come to denver

This past weekend we made some headway on plans to plant a church somewhere near Denver. Mark, our former young adult pastor, has been in Little Rock, Arkansas, this past year working through a "church planting" internship, learning how to make grits, and working on deepening the painful twang of his already texan accent. Just kidding, it's not that bad, but seriously, he makes good grits.

The church is going to be a little unconventional in that it's focused quite heavily on community and service. The church is carried on the backs of small groups, who meet regularly for teaching, praying, and are committed to doing service projects within their communities. These service projects can consist of just about anything, but should be relatively long term and help to form relationships and presence in the community - this is more than picking up trash along the highway or volunteering for habitat for humanity, though those are wonderful things.

The entire church will meet once a week for a service, who's purpose is two fold. First, the service provides a place for weekly meeting of the congregation, so that the church doesn't become splintered by the heavy reliance on small groups. It provides a place for corporate worship and communion, and a chance to connect with others outside of one's small group. Second, it provides a point of contact for people outside of the church proper and the community who might want to be involved. Our focus is on helping people who have had bad experiences or developed negative attitudes towards Christians and church in general. As such, the service will have a heavy reliance on relevance and stick to formats consistent with culture through a stylized use of music and media. A rough draft of our website is up right now, and while it needs revising, it's a great start.

Though a positive definition is developing, it's easier to define our church in terms of what it won't be. It will not be a place where contemporary pop-praise music is sung, nor a place where obscure hymns are frequently sung. It will not be a "success" church, preaching messages of great financial freedom through the prayer of Jabez. It will not be thoroughly modern, obsessed on drawing strong distinctions between the sacred and secular, God's morals and culture's decadence. It will not be a politicized church, preaching God's love for a particular party or voter issue or even country. The sermons will not be "seeker sensitive", which is a buzz word for watered down, though deep study and theology will be the focus of small groups rather than the corporate service. It's important to note that none of these things are necessarily bad, but we don't feel they fit with our vision, or are in the least bit what the people of Denver need in another church.

Our first year, starting sometime late next summer, will be focused on bringing a group of 12-20 people together, raising support, and practicing our focus, strengthening our center. The second year will be largely the same, but with a little more branching out and a more serious focus on beginning service projects. By our third year, we want to have our service going and have raised enough support to direct 50% of our budget to the small groups for use in community projects.

This is a church of action. We want to do things, to be alive and involved, not bashing people with our morals or prostituting our aid for a chance to proselyte, but focused on helping make the lives of our community's citizens better simply because we should, because we can, and because we think Jesus would. We want to be the working and moving, the real and applied body of Christ.

What we need first is people - our core group of 12-20. People who want to be a part of this sort of church. If you're in transition, wondering what you'll do next with your life, or where to go, I have a suggestion: come to Denver, and help us build this church. Every one of you who reads this blog has great talents and a similar vision and would fit wonderfully, in my estimation. Please just consider it. And regardless of whether you come or not, please pray for our church, and that enough people would come for us to get things started.