Being on mission is never a safe task

A veteran pastor and church leader surveys the landscape of ministry in Canada

By Len Hjalmerson and ChristianWeek | February 2, 2010

So you really want to be a Christian leader in contemporary Canada? In Borderland Churches, Gary Nelson offers a Canadian take on what it means to live in the "borderlands," and challenges Christians to embrace the borderlands where we live. Borderlands are those areas where faith and unfaith intersect, places decidedly outside the comfort zone of Christendom structures.

Nelson, who serves as general secretary for Canadian Baptist Ministries, brings a wealth of experience to this task and the book steps between the academic and practical worlds with ease. While he addresses a theological task, his emphasis is on practice. He is passionate about his purpose, and the stories he tells help us to envision a new kind of Church and a new level of engagement. Being on mission, he says, is never a safe task.

Nelson sets his work clearly in the Canadian context, and then offers some reflections on the task at hand. He notes that spiritual interest is growing at the same time as churches are dwindling.

The tension this induces for religious leaders causes many to look for the "magic key" (a key that does not exist). But the hope and desire for that key has led many on a journey from seminar to seminar and book to book, and, in particular, to attempts to import American models being touted as the path to success or "the next great thing."

But we often failed to do the needed work—theological and cultural-exegetical—that the task requires. Nor did we adopt a listening posture in the places we live because we hoped we could simply adopt a working model from somewhere else. And now...we are reaping what we sowed.

Writing on the wall

True as that may be, many churches and leaders have seen the writing on the wall. At one level or another, there is a growing response to the movement of the Spirit calling us to engage in the borderlands instead of remaining safely encamped within the boundaries. "It will be impossible to lead others to places of effective missionary engagement if we, as leaders, are uncomfortable in the borderlands," observes Nelson.

"Borderland living for the Church requires catalyst leaders who are more than pastoral caregivers or great visionaries. They live what they teach….Merely developing authority [and then] telling others what they should do will not be enough to mobilize."

The most important element for healthy change in any organization is a sense of urgency. A deep and unsettling questioning of reality always precedes congregational renewal. Yet the paradox is that leaders ultimately only have control over themselves. So our greatest task is to engage in mission, question our familiar frameworks and be transformed.

Most of us want the story to be about us—our comfort, our welfare. But that isn't the story God is writing. Nelson reminds us that a consumer-focused ministry is not about the gospel, but about a distorted western reading shaped by the Enlightenment and a market culture.

While most churches and their leaders truly desire to be effective for God, not everyone will be able to "cross over" into the new territory. Moses, after all, didn't make it. Nelson highlights Joshua's experience of moving across the Jordon to the Promised Land as a framework for today's church—we are invited out of the security of the familiar into the borderlands.

Crossover times

We, too, live in a crossover time. Change today is not like change in the past—it is global rather than local, and the rate of change is much faster than in previous generations. We are mostly aware of this, but many of us continue to live with the illusion that we have a choice whether or not we will engage this strange new world. But unique as our era may be, it is also similar to other places the Church has been—like Joshua's crossing over.

Recovering a missional theology, then, is really the recovery of a central biblical story.

The Church that is emerging in this crossover time is very different from the Church that grew out of the last two decades of the 20th century. Many churches have continued to operate in the "come to" model (attractional), a model that was a product of Christendom. With the death of that compact we are in a new place. The old model was a success because of certain cultural conditions—conditions that are now disappearing. The shift we are now seeing takes us to a new location and requires a new posture—an incarnational "go to" posture.

"Borderland churches know their neighbours, their politicians, and their neighbouring businesses. They share in the community activities and are recognized by the agencies that work there," writes Nelson.