When participating on the Q panel for American Ecclesiology last week, I was asked what positive and negative trends I perceive in the church. The panel was rather large and responses had to be concise. Here’s an elaboration on what I said:

Positive Church Trends:

Something very positive about current American Ecclesiology is the Post-Christendom cooperation I see everywhere. Given the decline of the church in America, the shift of the center of Global Christiantiy to Africa and Asia, the urgency of mission is upon us. Churches are reaching across denominational, theological barriers in order to engage in mission. That’s great.

Post-Christendom Cooperation – since the walls of Christian culture and ecclesiastical power (humpty-dumpty) are falling, all the kings horses and all the kings men are helping put humpty together again…but differently. It is because humpty-dumpty has fallen that we are coming together to rally in our belief that Jesus really is Lord. But the kingdom cooperation I see is not simply remedial, a product of broken walls. It is missional. In an increasingly post-Christian environment, the urgency of mission has gripped many Christians and they want to share and experience the life-renewing power of the gospel of Jesus. The urgency of mission is creating collaborative partnerships that did not exist before, but the urgency is present because Christendom has failed. The fallout is post-Christendom cooperation. We see the task as so urgent that our secondary theological and methodological differences have become, well secondary, instead of primary clearing the way for cooperation in the great task of mission.

Negative Church Trends:

Conversely, one great danger I see in American Ecclesiology is partnership, unity in mission, not in the gospel. As we respond to the great social and spiritual needs in the U.S., we are rallying under the banner of mission, not the gospel. We aren’t freshly articulating the gospel but freshly articulating methods and mission. The great danger is that we displace the gospel from the center of mission and lose its meaning and centrality altogether. Then the church history pendulum will swing from one end to the other.

Abdicating the Gospel of Mission - putting the Humpty-Dumpty of the American Church back together again is a delicate process. On the one hand, I am very glad that Humpty shattered, that the defective pieces have been exposed like: technology driven church, consumeristic church, i-church, health and wealth church, come as you are and stay as you are church, Sunday event church, impotent missionless church. All those pieces contributed to the fall, but we are scrambling to reassemble Humpty too quickly. We are rallying around mission instead of the gospel. If we continue, we will build a new Church based on missional methods, social justice, international justice, not based on teh Gospel of Jesus Christ who defeated sin, death, and evil at the cross in order to make all things new. Our sin, our death, our evil for his righteousness, his life, his glory. We are in danger of abdicating teh Gospel in the name of mission. Just read the CT interview with Rob Bell. Not much Jesus, not much gospel, but lots of justice.

Here are five characteristics or “rules of order” for a missional community taken from Frost’s Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture.

1. Bless. We will bless at least one other member of our community every day.
2. Eat. We will east with other members of our community at least three times a week.
3. Listen. We will commit ourselves weekly to listening to the promptings of God in our lives.
4. Learn. We will read from the Gospels each week and remain diligent in learning more about Jesus.
5. Sent. We will see our daily life as an expression of our sent-ness by God into this world.

Here are the Four Practices we developed for our church, which are grounded in Four Gospel Principles. These principles and practices shape all our City Groups (what we call missional communities).

SHARE life and truth through stories and Scripture

PRAY for one another and the city

ENGAGE people and culture of your community with the gospel

LOVE one another by eating and exercising hospitality

I received my first copy of Salvo today, an oversize perfect bound magazine that “debunks the cultural myths that have undercut human dignity, all but destroyed the notions of virtue and morality, and slowly eroded our appetite for transcendence; recovering the one worldview that works.“

I also checked out Resounding Truth: christian wisdom in the world of music (Begbie); What Would Jesus Deconstruct, (Caputo) and Solomon Among the Postmoderns (Leithart).

Deb Hirsch, wife of missiologist Alan Hirsch, recently gave a talk on Seven Obstacles to Engaging in Mission at an Organic Church conference.

Boundless has published my new article, “Missional Discipleship: Reinterpreting the Great Commissions.” This is a timely publication with my recent post on the Manga Bible, an example of what Andrew Walls‘ calls distinctive discipleship. From the conclusion of the article:

We’re called not to mere soul-winning, but to distinctive discipleship: heralding a worldly gospel of a fleshly Christ who humbly accommodates human culture and understands the human condition.

I recently met up with some other Acts 29 guys.to discuss the new A29 regional events intended to help equip church planters of all stripes. The spirit behind these events is remarkably kingdom-centered, with established churches aiming to listen to planters (to resource them), and planters eagerly learning from seasoned leaders and planters. A particluar strength of the upcoming regional events are the practical workshops, which cover things like establishing financial systems, spiritual formation, and courage in planting.
Friend and fellow planter, Jacob Vanhorn, provides more info on the regionals here.

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

Bob Hyatt has some really helpful reflections about how to shepherd an Organic Church in his article “80-20 and the Organic Church.”

That’s right Don Miller is taking his writing to the silver screen. The details are pretty hush-hush, but an interview with Don regarding the forthcoming movie (2008) can be read here.

Next Wave has published an expanded and revised version of one of my recent blog entries. In it I lay out McLaren’s theological method and offer a fourfold critique. The article, “Emergent Theology: The McLaren Method of Interpretation” can be read at Next Wave, along with a recent interview with McLaren.

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