Thoughts on Domestic Church Planting within the CME Denomination

(Originally published October 20, 2012) Proximity Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) was the first CME mission in Idaho. It was birthed on March 21, 2010, after years of preparation and prayer, and held its last service on June 24, 2012. Proximity met in three different houses, in Collister United Methodist church, and in a local coffee shop as we sought to become a multi-site, multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-socioeconomic congregation of believers and non-believers located in Boise and Nampa, Idaho. We were uniquely situated in God’s grace. The CME Church has historically been an African American denomination; Proximity was mostly a European American congregation. Traditionally church planting in the CME Church has occurred because of a church division; we began intentionally. We discovered early in the process we were not going to be a traditional CME church.

We were becoming an emergent CME fellowship, a group of relationships. We are dealing with some fundamental issues that everyone has brought into the fellowship. And quite honestly experiencing culture shock as we went about the process of creating a new culture. Stella Ting-Toomey in her book Communicating Across Cultures, discussed such culture shock, or the “transitional process in which an individual perceives threats to her or his well-being in a culturally new environment” (Kindle location 5754). All of us brought into Proximity an onslaught of opinions concerning what the church was and who Christians are. Alan Roxburgh in The Sky is Falling: Leaders Lost in Transition, speaks of the ever increasing onslaught of discontinuous change facing the church, and the churches’ desire to maintain some kind of stability (55). This charge for stability is being led by what Roxburgh termed Liminals. Liminals are Modern-minded Christians who carry with them the memory of the way things were, and with that comes important skills and habits, but also a strong resistance to change (22).

The ministry of Proximity CME Church was fueled by an earnest desire to “Bring People Closer to Jesus”. This missional mantra come from the second chapter of Mark, where the author records an encounter Jesus had in Capernaum. Jesus was in a full house, and four men came bringing a man on a mat. They could not get the man in the door, so they ripped part of the roof off, and lowered the man down right in front of Jesus. The text says in verse 5, “And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’” (NASB). This author appreciates the ambiguity of “their faith”. The text does not define if the faith was that of the paralytic or the friends or both.

In the past two years we wrestled with that and other mysteries in the Scriptures, heartbreakingly at times. We earnestly sought to apply them as if our mission was to go out and get people and bring them into the place where Jesus was, so they can get closer to Him. Was we went about doing this we kept finding out that Jesus was out among the sinners and tax collectors, so that is where we went. Our understanding of mission motivated our conversations toward both bringing them to Jesus and bringing Jesus to them. Our orthodoxy was shaping our orthopraxy. We ended up creating a place where people can wrestle with God and live, a Peniel (Gen 32).

The purpose of this article will be to examine the role of domestic church planting within the CME denomination as places where post-modern sinners and saints can safely wrestle with the mysteries of God.

Prevenience

John Wesley stated it is important for believers and unbelievers to interact with the grace of God by attending public worship, fasting, prayer, reading Scripture, and doing good (Wesley The Means of Grace). We must be intentional about persisting in these “means of grace”. Wesley based these on Acts 2:42. These means must not become stumbling blocks to us, however we understand the list is not exclusive and that God is above the means. Albert C. Outler in Evangelism and Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit teaches in his preaching, Wesley used Mark 1:15 more than any other text, and his main appeal was the call sinners to repentance and the promise of pardon (82). James C. Logan, ed., Theology and Evangelism in the Wesleyan Heritage, reminds us that Wesleyan soteriology was all about saving those who are truly apart from Christ (58). This must be placed first in our engagement regarding domestic church planting, any other motivation will frustrate our efforts. When seeking to fulfill the role of domestic church planting within the CME denomination our desire must be to save those who are truly apart from Christ.

And

John Caputo, in Philosophy and Theology (Horizons in Theology), introduced the power of “and” (Kindle Location 51-53). “And” can be one of the best words in the English language. The 2012 Coke Zero commercial “And” illustrates how much power “and” can actually have (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_GChseAfvk via @cokezero). There is a lot of common ground between both sinners and saints. We want similar goals, to be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy in the life to come. There is an “and”. Diverse groups can sojourn together if they look for the same destination. Proximity was made up of very diverse people, from post-church homosexuals, to recovering drug addicts, to hyper straight-laced Christians, and from the outside there is no reason we should get along, except the “and”: Jesus the Christ was crucified and resurrected to restore us to right relationship with God and others.

When seeking to fulfill the role of domestic church planting within the CME denomination seek to create a place of “and”; Liberals and Conservatives, Philosophers and Theologians, Believers and Non-Believers, Blacks and Whites meeting together because of, and to the glory of, Jesus the Christ. Jesus prayed for such unity (John 17).

Post-

Craig Detweiler and Barry Taylor in their book A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture, explain how regardless of our zip code, we all live in a world shaped, for better or worse, by Hollywood and pop culture, and it is devoid of pillars, and full of posts- “post-national, post-rational, post-literal, post-scientific, post-technological, post-sexual, post-racial, post-human, post-traumatic, post-therapeutic, post-ethical, post-institutional, and post-Christian era” (Kindle location 562). Most of these labels were hindering our “and”. So for the sake of unity we had to move beyond labels. At Proximity we acknowledged we sought to find a new way of describing people, and activities, without boxing them in a corner. We wanted everyone to be a Christian, first.  When your identity is found in Christ, everything else

When seeking to fulfill the role of domestic church planting within the CME denomination seek to be the place where only God is famous. Christian first, Methodist second and Episcopal last. This was the hardest portion. Non-Christians do not differentiate between a Baptist and a Catholic, therefore when any preacher “falls from grace” the entire church suffers, regardless of denomination. We discussed everything from money scandals to sex scandals to abuse of power issues, because the streets, like Gallio the proconsul of Achaia in Acts 18, do not see differences in our petty arguments regarding words and names and our own law (v. 15). Becoming a celebrity has shifted “from role models who performed great deeds to celebrities who are known for their wellknownness” (Detweiler Kindle location 1948).

