Emergence Theory and the Spontaneous Expansion of the Church a vision for Church planting in the 21 st Century

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1 Emergence Theory and the Spontaneous Expansion of the Church a vision for Church planting in the 21 st Century Mission to North America s (MNA) Church Planting Vision MNA has a bold vision for church planting: that "God, by His grace and for His own glory, ignite a church planting and vitalization movement that impacts all of North America and changes the heart and face of the PCA." According to MNA, The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is still a long way from that kind of a movement! But we desire to see a church planting and outreach culture emerges in the PCA that grows into a real grassroots, Spirit driven, movement of church planting and outreach. This paper sets out a new paradigm for church planting that may help create such a culture. Spontaneous Expansion of the Church Missionary and Missiologist Roland Allen calls the kind of church planting movement referred to in the MNA church planting vision as the spontaneous expansion of the Church, its unlimited expansion and the spontaneous freedom of expanding life. Many years ago my experience in China taught me that if our object was to establish in that country a church which might spread over the six provinces which then formed the diocese of North China, that object could only be obtained if the first Christians who were converted by our labors understood clearly that they could by themselves, without any further assistance from us, not only convert their neighbors, but establish churches. That meant that the very first groups of converts must be so fully equipped with all spiritual authority that they could multiply themselves without any necessary reference to us: that, though, while we were there, they might regard us as helpful advisers, yet our removal should not at all mutilate the completeness of the church, or deprive it of anything necessary for its unlimited expansion. Only in such a way did it seem to me to be possible for churches to grow rapidly and securely over wide areas. (Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, 1) What I mean by the spontaneous expansion the expansion which follows the unexhorted and unorganized activity of individual members of the Church explaining to others the Gospel which they have found for themselves; I mean the expansion which follows the irresistible attraction of the Christian Church for men who see its ordered life, and are drawn to it by desire to discover the secret of a life which they instinctively desire to share; I mean also the expansion of the Church by the addition of new churches.

2 The concept of spontaneous expansion resembles what Emergence theorists call phase transition. In his book, Emergence: the connected lives of ants, brains, cities and software, Steven Johnson describes a phase transition. Why does a field of wildflowers suddenly bloom in the spring? Why does water turn to ice? Both system undergo phase transitions changing from one defined state to another at a critical juncture in response to changing levels of energy flowing through them. Leave a kettle of water at room temperature in your kitchen, and it will retain its liquid form for weeks. But increase the flow of energy through the kettle by putting it on a hot stove, and within minutes you ll introduce a phase transition in the water, transforming it into a gas. Take a field of tall meadow buttercups accustomed to nightly frost and ten hours of sun, then raise the temperature thirty degrees and add four hours of sunlight. After a month or two, your field will be golden yellow with buttercups. A linear increase in energy can produce a nonlinear change in the system that conducts that energy, a change that would be difficult to predict in advance. (Emergence, 111) The growth of the early church was a kind of spontaneous expansion or phase transition of evangelism, church growth, and church planting. In his book, The Rise of Christianity, Social Historian Rodney Stark traces this growth. He estimates that in 40 AD there were a few (5,000 Christians); by350 AD 34,000,000 (34 million) or 56% of the estimated population of 60 million. What were the underlying principles that unleashed this spontaneous expansion of the Christian church in the early centuries? This paper is an attempt to identify the core principles for the spontaneous expansion of the Church that can be gleaned from the Bible, Roland Allen s writings, and Emergence Theory that could lead the PCA, or movements in the PCA, into a Phase Transition where we see the spontaneous expansion of gospel-centered reformed churches. Principles of Spontaneous Expansion From a human perspective, there are three principles 1 that need to be enculturated by the church planting networks of the PCA and by our churches to foster the spontaneous expansion of evangelism, church growth and church planting that we dream of. 1 These principles do not negate in any way the absolute necessary of Holy Spirit breathed repentance, renewal, reformation, and revival in our churches. I share with Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones (laid out in his book Revival) the assumption that the greatest need for the Church today is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The principles that I have laid out here both (1) would flow out of such a revival and (2) would feed such a revival.

