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Why the Fall Matters?

1) The biblical witness offers a basis for understanding the presence of both good and evil in humanity. Genesis 1-11 describes the potential and pitfalls of women and men as persons created in the image of the Creator God. Humanity was crafted as the pinnacle of the creation and as the center of the myriad of relationship built into the created order by God. Women and men were created to serve as a missional community that reflects God’s character to, for, and in Creation. But now in the aftermath of sin and rebellion, God’s creational intentions for humanity are shattered, but the potential remains. People still intrinsically long to be the people that they were created to be and occasionally women and men commit astonishing acts of goodness and generosity. The biblical story can thus account for the goodness and kindness in our world based on the vestiges of God’s image in humanity as we suggested based on texts such as Ps 8. But the final verdict on humanity is its lostness.

2) Creation itself is marred. Humanity was created to serve as stewards and caretakers of the created world. Post-Gen 3, there now exists an enmity between humanity and the earth it was commanded to keep and fill. One of the hot button issues of our day is concern over the depletion of the earth’s resources and abuse of the environment. These texts call us to remember humanity’s original mandate of dominion over the earth. There is no warrant for the deification of the earth at the expense of humanity as is prevalent in much of the environmental thinking of the political left in the West, but there is likewise no warrant for the abuse of the earth as though this world does not matter. The biblical faith is a worldly one in the sense that the focus of the biblical story is our present world in anticipation of its recreation. Salvation is not an escape from the earth, but rather it is a return to the realities of Eden.

Paul reminds us of God’s intention to redeem even the world in Romans 8:18-23:

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

3) All life and ministry on this side of the final consummation of history in the creation of a New Heavens and a New Earth will occur within the reality described in Gen 3-11. The biblical narrative assumes this. We lose sight of this reality at our own peril. There is room for a profound optimism because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, but every person has the capacity for the destructive and life-denying patterns witnessed to in Gen 3-11. There is no room for a naïve hope that the “good in people” will have the last word. We can’t simply “be good for goodness sake.”

4) God’s mission recalibrates in response to the rebellion of humanity and brokenness of the “very good” world that God originally created. God’s mission shifts to work for the salvation of a fallen world and of a lost humanity. If there is to be a continuance of God’s mission that began in Creation, God will be the driver. Humanity on its own has shown itself to be incapable of serving as the missional community that God created women and men to be. In these chapters, God sets in motion the initial reverberations of his desire to redeem creation. As we reflect on mission in the 21st century, it is vital to hold together the need to reach lost people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but it is likewise missional to work for the good of the creation as a whole. There is no dichotomy between personal evangelism and social justice. A biblical view of mission does not pull asunder these dimensions. One of the tragedies of 20th century evangelicalism was its surrender of social justice issues to the theologically liberal wings of the Church. The Old Testament affirms the importance of the created world and missional thinking in the 21st century must return to a full orbed understanding of mission. Likewise, we must not make the opposite mistake of emphasizing social justice to the neglect of reaching lost people with the Gospel. Beginning in Genesis 3, God’s mission entails the redemption of humanity in all of its individual and social dimensions and of creation itself.

5) The “good news” of Gen 3-11 is that God the Creator of the “very good” heavens and earth commits to the redemption of creation rather than the option of uncreation. The Flood Story is about partial uncreation and recreation. Even in the judgment on humanity’s sin, God saves Noah, his family, and enough species of animals to replenish the earth post-Flood. The first explicit biblical covenant serves to guarantee the future of Creation presumably regardless of humanity’s ongoing wickedness. The future is secure because God guarantees it. God’s love for humanity and the world that he created is not stated explicitly. But the beginnings of God’s mission to bring salvation adumbrate the ultimate tangible demonstration of God’s love in the sending of the Son into the world.

6) Genesis 3-11 ends with hope that God will indeed achieve his creational aims. The Tower of Babel does not end in the destruction of humanity. Instead, humanity has now filled the earth. This is ironic because humanity on its own terms had chosen to centralize to build a tower to the heavens, but God scattered them around the globe (see Table of Nations in Gen 10). Thus God responds to human sin by partially fulfilling his creational intentions for humanity. God now has creatures created in his image scattered throughout the world. This is good news. But how will humanity ever function as God’s visible and tangible representatives? This will involve the creation of a new human community: the people of God. This lineage will begin with the call of Abram. The missional God of the Scripture is on the move.

What do you think?

© 2009 Brian D. Russell

NIV 1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Last month in a series of posts, we reflected on Paul’s missional methods as described in 1 Cor 9:19-23. The centerpiece of Paul’s method was a commitment to incarnational ministry: I become all things to all people that I might by all means save some (1 Cor 9:22).

There is an inherent danger in an incarnational approach. The danger is the possibility of one’s own conversion to the culture/people group that one seeks to reach with the Gospel. The possibility of falling away from faith is real. Paul’s words thus take on a strong tone of exhortation. This paragraph is a call for a robust vision of missional holiness. This is precisely what our world needs today.

Paul is calling for a serious and on-purpose approach to life. He deploys an athletic metaphor to describe the intentionality and earnestness required to live a world-changing and soul enriching missional lifestyle. How are we supposed to live as persons seeking to engage in God’s mission to bring help, healing, and restoration to our world?

