Reflection on "Missional Living"

Guest Blogger Intro: Eunice is an intern for Kingdom Causes this year. She is living and worshiping missionally in Monterey Park. Below she shares about her experience teaching a Sunday School Class at her church on “Missional Living.”

Although I knew that mission work did not have to involve getting on a plane and going to another country, there was still a part of me that believed that it was not fully mission work unless I traveled elsewhere. But since taking classes at Regent College and learning to read the Bible better, I know otherwise. True mission work is wherever I am. This is not because I can do so much. It is because God is a missional God. And since He has a desire for all humanity to know and love Him, mission exists everywhere, including the hodgepodge suburban city of Monterey Park.

As an intern for Kingdom Causes, my basic job description involves helping my own church in Monterey Park to be more missional in our own community. But the general mentality of the people who attend my church is still very much like mine was before learning more about missional living.

In the class, we basically covered four big concepts with Bible learning, application discussion and field trips. Here is a short and imperfect summary of each concept:

• Incarnational Hospitality: Jesus was hospitable (welcoming) everywhere he went—in others’ homes and in public areas. How can we be hospitable everywhere we go—in our residential neighborhoods, in our churches’ surrounding community, at the grocery store, in restaurants, while eating with our friends/family, while driving, etc.?
• Shalom: Because of sin, we are no longer fully in shalom. In other words, we are not wholly the creations that God wants us to be. How do we seek shalom (wholeness) for ourselves and in others?
• Kingdom of God: God’s kingdom is not a place; it is His realm over all things. It is here and not yet. This is the concept that God is in control, and not us. When we do mission work (as all ministry should be), we are not doing things for God, but we are participating in what God is already doing for His people.
• Church of the City: In the past, there used to only be one church in each community. That church was then responsible for the spiritual growth of the entire city. But in the present, there are often several churches in one city. In Monterey Park alone, there are over 25 churches. How can all these churches (despite different denominations, cultures and buildings) work together as the Church of the City?

Now that the official class has ended, here are a few personal reflections.

Highlights:

• Most of the students were regularly consistent. I hope this means they were interested and learning.
• A few of the students told me that they were seeing their lives differently—seeing how being hospitable to those around them was part of being missional.
• Our McDonald’s field trip showed us that people in the city are in need and how we can be hospitable in a public setting.
• Our church-visiting field trip opened our eyes to what other churches are doing in Monterey Park and how we can maybe join forces in being the Church of the City.

Challenges:

• One quarter Sunday school is not sufficient. In fact, two years of seminary are not sufficient for fully learning about our missional God and how we can participate. But in being and doing, I hope we will all keep learning.
• There are over 700 regular weekly attenders at my church. Only 10-15 students were in the Sunday school class. We wanted more. But the hope is that these few will spread the word. After all, the entire Christian church spread from 11 totally inadequate guys who learned to follow Jesus closely.
• We are so big and have so many resources that we think we can handle many things on our own. But so much more could be done when the Church of the City works together.

Regarding this Sunday school Jesse asked me, “Would you do this again?” My answer is “Yes!!”

Giving Thanks

We had our annual Community Thanksgiving Service this past Wednesday night at the 1st United Methodist Church of Alhambra, with about seven churches from the area participating, including two from Monterey Park. The best part of it for me was seeing all the different churches working together, connecting, and coming together for the specific cause that connected to the theme of the evening "Our Daily Bread."

I was glad we were able to get a representative from People for People, our local food bank to share the needs in the long term as well as the short term: three of the low income families with Christmas wish lists were "adopted" by attendees to the service, and we collected a whole car load of cans and dried food that we asked attendees to bring to the service for People for People's annual Christmas dinner delivery to the 150 or so families in our area.

Although I'm thankful for the chance for the Church of the cities to come together for a worship service, the whole theme of showing compassion to our needy neighbors made me think that perhaps the better alternative for the Church is to actually host our low-income neighbors and share a meal than have a worship service about it. Better yet, have a worship service added so they can be a part of it as well. Wouldn't it be great if we had a dinner together and had an open testimony time to express our gratitude as the Church with the community? Let a deeper justice and worship flow together!

