Four31: What Could It Look Like?
In a few previous posts I have been posting bits and pieces that begin to explain the thinking and the history behind why we have founded a new “simple church” network. You can read something about why we feel the need for something new here. Or something about the back-story here. If you want to understand the name Four31 you can find that here. You can read the values that we hold as particular communities and as a network as a whole here. And you can read our dream for the future here.
When I was trying to put some of the many ideas buzzing around my and our collective heads on paper I was tempted to stop there because I have an allergic reaction to five-year plans or anything that tries to feed my desire to have the future all worked out. Rather I have learnt that I have very little concept of what God is actually wanting to do through and in us tomorrow or next week never mind next year or the one after. A road map is helpful as something to guide you, though. As long as you keep it looking more like a satellite map than a street map and you remember that you may not even have the right map in your hands.
Having said all that I thought it might be helpful to try to give people who are “for us” but don’t “get it” or who might “get it” if we could “show it” a picture of how it could all look. That is if “it” even works and grows or if we even have the right map…
When we use phrases like “organic” or “simple” church it could often sound like we are advocating a no-structure approach to church. This is not the case; it would be more accurate to say that we are advocating both a structure-light approach as well as a fluid and flexible structure. We are content for our structure to grow with us and to be reinvented and re-imagined whenever necessary. We do not expect every part of the network to look the same as any other part. We expect uniformity in theology and values not in structure. We want our structures to free us for mission not conform us to ecclesiastical distinctives.
With the above points noted we have considered what a simple church network structure could look like. We envision four basic expressions of network life. These expressions are a guide not a prescription. Nor are they designed to be sequential “steps” to a pre-determined outcome.
1. Node:
A node is an area in which we are working but in which there is no formal gospel community as yet. Because much of what we are hoping to do will take the form of pioneering ministry, we expect that this will take time. Time to connect with people, to invite them into community and together envision what church could look like in this community and among this people.
If we have a trusted leader in an area then we have a node that is a part of the Four31 Network. We do want Gospel Communities or church plants to develop (and in fact we believe this cannot but happen when the gospel is at work) but we do not want to restrict belonging to Four31 to only those who already have a Gospel Community structure or who are actively in the process of forming one. We are committed to “commissioning” gospel men and women to get on with ministry in an area and allowing church to grow up contextually and organically without the pressure of immediate results or “church plant” expectations in order to legitimise the ministry.
Our hope is that Four31 can become a home to those who are called to pioneering ministry outside of the current church structures. And that together we can begin to envision what new and complementary structures might begin to look like.
Currently we have three nodes:
1. East City Area, Cape Town – Woodstock, Salt River, Observatory
2. Northern Suburbs, Cape Town – Bellville, Durbanville
3. Arizona, USA – Mission to the Apache Indians
2. Gospel Community: the most basic and fundamental unit of church life beyond one’s own family. A gospel community (GC) is a group of up to 20 people who have covenanted together to share life with one another and who share a common mission to an area or people. Some potential Gospel Communities that could develop around the East City Gathering for instance may include:
a) Area Gospel Communities into the areas of Woodstock, Lower Woodstock, Observatory and Salt River.
b) People Group Specific Gospel Communities to, for instance, Muslims, French Speakers, Youth, Students or Homeless People. These Gospel Communities would exist as a missional team seeking to find ways to reach and serve that specific people group with the gospel. This would not necessarily be a Gospel Community for those from that particular background but for those who want to reach them. When people follow Jesus they could be integrated into a Gospel Community or this team may consider how church might be contextualized for these believers
3. Gatherings: As the number of GC’s grow it would be useful to group a number of these GC’s (3-6) around a centralized gathering. This gathering could share training, leadership, and some collective identity. This gathering (for instance the East City Gathering) could determine the frequency and appropriate shape of their gathering.
4. Network: As Gospel Communities multiply so new Gatherings would be formed. As the amount of Gatherings increase so these Gatherings would then be formed into a wider network of Gatherings.
Four31: Our Dream
In a few previous posts I have been posting bits and pieces that begin to explain the thinking and the history behind why we have founded a new “simple church” network. You can read something about why we feel the need for something new here. Or something about the back-story here. If you want to understand the name Four31 you can find that here. You can read the values that we hold as particular communities and as a network as a whole here.
Here is our vision for what we hope God will do in and through our communities and our network:
- To take discipleship as our first priority. To have our humanness restored in God’s image as we learn to follow Jesus and as we invite others to learn with us
- To reach those not being reached by contemporary church models by re-imagining the shape and style of church organised around mission. Questioning our inherited strategies for the sake of reaching a lost and dying world with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.
