Laity are called into ministry to share Christ.

Can a regular old Christian baptize a new believer? Do they need a title? Or does that need to be the part of an ordained clergy person? Neil Cole would lift the authority and power of lay-led ministry to the extent of saying there doesn’t need to be a clergy person around.

A missional community may call into question our theology of ministry and what the clergy’s role is vs. what the laity’s role is.

In 2009, the Virginia Conference began a quest in earnest – to intentionally begin/start/launch 30 new faith communities per year. As on the day of Pentecost, The Spirit moved with such lightning speed in our conversing (yes, at a Spirit led Annual Conference) that we (the church) have been “catching up” to what and how the Spirit is moving! Let me repeat this again for you to catch the enormity of our call: Launch THIRTY new faith communities EVERY year! Wow.

How the heck are we going to do that? Where’s the money going to come from? What clergy can we send, who are willing to go? How do we as a Conference identify where to send someone? Wow.

There is a fresh wind blowing and moving people. Some being moved are clergy, but the majority are laity. I see the Lord doing a new and very great thing in our laity. We may have to learn from them! And what we learn may topple over some ideas astray from God’s Spirit, or develop some new inroads in how we work as a church system. Laity are educated and not so educated. But … they are sacrificial and LOVE the Lord.

Let me put it to you this way, with a hint of cynicism so you will ponder this. If you asked a clergy person to step out of their role of preaching and overseeing a good church – to live in a small, insufficient house, get little to no pay, and sacrifice so that the gospel could be shared . . . Well, do you think they would? Truthfully, some would. But 30 clergy from one Conference? I have my doubts.

Take the same example. If you asked a lay person who loved the Lord, to step out of their role in their local church, to be sent with little to no pay, with inadequate housing, to live among a new people group and start a church …. Do you think they would? I have found a much higher willingness of laity to do such a thing!

The Lord will use those who are willing to go.

And the laity are ready to go. They have something to re-teach the clergy about a call to discipling and the personal investment God demands of each. We are called to take up our cross and carry it. What’s on a cross? A totally submitted person.

I’m thankful for our laity and their belief. I’m thankful that they are ready to take the frontier and go!!

Something astounding happened a few weeks ago that I couldn’t predict or think through. Water’s Edge Partnership is led by a group of profoundly determined lovers of Christ. They agreed to and really thought through a book we studied together, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens by Neil Cole. I’ve discussed some of what Neil coaches in the first of this series on the challenges facing the United Methodist Church’s structure – to be missional again.

Our lay based Board of Directors heard a strange new call as they read and reflected upon Neil Cole’s words. Are we being called to try to do something similar in our community? Shouldn’t we be doing what Neil says – finding lost people and building relationships with them? Has God placed some of them on this Board of Directors so they can “go and do likewise”?

Water’s Edge will encourage this kind of call. Wouldn’t you? We want the gospel to spread – primarily through laity! I want to embrace this encouragement Christ is giving our laity! Lord, please don’t let me be a stumbling block to Your heart and vision for the world through men and women you are moving to the frontiers. Fill them with zeal and kindness. Establish them in coffee shops and bars and neighborhoods as great people to hang around. Bring healing over time, as you move among them. Amen.

Neil Cole is very pro-Laity. He actually believes God inhabits those who love Him and empowers them to do ministry! Establishing churches and bringing people to see Jesus is not in holding a title, but in a love for Christ. Neil points to Jesus, of all things (tongue in cheek), who chose lay persons to follow His commands and go into every town, 2×2. Jesus’ lay persons were not “dumb” – or drunk as some said on the day of Pentecost. Some of those first disciples were economically well off and owned their own fishing business. Some were of the higher class (tax collectors). Some probably had a good degree of education. Some were simple and had a simple outlook in life. But the common denominator of every last one of them:

When Jesus called them, they dropped what they were doing and followed.

Lay persons did that. Not the rabbis. Not the Pharisees or Saducees. Not Jesus’ homies (home town folk) even. It was specifically lay persons who heard Jesus and responded with “Yes, Lord, send me.”

Called out lay persons were, and remain, the instrument Jesus chose to spread the gospel for the entire world!