3 Principle #1 = Indigenous leaders The movement from an emphasis on ordained ministers (product) to the identifying, equipping, releasing and coaching of indigenous native leaders (process). Principle #2 = Entrusted with Proclaiming the Gospel (and) The movement from the control of doctrine to the depth proclamation of the gospel. Principle #3 = Creating Missional Communities The movement from our churches facing inward as bounded sets to our churches facing outward as centered sets. We will look at each of these three principles in turn. Principle #1: Indigenous Leaders The movement from an emphasis on ordained ministers (product) to the identifying, forming, releasing and coaching of indigenous native leaders (process). It is a historical fact that in American history the Presbyterian church failed to advance in the 18 th and 19 th centuries at anything close to the rate of church planting advancement of the Baptist and Methodist churches. This was chiefly due to the high value Presbyterians placed on a learned and ordained clergy. While this value spared the Presbyterian church from many missteps and embarrassments, it also ruled out of the ministry by default - an incredible host of unschooled, untrained, but still highly motivated, gifted, and called young men. We preserved our historic Presbyterian values and intellectual culture but we lost the nation. We must not make that same mistake again! Roland Allen points out that the first principle necessary for the spontaneous expansion of the Church is native leadership (indigenous leaders) and native congregations of Christians with full power and authority as local churches. The Apostle Paul was able, by the leading and power of the Holy Spirit, to identify, train, release and coach a whole host of emerging leaders without a well organized seminary system of training. Emerging leaders like Barnabus, Titus, Timothy and Luke served alongside Paul for on-the-job-training, then were entrusted to train others (II Timothy 2:1-2), were given leadership over the congregations and entrusted with the ordination process of entire city churches (Titus in Crete; Timothy in Ephesus). Paul regularly coached them through his letters. Surely, Paul s model of raising up leaders and churches is biblical and one we can learn from. But what does that look like today? Emergence theory can help us at this point. Steven Johnson speaks of the powers of selfassembly of ant colonies and human cities. He shows how ant colonies, human cities, and, by extrapolation, the Church, is in many ways, a self-organizing system. What is

4 meant by this is that there is an inherent power of self-assembly and organization in human communities. As an example of this, he tells how 19 th century Manchester selforganized (without a master plan and deliberate design) into a city that hid its slums, and neighborhoods organized and assembled by class, lifestyle, etc. We see what I am calling powers of self-assembly in the ministry of the apostle Paul, who often came to a city, preached the gospel, connected the new Christians to each other, and left, often after only a week or two in that town. Paul, obviously believed (1) in the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit to create real Christian community. (2) He expected this gospel community to expand in members and Christian maturity, and (3) from this community to emerge elders and deacons that he could return and ordain. Finally, (4) this concrete church community was entrusted with the authority to preach the gospel and plant new churches and raise up and ordain new church leaders. The testimony of the Acts of the Apostles is that this strategy was successful. It worked. This approach to church planting is what I call a systems of emergence approach. A systems of emergence approach is a different paradigm than the current PCA approach to church planting which is almost the inversion of Paul s method. Today we (1) recruit an ordained church planter and (2) send him into the field to plant a church. $300,000 dollars later, and a whole lot of blood, sweat, and tears we may see the results: (3) a church of members that is seldom a re-producing church. The PCA s emphasis on this approach, I believe, has bottlenecked our church planting movement. Rather, what I would encourage us to do is to send an apostolic church planter, or a team of church planters into an area to preach the gospel and create a host of small Christian communities (congregations, house churches, etc.). These communities are systems of emergence. As these emerging congregations grow and form I believe that we will see the powers of self-assembly take root. Leaders will emerge from the community. These indigenous leaders (ruling elders, deacons, pastors) should then be trained, released, and coached by the Church planter/team. Each of these congregations should see itself both as connected to the others but as having the full power and authority to birth new congregations and identify, train, and release new leaders. A systems of emergence paradigm of church planting puts more emphasis on identifying and coaching church leaders than on the ordination of church leaders (more focus on process than product). One factor that necessitates a systems of emergence model is the vital importance today of coaching needed for our emerging church leaders. 2 2 In a discussion I had with Covenant Seminary Professor Zach Eswine he stressed the great need for coaching pastors today. Zach pointed out that young men today come to seminary with a great deal of uncertainty, they don t know themselves. They come to seminary to find out what they are called to do, not because they know what they are called to do; they don t have clear direction, and are asking: am I called to ministry? a vocation in the secular world? Do I have what it takes to be a pastor? They don t know

5 Conclusion: the emphasis today must shift from the product - ordained ministers - to the process of identifying, training, releasing, and coaching emerging leaders. The goal of this training, for many of them, will be ordination. But this must no longer be the focus. Application #1: Start Christian communities/congregations and let the Holy Spirit raise up church leaders. Redeemer Presbyterian s (where I am Sr. pastor) first church plant, the New Deal, was planted in 2005 as an test model for our vision for multi-congregational church planting. I led the launch team that was formed to plant the New Deal (which meets on Sunday nights in Redeemer s facility). Over the last year a ministry team has emerged, supported by the New Deal, that includes one of Redeemer s ruling elders as part-time site-pastor, a part-time chief musician, a part-time administrator, and a pastoral intern. Everyone on this leadership team emerged organically out of the community. The New Deal was planted without a traditional church planter and for less than $70,000. Application #2: create an intentional process of identifying, training, releasing, and coaching emerging church leaders. Every church should have multiple opportunities pathways - for emerging leaders to be identified, trained, released and coached. At Redeemer we provide systems of emergence through (1) our community groups, (2) our one-year long Servant-Leadership Training (a pre-requisite for deacons and elders), (3) John Calvin Preaching Fellowship (a preaching fellowship to raise up lay and ordained preachers, (4) elder and deacon teams, (5) para-church ministries, (6) congregation/church plants, and (6) LAMP. It is important to have multiple pathways or systems for new leaders to emerge from. themselves yet, their gifts, ministry strengths; they don t know how to apply grace specifically the themselves in spiritual warfare; they don t know how to apply the truth of the gospel to their own lives, so they live in condemnation, guilt, shame, because they believe the all or nothing fallacy = i.e. they either have to be perfect or they are failures, they forget that we are a mixed work, that sanctification means that we are God s work in progress. Zach said that these young men today lack relational stamina because many, if not most, come from broken homes. They haven t seen relational stamina in action. For example, a child in a healthy family sees his parents fight, but then reconcile. But in a broken environment people just give up and leave. In the same way the Church is a spiritual family with quirky, angry, hurting people, etc. There is much confrontation and conflict. And because these young men haven t learned to walk through conflict in a healthy way nor have relational stamina they struggle. These young men aren t good at taking criticism, or offering constructive criticism.

