The Groups (in order of appearance on my itinerary)
USA
1. Tom Wolf
Lecturer at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, teaching a class on urban social change. Pastored the Church on Brady, LA, for 29 years. Focusses on Pauline Apostolic pattern. More to follow from Tom. Top
2. John Langston
Also lecturing at GGBTS, a unit on storytelling. Focus on how to tell the gospel with historical foundation, accuracy, and with most meaning and least offense. John planted 200 churches in India with story-based methods learned from mission experience in India. Top
3. Andrew Jones
OM and church pastoral experience. Last few years Andrew and Debbie have worked in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco, with Hippy, Punk, Goth, and Techno subcultures. They called their ministry “My Phather’s House”. Their home on Ashbury became known as the Celtic House, where it was possible to get a feed, a shower, a sleep. They would walk down the Haight with gifts obtained from the Food Bank, praying peace on the neighborhood, and for individuals. They held regular communal meals, inviting any 20 street people for a meal, Bible study, and prayer. They feed the hungry at the Page Street centre. They’ve lived in intentional community, and know spiritual warfare & mapping, and artistic expressions of worship (including drum circles in the park, Christian raves, gospel storytelling in culturally meaningful terms). And their planning and counselling meetings often happened in local coffee shops. It’s pretty hard to know how many people they’ve impacted significantly, as the drum circles, raves and other events were attended by hundreds, and hippies come and go. I would estimate over 1000, and if the kids at The Land are an indication, many have been powerfully impacted by a presentation of the Gospel, in word, deed, and Spirit, in their own subcultural terms. Kathy continues to be found at the Prodigal House when she’s not travelling. Andrew and Debbie have since moved, and are now in Austin Texas, starting a new work among ‘cultural creatives’ while they figure out their next move. More to follow. Top
4. The Land
‘The Land of the Living’ was an old B&B about 4 hours drive north of San Francisco set on the river among the Redwoods. Together with The Prodigal Project (4b) they set up a retreat for hippies to get away and redefine themselves as Christian hippies. Their day consists of breakfast, 2 hours study, lunch, chores and work until 5pm, dinner & depending on which night, creative worship, teaching video, free time.
The 20-30 kids there have become very articulate in spiritual things, and have learned more of the essence of Xty in a few months intensive up here than many Christians seem to have learned in a lifetime.
Comment: One concern, however, is whether extracting them from their friends on the Haight for too long will break down relationships, giving Xty a bad name among their peers, and isolating their own concept of Xty into a cloister. (Xref George Patterson)
4b. The Prodigal Project
Kathy ___ travelled with the groupies following The Grateful Dead, befriending and loving many of these hippies. When in SF, she lives not far from the Celtic House, in the Haight. The PP runs a similar ministry feeding, housing, Bible times etc. Top
5. My Own thoughts
These come 5th because I started jotting them in my journal at this point.
6. Fully Alive, San Mateo
Sunday meetings are in a school gym/theatre in the Silicon Valley, lots of educated young professionals (about 100). The ambient feel is of a Comedy Club - dark, candlelit coffee tables, stage, spotlight, curtains, band behind the curtains. Songs on powerpoint vid projection. Seeker sensitive content.
Tuesday meetings are direct Christian teaching, hardcore worship, and active corporate prayer time.
Comment: it seems that even the seekers prefer the Tuesday nights. Why bother with the effort of Sundays? “It gives us a platform from which to move people to the Tuesday” was the reply. What do you reckon?
7. First Covenant, Celebration, Sacramento
Clarke will quickly tell you this is not a church, its one service, as part of the First Covenant church of Sacramento. But it’s pulling 900 students every week. A big auditorium, low lighting, band lit modestly from behind. The band leads with songs of worship, but the mood and enthusiasm is audience driven.
From time to time throughout, Clarke steps up to say a few minutes worth which focuses the mind all the more on God, and the worship is all the more heartfelt. That’s all the service consists of (except for announcements, which are normally done by 2 hillarious young comics).
Behind the scenes, the worship band works on finding music most conducive to worship, not nec. most impressive: good use of solo instruments and accapella singing. A prayer meeting called 7:14 (as in 2Chr7:14) meets before the service, and then during the service they watch the crowd and pray. After, if there are prayer requests & needs, a second prayer team takes this up.
