The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story this past week highlighting San Francisco as the most walkable city in the United States. As I began to look through the website it links to, I noticed that not only is the city extremely walkable, but the neighborhood we’re moving into (South of Market shown above highlighted in blue) is tied for 5th in the whole city.
We arrive in the city in just a little under 3 weeks and plan to walk and utilize as much public transportation as possible! It’s a great city, and we can’t wait to get out there!
Last Sunday was my final Sunday at the Shorewood Campus and Community Christian Church. I must say that it was bittersweet, however I can’t imagine a better place to have served.
When I started at Community 14 months ago I was in a completely different place than I am now, fresh off a gut wrenching and soul draining experience—in short a hellish year of ministry (somehow even those words can’t quite sum it up). Tracy and I came to Community extremely wounded, limping in on our last legs and expecting the impossible from the people and staff of Community. We came in expecting them to restore our hope in the church, to restore our wounded psyche, our broken hearts, and help us on the road back to wholeness. What was unfair on our part—we didn’t tell them of these expectations.
What’s amazing about the staff at Community and in particular the people of the Shorewood Campus: they didn’t bat an eye, were completely unfazed and immediately surrounded us with an amazing presence of love, support and encouragement like we have never experienced before. It’s the same sort of love, support and encouragement that they give to everyone—yet for us it hit the spot and did more than we could have ever hoped or imagined.
Fourteen months later I am leaving with a renewed sense of hope and faith in the church, a firm belief that the church can actually be a healthy, vibrant, world changing force. This post doesn’t come close to giving Community its due for how it has shaped and impacted me over the past year, but I am far different and a far better person because of how this church pushed towards the mission every day. Thank you Community… I wouldn’t be heading to San Francisco if it hadn’t been for you.
Energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens has created a new campaign aimed at solving the energy crisis in the United States. I’ve seen his ads on tv for the past week or so talking about a new alternative for solving our dependency on foreign oil and I finally took the time to watch the video on his website. It’s pretty interesting and although doesn’t claim to be the solution, he does claim that it will reduce our dependency on foreign oil enough to buy us some time and solve the problem down the line.
I must say I am extremely intrigued, however I’m just not quite sure how it will be completely implemented in our oil-based economy…
At the end of Pagan Christianity, the authors called for and gave practical steps on how someone could leave the church community they were attending because of the vast amounts of pagan practices being employed by the traditional church body… Smay and Halter do something quite the opposite, something rather noble, and in fact something that looks out for the health and well-being of the church instead of someone’s personal preference. This is the kind of talk we need to hear, and the action we need to see in the church today to bring us together in unity and walk through the changing cultural landscape that is before us:
If you recognize that you are a part of a traditional-attractional church structure, don’t punt! The best response is to create the missional pyramid from scratch with a few missional people of your choice and start right where you are. If you leave, nothing beneficial will happen in your church. But if you—with a humble desire to influence or model a new way—launch out with a few friends while staying connected to your church, you’ll not only enjoy the freedom of being on mission, you’ll be able to influence and inspire more people within the existing structure to change…
We ask for a small handful of would-be missionaries to pilot incarnational community. If it works, then we believe the grassroots success will spread to more people in the existing structure. Most pastors have no reason not to want this experiment to succeed. They want you to live out this calling, but part of their calling is to also hold the saints together. Structures don’t change easily through challenge or critique. They change best as people within the organization change and model new approaches. So, instead of pointing your finger at your pastor or elder board, go live out this ancient way and pray for the larger community to eventually move forward with you… If it works, you’ll have helped move your church into new territory. If it doesn’t, you’ll have a great time with a few friends. How bad can that be?
I greatly appreciate this approach, and I could imagine a better way for the church to begin working together amidst different philosophical approaches. This is the antithesis of “I’m taking my ball and going home” which has become way to prevalent in the church today.
