I spent yesterday morning doing some work out in our sunny neighborhood park, pulling weeds and weeding-out trash from blossoming bushes and flowers. There was quite a crew there yesterday too – some folk coming from the far-corners of the city to help out (about a dozen from a global consulting group showed up for “Earth Day.”)
I’ve been given a section of the park with a few patch-gardens! This has been a dream of mine for quite awhile, both to do some real-deal urban gardening, and to break into the neighborhood’s action group (volunteering gardeners, park council, etc). There are more plants than I can give names to, or certainly more than I can spell. There was even a secret stash of mushrooms hiding beneath a bale of hay over in one corner of my garden. It wasn’t until THIS year that I finally saw my first flowers bloom from seed. I planted some bulbs last fall and to see tulips popping up this past week has been tremendous.
Being a part of such a tangible day of transformation in my own neighborhood reminds me a bit about why we’re here – we’re here to see vibrant families of Jesus grown in every people group in Chicago!
Vibrant families centered on Christ is not only critical for individuals living the abundant life, but whole cities are desperate for it too. No city law can make its citizens love each other – only family can. No religious creed can reconcile broken marriages, or end homelessness – only family can. No gang can decrease violence or increase High School graduation rates – only family can.
Watching folks come together for park transformation pointed me back to this truth – that our goal is to see vibrant families of Jesus in close reach of every person in Chicago — but the OUTCOME of that goal is personal and city-wide transformation.
“Let there be light…” God’s first words created an explosion of relationship – Light is essentially frequencies connecting particles that link together in pure, blinding energy.
When God created the world, he chose to be in relationship with that world, God’s light reaching and connecting and networking every thing he created to the farthest reaches of the cosmos. This is God’s “Great Connection.” Each connection in God’s creation to this day is another explosion of energy – the more links you live in, the more you live in light.
Unfortunately, it is stereotypical for the average house church (the Meso Layer) to stop at the Meso Layer. It’s a wonderful thing for a simple church to experience God’s family life, but asserting their autonomy effectively keeps them in the dark, away from the links of light. Isolation brings death, whereas inter-connectivity brings life.
This blog post is an exploration of the resilience of an interconnected family of faith in a city or region – the Macro Layer.
Something to ponder: There is no example of a “house church” in the New Testament – but there are plenty of church networks! (Romans 16, Acts 16:25-40, Revelation 1:4, just to name a few…) Beyond the household gatherings, the earliest church also clearly enjoyed worship, fellowship and mission with an extended network of believers.
Teaching, prayer and shared meals at the Meso Layer was the daily experience of First Century disciples – but it was also common for Christians to gather for prayers in the temple courts, to proclaim Christ in the Hall of Solomon, receive teaching from church leaders, and share in Communion at regional gatherings! (Acts 2:42-46)
This “gather-scatter” concept grew mainly out of the “prayer houses” and synagogues of the Jews during their exile from Israel several hundred years before Jesus. The Jews of course, hoped their Messiah would reestablish an earthly home for Jews, to call them home from exile and create a centralized place of worship and government (like in “the good ole’ days” of King David). However, Jesus called (and calls) his followers to venture out as “voluntary exiles,” seeking citizenship of no earthly nation, but of a heavenly Kingdom – yet connected like illegal immigrants here on earth. That’s gotta be a downer for your average Zionist!
Liquid Church
The Macro Layer takes seriously the liquid form of Christian Community – it does not have physical structures or an exoskeleton holding its size back – like water, it is contained only by its dynamic, inter-dependent correlation of relationships. The Macro Layer is the engagement of relationships beyond the family level – it is the local “extended family” that reaches from “eternity to here.”
In our paradigm of the Onion, the church takes on a “living system,” organic nature. Systems Theory seems to say that every organism is part of a larger, interconnected network. And even my very notion of self is not determined by myself alone, but by the web in which I’ve been woven. In this way, the church is more like an afghan than a building – it is knitted together, fully flexible, not easily broken.
Yeah, but what does it look like???
Of course, liquid is best enjoyed in a glass, not spilling all over the table – and similarly, liquid church at the Macro Layer contains internal structures to give focus to the regional church – funneling into infinite nodes of connectivity:
The important piece is not necessarily HOW you connect, or the structure of the nodes, but the process going on between them (the WINE is more important than the WINESKIN).
Fractals Rock
Fractals are everywhere. From the largest of galaxies to the smallest snowflake, fractals are the code of the universe.
Every living thing or dynamic system takes a fractal form. Fractals are based on simple mathematical equations that contain unending diversity. The patterns are determined by a simple rule in a series of repetitions that feed back on itself new information. Starting with a simple building block (a human cell, a coordinates in a computer) these repetitions unleash a creative potential for infinite complexity.
