And So It Begins

We just planted a church.

The “simple church” model is one that has appealed to us for a long time. We look back and see so many of our convictions growing towards planting a simple church. Small groups. Authentic, heartfelt worship. Family integrated church. The importance of local outreach. Authority by relationship. Evangelism by relationship. They all point to this, the culmination of all that we’ve been building in our lives.

We’re meeting with another family that lives near us. We’re meeting whenever we can. We’re sharing our lives. We’re sharing meals, burdens, joys, worship, prayers, songs, housework, and whatever else we can. We’re wide open to whatever God has for us.

Roger Thoman at SimpleChurch Journal has a beautifully worded answer to the question that I’m sure we will hear many times in the near future:

Why Are We Doing This?

I believe in gatherings that are small, because we need the support, encouragement, and deeper growth that comes from this type of community.

I believe in gatherings where everyone is known so that no one gets lost.

I believe in gatherings where we can learn from each other’s personal lives and stories (not just head knowledge) so that growth and discipleship takes place in the context of genuine, healthy relationship.

I believe in gatherings that are participatory because this involves and engages the entire body of Christ.

I believe in gatherings that are simple so that we are free to spend time with nonChristians and have the time to invite them into our lives.

I believe in gatherings that are easily multiplied, so that we can see people released to reach people anywhere, disciple people everywhere, and start “churches” at any time in any place.

I believe in gatherings that are inexpensive so that money is freed up for apostolic workers and the needs of the poor.

What more can I add to that?

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Kathy at Beyond Words is discussing consumers versus disciples.

She’s ringing a bell that we’ve been swinging around for a while. In our transition from musicians to worship team members to worship leaders to just plain worshippers, MrsPages and I have wrestled with the issue of what worship really is and what evangelism really looks like, and what the purpose of a church really is. We’re starting to firm up our answers to these questions, and Kathy hits a brilliant summary of much of our years-worth of angst:

We’re thinking of people as consumers rather than disciples.

Maybe it’s not our fault. That’s the culture we live in. That’s what people seem to respond to.

But it doesn’t seem to be very effective.

[...]

Maybe if we had a different vision for the church, evangelism would take care of itself. And we’d be training people to be disciples and not consumers.

I’m going to try to lay out our vision for the church in a post sometime soon, but in the meantime, think about the question “What is your vision for the church?” It’s one of those questions that’s so huge and overwhelming it almost seems nonsensical. But it’s so important. It affects everything. Out of that question flows your understanding of your very purpose as a believer.

Your vision of church defines how you worship.
Your vision of church defines your evangelism.
Your vision of church defines how we as the body relate to God.

So, what is your vision for the church?

In a departure from the seriousness of late…

I’m growing out my beard.

I normally wear my beard rather close-trimmed. I have tried growing it out before and failed. It gets to a certain point and then I can’t stand it any more, or I don’t like how it looks so I just trim it back to normal length. This time, I ‘m going to push past the awkward stage.

I’ve always wanted to see what my full beard looks like. Every one is different.

I’m hoping for a really nice “Grizzly Adams”

Or perhaps a “ZZ Top”.

Unfortunately, right now it’s looking like the classic “mumbling homeless guy”.

I am seriously desiring this yet-unpublished book, The New Conspirators by Tom Sine.

In a preview that makes me scream for more, Roger Thoman quotes from the book and then goes on to add his own thoughts

That we would be willing to be the unseen, unheralded ambassadors who heroically refuse to walk in the ways of this world for the sake of demonstrating a love that throws money-changers out of temples, loves sinners, and forgives those who nail us to a cross.

Maybe, the moment we are no longer underground (unseen) nor insurgent (counter-cultural), we are no longer really the church.

Maybe, the moment “our movement” is recognized, written about, or even blogged about, it no longer has the characteristics of the true church.

