Inhabiting a Suburban Abbey

I've begun using the term "missional monasticism" to refer to our particular approach to church planting. Like the monastics and new monastics (you may have noticed that I have a whole series of posts reviewing books on this subject. Read the intro here) we have embraced a call to immerse ourselves in our neighborhood and community as a community of light and hope. However, unlike some new monastic communities, our calling involves an intentional engagement intended to form new worshipping communities among those who are not presently disciples of Christ.

But still this term "missional monastic" seems strange - even paradoxical - to some. Chris and I have been discussing some different options for not only living this life and inviting others to come and see, but also just helping people understand what we're talking about. Here's a short post I've been working on to introduce the topic - I'd love some feedback regarding how helpful this is (as a starting place for conversation, not a definitive thesis on "missional monasticism") So, what do you think?

What in the world is Missional Monasticism???

You may already be familiar with the language of “missional.” Many people over the last few years have been talking about (and a few are even living) the call to join in God’s mission to reclaim, restore and remake all creation. Like many things which make their way into popular vocabulary there is sometimes misuse and overuse of the word to refer to anything new, flashy or “relevant.”

Strictly speaking, missional refers to the belief that all God’s people are called to participate in the mission of God - not just a few select “ordained” leaders; our participation in religion is defined by whole-life discipleship in the way of Christ.

The New Monasticism has gotten more attention lately due in large part to the leadership of folks like Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and others. Monasticism has a long history of prophetic voice within the Church. The Desert Monastics of the early Church were men and women who withdrew from the trappings of their culture in order to embrace a life of simplicity, prayer and service. Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of monastics did not/do not see their calling to leave the world behind and hide themselves away. The call for monastics throughout the ages has been to embrace holiness for the sake of the world. The movement being referred to as the new monasticism is made up of communities of people who commit to a common Rule of Life. Many draw from the 12 Marks of New Monasticism. The purpose of such a commitment is not moral perfection or super-spirituality. The desire is to dwell in the presence of the Lord...on earth as it will be in heaven.

But what is Missional Monasticism?

Missional monasticism is one possible result of acknowledging that the call to discipleship in the Way of Jesus, participation in the mission of God and being joined to the Body of Christ are all one call with both immediate and eternal implications.

Missional monasticism is a commitment to whole life discipleship in community for the sake of the world...and it is a commitment that calls us to intentionally invite others to make similar commitments. Instead of extracting people from their community and inviting them to worship somewhere else, missional monastics help people discern how to worship, pray, learn, grow and serve right where God has planted them.

We are not seeking to come up with something novel and trendy. We are seeking to draw from ancient wisdom in ways that speak gospel to our present context and embrace the Kingdom of God which is both a present reality and our future hope.

When we read about the life of Jesus and the early Christian disciples we notice that there is a distinct lack of the dualistic views that are so prevalent today (ie, separating our existence into "sacred" and "secular"). To be a disciple of Jesus meant committing your entire life to a new Way. There was both an internal conversion of heart and mind and an external conversion to the Community of God for the sake of those still bound to the rules of the Empire.

We are part of a church planting movement. We invite others to follow this Jesus and then we walk with them as they invite others. We believe that the good news of new life should spread into new neighborhoods, coffee shops, office complexes and other gathering places. It does not require ministry budgets, building projects, finance committees or human constructed hierarchies (though it has worked like leaven within those places and will continue to do so).

It does require the people of God to follow Jesus into the neighborhood. We who are disciples in the new kingdom are all priests. As priests we have all been called to pray to God on behalf of the world and we discover that Jesus is already aware of them. We have been called to go out into the world on behalf of God and we discover that Jesus is already there.

Slowly we are beginning to hear the gentle whisper of God saying, "See those two over there? I love them and I'm doing great things in their life...go tell them I said hi." The crazy part is when we go say "hi" and we distinctly hear the gentle whisper of God saying "hello" back to us... as if Jesus was there all along, waiting for us. Imagine that.

Helping the Church Be the Church: Part VI - God's Economy

If you are new to this series of posts, you can read the intro here. This post is somewhat longer than others as it includes excerpts from the introduction as well as sections on missional monastic church planting and the established church.

