Eucaview

The Manifold Model of Ministry

I have been chatting with Alan Hirsch about his use of the "APEPT" fivefold model of minsitry over at Signposts.

So far we both that agree God calls different people to different ministries to enrich the church in its mission; that the church would be the poorer if it didn't allow these diverse God-given gifts to flourish; and that we need to legitimizing more than just the pastor-teacher roles.

On the basis of that, I affirm the need for allowing a "manifold" dynamic of vocation not just a "fivefold" dynamic. This number five feels too limiting – even arbitrary.

I respect Alan’s call to the church to discover more of its apostolic*, prophetic and evangelical ethos. I think he has discerned something significant the western church needs to hear - particularly at this time in history.

But why stop at just legitimizing apostles, prophets and evangelists along with the aforementioned pastors and teachers? What about exorcists or administrators or entrepreneurs? Aren’t these too Biblical expressions of missional leadership?

I catch something of Alan wanting to include wider expressions of vocation when he says church leadership is “at least” fivefold. So instead of saying the DNA of the church is “5+” wouldn’t it be more helpful to not limit it to five in the first place just say “LOTS”.

Alan could still recognise and affirm the apostle or prophet as underrepresented without tacitly ignoring the missional integrity of martyrs or some other missing vocation that also needs affirming.

*PS I have some questions about what is ‘apostolic’ but I will save that conversation for another day.

Damn those sociologists!

Here is a quote from Stuart who wrote to me to invite me to the Crossway Conference 2005:

I'm encouraging our staff to speak no longer of a post-Christian era. Why give credit to secular sociologists, cynics and Satan by rehashing past defeats. We're looking forward to victories and declaring that we are living in a pre-Christian era.

I half like this statement and half loath it. So I am going to keep score.

Round one: I too am a politically correct pedant. Ask me some time about my campaign to have Australia rename the 'middle east' the 'significantly north west'. Stuart is free to encourage his staff to talk any which way he would like to encourage them, so I admire Stuart's attempt at newspeak, and like it.

Round two: But I don't know anyone (maybe I don't know Stuart's staff) in the habit of calling this era the 'post-Christian era'. Plenty has been said about this being a 'post-Christendom' era. I would hate to be say that Christendom is synonymous with Christianity and that you can't have Christianity without Christendom. So I loath it. (one vote each)

Round three: I know a large number of people who once would have called themselves Christians but no longer see the importance of a) a relationship with God, b) being a disciple of Jesus or c) (most commonly) participating in a church. If Stuart's is trying to reframe our approach to this group of people to best help them become Christians then great. I like missional imagination. I like it.

Round four: I don't see how we can blame secular sociologists, cynics or Satan itself for pointing out the fact that this significant group of people exist and there is a change in the way our society is operating. What's with using 'sociologist' like a pejorative? I loath that. (votes tied at two all).

Round five: Stuart may not like 'rehashing past defeats' but I don't think such a preference is the basis for sound theology. It might be nice to motivate ourselves with lost of positive thinking - yet reflecting on our Christian calling I can't help but think rehashing the 'defeat' of Christ on the cross is kind of central to it all. Ignoring the suffering of Christ, or his church so we can just look forward to 'victories'. Naaah don't like that either - another vote for loath.

Round six: Finally what exactly is a pre-Christian era? Does that pay no regard for the things God is doing among us today? The fact that the Crossway conference speaks glowingly of the way Christians were involved in the last federal election (Family First anyone??) I suspect it is longing for another Christendom era. Another vote for 'loath'.

And the final votes are in:

Marcus Curnow's Last Good Word

The last word for my wrap up of the Forge intensive can go to Urban Seed's Marcus Curnow who delivered the closing blessing at our worship service Sunday night. It's not often that the benediction is the highlight of a worship service (and I don't mean those times the service has entered its third uncomfortable, boring hour and the benediction is more of a decree of liberation than a 'decree of liberation' - if you know what I mean.) Here are his closing words but click on the link for the full text:

You are the body of Christ!

Christ has no body here on earth but yours!
Christ has no hands but yours.
Christ has no feet but yours.
Christ has no butt but yours!

So get it up off your seat.
Dwelt it, tabernacle it, pitch it, move it into the neighbourhood, hit the street with it.

And may God the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of all bodies go with you.
Amen

Jon Owen's stories of Urban Neighbors of Hope

Jon Owen led the penultimate session at Forge sharing the story of Urban Neighbors of Hope. The presentation was shared by two other members of the missional order: Lindy Croucher and Deb Marx (who is only too happy to have others point out her striking resemblance to Kate Langbroek).

UNOH is a fantastic example of people with the 'missional incarnate impulse'. Founded by Ash and Anji Barker, this missional order of the Churches of Christ lives among the poor and embodies the Reign of God there. I love these guys - how can you not honor people who are following Jesus so closely and it has been great catching up with people from UNOH at both Liquid and Forge.

