The New Apostolic Era

Randy Ferebee presenting at Honey Creek.

Since Sunday evening, I have been at Honey Creek for the Spring Clergy Conference of the Diocese of Georgia. Our main presenter has been the Rev. Randy Ferebee of Epiphany Institute. I know Randy through a clergy group I take part in and have enjoyed his presentation this week. He's been talking about three great eras in Christianity:

• The Apostolic Era when Christianity was surrounded by a culture hostile to the Gospel.
• The Christendom Era, when Christians predominantly lived in a culture that was all Christian
• The New Apostolic Era, which is his term for the present age in which Christianity can no longer be assumed and while the culture (particularly in Georgia) is not hostile to the faith, it is increasingly indifferent.

Randy has been working to show that, this time in which we can no longer assume that Sunday morning is reserved for church has much in common with the earliest days of Christianity. Following Bishop Mark Dyer, he observed that "The dominant spirituality today is consumerism." In this climate, the mission field is all around us. The way to engage in this New Apostolic Era is not to capitulate to the culture, but to reach out to our communities in mission.

The conference has not been about offering some silver bullet solution as sometimes found at conferences. I'm glad. If the answers churches need were found in conferences, we would have dispensed with all our problems long ago.

Instead, Randy has been offering various tools (including appreciative inquiry and asset mapping). The purpose of these tools is to enable a church to better serve the community around it and so live into the mission of the church. In this way, every church can be a blessing to its community. This is being like the Sea of Galilee (which has both water coming in and flowing out) than like the Dead Sea (which has input, but no water flowing out of it). Randy says rightly that every church has what it needs to be the Body of Christ in its place. Not all churches will have the same gifts and abilities, but all can be faithful. To find out more, look at the resources page at www.epiphanyinstitute.org.

This morning, I will be the presenter, picking up where Randy left off. We'll be looking at how to make the learnings real in our congregations.

peace,
Frank+

More of The Present Future

I mentioned yesterday that I meet with a group of Episcopal clergy to discuss the future of the church and how we can better prepare for the changes brought about by our changing cultural landscape. That group has read and just discussed The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal. Here are some more quotes from the book itself:

The deal is this: we have assumed that if people come to church often enough they will grow. We've got to be much more intentional than this.

Let me ask you: If the world could be changed through conferences and seminars, wouldn't it have happened a long time ago? We don't need a conference on prayer. We need people to pray!

I can tell you within minutes of arriving on a church campus whether or not a guiding vision is operative, Does the landscaping look like it's been left up to God to take care of? Does anyone greet me when I enter? Are staff members begging for volunteers? (I don't mean recruiting—that goes on in organizations with vision. I mean begging, badgering, cajoling, guilting people into service.) Are lackluster or mediocre efforts expended on ushering, singing, custodial services, teaching, signage, and so on?

I know plenty of churches that have capitalized on their strengths in the face of glaring weaknesses. In fact, their strength is what fills in their brand content, gives them ministry identity, and distinguishes them from the pack.

The key is the presence of mission. Missionless religion that calls itself Christianity is an affront to God, however it styles itself.

Basically, he sees that the institutional church, which is about and for the institution, is dying out. In a postmodern culture, fewer and fewer people will be interested in supporting the institution for its own sake. However, he remains convinced that the mission of God in the world begun in Jesus, will continue and will prevail. He is against churchianity and for a return to Christianity, which he feels will be more like the book of Acts than recent years of church history.

That's his take. As I have been big on saying that we need to set about BEING the Body of Christ, and emphasized the mission of the church as serving our community in Jesus' name and so spreading the Gospel beyond our walls, I tend to agree with him. What do y'all think?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Missionary

The Present Future

I meet with a group of Episcopal clergy to discuss the future of the church and how we can better prepare for the changes brought about by our changing cultural landscape. For that group, I've read the book The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal. McNeal has been a denominational leader in the Baptist church who teaches seminary, serves as a leadership development coach, and challenges the church from within. I wanted to share some quotes from his intentionally provocative book:

The North American church is suffering from severe missionary amnesia. It has forgotten why it exists. The church was created to be the people of God to join him in his redemptive mission in the world. The church was never intended to exist for itself.

The church that wants to partner with God on his redemptive mission in the world has a very different target: the community.

What you must do is two things: create a culture informed by missiology and create venues where people can practice being missionaries.

What if denominational reporting inquiries asked, "What percentage of your congregants feel they grew to be more like Jesus this past year?" What if church leaders asked each other, "How is God at work in your people?" or "Where do you see Jesus bustin' out?"

Here are his six tough questions:

1. The collapse of the church culture.
•Wrong question: How do we do church better?
•Tough question: How do we deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?

2. The shift from church growth to kingdom growth.
•Wrong question: How do we grow this church?
•Tough question: How do we transform our community?

3. A new reformation: Releasing God's people.
•Wrong question: How do we turn members into ministers?
•Tough question: How do we turn members into missionaries?

4. The return to spiritual formation.
•Wrong question: How do we develop church members?
•Tough question: How do we develop followers of Jesus?

5. The shift from planning to preparation.
•Wrong question: How do we plan for the future?
•Tough question: How do we prepare for the future?

6. The rise of apostolic leadership.
•Wrong question: How do we develop leaders for church work?
•Tough question: How do we develop leaders for the Christian movement

I will share some more on this tomorrow.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Neo-Apostolic Leader Wannabe

Five Marks of Mission

What is the mission of the church? Put differently: When we are doing what the church is supposed to do, what is it we are doing? One answer is these five marks of mission:

• To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
• To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
• To respond to human need by loving service
• To seek to transform unjust structures of society
• To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

I didn't devise the list. It has made it's way around the Anglican Communion for nearly a quarter century. I think it brings up some helpful ideas. I also know that the mission of the church differs in different contexts. So that the main mission of the church in Myanmar right now is to help in meeting the immediate physcial needs of people affected by flooding. That's the third mark on the list and it is primary for that church now. Obviously, that is not part of the mission here locally in Camden County. And I don't think the list was intended to be a cafeteria plan of selecting which one to take up for action, but rather a way of naming the sorts of categories in which our mission takes place.

And as I ask this, I do so thinking of the Camden Ministerial Alliance of which I am a part and Mission for Camden which we support. Both of these are multi-church groups in Camden County, Georgia. So thinking beyond King of Peace Church to the more than 100 churches that are here in working together for Jesus Christ in this place, what ways might we be challenged to live more fully into the mission of the church? What should we churches be doing together to live into the Gospel we proclaim?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor