Book Review: Un-Christian

I have been (for the last few months… ok 6 months) reading a book co-authored by Gabe Lyons and David Kinnaman. 

It raises a number of confronting questions for Christian in the 21^st Century’s post - post modern context. 

The writing is a response to research that the author (Kinnaman) (part of the Barner research group) conduced at the request of Lyons. 

While it is directed at the USA (both the research and commentary is exclusively pointed this way) there are important and relevant ‘take-a-ways’ that we can reflect on and apply to ourselves and church practice in Australia. It is, however, really important to acknowledge the strong differences that there are between Australian and American cultures - especially when it comes to religion and politics. 

From my perspective I think (up to this point) the most interesting aspect of the discussion has been the discussion around the response of the church (and christians) to the most appropriate (and perhaps effective) ways to live out faith in a post-post-modern environment. 

The book is written around the top responses to the research that was conducted, with each chapter given to discussing the findings and presenting a response. These chapters include: Hypocritical, Get Saved, Anti-homosexual, Sheltered, Too Political and Judgemental.

The writing is quite candid and offers a means for the church to look at itself in the way that it is perceived by the wider community. It does not present this in a way that would suggest that the church should change to alter these perceptions, but does ask whether these perceptions are based on the behaviours of the church and christians that in actually incongruent with what the christian life should look like (thus the title of the book).

I’ll finish reading it soon and post some final thoughts.

Missional Church...what is it all about? (Pt.2)

In breaking down the liturgy into essential elements it is possible to consider what is essential in our church practice. I don’t want to try and nut out all of the doctrine or theology here - but just ask the question - what do you actually need to do to be and function as a church?

I guess from my own experience, it is an important discussion as the answer(s) shape the way that you go about living.

So - in asserting a ‘non’ answer, I think that the most important endeavour is actually the discussion that needs to be had - for the individual, couple, family or church community. 

What you should arrive at through this process is two distinctive aspects:

1) What you should do (theologically)

 2) What you choose (could) to do 

Obviously, there are the negative alternatives to these - what you shouldn’t do and what you choose not to do. 

Once again, there is an interesting question that this raises in terms of tradition and the institutional church. Basically - how much of what churches do is a should a could. You might even find that there are shouldn’ts in there as well.

I think the real challenge in being involved in a missional church community is in fact working out the could. There are so many good things that you can do (individually, as a family or as a church community).  Ultimately, filtering these through your goals or values is best practice, and needs to be continually revisited. 

More to come… I guess ;)

Missional Church...what is it all about? (Pt.1)

So in a recent  discussion with a mate who asked, 'what do you do in your missional church' (to paraphrase), my mind was stimulated again to re-visit this topic.

We are now about four years into our 'no name yet' missional church, and we still don't have a name - but I think that some of our activities, goals and purposes have in some way been codified.

Firstly, one of the main goals of what we are doing is to be able to engage our natural, organic community in the most natural and organic ways. What this means in practise is that we only do the the things that we would normally do - but try and place the lens of living out our faith in each of those activities. For example, for my wife, doing the school run becomes a means through which connections can be made with the other families who go to the same school and who are in the same class. This is something that we normally do - but seeing it as part of mission changes the intentionality behind the activity.

Importantly, this not about doing the traditional church thing and 'inviting' someone to an 'outreach' event, but actually caring for and loving people with whom you are sharing life - with no strings attached.

It might seem crazy, but from my experience the institutional church paradigm tends towards the 'invite to an event' model, rather than what I have suggested above. There is heaps of literature about this - but really, it is about living life the way that Jesus did.

It's a complex topic on one level, but in another sense quite simple....

To be continued...