A recent visitor to our church’s Sunday morning gathering told me “we really enjoyed the service.” At which point I felt the urge to puke. I understand this is most often the nicest and best of things people can say to a pastor after a church worship gathering. Yet it belies the problem of Sunday morning worship in our day. Sunday morning worship is a spectacle,it too often distances us from God as a spectator event.

I believe despite all the missional protestations, that the Sunday gathering is essential to the Mission of God’s people in the world. Yet I agree, that the worst thing that can happen is this gathering becomes “attractional,” an event for spectators. When someone says they enjoy something it belies the reality that that person has now become a user, a consumer, someone who has put the object at his or her disposal for his or her enjoyment. Continental philosopher/cultural theorist Slavoj Zizek argues this same idea. Zizek argues that when we say “I enjoy my religion” this implies that I don’t take it TOO seriously. For we really don’t want to take it too seriously (this is what the fundamentalists do according to Zizek). We keep it at a distance so to appear to be a Christian with all of it comforts and accoutrements yet not requiring any great disruption to a comfortable way of life. This distance, between the subject and the Symbolic Order, is what allows the subject’s Christianity (or religion) to be subsumed by the existing order. Nothing will change. Zizek calls it “decaffeinated belief,” “belief without belief.” In many ways, the same dynamic happens in our worship, leading to what we might call decaffeinated worship, worship without worship.

One of my D.Min students (at Northern) writes about the problem of decaffeinated belief in his thesis proposal. He says that many of his denomination’s pastors

…agree that a growing number of worshipers are talking or sitting through the congregational singing writing notes during the special music, showing up 10-15 minutes late, not worried about interrupting anything or anyone. One pastor shared that a congregant stopped attending worship opting to stay home and worship with a church on television. When asked about this, the congregant responded, “Why does it matter where I watch the service?” Another pastor commented that people treat everything in the service as if it were a movie preview and it is not until the feature presentation (the sermon) that people really start paying attention. Or in other churches with a more contemporary style of worship a pastor stated, “Once the ‘concert’ is over, they just settle in waiting for a sermon.”

Another phenomenon in (this denomination’s churches) is an exodus of long time worshipers from (this denominations’) congregations to newer non-denominational church plants in their communities. When asked why they are leaving blank churches, they report “the music is better, their pastor is funnier, their drama is better, etc etc. at their new church.” They are right. One of these church plants advertises that they have 3 professional rock bands leading their services. These bands rotate their tour schedules with their worship leading schedules. Another church has some really funny skits and a very gifted pastor who could have been a stand-up comedian. People are not leaving for theological reasons. They are not leaving for churches that are more missional; they are leaving because the churches are more ‘relevant.’

All of the above is nothing new. Yet this D.Min student of mine (I’m privileged to be working with some real excellent projects this year) describes from on the ground accounts the problem of the attractional inertia surrounding the Sunday morning worship gathering. It is one of the reasosn why several missional writers and pastors reject the Sunday worship service in toto. It simply passifies Christians into passive consumers (to use an overused word).

I think this is a mistake. For the missional church communities require a regular practice for the shaping and forming of a people into the Life with God, the Mission of God. Missional people do not grow on trees. If then we would see people formed into the Missio Dei we must order our worship so as to be encountered by the living God. We must learn how to preach not as information but as proclamation and invite people into the Mission. The real presence at the Table must be the center of our gathering, our lives and our community. If we would see people formed into the Missio Dei, our gatherings must take on liturgical shape, a way of inviting people into the prayers, confessions and affirmations of the alive relationship we have with the living God of Mission. We must learn how to listen, interpret Scripture for what God is doing among us and in the world, hear God and then respond to God. This should be the character of our Sunday morning gatherings.

This kind of gathering should be both easier and harder to plan than any kind of programming approach we have hitherto been used to. It should be simpler and less focused on excellence of performance. It should not cost near as much in time, resourses and planning. It should be able to be done in a living room with three to thirty people or in a larger sanctuary with 200. Yet this kind of gathering takes more discernment of the Spirit, theological wisdom, historical sensitivity than we have been used to in the protestant church of our evangelical past (we haven’t paid attention to theology of worship in evangelical church). This way can lead us out of the wilderness of decaffeinated worship.

