“And (Jesus) said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” (Mark 4:30–32)
Now, what?
In a season of so much upheaval, and tumult, and uncertainty, it is a difficult thing to be tasked with leadership. I confess that I find my usual confidence and steadiness often evades me now, as the days ahead remain opaque to forecasting; the immediate future, unclear. As time continues to progress with little in the way of increased clarity to inform expectations and plans, the “wait and see” posture that was necessary at first now gradually gives way to an unwelcome feeling of paralysis. By the time this summer has run its course, we will have passed six months (!) of “pandemic time” already, with little promise that our circumstances are likely to change for the better, anytime soon. Six months on - millions of COVID cases and hundreds of thousands of deaths later - it is reported that our national population has likely still only achieved a meager 5% immunity to this virus; a seemingly immeasurable distance from the 80% immunity required to naturally mute and manage the impact of the disease. For all intents and purposes, as a community we are as physically vulnerable now as we were in the very beginning. And while in many cases our patience with mitigation methods and social restrictions has frayed - our ability to take advantage of the abundant fresh air and out-of-doors settings of summer has come as a genuine respite and blessing - we must endeavor to be clear-eyed about what is coming in the months ahead. COVID is not going away. The ebb and flow of infection rates and social restrictions will be a part of our national life, more or less indefinitely, until an effective and appropriately vetted vaccine is delivered. Toward this end, we can and should surely pray! And, in the meantime, there remain decisions to be made.
We must answer: How are we to live as followers of Jesus in the world as it IS, today; beyond simply mourning the loss of the world as we would have preferred it to remain? What does it mean to be the Church, now? What does it look like to embrace and embody the calling of Christ - to be wholehearted, maturing and multiplying disciples of Jesus - in the midst of the world as we presently find and experience it? The realties and limitations presented by global pandemic are one set of factors, clearly. However, I am convinced there are other, spiritual and ecclesiological realties to be considered as we seek to answer these questions, as well.
Sociological research - and indeed, our own experience - clearly indicates that the influence of the (institutional) Church within our post-modern (and indeed, post-Christian), western culture has long been in decline; now to the point of general irrelevance, if not outright stigma. Laid bare in the midst of this is an ongoing crisis of non-discipleship and Christian formation that has afflicted the Church for generations. This is something that we of The Commons have spoken about at length; that a culture of non-discipleship reproduces a manner of Christian “faith” which is altogether lacking in transformative depth, in sacrificial Christ-centered, Kingdom allegiance, and generally fails to demonstrate any sort of compelling, living alternative to our secularized, humanistic world. We are witnessing now also, in the tumult of social upheaval around persistent systems of racial injustice in our nation and in our history, the consequences of a half-hearted, comfortably acculturated, consumeristic American Church. When the Church abandons its prophetic and Kingdom-bearing calling for generations - settling for a comfortable cultural complicity that offers proximity to worldly power, and by omission leaves it to the secular world to finally decry sin without the spirit and channels of grace; without the resources for forgiveness and reconciliation on offer to us by virtue of the cross and victory of Christ alone - things go ever and further awry in the attempt. We can’t blame them for trying. We can only mourn that we have been for too long complicit, complacent, and silent; now left without the spiritual resources, integrity and moral authority ourselves to be of much help. Even as we have been robbed by pandemic of our favorite tools and forms for ministry, we are being exposed in our spiritual unfitness and unpreparedness, now. This is a discomforting and disorienting season for the Church, on multiple levels.
Before revival, comes a reckoning. And, I am afraid that the American Church is long overdue for a proper reckoning.
Considering the pandemic: Churches around the country that have “reopened” thus far - with appropriate virus-abatement measures - report finding that a very small number of worshippers have actually chosen to return to weekend worship. The Barna group reports that a third of active Christians surveyed declare that they don’t plan to return to worship once the pandemic is over. And although the adoption of virtual worship services has resulted in more screens attending than bodies used to sit in seats, the quality of commitment of the people behind those screens remains questionable at best.
Considering the spiritual “condition” and public witness of the Church, pandemic notwithstanding: It strikes me nearly every day, as I wade into each morning’s headlines or glance warily at my social media newsfeed, that if the Church in our nation has lost cultural “influence” over the years, then I am convinced it is a fate we have brought upon ourselves, and well deserve. The “gift” of social media, particularly, has been that our once-private ugliness has become a daily, public spectacle. If what we post, and share, and “like” and comment upon is any indicator, then (predominantly white) American Evangelical Christians are a mean-spirited, self-seeking, defensive, fear-driven, willfully ignorant bunch, gleefully sacrificing our “values” and integrity in exchange for a promise of political power. Demographically, we are very concerned with fighting for our “rights”; watchful to shout down and trade in conspiracies of government “overreach” (amidst a global health crisis), susceptible to propaganda, ambivalent (if not antagonistic) toward the cries of those suffering violence and injustice in our midst, protective of the social status quo that has served us well at the expense of others, and eager to trade sharp-barbed insults with anyone who doesn’t share our perspective. This is our testimony, our public witness.
