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.
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 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?”
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…
I Made Pizza… and then some!
We wanted to connect with our friends who were a part of our spirituality group (“the god group”) last year. But we thought it would be good to open it up to others as well. Next thing I knew there was a Facebook Group going and there were 20 or so people invited and I had not even invited anyone yet. Did I mention that I was making the pizza!!!
In the end there was about 15 adults and 4 kids… People had a lot of fun, it was good to see some of our friends again and the pizza was a definite hit. A large part of the group had a common connection which sometimes inadvertently alienates those who don’t share the connection, so I would probably try to mix up the group a bit more the next time. Perhaps it would be good to have some kind of common activity to create a new shared experience. There was reason that church youth groups always used to have those cheesy ice-breakers…
10 Things I (still) Love about woodstock
Last week we were working through the Porterbrook Training module on Missional Community Life with our learning group recently. In the unit on Missional Engagement one of the exercises asks us to list ten things you love about your neighbourhood.
I previously posted 10 Things I Love About Woodstock but I thought it might be fun to see if my list needs some updating.
1. The ethnic, economic and cultural diversity
2. I love the proximity to the mountain and Woodstock cave (ok this is a bit of a stretch but it is called Woodstock cave) is one of my favourite spots to pray and stare at the city.
3. You can paint your house (or parts) thereof weird colours and does not look out or strange
4. Jamaica Me Crazy is one of my favourite hang-out spots. Good food (pizza, burgers), excellent selection of craft beers, sport on the big screen and a overall a good vibe.
5. Love finding bargains and interesting “junk” at the dump, Salvation army shop or a bunch of other (sometimes unnamed) shops around Woodstock.
6. I love the vibe and the feel of the place- creative, noisy, vibrant, loud, colourful, a bit grungy, full of life.
7. It is so central to airports, public transport, major highways, city centre, and just about anywhere you care to go to in the city. Interesting but useless fact – there is not one single traffic light between my house and the airport!
8. I tutored kids with the Help to Read programme at Mountain Road Primary School last year. It is not a wealthy school at all but I was seriously impressed. The effort to beautify it, the passion of the teachers, the library, all the extras like that the school offers. In fact, next year we are sending our boys there.
9. Love the street art that you can find in all sorts of nooks and crannies all over Woodstock. We have street art by some of the biggest names in South African street art such as Freddy Sam and Faith 47.
10. Love that I can still get a great haircut for only R20 from my Congolese barber
Ten Things I Love about Woodstock
I was working through the Porterbrook Training module on Missional Community Life with a learning group recently and the exercise in the unit on Missional Engagement asked us to list ten things you love about your neighbourhood.
I thought it might be fun to post my thoughts here. Ten things I love about Woodstock:
1. The ethnic, economic and cultural diversity
2. The Artisan Bakery has the best breakfast
3. You can paint your house (or parts) thereof weird colours and does not look out or strange
4. Jamaica Me Crazy has a nice selection of craft beers
5. Love finding bargains and interesting “junk” at the dump, Salvation army shop or a bunch of other (sometimes unnamed) shops around Woodstock.
6. Love the creative/artistic vibe that is growing in the area
7. It is so central to airports, public transport, major highways, city centre, and just about anywhere you care to go to in the city.
8. Espresso lab makes great coffee
9. Love the street art that you can find in all sorts of nooks and crannies
10. Love that I can get a great haircut for only R20 from my Congolese barber
Five months ago I would have said how much I love the “local” feel of having a beer, some awesome food and watching the rugby at Woodstock Lounge but under new owners it has a whole new look. Food still tastes good but it feels like it has lost its soul. (Update: Just read on the website that they the owners are avid Liverpool fans, might want to rethink what I said above, YMWA)
But although I have not been yet, I am sure the new Don Pedro’s and all His Beautiful Wives (owned by the Madame Zingara Group) looks really quirky and fun and might become a favourite place to visit (hope they are not expensive?)
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