Tuesday, July 22, 2003
On the Other Side
Brian McLaren has some great thoughts on the emerging church. I just started reading his book "The Church on the Other Side" yesterday and I'm about 2/3rds through it already. His chapter about missions has really stimulated some great thinking about the role of the church in the community.
We have the vision of developing a community hub known as The Dream Center where we would offer a medical clinic, a food distribution system for the homeless, an infant development center, a computer school, community activity center, cafe, and school of the arts. The church could gather in small groups (cells) and large groups (congregations) in the cafe and/or activity center.
The Dream Center could also become the tactical center for local and cross-cultural community development (missions). It's here that I'm getting some fresh ideas! How can we get business people involved in mission while leveraging their marketplace acumen? Why not start small businesses with them as a missionary project? This can be part of a larger strategy of taking Christ's transforming power into needy communities.
A city is composed of 3 distinct and necessary sectors: Government. Business. Education. According to Ed Silvoso, for a city to be reached for Christ, the message must touch these 3 sectors. This can be applied on a smaller scale (microeconomics?). What if the apostolic/missionary agenda for a community would be to develop these three areas in that community. Under government, a church could focus on leadership development, training local people in basic leadership skills. Under business, a church could focus on starting and developing a small business (start up capital would come from kingdom financiers- businessmen from other local or international churches) which would be managed by Christians but staffed by non-Christians from that community. Primary target for discipleship would be the employees. Another goal would be to develop a co-op banking system. Then under education, a church could offer skills training classes in computers, budget management etc. Or even offer classes for children etc. This would all have the underlying activity of building the relationships necessary for disciplemaking.
I wonder if this has ever been attempted before? Sounds like a very ambitious undertaking. Feasability studies need to be done first. Would love to make Muntinlupa a prototype of this kind of missions.
We have the vision of developing a community hub known as The Dream Center where we would offer a medical clinic, a food distribution system for the homeless, an infant development center, a computer school, community activity center, cafe, and school of the arts. The church could gather in small groups (cells) and large groups (congregations) in the cafe and/or activity center.
The Dream Center could also become the tactical center for local and cross-cultural community development (missions). It's here that I'm getting some fresh ideas! How can we get business people involved in mission while leveraging their marketplace acumen? Why not start small businesses with them as a missionary project? This can be part of a larger strategy of taking Christ's transforming power into needy communities.
A city is composed of 3 distinct and necessary sectors: Government. Business. Education. According to Ed Silvoso, for a city to be reached for Christ, the message must touch these 3 sectors. This can be applied on a smaller scale (microeconomics?). What if the apostolic/missionary agenda for a community would be to develop these three areas in that community. Under government, a church could focus on leadership development, training local people in basic leadership skills. Under business, a church could focus on starting and developing a small business (start up capital would come from kingdom financiers- businessmen from other local or international churches) which would be managed by Christians but staffed by non-Christians from that community. Primary target for discipleship would be the employees. Another goal would be to develop a co-op banking system. Then under education, a church could offer skills training classes in computers, budget management etc. Or even offer classes for children etc. This would all have the underlying activity of building the relationships necessary for disciplemaking.
I wonder if this has ever been attempted before? Sounds like a very ambitious undertaking. Feasability studies need to be done first. Would love to make Muntinlupa a prototype of this kind of missions.
