I envision a church…
If you don’t know, I actually have a secret desire to church plant someday (well maybe not that secret). I know I know. It’s a ridiculous dream, and most of you think I’m crazy for dreaming it. Anyways, last night I was looking at the Vineyard Movement’s new publishing of their “Core Values” and I was quite inspired. I read them and was like, “Man that’s the kind of church I want to plant,” and I stayed up to 5 am dreaming of what that church would look like. I penned my first draft of a vision for the kind of church that I would want to be apart of, and I wanted to share it all with you.
I guess one could say that this is kind of like my personal statement of faith. It is definietly incomplete, and is probably more of a product of reckless passion (or possibly the movement of the Spirit) than any thoughtful discernment of what God is calling me to do. Either way, I had a blast writing it and would love to hear your thoughts.
I envision a church that is…
• Diverse through reconciliation
I envision a church that is a place of reconciliation, believing that in Christ all walls of hostility fall. I envision a church that is diverse in ethnicity, in culture, and in tradition, but singular in purpose. I envision a church that doesn’t just transcend our differences, but embraces them, seeking to represent a fuller image of God. A place where we let go of our comfort for the sake of another, and where everyone is uncomfortable at least part of the time. I envision a church that is a daily celebration of the diversity of God’s people.
• Compassionate through sacrifice
I envision a church that is a place of sacrifice, believing that as Christ lowered himself to the place of a servant, so must we lay down our lives down for the sake of another. I envision a church that is unwavering in holding to Jesus’ call to love our neighbor as ourselves. To his call to care for the poor, to heal the sick, to advocate for the alien, and restore the broken. I envision a church that champions mercy over judgement, believing that it is the appeal of grace, not fear of condemnation, that allures people to Jesus.
• Missional through community
I envision a church that is a place of community, believing that building community is the best way to evangelize. Where mission is infused into every aspect of community life, believing that community without mission is just a clique, and that mission without community is just a program. I envision a church where everyone belongs and everyone plays, believing that every person is uniquely gifted and integral life of the whole. I envision a church without walls, believing that to build community we must both go to our own backyards and to the farthest edges of the world and extend an invitation.
• Empowered through experience
I envision a church that is a place of experience, believing that experiencing God is the foundation of all we do for him. I envision an experience of love, forgiveness, freedom, and purpose for every person who enters its doors, believing that God always meets those who seek Him. I envision a church that is full of the Holy Spirit, and takes seriously the call to do greater things than Christ did. I envision vibrant worship, healing, hearing God, and salvation as central to the daily life of a healthy church. I envision a church that is full of people empowered by the Holy Spirit to impact the community and world around it.
• Transformed through teaching
I envision a church that is a place of teaching, believing that it is ultimately truth that slices deep into the heart and transforms our very being. I envision a church where theology isn’t taught to stimulate the intellect, but rather to demand a response to Jesus. I envision a church where the Word transforms and grows the entire being, spiritual, mental, and emotional, believing that making life long disciples of Christ is core to the Great Commission. I envision a church operates out of the belief that the Kingdom of God is central to the teachings of Jesus, and believes that the gospel is not just limited to our own salvation, but to the restoration of all creation that is broken.
Anyone want to join me in planting this Church? I looked on the map and saw that the entire Silicon Valley is without a Vineyard… hermmm
PS. I just realized I wrote an entry similar to this a year and half ago before I joined staff. It’s interesting to see how God has refined, sharpened, and actually really expanded my dreams.
PS2. It seems like the only time I get comments is when I have a cute picture of my sister on the post. I would love to know how many people actually read this sucker… give me a shout out down below aite?
Posted on January 30, 2009, in Personal, Random and tagged Church, Church Plant, Dreams, Values, Vineyard, Vision. Bookmark the permalink. 16 Comments.
Wow. I love it. That is amazing. :) I hope you do it! I’m not sure I could help you plant it but I would be interested in being informed and praying for you. :)
Isn’t there a Vineyard in Palo Alto? And Ramondo’s church is also a Vineyard (Chinese Agape Vineyard Christian Fellowship).
You didn’t need to ask for a comment. I was going to comment anyways. ;)
P.S. Nice picture. ;) Vision!
hi joejoe.
cuddle with me tomorrow night
i’ll plant the church with you
i might move to norcal for the sake of this.
ok maybe.
hahaha. :)
“I envision a church where theology isn’t taught to stimulate the intellect, but rather to demand a response to Jesus.”
interesting. did you mean, “where theology isn’t taught JUST to stimulate the intellect”? while i think that theology without practice is incomplete, i believe that it can and should be intellectually stimulating…
I’ll guest lead worship maybe if youre lucky.
