May 26
Andrew J. NicewanderArt and Culture, Culture, Poetic Prose Christianity, Jack Shephard, Jesus, John Locke, Lost, Redemption
In the end, it was all about lost sheep.
It was about Ben, the Island-bred murderous liar, for whom manipulation was second nature and coercion simply a means to the end of the moment.
It was about Sawyer, the smooth-talking con-man, rough around every edge, singularly bent on murderous revenge.
It was about Kate, the attractive girl-next-door killer, on the run from the authorities and her broken past.
It was about the Kims, husband and wife in name only, owners of a broken marriage and slaves to a dictatorial father/boss.
It was about John, the bitterly angry paraplegic orphan with sever daddy issues.
It was about Jack, the work absorbed, brilliant surgeon, who could fix everything except his own broken, screwed-up life.
It was about Sayid, the torturer.
It was about Charlie, the druggie.
It was about Claire, the young-mother-turned-crazie.
It was about Hurley, the large, superstitious lottery-winning schizophrenic.
It was about Desmond, the yellow-bellied time-traveller.
It was about a diverse group of fallen, flawed and ultimately lonely people.
They tried to fix things, they tried to do things their own way. Every step was a stumble, every stumble a full-on face plant.
In the end, it is all about a Lamb.
A Lamb who was born a miraculous birth.
A Lamb who lived a completely human life.
A Lamb who is without spot or blemish.
A Lamb who sympathizes as a Kind and Dread Sovereign.
A Lamb who bled, died and rose again.
This Lamb redeemed David, the cowardly murderous adulterer.
This Lamb redeemed Jacob, the spineless mommas-boy cheat.
This Lamb redeemed Moses, the timidly fearful seeker of man’s honor.
This Lamb redeemed Peter, the loud-mouthed, impetuous, impatient fisherman.
This Lamb redeemed Saul, the hate-filled, Pharisaical butcher.
This Lamb redeemed the dying, bloody, pathetic thief on the Cross.
This Lamb redeemed me.
The Stories of men are powerful. They’re riveting. They’re didactic. They’re inspiring.
Yet, all such stories of hope and grace and redemption pale in comparison to the glorious Light, our Lion and Lamb, in whom is no darkness.
May 04
Andrew J. NicewanderCulture, Missions, Some Thoughts Church, Church Planting, Evangelism, Incarnational Living, Jesus, Missiology, Missions, Preaching, Responsibility, Scripture, Teaching, Worship
My previous posts in this series are below: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 I finished Part 3 in this series with a basic question: how is this missions model incarnational? To explain, the normal and traditional way of doing missions (at least according to this model) is shown below: 
Usually, the missionary is trained and mentored in the sending context and sent out into the rest of the world to evangelize, and for the church-planter, to plant churches. But, what if the model took on this shape: 
Notice in what context the whole model exists. Within this model the missionaries leave their home churches, go to their mission field and serve, are trained, are sent and plant planting churches within the indigenous context.
As many have noted, the number of “unreached” people groups have been dropping precipitously. This is a wonderful development and we should thank God for it. But, we dare not forget the scores of lost men who remain in groups that have been “reached”. We are called by God to make disciples among all the nations and all of the people groups, not just among those who are unreached. A direct (and obvious) corollary of the reality of there being fewer unreached people groups is the reality of there being more reached people groups. Because of this reality, there are more indigenous churches to serve in, to be trained in, and to be sent by to plant more indigenous, Bible believing, Gospel-Saturated planting churches.
Consider what a profound example of incarnational humility this can be. If you are a man called of God to someday pastor, it will be a great statement of trust in Christ and submission to others to, in faith, immerse yourself in another culture and serve in a local church in that culture. 
