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about the author...   Alan Creech | Kevin Rains For several months we will be offering these Answers from The Other Side - from practitioners in the emerging church scene. It's time to allow these folks to lay out some of the answers they've seen and developed on the other side of their ecclesiastical transition. There will be many voices and many different "answers." We hope this helps the navigation process. There will be two contributors each month. This month - April, 2004 - we will hear from Alan Creech and Kevin Rains. Good reading.
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Answers from The Other Side - April 04
Alan Creech - Lexington, Kentucky, USA
1. It's not about Postmodernism.
That sentence is the short of it. I won't take up space with anything
very long. But I have discovered a "secret" along this funky new church
path - that although the postmodern shift has indeed made people
rethink some things and question a bit, it is not the solid reason
behind why many of us have moved into a new ecclesiastical dimension.
What I'm doing, being, is not the "postmodern church" - it's "the
church." I came to a point in my life in the church as I knew it, that
I couldn't do that any more. I began to see that it didn't work for
what it was designed to work for. This was, literally, before I knew
what the word "postmodern" meant - seriously. The questions and
longings that accompanied my being called to plant a "different" kind
of church were both theological and practical, not merely cultural.2. Liturgy IS good! and we're catholic again. And I don't seem to be the only one figuring this out. It's taken a while to come back around to this, but it's happening. I never really had a problem with liturgy - liturgical worship or prayer, etc. I came into Christ via the Catholic Church and was very familiar with it in a good way. As I moved along in my Christian life and into other expressions of the faith, I majored for times on other ways of living and worshipping - not liturgical. As I've come around though, I have re-discovered the great formative value of the "work of the people." I wouldn't argue for a rigid liturgical structure that has no bend, but I would say, without apology, that I believe the ancient liturgy of the Church should, in some way, be embraced. That word "ancient" is thrown around a lot. What I mean by it is that I actually see value in "sacred tradition" again - the church "catholic" handed down to us from our Christian ancestors - and from longer ago than 1517 thank you. We are ceasing to be "protestant" and beginning, again, to embrace the whole church, what is true and right in the whole thing. 3. Transformation happens in the context of Community. A friend asked me not long ago, "is it necessary to live in community in order to be truly transformed into the image of Christ? and why?" - honestly, I was asked that. My answer was an emphatic, "No - because YOU aren't the Body of Christ, WE are, and that WE was designed to act together as a unit." We went on to have a great conversation about it but the gist is that we aren't designed to be alone on this journey. We can't walk it properly without a close company of others who are constantly with us, helping us, watching out for us, teaching and correcting us, strengthening us. This is how God works in our lives to a great degree - through the close intermingling of community. I'm not talking about living with a bunch of people in a big house (communal living). That's amazing for those who are called to that life. And I'm not talking about "going to church" with 800 other people in the same building every week - not that. I'm talking about a small, tightly connected group of maybe 5 or 10 people, who are committed to one another for the long haul of the spiritual life. That is the context of transformation - the formation chamber, as it were. 4. It's not about the Pastor. The popular former definition of that word has been found severely lacking. Boss, Commander, CEO, Manager, Administrator, Sovereign - no, these won't do. They won't do because they aren't right. They are mistaken notions of what a pastor or elder or leader is designed to be in a faith community - and therefore, they go against the grain of Body life and cause it to be crippled. I have found it to be an "answer" that if we hold on to this philosophy of pastoral leadership, or continue in a system which holds this view inherently, we perpetuate the notion that only one or a very few people in a community are "ministers" and therefore, the idea in most that they are not. I mean to say that there IS leadership in the Body - there are still pastors and elders - but we cannot afford to be those things as we have been taught to be them. It's not about the pastor. It's about the whole Body of Jesus and the Life of God in the Holy Spirit living in and through us all. 5. Lay your time tables down. This crap takes a looong time. When I first started Vine & Branches I had a much quicker time frame for the growth of new "branches." Uhhh, that didn't happen. Here's the question I had to ask - is that because I wasn't "working" it properly? I asked it, tried this and that, etc. - nope. Oh, you mean "it wasn't God." No, it was Him - still is. It's -- just -- taking -- a -- long -- time. It's about the long-haul commitment of a community to life together on a journey - and as they go along, being transformed, living their normal lives in the world, they infect others with the Life that is in them, and eventually they start walking the journey as well. Yes there are degrees of intentionality in this thing. But I have found that you can't count on "goals" and time tables about when and how your church will "grow." These are false notions of growth and should not be the goal of a faith community. Long, slow, transformational growth and natural, "walk with me as I walk the journey" evangelism - that's where we're at. Kevin Rains - Norwood, Ohio, USA 1. Community living is optional... but for many it’s a good option.