6 LAMP (Leadership and Ministry Preparation) will be an incredible asset in raising up indigenous leaders. The mission of LAMP is to equip men and women for effective gospel ministry who are involved in the building of healthy churches that will multiply throughout the un-reached ethnic, multicultural, and post-christian people groups in the urban centers of North America and beyond ( LAMP creates a system of emergence where young men can engage in hands-on-ministry and on-thejob training at the same time they are working towards ordination in the PCA. Application #3: stress the ruling elder as the key ingredient to spontaneous church planting. Ruling elders are more than capable to be the pace-setting point-leaders for healthy church plants than we have assumed. Out of the ranks of our ruling elders we should regularly be seeing men emerge to be pastors of their congregations. Redeemer Presbyterian in Indianapolis, and Redeemer s first church plant, the New Deal, are good examples of this application. Redeemer was driven by the vision of a ruling elder who saw what was happening at Redeemer NY and wanted to reproduce that in Indianapolis. And during the pastoral transitions in Redeemer s history when we were still a mission church, it was quality of our proto-ruling elders that held the church on course. The New Deal was launched without a full-time church planter. To launch the church we hired a part-time Launch Coordinator (Michael Kaufman) and a part-time Chief Musician (Liz Kaufmann). As Sr. Pastor at Redeemer I served as the church planter and preacher for the New Deal. But as that congregation began to form, one of Redeemer s ruling elders, Brad Grammer, rose up as the clear and called site pastor of this congregation. Brad is now currently working ½ time for the New Deal as site pastor. Brad has begun his LAMP coursework. I continue to give encouragement and guidance from a distance. Principle #2: Entrusted with Proclaiming the Gospel (and) The movement from control of doctrine to the depth proclamation of the gospel. At the heart of the PCA are the great doctrines of grace - the glorious doctrines that unleashed the Protestant Reformation and which are articulated in the Westminster Confession of Faith rooted in the Christian Scriptures. We rightly prize and cherish these doctrines and proclaim them as the whole counsel of God. Our high view of reformed doctrine has, unfortunately at times, hindered the spread and advance and proclamation of those same doctrines. Roland Allen, in The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church refers to fear for the doctrine to be one of the barriers to the spontaneous expansion of the Christian faith and church.

7 One of the most serious difficulties in the way of any spontaneous expansion and the establishment of apostolic churches arise from our fear for our doctrine. I once heard a missionary from Africa say that if we allowed our converts to teach as the Muslims allow their converts to teach, the doctrine might spread like wildfire. But, he added, we could not possibly permit that. Such a saying might naturally surprise us. We might have expected that a man who went to Africa to propagate the doctrine would welcome with joy the prospect of its spreading like wildfire around the county. And he would assuredly do so unless he was restrained by some powerful influence. Nor is there any doubt what the restraining influence is. It is fear for the doctrine. He is afraid that the doctrine might be misrepresented by the unguided zeal of native Christians to teach others what they have learned. I do not think the is afraid that his converts would willfully and deliberately misrepresent it: I think that he doubts their knowledge of it, and their ability to express it as he thinks that it ought to be expressed. No one more guarded the purity and truth of the gospel of God, the doctrines of grace, and the whole counsel of God like the Apostle Paul. At the same time, no one was more comfortable with entrusting new churches and emerging leaders with what I am calling the depth proclamation of the gospel of God (see Richard Lovelace s Spiritual Renewal). The PCA has held tightly to the one (guarding the gospel), and forsaken the other (i.e., entrusting emerging leaders with that gospel). I believe that we have failed to entrust emerging church leaders with the depth proclamation of the gospel of God because we have failed to appropriate the incredible personal and ministry resources that the apostle Paul gave to consistent and ongoing coaching (feedback). Emergence Theory: Feedback Feedback is the concept that human bodies and human community exists in an complex interconnected system of communicative feedback and adaptation: Your body is a massively complex homeostatic system, using an intricate network of feedback mechanism to keep itself stable in the midst of dynamically changing situations (Steven Johnson, Emergence, 140). Feedback is not necessarily good; but it is inherent to human society. The feedback loops of urban life created the great bulk of the world s most dazzling and revered neighborhoods but they also have a hand in the self-perpetuating cycles of inner-city misery. (Johnson, 137) Without the open, feedback-heavy connections of street culture (i.e. sidewalks), cities quickly become dangerous and anarchic places.

