Making Missional Trax

Below are my reflections concerning the current story we find ourselves in.

We find ourselves involved in an unfolding narrative. First and foremost, this story tells of a journey centered in Christ. In Christ, we discover God: incarnational, missional, and relational. In Christ, we discover the full intentions for humanity. In Christ, we discover the true Israel leading a new, full Exodus of liberation, freedom, and sacrifice. In Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, we discover the One to imitate, participate, and inundate for the sake of others.

Second, we find ourselves acting upon and searching for the Imago Dei. To be like Christ is to join him in his work of revealing the image of God in others. For the Galilean fishermen, Mary Magalene's, Nicodemuses, and Gerasene demoniacs this was Jesus: Lord, Savior, and image of God unleasher. We too, as disciples of Jesus, share, by the grace, mercy, and Spirit–empowerment of God, in this revelation ministry.

Finally, our Spirit–initiated and sustained quest after Christ for the sake of others continues because we are sent. Father sends himself. Father sends Christ. Christ sends Spirit. Spirit sends us, his church. God sends. God, first and ultimate missionary, sends.

Therefore, this story makes four primary demands upon us. First, follow Jesus. In order to be with the One we love and become like him, we must follow him. If we are to invite or expect anyone else to follow us as we follow Christ, we must be good followers.

Second, with joyful urgency and perseverance, anticipate and propagate the image of God in our neighbors. Who are our neighbors? All in whom the image of God resides. Christ the King reigns, and we've been given the privilege of joining him in awakening others into his kingdom as we follow the spirit.

Third, pray. We cannot assume or underestimate this demand. If God is the ultimate missionary and loving sender of himself, the Messiah, the Spirit, and the church, then we must constantly be with him seeking that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Never forget: this is his project.

Finally, go...into the fringes. The image of God is present within the poor, fragile suburban widow. The image of God is present within the inconsolable and uncontrollable raging child. The image of God is present in the young married couple denying their neighborhood, kids, and each other for the American Dream. The image of God is present in the wayfaring, begging old woman looking for a place to sleep. However, these friends (and many others) live in the fringes. Suburban landscaping, concrete jungles, and country-acre lots all perpetuate relational and proximal distance that drive potential friends into the fringes. And so, like light piercing a dark room, we follow the Spirit running into the fringes seeking to illuminate every forgotten cob-webbed corner. No longer will we remain content for others to have faces without names. Because God in Christ by the power and leading of the Spirit moved into the neighborhood tabernacling among them, we do too. We are temples rooted within and built upon the Chief-Cornerstone, and it's time to get the roadshow moving.

Without Love

I finished re-reading ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church this afternoon, and this will be my last post from the book. ReJesus is a phenomenal contribution seeking to "explore the connection between the way of Jesus and the religion of Christianity...assess the Christian movement in the light of the biblical revelation of Jesus...and propose ways in which the church might reconfigure itself, indeed recalibrate its mission, around the example and teaching of the radical rabbi from Nazareth." (p. 6) The paragraph below is taken from the top of page 187.

"In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul commends the harmonious expression of the gifts with each member playing his or her part in the building up of the church in the same way that different body parts operate as a united whole. It is no mistake that he then launches into his well-known description of love in 1 Corinthians 13, because without genuine love between the members of a church the differing expressions of giftedness would tear them apart. He is in effect commending a unity-in-diversity approach. We are better together, stronger for the ministries of each other in our lives, built up by all the gifts."

Amen.

Tweet

Gathered & Scattered (for the city)

I reside in a suburban, metropolitan context 15 minutes from the nearest "big city." Over the previous 15 years or so, our suburban sprawl has doubled in size, and is poised to double again by 2030. For a while, our "town" struggled with whether or not to embrace "city life;" and consequently, walk into an identity as a "big boy" suburb. However, population growth alone solved that brief dilemma. Subsequently, residential, economic, educational, and recreational growth litter the landscape across the 23-mile radius of our city.

While the decision as to what kind of "town" will we be has been made, we've yet to gain a handle on the implications of such "progress." In other words, we're very much within the vortex of a windy cultural landscape grasping for the relationships, tools, resources, and forethought necessary in order to effectively navigate "suburban city life." Moreover, the winds of civic cultural changes are also intensely blowing through the church(es) in our city. Previously, we've adequately focused on our own localities primarily expressed through activities held within our church buildings. We might chaplain city initiatives, events, and organizations; however, our spheres of influence or cooperative efforts rarely overlapped.

