INTO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

A number of years ago some good friends of ours sensed a
call to go overseas as missionaries serving in a remote location. As they prepared and then said their tearful farewells at the airport, I sort of imagined that they would be on some sort of permanent high intensity Billy Graham Crusade. Rallies in large halls, lights and powerful sound systems, dapper suits and ties, choirs and bands, powerful appeals, tearful responses followed by mass conversions followed in quick succession by a virtual army of builders constructing steepled chapels with rows of fixed pews, pulpits and carpeted stages across the land!

I was quite startled when I realised that much of their next five years would be spent living in an adobe hut in a far, dry desert, learning a difficult dialect and making friends with and caring for a people who would never find their way into my imagined hi-tech crusade!

The Message paraphrase describes the coming of Jesus into the world like this: “... The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.” (John 1:14).

We Western Christians are now like mission workers in a world every bit as foreign to the vanished era of Christendom. We are no longer running churches amongst people who ‘sort of’ get it but have strayed a little and need to be cajoled back to the faith of their parents.

No, as followers of ‘the way of Jesus’ we are living into a story that no-one knows anymore. Maybe we need to think: ‘local neighbourhood  relationships’ rather than think: ‘doing church programmes.’

For cross-cultural mission-workers, building a ‘church-building’ or starting a public ‘worship-service’ may well be the very last things they do – not the first! The missionaries in my story spent most of their time sharing hospitality around meals, genuinely listening, chatting, and practically helping out at the point of actual need and opportunity. They couldn’t (and shouldn't) start with some pre-packaged 'witnessing' program – and they never did!  

Rather they live as 'witnesses' to the way of Jesus. As a trickle of people became interested in the way of Jesus – they would meet to talk about the stories of Jesus and show these new followers how to pray – and that little community of faith began to form its own practises, songs, spiritual habits – very differently to how churches might do it back ‘home’.

What does that mean for us as 21st Century suburban planters and church-goers?

It means we Christians put on a totally different set of glasses as we look at our neighbourhood, live our lives and plan our church-community activities!

• Recognise that there are many, many people groups around us, not just one type!
• A one-size congregation and approach, will not serve all, we need diversity.
• a traditional church paradigm may not be a helpful template for these social groups.
• We need to move into our neighbourhoods and patiently form real, impartial friendships and take authentic interest in other people's social life. Jesus, for example eats and stays with ‘unclean’ Samaritans in their home town, not in the temple.
• We can’t deeply engage too many associations and neighbourhoods all at the same time, any more than a cross-cultural worker can live in 2 or 3 villages all at once. Invest deeply and intentionally.
• Our ‘neighbourhoods’ are mostly non-geographic. Interest, vocational and age groups are more often the neighbourhoods in which people live – each with their own ‘lingo,’ interests, rhythms and stories. Sporting clubs, schools, hobby groups, cultural centres, art groups, retirement villages, shopping strips, music groups, motor vehicle groups etc are the new neighbourhoods around town. Can we identify the tribes we have an affinity with?
• Participating in activities is not an end in itself, but a catalyst around which a wide web of relationships form. For example, in a girls’ basketball team, the parents, siblings, boyfriends, former players, coaches and interested schoolmates form the web. It’s not just the dozen or so players, but maybe 40-60 people who connect around the activity. They do so, not just at the courts, but also at practise, after-game dessert in cafes, BBQs at family homes and so on. Entre is contingent on being in some way a part of the team or having a significant other who is. You need to be present and 'present.' 

• Usually we will be called to and need to be released to serve in the group that God has given us an affinity for. It takes real time and will require being released from some other church-based activities to make time. Christians may need, for example, to give up running the church mens’ breakfasts to really find the time to relate to the local model aeroplane ‘neighbourhood.’ Not just the formal meetings they run, but the broader, more relaxed and personal times when they and their families connect.

As mates share about the challenges and joys of life and what’s got them through – they compare notes about what’s important. Not as salespeople, or recruiters, but mildly with a genuine curiosity to learn in turn how the other gets by. These are the conversations that can change both our and others lives!

‘Church’ in some of these settings may never become a Sunday morning gathering with pews, pulpits and preaching! A chat around a kitchen table where bread is broken, prayers murmured quietly, and the stories of faith are read and discussed before the group heads off on their bike ride –  this may become the sign of the Kingdom community in that neighbourhood.

Diary: 04

Friday 21st of June 2024

We're looking at getting together in a few weeks with some others to do some creative thinking and planning about actually launching Haven.

I remember some time ago making a batch of Chocolate Chip cookies. I threw together the flour, butter, and huge handful of chocolate chips, all the other ingredients, a pinch of salt -- and an extra large cup of sugar (Well, I thought it was sugar!) -- And the cookies were totally gross -- Because in my haste -- I'd put in just a pinch of sugar and a generous extra large cup full of salt. Yup! Nope! You need the right ingredients if you want a delicious cookie!

So, if you were looking for a delicious, crunchy, chocolatey, faith community (to push the metaphor beyond endurance), what ingredients would you want mixed in? 

What, for you, are the ingredients for a satisfying church community? 

As for me, I find it interesting how often food gets referenced in the New Testament. Whether it's the feeding of the 5,000, or Jesus grabbing a meal at Mary, Martha and Lazarus' place, or having dinner with Zacchaeus or sharing a lamb roast with the twelve at Passover, or sinking a refreshing water at Jacob's well, or all the wine at that wedding in Cana -- there's lots of talking and eating!

The only liturgical instruction Jesus gave was for his followers to keep on meeting around a table, and when they munched on the bread and drank their wine, they were to recognise their shared unity as Followers of the Way. They praised and prayed, encouraged and used their gifting to bless each other around their table. I do like the idea of a shared meal and slow conversation as the basis for worshipping community.

