{"id":23155,"date":"2011-12-06T11:41:19","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T17:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=23155"},"modified":"2011-12-05T06:42:25","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T12:42:25","slug":"galli-bolsinger-and-now-michael-mercer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/06\/galli-bolsinger-and-now-michael-mercer\/","title":{"rendered":"Galli, Bolsinger and Now Michael Mercer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Galli\u2019s defense of the \u201cchaplain\u201d model of the pastor drew Tod Bolsinger to say \u201cbut not today\u201d because \u201cmissional\u201d is the new category, and that got Michael Mercer<\/strong><\/a> onto the platform with some serious pushback:<\/p>\n

Yes. Churches need to be more missional. Yes. Pastors need to provide a degree of leadership to help their congregations burst the Christian bubble and get meaningfully involved in their world. However, what I can\u2019t accept in Tod Bolsinger\u2019s argument is that somehow,\u00a0the means<\/em>by which we (pastors, in particular) most effectively provide the care and spiritual formation that will enable missional living has changed.<\/p>\n

In my own work as a chaplain, I have come to appreciate more than ever before the power of personal, face-to-face ministry and the effects of that, which seem to multiply exponentially when we simply engage in humble, \u201cchaplain-like\u201d service to our neighbors.<\/p>\n

Bolsinger seems to suggest that simple servants can\u2019t cut it today because the world has changed. But I have to say it again: WHO is our model for ministry? If it\u2019s Jesus, then I see a Gospel servant who changed the world by working personally, humbly, and in relative obscurity in a world long before anything like Christendom ever existed. And if it\u2019s the apostles, then they did the same. They were \u201cmissional,\u201d of course, going to the ends of the earth, but everywhere they went their work was simple, house to house and face to face, and energized by a servant approach and willingness to suffer. The Cross was their paradigm, plain and simple (see 1Cor 2:1-5).<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t care if we live in the first century, the tenth, or the twenty-first, the job of a \u201cpastor\u201d (shepherd) will always be to take care of sheep by feeding them, protecting them, nurturing them, tending them when they are sick and injured, and leading them on paths that they sometimes don\u2019t want to take. It is intensely personal, hard, dirty, often repugnant work\u2026.<\/p>\n

This is not the place to get into all of that; I simply want to make one comment in response to Tod Bolsinger\u2019s post. What I fear about all this talk regarding \u201cMissional\u201d Christianity and \u201cnew paradigms\u201d to meet \u201cpost-Christendom\u201d realities, is that\u00a0we are simply replacing one set of corporate principles with another<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Older, 20th century \u201ccorporate\u201d paradigms adopted by the church were established when large post-WWII corporations dominated the landscape and their suit-wearing executives still walked the earth. You know the model. It\u2019s the one all the dying people I visit as a hospice chaplain used to work for back in the day. Back when it was cars that rusted in the \u201cRust Belt,\u201d not the factories that made them.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s outsourced, globalized internet age,\u00a0\u201cnew paradigms\u201d<\/em> have emerged. In recent years our corporate \u201chero\u201d has been the young entrepreneur with\u00a0\u201cvision\u201d<\/em> who seeks to\u201cempower\u201d<\/em> vast numbers of people by\u00a0\u201cequipping\u201d<\/em> them through personal computers, tech devices, and continual and better access to information and data. These visionaries have a dream for building\u00a0\u201ccommunity\u201d<\/em> through social media. They have a\u00a0social conscience<\/em>, valuecreativity, participatory processes, diversity<\/em>, and they tend to foster\u00a0de-centralized organizational structures<\/em>. They are striving to\u00a0\u201ctransform\u201d<\/em> the world.<\/p>\n

Hey, guess what? Sounds like the\u00a0\u201cmissional\u201d<\/em> church program we\u2019re now being sold! The spiritual glaze can\u2019t hide the corporate model beneath\u2026.<\/p>\n

In other words, it won\u2019t be Mayberry. It won\u2019t be General Motors. It will be Apple. It will be Facebook. It will be Twitter.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, my neighbor\u00a0still<\/em> lies bleeding by the side of the road.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Galli\u2019s defense of the \u201cchaplain\u201d model of the pastor drew Tod Bolsinger to say \u201cbut not today\u201d because \u201cmissional\u201d is the new category, and that got Michael Mercer onto the platform with some serious pushback: Yes. Churches need to be more missional. Yes. Pastors need to provide a degree of leadership to help their congregations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1731,1740],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastoring-and-leading","category-pastoring-and-preaching"],"yoast_head":"\nGalli, Bolsinger and Now Michael Mercer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Galli's defense of the "chaplain" model of the pastor drew Tod Bolsinger to say "but not today" because "missional" is the new category, and that got\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/06\/galli-bolsinger-and-now-michael-mercer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Galli, Bolsinger and Now Michael Mercer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Galli's defense of the "chaplain" model of the pastor drew Tod Bolsinger to say "but not today" because "missional" is the new category, and that got\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/06\/galli-bolsinger-and-now-michael-mercer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-06T17:41:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-05T12:42:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/06\/galli-bolsinger-and-now-michael-mercer\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/06\/galli-bolsinger-and-now-michael-mercer\/\",\"name\":\"Galli, Bolsinger and Now Michael Mercer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-06T17:41:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-05T12:42:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Galli's defense of the \\\"chaplain\\\" model of the pastor drew Tod Bolsinger to say \\\"but not today\\\" because \\\"missional\\\" is the new category, and that got\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/06\/galli-bolsinger-and-now-michael-mercer\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/06\/galli-bolsinger-and-now-michael-mercer\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/06\/galli-bolsinger-and-now-michael-mercer\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Galli, Bolsinger and Now Michael Mercer\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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