You then are trained by “indigenous” pastors and are sent by indigenous churches to plant indigenous churches that themselves plant indigenous churches that plant indigenous (or glory be to God, foreign) churches. You’ll more fully learn how to live with people of another culture. You’ll more fully learn how they think, how they live, how they worship and how they serve. You’ll be trained by men who know their culture, to serve others in that culture. You allow and encourage the indigenous church to take ownership and responsibility to plant indigenous churches that otherwise would have been planted by your home-culture church. Is this not a wonderful example of Christian unity? Is this not a wonderful example of the Biblical diversity that is found in the love of Christ? Is this not a profound declaration of the priority of our Heavenly Citizenship over the citizenship of our native land?
What are the full implication and ramifications of this model? Honestly, I have no way of knowing. I would pray that it would foster a passion for the glory of Christ in our unity as children of the Father. I pray it would encourage humility and discourage the arrogance that is found all too often in the saints. I pray that it would encourage us to preach Christ to all peoples. We must remember that every generation presents us with a new crop of souls to be harvested. May we ever submit to the Will of God and seek his glory, by the Son’s Grace and through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.
May 01
Andrew J. NicewanderCulture, Missions, Some Thoughts Church, Church Planting, Evangelism, Incarnational Living, Jesus, Missiology, Missions, Preaching, Responsibility, Scripture, Teaching, Worship
In review, here is the suggested model for living and serving incarnationally in missionary church planting.
In Scripture (1 Peter 3:8-9, Ephesians 4:1-6) Christians are called to submit to and live in deference one to another. In Hebrews 13:17 Christians are called to submit to their leadership (within Christian mutual submission). Being a churchman can and should be a very humbling experience. As much as the human being desires absolute autonomy, the simple truth is that in Christ we are unified to each other. In Christ we are to submit to one another with humble selflessness, giving deference to each other. If a man cannot do this in a local church, how can he have any reasonable expectation of asking men and women to follow his leadership as an undershepherd? How can a pastor hope to lead like Christ unless he can first be led? There is so much emphasis in evangelicalism on being a good leader that many people forget that in order to be a Christ-like servant-leader you must be a Christ-like servant-follower. Pastors are servants, under-shepherds, slaves and messenger boys, called of God to minister to Christ’s Body.
It is within this context that certain men are called out of the body of believers into roles of leadership. Yet, this does not necessarily happen instantaneously. In the examples of Barnabus and his protégé Paul, and then in Paul and his protégés Timothy and Titus, there is a very strong element of pastoral mentoring that occurs. 
In this modern era of Christianity, most of the heart of pastoral training is expected to be completed at a seminary. There is on the job training that happens, as with any job, but usually, to be a pastor means that one must go to seminary, get a degree of some kind, and then wait for one’s resume to be picked up by a church somewhere who will then call the candidate in question and examine him. Where is the ownership in the local church for a man’s training and development in such a system? Seminaries are not bad institutions. There is a lot of good that come out of seminaries, as well as bad. The problem comes when the local church abdicates her responsibility and ability to train her own pastors, missionaries and missionary church planters by farming out the work to the plethora of available para-church organizations and denominational institutions.
Once the pastors or missionaries or missionary church planters are trained and ready, who sends them? Should the local church rely solely on Missions agencies and church planting networks to send their men and women to the field? I think the example of the Holy Spirit through the Church in Antioch is a hearty no! It was the local church in Antioch that sent Barnabas and Paul. The local church must send out her own! This duty, calling and privilege is not the purview of the missions agency or the denomination. Are missions agencies or denominational missions wings bad? Again, not necessarily. Problems arise when local churches renege on their responsibilities. The church must train her people and she must take ownership of her calling before God to send them out among the nations.
Finally, as men and women are sent around the world to spread the good news of the Gospel, it must be done within the realm of planting churches that plant churches. Thus we see the organic nature of the Church: by God’s Grace, in Christ and through the Spirit’s power, churches reproduce. Interestingly enough, the three previous elements of this model happen at this point. One the one hand serving, teaching/learning and sending comes into play with this fourth element; but at the same time, the planted church is learning how to serve, teach/learn and send. In order for a church to be able to plant churches there should be a corporately similar trajectory of growth for the church as their should have been for the missionary church planter.
