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Part 1: Did Tony Jones Kill the Vineyard?
Part 2: Vineyard Churches at the Crossroads

As I mentioned, Jenell and I huddled with a small group of Vineyard pastors last weekend to compare notes on the experience of leading non-traditional, missional churches. We were hardly able to scratch the surface on most issues, but here are some of the main topics that came up:

Common origins and experience
For the most part everyone’s stories had at least one common theme: Nobody lacked significant leadership experience and everyone had led in an attractional church (some successfully, some not), which led to a high level of frustration with the overall lack of discipleship fostered by the attractional approach. Yet, nobody in the room was willing to condemn attractional churches. Still, everyone was generally in agreement that, as a rule, it is predisposed to more shallow congregations on the whole.

A time of liminality
Everyone seemed to have a long list of anecdotal evidence that attractional/church-growth oriented congregations are rapidly failing – yet nobody feels there are established, sustainable alternatives. One person basically said, “I think this is going to be really hard for a long time to come.” Nobody disagreed.

High commitment to kingdom theology and the “radical middle”
Everyone spoke of Kingdom Theology and the Radical Middle as key underpinnings which kept them strongly rooted in the Vineyard, even though they felt the association overall was largely quiet concerning the emerging/missional movements and the ecclesiological shortcomings of attractional church.

A Sense of missional continuity prior to church-growth models
Most of the people in the room had been practicing many elements of what we now call “missional” church (i.e. use of third spaces, intentional communities, contemplative and liturgical practices, etc.) long before the missional/emerging conversations were popularized, and, more importantly, long before the church-growth movement took hold – at least as far back as the early to mid-seventies. For me this was a light-bulb moment. There’s a great deal of talk on the attractional side that missional ministry is a fad, but, whatever you may call it, the “missionary to the West” mindset seems to be both a descendant of theological shifts beginning in the 1960′s, but also a by-product of the religious fervor stemming from the Jesus Movement.

Family ministry in the missional church
This was probably the most energized conversation of the weekend. There’s a great deal of frustration with the void caused by a rejection of centralized, professional, spectator approaches to children and youth ministry. Everyone believes these approaches are bankrupt, but hardly anyone could articulate a viable missional alternative and nobody was aware of a proven approach. It was pointed out that in the absence of a compelling alternative, most parents would understandably choose to have their kids satiated in an entertaining mega-church ministry. Future-facing churches must fill this void with a biblically insightful and culturally appropriate approach to the discipleship of whole families.

Partnering with culture, making culture
There was a pretty solid body of experience in the room when it came to engaging with culture. This is understandable. Within the emerging/missional stream this has been relatively strong and the people in this group reflected that: there were examples of partnering with local government (especially schools) to fill civic needs, participating with local AIDS organizations and justice issues, creating third spaces, offering secular counseling services, and creating internet communities and arts organizations. Everyone seemed comfortable and positive about pushing forward in this direction. This, of course, isn’t exclusive to so-called missional churches. More traditional churches are making rapid progress with innovative cultural engagement; that’s always been a strength of evangelicalism. The difference is that missional churches tend to lean more toward culture making (see Andy Crouch, Culture Making), whereas traditional evangelicalism leans more toward cultural critique or cultural emulation.

One church, many congregations
Unity was identified as a major theme, and a phrase that stuck with me was, “One church, many congregations.” Particularly in the bay area Mike McCoy is working with a large collection of diverse churches to bring about an unprecedented level of cooperation and unity in that region. Here in San Diego the catch-phrase I’ve heard from several people is “a citywide church.” As Christendom winds down and Christian communities are marginalized, these kinds of networks are likely to become vital and the Vineyard has a history of ecumenism, inherited from John Wimber.

Embracing grassroots organizational dynamics
There was some spirited conversation around the subject of embracing grassroots styles of organization as particularly compatible with the values of egalitarian leadership, the priesthood of the believer, and discipleship/multiplication. A.A. and Crossfit were bought up as examples.

