Church Paradigm Shift

Church Paradigm Shift.

A few weeks back I shared a sermon at Church on Paradigm shifts. I used Saul as an example, who went out to persecute the Christians but after an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, completely changed his ways and became known as Paul. Many things changed in Paul’s life, but the key is that there was a Paradigm shift! The set of understandings that he had based his belief system and actions on, changed, resulting in an entirely different way of looking at things!

Many years ago I shared a vision. In it, I was walking through the desert, initially on my own but over time other people joined me – ones and twos, that at first I hadn’t noticed, but were there in the desert, until eventually there was a vast group of people determinedly walking together through the desert. Until now it hasn’t made a lot of sense to me, although I have gained some encouragement through it.

One thing that I have constantly asked and struggled with is the question, “What is Church?” Most readers at this point will be able to give an answer, based on their understanding and experience, which I have come to realise, is exactly my problem. My understanding of Church is, like most of yours, based on the Paradigm that we hold. Even when researching and studying types and forms of Church or the Biblical examples, I have still been operating from this Paradigm. So when it came to changing things in Church, the changes had to fit into this Paradigm, for if they didn’t, what I ended up with, wasn’t Church! To further complicate this issue, I, like most of us, was completely unaware of the Paradigm that I was operating from, and seeing that it formed the foundation of my belief system about Church, was powerless to think outside of it!

The strange thing is, that I thought I was thinking through, and leading the Church differently. An example of this would be the desire to have a mission and presence focused Church. Mission in that the Church is purposely outward looking in what it does and Presence focused in that it seeks and waits on the direction and confirmation, (the presence) of the Holy Spirit. The problem: my basic paradigm understanding is of an attractional model Church. That model says that to be Church, there should be feeding – through the Word of God (Bible study, preaching etc), there should be prayer and definitely corporate worship with some form of fellowship and outreach activities. The typical model Church that we all are accustomed to! To make this Church more Mission and Presence focused is to try to add this to the mix, giving greater priority to these components, while maintaining the basic underlying understanding of what Church is. The problem is that the model looks the same, just tweaked to reflect a slightly different style.

So people are confronted with a range of Churches that fundamentally are built on the same Paradigm, but are diverse in the style they portray. The Attractional model – common to virtually every Church, simple says that people should come to our Church because we are attractive – either because we are friendly, or accepting, or modern, or run great events, or have a charismatic leader, or have great programs, or are Spirit filled, or whatever you want to put in the box! Our outreach programs, diverse as they are, still carry the idea that some people will be led to come to our Church through our endeavors. That is the underlying hope and often is the measure we use for the success or not of the venture, and the justification for the expense involved.   

Before I go any further, I don’t want you to get the idea that I am trying to criticize this model. It has been around since the early Church and I expect it will be around for a lot longer. The point is however, because we are accustomed to this model, it is very difficult to think outside of it, and therefore to offer any type of alternative! Most alternative Churches, start up churches and house Churches etc, still have this idea at their heart. Because this Paradigm exists in the vast majority of Church going people, most of you won’t understand a different paradigm! I was the same! This Paradigm forms the tint on the lens through which we view any new idea or thought. To get a hold of what I want to share, we need to look through a different lens!

This is the realization that I have finally come to, that all this time, as I was desperately seeking to bring about change, I was limited by the underlying understanding I had of Church and therefore unable to see anything fundamentally different, other than some variation on the status quo!

The other day I was listening to a gentleman, outlining an idea for getting alongside of Maori people. As I listened to him and to the comments from others presence, something clicked into place in my thinking. It was like my experiences, the lessons I was learning, even the way I was now approaching things, suddenly made sense!

The gentleman was speaking about journeying together, terminology I have heard many times, even used myself on occasion. The difference was that he was speaking about doing this as an end in itself, not a means to an end. This is the fundamental difference! To journey with people, not in order to get them to come to our Church, or be part of our group or even to get them to commit to our particular doctrine or way of thinking.

This is when the vision that I had so long ago came back into focus. I remember a friend of mine once speaking about Church as a “People movement!” This is the concept, but for it to make sense, the understanding of Church must change. The Journey is Church! End of story! It is not a journey to get people to Church, it is Church complete in itself! I’ll refer to this as the “Journey Church” JC for short. Isn’t it interesting that those initials might also refer to Jesus Christ, and what did he do with his disciples but literally journey with them!

So what might this look like? A group of people sharing their lives with one another, with a special emphasis on what God is doing/not doing, in, through and around them.

Anything else would come out of that simple idea.

