Miguel Labrador's Blog, page 9

‘Missional,’ is Missionary-ish. The Question is, ‘What Kind of Missionary Will You Be?’

Hugh Halter once said that the word “Missional,” is problematic and perhaps it would be better to just say “Missionary-ish.”

Having just concluded a week of Missional focus with Missional folk, I am inundated with thoughts and concepts on how to be missionary-ish. I know, I am a missionary and you’d most likely assume that I’ve got the Missional/Missionary-ish thing down. I hope that it’s never the case. There are folks from way back who have embraced missional thinking like Francis Dubose and Newbigin, but it’s gone through many conceptual changes since then. Missionaries, or so it has been thought, have a heightened understanding of cultural nuances and the ability to transmit the Gospel of peace & kingdom to those different cultures. It is also assumed that missionaries are better trained, better prepared, and better suited to do the work. This assumption, while accurate in some cases has served to further divide everyday people from being missionary-ish to everyday people. The word “Missional,” is a conversation catalyst that seeks to break down those boundaries and assumes that everyone, or all believers, are already on mission. The question remains;

What kind of missionary are you going to be?

As I heard stories from across the globe this past week, I heard people asking this question in diverse forms. It’s actually music to my ears. People have asked my wife and I, “How do you do what you do?” I know that what some are really asking is, “how can we do what you do in our own context?” It’s the wrong question. The Missional pragmatist asks that question. The Missional practitioner should focus more on who works than what works. (Philippians 2:13)

I do understand. There’s a certain frustration in trying to “become” Missional. We must all get passed the first hurdle which assumes that only some are missionaries. The truth is, we’re all sent. (John 17:18) (John 20:21). The Church is Christ’s body and it’s inherently missionary-ish. When folks who are beginning to embark on this Missional journey, when they are looking to others as examples on how to be missionary-ish, and when they are seeking to emulate other missionaries, we must be careful not to impose our mission values on them or suggest that this is “the right way.” If anything, a practitioner should help others to originate and not emulate. Now, I believe that there are core principles, but great caution should be taken so as not to demand from others what the Spirit convicts in us.

This will serve as Part 1 of a series on what it means for YOU to be missionary-ish. In the mean time, a few questions:

1. In what ways are you already a missionary?


2. In what ways are you not a missionary?


3. What would you say are the critical characteristics of someone who is missionary-ish?

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CommentsGreat stuff! Thanks for sharing the thoughts ping-ponging in ... by Billy 

Is Discipleship Authority/Power Delegated To You by Jesus?

If you don’t like the phrase “The Great Commission,” then you’ve probably got some discipleship chip on your shoulder which needs to be worked out.  For now, call it what you like, but the issue of delegation remains.  When Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18), it’s as if he was setting up the 11 disciples for what was coming next.  The “therefore” preceding the great commission establishes a relationship between the authority/ power that Jesus now had, and the delegation of that authority/power to those disciples to make more disciples.  

The Greek word for authority/power in Matthew 28:18 is “eksousía”  Properly it means; authority, conferred power, delegated empowerment (“authorization”), or operating with designated jurisdiction.  So, not only with authority did Jesus commission the disciples, but they continued to operate under that authority and transmitted power.

John Huss said, “Nobody holds the place of Christ or of Peter unless he follows his way of life, since there is no other discipleship that is more appropriate nor is there another way to receive delegated power from God.”*

From Huss’ quote, it seems to be clear that discipleship, or the Making of Disciples, was accepted as the norm for individuals outside of the Church’s institutional jurisdiction.  There is an inescapable and trans-generational logical loop in the Great Commission whereby it applies to every believer.  The most natural interpretation of Matthew 28:19,20 would seem to indicate that all believers are commissioned (delegated) and empowered to Make Disciples.  Doesn’t it?  A few questions:

1.  As a believer, are you personally delegated by Christ to Make Disciples?

2.  If you’re not Making Disciples, can it be assumed that the cause is disobedience lack of power?

3.  Would you say that you have the same authority/power as the original 11 disciples that were commissioned? 

 

 

*Condemned articles of the Heretic Jan Hus by the Council of Constance.

 

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Was There Ever a Time in Christian History When All was Well With the Church?

 

What do you think? 

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Does One Verse A Pulpit Make?

Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for the purpose of reading and explaining the Law.  And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand; and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam on his left hand. (Nehemiah 8:4) 

The rest of the passage reads, “Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up.  Then Ezra blessed the Lord the 

great God. And all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.  Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, explained the law to the people while the people remained in their place.”

and the last verse…

“They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.”

It should be noted that the word used for “pulpit” in verse 4 could just as well be “platform.”  Even if that is the case, it hardly justifies the place that the pulpit is given in modern ecclesiology.