God's Economy: Redefining the Health and Wealth Gospel

by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.

Sometimes, when I’m alone with my thoughts, I am afraid they made a poor decision. Nevertheless, it is easy for me to name a long list of wise, godly men and women who have made a considerable investment of time, money and even their own lives in me personally and in my development as a leader. To whatever degree I have learned, matured and grown in leadership, I owe a debt of gratitude to the Spirit of God at work in these teachers, advisers, coaches and friends; a work that continues to this day.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s work in God’s Economy emphasizes the value this type of investment over a carefully and meticulously crafted stock portfolio, retirement account, business venture or McMansion in the ‘burbs.

He believes in a theology of abundance and invites us to approach God with a desire to be blessed with a rich and full life; we ask the Father for our inheritance of great wealth. Meanwhile he sets out to show that in the new (or very old) economy of the Kingdom, wealth and success are defined in much greater terms than society and even many of our fellow Christians realize.

Some of the accepted wisdom passed on in the Church and in seminaries reflects this confusion of economies and reflects Western business principles more so than the radical abundance of God. Preachers and televangelists wearing two thousand dollar suits telling the lonely widow to invest her money in their ministry so that God will give her more money in return are an easy target in this conversation. But perhaps the danger goes deeper and is more subtle than that.

Few people significantly challenge the tenured and well-respected professor at a certain seminary who teaches future ministers that they cannot have true community within the congregation they serve because they are an employee that can be fired at will. I hope and pray that he is wrong, but I think he’s accurately describing the present situation. What disturbs me is not that he is wrong, but that neither he, nor those who hang on his words seem to believe this is a travesty which must be eradicated.

More recently I remember a conversation with a good friend and coach who was reflecting on something said to him by a friend and advisor to us both. He said, with a hint of resignation, that as we grow up we must accept that spending time with good friends is probably redefined as regular phone calls and an occasional get-together for coffee or a meal. The reality is that we are busy and highly mobile. Our close friends will move away and our work keeps us from being able to spend face-to-face time with them regularly. That conversation has haunted me since.

Wilson-Hartgrove highlights a reality that many outside the white, middle class seem to know intuitively; the lifestyle of isolation and upward mobility is not the only choice.

I have several Hispanic friends who are part of a community in Dallas. Some of them are doing well financially, many of them are not. Some of the families have lived here in the States for two or three generations, quite a few grew up in Mexico and came here for a fresh start. Some speak perfect English, most used to push me to dust off my Spanish if I wanted to communicate. All of them know how to party.

It is not about impressive presentation or outdoing the last soiree. I’ve heard that all Hispanics need for a party is grass and Corona. That statement, meant as a joke, actually provides a glimpse into a worldview that is rich in the new economy.

I don’t remember many of their gatherings, formal or informal, that didn’t involve a feast. I don’t remember a single one of those feasts being catered and I don’t remember ever wishing one had been. They taught me to put my grill in the front yard and have extra to share with my neighbors. They taught me that the best way to help newcomers become part of the group was give them a job cooking or helping prepare for the meal. I think its fair to say that the development of my “strategy” for incarnational ministry in our neighborhood is credited as much or more to the Trejos and Vejars as it is to the missional church folks like Darrell Guder, Alan Hirsch, Hugh Halter, etc.

These truths of community contain wisdom for us all, regardless of the outward appearance of the our church structure. These truths are very much part of God’s economy. They require investments in people rather than financial security. They value stability, consistency and loyalty over upward mobility. And, like the parable of the shrewd manager highlighted by Wilson-Hartgrove, they appreciate the “wisdom of the weak” to develop economic friendships which provide security that seems so counter intuitive to many of us.

For Missional Monastic Church Planting:

“What are we inviting people into?” This question has come up from time to time among our leadership. It is easy to fall into the trap of defining ourselves by what we have rejected. We may have spent time processing through and deciding that wasn’t our motivation on the front end, but it still tries to creep in when we aren’t looking. We are convicted that the Kingdom of God is not driven by programs and passive consumerism, but merely avoiding those things is not a sufficient calling.

