Centripetal or centrifugal?
That's "center-seeking" or "center-fleeing". You might think "center-seeking" is the preferred option, but-- I've been viewing with some of our church members the Bob Mumford DVDs from ACM last October. Last night we saw his third presentation, "Finding New Direction." For those who were there, this was the "spiralling inward" vs. "spiralling outward" talk. Here, centripetal (center-seeking) is NOT the way we want to be moving--that's the death spiral, me/us continuing to spiral in upon ourselves. Instead, like the light and life of the Father, we want to be moving/spiralling outward, following Jesus as he moves outward in mission.
So there's about twenty of us watching this last evening. As we were discussing it afterwards, one of my elders said something like, "I'm pretty encouraged--I think we're a pretty 'outward' church." Then one of my deacons immediately responded, "I disagree. I think we're pretty wound up with ourselves." The question/s I'd like some help on: (1) while both comments likely contain some truth, what kind of specifics would indicate to you that Covenant Church in Arlington, MA was moving outward in the right kinds of ways? (2) What's the right balance between "each one" and "all together", i.e., can it be healthy for a church to focus on equipping its members to being moving outward wherever they are but not have a single primary focus (in the sense of a specific task, ministry, project, 'mission', etc) that the church as a whole engages? And please, by all means, make some connections between the immediately prior posts and comments about prayer!
posted by Brian Emmet @ 2:19 PM
7 Comments:
GREAT question, Brian! We are wrestling with the same issues. What is the proper balance? Are we as a movement of churches sort of like the Democratic Party in Congress? They say we need to get out of Iraq (and I would LOVE for us to), but that don't have a plan to make it happen. We say that we need to get out of our four walls and into the community, but we don't always have a plan as to how to do this. We have been so steeped in pastoral care and discipleship, that we sometimes don't know how to change the ship's course. Please, I am not suggesting that the former was wrong or is unnecessary; although, I grieve (at times) over literally the hours of time that I invested serving my "pastor," cutting his grass, painting his house, etc., when those same hours could have been spent feeding the hungry and clothing the poor. Yet, I know that there has been a rich deposit in my life. A good example comes from a recent experience: A week ago Tuesday I had three calls in one day from former church memebers, all living in different locations . . . Florida, Tennessee, and Israel(!), all seeking pastoral care for issues in their lives! The brother in Israel is a good example. Eight years ago he and his family joined a different church, a non-charismatic, large, growing, community church. I know the pastors and love and respect them. When I learned that he and his family were moving to Israel with the U.S. State Department this summer, I tried to call him several times. Due to the short press of time, getting his family and house ready (2 months), he didn't return my calls. When he called last week, it was 4:00 AM in Israel. He said he was returning my calls, and went on to vent his frustration that after serving for eight years with this other church, none of the six full-time pastors took the time to call, send an email, or in some other way acknowledge their departure. Our conversation ended with him thanking me for my pastoral concern for he and his fmaily over the years (almost 20 now). Obviously, that Tuesday was a very encouraging day, BUT I look at the tremendous needs in the communities in which we live and the very self-centered, cloistered lives that we seem to live. I am burdened that we are not more outwardly focused. In fact, Fred and I (with the Elders) have agreed that this needs to be our primary area of focus for this spring. The materials we are using with our next Growth Group session should help us in this way. A booklet was recently published by Derek Prince Ministries, "Orphans, Widows, the Poor, and Oppressed." He believed that biblically, this should be our #1 priority, and allow everything else to follow. Certainly, food for thought. Another provoking book is Brain MacClaren's newest, "The Secret Message of Jesus." The are parts in it that I cannot agree with; however, it is very provocotive and gets you to think in sometimes new and different paradims concerning the Kingdom of God. Did I write too much? If you have read this epistle to the end, congratulations, you are a better man than I am! Blessings. ERR
As always, I appreciate everyone's comments. No, Randy, you've not written too much--maybe if the blog gets too crowded at some point we'll have to impose some sort of voluntary restrictions, but for now, fire away.
Changing the ship's course, changing the DNA...powerful metaphors: possibly helpful, possibly harmful. The DNA one is interesting: changing DNA = mutation. In the natural world, 99+% of mutations are harmful or fatal to the organism. If we think evolutionarily (and I'm NOT using that as a perjorative) it's that <1% that enables adaptation and survival. Sometimes I think that much of our fluster and bother about the church is less than helpful. We thought we were making a great leap forward when we moved out of small neighborhood churches to the suburbs... then we were proud of ourselves when the church became indistinguishable from a mall...now we feel pretty cutting-edge if we meet in Starbuck's.
For our small circle, I'd appreciate some help. What would indicate to me that I should say to my folks, "We've missed the boat--we're not really a very fruitful church [mixing metaphors already!]. So we're going to---" Going to do what? Quit meeting on Sundays, in home groups, or whatever and instead start meeting____. Sell our houses and move to ____ so that we can be more faithful to Jesus. Quit our jobs so that we will finally have the time to truly serve Jesus together by doing ____ instead. Recognize that for all its faults, the US is pretty thoroughly evangelized and relocate to _____ in order to be real salt and light in a place that really has neither.