The Methodist Church has adopted an episcopal system and relies heavily in theology and polity upon our ordained clergy. In order for a clergy to be ordained, they go through years of an ordeal. (I speak from experience!) So, when they get there, a power is bestowed unlike any other management position in our culture. Whether it’s written in the ‘code’ or not, there is a practicing outcast and royalty class system. The clergy hold almost all of the cards in decision making around the Conference. But Jesus’ Conference was made up of all LAITY. There wasn’t a clergy person in the room!

It seems to me that Jesus is concerned about His mission and entrusting that mission to faithful men and women. We are supposed to be equal in power around Jesus’ mission. When John’s mom asked Jesus for her son (the equivalent of a clergy person at that point) to be given a higher honor, Jesus refused, saying the “first will be last.” In Jesus, there is no pecking order, only equal relationship with Him and His Kingdom.

Fast forward a few thousand years to the 1700′s. John Wesley is dismayed at the state of the church. And he begins saying to clergy and lay: we should be more holy, more like Christ, in life and mission. (a missional community, by the way) Eventually, his idea blossoms in the yearning of lay persons to love and follow Christ alone. John Wesley’s class system relied upon laity, because it relied upon Jesus moving among all. It was a decentralizing system, with rudimentary structure of leaders (again, laity), so each person and each group could follow Jesus above all else.

How challenging is this for our current United Methodist system?

How challenging is this for our laity?

Part 2: Structures in the United Methodist Church Which Hinder (aka, walls to clear)

In the last part, here, I listed these 3 “walls” to clear.

1. The structure itself and how to “classify” a missional community who are able to jump geographical Conferences in a single bound!
2. Old perceptions of “what defines church”? (Don’t we all need to be a mega-church, in one location?)
3. And, the concept and theology of pastoral authority and “ordering the life” of the church.

The great thing about missional communities is that there are literally no geographical boundaries for starting, growing or cropping-up! They are an exponential growth explosion rather than a controlled small flame. They should not stay ‘where you put them.’

The idea is this. If we can plant a missional community, then members of that missional community can plant another. They don’t actually require “the pastor” to say “go forward.” But, if someone moves away to another town, they don’t leave “your church” – they expand your territory! They are resourced and connected with you so that they can start what happened where they came from! What pastor among us would like to stay connected with their parishioners – and know they are still growing in faith?

The United Methodist Church structures for mission by dividing geographical regions into "Annual Conferences" and one Bishop oversees that geographical area. But "missional communities" are not limited by geography. Can the two concepts play nicely together?

And, it means this new community, a child of your original group, could birth another community, creating a grand-child group you’ve never seen or heard about as the pastor! That grand-child group could be clear across the country.

I have discovered a huge wall within the United Methodist Church around the geography of this concept. It’s almost as big and controversial as the immigration question for the United States. At what point does the Bishop of that “clear across the country” group get to say “You’re not United Methodist”? Or, at what point does that “clear across the country” group get to say “We are United Methodist”? Hmmmm. Territories are a controlling influence within the UMC.

In the best of scenarios, the Bishop of the Annual Conference geography is Spirit minded and realizes she or he doesn’t actually establish churches, but that Jesus does and we respond in faith with a “yes.” That’s easier said than done. It’s not only bishops which struggle with how to do this honoring Jesus, it’s also the constituency, and fellow pastors, us pastors who want a bit more control, oversight, and order.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . .” At what point does the system keep the Spirit from controlling? “But Lord, we have this system for making disciples of all nations!” What if it doesn’t quite fit in our geographical system.

Or does it? Isn’t there a way for a missional community to honor the UMC system and Christ? If we believe the System is God’s choosing and we believe Christ is calling a new way of forming and defining faith communities/churches, then I would say this:

There must be a third way – a way to mediate between the needs of both the United Methodist structure and the missional community structure. We are experimenting with those ways.

Water’s Edge Partnership hopes to plant missional communities across the entire Chesapeake Bay, and beyond (like Myrtle Beach and Florida). Boaters are mobile and they don’t stay in one location. Neither does our ministry – we go with them. So, if we leave Maryland waters and go to Virginia, are we Baltimore-Washington Conference or Virginia Conference? The Bay has a larger coastline than the entire West Coast of the United States, and includes within it’s waters 4 separate Conferences and 2 jurisdictions. Phew.

