Godgrown

Updates from March, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• 

  Mark 9:02 am on March 31, 2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: City on a Hill Community   

  BOTH AND 

  While I’m the first to admit that there needs to be “all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people” – there’s a catch in my throat even as I say the words.

  I think its because I know that most Christians when they hear those words believe that today’s dominant expression of church in America should continue to be the default image in our minds when we think “church” .  This expression of the Church is the Sunday morning programmatic model, built around staff, buildings, high-cost infrastructure – with the aims of becoming another “mega”church.  This the picture most people think of when they think of “church” – at least here in the West.

  And yes – every part of me is thankful to God that there are tens of thousands of churches built around that expression of God’s family – it is obviously reaching tens of millions of people with the authentic Gospel of God!  Praise God for that!  Lives are changed!

  And yet – there are still 250 million people who were not a part of a church gathering last Sunday – and have no connection with a church…many more still may have no true commitment to the Lord Jesus.  And that number is growing all the time.

  So a quote stands out to me:

  “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve already got.” — Genius unknown

  Jeff Kirsch, a member of the City on a Hill faith community has a recent, great post on some of the metaphors and assumptions Jesus used to describe what God’s Family looks like – yeast, field, flock, seed, soil… this is a Kingdom, a church that doesn’t need institutional maintenance and a ministry marketing department -

  …it is a “subtle contagion”…

  …or as in Mark 4:26-29 the farmer (read pastor) sleeps while the Kingdom grows beyond his control!

  Why not work with the grain of the Kingdom, rather than against it?

  Let the Gospel seed grow underground in your friendships, permeating every nook and cranny of your life – truly trust that the fire of mission and divine love will bubble up in people as you share life on life with them.

  Trust that Jesus truly is the head of the Church – and not you and your staff.  Could it be that our churches look too much alike – each vying for the same 15% of the population – meanwhile hundreds of millions more are looking desperately for a church that looks like Jesus-with-skin-on in their context, only to find the same praise band or Powerpoints wherever they go.

  I’m writing this not out of anger or bitterness; I’m writing this as a missionary, crying desperately for the Christians to reach out to a lost world.  Could it be that the biggest obstacle for people in discovering the true Lord Jesus and his Church is our pre-conceived notions of what church is and how it should function in the world?

  The lost need us to recapture the characteristics of the Kingdom of God and to tear down the walls of the church-box in our mind.  The desperate are dying for us to incarnate the Gospel in fresh ways on our block – even as we love and bless what God is doing down the street.

  I am cautiously optimistic though, as I look at the horizon of “church planting” – the wineskin of the church is becoming fresh, new. Churches gathering in nightclubs, poetry circles, homes, parks, under overpasses and in city centers.  Churches that live together 24/7, that function as a little family and a source of light and healing for their blighted neighborhood.  I’m seeing new forms of God’s family take shape in our little organic church network.  I’m seeing new faith-community experiments bubble up all over Chicago, and the country.

  Its time to take the lid off – where might things spread if we took Jesus’ images of his Church seriously?

  Its BOTH/AND.

  

  Mark W, and peter lambert are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
  • 

    peter lambert 2:30 pm on March 31, 2011 Permalink

    are you suggesting we actually follow Jesus instead of the institution? You Heretic. Lol. Some very serious food for thought in your post

  • 

    Mark W 4:24 pm on March 31, 2011 Permalink

    If we explode the image in our minds of what church is – if we let down our guard and our expectations – if we set aside our own visions of success and look instead for what God might want to do; even as strange and unique as it might seem to the prevailing “church planting” world – for God’s glory – let’s give it a shot and see if it sticks! I think a little “bio-diversity” in God’s garden might do us some good.

  • 

    Jon 'JB' Butler 4:08 pm on April 3, 2011 Permalink

    Good thought provoking post.
    I think we can sometimes forget that maybe our lives and expression of faith in the living God, should be as living as him.

  • 

    Mark W 4:22 pm on April 3, 2011 Permalink

    Jesus presented with us a “way” meaning he didn’t ask us to “admit he existed” or “attend a specific gathering on a specific day” – This Way is what 1 John 2 means when it says, “we are to live as Jesus lived.” That’s what discipleship is about – as much as we’d prefer it to simply be a series of worship songs and prayers, etc.

    Jon – thanks for your thoughts – how does our lives provide an “expression of faith in the living God” as you suggest?

  Reply Cancel reply

  Required fields are marked *

  Name *

  Email *

  Website

  

• 

  Mark 10:08 am on March 24, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  “2-D Me” and the Urge to Connect 

  Today was the exciting conclusion for our friends taking the MACRO course – and for me it reminds me of how important the diversity of God’s family truly is for each of us.