The critical need for inter-church missional leader relationships
Everyone agreed that the single most important benefit of the weekend was developing relationships with others who are also experimenting on the fringe. It’s easy to feel marginalized when leading a church these ways. People both in your own church and in the Vineyard at large sometimes press for more traditional indicators of success.

Returning to the simplicity of Jesus
As we wound down on Saturday afternoon, the conversation shifted to the importance of refocusing on Christ. It was pointed out that movements historically tend to take off as “roots movements,” but over time become cluttered with the minutia of bureaucracy. If the Vineyard is the speak a fresh word and a demonstrate a fresh mission to a new generation it will have to be a word/work about Christ. He is the mission.

What we didn’t discuss
There were some conversations we didn’t have time for as much of this gathering was a “get to know you” session since few of us had any significant prior relationship. In my opinion, some of the pressing conversations we could/should have in the future include:

• Gender and sexuality issues facing the church
• Science and faith conflicts
• Politics and peacemaking
• Post-Charismatic Pneumatology
• Post-Christendom theological education and leadership development
• Navigating religious and theological pluralism in and out of the church
• The role of arts and aesthetics
• Ancient/future liturgical practices and consistency
• Public evangelism in post-Christendom
• Alternative economic practices

What are your thoughts?
What are your experiences with some of these topics? Do you see them differently? Are there critical issues we missed?

_______________________

People Present:
Certainly, there were others we could have invited. The decision was made to keep this a western gathering for cost and convenience, and to keep it very small in order to maintain a manageable conversation dynamic. A few were unable to attend such as Rich and Rose Swetman from Seattle, WA, Barry Diamond from Las Vegas, NV, and Randy Knutsen from Palm Desert, CA.

• Bill Farris – Orange County, CA
  
• Pete & Gail Mosgofian – Arcata, CA
  
• Mike McCoy – Concord, CA
• Jason & Jenell Coker – North County San Diego, CA
• Eric Brown – Huntington Beach, CA
• David Ruis – Hollywood, CA

Technorati Tags: Emerging, Missional Church, Post-Christendom, Vineyard Churches, Vineyard Movement

We’re also practicing daily Advent Readings together to enter into a rhythm of worship and formation during this season as we seek to prepare ourselves for the celebration of Christmas. From December 1 through December 24th we’ll follow three major scriptural themes concerning Christ:

• The prophetic promises of the coming messiah in Isaiah
• The first coming of Christ through the narrative of his birth in Matthew and Luke
• His teaching concerning the end of the age and his own second coming in Matthew 24 and 25

There are even shorter snippets of the same passages for young children. If you’re interested in following along, they will be posted first thing every morning at Ikoncommunity.com. You can visit the site or subscribe to the daily feed via your feed reader or email.

Finally, my wife and I also put together a daily Advent Calendar with the help of our girls that will hopefully help them engage with the practice of the season. I’ll post on that project tomorrow, but in the meantime, what are you doing to make Advent – and Christmas – more meaningful?

Technorati Tags: Advent, Christmas, Ikon Community, Isaiah, Luke, Matthew

Several things surprised me about the gathering, but one thing didn’t.

I was surprised how many people turned out. There were probably over 100 folks there today, and at least 30 of them came to bring food for our friends in the park. Wow.

I was surprised at how peacefully the event unfolded. I’ve done a ton of feeding programs at churches and non-profit centers as a pastor, and it’s not uncommon for a large gathering like this to grow tense (or worse) with people cutting in line, jockeying for position and taking more than their share. There was none of that today. I think this is because our approach all along has been that we’re not feeding the homeless, we’re eating with our friends. Cory and Crissy embody this approach perfectly and did a great job of setting it up like a large family picnic. People chatted in line, piled their plates, and plopped onto blankets in small groups scattered around the area. Kids played football and stormed the playground. It was genuinely fun and restful.

