Total Church – III (Church Practices)

Posted on August 16, 2008

Throughout the Total Church conference we learned of various ways the Crowded House pushes gospel-centered community and community-centered gospel through their church practices. Here are a few:

  • Baptism: They view baptistm as a visible sign of entrance/way into the community. “It is attractional because it says to others that anyone can come in. It is a declaration of leaving the community of judgment and entering into the community of grace.” Not clean up first, make sure they are a “believer” for a while and then baptize. Baptize upon conversion.
  • Communion: If baptism is the way into the community, communion way to stay in the community. Consider Isaiah 55 as a communion text. It is always a opportunity to proclaim the gospel. Communion as meals, not plastic cups and wafers, creates a community context in which the gospel is celebrated and witnessed.
  • Preaching: The West has unduly given the sermon primacy in the ministry of the Word. In fact, it has reduced the ministry of the Word to the sermon. All the energy, time, and money spent on preparing for a one and a half hour event on Sundays betrays American ecclesiology: the Sunday service is teh church! What we need is a complete ministry of the Word, which includes mutual counseling—“gospeling”—to promote a Word-centered life, not just a sermon-centered service. Crowded House asks the question: “How are we going to live together in submission to the Word.”

Total Church – II (Vanderstelt on MCs)

Posted on August 14, 2008

Jeff Vanderstelt (Soma Community Church) presented a robust view of gospel-centered missional communities. If you haven’t read or listened to Jeff and Caesar’s thorough thinking in this area, I highly recommend it. Audio should be up soon.

What I want to share are some of the insightful comments Jeff made that are the fruit of years of leading and cultivating MCs. I found these comments most helpful for the present form of Austin City Life and have, in many cases, taken those comments and reworded them (mainly because I don’t have the direct quotes).

  • As leaders of missional communities we must abide in the timing of the gospel. If we abide in the timing of the gospel, which is a lifetime, we will not become disgruntled or despair over the slowness of growth in missional communities, among our disciples. There is a tendency for all MCs to drift to Bible Study, to Community Group, to something other than a group of disciples that live in the gospel together on mission.
  • Any group can do “Acts 2” as a moral act without mission. There is a tendency for MCs to devolve into a mere meeting, to not be a true community. Many of our people mistake the MC meeting for missional community. Two hours a week of sharing life and truth is not sharing life and truth. It is easy to slide into a meeting-focused approach to MC if we are not consistently challenged by mission. It is in being forced to give up our time to serve others that our heart issues are exposed. It is in painting a house, picking up a foster kid, serving a meal that our selfishness, grumbling, complaining, and relative indifference to the needs of others are exposed. In this exposure we are meant to turn to our community where we can receive gospel reminders, encouragement in the truth, prayer for increased love for others and for God.