Re-Claiming the Missional Nature of the Church!

In 1989 Phil Robinson adapted & directed a novel by W.P. Kinsella called Shoeless Joe into one of the most popular movies of all time. In it Kevin Costner plays Ray Kinsella, a novice farmer who is struggling with the disappointments of the past. Ray lives in rural Iowa with his wife, Annie, and their young daughter Karin. As the movie unfolds we learn that Ray’s now deceased father, John Kinsella, had loved baseball - particularly the Chicago White Sox, and Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was banned from baseball for his part in throwing the 1919 World Series. Heartbroken over what had happened to his favorite player, Ray’s father is described to us as someone who had simply been "worn down" by life.
The event that drives the movie takes place while Ray is walking through his corn field. He’s contemplating the past and his farms present financial struggles when he hears a voice whisper, "If you build it, he will come." In his mind he sees a baseball field in his cornfield, and he becomes convinced that he is supposed to construct a diamond there. Somehow he sells his wife on this plan, and in the midst of his corn fields the diamond becomes a reality. Those scenes were shot in Dyersville, Iowa. The movie, of course, was called “Field of Dreams.” In 1989 it grossed over 84 million dollars.
And it seems to me that for quite a long time now (decades actually) the promise that that voice makes to Ray has been pretty much the American Church’s approach to outreach. We look around to see where communities are growing, buy a lot, construct a building, schedule services and post a sign out front. I call it the “Field of Dreams” approach to doing Church - it’s the belief that “if you build it, they will come.” Now there’s a few more things that would usually happen, but you get the idea. Most of the time in the past when we constructed a new church building there was an expectation that people would simply come. And it worked - sort of - at least for awhile! It’s also sometimes called the “attractional” model for doing church, and it focuses heavily on the building and worship experience. In this model “church” is a place that people go to at a certain time or times, and Christian service is often described as the way members use their gifts and serve within the church walls, perhaps as musicians or Sunday School teachers. And that basic approach does work (sort of) when:
- the people in the surrounding culture resemble, and share the same basic values, as the folks in the Church.
- new families are constantly moving into the neighborhood where the church is located.
- at least a significant minority of those relocated families are looking for a new church home.
- when a local congregations worship service is vibrant enough, and the members are welcoming enough, to retain at least some of those families who may visit on any given Sunday.

But that approach doesn’t work when:
- the core values held by the surrounding culture (particularly younger generations) no longer reflect those of the longtime members of the church.
- an area has large numbers of young people who have grown up apart from the church, and so sense no need to look for one.
- an area is declining in population and its schools are shrinking.
- very few new families are relocating to that area.
- a church building is located inconveniently out of the way.
- the members of a local congregation are, for whatever reason, unable or unwilling to really welcome and embrace new people.

In other words, the “Field of Dreams” model for doing church is a terribly limited, insular model, and it’s deficiencies become increasingly glaring the more the culture around the Church changes.
But there’s another problem with that model - and that is that far too often it fails to live out the radical faith that Jesus called His followers to in the gospels, particularly at the end of MT 25! In verses 31-46 Jesus offers his listeners a parable about the end times, when the nations are gathered before the throne of God and judged. There they will be separated, we learn, on his left and right like sheep and goats. The sheep (on the right) will be there because during their lives they fed Jesus when he was hungry, gave him a cup of water when he was thirsty, clothed him when he was naked, and visited him when he was sick or imprisoned, while the goats (on his left) are there because they failed to do these same things.
A fascinating twist to the story is that neither the “sheep” or the “goats” are aware of those times when they saw Jesus in these states and did or not respond to his need. His answer to them ought to be instructive to the Church. “To the extent that you did these things (or failed) to the least of these you did so (or failed to do so) to Me.“
I'm convinced that the central thrust of the Christian Life was never intended to revolve around a building, a structure - but rather around the radical way that we are called to love and care for those around us.
In the movie “Sister Act” Whoopi Goldberg plays a Las Vegas Lounge singer who witnesses a mob murder. In order to keep her safe so she can testify the authorities disguise her as a Catholic Nun and place her in an inner city convent. Now the neighborhood around this Convent is so crime ridden that there are bars on the windows and a high steel fence surrounding the building, with the gate only opened and closed briefly to admit a few souls to Mass. But the convent cannot contain Whoopi’s character. Soon the fence is taken down and the Sisters are out on the street talking to the teens, playing jump rope with the younger children and generally transforming the neighborhood! And we’re like that in the Church sometimes, hunkering down within our buildings while the world outside changes in ways that frighten us. But the central thrust of the Christian Life was never intended to revolve around a building, a structure - but rather around the radical way that we are called to love and care for those around us. Indeed, someone has noted that the goats are not condemned for doing bad things but for doing nothing.
At the very end of Matthew’s gospel we find a commission that, for centuries, has been the Church’s rationale for outreach and evangelism. In these parting words to His disciples Jesus doesn’t instruct them to return to their home villages, construct a nice building, hire a talented organist and erect a sign inviting folks to come. Rather He sends them out to ends of the earth where they are to make disciples, baptize, and teach. It’s time for us to once again reclaim the missional nature of the Church!
(Excerpted from a sermon on November 23rd)