Marc's Messages 3.0

Reconnecting with Jasper

Had an interesting meeting with Jasper van der Kolk, who coaches people in creativity and innovation, and also pioneers a form of emerging church in Amsterdam. He just came back from Legoland, to learn the ins and outs of a form of strategy development and moderation called LEGO SERIOUS PLAY. But we talked mainly about organic networks. ;-)

Rodney Stark on Early Christianity

Alan Hirsch published a highly interesting interview with Rodney Stark on his weblog. Stark is a sociologist who calls himself an agnostic, but nevertheless wrote the fascinating book 'The Rise of Christianity: How the obscure, marginal Jesus movement became the dominant religious force'. The interview offers many eye-openers, as to how Early Christianity changed the very set-up of society. "What Christianity gave to its converts was nothing less than their humanity," says Stark.

"Among the pagans, no one took care of anyone else except in the tribal way. It’s what we’re seeing today in the Balkans - you take care of your brothers, and you kill everybody else. Christianity told the Greco-Roman world that the definition of 'brother' has got to be a lot broader. There are some things you owe to any living human being."

As I mentioned in my earlier post on Stark, 'The female factor', the Gospel of the Early Church was also highly liberating for women.

Shift! webzine launched

This week I'm launching a new publication in Dutch called Shift! webzine, a weblog and newsletter focused on helping young people and (potential) innovators and pioneers to dream and act out-of-the-box, and start a Jesus-centered grassroots movement of prayer, community, missions and justice. There's a growing momentum in the Netherlands for organic church and reformation, and I believe an information/inspiration hub where Dutch writers contribute can help catalyze that process and create indigenous ownership.

The Forgotten Ways

Lots of emerging and organic traffic between Australia, Europe and America these days. Ozzies Alan and Debra Hirsch are throwing a big farewell party in their hometown Melbourne before lauching out to chase their 'American dream'. Alan won't be off the radar though, as from April through to June we (DAWN Europe) are facilitating an experimental online training with 15 Europeans on Alan's book 'The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church'.

The training includes interative sessions with Alan and fellow church planters in a high-tech virtual 'classroom' on the web. We're running this pilot to find out to what extent this kind of 'education-by-extension' software could help us train and coach church planters in Europe. For a peek into the content of 'The Forgotten Ways', see my earlier posts titled 'The apostolic genius' and 'Quotes from the fringes'.

Why I aim for a reformation

Over the past few weeks I've been interacting with a number of friends and fellow pioneers in the Netherlands about this question: should we take the structural reality of church as it is for granted and (within or out of that context) aim for maximum renewal and innovative missional experiments, or should we aim for a reformation that will shake the foundations of today's church, and re-defines and re-imagines church based on a deeper revelation of Christ and how He intended his Body to function?

Let me start to point out that I believe we need both, and both are valid aims to pursue. I believe it's unfruitful to polarize these two approaches. Innovators and reformers should stand side-by-side when it comes to pulling the church out of her comatic state of unfruitfulness. However, I decided (already a number of years ago) to bless the various expressions of much needed renewal, but aim for a deeper reformation of church. Yesterday, when sharing a meal with Matthijs and Martijn, I drew a picture to visualize the process we are in (click to enlarge).

Over the past few years we've seen quite a number of 'fresh expressions' emerge, that we label 'emerging church', 'missional projects', 'house church' or whatever name we prefer. Partly this was a reaction to traditionalism in the existing church, partly it was a genuine desire for the church to regain a missionary focus, partly it was a realisation that society is changing and therefore the church needs to change. All good and necessary. However, I believe that what we see so far is only the beginnings (the first 20 percent if you like) of a deeper reformation God wants to bring to the church.

Some people get nervous with that idea, because it means that some of the holy cows mentioned in my earlier post may have to die. Others, who are by nature more practically oriented (e.g. planting churches in real-life) look at reformation as highly idealistic, not really reachable, so why bother aiming at it, let's rather start where the opportunities are. As a practically oriented person I understand that hands-on approach, but as a prophet I'm also quite aware that God has a higher standard of maturity and fullness for the church than what the church (even the emerging church) functions in today.

Because of this higher standard I simply cannot aim lower. God wants us to come up to His level of seeing, understanding and acting, instead of expecting Him to descend to our level of 'doing church'. This is where I differ from my emerging comrades - I aim for a reformation (which is basically bridging the gap between where the church is now, and where God wants the church to be), while at the same time working in real-life with real people, real problems and - let's not forget that - a real God. It's quite well possible to be principled in what you aim for (and not lower that standard) and pragmatic in how to go about it (which should not be interpreted as combining the new with the old). Of course it's a tension, but it's a healthy tension, a tension we need to keep us holy dissatisfied, so that we continue to seek God for an Acts-type movement in our time.

Now practically, it looks like two initiatives are developing in the Netherlands. My friend Matthijs is forming a network for emerging/missional church planters, and I'm starting a webzine for reformation and innovation that pushes for 'more than meets the eye'. Also a relational 'Shift Network' is forming that connects the emerging reformers.

Emerging reflections

This week I mailed a friend in Germany some reflections on 'emerging church'. Would be interested to receive some feedback: do they make sense?

1. I agree with my emerging friends that we need to culturally contextualize the message of Jesus and the shape of church in an increasingly postmodern society. In this respect many emerging churches pioneer a new, much needed, way forward.

2. However, while emerging churches major on 'the Kingdom in society' aspect, they often miss out on the 'supernatural Kingdom' dimension that was so prevalent in the ministry of Jesus and the apostles: healing, deliverance, and the prophetic. I understand and appreciate 'conversion as a journey', but believe we also need so see more head-on 'God encounters', which implies we need more of the Holy Spirit, or rather: the Holy Spirit needs more of us.

3. It's important to realise that the 'prophetic-apostolic foundations' of church cannot be found in the culture, because they're revelatory in nature. Some aspects in our culture reflect the Kingdom, but there are also many aspects that don't. Therefore I don't believe culture can and should be the main driving force for change (though we should be relevant in our contextualisation, which by the way is not the same as 'being cool'). Rather, the Kingdom message should 'invade' our culture in a subversive way.

4. Most emerging churches that I know are not that easily multiplyable, because often they're a more culturally relevant expression of church-as-we-know-it. An organic structure (small groups, more easily multiplyable) would greatly enhance the cause.