I’ve met my fair share of religious types here in Chicago.  There are certain spiritual gurus that make their religion about words.  Rastafaris say that “isms are for schisms,” (I LOVE that!) but much of their religious convictions revolve around their commitments to their vocabulary, which they believe can actually heal disease and end war.  A friend of mine is considering baptism and beginning a relationship with God, and is confused because he heard a friend (who happens to be a priest) tell him that saying the right words at the event of the baptism is what makes it “count” or not.  Say the wrong words, and there is no magic.

Christians are not without this entrappment of words.  More books are printed today on Christianity and the Christian Life than any other subject.  We have televangelists, Christian radio, and a whole industry built around the language of our faith.

What sort of Christian are you? What church do you go to?  What do you call it?  What about your church model?  Mega?  Cell?  Micro?  Missional?  Emergent?  Organic?  What word do you place before the Body of Christ?

What do your creeds say?  How are they different from what mine say?  Demarkate, delineate, and separate with your words the Body of Christ.  Even the word Christian holds with it assumptions that can weigh down or set free.

The Teacher seems to think that there is no end to the making and studying of words (Ecc 12:12).  And admittedly, we must use language to participate in the world.  But can words really solve the problems of this world?  No!  Ya gotta get out there and do something!

I just met my neighbor at the nearby coffeeshop and we chatted some about this.  We laughed about the nature of our society, where its easier for us to meet at a Starbucks 2 blocks away for a real conversation than to hang out at each other’s homes.  Our fences are much like the words we keep up to protect us from being together.  We had a great conversation about tacit and direct relationship.  We talked about how doctors use tacit touch (scalpals) while people of faith use direct touch (laying on of hands).  We talked about Twitter (tacit) or face to face dialogue (direct), about watches on our wrist, or sun in the sky, about engaging a drive thru or engaging a backyard garden.

When we reach the end of words – its not to be a scary thing.  When we can’t live with the labels of “White” “Black” “Christian” “Muslim” “Protestant” “Catholic” “Missional”… maybe we can step outside of our silos and get to know the enemy – and offer some neighborly peace, a hug, some tomatos from your garden, and the assurance of a that friendship that is willing to cross over the fence we put up in the past.  Tired of the chatter?  So shut up and go do something!

Ever wondered how to change the world with the thing you’re most passionate about?  Watch this video to find out:

I read Godin’s book Tribes earlier this year, and found it enlightening.  This video is a quick summary of the book by the author, plus his theory on a process for those interested in changing the world.  He looks over countless organizations, and through history at movement leaders and then draws some conclusions.  Why is it that Ghandi was successful in bringing about liberation and true change in India?  How did Martin Luther King rally a battered and bitter people into a movement of civil rights?

It begins by telling a story.  Frederick Buechner is quoted saying,

To truly tell the story of anything well is to tell the story of everything.

If you want to change the world, tell an alternative story.

How does a community of faith begin?  What is the motivation?  Who are the people involved?  Some of the people we’re in connection with here in Chicago are looking for a community, and some know they’re supposed to help form one, but don’t know where to begin.

We usually sit down for a cup of coffee, and pretty early on I make sure to say, “Church begins in the fields, not in the barn.” What do I mean by that?

At one level, I mean that churches are healthiest when their minds and hearts are honed in on the harvest field from Day One.  If they form around another idea (being a place for contemporary worship, or being an intimate community for each other,) they will never get around to mission as a primary raison d’être, and usually fold in on itself as it continues to center inward rather than outward.

At a second level however, I mean that God designed the church to begin in the harvest field, meaning among the harvest.  The first churches were made up entirely of non-Christians, who became Christians in the process through participating in common life with the church family.  Paul went to town after town, finding just one person or one family that was passionate enough for God that they invited their friends and relatives over for dinner to hear about him, and before long, they were ready to sign up for the Revolution of Love.

Most church planting today starts “in the barn,” meaning they go for a large group of churched Christians and ask them to parachute into a new context and be the “launch group” for a new community of faith.  New believers may come to faith at this church plant, but individually, and not usually as whole people groups or families.  The launch group from the barn influence the culture, worship, and leadership of the new church so much that there is little wiggle room for new unreached population segments.  All of this is fine, and has worked in amazing ways in the past, but we are beginning to see that starting in the fields allows God to take his gospel across wide cultural chasms, soften hearts and develop radically organic churches.

Give it a try!  The church begins in the harvest field.