The genetic code of a seed gives the crucial information needed for the fractal equation found in cell multiplication to help catalyze the growth of a tree. The DNA of this seed will grow an oak tree, and not a dogwood or a squirrel. There are boundaries for fractals, and yet, when watching the process, it can only be described as beautifully chaotic.
The Church is built on the trillion cells of local churches and Christians scattered throughout time and space. The Church then, is the Fractal of Jesus Christ in the world. Self-similar, yet wildly diverse – each point of light on a fractal is connected to every other point of light throughout the system.
This is a blog series on the Layers of Christian Community – the Onion of the Church. The onion is a beautiful example of a fractal – layers upon layers of “similar difference.”
A Tribe to Belong To
It is interesting that as we explore the levels of the Onion, we are learning that each of these layers are also core desires of all humanity. Everyone desires a personal connection with the Divine; everyone desires one or two others who get them through thick and thin; those who have come from broken families still desire an expression of family — and we all desire to be a part of a dynamic tribe.
A tribe is a group of people, connected to one another, and to a shared story. This postmodern age has brought an explosion of tribes, covens, meetups, making each of us part of multiple tribes. Our embrace of the tribe is our rejection of the factory — the place of passive production and impersonal sausage-making.
JESUS’ TRIBE:::>> So far in this series, we’ve explored Jesus’ community – here’s what we’ve found: (Mono) Jesus was “one with the Father,” (Micro) and his heart-to-hearts were with his core team of Peter, James, and John. (Meso) Jesus’ 12 disciples were his daily community – his family-on-a-mission. But who was Jesus’ “Macro Layer of Church?”
Jesus taught and fed the crowds, that much is sure – but beyond the masses, Jesus specifically cast vision and trained 72 disciples. (Luke 10) This was Jesus’ TRIBE. The people who were following “the Way,” sent into every town and village in the area to declare the Good News of the Kingdom. Through this Kingdom Tribe, Jesus was forging a sneeze of relationships right across the Empire that remained connected to each other through Love and through a dangerous Story – that God’s Kingdom was near!
Tribal development comes through a linking through a common story, and living into that story together to make dramatic change. From the contemporary Tea Party Movement or Obama’s Grassroots Campaign, from Geronimo’s Apache Tribe harassing and impeding the Spanish conquistadors, to the First Century Church decrying Cesar as a mere man, and a murdered, resurrected Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords… the tribe is consistently the social layer for monumental change.
The Tribe you choose to join is of utmost importance.
The social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube make a veritable Youniverse that puts you right at the center of your own “social-black-hole.” You can now be the leader of your own private Tribe. Recent studies have even said that Facebook and mobile computing has brought about the demise of the church. Now that we have our own network – we no longer need to be a part of God’s local Tribes.
From the beginning, humans have had to choose between being king of their own dark kingdom, or a citizen in God’s Kingdom of Light. It is either “My Kingdom Come” or “Thy Kingdom Come.” And choosing God’s Kingdom means we choose to be connected to God’s Tribe – a inter-connected network that is glocal in influence.
A Family Reunion
These network gatherings and other nodes of connectivity will feel more like a family reunion than a United Nations Summit. It is essential for Christians to remember that they are primarily citizens of the same universal Kingdom of God, rather than constituents of individual house churches.
Certainly, there is leadership, but unlike a hierarchy (static leading from the top down) and more like a v-formation flock of birds – sharing and rotating the front position to go farther together. Maybe each month the Macro Layer (say, 10 house churches) meet together for worship, and each month, a different community organizes the event and leads worship in their way. This promotes diversity in the Body of Christ, and a reminder that God is creating a Family from every tongue, tribe, and nation. (Rev 7:9)
A bohemian, post-modern group might choose to fill a rented club with ambient music and allow God’s presence to surround the worshippers as they pray or participate with God in apophatic practices and incense. Another group might bring a recent convert to give his/her testimony to the rest of the network. The important principle to be communicated at every monthly network gathering is a theme of unity in diversity. Each church that plans worship should put the needs and interests of other groups they are in relationship with above their own desires to control the experience.
Home-brewed Leadership
Regular local leadership gatherings allow those involved to pass along insights and resources to other organic church leaders in the network. It serves as a bridge between leaders and a limitless array of links to resources and fresh connections. A “home-brewed seminary,” of sorts. This never ending journey of learning and serving other communities is an “opt-in” learning community of practitioners – no one in the church network Macro Layer is excluded from leadership gatherings, but only those who are interested in developing Meso Layers seem to stick around!
Monthly leadership gatherings bring cohesion and training to each house church leader – part book club, part coaching session, part training in various pastoral tools (like conflict management, or church multiplication…etc).
