The Place of Geography, The Geography of Place; Part 2
We are spending a few Wednesdays in a row exploring the topic of parish—the where and who of ministry. We’d like to discuss together the importance of place to the mission of the local church. To what extent should a circumscribed geography be determinative of a local church’s calling and culture? Does a theology of place matter? Indeed, what’s the place of geography in the mission of the church?
What you will read over these few Wednesday posts is a real discussion that occurred between pastors from around the country in very different places. They serve as church planters, pastors, and associate pastors who are thinking through what it means to be committed to a particular place and people. The churches these men serve range from 1000 to 100 people and from 30 to 3 years old. We are presenting the former discussion here in serial form over a few weeks, and the idea is that you’ll be encouraged to join in as we go–ask questions, argue, provide insight–to help the conversation take new directions.
“Some Theological Grounds”
Vito Aiuto, Brooklyn: At the risk of hyperbole and spiritual pride, maybe it’s an attempt to do church with the conviction that the Incarnation actually happened, i.e. that grace operates in the arena of the physical and that to attend to the spiritual is always to take the physical as utterly serious. Thus that (might) mean that everything that we would do in church would be very attentive to place. It matters where we live. It matters where we work and where we worship. It matters where we have our small groups.
It means staking out a reasonable (arbitrary?) patch of land and hunkering down into it and refusing to leave, trying to live the Kingdom there.
One guiding quote would be from Flannery O’Connor: “Somewhere is better than anywhere.”
Wendell Berry’s entire life and work has been an exploration of this: “My work has been motivated by a desire to make myself responsibly at home in this world and in my native and chosen place.”
It’s why the tomatoes from the small farm a few hours drive from you are better than the ones that come from a 500,000 acre farm in Chile.
Shayne Wheeler, Decatur: The Church needs a theology of “place”. Not sure how to flesh it all out, but it most certainly means that where you live matters. If you amputate worship from your place, a part of worship withers and will eventually die. Same goes for discipleship. The Kingdom grows when roots are put down. A commitment to the redemptive purposes of God means a commitment to a place.
We need to give our people a sense that they are not just called to mission in general, but are called to particular mission in a particular context and the language of incarnation is precisely the language that gets at the heart of this.
Josh Eby, Peru: Here are a few additional thoughts. The foundation for parish ministry is the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection teaches us that Christ is the Lord and King over everything in creation. This means he is also the Lord and King of every nation, city and neighborhood. In each neighborhood some readily acknowledge his Kingship. These are those who have been baptized in Christ’s name and are a part of Christ’s church. Some have rebelled against his Kingship. These are those who are baptized but have forsaken Christ and are outside of the life of his church. Some are ignorant of his Kingship and need to be taught and brought into the care of the church.
What this means is that parish ministry is not limited to those already in the church. My parish also includes those rebelling against Christ and those ignorant of Christ. The family in my community group that asks for prayer, the neighbor who needs her lawn mowed, the guy spewing venom about Christians at the bar and the homeless lady asking for a few bucks are all a part of my parish. They may not all be a part of my church, but they live in the place where I most earnestly pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on EARTH as it is in heaven.” They all live in the place where I have been called to make Christ’s Kingship known. When we forget this aspect of the parish, the church quickly stops existing for the world and sadly only exists for herself.
Vito Aiuto, Brooklyn: Josh, that little section about parish ministry you wrote is going in one in one of my upcoming sermons. I’ll quote you, and by “quote you” I mean I’ll stop mid-sentence, look off the in the distance and deliver what you write with a lump in my throat like I just thought of it that very moment.
Except the part about the neighbor who needs her lawn mowed. I don’t know anyone in our neighborhood who has a lawn. If I say that, everyone will know I ripped off a friend from the south.
Posted: November 19th, 2008 under Contextualization, Ecclesiology, Mission, Wednesdays.
Comments
Comment from Walter Henegar, Atlanta
Time November 22, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Very helpful discussion, brothers.
I might add that attending to geography also helps clarify what a local church is NOT called to do. I mean we don’t have to bend over backwards trying to offer every possible service to every person from every distance who happens to like our church.
Though that might sound lazy, it actually broadens the work of ministry. Rather than “doing what we do” for whoever may be drawn to it, we must more actively and deliberately work to be “all things” to all of the people around us. Even the most economically or racially homogeneous places include VERY different kinds of people, especially in their attitudes toward religion in general and Christianity in particular.
I love the way Chesterton put it over a hundred years ago:
“If we were tomorrow morning snowed up in a street in which we live, we should step into a much larger and much wilder world than we have ever known… We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbour. Hence he comes to us clad in all the careless terrors of nature; he is as strange as the stars, as reckless and indifferent as the rain.”
Comment from Robby Holt
Time November 24, 2008 at 8:35 am
I am so thankful for what I am reading here. We are struggling to understand and live out a parish model at North Shore Fellowship in Chattanooga.
In some ways, our multiple parish approach (we care for 100s of people coming from 11 parishes), is a plan to be freed to incarnate more fully where we were planted. Our plant exceeded 100s (who were commuting) from the beginning. So, in many ways, we are working backwards toward our primary parish.
We have organized ourselves into (i.e. recognized) 11 geographical parishes with our elders and deacons each responsible for 1 parish to provide real care for our members and guidance to reach our actual neighborhoods. Both of these priorities occur primarily through parish oriented fellowship groups. Our hope is that this will allow us space to incarnate in North Chattanooga (in partnership with our members who live in North Chattanooga) and help us plant new fellowships toward our people in gospel-shaped (caring/missional) community.
Comment from Sam Wheatley
Time November 25, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Omari, Walter and Robby — great responses! Would any of you like to write up a post for PCA Conversations about how this issue of place is working itself out in your contexts? The brief things you mentioned are tantalizing and I’d like to hear more. Email me at Sam@newsong.org Grace! Sam
Comment from Omari Hill
Time November 21, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Wow, you brothers are cranking out some serious quotables.
This conversation reminds me of Genesis. In it, we see that when the Lord made us in His image He made us with finite bodies. We can’t help but be localized beings. It’s in our design. People who struggle with stretching themselves all over the place tend to run low on the compassion tank. (I know about this group because I’m a card-carrying member.) They are anxious Christians who worry too much about making an impact before they die. Paradoxically, their lack of rest may send them to an early grave. Let’s not even talk about the impact on their marriages. Internet junkies we sometimes are because it gives us easy access to “places” far away.
I love C.S. Lewis’ thoughts on this in The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape tells Wormwood that he should encourage his client to keep thinking about the poor people over in Germany because it will keep him from seeing his lack of compassion toward the woman he lives with … his mother. No wonder much of the qualifications for an elder deals with the home. Ultimately, I think, our hearts are restless for our home with God in heaven. That longing needs to be addressed. Something about both Eden and the new heavens and new earth, Genesis and Revelation must have some bearing on how we think about being a localized community under the Word for our neighbors.
Okay, I’ve said too much. Thank you for this opportunity for prayerful thought.