Questions and "answers"

One of our community asked me some questions this week particularly about our Thursday gathering... I'm sure he wont mind me posting my replies...

Here’s my thoughts (not answers per se!) with a few quotes from Bosch for good measure ;)

1) what is the purpose, mission and focus?

“The church is (nothing more, but also nothing less) a means in God’s hands to establish shalom in this world. The church is not the sender but the one sent.  It’s mission (its “being sent”) is not secondary to it’s being; the church exists in being sent and in building itself up for the sake of its mission. Since God is a missionary God, God’s people are a missionary people.”

The main focus is to develop holistic mission (evangelism –personal reconciliation with the creator,  amongst the 20s and 30s, Community restoration – working with and within the community to restore the community and relationships to the way God intended us to be, Reversal – standing and acting against social injustice and oppression etc, the poor will be rich and the rich will be poor...

“Salvation in Christ is salvation in the context of human society en route to a whole healed world.
Those who know that God will one day wipe away all tears will not accept with resignation the tears of those who suffer and are oppressed now… For all this has to do with salvation.”

I guess this is why we have been talking about seeking to be a Missional Community rather than A church... In attempt to circumnavigate the consumer “all about me” nature of the Church!  But, at the same time we realise that we need to grow as a community in terms of personal vulnerability and accountability, vision sharing, discipleship and spiritual formation etc... That prayer and meditation have to have a significant place, to under gird the living in the wider community, which is our ultimate calling... Thursdays are intended to be a part of growing together and in action, not the focus of who we are as a community... It’s early days and we need to be more intentional in this!

For me there is also a need to be reflecting on what is church and on theology in context, to be deconstructing and allowing God to reconstruct the Christian faith post-christendom, translating an engagement with and a response to Christ into the contemporary culture/context...

“We need an experimental theology in which an ongoing dialogue is taking place between text and context, a theology which, in the nature of the case, remains provisional and hypothetical. Inculturation is one of the patterns in which the pluriform character of contemporary Christianity manifests itself.  Even the term is new.  The Christian faith never exists except as “translated” into a culture.

”In short ;) the purpose is to impact and be agents of transformation in the wider community (global and local, spiritual and social, individual and corporate) rather than grow A Church.

2) is it about small community or large

After much discussion early on the sense we have had is that... We are not seeking to grow a large community, but several/many small communities of seekers in context... But that we needed to be a community of mission... So, the community (of St Brendan ;) ) is not the mission but a way of rethinking Christian community that has as it’s purpose joining God at work “outside” Christian sub-culture and a way of sustaining us in individual and corporate mission... After you left last night we had one of those doorstep discussions about how we mustn’t get sucked into being a Church that meets on a Thursday, but that Thursday is for sustaining each other.  So I guess one could talk about two pictures, the monastic/minster community that exists to serve the spiritual and social “needs” of the wider community, but not necessarily to grow the core community (the tension being that we need people to be a core community of mission and service – hence the feeling that we need to grow a small amount and to embrace family)... This time a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Brother Samuel SSF...

“the renewal of the church will come from a new type of monasticism which only has in common with the old an uncompromising allegiance to the sermon on the mount.”

“the renewal of both the church and society will come through the re-emergence of forms of christian community that are homes of generous hospitality, places of challenging reconciliation and centres of attentiveness to the living god”

The second picture is more of a net/network of communities that reflect their own culture and context... In one sense then we are both the sent and the sending community... So we are sowers of seeds and tenders of the vulnerable shoots not planters of self-replicating cuttings... Bosch again...

This incarnational dimension, of the gospel being “en-fleshed”, “em-bodied” in a people and its culture, of a “kind of ongoing incarnation” is very different from any model that had been in vogue for over a thousand years.  In this paradigm, it is not so much the Church being expanded, but of church being born anew in each context and culture.

3) you talked about leadership and the wanting not to lead it?

I guess I have no problem leading per se... But I don’t want to be THE leader, I would rather see the community develop a more open sense of leadership, exploring gifting and style... Becoming a tapestry of what we all bring rather than something based on my particular style etc.  Obviously I am the one who is paid in order to develop a Missional Community, but I don’t see this as necessarily a “for all time” situation... Nor do I believe in “one man ministry” i.e. I, or any one else has to be the focus or locus of what and who the community is... Different people need to take the lead at different stages and for different things.  Also, in terms of the Mission, it is my passion to see indigenous communities and leaders.

4) the question of “Church”!

TBH I have spent most of my life struggling with Church, and found it wanting!  I have found that real church only happens when we, together engage with the mission of God... And not when we focus on being blessed and having our individual spiritual needs tended to... I want to be a follower and disciple of Christ, I don’t want to DO Christianity... In one sense I feel we need to abandon any sense of “recruiting” people to Christianity rather seek to introduce people to the transforming power of Christ in individuals, communities and culture, and allow them to respond in ways that reflect who they are and the context they are in... Theology and all!

In the nature of the case inculturation can never be fait accompli.  One may never use the term “inculturated”.  Inculturation remains a tentative and continuing process, not only because cultures are not static but also because the church may be led to discover previously unknown mysteries of the faith.  The relationship between the Christian message and culture is a creative and dynamic one, and full of surprises.

So... Just a few thoughts, I guess the underlying questions are... how do we best DO and BE mission amongst 20s and 30s, their communities and cultures... How do we find and join God in mission... How can we sustain, support, resource and challenge each other in these visions/goals?  The Thursday gatherings need to be only a part of this journey!  Otherwise we are just replicating “Church” in it’s worst consumer and self-centred place!

Technorati Tags: Emerging Church: Mission: Spirituality: Telford: theology

Comments

[Libbie]

Totally agree with the comment about not 'recruiting' people. Interesting stuff.
The Bosch quote about the church being born anew into each context and culture jumped out at me. I'm not sure how much I agree, I haven't processed that one through yet, but I've been reading some early church history over the past few weeks, and it is tremendously difficult to relate to some of it to the modern faith.