the pitt - part nine: can you keep a secret?

Shhhh, I'm going to tell you a secret, OK?
 

Don't tell anyone!

It's about this whole call-to-Pittsburgh-thing.

The thing is: we're not planting a church.  So, shhhhhhhhhhh, don't let the word get around, OK?

Whew, kind of good to get that off my chest after all the conversations, unsolicited advice and looks-of-horror I have received when talking about what God is calling us into in Pittsburgh.  Because of all of those thrilling, difficult, weird, "talking-past-one-another," assumption-riddled conversations, I've begun to let the real secret get out.  OK, I can see some people glancing nervously at each other right now after discovering our secret, and some are just scratching their heads.  Here's the deal: it's not going to be a typical "church-plant" that most people think of when I say the word "church" and add a hyphen and the word "plant" to it.  I have discovered that there are all kinds of immediate images and "baggage" and preconceived notions with this terrific, horrific, tantalyzing word-combo.
 

It seems to me that if we rush to build this Sunday "venue" (and most church-planting "experts" advise you to build this ASAP, do-it-in-at-least-one-to-two years) after the fashion of many churches and church-planting expert recommendations today, we may never get to what God is calling us to.  If we rush to "do church", we may miss community and mission entirely.  Or community and mission might just become optional add-ons for those who have more discretionary disposable time on their hands, but not necessarily for everyone.  And we might set up a "two-tiered" system that forgets the biblical-orientation toward reciprocity and mutuality among all, and instead builds a "1st-class and 2nd-class" pedestals for leaders and "average-joe", so that leaders are always leading everything in a "management-style as part of a high-performing-organization", and only "getting ministry" from other leaders, it creates that 2nd class citizen audience...instead of modeling mutuality by having "joe-average" pray with them and for them, as well as participating in other settings as "average joe" themselves.
 

Here is the thing, recommendations aside, church-planting experts all know the same thing: what you do early and often in your community will shape you pretty much...well, for the rest of your days as that community.  The community-culture hardens like clay in a kiln (that is: really quickly) and establishes a momentum in a certain direction or tradition of doing something, that probably can't be changed until it's broken.
 

But here is what I have come to believe: if we do community and mission in Pittsburgh, "church" - that brilliant, excitingly conceived idea of Jesus - will happen.
 

You see, in an alternative kind of way, we want to land among a people living their lives, not launch a competitive business in the market place.  We want to incarnate in Pittsburgh, even though we will live alternatively than much of it as resident aliens usually do, but we want to become part of the fabric of this place we live, and pray for its peace and raise our children and go about our lives there together.  Will we be intentional about spiritual stuff and this fantastic idea of Jesus, and seek His Presence...of course.  We want a rhythm of life that breeds sustainability in those endeavours, not burn out.  We want interconnectivity with our neighborhood and each other in a rhythm of life, not to just scatter and go-it-alone 6 days a week.  I have been a part of an on-going conversation about this deeply sustainable way of seeding a missional community at David Fitch's blog.  (Feel free to join the rich conversations.)  This direction feels like health to me, and as a very unaverage church-planter, with what people say is "not the typical gift-mix (or age-grouping) of the typical church-planter" the one-size-fits-all, well it doesn't quite fit.
 

But God has called and is still calling us into this, so we are going, in fact, we are on the way...

[to be continued...]