A Living Alternative

This past week I was teaching on our Justice Discipleship Training School (JDTS) about what it means to be genuinely communities of the mission.  While I can’t share in full detail everything that I taught on, a few people expressed interest in the highlights, so I’ll do my best to give you the general feel of things.  Much of the material can be found in various blog posts on over the past several years.  I will likely have to break this up into a number of posts, as it is too much for just the one.  Feel free to ask for more details if you need them.

The lecturer prior to me was Chad Chomlack from Banff.  During his (excellent) week, one of the things he had the students reflect on was people who they looked up to and/or aspired to be like and why.  While he went on to process the answers in very personal ways, it provided the perfect starting point for my week of teaching.  When I asked the students why they respected these people so much, without exception their answers were rooted in the lived out, incarnational, hands-on, “do something” life of their choices.  It was clear that all of us, while respecting and honouring knowledge and wisdom, were hungry for people who lived their convictions in very real ways.

The world is very much the same.  People everywhere are watching, waiting, searching for others who have embraced their convictions in tangible ways.  And, whether we like it or not, we (the Church) are also being watched and measured according to how our lives measure up to our espoused beliefs.  We reflected on this by watching the following short video montage of just a very few images of Jesus.  These images are some of the ways- good, bad and cheesy- that the world perceived Jesus.  Take some time to watch carefully, considering your feelings towards each image:

Whether it is fair or not, the world is going to form their image of Jesus in large part by how we represent Him in our lives- not as much by our theology, doctrines or propositional beliefs (though each are unquestionably important).  This is only natural because, not only were we created in the image of God, but as Christians are reborn & resurrected into Christ’s Body.  So when people look at us, especially collectively, they should be seeing Jesus.  To use the Lord’s name in vain, more than anything else, means to live lives that are unworthy of His name.

What do they see when they see you with your community of faith?  Can they see you?  What would you want them to see?

This Scripture has become increasingly important to me over the last few years. I particularly appreciate the translations that maintain the wording “do justice”. To “act justly” seems far too passive and responsive, whereas “do justice” is demanding and proactive. I wanted to understand this idea better, so I applied my (amateur) theological and exegetical skills. What I found was exciting to me.

The word “do” in this context is used quite frequently in the Old Testament. In one of it’s first usages, found in Genesis 2:3 (NASB) we read:

“Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Gen. 2:3 (NASB)

The word “made” is the same as “do” in Micah. Notice that in the Hebrew that there is reference to both “created” and “made” (a point unfortunately lost in many translations). The word for “create” implies just that- to cause something to be out of nothing. “Made”, however, infers producing, becoming, making, labouring, working, etc. In other words, in the process of Creation, God not only called things into being, but also shaped and worked those created things for His purposes.

When we understand this in the context of the Micah reference, we see that it is not simply call us to live lives that avoid injustice, but rather that we are to forge and fulfil, to prepare and provide, to make and maintain justice around us. When we consider that, through Christ’s work on the cross, even evil can be turned for good, so to must we understand the justice can- MUST be made even in the face of the greatest injustices. It must be done with hearts filled and fueled by mercy (as mercy was extended to us), which in turn calls us to humility. However, it is what God requires of us.

The word “do” is clearly and unequivocally connected to tangible, real-world action- to work, service and sacrifice. It must include prayer, but cannot be only prayer (for pray turns not God towards us, but us towards Him). It can include advocacy, but cannot simply be a voice raised (for our cries are empty without the embodiment of the love we proclaim). It is a call to us as community of believers to live our lives in radical contrast to the unjustice realities of the Empire in which we find ourselves.

What are the injustices, big and small, in the world around you right now? How can you make justice with your choices, big and small, both as an individual and as part of a community of faith? What prayers for justice could you be the answer to?

In his excellent book “The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving the World’s Poor”, Scott Besseneckers calls us to consider the historic tradition of small monastic movements that have embodied the missional solidarity with the poor. Like St. Francis and his order, these small communities kept the vibrancy of faith alive through their example, passion and sacrifice. Today, a new movement of “friar” like young Christians are carrying on this tradition- missional orders who seek to discover and serve Christ among “the least of these” around the world.

