Blueprint Church
13 Mar 2007
It seems to be the tendancy of the modern world to explore things from a rational point of view. We start with a theory and then try to translate that into practice. When something is not working we theorise about it, and then come up with a great theoretical model and try to put it into action.
We see this I think all to often with church. We experience something about church that isn’t working, so we think, read, talk, discuss, idealise, blog and suggest endlessly what church should be, and give our new dream forms of chuch names, and categorise them, and then get stuck in them ever taking form as a concrete reality.
Having an ideal model for church allows us to talk about the possibilities of church, and conceptualise it. We can propose a new model of church for our situation, we can suggest refoms of church that would address the problems of existing church. But then day to day church remains a hope and reality that seems to fail to materialise in the real world.
It’s almost as if there are two natures of church, the one we long and hope for, and the reality of everyday church. We even have language for that process in church history. There is the ’spiritual’, or ‘heavenly church’, and then the church full of people who may of may not be part of the heavenly church. There are those people in the ‘modern church’, and those really doing church in the ‘new forms’ of church we talk about.
We continue to take our theology and thinking and propose new theories of trinitarian, networked, hubbed, nodal, dispersed, etc church. We continue to take a notion, a metaphor and theorise that church could make use of that model. And so often it still fails to do that at all, and we move onto the next theory. We then get depressed, cynical, and even more pathological definging church as another dream of all the things we don’t want it to be, as much as the things we want it to be. I just want to be part of a ‘real church’ we might cry out in exasperation. When maybe we have been part of very real churches already.
I think it’s why I have been part of and experienced well meaning groups that know and articulate what church should be, yet do very little, whilst some churches that should know better seem to, in their daily life be full of more mission, and community witness to Jesus despite that.
Tagged: Ecclesiology, Emerging-Church, Missional-Church, Theology
28 comments
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Comment by colin
5.23 pm on 13 Mar 2007
Your comment “I justs want to be part of a ‘real church’ we might cry out in exasperation. When maybe we have been part of very real churches already,” suggests something exciting, yet potentially distressing as well: No matter what our current ‘church’ situation, for better or worse, we are nevertheless involved with ‘real church.’ One needs to go no further than each of the letters written to the various churches in the Bible to discover this. Most of these letters were written to combat many aberrant teachings and practises, that we likewise bemoan today. Often we are looking without to find the ideal ‘church’, when all the various pieces and parts of what we ‘dream’ for are already gathered right there before our idealistic eyes.
Comment by Jason
8.36 am on 14 Mar 2007
I’m convinced colin, that there are a few major factors that make us unable to deal/live with the ‘real’ church, and one of them is consumerism, it trains us to mistake authentic/real with a glossy abstraction.
The Early church as you note shows us that reality of real church.
Comment by Tom
6.57 pm on 13 Mar 2007
Jason, I’d love to hear more from you about the “two-naturedness” of church. My experience has always been that there is a nearly impassable chasm between the church of my dreams and the church that actually exists, and of which I am called to be a part.
Comment by Jason
8.38 am on 14 Mar 2007
Hi tom, it’s a big part of my research, I’ll try to get more into a future post. It’s really been a feature and continuing practice of the modern and post-modern church to deal with abstractions of church, and then mistake those as the reality, rather than the day to day reality and mess of church life, I think, at least its part of what I am exploring.
Comment by Tom
7.12 pm on 13 Mar 2007
Colin, the last sentence of your comment really resonates with me. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked “without” to find the ideal church only to miss what God had created right in front of me. Thanks for that word.
Comment by Paul
8.05 pm on 13 Mar 2007
It reminds me of that ol saying – ‘there’s no such thing as the perfect church, and even if there was they wouldn’t want someone as imperfect as me’, lol.
One of the best sermons i ever heard on this was deconstruction of Acts, not as the book of harmonious uber loving wonderful christians who were near perfect and we’ve slowly lost it since [you know, the perfect church exists in nostalgia, along with prices being cheaper etc] but with all the tensions, complaints, grumbles, fears, confusion, theological arguements etc.
Apart from looking back the other danger would seem to be Luke syndrome as Yoda says of him…
“Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless.â€
In other words the perfect church has not yet come, therefore we stare into the future – and as you say Jase we refine, dream, think of new metaphors and structures – living always for the church of the future rather than trying to be the church in the now.
My Q is then how do we live in a present that is both informed by the past and is inspired by God’s dreams/hopes for the future. Is it because those hopes/dreams are forming and happening now? Is it because we are hear because of a long chain of faithful witnesses – we might not like the theology of our parents or grandparents generation but we are here now in this present in a way that embodies their faithfulness and their dreaming – how no spoon is that – we are the past’s future dreams, the present reality and the future’s past faithful witnesses.
The more I think of these things the more i find the notion of a deep church attractive – one that is not seeking to be a perfect church or even a winning church but one that is serving church in the now – or perhaps that’s just me getting all nostalgic or is that dreamy?