We are so used to inviting people to a worship gathering, retreat, youth group activity, revival, Christian concert, marriage seminar or some other event that it can sometimes be difficult to imagine any other kind of invitation. The invitation to a new life; to walk with us in community in the Way of Jesus can sometimes seem a bit ambiguous, particularly to those who have a clearly preconceived notion of “church.” For those looking for ways to describe the calling to whole life discipleship, God’s Economy can be a tremendous help.

We have made a decision not to ask new house churches and incarnational communities to tithe toward corporate building funds, administration costs, overhead, salaries, etc. That decision means that I’m now a seminary trained roofing contractor who offices at local coffee shops and worships with his community wherever the doors are opened. We don’t always know where we’re gathering until Friday or Saturday and some people don’t really like that. We have several kids under the age of six and that often brings up issues for which we don’t have good solutions.

It has been very difficult, but I am convicted that this is precisely how we are called to operate at this time. We are being reminded of our roots as nomadic people, with a God who tabernacles among us. We are free to use our community’s resources to invest in people, to give generously to others. We aren’t compelled to base our decisions on what will boost the bottom line financially. We are no longer under the illusion that ministry requires a line item in the budget.

We are learning, and God’s Economy is going to be a useful resource in this, to reject ecclesiological mindsets that assume scarcity. Our young network of communities will most likely never have stacks of money in the bank. Still, we are learning to expect wealth of a different kind without waiting to leave this rock and this body behind for a mansion in the clouds. We’re learning that if our friends have a car, we have a car. If we have a lawnmower, our friends have a lawnmower. Just like that our resources have multiplied without increasing our clutter.

For Established Churches:

For those within the established church who are wondering whether these young communities have adequate theological grounding and biblical support, God’s Economy can be quite informative. Yet, I also think there are benefits that established churches themselves can reap from this book as well.

A few years ago a church I knew of laid off several ministers for budget reasons even though they had (literally) millions of dollars in the bank. This money was earmarked for missions, not ministry. Besides, good stewardship wisdom suggested that the principle balance remain untouched and only interest be used... after all the money needs to last. Overnight, several people learned precisely what my professor had warned - the minister’s relationship with the congregation is a transactional one, and they found themselves alone without a job, a church or a support network.

I was once informed by a well-meaning minister of a five-hundred member church that they were interested in church planting, but until their weekly contribution averaged twenty-thousand dollars they would be unable to give any money to outside efforts.

When approached with the idea of serving as an anchor church for a missional-monastic church planting movement, a local senior pastor asked, “What is the financial benefit for us?”

I do not believe that any of the congregations just described are evil; I don’t think that the leaders are malicious or their love for God insincere. They are simply functioning within a system that is bound to the rules of the empire. As Wilson-Hartgrove, quoting Dwight D. Eisenhower, reminds us, “you cannot amass great possessions without also having to take up the sword and defend them.” This quote doesn’t merely refer to violence, it affects our process for decision making and world viewing.

That isn’t to say that established churches have to sell their buildings and fire their ministers. It might mean that they draft new criteria for decisions regarding the use of congregational funds. However, I think that this book is extends beyond merely calling congregations to change their budget process.

Image the possibilities for blessing if a church of two hundred people began taking the needs of one another more personally. What about a church of five hundred or two thousand? Can you imagine any single mothers in those congregations still struggling to decide whether to pay the electric bill or buy groceries? Would there be any way that an elderly widower would die alone because he couldn’t get out of his house and didn’t want to burden his children living in another state?

The Kingdom of God will not support such travesties; they are unsustainable in God’s economy. You do not have to move into a large house with several other people to see this kind of community develop. It may take more work if you don’t automatically see each other everyday, but it is far from impossible. Imagine the possibilities!

Imagine what affect it would have on a city if suddenly there were hundreds of people experiencing this kind of life in their midst. I predict that this type of economy and kingdom would roll forward with such force that no gates - be they of hell or a gated community - could stand against it.

