It’s hard for me to take much of Frank Viola. He has a harsh writing style to him and though I’m totally into reading about the issues he focuses on, I guess I just don’t get what field he’s playing in. I love the brother and read his Pagan Christianity TWICE before reviewing it (to help make up for everybody else preferring to review first and read later). So he’s written a little article that’s floating around the web called “Finding Organic Church.” Its basically written to answer the question he hears over and over again, “What if I want to experience this kind of body life but there are no organic churches in the area to be a part of and we can’t relocate?” Frank’s basic response is to do what Aquilla and Priscilla did; to do what John the Baptist did - prepare a foundation for someone else to come. To Frank, that means gathering people together and cultivating interest in organic church by starting reading groups, BBQs, etc. Then invite (or cultivate) a nearby itinerant church planter to teach the church how to be led by Jesus rather than by a person.

I see this all through Acts and the New Covenant, and it has some practical/psychosocial handles to it as well (how can someone regularly participating in the group authoritatively tell everyone not to lead?). I know that this will be a useful method for ministry in organic church planting, and I’m thankful for the work he’s done on it. Keeping it in check that it is ONLY a method and not the lynch pin to life, the universe, and everything. (Americans have this love affair with franchising. It’s in my blood too.) But it seems to miss the point that new churches are started not just by existing Christians getting together for a book club, but by new converts who are meeting in a dance club or a coffeehouse! If this “revolution” becomes just another sheep trade, I want out.

He states that he’s writing this article in part because he has seen too many house churches become unwilling to accept outside aid. I know what that can look like. Too many burnt Christians think that they must put “their church” in a “reverse quarantine,” the same way we choose to drink bottled water or organic foods. If the whole world is diseased, then the healthy hole up somewhere till the whole thing passes. The problem is they quickly become insular and infighting usually destroys the group within 6 months to 1 year. Frank’s hope is that there will be healthy, itinerant church planters that can visit churches throughout a region and keep feeding healthy nutrients of teaching, exhortation, and mission to these churches.

Contrary to popular simple church beliefs, not everyone can plant a church. (There’s nothing simple about it.) Sure, anyone can hold a bible study - but it takes someone who is called, gifted, trained, and sent as a church planter (an apostle) to help center a spiritual family on Jesus Christ and the Way. It takes intense training to instill healthy DNA into a church, then to support that spiritual family - many times it takes failing and falling hard on your knees. The difficult work of inviting communities of people to die to themselves is not a role many should covet, nor are many called to. But it is a good calling.

However God arranges your spiritual family, remember that he will also arrange for cross-pollination of your family and others in the extended family of God. Keep your doors open, not just for the teacher or church planter, but especially for the stranger, the poor, and the lost - they may have even more to help us discover just want kind of person this Jesus really is.

As for Frank, I am thankful for his ministry and I hope that he continues to participate in uncovering for all of us what it means to be the body of Christ. I’m less inclined than he to think that institution is a bad thing (its actually an inevitable thing, even a group of friends choosing a movie to watch is by definition an institution). I believe that for every insular, cynical, and paranoid house church out there, there are 10 vibrant, transforming, and multiplying churches with open hearts prepared to accept whatever God gives them. May we be part of that transforming revolution of love.

Jesus did not leave us a model to build, but a guide to follow. We experience the life of the church not because we meet in a certain way or in a certain place, but because we learn to listen to God together and let Him teach us how to share His life. If we substitute any method or design for that process, we will end up following it instead of Him and building a counterfeit instead of the real deal.

– Wayne Jacobsen, Bodylife Feb 2002

Two weeks ago I was graduating with my masters. One week ago I was back in the classroom. Yeah, I’m asking the very same question you are! “WHY!?!?”

ACU was “nice enough” to let me graduate 3 hours short of my degree, so long as I took and passed a summer one-week intensive course. I naturally picked a class right after my regular semester ended, to get the course completed as quickly as possible. I chose “Emerging Culture & Emerging Churches” with Dr. Chris Flanders. Flanders got his Phd from Fuller Seminary, and before that was a missionary and church planter in Thailand. Since he’s been in Abilene, he’s joined the chorus of professors describing the postmodern shift, but he alone seems to think that such shifts might at all change how and what church looks like.

The class was very engaging, and also very affirming. It helped me think through some of the principles of thought in postmodernity (reading philosophers like Derrida, Foucault, Caputo, etc) and then talking about what that might mean for communities of faith. We looked at churches trying to explore a post-foundationalist theology…all very heady, but also very interesting stuff.