Has anyone else experienced the decaffeinated worship problem (even) in his or her missional gatherings? What simple tings have you done to unwind the passivity?

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On another note – the Seeding Missional Communities Learning Commons Non/Conference is ON!! in Ft Wayne this Saturday, Jan 3rd. Looks like we have quite a group coming. Looking forward to seeing everyone. There’s still time to come. Here’s a link on the conference, and my e-mail is fitchest@gmail.com if you’re coming.

On this Christmas Eve, as we gear up for Christmas celebrations with church family, immediate family, friends in the neighborhoods, as we take a little time off to take in the magnitude of His coming, we also take time to reflect. It is a time of gratefulness to God. In this spirit, I give thanks for some great bloggers out there and some of their great work which has enriched me and provoked so much good thought in me this year. I couldn’t include everybody, only highlights. So here’s some linkage as a gift back to all bloggers, readers and contributors everywhere. This has been a great year for missional bloggage including some great resources and provocative posts that have furthered the missional conversation. Here is some of the year’s best bloggers and some of their posts from my reading this past year.

Scot McKnight For his posts on Christopher Wright’s The Mission of God. This book is rich and a huge contribution to Missional Theology. It is now the quintessential Biblical theology of Missio Dei. But it’s big and time consuming. Thanks to Scot for giving such a great introduction into this huge resource for all missional theologians pastors church planters. It starts here and goes on for 19 (20 in all) more posts.

JR Woodward truly does us all a big service by putting together this exhaustive primer on the Missional church. Put it on your favorites and refer to it over and over again. I know I do.

Len Hjalmarson quotes Al Roxburgh on leadership: “The primary work of leadership is to continually stand in the place (space) where it is compelled to ask the question of what God is about among this group of people who comprise this local church in this specific context at this particular time.” This essential concept to a missional ecclessiology is unfolded in Len’s piece entitled “Spaces Between” found here and here.

Bill Kinnon is the irrepressible bad boy of missional blogdom. He had so many good posts this year because he adamantly refuses to do anything but speak his mind. Here’s his excellent post on missional shampoo - pure Kinnon. This You Tube (via Darryl Dash) was compelling for me, but not for the reasons Bill himself gives.

Missional Order.com The spiritual disciplines – living the rhythms of missional formation are absolutely essential to the formation of missional community in the midst of post Christendom contexts. This blog is new and one of the best at providing resources for the learning of these liturgies of life. Here is a great sample here.

Dan Kimball was ever provoking important conversations this year. He started the year asking good questions about the “emerging church” here. Most recently he got us all embroiled in the missional versus the attractional debate here. Thanks Dan!

Trevin Wax conducted a defining interview of N T Wright and his theology. Wright is an absolutely pivotal resource for the missional church as we seek a broader more Biblical (but not diluted) soteriology for mission. The interview is here.

Steve McCoy‘s page on “missional in Suburbia” is another one of those time saver pages for those us desperately seeking missional life in the suburbs. Thanks Steve (and we’re praying for your wife’s health!).

Jesusmanifesto.com is a must read blog! It is packed with theological resources, cultural engagement and political theology like this post on the political option of Christian anarchism that challenges me and often changes my thinking (actually I pretty much am already here in regard to this post).

Ed Stetzer started a series of posts here on the “meaning of missional.” It started here and went on for several posts. Rick Meigs did a synchroblog this year on the same topic. Thanks to these two bloggers for awesome work!

Brother Maynard BroMay is one the best of the bloggers on the Mission. I still find these posts from a couple years ago helpful n children’s ministry in the new post Christendom contexts of missional church. His blog is a must read throughout the year for me.

Thanks to all these bloggers and many many more for their fine work this past year furthering the Kingdom of God in Christ.