I also like the idea of dialogue. Most of Jesus 'sermons' such as we have them, were quite short and were followed with a fair bit of question-and-answer and robust discussion, often leading on to some practical 'hands-on' stuff, like feeding or healing. 

I also find it interesting that when James writes (early on in the piece) to a bunch of new Christians, who didn't yet have a New Testament to instruct them, on how they should 'do' church, one of the things he says is this:

"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." (James 1:27 NLT)

The word for "religion" here is "thrēskeia." It doesn't mean discipleship or spiritual maturity or anything like that. It means “'religious conduct or practice." It refers to formal worship services -- the external stuff, like ceremonies, offerings and liturgies.

In other words it's as if James has been asked: "So, how do we get our worship services just right? What icons, pews, pulpits,  songs, run-sheets, candles, smoke-machines and pipe-organs should we throw into the mix to make for genuine God-impressing religious practice?"

And, interestingly, James subverts the meaning of the word religion! 

"Fair dinkum thrēskeia?" he says, "You want to know how to get your worship services so that God is delighted with you? Well, genuine worship has all to do with caring for those who don't belong, who are on the margins, and for those broken and distressed and hungry for food and friendship. And, oh yes, don't live compromised by the dark ethics of the Empire."

To me that sounds like a pretty cool recipe for worship!

Well, what other ingredients would you add to the mix? Send them to me via email HERE

Diary: 01

 Sat 11th of May 2024 

I've been sitting down with an assortment of different people and bouncing off them the idea of a new church community based out near Mernda.

Being a nerd, I've put together a keynote presentation with about six slides and as we've sat in cafes around Mernda, Yarrambat or Doreen quaffing our coffees and chatting I've gone through the points on my presentation! Am I a nerd or what?

Three of the points in my presentation seemed to particularly resonate with people:

1. We want to engage life-giving conversation around meaning and identity: We want Haven to be a safe space for those thinking about or deconstructing elements of their faith and working through what they believe.

Our grandparents lived in the certain and confident (western) world of scientific modernity. Their great-grandparents lived in the late stages of Christendom. For them, there definitely was a God, the scriptures were 100% certain and propositional truth was evident to all. Black was always black and white was white -- But our world has rapidly changed. 

We live now  in a post-modern world. Traditional institutions are mistrusted and often seen as unhelpful. The idea of immutable ethical and religious truth is no longer assumed. Also, in a smaller, mobile, internet world, a multiverse of cultures, religions, ethnicities and lifestyles swirl around us. 

And in a social-media, fake-news, Dunning-Kruger world, uncertainty is greater than ever. The big questions of identity and meaning and belonging are as real and as challenging as ever. 

Anxiety is at an all time high, so is loneliness. That's why, for example, post-colonial theory, critical-race theory, gender theory, green-politics, and identity politics have emerged. On the other hand, fundamentalism in all it’s forms is also re-emerging as a bastion of safety in uncertain times.

For many who have been raised in church circles and have always just assumed the beliefs and traditions handed down, this raises existential questions. Some will engage those questions, find satisfying answers and continue on content. For (many) others, their parents’ church and faith lenses no longer provide an adequate understanding of the world. Before these lie the tasks of deconstructing and reconstructing a meaningful worldview. I think, too often, this happens in isolation. There is the fear of being judged or rejected by significant others. Sometimes there are no few or safe spaces in which to express doubt or ask hard questions.

So it becomes important to discuss what authentic and satisfying worldviews might look like and how we can we construct a biblical faith-based framework for living ethically and lovingly in such a multiverse of cultures?

How do we live consistently with our beliefs whilst also understanding and respecting those who view life through different lenses? Haven is to be a space where we can have those conversations together over as many strong coffees as are needed!

This strikes such a chord! So many people have questions but don't know how to express them. What often happens is we go to church for the music and friendship, but we live bifurcated lives: There's our Sunday life and our weekdays life; there's our emotional/spiritual life and there's our reasoning mind, and  the two remain disconnected or in conflict. 

2. We want Haven to have a 'centred-set'culture rather than being 'bounded set.' 

In a centred-set church it is recognized that we are each on a journey. The closer one gets to the centre (Christ), the more one’s understanding and actions are shaped by Jesus. Each individual has the freedom to navigate kairos (ah!ha!) moments that might require change.

There’s not a set of gate-keeper rules or a fixed boundary, as is in a bounded set. No one is considered unworthy of belonging. In a centred set model of community, people of all backgrounds and beliefs will be welcomed at the table to join in the conversation. 

It's a filter that asks not: ‘Are they in or out?’ but ‘Are they able to move towards the centre?’ 

3. Church as 'meal' more than 'meeting:' One key question is around what means to be ‘church’ in post-Christendom. There is a suspicion of religious institutions and structures.

It's interesting the only liturgy Jesus gave his followers was a meal -- whenever they eat and share bread and wine -- they are as family remembering Jesus' incarnation and death and their new identity and they are looking forward with hope to Jesus return and creation restored.   

We want haven to (try to) be a community that meets and shares around meals and conversation ahead of being a congregation attending "services" with a liturgy, sermons and songs. 

Picture meeting as a smaller group over a meal talking about issues on our plate, our world, our joys, Jesus and the Good News. What if was OK to ask any questions or express doubts about what faith looks like? Picture imagining together about what the reign of Jesus might actually look like for our broader context.

So, how do we start? And how do we resist becoming an inward huddle that doesn't connect or bless its neighbourhood? Much to ponder!