This past Sunday we talked about being organic. It is easy to think about church organically, especially becaue of all the times that Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is like…” and then used some kind of farming or other nature metaphor. So we believe that Jesus could easily just have said that the Kingdom of God is like a starfish.

Really, it’s not original. It’s a reference to the book The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations (Brafman and Beckstrom). Funny thing is, it’s not even a “church” book. But some perceptive Christian out there once baptized this book, and now just about anyone who leads organic type churches knows about the starfish thing. So that’s textbook organic church education that we had no choice but to cover eventually. But there’s no shame with that…it’s become one of the best recent metaphors for church, and it wasn’t even created for the church.

In the beginning of the book, the authors describe the characteristics of the starfish, especially in comparison to the spider.

With a spider, what you see is pretty much what you get. A body’s a body, a head’s a head, and a leg’s a leg. [And if you chop off the spider's head, it dies.] But starfish are very different. The starfish doesn’t have a head. Its central body isn’t even in charge. In fact, the major organs are replicated throughout each and every arm. If you cut the starfish in half, you’ll be in for a surprise: the animal won’t die, and pretty soon you’ll have two starfish to deal with.

Starfish have an incredible quality to them: If you cut an arm off, most of these animals grow a new arm. And with some varieties, such as the Linckia, …the animal can replicate itself from just a single piece of an arm. You can cut the Linckia into a bunch of pieces, and each one will regenerate into a whole new starfish. They can achieve this magical regeneration because in reality, a starfish is a neural network. Get this: for the starfish to move, one of the arms must convince the other arms that it’s a a good idea to do so. The arm starts moving, and then–in a process that no one fully understands–the other arms cooperate as well. The brain doesn’t “yea” or “nay” the decision. In truth, there isn’t even a brain to declare “yeah” or “nay.” The starfish doesn’t have a brain. There is no central command. Biologists are still scratching their heads over how this creature operates…(p.35)

So I think 1 Corinthians 3:1-23 is all about viewing church like a starfish instead of a spider

In this passage, Paul addresses a church in Corinth who struggled with many of the same basic dysfunctions that any church faces: gossip, division, favoritism, pride, disorderly worship, etc. This passage in particular is all about divisions over authority, church structure, and leadership recognition–Who’s in charge? Who’s doing church right? Who should they follow? They were essentially putting certain leaders on pedestals and centralizing the intelligence of the gospel in each of their preferred all-stars. In other words, they were making church into a spider where each leader figure was a “head” of the church.

We can’t fault the Corinthians…we do the same thing. How often do we rely heavily on head pastors for spiritual growth, make distinctions between the clergy and laity, reserve “church” to the weekly Sunday gathering at the church building, or depend on lots of money to do ministry? Every church does that! And it’s almost feels natural for us to do that.

But it’s not natural to the way Paul planted churches. And so it “naturally” causes problems. Among many other things, it creates division within the community of Christ, puts lots of pressure on mere humans, and paralyzes the legitimate spiritual gifts and contributions of everyday church members. So this was not cool for Paul, because it would prevent the churches from growing and spreading.

Because think of what happens when the pastor moves on or (heaven forbid) gets caught up in a scandal, or when there are popularity contests in ministry, or when a recession hits and the money runs out. Then what? Churches have a hard time bouncing back when the “head” gets chopped off because that was their central command.

So we talked about how Paul is making at least three main points to the church:

1. There is no hierarchy (3:5-7)

He answers his own question, “Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? We’re just servants!” There are no all-stars; no one is any better than anyone else, especially the apostles. There is no “head” except Christ! So everyone in the church must contribute something, while God does the real magic. It doesn’t mean that there is no structure or leadership…it’s just that it’s not that hierarchical kind that we want to make it out to be.

2. The purpose, not a person or place, is the center (3:8-9)

That purpose is the Gospel of Christ, which is like the DNA of the church, the central intelligence. So again, it’s God’s game plan, and everyone should be on board with that, not just some dude’s own game plan here or there.