How is this any different from a fellowship group or some other group you may ask? First, a fellowship group is part of Church – not Church in itself. Most groups have an emphasis on some aspect of the Christian faith – Prayer, Bible study, worship, fellowship, outreach etc. They often carry an underlying belief that people must be “fed” so some verse or truth is shared by a leader.

Journeying is about each person sharing and reflecting on what the Spirit of God is saying to them individually and as a group. It doesn’t carry at its heart a need to “feed” people, rather the idea that the Holy Spirit is at work in each person, and each has something to add, with the group helping the individual discover God’s will and presence in their lives.

There is essentially nothing new in this concept. The Brethren Assemblies worked and in most part still work off this premise. The concept (widely accepted today) of the priesthood of all believers is rooted in this ideology. So if it has previously been so fundamental to our understanding of Church, why is it no longer practiced? I need to write another complete article to answer that fully, but it short, the answer is simply because it doesn’t fit neatly into an organized, structured Church. Think on Church as we know it. It probably has at least one paid staff member, many volunteer staff, a building, many ministries and programs to support. It is structured in a certain way and the people that attend are fairly happy with that structure – woe betide anyone who tries to change it! It’s success can be measured in three broad categories. Firstly it is measured by the numbers attending the Church’s programs and services. Secondly it is measured in monetary values – is it paying its way? Thirdly it is measured by peoples progression, from outside the Church to belonging to the Church, then to its programs and possibly to leading a program. The Journeying Church isn’t easily measured! It won’t fit neatly into a denomination’s statistics, because it can and should cater for people from a multitude of theological backgrounds. Unless a particular group choose to support a person for a specific function, there won’t be any employed staff, and the very nature of a group that can share, listen and walk together will limit it’s size to an amount that can be accommodated in a home, so there is no need for a building.

This model isn’t without problems and creates as many questions as it answers. Where does worship fit in? What stops each group from going astray? What about tithing or ministry unction’s?  How does evangelism and discipleship fit in?

I have written these questions, not to suggest that they are without answers, but to suggest that the answers can only be arrived at, when we make the Paradigm shift, otherwise we again are looking at these things through a different lens.

The better question at this stage is what is required for this model to work?

Commitment! Commitment to live out your life with Christ at the center, by seeking after Him, By being open and honest about what is and isn’t happening, By regularly attending and contributing to the Journey Church.

Everything else comes out of those three fundamentals.

One last word. The Journey Church must remain Christ centered! The temptation will always be to have it revolve around my issues, wants, needs or desires. Without a purposeful focus on being Christ centered, it will quickly turn from a Church into a support group. As a Church it can certainly offer support, but it needs to be within the context of what Christ is saying and doing in the midst.

So please feel free to comment or post questions. There is a lot more that could be said but hopefully I have said enough to make you think!   Blessings Greg.

R.I.P. Prince

My inspiration for "The Cat" has sadly passed away! Prince, the terror of all things furry in the neighborhood, finally met his match on Monday night. There was a cat-fight on our front lawn, but normally that indicates that some moggy has somehow strayed onto Prince's patch and is getting a bit of  a pummeling before making its escape. Yelling at them sometimes arrests Prince's attention for a moment, allowing the other cat to flee. Sadly there appears to be a new top cat in the district and I found Prince lying on a patch of scratched up lawn surrounded by clumps of fur (not his), having passed on to where cats go. "They who live by the claw, die by the claw!" Rest in Peace, Prince!

The Cat - Applied!