Uh, well … it’s happening. The 2nd annual “Seeding Missional Communities” Learning Commons. It’s a non/conference – meaning we don’t charge money, we don’t sell books, we don’t promote books (not that books are a bad thing ), it’s been organized organically (please don’t expect a big show) and we have no paid speakers. We gather for encouragement, some short presentations from people actually doing it, serious discussion and prayer. We now have enough signed up to pull this off on January 3rd, in Ft Wayne Indiana. For more information see my post here. For information on where to go – see Ben’s post here – where you can get directions and a hotel to stay at a decent price if you want to hang out Friday night with some of us who are coming in about 9 p.m. Friday night. Everyone is welcome, but if you are coming and you haven’t e-mailed me, please do (fitchest@gmail.com) just so we won’t be surprised by how many more people show up. Thanks to everyone who has made this possible. I’ll still be e-mailing back every one who e-mailed me. But all the info you need is in these links. And BTW, pass the word. Ben did a banner you can use that I’ve embedded in this post.Blessings all, looking forward to being with y’all and hanging out.

Last year, we did this missional conference that is a non-conference kind of thing. We gathered, had very short presentations, nobody paid, some people brought food to share, and we talked all things missional. It was encouraging and informative. I think we can do it even better this year.
So… I am calling for another meeting of the “Seeding Missional Communities Learning Commons.” This year we’ ll meet in Fort Wayne Indiana on Saturday Jan 3rd. We will meet be at the place Ben Sternke’s community gathers in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We’ll gather and discuss an array of issues including a.) the merits of missional orders as a community-forming missional/evangelistic discipline, b.) the Sunday gathering as missional, and c.) the need for a missional evangelistic tool to nurture new conversions in our communities (read about that here). Now there is very little organization being done for this. We’ll gather, have different presenters and open discussion, and some time for decompression. THERE WILL BE NO CHARGE. No one will be selling books. We’re just getting together to encourage and commiserate for the gospel.

The day will look like this:

8 a.m. sitting around introducing ourselves and what brought us here – prayers for the day.
8:45 a.m. First presentation 20 minutes.
9:15 – 10.00 Discussion- questions – prayer.
10:00-10:30 Break – coffee – chat – decompression.
10:30 a.m. Second Presentation 20 minutes.
10:50-11:45 Discussion-questions – prayer.
12 noon – 1:30 p.m. lunch -with friends.
1:30 Third presntation – 20 minutes.
1:50- 2:45 Discussion-questions- prayer.
2:45 Fourth presentation – 20 minutes.
3 :05 – 4:00 Discussion- questions-prayer.
4:00 p.m. Dismissal- benediction- Being Sent Out for Mission.

Again, I’m proposing we gather Saturday, Jan 3rd, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For those who come in Friday nite, we can coordinate hanging out somewhere. For those who don’t rush off on Saturday, we can hang out somewhere then too.

We need at least twenty people to commit (who won’t back out). So let me know if you can join us by e-mailing me (e-mail me at fitchest@gmail.com). I’ll collect these e-mails and I’ll e-mail you back with a confirmation and a map as to how to get to the church and any hotels we all might be staying in. If you want to present, tell me who you are, what you want to present, give me an outline and we’ll get back to you. For those who have already e-mailed me, I have received your e-mail, no need to e-mail me back. I’ll confirm what’s going on here by Dec 22nd.

If you have a blog/web site – feel free to promote this! In fact – if you’ll create a banner for this “Learning Commons,” I’d be grateful.

To give you a taste of what an informal presentation looks like, take a look at my 15 minute presentation below at Canada’s Cultivate gathering last year. It’s rather humble I admit. And it’s short and it’s goal is to get the discussion going. This is the kind of presentations we’ll be shooting for. I’ll be doing only ONE of the four presentations BTW.

Dave Fitch – the Cultivate Talk on Missional Orders from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

This February, I’m teaching the course entitled “Church Planting in Post-Christendom” for Fuller Theological Seminary’s D.Min. Program. I will be leading us through the cultural terrain of Post-modernity and Post-Christendom as well as the theological terrain of ecclesiology (what is church theologically and historically?) all with the aim of dissecting the assumptions which undergird our practice of church-planting in N America. We’ll be looking at some of the major practicioners of the past, including those within the so-called “church growth” methodologies as well as those church-planters within so-called “missional” paradyms as well. (I think we will be surprised by what we discover about the writings and practices among current missional thinkers – wink, wink). I think it changes everything we do in church planting once we think through these various areas and answer why we do the things we do. The final leg of the class is then to sculp one’s own theology and practice of church-planting for one’s own context. I can’t wait!
If you happen to be someone taking the class with me, or thinking about taking the class with me, could you give me a comment or two on what your expectations are for the class! Many thanks.