How-tos of Ministry to Millennials

* Challenge them to change the world

* Develop your leadership intentionally

* Develop a commitment to excellence

* Live a pure life

* Be REAL. Share your faith and struggles

* Be in the Word and prayer

* People are more important than programs

* Focus on service

* Practice agape love, and teach forgiveness and conflict resolution

* Practice relational ministry. High touch for them relationally (develop small groups)

* Have programs that are fun and recreational to build relationships

* Be evangelism, don’t do evangelism

* Be relevant (know your audience)

* Build community (love the sinner)

* Use the Bible when you teach

* Teach intimacy with Jesus – why and whom they are worshipping

* Teach foundational truths

Greg Alexander

Book Review:  A Generous Orthodoxy  By Brian D. McLaren

For the first time in my life I was buying a book with a sticker on the front that proclaimed, “We guarantee you’ll love this book, or it’s free.”  I was intrigued from the start by someone who would guarantee my reaction to a book.  From the outset, “love” is a little strong for how I felt about this book, but “like” and “appreciate” better describe my response to what McLaren, one of the strongest voices in the Emergent Church Movement, is trying to do.  For me, his general purpose was proclaimed in this statement:  “…it is important to remember that postmodern theory does not support the rejection of rationality but rather supports rethinking rationality in the wake of modernity” (p. 10).  His approach to rationality is one that is both challenging and affirming as he deals with Christian doctrine and ideals. 

If you are searching for a tome of systematic theology, McLaren’s book is not for you.  He is certainly not systematic in his approach.  Christology, ecclesiology, revelation, reason, eschatology, and epistemology are apt to all be on one page.  At times, he debunks traditional formulations and seeks a new approach that brings together the combined insights of fundamentalism and classic liberalism in one statement.  He noted, “The approach you will find here, which might be called postcritical, seeks to find a way to embrace the good in many traditions and historic streams of the Christian faith, and to integrate them, yielding a new, generous, emergent approach that is greater than the sum of its parts” (p. 18).  That is his own fair assessment.  Yet, there are limits within which McLaren tries to define his orthodoxy.  He wrote, “Many hold a minimalist concept of orthodoxy, seeking ‘the lowest common denominator,’ which limits the list of requirements for orthodoxy to a few core essentials.  The generous orthodoxy of this book never seeks to dispute with those lists, but rather, it consistently, unequivocally, and unapologetically upholds and affirms the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds” (p. 28).  As far as I can determine, he faithfully follows his promise in this. 

The first major section of this book bears the subtitle:  “Why I am a Christian.”  He began this section confessionally, “I am a Christian because I have a sustained and sustaining confidence in Jesus Christ” (p. 43).  In order to define this, he describes the seven Jesuses he has known.  At least some of these resonate with some of us.  The seven he describes are “the Conservative Protestant Jesus,” “the Pentecostal/Charismatic Jesus,” “the Roman Catholic Jesus,” “the Liberal Protestant Jesus,” “the Anabaptist Jesus,” and “the Jesus of the Oppressed.”  These are described in a matrix on pages 64-65 that helps to identify both the problem and the way Jesus becomes the good news for that problem.  McLaren seeks to draw strengths from each of these in a positive way without being unduly critical of any of them.  Each of us can probably find things we would criticize about each of these, but his approach is to seek the strengths of each portrayal of Jesus. 

One of the most interesting and challenging chapters to this book is chapter 3, “Would Jesus Be a Christian?”  Part of his challenge is that we treat Jesus more as “mascot” than “master” (p. 80).  The basic thrust of this is that we have demoted Jesus from being “Lord” to only being “Savior” and have thus gutted his teachings of daily relevance for our lives being more concerned with a “self- and hell-centered approach” (p. 99).  He sees the desire to escape hell as the ultimate consumerism and a desire “more than I want true reconciliation to God or my neighbors” (p. 100). 

Part two of A Generous Orthodoxy is “The Kind of Christian I Am,” which is a search for brining together truths from divergent sources that assist his broader understanding of orthodoxy.  For me personally, the chapters are somewhat uneven in the insights they provide and the interest they create, but each helps feed the streams McLaren is following.  The total effect is to ask us to consider the value that all the major streams of our faith bring to Christian life in the freeform world of postmodernity.  That challenge is rich for us all.  The most significant chapters from my perspective are the chapters on the following topics: “Why I Am Missional;” “Why I Am evangelical;” “Why I Am Biblical;” “Why I Am (Ana)Baptist/Anglican;” “Why I Am Green” (not like Kermit the Frog); and “Why I Am Incarnational.”  Some of McLaren’s passion is certainly clear when he talks about wading in Maryland swamps as a volunteer who catalogs the presence of certain rare turtles as the expression of remembering that “the earth is the Lord’s.”  His concern here is one the church certainly needs to hear as to our own stewardship of the earth and its limited resources. 

