When a House Church Becomes Too Large

I've recently enjoyed interacting with Eric Carpenter at his blog A Pilgrim's Progress on the subject of How Big is Too Big? when asked of a church that meets in the home and places a high value on all-member participation in the meetings. Eric was a full-time salaried pastor who left this employment in pursuit of a "simpler form of church life."

In the comments section, I suggested a number of possible next steps that such a church could take when it starts to "feel too large." My option four was to "split the group into two or more smaller groups and try to replicate what you have experienced so far." Option five was to "intentionally start to dream, pray and prepare, for a long-term process of multiple future church planting."

Alan Knox then asked the following question: "I'd love to hear some examples of the outcome of #5 and how it differs from #4."

Rather than presume on Eric's bandwith, I thought  might make a few notes here in response to that good question.

Many groups respond to numerical growth by splitting, dividing or multiplying (option 4). Biological cell concepts are often employed to explain or in some cases justify this course of action.

In my experience, such an action can be a mixed blessing, with long-term relationships sometimes severed or at least placed under strain as a group that may have taken months or years to bond together finds itself torn in two.

Option 5 takes a more intentional, long-term view, rather than just responding to the immediate lack of space in a home. As such, it allows the possibility that some of the more difficult aspects of "splitting" a group can be avoided, or at least mitigated.

In essence, I would distinguish option 5 from option 4 by comparing the ways that a cell divides from the way that a family grows and reproduces. In the latter scenario (option 5), we are not looking to divide a group but to start a new household - specifically a household of faith.

In my own limited experience, pursuing this latter option involves looking for and recognising those individuals who have the capacity, character and inclination to become spiritual parents. They should be supported, empowered, trained and encouraged to intentionally begin the process of opening their homes with the aim of forming a new community. This should happen while the existing church is still quite young and while it is itself forming and developing. The intention to plant out is therefore sown into fabric of the church from early on in its life. As I have said, however, this process becomes part of the ethos of the church, but is not done in such a way that "splits" the existing church in two.

Again, in my limited experience, I have seen this process undertaken resulting in the formation of six new churches that I have had a part in helping to plant in the west of England, during the period 1997 to 2004. At least one of these, becasue of the gift mix of the couple hosting it, started as an Apha course and was composed overwhelmingly of new converts. All of them began as home-based churches. Because of where I was with my ecclesiology at that time, most of these churches went on to become somewhat larger mono-congregations rather than remain small and reproduce smaller household-style churches. Having said that, because of their theological values, these churches do tend to have a higher level of member participation in the meetings than might be experienced in a more traditional "church service" model.

Driscoll, Marriage and Sex

Mark Driscoll's new book, Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship and Life Together, co-authored with his wife Grace, is rapidly contributing to reviews, comments and articles across the blogosphere. I haven't read the book (funny how many articles begin by saying that) but here are a selection of articles inspired by the book and the themes it addresses.

Methodist Morgan Guyton on Red Letter Christians confesses that he can make no sense of what he calls the "gender heirarchy" outlined in the Driscoll's book.

Rachel Held Evans summarises the book as the good, the bad and the ugly and in the process raises concerns about the assumption that evangelical pastors should be regared as competent to advise on such intimate issues as sex. :

Evangelicals expect too much of their pastors. In addition to demanding they serve as nearly flawless leaders and teachers, many of us demand that our pastors serve as professional counselors and advisors, experts on everything from politics to science to sex to health to money to marriage to relationships. 

Evans' appeal to look at the Biblical context as well as the Biblical content of the key marriage passages is also interesting.

Since David Moore of Fuller Theological Seminary states early on in his article that, "This book is an astoundingly unbelievable work of disrespect for women", there is no surprise that his review is largly critical.

Here in the UK, Christianity Magazine has released part of an interview with Mark Driscoll. The latter has subsequently described the hour-long interview as "adverserial." Driscoll has published a response to the article here.  

Researcher Ed Stetzer meanwhile notes that the topic of sex is being discussed by the world every day and asks the question of Christian leaders, How Should we Talk About Sex?  His five points are that Christians need to: 

• move beyond discomfort on the subject.   
• answer the critical questions people are asking. 
• hype does not help 
• teaching on sex, or at least the same levels of teaching on sex, is not for everyone. 
• talk more, not less, about sex

Lecturer and theologian John Armstrong expresses dispair at what he sees as the growing sensationalism of mega-churches on the subject of sex as he notes that:

Ed and Lisa Young, founders of Texas-based Fellowship Church, will spend 24 hours in bed on the church roof next week and stream themselves live on the Internet to encourage married couples to see firsthand the power of a healthy sex life as prescribed in their new book, Sexperiment.

