Missional Holiness
It was reading the blog of Franklin Pyles, President of the Christian & Missionary Alliance in Canada, that prompted not only a response to his blog but the motivation to finish setting up this blog,
So now, as one of the first posts to my blog, let me jump from some thoughts in Franklin’s post, “A Tipping Point for Christianity,” (http://rebirthingsimpsonsvision.blogspot.com/) where he stated: “The program church has many advantages, but one of its disadvantages is that it totally absorbs the life of its key workers leaving little time or energy for them to coach or play kids sports, to sit on school councils, or to join in meaningful community activities. Thus, those who could be connectors are unplugged from the wider populace.”
Now I don’t dispute that balanced statement or the many other statements Franklin made in his blog. However the reality is for a lot of folk in most of our evangelical churches, that even if our churches were structured so that the average person in our congregations had time to be more involved in the lives of our sparsely churched neighbours and join with the people of our city in meaningful community activities, we have unfortunately discipled many in such a way, so as to strip them of the ability to truly enter into the lives of those apart from Christ. Our interpretations of holiness and separation even in these less legalistic days, still makes it hard for most of us to give ourselves permission to party, dance and just enjoy average everyday people. The old adage, “we don’t drink, dance, smoke or chew or go around with girls that do,” still holds a grip on us, more than we care to admit.
Living incarnational lives, being Jesus to the people of our city and world is met head on by a code of personal holiness that somehow has come to exclude normal interactions with our neighbours. (Hugh Halter & Matt Smay make this point well in their book, “The Tangible Kingdom.”)
And it’s so opposite to the way of Jesus. Think of how many folk we know who would be so uncomfortable to attend the kind of event where Jesus conducted his inaugural miracle, where Jesus turned water into wine. Why the miracle? Because they had already, imagine this, finished all the wine far earlier than the hosts had anticipated. Why did Jesus chose to turn water into wine at a party where in all likelihood, if you’re at all honest with the context, some had already had a bit too much? Why is this his inaugural miracle? I suspect it’s very intentional.
So while it’s easy to point the finger at how structure and programs rob us of time needed to interact with average non-church attending Canadians, we really have a much deeper systemic problem that needs to be addressed long before making church “simpler,” will have any kingdom impact.
The family of churches Redwood is a part of, the Christian & Missionary Alliance, are a part of what historically has been called the holiness movement. My hunch is, we really need to wrestle far more deeply with what true holiness is all about. Perhaps we would do well to learn and teach more intentionally that holiness is more about who we become and what we can do instead of defining holiness as those things we don’t do. It’s not that holiness doesn’t bring limitations, it’s that holiness is so much more than that, and so often the limitations we list may not be consistent with the way of Jesus.
Further I would think after looking more closely at Jesus in the Gospels, that what holiness looks like more than anything else is love and that true holiness expresses itself by loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbour as ourselves.
I suspect if we could learn to be holy even as Jesus was holy, if we would look and act and hang out in culture a lot more like Jesus, then program church versus non-program church, versus sticky church, versus creating a plausibility context and so on would really become non-issues.
Maybe I’m too simplistic, but I suspect that if those of us who follow Christ would just start to look and love a little more like Christ, and if our churches began to act a bit more like how we see Jesus in the Gospels, we would see spiritual transformation sweep across our cities, regions and nation and beyond.
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About
Doug has just recently accepted the position of Lead Pastor of the Fort McMurray Alliance Church in the bustling Oil Sands region of Wood Buffalo in northern Alberta. Fort Mac Alliance is a church with a passion to tangibly make Jesus visible to our municipality and world, serving as a grace filled community that is welcoming and sensitive to people whatever their faith background and wherever they may or may not be at in their faith journey. It’s an adventurous community that is willing to think outside the norm while prayerfully wrestling with what it means to be involved in ministry both within and beyond the walls of the church facility. This results in a passion to see individual lives and the city as a whole touched and transformed by the love of Christ. Being in a city with global influence, Fort McMurray Alliance is seeking to be a unique global influence for Christ in partnership with it’s denominational family, the Christian & Missionary Alliance.
Doug is also involved with Briercrest College and Seminary in Caronport, Saskatchewan, where he teaches two courses a year as an Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology. From his home base in Fort McMurray, Doug serves as the Program Coordinator for Briercrest’s MDiv (Master of Divinity) program, with an urgency to see the next generation of ministry leaders raised up up to serve effectively within our ever evolving Canadian culture, as well as our vastly changing world.