There has got to be a way.

Good news! I am discovering very Spirit led Conference leaders as they grapple with how to name and claim this ministry plant. The first way we tried was by establishing Water’s Edge Partnership as an Extension Ministry. As you probably know there are a few concepts around the Extension Ministry status that works for this whole missional community church plant. First off, an extension ministry is not limited to one Conference and can spread as far as it’s mission allows. Second, it is squarely aimed at ministry outside the walls of the local, existing church.

But alas, extension ministry was denied by the Committee on Extension Ministry of the Board of Ordained Ministry in the Virginia Conference. The Conference couldn’t see how an extension ministry could be allowed to establish a new church start. What part would the Bishop and Cabinet play in deciding where the new church start would be located?

Although I have some issues with that “boxed-up” philosophy, the goal is to press on and find another way to connect a missional community within our United Methodist system. (I remain a fan of this approach, in case you didn’t catch on! My understanding is that the Bishop and Cabinet would be playing the same role as they do now. The Spirit leads, we discuss and the Bishop rules.)

There are two other ways I can see a missional community following the structural guidelines of the UMC.

1. Attach ourselves as a new church start with one particular Conference, and as each group begins, establish communication and requests for “new church start” status in the next Conference. The drawback to this approach is it requires a lot of paperwork, Conference relationship maintenance, and meetings! (Red tape at each step.)
2. Attach ourselves to one church as the parent church and become an arm of ministry – something like the Missional Communities arm. In other words, see it either as a multi-site establishment or as a missionary outreach with a mobile community. The problem will come when we serve Holy Communion or Baptize!

In effect, there is no perfect solution. Instead it is finding a “bandaid approach” which spans the geography and allows the Missional Community to be encouraged while being fully United Methodist. In that approach, I believe Conferences will have to be completely encouraging of their entrepreneurial pastors and lay persons, while they communicate with their Boards and committees the value of finding a way. The church needs exponential movements of the Spirit – and bold, new leadership for a renewal.

Part 3 coming when I have time! (Climbing over the wall of our concept and theology for pastoral authority and division between laity and clergy.)

Seals team training.

I’ve been reading a Seal Team 6 book. Walls are to be breached, with the mission at hand! Let me jump over some walls and describe a bit of what I see as a missional church plant, and the walls to getting there.

Our mission is to create missional communities, otherwise known as “church.”

The two best online places describing missional communities as a practical theology of church (ecclesiology) are: Neil Cole’s work with the Church Multiplication Network and Ed Stetzer’s writing on the Missional Manifesto. And, I would recommend a book, Launching Missional Communities – see the b0ok’s thesis statement here.

I would propose this objective of the missional community as a form of organizing a new church plant:

To be organically created together by the Spirit and to be missionally minded about working for God’s purposes in the world. Practically speaking, it is to gather a bunch of people about the size of an extended family and impact the world through Christ’s call, passion, and mission.

This bunch of people you would usually gather are those not in church on a Sunday morning! And it means you can’t be in church on a Sunday morning, at least most of the time, either. In other words, the ones you are gathering probably don’t think very positively about church and may not have really considered the demand a relationship with Jesus might put on everyday life. But by plugging them into a “missional community” rather than a church with walls and buildings and set programs, you can quickly release the community to experience and go with Jesus – no red tape allowed.

Most missional communities seem to start with 2 or 3 people. It’s small, mobile, tactical, and lightning fast! As the group grows, it stays tactical and lightning fast. What does that mean? There are no committee meetings or approval systems. The group hangs out together, ideas naturally crop up, and people say, “Well, why not! Let’s do it!” Many argue, and I would be one of them, that this real church at it’s best, based around the early, New Testament church model.

What would make this missional community a “United Methodist church or charge”?

Theologically speaking, developing missional communities was John Wesley’s method. He called it a “Class.” They were serious about caring for the poor, orphan and widow, as well as learning and becoming disciples. He would not have called the “Class” a church, and resisted the Methodist movement of discipleship and mission becoming a separate entity or church from the Anglican Church.

