The Who & The How

(by Nate)

As I’ve thought of this whole concept of “church planting” one thing that has stuck in the front of my mind is the importance of focusing on the “who” instead of the “how.” It would be really easy for us to try and create the utopian church experience for us and our friends. In fact that is very tempting. But I’m confident that is not what God is calling us to do. (And yet…could it be possible that our current definition of “utopian church experience” will be wonderfully redefined and expanded by doing what God is calling us to do? I wouldn’t be surprised. – kim) 

Kim has mentioned the term “cultural missionaries” in her posts and I think that really describes what we feel like God is calling us to be. We really feel like He is leading us to reach out to those that are missing from church. By that we mean both non-Christians and Christians who may have soured on the idea of church for one reason or another. More specifically, we feel led to reach young people in those two groups. Many of you may have heard the research about how people ages 18-35(ish) are leaving church and, more tragically, are losing their faith in Christ. We want to be a part of helping them come back to a place of understanding the depth of God’s love for them and help introduce new people to His love as well.

If you were to move to some foreign country to be a missionary, you wouldn’t necessarily start by trying to connect with and reach people in that country the way you would the people in your own community. Instead, you’d get to know the people in your mission field, their culture, their nuances, ways to communicate and understand and connect with them. I think I know this instinctively, but when I really think about it, I’m quite convicted with how few people I truly know in our “mission field.” I realize it is going to be a challenge for me to get outside my well established comfort zone and meet some new people and learn about them. In fact, at times I find myself asking God things like, “why wouldn’t you ask someone who already has more friends in this mission field to do this?”  I’m not sure, but I still feel called and so I’m going to follow.

I think it is easy to think of church as a place for us Christians to be fed, and I think it certainly can be. But how limiting is that?!? I’m learning two significant things that have stretched me recently. In a nutshell, one is how that mentality (“the church is there to feed me…”) can be an excuse for us to not take responsibility for our own spiritual development and two, that God has designed the Church (His body) to be a place that reaches out and is sent into the world. I once heard a pastor say, “if you’re not being fed, put on an apron and start serving.” I believe that this is one of the most significant means of where and how spiritual growth happens. And of course, “serving” can look a lot of different ways.

So, if you’re reading this as a Christian and are considering being a part of this group, I want to say I’m so honored and grateful. But I also want to challenge you to join us in the journey of trying to reach beyond ourselves into areas that may be uncomfortable. Yes, it will be a place of community and a place for us to worship and grow, but we plan to keep our focus on those who we feel God has called us to reach. That will inform how we do things, both in our gathering times and our other activities. We have ideas of how this might look, yet we’re also going into this as open-handed as possible, knowing we’ll need to be flexible and willing to change. So I invite you to prayerfully consider if the Lord may be calling you to join us in this endeavor. I’m confident that as we pray and build relationships with those who He leads us to, that the “how” will be rewarding, inspiring and life changing for all of us.

- Nate

Can We Use a Ladder?

The other day I was talking again with the boys about this “starting a new church” thing. Talking about it with a seven year old and three year old is easily one of the best ways to learn how to communicate what it is all about in a simple way.

After we talked again about how God has been asking us to do this as a way to help share His love for people, I asked them a couple of questions: 1) do they want to be a part of it, and 2) would they pray and ask God for ideas about what they can do and how they can help start a new church. They immediately said yes, they want to be a part of it. (Whew. We’re still good there.)

Seven-year-old Eli asked what he should do to help. I told him that God would probably give him some good ideas. After a few moments he said, “I could help build it.” I said “Of course you can!” and yet I knew that he was not thinking about the Scripture passages that share the conversation between Peter and Jesus where Jesus asks Peter to build His church. I knew he was thinking quite literally about building a new building.

Which made for the perfect opportunity for three-year-old Calum to chime in, “I could use a ladder!”

I gave them a minute to get all excited about tools and climbing ladders and didn’t want to completely squelch the very understandable boy enthusiasm for the awesome and fun project they had quickly imagined.

I waited and then said, “boys let me tell you a couple of more things about this new church. First, I love that you want to help make a building because I can see how you would like that project and it makes a lot of sense.  But here’s something awesome: God answered our prayers and instead of us needing to spend a lot of money and build a whole new building, we have found a really cool room at George Fox that we will use to gather and spend time with people, since that will be one part of having a new church.” I then went on to tell them how much I think they will like it and the bonus is that there are some fun things like a foosball table in there. Automatic win for the Fox Hole Church in their eyes.

