…and saline is really not good for my Mac keyboard. (I know there’s lots more to tears than salt. Whatever.)

Jason Coker is one of those writers. He’s also the co-founder of TwoShirts.org with his wife, Jenell. You need to check out TwoShirts. If there was ever a missional enterprise, this would be it.

I met Jason at Sundance this year. (He was one of those guys asking the intelligent questions during the Windrider Forum. I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut. You can read Jason’s Sundance reports here.) My regret was not spending more time with him. One of the ‘gators @ MT, Rick Meigs, had been blog-conversationing with Jason earlier in the week and suggested Jason introduce himself. He did. I didn’t take enough of an advantage of the time. (I can hear Napoleon Dynamite in my mind’s ear.)

Jason has posted about Two Shirts at MT. Please read his post and comment there. Check out TwoShirts. (I know. It’s not supposed to be capitalized.) Get involved.

And if you need your tear ducts cleaned out - read the story of Kelli and Donna @ TwoShirts.

Note this is cross posted @ kinnon.tv

I’ve cross posted this here from my other blog. I’m convinced that film and the discussions film engender can be part of missional conversations as we move into the neighborhood. Here’s my first report from this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

I find it hard to believe that we are nearing the end of our fourth day @ the Windrider Forum. I’ve put a Rough Cut video up @ the Windrider Forum site. It will give you a bit of a taste of what has been happening during the first few days of this week. Another video will be up on Saturday, if all goes as planned. We head home on Sunday.

Please check out Imbi’s posts @ the Windrider Toronto site, as well.

In terms of the Festival, I haven’t seen as many films as Imbi, Kaili and the rest of the 150+ Windrider folk here - but I have seen a few that I’ve found interesting. First, a short.

This morning we watched Short Term 12, a film by Destin Daniel Cretton, produced by Michelle Steffes - both with strong connections to the Windrider Forum. Though Michelle and Destin had chatted briefly before last year’s Windrider Forum @ Park City - they became friends at that event when both showed their short films. Michelle showcased her short film, Driftwood. Destin and Lowell Frank’s Deacon’s Mondays was shown as part of the Angelus Award Winners evening.

This year, Short Term 12 was one of 5600 entrants in the Sundance Shorts program. It was one of 96 shorts chosen to be premiered @ Sundance and one of the 10 recognized at the Sundance Short Film Festival Awards last night - it was the winner!

Brad William Henke (Choke, Sherry Baby, World Trade Center) is Denim, the supervisor for a residential facility housing 15 kids who are all affected by child abuse and neglect in unimaginable ways. Inside the gates of Short Term 12, awols and fights and restraints happen every day and Denim knows how to respond. But as his personal life collides with work, he begins to realize that he is no better off than the kids he’s trying to help.

Shot entirely on location at the MacLaren Children’s Center in Los Angeles, the film places viewers within the walls of a real facility and lets them feel what it’s like to live and work in a place where hope is often difficult to find. An all-star ensemble cast radiates in this gritty and honest look at how human beings, no matter the age, inevitably impact each other.

As I said to Destin and Michelle before we interviewed them here @ Windrider, the film really “messed me up.” It is powerful and very well done. Not the usual cinema fare for 10am in the morning - but one well worth seeing. And further proof of the good things coming out of relationships expanded by Windrider.

Last night we watched the troubling, but very well done, Sin Nombre. The first feature from Cary Joji Fukunaga, a Bay-area man of Japanese/Swedish heritage, the film is the story of Honduran illegal immigration to the US, the gangs that feed off it and love and amongst the pain and violence. Told entirely in Spanish, with sub-titles, the film is a violent but realistic portrayal of lives hunger for the promise of the American dream - one that they are willing to die for in an effort to achieve it. It is a good film and worth seeing. I especially appreciate the photo-journalistic shooting style of Fukunaga - no shakycam, no bleached colour effects.

This afternoon we watched the lighter fare offered by Arlen Faber. The film stars Jeff Daniels and is the story of a man who creates an industry around his book, God and Me. Funny with some level of spiritual insight, the movie has some great lines. Daniels co-star, Lauren Graham is winsome in her part as Arlen’s love interest though her casting seems to be a variation on a theme of her Gilmore Girl’s role. I wouldn’t rush to the cinema to see it, but I would definitely watch it on cable.

I’ll update you with more Windrider and Sundance information in the next day or so. It’s good to be here but I do look forward to being back in Toronto and back to regular blogging.

