Going Against the Planting Grain of Core Groups
During my planting internship I learned about this wild Messiah who did not play by the rules of society. He was so counter culture that the religious elite conspired with governmental forces to kill him. He spent his time with unsavory people and loved them without condition. He spoke against not only the norms of government and society, but also the norms of religious thought. This was revolution and love and messiness and poetry and wonder. Some of my best and most formative thoughts on Jesus came in a condensed time of nine months that I will be eternally grateful for. But then came the disconnect. In following this wild messiah and making disciples that follow in his yoke of beautiful chaos was reduced to formulas and tests and other things that did not compute. It reminded me of Bible College. They (Bible College) taught me Hermeneutics-the science of interpreting the Bible. They gave me the tools to read and interpret and understand for myself. But when my questions got too uncomfortable or challenged assumptions they held dear, I was being misguided and somehow in error. I used the tools too well for my own good. Now here I am, given the gift of a wild messiah with a revolutionary message and call and as I try to walk in His yoke with the very tools of understanding given to me, I was told to ignore it temporarily for pragmatic purposes.
This whole process of having a core was very troubling to me. Jesus surrounded himself by the "not good enoughs" and they went out to reach the marginalized and the hurting and the ignored and the honest questioning people who were also "not good enoughs". How could I reach out to the people who Jesus reached out to with a bunch of people who had the same ingrained bad habits I did and were as out of touch with the world as I was? To have some of my bad habits broken, I had to go through a personal little "deprogramming" session that took many months and happened one on one. It just seemed to make more sense to me to strike out with a bunch of people who were in the margins and fed up with churches and say,"hey! let’s chase after the kingdom together!" So that is exactly what I did. My planter support group was not offering me core volunteers and yet I had to find them. So I got them from bars and blogs and bowling alleys and was very careful (though honest) about what I said about my "core". My core also had some seasoned vets of the faith who are very good people with genuine hearts. But ya know what? None of those people are here anymore. There was not enough offered for them and they needed to be "fed" and they went on to places that could better offer them what they were looking for. I bear them no ill will and knew from day one that this was not what they were ready for and what they needed. I tried to tell them what we were chasing as honestly as I could.
Over the last year since our "launch", the true core I knew was out there developed. Most of the pre start faces are seen no more and a new batch of people have emerged. They are honest, raw, rough around the edges, and are beautiful. They have taken early steps into discipleship and mission without knowing the words for it and they are trying to get others to walk in this journey with them without knowing the subculture and the Christian folkways and mores. They do not have money, they do not have power, most of them are under 25, and their lives are messy…but they know what is important and they get the core aspects of this journey (the kingdom of God, mission, and the great commission to name a few) more than most Christians I know who have been in the individualistically based faith subculture for years and years.
As opposed to having a seasoned core that would then decide what others needed and and formulating an offering for them, we spent this year letting the wheat and the chaff sift itself out and becoming a community with a small group of people who know what they identity IS as opposed to what we hope it to be. They are now ready to invite others into this journey with them. I went to the beach and asked some people to drop their net and take a journey with me as opposed to the synagogue. The beaches and the bars and the streets are where we find the people of the beatitudes, also known as the salt of the earth.