- To litter the nooks, crannies, forgotten and neglected places of our city with scattered communities of light. Authentic communities of light living distinctive, shared lives that both demonstrate and proclaim the goodness of living under the reign of King Jesus
- To see the diversity of our cities and towns being brought together through the gospel into one new body, the church. New communities, where the racial, cultural and economic barriers are being broken down as an expression of our unity in Christ. To be communities shaped by the cross and where the patterns of our life together are a taste of God’s new kingdom.
Four31: Values
In a few previous posts I have been posting bits and pieces that begin to explain the thinking and the history behind why we have founded a new “simple church” network. You can read something about why we feel the need for something new here. Or something about the back-story here. If you want to understand the name Four31 you can find that here.
In this post you can read about the values that we hope will shape us as individual Christian communities and as a network.
1. We are becoming a people shaped by the Story of God. Our lives, both individually and communally must be shaped by the Bible story. We call each other to live lives of sacrifice, service, submission and risk-taking for the sake of the gospel. We listen to God’s Word as the reliable, authoritative and sufficient word of God.
2. We are becoming a dependant people, completely reliant on God to give fruit to our efforts. We cannot plan the shape and direction of mission ahead of time it is the supernatural work of God and cannot be planned, organised or controlled. We are committed to prayer as both a regular communal rhythm and a spontaneous response to needs and opportunities. Our role is to plant the gospel seed, to respond to opportunities and to allow the Holy Spirit to guide the shape and direction of our ministry.
3. We are becoming a missional people. Our primary identity is as God’s sent people and we seek to shape ourselves, our lifestyles and our structures around this primary identity. We want people to experience church as a network of relationships rather than a meeting you attend or a building you enter. We are committed to mission and not our traditions, comfort or preferences as the organising principle for our life together.
4. We are becoming a restored people. The Christian community is a foretaste of God’s future restoration of all things and we seek to reflect God’s coming, yet now broken-in, Kingdom as a community of justice, mercy, peace, reconciliation, beauty, creativity and love. We experience this restoration now imperfectly, in hiddenness and weakness, but one day in fullness and in glory.
5. We are becoming a communal people. We have not been saved for a life of individualistic spirituality but to be a part of a people, God’s new community. We are thus committed to sharing our lives together as extended family. This will impact how we make decisions, how we use our time, how we regard our possessions, where we choose to live and how we deal with conflict.
6. We are becoming an inclusive people, a community of peace in our busy and divided world. We, who in Christ have found rest, peace and wholeness, must now embody that in a community of grace for others, both believers and unbelievers, and not one based on performance.
7. We are becoming a diverse people; restored to one another through the gospel. We will not favour any one culture, education level or socio-economic status over another. All cultures are simultaneously redeemed and judged by the gospel. This diversity must be reflected in the make-up of our community and leadership and in the rhythms and shape of our life together.
8. We are becoming a local people. We wish to see truly contextual gospel communities planted that whilst maintaining robust gospel faithfulness are also truly recognisable expressions of that culture or locality. We are committed to stripping away all the non-essentials to church life and allowing the gospel to reinvent church in every subculture and local community. We are committed to living, listening to and sharing in the life of our local community.
9. We are becoming an ordinary people; sharing life together with gospel intentionality. The context for mission, community, discipleship, pastoral care and training, is ordinary life. We value people over programmes. When we run programmes they must be relational, timely and if necessary dispensable.
10. We are becoming a growing people. We are committed to a simple model of church that is small, decentralized and easily reproducible. We believe that home is the primary location of church and the location for all or most of church life. Church planting must not be dependant on financial resources, buildings, formal education or paid leadership. Leaders must be disciple-makers who create a culture of permission giving for mission and innovation.
11. We are becoming a global people. We recognise and celebrate that we are only a small part of God’s global mission among all peoples and cultures. We are committed to praying for, blessing and celebrating global mission. We are committed to sending people and finances to bless other communities, cities and nations outside of our immediate focus.
Why Four31?
A number of missional thinkers have noted that the church globally is living in a time of liminality. Liminality may be defined simply as a time of transition from one state to another. While we, in South Africa, may not have seen the almost wholesale collapse of Christendom witnessed in Europe and parts of North America, we cannot, however, afford to be naïve about the fact that the place of the church in society is changing.
The church can no longer be said to occupy the central place, or even a significant place, in our communities. Increasingly we are a church on the margins, our opinions tolerated or ignored but rarely sought after or embraced.
