What If…

What Is the Missional Church?

// February 2nd, 2010 // Comments Off // Church

(HT): Gospel Driven Church

MC591 – The Morphing of the Church (Session 4)

// March 10th, 2009 // Comments Off // Church, Leadership, School

Great statistical & sociological work on the growth of the early church

Relational evangelism over proclamation evangelism

Gene Edwards’ diaries series (great historical work on early churches)

1 Cor 11:18 … when you come together

The local congregation in European churches modeled a desire to be like a cathedral
The local people saw better priests (better looking, smarter), better buildings, relics, better worship (higher quality music)
Then they go back home and see “their” priest…who was committed to them – he wasn’t good enough
They wanted teaching & worship like they got at Catalyst & Passion & Beth Moore  

The oikos expression has been lost to the western church.
The extended family has broken up and the close contact has broken up.

What would it be like if gatherings of peoples did all of the ministries of Jesus? (pastoral bases)

The model has to be re-producible by normal people / not rock stars

churches are led by cultures that are highly skilled (very few) this creates a hire & fire culture > God hates this.
you have to be able to be led by the “lump”
the average person has been hired wired by God to be capable of leading at minimum an extended family
there are a lot of leaders of 50 around & not many leaders of 1000’s

we’ve got to take leadership back in to the lump

clusters & mid-size communities have come out of that; once you have learned how to create a leadership pipeline (what Jesus calls discipleship)…reproduce yourself over & over again; the only determining step is the number of leaders you can get your hands on

Mike disciples 30/40 leaders a week

one great thing about the american mindset is entrepreneurism…we figure out what works

most churches build the cart (organization) & starve the horse (organism); or the horse gets left behind
what we need is a light-weight low maintenance cart

http://www.3dministries.com

2 Meetings a Week

> Huddle – Leaders of Leaders; identified & called out (character, skill & faith…2/3 hours per week) (trying to produce high challenge & high support = empowered people)

these guys are leaders of communities; what you invest will yield return

(high challenge & low support = discouragement) (low challenge & low support = apathy) (low challenge & high support = cozy)

> Ministry (1.5 hours)

1) What business are we in this week?

2) How are we doing?

Count Leaders…not people!

There’s always a new restaurant with a new menu

he was the smartest guy who ever lived & if you decide that you have a better model then you are a twit

when there is not enough food for the peasants what happens to the relationship between the lord & his peasants

“i go there because i get fed” = you are functioning in a peasant role; when the lord runs out of food you are in trouble…there is rebel

a disciple by definition is a producer not a consumer

Orbital Model

we were created on the 6th day and our first day on the job was a day off. we were designed to work from rest

life as a series of investments: spiritual, relational, physical, intellectual, financial

what are people looking for from me?

MC591 – The Morphing of the Church (Session 3)

// March 10th, 2009 // Comments Off // Church, Leadership, School

Negative Impact Of Modern Culture on Worship

Rationalism: is God really there?

Anthropocentrism: Focus on Performer

Individualism: Meet my tastes and needs

Materialism: How will it enhance my potential & achievement

Consumerism: Become market driven

authentic worship must lead to walk & witness. if it doesn’t it’s spiritual self-indulgence

if our worship is to lead to witness…we don’t dismiss congregations…we disperse them

worship is the heartbeat of our witness

Restructuring of the Church For Mission Engagement

How is it that a dynamic house movement became a static institution?

the household in the pre-industrial society was not just a domestic unit but an industrial unit as well (manufacturing, banking, food, trading)

there was social interaction in the oikos. and we make ourselves unaccessible to the world around us.

80% of the work force was indentured. not like modern slavery. the household often gave them dignity, place and purpose

what would have happened if all of these people had been released at once?

the early church dismantled it from within.

because of trading non-christian households came in contact with christian ones

prisca & aquila

see notes for cities with house churches listed in the NT. (leaders are listed by name)

Significance of the House Church

Observable – People see Christians in operation

*No privacy as we know it; more dense population wise than Manhattan
*Violent places
*Dirty with waste in the streets  

Accessible – Close-by; feel at home

Economical – Don’t have to buy or lease real-estate

*Large/Mega-Churches are in danger during economic crisis

Flexible – Each relates to its context-

Re-producable – Every church can give birth to other faith communities

*Most church models aren’t in our context
*We desperately need much more of this

Apostles know everyone!

Prominence of Women in the Life of the Early Church

9 of the 26

Paul thinks highly of them

Intriguing of Case of Junia (prominent among the apostles)

Women mentioned first often

The problem here only comes when we whittle leadership down to individuals. The NT most often shows teams/communities.

People of Distinction

Aristobulus

Narcissus

Where Did They Meet?

Very small proportion actually lived in the villas that we think of

hard to get more than 30 people in them

extended households: family, slaves, apprentices, clientela, amici – friends

Paul saw fruit of Pentecost dispersion into other cities.

most lived in insula…as many as 6 floors

single room dwellings with shops on the first floor

buy meals @ the cafe on the corner; you were looked down on if you cooked in your home

no privacy; people hung out on the block; often there was a laundry at the base of the stairs (urine was used for bleach)

a retired legionnaire often looked after the security of the block

if the church can grow here it can grow anywhere

antioch 350k, ephesus 500k, rome 1m…you knew your block. turf feelings

true of most european cities until the automobile

Taberna (what priscilla & aquilla have) a workshop; single room accommodation; 14 found around corinth

about 15 people could crowd in; fam lived in the back or in the loft.

Community of the Future

From Hierarchy to Polycentric

REPRODUCIBLE!

Is the church a starfish or a spider?

There will be more and more attacks on the institution; we better be building organizations that can grow when attacked.

MC591 – The Morphing of The Church (Session 2)

// March 10th, 2009 // Comments Off // Uncategorized

So what…(questions)

Our covenant defines our community and our story. It shows we are not susceptible to the shaking.

This must affect the way we build churches. We need to be light weight and low maintenance. (Flexible & Adaptable)

Don’t build supertankers but rafts that are attached together.

We import language & symbols to deal with what God has done. One of our faults is that we use language & symbol to explain what we think God will/should do.

Covenant/kingdom

Abraham/Sarah > how you become one with God again after the fall

Joseph > shows what it’s like to rule…how you get there

So much of our theological education takes us away from story telling

to change a society you must tell an alternative story – ellich

what we wear is one of the fundamental ways we communicate

Vineyard’s story > worhsip = intimacy

often in our academic discussion of worship we go story to symbol…

we should be going to story to sp. power to symbol

matt redman & chris tomlin & tim hughes seem to get this.

john 4 > worship > (spirit) the identity of the worhsip & (truth) authenticity

if people are only used to story & symbol without power…they think that story w/power is wrong or out of bounds

Christ’s words in red make them more important than his actions…maybe not a good thing.

to change a culture you have to change the language

unbelievable amount of information attached to symbols (disney, cross, swoosh)

feudalism/property owning/building owning models are not american. struggling long term.

did you give your heart to jesus…yeah, i think i did that on my license

changing the culture is imperative or the gospel has failed there (this is a huge sacred trust) it is not just me getting out & in but God’s agenda to redeem a whole culture
this is tough on american individualism where it is just about me & me being what I can be