As Armstrong says,

And some people actually wonder why young evangelical adults, who deeply love Jesus Christ, are now leaving evangelical churches in increasing numbers to go to more ancient churches. 

Ed Stetzer - Lottie Moon and House Churches

Image via Wikipedia

Ed Stetzer - Lottie Moon and House Churches:

When the gospel is allowed to grow naturally in China, without forcing processes of development, the "church in the house" is usually its first form of organization. God grant us faith and courage to keep "hands off" and allow this new garden of the Lord's planting to ripen in the rays of the Divine Love, free from human interference!

- Lottie Moon, Pingtu, September 10, 1890

Was Lottie Moon right than for China?

Was she right now for Europe? America?

I've been increasingly struck in recent years at the way Paul preached the gospel and "allowed" it to take root in its natural, culturally appropriate context. In the case of the first century Greco-Roman world, this natural context was the extended household.

Is the same true in twenty-first century Britain?

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The Emerging Church

The Emerging Church

A helpful and interesting introduction to the issues and personalities sometimes grouped together under the label of the "emerging church."

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welldigger: Revival Alliance Meetings in Westminster September 2011

welldigger: Revival Alliance Meetings in Westminster September 2011

Fascinating and encouraging report from David Pike (Cardiff) about the recent Revival Alliance meeings held in central London.

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Why we might not be as Reformed as we think we are | Papers | Theology Matters | Newfrontiers UK

Why we might not be as Reformed as we think we are | Papers | Theology Matters | Newfrontiers UK

Fine post from Matt Hosier on the Theology Matters blog.

Big themes to think about for evangelical charismatics everywhere!



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Senator Mark Hatfield: RIP

Image via WikipediaJohn H Armstrong : Senator Mark Hatfield: RIP

Virtually unknown in the UK, Senator Mark Hatfield, who died this month, was a leading American Christian politician, from an age before the enmeshing of those two terms became so toxic.

John H Armstrong writes about his life and legacy:


For nearly four decades, [he was] perhaps American evangelicals' most prominent and admired politician . . . a man associated with liberal politics, one of the country's leading voices against the Vietnam War and military spending, and a critic of the nascent religious right.






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Riots and the Early Church

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The simple idea that "things were better" in the past is one that may appeal to many. Historians, however, tend not to believe it.

This on the place of riots in first-century Greco-Roman cities from French historian Jerome Carcopino:

"Night fell over the city like the shadow of a great danger, diffused, sinister and menacing. Everyone fled to his home, shut himself in and barricaded the entrance....Juvenal sighs that to go out to supper without having made your will was to expose yourself to reproach of carelessness....Criminals abounded in the city."

And this from Professor Rodney Stark from the University of Washngton:

"The social integration of Greco-Roman cities was severely disrupted .... exposing residents to a variety of harmful consequences, including high rates of devience and disorder. Indeed, this is a major reason why Greco-Roman cities were so prone to riots."

On Antioch in particular, location of Christianity's first genuinely multi-racial church, Professor Stark notes:

"the six major periods of rioting that racked the city [during the Roman era]. By a major riot, I mean one resulting in substantial damage and death, as distinct from the city's frequent riots in which only a few were killed."

 

 
, 
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Food and the Culture of Hobbits: Tolkein on Fellowship and Warfare

“Bread, Surpassing the Savour of a Fair White Loaf to One Who Is Starving”: Food and the Culture of Hobbits : The Other Journal

You have got to read this article on the place of eating in Tolkein's writing.

It's the heart of fellowship.

Love it.

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Seminary president: Baptists have been 'homophobic' (OneNewsNow.com)

Seminary president: Baptists have been 'homophobic' (OneNewsNow.com)

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The Changing Nature of Church Membership

Loose connections | The Christian Century

Interesting article from The Christian Century on the changing nature of church membership in America.

Many articles on this theme tend to be of the "isn't-it-terrible-how-consumerist-we've-all-become-and-why-can't you-be-more-committed" type.