I was surprised we didn’t get a ticket. The Verners have been progressively harassed by the Park Police over the past few months because it’s illegal to feed the homeless there. We do it anyway because we think that’s stupid, immoral, and discriminatory – but we’ve always been discreet about it and it’s always been much smaller than this. Today a Park cop showed up, saw all the people sitting on blankets laughing and eating together and said, “This is a good thing. I’m not going to call it in.” Then he stayed and chatted for awhile. Wow again.

I was surprised how many different churches were involved. As I walked around meeting people I counted 6 different churches from a variety of traditions represented. This wasn’t intentional. As word organically spread over the past few weeks other churches jumped on board, officially and unofficially. It was inspiring and humbling to see.

I wasn’t surprised when someone expressed disappointment that we weren’t sharing the gospel. I’ve come to expect this from Christians. We’ve been telling ourselves for a couple hundred years now that the gospel is an intellectual formula about Jesus and heaven, so it comes as no surprise to me when people expect a speech about that formula.

I was proud of my wife Jenell who replied, “These people already know about that, they don’t need to hear it again from us. Actually, I think most of them have more faith than we do. What they need now is relationships.”

Exactly.

Every Saturday around the time Cory and Crissy go to the park another man shows up with his bible and preaches a message. Every week he says the same thing: “You’re sinners; you’re filthy and depraved; your addictions are keeping you from God and you’re going to Hell; turn to God and be saved.” This means saying the sinners prayer so they’ll go to heaven when they die – because that’s what’s really important. Additionally, the natural, yet deeply superstitious implication is that if they do so, some of their immediate problems might start going away too.

Now – never mind for the moment that I don’t think this is the gospel – Jenell and I have taken an informal poll, and as near as we can tell they’ve all been there and done that already…multiple times in most cases. In fact, in 15 years of ministry in 3 different States we’ve never met a homeless person that didn’t profess Christ. They’re so desperate they’ll pray anything if it means getting some relief for their hunger, their illness, their woundedness, and their hopelessness. You would too.

But it doesn’t help.

Praying a sinner’s prayer won’t fill your belly. It doesn’t fix mental illness, it won’t get you a job and it won’t dry your addictions. I don’t even think it will get you into heaven when you die (but that’s another blog post).

Here’s what does help: people. God, yes…but God through people. What helps us is deeply committed, compassionate people who are willing to get to know us, suffer with our dysfunctions, love us in spite of our shit, help us re-build our lives, and include us in the little things. As John says,

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:7-12)

That’s where God resides. That’s where we “see” him – in the vacuum of human need, which then fills to overflowing with life as the abundance of God flows from person to another. This is a significant implication of the incarnation of Christ, and every time we do it we’re literally “sharing” the gospel.

Sadly, not may Christians I’ve met have been there and done that. It’s way too hard, too messy, and too frightening. But that is where salvation lies, for both the giver and the receiver. In my recent series on the Kingdom and Economy I quoted Bryant Myers, and he’s worth quoting here again:

“Poverty is a result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable.”

There’s an indispensable place for proclaiming the audaciously disruptive news of Christ’s Kingship, but for those who’ve already heard, our urgent task is to demonstrate the gospel as a life of deeply just and harmonious relationships that manifest redeeming love between people.

Technorati Tags: 1 John, Bryant Myers, Gospel, Grape Day Park, homeless, Ikon Community, Jesus Christ, poor, poverty, Salvation, Thanksgiving

This is a great opportunity to meet some amazing people and make new friends. If you’re in the San Diego area we want to invite you do join us.

Click here to RSVP at the Ikoncommunity.com site.

Technorati Tags: Grape Day Park, homeless, Ikon Community, mission, poor, Thanksgiving

For those who like a story, here’s the tale…

As many of you know Jenell and I moved to San Diego one year ago for the purpose of eventually starting a church. We were committed to spending the first year immersing ourselves in the local culture, making new friends and finding new career paths so we could pursue the vision of a grassroots network of Jesus-followers.