8 In Emergence theory the behavior of individual agent is less important than the overall system (Johnson, 145) The face-to-face world is populated by countless impromptu polls that take the groups collective pulse. Most of them happen so quickly that we don t even know that we re participating in them, and that there transparency is one reason why they re as powerful as they are. In the face-to-face world, we are all social thermostats: reading the group temperature and adjusting our behavior accordingly. (Johnson, 150) What does Feedback theory mean for Church Planting? It means that we can dare to entrust emerging church leaders with the depth proclamation of the gospel only if we have created an intentional system whereby we can give and receive continual feedback. Feedback in Paul s Missionary and Church Planting Method This is precisely what we see in the threefold missionary and church planting method of the apostle Paul: (1) the depth proclamation of apostolic doctrine, (2) the entrusting this doctrine to emerging leadership teams, (3) continual and ongoing feedback. (1) Paul believed that there was only one apostolic gospel, entrusted originally to the Jerusalem church and the apostles, and then to him, that was not to be compromised in any way (Galatians). This gospel was to be guarded by established church leaders (II Timothy 1:6-14). False teachers were to be warned and combated (I Timothy 1:3-11) so that the glorious gospel of the blessed God would be embodied in the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. (2) Paul entrusted this gospel to emerging leadership teams (II Timothy 2:2). He constantly had an apprentice/leaders at his side (Barnabas, Silas, Luke, Timothy, Titus, Mark). He created a network of ministry teams entrusted with his gospel (Romans 16). (3) Paul continually gave and received feedback to these ministry leaders and teams regarding the gospel of God. He traveled to Jerusalem to make sure his gospel was aligned with the doctrine of the church in Jerusalem and the lead apostles there (Acts 15). He continually taught the gospel in the presence of his apprentice leaders from home to home, in synagogues, in the marketplace, and Christian churches. He continually received reports of the churches he had established, went on missionary journeys to visit them, and wrote letters to confront their false doctrine and confirm there doctrine. I believe that while we have excelled in the PCA at Paul s 1 st method of church planting (depth proclamation of the gospel) we have greatly failed in his 2 nd and 3 rd methods (entrusting emerging leaders with the gospel and the continual and ongoing feedback in their depth proclamation of the gospel). In our desire to control our doctrine we have failed to create ministry teams and networks of ministry teams that share a common theological DNA, and work together to

9 proclaim in depth the gospel of God. We have failed to find ways to coach these emerging leaders in their depth proclamation of the gospel. We have failed to entrust the glorious gospel of God to emerging church leaders and congregations and to give appropriate feedback. In our high concern to control doctrine we have kept our doctrine to ourselves! However, there are a few bright spots in the PCA where we see Paul s method of coaching and feedback are working out powerfully. One of those examples is the Harbor movement led by Rev. Dick Kaufmann in San Diego. Harbor Presbyterian: a model of ongoing feedback The Big Picture of the Harbor movement is to transform San Diego by filling it with gospel-centered churches; more exactly, by filling it with gospel pacesetters. To accomplish this big city vision Harbor has established three coaching/feedback alliances : (1) Harbor Alliance, (2) Metro Alliance, and (3) City-Agencies. The (1) tight Harbor Alliance is made up of the church planters, congregational pastors, and session of the Harbor Church (PCA). The Harbor network of churches sees itself as one City Church with multi-congregations and multi-sites. This team of planters and pastors these 3 core values: (A) Gospel-centered = The Bible is about Jesus; Justification and Sanctification are by grace, etc. (B) Missional = understanding that San Diego is a mission field; to be outward faced; (C) Grace-Renewal = core goal is to develop gospel-pacesetters who are men and women committed to ongoing grace renewal through: Preaching gospel to self regularly, Loving neighbors, Praying their personal/church mission forward. What is so powerful about this model, as I see it, is the close coaching and feedback that the planter/pastors receive and give each other. At one point, they were meeting weekly to talk through their common preaching text. Each month they experience Grace Renewal through their Grace Gatherings which are monthly opportunities for their leaders to (1) get together, (2) share personal stories of outreach and prayer, (3) gospelteaching and (4) prayer time. This monthly meeting allows for the church planters/pastors to be re-aligned in their shared vision, to be encouraged, and coached: that is to receive feedback in their day-to-day ministries. The (2) Metro Alliance is a monthly gathering for area church planters. Not all of them are PCA. They must see the gospel as the only way of salvation and must be Citypositive to be part of this Alliance. They are working out how to formalize this relationship through shared vision and values, projects we do together, potentially a church planting fund. But, again, the point is that they have created a forum for ongoing coaching and church planting feedback. The (3) City-Agencies Alliance. Through partnership with city ministries they hope to develop, incubate, birth, new city ministries; to raise up Christian entrepreneurs out of gospel pacesetters.

