07 April 2008

of chickens and eggs

just a quick thought ... instead of planting a church and trying to build a community, i would love to plant a community and see a church emerge ...
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7 comments:

  1. You've got me intrigued, tell me more.

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  2. i was wondering if the notion of 'planting a church' smacks of organizing an institution ... and then what we would end up doing is trying to implement initiatives that would help generate relationships and fashion a sense of 'community'.

    what if we tried things the other way round - and maybe this is the way Jesus did it - where we gather people together with a common vision, a common purpose, a common sense of passion and frailty and hope - and encourage that community to seek the way of Jesus.

    i'm not sure that i want to demand of these folks (who are interested in a similar cofeehouse concept) that we are going to plant a church. but maybe i can let them know with confidence that what will happen is that we will worship God together and act in a way that brings about His Kingdom reality into our time and space.

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  3. One of the only things I kept from high school was an essay titled "Only a Madman would choose to live in a large modern city" and it dealt with starting out again from scratch in the country. Starting out fresh. Your approach somehow links the two together, at least in my head? As ed says - tell me more?

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  4. I was talking with someone from the area about this idea of planting a community and then letting a church evolve.

    As I'm sitting here I wonder if some churches have gone in reverse, taking alot of what it means to be church out of who they are and coming together just as a community.

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  5. I am wondering about is it necessary to start a new community or is it possible to enter into an existing community. The nice thing about starting a new community is that you are there for the first ebbs and flows but what about entering into an already existing community and being salt and light in it.

    If we look at Jesus, he did both. Yes he created an inner community but also worked within the larger community.

    What are your thoughts voo man.

    Until next time,
    ed.

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  6. great thoughts. i think that it's probably important to have it clear in our heads the difference between an 'assembly' and a 'community.

    'assemblies' exist all over the place. they can be loose affiliations of individuals, drawn together by habit, status, boredom, all sorts of non-galvanizing reasons.

    'communities' to me have some kind of shared ethos. something that binds them together at a spirit or heart level. a common trajectory that winds up turning them toward one another in support and conviction.

    it seems to me to definitely be possible to enter into a pre-existing community and help uncover the God-heart in the midst of it. it's even possible to do that with a pre-existing assembly ... although i think that you or I would have to be quite aware that community may not exist yet there.

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  7. Thanks for the further insights.

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