One feature of their ministry is the order's charism of exercising an open house. This takes a range of slightly different forms depending on the circumstances of each member, but they all make their homes a site of radical hospitality. They take people in to sleep the night and when they live in small homes that means they share their own bedrooms. They leave the heater on in their home all day so others who might not afford running heating can receive a warm welcome (literally) at their place. They share meals etc.

I find this the most compelling and most disturbing feature of their ministry. I suspect God has more to teach me about this.

Alan Hirsch's Shaping of Things to Come

Alan Hirsch (National director of Forge) covered a lot of ground in his presentation this morning. His general theme was the shift in the values of church from the Christendom era to the post-Christendom one, but here is the one quote that stuck in my mind the most:

"Emperor Constantine still rules our minds."

Constantine was the first Roman Emperor to embrace the Christian church. Before Constantine's battlefield conversion in AD312 the church was a minority of society who were persecuted because they refused to recognise Caesar as Lord. To them only Jesus could be Lord and ruler of their lives.

But once Caesar was a self-proclaimed Christian all this changed. Christianity became the official State religion and the church went on to became at one time the most powerful organisation in the world.

Mark Sayers' Jesus in Entertainment Land

This afternoon I heard Mark Sayers (Sorry mate that was the best photo I could find). It was depressing. He broke us into small groups so we could come up with example after depressing example as he led us on a journey deeper and deeper into our society's the dominant false religion of consumerism.

After last century's collapses of social institutions and the triumph of capitalism over communism, we were left with a spiritual void that advertisers where only too happy to offer to fill. Consider the pseudo spirituality of Delfin realty creating true community and sacred sites, Nike promising transcendence of the human spirit, and the Body Shop offering feel good global justice in a tub of body butter.

But it gets worse - we have bought into this so much, that we have let ourselves become a product. So we shop around for the best friends we can find, and package ourselves to meet our idealised expectations. Stop the world I want to get off.

Deb Hirsch's Three Bs

This weekend Forge is conducting its intensive "The Missionary Jesus" at our ministry centre.

This morning I sat in on the session led by Deb Hirsch called the three Bs. Deb described a model of church based on how we rank three values: Belonging, Believing and Behaving.

She described three successive generations who instinctively ranked these three values in different orders. The oldest generation valued right behavior foremost (doing things the right way - not swearing etc), belonging second (all social activities revolved around the church from tennis clubs to women's guilds) and believing third (they didn't need to know the details of our faith).

With the next generation the pendulum swung and they valued believing most of all. They read theology and needed to question and understand their faith. Behaving was secondary (I can hear the personal development guru saying 'belief motivates behavior') and belonging was least important.

Now the generation of young adults and youth value belonging as most important. Evangelism needs to be building up a relationship with people first of all, and then once they have seen how we live they can believe it. Behaving in the 'right way' is least important. Who cares how we dress for church?

Digger's Footy Church Dream

Digger (that's him on the left) comes from the opposite side of Melbourne to South Morang. Down there on the southern edge of the city he is planning to plant a new church congregation for his footy mates. But lately he has been bugged by the idea of creating a homogeneous church:

"where would the diversity be? What oldies could they gain wisdom from? What kids would be around to inspire them?"

Great questions. I wonder if those in cross-cultural mission have already tackled these issues. I imagine if I went to PNG and started a church for the locals - and it turned out after a few years to be full of and led by nationals - that would be a success. It would strike me as racist or imperialist to suggest we had to keep a say in how they ran their church.

Now if that church went on to cut all ties with other churches, introduced segregation and never sent any of its own missionaries on to serve in other countries - well that might not be so hot. But we can have the first part of the scenario without this latter part.

If I set out to start a church for one group of people (eg footy mates) and they came and participated that would be great. Sure, if they didn't grow beyond that and, as gifted, join with others in the wider mission of the church then there would be more discipling to be done - but the bigger crime would be a church as it is now homogeneously devoid of footy mates.

Where will the rest of us be without the inspiration and wisdom of Digger's footy mates?

A Tasting Guide to Liquid

In the week since A Taste of Liquid I have been able to digest the event. So like other attenders (see the list of bloggers Christop collated) it is time for some reflections - in the form of tasting notes thanks to my Essential Wine Tasting Guide.

Clarity: Ranging from Dull to Bright. We don't all know where we are going, but we know who we are following.

Depth: Medium Deep. Some said there were too many big words and they felt intimidated asking questions, but I didn't feel that (then again I wouldn't would I).

Liveliness: Vivid if not Exuberant. It was amazing to have people representing so many emerging church, cross cultural mission and aid groups in such a concentrated gathering.

Colour: Tile Red. If not for the color of the walls and carpet at Northern Community then for the church formerly known as South Melbourne Restoration Community.

Acidity: Zesty. A bit of bite. Especially Stephen Said's video reflection on justice using Lazy Boy's song/spoken word Underwear Goes Inside the Pants.