1) Prepare to win.
The life of God’s dreams requires diligence and seriousness. If we want to participate fully in God’s mission, we need to be ready. This involves crafting a rule of life that prepares us for the good and bad of life. We need to cultivate a series of practices and habits that nurture our relationship with God for the sake of the world. The classic disciplines of Scripture study, prayer, fasting, celebrating communion, and Christian conversation remain vital. But key shift however is that these need to be viewed not as the end all of the Christian life, but as the means to living the life that God created us to live. We do these things for the sake of the Gospel’s advance in our day. As an athlete prepares for an event, so the Christ follower prepares for God’s mission.

2) Run on purpose.
Athletes train to participate in an event. They bring focus and discipline to the task. Like the athlete, we are called to run our race with purpose and intentionality. Our focus is to participate fully in God’s mission.

3) Understand the stakes.
Athletes may fail to win the gold. The stakes are higher for Christ followers. If we do not live lives that model Jesus, we are no longer on the right mission. If we live lives that reflect the world, we run the risk not only of failing to reach the culture with the Gospel but of losing our own salvation (9:27). This is why I use the phrase “missional holiness.” God needs us to be holy so that we can take the Gospel into the darkest places, the vilest places, the most lost places and serve as voices of hope rather than be consumed by the very culture into which we are sent as God’s witnesses. Holiness can never be a biblical holiness unless it is fully engaged in the world as a witness to the Living God.

What do you think?

© 2008 Brian D. Russell

Paul’s method boils down to a commitment to people for the sake of the Gospel. Paul works to incarnate the Gospel within the particular culture in which he works. Most broadly speaking, this involved two macro-cultures of his day: Gentile culture (Greco-Roman) and Jewish culture (including those living in the Diaspora across the Mediterranean and those living in Jerusalem and Palestine). Paul recognized that Jews and Greeks responded differently to the Gospel (1 Cor 1:18-25). He adapted his lifestyle and method to maximize the impact of the Gospel and to minimize the affect of culture in blurring the Gospel message. This is the meaning of “I have become all things to all people” (1 Cor 9:22).

Paul’s non-negotiable was his commitment to the proclamation of the death of Jesus on the cross (1 Cor 1:18; 1 Cor 2:2) and the announcement of God’s raising Jesus from the dead (1 Cor 15). Without these elements there is no Gospel to share. An incarnational approach to evangelism is sometimes accused of sacrificing truth for the sake of relevancy. Paul models a staunch commitment to the core of the Gospel: the work of Jesus the Messiah on the Cross (1 Cor 2:2) and God’s raising of him from the dead (1 Cor 15:3-5). Yet he intentionally frames this message within the culture, language, and thought world of his target audience. Paul the former Pharisee becomes a boundary breaker and takes the Gospel across former dividing lives to engage in cross-cultural ministry.

1) Place a high premium on people. Love people the way that God loves them (John 3:16). As my colleague Robert Tuttle says, “Pray that God will allow you to see others as if they were your own children.” With eyes such as this, our lives take on new focus and meaning as we seek to reach the all by loving the one in our presence at any given moment.

2) Understand the non-negotiables of the Gospel. Practice a generous orthodoxy around the classical Christian consensus. Separate foundational beliefs from culturally embedded expression.
What do you think?
© 2008 Brian D. Russell

Paul’s Missional Methods: Implications for the 21st Century Missional Church

Paul summarizes his approach in 1 Cor 9:22: I’ve become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.

Paul’s missional method is bold and daring, but it is not delusional. If we focus only on the first part of this verse we will miss a key aspect. Paul recognizes that there are limits to the level of success of any missional endeavor. The key limiting factor is the target audience. Paul may engage the culture fully with incarnational practices, clear language, generous acts of love, and compelling argument, but none of this will result in 100% success.

Notice the verse again. It reads all things, all people, all means but save some. Unrealistic expectations are an albatross around the neck of too many leaders.

Earlier in 1 Cor 3 Paul offers insight into the contribution that an individual may make to God’s mission. He writes in a context reflecting on the divisions within the Corinthian church, but his words highlight key principles for understanding our mission:

5What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

1) We don’t work alone. We are part of a network and movement of Christ followers who are seeking to advance the Gospel in our day.

2) Our job is to add value at all times. Some plant, others water. The key is to consistently live a missional lifestyle in which we live and serve as clues to the mystery and grace of God. We are committed to people created in God’s image who are imprinted with intrinsic needs that will ultimately point to God.

3) God makes it grow. Ultimately, the decision to follow Christ is made by individuals in response to God’s grace. We can be agents of this grace, but we are not its source—God is. This means the pressure and responsibility of salvation is not in our hands. It is in God’s. We are called to live faithfully and act obediently. This means a full commitment to the radical outreach envisaged in 1 Cor 9 by Paul, but such a mission separates practices and outcomes. We must commit fully to missional practice, but only God controls outcome.

What does “some” mean for you?

© 2008 Brian D. Russell

This continues a close reading of 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 and its implications for today.

