What Kind of Church?

As we run into folks around Missoula, one of the questions that comes up quite often is, "So what kind of church are you going to start?" And that's a difficult question to answer.

On the one hand, it's hard to know what's really being asked - kind of like when someone says, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" Do they really want to know? Or are they just exchanging pleasantries? Are they interested only in externals, like career and earning potential? Or do they actually care about what kind of person you want to become?

On the other hand, even if you do know what someone is asking, it's still very difficult to put into words. You cannot quantify what a church is simply by describing its location, its creeds, its theology, its liturgy.

A church is not simply an organization - it's an organism, a moving target, a work in progress. It consists of many members, all walking through life in different ways, directions, manners. It aims for a standard (to be like Jesus, to share the good news about him, to care for the poor and needy, etc), and yet it always falls short of the goal, too - not simply because we inevitably disagree over specifics, but because we are all sinners, we are all bent, even those of us within the church.

As a friend of mine once reminded me, "Yes, the Church is a whore; but that whore is the bride of Christ and your mother, and you have no right to abandon her."

Ouch. And actually, it's even worse that that. The church is a whore because I am a whore, which is precisely the point of the gospel:

"I am a whore I do confess, put you on just like a wedding dress,
and I run down the aisle, run down the aisle, to you..."

- Derek Webb, Wedding Dress

So what kind of church DO we want to start?

Hmm, are you sure you really want to know?

If so, you might want to start by considering What If..., or by taking a look at our Core Values. Or how about the The 'Following Jesus' Manifesto from Today At The Mission (written by someone who lives / works in a homeless shelter), talking about what it really means to be a follower of Christ - it's not like we embrace every single one of these literally, but we sure like the gist of them:

1. Stop talking about Jesus. Just stop. If we loved the people around us half as much as we say we love Jesus the rest of this manifesto would be entirely redundant.
   
2. Live a secret life. Invest the time, effort and vulnerability necessary to delve deeply into the scripture and prayer. Spend long periods of time in stillness. There is no shortcut to this, there is no other way. Without a deep and secret life we soon find ourselves talking about Jesus instead of being like Jesus.
   
3. Stop pretending. I'm a Christian, and I suck. So do you. Let's get that out of the way, shall we?
   
4. Give more than you get. There will always be more than enough.
   
5. Be present for those around you. Following Jesus has nothing to do with your work, your resume or your income. In fact, nothing that matters does.
   
6. Treasure broken-ness. Our broken places are sacred spaces in our heart. Honour them. Value them. In doing so you love the unlovely, publicly declaring the beauty of God's image in everyone. Greet the broken with comfort and cool water.
   
7. Throw a party.
   
8. Know Jesus well enough to recognize him on the street. This is rather important, because he can always be found on the street - and he usually looks more like a pan-handler than a preacher.
   
9. Accept ingratitude and abuse as a fixed cost. Embrace them, and then go the extra mile.
   
10. If you follow Jesus, you will anger religious people. This is how you will know.

Strong words. Yet this is a snapshot of the Christian life that resonates with us. We might not agree with all of these credos, or put them quite this way; we might want to add a few more or nuance them slightly - but on the whole, these are the kind of people we hope to become, and this is the kind of church we'd like to plant here in Missoula.

Of course, you can't describe a church in ten short bullet points. But you can paint a picture, and much of what we will be writing about over the coming months will be intended to do just that - to offer sketches, glimpses, hints of what we're about and where we hope to go.

We may not ever be able to describe what we are after exhaustively, but given enough time and snapshots, I think the vision we are pursuing will start to become clear. And in the meantime, we'd still love to hear from you...