Helping the Church Be the Church: Part V - Follow Me to Freedom

If you are new to this series of posts you can read the intro here. This post includes excerpts from the introduction and section addressing the established church.

Follow Me to Freedom by Shane Claiborne and John Perkins

I’ve been blessed to witness some terrible leadership in my life...and there are people I’ve attempted to lead who could make the same statement. The top-down business model of leadership; a model which centralizes authority and power in a few individuals has always seemed (to me) to be at odds with the example of Jesus. Sadly though, it is all too present in our churches.

The son of God, who has the rightful claim to authority, comes to earth and refuses to fight injustice in the halls of power; refuses to take public office...refuses to have health insurance, a savings account, a 401k or even a house! Jesus declares himself to be the servant of all and then backs it up by washing his disciples’ feet. Jesus declares himself to be in solidarity with the poor and then models it by living without all the “stuff” I can’t seem to go a day without.

I’ve seen and participated in leadership models that are much more closely aligned with modern corporations and nation states than with the Master we claim to serve. For the longest time it seemed clear that something was broken, but I had no idea where to begin looking for alternatives. Supporters of the present system would declare that the options were either the status quo or anarchy. These are the choices, it is what it is. Pick one.

It can be terrifying when leader makes a statement like, “I can no longer go up the mountain for you. I can’t carry you and I won’t march out front on my own. But I do want us to head up this mountain together.” Due to our programmed expectations of what leadership is and isn’t, the response to such a declaration may often be a fearful assumption that there is no longer any leadership for the community.

On the other side of this fear are those who react strongly to bad leadership and become suspicious of anyone who claims to lead; they have decided to seek a leaderless environment. Perkins and Claiborne, in Follow Me to Freedom, claim that, “The answer to bad leadership isn’t no leadership; rather, it is good leadership.”

This book locates good leadership within the ability to submit to Christ and also to one’s community. Leaders are a part of the community they seek to lead. This flies squarely in the face of what I remember being taught in seminary. We were told that as leaders we would need to cultivate a community outside of our congregation. Leaders, at least paid ministers, have no choice but to remain somewhat distanced from the membership of a congregation for several reasons such as the power differential that is present due to the authority of the office and of course the reality that we can be fired/laid off at any point.

Such a viewpoint is poison to the cultivation of true community and the empowerment of people to follow Christ with their whole lives. Follow Me is refreshing in its treatment of leadership because it rejects this disconnected approach without rejecting leadership itself. It doesn’t matter if we are a small group of committed disciples sharing life together, a team of missionaries working among skeptical neighbors or the pastor of a large church: we all need to hear this message about leadership.

For Established Churches:

As movements become organizations, logistics and administration demand greater amounts of attention. Having served both as a domestic missionary and as a preacher for an established church I’ve seen both sides. That doesn’t let us off the hook though.

Claiborne points out that as busy as Jesus was, he never lost sight of the people and the struggles that plagued them.7 We must remain grounded in our call to love God and love one another - more than we love (or focus on) programs, events, sermons, committee meetings, building projects, etc. These things aren’t wrong, but they can definitely distract us from the greater things. This book provides helpful encouragement for keeping ourselves grounded in community.

Those operating within clearly defined structures may have less freedom or ability to change course or affect systemic change. Claiborne and Perkins understand this reality and remind us that, “leaders know how to nudge folks without pushing them.”8 However, the system doesn’t have to be officially redrawn before we can begin living out these principles. The leader that embraces the suffering of Christ, looks into the eyes of those in pain and chooses to act rather than duck into their office to study is a leader who is already beginning to change the system.

Practically speaking there are tremendous opportunities for powerful leadership within established churches. Follow Me to Freedom, describes a beautiful picture of hope in the midst of chaos that results from communities that respond to crises and natural disasters. The resources of God entrusted to the established church can be brought to bear against suffering, but there is a need for leadership that not only talks about care for our neighbor, but makes preparation to respond when the needs of our neighbors become apparent. The reality is that it is too easy to hold back our resources for our own comforts and preferences. Perkins and Claiborne remind us that the task of the leader who is submitted to Christ is to lead the whole community in the process of continually resubmitting to Christ through both prayer and action.

