Godgrown

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  Mark 12:25 pm on January 19, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

  Spider, or Starfish? 

  

  Skype has been a friend as of late. I’ve been able to talk with friends living in Mexico all the way up to Chicago who are trying to show others the joy of living the Christ-life. Skype is a simple “internet phone” tool that anyone with a computer and an internet connection can use and is an incredible means of sharing ideas right across the globe. And I am humbled! Men and women much older and more experienced at life than I am have been cross-pollinating dreams with me and each other and has sparked my imagination more than once. We are truly living in an incredible age.

  I’m reading a book right now titled Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (Check out this link to help contribute to the book!). Simply put, it is a book that describes how ideas are shared in the world we live in. Gone are the days of the entrepreneur personality that used his expertise to solve every problem and steer every ship into the harbor. Now we are seeing tools like Skype, Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr, and more invade our consciousness – and we will never be the same. Blogs are changing politics, business, the Church and beyond. I liken it to the Gutenberg press that 500 years ago made books commonplace in our lives; finally anyone could be an author…sort of. Now the bar has been lowered once again, only this time anyone who has access to the internet can change the world.

  Some call the world we live in the World of the Starfish. The Starfish and the Spider is another book that describes this world we now live in. The metaphor goes: cut off the leg of a spider and you have a lame spider. Cut off the head of a spider and you have a dead spider. BUT! Cut off the leg of a starfish, and what do you have? TWO STARFISH! The starfish has no head and therefore can never truly be killed.

  The best organizations in the world we live in today are “starfish organizations”. These kind of organizations have no central headquarters, no visible leader or system of hierarchy, and yet grow and multiply infinitely quicker than any “spider organization” out there.

  Recently Congress entertained a bill that would make all identifiable religious organizations on a level legal playing field with lobbyists. Basically, that means that many of the rights and/or privileges of churches today would be taken away (mostly regarding financial breaks, etc). This will probably not pass, but it is a sign of things to come in the near future. The knife is at the spider’s neck.

  But, praise God, the Kingdom is not a spider – it is a starfish! Movements of Christ’s body are spreading like a virus right across this country, and right across the planet. More around the world are becoming Christians today than ever before, and the majority of them are poor, DON’T have any church property to be taxed in the first place, and for the most part live under the radar. This is the fire of the Spirit spreading across the earth. These are exciting times.

  

  GodGrown » Blog Archive » Listening to the God in Each of Us, Agent B, and rob horton are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    rob horton 10:27 pm on January 19, 2007 Permalink

    Amen! Amen! Amen!

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    Agent B 11:35 pm on January 19, 2007 Permalink

    Starfish. Interesting concept. Especially in terms of the church being a tax-free, govt-tied entity.

    Makes a lot of sense.

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  Mark 11:08 am on January 16, 2007 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Apologetics ( 6 )   

  The Unseen 

  “…You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to GOD HIMSELF, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. You have come to JESUS, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people…”

  – Early Christian Sermon, Hebrews 12:22-24

  This being toward the end of a powerful sermon on perseverance, I am amazed at the awkwardity (a new word a good friend mentioned to me and is working to get it into Webster’s!) of the circumstances surrounding this sermon. These Christians, possibly 12-15 men and women are huddled together in a small room of a multi-housing apartment complex. Some have lost their homes because they’ve been rejected by their Jewish parents or their pagan husband. Others have been beaten, lost their jobs, and lost their property (Heb. 10:34).

  And yet this is how the preacher-man talks to them? Talking of high n’ mighty mountains, angels, and being in the presence of GOD HIMSELF?!? If I were one of these persecuted, low-life Christians, I’d be just about ready to walk over to the preacher jabbering on about such nonsense and smack him upside the head. The NERVE! And yet these words somehow made it into the Holy Writ.

  Maybe its because Christians…the true followers of Christ who were hunted down for their beliefs, knew that it was precisely in their not seeing their earthly power and glory in the following-Christ lifestyle that they saw all the more how amazing was their God of the unseen world. Throughout the sermon, the author of Hebrews prefers the “unseen, unshakable” reality as opposed to the “world that will fall away”.

  In the Roman and pagan world of the first century, temples lined the streets, and each of them were embellished with visible reminders of the gods watching over everyone. The simpler, the less adorned, and the humble gatherings of Christian worship that were blatantly lacking icons, idols, and bloody sacrifices may have been what was most inspiring about the early Christian faith. Many non-Christians at that time suspected Christianity to be a simple philosophy, others saw it as a dangerous cult. No one who stood outside the circle understood exactly what this little movement was all about.

