I met Greg Scott online through his blog.  He is a teaching pastor for a network of a simple churches in Joliet, IL (southwest suburbs of Chicago).  Our conversations are always edifying - thought I’d share just one:

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me: for me, i love a good parable - i’ve got friends who make youtube video parables

4:02 PM not sure (about the hc layers) - i know that in life, we sociologically have “crowds” the “72″ the “12 disciples” the “peter, james and john” as well as a “beloved”.

4:03 PM my fear is that in church entertainment, we have lost the beauty of a “band of brothers” (or sisters) that fight for our heart and encourage us on the journey

4:04 PM my friend wrote a great piece on how the church is like a fractal community. check it out here: http://towardsimplicity.net/?page_id=925

i think this has profound implications for being a fluid, organic church

4:06 PM Greg: hmmm. I’ll check it out becasue I basically disagree with the socialogical statement you made. I don’t think that happens naturally at all and so, most people don’t have that at all

4:07 PM me: tell me more

4:10 PM Greg: Well, in our society expecially, there is a natural tendency toward selfishness and self-centeredness. combined with our “conecting” via technology (any I am not against using it as a tool) almost exclusively is creating a society that is more and more shallow, selfabsorbed, unconnected and detached -

  and we like it taht way.

  Most Christinas don’t have two or three other families that they conect with except on a sunday or a formatted small group

4:11 PM who are there 72?

  Who is intimate enough to speak to as Jesus spoke to the 12?

  RARELY do we find someone iwth a 3 or 4 that can be intimately discipled through life circumstances

  It is all too time consuming and requires more than most are willing to give

4:12 PM Okay, I’m ranting a bit, but it is going to be on e of the most difficult things that the SC’s will face

 me: yeah…maybe i should say its not a “sociological” reality, but a divine desire

4:13 PM people DESIRE community - those 2 or 3 bro or sis’ - but few are ready to see it become a reality

  sort of like Cole’s LTG’s, but more like life, less like a program

4:14 PM Greg: Well, again - are you sure?

 me: they desire community, but they don’t know how to FEED that desire.

4:15 PM not sure if that makes sense…i’m interested in your feedback

4:17 PM Greg: what I mean is that most of the 20 somethings that I run into and get a chance to talk with - are AFRAID of relational intimacy. they are avoiding it unless it comes with a built in buffer like alcohol, internet, limited time involvement such as work, etc. Several of them are now Christians and NOW they see that the life they were choosing was keeping them alone and lonely, but at the time - it was their security

  BTW - same is true with many older people as well

4:18 PM me: that sounds like a bunch of people i know

  myself included. tacit intimacy (blogs, txts) are good for keeping in touch, but few seem to know what to do with more than “keeping in touch”

4:19 PM so the big q for me is: do we even proclaim another reality? one that speaks of God’s innate intimacy he shares with himself and his creation? and if so, how?

4:20 PM Greg: It sems to me that we are entering a phase of spiritual living that will require us to encroach into peoples “space” and security - but as a culture and as a church we are running the opposite direction trying to meet the felt neds of people who are feeling things in a decidedly unhealthy way

  sorry was typing istead of finishing reading

  I think yo have to more thna ever

  and lovign enough to risk losing relationships is going to be hard and vital

4:21 PM me: good point

4:22 PM Greg: I may also just be involved in what Gpod is saying to me about this church I’m speaking at that I’m overanalyzing the whole thing too…

  

4:23 PM me: ya know, i think if anyone can teach us community, it is Christ…him and maybe the the most elderly in our nation.

4:24 PM they lived a life of community - neighbors in each other’s kitchen cabinets, children playing together in the street…and NO internet!

  while community would’ve been limited, it would’ve meant something

4:25 PM anytime intimacy in community is pursued by my wife and i, others consider us joining a cult or something

4:27 PM Greg: makes me wonder if there is a connection between Daniels “Many will go here and there to increase knowledge” and Jesus’ “the love of many will grow cold”

  If they called Jesus andhis follwers a cult

  we should expect the same

  maybe we should be most concerned when we are accepted as “normal”

4:29 PM me: ha, good point

  let me ask something of you -

4:30 PM trina and i are moving to chicago in the summer. i know we’ll be in contact in some way, hopefully staying in meaningful friendship and ministry together…

4:31 PM …trina and i want to pursue community hard - communion with God, and with his people. But I think friendships that help guide HOW we do that is of utmost importance.

