Urban Ekklesia

House Church. Urban Church. Organic Church. Multicultural Church. Simple Church. This is a space created for both humble and passionate reflection on the missional, emerging church in urban North America.

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Location: Bronx, New York, United States

A space for thinking out loud and inviting others to join the refining process. Justice, mission, politics, the city. Everything is connected. Theology is life.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Campfires & Church Planters

A couple of weeks ago my family and I went tent-camping for three nights. It was not only Adalia's first time, but it was Hylma's too! It was great. On the last night there, someone nearby came over asking for lighter fluid. Unfortunately for them, I had to explain that I didn't have any lighter fluid and had lit my fire "the old fashioned way." Knowing well how to build a fire combined with a lack rain, I didn't use more than a couple of matches throughout the entire 3 days.

During this trip, I contemplated what lessons could be learned from something as simple as a campfire. My friends, John White, Neil Cole, and Ben Cheek, all seem to be obsessed with lessons about the Kingdom and about the church observed in nature, and I'm proud to say that I've learned to share this obsession. These guys can't stop talking about viruses and agriculture and physics (okay, physics is just Ben). But it is largely fueled by the fact that Jesus seemed to have the same obsession as well. Jesus talks about farmers and mustard seeds and fishermen rather than the machines of His day. Paul explains things like "plant" and "water" and the church as a human body. Even Peter can't help but express that it is living stones that represent the individuals who make up the church. It all makes sense really. Authentic transformation of life is a growing process with the help of the Holy Spirit. So as I look at a campfire, there are some important lessons to learn from nature. Before the age of pre-soaked charcoal and lighter fluid, we had to actually build a fire. You have to collect tender -- small twigs, paper thin bark, etc. -- arrange sticks, and then finally add the logs arranged so that the fire spreads effectively. I've really been learning -- unfortunately through much trial and error -- that catalyzing church multiplication, we must begin with individual disicpleship. We can't expect churches to pop out disciples anymore than we expect to light a campfire starting with a log, but as we collect our twigs, bark, shavings, and sticks to receive our flame, we can expect disciple-making to result in churches.

All of this reinforces beginning small and having patience. We're not just throwing a pile together and splashing on some chemicals. I'm not sure I have all of this figured out yet or if I ever will, but it does seem that everything in nature takes us back to that mustard seed or to that farmer. It always begins on the smallest level and multiplies out from there. It often requires patience. It seems unavoidable that the mission of the God of creation would direct us along a such a path when encountering human souls.

Pray (passionately!!) for workers from this harvest. Pray that God will specifically place us into the lives of individuals who will embrace a life of discipleship. Everything begins there. That's certainly where Jesus began.

A Generation Losing Church

I've done a certain exercise with a few different groups as I've had opportunities to teach. I ask everyone to list several qualities that they believe their "unchurched" or unbelieving friends would say about church. I've done this in two different states and a handful of different groups, and the response is always the same. Negative, overwhelmingly negative. Then, I ask them to list several qualities that they believe the crowds -- not the Twelve -- said (or would likely have said) about Jesus. Overwhelmingly positive and usually includes qualities like confident or powerful as well as humble and loving. Now while I know that there are many churches that must overcome the harm done by others, this exercise demonstrates a significant tension. The very definition of being a Christian is to be a Christ-follower, and yet a disproportionate number of our Christian institutions don't appear to look or feel very much like Jesus.

Last thursday I was sitting in a park on University Avenue in the Bronx. As I sat on a park bench waiting to see if some of the kids that I sometimes meet there were going to show up, I overheard another conversation on the next bench. Two teens began talking about another girl that had just walked away after an exchange of typical insults and counter-measures. "Words hurt," the girl said to her friend. Then, she followed up with another comment, "She needs to go back to church." At that point the conversation shifted gears. It took me just a few moments for me to realize the new theme of their talk. I wish I had caught everything they said (I wish even more that I had taken advantage of the opportunity this could have been before they got up & walked away!!), but they started sharing a discussion about church. The girl asked the young man, "Do you ever go to church?" He answered, "I used to go with my aunt, but not for a long time. I'd usually fall asleep." The girl then stated, "I went once with my grandmother to her church. Never again!" And the conversation ended.

