One of my favourite pastimes is asking church planters, “What are you learning?â€
“Skyped†Mark Kenzie the other day. He and Cheryl are planting on the fringes of Newcastle, about two hours north of Sydney.
They are among the best at connecting with people in the community. It’s summer in Australia and the lead up to Christmas. So they’ve got themselves a Jumping Castle and it’s street parties all over the neighbourhood. The parties break the ice and then they spend the rest of the year growing the new relationships.
God’s been at work. People seek them out for Christian child “naming ceremonies†and weddings. Mark sat down with a couple recently and took them through marriage preparation and then the basics of the Gospel in the lead up to the wedding. Following the ceremony at the reception, friends and family of the couple lined up to ask Mark to tell them more about the God he spoke about in his message. They told him, “We’ve never heard anyone talk about God like you did.â€
“So what are you learning Mark?â€
“That’s easy. The number one lesson is I must be prepared to do whatever it takes. If nothing works try something else.â€
Mark’s been baffled that a lot of the “Emerging Church†reading he’s done isn’t working in practice. For instance, the idea that the “PostModern†generation isn’t interested by “attractional†church services. After twelve months of immersing himself in his community he’s discovered people can be confused by alternative models of church. They actually feel more comfortable with a traditional concept of church on a Sunday morning. Heresy.
So Mark decided to “suck it and seeâ€. In addition to connecting in the community they began an informal church service every second week in a sports centre. People who have been hanging back from getting involved have started showing up.
Mark’s conclusion?
Read the experts. But don’t take them too seriously. Try a lot of stuff, see what God is doing and keep what works.
4 Comments
Steve I tend to agree with you. I think that the church is emerging. But isn’t that what it has always done? Maybe this movement is more a post evangelicanism? I am doing some stuff with friends that would fit into what would be categorised as emerging but I’m not sure if we are there yet. It is fun and we are enjoying the journey but we are not sure where it will end up.
I thought the point of the emerging church stuff (at least the expression in Oz), was not what made people more “comfortable” to attend but what made them more effective disciples of Jesus.
Lot of sense there,
forget about wasting out time on academic navel gazing, and trying to convince each other our way is best, and just do what works, love it.
“Instead of putting on a show and expecting everyone to come to us, the Organic Church takes the Kingdom to places where there are lost people and lives the Kingdom life among them and doesn’t shy away from the gospel of the Kingdom. The lives that are drawn to Christ through that experience become the new church in that environment. As a result, they are immediately on board with walking with Christ and obeying him in the Great Commission and they become a catalyst for change in others and a chain reaction can occur. I think that whenever you see a church planting movement, that’s at the heart….The numbers of people can be deceptive. You can have many people and not be fruitful. You might just be putting on a better show than the guy around the corner. What we are looking for is fruitfulness.”