Essentials of ekklesia

The emerging churches teams gathered in Porto, Portugal (Sept.28-Oct.2) to discuss the essentials of ekklesia (Jesus' idea of "church").

Charis Associates and GBIM Europe teammates from Madrid, Lisbon, Porto, Dublin, London, Paris, Dijon and Berlin gathered to cheer Julie Hawkins on during her 42k marathon!

We began our encounter with a day of listening to God. We were challenged to put everything on God's altar (personal and corporate strategies, methods and approaches, theological systems and constructs, possessions, spouses, children and self), allowing ourselves to cling only to “the whole Bible and the holy Trinity.”

Don't know about you, but mountains and surf help me listen

The crux of the encounter focused on the essentials of ekklesia (or as Tom Julien would say, the essence of the church).** We began listing essentials from the Word that Jesus’ local church should embody and practice.

Prof Mike gives a refresher course on "centered set" thinking
(see previous entry for more on bounded / centered sets)

A non-exhaustive list of essentials of ekklesia

We then compared our list with biblical metaphors for the church.

Some Scriptural metaphors that Jesus wants His church to embody

It did not seem possible or necessary to focus on all of the essentials of ekklesia right now, but they provide a clear idea of what the Grace Brethren churches we are planting in Europe should ultimately do and be.

Now each teammate will determine which crucial elements to focus on, and develop concrete steps to pursue those in the coming months.

Lots to think about

** Stuart Murray’s book, “Church After Christendom” and Paul Hiebert’s “bounded/centered” set theory "pulled the roof off" of our ecclesiology, allowing us to “think different.”

Am I bound, fuzzy or centered?

For those who might be interested in such things as bounded and centered sets…
Bounded sets “are defined by a clear boundary…. Most of the effort in defining the category is spent defining and maintaining the boundary…. The central question,… is whether an object is inside or outside the category. Objects within a bounded set are uniform… they constitute a homogeneous group.… There is no variation…. [They] are essentially static sets….”
Bounded sets deal with ontology, with what something/someone intrinsically is, what the set-member really is in its essence. Bounded sets “have to do with the ultimate, changeless structure of reality.” God perceives things this way, as they truly are. He alone can accurately perceive reality. Yet Western culture uses bounded sets, derived from Greek philosophy, developing uniform categories in order to circumvent chaos.
E.g. Go to the “font color” indicator of your Word program and select the “more colors” option. Click on the “crayon box.” There one can choose from “liquorish,” “lavender,” “mocha,” and the other yummy, colors that Bill Gates has personally pre-selected for your use. An “either-or” choice is presented; the color is either "blueberry" or "salmon," but not both. This is a bounded set.
E.g. One does not equal two. Bounded set is dichotomous, black and white thinking.
E.g. “Do you think that Jill is truly a Christian?” “Well yes. She prayed the sinner’s prayer in the locker room at 11:43 A.M. on Saturday, June 12th, 2003.” Bounded set.
But can you or I, based upon Jill's words in the locker room, unequivocally know that she is regenerate? No. But Jesus can. And He counsels us, “You will know them by their fruit.” "But," we Westerners rejoin, "is she a Macintosh, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, or… a bad apple?!"
We evangelicals use bounded sets in order to avoid slipping into fuzzy thinking.
Fuzzy sets are what evangelicals fear. There are two kinds of fuzzy sets, extrinsic and intrinsic. “Extrinsic fuzzy” says that truth might exist, but we cannot know it (early liberalism). “Intrinsic fuzzy” says that truth does not exist (postmodernism).
E.g. “Crayon box? Don’t use it; I’m color blind.”
E.g. One might equal two, it just depends!
E.g. I had shared with a member of my extended family how I came to know Jesus. He, a theology professor in a liberal institution, proceeded to tell me that my experience was actually psychological, but was certainly not spiritual. Very fuzzy!
Unfortunately, evangelicals often equate fuzzy sets with centered sets.
Centered sets are descriptive and relational. They describe how things “relate to other things, not what they are in and of themselves.” One defines the center, and describes relationships of things or people to that core. “Greater emphasis is placed on the center and relationships than on maintaining a boundary.”
We focus on Christ. He is the center; and all people (Christian or not) are either moving away from or toward Him. Instead of boundaries, there are signposts indicating the direction that the person is moving in relation to Jesus. Signposts can be someone employing language like, “the Lord,” as opposed to, "this Jesus;" “I have never attended communion, but could I?” “I would like to be baptized.”
E.g. Instead of going to your Word crayon box, go to the “color wheel.” Where does blue stop and green start? Is that yellow or red? The colors are real, but there are hues flowing in and out of each other. Centered set thinking allows for nuance.
E.g. One still does not equal two, but centered set thinking can deal with very real numbers like 1.2 (closer to one) and 1.7 (closer to two). Very real-worldish.
E.g. My friend, Claudel’s conversion was real and instantaneous, but God alone knows when and where the Holy Spirit brought about regeneration. I see that Claudel’s attitudes and actions have changed. He was baptized at the Château de St. Albain. He is bearing fruit and sharing his faith in Christ. All indicators show that he is truly moving toward the center of all, Christ.
Quotes taken from, Paul G. Hiebert (professor at Trinity—Deerfield, Il), Anthropological Reflections on Missiological Issues, ch.6 “The Category Christian in the Mission Task," pp. 107-146.

Birmingham baby

This past Sunday, a baby worship celebration was born in the Birmingham suburb of Franckley-Rubery.

The nascent Franckley Grace Church gathers here at "Youthworcs"

David and Becky Schwan report: "We had a great turnout.... This group represents a lot of hours of relationship building and the answers to many of your prayers. We are very thankful for the help that we received from the Shirley Grace Church....” The second church is now on its way!

The first official Sunday celebration of the Franckley, England Grace Church

Please pray for protection for the fledgling Franckley church as the group is still very fragile, for conversion growth and for English leadership (the Greys, Shepherds and others).