One quote seems to capture much of his thrust from the “Incarnational” chapter.  McLaren wrote,
The fact is, all religions of the world are under threat—from fundamentalist Islam, but more, from the McDonaldization and Wal-Martization of the world, from global consumerism, from forces the emanate not from Arabia or Afghanistan, but from New York and Hollywood—forces that make all religions equally superfluous, trivial compared to the lust for a new car or a new pair of jeans (p. 254). 
He is certainly willing to challenge not only rampant consumerism but also religious relativism and unconcern.  While he challenges us not to dismiss the values of other religions, he challenges us even more to live in a pluralistic world practicing the love of Jesus toward every person, no matter what his or her religious background may be. 

In his final chapter, Brian McLaren sums up the book for me in this paragraph: 
If truth about the Divine is glorious beyond full comprehension; if glory itself is a wonder and surprise; if glorification is the doxology to which to which orthodoxy leads; if orthodoxy always culminates in an unending, joyous astonishment that erupts in gratitude and honor and humility and delight in response to the perception and contemplation of the truth about God, then these things are never done “finally right” or achieved or completed with mere technical correctness….They are never finished, never captured, never done justice, any more than the aspen leaves shimmering yellow against a pure blue sky…can be done justice or sufficiently honored by a single poem or song, or that two lovers can be satisfied with having made love “correctly” (p. 295). 

Orthodoxy, then, is the unfinished task we share and must continually seek to refine in our quest to show our love for God and his love to the world.  Brian McLaren may not provide your ideal of a theological construct, but in our world he is a voice with whom we must reckon.  The emergent church may not be where we serve, but there is a good chance we will be dealing with some of its issues as we seek to live our lives and fulfill our ministries, even in small-town and rural American.  I recommend this book and look forward to responses from those who have read it.  

You’ve probably heard the stats…

There are 4.4 million unreached people in Virginia. With that said, there seems to be a divide between our heart-felt passions and the plentiful harvest. Total baptisms among Baptist General Association of Viriginia (BGAV) congregations number around 8000 per year. That averages to one baptism every other month per BGAV church. At our current pace, it will take 559 years to reach Virginia with the Gospel.

How did we get here?

Most of our established churches have been around for a century or more. They had their real hey day was in the late 50s and 60’s, when our culture was steeped in a Christian mindset, and the church was largely the only game in town. Decline started in the 70s and in most cases has continued until this day. The decline affects all types of churches - rural and urban, conservative, and moderate, all denominatiions. The simple and undeniable reality is that many of our churches are not effectively connecting the gospel to our larger culture.

This raises the question ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church), until recently one of the most overlooked theological topics among Christian thinkers. It is understandable why ecclesiastical reflections were not a hotbed of discussion for so many years. Indeed, as Thomas Fingers has noted, theologians often seem eager “to defend those structures which paid their salaries” (Thomas N. Fingers, Christian Theology: An Eschatological Approach, vol. 2 (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1989), 226.). This being the case, heritage, tradition, denominational identity, and established power structures have usually hindered much reflective thought in the area of ecclesiastical identity. As a result, throughout most church history, essentially all matters related to the identity of the church have been supplied from the bias of dominant ecclesiastical traditions.

In a stable and unchanging environment, perhaps ecclesiastical considerations might be considered unnecessary. This is a mute point, however, because we do not live in a stable and unchanging environment. Nearly everyone agrees that contemporary culture is in a period of upheaval and change. Put another way, our culture is in a period of TRANSITION – massive transition, in fact.

Massive cultural shifts are occurring in contemporary society—of this there is little doubt. The reality of these changes is evident in numerous ways: the collapse of communism, the magnitude of technological advancements, the expansion of communication industries, moral decay and decadence, the mistrust of centralized governments, economic instability, and the destruction of the environment. Of such enormity are these cultural shifts that they have prompted church analyst Leith Anderson to declare them the dawning of the next millennium. In his book A Church for the 21st Century, Anderson writes: “The twentieth century is history. It’s over. The twenty-first century has already begun—the calendar just hasn’t caught up with the reality” (Leith Anderson, The Church for the 21^st Century, (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1992), 16).

When Anderson alludes to the beginning of the next millennium, he is metaphorically referring to the shifts taking place in contemporary society—shifts that point to the end of the dominance of one cultural paradigm and the birth of another. He is referring to what some scholars have called the end of modernity and the introduction of the postmodern era.