Comment: One of Clarke’s concerns in this setting is to avoid the trap of seeming triumphalistic, and glossing over people’s pain & chaos. Top
8. Brad Sargent
Extraordinary researcher based at GGBTS. Researches everything, it seems, including: Postmodernism; Intentional Christian community; Celtic spirituality; Sexual brokenness. Many useful insights on every subject, due to copious reading and connections. A prodigious writer and very generous man. Wrote a book recounting “My Phathers House” history and the arising issues of community formation & struggle, and gospel contextualising, spiritual warfare etc., with useful appenicies including celtic spirituality.
9. Coastlands, San Diego
Evan Lauer has recently planted a church for the <35yo Beach crowd of Pacific Beach. Lots of students, and surfers. Worship with a band, interactive exegetical teaching (a crowd of over 100 normally). They have 1) Sunday morning service; 2) Homegroups; and 3) Surf club (about 30 go surfing together.)
Comment: sounds “seeker sensitive” but with a deconstructionist twist.
10. Summit Fellowships, Portland, ORE
Dan & Jodi Mayhew are loosely overseeing a collection of about 5 homegroup style churches around Portland.
a) Every couple of months or so, they all meet together to share encouragement, and connect with God, aware that they’re part of something bigger than their own weekly groups. They see their little collection of house-churches as “little allies” to the wider church of Portland.
b) At one of their house meetings you’ll see a collection of friends pray, sing, share struggles, triumphs, poetry and other occasional creative expressions of their inner life, and then eat a communal meal together. The kids are looked after in another room by adults on rota. The group size grows as people bring their friends to this safe place to open up spiritually. They discuss, build relationships, and demonstrate God’s presence.
c) Wednesday nights leaders “tell the stories” on which their faith is based.
Other teaching & counselling occurs as needed (Menu, see George Patterson)
Comment: Some bases of ministry include Hearing Gods voice (Jack Deere, Dutch Sheets); Counselling (NT Anderson); Post-modernism; & “Experiencing God”.
With Steve, from one of the groups, it was wondered if groups could go bigger and stay post-modern - ie. relational, authentic, unplugged worship / prayer / spiritual power & bondage-breaking / life-giving, hope, freedom, God’s Voice etc. Top
11. Young Leaders’ Network, Doug Pagett...
Doug is employed by Leadership Network to find young leaders, especially at work in postmodern ways and settings. He brings them together to spark each others ideas.
In early March, Doug brought together a team of 20 from various ministries around the USA, to plan a conference in October for “Innovators” and “Early Adopters” of postmodern ministries. The conference will convey some creative concepts about the wholistic nature of the postmodern movement, in postmodern ways - ie. not to just talk about it, reducing faith to a cognitive exercise once more, but to learn in a variety of ways touching the mind indeed, but also the heart, the spirit, the body, the arts, relationships and so on. You can imagine what an interesting process this was to be a part of.
Some hopes for the conference were that:
In order to convey these ideas, some of the plans considered include: 5-sensory worship; rave; fasting & feedback; nature experience; art workshop (); coffee shop discussion; ethnic input; storytelling; interviews; mytic worship; agape feast; as well as a few talking heads.
12. Mars Hill, Seattle
A real highlight of the trip. Mark Driscoll started this church early 97 with 10. It’s now 800 or so, many attending are not yet professing Christians. Mark shared enthusiastically:- “Theology without Doxology leads to Idolatry”, he says, on the need to always teach in the context of worship.
As a postmodernist, he searches the Ancient paths for wisdom; the desert fathers, mystics, celtic Christianity, he might be pre-modern, he says.
There’s often homework, but it’s mostly arts-based (a poem, a song, art, to express such & such). “Every meeting must appeal to the 5 senses.”
Midrash! (a Hebrew word for a constructive forum for argument based on the notion that truth is foung between the tensions).
Mark’s a great motivator (he visits a lot, sharing the gospel, to casting vision, depending on where the people are at). The laity have started:- their own record label; A Coffee House; concert venue; radio booth for their own show; small groups; Bible college; and a new church plant (lead by 3 20yr olds, mentored by Mark). He encourages people to live minimally, and communally. He takes a day a week to retreat. They outsource as much as they can so the church can stay focussed.
They have a “Service Co-ordinator”, and their Music Director was the first on staff (Mark still draws his survival independantly from a support team.)
The CORE VALUES are Meaning; Beauty; Truth; and Community.
For himself, Mark wants to: Study like an Evangelical; Preach like a Pentecostal; Pray like a Mystic; Spiritual Disciplines like the Desert Fathers; Serve like a Liberal; do Art like a Catholic;...
