Endless Journey

Someone once said - There are no Straight lines in creation................... which i thought was an amusing response to some criticisms of our not knowing where we are going or what things will look like.
Another nugget is - we like to have a box - so we know where the corners 'are' when we want to explore them, others who feel they have arrived tend to like a circle to describe their church journey - i rather prefer the straight limne scenario............ a journey with a revelation of Jesus at one end and heaved in fullness at the other - and who know what inbetween.

I have take the bold step of sending some questions out to the folks ive been walking with out of the box for the last 3 years - seemed like a good time to ask some.
Everyone so far has made a big issue out of how they have had to take a whole other level of personal responsibility for their faith having substance and personal responsibility for following jesus - and how doing so has made a significant impact on who they are and where they are going - Not bad for a bunch who havent had a formal 'everyone' get together in the same time and space for over a year!

I know ive said this before - but ill say it again - a friend of mine called sarah once said - we shouldnt be afraid of space, God will bring creation order within the space if we let him - and creation always has 'family' and right relationship a its core.

Its good you know - feeling people are growing up around you, you included, and i have to say, more because of what ive 'not' done as a leader.

What Do You Mean Organic??

Thats was what Alexander from simple church was asked this weekend. "what do you mean when you say organic" - to which he replied................. "i mean, as untouched as possible by human hands - no addtives or preservatives" NUFF SAID!
Oh another nugget i picked up somewhere - i like working with Unchurched (not been handled) and Dechurched (kind of detoxed after they have been handled)

Whats The Fruit

So - Whats The Fruit Of The Apple Tree?
pause for thought
I was at a get together recently and a friend of mine called diane said that she felt God was asking her to not measure herself or where she invests in terms of FRUIT, but instead in terms on reproduction. We can, and do, often measure our 'fixed point of reference activities' in terms of their fruit. I know a great many churches who have 'GROWN' numerically, and some not just by ones and two's. They have seen some very broken people come to a place of living 'fruitfully'. There are often events and initiatives where we can say there either was or was not fruit.
However - measuring something in terms of its fruitfulness may not be how Christ would measure it, particularly in a church climate of ADDITION instead of MULTIPLICATION.
So............ this wonderful lady is looking to her home, and her children, and so investing in them that they become reproducers just as she is a reproducer. You see - we can have fruit, and not fulfill what God is asking of us. I felt it was an important point of reference - we oh so often measure by fruit - after all - it says things will be 'known' by their fruit............... but what if fruit is not the end result?
oh the answer..................... the fruit of an apple tree.................. is another apple tree !!!!
The fact that the fruit is good and edible is neither here nor there, the purpose of the fruit is to sustain the seed as it falls to the ground and enables that seed to grow another tree.
Interesting Eh?

A Comment On Elasticity

I have found that many churches can only come so far towards operating as the Unity which thay already are in Christ, and that there is an innability to go through the necessary decrease of 'what already is' in place that concretes and cements membership loyalty, meets 'front vision raised 'expectations and tribal unity. (you know what - i know its difficult to steer a ship set on one course - but, were only asking people to come in line with the person of Jesus at the end of the day)

Just a comment really.......... peoples elastic seems to have greatly differing lengths - heck, no one has even asked them to cut it! Is it anywonder that one begins to seek out those in Christ who have no elastic?


So - theres this big social reform group in the UK called Shaftesbury Society (go to their web and view the challenging church campaign - its awesome). They have been given total access to church congregations and organisations in two cities. Having looked at voluntry hours, paid hours etc - they see that the church is doing or has the capacity to do far more that the local government to bring change and reform. However, there is terrible duplicity in resources, also a bend towards preferring to work with non christian agencies over other aspects of church (which i can empathise with - probably less politics). The other issue is they are willing, and good at PLUGGING GAPS.............. in fact so good at time and money going into gap plugging, that rarely to they sit down and plan and strategise towards grass ROOTS reforms which could see those areas go throuhg long term changes across the board. So - wasted resources and in fact, a failure to fulfill some aspects of what it means to be Gods government in a place - setting the standard as it were, having answers in Gods genesis creativity to see change come that others dont.

