Author: Jonathan Dodson

When Should the Church Partner with Non-profits?

Posted on January 19, 2009

As the Western church becomes increasingly missional, in the social sense, partnerships with non-profits are increasing. There’s a lot of sense to this. However, we must be leery of thinking that social partnerships with non-profits produces missional churches. In fact, we need to be more thoughtful about the “if”and “when” we partner with non-profits, especially if our churches are driven by missional communities.

Tim Chester’s blog entry on “shifting missional foci” is spot on for determining the focus of missional communities. Austin City Life has discovered that if we lock into a strategic social partnership, without being willing to revisit or review our missional emphasis, we run the risk of not following the Holy Spirit. God could  be doing something very significant in an area that we refuse to examine because a MC is already committed in one place. The question that “shifting missional foci” raises, then, is what criteria do you use to evaluate your missional focus? Do you pull out of a long-term partnership? When? Why? How do you do that without offending the non-profit you are working with? These are important questions for both MC leaders and church planters to answer.

To be sure, non-profits often have more wisdom, experience, and legal structures to facilitate effective social mission. However, we have come to the conclusion that working with a non-profit just because you believe in their vision and work isn’t sufficient. For example, if you have to drive 30 minutes to serve you may be neglecting needs in your own community. ACL is in the process of recalibrating our City Group missional foci along increasingly localized lines. By focusing more on “neighborhoods of the city” as opposed to the “city of neighborhoods”, missional communities can more effectively renew the peoples and cultures of your city. For us, this means that we won’t be “non-profit driven”, but will try to follow the Spirit as missionary communities in our own neighborhoods.

So the question is not should we partner with non-profits, but when and where should we partner with them. Sometimes it will be best to not partner and other times it will be best. In all this, I believe the quality of missionaries in our churches needs to go up and default reliance on existing social structures go down. What do you think?

Official U2 Album Release, Tracklisting

Posted on January 19, 2009

It is official! No Line on the Horizon will be released on March 2nd in the UK and March 3rd in the US. You can stream the first song, “Get on Your Boots.”   Definitely not love at first hear, but I don’t usually like the first single release on any of their albums, i.e. Discotheque/Pop, Vertigo/HTDAAB. Here is the NLOTH line-up:

1. No Line On The Horizon
2. Magnificent
3. Moment of Surrender
4. Unknown Caller
5. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
6. Get On Your Boots
7. Stand Up Comedy
8. Fez – Being Born
9. White As Snow
10. Breathe
11. Cedars Of Lebanon

No Line On The Horizon will be available in five formats;

– Standard jewel case – with album CD and 24 page booklet

– Digipak format – limited edition with album CD, 32 page colour booklet and fold out poster. Features access to exclusive downloadable Anton Corbijn film.

– Magazine format – limited edition with album CD, with 64 page magazine. Features access to exclusive downloadable Anton Corbijn film.

– Box format – limited edition bespoke box containing digipak format album CD, DVD of Anton Corbijn’s exclusive film, 64 page hardback book, plus a fold out poster.

– LP vinyl – limited edition with 2 black vinyl discs, gatefold sleeve, and a 16 page booklet.

– Preorder from Amazon US

Early Church Minus the Spirit?

Posted on January 17, 2009

A recent Christian History post triggered deeper conviction about the more visible displays of the Spirit in our churches. With all the current emphasis on being a “NT Church” (an overblown and theologically problematic phrase), where are the displays of the Spirit, i.e. healings, resurrections, God-honoring prophecy? Chris Armstrong notes that: “When we teach about the early church, we frequently omit the story of spiritual gifts.”  Perhaps this is one reason we do not see the visible displays as much? To be sure, the invisible work of the Spirit, manifested in faith and works, is present and a priority; however, the following statements by the Early Church Fathers cause me to pause and reflect:

1st century

Writers of the Didache and the Shepherd of Hermas [two inspirational books used widely in the early church] witness so much charismatic activity they find it necessary to distinguish between true and false prophets. At about the same time, the writer of Pseudo-Barnabas suggests prophetic ministry is normative in the church.

2nd century

[Christian apologist] Justin Martyr argues that God has withdrawn the Spirit of prophecy and miracles from the Jews and has transferred it to the church as proof of her continued divine favor.

Irenaeus of Lyon describes the gifts of prophecy, discernment of spirits, and exorcism in his Gallic church, and even mentions that individuals have been raised from the dead. He warns against certain false Gnostics who fabricate spiritual gifts to win favor with the naïve.

3rd century

Origen of Alexandria says healings, exorcisms, and validating signs and wonders continue to be experienced in the church. Just as miracles and wonders added to the credibility of 1st-century apostles, so they continue to draw unbelievers into the Christian fold.”

4th century

Augustine [of Hippo], in The City of God, reports contemporary divine healings and other miracles. These he links directly to the conversion of pagans.

It wasn’t just the New Testament church that experienced these things; it was the post-apostolic church. Moreover, genuine displays of the Spirit’s power abound in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. One could argue this is because they are power-encounter cultures, but that would be a hyper-rationalization, something that has contributed to the dearth of genuine Spirit displays in North America.

What do you think? Are we doing something wrong? Are we “not teaching the charismatic portions of the Early Church experience? What would happen if we did?