Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World

Community studies, meeting needs, helping people, and getting expert information are all “baggage” that get in the way of the listening the Spirit wants us to do.

How do we do this? Slowly. With little steps and lots of stopping to reflect on what we’re doing and what we’re learning. We never do it alone but always with others. This counter-intuitive practice is done in a community of prayer, and it happens as we continue devotion and corporate worship, where the bread and wine continually feed us with the l

The story of Cornelius in Acts 10 makes the same point. The good news of Jesus Christ does not require that I join someone else’s affinity or ethnic group; the good news connects us across those groupings and makes us one in Christ.

They effectively pass life-giving traditions from generation to generation. But if the goal is to be a people formed in the way of Jesus, traveling lightly into their neighborhoods, this default is a significant roadblock.

Seen through this lens, church is essentially an affinity group shaped by common habits rooted in a common ethnic, social, or class identity and experience.

The challenge is to create a congregational culture where innovation isn’t driven by or dependent on clergy. Without shared passion, the journey into the neighborhood in the way of Jesus will be little more than one more episodic program the latest pastor introduced. Each of the practices in part II offers a way to lead without having clergy act as

The notion of dwelling with the neighbor, of being with rather than doing for, feels uncomfortable and less than compassionate. On another level, it is disorienting because people feel they are in control and can manage a project if they are doing something for people. The idea of being with leaves people feeling vulnerable.

The fear of scarcity runs deep. It is exacerbated by the notion that congregations of older people will not survive (a shame, since any reading of the Scriptures confirms that God’s future turns up in the very places everyone else has given up on). One of the ways to counteract this default is to invite several congregations to join this journey to

“To be with people as a church member is to find ways of helping them and meeting their needs. If we do not do this, we are not Christians.