10 Snapshot of the Harbor Church Planting Movement Launched in 2001, by Rev. Dick Kaufmann and Doug Swagerty, Harbor has approached creating a movement of church planting by what they are calling a multicongregational Church. As a multi-congregational Church they have one Session deeply committed to the reformed doctrines (Gospel DNA). Within this Church they have 4 Congregations and 6 Sites. Each congregation is led by a site-pastor. The results: The Harbor network of congregations has 1,500 regular attendees, 800 on any given Sunday. Very few other PCA church plants can boast that kind of growth in the span of 6 years; and probably none can boast of the kind of capacity for continual church growth and planting inherent in the Harbor DNA and model. What are the benefits of the One-Church/Multi-Congregational Movement Organization: Harbor s multi-congregational structure forces (organizationally) the pastors, to be in relationship. The fact that they these relationships are intentionally gospel-centered has resulted in deep, authentic relationships between pastors, as well as between their wives. Besides their regular monthly gathering as pastors/church planters they occasionally meet with their wives as well, and the men have 2 retreats per year. Coaching: Harbor s connectionalism allows them to provide lots of coaching, mentoring, etc. Dick and Doug are regularly on the phone with the other pastors. So there is a stress on on-the-job coaching, that most other church planters don t get. Dreaming Big but doing Small. As pastors of a city-church ( Harbor ) they have a big vision that they can get excited about and share; but, at the same time, each pastor gets to do the small, nitty gritty, face-to-face and life-on-life of ministry. They are very hands-on in their small congregations (one-on-one ministry) but get to dream big and have a big, city-wide impact. New Leaders. One of great benefits Harbor has seen in its multi-congregational model is that it raises new and emerging leaders, gets more people involved in hands on ministry, and these are people who are already on board with the vision and values but now have a place to serve. Conclusion: First, even though as Presbyterians we are connectional most of our churches operate as independent. Our pastors hardly see themselves as part of a vast network ( city church ) of church leaders advancing the gospel together in our small congregations. We experience nothing like the power of a network of small congregations functioning together as a city church that would have been the experience of the New Testament Church in Ephesus or Colossae. Very few of our pastors enjoy ongoing relationship and feedback from other pastors along the way of ministry. We need to create better models of entrusting the gospel of God s grace to emerging leaders and then provide ongoing coaching, mentoring, critique = feedback. While ordination remains a central piece of the training of church leaders, it must now be seen as only one part of an ongoing feedback for our pastors.

11 Action #1: Understand that the movement of the gospel is an ideological movement. As a movement of truth, of doctrine, of the most powerful idea (grace, Romans 1:17) that exists in this world. We must do everything we can to proclaim the doctrines of grace through every means possible: literature, web, pamphlets, training materials, web, tv, film, radio, etc. Especially, encourage the depth proclamation of the gospel by our pastors and church leaders through entrusting them with the gospel message to preach and providing ongoing and continual feedback to them. Action #2: Create City Church networks that will connect, equip, encourage, train, and release teams of church leaders for the renewal of our urban centers (like Harbor, San Diego). Another example of such a movement is Building a City Church by Colin Dye, pastor of Kensington Temple, London. While Presbyterians will disagree with his Pentecostal leanings, Dye presents a powerful vision for a City Church that has kingdom power to serve and transform a City. Ultimately, our Presbyteries should serve as vast Regional Churches for church planting mercy and renewal. We should reform our Presbyteries to be regional churches. Ultimately, each Presbytery should see itself as a unified regional church which renews the cities, towns, and country-side of its region through church reformation, personal revival, church planting, mercy ministry, and cultural impact. Action #3: Church plant using ministry teams. Gospel ministry is team ministry. The Apostle Paul is the great example of creating vast networks of shared gospel ministry (Romans 16) and of sending teams out entrusted with the greatest treasure of all: the gospel. The gospel is, in general, safer when entrusted to the feedback relationships of a team over the isolated heart of a solo-church-planter. Principle #3: Creating Missional Communities The movement from our churches facing inward as bounded sets to our churches facing outward as centered sets. Allen states the problem this way: If we are afraid that any widespread spontaneous expansion might endanger our standard of doctrine, we are not less afraid that it might endanger our standard of morals. We fear lest new converts might tolerate a standard which we could not recognize as Christian. (The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, 60) Allen goes on. There are two ways of maintaining a standard of morals. We may keep the ideal presented to us in Christ ever before ourselves and our converts, and seek ourselves, and teach them, to follow it, or we may define a standard and treat that definition as a law which must not be departed