Good news.....the Anglicans seem to be ahead of the game (i think the US equivellant is episcopal) - they seem to be getting engaged in new ways like no one else is - is this because they realise the oild jar is nearly empty - and are willing to risk pouring out their last meal at the prophets call? Could it be that their PAROCHIAL sense of responsibility means they are halfway to seeing CITY and effectively engaging in market place ministry.....
There are 3 - heck - no - 4 leaders networks in my town - the reformed bunch - clappers - evangelicals - apparantly for the city guys too. I tell you - the TRADS are miles ahead in some stuff - totally screwy in some liberalism and conservative polarisation there, but most of their meetings seemed to be about their engagement in CIVIC responsibility, working with Govt agencies etc - the last one of those i was at - get this...... they were lookign to twin the town with a poor village in Rumania, that instead of partnering other middle class holiday exchange places - they wanted to adopt a backwater place to invest and sow into - to covenant with. WOW WOW and WOW Again............. how redemptive is that..and it was the local Govt who approached the church to make it happen.

So - the thing is - we have the resources - the people - the capacity - but it is being expended elsewhere. Thats even more annoying knowing that!

Sibling Rivalry

afriend just reminded me of that phrase - how pre occupied we are with it in our christian family. I often focus on the defecit of spiritula mothers and fathers, i wonder if the issue isnt how much focus we give to having brothers and sisters which stunts our multiplication growth. When we have such singular strong parent figures in the construct, it lends itself to over sensistised awarenss of who we are in the context of our brothers and sister. We beat them over the head with our community ideal of what they should be, how they should be, what they are 'not' to us and perhaps even an awareness of our own failings with our siblings. Trouble is, such and over emphasis on this means we dont grow up - become mothers and fathers and have some spiritual children. i wonder how many of us are surrounded by and preoccupied with the nature and dynamics of our sibling relationships as church.....and all the time fail to have babies. (i tried to make this not sound like incest). Somehow - we need need to have our heads together, partner, and have a conception which results in new children. Oh how i long for us to get 'past' our own needs, our own defecits and at least enable folks who dont know jesus 'yet' to get on the same ladder of introspection - heck - surpass us maybe.
No - really - we need to ensure thatwe dont replace our historical biological dysfunctions of family with a spiritual version with the same dysfunctions and repeating or stuck cycles of innefective relationships which keep us insular and emotionally empty - too empty to ever lieft and stretch out our tentpegs to encompass others.
Sibling rivalry, or deficit, or are your siblings a mirror which reflects something unhelpful tot you concerning you own self. Father - help us grow up - draw us to our feet - to maturity - to a place of parenting spiritual babies of your and our creating.
Amen

Umbilical Flow

Had an epiphany this weekend - if thats the right word - dunno, only ever heard captain hook say it.
I found myself saying to a group:
"i had been invited into a large church elders meeting where they said - our people arent growing up and our cells arent working - so i said - Cut The Umbilical, to which the reply came, 'yes but an umbilical is a good thing'. To which i didnt reply( and so wish id thought if this then - but hey - retrospect and al) but thought recently : An umbilical is good as long as you recognise that whatever the child is tethered to exists only as a support to send life giving oxygen/ and nutrients to the child - its not about something coming back - except maybe a few unwanted toxins but i know nothing about biology. Hey - and then the eventual cutting for healthy independance whether you as mum like it or not."

Unity - A Crippling Charismatics Domain

I once shared my dreams for unity with a national leader - to which he replied: " I dont get the church unity in a town thing, i just dont see the point of even trying, for a start - the revelation for it probably came through the prophetic, most of the prophets who have been given voice are in the charismatic churches, unity will be centred around them, which means every gathering will be heavy on their culture style and trappings................... to the exclusion of many others - So whats the point of bothering?"

