"Come to us" Christianity

I am in transition. At a recent meeting with Chris Neal of CMS he spoke about the institutional church as a "black hole that sucks everything in". I feel like I am waking up to the fact I have been infected by a "come to us" version of Christianity.

Despite all my emphasis on Evangelism (25 Alpha courses in the past 10years) and commitment to growth through cell church all we are seeing is addition. And I have been so influenced by the institution so that I was measuring success by how big the congregation became, and how many people were in cell groups and how often the cell groups multiplied (which isn't often ... they tend to mutuate instead).

Two and a half years ago I was privileged to meet up with Nick Haigh http://journeyinginmission.blogspot.com/ who has been curate with me at St.Mark's since July 2004. His advent has been accompanied by a growing emphasis on mission to the people "out there".

Two years ago I felt that Isaiah 54:2 was the verse for our church "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes." This is still true for the institutional bit. It is too dependent on clergy. Too passive. It needs to be strengthened by those who love church in this form taking greater ownership. As they say in the community development sphere "never do for others what they could and should be doing for themselves."

We are starting to stretch our tent curtains wider. We have a growing BCP congregation (fancy that!) and we recently started an "interactive" worship service in our Parish Hall. For some this is easier to belong to that trad church. I believe that we are going to see many more tent flaps before long.

This is good. it is Mission. It produces growth.... but it is still come to us. It is still just addition. But in my belly I believe that the Kingdom of God is meant to multiply.

I noticed this week that Isaiah exhibits the same unconscious tension. As a man who could walk up to the King, Isaiah was part of the institution. In many of his prophecies we hear a promise that the nations will come to Jerusalem (ie come to us) eg 55:5 or that he will gather his people 43:6-7 or that we need more room in the tent 54:1-2. And then he comes out with a prophecy of going out and transforming the wilderness eg 43:19 55:12-13 54:3

I am exploring how we can go out into that wilderness where multiplication can happen.