Webster once gave the definition of “pulpit” as follows: “An elevated place or enclosed stage, in a church, in which the clergyman stands while preaching.”  Whew!  if that isn’t laden with assumptions!  The online definition of pulpit has changed since then and now the Webster defines it in this way: “an elevated platform or high reading desk used in preaching or conducting a worship service.” 

The pulpit still has all but a complete monopoly on preaching.  But, should it?  Most still consider preaching from or inside a pulpit, as an of a marketable Christian service commodity.  Much time and money is expended to “place” people in that position.  But again, should it?  

The original idea of having a suitable place to talk from was not bad, but like so many other ideas somewhere along the way it got turned around. In the beginning the pulpit was designed to accommodate preaching; now preaching is designed to accommodate the pulpit. How many times have you heard “the power of the pulpit” when discussing churches or the like?  Often the pulpit is a a designation to set it apart from the pews or “regular” people (parishioners) – from the professional pastor or preacher.  I believe this mind-set is detrimental to the church. Why would a church without a pulpit be considered “unfurnished,” or unstaffed?

The verses taken from Nehemiah seem to be the only ones that approach a modern justification and the use of pulpits in Christendom.  Are there any others?  Also, you’ll see a lot of the liturgy or ” the order and manner of worship services” in the same verses.  Shouldn’t the church have evolved beyond the need for this type of fixed and stationary preaching?  Can preaching from a pulpit really be considered preaching at all?

If we’re going to select this one verse out of the bible and us it to dictate the main way of preaching, then aren’t we purposefully neglecting the countless other mentions of preaching that take place out and about when we’re on God’s mission?

Should the church continue using pulpits, or is it time to put the focus of preaching elsewhere? 

 

 

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WHOLLY SHIFT! What’s Going On In Disciple Making?

A couple of missionaries working with Muslims in West Africa decided that they had been focusing on the “wrong” disciple making  principles. They needed to “Wholly Shift” their approach.  here are a few of those shifts… 

1. Go slow at first in order to go faster


2. Focus on a few to win many


3. Engage an entire family or group, not just the individual


4. Share only when people are ready to hear


5. Start with creation, not with Christ


6. It’s about discovering and obeying, not teaching and knowledge


7. Disciple people to conversion, not vice versa


8. Coach people from the beginning to discover and obey biblical truth


9. Prepare to spend a long time making strong disciples, but anticipate miraculous accelerations


10. Expect the hardest places to yield the greatest results.

11.  Don’t tell people what to believe and do.

12.  Understand that Jesus does impossible things through the most ordinary people.

13.   Focus on engaging families and networks, not individuals

For more information about these shifts, look here. 

On another continent, two other missionaries working with a variety of subcultures in the Ecuadorean Cloud Forest, independently came to nearly the same conclusions expressed in this way;

1.  Move From follow-up to follow-in.

2.  Move From Outreach to Inreach

3.  Move from traps and hooks to equipping stations.

4.  Move from dependency to development.

5.  Move from verbal to tactile.

6.  Move from regimental to relational.

7.  Move from because “they” said so to because HE says so.

8.  Move from being drivers to being passengers.

9.  Move from occupying to obeying.

10.  Move from “what works” to “Who works.”

11.  Move from apologetics to to answering.

12.  Move from systemization to story.

13.  Move from fabrications to frameworks.

14.  Move from orphanages to organic nurseries.

You can take a closer at these shifts in greater detail in this Ebook.

On yet another continent, another missionary latches onto the move of God in India and expresses his shifts in this way;

1.  Rewrite the job description of the professional clergy from that of a pulpit orator, sacrament dispenser and tithe gatherer, to that of a shepherd who feeds his flock.

2.  Move from meeting in temples to gathering in ‘houses of peace’.

3.  Phase out programmed Sunday ‘services’ while implementing informal, small gatherings.


Replace Mosaic tithing with Christian sharing.

4.  Dispense with wafer-and-sip Holy Communion and promote breaking of bread with simple Agape meals.

5.  Replace professional music with believers speaking to each other in psalms and spiritual songs, making melody in their hearts to the Lord.

6.  Shift from being a spectator-oriented church to a ‘metastasizing’, interactive, participatory, prophetic church.

7.  Instead of gathering under one roof, gather under a thousand roofs.

8.  Empower every Sunday school, bible school, prayer cell, women’s fellowship, and cottage meeting, by calling them full-fledged, authentic churches

You can learn more about these shifts in greater detail here. 

In the United States, and again over a period of time and adjustment, three men expressed their shifting in this way;

1. From Reaching to Making: Instead of focusing all our efforts on reaching the lost, we should be focusing our primary efforts on making disciples.

2.  From Informing to Equipping: Instead of concentrating on giving people information about Jesus, we need to concentrate on equipping them with the character and skills of a disciple.

