CN | AND: Gathered & Scattered Church Transformation

 

City Notes (CN): Books in 25 minutes or less

As stated in my first post earlier this week, CN  are meant to provide you with more than a book review. They include direct quotes from some books I've read in the last year, so you can get a taste of the overall theme of the book and then begin to chew on what your life might look like if you applied what you read. Each book will have three parts to keep the posts brief so you can read the quotes in ten minutes or less, while also whetting your appetite for the next round. Here are the links to the previous posts:

• CN | AND: Gathered & Scattered Church Where You Are

• CN | AND: Gathered & Scattered Church in Harmony

A great complement to the book and these notes is a talk given by Hugh Halter featured in these videos: "Creating Incarnational Community," "Inspire: Go" and "Inspire: Go the Way Jesus Would Go."  

Gathered & Scattered Church | Chapter 6: Morph: Transitioning from Gathered to Gathered AND Scattered

"Be part of The Church instead of limiting your focus on your own local church. Be willing to link arms with others who share a common vision and passion for your community. Help those whom you can, while you can. … Anyone who decides to plant one foot firmly in the modalic responsibility of gathering and caring for God’s sheep and the other firmly in the shifting soil of new kingdom initiatives out in the world will experience troubles and challenges. Be wise, be strategic, be courageous, be loyal, and be chivalrous – but above all, starting tomorrow, try to begin finding those who need what you have and those who have what you need. Begin dialogue about how you might share, link, support, give away, and get done in your city what you know God wants to see happen. Kingdom mindset is our best form of spiritual warfare, and the more we come together, watch each other’s backs, give away freely, and support each other’s efforts, the more both the sodalic and modalic sides win." –pg. 157

Chapter 7: To Gather or Not to Gather: Is That the Question?

" … 'Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the fatherless, plead the case of the widow (from Isa. 1:11-17) … 'I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! (from Amos 5:21-27)...' Wow! What do we do with these words? Rarely do we hear God speak so emotionally and so directly toward his people. And why? Because they were just going through the motions of meeting for sacrifice, prayer, worship, and community. So what’s the Halter paraphrase on this one? Stop playing church! Don’t bother me with your long worship services, prayer gatherings, and self-help classes. I’m not that into your singing and you’re mostly doing it for yourself anyway. You’ve created a God who lets you show up for a weekly service, but you so seldom serve anyone. If you want to get into what I’m into, go help someone! And you who lead … what are you leading? You are the ones who are afraid to call people to the real deal. I’d love to hear the worship and see the sacrifices if they really meant much, cost much, or were integrated with lives that are transformed. I don’t mind my people meeting together, but make it count for something bigger." – pgs. 164-165

"While speaking to four hundred community leaders at Austin Stone Church (in Austin, Texas), they made an announcement just prior to my time. One of their staff said, 'This week, Hugh is going to call you to extend your life to your neighbor and neighborhood; next week, we need to call two hundred of you to move to the Middle East to give your lives for this strategic part of the world that needs help.' Apparently six hundred people showed up in consideration of a total life overhaul! This church of six thousand young people in the heart of the Bible Belt shows us that any church that calls its people to hard kingdom ventures will simultaneously create a sense of shared struggle, even among thousands of people, a sense of communal dependence can be created. It two hundred people head to the Middle East, it will take the whole church coming together to make it happen. In micro-contexts all you need is one person in need to cause God’s people to want to come together." – pg. 172

"In any size of church, the key is to help them find enough darkness that their collective light must come together. If the vision of the church is not scary, if it doesn’t require everyone to pitch in, if faith is not needed, then folks will stay home and watch the football game. Here’s the bottom line. People get weary of church services when they realize that their participation isn’t necessary for it to continue. On the opposite side, if a person feels that they must be there so that God’s kingdom work can go on, they will give up anything to gather together. This focus on the outside naturally brings excitement and integrity to gathering together on the inside. Scattering increases the desire for gathering." – pg. 172