The question is before the United Methodist church on how we can reclaim some of that tension in seeing the world as our parish, the priority of disciple transformation, and rethink how we define what a church actually is.

In the United Methodist Church we define a local church this way:

“The local church provides the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs. It is a community of true believers under the Lordship of Christ. It is the redemptive fellowship in which the Word of God is preached by persons divinely called and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christ’s own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, the church exists for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers, and the redemption of the world.” (The United Methodist Book of Discipline, 2008, Part V, Section 1, ¶201, p. 133)

Does a “missional community” provide an arena for disciple making? Yes. Is it a community of true believers under the Lordship of Christ? Yes.

Is it a redeeming fellowship? Yes.Let me elaborate. Guess what? American communities are missing ingredients of fun and care, even in the best of them, when Christ is not honored. The boat-hood where we live is feeling the transformation power of Jesus who brings individuals into a healing and loving sort of community. Personally, I’ve been surrounded by a “redeeming fellowship” (the local church) for so long, that I forgot the difference it does actually make. Missional communities of unchurched people experience that for the first time, and gosh do they notice the difference.

Sacraments? Yes. Preaching? Maintenance of worship? Worship may look quite different and may include prayer as people dish out food to a hungry person. It may include the words, “May God bless you today as a blanket is handed to a homeless man. It might be in offering Christ’s wisdom about a family relationship as the group shares breakfast. Or it might be holy conversation with a group aboard someone’s boat. But, yes, it adores and worships Christ as Lord and Savior, Leader, Creator, Helper, and Healer.

A missional community is the church as defined by the United Methodist Church because it follows Jesus first, and practices as John Wesley organized for mission and “scriptural holiness.”

Structures in the United Methodist Church Which Hinder (aka, walls to clear)

So … what are the walls in the United Methodist Church keeping missional communities from being planted? Here are three.

1. The structure itself and how to “classify” a missional community which are able to jump Conferences in a single bound!
2. Old perceptions of “what defines church”? (Don’t we all want to be a mega-church, in one location?)
3. Our practicing division (not necessarily theological division) between laity and clergy.

More in Part 2.

Have you ever wanted a quiet, sane moment just sipping Hot Chocolate rather than figuring out what to do next to reach unchurched folks? Or worse yet, writing another report for the Conference? Rev. Fred Decker shared an interesting graph with me recently. It’s the graph of missionary encounters as the missionary travels from uni-cultural to bi-cultural.

The missionary walks into a foreign field of mission with the eyes of someone coming from a certain culture and expectations (uni-cultural). At first, it’s a raucous adventure, almost as if they are Tarzan learning to swing from the vines!

“Tarzan,” deep within and sometimes below the conscious level, buys the story that all cultures are good and basically follow the same laws of decency and values, right? Frank said, “Well they’re brand new to this place, and we call this phase of ministry, “being a tourist”.” Operating at tourist level, they explore the outer levels of humanity and systems while peering in but not adopting or adapting with the culture.

Tourist? What will it take to be “a local”? They were called to join Jesus in bringing something new to birth. Time to move on buddy.

At some point, “Tarzan” realizes this isn’t “his” jungle anymore and he doesn’t really “call the shots” (God does) and the new “rules” can be a bitter pill to swallow. The graph begins a downward descent. The missionary “family” begins feeling the stress and pull of doing something quite different; of leaving home; of dealing with institutions and rules; of hitting obstacles and misunderstandings; of financing the operation and other day to day struggles; and sometimes, questioning if this will “really” work.

About halfway down the plummet to the point Frank calls “crisis point”, there is a bi-secting line. I think this is the line which cuts to the missionary’s (church planter’s) marrow. That line? Emphatically or quietly, it’s the same. “I want to go home.” (I want to go back to what I was doing before like Peter following the crucifixion.)

Now, that’s “text book.” Let me get personal for a minute.

I hit that line a few months ago. I think maybe our Board members did too.

I was tired of dealing with crap from the institution, of being told one thing and having actions be another. I was tired of the docks and the “life” of people whose idea of life is to party all the time. I was tired of the confined spaces and trying to figure out alternative ways to have “family times” (because most of my family seems to get seasick). Mid-summer, I was already dreading the winter and especially the wind and being stuck inside cramped quarters. I was tired. I couldn’t see much from a positive light. The mission field became overwhelming: “How am I supposed to reach all 4000 of these people? I don’t see the way.”

