We’ve included below, for your convenience, some of the questions (and challenges) that came from my articles that we will talk about on today’s show. Just click on the “read more…” link below.

If you’re reading this on a Friday between 11 am and 12 noon ET, you can hear the show live via phone — Call-in Number: (347) 308-8021 — or via internet on All Things M.

** The Four Turnings **
QUESTION: You wrote a series of articles on your blog a while back around the theme of four turnings that people need to go through. Can you explain a little bit more what these are and how they work together in practice?

QUESTION: “I think turnings 2 (community) and 4 (mission) are the most needed and yet the most difficult to see happen in an established church. More often Christians and Churches turn in on themselves, their comfort, their preference etc. I wonder if however its turning number one which is in fact the crucial one? Until we accept and live out the Lordship of Christ we will have little incentive to embrace the other other turns he calls on us to make.” (From James)

QUOTE: “Instead, we should invite new believers to enlist in some form of Christ following community that is engaged in some form of Christ following activity. [Whether the form is apostolic, entrepreneurial, traditional, emerging organic, etc matters little. What matters is the missional heartbeat of the commuity]. Here they will “feed” others, be a steward of everything they have and are for the sake of the world, enter into a dialogue, and to engage and enjoy the world. This community will be defined by its deeds and actions rather than by its creeds alone.” Alex McManus

QUESTION: Why is this so important? How does a leader of a church that hasn’t operated this way move towards this way of being the church?

QUESTION: “mmmm…, this is both scary; yet…., sounds soooo right? As I embark on this church plant movement – what shapes it? What forms it? What income can I hope to make outside of the normal “paid clergy” areas as an aging 46+ yr old man? These are the kinds of thoughts and more that run through my head? Can you do both? Is it possilbe to have a “traditional” group who serves as the umbrella for what we think and know should be the norm?” (Rich, in response to turning to community)

** Conversion **
You wrote an article a while back that began with these questions: “How are women and men “saved”? Are we saved by cognitive acceptance of certain dogmas? Are we saved by the direction of our lives? Or both or neither.” You went on to focus on the story of Cornelius and also to talk about closed set and centered set thinking. Could you unpack these a little for us?

QUESTION: “Okay, so I get the wooing part from God. Once a Hindu, Muslim, or Pagan responds to that wooing and comes to Christ (the man standing on the horizon) what does he become?” You answered this by saying that he becomes human. This was followed up with another questions: “I am a bit fuzzy about what becoming “human again” really looks like if I am a Christ follower? If I understand you correctly are you saying that the process that is going to the same end is being human again? I thought being human was THE problem and not the GOAL?”

QUESTION: “I think that your observation about ‘Christianity’ and the west is an interesting one. i’ll have to find out more (and maybe try to find out first-hand) how well the term ‘Christ-following Muslim’ is accepted. if there is no lateral conversion (and i’m more than willing to agree to that), does the phrase ‘Christ-following Muslim’ really have integrity as a label? does it similarly work for ‘Christ-following Buddhist’ or ‘Christ-following Hindu’? the movement toward becoming human again i think probably causes us to rethink how quickly we want to identify ourselves using any religious membership tags.”

QUESTION: “Alex, I beg to differ on this blog. I think you are confusing labels (description) with who followers of Christ truly become (identity). Just because the term “Christian” didn’t come about until Acts 11 does not mean the concept of what a “Christian” is did not exist. Quite the contrary. It is because these Christ-followers’ behavior that eventually the name “Christian,” meaning follower of Christ in Greek and was originally a derogatory term, came about. So, what do Christ-followers become? By definition of original Greek, Christians.”

Currently Reading Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future By Ben J. Wattenberg see related

Welcome back

Hospitality is a key to evangelism in the 21st century.

Let’s distinguish hospitality from entertaining. Entertaining guests means that we put on a demonstration of our best to give a good impression. Entertaining is like our fine china. Nothing wrong with that. Hospitality, on the other hand, means inviting people into our lives. Hospitality is our paper plates.

Inviting others into our lives and homes is natural when we move from being strangers to becoming friends of God. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” said Lydia, “come and stay at my house.” (Acts 16.15)

Interestingly enough, sometimes it is often the prebeliever that has both the open heart and open home. My wife, Niza, and I are both seriously introverted and sometimes reclusive. When our first born was still small we lived in an apartment that shared a corridor with a second apartment directly across from us. Our neighbors, a young couple named Ernie and Rosie noticed we had a small child and provided us with extra diapers. I was traveling a bit in those days and my wife would tell me that whenever I was gone Ernie would always either come out or crack his door and peek out when someone knocked on my door. He was looking out for my family while I was gone. In fact, they served us so much and shared their lives so much that eventually we were able to lead them to faith in Christ. Yes, that’s a backward story. They served us and we were able to guide them to the kingdom. If you’ve ever seen Heaven’s Prisoner with Alec Baldwin, you’ve seen their daughter, Samantha. She played the little Salvador girl Baldwin rescues (even though she’s really half Filipina and half Mexican)

Hospitality is inviting others into your life …and sometimes inviting yourself into the lives of others. Evangelism can happen naturally when life is shared. Love strangers.

What do you think?

Photographs

Top: Friends and entrepreneurs Jaime and Belinda Puente visiting at our new place.

Side: Friend Dominic Massaro (graffiti61) performs at a house concert.

Into the Mystic…

Alex McManus
Pasadena, Ca
© 2005

Currently Reading Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future By Ben J. Wattenberg see related

Practice hospitality (Romans 12.3).

The essence of “hospitality” is found in the combination of the two words that make it up. The first part comes from the word xenos, “stranger”. Think xenophobia, fear of strangers or foreigners. The second part is from the word phileo, love. Think Philadelphia, “city of brotherly love.”

Hospitality is the love of strangers. I’ve always thought that one of things that makes the scriptures and the believing movement so unique is the orientation towards the alien, the stranger, the foreigner. I’d love to see a count of the number of times the words stranger, alien, foreigner appear in the Quran or in the Gitas and then to get a sense of what the attitude in those writings is towards them. Maybe they are as gracious as the scriptures. I hope so.

It is this love for the stranger that to me makes the Christ following movement the hope for the world of today and tomorrow. In a world of immigrants and xenophobia and terrorism, there is need for a leader who creates a culture and points to a kingdom that is open to anyone and everyone who repents and believes. Jesus is that leader. He makes Hindus, Muslims and Christians human. Those of us who have begun to walk in the way of Jesus are called to create this same culture and point to this same kingdom.

What do you think?

Is looking and pointing outward beyond our own ethnic, socio-economic, cultural group with a view to advance the Kingdom of Christ a part of Christ-following leadership?

Photographs

1] from right to left: Johan Geyser, Lead Teacher, Mosaic South Africa; Octavio Martinez, Founding Pastor, Sojourn; Erwin McManus, Lead Navigator, Mosaic Los Angeles; Me.

2] Octavio engaged in conversation with Wilma (Mosaic South Africa).

Into the Mystic…

Alex McManus
Pasadena, Ca
© 2005