Pictures in my Head

I keep getting these pictures in my head of what Vineyard Church of Rock Hill could look like.  It is fun to dream and re-imagine what God could be leading us to do differently.  The different expressions our church could take on.  I know not all these pictures will become a reality, but it is worth dreaming about.

Perhaps the Lord would cause you to dream about your family, city, neighborhood, and church in the same way.  Perhaps he will give you pictures and images of what a community of passionate followers of Jesus could do in your context if they radically reoriented their lives around the gospel.

What are the pictures God is placing in your head?

Here are some of the pictures in my head:

• I picture "community groups" scattered throughout Rock Hill.  Not so much Bible Studies, not necessarily small groups, not affinity groups or Sunday School classes, but people who are intentionally and purposefully sharing in community together.  Sharing meals together, going to the park together, swapping babysitting nights, studying the Bible together, praying together, having fun together, and passionately engaging our city with the gospel together.  
• I picture diversity.  Black, white, Hispanic, and Asian.  Young and old.  People who have enough money and people who don't quite have enough.  All of these people mixed together, learning from one another, committed to discipleship with one another.  If the kingdom of God is going to be every tribe, tongue, and nation united to worship Jesus for eternity, why not have a little taste of that today through all the diverse types of people in our city? 
• I picture a group of people who don't go to church, but rather are the church.  I picture Sunday morning gatherings not being the "all in all."  Instead we gather on Sundays to worship, encourage one another, study the Bible together, minister to one another, and to celebrate what God is doing in our city and then get back out there and join in our Father's work for another week.
• I picture lots of mission trips.  Mission trips with our kids, our neighbors, and our co-workers coming with us.  I picture God wrecking us for life by bursting our American bubbles on these cross-cultural experiences.      
• I picture a group of people who give ridiculous amounts of money away.  To the poor, to the unreached, to those in need.  I picture us giving wisely and strategically to areas and people we are already giving ourselves to in relationship.    
• I picture a group of people who will pay the cost to multiply all of this by planting more community groups and more churches.  I picture our people, with tears in our eyes, giving away our best folks who we have built community with in order that they may plant new community groups and new churches.

I have more pictures in my head, but I will stop for now.  But I bet God has some pictures for you too!

-Ben

Mass Producing

Americans love to mass produce.  We are in love with growth, numbers, increase, productivity.  We love to get the highest output with the lowest input (profit).  But that mindset clashes with the kingdom of God mindset.  God isn’t impressed by numbers (it’s probably hard to be impressed with numbers when you own everything in the universe).  In fact, it seems like when I read the Bible he usually likes His children to be the underdog.  Outnumbered.  He likes to stack the deck against us, so that He gets the glory when we are delivered.  He doesn’t seem impressed by efficiency and productivity, but He does seem to care an awful lot about relationship. 

God is moving our hearts to start a church that slows down, and doesn’t become obsessed with mass production, but rather becomes obsessed with loving people the way Jesus did.  We want to make disciples and we realize that making disciples takes TIME.  It takes relationship.  It’s not about going to an event, praying a prayer, going through a 6-week course, being assimilated into a church, and then… voila!  We have made disciples.  Making disciples is more involved than that, it is more relational than that, it is more messy than that.  Jesus spent time with 12 guys, one of which he knew would betray him, and discipled them in everyday life.  He took TIME for RELATIONSHIP.  He listened, he asked questions, he cared for people. 

I noticed this tension several years ago when our church in Ohio began to work with people in poverty.  We spent time a lot of time learning from other ministries in town and observing what they were doing.  I was amazed by all the great things they were doing, but I felt like something was missing.  Under-resourced people were being served, but it didn’t feel like they were being loved.  It didn’t feel like they were being listened to, cared for, talked to, or treated like, well, humans. 

Once we launched an inner city ministry I felt the pressure within myself to give in to the American mass production mindset- How many did we feed this week?  How much stuff did we give away this month?  How can we do more?  Not horrible questions to ask, but I was convicted by more important questions I should have been asking- How did we do at loving people this month?  Did we do a good job of listening to folks and caring for them as fellow humans?     

What if the greatest resource God gave the church was… ourselves?  Not our handouts, not our buildings, not our programs, but US?  What if God doesn’t want us to create more mechanisms to mass produce disciples, but to simply give ourselves, our time, our love to people, one person at a time?  This is what we are going to try to do at the Rock Hill Vineyard.     

-Ben