I LOVE IT! It makes me sad to wonder why there hasn’t been a church like this… when everything about this vision seems biblical and… christian? haha… hey have you read organic church? what about adding another vision… in equipping the saints for ministry, a church where there is no bottom up hierarchy, but rather a top down structure in empowering “ordinary” christians for ministry… if this vision were to be added, that kind of church would be MY perfect church… =) what do you think??
I like the organic church idea. Maybe this can happen one day.
Hm. Seconded on being intellectually stimulating. Is being mutually exclusive to the benefit of those listening?
And how come specifically a Vineyard church? Don’t they require a regular payment just to use their name?
i’m in :)
why silicon valley though.. why not socal.
haha :D
I’v been wrestling with the “intellectually stimulating” comment by awwj and seconded by dan. At first I was like good point, I will change it. But after some thought I don’t think I want to.
First of all, I don’t think what I wrote implies stimulating the intellect and transforming lives are mutually exclusive. I was more referring to the ultimate motivation and purpose of learning theology. As much as I love talks that stimulate the mind, and I believe we need more of that… I believe that the ultimate reason to teach scripture (and my conviction when I preach) is to see lives transformed.
I believe for some folks… particular middle, upper middle class college educated folks, transformation often begins at the mind, and to speak to this crew you have to stimulate the mind, but the end goal is always life transformation. On the other hand, if you speak to a group of homeless people or a farmer in Cambodia, teaching heavy theology probably isn’t the way to go. All that to say, to reach certain groups of people (the ones that most of us represent) we will inevitably have to stimulate the intellect to see their lives transformed.
Therefore, yes I envision a church where theology is intellectually stimulating… honestly I don’t think you can really teach theology without stimulating the intellect. However, I envision a church where the ultimate goal and motivation to teach theology is to demand a response to the Lordship of Jesus. To me it’s not a both/and… we teach to see people follow Jesus more closely, that’s it. But, if I must appease the hunger (and sometimes even cynicism) of the mind with intellectual stimulation to do so, then it will happen.
Eunice, I try to address your idea of empowering ordinary Christians under the point of the vision “missional through community” where I write, “I envision a church where everyone belongs and everyone plays, believing that every person is uniquely gifted and integral life of the whole.” For “everyone to play” demands an equipping and empowering of spiritual gifts among all believers of the church.
I also write under “empowered through experience” that, “I envision a church that is full of people empowered by the Holy Spirit to impact the community and world around it.” I think in this way I see what you’re talking about come to fruition where leaders are tasked to empower the “ordinary” to do extraordinary things to transform the world.
Eunice Yuk, Silicon Valley has a huge vacuum of churches right now. There is a growing amount of growing vibrant churches there, but there is SO much more work to be done, and so many people that even I know of just searching for a community of God. This reality coupled with the reality that Silicon Valley is one of the wealthiest and influential technology centers of America makes my heart even burn more for the reality that it needs more churches seeking after the movement of the Holy Spirit.
Also, I’ve felt called in some capacity since highs chool to go back. It’s always been a matter of when the right time is.
I don’t think either Euojin or I think that intellectual stimulation and life transformation are mutually exclusive; they probably go hand in hand. But the way you phrased makes it sound like you aren’t interested in the intellectual, and that you desire something that should be the exact opposite. Semantics, I know, but people who don’t know you are reading your goals and beliefs, words are the only things you’ve got.
I also wanted to make a point about diversity but that’s better done in person.
nice. i read a book by this french philosopher named henri bergson recently… and he says something profound to me. One can only see reality when idealism is in the heart. so on that note… i commend your vision.. and your dreams. and i hope that they will come to fruition. cause they are powerful ideas that can have profound impacts for the specific sorts of communities you will possibly engage in the future. keep on, joe.
some thoughts that i wanted to add to this discussion…
i agree with you joe… on the whole theology as a demand of response. you and i have talked extensively about this… but the major problem of theology as an academic enterprise is that it too easily remains esoteric and abstract. I mean… people can make careers out of this stuff without it ever impacting or connecting to the ground. which is just stupid in my opinion. søren kierkegaard used to say that christian scholarship is the church’s ingenious way to keep the bible at arm’s length… never letting it get too close. is this far from the truth…? being in that very field… it’s hard not to agree with him.
that said… the challenge, or burden rather, is on those who do study theology to communicate it in a useful way. but also another, perhaps more crucial, aspect… it is the burden of those who reflect theologically in scholastic settings to listen to the wisdom and intellectual developments happening on the ground. Otherwise… i feel that theology will always remain something that gets articulated by the sorts of people utterly detached from the lives of those its trying to communicate to.
but that’s my opinion.
anyways… keep on, bro.
and diversity… i’ve always been more of a malcolm x kind of guy… so you know how i think of the matter. =)
silicon valley.
why not…fremont ;)
it is a very special city.
dare to dream, joe.