  The human inclination is to short-cut our relationships – we seem only able to take a friendship so far, before we simply can’t keep up with the complexity of another human heart.  We’ve all been there.  I meet someone new, I ask them those basic questions – name, occupation, etc, etc.

  But the truth is - I’ve already pidgeon-holed them; how they look, how they speak, what their body language is saying to me…I quickly “size them up” and file them away.  Filing is great when its the junk lying around my house, its absolutely lethal to a true friendship.

  But it seems only natural.  My brain can’t take the infinite uniqueness of how God has created you.  Its just easier to short-cut things between you and me.  At some point in our friendship – I tacitly choose in my mind to constrain you to some distorted caricature of who you truly are.  You become a cardboard cutout of a person…

  2D friendships are aplenty in our society today.  We’ve mechanized the categorization of our friends – what else is Facebook good for?  My profile page gives you instant access to the 2D me - my likes, dislikes, political leanings…on and on it goes.

  So how do we overcome the caricaturization of our friendships, and live in the delight of authentic relationship?

  How do we push back the boundaries of our finite human brain to live in the infinite complexity of one other person?

  …We must live with the urge to connect.

  When we have that urge to connect – when we are never satisfied with a status update or a Tweet to fully express the boundless beauty of “the other” — we live in the hunger for learning more from each other.  We’ll do anything to connect with the true human heart sitting across the table from us.  We’ll cross oceans of fear, doubt, and self-centeredness to find just out something about the other we’ve never heard before.

  Its that easy…and its the most difficult thing I’ll ever do.

  
   
• 

  Mark 10:41 am on February 18, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  A Brief Briefing on Christian History 

  Most Protestants approach church history and spiritual formation as though nothing of significance occurred between the closing of the New Testament canon in the first century and the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century!

  As we are considering what a rich spirituality looks like in the twenty-first century, let’s make this the moment when the Church reintroduces itself into the powerful, expansive history filled with resources and insights to propel us forward.

  If we want to know how to connect with God in a deep way, if we want to avoid the common pitfalls that Christian communities make on their way to spiritual maturity, (there are at least 12 I’ve counted, but that’s for another day) and if we are interested in changing our lives and the lives of the people in our faith communities – we’ve got to make this a crucial part of our faith journey.

  3 Parts – the Ancient, Medieval and Modern Spiritualities

  Think of these three eras as shaped like an hourglass.  The ancient church (Pentecost to 600CE) was characterized by rapid exampsion to the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe.  The medieval church (c.600-1500) was marked by withdrawal as internal divisions and the rise of Islam greatly diminished the Christian influence in Asia and Africa.  The modern church (c.1500-present) saw a new expansion beyond the boundaries of Europe, and in the past few decades the churches of the third world have shown the greatest vitality, expansion and missionary fervor.

  The ancient church – after it became the official religion of the Roman Empire, was rapidly transformed from a network of periodically persecuted believers into a geo-political bishop-states.  While some bishops used their power to fight off doctrinal heresies – (Montanism, Gnosticism, and Neo-Platonism) – others left the Christian empire to pursue desert spirituality, creating monastic orders.

  Christianity became a largely European phenomenon throughout the Middle Ages.  The Western and Eastern branches of the Church (Edessa, and Constantinople) formerly separated during this period.  The Eastern church became increasingly apophatic (mystical in their theology, and their spiritual disciplines – like listening prayer and stillness).  Monasticism flourished in the West, with Benedictine, Carthusian and Cistercian orders continued to develop contemplative and ascetic approaches to spirituality.

  Modern Spirituality begins with the impact of the four branches of the Protestant Reformation (Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, and Anglican Spirituality).  Each of these understood their relationship to the state in a different light, as well as HOW the church in the West needed to transform.  In the Catholic Church, fantastic spiritual thinkers emerged in Spain and France during this time.  As Christianity found new territory in the far West Americas, new post-Reformation Protestant movements (Puritans, Quakers, Pietists, Evangelicals, revivalism, Methodists, holiness groups, and Pentecostals).  Most recently in our time, we’re seeing the Catholic Church fundamentally reformed in Vatican II, as well as other movements (ecumenical, charismatic, twelve-step spirituality, psychological approaches, and creation-centered spirituality).  Finally – the seeds of Eastern Orthodoxy and Christian developments in Latin America, Africa and Asia are finally making a real impact on the Church of the West after years of isolation.

  This is about as brief as one could span through the movements of 2000 years of Christian Spirituality.  If you’re truly interested in learning more, I recommend a few books to get you started!