Today, I went and attended a rally that took place across from the United Nations in support of ending the violence in Darfur, Sudan. The crowd was overwhelmingly young people -- probably college aged mostly. One of the many statements that stuck in my head from the speeches given by Sudanese, Rwandans, and social justice & anti-genocide advocates was this. A young American girl in a video said, "We look at what has happened in the past, and we ask, where were the people that could have done something to stop it. But now we are becoming those people." (I was on the edge of weeping during nearly every speech as I thought about the heart-wrenching pain that comes from the evil of human injustice.) One rabbi from an anti-genocide commission stood up and explained that in a week in the liturgy of synagogues across the country the prophet Isaiah would call us to account for the unjust suffering in our world. As Christians, don't we also read this as a word to the church? ....concerning injustice in our world, but also about everything we are called to be?

It seems that if we have any hope of reaching those kids sitting in the park and so many others like them, "church" might have to be re-thought and probably done a little differently. But more than that, we need to invite Kingdom into our lives, families, and churches. To me, all of our decisions concerning church structure, ministry, outreach, etc. needs to beg the question: Is this going to push us to look more like Jesus? Think about it. Is that really how we typically make ministry decisions? Aren't we more often grounded in pragmatics? That is, what works. What if what "works" isn't exactly the same as what is faithful? What if what inspires us or comforts us is the exact thing that keeps us from being courageous? What if we are simply too often on an adventure in missing the point?

I suppose I've tried here to string together a few fairly different experiences, but are they so different at the core? I suppose the more we imitate God, the more we are going to be sick to our stomach to remain silent while rape and murder continues unchecked. I suppose that the more church becomes family rather than a stiff institution, the better our chances (not that all soil is guaranteed to be receptive) to reach kids that visit a church and then say "Never again!" It's all connected, and there is an axis where all of my thoughts connect here: Are we willing to risk enough to look like Jesus?

People or Maintenance?

A couple of days ago I received a call from a minister/church planter in Florida. We had never met, but our hour and a half conversation was the result of his own need to connect to someone doing this sort of "organic" ministry that he is feeling drawn towards. He described his own heart for people, his love of God, and his search for church as community.

Trying to encourage him, I assured him that he is not alone in the way that he is feeling. He shared how so many church planters get involved in their work because they care about people, are passionate about the Great Commission, and want to be used by God. However, after planting their church, they get wrapped up in the day-to-day maintenance of keeping the wheels of an institution going. While some enjoy this administrative role, there are many that go on and on without ever finding the courage to tell anyone -- especially their congregants -- how they feel. During our conversation this man told me that six months ago he also thought he was alone, but now, as he has shared these sort of conversations, realizes that he may be part of a much, much larger group. This seems to ring true as many 20-somethings I've spoken with are now staying clear of traditional church planting while remaininig excited about Christian community, social jusice, and even evangelism (but by any other name!).

Even with our church structure as stripped down as it is, it is easy to get buried in event planning, developing curriculum, and the like. These aren't bad things in themselves and sometimes it is practical for me to do them. However, I've been learning these same lessons. If we are going to see discipleship rise up from the harvest, we must keep the main thing as the main thing. The first Apostles understood this. When the Hellenized widows were missing out in the distribution of food, the Apostles instructed that servants ( i.e. deacons) be appointed to coordinate it. (Notice that the Apostles didn't even do the appointing, they told the people to do it.) They had to stay focused "on the word and prayer." They needed to continue and empower the body. Today, we face similar decisions. Missiologists, church planters, and similar leaders are needed to empower discipleship and service in others but sometimes fall into consumeristic expectations to please the body rather than to empower it.

Pray for these leaders, and pray for me. I am working to stay clear of the patterrn described on the phone by this church planter. May the Lord raise up servants, leaders, planters, counselors, intercessors, and many others who will be self-initiating, reproducing followers of the King. May the Holy Spirit produce fruit rising up from the harvest in the city.