It seems that every few days I get this question: When are you starting Renew?
The short answer is: we already have.
But the answer is a little more involved that that.
Over the summer, we prayed diligently and met with many people who felt a similar call to the vision of Renew.
In June, we had informational meetings at our house. We communicated the vision, prayed together, answered questions and explained that we were putting together a launch team for this new faith community. I shared that the launch team would be the backbone of our leadership and the team would help determine and shape together what Renew will look like.
We communicated un-apologetically the high level of involvement to which the launch team would be held accountable. These commitments are grace-filled, but would involve servanthood and sacrifice from the very beginning. For a few months after these informational meetings we sat down with each person and talked about motivations, expectations, commitment levels and availability to serve. In those conversations we determined together if we felt this to be a good fit for them on the team.
In August we began meeting officially as a launch team and have been meeting weekly since then.
We've made the decision that for the next several months we will meet with just our launch team on Sunday mornings in order to pray, prepare, share our stories and our lives with one another, learn what "church" really could mean (as well as unlearn some cultural understandings of what "church" is), begin fleshing out the gospel right now in our context in smaller, less official, more informal ways (especially Monday through Saturday) and discern what kind of faith community God's spirit desires for us to become. The truth is there is way too much to do...so the best thing we can think of to do right now is to slow the process down. It's freeing and take the pressure off when we slow things down and just "be" together.
It's funny how people have misunderstood this. There are some fun rumors swirling out there, too. A few people who have heard such false rumors have said: "So, I hear you are interviewing people and deciding if you will allow them to attend your church or not? Isn't that a bit legalistic and judgmental? It sounds like you guys are a cult."
I said that if we did that, it certainly would be judgmental of us, but that's not what we're doing. (And we're not making human sacrifices over an open fire at our meetings either if anybody was wondering!) We're simply wanting to know who is with us fully and building on that team from there. We're not trying to build a church where you're only allowed in if you have the secret handshake or dress with the right color shirt. We're carefully seeing how God has brought to us so we can pray and plan and discuss and discern together before we go public. When I explain this to individuals they always respond by saying that they think this is the right move.
All this to say, we're intentionally slowing things down for now. Church planters will tell you that the development of a new church start is similar to a fetus developing in the womb. The development of a fetus takes a full nine months before birth. Usually nine months is a good time frame for a church to develop from conception to birth as well. And it seems that is about the time frame we believe we need to be on before we publically launch. We feel the urgency to start - the need is great! - but we also need to exercise discipline to move in the unforced rhythms of grace of this new God-driven vision.
We probably won't launch Renew with our "official" open-to-the-public Sunday service until - at least - early 2009. And even that date we are uncertain of. As we believe God has called us to be a mission-driven faith communion, we desire to see Spirit-driven benchmarks of our DNA being embedded and fleshed out in smaller informal ways throughout our weeks before we have a "service" on a Sunday.
Many have said, "Why wait? If the momentum is here, capitalize!" Well, we probably could do that, but we feel that would be a bit short-sighted. We believe that right now Renew is "wet cement." This is a significant time to intentionally embed the DNA into what we are doing because we desire for Renew to start - and continue - to be healthy many years down the road. It helps us put down deeper roots. It also helps us to focus on the non-Sunday morning elements of being Christ's Body, which is a good thing. We also need to unlearn some things about what it means to be the Body, and that will take some time. And, by slowing the momentum down it probably helps to keep people from making a reactionary decision to join us because they think we are the next "cool, hip church" to hit town, which we don't want to be. It certainly is a balance, one where we need to be very disciplined. We need to have what John Ortberg calls "restful urgency."
Some of those smaller informal ways of engagement, involvement and connection have already started, as the lauch team has already begun asking questions of the community, listening to the needs and serving Lansdale and its people. We've connected - and will continue to connect - with people and organizations like Manna on Main, Community Housing, the police department, the Boys and Girls Club and others. Some of these places we've already started serving.
We will be starting more smaller opportunities to be involved in Renew this fall. We truly believe that we can cultivate healthy expressions of the kingdom, not by growing bigger, but by intentionally becoming smaller.
We will be starting house churches, smaller missional Jesus communities connected to Renew, this fall. These house churches will be a signifcant portion of what we do, meeting throughout the week and are open to everyone - those not on the launch team, and not just for those who are followers of Jesus. In fact, we have one rule: no perfect people allowed. When these are up and rolling and then when we decide to have a Sunday open-to-the-public service it will simply be an extension of what our mission already is, rather than a Sunday event that everything else revolves around. Again, the goal is that we undertand the Way of Jesus as a lifestyle we live out daily and not an event, location or service we show up at once a week. This is different for many people and will take time to develop.
House churches will be for anyone desiring and yearning for life-giving connection with God and others in smaller, safer, more intimate settings. We feel this is important to start house churches first before starting a Sunday service. If our house churches can be cultivated over the next several months and they become healthy enough to honor Jesus, be honest and broken with one another, serve others, have a heart for the lost and begin to multiply - all this before a Sunday service - then we will be on track. We're extremely enthusiatic about these house churches starting and feel that the long-term approach is the wisest thing to do right now. (If you're interested in knowing more about house churches or want to be a part of Renew through these house churches contact me via email).
As you can see, we've already started, but in smaller, less formal expressions - and not in a public Sunday service-type way yet. We'll get there - and that is important - but not yet for us right now. We're attempting to take the long-term approach. We invite you to pray for us in these significant months of praying and planning, serving and discerning what God's Spirit desires for Renew.
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