missio

Lately there has been a lot of ruckus caused by the move from a systematic theology to a narrative theology. I’m saying right here, right now, that there is nothing wrong with narrative theology. As long as one thing is remembered: the theme/center/message of the narrative.

Just as a book or movie centers around a single premise (ie: the world’s going to end, the woman is lonely, etc), everything within the Biblical narrative revolves around one thing:  the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If this is left out, and the story is focused on, the entire narrative is screwed up. This is where the theological ’storytellers’ (McLaren, Bell, etc.) mess up. Their story details are correct, but they’re forgetting the premise: Jesus’ work.

Everything that happens in our time before the Cross and Resurrection leads up to the Cross and Resurrection. Everything that happens in our time after the Cross and Resurrection results from the work of Christ. The weird thing is this: in God’s (Father,Son, and Spirit) time, everything happens both to cause and because of the Cross and Resurrection. This is because God is eternal; there is no time. Everything revolves around Jesus’ work.

The systematic theologians forget the events leading up to and resulting from the Cross. They are just as important, because they point to the work of Jesus. Nothing can be ignored, because it all happened for a single reason. Everything that has ever happened, will ever happen, or is happening now both points to and results from the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. As pastors and teachers, we cannot afford to ignore the story nor the message. We must both preach the narrative and the Narrator. It is Jesus who tells us the Story. It is Jesus that is the reason for the story. We cannot ignore Him in telling the story, but neither can we ignore the story in the telling of Him. They are inseparable from one another.

We should lovingly judge those in the Church that ignore Christ, of course. But we should also examine those who ignore the Story of Christ. This is what it means to preach “Christ and Him crucified.” [1 Cor 2:2] But we can’t forget the verse before, either:

“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God“

Paul does not ignore the testimony about God, which is both the story that precedes us and the narrative in which we live.

As such, we should go forth, preaching the Story and it’s Message, Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

After a brief hiatus, we’re back talking church planting wisdom. Up today is the guy with the weird last name, the pastor of Oak Leaf Church, Michael Lukaszewski. (Gee, wonder if he’s Polish?) Here’s some of his wisdom:

• Read books about Jesus, faith and Christianity, not just about church planting. In fact, most books about church planting will hurt you more than help you. Most people, including myself, don’t really understand half of what they are talking about.

• Look to growing churches and good churches for models, not churches that aren’t growing. Hang around with people who are doing it. Go to conferences and talk to people in the halls and the leaders of breakout sessions. You’ll learn more from conversations than from books.

• Play to your strengths. We didn’t have a worship leader on staff, which is what everybody said to get first. We hired bands and played to our other strengths and our other staff guys’ strengths.

• Don’t act like a real church, except for Sunday morning. I think one of the reasons we were able to launch large was because our sunday morning service is very good. I work very, very, very hard on it. On the message, videos, music, creative stuff, etc.

• Learn how to market and advertise. It’s not unspiritual to market a church.

To learn the lessons he’s learning on his journey, check out his “backstage blog” at Behind The Leaf. He’s also got a great personal blog, entitled You Can Know God.

Thanks, Michael! Tomorrow? It’s Philip Nation, who co-pastors Lake Ridge Church in Cumming, GA with Ed Stetzer. He’s got some great insights for us!