“I want to go home.” If you’ve been out there beyond those church walls, I’ll bet my last dollar that you’ve felt something similar.

Here’s where the Navy Seals and “hot chocolate” come in.

To last in this kind of ministry, you and I need a Navy Seals understanding of mission. I think Jesus was a Navy Seal! Do you remember how the mission and his people mattered more than his life?

After spending four days – no correction. After barely surviving the unimaginable tests of survival in the Seals Training aptly named “Hell Week” and suffering with severe hypothermia (literally close to death), the recruit was tempted by his instructor,

“‘Have a cup of this hot chocolate.’
I held it in my hand. It was warm. . . . [the instructor rationalized with me,]‘Go over there and ring that damn bell. Get this over. I’ll let you drink that hot chocolate. Put you in this warm ambulance. Wrap you up in a thick blanket. And you don’t have to put up with this anymore.’

I looked over at the bell. It would be that easy. All I have to do is pull that mother three times. I thought about the heated ambulances with blankets and hot chocolate. Then I caught myself. Wait a minute. I’m not thinking clearly. That’s quitting.

“Hooyah, Instructor Stoneclam.” I gave him back his hot chocolate.

Handing him back that cup of hot chocolate was the hardest thing I’d ever done. Let me go back and freeze while I get my nuts kicked some more.” Seal Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper by Howard E. Wasdin & Stephen Templin, AmazonKindle version.

This Navy Seal in training learned first hand what’s said in the Bible: Once a man puts his hand to the plow, never look back. (see Luke 9:62) Move forward in belief that God is enough.

“Deprived of support in our environment and the support of our own bodies, the only thing propping us up was our belief in accomplishing the mission . . . Even when the mission seems impossible, it is the strength of our belief that makes success possible. The absence of this belief guarantees failure. . . . Believing allows us to see the goal (complete Hell Week) and break the goal down into more manageable objectives . . . Thinking too much about what happened and what is about to happen will wear you down. Live in the moment and take one step at a time.” Seal Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (1 Corinthians 12:9, NIV) Fellow missionaries and church planters: “Hooyah.”

Does our organization help or hinder?

My people ask this question of the church: Why do you have to make life so hard for regular people? Why all of the gridlock?

They don’t like the way we “do business.”

Guess what? The Church planter needs to laugh more than worry!

Although I understand the need for order out of chaos, church has become a “Type A” place, filled with boring meetings, and anal about some things.

It’s part of the Church Planters job to figure out the difference between bare-bones necessary and anal, and ask “does this prevent Christ from moving?”

I am learning not to care so much about the structure, as I do the aliveness factor. I want to hear laughter and joy bubbling through everything we do. I want there to be less intensity and gritting of teeth, and more of wonder and hallelujahs. I want that, because I believe Christ wants it!

Repercussions for the church planter: If it can’t get done this week, then don’t spin into a frenzy trying to make it happen. God must not need it done this week! If it’s distracting you from following Christ in your “main disciple job” with Him this week, let it go!

Do less, not more. As you’re doing less, ask yourself this question: Is this thing on my plate simply to dot an “i” for the “church business” OR … does it really affect people’s lives I am being sent by Christ to touch?

Stay in the Spirit, light-hearted with a gleam in your eye.

Here are questions I’d like to ask my people as we go forward with developing this new church:

• What fills your heart with laughter?
• What is one way we can keep a flow of laughter in everything we do?
• How can we take ourselves less seriously, and focus upon Christ’s movement (rather than organization) as our primary shaping factor?
• What is one check-in question we could ask in a meeting which would remind us of Jesus’ joy?
• How are we doing at celebrating?

I found this recently in the archives of the Baltimore-Washington Conference’s website (www.bwumc.org).

“”Lighten up, loosen up, and have a little fun,” Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton from the Pittsburgh Area, told the ordinands and those being commissioned in a sermon during the service.

