Reinhold's Journey

Social engagement, female and male worship

We are sitting in a living room in London - 9 leaders worshipping Jesus in unison male voices. We meditate on John 12 - Mary anointing Jesus. Answering the male critics, Jesus remarks that "you always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me". We will always have poors - a world that desperately needs our help. But Jesus still is something special.
Missional church is reaching out to a world of "poors". However, we must not forget the times where we worship the King of Kings - specially, exclusively, focused. Otherwise, service among the "poor" can spiritually dry us up. Ideally, service among the poor grows out of / is another expression of worshipping the One who made Himself poor for our sake.

And: here is a woman expressing her love to Jesus in a very feminine way. Fantastic. I just wonder: how would a man have expressed his deep love for Jesus? Much of the "worship" in churches is very feminine. I often watch men during worship times; some sing, some dont, many look not very much at ease. I think its a reduction to have so many  feminine worship songs.

London - a new network?

I sit in Steff Nash's living room in London together with 8 other SCP leaders. We need new forms of international networking in strategic church planting, and we are talking and praying in what direction this will go, starting with Eurafrasia, but maybe later beyond that. Special joy to meet my old friend, prayer leader Brian Mills, again after several years.
I enjoy the fellowship but feel that global networking is no longer as high on my personal priority list as it used to be. I feel I am definitely going back local and regional.

Eurochurch and Roxburgh

I spent two days in Portugal at the eurochurch.net conference, with Alan Roxburgh as one of the main speakers. I had liked his material from his extensive website, and after listening and having a breakfast conversation with him on missional church, I was quite impressed. He shared an interpretation of Luke 10 with us which puts a high confidence in the God who is active "out there", as well as in the conversation that we are supposed with people in "their home". Gave me a lot to think.

Here you find Alan's reflexion on the Portugal conference and the situation of European leaders.

Great weekend in Germany

This was fun in Germany. I spent the Saturday with 40 leaders, pastors and elders of a German denomination - all men and women who want to move forward and change something about the way the do church in the future.

Then 2 nights with my Brother Hans-Werner and his wife Barbara - enjoying church with them, visiting my parents' cemetery place, going out and enjoying a movie. Great time!

Then, on Monday, we had the second German Church Planting Leaders' Round Table in Frankfurt. After some discussion on paragraphs, vision and strategy, we felt that this is going to be a very valuable tool. Planting new churches in Germany is just not only one denomination's thing - so sitting at a table, complementing and learning from each other makes real sense.

Returned home late night - great travelling thanks to the German ICE's.

On the road again

Finally, on the move again. Last night, a fantastic Katie Melua in Zürich - hmmmmm. My son and his wife had given me the ticket for my birthday - thanks Markus and Martha!

Katie is such a fantastic artist, optically and acustically :-) An when I read this morning that she loves the unforgettable Eva Cassidy, I appreciated her even more.

After a night in the ICE train (sleeping on three seats), I am sitting in Köln Main Station right now, having a good German breakfast and looking forward to this day. I will be spending the day with leading pastors of a small German denomination helping them to understand what all this paradigm shift is about. Tomorrow, I stay with my brother Hans-Werner, and on Monday we have the 2nd German Church Planting Round Table in Frankfurt.

After coming home late for a night, I will then start again going to Portugal to attend the Eurochurch conference near Lisbon.

A new calling

Last night it was decided: From July onwards, I will work 50% with "Sport Life" in Thun. Grown out of a sports mission, they are a growing group of mainly young adults trying to find a way to grow and further the Kingdom, without being "church" in the classical sense. I will help them as a trainer, discipler, motivator. I have known this work and their leader for some years and look forward very much to travelling the Journey again in closer connection to a community. Hope they will challenge me physically,too :-)

Are we losing something?

We just had a little informal meeting of missional leaders of our region in my house. The main question: how are we personally dealing with the transition to the postmodern / postchristian "church"? How do we deal with our brothers and sisters in the region? Thun is spiritually quite an interesting and alive region, almost a kind of "Colorado Springs" of Switzerland :-) Some questions we tackled:

- Language: How do we develop a language that makes it possible to communicate to other Christians and church leaders what we are doing - without giving them in every sentence the impression "we are no longer good"? For a modern person, "new" means "better than the old" - therefore they feel they have to defend the "old"; for a postmodern, "new" can be "just a different way of expressing it".

