Three months ago I wrote a post that laid out some direction for continuing to "experiment" with our current working thesis of ministry and attempting to remain faithful to God's call.  To recap quickly, the thesis is:

"The aims of the missional church conversation can be reached more rapidly and models become more effective by unhitching 'missional' from its inevitable ensnarement to a church culture on life support and allow 'church' to happen as a by-product of Christians growing in love of God and other."

In the post I described the basic ecclesial structure we're after.  Since then I made up an obligatory cheesy name!  (3D Ecclesiology)  And, I actually created a graphic!  It only took me three months to do these things.  Such is my life right now.

To clarify, the Church-Families described in the graphic are four (and possibly about to be five) actual, small faith communities here in Jupiter.  Each community has between 20-50 people and was started independently by a church-planter.  They are all different in make-up, emphasis, leadership, and all come from slightly different rivulets within the larger charismatic-evangelical stream.  The commonality is that each provides pastoral care, discipleship, and spiritual family to a manageable number of people. The Net is a monthly public worship gathering for the four communities which has been going on for the past six months.  Worship is planned collaboratively and kept very simple to ensure the focus stays on Jesus, Kingdom, and encouraging the saints.  The third dimension, Everyday Mission, is still in its infancy, but the primary vehicle for the "unhitching" in my thesis to occur.  There are three core elements: developing servant leaders, creating a learning community, and birthing micro-missions.  It is intentionally at the bottom of the graphic because it only exists to serve in those ways.

What is unique about this ecclesiology is that the three dimensions are formally independent but interwoven through relationship.  Three out of the four Church-Families have an established 501c3 organization.  (Our community, The Well, is the lone exception.  We have chosen to remain "unorganized" in the tradition of AA - see tradition nine.)  The Net is hosted at the Jupiter Worship Center, a DBA of Living Waters.  Everyday Mission will be a 501c3 org started by Amber and me.  Whatever happens collectively is a function of the strength of our relationship as leaders and because we are only collaborating in areas that are mutually beneficial.

Here's an example.  Some of the people in our community want to go on a short-term mission trip this summer.  Not a missional vacation - a real trip where we get to do the stuff.  I had a few ideas for locations but nothing stood out and I don't have time to sort through all the options.  One of the other leaders does a lot of work with a seminary in Zambia, so we are considering piggy-backing on a trip he had planned for this year.

Another example.  A friend of ours from one of the other communities went to an Everyday Mission informational meeting we hosted.  She now has a vision for a micro-mission to deliver bag lunches and pray for addicts who are waiting outside a local government-sponsored treatment center.  At the last Net, she sounded the call for others from the four communities to join her.  It is not a "ministry of the church", but just someone following Christ's call to love others in a simple way who happens to have the resources of four ministries behind her.

And I believe this is only the beginning.  By allowing missional activity to happen outside the realm of sanctioned church ministries, it frees up resources and creates new possibilities for collaboration.  This does not mean people go out working as lone rangers - quite the opposite in fact.  Instead of mission happening within the confines of what the pastor approves, or what a budget committee decides to fund, or what program can attract the most volunteers - mission happens as God calls.  The tables have turned.  Now leadership or the budget committee or the volunteers must decide, "Am I going to stick with the status quo...or get on board with what God is doing?"

That is the essence of 3D Ecclesiology.  Creating environments where activity naturally flows towards finding out where God is moving and joining him there.

How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

As an engineer, this quote blows my mind:

"Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale the United States could not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States.

In China, it took 15 days."

What Apple has done with the iPhone and its other products is utilize China's economies of scale from the production of raw materials to assembly in a way that minimizes time to market and maximizes profits.  China simply has more engineers, more workers, more capital to build production facilities quicker, and the ability to make changes at light speed.  Again, as an engineer, I stand in awe at what Apple has accomplished through this strategy.

The old argument that "work goes to China because they do it cheaper" is just not the whole story.  The same reasons listed above for why production is more efficient is why it ultimately makes Apple more money, not just because of cheaper labor.  Apple did the cost-benefit analysis and it was a no-brainer.  They engineered a production system utilizing the realities of the global economy.  This is how 21st century technology gets into our hands and is affordable for us middle class chumps.  Otherwise, we'd still be walking around with a Nokia or a Motorola Star-Tac.