Too many people today sleep too tight, are too intense and unhappy in the way they live, he said. Likewise too many churches today are the same way: too intense, skeptical and afraid. Too many pastors, people and churches have become mechanical and indifferent.

Bickerton encouraged the new pastors to do as John Wesley did,  ”He walked out of his high steeple and got his hands dirty where the people were. We’ve talked too long about our (United Methodist) demise,” he said. “Culture has more influence on the church than the church has on culture. But God wants us to loosen up.”

To loosen up doesn’t diminish the call of the clergy or the ministry of the laity, the bishop said. “You have been entrusted with a gift, the gift of your call, to nourish and carry on faithfully. Today is a day to celebrate that you said ‘yes’ to the call and the joy you feel inside.”

Bickerton further instructed the ordinands and those being commissioned, “In the midst of chaos and uncertainty, aim for perfection, be of one mind, and live in peace,” as Paul directed in 2 Corinthians.

The bishop told of his friend and district superintendent who recently suffered a severe stroke and doctors discovered a massive tumor on his brain. After surgery and intensive care for several days, the man slowly began to gain consciousness, and faces a long recovery. “I encouraged him to draw on the faith stored up in his own body,” Bickerton said.

Like his friend, the bishop said, we are prisoners in our own bodies, struck by an inability to make disciples for transforming the world. “There’s a disconnect inside. We’re biblically illiterate and joy-challenged. We lie paralyzed in the midst of it all.”

Turning directly to the ordinands and probationers, he said, “This is what you’re walking into, where you’re being called. You’re not here to maintain the machinery of the church. We need to transform the church, to lead in the name of Jesus Christ.”

One day, as Bishop Bickerton sat at the bedside of his friend, deep in a coma, the doctor pounded on the man’s chest and shouted, “Wake up, Lamar, squeeze my hand.”

Lamar did. The doctor said not to be afraid to “get loud” with him, “to get this guy awake.”

“Maybe that will work today,” Bickerton said, and shouted over and over into the audience, “Hey church, wake up! Wake up!”

Then turning to the Class of 2008, he said, “Hey church, trust the gift God has entrusted in your care.”

–> Read Questions to Ask a Church, Part 1 here.

At what point does someone become Christian - permanently?

My brothers and sisters have been engaging a question about Conversion. Read the article, Mission Frontiers: Are There Church Planting Movements in North Amercia?

1. We are not seeing the conversion growth rate that Church Planting Movements are seeing in other parts of the world. This is true, but I question if that is cause to disqualify what is happening as a CPM. While I would wish that we would see more conversions, we are in a country where the predominant faith of the people is Christian. That has to change the way we view CPMs in the US when compared to nations where the gospel is a new idea introduced to a people with centuries of bondage to false ideas. While I am not really wanting a renewal movement as much as a true spiritual awakening of lost people, I for one, am not going to tell Christians that they cannot join us. To see the conversion growth rate found in China or India we would have to exclude Christians from joining the movement, and that is not healthy or realistic.
Neil Cole writes, founder of Church Multiplication Associates

What do you think? Is America saturated with people claiming to be, or to once have been, Christians? Have they already been baptized? I find that to be largely, but not exclusively of course, true.

But I think the question is missed. Of course, the United Methodist Church along with many others has viewed “conversion” as that once baptized time, and consequently (since something has to be counted), they count baptisms or professions of faith.

However, perhaps this is one of those “Do what I say, not what I do” situations. Our theology speaks differently. United Methodist theology, founded upon John Wesley’s understanding of salvation, knows faith as an ongoing process of salvation, and that justifying faith although a moment … is also repeated again and again.

Here is the question missed: Can conversion happen more than once? When someone does not practice the faith, even though baptized and claiming that faith previously, some would say they actually never were quite converted. A United Methodist, however, understands faith as an active process that can be left by the wayside … and that someone can actually lose their salvation. They left the journey when they quit practicing active faith.

Can then conversion be seen as an act of Christ for that person when they repent and turn around from non-practicing faith to actively seeking faith? Can a non-practicing Christian whose heart becomes strangely warmed and faith becomes active in their life through that experience with Christ be converted – again? I would argue this is conversion – conversion from what was to what is – from inactive to active – from dead faith to live faith.

