The following is an excerpt from Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis:

But mission very easily becomes one activity among others in church life. It sits on the agenda alongside a list of other items, vying for attention. Or it is left to the enthusiasts to get on with it at the edge of church life. For some churches missions seems a distant dream as they struggle to keep the institution of church afloat. Putting on a weekly service is challenge enough.

Over time churches seem to acquire committees, meetings, programs, and traditions, none of which may be wrong in themselves, but which cumulatively move the church from mission to maintenance mode. Time and energy are spent making the institutions function. The energy of many churches is thus absorbed in maintaining the legacy of a program of activities and church buildings. Roles exists that have to be filled. The life of the church is geared around maintaining its structures and programs. We need to shift into “mission mode.” People are beginning to say we need “missionary theology” rather than a “theology of mission.” Mission can no longer be looked at as one branch of theology. All theology must be missionary in its orientation. We need the same reorientation as churches. We are in a missionary situation, and all that we do must be missionary.

Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2008), pg. 86.

I don’t think I can put any better than that.

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It’s amazing how complicated church gets when the gospel ceases to be central. I’m working my way through Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, a couple of guys from the UK who’ve thought a lot about church and practice what they preach. Steve spoke at the Acts 29 Boot Camp in Seattle a few weeks ago, and since I only got to hear a third of his talk I bought the book. These guys have some important things to say to those of us who care deeply about the church and her mission.

I’ve been struggling with the institutionalization of the church for some time due to an ever nagging feeling that we’re missing something important, something great, something radical and life-changing. By institutionalization I mean that tendency to view and conceive of the church in terms of its institutional structure and character so that we think of the church as a corporation  with a life of its own apart from its members. “Why is this a problem?” you may ask. Good question, because there is a positive sense to the church having it’s own identity distinct from it’s membership if it positions the church as prophetic organization within the life of the community enabling it to influence change and development for the sake of Jesus and the good of people. The legal standing of a church enables it to interact with other organizations in an officially recognized capacity and to own and maintain property. These are positive aspects to the church as an institution.

The negative aspects are manifest in they way we interact with the church. Over a period of time we can begin to see the church less as a vibrant growing community of God’s people and more as a thing that exists outside of ourselves to which we owe loyalty, sacrifice, and involvement. The distinction while maybe a bit nuanced is critical. The church is the body of Chirst (1 Cor. 12:12-31; Eph. 2:14-16), an organic, living body of which we are members. The church is not a place, a building, or an institution. It is a community, the bride of Christ, composed of lovers of Jesus who follow Him and serve Him. We do not serve the church; we serve Jesus through the church. The distinction between the church as institution vs. the church as body/community explains how the church can survive and even thrive in places and times of extreme persecution. Were the identity of the church bound to its status as an institution it could not exist where it is not officially recognized. But it does exist throughout the world without official goverment or community recognition. The undergound church in China has thrived despite goverment opposition.

I (along with many others) am convinced that recovering this basic identity of the church will lead to a radical transformation of our sense of mission and purpose in our generation. It’s not that this concept of church is new or has ever been completely lost for we find it in every revival, reformation, and movement of God throughout history. But it has been obscured by our pre-occupation with creating Christian sub-cultures that are divorced from missional engagement with other cultures around us. Our “bigger is better” mentality can insulate us from the cold harshness of missionary work by enabling us to feel pretty good about ourselves and our progress whether we are tranforming our communities or not. We need to push the church out of the nest and release her into the wild so that more people will come into contact with gospel saturated Christians who love Jesus and lead others to Him.

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Picking up from the sermon a few weeks ago, I wanted to add some additional thoughts regarding contextualizing the gospel and living a missional lifestyle. Not everyone is gifted in the same way and not everyone is comfortable with ministry in certain settings or circumstances. For instance, one may be completely at home chatting with strangers and acquaintances at Starbucks while another is more comfortable ministering to the needs of the sick. One may have the resources to underwrite a mission opportunity fincancially but be uncomfortable actually getting on the plane.

The secret to missional living is you opening your life up to God and yielding to Him in all that you do. How can you tansform your community by the power of God? Simply by engaging the people in your sphere of influence with the gospel of Jesus Christ as you use your gifts and abilities for the glory of God whether you are a firefighter, a homemaker, a teacher, a pool cleaner, a forklift driver, an insurance salesman, a farmer, a stock broker, a kid in school (homeschool, public school, or private school), a nurse, a manager, a truck driver, a college student, or a guy with no job at all. Whether your blue collar, white collar, no collar, whatever your status you can and should be a missionary right where you are.

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I found the following comments by Timothy George on Galatians 2:4 insightful, so I thought I would share:

Paul called his adversaries “false” primarily because the content of their teaching was antithetical to the truch of the gospel. However, by using the language of infiltration and deception to describe their activity in the Titus affair, Paul extended his indictment also to cover their motivations and methodology. Theology and ethics can never be divorced in an ultimate sense. It is true that one can champion orthodox theology out of selfish ambition and with loveless anger, forgetting the warning of T.S. Elliot in his play Murder in the Cathedral, “The last temptation is the greatest treason: to the the right deed for the wrong reason.” Conversely, one can also propagate false doctrine out of sincere conviction. Notable heretics have sometimes been known for their kind disposition and saintly demeanor. Such persons are all the more blinded by the god of this age to the corrupting impact of their false teaching. Despite these exceptions, there is an intrinsic linkage between unbelieving theology and unethical behavior. Sooner or later and in one way or another, doctrine that derives from some source other than Holy Scripture or a view of salvation that magnifies human effort at the expense of God’s grace will manifest itself in unfaithful living and disreputable methods.*

*Timothy George, Galatians (NAC; Nashville: Broadman & Hollman Publishers, 1994) pg. 150.

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Oh man! You guys need to read this from my friend, John’s blog:

http://junkerjorge1.blogspot.com/2009/02/wwjd.html#comments

He nails the prosperity guys! What a blessing to have him as a friend.

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I don’t think I could say it as clearly as Mark Driscoll does in his introduction to Galatians. Check it out!

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I found the following excerpt from Luther’s commentary on Galatians extremely helpful and hope that you will be encouraged, too. Luther comments on Galatians 1:3 (”Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”): Read the rest of this entry »

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It is an exciting thing to watch God work, and He is working in the lives of several children in our church. Today we will be blessed to baptize five of these young people to the glory of God. These are the first baptisms we have celebrated since we started 24 months ago. We’ve been praying for this day for some time and we are having a genuine celebration complete with a meal, communion, and good ‘ole Christian fellowship. It’s just awesome to see God do His thing. Read the rest of this entry »

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I had the pleasure of spending some time with a new friend, John, the other day. He is a former Word of Faith pastor whom God has led away from that movement to Reformed faith. He is earnestly seeking God and is striving to speak the truth about where he has been. Learn more about his journey by visiting his blog at http://faithpreacher.blogspot.com.

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My kid’s never cease to amaze me. They manage to come up with all kinds of ways to entertain themselves. My wife and I went out for a while one afternoon (I forget why, but we hardly need much of a reason), and my oldest video taped the rest lip syncing one of their favorite bands (Skillet). They call themselves ‘The Impostinators.’

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