That vision started taking shape in March when we began to gather regularly with a few family and friends – all of whom were hungry for a deeper expression of Christian community, more focused on justice and mercy. Since then we’ve come together every Sunday night to enjoy each other’s company, watch our kids tear around the house, eat good food, drink cheap wine, celebrate communion, gather around scripture, and pray for one another.

(One of the couples, Doug and Kelly Humphreys, moved to Seattle recently to take on the lead pastor role at a very cool church in the Redmond area. We were happy for them, but sad to see them go).

We’ve also embarked on a few cool projects. One couple has been going to Grape Day Park in Escondido every Saturday to build genuine friendships with the homeless community there. That group has become its own kind of faith community. It’s an inspiration to see. Another couple is actively involved in an international anti-human trafficking campaign. Jenell and I, of course, continue to promote the Twoshirts.org community as a counter-cultural expression of radical generosity, and earlier this month we all pitched in to pull off a small justice and mercy film festival. Overall, it’s been the best 6 months of my Christianity (going on 30 years now).

I’m honestly not saying we’ve done so much…God knows I haven’t worked that hard myself (but then that’s the point of a more egalitarian group, isn’t it?). I only want to point out that it really is amazing what God can do through a small group of people who are looking for Kingdom opportunities. That’s true of me and my friends, and you and yours as well.

I’ve also noticed we’ve begun to change as a group over the past few weeks. We seem more solid somehow, kind of like the people moving from purgatory to heaven in Lewis’ The Great Divorce. We’ve stopped being “that thing we do on Sunday nights,” and started becoming, simply, “church.” So I think it’s fitting that today we’ve begun a 50 day journey through the Sermon on the Mount together. We’ve reached the point where we want to take Jesus seriously enough to immerse ourselves deeply in his teachings and truly understand what he said, rather than just give lip-service to his name, or his death.

No matter where you live, or where you go to (or don’t go to) church you are welcome to join us. We’ll be using the ikoncommunity website as a means of facilitating the journey. Everyday a new exercise related to the Sermon on the Mount will be posted, and people can use the comments – if they like – to engage in a discussion around the course.

Hope to see you there!

Technorati Tags: Church, community, discipleship, ecclesiology, Ikoncommunity.com, missio dei, mission, Sermon on the Mount, training, Vision

People had been giving each other lamps and toasters and other such items for months. That alone was amazing to me, because for years I’d been fascinated with Acts 2:44-45:

“The believers had everything in common and gave to each other as they had need.”

Really? Everything in common?

As a fired-up young Christian that bit about “everything in common” clobbered me like a two-by-four. That’s not how we live, I often thought. Our church was full of people who acquired as much as possible, while others scraped-by. Even worse, those who built wealth and lived comfortably tended to be ushered into the seats of power at church. Worse still, I wanted to be one of those people.

But Acts 2, and 2 Cor 8, and especially Exodus 16 kept bludgeoning my conscience. There was something at work in these bits of scripture, something altogether different than market-capitalism. It seemed that when the Spirit of God was in charge the outcome looked more like equality for all rather than prosperity for some. And when there was prosperity it was prosperity with the responsibility for creating equality.

Again, this is not what I observed in church. Why didn’t the Bible literally revolutionize our lives? I asked pastors and elders point-blank, but was generally met with condescending smiles and tousles of the hair.

Then, not long ago I was reading Luke 3 and stumbled across these words:

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

There it was again. Sharing. Giving. Was it really that simple? Am odd thought began to creep into my mind. Maybe the solution to poverty isn’t about making everyone on the planet more self-sufficient, maybe it’s found by inviting everyone into interdependence.

So, we did what everyone in a globalized world does when they think they have a cool idea: we started a website. We encouraged (pleaded, cajoled, threatened, and blackmailed) everyone we knew to join Twoshirts.org and post their extra things so others could freely take what they needed.

