• Missional Community in a Capitalistic Society

    April 26, 2007

    capitalism

    Just came across a good quote in David Fitch’s latest post on his blog.

    Of course the only way we cannot give in to these powerful shaping forces of capitalism upon our identity and life, the only way we can escape allowing years of our lives being devoured by the black of hole of seeking capitalistic success, is to be part of a reordering reality, the worshiping community of God’s mission in the world. This is what the missional communities must seek to be.

    I came across this just minutes after I had a conversation with my friend Shawn about the idea of using an attractional model of church and ministry in order to draw people in and then try to guide them towards missional life.

    Here’s my deal…

    If what it means to be the people of God is not merely about converting or even discipling people, but rather means being a communal change agent in the world – exposing darkness by being light – then we cannot use those cultural forces (such as consumerism and capitalism) which rub against what it mens to be a gospel people as tools for our labor. Instead, placing our faith in the “foolishness of God” and His ways, we must seek to live as a contrast society toward, as David Fitch said, “a reordering of reality.”

    This is perhaps little comfort to Shawn and countless others just like him whose theology leads them to a missional understanding of the church, but whose churches operate out of a different sort of theology which leads to an attractional understanding of the church. However, this ought not dissuade us from pursuing a renewed vision.

    Related Posts

    1. Toward a Missional Vision of Theological Education: Community Rootedness
    2. Childcare or Kingdom Community?
    3. Missional Preaching Part 2: Preaching as the Proclamation of Biblical Truth

    Posted in: capitalism, church, community, culture, missional

Recent Comments

  • JR Rozko said...

    1

    My friend Ryan wanted to leave this comment, but it wasn’t working for some reason. So here it is…

    i´ve really been struggling with the apparant ¨slickness¨of churches that
    follow the ¨attraction model¨ that you talk about, and to be honest, quite
    turned off and grown a bit of a hard heart along with it. to see them
    grow into something like a supermall, with something to fit everyone, and an
    attraction around every corner…what do you do with that? i was looking
    through a webpage of such a church that used to be a part of, back aways,
    and im amazing at how easy they make it all look.

    ¨And it all begins with our weekend services:
    Great music, media presentations, and dramas during the service … friendly
    people in the lobby following the service, talking, laughing … your kids
    being welcomed by caring leaders in the KidStuf ministry … not having to
    worry about being singled out as a visitor or being pressured to give money…
    wearing clothes you’d wear to a friend’s house … messages that are tied into
    everyday life … a place where you feel safe. ¨

    is this good? …..safe, entertaining, where is christ to be found? the
    word ¨distracted¨ comes to mind, and ¨difficult¨. difficult to encounter
    the truths of christ and the word with all the ¨safeness¨and distractions.

    04/27/07 6:00 AM | Comment Link

  • Julianne said...

