Musings on 25 Years of Ordained Ministry--14

Launching Grace--#2

I have been and remain a "fan" and supporter of the Church Growth Movement and the Seeker Movement. God is continually inviting the Church to be the Church for each new generation. My belief is that the CGM and the Seeker Movement were moves of God's Spirit calling the Church back to mission and evangelism. My generation, the Boomers, left the Church in droves because we found it boring and irrelevant. The Seeker/Church Growth Movement encouraged creative, Spirit-led thinking in how the Church could once again speak and share the Gospel in the language of the people.

Having said that, like Walt after his sabbatical, I began to sense that God was up to something new. And Grace offered the chance to begin to go in that new direction.

My passion for seekers remain. But in this particular time in this particular congregation I sense a mission different from that of the seeker movement I experienced at Joy:

From "Come and See" to "Go and Show." Certainly we want to invite people to come and see Jesus, including inviting them to see him in our worship services, etc. But increasingly people are staying away from churches so the Church needs to go to seekers. That lead to a major shift for us. Rather than building a church for seekers, per se, Grace is focused on building a congregation that disciples followers of Jesus to go back out and bring his grace to our corners of the world.

From "Seeker Services" to "Missional Worshipping Communities." Rather than designing the Sunday experience for those who've never been to church before as we did in the seeker services, our worship is now geared to those already committed to Jesus. Certainly we want to ensure that newcomers feel welcome, but the point is not to introduce people to Jesus though the service but to train/equip/inspire/empower Jesus followers to go back into the world to bring Jesus there. The service is far more participational than presentational. And the messages are more disciple-oriented (what it means to follow Jesus) than life application.

From "Programming" to "Communities." Rather than creating a busy church with lots of programs, we're keeping it simple by focusing on getting people into groups/clusters to share faith, build relationships, be Jesus to one another other, so we can then be Jesus in the world.

From "Presentational Evangelism" to "Hands on Mission." Again, rather than bringing people to worship to hear a presentation of the Gospel, we're headed back out to bring Jesus to people in tangible ways. That lead to our 4 Make A Difference Days, in which 4 times a year we go into the community to serve in a variety of ways from cleaning up a neighborhood to feeding the homeless to gleaning fruit to walks for certain causes. We're not being called to build a church but to serve a city.

From "Church Work" to the "Work of the Church." In the '80s and 90's it was all about getting everyone plugged into a ministry in the church. So the task of the staff/leadership was to help people discover their gifts and then put them into some kind of service opportunity at the church. And if a slot didn't exist, one would be created. The whole point was to serve each other and the church. We still have significant ministries within the congregation that need great leaders from caring for children to worship leadership. But our main task is to empower people not for church work but to do the work of the church--getting out and being Jesus. Part of this comes in helping Christians see their every day lives as God's calling for them: Their job is their ministry. Being a parent is their ministry. Volunteering for the PTA is their ministry. Being neighborly is their ministry.

One of the growth areas for me right now is learning how to disciple individuals.

We've learned a lot over the last 4 years about what it means to try to be a missional church. And we've got a lot more to learn. But I am constantly amazed at the ways in which the people of Grace are following Jesus on the bold, daring, reckless adventure of bringing grace to the world. It's been a huge stretch to move from a strong, passionate seeker/program-driven church to a missional community based church. But Gracer's have been up for it.

We also had the dream of being a world church--focused on the needs of people around the world. Hence our ministry with our friends in Rwanda, Haiti, Mexico, Bethlehem, in addition to local stuff.

One of the defining growth experiences for me came in October of 2008 when I visited the Vineyard Church in Boise for a conference they were doing on mission. Their whole congregation is focused on how Jesus speaks to the global issues of the day from the environment to hunger/poverty to sex-trafficking, to oppression. 25 years earlier I saw a picture of what Joy could be like when I visited Robert Schuller's congregation. This time, I saw a picture of what Grace can be like.

In the midst of all of that, our mantra is keep it simple, keep it significant, and keep it fun (not meaning that ministry is always happy and gooey sweet, but that we should sense a passion for whatever we're doing.)

We're only 4 years old but it's been quite a ride so far. As Walt always says, "The best is yet to be."