The next thing I knew people were showing up at church carrying lamps and toasters and giving them away to each other. That alone was pretty cool. Mission accomplished, I thought to myself. But then people outside the church started joining and that’s when everything went pear-shaped. We started bumping into non-Christians and poor people and rich people and witches and buddhists and Methodists. You know, the sort of people we normally would have avoided at all costs – except they wanted our toasters (and, truth be told, we wanted their lamps).

In the process something new was birthed between us, something which hadn’t previously existed for the most part: gratitude. That gratitude usually sprouted kindness and kindness sometimes blossomed into friendship and somewhere in the midst of it all the Kingdom showed up.

I couldn’t believe my luck. All I’d wanted was to promote a little communitarianism in the midst of isolated individualism. Maybe counterfoil mindless consumption and make people think a little about the insane pursuit-of-happiness-via-product-gluttony. I wanted people to experiment with a life of gifts rather than a life of greed. All that seemed to be happening to some extent, plus a little friendship on the side.

But then came the “grandmother incident.”

On that day a woman named Kelli logged into Twoshirts.org and posted a need for a “surrogate grandmother.” A surrogate grandmother! She and her husband, it seems, had moved into the area and didn’t really know anyone. She’d recently given birth to twins, whose early delivery had complicated their health. Without a network of support the couple was simply overwhelmed:

HI! As the mother of twin girls with medical issues, I need a surrogate grandma or just a good friend [...] Is there someone out there with a kind and patient heart who has a few hours a week during the day that they would like to spend playing with 2 little darlings or helping me tackle a few big projects???

Within days Donna responded. Herself the mother of three grown boys who’d all moved out of state, Donna felt drawn to this woman’s needs and ready to help. Now she babysits, and helps with hospital visits and offers advice. They laugh together. And to my utter amazement something far deeper than mere gratitude or friendship has grown between them - they’ve formed a family.

That’s when I realized a life of gifts is about more than lamps and toasters, it’s about love and trust. In a culture where people are defined by conspicuous accumulation ordinary stuff tends to dead-end in someone’s closet or garage. Like Manna that has been hoarded it eventually rots, becoming the symbol of our stubborn, self-sufficient isolation. Yet true gifts never rest. They move freely from one to another shifting from shape to shape to become the stuff that enriches, nourishes, and sustains the community through an economy of grace and mercy. Sometimes it’s lamps and toasters. Sometimes it’s grandmothers.

This is how the economy of God operates; the Spirit is at work ceaselessly among the people of the world imparting gifts of grace and mercy that must be shared – or risk rotting. More than anything else, being missional means joining God in His work. That is exactly the kind of economy America needs now more than ever.

* * *

(If you’d like to read an interview with Kelli & Donna, click here)

Technorati Tags: community, gifts, missio dei, mission

As I mentioned last week, my resurrected posts about the Sundance Film Festival have been in anticipation of an exciting announcement. Because I believe art in general, and film in particular, are an unheeded prophetic voice in our culture I wanted to find some way to missionally engage with that vital expression.

Hence, for the past several weeks our little community of faith has been working diligently on a project we’re very excited about: The Micah Film Festival.

Our mission is to celebrate excellent documentary films that advance the causes of justice, mercy, and humility, thereby connecting people with organizations that are working to affect redemptive transformation in the world.

For 2009 we’ve assembled an amazing group of films. Each, in its own way, spotlights issues that are at times painful, contentious, and even overlooked – and each does so with art and grace.

This is more than a movie series. We aim to create a collaborative learning environment where great art becomes the catalyst for the redemptive transformation of our world.

We’ll be screening three amazing, award-winning documentaries over the course of three nights. Each night we’ll begin with an opportunity for attendees to learn about non-profit organizations that are doing important work locally and globally, and each night we’ll end with post-screening Q&A’s or panel discussions on the topics and issues broached in each of the films.

You’re all invited. : )

Technorati Tags: art, Culture, Film, Micah Film Fest, missio dei, mission