Wells Family Church Planting Update - April 2010

I put new roofs on three houses this past week (well...I managed the projects).

The life of domestic missionaries in Burleson, TX continues to baffle and astound us all. 2010 has gotten started with a whirlwind of seemingly random activity (unusual for our family, I know).

For starters, many of you are aware that the Christ Journey community and several friends in various locations decided to engage in a shared commitment to prayer and scripture reading. From January 1 to February 16 we spent six days a week reading through substantial passages of scripture and then processed our reading together on Sundays. During this time we read through Isaiah, Micah, Haggai, Hosea, Zechariah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts and Ephesians. We also spent time each day reading and praying over Luke 10:2, begging the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers into the field, asking that we may be those harvesters and that we would encounter those God was preparing to become harvesters as well.

Words cannot describe the impact that this has had. It was incredible to witness the ways in which the Holy Spirit opened scripture to our community and opened our eyes to miracles occurring all around. We came to expect our worship gathering each week to be opportunity to replay the miracles of the previous week and to anticipate even greater transformations in the coming week...what a novel thought for the people of God!

During this season we witnessed no fewer than a dozen NEW connections with broken people in search of something. Friendships were begun with exhausted single moms, angry dads and frustrated grandparents. We “randomly” reconnected with a few high school friends and had “chance” encounters with strangers.

Coming into this season, Chris and I both had some friendships that had developed over the past couple years but which seemed stuck. We had no idea how to help these friends take the next step in their journey...until we began praying more regularly and more specifically. Some of those friends have now shared dinner and spiritual conversation at the Chappotins’ house. I spent a morning at Denny’s with another of those friends, describing what it would look like to begin a house church in his living room.

Chris and I have both had friends who are either avowed atheists or who have said they have no use for church (regardless of whether or not there is a God) say to us in the past several weeks, “That is a Jesus I could get behind. Why haven’t I heard of this before?”

Over the last couple months, I’ve gotten to know a young man who is trying to leave behind a life of selling drugs and stolen merchandise. He’s already spent considerable time in jail. This past week we had a conversation about the radical new kingdom that Jesus came to announce. A kingdom that functions with a different understanding of power, success and wealth. The reign of God announced by Jesus is a direct attack against the systems of power fed by greed and manipulation. His response, “I like this. Is this way ever going to be possible?”

Our first season of reading was so transformational that we and the Chappotins have now completed our second round...and we’re making plans for what we’ll cover in round three.

I wish I could say that this amazing experience has solved all our frustrations and struggles. It hasn’t. Not even close. But it has certainly strengthened our framework of faith in order to accept those struggles.

The reality is that to reach many of the broken and hurting people in our community, many of whom have been burned by “Christians” or the church, we must go to them. Creating the newest high impact worship gathering or glossy invitation mailer will not get their attention because they aren’t interested in attending any religious gathering. A rocking worship band is cool...for people who are looking for Christian worship music. A fantastic children’s and youth ministry is attractive to those who are looking for a Christian place to take their kids. But what about those who aren’t so sure they want Christians teaching their kids anything?

To reach these broken people, we need to have a presence of hospitality in our neighborhood. We must be actively praying for God to open our eyes to those he’s allowing to cross our paths. We need to be inviting our kids’ friends and their parents to the park, and if Sunday morning is when they are available...

There’s a question that Chris and I have been asking people lately, “How long do you need to sit and listen to stories of Jesus before you are ready to share those stories with others?” I’ve known of good, kind, loving people who sit in Sunday school classes every week for decades on end without ever feeling that they are ready to invite someone else to follow Jesus. Why is that?


We realize that our goal must go beyond merely planting churches. Our goal is to call people to become fully devoted disciples of Jesus. Fully devoted disciples of Jesus are those who hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice; they make disciples who in turn make disciples. These disciples certainly worship together (we are still planting churches!) but they refuse to simply form a club that meets weekly. They are on mission together to be like the one they worship.

