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.

Last Thursday I took a nice drive down to Austin, TX with some old friends and some new faces to gather for a Texas-wide organic church planter’s conference on coaching.

In terms of moving people deeper into realizing their potential in God’s Kingdom, I think coaching offers a healthy alternative.  Rather than top-down training programs that command and control the blossoming church leader, the coach simply learns to ask questions to the coachee in hopes of raising their awareness and responsibility towards a certain topic that the coachee is interested in growing in.  The “leader” is the one being coached, not the coach himself.  This is a big paradigm shift for me, because it means that I must have faith that God can be trusted with the other person’s life; it is not all up to me to see discipleship happen in others.
As the weekend went on, we Abilenians built closer relationships with each other, and shared stories about the particular communities and house churches we were involved in.  It was inspiring to hear about the diversity found in the Jesus Family Network, and at the same time to hear about the common dream to see Christ formed among natural relationships in our city!  Over lunch, just before our return to Abilene, the 6 of us sat around the table and challenged each other to take new steps in creating a more cohesive church network in our city.  We talked about the need to raise awareness in our individual house churches - sharing what God is doing around the city.  We encouraged each other to begin coaching relationships with people of similar giftings.  It is simply amazing to see what can happen when you put two pastors in the same room and give them opportunity to learn from one another.  I’m hoping and praying that as the network of simple churches in Abilene develops, more and more people of similar gifting will find each other and began to rely on each other for resources, encouragement and coaching.

In a lot of ways, it all revolves around stories.  I get so encouraged hearing about the ways God is working in parts all over Abilene, outside of my little world.  I came back from Austin so excited that I mapped out all of the house churches in the city, as well as the families that are interested in starting one soon.

I think one of the biggest potential dangers in house churches is the tendency to isolate ourselves from the larger family of Christ.  The more my wife and I begin to move into this way of living, the more we are hearing of others who are doing the same.  Wouldn’t it be foolish to avoid each other?

At the very end of the conference, Kent Smith gave the “invitation”.  No, not for someone to come forward and be baptized, (although I DO wish we had ended the afternoon with “Just as I am,”)  but rather the DAWN invitation.  Basically, it is a broad overview of what DAWN (Disciple a Whole Nation) is all about (a flat-structured organization that promotes church planting awareness and training all over the world, including North America), as well as an invitation to join the emerging coaching network in the United States.  DAWN realizes how many people are out there truly working at planting a healthy church in their living room, but also is realistic about the fact that many of these Christians are going to need some encouragement and coaching.  Kent asked us as church planters from all over Texas to consider joining this network of coaches, and to invite others as well.  While I don’t want to be overwhelmed with “another responsibility”, it really sounds like this coaching network is there mainly for each other’s general encouragement and provides great opportunities to remain connected to others who are doing the same things you care about.  Very cool.