Prayer Garden Walk Reflection

This reflection post is from guest blogger Tiffany C, one of our walkers of the 4K prayerwalk and garden fundraiser on 10/31/09. A gardener herself, she also started one of our neighborhood gardens in Monterey Park and helps maintain our current gardens. Pictures courtesy of Tiffany as well.

When I take the time to walk someplace instead of drive (if possible) I notice things that I wouldn’t if I was inside a car. When I sit in a car with the heater on or the air conditioner blowing, the windows up, and music playing, I am blocked off from the world around me; I don’t notice the details I am driving by. On the prayerwalk this past Saturday it was an opportunity to notice the details in the city. I saw beauty: roses, birds of paradise, pumpkins, pomegranates, and new growth on trees…Fall. I saw neighbors: people going on walks, working on their garden, washing cars. I saw community: churches preparing for a Fall festival, friends walking and talking with each other, and new friendships being made. As we prayed for the city of Monterey Park we were blessed with meeting new brothers and sisters in this city. It was a blessing to experience God’s children acting as one body, regardless of what church we go to on Sunday or our political affiliations.

I am so excited about what God is doing in this place. It is so encouraging to see people praying for neighbors they do not know, for students, and businesses. I am so excited about the neighborhood gardens that are growing. It is a blessing for me to be a part of planting these gardens and helping them grow. I can see how they are helping build community and friendships in addition to just growing a crop of vegetables. And I can’t wait to have a harvest that is bountiful so that we can share food to our neighbors, some of whom may be hungry. For where there is food people will gather.

Space to Care

On the right is a picture of the crumb of one of my favorite crusty breads, ciabatta.Those huge holes are like caverns to explore and collapse as you eat it, the aftermath of a perfect storm of bubbly yeast, heat and moisture interacting with the dough.

This week I was reminded of how much space we need to clear in our calendars to be caring. And by caring, I mean being available for others in a way that's an unhurried exchange. In yeast breads, flavor and crumb are formed best when there are long rise times. So it is with our appointments.

The nature of community work with Kingdom Causes seems never ending in my mind: there's always another contact, another church, another meeting, another project, another deadline, another grant to pursue. It may be just because it's all new to me, so I haven't fully settled into a rhythm yet. But it can easily feel overwhelming.

Still, this week I've had the chance to have dinner with my neighbors, meet with a friend I haven't met with in awhile, have an extended meeting with KCAMP's intern and a local pastor, and share breakfast (unplanned) with some guys who helped me grab soil from Home Depot for one of the gardens. In each of these meetings, it was unhurried time, an open-ended appointment. No dashing about to the next thing, the next deadline. There was space to care.

I suppose this sort of "scheduling my margins" is a foil for my other job, which is often about efficiency and immediate results. Folding in the space to care will be difficult, even though it's so necessary!

True Treasures

I had two experiences of drumming up support for Kingdom Causes this week: on Monday, a traditional golf marathon fundraiser, and last night, an opportunity to speak to one of the adult fellowships at my old church. The first had the usual pieces: e-mail blasts, personal phone calls (even Facebook chats) all to raise funds for this upcoming year. Normal fundraising stuff for a typical fundraiser.

I approached last night's talk like your typical missionary asked to come to a church: trying to figure out how to be the most inspiring so they would want to get involved or give. But at some point I revisited an exercise called the "treasure hunt" I learned from ABCD (Asset Based Community Development) training, which became the main "recruitment" piece of my sharing.

Basically, every person writes down on post-its 3 things that are related to things they know (head), things they are passionate about (heart), and things they know how to do (hand). We share with the whole group our "treasures," post them on a board, then organize them into like categories as stuff shared inevitably overlaps.

After we organized the many treasures, I basically told the group that when we think of reaching our community, we often forget that within ourselves God has already given us many interests, passions, and talents that can be used for his mission. We have such and such ministries you can get involved in with Kingdom Causes, but I'd rather they start with their God-given assets instead of having them fit "my" agenda. I did share about what we do now, but that was much shorter than I originally planned.

Henri Nouwen called fundraising as ministry a new way of relating people to their resources (as defined by time, talents, and money). It is actually a conversion process. I hope the treasure hunt exercise was a new way for the group to see themselves not merely as people needing more outlets for engaging their community, but that they already possess vast resources to shape whatever direction the Lord leads them.