This is much more difficult than just planting churches...which isn’t an easy thing to begin with! Please continue to join us in prayer for the harvest and harvesters in the south Fort Worth area.

Now back to that comment about roofs...

This school year I’ve been substitute teaching to cover the balance of our financial needs. We have been so blessed to have such a large group of friends and family supporting us financially - some of you have now been partners with us for two years! We know that many of you have been giving, not out of your abundance, but sacrificially. We cannot thank you enough. Truly there are times that I am kept from despair by the realization that so many people believe in us and are praying for us. It is an honor to be entrusted to this ministry by God and supported in it by you.

In addition to subbing I began the process for obtaining certification as a junior high/ high school teacher. However, it became apparent that we weren’t going to be able to make it to September before that more substantial paycheck would possibly come along. So we continued moving forward in faith, praying that God would provide an answer.

We believe that answer was provided through a phone call from a friend I haven’t seen since 10th grade. David works for Quick Roofing here in the metroplex and invited me to join his team as a sales rep / roofing contractor.

After some time of prayer and deliberation we decided to go for it. I’m still subbing some, but mostly I’m devoting a large amount of my time learning and developing a customer base as a roofing contractor. It has been so promising that my little brother has decided to join me as well.

After this summer I will only have 1 class remaining in my DMin work (with just my doctoral project remaining), I do not anticipate subbing next year, and as my customer base and referrals grow in roofing, time spent “pounding the pavement” will decrease. I am hopeful that a more healthy and stable lifestyle is within reach.

We feel called to devote our lives and our time to proclaiming resurrection in the midst of darkness and pouring ourselves out for those who are skeptical and wary of the Christians; for those who desperately need to hear the good news of hope and new life. It appears that, at least for the time being, to do so faithfully I need to develop a “tent making” approach as Paul did at different points in his missionary journeys.

Such a transition is difficult and slow. I’m working very hard to keep all the plates spinning, but I continue to need your help. We are in a particularly vulnerable position right now and over the next year. In order to get this new job off the ground without abandoning my church planting and evangelistic calling, I will need continued support during this period.

If you are currently a financial partner with us, we hope that you will continue with us over this next year. If you are not currently, would you please consider doing so? Perhaps you have friends or a congregation that would be willing to contribute to this specific goal.

There are people right here in our own backyard who have never heard the gospel. Our Lord Jesus has called me to announce the arrival of the Kingdom to these very people, to proclaim good news to the poor and oppressed. I readily acknowledge that I will not be able to fulfill my calling without the support of God’s people in this land - this is a call that must be lived out in and supported by the community. And I am convinced that God wouldn’t have it any other way.

Helping the Church Be the Church: Part IV - Longing for Spring

The timing has been atrocious. I'm struggling to move into a bi-vocational approach to church planting. I'm working insane hours trying to keep the plates spinning and have seen a few come crashing down lately. In the midst of this circus I'm reading a whole list of books and writing a somewhat lengthy paper for SMU. Typically, I like to set regular time aside to process through books of this nature - especially a long list that work together somehow. Time to read and process is a bit of a luxury these days.

Even though it has been hard to keep up with the self-inflicted pace, the books have been phenomenal. I've posted a few excerpts from my paper and introduced a few of these books. This weekend I'm trying to finish sections 5 and 6 so that I can work on 7 and 8 next week.

Here is the introduction to the section covering a short, but incredibly helpful book by my professor, Elaine Heath. If anyone has read this (or any of the others I've referenced) please share your thoughts as well.

Longing For Spring: A New Vision for Wesleyan Community by Elaine Heath and Scott Kisker.

Though addressed largely to a Wesleyan audience, Heath and Kisker have issued a call to the church at large with this short book. Perhaps what is most striking is the clear conviction that something new is possible, even within reach, for established churches. The formation of new monastic communities does not have to be seen as competition or rebellion, it can be embraced as a faithful and powerful ministry of the church, with deep roots in our various traditions.