(Talking about doing business with China) “Patience is a virtue .”

(Talking with a fellow church planter about sharing Jesus with a skeptic) “If you’re going to win, win at loving like Jesus.” and later, (Focus and show God’s greatness where you are currently) “We want to display God’s greatness so well, that others invite us to come where they are . . . ” [rather than making a plan of all the churches we're going to plant.]

(Talking about finding a job) “It’s hard to have confidence when you’ve been told you can’t do this.”

(Talking about the water taxi) “It was warmer today and I stayed warm.”

(Talking about healing) “We’ll be here for a few more weeks.”

(Talking about life without a car) “Do you know a place to get LPG?” (and how will I get there?)

(Talking about allergies) “I haven’t had any problem for 5 years, but all of the sudden this year, it’s awful for me.”

I’m thankful for each conversation. That’s really all networking is – caring about people and hearing God whisper through them.

Does our organization help or hinder?

My people work and live perfectly happily outside of church! In fact, they are not interested in church. I should modify that somewhat: They are not interested in church the way they know “our” church (global church). But they have very good reasons.

Over the next several articles, I’d like to share what I’m hearing and what ramifications I believe it may have for the way we go about creating a new church community that’s quite different.

They choose not to go to church because of . . .

. . . The way we organize . . .

They call us “organized religion,” meaning they are suspicious of how our organized part can actually put distance between a real Jesus and people with tough situations. They equate “organized religion” with less than personal interactions and see “organized religion” acting more like a business structure than as a walk with Christ. They are quick to pick up on the tension between how people want to be loved and how they are treated in sometimes unloving ways by a bigger “organization.”

The one hypocrisy meter they all seem to value is this:

* Did someone get hurt?
* Is our way of organizing keeping us from being responsive, and especially quickly responsive, in “doing the right thing” for that person?

I’ve discovered that people outside of church are sometimes better at discerning what actions of an organization are more loving like Jesus than the church is sometimes able to grasp hold of as a group. (Just my opinion folks. Sorry if that makes anyone upset.)

That’s not an indictment of church. But it does invite some tough questions and heavy consideration of change.

In light of this, I’m looking for a way to ask my newly forming community these kinds of questions:

• What is it about “organized religion” that we should avoid as a new church community?
• How can we grapple with complex issues and complex opinions on those issues, and still remain loving 100% of the time like Christ?
• How can we create something together immediately responsive, or almost immediately responsive, to needs?
• What would worship look like that is not “organized” but does lead people to a deep connection with Christ?
• What would church look like that is not “organized” in a bad way? What guideposts should be heeded?

Maybe you have better formed questions to ask? Please share with us!

Perhaps there's a different way of "constructing" a church?

I attended a Northern Virginia Board of Missions meeting yesterday and it was one of the most exciting meetings I’ve ever attended! The people around the table were “normal” people – i.e. not some super-pastor who has the awe and funding to do anything he or she wants to do.

What was so exciting? The questions they were willing to struggle with, primarily,

“What would church look like if a ‘not-in-church-but-spiritual-person’ were creating it?”

We tend to poll our church attenders about what they think their “non-churched” friends would say. Willow Creek Community Church is famous for starting their church and worship after polling door to door about their neighbor’s desires, life and needs. But that information is largely older, and I would say their questions were formulated around a concept already in mind about church, and a needs based model of ministry. Are those assumptions really good assumptions to start polling from?

Now, we are three generations out from having a memorable “church” background. Perhaps it gives us an opportunity to challenge our assumptions about church in a more radical way? Many of us, including Water’s Edge Partnership, have taken on a more incarnational approach to church and ministry.

One way to be “incarnational” with Jesus, and get out of our proverbial box, is to ask a great question: What are your  needs? Our assumption is that Christ will meet your needs. Thus, how can we meet Christ at the intersection of your needs and our actions to be relevant to people’s needs and life? This forms our design then of how to be in ministry, or how to be a “good” church meeting the needs of people.

But a slightly different approach to incarnational ministry is to be more focused upon how Christ is in the midst of and forming an entire community. What if our assumptions about people’s needs being primary to “getting them to church” is not the proper starting point? What if Christ’s question is not, “What are your needs?” (and then our emphasis is not an approach out of Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs) but rather “Where do you experience holiness in your life?” “Can you see Christ in your world?”