This is a combination of the post I wrote for last summer’s Missional Synchroblog and a part two I wrote at kinnon.tv

In may of ‘08, my wife, Imbi and I spent a number of weeks in the UK shooting a documentary on Fresh Expressions - the mission-shaped church movement that is significantly impacting the Verdant Green Isle. One of the things that struck us was the long view of the people. Theirs wasn’t a “just add hot water and stir” approach to “growing the church”. They had a real understanding that re-establishing the church in a post-Christian nation might well be a Hebrews 11 experience.

We spent a number of days with Pete and Kath Atkins in Lincolnshire. (We could have easily spent weeks with them - gracious hosts that they are.) Pete drove us around the area, introducing us to the new life of the church that is being planted in the towns and villages of rural England. He also shared the incredible Christian history of the region - the reality that expressions of the church have existed in Lincolnshire since the 2nd Century. And that sense of history informs the FX approach to mission-shaped church. They recognize their place in the continuum of time.

Those of us brought up in North America normally often lack a sense of history. We live in the immediate. We expect instant gratification. Fast food, fast cars, high-speed everything - we want to get to the future, now. Our approach to the kingdom reflects this. That is to get as many people to accept a “ticket to heaven” as quickly as possible using the most modern Methods-Time Measurement techniques. If putting on a show will get them to accept that ticket quicker, then dammit, we’ll rival Las Vegas in the shows we put on. It’s all about the efficiencies of delivering services that convince people to accept their tickets.

A missional understanding of the church places us within a historical context. It removes the ticket to heaven pressure that the Western Evangelical Church has placed upon itself. Missional people recognize that God is on the move in our villages, towns and cities. We need to engage with Him in what He’s doing. Rather than building big box church warehouses that “vacuum cleaner up all the surrounding Christians” (to paraphrase Al Roxburgh @ the end of the video, Three Churches and a New Age Mall) and calling that the Church, we are to be the leaven that permeates our neighborhoods with the lived out good news of Jesus Christ.

I was struck by this comment from Kevin Kelly riffing on Freeman Dyson (in the NYTimes).

…while progress runs on exponential curves, our individual lives proceed in a linear fashion. We live day by day by day. While we might think time flies as we age, it really trickles out steadily. Today will always be more valuable than some day in the future, in large part because we have no guarantee we’ll get that extra day. Ditto for civilizations. In linear time, the future is a loss. But because human minds and societies can improve things over time, and compound that improvement in virtuous circles, the future in this dimension is a gain. Therefore long-term thinking entails the confluence of the linear and the exponential. The linear march of our time intersects the cascading rise and fall of numerous self-amplifying exponential forces. Generations, too, proceed in a linear sequence. They advance steadily one after another while pushed by the compounding cycles of exponential change. [emphasis added]

Missional communities have within them the potential to exponentially infect the communities where they have been strategically placed by the hand of God. As they live out their lives now, embedding themselves into the very warp and woof of the community life - they embody the profound possibility of working as leaven - permeating the entire “loaf” of their community.

This way of thinking runs counter to the ROI mindset of much Western church planting. (We have an expectation of Return on Investment when we provide funding for church plants.) The McDonalds/Consumer Church mindset of numbers now is what kills the spirit of missional church. As Dave Fitch writes, (blogging about missional leaders)

In my opinion it takes at least 5 years of “seeding a community” before one even begins to see an ethos of community and new life develop that can be a cultural carrier-transmitter of the gospel.

Only a long view allows us live in the midst of the now and the not yet. We have a real expectation and hope of seeing the Kingdom lived out in our communities - but we recognize that we may be like those in Hebrews 11 who do never see the fruit of their labour. Does this mean we abandon the life and return to a consumer church model? God help me, no! As I’ve said before, Hudson Taylor and David Livingston did not see the overwhelming harvest that continues to come from the seeds they planted as missionaries in China and Africa, respectively - but they lived with both an expectation and a hope for that harvest.

As the Christendom model of church wheezes to an end, not with a bang but a whimper, this next reformation sees us following the Spirit of God back into the neigbourhood - realizing that He is on the move - building his kingdom amongst the people in those neighbourhoods. As both Stetzer and Fitch affirm in their conversation, this still means we must be able to effectively communicate the Gospel story - but much of the communication will come in how we live our lives amongst our neighbours. Might I again suggest that Luke 10 provides us with the Jesus-model of neighbourhood “ministry”.

Kevin Kelly reminds us that long-term thinking entails the confluence of the linear and the exponential. We must live our lives faithfully amongst our neighbours. Not avoiding gathering as believers as we live our lives out day by day, but realizing that we, the tangible Kingdom of God in the midst our neighbourhood - exist for those very neighbours. And though we may not see it in our own lifetime, we have a real expectation for the exponential growth of the Kingdom of God in our neighbourhoods.