Then I said that the next thing I needed to tell them is even more important. (And this is where explaining Church to small children is such a good challenge.) I told them that one of the things that God is going to show us all by doing this is that “church” is much, much more than the room or the building that we meet in. It is more than the actual time we will be at the Fox Hole; it is more than what we even do in that room.  I then actually had to pause and think about what else I might say about being the Body of Christ, about it being more than gathering together but all the things we do every day of the week, and… by that point my response was sufficient enough of an explanation for them.

So Eli said, “Maybe I can teach Sunday school with the other kids.”

And I said, “Yes. That sounds just right.”

My boys’ immediate response is not very far off from the response of other grown adults who are quite familiar with church. We are in a small town with a lot of well established churches and people who are familiar with the traditions and the routines of going and being part of a church. So it is not unusual that there are questions such as “why does Newberg need another church?” or “isn’t that more like a Bible study or something rather than ‘church’?” and all these correlations to what is supposed to happen or not happen that can come flooding in.

And let me say that we have plenty of moments of being those very people with questions and expectations. We have been part of a well-established church for the past decade. Our kids have grown up with pews and a stage and a nursery and a fellowship hall. I worked for years there, investing a lot of time and energy in doing church and church services in a very familiar way. We have wondered if what we are dreaming and being led to do actually fits in a town that is small and so therefore something untraditional feels a little… uncomfortable? Like it’s not really church?

There is much to be unpacked about what it is and what it isn’t, but for now, I know that we don’t need ladders. My heart as a mom was full of thanks and joy that my kids are so pliable and eager to follow Jesus that to them, if we don’t need a ladder or hammers to “build” a new church then that is great and still church. They are quick to think of what else might be part of “doing church” together, like teaching Sunday school with their friends. Or simply put, talking with their peers about what happened in the Bible and how that matters today in our lives. And most likely playing with some play dough and having some snacks, too.

Sounds good to me.

- kim

Why? Here’s One Answer…

“Why are we doing this church thing?” is an ongoing question with an answer that can be succinctly summarized by saying “Jesus”  yet it is also necessary to explore and articulate the “why” in depth. There is no one answer other than Jesus, yet at the same time, the answers are limitless. Strange how that works.

Part of the reason this blog exists is for us to share the things that are the questions and the answers.

This well timed article is worth reading to help fill in the picture of why, who, and how - it captures much of the vision that has inspired us and stirred us to want to act while recognizing who we are passionate about connecting with. It is not the complete picture but a shade of one of the colors that brings this whole church thing to life. It makes me want to put on a pot of coffee and spend some time being with some people I know who are special to Jesus even if they don’t find Jesus necessarily special to them. If it does the same for you, awesome. Lets chat.

http://radicalis.com/blogs/radicalis/generation-ex-christian-why-young-adults-are-leaving-the-faith/ 

The article is pretty much a review of the book “Generation Ex-Christian: Why Young Adults Are Leaving the Faith…and How to Bring Them Back.” - Even if you are not going to read the book, the article does a nice job of capturing the “Ex-Christian” mindset of “leavers.”

A little snippet from the article…

“I now understand that ‘recoilers’ have often tragically suffered abuse in the name of God, and when they felt wounded by God, decided he didn’t exist.  They also were hurt mostly in the context of relationships, so healing must also come in that context.  My best approach in caring for them is to empathize, not argue, and to point them to the cross, a symbol and promise to all who suffer that even the worst injustice can lead to redemption.

I see that modern leavers abandon their faith for intellectual reasons.  They love to debate, they love objective truth, and they love rational reasoning.  To reach modern leavers, I must do my homework and be prepared to give good answers to questions about my faith, listening to them and asking questions about their worldview in the process.” (bold mine)

Praying as we go,

kim

We are Starting a Church?

Why are we starting a church?

I could answer and try to explain this by going in two very different directions.

