Two Conversions

We are praying and laboring for two conversions—one to Christ and one to the Church. One of the problems with American Christianity is that it conceives of Christian faith too narrowly. There is far too much room for one to be a “Christian” without being part of the Church. The notion of a private faith in Christ is not found in the New Testament. On the other hand, there are far too many “Christians” who go to a church but are not part of the Church. The fact of church “attendance” should not comfort a pastor’s soul that he is, in fact, shepherding the church. Now, by “church” I do not mean a building, denomination, or membership roll. Rather, I am thinking of the people of God who confess and submit to Jesus as Lord. In other words, to be a Christian is to be converted to the Head and to the Body, to embrace the people of Christ as you have embraced the Christ of the people.

One Lord

However, we are not merely converted to Christ and consequently the Church. The reason that there is no place for private Christian faith, a faith that doesn’t embrace baptism into a body of believers is that there is one Lord. That Lord is not Jesus alone.  1 Corinthians 8:6 reads: “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” The oneness shared between the Father and Son is expressed in a common identity as Lord. This text is a Pauline reworking of the Great Shema, the Jewish confession and daily prayer that YHWH was one: “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one” (Deut 6:4). Here Paul in locating the Jesus in the identity of YHWH; they are both Lord. This shared lordship, witnessed to by the Holy Spirit in human hearts, is proof that we are converted, not to Christ but to the triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit. True conversion, then, produces a new creation that lives in communion with the Divine Community. We are converted to one Lord who is three. We are converted to Community. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the New Testament repeatedly conceives of true community as a salvation project, something that springs from faith in the one Lord. There are two conversions, one Lord. To quote Leslie Newbigin, “true conversion involves both a new creation from above, which is not merely an act of extension of the existing community, and also a relationship with the existing community of believers.” (The Finality of Christ, 107).

Church is not Optional

Therefore, church is not optional; they are essential. Fellowship, service, love, and mission with the family of God is critical to fruit-bearing faith. Just as salvation is a community project (we rely on others to persevere in our faith), so also community is a salvation project (the gospel of Christ converts us to a community gathered around a common Lord, common faith, and common baptism, Eph 4). In other words, the gospel produces two conversions. Conversion to the Lord and conversion to the Church, but Jesus alone is the atoning power for both, with his Spirit supplying all the grace needed to love, serve, and share life with an imperfect people saved by a perfect Christ.

We just finished up Part II (Part I – Missional Leadership) of our Summer Leadership Training on Pastoral Leadership. It was a rich time of equipping our leaders to think and practice “pastor one another.” This was for all of our leaders, but is especially appropriate for our City Group Leaders. The first practice of City Groups is to share life and truth. This training equipped our people how to intentionally share life and truth. Unfortunately, most of us don’t naturally want to share our lives or our gospel hope with others; we’d rather, at best, talk around it or about it. But talking about sharing life and truth doesn’t produce gospel-centered community. We have to practice it by pastoring one another–speaking the truth in love. This was our over-arching question: “How do we speak the truth in love to one another?” We answered it in three ways:

1. Context of Pastoral Leadership: Community-centered Pastoring
2. Content of Pastoral Leadership: Gospel-centered Pastoring
3. Contour of Pastoral Leadership: Where and How it Happens

Some reflection from (1) – The Context of Pastoral Leadership.

The vision of Austin City Life is to cultivate communities of Spirit-led disciples who redemptively engage peoples and cultures through Christ for the glory of God. So, what does it mean to “cultivate communities”? Cultivation is a horticultural metaphor. To plant a church is to cultivate a community, not launch a service. Church planting requires sweaty work with people; patience, allowing the plant to grow; and tenderness with the plant. In other words, if we want to cultivate community, it will require more than going to a church service on the weekends and attending a weekly meeting. That’s hardly community; it’s just a couple of meetings, a few hours a week.

We first have to be convinced that the church is a community, really. We are converted, not merely to Christ, but also to his body—the church—to a community of Spirit-led disciples who follow Jesus. Consider the numerous “one another” commands. Consider the nature of Scripture. When Paul wrote a letter to New Testament churches, the pastors did not take it, mimeograph, and hand out individual copies to the church members, and then tell them to take it home and study it. No, the pastors read the letters aloud in the community to the community. The second person plural pronouns “you” were heard, not primarily as a collection of individuals, but as a community of disciples who shared life and truth and mission. They implemented Paul’s commands by loving, exhorting, encouraging, and serving one another, not by privately memorizing Scripture, having quiet times, and attending church. The context of their pastoring was one another. The Word has a community context, and as Tim Chester puts it, “The gospel is a community-centered Gospel.” To pastor one another, then, is to be community-centered. The context of pastoral leadership is community.

Ed Stetzer lists at least 10 Elements to Christian Movements:

1. Prayer Prayer must be a conviction that establishes its priority. Before we see movemental Christianity, we will have to be praying, asking God to change us.
2. Intentionality: We will also need to show the intention of being movemental (see the next 8 elements). As of now, I believe our focus is primarily defensive and incremental, not intentional and exponential.
3. Sacrifice: Change will not come without giving something up.
4. Reproducibility: Movements do not occur through large things (big budgets, big plans, big teams). They occur through small units that are readily reproducible.
5. Theological Integrity: Churches wanting to be involved in transformative, movemental Christianity hold firm and passionate positions on biblical views.
6. Incarnation: Movemental Christianity recognizes that the gospel is unchanging, but the expressions and results of the gospel will vary from culture to culture.
7. Empowerment: Movements only occur when the disempowered are given the freedom, and then take up the responsibility, to lead.
8. Charitability: A movement of God cannot be contained in a single movement or theological tradition. Therefore, movemental Christianity requires charity to maintain our firmly held convictions while rejoicing for and speaking well about those with whom we differ but are being greatly blessed by God.
9. Scalability: When God begins to move, and believers allow movement Christianity to begin to grow, structures must be able to rapidly re-size to not stifle such movements.
10. Wholism: Movemental Christianity will practice wholistic ministry much in the way of Jesus.

Read the whole post here.

Read Ben Witherington’s review of Viola and Barna’s Pagan Christianity.

HT: SM: BH

The new 9 Marks journal topic is Christian Unity. Here are a list of articles:

When, Why & Where To Draw Boundaries
God has entrusted us with a stewardship in this generation; the choice of doing something about false doctrine is up to us.
By Wayne Grudem

Theological Triage
Some doctrines demand agreement; some don’t. But which are which?
By R. Albert Mohler

Fellow Workers for the Truth
A humbling meditation on 3 John 8 that should be read by every Christian leader in the entire world.
By Andy Johnson

Here is an Acts 29 link to three MP3s that cover the history, lexicography, and good/bad/ugly of Emergent Church movement.