Sharing Good News – Kingdom as Agriculture

George October 22, 2019 Sharing Good News 0 Comments

As is often the case when I write on a subject, related or relevant thoughts and ideas seem to mysteriously (coincidentally?) appear. That was the case in my last post on Post Modernism and Sharing Good News. This post is similar in that the subject post from Richard Beck stimulated another perspective for me to consider in reimagining evangelism:

“Is my understanding of sharing good news consistent with the nature and character of the kingdom of God? “

Beck’s questions at the end of his post are helpful to me in addressing my question.

The Kingdom as Agriculture

Posted on 10.22.2019

It’s not news that Jesus was drawn to agricultural metaphors when we shared parables about the Kingdom of God. But I’ve been thinking about that more and more, wondering what Jesus was getting at.

Specifically, I was reading in Mark 4 where Jesus compares the kingdom to planting and seeds three times in quick succession.

The Parable of the Sower: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path…seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

The Parable of the Seed: “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed: “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

Of course, each parable has its own particular interpretation. The seed needs receptive soil. The seed grows on its own. The seed will grow beyond its humble beginnings. Each of these, held together, provides a window into how Jesus thought about what he was doing in the gospels.

But what I want to ask is this: Is there something significant in thinking about the kingdom in these agricultural terms?

What strikes me is that, given the military and conquest expectations Israel had for her Messiah, these agricultural metaphors seem very unexpected. When you think of “kingdom” you don’t, I expect, tend to stare at a seed growing, day after day. When you think of “kingdom” you think of armies, walls, territory, and power. You think of Empire.

And then here comes Jesus with something that sounds like this: “The Kingdom of God is like watching grass grow.” How anti-Empire is that vision? And watching the grass grow is a strange sort of Revolution. Watching the grass grow isn’t, I’m guessing, anyone’s view of The Resistance.

Some other thoughts:

What does it mean that the kingdom is sown rather than taken?

What does it mean that the kingdom requires waiting and passivity rather than forcing and activity?

What does it mean that the kingdom begins with the smallest thing rather than the largest?

All that to say, I think there is something deeply subversive going on in Jesus’s agricultural parables.

Sharing Good News – Postmodernism

George October 21, 2019 Sharing Good News 1 Comment

Continuing the Sharing Good News series, today is a post from Pete Enns’ blog by Aaron Bjerke. I found it to be informative and challenging as I think about the audience for Good News in our culture today.

“Searchers”: The Ignored Demographic of Spiritual Secularists

Throughout my pastoral experience over the past decade, I’ve noticed a new demographic emerging through questions that I’ve been asked by other congregants. There is a growing sub-demographic in the secular population that is searching for a spiritual experience, and it hasn’t received a lot of attention from the church. Whether it’s feeling stressed at work, increasingly dissatisfied with a relationship or money, postmodern Americans are increasingly seeking a spiritual remedy.In 2017, the meditation market (as it has been called) was a $1.2 billion industry in the U.S. Some project it will be worth over $2 billion by 2022. This growing trend is everywhere. For example, meditation rooms are the hottest new work perk, and CEOs are personally seeking out a practice of meditation in order to become better leaders. One observation is that the meditation movement is where the yoga movement was in the mid-90s, which means the ceiling for the meditation market is still miles high.The meditation market represents a spectrum of practices—such as mindfulness, transcendental meditation, or various forms of Buddhism—and promises an experience of peace, productivity, happiness, etc. This is done by taking back control of the mind and taming it. Consumers of these practices are generally not “skeptics”—the Richard Dawkins of the world who are hostile toward spirituality—nor are they “seekers” who are exploring the Christian faith and dialoguing with other Christians. These two groups have been engaged with success through various evangelism programs. Rather, those in the meditation market are what I’m calling “searchers”: seculars searching for a spiritual experience.

Is it true? Vs Does it work?

This difference comes down to Modernism and Postmodernism. Modernism attempts to construct a coherent worldview through the pursuit of an absolute truth. The Church’s response was to make a fact-based case for Christianity—e.g., eight reasons why Jesus was historically real, five reasons why the resurrection is true, etc.Postmodernism, on the other hand, is marked by relativism and individualism, which has produced a culture defined by the phrase “you do you.” The value proposition for a Postmodern person is whether or not something works. “What works for me works for me, leave me alone.” This is where searchers reside, and they are not initially looking for a 200-page book of claims or a bulletproof sermon. They would rather taste and see whether what is offered is good.In other words, the modernist asks the question “Is it true?” whereas the postmodernist asks, “Does it work?” And if it works, then for the postmodernist, it is true–because truth is found in something that works. This is not to say that facts do not matter to the postmodernist. But the searcher says, “If something gives me peace, relieves my stress, gives me satisfaction, or provides a feeling of transcendence, then it works, and it surely must be true.” This is the story I’ve heard when Ivy League-educated lawyers in New York convert to Buddhism—it gives them an experience of peace.

