Archives For November 30, 1999

Non-Church Spaces

Charles Kiser —  June 16, 2008 — 12 Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about connecting to people in our broader community for the sake of God’s mission.

In my reflections, one thing has hit home again and again: the importance of entering into and living within “non-church” spaces.

A common instinct for ministers and churches when seeking to connect to the community is to host some sort of community event and invite community people to it—a marriage seminar; a financial management class; a kids’ camp. Most of the time such events are hosted at church facilities. Sometimes they’re hosted at neutral locations in the community.

The location is less important than who is hosting the event—the church. The event becomes inherently “church space” because the church is hosting it.

What’s the problem with that? There’s no inherent problem with the church hosting events that connect to the community. But there is a potential problem given that more and more non-Christian people distrust, or are at least ambivalent toward, the institution of church such that they’d be more likely to participate in a marriage seminar or financial management class elsewhere.

All this resurfaces the importance of cultivating personal relationships with non-Christian people and building trust with them (so they can see we’re not wacko). And how do you go about doing that?

Enter into relationships with people in “non-church” spaces.

Non-church spaces are places where the church doesn’t set the agenda, plan the party or control the atmosphere. There’s no bible study. No prayer before the meal. No announcement about upcoming worship gatherings.

A significant reason Christianity has struggled in North America is because it has neglected to engage these kinds of non-church spaces. Churches have neglected non-church spaces for the same reason non-Christian people have avoided coming to church spaces: fear.

It’s a scary thing to venture off into territory where we have little control over things, where we’re different and might be the minority. So who should be required to take the initiative, churches or non-Christian people? It’s almost a rhetorical question.

If the church is to connect to its community it must first be part of that community. It must venture out into non-church spaces.

Here are a few non-church spaces in which the Storyline Community has either spent time intends to spend time (many of these are determined by our context and might be different somewhere else; some of these are based on our own passions):

  • Civic organization events
  • Community service organizations
  • Sports leagues (joining other people’s teams)
  • Concerts and plays
  • Fitness clubs
  • Workplaces
  • Apartment communities where we live
  • Restaurants, bars and coffee shops

Our major victories these days are simply 1) having the courage to enter such non-church spaces and 2) the relationships that emerge from them. The hope is that the shape the church takes will consist of and be informed by community relationships such that Storyline becomes a church that grows out of its surrounding culture.

We’re seeing this hope become reality in small ways already…more about that later.

In Community Connection, Mission
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Learn and Share

Charles Kiser —  June 9, 2008 — 2 Comments

This week Mission Alive, our church planting resource organization, is hosting a Strategy Lab for church planters. The lab is the last of three in a process of Mission Alive training modules: the first is the Discovery Lab, for the purpose of assessment; the second is the Theology Lab, for developing theological frameworks for the task of church planting.

The Strategy Lab functions to help planters think through their ministry plan for church planting—cultural analysis, ministry structures, processes of spiritual formation, connecting with non-Christians, etc. At the end of the Lab the planter couple presents their strategy for how the new church will take shape. This strategy becomes the foundation for what will actually happen when the planters hit the ground.

Julie and I first participated in the Strategy Lab in the fall of 2006. We received great training and developed a close bond with our fellow Lab participants (many of whom are now also starting new churches).

The most valuable tools we developed in the Lab were a process of spiritual formation (i.e., steps for facilitating spiritual growth from non-Christian to leader) and a leadership development track. We spent the majority of our apprenticeship period at Christ Journey and Sunrise fleshing out these two tools.

And now I’m headed back to the Strategy Lab to share with other planters what we’ve learned as we’ve applied some of the ideas of the Lab to our church planting context.

I hardly feel qualified for such a role given that we’re still learning so much. At the same time, I love this baton-passing element of Mission Alive. We’re always learning, and the best use of our learning is to share what we’re learning with others.

It reminds me of the Apostle Paul’s philosophy of ministry: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2).

This rhythm of learning and sharing applies to all of us whether we’re church planters, parents, engineers or accountants. Indeed, the heart of discipleship is learning what it means to follow the way of Jesus and sharing what we’ve learned with others who are seeking to learn.

What are you learning that you can share? Please share it with me!

In Church Planting, Mission Alive
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Confessions of a Struggling Church Starter

Charles Kiser —  June 2, 2008 — 8 Comments

Have I mentioned that this whole church starting thing is hard work?

The part I’m finding most difficult right now is making initial connections with people—the cold-turkey, how’s it going, who are you, what do you do kinds of conversations.

Sure, I’m a pretty gregarious person, but it takes a little while before that crazy guy can come out of his shell. I was that way in junior high; high school; college; grad school; and what do you know, I’m still that way.

I’m not sure exactly why it’s so hard for me. It’s probably partly because I’m such a people pleaser. I want people to like me. I want to say the right things. I want to be cool. I don’t want people to think I’m a religious salesman.

Perhaps it’s hard because I don’t just want to have conversations with people; I want to have spiritual conversations with people. Spirituality/religion is a particularly private thing in our culture. It’s one of two things you don’t talk about (politics the other) unless you’re prepared to get in a fight.

I’m finding, however, that these kinds of conversations are much less daunting when there’s a more natural reason to have them, outside of the obvious reason of connecting with people along the wavelength of spirituality.

Conversations take place more naturally when I’m on a flag football team with people, or at a civic organization meeting, or at dinner, rather than after someone opens the door when I’ve randomly knocked on it.

Yet it’s still hard in more natural contexts. I’ve found myself sitting on the couch before going to engagements where I would meet new people trying to think of excuses for not going. [I’m laughing at myself as I type this.]

That’s right, I’m a church starter. I’m supposed to have a knack for this kind of thing. Yeah…I feel under-qualified for the job sometimes.

