Eternal Perspectives

Part One
Part Two

(Following is the third and final part of a proposed paper for elder and leadership development and orientation at my friend Butch’s church, Hole-in-the-Wall Church. Feedback is desired.)

5. What does it mean to be a part of a Mission Church?

Dr. Timothy Keller, Sr. Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City has been teaching about the ramifications of being a mission(al) church in New York City for years. I would encourage everyone to visit their website by clicking the link above. The following section is adapted from his materials.

Our culture used to be Christianized. Not that the hearts of all people were in it, but they were living more or less in a Christian worldview. Churches still assume that Christianized people are walking through their doors with a biblical worldview. Clearly, this is not so.

People without Christ require multiple exposures to the gospel, in word and especially in deed. They need to have multiple exposures to the message of the gospel on the lips and in the lives of those identified as Christians. The church is to be hospitable – individually and corporately – in every way to those who do not know Christ or his message. The journey for many who come to know Christ from our non-Christian culture often looks something like this:

1. They understand what Christianity really is - “So this is what it means to follow Christ.”

2. They sense that they need Christ.

3. They realize they need it because it is true, not just because it does something for them (this is a really important distinction).

4. They try it on and kick the tires.

5. They take it – commit to Christ

6. They get continual reinforcement about what the gospel means in their life.

None of the above should be construed to rule out the role of God in salvation: election, efficacious call, and the enabling of the Holy Spirit to believe are indispensable. The above describes the experiential and (to others) visible process of unbelievers being “called out” by God.

6. Features of a church that is hospitable to non-believers in our culture today:

1. We love our city and don’t see it as a place from which we need to hide. This means that at Hole-in-the-Wall Church that we don’t talk disparagingly or judgmentally about East Cupcake. To us, postmodernity is not a four-letter word but merely the latest attempt of a fallen people seeking to make sensible and tolerable an existence apart from God. We love the city and Sundance University and we see great potential and opportunity for the cause of God’s kingdom in both.

2. We use common language for the culture; this necessitates that:

a. we always explain Biblical terms and ideas in plain English, eschewing jargon that results in a Christian shibboleth. We acknowledge that some Biblical concepts are complex or incomprehensible to people and we openly admit it. We try to get inside the worldviews of people who are not Christ-followers and ask the question, “how would this sound to them?” We do not dodge hard Biblical concepts but instead we simply are sensitive to how foreign they might sound;

b. we avoid Christian jargon, i.e., spiritual talk. At Hole-in-the-Wall it is undesirable and unacceptable to hear a teacher say, “God has laid it on my heart today to tell you…” Pious language is avoided since it tends to exclude the uninitiated. We want to communicate at Hole-in-the-Wall Church like people would talk in the world outside our doors, i.e., we want to sound like normal people. We don’t draw a distinction between “church talk” and “normal talk,” e.g., talking one way while at church and another way while at work or school;

c. we endeavor to avoid “we-they” language (“we” being believers and “they” being pagans).

3. We connect the Christ story to the baseline cultural narrative. For example, in East Cupcake the dominant nonbiblical worldview would see freedom at its core, i.e., freedom of inquiry, freedom from judgment, freedom to be who or what you should be, free to be one’s own arbiter of truth. Worldviews answer the question “what is wrong with society and what will make it right?” At Hole-in-the-Wall Church we talk about how only Jesus can give people the kind of freedom and answers that they are looking for.

4. We have worship that is biblically evangelistic. At Hole-in-the-Wall that means that we are conscious that non-believers are present in our services even as they were at Corinth during New Testament times. We desire that the non-believer would look at the way Christ-followers worship God in our services and then fall down and worship God, exclaiming “God is really among you” (1 Cor 14.25). This means that our teaching, music, and times of prayer will be excellent and inclusive. We realize that not everyone in the service is a Christ-follower and not only acknowledge but anticipate and prepare for it.