    2

    I’ve been struggling with similar stuff lately…I picked up the book “Irresistible Revolution” (Shane Claiborne) while in Detroit, Michigan. It hits on my big question of what community with church might look like. Since graduating from seminary I’ve really had a need for community and I’m not hopeful about finding it with my church. Why? Because we live our totally separate lives–going off to work each day to make a buck–then coming home to our little, individual space, and live our private lives until we gather for a service once a week–where you might not see anyone you actually know b/c its so large–then for a ‘life group’ one evening a week or once every other week.
    I recently checked out a “lifegroup,” where the tagline is “finding a place of belonging…doing life together”…and while its a start, and I plan to keep going….I’m not doing life with people who I see in an isolated space once a week. I’m merely building a social group so I don’t feel so awkward going to the big service and not seeing a familiar face.
    Since finishing school and not knowing what to do next, I’ve realized that my biggest dream is to do something with my friends–many who have graduated seminary with similar passions and concerns. What? I don’t know. Maybe its the concept of it not being about what you do but who you become. I find myself becoming when I am with my friends. I find myself acting more out of places of strength, rather than weakness/smallness. I find myself more willing to serve others b/c I feel rich.
    I am reminded about the Mercy Ships “discipleship training school” I was a part of after finishing college. The last 2 months of our time together, the large group split into two smaller groups to go on “outreach” in Africa. It ended up being a time of intense in-reach. We were so selfish and single minded–we were hardly able to consider other’s needs. But by the end of that time together–we really had bonded. We really had an affection and love for each other and all our wacky members, and there was an easiness to life–a support–i had not felt before. It felt so very wrong to me that at that point we would break up and go back to our separate corners of the map, and try to figure our a new mission. Its like we couldn’t get outside ‘the box’ of our culture’s way of doing things. A lot of people felt really lost at the end of DTS and didn’t know what to do next. I’m still figuring it out. What if we had remained together? I don’t know what we would have ‘done’, but reflected Christ…’they’ll know you are Christians by your love’ and maybe even started living by some of the communal and biblical principles which Claiborne reminds me of.
    Picking up his book came at an interesting time also b/c I was in Detroit–a city which is 83% black and very poor. All the white people mostly moved out after the riot in 1967 and its been going downhill ever since. There is still the GM headquarters there, which is filled with white men in business suits who commute to and from the city, safely, everyday. Both my friend who I was visiting, and her boyfriend, who is African American and lent me the book, intentionally integrate themselves in pockets that are segreated. She does this by living in the city and interacting with her neighbors while doing her medical residency at a clinic in Detroit, and he does this by attending a church which is mostly all white (where they met). As he described the typical black mindset towards the white person–seeing them as better than themselves and having more, I asked him how things were ever going to change. He said he thought we were going to have to live together and it was going to have to be led from the church–out of love, not mandate. Oh, mercy.
    Shane Claiborne talks in his book about living together. He talks about it in terms of living with the have-nots. He talks about pooling their money…even for things like medical bills (rather than pay for The Man for health insurance). I’m still reading the book, but I put it down for a while b/c I’m so disturbed. I’m disturbed by how much what I truly want–community–involves sacrifices that I don’t want at all.
    I don’t know how to go about any of this. But I think the first step is to find like minded people/friends and start to do something together.
    So glad to find your blogspot this morning JR and a place to voice these concerns.

    04/28/07 4:08 PM | Comment Link

  • JR Rozko said...

    3

    Julianne, I am pretty sure you win the award for longest lifeasmission comment ever, congratulations! Sadly, I have run out of prizes, but please play again.

    I really do appreciate your thoughts and sentiments. There are so many people struggling with the stuff you are talking about. There seem to be 2 primary ways to tackle the issue…

    1) Identify who your truest community is, those you naturally and rhythmically share life with and make a conscious effort to live as a Kingdom Community (church) together.

    2) Rally people with a similar vision for being the church together and then figure out how to be a community which shares life together.

    Either way, there’s this 2-sided thing happening of really sharing the ins and outs of life together as well as trying to figure out what it means to embody and live out the gospel for the sake of others. I am convinced that one way is not more right than the other – both have their advantages and disadvantages, it’s just a matter of which direction God seems to be leading you in.

    05/3/07 11:48 PM | Comment Link

  • Ryan Conrad said...

    4

    I agree with all and am frustrated just as many of you; HOWEVER, brothers and sisters, please remember the real Church functions within the institution of the church itself. Not that we can’t talk about it or dream about what it might be like but God asks us to remain faithful even in imperfect institutions. The church, like it or not, has to function as an institution. Lets stop bickering about how the church is in blogland and realize that we must BE the Church within the church institution no matter what theological model they have.

    05/8/07 10:33 PM | Comment Link

  • JR Rozko said...

