Monthly Archives: May 2009

May 27, 2009 · 3:03 pm

It’s Summertime!

It’s officially summertime as the baby pool and water balloons have become a staple in the Gentrified backyard. A water fight usually results and Calvin so far has been completely unphased by his brother’s insistence on soaking him first. It’s a blast and we will be spending a ton of time at the neighborhood pool with all the local Wells Branchites.

This should be a fun-filled and action packed summer. We get to welcome a new addition to the Engstrom family, my Aunt Gladys is moving to the Austin area from Kansas (she was dying for those 100-degree June-August days), Calvin turns 1, we’ll be traveling to visit family and friends in Houston, Amber and I will vacation without the boys to Boston and New York City in July. It should be an awesome summer.

It’s been a while since we’ve posted a blog, so here’s brief update on the boys.

What is Eli up to?

Eli is almost potty trained, he only wears a diaper for going to sleep at night, and he’s been pretty awesome. After a lot of trial and error, we figured he wouldn’t always tell us, so we make it a point to take him to the restroom about once an hour until he gets into the habit himself. He’s very proud of his underwear (as you can see in the picture), even though he’s almost too skinny for them to stay on.

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He’ll be 3 in 3 months, which is insane for me to think about it. We’re going to try and put him in swim lessons this summer and he’ll also start a couple of days of school this fall.

He has a few OCD tendencies as he insists on getting certain things done or certain things in specific places before he can move on to anything else. He’s a great talker, tries his best to sing and loves to flirt with the ladies (I don’t know who he got that from…probably Amber’s side…)

What is Calvin up to?

Calvin is 11 months now. He’s walking and trying to talk/sing like his brother. He says phrases like “No way!”, “That way!”, “Mommy”, & “Dada”. He’s trying to learn animal sounds, but apparently believes every animal makes the same noise. The lion roars and so does the cow…

He continues to eat everything he can find, but lately has become more particular about the food he eats for lunch and dinner. Not sure how you can eat sand and then be particular about real food, but to each his own.

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He hates taking a bath without his brother; he gets completely mad about it until Eli joins him and begins tormenting him by showering him with as much water as possible.

I’m hoping to post some videos of the boys and the family soon.

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May 12, 2009 · 2:27 pm

Does mission lead naturally to community?

I’ve been wrestling with a statement by someone I respect immensely and who has influenced my missiology greatly. The statement is:

“When we are all working on mission, community happens naturally. When we’re working on community, mission gets lost somewhere.”

I think this statement challenges the status quo for 95% of churches in America. The reality is that most churches are primarily concerned with their own community and never get their people on mission. I recently tweeted (Yes, I’m on twitter) that I’ve been starting to question whether the statement is reality or a pendulum shift. It resulted in great convos, so the next step is obviously blogging about it. I haven’t come to any conclusion, but here are my ramblings.

Both of these aspects of the gospel (community and mission) are good, godly results of the gospel, but left on their own will ultimately kill the group.  The point at question is, “Does mission together automatically build community?” The answer is no. If the group is so focused on serving, doing, and giving, you’re cooking a recipe for burnout, a byproduct of which is individuals feeling used and valued solely based on their contribution to “mission”. If their contributions in mission dwindle, they wonder and question their role in the group they are serving, will they be loved/accepted if they don’t contribute because mission is primary?!? Personal care of those on mission gets lost when mission is held up as ultimate and primary.

To contrast, community alone kills when the group loves each other so much they no longer want to see new people come into the group. They love spending time with each other so much that they refuse to seek out anyone or fully welcome newcomers. The group eventually becomes disgruntled because they aren’t doing anything because community has become primary. Christians were made to be on mission, so they become disgruntled and the group ultimately fades away and dies.

So there’s a problem, what’s the solution?

The statement above has the most gigantic caveat. It is based on the assumption of the gospel being primary in an individual’s life as well as in a group. If this caveat happens, if they understand the gospel, both community and mission flow out of the individual and if the group gets it, both community and mission thrive. If the gospel is primary, it becomes understood that the gospel calls people out of darkness into light, from being a slave to being a family member and being cared for solely because of Christ’s work, not solely their contribution to the group. If the gospel is primary, then it is also understood at the same time that the gospel calls that same loved individual on mission to the world carrying the same message they have just received and been transformed by.

