Verge 2012

For the City

The first three talks are each 15 minutes in length.

Rudy Carrasco

Christian business people worldwide are fired up about entrepreneurial solutions for fighting poverty.

Business people often feel objectified and misunderstood. We need them for more than just capital. They can bring to the table skills of negotiating, partnership, advocacy, mentoring, skills. We need to listen to them, serve them, and partner with them.

Bob Lupton

The Western church is on the verge of a major paradigm shift in the way we are doing missions and service.

On average, 2 million members of American churches go on mission trips. For all of that compassion we should be saying major changes in poor places. But in reality, the poor are poorer and more dependent, and their work ethic and dignity is lower.

Why should we borrow money when the US church will give it to us? One report from the field: they are destroying the entrepreneurship of my people.

$8.3 billion given to Haiti before the earthquake; but they are 25% poorer today than when we first started given.

What are we doing wrong? We are evaluating our service based on how it affects us, rather than them.

There is a massive misappropriation of kingdom resources. The cost of a mission-trip to build a house in Honduras is $30,000. The Hondurans could do it for $3,000. For what it takes to send someone to sponsor a trip to paint an orphanage, we could hire a number of full-time workers and buy uniforms for every kid in the school.

We are doing for them what they have a better capacity to do for ourselves.

Is our return on investment actually good stewardship?

In order for our cities to experience God's shalom, a whole range of gifts must be employed (architects, accountants, teachers, negotiators, etc.). Under the Lordship of Christ, every gift can be a spiritual gift.

Josh Sowers

The president of The Mentoring Project (a movement that exists to inspire and equip the faith community to provide mentors for fatherless boy) reads an excerpt from his book, The Fatherless Generation: Redeeming the Story.

When dad leaves, something dies. Father hunger can turn into something destructive. Fatherless is becoming the defining characteristic of a new generation.

The last prophecy of the OT before John the Baptist appears on the scene:

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." (Malachi 4:5-6 ESV)

Are we seeing the manifestation of this judgment?

This is not just a social issue but a theological issue. We must adopt a Great Commission lifestyle. We need to step incarnationally into the lives of those who feel branded by rejection. We have to be reconcilers who are reconciled. We must enter into the suffering of a fatherless generation.

The shame of fatherlessness can be replaced by the dignity of the Father's adoption.

 

Dr. John Perkins Interviewed by Justin Lopez

This is a moment in history I've been longing for. It seems like God is doing this.

Background:

He was born in Mississippi 82 years ago. His mother died of starvation when he was 7 months old. His father, a sharecropper, gave them away. He dropped out of school between 3rd and 5th grade, never to return. He went to a Good News Club and learned for the first time of God's love. Galatians 2:20 changed his life.

The relationship between justice and the gospel:

The US gave the greatest declaration of justice ("we hold these truths to be self-evident. . . .") but then the US contradicted its creed through its practice of injustice against Native Americans and African Americans. We can't go back, though, we have to move forward. The gospel is the good news that the atonement for sin has been accomplished and that justice is possible. Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus has been born and made a sacrifice and the day of Jubilee is hear! Tell me the old, old story! It's not an individual story of our own prosperity. We have to go back to the basics of the gospel—the story of God's justice in salvation.

God's grace is his deciding by himself that he would redeem this humanity. Ephesians 2:8-9. He saved us from our past, he saves us in the present, and then he's going to take us to heaven to live with him and nothing can separate us from that love!

God's grace is his deciding by himself that he would redeem this humanity. Ephesians 2:8-9. He saved us from our past, he saves us in the present, and then he's going to take us to heaven to live with him and nothing can separate us from that love!    For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11-14 ESV)

Ain't no separation between grace and faith, between love for God and love for others!

We are addicted to ourselves, and God has redeemed us from our sin.

What passage of Scripture best balances gospel and justice?

The parable of the good Samaritan. It's unfortunate that we have racialized God's grace. Here are some Samaritans that are branded. Jesus asks, What is justice?

There is no virtue in racism. God never intended his faith to be a race. The gospel trumps racism and bigotry, and he has called us to be peacemakers.

Justice is a stewardship issue. It's an economic issue. God was almost a capitalist, but we have not spoken that truth to the capitalists, so they are exploiting.

The need today is to pray: your will be done.

What does Jeremiah mean when he tells the Israelites to seek the welfare of the city?

Israel was to be a people of faith and light to the world; when they weren't he took them out of their land into a nation. Whenever they went, they would still be a light and a witness. They are in Babylon because of their disobedience, but they are settle down, get married, be a witness before I take you home. It's a passage about God's grace and him using his people to carry out his will.

What's our next step?

We must place ourselves into proximity of suffering. 84% of his community is being raised without a father. The church needs to be planted there. We need more than just a welfare system. People need more than your used clothes, they need your presence. The family of God needs to be where there are broken families. The gates of hell cannot stop the church. Some churches are just storefront churches, choosing location for a building rather than because of the community.

I've probably started more parachurch organizations than anyone alive—and I'm praying God would forgive me. It needs to start with the church.

What's the one thing you would encourage folks with?

This is not superficial: begin to listen to God. We're too busy. The first commandment is: "hear, O Israel, the LORD your God is one." Prayer is not us first talking to God, but listening to him, and our prayers are our response to him—and his word is always "my will be done." What would God have me to do?