If you read "The cat", then this post might make sense to you, if you haven't then go and read that post first before reading this one. I want to use something contained in that story to illustrate a struggle that some people have. In the story the cat was supposed to be inside e cardboard box while I drove the car, but instead it determined that a cardboard box wasn't a fit place for an animal of such distinction, so it made an all out effort to escape.This left me as the driver with a dilemma - do I concentrate on driving and leave the cat to it, or do I let the cat out, not knowing what the consequences of that action will bring forth. My initial response was to attempt to do both. The outcome of that was that I couldn't pay the attention to driving that was needed - fortunately it was a easy drive with no incidents demanding my concentration; and I ended up getting scratched on my hand and arm by the cat determined not to be contained. In other words, both outcomes were poor! The more energy that I put into one, the less that I could put into the other, so eventually something had to give!
Before I continue, lets see the parallel between this story and some peoples lives. The car journey represents the journey of life - negotiating our way along through each day. Some days take a lot of concentration, some are easily negotiated, but all require a degree of attention to what is happening around us. Sometimes it takes all our energy and concentration just to get through the day - those trying and stressful days we all encounter from time to time.
The cat represents a "truth". In the story the cat was ill and needed the Vet's attention. That was the truth, even the cat knew he was ill, but he didn't click to the fact that the journey to the Vet was going to get him better - all he wanted to do was escape! That is the nature of truth - it wants to get out! The more it is bottled up inside us, the more it fights to be released! This truth can be in regard to anything - it might be about some addiction or habit that we are trying to keep hidden, or it might be about past events that we don't want to face, or about the way we perceive ourselves or the way we think others perceive us. Basically it can represent anything that we don't want to face up to or deal with!
These "truths" don't go away just because we try to ignore them, rather they keep making themselves know, as we keep coming across things that point to, or remind us of their existence. The harder we try to contain them, the more they seem to wound us, in their fight to escape. The other thing that happens is that they require energy to keep them hidden. That energy demand, takes away from the energy that we can put into negotiating our daily lives, causing us to be less able to cope! The consequences of this vary from getting irritable at anyone that somehow reminds us of this truth, to feeling stressed, maybe angry or emotional, to having a complete breakdown as we find the battle between living and containing this truth becomes overpowering.
The reason that we don't want the truth to come out is simply because we are afraid of the consequences. What will happen, how will that affect us and what will others think? It also means admitting that I have a problem, and I might need to change some parts (or all ), of my lifestyle. Often that means things that I enjoy, but are harmful, have to be given up and if I don't want to give them up, I will fight vehemently against having the truth come out!
Sadly, in order to ease the pain of those truth caused scratches, people find ways to escape! Something that for a fleeting moment or two makes them feel good! I say. "sadly" because often these escapes become other buried habits (truths), that we don't want to face, so when they are not there to give us a temporary reprieve from the hurt, they are adding to the energy drain and compounding the problem. The more energy that is put into holding these truths in, the less energy we have for daily living.
Is there an answer? Yes, but it is easy to write and difficult to do if this represents your life. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free!" The answer involves facing the truth, not just having someone outline something to you, but actually owning it - letting it out and facing the consequences! The interesting thing is, often the consequences aren't anything like what we feared - but even if they require some radical changes, to finally have the energy to live life and be free from the overwhelming battle to keep things hidden, more than outweighs this!
When the cat was finally let out of the box he did go berserk for a bit and yes I did discover a new problem as he shed his fur everywhere - I'm not saying it will all suddenly come right - but I could concentrate on driving the car, and work through the other problems without worrying about having an accident! Oh the relief!   Food for thought!  Greg.

The cat!

A while ago our cat got sick, some sort of respiratory thing that caused him to breath rather raspingly and just lie under a shady bush like he was about to die. Finding him in this condition I rang the Vet and was told that they had an opening almost immediately if I could bring him in there and then! Now Prince is normally not the most docile of Puss's! He has a reputation around the neighborhood for beating up every other cat, and in fact causing the demise of our lovely immediate neighbors cat! He doesn't like being lifted up and has exceedingly sharp claws which he is happy to use to good effect to make his intentions known. So - how do I transport him to the vet? I found a large cardboard box, put some newspaper on the bottom of  it, positioned it in the car on the passenger seat next to me, and gently picked up Prince and deposited him in it, quickly closing the car door and closing all the flaps on the box to keep him in. For some reason my children refused flatly to hold the lid closed  for me while I drove - in fact they refused to travel in the car with Prince! Past experience had almost traumatized them for life! However I had no option so off I started, steering wheel in one hand and the other trying valiantly to hold the flaps on the box closed - if there is ever a next time, I will put it in the boot! Well this listless, sick moggy, instantly gained one if not more, of its nine lives and decided to use it to the full! Head, legs, claws, teeth emerged from the box, and as fast as I pushed the head back in, a paw would pop out and flail around for something to rip to shreds - needless to say trying to drive and contain him, rapidly became impossible, and with blood drippy from hand and arm I surrendered the battle that I was never going to win and let him out! Have you ever been in  a car with  a demented cat determined that there has to be  a way out if he can hit any and all of the glass windows hard enough. This rather large ball of fury sailed around and around inside, bouncing off windshield (rather hard to see where you are going with a lunatic fluffball in in the way), side windows, rear window, seats, ceiling, the only part he avoided was the floor - oh, and the box!  To add to the mayhem He emitted a high pitched whining noise the whole time! I also learn't of another reaction that cats have to stress - it's called shedding! He shedded fur everywhere- not just a bit of fluff - a full snowstorm of the stuff that caused everything to itch and my sinuses to immediately revolt! Just when I thought I would have to stop and abandon the vehicle, he decided that the best spot was to jam himself on top of the dashboard hard against the windscreen next to me and moan at every other vehicle on the road. This also optimized the amount of fur he could shed in the direction of my face, neck and hands- I mention hands because it stuck nicely to the congealing blood so that I now appeared to be an escapee from the planet of the Apes. We continued to the Vet in this manner! Arriving at the Vet, I still had to get him inside. The box was now out of the question, and seeing that I was already covered in fur and blood I figured the only thing to do was to pick him up, cuddle him to me and pray that I survived long enough to get inside. Staying true to his completely contrary nature, he allowed me to resign myself to my fate as I picked him up, then snuggled into my shoulder like the most cuddly cat and lay there like this was his normal behavior. It worked a treat as the receptionist questioned me on what I had been doing to this sweet animal to get it so upset - the poor thing..........! Half an hour visit with the Vet - gets me to hold the cat while he sticks a thermometer up it's rectum, "Just take a good handful of skin on its neck", he says. Fortunately the table was stainless steel and Prince couldn't get any traction, because it would have been curtains for both of us if he could - as it was I couldn't believe how much a cat can contort it's body in order to get a claw or two in human flesh. The Vet gave him  a jab of something - liquid gold judging by the bill, and we lowered Prince into a proper transport cage, then both applied plasters to our various wounds. The surgery only had a light dusting of fur as most it was in the car and after taking out a second mortgage to pay  for the entire exercise - (for that amount, you'd think that there would at least be a robot to hold the cat), we headed home. For the next three days I had to squirt some paste down Prince's throat - funny, but yet again the family left this job to me - well I knew how to hold him by a handful of neck skin - pity we didn't have a stainless steel bench like the Vet -amazing how much purchase a cat can get off lino! Furthermore, the end I was dealing with, had teeth! Prince is now fully recovered; The car, after copious vacuuming over many months is almost free of fur, and my hands mostly healed! The second mortgage to pay the Vet should just about be cleared by the time I retire, and Prince has returned to terrorizing the neighborhood! Anyone want a cat?  Stay healthy Prince!