12 from. In the first case we set before our converts an infinite advance, in the second a finite rule. Allen is describing what I see as two competing paradigms of forming Christian morality in our congregations. These two paradigms are described in Darrel Guder s Missional Church as open and bounded sets. Bounded and Centered Sets Bounded and centered sets are two ways that organizations establish identity. Biological cells are examples of bounded set-structures. Their membranes provide structure and shape to the cell. The membranes controls and defines what enters or leaves the cell. Organizations like clubs and societies have initiation rites through which prospective members must move before they can join. People accept the rules of an organization before being allowed into membership. Bounded sets give mechanisms of structure and control to institutions. Generally, such bounded sets are clearly articulated and understood by those within and outside the organization. They act as walls of demarcation establishing boundaries for the group and defining its identity. Congregations and denominations have functioned by providing just such spiritual, social, and cultural boundaries. The operative function of leaders and those at the core is to move people across the boundaries. As the church continues to lose its identity in North America, we witness the erosion of these boundaries. Continuing the bounded-set model now creates significant obstacles for people entering the church, and the erosion of bounded-set identity creates confusion around the nature of belonging. Centered-set organizations do not define membership and identity at the entrance point or boundaries. The centered-set organization invites people to enter on a journey toward a set of values and commitments. In the case of a gospel-community, the direction toward which the people would be invited to move is the gospel s announcement of God s reign that is forming a people as God s new society. In a centered-set, people are constantly being invited to move toward and into the gospel community. This kind of centered-set church is open to all who may want to be on this journey. It has a permeability that is open to others since it seeks to draw others alongside and minister to people at every level on the way. A centered-set invites such people to go on a journey. Missional communities It is clear that the Christian church is both a bounded-set and a centered-set. As a bounded set it has a clearly defined membership, it guards clear boundaries on the sacraments of baptism and the Lord s Supper. At the same time, the Christian church is a centered-set community. It calls people to journey together in alternative way of life to live by the values and virtues of the Kingdom of God, to imitate the life and love of God in Jesus Christ, to walk in the path of Biblical law in all humility and joy. Clearly the church as a missional community is both a bounded and a centered set. The question, however, before us is one of priority. What will define the culture of our churches? How will people first interact with us? As a bounded set? As a centered-set?

13 How comfortable will we be to invite to join us those who do not yet share our convictions on biblical law or who do not yet live the Christian lifestyle? Three realities will shape my answer to this question: (1) The Bible s teaching on the nature of the Christian church, the ekklesia; (2) The kingdom of God s high vision and passion for Holy Spirit infused Christian Holiness ; (3) our post-christian culture. The Bible s teaching on the nature of the Christian church The Bible is our authority in faith and practice. So our paradigm of forming Christian holiness in our congregations must be based on the Bible s clear teaching and principles. What does the Bible teach us in this matter of Christian holiness and the nature of the Christian church, the ekklesia? In short: The Bible teaches that God is Holy and that as the Creator and Redeemer he commands obedience to his holy law. The Bible teaches us that all of us are sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God. The Bible teaches that God so loved the world that he sent his own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to live the perfect life that we should have lived, and die the death that we sinners should have died. And it teaches that when we place our faith in Jesus his holiness and righteousness is imputed to us (justification) and the Holy Spirit that now indwells us begins to change us inside-out (sanctification). Those who embrace this gospel are saints, set apart as God s people for his praise and glory. They are the ekklesia. Throughout the Bible we are taught that the ekklesia, the community of God s people, is a mixed congregation. In ancient Israel, true believers existed in the same community with those who mocked God s word and law (Psalm 74). In the New Testament church, we continue to see the struggles of congregations that have been taught the gospel, but, to one degree or another struggle to live up to that teaching: they are either falling away from the gospel (Galatia), or far away from unity and Christian purity (Corinth) or deceived by false teaching (Colossae). If this is the case of the congregations formed by the very hands of the apostles, how much more should we expect that our congregations would be mixed communities made up of believers, seekers, and even unbelievers; that among our people there would be a wide spectrum of people struggling with different areas of Christian maturity and holiness in their lives. For my part, I have never been a part of a congregation that I could say these people are mature and complete perfected in Christ. Churches that prioritize their existence as centered-sets are best equipped to embrace the reality of the mixed community of the ekklesia and stress the spiritual formation and Christian discipleship of their congregations. Westminster Confession gives us precedent to prioritize the church as a centered-set when it says that the work of the church is to gather & perfect the saints. If we are really meant to be a gathering community, does this only mean that we are to gather saints after they have become Christians; as if people come to Christ apart from the life and witness of Christian community and Christian individuals? Or is it of the very