Well - exactly - what is the point if thats the scenario

There was a great picture someone shared this weekend in London, that they saw their city full of little lights, like christmas tree lights, but they didnt all come together to make one big light - instead there was these lightening sparks of acitvity between them, causing a connection between them all across the city.
Its not about getting them together - style and culture are unlikely to be the issues.

Its so sad that we think unity can be expressed in some way through our leaders - that if a pastors network exists then we have unity. Or - that because we have found a successfully mediating way to gather lots of different people into the same place for worship and word - unity exists. Start with centred thinking - end with centred thinking. Isnt that one fruit of pastor teacher foundations in the church - that everything gathers in and keeps 'in' - how they love thier gatherings to be visions that something is working or dissapointments that it is not.

Unity happens when we are no longer doing thinsg which keep us separated. Unity already exist in Christ, We ARE UNITY, we just do things - SINFUL things which separate off Gods unity.

When jenny from the tribe of anglican, and tommy from the tribe of pentecostal and fred from the tribe of households can be in their same workplace, not as representatives of the church or elsewhere, but of the church of wherever they are in Christ name and he is with them, that the kingdom is extending because they are not seeing unity as a yet another meeting to pamper them or survive the work place when they are not 'in church of elsewhere'. Then i believe we are seeing the evidence and hopefully the fruit of something much deeper of 'unity' of 'common union' taking place.

If doctrine is where we start - then our great our HUGE understanding of very little - will have undermined much.

Amen

oh - can i put this qoute in in style and stuff:
"We have a tendency to spiritualise our culture to the point that something uttlerly transition becomes spirtually eternal. We need to not hold onto culture which is in constant transition - but we do need to hold onto spiritual truths which are of enternal consequence"

Know of anywhere, anything or anyone where culture has been spiritualised to the point that something in transition has now become a hinderance, a stumbling block cause our flesh has tried to make it of eternal importance?

Bride of Christ or Bride of Frankenstein?

So - bob and mary x move into a new town - fresh from seminary to plant a church (heck, maybe its their 10th church plant but planting what remains to be seen).
They locate a few others - meet in a home, get to 15, split into 2 groups, not everyone is happy with the loss of attachment so they rent a small room in a school for sunday mornings to 'be together' and also have the bonus of new found visibility. Before long, they have had significant transfer growth and are feeling the leadership squeeze. They recognise that they are largely pastoral teacher in gift mix as a couple (which is why theyve done a great job of creating a sheep fold) and begin to pray about who has the other five fold gifts - b4 long they have people in those roles.

Whats wrong with that picture apart from the fact that yet another church has been built on the gifts of the pastor teacher in total contradiction to scripture which says on the foundation of Prophets and Apostles - but hey. No the real issue is we have another 'microcosm' church that thinks God has asked it to reach the town. They cant - actually - cause we can only enter together, cross into together. By default they have formed an isolated unit (but sure they have unity vicariously cause their pastor is in a leaders network - right?) and they continue to pray more gifts into their body, more eyes arms and legs.

Helloooooooooooooooooooo what youve got is NOT a body, it cant possibly be A or Thee body cause the only biblical metaphor of body is in the context that WE in the entire locality are Thee Body.
So im sorry - but what youve got is a limb, at best an oversized limb. At worst youve got a large limb which youve tried to sow a hand onto and maybe graft in an eye - even three, but it probably looks like frankenstiens monster - or frankenstien monstors bride.

You cant have a whole gift mix - you cant have all the limbs - God isnt going to give you the whole picture, there is no way God is going to allow you to re enforce isolation, separatism, elitism or denomo'nationalism'. Or is God really into that?
Then....once we have a fuller picture of Body which in true interdendance we are living out of in our locality - then we realise that body language is universal, that in fact, my town has a distinctive nature that requires help from other towns and cities and they in turn have need of us and then.............. as nations we recognise we have something distinctive to bring to the global table and we ourselves have desperate need to eat there also. (sowing seeds for revival - martin scott)

Are we assisting God, or asking God to assist us in a course we have already set sail on?

I dont want to be Eegore!