What makes a local church?

Recently I've heard many preachers exclaim that "the local church is the hope of the world." I'd like to rephrase it to: the local and global church as the body of the resurrected Christ on earth, is the hope of the world, when it moves towards God's mission in God's world. Most notably, Bill Hybles in his book Courageous Leadership makes a grand and passionate claim to this 'hope of the world statement.'

But what makes a church local?

Are churches really local when, in a 500+ gathering (particularly in urban metropolises) a majority of the congregation is living several miles from the worship site? Often in Southern California, people attend church services which are well over 30 minutes from their local communities, the neighborhoods in which they live during the week. Through my study of American church history last fall I have clues as to the sociological and theological forces that have brought us to this point But it seems to me that in an increasingly fragmented society, we need to truly re-imagine what it means to be local. This, I believe can only be done in committed, covenantal community. It will often require people to restructure their lives by changing employment, moving, or at least committing to intentionally placing themsleves in proximity spaces where they can have shared experiences with each other and the community in which their church gathers.

It seems a fragmented church, in a fragmented society, that often does little more than add more "services" and "programs" deeming itself successful does not lacks the ability to challenge, shape and transform the culture and society around it. No matter how many life groups, cell groups, small groups, or whatever, the reality is people cannot be in community if they only see each other 1-2 time a week at an "event".

Often, many think of Church growth in numerical increase of attendance and tithe. But in reality could this just be an overweight Church locked into preserving self and institution?

Why not see growth as Church multiplication. That is, churches existing to plant churches. At some point you can't just keep saying we have more and more small groups. Some of these need to become fully functional ecclesial communities that localize themselves. That is if we still believe that God is blessing the body with giftings of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher.

Perhaps churches need to go on weight loss and start having babies.

Comments?

Book Recommendation: Resident Aliens (Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon)

Posted by Sam at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. ET533: Christian Discipleship in a Secular Society (Summer 2006)
Dr. Erin Dufault-Hunter

I am considering PhD work in Christian theology and ethics and this class did not disappoint. This course taught by Professor Erin Dufault-Hunter included some of the most provocative and thought provoking reading of my whole time at Fuller. This is not a class for the faint of heart. Great dialog. Challenging question asking. Subversive answers.

2. MT527: Lesslie Newbigin: Theologian of Mission and Ministry (Spring 2005)
Dr. Wilbur Shenk and Dr. Veli-Matti Karkkainen

Leaving Fuller, I can now say that my favorite theologian and Christian writer is the late Bishop Lesslie Newbigin. Dr. Shenk presented and discussed his missiology as they were personal friends and Dr. Karkkainen communicated Newbigin's epistemological paradigm shift based on the thinking of Michael Polanyi, and in light of the pluralistic and secularized society we now have in the West. It's a shame this course is rarely offered. I was moved to tears in a few of the classes.

3. NT 1: Gospels (Winter 2006)
Dr. Marianne Meye-Thompson

Excellent reading, thorough, engaging and insightful. Some of the thoughts I left with..."Salvation has according to the Gospels has nothing to do with us escaping this place, it has everything to do with God's Kingdom breaking into this place!" Thompson's assertion is "just re-read the Lord's prayer". She also assigned two excellent readings not on this ECD link. Gehard Lohfink's Jesus and Community and Oskar Skarsaune's In The Shadow of the Temple.

4. ST 2: Christology & Soteriology (Winter 2005)
Dr. Veli-Matti Karkkainen

This class was a time of going deeper in reflection on the meaning of Christ, atonement, the meaning of Jesus from "above" and "below" and the nature of salvation (soteriology) and the function of the Spirit (pneumatology). Very excellent reading and very global in perspective.

5. CH3: American Church History (Fall 2006)
Dr. Nate Feldmeth

An essential course for understanding how and why the church in America has arrived where it is today. Dr. Feldmeth is incisive and engaging in his narrative approach to the telling of how the church unfolds in the United States and Canada.

Honorable Mentions: Donald Hagner (Exegetical Method and Practice), John Thompson (Patristic Theology), John Goldingay (Pentateuch)

Posted by Sam at 4:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seminary is a transformative time and causes everyone to wrestle with many pressing and difficult issues. Sadly these issues are often ignored by many churches into which we as students and graduates will be sent. In my run at Fuller this has resulted in somewhat of an isolated and fragmented experience. I made the decision to work while taking classes in order to minimize debt and not have to scrounge for a cup of coffee after paying rent and living costs. The down fall is that my life has been far too full.

As graduation is on the horizon this June, I've begun reflecting upon the processes God has been guiding me through over the past couple of years. I was reading an article on biblical leadership which spoke of God moving emerging leaders into places of isolation and even depression at which point one of two responses takes place. First, we might be inclined to flee and leave God, the church and following Jesus. Sadly this has recently happened with one of my closest friends. The other option is to choose to go deeper with God. To go deeper into the place of uncertainty and questioning with the confidence that God is taking us through a refining process which will emerge into a new move of the Spirit.

For all of the incredible things Fuller offers, community and genuine connectedness is difficult to come by. Now this is not Fuller's fault altogether, because it is hyper-individualism is the major poverty and fatal situation of our culture in America. My encouragement to any prospective fellow Fullerites is to dive headlong into your classes here, but from the get go, find people, fellow travelers who will commit to friendship through the seminary life. I know of friends who with their busy lives in the midst of seminary have had to step back and not do the whole "Sunday service"Â? deal opting to create a church community among those whom they live in proximity with. It's almost like small group is more church than Sunday morning "service". If your small group lives in your living complex, then your church never leaves you and you never leave your church. There is nothing more important than a fellowship of believers that are committed to each other beyond a Sunday morning, especially while studying in Seminary. This is not to say that you should find or form a church comprised of only Seminarians.