“…The tree is known by its fruit”, Jesus once said; “…Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Mt. 13:33) In short: The “fruit” of the American Church in our day reveals a profound sickness of the heart; thin on Christoformity, heavy on American partisan toxicity. Our theology, strategies, means, methods and expressions for generations have yielded a harvest of Christians who, by-and-large, simply do not resemble the Christ we claim to follow in any meaningful way. Make no mistake: we need revival! But, before revival, comes the reckoning. Before restoration, comes confession and repentance. Before resurrection, comes the way of the cross. If the Church is to remain in “exile” for a season, removed from our sanctuaries and preferred expressions of worship, I believe it is because the Lord has some business to attend to with us. In the wilderness comes the testing, and forming; the renewal of covenant and calling. There is soul work to be done, in the waiting.
Let us consider, now, the invitation and opportunity that lies before us, today.
In the convergence of multiple crises I propose that we are being presented with an opportunity to repent, revisit and reimagine the fundamental forms and strategies for worship and mission, appropriate to both our ongoing calling and present context. It MAY even be that the familiar model of church as an institutional, large, centralized gathering for professionally curated worship “experiences” has seen its day! Generally speaking, two centuries is about the “lifespan” of any given ecclesiastic model. It could be suggested that we’re overdue for an overhaul. Overdue, for a movement of reimagining and renewal. Overdue, for revival. Let us consider that in this season of tumult and uncertainty that God is giving us an excuse - an invitation - to think/do/live/minister altogether differently. Is He calling and enabling His people to respond in a fresh way to Him, to one another, and to the Mission to which He has called us?
I suggest: If our propensity to favor the gathering of crowds has arguably proven ineffective for Christian formation for more than a generation, AND if an ongoing pandemic continues to call the prudence of such large gatherings into question, what if we simply name and embrace that the future flourishing of the Church will be found, essentially, in the SMALL?
More than any church community that I have ever personally been a part of, it is clear to me that the Lord has uniquely crafted and called together this ministry of ours, The Commons, “for such a time as this”; to stand, and flourish, and bear witness. For the past six years we have explored, experimented, failed, learned and prayed our way into a micro-community-based, discipleship-centric expression of Christian community life. For years, we have declared that it is our outposts and TABLE spaces that are the fundamental unit of our shared life and mission. GATHERING serves the Outpost, and not vice-versa, we’ve said; intentional discipleship, and our neighborhood and/or mission-specific expressions are what it’s all about. And, even should the GATHERING become impossible to maintain, we’ve always said that the CHURCH would endure, and even flourish.
But, I’ll be honest. Now that it actually comes down to it I do wonder: did we MEAN all that? Did I?
I am deeply grateful, now, for the conversation we have intentionally fostered with the Underground Network in recent years. Grateful for their faithfulness in bravely and selflessly modeling a way forward for the Church; championing the idea of Church as essentially intimate and local and missional, and daring to unleash the priesthood/ministry of ALL believers, along the way. Their example, encouragement and friendship gives me courage to embrace the invitation that stands before us in this moment: Go small, or go home. The founding director of The Underground, Brian Sanders, writes:
“What is the church at its most basic level? This may be the most important strategic question in our time because the way you answer it will then inform the way you both start and multiply churches…If we have misunderstood the very nature of the churches we are supposed to be planting… then we will again be left frustrated by more impotence and futility. We have to be clear on what we are planting. We have to be brave enough to wonder what Jesus had in mind when he said to Peter, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matt. 16:18). In the full catalog of the history of the church since Jesus spoke those words till today, the local church has essentially been expressed as something small, a few dozen people at most.
