The Church Fortress

Some of our close friends have a daughter with freckles and red hair. I affectionately call her, "Little Red." Little Red as long as she could talk has referred to her father as "papa." This has changed recently. Because she spends more time conversing with other children her age who refer to their fathers as "daddy," Little Red has made the switch. Nothing about the relationship has changed, only the name. While at first it was heartbreaking to her parents who loved the originality and the sweetness in her little voice as she called out "papa," they have come to accept that "papa" will now be "daddy."

A similar thing has happened in the church. New congregations (made up of people from other congregations) are popping up all over claiming to "missional" and "emergent." What is strange, is that many of these "missional, emergent" churches are new in style, but not in substance. These churhes are "daddy" and no longer "papa." The relationship to the culture is essentially the same. The message to people is come to us, we have cooler music, we have more fragrant candles, we have a place for you to pray to our God and while you're here, you can become more like us. While this might be far more hip, it is really no different than the Pharisaic mindset that Jesus so often attacked. That mindset was, "come to US, speak OUR language, keep OUR observances, don't fraternize with those outside unless they are willing to come in, and then you can be close to God."

The Gospel of the Christ calls the church to be different in substance. The church gathered is fuel for the church scattered. Real worship (that spirit and truth worship the Father seeks) is found in everyday life. It is found in the eating and the drinking and the standing and the sitting and the walking by the way, and in our work, and in our friendships. We are to be a community within a community offering up our hearts and hands to people praying and working so that joyfully, much is made about Jesus. We are to become friends to our fellow sinners, listening to their stories, laughing with them, crying with them, and praying that God would give us wisdom on how to relate that to the grand story that Christ came to save us because we are broken.

Missio Dei Church is striving to become that kind of expression of Christ's body. We believe that God is calling out people to represent him in the world (don't take us out of the world, keep us from the evil one). We believe that the fortress mentality so prevelant in the church (even the hip "missional, emergent" ones) is dentrimental to the Gospel of Jesus. It is messy work, and it may get us killed, but the Spirit keeps us from doing anything less. It is not enough to just change the name, we must get back on mission.

Blessings <><