Psalm 23 and Mission

Left: Photos of shepherd's crooks used for leading sheep (taken by Crag Face, 7/4/02


Yesterday I participated in a 1/2 day retreat with the Fuller class I'm auditing on spiritual formation. We were given Psalm 23 as our focus Scripture to meditate on.

"He makes me lie down in green pastures..." I realized it says "he MAKES me"...but the image it conjured up was my new role as a parent, "making" my baby's schedule, putting her to sleep at her bedtime though she at times seemingly protests. Am I being paternalistic? You bet I am! But at this fundamental stage of life, she needs me to shepherd her in this way.

And speaking of roles, this Psalm also reminded me that with all my roles, especially the ones where I take a leadership role, I must never forget the one role that will always be around, no matter what other roles fall to the wayside: being a sheep--a child of God. It is an eternal role I will never outgrow. Like my daughter, I must also be like her in that implicit trust she has when I take her out of her crib. I may not always be able to DO something for God, but I can always sit at his feet attentively.

The last thing about this verse is that only when the Lord my shepherd makes me lie down/besides still waters does he "restore my soul." I never saw this as a process before, just an unconnected list. But now I see I can not find refreshment of the soul if I have not stopped and ceased from all the activity in my life periodically.

There were some final questions I never got to at the end, but helped me to frame my thinking about next year with Kingdom Causes:

1. How has the Shepherd been preparing you to extend his reign through you in the role to which he has called you?
2. How has he been shepherding specific people in your place of ministry/work? How might he want to shepherd them?
3. How is he shepherding structures for which you have responsibility?

Community Building Intergenerationally

This was a new garden we set up in Monterey Park yesterday to add to the community gardens we've started in the summer. The grandmother of the woman who lives at this location mentioned to me that in the 68 (!) years she's lived in Monterey Park, there have been many gardens grown in her backyard. Ears of corn, squash, tomatoes and all manners of veggies were grown which also helped to feed the 4 kids that grew up at this house.

I also appreciated how the grandmother said with pride about her granddaughter how she was "doing her grandfather right" by growing food again after many fallow years. And that blessing sparked me to think that part of what these gardens do in building community is that they can bring the generations together. They should bring the generations together!

Anyway, when these beds are overflowing with veggies, we're growing to throw a "harvest party" for the neighborhood...young and old and of course, those young at heart!

Meeting with the Mayor

This past Thursday the Monterey Park pastors group met with the mayor of the city. It was refreshing to hear a committed Christian share his unlikely journey from a small town in Saskatchewan to having an office in the city council. I was impressed with his candor and honesty with the often grey and cutthroat world of political life, and how integrity and clear ethical boundaries were needed to survive without compromise.

But when we asked what it would mean for the churches to be more involved in the city, I don't think it was necessarily the "magic" answer that we may have expected. Perhaps we expected "the top" to have the best ideas and wisdom. Maybe we had thought it was going to be an easy "this is the most important priority for our city, please help us."

Instead, we got what is reminiscent of Jesus' words, "the first shall be last." Getting involved with various organizations like the PTA or city events was his main suggestion. Getting back to the grassroots, to our local neighborhoods. "But whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant" (Mark 10:43). Jesus said this in the context of the disciples jockeying for positions of influence. We too can be seduced by the desire for more influence and access to the corridors of the powerful, even as we seek the Kingdom in our city. So I liked that reminder that the way up is always down.

The Risen Christ Got There Ahead of Me

Eunice my intern and I started a "Missional Living" Sunday School class last week at my former church in Monterey Park. I spoke from Scripture how God is a missionary God, that mission is part of his inherent nature in the Trinity, and one significant implication for us is to recognize that God is already up to something before we arrive to "do mission." I'm excited to see how the class can be a space to excite people's imaginations for the Kingdom. I'm excited to see how the two pictures can make sense rather than seem like two unconnected worlds!

Read another devotion from Eugene Peterson today (an excerpt from Under the Unpredictable Plant) that relates to this truth about mission flowing from the heart of God:


In every visit, every meeting I attend, every appointment I keep, I have been anticipated. The risen Christ got there ahead of me. The risen Christ is in that room already. What is he doing? What is he saying? What is going on?

