Missional Church Planting

[Nik P.]

I'm being open here; Dave Fitch is my mentor from back in Chicago. This is a 15 min video on "church planting" but I also agree with the theology behind it. We are a "sent" people into a sometimes hostile environment. How do we do this intentionally, together?

Dave Fitch - the Cultivate Talk on Missional Orders from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

[Editor]

Re-posted from Frank Viola's Blog. Original page linked:

More Thoughts on Missional - Some Interesting Testimonies
Posted by: frankaviola | November 11, 2008

I just returned from speaking at a conference with Milt Rodriguez in Ohio. It was a great experience. Because I’m back-logged from being away, I don’t have time to write the post that I had wanted to for this week. So I’ll save that one for next Monday, God willing.

But I do want to make a few observations about our conference.

In talking to people there (we had a little over 100 over the course of the weekend, even though the limit was 75), a few things struck me:

1. a number of Christians who are involved in the present missional movement confessed “I thought I had known the Lord, and now I realize I really don’t know Him very well. I want and need to know Him deeply.”

2. quite a few believers said, “I’ve been a Christian all my life and have been to many different types of churches and have heard thousands of sermons, how come no one is preaching this? I’ve never heard this before. Why?

3. a number of the folks who have been reading missional books said, “I now realize that I’ve been serving God in my own strength. I really don’t know how to live by an indwelling Lord, I admit it. I want to eat from the tree of life and not from not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as I have been. I’m excited to know that I actually can live by Jesus Christ.”

4. some of them, weeping, said that they had been set free. They confessed that they had always known in their minds that the Lord loved them, they would repeat it and tell others the same thing, but it really didn’t register deep within their hearts. But this weekend, something broke and it broke them.

During one of his talks, Milt talked about the difference between “the root” and “the fruit.” That much of Christianity today is focused on “the fruit” — doing something for God. Looking at the earthly life of Jesus. And of course, trying to imitate it. Instead of focusing on “the root” — the source of life, which is Christ in us, which naturally, organically, and without effort or strain produces the fruit, once it’s tapped into.

My main sharing had to do with some of the nuances of living by an indwelling Christ, the difference between eating from the two trees (practically), a practical beginning on how to encounter the Lord Jesus through Scripture, and the bait and switch gospel. I also unloaded my heart about those young men out there who are trying to do something for God. The entire weekend we spoke out of Romans 8. As I said in the introduction, “we’re going to take a bath in Romans 8 this weekend.” What a glorious chapter it is.

Milt then said something that resonated with lots of people in the room. He said, “when I was 21 years old I was encouraged to serve the Lord and I did, at full steam. Yet I had just gotten saved! And the reality was, I hardly knew the Lord. I thought I did and I was ambitious to serve Him. But years later I realized that I really didn’t know my Lord that well. I was trying to serve a God and tell others about a God that I knew little about experientially.

This is the dilemma that so many Christians in their 20s and 30s face today.

Anyways, I had better stop here. I’ve got too much to do this week to catch up along with some new projects I’ve not yet begun.

But I will end with this. I wish everyone who is involved in serving God in some way … this would include those who are reading and doing missional stuff … I wish they would take a reading break and buy and begin reading (prayerfully and thoughtfully) the following books:

1. Classic Christianity by Bob George

2. The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee

3. The Butterfuly in You by Milt Rodriquez

4. The Shack by William P. Young (if you haven’t already)

5. He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen

All 5 do something a bit different, yet taken together, they will give you a dimension of God’s work that is often not discussed or understood in our time. This is true no matter what Christian background you may have.

Enjoy!

[Nik P.]

I like Frank's realization that the root and the fruit are both needed. Fitch's church is named "Life on the Vine" and it gives me the same image. In Frank's Bonus Chapter of Pagan Spirituality, he gives 4 dimensions to the mission of God's church in the world.

1) Communion with Christ, the Bridegroom, the Head. This may include the Lord's supper, worship in all forms, or scripture in spiritual fellowship with each other.

2) Corporate display of Christ by each member, edifying others. Jesus is the Head and ALL BELIEVERS are the priests.

3) Shared life in the community of the King. Mirroring the love between the Trinity with authentic investment in one another.

4) The commission to proclaim and embody love for the world as in Luke 4:18 and Acts 10: 38. To reveal a glimpse of the future Kingdom in the now and stand as a sign of the yet-to-come.

Even organic communities that meet in homes can overemphasize one or two areas as become weak in the others. This board focuses on #4, the commission to balance the lack of resources elsewhere. As a community, the ideal is to submit to God in all 4.