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As best as I can, I’ve tried to describe the “congregation” as a Macro Layer – not as a building or institution, but as an organism or movement. Through a lifestyle of worship and fellowship with a dozen or so house churches, the Macro Layer can offer Christians a sense that “they are not alone” in this family of God. Through God’s grace, these communities will slowly transform into an ecumenical Body of Christ in your city. The underground church network is one such Macro Layer beginning to emerge in our context here in Chicago. Much like a Fractal, it displays the DNA of Jesus, and yet the possibilities in the fractal of Christ are limitless!
Yesterday Katrina and I went to the Rogers Park house church that has been meeting for the last few months at Charmer’s Cafe coffee house, a funky little corner shop that holds down one of the corners of the artsy community on Chicago’s far north side.
One of the guys that normally meets with us was already there. He was reading Richard Foster’s The Challenge of the Disciplined Life, one of my favorite books I’ve never read. In fact, I may decide not to read it until I find a copy of the book under its old title, Money, Sex and Power. Much better title don’t you think? Our friend is on his way to pursuing Christ and the Christian life after years of slowly neglecting God. Only a few weeks ago, he had begun to read Simply Christian by N.T. Wright. I’m super thankful and excited for the spiritual progress he’s made, and for the tangible changes I can see in his life. It’s another proof of Christ’s power. He, like all of us, are trying to discover how to follow Jesus in Chicago, 2009.
Anyway, we got our drinks and sat down together outside under a canopy and enjoyed the sunshine. We chatted and caught up on life, then we dove into our text for the week. Each week we’ll read through a section of Scripture, usually two or three times, then we’ll have another person try to retell the story in his or her own words. Afterwords, we’ll focus on listening to God, trying to discern what we’ll do in response to what we’ve read and discussed. Learning to incorporate obedience to God and his Word is an essential value of our house church network.
So we read Luke 4: 18-30 this week. The passage describes Jesus, after returning from his desert experience, is seated in the synagogue in his home town. As part of the gathering, he stands up and reads from Isaiah 61:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Right at about this point in the text, an overweight man with stained clothes and greasy hair approaches us and asks us if he can have some money to get something to eat. I’ve learned that this is a fairly common thing in Chicago, and I’ve come to a place where I make as few contingency plans regarding helping or not helping beggars as I can. It keeps me listening to the Spirit. We all stopped reading and focused on him. His speech was slurred and hard to understand. We took up a collection to get him some food inside the coffee shop and invited him to sit down with us for the rest of our gathering.
The rest of the story takes Jesus from a place of great favor with the crowds to almost being thrown off the cliff.
We each went around the circle and mentioned what stood out to us in the passage. Each of us had something meaningful and insightful to add to the discussion. One of the things that stood out for me was the turning point; when Jesus made it clear that the passage in Isaiah and the focus of Jesus’ ministry was not focused on rescuing the Jews from their oppressors, but rather in pursuit of being a light to the world.
But it was Chris who turned the conversation sideways. He didn’t wax eloquent on the meaning of the Scripture, or divulge deep secrets, he simply said how thankful he was for being able to eat today, and how he planned to give one of his blankets to someone else who needed one – like Jesus would. He smiled and squinted his eyes into the sun, with veggie hummus on the corner of his lips. With nothing more to say, I was stunned at how softened my heart was to Chris, a mentally handicapped homeless man who seemed to have the simplest and yet most tangible, obedient response to the love of Christ. I found myself as part of the angry crowd that dismissed Christ’s pursuit of the poor and the oppressed as being something related to me, a Gentile. Certainly with my skills, wit, training, heritage and more I am the focus of Christ’s mission. But then someone like Chris shows up – with a gentle spirit and a willing heart, and turns my paradigm and self-centered spirituality upside down.
With Chris sitting right there, we talked openly about how God saw it fit to introduce us to Chris, a homeless, poor man, who is exactly the person Isaiah writes about and Christ proclaims Good News to.
As I left the gathering, I concluded: If we want to hear the Good News of Christ, we have to listen to Chris.
Man this post makes my heart smile. I remember you telling me the story of your experience of Breakfast at Beach street. I thought to myself oh man I hope Mark doesn’t give up on the poor. As I read this post I noticed two things; one despite what you may have felt you still provided for Chris. Also your heart was touched by the experience. Praise God!
Mark – thanks for telling this story. I like that you tell about a typical simple gathering of Jesus followers and what that looked like yesterday in your life. I think the place you give to reading and discussing scripture in this type of gathering is immportant–and especially with an eye to an encounter with God.
I also really identify with the way gathering around Jesus in the presence of the poor has the possibility of being deeply transformative–causes us to read Jesus and hear Jesus in ways we might not have been able to do on our own.
I thank God for the expression of Jesus that I see in you all.
Chadd, and 
Man this post makes my heart smile. I remember you telling me the story of your experience of Breakfast at Beach street. I thought to myself oh man I hope Mark doesn’t give up on the poor. As I read this post I noticed two things; one despite what you may have felt you still provided for Chris. Also your heart was touched by the experience. Praise God!