Being Missional in the Mundane

* A brief meditation on being a "Missional Prof" for the beginning of the semester...

Being Missional in the Mundane

As we continue to wrestle with the idea of being a Missional Professor I was reflecting on the mundane and ordinary events of this week at our campuses: convocation, meetings, Canvas touch-ups, training, dealing with departmental emergencies, etc.  Being "missional" is not just for the God-moments or extraordinary times.  It is precisely in the mundane and ordinary where we are called to be a light to the world.  In order to make our institutions thrive and move forward, there are all sorts of ordinary things we need to do.  God is not waiting for us to finish these items to get on to the "really important stuff."  No, we are Christ's representatives in the midst of and through the ordinary.  The Lord loves the ordinary.  He loves making flowers that last for only a day or two (Matthew 6.28-30).  He loves the ordinary work of having the sun shine and (more rare in Phoenix!) sending rain (Matthew 5.45).  Yes, he is the Lord of miracles but he is also Lord of the mundane.  I hope each and everyone of you knows his joyful presence during this week and the beginning of next as students arrive.  And remember...

You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.  --Matthew 5.1-16

Reflections on Jesus as "Learner": Growing Up in Maturity in Jesus

Meditation

On September 23, 2024 I gave a talk on abortion at South Mountain Community College.  That morning in my devotional time I read in Luke chapters 1-2.  I wrote the following words in my journal:

"Thoughts of being made in the image of God and given a task--take dominion.  This requires learning and thought.  There is trial and error.  The Lord doesn't do it for us.  I read in Luke 1 yesterday of the angel Gabriel coming to Zacharias.  [My] thought: Gabriel could show up at SMCC in radiant power and proclaim the truth regarding life.  That's what he did in Luke 1!  But the Lord has me doing this today!  He is growing me up--I'm an infant (Luke 10.21).  I have to study and take in information and arguments.  I have to assess and analyze.  I have to creatively figure out the best way to present the material.  This is good.  This is the way the Lord has set up the world.  There are not short-cuts.  There is the Lord's presence--the Holy Spirit--enlivening, shaping, guiding, and revealing.  But he is not given to short-circuit creational realities but, rather, to fulfill them.  There are miracles--feeding 5000--which bypass the created reality of baking bread.  There is prophecy and direct words from the Lord but the normal and good way is the normalcy of the created order with its in-built wisdom.  It is good to study, learn, and grow.  Jesus did this!  Luke 2.40, 52.  The realism of the incarnation needs to be grasped and deeply meditated upon!  Jesus had teachers.  He learned math and how to read.  He learned his father, Joseph's trade of carpentry.  He saw, observed, and reasoned.  He read (or, at least, heard) Scripture.

Luke 2.46 "Then after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions."

"Jesus listened and asked questions!  He is a learner!  He is not teaching here.  That will come later."

D. A. Carson on "Rebirthing": Displacing the Gospel with Alternative Techniques

“The truth of the matter is the consumer mentality authorizes people to judge all matters religious and theological by the simple criterion of whether or not they have been ‘helped’—and the only people equipped to assess whether or not they have truly been helped are the people who claim to have been helped.  Questions of truth, long-range effects, and purpose are shunted aside.”

…

 

“A few months ago I was in another country addressing some hundreds of missionaries.  As I sat at lunch with one missionary couple, the question of ‘rebirthing’ came up.  Somewhat defensively at first, and then openly, the husband told me his story.  He came from an abusive background; the notion of ‘father’ was entirely distorted for him.  As a college student he trusted Christ, but never really felt or delighted in the love of God or the love of Christ.  Then, some months before I arrived, an ‘evangelical’ professor gave some talks on rebirthing which this missionary attended.  He said that people from abusive homes should close their eyes and imagine themselves as they were emerging from their mothers.  Picture Jesus standing there, ready to catch you into his arms.  You emerge, and he cuddles you, cleans you up, loves you, caresses you.  Do you not see all your life Jesus has been loving?  The missionary told me that he broke down and wept and wept, and from that moment his life became more integrated.  He had become better able to give and receive love; for the first time he felt loved by Jesus.  What was wrong with that, he wanted to know.  The Bible does not teach rebirthing, but it does affirm the love of God, and if this technique helps you experience it, what fair criticism can be offered.

