Sunday Services Aren’t Enough
By Jonathan Dodson | April 23rd, 2010 | Category: Missional Church | 6 comments
In Austin City Life, we like to say that City Groups are where the church is the church to one another and to the city. This kind of “church” is rare. Unfortunately, much of American ecclesiology has devolved into an inflexible structure that facilitates attendance—a church building. Church equals building or Sunday service. This defective ecclesiology approaches “church” as an event not as a people. Tim Chester and Steve Timmis offer a helpful corrective: “Church is not two events during the week. It is a gospel-centered community on mission.”[1] City Groups are meant to facilitate gospel-centered community on mission. They are where we can be church to one another and the city.
Why Sunday Isn’t Enough
While Sunday gatherings of the church are important, they are an incomplete experience of what the New Testament describes as church. It is impossible to carry out Paul’s “one another” instructions to the church in the context of an hour and a half on a Sunday morning. Therefore, we need some kind of structure to facilitate loving one another, bearing one another’s burdens, encouraging one another, forgiving one another, forbearing with one another, weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice. City Groups are meant to facilitate this kind of “life together.”[2] They are flexible church structures designed to facilitate the people of God living out their intended life together. While City Groups are not a “purer” expression of church than Sunday gatherings, they are a much-neglected expression of church in North America.
Steady State Community
What then does “life together” look like? City Groups are encouraged to view church, not as two events during the week, but as a steady state of community.[3] Instead of seeing community as something that primarily happens during a meeting, we need to adjust ourselves to see all of life as community. Steady state community is a constant flow of social, gospel, and missional connections throughout the week. It’s not adding special “community building” events to your already full calendar. It’s inviting people into your existing calendar. Invite people into your life not just to your City Group meetings.
*This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book: City Groups: Gospel-centered Missional Community.
Amen Jon. The thing we all run into is that we as Americans do not all have the same existing calendar. So we have to humble ourselves to be inconvienienced for the sake of doing more life together…unless you go commune this is a constant dance of varying work, rec, service and affinity agendas…it takes commitment and humility to become a “we” – this is particularly difficult and deeply rewarding in our fast paced east coat culture.
Thanks for the great post.
Jonathan-Amen! My paradigm of “community” has been radically shifted, thanks to folks like you, Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, among others. I have a question though. I have recently come on board as the community pastor at a small church plant in downtown Raleigh. I’ve cast this vision to our groups, and people seem to understand it and be excited about it in their heads, but haven’t embraced it in practice. It is more like, as you say, trying to “add” community building events into our schedule. Do you have any advice as to how to move people who are so used to the “event-small group” towards this organic community? What else do you do besides casting the vision? I’ve tried asking people to just to schedule some ordinary events into their small group calendars, like helping each other with ordinary chores. I’ve tried just texting my group that I’m watching a TV show this weekend and to just come over and bring their freinds. But people just aren’t coming unless it’s a scheduled weekly “bible study.” Any advice?
Good to hear, Ben. Sure, here are a few tips to move from event-based community to steady state community (this is the term we use for what you are calling ‘organic community’). We face these challenges regularly also.
Your people will have to make three shifts. Sounds like they are at the first.
1. Conceptual. Church doesnt equal a meeting or an event; it is the people of God on the mission of CHrist. Continue to teach this in fresh ways.
2. Practical. They so believe the biblical concept they are willing to repent of living a churchless life and begin sharing life together. Continue to exemplify this.
3. Affectional. The hardest. They actually desire real missional community, to be a people gathered around Jesus an on his mission. Pray them into this.
1. Continually and graciously deconstruct church as and event and reconstruct it as a community. Using the family/household metaphor of Scripture can be especially helpful. E.g., What would your family be like if you saw each other once a week?
2. Train your leader on how to cultivate steady state community. Steady state community is a constant flow of gospel, social, and missional connections throughout the week.
– Don’t eat alone. Share meals. You eat 21 a week. Try to share 3-4 a week with people in your community.
– Don’t hobby alone. Invite others into your hiking, working out, running, etc.
– Invite your missional community into your life, not just into your meetings.
– Use Twitter and other social media to let people know you are going somewhere and invite them to join you.
– Don’t shop alone. Invite other women to join you.
3. Invite people into your mission not just your life.
– Have MC people and neighbors over for dinner together.
– Be on mission as a community serving your part of the city.
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