I currently live in a household with 10 other people and a wide
assortment of overnight guests most nights of any given week. My wife
and I have lived this way most of our married life. Both our kids, who
are now 7 and 5 have been raised in this environment. It’s been a most
fulfilling and beneficial way to live. We lived with a family that was
15 years older than us and mentored us in natural, everyday, life on
life ways through many life lessons ranging from exploring deep
spiritual concerns to the finer points of changing diapers. It’s been
without exception the most formative experience of our adult lives. Not
easy at all times but without a doubt the most formative.Almost every time I hear someone talk about "community living" or "intentional Christian community" (a horrible and useless phrase that needs to go away) there’s a disclaimer or a joke. "Now, it’s not for everyone and this is only for those who are called" or "So you live in a commune? How’s the wife swapping going for ya?" I understand the uneasiness. I’ve used the disclaimers and told the jokes myself to put others at ease. Truth be told though it’s not that weird and it’s very rewarding. Most of all I wanna say: it’s doable and more people should consider it. And not because it’s more biblical or spiritually superior (...there I go with the disclaimers...) But because it’s so rewarding and formative and makes for endless opportunities to practice the ‘one anothers’ not to mention diaper changing. 2. Hospitality is just as important (and if I were slightly bolder I might even say ‘more important’) than teaching. This is something I’ve felt intuitively for a long time but Chris Marshall voiced it. Now I’ve been saying it ever since and taking credit for it. Welcoming people. Listening. Creating beautiful and nurturing spaces. These are the things that we’ve found connect most deeply with people. Teaching is still and always will be important but a warm, hospitable environment sets the stage for real communication, for dialog that’s not top down, preachy or answering questions people don’t really have. The flip side of hospitality is equally important. Andrew Jones and Neil Cole have reminded us to EXPECT hospitality not just offer it. Receiving hospitality is just as important for mission as extending it. Remember Jesus words to Zacchaeus, that wee little man? You know, the one that climbed up in the sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see? And as the Saviour passed his way he looked up in the tree. And he said, "Zacchaeus! You come down! For I’m going to your house today!" Jesus expected hospitality and taught his first students to expect it as well. A core instruction when he sent his followers out was "Find a house of peace and stay there... Don’t move around." (Matt 10, Luke 10) It’s essential, not optional that we become skilled in offering hospitality and gracious in receiving it. 3. Women lead, naturally. A central goal in our context is creating spiritual families and one of our key practices is hospitality. We value loving spiritual parents in our churches and ‘get your hands dirty’ service over up front, love-the-spotlight, ego laden leadership. Given that’s our context, who do you think will naturally have influence? Yeah, it may sound sexist. It might even be sexist. But truth be told – and I’m only speaking from my personal experience here - women tend to be naturals when it comes to hospitality and nurturing families. Men can learn. Women are naturals. Men, get over it. We got things to learn. Women, there's no need to grasp for up front roles. Most of the men I'm tracking with are deconstructing that whole idea anyway so in the long run it may just be a waste of your time. It might be better to keep influencing (aka leading) with the natural gifts you already bring to the table. Yes, the table. "As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us." (Paul to the Thessalonian church) 4. Churches die. Small is beautiful. Small is elegant. Small is highly reproducible. Small is also fragile. Wolfgang Simson compares the mega-churches and micro-churches as elephants and rabbits. Rabbits reproduce fast. But they also die younger. For the longest time, and probably still to some extent, I viewed a community dying as a failure. Not so much anymore. Death is a normal part of the life cycle. It’s the end, of course. It’s hard, of course. It’s sad, of course. But it’s to be expected and more often than not welcomed. Organic things die. I’m getting over it. 5. Theology matters. We’re an easy target. We still often use the term ‘house church’ to describe our spiritual communities. We use others but it’s still a common one. That makes it easy for those in other contexts who use more traditional terms or more modern but cool terms to assume that those of us doing house churches haven’t thought through the theology of what we are doing and are totally focused on the form of church life, or a model or we’re somehow naively trying to re-capture the early church. But that’s not always the case even though there is some good reason for the bias namely others who use the term who focus on those very things. On the other hand, it IS easy for those in the so called house church movement to get caught up in the form and forget about the theology that undergirds it. There are, thankfully, tonics for this. Good books are one such tonic. Read Bosch on the ‘Missio Dei’ in Transforming Mission, Guder et al on kingdom ecclesiology in Missional Church and Frost and Hirsh on the incarnation in Shaping of Things to Come. Why? Because our practice must be rooted in deep life giving truths like the incarnation and the Father sending the Son and then the Father and the Son sending the Spirit. So, like the church at Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas, we send people. But for deeper reasons than "that’s what they did." We send people because it’s in God’s very nature to not be clingy and introspective but outward and willing to give up and send and sacrifice for the betterment of those He loves. So, we send because God sends. We dive deep into jobs and neighborhoods because the Word incarnated. Not because it’s cool or counter cultural or because we want to teach the modern church the way it’s really done. No. No. No. We do it because it’s in God’s nature to do it. We do it because he did it first and showed us the way. We do it because we want our praxis to match what we have come to know and experience of God’s love. Theology matters. Note: I hear that Doug Pagitt has a book out, Reimagining Spiritual Formation, that addresses well the topic of becoming theological communities. I’m still waiting for the free, signed copy that he never promised me so it’s just hearsay at this point. Hey guys, good thinking and good writing! Keep it up!
"Crap" is simply a colloquialism, Edward, meaning "stuff" - nothing derogetory intended - just for clarification.
I have just come across this site and find it ok, would expect nothing less from you fellas, but really helpful reflections here. Glad to be with you in this larger Story.
kevin Its good to hear from you guys again. IT keeps my head above water here in Seattle. Sometimes I look back at our ministry time frame say, this-- takes--- so-- long. Right now things are happening faster than I know how to keep up with. Theology matters because this isn't about me, it's about HIm in us. Alan and Kevin, Good stuff, but I'll argue one point :) This is a helpful feature. Thanks for your thoughts here, guys, and I'm looking forward to more. Good stuff, Alan, about time tables and being honest about churches having life-spans.
good stuff, kevin. thanks.
Right on!
really helpful stuff your guys, thanks for taking the time to throw down
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