Regardless of one’s denominational affiliation Longing for Spring provides an apology for continued connection between the established church and more organic expressions that many have sought to cultivate. In the forward, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove notes that, “as we learn to navigate a rising tide, we are all increasingly aware of the degree to which we are in the same boat.”

If the book, New Monasticism, (written about here) addressed the question of what the new monastic movement has to say to the church, then this book begins to describe ways in which that conversation can bear fruit in the church.

The desire for authentic community and the call to live out whole-life discipleship beyond membership in an organization are in no way new impulses in Christianity.

As others have done before, Longing for Spring explores some of the different expressions that have arisen throughout our history, from the Benedictines and Beguines to Pietists and notably, the early Methodists. Herein lies a subject often apparently overlooked in both monastic and missional literature.

The semi-monastic structure of bands and class meetings in early Methodism contained several components that are essential to the cultivation of authentic community. The “bands” were small, gender and life-situation specific groups that met together regularly for prayer and confession. The Wesley brothers developed this discipleship tool from what they encountered among the Moravians in America.

The mutual accountability and humility fostered by these bands were reminiscent of the more intentional monastic communities previously mentioned.

The class meetings were even more central to the formation of Methodist community. Though attendance had decreased since the mid-19th century, until 1939 participation in these meetings officially defined membership the society. Because the classes were lay led, the beginning of localized clergy in Methodism marked the gradual ending the class meetings’ significance.

The relatively short span of monastic influence in Methodism may be to blame for its relative obscurity outside Methodist circles. However, the demise of the class meetings may well have something of great value to teach us all regarding monastic and missional community.

I find no reason to suspect that anyone within the denominational hierarchy sought to discourage the monastic impulses in Methodism by moving away from a truly itinerant preacher system. However, Kisker notes that with the arrival of localized clergy, people could go straight to him with their questions, and the lay led class system slowly (depending on perspective) lost its efficacy. Would the effect have been different had the localized preacher been called from the congregation rather than placed from the outside through a still somewhat itinerant system?

Whether a different process would have still affected class participation can be debated. It seems less debatable that, in the given case, there is a clear connection between the presence of ordained clergy and a decrease in the “regular” disciples’ participation in monastic commitments. Stated another way, the localization of clergy appears in this case to be correlated with an increase in a more passive consumer approach to religion.

I do not think there is enough evidence here to suggest that having ordained or trained ministers located in a community will universally lead to lower levels of whole-life discipleship. However, Kisker’s brief historical sketch does clearly suggest that we should think carefully about the impact our models of leader selection and preparation may have on future generations of disciples, particularly if we desire to see an increase in missional and monastic characteristics.

Helping the Church Be the Church: Part III - Response to The Mystic Way

I recently posted a short excerpt from the book, The Mystic Way of Evangelism, by Elaine Heath. Several people have asked about the book so I thought I'd include a couple short sections from a paper I wrote. For those that haven't read the previous posts on this topic (read intro here), the paper is a review of 12 books pertaining to new monasticism and creative missional expressions of faith. After reading each of the books, I'm asking 3 primary questions: 1) What does this book offer new monastic communities? 2) What does this book offer missional/monastic church planting movements? 3) What does this book offer to the established church wrestling with these issues?

This paper is meant to provide a 30,000 foot view - it isn't meant to touch on every important aspect (otherwise I'd never be able to deal with all 12 books in this one paper!)

Regarding The Mystic Way, here is a section from my introduction and question #3 (pertaining to the established church).

Is the American Church experiencing a dark night of the soul? Elaine Heath thinks so and I doubt many people find this hard to believe, or even surprising. What we may have not considered is her claim that this dark night is a necessary component of the path to renewed health, vitality and evangelistic impact. In a world that is becoming increasingly aware of the widening disparity between the have’s and have not’s; a culture that has come to suspect that the Modernist/Enlightenment project was never more than a smoke-and-mirrors illusion, perhaps a good dose of humility is precisely what the Church needs.

