What is your center?

That’s the question that was tossed around by a few friends of mine this morning.  I, barely conscious from my sickness, was only catching bits and pieces of the conversation, but I knew that it was one to latch a hold of.
If we look all around us, all we see are repeating patterns focused around a center.  A human face: a symmetrical nose and mouth with a pair of matching eyes and matching ears.  A bird: two wings with identical feathers, a pair of claws, and a center to keep it balanced while in flight.  God’s beauty in his creation teaches us something about his character; that he is the center AND the pattern.  Unlike machines, living organisms (from a giant ape down to a strand of DNA) must function as self-replicating shapes focused around a center.
God is the being that we should be aiming our lives after, the center from which everything else should replicate and flow.   He is also the pattern.  As the Triune God, he is the triangular shape of self-sacrificing love that completes the function of the center!  As we are given new revelations and learn more about who God is, it all filters under the “center” that God is LOVE. (1 John 4:16).

If we want organic churches to be planted, we have to ask one question: “What is your center?”  To our one soul friend in whom we confide everything, we must ask them, “Who is your center?”  to our band of brothers/sisters we ask the same question.  To our family of faith…to the network throughout the city, region and beyond, if we do not know that GOD, who is LOVE is our center, then we are creating little house-temples of self-worship.

Bonhoffer said, “He who loves community, destroys community.”  As we live in close relationship with our brothers and sisters, creating a healthy family of Jesus, we must remember that we are not the center, but God is.  And we must remember, that we are a self-replicating pattern of the Triune God, who is established in sacrificial love!

What an awesome God we serve, that gives us clues about himself not only throughout his Word, but also all throughout his creation.  Just keep your eyes open, and see if you cannot find that center, and the multiple repeating patterns that in “chaordic” fashion find balance in the common principle of sacrificial Love.

I’ve been tinkering around with Google Earth lately…what an awesome program! It has been especially fun for me as I’m spending more time this summer thinking about how North America is on the precipice of moving deeper and deeper into more authentic expressions of the Christian faith.

Over on my sidebar of this blog, I have written one of the goals that has been central to what I am to be about: I want to see a vibrant family of Jesus in close proximity geographically and culturally, of every single person in North America. So many of the established, “legacy” churches (which is exactly what they are for many of us, since that is our legacy) reach out only to a select number of people, leaving millions on this continent without a vibrant, healthy expression of Jesus anywhere close to the lost. Within organic church conversations, a central principle is that of keeping only the essentials, in order for the “church” to take on many strange, new forms. Always new wineskins, for the ever-new wine.

But how will we know if these “vibrant families of Jesus” are in close reach? How will we know which neighborhoods to pray for? There’s probably lots of ways to do it, but for a small group in Abilene, we are looking carefully at our city’s ethnographic and geographic fingerprints. Programs like Google Earth, are helpful, but we are also setting out on foot, meeting new people who are very different from your standard issue church-goer. (Finally!)

Who are the different people groups in this city? In other cities? What makes them tick? What are their hopes, dreams, and deepest fears? What is their “God-language”? If we’re serious about raising up a family of Jesus in close proximity to every people group in the nation, and eventually the whole world, we can’t just sit back and hope it happens. We have to begin to examine the harvest field!

There are many others in many other cities doing similar things as we are. Not connected through anything more than their connection to Christ, these brothers and sisters are praying that the lost of this world come to Christ, and are discipled by Him. Among others, DAWN is one great resource and has given me words to form a lot of the hopes and dreams I’ve been having lately. They are a grassroots system for getting the word out about church planting and reaching the lost.

Simple, and organic churches are certainly not the only way to reach the lost world, but they are making a significant impact in places like China, India, Africa and now in Latin America (there called “Base Ecclesial Communities”). God is knocking at the door of the West, ready to unleash a new/ancient power: his very people as the multi-ethnic church.

by Anne Sexton

There is joy

in all:

in the hair I brush each morning,

in the Cannon towel, newly washed,

that I rub my body withh each morning,

in the chapel of eggs I cook

each morning,

in the outcry from the kettle

that heats my coffee

each morning,

in the spoon and the chair,

that cry “hello there, Anne”

each morning,

in the godhead of the table

that I set my silver, plate, cup upon

each morning.

All this is God,

right here in my pea-green house

each morning

and I mean,

though often forget,

to give thanks,

to faint down by the kitchen table

in a prayer of rejoicing

as the holy birds at the kitchen window

peck into their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it,

let me paint you a thank you on my palm

for this God, this laughter of the morning,

lest it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn’t shared, I’ve heard,

dies young.

I want to be competent in sports conversations with other guys.

I want to live alone in the wilderness for days on end.

I want to learn to write good poems.

I want to dive into a swimming pool of vanilla pudding, crushed oreos and gummy worms.

I want to live in a cooler climate.

Yeah.

I want to see my old roomate’s new baby boy. Whoa.

I want to make an impact as a “resident alien”.

I want to get a dog.

I want to spray my dog with a hose, and keep him from shaking until he is really close to a lady’s hair salon. Then throw a piece of juicy bacon inside, turn and start running.

I want to deny that I have a dog when questioned by authorities.

I want to give a million dollars away over the course of my lifetime to people in deep need that I know personally.

I want to go golfing with my brother.

I want a cheeseburger, with onion straws and peppercorn.

I don’t want a heart attack.

Things are going well in the Willis-land for the most part.  I’ve been totally wiped out physically from heat exhaustion (too much outside fun and excitement!), and Katrina is inundated with tasks from work.  I suppose things are going well anyway…

This morning I was talking to a friend about my hopes for this summertime.  So often summers are great chances to relax, as well as a good chance to get a nice-sized project finished.  I’m working on a few this summer, but I find my tendency is to end up doing a lot less than initially hoped for.   So I figure if I write a few of them up on my blog, maybe they’ll stick a bit!

First goal: I want to get to know the “fingerprint of Abilene”.  There are a few groups of people that I know well.  I know the WASP (White, Anglo Saxon, Protestant) group too well.  I am getting to know the homeless and near-homeless crowd by proxy.  I am finding ties into the Alcoholics Anonymous groups that meet in this city…but I know there are many more.  What makes people in a West Texas town tick?  What brings them great joy?  What fears and concerns do they have?  Are they anywhere close to a family of faith that is trying to live as Christ to them?

This goal will take comarades.  There are a few of us partnering in this, but I really want to hear from a few others; and for it to become an intentional “as we go” sort of thing.  What would it be like to truly know the spiritual needs of a person…a neighborhood…a city?  One guy obviously can’t get his mind around it, and it would be too much to do even if he could.   For me, this goal is all about keeping our eyes open to new, different people; hearing their hearts; and sharing needs with others who care.
Second goal: Learn about how I fit in a true, family of faith.  It is not a simple flick of a switch to go from fully head-on institutional-minister-man to assuming the simple, humble roll as a brother in Christ.  Our house church that is beginning to gain some new life and purpose is learning to live this way together, and I must see that as a primary goal of mine this summer!  I want to know what it is like to be covered in prayer by others, to be affirmed, held accountable, and to be sent out in mission…and then I want to tell others about it!

This is going to take regular, meaningful interaction on my part with these friends, some of which are making similar paradigm shifts in their understanding of church.  It will take a spirit of learning on my part from my AA brother who seems to have caught this “organic” vision more than any of us.  It will take a spirit of bravery to continue to invite others to join us, and still more bravery to prepare and send several of us out to plant another church in a new context.

Summers always have great potential.  I hope to do some of these exciting things, but right now - just thinking about it makes me exhausted.  Maybe its just the heat.