4:32 PM through discernment, wisdom, etc, i’m hoping you’ll help us find healthy, deep community that helps us get over our self-centeredness

 Greg: Now, while I agree with you - God thinks you are completely funny…

4:33 PM Sam and I have been struggling through how worldly we have become with our possessions, home, - all the nice things we’ve accumulated over a few years

  and I should be asking you to help me consider how to give up these “hard earned” things

4:34 PM His calling is a constant reminder that we are to be a people wo “mourn”

  nothte dead around us…

  but the things we are constantly dying to to follow Jesus adequately

  If I can help you, yo have whatever I can give, but I will not claim it to be much…

4:37 PM me: great. this is encouraging. at times i get overwhelmed with the task of “casting vision of the good news” to people who have no concept of it and seem not to want it at all. it seems you’re equally as frustrated with people who just want to remain isolated and selfish.

4:38 PM Greg: I think I am past being frutrated, but that leaves me -

4:39 PM me: its great to discover that i’m running beside others like yourself- those who are truly desiring another way of life - another economy of God’s shalom

 Greg: angry is the word that comes to mind - but it is an angry at myself that asks “What are you goign to do about it?”

4:40 PM Yes, It is good form my perspective to not feel alone as well

  It helps me to be bolder

  and less fearful

4:41 PM me: that to me is good news! that to me is part of what the “church” is - learning to get over ourself and learn from others/love others.

4:42 PM Greg: yep

  a thought about your friends blog…

4:43 PM It seems like pretty much what you read from SC/HC advocates until he says, “and nobody needs to have more than two of these centered groups..”

4:44 PM At that point my interest is piqued as I have been wondering how to get the tow house churches I am working with out of thier “church in a box in a home” mentality of being happy with their circumstances and loving each other - but not reaching out to anyone else

4:45 PM And is it as simple as implementing a “2 group” expectation?

4:46 PM Your “safe” group where you are built up and encouraged - and your “dangerous” group where everything you are is on the line with Jesus?

 me: i like the language there

4:47 PM Greg: I’m wondering if I shouldn’t modify his thought to everyone NEEDS be involved in two groups to be trulyhealthy

4:48 PM I have been at the point of simply wanting to disband the whole thing just to try and split them up - but the truth is they do a LOT of ministry together. But it seldom involves more than them packing boxes or writing checks

4:50 PM Itis weird, but if churches were suddenly the targets of terrorists and people began meeting in homes

  each one of them could and would lead a SC

  But to reach out to the world around them in this way is beyond their willingness to do

4:51 PM I do have to smile, though, at the thought of Jesus drawing out the fractal diagrams in the dirt for his disciples…

4:52 PM me: ha, yeah

Part of being a disciple of Christ is learning to live in God’s governance; his new economy. In America, we tend to see capitalism as the foundation for our society - production and consumption are the backbone to its market economy. Capitalism tends to put competition at the top of a short list of values for its citizens. We see the vicious, unjust effects of this all the time - the rich are taxed much less than the poor, unemployment, concentration of political and economic exploitation, and environmental rape.

Maybe its time in God’s Kingdom to function more organically in a new economy.

I just found out about time banks! They are really sweet way to use the currency of time to provide services to a local community.

The concept is simple. For every hour you give in service to another Time Bank member, you earn one Time Dollar. You can now use this Time Dollar to spend on a service someone else offers in the time bank community.

Time Dollars are a community currency that members earn by using their time, energy, skills, and talents to help others. Time Banking is about local individuals, organizations or business’s helping each other in one-to-one exchanges or in group projects. Members help rebuild neighborhood networks and strengthen communities. There are lots of time bank communities that set up shop on the internet as a way to search available services and meet their neighbors.

What an amazing way to (1) save money (2) participate in a local, neighbor centered economy and (3) experience the redistribution of wealth and resources. Imagine seeing a white collared businessman doing taxes for a Mexican immigrant family who earned their Time Dollar repainting their black neighbor’s house, who got his Time Dollars by going grocery shopping for the elderly woman across the street. Imagine the crime rate going down as neighbors get to know each other and watch out for each other. Imagine an investment into your own local economy!