3. YOU have it in you (3:16-17)

Probably the most important point. Paul asks the Corinthians, almost impatiently, “Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” Duh! This line is fascinating, especially if you understand the temple and it’s place in the story of Israel. The Israelites were always trying to make spiders out of starfish–centralizing God. They whined about not having a king, although God warned against it…but he still gave them one. If you read through 1 and 2 Kings, you see exactly how that turned out. And they also thought they couldn’t live without a temple for God, even though God said that he can take care of himself. But he still gave them one.

Nevertheless, the purpose of the temple was to have a centralized presence of God where Israel could worship. It was supposed to be the center of their lives. And if you read 1 Kings 8, you’d see how beautiful the temple was; everything was made of gold! Unfortunately, it didn’t last forever, because when Israel continually turned from God, they consequently were oppressed by other nations. And the temple was eventually destroyed.

So Paul makes this very interesting point…YOU have the “temple” inside of you. They very presence of God, what it means to be church, the gold…all of that–the center of everything. Each person in the church is as important or “central” as the next. So there were no all stars or professionals. This ministry thing wasn’t like rocket science or the Olympics or anything. Paul basically said, “Look man, all we’re doing is planting seeds and watering them!” How easy is that!? And since the regular Joes and Janes of the church have the temple in them, how much more central are they in doing those simple tasks in which God is ultimately responsible for making things grow?

And those three points make a world of difference when taken seriously. You see, because Paul and the apostles planted these ideas into their minds is exactly why the gospel spread so fast and that the entire Roman Empire (the biggest spider of all) crumbled under Christianity within a couple of centuries. It was like a simple virus that anyone could pass on. And it’s no wonder that when the Romans tried to stop the Christians by persecuting them and killing its leaders, that the church just continued to spread. “We don’t die,” they said. “WE MULTIPLY!” There was no “human” head to cut off, because the intelligence was spread throughout the whole body of Christ. The Head (Christ) was in each person!

So the main argument for us was that it is harder (but not impossible) for people to come to know Christ, especially fringy people, and for the church to grow when it becomes centralized like a spider, even though we are pulled so strongly toward that.

But Michael Frost asks a great question, “What would church be like if you no longer had a building, could no longer meet on Sundays, had no head pastor, and had no money?” What if it all got cut off? Then what?

What would happen would depend largely on how we view ourselves…as a spider, or as a starfish?

Original post: http://bchurch.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-kingdom-of-god-is-like

I found myself in the middle of a small controversy over a status update I had posted on Facebook the other day. The conversation quickly turned to a debate over wealth.

“Sometimes I am overwhelmed with passages like Luke 3:10-18 and think following Christ and U.S. culture are irreconcilable”

I have been mulling over many things these past few weeks and this discussion helped weave those many things together.

I have been wrestling, for the better part of a while now, with a God of miracles and healing vs. a God of suffering.

I think of Mother Theresa: As a nun she had taken a vow of poverty, and she lived in solidarity with the poor she was among. Before she would give away shoes to the needy she would claim. as her own the most inferior pair. Because of this practice her feet were in bad condition…malformed and misshaped. It has been said that her decision caused her no small amount of physical pain.

Mother Theressa’s reality is difficult for Americans to understand, if we are honest. I think, for some of us, it would be hard to imagine taking the very worst pair of shoes…every time…but, it would also be very hard for us to understand, if we had indeed been blessed with enough insight to have that kind of humility, why God hadn’t chosen to watch over our feet and keep them safe from harm. We would feel as though our great sacrifice had gone ignored and unappreciated.

“God’s permissive will is the testing

He uses to reveal His true sons and daughters” ~ Oswald Chambers

Before we go any farther I must state that I am a universalist. It is IMPORTANT that you realize I have NO ONE person in mind as I write this. If you disagree with me after reading (and many of you will) and you feel as though I am insinuating that the lifestyle you are choosing to live is in my opinion not the lifestyle of a true son or daughter of God than please choose to look on the bright side by keeping in mind that not only does my opinion not count for much, but as a universalist I am NOT condemning you to hell for not believing the way I do…all I want…all I EVER want is nice, civil conversation (please do not try and convince me of your rightful place in heaven…and/or mine in hell.)