…the traditional “Come to us” attraction model of church was successful in the past. People outside the church still appreciated our values… But when our values are opposite, or even different, it is much more difficult to find a way to be together… Cultural distance (a concept shared by Alan Hirsch in The Forgotten Ways) explains why there is room for some churches to stay the same, but also why most churches will need to make radical adjustments. It all depends on who you are called to reach. If your calling is to influence those with the most similarly held values, then you can keep providing the same thing. But if you want to influence the massively growing percentage of people who are much further from the gospel, you’ll have to provide, model, and invite people into an inclusive community that welcomes people with alternative values. (Page 72)
The problem today is not that the church is broken, rather the problem is that the culture is changing at such a rapid pace around us that we have yet to catch up. We need new expressions of church and of communicating the gospel to reach out to these new expressions of the culture. It’s hard to realize sometimes while dabbling on the progressive fringe, how important the establishment (traditional church) is and how seemingly irrelevant some expressions of traditionalism are becoming. Yet, they still reach out to and speak to the modernistic paradigm and fruit is being harvested regardless of what we may think.
By looking at things from this sort of lens I think it allows for us to approach differing expressions of the church with grace and generosity, in some instances even with a sense of appreciation. This is the lens we need to begin seeing each other through, and by doing so will allow for us all to come together with a strong sense of unity amidst our diversity, and realize that we are all called to reach different segments of this growingly diverse population called America.
Victor LeBeau, a retailing analyst who helped shape our economy after WWII said:
Our enormously productive economy…demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption…. We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.
This quote certainly shed an enormous amount of light on this video by Radiohead “All I Need”
There are a ton of spiritual and moral implications surrounding this, and although I’m not sure exactly how it all fleshes out it is certainly something I am thinking though and questioning on a bigger scale.
(All of this thought was sparked by the Radiohead video and furthered by watching the video with Annie Leonard The Story of Stuff)
Deconstruction towards reconstruction… this seems to be one of the greatest sources of dissent in the church today. There are those that are actively seeking a deconstruction of the norm in order to explore and experience a new reconstructed norm that is positioned to speak prophetically into the culture and then there are those who grip tightly to maintain the systems and functions that are currently being deconstructed. It seems that this is what the emerging church truly introduced into the mainstream of ecclesiology… however the attitudes behind the movement were often times less than gracious (and even though it has tempered as of late, the undercurrent still remains.) I myself still struggle with a gracious attitude to those that have gone before me, preparing the way for the future. Halter reminds us:
As I speak for many in the budding missional church world, I have to share that I no longer judge the faithful, fervent work of so many pastors who have pastored well but who struggle to find their place in this new world. They deserve to be honored instead of belittled. Without their legacy, we would have nothing to build upon.
Therefore, it would behoove us to begin treading graciously with those who have paved the way—honoring them, yes, but also providing them the grace and mercy as they too struggle to find their way in the new world.
Reconstruction can only begin by starting with Jesus… and it’s through Jesus that we can begin coming together as a unified church. “By starting with Christology (the life of Jesus), which informs our missiology (how we live), we’ll have a better chance of finding common ground with our ecclesiology (how we do church).” (pg. 20)
These chapters took a great turn in tone. There has always been a very gracious tone, however the tone shifted from a deconstructionist viewpoint to a re-constructionist viewpoint and a presentation of hope that can be had throughout the emerging church as we move forward for change. The final question for reflection that was asked: “If Jesus were to trim down your Christian experience to his essentials, what would he remove? What would be left?” I’m not sure the wording of this question was truly indicative of the re-constructionist tone and so I’d rather answer a new question… a better question: “If Jesus were to trim down your Christian experience to his essentials, what would you keep? What would you start with?” This is probably an easier question, not to mention a shift in thinking away from deconstruction and onward towards reconstruction.