- Mission: When Church is being "pulverized into society", how do we maintain the communal effect of public presence and impact? Is it OK to radically "individualize" the evangelistic effect - only? What about public proclamation?
And: We do no longer "only" save souls but we try to impact society. Are we saving any souls any more? We have not noticed a significant higher rate of bringing people into the Kingdom. Not yet? Or is the "missional" way in the end less evangelistic than the old style of EE or the 4 Spiritual Laws or the Seeker-sensitive Church?

- Transcendence: In our incarnational meetings, we experience the immanence of God well. He is amongst us and expressed in what we are doing. But do we also experience his transcendence - those moments where the veil opens, where you touch - or are touched by - heaven? I had this at times in times of communal prayer or worship; it often has to do with a larger crowd (why, btw??). Today, I am lacking it.
Of course - many have matured and have developed their own prayer life and style. No more need for a worship "leader" and his band. Yet, in the end of the day the question remains: where do we experience God's transcendence? Where are we awe-inspired in the missional church? We try to be no longer dualistic. Is there the danger to become "monistic" - only one world? We force our eyes to remain open to the world around us. Can we still close them (except in sleep)?

CRM

A few weeks ago, I met Mark Reichmann in Karlsruhe. We spent two hours in conversation, mainly in his NUN coffee house (go and check it out if you are ever in this town). He gave me some informations on Church Resource Ministries (CRM) which I am reading through. Quite an influencial movement, very balanced and multi-dimensional. Sam Metcalf is their president, today I found his blog http://www.undertheiceberg.com which has much excellent material. A treasure of wisdom for leaders.

Finally! The Shaping in German

Finally it is out in German: The Shaping of Things to Come, German title "Die Zukunft gestalten". One of the most important groundbreaking books about the church of the 21st century, now available to German thinkers, theologians and pastors. Have a look at it, read it and give one away.

The Iphone surprise

I got myself an Iphone in the US (plus two more to sell, shh, don`t tell:-). I am amazed at the Wow effect - these Apple people make you wonder "why has no one ever done it that way before?". Great gadget, and settin up the German version and activating went smoothly and perfectly at one click in 5 minutes - thanks ZiPhone. I will test both the Iphone and PocketPC platforms parallel for some time.

Changes

I am sitting in the comfortable Delta lounge in Atlanta airport with my colleague David Toth, flying back from a team meeting in Colorado Springs. Great thing: I could stay a week with my friends, Gordon and Cherise Selley, one more time - and we enjoyed each other like always. And I enjoyed driving around in Colorado Springs - see the Pikes Peak here.
We spent 2 days with the leadership of OC - that is the ministry where DAWN grew out of. Good folks, some great missiologists there. Then 2 days as a team - trying to figure out in what way the DAWN vision will continue to exist in the future. Result: open for any structure, although still hoping to raise funds to continue some kind of US-based organization.
I am glad to be able to work part-time for my living and do the DAWN work besides that. Feel very much at peace right now - dont try to influence too much, let the Lord do his work.

I bought a couple of Iphones - good deal now with the Dollar lower than the Swiss Frank (first time in history!!). One of them I will use for myself - first time I gave in to s new gadget for years :-)

gotta fly out now.

Celtic House Community

Today, in our monthly House Church celebration, we had Roger and Ursula Langel from the YWAM base in Einigen with us. They told us about the celtic way they are living as a community in this wonderful place up there. They practice many of the qualities of the Kingdom that so many folks are looking for: a holistic communal life with men, women, animals, and nature, as well as a lifestyle under a healthy rhythm of prayer, with a great hospitality. Our House church appreciated very much to get to know them, and we will surely hold one of our next celebrations up there.

Listening

This was a very satisfying week. Besides much reading, I met several people, listened and talked - very rewarding times. I am reading "A heart to listen" - talking how important listening really is. So many people do not know the experience of someone really listening to them. We have one mouth and two ears.