In other parts of the world, where the Church is persecuted, becoming a Christian is no small decision. It is not something to be considered just because you fear the eternal flames of the afterlife or are intrigued by mansions and streets of gold. In some respects, by choosing to become a follower of Christ, in these parts of the world, you are making a decision to enter into a very real hell this side of eternity. In these places it is not uncommon, for those who are already Christians and have made the choice to suffer, to adopt a policy of making would be converts wait a minimum of two years to fully take on Christ. There hope is that these would be converts will take those two years to really consider the cost and be fully cognizant of the would be/could be ramifications should they choose to finalize their decision.

Where is American Christianity’s waiting period? Why don’t we have a cost to count? Could it be we got lucky by an act of chance so random as a birthright? Is it possible that there really is no hell to enter here? Might you be willing to consider, along with me, the idea that American Christianity has missed something intrinsically linked with salvation? Per chance has it for far too long held hands with the wrong side? Has American Christianity made friends in high places and become an institution of entitlement where comfort is the expected norm and the lack of it an abhorrent stench?

I argue that there is a hell to enter here and it is the hell of poverty. All of those who disagreed with my Facebook status (mentioned above) argued that wealth was indeed a blessing and insinuated, if not out right said, that I was harsh and ridiculous for even slightly insinuating that it might not be. I don’t necessarily disagree (the jury is still out) that being a wealthy person could be considered a blessing, but if wealth is a blessing, and here comes the harsh part, I’m convicted that living as a wealthy person (most are considered wealthy in America) and enjoying the benefits of your wealth (myself included)…even if you give some away…while others suffer…can in no way be seen as part of that blessing from God.

A friend of mine who has chosen to enter hell, Stephen Lamb, talks often about God’s economy being one where everyone has enough. I often think about how insulting the idea of this economy might be to us as Americans. At first blush it sounds like a nice idea. But if you dig deep enough into the statement it is nothing short of a slap in the face to how most American Christians choose to live. This isn’t talking about raising the poor to a western middle class standard of living but rather entering into their suffering and sharing all resources equally. God’s economy effects YOUR/MY life…YOUR/MY comfort!

I propose that in order to be considered a true son or daughter of God…a true walker in the ways of Jesus, we take a 2 year sabbatical from considering ourselves Christian just because we ascent to certain beliefs and we make this thing more than about acquiring a mansion on streets of gold or a getting out of hell free card. This Christianity needs to cost us something..it cost God everything! Upon his death Jesus entered into hell (Eph 4:8-10 & I Pet 3: 18) and upon making the choice to die to our flesh we need to as well.

As a minimum requirement, an act of solidarity or good faith, we should have to count the cost of leaving our secluded neighborhoods where our eyes never have to meet those of the homeless if we don’t want them to, and we should move into depressed neighborhoods. I’m not talking about quitting jobs…go to your nice job, make your six figures…but if we want to be called true sons and daughters of God lets quit hoarding!

Sure, God has a permissive will. He makes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on both the evil and the good. You can be born or marry into the right family, you can have the right kind of brain, the most able of bodies, or even the best of looks…all of these things can help you earn a better living than those less fortunate and because of that you can call them blessings (although I’m not entirely convinced.) God will not smite you if instead of choosing His economy you choose to live in that of America’s. But what if how we live and what we do with our wealth while those around us suffer is a test? Do you have more than enough while others do without? I know I do and I can’t get rid of it fast enough.

Jesus, though he eased the suffering of many, never chose to ease his own suffering. He never really eased the suffering of his disciples either. In the gospels you don’t see healing parties break out among Jesus and the twelve. God’s blessings aren’t for us. Jesus learned obedience through that which He suffered. True disciples choose to suffer and while choosing to suffer they pour out the blessings of God onto others!

I pray over each and every one of you the blessing of struggling with your comfort!