"Whereas the mission of the gospel will challenge consumeristic tendencies and answer people’s internal questions of meaning and commitment, the issue of family will answer their questions of belonging: 'As I follow Christ, will I be part of a people who will care for me and for whom I can care?' … The gut check that we need to keep in mind is that having a church service is not the same as providing a family for people … Every nuclear family must also open up their lives to others outside their family of origin. In the same way, every small group, house church, or organic expression of the church needs to be willing to open up and expand." – pgs. 174-179

“(Here are) the key elements we find in churches that have found a way to gather together without compromising their sending impulse or capitulating to the gravity of consumerism: 

1. Relationships first, presentation second
2. Whimsical
3. Everyone’s messed up, therefore everyone’s safe to be there regardless of their level of faith or doubt
4. Communion table is central, intimate, open, participatory, and the glue that holds people together
5. Not polished, not excellent, but proficient
6. Sermons as story as opposed to abstract teaching
7. Food, lots of food!
8. Simple worship without any hype or pretense
9. Leaders who lead through vision and hold the community to higher purposes
10. No ‘greeters’ but everyone friendly, no altar calls but people come as part of their conversion process, and no service teams, but everyone lends a hand.” – pg. 180

"Church-based ministry should augment – not replace – what (children) receive at home. My girls have never attended a youth group or experienced an age-based programmed children’s ministry, except as toddlers in our first church plant. … now that they are in high school, we’re deeply grateful for the wide range of experiences they’ve had with church. If you were to ask them, 'So what do you remember about church?' they’d probably mention many gatherings in our home, parties, holiday feasts that always included many people that didn’t have a home to go to, Bible studies where they would sit on the couch with the big people and participate as part of the group, large all-day gatherings at three or four parks, meeting in community centers, meeting in old churches, helping with the nursery kids, serving people, taking gifts to people, praying around our kitchen spontaneously with larger groups, praying in church services, being mentored by older girls who had become like family to us, singing, and babysitting kids for other communities so they could have ‘big people’ time. They’ve had Sundays going to church and Sundays being the church. Over the course of their lives, my children may not be able to think of just one thing when the word 'church' comes to mind, and I believe that will naturally cause them to want to replicate and reproduce the same active church life they grew up in. … All parents want the best for their kids, but as we mentioned in the chapter on consumerism, God’s highest goal for children isn’t to keep them busy and safe. Our role as stewards over the spiritual life and legacy of our kids is to model a holistic life of apprenticeship under Jesus – to invite them and include them in as much as you can and to trust that God will grow them, protect them, and use them to change the world. This certainly can include children’s education during our gathering times, but it must include much more. Children will follow what they’ve seen us do. If they see us go to church and live a typical, normal life, that’s what they’ll think being a Christian is all about. But if they see their parents actually live out the gospel – community, sacrifice, inclusiveness with everyone, and mission to the poor and needy – they will follow suit." – pgs. 182-183

"The church service with a sermon has and always will be necessary and helpful, but if used as the main way of making missional disciples, it falls far short. Ephesians 4:11-13 gives us freedom in this regard when it suggests that 'prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers have been given to equip the body to do the work.' I’m not sure how we took this to mean that God gives us preachers to keep us happy and fed as followers. These gifts (or offices of ministry) are given to help train church members to do the actual work of evangelism, pastoring, and teaching. Imagine what would happen if the average pastor/teacher who gives 25 to 30 hours a week to preparing a sermon actually gave 25 to 30 hours a week to teaching people how to teach other people the Scriptures? … people are looking for a much bigger story – a story where they’re tested and where they get to participate, live by faith, and learn to orient their already overburdened lives around the gospel mission of Jesus. If our churches provide multiple experiences where people feel that they are growing and get to taste and feel something different, they’ll love everything about the church. … Adullam’s people need to be active with the nonbelievers in their lives in order to discover what we are about. I like that things remain loose and sort of intangible within our 'church.' It forces people to make fruit outside our own walls, where Christ is trying to lead us." – pgs. 184-186

