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 9:17 am on February 5, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  A Congregation of Tribes 

  In most congregations in the West today, there is an implicit notion that the gathering is made up of a collection of individuals.  This almost sounds preposterous to say – “Mark, what ELSE would it be?”  Keep reading to find out.

  Think about it for a moment – all of our sermons, worship songs, liturgy, and more -

  …either focus on the MONO (each attendee’s personal relationship with the Divine), with songs like “I love you Lord” and sermons focused on personal spiritual formation.

  …or the MACRO (the congregation as a whole), with reading Scripture aloud, observing the sacraments as one body, and a preacher addressing the whole congregation monolithically.

  The focus of the leaders of most congregations is two-fold – grow people up in the LORD, and grow the congregation as a whole.

  But what if we saw our gatherings as a congregation of tribes?  As a meetup of smaller communities?  How might that change the priorities of the meeting?

  • It would foster a sense of belonging among folks who might otherwise feel just like a “face in the crowd.”
  • The possibility to of “break-out” sessions to discuss the sermon’s topic might be a regular congregational practice.
  • Accountability to live out the topic of the sermon would be easy to do through a small group who has committed to one another.
  • The congregation would begin to feel like a “extended family reunion” – and the real meat-and-potatoes of church life would begin to emerge at the family level – at the level of the small group/house church.
  • The modern notion of “self” as an isolated individual would transform into a healthy, dynamic notion of “me and we together.”
  • Sermons could focus not just on the individual, but each house church present – the assumption and context under which most of the New Testament was written!

  This is just a list to get your mind working.  What might it look like if we stopped seeing the congregation as a random gathering of individuals, and starting seeing it as a meeting together of tribes – ready to display the multifaceted beauty of God in the world?

  
   
• 

  Mark 9:50 am on February 3, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  The Ecology of God 

  In the month of January, Godgrown rolled out our latest online course in the Layers of Christ-Centered Community. January was all about the MONO Layer.  It was a course in the relationship you can have with the Living God – a relationship that is personal, but never private, that is always in conversation, always dynamic.

  The reports coming back from those that took the class are very encouraging – for folks that spent a month really exploring the ways in which they are shaped by the MONO Layer, there is a greater sense of clarity in listening to God, greater clarity in difficult decisions in their lives, and a optimistic posture that God is always speaking to us, if we only learn how to listen.

  This March 1st, we’ll release the MACRO Layer course, and you’re invited! As we begin to turn our attention from the MONO Layer of Christ-Centered Community to the MACRO Layer, we’re asking the question:

  “How are people formed into the image of Jesus when they engage the MACRO Layer?”

  The MACRO Layer (written about here) is the gathered church/ the network/ the congregation/ the extended family of families.  This is a course on learning how to establish and cultivate “a system of spiritual nurture” – an ecology of God on earth.

  For the next few days on this blog, we’ll be unpacking some of the elements of this powerful Layer -

  …how it focuses us on the LORD

  …how it uniquely forms us into his image

  …how it binds us to his local church, a network of Divine love on earth

  …and how it propels us into God’s raw and wild mission!

  Join me each day this blog - and sign up for the MACRO Layer today!