Should we just cash in whatever chips we may have and take them and invest them into another church context? I'm not in despair [yet]; I haven't felt that I've/we've been wasting my/ourselves in what we've given ourselves to over the last 25 years... I s'pose that's a perennial frustration that comes from listening to Bob--he sees and articulates it clearly, lives it personally, but doesn't provide a ton of help in terms of modeling it on a corporate level. No slam on Bob, just an observation that's been made before!
Speaking of going on way too long...sorry!
Wow, Brian, your comments, coupled with Robert's really have my wheels turning. Concerning our DNA, it makes me think of the old saying that "you can't change a lepord's spots." You can paint him to look like a tiger, but in the end, he is still a lepord. This caused me to think of another metaphor. For centuries (milleniums?) civilizations used oxen to plow the ground on their farms. Somewhere along the way, the value of horses as a means of transportation was discovered. Later, it was realized that although a horse was a great way to travel from village to village (or fight in battle), that it could also serve as a useful means for plowing. Then, someone joined a horse to a donkey and developed a mule, a GREAT animal for plowing (read, service!), yet still retaining some of the valuable characteristics of the horse. Perhaps, that's what we need? It is one of the reasons that I keep pushing for outside speakers at ACM. It is not because I don't value Bob or Charles (or any of the other men), it is so that we can be exposed to someone whose DNA is different than our's. Although we can't change our DNA, unless we want to risk the possibility of a mutation, we can still learn with the hope or thought that perhaps we can create a hybrid, LORD willing. It seems like this was what Jesus was dealing with when He walked on this earth, teaching and demonstrating the message of the kingdom of God. Didn't He say something about not being able to pour new wine into old wineskins? I believe that God wants to create some new wineskins. Note: they are still wineskins! Could this be more like the modifcation God is after vs. a total DNA change? I also recall in relationship to these thoughts, that He taught us that he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it! Hmmmmmm....? ERR, out!
It's possible--and if you read folks like McLaren, it is either likely or definite--that we are at a epoch-changing, epoch-making historical juncture, a spiritual global "climate change" that will mean (a) the "extinction" of thousands of "species" (churches??) and (b) the rise of new, better-adapted species. So churches like ours may be on the wrong side of this "evolutionary" process. There's no shame in that--dinosaurs cannot simply "become" mammals!--and, after all, we follow a Savior who demonstrated that death is not the final word. So if we die, we die--hopefully we served God in our times, and I'm not sure we can really aspire to do anything more than that.
(We should also perhaps note that mules are sterile! They ARE uniquley suited as plow animals, they just can't reproduce. There's a thought to ponder...) I am not making a case to "just go ahead and die," just pointing out that, in Reformed terms, all of our approaches to escape death, including the deaths of "our churches" by means of our being smart, wise, clever, spiritual, etc., etc. represent "theologies of glory" instead of "of the Cross." We should remember that, of all the new species that arise in a "moment" of major environmental change, the vast majority, like the vast majority of start-up businesses, fail. We must live history forwards, but can only properly understand and interpret it backwards--e.g., we must make some decisions NOW about global warming, but we won't know if our ananlysis and actions are correct for maybe another 50-100 years.
Robert, you're correct: I took off on the mutation idea--I didn't at all think that I was representing what you were saying, I just used the DNA metaphor as a jumping-off point.I was only speaking for myself.
Still, I would like some help in practically thinking through how we lead our churches through this process of increasing our outward spiral. I know it doesn't mean the same thing for every congregation, and I'm not trying to reduce it to a formula or a program...and I'm not looking for a subsitute for Scripture and the Spirit. I'd just like to get some "outside eyes" on our church here and give us some feedback/report card on where we're weaker, where we're strong, that kind of thing.
I thought I'd add my appreciation for Brian's question as a way of seeing if I can access the blog. I don't have time to read the comments now, but believe as you probably do that inward looking was been a weakness for us as covenant churches. I think we need to see these as not opposite but intertwined--a new physics if you will. The place of healing is the place of ministry; the purpose of healing is to minister--therefore inward and outward are not alternatives but are intrinsically linked.
In the book, "The Intentional Church" by Randy pope, he stresses there must be attention given to those within the church body, and equally attention given to the mission we've been sent to accomplish within the sphere we've been given. Whether we consciously center on those within or not, that's what we tend to do. It's safer.
Christian Covenant Church here in Albany had and has found a nitch to minister in the inner-city. Our start-up church, WellSpring Fellowship is concentrating on our formation and foundation out of necessity. However, it is essential and thankfully, is in the heart of each of us, to extend the Kingdom to those around us in practical and spiritually dynamic ways. What that will look like, I'm not sure at this point...but to focus primarily inward would be tragic.
I personally think, as in everything, hearing from God(sounds so trite at times) is key, then allow the Holy Spirit to have His way in our accomplishing what we are hearing? Not programed based...but continually active, creative, and risky. I see this in what Jamie is doing. Blessings!
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