Maybe, the moment we receive an accolade or an applause for what we are doing, it is time to look to see if the recognition has come because we have begun to agree more with our culture than the radical kingdom that Jesus preached and demonstrated.

I’ve spent so much of my life wanting to be a big fish in little ponds. Now I just want to be a little fish. I’m finally starting to see that the accolades I so desperately crave aren’t from this world, and I’m starting to care less and less for the ones that are.

Josh Brown writes a pretty provocative series of posts asking why the church is no different than the rest of the world in its consumption and “stuff” orientation.

The Religious Industrial Complex and Opium and 3 Legged Chairs are two in a series. Read the rest if you like.

He makes his argument in extremity. He’s pretty aggressive. He makes some big hyperbole.

In short, he argues just like I do, begging for someone to prove him wrong.

It’s pretty challenging reading, and I might be able to quibble with a few things, but I can’t argue with his main point:

The Christians and the church have the same spending habits as the larger culture. They have the same amount of debt and the subsequent stuff. They have pastors that look and act like CEOs. They have buildings that look like Wal-Mart warehouses. They dispense goods and services on Sunday mornings. And they market these goods and services by preying on the felt needs of their demographics.

…

if I’m honest. I prefer my franchise shopping, my processed food, my expensive electronics, my comfortable car, my mind-numbing crappy tv, my warm suburban home with 3 times the rooms that I need.

The line that really grabbed me, because it resonates exactly how we’ve been feeling of late:

It makes me sick to know that my spending habits might be creating injustice somewhere. It makes me sad to know that how I live is only possible because I’m standing on someone else’s back who produces stuff for me that they themselves can’t afford.

Give them a read, and let me know what you think.

71. Nana.
72. Papa.
73. Grandma.
74. Pop.
75. Molly.
76. Echoes.
77. Cats.
78. Dogs.
79. Words
80. The ringing of bells

MrPages recently had a birthday. We haven’t been much on celebrating such things, but this year I budgeted money for some special gifts and then asked MrPages what he most wanted.

“Clothes,” he replied.

“Really?” I answered. He’s never been one to worry much about his clothes.

“Yep.” was his illuminating reply.

So one afternoon the children and I headed out, intending to go to Sears, expecting to get him a shirt or two, or maybe a new pair of pants. On the way, we ended up at Value Village. This was not an unusual thing. I usually shop at the Good Will at the top of the street. It’s cheap, often has some really good quality things, and supports people trying to make a better life. (It also has a little bit of an ethnic flair. Page1 purchased a beautiful salwar kameez!) Value Village, on the other hand is more expensive, by comparison, but has a much large selection and therefore more variety. I most wish we had a MCC Thrift store nearby, but alas, the nearest one is a fair drive away.

So we ended up at Value Village and found a bunch of stuff we all thought MrPages would like, but I stood in the aisle looking at the clothes wondering about the appropriateness of buying second hand clothes for his birthday. I wouldn’t even consider doing such a thing for anyone in my extended family. They would be bewildered by the idea. Second hand clothing is what you buy when you can’t afford to buy something new. It is an admission of poverty.

And yet the frugal Scot in me cannot justify paying so much money for new clothes. If the clothes were in good condition, and would suit him, what did it matter where I got them from? Especially since the used ones were much better quality name-brand items than we could have afforded had they been new. We ended up buying two pair of pants and four shirts for the budgeted amount.

MrPages was overwhelmed by his gift. He teared up as child after child presented him with a gift.

What did it matter where the gift came from? Ultimately it came from the heart, and that’s the most important thing.

And to lighten the mood, and hopefully make you smile, we now present a music video by an MCC Thrift Store. You’ll be singing it all week!

Advisory: YouTube is not a particularly safe place for children or adults. If you click through to the site, do so with caution. If you surf with Firefox, considering installing the BetterYouTube extension which clears away all the comments and other often inappropriate links on the YouTube page. Also please consider protecting your little ones and yourself with K9 Web Protection. It’s free and it works.