  Today, Christianity in America has taken on the aspects of many of the pompous pagan religions of the first century. We build bigger and bigger sanctuaries, and have more and more elaborate worship services designed to attract the overindulged, and over-entertained consumer. And we do it well. We truck them in by the thousands, and give the preachers of these mega-temples salaries that well surpass those of their pagan forefathers…TV air time, book signing deals…the works. We’ve bought into the lifestyle that kept so many first century Romans (Jews, and others as well!) so inoculated to the Truth – that this is not about a flashy event; its about a way of life.

  We have not come to what is seen, to stages, praise bands, multi-plexes, and unchanged, unfulfilled, mediocre lives; but we have come to what is unseen: to a simple collective of friends who love their Lord, love each other, and are convinced that they are on a mission with their Lord to save the world. When we stop to think of the idiocy of it all: no leader but Christ, no temple but our hearts, no sacrifice but ourselves, worshiping our Lord God may seem simplistic. But do not be deceived. We have come to a mountain that is far more real than anything we can see with our eyes, we have come to the mountain of the LORD GOD.

  
   
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  Mark 3:19 pm on January 11, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

  The ups and downs of Neighborhood Life 

  Chicago has more and more tables these days.

  While reading the latest exposé from ABC News (a great read by the way) on organic churches multiplying around the country, I noticed that Randy Frazee, a pastor at Willow Creek Community Church has been finding new ways to make their 20,000 strong membership feel as if each member can participate and contribute in healthy ways. Boy, I would not want that job!

  But Frazee seems to be taking a page from the house church movement sweeping across America and running with it. He has constructed “Neighborhood Life” a sprawling neighborhood ministry made available to anyone who can ring a doorbell or make a phone call. This is how Frazee plans to lead “an effort to restructure the church’s small group programs toward more holistic church experiences centered in homes“. Apparently, these are stand-alone churches of their own right, and yet they have an indirect connection with Willow Creek Church through the 21 area pastors who oversee the groups and provide occasional guidance.

  In some ways, this kind of partnership between house churches and a megachurch is a wonderful example of how the two models can work together. The Tables’ vision for multiple pastor system spread over focused neighborhoods also gives us a glimpse into one kind of emerging leadership structure that is blossoming out of this new way of “doing church.” And people are responding. In fact, in the year and a half since this program has begun, there are already about 7,000 who attend an extension of this ministry throughout Chicagoland.

  But there are a few major flaws as I read deeper into Frazee’s vision for Neighborhood Life and the “Tables” (house churches) that are being introduced. First, this is for Willowpeople, by Willowpeople. Willow Creek members can go to The Willow Neighborhood Life website and sign up to “Host a Table”. Once approved by the higher-ups, are then contacted by other church members who have noticed their presence on the Willow website and connect there. Sounds okay, right? …But when do we ever meet our own neighbors? When do we bump into lost people? This is a system designed to keep our garage doors closed and our backyard fences erected. When we have to “apply for community” on the internet, we are too afraid of each other.
  Second, it is a monthly event, hosted by Willow Creek leaders focused on Willow Creek materials. What can a group of strangers do once a month? What sort of discipleship occurs in a two hour block once a month?! The curriculum for the evening’s conversation is given to approved Willowcreek leadership to be followed and completed each time they meet…

  ::I can already tell people are excited::

  …in the end this comes down to keeping this Neighborhood “Life” firmly in the grips of Willowcreek, rather than in the hands of the people who chose to gather together that night.

  Maybe this is just the first stage of something much bigger; maybe this is a good way to ease into learning to become the Church God has called his Bride to be.

  Then again, maybe its like Martin Luther King’s fear of the northern white brothers who thought that the current compromise was good enough.

  I am still thinking through all this. I want to commend Randy Frazee for working so diligently at dragging people off the pews and into the intimate setting of people’s homes. But is he doing them a disservice if he never gives them a vision that they are truly and fully capable of starting a new church with their neighbors down the street without Big-Brother-Willow-Creek’s consent? Will these Table groups forever have to fill-in-the-blanks of some workbook when all they want to do is hear what Jesus has been saying to each of them? My prayer is that of the 7,000 people involved, a few will catch a whiff of what God is doing worldwide:

  He is giving the Church back to his people.

  

  Mark, and Mark are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Mark 10:40 am on January 15, 2007 Permalink

    Just wanted to say that the Neighborhood Life thing is still being fazed in. There are 3 aspects to it, and we’re just starting the second one next week. The vision definitely includes reaching out to neighbors, but they thought it would be good for all the “Willow” neighbors to meet first.

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    Mark 5:24 pm on January 15, 2007 Permalink

    Thanks Mark, are you a part of Neighborhood Life? If so, could you give a little more insight into what/how it functions?