The Distant Islands

"I am a rock.
I am an island. and a rock feels not pain. and an island never cries" - Simon and Garfunkel

It has been said that no man is an island, yet in modern American culture we worked hard to prove that statement wrong. Our rugged individualist ideal and "can do" attitude that was crucial for building our country turned into isolated individual with a "can have" attitude. It seems that the boomer generation wanted nothing more than to be totally independent and consume what ever they wanted. That was the picture of my life in the distant islands. A picture that for post moderns has been slightly altered but still just as empty. To a post modern person it is not about the individual as much as it is about community. Yet the habits of consumption have not really been altered that much. They stand on there soap boxes and say stop consuming, however when it comes to certain things they are huge consumers. They love their toys and will consume the latest gadgets with a passion.

The communal clustering of the post moderns often has a hedonistic feel to it. Young people who, on their own would not engage in experimental or dangerous things, will do so with their tribe because the tribe has declared it an accepted practice. Belonging to the tribe is far more important than the consequences of immoral behavior. The tribe sets the morals.

For a Christian student it is challenge to walk amongst the tribes of the distant islands. They know that the morals that they have been raised with are for there well being and for the well being of others. Yet faced with the conflicting morals of the tribes they often feel them must choose to isolate themselves from the tribes or try to blend in and lead a double life - one on the distant island and one in the city of refuge. It is important to understand this before you begin a ministry that is geared at reaching the distant islands. Students are really the only ones who reach the islands - adults can visit but frankly the strongest benefit of the visits is to begin to build relationships so that when tribe members visit the Isle of Wonders they will have some kind of a connection.

Distant Island ministry is student intensive. There are three types of students who can have an effective ministry in the Islands. The mature Student Leader (from the High Places), the new believer (from the Safe Harbor) and the strong believer (from the City of Refuge). It is not the place to send those who do not have a strong understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. If a student still needs the attention of others to make them feel good about them selves they could stumble here. If the student is judgmental and sees no reason to love these pagans they could do great damage here.

Student Leaders: I am a firm believer that Student leaders are the most important part of the ministry. Worship, Discipleship and Evangelism are important and are all used to prepare a person for Leadership. So the role of the Student Leader in the Distant Islands is to be the strategic leader who both inspires and leads by example his fellow students working in the Distant Islands. They are there to pray for and reach out to the lost and they are there to pray for and encourage the New Believers and Strong Believers as they reach out to the lost. They may want to start an on campus GIG (Group Investigating God). This is not a holy huddle designed for Christians but a place that unbelieving students can come and ask questions. The goal would be that the New Christians and the Strong Christians would invite their lost friends to the group. I realize that it would take special kind of student to lead a group like this but that is why Student Leadership is not for everyone.

New Believers: New believers are often the most effective evangelists. Their newly transformed hearts are bubbling over with gratitude to God and love for their lost friends. I liken them to the woman at the well who ran back to the village and invited all of them to "Come and see a man who knows everything about me!" Or the man possesed by "Legion" who was sent by Jesus as a witness to the people of his region. It is essential that new believers get strong grounding in what it means to follow Christ which is why a strong Safe Harbor ministry is important.

Strong Believers: Strong believers are potential Student Leaders they may not have the maturity and training of a student leader but they do have a heart for the lost, strong grounding in their belief and a strong desire to be used by God. In the Distant Islands their goal is to reach outside their comfort zone. Rather then holding up in the city of refuge soaking up knowledge and love they are encouraged to make relationships with non believers, invite the non-believer to a GIG or an Isles of Wonder event. They can share their testimony, share the Gosple and share God's love with them. When a unbeliever accepts Christ the Strong Believers are encouraged to invite their friends to get involved at the Safe Harbor and City of Refuge levels. This may mean that they attend a Safe Harbor bible study and worship services with them.

The goal is to lovingly encourage lost students to leave their independent ways on the islands and explore a relationship with God. Since so much of the postmodern culture is tied to community the tribe becomes an important component. It is no good to attack the tribe or discourage students from having a relationship with their tribe. Anything you say about their tribe you say about them. Therefore it is important to accept their fellow tribal members and extend God's love to the tribe. Often reaching one tribe member can have a huge effect on the whole tribe.

Why a Map?

I call the model the "Inclusive Model" and on the surface it is difficult to see what a map or the idea of an emerging landscape has to do with being inclusive. The whole point of the model is to create a ministry that helps student reach outside the church youth group into the community of unbelieving students in order to invite them into a group that is loving and accepting. This would be opposed to a model that is exclusively geared to students inside the church. I realize that many people may feel that all student ministry is inclusive and should be inclusive but more and more (as student ministry becomes more of a profession and less of a movement) churches are hiring and instructing student ministry pastors to focus predominantly on the church kids and if they happen to reach out to others that is OK as long as it does not take the focus off the church kids. The goal of the inclusive model then is to bring the emphasis on creating an environment where students can love God and love others - including others outside the church. The idea behind the map then was to illustrate a process of inclusion that involves students on the inside reaching out to students on the outside.

When I began to research the model the one thing that kept coming up is that postmodernist and emergent church experts reject the very notion of models because of their linear thinking. A model is like a factory. Every widget starts at one end and ends up as a mega-widget at the other end. Their complaint is that people are not widgets and therefore should not be treated as such. People grow at different paces and from different experiences. Some may jump right into theological issues and find their answers while others may need an emphasis on the basics. People do not progress at the same rate and sometimes their progression slows, stops or even reverses. I agree with that so when I wanted to come up with a picture of the discipling process that would help people move from milk to meat I wanted something that had clear destinations with out clear paths. Thus the Emerging Landscape map was born.

I myself can say that I hung out in the Distant Islands for many years. Every now and then I would visit the Isles of Wonder and it would have an effect on me. Each experience chipped away at my armor and my world view began to slowly change. Eventually I hung out most of the time at on the Isles even after I became a Christian. I did not really get a whole lot out of the Safe Harbor ministries at the church. I tried but my heart was still connected on the Isles. I also began to make journey's back to the Distant Islands with the express purpose of reaching my friends. By my senior year I was a leader on my campus and made a strong connection with the City of Refuge ministry. I learned about worship and loved it. I began to pray for and with my friends and was inspired to grow. The goal of the ministry was to build loving and caring relationships centered around the word of God and that is what I experienced. I had made a leap right over the Safe Harbor and into the City.

And my faith did not collapse.

I have known people who went from the Distant Islands straight to the City of Refuge with no problems. I have seen people come from the Isles of Wonder and catapult into the High Places in a very short period of time. And they turned out OK too.

So the map is designed to show some important locations that Christians need in their spiritual journey but not show the path or even give an indication of the amount of time spent in each place. That is as non-linear as I was able to make the model.