Sensing Transition

Joy and I have felt for some time that Nashville would be a transition place for our family.  In many respects, the past five years were marked by both training and transition.  When I was in grad school, I spent three years preparing for what would come next.  Grad school wasn't the end in itself- it merely prepared me for a life of ministry, grounded me in theological language and practice, taught me how to both critique and energize the church, and sent me out to share God's promise of a new creation.  After graduation, I had no job and no job prospects.  I started valeting to pay the bills and became a volunteer staff member at a local non-profit.  I had studied hard and learned much, and it was time to gain experience and practice.  While I contemplated further school, a PhD in Theology and Peace Studies, we decided to stay in Nashville and continue our work with and among low-income neighbors and homeless friends.  First Church of the Nazarene afforded me this opportunity as the Emmaus Fellowship Pastor.  And while we felt called to work in the East Nashville community, we both felt that it was a transitional moment.  Though admittedly, that moment could be months or even years. 

Last summer, while spending some time walking and praying, I wrote this,

We have felt a type of release from Nashville over the past year. Even more, we have long sensed transitioning to a new place/life/community. What we have not known is where that leads us. We have talked about valuing community, a more 'natural' lifestyle, simplicity, deep meaningful relationships, small church, and where our passions meet the world's need. Any 'call' from God on our lives will meet these values simply because God has given them to us.

I should mention that these values stem from a deeper awareness of the kind of life that God has for those who choose to follow Christ.  In other words, our longing for community is another way of talking about discipleship.  We have felt the world's insatiable pull toward economic efficiency and individualism.  We have felt the tug of consumerism and personal freedoms.  We have witnessed the isolation and discontinuity that the world offers.  In a world of facebook and twitter, we have never been so devoid or disconnected from actual relationships with people.  And our churches have been lulled to sleep in the sea of comfort, security, and safety.  While the church used to tell stories of martyrs  and monks, we now tell stories of soldiers and bankers.  The modern evangelical church is in danger of becoming a hollow shell of an institution instead of the radical social alternative envisioned by Jesus' proclamation of the Kingdom of God.  As Alan Hirsch writes, "A complete paradigm shift is essential for the Western Church to avoid becoming an anemic shell of its former self. If we have any realistic hope of recovering the Christian witness in the West, the church must abandon the diluted role and shortsighted vision as a static institution and dive headlong into its original calling as a missionary movement" (Right Here, Right Now, 64).

When I reflect upon the values written above, each one seems to point toward an alternative vision and away from the dominant culture.  There is a subtle recognition that the kind of life that God has for us can't be lived alone.  Indeed, the Sermon on the Mount must be practiced as a community; it just doesn’t make sense as an individual mandate.  As evangelicals, we have preached a gospel devoid of social distinction, privatizing religion to the realm of the heart.  But the Gospel encompasses so much more.  The Gospel is change, a revolutionary personal, social, and political change that doesn’t separate God’s work for me from God’s work for and in the world. 

For Joy and I, we seek a community who can discuss, challenge, encourage, and share with one another in a holistic way.  We recognize that our individualism inhibits our ability to be full disciples of Jesus.  We need a community that is committed to one another and to God to work out our salvation in every aspect of our lives: from the foods we eat to our posture toward personal and social violence, from child rearing to how we interact with the poor and marginalized, and from sharing our resources to praying with/for one another.  Our lives in Christ depend on others to discern with us the work of God.  It is from this posture that we are sent out to join God’s mission.

Over the next few posts, we will continue to write how this mission connects us to the community in Kona and the West Coast of Hawai’i.  We’re looking forward to sharing with you an ambitious vision encapsulated in Mission Kona Coast, grounding our particular call in the North and Central Kona mission zone.