One big take away was an axis continuum Flanders showed us from Mary Douglas. It looked something like this:

Grid and Group Theory:

The two axes, Group, and Grid, show the progress of institutions (which was defined as a coordinating group of any kind) as growing inevitably and increasingly higher in “Grid”. The higher you go in Grid, the more structure and levels of authority there are. The rules and roles are more clearly defined. The other axis, Group describes the degree to which the collective controls the individual and degree to which people are bonded to particular social units - the sense of “family” the group feels.

Church examples of each: Hierarchy (Catholic Church), Authoritarian (Roman Religion; Emperor is God), Individualism (consumerist mega-church Christianity), and Egalitarianism (Quakers).

At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about this chart. Hearing that communities, the longer they are together, always move “up grid” and wake up one day a huge franchised corporation did not settle well with me. But is it possible to be meaningful, to make a difference that matters, while not selling your soul? Where do you find the balance so that lives can be changed, while remaining as structurally flat as possible to keep remain centered on mission and people rather than on preserving the institution.

What if instead of a chain of command (a la Roman Catholic Church), there was a web of relationships. Individuals networked together for the common good. Organic, family-style churches networked together as a coalition in a local context. Servant leaders of these church networks that network together to work as a resource to one another and provide training for new leaders that focus on a region. As church networks grow, is this a potential way to go “up grid” without having to distribute power to individuals, but rather power to communities? What am I missing here? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

This might be a little “heady” but its been on my mind for awhile now and I’ve got to put it somewhere! Plus, now that I’m almost done with my Maymester (tomorrow is my very last day of graduate school!) I’ll need to get back into the habit of regularly adding content here. Hope to see you again soon!

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Fractals are everywhere. From the largest of galaxies to the smallest snowflake, fractals are the code of the universe. Every living thing or dynamic system takes a fractal form. Fractals are based on simple mathematical equations that contain unending diversity. The patterns are determined by a simple rule in a series of repetitions that feed back on itself new information.

Starting with a simple building block (a human cell, a coordinates in a computer) these repetitions unleash a creative potential for infinite complexity. Fractal art is one large shape made up of many smaller shapes that reflect, but are not identical to, the bigger picture. Each one of those small shapes is made up of even smaller shapes that look like it! This characteristic is called “self-similar.” To fully appreciate the power of fractal art, you must experience it. Check it out in this corny video here:

The genetic base of an acorn gives the crucial information needed for the fractal equation found in cell division to help catalyze the growth of a tree. The DNA of this seed will grow an oak tree, and not a dogwood or a squirrel. There are boundaries for fractals, and yet, when watching the process, it can only be described as chaotic.

The fractal process for development in the Church is discipleship. Discipleship is the repetitive feedback to the DNA of Christ. Jesus Christ is the incarnate God, who expressed perfectly what it means to live and follow after God as a human. He was the seed planted on the earth that contained within it everything necessary for the diverse Church to grow. It is through discipleship to Christ that the Church is able to clearly see both the limits set on what it means to be the people of God, and the capacity for wild, chaotic, uncontrollable diversity.

The Church is a living, breathing, organism; the second incarnation of God on earth. As the Body of Christ, it is composed of trillions of localized cells, of which there are countless different types each doing the work it was designed to do. It is a system, a network of disciples each holding within them the very love and person of Christ. To the degree that this system can effectively access its DNA, it can grow and nurture itself in healthy ways. This is done through the practice of love.

I’ve been thinking some about the an image that rolls well with how I believe church planters function.

An acupuncturist.

This eastern therapeutic technique specializes in improving circulation to all parts of the body, thus creating an increased ‘flow of energy’ that garners awareness, health, and growth.  In an acupuncturist church plant, the planter is focused on facilitating the “flow of energy” to all parts of the church body.  Giving each person and community ample growth and healthy energy for creativity and spiritual formation.  Good acupuncture is not invasive - it is tangential to the body itself - so with church planting - a church planter’s leadership must not be overbearing, and truly must find ways to stay out of the limelight to allow others in the church to step up.

Unfortunately, most “church plants” have been functionally more like surgery (or amputation) than acupuncture.  Most would call these “church splits”.  The body goes through trauma and must be intoxicated with numbing agents before, during, and after such drastic invasiveness.  It is never the same, and many times large parts of the body rot and leave scar tissue.

I don’t know if this metaphor can go on any longer, but at this hour I know I can’t.  Just thought I’d pass along my thoughts du jour.  Feel free to hyper-extend this metaphor for as long as you think it’ll go!