Comment by Jason
8.39 am on 14 Mar 2007
That’s the million dollar question Paul, finding a way that lets us be honest about the failings of church, without drifting into endless pathological wishes for church. Being prophetic and practical in ecclesiology, I think we have almost no idea how to do and be that.
Comment by Paul
9.48 am on 14 Mar 2007
do you think Jase it is a corporate and individual practice of honesty – for example i can sit and say i wish i was more in touch with my emotions and then do nothing to practically engage with that or allow people to engage with me, be open to their challenge to do rather than just to wish? How do we practice a life that is open to challenge, change as part of self reflection and group reflection? Or is that a 2 million dollar Q?
Comment by Jason
10.40 am on 14 Mar 2007
I wonder sometimes that we can go to a therapist about our emotions, read books about emotions, and think we have done something concrete by doing that but are still unable to practice new ways of dealing with emotions with others.
I think it’s the price of commodification that takes everything and abstracts it from it context into something we consume, and the consumption becomes the reality, not the context that the issues arose from.
How we see change and concrete action as part of growing and learning is a challenge we are going to have to meet, or face the re-consuming of our best wishes for church.
Comment by Paul
10.58 am on 14 Mar 2007
yes that can be a helpful process but the danger seems to be that we can better at being more clinical and precise in the diagnosis [i guess you would say we become emotional pathologists]but that doesn’t mean we are getting healthier…
should our realisaton/reality be for church i wonder be one where as Mr Dickens said, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times..? That we have to have the crap to have the good stuff as well..?
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Comment by Caroline
9.13 pm on 13 Mar 2007
I’m not sure about this blueprint..
Can I mention a post on my own blog where I talk about improving things rather than solving things (Just a little more than I can handle). I always feel somewhere between cheeky and self-important when I do that, sorry.
But so often, when I’m working with managers, I find that they are paralysed by some idealised solution or correct way of doing. It sets them free when I say what can you do better, an improvement is, after all, an improvement! Of course, as my post points out, sometimes I’m not so good at following my own good advice :-) sigh!
Comment by Paul
12.46 am on 14 Mar 2007
and therefore you leave yourself open to improvement ;)
it’s a good point caroline, critical evaluation and a desire to learn and do things better strikes me as good idea, esp if we follow thru and learn/grow/change.
Comment by Jason
8.43 am on 14 Mar 2007
Hi Caroline,
I love the notion of being ‘half baked’ that I have heard you talk about, it has stuck with me since hearing it. Of moving forward incomplete, in a non idealised, fashion.
Reminds me of the notion or ‘Pilgrim’, a pilgrim church, learning along the way together, practice promptin reflection and feeding back into action, instead of blue print paralysis.
Comment by Caroline
3.52 pm on 14 Mar 2007
I am a Pilgrim heart, I am a Pilgrim heart
a stranger in this place called home
an alien in a foreign land
a stranger to what this world calls success
the silver gold and all the fame
a stranger to what this world would call love
the passing moment of a kiss
and yet I feel so strangely at home here
the comfort, ease I call my own
and if you looked to closely, could you see
a difference in my life oh Lord
I need a Pilgrim Heart, I need a Pilgrim Heart
to leave behind what ties me down
to walk with you to your throne, Lord
Could agree more with what you say about being a Pilgrim. Strategy is the worlds foolish idea that we can work out where we’re going. Pilgrimage is the the Christian’s submission to wander at God’s leading.
(the wonderful thing being, that since we have all eternity to wander with God, we can afford a few diversions! :-)
Comment by dan brown
3.43 am on 14 Mar 2007
I think it is next to impossible to reconcile the ideal with the real. The challenge that I see in our church is that most of the leadership is reluctant to set goals, they see that as being to much like the business world. They want to separate ministry from tasks and generally procrastinate on coming up with a plan of action to make improvements. If you don’t aim for something you are not going to attain much of anything. It is more difficult to set goals in ministry but not impossible. This whole process is kind of like playing a game (golf for example) you learn the rules, plan strategies, develope skills, practice but, ultimately you have to respond and play. It is the same with God and the church.
Comment by Paul
9.52 am on 14 Mar 2007
that is thoughtful stuff Dan. maybe Dan we need to accept that the real is the ideal, that we can be no more ideal than we are now? Maybe we have an ideal of linear growth when it is much more like the growth of a tree trunk spirals? Maybe it’s about practicing imagination and letting that be informed by God’s imagination, where we can plan and prepare but we are trying to do so in the particular ways he has intrigued and inspired us rather than some sort of generic process?
