Sprouting

Recently a new "sprout" of the Church began to emerge in one of our homes. Some co-workers of my wife started gathering with us after work to share life together over a meal and to interact with the Scriptures. A few know who Jesus is, others don't, so during our time together we seek to understand and follow the Jesus revealed to us in the Scriptures (particularly the Gospels), which is captivating to us all. Our conversations are rich and the questions raised are deeply profound. The presence of God is almost tangible when we gather.

The reason we consider our gathering a sprout is because the body of Christ has not yet fully emerged. Could it become a gathering of the Church? Absolutely, and that is our desire. But we're not there yet.

What we hope will emerge out of this gathering is a community of disciples that regularly gathers together for at least four purposes: to celebrate God and his activity (including sacraments), to encourage one another (prayer), to grow in our knowledge of and obedience to Jesus (interaction with Scripture), and to pursue lives of service while proclaiming the gospel in both word and deed.

This way of being the Church may seem too simple, but perhaps that's because the standard way of doing church has become far too complicated by things that really don't matter all that much in God's Kingdom. Call our approach simple or organic or missional, or whatever. We're simply trying to follow Jesus as best we know how and we're discovering that his way of life is the best way to live.

Roots

We have been reminded recently in our gathering times that we need to continually cast vision for what we are about as a church. Because networks of missional house churches are so new--new as in "so old it's new"--very few of us have a clear idea of what they might look like.

Sometimes images can be helpful. The image shown here is of an aspen grove. The grove is actually the world’s largest organism as the entire grove shares one root system beneath the surface. Above the earth’s surface, the trees each appear separate, yet each tree contains the exact same DNA as the tree next to it, all because they share the same roots.

So what is the root system of missional churches? In the case of ViaCordis, the root system is made up of coaching relationships and monthly leadership community gatherings. That’s where the leaders grow and are challenged and nurtured. The root system is what keeps us connected. From there, we sprout above the ground in ways that each look a bit different, spreading out as sent people. Some may start small house church gatherings that engage in transformational initiatives (personal and community), others may begin by serving together in areas of need in hopes of seeing another "tree" (i.e. community of disciples) emerge in the grove. Each tree looks different—and separate—above the surface. But underneath they’re all connected and nourished by the same roots.

The nutrients that flow through the roots--those elements that we rely upon for our community life--are simply the commands and commission Jesus gave us: love God, love others, and make disciples as you go. Again, the expression of these elements in each tree will look different depending on the context, but the elements are the same.

Our goal has never been a large Sunday morning gathering. It’s never been a Sunday morning gathering at all. We deeply desire to serve as the hands and feet of Jesus throughout the week, at the odd times of day and night when we can best serve those in the world around us. As we serve and express the elements Jesus gave us, others will begin to know Jesus as well and new communities will form.

Right now there’s only one tree in the grove. But the roots are spreading and new sprouts are beginning to break through the top of the soil. A new grove is in the making.

Ripples

God has been stirring in the hearts of our leaders the desire to connect with people within their spheres of influence. We’ve begun to pray and explore possibilities for gathering with people inside their networks. Many in our networks are not yet followers of Jesus and we feel it’s important to meet them in the shared, familiar places that we regularly encounter one another rather than invite them to a meeting in an unfamiliar setting. Our inherited, default mode of church is that we invite not-yet followers of Jesus to join us at a gathering—they come to us, to our place of comfort. Instead, we need to go to them as what Paul calls "ambassadors of Christ" and connect with people within their spheres of influence, in the places they most comfortably live their lives. Jesus is not pulling us out of the world; rather, he is inviting us into it.

One leader of the ViaCordis team has accepted Jesus' invitation by gathering students at the college where he teaches for spiritual conversation. We anticipate much transformation to occur as a result of those conversations. Perhaps the Church will emerge right there on campus!

