Jesus is the head of the church.
It could be because this is far too obvious but I find that far too often Jesus is left off our or organizational charts.
Jesus himself states that he is the one who builds his church (Matthew 16:18). The Scriptures describe Jesus as our Apostle and High Priest (Hebrews 3:1) as well as our Chief Sheppard (1 Peter 5:4). Throughout Ephesians Christ is described as the head over the church body (Ephesians 1:22-23, 4:15-16, 5:23).
Whatever structures are in place they must always submit to the ways of Jesus and the Spirit of God. While there is a human leadership structure, every person ultimately follows and submits to God Himself.
I’ve never quite seen a good diagram on church ecclesiology, where there is some form of structure, yet everyone submitting to Christ himself. Here’s what I’m imagining.
Although I don’t expect those who are part of our community but not followers of Jesus to submit themselves to Jesus, I think they too have a role in leading. I’m not sure how to pictorially demonstrate it, but whether you acknowledge it or not, there are those in your midst that don’t subscribe to Jesus, but lead in influential ways.
I think I’ll start highlighting a bit of the geekier side of me and blogging some of the technology/productivity tools that I use to do what I do.
For one, traveling has never been the same since Google maps came along. It just got better.
[youtube KPOOWvP_dd8]
multiple destinations, satellite images, live traffic, and now drag and drop re-routable maps!
A few thoughts…
There seems to be a plethora of church leadership structures that are written about, promoted and practiced under various banners today. From my reading of the Scriptures, I must begin by saying that I do not see explicit breakdowns of how the leadership of the church must be structured. Most approaches that are advocated and scripturally supported seem to me, to be a construction from various passing statements rather than a clear biblical mandate of the church’s leadership configuration.
I do however see the need for having some form of established structure in order to direct and protect the people and the mission of the local church. I appreciate what Stetzer states that “church governance should function like a human skeleton, as a necessity for structure and well-being but invisible to the naked eye”.
My hope is to have a leadership architecture that is true to the heart of Scripture and will serve as a baseline to be innovated upon as we follow God’s leading as a church.
The day I finished up a 30 page church planting proposal, I began digging into Shane Clairborne’s book The Irresistable Revolution. Two days later, I finished it and was wrecked and questioning all the visioning, plans and, strategies I had jotted down regarding church planting.
I was humbled and reminded that very few of us are capable of doing truly great things, but every one of us can do simple tiny things with great love (to paraphrase Mother Teresa).
Here are some resources I’ve tracked down regarding Shane, The Irresistable Revolution, and the New Monasticism in no particular order
Jesus for President – Shane’s new book, tour
Shane Claiborne at urbanministry.org on Becoming peculiar people
Audio
Potter Street Records
Steve brown interviews Shane
audio
Michael Harren – conversation with shane claiborne
* Video on the recent kensington fire that burned down the simple way community center
The simple way – home page (You can donate here to support the families that lost their homes as well)
Audio message by Shane Claiborne on Building the Kingdom with non-Christians here
Segment on The New Monastics from Speaking of Faith Public Radio – writings, interview, and music
Another world is possible
Article on The Simple Way from Busted Halo
Article on the new monasticism from Christianity Today
Video of Shane Claiborne on the Gospel as a way of life – A model for urban ministry
Darryl Dash blog on Shane’s session at the evolving church conference
Audio of Gospel as a way of life
Video of Shane Claiborne at Youth Fusion
Site for Ordianry Radicals
Shane Claiborne’s journal from his trip to Iraq
Shane interviewing Tony Campolo
Interview on Finding the Simple Way from WittenburgDoor
Audio of Shane Claiborne speaking at Trinity Western University
NewMonasticism.org – Schools for conversion
Word and the world
The Relational Tithe
Sermon by Shane Claiborne at La Salle Street Church 2006 here
Shane Claiborne at Mars Hill on “Finding your Calcutta” here
Relevant Interview with Shane Claiborne and Jamie Moffett
As a new parent, I’ve found that I’m constantly scouring books and the web for what’s normal. Should my daughter be doing this, or not doing that? How much exactly should she be eating? Should her #2 look like that? Is she developmentally on track? Is she normal?
