apostolic environment
Just about to switch into the next element of mDNA, apostolic environment. Should be a hoot of a discussion. Lets start it off with these two quites that I hung at the top of the chapter in the book…
Purpose and principle, clearly understood and articulated, and commonly shared, are the genetic code of any healthy organization. To the degree that you hold purpose and principles in common among you, you can dispense with command and control. People will know how to behave in accordance with them, and they’ll do it in thousands of unimaginable, creative ways. The organization will become a vital, living set of beliefs.
Dee Hock
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality
Max DePree
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apostolic ministry in denominations??
- Matt Stone said: Patrick's comments...
- Janet said: They're great questions!...
- Erik said: I must first confess...
- Patrick said: Alan, that's why I like...
- alan hirsch said: Good point Patrick. As...
- Patrick said: "The apostolic... if you want missional church, then…
- Matt Stone said: Ah, but Janet, if I were...
- Janet said: Great post Justin... and...
- Justin Mayfield said: Matt - "We can only...
- Janet said: I don't personally...
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
The question is how do we get a community based on many personally-concieved missions, that is to say a community already established and aging, rallied around one mission and purpose?
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:31 pm
There is a big difference (or should be in personal missions) and an organizational mission. As a spiritual navigator for a church plant, I don’t have the gift of shepherd/pastor so I don’t like calling myself pastor, I seek to help people discover how they can be who God created them to be (personal mission) and be missional together (Church’s mission).
Now, when we are seeking to transform an exciting organization as Isaiah as asked, we must begin with a compelling vision from God and in Scripture God begins by giving vision to one person (imagine the nightmare of 30 people trying to received the same vision) such as Moses, Joshua, Abraham, Jesus, etc. What we have to realize is that vision inspires movements, sharing “needs” doesn’t. That is one thing I really like about Alan’s book is that he didn’t give a lot of strategy (the how) but he did share an alternate future (vision).
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:03 am
Hey Al…This was one of my favorite quotes in your book. We were in the middle of starting our version of Tempt groups and the idea of having clearly defined values gave me a lot of freedom in letting go of control. Not that I did this perfectly…at all! But this idea helped our community to look closer at our values and spend time thinking about them. I’ve since realized how important it is for these values to be clear, yet still lend space to freedom of expression. Also, if we through the ‘mission as the driving principle’ behind them…that needs to be clear as it will most likely determine how each value is interpreted. Lots to learn from the quote…thanks for sharing it again.
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 am
Just think about how many “structures” in church were designed to “prevent” false teaching, control behavior, etc. Shoot, how much of the New Testament would we NOT have if Paul had ministered with command and control!!
Alan, the book has been such a great experience for me. Thanks for taking the time to read it. It also helped me connect with Missio and Matt!
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:00 am
This post strikes me right in the heart as it is this essence to apostolic environment which I spent the morning discussing with a close friend over coffee. In truth, we defined it under the terms Authentic Community however it was apostolic to the core!
O.K. between you and me… my friend is how would you say “the 40 year old virgin”…
and has spent most of his life alone when it came to the social environmental community. In the greatest of ways he struggles with the deepest sense of “being alone” while in the midst of a great community. Sitting across from me he wept while identifying that a truly authentic, hospitable, intentional, relevant, and unconditionally accepting community is perhaps one of the greatest “needs” in N.A. That there has been such a push towards self independence and sufficiency/success there is little time and no room for the expressions of love and community.
I personally do not think we can “change” the existing community in the sense of “here is the vision now YOU do it” but rather as you say Lee, start with the vision itself and its living presence in OUR lives while watching and encouraging those who gravitate towards it with us. Perhaps in the use of Depree’s quotation, definition is found in the content and context of our own lives. Just some thoughts…
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:31 am
Erik,
Well put! I can see God giving Moses a vision to lead the people out of Egypt, but imagine if Moses had gone to Caleb and Joshua and said, “Ok, here is how you have to fulfill your part of the vision.” That is no longer vision, but being a dictator.
Once you set boundaries, such as vision, mission, core values, and core beliefs, you can turn people lose to operate within those and watch what God does!!
Jesus set parameters for the 72 when he sent them out but then he let them free to minister within those parameters!!
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Is the body of Christ an “organisation” or an organism?
Just teasing out the ideas here!!!
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
I think at the core the church is an organism, and yet whenever you have two or more people assemble there is some function of organization. I think we see the reality of ineffectiveness when the “church” exists to serve the organizational structure versus the living organism where structure serves the organism. We are living organisms and even within our physical body there is organization. The Creator designed the structure of our body to serve us, not for us to exist to serve it!
Animals societies develop living forms of organization. I think we have to shift from seeing organization as the end to organization as a tool. Does that make sense?
April 24th, 2008 at 1:13 am
Absolutely that makes sense Lee! Spoken right out of Jesus’ mouth, “The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath.” Organisms need to breath, move, and exercise their structural muscles much like a missional movement relationally extends to those who surround their community.
The question does roll around in my head regarding an organism’s need for consumption. In the communal picture of the church as an organism, what does it consume? Does this also relate to corporate consumerism?
April 24th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Ah man, you just hit one of the biggest things I have been wrestling with and that is the reality of balancing the very real consumption necessary to sustain a living organism and the “American Dream” view of consumption? How much is too much? Where is the line?
I have never sought to “feed” the monster of consumption intentionally (I do so by making it VERY hard for followers from other local expressions of church to become a part of our expression if they are leaving mad, not being fed, and all the other nonsense). However, I am wise enough to know that by living in the middle of a consumptive society (overly so) that we inevitably invite in some of the destructive tendencies as such.
I realized the other day that every commitment (verbal, purchase, nonverbal, thought, etc.) that I make immediately “yokes” me to something. In an effort to become more Christlike, I realized the spiritual discipline of simplicity has been absent from this particular area of my life. My family has agreed to remove all the “things” from our life that might be good in and of themselves, but that “yoke” us as we “consume” them. Again, not always an issue of sin, but of simplicity.
I suspect simplicity is the antidote for consumption. Jesus for President is a great example of the impact of simplicity.