As I continue to struggle and learn about leading a new, organic, missional church I have found that revision and change are quite common. This goes against my grain, as I want to have Austin City Life “figured out,” for which I am repenting. The church is not a problem to be solved or a company to be run; it is a community of Spirit-led disciples. The challenge for me is to keep coming back to the Spirit-ledness of my own discipleship and leadership, instead of relying on my well-reasoned plans alone.
Van Gelder’s The Ministry of the Missional Church has been a real help. His book integrates biblical theology of mission with organizational theory. In his chapter on Spirit-led growth and development he surveys the growth and development of the early church in Acts. His observations have been liberating and instructive in helping me follow the Spirit while leading an organic church. They have released me from self-imposed pressure to have the strategic plan nailed down and church ryhthms and structure perfected. Van Gelder notes that Spirit-led growth and development occur:
- In the context of conflict (Acts 6), where widows are neglected and, as a result, deacons are appointed. They did not have deacons figured out; the church responded to the Spirit in the midst of conflict in order to lead the missional church. It is okay to not know everything about everything, to have your entire leadership structure figured out, but look for the needs and meet them with Spirit-led, biblical paradigms.
- In adverse circumstances of Acts 8, the church was disobeying its missionary charge by remaining in Jerusalem. Persecution broke out that scattered Christians into Gentile territory, advancing the mission of the church. I run into adverse circumstances every week that drive me to prayer, but do they drive me into mission?
- From ministry in the margins in Acts 11, Jewish Christians began to learn more about the gospel and mission by sharing the faith with ethnically and culturally different peoples. As a result, the full breadth of mission began to take shape. This is really true in my experience. As I have been spending some time with Burmese refugees, God has been correcting me and my notions of church through this fledgling group of marginal christians and non-christians.
- From intentional strategy in Acts 13-19, where Paul and others sought converts from the culturally and theologically near people in synagogues. Most of us don’t need to hear this; we are too intentional in our strategies, so intentional that we strategize God out of our plans.
- From divine intervention in Acts 16, where God redirected Paul from Asia to Macedonia. In other words, be prepared to change, expect God to redirect, chuck your pride and open your eyes and ears to God’s providence in leading your church.
- From new insights into gospel and culture in Acts 10 & 15. Peter’s major shift on secondary issues like unclean and clean things after encountering Cornelius. See my comments on the marginal (#3). When I asked the Burmese house church leader if we could buy them Bibles (they only had six or so), she said: “Pray that they would be hungry.” This Burmese woman discipled me on the spot from her fresh vantage point of being a resource-dry pastor. She knew that buying Bibles doesn’t make disciples; God makes disciples by giving them a hunger for him.
“It is essential to have a strategy, but it is also essential to be alert to the disruptions and interruptions of the Spirit.”
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June 12, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Jacob Vanhorn
As we’ve discussed, this describes much of the tension that we have been in. Much of my tension comes from the desire to create something and I tend to create systems and strategies, rather than the hard work of creating disciples and then waiting. I also need to lay down the sin in me that I have something to prove to others. Obviously, it is complex. But also so simple.
Thanks for this. I am ordering the book. You have great books.
June 12, 2008 at 2:19 pm
jdodson
Yeah, my sin is in all this too…wanting numerical growth, so wanting to create programs and systems that stimulate it instead of faithfully discipling and leading missionally with constant openness to the Spirit.
Glad the post was helpful. Glad you are in Austin. See you tomorrow night
June 12, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Organic Church Leadership « Simply Missional
[…] morning he posted some great thoughts on leading an organic church, check out the quote below: The church is not a […]
June 12, 2008 at 5:13 pm
toddbumgarner
I love the last quote in the post and want to rip it off. Was it from Van Gelder’s book, and if so, where at? I’d like to get the rest of his context around it.
June 12, 2008 at 5:42 pm
jdodson
Last quote was from Van Gelder and follows on the heels of his discussion regarding the Spirit-led developments of the early church in Acts (p. 159).
June 12, 2008 at 7:14 pm
toddbumgarner
You’re awesome. Thanks.
June 12, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Deacon
Usher: Didn’t Christ stop at 12?
Deacon: Your point?
Usher: Everywhere we go, people are trying to establish numbers, numbers, numbers….
June 13, 2008 at 6:31 pm
weekly roundup 6.7-6.13 « mission:contend
[…] Help on Leading an Organic Church […]
September 23, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Missional Church Refresher « Church Planting Novice
[…] have found is Craig Van Gelder’s The Essence of the Church. Many readers were grateful for my partial review of his book The Ministry of the Missional Church. In The Essence of the Church, Van Gelder explains […]