Further to my original post.

The information and conclusions that this book provide mesh well with Willow Creek’s recent admission that the modern church model isn’t very good at dealing with people’s growth once they become believers. The primary source of life-transformation that they found was not church-based at all, but “God-centered endeavors taking place outside of a congregational connection”.

You are probably connected to some of them, or to people involved in them, without realizing their significance. Some of these mini-movements include homeschooling, “simple church” fellowships (i.e., house churches), biblical worldview groups, various marketplace Christian ministries, several spiritual disciplines networks, the Christian creative arts guilds, and others.

My ears perked up of course, because we’re strongly involved in two of the examples he mentioned.

So, why does this whole mini-movement thing change lives?

These people have made the faith orientation of the mini-movement the pivot point of their existence. They want more of God in their lives, so they invest themselves in the workings of the mini-movement, focusing on the distinctive emphasis of the group, whether it is all-out worship, heartfelt prayer, developing a Christian mind, or whatever the driving motivation of the group may be. It is that single-mindedness of intent and the intensity of their focus on God that enables the Lord to build them into Revolutionaries.

The danger inherent, I think, is that tight focus makes for lopsided people. There is so much “Yes, but you have to go further…” in this. As a reader of this book, one has to realize that what he is pointing to is one facet of a life devoted to God. Barna does a reasonable job of pointing out that these focus-creating mini-movements are like gateway drugs. They get people’s lives concentrated on God and change people’s attitudes and spirits, and then the other aspects of their relationship with God and other people change too.

A big danger for MrsPages and I: We just have to make sure we don’t love our little niche so much that we stay there.

I’m reading George Barna’s Revolution on the advice of many other folks, and it’s been interesting. I’m a stats geek. I love trying to pull the real story out of statistical results and survey feedback and that sort of data. Barna is working from the results of polling thousands and thousands of churchgoers with some well-planned and insightful questions.

My only quibble so far (I’m just over half way though) is that he seems to elevate the “Revolutionaries” that he describes beyond what they deserve. In moving outside a traditional church setting, Barna (and many other authors that write on this topic) implies that they have moved “beyond” a traditional church setting. The implication is that they have matured and moved past the inferior old ways. He even seems to indicate that believers who forsake a gathering altogether, choosing to study, pray and mature as Christians on their own, are a model to be praised and emulated. We are told by scripture to gather as believers, that we are to be in community. Barna’s seeming high regard for “lone gun” believers seems odd to me.

He doesn’t explicitly say that not gathering together is a good thing, but let me illustrate my concern by describing the first seven pages of the book. These pages tell the story of two men. The first is a Christian who has left church and isn’t doing much. He’s disillusioned and too busy to be trying to get back to God. He is ministered to and encouraged by his Sunday morning golf partner: a Christian who left the church, but studies the Bible, prays all the time, volunteers at a soup kitchen, gives gobs of his money away and goes on missions trips. The second man is set forth as a brilliant example of these new “Revolutionaries”.

His life reflects the very ideals and principles that characterized the life and purpose of Jesus Christ and that advance the Kingdom of God - despite the fact that [he] rarely attends church services.

I’m impressed with the material that follows, but this initial chapter has me a bit spooked. I’m wondering when it’s going to rear its head again. It hasn’t shown up again yet, but I’m waiting.

I know some of our regular readers have read it. I’d be interested in hearing your ideas.

1986 - I’m 16 years old and an acquaintance invites me to a bible study around the corner. A young university student has opened his parent’s home so we have a place to “hang out.” I start going to church because then we can “hang out” even more. We meet for many years in some form or another.

1990 - I attend Urbana 90 and feel a definite call towards becoming a teacher so I can eventually do tent-making mission work.

1991 - I meet MrPages and lose focus a little.

1992 - MrPages has a lightening moment when he realizes that God is real. He makes many changes, some of which include quitting the bar band, buckling down at school, and taking a wife!