At the end of the day, it’s worth all the inner turmoil. It’s worth the challenge. I get the privilege, after all, to engage people concerning the most important kinds of things in the whole world.

Perhaps you’re like me…why do we have such a hard time with this?

In Community Connection, Conversation
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House Church Gatherings

Charles Kiser —  May 27, 2008 — 5 Comments

Our house church gatherings are at the heart of who we are as a church. Church to us is less of an institution than it is a web of relationships formed around a common purpose. Church isn’t a place we go to; it’s a community to which we belong. The way of Jesus is a way of life that is learned, modeled and lived out relationally.

This conviction about the nature of church is why we’re starting with house church ministry and not with a super-sized worship gathering. It’s why the worship gathering, even after it’s started, will be second (or fifth) place in importance. In fact, it will probably not take place weekly, especially in the early stages.

House church gatherings of 10-20 people are and will always be the central venue for life in the Storyline Community. They most fully embody the chief values of our community—dependence on God, mission, life change and genuine relationships.

To be honest, we use the term “house church” for lack of better words. Some call it organic church; others call it simple church; others call it cell church (as in a smaller part of something larger).

One thing I do like about the phrase is that “church” is part of it. House churches are not an appendage ministry for us among other ministries; house churches are the essence of who we are as a church—so much so that I would rather describe Storyline Christian Community as a network of house churches rather than just a church (though the latter is certainly still true).

Our hope and plan is that our ministry is reproductive: as followers of Jesus help to create other followers of Jesus, house churches will start other house churches, and Storyline will start other churches.

So what do our house church gatherings look like?

We gather for meals and share life. We share communion in the context of our meals. We joke around. We tell stories. We sing together. We confess our struggles to each other.

We have conversations about Scripture, current events, music, God, food, spirituality—things that really matter to us. We share our resources to help the poor and connect to those who are far from God.

We throw good parties. We welcome new people of all kinds into our midst. We participate in justice projects in the community. We pray for each other, our friends and our city.

It’s a little reminiscent of the early church (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35)—not only in the forms and activities, but also in its potential to turn the world upside down.

In Church, House Churches, Models, Values
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It’s Official: Storyline Christian Community

Charles Kiser —  May 19, 2008 — 18 Comments

Well, many of you know we’ve been laboring away at a name for a couple months—and what a long, arduous process it has been.

We started with a couple weeks of brainstorming, through which a couple potential names emerged (image and epic, if you wanted to know). We took them to our Dallas friends and asked them what they thought and received consistently negative feedback.

So we decided to go back to the drawing board.

Our struggles motivated us to enlist the help of an ad/marketing agency called Isphere. Chris Gaines, Isphere’s President, is a member of the Richland Hills Church and a creative mastermind. Take a look at some of his company’s work with Richland Hills at www.dangerousmessage.com. We knew after a lunch meeting with Chris that he would provide invaluable help and input to our process.

As of this morning, with encouragement from Chris and other friends, we’ve landed on Storyline Christian Community.

Why Storyline?

I’m hoping others will ask that same question. I know it’s weird and different, and that’s part of the intrigue. That’s partly why I love it. Because when you ask, I can tell you:

Storyline is a word for plot. It refers to the way a story moves, the direction it’s headed. All of our lives move along a storyline. Our storylines intersect with other people’s storylines.

What if there was one storyline that overarched every human’s personal storyline? What if there was one grand narrative that all of us were part of?

That’s exactly what we believe is going on in the world: God is weaving a storyline together out of all of our stories. And it’s up to us to choose whether or not our personal storylines intersect and merge with God’s.

What exactly is God’s storyline? Simply, that:

  • God created the world and humanity for the sake of genuine relationship with what he made;
  • humanity decided to go it’s own way and brokenness ensued in humanity and the world;
  • God takes on human form in Jesus of Nazareth and through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection God provides a way for humanity and the world the be healed;
  • one day God will bring about the total restoration of the world and humanity that began when God raised Jesus from the dead;
  • and in the meantime, the community of people that find healing in Jesus comprise the Church and they exist to invite others into the same kind of healing and partner with God for the sake of the world’s restoration.

What a story! This is the story that gets me out of bed in the morning.

Why Christian Community (and not Church)?

Like the early church, we chose functional words to describe who we are. The word “church” (Greek: ekklesia) was actually a word the early Christians borrowed from their Greco-Roman cultural warehouse. This word for church frequently referred to a government legislative assembly.

So in the same spirit, we are a Christian Community. We are Christian because we live by the spirituality of Jesus, the Christ/Messiah; and we are a Community because we are a network of relationships, not an institution.

At the same time, we’re not averse to the word church. It’s a well-known word in our culture (though packed with lots of baggage). We are a church. We are church starters. And we are, by God’s grace, a part of the universal Church. We are in no way ashamed of that.

[Side note for Greek nerds: Dr. Allen Black at Harding Grad School cautions against pulling theological meanings out of the etymology of ekklesia—as in the church as a “called out” people (ek = out; klesia = called). Making that kind of meaning would be equivalent to saying that a butterfly is a fly whose wings are greased with butter. Ridiculous. The etymology totally misses the actual import and reference of the word. Sorry—I’ve been holding on to that little gem for a long time.]

What’s funny is that my first official presentation for this new church at a Mission Alive Strategy Lab was arbitrarily called “Story Church.” We’ve come full circle in many ways.

Tonight the Kisers and the Porches are going out on the town to celebrate the victory of arriving at a name. We will think of you as we enjoy our crème brulee.

We’ll keep you posted as we develop a website at www.storylinecommunity.com (and .org, and .net—we purchased them all!)

Next week I’ll share what a typical house church gathering has looked like thus far.

Thanks for your prayers.

In Nerdy Greek, Story of God, Storyline
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