3.  From Program to Purpose: We need to replace our emphasis on having good programs with an emphasis on the purpose of making disciples.

4.  From Activity to Relationship: Instead of seeing ministry as being primarily about activities, we should see ministry as being mainly about relationships.

5.  From Accumulating to Deploying: The way we measure our success needs to change from the number of attenders, converts and size of budget to the number of mature disciples actively deployed in disciple-making ministry.

Again, you can take a closer and more detailed look at these shifts here.

There are striking similarities represented in these 4 “home-grown” moves of God.  Are there noticeable shifts where you are working?  What would you add to the ones listed above?

Follow “WHOLLY SHIFT” on Twitter  

 

 

 

 

 

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If You’re A Christian Who Reads Christian Books, Then Here Are A Few Questions For You…

“Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” (Ecclesiastes 12:12)  I am a voracious reader.  I read mostly Christian books on a wide variety of topics.  I read very little fiction these days, but that’s a topic for a future post.  If you’re a Christian who reads Christian books, then here are a few questions for you;

1.  How do you go from reading a Christian text to putting what you read into practice?  Describe the process… 

2.  Do you prefer printed or Ebooks?

3.  How long would you say it takes you to read an average Christian Book?

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Scoffers and Mockers and End Times, Oh My!

Every time situations like Syria arise, there is an equal and proportionate rise in discussions about the end times.

Look at this quote from the book, A Tale of Two Cities – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

Also, look at this statement from Peter the Apostle;

“Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles… “Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.” (2 Peter 3:1-3) also see (Jude 18) (2 Peter 2:10)

I understand that there’s a bit confusion here concerning exactly when these “scoffers” or “mockers” will come. I also understand the possibility that Peter may be saying to his audience that they have already come. It’s as if he’s saying “You should have known, after all, that the arrival of mockers was prophesied for the last days.” They should have known through observation, inquiry, and information, that these “end-times” were upon them.

It’s not like there is a mocker index that we can check to see if there are more mockers or scoffers than any other time in history. In fact, most existing indexes such as “they are more earthquakes” now then ever before, more “wars and rumors of wars,” than ever before, and more “signals” of the end-times than ever before, are often based in something other than observation, biblical inquiry, and verifiable information.

There is much fanaticism concerning Syria and the possible initiation of the “last days,” but we must acknowledge that the New Testament writers emphasized that the last days had arrived in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (see esp. Acts 2:17; Heb 1:2) Finally, I am not questioning the return of the Lord or doubting the Lord’s words lest I be guilty like those who asked in Jeremiah “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it now be fulfilled!” (Jer 17:15). Likewise, I am not saying like those in Ezekiel, that “The days go by and every vision comes to nothing” (Ezekiel 12:22), but I do have a few questions:

What is a scoffer or mocker?
What was the command given by Jesus through the Apostles in 2 Peter 3:1-3?
Are there really any more of the “apocalyptic signals” now than any previous times?

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When Churches and Pastors Reject Mission

A man leaves a small village and starts his journey to Quito, Ecuador.  He has to walk for 8 hours, catch a small plane for a two-hour flight, and then get on a bus for 10 hours.  He arrives at the big city and begins searching for someone to take up the work he’s been doing with a couple of Shuar Indian Tribes in the Jungle.  His name is José and he has high hopes that he will find someone with a heart for mission, someone who’s willing to “go the extra mile” to bring the good news, and someone who can continue the work of making disciples.  He spends a few days in Quito visiting various churches and speaking with many Pastors, but finds no one who is even disposed to entertain the idea.

 
Jose is half Venezuelan and half Columbian.  Through an unfortunate set of circumstances, he has to leave his work with the Shuar.  But, he is being a faithful steward of those whom God has placed under his care by trying to find someone to carry on.  In all, there are 32 newly baptized believers in two tribes who will be without leadership at a critical time in their spiritual development.  José explained that the Shuar are deeply religious and faithful to their Shamans.  To receive Christ and be baptized is considered a great break from tradition and without a constant and an able christian presence, most will return to their Shamans (Witch Doctors) within 3 months.
 
José leaves the big city of Quito having been rejected by every church and every pastor.  They send him to “The Camp.”  The Camp is the area where we work.  The camp is very rural, peppered with poverty, and often inconvenient for daily living.  José gets on another bus and heads to Los Bancos.  Los Bancos is a fairly large and mostly modern town about 20 minutes by car from where we live.  Again, José begins searching for someone to take over his work in the Jungle.  After a half day there, and culminating with the pastor of a very vibrant church, José continues to be rejected and finds no one who will even entertain the possibility of carrying on his mission.
 