The above article avoids that easy narrative and looks instead at some historical and sociological models that question whether the emphasis on local churches as "belonging institutions" is the only valid model.

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The Evangelical Universalist: a Short Response

The Evangelical Universalist by Gregory MacDonald

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The title alone suggests that this would be a controversial book in evangelical circles. Originally written under a pseudonym, the author has since revealed his identity as Dr Robin Parry, publishing editor of Paternoster Press and a member of City Church Worcester, part of the Salt and Light network of churches.



My initial response to the book is that I hope its central thesis is true - that in the end, all will be saved through faith in Christ, even those who enter hell. By that, I mean that the doctrine of endless punishment has, up to now, been a difficult doctrine for me to live with as I have stood at the gravesides of a growing number of my non-Christian extended family.



Such an emotional response does not of course mean that the doctrine of universal reconciliation is true. I do, however, intend to study the book more closely and try and come to a view on its message. Certainly, if nothing else, the book demands that all Bible-believing Christians think carefully about the “universalist” texts in Isaiah, Psalms, Paul’s letters and Revelation, which as MacDonald shows, are routinely read by evangelicals through the filter of the “hell texts” of the synoptic gospels. The author argues that we need to read the texts the other way round (filtering the hell texts through the universalist texts) in order to come to a view that does justice to the character and eternal purpose of God.







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An Encouraging Easter

It may just be my personal slice of the web, but overall I've been pleasantly surprised at the rather positive profile that the Christian message seems to have had here in the UK over this Easter week.

A few anecdotal highlights:

• Brighton's Passion performed on Brighton seafront - Brighton's first ever Passion Play - with the aim of it being turned into a feature film later in the year. 

• Public baptisms of around thirty people in the open air outside York Minster on Easter Sunday. 

• Several overt Christian references from public figures on Twitter and elsewhere.

• The Port Talbot Passion Play involved around 1,000 local actors, and was performed over three days to crowds of up to 5,000. Extensive coverage on the BBC  

• Reports of spontaneous baptisms in the Channel Islands. This from Jonathan Letoq :   "Great celebrations as Steph, unplanned, responds to the Gospel & is immediately baptised."

• Finally, and because I like Americans as well, this from John Lanferman in St Louis via his Twitter feed: "Many spontaneous baptisms, that just keep coming. Thrilling... More and more keep coming to be baptized spontaneously. What a great day."

Related articles

• Sheen Passion play reaches finale (bbc.co.uk)

Publishing Projects Update

The second in my series of essys under the working title Understanding the Times: Essays in Christian Engagement has been published today.

Alliteration has taken over for this second essay, titled Prayerfully Pursuing Peaceful Societies in a Post-Democratic Age. 

Comments welcome, as always.

Of course, you'll need to read it first!

The front cover features Benjamin West's Treaty of Penn with the Indians, from 1772.

Christians in Politics: Reflections on the Woodlands Day-Conference

 

Attended most (not all) of a day-conference yesterday in my home city of Bristol on the theme of Christians in Politics, hosted by Woodlands Church.

Described as being "for followers of Jesus passionate about the kingdom of God & longing for justice", the day consisted of workshops, presentations and question-and-answer sessions, followed by a worship celebration in the evening which I did not attend.

For my American Christian readers used to a more conservative paradigm for thinking about politics and Christianity, yesterday's event may have been something of a surprise, with presentations from Andy Flannagan of the Christian Socialist Movement, a representative from the Green Party (only caught his first name, Rob) and the former Parliamentary candidate for Bristol West from the Liberal Democrats, Paul Harrod.  There were also representatives from NGOs, including lobbying and campaign groups. If there was a representative from the Conservative Party taking part, I wasn't aware of their presence, though there was literature from the Conservative Christian Fellowship available.

Of the smaller workshops, I opted for "Westminster or Bust?", subtitled "finding your political vocation". Chaired by Gareth Davis of CARE, who struck me as bearing a striking similarity visually and stylistically to New Frontiers leader David Stroud, the workshop was a whistle-stop tour of practical ways to get involved in politics. Preceded by a helpful and succinct "why get involved" presentation, Gareth's ten ways of engaging ranged from meeting your MP/local councilor, to joining a political party, from becoming a school governor to working for a think tank or as a civil servant. 

