cultural dichotomy

Archive for May, 2008


Posted on May 21, 2008 - by ray

Missional Rhythms (or Frosty, Part III)

The last thing I want to mention about the Frost conference I attended was a brief synopsis of something he called missional rhythms. Michael is one of the founding members of Small Boat Big Sea. There were core values that the founding group wanted to pass on to it’s new members, something they wanted to be a part of the DNA of the church. But they also knew that just teaching values wouldn’t work, especially with new followers and not-yet followers.

So, Michael and his group came up with the following (with the corresponding value in parenthesis):
If you are a part of SBBS you will -

  • Bless 3 people a week - 1 from the faith community, a believer, 1 from the community, and 1 from either group. (generosity)
  • Eat with 3 people a week - same breakdown as above. (hospitality)
  • Listen to God. (spirit filled life)
  • Learn the Bible, especially the Gospels. (Christ like life)
  • Sentness - journal ways in which you sense that you are being sent out. (missional)

Frost reasons that if you give the values, people won’t work out the practices. But if you give the practices, the values become part of the individual and therefore part of the faith community. Some might argue that this seems a little too “catholic”…that it’s a list of things to do, instead of a way to live. The argument would follow that if we’re dealing with new believers why would we want to put on them a list of things they have to do. It’s a decent argument, but one that I don’t adhere to.

As Frost said, I think people have a hard time taking a set of values or a mission statement and coming up with tangible ways to live it out. This seems to help in that process.

By the way, these rhythms spell out BELLS. Michael said this happened by chance, and wasn’t planned. He also made a point to say that these are the missional rhythms for SBBS, and don’t have to be the rhythms for your group. The challenge should be to come up with tangible ways to live out the values that are a part of the DNA of your church.

You can read more about BELLS at SBBS here.

-shorty


Posted on May 15, 2008 - by ray

An Invitation

My friend, Mentanna, has started a new series on her blog entitled an invitation to the table. I like where she’s going with this. It’s worth a read.

Here are direct links to the first 2 posts.

http://mentanna.blogspot.com/2008/05/invitation-to-table-part-one.html
http://mentanna.blogspot.com/2008/05/invitation-to-table-part-two.html

-shorty


Posted on May 12, 2008 - by ray

The Function That Catalyzes (or Frosty, Part II)

What drives your church? What is the function that is the catalyst for all other functions that exist in your church? Michael Frost would argue that the majority of churches today are driven by a single function. That single function is the catalyst for all other functions that the church carries out.

Frost would say that that single function that drives all others in today’s churches is worship. Stop and think about the church you’re a part of. What drives it? For many of us we immediately think of the Sunday event. We even call it “worship”. We invite our neighbors to it. We dress up for it. We set aside our Sunday morning for the “event”. The Sunday event (the worship event) drives our community structures (our small groups, our Sunday schools, our home groups), it drives our discipleship, and it drives our mission. In almost any church today if you took away the Sunday event the church would cease to exist.

Frost goes on to argue that there are four main functions that make up a church: mission, worship, community, and discipleship. None of these are more important than the others. They should all play an equal part in the life of a church. But one will usually be the catalyst for the others, and to Frost it should not be worship - it should be mission. The mission of our churches should drive the way we worship, the way we disciple, and the way we form community. And this is not a simple mission statement. It’s much more complex than that. To Frost mission plays itself out in the missional rhythms of a church (another post for another day).

So, what is the thing that catalyzes all things that your church does and is? Is it the Sunday event, or worship, or your desire to see community formed within your church body, or your desire to see disciples made? Or is it the mission that catalyzes all of these things?

I’ll conclude my series on the Frost conference with missional rhythms later this week.

-shorty