Real leadership is taking God's vision and turning it into passion. And that means we must be involved in discipleship.

Propaganda

I can't adequately blog a spoken-word piece (it was on city and culture—"Jesus moved in, he wasn't a commuter"), but you can watch his G.O.S.P.E.L. word here:

Session 2

Alan Hirsch

A simple but deep text on incarnational mission: Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you" (John 20:21 ESV).

As the gospel spreads out (from Jerusalem to Samaria to Corinth to Thessalonica, etc.), there is a missional/sending impulse—not only to go to new places but to be his representatives there.

There's a recovery today of the missio Deo. God is a missionary God. He sends the Son. The Son is a missionary, and the Father and Son send the Spirit into the world. Every Christian is a sent-one to participate in God's eternal purposes. Doing stuff isn't what makes a missional churches; it's when mission informs ecclessiology. It's not that the church has a mission but the mission has a church. Mission belongs under doctrine of God first, not doctrine of the church. As the gospel is planted in a group of people, it begins to reproduce itself.

Evangelicals tend to think about the incarnation only at Christmas. It doesn't infuse our imagination, and therefore doesn't inform how we live as Christians. If God is a missionary Go then we must be a missionary people. Incarnationality should be part of who we are. Missiology should inform our methodology. The medium is the message.

If you're not doing church this way, then you ought to have a good excuse.



Dave Ferguson

80% of people will act their way into a new way of thinking and behaving.

Gladwell's tipping point: if 16% can be inspired to change, a group will follow.

Paul encouraged leaders to set the pattern and watch others follow the example (Phil. 3:17).

We need to give people a clear understanding of the Jesus mission. Three words: reach (people for Christ) / restore (God's dream to planet earth); reproduce (the vision in others). For the mission to be accomplished, there must be a movement, which comes through discipleship.

Begin with prayer

Listen

Eat

Serve

Story

Do one of these missional practices every day. Who did you bless this week?

At their church, 73% of their missional groups have a focused mission statement, and the church has anointed and commissioned them for this task of living missional in community.

John Tyson

How do you sustain incarnational mission? The only thing that can do this is love. How do you cultivate love?

1. Identification. Is your destiny wrapped up with your community? We normally just start with people who are godly (obsessed with theology). But they we want them to have leadership (obsessed with the brand). Then entrepreneurship (obsessed with the project). But what we really need is incarnational presence (obsessed with people). We need people who will agonize. Jesus was "moved with compassion." "He wept." "His heart broke." Paul spoke "even with tears." [Note: Unfortunately, he's pitting theology against these things, like it's on the same level as branding and projects; I wish it could be both-end, as it is in the Bible.]

2. Authority. We don't need celebrity pastors with big general ideas. We need pastors whose hears are broken for the people they serve. Ignore contemporary Christian culture. Don't be stressed out if you're not missional enough. We need passion for God and compassion for people.

Hugh Halter

1 John 2:6, "Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked."

Sacrilege means to challenge inaccurate views about what are holy and sacred. That's the way the Jesus walked. He's the first iconoclast (image-breaker).

Jesus was sacrilegious with Scripture. He said they searched the Scripture but didn't find him. The more we know Scripture without practicing it, the more dangerous it is.

Pokes fun here at those who want to go deeper. Let's just totally obey one or two Scriptures, then we can go deeper.

Jesus was sacrilegious with the Sabbath. Maybe our churches should cancel their Easter services to serve the poor.

We need people who do unorthodox things. We should be the most un-religious people we know.

Todd Engstrom

A missionary is someone who sacrifices everything for the sake of the gospel.

Where? When? What? How?

Where do people in your church think community happens?

Most think of it as an event. Small group: sitting in a circle talking about Bible and life.

How do people in the community think about where it happens?

Sports bars; parks; etc. They don't set up standing dates on Wednesday nights. They gather when it's enjoyable and convenient

What do they talk about?

In Austin: food; being active and healthy; people and things.

They don't gather in circles. They walk alongside one another for a common activity.

Who are you expecting to be the missionary? Are we asking people without salvation to adapt their schedule to yours. They need to adapt their culture. We had good intention but our forms are not accomplishing the mission of God. How can we gather together in new and creative expressions to land where our city is.

We need to lead not only with vision but with tangible practices to live out our faith in our everyday lives.

Leonce Crump



Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week. This is nearly sin. Many talk about the mission of God, but we are not looking like the kingdom together.

Rev 5:9-10

And they sang a new song, saying,

"Worthy are you to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God

from every tribe and language and people and nation,

and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,

and they shall reign on the earth."

It's a direct implication of the mission of God to see not only reconciled to him but also different people with different backgrounds reconciled to each other not as projects, but as people in community.

Lots of people ask: how do we diversify our church? First question: what does your staff look like? Second: what does your stage look like? Third: what does your community sound like? Our churches are still mono-ethnic, mono-cultural, mono-economic. The rest of the world is folding into one another, and the church is playing catch up.

How is it reasonable that people without the Spirit of God unite around things that don't matter, but we can't unite around the cross?

Incarnation must precede mission for mission to have any diverse momentum. Jesus tabernacled; he moved in.

How long will we let the status quo remain? We must incarnate the gospel in many different cultures.