Outsourcing production is old news, but what this article describes goes way beyond losing a few American jobs to Asia.  This is a fundamental change to a production philosophy which correlates to a fundamentally different answer to the question, "How does America benefit?"  Everything is done in China, but we are getting unbelievable, affordable technology in record time.  That is Apple's answer.  And we Americans are buying it - in record numbers.

Now it may sound like I am uncritically celebrating this triumph as an engineer and Apple user.  Sure, the iPhone is a fantastic piece of technology and how it is produced is just as fantastic.  But as a person that cares about our culture and how it is shaped, I can't help but wonder what this subtle shift is doing underneath the surface.  The iPhone is less than five years old!  In that blip of time, a company worth more than the entire US auto market has definitively answered a complex political and social question.  They have said, "Keeping work in America is not as important as giving us the best technology faster and cheaper."  Pop culture eats it up because it drives entertainment consumption forward.  Other businesses look at the answer and immediately begin to copy.  The avalanche has started and nothing is going to stop it. 

What do our politicians say in response?  I doubt they really know what to say or how to answer.  The exchange between Steve Jobs and President Obama on the first page of the article is classic and telling:

Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.

Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,”

No, the jobs are not coming back, because the question has been answered.  We don't really want the jobs.  We want the goods.  If I were in politics and reading this article, I would be considering a career change.

This should be a wake up call to Americans of all political stripe.  Maybe the enemy isn't the other guys and their agenda.  Maybe the enemy isn't Apple and their profits.  Could it be that we have been waiting for some company or politician or pop icon to give us the answers?  Maybe the enemy is us.

it is a promise that one day

things will be made right
things will be made new

is it blind faith?
to believe in something other than the empirical
beyond rational
to believe a story that is ancient

profane and holy
human and divine

in this story
death turns into life
the poor have all the wealth
the weak are put in charge
freedom is found in slavery
joy is found in suffering

is it foolish?
to have elpida

Recently I have been thinking about the gulf between the desire to be a part of a spiritual family and actually taking steps to become part of one.  In our culture it is still, by and large, easier to drift along as a "church-less" Christian; recycling arguments to yourself that you will try to find something soon or finally start that group in your house you've been talking about forever.  Or, it is easier to hide in whatever is the largest local mega-something, sneering at the pastor's sermons, rolling your eyes at the hipster worship leader, and telling yourself that you need to be there "for the kids."

What is frustrating from my perspective is that I know the gulf is not as wide as it seems.  But from the other side it seems as impassible as the Grand Canyon.  There simply is no clear path for a follower of Jesus who is longing for meaningful community to cross the gulf, to be challenged as a disciple, and to experience the kind of belonging that is so deeply craved yet feels so elusive.  Up until now, I have mostly attempted to coax into our community those with the desire to cross the gulf on their own.  But isn't that just another form of the attractional mindset?*  Instead of going out and acting as a guide and encourager, I have been asking them to come over to something already established yet unfamiliar. 

So this leads me to wonder what it might look like to become a guide and encourager to those searching for authentic Christian community.  First, and perhaps most obvious, it would be to offer support to anyone who is serious about starting a simple church in their home, place of business, or school.  I've had many conversations with people who were on the cusp of starting something, but there seems to be a pervasive distrust of anyone or anything that might co-opt or control a new group.  There is also a lack of clarity and confidence that restricts the person from being willing to experiment and risk.  This, coupled with the fear that the group may quickly grow and get out of hand, often leaves the person stuck from moving forward.  Let me state this very clearly - I would gladly help anyone walk through these landmines and start a new faith community with no strings attached.  We have an established network of simple churches and a group of leaders that love each other and are growing together.  We would love to include others into that circle.

Another opportunity may be to use the "person of peace" strategy to look for signs of life in our neighborhoods, places of work, schools, and among our social networks.  Maybe there is someone who will allow us to walk with them and have an Emmaus Road experience; to allow our peace to rest with them.  Maybe this doesn't end up looking like a simple church or anything of substance.  It could be just an opportunity to help someone find healing and eventually enter into meaningful community somewhere.

There are more ideas, but I think my point has been made.  With a bit of intentionality, can we move from an attractional mindset to cultivating new expressions of spiritual family?  I'm excited for the possibilities in 2012!