As an aside, Gareth Davis's presentation was based on the Prezi software, the ability to move in and out of images on-screen proving a welcome change to PowerPoint.

In the main presentation that proceeded the breakout sessions, we were introduced to a range of political activists. One of them, Les I think his name was, took the opportunity to critique the Woodlands Church motto, "Reproducing the Life of Jesus" as meaningless, arguing that Jesus' life was unique and unreproducible. Les further informed us that he "didn't know what he believed" about faith and politics. Perhaps predictably, Les was to chair the workshop on "Throw Over the Tables and Whip Them", the Christian case for direct action. All very post-church/Greenbelt, I smugly thought to myself. 

A couple of final thoughts that left me something to reflect on as a result of the day. 

1) There appeared to be a genuine respect across the party divides for  believers who were seeking to engage politically, despite their differences of approach and a recognition that such differences are usually of strategy rather than objective. 

2) Affecting meaningful political change is a very long-term project. Those most involved in the nitty-gritty of campaigning and lobbying spoke several times about how it  takes decades in order to have an effect on public policy. Today's mainstream policies (third world debt reduction, for instance) arose from campaigns launched in the 1980s. 

2) Another aspect to this long term approach is to not despise idealism in politics. Andy Flanagan commented: "Today's idealism is what everyone agrees with in ten years time."

Of the organisations, and other individuals represented at the day (attended by about 80-100 adults)  I noted SUSA, whose website seems to contain a lot of non-partisan useful resources, including a "What kind of political animal are you?" questionnaire.

Overall, an interesting day. More practical than theoretical, but none the worse for that approach, in my opinion.

My own introduction to the topic of Christians in politics is found here.

Publishing Projects

 

I have started 2011 with the intention of creating a number of self-published written works, to supplement this blog and others that I maintain.

My two main publishing projects for this year are:

1. A series of essays under the working title of Understanding the Times: Essays in Christian Engagement

2. A book examining the radical Christian history of Bristol, my home town.

The essays will  be published once a month on the You Publish site and will be available to download as PDF documents.

In fact, the first essay, setting the scene and introducing the theme, has been uploaded already and can be read here.

Comments welcome, as always. 

The image is Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch, and forms the front cover of the first essay.

A Pilgrim's Progress: A Few Thoughts on Sunday's Gathering

A Pilgrim's Progress: A Few Thoughts on Sunday's Gathering

Anyone want to do some of this?

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Governments: A Lightening Survey of the New Testament Perspective

Image via WikipediaI noted, in a previous post, that the texts usually cited as teaching Christians to obey and respect the state governments (Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2) needed to read in the context of a broader New Testament perspective on governments, which is overwhelmingly negative.

A quick overview of this "negative" material, by way of a follow on, seemed appropriate. No doubt many more examples could be cited than these:

• Herod is portrayed in the gospels as brutal, power-hungry and murderous - most notoriously in the slaying of the innocents
• A later Herod is sexually immoral and has John the Baptist executed at a whim
• Pilate is a schemer, responsible for the execution of the Son of God
• The Sanhedrin are blind guides, oppressors of widows and inwardly corrupt
• Roman provincial authorities imprison the apostles repeatedly and collaborate in the execution of the apostle James
• Roman and Jewish authorities conspire to imprison the apostle Paul and hold him without trial for over two years
• Paul and Barnabas are arrested and imprisoned in Phillipi on trumped up charges
• John's Revelation portrays the Roman Empire as a lustful, bloody monster, guilty of the slaying of multitudes of saints

Christians and Wikileaks

Reaction to the Wikileaks phenomenon among Christians has been mixed, but in my observation this week, it has gravitated towards being concerned or annoyed, with a minority being outraged. A short piece by Julie Clawson on the Sojourner's website has been the only article I have read so far from a Christian perspective that sees the publishing of the leaks as a qualified good.

In reflecting on the more general view among Christians whose comments I have read this week, which express concern or hostility, I have noted a number of theological and political assumptions which are influencing interpretations of the Wikileaks project. In addition, as we shall see, there are more personal concerns being raised about the nature of security and privacy in the Internet age.

