Go Microchurch Go!

TheOoze Community - Make Way for the Microchurch!

I was going through my aol address book and came across a friend from Gainesville. I dropped her a note about life and she was quick to reply. She to is part of a church plant, only in NY. Newly married, she gave an overview of her life with work etc... It was really good to hear from her. Since she is 'planting', I wrote her again but this time in more depth about what God is doing with our group. I told her how we, as a church, are growing in a different style. Our thoughts and experiences on what the Church has become is shaping us. We want to be more and more how Jesus meant for the Church to be. Discipleship not only with new Christians but also with each other, discipline in the old traditions like the contemplative life and meditation, family in the bigger sense, communion and fellowship with believers and unbelievers, and last but not least, worship. These are the things God has us focusing on for now. My hope in saying all this to her is that God will awaken a desire for newness and change in her and maybe their church plant as well. I'll let you know what her reply is. Fun stuff!!

Tonight, Amber and I went to Starbucks (Lord, forgive me) to finish off a date night. Although I hate their coffee, this particular shop has a wonderful atmosphere. It is much more 'worn' than the average Starbucks which now seem to look too much alike. This one is older and is in a small bay in a small strip mall (the one on Military past PGA). Anyway, I can remember a few years ago stopping into this store to get coffee with Amber's parents and wondering "Gee, wouldn't be cool to have a church that looked like this."

Well, that was a long time ago. Now I realize that just repacking church as we knew it into a trendy, postmodern package is like your grandfather getting a nose ring. He's still your Grandpa, now he just looks silly. But as we were sitting around drinking tea, eating a molasses cookie, and dreaming about mission, a thought came to mind that deserves blogging. It has to do with image - what the church projects to the world as what it and God thinks is important.

Consider this question: "What does the church say to the world through its activities?" Take traditional evangelism programs for example. They generally tell the world, "Christianity means ascribing to the correct set of beliefs, like the 'Four Spiritual Laws', and God is most concerned that you say the 'sinner's prayer' above all else." The preeminence of the Sunday service says, "Come away from the real world, into our little controlled environment, for a 1 to 2 hour religious exercise where we participate in activities that resemble nothing else in our day-to-day lives."

What if our activities spoke things like, "God is, above all else, concerned that you do not know his love for you." Or, "God's very nature is creative. Humans should learn to participate in that creativity in healthy, productive ways." Or, "The church is a place where community is more than a buzzword. We actually experience relationships that last forever." As we begin to pray and sense God's call towards a corporate mission, let's consider what our activities 'preach' to the people we are being sent to. Maybe we will be known, like the early church, for being ones who care for widows and orphans, love the unloved, live as examples of God's grace, and present a community that expresses God's nature.

I have had lots of things running around in my mind for awhile. I sat down to talk to God about all of them and in order to help me get organized, I wrote them all out. It was really amazing to see how God is working in my life on many levels with the same theme in mind. I am learning that growth is occurring when I make the choice to continue a certain discipline whether I feel like it or not and whether I feel like I am growing from it or enjoying it at all. A marathon is finished with a start and a goal and many long steps in between where you don't feel like you are getting anywhere. Even in those steps that you are bored with or tired of, you are still moving and becoming different along the way.

In addition to this, God has really been talking to me about painting. I really don't know how to start, but I know that I need to be engaged in a sort of artistic expression as part of my inward journey. I was thinking the other day, that God is the most creative Presence known, and if we as his children are learning to be more like him, shouldn't we be allowing ourselves to be discipled in this area also? Something that I just thought was a fun hobby or a pasttime, I have come to see as something that is intergal to my inward journey. Almost as worship unto the Lord. A totally intimate experience, where I am just me before the Lord and he is so much of him, and we together create something. I am excited to try. I will let you all know how it goes.

As far as my outward journey goes, I am psyched about starting a mom's group here in my neighborhood. I really want to allow God to change me as I go outside my comfort zone, as well as live my life with others in a meaningful, practical way. I think I always thought that to be engaged in a mission meant that I got on a plane and went overseas, or that I went to a soup kitchen and volunteered. (not that these are not meaningful missions, they are to be sure!) God is teaching me that something as simple as a mom's group can be a meaningful mission for the sake of the world. I am making the flyer and distributing it within the next two weeks and hope to have my first group mid March. I let you all know how it turns out!

I ran across this prayer this morning in that Celtic prayer book I have. I think it's a great example of what the inward / outward journey looks like.

Lord,
There are times when I need to be an island,
Set in an infinite sea
Cut off from all that comes to me
But surrounded still by thee
Times of quiet and peace
When traffic and turmoil cease
When I can be still and worship thee
Lord of the land and sea.
Full tide and ebb tide
Let life rhythms flow
Ebb tide, full tide
How life's beat must go.

Lord,
I must be part of the mainland,
A causeway between me and others.
There are times when I can only find thee
In working with my brothers.
Times of business and industry
Freeing ourselves from captivity.
It's when we give a helping hand
We meet you, Lord of sea and land.
Ebb tide, full tide
Let life rhythms flow
Full tide and ebb tide
How life's beat must go.

As a follow up to our discussion on Wednesday night about the sabbath and the law, I thought this was and interesting (and exciting) promise! Jesus is cool...

Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

This is a great article from theooze.com about the priesthood of the believer (or lack thereof). It's called "Superman is Dead" - referring to modernist pastors (and I'm no superman).

TheOoze Community

Check this quote: "Are we seeking to recreate Disney World or establish the Kingdom of God?"

I had an interesting (yet depressing) conversation today with some people whose church has just closed down. They were describing how difficult it is to visit other churches and make any reasonable evaluation of if they would 'fit' there. After all, how do you determine anything of weight beyond "I liked the worship" or "The preacher was not boring" by showing up to one Sunday service. It was kind of sad - like they were orphans. Maybe we should open a 'church adoption agency'.

Anyway, I started to wonder if the issues involved in finding a church are really signifiganly deeper than what people normally discuss. An average conversation about church usually revolves around the quality of what is going on up front, how the kids were treated, or how many 'needs' a particular church meets. However, I wonder if people were completely transparent in their evaluation of church if they would lay down those external evaluations? Maybe the litmus test would involve investigating if authentic community was happening in that church. Or if mission was more than a buzzword or a program? Maybe these evaluations took months instead of showing up to a few services. Hey, this is really starting to sound like adoption, isn't it? That certainly doesn't happen quickly.

I'm just glad to be alive and church planting.

Just my luck. I get all signed up at blogger.com, start messing around with things, and the site goes down. Well, I'm just going to start working on some posts.

Well now. This is interesting. I feel a little giddy, actually, posting to a brand, spanking new blog. If you're not quite sure what a blog is, you're about to find out. Be prepared to have unloaded on your mind everything printable (maybe) that flows through the minds of a few folks associated with whatischurch.com. I'm Mike. You'll meet the others later. Until then, let's get blogging!