Part Four — Redrawing our Maps
Back to the Future of Christianity
Reading the book of Acts reminds us how often ‘unwelcome disruption’ comes to the Church and though people pray against it and hope that God would never let terrible things happen; disruption often results in a deepening and expanding of spiritual and numerical growth for the Church.
It is interesting to think about how the new emerging Western church will look in the next ten to twenty years. No doubt, many churches will continue to mourn the loss of membership, vitality, and influence, alongside yearning to reach emerging generations who have no reference point of gathering on a Sunday morning.
This mourning will have been accelerated by the worldwide pandemic of 2021 that no one could have foreseen, and no-one can ideate how much of the Sunday centric model of the church will remain five years from now.
The central challenge for churches today is reorganizing itself in a western society that has in many ways rejected religious obedience.
Alongside the demise of the influence of institutional religion in western societies, there is an openness to a spiritual journey from younger generations. And the rapid erosion of religious identification among all ages is seen as an opportunity by many Christians to collaborate with other faiths and religions in a manner that would be unimaginable to 20th Century Christians.
While the neighbourhood church might self-perceive themselves as friendly people who do charity work, the broader societal view (re-enforced by media) is that the church is judgmental. Also, it is rule-based, supported slavery (in the past), justified apartheid, against same-sex marriage, is anti-abortion, and has been implicitly involved in many types of wars throughout the ages, not to mention a never-ending litany of child abuse convictions.
The above observations present a steep learning curve for church leaders, and most would be open enough to admit they can barely keep up with the speed of cultural change, let alone the enshrined cultural stereotypes of ‘Christians.’
Indeed, many existing church leaders have a distinct disadvantage as they were never trained to deal with the new norm of discontinuous change and the kind of leadership issues that are presenting to them in their everyday jobs. Let alone figure out how to engage younger generations, who themselves are swimming in a sea of constant change as they are impacted by a rapidly evolving digitally-driven education and workplace.
As emerging generations prefer to participate, create, and innovate, rather than settle for the status quo or inherited teaching by an authority figure, church leaders are having to (mainly reluctantly ) re-examine their cherished customs.
This missiological breakout in Acts 11 is a beautiful learning moment.
As the early church network grew apace, it is interesting to stop and look (in the absence of a ‘five things to do to grow a church’ from a Facebook page) at the key elements Paul utilized to hold this network together.
While previous mentions in Acts where people were sharing the Gospel with those who were familiar with earlier encounters with Judaism- Acts 11 documents when the gospel crosses over to the Greeks.
So, what was it about these men (unnamed heroes of scripture) that uniquely qualified them to speak to the Greeks?
Could it be that their diasporic identity uniquely qualified and prepared them for missional effectiveness, and can unlock a code for the 21st-century Missional church that engages with a diaspore of multi-cultural ethnicities?
Who will Cross-over?
As one seeks to live out a thoroughly incarnational life and ministry in the western world, (where most local communities are becoming increasingly ethnically diverse), Rah, in his book The Next Evangelicalism, argues that the churches who have cross-cultural liminal experiences, will be the ones best equipped to face the next stage of the church.
Transnationalism which describes the issue of significant shifts in the western world towards becoming multi-cultural societies, due to the increase of migration and immigration — raises some fundamental questions for the 21st-century missional church leader.
Such as, how does a western church become uniquely qualified for cross-cultural mission?
- Who will do ‘the crossing’?
- Where might we look for clues from scripture and mission history?
The book of Acts tells us that early Christians witnessed to the gospel and great numbers came to faith though it wasn’t until a few men crossed over significant cultural barriers that the movement truly started to spread to all types of peoples.
19 Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. (Acts 11:19-21)
Let's start with Paul
We know for sure that Paul was a religious extremist who persecuted Christians, a Roman citizen, and he wrote scripture in Greek, and we know he spoke Hebrew (so he is at least bi-lingual). Hence, Paul embodies the multiple worlds of the time in himself.
Paul was what we call a ‘transnational migrant.’ By highlighting Paul’s multi-cultural identity (before becoming a follower of Christ), we can assume that this identity uniquely shaped him for his ministry.
