GO...

I'm up...2:39am...couldn't sleep!!! I've officially been ruined. My ideals crushed and religious boundaries smashed to tiny fragments. By what you ask? Well, God of course being the source, but a cat named Alan Hirsch, the means and instrument in God's hands. What ideals have been crushed? What boundaries have been smashed, you ask? Well my view of the church and our call in this world and specifically in the city of Oakland. Let me tell you what happened:

So yesterday, at our Oakland City Church (OCC) staff meeting we were dreaming out loud about our neighborhood groups and their connection to the church. And as we're dreaming I'm working from my basic paradigm of how we get people to come to church. The goal is to get them to come to us, from wherever they are, we need to bring them to us. So the neighborhood groups were a means to an ultimate end. Get them to us!!! But as we're wrestling with the goals and purposes of our neighborhood groups, Josh (Pastor @ OCC) puts on a YouTube clip by Alan Hirsch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNUR2csmR5M&feature=related) and i hear this world & life changing statement: Don't Plant A Church, Plant A Movement!!!

He uses this image of the starfish and its reproductive power. That if you a cut a single starfish into 10 pieces you would have 10 new starfish. Do the math and be amazed. But the math is not the key, the reproductive power is!!! Each starfish, no each cut off piece of the starfish has the ability to produce a whole new starfish!!! And he points this reality to the church and the lost being won and discipleship happening in relational ways. That each believer has within himself (by God's Grace in, through and because of Christ) the ability to reach out and reproduce himself (i.e win new people to Christ, namely his/her network). Yes, each follower of Christ can produce more followers of Christ. We contain unlimited reproductive power within us. And that clarified for me our purpose for neighborhood groups, for the church itself and my role as a pastor, to help others reach their unlimited reproductive potential. Ephesians 4:12 says, that God has given the minitsry gifts to the church for the purpose of equipping the saints for the work of the ministry to build up the body of Christ. So it's helping people see more of Christ, so that they can help other people see more of Christ, who will help more people, who will help more people...That's a movement yall!!! Getting people to go, to be mission minded and to reach others for Christ!!! Each of us, in our families, our neighborhoods, our jobs, and our networks.

So he said don't plant a church (where people just come) but plant a movement where people go. Yes they come back to continue being equipped and strengthened, but they come back with others, who go and bring back others, who get strengthened and go and bring back others. So our journey becomes this constant going and coming. Jesus says, come unto me all that are heavily burdened and I will give you rest. Then he says, Go ye therefore unto the world and make disciples. Then he says, come unto me - worship, pray, confess, sing, preach, praise & study. Then he says, Go - love, serve, encourage, and disciple others! Then he says, COME...Then He says, GO!!!

Let's Go Family!!! Oakland is waiting on us!!!