Who is in your community?

Posted: February 25, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Community, Discipleship, Reflections | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

life-together1

 

We’re all social creatures, or as David Brooks put it “Social Animals.” We are highly influenced by the people around us, our friends, family and coworkers.

That is why Jesus set up the Church, for us to build up one another according to God’s teaching and be able to live with, and influence one another to become more like Him.

This is how Dietrich Bonohoeffer put it in his great book Life Together:

“Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and In Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this.”

This means:

1. Christians need each other because of Jesus Christ.

  • “God has willed that we should seek and find His living word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of man.”
  • “The community of Christians springs solely from the Biblical and Reformation message of the justification of man through grace alone; this alone is the basis of longing of Christians for one another.”

2. Christians come to one another only through Jesus Christ

  • “Christ became the Mediator and made peace with God and among men. . . . Christ opened up the way to God and to our brother.”
  • “Only in Jesus Christ are we one, only through him are we bound together.”

3. In Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity.

  • “If, before we could know and wish it, we have been chosen and accepted with the whole Church in Jesus Christ, then we also belong to him in eternity with one another.”
  • “He who looks upon his brother should know that he wil be eternally united with him in Jesus Christ.”

An interview with 20s Mission Director, Joe Maschhoff

Posted: November 17, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: leadership, News | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Twice a year, the leaders of the 20s Mission in the US gather to pray and assess the progress of the Mission. The most recent gathering was last week, and I took the opportunity to chat with the national director of 20s Mission, Joe Maschhoff. Joe and his wife Joy have 3 children, and have been with the Navigators for a long time. They are respected leaders and laborers.

How many years have you been with the navs? How long with 20s, and how did you get into 20s? 

I have been strongly involved in the Navigator Vision (as a laborer and as a staff) for 21 years.  I have been on staff for 15 of them.  I was a college student for 4 of them, seeking to live and disciple among the lost and later was in the business world for 2 years, seeking to live and disciple among the lost with my peers.  All stages have been so rewarding!  I love participating in what the Lord has called the Navigators to.  I was asked to lead the 20s work in early 2009 and started that summer.

Why 20s? Is this a strategic group of people to be ministering to?

The 20s are vital in the advance of the Gospel.  The sheer number of them…  30-40 million of them!  Also, that decade is at the cutting edge of change: culture, technology, ways of looking at life, careers, relationships, life purpose, etc.  They are often the forgotten people by many parts of the Body of Christ.  I find that very few are focusing on the 20s for the sake of the Gospel.  In Acts 8 we see that a key to the Gospel advancing was a “scattering” that took place.  The 20s are either scatttering or about to!

When you travel to various cities and ministries, what is the spiritual landscape among young adults?

I find that there is great openness to authentic and transformational spirituality.  People want what is real.  Marketing, nice words, and cool illustrations have limited appeal.  People want real love and real change.  Thankfully, that is exactly what Jesus is all about.

A Pew Research survey recently reported that the “religiously unaffiliated” in America is a bigger group than ever, especially among young people. How does this growing indifference to religion in general affect the approach of the 20s Mission?

It is one of those factors that, on the surface, can look negative.  But really it can become a positive!  We don’t approach people to “get them to do our thing” or “come to our event” as much as we want to help them live in the fullness that God intended.  I find that this approach helps us get in the door with people that normally won’t listen to the organized religion message.

What’s your vision for 20s Mission five or seven years from now?

I see us having networks, teams, communities, and “pockets” of laborers in cities all across our country.  How connected they are will vary depending on geography, job demands, family demands, etc.  However, there will be some level of connectivity between the various forms in our cities.  I think God wants us to trust Him to be in about 30 of our cities in 5 years.

What is the responsibility of the average Christian for discipleship? Is it really something everyone should be involved in, or just people who are gifted for it?

In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus told His disciples to “make disciples”.  He did not tell them to “make converts”.  Converts are a means to the end of disciples, but not the end.  Discipleship is everyone’s business.

Is 20s Mission a church small group? If not, how is it different?

Somewhere, there are likely church small groups that function like us…  However, we are a cross-denominational work that focuses on seeing our Vision come to pass among the 20s.  Communities, teams, and individual relationships are our vehicle to see it happen.  But, our Vision is what we are aiming for.  The Navigators focus on making disciples and raising up laborers more than they focus on getting people to join something.

You travel a lot — will you be in the Chicagoland any time soon? 

I think in February…I am hoping so.  I will be there briefly in November (next week!).

Discipling among the Nones

Posted: November 1, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Discipleship | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Following the recent survey from the Pew Forum on Religious Life, showing an unprecedented drop in religious affiliation, especially among young people, it is time to take a second look at this new mission field.

Instead of discipling among the lost, we need to disciple among the “nones.”

The “nones” — people who describe themselves as unaffiliated with any particular religion — are a growing segment of the American population who appear uninterested in organized religion. For that reason, they don’t fall into the category of “lost” by their own description.

This group did not appear overnight. The Pew Forum’s survey shows that the nones went from being 15% of American adults to 20% in the last five years. That does not necessarily mean, however, that several million Americans went from being devout believers to being indifferent to religion. Rather, as Alan Jacobs said,

“the poll may reflect not a change in behavior but a change in how people think of their behavior — a change that brings their self-descriptions more closely into line with reality.”

Now, the question for devout mission-focused Christians is “how are we going to bring our message to bear on this reality?” There is a large group of 20s and 30s in America who have found Christianity to be unnecessary.

David Kinnaman from the Barna Research Group has done extensive research on young Christians who leave the church. His work shows that many churches do not emphasize discipleship or teaching that answers the difficult questions. Here is Kinnaman:

“… only a small minority of young Christians has been taught to think about matters of faith, calling, and culture. Fewer than one out of five have any idea how the Bible ought to inform their scholastic and professional interests. And most lack adult mentors or meaningful friendships with older Christians who can guide them through the inevitable questions that arise during the course of their studies.”

It is no wonder that these young men and women find that faith is unnecessary and uninteresting to daily life!

As faithful disciple-makers, we want to show that the Christian life is necessary. We want to provide meaningful discipleship, genuine relationships and faithful teaching from the Scriptures that prove that God is powerfully working in the world, and he is calling people to himself.

We want to reinvigorate  the passion of young Christian men and women to do discipleship, and to bring the faith to bear on relationships where they live, work and play.