Comment: I think people come because here they can find a hardcore spiritual experience that’s wholistic. There’s a strong sense of reality - people aren’t trying to kid themselves, they’re just being straight up about God, and how he changes their relationship to everything. Top
13. Homeless Church, San Francisco
Evan and April Prosser must be about in their 50’s. They sold their home, bought an RV, and live in it on the streets of San Francisco. The Homeless people find them, and consider them homeless, so it’s their church, too - the Homeless church. Groups of around 10 meet them at the following times: a) Coffee & Pastries, Tu, Th, Fri, 7am, at 15th & Carolina b) Morning Bible study & prayer, Mon-Sat, 10am... China Basin c) Evening Study & prayer, Mon-Sat 530pm or 7pm... Hooper St d) Sunday Worship 3pm... China Basin
Comment: The concept is great, but in practice it’s very dependant on Evan and April. My perception was if they sneeze, the church catches cold.
14. George Patterson, Portland
We met in his house, he had the flu, but it was like a semester of good stuff crammed into an hour. George learned his church planting principles on the mission field in Sth America. Drawing from Luke 10 & Acts 10, he looks for a person of peace, stays with them, NOT EXTRACTING them for discipleship, but working with them in their existing circle to bring Christ’s grace, forgiveness and love to those relatiosnhips. Thus you are discipling a number of people, even before they are Christians.
He uses the menu approach - listen for their next need, then bring that subject in. They choose. He has built up a deposit of manuals and training programs (“Kitchen”(?) has 62 components).
He plants in such a way that makes multiplying more possible (No buildings, high finance, or ‘experts’ - see Jonathan Campbell). He promotes servant leadership (ie menu - the new believer is responsible for their growth, the leader assists), and that the church’s structure should grow out of the relationships. However the bigger a group gets the harder it is for the leader to remain a servant.
Comment: Summit Fellowships and Jonathan Campbell are working models of George’s ideas.
15. Andy and Debbie-Jo Johannesen.
CS Lewis said there was nothing he ever wrote that was not influenced by George MacDonald. It’s hard to come by George MacDonald’s works, so the Johannesen’s publish them all themselves. They are found on the internet and, like George, are postmodernists without even knowing what the word meant. Anti-hierarchy, ecologist, mystic, artistic, intentional about community living, appreciating Celtic Christianity.
Check website: www.johannesen.com
16. Jubilee Ministries (The Church of the Saviour), Washington DC.
Now under the umbrella of Jubillee Ministries, some 50 self-standing ministries have mushroomed around this area (some examples to follow). And within many of these ministries, little relationship networks have formed, which have a spiritual nature due to the foundational premise of the work. And these networks have often become little communities of faith. For example:
16.1 Joseph’s House A home for men dying from AIDS. As part of the ethos of the House, there is a prayer time & Bible chat every week which the men can attend if they wish. Often they do. Their faith is rekindled or nurtured within their struggle...
16.2 Accademy of Hope Teaches the General Ed. Diploma for adults, mostly migrants and welfare victims. 2 year attendance. 6 staff, 70-90 students. Old established churches in the area dont have much to offer but they do have building space, which is where the accademy operates. Besides teaching, it has become a multiracial community, sharing heartaches & triumphs. Every Tuesday they meet for prayer, Bible study, and have even shared communion. They might use physical prayer, or celebrate black history month, or whatever else is meaningful to the group, but it’s a community of faith. They dont yet realise they are practically a church.
16.3 Christ House A convalescence home for homeless men, like a mini hospital almost. Every Sunday there’s a church gathering and many past and present patients have made it their church - it’s a community of faith. Comment: When you look at the service, it’s very formal-looking. You wonder how they get away with it. Answer: Christ House.
16.4 And many more similar little gatherings, reaching a combined total of probably thousands of people. The little organic fellowships have sprung from many of the missions, including: Festival Centre, the hub of Jubilee Ministries with the Servant Leadership school and detox centre; Potters House, a coffee shop and bookstore, & gig venue; Ministry of money, helping people get financially viable; Samaritan Inn & Lazarus House, giving homeless men accomodation, and help with their substance abuse; Jubilee Jobs, finding them work; and places for women in similar problems; Sarah’s Circle, senior citizens; accomodation blocks; youth centres; children; music school; a local surgery; on it goes. Sojourners magazine is also closely connected.
