The Assumption Of Participation
I’ve been dreaming of church lately. I’ve been asking what a holistic missional community bent towards discipleship looks like. This dream is not yet a reality but it is definitely in the works.
One of the tensions I’ve always run into is the idea that people don’t want to participate in God’s mission of restoration. The idea is that we need a Sunday service to ease people in to participation. We need Alpha to answer their fundamental questions about the Gospel and Jesus. We need to create a space where they can feel comfortable and welcome. We need to engage them in service so that the organization can function effectively. I get all that.
But does it all assume that people aren’t willing to participate? Doesn’t it assume that people aren’t willing to follow Jesus into a holistic mission of redemption. We’re willing to say a sinners prayer and serve as an usher but not much else. And by creating a structure that in effect serves our own interests, aren’t we doing a disservice to those who are walking in the door?
The reason I ask all of this is because Jesus was pretty clear in his approach to spiritual formation. He looked for those who would follow. He looks for those who were willing to participate. He assumed they would and when He asked, they did. And by creating this structure, they skipped past all of the introductions and getting to know you’s. He took them right out into the playing field and asked them to love. He asked them to participate with him in his mission.
And it is fair to say that those who followed were born into a culture of following teachers and rabbis. The Hebrew culture cultivated this ethic. And to follow a rabbi was an honor. But when Jesus called the average Joe to follow he was essentially breaking down barriers to what it meant to follow. He was telling people, “Yes, you can follow me.” So isn’t it reasonable to assume that part of the culture we need to create is one of participation?
And so much of my dream for what that church looks like is based on the assumption that there is a group of people who do want to follow Jesus, who do want to actively participate in His mission of restoration and reconciliation. They do want to practice love in a profound way. And by focusing on this group of people we begin to create a new ethic of participation, of followership and trust. We begin to expose the value of skipping past all of the Sunday stuff that leads to complacency.
Sunday service becomes secondary to discipleship and community simply because “church” really takes place in the small community. Mission takes place when we practice being love to each other and those around us. And as we engage that love we discover how feeble we really are at practicing love. And we recognize the need for the Father’s Spirit, the need for His love. And as God begins to reveal himself through us we begin to see the power of love to transform. We begin to see that God is real and deeply interested in our restoration. We begin to see His reflection in those we are in community with.
One of the consistent messages we are receiving in Thrive groups is that, “this is my church.” And, “Why didn’t someone show me this before.” And these comments beg the question, are we doing a disservice to those who are looking for a holistic approach to faith by creating structures that take the slow path to participation? Are we stunting people by not assuming they would engage discipleship? It’s kind of like handing out Vanilla ice cream at a social and then saving the Rocky Road until the last minute. Wait a minute! Let’s skip to the good stuff. And by skipping over the introductions and the get to know you’s and moving right into communitas and discipleship, we can hopefully create a community that is bringing restoration to the world around us.
And I don’t want to kill the Sunday service. I want to transform it. I imagine it as a place where tribes can gather to tell stories of transformation and how they are seeing God show up. It’s not a single person talking at a large audience but an interactive community sharing their experiences. I imagine it as a place where we gather to feast together. When was the last time we feasted together. It’s almost a hidden treasure waiting to be rediscovered. These larger gatherings serve the tribes, but they are secondary because the assumption is that real participation happens in the tribe. It assumes that we’re here to follow Jesus.
And hopefully those on the outside looking in will begin to see communitas. They will see a real community bent towards practicing love and living in His kingdom. They’ll see restoration taking place in people who are beginning to connect to their Heavenly Father in a more holistic way. They’ll begin to hear the stories of transformation that are taking place when we participate. And they’ll see a reason to skip over the intro stuff.
That’s the community I am dreaming of.
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