Paul’s call for a mission centered approach summarized in 1 Cor 9:23:
I become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some has a corollary. Paul was willing to commit to a bi-vocational, itinerant lifestyle in order to embody this mission. Funding remains a sticky issue for today’s missional leaders. Gone are the days when a leader was commissioned by a denomination and provided with financial resources to pay for a staff, a ten-acre plot for a future building, and rent in a prominent location in the community. Paul never came close to deploying this strategy. The resources from outside sources were not available and Paul chose to support himself.

Paul defends the right for support from the Christian community in 1 Cor 9:1-18 (so the following essay is not a rant against a paid ministry), but Paul did not demand or expect others to support his missional efforts. Verse 18 is powerful: What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the Gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not misuse my rights as a preacher of the gospel.

Cutting edge missional work can benefit from its leaders living bi-vocationally.

1) Work in the market place puts one in regular contact with the very persons that one is seeking to reach. This allows the deployment of a missional lifestyle in the marketplace. Evangelism become a natural outcome of work. Each business encounter becomes an opportunity to serve and add value to another person. Just and fair business dealings are a powerful witness to the way of Jesus.

2) Self-support adds credibility to one’s witness. The world has grown tired of religious hucksters who peddle religion for financial gain. When one practices tentmaking, it is a witness to one’s personal investment in the message that he or she is proclaiming.

3) Self-support also limits one’s need to attract Christians with deep pockets to support one’s efforts. When money begins to flow into a community, there is a subtle (and sometimes a not so subtle) temptation to redeploy one’s gift to add value to those with the financial resources rather than to continue radical outreach to lost persons. Self-support avoids this temptation because the mission will go one with or without external support. One is in a position to receive financial support only from those who are in full support of the mission without the need for any quid pro quo in return.

4) Self-support makes it possible to serve wherever the spirit leads. Have you ever noticed that most new church starts seem to target affluent areas? There is no denying that the suburbs need Jesus, but do not the slums and transitional neighborhoods need new communities of faith as well? Why do the big denominations target new subdivisions and growth areas? I suspect that the decisions are primarily based on financial viability. If a church planter can support herself, she can potentially reach all people so that she may save some rather than limiting one’s reach to some people with money to give in return.

5) Self-support also takes the pressure off of the missional worker. There is no timetable for tangible success. How many new church starts implode because after five years and hundreds of thousands of dollars the community averages under 100 in attendance. Such projects are often deemed failures simply because they do not meet the financial expectation of its initiators. Tentmaking permits the missional leader to allow the spirit to work in a community. Ministry truly then is freed from a zero-sum, budget driven numbers game to an opportunity for allowing a fledgling community of faith to grow in numbers and influence naturally.

Challenges:
1) Training. How do we equip tentmakers with the best that theological education has to offer?

2) Burnout. Full time work and leadership in a community of faith can be a daunting task. How do we support such leaders? How do such leaders need to lead in order to live a sustainable life?

3) Need for Missional Leaders to learn skills that marketable. It is an advantage for a missional leader to have a means of securing a primary income outside of the church sphere. How do we train young emerging leaders for both missional leadership and entrepreneurial living?

What do you think?

© 2008 Brian D. Russell

Last night, we opened our home for a cell meeting of missional leaders. We shared snacks, remembered the death of Jesus the Messiah through the consumption of bread and juice, and spent an hour or so reflecting on Paul’s missional statement in 1 Cor 9:19-23.

I want to ponder some of the implications of Paul’s words as a series of posts:

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (NIV)
19Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to
win those under the law. 21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

Here is the same passage in the New Living Translation (NLT):
19 Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ. 20 When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law. 21 When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.
22 When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. 23 I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.

1) Paul’s work around the Mediterranean world was mission centered on announcing the salvation of God through Jesus the Messiah. Paul has one goal. He desires to reach others with the Gospel. By reaching others, Paul is not content with presenting the Gospel’s ideas to as many as possible. This is necessary for Paul’s goal, but it is not the end in itself. Paul is interested in winning others. His words sound audacious: I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.

2) Paul assumes that sharing the Gospel requires cross-cultural sensitivity. We have been spoiled in the West by the past successes of the Gospel. For centuries, those living in Christendom were aware of the basic story of Christianity and its values even if they were not committed to following Jesus Christ. This meant that evangelism in the West could assume a starting point of a shared worldview. In many ways, evangelism consisted of calling people back to their spiritual roots and heritage rather than having to start from ground zero (as a missionary to a unreached people group would have to do). By engaging Gentiles in the Roman empire, Paul was forced to contextualize the Gospel for persons who were not Jewish. Paul recognized that Gentiles did not have to first become Jews in order to hear and receive the good news about Jesus. In fact, Paul argued stridently that living as a Gentile Christ follower was as valid expression of the Gospel as living as a Jewish Christ follower. The common denominator was the person of Jesus the Messiah. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection transcended all cultural barriers. As such Paul was willing to engage others with the Gospel of their turf. He did not force others to move toward his position and life as a means to receiving the good news; he engaged them with the Gospel within their culture.

More to come…

© 2008 Brian D. Russell