 

“So many things could have been said.  I had no desire to ‘crush a bruised reed’ or ‘quench a smoking wick.’  I replied along these lines:

 

“I cannot help but be glad if your life is truly more integrated.  I have talked with enough people from abusive backgrounds to have some idea of the terrible struggles you have gone through, and doubtless will go through.  If in truth this experience really does teach more of the love of God, I shall not be the first to criticize.

 

“But I have to tell you that at best you have experienced second best; and at worst you have been seduced to idolatry.  Bear with me, and I shall try to explain.

 

“My dear brother, all the emotional catharsis, all the tears, all the healing integration, might well have been your along biblical lines.  You might have meditated long on Ephesians 3:14-21, praying along with Paul that God would give you the power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God, to know this love that surpasses knowledge.  You might have read and re-read the passion narratives.  Where, after all, according to God’s gracious self-disclosure in Scripture, is the greatest manifestation of his love?  Is it not in the incarnation and the cross?  Might not a godly pastor taking you back to the cross have brought you to the same tears, but with the anchor of God’s Word authorizing them?

 

“For the fact of the matter is that you now associate your emotional release not with the cross, but with rebirthing techniques.  You will be less inclined to think of the gospel as that which is the power of God unto salvation.  You will think of the gospel as providing some sort of pardon, and rebirthing techniques as providing healing, power, restoration.  All the associational links are wrong.  They are diverting.  They bring you some measure of relief, while distracting you from the cross.

 

“And if you ask, ‘Why be so fussy as long I am genuinely healed, or least substantially improved?’ then you have brought yourself to the very heart of my argument: the primary criterion for what is right and true and valuable cannot possibly be whether or not you feel helped.  This does not mean that the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified can’t help you: it can, and does, and will.  It means that the content of that gospel cannot be determined or approved simply on the basis of whether or not you feel helped.  For if that were the case, would not the archenemy, whose love of deception is well known, have a field day ‘helping’ people, and helping people feel helped, provided the result is that they are diverted from the cross?  If he is clever—and he is—the danger will not be perceived at once.  Like a spacecraft swiftly speeding off course by only a degree or two, this kind of trajectory ensures that in time you will miss the mark by millions of miles.

 

“And that is why I insist that at best you have experienced second best; at worst, you are being seduced into idolatry.”[1]

---

     [1] D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Zondervan: 1996), 467-469.

Evangelism as Exiles: The Problem with "Sharing" the Gospel

* Some good thoughts from Elliot Clark's book Evangelism as Exiles: Life on Mission as Strangers in Our Own Land (2019).

Problem with Merely 'Sharing the Gospel'

"For some time now, American Christians have conceived of their witness in terms of 'sharing the gospel.'  Read any book or listen to any talk on personal evangelism and you'll inevitably encounter the phrase.  On one level, the terminology is positive, conveying the gracious act of giving others a treasure we possess.  However, if by 'sharing' we imply a kind of charity where we only give the gospel to willing recipients, then our Christian vernacular has become a problem.  Especially since the Bible rarely uses such language to describe the act of evangelism.

"I first awakened to this reality while doing language study in Central Asia.  As I took a course in spiritual terminology, a missionary teacher bemoaned the fact that many Westerners had imported the idea of sharing the gospel into the vocabulary of the local church.  He asserted that such a concept was completely foreign--to their context and the Bible.  Scripture, instead, spoke primarily of preaching the gospel, declaring and proclaiming a message.

"But what, you might ask, could be wrong with sharing the gospel?  Isn't the greater problem that people aren't sharing it at all?  However, I've come to wonder if these dual realities aren't somehow related, with the way we speak about evangelism imperceptibly affecting the way we do evangelism.

"Throughout the book of Acts we find repeated examples of authoritative witness--even in the face of suffering--from the apostles and early church.  We find them proclaiming the gospel and speaking boldly.  We read of them persuading others.  We see them reasoning from Scripture, both expounding and also applying it.  We observe them testifying before rulers and governors, bearing witness before civil crowds and angry mobs.  What we don't find them doing is 'sharing' the gospel.

