come to us v. go

Emerging Churches (Gibbs and Bolger);

... missio Dei changes the functional direction of church. In emerging churches, for example, the direction of church changed from a centripetal (flowing in) to a centrifugal (flowing out) dynamic. This in turn led to a shift in emphasis from attracting crowds to equipping, dispersing, and multiplying Christ followers as a central function of the church. Andrew Jones states, "Emerging churches should be missional. And by missional, I understand that the emerging church will take shape inside the new culture as a redeeming prophetic influence. The church follows the kingdom, the church happens in their house rather than our house, ... The motion is always centrifugal, flowing outward to bring reconciliation and blessing to where it is needed. We are people flowing in the stream of God's go, participating with God, ..."

Conversely, when Christians focus on a "come structure" for church, they cease to be missional in that they are asking those outside the Christian faith to come into their world instead of serving in the world of those outside ... the kingdom typically lies outside existing religious structures. Christians need to find God "out there."

Overall - a hearty AMEN!!! We absolutely must be a people that are going out. We must ensure that our "focus" isn't inward. However, I would contend that an outward only focus is just as faulty. We need to be about disciple making and disciple making that is inward focussed is wrong. But an outward focus without the purpose of disciple making is flawed. So it is that context and as a needed course correction to the typical practices found in church today, I agree with the quote above. Too many church strategies are about building the program.

Other improvements to the above is that the kingdom lies both inside and outside structures. It's both. And to see the kingdom in both, we need to stop trying to program it. Whether or not a program is inward or outward, if it is our program, we will miss the kingdom. We must present the Gospel in a way that brings the kingdom. The substance of which is natural over programatic. Disciples will flourish in the kingdom and naturally will want to flow out rather than in. Without the kingdom we move towards programs and because of our human nature, we tend to program inward (I think because we believe we can control that better). Some exceptional people program outward - which is better but still, in the end, without the kingdom, both are faulty.

Finally, the above could drop the "emergent" word. The principle is true and not unique to emergent thinking.

Gibbs and Bolger than use an anecdote from Dieter Zander;

Zander uses an expandable rubber band and a ring to compare traditional and missional models of mission. The traditional model works like a rubber band encircling the perimeter. Such Christians look to attract more people, and when they do, they "stuff" them into the middle of the rubber band. As more come, the rubber band stretches. The goal is to get the rubber band to stretch as far as possible. Zander's ring model works much differently. Zander envisions a ring that maybe ten to twenty people can hold around the perimeter. With one hand, they hold on to the ring, and with the other hand, they reach out as far as they can, each holding another ring for yet another to hold on to. Because of the inner ring, they are able to reach out farther than they could without a ring for support. The inner ring is a supportive accountability group, which asks each person if he or she has bee good news (served in the kingdom) that week. The goal is not to bring new people into the small group but to add groups for those who respond to the kingdom. Each new believer joins the contact person's outer ring, which in turn becomes the new believer's inner ring.

Again, an AMEN but with caveats. This isn't a new "missional" concept nor a new "emergent" concept. It is the small group concept. The model works nicely but I would modify it by making the "inner rings" the group leaders rings so that outer rings are only one degree from an inner ring. This is a church built on small groups. To stop at rings alone falls short of what I believe it means to be a church. On the other hand, this is a great way to illustrate how too many churches fall into the rubber band model - or, fool themselves by trying to squeeze rings into the rubber band.

When properly executed, with an eye toward the kingdom, then this is a disciple making community with a missional impact.

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