This also makes it more possible to engage together the community in which you live. Southern California is a fun place full of opportunities, but as a native, I can say it's a fast paced environment and the endless opportunities of church community, work, classes, study, play, etc. have the potential of leaving us asking God if we're back in Egypt?

Posted by Sam at 9:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I consider myself an intellectual but not a linguist. The reality in theological studies at a theological seminary is that biblical Hebrew and Greek are a requirement. Fuller is no exception. Although I have heard some faculty scoff that in some ways its telling that we only are required to take 8 units of Hebrew, the more complex and Old Testament language, while taking 12 units of Koine Greek (can anyone say Marcionite?j/k). If you have not done any theological studies you'll get that joke after taking John Thompson's Patristic Theology course (an excellent course might I add).

Last quarter I started with a plan to take my 8 units of Hebrew over two quarters--fall and winter. Unfortunately after sitting in the class the first night I felt like that professor was giving me an encyclopedia article after every new letter we learned in the alphabet. When it comes to language I need to "keep it simple". With graduation on the horizon in June, I had not choice but to take the "Hebrew Intensive" this winter. That means 8 units in one quarter (10 weeks) which are typically done over two quarters (20 weeks)!

So far, my experience in the intensive is going well. I think it's important to know of your professors and their teaching styles before you take them, if you want to maximize your learning and grade. That is not to say there are any bad professors at Fuller, in fact they are top-notch, but it is important to investigate the course requirements and pedagogy of each. I'm finding that though Hebrew is difficult, like Greek, the intensive fits my learning style because I don't have multiple other classes distracting me from memorizing hundreds of vocabulary words and linguistic paradigms!

Then I have also been asking myself why the heck I am taking biblical languages when in most churches they seem to be frowned upon and our most popular teachers (except Rob Bell) seem to neglect utilizing them in bringing the Scriptures to life. Language matters, because the word blessing in Hebrew most likely does not carry the same cultural ramifications that it does in 21st century United States. So as I continue to work through this class I keep my eye on the prize that one day, perhaps soon, I'll be engaged in teaching and coaching a community of Jesus followers through the Scriptures and I best do all I can to hear them in their context and hopefully better discern how the Spirit is illuminating them today.

Shabbat Shalom!

Book Recommendation: The Shaping of Things to Come: Mission and Innovation for the 21st Century Church
This book is by Mike Frost and Alan Hirsch, two Australian missional church planters/missiologists. It's a tour de force and a plea for the church to critically re-imagine what it means to be the people of God in the context of an increasingly commodified world...

Posted by Sam at 1:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Starting points, we all have starting points. This is one of the many realizations I've had while studying at Fuller. Perhaps this is my simplistic view of postmodernism. Our contexts, experiences, emotions, travels, reading and relationships all shape how we interpret the world, the Scriptures and live as people between "the world" and "the book."

I've started to realize the world and its structures narrate a certain "truth"Â? and yet the Scriptures give us a different and new story. It's a story that invites us to submit and be held by the One who is Truth. Therefore as we follow Jesus, our speech and actions and convictions reflect that the God who holds the world together is also holding us too. We don't hold God. God holds us.

Perhaps our church communities are given the invitation to follow this God and participate in repairing the world. This is a call to centered Jesus' call to follow, not into church buildings, but into existing communities. Our churches can only do this when we ask different and more incisive questions than the world around us.

We can ask: What is God doing in our community? Who is our community? What do we need to rethink to become more and more like the community that reflects the triune God? How do we need to restructure? Do we need to deconstruct anything for restructuring to happen?

We can do this because we believe in the God of which the biblical narratives speak! We believe the Spirit dwells in us and the Scriptures to be living and active. We believe, so that we may know and this knowing is a process, a journey, of recovering the call of Jesus in order to discover what God is doing in the world today. God's actions do not just mimic popular culture, they penetrate in a creative way that goes beyond commodification of a message and instead form a people, communities.

Too often my church experience has been one of accommodation to fads and cultural fixes rather than deep reflection and action that moves whole communities towards a new way of being in the world, together. If we just implement the new"---- driven" program then we'll be successful. I'm convinced God wants local communities to create their own distinctive ways of being church. As the late Bishop Lesslie Newbigin spoke of our congregations needing to be a hermeneutic of the Gospel in a pluralistic society that is full of folk Christianity, asking new questions and creating on a local level invites our communities to both critique and embrace the culture we find ourselves in locally. The question which moves us in this direction is: How, as church, do we offer an alternative vision of life rooted in the story of Israel and brought into fullness in the way of Jesus?

My calling is to participate in forming new church communities. I guess it is commonly called "church planting". Fuller has not given answers on how this is done. It has been a place where I get to think and reflect with fellow travelers, followers of Jesus, who are also looking at and responding to how the church can be made new. Theological study at Fuller has allowed me to muse in a direction of asking better questions and in the process discovering a few answers.

Perhaps these answers (and questions) are the ferment for the prophetic future of the church?

Current Reading: How (Not) to Speak of God (Peter Rollins)

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