There are two additional aspects of this model that should be explained.
First, each subsequent element of the model is within the context of the previous element. Every Christian should be a part of a local church, that’s the large context of the model. Yet not everyone will be mentored to be a pastor/church planter. Even fewer will actually become pastors and even fewer will actually become church planters. Of the church planters and the churches that will be planted, even fewer churches will be planted that actually go out themselves to plant churches.
Secondly, every subsequent element of the model envelopes a larger and larger focus. For the first element, the focus is within the local church. As mentorship progresses to being sent the focus grows, finally culminating with an ever-expanding reality of planted churches planting churches for the purpose of worshiping God and evangelizing and discipling of all the peoples in all the lands throughout all the world.
A potentially obvious question is perhaps apparent. How is this incarnational? I’ll answer that with the last and final post.
Apr 30
Andrew J. NicewanderCulture, Missions, Some Thoughts Church, Church Planting, Evangelism, Incarnational Living, Jesus, Missiology, Missions, Preaching, Responsibility, Scripture, Teaching, Worship
There are scores of ideas in our contemporary milieu of evangelical thought on how to best accomplish our Christ-given Great Commission Responsibility. There are many various and sundry models, concepts and strategies that are used to bring the message of Jesus to a lost and dying world in ways that are missional, confrontational, contextual, relevant and incarnational.
All of these ideas and means can be well and good, so long as they are within the realm of biblical thought, principles and orthodoxy. Is that not the rub? Are we biblical in our methodologies or do we evangelize according to our own abilities and devices? Our evangelical strategies and missiological frameworks must be examined in light of and submitted to the Truth of God’s Written Will and Word. As such, please permit me to submit to you a biblical model of incarnational missionary church planting, based on the example of the early Church as led by the Holy Spirit.
As much as we read and hear about the epistle writer Paul, it is very enlightening to understand how Paul became the Missionary Church Planter we read about in the book of Acts and in his letters. After his Damascus Road Experience, Paul does not automatically seek to become a missionary church planter. After a time of learning from the Lord in Arabia, he sought to be with the disciples, in Damascus and Jerusalem. He recognized the need for the community and accountability that a group of like-minded believers can provide for each other. Then, when the need arose, Barnabas went to Tarsus (where Paul had been sent by the disciples in Jerusalem, because he had severely angered the Hellenists with his bold and biblical preaching), found Paul, brought him back to Antioch and together they ministered to the saints. The Scripture then says that in those days a prophecy was made concerning a famine in Jerusalem, so that the church in Antioch, taking responsibility to help their brothers in Jerusalem, sends Barnabas and Paul to Jerusalem with relief. We’re then told in Acts 13:1-3 that while the disciples in Antioch were worshipping and fasting that the Holy Spirit sets Barnabas and Paul apart for the work that was prepared for them to do. And, in obedience, the local church in Antioch sends Barnabas and Paul on God’s mission.
It is in the middle of Acts 13 that we see a major shift in Paul’s Ministry. He takes the lead. The student had concluded that stage of his education and training and took the leadership responsibility of the missionary team. From that point on in Acts, we see Paul planting churches in Ephesus, Corinth, Galatia, Thessalonica, and Philippi. It is important to note that Paul planted churches in major cities. It is from these urban centers that the indigenous churches were planted and from the urban areas that these planting churches planted.
In addition to Paul, we see this same example of serving/submitting, teaching/learning, sending and planting in Timothy and Titus. Both were men discipled under the ministry of Paul, both were trained in some measure by Paul and both then had the responsibility of discipling, mentoring and leading other men and churches.
Based off of the examples of Barnabas, Paul, Timothy and Titus, I would submit to you the following model for Biblical Missionary Church Planting:
In the next post in this series, I’ll explain what each element of the model means and why it matters.
Apr 25
Andrew J. NicewanderCulture, Missions, Some Thoughts Church Planting, Evangelism, Incarnational Living, Missions
There is much talk in evangelical circles on living missionally, incarnationally and with relevance. 
