The theology has told us
that the task is going out from new centre that is God’s mission. Thus
1
Seeds are key
Going from there we take
with us seeds - of both the gospel and church - in our knapsacks.
The seeds only get taken out and planted as the missionary journey
unfolds. These seeds then must die
to take root in the cross-cultural context.
The principle is, SEEDS MUST BE ALLOWED TO DIE.
The report
We know that to grow a
plant you must sow a seed. Seeds left in an unopened packet cannot be described
as planted. They must be moved out of the packet and buried in the soil. That
means an intentional end of their existence.
You don’t see them again. But
then something related to the seed, but different from it, starts
to grow up, out of the ground.
Let’s translate that
dynamic into the church planting process in any mission context. The
seed stands for the incoming church planting team, bearing in their bones the
essence of the gospel and of the church. This
seed dies to its previous identity. These
people were part of a particular sending church; which had its own particular
manifestations and culture. They
have to be willing to set aside those preferences and likes, to find how to be
church and how to communicate gospel in the context to which God sends them.
This is like Paul saying in 1 Cor 9 “to
the Greeks I became as a Greek”. For
some today it might mean, to the Pagan’s I became as a Pagan.
This seed will become a body, a plant, that it was not before.
The Plant and the seed are related, but also different, as 1 Cor 15
teaches. Dying to Live is inherent
in the church planting discipline and process.
The planting team [or seed], by mixing with its mission context, becomes
rooted there. It draws nourishment and resources from that environment as it
sends out roots and then a shoot emerges. By this process, it dies as a seed,
changing from what it was. In church planting, the seed community becomes a new
body of believers, as well as a body of new believers. As such the planting
analogy has real strengths. It
conveys by analogy, what should occur theologically, in all cross cultural
mission.
2
Double Listening
The next principle in
methodology, for all cases, is what the Church of England report
This process of finding
that out involves two things. Both
are forms of attending to what God is saying.
Double listening means entering and understanding the culture in which a
church might be established, truly listening to the mission context – like
Paul did in
·
For the planting of churches,
listening to both contemporary culture and to church tradition are vital.
Only listen to culture and you will end up with syncretism – in which
gospel and church are perverted and distorted by the culture.
·
Only listen to the inherited
tradition and the life and message of Jesus will not engage the culture. It will
be disconnected, nothing is gained because it will be irrelevant.
In mission we do not come
with empty hands, but it is key to have open ears. In this sense there is an
order to this. Attention to the
mission context, or listening to the world, comes before discerning how the
inherited Christian tradition works within it.
Some might think listening
to context is all about evangelism, and listening to tradition is all about
church. I’d say that was
disastrous. Using a farming
metaphor, that’s the way fruit of
evangelism might be gained, but then it gets left to rot in the fields –
because the barn of the church is no good to store it.
Changing the metaphor, though still staying biological, – Jesus talked
about the need for new skins for new wine. We
work at double listening over Church and Gospel. Creating Fresh Expressions of
church is two listenings – over those two tasks.
Listening to the cultural
context shapes the gospel bearing church that emerges.
Then the second aspect of double listening – hearing our inheritance
the faith uniquely revealed in the Scriptures - validates and assesses what is
emerging. Double listening is
a process which enables something to evolve as its context changes.
It holds in tension both a creative engagement with context and a
faithfulness to the good news in Jesus. It is not easy, not simple, but
essential and creative. Remember too that the order of this double listening is
very like the theological principle of firstly incarnation then counter
cultural.
[Lets apply that briefly
to the dominant culture we shall encounter – consumerism. “To the consumers
I became as a consumer” but in the case of consumerism, the gospel-shaped community
that forms will have to address questions at the core of the human self,
which does make choices. Living the
gospel is only partly about what and why I choose, as well as it is about who
chose me. This informs whom I serve
and whom I will be prepared to die for and what I will gladly die to. A choice
about my supposed right of choice. ]
[3D thinking ]
Listening to context, then
validating it by our inheritance connects to the next insight about methodology.
MSC put it like this. p
116
start with the church and
the mission will probably get lost.
start with the mission and
it is likely that the Church will be found.
In the language that MSC
has adopted, To make fresh starts that are thought through, the expression of
church should be formed by three considerations, 3 dimensions, taken in this
order, for the theological reason that
1
Who it is for - what is the
2
Who is it by -
who are the Mission Resources – or the sent team ?
3
Who is it with - who are the
Read Ch 6 to see how these
questions develop.
The Church of the Saviour
Washington DC has created a diverse range of congregations each around a
specific mission context. These are the 3 questions they always ask in the
process – good questions and in my view in the right order.
Let me end with a field
observation that goes beyond what MSC dared to say in full thought there are
hints on p 117 about worship,
4
Don’t assume starting with worship
If we know that mission shapes
church – and this creates a go shape not a come shape, this profoundly
questions whether provision of worship is the obvious theological starting point
in mission.
Go back to some 1990’s
theory about the functions of Church – from Robert Warren. What does Church do
– it worships, offers community and acts in mission. Spirituality beats at the
heart of *these three activities.
Then contrast that ideal
picture with much western practice.
Then you notice a dominant
circle about worship. That can be measured by investment of money time, money
and personnel in buildings, programmes and clergy to run them all.
All too often the Community who
meet in this building are somewhat dysfunctional and unattractive. As some wag
said – “the main reason others aren’t in church, is because we are.”
Third, in practice
Try to make such a beast
mission minded, let alone mission centred is difficult. So attempts to change it
often turn out only to be a
temporary foray out of the fold, in order to invite others to come and worship.
Contrast that to the varied
mission field we now face.
How do elements of the mission
field and of being church connect?
The matrix in the PPT shows
what we have found, on the ground in
So it seems from MSC theology
and from field study there is an inherent order in the creation of Fresh
Expressions of Church. It is very unlike
what we are used to.
It is essential to start with
the apostolic or missional community. This group go bearing seeds of the gospel
and the church. They live in such a way that others are drawn to them; strangers
become friends, prompted by what they see to ask questions.
As the planting team connect
with the culture, learn its language and find its priorities, the shape of
mission to that culture or area grows clearer.
Only by being there does the specific shape to the mission emerges. It s
part of connecting with discernment of what God is doing there.
Only then as
local people respond to Christ and are discipled in the Christian community
does indigenous worship slowly begin to emerge.
It grows out of the stories of finding faith, stories of answered
prayers, it meshes with the local musical culture and local people’s creative
gifts.
What must be characteristic of
the worship – is that it feeds the life, gifting, calling and aspirations of
the growing community. Monastic
groups would describe this process as worship nurturing the charism of the
community.
But note the order: Public
Worship does not come first. Indeed it cannot – it must be grown as the
community in mission co-operates with God in evolving a mission shaped church.