Perhaps, these cultural winds are shifting us (Christians) into ways of action more consistent with a "city-wide" viewpoint. More specifically, I'm currently questioning, wondering, and imagining how a "city-wide" approach might couple with the "gathered AND scattered" ecclesiological perspective. In 2010, Hugh Halter and Matt Smay released AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church in response to an unfolding missional and attractional
ecclesial polarization. Rightly so, they proposed that the church must participate in her sentness as well as share times of coming together. I appreciate the offering Smay and Halter have shared here, and was taken (again) as I (re)cracked the book tonight for a re-reading of the Chapter 2 sections on "engaging culture" and "forming community."

On the other hand, unless I am missing something (which is completely possible), the "gathered/scattered" conversation seems limited to the local church. In other words, what I am hearing when we talk "gathered/scattered" is primarily local church centric in thought and expression. I realize I'm being overly-simplistic and categorical; however, for the sake of space and time, I am attempting a fair summary of conversations I have had with pastors, church planters, and friends.

Here's where I'm wrestling: What if the gathered and scattered church conversation occurred from a "city-wide" perspective instead of a "local church" perspective? The truth is our local churches gather and scatter; however, what does that look like with a macro lens?

I reflect upon our suburban city of nearly 40,000 people littered with churches. Could it be that there are people scattered throughout our city's "local churches" with hearts that long to dance to the rhythms of missional church? Could it be that there are already people scattered throughout our city's "local churches" living missionally with and without any descriptive framework or knowledge of such a moniker? Could people group together, gather together to spur one another on in seeking Jesus and living for the sake of the city? Could saints gather, not to plant a church, start (another) "alternative" worship service, or plot an exit strategy from their current local church, but to swap stories, prayers, questions, and praises...to search the Scriptures and the heart of God for each other and the city? Could people gather not with the intention of leaving or being taken from their local church, but with the heart-felt and risky willingness to be sent back to form grassroots relationships, groups, and networks within their local churches propogating the Jesus virus of faith, hope, and love throughout their neighborhoods, relational spheres, and the city?

"Gathered and scattered" from a "city-wide" lens: wishful thinking or insanity? I'm not sure, but as I consider our vibrant city, I am hopeful that such a gathering and scattering is already underway.

Tweet

the Christ journey

Who would've thought we could have the disturbing privilege of naming a church? We seem so far removed from monikers like "the church in Corinth" or "the church that meets in the house of Priscilla and Aquila," and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Either way, when the time presented itself, with naive conviction, the choice was made and "Christ Journey" became the metaphorical descriptor for a group of folks seeking to faithfully share such a quest in Burleson, Texas. However, naming the group was the easy part. Experiencing the implications of the name continues to prove challenging.

Throughout the past 7 years, many of you have prayed, fasted, traveled great distances, stayed up late, awakened before the sun, met in strange locations, embraced creative (and sometimes weird) ideas, asked good questions, sacrificed money, offered resources and equipment, opened your homes, cried, laughed, despaired, rejoiced, went way outside your comfort zones, gave to people you had never met, opened your backyard for baptisms and your front yard for barbecues, and served and loved in all kinds of other ways as participants in the Christ journey. To all of you, we offer deep, heart-felt, and humble "thank yous" many, many, many times over. "Thank you" for remembering us, the least of these among churches. You truly have served Christ by sharing this journey with us.

And what a beautiful mess of a journey it has been. We've been blessed to share meals with strangers, comfort folks in the agonizing valleys of life's most despairing moments, and celebrate with them from atop magnificent mountain peaks. We've made tons of mistakes, learned from them, and made tons more. We've baptized friends in truck beds, rebuilt homes in the 9th Ward of New Orleans, and gathered for communal times of worship all over town. We've handed out water bottles among homeless friends in downtown Fort Worth, participated in Burleson's Christmas

Parade of Lights with a lightless float, and helped friends sent overseas in Argentina, Africa, and Ecuador. We praise God for the leading of his Holy Spirit along the Christ journey. "Thank you" for caring about us enough to walk alongside us.

