Our God is a God of beginnings. There is in him no redundancy or circularity. Thus, if his church wants to be faithful to his revelation, it will be completely mobile, fluid, renascent, bubbling, creative, inventive, adventurous, and imaginative. (Jacques Ellul)
I’d like to introduce to you a fellowship of believers that is breaking all the rules of traditional “church.”…………. to the horror of many and to the delight of a few. A church that is mobile: that has no central building to meet in once a week. It meets in homes, restaurants, the park, one on one, at a senior’s home, the home of lonely people, and so on. It meets to discuss, to pray, to laugh, to eat, to share, to worship, to encourage, to plan, to sing, to teach, to reach out, to admonish, to impart…… to learn. A fellowship that can meet to sing and pray one week and the next can meet with a lonely senior and the following week is on the beach fellowshipping with one another. It can show up at a traditional service as well as work side by side with those who have a desire to reach out. In this way the well worn out cliché “being the church” takes on real meaning.
A church that is fluid. Like the floating lands in C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra, it can respond to needed change. It can respond to the changes that occur all around us. It can be comfortable worshipping God at sunrise on Easter morning as well as entering a bar to have a beer with a non Christian friend. (It can change its own order and look to new ways of church forms, mission and being the church with one another. It is a church that is as comfortable square dancing and celebrating as it is worshipping awe and reverence. It can embark in transforming programs (as needed) as well as seeking rest and refreshing. It can cancel it’s meetings as well as add a few for a season ……. It takes a while to get used to the floating lands but once you do there is no returning to the fixed lands………
A church that is renascent. A church is made to be birthed and to be re-birthed again. A church is not made to be institutional nor traditional. It is made to listen to the voice of God. Neither is it an entity that is perfect. It resembles more the marks of the Spirit. He blows this way and that. You hear the sound of Him, but don’t know where He is going or where He has come from….. so it is true of them who are of the Spirit. Renewal goes way beyond morality (morality is actually a dirty word in scripture). It is a deeper renewal…. Renewal of the heart. Renewal of the heart certainly brings renewal everywhere it goes. Listen to Elizabeth O’Connor…. “We would say that the church of Christ is never an experiment, but wherever that church is true to it’s mission it will be experimenting, pioneering, blazing new paths, seeking how to speak the reconciling Word of God to it’s own age….. It cannot do this if it is held captive to the structures of another day or is slave to it’s own structure.”
A church that is bubbling. Bubbling brings to mind many things but perhaps the thing that I think of most is “the joy of expectancy.” Having spoken with many people in former churches, there is often a sadness in the tone of their voices as they have admitted to me that church was better at the beginning. “We were smaller and it felt more like a family.” There was also a sense of expectancy. The programs had not yet become redundant. There was a looseness, a vibrancy. Because it was small, relationships became important and primary and programs secondary. But as the church grew larger a shift took place. Programs became more important. Relationships, secondary. The influence of the Wind disappeared and predictability replaced it. Domestication replaced wildness.
A church that is creative, inventive, adventurous, imaginative.
Creative: something out of nothing
New
Renewal
Inventive: new
Rearranging
Creative
Adventurous: risk
Daring
No maps
Journey
Wild
Wind-like
Imaginative: dreaming
Painting a picture
A church that embraces all the above.
Meet a church that is seeking to live outside the walls…… meet a church that is seeking to know it’s God……. A church that is focusing on relationships and learning to be family…… a church that is seeking to become mature and encouraging the mature to fly and leave the nest (present fellowship) and begin new fellowships or ministries. A church that stands in solidarity with the poor, the widow, the orphan….. a church that loves to get together to eat, fellowship, pray, discuss scripture, learn the cross life, argue with each other….. A church where it is safe to share our fears and sins…… A church that has no building……. A church that feels like home yet is on a journey, where community is as important as mission and mission as important as community…. A church that is daily learning to count the cost.
We are not that church but with God’s help and grace we seek to be all the above and more. This is our journey. zuzu@mts.net
I’d like to introduce to you a fellowship of believers that is breaking all the rules of traditional “church.”…………. to the horror of many and to the delight of a few. A church that is mobile: that has no central building to meet in once a week. It meets in homes, restaurants, the park, one on one, at a senior’s home, the home of lonely people, and so on. It meets to discuss, to pray, to laugh, to eat, to share, to worship, to encourage, to plan, to sing, to teach, to reach out, to admonish, to impart…… to learn. A fellowship that can meet to sing and pray one week and the next can meet with a lonely senior and the following week is on the beach fellowshipping with one another. It can show up at a traditional service as well as work side by side with those who have a desire to reach out. In this way the well worn out cliché “being the church” takes on real meaning.
A church that is fluid. Like the floating lands in C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra, it can respond to needed change. It can respond to the changes that occur all around us. It can be comfortable worshipping God at sunrise on Easter morning as well as entering a bar to have a beer with a non Christian friend. (It can change its own order and look to new ways of church forms, mission and being the church with one another. It is a church that is as comfortable square dancing and celebrating as it is worshipping awe and reverence. It can embark in transforming programs (as needed) as well as seeking rest and refreshing. It can cancel it’s meetings as well as add a few for a season ……. It takes a while to get used to the floating lands but once you do there is no returning to the fixed lands………
A church that is renascent. A church is made to be birthed and to be re-birthed again. A church is not made to be institutional nor traditional. It is made to listen to the voice of God. Neither is it an entity that is perfect. It resembles more the marks of the Spirit. He blows this way and that. You hear the sound of Him, but don’t know where He is going or where He has come from….. so it is true of them who are of the Spirit. Renewal goes way beyond morality (morality is actually a dirty word in scripture). It is a deeper renewal…. Renewal of the heart. Renewal of the heart certainly brings renewal everywhere it goes. Listen to Elizabeth O’Connor…. “We would say that the church of Christ is never an experiment, but wherever that church is true to it’s mission it will be experimenting, pioneering, blazing new paths, seeking how to speak the reconciling Word of God to it’s own age….. It cannot do this if it is held captive to the structures of another day or is slave to it’s own structure.”
A church that is bubbling. Bubbling brings to mind many things but perhaps the thing that I think of most is “the joy of expectancy.” Having spoken with many people in former churches, there is often a sadness in the tone of their voices as they have admitted to me that church was better at the beginning. “We were smaller and it felt more like a family.” There was also a sense of expectancy. The programs had not yet become redundant. There was a looseness, a vibrancy. Because it was small, relationships became important and primary and programs secondary. But as the church grew larger a shift took place. Programs became more important. Relationships, secondary. The influence of the Wind disappeared and predictability replaced it. Domestication replaced wildness.
A church that is creative, inventive, adventurous, imaginative.
Creative: something out of nothing
New
Renewal
Inventive: new
Rearranging
Creative
Adventurous: risk
Daring
No maps
Journey
Wild
Wind-like
Imaginative: dreaming
Painting a picture
A church that embraces all the above.
Meet a church that is seeking to live outside the walls…… meet a church that is seeking to know it’s God……. A church that is focusing on relationships and learning to be family…… a church that is seeking to become mature and encouraging the mature to fly and leave the nest (present fellowship) and begin new fellowships or ministries. A church that stands in solidarity with the poor, the widow, the orphan….. a church that loves to get together to eat, fellowship, pray, discuss scripture, learn the cross life, argue with each other….. A church where it is safe to share our fears and sins…… A church that has no building……. A church that feels like home yet is on a journey, where community is as important as mission and mission as important as community…. A church that is daily learning to count the cost.
We are not that church but with God’s help and grace we seek to be all the above and more. This is our journey. zuzu@mts.net
posted by Frank at
8:41 AM
