Church Structure

The last several posts we've been talking about the need to focus on the kingdom, not the church. As previously noted, it's not our responsibility to build the church. Jesus said he would do it. However, that hasn't stopped us. We've proceeded, and the result has been a Frankenstein monster of our own creation. We've forgotten that only God can create living organisms.
One of the most prominent arguments put forth as we have continued to build the church is that the church needs structure. Therefore we must organize it for that purpose, knowing that nothing can function effectively without structure. This is true, but the question is, "What kind of structure?"
This is why we have created this Frankenstein monster. We've taken a part from here, another part from there, a third part from this arena of the world and a fourth part from that arena of the world, and on and on. Thus we have devised this bizarre monster whose movements are so stiff and rigid that it has difficulty moving at all.
So what is the structure of the church? Where does the structure come from? The structure is brought forth only by the Holy Spirit. From the beginning of Genesis we see that it is the Holy Spirit who brings structure to that which is without form. Psalm 104:30 says, "When you send your Spirit, they are created." The structure that the Spirit brings forth is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is what gives shape and form to God's church. The kingdom is the constitution of the church. Without a constitution, an entity cannot function. The only constitution for the church is the kingdom of God, yet the kingdom seems to be ignored. What happens when the constitution of a nation or an organization is ignored? The nation which ignores its constitution crumbles and is overrun by its enemies.
It is imperative that we put in place the constitution that God has given us by his Spirit. As we practice it and adhere to it, the church will automatically be built up, becoming all that Jesus is creating it to be.

Spontaneity and the Spirit

Continuing with the same theme of kingdom priority over and above the church, I want to refer to Joseph Myers' observation of his slime mold analogy. He notes that the slime mold "coming together is spontaneous." There is nothing apparent that is causing the action, although the right environmental conditions exist for the action to occur.
The following words of Jesus are applicable to this kind of seemingly spontaneous action.

"The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).

Jesus compares the moving of the Spirit to the wind, that appears to move spontaneously. However, the Spirit only moves to do the will of God. We know that the kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Jesus' movements and ministry seemed to be spontaneous, but he was led by the Spirit in all that he did.
As Jesus functioned in the days of his flesh, so is his church to function in these days. I'm suggesting that the church, for the most part, does not function like Jesus. It is very predictable, very rigid, no spontaneity whatsoever. But it appears that spontaneity was a significant characteristic of Jesus because he moved in the Spirit. Thus it appears that there is little movement, if any, in the Spirit on the part of the church as we know it. With the kingdom of God existing in the Holy Spirit, it becomes evident that the kingdom is practically non-existant in the church. The church has chosen to function independently, by its own understanding and power, rather than that of the Spirit and kingdom of God.
We'll pick this up in the next post.

Proper Environment

I want to pick up where we left off from yesterday's post. Keeping in mind that the church Jesus is creating is organic, I want to go back to what Joseph Myers writes on pages 72 and 73 in his insightful book, The Search to Belong. Quoting Steven Johnson, Myers illustrates organic community.

"The slime mold spends much of its life as thousands of distinct single-celled units, each moving separately from its other comrades. Under the right conditions, those myriad cells will coalesce again into a single, larger organism, which then begins its leisurely crawl across the garden floor, consuming rotting leaves and wood as it moves about. When the environment is less hospitable, the slime mold acts as a single organism; when the weather turns cooler and the mold enjoys a large food supply, "it" becomes a "they." The slime oscillates between being a single creature and a swarm."

Myers goes on to make this observation.

"The intriguing secret of slime mold is that there is no "master planner" calling the cells to unite. The coming together is spontaneous. There is no apparent leader. There is no call to action. No vision statements, value statements, or mission statements. There is no "queen bee" or charismatic leader. The cells collect spontaneously when the environment triggers the response.
"Slime mold offers us an interesting insight: We humans could help by creating the healthy environments in which people naturally connect. If we would concentrate upon facilitating the environment instead of the result (people experiencing community), we might see healthy, spontaneous community emerge."

We'll continue this on another post.

Church or Kingdom

There's a lot of dialogue taking place concerning the church - what's wrong with it, how can it be corrected, how can it come more into alignment with Scripture and the first century church, and what are the specifics that we must deal with to get it there. At the risk of being shot down and labeled a heretic, I want to jump into the midst of the dialogue with this exhortation:

"Forget about the church!"

Let me explain! We have misplaced our priority. The priority is the kingdom of God, not the church. Jesus said to seek first his kingdom. We are seeking first the church, or at least how to come up with the "right kind of church." The gospels record Jesus speaking of "the church" three times. They record him speaking of the kingdom of God over a hundred times. That in itself ought to give us a clue. Most of our talk, however, is of the church, not of the kingdom. Obviously we are not on the same page as Jesus. We have different priorities than he does. Could the statement Jesus made to Peter be applied to us? "You are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's" (Matthew 18:23). God is interested in the church, but he is not interested in man building it. But that's what we're interested in.
Jesus said he would build his church. However, with our inflated egos, we have jumped in to do it ourselves, thinking he needs our ideas. We have so screwed it up that Jesus is going to have to demolish what we've built in order to build his church according to his blueprint.
The church is organic, therefore it needs the proper kind of environment to in which to be planted and to grow. It happens spontaneously and automatically. Our responsibility is to provide the right environment, which is the kingdom of God. This is how we partner with Jesus in the building of his church. As we walk in the righteousness, peace and joy of the Spirit, we provide the necessary climatic conditions of the kingdom for Jesus to plant and grow his church.
We'll continue this in another blog.