In order to fix the implications of that text in my vocation, I have taken to quoting it before every visit or meeting: "He is risen,...he is going before you to 1020 Emmorton Road; there you will see him, as he told you." Later in the day it will be, "He is risen,...he is going before you to St. Joseph's Hospital; there you will see him, as he told you." When I arrive and enter the room I am not so much wondering what I am going to do or say that will be pastoral as I am alert and observant for what the risen Christ has been doing or saying that is making a gospel story out of this life. The theological category for this is prevenience, the priority of grace. We are always coming in on something that is already going on. Sometimes we clarify a word or feeling, sometimes we identify an overlooked relationship, sometimes we help recover an essential piece of memory--but always we are dealing with what the risen Christ has already set in motion, already brought into being.

If we are all ministers of Christ, we are "always coming in on something that is already going on." To me, it's a relief to know that it's not all up to me to make something happen; the risen Christ is already there! Can I get an AMEN?!?

"Among the Laity"...is a Revolution?

This CartoonChurch.com cartoon originally appeared in the Church Times and is taken from ‘My Pew: Things I have seen from it’, published by Canterbury Press.

Despite the cartoon above, here is a recent devotional piece called "Among the laity" from Eugene Peterson in Living the Message (September 7):


Spirituality is of mostly concern among the laity, the men and women who are running markets, raising children, driving trucks, cooking meals, selling cars, believing in God while changing a flat tire in the rain...

Contemporary spirituality desperately needs focus, precision, and roots: focus on Christ, precision in the Scriptures, and roots in a healthy tradition. In these times of drift and dilettantism, evangelical Christians must once again serve the church by providing just such focus and precision and rootage. That it is primarily lay Christians who are left to provide this service to the church is not at all crippling. The strength and impact of evangelicalism has often been in the laity--transcending denominational divisions, subverting established structures, working behind the scenes, beginning at the bottom.


It's not fashionable to use the clergy/laity split in some circles these days, but I think Peterson still makes a worthwhile observation that real movements of change can not be (and have not been) based solely on charismatic leadership.

The last line in particular resonates with me in particular as to what being a city "catalyst" is about: "transcending denominational divisions, subverting established structures, working behind the scenes, beginning at the bottom." But this quote reminds me that catalyst should not become another title for leaders to appropriate for themselves and unwittingly create yet another (unhelpful) division between "we the elite" and "you the masses." "Catalyst" needs to remain a function, not a position. There are many catalysts in each of our cities, and I am meeting more and more of them--and not all of them hold position or influence, at least not the way we typically think of those things. And catalysts hold the seed of revolution in their hearts--and I'm hoping for us to hear more of their stories in later posts soon!

Waiting for Transformation

Welcome to yet another blog! Blogs are considered passe now in our Facebook/Twitter universe, but I hope this blog can be a real encouragement for all of us who are seeking the 'shalom' of our cities of Alhambra and Monterey Park by sharing our stories about what God is doing here in us, through us, and perhaps despite us! We at Kingdom Causes want to share and hear the stories of transformation in our communities, so here goes!

To start off, I've shared this story to some already, but it's worth repeating for the fact that it bears further reflection on our desire for transformation.

My first meeting with a Monterey Park pastor connected me to a group of pastors/ministers in the city who just started meeting. At their second meeting which I attended, the convening pastor shared how she had been praying for TEN years for this group to form, and only now has it borne any fruit. Another seasoned pastor mentioned that he had seen groups like this come and go, spark and fizzle in his twenty some years pastoring in the city. And not much really happened from any of those groups.

While it's still early to say that this time around is really going to stick (but I sense the Spirit in it), this made me think a lot about our desire for transformation as Christ followers: why does it seem like we always end up waiting on God?

I know there's a lot of good reasons why we end up waiting, theological and otherwise. I know we live in a fast-paced modern world where instant access is expected and available with the right phrasing on Google. I know I'm the kind of future oriented dreamer guy who doesn't like waiting to begin with. But after hearing those two pastors share, it made me realize that waiting for transformation creates a space for humility to root in us. Even if this pastors group becomes greatly used by the Lord for His glory in the city of Monterey Park, I can't shake the fact that seemingly nothing happened for at least 10-20 years before this year. And because I can't shake that fact off, it helps to keep me humble that God's been working in people and His city long before I showed up. We wait for transformation because we can't generate it in a vacuum or in isolation.
We wait for transformation because it creates dependence on God to lead the way.