Fitch says this at the end of the aforementioned blog post,

Like a fermenting revolution evolving out of a tired and reified ancien regime, these tiny bands of Christians have come on the scene committed to live a life together of worship, spiritual formation, community, hospitality and service to the poor (of all kinds). In ways never imagined by the machinations of the mega church, many of these bands are already infecting their neighborhoods with an embodied gospel that cannot be denied, only responded to. Knowing Christendom is gone, they carry no pretension. Instead they embody the gospel in its most compelling, authentic, non-coercive form. This new wave of Christians is small in number and possesses little to no resources financially. Most do not impress with their grandiose visions. They do not hang in the halls of power. They do not make a show of their successes. Yet their vision of a simple Christian habitat as witness in the world reminds me of the Irish missional orders God used to effect a profound conversion of European society in the 4th century. We have seen the world changed like this once before (read How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill). Could we be in the early stages of seeing God move in a similar fashion once again? Let us pray it be so. [emphasis and link added]

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Pete and Kath Atkins turned us on to the Academy Award winning animated short film (made in Canada, no less) called The Man Who Planted Trees. They see this film as the almost perfect metaphor for how mission-shaped believers will be the leaven in our neighborhoods. (Pete and Kath Atkins feature prominently in the mission-shaped leaders documentary coming from Imbi later this spring (2009).

This was originally posted on my personal blog. After some recent comments from Dave Fitch and Todd Hiestand on this particular post,  I thought it might be appropriate to put it up on MT.

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What is Missional? (Missional Synchroblog)

Missional Sunday Morning

I got up from a good night’s missional sleep and ready for a missional day. Missionally showered with missional shampoo and headed out the door. Jumped into the missional SUV and exited the missional neighborhood - heading for the partially-opened missional church doors. Sang missional songs with the gathered missional people, listened to the missional sermon, partook in the Lord’s missional Supper, got a missional blessing, grabbed a fair trade missional coffee at the door, picked the SUV up from the missional parking lot and headed missionally home. I just love being missional.

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Almost a year ago, I wrote a post called Missional Shampoo - it was a humourous comment on the use / misuse / overuse of the word “missional.”

After much research, product testing (on my kids…no animals were hurt in the making of this product), test marketing and focus grouping, I’m proud to release Newbigin’s Missional Shampoo. I’m profoundly convinced that this will be the best shampoo you will ever use. There is a real narrative behind this product - a wonderful story.

It would appear the use / misuse / overuse of the word has not improved in the ensuing months. Rick Meigs challenged us to respond.

A Little Historical BG

Much of the missional conversation has been driven by Bishop Lesslie Newbigin’s response to the British culture he returned to in the mid-seventies. He’d been a missionary in India from the 30’s onward. To him, it was obvious that British culture was post-Christian. His response to the situation, in both books and as a speaker, provoked the Gospel and Our Culture Network, and impacted writers, professors, missiologists & practioners including Alan Roxburgh, Craig Van Gelder, Ed Stetzer, Darrell Guder, David Fitch, Alan Hirsch, Colin Green and others. (Note: The Gospel and Our Culture Network roots are in the UK - I’m primarily referencing its American cousin here.)

Guder edited one of the important early missional books from a North American context - Missional Church. Roxburgh and Van Gelder contributed chapters to this book and have written other books that contribute to the conversation. Fitch’s The Great Giveaway is an absolute must read. Stetzer has written and spoken extensively on the missional imperative. Hirsch’s The Forgotten Ways is quoted constantly in the emerging/missional blogosphere.

Note: Part One of raucous and fun conversation between Fitch and Stetzer on missional will be up next week on the Missional Tribe site - January 6th, 2009. It was shot last month in Chicago by Imbi and myself.

It is also important to recognize the work of the late South African Missiologist, David Bosch. He has had a profound impact on the missional conversation.

Mission is, quite simply, the participation of Christians in the liberating mission of Jesus, wagering on a future that verifiable experience seems to belie. It is good news of God’s love, incarnated in the witness of a community, for the sake of the world. [via Wikipedia - from Bosch's book, Jesus, the Suffering Messiah, and our Missionary Motive]

So what is this “missional conversation” about.

To quote Eugene Peterson, it’s about,

The Word (who) became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.

Becoming missional means we realize that Jesus has “moved into the neighborhood” and we are to follow him. It stands in stark contrast to church buildings that say, come - so sadly illustrated in this shot on Rick’s recent post. Missional stands counter to the attractional church model of Christendom.