Societies

John Wesley said, “The rich, the honourable, the great, we willing leave to you. Only let us alone with the poor, the vulgar, the base, the outcast of [society]” (Logan 142). It was said that Wesley spoke a “plain truth for plain people” (Logan 17). Lovett Weems, Leadership in the Wesleyan Spirit, reminds us that the United Societies showed care and respect for common folk, and Wesley did not have “extraordinary oratorical skills” (15). Even the New Testament was written in the language of the common folk, Koine Greek (Detweiler and Taylor, Kindle Location 411).

When seeking to fulfill the role of domestic church planting within the CME denomination seek to be the place where everyone can belong. Proximity made room for everyone to engage the mysteries of God. Some of us had been cast out of other congregations. Some of us had been abandoned by our biological families. We were the outcasts of society. I think that is what makes our fellowship distinctly Wesleyan is that we meant it when we said; “Everyone has a place at the Lord’s table.” It was wonderful to see someone who called themselves post-Christian re-engaging in the work of the Gospel.

Love

In America the most known passage of scripture is arguably John 3:16, and Caputo’s strongly warns the church, “The opposite of loving God is cynicism, loving nothing, which translates into loving ourselves in an unenlightened way” (Kindle Location 775). Therefore, we must focus on love- loving God and loving our neighbor (Mt. 22). Paul correctly says, “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor. 13).

Love enables us to focus on the “and”, to move beyond “post-“, to get back to our “societies”, and focus on “love”.

This was a huge lesson learned during our two years serving in Idaho. Other spiritual groups are doing a better job of meeting the religious needs of our neighbors (Weems 121). Protestantism is on the decline in America according to a Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released on October 9, 2012, and those with No Religious Affiliation are on the rise. The report doesn’t say they do not believe, only they are not affiliated, so there is plenty of work to be done. This must be addressed by training and releasing more domestic missionaries to go start more societies to reach the 1 in 5 unaffiliated Americans. The proverbial fields are still ready to be harvested. Are we using the right tools? Each domestic missionary, church and district must seek to answer this question based upon who they are, where they are, who is the Lord bringing to their doorsteps, and how do they best reach them. The early church went through this process in Acts 15, what has been called the First Ecumenical Council of Jerusalem.

“Do Gentile’s have to follow Torah in order to follow Jesus?” was the question at hand for them. Who were they? They were mostly Jews who gave their lives to Jesus. Where were they? They were Christian Jews in a religiously pluralistic society with non-Christian Jews and non-Christian Gentiles. Who was the Lord bringing to their doorsteps? The Lord was adding non-proselytized Gentiles. How did they best reach them? “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.” (Acts 15:28-29 NLT)

So the last things this author will seek to pass on in this work concerning the lessons learned at Proximity is the reality of the journey (Roxburgh 64). Jesus is discussed as being “The Way” (John 14), and He wants people to “follow Him” (Mark 1, etc.). Therefore those who seek to take these words and put them into action must be ready for an exciting journey. Letty Russell stated, “servanthood is beautiful and powerful for those who accept both its risk and cost” (Weems 36), acceptance can lead to a joy therefore enjoy your beautifully powerful journey. Enjoy your time spent carrying others, and being carried closer to Jesus. Enjoy being able to rest in the presence of the Lord with people and be safe. Enjoy watching other people mature in Christ and take their fore-ordained place in the mission.

Work Cited:

John Caputo. Philosophy and Theology (Horizons in Theology) (Abingdon Press, 2006) Kindle Edition.

Detweiler, Craig; Taylor, Barry (2011-09-27). A Matrix of Meanings: finding God in pop culture (Engaging Culture). Baker Book Group - A. Kindle Edition.

James C. Logan, ed., Theology and Evangelism in the Wesleyan Heritage. Nashville: Kingwood Books, 1994.

Sondra Higgins Matthaei, Making Disciples: Faith Formation in the Wesleyan Tradition. Nashville: Abingdon, 2000.

Albert C. Outler, Evangelism and Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit. Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 1996.

Alan J. Roxburgh. The Sky is Falling: Leaders Lost in Transition (ACI Publishing, 2005).

James K.A. Smith. Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church (The Church and Postmodern Culture). Kindle Edition.

Ting-Toomey, Stella (2012-05-09). Communicating Across Cultures (Guilford Communication Series). Guilford Press. Kindle Edition

Lovett H. Weems, Jr., Leadership in the Wesleyan Spirit. Nashville: Abingdon, 1999.

For additional information on Domestic Church Planting and Missiology see:

Carroll, Jackson, Wade Roof. Bridging Divided World: Generational Cultures in Congregations.

Dudley, Carl, Nancy Ammerman. Congregations in Transition: A Guide for Analyzing, Assessing, and Adapting in Changing Communities.

Gibbs, Eddie. ChurchNext: Quantum Changes in How We Do Ministry

Hirsch, Alan. The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church.

Kimball, Dan. They Like Jesus but Not the Church: Responding to Culture’s Objections to Christianity.

L’Engle, Madeleine. The Rock That is Higher: Story as Truth.

Oord, Thomas Jay. The Nature of Love: A Theology.

Rognlien, Bob. Experiential Worship: Encountering God with Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength.

Stone, Bryan. Evangelism after Christendom: The Theology and Practice of Christian Witness.

Sweet, Leonard. Post-Modern Pilgrims: First Century Passion for the 21st Century Church.

Viola, Frank. Reimagining Church.

Webber, Robert. Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World.

Weston, Paul. Lesslie Newbigin: Missionary Theologian: a Reader.