Godgrown

Updates from February, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Mark 1:14 pm on February 9, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Momentum Is a Result of Healthy Rhythms 

  All this week we’ve been looking at the MACRO Layer of Christian community – “the congregation,” “the network,” “the region”…

  This is the layer in which it all comes together – where real impact and change become visible!  Whereas a dozen folks that make up a house church (MESO) might bring hope and life to a few neighbors, a dozen or so house churches might just see a revolution of love spill out across the streets of their city!

  Think of the MACRO Layer as the momentum or the chain reaction that comes AS A RESULT of the health of the smaller layers.  When you have healthy rhythms, you’ll get momentum!  Think of a car — the rhythm of the pistons…those tiny tubes of metal…going up and down over and over…it eventually creates a power that propels a giant machine down the road!  The same is true for a church – the smaller rhythms of spiritual health…that is what moves a MACRO forward!

  You’ll never have a healthy MACRO unless everyone involved are a part of healthy one-on-one MICRO relationships, unless each person has a flourishing personal (MONO) relationship with their God.

  So often, Christian leaders pour all of their energy into making the MACRO Layer great -

  …the average church worship service in America takes almost 120 hours a week to pull off!

  (That’s 3 full time staff positions plus dozens of volunteers pouring incredible amounts of money and energy into a 2 hour gathering…EVERY week!)  Exhausting!  We think that if we can just preach the right sermon, or sing the right song…we’ll have an army ready to change the world.

  But this is about as effective as trying to push toothpaste back into the tube.

  It has to flow from the inside, out.

  Imagine if a church, a spiritually nurturing system, poured disproportionate energy into the layers.  The smaller the Layer of Christian community, the more energy leaders invested into it. Start with the MONO Layer – put all your energy into giving folks access to quality tools, resources, and more that develop their prayer life – their life of service and mission… imagine what would happen if you gave more energy to the MICRO Layer (one-on-one friendships, marriages, etc), imagine putting more focus on your small groups than on your Sunday gatherings!

  My bet is that if you did this, your MACRO gatherings would explode with health…

  This works at a personal level too…

  If you are a Christian, or if you are still trying to figure out what you think about Jesus, consider starting at the MONO Layer – put all your energy into discovering the loving God who created you. Then link up with one other person you can trust — and both of you together connect with a tribe of 6-12 other people who are on journey with you.  Then open your eyes to the ever expanding network of Christ-centered relationships you’ll see all across town.  Rely on them, contribute to them.  Let them become your extended family of faith.  That is the MACRO Layer!

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  Sign up for MACRO!

  If you are a part of a small group, house church, or congregation; if you are ready to grow spiritually –  Godgrown is releasing MACRO March 1st – sign up and invite others in your community to learn alongside you!

  
   

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  Mark 11:29 am on February 7, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  The Other Side of the Horse 

  Much has been written in the last decade or so of the growing house church movement in the West.  As a church planter investing in simple forms of community development and sustainable, viral faith communities, I welcome this new movement to America!  But there is something lacking in most house churches in America – a real sense of the “congregation.”

  Humans have a tendency to fall off one side of the horse, only to get back on and promptly fall right off the other side.  Mega-churches captured our attention with the regional impact, dynamic programs and preaching, and resource capabilities in the 1970-90′s, and forerunners like Bill Hybels and Rick Warren still shape the American Christian conversation in essential ways.  But sometime in the mid 1990′s, the “emerging church movement” erupted and fresh expressions of “micro church” began counter-balancing congregations with 10,000+ members.

  Missionaries from around the world began contributing to the ecclesiology of America – saying essentially, “Look, this church planting thing has been our main project for centuries – and we mostly plant churches in people’s homes.”  Many American Christians thought – if it works around the world, why not America too?

  The trouble began when just anyone started planting a little church in their living room, for any reason at all under both positive (let’s share Jesus with our neighbors) and negative motivations (let’s react against the abuses of the churches I’ve been a part of).

  The end result was that many house churches, even ones that really strive for health, simply cannot do what the mega-church can do!  There are simply not enough hands on deck in a group of 12 people; not enough resources (financial and otherwise), not enough diversity to build a fully functional Body of Christ in an area.  For folks that staunchly hold to the local autonomy of a house church, I wish you well, but I’ll expect to see your house church in the intensive care unit before the end of the year!

  If we don’t want to fall off the “other side of the horse” we must rely on an extended family. The church in the New Testament, while each one of them gathered for worship and lived out Kingdom life in a local house church, realized a greater “Church” that they depended on that existed beyond their walls.  This MACRO Church, connected communities in a given city or region, offers healthy leadership, the financial support, the complete spiritual gift matrix, and much more.  It is an interdependent community of communities; a node of resources that helps spiritually form both the individual, and contributes to the health of each house church!

  The mega-church can find this balance with real small-groups that aren’t just another program for people to attend; and a house church can find the same balance by connecting with or forming a real network of a dozen or so house churches that bring diversity and regional leadership.  Hugh Halter and Matt Smay in their book And: The Gathered and Scattered Church help put more form to this concept.

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  Sign up for MACRO!

  If you are a part of a small group, house church, or congregation – and you’re ready to explore the practical implications of developing a healthy balance  in Christian community, Godgrown is releasing MACRO March 1st – sign up and invite others in your community to learn alongside you!

  
   
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  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?