Success, part β'

TANK WI-FI Bus

This is a follow up to my post, On Success, and it has generated some good feedback and dialog (note the comments, good stuff there).  Benson Hines posted some other links around the same topic.  Here’s an excerpt:

defining success in college ministry: Quite providentially, several college ministry thinkers have turned their attention simultaneously to the very important topic of how we define success in college ministry. (God is a gracious Synergist, isn’t He?) HeartOfCampusMinistry began a weekly series on the topic – with a post by the much-respected Dean Thune. (I’ll be posting in that series in a few weeks!) Aaron Klinefelter wrote a great (and interesting) post on an “ecological” understanding of college ministry success. I posted on why aiming for numbers isn’t (usually) a good college ministry priority. And Ian Clark is asking the same question about how we define success.

Be sure to check out those links.

I have also been pondering “modalities” and “sodalities” as they relate to the structure and success of campus ministry.  The Two Structures of God’s Redemptive Mission by Ralph D. Winter is a must read for this.  Here’s a post about Ralph D. Winter (who died this past summer) from the Tall Skinny Kiwi.

Essentially the article deals with “Modalities” and “Sodalities” as two complementary structures for God’s Mission in the world.  This has been helpful as I think about what the WF is and how we come alongside Asbury Church and the other churches (UMC and otherwise) in the region.

Intervarsity thinks of itself this way, as do CCO and Campus Crusade, but we can also see this in the new monasticism of late with folks like Shane Claiborne and Communality (not to mention traditional Monasticism and those early Methodists).

Here’s an Intervarsity link about the topic:

Put simply, “modality” refers to the permanent structure, the local church. Multi-generational and geographically limited, a congregation puts down its roots and makes a long-term commitment to its community. As theologian Darrell Guder observes: “The parish must always be looked upon as the central and continuing form of the church.”

The second structure, “sodality,” focuses on a specialized aspect of the Lord’s purposes on earth. This “laser vision” may target a particular people group (e.g. Laotians), age group (e.g. high school students) or spiritual discipline (e.g. prayer).

Parachurch ministries like InterVarsity are sodalities—expressions of the local church, but not churches in themselves. “Para” means “along side.” Historical examples of such extensions of church ministry include first century mobile missionary missionary bands and medieval Catholic orders.

See also, The Order of the Mustard Seed.

My hope and prayer is that this will spur our minds as we consider what God is birthing at NKU and how the WF fits into the overall ecosystem of the Kingdom in our neck of the woods.

(oh, and I wrote and posted this while on a bus from NKU to downtown Cincinnati.  how cool is that?!)

MC500 – day five

Three particular items stood out to me from Friday’s class discussion.  First, the significant change from “church” as People of God to “church” as happening when Bishop is present.  I have to say I’m still a bit befuddled by this.  I can appreciate the need for increased organization and, even, some moderate buearcracy (hard to believe I just typed that), but such a core essence change is amazing.  Second, the growth of the church pre-Constantine from AD 100: 10,000 Christians to AD 300: 6,000,000 Christians is astounding and a bit convicting.  Third, the insight from Donald Miller (I want to get his book Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium) that whenever the church has grown it has been when the non-clergy, non-leaders become “fans” and bring their friends to faith/church.

MC500 – day one

So here we are.  Back in Pasadena, CA at Fuller Theological Seminary for a 2 week intensive after living in Cincinnati for the last 6 years.  Weird how so much changes and so much doesn’t…. all at the same time.  Anyway.

For this class (MC500: The Church in Mission) we are to:

write, on the average, 50 words for each class session attended. These 50 words are due at the start of the next day of class in paper, by e-mail, or on your personal blog. The topic will be, “My thoughts on the last class session.”

This is my personal blog.  And these are my 50 words:

It was good to be back in a classroom after taking so many IDL and online courses.  I particularly appreciated our discussion of the shift from Church to Kingdom in Mission.  I think this may be one of the more significant aspects of the ideological shifts taking place across the Christian spectrum.  It certainly has been a key aspect of much of the emerg(ing)(ent) conversation and in missiological circles (see “The Three Eras of Mission History Robby Butler” in Mission Frontiers).  Kingdom is not a human effort – something that we build (we can’t), we can live a certain way as the people of God that allows for the Kingdom to come – we are a sign, instrument, and foretaste (ala Newbigin).  As we discussed this I couldn’t help but think of gardening/farming.  I don’t grow tomatoes, rather I attempt to provide the right environment (soil, water, light, etc…) whereby tomatoes can grow.  Seems that there was a parable that Jesus told about such things too…

(well I went over the 50 words, but hopefully that’s ok)

New Books for New Class

Just received my new book for the next class I’m about to take at Fuller – MC500: Church and Mission in a Global Context with Ryan K. Bolger, Associate Professor of Church in Contemporary Culture.  Very excited about this particular course and very excited to only have 2 to go after this one is complete!  It only has take 9 years to finish a 2 year MA.

Here are the books:

• Emerging Churches
• Beyond Christendom
• Disciples of All Nations
• Global Pentecostalism
• The New Conspirators
• The New Christians
• An Introduction to Pentecostalism
• A Many Colored Kingdom
• Interpreting Contemporary Christianity

Thinking about Modalities and Sodalities

(PDF link)

The harmony between the modality and the sodality achieved by the Roman Church is perhaps the most significant characteristic of this phase of the world Christian movement …

The first structure in the New Testament scene is thus what is often called the New Testament Church. It was essentially built along Jewish synagogue lines, embracing the community of the faithful in any given place. The defining characteristic of this structure is that it included old and young, male and female. Note, too, that Paul was willing to build such fellowships out of former Jews as well as non-Jewish Greeks. …

Thus, on the one hand, the structure we call the New Testament church is a prototype of all subsequent Christian fellowships where old and young, male and female are gathered together as normal biological families in aggregate. On the other hand, Paul’s missionary band can be considered a prototype of all subsequent missionary endeavors organized out of committed, experienced workers who affiliated themselves as a second decision beyond membership in the first structure.

Note well the additional commitment. Note also that the structure that resulted was something definitely more than the extended outreach of the Antioch church. No matter what we think the structure was, we know that it was not simply the Antioch church operating at a distance from its home base. It
was something else, something different. We will consider the missionary band the second of the two redemptive structures in New Testament times.

From The Two Structures by Ralph D. Winter