Hear the Voice

A new voice for a postmodern generation.
There is a new version of the Bible out. You can download a copy of the Book of John here. I got my copy and like the way it reads. It is a little more artistic and less scholarly. Check it out and let me know what you think.

If you like, you can order a copy at CBD real cheap, like $14. If you go to RetailMeNot you may be able to get it a little cheaper.

“Reimagining Church” Frank Viola

“Each year, one million Christians leave the traditional church. Why?”

 

Author Frank Viola gives readers language for all they knew was missing in their modern church experience.

 

Following up the popular “Pagan Christianity”, Frank Viola has provided a useful resource in understanding a less institutional congregation. If you struggled with his first book, I wouldn’t even pick this one up. Otherwise, it becomes a great insight in how to capture a Biblical perspective on corporate worship.

 

“Reimagining Church” walks through 2 areas of capturing organic community. The first section concentrates on the Community and Gatherings through concentrating on:

Church as an Organism

Church Meeting

Lord’s Supper

Gathering Places

Family of God

Church Unity

Church Practices

 

The second section has to do with Leadership and Accountability:

Leadership

Oversight

Decision-Making

Spiritual Covering

Authority and Submission

Denominational Covering

Apostolic Tradition

 

What I like about this book is that it becomes a practical picture, a guide, of how we can “re-imagine church.” I found this most helpful along with the various other books. He stays away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach and reaffirms that “church” won’t look the same everywhere. It runs very counter to the big-box church sets and reclaims a more grass-roots movement.

 

The pictures that are presented with each chapter a woven with a deep Biblical understanding. Though he piece-mills Scripture together (something he argues against in other books) he still tries to keep a consistent picture.

 

I found these pictures very challenging to the current was we are doing church. I prefer the Biblical pictures and desire deeply to reclaim those. Everything we do as an act of worship should reflect Scripture and not perpetuate tradition for the sake of perpetuating tradition.

“The Forgotten Ways” Alan Hirsch

“If there is a known and successful cure for an illness, patients generally prefer the doctor to use the known cure rather than seek to design a better one. It is rightly asked how we are ever to find a better cure if at each critical moment we always opt for the traditional treatment?”

I have felt this recently. In attempting to change the culture of the church from within, there are many who would rather reside in the comfort of the predictable and safe. Unfortunately, we are still dying and I desperately want us to not only survive, but thrive. A group of us have been attempting to embark on a journey of discovery of what it means to be an Organic Missional Church.

Alan Hirsch has tapped a nerve in his book “The Forgotten Ways.” I picked this book up as a recommendation to better understand the Organic Missional church. Little did I realize that this book could almost be the text book understanding the inner working of what makes an Organic Church contrast with the Traditional Church that we have come to love and fear losing.

The problem is that our fear is paralyzing us these days. “Following Jesus into the mission field is either impossible or extremely difficult for the vast majority of congregations in the Western world because of one thing: They have a system story that will now allow them to take the first step out of the institution in to the mission field, even though the mission field is just outside the door of the congregation.”

The focus of Hirsch’s work seems to be on exposing the Missional DNA (mDNA) of an Organic Missional church. I like this picture of DNA. It really speaks of an organism as opposed to our modern use of terms that promote an organization. We are challenged to no longer think in terms of CEO or offices, but instead we think in terms of relationships and reproduction. And having DNA links us much closer to the Biblical picture of creation and more importantly, our Creator. The beauty of this picture then becomes that we are alive and vibrant, yet dependant on every breathe from the Lord.

The mDNA takes shape in 6 areas:
1. Jesus is Lord (This is the Core)
2. Disciple Making
3. Missional-Incarnational Impulse
4. Apostolic Environment
5. Organic Systems
6. Communitas

The idea is that these parts are birthed and raised up in a community and then are easily passed on (reproduced) as the organism grows. “In some mysterious way, when we are incorporated into the family of God, we all seem to become seeds bearing full potential of God’s people within us. If you or I were blown like a seed into a different field, God could create a Jesus community out of both of us. This is the marvel of a true movement. And where it is unleashed and cultivated, world transformation takes place.”