Control

I read a statement by Darren Rowse that is really worth some consideration.

"Mission is about living with people on their turf. It's also often about letting go of your own agendas and assumptions and learning to wait for the other person to set the agenda and invite you to journey with them."

This flies in the face of conventional wisdom. We focus on doing and fulfilling what we have planned. We're told to set goals, to not be distracted from achieving what we've set out to do. This sounds good, but I really don't think it is people oriented. Relationships tend to be forgotten in the midst of achieving what we've set out to accomplish, whether it be a life goal, or just getting done what we want over the next 24 hours. Regardless, it's about being in control of my life, my comings and goings.
Darren's statement throws a whole different light on this. It's more about releasing control and allowing others to set the agenda. Most of us cringe at this thought. Yet, we see Jesus doing this continually. Read the gospels and take note how many times Jesus was interrupted from what he was saying and doing. He didn't ignore them for the sake of his agenda, but moved into the agenda of the one interrupting him.
Here's the catch. It isn't the others setting the agenda, but the Father using others to set the agenda. Too often, due to our insensitivity, we miss the opportunities the Father gives us because of our need to maintain control. If we want to be more conformed to Jesus, we need to relinquish control so we can journey with the other people the Father brings across our paths.

Places of Power

I just read an interview with an African bishop who was asked to comment on his observation of North America. We need to take heed of his enlightening remarks.
He observed that we here in the states operate from the place of centralized power. This skews our perspective, deceiving us into thinking that the future belongs to us. We have a proven track record. Look at our success. We have risen to the pinnacle of power. We have the know-how to get things done.
This, however, is not the way we see God moving in the Scriptures. He doesn't move from the place of the center of power, but from the margins. He moves from the margins with people who are nobodies by the power establishment's standards. One has to go no farther than Jesus to see this. He was from Nazareth, on the fringe, which was recognized as worthless as far as providing anything of value. Nathaniel voiced the common opinion of the day when told about Jesus, saying, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
While the Scriptures plainly reveal that God works from the margins with marginalized people, we continue to try to function from the centers of power, seeking to join ourselves to the leaders who are part of the power establishment. And we wonder why we are not seeing God move in our midst. The answer is quite simple: God doesn't move from the power centers but from the margins where the weak and despised are.
Evidence of this is all aroound us. It isn't the power center of the United States where the most phenomenal advances of the kingdom of God are occurring. Rather, it's in the third world countries of Asia, Africa and South America. It's not amongst the well fed comfortable Christians of the West in their multi-million dollar church facilities, but amongst the poor hungry peasants of China and India in their humble homes in the small villages where God is moving with extraordinary power.
So what are we to do? The bishop recommends giving ourselves to the poor, the weak, the HIV/AIDS victims, to the lowly and despised. These are the marginal people that the power centers touch only from a distance in a patronizing way, if at all. These are the people God loves and is giving himself to. These are ones with whom God is doing a great work. If we want to get in on what he's doing, then we have to get involved and start loving the marginal people around us with whom God is moving. The margins are the places of God's power.

God's Modus Operandi

Eugene Petersen vividly illustrates the radical difference between God's perspective and our perspectives concerning the modis operandi of community. Hear what the Spirit is saying as you read.

Moses, at the end of his life, hands over leadership to Joshua, teaches the people his song, blesses the community tribe by tribe, and then trudges up Mount Nebo to Pisgah Peak eith the entire Promised Land spread out before him in a wide-screen vista. There he dies. God buries him (ch. 34).
He dies, by all human accounting, a failure, and knowing that he is a failure, knowing that everything he has worked for in leading, training, and praying for this community will unravel as soon as the people enter Canaan. It is a familiar story for readers of Scripture, even though frequently suppressed. What does this mean? It means that we have to revise our ideas of the holy community to conform to what is revealed in Scripture. It means that we cannot impose our paradisiacal visions of hanging out with lovely, upbeat, and beautiful people when we enter a Christian congregation. It means that God's way of working with us in community has virtually nothing to do with the world's idea of getting things done, of what "works" and what doesn't. It means that God hasn't changed his modus operandi of choosing the "low and despised in the world" (1 Cor. 1:28) to form his community. It means that we who want to get in on what God does in the way God does it in all matters of community, will have to give up pretensions of shaping an organization that the world will think is wonderful as we parade our accomplishments to the tune of "worship" or "evangelism."

Christ Plays In Ten Thousand Places, p. 266.