Is Multi-Site Church Biblical?

J.D. Greear, with a whole lot of insight from John Piper, has a go at looking at the biblical evidence for multi-site/congregation churches.

(HT - Justin Buzzard)

Church Planting - As I see it

There’s a very likely possibility that I’ll be involved in a church plant within the next two years, so naturally my mind drifts in that direction quite often. The thought of church planting evokes numerous responses within me but two stand out above the others:

Why I DON’T Want to be Involved in Church Planting

I’m terrified that my work ethic is pathetic and that church planting requires people who work to the max.

I’m terrified that my life will on be on display to an entire body of Christians - I don’t want to let them down.

I’m terrified of the responsibility of having to teach the Bible with the deepest integrity every single week.

I’m terrified of displaying authentic orthopraxy.

I’m terrified of loving people, especially those who tick me off.

I’m terrified of all the massive social concerns our country faces.

I’m terrified of working with other Christians who don’t agree with me.

I’m terrified of trying to balance out a humble orthodoxy.

I’m terrified of the possible limits to which my body, mind and emotions will be stretched.

I’m terrified of building my own empire.

Why I Want to be Involved in Church Planting

I’m convinced that God is the creator of the universe and Jesus is his son and King.

I’m convinced that the creation needs to respond rightly.

I’m convinced that God will judge those who do not respond to his rule.

I’m convinced that God not only rules but that he is also in the business of rescuing us from that wrong relationship.

I’m convinced that the church is the correct expression of the gathered people who respond correctly to God’s rule and rescue.

I’m convinced that the church is to herald this great rescue and call for submission to God’s rule.

I’m convinced that God dearly loves his church - as a groom loves his bride on their wedding day.

Those are my convictions - here are my persuasions:

I’m persuaded that too many ‘churches’ today have neglected the above convictions.

I’m persuaded that too many ‘churches’ today have substituted the above convictions for other ideals and motivations.

I’m persuaded that too many ’spiritual’ people today despise the bride - wife beaters!

I’m persuaded that too many churches today lack authenticity.

I’m persuaded that fresher expressions of the church are needed to brighten up the landscape.

I’m persuaded that the urban centers of South Africa are significantly under-churched by churches which hold the above convictions.

Consumer to Missional

I found this little diagram very simple yet very helpful in terms of what we’re trying to get across when we use the term ‘missional’:

Read the brief article where this came from here (word doc.)

Sacred & Secular - The Missional Christian

This post is part of a series on my main blog that I’ve been writing entitled ‘What We’ve Missed - Missional Church Reflections’. Here’s the links to Part I, Part II and Part II.

Chris Gensheer quotes Ray Bakke on the subject of urban ministry. Bakke says the following (taken from the book ‘The Urban Face of Mission‘ edited by Harvie Conn and others):

“…far more than two billion of the world’s nonchurched people are no longer geographically distant from the church, they are culturally distant. They live in the largest cities of the world.” (You can read the rest of the quote and Chris’ post here)

How is it that people who live next door to us, go to our shopping malls, play sport at our sports clubs and eat at our restaurants are culturally distant from us - in a missions sense?

I think there’s a simple answer to this question: We, in the church, have completely embraced the ’sacred/secular’ distinction. Our Christian lives are heavily compartmentalized.

We behave ‘Christian’ or ’sacred’ for two hours on Sunday and another two hours on Wednesday night at cell group. Some of us even do ministry for the church and so on Friday night we put on the ’sacred’ hat for three more hours as we teach teenagers. The rest of the week we remove the ’sacred’ hat and replace it with the ’secular’ hat and carry on as if we were just one of the crowd.

Its not that we’re culturally distant from everyone else its just that we’ve got ourselves to a stage where we’re unable to merge the two areas and so from a Christian point of view we are culturally distant from everyone else around us.

The missional Christian, on the other hand, doesn’t make that distinction. He/she merges the sacred and secular realizing that all of life is lived in worship to God and so all must, in some sense, be sacred. At the same time he/she recognizes that not all of the secular is antagonistic and opposed to the sacred and so he/she adopts, culturally, as much as possible of the secular, into those times that are set apart, organizationally, for the ’sacred’. In a sense the church becomes more ‘worldly’ (in a good way) and the Christian becomes more ‘heavenly’ as he/she lives in the world each day.

If we don’t make strides in these two areas we will continue to alienate the people next to us from the church and continue to live with a false dichotomy in our lives between the secular and the sacred. The missional Christian walks a line that is completely culturally savvy and yet at the same time completely counter-cultural as he/she brings the demands of Christ’s lordship to bear on the creation through word and deed.

I realize that there are many dangers in trying to live out this missional Christianity, but just because its dangerous doesn’t mean its wrong. As Christians we don’t just adopt paths because they’re ’safe’ and free of danger - instead we adopt paths as we become convinced of God’s will from the scriptures danger or no danger.