The people in Los Bancos direct him to Mindo, the town in which we live.  He finds a pastor and asks him if he would consider visiting the two tribes and taking over the work, but this particular pastor begins to interrogate him and assumes a posture of hostility.  Unsatisfied with José’s answers the pastor rejects the proposition and sends him to yet another pastor here in Mindo. 
 
Jose has been traveling for 5 days and has found no one who has the slightest interest in this mission opportunity.  Oh! and José is not a man with many resources.  He left his village with just enough funds for a one way trip and a bit of food.  He’s been sleeping where he can and depending on the Lord for provision. This other pastor receives José with kindness and as a brother in Christ, but also rejects his proposition and won’t even entertain the idea. 
 
This pastor sends him to yet another pastor, a pastor who works with us.  It’s now Sunday, and José finds himself congregating with our local fellowship.  He senses something different and finds a group of highly motivated missional people.  They embrace José, pray with him, eat with him, worship together, and take up an offering to send José back to his village.  This time José and his mission aren’t rejected, but accepted as an opportunity to demonstrate faithfulness.  No firm commitments have been made other than we will seek the Lord’s will and present ourselves as available to act.  Several of our tribe have expressed a great interest in visiting soon the tribes with whom José has been working.
 
José also shared with us that the Shuar people in his region are very protective of the land and their people.  One of the ways they “test” visitors is by preparing a completely indigenous meal which may include an assortment of things considered difficult to eat.  If you eat what is set before you, then you are welcomed into the community.  If you don’t, or can’t, then you will be given a certain amount of hours to leave the area or be under the threat of death.
 
I have worked with the Shuar people before and other than suffering a  chigger infestation, I found them to be a humble and receptive people.  It was a blessed endeavor and a privilege.  I’m hoping to be able to participate in some fashion with José and these tribes. 

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Are You Planting ‘End-of-Life’ Churches?

Does it bother you when a manufacturer designs its product so that it breaks down after a specific amount of time?  Does that seem immoral to you?  Maybe you are fastidious at taking care of things and tend to get more life out of your possessions than the average person.  Right now, I’m writing this blog on a computer that has a battery health of 80%.  It means that no matter how conscious I am in taking care of the battery, it will eventually lose its ability to recharge and will have to be replaced.  

End-of-life (EOL) is a term used with respect to a product supplied to customers, indicating that the product is in the end of its useful life, and a vendor will no longer be marketing, selling, or sustaining it. The vendor may also be limiting or ending support for the product.

When it comes to planting churches, I don’t believe anyone purposefully builds in End-of-life components, but it sure seems that many churches do outlive their usefulness.  When we come at church planting from a manufacturer’s or vendor’s perspective, should we be surprised?  When we design a product to be consumed instead of a community in which we can contribute, it’s no wonder that churches begin to die the moment they’re conceived.  

Jesus said to Make Disciples. (Matthew 28:19,20).  He also said that He would build His Church. (Matthew 16:18).  It appears as if a majority of the churches in the last 100 years had it backwards.  Constructing/Building the church is done “in hope of” making disciples.  That is a manufacturer’s approach.  In order for a manufacturer to stay in “business,” they must upgrade their designs/products, continually add to their inventory, and always change their marketing strategies.  

I believe there are many components that are being thrown in to modern church planting that result in a premature End-of-life condition.  Over the next few posts, I’ll be identifying those components.  For now, a few questions:

1.  What is a church plant?

2.  How do you know when your church has outlived its usefulness?

3.  What, in your opinion might be an End-of-life component built into modern churches? 

 

 

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Should Christians Choose or Take Sides?

It seems quite natural for Christians to choose sides. In fact, it’s almost assumed that they will.  Verses like “Choose you this day whom ye will serve…” (Joshua 24:15), “Come out from them and be separate…” (2 Corinthians 6:17), and “Get away from the tents of these wicked men, and don’t touch anything that belongs to them…” (Numbers 16:26), seem to suggest that it’s characteristic of believers to choose sides.
 
[Us / Them], [Right / Wrong], [Evil / Good], [Liberal / Conservative], [Democrat / Republican], [Caffeinated / Decaffeinated], the list goes on…
 
The “either/or’s” take precedent over the “both/and’s” and the church becomes multifaceted, but not in a good way.  ”Sides” themselves become the right and wrong etc.  Where you come down on the latest cultural issues or ecclesiastical distinctives determines whose side, or which side you’re on.  
 
Many times, the idea or act of choosing sides places the church so far out of reach that it can not effectively engage “the other side” to bring about Kingdom change.  Evangelism becomes more about winning people over to your side than walking along side Jesus.  The difficult place of neutrality, or “not taking sides” is ridiculed as cowardice and sooner of later becomes the enemy of all sides.  
 
A few questions:
 



Did Jesus “take sides?”
Do Jesus’ followers need to “choose sides?”
What criteria should Christians use to “choose sides?” 

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