Monday, August 20, 2007

a word from bonhoeffer...


As a paid minister of a community that strives to incarnate the values and mission of Jesus AND has also chosen to spend a considerable amount of our time and resources on the appeal of our Sunday morning worship gatherings, I often struggle internally with the whole "Missional vs. Attractional" thing. In a lot of ways, Crossings is both. And that paradox can be hard to live with.

Add to that the newfound, and exaggerated, contempt that pop Christianity has for the "Attractional" church...and that makes this struggle even harder. No matter where I turn, it seems like everything that is termed "Missional" is good and everything termed "Attractional" is bad.

Now, please understand that this struggle has nothing to do with labels. Rather, it is has to do with the way we do life has a community.

It is in this place of conflict, that I read the following words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer and in them found comfort and solace. They are found on the last page of his book 'Christ the Center' (note: in the book, he talks often of Christ's incarnation as His "humiliation" and thus refers to Christ as "the humiliated One").

"It is with this humiliated One that the Church goes its own way of humiliation. It cannot strive after visible confirmation of its way while He renounces it with every step. But neither can it, as the humble Church, look upon itself with futile self-complacency, as though its very lowliness were visible proof that Christ is present in it. Humiliation is no proof.

As Paul says of himself that he can be exalted or lowly, so long as it happens for the sake of Christ, so the Church also can be exalted or lowly, so long as in both cases it is the way of Christ with it. This way is the enemy of pride, whether it is wrapped in the purple robe or the crown of martyrdom is set upon it. The Church gazes always only at the humiliated Christ, whether it itself is exalted or made low.

It is not good for the Church to boast of its power and its influence too soon. Equally, it is not good when it is anxious to praise itself too readily for its humble state."

7 comments:

Tim said...

Good words. . .and I miss you guys.

jason said...

good reading at a good time. in fact, look at what Paul said in Philippians 1:

"So how am I to respond? I've decided that I really don't care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on! And I'm going to keep that celebration going because I know how it's going to turn out." (The Message)

ragamuffinminister said...

I think of the worship songs I sing and none of them go like this...

"oh my God, how great, how strong,
how missional and attractional
you are."

Christ is attractive. Living out what we preach is attractive. It's also missional. But, to God, it's just what he calls...

...normal. Why label with words what Christ defined with actions? Just some added thoughts to a piece of your post.

The Anonymous Human said...

I like what C.S. Lewis said about humility. It isn't that humility is thinking lowly of ourselves. It's not thinking of ourselves at all. I think the paradigm of attractional vs. missional is best served under that condition. If we are worrying about whether or not we are attractional or missional and not worry about if our neighbor has enough to eat, something might be off.

bill said...

man. that is all really good stuff, guys. you all should get blogs of your own. wait...

anyway, yes i agree with all of you. and i really hesitated using those labels (and maybe i shouldn't have after all) because what i'm struggling with has nothing to do with labels.

it is more a matter of stewardship than anything...stewardship of our time, our resources, our finances, etc. the reason i used the words 'missional' and 'attractional' is because...speaking in incredibly general terms...missional churches typically spend their time, resources, finances, etc one way and attractional churches spend them another way. maybe i was just cutting corners in order to save time.

or maybe i am just that naive and there really is no such thing as a completely 'missional' or 'attractional' church.

either way, my point was that i often question our motives and our values, based on said stewardship. and because of that...it is extremely freeing to just say, "screw it...follow Jesus...and do your absolute best with what you've got...cause God's grace is always sufficient."

michaelCODY said...

There was a girl in middle-school that asked me out. I thought she was very friendly and helpful to all around her (missional); but I wasn't attracted to her. So I declined and went my way looking for a girl that was 1/2 and 1/2.

I feel like this post can apply to different things for different people. What Group A thinks is 'attractive', Group B can think it is ugly. Obviously. I never went to my last church because I found it Missional. It was Attractive to me; the music, wide range of ages, projector screen, etc. Yet it wasn't missional for me.

When my parents left and joined a new church I would visit once in a while; I always felt it was more missional and spiritual; yet it wasn't attractive to me.

This isn't really responding to your post, I know, rather it's a question I ask from thinking about your post. Christ is Attractive and Missional. However, it seems the Body of Christ loses its way when it tries to 1/2 and 1/2 the two of these elements; should we spend more resources on attracting more to STAY in church or should we spend more resources helping the Lost GET into church?

Whichever choice we decide on, there will always be a group that thinks something should had been done different. So my confusion rests here after your post; If I genuinely want to start a church and want to save everyone in the world by letting them know of Christ's love and spend money on projectors, commercials, sound equipment, etc., in order to attract them and pull them in... is that no-longer missional? I'm aggravated because I don't know how to ask my question and this shouldn't had been so long. So I added this last line too. :P

ragamuffinminister said...

it is much easier to say screw it. And, we should. By the time we're done analyzing what to do with our resources (which will be an everlasting study I think), how many significant things will we have overlooked? I think of it in terms of being well read. We can focus on educating ourselves, reading up on things, studying what to do with our time, money, etc., that the day-to-day is wasted in our indulgences on said endeavors. Add to that our need for family time and social bliss, what's left for the world around us? The crumbs from our over filled tables? It's so indicting to even think about that, well,...

...screw it.