actually join the Class of 1970.  You had to be there with us for that journey.  Now it's part of our experience and our identity.

So exactly when did "church" become an organization that you can join rather than a relationship and way of life with Jesus that we learn to live out together? 

How did "mission" or "discipleship" come to be viewed as an "optional, extra" (somehow regarded as a "high achiever's / extra credit" status within Christianity) instead of just being the day by day normal everyday life experience of every single follower of Jesus?  

Francis Chan: Turning Up the Heat

A few weeks ago I made a return visit to the Exponential Conference in Orlando.  This is an annual gathering that brings in leaders from across North America (and a few global ones) to focus on principles, strategies and resources for church planting and church multiplication.  I kind of have mixed emotions about the conference itself in that so much of it assumes that real church requires a large weekly centralized gathering of people..with paid staff, parking lots, power point, worship teams, kids facilities, etc... and I'm much more focused these days on the idea of multiplying simple, organic, reproducible, localized communities of disciples of Jesus.   But this year the conference closed with a very interesting talk by Francis Chan pastor of a fairly mega-size mega church in Southern California.  And he gave an amazingly non-mega church message on the importance of following Jesus into a life of humilty and sacrifice and into one to one relationships (community).  Really powerful word.  

If you want to get a little flavour of what he said you can watch his video clip in the current issue of the Catalyst Leadership e-zine.   Just click on the link...which should take you to the e-zine contents page.  Then click on the article titled:  Video: Francis Chan, Turning Up the Heat.   8 minutes or so..  Well worth it..

Disciples and Church Movements

Steve Addision's post today talks about the developmental process for church planting movements...  He quotes Neil Cole to highlight the critical relationship between "how" we make disciples (apprentices of Jesus) and the growth of multiplication movements.

“How you disciple the newest believer will determine whether a church planting movement is the outcome.”

In the West (e.g. Europe and North American)..it's hard to point to authentic and truly spontaneous "disciple making movements".  So if Cole is right (and he's not alone in saying this) what might that suggest about the long term impact of so much of our practice and experience of "church" in the West??   I wonder if we've dared to think about this enough.

After listening to amazing stories of rapid multiplication in China, India, Africa, and South America, I once asked Curtis Sergeant why he thought we seldom see true (viral, contagious) church multiplication movements in the West (Europe, North America, Aus. NZ) .  Part of his longer answer went something like;  "It may be that God is not overly concerned with multiplying the kind of disciples the west is producing."   (Ouch)  

Curtis' challenge to himself and to us all..  "Aim to be a disciple worth reproducing." 

Standing At the Door / Syncretism??

Reading Revelation 3:19-20 recently and pondering the question... "What does the process look like that ends up with Jesus locked out of His own church, and knocking to be let back in?"

Revelation 3:19-20

¹⁹Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. ²⁰Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

So...I'm assuming the Christians in Asia Minor (Laodicea) would never have done this intentionally and would have been surprised and deeply hurt to read Jesus' words to them.  But intentional or not, conscious, or unconscious, the end result was the same.  Inside people were thinking of themselves as honoring and worshiping Jesus.  But in reality, He is an "outsider" knocking and asking to be let back in.
Wondering...  What is Jesus saying to our churches?  To us? 

Possibly related?   An interesting post I think from Missions Misunderstood today.  Worth considering..

http://missionsmisunderstood.com/2009/05/14/syncretism/

Tags: Mission, church

The Miracle of the 8 into 4

We're less than 24hrs now from the return flight to Dublin.  The days with family and a few friends from our US support team have just ripped by (as usual).  We sadly have long lists of people we really needed to connect with and just couldn't.   Again. 

But the core purpose of the trip was hanging with our parents and helping them celebrate some Milestone birthdays and anniversarys.   We won't be able to be here for my parent's actual 60th Anniversary...  But we sure have some great pictures and memories of our travels together over the past few weeks.   (And being here allowed us to deal with some doctor's visits that are just easier to do in the US because of insurance issues.)

So today we're trying to perform what I call the miracle of 8 into 4.  It's basically trying to stuff twice as much stuff into half the luggage space.. And these days airlines are getting much more "hard core" about restrictions.  We pack.  Weigh bags.  Unpack a little.  Make hard decisions.  Re-pack. (All the time we're trying to say goodbye to those who are stopping by for a last minute visit..) Weigh again.  Make more hard decisions...etc.. usually until just the last minute..  Then we rush to the airport!!  Hold our breath as we check in!!  Say last minute goodbyes..and collapse into our seats for an 11 hour flight!  

Could life be any more fun than that??

We arrive into London Heathrow on Monday morning..then have a few hours layover until our connecting flight to Dublin that afternoon..   Next week I'm off to Koln for annual strategic planning meetings with the rest of the GEM leadership team.

The ancient words of my parents come to mind.  "You'll probably enjoy it when you get there."

Better news..  We're looking forward to seeing Mike over the weekend.

Alan Hirsh: On 3rd Spaces

Alan Hirsh is now posting regularly on the new Shapevine blog.  Click HERE  to read some valuable experience and insight he's recounting for anyone considering starting up a "3rd space" cafe.

(e.g.  1 home, 2 work, and then a 3rd place where we regularly spend time).   

You can also check out other resources, courses, and video clips here on the Shapevine site. 

Stand By Me

We're just back from a great 60th Anniversary "heritage" trip with my parents in Texas.  We got to visit their home towns in Texas and saw a bunch of family and friends...  Really valuable time together and we came away with tons of pictures and memories..   Now we're back in sunny California for a few more weeks before heading back home to Dublin. 

Cheryl is having fun visiting with her sisters this morning.  They're gathered around a computer in the next room, watching YouTube clips and just laughing together.  Really sounds lovely.  I like hearing my wife laugh. 

Here's one of the clips they've been enjoying...  See if it doesn't make you smile too..