I’ve been suspecting lately that “the church as we know it” has created a sub-culture which “people not choosing church” don’t want any part of. They experience something not quite “holy.” I think they can taste something not quite right.

Even in our social agency approach to church – homeless shelters, feeding the hungry, educating, etc. – we have perhaps formed groups of action rather than groups of inviting Christ into our community. And because it is a good thing to serve people, we get a little goose bump and call that “good enough.” But what if that’s only a starting point of recognizing what Christ is doing in our midst? What if Christ’s purpose is to form real, genuine and long-lasting community which includes those persons of need into a healing community of people? What if it’s not episodic, but covenant bearing, to use our “church” language?

I’ve been trained in church growth theories. And, I used to think barriers were erected by our (inside church) language or worship style or lack of hospitality and irrelevant preaching. That must be what kept people away!

Jesus walked into already established communities of people and simply spoke. I don’t recall a place where Jesus invited people into a church building. It also doesn’t appear that Christ started with the needs of the people as the basis for his ministry. He simply showed up – albeit in unexpected places!

Lately, we seem to be starting a church with the needs around us, or experiences of the past, or a really good program.

This is the way church has started in the past for United Methodists, broadly speaking . . .

• Let’s send a pastor to invite people into a new church. (Because people will want a new church.)
• Let’s build a building where people can gather. (Because we need a big place to meet.)
• Let’s get teams set-up who can set-up and run our weekly worship (We need, and people want, greeters, bulletins, music, things for kids, parking, money counters, etc.)
• Let’s advertise so people will come to our place (We need to look cool and “broadcast our message out”)
• Let’s get some formal meetings together so we can make collective decisions. (We need a vehicle to vote and decide.)

What if we just started with a community which already exists instead? In my experience, people care and respond to people’s needs, whether they are in church or not. (I know there are exceptions! In general, people’s needs are revealed and met however.)

I would propose that incarnational ministry is walking into already formed communities and bringing the intentionality of seeing Jesus already there. It’s different than the way we currently think of church, or have “started” a new church. Perhaps even calling it a “church plant” indicates more our action than Christ’s presence? Is church or worship as we know it (whether traditional or contemporary) even the right “box” to start our tweaking with? Is the worship event representing Christ’s way?

I’m going to try to put into words what I hear from my “spiritual-but-not-attending-church” friends – so that we could build from the ground up with Christ. I’ve been hearing from people mid 40′s to 70′s, largely with very little church background. This has not been a scientific study, but a starting point in discovering how people describe their journey of faith and how to share together with a Christ who is already present.

Join the dialogue – if these are questions you are asking as well.

Redeemer Presbyertian Church believes in partnering among denominations without diminishing the Gospel.

Can you imagine a denominational church unconcerned with “getting the credit” for planting a new church? A denominational church unconcerned with its rules and more concerned with a church planting … No, let me rephrase that … a church multiplication purpose? I’ve discovered one. It’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

I’ve recently been discouraged with the United Methodist Church and their shortsightedness in the Gospel. They are less like Paul and more like a huge elephant who can’t move so fast. But it gives me hope when I read about a large denominational church who started with 30 people, grew to thousands, and the senior pastor still mentors church planters personally. And the senior pastor’s philosophy is to give what they do away – because if more churches are planted in the cities of the world, the more Christians there are, and the greater impact Christ has in the life and culture of the city.

That’s a real church planter – more concerned about people knowing Jesus than in who gets credit for it.

Here’s what Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, has said.

“The only way to increase the number and percentage of Christians in a city is to plant thousands of new churches.” — Tim Keller in Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers by Ed Stetzer & Warren Bird

Redeemer has just renamed their Center for Church Planting with free resources to “City to City” and I love their slogan: “Love Your City to Life.”

Tonight I am praying for denominations, including the United Methodist Church, to hear Jesus’ voice in a leader like Tim Keller: We have a gospel purpose to plant thousands of churches – together. Let the Spirit move. Let Church Planters challenge ‘the system’ as we know it … so that God can use the United Methodist Church.