Are you living in the secular, sacred or both

Goodmanson on Transforming Cities

This a post by Drew Goodmanson on how he and his church, in partnership with others, are seeking to transform San Diego with the Gospel of Christ. What astounds me is the sheer comprehensiveness of their ministries - take a look. Could we pull off something like this in South Africa?

Even More Tim Keller Resources

I realised that I’ve never pointed this out before on this blog but for those of you who enjoy reading or listening to Tim Keller’s material and are wondering where you can get more, fear not: Steve McCoy who blogs at the Reformissionary has put together an impressive set of links to pretty much all of the available Tim Keller resources on the web. Check it out here.

More Tim Keller Resources

The Resurgence have posted 4 articles by Tim Keller on the subject, ‘Ministry in the New Global Culture of Major City Centers‘. These four articles are bursting at the seems with serious reflection, insight and practical advice. If you minister in a major city anywhere in the world then you NEED to read these articles - Part I, Part II, Part III & Part IV

First In-House Media!!!

I’ve decided to break the ice with the ‘in-house’ media - so that at least this blog can start featuring articles or mp3 talks by South Africans doing ministry in South Africa. I’ve posted a link to a sermon of mine from about a month ago that I gave on Philippians 2:19-30 entitled ‘When the Gospel Works’. This talk has a quite a bit to say about the issue of community and a gospel-centered response to community. You can download it here. -SM.

Application Beyond the Structures

Ever heard a sermon a sermon on ’serving each other’ where the application goes something like this:

“…so where do you think you can serve. Have you ever given thought to being a welcomer at the door, what about the band - can you sing or play an instrument? Maybe you can’t but you can operate sound at the back. What about children - do you have repore with children - has the thought of teaching Sunday School ever crossed your mind? Maybe you have great upfront gifts - what about leading a service, or at least praying or reading publicly in a service - what about leading a home group during the week? There are so many opportunities for you to serve, so pull up your sleeves and get stuck in.”

What’s wrong with that application? It all centers on the formal structures of the church’s gatherings - the Sunday service and/or Wednesday night cell-group. Now I’m not suggesting that it isn’t important for people to get involved in keeping the structures going - they have an important place - BUT how can we serve each other outside or beyond the structures?

If the church is the people and not the Sunday gathering then surely service needs to extend beyond the structures - on second thoughts, surely the majority of our service to each other should be taking place outside of the structures. When the New Testament writers spoke about spurring each other on to love and good deeds do you think they had the sound desk in mind? Or do you think they were concerned that the Christians were living together and loving together all the time? In that case love and good deeds would be taking place on a daily basis.

This puts the premium back on community - if you don’t see yourselves as a community then your service is never going to extend beyond the structures. That mentality has to be incorporated and in many cases, as in the individualist west, this mindset change will be counter-cultural. We can’t love each and do good deeds effectively if we’re not living in community beyond our structures. The difficult part is figuring out what that looks like in practice - but we’ve got to start thinking if we’re convinced we should be following Jesus.

Essential Community

I was chatting with Michael Tinker on Skype this morning, Michael works with the Crowded House, a church planting initiative in Sheffield, England. He was telling me how in certain things he distinguishes between essentials and non-essentials when discussing practice and methodology in church planting. From what I can see one of the advantages of the house-church format that the Crowded House use is the massive priority it puts on Christians living in community with each other. Michael confirmed with me that one of the motivations that drives them is their commitment to the concept that community is not a pragmatic or methodological add-on but rather a biblical essential.

Now its my guess that most (if not all) evangelicals would intellectually agree that a priority on community is a biblical priority. Yet in western evangelicalism many of our churches are highly individualized and ‘community’ exists for two hours on Sunday and maybe another two during the week during a bible study group. If we are to love God and love people I fail to see how we can adequately do that in about four hours a week - and we haven’t even got to evangelism and loving those outside the church yet. Funny that we’re so often exhorted to read our bible and pray everyday (love God) but not to meet with and share our lives with fellow Christians everyday (step one in loving people).

Big churches are going to find it particularly difficult to turn the tide on this issue. Churches in very western and individualized areas are likewise going to face a battle here. There’s also the danger of minimizing other essentials in an attempt to address this issue - which so often happens as the pendulum swings - perhaps (dare I say it) some in the Emerging Church are suffering this sort of swing? However, if we’re convinced that living in community is an essential biblical concept then we need to start thinking and acting on the issue, lest we allow the culture of individualism to dominate us.

I haven’t read it yet but I’m sure Steve Timmis Tim Chester’s Total Church is going to have much to say on this issue and we’d all do well to get a copy and start reading.