We are thrilled to announce that Scott Bessenecker will be one of the lecturers on our Justice Discipleship Training School (JDTS) this coming October. It is fitting that he will be teaching on this topic as it largely encapsulates the very essence of what our school and community is about. Our goal is the provide a community where spiritual and missional formation draws each participant into a deeper understanding and commitment to lives of missional justice among the poor (or as I like to call them, Franabaptists!).

How do we do this? We focus on both content and context. While not academic in nature, our disicipleship “program” provides a call to character and community, laying a solid foundation in spiritual and missional foundation. This includes teaching, study, service, film, etc. provided in such a way that a life-long Christian with a university degree is equally challenged alongside an inner city former gang member.

Perhaps more important than content, however, is context. Participants- students and staff (a very light distinction, by the way)- spend the first three months of “training” living in our community house in the heart of Winnipeg’s inner city West End neighbourhood. Living in intentional community, sharing a rythme of life together, is critical to the formation process. The house, a once-abandoned gang house of some notariaty, is in itself a symbol of the Kingdom to our neighbours. Even most of our meals are taken in the community at a local truly third-place diner.

Our passion is to offer missional formation that embraces both our local and global vocation, developing both a theology of going and a theology of place. To that end, the team will spend two months in a missions/service trip to Uganda. Having formed connections and relationships of advocacy, service and mutual learning over the last several years, we are convinced that first-hand experience with the connectedness of our increasingly small world is an essential part of discipleship.

Each year we only take a small group of participants, as we want to keep the community intimate. However, we still have a few more places available. Please pray about joining us or recommending someone else to be a part of this exciting opportunity. The school begins on October 6th, 2008, ending on February 27, 2009 with a short break over Christmas. Visit our website for more details.

Are you interested? Know anyone who might be? Willing to be an advocate for the school? Let me know!

Missional, Missional+Community, YWAM, Justice, New+Monasticism, New+Friars, DTS, Uganda

With all the buzz about the various conferences (and unconferences) which have happened or are happening, I could not help but think about the nature of such gatherings. Emerging Grace had some provocative thoughts and questions in her recent post “The Cool Kids”, which looks at hierarchy and centralization in respect to conferences. While these are important points, for me it relates more to our life in proximity to the margins.

Our approach to conferences, with all its necessary organization and leadership, requires a significant level of financial stability and knowledge in order to participate. Inevitably, this often excludes many on the margins. While some of these limitations are as a result of systemic injustice (i.e. poverty, inadequate eduaction, gender biases, racism, etc.), others are not avoidable.

For example, with our Discipleship Training School (DTS) we intentionally try to make it possible for a local inner city student to join. However, this often means facing the challenges of FASD, alcoholism, even mental illness (not that these don’t occur with our other students at times). How do offer communal spiritual formation for a group made up of people in these circumstances and others, like university level learners? We have navigated this carefully and, I think, with some success.

All of this to say that conferences (or any such gathering that requires the freedom and wealth to travel, the understanding of the more complex topics, etc.), while important and helpful, are inherently designed to keep knowledge, connections and even power in the hands of those who already have these. Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that this is being done intentionally, but it is a dynamic that needs to be acknowledged and aggresively engaged for alternatives. And let me say this clearly: those alternatives will be costly to those of us with the power, namely white, middle class males.

Again, I need to be clear that I am not anti-conference. In fact, I still affirm their importance. I used to attend many conferences in the past, all deeply shaping my journey and ministry, mostly for the good. Since we began our ministry in the inner city, our own financial stability has made it nearly impossible to attend such events. For example, I very much wanted to attend the Missional Order gathering that Allelon hosted in Seabeck, but there was no way I could have afforded it.

However, I am able to be confident that friends like Brother Maynard, Rick Meigs, Mark Priddy , Len Hjalmarson and others will act as emissaries to such events. In the midst of imperfect circumstances, we must choose to trust these people to hold lightly their advantage and use their privilege for those who do not share it. This does not mean we can ignore the need for major changes (and I think the issue of race and gender should be at the top of the agenda), but neither should we fail to make the most of where we are at. So, as we consider the future of how we gathering to learn and grow together, we must consider the wider implications and the inevitable limitations, moving forward with a tempered radicalism to forge another way.

What are your concerns about conferences and the like? What can be done to change for the better?

Missional Conferences Justice