Today our reading leads us to consider “Four Immersions” that the early Christian Communities experienced. Each one of them are a part of the plan and each one of them play an important role:
1. They were immersed in New Culture: Often among those who have no context, care, or concern for their God.
2. They were immersed in Community: They were never called to lived out their “sentness” alone.
3. They were immersed in God: Jesus Said, “Apart from me you can do nothing”. To be a blessing to others you must be immersed in Him.
4. They were immersed in Tension: There was often external & internal tension as they wrestled w/their “sentness”.
This past Sunday was one of my favorite gatherings at Austin New Church. I’m so thankful for what God is doing in and through our church family. I continue to be amazed at what a loving, serving, and faithful community I get to be a part of. Not only did we get a chance to literally worship with our neighbors, we saw a father baptize his two sons, a son baptize his father, new believers get baptized, those who have been believers for years finally take the plunge, a neighbor who attends another local church family baptize his youngest child, a great friend baptize the child of another great friend, and I had the thrill of baptizing my youngest boy. I wish I could tell you every story from this weekend. I assure you, each one is special.
When I think about the adventure of being immersed in New Culture, the joy of being immersed in Community, and the hope of a fresh immersion with God, it makes the challenge of sometimes being immersed in tension worth every moment.
Filed under: Missional Church, Tangible Kingdom Tagged: | church planting, leadership, Missional, TKP Week 1
Brandon Hatmaker
Matthew Hansen
traypruet
In thinking about the “Four Immersions” listed in our book (culture, community, God, and tension), I thought about how you could separate those 4 concepts into 2 groups. The tension and culture ideas seem that they express the originality and uniqueness of how God has created every single one of us with specific strengths and weaknesses. Because of that, I believe that is the “hard part” of being a Christian…due to those diverse natures of everyone, there can be…well….tension (wow…great conclusion…really deep….haha!).
The other two (God and community) don’t express the individuality of a person, but the universality of everyone’s deepest God given desire. I mean, who doesn’t want to want to be part of a community? Who doesn’t want to belong? Go to any middle school anywhere in the world and look at the energy given by kids trying to fit in. The “God” aspect is what everyone is looking for their groups’ standards to be set towards…whether they are conscious of it or not.
Tension, Culture<——————————————–God, Community
As usual, God sets up a perfect balance to keep His creation in line…amazing!
Great thoughts, Mitch.
Great posts guys! For me, being immersed in tension is a result of being committed to being immersed in God, Culture, and Community. We often see two of the three:
If I immerse myself in culture and community (different cultural communities) and not God, I just simply fade into them, I am not separate and apart, I am them there is no difference, there is no tension in my life.
If I immerse myself in God and community (the Christian ghetto) and keep myself away from culture, again I have no tension. Rather, I have the exact opposite of tension, I have my safe, secure, bubble in which my narcissism is celebrated rather than confronted because I hang out with people just like me.
Tension is not only our call to live in, it is the only way of life that keeps me in a life of obedience. If I am immersed in a life of culture and community, think of all the ways I will disobey God in relation to my relationship with Him. If I am immersed in a life of community and God only, then think of all the commands that focus on ‘going’ and ‘being sent’ that I am disobeying (among many others).
When I live in the tension of all three, I am confronted by my sin, I am confronted with compassion, I am confronted with my need for others…and I am committed to live my life on Mission!
Good point man….it makes me think of a rubber band….if there is no tension, that thing will go nowhere! The stronger the tension, the farther it flies…
Tangible Touches (immersed in God)
I guess I must write down this “example” only because it is so fresh, so real and hit me between the eyes tonight.
Those in our Restore Community know Bob and Juanna Reilly. They have met and recently taken in a man dying of cancer. They met him through another sweet lady (Mary Beth) in our Restore Community who is a hospice care-giver.
Well when I read about the immersions….I was struck at how this man (not a believer) was immersed in the blessings (or tangible touches of God) through these two families. Not many people would take a man into their home, only knowing him for 3 weeks, let alone a dying man, who by all accounts was difficult and mean. Yet the Reilly’s showed him love when he could offer them nothing. This touch softened this man’s heart.
In God’s sovereignty and his timing this man of 66 years lay dying in the breakfast room…in a make-shift hospital room, as Brandon and I prayed for him in the next room. We had been called to the house, as Juanna ran some errands…to possibly be with him as he died. We prayed for God to allow him to hear us and respond to the Gospel….or to just mercifully end his suffering.
This man, in the next few moments….sat up in bed and began talking….why did this shock us? Then, God moved in this man’s heart, to accept the gift of salvation that is available to all of us…oh my!
Over the last couple of hours….this has grown increasingly incredible to me. Its not always what we say…..it’s how we live and how we give those “tangible touches”.
thanks for sharing this tray. i love how god works.
When I think of the four immersions, I find that I want to show up in the world as the person I am, a person of faith – but know that I have a ton of tension to overcome to show up as who I am. The toughest part is to show up in such a way that it attracts people to a conversation about their spirituality rather than pushes them away from just another “turn or burn” screech. I want to be willing to interact with people I do not know, care about them and trust in His Spirit to take the conversation to the places where others need to take it, rather than trying to control the conversation and figure out the right moment to trap them into a faith discussion. I want to see others they way that He sees them….the tough part is that requires time. Of all the tensions that exist it is the time tension that creates the biggest barrier. For that reason, a few of us are starting to pray about the concept of tithing our time, not just our money. What if you gave your first fruits of time to Him, rather than gave just the time that remained after you did all the thing you wanted to do. What difference would that make in your relationships?
i have to agree with matthew about tension. we need it. the example i wrote for tension for question #3 was fighting my humanness to obey god. yeah, other people are annoying and can drive you crazy. but it’s tension with myself that prevents me from obeying god and living missionally. that’s why i have to be in community and immersed in god, or else i fail.
also, just a quick question, is it me or does it seem like we should be reading the tangible kingdom book along with this? not that i want to add anymore to this 8 week study, but the primer keeps saying things like, “In The Tangible Kingdom, we…” i feel like i’m cheating.
Holly,
We were told by the authors that this TK Primer stands alone…and it really does. But when Brandon and I were discussing this the other night….it would be a great supplement…and having read Tangible Kingdom, it does fill the gaps. But I think if there are any questions about the book….here is a good place to ask those. And no…you aren’t cheating!
This study is really hitting me. i have never really had to dig this deep as to where i stand with God. I just thought living a good life was good enough. This TK is waking me up to what God really wants us to do.
As for tension, to me if you have no tension then you are too comfortable. I am comfortable and by doing so I am not living the missional life God calls us to do. I believe if you have tension, then you are close to having a break through. Tension makes us uncomfortable which requires us to change. Doing this study puts some tension in my life because I am consistently falling short of what God wants me to do. That is how i view the tension aspect.
When I went through the Primer last summer, I listed “culture” and “tension” as the most intimidating types of Immersions, but today, I feel like Immersion in God is the most intimidating. I do a lot of thinking about God, and I’ve come a long way in terms of “immersing myself” in other cultures since last year and getting used to tension. However, I’m not in His Word as much as I should be. And, it can seem daunting to try to be truly “immersed” in God at all times, because I’m so human. It’s interesting the difference a year can make.
Yup, I agree Trace. I find it entirely too easy to be distracted from staying in the day routine of trying to read the Word. I find that once I’m in the habit of daily devotional time, my days are smoother and less stressful. But, and a big but, I distract easily, so I find that my biggest chore was to recognize that I have been distracted and get back on track before it takes hold again. I thank God daily for being able to clean my slate every day if need be.