I believe there are three aspects to this discussion. Missional is incarnational - in that we are to be the hands, feet and voice of Jesus in our neighborhoods - positional in that we are to move out and amongst, and relational - we are to love our neighbors, whether they ever darken the doorsteps of our church buildings or not - in fact, whether they ever even “become Christians”.

Luke 10 provides a framework for that journey as we move into our neighborhoods - engaging everyone we meet - entering wherever we are invited - receiving hospitality and engaging in relationship - understanding that in C.S. Lewis’ words, Aslan IS on the move - and we are to follow Him.

Well, that is what missional seems to mean. But…

Do an Amazon search today on the word “missional” and you’ll get 1,237 product results. Google “missional” and you’ll get just under a million hits. I track the word missional in Google Reader (via Google Alerts) and one day last week there were over 150 blog posts on one day that used the word.

Missional has quickly become the latest buzzword. Christendom expressions of every form are applying the word to their “ministries”. It’s as if “missional” is some sort of “secret sauce” that will re-invigorate their church programs. We have come to the point where “missional” may, in fact and in deed, mean nothing. Churches, that by any reasonable estimation are exclusively attractional - now call themselves missional. Their mission is to attract people to their church - which, to their way of thinking, must mean they are missional.

The Christendom reality is that we want people to come to us. We’ve built these great buildings (in some cases) and we want/need to get butts in the pews/chairs/theatre seating. We’ll do just about anything to fill those chairs  - right up to and including Cirque de Soleil acrobats. (And then try to explain away tragedies that occur in the CdS attempts.)

We compete for the same audience as Hollywood and we’ll use whatever technique necessary to get that audience. Let me quote Dick Staub from his very good book, The Culturally Savvy Christian,

Many evangelicals who once had been rooted in a tradition of deep spiritual growth became obsessed with growth as measured by numbers of conversions and increased church attendance. Increasingly and often uncritically, they relied on technology and marketing to generate successful numeric and economic growth. The art and craft of marketing are built around appeals to self interest, offering individuals something they want and desire. Conventional marketing wisdom advocates taking the path of least resistance in order to achieve success. Christian marketers embraced this approach, mastering it in order to raise money and sell the gospel. The result was often a Christianity that, on the surface at least, looked and sounded as driven by a focus on the self as the rest of American culture. [Pg. 38.  emphasis added]

We are so enmeshed in this consumer culture that we can no longer see it. Like fish, it is the water in which we swim. So the word “missional” just becomes one more marketing tool in our attractional toolbox to get people to the show. The consumer culture is so pervasive that I’m not sure many of us are willing or able to extricate ourselves from this world view. We can only attempt to understand missional through the attractional church model lens with which we view Christianity.

Let me end this rather long post with this short story from my non-missional church experience. We went to a service that honored a number of kids graduating from high school. It was a very good service with a good sermon from the pastor. But one of the things that stood out for me was his comment to us all of the importance of “going to church.” And by that, he did mean coming to the building.

Now, this is a man, who if you asked him whether “the church” was a building, would quickly set you straight.

“Of course not Bill! The church is the gathered people of God wherever they gather.”

But, I would suggest that our reality is that when we say “go to church” we mean go to a building. Whether we deny it or not, it frames how we think of the church. Church is a building - and we want you to come with us to it. Especially if our church has the best music, the greatest technology and the most comfortable seats. Oh. And how could I forget. The best coffee bar in the lobby or church food court - selling missional fair trade coffee, of course.

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Here are some further resources for your What is Missional study:

At Allelon, I’ve produced a number of interviews that address the question What is Missional Church? Interview guests include Eddie Gibbs, Ryan Bolger, Craig Van Gelder, Pat Keifert, Bishop Graham Cray and Brian McLaren. The site also features David Fitch’s Church Planting via Missional Orders - that I shot during the Resonate Canada Cultivate Gathering at The Freeway in Hamilton, last fall. Note that Fitch et al have a Missional Gathering in Fort Wayne, IN this coming Saturday, January 3rd, 2009.There’s also some great content featuring The Freeway’s Pernell Goodyear along with Alan Roxburgh; Training Missional Leaders - Part One and Part Two. (I think Part Two is the strongest.)

I also want to point you at a video Imbi and I produced prior to my involvement with Allelon, Three Churches and A New Age Mall with Alan Roxburgh - embeddable on your blog from YouTube - a short and
powerful indictment of where much of the church is today. It’s also available here on the Allelon site. (We rebranded the video as an Allelon Netcast when I worked with them.)

The conversations and stories in these video resources have helped frame my understanding of “missional.”