Why another lockdown is a perfect opportunity for us to exercise mission in a radically simple way.
I thoroughly believe that the COVID crisis has been a somewhat ‘Holy rumble’ to the body of Christ in the Western Church. The safety we find in our church buildings are one of these things being shaken up. I truly believe that some Christians are waking up to the truth that they have been living a life of dualism. A divide of secular and holy. A divide of work and worship. Too often have we conditioned ourselves to believe that when we are at church, we are at the Holy place and when we are at work, we are there to simply ‘do the job’. Perhaps we think of worship as something we do on a Sunday and work as something we do on a Monday. In doing so, we have created church as a ‘safe’ place for us to rest and stay. This isn’t a bad thing, I agree that church buildings need to feel safe, they need to be a place of refuge for people of all walks of life, but they also need to be a temporary place of safety. Church buildings should actually bring us to such a strong conviction of safety, amongst other things, within our hearts and souls that in return we become reckless with our pursuit of the Kingdom to be here on Earth. That we become risk-takers for Yahweh. I want the church’s viewpoint of mission during this pandemic to be turned upside down and I believe we are at the beginning of seeing this. I was excited to read Carl Beech’s (President of Christian Vision for Men (CVM), CEO of The Edge and founder of Edgefast) blog on Premier Christianity last week when he said:
“For years we have said church isn’t about the building or Sundays. Time to prove it. Nowhere in scripture does it prescribe that we should meet on the Lord's day... This isn’t to say that Sunday meetings aren’t important! However, a spotlight has been shone on our failure to prepare our people for tough times. I’ve witnessed quite a number of people coming to Christ during lockdown who are buzzing, transformed, full of joy, the word and the Holy Spirit – and they’ve never been to a Sunday meeting! Simultaneously I’ve seen established long-time believers almost fall apart, in part because of the absence of Sunday meetings. As a pastor I understand this, but I also feel that I have failed in some aspects of discipleship. I therefore view this as an opportunity to put some things right. Covid is a welcome disruption in that sense.”*
Mission cannot just be seen as inviting your pals to “Jesus-y events” anymore. Especially when there aren’t any events to invite them to. Conversely, perhaps there are, but an online meeting isn’t always ideal for those that have numerous zoom calls in one afternoon or the front-line workers who want to come home and relax after a mightily tough and stressful day. Mission starts when we wake up in the morning and ends when our head hits the pillow at night no matter where we are that day, home or workplace, church building (if yours is still open!) or supermarket. We must pursue relationship with one another. God calls us to pursue relationship with those that are believers or nonbelievers, attractive or unattractive, humble or arrogant, admirable or disreputable. To love, is a verb after all. So why is lockdown 3.0 perfect for an opportunity to exercise mission in a different way? Well, it helps us to stop and think...
The terms first, second and third space originate from Ray Oldenburg. In his book, ‘The Great Good Place’ he explains that “each of these three spaces refer to the place we live (first), work (second) and our “hangout zone” (third).” I thoroughly recommend you to read up on the second and third space when this lockdown is over but for now let’s focus on our first space. Upon further scrutiny of each of the three terms, Jay Parthak and Dave Runyon, authors of ‘The Art of Neighbouring’, use a certain exercise to help people gain a realistic picture of where they are when it comes to knowing their neighbourhood or as Ray Oldenburg would say, the first space. The image is below:
What I’d love for you to do is start by picturing the 3x3 grid as a template for your neighbourhood. Perhaps it’s a block of flats (like it is for me), perhaps it’s a cul-de-sac of houses, perhaps its a caravan park or student halls! Concentrate on each box surrounding the middle box and follow the next 3 steps below:
Write out the names of the individuals/family that live in that place of residence. Perhaps you only know their first name, perhaps its your nickname for them. I know various people that have been convinced that their neighbour has a certain name only to be told when they’ve posted that Christmas card through the door, it isn’t their name at all, it was indeed the nickname they had for them. All that time that they had actually convinced themselves that the nickname they gave them was their real name!
Now write down any basic information about them. Perhaps it’s their occupation, where they went on holiday in the Summer or what sports team they support. The idea being that this point is something that you would only know if you have spoken to them.
Finally, write down something that you could only know if you’ve had a deeper conversation with them. Their dreams, life-ambitions. What do they think of God? Have they lived through something extremely difficult in their lives?
Now reflect on what you have written within each box. Hey, I’ll even tell you what I have right now. Beth and I moved into our flat August 2020. I can only fill in one box with a first name currently!
Parthak and Runyon say that their church calls this exercise the “grid of shame”. This honestly makes me laugh out loud! They found out that only 10 percent of people can come up with the names of all 8 neighbouring flats or houses, then 3 percent can provide the information for the second bullet-point. Finally, and this stat smacked me right in the face, a mere less than 1 percent of the American population (and it wouldn’t surprise me if this is even lower for the Brits) can fill in what is asked of them in the final point. Now reject all the shame you might be feeling right now because that is not what we’re about here as followers of Jesus and have a wee think about it.
