The Church of Santa Barbara
At our meeting on the 21st of March we discussed a potential new project for One in Christ. While we haven't firmly defined how the project would look yet, we talked about some exciting things.
This is some of what we have discussed about the project so far (correct me if I misinterpret):
- The purpose of the project is to encourage the Church of Santa Barbara to re-contextualize the way in which it views itself. If the Church is the Church in each place (ie the Church of Corinth, the Church of Ephesus, the Church of Rome, the Church of Santa Barbara), then the members of the Church should think of themselves not in in terms of a single denomination, a single congregation, nor even in terms of an individual relationship with Christ. Rather it should think of itself as part of a collective whole meant, one meant to serve the needs of the greater community (Christian and non-Christian).
- In order to meet this purpose, One in Christ would send delegations of a few students (2-5) to each church in the Santa Barbara community. They would observe the church, from the worship style, to the ministries that each one is involved in, to the demographics of the church. One important aspect would be talking with the pastor/priest and parishioners of the church to discover how they see their purpose in the community.
- In order to make this useful fore more than just the students involved it would be important to create a resource (website, blog, newsletter, book... we dream big) that would describe each church under their own terms, but under the context of a collective Body under one ruler, Christ. Basically, the resource would re-frame and re-contextualize each individual church to give it a larger (and more biblical) perspective.
- Furthermore, the resource would be an effective networking tool for churches and individuals looking to serve the community of Santa Barbara in a biblical, unified, and efficient way.
- In other words we are trying to make the Church more catholic (def: pertaining to the whole Christian body or church).
Some questions to consider as we think about this:
- What are potential touchy subjects about this idea that could offend sensitive Christians?
- What questions should we ask priests/pastors and parishioners about their church? What are effective questions to gain a substantial amount of knowledge about each church in a very short amount of time?
- How should we go about describing each church in ways that will be fair and acceptable to them, and also true to a biblical understanding of the nature and context of the Church of Santa Barbara?
- Most importantly, what should we call this thing? Think catchy, think spicy.
- If you think of any more questions to consider as we engage with this idea, feel free to comment.
Grace and peace,
Joe
3 comments:
From our discussion tonight the following is a proposal of how we can serve.
Serving Churches: Ways to put on the lenses and shoes of the 'other' church. (This is list is far from finalized so edit at will)
0) Respectfully ask permission from the church and inform the leaders on who we are and what we are doing.
1) Dress Appropriately for the style of the particular church.
2) Join in the musical worship of God with the styles of the church
3) Pray with church (Offer Jesus's Prayer from John 17:20)
4) Talk with your brothers in Christ from this particular congregation as brothers and sisters in Christ.
5) Commune or don't Commune with Church based on which is appropriate.
6) Give an explanation of our mission to the pastor/preist.
7) Listen to their thoughts on Church Reconciliation.
8) Participate in special events/ local missions of the church. Such as feeding the poor with them.
9) Ask about any particular needs or prayer requests they have as a church body.
10) End in prayer for the body
A great issue was raised tonight: should the emphasis of this ministry, especially the creation of "the resource," be prophetic or pragmatic? In other words, should we actively call out the Church of Santa Barbara on its failings as a body, or should we try to be more conciliatory by simply describing the Church in a new, creative, biblical way? Should we seek to be more like Jeremiah or Paul's letter to the Corinthians and not worry about whether people are offended by what we say? Or should we try to be more practical, trying to arrange our message so that it would inspire people to change by seeing the benefit in a fresh perspective? The hard sell or the soft sell?
This is a great question and one that I think we need to prayerfully consider.
I am impressed with the ideas put forth in this blog...keep going...I would love to dialogue more about it.
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