Exploring our Identity

Churches the world over share similar problems. Probably the most common is the divide between the preferred styles of the older and younger generations.As a general rule, younger people like something exuberant, louder and upbeat, whereas older people are often more conservative and prefer a quieter, familiar, more contemplative type of service. In an ideal world both groups would tolerate one another's preferences and "preferring one another in love" would find some happy medium that all could worship with, but human nature being what it is, that often doesn't happen. The end result is that Churches adopt a style and attract or repel people, depending on their reaction to that style. Maybe a different blog will look at how Churches arrive at their style - an interesting debate in itself! However the main point I want to make today is that the style that you as an individual prefer is more about your own identity than anything else! Through out life we encounter "watershed" moments - times that are life changing or profoundly impacting. These times add to our sense of identity - for example, if we get married, we suddenly become a husband or wife with all that this entails - the extra responsibility and trust in us, changes (or should change ) the way we look at ourselves and others.We take on a new sense of identity. Events that surround that moment are also etched into our memory banks - places and music that remind and represent that event, when revisited, stir the memories. Of course this also works in the negative at times.
When we have an encounter with God, the style of music, preaching etc that accompanied that encounter, when revisited, takes us to the memory - not so much of the actual event, but of the sense of identity that accompanied that event. We need to realize that this sense of identity is a huge thing!  Who are we, how and where do we fit, are questions that every human being wrestles with.
The Christian might say, "I'm a child of God, my sins forgiven, my hope assured in Christ" but at times they struggle with doubts and feelings that contradict that declaration so anything that reinforces and reminds them of it becomes a valuable asset in maintaining their sense of identity. The problem occurs in that the styles of society keep changing. The greatest example of this is in the music realm. Today's music is completely different from that of 50 or more years ago! Yet many in our Churches - people that have given of their finance, time and energy to provide the buildings and assets that we enjoy today, find some of the style and sounds of modern music to almost contradict their sense of identity in God. Likewise new Christians, immersed in our present culture, struggle with music from a bygone area that doesn't relate to them.
I know Christians from all different national backgrounds. Its interesting that while they happily worship and interact in Church with us, when given the opportunity to attend a service in the culture and nationality that they identify with, will very readily accept that invitation. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this, I'm just making the point that we all like to be reminded of, and interact with people that confirm our sense of identity! While there are many factors that contribute to our sense of identity, ultimately the only one that will count is whether we identify with Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord!

Introduction.

I have set this up to share some thoughts and ideas, that might challenge, stimulate or encourage the reader. Most of these won't be fully developed and I am hoping that others will add a comment or further insight to what I write. At the very least, I hope that it will provoke some contemplation! God bless, Greg.