Other key leaders in the book of Acts also had multi-ethnic heritage:
Barnabas was a diaspora Jew from Cyprus.
Timothy was a son of inter-racial marriage (his father was Greek, and his mother was Jewish).
It could be argued that the unique bi-cultural identity of these leaders enabled them to undertake cross-cultural mission. Indeed, maybe the most central point of cross-cultural mission is that leaders must have a multi-cultural background to be able to cross over to others from different walks of life?
As Paul’s three historical journeys followed the trails of the Jewish diaspora as the strategy for church planting, he used indigenous leaders, or better still, transnational teams of leaders (for whom movement across borders and cultures came as second nature) to plant churches.
So, as Paul’s network is held together through three interwoven networks:
Transnational networkers.
Transnational ecclesial network.
Transnational practices.
These three elements may be useful as we seek to build not just one transnational faith community in our neighbourhood, but also equip these communities for multiplication across increasingly diverse neighbourhoods.
A few hundred years on in the Christian story, the Celtic Church used similar — cross-cultural — evangelization methods, which had the effect of taking the consciousness of the peoples of the North and West beyond locality and the kinship group, which had traditionally bounded their societies.
Guiding 21st-century Missional Practices
While church leaders might think in moments of change we are guided by sound theology. The reality is very different in that when change comes swiftly we go with it, and experience lots of emotions both positive and negative. Then, later on, we look back and theologise the change that has happened.
As the church undertakes this next stage of its historical journey, it cannot hope to make sense of it using old institutional maps. Instead, it is when Christians are willing to accept our confusion instead of fleeing from it, and change the questions we are asking, that we can discover new insights that will give us new maps. A few guides for asking these questions might be:
A Thirst to Learn from Jesus.
In his book, Untamed, the Hirsh’s argues that “if we fail in the task of discipleship, then we must surely fail in whatever ministry that should build upon it.”
Where following Jesus has a clear cost that runs counter-cultural to other offers of spirituality — in that it sometimes involves living a life that is different from those in our midst, believers must be continually seeking to be more like Jesus before they engage in incarnational ministry.
“If you disciple leaders well and give them the tools, vehicles, and principles to disciple, everyone in your church will be discipled”. Breen
Discipleship as a Priority.
We must examine our approach to Christian leadership; an individualistic approach to leadership often leads to an individualistic approach to discipleship - while a shared approach to leadership often leads to a common approach to discipleship with an appreciation of the life-shaping power of culture.
(Re)learning the concept of discipleship is necessary for church growth.
“To be a disciple of Jesus is to be a student, learner, or apprentice in a community of mutual growth in love. It means collaborating, using all the spiritual gifts with which God has equipped us. It also involves mutual support, accountability, and encouragement.” ~Breen
JR Woodward in his book, Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World, gives us a glimpse of how a mature 21st century Christian missional-incarnational community which embraces discipleship might function:
“A mature community cultivates a lifestyle of love in the midst of market-style exchanges: a lifestyle of joy in the midst of manufactured desire, peace in the midst of fragmentation, patience in the midst of productivity, kindness in the midst of self-sufficiency, goodness in the midst of self-help, faithfulness in the midst of impermanence, gentleness in the midst of aggression, and self-control in the midst of addiction.”Woodward.
Embracing New Sciences to form an empathic and responsive Church
“No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it” ~ Einstein
For three hundred years, we have been planning and organizing the world on the premise of our belief in cause and effect. This reductionism has crept into every part of our society, including creating schools, churches, and offices with divided spaces. Thus, reducing everything to be in boxes that suit our expectations and notions of development.
New insights from science may help us develop a culture of connectivity to reimagine our incarnational lives in the reality of our local context.
Developing a culture of connectivity is the key to reaching a place of doing something new. As the exchange of ideas drives all human behaviour, this new culture of missional connectivity should involve as many voices as possible. This shift of posture will enable the Church to approach new ideas with ‘open hearts,’ ‘open minds,’ and ‘open wills’ to help leaders create new wineskins that will shape our emerging church paradigm.
Developing an empathetic posture will enable the church to gather thought streams from others, and invite ideas from those you seek to reach and serve; missional leaders will help weave new church concepts.