Comment by dan brown
3.21 pm on 14 Mar 2007
Hi Paul, A friend of mine says that usually the difference between the real and ideal in inter-personal relations is shame and/or guilt. The difference between shame and guilt is what needs to be differentiated in our doctrine of attonement (what did Jesus really fix)? We have done a pretty good job forensically of establishing what Jesus has done for our guilt but, we have a long way to go on helping each other deal with our shame and how that effects our self. I think the church would see a lot more growth in the body of believers if our preachers would teach how Jesus heals us of our shame…I do agree that in our moral decisions we need to act in a way that is in concert with our hope for the future. And we have to determine the potential consequences of present actions while remembering the creative act that has already taken place…Peace
Comment by Jason
8.41 am on 14 Mar 2007
It does seem next to impossible, but we have to find a way through, that enable reflection and action, I’m going to try to sketch out some suggestions this year, and hope you’ll mull them over with me.
Comment by Tom
6.50 pm on 14 Mar 2007
Jason, are these going to be observations taken directly out of your experience at Vineyard Sutton? As a pastor/planter/practitioner, I’m hungry for situation-specific suggestions. I’ve been mulling over ecclesiastical theory and ideals for at least a decade, and I think my church has suffered as a result.
Comment by Jason
7.55 pm on 14 Mar 2007
That’s my plan Tom,I’m going to be blogging on aspects relating to this for the next few weeks and will draw on my church context.
Comment by Tom
8.03 pm on 14 Mar 2007
Jason, as always, I look forward to hearing from you on this.
Comment by marc
11.23 am on 14 Mar 2007
Maybe we need to accept that the church can be ‘good’ or ‘very good’ as God says in Genesis but not ideal. There is no one way to do church, no ideal church.
Think of a Canoeist heading down a river, ahead there maybe rapids and calm. We have to think carefully about the direction we are going, sometimes well make mistakes and hit the rocks and other times we’ll relax in the calm until the current takes us up again.
We use the paddle to and fro to correct our course but ultimately the river is taking us forward.
Comment by James Prescott
4.55 pm on 14 Mar 2007
Maybe we need to look at church the way it was orginially intended. A body of many parts, all of which have their role to play in the life of that church. Church is the life of the community of Christians that we live inside and we play an active role in that. We are all ‘the church’ and ‘church leaders’ in that sense. The real essence of church is not committees, not legalism or docterine – although that can define the direction of the church – but the life, activities and witness of the Christians living and worshipping and hopefully participating, playing their role in the life of the church and in serving it. This is handicapped by people who sit on their bums and consume church, who go to see their friends, enjoy the service and the things the church offers and then go home and forget about it. God calls us all to serve, we all have roles to play in one way or another. If we’re all doing our job and putting God first and have good teaching and a good support network backing it up, through house groups, prayer groups etc then we have a church which is alive, in touch with God and doing its job. You hit the nail on the head last sunday with your talk about consumer society and consumer church. It really rang true with me and frankly I’m sick of consumer Christians and with being an occasional consumer Christian. The Lord wants us to be consumed by Him, not be consumers of Him. Our lives should be all about Jesus and as you’ve said Jason be willing to change our diaries and fit them around God, not the other way round. Then we can start to ‘do’ church properly.
Comment by Helen
8.03 pm on 14 Mar 2007
So…I take it, this is one of those instances where it’s not the thought that counts?
Comment by James Prescott
11.02 am on 16 Mar 2007
Aren’t thoughts useless without action? So many people have great ideas. I hear people say things like “Why don’t we do this?”, “This would be a great thing for church to do” and then they expect the leadership team/pastor of the church to do it all for them, instead of doing themselves. We just need to lose our fear and step out and take action, rather than waiting for someone else to do it. I once heard Brother Andrew say that one of the reasons he still does what he does is that maybe God asked someone else, but he or she refused or ignored the call. If we think something should be done, we should step out in faith and do it. If it fails, then at least we know we tried and God will at some stage honour that step of faith. Don’t be afraid to fail.
Comment by Bryan Riley
5.19 pm on 17 Mar 2007
I think we often think and even act but it is too often done rationally and based on human wisdom rather than taking the steps of faith God calls us to. We don’t lay our lives down and sacrifice everything for the sake of the call as the Word, Jesus, showed us to do. Until we do we will always be limited to our human ability.
Comment by Natalia
1.12 am on 19 Mar 2007
I understand that there is no such thing as the “perfect church” here on earth but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t divide over certain issues. Like 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 it says: “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world,or the greedy and swindlers,or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler – not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? It is not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you.” To read about false teachers I suggest the book of Jude. Which is also a reason to divide over. I also noticed on some of the comments a negative outlook on theology. Theology is the study of God and its awesome! Doxology is praise from what you learned from Theology (see Ephesians). It gets you closer to God which makes you happy and glorifies Him (”God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him”John Piper).Then obidence comes out of your joy for Him and not of your flesh. So you see how important Theology is now and its not just something for old people, I’m a 23yr old wife and mother. Hardley conventional for me to know this but God is so gracious to His children!!! Anyways I’d better go I’ll be praying for ya’ll! Love your sister in Christ,
Natalia
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