Previously Doug served for 20 years as the Lead Pastor of Redwood Park Church, a multi-site missional community that is committed to seeing the message and life of Jesus impact Thunder Bay, Barrie and beyond. LIFE, PASSION and ADVENTURE are three words that both Doug and Redwood uses to describe the nature of Christian spirituality.
Doug is married to Jane, who possesses an amazing gift of hospitality and the ability to cook for hundreds! They have three young-adult children. Meagan is a pediatric resident at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. Susan who is married to Chris Groenheide, among other things supply teaches at Dennis Franklin Cromarty First Nations High School and promotes “eating local” through a variety of greens and specialty vegetables from her market garden. Graeme who has been involved in an eclectic mix of insurance and financial planning, working for a highway line painting company, and ushering at Thunder Bay’s Community Auditorium is heading off with a generous scholarship to the Vancouver Film School. Each of them in their distinct way has a yearning to be difference makers in this world.
Meal times at the Doyle household tend to be a bit of a party, but you might want to ask what it is you’re eating – as sometimes Doug enjoys a hike with a good friend and a gun in the beauty of our rugged Canadian outdoors, or maybe a paddle on a remote lake with rod in hand. He’s thinking that with the move for Fort McMurray, he might have to break down and add an ATV to his toys.
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Part of the problem is a simple diagnosis. We scratch the surface but never go deep enough.
Why was Jesus so free to interact with publicans and sinners? Why was Jesus able to face the scorn of the religious? Why did the early church shape the world in the midst of persecution?
Because the doctrine that launched Jesus and the early church is the same doctrine that spurred on the Anabaptists, the first and second Great Awakenings, producing the Methodist movement and ultimately the holiness movement: the radical idea that one is accepted by God in the Beloved. Justification by faith alone. Reading Luther’s commentary on Romans awakened John Wesley. It was justification by faith that George Whitefield preached. It was a radical gospel of liberty, not legalism or libertarianism. When I hear this doctrine, I’m not afraid of dying; I’m not afraid of being beaten; I’m not afraid to hang out with people who aren’t like me. I am free to love, laugh, and live because I’m on the adventure.
It seems to me that the Bible connects justification, sanctification, and mission: Gen 15, John 17, Eph 2. Most missional theologies don’t start or go deep enough. They make the value of people their functionality (what they can do for God rather than who they are in God, which is the biggest problem with NT Wright’s stuff, as much as I love it). The problem with programs, with community involvement, with buckling down and being more holy and being like Jesus is that they haven’t gone deep enough, not rooted in the very thing that launched missional life: I am so radically accepted by the One who loves me that I can live for Him in a life-sacrificing way that advances his kingdom.
I like what AWHall said in his commentary and I agree that we need to somehow rethink how we connect justification, sanctification and mission. If it’s all about grace then we need to really articulate what that looks like in everyday life. Before we hit up simple church, as you say Doug, we need to get to the root of the problem. Great thinking and I’m glad to see you’re finally including the rest of us in your rants!
Although “born and raised” evangelical Christian, mine was a home where even though my parents were very involved in church activities they still had close encounters with their unchurched neighbours, co-workers, etc. The thrust of the church’s ministry and I imagine Mom’s & Dad’s thought processes back then however was always in seeing ‘our way’ as superior and the over-riding call to evangelize and see those neighbours won for the Lord. Our success was when that was accomplished and those neighbours ceased smoking, chewing, dancing, drinking, etc,etc… I balk at the notion that we really have come much further 40+ years later. believe one of the greatest challenges I have
(con’t sorry!)is loving my neighbours and being authentically involved in their lives with no strings attached.That goes a lot further than inviting them to church!
This makes me feel like I’m back in staff meetings. lol
Also, I think Judy makes some excellent points. It took two posts, but still.
My rationale, if I can call it that, for hanging out with those that don’t call themselves Christians, is that they are part of my world. I see them and love them when I work with United Way; when I sit on the boards of social service agencies; when I see them at community events and functions. They are my brothers and sisters in a humanity sense and in many ways, they are as good if not sometimes better friends than some Christians. I share laughs and tears with them as I do with Christian friends. This hang up with the dancing and drinking stuff is a smoke screen for an excuse to demonize non-Christians. I don’t have to dance, smoke, drink and swear to be connected to non-Christians, I just need to see them as friends, companions and people searching for “life” just like me. Lets take the “smoking and drinking” phrase right out of our Christian vocabulary when it comes to this type of dialogue as it derails the really important cause of loving all people in this world.