Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20
Whatever the form of Fresh Expression or church plant, it was obvious at every stop that the most critical factor was...
ALL THE PEOPLE IN MISSION
In church planting we have learned that the most critical factor is the planter. In my doctoral project I wrote...
Said the apostle Paul, “I planted.” God planted the first church in
What Paul planted was the church. His methodology was not the reproduction of institutional structures but evangelism, preaching the gospel of Christ... Those who responded in faith inevitably gathered in the church. Neither churches nor planters should stand alone. They are all part of the One, Holy, Catholic and
HOLY TRIANGLE
How the leader imparted this in the places I visited varied from place to place, but the most common language used is adapted from Mike Breen's LifeShapes triangle. (For more on Life-Shapes see below).
The use of the triangle is to suggest that following Christ means living simultaneously in three sets of relationships. Lacking any one point leaves your spiritual life two dimensional at best and unfaithful, lonely, or unfruitful at worst.
In Luke 6:12-20 we read that Jesus went up on a mountain to pray (12), called his disciples to be with him in fellowship (13-16) and came down with them to a large crowd where he would go out in mission (17-20). This deceptively simple triangle sums it up visually.
The top point is UP:Your relationship with God...
The down point is IN:
Your relationships IN the church...
The one pointing right is the OUT:
You moving outward in mission into God's world.
George Lings taught this at the Toronto Vital Church Planting conference in Feb '08. It was covered at St. Thomas' Pilgrimage by several speakers. It is expanded in detail in Mike Breen's books "A Passionate Life" and "A Passionate Church." The triangle was also dropped in casual conversation with several leaders interviewed. It is covered in Phil Potter's new unpublished book "the Challenge of Change." Steve Croft in Mission-Shaped Questions expands it by adding a fourth dimension: OF, turning the triangle into a pyramid, the church seen as pilgrims through time (p 192). But this observation is by no means new. Andy Freeman with Peter Grieg in "Punk Monk" credit Count Zinzendorf (1700-1760) with an almost identical triangle of priorities: True to Christ, Kind to People, Gospel to nations (Ventura:Regal. 2007. p. 107).
We usually see a pyramid with its base flat on the ground but I much prefer to visualize the triangle on its edge, as Bob Hopkins of the Anglican Church Planting Initiatives picked up from someone at Holy Trinity Brompton.
Seen as a play button (as above), the triangle says a) that the Christian spiritual life is not supposed to be static, but b) is meant to lead to dynamic action, and c) is blessedly off balance! Christ propels us out into mission - into "play" mode!
Not every leader used this image, but every community that was making significant headway with the gospel into the regions of the non-churched had fully integrated into their spiritual life
that outreach for the gospel was a vital irreplaceable part of what it means for EACH and EVERY Christian to follow Christ. Further, every group in a church, whether the group be an intimate gathering of people praying for each other, or a small group/cell (3-12 members), or a mid-sized (20-70) congregational cluster, or the whole celebration size Sunday worship should have its UP, IN and OUT dimensions:
How is our UP relationship with God doing?
What sort of time are we really spending IN the body of Christ?
What is God sending us to do OUT in mission to His world?
UP-IN-OUT and FRESH EXPRESSIONS
How is it that most Fresh Expressions are launched and led by laity? Because they see themselves as the planters! They understand that mission is their task and so they take the initiative. How you discover your mission is another matter, but you simplY must be OUTward bound.
This was true no matter the resulting shape of the Church plant or Fresh Expression.
Read on and you will see.
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Just for fun - to press this image home to your heart - listen to James Blunt on Sesame Street praise his triangle (in a self-parody of his hit song "You're Beautiful"). Precious!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Z6tDSb6c8
Just remember to hit the play button.
(suggested by St. Thomas Philadelphia's Anglican Mission Priest The Rev'd Anne Maclaurin)
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Oh yes, more about LifeShapes
LifeShapes is a set of discipleship tools designed over a decade by Mike Breen formerly of St. Thomas, Sheffield. He chose geometric shapes so that the lessons could be easily remembered. The goal is that at any point in the day or in any situation you can recall any of the major lessons by recalling a shape that sometimes hints at the lesson to be put into action - as the triangle - or sometimes is just the number of teaching points. For example,
Circle - our repeating need to repent and believe
Semi-Circle - the pendulum swinging from rest to work and back again
The triangle (as above)
The square (various stages of the leader / disciple relationship)
Pentagon (spiritual gifts), and so on.
These sets of teachings are meant to free not to bind. None of those who taught LifeShapes at St Thomas' Pilgrimage (and there were about a dozen teachers) were all that dogmatic about what the details of each shape must be as long as the needs of the gospel and growth in Christ was maintained.
Indeed, I found considerable openness to other ways of looking at the teaching embodied in the various shapes.
One lecturer even jokingly referred to the "dodecahedron of simplicity".
You gotta love the freedom they gave to grow with the teaching offered...
...and that sense of humour!
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