As I thought through this question of what would I keep… I’m not sure it would be a very long list. In fact, the only thing that immediately came to mind was Jesus. I think as a church we have lost focus and sight on Jesus as the bridegroom, as the head of the church, and instead have supplanted ourselves in his place. In this reconstruction it is my hope and prayer that we rediscover the supremacy of Jesus in the church, getting away from paying him lip service and move towards a new understanding and reliance upon Him. “By starting with Christology (the life of Jesus), which informs our missiology (how we live), we’ll have a better chance of finding common ground with our ecclesiology (how we do church).”
By starting with Jesus we’ll soon enough be able to reconstruct a new “norm” that can speak prophetically into our culture because of the influence that will be gained in our missional ways… but we shouldn’t expect this new “norm” to last forever… a new wave of deconstruction will come about in the decades to come as once again we will have to figure out how to present the gospel to the culture that we interact with.
I’m writing this from the front seat of a packed out charter bus (Fung Wah—a charter bust that takes you from China Town Boston to China Town NYC) and it’s certainly an interesting experience. All around me are people of different ethnicities, speaking in different dialects and languages on their cell phones and in conversation… it’s like I’ve somehow entered into a Pentecostal worship service and everyone is speaking in tongues. It is, however, an amazing experience nonetheless to hear so many people from all over the world come together to travel the same stretch of road.
I wish this bus was more indicative of what local expressions of the church look like. I wish that we could break through the cultural and ethnic lines that keep us separated and somehow come together as one, journeying along the same road towards revealing and proclaiming the Kingdom to the world.
I think that this is a unique issue specifically for the American church at large to take on. We are (as a country) the melting-pot of the world comprised of so many different nationalities, ethnicities, and cultures, and perhaps (in my estimation) the only country in the world like this. This presents a unique opportunity for us to do something remarkable as local expressions of the body of Christ.
I’m not exactly sure how to break through these lines, but we will certainly be attempting such a feat in the very ethnically diverse city of San Francisco where to be Caucasian is no longer the majority (46% vs. 54%)—a growing trend in cities and urban centers all over the country. Times are changing, and I’m excited to see what this next move of ethnically and culturally diverse churches will bring about.
6 years ago this month, Tracy and I made our way to Seattle to celebrate our honeymoon. We spent our first few days as newlyweds in the Mt. Rainier National Park in a secluded cabin in the middle of no-where. It was a dark, quiet, and beautiful place to stay… yet because of the quiet and the dark I slept horribly… Tracy on the other hand slept like an angel. Our next few days were spent in the city of Seattle taking in the sites, enjoying the Space Needle, Pike Street Market and the culture of the city.
This past week I was able to return to the Seattle area for a few days for a training session for church planters, and the final day of the trip I was able to make it into the city and to the Pike Street Market… unfortunately this time Tracy wasn’t with me. It was a great place to visit, but a hard place to be without my lovely wife… especially considering the memories we had.
I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the Pike Street Market again with all its charm, uniqueness and the eclectic nature of it all. I enjoyed the street musicians, the flying fish, and the unique novelties that people sold throughout. I was even able to visit the first ever Starbucks again (first time was with Tracy). I love Seattle, the culture, the people, the conversations that you can so easily strike up with people. It’s a great place. Hopefully in the coming years Tracy and I can both go back together… and maybe the next time I’ll get to see Mt. Rainier!*
*In the two trips that I’ve made to Seattle, I’ve never, ever seen this 15,000 ft. mountain that everyone talks about and is extremely visible from the city… that is of course when there is no rain… or clouds in the sky!
There is an order to creating a healthy culture and I believe it all starts with encouragement. It is the lynchpin, for without a culture of encouragement nothing else will truly come about in a healthy way. I do not believe that what I have presented is a step-by-step approach to creating a healthy culture, rather I believe that this is the natural progression that takes place in a healthy culture as witnessed in the presence of Community Christian Church.
I look forward to interacting on these points even more than has already been done, and I look forward implementing them in San Francisco as we move forward towards a healthy church culture that does amazing things in the community and around the world to further the Kingdom of God.