"So it's more than a bit curious that the dominant way American Christians describe the act of evangelism is in terms of sharing.  This isn't just one way we talk about it; it's almost the only way we talk about it.  And I believe this lack of clarity is more than an issue of semantics.

"It would be no different from a baseball coach who consistently described the role of pitchers in terms of tossing the ball.  In practice or a game, whenever his pitchers were struggling to get batters out, what if his dominant instruction was simply to toss the ball?  Not throw strikes.  Not work the corners.  Not change speeds.  Not pound it inside.  Just toss the ball.  Would the pitchers have an accurate understanding of their responsibility?

"But that's basically the way we talk about evangelism.  Our description is overly simplistic.  It lacks precision and nuance.  And when  that becomes our default instruction--to simply share the gospel--we fail to convey the attitude, approach, and authority necessary for the act itself.  Thus what started as a subtle change in terminology results in a massive shift in our whole ethos of evangelism.

"That's because 'sharing' typically involves the act of giving something to someone who desires it.  Children share (or don't share) Legos with other kids who want them.  Friends share a great cookie recipe with another friend who asks for it.  Or we might share money with those holding a cardboard sign at the street corner.  In each case, we share with others because they're asking for what we possess.  But the reality is, few people are ever begging us to share the gospel with them.

"We must ask ourselves, then, whether casual Christianese has influenced the way we view the gospel mandate.  We must consider why we're only willing to speak the gospel when we perceive openness on the part of another.  We must ponder whether we even have a category for proclaiming a message that people oppose, one that's innately offensive.  Or do we tiptoe through polite spiritual conversations and timidly share our opinions, then call it evangelism?

"But to evangelize is to preach good news.  According to D. A. Carson, this is the basic definition of the Greek word euangelizo from which we get our English word for evangelism.  As he observes in his comprehensive study of the 'gospel' word-group in the Bible, 'the gospel is primarily displayed in heraldic proclamation: the gospel is announced, proclaimed, preached, precisely because it is God's spectacular news.'  In fact, Carson expresses concern that some of our confusion (what he labels as 'nonsense') about what the gospel is (and how it must be communicated) results from our lack of understanding regarding how the Bible describes the gospel and evangelism in the first place.

"Far more than just sharing, evangelism involves testifying to Christ--warning, persuading, defending, pleading, and calling.  As we saw last chapter, such authoritative witness need not be in opposition to gentleness and respect.  Moreover, the context of healthy, trusting relationships can actually add force to our words.  But sadly we often value those relationships more than a clear statement of the truth.  Rarely do we engage people with a sense of authority or urgency."  (pp. 95-98)

Evangelism as Exiles: Triage Our Agendas

 * Some good thoughts from Elliot Clark on evangelism is our culture.  From his book Evangelism as Exiles: Life on Mission as Strangers in Our Land (2019).

"When we seek to do evangelism as exiles, we already have a really hard sell.  We're trying to convince people that a Jewish carpenter as God's Son, come from heaven to die for our sins.  He was buried, and three days later he rose from the dead and now reigns over all.  Not only that, we're also calling them to join us as social outcasts.  Must we also try  to persuade them about matters of history and geopolitics?  Do we really want to argue for our opinion on the environment or economics?  Or could those hobby-horse topics end up as barriers to Christ's gospel?

"Please don't hear me say that Christians should never address controversial topics.  Or that we shouldn't speak out against evil and injustice.  Of course we should.  But the value of silence still stands.  It's a lesson I'm even trying to learn as a parent: You have to pick your battles.  You can't take offense at every turn.  You can't address every problem or every infraction.  And most of all, the dominant message must not be constant displeasure or disagreement.  Otherwise we'll lose our audience before we get to the most important message of all.

"We must learn to triage our agendas.  We must learn to prioritize our preaching.  Some things are of higher value; others are likely not even worthy of comment.  Because as much as people can be won to Christ through our witness, they can also be lost by our words.  Our endless social commentary and political engagement can be off-putting.  So better to be quiet and respectful than bold and boorish.  Better to sometimes be silent." (pp. 77-78)