The reasons for these cultural quakes are many, but all boil down to one undeniable fact: human reason, which gave birth to fantastic advancements in science, industry, and technology, has failed to keep its promises. The underlying assumption of the Enlightenment was that human reason, freed from tyrannical forms of government and superstitious religion, could provide humanity with a peaceful and prosperous world. Such a world has not been born.

Instead of the promised advances from human reason, we see the increasing ravages of…

…world-wide oppression

…racial and ethnic bigotry

…rampant hungr

…international turbulence

…increases in global poverty

…a mistrust of institutions and their leaders (including the church)

…the destruction of the environment

…the fragmentation of communities

…individualism leading to isolationism

…the secularization of society

…and the technological ability to destroy all life on the planet in a matter of minutes

Sadly, we see that the institution of the church seems helpful to address these problems. In fact, the institution of the church seems much more reflective of its society, than transformational in it mission and ministry. Still, it is built into our “spiritual DNA” to find a way to effectively communicate the message and life of Jesus Christ.

That is why it is so very important, I suggest, that we explore the questions of the churches nature and identity, divorcing ourselves from outdated and culturally irrelevant models or doing church that are biblically faithful and culturally relevant. Indeed, this discussion about ecclesiology is absolutely essential because it impinges on every aspect of the church’s mission and ministry. I do not think it is a stretch to suggest that ecclesiology is the most pressing theological concern facing Christian theology as it lives in “The Transition Zone.”

I invite you to BLOG WITH ME about some biblical models for doing church in transitional times.

Welcome to the first blog entry at www.thetransitionzone.com

This site was built in 2006 as the work of the Christian Life Committee of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.  We built it as a gift to the global Christian community as it seeks to minister and evangelize in changing times.

We believe that most churches and Christians really desire to be an effective witness to the gospel of Jesus, but are unsure how.  Everywhere you turn in Virginia Baptist life – indeed, everywhere you turn in global Christianity – you will find church planters, youth leaders, denominational workers, pastors, leaders, and laypersons that hunger to see their congregations lively, their ministries vibrant, and their baptismal pools in full operation.  God programs this hunger into our spiritual DNA.  We are a people who hunger to build bridges to people in our society in order to help people cross the bridge of God’s grace that brings them into an intimate connection with Jesus Christ.

The fields are “ripe unto harvest” as Jesus said to his own disciples.  The opportunity is great.  There are 4.4 million unreached people.  With that said, there seems to be a divide between our heart-felt passions and the plentiful harvest.  Total baptisms among BGAV congregations number around 8000 per year.  That averages to one baptism every other month per BGAV church.  At our current pace, it will take 559 years for Virginia Baptist to reach Virginia with the Gospel.

So, why this disconnect?  If the opportunity is great (and it is), and if the passion for sharing the Gospel still exists (and it does), then why are so many of our BGAV churches unable to effectively engaging the world for the sake of our Redeemer?  How can the church be faithful in times such as these?

It is easy to say, of course, that we should just “preach the gospel.” Who’s going to argue with that?  Not me!  J What I do propose, however, is that preaching the gospel is not as easy as it use to be.  It is not enough to be a witness; we need to be an effective witness.  It is not enough to do evangelism; we need to do effective evangelism.  What does all this mean?  That’s a good question.  This site is here to help create a community of the faith who want to answer this basic question.  We invite you to become a part of a community that is asking tough questions and seeking relevant answers.

We want to explore the “whys” of these concerns, of course.  We need to engage in reflective thought about what is happening in our culture and why it is happening.  However we don’t want to suffered the paralysis of analysis.  We want to study the “whys” so we can answer the question, “What’s next?”  In other words, how can the church emerge through “the transition zone” as a more effective witness to the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.

We invite you to become a part of this interactive dialogue.  On a regular basis we will post topics of discussion on this blog-page in an attempt to get some lively exchange going.  We want to be an open forum for healthy doctrinal debate, discussions about culture, book reviews, idea exchanges – you name it, and we’ll try to find a way to include it. 

Join us by submitting your replies to this and other blogs.

Have interest in a topic of discussion not currently being “blogged?”  Simply submit your article for discussion and we’ll try to include it!

We do have one simple guideline.  This is not an attack forum for going after fundamentalists, liberals, denominational officials, institutions, etc.   We will not allow postings about what’s wrong with this person or that person.  Stay in the realm of ideas and be nice.  Shouldn’t be a problem for people of common faith trying to find ways to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ, right?

With this little bit said, welcome to the community!

Bill Nieporte