I could Google “why plant a church” or visit the myriad sites dedicated to the adventure/challenge/subculture of church plants and speak to the issues that far smarter and experienced church leaders can speak to. I could offer research and statistics, using numbers to communicate the rationale and the percentages of non-churched and so on. I could talk about our modern times, our post-modern, post-church culture. I could quote books by familiar, respected (and much more articulate than me) authors because boy oh boy, I have a lot of books on my shelves that cover the subject of church leadership and church planting.

A lot of those books are dusty though.

The numbers and statistics have been shared and I don’t remember them.

And the websites and blogs, well, on any given day they can either encourage me or thwart me and any vision that exists because I have some massive inferiority issues.

I could also start quoting familiar Bible passages and draw out the stories of the early church in Acts and the New Testament and say things like, “I just want to be part of a church that…” and somehow that statement could give the impression (and be grossly misunderstood) to sound like there are no viable or healthy, Biblical, “good” churches currently in our community and that somehow, we have a vision or strategy that will change everything around here.

Well. Forget that.

I’m going with option two.

Why are we interested in starting a church?

Because of Jesus.

Because of all the dreams and ideas and goals and lists that Nate and I have made over the years, this is the one thing we both agree on and can’t get away from.

And Lord knows we have had our doubts and our immense discouragement (before anything has even happened!) and our fears and moments of wondering if we have somehow both managed to go crazy at the same unfortunate time.

Yet for the months (actually years) that this idea has simmered within us, we both actually agree that if we don’t try and if we don’t take this step, we think we will have missed something God was nudging and leading and guiding us to do. If we don’t do this it would most likely be because of fear, excuses, selfishness and more fear. We don’t want that to be part of our story.

Even in the moments of feeling like we might fail miserably, we still have the sense to press on and accept that defeat or failure may come. Anyone who knows me well enough knows that this is about as opposite to my approach to life as I can get.

Even in the moments of feeling absolutely isolated and alone, we have these flickers of hope that these are part of the preparations for us to be part of creating community and team.

Even in the long bouts of feeling inadequate, inexperienced, and insufficiently educated, there is a quiet little voice that somehow manages to drown out the shouts of the negative voices, and it reminds me of the unending supply of strength, wisdom, grace and power found in obedience to the One who gives dreams and vision and crazy ideas like church planting. That voice sometimes also sounds like Jillian from the Biggest Loser and talks some good smack about being “incapable” as it rattles off the list of all the inadequate and unprepared disciples of Christ who somehow managed to start this thing called Church way back in the day.

That helps a little usually.

So that is at the heart of this crazy idea. Somehow Jesus has broken down all of our reasons not to and given us this assignment or picture or vision of helping build His Church.

Out of that vision comes the desire to help bring Him to people and bring people to Him. This also feels like crazy talk because I have a long list of things I am not and “evangelist” is definitely on it. And yet… here we are. Stirred unexpectedly to live our lives with people who may or may not be comfortable with going to church or praying or living with faith and hope in Jesus rather than themselves. Heck, you can count me on that list depending on the day.

And just to make it clear: there are some fantastic, healthy church communities in our area. There are people’s lives being changed and transformed within the church and outside of the church because of Jesus and His church here. We do not think we can do anything better or that something is wrong with the existing church communities in Newberg. This is about obedience, faith, and passion for the Church and most especially for the One true leader of the Church. There’s actually an excitement in me at the idea of being an additional part of a bigger church community seeking to reach and transform our culture and community, rather than anything divisive or alienated.

There are a lot of coffeeshops in Newberg competing for our business; it does not need to be that way with churches who follow Jesus.

So we are stepping forward. We are praying desperately (and sometimes meekly) for each future step on this adventure. We have prayed for doors to be opened and for the vision to become real. We have prayed that the discouragement would be replaced with renewed passion and faith. We have felt stripped down and pruned back, and are praying that this next season will be full of fruit and favor as we (finally) move forward.

We have known all along it is nothing to take lightly as it is not a task that we can attend to here and there or a job that you go to and leave at the end of the day. It is something that will change our lives. And our deepest desire is that we will get to be part of helping change others’ lives, too.

Why are we starting a church?

Because Jesus asked us to.

Why now?

Because Jesus asked us to.

But what if ______________? (no one comes, it doesn’t work, we are in over our heads, etc.)

We will still love and obey Jesus.

Are we ready?

Heck no and heck yes.

~ kim