Jesus’ great commandment was to “love our neighbour”. How can we love our neighbour (again, note this as a verb) if we don’t even know their surname? I want to reiterate that this isn’t a time for feeling shame nor am I attempting to make you feel shameful. I genuinely mean that! God is shaking us up, he wants us to respond with action, with saying “yes”. I want you to feel empowered, released from any guilt and stir you/us (including myself!) into action. It’s also very important to note in yourselves now that we are definitely not making a project out of any person, neighbourhood or space either. When I first did this exercise myself, I made the mistake of ‘targeting’ people which in turn made this entire exercise unauthentic, unsustainable and most importantly unChristlike. It wasn’t healthy and it wasn’t full of the grace and love I initially intended it to have. This is simply an exercise to check in or see where we are it, an opportunity to hold ourselves to account to get on mission and incarnate in the places the Lord has placed us. We’re actually the projects. Additionally, please be very careful when sharing these grids with others, it’s great to share because we can hold each other accountable and encourage one another, this makes our mission stronger, but this is about personal growth out on mission not filling the grid out as best we can like some human bingo card! My mentor even suggested changing the names of the people in the boxes if you plan on sharing it or writing it in a glaringly obvious notebook.
If we could be building our communities in the shadows of lockdown then can you imagine what our church buildings will look like when we do open them once again? A true movement of the gospel starts with us being obedient! It starts with little conversations like these. It doesn’t start with your minister preaching a fantastic message or your worship team being on point that week. They are all good things and have microscopic potential to kickstart something, but the graft comes from the labourers in the field. A movement starts when the gospel reaches homes not when homes come to meet the gospel in our church buildings. I actually dream of a time when we don’t need church buildings anymore because communities are so inviting, so welcoming that church comes back to the heart of our British cul-de-sac or flat buildings and remains there. That’s what we’re about here at The Gathering Network. Small, potent, adaptable groups of Christians that are on fire for God, seeking to be in relationship with one another in it’s most authentic form, moving through neighbourhoods in a radically ordinary, loving way.
Now I hear you, this is tough within the current lockdown rules. Our microchurches have been hit hard and at times felt really low because we feel immobilised. But it is not impossible. You can have a coffee on their porch. Invite them on a walk (one on one of course). Drop round some baked goods and stop to have a conversation with them. Knock on their door to ask if they have an allergy to your future baked goods (I hear banana bread is the craze at the moment and we all know that peanut butter goes so well with bananas)! We’re fighting more than a COVID pandemic at the moment. We’re fighting a pandemic of loneliness, suicide, depression, poverty, the list could go on. The antidote for these things? Relationship. Love. Acceptance. We can exercise these things from two metres away.
This is also aspirational! We might not have 8 houses/flats around us, we might not be comfortable with more than 1 household, we might not have a first space for numerous reasons that I haven’t accounted for. If the latter is the case, I would really recommend trying this exercise for your third space or chill zone. This includes people that you have become acquainted with at your local community choir, book club, sports clubs or regular pub/cafe visits (let’s take a moment to remember that there was a day when pubs/cafes were open). Or let’s put a positive spin on those empty spaces and spend time praying for God to fill those spaces with new people. He knows you, He knows your timing, He knows when one person is too many or too little for you. It’s not the full box that’s the goal, but being obedient to the small nudges of the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus out into our neighbourhoods, step-by-step, little-by-little.
I want to finish with a thought on a word that we probably all know in the UK. Xenophobia. The fear or even hatred of the stranger or foreigner. Stick with me here, I’m not suggesting for one moment that we are xenophobic at all. I just want us to acknowledge that sadly, there is potentially a level of fear of the stranger that has been conditioned into us over time - particularly during this COVID season. But I want you to read this excerpt from a book named ‘Radical Hospitality: Benedictus Way of Love’ that I actually read in another book ‘Covocational Church Planting’ by Brad Brisco - talk about book-ception! This short excerpt nails the truth behind fear within our society.
“Fear is a thief. It will steal our peace of mind. But it also hijacks relationships, keeping us sealed up in our plastic world with a fragile sense of security. Being a people who fear the stranger, we have drained the life juices out of hospitality. The hospitality we explore here... is not about sipping tea and making bland talk with people who live next door or work with you. Hospitality is a lively, courageous and convivial way of living that challenges our compulsion either to turn away or to turn inward and disconnect ourselves from others.”
Can you relate to this? I certainly can. I’ve spent such little time with other humans other than my wife these past 10 months that all confidence of having a normal conversation with a stranger has left my body. My heart even does a little jump when I see that there are no self-serving checkouts available and I have to go to the checkout with an actual human being! But if this still scares you, start small! I only know the first name of the person that lives opposite me in my block of flats. Maybe tomorrow I’ll invite them to go for a walk. Let’s be sensible people here, we have a virus to control, I’m not calling us to be reckless with our health. But let’s not live in fear of it. Let’s “see hospitality as an adventure that takes us to places we never dreamed of going.”** Who knows, maybe God is preparing to start a movement of the gospel right where you are reading this.
Duncan Shelton, Team Member (Intern)
Perhaps you felt a stirring when reading this? Perhaps you feel called to more? Everything we are as a network began in a simple moment; with a desire to give more for the name of Jesus, and say ‘yes’ to following Him out on mission. Starting (or joining) a microchurch sounds big, but it really begins with a simple dream or calling. For me, it started with just saying yes to God’s beautiful whisper. If you want to hear more of what microchurch means or what our network is trying to do then have a peak at our website or get in contact with us using our ‘contact us’ page. We’d love to connect with you and have a chat!
*https://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/The-Gov-says-church-buildings-can-open.-But-we-ve-decided-to-close
**Covocational Church Planting - Brad Brsico