Tom Kelley, in the Design Thinking field, calls this empathic approach human-centred innovation:
“Wherein to drive innovation and true change, one must connect with the needs, desires, and motivations of real people.”
Brown further develops this thinking by stating:
“Empathy is a strange and powerful thing. There is no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It’s simply listening, holding space, withholding judgement, emotionally connecting and communicating the incredibly healing message of ‘You’re not alone.’”(Brené Brown)
This video sums up her thesis that what makes things better is connection.
Spirit-Led Innovation
“When the church gathers the Holy Spirit blows among us — it will prompt, inspire, confuse, but never bully or make us afraid”~Dunwoody
In the beginning, the Spirit was present, hovering above the chaos as creation was forming. The Holy Spirit is not just a random spirit; it is God, the creator, and giver of life; by its very nature, the Spirit innovates, creates, and renews.
Its presence is at work in the world, bringing about the full reign of God’s kingdom and is evident throughout all scripture. The Bible weaves a thread of the spirit of creation, of Christ, and the renewal of all things. Where the Holy Spirit is present in us, then God is also present.
To be “spirit-filled” is to be Spirit-controlled, not necessarily an emotional experience, that is to be identified with an external manifestation or action. Rather, it is:
A relationship with the person of the Holy Spirit characterized by abandonment and surrender to the Holy Spirit. Leading to an awareness of the relationship (Lk 10:21) and results of the relationship (Acts 13:9) ~Dunwoody
When we become redeemed, holy, and experience God, we enable others to enter into the work of God’s kingdom by seeing, touching, and feeling God in our lives. The word ‘conspire’ (in Pentecost) means to breathe together. To be filled with the same spirit.
The Missional Church of the 21st century needs to reject the notion of human-success thinking. Understand that in some ways, by the very nature of entering into risk and adventure, that the church is meant to be a failing community.
This shift to adopting a missional posture of risk and adventure will enable the emerging and inherited church to respond to the changes that the Holy Spirit is already doing in our neighbourhood, and will allow the Church to use the Holy Spirit’s example to innovate our incarnational practices to meet an ever-changing context.
A simple premise for understanding the church is to:
“let the church be the church — a Spirit-led, missional church that seeks to participate fully in God’s mission in its particular context”~Van Gelder
Ok, so if you have managed to get through part four without falling asleep-congratulations!
Your homework is to grab a cup of tea with others, reflect on the question below, and let your creativity go wild!
With regards to you discovering new forms of missional-incarnational life and ministry in your context:
What questions arose?
What insights arose?
What observations arose?
Part One — It might be Mission history, though not as we know it
Part Two — Beyond Jerusalem; paradigm shifts of the Christian church
Part Three –Organising for Mission
Part Four — Redrawing our Maps
Works Cited
Bosch, David Jacobus. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission.
Breen, Mike. Huddle Leader Guide: A Path for Your First Year of Leading Huddle. 3DMinistries, 2012.
Brown, Brene’. Brené Brown on Empathy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw&feature=youtu.be.
Brown, Brené. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead.
Collins, Travis. Fresh Expressions of Church. Seedbed Publishing, 2015.
Dunwoody, Mark. A Spirit-Filled Life of Adventure. Montreal.
Dunwoody, Mark. The beauty of change continues: effective practices of a blended ecology of church.
Dunwoody, Mark. The beauty of change continues: effective practices of a blended ecology of church.
“Forge Missional Leadership Training.” Forge America,
Kelley Tom. Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All.
Nelson, Scott. Community: Living as the People of God.
Rah, Soong-Chan. The Next Evangelicalism: Releasing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity.
Roxburgh, Alan J., and Fred Romanuk. The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World.
SNYDER, and Snyder, Howard A. Salvation Means Creation Healed Snyder, Howard A.. Salvation Means Creation Healed: The Ecology of Sin and Grace: Overcoming the Divorce Between Earth and Heaven.
Van Gelder, Craig. The Ministry of the Missional Church: A Community Led by the Spirit.
Van Gelder, Craig, and Dwight J. Zscheile. The Missional Church in Perspective: Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation.
Walls, Andrew F. The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith.
Wheatley, Margaret J. Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World.
Woodward, J. R. Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World.
