Discover Your Mission Now - a Book Review

Yes, I did just read another book by Dave and John Ferguson, of Exponential and Community Christian Church.  (I am beginning to feel like a groupie).

The subtitle of the book is simple:  5 simple practices to change your world.  From what I have heard, the Fergusons worked to discover a simple, yet effective way, to move their church towards a missional orientation.  (In other words, they wanted the people in the church to do more than show up to church activities, serve at church activities, and give their money for church activities).  They landed on asking their small groups to be missional and to do missional work as part of their group life together.  I am wondering if this was the message series that launched it all?

In this short book (also available for free by download from this link) we read of five ways to engage the people around us in order to share God's love, including his gift of salvation.  Using the acronym of BLESS, the reader is encouraged to Begin with prayer, to Listen, to Eat with, to Serve and finally to share our Story with the people who live and work around us.

I like this approach for several reasons.  First of all, it is relational.  It not about a program and doesn't allow us to stay at a safe distance from people.  Like the work of Jesus, it is face-to-face.  Second, it is AND-oriented in that it promotes compassion AND proclamation.  Third, it starts in prayer and completely depends on God.

I am seriously considering incorporating this in an upcoming teaching series at New Vision Church.  However, I am first going to lead a small group through this material in order to see what works and what is a struggle, as well as to gather a few local stories that can be shared with our congregation.

If you are looking for a way to engage your church people (or just yourself) in the mission of God, check out this helpful resource.

"Gathered and Scattered" is too Simplistic

"Gathered & Scattered"

Gathered:  When the church comes together for worship, teaching, fellowship, sacraments, etc.

Scattered:  When the church departs the gathering, proceeding into the world for mission. evangelism, justice etc.

What is the church called to do?  The answer is easy: BOTH

This sounds nice.  It is nice.  It is a simple couplet, easy to remember.

But it is too simplistic. 

We often assume that our "scattering" is an individualistic endeavor to merely be Jesus wherever else we do life.  Or, in an attempt to combat individualism, we sit around tables with Bibles and beers (or coffee, if we are holiness folk), with other Christians and call in community, but in a spiritually neutral location so we can call it missional.  Assuming that our being will rub off on others, we conveniently excuse our lack of doing.


Here is the problem - it only lasts one generation.  Where is the multiplication?  In order for the cause of Christ and the Kingdom of Christ to last for more than a generation, there must be multiplication of disciples and of the gatherings of the disciples.  Yes, this includes the multiplication of organizations and institutions, but only as necessary to support the multiplication of disciples.
What if, instead of merely scattering to our workplaces, neighborhoods, and places of need, we scattered as teams, with the purpose and intent to re-gather in smaller groupings, in these other places of work, neighborhood, or need, not for more fellowship, but to intentionally invite others to gather as inquirers, seekers and disciples?

It is just not as simple as "gather and scatter."  There must be more.  We must envision and plan with an end in mind that includes multiplication "to the ends of the earth."  Then and only then are we faithful to the mission of Jesus.

Viktor Frankl's "A Man's Search For Meaning"

In preparation for this Sunday's message, I pulled a book from my shelves.  I purchased Man's Search For Meaning while a student at seminary.  Those days were filled with books I had to read, leaving little time or energy for the books I wanted to read.  I am now trying to fill my time with the latter...

I remember hearing about and reading excerpts of Viktor Frankl in both philosophy and theology classes.  I repeatedly heard that Frankl discovered that concentration camp inmates who lost hope quickly lost their lives, while those who retained hope often retained their lives! This concise, but insightful, work on the subject of meaning, suffering, and hope just cannot be ignored.  I concur with one reviewer - I could barely put it down.

I read this short work in order to hear Frankl's perspective on the necessity of hope. Interestingly, he rarely use the word itself.  Rather, he focused on the subject (as the title suggests) of finding meaning.  Frankl pushes existentialist philosophy beyond the mere acceptance of the reality of suffering to the discovery and acceptance of the meaning of suffering.  He regularly quotes Friedrich Nietzsche, "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how."

The value of Frankl's work is his firsthand description of his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, coupled with his professional training and experience as a psychiatrist before and after his imprisonment.  He recognizes the limits of his personal experience, but also makes the most of his experiences.  He writes of what he witnessed in others and in himself.

Frankl's thesis is to show the various ways that prisoners found meaning in the midst of and in thedoes life have meaning right here, right now, or is it now meaningless? He writes, "It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future."  A few pages later, he writes of the consequences of failing to see a future: "The prisoner who had lost faith in the future - his future - was doomed."
experience of sufferings that included starvation, beatings, and the constant threat of death by extermination.  Frankl discovered that the central question asked by the prisoners was,

Frankl's genius, however, was not a simplistic solution of "well just find meaning..."  He pushes further.  He suggests that a person must hold on to the future (as something to look towards), find meaning in the present (as something to live for today), but also to take responsibility for his life's meaning.  Genius!  He writes, "we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us...Our answer [to the question of the meaning of life] must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct.  Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks to which it constantly sets for each individual."  I think he is right on!  Too often we want to think about the meaning of life and then expect it to "just happen."  But the real heroes are those translate meaning into action!  Frankl even prophetically warns against societies who promote reflection without action!  Frankl also acutely noticed that a person's "meaning in life" is not vague and grand, but is specific and related to the time and place at hand.  In other words, our meaning in life can and does change - and so in every place and situation, we must ask ourselves what our meaning is here and now. Genius!

This idea is expanded upon in the second half of the updated edition which I read (published in 1963).  In this edition, Frankl adds a brief introduction to his therapeutic method, that which he calls logotherapy (a method to help patients discover and activate meaning in life).  He describes his method the "third school of Viennese therapy" (following Freud and Adler).  Frankl clearly, but gently, challenges a few of their ideas which continue dominate.  First, I appreciate his challenge of the human need for "homeostasis."  Frankl suggests that humans need tension, challenge, and "the struggle and striving of some goal worthy of him."  He suggests that expectation or demand for homeostasis results in a sense of meaninglessness.

Finally, and I think this is a great observation that applies especially to my own field of strategic, missional evangelism and outreach, is Frankl's teaching that we only experience meaning when we are others-oriented and world-oriented, not self-oriented.  He writes, "by declaring that man is a responsible creature and must actualize the potential meaning of his life, I wish to stress that the true meaning of life is to be found in the world rather than within man or his own psyche...By the same token, the real aim of human existence cannot be found in what is called self-actualization.  Human existence is essentially self-transcendence rather than self-actualization...In other words, self-actualization cannot be attained if it is made an end in itself, but only as a side effect of self transcendence."  In other words, we need to stop thinking about ourselves so much, and as we think more about others and the world around us, we will find ourselves happier and fulfilled!

I now know why Viktor Frankl's short work is so highly regarded.  It is moving, challenging, and deeply personal.  I thoroughly enjoyed it!