*Props to my friend, neighbor, and local co-conspirator, Mike Bourque, for the engaging conversation along these lines which gave language to this idea.  I use the word "attractional" specifically to draw comparison to the dominate strategy of church growth - create a better Sunday morning service to attract new members.  In our case, it is attemping to attract people to a living, breathing community by inviting them to come to one of our gatherings.  In both cases, we are asking people to enter on our terms and on our turf.  Our way may cost less money and require less organization, but the commitment level is much higher. 

A friend, partner, and fellow pastor in the area recently asked me if I wanted to read a book with him.  During our common, monthly worship gathering in November, I had made an off-hand comment about how I love Eugene Peterson's pastoral writings even more than The Message.  So, the book he wanted to read was Peterson's - along with Marva Dawn - The Unnecessary Pastor.  He liked the title :)  So do I.  It's one of the few Peterson books I haven't read, so I may be posting some thoughts along the way as we read. 

"God is absolutely free...as we worship and obey God in his freedom we come to participate in his freedom and minister out of it, living not by constraints or impulses or necessities, but out of grace and love - two elemental aspects of freedom." - pg.5

I do a lot of thinking about how to convey to my friends and spiritual family around me the freedom out of which everything authentic and meaningful and lasting springs from.  If we are challenging each other to grow up in maturity and learn how to minister to each other and the world, there is an inherent danger of developing what one of my friends calls "an overdeveloped sense of responsibility".  In essence, we lose touch with freedom. 

You are free to respond to people and needs with grace and love because you have experienced grace and love.  A community of people that grabs hold of that freedom will never, for example, expect a pastor to create a storefront of religious goods and services for them to consume.  Neither will those with pastoral and leadership gifts succumb to the temptation to use the people around them as resources to be allocated.  Freedom brings life.  It releases the Body of Christ to live and move and breathe as it should.  It allows the parts to work together, to serve one another.  Ultimately, it is what enables the kind of church we all want to be a part of rise up and make itself known.

This is a great example of everyday mission from my friend Lee Williams who is a missionary with his wife Dori in southern Argentina.  Lee and Dori recently moved to Neuquén and are finding ways to build relationships with new friends and neighbors.  His story below is a beautiful picture of taking everyday activities that come natural to a culture or place and allow the Holy Spirit to fill them with new meaning and life.

Here in Argentina they have a national habit, or maybe more accurately, an addiction, to a drink called yerba mate.  Yerba is the tea-like substance, and mate – pronounced ma-tay – is the small cup usually made out of a gourd, or wood, or ceramic.  They drink it like Americans drink coffee – all the time. And when you go to visit people, or when they come to your house, it is expected that sooner or later someone will break out the mate and pass it around.  Not that mate is just enjoyed at home.  No, you’ll see people driving down the road sucking on the straw (called a bombilla), sitting under a tree, at the office, at the hospital lab…

Sharing mate in the Argentinean culture is a natural invite into conversation about meaningful subjects like Christ and the kingdom (and of course they can degrade into themes like who won last night’s soccer match – a more common topic :).  There is one cup, one straw, and one thermos of hot water from which all share.  It is a ritual that invites openness and sharing, and we’ve been able to build relationships around the mate with a number of different families in Neuquén.  Here you have to always be ready for folks to just stop by, unannounced, to say hello and, of course, pass around the mate.  This is a cultural adjustment for us, and one we are gladly embracing. It was not a custom in Peru, and is defiantly against the grain of what we Americans generally consider neighborly propriety. 

Some of our richest times thus far have been with another couple, or two, passing around the mate while seated at our kitchen table and sharing our histories, our struggles, and our hopes for what’s to come.  This is the place that we believe our most lasting ministry can happen – in a simple arena, as jars of clay, releasing a power that comes not from us but from above.  We can impart truth without ourselves being poured out, but that just doesn’t seem the Jesus way. May the Lord use these times of spontaneous communion to shake us from our overdeveloped sense of “personal space” and have our eyes opened to the depth of the riches that belong to us as members of the Body of Christ (Romans 12, I Corinthians 12-14)! 

Braveheart with a plunger?  It's a metaphor...perhaps a bad one, but a metaphor nonetheless.

I haven't posted anything from my book in quite a while and I thought this would be a helpful read for some up-and-coming leaders out there:

The Death of a Pastor