16.5 One key to this whole collection is the maxim, “OrthoPRAXIS before OrthoDOXY.” They want to follow Jesus in practice first and foremost. They attract people from all sorts of denominational backgrounds & theologies. In contrast to ‘Midrashing’ to find truth in the tensions, they just work together following Jesus as a transcending goal. Then they look to each other’s different views as possible sources of enrichment to their own faith journey. It’s not relativism. It’s putting first things first, and it’s respecting each person’s responsibility for their own beliefs, and it’s sharing beliefs by meeting in friendship.
Comment: A very fruitful & refreshing philosophical premise.
Comment: In Perth WA, we are a much more diffuse community, and the financial pool is much smaller. It’s questionable whether such social aid enteprises can be sustained. It might be better for us to connect with pre-existing groups?
16.6 Basic principles: “serious commitment to following Jesus; a faithful, disciplined life of prayer and scripture study; active, hands-on involvement addressing some area of need in our broken world in response to God’s call; faithfulness to the covenant of one’s particular small faith community.” Top
17. Harrambee Community Centre, LA
It’s a school, and runs community activities in the poor neighborhood of Pasadena. It has been going for 15 years, but in the last year a small simple faith community has emerged. People who dont want to go to mainstream churches, but feel a part of this group, and find it nurtures their faith.
Authenticity is a hallmark. “Our sin is out there!” says Rudy, “Yeah we do sin, but we know where help, forgiveness, & love is, and we can help each other find it.”
They celebrate together everything from Passover to soccer wins! Top
18. Barry Taylor, The Sanctuary, Santa Monica
It’s a church, it borrows a church building to meet in (although they’re sussing out a pub down the road), but there are a few key differences from the norm. Half the congregation of one or two hundred would not yet be Christians. They approach problems by brainstorming together. Their meetings include participation in small discussions, good coffee & bagels. They understand the nature of pain & dysfunction in the spiritual journey, hearing God’s voice of new possibilities. Their expression revolves mainly around the arts & music performance, because Barry’s life was that, and he still has a lot of connections. Sanctuary thus attracts people from the same field, with their friends too. Every 6 weeks they have a book club meeting.
19. Jonathan Campbell, LA
In his early 30’s, Jonathan Campbell has drawn from the teachings of George Patterson and Tom Wolf, and put them into practice very effectively. In these postmodern times, many people can deconstruct, but Jonathan has reconstructed, searching the Bible for info regarding Paul’s pattern of teaching he passed on to Timothy and others, which enabled them to plant churches which planted churches. In the last 3 years some 20 (apologies to those to whom I errantly exaggerated this figure in conversation) organic new churches have sprouted (10-25 people in each), and they’ve also been a catalyst to many other groups. Some of his insights are:-
19.1 The following are artificial supports to churches, and they hamper church multiplication - I) buildings, II) high finances, III) paid “experts”.
19.2 We come together to do what we can’t do ourselves - edify each other, equip each other, synergy, facilitate healthy growth, stay focussed on Jesus & his reality manifested. Together they make space for him, and connect with scripture, prayer.
19.3 Set up as a Foundation (exists to give $ away) not a Corporation (exists to get $ in.) The only reasons for collecting $ are to give to social need, and to support itinerant outreach. < Top
20 Acts 29, Bob Merwin, Marin County, SF
Get a couple of local churches to outsource their youth programs to an able team of youth workers (one staff), and you’ve got Acts 29. A great idea, working well in Marin Co. They are drawing well over 100 kids to their midweek worship service, set in a room connected to one of the churches, incorperating features from a games arcade, a comedy theatre, a disco, a lecture theatre, coffee shop, and church.
The kids love it! They play, socialize, worship, pray, and are taught. When I was there, they were planning a work mission trip to Mexico.
Comment: The main stress point is avoiding denominational toes. And it’s expressly NOT a church... although it practically could be. Top
21 CERJ, LA
“Christian leaders Empowering for Reconciliation with Justice” is a group Rudy is involved in - a 2 year course, 4 units, coming from South Africa’s experience. 20 young leaders from as wide a range of cultural contexts are drawn together to train in: story telling; border-crossing; sensitivity to subordinate plausibility structures & cultures; learning the histories; truth and reconciliation. The aim is to train a group of “reconciliation-brokers” to help overcome some of the cultural conflicts in LA, who can also train others.
Comment: Evangelism is overcoming cultural differences to bring understanding/mediation of worldviews. Top
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