14 essence of the ministry of the Church to have an attractional, magnetic life by the power of the Holy Spirit, that draws unbelievers and seekers to our community even before they believe in and confess Jesus Christ as LORD? But, if this is the case, and the church is a mixed community that is called to gather the saints, how are we to uphold the righteousness and beauty of Christian holiness? Doesn t prioritizing the church as a centered set over it being a bounded set imply a watering down of Christian holiness? The answer to that question is an emphatic NO! The Kingdom of God s high vision and passion for Christian Holiness The concern that church leaders have in emphasizing the church as a centered-set over being a bounded-set is that there will be a watering down, a compromising, of Christian ethics and morals. But, nothing could be further from the truth. The greater danger for congregations that prioritize their identity as bounded-sets in the formation of Christian holiness is to create doable boundaries that are attainable, and visible. In the past some of these boundaries have been the rejection of culture ( bad movies, music), appropriate Christian attire, an appropriate way of schooling their children (Christian schools, home-schools), abstaining from alcohol, etc; all of these boundaries are attainable and can be visibly demonstrated. Even churches that emphasize Biblical Law, the ten commandments, as their moral boundary often compromise their rigor and holiness of the Law by making these commandments doable by men; they have forgotten that the first use of the law is to show us the greatness of our sin, the impossibility of keeping God s holy law, and, thus, driving us to Christ as our Savior. On the other hand, centered-sets can emphasize the infinite glory and holistic nature of kingdom holiness; they can continue to call their congregations to the glories of Spirit infused holiness, to the pathway of walking in obedience to all of God s commandments, to being shaped by the values of the Kingdom of God. At the same time as they press towards Christian holiness, centered-sets, are, by definition, able to invite and welcome investigators and seekers to join them on this pilgrimage to holiness. Centered-sets are free to acknowledge the deep brokenness of the Christians (in light of the Kingdom s high vision for Christian holiness) in their congregation and, at the same time, to call them, as beloved children of God, to lay off their idols and by the power of the Spirit to be conformed to the image of God. Bounded-sets must pick and choose areas of holiness because by definition their moral boundaries must be attainable for their people. But centered-sets can keep the high vision and holistic nature of the holiness of the Kingdom of God. For example, the law of God calls us to not commit adultery, and to preserve the chastity of ourselves and our neighbors; but it also calls us to an aggressive and intentional spending ourselves for the poor, a crying out for justice for the oppressed, and the rebuilding of the walls of the

15 city. A centered-set is able to much better set forth the biblical holistic vision of Christian holiness that is both personal and communal, that both effects the home and the city. Conclusion: The role of the church is to gather and perfect the saints. As a missional community the church is both a bounded and centered set. Prioritizing the church as a bounded set strangles real growth in holiness because it creates a sub-christian environment where a form of outward holiness is attainable (Wesleyan perfectionism ) and the reality of Christian brokenness is hidden. Prioritizing the church as a centered-set frees the church leader s to emphasize the high vision and holistic values of the spiritual holiness of the Kingdom of God, calling individual Christians and the ekklesia to a lifelong pursuit of holiness. Many of our PCA churches are failing to grow because their culture has been set as a bounded set that few, if any, real sinners are attracted to or can be discovered in. And a church without real brokenness, and the confession of sins, is only a religious community, a community of the pious it is not the community of grace that we find on the pages of the New Testament. No wonder real sinners are not found or attracted to such a community. Our Post-Christian culture It has become a truism to say that the western church now exists in a post-christian, postmodern culture. While the church has always had to live in and adapt to the sociopolitical-historical context it finds itself in, it has never before had to live in and adapt to a post-christian culture. The state churches of western-europe have struggled greatly in this context to maintain a vibrant life and witness. Tim Keller, on an article defines Christendom and the need for missional churches. In the West for nearly 1,000 years, the relationship of (Anglo-European) Christian churches to the broader culture was a relationship known as Christendom. The institutions of society Christianized people, and stigmatized non-christian belief and behavior. Though people were christianized by the culture, they were not regenerated or converted with the Gospel. The Church s job was then to challenge persons into a vital, living relation with Christ. There was great advantages and yet great disadvantages to Christendom. The advantage was that there was a common language for public moral discourse with which society could discuss what was the good. The disadvantage was that Christian morality without gospel-changed hearts often led to cruelty and hypocrisy. Think of how the small town in Christendom treated the unwed mother or the gay person. Also, under Christendom the church often was silent against the abuses of power of the ruling classes over the weak. For these reasons and others, the church in Europe and North America has been losing its privileged place as the arbiter of public morality since at least the mid 19th century. The decline of Christendom has accelerated greatly since the end of WWII.

16 The British missionary Lesslie Newbigin went to India around There he was involved with a church living in mission in a very non- Christian culture. When he returned to England some 30 years later, he discovered that now the Western church too existed in a non-christian society, but it had not adapted to its new situation. Though public institutions and popular culture of Europe and North America no longer Christianized people, the church still ran its ministries assuming that a stream of Christianized, traditional/moral people would simply show up in services. Some churches certainly did evangelism as one ministry among many. But the church in the West had not become completely missional --adapting and reformulating absolutely everything it did in worship, discipleship, community and service--so as to be engaged with the non-christian society around it. It had not developed a missiology of western culture the way it had done so for other non-believing cultures. One of the reasons much of the American evangelical church has not experienced the same precipitous decline as the Protestant churches of Europe and Canada is because in the U.S. there is still a heartland with the remnants of the old Christendom society. there the informal public culture (though not the formal public institutions) still stigmatizes non- Christian beliefs and behavior. There is a fundamental schism in American cultural, political, and economic life. There s the quickergrowing, economically vibrant...morally relativist, urban-oriented, culturally adventuresome, sexually polymorphous, and ethnically diverse nation...and there s the small town, nuclear-family, religiously-oriented, white-centric other America, [with]...its diministhing cultural and economic force...[t]wo nations... Michael Wolff, New York, Feb , p. 19. In conservative regions, it is still possible to see people profess faith and the church grow without becoming missional. Most traditional evangelical churches still can only win people to Christ who are temperamentally traditional and conservative. But, as Wolff notes, this is a shrinking market. And eventually evangelical churches ensconced in the declining, remaining enclaves of Christendom will have to learn to become missional. It if does not do that it will decline or die. While the challenge to become a missional church is great, the Scripture teaches that the church is equipped by the power and presence of the Spirit of the living Christ to outthink, outlive, and out die our post-christian neighbors and so create a compelling and society transforming community the ekklesia of God God s mission to the world. But what does it mean to be missional? How do we impact a post-christian culture? To truly encounter and transform the intellectual, moral, cultural, and spiritual decay of western society the church must (1) reject an old paradigm of Christian interaction with