5. We train people how to be Christians in the workplace and neighborhood. At Hole-in-the-Wall that means that we do not distinguish between the sacred and the secular in terms of vocation. When people are at work they are God’s presence at their workplace, serving God (Col 3.23).

6. We seek to be counter-cultural not sub-cultural: we are not a Christian club but a called-out and sent-out community that shares power and seeks justice. At Hole-in-the-Wall we will not have a Christian school, Christian athletic league, or Christian campaigns against various moral issues of the day. We will not march against gay marriage, abortion, or other cultural values and practices we find to be in conflict with biblical truth. The reason for this refusal is not because truth is not important, but because such polarizing activities tend to divide and separate us from the very culture we are trying to reach. People reject - not Jesus Christ but - Christianity as it is manifested in local churches and Christian groups and individuals.

This is why it is so toxic for the gospel when Christians picket and boycott and complain about how bad the world is. This behavior doesn’t help. It makes it worse. It isn’t the kind of voice Jesus wants his followers to have in the world. Why blame the dark for being dark? It is far more helpful to ask why the light isn’t as bright as it could be.” - Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, p 166

Better still, we at Hole-in-the-Wall seek to actively bring light to the dark and not engage in fruitless discussions about the problems that keep the church from being more effective.

7. We are non-sectarian. We are not against other Christians, individually or corporately. This means at Hole-in-the-Wall we will not denigrate other Christians or Christian organizations even if we disagree with them on non-essential matters. (Even when engaged in disagreement over essential Christian truths, we will always seek to speak the truth in love.) We are not only for other churches in our denomination but we are for any church anywhere that proclaims the gospel of Christ. We want to major on the majors.

8. We want to practice effective evangelism in the community. We long for a church that succeeds in facilitating highly secular and postmodern people coming to Christ. We do not desire only to gather more and more conservative and traditionally-minded people. Unlike religious moralism, e.g., the Moral Majority political action group, the gospel of Jesus Christ produces people who do not disdain or demean those who disagree with them. A gospel-born, mission church can be filled with people who respond to current cultural hopes and aspirations in a winsome manner, manifesting Christ’s love and his saving work.

In the growing attractiveness of the love and unity of its community and the humility of its people, Hole-in-the-Wall longs to attract a significant number of people to our services who are exploring Christian truth claims. We must welcome them in countless small-yet-significant ways. Our strategy is for our entire community to be humble and welcoming, not for us to be an event-driven church where we have evangelistic services or concerts or an evangelistic star (preacher) asking for an evangelistic special commitment. We do not believe such methods are the best ways to reach our East Cupcake community today.

9. We long to integrate faith and work. Many evangelical Christians have been taught to compartmentalize or isolate their faith from their work. They believe that the gospel is a way for them to find peace and avoid hell but do not view it as a comprehensive “worldview”: a way of interpreting all of the messages that we receive from and all events we perceive in the world.

At Hole-in-the-Wall, we intend for the gospel to affect the way we do art, business, government, journalism, entertainment, academics, and all human endeavors. Developing a philosophy of humane, creative, and excellent business practices out of our biblical worldview can be part of the work of renewing our minds and restoring creation in the power of the Holy Spirit. Such a church will be attractive to postmodern people by showing them that the resources of Christ for resolving baseline cultural problems do not have to come from a belligerent faith.

Conclusion: Serving the Common Good

We do not want to form a community that simply tries to counter the values of the dominant culture: we want to be a church that sacrificially serves the good of the whole city and postmodern culture, even though we do not share their worldview. Therefore, we do not see the worship service on Sunday as our primary connecting point with those in our community. We engage the non-Christian community throughout the week as our members work for peace, security, justice, and the prosperity of the poor in our community in myriad ways. We are resident aliens (1 Pet 2.11) who are seek to live exemplary lives of sacrificial service to people regardless of their sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or any other potentially divisive factor. We will not be attractive to that community if engage in coercive or political power-plays in and manipulation of any of the media. We do not ultimately or primarily exist for the prosperity of our own group but for ultimate and eternal good of all the people in our community.