The problem is, why am I aiming for normal or average? I don’t in my own life. Since when has being normal, or even slightly better than average been a worthy goal in life?
One baby formula say it helps strengthen bones, the other says it supports brain development, what do you choose?
I find so much of the marketing towards parents exploits our insecurities and our need to have the most optimal child alive. Sometimes I fall into the trap and I think, this could be it, this could be the very meal, the very food, at this very juncture in her growth and development that gives her the edge in life, that causes her to be 3% smarter or faster.
But would Stellar being that much smarter or that much quicker, really make her that much happier?
Would it really impact the content of her character? [click to continue…]
Some of you may have seen the blueprint I drew up a while back. Here it is somewhat expanded in table form.
One thing I often hear regarding church planting is that there are already so many churches out there, why plant another church?
First off, statistically speaking if you’re thinking of Canada on a national level, according to outreach Canada ten thousand churches still needed to be planted simply to have a church for every two thousand people. And we certainly don’t have many churches of two thousand either.
On top of that six to eight churches close their door every day
In addition
- It is a biblical mandate – Jesus planted the church so we might plant churches to the ends of the earth
- New churches best reach new generations, new residents, and new people groups
- New churches reach the unreached best
- New churches revitalize the whole body of Christ through the infusion of new ideas, creating new leaders, and fueling the advancement of the Kingdom
Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian states “Nothing else – not crusades, outreach programs, parachurch ministries, mega-churches, consulting, nor church renewal processes – will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting”.
New forms of church are also desperately needed. I believe there are homes, warehouses, cafes, pubs, clubs, theaters, and abandoned cathedrals across the country waiting to be redeemed into communities of faith, hope, and love.
And I’m sure there are many other reasons…
Mosaic, besides sounding really cool, actually embodies what we hope to be our core elements as a community.
Mosaic represents the brokenness and fragmentation that exists in the city and in the hearts of its people. Brokenness, due to the mess we make of our lives and our relationships; and fragmentation, due to how people are increasingly working, playing, connecting, and living in isolated bubbles. This has made it extremely difficult for people to see one another as full human beings created in the image and likeness of God. Mosaic City hopes to change that.
Mosaic is an art-form created by a master artist that brings together broken pieces to form something beautiful. Likewise, Mosaic represents to us that there is a living God who actively brings us together in community despite our differences and dysfunctions to create something beautiful that reflects His character and His hopes in this world. We believe that when our sharp and rough edges are brought together and rub against one another in the light of God, Christ will be revealed.
The image of Mosaic brings up many other traits that we value as well such as different shapes, diversity, unity as a whole, messiness, ancient, beauty, faith, discarded, remnants, belonging, having a purpose in the bigger picture, artistry, shades and colors, identity, reflection, light, transparency, synergy, divinity, and mystery, amongst many others.
I’ve always thought of having the name of the actual city in the name of this community to help define in some degree a geographical focus. There is no doubt that we hope to impact on even broader scales such as the nation and the world, but to be realistic, and not disheartening to those who join, we’ve limited it to a specific city.
However just mulling over the word “City” the last couple days, has made me think of how City might be appropriate. City brings up images of a populace, living together, governed by certain values. Isn’t this so much of what the Kingdom of God is all about? City also alludes to progress and culture. Just as in the beginning Genesis records humanity in the garden, Revelation speaks of how in some way humanity progresses towards a city. I also like the idea of a city within a city where people are primarily citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
I think the term church will be used in the legal name for ease of documentation and validity when interacting for charitable status and other organizations. My hope however is that people don’t come to know us as a church because we say we’re a church, but because we as a community of faith are being the church in the community.