But the gigantic caveat should never be assumed and the gospel must always be primary and should not be replaced by the primacy of mission or community. The problem is each of us is naturally bent towards making one or the other primary and lobbing bombs at the other side because they aren’t doing what we hold as primary. Only when they are seen as results of the gospel in our lives and mutually embraced will mission assist in developing deeper community and a community thrive on mission.

The original statement is absolutely needed for the American church and I need to hear it often.  But we must be certain that we don’t forget the gigantic caveat.

When the gospel is being held, valued, proclaimed as primary within a group of people then community and mission happen naturally.

The question remains of how this can be accomplished. How can the gospel stay primary in an individual’s life and primary within a group of people? I’d love to hear your thoughts and hopefully I’ll add mine soon.

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May 1, 2009 · 9:57 pm

Lessons in Evangelism – Community Evangelism

In my last post in this series, I dealt more with a personal evangelism method (Questioning Evangelism) which is where most of us find ourselves when we seek to declare the gospel at work, in our neighborhood or apartment. It’s also how we’ve come to view and teach evangelism. It has become a personal responsibility that you do by yourself so you better know all the answers and the best methods to explain the gospel to anyone you see. This is a half-truth that often overwhelms us because the burden rests solely on us for it to be carried out. It’s true that we must be ready to give an account for why we believe what we believe, but evangelism was never seen as solely an individual activity.

I’m talking about the idea of community evangelism, which is joining with other believers in Jesus Christ to express the gospel through word and deed to similar individuals, a neighborhood, or a group of people. Instead of doing it on your own, partner with other believers to accomplish the same task together.

This is something I’ve primarily learned by observing it carried out by others, but also through observing truth in the Book of Acts in the Bible. In Acts you never see anyone sent out to evangelize or establish a church or to be on mission all by themselves, it’s as if it didn’t make sense to them. The first missionary journey (Acts 13) sets apart Paul and Barnabas to go together, and even with they split in Acts 15, they find others to go with them as they separate and never go alone.

Christ sends out His disciples in pairs in Luke 10 and then sends them as a group when He ascends into heaven. It appears more biblical to seek to do this as a community rather than as individuals.

Maybe for us the independent American lifestyle has bled into our evangelism methods and theology to the point we refuse to share our burden and responsibility with those we love that also happen to be closest to us.

Two examples of community evangelism in our college ministry:

Kasey and Clay: Two of our college guy leaders began interacting with and caring for Korean international students on UT’s campus. Each of them would interact with them separately, but also together at times and each time would seek to engage them with the truth of the gospel. As a result, they’ve seen a Korean atheist become a believer in Christ and then join them in reaching his friends.

Madison and Megan: Freshman girls in our college ministry that decided to pray like crazy and share their faith as much as possible. Together they have seen a number of people come to faith in Christ, baptized girls in their dorm’s pool and seen those girls join with them in sharing their faith and baptizing others. Here’s the video.

How does this play out in our lives?

I have seen this begin to play itself out in my marriage most of all. Amber and I are a ministry team that lives in close community as part of our marriage. We spend our weekdays separate, but with a common focus of seeing the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed through our words and our lives to the people we see on a regular basis. When together, we encourage one another, keep each other accountable to staying committed to sharing our faith, we learn from one another and we pray for each other. Lately, we’ve also worked together in spending time with the people each of us has connected with individually. In those moments we get to show them Christ by our lives in community and then collectively declare the gospel. We’ve seen more opportunities to share our faith this way than ever before.

Community evangelism creates more opportunities for the gospel to be spread, provides a close training and support network for learning, encouragement, accountability, and prayer. There are small groups in churches everywhere, but many of them meet to serve just each other, what if their focus for gathering was centered on engaging communities with the gospel they encourage each other with? I think they’ll see and experience greater joy in Christ and see salvation in Christ more than ever before.

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