The “microchurch” then is not just the smallest expression of the church, it is the most common. And in that sense, it is the most important. If we are not the church in its simplest form, then we cannot be the church in a more complex form… When we talk about microchurches, we are talking about the purest, most basic form of the church. We are talking about a community worshipping God and loving each other—and that alone, without all the other things. If we are not a community living for each other and God, then none of the programs and ministries matter. The higher conceptions of the church are valid, but only if the most basic form of the church is functioning… Even great things, Jesus taught, come from something very small. And so we should heed the prophet Zechariah and never despise the day of small beginnings (Zech. 4:10). And I have often thought, if given the choice to go big or go home, I think the church is better off going home. Because, as I argue, the church in a home can be very powerful, and way more replicable.” ( Brian Sanders. “Microchurches: A Smaller Way” (p. 2-16). UG Media. )
How will we commit to fostering community, “living for each other and for God”, amidst these strange and challenging days? How will we endeavor to hold fast to our mission of “making, maturing and multiplying wholehearted followers of Jesus”, and find fresh expressions of doing so, along the way? How will we do so, while the regular GATHERING is effectively out of reach? In short, we must now BE who it is we have always said we ARE: more than a congregation, The Commons has been called to be a disciple-making movement.
Practically and organizationally speaking, this is what we envision, moving forward:
1.) Home+Church Resources: Much as our quarantine-inspired model was conceived and began in March, beginning in the Fall we will commit to curating and disseminating scripture resources and study guides, centrally accessible through our website and culminating in TABLE (outpost-based) studies (2nd, 4th & 5th Sundays) and a monthly (1st Sunday), Sunday morning community-wide digital “Gathering” for dialogical teaching, prayer and communion.
2.) Outpost-Centric Community, Care, and Mission: As we name and embrace that this “scattered” mode of community life will be our indefinite, “new normal”, it is our Outposts (6-10 people) that will serve as the primary vehicle of connection, care, worship and mission for those committed to one another in these communities. Outpost leaders will serve with and be resourced by our council of elders, and will endeavor to foster and maintain the “bonds of fellowship” and appropriate care for those whom they are journeying with. 2nd, 4th and 5th Sundays will be designated for TABLE; opportunities for outpost-based study, prayer, worship and community connection.
Again, in this season we believe and declare that the Church is - fundamentally - SMALL. Historically, and globally, the Church has been built upon rapidly reproducing, household-based, disciple-making, mission fellowships such as these. We believe that the Church flourishes as Jesus intends where and when the “priesthood” of all believers is allowed to flourish. EVERY follower of Jesus, a bearer of the Spirit. Every person called. Every person empowered for Kingdom mission, wherever the Lord has placed them. This is how the Church has reached - and will reach - the world! As such, we regard the OUTPOST micro-church expression to be the fundamental building block of our mission/strategy/structure.
3.) Robust, Intentional Discipleship Network: Whether in the context of a given Outpost/TABLE (a natural possibility), or through relationships spanning the community at large, we will continue to pursue of our aim of EVERY person discipled, and discipling. It is our conviction that Christian discipleship must be intentionally fostered, and mutually committed to between those in a discipling relationship. We will continue to endeavor to curate tools and strengthen the relational network throughout the ecosystem of The Commons for the purposes of enabling and equipping the formation of disciple-making connections.
4.) Weekly Prayer: We will continue to commit in the season ahead to our “FORGE” Thursday evening prayer gatherings, via ZOOM. ( churchofthecommons.org/forge )
These are serious times. And, it is my conviction that when it comes to the truly entrenched evils and ills of our world, it will only be those bearing sufficient spiritual AUTHORITY - an authority conferred by virtue of time spent in the furnace of the Lord's presence, in prayer - who may hope to stand and face them in the victory of Christ, calling down resurrection and renewal. For the sake of our neighbor and our witness, may we be a people who are learning, day-by-day, how to PRAY!
5.) Outdoor GATHERING / “Family Outings”: For as long as the weather holds, we will continue our summer rhythm of (3rd Sunday) “Family Outings”: outdoor gatherings for community-wide fellowship, worship and teaching. When/As weather demands such, these Sunday gatherings will pivot to the digital “Home+Church” space.
When will we see the (in person, indoor, large-scale) GATHERING return to our community life and rhythms? In truth, I cannot now say. For now, I am simply compelled to express my conviction that the Lord is inviting us to embrace this “exile” season, and to receive the work he intends to do in us, through it. In the meantime, it is not ours to mourn excessively for those forms of community life that we have lost for a time, but to wholeheartedly and joyfully seek the Lord together; to discover what he is calling us into in THIS season, and this world. Brian Sanders, again:
“My prayer is that every committed disciple would imagine themselves responsible for the future formation of the church. To dream about starting something small that is very much the church for their lives. To see it as something intimate and precious. To make the fundamental shift from believing the church is something someone else starts and runs that we choose and consume, to believing the church is something like a family that each of us pursues in the course of our life with God. The where of it then is less important than the who. The end result will be as fascinating, diverse, and wonderful as every family. Church then is not a building or set of programs. It is a value we live out, a close relationship with others, and in each sincere expression, in each yearning community, God is there.” (“Microchurches”, p.18)
Amen. May it be so!