Particularly here in the West, we have come to exhibit a level of entitlement that is (for some of the people I talk to on a regular basis) simultaneously terrifying and nauseating. We expect the government to enforce our religious convictions on others, yet we hit the streets in protest if we feel they’re infringing on our religious turf through taxation or accountability. It seems that we want to be simultaneously protected and ignored. We want to get something for nothing. Just as it did on Wall Street, that mentality may be leading to a crash.

I received the following text message yesterday from a member of our community: “If u can, turn to am-660, the topic is ‘zoning ordinances pertaining to religious home meetings.’ I think its important to note that the public conversation has begun.” There seems to be an increasing population of people dissatisfied with the Church attempting to function as a business in the competitive market, without playing by the market’s rules.

Operating with a sense of entitlement, functioning as a business (with or without proper oversight) and holding an ends-justify-the-means mentality to support coercive or deceptive evangelistic strategies may have all contributed to the present situation. For this reason, I think Heath is correct in The Mystic Way of Evangelism, to suggest that the way out is to move through, not skirt around, this dark night. This assertion simultaneously strikes chords of fear and hope because, as she says, “Though the dark night is perilous, with no guarantee of a good outcome, it holds the possibility of new beginnings.”

Heath’s book traces the ancient three-fold way of the contemplatives and mystics which includes purgation, illumination and union. Perhaps our present experience is one of purgation, not unlike the Israelites wandering around in the desert while time and new birth cleansed the community of its institutionalized slave mentality.

You can’t hurry a process that only occurs over time, but you can often hinder your progress and increase both the stress and duration of the ordeal. As we transitioned into more organic and whole-life expressions of faith, there were a myriad of different expectations, assumptions and (mis)understandings that had to be purged through our own desert experience. There was no way to rush through this time, and in many ways the process continues even today.

The Mystic Way reminded me that regardless of one’s specific context, the interior life (particularly with the intention of it bearing fruit in community) is something we cultivate rather than instantly inherit. We did not arrive at our present location overnight, nor will we relocate in such a way.

What does it have to offer the established church?

I recently saw a commercial attempting to convince people that they need to take action when they notice the early signs of a stroke in another person (which I never realized was a problem). The scene involves a young man with an arrow through his chest, confidently declaring, “It’s no big deal.” Perhaps this commercial could have also been used as a trailer for the release of The Mystic Way.

It is a big deal. The situation in our churches today is a big deal. The question that remains to be answered definitively is whether or not we will adequately acknowledge and respond to the situation.

Several years ago I heard Walter Brueggemann speak about prophetic ministries. He reminded us that prophets will not be effective unless the people to whom they speak are aware (or are made aware) that there is a problem to begin with. It appears that some of our churches are beginning to realize what many who have left our churches are saying: “something isn’t working.”

Mission Alive, a church planting resource group with which our team is connected, was formed in 2004 by missiologist, Dr. Gailyn VanRheenan, whose study of the status of churches in North America convicted him of the need for renewed efforts in domestic mission work. One fairly new aspect of Mission Alive is a ministry called REvision, where leaders from established churches are trained - often by and alongside current church planters - to develop, communicate and implement a missional ecclesiology within their traditional context.

It is still too early to assess the impact that this ministry is having on the congregations involved, but the hope and prayer is that there is hope beyond only planting new churches. As Brueggemann pointed out, a lack of awareness of the situation among a majority of the leadership (let alone the whole congregation) seems to be one roadblock to the needed growth and maturation process. Standing outside the circle throwing rocks may get people’s attention, but then we have the added roadblock of angry people with bruises on their heads!

I believe that The Mystic Way can serve the established church by raising awareness of the need for whole-life discipleship / community and presenting a way forward that doesn’t require a violent dismantling of congregations, yet contains practical content for how to proceed.

Heath describes in several brief, but encouraging sections, different potential avenues for partnership between established, "anchor churches" and new communities. The picture is one of mutual encouragement and support, where the strengths of each are used to build up the other rather than being placed in tension and competition. The question that looms in my mind is whether or not this is possible given the history of turf-wars, power struggles and (to be totally honest) market-driven-rather-than-kingdom-focused definitions of success in the church. The Mystic Way, suggests that it is not only a possibility, but is a necessary and exciting present opportunity.