“Give and you shall receive” - God’s economy doesn’t include dolla billz, he was talking about relationships!

Maine Time Banks - a time bank up in Portland, Maine

Start Your Own! - no matter how big or how small, why not begin one in your neighborhood?

Living In Story- Reciprocal Missionality in the Image of God - Ron Pate’s participatory seminar that clued me in to time banks. He is a part of SCUPE (Seminary Consortium of Urban Pastoral Education) in Chicago. SCUPE helps communities in Chicago start timebanks (they call it Abundance in the Beloved Community, or ABC’s).

Just a little more inspiration from this post:

Commercials 2007

Commercials 2006

Other cool ones




 

I just recently found the Reba Place Fellowship’s website online.  They are a community of about 35 up in Rogers Park and Evanston (in the midst of Chicago’s north side neighborhoods).  Holding a common treasury, and selling all they have to join the community - they are forever taken care of by the community and given a chance to live life together.

Onlookers watch as families work less, live more, and love more.  By sharing resources, they aren’t playing into the most fundamental element of capitalism: that we compete for resources at the expense of our souls.

I wish I had a video to embed right in this post; but its an RAM file, and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to lay it into my blog.  So - here’s a link to the video - a expose from a public Chicago: Money Matters news show exploring what sounds to me like, “Good News”.

 Click here for the video.

There has been a new shift in many of the conversations I’ve been having with leaders in the “simple church” circles. And the latest podcast from The God Journey focuses keenly on this topic as well. Its the notion of bringing “agendas” to Christian gatherings - most of those I’ve talked with and listened to are pretty against doing something like this, calling instead for a simple “family life” orientation.

What does that look like? Instead of someone coming prepared with a lesson, another person ready to lead a prayer and some songs, or what have you, meetings are simply a hang out time for Christ-followers. Basically a place to share a meal and engage in conversation.

Many of those who are of this persuasion find it maddening to show up at a gathering expecting it just to be an agenda-less, family-style gathering, only to become frustrated when they find someone else taking the reins and steering the meeting into a Bible Study or a personal rant they feel God has called them to share.

I personally find the “agenda-less” philosophy of living as a church hard to swallow. In many ways I think there have been several in the family of faith I’m a part of who have left because we have leaned toward an “agenda-less” gathering. We used to volunteer to facilitate the prayer, praise, and Word times the week before, and come prepared with something to share. As we moved on we stopped doing that, and some thought that we just weren’t doing anything when we came together.  In some ways I agree with them.  It seems that (at least in my experience) when you go too long without an agenda, your group devolves into a social club, or just a time to gossip and watch movies.

Last Sunday our network had a Father’s Day Celebration at one of our elders’ homes. It was a 2 hour pool party with a cookout, followed by a time of worship and sharing. It was absolutely touching to see the elderly sitting on the floor with the children playing with blocks and praising the Lord in common song. It was also great to share in communion that someone passed around and prayed for, and others shared how Christ was working in their lives. Simple, profound.

It didn’t feel like anyone had an agenda - although there were people who had things they felt they needed to share.

Maybe there is a third way.

There are certain times when a certain “agenda” needs to be addressed in a community. We certainly see Paul with agendas - routing out sin, establishing leaders, focusing on Christ’s death and resurrection as the centrality of the Gospel and the Church. But there are times when gatherings should just be a party; a relaxed, informal gathering of believers who come to hang out. Maybe the key to it all is like riding the waves (a great image from my buddy B).

We’ve got to take the pressure off the “meeting time”. When we focus more on life in the Body than on seeing “God show up” in a 2 hour time slot, we’ll see him appear all week long. We’ll have the chance (like we did last Sunday) to bring the words and songs and “agendas” GOD has given us, and everyone will feel his presence when we gather in Jesus’ name.

This means meeting more than once a week at the same time, and it also means not meeting every single week. It is the ebb and flow of relationship, and it is also learning that our “church” does not have a membership list - we ARE the Church with each other and the whole world. It means leaning not on our own understanding, but on God’s wisdom for what we need to be doing next.

Listening to Jesus, doing what he says, and finding LIFE together as God’s family. A great tag line for the Church, don’t you think?