There are strategies and ideas, concepts and creative methodologies to achieve such a mission. Some are accused of going too far in this quest, outside of the realm of orthodoxy; and some are accused of not going far enough, not knowing how to get their tushes out of the church pews. How does one balance these considerations? Here are some thoughts (and Lord willing born out by biblical examples).
To begin with, I believe very strongly that if a person is to minister to a group of people, that person must know the people. In order to know the people, that person must live with the people. To genuinely live with the people, that person must live like the people. This idea is, I believe, firmly rooted in the incarnation of Christ.
On one hand, no man can live incarnationaly like Christ. He is the God-Man, we’re simply men. He humbled himself as deity to live as a human being. I can never hope to come even remotely close to that kind of sacrifice. But, in Christ, I can at least attempt something that is in a similar vein. When Christ came to earth, he did not commune with angels all the time and then at specific times venture out. He experienced exhaustion like we do. His body needed replenishment like ours does. He went to the bathroom like we do. He felt emotions like we do. He reasoned with a human brain like we do. 
He did not cop out or wimp out. He went through what he had to in order to save a people for his Father. In His incarnation He showed just how thoroughly He loves us. He was not sent by the Father to amuse Himself or to please Himself or to have a vacation. He was sent to be incarnated, to live amongst us, in perfection, to die for us and to be raised from the dead for us. If that kind of a mission propelled Christ, should it not also propel us? Are we not striving in this life to be Christ-like? If a person is called to go overseas or to another culture, should he/she not give up his/her way of life here in the States to serve amongst a people, living for Christ, and learning the ways of another people in order to minister to and make Christ known to them? .jpg)
Or, if you’re not called to go overseas and you’re called to stay at home in the States, should you not study the ways of your people in order to minister to and make Christ known to them?
To think about it another way, the goal of the missionary church-planter is to plant indigenous churches. If you’re not leaving your home to go serve the Lord in another culture, are you not serving already in indigenous churches? Another example of living incarnationally is the Apostle Paul. As he rightly declared in Philippians, he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. Paul knew the Jewish culture, religion, society and way of life. He was raised with it and before Christ grabbed a hold of him and saved him he worshiped it. Likewise, as can be seen in Acts 17, Paul knew something of Athenian culture. He had read their prophets and studied their objects of worship. Yet Paul, in being “all things to all men” still preached the same message: Christ and Him crucified. In preaching a message that was absolutely insulting to Hebrews and Greeks (being a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles), Paul ministered and lived and preached and pastored to both groups of people. Paul did not sit on his haunches. He went and he lived. YET, neither did Paul so relate to the culture around him that he destroyed the message of Christ. In fact, more often this not, he was so ardent in preaching this message that he was almost killed for it, multiple times, and and in very creative and painful ways. (see Paul’s litany of his sufferings for the sake of Christ in 2 Corinthians 11:16-33).
What does this incarnational ministry look like though? I’ll give my thoughts of it in the next part. :-)
Dec 14
Andrew J. NicewanderCulture
Mark Driscoll’s
Porn Again Christian is finished and all chapters have been made available online,
here.
Oct 01
Andrew J. NicewanderCulture, Music Andrew Peterson, Christianity, Creativity, God's Grace, The Rabbit Room
If you haven’t yet seen this, you need to check out
The Rabbit Room.
Andrew Peterson is the Proprietor of the website, and by his own description:
The Rabbit Room is a place for stories. For artists who believe in the power of old tales, tales as old as the earth itself, who find hope in them and beauty in the shadows and in the light and in the source of the light.
It’s always so encouraging to see Christian Artists who are actually concerned about artistry and creativity for the Glory of God, rather than simply being popular or making money.
If you’re a podcast-lover Peterson has also recently started doing a Rabbit Room Podcast. Good stuff.
The Rabbit Room on iTunes
The Rabbit Room RSS Feed
p.s. Peterson also has a
new album coming out soon. Should be good.
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