17 the world (the paradigm of Christendom Christian imperialism must be replaced with Incarnational solidarity), and (2) restore an old paradigm of aggressive evangelism. Incarnational Church: The attractive principle (1) The old paradigm of Christendom must be replaced by the paradigm of incarnational solidarity. In the rest of Tim Keller s article he lists 5 elements of a missional church that will reach and transform today s post-modern culture: (1) Discourse in the vernacular, (2) Enter and re-tell culture s stories with the gospel, (3) Theologically train lay people for public life and vocation, (4) Create Christian community, and (5) Practice Christian unity. To Keller s excellent list I want to define 5 other elements of a missional, Incarnational Church. Not only is the church an inviting community but it is a sent community. First, Participation. At the very heart of the Incarnation is God s willing participation in a common life with sinners, with fallen creation. An incarnational church is one in which Christians live their lives, struggle as singles and families, in full participation with their neighbors; where Christians live in the city, and participe in the neighborhood to which they have been called. Can they say with joy, these are my people, this is my city. We share a common life, we share common struggles, we live and die together? Nowhere is this common and collective life of participation more needed than in the cities of our nation with their unique struggles, joys, glory and brokenness. Second, Collaboration. Christians are called to not only live in the city, and to embrace the neighborhoods to which God has called them to live, but they are to collaborate with the leaders, systems, missions, organizations, and movements of service and renewal of the city. Christians should collaborate with their neighbors in the systems of government, public education, medicine, art, mercy, law, business, science, and recreation. Jesus said that his people were to be salt of the earth. As salt we should be present and permeate the city and culture, not withholding our strength and service from so called secular institutions and organizations. Third, Identification. A third element of the Incarnational church is identification with the weak, the poor, the broken, the sick and oppressed; as well as identification with the rich and powerful and strong. We become all things to all men to reveal the power and truth of the gospel of grace. Our common humanity (every person s dignity as a bearer of the image of God), our common brokenness (every person s status as sinner in the sight of God), and our common redemption (every person is not beyond the healing redemption of Jesus) are the theological and existential foundation for identification. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that we must drink the earthly cup to the dregs. Unless we are crying out as a voice for the oppressed, and sharing a deep solidarity with the suffering and the strong, we are failing to be the incarnate body of Christ.

18 Fourth, Substitution. As Christians we have the privilege of sharing in the sufferings of Christ in this world. The church s ministry of incarnation doesn t stop with Identification. It moves all the way to substitution. As friends to our neighbors and our city, we show our friendship by laying down our lives our times, talents, and treasures no longer belong to us but to our Lord who purchased us, and are to be leveraged for others. Sacrificial love is the strongest apologetic to the reality of God and the truth of the gospel. The final element, and last movement of the Incarnational church is Adoption. From sacrifice we move to embracing life-giving relationships. Hospitality and spiritualphysical adoption must mark the church as we model the embracive hospitality of God. God s spiritual family must welcome the lonely stranger, create nurturing and caring relationships for the outsiders, and bonds of healing and love for the orphans of our society. The Church must be the church: the family of God. Our identity is based in our shared spiritual adoption not our race, gender, socio-economic status, or psychological affinities. As a spiritual family we share in a common meal, the Lord s supper, which is a foretaste of the Feast of the Kingdom of God that is to come. It is the great privilege of the church to invite our friends, family, neighbors, associates, and the strangers and lonely of our city to join our spiritual family in the hospitality of our Heavenly Father. Proclamational Church: The Aggressive Principle It is not enough simply be an Incarnational Church. We must be a Proclamational Church. To truly encounter and transform the intellectual, moral, cultural, and spiritual decay of western society the church must regain an old paradigm of aggressive evangelism. In J.C. Ryle s classic, Christian Leaders of the 18 th Century, he tells a bio-history of the great Christians leaders that turned the world upside down in the 18 th century George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, and Henry Venn. Ryle describes these men: They were not wealthy or highly connected. They had neither money to buy adherents, nor family influence to command attention and respect. They were not put forward by any Church, party, society, or institution. They were simply men whom God stirred and brought out to do his work, without previous concert, scheme or plan. He continues: They did his work in the old apostolic way, by becoming the evangelists of their day. They taught one set of truths. They taught them in the same way, with fire, reality, earnestness, as men fully convinced of what they taught. They taught them in the same spirit, always loving, compassionate, and, like Paul, even weeping, but always bold, unflinching, and not fearing the face of man. And they taught them on the same plan, always acting on the aggressive; not waiting for sinners to come to them, but going after,