Where to begin?
Alan Hirsch is the instructor. What I love about Alan is that he is a mixture of theoretician and practitioner. Much of his learning about what the church could be has come through dialogue and experimentation in his local context, Melbourne, Australia.
A question:
Is it possible that the American Church, including Open Door, is a faulty system reproducing itself?
Consider this–
Once upon a time, Christianity was on the margins. It was underground–it was on the fringes–it was happening among the most unlikely of people. It was viral, meaning it was incredibly grassroots–a movement spreading because a group of people began orienting their lives around the person of Jesus. Christ-followers were ridiculed, persecuted, looked down upon, seen as second-class citizens, yet they kept coming back. They just kept on living virally in the Way of Jesus and it spread and it spread and it spread. It spread not because of any catchy marketing scheme. It spread not because of the latest technology or coolest musical experience. It spread not because of a building. It spread not because a group of people happened to meet from time to time.
It spread because as people grew in the image of the Living God (discipleship/transformation/whatever you want to call it)–a God who is a missionary God (constantly pursuing and redeeming mankind)–the became driven by mission. Mission (the redemption of mankind) became central to them. This happened not because someone told them it should–but because that is what happens as we grow in the likeness of His Son Jesus.
As it spread–it changed everything.
And then a Roman Emperor named Constantine (blast Constantine), in the political move of political moves, made Christianity THE religion of the world (more or less). Why was this a bad thing you ask? It was a bad thing because that which was viral (like salt and light) was thrust into the center and boxed up into a nice building. It became easy to be Christian and the communal experience of being Christian went from a grassroots movement to a religion experienced on a particular day in a particular place.
From that moment until now (17 centuries in total) Constantine continues to show up. He shows up every time our perspective of church is a place with a thing that we go to and often times like. He shows up every time it is easy to be Christian. He shows up every time we become conditioned to a certain experience of worship. He shows up in the poverty of our imagination of what the church was and could be again.
What does this mean in general?
It means that for 17 centuries we have been recreating, repackaging, regenerating the same thing that doesn’t work–it never has. It doesn’t work because it became what it never was intended to be. Because we keep buying into Constantine’s ideal, like the movie “Field of Dreams” we convince ourselves that if we build it and build it really nice–then people will come.
Reality Check–People are NOT coming! Why should they? They don’t get the lingo, the don’t get the music, they don’t get how the church could spend so much money on things that don’t seem to make any difference in the world.
Put another way: Once upon a time, missio dei (the mission of God: redemption of mankind) was central to the church. Now, “doing church” (producing a flashy worship gathering) has become central. Something is off…
A couple of questions…
1. If you were to strip the church down to what it was meant to be (see passages such as Acts 2 or Ephesians 4) what would it look like? What are the bare essentials?
2. If you were to completely reimagine church–what would it look like? No reimagination is to creative!
3. What are the above implications for Open Door? What re-calibrations are needed?
Invigorating stuff huh?
Pray with and for me…