In South Africa we still have a strong support for and recognition of traditional church structures but we also have an increasingly strong disconnect with traditional church structures or methodology. This is far deeper than simply dissatisfaction with the music or style of the service, although these could be symptoms of a deeper-seated dissatisfaction or apathy. Increasingly people are not simply looking for a “better kind of church.” they simply have no desire for church. This may manifest itself in hostility, around certain issues, but increasingly they feel only apathy as to what organised religion says or does. This trend in our experience is increasingly cutting across racial and socio-economic categories. We are increasingly reaching a transitional stage between what was and what is to come.
What is required in this time of liminality is not an either-or when it comes to church but a “mixed economy” church culture. There is still a value and a role for traditional church structures but there must be an increasing realisation of the need for new ways of doing church. These new ways must not be led by personal preference or clever innovation but by mission. Mission is the catalytic mark of the church.
This is what Four31 is all about, re-envisioning church for a new reality in order to reach those who are no longer being reached by traditional church structures. Liminality is a threshold experience that requires risk and danger as we seek to create a missional urgency for the journey between what is and what will be.
Many of those who share a similar vision to us will struggle to find a home within the current church structures. Four31 is about creating a home for missional pioneers, so that they may be commissioned and set free to litter the forgotten and neglected places of our cities and country with scattered communities of light.
Also: Four31: The Back-Story
Four31: The Parable of the Mustard Seed
Four31: The Parable of the Mustard Seed
“Jesus said, “How can I describe the Kingdom of God? What story should I use to illustrate it? It is like a mustard seed planted in the ground. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of all garden plants; it grows long branches, and birds can make nests in its shade.” Mark 4:31-32
In this age the Kingdom will grow in hiddenness, weakness and insignificance, without prestige, power or recognition. Small communities of light scattered throughout the nooks and crannies of our cities and communities. Living authentic distinctive lives that both demonstrate and proclaim the goodness of living under the reign of King Jesus.
Thus we take our name (Four31) from Mark 4:31 to remind us that our calling to be church is a calling that will be perceived as insignificant, weak and often unseen like the mustard seed. But that one-day when Jesus returns the church will be the most glorious and breathtakingly beautiful thing that God has fashioned in all of creation. And it will be glorious and beautiful because it is the work of our glorious and beautiful King and Saviour Jesus.
Four31: The Back-Story
Here is an excerpt from our recent newsletter (sign up by sending me an email letting me know you want in):
“Our trip to the UK in October and November last year was a huge blessing. We returned home excited, inspired, encouraged and hugely challenged by all that we saw. We were particularly blessed by our time in Loughborough with The Crowded House (TCH) family there. We love the folks at TCH. We love their passion for mission, their willingness to ask the hard questions and their love for the gospel, the church and for us.
TCH leadership have, however, been re-evaluating how external church plants best affiliate with them and how best they can operate as a network. In short they thought that it would be best for us relocate to the UK for at least 2-3 years (probably more) for a time of training, assessment, gaining of experience, belonging to the church family and building of strong relationships.
While there was much to commend this suggestion and everything was been discussed in a spirit of love and grace towards us; we do not think moving to the UK for a few years will best prepare us for church-planting in Cape Town. So, it is with sadness that we will no longer be a part of The Crowded House network.”
“As a result we have begun work on developing a vision for what our own network (cue Four31) could look like.”
“More and more it feels as if God is calling us to pioneer something new. There is great value in partnering with more established overseas networks, but we all know that contextually Africa is a very different place. So perhaps God is leading us (read kicking and screaming) to take up the experience and the wisdom of our overseas brothers and sister and forge something new and highly contextual here. Perhaps it is time to stop looking at what others are doing and to start simply asking “what would it mean to follow Jesus here?” “What would church look like here among these people in this place?”
Sometimes compassion is reckless
Last week when it was raining so heavily there was a knock at my door…
It was a friend of mine (J) and her daughter. It was dark already and very wet… they were looking for shelter fee. They had almost nothing and it was getting late. Could we help?
Crisis time! My boys ran to the door shouting and laughing to see their little friend, as she spun her wet umbrella around with a shriek of joy.
Let me give you a bit of back-story.
We have a standing commitment to them that we pay their shelter fee once a week, every week. They have a hot shower and join us for supper at least once a week, sometimes more. We have included them in the community life that is growing around The Story. We are actively trying to help J find employment.
We have tried to put some structure to our helping J, not because we are trying to keep ourselves safe or free from discomfort. But honestly we have examined our financial ability as a family and have decided that we can make this commitment to J. It is meant to provide her with some security of a once a week solid commitment from us for money. And some dignity of being a part of a community… a family.
But this was not the night we have pledged to help… this is extra… what now?
Honestly we only had enough money to last us maybe until we got paid on Friday. Our resources are finite! We don’t have the money.
“No,” I said, “Sorry we just don’t have the money today.”
And I watched them walk away into the rain and the darkness.
