Godgrown

Updates from April, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Mark 8:55 am on April 19, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  What Awaits Us 

  Last Saturday several of us from our house church went on a mission trip…all the way across the street to our city park.  Our mission?  To reclaim the green space from winter!  Winter and the boundless amounts of junk and trash that collects under bushes and in the crevices of the park.  We are building relationships with people in our neighborhood, and enjoying the company of our neighbors as we work together to restore our crumbling city park.

  It is one of the oldest parks in the city, and it is located in our neighborhood, one of the most diverse neighborhoods on the West Side of Chicago.  There is a lot of work to be done.  Graffiti and all kinds of bio-hazards awaited us as we began cleaning up the park’s gardens on Saturday.  We tried to invite some of the homeless to join us in the clean-up effort…but alas, maybe next time!

  In any case, we had a fantastic time – and it is saying to our neighbors, “We love you so much that we want to share with you not only the Gospel, but our lives as well.” (1 Thess 2:8)

  —-

  Every church, whether small group or mega-crowd, should have a mission.

  I think its more powerful if everyone in the group has the same mission, but that is not always feasible.  In fact, in our organic church network, we ask each house church NOT to begin gathering as a church family until there is a notion of what God is calling you to in his mission.  Every church must be called to mission – we are the ekklesia - the “called out” ones.

  We are the people of God on the move!

  What is your mission? Could you share it with your small group?  Could it become the raison d’être for your congregation?  There is a famous quote,

  “God’s church does not have a mission, God’s mission has a church.”

  Without it, you might say that your church has nothing to do but collectively navel gaze.  It can become pretty consuming.  Each church is called to “make disciples of all nations.”  But notice – Jesus says, “As you go…”  Your disciple-making is done “on the way.” On the way to the local park for spring cleaning, on the way to to Mexico to care for orphans, on the way to your lunch break.  Your mission quickly becomes your purpose for living – the Gospel becomes the white space between all the words you say.

  What might it look like for the mission in your heart to become the work your church focuses on each time you gather together?  Would your church become healthier if it lived with the chance they would have to give up everything they had in order to follow Jesus faithfully into that mission?

  

  Mark W, and doloris are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    doloris 5:37 pm on April 19, 2011 Permalink

    I always want to hear more on the possible relationship between the individual and her church as far as mission is concerned. Do all churches have as specific missions as all individuals do? Or is it much more complex – for example, a person may not feel pulled towards the world in a particular way, but she meets a church who does and so joins in that direction cheerfully. Or vice versa. Or a church that meets mostly to be fascinated by the varieties of ways each other is living. Or a church who does not organizationally establish a mission, but finds their individual directions quite kin (leading to encouragement, but also presumption). As multifarious as the world exists, I hope churches relate in appropriately various ways. (i also wonder if we can see such differences in structure and mission in the early churches – how does the context of mission effect our understanding of the letters written to them?)
    -jes

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    Mark W 7:22 pm on April 19, 2011 Permalink

    There is a wonderful complexity of mission, the individual, and her community. Sometimes a person with a vision helps encourage a whole group to join in the fun, whereas other times an individual finds their own purpose in the mission already owned by a congregation. Still other times a church will have multiple missions and like you said so well, “the meet mostly to be fascinated by the varieties…” Very beautiful!

    Maybe the point beneath it all is a persistent desire to be spiritually formed by the movement of mission – both in community and as an individual. VERY interesting comment Jes!

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  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

   
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    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

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    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.

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    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.

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    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?

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  Mark 9:44 am on February 13, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Perfectly Designed 

  

  “Our system is perfectly designed for the results we are receiving.”

  This was the repeated phrase at a lunch I recently attended where author Alan Hirsch was presenting.  The room was full of Chicago-area church leaders, and the room quickly fell silent as Hirsch began critiquing the current state of affairs in the Western Church.  While he had some apt critique, he wasn’t all sour – he was just as ready to point to fresh perspectives and examples of the church engaging and subverting the culture in America.

  He made it clear that only the American Church, unlike the church in Europe or Australia, stood a real chance at re-interpreting the Gospel for the West in a way that could thrive in the post-Christendom era in which we now live.

  But his strongest words were the line  he dropped half a dozen times throughout his talk: “Our system is perfectly designed for the results we are receiving.”

  Think on that for a moment – how much weight can you bench press?  Only as much as your body’s system allows - and the way things are in your body are perfectly arranged for you to lift exactly what you’re capable of lifting.  Want to up your max weight?  Change your system! Try adding more protein to your diet, and less sugar.  Head to the gym 2 extra times a week.  Read about lifting techniques.  If you want to change the results, change the system.  Its amazing how we constrain our imaginations when it comes to the systems in our lives.

  “Oh, that’s the way things have always been, and always will be…”  Give me a break.  You’re talking “equilibrium,” and to biologists, equilibrium is another way of saying, “you’re stone dead.”  Change = life!

  The Church in the West today is spending 3 times as much on facilities as it was 10 years ago. 3 TIMES AS MUCH AS A DECADE AGO!  And numbers are in decline.  Leaders are getting harder to come by, as congregations are expecting more and more from their church leaders.  Sure, there are more and more mega-churches dotting the American landscape, but for every mega-church that breaks 1000 attendees, how many congregations had to shut their doors?

  It has been said of the American Church, “The front of the parade is becoming more and more impressive, and no one is noticing that the line is getting shorter and shorter.”

  The question is – can the church…your church…change its system? It is interesting how quickly we have come to expect the inevitability of the mega-church as the ONLY form of ecclesiological success.  Like the industrialized food system in America, the mega-church has only emerged in the last generation or so; and yet we see it as the only box God can work in.  I for one simply refuse to go along with that.  What ways can we keep the Gospel close to our chest, and yet experiment wildly with the form?  Let’s change the system – let’s take ourselves a little less seriously, and let imagination become our modus operandi!

  Don’t do it out of fear that “God’s Church is depending on you,”  Do it because prophetic imagination is central to the story of God.  Do it because the Gospel is ALWAYS changing its clothes – the “word” is always “becoming flesh” and “moving into the neighborhood.” (John 1:14)

  We’re perfectly designed to get the results we’re seeing across America today.  If we want more of the same – keep doing the same thing you’ve always done.  Otherwise, get out there and break the mold!