The Hsu’s Views

Saw this interesting study on the church in America, thanks to the Catalyst RSS feed (slap it into your RSS reader). The study was done by Faith Communities Today.

On the chart above, found on page 2 of the report shows that the places where greatest growth is found in new growing suburban communities. Not really news. What was interesting however is where the second best area for growth is in the downtown or central city of metropolitan areas. This seems partly due to urban renewal and gentrification.

It’s worth a look.

Keller is the pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Few people have been as influential to me as I have learned the meaning of the gospel in ways that I’ve not understood before. Though Redeemer’s materials called, “The Gospel and Heart,” led by my friend Bob Klein, I understand dimensions of the gospel and ways of communicating it that will truly connect with the lost of today.

At the Redeemer site, there are a bunch of free sample sermons. I love the three on City which I’ve linked to from here.

• Should I Not Love that Great City?
• The Meaning of the City
• Love for the City

Common Kingdom Value

One of the things that strikes me about the U40 group is how people share the common value of the Kingdom. “Under 40″ is the working name (that I no longer like) for a group of friends that are thinking about how we might take the many diverse focii of the church in San Diego, and work together in functional unity to make a greater difference on our city with the Jesus’ gospel.

“Kingdom” is why people are in the room. When I invited people to the concept, the response was almost intuitive, “Sure, we need to do that.” I continue to believe that a healthy understanding of a “already” part of Kingdom can drive a movement of the church that would be a blessing to the city. There is a common value that each person, and the ministry they represent, wants to join in a larger movement of the church in Kingdom work.

A True Common Understanding will Take Work

The one thing I’m not sure about is whether any of us know just what is involved in working together under that Kingdom umbrella. We haven’t defined it together yet… and that is a little anxiety producing. Our group is quite diverse, spanning the gamut from church planting to working with at-risk youth. We have lawyers and environmentalists, campus workers and marketplace missionaries.

I suspect that one person’s understanding of the Kingdom means we must work to uphold the immigration laws, while another person’s view focuses on scriptural commands to care for the alien amongst us? Some might take the position that Christ and the church must transform culture, while others might say Christ and the church must be against culture. (There are even more categories that Niehbur uses to describe the relationship of the church to culture.)

(more…)

I think this Bounded/Centered set framework is incredibly useful in a discussion of how to bring together wildly different entities of the body of Christ. I studied under Paul Hiebert at Trinity Evangelical Divinity school. I even have notes of him talking about this in class, but it really didn’t make sense until I began seeing it employed in the emerging church conversation. (Dr. Hiebert just passed away of cancer on March 11, 2007. In Memoriam.)

Stated simply, we have different ways of determining who or what “belongs.” Employing set theory, we might describe a bounded set as anything inside a clearly defined set of criteria, a boundary. Based on how one might satisfy the requirements, you are “in” or “out.” A centered set is different in that “members” of the set are not defined by a boundary, but rather by its proximity to a central object.

Frost and Hirsh, in the Shaping of Things to Come, (p.47) do a great job of illustrating the difference by ranching in Texas as opposed to ranching in Australia. In Texas, ranches are defined by barbed wire fences that keep the cattle from roaming too far away and help define which cattle belong to whom. In Australia, it is not necessary to build fences. Instead, you just need to sink a well. Since water is scarce, cattle will not roam far, rendering fences unneccessary.

Perhaps we could say bounded-sets define by containing, centered-sets define by attracting.

Darrell Guder, in Missional Church, has a great chapter (Chapter 7) that applies this organizational principle onto the church. It used to be that the defining sense of “who belonged” was dictated by a denomination (Baptist, Lutheran, or Presbyterian), or a theological framework (Reformed, Dispensational, etc.) Rules of belonging were very clear and had an effect of separating the body of Christ. “I believe this, you believe that.”

Both books suggest that church should be centered set, and I would argue that this should be so both when thinking about church as “local” or “citywide.” Guder writes:

“that the centered set organizaton invites people to enter on a journey toward a set of values and commitments. For example, in the model that we have been developing in this book, the direction toward which people would be invited to move is the gospel’s announcement of God’s reign that is forming a people as God’s new society.”

This is very useful in thinking about a city reaching movement especially when a common denominator such as Jesus’ gospel of the Kingdom of God is the “well” that we do not stray far from. I see how this Kingdom commonality is increasingly the piece that can faciliatate a harmony of the body of Christ in places like San Diego. Harmonizing around Jesus, Kingdom and Mission allows for the different “notes” (churches, organizations, callings, and focii) to sound stronger as a chord. I’m thinking harmonizaton (centered set) is more suitable then homogenization (bounded set) as a metaphor for today.

A great thread can be found at this bulletin board. (I love the little re-mixed Matrix clip at the top.)

Just like the blog entry below, this quote is from Keller’s Gospel and Heart course. It comes from a book by sociologist Rodney Stark called, “The Rise of Christianity - How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries.”

It is an awesome book that details the powerful ways that the Christian community lived radically different, and attractive lives. Stark believes the selfless care believers offered plague sufferers was a significant factor in the growth of the church. He offers a different interpretation on just how quickly the early church grew (not explosively but steadily, comparable to the growth of the Mormon church today). It is great source material.

Here is the quote:

“Christianity served as a revitalization movement that arose in response to the misery, chaos, fear and brutality of life in the urban Greco-Roman world… Christianity revitalized life in… cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent urban problems. To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christinity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fires and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective…services.”

Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, (Harper, 1996), p. 161.

This morning during a staff meeting with my Campus Crusade team, I ran across this quote in Redeemer Presbyterian Church’s Gospel and Heart course:

“God in our time is moving climactically through a variety of social, political, and economic factors to bring earth’s people into closer contact with one another, into greater interaction and interdependence, and into earshot of the gospel. Through worldwide migration to the city, God may be setting the stage for Christian mission’s greatest and perhaps final hour… now that a majority of the world’s unreached populations live in cities… To ignore the plight of the urban masses or refuse to grapple with the trials and complexities of city life is worse than merely a strategic error. It is unconscionable disobedience to God, whose providence directs the movements of people and creates missionary opportunity.”

Acts 17:27-28: “He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him…”

- Roger Greenway, “World Urbanization and Missiological Education” in Missiological Education fo rthe Twenty-First Century: Essays in Honor of Paul Pierson (Orbis, 1996)

I’ve been doing some research on the history of San Diego and ran across this timeline by the San Diego Historical Society. It is a nice overview with great historic photographs. There is also a wealth of links to books and various museums that can give the city exegete something to work on.

If you are just tuning in, I’m in India these two weeks for a doctoral class. We are learning about transforming cities and our afternoon field trips are more lifechanging than any class can hope to be.

This morning we attended a seminar sponsored by the Chennai Transformation Network. It was an early attempt to gather church and city leaders together to learn about the challenges of the city and to think together about the ways that the church might be able to be a blessing to the city.

There was a great if interesting representation on the panel, which included a newspaper editor, an economist, and a “composter” (or solid waste management expert). I thought it was excellent for the church leaders to hear about the city through the eyes of experts who have a different view than a pastor. It was good to hear from the newspaper editor and his view of the importance of sharing information and how churches don’t do that well. Similarly, I don’t know that many pastors can appreciate how composting can not only recycle trash and beautify the slums, but how it can provide a viable micro enterprise for women in the slums as they sell the compost as fertilizer.

I was encouraged by the apparent participation and will take several lessons back to my context in San Diego. First, as I pull younger leaders of the church together in San Diego, one of my desires would be that it would be a place where we too could listen from people who have a different perspective than pastors. This seems so critically important so that we do not approach city reaching in San Diego in only a spiritual light. We must learn about the illegal immigration issues, labor concerns, and the plight of the single parent.

Second, I have seen a glimpse of the kind of networking that Tim Savoda has been doing, and the way he has been involved in many different organizations. This meeting required a broad base of networking to get the people here that needed to be here. Many of the ministries represented have had long relationships with YWAM. It shows how much foresight Tim had in involving himself in the many broad and diverse ways that he has. All the work he has done in helping other ministries, serving on other boards, and networking of organizations seems to be paying off. Our work in San Diego must also have a long-term view.

I’m been reading Ray Bakke’s book, “A Theology As Big As The City.” Ran across the following paragraph that really caused me to think about the role of mass evangelism in the work of transforming cities with the gospel.

“In 1971 Billy Graham held an evangelistic crusade in Chicago while the Vietnam protests against Richard Nixon were permeating the city. Television was making an enormous impact on the practice of mass evangelism, forcing me to reflect on John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” In the name of this incarnate Jesus Christ, it appeared we now were implementing media strategies to save the city from which the church was physically withdrawing. I thought of the Vietnam War, where we parked our B52s on Guam, flew at 37,000 feet, bombed the Vienamese and returned for our night’s sleep while we pulled out the ground troops. It didn’t work, of course. We lost the war. Our technologically advanced strategies did not work. Cities are far too complex a matrix to yield to ministry from a safe distance through the media. All this forced me to ask myself, Is Jesus just our message or is he also our model? In fact, we know now that nearly all urban persons come to Christ through relationships, not through media. The bigger the city, the higher this percentage seems to be.” P. 27-28

For me, the incarnation is a terribly profound statement regarding the best medium to present the gospel. God choose to send his “word”, but it was incarnated. Our message of the gospel is an embodied message and requires our presence.

Mass evangelism and media blitzes are wonderful tools to complement our boots on the ground, but they must never be relied upon to do all or most of the heavy lifting.

The other piece that struck (convicted) me was the imagery of the bombers based a safe distance away, flying a safe distance over the target, then returning for a good nights sleep in the comfort of a distant land. It is not just the methodology that is being critiqued (technological strategies or mass campaigns) but those Christians that are fleeing the city to return to the comfort of their distant land (including me.)

A gospel that will transform cities cannot be proclaimed from afar. Similarly, the gospel that the urban areas of the world need cannot be proclaimed by those who are within but aloof.

Ouch.

I have had the opportunity to revisit the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism website. I took another look at the Lausanne Covenant and to my surprise, it is really good.

“Lausanne provides a place for strategic theological discussion on the major issues affecting the Body of Christ and global evangelization. Since 1974, leaders have come together under The Lausanne Covenant to debate and discussion issues ranging from ministering to specific ethnic groups to evangelism and social responsibility.”

The Lausanne Commitee has also produced more than 30 Occasional Papers. These include titles like:

- Toward the Transformation of our Cities/Regions
- Marketplace Ministry
- Globalization and the Gospel: Rethinking Mission in the Contemporary World