1. A high view of government. The "key texts" of Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 appear to represent a grid through which a deferential perspective on the role of political rulers is formed and expressed.
2. A concern about process. I have heard some say that while they see it as helpful for the public to know the facts about how its government has been operating, they are nervous about the manner in which Wikileaks have gone about disclosing the inner workings of the state.
   
3. A concern about lawlessness. The commencement of Denial of Service attacks against businesses which have withdrawn support from Wikileaks (including Amazon, Mastercard, Visa and PayPal) has, in my reading, raised the hackles of those who might otherwise be more sympathetic to the Wikileaks agenda. One church leader in the United States, for instance, has questioned whether these DOD attacks represent a "spirit of lawlessness" as described in 2 Thessalonians 2.
   
4. A concern for privacy - both at the institutional and individual level. It has been interesting to hear some express concern that the leaking of the State Department's internal memos could be a step in the direction of everyone's private thoughts and correspondence being broadcast online. Interestingly, I have not come across this particular Orwellian concern being expressed by anyone other than Christian writers in the last week.

What can we deduce from the above points, and are there alternative or complementary considerations that are worth taking into account when assessing the Wikileaks phenomenon? A few broad themes present themselves:

1. Romans 12 and 1 Peter 2 could be read against the backdrop of a New Testament that paints a rather more negative view of government than might be suggested if those two passages are taken in isolation. We see in the writing of the apostles rulers portrayed as routinely corrupt, immoral and bloodthirsty (think Herod), described as enemies of the gospel (emperors and their subordinates) and as members of an immoral world system that is under God's judgment, represented variously as a drunken prostitute and a many-headed monster.
2. We ought to think carefully about "why" it is that many believers appear to be more troubled by the process of the leaks than they are by some of the facts they reveal. In particular, the large (and previously unreported) number of civilians who have lost their lives as a direct result of the American and British invasion of Iraq ought, surely, to be of greater concern than any loss of prestige caused to the governments that have contributed to these loses. If this is not the case, we must ask ourselves some fundamental questions about our faith and the moral priorities that arise from it.
3. We should be careful not to equate lawlessness with disturbing the status quo. Blind obedience to rulers is not a virtue, Christian or otherwise, and all moral people will have some actions which they will not commit, even if required to do so by the State. Furthermore, we should be careful to not miss the fact that the leaks reveal spectacular acts of lawlessness on the part of those in government. Illegal phone tapping of citizens, and orders to obtain biometric data from UN diplomats, are revealed as just two of the most obvious examples of lawless activity that elected leaders stand accused of by their own official documents.
   
4. We should be careful to be historically consistent when analyzing such a phenomenon as Wikileaks. It is ironic, to say the least, to hear residents of a nation birthed in an act of armed rebellion (the United Sates) denying the right of citizens to take modest action to assert their freedoms and challenge the perceived injustices of militarized and increasingly dominant governments.
5. Concerns about individual privacy are important and valid concerns. However, the reality is that the greatest threats to our right to a private life come not from reporters such as Julian Assange, but from corporations and governments who have the power and the motive to pry, spy and intrude in ways unimaginable a generation ago. Against such a backdrop, the need for a free press (defined as one that says things some people don't want to have said) remains of paramount importance as a restraint against tyranny.
   

Theology Serves the Church

Interviews in Politics and Theology: Oliver O’Donovan

Best article on political theology I have read in ages.

In-depth interview with Oliver O’Donovan.

Very quotable:

"The “average American in the pew” seems not uncommonly to be told (or so it appears to us as we listen in across the Atlantic Ocean) that she or he has much larger political responsibilities than this: to make the Gospel heard in public life, to bring in the Kingdom of God and to make a better world, and so on. Some of these tasks are indeed tasks of the Church, which all Christians share, but not distinctively political. Some are political, but not tasks of the Church so much as promises of the work of the Spirit of God, for which we must pray and wait – while fulfilling our mission and doing the work that comes to our hand – humbly and without pompous pretensions. We cannot be too alert to the fact that the realm of politics is inhabited by principalities and powers that would command our worship in place of Christ."

"The path of political action is always a narrow one, always liable in a moment to be cut off by human stupidity and cruelty, always to be received afresh, and on new terms, from God."

“The notion that political deliberation is basically about the rival claims of competing parties is one which the church must do everything it can to challenge”

“To serve at all one must be able to assess how one may be of service; one must know the difference between true service and mere acquiescence.”