Foursquare is a fusion of online social media and real world engagement.  It allows users to “check in” through their phone when they arrive at a specific location, like a coffee shop or concert.  It is location-based social media – meaning that each and every place has a “social network” embedded in it – you can find the regulars of a bar simply by looking them up in Foursquare, and get special deals if you are the most frequent visitor of a certain restaurant or other social destination.

Habitue — –noun [huh-bich-oo-eyz, -bich-oo-eyz; Fr.]   a frequent or habitual visitor to a place

Our Pray4Chicago event (twitter: #pray4chicago) is all about “praying with your eyes open.”  Our goal is to send folks out to discover the “community wells” of a specific part of the city, meet the “habitues” of a barbershop or park, and begin to imagine what a community of faith would look like in that context.  We might use Foursquare to learn who “the regulars” are – or to create prayer walks for future P4C participants.  Could the Foursquare “mayor” of a certain location (the person who is recorded as having visited a specific place the most often) be a clue as to who the person of peace is in that place?

Can Foursquare help you in your effort to discover your city?  Most Americans, Christians included, are stuck on the treadmill of daily life.  Wake up, go to work, come home, rinse, repeat.  Maybe, just maybe – we can discover our neighbors by stepping off the treadmill and into where the people are.

Maybe it will transform our zombie-like Starbucks runs…you know, the ones where you duck in and duck out only murmuring your wildly complex coffee order to the barista before hopping back in your car to head off to work?  Could Foursquare…and more importantly, an intentionality on our part, bring us one step closer to meeting the lonely people living all around us?

Of course, Foursquare is in my mind a crutch for those of us just learning to meet our ACTUAL social circle.  Much better than “checking-in” with the mash of a phone button, is to gird up your loins, walk over to a stranger in a coffee shop and strike up a conversation.  Its amazing how easy it is.  Its even more amazing how ready people are to talk if you can inspire them to step off the treadmill.

Our default is to live with blinders on.  It is in our nature to filter out the periphery, and to autopilot. Live locally – live  with your eyes open.

Check out how Paul Watson and others are using this tool already.

How does a community of faith begin?  What is the motivation?  Who are the people involved?  Some of the people we’re in connection with here in Chicago are looking for a community, and some know they’re supposed to help form one, but don’t know where to begin.

We usually sit down for a cup of coffee, and pretty early on I make sure to say, “Church begins in the fields, not in the barn.” What do I mean by that?

At one level, I mean that churches are healthiest when their minds and hearts are honed in on the harvest field from Day One.  If they form around another idea (being a place for contemporary worship, or being an intimate community for each other,) they will never get around to mission as a primary raison d’être, and usually fold in on itself as it continues to center inward rather than outward.

At a second level however, I mean that God designed the church to begin in the harvest field, meaning among the harvest.  The first churches were made up entirely of non-Christians, who became Christians in the process through participating in common life with the church family.  Paul went to town after town, finding just one person or one family that was passionate enough for God that they invited their friends and relatives over for dinner to hear about him, and before long, they were ready to sign up for the Revolution of Love.

Most church planting today starts “in the barn,” meaning they go for a large group of churched Christians and ask them to parachute into a new context and be the “launch group” for a new community of faith.  New believers may come to faith at this church plant, but individually, and not usually as whole people groups or families.  The launch group from the barn influence the culture, worship, and leadership of the new church so much that there is little wiggle room for new unreached population segments.  All of this is fine, and has worked in amazing ways in the past, but we are beginning to see that starting in the fields allows God to take his gospel across wide cultural chasms, soften hearts and develop radically organic churches.

Give it a try!  The church begins in the harvest field.

I’m beginning to think more specifically about strategies for sharing the gospel with those God has put in my life here in Chicago.  The first few months seem to have been marked by our getting settled, and being awake to who God was putting in our path.  So many have come and gone – friends came in to visit virtually every week since we moved in!  But who are those who God is strategically placing in our life share the Good News with?

Thinking organically about mission, how much initiative does the missionary take?  Where does the efforts of the missionary stop and the “divine appointments and connections” of God begin?  Is that a false question?  What I’m wondering is: how much do I involve myself in “advertising” what I’m doing to an anonymous audience (flyers, public events, etc) to find those who are ready to take the next step, and how much do I simply let those interested find me?

My instinct says, “wait – just let your good deeds shine,” but I’ll be completely honest, either I don’t have many good deeds, or that strategy doesn’t actually work – because no stranger or friend has ever come up to me and said, “Wow – you’re such a (nice) (just) (generous) guy, I think I’ll become a Christian.”  Another instinct I have is to cast the nets wide, and pull in any fish that get caught, then let God do the sorting (as to who I’m to invest in).

I think about a farmer – when sowing seed, he throws it everywhere!  He “broadcasts” his message to the ground, his seed, saying, “Grow this, if you can!”  Then he nurtures the earth that shows progress – the other ground he either ignores or plants something else.  Is the same true with the work of the missionary? Then again, once the farmer has done all the work he can, all he can do is sit back and wait for the Lord to deliver.  See my previous post on work and provision here.

What if I posted flyers for a discovery bible study?  What if I hit the streets and held up a sign offering prayer?  What if I hung out at a coffeeshop with a note on my table saying, “I’ll buy your drink if you tell me your story?”  What if I performed at a ‘spoken word’ messages of Christ’s love?  What if I became more candid in my conversations with co-workers about my relationship with God?  What if…

…I spoke with words and life the profound message…the alternative story…of God’s salvation?

Goes without saying, but then again, maybe it needs to be said now more than ever:   God’s love for me (or anyone involved in serving him) is not wrapped up in my works for him.  He loves his children even before they are born, before they can do anything to earn his love.

Now as one called to share the gospel, I will put my whole heart and mind to the task!  And engage God’s love and counsel every step of the way.