On Sunday, May 29, Christ Journey, as it has been known up to this point, came together for the final time. During that gathering, with words and prayers from Philippians 2 and John 17, Bret and Rachel Wells and three additional families were commissioned, blessed, and sent to start a church in a northwest Burleson neighborhood. We are thankful for the Wells family, the many sacrifices and risks they embraced in order to join Christ Journey in the fall of 2008, and the ways in which they modeled and nurtured the Christ Journey community with a passion for the Scriptures, intentionally pursuing and inviting non-Christians into CJ community life, and selfless attention toward disciple-making responsibilities and opportunities among children. We rejoice at the initial friendships beginning to form through their new work, and long for transformational stories in these four families and those the Lord adds to their number that Christ might be lifted high and poured out in northwest Burleson through them. For more information about their new ministries, click here.

So, what does this mean for Chris and Heidi? If you are asking that question, please keep reading.

First, we're pregnant!!! If you didn't know, I'm sorry we haven't told you yet, and if you did know, feel free to push back from the screen and "happy dance" for us again! Earlier this week, we had our first doctor's visit, complete with a sonogram and heartbeat! Additionally, Heidi's been quite sick this go around, and we would appreciate your prayers for a healthy momma and baby. As a result of not feeling well, Heidi hasn't updated her blog with the news just yet; however, for now, you can catch up on our summer happenings with a click here.

Second, I have received and accepted an opportunity to teach 5th grade math at our neighborhood's elementary school. Ask me about the wild ride sometime, but over the last year and a half, I've gone from substitute teacher, to instructional paraprofessional, to special education teacher, to classroom teacher. We have witnessed the hand of our gracious and faithful God all over this process. For the longest, we prayed and longed for the discovery of "people of peace" in our neighborhood. We're just now realizing that we might be those people! As a result of this opportunity, I get to walk with 80 students and their families all of which live within a 3-mile radius of our house.

Furthermore, the Lord has allowed our house to serve as a hangout for kids on our street. During last school year, it was not uncommon for me to come home to a backyard full of kids (a few of which I had never met)! We're thankful for the ways the Lord leads us into ministry to and with our neighbors.

Third, Heidi and I are prayerfully seeking to initiate, develop, and nurture disciple-making relationships across our social spheres. For us, this is somewhat uncharted territory, but we continue encountering Christians asking if weekly worship services is all there is to Christianity, non-Christians wondering about the hope we have, and pastors seeking friends with whom they can share transparent, vulnerable, and encouraging relationships. Perhaps, we are at a place in our lives where we can serve and walk with these friends for the glory of God. We will not hesitate in following Christ and inviting others into that journey with seeds of hope and good news. So expect to see us serving on Lancaster Avenue in Fort Worth, building fences for widows in our neighborhood, sending money through the "Christ Journey Fund" to friends in need all over the world, and helping others listen to the Holy Spirit discovering ways they might participate in God's mission by joining the conspiracy of little Jesuses wherever they are. Ecclesiologically speaking, if God brings a church out of that...a living, breathing oikos that hears the voice of the Shepherd, seeks connection to the Vine, and continually washes the feet of the neighborhood and each other...we long for such a day. And if not, we remain prayerful, humble, obedient, and for the sake of others.

Finally, I (Chris) will continue developing relationships, mentoring, and walking with other men through a bi-weekly gathering we've dubbed: "Scripture, Salsa, and Shiner." Basically, it's a gathering of guys with thoughts and questions about the Bible and life as we experience it daily. Some sit back and soak in the discussions, others mainly ask questions, and still others pour out their hearts in pursuit of Christ. Furthermore, I have joined with two friends (who are also S3 participants) in the "Missio Project," a website of stories, book excerpts, photographs, reflections, and conversations focused on life in the Kingdom, recalibrating our lives and the church around Jesus, and prayer for a movement of God in our city. We're just getting started, and have made some initial posts that you can check out here.

In actuality, who knows what lies ahead? For now, one Christ journey has concluded, and another is underway. In the chorus of "All To Us," singer/songwriter Chris Tomlin sings, "Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives." We feel he's on to something...join us as we find out.

Tweet