Other leaders are cultivating relationships within their spheres of influence out of obedience to Jesus' commandment to make disciples of him as we go. The image we associate with this movement is of a drop of rain that falls into a still pond and sends ripples out from where it lands. While we gather together as followers of Jesus on Sunday mornings to encourage one another in our discipleship of Jesus, we also send one another into the world to make disciples in the places we work, play, and naturally live our lives. In this way, we become ripples of Jesus' way of life.

Beware of the Trap

We’ve been going through the beatitudes and sharing some rich discussions. And yet we’ve been sensing that something is missing regarding missional engagement with our community. It’s not for lack of effort—we’ve contacted the Salvation Army weekly trying to pursue that opportunity, but we’ve had several setbacks there. We’re now asking what I see as some very important questions: Do we keep pursing that possibility with the Salvation Army or do we look elsewhere? Or, do we even create our own opportunities for service within our neighborhoods?


That last question brings up all kinds of “what ifs.” What if my wife and I were to pass out invitations to our neighbors to come by for root beer floats in the front yard one evening? We’ve been having a heat wave. Would people come? If they did come, then what?


What we’re running into right now has been the ruin of many well-intentioned house churches: the holy huddle. It’s one of the biggest traps we could run into. What if we still have no new disciples participating in our community six months from now? We’ve never wanted to be all about us. We’ve wanted to be a church that raises leaders from the harvest for the harvest. So pray with us over these questions: God, how then do you want us to serve? Where can we serve? Who? In what capacity? We need to be taken beyond ourselves. And we need God’s leading to know where the next step lies.


As we move forward, we want to do so with wisdom and sensitivity. Many people are coming in with hurts and we desire to be a healing community as well as a missional community. We believe God can make us both.

Being Home

A whole lot has been going on at ViaCordis this week. Here are two of the things God's been up to:

Bob was talking to one of our intercessors about a prayer letter we had sent out on our values. She noted that one value that seemed to be missing, yet permeated everything we do, was hospitality. In making that observation, she was pointing out the obvious, yet we needed it pointed out. Hospitality was an assumed value, but unstated. We hadn't put words to it. We move toward inviting: inviting people into our homes, into our lives, into relationship with Jesus. Thanks to this intercessor for pointing that out to us! We love our intercessors!

One leader's home is becoming a popular hangout for high school students. More and more of them are congregating in her home as they sense it is a safe place to be real with one another. Someone observed, "Maybe we could have a kids' church meeting in your house. Your daughter could be the leader." Now I'm not sure this leader has ever seen herself as a host, but she has always served as an incarnational missionary—opening her home so people can experience the presence of God there. We don't know where the network of relationships will go—nothing formal has been established—but we're excited about the possibilities.

While hospitality has emerged as one of our values, we understand that many do not have houses to which we can retreat for comfort and security. Rather than viewing hospitality as something that can only be done in a physical house, we desire to create a sense of hospitality in all of our regular gathering spaces (wine bars, basketball courts, classrooms, workspaces, etc.). And more than that, we want to become hospitable people--people who are approachable, trustworthy, and with whom others can be authentic. In this way, no matter where we gather with people, we will always be home.

Asking Good Questions

In an article titled, "A New Imagination for the Church" Dave Dunbar of Biblical Seminary introduces 3 sets of questions to help guide a church toward a missional engagement with their community:

• What means or activities in the history of our church have proven most effective in introducing non-Christians to the gospel? (This is not the same question as what activities have been most effective in adding members/attendees to the congregation.) What can we learn from this that might guide our present efforts?
• Jesus taught us to pray “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.” If the kingdom were to come today, what things would be different in our neighborhood? How might the answers to this question guide the participation of our church in the mission of God?
• The Abrahamic covenant promises that Abraham’s descendants will be blessed in order that they may be a blessing (Gen. 12:2-3). How is our church a blessing to our community? How would our neighbors answer this question?

I think these questions are a good starting point for any church, new or old, who wants to be an agent of change in the next twenty years. I imagine our church will wrestle through these questions rather soon, and I encourage you and your church community to begin asking (and answering) these questions as well.

Peace!