The blue hour

Its 5.30, its getting dark outside. I am sitting in our almost dark living room with a glass of wine and listen to Johnny Cash's last record "America V". What a beauty. (For you Germans, here is the link that pointed me to this CD). What an authentic testimony.
The week is coming to an end. I feel enriched by talking and meeting several great and interesting folks. In my new job, God seems to open one new door after the other.
One of the interesting friends is Oli - take a minute to get to his blog (in German, again).

A new challenge

We cannot determine how old we get but how we get old. I started a 20% job at a large health hotel-clinic, organizing seminars in the health/fitness/tourism branch. Suddenly I find myself working with highly intelligent young business professionals - a challenge for my mature brain that has shrunk by x % since I was 20. I love it. I am amazed how visionary people are for temporary goals - and how efficient they work, compared to many Christian meetings and conferences I have attended.
Besides that, I still lead the European DAWN team, work on my doctoral thesis on Missional Church and lead a new Swiss team that works towards a Church Research Institute Switzerland.

Another post on "post"

Finished reading "Church after Christianity" by Stuart Murray today. Again a fascinating lecture. I appreciate Stuart`s intelligence, hidden "British" radicality and practicability every time. His main thesis: The post-Christian shift goes even deeper than the postmodern one - after all, we had "only" 3-5 centuries of modernity, but 1700 years of Christendom.
Interestingly, Stuart organized types of church the same way I did it in a recent article: Up (worship oriented), in (community /fellowship oriented) and out (mission/society oriented) churches. I think this is helpful, although all churches have elements of all three, but in different priorities.
What I have also felt for some time and understood better through Stuart's book: Church cannot only exist in "going out". There is a tendency to radically cut down worship and fellowship in order to get Christians out into society in many writings today. Stuart rightly states that missional orientation does not call for an abolishment, but of a re-grouping of worship and fellowship in church. There cannot only be an "out there", there must also be an "in here". Murray writes: "The biblical story involves a distinctive community within creation (Israel among the nations; churches scattered throughout the world), modelling an alternative vision any living by different values. If members of this community are to remain distinctive in an alien environment, they need to be gathered as well as dispersed. Community-building practices and processes are essential." And, even more clearly:

"Without a community, that (however imperfectly) models counter-cultural values and alternative practices, social reformers lack integrity. Without a healthy community to which people can belong before believing, evangelists lack credibility. Without an attractive community that recruits, nurtures and envisions people, community activists lack volunteers. Without a worshipping community that sustains faith and hope, many people will lose heart" (p. 225) 

Change of camps?

Now this is the first time that I seriously consider denying my computer denomination-of-22-years and to move into the other camp, see http://www.apple.com/de/macbookair/guidedtour/

First of all: No Sports

Sir Winston Ch. was right after all. Trying to do cross-country skiing today, I fell nastily, crossing a hill, and those ski took my legs where I never thought they could go. Badly sprained my right leg and that big muscle - finito sports for the rest of the week. Can hardly walk - so back to non-threatening, non-physical activities like writing blogs, reading books and working down that long list of e-mails.

Shapevine in January 08

They have several FREE Webcasts in January at www.shapevine.com, starting this week. It is a tremendous menu of some of the top thinkers and leaders in the emerging missional church. They invite you to join in and watch, ask questions, chat, and poll. Just visit www.shapevine.com at the dates and times listed below and enter the Webcast area.

Shapevine Webcast Schedule

January 2008

DATE	TIME	HOST/GUEST
10th	4pm EST	Lance Ford / Dan Kimball
17th	4pm EST	Lance Ford / Dave Ferguson
21st	4pm EST	Sally Morgenthaler / Joseph Myers
22nd	4pm EST	Leonard Sweet
23rd	4pm EST	Nick Fiedler / Tony Jones
24th	4pm EST	Lance Ford / Tri Robinson
TBA	4pm EST	Lance Ford / Steve Sjogren
31st	4pm EST	Lance Ford / Ryan Bolger

Shapevine is, among others, an initiative of my friend Alan Hirsch who lives in the US right now.

birthday vacation

My wife and I we are on vacation in Laax, Graubünden, and we are enjoying the winter, snow and our skis immensely. What a great day today - few people and 2,538 mountain tops in a 240° view. A perfect birthday :-) This one I took of myself.