" … a few final encouragements and suggestions that may help you ensure that your gatherings serve the scattered missional call of your church as well as creating an environment where your scattered saints actually want to gather: 

1. The gathering should be a different experience from what people get in their scattering
2. The gathering should not pander to consumeristic tendencies but should be a place to call people into a bigger story of giving their life away
3. The gathering should be the most pliable, flexible, and adjustable aspect of the church
4. Gather in a way that makes them want to GO.” – pg. 188

"Imagine…if an airport tried really, really hard to keep you there. It just doesn’t make any sense. That’s not what airports are for. They aren’t destinations. They are gathering and sending places that happen to have some unique and helpful functions. Our church gatherings must begin to take this analogy seriously and find meaningful ways to provide corporate experiences that naturally propel people outward while providing just enough to make their seven-day journey through life meaningful, communal, and spiritual. The church is beautiful when she is sent, and the sent church will always be beautiful when she gathers in a way that highlights and complements her sending nature." – pg. 188

Chapter 8: Legacy: Live as if You’re Really Dying

"If today’s leaders really understood what was at stake and the legacy they were leaving for their children and future generations, I think we’d all be desperate to spend our very best resources and time digging up, diving in with, and deploying as many gifted young men and women into the harvest as we could. … people need permission to go. We’re not all there yet, but one of the greatest moments many of us will face will be to know that we’ve done the best we can do and now we get to bless those who will hold down the fort when we leave." – pgs. 192-193

"(From Phil Gaf involved in leadership development in Europe through Christian Associates)…’Hugh, Adullam was started because you made a point to 'get in the way' of the lives of many people who did not know Christ. You intentionally blocked their paths of normal life and intentionally stayed in their way until they found God. Now you must ‘get out of the way’ so that many more leaders will get in the way of the next wave’…he added these thoughts: ‘Faith is easy when you can see around the bend in the road, when you know what’s coming, where you’re going, and what to do next. Faith is easy when you don’t need it. And when you don’t need it, it’s not faith at all! Did Abraham know there was a ram caught in the thicket when he raised his knife in his outstretched arms high above the chest of his one and only son whom he loved so much? Did the boys in Daniel say, ‘I’ll get in the furnace of you, Lord, if you will turn down the heat!’ Did Daniel ask the lion keeper, ‘How hungry is this lion?’ before he went into the cage? Did Moses know that he, and those families trusting his leadership, were going to escape the wrath of the furious Egyptian army as they walked across the dry bottom of the Red Sea?’ As we think about the rechurching of the West…one thing will be treasured above all of these things that we can pass down to our children’s leaders and our grandchildren’s leaders. It will be the most important thing we need to model and display for them: FAITH! Just as we are inspired by the writer of Hebrews to remember that cloud of witnesses, we, too, must become a cloud of witnesses who model faithful, sacrificial, faith-exploding leadership. As ancient and modern Hebrews passed down the stories and sagas of their people’s sacrifices and faith-filled exploits, the emerging leadership needs our stories. … They need stories of men and women who outgave, outfaithed, outrisked, outloved, and who got out of the way so emerging leaders could get in the way. ... We need a new peer pressure that pushes us to think about our legacy more than impressing others in the present. Sometimes all you need to get over a faith barrier is to know that some other kingdom-minded knucklehead took the plunge of faith and sacrifice before you.” – pgs. 200-201

"Hear again (Jesus’) words to his would-be leaders: ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all’ (Mark 9:35). ‘Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it’ (Mark 8:35). ‘I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat fails to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds’ (John 12:24). Later, other followers and leaders like Paul used phrases like these: ‘Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice’ (Phil. 2:17). If spiritual leadership is anything, it is a journey of death and a journey to death. One journey is an inward dying to ourselves, our concerns, our ambitions, and our pride, and the other is a preparation for our actual, physical death, where the only thing that matters is what we’ve left to those who will follow us." – pgs. 204-205

Next week's post: CN | Life Together: Faith in Community by Bonhoeffer

– Sully
 
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