Week Four Notes

SESSION FOUR :: MISSION COMMUNITIES

ACTS 1:6-8
“When they were together for the last time they asked, "Master, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? Is this the time?"
He told them, "You don't get to know the time. Timing is the Father's business. What you'll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.’"

Philippians 1:9-11
"So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God."

Vendor Church Model


Church as place or event
-“I go to church.” -The place where ‘things happen’ -“Come to us.”-Vendor of religious goods and services-Missions happen ‘over there’.
-Accommodates private religious experience
-Discipleship is optional
-Thinks in terms of market share: Sees other churches as competition


Missional Church Matrix


The Church as a sent people
-“The Church goes...”
-The people who re-present God’s reign
-“We are with you.”
-Kingdom colony, agents, & heralds (see notes from session one)
-We are missionaries wherever we are.
-Gatherings are training for a missional life
-Discipleship is foundational
-Thinks in terms of kingdom: Sees other churches as partners

“ALREADY THERE” COMMUNITIES
There has been much talking lately in Christian circles about community and about our need for Christian community. In this class we have attempted to emphasize that we are a sent community. That is seeing ourselves as called to community for a larger purpose, or has Karl Barth put it “We are called to be community for the sake of the world.” The purpose of Christian community is not only for fellowship—for the sake of the community—but also to be a community that is a vanguard of the rule and reign of God so that world might know God. Our prayer is that this training has been a stimulus to thinking and more importantly acting as missional communities.

To help us act as missional people we want to explore a bit more the idea of community. John Wimber had a teaching in the early days of the Vineyard that was very helpful in thinking about community (He used the word “set”). Wimber said that there are basically three types of community: bounded, fuzzy and centered.The bounded community answers the question who is a part of the community and who is not by some established boundaries. So being a part (member) of a bounded community mean ascribing to certain beliefs and participating in certain practices. Denominations to a certain extent may be bounded sets. We believe certain things about communion, baptism, eschatology etc., and we have certain practices we do not shop on Sunday, we refrain from card playing etc. It is very clear who is a member and who is not.

Second, there is fuzzy community. Here there are not set boundaries. Belief in certain things is not necessary (or only at a minimal level) and certain practices are not required. Membership of this community is based more on social acquaintance. It is difficult to tell who’s in and who’s out. There are simply no clear lines of demarcation.

Third, Wimber said there is the centered community. In a centered community membership is not based on certain lines of demarcation, but neither is membership as vague as the fuzzy community. In a centered set membership is based on a fundamental orientation towards the center. There may be folks who are at a varying distance from the center, but everyone is oriented towards the same direction. Wimber said the Church ought to be a centered community. We ought to be centered on worshipping Christ and participating in His Kingdom mission for the world.

Wimber’s goal was to plant communities that would be centered on Christ and His Kingdom and doing the works of the Kingdom. So a central focus of the gathering times of the Vineyard fellowships that were planted in this movement were times of worship. This is a time when the whole fellowship focuses on Christ. It is a centered community. Everyone is focused toward the center. As a result of Wimber’s teaching about the need to be a centered community a central focus of most Vineyard fellowships today is still this time of worship.

It is fairly easy in our culture to be a part of a centered community on Sundays in our culture on Sundays, but how might we start thinking about being a part of a centered community in the rest of the week?

Perhaps a place to begin is by simply thinking about where we spend our time, and perhaps more importantly with whom we are spending our time. Most likely the reality for most of us is that we spend a significantly larger portion of time with folks outside of our “church” community than we do with those in our “church” community. It is likely that we are part of communities apart from our “church” community. Perhaps we need to start thinking of ourselves as a part also of a larger (and at the same time smaller) centered communities that our outside of our “church” communities.

For example, what if you are a public school teacher and you are a follower of Christ. You belong to a local fellowship that is centered on Christ and His Kingdom. You love this fellowship and serve in various capacities and are regularly part of the Sunday and mid-week worship gatherings. What if you are super-committed (perhaps over committed) so that you are spending 20 hours a week in one way or another in activities related to you local fellowship. Even if you spent twenty hours a week you would still be spending less than half as much time with your local fellowship as you do in your role as a teacher. What might happen if you began to view your time as a teacher as an opportunity to participate in a centered community? You might begin by finding other teachers who have centered their lives on Jesus and his Kingdom. Then you might together begin to view your school as the place where you together are going to live as a missional community.

We believe that instead of making our lives busier, such an agenda will, in many ways, integrate our whole life. In the past, you may have thought, like many of us, of your life in terms of your spiritual life, the private religious part of life, and your real life, or the rest of life. What we are suggesting is that we start seeing all of life as the place where worship, discipleship, service, and witness happen.

What if we started to think of our whole, everyday life—our working, learning, walking, waking life—as the place where we learn to live under the ruling and reigning of God? Instead of bowing to the cultural pressure to conform publicly and keep faith bottled up in private gatherings on a few hours on the weekend, we work to see how we can be the ‘light of the world’ in the public places we already are.

What if we started to think of our weekly gatherings as concentrated, formational gatherings that were focused on preparation for mission? Instead of worship gatherings serving as the weekly ‘shot in the arm’ of religious cheer, they would serve as an orienting center, or training point, for our mission for the sake of the world.


EXERCISE ONE: IDENTIFY YOUR “ALREADY THERE” COMMUNITIES We want to start thinking of ourselves as part of the church wherever we are in the company of other disciples of Jesus. The church is not something you “go to,” it is a body of sent people that you are a part of.

Think of the places where you already have relationships with people. This may be where you work, where you live (i.e., your neighborhood), where you go to school, or wherever you are involved with others in some kind of activity. Can you identify some of Jesus’ disciples in those communities?

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How can you carry out God’s mission in those communities? What are some things you are currently doing in purposeful cooperation with God’s mission? What are some things you think God might be calling you to act on?



Do you currently talk about how you can ‘be the church’ in that already-there community? Do you currently act upon those conversations?



If so, what are some examples? If not, would you consider inviting a few Christians to form cooperative groups for blessing and re-presenting the gospel (with words only where necessary)?



How do you think such groups would change your perspective on those already-there communities?



How do you think such groups would change the environment of those communities?





EXERCISE TWO: DEVELOPING A MISSIONAL TRAINING PLAN
Redemptive communities must be intentional about becoming the kind of people who demonstrate the goodness of life ‘in Christ’. The things we do together should be helping us love God more and love others better. If we just get together for the sake of getting together, we should not expect much formation in Christlikeness to be taking place. We might expect that we could become very adept at ‘hanging out,’ but I don’t believe God’s mission is to teach people how to ‘hang out.’

For that reason, we need to develop practices and patterns of life that engender spiritual formation as communities. This might mean that we will need to radically redefine for ourselves our expectations for gatherings. It might mean we will need to restructure our schedules and involvements in a way that supports, rather than hinders, participation in God’s mission.

With your group, identify three or four steps that you could take together and implement immediately.



What things are you not doing as a community that would be a helpful practice for shaping you into a community of love?


What things are you doing (even some ‘good things’) that might be preventing you from being involved in places and in people’s lives (specifically, among your already-there’ communities) where God’s love is in desperate need?