    5

    Ryan, knowing you, I am already convinced that I agree with the heart of what you’re after 100%, but I wouldn’t want to overlook the fact that Jesus didn’t take the approach you seem to be articulating here. In fact, it was almost the opposite. He was hell bent on getting the religious establishment of his day to wake up and realize that they were missing the boat. The core of his message, “Repent and follow me,” was a clear way of saying, “you’re going the wrong way, doing the wrong things, thinking the wrong way and you need to pay attention to what I am saying and trust me.” I think that’s what Fitch is after in what he is saying and that’s why I think it’s worth having these conversations – because the church in Western culture is badly off track and needs to heed a call that many others are hearing to repent and follow Jesus. That being said, there’s a wrong way to go about this and a right way, or perhaps better, a way which is God-honoring and a way which is self-honoring. I for one, hope that we find ways to honor God rather than ourselves in our pursuit of a faithful existence as the body of Christ.

    05/9/07 3:17 AM | Comment Link

  • Ryan Conrad said...

    6

    JR
    I agree, Jesus spoke his most virulent words to the establishment (institutionalized church). He called them out and told them that they had missed the point, but the way in which he went about it supported that establishment. He obeyed the laws (fulfilled them Mt 5:17) of the established system. In some ways it could be argued that Jesus was a Pharisee in relationship to the law that he followed from a young age and his countless defense of the Jewish people, whom He came to save first, and then the Gentile believers. There’s Nicodemus who really wanted to understand-

    I have a friend who attends a church in downtown Canton. In his congregation is a stripper who can’t imagine leaving her life on the street to work at a much lower paying job. She’s certainly a baby Christian with much to learn about life, faith, not to mention residence of the Holy Spirit; what’s the difference between her and the guy who’s been going to church his whole life and has constantly missed the point (Pharisee) He holds people to standards he doesn’t keep and is zealous to the point of hatred.

    I try to reconcile the two; how can we have so much compassion (and we should have much compassion) for the strippers, homosexuals, alcoholics, and yet have a harder time (this is certainly where I’m at) with the Pharisees or those members of the established church that seem to tick us off so much. I realize this analogy might break down at points but it’s something I’ve struggled with for years now, I’m with you on the struggle with the “Americanized, westernized Church” I know I share the same frustrations as the next person, I’m just really attempting to do something about it and I’m not certain what that looks like but I have a pretty good idea

    Some of us are called to be prophets to the church, in Jesus’ case, he was (is) the church (talk about submitting, wow!). I believe that we are called to speak prophetically to the church and when necessary, speak out against the evils of capitalism, wayward theology and such. The western church has MUCH to be desired and much lacking, BUT the Church, good or bad, is God’s plan of salvation for his people; the local church must be His plan and we are part of that plan.

    My earlier response was somewhat directed at an earlier writer who seemed very dis-content with the situations he found himself in regarding his local church. I think we must understand that we might never find that community we desire, maybe that kingdom community is in heaven that this is only a shadow of the things to come- our job is to TAKE people there- that’s the true message of Jesus to his people- take people with you- and there are people we can take with us that are in the local church- we can pick them up and function with them in the local church taking them to this deeper level.

    Bottom line, I’ve wrested with this issue for a few years now and am convinced that the more dangerous road is the one of critique to the point of isolation of one’s self in the body. We will never take people (in the church) to the point of genuine community if we cannot function within the institution of the church.
    Thanks JR, for your response, it is challenging and I enjoy thinking deeply about these issues, I appreciate this site and believe in what you’re doing brother-

    05/10/07 12:20 AM | Comment Link

  • JR Rozko said...

    7

    Ryan, you’re the man and I love ya! Amen and amen – although, Julianne is a she, not a he! :)

    05/10/07 12:46 AM | Comment Link

  • Ryan Conrad said...

    8

    So sorry Julianne, no ill intent…love you too brother JR…

    05/10/07 2:34 AM | Comment Link

  • What is Missional? said...

    9

    [...] and without going into a lot of related and important issues such as history, authors, issues of culture and context, etc. (though you may check out the links here and below and also check out my [...]

    06/23/08 8:48 AM | Comment Link

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