1994 - The local youth pastor invites us to a home bible study saying, “We can just hang out and get to know each other and study our bibles.” For the next 14 years they will teach us, disciple us, guide us, influence us, mentor us, and finally become some of our very closest and dearest friends - family made by God.

1995 - Mr Pages and I pack our little Colt 100E and head east to a new life in Ottawa where we know no one. We go because we have “put out a fleece” and feel the answer is to go. We visit church after church. We get locked out of one, and locked into another. Finally in desperation we call a number we have been given. The young youth pastor on the other side of the line is a passionate man with wild ideas who doesn’t wear socks. We gather together with him and a bunch of other wildly crazy young adults. We eat and talk and hang out together, into the wee hours of the morning. We join the local neighbourhood church and within a week have started a youth group. Every Wednesday a motley crew of young teens hang out in our home. We go to their games, their graduations, their houses. We spend time hanging out with their parents. We start a city-wide “post modern” service. A Godly elder tells us he has a vision of MrPages pastoring a church. We laugh. MrPages willingly admits that he does not have the gifts to be a pastor.

1997 - A job opens up back at home. We pack a truck and the new baby and head back to be with family. We return to our church. We start a worship team with a bunch of university students. We spend most of our time hanging out in the basement and playing out of the Red Book. We begin travelling around to other churches and playing when we can. We return to our former bible study. We spend every Thursday night together, for years. We eat, we pray, we read the Word, we fast, we cry, we laugh. We begin hanging out on other days at other times.

1999 - We begin discussing with our pastor the idea of a different kind of worship service - smaller, perhaps not in the sanctuary, maybe around tables, with food and small groups. We pray. We research. We talk. We plan. We joke about planting a church. MrPages says we have enough going on in our lives - we have three children under three. We’ve decided to home school. Where would we find the time to plant a church?

2001 - An opportunity comes to join a worship team at a downtown church that is going in the direction we have been longing for. We feel it comes from God. Our pastor agrees. Our church sends us to the new church with a commissioning service. We continue to worship at our old church in a fellowship ministry for mentally challenged adults (you don’t really know worship until you’ve worshiped at Rainbow Walk). We begin learning first hand about church worship and church politics. It’s painful, but it’s good. We join a new small group, once again with young people; although the young people are getting older as we age. Now we, the parents of three-small-children-with-one-on-the-way, are hanging out with the young-marrieds.

2005 - The pastor at our new church feels it is time to move on. It’s an opportunity for us to pause and reflect. We receive an email from one of our Ottawa youth. She’s becoming a nurse so she can do mission work in Africa. It’s partly because we let her hang out on our couch. MrPages and I begin asking questions. The answers are disturbing. We push them aside.

2007 - A new pastor is found. He’s charismatic and visionary. The excitement is palpable, but we feel lost. We begin asking our friends to pray for us. Our marriage is suffering. MrPages goes on a mission trip. He comes back a different man. We feel separated from each other and from God. We cry out to God. We pick up the uncomfortable questions again. We begin asking “What is worship?” and we end up trying to figure out, “What is church?” We stumble on the blog of Brant Hansen. He’s saying the same things we’re thinking. We ask for more prayer. We begin meeting regularly with other people who are thinking the same things as us. We pray and study. MrPages meets with the new pastor and tells him what we’re thinking. We know what we’re supposed to do, but still we resist. This is a crazy idea. This will never work. People don’t just do things like this. MrPages loses the use of his hand. Suddenly all our commitments at church are eliminated. We look around and realize God is telling us to move.

2008 - We plant a church. We’re going to sit around on couches with other believers and eat and pray and talk and read the Word and laugh and cry and grow and become more like Jesus. We’re going to spend lots of time together. We’re going to try and grow our faith where our lives happen.

And so begins a new chapter. Looking back it seems that everything was pointing to this moment. God had a plan. And we are trying to be faithful to follow.

For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)