Re-imagining Ministry

The church must respect the searcher posture if it’s going to make any missional inroads into today’s culture, and the Bible gives us a picture to consider. In John 4, Jesus first told with the woman at the well “I work.” He said “I know you’re thirsty. I’ll quench your thirst forever.” It’s only after that that he has a theological conversation about mountains and her sin. He interacted with what she wanted to satisfy most—her thirst—and showed her that he works.What is it for the church to take a “Does it work?” approach to ministry? It means we must consider how we can help others experience God in non-modernist ways. The Bible and prayer give great opportunities for such a mission.Regarding the Bible, the skeptic/seeker approach (modernist approach) would seek to show that the Bible is presenting facts: spiritually, historically, and scientifically. The searcher’s approach is more reflective in nature, asking questions such as “What does this mean?” This question points to the importance of story, because what drives a story is meaning—“What’s the point?” And, if it’s true that the best stories always win, then a ministry approach for searchers does the hard and important work of learning how, as the hymn says, to re-“tell me the old, old story, of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love” in a way that is less about facts and more through the lens of the story of the power of Jesus in one’s life. For what could be more powerful than quenching your thirst forever?Regarding prayer, the claim of Jesus working in one’s life is not the prosperity gospel: follow Jesus and your life turns around. Rather, it’s saying that even if your life doesn’t turn around you can still have peace and joy amidst the chaos and unmet expectations, which is exactly one of the promises in the meditation market: peace in a chaotic life. Except unlike meditation, which is a form of control (and any therapist worth his or her weight knows the problem emotion of control is anxiety), the path of Jesus is one of prayer. This is significant because when you pray, you learn that God is in control—not yourself. Therefore prayer is not a posture of control but a posture of surrender, and it is that posture of surrender that the church needs to introduce to searchers. Up to this point, this demographic has largely been ignored by the American church. Like the woman John 4 who told her friends “come and see” the one who told me everything about myself, the church too must decide to strive to introduce and show searchers the same claim that Jesus revealed of himself at the well: I work.

Aaron Bjerke is planting a church in NYC out of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Having been an Assistant Pastor there for seven years, he is excited to see a new expression of the gospel take root in the city for those searching for a spiritual experience. Originally from Minnesota, he lives with his wife, Erica, and two kids in Manhattan. Visit his church at www.TheWellNYC.life

Sharing Good News – People as Projects

George October 18, 2019 Sharing Good News 0 Comments

For several weeks I have been engaged in thinking and ultimately re-thinking evangelism. The catalyst for this has been a Sunday class on the subject. That experience has been interesting because the premises of the class have challenged some of my preconceived notions about evangelism. In this post I intend to share one particular thought that arose as I pondered the class and associated readings. All of my posts on Sharing Good News can be seen HERE.

People as Projects

“Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you’re not saved yourself, be sure of that!”
? Charles Spurgeon

“Soul winning for Christ Jesus is a great business everyone must endeavor to start and keep it diligently”
? Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

An anecdotal reflection from my past, “You can’t go to heaven alone.”

A dogmatic view of evangelism opens the door to a pharisaical impulse to make obedience the end rather the means.

Each quote, in some way, reflects the idea that the sole purpose of Christians is to win souls for Christ. In the extreme, to not save others condemns to hell. I believe that is a truncated view of life in the Kingdom of God and does violence to the Kingdom. Elevating any clearly mandated responsibility of disciples to an extent that other mandates of Jesus are diminished, denigrated and/or eliminated is an attribute of Phariseeism which Jesus vehemently condemned.

“Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals.” Matt. 23 MSG

To establish evangelism as the preeminent command of Jesus to his disciples, presents the same risk as when applied to sabbath, tithes, making converts, cleanliness et al.

Christian faith is “a missionary religion.” Christians, both by the internal logic of the faith that they (classically) embrace and by specific injunctions of that faith, are called to bear witness to faith. My sense is that we ought to think of evangelism precisely in those terms, as bearing witness—not converting other people, not making them into Christians, but bearing witness to who God, as revealed in Jesus Christ, is, and leaving the encounter between that God and the person to the conscience of the person and to the work of God in their lives. Christian witness goes wrong when it tries, in subtle or explicit ways, to manipulate people into making a decision, and not allowing sufficient freedom for people to make that decision. Or, to put it the other way, the problem is not respecting the fact that it is the Holy Spirit which adds people to the church, and that Christian evangelists and pastors don’t grow churches. At their best, evangelists do what John the Baptist did: they point to Christ; they say, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” And “He should increase and I should decrease.” Miroslav Volf

I have argued that mission-shaped discipleship is about seeking to be filled, transformed and overflowing with love of God and neighbour at the interface of embodied and virtual life. As such, our participation in the mission of God is substantially expressed through works of mercy, in which God’s love for our neighbours reaches out through us in a holistic way. From a discipleship per-spective, evangelism as a work of mercy is specifically directed towards the spiritual needs of others, by developing transformational friendships as means of grace. Through these relationships, we come to share life and faith in spiritual conversations with the expectation that people will be awakened to the love of God, and seek out his grace for themselves. Philip Meadows -Mission and Discipleship in a Digital Culture

For my own part, I believe Christian mission and evangelism is simply this: Proclaiming and participating in the Reign (basileia, “rule”, “reign”, “kingdom”) of God that has broken into the world through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This is “the good news”: the victory over sin and death, the abundant life Jesus promised, and the gift of the Indwelling Spirit are available…today. We do not need to delay gratification, awaiting some far off heaven in the sweet by and by. God’s life is available right now. So any urgency in Christian mission is the urgency of joy. It is not the urgency of doom and gloom. The urgency of turn or burn. The urgency of fear. It is, rather, the urgency that the eschatological wedding banquet is in full swing and you’re missing out. Mission work should move away from “persuasion models” to actually changing the world. The question for missionaries should shift from “How many souls were saved?” to “How have you transformed that community into the Kingdom of God?” MIchael Frost

In my mind, there is no dispute regarding the responsibility of Christ followers to share good news. Sharing good news should be seen as the very nature of Christ followers, not as a responsibility. The issue is, in what manner is good news be shared?

To adopt a dogmatic perspective on evangelism necessarily leads to the objectification of people, making them the means to a well-intentioned end. To present good news as an ultimatum stands in stark contrast to God’s loving expression of grace in the sacrifice of Christ. No person should be denied the opportunity to express their volitional gratitude to such profound good news.

The question to be answered is: “Am I a disciple of Jesus? If the answer is YES, debate on evangelism becomes moot.

Category: Sharing Good News