Honestly we just did not have the money. Well, strictly that is not true… we had the money in the house to help our friend today. But that would have meant that we did not have enough for the rest of the week? But what exactly was all that stuff that Jesus said about feeding the birds of the air and clothing the birds of the field! And what about that thing about not worrying about tomorrow? Would God really take care of me tomorrow if I recklessly followed Him today?
As that picture of those two small figures walking away in the dark and the rain played itself over and over in my mind, I asked myself what would Jesus have done?
The next day there was another knock at the door and amidst the rain and the cold there stood my friend again. We invited her in, drank some coffee together, repented for our lack of faith and gave her money for the shelter.
I still don’t have all the answers but sometimes I simply choose to have faith.
You may also enjoy Is following Jesus really that simple?
Jesus was not crucified between two candles
“I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the centre of the market place as well as on the steeples of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap; at a crossroad so cosmopolitan that they had to write his title in Latin, Hebrew and Greek; at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, thieves curse and soldiers gamble; because that’s where He died; and that is what He died about. And that is where church men and women should be; and what church men and women should be about.”
Geoge McLeod from the latest City Mission newsletter.
I have been hanging out a bit lately with the guys from City Mission. I really love their heart for discipleship and their commitment for going to the hard places. And it does not hurt that they are based some ten minutes walk from my house. Check out some more about them here or sign up for their newsletter here.
Taking Easter to the streets
This Easter we decided to try express the death and resurrection outside the walls of a church building or the confines of a church service.
It was a low-key time of meeting with brokenness and neglected people as we followed Gods spirit into the streets. We cleaned streets and parks as a sign of restoration and new life. We ate together as a sign of restored community. We walked the streets praying, listening to God and learning from those we met. We asked God to show us where to serve as we looked to the future. We learned fresh things from Scripture because of our experiences on the streets.
We discovered the mix of people in the East City area all over again. The division between races and classes. The hatred towards us cleaning the streets and the appreciation for us doing it. We saw the brokenness, the solidarity, the escapism, the hopelessness, the laughter and the lies. We saw our community with fresh eyes and listened with hopeful ears. We mapped the area and discovered more about what is happening – good and bad. We prayed for people and shared the Jesus who came to transform the mess in the world at Easter.
It was a good Easter.
3 Years in Woodstock
Today marks the day 3 years ago that we moved to Woodstock. Convinced of God’s call we arrived with a truck full of stuff, one child, a dog and big dreams. Since then we have flogged or given away all the baby stuff, adopted a second child and lost the dream. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the past few years have, at times, been some of the toughest and most challenging years of our life. We came close at times to walking away… from everything. There were days we were not even sure we wanted to follow Christ anymore. But in the midst of the chaos, the mess, the anger and the tears, somehow we found the dream again. Mostly I think we simply found Christ again and for the first time we realised what it meant to follow him.
Mostly we try to programme, organise and control the mission. We are more concerned to know what tomorrow will look like while God is more concerned with how we will follow him today. We have forgotten that to follow Christ is to give up control, to give up our idols of control, security and comfort, to throw open our homes and our lives to the often chaotic, mostly unplanned, always unexpected and most definitely beautiful mission of God.
In three years it feels like we have lost much, but we have gained so much more. Mostly I look back and I ask myself – what have we done? And I cannot answer my own question. But somehow in some unquantifiable way we have found each other, found ourselves, found life and been found by our Saviour all over again. It has been over two years since we have been a part of a formal Christian community and I miss it deeply. Yet we are not alone we are surrounded by rich, full, deep relationships with our friends – believers and unbelievers.
We did not leave “church” because we were angry or hurt. But through some tough circumstances we found ourselves “out” of mainstream church, and as we tried to figure out the way ahead, God pulled us into mission. He called us into an unorthodox and unlooked-for path, and He has sustained us and loved us. I miss “normal church” but to be honest I don’t ever want to go back!
In 3 years: we have eaten together a whole lot, we have laughed together and we have cried together. We have walked together with the most surprising people. We have tried to listen to them and they to us. We have heard God’s Word afresh together. Somehow we have shared the gospel with the strangest mix of people. We have shared stories, life and hope with each other. Somehow in all of this we are starting to find church again. Not church as a concept. Not church as we have imagined it or shaped it but church as Jesus is growing up among this people in this place. We are finding a deeper, richer and dare I say “more biblical” experience of church, shaped and bound together by mission.
I imagine this post sounds decidedly flaky to most reading it and I confess five years back I probably would have thought so too. But somehow we are more in love with Jesus, more grounded in the gospel, more determined in mission and more a friend of broken people and sinners than ever before. Perhaps that is flaky but I suspect we are in good company with our Saviour…
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